Today in History - October 12
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1285 Oct 12, 180 Jews refused baptism in Munich, Germany, and were set on fire.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1320 Oct 12, Michael IX Paleozoic, emperor of Byzantine (1295-1320), died.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1366 Oct 12, King Frederick III of Sicily forbade decorations on synagogues.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1492 Oct 12, (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21 New Style), Christopher Columbus sited land, an island of the Bahamas which he named San Salvador, but which was called Guanahani by the local Taino people. Seeking to establish profitable Asian trade routes by sailing west, Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the Earth--never dreaming that two great continents blocked his path to the east. Even after four voyages to America, Columbus believed until the end of his life in 1506 that he had discovered an isolated corner of Asia.
(NH, 10/96, p.22)(AP, 10/12/97)(HNPD, 10/12/98)(http://tinyurl.com/774v3)
1492 Oct 12, Pierro della Francesca (b.1415), Tuscany-born artist, died in Florence. He was later called the Father of the Renaissance. His work included “Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels."
(Econ, 2/16/13, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_della_Francesca)
1518 Oct 12, A pontifical ambassador interrogated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther. Luther was summoned to the Diet of Augsburg where he refused to recant.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(MC, 10/12/01)
1537 Oct 12, Edward IV, King of England (1547-53), was born. He was the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour.
(HN, 10/12/98)(MC, 10/12/01)
1576 Oct 12, Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeded his father, Maximally II, as Holy Roman Emperor.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(HN, 10/12/98)
1582 Oct 12, This day was one of ten skipped to bring the calendar into sync. by order of the Council of Trent. Oct 5-14 were dropped.
(K.I.-365D, p.97)(NG, March 1990, J. Bo slough)
1609 Oct 12, The song "Three Blind Mice" was published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1654 Oct 12, Carel Fabritius (b.1622), Dutch painter, died in a gunpowder explosion in Delft. He was one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Fabritius)(WSJ, 7/20/01, p.W11)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.93)
1659 Oct 12, English Rump government fired John Lambert and other generals. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1692 Oct 12, Giovanni Battista Vitali, composer, died at 60.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1702 Oct 12, British Admiral Sir George Rookie defeated the French fleet off Vigo.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1713 Oct 12, Johann Ludwig Krebs, composer, was born. [see Oct 10]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1722 Oct 12, Shah Sultan Husain surrendered the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afghan rebels after a seven month siege. Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud of Afghanistan, had invaded Persia and occupied Isfahan. At the same time, the Durrani revolted, and terminated the Persian occupation of Herat.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(HN, 10/12/98)
1742 Oct 12, Johan Peter Melchior, German sculptor, was born.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1776 Oct 12, British Brigade began guarding Throgs Necks Road in Bronx.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1792 Oct 12, Columbus Day was 1st celebrated in the US.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1798 Oct 12, The play "Wallenstein's Camp" by Friedrich von Schiller premiered in Weimar. It was set in 3 parts during the 30 Years War as Gen. Albrecht von Wallenstein fought for Catholic Emp. Ferdinand II.
(www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_02-06/2005/051-2_Schiller_friends.html)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.78)
1809 Oct 12, Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, died under mysterious circumstances in St. Louis. [see Oct 11]
(HN, 10/12/98)
1823 Oct 12, Charles Macintosh of Scotland began selling raincoats (Macs).
(MC, 10/12/01)
1833 Oct 12, Charles Darwin began his return trip to Buenos Aires.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1844 Oct 12, George Washington Cable, writer and reformer, was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1845 Oct 12, Elizabeth Fry (b.1780), English Quaker prisoner reform advocate, died. In 1827 she published a book called “Observations, on the visiting superintendence and government of female prisoners." Since 2002 she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note.
(www.quakerinfo.com/fry.shtml)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Fry)
1850 Oct 12, The 1st women's medical school, the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened. [see 1848, Mar 11, 1850]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1753 Oct 12, Sir Danvers Osborn (b.1715), British colonial governor of New York, hanged himself 5 days after arriving in NYC. His wife had recently died and the New York assembly refused to support him in the style he felt his rank deserved.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_Osborn)
1810 Oct 12, Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. In honor of the wedding a horse race took place at the Theresienwiese (the Theresien meadow). The decision to repeat the horse races in subsequent years gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.
(www.ofest.com/history.html)
1850 Oct 12, The 1st women's medical school, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened to students.
(http://homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/pennsylvfem.htm)
1855 Oct 12, Arthur Nikisch, later conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, was born in Szent-Miklos, Hungary.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1860 Oct 12, British and French troops captured Beijing.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1861 Oct 12, The Confederate ironclad Manassas attacked the northern ship Richmond on the Mississippi River. The Manassas was the Confederacy‘s first operational ironclad. Originally a New England tugboat called the Enoch Train, the ship was refit with iron sheathing and an iron prow for ramming. The underpowered ship was used in defense of New Orleans, finally being dispatched by the Union warship Mississippi.
(AP, 10/12/97)(HNQ, 7/12/00)
1862 Oct 12, J.E.B. Stuart completed his "2nd ride around McClellan."
(MC, 10/12/01)
1862 Oct 12, There was a skirmish at Monocacy, Maryland.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1864 Oct 12, Roger B. Taney (b.1777), US Supreme Court Chief Justice (1836-1864), died after serving over 28 years. He favored state’s rights and voided laws limiting the rights of slaveholders. In the 1857 Dred Scott case Taney ruled that blacks as slaves could not become citizens of the US.
(SFC, 9/6/05, p.A4)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/24/)
1868 Oct 12, Charles Sumner Greene, architect, was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1870 Oct 12, Gen. Robert E. Lee (63) died in Lexington, Va. In 1998 David J. Eicher published "Robert E. Lee: A Life Portrait." In 2001 Michael Fellman authored "The Making of Robert E. Lee." In 2007 Elizabeth Brown Pryor authored “Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters.“
(AP, 10/12/97)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Par p.20)(SSFC, 1/28/01, Par p.12)(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.D6)
1871 Oct 12, President Grant ordered the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan to disperse and disarm in five days.
(AH, 6/03, p.31)
1872 Oct 12, Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer (Hugh the Drover), was born in Down Amp, England.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1872 Oct 12, Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise (d.1874) signed a peace treaty with Special Indian Commissioner, General Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909), in the Arizona Territory.
(HN, 10/12/98)(ON, 4/07, p.8)
1875 Oct 12, Aleister [Edward S] Crowley, (75 pseudonyms), British occultist-American mystic, was born. In 2000 Lawrence Sutin authored “Do What Thou Wilt, A Life of Aleister Crowley."
(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(MC, 10/12/01)
1875 Oct 12, Mayan Indians attacked the Xuxub sugar plantation in the Yucatan and dozens of workers were killed or taken captive. Bernadino Cen, the Mayan leader, was killed when the Mexican National Guard arrived the next day. In 2004 Paul Sullivan authored “Xuxub Must Die."
(WSJ, 5/13/04, p.D10)
1879 Oct 12, British troops occupied Kabul, Afghanistan.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1892 Oct 12, The American Pledge of Allegiance was 1st recited in public schools to commemorate Columbus Day. Francis Bellamy, a magazine editor of Rome, NY, wrote the "Pledge of Allegiance." [see Sep 8]
(SFEC, 2/21/99, Z1 p.8)(Internet)
1899 Oct 12, The Anglo-Boer War began. [see Oct 11]
(HN, 10/12/98)
1901 Oct 12, Theodore Roosevelt renamed the "Executive Mansion," to “The White House."
(HNQ, 6/28/00)(MC, 10/12/01)
1914 Oct 12, The 1st battle at Ypres began.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1915 Oct 12, Former President Theodore Roosevelt criticized the concept of "hyphenated Americanism," referring to U.S. citizens who identified themselves by dual nationalities.
(AP, 10/12/05)
1915 Oct 12, Ford Motor Company manufactured its 1 millionth Model T automobile.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1915 Oct 12, British nurse Edith Cavell (47), despite international protests, was shot as a spy by a German firing squad in Brussels, Belgium. Cavell, the matron of a Brussels training school for nurses, was known for her compassion and sense of duty. As WWI broke out in Europe, Cavell helped 60 British student nurses return home but she remained in Belgium. Even though she knew that helping soldiers escape from German-occupied territory meant the death penalty, Cavell agreed when asked to participate in an escape ring that helped more than 200 fugitive Allied soldiers return home after the British Expeditionary Force's retreat from Mons. Such a large conspiracy could not long remain a secret and in August 1915, Cavell and 35 other members of her organization were arrested. At her hasty trial, she was condemned to death for "conducting soldiers to the enemy." Although their action may have been justified under the rules of war, the Germans seriously blundered when they shot Edith Cavell. Within days of her death, the selfless nurse was elevated to martyr status and the Germans were internationally condemned as "murdering monsters." A statue in St. Martin's Place, just off London's Trafalgar Square, is dedicated to Cavell. In 2010 Diana Souhami authored “Edith Cavell."
(AP, 10/12/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)(Econ, 10/9/10, p.121)
1918 Oct 12, The 1st use of iron lung was at Boston's Children Hospital.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1918 Oct 12, The Cloquet Fire erupted in Minnesota. 453 lives were lost and 52,000 people were injured or displaced, 38 communities were destroyed, 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) were burned. In 1990 Francis M. Carroll authored “Fires of Autumn: The Cloquet-Moose Lake Disaster of 1918."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_Cloquet_Fire)(http://tinyurl.com/jesjlks)(AP, 10/12/08)
1920 Oct 12, Construction began on Holland Tunnel connecting NJ and NYC.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1920 Oct 12, Man O'War ran his last race and won.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1921 Oct 12, The Medal of Honor, emblem of highest ideals and virtues, is bestowed in the name of Congress of the United States of America upon the unknown, unidentified Italian soldier to be buried in the National Monument to Victor Emanuel II, in Rome.
(http://homeofheroes.com/gravesites/unknowns/foreign_italy.html)
1921 Oct 12, The cruise ship City of Honolulu caught fire sailing from Honolulu to Long Beach. All on board were rescued.
(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)
1924 Oct 12, Anatole France, French satiric master (Penguin Island, Revolt of the Angels, Thais), died at 80. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.
(WUD, 1994 p.563)(MC, 10/12/01)
1929 Oct 12, Richard Coles, child psychologist and author, was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1931 Oct 12, The Rio de Janeiro 98-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer was unveiled atop Corcovado Mountain as a belated monument to 100 years of independence from Portugal (1822). It was designed by Brazilian artist Carlos Oswald and French sculptor Paul Landowski. The 43-m statue was built with reinforced concrete and soapstone and completed after nine years of construction, becoming an icon of Rio de Janeiro and one of the wonders of the world.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.T2)(SFC, 10/14/03, p.D7)(Reuters, 4/29/22)
1932 Oct 12, Dick Gregory, comedian, social and political activist and dietician (Bahamian Diet), was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)(MC, 10/12/01)
1933 Oct 12, The US Army left Alcatraz Island. In 1934 it reopened as a federal penitentiary.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)
1933 Oct 12, Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1934 Oct 12, In San Francisco the new Coit Tower in Pioneer Park on Telegraph Hill opened to the public. At least 8 frescoes, painted by 27 artists employed by the WPA, were washed out and eliminated because they were “architecturally inharmonious." The July 7 opening date had been cancelled due to controversy over the new frescoes. Victor Arnautoff (1896-1979), Russian-born social realist, was in charge.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.50)(SFC, 7/8/17, p.C2)(SFC, 9/7/17 p.D5)
1935 Oct 12, Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor, was born in Modena, Italy.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1941 Oct 12, Russian government moved from Moscow to Volga as Nazis closed in on Moscow.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1941 Oct 12, Thousands of Jews were killed in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, by men of the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei; SiPo), assisted by members of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) and the railroad police.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivano-Frankivsk)
1942 Oct 12, During World War II, President Roosevelt delivered one of his so-called "fireside chats" in which he recommended drafting 18- and 19-year-old men.
(AP, 10/12/99)
1942 Oct 12, US Navy defeated Japanese in WW II Battle of Cape Esperance.
(AP, 10/12/02)
1942 Oct 12, During World War II, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1942 Oct 12, Louis Armstrong (40) married Lucille Wilson (24).
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.69)
1943 Oct 12, The Radio Corporation of America announced the divestment of the NBC Blue radio network to businessman Edward J. Noble for $8 million. Noble first called it just "The Blue Network." By Feb 1945 it was renamed the American Broadcasting Company.
(NYT, 10/12/1943, P.23)(NYT, 10/17/1943, P. XII)
1943 Oct 12, The U.S. Fifth Army began an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1943 Oct 12, The US bombed Rabaul, New Britain (S. Pacific, Bismarck Archipelago).
(WUD, 1994 p.962)(MC, 10/12/01)
1944 Oct 12, German army retreated from Athens.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1946 Oct 12, The cheapest sight and sound receivers on display carried a $225 price tag. For this Radio Corp. of America offered a table model set which showed a picture about four by five inches.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1946 Oct 12, Joseph W. Stilwell, US general in China, died.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1949 Oct 12, Eugenie Anderson became the first woman U.S. ambassador.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1953 Oct 12, US and Greece signed a peace treaty that included US bases.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1955 Oct 12, Bernarr Macfadden (b.1868), weight-lifter and publisher born as Bernard MacFadden, died in New Jersey. His magazines included “True Story," which first appeared in 1919. In 2009 Mark Adams authored Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet."
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.W10)(www.bernarrmacfadden.com/macfadden7.html)
1960 Oct 12, In Japan Otaya Yamaguchi (17), a university student and a member of an ultranationalist group, rushed onto a Tokyo stage where the politician Inejiro Asanuma (b.1898) was giving an election speech and plunged a foot-long sword into his chest.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inejir%c5%8d_Asanuma)
1960 Oct 12, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a UN General Assembly session by pounding his desk with a shoe when a speaker criticized his country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1962 Oct 12, Columbus Day storms washed out the 1962 World Series game at Candlestick Park in SF. A storm from the Gulf of Alaska took on moisture from Typhoon Freda and caused 4 days of rainouts during the World series.
(SFCM, 9/25/05, p.4)(SFC, 11/3/12, p.A6)
1963 Oct 12, Archaeological digs began at Masada, Israel.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1964 Oct 12, Mary Meyer, lover to John F. Kennedy up to his assassination, was brutally murdered on a walking path by the Potomac River. Her story is told in a 1996 book by John Davis “JFK and Mary Pinchot Meyer: A Tale of Two Murdered Lovers." In 1998 Nina Burleigh authored “A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E2)(SFEC, 12/12/98, BR p.4)
1964 Oct 12, The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first manned mission involving more than one crew member. Spaceship designer Konstantin Feoktistov (1926-2009), the only non-Communist space traveler in the history of the Soviet space program, traveled aboard the Voskhod as part of the first group space flight in history.
(AP, 10/12/97)(AP, 11/22/09)
1967 Oct 12, In India a massive cyclone struck the rural Orissa state consisting of small villages. Basically all life (human and animal) and each structure was wiped out; the precise number of fatalities and destruction is unknown.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1968 Oct 12, Eq. Guinea gained Independence was from Spain. Eq. Guinea consists of two geographic entities: the mainland of Rio Muni and the island of Bioko, formerly Fernando Poo. Francisco Macias became the 1st president and proclaimed himself God’s "unique miracle." He drove the economy into the ground and over a third of the population went into exile.
(www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/eqguinea.html)(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A10)
1968 Oct 12, The summer Games of the 19th Olympiad were officially opened in Mexico City by Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 10/12/98)
1969 Oct 12, Nancy Ann Kerrigan, figure skater, was born in Woburn, Mass. In 1994 she won an Olympics silver medal.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0449872/bio)
1969 Oct 12, Sonja Henie (b.1912), Norwegian ice skater (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36) and film star, died of leukemia on a flight from Paris to Oslo. Henie's career included a record 10 consecutive world championships.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Henie)
1969 Oct 12, Serge Poliakoff (b.1900), Russian-born French modernist painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Poliakoff)
1970 Oct 12, President Richard Nixon announced the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1970 Oct 12, In Quebec, Canada, the "October Crises" continued. PM Pierre Trudeau imposed martial law in Quebec and sent troops into Montreal because of bombings and killings by the Quebec Liberation Front.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A20)(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A12)
1971 Oct 12, The rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway. It closed July 1, 1973 after 711 performances.
(AP, 10/12/97)(www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/rants/1012b-almanac.htm)
1971 Oct 12, The US House of Representatives passed the Equal Rights Amendment with a vote of 354 yeas, 24 nays and 51 not voting. It failed to gain ratification before the end of the deadline
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment)
1971 Oct 12, Dean G. Acheson (b.1893), US secretary of state (1949-53), died in Maryland. In 2006 Robert L. Beisner authored “Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAacheson.htm)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.58)
1972 Oct 12, On the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk a series of incidents broke out wherein a group of blacks, armed with chains, wrenches, bars, broomsticks and other dangerous weapons, went marauding through sections of the ship disobeying orders to cease, terrorizing the crew, and seeking out white personnel for senseless beating with fists and with weapons which resulted in extremely serious injury to three men and the medical treatment of many more, including some blacks.
(www.history.navy.mil/library/special/racial_incidents.htm)
1972 Oct 12, US House Resolution 16444, establishing the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), was passed by Congress and was signed by President Richard Nixon 15 days later. The island of Alcatraz was incorporated into this park. California Congressman Phillip Burton pushed through legislation preserving thousands of acres of forested hills, valleys and rugged shoreline. Burton got Congress to agree to transfer the Presidio in San Francisco to the park service if the army ever pulled out.
(www.sftravel.com/Alcatraz1950on.html)(SFEC, 6/27/99, Z1 p.1,4)(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.A21)
1973 Oct 12, The ballet “Remembrances" by Robert Joffrey (1930-1988) premiered in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/3nxhm3)
1973 Oct 12, President Nixon nominated House minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1973 Oct 12, Juan Peron was inaugurated as president of Argentina.
(http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2004-10/12/Columns/In%20History.htm)
1975 Oct 12, Archbishop Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681) became the 1st Irish-born saint in 700 years. He was beheaded by Cromwell's troops.
(www.archatl.com/parishes/saintoliverplunkett_snellville.html)
1976 Oct 12, It was announced in China that Hua Guo-feng (1921-2008) had been named to succeed the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of the Communist Party. He was effectively stripped of his powers in 1978 and formally lost the chairmanship in 1981.
(AP, 10/12/01)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7572298.stm)
1977 Oct 12, The US government passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which required banks to serve their entire community. The intent was to ensure that adequate loans were made to low and moderate income neighborhoods and that those areas had access to bank branches and other banking services.
(www.newrules.org/finance/cra.html)
1977 Oct 12, The US Supreme Court ruled that communities have a right to prevent commuters from parking in residential neighborhoods.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.E7)
1977 Oct 12, US Supreme Court heard arguments in the "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke (35), a white student denied admission to U of California Med School.
(www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_811/)
1978 Oct 12, Representatives of Israel and Egypt opened talks in Washington.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/time70s.html#1978)
1978 Oct 12, Nancy Spungen (b.1958), girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found dead on the bathroom floor of their NYC hotel room. She had bled to death from a single stab wound to the abdomen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Spungen)
1978 Oct 12, In Uganda Idi Amin escaped an 11th assassination attempt.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1984 Oct 12, The US Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 was signed into law. It established the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund to receive the proceeds of forfeiture and to pay the costs associated with such forfeitures.
(http://www.justice.gov/jmd/afp/02fundreport/02_2.html)
1984 Oct 12, The IRA bombed the hotel where PM Margaret Thatcher was staying in Brighton. Thatcher escaped but five people were killed. Patrick McGee was sentenced to 8 life sentences for his role in the bombing. McGee was freed in 1999 as part of the Northern Ireland peace accord.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 6/23/99, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/bxt64)
1986 Oct 12, The superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1987 Oct 12, In Houston, Vice President George Bush formally launched his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1987 Oct 12, Former Kansas Gov. Alfred "Alf" M. Landon, who ran for president against Franklin Roosevelt, died at his Topeka home at age 100.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1988 Oct 12, US federal prosecutors announced that Sundstrand Corp. had agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges and pay a $115 million settlement for overbilling the Pentagon for airplane parts over five years.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1989 Oct 12, The US House approved a statutory federal ban on desecration of the American flag. The Senate defeated the measure a week later.
(AP, 10/12/99)
1989 Oct 12, Jay Ward (b.1920), cartoonist, died. He and Bill Scott produced the 1959 TV show "Rocky and His Friends," which featured Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose.
{Cartoons, USA, TV}
(SFEC, 12/15/96, DB p.63)(http://members.shaw.ca/fffff/ward.html)
1990 Oct 12, The Cincinnati Reds won the National League pennant, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-to-1.
(AP, 10/12/00)
1990 Oct 12, Wolfgang Schauble (b.1942), German politician, was the target of an assassination attempt by Dieter Kaufmann, who fired 3 shots at Schäuble after an election campaign event in Oppenau. Schauble was left paralyzed from the waist down. In 2009 he was appointed finance minister under Chancellor Angel Merkel.
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Sch%C3%A4uble)
1990 Oct 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel’s security forces for killing 17 Palestinian demonstrators on the Temple Mount.
(AP, 10/12/00)
1991 Oct 12, Testifying for a second day on sexual harassment charges leveled by law professor Anita Hill, Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas told the Senate Judiciary Committee he'd “rather die than withdraw," and repeated his denial of Hill's allegations.
(AP, 10/12/01)
1992 Oct 12, Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico began a microwave search for occupied planets.
(www.planetary.org/explore/topics/seti/seti_history_12.html)
1992 Oct 12, A 5.8 earthquake hit Cairo and at least 510 people died.
(AP, 10/12/97)(http://io.ingrm.it/amminist/annali/elenean433.htm)
1993 Oct 12, The Toronto Blue Jays won their second straight American League pennant, defeating the Chicago White Sox in six games.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1993 Oct 12, Hundreds of militant right-wingers in Haiti cheered as an American warship retreated in a major setback for a U.N. mission to restore democracy.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1994 Oct 12, American Clifford G. Shull and Canadian Bertram N. Brockhouse won the Nobel physics prize; American George A. Olah won the Nobel chemistry prize.
(AP, 10/12/04)
1994 Oct 12, The Magellan space probe ended its four-year mapping mission of Venus, plunging into the planet's atmosphere.
(TV, 10/17/95)(AP, 10/12/99)
1994 Oct 12, Panama granted political asylum to ousted Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras.
(AP, 10/12/99)
1995 Oct 12, After a 2-day delay, the US-brokered cease-fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina went into effect a minute after midnight. Fighting continued over contested towns in northwest Bosnia.
(SFC, 10/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 10/12/00)
1996 Oct 12, President Clinton signed into law the Water Resources Development Act, which authorized federal water projects across the country.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1996 Oct 12, Thousands of Hispanic Americans marched in Washington to push for simplified citizenship procedures and a seven-dollar minimum wage.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1996 Oct 12, Followers of Sri Chimnoy, dedicated to int'l. peace and freedom through physical fitness, hung a brass plaque with a free verse poem in an alcove the lobby of the Statue of Liberty.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A6)
1996 Oct 12, In Ecuador Pres. Abdala Bucaram released his debut Rock ‘n’ Roll CD this week: “A Madman in Love."
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 12, In New Zealand elections voters delivered a split verdict on conservative rule. Jenny Shipley was made prime minister and ruled for 2 years.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A21)
1996 Oct 12, Theodore Miriung, head of the Bougainville Transitional Government of Papua, New Guinea, was assassinated.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)
1997 Oct 12, Pres. Clinton met Pres. Rafael Caldera of Venezuela on the first stop of his trip to South America. It was reported that Venezuela handles some 100 metric tons of cocaine and 10 metric tons of heroin from Columbia to the US.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A14) (HN, 10/12/98)
1997 Oct 12, In SF a rock concert organized by Chet Helms was planned in Golden Gate Park to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the “Be-In." [see 1/14/67] An estimated 10,000 people gathered for the concert.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A20)(SFC, 10/13/97, p.E1)
1997 Oct 12, John Denver (53), singer and songwriter, died after his Long-EZ aircraft crashed into the ocean near Monterey, Ca. He was born as Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. and came to prominence as a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio. He wrote the song “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane," that became a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A1)(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A1,13)
1997 Oct 12, In Bosnia elections were scheduled by Pres. Plavsic.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 12, In Jerusalem an Arab toddler received the heart of a Jewish boy killed in a bicycle-auto accident.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 12, In the Republic of Congo Angolan troops backed the rebels in an offensive around southern cities. Rebels surrounded Brazzaville and Gen’l. Jean-Marie Tiaffou urged government troops to surrender. There were reports that Angola’s UNITA rebels were backing Pres. Lissouba.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A12)
1998 Oct 12, A record 974-pound pumpkin won the Great Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, Ca. It was raised from an Atlantic Giant seed by Lincoln Mettler of Eatonville, Wa.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 12, The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to 3 Americans, Robert F. Furchgott (82), Louis Ignarro (57) and Ferid Murad (62), for their work on nitric oxide gas in biochemical functions in the human body.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1,13)
1998 Oct 12, An American law protecting sea turtles was overturned by an appeals panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, Matthew Shepard (21), a gay student at the University of Wyoming, died in fort Collins, Colorado, five days after he was beaten and lashed to a fence; two men were charged with his murder. Russell Henderson later pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping; a second suspect, Aaron McKinney, was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. McKinney was sentenced to 2 life terms.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/99)(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In Santa Monica, Ca., Horst Fietze, a German tourist, was killed by robbers as he strolled with his wife on an ocean promenade. In 2009 Paul Carpenter (31), a suspect in the murder, was arrested in Jamaica. Three others had already been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the killing.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.B6)
1998 Oct 12, Canada planned to begin discussion with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Liechtenstein for the first trans-Atlantic free-trade pact.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In France thousands of high-school students demonstrated for more teachers and school equipment.
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In Iran the Khordad Foundation raised its reward for the killing of Salman Rushdie to $2.8 million.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 12, In Japan the parliament approved banking legislation that would allow the government to nationalize failing banks.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, A protest was planned at the Mexican border against plans to put low-level radioactive waste at Sierra Blanca in Texas, 16 miles from the border. This appeared to be in violation of the 1983 La Paz Treaty in which the US and Mexico agreed to reduce pollution within 60 miles of their common frontier.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 12, In Sierra Leone a military court condemned 34 officers to death for their participation in a 1997 coup.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 12, Yugoslav Pres. Milosevic agreed to withdraw troops from Kosovo and allow int’l. verification as NATO prepared to authorize air strikes if he does not comply.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1999 Oct 12, Professors Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman of the Netherlands won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of mathematical tools to calculate properties of fundamental particles. From 1981 to his retirement in 1997, Veltman was an active member of the Univ. of Michigan physics department.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A2)(MT, Fall/99, p.7)
1999 Oct 12, Ahmed H. Zewail, an Egyptian chemist at the California Inst. of Tech., won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for finding a way to freeze-frame the private matings of molecules using ultra fast laser probes.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A2)
1999 Oct 12, It was reported that Calvin Klein would soon begin marketing "dirty jeans" for as much as $78 retail.
(WSJ, 10/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 12, The world population was projected to reach 6 billion. This day was declared by the UN as the Day of 6 Billion. The designated 6 billionth baby was born in Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.A19)(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 12, Wilt Chamberlain, basketball legend and Hall-of-Famer Wilt “The Stilt," died at age 63 in Bel Air, Ca.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/00)
1999 Oct 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels attacked a UN humanitarian convoy and killed 9 people at the Muzye refugee camp in Rutana.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 12, In Hong Kong it was reported that a $2.6 billion Cyberport was to be developed beginning in 2001.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 12, In Pakistan Gen'l. Pervez Musharraf led a military coup after PM Shariff tried to fire him and replace him with Gen'l. Zia Uddin. Musharraf avoided martial law and left the parliament intact. Sharif refused to let a passenger plane land in Karachi with 198 people aboard that included Gen. Musharraf. The coup cut short a Pakistani commando operation set up by the CIA to get Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. In 2009 the Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted Sharif of hijacking charges.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A21)(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A12)(SFC, 10/3/01, p.A10)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
1999 Oct 12, Bjorn Soderberg (b.1958), a member of a Swedish far-left union, was shot and killed. Prosecutors said the killing was revenge for the Soderberg's public denouncement of a co-worker who belonged to a neo-Nazi organization. In 2000 three men, including Hampus Hellekant, were convicted in the fatal shooting. Hellekant served 7 years in prison and in 2007 was admitted to the medical school of the Karolinska institute under the name Karl Svensson. He was expelled after 4 months when his former identity was revealed.
(AP, 1/25/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_S%C3%B6derberg)
2000 Oct 12, The Nobel Prize in literature was won by Gao Xingjian (60), an exiled Chinese writer living in Paris. His novels include “Soul Mountain," based on a 1986 walking tour along the Yangtze River.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 12, Pres. Clinton lifted key economic sanctions against Serbia.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 12, The Clinton administration and North Korea issued a joint communique asserting a decision to “fundamentally improve" their relations.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A17)
2000 Oct 12, The DJIA fell 379.21 (3.6%) to 10,034, while the NASDAQ fell 93.81 (3%) to 3074 in response to the Middle East crises.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, A US Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, refueling in Yemen suffered an enormous explosion in what appeared to be a terrorist attack. Initial reports had at least 6 sailors killed with 11 missing. The death toll was revised to 17. The 8,600-ton Cole was returned to the US aboard the Norwegian ship Blue Marlin. In 2001 a video tape by "Al-Sahab Productions" circulated among Muslim militants with footage of the bombed vessel. The Cole returned to active duty in 2003 following $250 million in repairs. In 2007 Walid Muhammad bin Attash told a military tribunal at Guantanamo that he was responsible for organizing the Cole attack as well as the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2014 Abd al-Rahm al Nashiri (49) of Saudi Arabia faced trial for orchestrating the bombing.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A12)(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 12/1/03, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A3)(SFC, 3/5/14, p.A6)
2000 Oct 12, In Chechnya a car bomb exploded outside a Grozny police stations and at least 10 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.D3)
2000 Oct 12, In Ecuador suspected Columbian FARC guerrillas kidnapped 5 Americans and 5 other foreign oil workers, hijacked a helicopter, and crossed back to Columbia. It was later suspected that the kidnappers were Ecuadoran criminals rather than Colombian guerrillas. One American was later killed and 2 Frenchmen escaped.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A17)(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 2/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, The Palestinian Authority released hundreds of prisoners including senior Islamic militants.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A5)
2000 Oct 12, A mob of Palestinians beat at least 2 Israeli reserve soldiers to death. Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza in retaliation. Two reservist soldiers, Cpl. Vadim Norjitz (33) and Yossi Avrahami (38) were on their way to their army base in the West Bank in October 2000 but took a wrong turn and ended up in Ramallah. Israel later arrested at least four suspects in the killing. In 2007 a 5th suspect, Ayman Zaban, was caught in an upscale neighborhood of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 9/26/07)
2001 Oct 12, Kofi Annan, Sec. Gen. of the UN, and the UN itself won the Nobel Peace Prize.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 12, US Attorney General John Ashcroft urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens. The act was passed in 1974 during the Watergate scandal
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.D4)
2001 Oct 12, NBC announced that an assistant to anchorman Tom Brokaw had contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a "threatening" letter to her boss that contained a suspicious powder.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/02)
2001 Oct 12, Polaroid Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2001 Oct 12, Taliban leaders withdrew over $6 million from the Kabul Da Afghanistan Bank.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A11)
2001 Oct 12, The British government officially announced that 3 Protestant paramilitary forces in Northern Ireland had ended a 7-year cease fire.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.C1)
2001 Oct 12, China put limits on air travel to citizens of 19 countries, mainly in the Middle East.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 12, In Colombia AUC paramilitary shot and killed 5 men and 2 women in the town of Piamonte. The army reported that it had discovered14 bodies in a single grave in the town of Albania.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.C1)
2001 Oct 12, In Iran anti-American protests surged on the Afghan border in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 12, Iran defeated Iraq 1-0 in a soccer match. Demonstrations erupted after the game against the Shiite theocracy and continued following successive soccer matches. At least 2 thousand young people were arrested over the next 2 weeks.
