Today in History - November 20
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269 Nov 20, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor of Numerian in Asia Minor by his soldiers. He had been the commander of the emperor's bodyguard.
(HN, 11/20/98)
284 Nov 20, Diocletian (245-316) became Emperor of the Roman Empire and continued to 305. Under his rule the last and most terrible persecution of the Christians took place, perhaps some 3,000 martyrs. He divided rule over the empire among four men. He put two rulers to oversee the east and two to oversee the west. He also established four capitals. He moved his own capital from Rome to Nicomedia, south of Byzantium in Asia Minor. He also increased the size of the Roman army from 300,000 to 500,000 men.
(http://bode.diee.unica.it/~giua/SEBASTIAN/Diocletian.html)(V.D.-H.K.p.91)(ITV, 1/96, p.58)
967 Nov 20, Aboe al-Faradj al-Isfahani, Arabic author (Book of liederen), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1347 Nov 20, Roman tribune Cola di Rienzi defeated nobles. Stefano Colonna, Roman senator, died in battle (SPQR).
(MC, 11/20/01)
1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1527 Nov 20, Wendelmoet "Weyntjen" Claesdochter, became the 1st Dutch woman to be burned as heretic.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1602 Nov 20, Otto von Guericke, inventor (air pump), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1616 Nov 20, Bishop Richelieu became French minister of Foreign affairs and War.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1620 Nov 20, Peregrine White, son of William and Susanna White, was born aboard the Mayflower in Massachusetts Bay. He was the first child born of English parents in present-day New England.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1637 Nov 20, Peter Minuit & 1st Dutch and Swedish immigrants to Delaware sailed from Sweden. Peter later purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1695 Nov 20, Zumbi, a Brazilian leader of a hundred-year-old rebel slave group, was killed in an ambush in Palmares. In January 2003 legislation established November 20 as Black Consciousness Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/gsg6wt8)(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A8)(SSFC, 11/18/12, p.G3)
1700 Nov 20, Sweden's 17-year-old King Charles XII defeated the Russians at Narva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1713 Nov 20, Thomas Tompion, English clock maker (cylinder tunnel), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1726 Nov 20, Oliver Wolcott, later Conn.-Gov. and signer of Declaration of Independence, was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1741 Nov 20, Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat and clergyman, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1752 Nov 20, Thomas Chatterton (d.1770), English poet (Christabel), was born. His early death marked him as the “prototype of the fragile poet withered by the hostility of philistines."
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A17)(MC, 11/20/01)
1765 Nov 20, Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, composer (Von Himmel Hoch), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1789 Nov 20, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1805 Nov 20, Beethoven's "Fidelio," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1815 Nov 20, The treaties known collectively as the 2nd Peace of Paris were concluded. Austria’s Klemens von Metternich helped create a “Concert of Europe," a system by which 4-5 big powers kept miscreants in check and managed the affairs of smaller states for over a decade.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2sqgp9)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.68)
1815 Nov 20, With the 2nd Peace of Paris Napoleon was involuntarily exiled to St. Helena.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1817 Nov 20, 1st Seminole War began in Florida. [see Nov 27]
(MC, 11/20/01)
1820 Nov 20, Whalers from Nantucket, Mass., lost their ship to an 80-ton bull sperm whale and attempted to make landfall in 3 boats on the coast of South America. 8 crewmen survived after they consumed 7 of their mates. [see Owen Chase in 1821] 5 men in 2 boats were picked up after 90 days. In 1960 cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote an account of the tragedy. In 2000 Nathaniel Philbrick authored "In the Heart of the Sea, The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_%281799_whaleship%29)(SFEC, 7/23/00, BR p.12)(Econ, 1/2/16, p.54)
1829 Nov 20, Jews were expelled from Nikolayev and Sevastopol, Russia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1833 Nov 20, Charles Darwin reached Punta Gorda and saw Rio Uruguay.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1858 Nov 20, Selma Lagerdorf, Swedish novelist, was born. Her work included “The Story of Gosta Berling."
(HN, 11/20/00)
1866 Nov 20, Pierre Lallemont, French mechanic, was granted a US patent for his velocipede, a rotary crank bicycle.
(http://www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)(ON, 2/10, p.1)
1884 Nov 20, Norman Thomas, socialist and Pres. Candidate 1928-48, was born in Marion, Ohio, and ran for president in six successive elections beginning in 1928.
(HNQ, 10/21/98)(MC, 11/20/01)
1888 Nov 20, William Bundy patented a timecard clock.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1889 Nov 20, Edwin Hubble (d.1953), American astronomer, was born. He proved that there are other galaxies far from our own.
(HN, 11/20/98)(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A20)
1889 Nov 20, Gustav Mahler's 1st Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1893 Nov 20, The struggling Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs, meeting in Detroit, Michigan, elected Byron Bancroft Johnson (29), a former ballplayer and Cincinnati sportswriter, as president. He had been recommended by Charles Comiskey, a potential investor in the league and manager of the National League’s Cincinnati Reds.
(ON, 6/09, p.10)
1894 Nov 20, Anton Rubinstein (64), Russian composer (Dmitri Donskoi), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1903 Nov 20, In Cheyenne, Wyoming, 42-year-old hired gunman and stock detective Tom Horn was hanged for the 1901 murder of Willie Nickell (14). Horn had made a controversial confession to U.S. Deputy Marshal Joseph S. LeFors that was pivotal in the conviction.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1906 Nov 20, George Bernard Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 20, Henri-Georges Clouzot, French director (Le salaire de la peur), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 20, The McLaughlin Motor Car Company was founded in Ontario, Canada, under Samuel McLaughlin (1871-1972). In 1910 he became a director of General Motors and sold his company in 1918 becoming president of General Motors of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Durant)
1908 Nov 20, Alistair Cooke (d.2004), English journalist, who hosted "Masterpiece Theater," was born in Salford, England.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.A2)(AP, 11/20/08)
1910 Nov 20, Revolution broke out in Mexico. Francisco I. Madero called for a rise to national arms on this day when dictator Porfirio Diaz reneged on his pledge to stay out of the presidential election.
(SFEC, 11/9/97, p.T6) (AP, 11/20/97)
1911 Nov 20, Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" premiered in Munich.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, Emilio Pucci, fashion designer (Neiman-Marcus Award-1954), was born in Naples.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, US State Department began requiring photographs for passports.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, Bulgaria proclaimed its neutrality in the First World War.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1915 Nov 20, In San Francisco a gang of robbers, later dubbed the “jitney bandits" used a Model T Ford to flee a robbery at the Sloat Cafe dance hall. More robberies followed over the next month with several killings until outlaw Howard Dunnigan (23) was wounded following a Christmas eve attack on the Niagara saloon at 789 Howard. The gang fled to Los Angeles where Dunnigan checked himself into a hospital, where a doctor called police. Dunnigan turned out to be from an old and respected family in Maryland. Two of his confederates were sentenced to life in prison. Dunnigan was allowed to plead guilty and was sentenced to seven years probation.
(SFC, 3/2/18, p.C1)
1916 Nov 20, Thomas McGrath, poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1917 Nov 20, In the 1st tank battle Britain broke through German lines.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1920 Nov 20, The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to US president W. Wilson.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1923 Nov 20, Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1923 Nov 20, Garrett Morgan invented and patented a traffic signal.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1925 Nov 20, Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and Senator, was born in Brookline, Mass. While at Harvard during World War II, Robert F. Kennedy joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and served as a seaman on the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. The ship was named for Kennedy’s eldest brother, who had been killed in battle during World War II. Kennedy died from an assassin’s bullet June 6, 1968, in Los Angeles after proclaiming victory in California’s Democratic Party primary election.
(AP, 11/20/97)(HNQ, 7/14/98) (HN, 11/20/98)
1927 Nov 20, Karl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammer (56), composer, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1928 Nov 20, Mrs. Glen Hyde became the first woman to dare the Grand Canyon rapids in a scow. Her flat bottomed boat used sweep oars for maneuvering.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1929 Nov 20, Kenneth DeWitt Schermerhorn, conductor, was born in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Nov 20, Salvador Dali held his 1st one-man show.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Nov 20, The radio program "The Rise of the Goldbergs" debuted on the NBC Blue Network.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1931 Nov 20, AT&T began commercial teletype service.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1931 Nov 20, Japan and China rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1934 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's "Children's Hour," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1934 Nov 20, The McCormack–Dickstein Committee began examining evidence on the Business Plot against Franklin Roosevelt. On November 24 the committee released a statement detailing the testimony it had heard about the plot and its preliminary findings. On February 15, 1935, the committee submitted its final report to the House of Representatives. During the hearings Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified that Gerald C. MacGuire attempted to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, DC, and financial backing. Butler testified that the pretext for the coup would be that the president's health was failing.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot)
1935 Nov 20, Borden and Coca Cola were removed from the DJIA. Du Pont and National Steel were added.
(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1936 Nov 20, Don DeLillo, author, was born. His work includes “White Noise" and "Libra."
(HN, 11/20/00)
1938 Nov 20, The 1st documented anti-Semitic remarks over US radio were made by Father Coughlin.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1941 Nov 20, Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu handed over Japan’s last diplomatic note.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, Joseph Biden, later US Senator for Delaware, was born in Scranton, Pa. In 2008 Barack Obama named Biden as his vice presidential running mate.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A15)
1942 Nov 20, Meredith Monk, choreographer, composer and performing artist, was born in Lima, Peru.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, British 8th Army recaptured Benghazi, Libya.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, Hitler named field marshal Erich von Manstein to command.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, The 26th Russian Armored Corps recaptured Perelazovski. A million Russians breached German lines in a Soviet army offensive.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands, encountering fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging victorious three days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the tiny isle of Betio on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first seriously opposed landing experienced by the Americans in WWII. After 3 days 1,027 US Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some 4,800 Japanese and Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including 17 Japanese troops. In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile Of Hell."
(AP, 11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07, p.72)
1943 Nov 20, US Marine cinematographer Norman Hatch (1921-2017) began filming much of the 76-hour battle for the island of Tarawa. The film was edited and made into a 20-minute documentary: “With the Marines at Tarawa." In 1945 the film received an Academy Award for best short documentary.
(https://archive.org/details/WiththeMarinesatTarawa)(SFC, 4/28/17, p.D8)
1943 Nov 20, U-538 sank in the Atlantic Ocean.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1944 Nov 20, The 1st Japanese suicide submarine attack was at Ulithi Atoll, Carolines.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, Dmitri Shostakovitch's 9th Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, In Nuremberg, Germany 22 out of 24 indicted Nazi officials went on trial (one in absentia) before an international war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
1946 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's "Another Part of the Forest," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1947 Nov 20, "Meet the Press" made network TV debut on NBC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1947 Nov 20, Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster Abbey.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFEM, 1/26/97, p.44)(AP, 11/20/97)
1949 Nov 20, Jewish population of Israel reached 1,000,000.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1950 Nov 20, U.S. troops pushed to Yalu River within five miles of Manchuria.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1950 Nov 20, Francesco Cilea (84), opera composer, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1952 Nov 20, George Axelrod's "7 Year Itch," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1955 Nov 20, The Maryland National Guard was ordered desegregated.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1959 Nov 20, The United Nations issued its "Declaration of the Rights of the Child."
(AP, 11/20/99)
1959 Nov 20, Seven European nations (Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland) signed the Stockholm Convention to form the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The organization becoming operative on May 3, 1960. After the accession of Denmark, Ireland, and the UK to the EEC in January 1973, the EFTA began to falter. Portugal (1985), followed in 1995 by Austria, Finland and Sweden, left to join the EU. In 2017 Four members remained: Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Association)
1962 Nov 20, President Kennedy barred religious or racial discrimination in federally funded housing.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1962 Nov 20, USSR agreed to remove bombers from Cuba and US lifted its blockade.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1964 Nov 20, Regents of UC Berkeley ratified the suspension of eight students, placed students Mario Savio and Art Goldberg on probation and allowed on-campus political advocacy that doesn’t lead to unlawful activity.
(SSFC, 9/21/14, p.A13)
1965 Nov 20, UN Security council called for a boycott of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, "Cabaret" opened at Broadhurst Theater, NYC, for 1166 performances.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, Men in Zurich voted against female suffrage.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1967 Nov 20, The Census Clock at the US Commerce Department ticked past 200 million.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase-out.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, A group of 80 Native Americans, all college students, seized Alcatraz Island in the name of “Indians of All Tribes." The occupation lasted 19 months. They offered $24 in beads and cloth to buy the island, demanded an American Indian Univ., museum and cultural center, and listed reasons why the island was a suitable Indian reservation.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
1969 Nov 20, Mary Scott (23) was found dead at her apartment in San Diego. She had been strangled and raped. The case went cold until 2020 when the San Diego Police Department announced that with the help of forensic genealogy, a suspect had been identified. On Oct. 24, John Jeffrey Sipos (75), was arrested in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, in Scott's murder.
(NY Times, 10/30/20)
1970 Nov 20, In Oklahoma 3 teenagers in a Chevrolet Camaro failed to return home after a high school football game. In 2013 divers on a training exercize discovered Their skeletal remains in a Camaro in Foss Lake.
(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/m9owvbn)
1970 Nov 20, UN General Assembly accepted membership of the People’s Republic of China.
(www.un.org/documents/ga/res/25/ares25.htm)
1971 Nov 20, U.S. planned to give Turkey $35 million for farmers who agreed to stop growing opium poppies.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1973 Nov 20, Allan Sherman (b.1924), American musician, parodist and producer, died. He was the creator and original producer of the popular “I've Got a Secret" from 1952 to 1958.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Sherman)
1974 Nov 20, The US Dept. of Justice filed an antitrust suit to break up ATT.
(HN, 11/20/98)(www.spectrum.ieee.org/jul05/1571)
1975 Nov 20, Ronald Reagan announced his intention to battle Gerald Ford for the Republican presidential nomination.
(SSFC, 6/6/04, A16)(www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/timeline.asp)
1975 Nov 20, An interim report by the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to assassinate Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered CIA activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)
1975 Nov 20, After nearly four decades of absolute rule (1936-1975), Spain's General Francisco Franco died, two weeks before his 83rd birthday. He was entombed in a mausoleum built by his regime between 1940 and 1959, in part by the forced labor of some 20,000 political prisoners. Juan Carlos, grandson of King Alfonso, was his designated successor and the monarchy was restored. In 2002 Gabrielle Ashford Hodges authored "Franco: A Concise Biography."
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A17)(AP, 11/20/97)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.M4)(AFP, 8/24/18)
1976 Nov 20, Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (b.1898), Soviet agronomist and biologist, died in Moscow. Lysenko was a strong proponent of soft inheritance and rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of pseudoscientific ideas termed Lysenkoism.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.70)
1977 Nov 20, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1979 Nov 20, The first US artificial blood transfusion occurred at Univ. of Minn. Hospital. The patient was a Jehovah's Witness, who had refused a transfusion of real blood because of his religious beliefs.
(www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)
1979 Nov 20, Some 200 armed men and women, Mahadiists, seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. They denounced the monarchy and demanded an end to corrupting modernization and "foreign ways." Saudi preacher Juhayman al Uteybi (Juhayman al-Otaibi) led the radicals. After two weeks French special forces shot dead all the Wahhabi extremists.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Siege_of_Mecca)(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.C3)(WSJ, 11/12/03, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.A8)
1980 Nov 20, Faced with disastrous reviews from New York critics, United Artists announced it was withdrawing its $36 million movie "Heaven's Gate" for re-editing.
