Timeline 2011 October - December
Return to home
2011 Oct 1, In
northern California a Sacramento SWAT team shot and killed Aaron
Bassler (35), a suspect in two previous north coast murders.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, p.A1)
2011 Oct 1, In NYC more than
700 of protesters, speaking out against corporate greed and other
grievances, were arrested during a march on the Brooklyn Bridge in a
tense confrontation with police. The group Occupy Wall Street has
been camped out in a plaza in Manhattan's Financial District for
nearly two weeks staging various marches.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Afghanistan's
intelligence service said it has given Pakistan hard evidence that
Rabbani's Sep 20 assassination was planned in the southern outskirts
of Quetta where key Taliban leaders are based. 7 Afghan soldiers
were killed when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in eastern Paktia
province. One NATO service member died in a bomb attack in the
south.
(AP, 10/1/11)(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, In Belarus Dmitry
Uss, one of the seven opposition presidential candidates arrested
after last year's election, was released from jail after a pardon
from authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Two other
candidates remained in prison, serving sentences of five to six
years. Two others were given suspended sentences and freed nearly
five months after their arrest. Another has fled the country and
been given asylum in the Czech Republic. The seventh was released
several days after his arrest.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Sep 30, In Brazil a law
professor shot and killed one of his female students in Brasilia and
hours later drove her body to a police station where he turned
himself in. Rendrik Vieira Rodrigues fired three bullets into the
head of Suenia Souza Farias (24), apparently because she wanted to
end their 3-month-old relationship.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Cigarette vending
machines were banned in England, a move the government hopes will
cut the numbers of children smoking.
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, Mitchell Harrison
(23), a convicted child rapist, was found dead in his cell at HM
Prison Frankland, England. He was jailed in 2009 for raping a
13-year-old girl in Kendal, Cumbria. A post-mortem found he died
from multiple injuries. Two men, aged 32 and 23, were soon charged
with his murder.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 1, Cameroon police
arrested 50 activists from the Southern Cameroons National Council
demonstrating in the city of Buea.
(AP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, In China angry
Tibetans protested in Seda, a county seat in eastern Sichuan
province, a tense area of southwestern China on the country's
National Day after a Tibetan flag and a photo of the Dalai Lama were
torn down.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Denmark imposed a
“fat tax” on foods such as butter and oil as a way to curb unhealthy
eating habits.
(SFC, 10/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 1, The French press
called Aga Kahn’s divorce settlement the most expensive in French
history. A court has ordered Kahn, a billionaire and spiritual
leader to 20 million Muslims, to pay $80 million to Gabriele
Thyssen. He married the German princess in 1998.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 1, Guyana’s Pres.
Bharrat Jagdeo banned an opposition television station from
broadcasting for four months for airing a slanderous comment about
Bishop Juan Edghill, a close presidential associate.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 1, Icelanders, angry
over citizen costs for the country’s economic crises, pelted
lawmakers with eggs during a protest at the opening of the new
parliamentary session in Reykjavik.
(SSFC, 10/2/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 1, Israeli settlers
from Yitzhar, near Nablus, invaded Palestinian olive groves in the
West Bank and uprooted 200 trees around the villages of Hawwara and
Ein Nabus.
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, The
Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multi-national
agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards
for intellectual property rights enforcement, was signed in Tokyo.
Ratification by 6 countries was required for the convention to come
into force.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement)
2011 Oct 1, In Jordan ex-MP
Leith Shbeilat, an outspoken opposition figure and former member of
parliament, was pelted with stones while making a speech criticizing
the slow pace of reform in the kingdom.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, In Kenya 10 gunmen
snatched Marie Dedieu (66), a disabled Frenchwoman, from her home
near a luxury resort on Manda island and then fled towards Somalia.
Kenyan coastguards attempted to intercept them at sea. Several of
the abductors were injured but they managed to enter Somalia.
(AP, 10/1/11)(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Libyan fighters
completely surrounded Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and
engaged in heavy clashes with his loyalists on the city's streets. A
path was left for civilians who still wanted to leave the coastal
city. A family of four was killed while driving out from the Gadhafi
holdout toward the revolutionaries positions. NATO planes hit a
command and control node, an infantry and anti-aircraft artillery
staging area, two armed vehicles, four armored infantry vehicles and
a tank in and around Sirte.
(AP, 10/1/11)(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, In Mexico two
gunmen shot to death a 22-year-old man near a Walmart store on the
beachside avenue Costera Miguel Aleman.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 1, Morocco’s national
intelligence agency said a five-man militant group, operating in the
cities of Casablanca and Sale, has been dismantled. An agency report
said one of the members was related to a high-ranking al-Qaida
operative in Iraq.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, In northeastern
Nigeria attackers used explosives and gunfire to target an army
patrol near a wedding, killing at least three civilians in
Maiduguri. In a separate incident, a butcher and his assistant were
shot dead by gunmen in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Francois Abu Salem
(b.1951), a French actor and director and long-time West Bank
resident, died in Ramallah. He was the co-founder of the El-Hakawati
Theatre Company, which later grew into the Palestinian National
Theatre, in east Jerusalem.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Typhoon Nalgae
lashed the Philippines, killing at least 3 people person and
bringing fresh misery for more than a million people trapped by
earlier storm floods.
(AFP, 10/1/11)(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, Russian police
detained dozens of anti-gay protesters and gay rights activists
during a gay pride rally in central Moscow.
(AP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, In Spain the Gara
newspaper's website said two unidentified spokesmen told it that
"Ekin members have ended their endeavors as an organization." Ekin,
a civic support organization for the Basque separatist group ETA,
was formed in 1999 with the aim of "impelling independence,
nation-building and socialism at street level."
(AP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, Syrian government
troops retook most of Rastan after five days of intense fighting
with army defectors who sided with protesters. Some 250 tanks were
sent in to quell clashes between the army and deserters. Troops
spread out across Rastan after defectors pulled out from the town.
Mansur Atassi (63), a leader of a coalition of opposition groups,
was detained in his office in Homs by security agents.
(AP, 10/1/11)(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, A Yemeni government
warplane mistakenly bombed an army position just east of Zinjibar in
southern Abyan province, killing at least 30 soldiers and wounding
many more. The bombing targeted an abandoned school used as shelter
by soldiers of the army's 119th Brigade. The 119th Brigade has
rebelled against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to join
the protest movement demanding his ouster. Fighting in Zinjibar
killed at least 28 soldiers and militants.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 1, New Zambian
President Michael Sata replaced the head of the country's
anti-corruption watchdog, who had been accused of bungling
investigations into corruption allegations. He appointed Mrs.
Rosewin Wandi as Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission
(ACC).
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Arizona Donald
Lapre, a Phoenix-based TV pitchman charged with running a nationwide
scheme to sell essentially worthless Internet-based businesses, was
found dead in his cell at a Florence facility. The government has
said at least 220,000 victims in the scheme were defrauded of nearly
$52 million.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, California Gov.
Jerry Brown signed a bill that that will prevent local governments
from banning male circumcision.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, In San Leandro,
Ca., gunmen opened fire on a group of people leaving an unlicensed
warehouse party killing 3 young people and wounding 3 others.
(SFC, 10/3/11, p.C1)
2011 Oct 2, The Afghan
government urged neighboring Pakistan to take concrete steps to help
end the Taliban insurgency and use its influence to bring the
militants to direct peace talks.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, Pirates armed with
automatic weapons fired upon and boarded a chemical tanker off Benin
before stealing cash, the latest in a wave of such attacks off West
Africa.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, Cambodia’s
government disaster agency said that flood waters along the Mekong
River and other places have killed at least 150 people since August
and damaged 670,000 acres of rice fields, as well as 904 schools and
361 Buddhist temples.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, Cameroon police
over the last two days arrested 126 protesters seeking independence
for English-speaking Cameroon.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, Greece said it
would not meet a target for reducing its massive deficit, heaping
fresh pressure on the eurozone crisis.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Iraq two
roadside bombs killed four anti-al-Qaida Sunni militiamen In
Mishahda 30 km north of Baghdad.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, Israel’s PM
Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel "welcomes the Quartet's call
for direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions"
but said it has unspecified "concerns" about the proposal. The plan
by the Quartet of Mideast mediators calls for the resumption of
talks and a deal within a year.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, The Israeli
newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk has won
a historic court victory granting his request to be officially
registered as "without religion" rather than "Jewish." A Tel Aviv
court sided with his demand, ruling last week that Israeli law
allows citizens to be officially registered as having no religion.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Italy Allison
Owens (23), of Columbus, Ohio, was killed by a car while jogging in
Tuscany. Her body was found on Oct 5. The driver of a car turned
himself in on Oct 6 after his vehicle was filmed on roadside
anti-speeding cameras.
(AP, 10/5/11)(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Libyan civilians
fled Kadhafi's besieged home town of Sirte as battles raged for the
fugitive strongman's bastion. The Red Cross warned of a medical
emergency. 4 fighters were killed in friendly fire.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, In northern Nigeria
some 150 attackers raided Lingyado village, Zamfara state, going
house to house to shoot people who came out to greet them. Others
were slashed and stabbed to death by machetes. 19 people were
reported killed. State police chief soon arrested seven people
suspected of involvement in the raid.
(AP, 10/2/11)(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, Serbia's police
detained six people and prevented a gathering of a pro-Russian
far-right group that threatened to burn an EU flag and spit on the
portrait of the US ambassador in Belgrade. Riot police were deployed
in large number across Belgrade to enforce a ban on a gay pride
event and anti-gay protests, fearing they would turn violent.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, In South Africa a
tornado in Nigel in Gauteng province left an eight-year-old boy dead
and injured 166 people. Over 150 houses were lost. Lightning killed
two more people in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, Syrian dissidents
meeting in Turkey formally announced the creation of a broad-based
council designed to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime in
what appeared to be the most serious step yet to unify a fragmented
opposition. The 21-year-old son of Syria's top Sunni Muslim cleric
was killed in an ambush in a restive northern area.
(AP, 10/2/11)(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 2, The government in
Thailand said heavy floods have also killed 206 people since August.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, Uganda’s first gay
bar, the Sappho Islands, was padlocked by the landlord, who said the
bar was noisy and attracted "strange" people.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 2, In Yemen a
seven-year-old girl was killed by a rocket that struck a school in
central Sanaa.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, A US court
sentenced two more Somali pirates to life in prison over the
hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa in February that left
four Americans on board dead. Muhidin Salad Omar (30) and Mahdi Jama
Mohamed, (23-24), became the third and fourth Somali pirates to be
sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty over the fatal
hijacking in May. Seven more have pleaded guilty to charges of
piracy and awaited mandatory life sentences. Three others faced the
death penalty.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, George Soros said
he has pledged $27.4 million to aid development in targeted villages
across rural Africa. He also pledged up to $20 million to support
business projects within those villages over the next 5 years.
(SFC, 10/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 3, Kathy Scruggs (44)
of Atlanta, Georgia, claimed the cash option and will receive
$15,124,017 before taxes in the $25 million prize. She matched all
of the winning numbers in the Sep 14 multistate Powerball drawing.
She said she had requested a Mega Millions ticket but wound up with
that and the Powerball ticket and accepted both of them.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, US whiskey maker
Jim Beam was spun off from Fortune Brands. It planned to gear future
marketing toward women.
(SFC, 10/15/11, p.D3)
2011 Oct 3, Yahoo!, the premier
digital media company, and ABC News announced they will join forces
to launch a strategic online news alliance that will deliver content
to more than 100 million U.S. users each month.
(http://tinyurl.com/3lrfbm4)
2011 Oct 3, In Afghanistan 2
suicide bombers in separate attacks struck Kandahar city, killing
three people. US Pvt. Danny Chen (19) was found in a guard tower at
Combat Outpost Palace with what the Army described as "an apparent
self-inflicted gunshot wound." In December 8 soldiers from Chen's
company faced charges relating his death, including dereliction of
duty, assault, negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
(AFP, 10/3/11)(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Oct 3, A Bahraini special
court jailed 36 Shiites for up to 25 years each in three separate
cases related to month-long democracy protests in the Gulf kingdom.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Bangladesh
Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a senior leader from the largest Islamic
party, was charged with war crimes for allegedly leading groups that
took part in killing, looting, arson and rape during the country's
1971 independence war against Pakistan.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Denmark PM Helle
Thorning-Schmidt (b.1966) took office. Her government soon scrapped
renewed customs checks at its border with Germany.
(AP,
11/17/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helle_Thorning-Schmidt)
2011 Oct 3, Haiti's President
Michel Martelly said the government is boosting student enrollment
this year by putting more than 700,000 youths into classrooms. The
National Fund for Education will pay tuition for 142,000 students
who will go to school for the first time.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Iraq 4
insurgents disguised as police officers seized control of a police
station in western Anbar province, taking dozens of hostages and
killing four of them before Iraqi forces swept in and ended the
standoff. 2 insurgents blew themselves up and 2 were killed by
police. Gunmen tried to attack another police station about 10 miles
(16 km) away, but were repulsed. Security forces killed two
insurgents and arrested another three.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In northern Israel
arsonists torched a mosque in an Arab village, setting off protests
by residents who clashed with police. Graffiti sprayed at the site
suggested Jewish radicals, suspected in other recent mosque fires,
were involved.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, Hanan Porat (67), a
driving force behind Israel's settlement of the West Bank, died of
cancer. The former Israeli lawmaker was a founder of the now-defunct
movement Gush Emunim, Hebrew for "the bloc of the faithful" (1974),
a messianic movement committed to settling land Israel captured in
the 1967 war.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, An Italian appeals
court dramatically overturned the conviction of Amanda Knox, an
American student, of sexually assaulting and brutally slaying her
British roommate. The family of victim Meredith Kercher (21)
appeared overwhelmed at the ruling, saying they were shocked and
bewildered by the stunning reversal of the 2009 decision. Knox’s
one-time boyfriend, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, was also released.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, Libya's
transitional leaders named a new Cabinet and said they would step
down after the country is fully secured. Revolutionary forces seized
the village of Abu Hadi south of Sirte. 2 anti-Gadhafi fighters were
killed and 28 wounded in intense battles in Sirte.
(AP, 10/3/11)(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, Mexico City police
found two severed human heads on a street near a major military
base, a grisly tactic of warring drug gangs that has long affected
other parts of the country while largely sparing the capital. The
heads were accompanied by a note referring to the "Mano con Ojos" or
"Hand with Eyes" drug gang. Hidalgo police chief Damian Canales said
officers have captured four alleged members of the gang believed to
have participated in the killings of 70 people, most whose bodies
were disposed of by being dissolved in vats. He said suspect Javier
Rodriguez (21) told agents he had shot 20 members of the Gulf
Cartel. In Acapulco four men were bound and shot in an auto repair
shop with two cars set on fire.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria gunmen
suspected of being members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect shot dead
three people at a market in the violence-torn northern city of
Maiduguri.
(AFP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, In Nigeria a tanker
truck collided with a 16-seat minibus along the Damaturu-Potiskum
road in Yobe state. 11 people were killed.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, Palestinian
officials said that the US has suspended two West Bank development
projects worth $81 billion after Congress froze finding to dissuade
Palestinians from seeking UN recognition of an independent state.
(SFC, 10/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 3, In the Philippines
more than 200 heavily armed communist rebels of the New People's
Army stormed three mining companies in a weakly secured southern
region, burning heavy equipment, disarming guards and briefly
holding several people in Surigao del Norte province.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, Sweden’s Nobel
committee at Stockholm's Karolinska institute said three scientists
won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about the immune
system that opened new avenues for the treatment and prevention of
infectious illnesses and cancer. American Bruce Beutler and French
scientist Jules Hoffmann shared the 10 million-kronor ($1.5 million)
award with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, Syrian troops going
house to house have detained more than 3,000 people in the past
three days in the rebellious town of Rastan that government forces
recently retook in some of the worst fighting since the country's
uprising began six months ago.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, The Tanzanian navy
foiled a pirate attack on an offshore oil drilling ship and captured
all seven bandits. The attack on the Ocean Rig Poseidon, owned by
Ocean Rig of Norway, took place as it was carrying out exploration
drilling for Brazilian firm Petrobras.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 3, Uganda’s former
vice president, Gilbert Bukenya (2003-2011), was taken to Luzira
prison on the outskirts of Kampala. He was accused of fraudulently
awarding a $2 million contract in 2007. He has denied the
allegations.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 4, USAID director Raj
Shah said the US will donate more than $121 million to Ethiopia to
fight food insecurity amid a drought in the East African nation.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, The US Justice
Department said Neil Campbell (61), a native of Queensland,
Australia, has pleaded guilty to one count of accepting a $10,000
bribe as an agent of an organization receiving federal funds.
Campbell admitted that in July 2010, while in Afghanistan, he
solicited a one-time cash payment of $190,000 from a subcontractor,
as a reward for funneling more than $15 million in reconstruction
projects to that subcontractor.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Two employees of
the US Army Corps of Engineers and two others were arrested in a $20
million bribery and kickback scheme related to software encryption
devices.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 4, Officials at the
Washington National Cathedral said they need to raise at least $15
million for initial repairs to the Aug 23 earthquake damaged
edifice.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 4, It was reported
that NASA has awarded a Pennsylvania company, Pipistrel-USA.com of
State College, a $1.35 million prize for developing an
ultra-efficient electric airplane. Wired Magazine reported that the
winning airplane "was developed and built in Slovenia as a
technology demonstrator for the airplane maker."
(http://tinyurl.com/3nk4ndh)
2011 Oct 4, Apple Inc. unveiled
a faster, more powerful iPhone, the iPhone 4S, in its first major
product event in years without Steve Jobs presiding.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Apple Inc rejected
an offer from Samsung Electronics Co to settle their tablet computer
dispute in Australia, possibly killing off the commercial viability
of the South Korean firm's new Galaxy tablet in that market.
(Reuters, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Three US-born
scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for overturning a
fundamental assumption in their field by showing that the expansion
of the universe is constantly accelerating. During the 1990s, Saul
Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess found that the light from
more than 50 distant exploding stars was far weaker than they
expected, meaning that galaxies had to be racing away from each
other at increasing speed.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Kansas City,
Missouri, 10-month-old Lisa Irwin was reported snatched overnight
from her home.
(SFC, 10/10/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 4, A private
helicopter crashed into New York City’s East River, killing one
British passenger and injuring a British couple and a New Zealand
woman. The helicopter went down shortly after takeoff from a
riverbank heliport. On Oct 12 the New Zealand woman died of her
injuries.
(AP, 10/5/11)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A8)
2011 Oct 4, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai met with PM Manmohan Singh in New Delhi. They agreed to
enhance their strategic partnership with India training Afghan
security forces.
(AP, 10/4/11)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 4, An Australian boy
(14) was arrested in Indonesia for having bought 0.13 ounces (3.6
grams) of marijuana. He faced 12 years in detention under tough
narcotics laws. The boy was released on Dec 4 because he admitted
the purchase and repeatedly expressed remorse.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, A Bahraini security
court sentenced 26 activists to prison for their part in
anti-government protests, raising to 60 the total number convicted
over the past two days in stepped-up prosecutions by the Gulf
kingdom.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, In CongoDRC rebels
killed five Congolese aid workers and two other civilians in an
attack in the east at Fizi, Sud-Kivu province. Those responsible
were said to be members of the Mai Mai Yakutumba militia and allied
rebels of Burundi's National Liberation Front.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 4, Libyan
revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Sirte,
Moammar Gadhafi's hometown, even as hundreds of residents streamed
out of the city to flee the fighting.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, British company
Heritage Oil PLC said that it has acquired a controlling interest in
a Libyan company licensed to provide oil field services including
offshore and land-based drilling. Heritage said it paid $19.5
million for a 51% stake in Sahara Oil Services Holdings Ltd.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Chile a major
terror case fell apart as prosecutors dropped charges due to a lack
of evidence against 13 suspects who spent eight months in prison for
a series of bombings detonated outside financial institutions from
2006 to 2010.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, China and Russia
vetoed a UN Security Council resolution threatening action against
Syria's deadly crackdown on protests.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, In China a coal
mine explosion killed at least 13 workers in Guizhou province.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 4, Egyptian protesters
also demanded the release of blogger Michael Nabil (26), who was
sentenced to three years' hard labor in April by a military court
for having "insulted" the army in his writings. The blogger was on
the 43rd day of a hunger strike, after his appeal hearing was
adjourned to October 11.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Haiti’s Senate
approved Garry Conille as prime minister, hopefully jump-starting
stalled earthquake reconstruction efforts.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, Iraqi leaders said
that they need US military trainers to stay beyond a year-end
deadline for American forces to leave but that the troops should not
be granted immunity from prosecution.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, The Mexican Army
said soldiers captured a Sinaloa cartel lieutenant who had founded
an armed wing working for Mexico's most-wanted Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman. Noel Salgueiro Nevarez, "El Flaco" or the "Skinny," was the
Gente Nueva gang leader. Mexico's navy announced that marines found
nine escaped inmates apparently working for the Zetas drug cartel at
a camp believed to be operated by the group near the Gulf port city
of Veracruz. The detentions resulted from a series of raids
conducted last week that also netted 18 local police officers who
also allegedly worked for the Zetas. Marines arrested a man wearing
a police uniform for disturbing the peace. The navy said he was a
police officer from the city of Mendoza in Veracruz state and
allegedly acted as a liaison between the Zetas and corrupt police. A
list in his pocket indicated that local police officers from several
towns had received payments of between 2,000 ($144) and 10,000 pesos
($718) per month from the cartel.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, Mexican officials
arrested Martin Rosales Magana, one of the last major leaders of the
La Familia cartel, along with three associates. The cartel has been
displaced in its western home state of Michoacan by the equally
cult-like Knights Templar gang.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Namibia 20
skulls, taken by German colonial forces more than a century ago,
returned to Windhoek with military honours to be laid in state at
parliament.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Pakistani
protesters upset over severe electricity shortages clashed with
police for a second day in Gujranwala, a major industrial city in
Punjab province, as the country's main opposition leader used the
issue to pressure the US-allied government.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Pakistan
suspected Sunni extremists shot 13 Shiite Muslims to death
execution-style after ordering them off a bus as they headed to work
at a vegetable market on the outskirts of Quetta. The attack
targeted the Shiite Hazara tribe.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Philippine police
on southern Jolo island arrested Abu Sayyaf gunman Adzhar Mawalil
(32), who allegedly helped behead seven Filipino workers while
singing a militant song in a grisly 2007 crime.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Somalia a truck
bomb exploded in front of the education ministry in Mogadishu as
students and parents crowded around to learn about scholarships,
killing 82 people and wounding dozens. Bashar Abdullahi Nur,
identified as the al-Shabab suicide bomber, gave an interview before
the attack that was later aired on a militant-run radio station.
(AP, 10/4/11)(AP, 10/5/11)(AP, 10/6/11)(AFP,
10/30/11)
2011 Oct 4, In Syria at least
four people were killed in clashes between government troops and
army defectors in the country's northwest.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Turkish police
detained over 140 pro-Kurdish political activists in a nationwide
sweep. The detainees included a number of elected mayors in the
Kurdish southeast.
(SFC, 10/5/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 4, In Yemen shells
fired into a popular shopping district of Sanaa killed two civilians
and wounded another. Shelling attacks on the southwest Yemeni town
of Taez, a hotbed of anti-regime protest, left seven civilians dead
and 22 others injured.
(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 4, Zambia announced
that it has halted all metal exports, in a move to ensure that
mining firms accurately report their sales. New rules on metal
exports should be ready by October 16. The ban was lifted on Oct 6
as it would take too long for new rules to be drawn up.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 5, President Barack
Obama signed legislation to keep the federal government running for
another six weeks. Congress must now finish work on agency budgets
for the new fiscal year. The law provides funding for government
operations through Nov 18.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, US defense
officials said the Obama administration has agreed to base Aegis
Cruisers on Spain's coast, as part of the anti-ballistic missile
defense system to protect Europe against a potential Iranian nuclear
threat.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, A US federal grand
jury charged Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid (47) with six counts for
spying on activists in the United States and Syria opposed to Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Soueid of Leesburg, Va., was
arrested on Oct 11.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 5, The US coast Guard
said it is bringing 36,000 gallons of drinking water to Tokelau
1,500 residents, who were suffering from a severe drought.
(SFC, 10/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 5, In San Francisco
some 800 people marched downtown joining a growing movement whose
followers believe that the nation’s financial system is broken and
its distribution of wealth unfair.
(SFC, 10/6/11, p.A10)
2011 Oct 5, Rev. Fred
Shuttlesworth (89), a dynamic leader of the civil rights movement,
died in Birmingham, Alabama.
(SFC, 10/6/11, p.A7)(Econ, 10/15/11, p.100)
2011 Oct 5, Steve Jobs (56),
the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes,
died. Millions of people around the world mourned digital-gadget
genius Steve Jobs as a man whose wizardry transformed their lives in
big ways and small. Walter Isaacson soon published the biography
“Steve Jobs.”
(AP, 10/6/11)(Econ, 10/29/11, p.98)
2011 Oct 5, In Cupertino, Ca.,
Shareff Allman (49), an employee of a quarry, opened fire during a
company safety meeting, killing 3 people and wounding six before
escaping. Allman shot himself in the head the next day as Santa
Clara deputies confronted him in Sunnyvale.
(AP, 10/6/11)(SFC, 10/7/11, p.A1)(SFC, 10/12/11,
p.C1)
2011 Oct 5, The Afghan
intelligence service said 6 people, including a palace guard, have
been arrested after an alleged Al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Afghan
President Hamid Karzai was foiled. The men were arrested a week ago
and were said to have carried out training for the attack last
month.
(AFP, 10/5/11)(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 5, Bahrain's security
court convicted and sentenced 19 more people to prison terms for
taking part in Shiite-led protests against the Gulf nation's ruling
Sunni dynasty. The sentences brought the total number this week to
at least 81.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, A prosecutor told a
London court that 2 Pakistani cricketers took bribes to fix parts of
a match against England in a case that exposes "rampant corruption"
at the heart of the international game.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Datawind, a British
technology company, released a student tablet costing $35. It
claimed to have developed the world's least expensive computer
tablet for wireless Internet access. In February, 2012, Datawind
released an updated version of the Aakash computer tablet for the
commercial market that costs $50.
(AFP, 2/19/12)(http://tinyurl.com/79ngd6m)
2011 Oct 5, A Cambodia disaster
official said the worst floods in over a decade have killed 167
people, as efforts intensified to provide aid to tens of thousands
of families.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Chilean students,
led by Camila Vallejo (23), began face-to-face talks with the
government over their demands for profound changes in what they say
is the country's unequal and underfunded public school system.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Suspected drug
traffickers hijacked two Chinese cargo ships on the Mekong River.
The bodies of 13 crew members were found near Chiang Rai in northern
Thailand on Oct 7,8 and 10.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 5, Three Egyptian
columnists withheld their regular commentaries in an independent
daily to protest what they said was censorship by the country's
military rulers.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, India introduced a
cheap tablet computer, saying it would deliver modern technology to
the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty. Developer
Datawind is selling the tablets, called Aakash, or "sky" in Hindi,
to the government for about $45 each. Subsidies will reduce that to
$35 for students and teachers.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, In Iraq gunmen
killed two people and injured three while robbing gold shops in
southwestern Baghdad. A car bomb exploded next to a police patrol in
western Anbar province, killing one policeman.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Israeli scientist
Dan Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for a
discovery that faced skepticism and mockery. While doing research in
the US in 1982, Shechtman discovered a new chemical structure,
quasicrystals, that researchers previously thought was impossible.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, In New Zealand the
47,000 ton Liberian-flagged container vessel "Rena" ran aground on
the Astrolabe reef about 12 nautical miles (22 km) off the North
Island. Maritime New Zealand soon declared the vessel a hazardous
ship as an oil slick more than doubled in size in just a few hours
on the Bay of Plenty. The ship had 1,368 containers on board. On Feb
29, 2012, the captain and the navigating officer, both Filipino,
pleaded guilty to mishandling the vessel and altering ship
documents.
(AP, 10/6/11)(AP, 10/12/11)(SFC, 11/14/11,
p.A2)(AP, 2/29/12)
2011 Oct 5, A one-day
Palestinian teachers' strike closed 238 UN-run schools in the Gaza
Strip and escalated long-simmering tensions between the territory's
Hamas rulers and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Russia's
intelligence service said it has detained an alleged Chinese spy who
tried to obtain designs of an advanced missile system as part of
Beijing's efforts to update its weaponry. Prosecutors submitted the
case to the Moscow City Court today, although the man was detained
late last October.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, The Spanish Duchess
of Alba (85), considered the world's most title-laden noble, married
Alfonso Diez, a civil servant 25 years her junior, shrugging off her
children's qualms and celebrating by kicking off her shoes and
dancing flamenco. Estimates of her wealth ranged from euro600
million ($800 million) to euro3.5 billion ($4.7 billion).
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 5, A woman appeared on
Syrian state television claiming that she is the young Syrian,
Zainab al-Hosni, who was widely reported to have been beheaded and
mutilated by security agents while in custody last month. Amnesty
International issued a statement saying: "If the body was not that
of Zainab al-Hosni, then clearly the Syrian authorities need to
disclose whose it was, the cause and circumstances of the death, and
why Zainab al-Hosni's family were informed that she was the victim."
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Syrian Colonel Riad
al-Asaad, who now heads a group of army defectors calling themselves
the Free Syrian Army, said he has fled Syria and found refuge in
neighboring Turkey.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Thai PM Yingluck
Shinawatra met Myanmar's president during her first visit to the
military-dominated country since she took office in August.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, Turkey's PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said his government would announce a package of
sanctions against neighboring Syria despite a UN resolution blocked
by Russia and China.
(AFP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 5, In Yemen a US drone
strike east of Zinjibar killed 5 Al-Qaida-linked militants.
(SFC, 10/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 6, The US Justice
Dept. said Oracle Corp. has agreed to pay $199.5 million for failure
to meet contractual obligations relating to a 1998 contract for
software licenses and technical support.
(SFC, 10/7/11, p.D2)
2011 Oct 6, In Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, Annette Morales-Rodriguez (33), who had faked a
pregnancy, kidnapped Maritza Ramirez Cruz (23), killed her and cut
out her full term fetus, who died in the process.
(SFC, 10/11/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 6, Some 300 Afghan men
and women marched through Kabul, the eve of the 10-year anniversary
of the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan, to condemn the United
States as occupiers and demand the immediate withdrawal of all
foreign troops. A NATO service member died, but NATO did not
disclose any other details.
(Reuters, 10/6/11)(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, Australian police
said they have disrupted an international people smuggling ring by
arresting two suspected key players in the syndicate following a
10-month undercover sting operation.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Australian actress
Diane Cilento (78), who was once married to James Bond actor Sean
Connery, died. In 1956 she was nominated for a Tony Award for her
portrayal of Helen of Troy in the play "Tiger at the Gates." She
received an Academy Award nomination in 1963 for best supporting
actress for her work in the movie "Tom Jones."
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, In Bahrain Ahmed
Jaber al-Qatan (16) was hit by bird shot used by anti-riot police
during a demonstration in western Manama. The interior ministry
confirmed his death the next day, saying the youth died of a cardiac
arrest.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, The Bank of England
launched a second round of quantitative easing to defend Britain's
faltering economy against the euro zone debt crisis, pledging to buy
75 billion pounds of assets with new money in a dramatic move to
stave off recession.
(Reuters, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Britain and
Switzerland signed an agreement to tax money kept by British
residents in secret Swiss bank accounts, a move which could net the
British government billions of pounds and help Swiss banking clean
up its image. The deal, which must still be approved by the
parliaments of both countries, should come into force in 2013.
(Reuters, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, The British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said it is to cut around 2,000 jobs
as the publicly-funded broadcaster makes savings as part of
government efforts to reduce a record deficit.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Chilean police used
water canons and tear gas to break up a student march hours after
talks with government regarding public education collapsed. By day's
end, 168 had been arrested in the capital, and more than 100 more
around Chile. Police said 25 officers and five civilians were
injured.
(SFC, 10/7/11, p.A2)(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, The European Court
of Human Rights ruled that France did not violate George Soros'
rights when convicting him of insider trading, defeating a
years-long effort by the billionaire financier to clear his name. He
was fined euro2.2 million in 2002, for purchasing shares in French
bank Societe Generale in 1988, days after being informed about a
planned takeover bid for the bank.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, India-owned Airtel,
one of the west African nation's biggest telecom firms, said
that more than five million telephone subscribers in Nigeria have
been cut off after protesters attacked an exchange. The protesters,
members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the nation's central
labor movement, were protesting against the alleged casualisation of
workers in Airtel and the dismissal of 3,000 employees, charges
denied by the company.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Israel's supreme
court barred nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu (56) from
emigrating on the grounds he still poses a threat to state security.
Vanunu served 18 years behind bars for disclosing the inner workings
of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper
in 1986.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, Human Rights Watch
said that 13 military leaders from both sides of Ivory Coast's
political divide committed war crimes during months of postelection
violence in the West African nation, and called on the government to
prosecute all suspects equally.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Mexican marines
arrested 8 members of the Jalisco New Generation gang. The suspects
told them where 32 bodies were hidden in Veracruz state. Marines
also arrested 12 members of the rival Zetas gang, including a man
alleged to be their operations leader in Veracruz. A Nuevo Leon
state official said several police officers allowed a violent drug
gang to hold kidnap victims in a local jail while ransom payments
were being negotiated.
(AP, 10/7/11)(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 6, Mexican police
arrested four men and a woman for allegedly helping force women to
work as prostitutes in Mexico and the United States.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, In northern Nigeria
10 people died in a truck crash, the third reported incident of its
kind in the last week.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, Philippine police
rescued a government midwife kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants
after a brief firefight near Parang township on Jolo island.
Evangeline Taverisma (55) was kidnapped on Aug 3. An army soldier
was killed and three others wounded in the gunbattle near Esperanza
town in southern Agusan del Sur province. Troops captured a New
People's Army encampment and 12 assault rifles and hit several of
the undetermined number of rebels.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Desmond Tutu's
last-ditch appeal to South Africa to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama
on the eve of his 80th birthday was rejected, marring the start of
the celebrations. The Dalai Lama cancelled a planned trip to South
Africa because of delays with his visa, provoking a furious response
from Tutu who blasted President Jacob Zuma's government as worse
than apartheid and accused him of kowtowing to China.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, The Nobel Prize in
literature was awarded to Sweden’s top poet Tomas Transtromer (80).
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 6, Syrian activists
said clashes between troops and deserters killed 12 people, as
Western powers sought to pressure Syria over its crackdown on
dissent.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, The humanitarian
group Doctors Without Borders says it is ending its operations in
Thailand after 35 years because it could not reach agreement with
the government on conditions under which it could provide medical
care to illegal migrants.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, The UN said
increased access to technology that allows parents to know the sex
of their fetus has left Asia short of 117 million women, mostly in
China and India.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, A United Nations
report said Honduras and El Salvador have the highest homicide rates
in the world. Honduras had 6,200 killings in 2010 out of a
population of 7.7 million people, while El Salvador with 6.1 million
people had 4,000 homicides.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 6, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez announced that his government will expropriate
homes on the Caribbean resort islands of Los Roques, saying the
structures were built on plots bought in shadowy business deals.
(AP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 7, Federal authorities
in California vowed to shut down dozens of pot growing and sales
operations in a major crackdown, saying the worst offenders are
using the cover of medical marijuana to act as storefront drug
dealers.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 7, Rene Gonzalez (55),
a dual US-Cuban citizen, left a federal lockup in the Florida
Panhandle. He was the first member of a Cuban spy ring to walk free
from prison in the US after spending 13 years behind bars.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 7, New York City
authorities said bank tellers, restaurant workers and other service
employees in NYC lifted credit card data from residents and foreign
tourists as part of an identity theft ring that stretched to China,
Europe and the Middle East and victimized thousands.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, A federal jury in
Las Vegas convicted Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle on charges that he led
a scheme to sell machine guns and explosives from Iraq and
Afghanistan in the US.
(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 7, Wired
magazine reported that a computer virus has infected networks used
by pilots who control US Air Force drones in places like Afghanistan
and Iraq. The spyware resisted efforts to remove it from computers
at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A12)
2011 Oct 7, The Nobel Peace
Prize was awarded to Tawakkul Karman (32) of Yemen. She shared the
prize with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Liberian
peace activist Leymah Gbowee, as the Nobel committee gave a nod to
the Arab Spring.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, Afghan Pres. Hamid
Karzai admitted his government and NATO had failed to provide
security to Afghans, as Afghanistan marked the 10th anniversary of a
war that has cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of
dollars. Karzai claimed the Taliban are being propped up by
Pakistan, saying the militants can't lift a finger without the
Pakistanis.
(AFP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, In southwest China
2 teenagers set themselves on fire near a Tibetan Buddhist monastery
in Aba town amid rumors that dozens of monks were ready to sacrifice
their lives. Choepel and Khayang were former monks from Sichuan
province's Kirti monastery.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, In China 3 major
road accidents killed 56 people on the last day of a weeklong
holiday, including 35 people who died when a bus collided with a car
on a northern expressway.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 7, Dubai's flagship
Emirates airline said it will sponsor Britain's first urban cable
car spanning London's river Thames, saying it hoped the new addition
to the city's skyline would be ready for next year's Olympics. The
10-year-deal was valued at 36 million pounds.
(Reuters, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, India's largest car
maker Maruti Suzuki said a fresh strike by workers halted production
at a north India plant, just days after the end of a bitter
month-long dispute.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, Libyan
revolutionary fighters assaulted a convention center in the center
of Sirte that forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi turned into their main
base. At least 17 fighters were killed and 180 wounded.
(AP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/8/11)(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 7, Mexican officials
found 10 more bodies in Veracruz, in what appears to be more
bloodshed in the battle between rival cartels for control of drug
trafficking in the port city. The relatively new Jalisco New
Generation gang claims to be attacking members of the Zetas cartel
with 75 deaths since Sep 20.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 7, Nepalese
campaigners said desperate AIDS charity workers are turning to
prostitution to pay bills and buy food because government
bureaucracy has denied them their wages.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, The Dutch
government said it would move to reclassify high-potency marijuana
alongside hard drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy.
(SFC, 10/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 7, In South Africa 4
men were convicted of murdering a lesbian in Cape Town, in a case
that dragged on for five years and heightened concerns about
"corrective rape" targeting gay women. In 2006 The men stoned,
kicked and stabbed to death Zoliswa Nkonyana (19) just meters
(yards) from her home.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, Spain's Queen
Sophia started a rare royal visit to Haiti to see some of the aid
projects that her country has helped finance in the
earthquake-stricken country.
(AP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 7, Spanish bullfighter
Juan Jose Padilla (39) was pinned to the ground and gored by a bull
in Zaragoza. He is likely to suffer facial paralysis and lose the
sight in one eye after a terrifying goring.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 7, Syrian security
forces opened fire at protesters in several parts of the country,
killing at least eight people and wounding scores. Leading
opposition figure Riad Seif was beaten up by pro-government gunmen
and rushed to a hospital in Damascus. Russia’s Pres. Dmitry Medvedev
told Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to either reform or resign. In
Qamishli Mashaal Tammo (53), a prominent and charismatic Kurdish
opposition figure, was gunned down by masked gunmen.
(AP, 10/7/11)(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 7, Mining
multinational RioTinto's Zimbabwean subsidiary Murowa Diamonds said
it has ceded 51% of its equity to comply with a new law giving local
blacks majority shares in foreign companies.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 8, The National Air
and Space Museum in Washington was closed after anti-war
demonstrators swarmed the building to protest a drone exhibit and
security guards used pepper spray to repel them, sickening a number
of protesters.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, California Governor
Jerry Brown signed a bill giving illegal immigrant college students
access to state-funded financial aid, the second half of two-part
legislation known as the "Dream Act."
(Reuters, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 8, In Wisconsin Scott
Anderson (56) was ordained as the first US Presbyterian church gay
minister at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 8, Al Davis (b.1929),
the trailblazing owner of the Oakland Raiders and Hall of Famer in
his own right, died.
(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A1)
2011 Oct 8, Roger Williams
(87), pianist and composer, died in Los Angeles. His 1955 hit
“Autumn Leaves” was the only piano instrumental to reach No.1 on the
billboard pop charts. His hits also included “Born Free,” “the
Impossible Dream” and “Lara’s Theme.”
(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A20)
2011 Oct 8, In Belarus some
1,000 protesters rallied in Minsk to call for new presidential and
parliamentary elections as the country experienced its worst
financial crises since the fall of the Soviet Union.
(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 8, In the Central
African Republic a ceasefire ended fighting that claimed about 50
lives between the rebel Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace
(CPJP) and the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR). The
rebel groups, fighting over diamond mines, signed a peace pact with
the Bangui government ending weeks of deadly violence.
(AFP, 10/9/11)(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 8, Indonesia's
counter-terrorism police arrested five people in connection with the
April 15 suicide bombing of a mosque.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Iran sentenced
actress Marzieh Vafamehr to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her
role in a film about the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic
republic. Vafamehr was arrested in July after appearing in "My
Tehran for Sale," which came under harsh criticism in conservative
circles. She was released on bail later in July. Her sentence was
overturned later this month on appeal.
(AFP, 10/9/11)(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 8, Iran hanged a man
(67) convicted of multiple rapes of 37 women whom he coerced by
filming acts with them. He was executed in a prison in Isfahan after
four years of repeated appeals against his sentence.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Production at
Iraq's biggest oil field was partially halted after two bombs at the
Rumaila field damaged a pipeline transporting crude. Iraq currently
produces around 2.9 million bpd, and says it will be capable of
output of 12 million by 2017.
(AFP, 10/8/11)(SSFC, 10/9/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 8, In Iraq six members
of a demining team died when a controlled detonation of old land
mines went wrong.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 8, A Global Irish
Economic forum in Dublin announced Diaspora 2016, a plan to gather
industry leaders with Irish roots to serve on Irish state boards
until 2016. The plan was formed by the Irish Technology Leadership
Group in San Jose, Ca.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.D1)
2011 Oct 8, In Israel Jaffa
residents discovered that 26 graves had been daubed with anti-Arab
graffiti reading "Death to Arabs" and "price tag," 22 of them in a
Muslim cemetery and four in a nearby Christian burial site.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 8, In Libya Seif
al-Islam was seen distributing cash to his loyalists in Bani Walid.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 8, Pirates off Nigeria
boarded the MT Cape Bird, a chemical tanker believed to be a
Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, about 90 nautical miles from Lagos.
20 Eastern European sailors were onboard. The crew and vessel were
freed on Oct 14.
(AFP, 10/10/11)(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 8, Pakistani
authorities detained the two suspects as they drove through the
Shahzad neighborhood of Islamabad. The men had concealed more then a
dozen rockets, 12 hand grenades and vests packed with explosives in
their car and at an Islamabad home.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Palestinian leader
Mahmud Abbas arrived in El Salvador from the Dominican Republic on
the latest stop of a Latin American tour to round up support for UN
recognition of a Palestinian state. He was to meet with the local
Palestinian community later in the day ahead of a meeting the next
day with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 8, Polish authorities
said 2 Polish men have been arrested and charged with carrying out a
string of bomb attacks at IKEA stores across Europe and trying to
extort millions from the Swedish furniture giant. They were
identified as Mikolaj G. and Adam K., both 39-year-olds from the
northern city of Gdynia.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, In South Korea US
military officials apologized as they tried to ease growing public
anger over 2 US soldiers who have been accused of raping teenage
girls.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, South Sudanese
President Salva Kiir lead the first top-level delegation to Khartoum
since southern secession. After one-to-one talks both presidents
pledged to work together for peace and stability, and to put the
years of conflict behind them.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Sri Lanka
presidential aide Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and his bodyguard
were shot dead in a gunbattle involving opposing factions of the
ruling party during local council elections in the capital. Police
said they were slain by a group led by ruling party legislator
Duminda Silva, who was also critically wounded in the gunbattle.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, Syrian security
forces opened fire on tens of thousands of mourners who turned out
for the funeral of a slain Kurdish opposition leader in Qamishli,
killing at least 5 people. Kurds, the largest ethnic minority in
Syria, make up 15% of the country's 23 million people and have long
complained of neglect and discrimination.
(AP, 10/8/11)(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 8, Thailand's PM
Yingluck Shinawatra warned that rising floodwaters, which have
wreaked havoc across the nation, are now threatening the capital,
Bangkok, as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades
rose to 253.
(AP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 8, A Yemeni policeman
was killed and five others wounded when a bomb exploded at their
post in the southern city of Aden.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Afghanistan
ousted parliamentarian Simeen Barakzai began her eighth day of
a hunger strike. Through chapped lips and in a rough voice, she said
she would not drink or eat anything until President Hamid Karzai
opened an investigation into vote fraud by the woman who has taken
over her seat in Herat province.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, Algerian police
arrested roughly 25 unemployed people as they prepared to rally
against joblessness near the presidential compound.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, The governments of
Belgium, France and Luxembourg said they had approved a plan for the
future of embattled bank Dexia, but they offered no details. France
and Belgium became part owners of the bank during a euro6 billion
($7.8 billion) 2008 bailout. They have promised to ensure that no
Dexia depositors lose money. Luxembourg holds a smaller stake.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, Cameroon voted in a
presidential election widely expected to take longtime leader Paul
Biya (78) into his fourth decade in power. Food and living costs
continued to spiral as unemployment reached a crushing 60%. The vote
was marked by widespread voter apathy, with Biya's reelection never
in doubt, but was also marred by the killings of two policemen and
an opposition official. On Oct 21 the Supreme Court said Biya was
reelected for a sixth term with about 78% of the votes.
(AP, 10/9/11)(AFP, 10/10/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 9, China's President
Hu Jintao called for Taiwan and the Chinese mainland to reunite, as
he marked the 100th anniversary of the revolution that ended the
nation's long imperial history.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Egypt some 1,000
Christian protesters tried to stage a peaceful sit-in outside the
state television building along the Nile in downtown Cairo. The
protesters said they were attacked by "thugs" with sticks and the
violence then spiraled out of control after a speeding military
vehicle jumped up onto a sidewalk and rammed into some of the
Christians. 27 people were killed including at least 3 soldiers.
Wael Mikhael, a cameraman working for a Coptic Christian
broadcaster, was among those killed. On Oct 25 the New-York based
Human Rights Watch called for an independent investigation of the
deaths and urged authorities to transfer investigation of the case
from military to civilian prosecutors.
(AP, 10/10/11)(AP, 10/13/11)(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 9, In French Polynesia
German tourist Stefan Ramin (40) was murdered while visiting Nuku
Hiva island. Haiti, a 31-year-old local guide, said Ramin was
injured and then attempted to sexually assault Ramin’s girlfriend
Heike Dorsch (37). Human remains were found in a charred pit on the
island on Oct 12.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Iran Peiman
Aref, a student activist supporting the opposition, received 74
lashes before leaving the prison where he had served a yearlong term
for insulting the president.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 9, Libya's
revolutionary forces seized a convention center that had served as a
key base for fighters loyal to Moammar Gadhafi in the fugitive
leader's hometown, as they squeezed remaining regime loyalists in
the besieged coastal city. In Bani Walid, advancing fighters drove
Gadhafi forces out of the airport.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Mexico the
entire police force of the northern city of Linares, over 100
officers, was detained for investigation of possible corruption and
ties to organized crime. Mexican soldiers and Nuevo Leon state
police patrolled in their absence.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Nigeria
suspected members of the Boko haram radical sect set off a bomb near
a mosque in Maiduguri. A soldier and one civilian died from their
injuries. The military was accused of abuses following the attacks.
(AP, 10/10/11)(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 9, Paraguay held a
constitutional referendum on whether citizens living in Argentina,
Spain, the U.S. and elsewhere outside the country can vote. The
measure was supported by nearly 78% of the ballots counted.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, In the southern
Philippines suspected homemade bombs exploded in a budget hotel and
at a cockfighting arena, wounding at least 11 people in Zamboanga
city.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, Poles voted in
parliamentary elections that will determine whether the country
continues on its conciliatory course with Russia and Germany, or
whether it returns to a more combative stance with its historic
foes. Results showed that PM Tusk’s pro-European party could
maintain a narrow majority in parliament with its small coalition
partner, a sign of deepening stability in this nation of 38 million.
The Palikot's Movement, a new left-wing party that opposes the
church's influence in political life in this conservative and mainly
Catholic country, entered parliament as the third largest force.
(AP, 10/9/11)(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 9, In South Sudan an
anti-tank mine reportedly blew up a civilian bus killing 20 people,
including four children, in central Unity state.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 9, Syria's foreign
minister warned the international community not to recognize a new
umbrella council formed by the opposition, threatening "tough
measures" against any country that does so. At least 7 civilians
were killed in Homs province. 5 soldiers and 3 civilians were killed
in Dael. Other soldiers and civilians were killed in the Jabal
al-Zawiyah areas in Idlib province. A shooting at a funeral in the
Damascus suburb of Dumair left three dead.
(AP, 10/9/11)(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 9, Tunisian police
arrested dozens of Islamist demonstrators set on attacking the
offices of a television channel that had shown the award-winning
film "Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi's moving and humorous adaptation
of her graphic novels about growing up during and after Iran's 1979
Islamic Revolution.
(AP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, Yemeni opposition
spokesman Mohammed Qahtan urged the UN Security Council to break the
political deadlock in Yemen, scoffing at a statement from President
Ali Abdullah Saleh that he was ready to step down.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 9, In Zimbabwe the
archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, condemned "godless"
assaults on Anglicans by a breakaway faction of the Anglican Church
led by an excommunicated bishop, aligned with Zimbabwe's president.
Anglican faithful have turned to tents and parking lots for their
services, as renegade bishop Nolbert Kunonga has forcefully blocked
them from Church property.
(AFP, 10/9/11)
2011 Oct 10, The Nobel Memorial
Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded Americans Thomas Sargent and
Christopher Sims won for their research on cause and effect in the
macroeconomy.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In California a
1,704 pumpkin won a prize of $11,224 in the annual Half Moon Bay
Pumpkin Festival. Leonardo Urena’s pumpkin set a state record, but
was 106 pounds short of a world record set in 2010 by a Wisconsin
grown gourd.
(SFC, 10/11/11, p.C1)
2011 Oct 10, In Oakland, Ca.,
anti-Wall Street protesters began their Occupy Oakland encampment in
front of city hall at Frank Ogawa Plaza.
(SFC, 11/14/11, p.A9)
2011 Oct 10, In eastern
Afghanistan 6 civilians died in twin explosions in the Dangam
district of Kunar province. NATO said one of its service members
died in the south.
(AFP, 10/10/11)(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Angola a Luanda
court gave William Tonet, editor of the newspaper Folha 8, five days
to pay 10 million kwanzas ($106,000, 77,000 euro) in damages or
spend a year in jail for a 2008 article in which he had accused
three generals of the Angolan Armed Forces of self-enrichment and
power abuse. Over the next week supporters raised $50,000 to pay the
fine.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Australia Bryn
Martin (64) disappeared while swimming toward a buoy off Perth
city's central Cottesloe Beach. Officials suspected that a shark
attack killed Martin.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Bangladesh's main
opposition launched a protest campaign in which 3,000 cars drive en
masse around the country to demand that the government resigns.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, The World Bank
said that it had put on hold a $1.2 billion loan for a huge bridge
in Bangladesh amid allegations of corruption in the bidding process.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, It was reported
that Bolivia's government is giving school teachers free laptops
with a stenciled image of a smiling President Evo Morales on the
back of each computer. The government is handing out 130,000 Lenovo
laptops worth more than $50 million.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, The $5 million Mo
Ibrahim award for good leadership in Africa, withheld the previous
two years because of a lack of qualified candidates, was bestowed to
Cape Verde's former Pres. Pedro Verona Pires (77) for promoting
democracy and development on his archipelago.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, A global
disruption of BlackBerry services began and continued for 3 days. 4
days later Canada-based Research In Motion was still working to
clear a backlog of delayed messages, hoping to control the damage to
RIM.
(Reuters, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 10, China suspended
shipping through Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle after Oct 5
attacks by suspected drug traffickers on two Chinese cargo ships
left 13 people dead or missing on the Mekong River.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Egypt small
skirmishes broke out again in Cairo outside the Coptic hospital
where many of the Christian victims were taken the night before.
Several hundred Christians pelted police with rocks as the screams
of grieving women rang out from inside the hospital.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Germany an
arson attack on Berlin's busy central train station was thwarted
after railway employees discovered a device set to explode. The
tabloid Bild reported that a leftist group calling itself the "Hekla
Reception Committee — Initiative for more Eruptions in Society," in
an apparent reference to Iceland's Hekla volcano, claimed
responsibility. It said this was a protest against Germany's
military engagement in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Haiti an
official with Doctors Without Borders said the number of cholera
cases seen in Port-au-Prince has jumped about threefold in recent
weeks.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, India's largest
car maker Maruti Suzuki called for authorities to evict 1,500
striking workers who have seized control of one of its plants, amid
allegations of sabotage and violence. The workers began staging a
sit-in strike at its Manesar factory in northern Haryana state on
Oct 7.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Indonesian police
shot and killed one protester and wounded another as they clashed
with striking workers at a mine run by US company Freeport McMoran.
The clash erupted when police tried to stop more than 1,000 workers,
who began their strike on September 15, from entering a facility at
the Grasberg mining complex.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Iraq a string
of explosions targeting security officials killed at least 10 people
in western Baghdad.
(SFC, 10/11/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 10, An Irish court
ordered independent opposition politician Mick Wallace to repay
almost 20 million euros (£17.4 million) in bank loans, raising
the possibility that the builder could face bankruptcy and have to
quit parliament.
(Reuters, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Kuwaiti exports
and imports were disrupted as over 3,000 customs officers went on
strike demanding better pay and threatening to halt oil exports.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Israel nearly
300 residents at hospitals failed to turn up to work and hundreds
more were poised to resign later the same day in a dispute over pay
and conditions.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Mexican marines
said they have seized more than 4 tons of marijuana, arrested 36
cartel members and killed 11 others during five days of raids
through the violent border state of Tamaulipas.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Morocco some 50
imams protested in the capital over tight controls on their
preaching, the first time such a demonstration has been allowed to
go forward. The imams said their demands included higher salaries,
permission to give their own sermons and to be consulted on matters
of religion and law.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In the Gaza Strip
at least one person has been killed in an explosion along the
northern border with Israel. Israeli army officials believed the
blast was set off by two militants who were trying to plant a bomb.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Philippine army
troops battled communist guerrillas in a running gunbattle that
killed eight rebels and a soldier in the mountainous north, in the
latest flare-up in the 42-year insurgency despite on-and-off peace
talks.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, An undersea
telecommunications table landed in Sierra Leone, part of a 17,000-km
fiber optic line that aims to connect countries along the west
African coast to Europe.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Somalia heavy
fighting broke out in Mogadishu after pro-government forces attacked
militant positions. At least 8 civilians and one AU soldier were
killed in the fighting. This followed what the African Union force
said were the deaths a day earlier of at least 12 Somali civilians
because of militants' mortars.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, Pirates of Somalia
attacked the Italian cargo ship Montecristo carrying a crew of 23.
US and British Navy ships freed the ship and 11 pirates were
apprehended.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 10, South Africa
launched its census count, with officials pleading for residents in
the crime-plagued nation to open their often formidably barricaded
doors to teams of yellow-shirted enumerators.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Sudan attackers
killed three UNAMID peacekeepers and wounded six others near the Zam
Zam displaced persons camp in North Darfur. One assailant was
killed.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 10, Turkish air raids
in northern Iraq reportedly killed 7 Kurdish rebels including three
senior operatives.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 10, The UN issued a
74-page report that found that detainees in 47 facilities in 24
provinces run by the Afghan National Police and the Directorate of
Security suffered interrogation techniques that constituted torture
under both international and Afghan law.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Zimbabwe the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, handed over a report to
President Robert Mugabe detailing incidents of intimidation.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Senate Republicans
voted to kill the $447 billion White House jobs bill despite weeks
of barnstorming by President Barack Obama across the country. 46
Republicans joined with two Democrats to delay the plan. Republicans
opposed the measure over its spending to stimulate the economy and
its tax surcharge on millionaires.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Washington
acknowledged for the first time that it is waging "war" against
militants in Pakistan.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 11, In Boston more
than 50 protesters from the Occupy Boston movement were arrested
after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near
where they have been camped out for more than a week.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Dave Dawes (47), a
shift supervisor at a food producer, and his partner Angela Dawes, a
charity shop volunteer, were the only winners of €uroMillions
Britain's third-largest lottery jackpot, worth 116 million euros or
$157 million.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 11, In Cuba Amado
Fakhre, a British citizen and head of the Coral Capital investment
fund, was detained by security agents. His company owned Havana’s
poshest hotel in partnership with the government and hoped to win a
$400 million contract to build homes around a golf course.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.46)
2011 Oct 11, Egypt's finance
minister and deputy prime minister resigned in protest over the
government's handling of deadly weekend protests that left 27 dead,
most of them Coptic Christians. Some 20,000 mourners chanted slogans
denouncing the ruling military during a funeral procession overnight
for 17 Christians killed in the Cairo protest.
(AP, 10/11/11)(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 11, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel met with her Vietnamese counterpart, PM Nguyen Tan
Dung, as part of a two-day visit to boost trade ties with the
Communist country.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, In Germany an
attempted arson attack on a railway link in Berlin with three
separate explosives devices was thwarted. It was the third in two
days targeting railway operations in and around the capital.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Israel and Hamas
announced that Sgt. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted to
Gaza five years ago, would be swapped for about 1,000 Palestinians
held by Israel and accused of militant activity. The next morning
the Israeli Cabinet endorsed the Egyptian-brokered deal in a 26-3
vote. Shalit was expected to return via Egypt by Oct 19.
(AP, 10/11/11)(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 11, Italy’s defense
minister said armed forces can be deployed on Italian ships sailing
in dangerous waters and that ship owners requesting the service
would need to reimburse the ministry.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Two Italians, who
say they were sexually abused by priests, completed a 19-day,
340-mile (550-km) protest march to the Vatican and tried
unsuccessfully to obtain an audience with the pope.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Kosovo's foreign
minister said Kuwait has recognized Kosovo's 2008 declaration of
independence from Serbia.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Liberia held
presidential elections. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (72), recent
Nobel Peace Prize winner, faced 15 opposition candidates including
soccer star George Weah. Sirleaf took 44% of the vote, with Tubman,
a former diplomat, at 31%. Turnout was 71.4%. With 31% voting for
her challenger, Sirleaf would need No. 3 Prince Johnson's
endorsement to win the upcoming runoff.
(AP, 10/11/11)(AP, 10/13/11)(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 11, In Libya new
regime fighters seized the police headquarters in the center of
Moamer Kadhafi's hometown Sirte as they moved against the
strongman's remaining diehards.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Mexican marines in
the violent border state of Tamaulipas found the body of Cesar
Davila Garcia, the alleged top accountant for the Gulf Cartel drug
trafficking network.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 11, Myanmar's newly
elected civilian government announced it will release 6,359
prisoners in an amnesty that could help patch up the country's human
rights record and normalize relations with Western nations. Only 200
turned out to be political prisoners.
(AP, 10/11/11)(Econ, 10/15/11, p.52)
2011 Oct 11, Myanmar’s
government signed legislation allowing the establishment of trade
unions.
(Econ, 10/8/11,
p.51)(www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15303968)
2011 Oct 11, New Zealand
declared its worst maritime pollution disaster, as oil gushed into a
pristine bay from the Rena, a stranded container ship being pounded
in heavy seas.
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Nigeria's secret
police said 3 additional suspects, including a banker, have been
arrested over two car bombings on the Oct 1, 2010, Independence Day
in Abuja, which killed at least 12 people.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Pakistan PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani pledged to create thousands of jobs in
insurgency-wracked Baluchistan as he admitted past neglect of the
region had fuelled its troubles. 2 people were killed in Baluchistan
province when gunmen torched an oil tanker carrying fuel for NATO
troops in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Palestinian leader
Mahmud Abbas, on a Latin American swing to drum up support for his
bid to gain UN state recognition, failed to secure support from
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos. Abbas continued on to
Venezuela to meet with Pres. Chavez.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 11, Slovakia’s
government fell when Parliament failed to approve more powers for an
EU bailout fund in a vote tied to a confidence vote in Radicova's
1-year-old government. The vote failed because a coalition partner
refused to support it. The parliament rejected a bill that would
have strengthened the powers of the regional rescue fund to help
bail out strapped economies in the eurozone. Outgoing PM Iveta
Radicova and her main opponent said they will work to try to get the
bill through Parliament.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 11, Syrian security
forces mounted an offensive in Homs where 7 people were reported
killed.
(SFC, 10/12/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 11, Thailand workers
raced to complete three critical flood walls with only one or two
days to go before the already swollen river that winds through the
capital bursts its banks. Nationwide flooding has already killed
nearly 270 people. A preliminary estimate by the central bank showed
economic losses from flooding that began in late July range from
baht 60 billion to baht 80 billion ($1.9 billion to $2.6 billion).
(AP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 11, Ukraine's former
PM Yulia Tymoshenko (50) was sentenced to 7 years in prison on
charges of abuse of office in signing a gas deal with Russia, a
verdict immediately condemned by the European Union as politically
motivated. The sentence also included a 3-year ban on public office
and a fine of $190 million.
(AP, 10/11/11)(Econ, 10/15/11, p.59)
2011 Oct 11, UNICEF, the UN
children's agency, warned that the west and central Africa region is
facing one of the worst cholera epidemics in its history, with over
85,000 cases reported leading to 2,466 deaths this year. The most
significant increases were in Chad, Cameroon, and in western
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 10/11/11)
2011 Oct 12, US troops arrived
in Uganda. On Oct 14 President Barack Obama announced he is
dispatching about 100 US troops, mostly special operations forces,
to central Africa to advise in the fight against the Lord's
Resistance Army, a guerrilla group accused of widespread atrocities
across several countries.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 12, The US Congress
approved free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and
Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade
partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the
opportunity to show they can work together to stimulate the economy
and put people back to work.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Arkansas
Patricia Guardado (22), a college sophomore, was reported missing.
She was found dead on Oct 16 in a pond south of Little Rock.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Seal Beach,
Ca., a gunman burst through the door of a full salon and began
shooting, sending terrified customers diving for cover. The shooter
then stepped outside, shot a man sitting in a truck in the parking
lot and sped off. 8 people, including his wife, were killed and
another one left in critical condition. Police arrested Scott
Dekraai (42) about a half-mile from the Salon Meritage. He was the
ex-husband of stylist Michelle Fournier, who worked there.
(AP, 10/13/11)(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 12, The City Council
in Harrisburg, Pa., filed for bankruptcy, despite opposition by the
Mayor Linda Thompson and state Gov. Tom Corbett. Harrisburg faced
$300 million in debt connected to a city-owned rubbish incinerator.
(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A8)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.89)
2011 Oct 12, A Texas appeals
court formally exonerated Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years
in prison for his wife's 1986 fatal beating, reaffirming a judge's
decision to set him free last week after DNA tests linked the
killing to another man.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Dennis Ritchie
(b.1941), American computer scientist, was found dead at his home in
New Jersey. In the late 1960s Ritchie invented the C programming
language. Ritchie and Ken Thompson then used C to develop the Unix
operating system.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie)(Econ, 10/22/11, p.22)
2011 Oct 12, In Chile intense
fog led to a 51-vehicle pileup along the highway linking the capital
to the port city of Valparaiso, killing five people and injuring
more than 20.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, China said it is
to invest up to 4 trillion yuan ($600 billion) over the next decade
to overcome a huge water shortage that threatens the country's
economic growth.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, In the Dominican
Rep. hundreds of teachers, farmers and union members gathered
outside the Congress to demand the government spend more on public
education.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, A Gambian court
sentenced eight foreigners to 50 years in prison for trafficking
cocaine worth a billion dollars. They included 4 Venezuelans, 2
Dutchmen, a Mexican and a Nigerian. Another accused Venezuelan died
before the judgment.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Germany
Berlin's railway network was targeted by three more arson attacks,
raising this week's total to seven. The government called them
terrorist acts.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Guatemalan
prosecutors arrested former Gen. Mauricio Rodriguez, another former
army general who was allegedly involved in dozens of massacres of
indigenous people during the Central American nation's civil war. He
headed the feared G-2 military intelligence force in 1982 and 1983.
A truth commission found the G-2 may have participated in as many as
71 operations against civilians.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, An Indian-French
satellite that will study monsoon patterns and global warming was
launched from a space center in southern India. Three other smaller
satellites were also released from the rocket.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, India and Vietnam
signed an accord to promote oil exploration in Vietnamese waters
that could escalate long-standing tensions with China as it presses
territorial claims to much of the South China sea.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Indonesia
lawmakers passed a new security bill, the Law on State
Intelligence.”
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.53)
2011 Oct 12, Iranian lawmaker
Ali Motahari said he is resigning to protest the parliament's
failure to summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning over
a long list of accusations, including corruption.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Iraq a slew of
bombings targeted Iraqi police in Baghdad, including blasts by two
suicide bombers who tried to ram their vehicles through police
station gates. 25 people died and over 70 were wounded in the
carnage.
(AP, 10/12/11)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 12, Libya’s new regime
fighters captured Khaled Tantoosh, the Kadhafi regime's top cleric,
as he attempted to flee Sirte with his beard shaved off to disguise
his appearance.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, Mexican troops
captured Carlos Oliva Castillo (37), alias "The Frog," as part of an
operation that freed 36 kidnap victims and led to the seizure of
more than 800 cars as well as 27.5 tons of marijuana and hundreds of
weapons in Saltillo, Coahuila state. He had allegedly ordered an
arson attack at a casino in northern Mexico that killed 52 people.
14 people, including three state police investigators and a local
police officer, were reported killed in eight separate incidents in
Ciudad Juarez. In Chihuahua gunmen killed six people in a house
where drug users gathered to take heroin in the state capital.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, Hurricane Jova
slammed into Mexico’s Pacific coast killing 6 people. Farther south,
a low-pressure system continued to dump rain on southern Mexico and
Central America, where it was blamed for the deaths of 15 people in
Guatemala.
(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A2)(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, Myanmar released
at least 184 political prisoners, including Zarganar, one of its
most famous comedians, in a tentative sign of change in the
authoritarian state after decades of repression.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Police in Nigeria
raided the Abuja office of The Nation newspaper. A day earlier
detectives arrested five journalists over the publication of a
purported letter from the nation's former president instructing its
current leader to fire government officials. The letter hit a nerve
in Nigerian politics, as it recommended replacing leaders from the
Muslim north as opposed to the country's Christian south. 4 of the 5
journalists were released this evening.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Nigeria members
of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect attacked a bank in the
northeast, killing one police officer and stealing an undisclosed
sum of money in Damboa, Borno state.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Northern
Ireland a small bomb in a backpack damaged the entrance of the City
of Culture office in Londonderry. An Irish Republican Army splinter
group using a recognized code word claimed responsibility.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, Oman’s Sultan
Qaboos, himself a music enthusiast, officially opened the Royal
Opera House of Oman, the first of its kind in the Arabian Peninsula.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 12, Philippine
President Benigno Aquino announced a $1.66 billion program to help
his country cope with the deepening global economic turmoil.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Serbia received
European Union notice for recommendation to become an official EU
candidate. The recommendation must formally be approved by the EU's
Council of Ministers on Dec 9. A date to begin formal accession
talks depended on the country and neighboring Kosovo to improve
relations.
(AP, 10/12/11)(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 12, In Syria tens of
thousands of people rallied in central Damascus in a show of support
for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad which has been
shaken by mass protests for nearly seven months.
(AFP, 10/12/11)(SFC, 10/13/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 12, Taiwan said that
it was seeking nearly $100 million in compensation from France, in
the latest twist to a long-running kickback scandal over the 1991
sale of warships to the island.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, A Turkish court
began questioning a man and three alleged accomplices suspected of
attempting to kill Shamsuddin Batukayev (55), a former Chechen
separatist leader, in Istanbul earlier this week.
(AP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni rejected corruption claims after lawmakers put a
freeze on new oil contracts over claims that government ministers
accepted bribes for tenders.
(AFP, 10/12/11)
2011 Oct 12, The Yemeni
government urged the UN Security Council to avoid a resolution
targeting embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, calling on it
instead to back a political solution for the country's crisis.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, In NYC Galleon
Group founder Raj Rajaratnam (54) was sentenced to 11 years in
prison, the longest insider trading sentence ever. He was also fined
$10 million and ordered to forfeit $53.8 million. US District Judge
Richard J. Holwell said he concluded that Rajaratnam made well over
$50 million in profits from his illegal trades.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, In eastern
Colorado a 5 children and man were killed when their van collided
with a tractor-trailer.
(SFC, 10/14/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 13, Afghan police took
ousted parliamentarian Simeen Barakzai (30) to hospital by ambulance
and dismantled the tent where she had observed a 12-day hunger
strike to protest against being disqualified from parliament.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Austria a
Saudi-backed interfaith center, the "King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz
International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue,"
was inaugurated in Vienna, igniting debate over the subject of
religious tolerance.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Bhutan King Jigme
Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck (31), the fifth Dragon King, married his
commoner bride, Jetsun Pema (21).
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Brazil an
explosion, likely caused by a gas leak, ripped through a restaurant
in downtown Rio de Janeiro, killing at least three people and
injuring 13.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Ten Cameroonian
presidential candidates were reported to have filed requests with
the Supreme Court for the October 9 poll to be nullified over
alleged irregularities.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Equatorial
Guinea's President Teodoro Nguema Obiang signed a decree
nominating his playboy son, Teodoro Obiang Mangue, as his deputy
envoy to UNESCO in apparent retaliation for the UN body's refusal to
award a prize named in his honor. The news was made public on Oct
19. Teodorin's appointment was announced on the same day that Human
Rights Watch urged United States authorities to move quickly to
probe his alleged corruption and money-laundering.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 13, In France a high
school math teacher in the city of Beziers sprayed herself with a
flammable product and set herself alight in the school yard during
recreation. She was hospitalized with serious burns.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, German police
found bottles filled with a potentially explosive mix of liquid and
powder beside train tracks in southwestern Berlin, the 16th firebomb
discovered in four days.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Haitian President
Michel Martelly said he's determined to move forward with a
controversial plan to bring back the army to the Caribbean nation.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Indonesia a 6.0
earthquake jolted the island of Bali, injuring dozens of people and
causing panic as hundreds of tourists fled violently shaking
buildings.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Greenpeace UK
director John Sauven was blocked by immigration officials on arrival
at Jakarta international airport and was sent back that night to
Britain. He had arrived to campaign against deforestation.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Iraq 2 night
time explosions in Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood of eastern
Baghdad, killed 17 people and wounded around 50 others.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, Kazakhstan's Pres.