(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A22)
2001 Oct 12, Israeli and Palestinian officials resumed peace talks. Thousands of Palestinians held marches in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 12, In Nigeria the mutilated bodies of 19 abducted soldiers were found in Benue state.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C16)
2001 Oct 12, In Pakistan anti-American violence erupted in Karachi.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 12, In Spain a bombing caused wide damage in Madrid. Basque separatists were suspected.
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 12, The US indicated it would aid Uzbekistan if it were attacked. Uzbekistan was the first among Central Asian nations to allow the US to use its airspace and deploy troops on its territory for the anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The United States set up a military base in southern Uzbekistan, deploying hundreds of troops there.
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A16)(AP, 3/30/04)
2001 Oct 12, In Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe imposed a price freeze on basic foods following cuts of 5-20% on basic items.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2002 Oct 12, Ray Conniff (85), band leader of "easy-listening" hits, died in Escondido, Ca.
(WSJ, 10/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 12, It was reported that 164,000 Eritrean refugees had begun returning home from camps in Sudan. Some 60,000 had already returned since 2001.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A10)
2002 Oct 12, In western India 4 people were killed as Hindus and Muslims clashed in the town of Solapur in continuing violence triggered after U.S. preacher Jerry Falwell called the Prophet Mohammad a terrorist.
(Reuters, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, In Indonesia a car bomb ripped through the Sari Club at the Kuta Beach resort packed with foreign tourists on the island of Bali, sparking a blaze that killed 202 people and injured 300 others. It was the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history. Authorities said a second bomb exploded near the island's U.S. consular office. An estimated 100 victims were from Australia. Imam Samudra was later charged with engineering the blast. In 2004 Samudra (34) published a jailhouse autobiography “Me Against the Terrorist," in which he called for fellow Muslim radicals to take the holy war to cyberspace. In 2005 Sally Neighbour authored “In the Shadow of Swords: How Islamic Terrorists Declared War on Australia."
(AP, 10/13/02)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.A1)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.W1)(Econ, 12/17/05, p.83)
2002 Oct 12, Kuwait's interior minister said that 15 Kuwaitis in police custody had confessed to a deadly attack on U.S. Marines, but that no firm link has been established between them and al-Qaida.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, Seven Filipino soldiers died and 25 others were wounded in a fierce clash with Muslim rebels deep in the jungle of southern Sulu island.
(Reuters, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, Dolma Tsering won the first Miss Tibet beauty pageant, an event its organizers said would reinforce Tibetan identity.
(Reuters, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, In Ukraine tens of thousands of protesters laid out their charges against President Leonid Kuchma at a "people's tribunal", and opposition lawmakers said prosecutors promised to review their complaints.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2003 Oct 12, In Bolivia violence erupted at El Alto when the military tried to break a blockade against gas trucks bound for Chile. The death toll grew to 59 after 4 days of clashes at El Alto.
(http://bolivia.indymedia.org/es/2003/10/3225.shtml)
(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A11)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.38)
2003 Oct 12, Some 70,000 employees of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons grocery stores began a strike in southern California, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. Health care costs were a main issue. Workers approved an agreement for southern California on Feb 29, 2004.
(SFC, 10/14/03, p.B2)(SFC, 11/5/03, p.B1)(SFC, 3/1/04, p.A5)
2003 Oct 12, Doctors in Dallas succeeded in separating two-year-old Egyptian conjoined twins.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2003 Oct 12, Joan Kroc (75), widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, died near San Diego. On Nov 6 it was announced that she had left over $200 million for National Public Radio.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 12, Bill Shoemaker (72), Hall of Fame jockey, died in San Marino, Calif.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2003 Oct 12, In Baku, Azerbaijan, some 50,000 people protested Pres. Aliev's attempt to transfer power to his son in upcoming elections.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A11)
2003 Oct 12, In Belarus a patient at a mental hospital set fire to the building, killing 30 people and injuring 31.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, In Bolivia violence erupted at El Alto when the military tried to break a blockade against gas trucks bound for Chile. The death toll grew to 59 after 4 days of clashes at El Alto. Finance Ministry officials began a 3-day withdrawal of 13.7 million bolivianos (US$1.8 million). In 2006 Marcela Nogales, the central bank manager, was jailed for releasing the money, which facilitated a military crackdown. In 2011 Bolivia's highest court convicted five former top military commanders of genocide for an army crackdown on the riots that killed at least 64 civilians. It gave them prison sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/onpns)(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A11)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.38)(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 8/30/11)
2003 Oct 12, British wartime hero Patrick Dalzel-Job, whose exploits made him a model for James Bond, died in Plockton, Scotland, at age 90.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2003 Oct 12, In China Ma Yong (43), was arrested and accused of robbing and killing 12 women in southern China over a five-month period, preying on job seekers in the boomtown of Shenzhen. Duan Zhiqun (20), his female partner, was arrested Oct 23.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2003 Oct 12, In southern China an explosion in a coal mine killed 7 miners, while the bodies of 4 miners killed in an underground flood were pulled from a shaft in a central province.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, In Colombia government forces battled rebels and right-wing paramilitaries in several locations in heavy fighting that killed 27 gunmen and two soldiers.
(AP, 10/13/03)
2003 Oct 12, Germany won the Women's Soccer World Cup 2-1 over Sweden in the eighth minute of overtime.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2003 Oct 12, In Baghdad a suicide attacker, stopped from reaching a hotel full of Americans, detonated his car bomb on a commercial avenue, killing six bystanders and wounding dozens.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, Renato Rinino (41), a professional Italian thief who gained notoriety for stealing jewelry from Prince Charles' London palace in 1994, was shot and killed in Savona.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, In the Philippines Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, terrorist bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiyah, was killed in a shootout with police in Pigcauayan.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A7)
2003 Oct 12, In northern Spain 2 bombs exploded in a parking lot, destroying 11 freight trucks. No one was injured in the blast blamed on the armed Basque separatist group ETA,
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, Taiwan's dwindling number of diplomatic allies shrank by one as Liberia switched ties to the island's rival, China. This reduced Taiwan's recognition to 26 nations, most of them small, developing countries in Africa and Latin America.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2004 Oct 12, The Seattle Storm won their first WNBA title with a 74-60 victory over the Connecticut Sun.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2004 Oct 12, A jury in Baton Rouge, La., took 80 minutes to find suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace. Lee was later sentenced to death for Pace's killing.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2004 Oct 12, In Canada tens of thousands of public servants were on strike across the country as negotiators for the federal government and their union continued marathon talks.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2004 Oct 12, Iranian vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was a close ally of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, resigned, saying he could not work with the conservative-dominated parliament.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2004 Oct 12, A videotape surfaced on the Internet showing what was said to be the confession and beheading of an Arab Shiite Muslim, presumably Iraqi, who was accused of serving the U.S. Army by "assassinating Sunni leaders." US warplanes hit Fallujah and knocked out the celebrated Haji Hussein kebab restaurant killing the owner’s son and nephew.
(AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 12, Police found 7 young people slumped over dead in a parked van outside Tokyo in what was believed to be Japan's biggest-ever group suicide. Another 2 people were found dead in a rented car parked in Yokosuka.
(AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A2)
2004 Oct 12, Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium-range, nuclear-capable missile that would be able to hit most cities in neighboring India.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2004 Oct 12, in northwest Pakistan an attacker tossed a grenade into a wedding ceremony at the home of an Afghan refugee, killing four people and injuring 35.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2005 Oct 12, Human Rights Watch reported that 2,225 inmates in the US were serving life-without-parole terms for crimes committed when they were under 18. California had 180 prisoners serving such sentences for murders committed when they were 17 or 18.
(SFC, 10/13/05, p.B3)
2005 Oct 12-2005 Oct 13, US federal agents in Operation Long Whine arrested 28 people and seized 1,300 pounds of cocaine during an overnight raid in Atlanta.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 12, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire said it has agreed to pay $240 million to Ford Motor Co. to settle claims related to the tiremaker's 2000 recall of defective tires.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A fire at the Wines Central warehouse in Vallejo, Ca., destroyed tens of million of dollars worth of vintage wine. An estimated 6 million bottles were in storage there. On Oct 18 investigators said the fire was deliberately set. In 2007 Mark Anderson (58), a Sausalito businessman, was charged with setting the fire. In 2009 Anderson pleaded guilty to arson and 18 other counts. On Feb 7, 2012, Anderson was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/13/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/19/05, p.B1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/17/09, p.C2)(SFC, 2/8/12, p.C1)
2005 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 5 medical workers were killed by gunmen near Kandahar. Pres. Karzai said he believes insurgents are receiving support from the nation's booming drug trade.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The British government unveiled sweeping anti-terrorism legislation designed to crack down on Islamic extremism, raising concerns from Muslim leaders, opposition parties and legal experts about the potential for infringing on civil liberties.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A rocket carrying two Chinese astronauts blasted off from a base in China's desert northwest Gansu province, returning the country's manned space program to orbit two years after its history-making first flight.
(AP, 10/12/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.46)
2005 Oct 12, In eastern China a man armed with homemade guns opened fire at a primary school, injuring 16 students before escaping.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 12, Tens of thousands of trade union workers and Indians took to the streets of Colombia's main cities to protest a proposed free trade pact with the US, accusing President Alvaro Uribe of selling out the country.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Costa Rica the InterAmerican Human Rights court, announced that it has ordered Colombia to pay damages in the 1997 massacre of dozens of Mapiripan villagers by right-wing paramilitary fighters.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Egypt a sit-in by hundreds of Sudanese refugees outside the offices of the UNHCR in the Cairo entered its 14th day, even as the agency insisted it could not meet their asylum demands. Some 14,400 Sudanese refugees were registered in Egypt.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The European Commission said companies that want to sell music online in the European Union can now get a single license to operate in all 25 member states.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The EU agreed to legally require telecommunications companies to keep records of phone and e-mail traffic for up to one year as part of the bloc's anti-terrorist campaign.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The European Commission presented a new development aid strategy focused primarily on easing poverty in Africa and on holding EU member states to their promises to double aid to the continent.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he will not participate in Germany's new coalition government, ending seven years in power marked by a newly assertive foreign policy and efforts to prune welfare benefits that were a drag on Europe's biggest economy.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, kidnappers shot and killed businessman Archange Honore, on a busy street after he resisted being taken, then sped off in his car with his wife and 2 children.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 12, Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and other top politicians praised as "historic" the last-minute compromises that negotiators reached on the draft constitution and urged Iraqis to vote "yes" in this weekend's referendum.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A suicide bomber killed 30 Iraqis at an army recruiting center. An explosion shut down an oil pipeline near the northern city of Beiji.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Officials said former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and soccer star George Weah emerged as early front-runners in Liberia's first post-war elections.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A Dutch court blocked the extradition of a Dutch terror suspect to the United States, saying his legal rights in U.S. custody could not be guaranteed.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A build up of pollution from factories and old cars caused a wave of smog that enveloped much of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 12, Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a US and a British journalist in the Gaza Strip. Both men were freed in the evening.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, An explosion hit a distillery in Russia's Ingushetia region and there were casualties. A police spokesman called the blast a terrorist act.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Somalia 6 armed men hijacked the MV Miltzow, a ship carrying food aid, as it was unloading at the port of Merka, marking the second such incident in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In South Korea the president's office said South Korea has proposed talks to take back wartime control of its military from the United States.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Ghazi Kanaan, Syria's interior minister, died. He was one of several top officials caught up in the UN investigation into the slaying of Lebanon's former prime minister. The country's official news agency said he committed suicide in his office.
(AP, 10/12/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.50)
2005 Oct 12, Vietnam presented donor nations an emergency six-month plan to battle bird flu, amid fears of a new outbreak of the deadly disease and delays in a poultry vaccination scheme.
(AFP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered a U.S.-based Christian missionary group working with indigenous tribes to leave the country, accusing the organization of "imperialist infiltration" and links to the CIA. Chavez said missionaries of the New Tribes Mission, based in Sanford, Fla., were no longer welcome during a ceremony in a remote Indian village where he presented property titles to several indigenous groups.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2006 Oct 12, The United States introduced a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to punish North Korea for its nuclear test.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2006 Oct 12, America's trade deficit hit an all-time high, $69.9 billion for August, as record imports of oil swamped a solid gain in US exports. The politically sensitive deficit with China set a record, a point that Democrats are sure to use in attacking President Bush's trade policies in the closing weeks of the battle for Congress.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, It was reported that Coke planned to introduce its new drink Evigna, a green-tea based soft drink, in November with claims that it could help burn off calories.
(WSJ, 10/12/06, p.B1)
2006 Oct 12, A blast occurred when a tugboat pushing two barges hit an undersea pipeline in West Cote Blanche Bay, 100 miles southwest of New Orleans. 4 bodies were found and 2 people were missing.
(WSJ, 10/13/06, p.A1)(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 12, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck a vehicle carrying Afghan soldiers, wounding 16 people. A car bomb targeting a US patrol wounded three civilians. An Afghan soldier was killed in a separate ambush. NATO-led forces and Afghan troops clashed with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, leaving as many as 20 suspected insurgents dead.
(AP, 10/12/06)(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 12, More than 100 wildfires raged across Australia, sending firefighters scrambling to protect homes and farmland.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, Dhiran Barot (32), a British man arrested in August, 2004, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb high-profile targets in the US including the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, In Colombia hundreds of Bari Indians, most clad in loincloths and carrying bows and arrows, came down from the hills in their first march ever to demand that the state-owned oil company stop drilling on sacred land abutting their reservation.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, Scientists said a mouse living in the Troodos Mountains of western Cyprus, that predates the arrival of man, represents a new species, Mus cypriacus.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A13)
2006 Oct 12, French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny that the 1915-1919 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey amounted to genocide. It was thought unlikely that Jacques Chirac’s government would forward the bill to the Senate.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A21)
2006 Oct 12, Georgia blocked the next round of talks on Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization in retaliation for Moscow's blockade of its small southern neighbor.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, Gunmen stormed the headquarters of a new Sunni Arab satellite television station, killing the board chairman and 10 others, the second attack on an Iraqi station in the capital in as many weeks.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a crowd of Palestinians in a pre-dawn in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3 Hamas militants and 3 bystanders including a father and his 13-year-old son. An Israeli airstrike targeting the home of Ashraf Farwana, a senior Hamas militant, killed his brother and a 2-year-old girl.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A17)
2006 Oct 12, In Italy the government of Romano Prodi approved a bill to erode the near-monopoly over private television exercised by Silvio Berlusconi, who controls 3 of the country’s 4 main private channels.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.61)
2006 Oct 12, Gillo Pontecorvo (b.1919), Italian filmmaker, died in Rome at age 86. He directed the black-and-white classic "The Battle of Algiers" (1966).
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 12, Carlo Acutis (15), Italian computer whiz, died of leukemia. Acutis had created a website to catalog miracles and took care of websites for some local Catholic organizations. In 2020 he was moved a step closer to possible sainthood with his beatification in the town of Assisi, where he is buried.
(AP, 10/10/20)
2006 Oct 12, Madonna and her husband took custody of a motherless 1-year-old boy in Malawi after a judge granted her an 18-month interim order to take David Banda out of the country. The next day Madonna jetted out of Malawi, leaving behind the 13-month-old boy she planned to adopt. The swift granting of the interim order angered some rights groups which called upon the Malawian government to put the order on hold in the interests of the child's future. Banda left Malawi on a small private jet Oct16.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.E15)(AFP, 10/13/06)(Reuters, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 12, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel literature prize for his works dealing with the symbols of clashing cultures. His uncommon lyrical gifts and uncompromising politics have brought him acclaim worldwide and prosecution at home.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, The UN said it has temporarily pulled international staff out of parts of Somalia controlled by Islamic radicals after receiving written threats.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, In Vietnam the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted a police doctor as saying tests in September confirmed that Nguyen Thi Oanh (39), a convicted heroin trafficker, was then 11 weeks pregnant. The death row inmate had been held in solitary confinement for almost a year.
(Reuters, 10/12/06)
2007 Oct 12, Former Vice President Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for spreading awareness of man-made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.
(AP, 10/12/07)(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 12, The US FDA approved Isentress, a new drug by Merck to fight AIDS. Raltegravir, its generic name, represented a new class of AIDS drugs known as integrase inhibitors.
(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 12, Two men were sentenced to prison in the first successful criminal prosecution under the CAN-SPAM Act. James R. Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California, were convicted in June of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and obscenity. Last week, the judge in the case sentenced Schaffer to 63 months and Kilbride to 72 months in federal prison.
(www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1000096UTGDC)
2007 Oct 12, In Norristown, Pa., Michele Cossey (46), the mother of a 14-year-old who authorities say had a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices in his bedroom for a possible school attack, was charged with buying her son 3 weapons. Authorities said the teenager felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, A consortium headed by Richard Branson and his Virgin Group Ltd. submitted a proposal to Northern Rock PLC for an equity swap that would see the struggling mortgage lender rebranded as Virgin Money.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In southern California 28 commercial vehicles and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash in the southbound truck tunnel of Interstate 5 that killed three people and injured at least 10.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Algeria a police officer was assassinated in one of two attacks in the northern Tizi Ouzou region. At about the same time, five soldiers were injured when Islamists fired at a military checkpoint near the neighboring town of Boghni.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 12, State media said Chinese authorities plan to move some 4 million more rural residents from behind the Three Gorges Dam in recognition of environmental and economic problems spawned by the giant project.
(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Costa Rica heavy rains caused a landslide that killed 10 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, Half of Germany's commuter and regional trains were brought to a standstill by a train drivers' pay strike that caused chaos in many major cities.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Haiti a rain-swollen river flooded a town killing at least 20 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, The government of India, under pressure from opposition, indicated that that they would rather shelve a nuclear energy deal with the US rather than risk a general election.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 12, A parked car bomb went off near a police patrol in a central Baghdad shopping district, killing four people, including two policemen, as Iraq's Sunnis began marking the Eid al-Fit holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In northern Iraq, a bomb planted among toys in a cart left near a children's playground in the religiously mixed city of Tuz Khormato, killing 2 children and wounding 17 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(Reuters, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 12, Myanmar PM Gen. Sue Win (59), reviled for his role in a bloody attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers in 2003, died after a long illness. Myanmar's military junta rejected a UN statement calling for negotiations with the opposition, insisting that it would follow its own plan to bring democracy to the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, The Netherlands said it will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, Pakistan’s Supreme Court refused to suspend a corruption amnesty for former PM Benazir Bhutto but injected uncertainty into Pakistan's turbulent politics by saying the law was reversible.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In central South Africa the Orion GDF-005, a German-made computer-controlled anti-aircraft gun, went haywire during a training exercise killing 9 South African soldiers and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)
2007 Oct 12, The Zimbabwean government authorized new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The government allowed bakers to increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200 percent, as shortages persisted across the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)(AFP, 10/14/07)
2008 Oct 12, In California Hans Florine (44) and Yuji Hirayama (39) broke their own World Record for the fastest climb up the Nose of El Capitan (2:37:5) in Yosemite National Park. They first record was set on Jul 2 with a time of 2:43:33.
(SFC, 7/3/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 62 militants, part of a group of 150 that had been seen massing outside of Lashkar Gah for several days, were killed overnight in NATO air strikes that stopped them from entering the Helmand provincial capital. Taliban commander Mullah Qadratullah was among the dead. The US-led coalition killed five Taliban rebels in Ghazni. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reporter Mellissa Fung (35) was kidnapped in Kabul. She was freed on Nov 8.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A11)(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Oct 12, Algeria announced it will spend 500 million euros (675 million dollars) on protecting towns from flooding as the death toll from floods this month rose to 43.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Australia and New Zealand gave a blanket guarantee to all bank deposits in a move likely to raise pressure on other economies to do the same, amid a crisis of confidence in the global financial system.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Dozens of renowned British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation, publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to protest a proposal allowing police to hold suspects without charge for up to 42 days. The next day the House of Lords rejected the plan and the government said it would abandon the proposal.
(AP, 10/12/08)(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 12, European leaders hammered out action to confront the financial crisis, adding their voices to a global chorus of demands for coordinated action against the turmoil.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, In Iraq Qassim al-Aboudi, the spokesman for the election commission, said there's not enough time to organize a ballot this year but that it will take place soon after the New Year. 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the Yarmouk district of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded in a commercial street of southwestern Baghdad, killing 7 people and wounding 9 others. Another car bomb in Mosul killed 6 people. A Christian music store owner was shot to death in Mosul, the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the city. Iraq deployed around 1,000 police in Christian areas of Mosul as thousands of members of the minority group fled the worst violence against them in 5 years. A spate of attacks on Christians in Mosul since September 28 had killed at least 11 people.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A12)
2008 Oct 12, Lithuanians voted in a general election likely to mark comebacks for ex-president Rolandas Paksas or former political star Viktor Uspaskich. A non-binding referendum was also on the ballot as part of a battle to delay the closure of Ignalina, a Soviet-era nuclear power station which provides 70 percent of Lithuania's electricity. Voters dealt a major blow to Lithuania's leftist government by boosting the conservative opposition as well as some populist leaders, including an impeached ex-president, in weekend elections. Homeland Union leader Andrius Kubilius said he was ready to form a new Cabinet after his party won the most votes in the first round, receiving 19.2 percent. The governing Social Democratic Party, which has controlled the prime minister's office since 2001, finished fourth with 11.7 percent.
(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 12, An angry crowd in central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers in the farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla state. Federal police managed to round up 21 migrants.
(AP, 10/14/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A23)
2008 Oct 12, North Korea said it will resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the US removed the communist country from a list of states Washington says sponsor terrorism.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pakistani helicopter gunships bombed a meeting of Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda near the border with Afghanistan. Among the dead were two Taliban commanders and 12 potential suicide bombers. More than 24 extremists with links to Al-Qaeda were killed near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan for the international space station. The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carried American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Somali forces from semiautonomous Puntland unsuccessfully raided a hijacked ships. 2 pirates were killed.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A15)
2008 Oct 12, Sri Lanka’s soldiers destroyed three bunkers and captured four others after battles that killed 15 rebels near their administrative capital of Kilinochchi. Separate clashes in the same area killed four rebels and one soldier. In the northern Jaffna peninsula, troops killed four rebels along the front lines while a rebel mortar attack killed two soldiers. Clashes in Mullaitivu killed four rebels and wounded one soldier.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 12, The United Arab Emirates said it would guarantee domestic bank deposits and with Saudi Arabia promised fresh financial support to domestic banks.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister Alphonsa (1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from southern India and India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico (1791-1860), a Neapolitan priest who founded a missionary order in the 19th century; Sister Maria Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler (1848-1924) in Switzerland, who worked as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran (1832-1869), a 19th century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, In Venezuela Pres. Chaves, on Indigenous Resistance Day, presented the Yukpa Indians titles to some blocks of land. This fell short of the 150,000 acres they claimed as ancestral territory.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.41)
2009 Oct 12, Americans Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) and Oliver Williamson (b.1932) won the Nobel economics prize for their work in economic governance. Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics, specialized in the study of common resource pools.
(AP, 10/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.92)(Econ, 6/30/12, p.94)
2009 Oct 12, Don Young of Des Moines, Iowa, won the 39th Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival with his 1,658-pound pumpkin. It broke the year-old record of 1,528 pounds. His first prize of $9,948 came out to $6 per pound. The world record had just been set on Oct 10 in Ohio by a 1,725-pound Atlantic giant pumpkin.
(SFC, 10/13/09, p.C1)(SSFC, 10/11/09, p.A14)
2009 Oct 12, In SF Eric Buschman (49) was stabbed to death on the 300 block of Athens Street in the Excelsior District. On Oct 22 police arrested Charlie Fonilloa Sekona (20), man who had been put into a mental health program for assaulting a Costco worker, as a suspect. Police believed the stabbing was random.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.C1)
2009 Oct 12, Afghanistan's election watchdog changed its fraud-tallying rules for the second time in less than a week, switching back to a formula that lowers the chance of overturning President Hamid Karzai's first-round win. Under the new rules the commission will not take into account which candidate it finds benefited most from any fraud. One of the two Afghans on the UN-backed commission looking into vote fraud in the August presidential election resigned, citing interference by foreigners.
(Reuters, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Britain’s PM Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state assets including a rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel to cut soaring debt caused by economic crisis.
(AFP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, A court in China's far western Xinjiang region sentenced six men to death for murder and other crimes committed during ethnic riots that killed nearly 200 people. A seventh man was given life imprisonment.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger, was denied government permission to travel to New York to receive a top journalism prize. She has become an international sensation for offering frank criticism of her country's communist system. In May Cuban authorities had denied Sanchez permission to fly to Madrid to accept the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for creating her Generation Y blog (2007), which gets more than 1 million hits a month. Around the same time, Time magazine deemed Sanchez one of the world's 100 most influential people.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Gabon's constitutional court said Ali Bongo, the son of the country's longtime dictator, won the Aug. 30 presidential elections that opposition candidates said were fraudulent.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Italy Mohamed Game (35), a Libyan, hurled a home-made bomb at the Santa Barbara police barracks in Milan, losing his hand from the blast and slightly wounding a policeman on duty outside. Game had lived in Italy since 2003 and had never been a suspect. Italian police detained two more suspects and found a large quantity of bomb-making chemicals during overnight searches.
(AFP, 10/12/09)(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 12, North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles off its east coast and banned ships from the area from October 10-20.
(AFP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Pakistan a teenage suicide car bombing targeting troops killed 45 people, including 6 security people, in northwest Shangla district as the Taliban pledged to mobilize fighters across the country for more strikes.
(AP, 10/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.34)
2009 Oct 12, Russian PM Vladimir Putin landed in China in an effort to bolster energy, political and military ties between the former rival nations turned strategic partners.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Senegal cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke (34) was on holiday when he was found dead in his room. Belgian cycling officials said his death was caused by a lung embolism. Vandenbroucke won the weeklong Paris-Nice spring race in 1998 and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic a year later before his career was marred by a doping scandal.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 12, A Sudanese court sentenced 4 Islamists to death for a 2nd time for the murder of a US diplomat John Granville and his driver in Khartoum last year. The sentencing came after the mother of John Granville, who worked with the US Agency for Int’l. Development (USAID), and the wife of driver Abdel Rahman Abbas both demanded the men be executed.
(AFP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Syria's Pres. Bashar Assad issued a decree banning smoking in public places, joining an anti-smoking trend already under way in other Arab countries. The decree will go into effect in six months and ban smoking in restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theaters, schools, official functions and on public transport. Offenders will be fined 2,000 Syrian pounds, about $45.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, The United Arab Emirates' highest court convicted an American citizen on terrorism-related charges amid claims that torture was used to extract a confession. The court sentenced Naji Hamdan (43) to 18 months in prison, but he should be freed soon because the sentence counts time served and he was detained last year. Hamdan was arrested in the UAE in August 2008 and charged in June 2009 with supporting terrorism, working with terrorist organizations and being a member of a terrorist group.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Venezuela thousands of people congregated for candlelit rituals on a remote mountainside where adherents make an annual pilgrimage to pay homage to an indigenous goddess known as Maria Lionza. The traditions, hundreds of years old, draw on elements of the Afro-Caribbean religion Santeria and indigenous rituals, as well as Catholicism. Believers often ask for spiritual healing or protection from witchcraft, or thank the goddess for curing an illness.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 12, Nestle said its Zimbabwe banking is back to normal just days after newspapers reported that the government froze their accounts and ordered an audit after the company stopped buying milk from a farm owned by President Robert Mugabe's wife.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2010 Oct 12, The Obama administration lifted the deep-water drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico. Actual resumption was still weeks to months away.
(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Oct 12, A US federal judge ordered an immediate halt to military discharges under the “don’t ask, don’t tell" policy. District Judge Virginia Phillips of Riverside, Ca., had ruled the 1993 law unconstitutional on Sep 9.
(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A1)
2010 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a commander and 3 other militants from the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida, were killed in a firefight overnight with NATO and Afghan forces in eastern Khost province's Spera district.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a cargo plane, carrying NATO supplies went down east of Kabul shortly after taking off from Bagram Air Field. The bodies of 5 of 8 people on board were recovered the next day. The plane, owned by United Arab Emirates-based TransAfrik, was under contract by the US-based company National Air Cargo.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Algeria 5 people were killed when a remote control bomb exploded on a construction site in Tlidgen.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, Australian PM Julia Gillard renewed her backing for a controversial Internet filter, saying it was driven by a "moral question."
(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood accused the government of cracking down ahead of November's parliamentary election. Police had arrested at least 28 members of the Islamist group over the last 2 days. An Egyptian regulatory body set new rules for companies sending text messages to multiple mobile phones, a step that activists say will stifle efforts to mobilize voters before the elections, which are to be held in the last week of November.
(AFP, 10/12/10)(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Ethiopia senior leaders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a breakaway rebel faction, gathered in Addis Ababa to sign a peace deal with the government. The government claimed the breakaway group represents around 80 percent of the ONLF.