(AP, 11/20/05)
1980 Nov 20, In China the Gang of Four, scapegoats for the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, were put on trial. They were tried and sentenced in nationally televised court proceedings. Jiang Hua led the special tribunal that was set up to try Jiang Qing and her 3 Politburo allies known as the Gang of Four. Qing was sentenced to death but her sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/2tfc9u)
1982 Nov 20, At the California Memorial Stadium of UC Berkeley Cal player Kevin Moen scored the game winning touchdown against Stanford amidst Stanford band members, who had run onto the field thinking the game was over. The winning catch was caught by photographer Bob Stinnett (1924-2018).
(SSFC, 11/11/18, p.C1)
1982 Nov 20, South Africa backed down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1984 Nov 20, McDonald's made its 50 billionth hamburger.
(http://tinyurl.com/2p8ua9)
1986 Nov 20, The US Federal Reserve Board approved a $500 million equity investment by Japan’s Sumitomo Bank in Goldman Sachs.
(Econ, 5/19/07, SR p.20)(http://tinyurl.com/3xdm2q)
1986 Nov 20, UN's WHO announced 1st global effort to combat AIDS.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycyxmk)
1987 Nov 20, The film "Nuts" starring Barbra Streisand premiered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_%28film%29)
1987 Nov 20, President Reagan and congressional leaders announced agreement on a two-year, $76 billion deficit-reduction plan designed to reassure jittery financial markets.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1988 Nov 20, Egypt and China announced they were recognizing the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1989 Nov 20, More than 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms and the ouster of Communist Party leader Milos Jakes.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1990 Nov 20, The space shuttle “Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after completing a secret military mission.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1990 Nov 20, The Soviet Union again rebuffed President Bush’s efforts to rally support for a UN Security Council resolution authorizing military force against Iraq.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1990 Nov 20, Margaret Thatcher failed to defeat Heseltine's bid for party leadership.
(http://tinyurl.com/krb66)
1991 Nov 20, California Democrat Alan Cranston accepted a Senate reprimand for his dealings with former savings-and-loan chief Charles H. Keating Jr., but then denied he was guilty of many of the allegations, prompting an angry rebuttal by New Hampshire Republican Warren B. Rudman.
(AP, 11/20/01)
1991 Nov 20, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic, and Veselin Sljivan-Canin, officers in the Yugoslav National Army, ordered the Serb army and military police to withdraw from the hospital at Vukovar. The paramilitary forces then took 194 Croat men in small groups to an area nearby and shot them. Radic surrendered to Serbian authorities in 2003. Mrksic and Sljivancanin were convicted by a UN tribunal in 2007. Radic was acquitted.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC, 4/22/03, A7)(AP, 9/27/07)(WSJ, 9/28/07, p.A1)
1992 Nov 20, The United States and the European Community announced they had resolved a dispute over EC farm subsidies, but French officials expressed dissatisfaction.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1992 Nov 20, Fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1993 Nov 20, The U.S. Senate ended a filibuster against the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, and passed it by a 63-36 vote; the Senate also approved legislation implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement, 61-38.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1994 Nov 20, The Angolan government under dos Santos and rebels under Savimbi signed a treaty in Zambia to end 19 years of war, even as fighting continued in their homeland.
(AP, 11/20/99)(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A11)
1994 Nov 20, The most heavily mined country in the world was Afghanistan, with between 10 and 15 million deadly mines. In Angola, one third of the countryside was strewn with mines and the toll of nearly 25 people a day who were injured or killed by land mines has left 20,000 amputees. Cambodia’s 7 million mines amount to two for every single Cambodian child, and between 200 and 250 people became victims every month. In Somalia, the laying of mines rose to new heights of terror as civilian areas were deliberately targeted. Truck loads of mines were scattered in houses, wells, river-crossings, markets, and even cemeteries. Presently, the area being mined most heavily is the war zone of the former Yugoslavia, where 3 million mines have been laid in just a few years. The US State Dept. estimated that 25,000 people are killed or maimed each year by mines. About 1.5 to 2 million new mines go into the ground each year. There is a British Rapid Antipersonnel Minefield Breaching System (RAMBS) manufactured by Pains-Wessex Schermuly that is fired from a rifle and clears a path 60 meters long and one meter wide in less than a minute.
(UNICEFF Mailer, 11/94)(WSJ, 5/17/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.A13)
1995 Nov 20, Radio stations began airing a new Beatles recording, “Free As a Bird," which had debuted on ABC TV the night before.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, US Federal employees, idled during a government shutdown, returned to their jobs.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, The US FDA approved new therapy for use as an initial AIDS treatment, 3TC.
(www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/NEW00519.html)
1995 Nov 20, Olympic figure skating champion Sergei Grinkov (28) died of a heart attack in Lake Placid, New York.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, BBC Television broadcast an interview with Princess Diana, who admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1995 Nov 20, France conducted its 4th nuclear test at the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia. [other news sources indicated a severe earthquake with the epicenter in the Red Sea]
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1)
1996 Nov 20, US House Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be speaker for a second term.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1996 Nov 20, San Francisco began posting signs along its waterfront to warn fisherman of health hazards from fish caught in the Bay.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.A22)
1996 Nov 20, In Zagreb, Croatia, thousands protested the government’s attempt to close the independent Radio 101.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C6)
1996 Nov 20, In Hong Kong a fire raged in the 16-story Garley Building and 39 people died.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A22)(AP, 11/20/97)
1996 Nov 20, In Zambia Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy won re-election. Former pres. Kaunda and his United National Independent Party boycotted because he was declared ineligible to run.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)
1996 Nov 20-1996 Nov 25, In the Philippines the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) was to be held in Manila. APEC has 18 member countries and its goal is to remove all trade barriers by 2020.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.A12)(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A8)
1997 Nov 20, It was reported that Lucent Tech.’s Bell Labs has developed a new tiny transistor that is 5 times faster and 1/4th the size of commercially available transistors.
(WSJ, 11/20/97, p.B4)
1997 Nov 20, From Ethiopia it was reported that flooding has killed 297 people and uprooted 65,000 and that heavy rains continued to fall.
(SFC, 11/20/97, p.B2)
1997 Nov 20, In India S.V. Ramanna Reddy, a former legislator of Andhra Pradesh, surrendered to police in relation to the previous days bomb blast.
(SFC, 11/21/97, p.D6)
1997 Nov 20, Iraq agreed to allow US arms inspectors back into the country after Russia agreed to help work to lift UN Security Council sanctions. Prodded by Russia, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed to allow U.S. arms monitors back into his country, ending a three-week crisis that had raised fears of a military confrontation with the United States.
(SFC, 11/20/97, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/98)
1997 Nov 20, In Nigeria the government of Gen’l. Sani Abacha gave 5 political parties $637,000 each to campaign in elections to restore civilian rule. Opposition groups called politicians of the 5 parties government stooges. 18 parties had applied for recognition but only 5 were deemed suitable.
(SFC, 11/21/97, p.D6)(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 20, A $206 billion tobacco settlement over health costs for treating sick smokers was endorsed by 46 eligible states. It was the largest settlement of a civil lawsuit in history.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, President Clinton wrapped up a visit to Japan and flew to South Korea.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, In Baltimore Toni Bullock (16) was stabbed and died during a robbery. A few weeks later Malcolm Jabbar Bryant was soon arrested and in August, 1999, was convicted of stabbing Bullock and sentenced to life in prison. In 2016 Bryant (42) was released from prison after new DNA evidence showed that blood on the victim’s T-shirt did not match his.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtxwndz) (SFC, 5/12/16, p.A5)
1998 Nov 20, Rolando Alphonso, tenor saxophonist for the ska group Skatalites, died in Los Angeles at age 67. He was an original member of the Jamaican group that was formed in 1964.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 Nov 20, Phase 2 began in the construction of the int’l. space station. It would take 5 years, 43 flights and 16 nations to assemble the outpost. The first human crew arrived in November 2000.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)(CSM, 11/22/18)
1998 Nov 20, Re: Congo it was reported that Kabila was signing away large stakes in Congo’s biggest enterprises to businessmen from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia in return for support against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, In Indonesia thousands of students marched and demanded the resignations of Pres. Habibie and military chief Wiranto following doctor’s confirmation that protestors were killed with live ammunition on Nov 13-14. In Pinrang thousands of villagers rioted after finding that they could not withdraw savings from an outlawed bank.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 20, Iraq balked at handing over documents on chemical and biological weapons and missile systems.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, Israel ceded control of a 200-sq. mile patchwork area, 2 percent of the West Bank, to the Palestinian Authority in the 1st of 3 withdrawals. 250 prisoners were released but 150 of them were common criminals rather than political detainees,
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, Israel carried out its 100th air raid along with ground attacks in southern Lebanon. One Amal fighter was reported killed.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 20, In Italy a court ordered the release of Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan under a law barring extradition in death penalty cases and planned to grant him asylum.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 20, In Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif ordered soldiers to quell violence in Karachi and suspended civil rights in Sindh province, which surrounds the city.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 20, Galina Starovoitova, a member of the State Duma, was shot to death in St. Petersburg. She had recently formed a coalition called Northern Capital to push the candidacy of liberals for the Dec. 6 elections to the regional legislature. In June, 2005, two men were convicted of the actual killing. Four others charged in the case were acquitted. In 2006 two more men were convicted on charges relating to the murder. Vyacheslav Lelyavin was sentenced to 11 years in prison for being a member of the gang. Pavel Stekhnovsky, guilty of buying the rifle used to shoot Starovoitova, was freed after prosecutors failed to prove he knew the gun was intended for the killing.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/29/06)
1998 Nov 20, From Senegal it was reported that land mines had made 80% of Casamance province unusable. The mines, laid by separatist rebels, had killed or wounded close to 500 people in the 1st 8 months of this year.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 20, UN sponsored autonomy negotiations on East Timor were suspended after 44 people were reported killed under a military crackdown by the Indonesian government. The Red Cross later denied the reports of a massacre.
(WSJ, 11/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1999 Nov 20, A day after violent anti-American protests in Greece, President Clinton sought to heal old wounds by acknowledging the United States had failed its “obligation to support democracy" when it backed Greek’s harsh military junta during the Cold War.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1999 Nov 20, In Algeria some 20 people were killed in a clash between guerrillas and security forces south of Algiers.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A15)
1999 Nov 20, China completed its first unmanned test of a spacecraft. The Shenzhou 1, or "Divine Vessel," was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Lawyers for Al Gore and George W. Bush battled before the Florida Supreme Court over whether the presidential election recount should be allowed to continue.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 20, China singed an agreement with the UN for cooperation and training on individual rights and the rule of law.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 20, The EU began to build its own defense force, a 60,000 man, rapid reaction corps. EU defense chiefs pledged 100,000 soldiers, 400 planes and 100 ships for a rapid-reaction force.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Israel fired a barrage of missiles on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack on a school bus that killed 2 Jewish settlers and wounded 9 others including 3 siblings who lost limbs. At least 35 people were reported wounded in the missile attack.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, In Mozambique Carlos Cardoso, founder and editor of the Metical newspaper, was murdered while driving in Maputo. He had been investigating a 1996 theft of $14 million from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique. In 2003 six men were convicted of the murder. Businessman Vicente Ramaya was later convicted of ordering the murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison. In 2013 a judge signed papers granting Ramaya's release because of good behavior.
(AP, 1/31/03)(AP, 1/22/13)
2000 Nov 20, Peru’s Pres. Fujimori announced his resignation from Tokyo, ending a 10-year reign. Acting president Ricardo Marquez also stepped down.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 20, Philippine senators presented Pres. Estrada a 270-page articles of impeachment for corruption and constitutional violations.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)
2001 Nov 20, Pres. Bush called on Americans to support charities of all kinds.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 20, A federal judge extended a court order blocking an attempt by Attorney General John Ashcroft to dismantle Oregon's one-of-a-kind law allowing physician-assisted suicides.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, US federal health officials approved sale of the world's first contraceptive patch, Ortho-Evra.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, The Sep 11 death toll at the WTC was reduced to just under 3,900.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A2)
2001 Nov 20, Portland police said they would not cooperate with FBI efforts to interview some 5,000 Middle Eastern men because the questioning violated state laws.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov 20, Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm computer, was reported to hold that the brain works by anticipating and completing patterns more than it does through inputs and outputs of information.
(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.B1)
2001 Nov 20, In Afghanistan the Northern Alliance gave the Taliban in Kunduz 3 days to give up. The alliance controlling Afghanistan's capital and much of its countryside agreed to attend power-sharing talks in Germany the following week.
(WSJ, 11/21/01, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, Abu Qatada (40), a Muslim cleric living in London, was named in a Spanish indictment as a pivotal figure in the al Qaeda network in Europe.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov 20, Chinese police on Tiananmen Square detained some 35 foreigners who protested the crackdown on the Falun Gong. The protesters were all expelled from the country.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A21)
2001 Nov 20, A speedboat, believed to be carrying 30 smuggled Cubans, capsized in the Florida Straits and all were believed drowned.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 20, The Liberal (Venstre) Party under Anders Fogh Rasmussen (1953) won elections in Denmark. It formed a minority government with the Conservative People’s Party.
(http://www.andersfogh.dk/807.0.html)
2002 Nov 20, On the eve of a NATO summit in the Czech Republic, President Bush, recalling Europe's grim history of "excusing aggression," challenged skeptical allies to stand firm against Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 20, Louisiana began offering a $4-a-tail bounty on the swamp-dwelling nutria rodent, due to wetlands damage from devoured plants.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A2)
2002 Nov 20, Thomas Mohaghan (65), founder of Domino's Pizza, pledged at least $220 million to build the Catholic Ave Maria Univ. near Naples, Fla.
(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 20, A German doctor conducted Britain's first public autopsy in more than 170 years, an event denounced by the British Medical Association's Head of Ethics as "degrading and disrespectful."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 20, Francoise Ducros, aide to PM Chretien of Canada, called Pres. Bush a moron during a private conversation in Prague. She resigned Nov 26.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/26/02)
2002 Nov 20, In Riobamba, Ecuador, a series of explosions at an ammunition depot left at least 7 people dead and 140 injured.
(WSJ, 11/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 20, The EU, except for Portugal. banned Belarus Pres. Lukashenko and top aides to protest human rights abuses under his rule.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 20, Israel's Labor Party chose Amram Mitzna, ex-general and Haifa mayor, as its leader in the Jan 28 elections.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 20, Israeli troops shot and killed Amr Qudsi (15), a Palestinian teenager in a confrontation in Tulkarem.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2002 Nov 20, In Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Phillip Seerattan (17) opened fire with a pistol at a school for foreign students, wounding a security guard before being shot to death by police.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida ministers from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas," (FTAA).
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)
2003 Nov 20, Michael Jackson turned himself over to police in Santa Barbara, Ca., on an arrest warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation. He posted a $3 million bail bond. Jackson was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, Record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting death of an actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif., in February 2003. As of 2008 Spector was being retried after his first trial ended in a deadlocked jury.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named the Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, Advanced Micro Devices said it would build $2.4 billion chip factory in Germany to produce microprocessors on 300-mm silicon wafers.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.B1)
2003 Nov 20, Eugene Kleiner (80), California pioneer venture capitalist, died.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.79)
2003 Nov 20, Tens of thousands of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to show their anger over the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, In Canada Conrad Black, newspaper magnate, stepped down as CEO of Hollinger Int'l. following reports that he other top officials received unauthorized payments of some $32.2 million.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 20, David Dacko (76), the first president of Central African Republic as an independent nation (1960-1966, 1979-1981), died.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a bomb apparently hidden in a pickup truck exploded at the offices of a US-allied Kurdish political party, killing five people and wounding 40.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, A group of UN agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services have put the country in a state of "chronic emergency."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, The London Privy Council ruled that Trinidad's mandatory death penalty for murder convictions was unconstitutional, forcing the country to begin giving discretion to judges when handing out sentences.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Turkey trucks packed with explosives blew up at the HSBC London-based bank and the British consulate. The 32 people killed included London's consul-general Roger Short. Some 450 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/20/03)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A16)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida ministers from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas" (FTAA), as police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, Michael Jackson turned himself over to police in Santa Barbara, Ca., on an arrest warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation. He posted a $3 million bail bond.