Nursultan Nazarbayev approved a bill tightening registration rules
for religious groups that has been described by critics as a blow to
freedom of belief in the ex-Soviet nation.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Libya new
regime fighters moved from house to house in Sirte, hunting for
weapons or suspected Kadhafi fighters and sometimes making off with
bags full of looted possessions and leaving trashed homes in their
wake. NTC commanders said the Kadhafi remnants were cornered within
about two square km (500 acres) of the city.
(AFP, 10/13/11)(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, In Nigeria
protesters marched to an army barracks to demand justice for the
death of the cell phone market chairman known as Umar Quality.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Pakistani and US
diplomats vowed to strengthen their troubled alliance two days after
Washington acknowledged for the first time that it is waging "war"
against militants in Pakistan. US drone strikes killed 10 militants,
including Janbaz Zadran, a commander in the Haqqani network that the
US military has linked to Pakistani intelligence.
(AFP, 10/13/11)(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 13, A Hamas official
said that close to 200 of the 450 Palestinians to be freed in the
first phase of a swap for a captured Israeli soldier will not be
allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank, Gaza or east
Jerusalem, suggesting a substantial number may face deportation.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, A Papua New Guinea
Dash 8 passenger plane carrying 32 people crashed near the coast.
Witness reports said only four people on board had survived.
(AFP, 10/13/11)(SFC, 10/14/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 13, Air traffic
between Senegal and Mauritania resumed after a three-month pause,
ending a row over onward flights.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Slovakia’s
Parliament approved an expanded EU fund in a repeat vote after the
opposition voted in favor in exchange for early elections.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 13, Somali Islamist
Shebab rebels kidnapped two female Spanish aid workers from Kenya's
Dadaab refugee camp, the third kidnapping of foreigners in just over
a month.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Sudan's President
Omar al-Bashir arrived in Malawi for a regional trade summit, in
defiance of the international war crimes warrant against him.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Syrian troops
clashed with armed men believed to be military defectors in a
southern village and a northwestern town, killing at least 13 people
in the latest sign that the 7-month-old uprising against President
Bashar Assad is becoming increasingly militarized.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Thailand issued a
flood warning for parts of Bangkok's northern outskirts after a dyke
burst, in a setback to efforts to protect the city of 12 million
people from the rising water. Unusually heavy monsoon rains have
killed at least 283 people.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Turkey's foreign
minister said that Iraq should move to prevent Kurdish attacks on
his country from Iraqi soil as the two countries renewed their
commitment to fight the rebels.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Uganda charged
three top ruling party officials, including recently resigned
foreign minister Sam Kutesa, with abuse of office on charges that
they allegedly misused funds meant for hosting the 2007 Commonwealth
summit.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Ukraine's Pres.
Viktor Yanukovych, facing harsh Western criticism, said that he
backs legal reforms that could allow the release of imprisoned
former PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 14, California’s top
prosecutor said 103 gang suspects have been arrested over the last 3
days under various charges as part of operation garlic press.
Charges included drug sales and possession of firearms and stolen
vehicles.
(SFC, 10/15/11, p.C1)
2011 Oct 14, Kansas City's
Catholic Bishop Robert Finn became the highest-ranking US Catholic
official indicted on a charge of failing to protect children after
he and his diocese waited five months to tell police about hundreds
of images of child pornography discovered on a priest's computer.
The indictment, handed down Oct. 6, was sealed because Finn was out
of the country.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up an explosives-packed car
while it was being inspected at a border police checkpoint that had
been set up because of a warning of an imminent attack. 3 officers
and one civilian were killed. NATO and Afghan forces killed 13
insurgents in an overnight operation targeting local Taliban
leaders. One police officer was killed in the operation. 3 NATO
service members were killed in separate attacks. Violence left at
least 30 dead across Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/14/11)(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, An Austrian court
found right-wing politician Gerhard Kurzmann not guilty of charges
of incitement for posting a video game called "Moschee Baba," that
required players to target and stop mosques, minarets and muezzins
as they appear on a screen.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Britain's defense
minister Liam Fox quit his post after days of allegations about the
influence-peddling of a close personal friend who joined key visits
overseas and posed as an unofficial aide. PM David Cameron appointed
Philip Hammond as the new defense minister.
(AP, 10/14/11)(Reuters, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, A British pilot
(29) and his passenger (40) died in the crash of their small plane
in Switzerland.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, A Chinese air
force JH-7 jet crashed at an air show outside the northern city of
Xi'an, leaving one of the pilots missing and presumed dead.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Cuban dissident
Laura Pollan (63) died. She had founded the opposition group Ladies
in White in 2003 following the arrest of her husband. For nearly a
decade the group staged weekly protest marches with other wives of
political prisoners to press for their release.
(AP, 10/14/11)(Econ, 10/29/11, p.110)
2011 Oct 14, In Germany
Greenpeace launched a new Rainbow Warrior. The $33 million schooner
replaces its battered 50-year-old boat, which saw numerous
encounters with whalers, seal hunters and illegal loggers. The first
Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French intelligence agents in a New
Zealand harbor in 1985 for opposing nuclear testing. The second
Rainbow Warrior was retired this year to become a hospital ship in
Bangladesh.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Heavy rains
generated by a low-pressure system hammered Central America for a
third day. Mudslides and swollen rivers have already killed 36
people. At least 21 people have been killed in Guatemala, 6 in
Honduras, and 4 in Nicaragua.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, In Honduras masked
gunmen opened fire on four luxury SUVs as they left the parking lot
the San Pedro Sula airport in the north, killing six men and
wounding another three. Authorities say Mexico's Sinaloa and Zetas
drug cartels operate cocaine-trafficking routes in northern and
eastern Honduras.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, In India Uttar
Pradesh chief minister Mayawati (55), a powerful politician known as
the "Dalit Queen," opened a huge memorial complex to herself and
other low-caste icons as opponents slammed her extravagance. The
vast sums Mayawati has spent on marble, granite and sandstone statue
parks, scattered around the poverty-hit state, has appalled critics.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Israel unveiled
plans to build 2,610 units on disputed Jerusalem land. The project
would nearly cut Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem from West Bank
communities.
(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 14, Japan's Olympus
Corp fired Michael Woodford (51), its CEO and president, blaming the
Briton in unusually blunt terms for trying to shake up 92 years of
the firm's management culture. The 30-year Olympus veteran only
became president in April and CEO this month with glowing reports on
his performance.
(Reuters, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Libya's new regime
forces launched an intensive assault on two areas of fallen
strongman Moamer Kadhafi's hometown of Sirte, bombarding his
diehards with artillery, mortars and rockets. At least four people
were killed and 46 wounded. Pro-Kadhafi gunmen took on fighters
loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) in Abu Salim, a
district around 10 km (six miles) south of Tripoli city center. 2
Kadhafi loyalists and one NTC fighter were killed while another 30
people were wounded.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Malawi agreed to
allow back into the country new Zambian President Michael Sata, who
had been deported four years ago while still head of the Zambian
opposition. Malawi also agreed to allow back Britain's ambassador,
who was expelled in April after criticizing President Bingu wa
Mutharika.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, In northeastern
Nigeria suspected members of the Boko Haram radical Muslim sect shot
and killed a policeman in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, In northwestern
Pakistan a US drone strike killed four militants, the third such
attack in 48 hours. The strike killed three Egyptians linked to the
Haqqani network, including one who played a key role in handling the
militant group's finances.
(AFP, 10/14/11)(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 14, Puerto Rico's
Corrections Department said it plans to dismiss 97 officers and
suspend more than 100 others who face charges of drug consumption,
contraband smuggling and unjustified absences.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Slovak President
Ivan Gasparovic said he will dismiss PM Iveta Radicova's coalition
government. It had lost a parliamentary confidence vote on Oct 11.
(AP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Somali lawmaker
Mohamed Ananug lost his legs in a bomb blast whilst driving a car in
southern Mogadishu.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Syrian forces
killed 11 people as they fired on rallies supporting army defectors
opposed to a crackdown that the UN said has killed more than 3,000
people. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
warned that the unrelenting crackdown by the government of President
Bashar Assad could worsen unless further action is taken.
(AP, 10/14/11)(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 14, Tunisian
extremists fire-bombed the home of a TV station chief, hours after
militants protesting its broadcast of a film they say violated
Islamic values clashed with police in the streets of Tunis.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, In Venezuela
activists reported that inmates at Tocuyito prison took more than 50
guards and other prison workers hostage. 25 were released on Oct 23.
15 more were released on Oct 24. Twelve remaining prison employees,
mostly women, were released on Oct 25 after authorities vowed to
transfer hundreds of prisoners to another facility.
(AP, 10/24/11)(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 14, An American drone
strike in southern Yemen killed 9 al-Qaida-linked militants,
including Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Banna, the media chief for the
group's Yemeni branch, and Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki (21), the son of a
prominent US-born cleric slain in a similar attack last month. On
Oct 31 Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula denied the death of its
media chief.
(AP, 10/15/11)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 14, Zambia's new
President Michael Sata vowed to beef up anti-corruption laws and to
investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the previous government, in
his first address to parliament.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 15, Thousands of
people led by the Rev. Al Sharpton rallied near the Washington
Monument, where speakers called for easier job access and decried
the gulf between rich and poor before the crowd marched to the new
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, In NYC thousands
of demonstrators protesting corporate greed filled Times Square,
mixing with gawkers, Broadway showgoers, tourists and police to
create a chaotic scene in the midst of Manhattan.
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Philadelphia
apartment landlord Turgut Gozleveli found 4 mentally disabled adults
held inside a basement boiler room. Police arrested 3 people for
kidnapping, false imprisonment and other charges. Linda Ann Weston
(51), Eddie Wright (50) and Gregory Thomas (47) were implicated in a
broad scheme to steal disability checks from vulnerable people.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 15, In eastern
Afghanistan militants tried to blast their way into an American
base, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a car
bomb. All four attackers were killed as well as two truck drivers
parked nearby. This was the first suicide attack of the war in the
province of Panjshir. In the west 5 Afghan soldiers were killed and
three others wounded in a Taliban ambush.
(AP, 10/15/11)(AFP, 10/17/11)(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 15, Around 800 people
rallied in London's financial heart amid a heavy police presence as
part of world protests against corporate greed and budget cutbacks.
Protesters began occupying the front of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
(AFP, 10/15/11)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.67)
2011 Oct 15, British actress
Betty Driver (91) died. The much-loved actress had starred for
42 years on "Coronation Street," Britain's longest-running
television soap opera.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, Flooding in
Cambodia was reported to have killed at least 247 people as China
began delivering the first of some $7.8 million in flood relief aid.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, China's top
Communist Party leaders opened a four-day meeting which will be
devoted to the country's "cultural development." Analysts said the
meeting is largely to strengthen the party's tight control over the
media and the Internet.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Egypt’s
transitional military rulers issued a decree prohibiting all forms
of discrimination including on the basis of religion.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 15, Egypt's Gamaa
Islamiya, or Islamic Group, posted on its website a notice mourning
the death in Afghanistan of Ahmed Abdel Rahman, the son of the
"Blind Sheik" now serving a life sentence in the US for his
involvement in a plot to blow up NYC landmarks.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Gabon's opposition
leader Pierre Mamboundou (65) died. He had finished third in the
2009 presidential polls.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Hong Kong some
500 people gathered in the heart of the financial district to
express their anger at the inequities and excesses of free-market
capitalism. Protesters across the Asia-Pacific region joined
worldwide demonstrations inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" and
"Indignants" movements. The movement was born on May 15 when a rally
in Madrid's central square of Puerta del Sol sparked a protest that
spread nationwide, then to other countries.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, In India the
former chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yeddyurappa, surrendered to
authorities in state capital Bangalore after a judge issued a
warrant for his arrest. He faced accusations of taking kickbacks in
exchange for illegally selling government land. The former chief
minister also faced accusations over an alleged $3.6-billion
iron-ore mining fraud.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Indian officials
said at least 430 people, mainly children, have died from an
outbreak of encephalitis in a deeply neglected region of the
northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Italy hooded
rioters in Rome hijacked a peaceful protest and smashed bank and
store windows, tore up sidewalks and torched vehicles. Damages were
estimated to be at least euro1 million ($1.4 million).
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, A group of
Liberian opposition parties said they are pulling out after a recent
presidential poll and threatened to refuse the results over
allegations that the electoral commission are skewing the outcome in
favor of the president.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, Malawi hosted six
heads of state at a meeting of the 19-member Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Mexico a
bloody, hours-long fight in a prison in the border city of Matamoros
left 20 inmates dead and 12 injured. Soldiers in the border city of
Piedras Negras freed 61 men, all migrants being held for ransom by
the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 10/16/11)(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Nigeria the
bodies of community leader Ahmadu Ali Kazaure and Babangida Ibrahim
Yusuf (23) were dropped off at a local mortuary in Jos. Soldiers had
picked up the men hours earlier over the machete killing of a
soldier.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 15, In northwest
Pakistan US missiles killed 6 suspected militants. The drone-fired
missiles targeted fighters of Maulvi Nazir, a Pakistani militant
commander.
(SSFC, 10/16/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 15, In Oman more than
1,300 candidates, including 77 women, sought seats on the 84-member
Shura Council, a decade-old body that has no direct authority but
advises the ruling sultan. Only a single woman was elected to the
nation's top advisory council despite a push by female candidates
that followed pro-reform unrest in the Arabian peninsula nation.
(AP, 10/15/11)(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, Russian opposition
activist Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front movement was
sent back to jail after visiting a hospital where he was denied
proper medical attention. Udaltsov was on the 3rd day of a
hunger strike and fell ill in a courtroom where he was appealing a
10-day jail sentence for disobeying police orders.
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, Somali government
troops and allied militia wrested control of an Islamist Shebab
stronghold in the south of the country after reported bombing by
military aircraft.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad announced the creation of an ad hoc committee tasked
with preparing a new constitution within four months. At least five
people were wounded in the central neighborhood of Midan during the
funeral of a teenager killed a day earlier. Activist Ziad al-Obeidi
was killed in Deir el-Zour.
(AFP, 10/15/11)(AP, 10/15/11)(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 15, Thailand PM
Yingluck in a radio address called current flooding "the worst in
Thai history." The government said the floods, which have killed 297
people, are the worst to hit the Southeast Asian kingdom in half a
century.
(AP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 15, In Yemen 17
people, at least five of them civilians, were killed in clashes that
erupted between Saleh loyalists, and pro-opposition tribesmen and
army units. Security forces in another part of Sanaa killed at least
12 protesters rallying to demand the removal of Saleh from office.
Gas exports from the Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden were
suspended after a rocket attack blew up a pipeline just to the
north.
(AFP, 10/15/11)(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Washington DC
thousands of people spanning all ages and races honored the legacy
of the nation's foremost civil rights leader during the formal
dedication of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, Elouise Cobell
(b.1945), treasurer of the Black Feet tribe, died in Montana. She
had tenaciously pursued a lawsuit that accused the federal
government of cheating American Indians out of more than a century’s
worth of royalties.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 16, In Nevada British
IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon (33) died after a horrific 15-car crash
at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway which left the motor sports world in
shock.
(Reuters, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, Houston-based
Kinder Morgan agreed to buy El Paso Corp. for $21.1 billion. This
will make Kinder the nation’s largest operator of natural gas
pipelines.
(SFC, 10/17/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 16, Afghan police shot
dead three suicide bombers attempting to target mayoral offices in
Gardez. A car bomb set up for the attack blew up, killing one
worker.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, Internationally
acclaimed Algerian author Boualem Sansal (62) received the annual
German Book Trade Peace Prize and said that people everywhere were
rising up against dictatorship.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, Angolan police
arrested at least five people during a protest in support of a
rapper critical of the government. Some 100 young people protested
the disappearance of 5,000 out of the 20,000 copies of Brigadeiro 10
Pacote's new album which were to be sold at a launch. The album
calls on President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who has been in power
since 1979, to step down.
(AFP, 10/17/11)(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, Bolivians voted
for 56 judgeships on the top 4 tribunals, including the supreme and
constitutional courts. Unofficial partial results indicated that
most Bolivians cast invalid ballots in what would be a stinging
rebuke for President Evo Morales. Only 40.5% of the judicial votes
were valid; 41% were spoiled and 18.5% were blank.
(AP, 10/17/11)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.31)
2011 Oct 16, The Arab League
called an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss whether to suspend
Syria. The Arab League said that it would make contact with the
Damascus government and a raft of opposition groups with the aim of
launching "national dialogue within the seat of the Arab League and
under its guidance within 15 days." Security forces opened fire on a
funeral for a slain activist in the east. Security forces arrested
at least 44 people in the capital's suburbs in house-to-house raids.
The Observatory for Human Rights in Syria said 923 people from Homs
have been arrested in the past week.
(AP, 10/16/11)(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, Several hundred
protesters spent the night overnight outside St Paul's Cathedral in
London's financial district, as the anti-capitalism demonstration
entered its second day.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In France Francois
Hollande was elected head of the Socialist Party by a margin of 58%
to 43% over Martine Aubry.
(Econ, 10/22/11, p.61)
2011 Oct 16, Guinea’s
government announced an increase in the price of diesel and petrol
from 7,500 to 9,500 francs ($1.37) per liter, double the price from
10 months ago. An overwhelming majority of the Guinean population
lives in poverty despite the country's rich mineral wealth from
bauxite, iron and gold.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, Hong Kong's iconic
1.8km cross-harbor swimming race made its return after a 33-year
suspension forced by pollution and heavy traffic on the famous
waterway. The tradition dating back to 1906 was halted in 1978 as
water quality deteriorated.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Iraq hundreds
rallied in the disputed town of Khanaqin to demand the reversal of a
central government ruling barring the flag of the autonomous Kurdish
region in official buildings.
(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, Israel released
the names of the first 477 Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for
Staff Sgt. Gilad Schalit.
(SFC, 10/17/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 16, Kenyan military
forces moved into southern Somalia, a day after top Kenyan defense
officials said the country has the right to defend itself after a
rash of militant kidnappings of Europeans inside Kenya.
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, Kenya police
arrested two British men (18), one of Pakistani origin and the other
of Somali origin, in the resort town of Lamu on suspicion of trying
to join Somali militants. Police said the men would be deported.
Mohamed Mohamed Abdallah, of Somali descent, and Iqbal Shahzad, of
Pakistani descent were deported to Britain on Oct 26. British
authorities arrested them under terrorism laws and then freed them
six hours later.
(AP, 10/18/11)(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 16, Libyan fighters
were reported looting Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, alongside
fierce battles to drive out loyalists of the fugitive leader. Two
fighters were killed and 70 wounded in fierce fighting.
(AP, 10/16/11)(AFP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, Scientists at the
Vietnam-based Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Program and the Oxford
University Clinical Research units in Kathmandu and Ho Chi Minh City
announced they had combined cutting-edge gene sequencing technology
with Google Earth to accurately map the spread of typhoid in
Kathmandu for the first time.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Nigeria four
people died after a blast rocked a police base in the town of Kwami
just north of the state capital of Gombe. 3 suspected Boko Haram
members entered the Maiduguri home of Borno state Rep. Modu Bintube
and shot him in the chest and head with Kalashnikovs.
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In the Philippines
Emmanuel Ponce (55), shot his wife, three of his children and their
maid with a pistol while having breakfast in Talisay town, Cebu
province, and then killed himself. He spared his favorite daughter
(14).
(AP, 10/16/11)
2011 Oct 16, In Yemen 4
demonstrators and two soldiers of the armored division were killed
in Sanaa. One protester was killed in Taez when government troops
opened fire on demonstrators also calling for Saleh's resignation. 8
more people were killed and 27 wounded in night time street battles
in Sanaa between Saleh loyalists and opponents.
(AFP, 10/16/11)(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, Lowe's Cos Inc, a
home improvement retailer, said it is closing 20 of its US
locations, eliminating nearly 2,000 jobs and slashing store-openings
to improve profitability.
(Reuters, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In northern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a car carrying Sayed Ahmad
Sadat the chief of National Directorate of Security (NDS) for Faryab
province, wounding six intelligence officials and killing a child.
Sadat died of his injuries on Oct 26.
(AFP, 10/17/11)(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 17, Austrian officials
said an investigation will be launched into claims by 2 women that
they and 18 other girls at the Schloss Wilhelminenberg foster home,
run by the city of Vienna, were raped in the 1970s. The sisters, now
47 and 49, alleged the abuse began when they were 6 and 8, and ended
in their early teens. 343 former foster children who were wards of
the city have turned to Weisser Ring, non-governmental victims'
organization, with reports of being abused at the Schloss
Wilhelminenberg alone since investigations began last year.
(AP, 10/17/11)(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, British security
group G4S agreed to buy Denmark-based facilities company ISS for
£5.2 billion, creating the world's largest security and
facilities firm.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Canadian
scientists announced that a contagious and lethal fish virus has
been detected for the first time in wild Pacific salmon. The
European strain of the virus had only been identified before in
farm-raised Atlantic salmon.
(Reuters, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 17, In the Central
African Republic 2 rebel groups, that signed a cease fire on Oct 8,
said they had left the central town of Bria. One of them asked for
humanitarian aid for civilians.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, Chile said it is
giving nearly 57,000 18-year-olds one month to report for potential
military duty. The government said it needs to fill gaps in its
armed forces because a nationwide student protest movement has
reduced the number of volunteers it usually gets. Attending a
university does not enable young Chileans to avoid the draft.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, In western China
Tenzin Wangmo (20), a Tibetan nun, committed self-immolation in a
call for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. She was
the 9th Tibetan to commit self-immolation and the first women to
kill herself in this way.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 17, A senior Egyptian
Justice Ministry official said that the two sons of ousted President
Hosni Mubarak have an estimated $340 million in Swiss bank accounts.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In Greece strikes
halted ferries to the local islands and trash continued to pile in
Athens for a 16th straight day as unions fought against austerity
measures.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 17, In Italy Rev. Roy
Bourgeois, a US Catholic priest who supports ordination for women,
was detained by police after marching to the Vatican to press the
Holy See to lift its ban on women priests.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In Jordan PM
Marouf al-Bakhit (64) resigned after a majority of 70 out of 120
parliamentarians called for his ouster. Jordan's King Abdullah II
designated Awn al-Khasawneh (61), a well known international judge,
as the new prime minister.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, The offices of a
Liberian radio station were set ablaze, in the wake of an arson
attack on the ruling party headquarters and opposition discontent
over poll results.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Libyan fighters
raised the new government's flag over the desert oasis of Bani Walid
and hailed an exodus of regime families from the only other redoubt
of Moamer Kadhafi's forces, his hometown Sirte. For a 2nd straight
day NATO announced no hits in its air war.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Pakistani
paramilitary forces raided a militant hideout in the rugged Khyber
tribal region near the Afghan border, sparking fighting that killed
9 soldiers and 10 insurgents.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, In the Philippines
Rev. Fausto Tentorio (59), an Italian Catholic priest who was about
to travel to a clergy meeting, was shot dead in his southern parish.
He was the third Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions
missionary to be killed on southern Mindanao Island.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Somalia's
al-Shabab militant group threatened Kenya with suicide attacks,
saying Nairobi's skyscrapers would be destroyed and its tourism
industry ruined in an ominous warning one day after Kenyan troops
poured into Somalia.
(AP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Swaziland's King
Mswati III announced a major cabinet reshuffle in a move his critics
say is aimed at punishing those who do not toe the line. Amongst
those fired was Justice Minister David Matse who refused to fire an
independently minded High Court judge, Thomas Masuku, earlier this
month.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 17, Five Syrian
soldiers were killed during clashes with gunmen suspected to be army
defectors in the flashpoint central province of Homs. 2 civilians
were also killed. UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar
al-Assad to immediately stop the killings of civilians.
(AFP, 10/17/11)
2011 Oct 17, Uganda police
fired tear gas at protesters in Kampala demonstrating against high
food prices and corruption.
(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 17, In Yemen one
protester was killed and seven wounded when Saleh loyalists opened
fire on a demonstration in Taez. A family of five were killed when a
rocket hit their home in north Sanaa. At least 18 people were killed
on Sanaa in fighting between troops loyal to Pres. Saleh and rival
forces.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(SFC, 10/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 18, The Obama
administration on increased US support for Libya's new leaders as
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made an unannounced visit
to Tripoli and pledged millions of dollars in new aid. About 1,000
revolutionary troops launched a major assault on Gadhafi's hometown
of Sirte.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, It was reported
that US Social Security recipients will get a raise in January,
their first increase in benefits since 2009. It's expected to be
about 3.5 percent.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, The cash-strapped
U.S. Postal Service announced a one-cent increase in the cost of
mailing a letter, starting in January.
(Reuters, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Kexue Huang (46),
a China-born Canadian scientist, pleaded guilty in Indianapolis US
District Court to economic espionage and theft for sending trade
secrets on a pesticide and a new food product to China and Germany.
(SFC, 10/19/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 18, In Ohio sheriff's
deputies shot 48 animals, including 18 rare Bengal tigers and 17
lions, after Terry Thompson, owner of the private Muskingum County
Animal Farm near Zanesville, threw their cages open and then
committed suicide.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 18, The search for the
world's first malaria vaccine received a boost with the release of
early results from a major clinical trial showing it cut risk by
about half in African children. The vaccine, known as RTS,S, is made
by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline's lab in
Belgium. It is the first of its kind to attempt to block a parasite,
rather than bacteria or viruses.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 18, Angola’s Pres.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power for 32 years, denied
his country was a dictatorship, but admitted there was a need for
more social dialogue after a series of unprecedented anti-government
protests.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, In Botswana 3
French, 3 Swiss and 2 Britons were killed when their Moremi Moremi
Air Charters Cessna 208 crashed shortly after take-off from the
island of Pom Pom in the Okavango delta in the northern tourist
area. 4 passengers survived the crash.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, British writer
Julian Barnes (65) won the Booker Prize for fiction for his novel
“The Sense of an Ending.”
(SFC, 10/19/11, p.E4)
2011 Oct 18, Chilean students
erected fiery blockades in major streets of the capital and clashed
with police on the first day of a two-day national strike to demand
that the government reform the education system.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, China’s ruling
Communist Party, at the close of a four-day annual policy meeting,
approved a program to enhance its popularity at home and image
abroad at a time when the leadership is struggling with domestic
unrest and a delicate succession.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Congolese police
fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters demanding free
elections as a US think-tank said Kinshasa must take action to
ensure the upcoming vote is credible.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 18, An Egyptian court
ordered blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad, who is serving a three-year
sentence for insulting the armed forces, confined to a psychiatric
clinic for 45 days after he began a hunger strike.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 18, The EU’s top court
ruled that scientists cannot patent stem cell techniques that use
human embryos for research.
(SFC, 10/19/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 18, In Haiti Dr. Paul
Farmer said the local cholera outbreak is now the worst in the world
with over 6,000 people killed and over 450,000 people sickened.
(SFC, 10/19/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 18, Israeli soldier
Gilad Schalit emerged from more than five years in Hamas captivity,
surrounded by Hamas militants with black face masks and green
headbands who handed him over to Egyptian mediators in an exchange
for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, A Milan court
refused to indict Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in a tax fraud
case involving his Mediaset media company. The court, however,
indicted Berlusconi's eldest son, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, Mediaset
chairman Fedele Confalonieri and nine other defendants.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Jamaica’s PM Bruce
Golding (63) announced that Andrew Holness (39), the youthful
education minister, has received the unanimous endorsement of ruling
party lawmakers to become the Caribbean island's next leader.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Japan's PM
Yoshihiko Noda started a visit to South Korea aimed at smoothing
prickly relations, bringing with him a set of historic books seized
by his country decades ago.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Kuwait’s foreign
minister resigned amid allegations of high-level corruption.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Liberian
ex-warlord Prince Johnson, who came third in the presidential polls,
announced he would back Nobel peace laureate and incumbent president
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in a run-off election.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Madagascar's
coup-appointed premier, Brig. Gen. Albert Camille Vitalis, presented
a letter of resignation, along with his government, to open the way
for a new premier to be chosen by consensus to lead a transitional
government that will end the Indian Ocean island's two-year
political crisis.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, In Mexico Veracruz
police chief Arturo Bermudez said 980 state agents have been
dismissed in the past couple of weeks after failing lie detector and
other tests. Christian Arturo Hernandez Tarin, the leader a gang
known as "the street sweeper," was detained in the central state of
Mexico. His gang has been fighting against the local Independent
Cartel of Acapulco for control of the coast city since the 2010
arrest of suspected Texas-born drug capo Edgar Valdez Villareal,
known as "La Barbie."
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Nigeria's military
said it had arrested 50 suspected oil thieves in the past three
months and destroyed some 2,000 illicit refineries this year in the
oil-producing Niger Delta region.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, A Nigerian tribal
king filed a lawsuit in a US court in Detroit, Michigan, seeking $1
billion from Royal Dutch Shell to compensate for decades of
pollution that sickened his people and damaged their lands. The suit
was brought on behalf of the people of Ogale in the Eleme local
government area, where the UN team found the most serious
groundwater contamination and people drinking water laced with
cancer-causing benzene at 900 times World Health Organization
guidelines.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 18, In the Philippines
19 soldiers were killed 13 wounded and 3 left missing in a clash on
Basilan island with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the
country's largest Muslim guerrilla group.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 18, Romania's
anti-discrimination council voted 5-2 to caution President Traian
Basescu for making discriminatory remarks about Gypsies and disabled
people.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, In Somalia a
suicide car bomb exploded near the Foreign Ministry, killing at
least four people even as Somali and Kenyan leaders met and agreed
to cooperate on military action against Islamist insurgents. Kenyan
operations were limited to the Lower Juba region.
(AP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 18, A Swedish court
convicted 23 women and one man of child pornography offenses in what
investigators called a unique case because of the number of female
perpetrators.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 18, Syrian army
cross-border raids into east Lebanon left 3 dead, including 2 in Qaa
and one in Aarsal. The Lebanese government, dominated by the
powerful militant group Hezbollah, a strong ally of the Syrian
regime, has for the most part stayed mum on the issue.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 18, Turkey shelled
northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, in the first report of
Turkish bombardment there in more than two weeks. The shelling began
the previous evening. A roadside blast killed five policemen and 3
civilians in Turkey's southeast Bitlis province.
(AFP, 10/18/11)(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 18, In Yemen 12
protesters were killed and over 70 wounded as gunmen loyal to
President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on demonstrators in the
Yemeni capital.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 19, The Obama
administration said it has agreed to delay a $53 million arms sale
to Bahrain because of the kingdom’s continuing crackdown on the
opposition.
(SFC, 10/20/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 19, US Marine Gen.
John Allen, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, said the
international coalition has unleashed a new offensive against the
Haqqani group, one of the country's most lethal militant networks,
and will ramp up operations next year along the Pakistan border to
better secure the Afghan capital before the US drawdown gathers
steam.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, The US
Export-Import Bank signed a deal with Nigeria aimed at providing
$1.5 billion in financing for investments in the country's woefully
inadequate electricity sector.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, In Afghanistan
ousted lawmaker Simeen Barakzai ended her hunger strike after 18
days and a direct appeal by Subghatullah Mujaddedi, a revered elder
who also served as the head of the upper house of parliament and
briefly as president in 1992. A roadside bomb killed two NATO
service members in the east. 5 Afghan soldiers and an officer were
killed by a roadside bomb in Herat province. The first 200 French
soldiers left Afghanistan, kickstarting troop withdrawals announced
three months ago by Paris.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Brazil’s most
wanted druglord, Alexander Mendes da Silva, was arrested in the
Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Britain’s
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said an energy act,
which aims to boost energy efficiency in residential homes, is now
law.
(Reuters, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, British police in
riot gear used sledgehammers and crowbars to clear the way for the
eviction of Irish Travelers from the Dale Farm site, in fields 30
miles (50 km) east of London, where they have lived illegally for a
decade. There are estimated to be between 15,000 and 30,000 Irish
Travelers in Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic
minority.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, In Canada Jean
Charest, the Liberal premier of Quebec, said he had asked superior
court judge France Charbonneau to probe financial ties between
construction firms and political parties dating back 15 years.
(Econ, 10/29/11, p.46)
2011 Oct 19, Violence again hit
Chile's capital as small groups of hooded youths clashed with police
and marred an otherwise peaceful march by as many as 100,000
students demanding changes in public education.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Reports from China
said many of the 6 million migrant workers employed in a massive
railway buildup have not been paid for months, with some 10,000
kilometers (6,200 miles) of projects halted due to a lack of money.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, The German
Aerospace Center said its retired ROSAT satellite, the size of a
minivan, is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces of it could
crash into the Earth as early as Oct 21. The 2.69-ton (2.4 metric
ton) satellite was launched in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being
used for research on black holes and neutron stars and performing
the first all-sky survey of X-ray sources with an imaging telescope.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, In Greece new
austerity measures won initial parliamentary approval as hundreds of
youths smashed and looted stores in central Athens during a massive
anti-government rally on the first day of a 48-hour strike against
the austerity bill.
(SFC, 10/20/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 19, In Indonesia at
least three people were killed and more than 90 injured during a
pro-independence celebration in the Papuan capital Jayapura. Local
TV footage showed paramilitary police shooting into the crowd and
beating participants with batons and bare fists.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2011 Oct 19, Iran’s
governmental newspaper reported that the government has sentenced
reformist journalist Abdolreza Tajik to six year in prison after he
was convicted of propaganda against the regime.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, Kenyan jets struck
in Somalia in a bid to rid the border area of Islamist rebels blamed
for a spate of abductions, including that of a French woman who died
in captivity. The foreign ministry in Paris announced the death of
Marie Dedieu (66), a wheelchair-bound woman who was snatched from
her beach house in the Kenyan resort of Lamu earlier this month and
taken to Somalia by her kidnappers. The first attack reportedly saw
the death of 73 Shebab. Kenyan deaths included five killed in a
helicopter crash.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Kosovo Serb
leaders, defying a NATO warning, refused to unconditionally lift
their roadblocks in the north of the country. A day earlier the
5,500-strong NATO-led force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, said it will
take unspecified "resolute" action if the Serbs fail to lift the
blockade.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Liberia’s
ex-warlord Prince Johnson, who came third in presidential polls,
demanded 30 percent of Liberia's government from incumbent Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf in exchange for his valuable support. Johnson
reiterated concerns that a win by the Congress for Democratic
Change's Tubman would lead to the implementation of a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission report, which could see him tried for war
crimes.
(AFP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Libyan
revolutionary forces fought building by building against the final
pocket of resistance in Sirte, the last major city in Libya to have
been under the control of forces loyal to the fugitive leader. 15
fighters were reported killed in a friendly fire incident.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, In northeastern
Nigeria suspected Boko Haram sect members killed four people in
three separate attacks in Maiduguri.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, Oman published
royal decrees that widen the powers of an 84-seat council that
previously had only an advisory role. The members of the Shura
Council can now take part in proposing laws to Oman's ruler and can
also suggest changes in government regulations.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, The Philippine
navy apologized to China for accidentally ramming one of its fishing
boats a day earlier near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South
China Sea.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Romania's
government approved a draft law that permits the building of an
anti-ballistic interceptor site in the country as part of a US
missile shield.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Syrian security
forces and pro-government gunmen killed at least 10 people in the
rebellious province of Homs. Tens of thousands of Syrians
demonstrated in Aleppo, a huge show of support for the country's
embattled president.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, The UN called on
Damascus to end its incursions into Lebanon, which have left three
Syrians dead in recent weeks, warning the raids could ignite
tensions in the region.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 19, Thailand's new
premier acknowledged that the country's flood crisis has overwhelmed
her government, and she pleaded for mercy from the media and
solidarity from the country in battling the relentless waters. The
death toll in nationwide flooding reached 317, mostly from drowning,
with nearly 9 million people affected and 27 of the country's 77
provinces still inundated. Bangkok's city government urged residents
in seven northern districts of the city to move belongings to safe
spots, but did not yet call for an evacuation.
(AP, 10/19/11)
2011 Oct 19, Turkish soldiers,
air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into
northern Iraq, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and
wounded 18 in attacks along the border. The United States and NATO
both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more
than three years.
(AP, 10/19/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, Two small
earthquakes hit the San Francisco area, jolting residents on the
same day many Californians took part in an annual earthquake
preparedness drill. A 3.8 evening quake came nearly six hours after
a magnitude 4.0 earthquake hit in the same area.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Pennsylvania Gov.
Tom Corbett signed a state law giving him unprecedented power to
force Harrisburg to pay off its staggering debt on a $300 million
trash incinerator.
(SFC, 10/21/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 20, The Economist
Magazine presented its annual Innovation awards. Winners included:
Robert Langer of MIT for work on controlled-release drug deliver and
tissue engineering; Devi Shetty of India for reducing hospital
health care costs; Paul Bucheit in the US for creating Gmail and
AdSense; Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Greg Zehr of Lab 126 for creating
the Kindle e-book reader; Chetan Maini of Mahindra Reva Electric
Vehicles for building affordable electric cars; Jessica
Jackley and matt Flannery, co-founders of Kiva, for pioneering
web-based, per-to-peer microlending; Marc Koska of SafePoint Trust,
for inventing the K1 auto-disposable syringe; and Amazon.com for
corporate use of innovation.
(Econ, 12/3/11, TQ p.11)
2011 Oct 20, Albanian port
authorities said 3 sailors died and five others are missing after
their Turkish merchant ship, Reina 1, collided with a passenger
ferry and sank in the Adriatic some 20 miles (30 km) from the
Albanian port of Durres. No injuries were reported on the ferry
Ankara, which had left Durres en route for the Italian port of Bari
with about 200 passengers.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, A Brazilian jury
convicted three doctors of killing four patients by removing their
organs, which prosecutors said were used for transplants at an
expensive private clinic. The case took 25 years for a verdict to be
handed down. Doctors Rui Sacramento, Pedro Torrecillas and Mariano
Fiore Junior were sentenced to 17 years and six months each in
prison.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, In London UBS
trader Kweku Adoboli (31), who is accused of unauthorized trading
which the Swiss bank says has cost it some $2.3 billion, was
remanded in custody to appear for a plea and case management hearing
next month.
(Reuters, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Cameroon's Supreme
Court rejected an opposition bid to annul this month's presidential
election, paving the way for the results to be published.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Chilean students
and other protesters interrupted a Senate committee meeting to
demand a referendum on how to resolve Chile's social problems,
especially education. The protesters then occupied the Senate
headquarters and transmitted the situation live over the Internet by
webcam.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, China said that it
will allow four of its most developed cities and provinces to issue
bonds on a trial basis, giving cash-strapped local governments a
much-needed funding boost.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Heavy rains
generated by a low-pressure system hammered Central America for 10
days. Mudslides and swollen rivers killed at least 105 people
including 38 in Guatemala, 34 in El Salvador, 15 in Honduras, 13 in
Nicaragua and 5 in Costa Rica.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, France said that
the Somali kidnappers of Marie Dedieu (66), a disabled Frenchwoman
who died after being snatched from her home in Kenya, are demanding
a ransom for the return of her body.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, The Honduras
Supreme Court voted 12-3 to reject abuse of authority charges
against now-retired Gens. Romeo Vasquez, Luis Prince, Venancio
Cervantes, Miguel Garcia, Juan Pablo Rodriguez and Carlos Cuellar.
They had been accused of toppling former president Manuel Zelaya and
flying him to Costa Rica in 2009.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Iran reported that
13 divers, part of a team installing an underwater oil pipeline,
were inside a pressurized diving chamber when their Koosha-1 ship
sank in the Persian Gulf in stormy seas. The 7 Indians, 5 Iranians
and one Ukrainian had about 72 hours of oxygen. 8 of the 13 divers
were reported dead on Oct 23.
(AP, 10/22/11)(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 20, Italian energy
giant ENI announced a giant natural gas discovery off the coast of
Mozambique, which could be the largest in company's history.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Kenya said it
intends to push its troops to Somalia's insurgent stronghold of
Kismayo and will stay until there are no Islamist insurgents left.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Kenyan police
arrested Imam Hassan Mahat Omar, a Muslim cleric on a UN sanctions
list, over his alleged support of an al-Qaida-linked militant group
in neighboring Somalia. 9 other people were arrested including 2
doctors who ran a clinic in the predominantly Somali neighborhood of
Eastleigh.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, Kosovo's NATO-led
peacekeepers confronted crowds of angry Serbs as they tried to
remove Serb roadblocks in the volatile north of the country.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Libya’s National
Transition Council said that its fighters found and shot dictator
Moammar Gadhafi (69). Sirte finally fell to the rebels today after
weeks of tough fighting. NATO war planes struck a convoy of
armed vehicles in the vicinity of Sirte. Gadhafi was in the convoy.
Gadhafi was shot in the head after being captured at a sewage
culvert on the outskirts of Sirte. The NATO strikes marked the
culmination of a NATO-led air war mandated by the UN to protect
civilians from Gadhafi's forces.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, Mauritania's army
conducted an air raid to prevent a planned attack by al-Qaida-linked
insurgents in a forest just across the border in Mali, where the
group has a cell. Ali Ould Sidi Tiyib, a leader for al-Qaida in the
Islamic Maghreb, was later reported killed in the raid. He was
wanted for his role in an attack against the Israeli Embassy in
Mauritania in 2008.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 20, Mexican President
Felipe Calderon accused the United States of dumping criminals at
the border because it is cheaper than prosecuting them, and said the
practice has fueled violence in Mexico's border areas.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, The World Bank
said it would lend Nepal up to $400 million to help the impoverished
nation move towards peace and stability, five years after the end of
its civil war.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Nigeria's military
arrested 46 suspects and seized a vessel laden with stolen refined
petroleum products in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 20, A United Nations
envoy said North Korea is estimated to hold up to 200,000 people in
political prisons, a sharp increase from a decade ago. South Korea
estimates that North Korea holds 154,000 political prisoners in six
large camps across the country.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, In Pakistan 4
soldiers and 5 militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Khyber
tribal district along the Afghan border. In the evening militants
attacked a group of paramilitary soldiers conducting a search
operation in the Khyber tribal area, sparking fighting that killed
three soldiers and 34 militants.
(AFP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, A Senegal court
sentenced an opposition activist to two years in prison for issuing
death threats against the judge who heads the country's
Constitutional Council. Malick Seck had attempted to deliver a
letter to the home of the chief justice denouncing the council's
silence over President Abdoulaye Wade's decision to run for a
controversial third term and saying the judge will pay the price.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Singapore’s PM Lee
Hsien Loong vowed a "more open" style of government following two
elections this year that showed citizens wanting a greater voice in
government.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, In Somalia
pro-government forces supported by foreign troops chased al-Shabab
out of Mogadishu’s northernmost neighborhood, Deynile, in a dawn
offensive. Al-Qaida-linked militants claimed to have killed 70
foreign African Union peacekeepers but an eyewitness said many of
the bodies put on display were likely Somali government soldiers. An
AU spokesman the next day said that the insurgents had stolen
uniforms and dressed up scores of their own dead. The AU said 10
soldiers were killed, including 6 from Burundi, with two missing
after intense fighting with insurgents. A week later it was reported
that 51 Burundian soldiers were killed in the clash.
(AP, 10/20/11)(AP, 10/21/11)(AFP, 10/22/11)(AP,
10/28/11)
2011 Oct 20, South Africa's
President Jacob Zuma was at the centre of a row over the millions
spent on the renovation of South Africa's government and
presidential buildings. A day later backtracked on a slammed lavish
upgrade of President Jacob Zuma's official residence, saying the
wrong details were supplied to parliament.
(AFP, 10/20/11)(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, ETA announced it
was ceasing its 43-year-long bloody campaign for an independent
Basque state in territory straddling northern Spain and southwest
France. But the group stopped short of declaring defeat and called
on Spain and France to open talks on the conflict.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 20, About 10,000 elite
Turkish soldiers took part in a ground offensive against Kurdish
rebels in southeastern Turkey and across the border in Iraq, making
it the nation's largest attack on the insurgents in more than three
years.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Tunisians
expatriates began casting their ballots ahead the weekend
legislative elections, the country's first free elections.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said he is free of cancer after a series of
chemotherapy treatments in Cuba.
(AP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 20, Zambia, Africa's
biggest copper producer, said it has suspended the renewal and issue
of new mining licenses and would undertake an audit of the sector.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Oct 21, Pres. Obama signed
free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
(Econ, 11/12/11,
p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/78rfnuz)
2011 Oct 21, US political
operative John Haggerty (42) was convicted of cheating NYC Mayor
Michael Bloomberg out of some $750,000 of dollars. On Dec 19
Haggerty was sentenced to 1.3 to 4 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A6)(SFC, 12/19/11, p.A8)
2011 Oct 21, Leo Earl
Sharp (87) of Indiana was arrested on drug charges near Ann
Arbor after police found 228 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated
$2.9 million in his pickup following a routine traffic stop. On Oct
24 a US Magistrate in Detroit released Sharp on $10,000 bond and
scheduled a next hearing in the case for November.
(Reuters, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 21, Missouri Gov. Jay
Nixon signed legislation that repealed a law, enacted earlier this
year, that had limited online discussions between teachers and
students 18 or younger.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 21, In western Oregon
Christopher Ochoa (20), a California member of the US Marine Corps
Reserves, was shot and killed after a hunter mistook him for a bear.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 21, Hertz said it is
firing 25 Somali Muslim drivers at Seattle-Tacoma International
Airport who have refused to agree to clock out for daily breaks
during which they normally pray. 9 of 34 drivers have signed the
agreement and returned to their jobs.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, Bolivia’s Pres.
Evo Morales said he is abandoning plans to build a highway through a
lowlands indigenous reserve after clamor of opposition.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 21, George Daniels
(85), English master watchmaker, died.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.106)
2011 Oct 21, In Chile dozens of
protesting students voluntarily left the Senate headquarters they
had seized to demand a popular referendum on how to resolve Chile's
social problems, especially education.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In China Wang Yue,
a 2-year-old girl who was twice run over by vans and then ignored by
passers-by on a busy market street on Oct 13, died today, one week
after the accident and after days of bitter soul-searching over
declining morality in the country. Police soon arrested two drivers
suspected of running over a toddler. Hu Jun (24) was charged with
causing the wrongful death of the girl.
(AP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/23/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 21, In southwest
Colombia 10 soldiers were reported killed and six wounded in an
overnight attack, the deadliest guerrilla attack on security forces
in more than a year.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, Finance ministers
from 17 eurozone countries agreed to pay Greece $11 billion in its
next batch of bailout loans, avoiding a potentially disastrous
default.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 21, Haitian
authorities closed the Son of God orphanage where the director was
accused by US missionaries of not feeding children and selling
donated goods.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In India the
latest in a series of strikes at top car maker Maruti Suzuki came to
an end, at a cost of $400 million in lost production and major
damage to the group's reputation.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Indonesia
gunmen shot dead three people at a strike-hit gold and copper mine
in the eastern Papua region, raising the number of killings this
month to eight at the troubled Grasberg mine, operated by Freeport
McMoRan. The strikers, mostly indigenous Melanesians, say they are
the lowest paid Freeport workers in the world, earning between $1.50
and $3.50 an hour.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Italy renowned
international law expert Antonio Cassese (b.1937) , died after a
long battle with cancer. He had served as first president of the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and later as president of the Special
Tribunal for Lebanon.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 21, A Lithuanian judge
found Michael Campbell (39), an Irish man, guilty of trying to buy
weapons and explosives in a six-year sting orchestrated by Britain's
domestic spy agency MI5, a case that drew attention to a hardcore
Irish Republican Army splinter group's plans to spread terror to
London. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for weapons offenses
and supporting a terrorist group.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Mexico a
helicopter carrying Mexico state Metropolitan Development Secretary
Fernando Garcia and his assistant crashed against a wall and on top
of some cars in the Coyoacan borough. A secretary and co-pilot were
killed.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, A Mexican
tractor-trailer crossed into the US for the first time under the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed in 1994.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 21, NATO announced
plans to end its 7-month mission in Libya on October 31 but will
issue a formal decision next week after consulting the UN and
Libya's interim authorities.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 21, Niger said the end
of the Libyan conflict would allow it to lift restrictions on senior
Kadhafi loyalists who sought refuge there, except for deceased
leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Saadi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, Nigerian
ex-militant leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, head of the Niger Delta
Peoples Volunteer Force, called Moamer Kadhafi a "martyr" and vowed
that his killing would be avenged. Asari claims to have lived in
Libya and to have had links with Kadhafi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In the southern
Philippines 3 South Korean businessmen went missing. Officials later
said they were abducted by unidentified men who lured them with a
fake mining investment project. Police launched a search for Wu
Seok-bung, Kim Nam-du, Choi In-soo and at least one Filipino guide
after they failed to return to their hotel in Cagayan de Oro city.
Choi In-soo escaped on Nov 25. Wu Seok-bung and Kim Nam-du were
abandoned on Nov 26 as troops moved in. The guide was killed during
captivity.
(AP, 11/7/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Oct 21, Russia's
parliament adopted a law limiting abortions but rejected even
tougher restrictions backed by the country's conservative Orthodox
Church. The country's birth rate has become a serious concern for
Russia as it fights to stem a steep population decline.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, South Africa's
ruling party's young wing saluted Libya's slain former leader Moamer
Kadhafi calling him an "anti-imperialist martyr" and a fighter
against the recolonization of the African continent.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, Syrian protesters
poured into the streets and shouted that President Bashar Assad's
regime will be the next to unravel now that ousted Libyan dictator
Moammar Gadhafi is dead. Syrian forces fired on protesters Friday,
killing up to 14 people.
(AP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, In Thailand
millions of nervous Bangkok residents were warned to move their
belongings to safety as the kingdom's worst floods in decades poured
into the outskirts of the sprawling city.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct 21, A 7.6 earthquake
struck off the coast of Tonga, but there were not immediate reports
of damage or injuries.
(SFC, 10/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 21, Turkish jets kept
up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight,
as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq.
Turkey and Iran vowed to collaborate against the PKK and its Iranian
wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan, or PJAK, during a visit
by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
(AFP, 10/21/11)(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 21, The UN Security
council unanimously passed a resolution that "strongly" condemns the
deadly Yemen government attacks on demonstrators and backs a Gulf
plan for Pres. Saleh to end his 33 years in power.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, In San Leandro,
Ca., motorcyclist George Lopez (51) was run over and killed by the
driver of a paratransit van. Eddie Hall (31) was soon charged with
intentionally hit Lopez, who was riding with a group of Hells
Angels.
(SFC, 10/25/11, p.C3)(SFC, 10/27/11, p.C3)
2011 Oct 22, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, in an aired interview with private Pakistani
television station GEO, said that if the United States and Pakistan
ever went to war, his country would back Islamabad.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 22, Off southwest
Australia a great white shark killed an American recreational diver
in a third fatality in recent weeks.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Anti-capitalist
protesters set up a second camp in London, as they marked one week
of demonstrations outside St Paul's Cathedral, which forced the
300-year-old monument to close a day earlier.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 22, In northeast
Colombia 10 government soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on
leftist rebels, the second such loss in less than three days.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 22, Egypt's judicial
union called on judges to refrain from showing up to court until
they receive protection from authorities after what they say are
assaults by lawyers. The call came amid increasing tension between
judges and lawyers over a bill written by the Judges Club that would
toughen penalties on lawyers in cases of contempt of court.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Egypt’s MENA state
news agency said a Cairo court has sentenced Ayman Mansour to three
years in prison for postings on Facebook deemed to be inciting
sectarianism and in contempt of Islam.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, France's Socialist
Party announced Francois Hollande (57) as its candidate for
presidential elections in six months, culminating a weeks-long
process of primaries.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, In northeastern
India a wooden bridge collapsed in the Darjeeling district as over
150 villages gathered on it to hear speeches by local officials in
Bijanbari. At least 31 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/24/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 22, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki said that US troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine
years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any US
military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution
or lawsuits. Nearly 40,000 US troops remain in Iraq, all of whom
will withdraw by Dec 31. About 160 US troops will remain at the U.S.
Embassy in Baghdad to help oversee training plans.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Jordan’s King
Abdullah II urged the World Economic Forum meeting in Amman to
create new strategies for the Arab region, insisting political
change is needed for economic reforms.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, NATO-led
peacekeepers tried to remove roadblocks in northern Kosovo, but were
prevented by Serbs guarding the blockade that has paralyzed travel
in the tense region.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Mexican
prosecutors said that a 15-year-old boy, nicknamed El Gallito, has
confessed to running a drug trafficking gang on the resort island of
Isla Mujeres and murdering two women who reportedly worked as drug
dealers. The women's bodies were found before dawn on Oct 20, and El
Gallito was detained on Oct 21.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, In Nepal a
footbridge over a Trishuli River gorge collapsed as dozens of people
were crossing it and three plunged 50 feet (15 meters) to their
deaths.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, In Nigeria gunmen
shot dead Zakariyya Isa, a reporter with the state-run Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA), in the northern city of Maiduguri. The
radical Boko Haram sect soon claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 10/22/11)(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 22, Russia’s Foreign
Ministry said in a statement it was blacklisting unspecified US
officials it claims were involved in the abductions of alleged
terrorism suspects, the torture of inmates at Guantanamo prison, the
killings of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the abductions or
abuse of Russians in the United States. The action was in response
to the US State Department's decision in July to ban entry to dozens
of unidentified Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of
lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, Saudi Crown Prince
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz (b.~1928), heir to the Saudi throne, died in
the United States. He had been receiving treatment for colon cancer
since 2009. The most likely candidate to replace Sultan as King
Abdullah's successor is Prince Nayef (78), the powerful interior
minister in charge of internal security forces.
(AFP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, In South Africa an
allegedly drunk driver killed five runners who were training for a
marathon. A sixth runner preparing for next month's Soweto Marathon
was badly injured in the accident in Johannesburg. South Africa's
leading road cyclist, Carla Swart, died after being hit by a truck
earlier this year while she was training.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 22, Turkey’s military
said its troops over the last 2 days have killed at least 49 Kurdish
rebels in a valley near the Iraqi border, as hundreds of troops also
pursued Kurdish fighters within northern Iraq.
(AP, 10/22/11)
2011 Oct 22, In Yemen at least
20 people died in fierce clashes in Sanaa between President Ali
Abdullah Saleh's troops and rival forces, a day after the UN urged
the embattled leader to hand over power.
(AFP, 10/22/11)(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, Anti-Wall Street
demonstrators of the Occupy Chicago movement stood their ground in a
downtown park in noisy but peaceful defiance of police orders to
clear out, prompting 130 arrests.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Georgia
Christopher Michael Hodges (26), a Tennessee National Guardsman
training at the Fort Gordon military post, shot and killed sheriff's
deputy James D. Paugh (47), then committed suicide on the side of
the Bobby Jones Expressway.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Afghanistan
bodyguards for Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi shot and
killed a would-be suicide bomber who was waiting for the minister's
convoy in Sayyed Khel district of Parwan province. NATO said two of
its service members were killed in the last 24 hours in separate
clashes with insurgents in the south and east of the country. 5
villagers were killed while trying to remove a roadside mine planted
by the Taliban in the western province of Herat.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Algeria gunmen
kidnapped three aid workers, two Spaniards and an Italian, from the
Rabuni refugee camp near Tindouf, injuring one of the hostages and a
local guard in the late night attack. Security sources in Nouakchott
and Bamako later said those responsible belonged to a Sahrawi wing
of the north African Al-Qaeda branch, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb
(AQIM). Spanish media later identified the Spanish hostages as
Ainhoa Fernandez de Rincon and Enric Gonyalons, who was believed to
be wounded during the kidnapping. The Italian foreign ministry
identified the Italian as Rossella Urru. The group later demanded 30
million euros ($39 million) to free the 3 aid workers.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AFP, 12/5/11)(AFP, 3/3/12)
2011 Oct 23, Argentina held
national elections. President Cristina Fernandez appeared to be
headed for a landslide victory over six rivals. Fernandez had 53% of
the vote after three-fourths of the polling stations reported
nationwide. Her nearest challenger got just 17%.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Brazil five
employees of the government's Indian affairs agency and two workers
for an electric company were released in good condition. They had
been held for five days in the Amazon community of Kururuzinho. The
Kaiabi opposed the construction of a dam and demand speedier
official recognition of their land in Mato Grosso state.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 23, Bulgaria held
elections. Rosen Plevneliev, the candidate of the ruling
center-right GERB party, was favored to win in the presidential
elections that tested the government's popularity and the EU
nation's ability to overcome concerns about vote-buying and
corruption. Plevneliev finished first with 40.11%, and Ivailo Kalfin
of the opposition Socialist Party second with 28.96%. A run-off will
take place on Oct 30. The winner will replace incumbent Georgi
Parvanov, who was barred by law from seeking a third term in office.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 23, Germany’s retired
research ROSAT satellite crashed into Earth at 0150 GMT somewhere in
the Bay of Bengal between India and Myanmar.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Hong Kong more
than 1000 protesters, including pregnant women, marched to oppose
the growing number of mainland Chinese women coming to the city to
give birth. Women from mainland China are keen to have babies in
Hong Kong because it entitles their child to rights of abode and
education.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, Kenya warplanes
targeted the Shebab-held Somali port city of Kismayo as troops
advanced on the insurgents. The US warned of an imminent threat of
attack on foreigners in Kenya.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, Libya’s National
Transitional Council (NTC) declared liberation in the wake of
Kadhafi's capture and death. It said the new Libya will be governed
in line with Islamic sharia law, but stressed it would remain a
"moderate" Muslim country.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Malaysia
Italian rider Marco Simoncelli (24) died after crashing and being
hit by two other riders at the Sepang MotoGP motorcycle race. This
raised the number of recorded deaths in MotoGP to 47 since it was
founded in 1949.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, The Mexico army
arrested 10 people and confiscated 10 cars or SUVs that were
being bulletproofed for drug gangs, as well as six other vehicles in
a warehouse in the northern state of Sinaloa.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Mexico two
Americans died in the crash of a small plane in the city of Angela
R. Cabada, Veracruz state.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 23, In central
Pakistan Mohammad Afzal (19) shot dead his parents and six siblings
because his father, a poor donkey cart owner, could not feed the
family.
(AFP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In Somalia a
suicide bomber blew himself up in Mogadishu, wounding two AU
peacekeepers.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In South Africa
Kirsty Theologo (18) was doused in petrol and burned alive by her
friends in a Johannesburg park, in what police suspect was a satanic
ritual. Two men aged 19 and 21 who took part in the incident turned
themselves in. Theologo suffered burns over three quarters of her
body, damaging her lungs and throat, and remained in a coma.
Theologo died on Oct 28. A 2nd girl (16) survived her burns.
(AFP, 10/24/11)(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 23, Switzerland held
national elections. Citizens were poised to hand nationalists an
unprecedented 30 percent voice, following voting dominated by
concerns about immigration, nuclear power and the economy.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, Syrian security
forces moved into villages where residents have been on strike and
shot 2 people dead in the village of Qalaat al-Madeeq, Hama
province. Pres. Assad named Yasser al-Shoufi, a former police
general, as governor of the northwestern province of Idlib.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 23, In southern
Thailand at least seven people were killed in back-to-back shooting
and bomb attacks in a town in Narathiwat province.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 23, Tunisia held its
first truly free elections since independence in 1956. Voters
elected a 217-seat constituent assembly that would shape their
fledgling democracy, choose a new government and write a new
constitution that would pave the way for future elections. The
moderate Islamist party Ennahda, led by Rached Ghannouchi (b.1941),
claimed the biggest block of votes. Ennahda (Renaissance), banned
for decades, emerged the official victor taking 41.47% of the vote
and 89 of 217 seats in the new assembly.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AP, 10/24/11)(AFP, 10/25/11)(AP,
10/27/11)(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Oct 23, A powerful
7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, collapsing about 45
buildings. It was estimated that up to 1,000 people could have been
killed. The worst damage was caused to the town of Ercis, in the
mountainous eastern province of Van where 80 multi-story buildings
collapsed with people trapped in 40 of them. By Nov 4 the death toll
reached 603 with some 2500 injured and thousands homeless.
(AP, 10/23/11)(AP, 10/24/11)(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Oct 23, Pope Benedict XVI
named 3 new saints for the Catholic Church during a Mass in St.
Peter's Square that was disrupted by a man who climbed out onto the
upper colonnade of the square and burned a bible. Named were 3
19th-century founders of religious orders: Italian bishop and
missionary Monsignor Guido Maria Conforti, Spanish nun Sister
Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro and Rev. Luigi Guanella an Italian
priest who worked with the poor.
(AP, 10/23/11)
2011 Oct 24, President Barack
Obama, speaking in Las Vegas, offered mortgage relief to hundreds of
thousands of Americans, his latest attempt to ease the economic and
political fallout of a housing crisis that has bedeviled him as he
seeks a second term.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton pledged another $100 million in food aid to
drought-hit East Africa amid warnings that millions of people face
starvation for drought-affected areas in Ethiopia, Kenya and
Somalia.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, A federal judge
temporarily blocked Florida's new law that requires welfare
applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits, saying it
may violate the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches and
seizures.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, John McCarthy
(b.1927), computer science pioneer, died at his home on the Stanford
campus. He coined the term AI and organized the first conference on
artificial intelligence while teaching at Dartmouth. In 1958 at MIT
he invented the List Processing Language (LISP), still the language
of choice for AI researchers.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.C5)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.114)
2011 Oct 24, Hundreds of
Afghans took to the streets in Kabul, shouting "death to America" in
an angry protest urging the government not to sign a strategic
partnership with the US. The US coalition said tens of thousands of
Afghan and NATO troops killed or captured 200 insurgents in eastern
Afghanistan during two operations targeting the Haqqani network.
(AFP, 10/24/11)(SFC, 10/25/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 24, The British
government won a House of Commons vote by 483 votes to 111 due to
support from the Liberal Democrats as 79 Tory MPs voted in favor of
a referendum on Britain's relationship with Europe. The Tory
eurosceptic wing ignored PM Cameron's plea that it was the wrong
time for a referendum because of the debt crisis engulfing the
eurozone.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 24, In Denmark fashion
icon Margit Brandt (66) died. Her simple cuts and 1960s miniskirts
marked one of the first international breakthroughs for Danish
designs.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Thousands of
Egyptian police launched a nationwide strike to demand better
salaries and a purge of former regime officials from senior security
posts.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, A French military
spokesman said France would soon help supply Kenyan troops fighting
al-Qaida-linked militants. One person was killed and 29 were wounded
in two grenade attacks in Nairobi. Police the next day arrested a
suspect with 13 grenades and six guns. On Oct 26 suspect Elgiva
Bwire Oliacha (28) said he is a member of the al-Qaida-linked Somali
militant group al-Shabab. On Oct 28 Oliacha was sentenced to life in
prison.
(AP, 10/24/11)(AP, 10/26/11)(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 24, A Guatemalan court
sentenced two women to 16 and 21 years in prison for trafficking a
stolen baby who was given for adoption to a US family. The girl,
Anyeli Liseth Hernandez Rodriguez was born Oct. 1, 2004, and
disappeared Nov. 3, 2006.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 24, In Iran a man
convicted of drug trafficking was hanged in Ardebil. Another
convicted of killing a police officer was hanged in Jam. The hanging
brought to 233 the number of executions in Iran so far this year,
according to an AFP tally.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, In Iraq two
separate attacks against traffic policemen left five people dead in
Baghdad.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Ireland's U2 were
named as the greatest rock band of the past quarter of a century by
readers of music magazine Q. Chart-topping act Adele was a double
winner at the event, landing the prizes for best female and best
track for her hit Rolling In The Deep.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Jordan's King
Abdullah II swore in a new 30-strong cabinet led by PM Awn
Khasawneh, an international judge tasked with bringing in political
reform.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Libya’s interim
leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil set a two-week target for Libya to have a
new government and said a commission of inquiry is being formed to
probe Moamer Kadhafi's killing. Human Right Watch urged the NTC to
probe the killing of 53 people whose decaying bodies were found in
Sirte, where the pro-Kadhafi camp put up its final stand.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Mexican federal
police detained two US men for attempting to fly out of Mexico with
$950,000 in undeclared cash in a suitcase.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 24, In northern
Nigeria gunmen shot dead a policeman at his home in an apparent
targeted killing in Damaturu, Yobe state.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 24, In Pakistan Raja
Khan (34), a jobless father of two, set himself alight in a suicide
bid outside parliament and was rushed to hospital with serious
injuries.
(AFP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, In Portugal an
overnight storm tore part of the roof off Faro airport in the
southern Algarve region, injuring five people and disrupting
flights.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, South Africa's
President Jacob Zuma said the national police chief has been
suspended and a Cabinet minister fired after the two were caught up
in a police headquarters leasing scandal.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, Syrian security
forces killed four people in Homs, while government troops clashed
with gunmen believed to be defectors from the military. The US
pulled its ambassador, Robert Ford, out of Syria, saying threats
against him make it no longer safe for him to remain.
(AP, 10/24/11)
2011 Oct 24, The Vatican called
for an overhaul of the world’s financial systems and again proposed
the establishment of a supranational authority to oversee the global
economy in a report issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and
Peace.
(SFC, 10/25/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 24, In Yemen
representatives from Pres. Saleh's ruling General People's Congress
met with Gulf and European diplomats in Sanaa to discuss a framework
for implementing the GCC initiative. Representatives of Saleh said
he would agree to the transition plan provided he remain in power
until early elections are held. The opposition rejected the latest
proposals.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, The White House
said Pres. Obama is taking steps to ease the burden of student
loans, potentially helping millions of cash-strapped college
graduates in a tough economy. The White House also announced new
initiatives urging Community Health Centers to hire 8,000 veterans,
approximately one veteran per health center, in the next three years
and expand opportunities for veterans to become physician
assistants.
(Reuters, 10/26/11)(ABC, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Oakland, Ca.,
police fired tear gas into a crowd of over 100 Occupy Oakland
protesters who had marched to City Hall to reclaim the camp they’d
been evicted from early in the day. 97 people were arrested in the
early morning raid. Scott Olsen (24), an Iraq war veteran, suffered
a skull fracture from a police projectile.
(ABC, 10/26/11)(SFC, 11/14/11,
p.A9)(http://tinyurl.com/3l4pvay)
2011 Oct 25, In San Francisco
Democratic Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi (45) of Castro Valley was
stopped by a security detail at Nieman Marcus after she left the
store with unpaid items worth $2450.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.A1)
2011 Oct 25, In Florida Joel
Esquenazi (52), the former boss of Terra Telecommunications Corp.,
was sentenced to 15 years in jail for paying over $890,000 in bribes
to Haiti’s national telephone company (2001-2005). He and executive
Carlos Rodriguez (55) were convicted on Aug 4. Rodriguez was
sentenced to 7 years.
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/7tdxara)
2011 Oct 25, A US federal judge
blocked part of North Carolina’s new abortion law ruling that
providers do not have to place an ultrasound image next to a
pregnant woman so she can view it, nor do they have to describe
features and offer a chance to listen to the heartbeat.
(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A5)
2011 Oct 25, IBM said Virginia
Rometty (54) will succeed Sam Palmisano as chief executive officer
effective Jan 1. Rometty, currently head of sales and marketing,
will become IBM’s first female chief.
(SFC, 10/26/11, p.D3)
2011 Oct 25, In Afghanistan a
bomb hidden inside a fuel truck in Parwan province exploded, killing
at least five people. Local residents claimed more than 10 people
were killed.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 25, Lawyers in Algeria
began a 3-day strike to protest proposed changes in the organization
of the profession which they say will limit their independence and
powers in court.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, China’s state
media reported that China will replace popular television
entertainment with so-called "healthy" programming, reflecting
regulators' latest move to tighten media control.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In China another
monk set himself ablaze outside a Tibetan monastery in southwestern
Sichuan province's Ganzi prefecture. This was the 10th
self-immolation this year protesting against Chinese rule over the
Himalayan region. London-based Free Tibet group said it was unable
to confirm the monk's age or name and was unsure of his condition.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 25, Amnesty
International said police in the Dominican Republic have been
responsible for an alarming number of killings and torture over a
five-year period.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, India's central
bank announced the deregulation of interest rates on savings bank
deposits, in a landmark decision seen as a key financial sector
reform.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In India Sushil
Kumar, a poor government clerk, became the first person to win $1
million in an Indian game show in India’s version of “Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire.”
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A6)
2011 Oct 25, In Iraq a roadside
bomb killed a traffic policemen in Baghdad, on the second morning in
a row in which traffic patrols appear to have been targeted by
insurgents. Armed men in a night attack killed Ali al-Massudi, the
Shiite mayor of the Iskandiriyah sub-district.
(AP, 10/25/11)(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Ireland 2
people died and hundreds were stranded in northern and eastern
Ireland after torrential rain closed roads and rail lines, left
shops and homes under water. Dublin was put on an emergency footing.
(Reuters, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Japanese officials
said computers in the parliament have been found to be infected with
a virus.
(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 25, In Libya Moammar
Gadhafi was buried in secrecy and anonymity, laid to rest in an
unmarked grave before dawn in the Libyan desert that was home to his
Bedouin tribal ancestors. A Human Rights Watch team saw trucks drive
out of Tawergha with furniture and carpets that had apparently been
looted, and that Misrata fighters who claimed to be guarding the
town did not intervene.
(AP, 10/25/11)(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 25, Malawi’s
Anti-Corruption Bureau said Richard Kapinga (42), a government
accounts officer earning about $300 a month, has been arrested after
authorities found $2.4 million in his bank accounts.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Mexican
authorities said federal police in Acapulco caught a young woman,
Damaris Gomez (19), and a young man (21) as they were getting off a
car near a shopping mall with an ice chest containing a decapitated
head and other human remains. Police in Ciudad Juarez found the
dismembered bodies of four men in bits scattered around the city.