(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In France hundreds of thousands of workers, students and functionaries staged protests, the 4th this month, aimed to reverse a new law requiring people to work until 62 rather than 60 before receiving their retirement pensions.
(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 12, A Greek tanker, the Mindoro, collided with a container ship, the Cypriot-flagged Jork Ranger, 20 miles (30 km) off the Dutch coast and briefly leaked jet fuel into the North Sea.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In India a second doping case in two days, and again involving a Nigerian runner, was reported. Both cases involved Methylhexaneamine. It was also found in about a dozen Indian athletes in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Iran 18 members of the powerful Revolutionary Guard were killed in an explosion that struck the force's base in the city of Khoramabad. The blast was caused by a fire that had reached the ammunition storage area. 14 other troops were wounded.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Iraq Al-Qaida's umbrella group threatened to kidnap family members of Iraqi politicians and ministers unless the wife and children of its slain leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, are released from prison.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Japan residents of Taiji village, notorious for the dolphin hunt documented in the film "The Cove," slaughtered a pod of dolphins but spared the youngest animals.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, Mexican soldiers captured Seiki Ogata, an alleged Tabasco state Zetas gang leader, along with 5 other gang members. Ogata was suspected of organizing the massacre of a dead marine Melquisedet Angulo’s family last Dec., just days after Angulo had been killed during a raid in Cuernavaca, that left drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva dead. Authorities in Sinaloa state said they found 3 beheaded bodies along a highway that leads to the town of Imala. The bodies were accompanied with a message that accused them of being kidnappers. The decapitated head of police commander Rolando Flores was found in a suitcase outside a Mexican Army base. He had been investigating the reported shooting of an American tourist on Falcon Lake. Pirates have robbed boaters and fisherman on the Mexican side. Motorists found a decapitated body underneath a bridge on a road leading to the beachside neighborhood of Playas de Tijuana. Earlier in the day police found a human head inside a bag in another Tijuana neighborhood, but it did not belong to the body found underneath the bridge.
(AP, 10/13/10)(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 12, Hurricane Paula, the ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, churned toward the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
(Reuters, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Mozambique 17 prisoners cut the bars at Nampula Industrial Penitentiary before escaping. They were among 99 inmates recently transferred to Nampula from neighboring provinces. One fugitive was soon re-captured.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In northwestern Pakistan suspected militants killed 3 anti-Taliban tribal elders in the Bazai area of the Mohmand tribal region, the latest in a string of attacks against tribesmen who dare stand up to the Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III granted amnesty to officers and soldiers accused of plotting to overthrow his predecessor. Only a handful of the original 300 troops who took up arms against then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in July 2003 remained in military custody on charges of mutiny and coup attempt.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In central Poland a van crammed with farm workers crashed head-on into a truck after apparently trying to overtake another vehicle in dense fog, killing all 18 people on board.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In eastern Ukraine a train crashed into a crowded bus, killing 43 people on the bus, including two children, and injuring nearly a dozen others. PM Mykola Azarov ordered his government to pay the family of each of the dead victims 100,000 hryvna ($12,600). He also instructed transport officials to install automated crossing gates at all the nation's railway crossings to prevent cars, buses and trucks from ignoring the siren.
(AP, 10/12/10)(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 12, At the United Nations Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa were elected to join the big guns on the UN Security Council for two years, starting in January.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101012/ts_csm/331624)(Reuters, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI formally created a new Vatican office to revive Christianity in Europe, his latest attempt to counter secular trends in traditionally Christian countries.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Yemen Al-Qaida's offshoot warned it is setting up a "new army" to overthrow the country's president in response to his US-backed counterterrorism campaign and said it would fill its ranks with snipers and bomb makers.
(AP, 10/12/10)
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 hair salon and began shooting. 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. On April 28, 2014, Dekraai agreed to plead guilty. In 2017 Dekraai was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms in prison.
(AP, 10/13/11)(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A7)(SFC, 4/29/14, p.A6)(SFC, 9/23/17 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)
2012 Oct 12, The US Justice Dept. announced that it will allow members of federally recognized Indian tribes to possess eagle feathers.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 12, US federal officials approved a plan to set aside 285,000 acres of public land for the development of large-scale solar power plants in 6 states. Most of the land is in Southern California.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 12, Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar (31), the daughter of one of the world's most sought-after drug lords, was arrested at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry and charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. Her father is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 12, UC Berkeley law students Justin Teixeira and Eric Cuellar were seen laughing and throwing around the body of a dead helmeted guinea fowl at the Flamingo casino in Las Vegas. On Dec 28 prosecutors filed animal cruelty charges against both men. In 2013 Cuellar pleaded guilty and was fined $200 and sentenced to 48 hours of community service. A 3rd defendant Hazhir Kargaran (26) pleaded no contest to 3 misdemeanors and was sentenced to 2 days in jail and 48 hours of community service. Teixeira pleaded guilty to a felony animal killing was sentenced to 6 months in boot camp and then probation. On may 13, 2014, Teixeira was sentenced to 4 years’ probation and monthly work at an animal shelter.
(SFC, 12/28/12, p.A5)(SFC, 6/14/13, p.C8)(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A5)
2012 Oct 12, In Texas Elizabeth Escalona of Dallas was sentenced to 99 years in prison after she pleaded guilty beating her daughter (2) and gluing the girl’s hands to a wall as she struggled with potty training.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 12, Shares of Workday, a human resources software company in Pleasanton, Ca., rose $20.69 to close at $48.69 in its first day of trading on the NYSE. The company was founded in 2005 by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri. Duffield had created PeopleSoft, which was swallowed by Oracle in 2004.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, p.D1)(Economist, 10/6/12, p.78)
2012 Oct 12, In Botswana a judge nullified a customary law that denied women the right to inherit a family home, a decision seen as a crucial step forward for women's rights in the southern African country.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, British lawyers said Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky has agreed to pay 35 million pounds towards the legal fees of Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich after failing in a $6 billion (3.7 billion pounds) London court battle with his former protégé.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Bahrain riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades in clashes with hundreds of anti-government protesters in the capital Manama.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, London police arrested Maksim Bakiyev (34), the fugitive son of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president, on a US extradition warrant on suspicion of fraud. released on bail until his next court hearing on Dec 7.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 12, It was reported that Britain planned to shoot badgers for six consecutive weeks in each of the next four years in parts of Gloucestershire and the neighboring county of Somerset. The aim was to reduce the badger population by 70 percent. At issue was how to stem the spread of bovine tuberculosis, which many farmers blamed on roaming badgers.
(Reuters, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Egypt Liberal and leftist groups had called a protest to demand more action from Pres. Morsi after his first 100 days in office. Morsi's supporters called for a separate rally to demand judicial independence following the acquittals of Mubarak loyalists on Oct 10. A melee erupted after Morsi's supporters stormed the activists' stage at Cairo's Tahrir Square, angered by chants from the opposition they perceived as insults to the president.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, The European Union was named as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering peace on a continent ravaged by war.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Egypt Liberal and leftist groups had called a protest to demand more action from Pres. Morsi after his first 100 days in office. Morsi's supporters called for a separate rally to demand judicial independence following the acquittals of Mubarak loyalists on Oct 10. A melee erupted after Morsi's supporters stormed the activists' stage at Cairo's Tahrir Square, angered by chants from the opposition they perceived as insults to the president.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, Italy’s top court sided with doctors who blamed a non-cancerous brain tumor in businessman Innocenzo Marcolini on electro-magnetic radiation from his cell phone.
www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/us-italy-phones-idUSBRE89I0V320121019)
2012 Oct 12, Lebanon's state run news agency said three members of an al-Qaida-inspired group have escaped from a prison in eastern Beirut.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, A top official in Niger said the country's recent floods have killed 91 people and caused significant damage.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, The government of Puerto Rico formally withdrew plans to build a natural gas pipeline after investing more than $50 million in a project that provoked strong opposition from islanders and environmentalists.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Scotland heavy rain and flooding hit large swathes of the country, bursting riverbanks, turning roads into torrents and stranding people in their homes.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In South Africa a strike by some 20,000 truckers ended in a three-year wage deal that gives them a 10 percent pay raise in the first year.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Syria Jabhat al-Nusra, a shadowy jihadi group believed to be linked to al-Qaida, fought alongside rebels who seized overnight the air defense base near the village of al-Taaneh.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a plan to back an African-led military force to help the Malian army oust Islamic militants who have seized the northern half of the country.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A2)
2013 Oct 12, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced they had reached preliminary agreement on a bilateral security pact that now depends on the approval of Afghanistan's tribal leaders.
(AP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Oklahoma 5 people were shot at a Hmong New year’s festival in Tulsa. Meng Lee (19) and Boonmlee (21) fled the scene, but were arrested the next day.
(SFC, 10/13/13, p.A4)
2013 Oct 12, Oscar Hijuelos (b.1951), Pulitzer Prize winner (1990), died in Manhattan. His 1989 novel “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" became a best seller.
(SFC, 10/15/13, p.C3)
2013 Oct 12, In Azerbaijan thousands gathered in Baku to protest the re-election of President Ilham Aliyev in a vote widely criticized by international election monitors.
(AP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Belgium Somali pirate Mohamed Abdi Hassan, better known as "Afweyne" or "Big Mouth", was detained at Brussels airport when he stepped off a flight from Nairobi. He was lured to Brussels on promises of shooting a documentary movie about his life on the high seas.
(AFP, 10/14/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Colombia a 22-story apartment building collapsed in Medellin. 11 people were reported missing. The building was evacuated after cracks appeared a day earlier.
(SFC, 10/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 12, In Ethiopia foreign ministers of the 54-member African Union agreed that sitting heads of state should not be tried by the International Criminal Court where Kenya's leaders are in the dock. They also called for deferring the cases of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, Honduras police clashed with local residents during the arrest of Carlos Peralta (22), a man believed responsible for decapitating a 7-year-old boy in the rural town of San Francisco de la Paz. The boy's body was found a day earlier in the town in the Olancho region.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, India detained an armed ship operated by a US maritime security company and the 35 people on board for failing to produce papers authorizing it to carry weapons and ammunition in Indian waters. The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Seaman Guard Ohio belongs to Virginia-based AdvanFort, a maritime security firm that specializes in anti-piracy operations.
(Reuters, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In India the massive Cyclone Phailin hammered the eastern coastline of Orissa state with heavy rains and destructive winds, as hundreds of thousands of people living in the region moved inland and took shelter. The storm left at least 17 people dead.
(AP, 10/12/13)(AP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Iraq a pickup truck packed with explosives blew up at an Iraqi vegetable market, killing 17 and wounding dozens.
(AP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Italy divers found an additional 20 bodies off the island of Lampedusa, bringing the still provisional death toll from an October 3 shipwreck to 359.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Niger thousands of people protested against French nuclear firm Areva, which has been mining uranium in the impoverished country for nearly 50 years.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, Typhoon Nari pounded the northern Philippines, killing 13 people, ripping roofs off thousands of buildings, and leaving more than two million without power.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, Russian police arrested 67 people after a fight broke out between gay rights activists and their opponents at a demonstration in St. Petersburg.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Spain thousands of people gathered in Barcelona to demonstrate against a proposed Catalonia split away from Spain.
(SSFC, 10/13/13, p.A3)
2013 Oct 12, In Syria two mortar rounds slammed into the central Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood of Damascus, killing a child and wounding 11 people. Tank shells fired by Syrian government forces slammed into a building in the southern city of Daraa, killing at least 11 people, including women and children.
(AFP, 10/12/13)(AFP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Vietnam a blast at a fireworks factory killed at least 24 people. Police blamed other explosives stored at the site for the accident which also left many injured at the Z121 military facility north of Hanoi.
(AP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Yemen thousands of separatists demanding secession took to the streets of Aden to mark the anniversary in 1967 of the independence of former South Yemen.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2014 Oct 12, A US federal judge struck down Alaska’s first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages.
(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A8)
2014 Oct 12, In northern and eastern Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants led a string of attacks on police and civilians, killing at least 14 people.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, Bolivians voted in a presidential election. President Evo Morales coasted to victory, winning an unprecedented third term with 61 percent of the vote.
(Reuters, 10/12/14)(AP, 10/13/14)(AFP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 12, Bosnia held general elections. Some 3.3 million voters were eligible to cast ballots to elect three members -- a Croat, a Muslim and a Serb -- to the joint presidency, as well as a new central parliament. They will also elect assemblies for the two entities and a president in Republika Srpska. Nationalist candidates from Bosnia's Croat, Muslim and Serb communities won the country's three-man presidency.
(AFP, 10/12/14)(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Cambodia freelance journalist Taing Try (49) was shot in the forehead and died instantly at a remote forestry site in Kratie province. He was investigating illegal logging in the region. Police soon detained three men, including a timber trader, believed to be linked to the murder.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Central African Republic eight armed men, belonging to a rebel group known as the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), abducted Polish priest Mateusz Dziedzic in the town of Baboua. They wanted to exchange the kidnapped missionary for their leader, who is currently imprisoned in Cameroon.
(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 12, Chinese police stormed into a conference room outside Beijing where rights lawyers were meeting to discuss wrongful cases and broke up the gathering. Chinese scholar and rights advocate Guo Yushan, founder of an influential non-governmental think tank, was detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In China four ethnic Uighurs armed with knives and explosives killed at least 22 people, mostly Han Chinese, in Kashgar Prefecture. Dozens were injured before police shot and killed the attackers.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 12, In Cairo, Egypt, US Sec. of State John Kerry presided over a conference on peace in the Middle East and announced an additional $212 million in US aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Qatar said it would provide $1 billion in reconstruction assistance for Gaza, while fellow Gulf Arab states Kuwait and United Arab Emirates promised $200 million each. Germany also announced it would contribute 50 million euros ($63 million) to reconstruction efforts in Gaza.
(Reuters, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, Egyptian police backed by armored vehicles stormed the campuses of at least two prominent universities to quell anti-government protests by students.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Hungary PM Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party was the clear winner in municipal elections. The far-right Jobbik party made significant gains in rural areas, where it has become the main challenger to Orban's Fidesz party.
(AP, 10/13/14)(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 12, In India Cyclone Hudhud pounded a large swath of the eastern seaboard with heavy rain and strong winds, killing at least 41 people and causing major damage to buildings and crops.
(AP, 10/12/14)(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Iraq a triple suicide bombing killed 26 Kurdish security forces in Diyala province. A roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Japan at least 35 people were reported injured as Typhoon Vongfong, packing winds of up to 180 km (110 miles) per hour and heavy rain, hit the southern island of Okinawa.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In western Libya a hospital official said fighting over Kikla between Islamist militias and rival groups has killed at least 23 people.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Mozambique brawling supporters of Frelimo and opposition party Renamo clashed in the northern city of Nampula, where 23 people were injured and 13 others arrested ahead of legislative and provincial elections on Oct 15.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Somalia a car bomb exploded outside a café in Mogadishu killing 11 people. Gunmen shot and seriously wounded Abdirisak Jama, a Somali journalist working for a London-based television channel, in an attack outside his home in Mogadishu.
(AFP, 10/12/14)(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 12, The US Central Command said warplanes from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates conducted four airstrikes in Syria over the weekend, including three in Kobani that destroyed an Islamic State fighting position and staging area.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2015 Oct 12, In Kansas City, Mo., 2 firefighters were killed after a wall from a burning building collapsed on them. In 2018 nail salon manager Thu Hong Nguyen (46) was convicted of 2nd murder and 2nd degree arson. She was portrayed as someone who had a habit of burning businesses for insurance money.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A12)(SFC, 7/24/18, p.A5)
2015 Oct 12, Dell and investment firm Silver Lake confirmed that they would acquire EMC Corp. for about $67 billion.
(SFC, 10/13/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 12, In Afghanistan fighting intensified around the city of Ghazni, as Taliban militants threatened to seize a second provincial capital after briefly occupying Kunduz in the north last month. Toorpakai Olfat, local UN staffer, was shot and killed by two gunmen on a motorbike as she was on her way to work in Kandahar.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, An Albanian court acquitted Ardian Fullani, a former governor of the country's central bank, of charges of abuse of office over the theft of millions of dollars from bank reserves.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Princeton Prof. Angus Deaton (69), a British-born economist, won the 2015 economics Nobel Prize for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare that has helped governments to improve policy through tools such as household surveys and tax changes.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(SFC, 10/13/15, p.A2)(Econ, 10/17/15, p.80)
2015 Oct 12, In China Jiang Jiemin, who earlier led the country's biggest petroleum company, and a deputy party chief in populous Sichuan province were convicted of corruption and sentenced to 16 and 13 years in prison, respectively.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Chinese authorities announced the arrests of 16 suspected members of a smuggling ring and the seizure of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of ivory along with rhino horns and bear paws.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, The EU demanded the "immediate" halt of Russian air strikes against moderate Syrian rebel groups and warned a lasting peace was impossible under Moscow-backed President Bashar al-Assad.
(AFP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Finland Iraqi asylum seekers rallied in central Helsinki and signed a petition against plans to negotiate a deal with Baghdad that could lead to their deportation, arguing that their country should not be considered safe.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In France police arrested several Air France workers at their homes as investigators tracked down protesters who hounded executives from a meeting about mass job cuts last week and tore the clothes of two fleeing managers.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Israel a Palestinian identified as Mustafa al-Khatib (18) attacked a policeman with a knife at an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City and was shot dead by security forces. A female attacker stabbed an Israeli policeman near the force's headquarters in Jerusalem and was shot and wounded by the victim.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Palestinian Ahmed Manasra (12) wounded two Israelis in a knife attack in an Israeli settlement north of Jerusalem along with his 15-year-old cousin. The cousin was shot and killed by an Israeli passerby, while Manasra was wounded. In 2016 Manasra was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/zoxnztb)(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2015 Oct 12, A Kurdish militia that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria with help from US-led air strikes has joined forces with Arab groups in an alliance announced on that may be a prelude to an attack on the jihadists' base of operations in Raqqa.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In the Philippines gunmen killed a town mayor and wounded his vice mayor and at least three other companions in an ambush while they were traveling in a van in a far-flung southern region.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Russia’s Gazprom resumed gas supplies to Ukraine after receiving prepayment of $234 million from Kiev, assuaging European fears about a new energy crisis ahead of the winter heating season.
(AFP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Syrian army and allied forces supported by Russian warplanes made further advances as they pressed an offensive against insurgents, in the fiercest clashes for nearly a week. Two Iranian senior Revolutionary Guards officers were killed fighting Islamic State. Pro-government forces including the Lebanese group Hezbollah captured the southern part of Kafr Nabuda. At least 25 government fighters were killed.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(Reuters, 10/13/15)(Reuters, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Turkey hundreds of people marched through Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2016 Oct 12, Wells Fargo & Co. announced that CEO John Stumpf (63) has retired effective immediately. He will be succeeded by Tim Sloan, the banks president and chief operating officer.
(SFC, 10/13/16, p.A1)
2016 Oct 12, Egypt's military announced it will host Russian troops for war games along the Mediterranean coast, the latest step in the two countries' rapprochement and another sign of Moscow flexing its muscles in the Middle East.
(AP, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 12, Hong Kong held a swearing-in ceremony for recently chosen legislators. Three were declared unqualified to take their posts as they snubbed China during the chaotic ceremony.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.41)
2016 Oct 12, The Indian army said a three-day standoff with suspected rebels in Kashmir has ended after government forces killed two militants inside a building in Pampore town. The building was extensively damaged in the fighting.
(AP, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 12, In Syria rebels supported by Turkish tanks and US-led coalition air strikes pushed toward the Islamic State stronghold of Dabiq. Turkey’s military said clashes and air strikes over the past 24 hours have killed 47 jihadists. An airstrike hit the biggest market on the rebel-held side of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people and leveling buildings. Shelling on government-held parts of Aleppo killed 8 people.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)(AP, 10/12/16)(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2017 Oct 12, Pres. Donald Trump signed an executive order directing government agencies to design insurance plans that would offer lower premiums outside the requirements of Pres. Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It was also reported that Trump plans to halt payments to insurers under the Obama-era health care law.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A6)
2017 Oct 12, The US State Dept. said the US is pulling out of UNESCO, effective Dec. 31, because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for "fundamental reform" of the UN cultural agency. The US stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member in 2011. The US now owes about $550 million in back payments. Washington did the same thing in the 1980s because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The US rejoined in 2003.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In California winds up to 45 mph (72 kph) were expected to pummel areas north of San Francisco where at least 23 people have died and at least 3,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed. Officials voiced concern that the 22 separate blazes would merge into larger infernos.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Santos Portillo Andrade (33), a Boston area leader of the violent Central American street gang MS-13, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a racketeering conspiracy involving assault, drug and firearms charges. He was one of more than 60 members of the gang indicted last year and is the 19th to be sentenced.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, In North Carolina an attempted breakout from the Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City left two employees dead. Prison guard Wendy Shannon, another guard, a maintenance worker and a sewing plant manager were killed in the disturbance. Prisoners also set a fire as a diversion during the episode.
(SFC, 10/14/17, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/y68xs3xo)(SSFC, 10/20/19, p.A8)
2017 Oct 12, Texas inmate Robert Pruett (38) was executed for the 1999 death of corrections officer Daniel Nagle.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A8)
2017 Oct 12, Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company was fully committed to helping US congressional investigators publicly release Russia-backed political ads that ran during the 2016 US election.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a US drone strike killed 14 Islamic State militants in a remote area in eastern Kunar province.
(AP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 12, Britain’s university city of Oxford unveiled plans to ban petrol and diesel cars from its center from 2020 as part of the most radical set of proposals so far in Britain to curb pollution.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Cambodia deported 74 Chinese citizens accused of extorting money from women in mainland China with threats to circulate naked images of them online.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 12, Egypt extended its state of emergency for yet another three months, according to a decision from President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Ethiopia more than 15,000 people rallied in Wolisso, Oromia state, against the country’s ruling elite.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 12, French President Emmanuel Macron launched round two of his ambitious domestic reform program. This included major changes to the generous unemployment benefits system, as well as large increases in state-funded training aimed at helping the unemployed back into the workplace.
(AFP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In France eight Greenpeace activists broke into a nuclear power station and set off fireworks to urge better protection for nuclear waste and protest France's dependence on atomic energy.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Germany Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said that the airline will sign an agreement to buy large parts of the bankrupt carrier Air Berlin.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The Italian government won the last of three confidence votes it had called on a contested electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in next year's election.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Kenya's opposition vowed to pursue a campaign of protest for electoral reform, defying a ban on rallies in main city centers announced today by the government.
(AFP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Liberia’s National Election Commission data showed former international soccer star George Weah ahead in 11 of 15 counties. Fewer than 30 percent of the votes have been counted in the majority of counties.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, Thousands of Rohingya left Myanmar, aiming to reach Bangladesh by boat, citing a shortage of food and fear of repression.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In southern Nigeria Italian priest Maurizio Pallu (63) was snatched in broad daylight by armed men just outside of Benin City. He was travelling with a group of four other people when they were attacked and robbed by armed men who took Pallu but let the others go.
(AFP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 12, Pakistan's army said it has rescued a kidnapped US-Canadian couple and their three children after receiving intelligence from the United States. The family was abducted in 2012 while traveling in Afghanistan and held by the militant Haqqani network. They were identified as Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their children.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The Pakistani Taliban reportedly killed Haroon Khan, a local journalist, in the country's volatile northwest. The Taliban accused him of secretly working for Pakistani intelligence.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war. The Rafah border crossing in Gaza will be handed over to the unity government on Nov. 1.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte read a memorandum that removes police from the drugs war and places the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in charge, then launched a curse-laden tirade at foreign critics of a campaign that has killed thousands of Filipinos.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A group of senior officers from the general staff of the Russian armed forces could not attend the joint briefing with the Chinese military at the UN in NYC because they were not issued US visas.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, Slovakia's Constitutional Court ordered a lower court to look again at claims that Andrej Babis, the man who hopes to be the Czech Republic's next prime minister, collaborated with the Czechoslovak communist-era secret police.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, South African police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to break up crowds hurling insults at a group of men accused of cannibalism in eastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A South Africa court said anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, who died in 1971, was tortured and killed by South African police, a landmark decision that raised hopes that dozens of similar cases would be investigated. Timol was one of 73 political detainees who died in police custody in South Africa between 1963 and 1990.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A Spanish Eurofighter jet crashed after taking part in a military display in Madrid for Spain's national day, killing its pilot.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Syria dozens of desperate civilians streamed out of battlefront districts of Raqa after a ferocious resumption in bombardment against Islamic State group holdouts in the city.
(AFP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Three Syrian opposition factions agreed to cease fire in southern Damascus under an agreement brokered by Egypt and Russia that was not signed by the Syrian government.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The United Arab Emirates said it was ending the mission of North Korea's non-resident ambassador and terminating its own envoy's services in Pyongyang. The UAE will also stop issuing new visas or company licenses to North Korean citizens.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The United Nations migration agency said West African migrants trying to reach Europe are dying in far greater numbers in the Sahara than in the Mediterranean but efforts to dissuade them may cause new routes to open up.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Vietnam officials said recent heavy rain in northern and central Vietnam have triggered floods and landslides that killed 46 people and left 33 people missing in the worst such disaster in years.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2018 Oct 12, It was reported that the US Army has discharged more than 500 immigrant enlistees, over the last twelve months, who had been recruited across the globe for their language or medical skills and promised a fast track to citizenship in exchange for their service.
(SFC, 10/12/18, p.A5)
2018 Oct 12, Bloomberg withdrew from a Saudi investment conference at the end of the month, following other media companies that have dropped plans to participate after the disappearance of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. CNBC cable news network added its name to the growing list of media companies, citing the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Detroit, Mich., the decomposed bodies of 11 infants were found in a ceiling compartment of the former Cantrell Funeral Home. The facility had been closed sinece April when inspectors suspended its license following the discovery of bodies covered with what appeared to be mold.
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A10)
2018 Oct 12, In northern Afghanistan an attack by the Taliban killed four soldiers in Kunduz province. Several Taliban fighters were also killed.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, A Taliban delegation met with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar to discuss ending the Afghan conflict.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, It was reported that Albania's base at Kucova, long the graveyard of its once mighty air force, is set to become a NATO station. Albania retired its 224 Soviet- and Chinese-made MiGs in 2005.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Australia Chinese property developer Xu Longwei was sentenced to at least two-and-a-half years in jail by a court for non-consensual intercourse with a woman after a Sydney dinner party hosted by billionaire JD.com-founder Richard Liu.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Austria two women tied the knot in Vienna in the country's first same-sex marriage, months after the country's Constitutional Court ruled to legalize it.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR Ethiopian authorities have registered more than 6,700 new arrivals from Eritrea since the border's opening. Eritrean refugee arrivals to Ethiopia have jumped to about 390 per day from around 53.
(AFP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, A French police van was seen driving into Italy to return recently-arrived migrants to the town of Calviere. French authorities later admitted to returning migrants to Italy in "error".
(AFP, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 12, Germany said it will extend temporary controls at its border with Austria for six months due to concerns the EU's external frontiers are not sufficiently protected. The Danish government made a similar announcement, citing the threat of terrorism.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Hong Kong authorities barred former lawmaker Lau Siu-lai from contesting an election next month given her past advocacy of greater autonomy for Hong Kong. A small group of pro-democracy lawmakers and activists protested outside government headquarters, holding up banners decrying the decision as "political suppression".
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In eastern India 12 people were feared dead in a cyclone shelter swamped by a landslide caused by heavy rains from Cyclone Titli in Orissa state.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Indonesia torrential rains triggered flash floods and landslides on the island of Sumatra, killing at least 27 people, including a dozen children at a school.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, An Israeli court upheld the barring of Lara Alqasem (22), an American student, from the country over her activities in support of an international boycott campaign by pro-Palestinian groups.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman late today ordered the deliveries of Qatari-bought fuel to stop after clashes on the Gaza-Israel border. The Israeli army said five people were shot dead after "an organized attack" on an army post. The Gaza health ministry said seven Palestinians were killed. 50 other protesters were wounded by live bullets.
(AP, 10/12/18)(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Israeli forces said they had arrested a Palestinian, identified as Ashraf Naalwa (23), on suspicion of stabbing and wounding an army reservist on guard duty at a checkpoint south of Nablus the previous day.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Palestinian Aisha Rabi (47), a mother of nine, was fatally wounded in an attack near the Jewish settlement of Rechalim in the West Bank. On Jan 6, 2019, Israeli authorities confirmed that they have arrested five Jewish seminary students, all under age 18, suspected of the fatal stone-throwing attack.
(AP, 1/6/19)(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2018 Oct 12, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte made a rare visit to Eritrea to support its surprising new peace with neighboring Ethiopia as the international community waits to see what happens next in one of the world's most closed-off nations.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Students across Italy demonstrated against the government's education funding plans, in the first widespread show of dissidence against the new populist government.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Denny Tamaki, the new governor of Okinawa, said he wants Americans to know that the US and Japanese governments are forcing a relocation of a US Marine base that residents want removed from the southern Japanese island.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling nearly 188,000 pickup trucks, SUVs and cars worldwide because the air bags may not inflate in a crash.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan's space agency said it is delaying a touchdown of its Hayabusa2 spacecraft on the Ryugu asteroid due to a rockier than expected surface.
(SFC, 10/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 12, It was reported that animal-rights in Nepal campaigned to reduce animal slaughter as the 15-day Dasain festival began this week. Traditionally tens of thousands of goats, buffaloes, chickens and ducks are sacrificed to please the gods and goddesses as part of a practice that dates back centuries.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In southeastern Nigeria at least 19 people were killed when a leaking oil pipeline exploded in Abia state. Oil thieves were suspected of hacking into the pipe
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A4)
2018 Oct 12, A Pakistani judge signed the execution order for Mohammad Imran, a serial child killer convicted of killing eight children in eastern Punjab province. He was arrested in January, two weeks after authorities say he raped and killed Zainab Ansari (7) and threw her body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Hundreds of supporters from an extremist Islamist party rallied in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore to pressure judges to uphold a death sentence for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted in 2010 of blasphemy.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire at a protest near the fence dividing the territory and Israel. 50 other protesters were wounded by live bullets.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Nepal seven people, including South Korean climbers, were killed and two more left missing on Gurja Himal mountain after a strong storm swept through their base camp.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by Boko Haram fighters to overrun a military base in the restive northeast leaving six soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, The Philippines became one of 18 new council members elected to the UN Human Rights Council despite rights groups' complaints that its government, widely condemned internationally for a deadly drug crackdown, doesn't belong in a group meant to call out abuses.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Rwanda's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo was named head of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), a sign of slowly improving relations between Paris and Kigali a decade after the African nation turned its back on the French language.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Somalia several missiles were fired by two unmanned US drones. At least 60 extremists were later reported killed. It was the deadliest strike since one on Nov. 21, 2017, against a camp killed about 100 al-Shabab fighters.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Spain thousands of people flooded the streets of Barcelona for rival protests on Spain's national day, highlighting the division in Catalonia over support for the Spanish state and those seeking independence.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Spain's maritime rescue service recovered the bodies of three migrants and feared that another 17 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea. The service pulled 509 migrants from 15 small boats.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, In eastern Syria the Islamic State group stormed the Hajin camp, a settlement for displaced people in Deir el-Zour province, and abducted scores of civilians. 20 IS gunmen and "several" SDF fighters were killed.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Amnesty Int'l. said 2,521 bodies have been recovered from the 2017 battle for Raqqa, Syria, with the majority killed by coalition air strikes. At least 3,000 more bodies were expected to be recovered.