(AP, 11/19/03)
2003 Nov 20, Record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named the Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, Advanced Micro Devices said it would build $2.4 billion chip factory in Germany to produce microprocessors on 300-mm silicon wafers.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.B1)
2003 Nov 20, Eugene Kleiner (80), California pioneer venture capitalist, died.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.79)
2003 Nov 20, In Canada Conrad Black, newspaper magnate, stepped down as CEO of Hollinger Int'l. following reports that he other top officials received unauthorized payments of some $32.2 million.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 20, David Dacko (76), the first president of Central African Republic as an independent nation (1960-1966, 1979-1981), died.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, Tens of thousands of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to show their anger over the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a bomb apparently hidden in a pickup truck exploded at the offices of a US-allied Kurdish political party, killing five people and wounding 40.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, A group of UN agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services have put the country in a state of "chronic emergency."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, The London Privy Council ruled that Trinidad's mandatory death penalty for murder convictions was unconstitutional, forcing the country to begin giving discretion to judges when handing out sentences.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Turkey trucks packed with explosives blew up at the HSBC London-based bank and the British consulate. The 32 people killed included London's consul-general Roger Short. Some 450 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/20/03)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A16)
2004 Nov 20, US Republicans whisked a $388 billion spending bill through the House.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, The new NYC MOMA opened in midtown Manhattan. Its new tower was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.85)
2004 Nov 20, The NBA suspended 9 players without pay over the Nov 19 Piston and Pacer brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.34)
2004 Nov 20, Juan Rodriguez (49) of NYC, a Colombian immigrant and parking garage worker, won the $149 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot. He chose to take a single payment of $88.5 million before taxes.
(USAT, 11/21/04, p.3A)
2004 Nov 20, Scientist Ancel Keys (100), died in Minneapolis. He invented the K rations eaten by soldiers in World War II and who linked high cholesterol and fatty diets to heart disease.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, Fifteen African presidents and UN chief Kofi Annan signed a common declaration in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to promote peace and security in the Great Lakes region.
(AFP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Brazil gunmen raided the camp Terra Prometida and torched huts and crops in Minas Gerais state. 5 victims were executed with shots at close range and 12 other people, including a child, were injured. In 2013 rancher Adriano Chafik was sentenced to 115 years in prison for ordering and taking part in the Massacre of Felisburgo.
(SSFC, 10/13/12, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/lw7xkqq)
2004 Nov 20, In China a fire at a complex of iron mines in Shahe, Hebei province, left 68 dead. Most of the miners were suffocated by smoke.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 20, An early morning 6.2 earthquake jolted San Jose, Costa Rica, and killed 8 people. Leaders of 21 nations were gathered there for the Ibero-American Summit.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Baghdad insurgents attacked a US patrol and a police station, assassinated 4 government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and 9 were wounded during clashes that left 3 Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, The bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers, all shot execution-style and seven of them decapitated, were discovered in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Germany and the United States agreed on a proposal to write off as much as 80 percent of Iraq's debt.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, India pulled out around 3,000 troops from Kashmir.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In southern Italy 8 people from two families were killed when a gas explosion destroyed their apartment building.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In western Nepal at least 26 rebel and government soldiers were killed during a clash at a rebel training camp at Pandon.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 20, In Ojobo, Nigeria, a protest at an oil rig operated by Shell left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A23)
2004 Nov 20, Palestinians formally opened the campaign for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, A Polish woman abducted from her apartment in Baghdad reappeared in Poland after being suddenly released.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Puerto Rico's two highest courts ordered election authorities in separate rulings to immediately begin recounting votes cast in the extremely tight Nov. 2 gubernatorial elections.
(AP, 11/21/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Togo at least 13 people died and others were injured in a crush at a demonstration to welcome an improvement in relations with the EU.
(Reuters, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12) and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces implicated in the killings were exonerated.
(www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2005 Nov 20, US President George W. Bush pressed President Hu Jintao to rein in China's swelling trade surplus and push forward currency reform after calling for greater religious freedom. Hu Jintao has rebuffed Bush's calls to allow greater religious and political freedom but promised to show more flexibility on Sino-US economic disputes.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Tacoma, Wash., Dominick Sergio Maldonado (20) went on a shooting spree at a crowded shopping mall. 7 people were injured, one critically, before he was arrested. Maldonado has been charged with attempted murder and kidnapping.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2005 Nov 20, Chris Whitley (45), a chameleon singer-songwriter who oscillated between roots rock 'n' roll, blues and alt-rock, died of lung cancer in Houston. He recorded 11 albums since his 1991 debut, "Living with the Law," including “Dirt Floor" (1998) and this year's "Soft Dangerous Shores."
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Brazil TV da Gente (Our TV), the 1st channel to be directed at Brazil’s black population, was launched.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A21)
2005 Nov 20, British military said a British soldier was killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq's southern city of Basra. A total of 98 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including 65 in hostile action, since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
(AFP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, China reported two new outbreaks of bird flu in which almost 3,700 poultry died and more than 7,000 were culled as provinces hit by the deadly virus tightened preventive measures.
(Reuters, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, A helicopter carrying a Colombian congressman and five others crashed Sunday in a storm in the mountains north of Bogota, killing all aboard. Conservative Party congressman Roberto Camacho, Cundinamarca state deputy Efren Bejerano and former Cundinamarca deputy governor Adolfo Leon were among those killed.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Widespread violence marred the second round of Egypt's parliamentary vote, with police saying a campaign worker was shot and killed in Alexandria and witnesses reporting scores of injuries. Police arrested 400 Muslim Brotherhood activists in a crackdown on the Islamist group.
(AP, 11/20/05)(Reuters, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Tropical Storm Gamma weakened into a tropical depression after it deluged the Central American coast, killing 14 people in Honduras and Belize. 2 US newlyweds were among the dead in Belize.
(AP, 11/20/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 20, Iran’s Parliament approved a bill requiring the government to block international inspections of its atomic facilities if the UN nuclear monitoring agency refers Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Iraq a car bomb exploded by a convoy carrying the mayor of Madaen killing 5 civilians. 3 bodies, all blindfolded and shot in the head, were found in Sadr City. A headless body was found south of Baghdad. A policeman was shot dead in Baghdad. A roadside bomb in Baghdad killed a child and wounded 5 others. A US soldier was killed by small arms fire north of Baghdad. A US marine died from wounds suffered the previous day in Karma.
(SFC, 11/21/05, p.A6)
2005 Nov 20, Israel's dovish Labor Party voted Sunday to pull out of PM Ariel Sharon's coalition government, virtually assuring early general elections in March.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Project manager Junichiro Kawaguchi said Hayabusa, a Japanese spacecraft, has failed to land on the Itokawa asteroid in the 2nd setback for the landmark mission aiming to bring samples from such a celestial body to Earth for the first time. The space agency, after evaluating more data, said on Nov 23 that Hayabusa did land for a half-hour, but failed to collect any material.
(AFP, 11/20/05)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.A16)
2005 Nov 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin started a three-day visit to Japan but it appears unlikely there will be any progress in settling a 60-year territorial dispute that has prevented the two nations from formally ending World War II hostilities.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Turkey 12 people were detained after Kurdish demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at the police during a protest in Istanbul.
(AFP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican beatified 13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in the late 1920s that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said he will turn to nuclear power by processing recently discovered uranium deposits to resolve its chronic electricity shortage.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2006 Nov 20, President Bush in Indonesia shrugged off protests that greeted him in the world's most populous Muslim nation, calling it a sign of a healthy democracy. Bush praised Indonesia's "pluralism and its diversity" and said that the world should look to the predominantly Muslim country as an example.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, The US Mint announced designs for new one-dollar coins that will feature images of the presidents beginning in February.
(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 20, Six imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after passengers reported they were acting suspiciously.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2006 Nov 20, O.J. Simpson's book and TV special were canceled, an astonishing end to an imaginary confession that had sickened the public as the very worst kind of tabloid sensation. "If I Did It," in which Simpson was to have described how he would have killed his ex-wife, had been scheduled to air as a two-part interview Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox. The book was to have followed on Nov. 30. Harper Collins said all copies would be destroyed. The book was later brought out by a different publisher.
(AP, 11/20/06)(SFC, 11/24/06, p.A3)(AP, 11/20/07)
2006 Nov 20, A bus crash in Huntsville, Alabama, killed 3 teenage girls and left at least 30 students injured. A 4th student died the next day.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A3)(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 20, Robert Altman (b.1925), film director, producer and writer, died in Los Angeles. His numerous films included “M*A*S*H" (1970) and “Nashville" (1975).
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A1)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.87)
2006 Nov 20, Dirk Dirksen (b.1937), the godfather of San Francisco punk rock, died. He moved to SF in 1974 and soon began presenting late-night events at the Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach, where punk rock found a home.
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B7)
2006 Nov 20, British PM Tony Blair told soldiers fighting a resurgent Taliban that success in Afghanistan would be a step toward global security, and pledged Britain's commitment to the war-torn country "for as long as it takes."
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Austria 35 nations tried to find common ground in a fractious session focusing on what to do about Iran's requests to the UN nuclear watchdog agency for help on projects including building a plutonium-producing reactor.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, British Brig. Grismond "Gris" Davies-Scourfield died at age 88. He won a Military Cross for his part in the Allied defense of Calais during World War II and later escaped from the Nazis holding him prisoner in the notorious Colditz Castle.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Nov 20, Authorities seized a 50-foot homemade submarine with 3 tons of cocaine off the coast of Costa Rica.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A2)
2006 Nov 20, China’s Pres. Hu Jintao arrived in New Delhi for the second visit by a Chinese president.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Eritrea and Ethiopia both rejected plans by a UN-appointed border panel to demarcate their contentious frontier on paper.
(AFP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, French prosecutors approved international arrest warrants for 9 Rwandan officials in connection with the 1994 attack that killed Rwanda's president, triggering the central African country's genocide. Magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere also said there was evidence that "Paul Kagame and members of his military staff devised the operation" to destroy Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
(Reuters, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Kempten, Germany, nurse Stephan Letter was convicted of killing 28 of his patients (2003-2004) at a hospital in Sonthofen, Germany, and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In northwest Germany, Sebastian Bosse (18) with explosives strapped to his body, killed himself after storming a high school in Emsdetten and injuring several people with gunfire.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Guatemala City an enormous fire broke out at Central America's largest open-air market killing 15 people, including three minors.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In eastern India an explosion ripped through two cars of a passenger train, killing at least 8 people and injuring about 60 people.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, Iran invited Iraq and Syria to talks in Tehran aimed at curbing violence in Iraq.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 20, Assassins killed Walid Hassan (47), a popular Baghdad television comedian and a professor at a university south of the capital, but failed in attempts to kill two government officials as the country's leader met with Syria's foreign minister about improving security and reopening diplomatic relations. At least 25 Iraqis were killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baquba. The bodies of 75 Iraqis, who had been kidnapped and tortured, were found in Baghdad, Dujail and in the Tigris River in southern Iraq. It was reported that at least 21 Iraqi interpreters had been kidnapped and shot in the head in Basra over the last month.
(AP, 11/20/06)(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A9)(AP, 11/21/06)(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A13)
2006 Nov 20, Italian Premier Romano Prodi’s center-left government got rid of the heads of its 3 intelligence chiefs: military service (SISMI), civil agency (SISDI) and the coordinating body CESIS.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.48)
2006 Nov 20, Mexico’s defeated presidential candidate Lopez Obrador planned to be sworn in as the country's "legitimate president" as Mexico celebrated its 1910 revolution.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Armed men attacked the offices of a Nigerian aid group in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, killing one person and wounding another. The dead man had offered to help find Ateke Tom, a militant wanted by the Nigerian government in connection with a string of kidnappings and bank robberies.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, A Paraguayan court dropped corruption charges against former President Luis Gonzalez Macchi, acknowledging it had failed to meet a deadline for hearing full testimony on accusations he maintained a secret Swiss bank account.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Gen. Addeh Museh, the president of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said he will rule according to Islamic law, a surprising move in a relatively stable area that has resisted the spread of Islamic militants who control most of southern Somalia.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In South Africa police said Ananias Mathe, a Mozambican national awaiting trial on rape, murder and other charges, escaped from Pretoria's C-Max prison by greasing himself up with petroleum jelly and squeezing out of a tiny window. This was the first reported escape at the top security prison in its 36-year history. On Dec 4 Mathe was shot and captured.
(AP, 11/20/06)(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Nov 20, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir's government hailed a new agreement with the UN over peacekeepers in Darfur as a diplomatic breakthrough, but said serious differences remain over the force's makeup and command.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Turkey police arrested 29 leftist activists who broke into The Associated Press office in Ankara to protest alleged mistreatment of prisoners.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Uzbekistan blocked a UN resolution backed by the US and Western nations criticizing its human rights violations, including the harassment, beatings and arrests of journalists and civil activists.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2007 Nov 20, Freddie Mac, the larger US buyer and guarantor of home loans, reported a $2 billion loss for the 3rd quarter and warned that it may need to raise fresh capital. Fannie Mae, another US mortgage guarantor, had already posted a $1.4 billion loss earlier in the month.
(SFC, 11/21/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.76)
2007 Nov 20, In Utah polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of a breakaway Mormon sect, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her first cousin. In 2010 the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions of Jeffs and ordered a new trial saying a jury received incorrect instructions. On April 7, 2011, a federal judge handed control of a $114 million communal land trust back to the leaders of Jeff’s polygamous church. Courts had seized control of the trust in 2005.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(SFC, 7/28/10, p.A4)(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A5)
2007 Nov 20, Crude-oil futures surged to a record high settling at $98.03 a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.C8)
2007 Nov 20, Researchers said they have decoded the gene map of a strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and that their work has identified mutations that may help develop better treatments.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In SF large grocery stores stopped using plastic bags as a new city ordnance banning the bags took effect.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 20, British Treasury chief Alistair Darling revealed a lapse at Britain's tax and customs service regarding missing computer disks with details of 25 million British individuals and 7.25 million families claiming child benefit. There were gasps from lawmakers when Darling described the scale of the loss.
(AP, 11/21/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.24)
2007 Nov 20, In Cambodia Kaing Guek Eav (66), also known as Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's largest and most notorious torture center appeared in court in the first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan nomad to eight years in prison for seeking Tibetan independence after he urged a crowd to proclaim loyalty to the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In China Huang Qingnan (34), a workers’ rights advocate in Shenzhen, was severely beaten and stabbed by thugs believed to have been hired by Chinese companies opposed to labor activism.
(SFC, 1/7/08, p.A18)
2007 Nov 20, The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers said imprisoned Chinese journalist Li Changqing has been awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, its annual press freedom prize.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A landslide in central China buried a bus. Workers clearing rocks from the landslide discovered the bus underneath rubble three days later and recovered 29 bodies, that included 28 inside the bus. The landslide raised concern that the massive reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam, 120 miles away, was wreaking ecological havoc in the region. The death toll later increased to 34.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/24/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Nov 20, It was reported that Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central African country.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Travel woes piled up in France with air traffic delays adding to a week of rail strikes as many of the nation's 5 million civil servants held a day-long walkout in the biggest test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's appetite for reform.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A British Puma helicopter crashed southeast of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and seriously injuring two others. A sophisticated roadside bomb killed a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded three other soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation, seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Jordan held elections. Supporters of King Abdullah II, a close US ally, handily defeated the country's Islamist opposition in parliamentary elections, dropping their number of parliament seats by nearly two-thirds.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, The British government announced that the legal age of sexual consent in Northern Ireland will be lowered to 16 in line with the rest of the United Kingdom.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said more than 3,000 people jailed under emergency rule have been released, the latest sign that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was rolling back some of the harsher measures taken against his opponents. Over 2,000 remained jailed. The government said the army had killed 15 militants in Shangla as Pres. Musharraf left for a visit to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in a key arms control treaty was a necessary response to NATO "muscle-flexing" near its frontiers. The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which originally set limits on weapons of NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, was revised in 1999. Russia ratified the updated treaty in 2004, but the US and other NATO members have refused to follow suit, saying Moscow first must fulfill obligations to withdraw forces from Georgia and from Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Singapore Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) adopted a landmark charter but their vision to create an EU-style bloc faced hurdles because of concerns over Myanmar, whose military rulers have defied international calls to restore democracy.