(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, The Mexican navy
arrested Carlos "The Bam Bam" Pitalua, the alleged local chief of
the Zetas drug cartel in the Gulf coast port of Veracruz. The navy
said he is tied to the dumping of eight bodies in a rural town a
week ago. Mexican marines also captured alleged Zetas "accountant"
Carmen del Consuelo Saenz (29) in Veracruz, along 10 other alleged
Zetas members.
(AP, 10/26/11)(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 25, Nigeria’s
anti-graft agency said a court has jailed 7 Nigerians and 2
Ghanaians for dealing in illegal petroleum products.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In northwest
Pakistan a roadside bomb targeted an anti-Taliban militia member,
ripping through his vehicle and killing four people in Lower Dir.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In northern
Somalia gunmen kidnapped a female American aid worker (32) and a
Danish man (60), working for the Danish Demining Group. Their Somali
colleague was placed under police custody.
(AP, 10/25/11)(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 25, South Africa threw
its weight behind Palestine's bid to become a full member of the
United Nations and called on the international body to settle the
bid quickly.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, South Africa’s
Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan, said South Africa will launch a
$3.2 billion package to boost the economy, as he revised the 2011
growth forecast for the country down to 3.1 percent.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Human Rights Watch
said Sudan has condemned more than 300 Eritreans asylum seekers to
"certain detention and abuse" by deporting them back to Eritrea, one
of the "most brutal" countries in the world. Last week Sudan handed
more than 300 Eritreans to the neighboring country's military
without screening them for refugee status.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In Geneva US and
North Korean officials concluded their two-day talks about
Pyongyang's nuclear program. Top US envoy Stephen Bosworth expressed
confidence about the prospects of restarting long-stalled nuclear
negotiations after two days of "very positive" talks with North
Korea.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, Bangkok's second
airport shut down as floodwaters advanced into the Thai capital,
forcing authorities in "crisis mode" to declare a five-day public
holiday in preparation for the deluge.
(AFP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 25, In southern
Thailand a series of explosives planted by suspected Muslim rebels
ripped through Yala town, killing at least 3 people and wounding
dozens more.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 25, In Turkey crowds
of Kurds pelted journalists and police with stones in the quake-hit
city of Van as their anger at the media's coverage of the disaster
boiled over. The stoning of the reporters in the eponymous
provincial capital, which left several people injured, was brought
to a halt only after police used pepper-spray.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 25, The UAR said a
ship carrying 450 tons of diesel fuel sank off the coast of Umm
al-Quwain emirate.
(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 25, In Yemen 5
civilians were killed in clashes and protests Sanaa and Taez, as
calls mounted for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. A
Yemeni military cargo plane crashed while landing at a base in the
southern province of Lahej killing at least four of 15 people on
board. President Saleh informed US Ambassador Gerald Feierstein that
he would sign a deal to step down and spoke of a new cease-fire, but
clashes on the streets threw that into doubt. Activists said seven
protesters were killed and 10 wounded.
(AFP, 10/25/11)(AP, 10/25/11)
2011 Oct 26, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton in an interview to BBC Farsi said that in the
next two months, the United States would open a "virtual embassy":
an online site that would respond to questions about US visa and
study options, and that would address the Iranian population
directly.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 26, The US government
gave BP approval to drill at its Kaskida field, some 192 miles of
the Louisiana coast. This would be BP’s first deep-water operation
since the Deepwater Horizon Macondo well blowout on April 20, 2010.
(SFC, 10/27/11, p.A8)
2011 Oct 26, Rajat Gupta,
former head of the McKinsey consultancy, was charged with 5 counts
of security fraud and one count of conspiracy. His case was related
to the insider trading trial of hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam,
who was convicted on May 11.
(Econ, 10/29/11, p.86)
2011 Oct 26, In Oakland, Ca.,
anti-Wall Street protesters held a late-night march through the
streets, a day after one demonstrator, an Iraq War veteran, was left
in critical condition with a fractured skull following a clash with
police.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 26, In Atlanta,
Georgia, helicopters hovered overhead as officers in riot gear
arrested more than 50 Occupy Atlanta protesters at a downtown park.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 26, The X Prize
Foundation offered a $10 million prize to the first team to
sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians. The contest will
begin in January 2013 and last for 30 days.
(Econ, 10/29/11, p.95)
2011 Oct 26, In Afghanistan at
least 10 people were killed and two dozen wounded when a fuel truck
supplying the Bagram NATO base erupted in flames after being bombed
in Parwan province. In eastern Afghanistan a NATO service member
died in an insurgent attack, raising the number killed so far this
year to 479.
(AFP, 10/26/11)(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In Argentina a
court sentenced Alfredo Astiz (59), a former navy spy known as "the
Angel of Death," and 11 other former Argentine military and police
officers to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed
during the 1976-83 military dictatorship.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Chinese Vice
Premier Le Keqiang met with South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak
during a two-day trip to Seoul. South Korea's central bank said it
has agreed with its Chinese counterpart to expand their currency
swap deal as a backstop against global economic turmoil.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In China a group
of children's clothing company owners protesting in the town of
Zhili in Zhejiang province swelled to more than 600 people. Hundreds
of migrant small business owners have protested over a tax dispute,
some of them torching vehicles.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 26, Europe sealed a
last-ditch deal to fix its festering debt crisis by shoring up its
bailout fund, pledging new funds for Greece and pushing banks to
share the pain at a summit vital to the health of the global
economy. Greece was provided with a second bailout package worth
€130 billion ($184 billion) to stave off bankruptcy.
(AFP, 10/27/11)(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 26, In Iraq bomb and
gun attacks killed 8 people, including four soldiers and two family
members of a Shiite cleric, and wounded 29 others.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Talks between
envoys of the international peacemaking Quartet and Israeli and
Palestinian officials in Jerusalem ended with a pledge to introduce
"comprehensive proposals" but no deal on new peace talks.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 26, Jordan’s King
Abdullah II said he will give lawmakers a say in appointing the
Cabinet, beginning next year. The change will allow the 120-seat
parliament to choose a prime minister, whom the king can either
appoint or veto.
(SFC, 10/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 26, A Jordanian man
(46) was sentenced to death for raping and impregnating his daughter
then cutting her open to remove the fetus and letting her bleed to
death. The man had been charged with the murder of the 19-year-old
in May 2010 and confessed to having had sex with his daughter for
five years.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 26, Libya's interim
leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil urged NATO to continue its Libya campaign
until year's end, saying loyalists of slain despot Moamer Kadhafi
still pose a threat to the country. NATO unexpectedly postponed a
definite decision to end its bombing campaign.
(AFP, 10/26/11)(SFC, 10/27/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 26, Abdullah
al-Senoussi, Moammar Gadhafi's former intelligence chief, entered
Mali late at night, after making his way across Niger where he has
been hiding for several days in the country's northern desert.
Gadhafi's hunted son, Seif al-Islam, was also reported on his way to
Mali, traveling across the invisible line separating Algeria from
Niger.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 26, Marcel Ceccaldi, a
French lawyer representing the family of Moamer Kadhafi said he
plans to file a war crimes complaint against NATO with the
International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alliance's alleged role
in his death.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Mexico's National
Public Safety System announced that almost one-third of 63,436
low-ranking Mexican police officers tested so far have failed
background and security checks. Prosecutors announced the arrest
last week of Adrian Ramirez, alias "The Mushroom," the alleged
leader of the Cartel del Centro. 2 more suspects in the Aug. 25
attack on the Casino Royale were detained in Monterrey.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, More than 700
Mozambican civil war veterans and their families gathered in Maputo
during a 2nd day of protests to demand pensions from the government.
None of the 70,000 fighters from the 16-year civil war between the
Frelimo government forces and Renamo rebel group currently receive
pensions, while veterans from the country's liberation war against
colonial power Portugal do get money from the state.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In the Philippines
a building-sized edifice carved with the Bible's Ten Commandments
was unveiled on a hill overlooking the northern resort city of
Baguio, making it the largest tablet of its kind, according to
Guinness World Records.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Russian newspaper
journalist Igor Karmazin, working on a report about the opposition
in Belarus, said he was deported overnight from the authoritarian
ex-Soviet nation by the secret police. Lukashenko said that his
government has learned the lessons of the Arab Spring uprisings and
knows how to deal with protests organized through social networks.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, In Syria an Arab
League team held talks with President Assad at the start of a bid to
mediate with the opposition. Activists said at least 15 people were
killed in military operations including 12 in Homs. Tens of
thousands of Assad supporters rallied in Damascus.
(AFP, 10/26/11)(SFC, 10/27/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 26, Tunisia's Islamist
Ennahda party vowed to form a new government within a month as early
results gave it a commanding lead in the Arab Spring's first free
election.
(AFP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, UN and industry
officials said 8 drug makers have agreed to create a UN-administered
pool of patented information and other data to spur new research
into 21 tropical diseases and ailments.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, A high-end jewelry
manufacturer in the US Virgin Islands was ordered to forfeit
thousands of pounds (kg) of protected black coral and pay a $1.8
million fine for trading in it. Gem Manufacturing Inc. pleaded
guilty to seven counts of violating the Endangered Species Act and
the Lacey Act.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 26, Hundreds of Yemeni
women set fire to traditional female veils to protest the
government's brutal crackdown against the country's popular
uprising, as overnight clashes in the capital and another city
killed 25 people. The act of women burning their clothing is a
symbolic Bedouin tribal gesture signifying an appeal for help to
tribesmen.
(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Oct 27, The US Treasury
Department announced it is imposing sanctions on Martin Guadencio
Avendano (42), the owner of a Mexican racetrack and car dealership,
along with his two brothers, for alleged involvement with the
Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Illinois John
L. Wilson, Jr (38), stabbed Kelli O’Laughlin (14), and fled with a
bowl of foreign coins, the girl’s Ipod Touch, and her cell phone.
She had walked in on Wilson, who had broken into her family’s home
in Indian Head Park, Cook County. Wilson’s arrest was announced on
Nov 4.
(ABCNews, 11/4/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Indiana 7 of 10
people in a minivan full of relatives were killed when their vehicle
hit a deer and then was slammed from behind by a semitrailer about
10 miles east of South Bend. Burials were planned in their home
country of Ecuador.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.A5)(SSFC, 10/30/11, p.A11)
2011 Oct 27, In Oakland, Ca.,
Occupy Oakland protesters moved to reclaim the Frank Ogawa Plaza
outside City Hall following the police raid on Oct 25.
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A15)
2011 Oct 27, Levy Izhak
Rosenbaum of New York admitted in federal court in Trenton, NJ, that
he had brokered 3 illegal kidney transplants for New Jersey
customers in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more. Experts said
this was the first US case of black-market organ trafficking in the
US.
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A9)
2011 Oct 27, In Oregon the last
ton of mustard gas at Umatilla was incinerated leaving the US with
just 3 of 9 original chemical weapons storage sites, the last of
which is scheduled for full disposal by 2023.
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A12)
2011 Oct 27, In Afghanistan
insurgents attacked a US-run civilian and military base with
rocket-propelled grenades and guns in a brazen early afternoon
assault in Kandahar city. Two attackers were killed. Earlier in the
day, a 13-year-old girl died from injuries sustained after her
family's home was struck by an insurgent's missile in Kandahar
province's Zhari district. A suicide attacker in a car struck a NATO
convoy. At least one civilian was killed in the blast in Kandahar’s
Panjwai district. An Afghan policeman was killed when his vehicle
hit a roadside bomb in Farah province.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Brazil Indian
rights activists said hundreds of people have peacefully occupied
the construction site of the $11 billion Belo Monte hydroelectric
dam in Para state.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, China’s state
media said hundreds of angry home buyers have launched a series of
protests in the commercial hub of Shanghai this week, as owners
decried falling prices for their properties.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Egypt Ilan
Grapel (27), an Israeli held by Egypt since June 12 on espionage
charges, was freed in exchange for 25 Egyptian citizens, mostly
Bedouin residents of Sinai charged with smuggling.
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 27, Five Arab Spring
activists won the European parliament's Sakharov prize awarded to
campaigners for freedom. They include Mohamed Bouazizi of Tunisia,
awarded posthumously, Egyptian militant Asmaa Mahfouz, Libyan
dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, Syrian lawyer Razan
Zeitouneh and Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, France's nuclear
monitor said that the amount of cesium 137 that leaked into the
Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear
contamination of the sea ever seen.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, A German court in
Cologne sentenced art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi (60) to 6 years in
jail for painting 14 works, which were sold as masterpieces for at
least $14 million. His three accomplices received a total of 9 years
in jail. The court dropped investigations into at least 40 more
suspected fakes because of statutes of limitations.
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A8)
2011 Oct 27, In Iraq two
blasts, which took place at a music store in a Shiite neighborhood
in Baghdad, killed at least 32 people and wounded 71 others. Among
the dead were 8 security officers, including an army lieutenant
colonel, 4 women and at least 8 children.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 27, Israeli police
said vandals have cut down 20 olive trees belonging to an
Palestinian family in Jerusalem, with a note at the scene implying
it might have been a Jewish extremist act against Arabs.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, Italian soldiers
and civilian rescue workers battled knee-deep mud as they searched
for survivors after flash floods and mudslides inundated picturesque
villages around coastal areas of Liguria and Tuscany. At least 9
people died and 6 others were missing.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, Pope Benedict XVI
joined Buddhist monks, Islamic scholars, Yoruba leaders and a
handful of agnostics in Assisi making a communal call for peace,
insisting that religion must never be used as a pretext for war or
terrorism. The event commemorated the 25th anniversary of a daylong
prayer for peace here called by Pope John Paul II in 1986.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, Kenyan troops
clashed heavily with Shebab fighters in southern Somalia, the latest
battle since an unprecedented military incursion 12 days ago, while
four people were killed in a rocket attack in northern Kenya.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, Pakistani
officials said two US drone strikes killed at least 10 militants in
Waziristan, including the brother of a local Taliban commander who
sends fighters across the border to fight Americans in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 27, Saudi Arabia's
powerful interior minister, Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz (78), was
named the new heir to the throne in a royal decree read out on state
television.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Senegal 2
people were killed and 22 injured in the village of Fanaye, where
people attacked each other with sticks and machetes in a dispute
over the project which will see 20,000 hectares given to an Italian
investor to cultivate sweet potatoes for the production of biofuels.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Senegal Paul
Nsapu, secretary-general of International Federation for Human
Rights, was detained at Dakar's airport upon arrival. FIDH said he
was detained to prevent him from speaking at a press conference for
the annual report of the protection of human rights.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 27, Young South
Africans, led by Julius Malema, brought their frustration over
poverty and joblessness to the streets, responding to a call by the
tough-talking youth leader of the governing ANC who has clashed with
older party leaders over economic policy.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Sri Lanka
Mohamed Niyas, a Muslim astrologer, was taken away in a white van by
a group of gun-toting men. His brutalized body was found 3 weeks
later.
(www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-202-2011)
2011 Oct 27, Tens of thousands
of Syrians held a mass rally in Latakia in support of embattled
President Bashar Assad, but the regime's crackdown on dissent
continued in opposition areas as security forces killed at least
four people. Oil Minister Sufian Allaw acknowledged Damascus was
having difficulty selling its oil after the European Union banned
oil imports from Syria. Syrian troops were seen planting mines along
a region bordering northern Lebanon in a bid to stem weapons
smuggling.
(AP, 10/27/11)(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Thailand
thousands of Bangkok residents flocked to bus, rail and air
terminals while heavy traffic snaked out of the sprawling Thai
capital in an exodus from a mass of approaching floodwater. By
month’s end the flooding left more than 381 people dead and millions
of homes and livelihoods damaged.
(AFP, 10/27/11)(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 27, Uruguay's Congress
approved a measure revoking amnesty for officials charged with human
rights abuses during a period of military dictatorship. Uruguay's
Supreme Court will decide whether lifting the amnesty is
constitutional.
(AP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, Venezuelan
lawmakers approved measures that expand rent controls and require
landlords to offer to sell their properties to any renters who have
been living in a home for more than 20 years.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 27, Yemeni security
forces heavily deployed in Sanaa allowed a massive anti-regime rally
to cross the capital without intervening, for the first time since
January.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 28, The United States
acknowledged it was flying drones out of Ethiopia under a
counter-terrorism campaign in the Horn of Africa but said the
aircraft were unarmed and not carrying out raids.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In San Diego, Ca.,
police arrested 51 people who occupied the Civic Center Plaza and
Children's Park for three weeks. Occupy San Diego protesters vowed
to return to the civic plaza behind City Hall.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, In San Francisco
Rachael Marie Smith was sentenced to 2 years behind bars for
swindling 18 potential apartment renters out of $110,000. Smith was
also ordered to repay the stolen money.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.C2)
2011 Oct 28, In Tennessee 29
Occupy Nashville protesters were arrested in a pre-dawn raid. Many
returned to the Legislative Plaza the same evening and remained
through a 10 p.m. curfew. Troopers arrested 26 people this time. All
were charged with trespassing. Magistrate Tom Nelson told troopers
delivering the protesters to jail that he could "find no authority
anywhere for anyone to authorize a curfew anywhere on Legislative
Plaza."
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, In eastern
Afghanistan insurgents attacked a convoy of Afghan and international
troops, starting a firefight that left about 30 militants dead in
Nangarhar province. In the south a NATO service member was killed in
a roadside bombing in Kandahar province. A civilian car struck a
roadside bomb in Nangarhar province's Khogyani district, killing two
men, a woman and a child.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Bosnia Mevlid
Jasarevic, a man from the Muslim-dominated region of Serbia, fired
with an automatic weapon outside the US Embassy in what authorities
called a terrorist attack. Police in southern Serbia soon detained
15 people suspected of belonging to an extremist Islamic sect.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, St. Paul’s
Cathedral reopened after a weeklong closure triggered by protest
against economic inequality and corporate greed. The City of London
Corporation said it was launching legal action on the grounds that
the protest is an "unreasonable user of the highway." Scores of
tents are pitched on the pedestrianized square in front of the
cathedral and near a footpath alongside the building.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Commonwealth
leaders agreed to drop rules that give sons precedence as heir to
the throne and bar anyone in line for the crown from marrying a
Roman Catholic. The agreement came on the sidelines of a
Commonwealth summit presided over by the Queen in the west
Australian city of Perth. Current succession rules, dating back to
1688 and 1700, were designed to ensure a Protestant monarchy, and
bar anyone in line to the throne from marrying a Catholic.
(Reuters, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Chile's Hudson
Volcano released three huge columns of steam and ash that combined
in a cloud more than 3 miles (5 km) high.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, China blocked
online access to news of riots by thousands of people who clashed
with police in an eastern manufacturing city in what began as a
protest over taxes.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Egypt several
thousand protesters in Cairo called on the ruling military to
promptly transfer power to a civilian government and exclude old
regime figures from politics. Protesters clashed with soldiers and
police in Cairo after a funeral procession for a man a rights group
claims died from police torture after he was caught smuggling a
mobile phone chip into his cell.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Greece
thousands of anti-austerity protesters in Thessaloniki forced the
cancellation of an annual military parade commemorating the nation's
entry into World War II.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, India’s government
said the rate of suicides in the country is increasing and that more
than 15 people kill themselves every hour.
(SFC, 10/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 28, In southern Iran
an explosion at a state-run oil field killed a worker and injured
three others. A refinery in central Iran was hit by a fire.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Ireland held
presidential elections. Michael D. Higgins (70), a champion of
Palestinian rights and a member of junior coalition partner Labour
Party, was ahead in most voting tallies across the country. Labor
candidate Higgins won with nearly 57 percent of votes, clear of
nearest rival, businessman Sean Gallagher.
(Reuters, 10/28/11)(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, In central Jamaica
an 8-year-old girl’s throat was slashed and her mother seriously
wounded in an attack at their home. Officers looked to speak with
the girl's father.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Mexico at least
21 people were killed in three shootouts between soldiers and gunmen
and a fight between rival drug gangs. This included 15 in Michoacan
and 6 in Sinaloa.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, A Moroccan court
convicted all defendants for their role in the April 28 cafe bombing
that killed 17 people, mostly tourists, sentencing Adel al-Othmani,
the chief suspect, to death. All the defendants protested their
innocence.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Myanmar police
filed charges against seven people who staged a peaceful protest
against alleged unfair confiscation of their land, which comes as
the outside world watches the government's stated commitment to
democratic reforms. Those charged included labor rights lawyer Pho
Phyu, who was with more than 30 farmers who staged a sit-in a day
earlier in front of the government housing department in Yangon.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, NATO allies
formally agreed to end the seven-month mission in Libya Oct 31.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Nigeria hackers
calling themselves NaijaCyberHacktivists hit the website of the top
anti-corruption agency over a government official suggesting tighter
Internet control.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, Nigeria's military
seized a ship laden with 5,000 tons of stolen oil amid rising cases
of crude theft in one of the world's main oil producing regions.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Pakistan some
2,000 people demonstrated outside the country's parliament to demand
an end to US drone strikes, claiming they kill more innocent
civilians than Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, A Pakistani court
issued an arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf and
former PM Shaukat Aziz over the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a
Baluch rebel leader in August 2006. The operation also killed at
least 7 soldiers and 17 tribal insurgents.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, A 6.9-magnitude
quake just off the central coast of Peru. Peruvian authorities said
134 homes were destroyed and 103 people treated at hospitals for
injuries.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, The Philippine
government said it will seize three Manila properties belonging to
flamboyant former first lady Imelda Marcos as payment for money she
embezzled nearly three decades ago.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, South Korea's
parliament approved a tougher law against sex crimes, inspired in
part by a recent movie based on a real-life case of sexually abused
deaf children.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Spain a man in
Valencia went on a stabbing rampage at his apartment building,
killing three people and seriously injuring at least two others. The
man was arrested, but a motive for the attack was not given.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, Syrian security
forces reportedly killed at least 40 people. Authorities disrupted
telephone and Internet service in restive areas during mass protests
calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime.
Activists called for a no-fly zone to protect civilians and soldiers
deserting the army.
(AFP, 10/28/11)(AP, 10/28/11)(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 28, The UN refugee
agency said fresh aerial bombings in Sudan's border Blue Nile state
are sending more refugees fleeing to Ethiopia, with 2,000 arriving
in the last four days.
(AFP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 28, In Yemen a car
bomb near Aden killed Ali al-Haddi, the head of the anti-terror
force in restive southern Abyan province. Demonstrations raged
around the country. A 28-year-old woman was reported killed in
crossfire in Sanaa during a gunbattle between opposing sides.
(AP, 10/28/11)
2011 Oct 29, A snowstorm socked
the Northeast US over the weekend, knocking out power to 2.7
million, snarling air and highway travel and dumping more than 2
feet of snow in a few spots as it slowly moved north out of New
England. States of emergency were declared in New Jersey,
Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, Kenneth John
Gillespie (b.1924), founder of the Daly City/Colma History Guild and
the Daly City Museum, died in Daly City, Ca. He and his wife Bunny
Gillespie have been Daly City historians since 1987.
(SFC, 11/6/11, p.D9)
2011 Oct 29, In Colorado a
tense standoff between protesters and authorities near the steps of
the sate Capitol erupted into a clash that resulted in a surge of
demonstrators being met with police force that included reports of
pepper spray and rubber bullets. 7 protesters were arrested,
including two for assault and one for disobedience.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Kansas an
explosion at the Bartlett Grain Co. elevator in Atchinson killed 6
people and critically injured 2 others with severe burns.
(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A5)(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 29, In Afghanistan a
Taliban car bomber struck a NATO military convoy in the Kabul,
killing at least 17 people, including 5 NATO troops, one Canadian
and 8 civilians. 3 Australian army trainers were killed when an
Afghan soldier in Uruzgan province turned his gun on them. In the
eastern city of Asadabad in Kunar province, a female suicide bomber
blew herself up outside a local branch of Afghanistan's spy agency,
wounding two guards.
(AFP, 10/29/11)(AFP, 10/30/11)(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 29, Australian flag
carrier Qantas grounded its entire fleet indefinitely in a bitter
industrial dispute. Months of strikes by baggage handlers, engineers
and pilots have been costing Qantas Aus$15 million (£9.9
million) per week, with the total financial impact so far hitting
Aus$68 million.
(AFP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, Commonwealth
leaders meeting in Australia failed to establish a human rights
watchdog for their 54-nation bloc, but insisted that progress had
been made during their summit to promote democratic values.
(AFP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, In central China a
police officer was suspected of driving a police van drunk and
killing five people in a crash that sparked angry crowds to smash
and flip police cars in the latest burst of public anger against the
authorities. The van crashed into two street lamp poles that fell,
fatally crushing five victims and injuring three more.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Denmark Axel
Axgil (96), whose struggle for gay rights helped make Denmark the
first country to legalize same-sex partnerships, died in Copenhagen.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In northeast India
a foot bridge spanning the Kameng River collapsed. Arunachal Pradesh
state police said 30 people were feared drowned.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki said that 615 people have been detained in a security
sweep targeting members of the former ruling Baath Party.
(SSFC, 10/30/11, p.A9)
2011 Oct 29, A state official
said Indian-ruled Kashmir has approved amendments to the PSA, a
tough law that allowed detention of people without trial for two
years and the arrest of youths as young as 16. The amendments mean
that no-one under 18 years of age will be detained under the act.
(AFP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, Iranian media
reported a blast at a southwest oil field, the third such explosion
in the country in 24 hours attributed to accidents.
(AFP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Israel tens of
thousands of people marched in Tel Aviv to express anger over the
high cost of living. Thousands of others protested in Jerusalem.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, Israeli aircraft
killed 5 Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group whom it
says were responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel. Field
commander Ahmed Sheikh Khalil was killed as militants were preparing
to launch more rockets at Israel. Palestinians fired 10 rockets into
Israel in the early hours of the morning, and Israeli aircraft
targeted six militant sites in Gaza. 9 militants and an Israeli
civilian were killed altogether in some of the worst violence in the
area in months.
(AP, 10/29/11)(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Libya
volunteers reportedly buried more than 500 bodies across Sirte since
October 23, most of them believed to be fighters. This included more
than 50 bodies of civilians were found under the rubble of a
several-storey building flattened in a NATO air strike.
(AFP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, Phoenix-based US
Airways flight attendant Nick Aaronson (33) was found dead in a
Mexico City hotel room while on a layover. Authorities were
investigating the death as a homicide.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, Saudi Prince
Khaled bin Talal, brother of billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal,
told the kingdom's al-Daleel TV station by telephone that he was
raising a previous offer made by Sheik Awadh al-Qarani, a prominent
Saudi cleric who promised $100,000 for capturing an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Somalia at
least 10 people died during an insurgent attack on an African Union
base in Mogadishu. Kenya said its troops will stay in southern
Somalia until Kenyans feel safe again, raising questions about
whether Kenya risks becoming bogged down in an open-ended occupation
of its war-ravaged neighbor. The Shebab claimed to have killed 80
Ugandan soldiers in the battle. A Shebab spokesman said American
citizen of Somali origin was said to have been one of the two
suicide bombers behind the twin attack.
(AP, 10/29/11)(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In South Sudan
about 80 people, including 15 civilians and 60 rebels, were killed
when government forces in the oil-rich Unity state repelled an
attack by rebel militia, most of them fighting under the banner of
the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA). Among the dead was the
notorious rebel fighter Colonel Ruadheal Gatwech.
(AFP, 10/29/11)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, Syrian troops
shelled the Baba Amr district of Homs killing three people. Raids
and arrests also were reported around the eastern city of Deir
el-Zour. Syrian soldiers were killed and 53 wounded in clashes with
presumed army deserters in Homs. 10 security agents and a deserter
were killed in a bus ambush. At least 12 civilians died from sniper
or machinegun fire in the province.
(AP, 10/29/11)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Taiwan
thousands of gay rights supporters marched through Taipei, its ninth
annual gay rights parade, calling for increased tolerance and the
enactment of anti-discrimination legislation.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, In Turkey a female
suicide bomber killed two people in Bingol, in the southeastern
Kurdish region and wounded 12 others.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 30, It was reported
that half of the cocaine that reaches the United States is now
offloaded somewhere along the Honduran coast and heavily forested
interior, estimated at a total of 20 to 25 tons each month.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Dozens of
protesters at economic inequality demonstrations in Austin, Texas,
and Portland, Oregon were arrested peacefully over allegedly failing
to comply with rules in each city.
(Reuters, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, In Australia the
3-day 54-nation Commonwealth summit, held once every two years,
wrapped up with a joint communique. Among the forum's successes was
the adoption of a measure that will coordinate global emergency
relief efforts to deal with food supply crises.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Britain’s PM David
Cameron announced that British merchant ships traveling around the
Horn of Africa will for the first time be able to carry armed guards
to protect them from pirates.
(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Bulgarians voted
between Rosen Plevneliev (47), a member of the ruling center-right
party, and Ivailo Kalfin (47), a leftist ex-foreign minister, in an
election run-off for the presidency of the impoverished,
corruption-plagued country. The president leads the armed forces and
can veto legislation and sign international treaties. Plevneliev won
the election with 52.56%. Socialist challenger Ivailo Kalfin took
47.44% and conceded defeat.
(AP, 10/30/11)(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, Chinese state
media said China will maintain its strict "one-child" policy,
despite calls for the rules to be relaxed.
(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, In Colombia voters
elected former leftist rebel and anti-corruption crusader Gustavo
Petro (51) as mayor of Bogota, the first time an ex-guerrilla has
won the country’s second most important elected office.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, Egypt's ruling
military jailed Alaa Abdel Fatah, a veteran dissident and blogger,
on charges of inciting deadly clashes between soldiers and
Christians this month.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, An Israeli
aircraft struck a pair of Palestinian militants, killing one man and
wounding a second in a new eruption of violence that raised the
death toll in a weekend of rocket attacks and airstrikes to 11. The
Islamic Jihad militant group said it was ready to halt its attacks
if Israel would halt its air strikes.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, A Kenyan raid on a
southern Somali town killed at least five civilians, including three
children. Kenya insists it hit a Shebab target but witnesses and aid
sources said one bomb ploughed into a camp of displaced civilians.
The air raid struck a camp hosting 9,000 internally-displaced
Somalis in Jilib.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, Voters in
Kyrgyzstan cast their ballots in a presidential election that could
set a democratic example for authoritarian neighbors. The election
pitted front-runner Almazbek Atambayev against two popular
nationalist politicians, Kamchibek Tashiyev and Adakhan Madumarov.
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe criticized irregularities as preliminary returns showed
Atambayev winning over 60 percent of votes.
(AP, 10/30/11)(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, Libya's interim PM
Mahmoud Jibril confirmed the presence of chemical weapons in Libya
and said foreign inspectors would arrive later this week to deal
with the issue. A clash took place in a Tripoli neighborhood between
fighters from the towns of Zintan and Misrata. A Zintan fighter was
killed and another, from Misrata, was wounded and taken by his
friends to Tripoli's Central Hospital.
(AP, 10/30/11)(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Oct 30, Pirates off the
coast of Nigeria seized the MT Halifax oil tanker with over 20 crew.
(AFP, 11/3/11)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 30, In Pakistan Imran
Khan led a huge rally in Lahore. The PTI chief warned politicians to
declare their assets or his party would launch a civil disobedience
movement against them.
(http://tribune.com.pk/story/285058/pti-rally-in-lahore-live-updates/)
2011 Oct 30, In Pakistan a
suspected US drone strike killed 6 alleged militants.
(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 30, Philippine bomber
planes and troops assaulted a mountain stronghold of the
al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group in the south in a new offensive
targeting a key Malaysian terrorism suspect and allied Filipino
gunmen. The military air and ground assault killed 3 Abu Sayyaf
commanders and 2 other militants around the Abu Sayyaf jungle lair
near Karawan village in Sulu province's Indanan town after OV-10
planes bombed the area. Primary targets Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir,
also known as Marwan, and Abu Sayyaf commander Umbra Jumdail escaped
along with 2 other Asian militants and dozens of Abu Sayyaf
fighters.
(AP, 10/30/11)(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 30, An unmanned
Russian cargo ship headed for the Int’l. Space Station after it
launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 10/31/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 30, The Arab League
handed Syrian officials a plan for ending seven months of
increasingly violent unrest against President Bashar al-Assad's
rule, and Assad told Russian Television he would cooperate with the
opposition. The plan involved talks in Cairo between the Syrian
authorities and their opponents. At least two people were killed in
fresh violence. Pres. Assad in an interview with Britain's Sunday
Telegraph newspaper warned of "another Afghanistan" if foreign
forces intervened in his country as they had with the Libyan
uprising.
(Reuters, 10/30/11)(AFP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, Venezuela's Pres.
Chavez ordered the expropriation of 716,590 acres belonging to a
British-owned company amid a disagreement over compensation for
earlier takeovers of ranchland from the firm. Chavez announced the
latest seizure after saying that Venezuela refuses to pay
compensation in foreign currency to Agropecuaria Flora, a local
subsidiary of the British company Vestey Group.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, In Yemen 4 people,
including three children, were killed overnight when troops loyal to
Pres. Saleh shelled a petrol filling station in a region north of
the capital. In Taiz one civilian was shot dead and two were wounded
by government forces who fired at a car.
(Reuters, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 31, Arizona law
enforcement officials said a massive drug smuggling ring has been
broken up. Over the past month 76 people were arrested linked to the
Sinaloa drug cartel, which over the last 5 years had generated over
$2 billion by smuggling cocaine, heroine and marijuana into the US.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A7)
2011 Oct 31, An Arizona jury
found Mark Goudeau (47), identified as the Phoenix area Baseline
Killer, guilty of murdering 9 people in the summer of 2006. On Dec
30 Goudeau was sentenced to death.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A6)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A10)
2011 Oct 31, MF Global, a New
York brokerage firm run by former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, filed
for bankruptcy. Corzine (64), a former co-CEO at Goldman Sachs,
resigned on Nov 4 amid regulatory probes.
(http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/mf-global-bankruptcy-rattles-wall-st-firms/)(SFC,
11/5/11, p.D1)
2011 Oct 31, In Afghanistan
insurgents driving a suicide truck bomb and attacking on foot killed
five people, including three UN employees, near the offices of the
UN's refugee agency in the Kandahar city. Afghan forces and the
militants exchanged fire for nearly seven hours before the militants
were killed.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Algiers
inaugurated its long-awaited underground metro system amid much
fanfare after three decades of work interrupted by an oil crisis and
a civil war. Work for Africa's second metro after Cairo began in
earnest in 1982.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, An Australian
court ended the strikes and employee lockout that had abruptly
grounded Qantas Airways and stranded tens of thousands of passengers
worldwide. The government referred the dispute to Fair Work
Australia, which ordered both sides into 21 days of talks.
(AP, 10/31/11)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.75)
2011 Oct 31, Bangladesh
wildlife officials said Bangladesh will declare three river areas in
its southwest as dolphin sanctuaries, in a bid to protect the
country's population of endangered freshwater cetaceans.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, The head of
British intelligence agency GCHQ warned of a "disturbing" rise in
cyber attacks on the country's government and industry systems which
he said risked damaging the economy.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, EDF Energy
submitted its application to build the first new nuclear power plant
in Britain, the country's Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)
confirmed in a statement.
(Reuters, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, China, Laos,
Myanmar and Thailand signed a regional security agreement pledging
to share intelligence and to engage in joint patrols along a stretch
of the Mekong between China and the Golden Triangle.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.45)
2011 Oct 31, Colombia’s
President Juan Manuel Santos dissolved the scandal-plagued DAS
domestic intelligence agency, saying its employees will be
transferred to other state offices.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, More than 3,000
Egyptians marched through downtown Cairo, protesting the military's
arrest of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a prominent blogger-activist, in the
latest sign of discontent with the ruling generals' managing of the
country.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, In India Samdup
Taso (83), the last Lepcha priest in Sikkim, died. This left the
Lepchas without a spiritual leader to offer prayers to Kanchenjunga,
the world's third-highest mountain, which is revered as Sikkim's
guardian deity.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Oct 31, Israeli aircraft
struck the southern Gaza Strip targeting rocket-launching militants.
Palestinian officials reported that two men were found dead in the
area. The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked a squad that
had just fired a rocket into Israel.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) submitted complaints to three UN
Special Reporters, demanding they launch an investigation into the
legality of Israel's policy in the eastern sector of Jerusalem,
which it occupied in 1967 and later annexed, a move never recognized
by the rest of the world. The group's report "No Home, No Homeland"
accuses Israel of making it almost impossible for Palestinians to
obtain building permits.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Oct 31, Japan and Vietnam
agreed to move ahead with a plan to export Japanese nuclear
technology to build reactors in Vietnam despite Japan's ongoing
nuclear crisis. PM Yoshihiko Noda and his Vietnamese counterpart
Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed to jointly mine rare earth minerals in
Vietnam.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Kenya and Somalia
called for other nations to help in their fight against Islamist
insurgents.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A3)
2011 Oct 31, Libya's interim
leadership chose Abdel-Rahim al-Keeb, an electronics engineer from
Tripoli, as the country's new prime minister.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, NATO’s
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrived in Tripoli for talks
with Libya's interim leaders before NATO operations end at midnight
today. The NATO 7-month air campaign left at least 40 civilians
dead.
(AP, 10/31/11)(SSFC, 12/18/11, p.A13)
2011 Oct 31, Mexican soldiers
seized 2 catapults and 1.4 tons (1.3 metric tons of marijuana)
during a raid in Agua Prieta, across the border from Douglas,
Arizona.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Oct 31, In Mexico a light
airplane taking off from the border city of Tijuana crashed into an
auto repair shop near a street market, killing three people and
setting fire to several cars.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Ali Saibou (71),
former president of Niger (1987-1993) died in the capital Niamey. He
brought multi-party politics to the west African country.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Oct 31, The Palestinians
were admitted to UNESCO as full members in a vote at the UN cultural
body's general assembly in Paris. The resolution was adopted by 107
countries, 14 countries voted against and 52 abstained, bringing
member states to 195.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Somali pirates
captured a Greek chemical tanker and were commandeering it to a
hideout in the north of the war-torn country. The MT Liquid Velvet
had 21 Filipinos and one Greek sailor on board.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Oct 31, Hundreds of
SPLM-North rebels were killed in clashes with the Sudanese army in
South Kordofan, Sudan's only oil producing state where the army is
battling insurgents.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, A Tunisian court
was reported to have issued an international arrest warrant against
Suha Arafat (48), the widow of the late Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat over alleged corruption. The case appeared to be connected to
a school she founded in 2006 with the wife of the ousted Pres. Ben
Ali. She was stripped of her Tunisian citizenship in 2007 following
a dispute with the former ruling family and currently lives in
Malta.
(AFP, 11/1/11)(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 31, Ugandan opposition
leader Kizza Besigye was arrested as he set off from his home with
around 20 supporters to walk the 14 km (seven miles) into Kampala's
center. Earlier this year he launched a "walk-to-work" protest over
high living costs.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, The UN marked the
world population reaching 7 billion amid fears of how the planet
will cope.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Zimbabwe state
media said President Robert Mugabe has warned Switzerland he would
"reciprocate" after his wife and top officials were denied visas to
attend a UN meeting in that country.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, In Zimbabwe a $430
million fund was launched with the help of the EU and UNICEF to give
children and pregnant women free medical care at public hospitals.
(AFP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct, The USDA awarded a
10-year contract worth up to $25 million to Fairfax, Va.-based SRA
International, Inc., to step up the technology used to combat food
stamp fraud. A criminal swindle of the nation's $64.7 billion food
stamp program was playing out at small neighborhood stores around
the country, where thousands of retailers are suspected of trading
deals with customers, exchanging lesser amounts of cash for their
stamps.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Oct, Guinea-Bissau
President Malam Bacai Sanha appointed Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto,
labeled by the US Treasury Department as a drug kingpin, to head the
Navy.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2011 Oct, In central India
Lalita Tati (7) disappeared and her dismembered remains were found a
week later in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state. Two men
were arrested in December for allegedly killing the girl and cutting
out her liver in a ritual sacrifice to ensure a better harvest.
(AP, 1/2/12)
2011 Oct, Kuwait’s opposition
MP Mussallam al-Barrak charged that Sheikh Nasser, a senior member
of the ruling family, transferred around $200 million of public
funds into his overseas accounts through the central bank and the
foreign ministry.
(AFP, 2/28/12)
2011 Oct, In Mali Tuareg rebels
met at a remote oasis near the Algerian border with deserters from
the Malian army to found the National Movement for the Liberation of
Azawad (MNLA).
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.60)
2011 Oct, In Pakistan a
university professor allegedly sent a packet containing anthrax to
the Pakistani prime minister's office. This was not made public
until Feb 1, 2012.
(AP, 2/1/12)
2011 Oct, Pakistan reported its
115th case of polio. The current annual global number was down to
about 1000.
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.48)
2011 Oct, Zimbabwe police
arrested three alleged sperm-hunting women, found with a plastic bag
of 31 used condoms. They were nabbed for allegedly violating 17 men.
Reports of sperm hunters first surfaced in the local press in 2009.
Sperm-hunting charges against the women were dropped in May, 2012,
but the state decided to prosecute two of the women on a lesser
charge of "loitering for the purposes of prostitution", punishable
by a fine.
(AFP, 3/22/12)(AFP, 5/3/12)
2011 Nov 1, US federal
authorities arrested four Georgia men, Frederick Thomas (73), Dan
Roberts (67), Ray H. Adams (65) and Samuel J. Crump (68), accused of
plotting to buy explosives and produce a deadly biological toxin to
attack fellow citizens and government officials. They planned to
follow a script in the 2008 radical online underground novel
“Absolved,” by Mike Vanderboegh.
(Reuters,
11/1/11)(www.thepriceofliberty.org/08/07/28/absolved.htm)
2011 Nov 1, The US federal
government sued Houston-based Allied Home Mortgage Corp., one of the
nation's largest privately held mortgage brokers, saying its
decade-long fraudulent lending practices cost the government
hundreds of millions of dollars and forced thousands of American
homeowners to lose their homes. The suit named as defendants founder
Jim Hodge and Jeanne Stell, the company's executive vice president
and director of compliance.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, It was reported
that US federal regulators have discovered that hundreds of millions
of dollars in customer money has gone missing from MF Global, a New
York brokerage firm run by Jon Corzine. MF Global filed for
bankruptcy on Oct 31.
(SFC, 11/2/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 1, In London former
Pakistan Test captain Salman Butt (27) and fast bowler Mohammad Asif
(28) were found guilty of involvement in a "spot-fixing" betting
scam during a match against England in August, 2010.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China’s government
announced a punitive $2.4 million tax bill on artist and government
critic Ai Weiwei. He was given 15 days to come with the money.
Donations began to come in from people and over $550,000 was donated
by Nov 6.
(SFC, 11/7/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, A survey by the
Bank of China and the Hurun Report said nearly half of China's
wealthiest citizens are considering emigrating, with the United
States and Canada the most popular destinations.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China’s state media
reported that police in Henan province have arrested 114 people in a
crackdown on a counterfeit drugs ring, seizing $30 million worth of
fake medications and more than 65 million medicine bottles.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, China launched an
unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft, the latest step in its efforts to
place a permanent space station in orbit. The Shenzhou 8 docked with
the Tiangong 1 module on Nov 3.
(SFC, 11/1/11, p.A2)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 1, In China a massive
explosion near an expressway ramp in Fuquan, Guizhou province,
killed at least seven people and injured about 200 while also
destroying several homes. The blast was caused by three
explosives-laden vehicles that caught fire.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Equatorial Guinea
authorities arrested Marcial Abaga Barril, an opposition member. A
day later he was told he was being held into the alleged killing
last month of a cook working for Pres. Obiang’s family. He
planned to campaign against this month's referendum on a
constitutional change that would all but ensure that Africa's
longest-serving dictator could extend his rule. Barril was released
on Nov 4.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 1, Mario Draghi
succeeded Jean Claude Trichet as president of the European Central
Bank.
(Econ, 10/22/11, p.16)
2011 Nov 1, Guinean President
Alpha Conde announced the retirement of over 4,000 soldiers and
paramilitary officers, many of whom are long past the legal age at
which they should have stepped down.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Israeli troops in
Ramallah rearrested Hassan Yusef, a senior Hamas official overnight,
along with his son. Yusef was freed on August 4 as part of a mass
release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners due to overcrowding. He
had six weeks left of his sentence.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Japan approved a
plan to send a unit of ground troops to South Sudan as part of a UN
nation-building force, where they are expected to help construct
infrastructure for the fledgling nation.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Kenya's military
said it had reliable information that two aircraft landed in the
Somali town of Baidoa with weapons on board intended for al-Shabab
militants.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 1, Mexican authorities
found eight dead people in a mangrove swamp near the city of Boca
del Rio, Veracruz state, that has seen a recent surge in the
large-scale dumping of bodies during an outbreak of violence among
rival drug cartels. The Mexican navy over the last 24 hours
recovered two metric tons of marijuana floating in the Pacific Ocean
near the resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 1, It was reported
that bloggers and tweeters claiming to belong to the hacker movement
"Anonymous" say they plan to expose collaborators of Mexico's bloody
Zetas drug cartel, even if some of them seem to have backed away
from the plan out of fear.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, The leaders of
Nepal’s four main parties agreed to integrate one-third of the
former Maoist rebels into the army and give money to the remainder.
Under the agreement, 6,500 of the 19,000 former Maoist rebels who
had been demobilized and living in camps for five years will be
integrated into the national army, but only in noncombat roles.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 1, Nepalese police
detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles who had gathered to pray for
nine Tibetans who set themselves on fire to protest against Chinese
rule.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Hackers from around
the world attacked Palestinian servers, cutting Internet service
across the West Bank and Gaza, one day after the Palestinians won
full membership of UNESCO.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 1, Senegal shut its
airspace to all planes coming or going to Guinea after a Senegal
Airlines flight was blocked in Conakry due to a spat over payments.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Somali government
spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said the district commissioner of
Mogadishu's Hamar Jajab neighborhood has been fired over missing
aid. The district commissioner in Karan was suspended following
looting incidents and assaults on women collecting food.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, A South Korean
court sentenced US soldier Pfc. Kevin Flippin to 10 years in prison
for raping a teenage girl, the second harshest punishment handed
down to a convicted American soldier here in nearly 20 years.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Swazi police fired
teargas outside a courthouse in the capital Mbabane to disperse
protesters demanding the Supreme Court stop its work amid a strike
by lawyers.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Officials and
witnesses said Syria is planting landmines along parts of the
country's border with Lebanon as refugees stream out of the country
to escape the crackdown on anti-government protests.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Turkey hosted the
presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan for a trilateral summit
designed to reduce tensions and promote cooperation between the two
neighbors amid stepped-up Taliban attacks.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Amnesty
International reported that Uganda's government and public officials
are placing illegitimate restrictions on freedom of expression.
Amnesty said that journalists, opposition politicians and activists
face arbitrary arrest, intimidation and politically motivated
criminal charges.
(AP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, In Yemen
intermittent clashes erupted late in the day in Hasaba district
between government troops and gunmen loyal to influential tribal
chief Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, killed two tribesmen and a policemen.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 1, Zimbabwe police
fired tear gas into PM Morgan Tsvangirai's party headquarters in
Harare and blocked off the building while beating up nearby street
vendors. MDC spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said the attempts to arrest
the street vendors was a ploy to raid Tsvangirai's party offices.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, In Zimbabwe a
decision by the Kimberley Process (KP) allows two firms, state-owned
Marange Resources and state joint venture Mbada Diamonds, to sell
gems from the Marange region, one of Africa's biggest diamond finds
in decades and the site of gross human rights violations. The deal
came after negotiations involving Zimbabwe, the European Union,
South Africa, the United States and the World Diamond Council.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, In NYC a jury
convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout of seeking to make
millions by selling heavy weaponry to a terror group so that it
could attack US forces helping the Colombia government.
(SFC, 11/3/11, p.A6)
2011 Nov 2, Police used tear
gas and “flash bang” grenades on a large crowd of demonstrators that
lit a massive bonfire in the streets of downtown Oakland,
Calif., in a conflict following a day of action that saw the
city’s port closed after demonstrators blocked it.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, The US FDA said it
has approved the Sapien heart valve made by Edwards Lifesciences,
which can be threaded into place through a major artery from the leg
to the heart. The study was soon halted after 5 of 34 patients
getting Sapien died.
(SFC, 11/3/11, p.A6)(SFC, 11/9/11, p.D4)
2011 Nov 2, NATO said it is
pouring extra resources to set up an Afghan force to take over from
private security firms after a report showed the Afghans are
unlikely to be ready for the planned disbanding of private security
companies in March.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, An Argentine court
convicted Colombian model Angie Sanclemente (31) of trafficking
cocaine from Argentina to Europe. She was sentenced to six years and
eight months in prison. Her Argentine boyfriend, Nicolas Gualco, and
his uncle were given the same sentence following the guilty
verdicts.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Argentina a bus
crash killed six schoolgirls and two teachers and injured 35 people.
Witnesses reported that the driver of a bus carrying students and
teachers was listening to music over earphones when he crossed in
front of a train. The driver jumped from the bus to save himself and
left his passengers behind.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, Fazle Hasan Abed,
the founder of an anti-poverty group in Bangladesh (BRAC) received
the $500,000 education prize awarded by Qatar's Sheik Hamad bin
Khalifa Al Thani.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Bangladesh and
Russia signed a deal to build a nuclear power plant in the
energy-starved South Asian nation.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, UK shale gas firm
Cuadrilla Resources said exploration work triggered small tremors at
its drill site near Blackpool in northwest England earlier this
year, as activists scaled a rig protesting against its gas recovery
methods.
(Reuters, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden to
answer sex crime allegations, but said he will now consider whether
to take his protracted fight to Britain's highest court.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Josip Boljkovac
(89), Croatia's former interior minister (1990-1991), was arrested
over accusations that he ordered mass killings of anti-communists
soon after the end of World War II. He and two other former ranking
Croatian officials have been under investigation for alleged murders
in 1945 and 1946 of soldiers and sympathizers of Croatia's Ustasha
Nazi puppet regime that ruled during the war.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, An Egyptian
government newspaper reported that the justice ministry has agreed
to a constitutional amendment to allow millions of Egyptians living
abroad to vote in parliamentary elections. An estimated 8 million
Egyptians lived abroad, many of them in other Arab countries, out of
a total population of 80 million. The ruling generals announced the
pardon of 334 civilians who were sentenced in military tribunals
since the uprising that toppled Pres. Mubarek.
(AFP, 11/2/11)(SFC, 11/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 2, Arab foreign
ministers met anew in Cairo to step up pressure on Syria to end
nearly eight months of deadly violence. Gunmen stormed a factory in
Syria’s province of Homs killing 10 workers while security forces
shot dead 4 civilians in several Homs neighborhoods. Damascus
pledged to withdraw its forces from protest centers under a plan put
forth by the Arab league. Not timetable was set.
(AFP, 11/2/11)(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, France's PM Sarkozy
condemned an apparent overnight arson attack that destroyed the
offices of Charlie Hebdo (Charb) weekly, satirical French newspaper
that had "invited" the Prophet Muhammad as a guest editor this week.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Transparency
Int’l., a Berlin-based campaigning group, published an update of its
2008 Bribe Payers Index. Russia and China scored worst. The index
ranked 28 countries accounting for 80% of global trade and
investment.
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.72)
2011 Nov 2, In Iraq a triple
bombing in the southern oil port city of Basra killed seven people
sitting at nearby cafes.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, Israel's education
ministry said it has shut down a religious high school in an
ultranationalist settlement in the West Bank and has cut off funding
to an adult seminary there, saying students and staff have been
involved in violence against Palestinians and the Israeli military.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Ivory Coast Ivory,
the world's biggest cocoa producer, said it will reintroduce minimum
price guarantees for farmers after a decade of liberalization in the
sector.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, Japan restarted its
first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster in March, in a
boost to its beleaguered atomic power industry faced with a deeply
skeptical public.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Kenyan military
spokesman Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir said that military planes would
target and attack weapons flown into the Somali town of Baidoa so
they cannot be used. A July UN report said illicit flights with
weapons or fighters for Somali militants could be originating from
Eritrea, Yemen or the United Arab Emirates. The report also said
Eritrea gives about $80,000 a month to al-Shabab-linked individuals
in Nairobi.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Madagascar's new PM
Omer Beriziky (61) took office as part of a deal meant to take the
Indian Ocean island nation towards elections after years of
political crisis.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Mexican Mayor
Ricardo Guzman (45) of La Piedad, Michoacan state, was shot dead
while campaigning for President Felipe Calderon's sister in her run
for the governorship. 3 women, a teenage girl and a 7-year-old boy
were killed when gunmen ambushed them as they were riding in a
pickup truck on a dirt road in the town of El Rosario, Sinaloa
state.
(AP, 11/2/11)(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, Mozambique state
media said lynch mobs killed two people over the weekend accused of
being witches. Police reportedly arrested six people for the
killings.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, The Pakistani
cabinet approved a proposal granting India the status of "most
favored nation" in a move towards normalizing trade relations
between the two nuclear-armed arch rivals. The decision reciprocates
India's move to grant MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Pakistan a bomb
attack wounded 13 people, targeting Malik Taj, an influential Khyber
tribal elder, on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, The Philippines,
one of the world's largest labor exporters, announced a ban on the
deployment of workers to 41 countries, including war-torn
Afghanistan and booming India, where Filipino officials say there
are inadequate protections against labor abuse. Nearly 10 percent of
the Philippine population of 94 million work abroad.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, Police in Puerto
Rico reportedly stopped an erratic driver and seized $500,000 in
cash during the routine traffic stop.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, A Syrian security
official said Syria has arrested Wael Abbas, a top suspect in the
kidnapping of 7 Estonians, freed four months after their abduction
in Lebanon, and handed him over to Beirut.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, The Thai government
said the flood disaster has now killed 427 people, an increase of 42
from the figure reported a day earlier. While drowning was the most
common cause of death, dozens have also been electrocuted. Suspected
Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand killed six civilians in a
bomb attack on their vehicle in the south.
(AFP, 11/2/11)(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Turkey regional
leaders pledged to find ways to improve security and economic
development in Afghanistan as international combat forces prepared
to leave by the end of 2014. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his
Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, discussed a joint inquiry
into the Sept. 20 killing by a suicide bomber of Burhanuddin
Rabbani, a former Afghan president and peace council leader.
(AP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Venezuela
inmates rioting at a jail attacked other prisoners, killing 8, and
took 5 police officers hostage inside the jail in the city of San
Cristobal, capital of Tachira state.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 2, In Yemen at least
10 people were killed and 43 others wounded in renewed clashes
between government forces and tribesmen in Taez.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 3, US Republicans in
the Senate dealt President Barack Obama the third in a string of
defeats on his stimulus-style jobs agenda, blocking a $60 billion
measure for building and repairing infrastructure like roads and
rail lines.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, The US Dept. of
Energy reported that the world pumped some 564 million tons more of
carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, a 6% increase.
(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 3, Two Afghan guards
were killed when suicide bombers and attackers besieged the offices
of a logistics firm working with NATO forces outside Herat city. 5
insurgents died in the attack.
(AFP, 11/3/11)(SFC, 11/4/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 3, It was reported
that the discovery of a single sauropod vertebra on James Ross
Island in Antarctica reveals that these behemoths, which included
Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus, lived on the continent
about 100 million years ago.
(www.livescience.com/16883-sauropod-dinosaur-fossil-antarctica.html)
2011 Nov 3, GlaxoSmithKline Plc
said it has agreed in principle to settle several long-standing
disputes with the US government over the way it marketed and
developed drugs, at a cost of $3 billion (1 billion pound), which is
covered by existing provisions. It includes a Department of Justice
investigation into the company's controversial diabetes drug
Avandia, which has been linked to heart risks.
(Reuters, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese state media
reported that a Buddhist nun, identified as Qiu Xiang (35), has died
after setting herself on fire, in the 11th case of self-immolation
among Tibetans in western China in recent months.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Chinese rescuers
began battling against the clock to save coal miners trapped
underground in Henan province after a sudden explosion of rocks
killed 8 of their colleagues. The rock burst in Henan happened
moments after a 2.9 magnitude earthquake shook Sanmenxia city, where
the mine is located. 52 miners were rescued over the next 2 days.
Day later 2 miners died from their wounds raising the death toll to
10.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 3, Ivar Noergaard
(89), former Danish Economy Minister, died. He had negotiated his
country's 1973 entry into the European Union.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 3, Egypt's military
rulers triggered a new public outcry with a proposal that critics
saw as an attempt to enshrine a supreme political role for
themselves in a new constitution.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a
private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was
accidentally broadcast to journalists during the G20 summit in
Cannes.
(Reuters, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 3, Officials close to
the Greek PM Papandreou said he has scrapped his plan to hold a
referendum on the latest European debt deal for Greece after the
main opposition leader said would back it. A spokesman for Greece's
government says it is prepared to discuss an opposition demand for
the creation of a transitional government to approve the latest
European bailout deal and secure the next installment of rescue
loans for the country.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Iraq a pair of
near-simultaneous bombings killed 5 security guards who were waiting
in line to pick up their paychecks outside an Iraqi military base
near Baqouba. 26 people were wounded. The dead all were members of
Sahwa, or Awakening Councils, Sunni militia that sided with US
forces against al-Qaida in a major turning point of the war. A
roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad's neighborhood of Karradah,
killing two passers-by. Police who rushed to the scene were hit with
a second blast, killing two policemen and wounding three others. An
American service member was killed while conducting military
operations in northern Iraq.
(AP, 11/3/11)(AP, 11/4/11)(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 3, Top UN envoy to
Iraq, Martin Kobler, offered to broker the peaceful closing of out
of Camp Ashraf, a camp of Iranian exiles, before the government in
Baghdad forces its residents out at the end of the year.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Catholic Ireland
announced that it is closing its embassy to the Vatican. Dublin's
foreign ministry said the embassy was being closed because "it
yields no economic return" and that relations would be continued
with an ambassador in Dublin.
(Reuters, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 3, Malaysia’s deputy
national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said a decision to halt the
three-year-old "Seksualiti Merdeka" (Sexuality Freedom) festival set
for November 9-13 has come after Muslims called for it to be banned.
Organizers slammed the move as proof of the repression homosexuals
face in the socially conservative Muslim country.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Mexico groups of
heavily armed men fired hundreds of shots at each other in the
streets of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, leaving at least six
combatants dead.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 3, In central Nigeria
an attack took place on a church in Tabak, a village near Zonkwa,
Kaduna state, leaving 2 people dead and 12 others were injured.
Residents angered by the attack rioted into the next day.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Northern Ireland
Liam Adams (56), a brother of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, was sent
to jail after he was arraigned on 18 charges of raping and
indecently assaulting one of his daughters. He had fled Belfast in
2008 after police charged him with repeatedly abusing his daughter
Aine when she was aged 4 to 10.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Pakistan cricket
authorities said they were more determined to eradicate corruption
from the game after three of their key players were sentenced in
London to jail in a corruption case. Former Test captain Salman Butt
received 30 months, fast bowler Mohammad Asif received one year in
jail and Mohammad Aamer (19) was jailed for six months.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Pakistan a
suspected US drone fired two missiles at a house in the North
Waziristan tribal region, killing two insurgents from the Haqqani
network.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Palestinians said
Israel has carried out its threat to suspend transfer of tax
payments totaling some $100 million to the Palestinians Authority to
protest this week's admission of Palestine to the United Nations'
cultural agency. 2 Palestinian men were reported killed in clashes
with Israeli forces.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, The Philippine
government and Muslim rebels agreed to continue peace talks despite
the Oct 18 clashes that killed 19 soldiers in a southern province.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Saudi authorities
said nearly 2.5 million Muslims have gathered in Mecca ahead of the
annual 5-day hajj pilgrimage, which begins Nov 5.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Somali pirates
freed the MV Blida an Algerian-owned ship with 25 crew members
onboard after 10 months of captivity. The Blida was seized on Jan 1.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Wildlife group WWF
said rhino poaching in South Africa has hit a new record high, with
341 of the animals lost to poachers so far this year as black-market
demand for rhino horn soars.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, South Korean police
fired water cannons to disperse more than 2,000 protesters who were
trying to break into the National Assembly as lawmakers debated a
free trade deal with the United States. Protesters said the free
trade agreement would subjugate South Korea's economy and ruin their
livelihoods.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Sudan said its army
has captured the key rebel stronghold of Kurmuk in the country's
war-torn border state of Blue Nile.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Syrian troops
killed at least 18 people in a security crackdown in Homs.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 3, Ugandan militiamen,
known as ADF-NALU, launched an overnight attack on a military base
in Mukakira, eastern Congo, in an attempt to free detained leaders.
Nine of the attackers were killed, along with two Congolese
soldiers.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, In Vietnam an
Interpol meeting in Hanoi unveiled a campaign to help save the
world's last wild tigers in the 13 Asian countries where they still
exist, winning praise from conservationists.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, Human Rights Watch
said Chinese mining companies in Zambia ignore labor protections,
demanding up to 18 hours of labor a day and flouting health and
safety rules.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, The Zimbabwean
government, the United Nations and other Western donors launched an
$85 million education fund aimed at improving education in the
country's secondary schools.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 4, Texas mother
Julianne McCrery (42) pleaded guilty to killing her 6-year-old son
in New Hampshire and disposing of his body in rural Maine. A
prosecutor said the woman smothered her son with motel room pillows
and the child struggled against her for "about three minutes" before
he died. On Jan 13, 2012, McCrery was sentenced to 45 years in
prison.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 1/13/12)
2011 Nov 4, Groupon (GRPN), an
online daily deal company, went public in an IPO at $20 per share
and closed $26.11.
(SFC, 11/5/11, p.D1)
2011 Nov 4, Andy Rooney
(b.1919), writer and "60 Minutes" commentator, died, only a month
after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary. His
books included "Their Conqueror's Peace: A Report to the American
Stockholders" (1947), documenting offenses against the Germans by
occupying forces.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 4, NATO said US Major
General Peter Fuller, deputy commander of NATO's mission to train
and equip Afghan forces, has been dismissed after making
"inappropriate public comments." He had accused leaders including
President Hamid Karzai of being out of touch and ungrateful for
American support.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, British Airways
owner IAG said it has agreed to buy Lufthansa's UK unit bmi in a bid
to squeeze more growth from its capacity constrained Heathrow hub
and expand services to emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.
(Reuters, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, At least seven
people were killed and 51 injured, in one of the biggest British
motorway crashes in decades, with an inferno burning vehicles to
cinders on the M5 near Taunton. Police expected the death toll to
rise. Police said smoke from a fireworks display may be linked to
the 34-car pile-up.
(AFP, 11/5/11)(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 4, The Anglo-American
mining firm agreed to pay the Oppenheimer family $5.1 billion for
their 40% stake in De Beers, the world’s leading diamond miner.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.73)
2011 Nov 4, A Cambodian court
sentenced American James D'Agostino (56), a volunteer doctor at a
children's hospital in the Cambodian capital, to four years in
prison on charges of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Colombia Alfonso
Cano (63), FARC leader from Bogota's middle class, was felled by
three bullets. Cano, born as Guillermo Leon Saenz, was killed in a
remote area of the southwestern state of Cauca along with three
other rebels, two men and a woman, hours after his hideout in
forested hills was bombed. Troops recovered seven computers and 39
thumb drives belonging to Cano as well as a stash of cash.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 4, Farid al-Dib,
lawyer for the family of Hosni Mubarak, said in a published
interview that $340 million held in Swiss banks by the two sons of
the ousted Egyptian president, and frozen there, are "legal profits"
from consulting abroad.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, G20 nations,
meeting in France, pledged to fight cross-border tax evasion under
an agreement, which supporters say could raise tens of billions of
dollars at a time when indebted European nations are scrambling for
more revenue. Eurozone leaders accepted that a member could default
and leave the euro.
(AP, 11/4/11)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.62)
2011 Nov 4, In Germany Uwe
Boehnhardt 34) and Uwe Mundlos (38), founders of the National
Socialist Underground, died in an apparent murder-suicide as
authorities closed in on them in Eisenach. Beate Zschape, their
female comrade, turned herself in after torching the group’s home in
Zwicke, Saxony.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Underground)(Econ,
11/19/11, p.57)
2011 Nov 4, In India senior
police officer D.D. Misra alleged that the government of India's
most populous state, Uttar Pradesh was the "most corrupt regime
ever," before going on to accuse chief minister Mayawati and top
bureaucrats of graft. He was sent to a mental hospital after making
the accusations of corruption.
(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Iraq Sunni widow
Suad al-Obaidi (47) was arrested along with her allegedly Al-Qaeda
boyfriend, after attacks on anti-Qaeda Sahwa (Awakening) militia in
Diyala province a day earlier. Her boyfriend had convinced her to
send her little boy (9) on a suicide mission, December 29, 2006, and
then failed to stop the attack after she had a change of heart.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Israeli naval
vessels intercepted two protest boats on their way to Gaza to try to
break Israel's blockade. Commandos boarded the Irish-flagged Saoirse
(Freedom) and the Canadian ship Tahrir (Arabic for Liberation) in
international waters off Gaza before the navy escorted them to the
port of Ashdod.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 4, The International
Monetary Fund awarded a $616 million loan to Ivory Coast to help
revive its economy devastated by post-election violence.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Japan agreed to
give TEPCO, the operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power
plant, $11.5 billion to help it pay compensation to those affected
by the worst atomic disaster in 25 years.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Lebanon’s PM Najib
Mikati confirmed in a broadcast interview that opposition figures
from neighboring Syria had been kidnapped in Lebanon, but said they
were isolated incidents.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Liberia’s Winston
Tubman said he and his running mate, soccer star George Weah, will
boycott the Nov 8 runoff because they are not convinced the process
will be fair.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Mexico gunmen
opened fire on a group of volleyball players in the drug
violence-plagued state of Sinaloa, killing eight people and wounding
at least seven. Federal police said they detained the second of
three alleged leaders of a drug gang locked in a fierce battle for
control of the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Myanmar's President
Thein Sein signed new legislation on political parties seen as
encouraging Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for
Democracy to reregister as a party.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Nigeria an
attack started with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story
building used as a military office and barracks in Damaturu, capital
of Yobe state, with many uniformed security agents dying in the
blast. Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank
PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some
churches. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the
village of Potiskum near the capital as well, leaving at least two
people dead there. Another bombing alongside a road in Maiduguri
killed four people. Suicide bombers driving a black SUV detonated
outside a military base. At least 150 people died over the next 24
hours in the wave of bombings and shootings.
(AP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Russia thousands
of far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis marched through Moscow to
call for ethnic Russians to "take back" Russia, as resentment grows
over dark-complexioned Muslim migrants from Russia's Caucasus and
the money the Kremlin sends to those restive regions.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, In Russia an
international crew of researchers walked out of a set of windowless
modules in Moscow after a grueling 520-day simulation of a flight to
Mars. The all-male crew consisted of three Russians, a Frenchman, an
Italian-Colombian and a Chinese.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Syrian security
forces killed at least 15 people after thousands of protesters took
to the streets, charging that President Bashar Assad never intended
to abide by an Arab League plan to end violence.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 4, Uganda withdrew all
corruption charges against former vice-president Gilbert Bukenya,
ending one of the country's highest-profile graft cases. Bukenya,
who was sacked in May, was facing two charges of abuse of office and
one charge of fraud over accusations that he profited from a $3.7
million deal to supply vehicles for use in the 2007 Commonwealth
summit in Kampala.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Venezuela's
broadcast regulatory agency announced more confiscations of
equipment from radio stations suspected of operating without
licenses, a day after seizures at three other stations.
(AP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 4, Yemen’s 25th
Mechanized Brigade fired artillery shells at an area in Zinjibar's
east killing five Al-Qaeda militants.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 5, In Oklahoma a
5.6-magnitude earthquake hit the state with the epicenter located 44
miles east of Oklahoma City. It was felt as far away as Wisconsin
and South Carolina, but there were no serious injuries. The largest
earthquake previously recorded in Oklahoma was a 5.5-magnitude
tremor in 1952.
(Reuters, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 5, Penn State
assistant coach Jerry Sandusky (67) was arrested for 40 sex crimes
against boys dating from 1994 to 2005. All of the boys were under
the care of the Second Mile Foundation, a charity that Sandusky
founded in 1977.
(SFC, 11/9/11, p.A12)(http://tinyurl.com/864sytk)
2011 Nov 5, Bahrain released
Zulfiqar Naji (17), an Iraqi football player, as a goodwill gesture
to mark a key Muslim holiday. Naji, who played on the junior team
for Bahraini club Al Muharraq, was seized from a home in April on
suspicion of participating in protests against the Sunni monarchy.
Bahrain said it has released more than 300 prisoners in honor of Eid
al-Adha.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, A 5.7 earthquake
struck near Chile’s port city of Antofagasta.
(SSFC, 11/6/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 5, The ruling junta of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) designated
Timoleon Jimenez (52) as its new chief. The announcement was made
public 10 days later. The US government has offered a $5 million
reward for Jimenez, and Colombia's government is offering another
$2.6 million for his capture.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 5, In northwest
Colombia a landslide caused by heavy rains left at least 29 people
dead and 20-40 more missing in the city of Manizales, Caldas state.
(AP, 11/5/11)(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 5, Greece's PM George
Papandreou won an early morning confidence vote and launched efforts
to form a coalition government to run the country for the next four
months, arguing the move is vital to securing a mammoth new debt
deal and demonstrating commitment to remaining in the eurozone.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, In Iraq four bombs
at the Taji home of anti-Qaeda militia leader Yassin Issa Daud,
killed five people and wounded 13 others. Border police Brigadier
General Mohammed Jalil Mansur was shot dead with a silenced weapon
while driving near Al-Shaab football stadium in eastern Baghdad. A
magnetic sticky bomb on a minibus in the Sadr City area of Baghdad
killed one person and wounded five others.
(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, Israel freed six of
27 passengers and crew who were aboard two ships intercepted by its
navy while trying to breach the Jewish state's blockade on the
Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The six released included an Israeli Arab, two
Greek crewmen and three journalists -- from Egypt, Spain and the
United States. Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed an
Islamic Jihad militant and wounded three other Palestinians.
(AFP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 5, Italy’s Premier
Silvio Berlusconi said improper construction in flood plains was
partly to blame for devastating floods that have killed at least 6
people in the port city of Genoa. Tens of thousands of opposition
activists demonstrated in Rome for the ouster of Berlusconi.