(SFC, 10/12/18, p.A4)
2018 Oct 12, A Turkish court freed American pastor Andrew Brunson held for the last two years in Turkey. He was freed taking into account time served and his good conduct during the trial. Brunson was flown out of Turkey.
(AFP, 10/12/18)(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, The UN children's agency UNICEF said a militia fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl after he became entangled in two major sexual abuse and cover-up scandals and lost the support of many in his flock.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Venezuelan authorities freed a prominent opposition activist jailed for four years just days after an anti-government politician died in state custody. Lorent Saleh (30) was immediately escorted to the airport and put on a flight to Madrid.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2019 Oct 12, California Gov. Gavin Newson signed AB44, outlawing the sale and manufacture of new fur clothing and accessories effective Jan. 1, 2023. Newsome also signed SB313, which prohibits the use of wild animals in a circus.
(SSFC, 10/13/19, p.A6)
2019 Oct 12, In Southern California fast-moving wildfires broke out overnight, leaving two dead, destroying homes and forcing 100,000 residents to flee. Authorities said three people have died at the scene of southern state wildfires this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)(AP, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Chicago five people were shot and four killed at an apartment building on the city's Northwest Side. Krysztof Marek (66) with a history of issues with his neighbors was in custody. The 5th victim died the next day.
(AP, 10/13/19)(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 12, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a conservative Democrat, received 47% of votes, but failed to secure outright victory in a primary election. Edwards, seeking a second term, will face a Republican businessman in a run-off vote on Nov. 16. Republican Eddie Rispone, making his first run for political office, finished second with 27% of the vote.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Louisiana a large section of a Hard Rock Hotel under construction in New Orleans collapsed. Three people were killed and more than 20 injured.
(SSFC, 10/13/19, p.A6)(SFC, 10/21/19, p.A6)
2019 Oct 12, In NYC four men were killed and three people wounded early today in a shooting at an unlicensed gambling club in Brooklyn.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Oregon antifascist activist Sean D Kealiher (23) was killed in the early hours in an apparent hit-and-run outside Cider Riot, a cidery and taproom popular with Portland's anarchist left that has been the scene of conflict with rightwing groups.
(The Guardian, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Texas a police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, inside a home where she had reportedly been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. Police said the officer fired through a window into the home while responding to a call to check on the well-being of those inside.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, Climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne. The declaration was coordinated by a group of scientists who support Extinction Rebellion, a civil disobedience campaign that formed in Britain a year ago and has since sparked offshoots in dozens of countries.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Nepal on a state visit for talks with Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and both sides are expected to sign a deal expanding a railway link between the Himalayan nation and Tibet.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, An Egyptian court sentenced six people to death on terror-related charges for carrying out a militant attack in January, 2016, outside a hotel near the famed Giza Pyramids. The Giza criminal court also sentenced eight defendants to life in prison on similar charges. Another 12 defendants received 10 years in prison.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Egypt a shell hit a truck carrying civilians in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least nine people of the same family.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Egypt pro-democracy activist Esraa Abdel-Fattah was arrested. She was brought before prosecutors late the next day and ordered to remain in custody for 15 days.
(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 12, In northeastern Ethiopia armed men killed at least 16 people and injured about two dozen others in a small village, in one of the deadliest attacks seen in the region.
(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 12, France said it is halting exports of any arms to Turkey that could be used in its offensive against Kurds in Syria, and wants an immediate meeting of the US-led coalition against Islamic State extremists.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Germany said it has banned arms exports to Turkey over its assault against Kurdish YPG militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Guatemala's president-elect Alejandro Giammattei was denied entry to Venezuela, where he was scheduled to meet with opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to Venezuela's opposition.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In India Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi agreed to set up a new mechanism to discuss trade during two days of informal talks in southern India that were aimed at re-calibrating strained ties between the nations.
(Bloomberg, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Iran offered to engage Syrian Kurds, Syria's government and Turkey in talks to establish security along the Turkish-Syrian border following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Typhoon Hagibis paralyzed Tokyo, leaving millions confined indoors and streets deserted as fierce rain and wind killed two, flooded rivers and threatened widespread damage.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In southern Kenya a roadside bombing killed 11 officers near Liboi on the border with Somalia.
(SSFC, 10/13/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 12, The main Kurdish-led group in northern Syria is calling on the US to carry out its "moral responsibilities" and close northern Syrian airspace to Turkish warplanes.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Dutch police said they had detained 130 protesters with environmental group Extinction Rebellion who blocked locations in downtown Amsterdam to draw attention to climate change.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, It was reported that thousands of Nigerian hunters on the northest are preparing an offensive against Boko Haram extremists. They were backed by Borno state Gov. BabaganaZulum and were armed with charmed amulets and knowledge of the harsh terrain.
(SFC, 10/12/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 12, North Korea's foreign ministry "strongly demanded" that Japan pay compensation for a fishing boat that sank when it collided with a Japanese patrol boat earlier this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Sara Danius (57), the first woman to lead the Swedish institution that awards the Nobel Prize in literature, died. Danius was elected to a lifetime position on the Swedish Academy's board in 2013 and because the body's first female permanent secretary in 2015. She resigned the position in 2018.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll among Syrian Kurdish-led fighters battling a Turkish offensive has risen to 74, most of whom have been killed in the Tel Abyad area. It was reported that pro-Ankara fighters taking part in a Turkish offensive on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria have "executed" nine civilians.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)(The Telegraph, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Turkey's military said it has captured Ras al-Ayn, a key Syrian border town under heavy bombardment, as its offensive against Kurdish fighters pressed into its fourth day with little sign of relenting despite mounting international criticism. Kurdish authorities denied the town had fallen to the Turks, saying fighting was continuing. The civilian death toll resulting from Turkey's offensive into northern Syria had now reportedly risen to 30.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2020 Oct 12, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, both of Stanford University, were awarded the Nobel in economic science today for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.
(NY Times, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, California's chief elections official ordered Republicans to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from churches, gun shops and other locations and Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned those behind the “vote tampering" could face prosecution..
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, California to date had 855,622 cases of coronavirus and 16,585 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 108,712 cases and 1,641 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,802,822 with the death toll at 214,045.
(sfist.com, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Long lines of people eager to cast ballots formed as early in-person voting began in Georgia. Problems soon developed in the state's most populous county. By mid-morning, the problem appeared to have been resolved and the lines had cleared at the arena, which is the largest early voting site in the state with 300 voting machines.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that Nicholas Beauchene (26), a US postal worker in New Jersey, has been arrested after he threw almost 2,000 pieces of mail, including election ballots, in dumpsters. Some 1,875 pieces of mail were recovered, including 600 first-class items and 99 ballots for November's election.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals late today put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Texas governor's order on ballot drop-off sites from taking effect, saying the decision would not hinder Texans from exercising their right to vote.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 12, Bernard S. Cohen (b,1934), a co-counsel in Loving v. Virginia (1967), died in Virginia. The US Supreme Court ruling struck down bans on interracial marriage.
(NY Times, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 12, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook would ban content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust." Two years ago, Zuckerberg cited Holocaust denial as an example of permissible free speech.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 12, Johnson & Johnson said a late-stage study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been paused due to the unexplained illness of a study participant.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 12, Microsoft announced legal action seeking to disrupt a major cybercrime digital network that uses more than a 1 million zombie computers to loot bank accounts and spread ransomware. The Trickbot malware, created in 2016 by a loose consortium of Russian-speaking cybercriminals, is a digital superstructure for sowing malware. Cybersecurity firm Intel 471 reported no significant hit on Trickbot operations.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.C1)
2020 Oct 12, In Slovakia Marian Kotleba, the leader of the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia, was convicted of illegal use of neo-Nazi symbols and sentenced to four years and four months in prison. The verdict was not final.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy protection, saddled with lawsuits alleging it helped fuel the US opioid epidemic. Mallinckrodt said it had agreed to pay $1.6 billion over several years to settle opioid-related litigation.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Argentina surpassed 900,000 cases of coronavirus, with strong growth of infections in large, populated centers in the interior of the country after months of the virus being concentrated in Buenos Aires and its suburbs.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of attacks over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh despite a cease-fire deal brokered by Russia in an effort to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the region in decades.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Australian researchers said the virus that causes COVID-19 can survive on banknotes, glass and stainless steel for up to 28 days.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Bangladesh's government approved the use of the death penalty in rape cases. Led by PM Sheikh Hasina, the cabinet met online and approved changes to a law that will enable courts to sentence any convicted rapist to execution.
(CBS News, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The British government announced new restrictions on business and socializing in major northern England cities with high infection rates. But pubs, restaurants and other businesses pushed back, arguing that they are not to blame for a resurgent outbreak.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that recent flooding in several provinces of Cambodia has killed at least 11 people dead.
(SFC, 10/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, The Chinese city of Qingdao said it will test its entire population of more than 9 million people for coronavirus, after discovering 12 new infections that appeared to be linked to a hospital treating imported infections. Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China stood at 85,578. The death toll remained at 4,634.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Cuba relaxed coronavirus restrictions in hopes of boosting its economy.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 12, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on Russian officials and organizations blamed for the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The RV Polarstern icebreaker, carrying scientists on a year-long international effort to study the high Arctic, returned to its home port in Germany carrying a wealth of data that will help researchers better predict climate change in the decades to come.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Iran shattered its single-day record for new deaths and infections from the coronavirus, with 272 people confirmed dead among more than 4,200 new cases.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The Israeli government unanimously approved the country's recently signed normalization agreement with the UAE ahead of a ratification vote by parliament.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Japan vowed to bolster its missile deterrence capability to respond to threats by North Korean weapons that are becoming “more diverse and complex," as displayed during a military parade held by the North over the weekend.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co-led group, that is developing a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, has started manufacturing while the late-stage trial to determine whether it works is ongoing.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Jordan's King Abdullah II swore in a new prime minister and Cabinet, tasking the new government to manage the country through an economic and health crisis as it faces a growing wave of coronavirus infections. The king appointed Bisher al-Khasawneh as the new prime minister after his predecessor, Omar Razzaz, resigned last week.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Lebanon announced the names of its delegation that will hold indirect talks later this week with Israel over the disputed maritime border between the two countries.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Mexico at least 14 suspected gunmen were killed and three police officers wounded in a massive shootout near Calera, Zacatecas state.
(SFC, 10/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, The New Zealand government signed a deal to buy 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Germany's BioNTech, with delivery as early as the first quarter of 2021.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Nigeria two people were killed in Lagos as protests continued against police brutality for a sixth day.
(BBC, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Russia said human trials of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine have begun in the United Arab Emirates. Russia reported 13,592 new coronavirus cases, almost the most recorded in a single day since the pandemic began, pushing the national tally to 1,312,310. Officials said 125 people had died in the previous 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 22,722.
(AP, 10/12/20)(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In central Russia a gunman opened fired at a bus and a bus stop in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, killing three people and wounding three more.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Slovakia Marian Kotleba, the leader of the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia, was convicted of illegal use of neo-Nazi symbols and sentenced to four years and four months in prison. The verdict was not final.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, South Korean drugmaker Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said that it had received regulatory approval for Phase 1 clinical trials of its anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, South Korean drugmaker Celltrion Inc said it has received regulatory approval for Phase 3 clinical trials of CT-P59, an experimental COVID-19 treatment. The drug is directed against the surface of the virus and designed to block it from locking on to human cells.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it plans to start selling a higher-volume COVID-19 antigen test for laboratories by the end of the year as it expands diagnostics for the pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Amnesty International said Tanzanian authorities have intensified repression to muzzle the opposition, civil society and the news media ahead of elections on October 28, where the incumbent President John Magufuli is seeking a second term.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The Vatican said four Swiss Guards have tested positive for the coronavirus. Three other Vatican residents have tested positive in recent weeks.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 12, In Yemen a man killed at least a dozen people, including his wife and three children, in a family dispute in the country's central province of Bayda.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2021 Oct 12, The US House passed a short-term bill to lift the debt limit, temporarily averting default. The legislation lifts the debt ceiling by $480 billion, which the Treasury Department has estimated is enough to last until at least Dec. 3.
(NY Times, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, The Pentagon said it wants defense contractors to cut the ultimate cost of hypersonic weapons, as the next generation of super-fast missiles being developed currently cost tens of millions per unit.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The Food and Drug Administration for the first time authorized an electronic cigarette to be sold in the United States, a significant turn in one of the most contentious public health debates in decades. The agency signaled that it believed that the help certain vaping devices offer smokers to quit traditional cigarettes is more significant than the risks of ensnaring a new generation.
(NY Times, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, New draft guidelines by a US panel of experts said doctors should no longer routinely start most people who are at high risk of heart disease on a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin.
(NY Times, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 44,481,045 with the death toll at 714,553.
(sfist.com, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, Scientists at the US Food and Drug Administration said that Moderna Inc had not met all of the agency's criteria to support use of booster doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, possibly because the efficacy of the shot's first two doses has remained strong.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, It was reported that more than 24,000 nurses and other health-care workers at Kaiser Permanente in California and Oregon have overwhelmingly authorized a strike, threatening to walk out over pay and working conditions strained by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Walgreens said it would close 5 stores in San Francisco citing concerns over retail theft in the city.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.C5)
2021 Oct 12, In Tennessee two US postal workers in Memphis were fatally shot and a third employee, identified as the shooter, died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 12, Two Texas-based carriers said the federal mandate superseded an order by Republican Governor Greg Abbott barring COVID-19 vaccine mandates by any entity, including private employers. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said they would comply with US President Joe Biden's executive order to require that their employees be vaccinated for COVID-19 by a Dec. 8 deadline.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Northern Texas federal Judge Mark Pittman issued a temporary retraining order barring United Airlines Holdings Inc. from placing unvaccinated workers with a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave.
(SFC, 10/14/21, p.A6)
2021 Oct 12, Boeing management told its US employees in an internal message that with limited exceptions they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8 or face termination.
(https://tinyurl.com/xyncyw2d)(SFC, 10/14/21, p.A6)
2021 Oct 12, Britain reported 38,520 further cases of COVID-19 and 181 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, In the Canary Islands over 700 residents were ordered to abandon their homes on the Spanish island of La Palma as red-hot lava advanced towards their neighborhood. A day earlier Lava gushing from the volcano engulfed a cement plant.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the launch of a 1.5 billion yuan ($232.47 million) fund to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, as talks continue on a new post-2020 global pact to tackle species loss.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, China allowed coal-fired power plants to pass on the high costs of generation to some end-users via market-driven electricity prices, adding to worries about building global inflationary pressures. China, the world's largest coal consumer, has been grappling with a growing energy crisis brought on by shortages and record high prices for the fuel.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, Cuba denied government opponents permission to stage what they said would be a peaceful march for civil liberties in Havana and a few other provinces on grounds it was part of efforts to overthrow the government, according to a letter handed to organizers.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The European Union said it will give an additional 700 million euros ($809.2 million) in emergency aid to Afghanistan and its neighboring countries ahead of today's Group of 20 Afghan summit.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The EU imposed cuts on catches of cod and herring in the Baltic Sea to make sure threatened stock have a chance for survival.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 12, EU leaders vowed to uphold Ukraine's energy security and signed deals intended to bolster ties during a summit in Kyiv.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, President Emmanuel Macron said France wants to be a leader in green hydrogen by 2030 and build low-carbon planes and small nuclear reactors as part of a 30 billion euro ($35 billion) investment plan dubbed "France 2030".
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The French president’s office announced the death of Hubert Germain (101), the last of an elite group of decorated French Resistance fighters who helped liberate France from Nazi control in World War II.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, French bank Societe Generale said it will cut 3,700 jobs between 2023 and 2025 as it merges its retail network with that of its unit Credit du Nord.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Germany-based CureVac NV said it will give up on its first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate and instead focus on collaborating with GSK to develop improved mRNA vaccine technology.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Protesters in Guatemala tried to topple a Christopher Columbus statue amid protests against the treatment of indigenous people by European conquerors. Another group of protesters succeeded in tearing away the head on a monument to former President Jose Maria Reina Barrios, who served from 1892 to 1898, after splashing it with red paint.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, India recommended emergency use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 shot in the 2 to 18 age-group. India has so far fully vaccinated around 29% of about 944 million eligible adults.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Indian security forces killed at least five militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir as hundreds of Hindus fled the disputed Muslim-majority region after a wave of violence.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, IRNA news agency reported that Iran's intelligence agency has arrested 10 people after “sophisticated and continuous" surveillance in Bushehr province.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Italian PM Mario Draghi hosted a special summit of the Group of 20 major economies to discuss Afghanistan, as worries grow about a looming humanitarian disaster following the Taliban's return to power.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) pledged to double defence spending.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, In Lebanon a probe into the catastrophic Beirut port explosion was frozen for the second time in less than three weeks after two politicians wanted for questioning filed a new complaint against the lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, In Libya a Sudanese migrant (25) was beaten, shot and killed after escaping from the government-run Mabani detention in Tripoli.
(AP, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, In Nepal a bus skidded off a mountain road and into a gorge leaving at least 28 people dead.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 12, Respected Dutch climate scientist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh (59) died. He co-founded the World Weather Attribution network, a group that rapidly analyzes the possible effects of climate change on extreme weather events. He and co-founder Friederike Otto were recognized as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2021.
(AP, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 12, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg (60) said she will step down as head of a three-party, minority center-right government after a left-leaning bloc won last month’s parliamentary election. The leader of Norway’s Labor Party, Jonas Gahr Stoere, is expected to take over later this week.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, In the Philippines nine people were killed and 11 left missing due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rain from tropical cyclone Kompasu. The death toll was later raised to at least 19 people. Another 14 people were reported missing.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)(SFC, 10/15/21, p.A5)
2021 Oct 12, Romania reported nearly 17,000 coronavirus infections and 442 deaths, its highest numbers since the pandemic started.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Oct 12, The Kremlin said it disagreed with comments by new Japanese PM Fumio Kishida that Japan's sovereignty extended to a chain of islands known by Tokyo as the Northern Territories, and that they were in fact part of Russia.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Russia hit another record of daily coronavirus deaths as the country struggled with a rapid surge of infections and lagging vaccination rates, but authorities have been adamant that there would be no new national lockdown.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Pomp, pageantry and a grand military parade marked Spain’s national day ceremonies in Madrid, overshadowing protests against what some see as a misguided celebration of Spanish colonial history. A 1987 law which made Oct. 12 the national holiday.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The top UN top court (ICJ) ruled largely in favor of Somalia in its dispute with Kenya, setting a sea boundary in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be rich in oil and gas.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Former Venezuelan Defense Minister and retired general Raul Baduel, considered a political prisoner by the opposition, died after contracting coronavirus.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2022 Oct 12, The White House rolled out a long-delayed national security strategy that seeks to contain China's rise while reemphasizing the importance of working with allies to tackle challenges confronting democratic nations.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The US government said it will pull visas belonging to current and former Haitian government officials involved with criminal organizations as well as provide security and humanitarian assistance to Haiti. The US imposed visa sanctions on 11 individuals. The State Department said it was taking action against those who support Haitian gangs.
(AP, 10/12/22)(Reuters, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, The United States and Mexico announced joint actions aimed at reducing the number of people arriving at their border due to the humanitarian and economic crisis in Venezuela.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Former President Donald Trump angrily lashed out, calling the nation's legal system a “broken disgrace" after a judge ruled he must answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s.
(AP, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, It was reported that Walt Nauta, a long-serving aide to former President Donald J. Trump, was captured on security camera footage moving boxes out of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s residence in Florida, both before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May demanding the return of all classified documents.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, It was reported that scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections. It's part of an effort to better study human brain development and diseases affecting this most complex of organs, which makes us who we are but has long been shrouded in mystery.
(AP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Twenty-five MacArthur fellows won $800,000 over the next five years.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 96,885,795 with the death toll at 1,065,726.
(sfist.com, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, In Connecticut the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims won $965 million in damages from the Infowars fabulist Alex Jones, a devastating blow against his empire and a message from the jury that his lies and those of his followers have crippling consequences.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)(SFC, 10/13/22, p.A11)
2022 Oct 12, In Connecticut two officers in Bristol were killed and another wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance between a pair of siblings that also left the shooter dead. Sgt. Dustin Demonte (35) and Officer Alex Hamzy (34) were killed in what officials are describing as an apparent ambush. The suspected gunman, Nicholas Brutcher (35) was shot and killed at the scene.
(Reuters, 10/13/22)(NY Times, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, A federal judge in West Virginia ruled that a federal ban on possessing a gun with its serial number removed is unconstitutional, the first such ruling since the US Supreme Court dramatically expanded gun rights in June.
(Reuters, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, The Rt. Rev. Mary Adelia Rosamond McLeod (84), the first female bishop to lead an Episcopal diocese, died at her home in Charleston, W.Va. On Nov. 1, 1993, Ms. McLeod made history by becoming the church’s first female diocesan bishop, meaning the first woman to lead a district of Episcopal parishes.
(NY Times, 10/14/22)
2022 Oct 12, Alphabet Inc's Google said it has approved former US President Donald Trump's social media app Truth Social for distribution in the Google Play Store.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Canada said it will provide over C$47 million ($34.06 million) in new military aid to assist Ukraine in dealing with Russia's invasion, with the package including artillery rounds, satellite communications, winter clothing and drone cameras, among other assistance.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Chad's transitional government named opposition politician Saleh Kebzabo as the new prime minister after the former prime minister resigned to pave way for a new administration.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, A court in Zagreb found former Croatian prime minister, Ivo Sanader, not guilty of war profiteering during the country's 1991-95 war.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, It was reported that Eritrean authorities have intensified military mobilization and are hunting down draft dodgers across the country, as the war in neighboring Ethiopia escalates.
(BBC, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The World Health Organization and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said another wave of COVID-19 infections may have begun in Europe as cases begin to tick up across the region.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, France ordered some staff at an Exxon Mobil fuel depot back to work and warned a TotalEnergies' depot could be next, risking a wider conflict with trade unions as it battles to secure petrol supplies after weeks of strikes.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Pan-American Health Organization said Haiti had confirmed 32 cases and 18 deaths from cholera as of October 9.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Indian health authorities said they had halted all production at the main factory of Maiden Pharmaceuticals near New Delhi after a WHO report that its cough syrups exported to Gambia may be linked to the deaths of 69 children there.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Health authorities said Indonesia will investigate cases of acute kidney injury which has caused the deaths of more than 20 children in its capital Jakarta this year.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, In Iran Siamak Namazi (51), a US citizen, was returned to Tehran's Evin prison, a day before the seventh anniversary of his detention on espionage charges which he denies.
(AFP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Iranians kept up anti-government protests despite an increasingly deadly state crackdown. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the demonstrations as "scattered riots" planned by Iran's enemies.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during clashes that erupted in a refugee camp. Osama Adawi (18) was struck in the abdomen by a bullet in the Al-Aroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank.
(AP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi (77) on two more corruption charges, with two three-year sentences to be served concurrently, adding to previous convictions that now leave her with a 26-year total prison term.
(AP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, A Myanmar court sentenced Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota (26) to an additional three years in prison on charges of violating an immigration law.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The Netherlands said it would deliver air defense missiles to Ukraine worth more than $14.5 million in response to Russia’s recent attacks.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of two long-range strategic cruise missiles, calling it a test to confirm the reliability and operation of nuclear-capable weapons deployed to military units.
(Reuters, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, Hundreds of Palestinians protested at checkpoints into a major refugee camp in Jerusalem and shops across the West Bank closed, following an Israeli security crackdown after two soldiers died in shooting attacks this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Portugal said it will inject 3 billion euros ($2.91 billion) to curb energy prices paid by companies next year via a combination of state spending and regulatory measures.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Russia’s domestic intelligence service announced the arrest of eight people in connection with the weekend bombing of the bridge linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. Five are citizens of Russia, according to the agency, the F.S.B., and the others are Ukrainian and Armenian.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, In Slovakia two gay victims were shot outside the Teplaren bar in the center of Bratislava late today. Police found the suspected killer dead the next morning. Police later said Suspect Juraj K. (19) had used a gun with a laser sight, registered to a relative.
(Reuters, 10/15/22)
2022 Oct 12, The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force said a group of 32 police officers from the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands has flown to China to train in policing techniques and improve their understanding of Chinese culture.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, In South Africa hundreds of uniformed police descended on townships and settlements in Cape Town for a two-day raid in the crime-ridden Cape Flats area.
(Reuters, 10/14/22)
2022 Oct 12, A South Korean lawmaker said more than 20 Russians have sailed in yachts down the North Pacific coast to South Korea, but most were refused entry.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Power was cut to Ukraine’s nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia for the second time in five days, after Russian forces shelled a substation that supplies electricity to the plant.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, UN agencies said severe drought followed by the worst floods in 30 years have led to rocketing food prices and left a record 2.1 million people in Chad acutely hungry.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn Russia's "attempted illegal annexation" of four provinces in Ukraine and declare that Moscow's territorial claims "have no validity under international law and do not form the basis for any alternation of the status of these regions of Ukraine." Russia, Syria, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Belarus voted against the resolution, while 143 countries voted yes and 35 abstained.
(AP, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, The UN said that almost three-quarters of the 6 million Venezuelan migrants currently in Latin America do not have adequate food, shelter, employment or medical care.
(AP, 10/12/22)
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
1285 Oct 12, 180 Jews refused baptism in Munich, Germany, and were set on fire.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1320 Oct 12, Michael IX Paleozoic, emperor of Byzantine (1295-1320), died.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1366 Oct 12, King Frederick III of Sicily forbade decorations on synagogues.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1492 Oct 12, (Old Style calendar; Oct. 21 New Style), Christopher Columbus sited land, an island of the Bahamas which he named San Salvador, but which was called Guanahani by the local Taino people. Seeking to establish profitable Asian trade routes by sailing west, Columbus seriously underestimated the size of the Earth--never dreaming that two great continents blocked his path to the east. Even after four voyages to America, Columbus believed until the end of his life in 1506 that he had discovered an isolated corner of Asia.
(NH, 10/96, p.22)(AP, 10/12/97)(HNPD, 10/12/98)(http://tinyurl.com/774v3)
1492 Oct 12, Pierro della Francesca (b.1415), Tuscany-born artist, died in Florence. He was later called the Father of the Renaissance. His work included “Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Angels."
(Econ, 2/16/13, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_della_Francesca)
1518 Oct 12, A pontifical ambassador interrogated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther. Luther was summoned to the Diet of Augsburg where he refused to recant.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(MC, 10/12/01)
1537 Oct 12, Edward IV, King of England (1547-53), was born. He was the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife Jane Seymour.
(HN, 10/12/98)(MC, 10/12/01)
1576 Oct 12, Rudolf II, the king of Hungary and Bohemia, succeeded his father, Maximally II, as Holy Roman Emperor.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(HN, 10/12/98)
1582 Oct 12, This day was one of ten skipped to bring the calendar into sync. by order of the Council of Trent. Oct 5-14 were dropped.
(K.I.-365D, p.97)(NG, March 1990, J. Bo slough)
1609 Oct 12, The song "Three Blind Mice" was published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1654 Oct 12, Carel Fabritius (b.1622), Dutch painter, died in a gunpowder explosion in Delft. He was one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Fabritius)(WSJ, 7/20/01, p.W11)(Econ, 10/26/13, p.93)
1659 Oct 12, English Rump government fired John Lambert and other generals. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1692 Oct 12, Giovanni Battista Vitali, composer, died at 60.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1702 Oct 12, British Admiral Sir George Rookie defeated the French fleet off Vigo.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1713 Oct 12, Johann Ludwig Krebs, composer, was born. [see Oct 10]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1722 Oct 12, Shah Sultan Husain surrendered the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afghan rebels after a seven month siege. Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud of Afghanistan, had invaded Persia and occupied Isfahan. At the same time, the Durrani revolted, and terminated the Persian occupation of Herat.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(HN, 10/12/98)
1742 Oct 12, Johan Peter Melchior, German sculptor, was born.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1776 Oct 12, British Brigade began guarding Throgs Necks Road in Bronx.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1792 Oct 12, Columbus Day was 1st celebrated in the US.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1798 Oct 12, The play "Wallenstein's Camp" by Friedrich von Schiller premiered in Weimar. It was set in 3 parts during the 30 Years War as Gen. Albrecht von Wallenstein fought for Catholic Emp. Ferdinand II.
(www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_02-06/2005/051-2_Schiller_friends.html)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.78)
1809 Oct 12, Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, died under mysterious circumstances in St. Louis. [see Oct 11]
(HN, 10/12/98)
1823 Oct 12, Charles Macintosh of Scotland began selling raincoats (Macs).
(MC, 10/12/01)
1833 Oct 12, Charles Darwin began his return trip to Buenos Aires.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1844 Oct 12, George Washington Cable, writer and reformer, was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1845 Oct 12, Elizabeth Fry (b.1780), English Quaker prisoner reform advocate, died. In 1827 she published a book called “Observations, on the visiting superintendence and government of female prisoners." Since 2002 she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note.
(www.quakerinfo.com/fry.shtml)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Fry)
1850 Oct 12, The 1st women's medical school, the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened. [see 1848, Mar 11, 1850]
(MC, 10/12/01)
1753 Oct 12, Sir Danvers Osborn (b.1715), British colonial governor of New York, hanged himself 5 days after arriving in NYC. His wife had recently died and the New York assembly refused to support him in the style he felt his rank deserved.
(Econ, 1/12/08, p.75)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_Osborn)
1810 Oct 12, Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, was married to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. In honor of the wedding a horse race took place at the Theresienwiese (the Theresien meadow). The decision to repeat the horse races in subsequent years gave rise to the tradition of the Oktoberfest.