(AP, 11/20/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.43)
2007 Nov 20, Ian Smith (88), Rhodesia's last white prime minister, died in South Africa. His attempts to resist black rule dragged the country, later renamed as Zimbabwe, into isolation and civil war.
(AP, 11/20/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.92)
2008 Nov 20, A US federal judge ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, US Congressional efforts to rescue Detroit’s auto makers collapsed with lawmakers saying the industry lacks credibility to return to profitability. Democrats asked for a convincing turnaround plan by Dec 2.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 20, The DJIA fell 444.99 to its lowest level since March, 2003.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 20, In Afghanistan US-led forces killed an Afghan civilian in a battle that also left two militants dead.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 20, The new Australian Sex Party launched at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne. It has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to register with the electoral commission next week.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the European Union's peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year, emphasizing the importance of the country's progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Britain called on Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, A meteor streaked across the sky of the Canadian Prairies producing a fire ball that shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 700 km (435 miles) wide. Searchers soon found the remains of the 10-ton meteor.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 20, In southwestern Colombia the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted and loosed avalanches of mud and ash that injured nine, destroyed bridges and trapped people in their towns. At least 10 people died in landslides triggered by the eruption.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/29/08, p.B6)
2008 Nov 20, Dubai held a launch party for its Atlantis Hotel.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.115)
2008 Nov 20, Egypt held emergency talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how to stop Somali gunmen from hijacking ships. Somali pirates had already seized at least 80 ships off the Horn of Africa this year.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 20, The European Union formally recognized Welsh, which dates back to the 6th century, as a minority tongue. It became an official tongue in Wales in 1993, 450 years after British rulers gave it the boot in favor of English.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Finland's Finance Ministry said four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion (euro1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic meltdown.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The 2008 edition of Beaujolais Nouveau wine arrived, and vintners hoped it will lift spirits despite the financial crisis and a dismal crop.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Georgian officials said Russian and separatist forces attacked a Georgian police checkpoint near the village of Ganmukhuri, near the breakaway province of Abkhazia. Anatoly Zaitsev, the chief of staff for the Abkhaz armed forces, said that a group of Abkhaz troops patrolling the area were shelled from the Georgian side and returned fire, and no Russian troops were involved.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Iraqi opposition lawmakers shouted and pounded their desks in protest in a second day of emotional debate in parliament over a proposed agreement with the US that would allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three more years. Baghdad authorities announced a campaign to kill stray dogs who roam the Iraqi capital in packs, after a spate of fatal dog attacks left children in some neighborhoods fearful of going outside. An American soldier died of non-combat-related causes.
(AP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Jewish settlers in Hebron spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Latvia said it is looking to start talks with IMF and had formally entered into negotiations with the European Commission on emergency financial assistance.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 20, US oil group Chevron suspended export contracts on much of its Nigerian production after a militant attack on a key pipeline. Chevron said it was declaring "force majeure" until December 31 following the Nov 14 attack on the pipeline which carries supplies to its Escravos terminal in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The Norwegian government said it has picked the US developed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to replace its aging US-made F-16 aircraft in a roughly 60 billion kroner ($8.5 billion) deal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Pakistan a militant Taliban group warned of reprisals if there was another US drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike in its territory. A suicide bomber killed at least four people when he blew himself up at a mosque northwest of Khar, the main town in the troubled Bajaur tribal region. Pakistani jets and artillery killed 17 people, including up to four Uzbek commanders, as they pounded suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideouts in Bajaur overnight and into the morning. Pakistani jets also killed 20 militants in attacks on militant centers in the northwestern Swat valley. A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the border region where government-backed anti-militant tribesman were praying, killing 8, including the head of the group.
(AFP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, In the Philippines a mother and her 3 children were among the six people killed after a mudslide triggered by days of heavy rain buried houses in a southern gold mining town.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Boris Fyodorov (50), Russian economic reformer, died.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.88)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on pirates, arms smugglers, and perpetrators of instability in Somalia in a fresh attempt to help end years of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Africa said it will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government is in place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a regional country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Korean activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea, ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and threats from the North to sever relations if it continues.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Sri Lanka's military said that it smashed a key Tamil Tiger defense line in the island's far north and seized an airfield, putting new pressure on the shrinking jungle mini-state.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The International Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants for rebels in Sudan's Darfur region, accusing them of storming an African Union camp and killing 12 peacekeepers in Sep, 2007.
(Reuters, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Switzerland’s central bank cut its benchmark interest by a full percentage point, the latest in a global round of aggressive rate cuts amid stuttering economic growth.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A16)
2008 Nov 20, In Thailand a grenade attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier's offices killed one person and wounded 29, prompting protest leaders to call for a new march against the government.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, Turkey’s central bank cuts its core overnight borrowing rate by .5% to 16.25%.
(WSJ, 11/20/08, p.A15)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to send some 3,000 additional UN peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent a new war in the country's east.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Vietnam's president Nguyen Minh Triet was set to meet Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, during the first visit by a head of state from the communist nation here, mainly focused on oil and gas ties.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Vietnam family planning chiefs said officials in Communist Vietnam, alarmed by a new baby boom, are to crack down on couples having more than two children. The government first launched a two-child policy in the early 1960s. A 2003 ordinance encouraged small families without making it illegal for families to have a third child.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The US ambassador to Harare, James McGee, said that a total of 294 people have been confirmed dead from cholera in Zimbabwe, amid some 1,200 cases of the water-borne disease.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2009 Nov 20, A US judge blocked a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.
(Reuters, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 20, The Manhattan Declaration was signed by about 150 prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders and scholars and was released at a press conference in Washington, DC. A number of Christian leaders, known for their public witness on behalf of justice, human rights, and the common good, had come together in shaping the declaration. It was born out of an urgent concern about growing efforts to marginalize the Christian voice in the public square, to redefine marriage, and to move away from the biblical view of the sanctity of life. In December 2010 Apple removed it as an iPhone App.
(www.manhattandeclaration.org/the-movement/movement.aspx)(SFC, 12/7/10, p.A18)
2009 Nov 20, Oprah Winfrey announced that she will end her eponymous show in Sep 2011, 26 after it first aired nationwide.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.78)
2009 Nov 20, Lester Shubin (84), former US Justice Dept. researcher, died at his home in Virginia. In the 1970s he began developing Kevlar, a new DuPont fabric invented in 1965, into body armor for police and soldiers. DuPont had intended Kevlar to replace steel belting on tires and began marketing it in 1971. By the end of 2009 bulletproof vests had saved the lives of over 3,000 law enforcement officers.
(SFC, 11/28/09, p.C4)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.E2)
2009 Nov 20, Charis Wilson (96), American model and writer, died. She had modeled for photographer Edward Weston for 11 years beginning in 1934.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.96)
2009 Nov 20, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck Farah city, the capital of the southwestern province of Farah, killing 16 people near the governor's home. A roadside bomb targeted a controversial warlord, who escaped unscathed but killed five of his bodyguards northwest of Kabul. A similar device, of the type favored by Taliban insurgents, killed three civilians in the east.
(AFP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 20, In Australia 2 executives at Securency, a banknote-making firm part-owned by Australia's central bank, were suspended over a police probe into alleged bribery and kickbacks. According to a May 23 report by The Age newspaper, Securency officials had paid more than 12 million dollars in kickbacks for a printing contract to a Vietnamese businessman with links to the communist state's government. Officials were also accused of paying bribes worth millions of dollars into tax haven bank accounts of a politically-connected Nigerian businessman to win a 2007 contract.
(AFP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 20, Australian firefighters battled dozens of bush blazes as record-breaking hot weather sparked "catastrophic" warnings in two states, just months after the country's worst ever wildfire disaster.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Canada’s TD Bank was hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit calling it the "financial epicenter" of an alleged Ponzi scheme run by disgraced Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein.
(Reuters, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Cuba Reinaldo Escobar, the husband of acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob after he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his wife, to a street corner debate.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, Egyptian police shot and killed a Bedouin in north Sinai after the arrest of fellow tribesmen prompted clashes. Protesters injured dozens of police near the Algerian embassy in Cairo, fanning the flames of a diplomatic spat that erupted after Algeria won a football World Cup qualifier.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northern England military helicopters winched dozens of people to safety and emergency workers in inflatable boats rescued scores more as floods swamped the picturesque Lake District. One police officer was missing and feared dead after a bridge was swept away.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In France a man with an automatic rifle opened fire on a car near a Paris train station, killing one man and wounding two others.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Germany filed terrorism charges against a Turkish-German dual citizen allegedly linked to a member of a cell that plotted to attack US targets. The 24-year-old, identified only as Kadir T. in line with German privacy laws, was charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization and violating export laws.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Nov 20, German prosecutors said that around 200 football matches in nine European countries including at least three Champions League games are implicated in a new match-fixing scandal.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Guatemalan officials announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In India 7 people were arrested in Mumbai after activists from a hardline Hindu regional political party ransacked a television station's offices and beat up staff.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In the Northern Mariana Islands a gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan, killing 4 people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself. Li Zhongren (42), a Chinese citizen, was believed to have been employed at the shooting range and left notes indicating personal financial problems and frustrations.
(AP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 20, In Mexico Jesus Zambada Reyes, identified as the nephew of drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was found dead in an apparent suicide in Guerrero state. A body found in Guerrero state was identified as Omar Guerrero Solis, a rebel leader who had accused the state governor of drug ties. Solis told local media in May that he believed Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca had ties to the Sinaloa cartel. He accused the army of not detaining Sinaloa gunmen, while cracking down on members of the rival Beltran Leyva cartel. US citizen Lizbeth Marin was shot in Matamoros and later died of the wound. A Mexican army soldier was said to have accidentally fired a round that hit Marin.
(AP, 11/21/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northwestern Pakistan a suspected US missile strike killed at least eight militants, the second attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region. Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed when militants ambushed their convoy in the North Waziristan area of Shawal. Two police officers were killed and four others wounded when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle in Peshawar.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Somali pirates hijacked a Panamanian cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden between the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, Swiss authorities said that they had ordered some 350 million dollars of assets to be seized from the son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha for graft.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Geneva, Sw., CERN scientists restarted the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) following more than a year of repairs. They were surprised that they could so quickly get beams of protons whizzing near the speed of light during the restart.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Tanzania members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha, headquarters of the EAC.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/21/content_12513712.htm)
2009 Nov 20, Hugo Chavez has defended the alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Sanchez Ramirez, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was an important "revolutionary fighter" who supported the cause of the Palestinians. Ramirez gained international notoriety during the 1970s and 80s as the alleged mastermind of a series of bombings, killings and hostage dramas. He is serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informant.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2010 Nov 20, American scientist Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the US Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, said in a report that he was taken during a recent trip to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. It had 2,000 recently completed centrifuges. The North told him it was producing low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor. North Korea told Hecker it began construction on the centrifuges in April 2009 and finished only a few days before the scientist's Nov. 12 visit.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Florida Brandi Peters (27) and her 3 young children were found slain in a Tallahassee home.
(SSFC, 11/21/10, p.A14)(SSFC, 11/21/10, p.A5)
2010 Nov 20, In eastern Afghanistan Taliban suicide bombers on bicycles killed four people and wounded 31. Hafiz Janan, a Taliban leader involved in training foreign fighters, was killed in the Bakwa district of Farah province. Another Taliban leader was captured in Baraki Barak district of Logar province.
(Reuters, 11/20/10)(AP, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Australia David Auchterlonie was murdered on his 17th birthday in New South Wales. Mathew Milat (17) and Cohen Klein (18) had planned for over a week to lure Auchterlonie to his death. In 2012 Matthew Milat, a relative of serial killer Ivan Milat, pleaded guilty to the ax murder and was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. Cohen Klein also pleaded guilty and was sentenced for at least 22 years.
(AFP, 6/8/12)
2010 Nov 20, China's government-backed Catholic church ordained a bishop who did not have the pope's approval, despite objections from the Vatican.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said a top FARC rebel leader who oversees major cocaine production may have been killed in the bombing of a guerrilla camp in the country's southern jungles. Fabian Ramirez's pistols, rucksack and computers were found at the scene of a pre-dawn bombing. At least six bodies were found.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Egypt a tour bus lost control and flipped over several times on a winding mountain road near a Red Sea resort, killing eight tourists.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Ireland moved towards finalizing its four-year crisis plan for cutting its budget deficit which could pave the way for a multi-billion euro bailout.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Yair Klein, an Israeli wanted in Colombia for training militias that killed hundreds of people, returned home after he was released from a Moscow jail. Klein has denied working with Colombia's cocaine cartels and said he only instructed paramilitaries in defense tactics.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Madagascar PM Camille Vital told reporters that 16 officers have surrendered, ending an impasse that began Nov 17, when a faction of officers declared they were taking over from Andry Rajoelina.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Mexico a gang of suspected kidnappers were arrested by marines. They had detailed plans of security arrangements for next week's UN climate change talks in Cancun.
(Reuters, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 20, NATO nations meeting in Portugal formally agreed to start turning over Afghanistan's security to its military next year and give them full control by 2014. The US and its allies appeared to take conflicting views on when NATO combat operations would end. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014. Russia was receptive but stopped short of accepting a historic NATO invitation to join a missile shield protecting Europe against Iranian attack.
(AP, 11/20/10)(Reuters, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Saudi Arabia a young woman in her twenties defying a driving ban in the capital died along with three female friends when her car overturned.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, Pope Benedict XVI formally created 24 new cardinals amid cheers in St. Peter's Basilica, bringing a mostly Italian group into the elite club that will eventually elect his successor. Benedict XVI reiterated that condoms are not a moral solution for stopping AIDS. But he added that in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, their use could represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection.