(AP, 11/5/11)(SSFC, 11/6/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 5, In Kenya attackers
threw a grenade at a house inside a compound of the East African
Pentecostal Church in Garissa late in the day, killing two people
living inside.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 5, In Mexico Juan
Francisco Sillas Rocha (34), who allegedly reported directly to the
head of the Arellano Felix cartel, shot and wounded two unidentified
rivals driving through Tijuana. Police and soldiers captured him
after cordoning off the area.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 5, A Pakistani
government prosecutor said a court has indicted two more suspects in
the 2007 killing of former PM Benazir Bhutto. 2 police officers were
charged with failing to provide Bhutto with proper security and with
destroying evidence. 5 alleged Taliban militants were also indicted.
A suicide bomber targeting the country's Shiite minority killed
himself in a premature explosion in the southwest.
(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, In Saudi Arabia
millions of Muslims began their annual hajj pilgrimage by climbing a
rocky desert hill outside Mecca. The ascent of Arafat is the first
event associated with the five-day hajj.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, A South Korean
official said 21 North Koreans were found in a boat drifting in
South Korean waters this week, the largest such arrival in nine
months.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, Sri Lanka warned
websites to register with the authorities after the United States
expressed deep concern over Colombo's blocking of a popular
Internet-based dissident publication.
(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, Syrian activists
reported more violence, including tank shelling, in the restive
central city of Homs. Nabil Elaraby, head of the Arab League, warned
that the failure of an Arab-brokered plan to end the violence in
Syria would have disastrous consequences.
(AP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 6, In the northeast US
tens of thousands remained without power 8 days after the Oct 29
snowstorm, including some 88,000 in Connecticut.
(SFC, 11/7/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 6, In Washington state
Julia Biryukova told investigators that her 2-year-old son, Sky
Metalwala, vanished in Bellevue after she left him sleeping in her
unlocked car after she ran out of gas. Police found that there was
enough gas to run a considerable distance.
(SFC, 11/9/11, p.A6)(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 6, Afghan Pres. Karzai
met with Australian PM Julia Gillard, who made an unannounced trip
to the country. In the north 2 suicide bombers targeted worshippers
on a key Muslim festival, killing seven, including two local police
commanders of Old Baghlan City. A roadside bomb ripped through a
police vehicle in the south, killing a district police chief and two
of his bodyguards.
(AP, 11/6/11)(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Brazil cameraman
Gelson Domingos (46) was hit in the chest by a rifle shot while
covering the police confrontation with gang members at the Antares
slum in Rio's west side. Domingos died despite wearing a bulletproof
vest.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, CongoDRC opposition
leader Etienne Tshisekedi (79), while visiting in South Africa,
proclaimed himself president and ordered his followers to stage
jailbreaks to free detained colleagues. Since the electoral campaign
opened Oct. 28, Tshisekedi's supporters have had clashes, some
deadly, with police and Kabila supporters in several towns.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Egypt 11
Hungarian tourists were killed and 27 injured when their bus
overturned in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Greece's embattled
PM George Papandreou and main opposition leader agreed to form an
interim government to ensure the country's new European debt deal,
capping a week of political turmoil.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 6, Guatemala held
presidential elections. Retired general and former intelligence
director Otto Perez Molina (61) of the conservative Patriotic Party
won an easy victory, 54% to 46%, in a runoff race against
tycoon-turned-political populist Manuel Baldizon of the Democratic
Freedom Revival party.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Iraq 3 bombs
ripped through the sprawling Shorja market in Baghdad, killing eight
people at the beginning of a Muslim religious holiday and just hours
after the prime minister warned of Iraq's continued danger. A
roadside bomb hit a security patrol in the northern city of Mosul,
killing an Iraqi soldier.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Israeli President
Shimon Peres warned that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly
likely, days before a report by the UN's nuclear watchdog on Iran's
nuclear program is due.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, The websites of
Israel's army and intelligence services were down today, two days
after a hacker group appeared to threaten the Jewish state over its
interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Japan's coastguard
arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that allegedly
intruded into Japanese territorial waters.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Nicaragua held
presidential elections. On Nov 8 Daniel Ortega was declared the
winner as he led with 63% of the votes, compared with 31% for his
nearest challenger, Fabio Gadea. International election observers
reported problems with access to voting stations.
(AP, 11/7/11)(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 6, Niger's army
intercepted a convoy of cars traveling south from Libya toward Mali,
and a cache of arms was seized in the ensuing clash. Libyan
nationals and ethnic Tuaregs were in the convoy. One Nigerien
soldier was killed and four wounded during the clash.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Nigeria gunmen
suspected of being members of Boko Haram shot dead a police officer
at his home as he returned from Eid morning prayers in Maiduguri.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Oman state media
reported that 4 crewmen died and five are still missing after an
Indian ship sank in bad weather off its coast.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Saudi Arabia
millions of Muslims stoned pillars representing the devil in a
symbolic rejection of temptation on the second day of their annual
hajj pilgrimage, a day that also marks the start of the Islamic
holiday of Eid al-Adha. More than 2.9 million Muslims were
performing the hajj this year.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, In Sudan
unidentified gunmen killed a UN peacekeeper and injured two others
in an attack on a patrol in the war-ravaged Darfur region.
(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 6, Syrians in the
restive region of Homs performed special prayers for a major Muslim
holiday to the sound of explosions and gunfire as government troops
pushed forward their assault on the area, killing at least 16
people. The Arab League called an emergency meeting on Syria's
failure to implement its peace plan. Altogether 23 people were
killed in today’s crackdown.
(AP, 11/6/11)(AFP, 11/6/11)(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 6, Fishermen on a
Taiwanese boat fought back against Somali pirates and freed
themselves after a hijacking in the Indian Ocean. Some of the 28
crew on the Chin Yi Wen overcame the hijackers then the boat met up
with British anti-piracy vessels nearby.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, The death toll from
Thailand's worst floods in half a century climbed past 500, as
advancing pools of polluted black water threatened Bangkok's subway
system and new evacuations were ordered in the sprawling capital.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Miss Venezuela,
Ivian Sarcos, was crowned the 2011 winner of the Miss World beauty
pageant at a glittering final ceremony in London.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 6, Two Yemeni soldiers
were reported killed in overnight clashes with suspected Al-Qaeda
fighters near the militant stronghold of Zinjibar.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Young supporters of
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe stoned and beat up backers of PM
Morgan Tsvangirai, blocking a planned rally of his Movement for
Democratic Change party.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 7, The Census Bureau,
using a more sophisticated method to measure poverty rates, reported
that it has found a record 49.1 million, or 16% of all Americans,
living in poverty. In September the government reported that a
record 46.6 million Americans were living in poverty.
(Reuters, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, Officials said US
lawmakers have lifted a hold on nearly $200 million in aid to the
Palestinians that had been suspended in response to the Palestinian
bid for full UN membership.
(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, A federal judge
gave final approval to a $410 million settlement in a class-action
lawsuit affecting more than 13 million Bank of America customers who
had debit card overdrafts during the past decade.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 7, California pot
suppliers filed lawsuits in federal court to halt the Obama
administration’s campaign to close down their dispensaries, saying
the survival of California’s medical marijuana law is at stake.
(SFC, 11/8/11, p.C2)
2011 Nov 7, Dr. Conrad Murray,
Michael Jackson's doctor, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter
after a Los Angeles trial that painted him as a reckless caregiver
who administered a lethal dose of a powerful anesthetic that killed
the pop star.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, US electricals
retailer Best Buy Co Inc said it is buying its British partner,
Carphone Warehouse Group Plc, out of a fast-growing US mobile phone
joint venture for $1.3 billion (809.4 million pounds) and scrapping
plans for a chain of European megastores. Best Buy and Carphone
Warehouse said they are launching a mobile phone venture with Best
Buy's Chinese partner Five Star and are in talks to enter other
emerging markets together.
(Reuters, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, Dynegy, an
Houston-based energy firm, announced bankruptcy in which bondholders
and other lenders would lose 10% while shareholders, including Carl
Icahn, retain full control of the firm.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.76)
2011 Nov 7, Joe Frazier (67),
the boxer who first beat Muhammad Ali in March 1971, died in
Philadelphia after a brief battle with liver cancer.
(AP, 11/7/11)(Econ, 11/19/11, p.106)
2011 Nov 7, In Afghanistan six
police officers were wounded when a suicide car bomber blew himself
up when targeting the house of a local elder involved in efforts to
make peace with the Taliban in Baghlan province. A roadside bomb
killed 11 people mainly from one family in Badghis province.
(AFP, 11/7/11)(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 7, Officials from
Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, announced plans for a
donors' conference to be held next year and raise the money needed
to implement a five-year plan designed to close down all migrant
centers and provide housing for some 74,000 people.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, Chevron experienced
an oil spill offshore from Rio de Janeiro from one of its drilling
operations. Chevron reportedly stopped the leakage in about 4 days.
(http://tinyurl.com/6reqagd)(Econ, 12/31/11,
p.23)
2011 Nov 7, The British Virgin
Islands held elections. The main opposition party, The National
Democratic Party, dominated parliamentary elections with nine of 13
parliamentary seats, putting party leader Orlando Smith, the
islands' No. 1 politician, in line to be premier of the offshore
corporate haven for the next four years.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 7, In the CongoDRC the
Nyamulagira volcano (also known as Nyamuragira) began an eruption
that happens about every two years. It has been described as
Africa’s most active volcano and has erupted over 40 times since
1885.
(AFP, 11/9/11)(http://tinyurl.com/ckekoy5)
2011 Nov 7, The Republic of
Congo launched a vast tree-planting program to guard against the
twin scourges of deforestation and soil degradation that plague many
African states.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 7, The French
government unveiled its 2nd austerity plan in three months. This
promised savings of €7 billion in 2012 in addition to €11 billion
announced in August.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.59)
2011 Nov 7, France marked the
resumption of security cooperation with Ivory Coast after a
seven-year hiatus with the delivery of police vehicles in Abidjan.
(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Iraq Anbar
officials considered joining other provinces to create an
semi-autonomous Sunni region. The governor of Anbar province, Qasim
al-Fahadawi, escaped unhurt after a roadside bomb hit his motorcade
as it headed to Baghdad.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, Israel was hit by a
brief general strike that affected hospitals, banks, ports and the
country's main international airport, but which ended after just
four hours. Its scope was limited to four hours following an
all-night session by the National Labour Court which met after the
collapse of talks between the powerful Histadrut trades union and
the finance ministry. The Histadrut has accused the government of
massively increasing its use of contract workers and is demanding it
offer hundreds of thousands of them coverage under the civil
service's collective bargaining agreement.
(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, The Israeli
military opened fire at a group of militants planting explosives
along Gaza's border with Israel. Gaza health officials said tank
shrapnel wounded three Palestinians, one of whom was in critical
condition.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Liberia violence
broke out at the headquarters of the main opposition party and at
least one person was killed, less than 24 hours before a
presidential runoff vote that is being viewed as a test of the
country's fragile peace after a devastating civil war.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Mexico federal
and state police searched an Acapulco prison before dawn. The search
netted two peacocks, 100 fighting cocks, 19 prostitutes and two
sacks filled with marijuana. Police also found dozens of
televisions, several bottles of alcohol and knives.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, In central Nigeria
16 people were killed after two buses crashed head-on into each
other on a highway in Kogi state.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 7, In Puerto Rico
eight shackled prisoners drowned after a van they were being
transported in was engulfed by muddy floodwaters in the northern
coastal city of Arecibo. On Nov 10 prosecutors charged prison guard
Hector Cruz Santiago with eight counts of negligent homicide over
the drowning deaths of the inmates.
(AP, 11/7/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 7, Russia's Interior
Ministry said police have arrested Anatoly Moskvin (45) of Nizhny
Novgorod. Police said he had kept 29 mummified bodies at his
apartment and dressed them up like dolls. The man reportedly had
only selected the remains of young women for his grisly collection.
(AP, 11/7/11)(SFC, 11/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 7, In South Africa
Greenpeace activists chained themselves to a gate and climbed a
crane at the Kusile coal-fired power station to protest dependence
on coal, weeks before the country hosts a global conference on
climate change. 9 people were arrested.
(AP, 11/7/11)(SFC, 11/8/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 7, Sri Lanka officials
said five news websites have been blocked because they committed
character assassination and insulted people including key political
leaders.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, Syrian troops
stormed a defiant neighborhood of the embattled city of Homs,
kicking in doors and making arrests after nearly a week of violence
pitting soldiers against army defectors and protesters demanding the
downfall of President Bashar Assad. Activists said two people were
killed in the city and the surrounding province, pushing the death
toll from the past 24 hours to at least 18.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, Yemeni security
forces killed six militants and injured many others in fighting in
the city of Zinjibar, the capital of the southern province of Abyan.
(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 8, A 1,300 foot-wide
asteroid, known as 2005 YU55, passed within 201,700 miles of Earth.
This was its closest approach in 200 years.
(SFC, 11/9/11, p.A6)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.96)
2011 Nov 8, In Arizona Russell
Pearce, architect of Arizona's anti-illegal immigration bill SB1070,
became the first sitting state senate president to be recalled.
(http://tinyurl.com/c5ocmg5)(Econ, 11/5/11, p.43)
2011 Nov 8, Cartoonist Bil
Keane (b.1922) died at his home in Arizona. His "Family Circus"
comics entertained readers with a simple but sublime mix of humor
and traditional family values for more than a half century.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, San Francisco’s
Interim Mayor Ed Lee was elected mayor under the city’s new ranked
choice voting system, becoming the first Chinese-American to be
elected as SF mayor.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A1)
2011 Nov 8, Georgia voters in
105 of 127 voted to end a century-old ban on the sale of alcohol on
Sundays.
(SFC, 11/12/11, p.A8)
2011 Nov 8, An accident at the
Idaho National Laboratory caused at least two workers to suffer
internal exposure to plutonium.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 8, In Springfield,
Ill., a municipal water district employee encountered problem’s with
the city’s water pump control system and a technician determined the
system had been remotely hacked into from a computer located in
Russia. It was later determined that the problem was caused by a
plant contractor traveling in Russia.
(SFC, 11/19/11, p.A7)(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A13)
2011 Nov 8, Ohioans decisively
rejected the state's collective-bargaining law night, repealing
Republican Governor John Kasich's signature legislation in a
referendum that could reverberate into 2012. SB5 would have prevent
public-employee unions from collective bargaining, prohibited
strikes and forced teachers, police offers and firefighters to
contribute a set amount toward their health benefits and pensions.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Washington state
voters approved plans to privatize the states 328 liquor outlets and
open the business to warehouse stores and supermarkets.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.43)
2011 Nov 8, Activision released
the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” developed Infinity
Ward and Sledgehammer Games. It sold a record $750 million in its
first five days.
(Econ, 12/10/11, SR
p.3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Modern_Warfare_3)
2011 Nov 8, In eastern
Afghanistan up to 70 Taliban fighters were killed after trying to
attack a foreign troop base in Paktika province. Mohammad Akbar, the
governor of Sar Hawza district in Paktika, died in hospital after
his car struck a roadside bomb in the province. A rogue Afghan
soldier shot and wounded 3 Australian troops at a joint base at
Charmistan, Uruzgan province. In February, 2012, a Taliban video had
Mohammed Roozi talking about how he attacked Australian and Afghan
soldiers at Patrol Base Nasir, saying he turned a machine gun and
rocket launcher on them before going into hiding.
(AFP, 11/9/11)(AFP, 2/10/12)
2011 Nov 8, Australia passed
its controversial pollution tax in a sweeping and historic reform
aimed at lowering carbon emissions blamed for climate change, after
years of fierce debate.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Brazil students
voted for the strike after police raided an administration building
and arrested 70 students who were protesting police patrols on the
campus of the University of Sao Paulo. Students complained they are
subjected to random searches and intimidation by police on campus.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, A British court
ruled that Roman Catholic priests are equivalent to employees, a
decision that could pave the way for victims of sexual abuse to win
damages from the church.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Cambodia Hun
Hean, the former police chief of Banteay Meanchey, confessed to
accepting over $100,000 in bribes during the final day of a
corruption trial against him and four of his subordinates. On Nov
15, he was convicted and sentenced to 4 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/6/12, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/7lwyk7x)
2011 Nov 8, Diplomats said
Eritrea's president has asked for a personal hearing before the UN
Security Council in a bid to head off new sanctions over alleged
support for Somalia's Islamist rebels.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, A French court
ruled that the News of the World had violated the privacy of former
world motorsport chief Max Mosley when it published photographs of
him in a sadomasochistic orgy. The court fined Rupert Murdoch's News
Group, publisher of the now-defunct tabloid, 10,000 euros ($13,800)
and ordered it to pay 7,000 euros in damages for violating Mosley's
privacy, but said there was no defamation. Mosley (71) had already
won a case in a British court against News Group, after the News of
the World published a front-page story in March 2008 entitled "F1
boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers."
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Guatemala drug
trafficker Elio Lorenzana Cordon, wanted for extradition to the
United States, was captured outside Guatemala City by US and
Guatemalan authorities.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Guinea outlawed all
"public rallies" held without prior authorization, such as meetings
or street markets. It came less than a week before a planned
November 14 march in the capital by Guinean lawyers who accuse the
Conakry governor of detaining three human rights activists including
a lawyer since Nov 3.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, The Boston-based
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said it has filed
claims with the United Nations seeking damages on behalf of more
than 5,000 Haitian cholera victims and their families.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In northern India a
stampede killed 16 Hindu pilgrims and injured about 50 during a
religious ceremony on the banks of the Ganges River at Haridwar in
Uttrakhand state.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Indonesian police
said they had arrested a British-born man accused of molesting nine
children following a tip-off from authorities in Britain. The
61-year-old man, who became an Indonesian citizen after changing his
nationality, was also allegedly involved in an online child
pornography network.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Iraq US forces
handed Joint Base Balad, a sprawling base north of Baghdad that once
housed some 36,000 personnel, over to Iraqi control.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, Israel’s Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said only crippling sanctions against
Iran's central bank and its oil and gas industries will force Tehran
to halt its nuclear drive. The UN atomic agency said for the first
time that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose
sole purpose is the development of nuclear arms.
(AFP, 11/8/11)(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Italy’s PM
Berlusconi offered a conditional resignation after he failed to
reach a parliamentary majority in a key vote. He said he would step
down if Parliament passes an austerity package demanded by the EU.
(SFC, 11/9/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 8, In Liberia Africa's
first elected female president headed toward easy re-election with
her sole opponent boycotting a runoff, and ignoring entreaties from
the United States and the UN to participate in what observers said
was a free and fair vote. Sirleaf won 90.8% of votes cast and Tubman
9%. Only 37.4% of 1.8 million registered voters cast their ballots.
(AP, 11/8/11)(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 8, Mexican police
found the heads of two men in a residential area of Mexico City.
Police found their bodies inside a stolen car nearby.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Nicaragua two
clashes among rival political groups killed four people and injured
12 following the Nov 6 presidential election.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Nigeria it was
reported that that nearly all the Christians and non-natives of Yobe
state had fled their homes in Damaturu, the state capital, following
Boko Haram attacks that killed more than 100 people.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Pakistan's
President Asif Ali Zardari promised to work with the United States
to "eradicate" the militant Haqqani network, a pledge made during a
meeting with visiting American congressmen, according to one of the
lawmakers. It was unclear whether Zardari had the power to make good
on his pledge, given the influence of the military in Pakistan.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, The Palestinian
foreign minister admitted for the first time there is not enough
support in the UN Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian
state.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, The Philippine
justice secretary barred former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
from seeking medical treatment abroad while she faces complaints of
electoral cheating.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, In Poland a
transsexual woman and an openly gay man took seats in the newly
elected parliament, historic firsts that reflect profound social
change in this traditionally Roman Catholic country. Both belong to
Palikot's Movement, a new progressive party that became the
third-largest party in parliament in the Oct. 9 election.
(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 8, Syrian activists
reported that 20 people were killed across the country, including
eight soldiers and 12 civilians, among them a child. The UN said the
death toll from the eight-month Syrian uprising has reached 3,500.
(AP, 11/8/11)(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, The Syrian
opposition urged authorities in neighboring Lebanon to act over
reports that more than a dozen of their members in that country have
been kidnapped.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 8, In South Korea
Vietnam agreed to seek greater nuclear energy cooperation with South
Korea, opening the way for its participation in a project to build
atomic power plants at home.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, US federal
officials said an Eastern European pack of cyber thieves, known as
the Rove group, hijacked at least four million computers in over 100
countries, including at least half a million computers in the US, to
make off with $14 million in "illegitimate income" before they were
caught. The accused hackers, six Estonian nationals and a Russian
national, rerouted the internet traffic illegally on the infected
computers for the last four years in order to reap profits from
internet advertisement deals.
(ABCNews, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, The DJIA fell 389
points as Italy’s borrowing costs soared and talks collapsed in
Greece on forming a new government.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.D1)
2011 Nov 9, Alabama's Jefferson
County, with debts of $4.2 billion, filed for bankruptcy court
protection in the biggest municipal bankruptcy in US history.
(Reuters, 11/10/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.89)
2011 Nov 9, In Berkeley, Ca., 7
people were arrested as police broke up student efforts to build an
Occupy encampment on campus.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.C1)
2011 Nov 9, In Florida two
offshore powerboat racers died after their catamaran went airborne
at high speed at the opening of the Key West World Championship.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 9, In Belize Larry
Johnson (68), a retired chiropractor from New Mexico, was killed
during a home invasion at the Iguana Creek Resort he owned, 60 miles
west of Belize City. Police soon detained several people for
questioning.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 9, A Brazilian court
said the construction of the Belo Monte dam can proceed without
additional consultation with indigenous communities.
(SFC, 11/10/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 9, Thousands of
students marched through London in the latest display of anger
against the government's austerity measures, with large numbers of
police aiming to prevent a repeat of violence and rioting seen last
year.
(Reuters, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, An independent
report recommended the Ealing Abbey monastery should no longer be
allowed to run St. Benedict's School, a London Roman Catholic school
where pupils were physically and sexually abused over several
decades. Former St. Benedict's headmaster, the Rev. David Pearce,
was jailed in 2009 for abusing boys at the school over a 35-year
period.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, In India a court
sentenced 31 Hindus to life imprisonment for killing dozens of
Muslims by setting a building on fire in early 2002 during one of
India's worst rounds of communal violence.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad vowed that Iran won't retreat "one iota" from its
nuclear program, denying claims that it seeks atomic weapons. Key
ally Russia gave the Islamic Republic a major boost, rejecting
tighter sanctions despite a UN watchdog report detailing suspected
arms-related advances.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, Iraq's PM Nuri
al-Maliki called on members of Saddam Hussein's former Baath party
to declare their rejection of the party in writing, and threatened
prosecution if they do not.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, Israeli warplanes
raided the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired at southern Israel.
Three Palestinian cars were set ablaze overnight in the West Bank
village of Beit Omar near Hebron and a house sprayed with graffiti.
Hardline Jewish settlers have adopted what they call a "price tag"
policy under which they have attacked mainly Palestinians and their
property in response to Israeli government measures against
settlements.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, Financial markets
pounded Italy sending a clear message that they want Premier Silvio
Berlusconi out immediately despite his plan to stick around a little
longer.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, Japan’s Toyota
Motor Corp. said it is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide,
mostly in the United States, for problems that could make it harder
to steer. Toyota has received a total of 79 reports about the defect
dating back to 2007, but there have been no reports of accidents or
injuries related to the problems.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, In Mexico the
decapitated body of a man was left at the same monument in Nuevo
Laredo where the corpse of a woman, purportedly killed in
retaliation for her postings on an anti-crime website, had been left
previously. A photo of the scene indicates the man was killed for
reporting criminals on social media sites. The naked bodies of six
men and a woman were found on an outdoor basketball court outside
the city of Durango. In Acapulco police found the decapitated bodies
of a man and a woman inside an abandoned taxi. Soldiers in Culiacan
detained Ovidio Limon Sanchez (48), a top operator for the powerful
Sinaloa drug cartel.
(AP, 11/9/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 9, Human Rights Watch
released an investigative report that accused the Mexican government
of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in its
war against organized crime. HRW presented evidence of the police
and army’s role in 24 extrajudicial killings, 39 disappearances and
170 cases of torture since December 2006.
(AP, 11/9/11)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.46)
2011 Nov 9, In Nigeria
organizers said secret police in Nigeria have detained Wale Ajani,
who was helping organize a planned hunger strike over the possible
removal of fuel subsidies. In the northeast suspected members of the
Boko Haram radical Muslim sect killed two civilians in a police
station blast in Mainok.
(AP, 11/9/11)(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 9, Shell said a
pipeline fire in southern Nigeria has caused a cut in oil production
in the country, with a spill also reported in connection with the
incident.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, A Russian space
probe aiming to land on a Mars moon was stuck circling the Earth
after equipment failure. Scientists raced to fire up its engines
before the whole thing came crashing down. The unmanned
Phobos-Ground craft was successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster
rocket just after midnight. On Dec 2 the European Space Agency said
it had abandoned efforts to contact the probe.
(AP, 11/9/11)(SFC, 12/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 9, In Somalia several
armed and masked men shot to death a Somali deputy in front of his
house in the capital Mogadishu.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, Syrian troops
killed 16 civilians as they pressed their bloody crackdown on
dissent, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Protesters
threw eggs at a four-man delegation of the Syrian National
Coordination Committee (NCC), headed by Hassan Abdul-Azim, as they
tried to enter the Arab League's headquarters in downtown Cairo. The
Syria-based National Coordination Committee is a rival to the
broad-based Syrian National Council group that was announced in
Turkey in October and rejects all forms of contact with the regime
under the current crackdown.
(AFP, 11/9/11)(AP, 11/9/11)(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 9, Tanzanian
opposition leader Freeman Mbowe surrendered to police. Mbowe, who
heads the CHADEMA party, and scores of supporters staged a Nov 7
demonstration in the northern town of Arusha demanding the release
of one of its officials and that President Jakaya Kikwete step down.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 9, In eastern Turkey
another earthquake, measuring 5.7, struck 9 miles (16km) south of
Van. A Japanese aid worker was among 39 people killed by the
earthquake. All the fatalities occurred in the Bayram Hotel and the
low-budget Aslan Hotel. It hit the same region slammed by an Oct. 23
temblor that left 600 people dead.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AP, 11/11/11)(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 9, In Venezuela
Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos (24), who had just
finished his rookie season, was seized from his home in the town of
Santa Ines by kidnappers. Ramos was reported rescued on Nov 11.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 10, US Senators Mark
Kirk, R-Ill., and Robert Casey, D-Pa., sent a letter to the State
and Commerce departments requesting an investigation into companies
whose technology has been used to monitor activities of Syrian
citizens. US companies included NetApp Inc. and Blue coat Systems
Inc. of Sunnyvale, Ca. The Syrian Internet surveillance project,
headed by the Italian company Area, was designed to intercept and
catalog virtually every e-mail flowing through Syria.
(SFC, 11/11/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 10, The US government
delayed approval of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline until after the
2012 US election, bowing to pressure from environmentalists and
sparing President Barack Obama a damaging split with liberal voters
he may need to win reelection. The State Department was considering
rerouting TransCanada Corp.'s proposed $7 billion Keystone XL
pipeline to avoid ecologically sensitive areas of Nebraska.
(Reuters, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Oakland, Ca.,
Kayode Ola Foster (25) was slain during a fight just outside the
main camp of the Occupy Oakland encampment. Norris Terrell (20), the
alleged shooter, was later arrested in Lexington, Ky. Isaac
McDaniels (31) was arrested on Dec 12 and charged with being an
accessory to Foster’s murder.
(SFC, 11/14/11, p.A9)(SFC, 12/16/11, p.C5)
2011 Nov 10, The Illinois
Senate overrode Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto on a roadkill bill, House Bill
3178. The measure requires the scavenger to only harvest the animals
during the legal hunting or trapping season, with the required
stamps and permits. It allowed anyone with a state furbearer license
to salvage pelts or even food from animals killed on the road.
(SSFC, 1/8/12, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/73pcrm4)
2011 Nov 10, Thousands of
enraged Penn State students tore through the streets of State
College, Pa., overnight to protest the firing of Joe Paterno after
the longtime head football coach was removed from his position
effective immediately. The turmoil followed the arrest of former
assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, charged with abusing at least eight
boys over 15 years. Paterno and Univ. Pres. Graham Spanier, who was
also fired, have come under intense pressure because they were also
told of at least one incident, but did not alert police.
(http://tinyurl.com/7algouk)
2011 Nov 10, In Hawaii a
helicopter on a tourist excursion of West Maui and Molokai went down
near an elementary school killing the pilot and 4 tourists.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 10, The International
Union for Conservation of Nature said the Western Black Rhino of
Africa has been declared officially extinct. The Javan Rhino was
said to be "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the
last animal there in 2010. A small but declining population of the
Javan Rhino still survived on the Indonesian island of Java.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In eastern
Afghanistan 3 Afghan policemen were killed and 3 US troops injured
when a team of Taliban suicide attackers stormed a government office
in Paktia province. 4 attackers were reported killed. 2 civilians
were killed when a car bomb targeting an ISAF military convoy
detonated in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Brazil police
arrested Antonio Bonfim Lopes, aka "Nem, the most-wanted drug gang
leader in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Chinese court
jailed musician Su Yue (56) for life for a scam in which he conned
investors out of $9 million by claiming he was commissioned to hold
shows attached to the Olympics. Su made his name with the folk songs
"Loess Plateau" and "Blood-stained Glory", originally written to
commemorate troops who were killed in the brief 1979 war against
Vietnam but later was used in memory of those who died in the 1989
Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In China hundreds
of rescuers took turns descending into an illegally operated coal
mine to search for Chinese miners trapped by a gas leak that killed
34 others at the Sizhuang Coal Mine in Qujing city in Yunnan. 9
remained missing.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Colombia tens
of thousands of students marched in Bogota in an ongoing struggle
over the future of higher education. The government was offering
reforms, known as Law 30, which would ad $3.5 billion for higher
education over a decade.
(SFC, 11/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 10, In the Czech Rep.
a man opened fire at an airplane plant in Kunovice, killing two
people before committing suicide.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Egypt 2
explosions a gas pipeline halting supplies to Israel and Jordan.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, Ethiopian
authorities charged 24 people with terrorism offenses including an
opposition politician and a journalist. Prominent opposition leader
Andualem Arage and journalist Eskinder Nega were among those
charged. Ethiopia has the largest number of exiled journalists in
the world with 82 living abroad, according to the Washington-based
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
(AFP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Germany some
300 police officers searched the headquarters of Heckler & Koch
amid allegations the German arms maker bribed Mexican officials in
connection with arms deliveries between 2005 and 2010. Heckler &
Koch was also under investigation following the discovery of its
assault rifles in Libya.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, Greece installed
Lucas Papademos (64), a respected economist, as the new prime
minister easing the European financial crises.
(SFC, 11/11/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 10, The prime
ministers of India and Pakistan said they expected to open a "new
chapter" at future talks between the rival nations after they met at
a regional summit in the Maldives.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, An Israeli court
ordered a Brooklyn man, Yitzchak Shuchat, extradited to the US in
connection with an April 2008 assault on a black man, Andrew
Charles, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, Israel's Supreme
Court ordered former President Moshe Katsav (65) to spend seven
years in prison after rejecting the disgraced politician's appeal of
a rape conviction and other sex crimes. He was convicted last
December of raping a former employee when he was a Cabinet minister
and of sexually harassing two other women during his term as
president from 2000 to 2007.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Italy Pres.
Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party made it clear that it would
back an emergency government of national unity led by a
nonpolitician, which would require a majority in Parliament.
(SFC, 11/11/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 10, An Ivory Coast
appeal court conditionally released 12 aides to former president
Laurent Gbagbo, held after a post-electoral crisis. The release
brings to 20 the number of Gbagbo's associates who have been set
free since the crisis, which began after Gbagbo refused to
acknowledge defeat in elections in December last year.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Japan American
scientist John W. Cahn received Japan's annual Kyoto Prize, winning
50 million yen, or about $650,000, for his contributions in
materials science that led to the creation of stronger, lighter
alloys used in cellphones and many electronic devices.
Astrophysicist Rashid Sunyaev (68), a dual citizen of Russia and
Germany, was awarded the basic sciences prize for his contributions
in astronomy. Tamasaburo Bando V, a Japanese kabuki actor who
specializes in female roles, was presented with the arts and
philosophy prize.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, South Africa's
governing party fired Julius Malema (30), its controversial youth
leader, and suspended him from the African National Congress for
five years for sowing intolerance and disunity. Malema said he would
appeal.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In St. Lucia a
minibus carrying mourners from a funeral plunged off a cliff into
the ocean leaving 16 people dead and one person missing.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 10, Military aircraft
from Sudan crossed the new international border with South Sudan and
dropped bombs in and around a camp filled with refugees fleeing
violence in the north. At least 12 people were killed. The violence
in and near the Yida refugee camp, located 10 miles (15 km) south of
the border, came one day after bombings were reported in another
region of South Sudan. A cross-border attack by Sudanese troops on a
military base left 18 fighters dead and 73 wounded.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Syria a young
girl and six soldiers were among 26 Syrians killed when security
forces cracked down on protests and in clashes between troops and
army deserters.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, A Taiwanese man
demanded Chinese authorities return his left hand, which he said was
amputated after a savage robbery and then kept by mainland police as
evidence. Hu Chi-yang (59) said he was attacked by three men in the
southeastern Chinese province of Fujian last week. He said they
robbed him of about $600 in cash and nearly cut his left hand off to
get at his ring and Rolex watch. On Nov 28 police in Fujian said
they believed Hu's injuries were self-inflicted, saying the cuts
were precise and that blood collected at the alleged crime scene
contained traces of anesthetic.
(AFP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 10, Tanzanian police
slapped a ban on protests, as the opposition planned to rally for
the release of some of its members and the ruling party prepared its
own counter-demonstration.
(AFP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, Vietnam jailed two
Falun Gong practitioners who broadcast programs about the spiritual
group into China. Le Van Thanh (36) and Vu Duc Trung (31) were
sentenced to 2 and 3 years in jail for illegally transmitting
information through telecommunication networks.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Yemen gunmen in
civilians clothes opened fire on anti-government protests in Sanaa
and Taiz, killing a 13-year-old boy in Sanaa and injuring a dozen
others. One man was killed and nine other people were wounded in
Taez. The UN Secretary General's special envoy to Yemen, Jamal bin
Omar, arrived in the country to seek progress on a US-backed
proposal to end the crisis.
(AP, 11/10/11)(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, The Crystal
Bridges Museum of American Art, designed by architect Moshe Safdie,
opened in Bentonville, Ark., with a $1.2 billion endowment from the
Walton Family Foundation.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.100)
2011 Nov 11, In Michigan a
decade-old organization known as TheCall, that counts Islam among
the ills facing the nation, began a 24-hour prayer rally at Ford
Field in Detroit, an with one of the largest Muslim communities in
the United States. Leaders of TheCall believed a satanic spirit is
shaping all parts of US society, and it must be challenged through
intensive Christian prayer and fasting.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, William Aramony
(84), former president of the United Way of America charity, died in
Virginia. He had resigned in 1992 and was convicted in 1995 for
misusing funds to support a lavish lifestyle and a teenage mistress.
(SFC, 11/15/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 11, In Afghanistan a
mother and daughter were killed in their home in Ghazni city by
armed men who apparently accused them of "immoral activities."
Afghan police arrested two men in connection with the case. A NATO
soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in the south.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Australian police
seized about 660 pounds (300 kg) of cocaine from a yacht at the
northeastern coastal town of Bundaberg. Police said the yacht was
crewed by Ivan Maria Ramos Valea (35) and Julia Maria Boada
Fernandez (37), who were both arrested. Two other Spanish citizens,
Miguel Angel Sanchez Barrocal (38) and Jose Herrero-Calvo (39) were
also arrested in Bundaberg.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 11, The Austria-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said very low levels of
radiation, which are higher than normal but don't seem to pose a
health hazard, are being registered in the Czech Republic and
elsewhere in Europe.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, A British judge
sentenced Steven Cardwell, a British man, to at least 11 years in
prison for selling handguns smuggled into the country by Steven
Greenoe, a former US Marine.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, EMI, the
London-based record label that for 80 years brought the world
everyone from the Beatles and Queen to Coldplay and Katy Perry, was
chopped up and will be sold in pieces, with Vivendi's Universal
Music Group winning EMI's recorded music auction with a $1.9 billion
(1.1 billion pounds) offer. A consortium led by Japan's Sony said it
won the auction for EMI's music publishing operations in a deal
valued at $2.2 billion. For EMI owner Citigroup Inc, which took
control of the record label after its previous owner, Guy Hands'
buyout shop Terra Firma, defaulted on loans owed to the investment
bank, the deal value approached the break-even level.
(Reuters, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Cameroon’s
National Anti-Corruption Commission (Conac) said in its first
report, since its creation by President Paul Biya in 2006, that 45
million euros ($62 million) had gone missing from the public works
ministry, the general treasury and the maize industry. Those
figures came from a investigation CONAC conducted in 2009.
(AFP, 11/11/11)(AFP, 4/17/12)
2011 Nov 11, Ahmad Rezaei, the
son of prominent Iranian conservative Mohsen Rezaei, died in Dubai's
Gloria Hotel in an apparent suicide. Prior to his return to Iran in
2005, Ahmad Rezaei had lived in the United States and openly
criticized Tehran's rulers. His father had run against President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 11, French Pres.
Sarkozy presided over the traditional Armistice Day ceremony, which
marks 93 years since fighting in WWI came to an end. He lay a wreath
at the tomb of the unknown soldier under Paris' Arc de Triomphe and
lit a flame, but strayed from convention by declaring Nov. 11 a day
to remember the dead from all of France's wars.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Haitian Culture
Minister Choiseul Henriquez (51), a former journalist and newly
appointed, died of a brain hemorrhage while in Canada.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Indonesia opened
the 26th Southeast Asian Games with more than 6,000 athletes from 11
countries participating in the biennial games.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Israeli soldiers
manning a West Bank checkpoint mistakenly shot and killed an Israeli
settler.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Italy sped a
package of reforms toward approval and prepared to hand its
dysfunctional government over to a technocrat, who Europe hopes can
save the country from going broke. Financial markets around the
world rallied in relief. Mario Monti, a distinguished economist, was
expected to succeed PM Berlusconi.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Kenyan military
and Somali government forces killed 4 al-Shabab members.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Senior Kosovo
politician Fatmir Limaj, a former ethnic Albanian rebel commander,
and eight other defendants went on trial for allegedly torturing and
executing Serb prisoners during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, A Lebanese man had
a leg blown off after stepping on a mine planted hours earlier by
Syrian troops along Lebanon's northern border.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Liberia's
opposition leader Winston Tubman said he was willing to work with
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf after disputed polls left the
war-scarred nation more divided than ever.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, In Libya 2 people
were killed in connection to a dispute between rival militias near
Tripoli, amid rising concern about the uncontrolled ownership of
weapons.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Mexico’s Interior
Secretary Francisco Blake Mora (45) was killed in a helicopter
crash, a stunning mishap too odd for some Mexicans to accept as an
accident. Mora was appointed in June 2010, the 4th interior
secretary since Calderon was elected five years ago. The crash of
the Super Puma helicopter, part of the presidential fleet, also
killed the undersecretary for legal affairs and human rights, Felipe
Zamora, two other interior officials, the chief of Blake Mora's
security detail and three crew members.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Niger President
Mahamadou Issoufou, during a visit to South Africa, said his
government has decided to grant Moamer Kadhafi's son Saadi asylum
for humanitarian reasons, adding that his brother Seif al-Islam is
not in the country. He also said Niger's army has clashed repeatedly
with arms traffickers from neighboring Libya.
(AFP, 11/11/11)(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Polish police
arrested 210 people during Independence Day marches that turned
violent, and that nearly half of them were Germans. 40 police
officers were injured and 14 police cars destroyed. Far-right
protesters, football hooligans and anarchists from Germany were
blamed.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Qatar-based Al
Jazeera opened its 2nd foreign language station broadcasting in
Serbo-Croatian from Bosnia. English broadcasts began in 2006.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.58)
2011 Nov 11, Solomon Islands’
PM Danny Philip resigned to avoid a no confidence motion following
allegations of misappropriation of aid from Taiwan. Gordon Darcy
Lilo (b.1965) replaced him on Nov 16.
(Econ, 11/19/11,
p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Darcy_Lilo)
2011 Nov 11, South Africa's
former finance minister Trevor Manuel unveiled a plan to end poverty
by creating 11 million jobs by 2030.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Sri Lanka’s new
law to nationalize "under utilized" private firms came into effect.
Opposition and press said it could shatter investor confidence and
push the country into authoritarian rule.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 11, Swaziland said it
will delay paying salaries to civil servants by up to two weeks, as
the kingdom's financial crisis deepens.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, In Syria at least
14 people were killed in violence, most of them in the restive city
of Homs, as Human Rights Watch accused the regime of crimes against
humanity.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, Ugandan police
arrested George Kiberu (35), a taxi dispatcher, for “abusing the
presidency” after he built a pigsty out of old election posters
featuring images of Pres. Yoweri Museveni.
(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.A6)
2011 Nov 11, The UN atomic
agency (IAEA) shared satellite images, letters and diagrams with 35
nations as it sought to underpin its case that Iran apparently
worked secretly on developing a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 11, In Yemen forces
loyal to President Abdullah Saleh shelled the country's second
largest city Taez, killing 15 people, among them two women and a
child.
(AFP, 11/11/11)(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 11, Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe and PM Morgan Tsvangirai called for peace in
the wake of attacks on the premier's party, as tensions rise with
expectations for elections next year.
(AFP, 11/11/11)
2011 Nov 12, Pres. Obama
gathered with leaders of 20 other nations of the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum meeting in Hawaii. Obama’s trip was part
of a 9-day trip that would include visits to aus Obama’s trip was
part of a 9-day trip that would include visits to Australia and
Indonesia.
(SFC, 11/14/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 12, It was reported
that the US Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is costing taxpayers $800,000
annually for each of the 171 captives currently held there.
(SFC, 11/12/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb destroyed a car, killing nine civilians,
including a woman and a child in Laghman province. In the south
gunmen shot and killed a village elder in the Khash Rod district of
Nimroz province.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, African Union
officials said AU troops fighting al-Qaida-linked Islamists in the
failed state of Somalia have a $10 million funding gap which has
delayed the deployment of reinforcements and lifesaving equipment.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Australia 22
sperm whales and 2 minke whales died after getting stranded near
Ocean Beach, Tasmania. Rescuers over the next 2 days saved two huge
sperm whales stranded at Macquarie Harbor. Another died and a 4th
remained stranded as weather worsened.
(AFP, 11/14/11)(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 12, The Bahraini
interior ministry announced that four members of a cell planning
attacks were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, while a
fifth suspect was arrested in Bahrain. The Sunni-ruled Arab
monarchies of the Gulf have repeatedly accused mainly Shiite Iran of
meddling in their internal affairs.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 12, Egyptian police
arrested Abdel-Halim Hassan Heneidi, a militant leader, in the
northern Sinai town of el-Arish.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Egypt Jeff
Francois, a Canadian tourist, died of a gunshot wounds He was shot
on Nov 9 when members of a feuding family opened fire on his car
when his driver refused to stop at an illegal checkpoint in the town
of al-Samata.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, EU foreign policy
chief Catherine Ashton officially opened a delegation in Tripoli
before holding talks with Libya's interim leaders as the bloc moved
to cement relations.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, French Foreign
Minister Alain Juppe vowed to help Nigeria in its fight against
extremist groups as the country faces an intensifying Islamist
insurgency. Nigeria is France's biggest trading partner in
sub-Saharan Africa.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Germany some
9,000 people rallied in Frankfurt near the EU’s Central Bank office
calling for an end to excesses of financial speculation and urging
the government to dismantle big banks.
(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.A8)
2011 Nov 12, In Iran an
accidental explosion at a Revolutionary Guard ammunition depot west
of Tehran killed at least 36 soldiers. Brig. Gen. Hassan Moqaddam, a
top commander of Iran’s ballistic missile program, was among those
killed.
(AP, 11/12/11)(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.A6)(SFC,
11/14/11, p.A2)(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 12, Italy’s PM
Berlusconi resigned after lawmakers rushed through a budget bill
seen as the first step toward winning back investor confidence.
(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.A8)
2011 Nov 12, A Kenyan official
said more than 30 Kenya-based members of Somalia's top militant
group have accepted a police amnesty and are providing information
to help Kenyan police secure the country against threatened suicide
attacks by the group. Kenyan and Somali government troops killed
nine members of an al-Qaida-linked militant group they were pursuing
in Somalia.
(AP, 11/12/11)(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Kazakhstan a
radical Islamist, identified only as Kariyev, killed 7 people,
including 5 law enforcement officers, in a rampage the southern city
of Taraz. The suspect blew himself up as officers moved in to arrest
him.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, Nigeria evacuated
from Mali 104 of its citizens, mostly women, either made to work as
"sexual slaves" or suspected of involvement in human trafficking.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Pakistan four
intelligence officials were killed during a raid on a militant
hideout in the country's east. Some militants were killed or
captured in the raid in Jellum district. Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a
Pakistani militant commander close to the Afghan border, threatened
to abandon an unofficial peace deal with the government because of
American missile strikes and shelling by the Pakistani army.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, Puerto Rico
reported that 983 people have been killed so far this year, equal to
the number of killings reported for all of last year when the US
Caribbean territory marked its second highest number of slayings
ever. A record 995 people were killed in 1994 in this island of 4
million people.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Somalia 3
refugees queuing for food were killed in crossfire when corrupt
Somali government security forces tried to loot aid supplies in
famine-hit Mogadishu.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, In South Africa
renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck (55) was about to be detained
over the alleged sexual assault of a Zimbabwean man when he plunged
to his death.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 12, South Korea
dispatched patrol boats and a helicopter for 8 missing crewmen after
a fishing boat collided with a freighter and sank off its
southwestern coast.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, Global aid
organization Oxfam said it has withdrawn 22 staff from South Sudan's
Upper Nile state because of escalating violence along the newly
independent country's tense border with the north.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Sudan an
alliance of rebel groups committed to regime change said that a key
Darfur rebel movement had joined them, as they convened for a second
meeting in the Nuba Mountains.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, The 22-member Arab
League voted to suspend Syria and warned the regime could face
sanctions if it does not end its bloody crackdown against
anti-government protesters. The decision was a symbolic blow to a
nation that prides itself on being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.
18 countries agreed to the suspension, scheduled to take effect on
Nov 16.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, Turkish commandos
in civilian clothes slipped onto the Kartepe, a hijacked passenger
ferry, and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected
Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended
before dawn.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 12, In Yemen fierce
clashes erupted in Taez as protesters in the capital Sanaa condemned
international silence in the face of a government crackdown. Armed
tribesmen, who have thrown their support behind the protest
movement, clashed with government troops in the Hassab district of
Taez.
(AFP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Portland,
Oregon, several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas
masks, marched past authorities in a downtown street, hours after
riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of a pair of
weeks-old encampments in nearby parks. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered
that the camp shut down, citing unhealthy conditions and the
encampment's attraction of drug users and thieves.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Brazil More
than 3,000 police and soldiers backed by armored personnel carriers
raced into Rio’s biggest slum before dawn, quickly gaining control
of the Rocinha shantytown ruled for decades by a heavily armed drug
gang. The city of Rio de Janeiro has more than 1,000 shantytowns
where about one-third of its 6 million people live.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, Emirates Airlines
launched the Dubai Airshow with a record $18-billion order for 50
Boeing 777s, giving the US company a flying start on its European
rival Airbus at the prestigious event.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, Egyptian security
forces arrested Mohammed Eid Muslih Hamad, aka "El-Tihi," in the
northern Sinai town of el-Arish. Officials said he was the leader of
an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Sinai peninsula that was behind
attacks on police and on a gas pipeline that transports fuel to
Israel and Jordan.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, Equatorial
Guinea's main opposition withdrew its agents from polling stations
to protest against irregularities as the country voted in a
referendum on a new constitution. If approved, the constitution
would be amended to impose presidential term limits, but the text
does not make clear whether Obiang will have to step down when his
term ends in 2016. The referendum also created a new vice president
position, a job many believe is earmarked for Obiang's son. 97% of
people voted in favor of measures that limit presidents to two terms
in office. The new constitution did not make clear whether Obiang
could stay in power until 2030.
(AFP, 11/13/11)(AP, 11/14/11)(AFP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 13, German police
arrested a new suspect, Holger G. (37), following the discovery of
an extremist group, labeled the National Socialist Underground,
believed to have killed 10 people in what the country's top security
official called "a new form of far right terrorism." Prosecutors
suspect the “Zwickau cell,” which was discovered only last week, of
having murdered eight people of Turkish origin, one Greek national
and a German policewoman over the past decade.
(AP, 11/13/11)(Econ, 2/4/12, p.54)
2011 Nov 13, Italy’s Pres.
Giorgio Napolitano asked Mario Monti, a former European
commissioner, to become prime minister.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.53)
2011 Nov 13, Kuwait said it has
boosted its oil output to above three million barrels per day. The
oil minister warned that any cut in crude production would send
world prices soaring.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Libya rival
militias clashed on the outskirts of Tripoli for a fourth day, the
most sustained violence since the capture and killing of Moammar
Gadhafi last month. The fighting has left at least four people dead
since late last week. A local commander of fighters from Tripoli,
said gunmen from Zawiya and Warshefana were fighting for control of
a camp midway between the capital of Tripoli and Zawiya.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, A Malawi high
court official said some 14 local sex workers arrested by police and
forced to undergo HIV tests two years ago have sued the government
for "unfair action and violating their privacy." The sex workers
were charged for trading in sex while having a sexually transmitted
disease. They were fined $7 (K1,200) and set free. About 14% of the
country's 13 million citizens are infected with HIV.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, Mexico’s Michoacan
state held elections for governor. The former ruling party won the
race after a campaign marred by drug-cartel threats and violence,
defeating President Felipe Calderon's sister and building momentum
for its drive to take back the presidency next year. Fausto Vallejo
Figueroa of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) won 35% over
Luisa Maria Calderon (PAN) at 33%.
(AP, 11/14/11)(SFC, 11/15/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 13, Mexican soldiers
searching vehicles for hidden drugs found 140 Central Americans
crammed into a tractor-trailer rig in Chiapas. Police found the
bodies of six bricklayers who were working on a new elementary
school in the northern state of Chihuahua. Two of them were
mutilated. Mexican officials arrested Juan Gabriel Orozco Favela, a
drug dealer who controlled smuggling routes and ran a campaign of
murder and intimidation for the Knights Templar drug cartel.
(AP, 11/14/11)(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Mexico norteno
singer Diego Rivas was shot dead in Culiacan, Sinaloa state,
joining a list of murdered musicians famous for chronicling the
cartel lifestyle in folk songs.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, Anglo-Dutch oil
giant Shell reported a fresh spill from a key delivery pipeline in
southern Nigeria, but said it has contained the leak.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, In northwest
Pakistan a bomb blast killed six people in remote Mastak town. Two
members of an anti-Taliban militia are among those killed.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Qatar energy
ministers of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) met to prepare
for a first summit of the 12-member group which is to discuss prices
and coordination. The meeting welcomed Oman as the newest member of
the forum. Other members included Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt,
Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and
Tobago, and Venezuela. Kazakhstan, Norway and the Netherlands were
observers.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Somalia
explosions in Afgoye, a heavily populated corridor along a main road
leading out of the Somali capital, came during a meeting of Islamist
insurgent leaders as the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militia fought to
defend itself on two fronts. None of the militant leaders were
believed to have been killed and no one claimed responsibility for
the attacks.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 13, Voters in
Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia chose a new president
for the first time since Georgia and Russia fought a brief war over
control of the territory in 2008. South Ossetia has been led since
2001 by Eduard Kokoiti, who has served two terms as president and is
now stepping down. Among those favored to succeed him is Anatoly
Bibilov, who heads South Ossetia's emergencies services and has the
support of Russia's dominant pro-Kremlin party. Anatoly Bibilov and
former education minister Alla Dzhioyeva each won about 25 percent
of the vote forcing a runoff in two weeks.
(AP, 11/13/11)(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 13, In Syria tens of
thousands of government supporters poured into the streets to
protest an Arab League vote to suspend the country's membership, as
Turkey sent planes to evacuate diplomatic staff and their families
after a night of attacks on embassies. Activists reporting at least
11 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of
the country.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, The death toll
from Thailand's worst floods in half a century reached 536, and
authorities told more residents of Bangkok to evacuate their
neighborhoods.
(AP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 13, Turkish warplanes
bombed the Qandil border area in Iraqi Kurdistan for about an hour.
(AFP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 13, Yemeni government
forces and allied tribesmen killed ten militants in attacks around
the country, as visiting UN envoy Jamal Benomar met with embattled
President Ali Abdullah Saleh to push for a solution to the country's
political crisis.
(AP, 11/13/11)
2011 Nov 14, It was reported
that the Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe, plans to
issue its first bonds in a $120 million offering to finance some 50
projects on its 27,000-square-mile reservation in Arizona, New
Mexico and Utah.
(SFC, 11/14/11, p.D4)
2011 Nov 14, In Oakland, Ca.,
some 1,000 Occupy Oakland protesters returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza
hours after being evicted by police. They were allowed to gather
with no camping. An estimated $500,000 was spent for outside
officers to assist Oakland police.
(SFC, 11/15/11, p.A1)
2011 Nov 14, In Texas Barry
Walter Bujol Jr., accused of attempting to sneak out of the US with
restricted military documents, money and equipment in order to join
Al-Qaida, was convicted in federal court in Houston.
(SFC, 11/15/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 14, In Afghanistan a
suspected suicide bomber carrying a bag of explosives was shot dead
in Kabul near the site of a major meeting of Afghan elders set to
discuss relations with the US.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Brazil’s Federal
Register noted that the government for the first time has granted a
foreign citizen the right to live permanently in the country based
on a same-sex relationship with a Brazilian citizen.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Canada released a
new C$100 bill made of plastic, its first step in replacing an
entire series of banknotes to thwart counterfeiters and persuade
retailers it's safe to accept big bills. Canada is the first to add
a metallic hologram that is especially difficult to fake. Plastic
notes, nearly impervious to liquids, stains, tearing or
wear-and-tear, were pioneered by the Reserve Bank of Australia in
1988.
(Reuters, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 14, In northwestern
China an explosion in a restaurant, likely caused by a natural gas
leak, killed at least 7 people and injured another 31 in Xi'an,
capital of Shaanxi province.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Egyptian security
forces arrested Abdel Karim Mohammed Ahmed and Ahmed Salem Awad of
the radical Islamist Al-Takfeer wal Hijra during a sweep in the
north Sinai town of El-Arish.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, EU foreign
ministers decided to impose additional sanctions on 18 Syrians in
response to the killings of protesters by Syrian President Bashar
Assad's regime. The sanctions also include suspending the
disbursement of European Investment Bank loans.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, German prosecutors
formally arrested Beate Z. (36), a woman suspected of co-founding a
far-right terror organization that authorities say murdered 10
people, amid mounting criticism of security authorities for their
failure to act sooner. She turned herself in last week.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, It was reported
that villagers living on the Indonesian side of Borneo killed at
least 750 endangered orangutans in a year, some to protect crops
from being raided and others for their meat, a new survey shows. The
information was based on interviews with 6983 people between April
2008 and September 2009.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Israeli Cabinet
ministers decided to hold on to some $100 million in taxes owed to
the Palestinians, an official said, despite warnings from Israel's
Defense Ministry that the measure could threaten the stability of
the Palestinian government in the West Bank. A Hamas naval policeman
was killed and 7 others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on their
building in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Jordan's King
Abdullah II said Syria’s Pres. Assad should step down for the good
of his country, the first Arab leader to publicly make such a call.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 14, Two Russians and
an American blasted off from Kazakhstan to the ISS orbiting
laboratory on a Soyuz-FG rocket, Russia's first manned mission since
the failed launch of the unmanned Progress supply ship in August
temporarily grounded its Soyuz rockets.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, A Kenya government
statement said PM Raila Odinga asked Israeli President Shimon Peres
for assistance in building the capacity of the Kenyan police to deal
with attacks by al-Shabab militants.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Kuwait-based
leasing company ALAFCO signed an agreement with Airbus to buy 50
A320neo aircraft, valued at $4.6 billion at list price, the two
sides announced at Dubai Airshow.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Maritime New
Zealand said salvage crews have finished pumping 1,454 tons of oil
from the Rena, grounded on Oct 5, and were removing the last of
1,280 containers that remained on board.
(SFC, 11/14/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 14, Pakistan's
telecommunications authority sent a letter ordering cell phone
companies to block text messages containing what it perceives to be
obscenities. It also sent a list of more than 1,500 English and Urdu
words that were to be blocked. The order was part of the regulator's
attempt to block spam messages.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 14, Four Pakistani
paramilitary soldiers were killed when militants attacked their
convoy in the northwestern tribal district of Khyber. In neighboring
Mohmand district, security forces said they killed four militants
and wounded five others who were later arrested, as the group tried
to enter Pakistan from across the unmarked border in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, Puerto Rico police
captured drug smuggler Carlos Morales Davila between Puerto Rico and
the island of Vieques. He was expected to be extradited to Miami.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, In southern Syria
34 soldiers and security forces were gunned down by suspected army
defectors in Daraa. As many as 90 people killed across the country.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, In Berkeley, Ca.,
as many as 10,000 students and Occupy activists overflowed the UC
Berkeley Sproul Plaza following a daylong classroom walkout.
They established a small camp in defiance of the university’s edict
that no tents be erected.
(SFC, 11/16/11, p.A1)
2011 Nov 15, In southern
California an estimated 17 tons of marijuana were seized in the
discovery of a cross-border tunnel linking warehouses in San Diego
and Tijuana. Authorities said it was one of the most significant
secret drug smuggling passages ever found on the US-Mexico border.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 15, The Center for
Budget and Policy Priorities said in a new report that Michigan is
among just a handful of states raising taxes on low-income working
families while cutting taxes for other groups.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 15, In NYC hundreds of
police officers in riot gear raided Zuccotti Park, evicting dozens
of Occupy Wall Street protesters from what has become the epicenter
of the worldwide movement protesting corporate greed and economic
inequality. Hours later, the National Lawyers Guild obtained a court
order allowing Occupy Wall Street protesters to return with tents to
the park. About 70 people were arrested overnight.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, In Seattle,
Washington, a downtown march and rally in support of the Occupy Wall
Street movement turned briefly chaotic as police scattered a crowd
of rowdy protesters, including a pregnant 19-year-old and an
84-year-old activist, with blasts of pepper spray.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 15, Afghanistan got a
new, 3-year, $133.6 million line of credit from the International
Monetary Fund, which said the struggling government had taken steps
to address governance and accountability issues that surfaced during
the Kabul Bank crisis. A bomb strapped to a donkey blew up in
northern Faryab province, killing a policeman and 2 civilians,
including a child. 17 other people were wounded.
(AP, 11/15/11)(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 15, Algerian
newspapers reported that authorities have arrested nine people,
including eight Air Algerie stewards, as part of an operation
against an international drug trafficking ring. The suspects,
including a famous singer and an Air Algerie trade union leader,
have come under pressure to retract statements in which they named
certain clients.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, The City of London
Corporation said that it will resume legal action to clear an
anti-capitalist camp outside St Paul's Cathedral.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Europe's top court
barred Britain from enacting a corporate tax reform in its tiny
territory of Gibraltar, ruling the scheme would amount to illegal
state aid for offshore companies.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Shanghai sold
bonds under a new pilot scheme raising $1.1 billion. China’s
provincial and municipal governments had been prohibited from
borrowing since 1994.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 15, In the Republic of
Congo Alexandre Kossiarev, a native of Belarus, was killed when an
MI-8, a Russian-designed helicopter, crashed in the country's
north.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 15, The EU said it has
tightened controls on imports of Chinese rice products after a
growing number of shipments were contaminated by unauthorized
genetically-modified rice.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Guatemalan
President Alvaro Colom said he will grant a US extradition request
for former president Alfonso Portillo, who faces charges in the US
of embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Hong Kong customs
officers intercepted a record haul of 33 rhino horns, 758 ivory
chopsticks and 127 bracelets hidden inside a container shipped from
South Africa.
(AFP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 15, India and Pakistan
agreed to normalize two-way trade, signifying a gradual thaw in
relations between the two bitter rivals.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, The Paris Club of
mostly industrialized countries said it had reached an agreement
with Ivory Coast to defer over 10 years most of its debt coming due
and to forgive $1.8 billion in its foreign debts.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, In Mexico El Siglo
de Torreon, a newspaper in the northern city of Torreon, was
attacked by armed men who set fire to the facade of its offices and
opened fire at its sales offices.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Mexican officials
captured Alfredo Aleman Narvaez, a suspected leader for the Zetas
drug cartel, during a horse race that he organized in the northern
state of Zacatecas.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 15, New Zealand
conservation officials euthanized 18 beached pilot whales following
a mass stranding on a South Island beach that left a total of 65
whales dead.
(SFC, 11/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 15, Nigerian airport
officials fined British Airways $135 million and Virgin Atlantic
$100 million amid a dispute over ticket prices. The airlines were
given 14 days to respond and were ordered to compensate passengers.
In 2012 a panel "cancelled the fines because at the time of the
offence between 2004 and 2006, there was no law to make them
culpable."
(AFP, 11/17/11)(AFP, 2/10/12)
2011 Nov 15, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US drone fired missiles at a house in Miran
Shah, North Waziristan, killing seven alleged militants. Also in the
northwest, Pakistani forces pounded militant hideouts, killing 16
suspected insurgents in Orakzai's Dabori area. Militants attacked an
army checkpoint in the Ladha area of South Waziristan with rockets,
killing one soldier and wounding another. Just before midnight
suspected US drones fired four missiles at two compounds in South
Waziristan, killing 16 alleged militants.
(AP, 11/15/11)(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 15, Saudi Arabia said
it has signed an agreement with South Korea on developing nuclear
power generation to help meet the kingdom's rising demand.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, South African
teacher Guilford Shapo (53) was hacked to death with a machete in
front of a shocked classroom of primary school students in the
northern town of Polokwane. His 40-year-old brother was charged in
the case.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 15, In western South
Africa a 3-vehicle crash left 20 people dead.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, A Swaziland
spokesman said the cash-strapped country has pulled together enough
loans from local banks and private businesses to pay government
workers on time this month.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Lawmakers from
Thailand's ruling political party submitted a parliamentary motion
to begin discussions over possibly shifting the capital city to
prevent future flooding chaos. Bangkok, which is built on swampland,
is slowly sinking and the floods currently besieging the city of 12
million people could be merely a foretaste of a grim future.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, A Tunisian
official said Moncef Marzouki, a physician who headed that Tunisian
League of Human Rights, will take on the role of interim president
for the next year while a new constitution is being written.
(SFC, 11/16/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 15, Turkey canceled
plans for oil exploration in Syria, while also threatening to cut
electricity supplies after a spate of attacks by supporters of
Syrian President Bashar Assad on its diplomatic missions.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, A magnitude-5.2
quake shook eastern Turkey, already devastated by two powerful
tremors.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, Ugandan traders
blockaded several streets in Kampala to protest at lengthening power
blackouts they say are crippling businesses around the country.
(AFP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 15, US Federal agents
said they have seized 709 pounds (321 kg) of cocaine and arrested
three men off the US island of St. John. The suspects' boat was
first spotted Nov 11 by a maritime surveillance aircraft flying over
the US Virgin Islands.
(AP, 11/15/11)
2011 Nov 16, US President
Barack Obama arrived in Australia and announced a new security
agreement with Australia. Obama said the US would keep sending a
clear message that China needs to accept the responsibilities that
come with being a world power.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, A California
Legislative Analyst’s Office report said the state will collect
billions of dollars less in revenue than expected and expect a
budget deficit of $13 billion in the 2012-2013 fiscal year.
California State Univ. trustees raised tuition by 9% as police in
Long Beach clashed protesters at the system’s headquarters.
(SFC, 11/17/11, p.A1)
2011 Nov 16, In San Francisco
police arrested 95 protesters who occupied a downtown BofA office at
Davis and California streets.
(SFC, 11/17/11, p.A14)
2011 Nov 16, In Missouri Shelby
Dasher (20) was charged with murdering her son, after prosecutors
say she admitted beating him because he wouldn't stop crying. She
had claimed her 13-month-old son vanished from his crib. People
walking their dog found Tyler Dasher's body a day earlier near a
cemetery about a mile from his home.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, The Nebraska
legislature voted 45-0 to advance a proposed law that would reroute
the $7 billion TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, avoiding the
SandHills and Ogallala aquifer that environmental groups and many
residents fear could be polluted by a spill.
(Reuters, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Oscar Ramiro
Ortega-Hernandez (21), a man with an apparent obsession with
President Barack Obama, was arrested in Pennsylvania after the
Secret Service discovered two bullets struck the White House while
the president was away.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, In Washington DC a
band of millionaires stormed Capitol Hill to urge Congress to tax
them more.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Google launched
its new online music service.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.68)
2011 Nov 16, At least six
people were killed and dozens more injured as a storm system that
spawned several possible tornadoes moved across the Southeast.
Suspected tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama
and South Carolina.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, Afghan Pres.
Karzai, at the opening of a grand council, or "loya jirga," told
tribal elders that any ongoing partnership with the United States
would need to include an end to widely unpopular nighttime raids by
NATO and on the international forces handing over control of
detention centers to Afghan troops. NATO said that three of its
service members were killed in attacks in the south.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, London officials
attached eviction notices to protest tents outside St. Paul's
Cathedral, asking the demonstrators to remove them within a day or
face legal action. More than 200 tents have been pitched outside the
iconic church since Oct. 15 in a protest against capitalist excess
inspired by New York's Occupy Wall Street, and the protesters said
they would resist attempts to move them.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Outspoken Chinese
artist Ai Weiwei said he feels like he has paid a ransom, after
depositing $1.3 million into a government account while he contests
a huge tax bill months after being held in police detention.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, In western China
an overloaded school minibus crashed head-on with a truck, killing
21 people including 19 kindergarten children on their way to class
in Gansu province.
(AP, 11/16/11)(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, Student leaders in
Colombia called off a monthlong boycott of classes at public
universities after the government met their demand to withdraw
educational reform legislation.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Iran’s Cabinet
approved a new regulation allowing tea houses to again offer water
pipes to customers. The ban remains in place for other institutions,
along with the general 2005 ban on smoking in restaurants, parks and
other public places.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, Iraq executed a
Tunisian man convicted of the 2006 bombing of a revered Shiite
shrine that set off the worst of the country's sectarian violence.
Yusri Fakhir was convicted earlier this year of the bombing on the
al-Askari shrine in Sunni city of Samarra.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, In Iraq two
Iranian pilgrims visiting Shiite shrines were killed when a bomb
went off next to a minibus in which they were traveling.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Israel's domestic
security agency Shin Bet said in a statement that Israeli forces
have arrested four Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis,
including shooting at an army patrol. Israel allowed the first
truckloads of a rare shipment of construction materials into
Gaza to allow the reconstruction of 10 privately owned factories.
(AFP, 11/16/11)(SFC, 11/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 16, Italy’s new
premier Mario Monti (68) formed a new government of bankers,
diplomats and business executives.
(SFC, 11/17/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 16, In Jordan Najm
Zoubi (20) hung himself after he and two others were arrested for
questioning in a case whose details remain unknown. Relatives,
suspecting that policemen beat Zoubi to death, torched the state
building and four cars in the northern town of Ramtha.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, The presidents of
Kenya, Uganda and Somalia said the dual-fronted fight against
Islamist al-Shabab militants presents a "historic opportunity" to
restore stability in Somalia.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, In Kuwait
opposition activists stormed the parliament building as opposition
lawmakers called for the prime minister to be questioned over
accusations that officials transferred state funds to bank accounts
outside the country. On Nov 24 twenty opposition activists were
arrested for the melee.
(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 16, Lithuania’s
government decided to nationalize Snoras Bankas. On Nov 23 arrest
warrants were issued for Vladimir Antonov and Raimondas Baranauskas,
former shareholders in the bank, on charges including embezzlement
and forgery. At least €300 was thought to be missing.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.87)
2011 Nov 16, In Mexico Victor
Manuel Martinez Cortez, a federal prosecutor for the border state of
Coahuila, was about to leave his home in Torreon when he was
attacked and killed while sitting in his car.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb hit a minibus in the northwestern Tirah valley,
killing six passengers and wounding two others. Militants attacked a
military checkpoint in the Murghan area of the Kurram tribal region,
killing one officer and wounding a soldier.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, On board the USS
Fitzgerald in Manila Bay US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario signed a declaration
calling for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes such as
those in the South China Sea, contrasting China's policy of
negotiating one-on-one with the Philippines and other Asian
claimants.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Federal agents in
Puerto Rico said they have seized 225 kg (nearly 500 pounds) of
cocaine more than $4 million from a house owned by pro boxer Ivan
Calderon. Calderon said the house was one of a number of investment
properties he owns and that he was not aware of any illegal
activities there.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, A court in Romania
ordered the arrest of a Romanian man accused of hacking into NASA's
servers in December, 2010, causing NASA losses of about $500,000
(euro371,000). A court spokesman said Robert Butyka (26) would be
arrested for 29 days as he awaits trial.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, The rebel Free
Syrian Army announced the creation of a temporary military council
with the aim of ousting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and
protecting civilians from his forces. Army defectors attacked
military and intelligence bases near the capital and an army
checkpoint during a spate of assaults, killing at least 8 soldiers
and security forces in the central province of Hama. Arab ministers
gave Damascus "three days to stop the bloody repression," as at
least 23 people were killed in violence.
(AFP, 11/16/11)(AP, 11/16/11)(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 16, US Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a $10 million aid package for
flood-ravaged Thailand during a visit to express solidarity.
(AP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, Yemeni troops
killed seven al-Qaida-linked militants, including an Iranian, a
Pakistani and two Somali nationals, in the latest fighting in
Zinjibar, provincial capital of Abyan. Anti-regime protesters,
inspired by the suspension of Syria from the Arab League, staged a
massive rally in Sanaa to urge the regional grouping to do the same
with Yemen.