(www.ofest.com/history.html)
1850 Oct 12, The 1st women's medical school, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, opened to students.
(http://homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/pennsylvfem.htm)
1855 Oct 12, Arthur Nikisch, later conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, was born in Szent-Miklos, Hungary.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1860 Oct 12, British and French troops captured Beijing.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1861 Oct 12, The Confederate ironclad Manassas attacked the northern ship Richmond on the Mississippi River. The Manassas was the Confederacy‘s first operational ironclad. Originally a New England tugboat called the Enoch Train, the ship was refit with iron sheathing and an iron prow for ramming. The underpowered ship was used in defense of New Orleans, finally being dispatched by the Union warship Mississippi.
(AP, 10/12/97)(HNQ, 7/12/00)
1862 Oct 12, J.E.B. Stuart completed his "2nd ride around McClellan."
(MC, 10/12/01)
1862 Oct 12, There was a skirmish at Monocacy, Maryland.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1864 Oct 12, Roger B. Taney (b.1777), US Supreme Court Chief Justice (1836-1864), died after serving over 28 years. He favored state’s rights and voided laws limiting the rights of slaveholders. In the 1857 Dred Scott case Taney ruled that blacks as slaves could not become citizens of the US.
(SFC, 9/6/05, p.A4)(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/24/)
1868 Oct 12, Charles Sumner Greene, architect, was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1870 Oct 12, Gen. Robert E. Lee (63) died in Lexington, Va. In 1998 David J. Eicher published "Robert E. Lee: A Life Portrait." In 2001 Michael Fellman authored "The Making of Robert E. Lee." In 2007 Elizabeth Brown Pryor authored “Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters.“
(AP, 10/12/97)(SFEC, 4/19/98, Par p.20)(SSFC, 1/28/01, Par p.12)(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.D6)
1871 Oct 12, President Grant ordered the South Carolina Ku Klux Klan to disperse and disarm in five days.
(AH, 6/03, p.31)
1872 Oct 12, Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer (Hugh the Drover), was born in Down Amp, England.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1872 Oct 12, Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise (d.1874) signed a peace treaty with Special Indian Commissioner, General Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909), in the Arizona Territory.
(HN, 10/12/98)(ON, 4/07, p.8)
1875 Oct 12, Aleister [Edward S] Crowley, (75 pseudonyms), British occultist-American mystic, was born. In 2000 Lawrence Sutin authored “Do What Thou Wilt, A Life of Aleister Crowley."
(SSFC, 1/14/01, BR p.12)(MC, 10/12/01)
1875 Oct 12, Mayan Indians attacked the Xuxub sugar plantation in the Yucatan and dozens of workers were killed or taken captive. Bernadino Cen, the Mayan leader, was killed when the Mexican National Guard arrived the next day. In 2004 Paul Sullivan authored “Xuxub Must Die."
(WSJ, 5/13/04, p.D10)
1879 Oct 12, British troops occupied Kabul, Afghanistan.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1892 Oct 12, The American Pledge of Allegiance was 1st recited in public schools to commemorate Columbus Day. Francis Bellamy, a magazine editor of Rome, NY, wrote the "Pledge of Allegiance." [see Sep 8]
(SFEC, 2/21/99, Z1 p.8)(Internet)
1899 Oct 12, The Anglo-Boer War began. [see Oct 11]
(HN, 10/12/98)
1901 Oct 12, Theodore Roosevelt renamed the "Executive Mansion," to “The White House."
(HNQ, 6/28/00)(MC, 10/12/01)
1914 Oct 12, The 1st battle at Ypres began.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1915 Oct 12, Former President Theodore Roosevelt criticized the concept of "hyphenated Americanism," referring to U.S. citizens who identified themselves by dual nationalities.
(AP, 10/12/05)
1915 Oct 12, Ford Motor Company manufactured its 1 millionth Model T automobile.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1915 Oct 12, British nurse Edith Cavell (47), despite international protests, was shot as a spy by a German firing squad in Brussels, Belgium. Cavell, the matron of a Brussels training school for nurses, was known for her compassion and sense of duty. As WWI broke out in Europe, Cavell helped 60 British student nurses return home but she remained in Belgium. Even though she knew that helping soldiers escape from German-occupied territory meant the death penalty, Cavell agreed when asked to participate in an escape ring that helped more than 200 fugitive Allied soldiers return home after the British Expeditionary Force's retreat from Mons. Such a large conspiracy could not long remain a secret and in August 1915, Cavell and 35 other members of her organization were arrested. At her hasty trial, she was condemned to death for "conducting soldiers to the enemy." Although their action may have been justified under the rules of war, the Germans seriously blundered when they shot Edith Cavell. Within days of her death, the selfless nurse was elevated to martyr status and the Germans were internationally condemned as "murdering monsters." A statue in St. Martin's Place, just off London's Trafalgar Square, is dedicated to Cavell. In 2010 Diana Souhami authored “Edith Cavell."
(AP, 10/12/97)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell)(Econ, 10/9/10, p.121)
1918 Oct 12, The 1st use of iron lung was at Boston's Children Hospital.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1918 Oct 12, The Cloquet Fire erupted in Minnesota. 453 lives were lost and 52,000 people were injured or displaced, 38 communities were destroyed, 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) were burned. In 1990 Francis M. Carroll authored “Fires of Autumn: The Cloquet-Moose Lake Disaster of 1918."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_Cloquet_Fire)(http://tinyurl.com/jesjlks)(AP, 10/12/08)
1920 Oct 12, Construction began on Holland Tunnel connecting NJ and NYC.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1920 Oct 12, Man O'War ran his last race and won.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1921 Oct 12, The Medal of Honor, emblem of highest ideals and virtues, is bestowed in the name of Congress of the United States of America upon the unknown, unidentified Italian soldier to be buried in the National Monument to Victor Emanuel II, in Rome.
(http://homeofheroes.com/gravesites/unknowns/foreign_italy.html)
1921 Oct 12, The cruise ship City of Honolulu caught fire sailing from Honolulu to Long Beach. All on board were rescued.
(SFC, 9/21/99, p.E4)
1924 Oct 12, Anatole France, French satiric master (Penguin Island, Revolt of the Angels, Thais), died at 80. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.
(WUD, 1994 p.563)(MC, 10/12/01)
1929 Oct 12, Richard Coles, child psychologist and author, was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)
1931 Oct 12, The Rio de Janeiro 98-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer was unveiled atop Corcovado Mountain as a belated monument to 100 years of independence from Portugal (1822). It was designed by Brazilian artist Carlos Oswald and French sculptor Paul Landowski. The 43-m statue was built with reinforced concrete and soapstone and completed after nine years of construction, becoming an icon of Rio de Janeiro and one of the wonders of the world.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.T2)(SFC, 10/14/03, p.D7)(Reuters, 4/29/22)
1932 Oct 12, Dick Gregory, comedian, social and political activist and dietician (Bahamian Diet), was born.
(HN, 10/12/00)(MC, 10/12/01)
1933 Oct 12, The US Army left Alcatraz Island. In 1934 it reopened as a federal penitentiary.
(OAH, 2/05, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcatraz_Island)
1933 Oct 12, Bank robber John Dillinger escaped from a jail in Allen County, Ohio, with the help of his gang, who killed the sheriff, Jess Sarber.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1934 Oct 12, In San Francisco the new Coit Tower in Pioneer Park on Telegraph Hill opened to the public. At least 8 frescoes, painted by 27 artists employed by the WPA, were washed out and eliminated because they were “architecturally inharmonious." The July 7 opening date had been cancelled due to controversy over the new frescoes. Victor Arnautoff (1896-1979), Russian-born social realist, was in charge.
(SSFC, 10/4/09, p.50)(SFC, 7/8/17, p.C2)(SFC, 9/7/17 p.D5)
1935 Oct 12, Luciano Pavarotti, Italian opera tenor, was born in Modena, Italy.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1941 Oct 12, Russian government moved from Moscow to Volga as Nazis closed in on Moscow.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1941 Oct 12, Thousands of Jews were killed in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, by men of the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei; SiPo), assisted by members of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) and the railroad police.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivano-Frankivsk)
1942 Oct 12, During World War II, President Roosevelt delivered one of his so-called "fireside chats" in which he recommended drafting 18- and 19-year-old men.
(AP, 10/12/99)
1942 Oct 12, US Navy defeated Japanese in WW II Battle of Cape Esperance.
(AP, 10/12/02)
1942 Oct 12, During World War II, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that Italian nationals in the United States would no longer be considered enemy aliens.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1942 Oct 12, Louis Armstrong (40) married Lucille Wilson (24).
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.69)
1943 Oct 12, The Radio Corporation of America announced the divestment of the NBC Blue radio network to businessman Edward J. Noble for $8 million. Noble first called it just "The Blue Network." By Feb 1945 it was renamed the American Broadcasting Company.
(NYT, 10/12/1943, P.23)(NYT, 10/17/1943, P. XII)
1943 Oct 12, The U.S. Fifth Army began an assault crossing of the Volturno River in Italy.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1943 Oct 12, The US bombed Rabaul, New Britain (S. Pacific, Bismarck Archipelago).
(WUD, 1994 p.962)(MC, 10/12/01)
1944 Oct 12, German army retreated from Athens.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1946 Oct 12, The cheapest sight and sound receivers on display carried a $225 price tag. For this Radio Corp. of America offered a table model set which showed a picture about four by five inches.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1946 Oct 12, Joseph W. Stilwell, US general in China, died.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1949 Oct 12, Eugenie Anderson became the first woman U.S. ambassador.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1953 Oct 12, US and Greece signed a peace treaty that included US bases.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1955 Oct 12, Bernarr Macfadden (b.1868), weight-lifter and publisher born as Bernard MacFadden, died in New Jersey. His magazines included “True Story," which first appeared in 1919. In 2009 Mark Adams authored Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet."
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.W10)(www.bernarrmacfadden.com/macfadden7.html)
1960 Oct 12, In Japan Otaya Yamaguchi (17), a university student and a member of an ultranationalist group, rushed onto a Tokyo stage where the politician Inejiro Asanuma (b.1898) was giving an election speech and plunged a foot-long sword into his chest.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inejir%c5%8d_Asanuma)
1960 Oct 12, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a UN General Assembly session by pounding his desk with a shoe when a speaker criticized his country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
1962 Oct 12, Columbus Day storms washed out the 1962 World Series game at Candlestick Park in SF. A storm from the Gulf of Alaska took on moisture from Typhoon Freda and caused 4 days of rainouts during the World series.
(SFCM, 9/25/05, p.4)(SFC, 11/3/12, p.A6)
1963 Oct 12, Archaeological digs began at Masada, Israel.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1964 Oct 12, Mary Meyer, lover to John F. Kennedy up to his assassination, was brutally murdered on a walking path by the Potomac River. Her story is told in a 1996 book by John Davis “JFK and Mary Pinchot Meyer: A Tale of Two Murdered Lovers." In 1998 Nina Burleigh authored “A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.E2)(SFEC, 12/12/98, BR p.4)
1964 Oct 12, The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first manned mission involving more than one crew member. Spaceship designer Konstantin Feoktistov (1926-2009), the only non-Communist space traveler in the history of the Soviet space program, traveled aboard the Voskhod as part of the first group space flight in history.
(AP, 10/12/97)(AP, 11/22/09)
1967 Oct 12, In India a massive cyclone struck the rural Orissa state consisting of small villages. Basically all life (human and animal) and each structure was wiped out; the precise number of fatalities and destruction is unknown.
(www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)
1968 Oct 12, Eq. Guinea gained Independence was from Spain. Eq. Guinea consists of two geographic entities: the mainland of Rio Muni and the island of Bioko, formerly Fernando Poo. Francisco Macias became the 1st president and proclaimed himself God’s "unique miracle." He drove the economy into the ground and over a third of the population went into exile.
(www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/eqguinea.html)(WP, 6/29/96, p.A15)(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A10)
1968 Oct 12, The summer Games of the 19th Olympiad were officially opened in Mexico City by Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.
(WUD, 1994, p.1687)(HN, 10/12/98)
1969 Oct 12, Nancy Ann Kerrigan, figure skater, was born in Woburn, Mass. In 1994 she won an Olympics silver medal.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0449872/bio)
1969 Oct 12, Sonja Henie (b.1912), Norwegian ice skater (Olympic-gold-1928,32,36) and film star, died of leukemia on a flight from Paris to Oslo. Henie's career included a record 10 consecutive world championships.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, Par p.2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonja_Henie)
1969 Oct 12, Serge Poliakoff (b.1900), Russian-born French modernist painter, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Poliakoff)
1970 Oct 12, President Richard Nixon announced the pullout of 40,000 more American troops in Vietnam by Christmas.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1970 Oct 12, In Quebec, Canada, the "October Crises" continued. PM Pierre Trudeau imposed martial law in Quebec and sent troops into Montreal because of bombings and killings by the Quebec Liberation Front.
(SFC, 10/3/96, p.C6)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A20)(SFC, 12/27/97, p.A12)
1971 Oct 12, The rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar" opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway. It closed July 1, 1973 after 711 performances.
(AP, 10/12/97)(www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com/rants/1012b-almanac.htm)
1971 Oct 12, The US House of Representatives passed the Equal Rights Amendment with a vote of 354 yeas, 24 nays and 51 not voting. It failed to gain ratification before the end of the deadline
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment)
1971 Oct 12, Dean G. Acheson (b.1893), US secretary of state (1949-53), died in Maryland. In 2006 Robert L. Beisner authored “Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War."
(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAacheson.htm)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.58)
1972 Oct 12, On the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk a series of incidents broke out wherein a group of blacks, armed with chains, wrenches, bars, broomsticks and other dangerous weapons, went marauding through sections of the ship disobeying orders to cease, terrorizing the crew, and seeking out white personnel for senseless beating with fists and with weapons which resulted in extremely serious injury to three men and the medical treatment of many more, including some blacks.
(www.history.navy.mil/library/special/racial_incidents.htm)
1972 Oct 12, US House Resolution 16444, establishing the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), was passed by Congress and was signed by President Richard Nixon 15 days later. The island of Alcatraz was incorporated into this park. California Congressman Phillip Burton pushed through legislation preserving thousands of acres of forested hills, valleys and rugged shoreline. Burton got Congress to agree to transfer the Presidio in San Francisco to the park service if the army ever pulled out.
(www.sftravel.com/Alcatraz1950on.html)(SFEC, 6/27/99, Z1 p.1,4)(SFCM, 4/25/04, p.18)(SFC, 10/4/96, p.A21)
1973 Oct 12, The ballet “Remembrances" by Robert Joffrey (1930-1988) premiered in NYC.
(http://tinyurl.com/3nxhm3)
1973 Oct 12, President Nixon nominated House minority leader Gerald R. Ford of Michigan to succeed Spiro T. Agnew as vice president.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1973 Oct 12, Juan Peron was inaugurated as president of Argentina.
(http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2004-10/12/Columns/In%20History.htm)
1975 Oct 12, Archbishop Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681) became the 1st Irish-born saint in 700 years. He was beheaded by Cromwell's troops.
(www.archatl.com/parishes/saintoliverplunkett_snellville.html)
1976 Oct 12, It was announced in China that Hua Guo-feng (1921-2008) had been named to succeed the late Mao Tse-tung as chairman of the Communist Party. He was effectively stripped of his powers in 1978 and formally lost the chairmanship in 1981.
(AP, 10/12/01)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7572298.stm)
1977 Oct 12, The US government passed the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which required banks to serve their entire community. The intent was to ensure that adequate loans were made to low and moderate income neighborhoods and that those areas had access to bank branches and other banking services.
(www.newrules.org/finance/cra.html)
1977 Oct 12, The US Supreme Court ruled that communities have a right to prevent commuters from parking in residential neighborhoods.
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.E7)
1977 Oct 12, US Supreme Court heard arguments in the "reverse discrimination" case of Allan Bakke (35), a white student denied admission to U of California Med School.
(www.oyez.org/cases/1970-1979/1977/1977_76_811/)
1978 Oct 12, Representatives of Israel and Egypt opened talks in Washington.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/time70s.html#1978)
1978 Oct 12, Nancy Spungen (b.1958), girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, was found dead on the bathroom floor of their NYC hotel room. She had bled to death from a single stab wound to the abdomen.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Spungen)
1978 Oct 12, In Uganda Idi Amin escaped an 11th assassination attempt.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1984 Oct 12, The US Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 was signed into law. It established the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund to receive the proceeds of forfeiture and to pay the costs associated with such forfeitures.
(http://www.justice.gov/jmd/afp/02fundreport/02_2.html)
1984 Oct 12, The IRA bombed the hotel where PM Margaret Thatcher was staying in Brighton. Thatcher escaped but five people were killed. Patrick McGee was sentenced to 8 life sentences for his role in the bombing. McGee was freed in 1999 as part of the Northern Ireland peace accord.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 6/23/99, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/bxt64)
1986 Oct 12, The superpower meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1987 Oct 12, In Houston, Vice President George Bush formally launched his quest for the Republican presidential nomination.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1987 Oct 12, Former Kansas Gov. Alfred "Alf" M. Landon, who ran for president against Franklin Roosevelt, died at his Topeka home at age 100.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1988 Oct 12, US federal prosecutors announced that Sundstrand Corp. had agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges and pay a $115 million settlement for overbilling the Pentagon for airplane parts over five years.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1989 Oct 12, The US House approved a statutory federal ban on desecration of the American flag. The Senate defeated the measure a week later.
(AP, 10/12/99)
1989 Oct 12, Jay Ward (b.1920), cartoonist, died. He and Bill Scott produced the 1959 TV show "Rocky and His Friends," which featured Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose.
{Cartoons, USA, TV}
(SFEC, 12/15/96, DB p.63)(http://members.shaw.ca/fffff/ward.html)
1990 Oct 12, The Cincinnati Reds won the National League pennant, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-to-1.
(AP, 10/12/00)
1990 Oct 12, Wolfgang Schauble (b.1942), German politician, was the target of an assassination attempt by Dieter Kaufmann, who fired 3 shots at Schäuble after an election campaign event in Oppenau. Schauble was left paralyzed from the waist down. In 2009 he was appointed finance minister under Chancellor Angel Merkel.
(Econ, 5/14/11, p.70)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Sch%C3%A4uble)
1990 Oct 12, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel’s security forces for killing 17 Palestinian demonstrators on the Temple Mount.
(AP, 10/12/00)
1991 Oct 12, Testifying for a second day on sexual harassment charges leveled by law professor Anita Hill, Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas told the Senate Judiciary Committee he'd “rather die than withdraw," and repeated his denial of Hill's allegations.
(AP, 10/12/01)
1992 Oct 12, Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico began a microwave search for occupied planets.
(www.planetary.org/explore/topics/seti/seti_history_12.html)
1992 Oct 12, A 5.8 earthquake hit Cairo and at least 510 people died.
(AP, 10/12/97)(http://io.ingrm.it/amminist/annali/elenean433.htm)
1993 Oct 12, The Toronto Blue Jays won their second straight American League pennant, defeating the Chicago White Sox in six games.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1993 Oct 12, Hundreds of militant right-wingers in Haiti cheered as an American warship retreated in a major setback for a U.N. mission to restore democracy.
(HN, 10/12/98)
1994 Oct 12, American Clifford G. Shull and Canadian Bertram N. Brockhouse won the Nobel physics prize; American George A. Olah won the Nobel chemistry prize.
(AP, 10/12/04)
1994 Oct 12, The Magellan space probe ended its four-year mapping mission of Venus, plunging into the planet's atmosphere.
(TV, 10/17/95)(AP, 10/12/99)
1994 Oct 12, Panama granted political asylum to ousted Haitian military leader Raoul Cedras.
(AP, 10/12/99)
1995 Oct 12, After a 2-day delay, the US-brokered cease-fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina went into effect a minute after midnight. Fighting continued over contested towns in northwest Bosnia.
(SFC, 10/16/97, p.A12)(AP, 10/12/00)
1996 Oct 12, President Clinton signed into law the Water Resources Development Act, which authorized federal water projects across the country.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1996 Oct 12, Thousands of Hispanic Americans marched in Washington to push for simplified citizenship procedures and a seven-dollar minimum wage.
(AP, 10/12/97)
1996 Oct 12, Followers of Sri Chimnoy, dedicated to int'l. peace and freedom through physical fitness, hung a brass plaque with a free verse poem in an alcove the lobby of the Statue of Liberty.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A6)
1996 Oct 12, In Ecuador Pres. Abdala Bucaram released his debut Rock ‘n’ Roll CD this week: “A Madman in Love."
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A10)
1996 Oct 12, In New Zealand elections voters delivered a split verdict on conservative rule. Jenny Shipley was made prime minister and ruled for 2 years.
(SFEC, 10/13/96, p.A16)(SFEC, 11/28/99, p.A21)
1996 Oct 12, Theodore Miriung, head of the Bougainville Transitional Government of Papua, New Guinea, was assassinated.
(SFC, 10/16/96, p.A10)
1997 Oct 12, Pres. Clinton met Pres. Rafael Caldera of Venezuela on the first stop of his trip to South America. It was reported that Venezuela handles some 100 metric tons of cocaine and 10 metric tons of heroin from Columbia to the US.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A14) (HN, 10/12/98)
1997 Oct 12, In SF a rock concert organized by Chet Helms was planned in Golden Gate Park to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the “Be-In." [see 1/14/67] An estimated 10,000 people gathered for the concert.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A20)(SFC, 10/13/97, p.E1)
1997 Oct 12, John Denver (53), singer and songwriter, died after his Long-EZ aircraft crashed into the ocean near Monterey, Ca. He was born as Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. and came to prominence as a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio. He wrote the song “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane," that became a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A1)(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A1,13)
1997 Oct 12, In Bosnia elections were scheduled by Pres. Plavsic.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A12)
1997 Oct 12, In Jerusalem an Arab toddler received the heart of a Jewish boy killed in a bicycle-auto accident.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 12, In the Republic of Congo Angolan troops backed the rebels in an offensive around southern cities. Rebels surrounded Brazzaville and Gen’l. Jean-Marie Tiaffou urged government troops to surrender. There were reports that Angola’s UNITA rebels were backing Pres. Lissouba.
(SFC, 10/13/97, p.A12)
1998 Oct 12, A record 974-pound pumpkin won the Great Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, Ca. It was raised from an Atlantic Giant seed by Lincoln Mettler of Eatonville, Wa.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Oct 12, The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded to 3 Americans, Robert F. Furchgott (82), Louis Ignarro (57) and Ferid Murad (62), for their work on nitric oxide gas in biochemical functions in the human body.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1,13)
1998 Oct 12, An American law protecting sea turtles was overturned by an appeals panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, Matthew Shepard (21), a gay student at the University of Wyoming, died in fort Collins, Colorado, five days after he was beaten and lashed to a fence; two men were charged with his murder. Russell Henderson later pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping; a second suspect, Aaron McKinney, was convicted of felony murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. McKinney was sentenced to 2 life terms.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/99)(SFC, 11/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/99, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In Santa Monica, Ca., Horst Fietze, a German tourist, was killed by robbers as he strolled with his wife on an ocean promenade. In 2009 Paul Carpenter (31), a suspect in the murder, was arrested in Jamaica. Three others had already been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the killing.
(SFC, 2/13/09, p.B6)
1998 Oct 12, Canada planned to begin discussion with Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Liechtenstein for the first trans-Atlantic free-trade pact.
(WSJ, 10/12/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In France thousands of high-school students demonstrated for more teachers and school equipment.
(WSJ, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 12, In Iran the Khordad Foundation raised its reward for the killing of Salman Rushdie to $2.8 million.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 12, In Japan the parliament approved banking legislation that would allow the government to nationalize failing banks.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 12, A protest was planned at the Mexican border against plans to put low-level radioactive waste at Sierra Blanca in Texas, 16 miles from the border. This appeared to be in violation of the 1983 La Paz Treaty in which the US and Mexico agreed to reduce pollution within 60 miles of their common frontier.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 12, In Sierra Leone a military court condemned 34 officers to death for their participation in a 1997 coup.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 12, Yugoslav Pres. Milosevic agreed to withdraw troops from Kosovo and allow int’l. verification as NATO prepared to authorize air strikes if he does not comply.
(SFC, 10/13/98, p.A1)
1999 Oct 12, Professors Gerardus 't Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman of the Netherlands won the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of mathematical tools to calculate properties of fundamental particles. From 1981 to his retirement in 1997, Veltman was an active member of the Univ. of Michigan physics department.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A2)(MT, Fall/99, p.7)
1999 Oct 12, Ahmed H. Zewail, an Egyptian chemist at the California Inst. of Tech., won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for finding a way to freeze-frame the private matings of molecules using ultra fast laser probes.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A2)
1999 Oct 12, It was reported that Calvin Klein would soon begin marketing "dirty jeans" for as much as $78 retail.
(WSJ, 10/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 12, The world population was projected to reach 6 billion. This day was declared by the UN as the Day of 6 Billion. The designated 6 billionth baby was born in Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/30/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 7/11/99, p.A19)(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 12, Wilt Chamberlain, basketball legend and Hall-of-Famer Wilt “The Stilt," died at age 63 in Bel Air, Ca.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/00)
1999 Oct 12, In Burundi Hutu rebels attacked a UN humanitarian convoy and killed 9 people at the Muzye refugee camp in Rutana.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 12, In Hong Kong it was reported that a $2.6 billion Cyberport was to be developed beginning in 2001.
(SFC, 10/12/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 12, In Pakistan Gen'l. Pervez Musharraf led a military coup after PM Shariff tried to fire him and replace him with Gen'l. Zia Uddin. Musharraf avoided martial law and left the parliament intact. Sharif refused to let a passenger plane land in Karachi with 198 people aboard that included Gen. Musharraf. The coup cut short a Pakistani commando operation set up by the CIA to get Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. In 2009 the Pakistani Supreme Court acquitted Sharif of hijacking charges.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/14/99, p.A21)(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A12)(SFC, 10/3/01, p.A10)(SFC, 7/18/09, p.A2)
1999 Oct 12, Bjorn Soderberg (b.1958), a member of a Swedish far-left union, was shot and killed. Prosecutors said the killing was revenge for the Soderberg's public denouncement of a co-worker who belonged to a neo-Nazi organization. In 2000 three men, including Hampus Hellekant, were convicted in the fatal shooting. Hellekant served 7 years in prison and in 2007 was admitted to the medical school of the Karolinska institute under the name Karl Svensson. He was expelled after 4 months when his former identity was revealed.
(AP, 1/25/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B6rn_S%C3%B6derberg)
2000 Oct 12, The Nobel Prize in literature was won by Gao Xingjian (60), an exiled Chinese writer living in Paris. His novels include “Soul Mountain," based on a 1986 walking tour along the Yangtze River.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 12, Pres. Clinton lifted key economic sanctions against Serbia.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 12, The Clinton administration and North Korea issued a joint communique asserting a decision to “fundamentally improve" their relations.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A17)
2000 Oct 12, The DJIA fell 379.21 (3.6%) to 10,034, while the NASDAQ fell 93.81 (3%) to 3074 in response to the Middle East crises.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, A US Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, refueling in Yemen suffered an enormous explosion in what appeared to be a terrorist attack. Initial reports had at least 6 sailors killed with 11 missing. The death toll was revised to 17. The 8,600-ton Cole was returned to the US aboard the Norwegian ship Blue Marlin. In 2001 a video tape by "Al-Sahab Productions" circulated among Muslim militants with footage of the bombed vessel. The Cole returned to active duty in 2003 following $250 million in repairs. In 2007 Walid Muhammad bin Attash told a military tribunal at Guantanamo that he was responsible for organizing the Cole attack as well as the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2014 Abd al-Rahm al Nashiri (49) of Saudi Arabia faced trial for orchestrating the bombing.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/14/00, p.A1)(SFC, 11/7/00, p.A12)(SFC, 6/20/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 12/1/03, p.A1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A3)(SFC, 3/5/14, p.A6)
2000 Oct 12, In Chechnya a car bomb exploded outside a Grozny police stations and at least 10 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.D3)
2000 Oct 12, In Ecuador suspected Columbian FARC guerrillas kidnapped 5 Americans and 5 other foreign oil workers, hijacked a helicopter, and crossed back to Columbia. It was later suspected that the kidnappers were Ecuadoran criminals rather than Colombian guerrillas. One American was later killed and 2 Frenchmen escaped.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A17)(SFC, 10/20/00, p.D8)(WSJ, 2/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, The Palestinian Authority released hundreds of prisoners including senior Islamic militants.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A5)
2000 Oct 12, A mob of Palestinians beat at least 2 Israeli reserve soldiers to death. Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza in retaliation. Two reservist soldiers, Cpl. Vadim Norjitz (33) and Yossi Avrahami (38) were on their way to their army base in the West Bank in October 2000 but took a wrong turn and ended up in Ramallah. Israel later arrested at least four suspects in the killing. In 2007 a 5th suspect, Ayman Zaban, was caught in an upscale neighborhood of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 9/26/07)
2001 Oct 12, Kofi Annan, Sec. Gen. of the UN, and the UN itself won the Nobel Peace Prize.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 12, US Attorney General John Ashcroft urged federal agencies to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American citizens. The act was passed in 1974 during the Watergate scandal
(SSFC, 1/6/02, p.D4)
2001 Oct 12, NBC announced that an assistant to anchorman Tom Brokaw had contracted the skin form of anthrax after opening a "threatening" letter to her boss that contained a suspicious powder.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 10/12/02)
2001 Oct 12, Polaroid Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2001 Oct 12, Taliban leaders withdrew over $6 million from the Kabul Da Afghanistan Bank.
(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A11)
2001 Oct 12, The British government officially announced that 3 Protestant paramilitary forces in Northern Ireland had ended a 7-year cease fire.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.C1)
2001 Oct 12, China put limits on air travel to citizens of 19 countries, mainly in the Middle East.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 12, In Colombia AUC paramilitary shot and killed 5 men and 2 women in the town of Piamonte. The army reported that it had discovered14 bodies in a single grave in the town of Albania.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.C1)
2001 Oct 12, In Iran anti-American protests surged on the Afghan border in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan-Baluchistan.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 12, Iran defeated Iraq 1-0 in a soccer match. Demonstrations erupted after the game against the Shiite theocracy and continued following successive soccer matches. At least 2 thousand young people were arrested over the next 2 weeks.