(AP, 11/20/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez stepped up his threats against the country’s only remaining opposition-aligned television channel, calling its owner, Guillermo Zuloaga, a fugitive criminal and accusing him of conspiring against his government.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2011 Nov 20, It was reported that South Carolina authorities have charged one person in connection with the mess of roughly 250,000 tires, which covers more than 50 acres on satellite images. Records showed the property is owned by Michael Keitt Jr. of Far Rockaway, NY.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Ted Forstmann, private equity pioneer, died. He and his brother Nick and Brian Little founded Forstmann Little in 1978.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 20, In eastern Afghanistan over 1,000 university students blocked a main highway Jalalabad city to protest any agreement that would allow US troops to remain in the country after a planned transfer of authority in 2014. The Interior Ministry said Afghan and international forces killed 16 insurgents in fighting over the past three days in Nuristan province.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Benin Pope Benedict XVI led tens of thousands of people in a panoply of African tongues during a Mass in the national soccer stadium. He formally delivered to Africa's bishops an 87-page document known as a treatise. It applies church doctrine to address the continent's ills, especially the wars and conflicts caused by ethnic divisions and has been called a "papal road map" for Africa.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Eighteen Church of England bishops have signed an open letter published on Sunday criticizing planned welfare reforms, in a rare intervention by the religious establishment in politics. The bishops said that plans to cap the amount any household can claim in benefits at £500 ($790, 580 euros) a week risked pushing vulnerable children into poverty.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Egyptian riot police clashed for a second day in downtown Cairo with some five thousand rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government. Egypt's culture minister resigned in protest at the government response to demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
(AP, 11/20/11)(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, In India a fire blazed through a makeshift tent in east Delhi where eunuchs, a community of castrated men, transvestites and transsexuals, had gathered to honor deceased friends. 15 people were killed.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Iranian media reported that authorities have imposed a two-month ban on a reformist newspaper, Etemad, for printing what the country's press watchdog said was "lies and insults" to officials.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Israel officials and the "All for Peace" radio station operators said the government has ordered the shutdown of a dovish Israeli-Palestinian radio station. A shutdown order was issued last week. The West Bank station, which has been operating since 2004, said it would go to court in Israel to try to get back on the air.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Libya’s the information minister said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Moammar Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, will be tried in Libya and not handed over to the International Criminal Court even though the country's new rulers have yet to set up a justice system.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Mexico Durango state prosecutors said troops found the remains of seven people in the town of San Juan del Rio, about 60 miles (100 km) north of the state capital, the city of Durango.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Myanmar ended 2 days of peace talks with 5 ethnic armies on the Thai-Burma border. More meetings were scheduled in upcoming months.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 20, In Pakistani gunmen in Baluchistan province torched three trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Manila for a three-day state visit at the invitation of Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Sudan rebel chief George Athor vowed to continue battling the government in Juba and demanded new elections to end his bloody war.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Spain held a national election. It was expected to become the third eurozone country in as many weeks to throw out its governing party in an attempt to dig itself out of an economic crisis. Opposition leader Mariano Rajoy (56) and his conservative Popular Party were expected to win control of Parliament in a landslide. The Popular Party won 186 seats in the 350-seats lower chamber of Parliament, compared with 154 in the last legislature. The Socialists plummeted from 169 seats to 110, their worst performance ever.
(AP, 11/20/11)(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Reports said a Sri Lankan government probe into the civil war against Tamil rebels has called for further investigations of alleged war crimes committed in the final stages of fighting in 2009. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which has been widely criticized as biased by international rights groups, concluded that some evidence warranted a new inquiry.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Swaziland's king Mswati III's 12th wife, who was last year caught in bed with the justice minister, said she has been kicked out of the palace after pepper-spraying a security guard, who refused her effort to leave the palace to take her child to hospital. LaDube (23) is the third of Mswati's 13 wives to leave the palace since 2004.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, The Arab League said it has rejected amendments proposed by Syria to a peace plan to end the crisis in the country, saying the changes put forward by Damascus alter the "essence" of the plan. Syria's foreign minister attacked the Arab League for suspending Damascus and accused the organization of being used as a "tool" by the West.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Turkish President Abdullah Gul in published comments said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more pressure on the embattled Syrian regime.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2012 Nov 20, The US and Mexico agreed to new rules on sharing water from the Colorado River.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 20, The SEC accused a Mathew Martoma, a former trader for a subsidiary of hedgefund SAC Capital, of insider trading that illicitly netted some $276 million. SAC Capital was founded in 1992 by Steven Cohen and his fortune was currently estimated at $9.5 billion.
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.80)(http://tinyurl.com/ahfjwu2)
2012 Nov 20, San Francisco lawmakers disappointed committed nudists by voting 6-5 t0 approve a ban on public nakedness despite concerns the measure would undermine the city's reputation as a sanctuary for free expression. Exemptions would be made for participants at permitted street fairs and parades.
(AP, 11/20/12)(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A1)
2012 Nov 20, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to allow the construction of hundreds of 220-square-foot residential units, which would allow up to 2 people to live in the micro-apartments.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.C1)
2012 Nov 20, In western Afghanistan a bombing in Farah province killed, Noor Mohammad Jahani, a former Taliban commander who had left the insurgency two years ago and joined the Afghan police force.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, In Afghanistan 8 prisoners were hanged. Pres. Karzai had signed off on the execution of 16 prisoners. The remaining 8 were executed the next day.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 20, A UN report said Afghan efforts to stamp out opium poppy cultivation are failing because of high prices for the illicit crop, pushing farmers to grow 18 percent more in 2012 than last year.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez faced a nationwide strike, led by union bosses who once were her most steadfast supporters.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Britain announced that it has formally recognized the newly formed Syrian opposition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli (32) was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail for the biggest fraud in British history, which resulted in a loss of $2.3 billion for the Swiss bank. Adoboli was released on parole in 2015 after serving about half his sentence.
(Reuters, 11/20/12)(AP, 6/24/15)
2012 Nov 20, Amnesty International workers in London walked off the job for the second strike in as many months. Tensions had been rising dramatically in recent weeks as Amnesty's international operations prepare to re-organize transferring some of its 500 jobs from a centralized London base to 10 regional hubs around the world.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, The Church of England’s governing General Synod failed to get a required two-thirds majority to allow women to serve as bishops.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 20, In Cambodia President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that two Tibetan herdsmen had killed themselves by setting themselves on fire in two separate incidents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 20, A 5-year-old sex tape of an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep with a city official exploded on the Chinese Internet when screenshots of it were uploaded by a Beijing-based former journalist Zhu Ruifeng to his Hong Kong-registered website, an independent online clearing house for corruption allegations.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 20, In eastern CongoDRC M23, a rebel group created just seven months ago, seized the strategic provincial capital of Goma, home to more than 1 million people, and its international airport.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, A Croatian court found former PM Ivo Sanader (2004-2009) guilty on corruption charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Judges found him guilty of accepting a $13 million bribe from Hungarian oil company MOL in return for securing rights in Croatia’s state oil company.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 20, In Egypt youth activist Gaber Salah was shot in the neck in Cairo in clashes that started a day earlier, the first anniversary of the deadly confrontation between police and demonstrators known as "Mohammed Mahmoud."
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 20, France ended its combat operations in Afghanistan, pulling hundreds of troops from a base in a volatile region northeast of Kabul and fulfilling promises to end its combat role on a faster track than other NATO allies.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Greek police said a man (35) has been arrested on suspicion of having stolen 9 million personal data files in what is believed to be the biggest breach of private information the country has ever seen.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, a leading Kurdish figure, met the head of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani. The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Israeli aircraft battered the headquarters of the bank Hamas set up to sidestep international sanctions on its rule. A Palestinian rocket struck the outskirts of Jerusalem. Diplomats from across the world raced across the region to negotiate a cease-fire to end relentless Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket attacks. An Israeli airstrike killed two Al-Aqsa TV journalists in their car. Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel at a large Gaza City intersection.
(AP, 11/20/12)(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 20, In northern Kenya 13 people were shot and one woman died as hundreds of shops burned to the ground amid rising Somali-Kenyan tensions.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, In northern Mali Islamist extremist rebels pushed secular Tuareg fighters from their last base in Menaka. More than 100 fighters were reported killed.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, A Nigerian official says the government owes its state-run oil firm more than $8.1 billion in gasoline subsidy payments.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, In Puerto Rico boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho (50) was struck in the jaw in a drive-by shooting. His friend Adrian Mojica Moreno was killed. Doctors at the Rio Piedras Medical Center in San Juan declared Camacho brain dead on Nov 22.
(Reuters, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 20, Police in South Africa arrested three men, including a game ranger, they suspect shot 7 rhinoceros to death and dehorned them. South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs said 570 rhinos had been hunted illegally and killed this year alone.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, A woman (37) in Sweden was charged "with violating the peace of the deceased" after investigators found some 100 skeleton parts in her apartment. Police also found a CD titled "My Necrophilia" as well as photographs in which a woman is seen kissing and hugging the skulls.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2013 Nov 20, Pres. Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 recipients including Gloria Steinem.
(http://tinyurl.com/j5ml52r)(Econ, 11/21/15, p.77)
2013 Nov 20, Members of Congress took part in a ceremony bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal to honor 33 tribes tribes for their WWI and WWII contributions as code talkers. Today’s ceremony was for tribes not included in the initial 2008 Gold Medal awards.
(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A5)
2013 Nov 20, Serafin Zambada (23), the son of one of the world's most-wanted drug lords, was arrested at an Arizona border crossing to face drug-trafficking charges in the United States.
(AP, 11/22/13)
2013 Nov 20, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation allowing same-sex marriages starting June 1, 2014.
(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A5)(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.A11)
2013 Nov 20, In New Jersey Jose Katz (69) was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison for fraudulently diagnosing patients with heart ailments and ordering tests. The fraud cost Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers some $19 million.
(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A5)
2013 Nov 20, In Missouri Joseph Paul Franklin (b.1950), a white supremacist who targeted blacks and Jews, was executed. He had admitted to shooting and wounding civil rights leader Vernon Jordan (1980) and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt (1978).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Paul_Franklin)(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A10)
2013 Nov 20, Animal rights group PETA urged shoppers to boycott products made from angora rabbit fur, after it released footage of fur being plucked from the skins of live rabbits on Chinese farms.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Senior Afghan officials arrived in Pakistan to initiate peace talks with the Afghan Taliban following a breakthrough in negotiations during last month's summit in Britain. A powerful explosion killed 3 people at a restaurant in the southern city of Kandahar. A Taliban ambush took place in Helmand province killing Marjah police chief, Hajji Tooryalai Jan. A suicide car bombing has killed two paramilitary soldiers in near the Afghan border in the Shawa area of North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, The Church of England's ruling body voted overwhelmingly for proposals that could see the ordination of women bishops next year.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, About 4,000 Bulgarian workers rallied against low wages and a lack of jobs, in a possible sign that opposition to the Socialist-led cabinet may be spreading beyond daily protests staged mostly by students.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, China confirmed the deployment of a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world's biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, In Egypt a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into one of two buses carrying off-duty soldiers in northern Sinai, killing 11 and wounding 37. A bomb attack on a checkpoint in Cairo wounded four policemen including a major.
(AP, 11/20/13)(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, European Union lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to meet only in Brussels and avoid costly monthly treks to Strasbourg, France. The proposal must be approved by the 28 EU governments and France is certain to nix any change under the current conditions.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, The European Commission said Austria should pay a daily fine of more than 40,000 euros ($54,000) for breaking EU policy on renewable energy.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, In France Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai was handed the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize in recognition of her crusade for the right of all children, girls and boys, to an education.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Nuclear talks resumed between Iran and world powers. Iran's supreme leader voiced support for the negotiations over his country's nuclear program, but insisted there are limits to the concessions Iran will make in exchange for an easing of the sanctions choking its economy.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, A rights group said Iran is forcefully deporting Afghans by the thousands in violation of its international obligation to protect refugees.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Iraqi officials said flooding in central and southern Iraq has killed at least 11 people as rising waters swamped city streets and toppled buildings, sparking anger over the dilapidated sewage system. A wave of attacks hit commercial areas in Baghdad, killing 37 people and wounding over 80 in mostly Shiite areas.
(AFP, 11/20/13)(AP, 11/20/13)(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 20, In Jordan Raed Hijazi, also known as Abu Ahmad, was arrested. He had been convicted of plotting al-Qaida terror attacks during New Year 2000 celebrations. Initially, he was sentenced to death in absentia. He was later captured and extradited from Syria and sentenced to 20 years, but was set free two years ago by Jordan's king to give him what was described as another chance to repent.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Nov 20, In Kuwait Arab and African leaders wound up their first summit since the region's uprisings in 2011 by calling for closer economic and security cooperation.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, A Madagascar government statement showed changes to 10 of the Indian Ocean island's 22 regions. Three generals and five colonels assumed control of eight regions while two civilians headed the remaining two. This raised concern that the run-off vote in December will be rigged.
(Reuters, 11/22/13)
2013 Nov 20, Mexico’s El Heraldo reported that the National Human Rights Commission has found that visits to the country’s 101 most populous prisons indicated that 65 are run by inmates.
(SSFC, 11/24/13, p.A8)
2013 Nov 20, Mozambique held local elections. Preliminary results from the largely peaceful elections pointed to a comprehensive victory for the ruling Frelimo party and a potential shake-up among the country's opposition parties.
(AFP, 11/21/13)
2013 Nov 20, The International Criminal Court's vexed relationship with Africa took center stage on the opening day of the annual summit of its 122 member states at The Hague.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Poland’s PM Donald Tusk reshuffled his Cabinet. Jacek Rostowski, the man who has led the country’s economy since 2007, was among those sacked.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.56)
2013 Nov 20, At UN talks in Poland the governments of Norway, Britain and the United States said they will allocate $280 million of their multi-billion dollar climate change finances to a new initiative aimed at halting deforestation.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, In Russia six more Greenpeace activists arrested by Russian coast guards during a protest against Arctic oil drilling were granted bail on Wednesday, including the US captain of their ship. Eighteen of the 30 people detained on September 18 have now been granted bail this week.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Saudi health authorities announced a new MERS death, raising to 54 the number of people killed by the coronavirus.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, A Senegal judge said there is insufficient evidence to convict four women accused of violating the country's law banning homosexual acts. The four women were freed. A fifth woman arrested in the same raid on Nov 11 is a minor and will be tried separately.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Suicide bombers targeted Syrian troops and a hospital in the rugged Qalamoun hills north of Damascus killing at least 7 soldiers, as rebels struggled to reverse government gains that threatened to cut one of their chief supply lines.
(AP, 11/20/13)(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Tunisia signed a $500 million loan agreement with energy-rich Qatar to help bolster its currency reserves.
(AFP, 11/23/13)
2014 Nov 20, President Barack Obama issued executive orders granting new rights to millions of people living illegally in the United States.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, Regents of the Univ. of California approved a plan to raise tuition by up to 28% over five years despited protests by furious students.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A1)
2014 Nov 20, California state officials said AT&T Inc will pay $52 million in civil penalties and environmental compliance as part of a settlement over illegal dumping of hazardous waste but won't be required to clean up the resulting contamination.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, The California Public Utilities Commission voted to levy a $1.05 million fine against PG&E for lobbying the regulatory agency in back-channel communications related to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion. The PUC also authorized a broad probe into PG&E’s gas distribution system and fined the company $10.8 million stemming from an explosion in March that destroyed a Carmel cottage.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.D1, D2)
2014 Nov 20, Florida police shot and killed Myron May (31), a Florida State Univ. alumnus, after May shot three people outside the campus library in Tallahassee. Journal notes indicated that May believed the government was targeting him for persecution.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A9)
2014 Nov 20, In Louisiana 3 children and 2 adults were killed when a boy (16) driving relatives from Texas to Disney World fell asleep causing the SUV to veer off the road and roll over. He and two passengers suffered minor injuries.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A6)
2014 Nov 20, In NYC rookie police officer Peter Liang (26) shot and killed Akai Gurley (28) in a darkened stairwell in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood. Police called the shooting an unfortunate accident. Liang was indicted on Feb 10, 2015, and convicted on Feb 11, 2016. On April 19, 2016, a judge reduced Liang’s manslaughter conviction to a lesser charge and spared prison time.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A5)(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A6)(AP, 2/20/16)(SFC, 4/20/16, p.A6)
2014 Nov 20, In western New York snow-bound residents awoke to as much as another foot of accumulation with possibly another 30 inches expected. A freakish storm swept off the Great Lakes on Nov 18 and after 3 days deposited 7 feet of snow and more and left at least 12 people dead.
(Reuters, 11/20/14)(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A5)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern Brazil 8 people were killed following a head-on car crash that also left three others seriously injured near Esplanada.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, British regulators fined Royal Bank of Scotland PLC 56 million pounds ($87 million) for computer problems that made it impossible for customers to get access to their accounts.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Britain's first bus powered entirely by human and food waste took to the road in Bristol. The Wessex Water subsidiary GENeco's Bristol sewage treatment plant became the first in the UK to start providing gas generated from food waste and sewage to the national gas grid network.