(AP, 11/16/11)(AFP, 11/16/11)
2011 Nov 16, A Zimbabwe
magistrate court freed three businessmen accused of espionage for
allegedly selling state secrets to the United States, Canada and
Afghanistan. Farai Rwodzi and Simba Mangwende, both executives at
Africom Holdings, and Oliver Chiku of Global Satellite System still
faced a lesser charge of violating the Post and Telecommunications
Act.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, In California
police cleared the Occupy Cal encampment in UC Berkeley’s Sproul
Plaza, arresting 2 protesters and removing about 20 tents.
(SFC, 11/18/11, p.A13)
2011 Nov 17, In the San
Francisco Bay area Vallejo police officer James Capoot (45) was shot
and killed while attempting to apprehend Henry Albert Smith (37), a
suspect wanted in a robbery that had just occurred at the Bank of
America at Springstowne Center.
(SFC, 11/18/11, p.A1)(SFC, 11/30/11, p.C4)
2011 Nov 17, Michelle Parker
(33) of Orlando, Fl., was last seen after her episode of “The
People’s Court” aired on TV. Earlier in the day the episode aired in
which Parker and with ex-fiance Dale Smith battled over whether
Parker had to pay for a $5,000 engagement ring she tossed away
during one of their spats. The judge ruled the two should split the
cost.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 17, Police arrested
over 200 protesters who sat on the ground and blocked traffic into
New York City's financial district, part of a day of mass gatherings
in response to efforts to break up Occupy Wall Street camps
nationwide.
(AP, 11/17/11)(SFC, 11/18/11, p.A13)
2011 Nov 17, Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika sacked Noureddine Cherouati, the managing
director of state energy giant Sonatrach and gave his job to another
senior official in the firm. Abdelhamid Zerguine, the head of
Sonatrach's subsidiary at Lugano in Switzerland," was named to
replace him.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Australian
scientists exploring areas of the Indian Ocean said they had found
sunken parts of the megacontinent Gondwana which could offer clues
on how the current world was formed. This would hopefully shed light
on how Gondwana broke into present-day Australia, Antarctica and
India between 80 and 130 million years ago.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, The Northern Rock
bank, nationalized at the height of the global financial crisis in
2008, was sold to Richard Branson's Virgin Money at a loss for
British taxpayers. The government agreed to sell Northern Rock to
online lender Virgin Money for £747 million ($1.18 billion,
872 million euros) in cash, although the final amount could rise to
about £1.0 billion.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Brazilian
authorities began investigating an offshore oil spill. Chevron says
that between 400 and 650 barrels of oil have leaked from a well it
was drilling off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The leak totaled no
more than 3,000 barrels.
(AP, 11/17/11)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.23)
2011 Nov 17, Cambodia's
UN-backed tribunal ruled that Ieng Thirith (79), a former senior
Khmer Rouge leader, was unfit to stand trial for genocide and other
crimes because she has Alzheimer's disease.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, China's unmanned
spacecraft Shenzhou VIII returned to Earth, state media reported,
after completing two space dockings that have pushed forward the
nation's ambitious space program.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, In Egypt attackers
threw rocks and broken glass at a march by Coptic Christians in
Cairo, injuring 10, in the latest outbreak of sectarian violence.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, It was reported
that Aliaa Magda Elmahdy (20), an Egyptian woman activist who posted
nude pictures of herself on her blog to protest limits on free
expression, has triggered an uproar in Egypt, drawing condemnations
from conservatives and liberals alike.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, It was reported
that French company Fonroche plans invest $115 million to build a
44-megawatt solar farm in Puerto Rico. The farm will be built on 160
acres (65 hectares) and will provide power to the state-owned
electric company as part of a 20-year, $240 million contract.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, The 3-day East
Asia Summit (EAS), bringing together the 10-member Association of
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eight dialogue partners, opened
on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. President Barack Obama
became the first US leader to attend an East Asia summit. Leaders
from 18 nations gathered to discuss territorial disputes in the
South China Sea, democratic reforms in military-dominated Myanmar,
mitigating natural disasters, currency, trade and other issues.
(AP, 11/19/11)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.50)
2011 Nov 17, In Iraq four
people were killed when a car bomb went off next to an Iraqi
military patrol in Mahmoudiya.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Annual figures
from Israel’s National Insurance Institute showed one in four
Israelis was living under the poverty line in 2010, although the
numbers showed an improvement since 2009.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, In Italy
anti-austerity protesters clashed with riot police as PM Mario Monti
appealed to Italians to accept sacrifices to save their country from
bankruptcy.
(SFC, 11/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 17, Libyan militiamen,
who fought the regime of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi, marched
through Tripoli demanding a voice in the formation of a new interim
government. Libya's Muslim Brotherhood, repressed under the regime
of fallen strongman Moamer Kadhafi, opened its first public congress
inside the country for almost 25 years.
(AP, 11/18/11)(AFP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 17, In Nigeria 3
hostages, two of them Americans, were kidnapped off the coast when
gunmen attacked the MV C-Endeavour working with oil giant Chevron.
The hostages were released on Dec 1.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Nov 17, Norwegian security
officials say the Nordic country has been hit by one of the most
extensive data espionage attacks in the country's history. The
Norwegian National Security Authority said industrial secrets from
the oil, energy and defense industries have been stolen and
disseminated.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, In Pakistan
suspected US drones fired four missiles at a compound in North
Waziristan, killing eight alleged militants and wounding two others
in the third such strike in as many days. Pakistani security forces
pounded militant hideouts in the Orakzai tribal area, killing 25
suspected militants, and in the Kurram tribal area, killing 12
suspected militants. Saeed Abdul Salam, carrying a US and a
Pakistani passport, detonated an explosive device when troops raided
his apartment in Karachi.
(AP, 11/17/11)(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 17, Puerto Rico's
governor said he's allocating $20 million to provide police with
more training and resources as the island suffers a record number of
killings this year.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Somalia's Islamist
rebels attacked government and African Union troops positions in
Mogadishu, killing four civilians and wounding 12 others.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Sudan’s government
blocked South Sudanese oil exports through its Red Sea port due to a
dispute over transit fees. The pipeline was not been shut down, but
the south was not being allowed to ship its oil cargo out of Port
Sudan.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 17, Taiwan media
reported that the government is planning to send naval vessels to
waters off Somalia for the first time to protect the island's
fishing boats against pirates.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, The Tanzania-based
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) handed down a
15-year jail term for genocide to Gregory Ndahimana (59), a Rwandan
former mayor, who in 1994 failed to stop police bulldozing a church,
burying nearly 2,000 people sheltered inside.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Syrian rebel
troops hit youth offices of Syria's ruling Baath party, a day after
a spectacular raid on a military intelligence base outside Damascus.
Mohammad Riad Shakfa, the leader of Syria's exiled Muslim
Brotherhood, said that his compatriots would accept Turkish
"intervention" in the country to resolve months of bloody unrest.
Syria said it had issued a warning to its citizens that they would
be arrested and prosecuted if they took part in further attacks as
security forces shot dead a nine-year-old girl. Government troops
made sweeping arrests in the restive Hama province.
(AFP, 11/17/11)(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, The UN nuclear
agency said a Hungarian manufacturer of medical radioactive
substances was "most probably" the source of increased radiation
levels measured in several European countries in the past weeks.
(AP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, The UN refugee
agency said Yemen has seen a surge of refugees from Somalia and
Ethiopia, with a record 12,545 arriving by sea last month as they
fled unrest, famine and persecution.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 17, Venezuela’s Pres.
Chavez ordered thousands of National Guard soldiers into the streets
of Caracas and the surrounding states of Miranda and Vargas to help
outgunned police curb widespread violent crime.
(SFC, 11/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 18, US Congress lifted
a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections in a spending
bill Pres. Obama signed into law to keep the government afloat until
mid-December. The last US slaughterhouse that butchered horses
closed in 2007 in Illinois. Animal welfare activists have warned of
massive public outcry in any town where a slaughterhouse may open.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 18, The US FCC
released details of an order directing $4.5 billion a year from
universal service and inter-carrier-compensation systems into a new
connect America Fund (CAF) to give rural Americans access to high
speed internet connections over the next 6 years.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.42)
2011 Nov 18, The LA Times
reported that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County,
California is buying Robert Schuller's celebrated Protestant Crystal
Cathedral megachurch for $57.5 million.
(http://tinyurl.com/7qn599h)
2011 Nov 18, An officer at
California’s UC Davis calmly pepper-sprayed a line of several
sitting protesters as onlookers shrieked and screamed out for the
officer to stop. The next day video of the incident surfaced online.
The chancellor of the University of California described the video
images as "chilling" and said she was forming a task force to
investigate even as a faculty group called for her resignation.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Nevada a fire
swept through an upscale community in the sierra foothills in
southwest Reno destroying 32 homes. Nearly 10,000 people were forced
to evacuate the area.
(SSFC, 11/20/11, p.A16)
2011 Nov 18, New York
authorities said an ambitious and organized identity-theft ring
recruited waiters at steakhouses and other high-end restaurants to
steal diners' credit-card information, then used it for luxury
shopping sprees. 28 people were indicted on racketeering and other
charges.
(AP, 11/18/11)(SFC, 11/19/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 18, In NYC hundreds of
Muslims marched to police headquarters to protest a decade of police
infiltrating mosques and spying on Muslim neighborhoods.
(SFC, 11/19/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 18, Findings detailed
in today’s issue of the journal Science tell how scientists have
devised ultra-lightweight, low-density metallic lattices with
orderly structures. These possess higher levels of stiffness,
strength and conductivity of conventional forms of their parent
materials.
(http://tinyurl.com/73h5bh4)
2011 Nov 18, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb exploded near a playground, killing four children and
wounding six. A group of aid agencies warned that more than 2
million people are facing food shortages in northern Afghanistan
after a drought and the situation could get even worse if winter
snows cut off access to remote regions. A roadside bomb killed a
member of the NATO-led military force in the south.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Australia 4
people died as fires ravaged a nursing home in Sydney's suburban
Quakers Hill neighborhood. A 5th died the next day and Nurse Roger
Dean (35), who said he rescued patients from a fire, was charged
with murder.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Austria the US
and its Western allies bluntly accused Iran of deceiving the world
and declared it could no longer dismiss evidence it is working
secretly on making nuclear arms.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Bahrain
thousands of Shiite-led protesters calling for greater rights
streamed into an area outside the capital Manama.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Benin, marking his second visit to Africa in a heartland
of voodoo and warning against "unconditional submission" to the laws
of the market and finance.
(AFP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Brazil's Pres.
Dilma Rousseff signed a law establishing a truth commission to
investigate human rights abuses by the military regime that ruled
Latin America's biggest country from 1964 to 1985.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Brazil's
environmental protection agency said nearly 110,000 gallons of oil
may have spilled into the Atlantic Ocean because of a leak at an
offshore Chevron drilling site. Chevron had said that only 16,800 to
27,300 gallons in total leaked into the ocean.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, In western Brazil
gunmen executed a chief of the Kaiowa-Guarani Indian tribe and
disappeared with his body. More than 40 "hooded and heavily armed"
gunmen raided the Tekoha Guaiviry village in Mato Grosso do Sul
state and fatally shot chief Nisio Gomes. It appeared that the
gunmen were hired by local ranchers seeking to intimidate and expel
the tribe from land that both sides claim as their own.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Protesters facing
a legal battle over the right to stay camped outside St. Paul's
Cathedral said they have taken over a building owned by the UBS bank
in east London.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In London Munir
Patel (22), the first person to be convicted under new bribery laws,
was jailed. He was given three years in prison for bribery offences
and six years for misconduct in a public office, with the sentences
to run concurrently. Patel had helped at least 53 individuals evade
prosecution for driving offences.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Tens of thousands
of Egyptians, dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, rallied in
Cairo's Tahrir square to protest against what they say are attempts
by the country's military rulers to designate themselves as the
guardians of a new Egypt. It was one of the largest rallies in Egypt
in recent months.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, The European
Commission said an extra 10 million euros ($13.5 million) in
humanitarian funding will go on addressing "major shortfalls" in
food in the Sahel region. The crisis is affecting 7 million people
in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Nigeria.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Germany a
52-vehicle pileup on the A31 autobahn near the town of Gronau in the
northwest left three people dead and 35 injured.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, Greece predicted
that its budget deficit will fall sharply next year and insisted
that no fresh austerity measures will be needed to plug a hole in
this year's finances.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, India's Reliance
Industries and British giant BP announced the creation of an equal
joint venture firm to source and market natural gas in India.
(AFP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Indonesia’s Lion
Air said it is planning to buy 230 planes from Boeing Co. The list
price of $21.7 billion will be paid over 12 years though bank
financing.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In eastern
Indonesia gunmen killed a mining company guard and wounded two
policemen in a patrol car near the large Freeport-McMoRan gold mine.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Iraq bombs
targeting security personnel killed 9 people including 5 family
members of a policeman in Saqlawiyah and 4 people in the Baghdad
suburb of Abu Graib.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, More than 1,000
Jordanians marched after Muslim weekly prayers in a protest called
by opposition Islamists pushing for political reform and an end to
corruption.
(AFP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In Kazakhstan US
Embassy spokesman Jon Larsen said the Peace Corps will be leaving
the country. Volunteers posted messages online linking the move to
rapes and other attacks. The Peace Corps has sent around 1,000
volunteers to serve in the country since it started operations there
in 1993.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Moammar Gadhafi's
son Seif al-Islam (39), the only wanted member of the ousted ruling
family to remain at large, was captured as he traveled with aides in
a convoy in Libya's southern desert. He was captured by
revolutionary forces from the mountain town of Zintan who had been
tracking him for days.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, Myanmar's main
opposition party, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, decided to
rejoin politics and register for future elections, signaling its
confidence in recent reforms by the military-aligned government.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Nigeria
established its first sovereign wealth fund hoping to curb the
plunder of oil revenues.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.56)
2011 Nov 18, In northeast
Nigeria two soldiers and a child were killed after members of a
radical Muslim sect ambushed them in Maiduguri. Two officers were
killed after gunmen blew up a police station in central Nigeria and
attacked a bank branch in Kabba.
(AP, 11/19/11)(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 18, A ship was
attacked off the Nigeria coast near a Chevron offshore oil field and
3 people abducted.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, Amnesty
International reported that South Sudan has released two journalists
without charge who were detained for weeks for criticizing President
Salva Kiir’s family. Ngor Garang, editor-in-chief of Destiny
newspaper, and reporter Dengdit Ayok were arrested in Juba at the
beginning of this month after Ayok wrote an opinion article accusing
the president of "staining his patriotism" by allowing his daughter
to marry an Ethiopian man.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, Syria said it has
agreed "in principle" to allow an observer mission into the country,
as security forces killed at least 16 anti-government protesters and
France called for tough UN Security Council action.
(AP, 11/18/11)(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, The UN downgraded
famine declarations in three Somali regions, but warned the crisis
remains the worst in the world with nearly 250,000 people facing
imminent starvation.
(AFP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 19, Jose Pimentel
(27), a Muslim convert and al-Qaida sympathizer, was arrested for
allegedly making bombs in New York City. He was inspired by radical
cleric Anwar Awlaki and was allegedly plotting to attack US
servicemen and police officers.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 19, Thousands of
people gathered at the Wisconsin capitol to demand a recall of
Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose controversial and successful
drive to limit public unions last winter sparked the biggest
protests in the state since the Vietnam War.
(Reuters, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 19, I. Michael Heyman
(81), former chancellor of UC Berkeley (1980-1990) and former head
of the Smithsonian Institute (1994-1999), died in Berkeley.
(SFC, 11/22/11, p.C4)
2011 Nov 19, Robert Champion
(26), a Florida A&M drum major, died after he was beaten to
death on a bus by fellow students in a hazing ritual. On May 2,
2012, 13 students were charged with felony and misdemanor offenses
related to his death.
(SFC, 5/3/12, p.A6)
2011 Nov 19, A traditional
Afghan national assembly endorsed President Hamid Karzai's decision
to negotiate a long-term security pact with the US but imposed some
conditions, including an end to unpopular night raids by military
forces searching for insurgents.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, Azeri snipers
fired into the disputed breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
killing one Armenian soldier. A 2nd soldier was killed the next day.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Bahrain Ali
Youssef Bagdar (16) died in the early morning after a police vehicle
ran him over during a demonstration in the Juffair area of Manama.
Dozens were wounded when security forces attacked a funeral
procession for the 16-year-old boy.
(AP, 11/19/11)(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Benin Pope
Benedict XVI called on Africa's leaders to stop depriving their
people of hope and to govern responsibly, just hours before he
planned to unveil an 87-page pastoral guide for the continent.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Bhutan a
Climate Summit for a Living Himalayas was held in Bhutan's capital
Thimphu. India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan agreed to cooperate on
energy, water, food and biodiversity issues.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 19, China’s Premier
Wen Jiabao told US President Barack Obama that China would increase
the flexibility of the yuan while stressing that reforms had already
had an effect. The spoke on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in
Indonesia.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In eastern China
14 workers were killed in an explosion at a chemical plant.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 19, Egyptian police
fired rubber bullets and tear gas in clashes with protesters on as
they broke up a sit-in organized by people injured during the Arab
Spring, triggering a heated skirmish. Two protesters were killed.
(AFP, 11/19/11)(SSFC, 11/20/11, p.A6)
2011 Nov 19, Several hundred
Ethiopian troops crossed into southern and central Somalia, local
elders said, but Addis Ababa dismissed the reports as "absolutely
not true."
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, Israeli researcher
Dror Etkes said 375 acres from the Palestinian village of Bardaleh
have been annexed to the Israeli Kibbutz Meirav.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, Japan’s the new
Institute of Science and Technology was inaugurated as a graduate
university in Okinawa.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.91)
2011 Nov 19, In Nepal
government monitors began asking 19,000 former rebels whether they
will join the army or leave with cash to start new lives, five years
after ending their insurgency to join a peace process.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 18, In the Philippines
police arrested former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on charges of
electoral fraud. Police allowed her to remain in hospital for health
reasons.
(SFC, 11/19/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 19, Syrian troops
stormed the town of Shezar in the central province of Hama and the
restive Jabal al-Zawiya region near the Turkish border in search of
regime opponents. At least 15 people were killed.
(AP, 11/19/11)(SSFC, 11/20/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 19, Thailand's Premier
Yingluck Shinawatra declared central Bangkok safe from the kingdom's
devastating floods, as the death toll passed 600 and President
Barack Obama vowed the US will give whatever help it can.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Tunisia the
three parties making up the new ruling coalition divided up the top
government jobs between them. Ennahda's Hamadi Jebali will become
prime minister. Congress for the Republic party leader Moncef
Marzouki will become president. The leader of the left of center
Ettakatol, or forum, party will become speaker of the assembly.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 19, In Turkey
delegates at an international conservation meeting agreed on a
measure mandating that silky sharks accidentally caught in fishing
gear be released back into the sea alive. The 48-member
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
(ICCAT) failed to reach consensus on other threatened shark species.
To fight illegal fishing, ICCAT members decided that vessels
measuring 12 meters or more, instead of the previous 20 meters or
more, would be inspected on arrival to port.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 20, It was reported
that South Carolina authorities have charged one person in
connection with the mess of roughly 250,000 tires, which covers more
than 50 acres on satellite images. Records showed the property is
owned by Michael Keitt Jr. of Far Rockaway, NY.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Ted Forstmann,
private equity pioneer, died. He and his brother Nick and Brian
Little founded Forstmann Little in 1978.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 20, In eastern
Afghanistan over 1,000 university students blocked a main highway
Jalalabad city to protest any agreement that would allow US troops
to remain in the country after a planned transfer of authority in
2014. The Interior Ministry said Afghan and international forces
killed 16 insurgents in fighting over the past three days in
Nuristan province.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Benin Pope
Benedict XVI led tens of thousands of people in a panoply of African
tongues during a Mass in the national soccer stadium. He formally
delivered to Africa's bishops an 87-page document known as a
treatise. It applies church doctrine to address the continent's
ills, especially the wars and conflicts caused by ethnic divisions
and has been called a "papal road map" for Africa.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Eighteen Church of
England bishops have signed an open letter published on Sunday
criticizing planned welfare reforms, in a rare intervention by the
religious establishment in politics. The bishops said that plans to
cap the amount any household can claim in benefits at £500
($790, 580 euros) a week risked pushing vulnerable children into
poverty.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Egyptian riot
police clashed for a second day in downtown Cairo with some five
thousand rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military
quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government.
Egypt's culture minister resigned in protest at the government
response to demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
(AP, 11/20/11)(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, In India a fire
blazed through a makeshift tent in east Delhi where eunuchs, a
community of castrated men, transvestites and transsexuals, had
gathered to honor deceased friends. 15 people were killed.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Iranian media
reported that authorities have imposed a two-month ban on a
reformist newspaper, Etemad, for printing what the country's press
watchdog said was "lies and insults" to officials.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Israel
officials and the "All for Peace" radio station operators said the
government has ordered the shutdown of a dovish Israeli-Palestinian
radio station. A shutdown order was issued last week. The West Bank
station, which has been operating since 2004, said it would go to
court in Israel to try to get back on the air.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Libya’s the
information minister said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Moammar Gadhafi's
son and one-time heir apparent, will be tried in Libya and not
handed over to the International Criminal Court even though the
country's new rulers have yet to set up a justice system.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Mexico Durango
state prosecutors said troops found the remains of seven people in
the town of San Juan del Rio, about 60 miles (100 km) north of the
state capital, the city of Durango.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Myanmar ended 2
days of peace talks with 5 ethnic armies on the Thai-Burma border.
More meetings were scheduled in upcoming months.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 20, In Pakistani
gunmen in Baluchistan province torched three trucks carrying
supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Korean
President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Manila for a three-day state
visit at the invitation of Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Sudan rebel
chief George Athor vowed to continue battling the government in Juba
and demanded new elections to end his bloody war.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Spain held a
national election. It was expected to become the third eurozone
country in as many weeks to throw out its governing party in an
attempt to dig itself out of an economic crisis. Opposition leader
Mariano Rajoy (56) and his conservative Popular Party were expected
to win control of Parliament in a landslide. The Popular Party won
186 seats in the 350-seats lower chamber of Parliament, compared
with 154 in the last legislature. The Socialists plummeted from 169
seats to 110, their worst performance ever.
(AP, 11/20/11)(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Reports said a Sri
Lankan government probe into the civil war against Tamil rebels has
called for further investigations of alleged war crimes committed in
the final stages of fighting in 2009. The Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which has been widely criticized
as biased by international rights groups, concluded that some
evidence warranted a new inquiry.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Swaziland's king
Mswati III's 12th wife, who was last year caught in bed with the
justice minister, said she has been kicked out of the palace after
pepper-spraying a security guard, who refused her effort to leave
the palace to take her child to hospital. LaDube (23) is the third
of Mswati's 13 wives to leave the palace since 2004.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, The Arab League
said it has rejected amendments proposed by Syria to a peace plan to
end the crisis in the country, saying the changes put forward by
Damascus alter the "essence" of the plan. Syria's foreign minister
attacked the Arab League for suspending Damascus and accused the
organization of being used as a "tool" by the West.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Turkish President
Abdullah Gul in published comments said there was "no place for
authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more
pressure on the embattled Syrian regime.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 21, The US approved
extra curbs on Iran’s banking system and oil industry in an ongoing
effort to thwart the country’s nuclear program.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 21, US Congress'
super-committee conceded ignominious defeat in its quest to conquer
a government debt that stands at a staggering $15 trillion, unable
to overcome deep and enduring political divisions over taxes and
spending. Their failure to cut at least $1.2 trillion was set to
trigger automatic spending cuts.
(AP, 11/21/11)(SFC, 11/22/11, p.A6)
2011 Nov 21, Arizona police
arrested Jerice Hunter, the mother of missing Jhessye Shockley (5),
on child abuse charges "directly related" to the girl, and said they
don't believe they'll find the child alive. Jhessye was last seen
Oct. 11 after Hunter said she went out for an errand and left the
girl in the care of three older siblings.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Robert Burke (43),
a former elementary school principal in Dubuque, Iowa, was sentenced
to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of
producing child pornography involving students at his school. Burke
was also fined $25,000.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 21, An Argentine air
force Piper P-28 Dakota collided with a civilian plane being used
for flight school training as both were nearing the small airport in
the town of Mercedes. 2 people were killed when the civilian plane
crashed.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Armenia said it
will retaliate for the weekend killings of two ethnic Armenian
soldiers by Azeri snipers who fired into a disputed breakaway
enclave.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Authorities in
Bahrain said prosecutors have charged 20 members of the security
forces for alleged abuse of protesters during a Shiite-led uprising
against the Gulf kingdom's Sunni rulers.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, The International
Monetary Fund urged Bangladesh to tighten monetary policy further to
fight runaway inflation and warned that economic growth could
undershoot the government's expectations.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Brazil’s Ministry
of the Environment, IBAMA, said it will fine Chevron Corp. nearly
$28 million for the Nov 7 oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro
state. In December an additional $5.6 million was added for poor
contingency planning.
(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A10)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.23)
2011 Nov 21, Britain’s PM David
Cameron and deputy PM Nick Clegg launched a scheme to support
first-time home buyers through a scheme enabling them to take out
95% mortgages. They will pledged an extra £50 million on top
of the £100 million from this year's budget towards an
initiative to refurbish empty homes.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Burundi security
forces shot dead 18 "armed bandits" in clashes in the eastern
province of Cankuzo, part of a new rebellion based in Ruvubu
National Park.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 21, A Canadian judge
upheld an order to evict protesters camped in a downtown Toronto
park, giving the Occupy Toronto movement until midnight to vacate
the park it has held for more than a month.
(Reuters, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Colombia’s
National Police Director Oscar Naranjo said 14 members of a gang led
by Daniel Barrera (aka Loco), one of the country's most wanted drug
trafficking suspects, were detained over the weekend in Bogota,
Barranquilla and Cartagena.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, The World Health
Organization said 5,000 cases of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) have
already been reported this year in Djibouti compared to 2,000 in
2010. Djibouti reported two deaths since October and 127 new cases
this month.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Egyptian security
forces fired tear gas and clashed with several thousand protesters
in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the third straight day of violence that
has turned into the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of
Egypt's military. 19 more people were killed over night raising the
death toll to 24 since the violence began on Nov 19. Egypt's
military-appointed cabinet of civilian officials announced its
resignation late in the day, but state television quoted a SCAF
source as saying this was rejected by the military. 3 American
students (Derrik Sweeney (19) of Georgetown University, Luke Gates
(21) of Indiana University student, and Gregory Porter (19) of
Drexel University student) accused of throwing firebombs, were among
those arrested. They were ordered released on Nov 24.
(AP, 11/21/11)(AFP, 11/22/11)(SFC, 11/23/11,
p.A4)(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 21, In India lawmakers
in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, voted to support a
call for it to be split into four smaller states. State Chief
Minister Mayawati’s idea is to create four new states called
Purvanchal, Bundelkhand, Paschim Pradesh and Awadh Pradesh. The
final decision was up to the Congress party-led central government.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, The New
Delhi-based Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) said in a report
released today that 1,504 people died in police custody and 12,727
in judicial custody across the country between 2001 and 2010.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 21, Jordan's King
Abdullah II paid a rare visit to the West Bank to show support for
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Libya Abdullah
Al-Senoussi, Moammar Gadhafi's intelligence chief, was captured
alive by revolutionary fighters not far from where Gadhafi's son was
seized a day earlier.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Madagascar
announced a 35-member cabinet unveiled by consensus PM Omer
Beriziky.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Mali army
chiefs from Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, met in Bamako amid
mounting concerns over the fallout from Libya's conflict on security
in the troubled zone.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Mexico
assailants kidnapped and killed three police officers in the city of
Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas. Hidalgo state police
said authorities detained eight local police officers for allegedly
working for the Zetas. Military authorities said soldiers in the
border state of Chihuahua detained two police chiefs while they were
meeting with an alleged drug trafficker.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, The Mexican army
seized $15.3 million in bundles of cash believed to belong to
members of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Soldiers found the piles of US
bills inside a car in a downtown neighborhood of the border city of
Tijuana, along with two rifles, two pistols and three kilograms (6.6
pounds) of cocaine.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Nigeria at
least seven people died in a clash in the Barkin Ladi area near the
city of Jos.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 21, In Pakistan senior
commanders in the Pakistani Taliban claimed to be holding initial
peace talks with the government that could end a wave of bombings
that has killed thousands of people. Gunmen ambushed a paramilitary
Frontier Corps convoy in Baluchistan province, killing 14 soldiers.
The Baluchistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 11/21/11)(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, A Russian Soyuz
capsule with 3 astronauts returned from the Int’l. Space Station
landed in Kazakhstan after spending 165 days in space.
(SFC, 11/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 21, Vitaly Shlykov
(77), a former Soviet intelligence agent who spent years in a Swiss
prison (1983-1986) after being convicted of espionage, died in
Moscow. After his retirement two years later, he became a prominent
scholar specializing in military policy and wrote extensively on
security issues.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, In southern
Senegal 10 people were killed by separatist rebels in the jungles of
the Casamance region, which is separated from the rest of Senegal by
the nation of Gambia.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 21, Spain's
conservative Popular Party began tackling the gigantic task of
lifting the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades,
following an overwhelming and historic victory in the general
election.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Sri Lanka
announced a surprise three percent depreciation of the rupee against
a basket of currencies in a move to boost exports, as it released a
2012 budget that boosts defense spending. Lawmakers from the ruling
party attacked opposition members who were protesting inside
Parliament as Pres. Mahinda Rajapaksa presented next year's budget.
(AFP, 11/21/11)(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 21, Syria's security
forces carried out a "qualitative" operation in the Bayada district
of Homs in which they killed four terrorists and confiscated their
weapons. A "top terrorist" nicknamed Bandar was among them. Syrian
soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish
citizens.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 21, Tanzania's PM
Mizengo Pinda said eight suspects have been sentenced to death by
hanging for the murder of albinos since a wave of witchcraft
killings erupted in 2007. More than 60 albinos have been murdered in
Tanzania since 2007 and their body parts chopped off to be sold to
witch doctors.
(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 22, The US Dept. of
Justice said that drugmaker Merck will pay $950 million to resolve
investigations into its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.D2)
2011 Nov 22, Occupy Wall Street
protesters arrived in Washington, DC, following a 231-mile trek and
planned a day of action for Nov 23.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A13)
2011 Nov 22, A British soldier
was reported killed by an explosion in Afghanistan while on patrol
in Central Helmand province.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, A British court
ruled in favor of a group of more than 100 Iraqi civilians who have
demanded a new public inquiry into allegations of torture against
British soldiers. Some 128 Iraqis claim torture and inhuman and
degrading treatment by British soldiers and interrogators in Iraq
between March 2003 and December 2008.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, A Burundi rights
group, the Government Action Observatory (OAG), said
government-backed death squads have killed more than 300 members of
a former rebel group and opposition supporters in covert operations
over the past five months.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Cameroon and
Nigeria appealed for international funds to help mark the last 250
km (155 miles) of their disputed border that remains undecided.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, A Cameroon court
sentenced three gay men, arrested in July, to five years
imprisonment and a fine, the heaviest sentence provided by local
law, which bans homosexuality.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, Chilean police
clashed with some 1,000 protesters who gathered to condemn the
gathering in honor of former brigadier Miguel Krassnoff, who is
serving a 144-year sentence for kidnappings and killings from
1973-1990.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 22, In CongoDRC gunmen
in Kinshasa shot dead opposition lawmaker Marius Gangale in the
latest violent episode ahead of the weekend elections.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, A survey of some
6,000 people over the last 12 months in Democratic Republic of
Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe
said police are the most corrupt institution in the six countries.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, The European
Commission announced that it will send additional aid to Afghanistan
to help drought victims in need of food for themselves and their
animals before winter snows block roads. That brings the total
commission response to the Afghan drought to euro4.5 million, or
about $6.1 million.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Egypt tens of
thousands of protesters swarmed Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand an
end to military rule, as the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed
Forces (SCAF) was locked in crisis talks with a number of political
forces in a bid to defuse the crisis.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In France Danielle
Mitterrand (b.1924), a decorated member of the French Resistance and
combative advocate for the poor who broke the mold as first lady
alongside France's first Socialist president, died.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, The president of
Guinea-Bissau, Malam Bacai Sanha (64), was hospitalized in Senegal's
capital Dakar and will later be transferred to Paris for treatment.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 22, Indian IT
entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia launched a free text messaging service,
JaxtrSMS, promising that it would be as revolutionary as his
previous venture, Hotmail.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In eastern India 7
people including a four-year-old girl and an Australian woman died
when a fire swept through an overnight train in Jharkhand state.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Indonesia the
Southeast Asian Games were formally closed by Indonesia Vice
President Budiono. Indonesia earned a table-topping 182 golds among
476 medals, followed by Thailand with 109 among 329.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Iraqi and American
officials said the US has handed over all of the remaining detainees
in US custody in Iraq, except for Ali Mussa Daqduq, a Lebanese
Hezbollah commander linked to the death of four American troops.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, The International
Criminal Court's prosecutor said that Libya can put Moammar
Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent on trial at home, but that
The Hague court's judges must be involved in the case. Libya’s PM
Abdurrahim el-Keib appointed Osama al-Juwali, head of the military
council in Zintan.
(AP, 11/22/11)(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 22, In Malaysia former
US president George W Bush and British ex-prime minister Tony Blair
were found guilty at a mock tribunal for committing "crimes against
peace" during the Iraq war. The Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal,
part of an initiative by former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad,
a fierce critic of the Iraq war, found the former leaders guilty
after a four-day hearing.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Nigerian
authorities arrested and arraigned Sen. Mohammed Ali Ndume of the
ruling People's Democratic Party for allegedly being the sponsor of
Ali Sanda Umar Konduga, one of several spokesmen for Boko Haram. The
senator belonged to a committee looking at possible peace talks with
Boko Haram. A day earlier Konduga also implicated a former Nigerian
ambassador, now dead, as well as a former governor in Nigeria's
northeast in Boko Haram's creation.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, Pakistan's
government asked Hussain Haqqani, its US envoy, to resign and
ordered a probe into claims that he sought American help against the
country's powerful military. A memo from Pres. Zardari was delivered
to US Admiral Mullen on May 10, offering that a "new national
security team" would end relations between Pakistani intelligence
and Afghan militants, namely the Taliban and its Haqqani faction.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Pakistan rowed
back from demands that text messages containing nearly 1,700
"obscene" words should be blocked, following outrage from users and
campaigners. A Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) spokesman
said the authority would consult civil society representatives and
mobile phone operators on refining a much shorter list of words,
giving no timeframe for any eventual ban.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Romanian lawmakers
voted to make it legal to euthanize the thousands of stray dogs that
roam the country's streets, angering animal rights activists who
have lobbied for months to stop the measure. The law will allow
officials to round up homeless dogs from the street, hold them in
shelters for 30 days and then have them killed. President Traian
Basescu was expected to sign the law.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Serbian police
arrested 17 people suspected of trafficking hundreds of illegal
immigrants from Africa and Asia toward western Europe. Border
officials found 12 illegal migrants attempting to cross into Serbia
from Macedonia.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Somali civilians
bore the brunt of violence in the war-torn nation, with a roadside
bomb killing 10 in the capital and fighter jet strikes in the south
claiming three lives.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, South Africa’s
governing African National Congress pushed a bill through parliament
(229-107) to protect state secrets, despite strong objections from
the opposition. Pres. Zuma was expected to approve the secrecy bill.
Pretoria’s Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said the city will be renamed
Tshwane by the end of 2012, with main roads also given names of
anti-apartheid leaders.
(AP, 11/22/11)(AFP, 11/22/11)(Econ, 11/19/11,
p.62)
2011 Nov 22, Tunisia's newly
elected assembly held its inaugural meeting, ready to start shaping
the constitution and the democratic future of the country that
sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, Turkey's PM
Erdogan said that Syria's Pres. Bashar Assad must step down over the
country's crackdown on dissent. 6 children and 5 mutinous soldiers
were among 34 people killed across Syria. 122 countries voted for a
resolution at the UN General Assembly's human rights committee
condemning the government crackdown.
(AP, 11/22/11)(Reuters, 11/23/11)(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 22, The UN
secretary-general's envoy to Yemen said all parties have agreed on a
plan under which longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh would step
down. A date for signing the deal was yet to be set.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Yemen 3 Red
Cross workers including a French national were kidnapped while
traveling in the restive south. All 3 were released on Nov 24. The
kidnappers had been assured that activists from the autonomist
Southern Movement would be released from government custody once
they freed the hostages.
(AP, 11/23/11)(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Legendary musician
Jimi Hendrix was named the greatest guitar player in history by
Rolling Stone magazine in a list compiled by a panel of music
experts and top guitar players.
(Reuters, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, In Arizona 6
people on board a small twin-engine plane were killed when it
crashed in a ball of fire in a remote area of the Superstition
Mountains east of Phoenix. The dead included a pilot and his 3
children.
(Reuters, 11/23/11)(SFC, 11/25/11, p.A14)
2011 Nov 23, US federal
authorities in Ohio charged Sam Mullet and six others with hate
crimes in haircutting attacks against other Amish.
(SFC, 11/24/11, p.A14)
2011 Nov 23, Global stocks fell
again following figures a day earlier that showed the US economy
grew less than anticipated in the third quarter and the surprising
news that Germany failed to raise as much money as it was looking
for in an auction of its supposedly top-rated debt.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Rafiq Tagi, a
prominent Azeri journalist, died in Baku four days after he was
stabbed six times by an unknown assailant. Tagi claimed the attack
was retaliation for his opinion piece published earlier this month
that criticized the government of neighboring Iran.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Bahrain riot
police fired tear gas and stun grenades at demonstrators after
clashes erupted just hours before the release of an independent
report into alleged abuses by security forces against the country's
majority Shiites, who have opened a sustained uprising for greater
rights. Cherif Basiouni, former UN war-crimes lawyer and chair of a
5-person panel, described systematic torture of prisoners by
security forces. A $53 million US arms deal with Bahrain is on hold
until the upcoming report is examined.
(AP, 11/23/11)(Econ, 11/19/11, p.60)
2011 Nov 23, In Canada one
woman was arrested as police cleared tents from the Occupy Toronto
protest in a move to end the weeks-long encampment, though some
demonstrators chained themselves inside barricaded tents and vowed
to stay.
(Reuters, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Czech architect
Karel Hubacek (87) was reported dead. His famed 1973 tower hotel,
which also serves as a television transmitter on the nearby Jested
mountain was named the most significant Czech building of the 20th
century.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 23, Egyptian police
clashed with anti-government protesters for a fifth day in central
Cairo as a rights group raised the overall death toll from the
ongoing unrest to at least 38. The UN strongly condemned what it
called the use of excessive force by security forces.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, A French court
ruled that former dictator Manuel Noriega can be extradited to
Panama to serve time for past crimes, more than 20 years after being
ousted and arrested in a US invasion.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Indonesian police
said they have arrested two plantation workers for killing 20
endangered orangutans and other apes as pest control for palm oil
companies. They were paid one million rupiah ($111) for each dead
orangutan and 200,000 rupiah for every monkey killed.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Some of Libya's
clans said they would not recognize the government, a day after the
unveiling of a new cabinet revived regional and tribal rivalries
which threaten the country's stability.
(Reuters, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Madagascar
opposition groups accepted to join a unity government and Didier
Ratsiraka, an exiled ex-president, announced he will return home
ending his nine-year exile in France, offering hopes of ending the
island nation's persistent crisis. A roadmap to new elections was
brokered by regional bloc the Southern African Development Community
was signed by the island's main political factions.
(AFP, 11/23/11)(AFP, 4/14/12)
2011 Nov 23, In Mexico attacks
in Sinaloa left 24 people dead and 17 of the victims' bodies were
found burned in two pickup trucks. 12 of the bodies were in the back
of one truck, some of them handcuffed and wearing bulletproof vests.
(AP, 11/23/11)(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Nigeria's
president unexpectedly fired Farida Waziri, the female head of the
lead anti-corruption agency, removing an official accused of being
controlled by the political elite in this graft-prone nation. The
president appointed agency deputy Ibrahim Lamurde as the
commission's acting chairman.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, In Pakistan
Islamist militants attacked security forces in the Dera Ismail Khan
district, killing four officers in gunfights that underscore the
potent rebel threat despite reported peace talks. In Kurram
militants attacked paramilitary troops, killing two soldiers and
injuring eight others.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, The Palestinians
signed a document finally giving them a voice within the vast UNESCO
system, bringing pride across the Arab world yet hobbling the
agency's pro-democracy projects around the globe. Last month's
decision by the Paris-based UN education and cultural organization
to give Palestine membership triggered an immediate funding cutoff
by the US that will force UNESCO to scale down literacy and
development programs in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan or the new
nation of South Sudan.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, President Dmitry
Medvedev said Russia will deploy new missiles aimed at US missile
defense sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with the planned
shield despite Russia's concerns. The stern warning to the US and
NATO seemed to be directed at rallying nationalist votes in the
polls.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Sri Lanka's
Parliament approved the creation of a multiparty committee to
recommend constitutional changes for ethnic reconciliation two years
after a devastating civil war. However, a lawmaker from the largest
party representing ethnic minority Tamils said it would not
participate in the committee at this time because the
recommendations of a previous committee had never been implemented.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, A Thai criminal
court sentenced Amphon Tangnoppaku (61) to 20 years in prison for
sending text messages deemed offensive to the country's queen.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, In Tunisia violent
demonstrations erupted in the impoverished central region and had to
be dispersed with tear gas. It stemmed from a peaceful demonstration
in the town of Kasserine over the exclusion of local residents from
a list of those killed in last year's uprising against the
dictatorship.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkey's PM
Erdogan apologized for the first time for the killings of nearly
14,000 people in a bombing and strafing campaign to crush a Kurdish
rebellion in the 1930s. He offered his apology for the killings of
13,806 people in the southeastern town of Dersim, now known as
Tunceli, between 1936 and 1939.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkish President
Abdullah Gul warned that President Bashar al-Assad's violent
crackdown on an eight-month-old revolt in Syria threatened to "drag
the whole region into turmoil and bloodshed."
(Reuters, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Turkmenistan
signed an agreement with China to boost natural gas deliveries. This
will see the central Asian nation supply about half of China's gas
needs. The gas agreement was one of 14 signed following talks in
Beijing between Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov and
Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Pope Benedict XVI
accepted the resignation of another Irish bishop, leaving seven of
Ireland's 26 Catholic dioceses without one and raising expectations
of major cutbacks in the size of the Irish church following
child-abuse scandals. Seamus Hegarty (71) offered his resignation
two weeks ago as bishop of Derry, citing an unspecified
"irreversible" illness as the reason for quitting.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 23, Yemen’s Pres.
Saleh signed a US-backed power-transfer deal, brokered by
neighboring countries in the Saudi capital of Riyadh. It officially
transfers power to his vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, in
exchange for immunity from prosecution. The deal also called for
early presidential elections within 90 days.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 23, Zimbabwe wildlife
authorities said at least 77 elephants have died in a three-month
heat wave in western Hwange National Park that has dried up watering
holes.
(AP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 24, The body of
alleged Mafia boss Salvatore Montagna, who US authorities said once
led New York's notorious Bonanno crime family, was fished out from a
river north of Montreal.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 24, Pres. Karzai
accused NATO-led international forces of killing 7 civilians, most
of them children, in an air strike in the southern province of
Kandahar. At least 10 Afghan security guards were killed when
Taliban militants ambushed a logistics convoy destined for NATO
forces in Farah province. Pres. Karzai nominated Noorullah Delawari
to head the central bank.
(AP, 11/24/11)(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Belarus' leading
human rights activist, Ales Belyatsky (49), was convicted of tax
evasion and sentenced to 4.5 years in prison at a trial condemned by
US and European Union officials as politically motivated.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Bosnian police
said they have discovered around 1.5 million pornographic images of
children on the computer of a man they suspect of blackmailing
United States citizens with money transfers amounting to some $3000.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Egypt's military
rulers said that parliamentary elections will start on schedule next
week despite escalating unrest and they rejected protesters' calls
for them to immediately step down. A court ordered the release of 3
American university students arrested on Nov 21. Mona Eltahawy (44),
a prominent Egyptian-born US columnist, was sexually assaulted by
local police, who beat and blindfolded her after she was detained
near Tahrir Square during clashes, leaving her left arm and right
hand broken and in casts.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, The EU said that
protecting civilians caught up in Syria's crackdown on
anti-government protests "is an increasingly urgent and important
aspect" of responding to the bloodshed there. At least three more
people were killed by Syrian security forces. The British-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination
Committees said 15 defectors were either killed or wounded in
clashes near Rastan. 6 elite pilots and 4 technical officers were
killed in an ambush in Homs. The Arab League gave Syria 24 hours to
agree to an observer mission or face sanctions.
(AP, 11/24/11)(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 24, Gambia,
continental Africa's smallest country, held elections. Voters popped
a glass marble into a colored drum representing their candidate.
President Yahya Jammeh (46) was widely expected to win a fourth term
in office. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) withdrew from observing the poll after a fact-finding
mission. Jammeh won with 72% of the vote.
(AFP, 11/24/11)(SFC, 11/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 24, India's cabinet
cleared a plan to throw open the nation's huge retail sector to
global supermarket chains in a reform that could herald a consumer
revolution. It also raised the foreign investment cap to 100% from
51% at present for single-brand retail operations.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, India’s West
Bengal police killed Koteswara Rao (58), better known as Kishenji,
one of the nation’s most wanted Maoist guerrillas in a major blow to
the armed leftwing insurgency which has spread across a wide swathe
of the country.
(AFP, 11/24/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.52)
2011 Nov 24, Iran’s official
IRNA news agency reported that Iran has arrested 12 agents of the
American Central Intelligence Agency. Parviz Sorouri, a member of
the powerful parliamentary committee on foreign policy and national
security, said the alleged agents were operating in coordination
with Israel's Mossad and other regional agencies, targeting the
country's military and its nuclear program.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Iraq executed 16
Al-Qaeda members convicted of involvement in the massacre of 70
people at a wedding in 2006, although they were officially put to
death for other murders. A string of bombings in Basra killed 19
people.
(AFP, 11/24/11)(SFC, 11/25/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 24, Israeli ministers
decided, for the time being, to maintain a freeze on the transfer of
tens of millions of dollars in tax monies to the Palestinian
Authority. This followed hours after Palestinian president Mahmud
Abbas held top-level talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal at which
they announced a new era of "partnership."
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 24, Israeli women's
rights activists marched through Tel Aviv carrying black coffins to
raise awareness about domestic violence in Israel, which so far this
year has claimed 24 women's lives.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, A Jordanian
prosecutor said the country's military court has freed 22 suspected
Islamists on bail as a goodwill gesture. It brings up the total
number of freed Salafis to 37. They were part of 103 Salafis on
trial on charges of terrorism and stabbing policemen with swords
during an April protest.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Kenya said its
warplanes destroyed two Islamist insurgent bases in neighboring
Somalia. Two grenade attacks in the eastern town of Garissa close to
the border with Somalia killed three people and injured 27.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Lebanon’s PM Najib
Mikati threatened to resign should his Hezbollah-dominated cabinet
refuse to fund a UN court probing the murder of ex-premier Rafiq
Hariri.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Madagascar's
former Pres. Didier Ratsiraka returned home, ending a 9-year exile
in France, and urged reconciliation to resolve the country's
long-running political crisis.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Malaysian PM Najib
Razak repealed another security law, setting the stage for hundreds
detained without trial to be freed or face criminal charges.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, The UN human
rights chief urged the Maldives to end the "degrading" practice of
flogging women found to have had sex outside marriage. The country
of 300,000 people forbids practicing religions other than Islam.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Mali a gang
kidnapped two French geologists at gunpoint from their hotel in the
eastern desert village of Hombori.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Mexico the
bound and gagged bodies of 26 young men were discovered in vehicles
abandoned in the heart of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.
Evidence identified the assassins as being from the Zetas and a
smaller, allied gang, the Milenio Cartel.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Myanmar's
Parliament approved a law guaranteeing the right to protest, one of
a series of reforms under the new elected government.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Nigeria Muslim
and Christian groups said 12 more people are dead after an apparent
reprisal clash in the Barkin Ladi area near the city of Jos.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Pakistani police
in Karachi arrested Zainab Bibi (32), a woman who had killed her
husband and was attempting to cook his body parts after he planned
to marry another woman without her permission.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal, chief of the Islamic
militant Hamas, said they significantly narrowed differences and
opened a new page in relations in reconciliation talks in Cairo.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Portugal’s credit
rating was downgraded to junk status and a major strike gave voice
to broad public outrage over austerity measures that have
squeezed living standards.
(SFC, 11/25/11, p.A8)
2011 Nov 24, Saudi Arabia's
Interior Ministry said minority Shiite Muslims have staged protests
in the eastern city of Qatif, and four were shot dead. Shiites make
up 10 percent of the kingdom's 23 million citizens and complain of
discrimination.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, In Tunisia an
overnight curfew was declared across the central mining region of
Gafsa, in the wake of violence that began late Wednesday over job
hiring.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Uganda ruled that
Heritage Oil must pay a $404 million tax bill, dismissing an appeal
by the UK-listed company. Heritage argues it is not liable to pay
tax in the country on the $1.45 billion sale last year of stakes in
two oil blocks in western Uganda to Anglo-Irish firm Tullow Oil.
Uganda in March allowed Tullow to sell two-thirds of its Uganda
interests to France's Total and China's CNOOC in a $2.9 billion
deal, after Tullow agreed to pay over $300 million as security
against Heritage's unpaid taxes.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 24, Yemen President
Ali Abdullah Saleh's agreement to step down failed to end violence
as security forces killed five protesters demanding that the ousted
leader be put on trial for past crimes ranging from corruption to
bloodshed during the current uprising.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Los Angeles a
shopper pepper-sprayed other bargain hunters and robbers in South
Carolina and northern California shot at customers to steal their
Black Friday purchases, marring the start of the US holiday shopping
season.
(Reuters, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Ohio two bodies
were found believed to be related to a Craigslist ad that according
to police lured victims to a lethal robbery scheme that already left
one person dead. Two people related to the killings were custody. A
3rd body was found in the same area.
(SFC, 11/26/11, p.A6)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.A14)
2011 Nov 25, Felicity Aston
(33), a British adventurer, set out on skis from the Ross Ice Shelf
in a historic solo attempt to cross Antarctica.
(SFC, 11/26/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 25, Australia loosened
its highly charged policy of mandatory detention for asylum seekers
who arrive by boat, freeing 27 from overcrowded, prison-like
conditions and estimating more than 100 would be released monthly.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, Australia said it
will create the world's largest marine reserve in the Coral Sea. The
proposal includes seas beyond the already protected Great Barrier
Reef Marine Park off northeast Australia.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, Britain’s Deputy
PM Nick Clegg unveiled a £1 billion youth contract to create
hundreds of thousands of work and training placements for jobless
youngsters.
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, The British
government published its new Cyber Security Strategy, setting out
how the UK will support economic prosperity, protect national
security and safeguard the public’s way of life by building a more
trusted and resilient digital environment.
(www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/protecting-and-promoting-uk-digital-world)
2011 Nov 25, A study by
Canadian scientists found that South Africa and Zimbabwe suffer the
worst economic losses due to doctors emigrating, while Australia,
Canada, Britain and the United States benefit the most from
recruiting doctors trained abroad.
(Reuters, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, The Chinese
government donated a gift of 23 buses during a ceremony in
Macedonia's capital. News of the donation ignited a torrent of
criticism. Many asked: How could China make the donation to a
foreign country when Chinese schools contend with shoddy transport?
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 25, Egypt's military
rulers announced that Kamal el-Ganzouri (78), a prime minister from
ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's era, will head the next government.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators packed Cairo's Tahrir Square
after days of deadly clashes, demanding the military rulers step
down and rejecting their choice of new prime minister. The Tahrir
protest was countered by a rival demonstration in a square about
three km (two miles) away, where more than 10,000 people gathered to
show support for the military chanting "Down with Tahrir."
(AP, 11/25/11)(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Egypt Mona
al-Gharib (25), the pregnant wife of Syrian dissident and journalist
Thaer al-Nashef, was reportedly abducted in Egypt by Syrian
intelligence agents.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Egypt masked
gunmen blew up a gas pipeline which supplies Egyptian gas to Israel,
in the eighth such attack this year.
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, Ethiopia said it
may contribute troops to the African Union force in Somalia fighting
al-Qaida-affiliated insurgents.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, A shipment of
nuclear waste reprocessed in France crossed into Germany on its way
to a controversial storage site near the town of Dannenberg that
protesters say is unsafe.
(AP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, Iceland's interior
ministry said it had rejected an application by Huang Nubo's
Zhongkun Group to buy 120 square miles (30,639 hectares) of land on
the north shore of Iceland for a vast nature retreat in a deal that
would have been worth about 1 billion Icelandic kronur ($8.8
million). On Nov 27 Huang said the rejection was indicative of
anti-Chinese attitudes in the West.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Mali gunmen
killed a German man in Timbuktu and seized three men from the
Netherlands, South Africa and Sweden. Officials the next day ordered
a plane to evacuate foreigners from the tourist destination.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 25, Mexican activists
lodged a war-crimes complaint against President Felipe Calderon at
the International Criminal Court, claiming his offensive against
drug cartels has involved about 470 cases of human rights violations
by the army or police. Defense officials detained Ezequiel "El
Junior" Cardenas Rivera (23). Rivera's father was Antonio Ezequiel
Cardenas Guillen, Gulf leader until he was killed by federal forces
in November 2010.
(AP, 11/25/11)(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 25, Moroccans voted
for a new parliament in Arab Spring-inspired elections that are
facing a boycott by democracy campaigners who say the ruling
monarchy isn't committed to real change. Under the new constitution,
the largest party must form the government. The moderate Justice and
Development Party (PJD) captured 107 seats in the 395-seat assembly.
(AP, 11/25/11)(AFP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 25, Three Somali
soldiers and a civilian were killed when a roadside bomb the
officers picked up to detonate elsewhere exploded inside their
vehicle in Mogadishu.
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Sri Lanka a
storm, high winds and floods left at least 19 people dead along the
southern coast. 43 fishermen were missing.
(AP, 11/25/11)(SFC, 11/26/11, p.A2)(AFP,
11/27/11)
2011 Nov 25, The Syrian
military vowed to "cut every evil hand that targets Syrian blood,"
saying recent attacks on elite security forces marked a dangerous
escalation in the country's 8-month-old crisis. Damascus faced the
possibility of sweeping economic sanctions from the Arab League
after missing a deadline to allow hundreds of observers into the
country. A UN human rights panel expressed alarm at reports it
received of security forces in Syria torturing children. Syrian
security forces fired outside mosques in Daraa province. At least
six people were killed as protesters flooded the streets in support
of the Free Syrian Army. At least 10 troops and security service
agents were killed in clashes with mutinous soldiers in Deir Ezzor.
(AP, 11/25/11)(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 25, Vietnam’s PM
Nguyen Tan Dung called for new legislation on protests "to ensure
people's rights to freedom and democracy under the constitution and
law." Vietnam's constitution allows for the right to demonstrate.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Yemen tens of
thousands returned to the streets across the country to reject the
power-transfer deal and call for Saleh's trial for crimes ranging
from corruption to lethal crackdowns on protests. Heavy fighting
between government forces and defected military troops shook Sanaa,
killing two people. Mohammed Basindawa, a former member of Saleh's
ruling party, was chosen to head a national unity government.
(AP, 11/25/11)(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, NASA launched a
rover of "monster truck" proportions toward Mars on an
8½-month, 354 million-mile journey, the biggest, best
equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet. Curiosity will
reach Mars next summer.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, Afghan MPs
approved Noorullah Delawari, a US-educated banker, as governor of
the troubled central bank. MPs also granted a trust vote to
Rahmatullah Nabeel, President Karzai's candidate to head
Afghanistan's intelligence agency (NDS). Karzai approved a second
list of areas, home to half the nation's population, where Afghan
forces will soon start taking the lead from foreign troops.
(AFP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, Britain’s Finance
Ministry said it plans to spend an extra 600 million pounds on
so-called "free schools" outside municipal control over the next
three years.
(Reuters, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, Colombia's main
rebel group executed four captives, held hostage for between 12 and
13 years, during combat between guerrillas and soldiers searching
for the men. Sgt. Luis Alberto Erazo (48), held by the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for nearly 12 years, survived.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, In CongoDRC police
fired bullets and tear gas into a crowd that included tens of
thousands of opposition supporters in Kinshasa. The violence
prompted officials to ban further rallies before the Nov 28 poll. At
least 12 opposition partisans and bystanders were shot dead as the
Republican Guard, the former presidential guard, quashed a rally by
supporters of President Joseph Kabila's chief rival.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Nov 26, Egyptian security
forces clashed with protesters camped outside the Cabinet building,
leaving one man dead, as tensions rose two days ahead of
parliamentary elections being held despite mass demonstrations
against military rule. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi met separately
with Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and another presidential
hopeful Amr Moussa, who was the former Arab League chief. 24 protest
groups, including two political parties, have announced they are
creating their own "national salvation" government to be headed by
ElBaradei.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, In central
Indonesia a busy bridge collapsed in East Kalimantan province,
killing at least 4 people and injuring 17 others as a bus, cars and
motorcycles crashed into the Mahakam river. 40 people were missing.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, In central Iraq
bomb and gun attacks killed at least 16 people and wounded more than
20 others.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, In Libya dozens of
women rallied in Tripoli to pressure the new government to do more
to help women raped during the country's civil war.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, Malaysia
reportedly said it will amend a new law banning street
demonstrations, amid further protests by critics who say the bill
clamps down on their right to peaceful assembly.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, Mexican
authorities arrested three members of the Zetas drug cartel who
later confessed to the June slaying of bodyguards for the governor
of the northern state of Nuevo Leon. They were identified as Arturo
Garcia Celaya (24), Jose Daniel Hernandez Guzman (25), and Nicolas
Yepes Alvarez (34).
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, New Zealand PM
John Key convincingly won a second term in elections that opened the
door for the sales of billions of dollars worth of government assets
as part of a plan to reduce the country's debt.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, In northeast
Nigeria at least four people died in an apparent attack that saw
churches and businesses burned to the ground in the city of Geidam,
Yobe state.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, Chukwuemeka
Odumegwu Ojukwu (78), the secessionist leader during Nigeria's civil
war in the late 1960s and a pivotal figure in the country's history,
died in Britain. Ojukwu's 1967 declaration of independence for
Biafra came largely in response to the killing of large numbers of
Igbos in the country's north.
(AFP, 11/26/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.114)
2011 Nov 26, Pakistan accused
NATO helicopters and fighter jets of firing on two army checkpoints
in the country's northwest and killing 24 soldiers. Afghan troops,
who came under fire while operating near the Pakistan border, called
in the NATO airstrikes. Islamabad retaliated by closing the border
crossings used by the international coalition to supply its troops
in neighboring Afghanistan. The Pakistani government demanded the US
vacate an air base within 15 days that the CIA is suspected of using
for unmanned drones.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket into the Eshkol
region of southern Israel. The attack only damaged a farm
outbuilding.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 26, In Syria one
civilian was reported killed as security forces launched raids in
Deir Ezzor and carried out arrests. At least 12 civilians were
killed in Homs province.
(AFP, 11/26/11)(SSFC, 11/27/11, p.A8)
2011 Nov 26, In Uruguay Silvia
Martinez (61), the wife of national soccer coach Oscar Tabarez, was
attacked with a corrosive liquid that burned her face and arms.
Several days ago authorities released a former female employee of
Tabarez who was arrested in December for allegedly swindling
$500,000 from the coach.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 26, A Yemeni security
official said government warplanes over the last 48 hours have
killed 80 anti-government tribesmen who overran part of a military
camp in the Arhab region north of the capital Sanaa. About 20
soldiers were reported killed by the tribesmen.
(AP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 27, A new translation
of the Mass was rolled out across the English-speaking Catholic
world after months of preparation.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, In Afghanistan
NATO said two of its service members have been killed, one in combat
operations in the east and the other by a roadside bomb in the
south.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Ken Russell
(b.1927), British director of "Women in Love" (1969) and "The
Devils" (1971), died. His biggest commercial success came three
years later with "Tommy," an adaptation of The Who's rock opera.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, The Swanland cargo
ship, with eight people on board, sank in the Irish Sea. It was
carrying thousands of tons of limestone and five people remain
missing off the coast of north Wales.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Gunmen in Burundi
murdered Sister Luckrecija Mamic, a Croatian nun, and an Italian
charity worker in an apparent botched robbery and kidnapping. Sister
Carla Brianza was later shot dead while Sister Carla Brianza, an
Italian nun, fought off her attackers and escaped with relatively
minor wounds. Two men, aged 20 and 24, were arrested for the attack
after a shootout.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, German police
cleared a sit-in of thousands of protesters attempting to block a
shipment of nuclear waste and detained 1,300 people.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, In Egypt thousands
of protesters filled Cairo's Tahrir Square for another massive
demonstration to push for the military to immediately return to
their barracks in favor of a civilian presidential council.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Haiti hip hop star
Wyclef Jean said he's proud of the way his charity responded after
the earthquake almost two years ago. His comments followed reports
published by The New York Post saying his foundation collected $16
million in 2010 but less than a third of that went to emergency
efforts.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, Iran's parliament
voted on expel the British ambassador in retaliation for fresh
Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program and warned that
other countries could also be punished. The bill now has to go to
the Guardians Council for approval.
(AFP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Hundreds of
Libya's minority Amazigh Berbers marched to the premier's office for
the second time in three days, stepping up pressure to be
represented in the government. During Kadhafi's rule the Amazighs,
whose name means "free men," were banned from publicly speaking,
writing or printing anything in their own tongue, tamazight.
(AFP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, Palestinian
officials said they will not be able to pay the next round of public
sector salaries due to Israeli sanctions.
(SFC, 11/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 27, In the southern
Philippines suspected Islamic militants detonated a powerful bomb
that killed at least three people and wounded 27 others in a budget
hotel packed with wedding guests in Zamboanga city.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, South Ossetia held
runoff elections. Opposition candidate and former Education Minister
Alla Dzhioyeva won, defeating Emergencies Minister Anatoly Bibilov,
the Kremlin's chosen candidate.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, Sri Lanka's
President Rajapakse unveiled the island's first expressway, linking
the capital and the southern city of Galle, asserting that better
road connectivity would remedy old separatist tendencies.
(AFP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, The Arab League,
meeting in Cairo, approved unprecedented sanctions on Syria over its
crackdown on 8-month uprising.
(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Nov 27, A United Arab
Emirates state security court sentenced five activists, who have
campaigned for political freedoms, to prison terms of up to three
years. The top court handed blogger Ahmed Mansoor a three-year
prison sentence, while four others received two years each. Within
24 hours a presidential pardon was issued to release them.
(AP, 11/27/11)(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, In Venezuela
Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco, a top Colombian drug trafficker known as
"Valenciano," was captured in Maracay. Officials the next day said
he will be turned over to US authorities.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 27, Yemen’s vice
president, Gen. Abd-Rabbu Mansour, named Mohammed Basindwa to form a
national unity government. A tribal source said Shiite rebels have
killed 20 people and wounded 70 others in an attack on a Sunni
Islamist school in Dammaj, a suburb of the Shiite stronghold city of
Saada. Yemen's army shelled suspected Al-Qaeda positions in
Zinjibar, killing 9 militants in its battle to win control of the
city. A tribal source said that four other extremists were killed in
an ambush by tribal fighters allied to the military in Abyan
province. Government troops have so far been unable to win back full
control of Abyan.
(AFP, 11/27/11)(AFP, 11/28/11)(SFC, 11/28/11,
p.A2)
2011 Nov 28, US Federal
authorities said they have shut down 150 websites accused of selling
knock-off or pirated merchandise to unsuspecting online bargain
hunters.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Ginger White (46)
of Georgia said that she and Republican presidential hopeful Herman
Cain had a 13-year extramarital affair that lasted nearly until the
former businessman announced his candidacy for the White House
several months ago.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, San Francisco City
College officials detected an infestation of computer viruses with
origins in criminal networks in Russia, China and other countries.
By mid January officials traced at least 723 Internet protocol
addresses to the Russian Business Network, a gang in the business of
stealing and selling personal information. The network disbanded
around 2008, but criminals were reportedly still collecting data.
(SFC, 1/13/12, p.A1)
2011 Nov 28, Mexican trucker
Daniel Navarro (45) was sentenced in San Diego to almost 16 years in
prison for his role in two major drug tunnels along the US-Mexico
border.
(SFC, 11/29/11, p.A5)
2011 Nov 28, San Francisco Bay
Area fisherman dashed out for Dungeness crab after seafood
processors agreed to a price of 2.25 per pound.
(SFC, 11/29/11, p.A1)
2011 Nov 28, In Oakland, Ca., 3
hooded assailants opened fire on a group of people at Seventh and
Willow streets. One-year-old Hiram Lawrence Jr. was shot in the head
and 6 others were wounded. The boy died Dec 9 after he was removed
from life support.
(SFC, 12/10/11, p.C2)
2011 Nov 28, Three asset
managers from Connecticut's affluent New York suburbs claimed a $254
million Powerball jackpot off a $1 ticket.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Texas Dakota
Meyer, a former US Marine and Medal of Honor recipient, sued BAE
Systems claiming he was defamed and ridiculed after expressing
concerns in an e-mail over the possible sale of a high-tech sniper
scope to Pakistan.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 28, Britain's
government said its military will stop providing a helicopter search
and rescue service. Daring operations like the one by Prince William
and his Royal Air Force colleagues, that saved two sailors this
weekend, will in the future be carried out by civilians.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Burundi told
delegates at a global anti-landmine summit in Phnom Penh that it had
cleared its territory of landmines, becoming the 18th state party to
do so. Myanmar was the only country recorded as laying new landmines
last year, but the Intl. Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said it
has since been joined by Israel, Syria and Libya, bringing the
current global use of landmines to its highest level since 2004.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 28, Chinese automaker
Chery Automobile Co. and partner Israel Corp. launched the 50-50
joint venture Qoros Automotive Co., seeking fresh appeal both
overseas and in the slowing local market. Israel Corp. is Israel's
largest holding company, with interests mainly in chemicals,
shipping and energy.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, In CongoDRC voting
began despite delays and setbacks. Armed men attacked voting centers
and a truck carrying ballots. 5 people were killed in the
southeastern town of Lubumbashi after gunmen opened fire on a truck
carrying ballots and on a polling center.
(AP, 11/28/11)(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 28, Egyptians turned
out in long lines at voting stations in their nation's first
parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a giant step
toward what they hope will be a democracy after decades of
dictatorship.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, A German NATO
officer and a soldier were shot and wounded in a clash with Serb
protesters in northern Kosovo after the military alliance's troops
used heavy machinery to remove trucks and buses blocking a main road
in the tense region.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Guyana held
elections. The East Indian-dominated People's Progressive Party led
by economist Donald Ramotar (61) won the most seats, 32 of 65, but
fell short of an absolute majority. Opposition parties could control
the parliament if they are able to work together.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Nov 28, Iran enacted
legislation to downgrade relations with Britain in retaliation for
intensified sanctions imposed last week by Western nations for their
suspected nuclear development program.
(SFC, 11/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 28, In Iraq a suicide
bomber slammed a car packed with explosives into the gate of al-Hout
prison north of Baghdad, killing at least 19 people in Taji. In
Baghdad, 5 people were killed by a suicide car bomb inside the Green
Zone. 2 civilian bystanders were killed and 5 others wounded by a
roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in western Baghdad.
(AP, 11/28/11)(SFC, 11/30/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 28, Israeli settlement
watchdog Peace Now said Israel has approved construction of more 119
homes in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, a move likely to bring
fresh international condemnation.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, A Kenyan judge
issued a warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by an
international court for genocide, after the government failed to
arrest him during a visit last year.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Kuwait’s
government resigned following a bitter dispute with opposition MPs.
The move came ahead of a planned mass rally later today by the
opposition to press demands for the ouster of PM Sheikh Nasser
al-Sabah. Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah accepted the resignation but
asked the Cabinet to remain in a caretaker role.
(AP, 11/28/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.61)
2011 Nov 28, In Mexico
Nepomuceno Moreno (56), who repeatedly had accused police in the
Sonoran capital of Hermosillo of kidnapping his 18-year-old son last
year, was shot to death in his hometown in Sonora state. A band of
heavily armed teenage car thieves shot it out with officers during a
high-speed chase, before crashing their stolen car in the northern
industrial city of Monterrey. One young man escaped. Two 13-year-old
boys and a 15-year-old girl were taken into custody. Soldiers killed
five suspected drug gang members in a gunbattle on the outskirts of
Monterrey.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 28, Niger officially
became an oil producer with the opening of a refinery run by the
state and a Chinese company.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Paraguay
Marciano Villagra (93), former leader of Paraguay Communist Party
guerrillas in various actions, died. He led the brief takeover of
the town of Piribebuy in 1947 and went into hiding after Gen.
Alfredo Stroessner took power in 1954.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Peru US-based
Newmont Mining Corp. suspended construction at the Conga gold mine
for a fourth day due to continuing protests by peasants who fear it
will damage their water supply. Deputy minister Jose de Echave quit
saying the government "lacks an adequate strategy for dealing with
social conflict."
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Somalia's Islamist
Shebab rebels ordered 16 international aid agencies shut in areas
they control after armed raids on several offices, and warned more
would follow if they did not toe the line.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, St. Lucia held
parliamentary elections. Kenny Anthony's St. Lucia Labor Party
emerged victorious by winning nine of the 15 seats decided, while
the former governing United Workers Party won six. Two seats were
still undecided.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 28, A Sudanese court
sentenced seven members of a Darfur rebel group to death by hanging
for ambushing a convoy in Jan, 2010, and killing 54 soldiers
escorting it.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Syria hit out at
the Arab League for the treatment it has meted out to Damascus,
accusing it of ignoring the presence of "terrorists" in the country
and prematurely imposing economic sanctions. Tens of thousands of
supporters of President Bashar al-Assad took to the streets to
protest against the Arab League sanctions.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, In Tunisia a group
of students, who were for the most part not enrolled at Manouba
university, camped out to demand the right for women students to
wear the full veil, known as the niqab. They also demanded a place
of prayer on campus.