(WSJ, 10/30/01, p.A22)
2001 Oct 12, Israeli and Palestinian officials resumed peace talks. Thousands of Palestinians held marches in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 12, In Nigeria the mutilated bodies of 19 abducted soldiers were found in Benue state.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.C16)
2001 Oct 12, In Pakistan anti-American violence erupted in Karachi.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A3)
2001 Oct 12, In Spain a bombing caused wide damage in Madrid. Basque separatists were suspected.
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 12, The US indicated it would aid Uzbekistan if it were attacked. Uzbekistan was the first among Central Asian nations to allow the US to use its airspace and deploy troops on its territory for the anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The United States set up a military base in southern Uzbekistan, deploying hundreds of troops there.
(WSJ, 10/15/01, p.A16)(AP, 3/30/04)
2001 Oct 12, In Zimbabwe Pres. Mugabe imposed a price freeze on basic foods following cuts of 5-20% on basic items.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2002 Oct 12, Ray Conniff (85), band leader of "easy-listening" hits, died in Escondido, Ca.
(WSJ, 10/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 12, It was reported that 164,000 Eritrean refugees had begun returning home from camps in Sudan. Some 60,000 had already returned since 2001.
(SFC, 10/12/02, p.A10)
2002 Oct 12, In western India 4 people were killed as Hindus and Muslims clashed in the town of Solapur in continuing violence triggered after U.S. preacher Jerry Falwell called the Prophet Mohammad a terrorist.
(Reuters, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, In Indonesia a car bomb ripped through the Sari Club at the Kuta Beach resort packed with foreign tourists on the island of Bali, sparking a blaze that killed 202 people and injured 300 others. It was the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history. Authorities said a second bomb exploded near the island's U.S. consular office. An estimated 100 victims were from Australia. Imam Samudra was later charged with engineering the blast. In 2004 Samudra (34) published a jailhouse autobiography “Me Against the Terrorist," in which he called for fellow Muslim radicals to take the holy war to cyberspace. In 2005 Sally Neighbour authored “In the Shadow of Swords: How Islamic Terrorists Declared War on Australia."
(AP, 10/13/02)(SSFC, 10/12/02, p.A1)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.W1)(Econ, 12/17/05, p.83)
2002 Oct 12, Kuwait's interior minister said that 15 Kuwaitis in police custody had confessed to a deadly attack on U.S. Marines, but that no firm link has been established between them and al-Qaida.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, Seven Filipino soldiers died and 25 others were wounded in a fierce clash with Muslim rebels deep in the jungle of southern Sulu island.
(Reuters, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, Dolma Tsering won the first Miss Tibet beauty pageant, an event its organizers said would reinforce Tibetan identity.
(Reuters, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 12, In Ukraine tens of thousands of protesters laid out their charges against President Leonid Kuchma at a "people's tribunal", and opposition lawmakers said prosecutors promised to review their complaints.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2003 Oct 12, In Bolivia violence erupted at El Alto when the military tried to break a blockade against gas trucks bound for Chile. The death toll grew to 59 after 4 days of clashes at El Alto.
(http://bolivia.indymedia.org/es/2003/10/3225.shtml)
(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A11)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.38)
2003 Oct 12, Some 70,000 employees of Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons grocery stores began a strike in southern California, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio. Health care costs were a main issue. Workers approved an agreement for southern California on Feb 29, 2004.
(SFC, 10/14/03, p.B2)(SFC, 11/5/03, p.B1)(SFC, 3/1/04, p.A5)
2003 Oct 12, Doctors in Dallas succeeded in separating two-year-old Egyptian conjoined twins.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2003 Oct 12, Joan Kroc (75), widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, died near San Diego. On Nov 6 it was announced that she had left over $200 million for National Public Radio.
(SFC, 11/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Oct 12, Bill Shoemaker (72), Hall of Fame jockey, died in San Marino, Calif.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2003 Oct 12, In Baku, Azerbaijan, some 50,000 people protested Pres. Aliev's attempt to transfer power to his son in upcoming elections.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A11)
2003 Oct 12, In Belarus a patient at a mental hospital set fire to the building, killing 30 people and injuring 31.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, In Bolivia violence erupted at El Alto when the military tried to break a blockade against gas trucks bound for Chile. The death toll grew to 59 after 4 days of clashes at El Alto. Finance Ministry officials began a 3-day withdrawal of 13.7 million bolivianos (US$1.8 million). In 2006 Marcela Nogales, the central bank manager, was jailed for releasing the money, which facilitated a military crackdown. In 2011 Bolivia's highest court convicted five former top military commanders of genocide for an army crackdown on the riots that killed at least 64 civilians. It gave them prison sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years.
(http://tinyurl.com/onpns)(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A11)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.38)(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 8/30/11)
2003 Oct 12, British wartime hero Patrick Dalzel-Job, whose exploits made him a model for James Bond, died in Plockton, Scotland, at age 90.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2003 Oct 12, In China Ma Yong (43), was arrested and accused of robbing and killing 12 women in southern China over a five-month period, preying on job seekers in the boomtown of Shenzhen. Duan Zhiqun (20), his female partner, was arrested Oct 23.
(AP, 11/11/03)
2003 Oct 12, In southern China an explosion in a coal mine killed 7 miners, while the bodies of 4 miners killed in an underground flood were pulled from a shaft in a central province.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, In Colombia government forces battled rebels and right-wing paramilitaries in several locations in heavy fighting that killed 27 gunmen and two soldiers.
(AP, 10/13/03)
2003 Oct 12, Germany won the Women's Soccer World Cup 2-1 over Sweden in the eighth minute of overtime.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2003 Oct 12, In Baghdad a suicide attacker, stopped from reaching a hotel full of Americans, detonated his car bomb on a commercial avenue, killing six bystanders and wounding dozens.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, Renato Rinino (41), a professional Italian thief who gained notoriety for stealing jewelry from Prince Charles' London palace in 1994, was shot and killed in Savona.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, In the Philippines Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, terrorist bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiyah, was killed in a shootout with police in Pigcauayan.
(SFC, 10/13/03, p.A7)
2003 Oct 12, In northern Spain 2 bombs exploded in a parking lot, destroying 11 freight trucks. No one was injured in the blast blamed on the armed Basque separatist group ETA,
(AP, 10/12/03)
2003 Oct 12, Taiwan's dwindling number of diplomatic allies shrank by one as Liberia switched ties to the island's rival, China. This reduced Taiwan's recognition to 26 nations, most of them small, developing countries in Africa and Latin America.
(AP, 10/12/03)
2004 Oct 12, The Seattle Storm won their first WNBA title with a 74-60 victory over the Connecticut Sun.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2004 Oct 12, A jury in Baton Rouge, La., took 80 minutes to find suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace. Lee was later sentenced to death for Pace's killing.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2004 Oct 12, In Canada tens of thousands of public servants were on strike across the country as negotiators for the federal government and their union continued marathon talks.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2004 Oct 12, Iranian vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was a close ally of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, resigned, saying he could not work with the conservative-dominated parliament.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2004 Oct 12, A videotape surfaced on the Internet showing what was said to be the confession and beheading of an Arab Shiite Muslim, presumably Iraqi, who was accused of serving the U.S. Army by "assassinating Sunni leaders." US warplanes hit Fallujah and knocked out the celebrated Haji Hussein kebab restaurant killing the owner’s son and nephew.
(AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 12, Police found 7 young people slumped over dead in a parked van outside Tokyo in what was believed to be Japan's biggest-ever group suicide. Another 2 people were found dead in a rented car parked in Yokosuka.
(AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A2)
2004 Oct 12, Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium-range, nuclear-capable missile that would be able to hit most cities in neighboring India.
(AP, 10/12/04)
2004 Oct 12, in northwest Pakistan an attacker tossed a grenade into a wedding ceremony at the home of an Afghan refugee, killing four people and injuring 35.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2005 Oct 12, Human Rights Watch reported that 2,225 inmates in the US were serving life-without-parole terms for crimes committed when they were under 18. California had 180 prisoners serving such sentences for murders committed when they were 17 or 18.
(SFC, 10/13/05, p.B3)
2005 Oct 12-2005 Oct 13, US federal agents in Operation Long Whine arrested 28 people and seized 1,300 pounds of cocaine during an overnight raid in Atlanta.
(SFC, 10/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Oct 12, Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire said it has agreed to pay $240 million to Ford Motor Co. to settle claims related to the tiremaker's 2000 recall of defective tires.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A fire at the Wines Central warehouse in Vallejo, Ca., destroyed tens of million of dollars worth of vintage wine. An estimated 6 million bottles were in storage there. On Oct 18 investigators said the fire was deliberately set. In 2007 Mark Anderson (58), a Sausalito businessman, was charged with setting the fire. In 2009 Anderson pleaded guilty to arson and 18 other counts. On Feb 7, 2012, Anderson was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
(SFC, 10/13/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/19/05, p.B1)(SFC, 3/20/07, p.A1)(SFC, 11/17/09, p.C2)(SFC, 2/8/12, p.C1)
2005 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 5 medical workers were killed by gunmen near Kandahar. Pres. Karzai said he believes insurgents are receiving support from the nation's booming drug trade.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The British government unveiled sweeping anti-terrorism legislation designed to crack down on Islamic extremism, raising concerns from Muslim leaders, opposition parties and legal experts about the potential for infringing on civil liberties.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A rocket carrying two Chinese astronauts blasted off from a base in China's desert northwest Gansu province, returning the country's manned space program to orbit two years after its history-making first flight.
(AP, 10/12/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.46)
2005 Oct 12, In eastern China a man armed with homemade guns opened fire at a primary school, injuring 16 students before escaping.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 12, Tens of thousands of trade union workers and Indians took to the streets of Colombia's main cities to protest a proposed free trade pact with the US, accusing President Alvaro Uribe of selling out the country.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Costa Rica the InterAmerican Human Rights court, announced that it has ordered Colombia to pay damages in the 1997 massacre of dozens of Mapiripan villagers by right-wing paramilitary fighters.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Egypt a sit-in by hundreds of Sudanese refugees outside the offices of the UNHCR in the Cairo entered its 14th day, even as the agency insisted it could not meet their asylum demands. Some 14,400 Sudanese refugees were registered in Egypt.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The European Commission said companies that want to sell music online in the European Union can now get a single license to operate in all 25 member states.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The EU agreed to legally require telecommunications companies to keep records of phone and e-mail traffic for up to one year as part of the bloc's anti-terrorist campaign.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, The European Commission presented a new development aid strategy focused primarily on easing poverty in Africa and on holding EU member states to their promises to double aid to the continent.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he will not participate in Germany's new coalition government, ending seven years in power marked by a newly assertive foreign policy and efforts to prune welfare benefits that were a drag on Europe's biggest economy.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, kidnappers shot and killed businessman Archange Honore, on a busy street after he resisted being taken, then sped off in his car with his wife and 2 children.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 12, Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and other top politicians praised as "historic" the last-minute compromises that negotiators reached on the draft constitution and urged Iraqis to vote "yes" in this weekend's referendum.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A suicide bomber killed 30 Iraqis at an army recruiting center. An explosion shut down an oil pipeline near the northern city of Beiji.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Officials said former Finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and soccer star George Weah emerged as early front-runners in Liberia's first post-war elections.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A Dutch court blocked the extradition of a Dutch terror suspect to the United States, saying his legal rights in U.S. custody could not be guaranteed.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, A build up of pollution from factories and old cars caused a wave of smog that enveloped much of Lagos, Nigeria's largest city.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 12, Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a US and a British journalist in the Gaza Strip. Both men were freed in the evening.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, An explosion hit a distillery in Russia's Ingushetia region and there were casualties. A police spokesman called the blast a terrorist act.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In Somalia 6 armed men hijacked the MV Miltzow, a ship carrying food aid, as it was unloading at the port of Merka, marking the second such incident in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, In South Korea the president's office said South Korea has proposed talks to take back wartime control of its military from the United States.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Ghazi Kanaan, Syria's interior minister, died. He was one of several top officials caught up in the UN investigation into the slaying of Lebanon's former prime minister. The country's official news agency said he committed suicide in his office.
(AP, 10/12/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.50)
2005 Oct 12, Vietnam presented donor nations an emergency six-month plan to battle bird flu, amid fears of a new outbreak of the deadly disease and delays in a poultry vaccination scheme.
(AFP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered a U.S.-based Christian missionary group working with indigenous tribes to leave the country, accusing the organization of "imperialist infiltration" and links to the CIA. Chavez said missionaries of the New Tribes Mission, based in Sanford, Fla., were no longer welcome during a ceremony in a remote Indian village where he presented property titles to several indigenous groups.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2006 Oct 12, The United States introduced a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to punish North Korea for its nuclear test.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2006 Oct 12, America's trade deficit hit an all-time high, $69.9 billion for August, as record imports of oil swamped a solid gain in US exports. The politically sensitive deficit with China set a record, a point that Democrats are sure to use in attacking President Bush's trade policies in the closing weeks of the battle for Congress.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, It was reported that Coke planned to introduce its new drink Evigna, a green-tea based soft drink, in November with claims that it could help burn off calories.
(WSJ, 10/12/06, p.B1)
2006 Oct 12, A blast occurred when a tugboat pushing two barges hit an undersea pipeline in West Cote Blanche Bay, 100 miles southwest of New Orleans. 4 bodies were found and 2 people were missing.
(WSJ, 10/13/06, p.A1)(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 12, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck a vehicle carrying Afghan soldiers, wounding 16 people. A car bomb targeting a US patrol wounded three civilians. An Afghan soldier was killed in a separate ambush. NATO-led forces and Afghan troops clashed with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, leaving as many as 20 suspected insurgents dead.
(AP, 10/12/06)(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 12, More than 100 wildfires raged across Australia, sending firefighters scrambling to protect homes and farmland.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, Dhiran Barot (32), a British man arrested in August, 2004, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb high-profile targets in the US including the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington and the New York Stock Exchange.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, In Colombia hundreds of Bari Indians, most clad in loincloths and carrying bows and arrows, came down from the hills in their first march ever to demand that the state-owned oil company stop drilling on sacred land abutting their reservation.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, Scientists said a mouse living in the Troodos Mountains of western Cyprus, that predates the arrival of man, represents a new species, Mus cypriacus.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A13)
2006 Oct 12, French lawmakers approved a bill making it a crime to deny that the 1915-1919 mass killings of Armenians in Turkey amounted to genocide. It was thought unlikely that Jacques Chirac’s government would forward the bill to the Senate.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A21)
2006 Oct 12, Georgia blocked the next round of talks on Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization in retaliation for Moscow's blockade of its small southern neighbor.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, Gunmen stormed the headquarters of a new Sunni Arab satellite television station, killing the board chairman and 10 others, the second attack on an Iraqi station in the capital in as many weeks.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a crowd of Palestinians in a pre-dawn in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3 Hamas militants and 3 bystanders including a father and his 13-year-old son. An Israeli airstrike targeting the home of Ashraf Farwana, a senior Hamas militant, killed his brother and a 2-year-old girl.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A17)
2006 Oct 12, In Italy the government of Romano Prodi approved a bill to erode the near-monopoly over private television exercised by Silvio Berlusconi, who controls 3 of the country’s 4 main private channels.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.61)
2006 Oct 12, Gillo Pontecorvo (b.1919), Italian filmmaker, died in Rome at age 86. He directed the black-and-white classic "The Battle of Algiers" (1966).
(AP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 12, Carlo Acutis (15), Italian computer whiz, died of leukemia. Acutis had created a website to catalog miracles and took care of websites for some local Catholic organizations. In 2020 he was moved a step closer to possible sainthood with his beatification in the town of Assisi, where he is buried.
(AP, 10/10/20)
2006 Oct 12, Madonna and her husband took custody of a motherless 1-year-old boy in Malawi after a judge granted her an 18-month interim order to take David Banda out of the country. The next day Madonna jetted out of Malawi, leaving behind the 13-month-old boy she planned to adopt. The swift granting of the interim order angered some rights groups which called upon the Malawian government to put the order on hold in the interests of the child's future. Banda left Malawi on a small private jet Oct16.
(SFC, 10/13/06, p.E15)(AFP, 10/13/06)(Reuters, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 12, Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel literature prize for his works dealing with the symbols of clashing cultures. His uncommon lyrical gifts and uncompromising politics have brought him acclaim worldwide and prosecution at home.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, The UN said it has temporarily pulled international staff out of parts of Somalia controlled by Islamic radicals after receiving written threats.
(AP, 10/12/06)
2006 Oct 12, In Vietnam the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper quoted a police doctor as saying tests in September confirmed that Nguyen Thi Oanh (39), a convicted heroin trafficker, was then 11 weeks pregnant. The death row inmate had been held in solitary confinement for almost a year.
(Reuters, 10/12/06)
2007 Oct 12, Former Vice President Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for spreading awareness of man-made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.
(AP, 10/12/07)(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 12, The US FDA approved Isentress, a new drug by Merck to fight AIDS. Raltegravir, its generic name, represented a new class of AIDS drugs known as integrase inhibitors.
(SFC, 10/13/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 12, Two men were sentenced to prison in the first successful criminal prosecution under the CAN-SPAM Act. James R. Schaffer, 41, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, 41, of Venice, California, were convicted in June of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and obscenity. Last week, the judge in the case sentenced Schaffer to 63 months and Kilbride to 72 months in federal prison.
(www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1000096UTGDC)
2007 Oct 12, In Norristown, Pa., Michele Cossey (46), the mother of a 14-year-old who authorities say had a cache of guns, knives and explosive devices in his bedroom for a possible school attack, was charged with buying her son 3 weapons. Authorities said the teenager felt bullied and tried to recruit another boy for a possible attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, A consortium headed by Richard Branson and his Virgin Group Ltd. submitted a proposal to Northern Rock PLC for an equity swap that would see the struggling mortgage lender rebranded as Virgin Money.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In southern California 28 commercial vehicles and one passenger vehicle were involved in the crash in the southbound truck tunnel of Interstate 5 that killed three people and injured at least 10.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Algeria a police officer was assassinated in one of two attacks in the northern Tizi Ouzou region. At about the same time, five soldiers were injured when Islamists fired at a military checkpoint near the neighboring town of Boghni.
(AFP, 10/15/07)
2007 Oct 12, State media said Chinese authorities plan to move some 4 million more rural residents from behind the Three Gorges Dam in recognition of environmental and economic problems spawned by the giant project.
(AFP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Costa Rica heavy rains caused a landslide that killed 10 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, Half of Germany's commuter and regional trains were brought to a standstill by a train drivers' pay strike that caused chaos in many major cities.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Haiti a rain-swollen river flooded a town killing at least 20 people.
(WSJ, 10/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 12, The government of India, under pressure from opposition, indicated that that they would rather shelve a nuclear energy deal with the US rather than risk a general election.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.51)
2007 Oct 12, A parked car bomb went off near a police patrol in a central Baghdad shopping district, killing four people, including two policemen, as Iraq's Sunnis began marking the Eid al-Fit holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In northern Iraq, a bomb planted among toys in a cart left near a children's playground in the religiously mixed city of Tuz Khormato, killing 2 children and wounding 17 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(Reuters, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In Mexico more than 1,000 police officers in riot gear blocked street vendors from setting up stands selling knockoff purses and pirated DVDs, clearing Mexico City's clogged historic center for the first time in more than a decade.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 12, Myanmar PM Gen. Sue Win (59), reviled for his role in a bloody attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers in 2003, died after a long illness. Myanmar's military junta rejected a UN statement calling for negotiations with the opposition, insisting that it would follow its own plan to bring democracy to the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, The Netherlands said it will ban the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms, rolling back one element of the country's permissive drug policy after a teenager on a school visit jumped to her death after taking the narcotic.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, Pakistan’s Supreme Court refused to suspend a corruption amnesty for former PM Benazir Bhutto but injected uncertainty into Pakistan's turbulent politics by saying the law was reversible.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 12, In central South Africa the Orion GDF-005, a German-made computer-controlled anti-aircraft gun, went haywire during a training exercise killing 9 South African soldiers and wounding 14 others.
(AP, 10/12/07)(http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/robot-cannon-ki.html)
2007 Oct 12, The Zimbabwean government authorized new increases in the prices of basis foodstuffs in a bid to ease widespread shortages that followed an order for retailers to halve their tariffs. The government allowed bakers to increase the price of a loaf of bread by more than 200 percent, as shortages persisted across the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)(AFP, 10/14/07)
2008 Oct 12, In California Hans Florine (44) and Yuji Hirayama (39) broke their own World Record for the fastest climb up the Nose of El Capitan (2:37:5) in Yosemite National Park. They first record was set on Jul 2 with a time of 2:43:33.
(SFC, 7/3/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Oct 12, In Afghanistan 62 militants, part of a group of 150 that had been seen massing outside of Lashkar Gah for several days, were killed overnight in NATO air strikes that stopped them from entering the Helmand provincial capital. Taliban commander Mullah Qadratullah was among the dead. The US-led coalition killed five Taliban rebels in Ghazni. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reporter Mellissa Fung (35) was kidnapped in Kabul. She was freed on Nov 8.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A11)(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Oct 12, Algeria announced it will spend 500 million euros (675 million dollars) on protecting towns from flooding as the death toll from floods this month rose to 43.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Australia and New Zealand gave a blanket guarantee to all bank deposits in a move likely to raise pressure on other economies to do the same, amid a crisis of confidence in the global financial system.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Dozens of renowned British writers came out against new anti-terrorism legislation, publishing a collection of satire, essays, fiction and poetry to protest a proposal allowing police to hold suspects without charge for up to 42 days. The next day the House of Lords rejected the plan and the government said it would abandon the proposal.
(AP, 10/12/08)(SFC, 10/14/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 12, European leaders hammered out action to confront the financial crisis, adding their voices to a global chorus of demands for coordinated action against the turmoil.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, In Iraq Qassim al-Aboudi, the spokesman for the election commission, said there's not enough time to organize a ballot this year but that it will take place soon after the New Year. 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the Yarmouk district of Baghdad. A car bomb exploded in a commercial street of southwestern Baghdad, killing 7 people and wounding 9 others. Another car bomb in Mosul killed 6 people. A Christian music store owner was shot to death in Mosul, the latest in a series of killings that has caused thousands of members of the religious minority to flee the city. Iraq deployed around 1,000 police in Christian areas of Mosul as thousands of members of the minority group fled the worst violence against them in 5 years. A spate of attacks on Christians in Mosul since September 28 had killed at least 11 people.
(AP, 10/12/08)(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)(SFC, 10/13/08, p.A12)
2008 Oct 12, Lithuanians voted in a general election likely to mark comebacks for ex-president Rolandas Paksas or former political star Viktor Uspaskich. A non-binding referendum was also on the ballot as part of a battle to delay the closure of Ignalina, a Soviet-era nuclear power station which provides 70 percent of Lithuania's electricity. Voters dealt a major blow to Lithuania's leftist government by boosting the conservative opposition as well as some populist leaders, including an impeached ex-president, in weekend elections. Homeland Union leader Andrius Kubilius said he was ready to form a new Cabinet after his party won the most votes in the first round, receiving 19.2 percent. The governing Social Democratic Party, which has controlled the prime minister's office since 2001, finished fourth with 11.7 percent.
(AFP, 10/12/08)(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 12, An angry crowd in central Mexico attacked police and helped nearly three dozen illegal Central American immigrants escape from custody after hearing that officers had allegedly sold the migrants to human smugglers in the farming town of Rafael Lara Grajales, Puebla state. Federal police managed to round up 21 migrants.
(AP, 10/14/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A23)
2008 Oct 12, North Korea said it will resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the US removed the communist country from a list of states Washington says sponsor terrorism.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pakistani helicopter gunships bombed a meeting of Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda near the border with Afghanistan. Among the dead were two Taliban commanders and 12 potential suicide bombers. More than 24 extremists with links to Al-Qaeda were killed near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, A Soyuz spacecraft with two Americans and a Russian on board lifted off from Kazakhstan for the international space station. The Soyuz TMA-13 capsule carried American computer game millionaire Richard Garriott, US astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Somali forces from semiautonomous Puntland unsuccessfully raided a hijacked ships. 2 pirates were killed.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A15)
2008 Oct 12, Sri Lanka’s soldiers destroyed three bunkers and captured four others after battles that killed 15 rebels near their administrative capital of Kilinochchi. Separate clashes in the same area killed four rebels and one soldier. In the northern Jaffna peninsula, troops killed four rebels along the front lines while a rebel mortar attack killed two soldiers. Clashes in Mullaitivu killed four rebels and wounded one soldier.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 12, The United Arab Emirates said it would guarantee domestic bank deposits and with Saudi Arabia promised fresh financial support to domestic banks.
(WSJ, 10/13/08, p.A5)
2008 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Roman Catholic church four new saints, including an Indian woman whose canonization is seen as a morale boost to Christians in India who have suffered Hindu violence. They included Sister Alphonsa (1910-1946) of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from southern India and India’s first woman saint; Gaetano Errico (1791-1860), a Neapolitan priest who founded a missionary order in the 19th century; Sister Maria Bernarda, born as Verena Buetler (1848-1924) in Switzerland, who worked as a nun in Ecuador and Colombia; and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran (1832-1869), a 19th century laywoman from Ecuador who helped the sick and the poor.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, In Venezuela Pres. Chaves, on Indigenous Resistance Day, presented the Yukpa Indians titles to some blocks of land. This fell short of the 150,000 acres they claimed as ancestral territory.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.41)
2009 Oct 12, Americans Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) and Oliver Williamson (b.1932) won the Nobel economics prize for their work in economic governance. Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel prize for economics, specialized in the study of common resource pools.
(AP, 10/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.92)(Econ, 6/30/12, p.94)
2009 Oct 12, Don Young of Des Moines, Iowa, won the 39th Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival with his 1,658-pound pumpkin. It broke the year-old record of 1,528 pounds. His first prize of $9,948 came out to $6 per pound. The world record had just been set on Oct 10 in Ohio by a 1,725-pound Atlantic giant pumpkin.
(SFC, 10/13/09, p.C1)(SSFC, 10/11/09, p.A14)
2009 Oct 12, In SF Eric Buschman (49) was stabbed to death on the 300 block of Athens Street in the Excelsior District. On Oct 22 police arrested Charlie Fonilloa Sekona (20), man who had been put into a mental health program for assaulting a Costco worker, as a suspect. Police believed the stabbing was random.
(SFC, 10/24/09, p.C1)
2009 Oct 12, Afghanistan's election watchdog changed its fraud-tallying rules for the second time in less than a week, switching back to a formula that lowers the chance of overturning President Hamid Karzai's first-round win. Under the new rules the commission will not take into account which candidate it finds benefited most from any fraud. One of the two Afghans on the UN-backed commission looking into vote fraud in the August presidential election resigned, citing interference by foreigners.
(Reuters, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Britain’s PM Gordon Brown announced on Monday a 16-billion-pound sale of state assets including a rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel to cut soaring debt caused by economic crisis.
(AFP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, A court in China's far western Xinjiang region sentenced six men to death for murder and other crimes committed during ethnic riots that killed nearly 200 people. A seventh man was given life imprisonment.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Yoani Sanchez, a Cuban blogger, was denied government permission to travel to New York to receive a top journalism prize. She has become an international sensation for offering frank criticism of her country's communist system. In May Cuban authorities had denied Sanchez permission to fly to Madrid to accept the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism for creating her Generation Y blog (2007), which gets more than 1 million hits a month. Around the same time, Time magazine deemed Sanchez one of the world's 100 most influential people.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Gabon's constitutional court said Ali Bongo, the son of the country's longtime dictator, won the Aug. 30 presidential elections that opposition candidates said were fraudulent.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Italy Mohamed Game (35), a Libyan, hurled a home-made bomb at the Santa Barbara police barracks in Milan, losing his hand from the blast and slightly wounding a policeman on duty outside. Game had lived in Italy since 2003 and had never been a suspect. Italian police detained two more suspects and found a large quantity of bomb-making chemicals during overnight searches.
(AFP, 10/12/09)(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 12, North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles off its east coast and banned ships from the area from October 10-20.
(AFP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Pakistan a teenage suicide car bombing targeting troops killed 45 people, including 6 security people, in northwest Shangla district as the Taliban pledged to mobilize fighters across the country for more strikes.
(AP, 10/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.34)
2009 Oct 12, Russian PM Vladimir Putin landed in China in an effort to bolster energy, political and military ties between the former rival nations turned strategic partners.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Senegal cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke (34) was on holiday when he was found dead in his room. Belgian cycling officials said his death was caused by a lung embolism. Vandenbroucke won the weeklong Paris-Nice spring race in 1998 and the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic a year later before his career was marred by a doping scandal.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 12, A Sudanese court sentenced 4 Islamists to death for a 2nd time for the murder of a US diplomat John Granville and his driver in Khartoum last year. The sentencing came after the mother of John Granville, who worked with the US Agency for Int’l. Development (USAID), and the wife of driver Abdel Rahman Abbas both demanded the men be executed.
(AFP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, Syria's Pres. Bashar Assad issued a decree banning smoking in public places, joining an anti-smoking trend already under way in other Arab countries. The decree will go into effect in six months and ban smoking in restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theaters, schools, official functions and on public transport. Offenders will be fined 2,000 Syrian pounds, about $45.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, The United Arab Emirates' highest court convicted an American citizen on terrorism-related charges amid claims that torture was used to extract a confession. The court sentenced Naji Hamdan (43) to 18 months in prison, but he should be freed soon because the sentence counts time served and he was detained last year. Hamdan was arrested in the UAE in August 2008 and charged in June 2009 with supporting terrorism, working with terrorist organizations and being a member of a terrorist group.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Venezuela thousands of people congregated for candlelit rituals on a remote mountainside where adherents make an annual pilgrimage to pay homage to an indigenous goddess known as Maria Lionza. The traditions, hundreds of years old, draw on elements of the Afro-Caribbean religion Santeria and indigenous rituals, as well as Catholicism. Believers often ask for spiritual healing or protection from witchcraft, or thank the goddess for curing an illness.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 12, Nestle said its Zimbabwe banking is back to normal just days after newspapers reported that the government froze their accounts and ordered an audit after the company stopped buying milk from a farm owned by President Robert Mugabe's wife.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2010 Oct 12, The Obama administration lifted the deep-water drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico. Actual resumption was still weeks to months away.
(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A6)
2010 Oct 12, A US federal judge ordered an immediate halt to military discharges under the “don’t ask, don’t tell" policy. District Judge Virginia Phillips of Riverside, Ca., had ruled the 1993 law unconstitutional on Sep 9.