(AFP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, China’s state media reported that police have arrested 39 people as they broke up a telephone scam ring in Guangdong province that tricked Malaysians into wiring them money.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern China 6 nurses and a janitor were killed in a knife attack at the Beidaihe Sanatorium, a military hospital and resort in the seaside town of Beidaihe. A 27-year-old employee was detained.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In CongoDRC between 50 and 80 people were killed in an attack near Beni, North Kivu province.
(AP, 11/22/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Dominica Msgr. Reginald LaFleur (60), a popular priest known as "Father Reggie" by parishioners in Grand Bay, was defrocked at the direction of the Congregation of the Faith in Rome. He was accused of sexually abusing a girl in 1994.
(AP, 11/22/14)
2014 Nov 20, An Egyptian court acquitted Dr. Raslan Fadl charged with committing female genital mutilation that led to a 13-year-old girl's death in a Nile Delta village. This was the country's first trial on charges of breaking the 2008 ban on the practice.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Egypt arrested Mohammed Ali Bishr, a leading Muslim Brotherhood member linked to a call for demonstrations at the end of the month. He had played a key role in negotiations between his now-banned group and the government.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, France formally opened a terrorism investigation into three French recruits of the Islamic State group calling for attacks back home in a propaganda video.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Donor nations meeting at a conference in Germany pledged a total $9.3 billion to the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF to help developing countries tackle climate change, but environmental campaigners said the funds fell short of what is needed.
(Reuters, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pardoned Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan after six years in prison for spreading propaganda, insulting Islam and cooperating with hostile countries. He was imprisoned in 2008 in Tehran on suspicion of spying for Israel and sentenced in 2010 to 19-1/2 years in prison.
(Reuters, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi said that Iraq and Turkey have agred on closer security and intelligence cooperation in the face of threats posed by the Islamic State group.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A4)
2014 Nov 20, Israeli police handed home demolition notices to families of four Palestinian attackers from east Jerusalem, including two assailants who killed five people in a synagogue attack earlier this week.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Kashmir Indian forces reportedly fired across the border into the Pakistan-administered portion of the disputed Himalayan region, killing a soldier.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northern Mali the bodies of two Tuareg separatist militants were found near the village of Takabort, around 40 km outside Kidal.
(Reuters, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Mexico a largely peaceful march by tens of thousands demanding the return of 43 missing students ended in violence, as a small group of masked protesters battled police in Mexico City's main square.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, In western Nepal a bus plunged into the Bheri river, killing at least 47 people.
(AP, 11/20/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 20, Dutch authorities said a case of bird flu has been confirmed at a chicken farm, the second infection identified in the country this week.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark suspended legislative proceedings after police fired tear gas to prevent the House of Representatives from convening. The speaker of the House recently changed allegiance from the president's party to the main opposition party. Police then withdrew his security clearance, triggering today’s standoff.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northwestern Pakistan a US drone strike killed six suspected militants in North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, A Philippine court convicted nine people for graft over a 1996 nightclub fire that killed 162 people.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, The Serbian government secured an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $1.2 billion standby loan. The three-year deal was reached after Serbia agreed to narrow the budget deficit from 8 percent to 4.2 percent of economic output by 2016 by cutting public wages and pensions and reducing subsidies to unprofitable state companies.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, A South Korean court sentenced Kim Han-sik (71), president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, to 10 years in prison over the April 16 sinking of the Sewol ferry that killed more than 300 people, mostly high school students. On May 12 an appeals court reduced the sentence to seven years.
(AP, 11/20/14)(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A5)(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A3)
2014 Nov 20, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa called an early election to seek a third term in office amid growing criticism of his wide-ranging powers.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, A Swedish appeals court upheld the detention order on Julian Assange, dismissing a challenge by the WikiLeaks founder who is wanted by prosecutors in an investigation of alleged sex crimes. Assange has avoided being extradited to Sweden by taking shelter in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Yemen's culture minister, Arwa Othman, who was recently honored for her work combatting extremism and discrimination against women, said she is giving her award to Yemen's dwindling Jewish population. Fewer than 90 Jews live in Yemen, half of them in a guarded compound which protects the US Embassy in the capital of Sanaa.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Zimbabwe 11 people were killed and dozens injured in a stampede at a stadium in Kwekwe, as thousands of people at an evening church service tried to leave through the same exit.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2015 Nov 20, Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard was released from prison, culminating an extraordinary espionage case that complicated American-Israeli relations for 30 years and became a periodic bargaining chip between two allies.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In California regulations banning the commercial and recreational trapping of bobcat went into effect.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 20, Officials said that an outbreak of E. coli linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill in Washington and Oregon has now spread to six states including California, New York, Minnesota and Ohio.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Nov 20, British police issued an "unreserved apology" to seven women deceived into sexual relationships with officers on undercover assignments.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Cambodian officials said about 370 workers fainted at factories in the past two days, possibly because of pesticide spraying on nearby rice fields.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Police in China said they have cracked the country's biggest-ever underground banking network, which handled illegal foreign exchange transactions worth 410 billion yuan ($64 billion).
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Chinese authorities announced that police have killed 28 members of a "terrorist group" in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In China a fire broke out late today at a mine operated by state giant Longmay Mining Holding Group in Heilongjiang province's Jixi city. At least 21 people died at the mine operated by northeast China's biggest state-owned coal company.
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, EU interior and justice ministers in Brussels pledged solidarity with France in the wake of the Paris attacks a week ago and agreed a series of new measures on surveillance, border checks and gun control.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, The Bavarian Interior Ministry said more than 900,000 migrants have been registered in Germany since the beginning of the year.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Haiti one person was shot dead and another was wounded by a machete blow to the head during post-election skirmishes that erupted in Port-au-Prince.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Iraq bomb attacks on a Shiite mosque and elsewhere in southern Baghdad killed at least 15 people as a top religious official urged unity among Iraqis in the fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Italian police arrested six members of Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia as part of an inquiry that uncovered a threat of violence against Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Malaysia deployed extraordinary security measures around Kuala Lumpur as leaders from 18 countries arrived for the East Asian and ASEAN weekend summits.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Mali a least two Islamist gunmen stormed the Raddison Blu luxury hotel in Bamako and took 170 people hostage in the former French colony. 19 people were killed including 6 Russians, 3 Chinese, one Israeli, one American, one Belgian and one Malian soldier. The 2 gunmen were killed. The al-Mourabitoun Islamic extremist group took credit for the attack. On Nov 26 two Malians were arrested for complicity in the attack.
(AFP, 11/20/15)(Reuters 11/21/15)(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/16, p.A2)
2015 Nov 20, In Pakistan gunmen on motorcycles opened fire in Karachi, killing 4 members of the security forces who were deployed outside a mosque.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Portugal's Parliament approved laws allowing same-sex couples to legally adopt children and permitting lesbians to obtain medically assisted fertilization.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Russian and Syrian warplanes carried out more than 70 strikes in eastern Deir Ezzor province, killing at least 36 people including 10 children. Dozens of oil tankers were destroyed. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that more than 600 rebels had been eliminated as a result of a cruise missile strike a target in Syrian Deir ez-Zour province.
(AFP, 11/20/15)(Reuters, 11/20/15)(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, A Singapore court sentenced Kong Hee, the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church, to eight years in jail for misappropriating more than $35 million in donations to support his wife's singing career. Other sentences for five church leaders ranged from 21 months to six years.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 1,300 people, around two-thirds of them combatants, have been killed in Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow's aerial campaign began on September 30.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish media reported that authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war. It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fueling Syria's civil war since its production provides income for the warring factions and also keeps fighters awake and energized over long periods.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army warplanes carried out a new wave of air strikes on northern Iraq hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a French-sponsored resolution calling on all nations to redouble and coordinate action to prevent further attacks by Islamic State terrorists and other extremist groups.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.S2)
2015 Nov 20, A new study was released that estimated poverty in Venezuela has hit an all-time high of some 73 percent of households. It was prepared by researchers at three Venezuelan universities on the basis of surveys with 6,000 people.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, The World Trade Organization ruled in favor of Mexico in a trade dispute with the US, saying Washington's requirement for "dolphin-safe" tuna labels is unfair to Mexican fishermen.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Yemen Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the army in the eastern region of Hadramawt that a security source said killed at least 19 soldiers and 35 militants.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2016 Nov 20, In Missouri an ambush-style attack left a sergeant in St. Louis critically injured. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 20, In North Dakota months-long protests over an oil pipeline came to a head in sub-freezing temperatures this evening, as hundreds of protesters tried to push past a police barricade on Backwater Bridge. They were met with what appeared to be tear gas, water cannon spray, and rubber bullets.
(CSM, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 20, In San Antonio an ambush-style attack left Detective Benjamin Marconi dead. Otis Tyrone McKane, the attacker in Texas, was arrested the next day. In 2021 McKane (36) was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)(AP, 8/7/21)
2016 Nov 20, Acclaimed Irish novelist William Trevor (b.1928) died at his adopted English home. Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times for “The Children of Dynmouth" (in 1978), “Fools of Fortune (in 1983), and “Felicia’s Journey" (in 1994). He was widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trevor)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.C4)
2016 Nov 20, Egypt’s state news reported that 292 suspects linked to the Islamic State group have been referred to a military tribunal over attacks and an alleged plot to assassinate Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 20, Estonia's Pres. Kersti Kaljulaid nominated Juri Ratas, the new leader of a center-left, traditionally pro-Russian party, as prime minister who promised to leave foreign policy unchanged in a region worried about possible Russian aggression. Ratas (38) headed a 3-way coalition consisting of his own Center Party, the left-leaning Social Democrats and the Conservative IRL party.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)(SFC, 11/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 20, French conservatives voted in a nationwide primary for the first time to choose their nominee for next year's presidential election, after a campaign marked by concerns about immigration and Islamic extremism. The three leading candidates included Nicolas Sarkozy (61) and former prime ministers Francois Fillon (62) and Alain Juppe (72). Francois Fillon won 44 percent of the votes.
(AP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 20, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (62) told her party she will seek re-election next year, a move likely to be welcomed in many capitals as a sign of stability following poll triumphs for Brexit and Donald Trump.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, The German news agency dpa reported that some 8,800 geese on two poultry farms will be culled in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein because some of the animals are infected with the bird flu. Last week 30,000 chickens were destroyed in Schleswig-Holstein after H5N8 was detected in their enclosure.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Haitians voted in a long-delayed presidential election, hoping a new government will lift the economy after a devastating hurricane and more than a year of political instability. Jovenel Moise won with 56% of the vote in a field of 27 candidates. The turnout was only 21%.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A3)(Econ 6/10/17, p.35)
2016 Nov 20, In northern India at least 146 people were killed close to 200 injured when an express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh state. The death toll soon climbed to 148 after two more people died from their injuries.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 20, Iraqi troops fortified their positions in Mosul neighborhoods retaken from the Islamic State group as their advance toward the city center was slowed by sniper fire and suicide bombings, as well as concern over the safety of civilians.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Iraq millions of Shiite Muslim pilgrims beating their chests in mourning thronged Karbala under the protection of thousands of members of the security forces. The commemoration of Imam Hussein's death in 680 AD culminates on Nov 21.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Israel dozens of LGBT activists protested in Jerusalem against comments reportedly made by the city's chief rabbi disparaging the gay community. Rabbi Shlomo Amar told an Israeli newspaper last week that gay people were an "abomination" and homosexuality a "cult."
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Mali held its first elections since 2013, with turnout low as security jitters remained high despite an international military intervention. Malians burned ballot boxes and one candidate was kidnapped during the local elections. Polls were canceled in at least seven districts for security reasons.
(AFP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Heavy rains and strong winds hit the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia destroying homes. At least three people were killed, including two children.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 20, Norwegian police said they were investigating a pedophile network suspected to involve at least 51 people, which includes the abuse of infants and at least one case of a suspect acknowledging abusing his own children.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Peru President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to each other start of the opening session of APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima. Obama held separate meetings with the leaders of Australia and Canada as he wrapped up the final foreign trip of his presidency.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, The Syrian government refused a UN proposal to grant the rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo autonomy in order to restore calm to the war-torn city. Fresh fighting in Aleppo killed at least eight schoolchildren. A barrel bomb killed a family of six in the rebel-held area.
(AP, 11/20/16)(AFP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Pope Francis brought to a close the Catholic Church's "Year of Mercy," shutting the Holy Door at Saint Peter's after a year in which he raised Mother Teresa to sainthood and took in Syrian Muslim refugees.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Yemen's dominant Houthi movement launched Katyusha rockets into Saudi Arabia and residents reported Saudi-led air strikes in a Yemeni border province in exchanges that threatened to derail a 48-hour truce.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2017 Nov 20, The Trump administration said it is ending a temporary residency permit program that allowed almost 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the US following a 2010 powerful earthquake. Advocates and members of Congress asked for an 18-month extension of the program, known as Temporary Protected Status.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 20, US Pres. Donald Trump officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A4)
2017 Nov 20, The United States charged former top Hong Kong government official Chi Ping Patrick Ho (68) with links to a Chinese energy conglomerate and former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio (61) with bribing high-level officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for contracts for the mainland company.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 20, US Gen. John Nicholson said there are 13 major drug trafficking organizations in Afghanistan, of which seven are in Helmand. Nicholson said the insurgents generate an estimated $200 million a year from poppy cultivation and opium production.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, US District Judge William Orrick II of San Francisco issued a final ruling saying Pres. Trump acted unconstitutionally when he threatened to strip billions of dollars in federal funding from sanctuary cities and counties.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A1)
2017 Nov 20, In Delaware Terminix was sentenced more than $9 million in criminal fines after admitting to using a pesticide called methyl bromide at 14 locations, including the St. John resort in the US Virgin Islands where the Esmond family of Delaware was vacationing in 2015. Three of the family members sustained neurological damage.
(AP, 11/22/17)
2017 Nov 20, US financier George Soros (86) denounced a Hungarian government campaign against him as "distortions and lies" designed to create a false external enemy.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Nebraska regulators approved a Keystone XL oil pipeline route through the state, but chose an alternate pathway to the one preferred by the pipeline operator. More time could be required to study the changes in the delayed $8 billion project.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 20, In NYC Kenneth Branagh won the International Emmy for Best Actor, while Anna Friel won the Best Actress trophy at the 2017 International Emmy Awards gala.
(AP, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 20, In New York state two explosions at the Verla Int’l. cosmetics factory left one person dead and 35 injured in New Windsor.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A8)
2017 Nov 20, In Oklahoma Tulsa police officer Shannon Kepler (54) was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2014 slaying of Jeremey Lake (19), his daughter’s black boyfriend.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 20, It was reported that Albania's PM Edi Rama has sent a letter asking European Union countries for support in cracking down on criminal gangs that profit from drug sales, prostitution, human trafficking and other illicit activities.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Belarus's KGB state security service said it had uncovered a spy ring working for the Ukrainian defence ministry that had been set up by a detained Ukrainian radio correspondent. Minsk-based journalist Pavlo Sharoyko was arrested in October and charged with being an undercover intelligence officer. The Ukrainian defence ministry denied the allegations against Sharoyko who it said had worked as a spokesman for the ministry before switching to journalism in 2009.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, China's foreign ministry said Myanmar and Bangladesh have endorsed its three-stage solution for a negotiated resolution of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, A high-level Chinese envoy wrapped up a four-day trip to North Korea after meeting with top officials and discussing the tense state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula and other issues.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, French police arrested Suleiman Kerimov (51), a Russian businessman and lawmaker, at Nice airport in connection with a French tax evasion case. Kerimov built his multi-billion natural resources business through a combination of debt, an appetite for risk, and political connections.