(AFP, 1/24/12)
2011 Nov 28, The United Nations
completed the first-ever global assessment of the state of the
planet's land resources, finding in “"State of the World's Land and
Water Resources for Food and Agriculture,” that a quarter of all
land is highly degraded and warning the trend must be reversed if
the world's growing population is to be fed.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, UN climate
negotiations opened in Durban, South Africa, with pressure building
to salvage the only treaty limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, The UN released a
report a detailing alleged torture and ill treatment in lockups
controlled by the forces that overthrew dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
The report says that Libyan revolutionaries still hold about 7,000
people, many of them sub-Saharan Africans who in some cases are
accused or suspected of being mercenaries hired by Gadhafi.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 28, A UN investigation
concluded that Syrian forces committed crimes against humanity by
killing and torturing hundreds of children, including a 2-year-old
girl reportedly shot to death so she wouldn't grow up to be a
demonstrator.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Yugoslavia's last
PM Ante Markovic (87) died in Zagreb, Croatia. He tried to prevent
the former country's bloody breakup in the 1990s.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 29, Arthur Morgan III
(27) was captured without incident at a home in San Diego, Calif.
The arrest came one week after he allegedly killed Tierra
Morgan-Glover during a court-approved visit in New Jersey and then
fled the state. The girl's mother, Imani Benton, called police after
Morgan failed to return the child on Nov. 21.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, Dr. Conrad Murray
(58), convicted in the 2009 overdose of pop singer Michael Jackson
(1958-2009), was sentenced in Los Angeles to 4 years behind bars.
(SFC, 11/30/11, p.A12)
2011 Nov 29, Authorities in San
Diego uncovered a 600-yard cross border tunnel and seized 32 tons of
marijuana.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A13)
2011 Nov 29, AMR Corp., the
parent of American Airlines, filed for bankruptcy and replaced CEO
Gerard Arpey. The company still had some 8 billion in cash to keep
operating.
(SFC, 11/30/11, p.D5)
2011 Nov 29, In Aruba US
businessman Gary Giordano was released on the order of a judge, who
ruled authorities had failed to justify continuing to hold him
nearly four months since his companion, Robyn Gardner, vanished
during their five-day excursion to the Dutch Caribbean island. Once
back in the US, he would be free to file a claim to redeem the
American Express travel insurance policy he took out on Gardner.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Three-quarters of
British-grown oysters contain norovirus, a bug which causes diarrhea
and vomiting, according to new research published by the Food
Standards Agency (FSA).
(AFP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, China's central
government raised the country's rural poverty line by more than 80
percent as part of efforts to increase aid to its struggling
low-income population. Veteran activist Chen Xi (57) was arrested.
He was accused of writing 36 essays that incited subversion. On Dec
23 he charged with subversion. On Dec 26 he was sentenced to 10
years in prison.
(AFP, 11/29/11)(AP, 12/24/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Nov 29, China pledged more
than $2.3 million in military assistance to Uganda during a
high-profile visit to Kampala by Beijing's defense minister.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, CongoDRC officials
extended voting to a second day in an attempt to prevent further
unrest in sub-Saharan Africa's largest nation. The election was
marred by missing ballots and violence.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, In the Dominican
Rep. 2 men driving in Santo Domingo were slain in a gun attack.
Their stolen government car then crashed into a small truck, killing
an adult and a child.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, In Egypt long
lines formed at polling stations for a second day of voting and the
head of the election commission, Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim, proclaimed
turnout so far had been "massive and unexpected." The voting process
is staggered over the next six weeks across 27 provinces, divided
into thirds with runoffs held a week after the first round in each
location.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, German police
arrested Ralf Wohlleben (36), a right-wing extremist on suspicion he
helped arm a small group of neo-Nazis accused of a string of
killings of minorities and a policewoman.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Hard-line Iranian
students stormed British diplomatic sites in Tehran, bringing down
the Union Jack flag, burning an embassy vehicle and throwing
documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the seizing of the
US compound in 1979.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Iran hanged three
convicted rapists and six drug traffickers, one of them a woman, in
different cities.
(AFP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Jamaica’s
Transport Minister Mike Henry issued a statement announcing he is
resigning due to "ongoing attacks" on the management of a five-year
initiative launched in 2010 to upgrade rutted roadways. Allegations
that a $400 million road project has been mismanaged led to his
resignation.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, Rockets fired from
Lebanon struck northern Israel for the first time in more than two
years, drawing a burst of Israeli artillery fire across the tense
border. No casualties or major damage were reported.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Aisha Kadhafi, the
daughter of the slain Libyan leader, called for the overthrow of
Libya's interim government in an audio message aired on Syrian-based
Arrai television.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, Malaysia's
parliament enacted a ban on street protests. Demonstrators denounced
the law as a violation of constitutional protections of free speech
and a sign that PM Najib Razak was breaking his pledge to bolster
civil liberties.
(AFP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Morocco’s King
Mohammed VI received Abdelilah Benkirane, the secretary general of
the Justice and Development Party, in the mountain town of Midelt
and named him head of government with the task of forming a
governing coalition.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, A Myanmar
government delegation held talks in China with representatives of
the Kachin Independence Organization, led by its chairman Zaung
Hara, with which it has had armed clashes since June.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Nov 29, Nepalese MPs
extended parliament's term for a fourth and final time to allow the
drafting of a new constitution in line with a peace accord brokered
after the civil war ended in 2006. The current 601-member
parliament, or Constituent Assembly, was given an initial two-year
mandate to write a new constitution for the young republic.
(AFP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Nigeria's Senate
voted to criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex
public displays of affection, the latest legislation targeting a
minority already facing discrimination in Africa's most populous
nation. The bill must be passed by Nigeria's House of
Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before
becoming law.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Norwegian
prosecutors said confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was
insane when he killed 77 people in a July 22 bomb and shooting
rampage, and should be sent to a psychiatric ward instead of prison.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, Pakistan decided
to boycott a key international conference on Afghanistan next month
in Bonn, widening its protest over lethal cross-border NATO strikes
and exacerbating a deep crisis in US ties. Islamabad communicated
with the alliance to prevent an exchange of artillery fire from
turning into another international incident.
(AFP, 11/29/11)(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, Philippine
authorities in Zamboanga captured Hussein Ahaddin, an
al-Qaida-linked bomber suspected in at least six attacks, including
a 2002 karaoke bar explosion that killed an American Green Beret and
a hotel blast this week that killed three people.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, President Dmitry
Medvedev officially commissioned a new military early warning radar
in the Kaliningrad region, saying it shows Russia's readiness to
respond to US missile defense plans.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, The World Health
Organization said its offices in southern Somalia were looted during
rebel raids while children's relief agency UNICEF said its base in
the area remained occupied.
(AFP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, South Ossetia’s
Supreme Court invalidated the results of the election due to alleged
violations and barred Alla Dzhioyeva from a new election set for
March.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 29, Tunisia’s state
news said interim President Fouad Mebazza has signed a decree
extending the state of emergency for the fourth time since it was
first enacted during street unrest after the fall of Tunisia's
longtime autocratic leader in January.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, The UN weather
office said world temperatures keep rising, and are heading for a
threshold that could lead to irreversible changes of the Earth.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 29, The Yemeni army
killed six Qaeda-linked militants in their stronghold of Zinjibar,
capital of the restive southern province of Abyan. A rocket attack
by Houthi rebels killed some 24 students at a religious school run
by ultra-orthodox Sunnis near the town of Saada. The Houthis claim
themselves to be champions of the Yemen’s large Zaydi Shia
community.
(AFP, 11/30/11)(Econ, 12/3/11, p.61)
2011 Nov 29, Zimbabwe state
radio reported that militant youth group loyal to Pres. Mugabe is
calling for a boycott of a restaurant chain whose latest
advertisement depicts the aging, authoritarian president as "the
last dictator standing." The head of Chipangano called for South
Africa-based Nando's to withdraw the ad.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 30, Amid fears of a
eurozone collapse, central banks of the United States, the eurozone,
Britain, Japan, Canada and Switzerland said that they would cut the
cost of providing dollars to banks. The move pushed the DJIA up 490
points, its biggest gain since March 2009.
(AFP, 12/1/11)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.D1)
2011 Nov 30, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton arrived in Myanmar on the first top-level US
visit for half a century.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, A rare 1938 first
issue of Action Comics, which first featured Superman, was auctioned
online for a record $2.16 million.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A10)
2011 Nov 30, In Berkeley, Ca.,
city manager Phil Kamlarz (64) retired after working 36 years for
the city. He left with a check of nearly $150,000 for unused sick
and vacation time and was expected to make $249,420 annually during
retirement due to bonuses received for his longevity with the city.
Large pensions were threatening the financial stability of the city.
(SFC, 12/21/11, p.C3)
2011 Nov 30, In southern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a NATO service member.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Albania
self-styled king Leka I Zogu (72), the son of King Ahmet Zogu, died.
The father had proclaimed himself Albania's monarch in 1928.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Nov 30, Argentina’s
Chamber of Deputies approved a bill allowing all transvestites and
transsexuals to be recognized by the gender of their choice.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, An Aruba appeals
court rejected a prosecution appeal to put US businessman Gary
Giordano back in pretrial detention. Giordano had already left Aruba
when the three-judge panel ruled that prosecutors lacked sufficient
evidence to continue holding him as a suspect in the disappearance
and presumed death of his traveling companion, Robyn Gardner.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Britain's foreign
secretary ordered all Iranian diplomats out of the UK within 48
hours following attacks on the British embassy and a residential
compound in Tehran. The ransacked embassy in Tehran was shuttered.
(AP, 11/30/11)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A3)
2011 Nov 30, Britain’s biggest
carbon capture (CC) pilot plant began siphoning emissions from SSE's
490 megawatt coal-fired station at Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire, in
the latest effort to prove the technology on an industrial scale.
(Reuters, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, CongoDRC officials
extended voting to a third day in an attempt to prevent further
unrest in sub-Saharan Africa's largest nation.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Egypt about 80
people were hurt when overnight clashes erupted between protesters
and angry street vendors at Cairo's Tahrir Square.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, A French court
jailed five Somali men for between four and eight years and
acquitted a sixth in the Sep 2, 2008, hostage taking of a French
couple on their yacht in the Gulf of Aden.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, A senior German
official said the government has approved the subsidized sale of
another Dolphin-type military submarine to Israel. Israel already
has 3 Dolphin submarines from Germany, one half-funded and two
entirely funded by Berlin.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Germany's top
administrative court ruled that students don't have the right to
pray while in school if a conflict is created. This upheld a
decision by a lower court which had denied that right to a Muslim
student who had demanded a private prayer room at his Berlin high
school.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Indian authorities
said they have broken up a terror cell responsible for a series of
bombings, including a deadly blast at a southern cafe popular with
foreigners. The cell was responsible for the Feb. 13, 2010, blast
that killed 17 people at a cafe in Pune.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Israel announced
that it would release tens of millions of dollars of tax funds owed
to the Palestinians, ending a standoff that the Palestinians say has
caused grave damage to their fragile economy.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Italy a judge,
politician and police official were among 10 people detained in a
crackdown on the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate in Milan and southern
Reggio Calabria.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Former Ivory Coast
President Laurent Gbagbo (66) was taken into custody by the
International Criminal Court at The Hague to face charges of murder,
rape and other crimes allegedly committed by his supporters as he
clung to power after last year's elections.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Lebanon's PM Najib
Mikati said his country has paid its share of funds for a UN-backed
tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of a Lebanese
statesman, averting a political crisis in the deeply divided country
at a critical time in the Middle East.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Mali hundreds
of people took to the streets of Bamako to demand that a referendum
on proposed changes to the constitution be shelved. The changes,
first announced in December 2009, include the creation of a Senate
as a second house of parliament and will give the president the
power to "define the nation's policy" as opposed to the prime
minister.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Norway said it has
temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran due to security concerns
after the British mission in the Iranian capital was attacked by an
angry mob.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Peru US-based
Newmont Mining Corp. suspended its $4.8 billion gold project
at Minas Conga under government pressure to reestablish tranquility
and social peace.
(SFC, 12/1/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 30, Amnesty
International published a new report accusing Saudi Arabia of
conducting a campaign of repression against protesters and
reformists since the Arab Spring erupted.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Somalia a
suicide bomber dressed in a military uniform triggered his
explosives at army headquarters in Mogadishu, killing four soldiers.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In South Africa
Rajendra Pachauri, the UN's top climate scientist, cautioned climate
negotiators that global warming is leading to human dangers and
soaring financial costs, but containing carbon emissions will have a
host of benefits.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In South Ossetia
Alla Dzhioyeva, a former school principal and anti-corruption
crusader, declared herself president after she led with about 57% of
the Nov 27 run-off vote with ballots from 74 of the 85 precincts
counted. Troops fired warning shots into the air as thousands
rallied to support Dzhioyeva. Former defense minister Anatoly
Barankevich told the crowd that he obtained the final election
results, which confirmed her victory.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Sudan said it will
take 23% of the south's vital oil exports as payment in kind, after
talks in Addis Ababa failed, but will not block Juba's exports.
Sudan was looking to charge the south $36 per barrel for the use of
its oil infrastructure, in contrast to a southern offer of 70 cents.
Southern oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau rejected the north's fee as
"extortionate."
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, Turkey slapped
tough economic sanctions on Syria, freezing assets of officials
involved in the government's crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising,
suspending ties with the nation's central bank and banning all
military sales.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Turkey a
heavily armed man opened fire at Istanbul's Topkapi Palace, wounding
a Turkish soldier and a security guard before police snipers killed
the attacker. Hw was identified as Samir Salem Ali Elmadhavri (36),
a Libyan with Syrian citizenship.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, The United Arab
Emirates announced that children of Emirati women married to
foreigners could apply for citizenship once they turned 18, moving
closer to giving women the same nationality rights as men.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, In Yemen gunmen
shot dead two government soldiers in the main southern city of Aden,
as thousands rallied there to call for secession from the north.
(AFP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov, The 685-member Fort
Sill Apache won the right to establish a reservation on homelands in
southern New Mexico. The US Interior Department approved a
proclamation that awards the Fort Sill Apache 30 acres to establish
a reservation near Deming.
(AP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov, In China Neil Heywood
(b.1970), a British citizen, was found dead in his hotel in
Chongqing. Authorities said he died of alcohol poisoning and
cremated the body without an autopsy. Heywood had long history of
advising Western companies on China and had connection with the
family of Bo Xilai established through his Chinese wife.
(SFC, 3/27/12,
p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood)
2011 Nov, Maria Assunta (94)
left a $13 million fortune to her beloved kitty Tommaso when she
died two weeks ago. The feline's newfound riches include cash, as
well as properties in Rome, Milan and land in Calabria.
(ABCNews, 12/12/11)
2011 Nov, A large metallic ball
fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting
baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.
Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and
Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an
Internet search.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Nov, The Swiss Cabinet
decided to order 22 Gripen fighters from Sweden's Saab AB to replace
the air force's aging Northrop F-5 Tigers.
(AP, 2/14/12)
2011 Dec 1, Pres. Obama marked
World Aids Day with plans to boost spending on HIV treatment by $50
million.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 1, The US Army
established a new cyber brigade. The colors of the 780th Military
Intelligence Brigade were unfurled for the first time during an
activation ceremony at NSA's Friedman Auditorium, Fort Meade, Md.
(http://tinyurl.com/7d9kdgm)
2011 Dec 1, Amnesty
International urged Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia to arrest former
US president George W. Bush for violating international torture
laws, during his African tour this week.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, The California
Public Utilities Commission approved a record $38 million fine
against Pacific Gas & Electric for a string of safety violations
that led up to a 2008 Christmas Eve explosion outside Sacramento
that killed a homeowner.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 1, In San Francisco 5
members of the MS-13 gang were sentenced to life in prison for a
campaign of violence that included three murders in 2008.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.C4)
2011 Dec 1, Afghan Pres. Karzai
pardoned an Afghan woman (19) serving a 12-year sentence for having
sex out of wedlock after she was raped by a relative. Karzai said
she had agreed to marry her attacker. She had a child while in
prison and had previously refused a judge’s offer of freedom in
exchange for marrying the rapist.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 1, A second wave of
Afghanistan's transition from NATO to local control officially
started as international forces handed over most of a peaceful
province. All but two districts of Parwan province, north of the
capital Kabul, were being handed to Afghan control.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Auto giants Toyota
and BMW said they have agreed to collaborate on research for
cleaner, next-generation car batteries.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Britain’s navy
arrested 7 suspected pirates after a helicopter chase off the coast
of Somalia. A Spanish fishing vessel had come under attack by a
group of pirate vessels.
(SFC, 12/2/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 1, Berlin-based
Transparency International (TI) said corruption is hampering efforts
to tackle the eurozone debt crisis, as Greece (80) and Italy (69)
scored badly in a list of nations seen to be the most sleaze-ridden.
Nepal ranked 154th out of 183 countries. New Zealand ranked the
cleanest, while the US ranked 24th. Afghanistan ranked 180.
(AFP,
12/1/11)(cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/)(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 1, Shops around India
closed their doors in a strike called to protest a new policy to
allow big-box retailers into the country.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, In Iraq 2 separate
attacks killed 17 people in northeastern Diyala province. The
attacks came as US Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraqi officials
on a trip designed to chart a new relationship between the two
countries ahead of the withdrawal of US forces by the end of this
year.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Ivory Coast
President Alassane Ouattara arrived in Conakry for a one day visit
in which he and his Guinean counterpart Alpha Conde will discuss
reconciliation efforts in their troubled countries.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, In Kazakhstan a new
5.2 mile subway line officially opened in Almaty. Work had begun in
1988 under Soviet rule.
(SFC, 12/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 1, Lebanese bankers
said they have adopted strict measures to ensure compliance with
international sanctions against neighboring Syria and are closely
scrutinizing transactions by Syrian clients.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Libya's interim
interior minister Fawzi Abdelali said security forces will integrate
50,000 fighters who battled loyalists of late dictator Moamer
Kadhafi.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Mexican authorities
said army troops have dismantled a telecommunications system set up
by organized crime in four northern states. The US government
delivered inspection technology and a surveillance plane to help
Mexico's navy fight drug cartels.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, The first talks in
nearly six years between Moldova and the pro-Moscow separatist
region of Trans-Dniester concluded in Lithuania with an agreement
for more meetings at the beginning of next year.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Nigerian officials
said at least 5,000 people have fled villages in central Nigeria at
the heart of clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farmers, as
at least five people have died in the fighting.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Peru’s El Comercio
reported that Congress has amended the penal code to included prison
sentences of 15-35 years for murders committed by husbands, lovers,
boyfriends and live-in partners. An average of 10 Peruvian women
were murdered monthly by their lovers.
(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 1, Russian prosecutors
launched a probe against Golos, the country's main independent
election watchdog, on suspicion of election law violations — just
three days before the national parliamentary vote. It has recorded
more than 4,500 complaints related to the Dec 4 election, most
involving the dominant United Russia party.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, In Slovakia more
than 1,200 doctors of some 7,000 from public hospitals resigned from
their posts over low pay, forcing hospitals to delay planned
operations and focus on necessary treatment. A new deal was
announced on Dec 3 that will ensure salaries for doctors in the
state-run hospitals of up to 2.3 times higher than average.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 1, South Africa’s
President Jacob Zuma unveiled a 5-year plan to halve the number of
HIV infections, cementing South Africa's turnaround from years of
deadly denial.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, In eastern South
Africa a crash involving a van and a truck killed all 18 people
aboard the two vehicles, including a baby.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Syria's opposition
called a general strike over President Bashar Assad's deadly
crackdown as government troops stormed a village in the central
province of Hama, killing six people. Arab League chief Nabil
al-Arabi rejected any foreign intervention in Syria as he joined EU
talks aimed at ramping up pressure on the regime over its crackdown
on dissidents. The EU's latest sanctions were announced, targeting
12 more people and 11 companies. The UN high commissioner for human
rights said that the violence in Syria is a civil war.
(AP, 12/1/11)(AFP, 12/1/11)(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 1, In Tunisia
thousands of people rallied in central Tunis to express fears of
extremism under an Islamist party that swept to power in October
polls, but also to denounce unemployment and corruption.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, Clashes between
Yemeni soldiers and armed tribesmen in the restive southern city of
Taiz left 13 dead including 5 soldiers.
(AP, 12/1/11)
2011 Dec 1, In Venezuela a
5-year-old boy died in Guanare. An autopsy found bruises and other
injuries on the boy's body as well as scars showing a history of
physical abuse and "signs of sexual abuse." His death sparked
violent protests leading to the arrest of some 30 people. Suspects,
including the boy's mother, faced charges of murder, sexual abuse
and abusive treatment.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Santa Clara,
Ca., city officials announced that they have secured $850 million in
funding for a new 49ers football stadium now estimated to cost $1.02
billion.
(SFC, 12/3/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 2, In Florida Michele
O'Dowd (67) was found beaten, strangled and hidden beneath the
Christmas presents in her Jacksonville home. Authorities soon
charged Patty Michelle White (40) of York, S.C., who had been
befriended by the victim.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Canton, Georgia,
Puerto Rico-born Jorelys Rivera (7) disappeared from a playground
after her babysitter went home to fetch sodas for friends. The
girl’s body was found on Dec 5 in a trash container and she appeared
to have been severely beaten and sexually assaulted. On Dec 7 Ryan
Brunn (20), a maintenance worker, was arrested for her murder. Brunn
was found dead of an apparent suicide in his prison cell on Jan 19.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A12)(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A14)(AP,
12/13/11)(AP, 1/19/12)
2011 Dec 2, Michigan Rep. Gov
Rick Snyder’s administration said it would begin a review of
Detroit’s finances. Managers in Michigan were already overseeing
Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac and the Detroit public schools. On Dec
6 Michigan took the first legal steps toward a state takeover of
Detroit.
(SSFC, 12/4/11,
p.A24)(http://tinyurl.com/7t85ca9)(Econ, 12/10/11, p.36)
2011 Dec 2, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber blew up a truck full of explosives
outside a joint Afghan-NATO combat outpost, killing one Afghan
civilian and wounding dozens of other people in Logar province.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, It was reported
that former British police boss John Yates and US ex-cop John
Timoney will oversee reforms to Bahrain's security force after a
report found it guilty of human rights abuses. Yates, who quit as
head of Britain's Metropolitan police force in July over a
phone-hacking scandal, and Timoney, former head of Miami police,
were asked to modernize Bahrain’s police force in order to meet
international human rights standards.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Britain’s PM David
Cameron held emergency talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy,
while France and Germany tried to drum up support for a new EU
treaty to enforce budget discipline.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Christopher Logue
(85), English poet, died.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.166)
2011 Dec 2, In Colombia
flooding over the last 3 months has caused 114 deaths with another
21 people missing.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.42)
2011 Dec 2, Human Rights Watch
said CongoDRC election-related violence has already killed 18
civilians, amid fears that fresh unrest could erupt over alleged
fraud. A UN report on March 20, 2012, said security forces killed at
least 33 people among other "serious human rights violations"
during the November elections.
(AFP, 12/2/11)(AFP, 3/21/12)
2011 Dec 2, In Haiti a dump
truck slammed into a bus in a western coastal town, killing at least
five people.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Iraq the Camp
Victory base complex, at its height was home to 46,000 people, was
handed over to the Iraqi government as part of American efforts to
move all US troops out of the country by the end of the year.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Kosovo and Serbia
agreed on normalizing border procedures, one of the thorniest issues
in current talks between the two rivals. An EU statement said, "The
parties will gradually set up the joint, integrated, single and
secure posts at all their common crossing points."
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Mexico Humberto
Moreira the head of Mexico's former ruling party (PRI) resigned over
a financial scandal in Coahuila that threatened the party's efforts
to rebrand itself as corruption-free and retake the presidency in
2012.
(AP, 12/2/11)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.50)
2011 Dec 2, In Mexico Norma
Andrade (51), an activist representing relatives of women slain or
missing in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, was shot in what
authorities called an apparent robbery attempt. She was shot twice
outside her home and was in stable condition in a hospital.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 2, Myanmar's Pres.
Thein Sein formally approved a bill allowing citizens to protest
peacefully if they have permission, in one of a series of reformist
moves by the regime. Shan State Army-South rebel group, one of the
main ethnic rebel groups battling Myanmar’s government, was reported
to have signed a preliminary cease-fire.
(AFP, 12/3/11)(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Environmental
Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) visited
Kalaba community, Bayelsa state, and observed five spill points on
the pipeline which was spewing oil into the environment. The
pipeline was operated by Agip, the local subsidiary of Italian oil
group Eni.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Peru Jose Flores
Hala, one of two remaining leaders of the Shining Path guerrilla
group, said his troops will cease attacks and is calling for a truce
to start peace negotiations with the government.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 2, In the Philippines
6 fishermen, from China's southern island province of Hainan, were
arrested in waters off western Palawan province's Balabac township,
for catching endangered sea turtles. Officials said the fishermen's
mother ship may have escaped when their speedboat was intercepted.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Puerto Rico a
man opened fire inside an unemployment office in Caguas, killing
Luis Lopez Rodriguez (27) and wounding another in what an official
said appeared to be targeted attack.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, A Russian court
found Golos, the country’s only independent election watchdog,
guilty of violations, casting doubt on its ability to monitor the
Dec 4 parliamentary election as voters complain of record violations
by the Kremlin party.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Royal Bank of
Scotland said it has sold its 918 tenanted pubs in Britain to Dutch
brewer Heineken for 422 million pounds, another step in its exit
from non-core businesses following a government bailout.
(Reuters, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, The Seychelles
invited Beijing to set up a military base on the archipelago to beef
up the fight against piracy there.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Spanish police said
they have arrested L. Morris (66), a British man, suspected of
raping his step-daughter when she was nine years old and years later
abusing her daughter as well. He had moved to Spain from Kent where
the alleged rapes took place.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, In Syria hours of
intense shooting and clashes killed at least four people and wounded
dozens more, including an 11-year-old girl who was struck by stray
bullets that whizzed across the border into Lebanon. The European
Union released the names of Syrian officials and companies to be
added to a growing sanctions blacklist.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Tunisia closed the
second main border post into Libya following attacks on Tunisians on
the Libyan side, two days after the first closure.
(AFP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Yemeni government
troops shelled residential areas in the restive southern city of
Taiz for a fourth straight day, killing three people.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 2, Venezuela’s Pres.
Hugo Chavez hosted leaders from across the Americas at a two-day
summit. Chavez described the new regional bloc that excludes the US
as a tribute to his idol Bolivar, saying the time has come to put an
end to US hegemony. The 33-nation Community of Latin American and
Caribbean States (CELAC) includes every country in Latin America and
the Caribbean. Plans for the new organization, which grew out of the
24-nation Rio Group, have been in the works since a 2008 summit
hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
(AP, 12/2/11)
2011 Dec 3,
Businessman Herman Cain, plagued by allegations of sexual harassment
and marriage infidelity, announced that he is officially suspending
his campaign for US president.
(Reuters, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Colorado a small
plane with 4 people crashed in the mountains near Silverton.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 3, In eastern
Afghanistan 3 troops from the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by a roadside bomb.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Brazil a
tractor-trailer slammed into a bus carrying sugarcane cutters,
killing at least 33 people and injuring 13 others in the
northeastern state of Bahia.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, The London-based
Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO) reported
that more than 2,800 so-called honor attacks, punishments for
bringing shame on the family, were recorded by Britain's police in
2010.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Congo's Pres.
Kabila, who is seeking a second term in a nation reeling from
poverty and pummeled by war, was leading with just over 50 percent
of the votes after early presidential poll results were released.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Early results from
Egypt's first post-revolution election showed Islamist parties
sweeping to victory, including hardline Salafists, with secular
parties trounced in many areas. Full results after the first Nov
28-29 voting, which saw 62 percent turnout, have been delayed
several times.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3,
Guyana's new Pres. Donald Ramotar (61) was sworn in, pledging that
his minority government will work with an opposition-controlled
Parliament. Ramotar replaced Bharrat Jagdeo, who served the two-term
maximum set by Guyana's constitution.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Honduras a
female Peace Corps volunteer was shot in the leg during an armed
robbery in a bus in the city of San Pedro Sula. Two others were
wounded. One of the three alleged robbers was killed by a bus
passenger. A US government decision to pull out the entire Peace
Corps delegation came 18 days later
(AP, 1/18/12)
2011 Dec 3, A key ally of
India’s ruling coalition said the government has "suspended" plans
to open the nation's huge retail sector to global competition that
have paralyzed parliament.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Thousands protested
in India against the country's decision to compete in the London
Olympics despite sponsorship of the Games by Dow chemical, a US firm
linked to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. Thousands of survivors of the
tragedy blocked trains demanding more compensation.
(AFP, 12/3/11)(SSFC, 12/4/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 3, The Kenyan army
said it had lost four troops killed in action against Somalia's
Shebab Islamist rebels while 10 had been hospitalized with wounds
since it launched its incursion in mid-October.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Nigeria
suspected Muslim sect members shot and killed two people during a
wedding ceremony in Maiduguri.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Pakistani actress
Veena Malik said a nude photo has been published in violation of her
agreement with FHM India and she was considering legal action
against the magazine. She had posed in the nude for the Indian
magazine with the initials of Pakistan's feared and powerful
intelligence agency on her arm and triggered fury across her
conservative nation.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3,
In Panama a small plane, piloted by a US citizen, crashed about 50
miles west of Panama City, killing pilot Monty Polo and Panamanian
passenger Josue Cedeno.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In the Philippines
more than 1,000 gays, lesbians and transgenders marched in Manila to
demand equal rights, an end to discrimination, and more support for
AIDS programs.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Sierra Leone's
Pres. Ernest Bai Koroma officially declared the Gola Rainforest a
national park.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, The head of Sri
Lanka's Roman Catholic church declared he will boycott state
functions to protest against police allegations of child trafficking
involving the Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, Violence swept
across Syria killing 25 people, most of them in a battle between
troops and a growing force of army defectors who have joined the
movement to oust President Bashar Assad. Syrian troops detained at
least 27 people in the village of Talkalakh on the border with
Lebanon and set fire to the homes of nine activists who were on the
run. The Arab League approved details of sanctions against Syria
aimed at pressuring the regime to end its deadly eight-month
crackdown on dissent.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3, In Tunisia
thousands of Islamist supporters descended on central Tunis to
confront liberal demonstrators rallying against extremism as
lawmakers draft a new constitution.
(AFP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3,
In Venezuela leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean
pledged closer ties to safeguard their economies from the world
financial crisis as they formed a new bloc on Saturday including
every nation in the hemisphere except the US and Canada. The leaders
formally launched the new bloc, known by its Spanish initials CELAC,
by approving a declaration of shared principles as well as a clause
dealing with democratic norms.
(AP, 12/3/11)
2011 Dec 3,
Five Yemeni soldiers were killed in an attack by Al-Qaeda suspects
on their post near the southern restive city of Zinjibar in Abyan
province.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Washington DC
police detained over 30 people in a standoff at the Occupy DC
campaign in McPherson Square.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 4, It was reported
that final preparations were underway for the for Chemistry
Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility (CMRR) at Los Alamos
National Laboratory, NM. The high-end price tag estimate of $5.8
billion is almost $1 billion more than New Mexico's annual state
budget and more than double the lab's annual budget.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Australia’s Labor
party passed PM Julia Gillard's proposal with 206 votes to 185,
reversing a decades-old policy excluding New Delhi from Australia's
uranium trade because it is not a signatory to the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Brazil Socrates
Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira (57), footballer and
political agitator, died. In 2007 he authored “Football Philosophy.”
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.106)
2011 Dec 4, Croatians voted in
a parliamentary election expected to unseat long-dominant
conservatives and empower a center-left coalition. The vote for
151-seat parliament pits the governing center-right Croatian
Democratic Union, or HDZ, against a coalition of left-leaning
parties. The latter has led recent opinion polls.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, DR Congo President
Joseph Kabila led chief rival Etienne Tshisekedi 49 percent to 34
with about half of polling centers counted.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, In the Dominican
Rep. Sonia Pierre (48), a human rights activist who bravely fought
discrimination against poor Dominicans of Haitian descent, died.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Egypt initial
election results showed that Islamist parties won 65% of all votes
cast for parties in the first round of parliamentary polls. The
secular liberals, who played a key part in the January-February
uprising, managed just 13.4%.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, In eastern India a
landmine attack by Maoist rebels struck the convoy of a senior
politician, killing ten policemen and a young boy in Jharkhand
state.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Indonesia 11
people were killed when a high concrete wall collapsed in a housing
complex during a heavy downpour in Makassar, Sulawesi island.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Iran's official
IRNA news agency reported that Iranian armed forces have brought
down an unmanned US spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along
the country's eastern border. Iran said it used
advanced electronic warfare measures to detect, hack and bring down
an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel drone. It suffered minor damage and was
now in possession of Iran's armed forces." Footage of the drone was
aired on Dec 8.
(AP, 12/4/11)(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 4, In Iraq explosions
killed six people, including a father and son who were assembling a
makeshift bomb that accidentally detonated inside their home in
Kirkuk. In Baghdad a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi military convoy
in the capital's western suburb of Abu Ghraib. 4 soldiers were
killed.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Srinagar,
Kashmir, authorities used batons, tear gas and water canons to break
up Muslim religious processions held in defiance of a strict curfew.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Kazakhstan
prosecutors said a clash outside the commercial capital of Almaty
has left five militants and two government troops dead. The fighting
occurred as security services cornered suspects wanted in the murder
last month of two policemen in Almaty.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Pilots at Lebanese
national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) ended a five-day strike
in protest at the dismissal of a cancer-stricken colleague which
grounded dozens of flights at Beirut airport.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, The Mexican army
said that it has seized a total of at least 167 antennas, 155
repeaters, 166 power sources, 71 pieces of computer equipment and
1,446 radios. The equipment was taken down in several cities in the
Gulf coast state of Veracruz and the northern states of Nuevo Leon,
Coahuila, San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas. The network was built
around 2006 by the Gulf cartel, a narcotics-trafficking gang that
employed a group of enforcers known as the Zetas, who had defected
from Mexican army special forces.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 4, Morocco's main
leftwing party said it had decided not to take part in a government
coalition led by the country's moderate Islamists.
(AFP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, The Kathmandu-based
Int’l. Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) published
reports showing that Nepal's glaciers have shrunk by 21 percent and
Bhutan's by 22 percent over the last 30 years.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 4, In northern Nigeria
gunmen from a radical Muslim sect raided Azari town, Bauchi state,
bombing police stations and robbing banks in an attack that killed
at least six people.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Peru’s President
Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency in the northern
department of Cajamarca following weeks of protests against the
Minas Conga mining project.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.42)
2011 Dec 4, Russians cast their
ballots with muted enthusiasm in parliamentary elections. Several
parties complained of extensive election violations aimed at
boosting the vote count of United Russia, the party of PM Vladimir
Putin. An election official later described how he had manipulated
the vote at his polling station to give Putin's party the desired 65
percent, when in fact it had won no more than 25 percent.
(AP, 12/4/11)(AP, 3/4/12)
2011 Dec 4, In Singapore
hundreds of people gathered at a park to protest sexual violence
against women as part of the global "SlutWalk" movement, in a rare
public demonstration in the tightly controlled city state.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Slovenians voted in
an early election expected to bring conservatives back to power,
where they will have to tackle the country's mounting debt,
unemployment and a looming recession. President Danilo Turk said
that "the most important task of the new government will be to
restart economy." The outgoing center-left government of PM Borut
Pahor has failed to push through pension and labor reform requested
by the EU. The center-left Positive Slovenia party won with 28.5% of
the ballots.
(AP, 12/4/11)(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 4, Syria signaled it
still might be willing to comply with the Arab League's plan, saying
its objections were simply a matter of details. In central Syria new
violence killed at least six people, including a female university
professor and a father and his three children.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 4, Yemeni officials
said clashes between the army and tribal fighters in Taiz have left
at least 28 people dead over the last 3 days. Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi
formed a military commission under the Gulf Cooperation Council
agreement to oversee the restructuring of the security forces, many
of which are controlled by Saleh's relatives.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A2)(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, The US said it is
vacating the Shamsi air base in Pakistan used by American drones
that target Taliban and al-Qaida militants, complying with a key
demand made by Islamabad in retaliation for the NATO airstrikes that
killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, A team led by
astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, reported the
discovery of two gigantic black holes, each one 10 billion times the
mass of our sun, in clusters of elliptical galaxies more than 300
million light years away.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, NASA scientists
reported that a planet dubbed Kepler22b, first detected in 2009,
exists in a habitable zone of a solar system 600 light-years away.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 5, Angela Zhang (17)
of Cupertino, Ca, won a $100,000 scholarship, at the Siemens
Foundation's annual high school science competition, for research
that created a tiny particle she likened to a "Swiss army knife of
cancer treatments" because of its precision in targeting cancer
tumors.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Rachelle Grimmer
(38), Texas woman who for months was unable to qualify for food
stamps, pulled a gun in a state welfare office and staged a 7-hour
standoff with police that ended with her shooting her two children
before killing herself. The children, a 10-year-old boy and a
12-year-old girl, remained in critical condition. Both children died
of their wounds.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 5, In southern
Afghanistan a minibus full of civilians struck a roadside bomb,
setting off an explosion that killed five passengers in Uruzgan
province. Militants abducted 11 Afghan policemen during an ambush in
Wardooj district of Badakhshan province. Two policemen were killed
and four others wounded during the kidnapping. The 11 policemen were
freed on Dec 16 and some two dozen suspected insurgents were
arrested.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 5, Belgium’s King
Albert II named Elio Di Rupo as the prime minister ending a record
541 days the country has gone without a government. Di Rupo will be
the first French-speaking prime minister in nearly 40 years.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, Brazilian police
arrested a man suspected in the shooting deaths of eight men over
the past two months. Ronis de Oliveira Bastos (22) was arrested on
the outskirts of Sao Paulo while riding a bicycle and armed with a
.38 caliber revolver.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Cameroon 15
people were killed and 40 were seriously injured in a bus crash in
the northwest.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In France
Greenpeace activists broke into the Electricite de France’s
Nogent-sur-Seine plant. EDF said 9 people were arrested.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 5, France and Germany
reached a compromise agreement to seek mandatory limits on budget
deficits among debt-laden European governments.
(SFC, 12/6/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 5, In Bonn, Germany, a
global conference on Afghanistan's future opened. It was
overshadowed by the absence of key regional player Pakistan. The US
and other nations vowed to keep supporting Afghanistan after most
foreign forces leave the country in 2014.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange was granted permission to apply to England's highest
court in his year-long battle to block his extradition to Sweden
over rape and sexual assault allegations.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Egyptian voters
headed to the polls for two days of runoffs in the country's first
parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster. Islamist
parties have already captured an overwhelming majority of the votes
in the first round.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Paris, France,
launched an electric car sharing program with 250 vehicles. 3000
vehicles were planned for the program over the next two years.
(SFC, 12/5/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 5, The world court
ruled that Greece was wrong to block Macedonia's bid to join NATO in
2008 because of a long-running dispute over the fledgling country's
use of the name Macedonia.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Iraq 5 bomb
attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad killed some 30
people and wounded nearly 100 others during Ashura, an important
religious ritual for the Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/5/11)(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 Dec 5, Ireland’s
Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin announced $2.9 billion in
spending cuts to help reduce the country’s debt. Budget cuts will
close 31 police stations around the country.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, Kenya military jets
bombed two al-Shabab camps in Somalia, killing an unknown number of
militants. 5 al-Shabab fighters on a boat attacked a Kenyan naval
vessel. The navy sunk the attacking boat. A roadside bomb exploded
in Kenya’s largest refugee camp near the border with Somalia,
killing one police officer and wounding three.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 5, Mauritanian police
said they have arrested two Western Saharan men suspected of
kidnapping an Italian and two Spanish aid workers in Algeria on
October 23.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In the Philippines
several armed men abducted Warren Rodwell (53) of Australia from his
home in the seaside town of Ipil on Mindanao island, then fled on
speed boats. The kidnappers mailed four pictures of Rodwell before
Christmas to his Filipino wife then called her to demand an initial
ransom of $23,000 (1 million pesos). The ransom was soon raised to
$2 million.
(AFP, 12/5/11)(AP, 1/1/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2011 Dec 5, In Russia PM
Vladimir Putin's party saw its majority in parliament weaken
sharply, according to preliminary election results. International
observers pointed to procedural violations and serious indications
of ballot stuffing after a campaign slanted in favor of United
Russia. Only seven parties were allowed to field candidates for
parliament this year, while the most vocal opposition groups were
barred from the race.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Scottish artist
Martin Boyce (44), whose works include a modernist reworking of a
library table and artificial trees, won Britain's Turner Prize at a
ceremony in Gateshead, north-east England.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Slovenia
preliminary results show Positive Slovenia, a center-left party,
defeated the favored conservatives. The results also indicated that
women won 28 of 90 seats, the most since the country gained
independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Johannesburg police
fired rubber bullets to break up a group of demonstrators gathered
in front of the ruling ANC party headquarters to protest South
Africa's alleged involvement in fraud in the November 28 election in
the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In South Africa
Global Witness said it has left the Kimberley Process, accusing the
international diamond regulatory group of refusing to address links
between diamonds, violence and tyranny. The rights watchdog cited
what it called failures in Ivory Coast, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Syria 36 bodies
were dumped in the streets of Homs. Syria agreed to allow Arab
League observers but demanded that the Arab League scrap recent
decisions taken against Damascus, including economic sanctions and
suspending the country from the Arab League when a protocol allowing
observers is signed.
(AP, 12/5/11)(AP, 12/6/11)(SFC, 12/6/11,
p.A5)(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 5, The UN Security
Council toughened sanctions against Eritrea which neighboring
governments accuse of plotting terrorist attacks and supporting
Somali Islamist rebels.
(AFP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, Vietnam officials
said more than 100,000 people have been killed or injured by land
mines or other abandoned explosives since the Vietnam War ended
nearly 40 years ago, and clearing all of the country will take
decades more. The United States used about 16 million tons of bombs
and ammunition while allied with the former South Vietnam
government.
(AP, 12/5/11)
2011 Dec 5, In Yemen two women
were killed and six people were wounded when Pres. Saleh's forces
fired on a crowd of anti-regime protesters in Taez.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, US top FAA
administrator Randy Babbitt (65) resigned following his weekend
arrest in Virginia on charges of drunken driving.
(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A10)
2011 Dec 6, The Occupy movement
entered a new phase with a day of marches and rallies in over 20
cities nationwide. Oakland protesters reclaimed some foreclosed
properties, shouted down foreclosure auctions, waved banners outside
banks and held several marches and rallies.
(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 6, SF BART officials
said thefts of copper are impacting train traffic. Vallejo Public
Works said thieves have stripped $200,000 worth of copper wiring
from street lights and signalized intersections since May.
(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 6, Facebook started
making its Timeline feature available to the approximately two
million Facebook users living in New Zealand. The new application
takes everything you’ve ever done on Facebook and creates a digital
scrapbook that is simultaneously eye-pleasing and addicting.
(http://tinyurl.com/42y7nsq)
2011 Dec 6, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber struck a crowd of Shiite worshippers at a mosque in
Kabul, killing at least 56 people in the deadliest of two attacks on
a Shiite holy day. 4 other Shiites were killed in the northern city
of Mazar-i-Sharif when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded as a
convoy of Afghan Shiites was driving down the road. The Taliban
strongly condemned the two attacks. The death toll in the attacks
was soon raised to at least 80.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 6, Antigua-based LIAT
airline said all of its pilots have called in sick, likely
disrupting all flights. The pilots were protesting the firing of a
captain for undisclosed reasons.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Chinese court
jailed Australian businessman Matthew Ng for 13 years on bribery and
embezzlement charges. Ng, an executive working for travel services
group Et-China in southern China, was arrested last November.
Chinese media have said the case against Ng relates to his role in
Et-China's battle with a Guangzhou government-owned travel company
for control of domestic travel agency GZL.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, In Colombia Samuel
Moreno (51), a former mayor of Bogota, was charged with receiving
illegal kickbacks for public works contracts.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Tens of thousands
marched across Colombia to repudiate last month's execution of
soldiers and police by leftist rebels, who had held them for more
than a decade as political bargaining chips.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Greek students
hurled rocks and bottles during clashes with police at a rally to
mark the third anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a
teenager in central Athens.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Guyana police fired
tear gas and rubber pellets to disperse about 500 protesters
demanding an election recount, a day after the home of a ruling
party politician was reportedly firebombed.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, India’s police said
Maoist rebels have raided police posts, engaged in shootouts and
bombed government buildings and railway lines in eastern India in a
two-day campaign of violence protesting their leader's killing on
Nov 24.
(AP, 12/6/11)
\2011 Dec 6, In Italy an
emergency budget under new PM Mario Monti came into force.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.57)
2011 Dec 6, In Ivory Coast 3
journalists from a newspaper loyal to ousted president Laurent
Gbagbo were released from jail after being acquitted on charges of
insulting his successor. Cesar Etou, publication director at the
daily Notre Voie, political service head Boga Sivori and chief
editor Didier Depry, arrested on November 24, were found not
guilty.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Japan's whaling
fleet left port for the country's annual hunt in Antarctica.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Tokyo Electric
Power Co. (TEPCO) said it believes 150 liters (40 US gallons) of
waste water including highly harmful strontium, linked with bone
cancers, has spread to the open ocean. The announcement came a day
after TEPCO said it found 45 tons of waste water pooled around the
leaky water-treatment system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
In the weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the
plant, TEPCO dumped 10,000 tons of lower-level radioactive water
into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Kuwait's ruler,
Sheik Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, dissolved parliament and set the Gulf
nation toward elections, citing "deteriorating conditions" amid an
increasingly bitter political showdown over alleged high-level
corruption.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Kenya’s military
reported a large battle over the weekend (Dec 3-4) in which it said
11 Somali government soldiers and more than 40 al-Shabab fighters
were killed.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Libya's government
gave its firm support to a 2-week deadline for militias to quit
Tripoli, backing up a threat from the capital's council to lock down
the city if they fail to do so.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Human Rights Watch
said in a report that between 20,000 and 40,000 children work in
artisanal gold mines in Mali, Africa's third-largest producer of the
precious metal.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, In Niger 2 days of
clashes began between demonstrators and police leaving two people
dead in Zinder where opposition politician Aboubacar Mahamadou was
on trial for "preparing protest demonstrations" on November 28
against President Mahamadou Issoufou. Mahamadou was acquitted on Dec
7. Six top police chiefs were sacked in the wake of clashes.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 6, A Nigerian court
convicted a man accused of being one of several spokesmen for the
Boko Haram radical Muslim sect, responsible for hundreds of killings
this year. Ali Sanda Umar Konduga was sentenced to three years in
prison.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, In North Korea 6
American volunteers, affiliated with the Fuller Center for Housing,
arrived to kick off a project to build 50 homes for families working
at a tree farm outside Pyongyang.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Saudi Arabia
sentenced an Australian man to 500 lashes and a year in jail after
being found guilty of blasphemy. Reports said Mansor Almaribe (45)
was detained in Medina on November 14 while making the hajj
pilgrimage and accused of insulting companions of the prophet
Mohammed. The father-of-five from Shepparton in Victoria state, who
could not afford a lawyer, suffers from diabetes and heart disease.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 6, Somali police
appeared to make a deadly error by returning a suspected suicide car
bomber they had arrested to his bomb-laden vehicle, where the
suspect then detonated a blast that killed four people.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, The South African
National Parks authority said rhino poaching has climbed to a record
for a 2nd year. As many as 405 rhinos have been killed so far this
year, 22% more than in 2010.
(SFC, 12/7/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 6, Syrian activists
said a surge in violence in Homs has killed up to 50 people in the
past 24 hours, leaving dozens of bodies in the streets.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Taiwan's
state-owned CPC Corporation signed a 20-year contract with Qatar's
RasGas to buy 1.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas a year.
(AP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, In Tibet 12 people
were killed and five were missing after their bus plunged into a
river.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 6, Animal Asia, an
animal protection group, said 14 Asiatic black bears have been
rescued from a bear bile farm in Vietnam after their owner decided
to renounce the illegal trade.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, In Yemen a civilian
was killed when a shell, fired by troops loyal to President Ali
Abdullah Saleh, hit a bus in Taez.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, US Pres. Obama and
Canada’s PM Stephen Harper announced a new bilateral accord, called
Beyond the Border, regarding trade and shared border security.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.41)
2011 Dec 7, In San Francisco
police cleared the Occupy SF encampment in an early morning raid.
Demonstrators returned in the evening and clashed with police. A
half dozen people were arrested, but police pulled back as
demonstrators refused to leave Justin Herman Plaza.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 7, In Illinois a
federal judge sentenced impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to
14 years in prison, giving little weight to Blagojevich's first-ever
apology this morning since his arrest three years ago.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nevada 5 people
were killed when a helicopter flying tourists over the Hoover Dam
crashed into a mountain range bordering Lake Mead.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A11)
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Pennsylvania
prosecutors abandoned their 30-year push for the execution of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther convicted in 1982 of killing
police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu-Jamal (58) will spend the rest
of his life in prison.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A11)
2011 Dec 7, TV and film star
Harry Morgan (b.1915 as Harry Bratsberg) died in Los Angeles. He had
played Col. Sherman T. Potter in the sitcom MASH as well as Bill
Gannon in Dragnet.
(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A14)
2011 Dec 7, In southern
Afghanistan a minibus struck a roadside bomb, triggering an
explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians in Helmand province.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Argentina Czech
national Karel Abelovsky (51) was nabbed for trying to board a
transatlantic flight with 247 live animals including poisonous
snakes and endangered reptiles packed in a bulging suitcase.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 7, Bahrain's Health
Ministry said a woman (27), who was seriously hurt during a recent
anti-government protest, has died of her injuries. Bahrain halted
trial proceedings for over 100 athletes and dropped all charges
related to their participation in street protests against the
island's Sunni monarchy. It was unclear what will happen to athletes
already convicted.
(AP, 12/6/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The Brazilian
government said it will invest more than $2 billion to curb the
spread of crack cocaine.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Scotland Yard said
Ilir Nazmi Kumbaro (58), a former Albanian intelligence chief, is on
the run after failing to attend a Dec 1 extradition hearing in
Britain over charges of torture and kidnap in his homeland.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Cambodia opened the
Kamchay dam, the country's largest hydropower dam to date. The $280
million dollar Chinese-funded project has destroyed hundreds of
hectares of forest and farmland and attracted criticism from
environmental groups.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Chinese authorities
said police last week had arrested 608 suspects and rescued 178
children in busts of two separate child trafficking networks.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, China inserted
itself into the fight over oil between Sudan and its former
territory South Sudan, sending a special envoy to try to break a
deadlock between two rivals who often appear on the brink of renewed
conflict.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Colombia a
hillside loosened by heavy rains collapsed on a bus, killing five
adults and a boy. Rains since Sept. 1 have caused at least 140
deaths.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In CongoDRC with
89.2% of precincts counted, Pres. Kabila had 8.3 million out of the
17.3 million votes, or 48%. Tshisekedi was trailing with 5.9 million
votes, or 34%.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Egypt's military
ruler swore-in a new government that he says will have more powers
than its predecessor. Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi promised to
transfer some of his ruling military council's executive powers to
PM Kamal el-Ganzouri. The Freedom and Justice Party said in a
statement that it won 36 of the 56 seats awarded to individual
candidates in voting which concluded on Dec 6. A member of the junta
said the army would have a final say over those appointed to write a
new constitution next year.
(AP, 12/7/11)(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, India’s finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee confirmed that retail reform to allow
foreign supermarkets into India would be indefinitely suspended.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.47)
2011 Dec 7, Iran blocked an
Internet website, http://iran.usembassy.gov/, the United States was
touting as a "virtual embassy," and which senior MPs slammed as an
attempt to deceive the Iranian people and divide them from the
government.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Iraq a series of
attacks mainly targeting security forces killed at least 5 people.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israeli warplanes
hit targets east of Gaza City, killing one militant and injuring
another two, with the military saying they were planning to fire
rockets across the border.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israel's official
Holocaust memorial says it has received its largest private donation
ever, a $25 million gift from US casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. He
also owns a leading daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is
distributed in Israel for free.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Italian police
captured Michele Zagaria, one of the country’s most-wanted fugitive
mobsters, arresting the last major boss of the Casalesi clan of the
Neapolitan Camorra, one of Italy's bloodiest mafia clans.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Japan offered a
"heartfelt apology" for the systematic mistreatment of Canadian
prisoners during World War Two, helping to heal ties between the two
nations.
(Reuters, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The Kenyan
parliament approved a plan for their troops in southern Somalia to
join a 9,000 strong African Union force supporting the weak
UN-backed government based in Mogadishu.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Kenya hundreds
of doctors from public medical facilities marched through Nairobi to
demand a larger stock of drugs in their hospitals, better equipment
and better pay.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Mexico gunmen
attacked an ambulance in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing
the driver, two patients and a fourth person in the vehicle.
Authorities reported six other slayings in addition to the ambulance
attack.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nepal hundreds
of Buddhists demonstrated in Katmandu to protest the appointment of
Maoist party chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal to head a project to develop
Lumbini, an area where Buddha was believed born.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Nigeria a
powerful explosion rocked the northern city of Kaduna, killing 7
people, wounding many others. A Red Cross report said two men on a
motorbike had stopped in front of an auto parts shop in Kaduna just
before the explosion went off. The police's anti-bomb squad had
concluded that the blast was accidental.
(AFP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 7, The US government
said it is giving Paraguay more than $1 million in equipment and
training to help it combat a small guerrilla band in the north of
the country.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Former Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Russian authorities should annul the
results of the parliamentary vote and hold a new one, as popular
indignation grew over widespread allegations of election fraud.
Thousands of Russians have rallied in Moscow and St. Petersburg in
the last two days, facing off against tens of thousands of police
and Interior Ministry troops. Popular anger boiled over into a 3rd
straight night of protests with scores arrested in Moscow and St.
Petersburg.
(AP, 12/7/11)(SFC, 12/8/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 7, In South Africa an
investigation commissioned by the government into the UN
oil-for-food program in Iraq cleared Deputy President Kgalema
Motlanthe of corruption. The probe was ordered in 2006 by then
president Thabo Mbeki, into what has become known in the country as
"Oilgate," to look at allegations of kickbacks sourced by senior
members of the ruling party from the State Oil Marketing
Organization of Iraq (SOMO). The UN oil-for-food program ran from
1996 until 2003.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Sudan's ruling
party approved a new coalition government, giving representation to
14 other parties but keeping the top cabinet posts.
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Syria’s Pres.
Assad, speaking to veteran journalist Barbara Walters in a rare
interview to foreign media, said he was not responsible for the
bloodshed and drew a distinction between himself and individual
members of the military. Assad dismissed the death toll, estimated
by the UN at more than 4,000 people, saying: "Who said that the
United Nations is a credible institution?"
(AFP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, In Thailand Arisman
Pongruangrong, a militant leader of Thailand's "Red Shirt" protest
movement, surrendered to authorities on terrorism charges over his
role in opposition rallies last year, after almost 20 months on the
run.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Yemeni regime and
opposition spokesmen accused each other's forces of shelling
government and residential areas in the capital. The accusations
come in advance of the expected declaration of a national unity
government to take over from ministers allied with embattled
President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Militants linked to al-Qaida attacked
an army post in the south but were driven back, leaving nine of
their dead behind. One soldier was also killed in the night
firefight east of Zinjibar in Abyan province.
(AP, 12/7/11)(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, In Washington DC
former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine testified before the House
Agricultural Committee about the bankruptcy of MF Global, which
followed disastrous bets on European debt. Corzine said he did not
know what happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that went missing
and blamed his predecessors for the company’s precarious finances.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A17)
2011 Dec 8, The Washington Post
reported that the US Air Force dumped the cremated, partial remains
of at least 274 troops in a landfill before halting the secretive
practice in 2008.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, The US
Environmental Protection Agency announced for the first time that
fracking, a controversial method of improving the productivity of
oil and gas wells, may be to blame for causing groundwater
pollution. The EPA found that compounds likely associated with
fracking chemicals had been detected in the groundwater beneath
Pavillion, a small community in central Wyoming where residents say
their well water reeks of chemicals.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, The US Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry accepted local claims that
there is a higher incidence of cancer and other health ills on
Vieques island compared with neighboring Puerto Rico, but said there
is no proof the problem is linked to US military activity. The
bombing range closed in 2003 following years of protests about
environmental risks and the 1999 killing of a Puerto Rican civilian
guard by an errant bomb.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Researchers at the
Univ. of Chicago reported experiments demonstrating that a rat would
free a fellow rat trapped in a restrictive cage even without a
payoff, indicating empathy and selfless behavior.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A16)
2011 Dec 8, In Virginia Ross
Truett Ashley (22) shot and killed police officer Derrick Crouse on
Virginia Tech's campus during a routine traffic stop, putting the
campus on lockdown for several hours. Ashley, who then took his own
life, used a legally purchased handgun in the shooting.
(AP, 12/8/11)(SFC, 12/14/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 8, In Argentina Ali
Miguel (80), his wife, Sara Garcia (83), their daughter Monica
Miguel (49) and Miguel's son (10) were found dead with multiple stab
wounds in their house in Mendoza province. A 13-year-old neighbor
claimed he killed the 10-year-old in self-defense because the
younger boy attacked him after killing his own mother and
grandparents. Authorities said the adolescent may have killed the
entire family.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, Britain’s Defense
Secretary Philip Hammond announced that women will be allowed to
serve on British navy submarines, with female officers taking up
roles from late 2013.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, British ministers
ordered an urgent inquiry into England's exam system, after
undercover reporters recorded examiners advising teachers on what
questions were likely to come up.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, In the Dominican
Rep. hundreds of people protested in front of the Supreme Court
against what they say is a government practice of confiscating or
annulling birth certificates for residents of Haitian descent.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, Egypt's biggest
political group the Muslim Brotherhood clashed with the country's
army leaders on Thursday, accusing them of trying to "marginalize"
parliament over the writing of a new constitution.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, In El Salvador
Hector Silva (64), a Boston-born Salvadoran physician, died of a
heart attack. He had helped the Central American nation
recover from its 12-year civil war. In 1997 he became the first
leftist mayor of the capital following the civil war, earning a
reputation for moderation during six years in office.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, The European
Central Bank (ECB) lowered its benchmark rate from 1.25 to 1
percent, the second quarter point cut in as many months.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.127)
2011 Dec 8, A German man (27)
was arrested by a police special-ops team in the western city of
Bochum on charges he was part of an al-Qaida bomb plot in Europe.
Suspect Halil S. is accused of being part of the so-called
"Duesseldorf Cell." The group was allegedly plotting the bombing
before its three main members were swept up by police in April.
Another suspect, identified only as Florian M., was arrested in Kiel
on charges of involvement with Halil S.'s criminal activities.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, German authorities
said a letter bomb has been intercepted by Deutsche Bank employees
intended to chief executive Josef Ackerman. They it was apparently
sent by an Italian anarchist organization.
(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 8, The Honduran
Congress passed bills allowing authorities to wiretap the telephone
conversations, emails and bank accounts of suspected criminals and
banning motorcycles from carrying passengers for 6 months. The bills
were aimed at stemming a wave of drug violence. President Porfirio
Lobo was expected to sign both bills.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, An Israeli strike
killed 2 Gaza militants. Israel said one of them, Issam al-Batsh,
had planned a deadly bombing in Eilat in 2007. The Israeli military
said the two men had also been planning another attack on southern
Israel by infiltrating from the Sinai peninsula.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Ivory Coast
officials said 5 people have died since the start of the campaign
for legislative elections, warning against a repeat of the poll that
tore the country apart last year.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, The World Bank said
high food and fuel prices, the Horn of Africa drought and the euro
crisis will dampen Kenya's economic growth in 2011, and possibly
into 2012.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Liberia and Senegal
pledged to reform their laws so that women can confer citizenship on
their children. They were among at least 30 countries that let only
fathers pass their citizenship to children from marriages with a
foreigner.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, In Mali 4 people
were arrested over the Nov 24 kidnapping of two French citizens. The
suspects were reportedly "subcontracted" to an al-Qaida group and
appear to be Malian.
(AP, 12/12/11)(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 8, Mexican authorities
say they have seized 226 tons (205 metric tons) of a chemical used
in synthetic drugs. The methylamine was found over several days this
month in the port of Lazaro Cardenas in 11 containers shipped from
China.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, NATO informed Iraq
that it will withdraw its training mission at year-end after Baghdad
refused to grant it legal immunity, mirroring the nearly-complete
pullout of US forces.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 8, In Pakistan
assailants torched more than 20 tankers carrying fuel for US and
NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, in the first reported attack
since Islamabad closed the border to protest coalition airstrikes
that killed 24 Pakistani troops last month.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, In Somalia planes
bombed bases belonging to al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants in the
southern town of Bardhere, killing at least 1 person.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Syrian activists
launched a campaign of civil disobedience to pile pressure on
President Bashar al-Assad, after he drew a stinging rebuke from the
US for denying he ordered a deadly crackdown. A major Syrian
pipeline carrying oil to a refinery in the restive Homs province was
blown up. Security forces reportedly killed up to 14 people, most of
them in Homs.
(AFP, 12/8/11)(AP, 12/8/11)(SFC, 12/9/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 8, In Thailand Joe
Gordon, an American who translated a banned biography of Thailand's
king and posted the content online while living in Colorado, was
sentenced to two and a half years in a Thai prison for defaming the
country's royal family.
(AP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, Togo authorities
temporarily shut down the country's two public universities after
security forces fired teargas to break up student protests over a
new financial aid policy. The government last month introduced a new
policy awarding payouts only to brilliant students instead of all
scholars as was in the past.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, Kiev's
Shevchenkivsky Court ordered former PM Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko
arrested as part of a probe into the activity of an energy company
she headed 15 years ago.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, The UN's World Food
Program said meager rains and diminished harvests have left between
five and seven million people in Africa's Sahel region facing food
shortages. The countries of Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Chad were
worst hit.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 8, Yemeni tribesmen
killed two suspected Al-Qaeda militants as they tried to infiltrate
Mudi in southern Abyan province.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, The US Justice
Dept. and the SEC announced a $148 million settlement with Wachovia
Bank, now owned by Walls Fargo, for engaging in bid-rigging and
kickback schemes relating to municipal bond contracts.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.D1)
2011 Dec 9, In California Tyler
Brehm (26) was shot and killed in Los Angeles after he walked down
the middle of Sunset Boulevard firing on motorists. Music executive
John Atterberry (40) died on Dec 12 from wounds suffered in Brehm’s
shooting.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A11)(SFC, 12/13/11, p.A11)
2011 Dec 9, Payroll figures and
names released for the first time by the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey show 66 police officers have made more than $200,000
so far in 2011, thanks to overtime that in many cases has doubled
their salaries.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Maryland former
Prince George’s County councilwoman Leslie Johnson was sentenced to
a year in prison for obstructing an investigation into her husband’s
corruption. Former County Executive Jack Johnson got over 7 years in
prison this week for extorting hundreds of thousands in bribes from
developers.
(SFC, 12/10/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 9, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked a mosque, assassinating a
district police chief and killing at least five other people in
Kunar province.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, Australia's highest
court dismissed rival Apple's appeal in its global patent battle
against South Korea’s Samsung Electronics. Samsung is now free to
sell its Galaxy tablet computers in Australia.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Australia a
senior Queensland Health executive, Hohepa Morehu-Barlow (36), also
known as Joel Barlow, was being hunted after Aus$16 million (US$16
million) went missing from the government department. He was
arrested at his own apartment Dec 12 after three days on the run
from police following the discovery of his alleged theft.
(AFP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 9, Bahraini security
forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse
hundreds of demonstrators in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital
Manama.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In China two
exchange students accepted the Confucius Peace Prize on behalf of
Russian PM Vladimir Putin, who was honored for enhancing Russia's
status and crushing anti-government forces in Chechnya.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In northeastern
China two tourists from Hong Kong were killed and 36 others were
hurt when their bus overturned after colliding with a farm vehicle
in Jilin province.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 9, In CongoDRC
provisional results published by the election commission handed
victory to Pres. Joseph Kabila who won another term with 49% of the
18.14 million votes cast. Etienne Tshisekedi (78) took to the
airwaves to say he rejected the results and proclaimed himself
president, saying the election had been manipulated.
(AP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 9, Croatia signed a
treaty to join the EU in 2013, a bittersweet milestone as the bloc
prepares to take on board a sluggish economy it will have to drag
along at the time of its worst crisis ever.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, The EU said that 26
of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying
their finances together to solve the euro crisis. Only Britain
remained opposed, creating a deep rift in the union. Britain's
leaders argued that the revised treaty would threaten their national
sovereignty and damage London's financial services industry.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, EU president Herman
Van Rompuy said Serbia's bid to be granted the status of candidate
for membership in the bloc will be postponed until March.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, Germany, the United
States and nine other nations signed an agreement that expands
access to the International Tracing Service (ITS), a unique
Holocaust-era archive.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In India at least
89 people were killed when a fire engulfed patients at the AMRI
Hospital in the city of Kolkata. Police arrested 6 hospital
officials on charges of culpable homicide.
(AFP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/9/11)(SFC, 12/10/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 9, An Israeli
airstrike against a Hamas target in Gaza killed a Palestinian
civilian and his son (12). Palestinian Mustafa Abelrazek al-Tamimi
(28) was critically wounded when he was hit in the face by a tear
gas canister fired by Israeli troops at a rally in the West Bank.
Tamimi had been throwing stones and died of his injuries the next
day. Gaza militants fired twelve rockets at Israel.
(AP, 12/9/11)(AFP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/10/11)(AFP,
12/10/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Italy a letter
bomb exploded at an office of the tax collection agency, Equitalia,
slightly wounding the organization's director. The Italian group,
known as the "Informal Anarchist Federation" claimed responsibility
for package bombs sent to three Rome embassies around Christmas last
year. A week later another bomb was intercepted at Equitalia.
(AP, 12/9/11)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.45)
2011 Dec 9, Jamaican
authorities said 217 of 362 police officers, who took voluntary
lie-detector tests this year, failed. Officials denied re-enlistment
to 62 officers this year. An additional 34 have been charged with
corruption and seven dismissed for failing the test.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Japan Defense
Minister Yasuo Ichikawa and Kenji Yamaoka, the minister for consumer
affairs were censured. Ichikawa was slapped down for a series of
gaffes that riled the people of Okinawa, reluctant hosts to a large
US military presence. Yamaoka was admonished for alleged ties with
shady business groups. The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) has threatened to boycott parliament from January if the pair
stay in place.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, Japanese workers
discovered a nuclear plant leak. 1.8 ton of radioactive water leaked
from the cooling system at the idled reactor at the Genkai nuclear
plant in Saga prefecture in the southern Kyushu region. The leak was
contained within the system.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Lebanon a
roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying UN peacekeepers in the
south, wounding five French soldiers and a Lebanese bystander.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, Mexico's navy said
the first woman has joined the ranks of its special forces.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, The Mexican army
found a 50-yard (meter) long tunnel starting under a building in the
northern city of Nogales, which is across the border from Nogales,
Arizona.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 9, Puerto Rico’s most
wanted criminal, Miguel Diaz Rivera (39), was arrested in the
Dominican capital of Santo Domingo. He is accused of running a drug
trafficking network in at least five Puerto Rican cities.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Sri Lanka
political activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Murugananthan
went missing after they were intercepted by men on motorcycles in
Jaffna.
(Econ, 1/14/12, p.41)
2011 Dec 9, Syrian forces
killed 41 people, including 7 children, as they fired on
anti-government demonstrations across the country. The opposition
warned the regime was planning a "massacre" in Homs which has been
ringed by troops for more than two months.
(AP, 12/9/11)(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Thailand some
100 supporters of a grandfather jailed for 20 years in Thailand for
insulting the king held a rare public protest against the kingdom's
strict lese majeste laws in the capital Bangkok. Ampon Tangnoppakul
(61) was last month found guilty of four counts of offending the
royals in text messages last year. Article 112 of the criminal code
contains the rules protecting the royals.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon urged Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked insurgents to end violence
during a surprise visit to war-torn Mogadishu.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Venezuela
officials said floods and mudslides unleashed by torrential rains
have caused at least eight deaths. Neighboring Colombia has also
been coping with floods and President Juan Manuel Santos, touring
flooded areas south of Bogota, promised assistance to those whose
houses have been damaged.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Yemen tens of
thousands of people took to the streets across the country demanding
that outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh be put on trial. A prison
riot in Sanaa left two inmates dead and three guards injured.
(AP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Massachusetts
police swept through Dewey Square tearing down tents of the Occupy
Boston encampment and arrested dozens of protesters.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A11)
2011 Dec 10, In Missouri Marvin
Rice (44), a former rural sheriff's deputy, was suspected of killing
his ex-wife and her new boyfriend before leading officers on a
high-speed chase that ended with a shootout at an upscale hotel
hosting a Christmas party for hundreds of doctors, nurses and their
families. Rice was in fair condition at a Columbia hospital after
being wounded in the shootout.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Afghanistan a
bicycle bomb killed at least two people, including a member of the
peace council, and left 16 wounded when it exploded in Kunduz city.
3 people were killed in Kandahar province when their vehicle hit a
roadside bomb.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Benin's justice
minister denounced the country's judiciary as one of the most
corrupt sectors in the country.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, British police
said the final number of victims of phone hacking by Rupert
Murdoch's News of the World will be around 800 people, far fewer
than originally thought.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Police in London
arrested 143 people during an angry demonstration by up to 500
people against the re-election of President Joseph Kabila in the
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Bob Diamond, the
chief executive of Barclays bank, described in a published interview
how he has introduced a "no jerks rule" to weed out bankers he
considers too greedy or ostentatious. He also said pay for
investment bankers at Barclays will be lower this year but the
actual level has yet to be set.