(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A1)
2010 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a commander and 3 other militants from the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida, were killed in a firefight overnight with NATO and Afghan forces in eastern Khost province's Spera district.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a cargo plane, carrying NATO supplies went down east of Kabul shortly after taking off from Bagram Air Field. The bodies of 5 of 8 people on board were recovered the next day. The plane, owned by United Arab Emirates-based TransAfrik, was under contract by the US-based company National Air Cargo.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Algeria 5 people were killed when a remote control bomb exploded on a construction site in Tlidgen.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, Australian PM Julia Gillard renewed her backing for a controversial Internet filter, saying it was driven by a "moral question."
(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood accused the government of cracking down ahead of November's parliamentary election. Police had arrested at least 28 members of the Islamist group over the last 2 days. An Egyptian regulatory body set new rules for companies sending text messages to multiple mobile phones, a step that activists say will stifle efforts to mobilize voters before the elections, which are to be held in the last week of November.
(AFP, 10/12/10)(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Ethiopia senior leaders of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), a breakaway rebel faction, gathered in Addis Ababa to sign a peace deal with the government. The government claimed the breakaway group represents around 80 percent of the ONLF.
(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In France hundreds of thousands of workers, students and functionaries staged protests, the 4th this month, aimed to reverse a new law requiring people to work until 62 rather than 60 before receiving their retirement pensions.
(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 12, A Greek tanker, the Mindoro, collided with a container ship, the Cypriot-flagged Jork Ranger, 20 miles (30 km) off the Dutch coast and briefly leaked jet fuel into the North Sea.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In India a second doping case in two days, and again involving a Nigerian runner, was reported. Both cases involved Methylhexaneamine. It was also found in about a dozen Indian athletes in recent months.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Iran 18 members of the powerful Revolutionary Guard were killed in an explosion that struck the force's base in the city of Khoramabad. The blast was caused by a fire that had reached the ammunition storage area. 14 other troops were wounded.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Iraq Al-Qaida's umbrella group threatened to kidnap family members of Iraqi politicians and ministers unless the wife and children of its slain leader, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, are released from prison.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Japan residents of Taiji village, notorious for the dolphin hunt documented in the film "The Cove," slaughtered a pod of dolphins but spared the youngest animals.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, Mexican soldiers captured Seiki Ogata, an alleged Tabasco state Zetas gang leader, along with 5 other gang members. Ogata was suspected of organizing the massacre of a dead marine Melquisedet Angulo’s family last Dec., just days after Angulo had been killed during a raid in Cuernavaca, that left drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva dead. Authorities in Sinaloa state said they found 3 beheaded bodies along a highway that leads to the town of Imala. The bodies were accompanied with a message that accused them of being kidnappers. The decapitated head of police commander Rolando Flores was found in a suitcase outside a Mexican Army base. He had been investigating the reported shooting of an American tourist on Falcon Lake. Pirates have robbed boaters and fisherman on the Mexican side. Motorists found a decapitated body underneath a bridge on a road leading to the beachside neighborhood of Playas de Tijuana. Earlier in the day police found a human head inside a bag in another Tijuana neighborhood, but it did not belong to the body found underneath the bridge.
(AP, 10/13/10)(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 12, Hurricane Paula, the ninth hurricane of the busy 2010 Atlantic season, churned toward the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
(Reuters, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Mozambique 17 prisoners cut the bars at Nampula Industrial Penitentiary before escaping. They were among 99 inmates recently transferred to Nampula from neighboring provinces. One fugitive was soon re-captured.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, In northwestern Pakistan suspected militants killed 3 anti-Taliban tribal elders in the Bazai area of the Mohmand tribal region, the latest in a string of attacks against tribesmen who dare stand up to the Islamist insurgents.
(AP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III granted amnesty to officers and soldiers accused of plotting to overthrow his predecessor. Only a handful of the original 300 troops who took up arms against then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in July 2003 remained in military custody on charges of mutiny and coup attempt.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In central Poland a van crammed with farm workers crashed head-on into a truck after apparently trying to overtake another vehicle in dense fog, killing all 18 people on board.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In eastern Ukraine a train crashed into a crowded bus, killing 43 people on the bus, including two children, and injuring nearly a dozen others. PM Mykola Azarov ordered his government to pay the family of each of the dead victims 100,000 hryvna ($12,600). He also instructed transport officials to install automated crossing gates at all the nation's railway crossings to prevent cars, buses and trucks from ignoring the siren.
(AP, 10/12/10)(SFC, 10/13/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 12, At the United Nations Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa were elected to join the big guns on the UN Security Council for two years, starting in January.
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101012/ts_csm/331624)(Reuters, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 12, Pope Benedict XVI formally created a new Vatican office to revive Christianity in Europe, his latest attempt to counter secular trends in traditionally Christian countries.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Yemen Al-Qaida's offshoot warned it is setting up a "new army" to overthrow the country's president in response to his US-backed counterterrorism campaign and said it would fill its ranks with snipers and bomb makers.
(AP, 10/12/10)
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 hair salon and began shooting. 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. On April 28, 2014, Dekraai agreed to plead guilty. In 2017 Dekraai was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms in prison.
(AP, 10/13/11)(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A7)(SFC, 4/29/14, p.A6)(SFC, 9/23/17 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)
2012 Oct 12, The US Justice Dept. announced that it will allow members of federally recognized Indian tribes to possess eagle feathers.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 12, US federal officials approved a plan to set aside 285,000 acres of public land for the development of large-scale solar power plants in 6 states. Most of the land is in Southern California.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A6)
2012 Oct 12, Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar (31), the daughter of one of the world's most sought-after drug lords, was arrested at San Diego's San Ysidro port of entry and charged with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents. Her father is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 12, UC Berkeley law students Justin Teixeira and Eric Cuellar were seen laughing and throwing around the body of a dead helmeted guinea fowl at the Flamingo casino in Las Vegas. On Dec 28 prosecutors filed animal cruelty charges against both men. In 2013 Cuellar pleaded guilty and was fined $200 and sentenced to 48 hours of community service. A 3rd defendant Hazhir Kargaran (26) pleaded no contest to 3 misdemeanors and was sentenced to 2 days in jail and 48 hours of community service. Teixeira pleaded guilty to a felony animal killing was sentenced to 6 months in boot camp and then probation. On may 13, 2014, Teixeira was sentenced to 4 years’ probation and monthly work at an animal shelter.
(SFC, 12/28/12, p.A5)(SFC, 6/14/13, p.C8)(SFC, 5/13/14, p.A5)
2012 Oct 12, In Texas Elizabeth Escalona of Dallas was sentenced to 99 years in prison after she pleaded guilty beating her daughter (2) and gluing the girl’s hands to a wall as she struggled with potty training.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 12, Shares of Workday, a human resources software company in Pleasanton, Ca., rose $20.69 to close at $48.69 in its first day of trading on the NYSE. The company was founded in 2005 by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri. Duffield had created PeopleSoft, which was swallowed by Oracle in 2004.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, p.D1)(Economist, 10/6/12, p.78)
2012 Oct 12, In Botswana a judge nullified a customary law that denied women the right to inherit a family home, a decision seen as a crucial step forward for women's rights in the southern African country.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, British lawyers said Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky has agreed to pay 35 million pounds towards the legal fees of Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich after failing in a $6 billion (3.7 billion pounds) London court battle with his former protégé.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Bahrain riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades in clashes with hundreds of anti-government protesters in the capital Manama.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, London police arrested Maksim Bakiyev (34), the fugitive son of Kyrgyzstan's deposed president, on a US extradition warrant on suspicion of fraud. released on bail until his next court hearing on Dec 7.
(AP, 10/13/12)
2012 Oct 12, It was reported that Britain planned to shoot badgers for six consecutive weeks in each of the next four years in parts of Gloucestershire and the neighboring county of Somerset. The aim was to reduce the badger population by 70 percent. At issue was how to stem the spread of bovine tuberculosis, which many farmers blamed on roaming badgers.
(Reuters, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Egypt Liberal and leftist groups had called a protest to demand more action from Pres. Morsi after his first 100 days in office. Morsi's supporters called for a separate rally to demand judicial independence following the acquittals of Mubarak loyalists on Oct 10. A melee erupted after Morsi's supporters stormed the activists' stage at Cairo's Tahrir Square, angered by chants from the opposition they perceived as insults to the president.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, The European Union was named as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering peace on a continent ravaged by war.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Egypt Liberal and leftist groups had called a protest to demand more action from Pres. Morsi after his first 100 days in office. Morsi's supporters called for a separate rally to demand judicial independence following the acquittals of Mubarak loyalists on Oct 10. A melee erupted after Morsi's supporters stormed the activists' stage at Cairo's Tahrir Square, angered by chants from the opposition they perceived as insults to the president.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, Italy’s top court sided with doctors who blamed a non-cancerous brain tumor in businessman Innocenzo Marcolini on electro-magnetic radiation from his cell phone.
www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/19/us-italy-phones-idUSBRE89I0V320121019)
2012 Oct 12, Lebanon's state run news agency said three members of an al-Qaida-inspired group have escaped from a prison in eastern Beirut.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, A top official in Niger said the country's recent floods have killed 91 people and caused significant damage.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, The government of Puerto Rico formally withdrew plans to build a natural gas pipeline after investing more than $50 million in a project that provoked strong opposition from islanders and environmentalists.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Scotland heavy rain and flooding hit large swathes of the country, bursting riverbanks, turning roads into torrents and stranding people in their homes.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In South Africa a strike by some 20,000 truckers ended in a three-year wage deal that gives them a 10 percent pay raise in the first year.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, In Syria Jabhat al-Nusra, a shadowy jihadi group believed to be linked to al-Qaida, fought alongside rebels who seized overnight the air defense base near the village of al-Taaneh.
(AP, 10/12/12)
2012 Oct 12, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a plan to back an African-led military force to help the Malian army oust Islamic militants who have seized the northern half of the country.
(SFC, 10/13/12, p.A2)
2013 Oct 12, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced they had reached preliminary agreement on a bilateral security pact that now depends on the approval of Afghanistan's tribal leaders.
(AP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Oklahoma 5 people were shot at a Hmong New year’s festival in Tulsa. Meng Lee (19) and Boonmlee (21) fled the scene, but were arrested the next day.
(SFC, 10/13/13, p.A4)
2013 Oct 12, Oscar Hijuelos (b.1951), Pulitzer Prize winner (1990), died in Manhattan. His 1989 novel “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love" became a best seller.
(SFC, 10/15/13, p.C3)
2013 Oct 12, In Azerbaijan thousands gathered in Baku to protest the re-election of President Ilham Aliyev in a vote widely criticized by international election monitors.
(AP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Belgium Somali pirate Mohamed Abdi Hassan, better known as "Afweyne" or "Big Mouth", was detained at Brussels airport when he stepped off a flight from Nairobi. He was lured to Brussels on promises of shooting a documentary movie about his life on the high seas.
(AFP, 10/14/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Colombia a 22-story apartment building collapsed in Medellin. 11 people were reported missing. The building was evacuated after cracks appeared a day earlier.
(SFC, 10/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Oct 12, In Ethiopia foreign ministers of the 54-member African Union agreed that sitting heads of state should not be tried by the International Criminal Court where Kenya's leaders are in the dock. They also called for deferring the cases of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, Honduras police clashed with local residents during the arrest of Carlos Peralta (22), a man believed responsible for decapitating a 7-year-old boy in the rural town of San Francisco de la Paz. The boy's body was found a day earlier in the town in the Olancho region.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, India detained an armed ship operated by a US maritime security company and the 35 people on board for failing to produce papers authorizing it to carry weapons and ammunition in Indian waters. The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Seaman Guard Ohio belongs to Virginia-based AdvanFort, a maritime security firm that specializes in anti-piracy operations.
(Reuters, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In India the massive Cyclone Phailin hammered the eastern coastline of Orissa state with heavy rains and destructive winds, as hundreds of thousands of people living in the region moved inland and took shelter. The storm left at least 17 people dead.
(AP, 10/12/13)(AP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Iraq a pickup truck packed with explosives blew up at an Iraqi vegetable market, killing 17 and wounding dozens.
(AP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Italy divers found an additional 20 bodies off the island of Lampedusa, bringing the still provisional death toll from an October 3 shipwreck to 359.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Niger thousands of people protested against French nuclear firm Areva, which has been mining uranium in the impoverished country for nearly 50 years.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, Typhoon Nari pounded the northern Philippines, killing 13 people, ripping roofs off thousands of buildings, and leaving more than two million without power.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, Russian police arrested 67 people after a fight broke out between gay rights activists and their opponents at a demonstration in St. Petersburg.
(Reuters, 10/12/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Spain thousands of people gathered in Barcelona to demonstrate against a proposed Catalonia split away from Spain.
(SSFC, 10/13/13, p.A3)
2013 Oct 12, In Syria two mortar rounds slammed into the central Abu Rummaneh neighbourhood of Damascus, killing a child and wounding 11 people. Tank shells fired by Syrian government forces slammed into a building in the southern city of Daraa, killing at least 11 people, including women and children.
(AFP, 10/12/13)(AFP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Vietnam a blast at a fireworks factory killed at least 24 people. Police blamed other explosives stored at the site for the accident which also left many injured at the Z121 military facility north of Hanoi.
(AP, 10/13/13)
2013 Oct 12, In Yemen thousands of separatists demanding secession took to the streets of Aden to mark the anniversary in 1967 of the independence of former South Yemen.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2014 Oct 12, A US federal judge struck down Alaska’s first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages.
(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A8)
2014 Oct 12, In northern and eastern Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants led a string of attacks on police and civilians, killing at least 14 people.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, Bolivians voted in a presidential election. President Evo Morales coasted to victory, winning an unprecedented third term with 61 percent of the vote.
(Reuters, 10/12/14)(AP, 10/13/14)(AFP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 12, Bosnia held general elections. Some 3.3 million voters were eligible to cast ballots to elect three members -- a Croat, a Muslim and a Serb -- to the joint presidency, as well as a new central parliament. They will also elect assemblies for the two entities and a president in Republika Srpska. Nationalist candidates from Bosnia's Croat, Muslim and Serb communities won the country's three-man presidency.
(AFP, 10/12/14)(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Cambodia freelance journalist Taing Try (49) was shot in the forehead and died instantly at a remote forestry site in Kratie province. He was investigating illegal logging in the region. Police soon detained three men, including a timber trader, believed to be linked to the murder.
(AP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Central African Republic eight armed men, belonging to a rebel group known as the Democratic Front of the Central African People (FDPC), abducted Polish priest Mateusz Dziedzic in the town of Baboua. They wanted to exchange the kidnapped missionary for their leader, who is currently imprisoned in Cameroon.
(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 12, Chinese police stormed into a conference room outside Beijing where rights lawyers were meeting to discuss wrongful cases and broke up the gathering. Chinese scholar and rights advocate Guo Yushan, founder of an influential non-governmental think tank, was detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In China four ethnic Uighurs armed with knives and explosives killed at least 22 people, mostly Han Chinese, in Kashgar Prefecture. Dozens were injured before police shot and killed the attackers.
(SFC, 10/20/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 12, In Cairo, Egypt, US Sec. of State John Kerry presided over a conference on peace in the Middle East and announced an additional $212 million in US aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Qatar said it would provide $1 billion in reconstruction assistance for Gaza, while fellow Gulf Arab states Kuwait and United Arab Emirates promised $200 million each. Germany also announced it would contribute 50 million euros ($63 million) to reconstruction efforts in Gaza.
(Reuters, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, Egyptian police backed by armored vehicles stormed the campuses of at least two prominent universities to quell anti-government protests by students.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Hungary PM Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party was the clear winner in municipal elections. The far-right Jobbik party made significant gains in rural areas, where it has become the main challenger to Orban's Fidesz party.
(AP, 10/13/14)(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 12, In India Cyclone Hudhud pounded a large swath of the eastern seaboard with heavy rain and strong winds, killing at least 41 people and causing major damage to buildings and crops.
(AP, 10/12/14)(Reuters, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Iraq a triple suicide bombing killed 26 Kurdish security forces in Diyala province. A roadside bomb killed the police chief of the western Anbar province.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Japan at least 35 people were reported injured as Typhoon Vongfong, packing winds of up to 180 km (110 miles) per hour and heavy rain, hit the southern island of Okinawa.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In western Libya a hospital official said fighting over Kikla between Islamist militias and rival groups has killed at least 23 people.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Mozambique brawling supporters of Frelimo and opposition party Renamo clashed in the northern city of Nampula, where 23 people were injured and 13 others arrested ahead of legislative and provincial elections on Oct 15.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Somalia a car bomb exploded outside a café in Mogadishu killing 11 people. Gunmen shot and seriously wounded Abdirisak Jama, a Somali journalist working for a London-based television channel, in an attack outside his home in Mogadishu.
(AFP, 10/12/14)(SFC, 10/13/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 12, The US Central Command said warplanes from the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates conducted four airstrikes in Syria over the weekend, including three in Kobani that destroyed an Islamic State fighting position and staging area.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2015 Oct 12, In Kansas City, Mo., 2 firefighters were killed after a wall from a burning building collapsed on them. In 2018 nail salon manager Thu Hong Nguyen (46) was convicted of 2nd murder and 2nd degree arson. She was portrayed as someone who had a habit of burning businesses for insurance money.
(SFC, 10/14/15, p.A12)(SFC, 7/24/18, p.A5)
2015 Oct 12, Dell and investment firm Silver Lake confirmed that they would acquire EMC Corp. for about $67 billion.
(SFC, 10/13/15, p.D1)
2015 Oct 12, In Afghanistan fighting intensified around the city of Ghazni, as Taliban militants threatened to seize a second provincial capital after briefly occupying Kunduz in the north last month. Toorpakai Olfat, local UN staffer, was shot and killed by two gunmen on a motorbike as she was on her way to work in Kandahar.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, An Albanian court acquitted Ardian Fullani, a former governor of the country's central bank, of charges of abuse of office over the theft of millions of dollars from bank reserves.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Princeton Prof. Angus Deaton (69), a British-born economist, won the 2015 economics Nobel Prize for his work on consumption, poverty and welfare that has helped governments to improve policy through tools such as household surveys and tax changes.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(SFC, 10/13/15, p.A2)(Econ, 10/17/15, p.80)
2015 Oct 12, In China Jiang Jiemin, who earlier led the country's biggest petroleum company, and a deputy party chief in populous Sichuan province were convicted of corruption and sentenced to 16 and 13 years in prison, respectively.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Chinese authorities announced the arrests of 16 suspected members of a smuggling ring and the seizure of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of ivory along with rhino horns and bear paws.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, The EU demanded the "immediate" halt of Russian air strikes against moderate Syrian rebel groups and warned a lasting peace was impossible under Moscow-backed President Bashar al-Assad.
(AFP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Finland Iraqi asylum seekers rallied in central Helsinki and signed a petition against plans to negotiate a deal with Baghdad that could lead to their deportation, arguing that their country should not be considered safe.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In France police arrested several Air France workers at their homes as investigators tracked down protesters who hounded executives from a meeting about mass job cuts last week and tore the clothes of two fleeing managers.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Israel a Palestinian identified as Mustafa al-Khatib (18) attacked a policeman with a knife at an entrance to Jerusalem's Old City and was shot dead by security forces. A female attacker stabbed an Israeli policeman near the force's headquarters in Jerusalem and was shot and wounded by the victim.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Palestinian Ahmed Manasra (12) wounded two Israelis in a knife attack in an Israeli settlement north of Jerusalem along with his 15-year-old cousin. The cousin was shot and killed by an Israeli passerby, while Manasra was wounded. In 2016 Manasra was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(http://tinyurl.com/zoxnztb)(Reuters, 11/7/16)
2015 Oct 12, A Kurdish militia that has been fighting Islamic State in Syria with help from US-led air strikes has joined forces with Arab groups in an alliance announced on that may be a prelude to an attack on the jihadists' base of operations in Raqqa.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, In the Philippines gunmen killed a town mayor and wounded his vice mayor and at least three other companions in an ambush while they were traveling in a van in a far-flung southern region.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Russia’s Gazprom resumed gas supplies to Ukraine after receiving prepayment of $234 million from Kiev, assuaging European fears about a new energy crisis ahead of the winter heating season.
(AFP, 10/12/15)
2015 Oct 12, Syrian army and allied forces supported by Russian warplanes made further advances as they pressed an offensive against insurgents, in the fiercest clashes for nearly a week. Two Iranian senior Revolutionary Guards officers were killed fighting Islamic State. Pro-government forces including the Lebanese group Hezbollah captured the southern part of Kafr Nabuda. At least 25 government fighters were killed.
(Reuters, 10/12/15)(Reuters, 10/13/15)(Reuters, 10/14/15)
2015 Oct 12, In Turkey hundreds of people marched through Istanbul and Ankara to condemn the slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally.
(AP, 10/12/15)
2016 Oct 12, Wells Fargo & Co. announced that CEO John Stumpf (63) has retired effective immediately. He will be succeeded by Tim Sloan, the banks president and chief operating officer.
(SFC, 10/13/16, p.A1)
2016 Oct 12, Egypt's military announced it will host Russian troops for war games along the Mediterranean coast, the latest step in the two countries' rapprochement and another sign of Moscow flexing its muscles in the Middle East.
(AP, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 12, Hong Kong held a swearing-in ceremony for recently chosen legislators. Three were declared unqualified to take their posts as they snubbed China during the chaotic ceremony.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.41)
2016 Oct 12, The Indian army said a three-day standoff with suspected rebels in Kashmir has ended after government forces killed two militants inside a building in Pampore town. The building was extensively damaged in the fighting.
(AP, 10/12/16)
2016 Oct 12, In Syria rebels supported by Turkish tanks and US-led coalition air strikes pushed toward the Islamic State stronghold of Dabiq. Turkey’s military said clashes and air strikes over the past 24 hours have killed 47 jihadists. An airstrike hit the biggest market on the rebel-held side of Aleppo, killing at least 15 people and leveling buildings. Shelling on government-held parts of Aleppo killed 8 people.
(Reuters, 10/12/16)(AP, 10/12/16)(Reuters, 10/13/16)
2017 Oct 12, Pres. Donald Trump signed an executive order directing government agencies to design insurance plans that would offer lower premiums outside the requirements of Pres. Obama’s Affordable Care Act. It was also reported that Trump plans to halt payments to insurers under the Obama-era health care law.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A6)
2017 Oct 12, The US State Dept. said the US is pulling out of UNESCO, effective Dec. 31, because of what Washington sees as its anti-Israel bias and a need for "fundamental reform" of the UN cultural agency. The US stopped funding UNESCO after it voted to include Palestine as a member in 2011. The US now owes about $550 million in back payments. Washington did the same thing in the 1980s because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests. The US rejoined in 2003.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In California winds up to 45 mph (72 kph) were expected to pummel areas north of San Francisco where at least 23 people have died and at least 3,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed. Officials voiced concern that the 22 separate blazes would merge into larger infernos.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Santos Portillo Andrade (33), a Boston area leader of the violent Central American street gang MS-13, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a racketeering conspiracy involving assault, drug and firearms charges. He was one of more than 60 members of the gang indicted last year and is the 19th to be sentenced.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, In North Carolina an attempted breakout from the Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City left two employees dead. Prison guard Wendy Shannon, another guard, a maintenance worker and a sewing plant manager were killed in the disturbance. Prisoners also set a fire as a diversion during the episode.
(SFC, 10/14/17, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/y68xs3xo)(SSFC, 10/20/19, p.A8)
2017 Oct 12, Texas inmate Robert Pruett (38) was executed for the 1999 death of corrections officer Daniel Nagle.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A8)
2017 Oct 12, Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company was fully committed to helping US congressional investigators publicly release Russia-backed political ads that ran during the 2016 US election.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Afghanistan a US drone strike killed 14 Islamic State militants in a remote area in eastern Kunar province.
(AP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 12, Britain’s university city of Oxford unveiled plans to ban petrol and diesel cars from its center from 2020 as part of the most radical set of proposals so far in Britain to curb pollution.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Cambodia deported 74 Chinese citizens accused of extorting money from women in mainland China with threats to circulate naked images of them online.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 12, Egypt extended its state of emergency for yet another three months, according to a decision from President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Ethiopia more than 15,000 people rallied in Wolisso, Oromia state, against the country’s ruling elite.
(SFC, 10/13/17, p.A2)
2017 Oct 12, French President Emmanuel Macron launched round two of his ambitious domestic reform program. This included major changes to the generous unemployment benefits system, as well as large increases in state-funded training aimed at helping the unemployed back into the workplace.
(AFP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In France eight Greenpeace activists broke into a nuclear power station and set off fireworks to urge better protection for nuclear waste and protest France's dependence on atomic energy.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Germany Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said that the airline will sign an agreement to buy large parts of the bankrupt carrier Air Berlin.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The Italian government won the last of three confidence votes it had called on a contested electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in next year's election.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Kenya's opposition vowed to pursue a campaign of protest for electoral reform, defying a ban on rallies in main city centers announced today by the government.
(AFP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Liberia’s National Election Commission data showed former international soccer star George Weah ahead in 11 of 15 counties. Fewer than 30 percent of the votes have been counted in the majority of counties.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, Thousands of Rohingya left Myanmar, aiming to reach Bangladesh by boat, citing a shortage of food and fear of repression.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In southern Nigeria Italian priest Maurizio Pallu (63) was snatched in broad daylight by armed men just outside of Benin City. He was travelling with a group of four other people when they were attacked and robbed by armed men who took Pallu but let the others go.
(AFP, 10/14/17)
2017 Oct 12, Pakistan's army said it has rescued a kidnapped US-Canadian couple and their three children after receiving intelligence from the United States. The family was abducted in 2012 while traveling in Afghanistan and held by the militant Haqqani network. They were identified as Canadian Joshua Boyle, his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their children.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The Pakistani Taliban reportedly killed Haroon Khan, a local journalist, in the country's volatile northwest. The Taliban accused him of secretly working for Pakistani intelligence.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war. The Rafah border crossing in Gaza will be handed over to the unity government on Nov. 1.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte read a memorandum that removes police from the drugs war and places the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in charge, then launched a curse-laden tirade at foreign critics of a campaign that has killed thousands of Filipinos.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A group of senior officers from the general staff of the Russian armed forces could not attend the joint briefing with the Chinese military at the UN in NYC because they were not issued US visas.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 12, Slovakia's Constitutional Court ordered a lower court to look again at claims that Andrej Babis, the man who hopes to be the Czech Republic's next prime minister, collaborated with the Czechoslovak communist-era secret police.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, South African police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to break up crowds hurling insults at a group of men accused of cannibalism in eastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A South Africa court said anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, who died in 1971, was tortured and killed by South African police, a landmark decision that raised hopes that dozens of similar cases would be investigated. Timol was one of 73 political detainees who died in police custody in South Africa between 1963 and 1990.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, A Spanish Eurofighter jet crashed after taking part in a military display in Madrid for Spain's national day, killing its pilot.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, In Syria dozens of desperate civilians streamed out of battlefront districts of Raqa after a ferocious resumption in bombardment against Islamic State group holdouts in the city.
(AFP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Three Syrian opposition factions agreed to cease fire in southern Damascus under an agreement brokered by Egypt and Russia that was not signed by the Syrian government.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The United Arab Emirates said it was ending the mission of North Korea's non-resident ambassador and terminating its own envoy's services in Pyongyang. The UAE will also stop issuing new visas or company licenses to North Korean citizens.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, The United Nations migration agency said West African migrants trying to reach Europe are dying in far greater numbers in the Sahara than in the Mediterranean but efforts to dissuade them may cause new routes to open up.
(AP, 10/12/17)
2017 Oct 12, Vietnam officials said recent heavy rain in northern and central Vietnam have triggered floods and landslides that killed 46 people and left 33 people missing in the worst such disaster in years.
(Reuters, 10/12/17)
2018 Oct 12, It was reported that the US Army has discharged more than 500 immigrant enlistees, over the last twelve months, who had been recruited across the globe for their language or medical skills and promised a fast track to citizenship in exchange for their service.
(SFC, 10/12/18, p.A5)
2018 Oct 12, Bloomberg withdrew from a Saudi investment conference at the end of the month, following other media companies that have dropped plans to participate after the disappearance of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. CNBC cable news network added its name to the growing list of media companies, citing the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Detroit, Mich., the decomposed bodies of 11 infants were found in a ceiling compartment of the former Cantrell Funeral Home. The facility had been closed sinece April when inspectors suspended its license following the discovery of bodies covered with what appeared to be mold.
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A10)
2018 Oct 12, In northern Afghanistan an attack by the Taliban killed four soldiers in Kunduz province. Several Taliban fighters were also killed.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, A Taliban delegation met with US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Qatar to discuss ending the Afghan conflict.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, It was reported that Albania's base at Kucova, long the graveyard of its once mighty air force, is set to become a NATO station. Albania retired its 224 Soviet- and Chinese-made MiGs in 2005.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Australia Chinese property developer Xu Longwei was sentenced to at least two-and-a-half years in jail by a court for non-consensual intercourse with a woman after a Sydney dinner party hosted by billionaire JD.com-founder Richard Liu.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Austria two women tied the knot in Vienna in the country's first same-sex marriage, months after the country's Constitutional Court ruled to legalize it.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR Ethiopian authorities have registered more than 6,700 new arrivals from Eritrea since the border's opening. Eritrean refugee arrivals to Ethiopia have jumped to about 390 per day from around 53.
(AFP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, A French police van was seen driving into Italy to return recently-arrived migrants to the town of Calviere. French authorities later admitted to returning migrants to Italy in "error".
(AFP, 10/16/18)
2018 Oct 12, Germany said it will extend temporary controls at its border with Austria for six months due to concerns the EU's external frontiers are not sufficiently protected. The Danish government made a similar announcement, citing the threat of terrorism.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Hong Kong authorities barred former lawmaker Lau Siu-lai from contesting an election next month given her past advocacy of greater autonomy for Hong Kong. A small group of pro-democracy lawmakers and activists protested outside government headquarters, holding up banners decrying the decision as "political suppression".
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In eastern India 12 people were feared dead in a cyclone shelter swamped by a landslide caused by heavy rains from Cyclone Titli in Orissa state.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Indonesia torrential rains triggered flash floods and landslides on the island of Sumatra, killing at least 27 people, including a dozen children at a school.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, An Israeli court upheld the barring of Lara Alqasem (22), an American student, from the country over her activities in support of an international boycott campaign by pro-Palestinian groups.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman late today ordered the deliveries of Qatari-bought fuel to stop after clashes on the Gaza-Israel border. The Israeli army said five people were shot dead after "an organized attack" on an army post. The Gaza health ministry said seven Palestinians were killed. 50 other protesters were wounded by live bullets.