(Reuters, 11/22/17)
2017 Nov 20, Iran called on Saudi Arabia to stop its "barbaric attacks" on Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Tehran-backed rebels since March 2015. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi also called on Saudi Arabia to drop its boycott of the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar, which has warm ties with Iran.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Iraq's Supreme Federal Court ruled that the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum was unconstitutional and the results void. Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government called on the international community to intervene and help lift sanctions imposed by the central government in Baghdad in retaliation for a September referendum on Kurdish independence.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Kenya's Supreme Court upheld the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in last month's repeat presidential vote, paving the way for him to be sworn in next week.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Medical staff in the southern Libyan city of Sabha said they were suspending work for 10 days in protest over poor security after a doctor was kidnapped.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, North Korea’s foreign minister arrived in Cuba, in search of support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, A Pakistani court granted the government three more days to find a way to clear an Islamist rally near Islamabad.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Romania's defense minister says the country will purchase Patriot missiles worth $3.9 billion from the United States in the first half of 2019.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for three hours of talks to lay the groundwork for a new push by Moscow to end Syria's conflict now that Islamic State's territorial caliphate is overrun.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 20, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea has punished two of its top military officers, including one widely seen as its second-most powerful official, during a highly unusual inspection of the military's powerful political bureau.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 107 teachers for suspected ties to the US-based cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating last year's coup.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkey said Syrian Kurdish fighters have attacked a Turkish observation post in the northern Syrian province of Idlib with mortar rounds. There were no casualties.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, In Ukraine Mikhail Saakashvili, former Georgian President, raised the pressure on Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, saying the country needs a new Cabinet and he's ready to lead it.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, A UN human rights panel said on North Korean women are deprived of education and job opportunities and are often subjected to violence at home and sexual assault in the workplace.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Zimbabwe’s Pres. Robert Mugabe ignored a midday deadline by the party's Central Committee to resign. Several hundred Zimbabwean students added their voices for Pres. Mugabe to quit. Classes at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare were cancelled and examinations postponed as students raged over Mugabe's insistence on staying in office.
(AP, 11/20/17)(AFP, 11/20/17)
2018 Nov 20, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer issued a report accusing China of stepping up hacking aimed at stealing American technology.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Massachusetts's first two legal pot shops opened in Leicester and Northampton.
(SFC, 11/21/18, p.A6)
2018 Nov 20, US federal judge Carlton Reeves struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8nj2eqv)(SFC, 11/22/18, p.A8)
2018 Nov 20, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a gathering of hundreds of Muslim religious scholars in Kabul, killing at least 55 people as Muslims around the world marked the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. The Taliban denied involvement in the suicide bombing. 94 others were wounded in the attack.
(AP, 11/20/18)(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Award-winning Bangladeshi photographer and activist Shahidul Alam (63) was released from prison after more than 100 days behind bars. He was arrested on August 5 for making "false" and "provocative" statements on Al Jazeera television and Facebook during student protests.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, A Brussels police officer was wounded and a terrorism inquiry has been launched after pre-dawn knife attack. The suspect in the attack was shot by two of the officer's colleagues and was hospitalized in a "critical condition".
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Bosnia inaugurated the country's three-member presidency following last month's election, with nationalist politicians dominating a body designed to heal the country's ethnic divide.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Brazil's incoming justice minister, the former anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, picked Mauricio Valeixo to be director-general of the federal police with a mission to fight graft and organized crime.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Chile Luis Mayol, the top government official in the restive Araucania region, resigned late on today amid mounting political fallout after a controversial police raid last week ended in the shooting of an indigenous Mapuche man. Camilo Catrillanca (24), the grandson of a prominent Mapuche indigenous leader, was shot in the back of the head in Temucuicui. In 2021 officer Carlos Alarcón was sentenced to 11 years in prison over Catrillanca’s death.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)(The Guardian, 1/29/21)
2018 Nov 20, China's Pres. Xi Jinping held talks with President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials on a visit to the Philippines aimed at deepening relations with the American treaty ally. Jinping said negotiations between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations on a nonaggression pact to prevent clashes in the disputed South China Sea could be concluded in three years and promised that any differences will be dealt with peacefully.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The Shanghai Stock Exchange said billionaire Chinese actress Zhao Wei and her husband have been barred from taking on key positions at listed companies for five years for violating securities regulations.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, A Croatian court says a tycoon who founded a deeply indebted food and retail company should be released from jail after he deposited a one-million-euro bail ($1.1 million). Ivica Todoric must hand in his passport to authorities and won't be allowed to leave the capital pending the end of his trial.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Amnesty International said that Egypt has committed "shocking violations" against children, including torture and enforced disappearances.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Union said it will suspend 100 million euros ($114 million) of aid to Moldova over concerns about its democracy and the slow pace of reforms in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of Selahattin Demirtas, the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Fiji's leader Voreqe Bainimarama was sworn in for four more years after winning an election with a reduced majority, after earlier lashing out at his opponents.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In France Rev. Robert Bonan was arrested in the town of Lautenbach on preliminary charges of raping minors. The charges were based on multiple complaints, some dating to the 1980s.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Iran a Revolutionary Court ruled to release Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent human rights lawyer, after eight years in prison.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, The World Health Organizations said that laboratory tests completed after a shocking fish die-off in Iraq's Euphrates River show the water is contaminated with high levels of bacteria, heavy metals, and ammonia.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would join the United States and other countries in rejecting the UN Global Compact for Migration, aimed at boosting cooperation to address the world's growing number of migrants, set to be adopted during a conference in Morocco on December 10-11.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Israel Palestinian teenager Abdul Rahman Abu Jamal (17), who attacked Israeli officers on Nov. 14 at a police station in annexed east Jerusalem before being shot, died of his wounds at the Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Italian prosecutors said they have ordered the seizure of the Aquarius, a migrant rescue ship, and accused the aid group Doctors Without Borders of illegally disposing of 24 metric tons (26.5 tons) of medical and contaminated waste accumulated during nearly 50 rescues.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Rome city officials sent in 600 police officers to evict a purported crime family from eight villas that were allegedly built without authorization decades ago. Mayor Virginia Raggi accused the Casamonicas of replacing public authorities in the area and of "terrorizing" honest Romans.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The MUDEC museum in Milan said it is hosting the first exhibit of street-artist Banksy's works in an Italian public museum, just weeks after the artist grabbed international attention by partially shredding one of his works at a London auction. The exhibition will open to visitors Nov. 21, 2018 through to April 14, 2019.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Iraq launched air strikes on Islamic State targets inside neighboring Syria, destroying two buildings housing 40 fighters and weapons.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Assailants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed Hafizullah Mir, a prominent separatist leader, as anti-India protests and clashes followed a gunbattle that killed four rebels and an army commando in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Kenya gunmen kidnapped Silvia Costanza Romano (23) and shot and wounded four people in Chakama, a small town south of the border with Somalia. Romano was working as a volunteer with an Italian humanitarian group when she was abducted. On Dec. 9 a suspect, identified as Ibrahim Adan Omar, was arrested in Bangali town in Tana county. Abductors eventually passed her into the hands of militants linked to Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamic extremists. On May 10, 2020, she returned home after 18 months as a hostage.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)(AP, 11/22/18)(AP, 12/11/18)(AP, 5/10/20)
2018 Nov 20, Interpol's general assembly, meeting in Dubai, voted against allowing Kosovo to join the international police agency. The bids of Pacific island nations Kiribati and Vanuatu were approved by delegates, but Kosovo did not secure the required two-thirds majority.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Libya eight gunmen attacked a substation of the National Oil Corporation's southwestern Sharara oilfield but no employees were hurt and production was unaffected. The attackers stole three company vehicles and mobile phones.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Former Macedonian premier Nikola Gruevski said that he has been granted asylum by Hungary. He fled to Budapest after being sentenced to jail for abuse of power.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Malaysian police detained two women and two men from Finland at their hotel after police received complaints about their distributing Christian materials at public places. He said police seized 47 pens with Bible verses and 336 notebooks containing texts from the Bible.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, FIFA Ethics Committee judge Sundra Rajoo was arrested on suspicion of corruption in his native Malaysia. He was held overnight, but released after a court accepted his representatives' arguments that he effectively has diplomatic immunity due to his high-profile legal roles. Rajoo resigned the next day from his position with the arbitration service.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, North Korea blew up some of its front-line guard posts as part of an agreement to ease tensions along its heavily fortified border with South Korea.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Papua New Guinea disgruntled police, military and prison guards stormed the Parliament in a violent pay dispute stemming from an international summit hosted by the impoverished South Pacific island nation over the weekend.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The Polish government said that it will not support a global compact to promote safe and orderly migration, citing national sovereignty as it joins countries including Hungary, Austria and the United States in rejecting it.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Russia failed in its bid to stall the global chemical warfare watchdog's controversial new power to apportion blame for attacks like those in Syria. Member states approved the 2019 budget for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which includes funding for the new role.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Amnesty International, citing three separate testimonies, said activists, held since May in Saudi Arabia's Dhahban prison on the western Red Sea coast, have faced repeated electrocution and flogging, leaving some of them unable to stand or walk. Human Rights Watch said in a separate statement that at least three women activists also endured "forcible kissing and hugging".
(AFP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 20, In central Somalia the US military carried out an airstrike targeting al-Shabab that killed seven extremists.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Thai police arrested British brothers Joseph Michael Mulhare and Gregory Michael Mulhare wanted on drug trafficking charges in their homeland.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2019 Nov 20, In his opening statement before the House Intelligence Committee, Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union — who has been widely seen as the impeachment inquiry’s most consequential witness — put President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the center of the effort to pressure the president of Ukraine to carry out Trump’s political agenda.
(Yahoo News, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Joe Biden sought to turn Donald Trump's impeachment to his own advantage at the fifth Democrat presidential debate, declaring it showed he was the candidate the president feared most. Bernie Sanders called the president a "pathological liar." Elizabeth Warren said she had already decided to convict Mr Trump in a Senate trial. Speaking on stage at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, California Senator Kamala Harris went after Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard on foreign policy. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker took on former Vice President Joe Biden over marijuana. And Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar characterized South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as inexperienced.
(The Telegraph, 11/21/19)(Bloomberg, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, The US Justice Department said The Assistance Fund, a Florida-based charity, will pay $4 million to resolve claims that it acted as a conduit for companies including Biogen Inc and Novartis AG to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients using their high-priced multiple sclerosis drugs.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, The US House Judiciary Committee took the first step to legalizing marijuana in the US advancing a bill to remove pot from the Controlled Substances Act and create a 5% tax to fund programs to heal damage to people hurt by the war on drugs.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A4)
2019 Nov 20, In Arizona former Border Patrol agent Matthew Bowen (39), who hit a fleeing Guatemalan migrant with his truck in 2017, was sentenced to three years of probation. Bowen, more than two weeks before the encounter, had referred to immigrants in a text message as “subhuman" and “mindless murdering savages".
(NY Times, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, Michael J. Pollard (80), Hollywood character actor, died in Los Angeles. His more than 200 films and television show included his role as the gas station attendant turned criminal accomplice in "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967).
(SSFC, 11/24/19, p.B10)
2019 Nov 20, A Louisiana man who took the stand in his own defense was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a Shreveport police officer. Grover Cannon (31) said several people lied about his involvement in the shooting. He says he believes another officer’s bullets killed Officer Thomas LaValley (29) on Aug. 5, 2015.
(AP, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, Former Louisiana State University student Matthew Naquin (21) was sentenced to five years in prison in the 2017 hazing death of fraternity pledge Max Gruver.
(ABC News, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, In New Jersey Michael Tennant (10), who was shot at a high school game between Pleasantville and Camden on Nov. 15, died. Charges against the suspected gunman were upgraded to murder.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A4)
2019 Nov 20, A North Carolina county removed a Confederate statue from the historic outside the historic Chatham County courthouse early today, joining the handful of places around the state where such monuments have come down in recent years despite a law protecting them.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Gary Jones resigned as president of the United Auto Workers after the union moved to oust him and another official under the cloud of a broadening federal corruption investigation.
(The Week, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, In Afghanistan two US servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 20, It was reported that major hotels in Britain are failing to protect workers from debt bondage and sexual exploitation, according to a study that found 75% of hospitality businesses were flouting 2015 anti-slavery legislation.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Ethiopia's Sidama people voted overwhelmingly to form their own self-governing region as many of the country's ethnic groups demand greater autonomy under sweeping reforms led by PM Abiy Ahmed. The Sidama represent about 4% of Ethiopia's 105 million population.
(Reuters, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 20, Greece announced plans to overhaul its migration management system, replacing overcrowded refugee camps on the islands with smaller detention facilities and moving some 20,000 asylum seekers to the mainland over the next few weeks.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that street unrest had been put down in a victory over foreign enemies, after a wave of violent demonstrations swept the country following a hike in fuel prices last week. Amnesty International said it had documented at least 106 deaths of protesters killed by security forces.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Activists said six conservationists working to save the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah have been sentenced to prison on internationally criticized espionage charges in Iran.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Iraqi security officials say at least 27 protesters have been wounded in renewed clashes overnight in central Baghdad.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Israeli officials announced that dozens of world leaders will arrive in Jerusalem for the largest-ever gathering focused on combatting anti-Semitism amid a global spike in violence against Jews.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Israel struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria in a “wide-scale" operation in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before. The airstrikes killed at least 23 people, including 15 non-Syrians, some of them Iranians. The airstrikes targeted several areas in the capital Damascus and its suburbs.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Malta police arrested one of the country's most prominent businessmen as part of an investigation into the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Yorgen Fenech was detained by armed forces as he tried to leave the Mediterranean island before dawn aboard his luxury yacht.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen confirmed the return of the impounded ships.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, In Somalia Almaas Elman, a Somali Canadian peace activist, was killed after she was hit by a stray bullet while traveling in a car inside a heavily defended base near the international airport where many diplomats and aid workers have offices.
(AP, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, In Syria more than 15 civilians, including six children, seeking shelter in a refugee camp in the town of Qah, Idlib province, were killed after it was hit by ballistic missiles fired by pro-government forces.
(The Telegraph, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy unveiled a rebuilt bridge that was blown up in Stanytsia Luhanska in 2015, among several confidence-building measures before a summit next month meant to end a conflict with Russian-backed separatist forces.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Pope Francis arrived in Thailand as part of a two-country tour to boost the morale of Thailand's and Japan's minority Catholic communities.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, President-elect Joe Biden turned 78. He will enter office as the oldest president in the nation’s history.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The US Justice Department announced that Jonathan Pollard, the former US Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, had completed his parole, freeing him to move to Israel. He was arrested in 1985 after trying unsuccessfully to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and pleaded guilty.
(AP, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, A US federal judge ruled against Michael Pack, the head of the agency that runs the Voice of America and other US-funded news outlets. He was accused of trying to turn it into a propaganda vehicle to promote President Donald Trump’s agenda.
(AP, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo wrapped up a trip to Israel. He announced a new policy allowing settlement products to be labeled "made in Israel" and a new initiative to combat the Palestinian-led international boycott movement.
(SFC, 11/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, California authorities said they have dismantled the senior leadership of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood as part of a statewide takedown of the notorious prison gang and its associates in the Fresnecks street gang in Fresno County. Half of the suspects were arrested a day earlier in California and others remained at large.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, California to date had 1,085,719 cases of coronavirus and 18,586 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 137,529 cases and 1,919 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 11,895,876 with the death toll at 254,297.
(sfist.com, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, In south Florida a divided federal appeals court (2-1) struck down laws that prohibited therapists from offering so-called conversion therapy to children struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) certified the state's presidential election results after a hand recount was completed. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) did the same, meaning Georgia's 16 electoral votes will go to President-elect Joe Biden.