(AFP, 12/10/11)(Reuters, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, It was reported
that British researchers have successfully treated 6 patients
suffering from the blood clotting disease known as hemophilia B, by
injecting them with the correct form of the defective gene, Factor
IX.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 10, In China 9 people
were killed and seven seriously injured in the far west region of
Xinjiang when a long-distance bus collided with a heavy-duty truck.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, CongoDRC police in
Kinshasa prowled opposition neighborhoods rounding up young men, who
were seen being dragged out of their homes and shoved into waiting
cars. Congo's police chief said at least four people have been
killed in the recent postelection violence. Observers with the
Atlanta-based Carter Center said that there is growing evidence of
possible vote suppression in parts of the country favorable to the
opposition, and vote inflation in regions known to support Kabila.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Germany a man
dressed as Santa drugged a girl (15) at a Berlin Christmas market. 9
other people at various Berlin Christmas markets have fallen prey to
similar attack.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 10, Indonesian police
in Aceh, the country's most conservative province, raided a
punk-rock concert and detained 65 fans, buzzing off their spiky
mohawks and stripping away body piercings because of the perceived
threat to Islamic values.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Iraq a spate of
gun and bomb attacks across northern and central Iraq killed seven
people and left four others wounded.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Israeli warplanes
attacked Gaza and militants fired four rockets at southern Israel in
return.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Libya the army
chief of staff, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, was in a convoy traveling from
his home in Tripoli to the military headquarters when a group of
armed men at a fake checkpoint tried to stop them. Soldiers arrested
two gunmen. Fighters from the western mountain town of Zintan, who
control Tripoli's international airport, opened fire on two
occasions on the convoy of Gen. Khalifa Hifter. The Zintan fighters
blamed the violence on the army's failure to notify them that the
general was coming.
(AP, 12/10/11)(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Mexico armed
men holed up in a building in the city of Valle Hermoso opened fire
on the troops. The army patrol later seized the building, finding 11
dead gunmen and 73 rifles inside. Two suspects were arrested.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 10, In Mexico a
magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck western Guerrero state, shaking
buildings and causing panic in the nation's capital and the Pacific
resort of Acapulco. Officials said at least three people died.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central Nigeria
3 bomb attacks, blamed on the feared Boko Haram radical sect, killed
one person and wounded 11 others in Jos.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, The deputy chief
of the Pakistani Taliban announced that the militant group was in
peace talks with the government and an agreement to end its brutal
four-year insurgency was within striking distance.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central
Pakistan at least 13 people, including three children, were killed
and another 15 injured when a road collision led to a gas cylinder
explosion.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In the Philippines
a four-seater cargo plane crashed onto a crowded Manila slum,
sparking a fire that killed 13 people and left five missing and at
least another 20 injured.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Tens of thousands
of Muscovites thronged to a square across the river from the Kremlin
to protest alleged electoral fraud and urge an end to PM Vladimir
Putin's rule, demands repeated at other rallies across this vast
country in the largest public show of discontent in post-Soviet
Russia.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Saudi Arabia’s
Okaz newspaper reported that a man convicted of raping his daughter
has been sentenced to receive 2,080 lashes over the course of a
13-year prison term. A court in Mecca found the man guilty of raping
his teenage daughter for seven years while under the influence of
drugs.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, In South Africa a
day after their scheduled close, UN climate talks fought against
despondency as 194 countries grappled for a deal to tame greenhouse
gases. Research presented at Durban said the world is on track for a
3.5 C (6.3 F) rise, a likely recipe for droughts, floods, storms and
rising sea levels that will threaten tens of millions.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, South Africa's
ruling African National Congress offered to help President Robert
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF win the next elections in neighboring
Zimbabwe.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 10, In central South
Africa the driver of an overloaded van lost control, veered into the
oncoming lane and collided with a truck, leaving 30 people dead.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Syrian activists
said 9 civilians were killed by the security forces in the
flashpoint regions of Homs, Daraa and Idlib. World powers piled
pressure on Syria to allow observers to monitor spiraling deadly
violence as activists condemned rights violations on this
anniversary of International Human Rights Day.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Tunisia's
constituent assembly adopted a provisional constitution that will
allow the north African country to name a government, a month and a
half after its first post-revolution election.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Yemen's national
unity government, led by the opposition, was sworn in to lead a
three-month transition period until early elections are held and
President Ali Abdullah Saleh formally steps down. The new 34-member
cabinet, headed by PM Mohammed Basindawa, will carry out its duties
until February elections. Then Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi
will take over the presidency for an interim two-year period.
Thousands of protesters marched in Taez, demanding Saleh be tried.
al-Qaida-linked militants attacked a military barracks in Zinjibar
overnight, leaving two soldiers and 11 militants dead.
(AFP, 12/10/11)(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 11, San Francisco
police cleared the city’s last remaining Occupy protest camp
arrested 55 people in front of the Federal Reserve Bank at 101
Market St.
(SFC, 12/12/11, p.C2)
2011 Dec 11, Christopher Artes
(25) and Medeana Hendershot (22), were found dead under a mound of
coal at a Florida power plant. The young couple shared a passion for
illegally hopping freight trains and traveling the country without a
set plan.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 11, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said foreigners are fueling the problem of corruption
by, for example, awarding contracts to high ranking government
officials.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, Police in Brazil's
southeastern Sao Paulo state said they are investigating the theft
of 50 metric tons (55 US tons) of corn from a moving train.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In China Xue Jinbo
(42) died after two days in police custody. He had led protests in
the fishing village of Wukan in opposition to government land
confiscations and was arrested on Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A13)
2011 Dec 11, Former French PM
Dominique de Villepin, who gained international renown as France's
spokesman against the war in Iraq, announced he'll run as an
independent.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 11, In India Anna
Hazare held a seven-hour fast to demand sweeping legislation to end
India's culture of corruption, in which bribes are paid for
everything from health care to marriage certificates.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In Iran a blast
caused by leftover ammunition killed at least seven workers
including foreign nationals at a steel mill in the central city of
Yazd.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 11, The Israeli
Cabinet voted unanimously to finance a $160 million program to
stanch the flow of illegal African migrants by stepping up
construction of a border fence and expanding a detention center.
Several thousand Bedouin demonstrated outside Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu's office, protesting over a plan they say will displace
tens of thousands of people from their land.
(AP, 12/11/11)(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, Ivory Coast held
parliamentary elections. The 2nd national poll in 11 years drew
little voter interest. The opposition party of former strongman
Laurent Gbagbo, which had called for a boycott of the poll,
estimated that as few as 10 percent of voters participated.
Officials results published by the Independent Electoral Commission
on March 8, 2012, said Ouattara's Rally of Republicans (RDR) party
won 138 of the parliament's 253 seats on 54.54% of the vote.
(AP, 12/11/11)(AFP, 3/8/12)
2011 Dec 11, In Indian Kashmir
a policeman was killed and a civilian injured when suspected Muslim
militants opened fire. The region's senior minister escaped unhurt
in the attack.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In northern Kenya
twin blasts killed one police officer and wounded nine soldiers, in
the latest in a string of attacks since Kenyan troops crossed the
border into Somalia two months ago.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In Mexico
unidentified assailants tossed a bomb into a building in Veracruz
where a cockfight was being held. One man was killed and nine others
slightly wounded.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 11, Pakistan’s PM
Yousuf Raza Gilani said President Asif Ali Zardari will likely need
two weeks to rest in Dubai following medical treatment there before
he returns home. Zardari flew to Dubai last week for treatment
related to a heart condition.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 11, A Pakistani
Taliban spokesman denied an earlier announcement by the militant
group's deputy chief that it was holding peace talks with the
government. Prominent al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban fighters asked
Pakistani militants to set aside their differences and step up
support for the battle against US-led forces in Afghanistan: "For
God's sake, forget all your differences and give us fighters to
boost the battle against America in Afghanistan," senior al-Qaida
commander Abu Yahya al-Libi told Pakistani fighters in South
Waziristan. An earlier meeting was held on November 27 in North
Waziristan.
(AP, 12/11/11)(AP, 1/2/12)
2011 Dec 11, In Pakistan the US
vacated Shamsi airbase following a deadline given by Islamabad in
the wake of anger over NATO air strikes last month that killed 24
soldiers. US officials and intelligence analysts have said the
covert drone war would not be affected by the closure of the base as
Washington could fly Predator and Reaper drones out of air fields in
neighboring Afghanistan.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, A Palestinian
father and his daughter were wounded in an Israeli air strike on
Gaza City.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, Ex-Panama dictator
Noriega was flown home for new punishment after 22 years in US,
French jails.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, Peruvian President
Ollanta Humala replaced more than half his Cabinet, a day after
accepting its chief minister's resignation in a move widely
interpreted as signaling less tolerance for social protests.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev posted a comment on his Facebook page saying he has
ordered a probe into the allegations of electoral fraud during the
Dec. 4 parliamentary vote.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In South Africa a
UN climate conference reached a hard-fought agreement on a
far-reaching program meant to set a new course for the global fight
against climate change. The 194-party conference agreed to start
negotiations on a new accord that would ensure that countries will
be legally bound to carry out any pledges they make. It would take
effect by 2020 at the latest. The conference also agreed on a Green
Climate Fund, which would funnel some of the $110 billion, promised
by rich countries to poor ones, to help them cut emissions and adopt
to climate change.
(AP, 12/11/11)(Econ, 12/17/11, p.140)
2011 Dec 11, In South Sudan
suspected rebels under the command of renegade general George Athor
attacked Atar town, in Pigi county, killing 9 people, while another
raid cost the lives of two people in Kapat, near the state capital
Bor.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 11, Syrian troops
battled army defectors in clashes that set several military vehicles
ablaze. Opposition activists called for a general strike starting
today in a bid to squeeze the government and push it to stop its
bloody crackdown. About a dozen Syrians attacked their embassy in
Jordan’s capital, Amman, injuring at least two diplomats and four
other consulate employees. As many as 23 people were killed as
government forces clashed with armed insurgents and protesters.
(AP, 12/11/11)(SFC, 12/12/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 11, Hundreds of
thousands of Yemenis demonstrated to demand President Ali Abdullah
Saleh face trial for his regime's deadly crackdown on months of
protests.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, In Taiwan almost a
thousand protesters took to the streets of Taipei demanding that the
government make a weekly day off a legal right for Taiwan's 200,000
foreign live-in caregivers.
(AP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 12, In Oakland, Ca.,
some 3,000 Occupy protesters shut down the Port of Oakland for the
evening shift.
(SFC, 12/13/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 12, The Illinois House
approved a package of tax relief for families and businesses,
including big names like Sears and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange,
that threatened to leave the state. When fully phased in the cuts
will cost state government some $320 million per year.
(SFC, 12/13/11, p.A11)
2011 Dec 12, In Utah some
4000-5000 migratory birds, eared grebes, were killed or injured
after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart parking lot, football fields
and other snow-covered areas of southern Utah for bodies of water
and plummeting to the ground in what one state wildlife expert
called the worst mass bird crash she'd ever seen. A high-profile
crash in Arkansas in January killed about 4,500 birds, mainly
red-winged blackbirds.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 12, In Washington
state 2 reconnaissance helicopters crashed during training near
Tacoma killing all 4 people on board.
(SFC, 12/14/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 12, Senior Australian
naval officer Lieutenant Commander John Alan Jones (58) was
convicted by a court martial of repeatedly spanking a junior female
sailor to test her discipline and obedience.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, Canada became the
first country to declare it was formally exiting the Kyoto protocol,
a reversal that will save it billions of dollars in fines. Canada
had agreed under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce CO2 emissions to 6.0
percent below 1990 levels by 2012, but its emissions of the gasses
blamed for damaging Earth's fragile climate system have instead
increased sharply.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, China executed
Janice Linden (35), a South African woman, by lethal injection for
drug smuggling after rejecting last-minute pleas for clemency from
her government. She was convicted of trying to sneak three kg (6.6
pounds) of methamphetamine into the country in her luggage through
the southern city of Guangzhou in 2008. Amnesty International says
China executes more people every year than the rest of the world
combined.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, In eastern China a
school bus taking primary students home slipped off a country road
into an irrigation ditch, killing 15 children in Jiangsu province.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, A Chinese captain
stabbed two South Korean coast guard officers, killing one, after
his fishing boat was stopped for illegally fishing in South Korean
waters.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Colombia
extradited Ramon Quintero, a top Norte del Valle cartel trafficker,
to the United States. His organization was accused of exporting more
than 50 metric tons of cocaine a year to the US and Europe.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, International
Criminal Court (ICC) member states, meeting at The Hague,
unanimously elected Fatou Bensouda of Gambia as the new chief
prosecutor for the main genocide and war crimes tribunal.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, The world court
(ICC) said it was referring Malawi to the UN Security Council over
its refusal to arrest Sudan's Pres. Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the
court for genocide, during his October visit for a meeting of the
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, The head of Iran's
parliamentary national security committee said Iran will
reverse-engineer the US drone it has in its possession, and is in
the "final stages" of unlocking the aircraft's software secrets.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, The Efrat
settlement mayor said Israel's government has approved 40 new houses
to replace trailers at the West Bank settlement, drawing criticism
from Palestinians. The trailers at the site, known as Givat Hadagan,
were put up without authorization.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Dozens of Jewish
settlers broke into an army base in the West Bank and lit fires,
damaged vehicles and threw stones at a senior officer, just hours
after another group took over an abandoned building in a closed
military zone on the border with Jordan. The settlers were
reportedly protesting the planned evacuations of unauthorized
settlement outposts.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, In Kenya an
explosion wounded six people, including a high-ranking intelligence
official, in the northern town of Wajir during celebrations of
Kenya's Independence Day.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, In Mexico 2
students were killed during a clash with state and federal police at
a violent protest that blocked a major highway in Guerrero state.
Protesting students had hijacked buses and set fire to a gasoline
station before federal police fired tear gas at the protesters and
then shots rang out. Some 300 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers
college staged the protest seeking to persuade the state government
"to meet their educational demands.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Mexican marines
captured Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga, a founding member of the
brutal Zetas drug cartel, in the city of Cordoba, Veracruz state.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Veteran PNG leader
Sir Michael Somare (75) was reinstated as Papua New Guinea's prime
minister when the Supreme Court ruled the election of Peter O'Neill
was unconstitutional.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, In the Philippines
the House of Representatives impeached chief justice Renato Corona
over charges his 15-member court had made a series of rulings that
hindered government moves to prosecute ex-leader Gloria Arroyo. The
proceedings will move to the Senate, where a trial will determine if
Corona must step down.
(AFP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Mikhail Prokhorov
(46), one of Russia's richest tycoons and the owner of the New
Jersey Nets basketball team, said he will run against PM Vladimir
Putin in the March presidential election. Prokhorov made his
fortune, estimated by Forbes at $18 billion, in metals and banking.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Saudi authorities
executed a woman convicted of practicing magic and sorcery. The
woman was arrested in April, 2009, and later convicted in a Saudi
court. Religious police, who arrested the woman, said she had
tricked people into thinking she could treat illnesses, charging
them $800 per session.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Syrians closed
their businesses and kept children home from school in several parts
of the country in a show of civil disobedience against the regime as
a new and fierce round of clashes between troops and army defectors
spread. Syrians voted in municipal elections even as violence raged
in some parts of the country where security forces were pressing a
deadly crackdown against dissent. Border guards intercepted 15
gunmen trying to infiltrate from Turkey. Two were reported killed in
the ensuing firefight and others were injured.
(AP, 12/12/11)(AFP, 12/12/11)(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 12, In southern Yemen
a protester was wounded in Aden when police dispersed hundreds of
demonstrators demanding a secession of southern regions. A security
official said 12 alleged Al-Qaeda militants plus two other inmates
have tunneled their way to freedom from a prison in Aden. Al-Qaeda
linked gunman fired on a military vehicle killing three soldiers and
wounding 11 others near the southern city of Zinjibar.
(AFP, 12/12/11)(AP, 12/12/11)(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, An American
military drone MQ-9 Reaper, which had been used to monitor piracy
off the East African coast, crashed at an airport on the island
nation of Seychelles during a routine patrol.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, California’s
Attorney General Kamala Harris announced a new unit devoted to
prosecuting high-tech crimes. Each year over 1 million Californians
were said to be victims of identity theft, with losses of over $46
million in 2010.
(SFC, 12/14/11, p.D1)
2011 Dec 13, Algeria and
Mauritania's leaders vowed to beef up security in the Sahel region,
where Islamist militants, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM),
were holding a dozen Western hostages.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Belgium Nordine
Amrani (33), armed with hand grenades and guns, opened fire in the
crowded center of Liege, leaving 4 people dead, including the
attacker. The dead included a 15-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl,
and an 18-month-old toddler. A 75-year-old woman who had initially
been counted among the dead was taken off the list, even though she
stands virtually no chance of recovering from her injuries. The body
of a cleaning woman in her forties was discovered during a search of
Amrani's property. She was killed just before the murderous spree at
Liege's main square.
(AP, 12/13/11)(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 13, Chilean doctors
successfully separated conjoined twin girls in a marathon 20-hour
surgery, saying that the operation went extremely well despite
challenges. Doctors at Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital separated Maria
Jose Paredes Navarrete from her twin sister Maria Paz at the thorax,
abdomen and pelvis. Maria Jose died on Dec 18.
(AP, 12/14/11)(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 13, Police in eastern
DR Congo broke up a banned opposition protest march against
President Joseph Kabila's bitterly disputed re-election. Some 500
opposition supporters had defied a ban on protests imposed by the
mayor of Bukavu.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Egyptian PM Kamal
al-Ganzuri said that 20,103 political prisoners had been released
since February when a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, European
Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that a demand by Britain
for its financial services industry to be exempted from EU
regulation threatened to break up the single market.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Guinea-Bissau a
transport strike paralyzed much of the country, forcing residents to
trek into work by foot, as taxi drivers stayed off the roads to
protest police extortion.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Iran's official
news agency said the country's judiciary has issued indictments
against 15 American and Zionist spies.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Iraq pumping
from the southern Rumaila field fell following two explosions to
700,000 barrels per day, down from 1.4 million barrels. Oil exports
were not affected. The pipelines were expected to be repaired in
about a week.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 13, Japanese news
reports said Japan's government has selected the Lockheed Martin
F-35 stealth fighter to bolster its aging air force and is likely to
announce the multibillion-dollar deal by the end of the week.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, A convoy of 25
Russian trucks was stopped by US soldiers guarding the Kosovo border
with Serbia, increasing tensions in the volatile region.
Peacekeepers said the convoy's cargo consisting of canned food,
blankets, tents and power generators looked to be intended for those
manning the roadblocks, and not for the general Kosovo Serb
population. EU officials in Kosovo said the Russians can pass if
they allow an international police escort. Three EU police vehicles
escorted the convoy on Dec 16 after taking a roundabout way through
Serbia to bypass roadblocks.
(AP, 12/14/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Libya around
500 disgruntled protesters from Benghazi, cradle of the uprising
against Moamer Kadhafi, demonstrated for a second day against the
nation's new rulers despite assurances the former rebel bastion will
be Libya's economic capital.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Malaysia Sultan
Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah was officially installed on the throne,
making him the first ruler to hold the ceremonial kingship twice
since it started rotating every five years among heads of the
country’s 9 states.
(SSFC, 4/8/12,
p.N3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Halim_of_Kedah)
2011 Dec 13, Myanmar
authorities gave Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party the green light
to rejoin mainstream politics, paving the way for the Nobel laureate
to run for a seat in the new parliament.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a
powerful bomb blast targeting soldiers followed by gunfire rocked
the troubled city of Maiduguri, with at least 10 people killed. The
blast occurred ahead of President Goodluck Jonathan's presentation
of his 2012 budget before parliament in Abuja.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In Nigeria a
boat capsized carrying as many as 55 people going from Eagle
Island to Mgbuodohia in Rivers state. At least 30 people died. 14
others were feared dead.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 13, Pakistani police
said they have rescued 53 students, including children as young as
seven, who had been chained in the basement of a madrassa raided by
security forces in the port city of Karachi.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, The Palestinian
flag was raised for the first time above a UN agency, the UNESCO
headquarters in Paris, in a diplomatic victory won despite stiff
resistance from the US and Israel.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In the Philippines
police arrested Benjamin Abalos, the former elections chairman, on
charges he aided the vote fraud allegedly ordered by former
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Saudi Arabia
promised to provide the newly formed government of unrest-hit Yemen
with urgently needed aid, mainly petroleum products.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, In southern
Senegal several soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on
separatist rebels in the restive Casamance region.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Sierra Leone
police announced an end to a 3-month ban on political rallies which
was imposed after clashes between supporters of the ruling party and
opposition followers.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Slovenia’s state
electoral commission said the center-left Positive Slovenia party
won 28.5% of the Dec 4 ballots, or 28 seats in the 90-member
parliament. That is not enough for Positive Slovenia to form a
government on its own.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Scientists at
CERN, Switzerland, announced the possible discovery of the Higgs
boson, a fundamental particle proposed by British researcher Peter
Higgs in 1964.
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.137)
2011 Dec 13, Syrian security
forces fired on a funeral procession in a restive northwestern
border region, killing two people. Activists reported the deaths of
at least 28 civilians across Syria. State media reported that "armed
terrorists" — its usual term for regime opponents — shot and killed
Brig. Gen. Ghanem Ibrahim al-Hassan, who teaches at the Assad
Military Engineering Academy in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib.
(AP, 12/13/11)(AP, 12/14/11)(SFC, 12/14/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 13, Three Thai
soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded when an old
landmine exploded as they were trying to defuse it on the country's
border with Cambodia.
(AFP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 13, Pope Benedict XVI
approved seven new saints for the Catholic Church, including
Hawaii's Mother Marianne and a 17th-century Native American,
Caterina Tekakwitha. Marianne cared for leprosy patients on Hawaii's
Molokai peninsula in the late 1880s, soon after the death of Father
Damien, who was canonized in 2009. Tekakwitha, who lived from
1656-1680 in the US and Canada, became the first Native American to
be beatified in 1980.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 13, Venezuelan
authorities extended house arrest for Maria Lourdes Afiuni, a judge
whose case has been strongly criticized by human rights groups.
Afiuni was arrested after she released banker Eligio Cedeno, who had
been in jail awaiting trial on charges of violating currency
controls. Cedeno fled the country shortly following his release.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 14, A new US federal
government report said one of every 15 high school students smokes
marijuana on a near daily basis, as alcohol, cigarette and drug use
continued a slow decline.
(SFC, 12/15/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 14, Time Magazine
named “The Protester” as the person of the year.
(SFC, 12/15/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 14, In NYC advertising
executive Suzanne Hart (41) was killed in a freak elevator mishap at
285 Madison Avenue. Hart was stepping onto the elevator on the first
floor when either her foot or leg became caught in the closing
doors. The car then rose abruptly, dragging her body into the shaft
and killing her. Investigators later found that a key safety
mechanism was turned off.
(AP, 12/15/11)(SFC, 12/15/11, p.A9)(SFC, 2/28/12,
p.A5)
2011 Dec 14, In Afghanistan
Massoud Khan, district chief of Khanishin, Helmand province, was
killed in a roadside bombing along with two bodyguards.
(SFC, 12/15/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 14, Algeria passed a
media law that drew scorn from journalists, rights activists and
opposition legislators who charged that it restricts freedom of
expression. The law promises press freedom but also lists 12 areas
in which journalists must tread carefully to avoid undermining
Algeria's national identity, sovereignty and security and the
country's economic interests.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, Colombia's
government and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime released a new study
th says more than 3,000 square miles (800,000 hectares) of
Colombia's woodlands have been cleared since 1981 in the planting
and destruction of drug crops. According to the UN, Colombia had 240
square miles (62,000 hectares) of coca under cultivation last year.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, CongoDRC
opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi's party called for mass
protests to "protect" the victory he claims to have won in disputed
presidential polls.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, Egyptians turned
out in large numbers to vote in the second round of parliamentary
elections that have become a stiff competition between dominant
Islamist parties likely to steer the country in a more religious
direction. A military court sentenced a political activist to two
years in prison after convicting him of criticizing the armed forces
and publishing false information. Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested in
March and sentenced to three years, but the case was appealed and
sent for retrial.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, European
Parliament lawmakers blocked a deal allowing special access for EU
fishermen to Moroccan waters, prompting Rabat to issue an immediate
ban on European fishing boats. European lawmakers said they wanted
to wanted to wait until the interests of Western Sahara trawlers
were taken on board before agreeing to a 12-month extension.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Guyana a
34-year-old woman told reporters in the South American country that
Chief Henry Greene took her to a hotel and raped her. She alleges
the incident occurred in late November. The US revoked Greene's visa
in 2006 over alleged links to drug trafficking. Greene was soon
placed on leave and in January Jamaica sent a team of detectives to
probe the rape allegations.
(AP, 12/15/11)(AP, 1/5/12)
2011 Dec 14, An Indian
newspaper reported that plans were being finalized for a Taliban
office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 14, Israeli police
detained six Jewish extremists following a series of attacks on
mosques and Israeli military bases. Unknown arsonists torched an
inactive Jerusalem mosque, provoking calls in Israel for a more
effective crackdown on Jewish extremists.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, Italian far-right
author Gianluca Casseri (50) shot dead two Senegalese men and
wounded three others before killing himself in a daylight shooting
spree in Florence that prompted outpourings of grief.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, Kashmiri
shopkeeper Tariq Ahmad Bhat died two weeks after anti-India
protesters allegedly beat him for refusing to close his store during
a strike. Four people accused of beating him have been arrested.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Mexico 3 bodies
were discovered in Guadalajara, two days after two college students
in nearby Guerrero state were killed in a clash with police after
student protesters hijacked buses, used them to block a highway and
fought officers with rocks and sticks. The Jalisco state prosecutors
office said it is investigating whether the bodies belong to any of
five people who were reported missing after they complained last
week that the student group was demanding protection money for
allowing them to sell snacks outside a campus.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Romania two
self-professed witches were detained on blackmail and extortion
charges in a high-profile case involving a TV star and reportedly
other public figures.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Russia a
loyalist to PM Vladimir Putin who served as the speaker of
parliament resigned in a move that appeared to be part of the
government's effort to stem public anger over alleged fraud in this
month's parliamentary election.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Russia Boris
Chertok (99), a rocket designer who played a key role in engineering
Soviet-era space programs, died in Moscow. He was closely involved
in putting the world's first satellite in orbit on Oct. 4, 1957, and
preparing the first human flight to space by Yuri Gagarin on April,
12 1961.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Somalia a rowdy
parliament session degenerated into fistfights and kicks after
disagreements over the sacking of speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.
Supporters of Sheikh Adan argued that his impeachment a day earlier
did not follow procedure.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, Amnesty
International accused Spanish authorities of using racial and ethnic
profiling, with police singling out people who are not white in
order to meet quotas.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, In Sri Lanka
thousands of produce traders protested for a third day, halting
business at the capital's central market over a new rule demanding
that fruit and vegetables be transported in plastic baskets rather
than sacks.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, Syrian Army
defectors killed at least eight Syrian troops in an act of revenge
after security forces shot dead five civilians.
(AFP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 14, The Tanzania-based
court said it has overturned several convictions against former
Rwandan Ministry of Defense director Col. Theoneste Bagosora. The
court reduced his life sentence to 35 years. Bagosora had been
sentenced in 2008 at the age of 67. The court also reduced the life
sentence of former military commander Anatole Nsengiyumva to 15
years and released him for time served.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 14, Tunisia's new
president, Moncef Marzouki, asked the secretary general of the
Islamist party that dominated last month's elections to form the
next government. Hamadi Jebali has three weeks to form the next
interim government.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 15, Christopher
Hitchens (62), the author, writer and Vanity Fair contributing
editor, died in Houston. had been battling esophageal cancer since
early 2010.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, In San Francisco a
caller told police that there was a body in a second-floor room of
the Broadway Hotel at 2048 Polk St. near Broadway. The medical
examiner concluded the man was the victim of a homicide. Friends at
the Broadway Hotel identified the man as Robert Slivoski (68).
(SFC, 12/17/11, p.C5)(http://tinyurl.com/brjrprw)
2011 Dec 15, Australia’s
independent Remuneration Tribunal recommended pay hikes for most
politicians and public servants. PM Julia Gillard was recommended
for a bumper 31 percent rise to take her salary past that of US
President Barack Obama.
(AFP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Bahraini security
forces used tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse hundreds
of anti-government protesters attempting to march along a highway
leading to the island kingdom's capital. Police arrested prominent
human rights blogger Zainab al-Khawaja (28). A video posted online
showed her being roughed up, handcuffed and dragged away. Zainab
al-Khawaja was released on Dec 20.
(AP, 12/15/11)(AFP, 12/16/11)(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 15, A Colombian judge
sentenced three construction moguls to more than seven years in
prison each for embezzlement in a kickback scandal that also
involved Bogota’s ex-mayor Samuel Moreno. Each of the four was also
fined $5 million.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, Khadzhimurad
Kamalov (46), the founder of a newspaper critical of authorities in
the restive province of Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus, died
after he was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside his office.
Kamalov founded the independent weekly paper Chernovik (Rough Draft)
in 2003 and remained its publisher until his killing.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, Dominican Republic
authorities said they have arrested two Europeans and 15 local
police officers for alleged involvement in a cocaine shipment seized
at an airport. The arrests were tied to a one-ton cargo of cocaine
set on a flight to Antwerp, Belgium.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, Egyptians headed
to the polls again in a phased election to choose the first
post-revolution parliament, as liberals faced an uphill battle to
compete with Islamist parties.
(AFP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, A French court
convicted former Pres. Jacques Chirac (79) of embezzling government
money while he was mayor of Paris (1977-1995) and handed him a
2-year suspended sentence.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 15, A French court
convicted Carlos the Jackal (62), already serving a life sentence
for a triple murder in 1975, was convicted of instigating four
bombings in France in 1982-1983 that killed 11 people. He was
sentenced to another life term in prison.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 15, The director of
Hungary's state news service was fired and the editor-in-chief
reassigned due to the censorship of images in a newscast of a former
head of Hungary's Supreme Court. On Dec 10 three television
employees began holding a hunger strike seeking the dismissal of
managers they say are responsible for censorship and restricting
news coverage in state-owned media.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, Iceland formally
recognized the Palestinian state at a ceremony in Reykjavik,
becoming one of the few Western European countries and NATO members
to do so.
(AFP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Indian officials
said at least 143 people have died after consuming toxic home-made
liquor in West Bengal state. Police arrested 10 suspected
bootleggers. Khonra Badshah, the suspected kingpin behind the
illegal liquor racket that left 172 people dead, surrendered to
police on Jan 16.
(AP, 12/15/11)(AFP, 1/16/12)
2011 Dec 15, US officials
formally shut down the war in Iraq after nearly nine years, 4,500
American dead and 100,000 Iraqi dead. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
said the conflict was worth the American sacrifice because it set
Iraq on a path to democracy.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Suspected Israeli
vandals set fire to a mosque in the West Bank and defaced it with
Hebrew graffiti a day after a similar arson attack on a Jerusalem
mosque. Suspicion fell on Jewish extremists widely assumed to be
behind stepped-up violence against Palestinians and the Israeli
military.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Italian police
intercepted another letter bomb at the offices of the tax collection
agency.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, In northern
Nigeria assailants shot dead three officers after attacking a
boarding school near the city of Kano. Gunmen attacked people
gathered outside a shop in the city of Maiduguri. The drive-by
assailants were carrying Kalashnikov rifles under their flowing
robes and left 5 people dead. Authorities blamed the radical Boko
Haram Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 15, Papua New Guinea
politics were deadlocked, with two men claiming to be prime
minister, two governments saying they hold power, rival police
chiefs maintaining the peace — and no one sure who actually was in
charge.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, In Saudi Arabia 35
Ethiopian Christians, 29 of them women, were arrested after
police raided a private prayer gathering. They later faced
deportation for "illicit mingling."
(AFP, 1/31/12)
2011 Dec 15, Sri Lankan
authorities agreed to restore access to a news website that had been
blocked with four others for more than a month over alleged insults
and character assassination.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Syrian army
defectors reportedly killed at least 27 government forces in clashes
in the southern province of Daraa. Human Rights Watch issued a
report alleging that dozens of Syrian military commanders and
officials authorized or gave direct orders for widespread killings,
torture, and illegal arrests during the wave of anti-government
protests.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, A Thai activist
was sentenced to 15 years in prison for insulting the king in the
third case in a month involving the strict law against defaming the
monarchy that is increasingly being criticized as an infringement on
free speech. Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul, nicknamed "Da Torpedo" for
her aggressive speaking style, has been detained since July 2008
after speaking at a rally using impolite language that was recorded
by police.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Tunisia reopened
its Ras Jidr crossing with Libya after Tripoli took steps to prevent
the kind of incidents that led to the border's closure two weeks
ago.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 15, Venezuela handed
Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco (aka "Valenciano"), a top Colombian drug
trafficking suspect to US authorities, deporting him to face charges
of shipping tons of cocaine to the United States.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 15, Air Zimbabwe
chairman Jonathan Kadzura said the government has raised $1.5
million (1.2 million euros) to pay off the national airline's debt
and have an impounded airplane released in London.
(AFP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 16, It was reported
that US presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (61) was
collecting $7,700 a month in state pension in addition to his nearly
$133,000 annual salary as governor. State coded permitted the double
dip practice.
(SFC, 12/17/11, p.A10)
2011 Dec 16, The US SEC brought
civil fraud charges against 6 former top executives of Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac, saying they misled investors about risky subprime
loans.
(SFC, 12/17/11, p.D1)
2011 Dec 16, Zynga, a SF-based
game company, went public for $10 a share, valuing the company at $1
billion. Shares closed down 5% at $9.50.
(SFC, 12/16/11, p.A1)(SFC, 12/17/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 16, In Atlanta,
Georgia, rapper Slim Dunkin was gunned down in a music studio as he
was preparing to record a video.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Jennifer Anderson
(54), former keyboardist and singer for the Nuns, died of
complications from breast and liver cancer in NYC. She performed
under the name Jennifer Miro with the pioneering SF punk band.
(SFC, 1/11/12, p.C5)
2011 Dec 16, Veteran film and
television actor Dan Frazer, best known for his role as Captain
Frank McNeil on the 1970s television series "Kojak," died in
Manhattan. His films include "Cleopatra Jones," ''Take the Money and
Run" ''Gideon's Trumpet" and "Deconstructing Harry." Besides
"Kojak," Frazer's television appearances include "Car 54, Where Are
You," ''Route 66," ''Barney Miller" and "Law & Order."
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Bahrain a
protester was killed after reportedly being hit by a police car
during a rally.
(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 16, China's government
gave the first sign that prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng
is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for
violating his probation. Zhisheng, an advocate of constitutional
reform, was convicted in 2006 of subversion and disappeared 20
months ago. On Jan 1, 2012, his brother said Gao has been imprisoned
in Shaya prison in the far western region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 12/16/11)(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 16, Beijing city
authorities issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register
their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government
tightens its grip on the Internet.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, England's highest
court granted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange permission to
appeal against his extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations,
setting the hearing for February 1.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Egyptian troops
clashed with petrol bomb-throwing protesters against military rule
in Cairo, as the worst violence in weeks overshadowed the count in
the second phase of a landmark general election. Fighting raged from
dawn well into the night. The clashes left at least 8 people dead.
(AFP, 12/16/11)(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 16, Europol said
police have arrested 112 people in 22 countries after a yearlong
investigation into child pornography, warning that technology is
making combating the spread of child abuse images ever more
difficult. The investigation, code named "Operation Icarus," was
carried out under the leadership of Danish police, due to Danish
expertise in analyzing the peer-to-peer networks that were used to
share files.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, A court in Paris
charged Sosthene Munyemana, a Rwandan doctor living in France, on
suspicion he took part in the country's 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, A Soyuz rocket
carrying six satellites launched from French Guiana in the
Russian-built rocket model's second mission this year. It was to
first release a French Earth observation satellite, Pleiades 1. Next
to come would be four French micro-satellites and a Chilean Earth
observation satellite was to be released last.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Indian student
Jyoti Amge (18), measuring just 62.8 centimeters (less than two
foot, one inch), was confirmed as the world's shortest living woman.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Indonesia's
Parliament passed a long-awaited law allowing the government to
acquire land for public projects by paying compensation. The law
must be signed by the president within 30 days before taking effect.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Ivory Coast
final election results from Dec 11 said Ouattara's Rally of
Republicans (RDR) won 127 of the 254 seats contested, with its main
ally, the Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI), getting 77. Turnout
in the vote was 36.56 percent.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Japan's PM
Yoshihiko Noda announced that the country's Fukushima Dai-ichi
tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has achieved a stable state of "cold
shutdown," a crucial step toward the eventual lifting of evacuation
orders and closing of the plant.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Kazakhstan 13
people died in a clash with police in the city of Zhanaozen. The
city has been the site of a sit-in by oil workers seeking higher
wages. Many of those workers were fired over the summer.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 16, Kuwaiti riot
police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of
stateless protesters, known as bidoon, who were demanding
citizenship and other basic rights. Under Kuwaiti law, only citizens
have the right to hold public gatherings.
(AFP, 12/16/11)(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Kyrgyzstan 4
parties agreed to form a broad coalition government, a development
that could create much-needed political stability.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Malaysian
shipbuilder Boustead Naval Shipyard says it has won a 9.0 billion
ringgit ($2.8 billion) deal from Kuala Lumpur for six naval patrol
vessels developed by French manufacturer DCNS.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Mexico a marine
officer, his two sons, also marines, and his wife disappeared in the
western state of Guerrero. Several suspects were arrested on Jan 13
and confessed to kidnapping them at a fake checkpoint and killing
them.
(AP, 1/15/12)
2011 Dec 16, In the Netherlands
a long-awaited report said thousands of children suffered sexual
abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions over the past 65 years, and
church officials knew about the abuse but failed to adequately
address it or help the victims.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Judges of the
International Criminal Court at The Hague decided not to charge
Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana (48) for crimes committed
in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ordered his release.
Mbarushimana faced 13 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity allegedly committed in DR Congo's Kivu provinces in 2009.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Nigeria a
gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Kano,
resulting in a shootout which left one policeman dead and another
seriously wounded.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Gaza a man died
from heavy machine gun fire on the border between the Gaza Strip and
Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers on patrol in
the area heard explosions, and a tank responded with gunfire toward
"suspicious locations." Family members identified the victim as
Nafez Nabhein (35), a Bedouin civilian from the Bureij refugee camp.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Russia gained
approval to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Formal
membership was expected in early 2012.
(SFC, 12/17/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 16, South Korea joined
a fresh multinational effort to press Iran to scrap its suspected
nuclear weapons program, adding more than 100 names to a financial
blacklist of Iranian firms and individuals.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Syrian security
forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday
prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent
reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors
recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. At least 10
people were left dead.
(AP, 12/16/11)(SFC, 12/17/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 16, In Yemen hundreds
of thousands demonstrated across the country rejecting an amnesty
given to President Ali Abdullah Saleh against prosecution in a deal
that eases him out of office.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, Zimbabwe state
media said the national airline has suspended flights to South
Africa over a debt of $500,000, fearing creditors might impound more
of its planes.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 17, Deloris Gillespie
(64) burned to death in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment
building after a man ambushed her, sprayed her with liquid and set
her afire with a Molotov cocktail. The next day Jerome Isaac (47)
told police he set her on fire because she owed him $2,000 for some
work he had done for her.
(AP, 12/18/11)(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 17, In Afghanistan
international troops exchanged gunfire with guards at a house in
Paktia province, and detained a counternarcotics chief and two of
his sons. An Afghan woman and another member of the counternarcotics
chief's family were killed and three other women were injured. Three
policemen were killed when their patrol vehicle was caught in the
blast from a roadside bomb on the main highway between Farah and
Nimroz provinces.
(AP, 12/17/11)(AFP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 17, In Afghanistan the
US military began testing Kaman K-MAX helicopters, a revolutionary
new drone for its arsenal. The pilotless helicopters will fly cargo
missions to remote outposts where frequent roadside bombs threaten
access by road convoys.
(AP, 1/7/12)
2011 Dec 17, Opposition
supporters in Bahrain clashed with police for a third straight day
along a main highway west of the capital.
(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, Cape Verdean
singer Cesaria Evora (70), nicknamed the "barefoot diva", died in a
hospital in her native country. Her 1992 album, “Miss Perfumado,”
earned her 5 gold records.
(AFP, 12/17/11)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.86)
2011 Dec 17, In Egypt violence
raged for a second day in the administrative heart of Cairo as
troops and police deployed in force. The count continued in the
second stage of elections for the lower house of parliament.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, Gabon held
legislative elections. Voters were expected to hand a resounding
victory to President Ali Bongo's party in the face of a boycott by
some opposition groups. Some 746,000 people were registered to vote
in the country of 1.5 million inhabitants, sub-Saharan Africa's
fourth largest oil producer.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, An overcrowded
ship of asylum seekers sank off the island of Java. Indonesian
rescuers battled high waves as they searched for survivors. Nearly
250 people fleeing economic and political hardship in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran and Turkey were trying to reach Australia in search of a
better life when their fiberglass ship broke apart. Only 47 people
survived.
(AP, 12/18/11)(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 17, The secular
Iraqiya bloc, which won most of the votes of Iraq's disenchanted
Sunni Arab minority, walked out of parliament sparking a political
crisis days after US forces ended their mission.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, Kazakhstan's
President Nursultan Nazarbayev imposed a three-week state of
emergency in the oil town of Zhanaozen, where 13 people were killed
a day earlier in a clash between police and demonstrators. In the
southwest police opened fire on rioters in the town of Shetpe,
leaving one person dead and 11 wounded. Two days of rioting left 16
people dead.
(AP, 12/17/11)(AP, 12/18/11)(Econ, 12/31/11,
p.26)
2011 Dec 17, In Nigeria an
explosion at a house allegedly used to make home-made bombs in the
northeastern city of Maiduguri killed three suspected Islamist sect
members. Police shot rifles and fired tear gas at protesters who
were demonstrating against toll roads in Lagos.
(AFP, 12/17/11)(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il (b.1941) died of a heart attack. His third son,
Kim Jong Un, was expected to succeed his father.
(AP, 12/19/11)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.74)
2011 Dec 17, It was reported
that North Korea has agreed to suspend its enriched-uranium nuclear
weapons program, a key United States demand for the resumption of
disarmament talks, as Washington agreed to provide the North with up
to 240,000 tons of food aid.
(AFP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, Tropical storm
Washi whipped the southern Philippines, unleashing mammoth floods
across vast areas that left 440 people dead and nearly 200 missing.
(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, In Russia about
1,000 demonstrators demanding a rerun of parliamentary elections
gathered in central Moscow for a second weekend of protests against
the recent fraud-tainted vote.
(AP, 12/17/11)
2011 Dec 17, Former Miss
Venezuela Eva Ekvall (28), whose struggle with breast cancer was
closely followed by Venezuelans, died at a hospital in Houston.
Ekvall was crowned Miss Venezuela at age 17 in 2000, and the
following year she was third runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant
in Puerto Rico.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 18, Warren Hellman
(b.1934), San Francisco financier and sponsor of the annual Hardly
Strictly Bluegrass festival, died from complications of leukemia.
(SFC, 12/18/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 18, In eastern
Afghanistan 18 civilians and two policemen were wounded when a man
threw grenades at a police vehicle in Khost city.
(AFP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Police in Bahrain
fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators chanting
anti-government slogans after the funeral of an elderly man who
witnesses say died from tear gas inhalation a day earlier.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, In Bolivia
suspects, Carlos Uriona and Adelaida Marca allegedly drowned their
sister (18) during a bathtub exorcism in Cochabamba. Both were
arrested after police found the victim's body inside a store owned
by the pastor.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 18, Donald Neilson
(b.1936), one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, died. He
was known as the Black Panther, whose savage murder of Lesley
Whittle (17), a teenage heiress, repulsed the nation in 1975.
(AP,
12/19/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Neilson)
2011 Dec 18, In the CongoDRC
opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi declared himself winner of the
recent presidential vote, despite placing second in official
election results.
(SFC, 12/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 18, Vaclav Havel
(b.1936), former Czech president (1990-2003) died. He led the 1989
Velvet Revolution that peacefully toppled communism in the former
Czechoslovakia.
(AP, 12/18/11)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.32)
2011 Dec 18, Egypt's military
sought to isolate pro-democracy activists protesting against their
rule, depicting them as conspirators and vandals, as troops and
protesters clashed for a third straight day. At least 10 protesters
have been killed and 441 others wounded in the three days of
violence.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Iranian state
media reported that Russia’s Tatneft has signed a preliminary accord
valued at $1 billion with the Persian Gulf country to develop the
Zagheh oil field located in southwestern Iran. The next day Tatneft
said no accord has been signed.
(SFC, 12/18/11, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/7j78scn)
2011 Dec 18, In Iraq Baghdad
security said three of Sunni vice-president Tareq Hashemi's
bodyguards were arrested for "suspected terrorist activity," and the
vice president was briefly escorted off a domestic flight from
Baghdad to the autonomous Kurdish region's capital Arbil.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 18, The last US
soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring
Kuwait at daybreak. The war cost nearly 4,500 American and well more
than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the US Treasury.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Israel released
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the second and final phase of a
swap with Gaza Hamas militants that brought home an Israeli soldier
after five years in captivity.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, In the Ivory Coast
unrest in Vavoua left 5 people dead. Violence started after a
dispute between Republican Forces (FRCI) and youths the previous
night left dead a young man who succumbed to his injuries in
hospital.
(AFP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, In Lebanon a
masked gunman shot and killed a bodyguard of the commander of the
mainstream Fatah group's armed faction at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee
camp near the southern port city of Sidon. The camp houses more than
65,000 refugees.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, More than 30,000
Islamists rallied against the US in the Pakistani city of Lahore,
demanding Islamabad cut off ties with Washington following NATO
airstrikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, In the southern
Philippines rescuers struggled to help survivors and a ravaged city
prepared for a mass burial as the death toll from devastating flash
floods rose past 650. Some 900 people were missing.
(AFP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, In Russia
thousands took to the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg, braving
strong winds and torrential rains for a second week of protests over
the recent fraud-tainted parliamentary vote.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Russia’s Kolskaya
oil drilling platform capsized and later sank amid fierce storms off
the coast of Sakhalin Island, plunging dozens of workers into the
churning, icy waters. Of the 67 men aboard, 14 were plucked alive
immediately after the accident.
(AP, 12/18/11)(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 18, Somali journalist
Abdisalan Sheik Hassan was shot dead in Mogadishu by a man in a
Somali government uniform.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Spanish airline
Iberia cancelled a third of its flights because of a strike by
pilots fearing job losses when company planes are diverted for a
planned new budget carrier.
(SFC, 12/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 18, In Syria armed
clashes erupted, killing at least 14 civilians and six government
troops in central and northern Syria.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 18, Four Yemeni
soldiers and two al-Qaida-linked militants were killed in overnight
clashes outside the city of Zinjibar.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 19, Fierce winds and
snow that caused fatal road accidents and shuttered highways in
Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. The storm was blamed
for at least six deaths.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 19, NYC Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg said Cornell University has chosen by New York City to
build a technology campus on Roosevelt Island with a grant of
city-owned land and $100 million. Charles Feeney of the Duty Free
Shopping Group donated $350 million.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.26)(http://tinyurl.com/cz9lz8z)
2011 Dec 19, In, Webster,
Pennsylvania, police shot and killed Eli Franklin Myers (58) during
a standoff hours after he killed East Washington officer John David
Dryer during a traffic stop.
(SFC, 12/20/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 19, Members of an
Australian class action lawsuit, who blame a German pharmaceutical
company's anti-morning sickness drug, Thalidomide, for causing birth
defects, won the right to have their case heard in their own
country. The class action against Grunenthal is open to Australians
born between Jan. 1, 1958, and Dec. 31, 1970, who were injured after
their mothers took thalidomide while pregnant.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Belarus police
arrested dozens of regime opponents who tried to stage a banned
vigil in Minsk. Australian filmmaker Kitty Green (27) was detained
while covering a topless protest outside the offices of the
Belarussian KGB security services to mark Lukashenko's disputed
re-election a year ago. Three members of the radical Femen group
were also seized by KGB security agents who forced them to strip
naked in a forest and threatened to torch them.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 19, In Brazil a
juvenile court judge in the northeastern state of Alagoas sentenced
three priests for sexually abusing minors for years. Monsignor Luiz
Marques Barbosa was sentenced to 21 years in prison, while Monsignor
Raimundo Gomes and priest Edilson Duarte were given 16 years and
four months in prison.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 19, In northern Brazil
say a woman gave birth to conjoined twin boys with one body and two
heads at the Santa Casa de Misericodia Hospital in Belem.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 19, In Denmark the
Copenhagen City Court ruled that Marcel Lychau Hansen had strangled
73-year-old Edith Louise Andrup in 1987 and 40-year-old Lene
Buchardt Rasmussen three years later. The court also found him
guilty of raping three teenagers and a 23-year-old woman in 1995 and
two women in 2005 and 2010, respectively.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Egyptian soldiers
in riot gear swept through Cairo's Tahrir Square and opened fire on
protesters demanding an immediate end to military rule. The Health
Ministry said at least three people were killed, bringing the death
toll for four days of clashes to 14.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Gabon's ruling
party, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), claimed it had won 114
out of parliament's 120 seats in a legislative election largely
boycotted by the opposition but given a clean bill of health by
observers.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, The Air Berlin
group, Germany's 2nd-largest airline, said United Arab Emirates
airline, Etihad, is to pay 72.9 million euros ($95 million) to
become its biggest shareholder.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Guinean officials
indefinitely postponed legislative elections initially set for
December 29 to meet opposition demands for a role in planning the
polls to prevent fraud.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Iraqi officials
said judges have barred Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi from
travelling overseas.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, In Kenya a police
officer was killed and two others seriously wounded after a
suspected landmine attack on their patrol vehicle in the northern
Dadaab refugee camp.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Mauritania said it
has signed an agreement with French oil group Total to explore for
oil at sea and to extract any oil discovered.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Mexican
prosecutors announced they have found another clandestine grave
holding 10 bodies in the northern state of Durango, bringing to 14
the number of such burial sites found in the state this year.
Soldiers found the 10 bodies last week in a field on the outskirts
of the state capital. Prosecutors also said two mutilated bodies
were found scattered in the plaza of Pueblo Viejo, Morelos state,
while a boy was killed around the same time in what police say may
have been a related crime. Mexico's tax service announced that
authorities had found 480 drums containing almost 100 metric tons of
precursor chemicals used to make methamphetamines at the Pacific
coast port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan state.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Morocco’s Islamist
al-Adl wal-Ihsane (Justice and Charity) group said they were ending
their role in the weekly protests that have taken place since
February, because the movement had been taken over by elements that
wanted to limit the demands for change.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, In Nepal a second
general strike in three days brought much of the country to a halt
as protestors blocked roads and torched cars over the prison killing
of a senior opposition party activist. Shiva Poudel, chairman of a
party youth wing, was critically injured when a group of inmates
attacked him in a prison in the southern district of Chitwan on
December 6 and he died in Kathmandu on Dec 17.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Nigeria launched a
communications satellite into space to replace one that failed in
2008. The satellite was launched from Xichang in southwest China.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Hundreds of
furious Pakistanis blocked off the Islamabad airport highway,
demonstrating against debilitating gas shortages and pelting police
with stones. A second angry crowd torched tires in Islamabad and
twin city Rawalpindi, throwing stones at police and private vehicles
over gas rationing that has left thousands of homes without heat for
hours at a time.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, A teenage
Pakistani woman told of her terror as her husband chopped off her
nose and lips in a furious marital row, and threatened to kill
herself unless the police brought him to justice. Salma Bibi (17)
said her husband, Ghulam Qadir (22), subjected her to a beating,
then bound her hands and feet with rope and hacked into her face
with a razor in a remote village in the southwestern province
Baluchistan.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Peruvian migration
officials gave paroled American Lori Berenson (42) a document, three
days after barring her exit, clearing her to leave the country with
her toddler son to spend the holidays with her family in New York
City. Berenson said she fully intended to return to Peru by the
court-ordered deadline of Jan 11.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, In the southern
Philippines the death toll from devastating flash floods rose to 927
and was expected to climb higher as relief workers recovered more
bodies from Mindanao.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Saudi billionaire
Prince Walid bin Talal and his Kingdom Holding Company announced a
combined investment of $300 million in the social networking site
Twitter.
(AFP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, South Sudanese
rebel chief George Athor was killed in a clash with soldiers of the
newly independent nation.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 19, Sudan’s parliament
raised taxes on the Internet, mobile phone calls and other
telecommunications in a bid to help cover lost oil income from South
Sudan.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 19, Sweden’s Saab
Automobile filed for bankruptcy, giving up a desperate struggle to
stay in business after previous owner General Motors Co. blocked
takeover attempts by Chinese investors.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Syria signed an
Arab League initiative that will allow Arab observers into the
country, as part of an effort to end the nation's increasingly
bloody 9-month-old crisis.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, Tunisia’s
President Moncef Marzouki said that Tunisia's Jews are full citizens
and those that had left were welcome to return. His comments came
almost two weeks after Israeli deputy PM Silvan Shalom called on the
country's remaining Jews to emigrate to Israel.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, A Turkish news
agency reported that security forces may have killed as many as 20
Kurdish separatist rebels in the country's southeast.
(AP, 12/19/11)
2011 Dec 19, The UN General
Assembly approved a resolution denouncing human rights violations in
Iran in an 89-30 vote. There were 64 abstentions.
(SFC, 12/19/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 19, In Yemen fresh
fighting between suspected Al-Qaeda militants and army troops in
Abyan province killed 4 soldiers and 16 al-Qaida-linked militants.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, The United States
extradited Edin Dzeko (39), a native Bosnian, suspected of
participation in the wartime killing of Bosnian Croat civilians.
According to charges, Dzeko was a member of a Bosnian Army unit that
attacked the southern Bosnian Croat village of Trusina in 1993,
killed 18 civilians and wounded several others, including children.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, American
authorities said they had asked the world’s leading scientific
journals to withhold research on bird flu after researcher teams in
Madison and Rotterdam engineered the virus so that it could be
transmitted through the air from ferret to ferret. In January
scientists agreed to suspend their research for 60 days. On April
20, 2012, the US reversed its stance.
(www.economist.com/node/21542156)(SFC, 1/21/12,
p.A4)(Econ, 4/28/12, p.14)
2011 Dec 20, In Spokane,
Washington, Kevin Harpham (37) was sentenced to 32 years in prison
for planting a poison-laced bomb last January 17 along a Martin
Luther King Jr. Day parade route.
(SFC, 12/21/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 20, NASA scientists
reported the discovery of a pair of planets, the size of Earth and
Venus, named Kepler 20e and Kepler 20f. Both orbited a star 3,900
light-years away.
(SFC, 12/21/11, p.A10)
2011 Dec 20, A small plane
crashed on I-287 in New Jersey killing all 5 people aboard.
(SFC, 12/21/11, p.A12)
2011 Dec 20, Algerian troops
were reported to have crossed into Mali to help government forces
combat groups affiliated to Al-Qaeda.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, The Bahrain News
Agency said the king issued a decree ordering government agencies to
reinstate 180 government employees who were fired on suspicion of
participating in opposition rallies. Bahraini labor groups claimed
up to 2,500 people were purged from jobs during the unrest. The
government put the number at 1,623.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, British treasury
minister Danny Alexander said the government has reached a tentative
deal on pension reform with most public sector unions, easing fears
of further strikes after a mass walkout over the issue last month.
(Reuters, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, In southern China
police fired tear-gas and beat demonstrators who stormed government
buildings to protest against a power plant in Haimen, Guangdong
province.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Colombia's
President Juan Manuel Santos approved details of a plan to pay
compensation to an estimated 4 million victims of the country's
long-running civil conflict. Santos signed five decrees laying out
regulations under the so-called Victims Law. The Congress approved
the law in May, and Santos signed it in June.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Egyptian troops
and riot police raided Tahrir again in their latest attempt to evict
protesters. Some 10,000 angry women marched in central Cairo to
denounce the attacks on protesters and call on the ruling generals
to step down. Their anger was mostly focused on the case of the
woman stripped half naked and beaten. At least 14 people have been
killed in five days of clashes.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 20, The European Court
of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay more than €1 million ($1.3
million) to dozens of plaintiffs over the country's bungled efforts
to end a 2002 Moscow theater siege by Chechen militants.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Five Iranian
engineers working on an electricity power plant in Jandar, close to
the city of Homs, Syria, were abducted. Two others working for Iran
Power Plant Projects Management Company (Mapna) were taken when they
went to investigate their colleagues' disappearance. On Jan 2 an
unknown group calling itself the "Movement Against the Expansion of
Shiism in Syria" claimed responsibility for their abduction.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 20, Japan chose the
as-yet unproven F-35 stealth jet for its next-generation mainstay
fighter.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Kenyan military
jets targeted several locations in Hosingow in the Lower Juba region
of Somalia, close to the Kenyan border. 11 people, most of them
civilians, were reported killed in the raid.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 20, Lebanese troops
found the body of American John Redwine, who had been missing for
three days in a remote mountainous area of the country.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Mauritanian
paramilitary police officer "Ely Ould Moktar was kidnapped from his
unit in Adel Begrou. On March 10 he was freed in exchange for
Abderrahmane Ould Meddou of Mali, who was serving a 5-year jail
sentence for involvement in the abduction of an Italian couple
earlier this year.
(AFP, 3/10/12)
2011 Dec 20, In northern
Nigeria gunmen killed five people in a pre-dawn attack in Kagoro
town, Kaduna state, the epicentre of post-election violence earlier
this year.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Palestinian
foreign affairs minister Riyad Al Maliki signed a free trade
agreement with the Mercosur trade group during the organization's
presidential summit in Uruguay.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Papua New Guinea’s
governor general Michael Ogio reversed course and threw his weight
behind the government of Peter O’Neill.
(SFC, 12/21/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 20, Philippines’
President Benigno Aquino flew to Mindanao to survey the devastation
by air, coordinate the relief effort. Some 1249 were killed after
tropical storm Washi lashed the southern island of Mindanao.
(AFP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 20, In Senegal
suspected rebels from the separatist Casamance region left 13 people
dead in the enclaved region.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, In Somalia 200
troops from Djibouti arrived in Mogadishu to join the African Union
force that helps protect the government and fight Islamist
insurgents.
(AP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, In South Africa
Julius Malema (30), the suspended youth leader of the ruling African
National Congress, was elected to a senior party post by members in
his home province of Limpopo.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Sudanese riot
police used batons to beat youths shouting anti-regime slogans in
support of residents displaced by the giant Merowe dam.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 20, Syrian state-run
news agency SANA said President Bashar Assad has issued a new law
under which anyone found guilty of distributing weapons with the aim
of committing "terrorist acts" would be sentenced to death. The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Assad's forces carried out
a "massacre" by killing some 110 civilians in the northwestern town
of Kfar Owaid. 12 more people were killed in Homs. In addition, at
least 100 army deserters were killed or wounded over the last 24
hours in Idlib. 14 security force members were killed in southern
Daraa province. An Arab League official said an advance team will
arrive in Syria this week to prepare for an observer mission as a
possible step toward solving the crisis. 5 Iranian engineers working
at a power plant project in Homs were abducted.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AFP, 12/21/11)(AP, 12/22/11)(Econ,
1/28/12, p.47)
2011 Dec 20, Turkish police
detained 48 people, including journalists, as part of a growing
investigation into a Kurdish group that prosecutors accuse of links
to Kurdish rebels.
(AP, 12/20/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 20, In Uruguay a hotel
maid found the body of Ivan Heyn (34), Argentina’s deputy foreign
commerce secretary. He was there for the Mercosur summit.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, The Obama
administration issued the first US standards to cut mercury and
other toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants.
(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 21, The US government
said it is suspending training for new Peace Corps volunteers in the
Central American nations of Guatemala and El Salvador while it
assesses security concerns. It was also decided to pull all
volunteers from Honduras.
(AP, 12/21/11)(AP, 1/18/12)
2011 Dec 21, It was reported
that California Watch has found repeated violations over the past
year by Prime Healthcare Services for aggressive billing to
Medicare.
(SFC, 12/21/11, p.A1)
2011 Dec 21, Operators ran the
first train down Afghanistan's first major railroad, clearing the
way for a long-awaited service from the northern border that should
speed up the US military's crucial supply flow and become a hub for
future trade. Uzbekistan's state-owned SE Sogdiana Trans will run
the commercial train service.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed five Polish soldiers in
Ghazni province. Afghan police shot dead a would-be suicide bomber
before he was able to attack a police station in Khost province.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Bosnia police and
local media reported that as Monika Ilic, a Bosnian Serb woman
suspected of such brutal crimes against non-Serbs at the beginning
of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, has been detained. Her victims
reportedly called her the "Female Monster." Ilic was reportedly 18
when she married Goran Jelisic, a convicted murderer and
concentration camp torturer.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Cambodia and
Thailand announced an agreement in principle to withdraw troops from
a border area where a territorial dispute triggered deadly clashes.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, In China villagers
of Wukan gave up their protests over land confiscations after the
Guangdong party leadership promised to look into their complaints.
On Jan 15, 2012, protest leader Lin Zuluan was appointed as the
village’s new party chief.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.24)
2011 Dec 21, Human Rights Watch
released a report stating CongoDRC security forces had killed at
least 24 people and "arbitrarily" arrested dozens more since
Kabila's disputed victory was announced December 9.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 21, In Egypt voting in
election runoffs for the first parliament since Hosni Mubarak's
ouster resumed without the long lines outside polling centers seen
in previous rounds of the staggered vote.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, An Ethiopian court
convicted Swedish journalists Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson of
supporting a terrorist group and entering the country illegally,
with the prosecution calling for a maximum sentence of 18 years and
six months. On Dec 27 a court sentenced the two journalists to
11 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorism.
(AFP, 12/22/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 21, Finnish officials
said they have found around 160 tons of explosives and 69
surface-to-air Patriot missiles on a cargo ship bearing a British
flag and ultimately destined for China. They didn't know the origin
of the missiles or who was supposed to receive them.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Hong Kong health
workers began slaughtering 17,000 chickens after a carcass was found
infected with bird flu at a poultry market.
(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 21, In Indonesia 4
people were killed but 100 rescued when an overloaded boat sank. The
wooden boat was carrying villagers returning home for the Christmas
holidays.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki said he has granted a six-month extension on a deadline to
close Camp Ashraf, which has housed Iranian exiles for decades. The
six-month extension started in November. He also said the UN would
relocate 400 to 800 of the residents to other countries by end of
December. Al-Maliki also told Kurdish authorities to hand over Sunni
vice president Tariq Al-Hashemi, who fled to the semiautonomous
region to escape an arrest warrant on charges he ran hit squads
targeting government officials.
(AP, 12/21/11)(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 21, Jamaican
investigators found the severed head and bullet-riddled body of
Navardo Hodges of the Clansman gang, a man they believe was a
high-ranking member of a notorious drug-and-extortion gang known for
beheading victims.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 21, In Mexico Veracruz
state spokeswoman Gina Dominguez said 800 police officers and 300
administrative employees have been laid off an effort to root out
corruption. She said they can still apply for state police jobs but
must meet stricter standards. In the meantime the Navy will take
over.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, A blast in
Myanmar's commercial hub and former capital Yangon killed one woman
and wounded another.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Shell, the major
oil producer in Nigeria, said an oil spill likely occurred as
workers tried to offload oil onto a waiting tanker. Shell estimated
the Bonga spill likely was less than 40,000 barrels, or 1.68 million
gallons. The oil slick affected 115 miles (185 km) of ocean along
Nigeria's coast.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 21, The opposition
Syrian National Council urged the UN Security Council and Arab
League to hold emergency meetings after regime forces "massacred"
more than 200 people in two days.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, In southeast
Turkey a passenger bus collided with a truck on a single lane road,
killing 25 people.
(AP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, The UN tribunal
for Rwanda handed life sentences to Matthieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard
Karemera, former heads of the ex-ruling party, for genocide crimes
committed in 1994.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Marie-Claire
Mukeshimana (43), a Rwandan woman convicted in absentia by a court
in her country for her role in the 1994 genocide, arrived in Kigali
after being extradited from the US. She was sentenced in 2009 to 19
years in prison for complicity in the killing of several children
who had sought refuge at a convent in southern Rwanda.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 21, In South Africa
the Limpopo branch of the African National Congress adopted
controversial plans for the expropriation of land and the
nationalization of mines. It said compensation must be paid not on
the land itself but only on improvements.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, In Yemen overnight
fighting against al-Qaida-linked fighters in the south killed 10 of
the militants and five soldiers outside Zinjibar. Abdel-Rahman
al-Wahishi, brother of Yemen's al-Qaida leader, was among dozens of
people killed in battles raging for days in the south of the
country.
(AP, 12/21/11)(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, US House Speaker
John Boehner announced that Republicans have decided to accept a
short-term extension of the payroll tax cut, preventing a hike in
taxes just nine days before the tax break expires for 160 million
Americans.
(Reuters, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, US regulators
approved a Westinghouse next generation nuclear reactor slated for
Florida Power and Light’s Turkey Point plant and five other
utilities in the Southeast. These would be the first new reactors in
the US in 3 decades.
(SFC, 12/23/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 22, The US Justice
Dept. unsealed a suit against AseraCare Hospice of Texas for
fraudulently certifying patients as terminally ill to illegally
collect Medicare payments since at least 2007. AseraCare is a
subsidiary of Golden Living, which was 99% owned by the Washington
State Investment Board, whose investments are managed by Fillmore
Capital Partners.
(SFC, 1/6/12, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/7ewsnhv)
2011 Dec 22, In Fort Wayne,
Indiana, babysitter and trusted neighbor Michael Plumadore (39)
bludgeoned Aliahna Lemmon (9) to death with a brick then dismembered
her, hiding her head, hands and feet at his home and dumping the
rest of her remains nearby.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 22, Francisco Morales
(52) was arrested in Brownsville, Texas, for posing as a physician
and performing procedures using stem cells on patients in Mexico.
Three other were later charged in the operation.
(SFC, 12/29/11, p.A9)
2011 Dec 22, In eastern
Afghanistan a NATO service member was killed by a roadside bomb.
Insurgents tried to overrun a police checkpoint in western Ghor
province. One attacker was killed and three policemen were wounded
in the clashes.
(AP, 12/22/11)(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 22, Argentina’s Senate
gave final approval to a package of laws doubling the penalties for
crimes committed with the goal of terrorizing the people or
pressuring authorities to take some action. Human rights groups were
concerned it will be used to crack down on social protest. The
Senate also imposed tough new limits on foreign ownership of
farmland, part of a package of laws that give the government much
more control over the agricultural industry.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, Bahrain's official
news agency said 79 education ministry employees who were dismissed
from their jobs during months of protests will get their jobs back
by January 1.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, In southern China
witnesses said police have begun arresting protesters after two days
of violent clashes, as the local government warned against further
"illegal" demonstrations.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, Egypt's
military-appointed PM Kamal el-Ganzouri called for national dialogue
to resolve the country's political crisis and pleaded for a
two-month calm to restore security after weeks of protests and
bloodshed. Some 3,000 students from Ain Shams University in Cairo
marched after a prayer service for a student killed in the recent
clashes. Turnout was light in the second day of voting in run-off
elections.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, French officials
prepared to decide if thousands of women should have their implants
surgically removed. Silicone gel implants, made by a company called
Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) which was shut down in 2010, appear to
have an unusually high rupture rate and have sparked an
investigation in France into possible links to cancer. Fears over
the safety of the breast implants made by PIP spread to
Australia, South America and across Europe.
(Reuters, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, Berlin-based
Transparency International published a survey: "Daily Lives and
Corruption: Public Opinion in South Asia," which found 62% of south
Asians believed corruption had got worse over the past three years,
with Indians and Pakistanis the most pessimistic.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, Indonesian police
arrested eight people in connection with an overloaded boat carrying
250 asylum seekers that capsized on Dec 17 en route to Australia, as
the confirmed death toll reached 90.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Iraq a wave of
at least 14 morning bombings ripped across Baghdad, killing 69
people in the worst violence in Iraq for months. The bombings bore
all the hallmarks of al-Qaida's Sunni insurgents. 4 more bombings in
the evening killed 3 more people.
(AP, 12/22/11)(SFC, 12/23/11, p.A3)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 22, Italy’s Senate
voted to give final approval to a $40 billion austerity and growth
package designed to eliminate its budget deficit by 2013.
(SFC, 12/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 22, Kenyan authorities
said they have seized 727 pieces of ivory in a container at the main
port of Mombasa in one of the largest hauls of tusks in recent
years. The items were wrapped in plastic bags in a container which
documents said was destined for Dubai.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Mexico a group
of gunmen attacked three passenger buses in the Gulf coast state of
Veracruz, killing seven passengers in what authorities said appeared
to be a violent robbery spree. 3 US citizens were among the dead.
(AP, 12/22/11)(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Nigeria unrest
broke out in the city of Damaturu and two other northeastern cities,
Maiduguri and Potiskum, leaving at least six people dead.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 22, Pakistan's PM
Yousuf Raza Gilani claimed there was a conspiracy to oust the
country's civilian government, a sign of growing tension with the
army over a secret memo sent to Washington earlier this year asking
for help in averting a supposed military coup.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Pakistan nearly
3 dozen Taliban fighters attacked a paramilitary fort in the
northwest, killing one soldier and kidnapping 15 others. They
captured a significant amount of weapons. The bodies of the
kidnapped were found on Jan 5.
(SFC, 1/6/12, p.A4)
2011 Dec 22, The rival
Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas took an important step toward
reconciliation, announcing plans for the Islamic militants to join
the umbrella group that has overseen two decades of on-and-off peace
talks with Israel. Israeli officials reacted with alarm to the
emerging agreement.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, Russia’s President
Dmitry Medvedev responded to protests over the fraud-tainted
election by proposing some reforms to liberalize the political
system, but sternly warned that the government won't allow
"provocateurs and extremists" to threaten stability.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Senegal
Barthelemy Dias, the youth leader of the West African country's
Socialist party, was attacked by political opponents at his office.