(AP, 10/12/18)(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Israeli forces said they had arrested a Palestinian, identified as Ashraf Naalwa (23), on suspicion of stabbing and wounding an army reservist on guard duty at a checkpoint south of Nablus the previous day.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Palestinian Aisha Rabi (47), a mother of nine, was fatally wounded in an attack near the Jewish settlement of Rechalim in the West Bank. On Jan 6, 2019, Israeli authorities confirmed that they have arrested five Jewish seminary students, all under age 18, suspected of the fatal stone-throwing attack.
(AP, 1/6/19)(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2018 Oct 12, Italy's PM Giuseppe Conte made a rare visit to Eritrea to support its surprising new peace with neighboring Ethiopia as the international community waits to see what happens next in one of the world's most closed-off nations.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Students across Italy demonstrated against the government's education funding plans, in the first widespread show of dissidence against the new populist government.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Denny Tamaki, the new governor of Okinawa, said he wants Americans to know that the US and Japanese governments are forcing a relocation of a US Marine base that residents want removed from the southern Japanese island.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling nearly 188,000 pickup trucks, SUVs and cars worldwide because the air bags may not inflate in a crash.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan's space agency said it is delaying a touchdown of its Hayabusa2 spacecraft on the Ryugu asteroid due to a rockier than expected surface.
(SFC, 10/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 12, It was reported that animal-rights in Nepal campaigned to reduce animal slaughter as the 15-day Dasain festival began this week. Traditionally tens of thousands of goats, buffaloes, chickens and ducks are sacrificed to please the gods and goddesses as part of a practice that dates back centuries.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In southeastern Nigeria at least 19 people were killed when a leaking oil pipeline exploded in Abia state. Oil thieves were suspected of hacking into the pipe
(SSFC, 10/14/18, p.A4)
2018 Oct 12, A Pakistani judge signed the execution order for Mohammad Imran, a serial child killer convicted of killing eight children in eastern Punjab province. He was arrested in January, two weeks after authorities say he raped and killed Zainab Ansari (7) and threw her body into a garbage dump in the city of Kasur.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Hundreds of supporters from an extremist Islamist party rallied in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore to pressure judges to uphold a death sentence for Asia Bibi, a Christian woman convicted in 2010 of blasphemy.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Five Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire at a protest near the fence dividing the territory and Israel. 50 other protesters were wounded by live bullets.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Nepal seven people, including South Korean climbers, were killed and two more left missing on Gurja Himal mountain after a strong storm swept through their base camp.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Nigerian troops foiled an attempt by Boko Haram fighters to overrun a military base in the restive northeast leaving six soldiers wounded.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, The Philippines became one of 18 new council members elected to the UN Human Rights Council despite rights groups' complaints that its government, widely condemned internationally for a deadly drug crackdown, doesn't belong in a group meant to call out abuses.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Rwanda's foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo was named head of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), a sign of slowly improving relations between Paris and Kigali a decade after the African nation turned its back on the French language.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Somalia several missiles were fired by two unmanned US drones. At least 60 extremists were later reported killed. It was the deadliest strike since one on Nov. 21, 2017, against a camp killed about 100 al-Shabab fighters.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 12, In Spain thousands of people flooded the streets of Barcelona for rival protests on Spain's national day, highlighting the division in Catalonia over support for the Spanish state and those seeking independence.
(Reuters, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Spain's maritime rescue service recovered the bodies of three migrants and feared that another 17 were missing in the Mediterranean Sea. The service pulled 509 migrants from 15 small boats.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, In eastern Syria the Islamic State group stormed the Hajin camp, a settlement for displaced people in Deir el-Zour province, and abducted scores of civilians. 20 IS gunmen and "several" SDF fighters were killed.
(AP, 10/13/18)
2018 Oct 12, Amnesty Int'l. said 2,521 bodies have been recovered from the 2017 battle for Raqqa, Syria, with the majority killed by coalition air strikes. At least 3,000 more bodies were expected to be recovered.
(SFC, 10/12/18, p.A4)
2018 Oct 12, A Turkish court freed American pastor Andrew Brunson held for the last two years in Turkey. He was freed taking into account time served and his good conduct during the trial. Brunson was flown out of Turkey.
(AFP, 10/12/18)(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, The UN children's agency UNICEF said a militia fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl after he became entangled in two major sexual abuse and cover-up scandals and lost the support of many in his flock.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Venezuelan authorities freed a prominent opposition activist jailed for four years just days after an anti-government politician died in state custody. Lorent Saleh (30) was immediately escorted to the airport and put on a flight to Madrid.
(AFP, 10/13/18)
2019 Oct 12, California Gov. Gavin Newson signed AB44, outlawing the sale and manufacture of new fur clothing and accessories effective Jan. 1, 2023. Newsome also signed SB313, which prohibits the use of wild animals in a circus.
(SSFC, 10/13/19, p.A6)
2019 Oct 12, In Southern California fast-moving wildfires broke out overnight, leaving two dead, destroying homes and forcing 100,000 residents to flee. Authorities said three people have died at the scene of southern state wildfires this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)(AP, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Chicago five people were shot and four killed at an apartment building on the city's Northwest Side. Krysztof Marek (66) with a history of issues with his neighbors was in custody. The 5th victim died the next day.
(AP, 10/13/19)(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 12, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a conservative Democrat, received 47% of votes, but failed to secure outright victory in a primary election. Edwards, seeking a second term, will face a Republican businessman in a run-off vote on Nov. 16. Republican Eddie Rispone, making his first run for political office, finished second with 27% of the vote.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Louisiana a large section of a Hard Rock Hotel under construction in New Orleans collapsed. Three people were killed and more than 20 injured.
(SSFC, 10/13/19, p.A6)(SFC, 10/21/19, p.A6)
2019 Oct 12, In NYC four men were killed and three people wounded early today in a shooting at an unlicensed gambling club in Brooklyn.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Oregon antifascist activist Sean D Kealiher (23) was killed in the early hours in an apparent hit-and-run outside Cider Riot, a cidery and taproom popular with Portland's anarchist left that has been the scene of conflict with rightwing groups.
(The Guardian, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Texas a police officer shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old black woman, inside a home where she had reportedly been playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew. Police said the officer fired through a window into the home while responding to a call to check on the well-being of those inside.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, Climate scientists, physicists, biologists, engineers and others from at least 20 countries broke with the caution traditionally associated with academia to side with peaceful protesters courting arrest from Amsterdam to Melbourne. The declaration was coordinated by a group of scientists who support Extinction Rebellion, a civil disobedience campaign that formed in Britain a year ago and has since sparked offshoots in dozens of countries.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 12, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Nepal on a state visit for talks with Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and both sides are expected to sign a deal expanding a railway link between the Himalayan nation and Tibet.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, An Egyptian court sentenced six people to death on terror-related charges for carrying out a militant attack in January, 2016, outside a hotel near the famed Giza Pyramids. The Giza criminal court also sentenced eight defendants to life in prison on similar charges. Another 12 defendants received 10 years in prison.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Egypt a shell hit a truck carrying civilians in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least nine people of the same family.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In Egypt pro-democracy activist Esraa Abdel-Fattah was arrested. She was brought before prosecutors late the next day and ordered to remain in custody for 15 days.
(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 12, In northeastern Ethiopia armed men killed at least 16 people and injured about two dozen others in a small village, in one of the deadliest attacks seen in the region.
(AP, 10/14/19)
2019 Oct 12, France said it is halting exports of any arms to Turkey that could be used in its offensive against Kurds in Syria, and wants an immediate meeting of the US-led coalition against Islamic State extremists.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Germany said it has banned arms exports to Turkey over its assault against Kurdish YPG militia in Syria.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Guatemala's president-elect Alejandro Giammattei was denied entry to Venezuela, where he was scheduled to meet with opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to Venezuela's opposition.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In India Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi agreed to set up a new mechanism to discuss trade during two days of informal talks in southern India that were aimed at re-calibrating strained ties between the nations.
(Bloomberg, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Iran offered to engage Syrian Kurds, Syria's government and Turkey in talks to establish security along the Turkish-Syrian border following Turkey's military incursion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish forces.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Typhoon Hagibis paralyzed Tokyo, leaving millions confined indoors and streets deserted as fierce rain and wind killed two, flooded rivers and threatened widespread damage.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, In southern Kenya a roadside bombing killed 11 officers near Liboi on the border with Somalia.
(SSFC, 10/13/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 12, The main Kurdish-led group in northern Syria is calling on the US to carry out its "moral responsibilities" and close northern Syrian airspace to Turkish warplanes.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Dutch police said they had detained 130 protesters with environmental group Extinction Rebellion who blocked locations in downtown Amsterdam to draw attention to climate change.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, It was reported that thousands of Nigerian hunters on the northest are preparing an offensive against Boko Haram extremists. They were backed by Borno state Gov. BabaganaZulum and were armed with charmed amulets and knowledge of the harsh terrain.
(SFC, 10/12/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 12, North Korea's foreign ministry "strongly demanded" that Japan pay compensation for a fishing boat that sank when it collided with a Japanese patrol boat earlier this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Sara Danius (57), the first woman to lead the Swedish institution that awards the Nobel Prize in literature, died. Danius was elected to a lifetime position on the Swedish Academy's board in 2013 and because the body's first female permanent secretary in 2015. She resigned the position in 2018.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll among Syrian Kurdish-led fighters battling a Turkish offensive has risen to 74, most of whom have been killed in the Tel Abyad area. It was reported that pro-Ankara fighters taking part in a Turkish offensive on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria have "executed" nine civilians.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)(The Telegraph, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, Turkey's military said it has captured Ras al-Ayn, a key Syrian border town under heavy bombardment, as its offensive against Kurdish fighters pressed into its fourth day with little sign of relenting despite mounting international criticism. Kurdish authorities denied the town had fallen to the Turks, saying fighting was continuing. The civilian death toll resulting from Turkey's offensive into northern Syria had now reportedly risen to 30.
(AP, 10/12/19)
2020 Oct 12, Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson, both of Stanford University, were awarded the Nobel in economic science today for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.
(NY Times, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, California's chief elections official ordered Republicans to remove unofficial ballot drop boxes from churches, gun shops and other locations and Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned those behind the “vote tampering" could face prosecution..
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, California to date had 855,622 cases of coronavirus and 16,585 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 108,712 cases and 1,641 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 7,802,822 with the death toll at 214,045.
(sfist.com, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Long lines of people eager to cast ballots formed as early in-person voting began in Georgia. Problems soon developed in the state's most populous county. By mid-morning, the problem appeared to have been resolved and the lines had cleared at the arena, which is the largest early voting site in the state with 300 voting machines.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that Nicholas Beauchene (26), a US postal worker in New Jersey, has been arrested after he threw almost 2,000 pieces of mail, including election ballots, in dumpsters. Some 1,875 pieces of mail were recovered, including 600 first-class items and 99 ballots for November's election.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals late today put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Texas governor's order on ballot drop-off sites from taking effect, saying the decision would not hinder Texans from exercising their right to vote.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 12, Bernard S. Cohen (b,1934), a co-counsel in Loving v. Virginia (1967), died in Virginia. The US Supreme Court ruling struck down bans on interracial marriage.
(NY Times, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 12, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook would ban content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust." Two years ago, Zuckerberg cited Holocaust denial as an example of permissible free speech.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 12, Johnson & Johnson said a late-stage study of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been paused due to the unexplained illness of a study participant.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 12, Microsoft announced legal action seeking to disrupt a major cybercrime digital network that uses more than a 1 million zombie computers to loot bank accounts and spread ransomware. The Trickbot malware, created in 2016 by a loose consortium of Russian-speaking cybercriminals, is a digital superstructure for sowing malware. Cybersecurity firm Intel 471 reported no significant hit on Trickbot operations.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.C1)
2020 Oct 12, In Slovakia Marian Kotleba, the leader of the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia, was convicted of illegal use of neo-Nazi symbols and sentenced to four years and four months in prison. The verdict was not final.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy protection, saddled with lawsuits alleging it helped fuel the US opioid epidemic. Mallinckrodt said it had agreed to pay $1.6 billion over several years to settle opioid-related litigation.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Argentina surpassed 900,000 cases of coronavirus, with strong growth of infections in large, populated centers in the interior of the country after months of the virus being concentrated in Buenos Aires and its suburbs.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 12, Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of attacks over the separatist territory of Nagorno-Karabakh despite a cease-fire deal brokered by Russia in an effort to end the worst outbreak of hostilities in the region in decades.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Australian researchers said the virus that causes COVID-19 can survive on banknotes, glass and stainless steel for up to 28 days.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Bangladesh's government approved the use of the death penalty in rape cases. Led by PM Sheikh Hasina, the cabinet met online and approved changes to a law that will enable courts to sentence any convicted rapist to execution.
(CBS News, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The British government announced new restrictions on business and socializing in major northern England cities with high infection rates. But pubs, restaurants and other businesses pushed back, arguing that they are not to blame for a resurgent outbreak.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that recent flooding in several provinces of Cambodia has killed at least 11 people dead.
(SFC, 10/12/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, The Chinese city of Qingdao said it will test its entire population of more than 9 million people for coronavirus, after discovering 12 new infections that appeared to be linked to a hospital treating imported infections. Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China stood at 85,578. The death toll remained at 4,634.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Cuba relaxed coronavirus restrictions in hopes of boosting its economy.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 12, EU foreign ministers agreed to impose sanctions on Russian officials and organizations blamed for the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a Soviet-era nerve agent.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The RV Polarstern icebreaker, carrying scientists on a year-long international effort to study the high Arctic, returned to its home port in Germany carrying a wealth of data that will help researchers better predict climate change in the decades to come.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Iran shattered its single-day record for new deaths and infections from the coronavirus, with 272 people confirmed dead among more than 4,200 new cases.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The Israeli government unanimously approved the country's recently signed normalization agreement with the UAE ahead of a ratification vote by parliament.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Japan vowed to bolster its missile deterrence capability to respond to threats by North Korean weapons that are becoming “more diverse and complex," as displayed during a military parade held by the North over the weekend.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co-led group, that is developing a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, has started manufacturing while the late-stage trial to determine whether it works is ongoing.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Jordan's King Abdullah II swore in a new prime minister and Cabinet, tasking the new government to manage the country through an economic and health crisis as it faces a growing wave of coronavirus infections. The king appointed Bisher al-Khasawneh as the new prime minister after his predecessor, Omar Razzaz, resigned last week.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Lebanon announced the names of its delegation that will hold indirect talks later this week with Israel over the disputed maritime border between the two countries.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Mexico at least 14 suspected gunmen were killed and three police officers wounded in a massive shootout near Calera, Zacatecas state.
(SFC, 10/14/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, The New Zealand government signed a deal to buy 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Germany's BioNTech, with delivery as early as the first quarter of 2021.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Nigeria two people were killed in Lagos as protests continued against police brutality for a sixth day.
(BBC, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Russia said human trials of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine have begun in the United Arab Emirates. Russia reported 13,592 new coronavirus cases, almost the most recorded in a single day since the pandemic began, pushing the national tally to 1,312,310. Officials said 125 people had died in the previous 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 22,722.
(AP, 10/12/20)(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In central Russia a gunman opened fired at a bus and a bus stop in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, killing three people and wounding three more.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, In Slovakia Marian Kotleba, the leader of the far-right People's Party Our Slovakia, was convicted of illegal use of neo-Nazi symbols and sentenced to four years and four months in prison. The verdict was not final.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 12, South Korean drugmaker Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd said that it had received regulatory approval for Phase 1 clinical trials of its anti-parasitic niclosamide drug to treat COVID-19 patients.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, South Korean drugmaker Celltrion Inc said it has received regulatory approval for Phase 3 clinical trials of CT-P59, an experimental COVID-19 treatment. The drug is directed against the surface of the virus and designed to block it from locking on to human cells.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Swiss drugmaker Roche said it plans to start selling a higher-volume COVID-19 antigen test for laboratories by the end of the year as it expands diagnostics for the pandemic.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, Amnesty International said Tanzanian authorities have intensified repression to muzzle the opposition, civil society and the news media ahead of elections on October 28, where the incumbent President John Magufuli is seeking a second term.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, The Vatican said four Swiss Guards have tested positive for the coronavirus. Three other Vatican residents have tested positive in recent weeks.
(SFC, 10/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Oct 12, In Yemen a man killed at least a dozen people, including his wife and three children, in a family dispute in the country's central province of Bayda.
(AP, 10/13/20)
2021 Oct 12, The US House passed a short-term bill to lift the debt limit, temporarily averting default. The legislation lifts the debt ceiling by $480 billion, which the Treasury Department has estimated is enough to last until at least Dec. 3.
(NY Times, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, The Pentagon said it wants defense contractors to cut the ultimate cost of hypersonic weapons, as the next generation of super-fast missiles being developed currently cost tens of millions per unit.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The Food and Drug Administration for the first time authorized an electronic cigarette to be sold in the United States, a significant turn in one of the most contentious public health debates in decades. The agency signaled that it believed that the help certain vaping devices offer smokers to quit traditional cigarettes is more significant than the risks of ensnaring a new generation.
(NY Times, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, New draft guidelines by a US panel of experts said doctors should no longer routinely start most people who are at high risk of heart disease on a daily regimen of low-dose aspirin.
(NY Times, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 44,481,045 with the death toll at 714,553.
(sfist.com, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, Scientists at the US Food and Drug Administration said that Moderna Inc had not met all of the agency's criteria to support use of booster doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, possibly because the efficacy of the shot's first two doses has remained strong.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, It was reported that more than 24,000 nurses and other health-care workers at Kaiser Permanente in California and Oregon have overwhelmingly authorized a strike, threatening to walk out over pay and working conditions strained by the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Walgreens said it would close 5 stores in San Francisco citing concerns over retail theft in the city.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.C5)
2021 Oct 12, In Tennessee two US postal workers in Memphis were fatally shot and a third employee, identified as the shooter, died from a self-inflicted gunshot.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 12, Two Texas-based carriers said the federal mandate superseded an order by Republican Governor Greg Abbott barring COVID-19 vaccine mandates by any entity, including private employers. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines said they would comply with US President Joe Biden's executive order to require that their employees be vaccinated for COVID-19 by a Dec. 8 deadline.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Northern Texas federal Judge Mark Pittman issued a temporary retraining order barring United Airlines Holdings Inc. from placing unvaccinated workers with a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave.
(SFC, 10/14/21, p.A6)
2021 Oct 12, Boeing management told its US employees in an internal message that with limited exceptions they must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8 or face termination.
(https://tinyurl.com/xyncyw2d)(SFC, 10/14/21, p.A6)
2021 Oct 12, Britain reported 38,520 further cases of COVID-19 and 181 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, In the Canary Islands over 700 residents were ordered to abandon their homes on the Spanish island of La Palma as red-hot lava advanced towards their neighborhood. A day earlier Lava gushing from the volcano engulfed a cement plant.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the launch of a 1.5 billion yuan ($232.47 million) fund to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, as talks continue on a new post-2020 global pact to tackle species loss.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, China allowed coal-fired power plants to pass on the high costs of generation to some end-users via market-driven electricity prices, adding to worries about building global inflationary pressures. China, the world's largest coal consumer, has been grappling with a growing energy crisis brought on by shortages and record high prices for the fuel.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, Cuba denied government opponents permission to stage what they said would be a peaceful march for civil liberties in Havana and a few other provinces on grounds it was part of efforts to overthrow the government, according to a letter handed to organizers.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The European Union said it will give an additional 700 million euros ($809.2 million) in emergency aid to Afghanistan and its neighboring countries ahead of today's Group of 20 Afghan summit.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The EU imposed cuts on catches of cod and herring in the Baltic Sea to make sure threatened stock have a chance for survival.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 12, EU leaders vowed to uphold Ukraine's energy security and signed deals intended to bolster ties during a summit in Kyiv.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, President Emmanuel Macron said France wants to be a leader in green hydrogen by 2030 and build low-carbon planes and small nuclear reactors as part of a 30 billion euro ($35 billion) investment plan dubbed "France 2030".
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The French president’s office announced the death of Hubert Germain (101), the last of an elite group of decorated French Resistance fighters who helped liberate France from Nazi control in World War II.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, French bank Societe Generale said it will cut 3,700 jobs between 2023 and 2025 as it merges its retail network with that of its unit Credit du Nord.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Germany-based CureVac NV said it will give up on its first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate and instead focus on collaborating with GSK to develop improved mRNA vaccine technology.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Protesters in Guatemala tried to topple a Christopher Columbus statue amid protests against the treatment of indigenous people by European conquerors. Another group of protesters succeeded in tearing away the head on a monument to former President Jose Maria Reina Barrios, who served from 1892 to 1898, after splashing it with red paint.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, India recommended emergency use of Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 shot in the 2 to 18 age-group. India has so far fully vaccinated around 29% of about 944 million eligible adults.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Indian security forces killed at least five militants in Indian-ruled Kashmir as hundreds of Hindus fled the disputed Muslim-majority region after a wave of violence.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, IRNA news agency reported that Iran's intelligence agency has arrested 10 people after “sophisticated and continuous" surveillance in Bushehr province.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Italian PM Mario Draghi hosted a special summit of the Group of 20 major economies to discuss Afghanistan, as worries grow about a looming humanitarian disaster following the Taliban's return to power.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) pledged to double defence spending.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, In Lebanon a probe into the catastrophic Beirut port explosion was frozen for the second time in less than three weeks after two politicians wanted for questioning filed a new complaint against the lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, In Libya a Sudanese migrant (25) was beaten, shot and killed after escaping from the government-run Mabani detention in Tripoli.
(AP, 10/13/21)
2021 Oct 12, In Nepal a bus skidded off a mountain road and into a gorge leaving at least 28 people dead.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A3)
2021 Oct 12, Respected Dutch climate scientist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh (59) died. He co-founded the World Weather Attribution network, a group that rapidly analyzes the possible effects of climate change on extreme weather events. He and co-founder Friederike Otto were recognized as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2021.
(AP, 10/14/21)
2021 Oct 12, Norwegian PM Erna Solberg (60) said she will step down as head of a three-party, minority center-right government after a left-leaning bloc won last month’s parliamentary election. The leader of Norway’s Labor Party, Jonas Gahr Stoere, is expected to take over later this week.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, In the Philippines nine people were killed and 11 left missing due to floods and landslides caused by heavy rain from tropical cyclone Kompasu. The death toll was later raised to at least 19 people. Another 14 people were reported missing.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)(SFC, 10/15/21, p.A5)
2021 Oct 12, Romania reported nearly 17,000 coronavirus infections and 442 deaths, its highest numbers since the pandemic started.
(SFC, 10/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Oct 12, The Kremlin said it disagreed with comments by new Japanese PM Fumio Kishida that Japan's sovereignty extended to a chain of islands known by Tokyo as the Northern Territories, and that they were in fact part of Russia.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Russia hit another record of daily coronavirus deaths as the country struggled with a rapid surge of infections and lagging vaccination rates, but authorities have been adamant that there would be no new national lockdown.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Pomp, pageantry and a grand military parade marked Spain’s national day ceremonies in Madrid, overshadowing protests against what some see as a misguided celebration of Spanish colonial history. A 1987 law which made Oct. 12 the national holiday.
(AP, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, The top UN top court (ICJ) ruled largely in favor of Somalia in its dispute with Kenya, setting a sea boundary in part of the Indian Ocean believed to be rich in oil and gas.
(Reuters, 10/12/21)
2021 Oct 12, Former Venezuelan Defense Minister and retired general Raul Baduel, considered a political prisoner by the opposition, died after contracting coronavirus.
(Reuters, 10/13/21)
2022 Oct 12, The White House rolled out a long-delayed national security strategy that seeks to contain China's rise while reemphasizing the importance of working with allies to tackle challenges confronting democratic nations.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The US government said it will pull visas belonging to current and former Haitian government officials involved with criminal organizations as well as provide security and humanitarian assistance to Haiti. The US imposed visa sanctions on 11 individuals. The State Department said it was taking action against those who support Haitian gangs.
(AP, 10/12/22)(Reuters, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, The United States and Mexico announced joint actions aimed at reducing the number of people arriving at their border due to the humanitarian and economic crisis in Venezuela.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Former President Donald Trump angrily lashed out, calling the nation's legal system a “broken disgrace" after a judge ruled he must answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s.
(AP, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, It was reported that Walt Nauta, a long-serving aide to former President Donald J. Trump, was captured on security camera footage moving boxes out of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s residence in Florida, both before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May demanding the return of all classified documents.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, It was reported that scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections. It's part of an effort to better study human brain development and diseases affecting this most complex of organs, which makes us who we are but has long been shrouded in mystery.
(AP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Twenty-five MacArthur fellows won $800,000 over the next five years.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 96,885,795 with the death toll at 1,065,726.
(sfist.com, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, In Connecticut the families of eight Sandy Hook shooting victims won $965 million in damages from the Infowars fabulist Alex Jones, a devastating blow against his empire and a message from the jury that his lies and those of his followers have crippling consequences.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)(SFC, 10/13/22, p.A11)
2022 Oct 12, In Connecticut two officers in Bristol were killed and another wounded while responding to a domestic disturbance between a pair of siblings that also left the shooter dead. Sgt. Dustin Demonte (35) and Officer Alex Hamzy (34) were killed in what officials are describing as an apparent ambush. The suspected gunman, Nicholas Brutcher (35) was shot and killed at the scene.
(Reuters, 10/13/22)(NY Times, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, A federal judge in West Virginia ruled that a federal ban on possessing a gun with its serial number removed is unconstitutional, the first such ruling since the US Supreme Court dramatically expanded gun rights in June.
(Reuters, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, The Rt. Rev. Mary Adelia Rosamond McLeod (84), the first female bishop to lead an Episcopal diocese, died at her home in Charleston, W.Va. On Nov. 1, 1993, Ms. McLeod made history by becoming the church’s first female diocesan bishop, meaning the first woman to lead a district of Episcopal parishes.
(NY Times, 10/14/22)
2022 Oct 12, Alphabet Inc's Google said it has approved former US President Donald Trump's social media app Truth Social for distribution in the Google Play Store.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Canada said it will provide over C$47 million ($34.06 million) in new military aid to assist Ukraine in dealing with Russia's invasion, with the package including artillery rounds, satellite communications, winter clothing and drone cameras, among other assistance.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Chad's transitional government named opposition politician Saleh Kebzabo as the new prime minister after the former prime minister resigned to pave way for a new administration.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, A court in Zagreb found former Croatian prime minister, Ivo Sanader, not guilty of war profiteering during the country's 1991-95 war.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, It was reported that Eritrean authorities have intensified military mobilization and are hunting down draft dodgers across the country, as the war in neighboring Ethiopia escalates.
(BBC, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The World Health Organization and European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said another wave of COVID-19 infections may have begun in Europe as cases begin to tick up across the region.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, France ordered some staff at an Exxon Mobil fuel depot back to work and warned a TotalEnergies' depot could be next, risking a wider conflict with trade unions as it battles to secure petrol supplies after weeks of strikes.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Pan-American Health Organization said Haiti had confirmed 32 cases and 18 deaths from cholera as of October 9.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Indian health authorities said they had halted all production at the main factory of Maiden Pharmaceuticals near New Delhi after a WHO report that its cough syrups exported to Gambia may be linked to the deaths of 69 children there.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Health authorities said Indonesia will investigate cases of acute kidney injury which has caused the deaths of more than 20 children in its capital Jakarta this year.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, In Iran Siamak Namazi (51), a US citizen, was returned to Tehran's Evin prison, a day before the seventh anniversary of his detention on espionage charges which he denies.
(AFP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Iranians kept up anti-government protests despite an increasingly deadly state crackdown. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed the demonstrations as "scattered riots" planned by Iran's enemies.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during clashes that erupted in a refugee camp. Osama Adawi (18) was struck in the abdomen by a bullet in the Al-Aroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank.
(AP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi (77) on two more corruption charges, with two three-year sentences to be served concurrently, adding to previous convictions that now leave her with a 26-year total prison term.
(AP, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, A Myanmar court sentenced Japanese documentary filmmaker Toru Kubota (26) to an additional three years in prison on charges of violating an immigration law.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The Netherlands said it would deliver air defense missiles to Ukraine worth more than $14.5 million in response to Russia’s recent attacks.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch of two long-range strategic cruise missiles, calling it a test to confirm the reliability and operation of nuclear-capable weapons deployed to military units.
(Reuters, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, Hundreds of Palestinians protested at checkpoints into a major refugee camp in Jerusalem and shops across the West Bank closed, following an Israeli security crackdown after two soldiers died in shooting attacks this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Portugal said it will inject 3 billion euros ($2.91 billion) to curb energy prices paid by companies next year via a combination of state spending and regulatory measures.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Russia’s domestic intelligence service announced the arrest of eight people in connection with the weekend bombing of the bridge linking Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. Five are citizens of Russia, according to the agency, the F.S.B., and the others are Ukrainian and Armenian.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, In Slovakia two gay victims were shot outside the Teplaren bar in the center of Bratislava late today. Police found the suspected killer dead the next morning. Police later said Suspect Juraj K. (19) had used a gun with a laser sight, registered to a relative.
(Reuters, 10/15/22)
2022 Oct 12, The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force said a group of 32 police officers from the South Pacific nation of Solomon Islands has flown to China to train in policing techniques and improve their understanding of Chinese culture.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, In South Africa hundreds of uniformed police descended on townships and settlements in Cape Town for a two-day raid in the crime-ridden Cape Flats area.
(Reuters, 10/14/22)
2022 Oct 12, A South Korean lawmaker said more than 20 Russians have sailed in yachts down the North Pacific coast to South Korea, but most were refused entry.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, Power was cut to Ukraine’s nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia for the second time in five days, after Russian forces shelled a substation that supplies electricity to the plant.
(NY Times, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, UN agencies said severe drought followed by the worst floods in 30 years have led to rocketing food prices and left a record 2.1 million people in Chad acutely hungry.
(Reuters, 10/12/22)
2022 Oct 12, The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to condemn Russia's "attempted illegal annexation" of four provinces in Ukraine and declare that Moscow's territorial claims "have no validity under international law and do not form the basis for any alternation of the status of these regions of Ukraine." Russia, Syria, Nicaragua, North Korea, and Belarus voted against the resolution, while 143 countries voted yes and 35 abstained.
(AP, 10/13/22)
2022 Oct 12, The UN said that almost three-quarters of the 6 million Venezuelan migrants currently in Latin America do not have adequate food, shelter, employment or medical care.
(AP, 10/12/22)
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