Dias was charged with murder on Dec 28 for the political clash that
left one person dead and three others wounded. He maintained that he
acted in self-defense.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 22, A rebel spokesman
said troops from Sudan's Darfur region have begun moving towards the
capital Khartoum, more than three years after they made an
unprecedented attack on the capital.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Syria fresh
raids and gunfire by government forces killed at least 19 people,
most of them in the central city of Homs and northern Idlib
province. Arab League delegates traveled to Syria to arrange the
deployment of foreign monitors under a plan aimed at ending the
regime's deadly 9-month-old crackdown on dissent. A total of 500
observers are planned.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, Turkey's PM
Erdogan said his country is recalling its ambassador to France and
halting official contact in retaliation for a vote in the French
Parliament making it a crime to deny the 1915 mass killings of
Armenians was a genocide. The bill, just passed in France's lower
house, still needed approval in the Senate.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 22, In Yemen fighting
killed five militants and five soldiers in Zinjibar. Residents
reported heavy naval bombardment of the city, near Yemen's southern
coast.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, President Barack
Obama signed a $1 trillion-plus 2012 spending bill that sets the
day-to-day budgets of 10 Cabinet agencies.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, A US federal judge
barred high profile Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio from detaining people
simply for being in the country illegally, in a ruling that faulted
the local lawman for enforcing federal immigration law.
(Reuters, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, The US Justice
Dept. rejected South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo
identification at the polls.
(SFC, 12/24/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 23, Police used pepper
spray to break up fights among pushing and shoving customers waiting
outside a Seattle area mall to buy the first Nike retro Air Jordan
basketball shoes as they went on sale in Tukwila.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, Afghanistan's
leading human rights activist, Nader Nadery (36), said that
President Hamid Karzai has fired him and two others from the
government's own rights commission. The claim came as the
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission was working on a
landmark report about abuses in the country. Karzai's spokesman said
Nadery’s five year term was over and the president did not renew his
term.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, The Afghan
Interior Ministry said three civilians have died in an explosion of
a truck in the south of the country. The truck appeared to have been
transporting a bomb through a town in Takhta Pul district in
Kandahar province. An explosion at a coal mine in Baghlan province
killed 11 miners. They were all working at the site without
government permission.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, Bahrain’s security
forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas attacked the headquarters
of the main Shiite opposition party in Manama after the group
challenged a new government ban on its weekly protests. Authorities
banned the weekly Friday protests for the first time since emergency
laws were lifted in June.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China police
fired tear gas at hundreds of people and detained a team of Hong
Kong journalists in the southern town of Haimen, the scene of
violent protests earlier this week. Activist Chen Wei (42) was
sentenced to nine years in prison on subversion charges.
(AFP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, In China Huang
Guang, a local forestry official, poisoned a cat meat hotpot shared
with billionaire Long Liyuan, who made his fortune running a
forestry company in wealthy Guangdong province. On Jan 2 Yangjiang
city authorities reported the arrest of Guang.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 23, Colombian crime
boss Jose Lopez Montero (40), alias "Caracho", surrendered in the
city of Villavicencio. A total of 283 other members of his group
also turned themselves in over the last 2 days. More than 200
members of the crime ring were soon freed because there were no
charges pending against them.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 23, In Colombia a fuel
pipeline exploded in the central province of Risaralda, killing at
least 7 people, injuring 45 others and destroying homes.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, DR Congo police
banned a swearing-in ceremony for opposition leader Etienne
Tshisekedi. Police fired tear gas at supporters of the opposition
leader who had gathered near a stadium to see him inaugurating
himself as president, three days after President Joseph Kabila was
sworn in for a second term. Tshisekedi took the oath on a Bible at
his home.
(AFP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/23/11)(AFP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, Cuba's supreme
governing body pardoned 2,900 prisoners, including some convicted of
political crimes, though no mention was made of Alan Gross, a jailed
American whose case has become a sticking point between Havana and
Washington.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, Several thousand
Egyptians rallied in Cairo's central Tahrir Square to denounce
violence against protesters, especially outraged by images of women
protesters dragged by their hair, beaten and kicked by troops.
Thousands turned out for rival protests in Cairo, exposing the
widening rifts among Egyptians over the ruling military's handling
of transition from Hosni Mubarak's rule.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, It was reported
that a herpes virus has decimated oysters along its coast for a 4th
straight season. 70-80% of France’s young stock have died this year.
(SFC, 12/23/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 23, Hungary’s police
detained former PM Ferenc Gyurcsany and several other opposition
politicians who were protesting against the government outside
Parliament. Government lawmakers were in the process of approving
several contentious laws, including a new central bank law that has
drawn criticism from the European Union.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a visit to Armenia that saw the Islamic
republic and its small Christian neighbor sign a series of
agreements to boost ties.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, Mexico said that
it seized 229 metric tons of precursor chemicals used to make
methamphetamine, the third such huge seizure this month at the
Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas, all of which were bound for a port
in Guatemala. Special military forces seized computer files and
other data when they detained Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, the security
chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The attorney general's office in
Veracruz said it had found 10 bodies in an area along the border
with Tamaulipas after receiving a tip.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 23, The International
Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague freed Rwandan rebel Callixte
Mbarushimana and returned him to France after dismissing murder and
rape charges against him. He spent 11 months in detention and was
the first war crimes suspect to be arrested and freed without trial
since the court began work in 2002.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, New Zealand's
Christchurch was rocked by a fresh series of powerful earthquakes,
sending terrified people fleeing into the streets 10 months after a
devastating quake claimed 181 lives. Two shallow quakes of magnitude
5.8 and 5.9 and a series of aftershocks struck as malls were packed
with afternoon Christmas shoppers.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, In Nigeria a fresh
round of explosions and gunfire hit the city of Damaturu as
authorities battled suspected members of Islamist sect Boko Haram, a
day after unrest killed six people.
(AFP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, The Pakistani army
rejected key findings from a US investigation into American
airstrikes last month that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and said the
report was unlikely to repair the severely damaged relationship
between the two countries.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AFP, 1/5/12)
2011 Dec 23, A Russian Soyuz
spacecraft arrived at the Int’l. Space Station delivering a Russian,
an American and a Dutchman, restoring the permanent crew to six.
(SFC, 12/24/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 23, In central Somalia
a resident of a refugee camp at Mataban shot and killed three aid
workers, including two workers with the UN's World Food Program.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 23, The Sudanese army
killed the leader of the main Darfur rebel group in fighting. Khalil
Ibrahim, who led the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement, or
JEM, was killed during a military offensive in North Kordofan state
to retaliate for a deadly rebel attack there a day earlier. Ibrahim
and several associates were killed in Wad Banda.
(AP, 12/25/11)(AP, 1/26/12)
2011 Dec 23, In Syria twin
suicide car bomb blasts ripped through an upscale Damascus district,
killing 44 people. The blasts went off outside the main headquarters
of the General Intelligence Agency and a branch of the military
intelligence. Activists reported anti-government protests in several
locations across Syria after Friday prayers during which security
force shot dead at least eight people, mostly in the restive central
province of Homs. 4 people were found dumped on the streets in
Houla, also in Homs province.
(AP, 12/23/11)(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 23, Turkey responded
to French genocide allegations with a charge of its own, accusing
France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of
Algeria. He alleged that beginning in 1945, about 15 percent of the
population of Algeria was massacred by the French. He also said
Algerians were burned in ovens. Most historians contend the Ottoman
killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians constituted the first
genocide of the 20th century.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Ohio a
single-engine plane crashed 50 miles southeast of Columbus killing 2
women on board. The pilot died of his injuries a day later.
(SFC, 12/26/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 24, A gunman wearing
an Afghan soldier’s uniform was killed in a gunfight with US troops
at an outpost in Bala Boluk district in southwestern Farah province.
(AFP, 12/25/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 24, A boat carrying
Haitian migrants sank off Cuba's eastern coast. 38 migrants were
killed and 87 others rescued by Cuban civil defense forces.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Egypt Islamist
parties consolidated earlier gains in the multistage parliamentary
elections, winning nearly 70 percent of the seats determined so far.
The Muslim Brotherhood said it won around 86 of estimated 180 seats
up for grabs in the round, or 47%..
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, The French
national insurance agency said it will file a criminal complaint
against Poly Implant Prothese, the maker of faulty breast implants
after authorities agreed to pay women for the removal of tens of
thousands of potentially faulty breast implants.
(SSFC, 12/25/11, p.A6)
2011 Dec 24, In eastern
Indonesia 2 people were killed and 10 others injured during a
violent protest as some 1,000 people protested to stop a gold mining
project by Australia's Arc Exploration Ltd. and Indonesian partner,
PT Sumber Mineral Nusantara. Villagers feared the project will
destroy their land and threaten forests and water resources.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Indonesia a
rampaging wild elephant trampled a farmer to death on Sumatra
island. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the
wild.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 24, In southern Italy
Ettore Bruscella (77) shot and killed three members of a family who
owned a laundromat, apparently incensed by a years-long battle over
the smoke and fumes emitted by the washing machines in the tiny town
of Genzano Di Lucania.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Kashmir Bashir
Ahmed, a shopkeeper and member of the ruling pro-India National
Conference, was shot in the head at close range in Srinagar. A group
of paramilitary soldiers opened fire on each other inside a camp in
Indian Kashmir, killing three soldiers.
(AP, 12/24/11)(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 24, Liberian
police overnight arrested CDC secretary general Acarous Gray,
a top official of the main opposition Congress for Democratic
Change, as the capital was under curfew after rioting by unpaid
government workers.
(AFP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, In western Mexico
the body of a US teenager, identified as Alexis Uriel Marron (18),
was found in the trunk of a burned-out car along with the bodies of
two other youths near the village of Quiringuicharo, Michoacan
state.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 24, Nigerian police
and a local rights group said the death toll from 2 days of attacks
in the north attributed to the Islamist Boko Haram sect could reach
100.
(AFP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, A Pakistani
Taliban suicide bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into a
paramilitary camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bannu town killing six
soldiers.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Russia an
estimated 80,000 demonstrators cheered opposition leaders and jeered
the Kremlin in the biggest show of outrage yet against PM Vladimir
Putin's 12-year rule.
(AP, 12/24/11)(Econ, 12/31/11, p.36)
2011 Dec 24, In Syria thousands
of mourners carrying flags and pictures of the dead took part in a
mass funeral for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that
targeted intelligence agency compounds in Damascus. Shelling in the
city of Homs killed at least three people in the Baba Amr district
and set several homes and shops ablaze.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, Turkish
authorities released an AFP photographer, along with 12 other people
who were detained as part of an investigation into a group
prosecutors accuse of having links to Kurdish rebels. A court
ordered 35 other suspects formally arrested pending trial over their
alleged involvement in the Union of Kurdistan Communities.
(AP, 12/24/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Yemen security
forces and backers of embattled President Saleh shot dead at least 9
protesters as they approached Sanaa. Tens of thousands of protesters
who set off from the southern city of Taez on Tuesday for the 270-km
(170-mile) march to the capital had arrived in Sanaa in
mid-afternoon but were blocked in a southern suburb. Pres.
Saleh said he would leave the country for the US to help calm
tensions.
(AFP, 12/24/11)(AP, 12/25/11)(SSFC, 12/25/11,
p.A9)
2011 Dec 25, The United States
reached a deal to sell $3.48 billion worth of missiles and related
technology to the United Arab Emirates, as part of a massive buildup
of defense technology among friendly Mideast nations near Iran. The
deal was made public on Dec 30.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 25, The loose-knit
hacking movement "Anonymous" claimed to have stolen thousands of
credit card numbers and other personal information belonging to
clients of US-based security think tank Stratfor.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Detroit,
Michigan, the bodies of 2 women were found in a car trunk. Two other
women were found dead in a car trunk on Dec 19. Three of the four
women had promoted themselves as escorts through the same website.
(SFC, 12/27/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 25, In Texas 7 people
were shot to death in a suburban apartment. A man in a Santa Claus
suit shot 6 relatives and himself. They had apparently opened their
Christmas gifts and started cleaning up the wrapping paper when they
were killed in Grapevine, a suburb of Fort Worth.
(AP, 12/25/11)(SFC, 12/27/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 25, In northeastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber attacked a funeral, killing at least 19
people including an MP and wounding dozens of others in Takhar
province. In eastern Afghanistan an ISAF service member died after
an insurgent attack. Afghan security forces over the last 24 hours
killed 30 armed insurgents in various operations around the country
in which a number of weapons were found.
(AFP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Anti-whaling
activists intercepted Japan's harpoon fleet far north of Antarctic
waters, with the help of a military-style drone.
(AFP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, An Egyptian
investigative judge ordered the release today of Alaa Abdel-Fattah
(30), a prominent blogger detained on Oct 30 by the ruling military,
which had accused him of attacking soldiers during deadly clashes in
October.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, The Iraqi
government and the UN announced an agreement to relocate several
thousand Iranian exiles living in Camp Ashraf in northeastern Iraq.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 25, China and Japan
announced an agreement to let Japan buy Chinese sovereign debt. No
sum or timetable was disclosed.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.59)
2011 Dec 25, Sori Yanagi (96),
the pioneer of Japan's industrial design, died. His designs for
stools and kitchen pots brought the simplicity and purity of
Japanese decor into the everyday.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 25, Mexican soldiers
discovered 13 bodies in an abandoned truck in Tamaulipas state along
with a message that they were killed in a war between rival drug
cartels in the eastern state of Veracruz.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Nigeria an
explosion, claimed by Muslim extremists, ripped through a Catholic
church during Mass killing at least 35 people at the St. Theresa
Catholic Church in Madalla, near the capital, Abuja. The toll soon
rose to 44 as more people died of their injuries. In Jos a second
explosion struck near a Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church. Gunmen
later opened fire on police guarding the area, killing one police
officer. 2 explosions struck the northeastern city of Damaturu. The
bomber targeted a senior military commander and killed three
officers in the attack.
(AP, 12/25/11)(AFP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Pakistan over
100,000 people rallied in support of Imran Khan (59), a
cricket hero turned politician, in the port city of Karachi,
boosting his image as a rising political force.
(AFP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Prominent Russian
opposition activist Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Left Front, had
barely half an hour of freedom before being sentenced to 10 more
days in jail, making it the 14th time this year he's been detained.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Russian and
Japanese rescue vessels and a helicopter searched for five people
missing in a fierce storm off Russia's east coast after a
Cambodia-flagged fishing ship, the Ginga, sank early in the day. 3
bodies were recovered from the icy waters of the La Perouse Strait,
between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, In South Sudan a
group calling itself the Nuer Youth White Army issued a statement
vowing to "wipe out the entire Murle tribe on the face of the earth
as the only solution to guarantee long-term security of Nuer's
cattle."
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 25, Sudanese riot
police and university students battled in central Khartoum after
students staged an exam boycott.
(AFP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, The Vinalines
Queen disappeared on Christmas Day after passing the island of Luzon
in the Philippines. The Vietnamese ship had capsized, apparently
without sending a distress signal. A Vietnamese seaman survived five
days floating in open ocean with only a life jacket for protection
after his cargo ship sank and all his 22 crew mates died. The ship
was carrying more than 54,000 tons of nickel ore and was traveling
from Indonesia to China when it lost contact. Global ship owners
association Intercargo issued a statement in December 2010 warning
of the hazards of transporting nickel ore which, it said, may
liquefy and cause a ship to list if not loaded to international
standards.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Yemen tens of
thousands of people demonstrated in Sanaa against the deaths of
protesters and demanding the resignation of Vice President Hadi for
failing to bring the killers to justice.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, In Zimbabwe a
pleasure boat capsized at Lake Chivero, drowning 11 of 19 people,
most of them children.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In London
thousands of shoppers seeking post-Christmas bargains were delayed,
but not deterred, by a subway strike that shut down parts of the
network. Seydou Diarrassouba (18), was stabbed to death in front of
horrified shoppers during a fight between two groups of youths on
London's Oxford Street. 11 people were arrested the next day in
relation to the fatal stabbing. 3 more people were arrested on Dec
31.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AFP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 26, Anuj Bidve (23),
an Indian student, was gunned down at point blank range as he walked
with friends near their hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester,
England. 17-year-old boy was soon arrested on suspicion of murder
after a warrant was executed in the Salford area. 4 more people,
including 2 teens, were soon arrested in relation to the murder. On
Dec 2 Kiaran Stapleton (20), accused of the shooting, identified
himself in court as “Psycho Stapleton.”
(AFP, 12/27/11)(Reuters, 12/26/11)(AP,
12/28/11)(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 1/2/12)
2011 Dec 26, A
British-registered ship, the M/S Thor Liberty, held in a Finnish
port after authorities discovered 69 surface-to-air missiles and 160
tons of explosives onboard, received permission to travel again, but
without those materials or its captain. The Patriot missiles were an
official shipment from Germany to South Korea. Finnish authorities
said the explosives were a legitimate shipment for China, but the
missiles lacked proper transit documents, and the explosives weren't
safely stored. On Jan 4 the Finnish government authorized the
transport.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 1/4/12)
2011 Dec 26, China's biggest
milk producer, Mengniu Dairy Group, said it has destroyed a batch
found to have excessive levels of a cancer-causing toxin, in another
safety scare for the country's dairy industry. The problem was
reportedly discovered before the milk containing high levels of
aflatoxin was sold to the public. An expert review identified the
mildewed feed as the cause of the excessive levels of aflatoxin in
milk.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Colombia
officials in Medellin inaugurated a giant, $6.7 million outdoor
escalator for residents of one of its poorest neighborhoods. It
provided the 12,000 residents of Comuna 13 a free ride up and down
their steep hillside.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Grenada Oscar
Bartholomew (39) of Toronto, was beaten into a coma after he mistook
a plainclothes female police officer for a friend and lifted her for
a hug in front of a police station. Bartholomew was visiting family
on the island and died the next day. Officers Kenton Hazzard and
Wendell Sylvester were detained on Dec 29. On Jan 1, 2012, police
officers Edward Gibson, Shaun Ganness and Ruddy Felix were also
arrested and charged in the beating death.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 26, In Guinea-Bissau
soldiers demanding better pay attacked the headquarters of the armed
forces and fanned out across the streets of the small west African
state's capital as the country's president was undergoing treatment
in France.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, India's Tata
Motors offered to replace the starter motor on all old Nano models,
but said the move was not related to safety concerns surrounding the
world's cheapest car.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, An Iraqi Shiite
militia group said it would join the political process. The Asaib
Ahel al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, was behind the kidnap of a
British consultant and his four bodyguards, and has been blamed for
the killing of US troops. A suicide bomber set off a car bomb at a
checkpoint leading to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, killing seven
people and injuring 32 others. A roadside bomb hit a passing army
patrol in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing two soldiers
and injuring two others.
(AFP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, Extra Israeli
police patrolled the streets of a small town near Jerusalem after a
campaign by ultra-Orthodox Jews to segregate men and women erupted
into violence.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Ivory Coast 4
people were killed and 15 were injured in inter-ethnic clashes near
the economic capital Abidjan. The violence erupted when an Abidji
youth clashed with a soldier of the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast
(FRCI) and was killed in Sikensi.
(AFP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 26, Kazakhstan's
President Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked his billionaire son-in-law,
Timur Kulibayev, from his post as head of the sovereign wealth fund.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.26)
2011 Dec 26, Mexican medical
officials said five recovering drug addicts died and dozens of
others were sickened by soy sausage served for Christmas dinner at a
rehabilitation center in Guadalajara. 37 people remained
hospitalized.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In South Africa 19
people were killed when an overtaking car smashed head-on into a
minibus taxi in central Free State.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, In Syria intense
shelling by government forces was reported in the center of the
country, just hours before the Arab League monitoring teams were to
arrive. Security forces killed at least 42 people, most of them in
Homs.
(AP, 12/26/11)(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 26, Yemen's military
agreed to replace Maj. Gen. Ali al-Shater, a commander accused of
corruption, apparently settling a brief strike by 1,000 soldiers.
Yemeni soldiers battled al-Qaida-linked militants outside the
southern city of Zinjibar, which remains partly under the control of
the Islamists. Five soldiers and four fighters were killed.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 27, Sears Holdings
Corp. said it will close up to 120 stores in its Kmart and namesake
chains, blaming poor sales of consumer electronics so far this
holiday season and saying it would focus its energy on its better
performing stores.
(Reuters, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, China announced a
cut in its rare earths export quota as it tries to shore up sagging
prices for the exotic metals used in mobile phones and other
high-tech goods.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Colombian FARC
rebels announced plans to release six hostages who have been held
captive for more than a decade. They included police officers Jorge
Trujillo, Jorge Romero and Jose Libardo Forero, who were kidnapped
in southern Colombia on July 11, 1999.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, An Egyptian court
ordered the Egyptian army to stop forced virginity tests on female
detainees, months after the practice sparked a national outcry and
stained the ruling military's reputation.
(AFP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Guinea Bissau's
army clashed with renegade forces overnight, leaving at least two
dead as they combed the capital for suspects after thwarting an
alleged coup attempt. Navy Chief Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto, who
has previously been accused of involvement in coup plans and in the
drugs trade, was arrested for plotting a coup.
(AFP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, UN human rights
officials in Haiti issued a report accusing the national police
department of excessive force, saying there is evidence officers may
have killed at least nine people in the capital.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Hungarian media
officials say two employees, who have been on hunger strike for over
two weeks in protest at alleged political meddling with journalists'
work in state-funded media, have been fired. The state Media Service
Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA, said that Balazs Nagy
Navarro and Aranka Szavuly were dismissed because their fast — in
which they have only been ingesting liquids since Dec. 10 — is
illegal and a "provocation" of their employer.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, India and Pakistan
tentatively agreed to renew an agreement designed to reduce the risk
of an accidental nuclear war.
(SFC, 12/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 27, In eastern
Indonesia mudflows streaming from a volcano killed four villagers
and about 1,000 others have fled their homes. Mount Gamalama in the
Molucca Islands sprang to life this month with a powerful, non-fatal
eruption.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 27, Iran warned that
it would block the Strait of Hormuz if Western powers attempt to
impose an embargo on Iranian petroleum exports in their effort to
isolate the country over its suspect nuclear energy program.
(SFC, 12/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 27, In Iraq a car bomb
exploded near a police station in the town of Hawija, 150 miles (240
km) north of Baghdad, killing two civilians and injuring another.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Israeli strikes
overnight killed a Palestinian and wounded 10 others, as the
military struck what it described as "global jihad" targets who were
planning cross-border attacks on southern Israel from the Egyptian
Sinai.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 27, Kuwait's public
prosecutor released 32 stateless people on bail after holding them
for nine days for taking part in a protest to demand citizenship.
(AFP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Mexican police in
the northern state of Nuevo Leon said that information provided by
arrested members of a kidnapping gang has led them to at least seven
bodies found buried in shallow graves or dumped in a well. The
Attorney General's Office said that former regional police security
coordinator Herrera Valles, arrested in 2008 for aiding the Sinaloa
drug cartel, has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Federal police detained one of the United States' most-wanted drug
traffickers, Luis Rodriguez Olivera, aka "Blondie," at Mexico City's
international airport.
(AP, 12/27/11)(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 27, In southern
Nigeria attackers threw homemade explosives inside an Islamic school
in a predominantly Christian city where some 50 children had
gathered for an Arabic class, wounding six pupils and a teacher in
Delta state. Gunmen in a late night attack shot dead a
three-year-old girl and her parents near the volatile central city
of Jos. The attackers were suspected to be Fulani tribesmen, a
mostly Muslim group which has been blamed for previous raids on the
village.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 27, The governor of
Puerto Rico signed 4 laws that he said will help track suspects and
provide aid to crime victims as the island struggles with a record
number of killings.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 27, Somali pirates
hijacked the Enrica Ievoli, an Italian ship carrying 15,000 tons of
caustic soda from Iran to Turkey. A ransom was paid on April 22,
2012, and the 18 crew members and ship were freed.
(AP, 5/1/12)
2011 Dec 27, Syria's army
suspended days of attacks on the restive city of Homs and began
withdrawing its tanks just as Arab League monitors visited the area.
The Sudanese head of the mission to Syria, Gen. Mohamed Ahmed
Mustafa al-Dabi, was leading the team of at least 12 observers to
Homs. Security forces shot dead two people in the Damascus suburb of
Douma, one in the southern province of Daraa and one in the
northwestern province of Idlib. The Local Coordination Committees
(LCC) said 23 people were killed, including six in Homs. A student
at Damascus University opened fire with a pistol inside a classroom
at the medical department killing one student and wounding four. He
was said to be a former anti-regime detainee who had been recently
beaten by the pro-regime students, including the one he shot dead.
(AP, 12/27/11)
2011 Dec 28, The US State Dept.
said Congress has freed up a little more than 20 percent of $187
million in US assistance to the Palestinians that had been frozen
over the Palestinian bid for UN membership.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 28, A spokeswoman said
the commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison has signed an order that
would require a security review of legal mail to prisoners facing
war crimes charges, rejecting arguments the new rule would violate
attorney-client privilege and undermine long-delayed tribunals for
five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 28, Two out-of-state
doctors who traveled to Maryland to perform late-term abortions were
arrested and charged with multiple counts of murder. Dr. Steven
Brigham, of Voorhees, N.J., was taken into custody and held in the
Camden County jail. Authorities also arrested Dr. Nicola Riley in
Salt Lake City. Each was awaiting an extradition hearing.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 28, In New Jersey
Patrick Lott appeared in court for videotaping teenage boys at
Immaculata High School in Somerville for nearly 3 years.
(SFC, 12/29/11, p.A4)
2011 Dec 28, Bosnia’s six main
parties managed to form a new government.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.45)
2011 Dec 28, In China police in
Xinjiang province opened fire and killed seven suspects, and wounded
and arrested four others. The Xinjiang government said that a
"violent terrorist group" had kidnapped two people in the
northwestern region's remote Pishan county, prompting a stand-off
with police. An exile group, described the incident as a protest by
local Uighurs prompted by mounting discontent over a police
crackdown and religious repression in the area.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 28, Colombian
authorities said seven soldiers have been charged in the killing of
a comrade who had deserted. In 2006 the troops reported they had
killed a rebel in combat near the northern town of Majagual.
Investigators determined the victim wasn't a rebel but rather a
soldier who had deserted from the same infantry unit.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 28, Greek authorities
jailed Abbot Efraim (55), the abbot of a 1,000-year-old Greek
Orthodox monastery, pending trial for his alleged key role in a land
swap with the state that blew up into a major political scandal.
Investigators have said the deal was weighted in favor of Vatopedi
Monastery and cost taxpayers about euro100 million ($131 million).
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 28, Guinea-Bissau
security forces executed police officer Major Yaya Dabo as he turned
himself in over his role in what the regime describes as a coup bid.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 28, In southern
Kyrgyzstan a Soviet-built jet operated by a Kyrgyz carrier broke its
wing, overturned and caught fire as it tried to land in deep fog in
Osh, leaving 31 people injured.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 28, Mauritania issued
an international warrant for the arrest of Moustapha Ould Limam
Chavi (53), an opponent of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, for
supporting terror groups in the Sahel region. Chafi soon announced
plans to sue the president for defamation.
(AFP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 28, Senegal's army
said that five soldiers who went missing after a rebel attack last
week in the troubled southern Casamance region were being held by
separatist rebels.
(AFP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 28, Spain's
scandal-hit royals revealed their detailed income for the first
time, showing King Juan Carlos received a salary plus expenses of
€292,752 ($382,600) in 2011.
(AFP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 28, Syrian security
forces reportedly fired guns and tear gas at thousands of
anti-government protesters in the central city of Hama and killed at
least six people. At least four soldiers were killed in an ambush
carried out by a group of military defectors in the country's south.
Activists said two people died in the Baba Amr district of Homs. The
Syrian government released 755 prisoners detained over the past nine
months in the regime's crackdown on dissent as observers toured a
flashpoint city to see whether authorities were complying with an
Arab plan to stop the bloodshed that has killed thousands.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 28, Turkish warplanes
killed at least 34 people in an air strike on the Iraq border in an
attack which a pro-Kurdish political party described as a "massacre"
of civilians. Ankara's joint military command said in a statement
that its jets bombed an area inside Iraq "regularly used" by PKK
rebels. Those killed were smugglers aged 18-28, who routinely
brought in Iraqi fuel and cigarettes with the full knowledge of
local authorities. On Jan 2 Turkey said it will compensate the
families of the civilians mistakenly killed in the airstrike.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AP, 1/3/12)(Econ, 1/7/12, p.46)
2011 Dec 28, In Yemen labor
strikes spread through the country as workers demanded reforms and
dismissal of managers over alleged corruption linked to the outgoing
president. A civilian was shot dead in a shootout between the
Republican Guard and gunmen loyal to dissident tribal chief Sadiq
al-Ahmar.
(AP, 12/28/11)(AFP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 29, The Obama
administration announced an arms deal with Saudi Arabia valued at
nearly $30 billion. It included 84 F-15 fighter jets.
(SFC, 12/30/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 29, The California
Supreme Court handed down a decision to dissolve redevelopment
agencies across the state.
(Fog Cutter, Spring, 2012, p.2)
2011 Dec 29, Minnesota based
Sunrise Community Banks apologized for shutting the accounts of
money transfer shops handling Somalia-related business. It called
for unspecified government remedies to allow them to continue the
business. The association of three banks, announced in early
December that it would close the accounts of a dozen or so money
transfer shops serving an estimated 30,000 Somalis in the region.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, Crawford Shaw, of
Bedford, NY, claimed a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize on
behalf of a trust, less than two hours before it expired. He later
identified the recipient only as a corporation in the country of
Belize. On Jan 26, Shaw withdrew his claim on the prize just as
mysteriously as he has made it. The payout for the prize would have
been $7.5 million cash, or $10.3 million spread over 25 years after
taxes.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2011 Dec 29, Virginia
Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell signed off on state rules to
regulate abortion clinics like hospitals.
(SFC, 12/30/11, p.A8)
2011 Dec 29, Verizon said it
will start charging a $2 “convenience fee” for every payment
subscribers make over the phone or online services with their credit
cards, effective Jan 15. Verizon retracted the decision the next day
following a storm of criticism.
(SFC, 12/30/11, p.C2)(Reuters, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, A man dressed in
Afghan army fatigues shot dead two French soldiers. The Taliban
claimed responsibility, saying the soldier joined the army in order
to carry out his attack in Kapisa province. A roadside bomb killed
10 Afghan police returning from a recruitment center in Helmand
province. Another roadside bombing killed a local police commander
in the southern province of Kandahar.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, Reynaldo Bignone
(85), Argentina's last dictator (1982-83), was convicted of more
crimes against humanity, this time getting 15 years in prison for
setting up a secret torture center inside a hospital during the 1976
military coup. Also convicted were SWAT team leader Luis Muina (57),
and a former air force brigadier, Hipolito Rafael Mariani (85).
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, China executed 12
people today, including a man who bombed a local tax office. Liu
Zhuiheng had been convicted and sentenced to death for detonating
explosives outside a tax office in Changsha city in Hunan province
in July, 2010. The attack left 4 people killed and 17 others
wounded.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, Egyptian soldiers
and police stormed non-governmental organization offices throughout
the country, banning employees inside from leaving while they
interrogated them and searched through computer files. At least 18
offices were targeted in the raid. A court acquitted five policemen
of charges of killing five protesters and wounding six others during
the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's longtime regime.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Indonesia a mob
led by Sunni fanatics torched Shia property in eastern Java. Local
police did nothing to protect the minority Shias.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 Dec 29, In Iran a website
belonging to Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who
has criticized the current regime, was shut down.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, Italian PM Mario
Monti announced a series of measures designed to relaunch the
country’s struggling economy.
(SFC, 12/30/11, p.A7)
2011 Dec 29, Jamaica held
parliamentary elections. The candidate of the ruling center-right
Jamaica Labor Party, Andrew Holness (39), was the youngest prime
minister in Jamaica's history. The top opposition candidate, Portia
Simpson Miller (66) has been a stalwart of the People's National
Party since the 1970s. Voters threw out the ruling party and
delivered a landslide triumph to the opposition People's National
Party (PNP), whose campaign energetically tapped voter
disillusionment especially among the numerous struggling poor.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, Kenyan troops
clashed with Somalia's Al-Qaeda linked Shebab militants leaving
several dead, the latest casualties in weeks of dragging conflict in
southern Somalia.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Myanmar a fire
followed by several explosions engulfed many state warehouses and
neighboring homes, killing at least 16 people and injuring 108 in
the main city of Yangon.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, North Korea's
power brokers publicly declared Kim Jong Un the country's supreme
leader for the first time at a massive public memorial for his
father, cementing the family's hold on power for another generation.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, In southwestern
Pakistan gunmen killed police Surgeon Baqir Shah in Quetta. He had
received threats for his role in investigating the deaths of five
foreigners at the hands of security forces earlier this year.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, Palestinian
militants fired two rockets at southern Israel, after Israeli
warplanes attacked "terror sites" overnight inside the Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Puerto Rico FBI
agent Daniel Knapp (43) drowned after trying to rescue a swimmer in
distress at Hidden Beach in the coastal city of Fajardo.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, At midnight Samoa
leaped to Dec 31 to align itself with trading partners in its South
Pacific region. For the country’s 186,000 citizens, Dec 30 will
simply not exist.
(SFC, 12/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 29, Industry sources
said Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco was seeking to buy fuel
in order to donate about 500,000 tons of products to Yemen in
January.
(Reuters, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Somalia a
disgruntled former employee shot at least two international workers
from the aid group Doctors Without Borders at the group's office in
Mogadishu. Philippe Havet (53) from Belgium and Andrias Karel
Keiluhu (44) from Indonesia were killed.
(AP, 12/29/11)(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, Sudanese air raids
killed 17 people in the South Sudan border state of Western Bahr
al-Ghazal, the second day of stepped-up bombing along the northern
frontier.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, Syrian security
forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque
in a Damascus suburb, close to a municipal building that members of
the Arab League monitoring mission were visiting. Activists said at
least four people were killed. The British-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said a total of 16 people have been shot by
security forces and killed so far today, most of them in several
suburbs of Damascus.
(AP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Venezuela a
PDVSA tanker truck filled with gasoline crashed and burst into
flames, engulfing several cars and a bus. 15 people were killed.
(AP, 12/29/11)(Econ, 2/18/12, p.38)
2011 Dec 29, In Yemen fellow
security officers shot and killed one of the protesting officers in
Sanaa. Five others were wounded when forces attempted to clear out a
sit-in by several hundred police at their barracks. The police were
demanding the removal of top Interior Ministry officials whom they
accuse of corruption and ties to Saleh's regime.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, Afghan security
forces took control of Nad Ali, Nawa and Marjah as part of the
second wave of security transition. A roadside bomb killed four
civilians in Uruzgan province. A suicide bomber and his accomplice
were killed on a motorbike in Trinkot city. A British ISAF service
member was killed by an IED in Helmand province.
(AFP, 12/30/11)(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, Thousands of
Bahrainis, mostly Shiites, marched in the capital city of Manama to
demand the immediate resignation of the government.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, In Britain
administrator Deloitte said around 1,600 jobs are to go at shoe
retailer Barratts Priceless after attempts to find a buyer for the
concessions business failed. The Bradford-based Barratts collapsed
into administration earlier this month.
(Reuters, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, Britain’s National
Health Service (NHS) Information Center reported that the use of
anti-depressant drugs in England has soared by 28 percent in the
past three years, coinciding with the country's fall into recession
and the global economic crisis.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, Ronald Searle
(b.1920, British artist and satirical cartoonist, died in France. He
survived the notorious Death Railway while a prisoner of war of the
Japanese during World War II. He is perhaps best remembered as the
creator of St Trinian's School and for his collaboration with
Geoffrey Willans on the Molesworth series.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Searle)(Econ, 1/14/12, p.94)
2011 Dec 30, Chinese
prosecutors in the eastern city of Xiamen indicted Lai Changxing for
allegedly masterminding a network that smuggled everything from
cigarettes to cars and oil and bribed dozens of government workers
between 1996 and 1999. Lai became China's most-wanted man after he
fled to Canada in 1999 and fought extradition for 12 years until he
was deported in July.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, China’s food
safety regulator in Shenzhen said it had found excessive levels of
aflatoxin in peanuts sold in three stores, and in cooking oil in
four restaurants.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, In northern China
Muslim villagers in Taoshan, Ningxia region, clashed with police
after their mosque was demolished. At least 2 people were killed.
The Hui villagers were part of a Mandarin speaking community of some
10 million descended from Silk Road traders.
(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A4)
2011 Dec 30, In southern
Colombia a bomb exploded at a police station in Orito, killing the
wife and son of a police officer and injuring at least six other
people.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, The Republic of
Congo said it has banned 69 Chinese fishing boats from its waters
for illicit activities.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, In India a severe
cyclone packing winds of 135 km (83 miles) an hour tore into the
southeastern coast. At 42 people died when Cyclone Thane hit coastal
southern India near the former French colony of Pondicherry.
(AFP, 12/30/11)(Reuters, 12/31/11)(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 30, Israel said its
warplanes killed a senior jihadist militant in Gaza thwarting a
rocket fire attempt. Palestinians said that Moamen abu-Daff, known
locally as a fundamentalist Islamic Salafi militant, was killed in a
raid east of Gaza City that also wounded another man.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, The Maldives
government said it has decided to close massage parlors and spas,
following an opposition-led religious protest last week calling for
their closure. Sunni Islam is the official religion in the Maldives
and practicing any other faith is forbidden.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, In Nigeria gunmen
killed two civilians in Maiduguri, a town plagued by attacks from a
radical Muslim sect.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, In Pakistan a car
bomb killed eight people and injured at least 18 others in the
southwestern city of Quetta, which is riven by ethic and sectarian
violence. 7 more bodies were found in the rubble the next day
bringing the death toll to 15.
(AFP, 12/30/11)(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, Philippine police
arrested a member of an Al-Qaeda-linked extremist group. The suspect
allegedly took part in the kidnapping of guests and workers of a
resort in the western Philippines in 2001 including an American
couple, Martin and Gracia Burnham, and a Chilean-born American,
Guillermo Sobero.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, At midnight on Dec
29 Samoa leaped to Dec 31 to align itself with trading partners. For
the country’s 186,000 citizens, Dec 30, 2011 will simply not exist.
(SFC, 12/29/11, p.A2)
2011 Dec 30, Senegal's Interior
Minister Ousmane Ngom banned the carrying of firearms for a period
of four months which will include presidential elections, after
recent violent political clashes.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, Spain’s new PM
Mariano Rajoy announced tax rises on income, savings and property.
The top tax rate will jump 7 points to 52%.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.44)
2011 Dec 30, In Sudan all six
crewmen aboard a military helicopter were killed when it
crash-landed and burned in North Kordofan state.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 30, Hundreds of
thousands of Syrians poured into the streets across the nation in
the largest protests in months, shouting for the downfall of the
regime in a defiant display invigorated by the presence of Arab
observers. Activists said at least 35 people were killed across the
country, most of them shot during anti-government protests. Syrian
forces were accused of firing nail bombs to disperse protesters. The
rebel Free Syrian Army said it has stopped its offensive against
government targets during a month-long mission by Arab League
monitors, saying it wants to expose how the regime is killing
peaceful protesters. 5 members of the security forces were reported
shot dead in a clash in Homs.
(AP, 12/30/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)(Reuters,
12/31/11)(SFC, 12/31/11, p.A3)
2011 Dec 30, Syria's two
largest opposition groups signed an agreement in Cairo on setting up
a democracy after President Bashar Assad's regime falls.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 30, Tens of thousands
of Yemenis held demonstrations around the country to demand their
longtime president face trial for the killings of hundreds of
unarmed protesters in the pro-democracy uprising that began 10
months ago.
(AP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 31, President Barack
Obama signed a wide-ranging defense bill into law despite having
"serious reservations" about provisions that regulate the detention,
interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists. The bill also
applies penalties against Iran's central bank in an effort to hamper
Tehran's ability to fund its nuclear enrichment program.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 31, The US ended
import tariffs and tax credits that have long sheltered ethanol
distilled from corn in the US from the same stuff made from
sugarcane in Brazil.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.57)
2011 Dec 31, A NASA spacecraft,
the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, slipped into orbit
around the moon. A 2nd Grail probe was expected to enter orbit the
next day. Both were launched last September aboard the same rocket
to measure lunar gravity.
(SSFC, 1/1/12, p.A10)
2011 Dec 31, Police in Beebe,
Arkansas, said dozens of blackbirds had fallen dead, prompting
officers to ban residents from shooting fireworks. Thousands of dead
blackbirds rained down on the town in central Arkansas last New
Year's Eve after revelers set off fireworks.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 31, In NYC dozens of
Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested as they tore down
barricades surrounding Zucotti park just before midnight.
(SFC, 1/2/12, p.A4)
2011 Dec 31, Debra Cook, a
former defender of Scientology, wrote an explosive e-mail to the
organization’s 12,000 members saying chairman David Miscavige is
mismanaging its finances and breaking internal rules.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.54)
2011 Dec 31, Basel 2.5, a new
set of int’l. rules charging banks higher capital for risks in their
trading books, took effect in most European and major world
financial jurisdictions.
(Econ, 1/7/12, p.69)
2011 Dec 31, Afghan child
bride, Sahar Gul (15), spoke of how she was tortured by her
mother-in-law who locked her in a toilet for six months, beat her,
pulled out her fingernails and burned her with cigarettes. She was
found in the basement of her husband's house in the northeastern
Baghlan province late Dec 26. On May 5, 2012, her in-laws were
sentenced to 10 years in prison for torture, abuse and human rights
violations.
(AP, 12/31/11)(AP, 5/5/12)
2011 Dec 31, In Algeria three
Islamist militants were killed in the northeastern region of Tizi
Ouzou, the scene of frequent attacks by groups affiliated to AQIM.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2011 Dec 31, In Bahrain Sayed
Hashim Saeed (15) died after a tear gas canister fired at close
range hit him in the chest.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 31, Britain's biggest
cosmetic surgery chain revealed that rupture rates on allegedly
faulty French-made breast implants are seven times higher than
previously thought.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 31, Chilean
authorities said an Israeli tourist has been detained on suspicion
of causing a forest fire that has burned more than 42 square miles
(11,000 hectares) in the Torres del Paine national park. In 2012
Rotem Singer (23) agreed to pay $10,000 and raise other money to buy
50,000 native trees to replant the park.
(AP, 12/31/11)(SFC, 2/10/12, p.A2)
2011 Dec 31, In China a bus
driver who contracted the bird flu virus died Shenzhen. This was the
nation's first reported human case of the deadly disease in 18
months.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, Ethiopian troops
captured Beledweyne, a rebel-held town in central Somalia, leaving
at least 18 people dead.
(Reuters, 12/31/11)(AFP, 12/31/12)
2011 Dec 31, In France Leon
Kengo (76), CongoDRC Senate chief, was attacked at the Gare du Nord
train station "by bands of those who call themselves 'fighters'
close to Etienne Tshisekedi." According to initial reports, Kengo
had some teeth knocked out, was trampled underfoot, and rolled on
the ground.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 31, Georgia’s defense
ministry said a Georgian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the
11th from the ex-Soviet state to die serving alongside NATO-led
forces fighting the Taliban.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, Iran said it has
proposed a new round of talks on its nuclear program with six world
powers that have been trying for years to persuade Tehran to freeze
aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to
weapons production.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Japan Makoto
Hirata (46), a senior member of the doomsday cult behind the 1995
nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, surrendered to police. Akemi
Saito, also a member of Aum Shinrikyo, was arrested on Jan 10, 2012,
for helping him evade police for nearly 17 years. On Jan 20 Hirata
was indicted for his role in the abduction and confinement of a
follower's relative in 1995.
(AP, 1/10/12)(AP, 1/20/12)
2011 Dec 31, In Kenya 5 people
were killed in a New Year's Eve hand grenade attack and shooting in
a bar in the eastern town of Garissa near the border with Somalia.
The assailants were described as four men dressed in military
uniform.
(AFP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec 31, Nigeria's
president Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in parts
of the nation, after a recent slew of deadly attacks blamed on a
radical Muslim sect killed dozens of people.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Pakistan a
remote-controlled bomb ripped through a military vehicle killing two
Pakistani soldiers at Boya village in North Waziristan.
(AFP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, Russian police
detained 60 opposition activists to prevent them from protesting on
a central Moscow square against the Kremlin's stifling of democratic
freedoms.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Syria at least
six people were killed in attacks on protests, including one in
Damascus. Syria's state-run TV said Arab League observers visited
the southern city of Daraa and the restive central city of Homs.
(AP, 12/31/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Yemen Islamist
militants fired into the air to halt a peace march by thousands of
Yemenis who were demanding an end to fighting that has forced them
to flee their homes in the south. Pres. Saleh reversed his decision
to leave the country.
(AP, 12/31/11)(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Dec, In Alabama a district
judge struck down a section of the state anti-immigration law
forbidding illegal immigrants from doing business with the state.
Other provisions were blocked in September and October.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.30)
2011 Dec, The IMF said that an
unexplained gap of $32 billion had emerged in the Angola
government's accounts from 2007 to 2010, equivalent to 25% of its
gross domestic product.
(AFP, 1/18/12)
2011 Dec, Chile's National
Education Council decided to change the description of the country's
former military government from "dictatorship" to "regime" in the
nation's school textbooks. The move wasn't publicly known until the
digital daily El Dinamo reported on it Jan 4. On Jan 5 the Council
backed off the change following a political uproar.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/6/12)d
2011 Dec, In Kenya founder
Anthony Ragui (37) launched www.ipaidabribe.or.ke, a website where
people can share their stories on corruption a bribery. He used
software from an Indian site, also called ipaidabribe, that has
collected information on more than 15,000 bribes since it was put up
in 2010.
(AP, 1/6/12)
2011 Dec, Romania’s former PM
Adrian Nastase (2000-2004) a key member of the opposition Social
Democracy Party, was cleared of corruption charges in a trial where
he was accused of paying a bribe to a government official in charge
of preventing money laundering to destroy documents regarding a bank
deposit of $400,000 (euro308,000) by Nastase's wife.
(AP, 1/30/12)
2011 Dec, In Slovakia the
"Gorilla" files were mysteriously posted online by an anonymous
source. They purportedly documented shady dealings between 2005 and
2006, and suggest that investment group Penta bribed government and
opposition politicians to win lucrative privatization deals. They
were said to be based on wiretaps and rocked the already-raucous
world of Slovak politics. The spy agency, SIS, has refused to
confirm the file's authenticity. SIS heads are suspected of sweeping
the wiretap findings under the carpet. Police began investigating
following the anonymous leak.
(AP, 3/8/12)
2011 Dec, Sri Lanka made public
a report by Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), a
panel which probed why a 2002 truce collapsed. The 40-page report
said civilians had died as a result of military action.
(AFP, 2/15/12)
2011 David Abulafia authored
“The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean.”
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.89)
2011 Viral Acharya authored
“Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of
Mortgage Finance.”
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.99)
2011 Peter Ackroyd, London
writer, authored “London Underground: The Secret History Beneath the
Streets.”
(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.F8)
2011 Marc Agronin authored “How
We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing Old.”
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.93)
2011 Khaled Ahmed authored
“Sectarian War: Pakistan's Sunni-Shia Violence and its links to the
Middle East” an account of how the Shia-Sunni conflict was relocated
from the Middle East to Pakistan after the rise of Revolutionary
Iran in 1979, through the mediating agency of the rulers in Pakistan
and the proliferation of the religious seminaries funded by Saudi
Arabia.
(http://tinyurl.com/4bjeuka)(Econ, 3/5/11, p.43)
2011 M. J. Akbar authored
“Tinderbox: The Past and Future of Pakistan.”
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.98)
2011 Hugh Aldersey-Williams
authored “Periodic Table: The Curious Lives of the Elements.”
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.96)
2011 Paul Allen authored “Idea
Man: A Memoir by the Co-founder of Microsoft.”
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.89)
2011 Nezar AlSayyad authored
“Cairo: Histories of a City.”
(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.F7)
2011 Daniel Altman authored
“Outrageous Fortunes: The Twelve Surprising Trends That Will Reshape
the Global Economy.”
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.100)
2011 Jay Bahadur (27), a
Canadian writer, authored "The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their
Hidden World."
(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Abhijit Banerjee and
Esther Duflo authored “Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the
Way to Fight Global Poverty.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.88)
2011 Samuel Barondes, a UCSF
neuropsychiatrist, authored “Making Sense of People: Decoding the
Mysteries of Personalities.” It included discussions of the five big
personality domains already identified by researchers: extroversion,
agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness.
(SFC, 7/18/11, p.E1)
2011 Bella Bathurst authored
“The Bicycle Book.”
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.89)
2011 Simon Baron-Cohen authored
“Zero Degrees of Humanity: A New Theory of Human Cruelty.”
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.82)
2011 Francesca Beauman
(b.1977), British historian, authored “Shapely Ankle Preferr’d: A
History of the Lonely Hearts Ad.”
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.92)
2011 Peter Bergen authored “The
Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and al-Qaeda.”
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.83)
2011 Mark Bowden authored
“Worm: The First Digital War.”
(SSFC, 10/23/11, p.F1)
2011 Roddy Boyd authored “Fatal
Risks: A Cautionary Tale of AIG’s Corporate Suicide.” The US
government bailed out American International Group in 2008-2009.
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.89)
2011 British entrepreneur Sir
Richard Branson authored “Screw Business As Usual.”
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.104)
2011 Dan Breznitz and Michael
Murphree authored “Run of the Red Queen: Government, Innovation,
Globalization, and Economic Growth in China.”
(Econ, 5/7/11, p.73)
2011 Joel Brinkley authored
“Cambodia’s Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land.”
(SSFC, 4/17/11, p.G5)
2011 David Brooks, NYT
columnist and PBS pundit, authored “The Social Animal: The Hidden
Sources of Live, Character, and Achievement.”
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.G1)
2011 Mark Malloch Brown
authored “The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Pursuit of a New
International Politics.”
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.91)
2011 Daniel Byman authored “A
High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.
(SSFC, 7/10/11, p.99)
2011 Glenn Carle, former CIA
official, authored “Te Interrogator: An Education.”
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.82)
2011 James Carroll authored
Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient Ignited Our Modern World.”
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.G7)
2011 Jorge G. Castaneda
authored “Manana Forever: Mexico and the Mexicans.”
(SSFC, 5/29/11, p.G1)
2011 Amy Chua authored “Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” a story on raising children that became
very controversial.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.54)
2011 Carmela Ciuraru authored:
“Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms.”
(SSFC, 6/26/11, p.F3)
2011 Bill Clinton authored
“Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy.”
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.92)
2011 William Cohan authored
“Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World.”
(Econ, 4/16/11, p.88)
2011 Tyler Cohen authored “The
Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low Hanging Fruit of
Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Better.” The
150,000 word work was initially published as an e-book.
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.84)(Econ, 9/10/11, SR p.5)
2011 Jim Collins and Morten
Hansen authored “Great by Choice,” a look at how America’s most
successful companies have outperformed the stockmarket average.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.80)
2011 Robert Crease authored
“World in the Balance: The Historic Quest for a Universal System of
Measurement.”
(Econ, 10/8/11, p.102)
2011 Satyajit Das authored
“Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk.”
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.98)
2011 Norman Davies authored
“Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe.” An
American edition due in 2012 will be titled “Vanished Kingdoms: The
Rise and Fall of States and Nations.”
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.102)
2011 David Deutsch, Oxford
physicist, authored “The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That
Transform the World.”
(Econ, 3/26/11, p.97)
2011 T.M. Devine authored “To
the Ends of the Earth: Scotland’s Global Diaspora, 1750-2010.”
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.77)
2011 Ernest Drucker authored “A
Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarcerations in
America.
(Econ, 9/3/11, p.85)
2011 Barry Eichengreen authored
“Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the
Future of the International Monetary System.”
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.98)
2011 Juan Enriquez and Steve
Gullans authored “Homo Evolutis” as an electronic book. They
proposed that man will transform himself into a fitter, smarter, and
better-looking species in coming decades.
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.98)
2011 Sonia Faleiro, Indian
writer, authored “Beautiful Thing” based on the story of Leela, a
highly paid dancer at a Mumbai club, and her own five years immersed
in the brothels of Mumbai, befriending bar dancers, transsexuals and
policemen.
(Reuters, 11/3/11)
2011 Paul Farmer, UN Deputy
Special Envoy to Haiti, authored “Haiti: After the Earthquake.”
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.78)
2011 Somali exile author
Nuruddin Farah published “Crossbones,” the 3rd volume of his “Past
Imperfect” trilogy. The opening novel was “Links” (2004) followed by
“Knots” (2007).
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.90)
2011 Jay Feldman authored
“Manufacturing Hysteria: A History of Scapegoating, surveillance,
and Secrecy in Modern America.”
(SSFC, 9/11/11, p.F5)
2011 Niall Ferguson authored
“Civilization: The West and the Rest.”
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.97)
2011 Tim Flannery authored “Her
on Earth: A natural History of the Planet.”
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.90)
2011 Jack Foley (71), Oakland,
Ca., poet, authored “Visions and Affiliations: A California Literary
Time Line Part One,” a 1,300 page chrono-encyclopedia of Bay Area
poets and poetry.
(SFC, 8/20/11, p.E1)
2011 Robert Frank authored “The
High-Beta Rich: How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom,
Bubble and Bust.”
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.97)
2011 Susan Freinkel authored
“Plastic: A Toxic Love Story.”
(SSFC, 5/1/11, p.G1)
2011 Patrick French authored
“India: A Portrait.”
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.97)
2011 Aaron Friedberg authored
“A Contest for Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for
Mastery of Asia.”
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.56)
2011 Roman Frydman of NYU and
Michael Goldberg of the Univ. of New Hampshire authored “Beyond
Mechanical Markets: Asset Price Swings, Risk and the Role of the
State.”
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.80)
2011 Francis Fukuyama authored
“The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French
Revolution.”
(SSFC, 4/17/11, p.G4)(Econ, 4/2/11, p.79)
2011 Michael Gazzaniga authored
“Who’s In Charge: Free Will and the Science of the Brain.”
(Econ, 12/17/11, p.149)
2011 Pankaj Ghemawat of the
IESE Business School in Spain authored “World 3.0: Global Prosperity
and How to Achieve It,” an examination of the current state of
globalization.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.72)
2011 John Gibler authored “To
Die in Mexico: Dispatches From Inside the Drug Trade.”
(SSFC, 7/24/11, p.F3)
2011 David Gilmore authored
“The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their
Peoples.”
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.89)
2011 Edward Glaeser authored
“Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer,
Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier.”
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.91)
2011 Misha Glenny authored
“Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You.”
(SSFC, 10/23/11, p.F1)
2011 Peter Godwin authored “The
Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe.”
(SSFC, 5/1/11, p.G4)
2011 Donna L. Halper authored
“Boston Radio: 1920-2010.”
(http://tinyurl.com/6znfohh)
2011 Thor Hanson authored
“Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle.”
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.95)
2011 Max Hastings authored
“Inferno: The World at War: 1939-1945.”
(SFC, 11/28/11, p.E1)
2011 Diana Henriques authored
“The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust.”
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.87)
2011 Mark Hertsgaard authored
“Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.”
(SFC, 2/12/11, p.E1)
2011 Sylvia Ann Hewlett and
Ripa Rashid authored “Winning the War for Talent in Emerging
Markets: Why Women Are the Solution.”
(Econ, 8/27/11, p.58)
2011 Henry Hitchings authored
“The Language Wars: A History of Proper English.”
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.100)
2011 Brevan Howard,
British-based hedge fund manager, authored “Expected Returns: An
Investor’s Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards.”
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.68)
2011 Mara Hvistendahl authored
“Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences
of a World Full of Men.
(Econ, 8/6/11, p.73)
2011 Douglas Irwin authored:
Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression,” a
look at the Tariff Act of 1930.
(Econ, 3/26/11, p.96)
2011 Stuart Isacoff authored “A
Natural History of the Piano: The Instrument, the Music, the
Musicians – from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between.”
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.F6)
2011 Penn Jillette authored
”God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical
Tales.”
(SSFC, 9/4/11, p.F3)
2011 Owen Jones authored
“Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class.”
(Econ, 6/18/11, p.91)
2011 Daniel Kahneman authored
“Thinking, Fast and Slow.” He noted a two tier model of cognition:
”System 1,” which is quick and intuitive, and “System 2,” which is
slow and deliberate.
(Econ, 10/29/11, p.98)
2011 Michio Kaku authored
“Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our
Daily Lives by the Year 2100.
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.98)
2011 John Kasarda and Greg
Lindsay authored “Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next.”
(Econ, 3/5/11, p.89)
2011 David Kennedy authored
“Don’t Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence
in Inner-City America.”
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.92)
2011 Michael Kazin authored
“American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.”
(SSFC, 8/28/11, p.F1)
2011 Jim al-Khalili authored
“The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and
Gave Us the Renaissance.”
(SSFC, 4/24/11, p.G3)
2011 Parag Khanna authored “How
To Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance.”
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.80)
2011 Charles King authored
“Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams.”
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.90)
2011 Henry Kissinger authored
“On China.”
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.86)
2011 Liel Leibowitz authored
“Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to
School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization.” It told the
story of the Chinese Educational Mission, which existed from 1872 to
1881.
(SSFC, 2/13/11, p.G4)
2011 Joseph Lelyveld authored
“Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India.”
(SSFC, 4/10/11, p.G1)
2011 Steven Levy authored “In
the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives.”
(SSFC, 4/17/11, p.G1)
2011 Michael Lewis authored
“Boomerang: Travels In the New Third World,” a travelogue of the
world’s economic despair.
(SSFC, 10/23/11, p.F1)
2011 Anatol Lieven authored
“Pakistan: A Hard Country.”
(Econ, 4/9/11, p.92)
2011 Bob Lutz authored “Car
Guys vs Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American
Business.”
(Econ, 7/2/11, p.73)
2011 Mark Lynas authored “The
God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans.”
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.86)
2011 Jeff Madrick authored “Age
of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America 1970 to
the Present.”
(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.G5)
2011 David M. Malone authored
“Does the Elephant Dance? Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy.”
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.85)
2011 Gordon Mathews authored
“Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking mansions, Hong Kong.”
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.76)
2011 Jane McGonigal authored
“Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can change
the World.”
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.94)
2011 James Miller authored
“Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche.”
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.82)
2011 Gretchen Morgenson and
Joshua Rosner authored “Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized
Ambition, Greed and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon.”
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.99)
2011 Evgeny Morozov authored
“The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom.”
(Econ, 1/8/11, p.82)
2011 Dambisa Moyo authored “How
the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly – and the Stark
Choices Ahead.”
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.99)
2011 Robert Muchembled authored
“A History of Violence: From the End of the Middle Ages to the
Present.”
(Econ, 10/8/11, p.101)
2011 Thant Myint-U authored
“Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia.”
(Econ, 8/20/11, p.75)
2011 Joseph Nye Jr. authored
“The Future of Power,” A look at US power amidst the rise of other
economic powers including China and India.
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.80)
2011 The National Commission on
the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling authored
“Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore
Drilling.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.87)
2011 Alice Odiot authored
"Commodities: Switzerland's Most Dangerous Business." It looks at
the social and environmental impact on Zambia and the Mopani Copper
Mines owned by Swiss giant Glencore.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Eli Pariser authored “The
Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You.”
(Econ, 7/2/11, p.70)
2011 Kevin Poulsen authored
“Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime
Underground.” It documented the story of hacker Max Butler, aka
Iceman, currently serving a 13-year sentence for the theft of credit
card data.
(SSFC, 3/6/11, p.G1)
2011 Dan Plesch authored
“America, Hitler and the UN: How the Allies Won World War II and
Forged a Peace.”
(Econ, 1/29/11, p.82)
2011 Janet Reitman authored
“Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive
Religion.”
(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.G1)
2011 Bruce Riedel authored
“Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, American, and the Future of Global
Jihad.”
(Econ, 4/9/11, p.92)
2011 Patrick Robertson authored
“Robertson’s Book of Firsts: Who Did What for the First Time.”
(Econ, 10/29/11, p.100)
2011 Peter Robb authored
“Street Fight in Naples: A City’s Unseen History.”
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.87)
2011 Jon Ronson authored “The
Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry.”
(SFC, 5/31/11, p.E2)
2011 Donald Rumsfeld, former US
defense secretary, authored “Known and Unknown: A Memoir.”
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.93)
2011 Jeffrey Sachs authored
“The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and
Prosperity.”
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.99)
2011 Doug Saunders authored
“Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History is Reshaping Our
World.
(SSFC, 3/20/11, p.G1)
2011 Peter Schweizer authored
“Throw Them All Out,” an account of insider trading by Washington
politicians.
(Econ, 12/10/11, p.36)
2011 Nicholas Shaxson authored
“Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax
Havens.”
(Econ, 2/11/12, p.62)
2011 Michael Shermer authored
“The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and
Conspiracies – How We construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as
Truths.”
(Econ, 6/18/11, p.90)
2011 Elaine Sciolino authored
“La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life.”
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.87)
2011 Simon Sebag authored
“Jerusalem: The Biography.”
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.93)
2011 Jason Sharman authored
“The Money Laundry: Regulating Criminal Finance in the Global
Economy.”
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.64)
2011 Rani Singh authored “Sonia
Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny.”
(Econ, 10/15/11, p.94)
2011 Christian Smith authored
“Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood.” It
explored the moral map of young people (18-23) in America.
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.91)
2011 Michael Spence, 2001 Nobel
Prize winner in economics, authored “The Next Convergence: The
Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World.”
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.106)
2011 Jason Stearns authored
“Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the
Great War in Africa.”
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.88)
2011 Jonathan Steele authored
“Ghosts of Afghanistan: The Haunted Battleground.”
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.91)
2011 Ron Suskind authored
“Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a
President,” an assessment of the inner workings of the Obama
administration.
(SSFC, 11/13/11, p.F5)
2011 Julia Flynn Siler authored
“Lost Kingdom: Hawaii’s Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America’s
First Imperial Adventure.”
(SSFC, 1/8/12, p.F1)
2011 Ben Tarnoff authored
“Moneymakers: The Wicked Lives and Surprising Adventures of Three
Notorious Counterfeiters.”
(SSFC, 2/27/11, p.G5)
2011 Colin Thubrin, travel
writer, authored “To A Mountain in Tibet,” the story of his journey
to Mount Kailas in southern Tibet.
(Econ, 4/2/11, p.81)
2011 Robert Trivers authored
“The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human
Life.”
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.104)
2011 Holly Tucker authored
“Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific
Revolution.”
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.95)
2011 Christopher Turner
authored “Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution
Came to America.”
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.85)
2011 Siva Vaidhyanathan
authored “The Googlization of Everything: And why We Should Worry.”
(SSFC, 4/17/11, p.G1)
2011 Federico Varese authored
“Mafias on the Move: How Organized Crime Conquers New Territories.”
(Econ, 6/11/11, p.9)
2011 Sarah Vowell authored
“Unfamiliar Fishes,” stories of the American conquest of Hawaii.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.G5)
2011 Mark West authored
“Lovesick Japan: Sex, Marriage, Romance, Law.”
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.92)
2011 Alan Wolfe authored
“Political Evil: What It Is and How to Combat It.”
(SFC, 10/31/11, p.E3)
2011 Daniel Yergin authored
“The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World.”
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.89)
2011 California’s spending on
prisons reached about 10% of the state budget, up from 4% in the mid
1980s. This now exceeded the amount for university funding.
(Econ, 10/8/11, p.36)
2011 Florida faced a $3.6
billion shortfall. This represented about 15% of the total 2011
state budget.
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.39)
2011 ATK, an American firm, and
Heckler & Koch, a German one, developed the XM25, a new gun that
fires 25mm rounds programmed to exploded at a fixed distance.
(Econ, 1/14/12,
p.76)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM25_CDTE)
2011 The average price of oil
this year was $111 a barrel.
(Econ, 4/14/12, p.65)
2011 In Afghanistan opium
seizures this year rose 13 percent and those of hashish climbed 59
percent, while the amount of marijuana and morphine confiscated
soared 1,208 percent and 10,113 percent respectively, according to
figures from ISAF, which did not give the amounts of drugs seized.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in October said opium
production in Afghanistan rose 61 percent in 2011 from the previous
year, when the harvest was hit by disease.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2011 The UN mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in its annual report, made public on Feb 4,
2012, that a total of 3,021 Afghan civilians died in 2011 -- mostly
at the hands of insurgents -- up eight% from 2,790 in 2010.
(AFP, 2/4/12)
2011 In Afghanistan at least
430 employees of US contractors were reported killed. This compared
to 418 US soldiers reported killed this year.
(SSFC, 2/12/12, p.A12)
2011 Some 17,000 Africans made
their way to Israel this year. A growing number of the migrants
reported torture by smugglers in the Egyptian Sinai, who extorted
migrant families for more money.
(SFC, 2/17/12, p.A4)
2011 Brazil overtook Britain to
become the world’s 6th biggest economy.
(www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/dec/26/brazil-overtakes-uk-economy)
2011 In Brazil a Rio de Janeiro
city survey found 847 Umbanda houses of worship. Umbanda was founded
a little more than a century ago, drawing from older traditions such
as Catholicism, the beliefs of enslaved Yoruba people brought from
West Africa, the spirituality of Brazil's indigenous groups and the
teachings of 19th century French spiritualist Allan Kardec. An
estimated 400,000 Brazilians follow the religion.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 The population of Cameroon
was about 19.4 million.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 CongoDRC’s current budget
was around $700 million, 40% of which was provided by the Un and
other foreign outfits.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.60)
2011 The population of CongoDRC
was about 70 million.
(AP, 5/11/11)
2011 The population of Djibouti
was about 750,000.
(AP, 2/18/11)
2011 East Timor’s first
shopping center, The Timor Plaza, opened in Dili.
(Econ, 3/10/12, p.52)
2011 The population of Eritrea
was about 5.3 million at this time.
(Econ, 7/23/11, p.44)
2011 Finland's population was
about 5.3 million.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Some 250-350 tons of
cocaine, almost the whole amount heading for the US, was reportedly
passing through Guatemala each year.
(Econ, 4/16/11, p.25)
2011 Honduras saw 7,104
killings this year, above the 6,200 recorded last year.
(SFC, 3/29/12, p.A2)
2011 In India an estimated 17%
of the population held half of the country’s spending power.
(Econ, 10/22/11, SR p.16)
2011 Indonesia’s population was
about 237 million.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)
2011 Libya’s population was
about 6.5 million.
(Econ, 2/26/11, p.25)
2011 The population of Malawi
was about 13 million with half living below the poverty line.
(AP, 7/22/11)
2011 Mongolia’s population was
about 2.8 million people. Another 5.8 million Mongols lived in China
with some 4 million in Inner Mongolia.
(Econ, 10/8/11, p.58)
2011 Namibia’s population was
about 2.2 million.
(Econ, 3/12/11, p.56)
2011 Nepal’s population
numbered about 30 million.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.50)
2011 The population of Niger
numbered about 16 million.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 In Nigeria the average
annual income of $718 per person in the northernmost 19 states was
half the figure of the remaining 17 states. With some 160 million
people Nigeria was the world’s 7th most populous country. The UN
estimated Nigeria’s population could grow to around 400 million by
2050.
(Econ, 4/30/11, p.52)(Econ, 5/14/11, p.77)(AFP,
10/30/11)
2011 The population of Pakistan
was about 190 million.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.55)
2011 At least 943 Pakistani
women and girls were murdered this year for allegedly defaming their
family's honor.
(AFP, 3/22/12)
2011 The population of Papua
New Guinea was about 6.7 million.
(Econ, 8/6/11, p.34)
2011 In the Philippines
communist guerrillas killed about 100 government troops and police
and waged 447 attacks this year continuing decline in their 43-year
insurgency. The number of armed rebel fighters dropped 7.8 percent
last year to 4,043.
(AP, 1/22/12)
2011 The population of Qatar
numbered about 1.7 million with a GDP per person of $80,000. Fewer
than one in 7 was a native born citizen.
(Econ, 11/5/11, p.55)
2011 Russia’s population was
about 140 million.
(Econ, 9/17/11, p.49)
2011 In Saudi Arabia at least
76 death row inmates were executed this year, according to an AFP
count. Amnesty International believed that at least 79 executions
during this period. In 2010, 27 people were executed, according to
the UN, citing a report by Human Rights Watch.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2011 Singapore’s population
numbered about 5 million.
(Econ, 9/3/11, TQ p.4)
2011 In Somalia at least 80,000
people died this year of famine. A large amount of food sent by the
UN to Mogadishu during the famine never reached the starving people
it was intended for. Some of the World Food Program supplies went to
the black market, some to feed livestock. One warehouse full of
rations was looted in its entirety by a government official. Across
the city, feeding sites handed out far less food than records
indicate they should have.
(Econ, 2/25/12, p.58)(AP, 3/17/12)
2011 The World Health
Organization estimated that 62% of South Africa’s men and 73% of its
women were overweight.
(Econ, 3/26/11, p.77)
2011 The group Stop Rhino
Poaching estimated that 446 rhinos were killed in South Africa this
year, a sharp jump from the 13 lost in 2007, 83 in 2008, 122 in 2009
and 333 in 2010.
(AFP, 1/3/12)
2011 South Sudan’s population
was estimated at 8-14 million.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.57)
2011 Spain ranked 133rd in the
World Bank’s ranking of how easy it is to start a business.
(Econ, 11/12/11, SR p.6)
2011 Sri Lanka’s population was
about 20 million.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 The population of
Swaziland numbered about 1.2 million.
(Econ, 7/30/11, p.43)
2011 According to the Syrian
Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a total of 5,862 people were
killed in the regime's crackdown during this year, including "321
male children, 74 female children and 146 women.
(AP, 1/1/12)
2011 Tunisia’s population was
about 10.6 million.
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.52)
2011 Turkey’s population was
about 73 million.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2011 Tuvalu experienced severe
drought as La Nina settled over the region depriving the area of
substantial rainfall for 6 months. Tuvalu and Tokelau declared a
state of emergency.
(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A4)
2011 The population of Tuvalu
was about 10,000.
(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A4)
2011 UAR citizens accounted for
less than a fifth of the resident population which numbered about
8.2 million.
(Econ, 7/2/11, p.39)
2011 Uganda’s population stood
at about 34 million people.
(Econ, 9/24/11, p.72)
2011 The population of Vietnam
was about 87 million.
(Econ, 9/10/11, p.48)
2011 Zambia’s population
numbered about 13 million people.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.47)
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