(The Week, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, Michigan's Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) and House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R), the two state GOP lawmakers who met with President Trump at the White House, issued a joint statement following the encounter that they "have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan" and, therefore, they will "follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors".
(The Week, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, A federal appeals court ruled that Tennessee can begin outlawing abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well as prohibit the procedure if it's based on the race or gender of the fetus.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two men and wounding a third at a demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was released on a $2 million bond.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Asia Pacific leaders put aside differences over trade to endorse their first joint communique in three years, calling for free and predictable trade to help support a global economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), who included US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping, also said they would not resort to protectionist trade policies.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Azerbaijani forces entered the war-ravaged ghost town of Aghdam, regaining a once-beloved city over a quarter of a century after being driven out by Armenian forces.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Brazil surpassed 6 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, becoming the third country in the world to pass that milestone after the United States and India. Brazil recorded 38,397 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 552 deaths from COVID-19. The official death toll has risen to 168,613.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, A British study reported that people who've had COVID-19 are highly unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after their first infection.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that GHB, the club and party drug, is to be reclassified to increase the penalties to up to five years in jail for possession after British Government advisers uncovered a “concerning increase" in the harm it causes. Reynhard Sinaga, the UK's most prolific rapist, was jailed earlier this year for drugging and raping more than 40 men, with his trials hearing that he laced his victims' drinks with drugs like GBH to render them unconscious.
(The Telegraph, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Burundi is no longer welcoming the UN special envoy to the East African nation, asserting that peace has been achieved after a deadly political crisis. The office had opened in 2016 in the wake of deadly political unrest around former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful decision to pursue another term.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, In China nine people were killed after a truck plowed into a funeral procession in Huabin County, Henan province.
(SFC, 11/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, In Ethiopia the TPLF was accused of firing rockets into the city of Bahir Dar in the neighboring Amhara region. The Amhara government said there were no casualties and no damage caused. Aid agencies called for an immediate temporary ceasefire to allow aid to reach civilians affected by the fighting. Tigray's leader confirmed the losses of two towns but said it was a temporary setback and vowed to defeat the government.
(BBC, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Germany will make it compulsory for most listed and cooperative companies to have at least one woman on their boards after representatives of the ruling conservative and Social Democrat (SPD) parties reached agreement on the long-sought measure.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Germany reported a record number of new coronavirus cases, upping the pressure on leaders of the country's 16 federal states to implement stricter restrictions favored by Chancellor Angela Merkel to tame a second wave before Christmas.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, German prosecutors said there is evidence of "cannibalism" in the killing of a 44-year-old man whose remains were found on the northern edge of Berlin earlier this month. A day earlier a 41-year-old high school teacher was arrested on suspicion of murder with sexual motives at his home close to the site where the victim's bones were found.
(The Telegraph, 11/20/20)(Insider, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, Hong Kong reported a spike in daily coronavirus cases to 26, two days before an arrangement with Singapore to allow a limited number of passengers to fly both ways without having to go through quarantine kicks in.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, India crossed the grim milestone of 9 million coronavirus cases, with 45,882 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours. Deaths rose by 584, with the total now at 132,162.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Italy registered 37,242 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The health ministry also reported 699 COVID 19-related deaths. Italy has seen 48,569 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Japan's Kagawa prefecture said it will cull 850,000 chickens at two poultry farms after the country detected a bird flu outbreak earlier this month. These will be the sixth and seventh cases of the avian flu in western Kagawa prefecture and the biggest culling to be done at one time since the country's first bird flu outbreak in more than two years was found in the poultry this month.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Portugal's parliament approved a 15-day extension of a state of emergency from next week to allow continuation of coronavirus measures as the government considers fresh steps.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Russia said it has sent troops to reinforce its border guards in Armenia and secure a peace settlement with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Russian authorities reported 24,318 new coronavirus infections and 461 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 35,311. Developers of Russia's second vaccine against COVID-19 said mass production would begin in 2021.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej (90), who often criticized Western policies toward Serbia and urged close relations with Slavic ally Russia, died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Swiss-based Novartis aims to boost its respiratory treatment portfolio with a $50 million deal for an off-the-shelf cell therapy from Australia-based Mesoblast that it hopes to deploy for COVID-19 patients as well as others suffering from respiratory distress.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Turkey's daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high 141, as the country introduced new nationwide curbs amid a surge in cases in recent weeks. Health Ministry data showed 435,273 total COVID-19 cases as the overall death toll rose to 12,084.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Ugandan presidential candidate Bobi Wine (38) was released on bail after being charged with spreading coronavirus. Police said the death toll from protests over the arrest of Bobi Wine has risen to 37.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Ukraine reported 14,575 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. Total cases climbed to 598,085, with 10,598 deaths. Ukraine said it hoped to receive 8 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the first half of next year.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The United Nations refugee agency said about 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region into neighboring Sudan, and it is preparing to take in up to 200,000 in the next six months if necessary.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Jan Morris, British author, journalist and transgender movement leader, died in Wales. Her books included the best-selling memoir "Conundrum" (1974).
(SSFC, 11/22/20, p.C7)
2021 Nov 20, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 47,672,306 with the death toll at 770,804.
(sfist.com, 11/21/21)
2021 Nov 20, About 80 looters in ski masks ransacked a Nordstrom location in Walnut Creek, about 25 miles outside San Francisco, in a scene described by witnesses as "insane" and like something "out of a movie." Most of the looters got away. Three people were arrested.
(Fox News, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, The Walt Disney Company paused a coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees of its Florida theme park after the State Legislature and the governor made it illegal for employers to require all workers get the shots.
(NY Times, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 20, Officials said Afghanistan's Taliban administration will begin paying the overdue salaries of government workers today.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, In Austria thousands of people, many of them far-right supporters, protested in Vienna against coronavirus restrictions a day after Austria's government announced a new lockdown and said vaccines would be made compulsory next year.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, The British government said it is seeking to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste. Under proposals in a 12-week public consultation, businesses and consumers will need to move towards more sustainable alternatives.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Britain recorded 40,941 daily COVID-19 cases, a decrease on a day earlier when 44,242 cases were recorded.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Wu Liangyou, an official at the National Health Commission (NHC), said China had given 76.3% of its population complete COVID-19 vaccine doses by Nov. 19. A total of 1.076 billion people in the country have received the required number of doses for their COVID vaccination. 65.73 million people have received a booster dose.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, President Nayib Bukele said El Salvador plans to build the world's first "Bitcoin City", funded initially by bitcoin-backed bonds, doubling down on his bet to harness the crypto currency to fuel investment in the Central American country. The city will be built near the Conchagua volcano to take advantage of geothermal energy to power both the city and Bitcoin mining.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)(SFC, 11/22/21, p.A2)
2021 Nov 20, In France tens of thousands of people marched through Paris and other cities to demand more government action to prevent violence against women.
(SSFC, 11/21/21, p.A6)
2021 Nov 20, Indian police said they had charged senior executives of Amazon.com's local unit under narcotics laws in a case of alleged marijuana smuggling via the online retailer.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had seized a foreign ship in Gulf waters loaded with what they described as smuggled diesel.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Iran announced it has now fully vaccinated 44 million people, more than half of its population of 85 million. The country has been hit the worst by the pandemic in the Middle East.
(AP, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, The coalition of Malaysian PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob scored a crucial win in a state election seen as a test for the country's fractured political parties as they gear up for national polls that could be called by next year.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Five police officers were injured in the Netherlands and at least 40 people detained across three provinces as violent protests against COVID-19 restrictions continued for a second night.
(Reuters, 11/21/21)
2021 Nov 20, Prominent Somali journalist Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, also known as Abdiaziz Afrika, a critic of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu.
(BBC, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Two hundred vaccinated foreign tourists arrived in Vietnam's beach-fringed island of Phu Quoc, the first wave of visitors to the country in nearly two years as it seeks to resurrect its pandemic-ravaged tourism economy.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had fired 14 drones at several Saudi Arabian cities, including at Saudi Aramco facilities in Jeddah. Saudi state news said the Saudi-led coalition has attached 13 targets during a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
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For Asian History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
269 Nov 20, Diocletian was proclaimed emperor of Numerian in Asia Minor by his soldiers. He had been the commander of the emperor's bodyguard.
(HN, 11/20/98)
284 Nov 20, Diocletian (245-316) became Emperor of the Roman Empire and continued to 305. Under his rule the last and most terrible persecution of the Christians took place, perhaps some 3,000 martyrs. He divided rule over the empire among four men. He put two rulers to oversee the east and two to oversee the west. He also established four capitals. He moved his own capital from Rome to Nicomedia, south of Byzantium in Asia Minor. He also increased the size of the Roman army from 300,000 to 500,000 men.
(http://bode.diee.unica.it/~giua/SEBASTIAN/Diocletian.html)(V.D.-H.K.p.91)(ITV, 1/96, p.58)
967 Nov 20, Aboe al-Faradj al-Isfahani, Arabic author (Book of liederen), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1347 Nov 20, Roman tribune Cola di Rienzi defeated nobles. Stefano Colonna, Roman senator, died in battle (SPQR).
(MC, 11/20/01)
1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1527 Nov 20, Wendelmoet "Weyntjen" Claesdochter, became the 1st Dutch woman to be burned as heretic.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1602 Nov 20, Otto von Guericke, inventor (air pump), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1616 Nov 20, Bishop Richelieu became French minister of Foreign affairs and War.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1620 Nov 20, Peregrine White, son of William and Susanna White, was born aboard the Mayflower in Massachusetts Bay. He was the first child born of English parents in present-day New England.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1637 Nov 20, Peter Minuit & 1st Dutch and Swedish immigrants to Delaware sailed from Sweden. Peter later purchased Manhattan Island for 60 guilders.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1695 Nov 20, Zumbi, a Brazilian leader of a hundred-year-old rebel slave group, was killed in an ambush in Palmares. In January 2003 legislation established November 20 as Black Consciousness Day.
(http://tinyurl.com/gsg6wt8)(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A8)(SSFC, 11/18/12, p.G3)
1700 Nov 20, Sweden's 17-year-old King Charles XII defeated the Russians at Narva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1713 Nov 20, Thomas Tompion, English clock maker (cylinder tunnel), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1726 Nov 20, Oliver Wolcott, later Conn.-Gov. and signer of Declaration of Independence, was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1741 Nov 20, Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat and clergyman, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1752 Nov 20, Thomas Chatterton (d.1770), English poet (Christabel), was born. His early death marked him as the “prototype of the fragile poet withered by the hostility of philistines."
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A17)(MC, 11/20/01)
1765 Nov 20, Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, composer (Von Himmel Hoch), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1789 Nov 20, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1805 Nov 20, Beethoven's "Fidelio," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1815 Nov 20, The treaties known collectively as the 2nd Peace of Paris were concluded. Austria’s Klemens von Metternich helped create a “Concert of Europe," a system by which 4-5 big powers kept miscreants in check and managed the affairs of smaller states for over a decade.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/07398a.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2sqgp9)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.68)
1815 Nov 20, With the 2nd Peace of Paris Napoleon was involuntarily exiled to St. Helena.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1817 Nov 20, 1st Seminole War began in Florida. [see Nov 27]
(MC, 11/20/01)
1820 Nov 20, Whalers from Nantucket, Mass., lost their ship to an 80-ton bull sperm whale and attempted to make landfall in 3 boats on the coast of South America. 8 crewmen survived after they consumed 7 of their mates. [see Owen Chase in 1821] 5 men in 2 boats were picked up after 90 days. In 1960 cabin boy Thomas Nickerson wrote an account of the tragedy. In 2000 Nathaniel Philbrick authored "In the Heart of the Sea, The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_%281799_whaleship%29)(SFEC, 7/23/00, BR p.12)(Econ, 1/2/16, p.54)
1829 Nov 20, Jews were expelled from Nikolayev and Sevastopol, Russia.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1833 Nov 20, Charles Darwin reached Punta Gorda and saw Rio Uruguay.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1858 Nov 20, Selma Lagerdorf, Swedish novelist, was born. Her work included “The Story of Gosta Berling."
(HN, 11/20/00)
1866 Nov 20, Pierre Lallemont, French mechanic, was granted a US patent for his velocipede, a rotary crank bicycle.
(http://www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)(ON, 2/10, p.1)
1884 Nov 20, Norman Thomas, socialist and Pres. Candidate 1928-48, was born in Marion, Ohio, and ran for president in six successive elections beginning in 1928.
(HNQ, 10/21/98)(MC, 11/20/01)
1888 Nov 20, William Bundy patented a timecard clock.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1889 Nov 20, Edwin Hubble (d.1953), American astronomer, was born. He proved that there are other galaxies far from our own.
(HN, 11/20/98)(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A20)
1889 Nov 20, Gustav Mahler's 1st Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1893 Nov 20, The struggling Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs, meeting in Detroit, Michigan, elected Byron Bancroft Johnson (29), a former ballplayer and Cincinnati sportswriter, as president. He had been recommended by Charles Comiskey, a potential investor in the league and manager of the National League’s Cincinnati Reds.
(ON, 6/09, p.10)
1894 Nov 20, Anton Rubinstein (64), Russian composer (Dmitri Donskoi), died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1903 Nov 20, In Cheyenne, Wyoming, 42-year-old hired gunman and stock detective Tom Horn was hanged for the 1901 murder of Willie Nickell (14). Horn had made a controversial confession to U.S. Deputy Marshal Joseph S. LeFors that was pivotal in the conviction.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1906 Nov 20, George Bernard Shaw's "Doctor's Dilemma," premiered in London.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 20, Henri-Georges Clouzot, French director (Le salaire de la peur), was born.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1907 Nov 20, The McLaughlin Motor Car Company was founded in Ontario, Canada, under Samuel McLaughlin (1871-1972). In 1910 he became a director of General Motors and sold his company in 1918 becoming president of General Motors of Canada.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Durant)
1908 Nov 20, Alistair Cooke (d.2004), English journalist, who hosted "Masterpiece Theater," was born in Salford, England.
(SFC, 3/31/04, p.A2)(AP, 11/20/08)
1910 Nov 20, Revolution broke out in Mexico. Francisco I. Madero called for a rise to national arms on this day when dictator Porfirio Diaz reneged on his pledge to stay out of the presidential election.
(SFEC, 11/9/97, p.T6) (AP, 11/20/97)
1911 Nov 20, Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" premiered in Munich.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, Emilio Pucci, fashion designer (Neiman-Marcus Award-1954), was born in Naples.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, US State Department began requiring photographs for passports.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1914 Nov 20, Bulgaria proclaimed its neutrality in the First World War.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1915 Nov 20, In San Francisco a gang of robbers, later dubbed the “jitney bandits" used a Model T Ford to flee a robbery at the Sloat Cafe dance hall. More robberies followed over the next month with several killings until outlaw Howard Dunnigan (23) was wounded following a Christmas eve attack on the Niagara saloon at 789 Howard. The gang fled to Los Angeles where Dunnigan checked himself into a hospital, where a doctor called police. Dunnigan turned out to be from an old and respected family in Maryland. Two of his confederates were sentenced to life in prison. Dunnigan was allowed to plead guilty and was sentenced to seven years probation.
(SFC, 3/2/18, p.C1)
1916 Nov 20, Thomas McGrath, poet and novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1917 Nov 20, In the 1st tank battle Britain broke through German lines.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1920 Nov 20, The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to US president W. Wilson.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1923 Nov 20, Nadine Gordimer, 1991 Nobel Prize-winning South African novelist, was born.
(HN, 11/20/00)
1923 Nov 20, Garrett Morgan invented and patented a traffic signal.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1925 Nov 20, Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Attorney General and Senator, was born in Brookline, Mass. While at Harvard during World War II, Robert F. Kennedy joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and served as a seaman on the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. The ship was named for Kennedy’s eldest brother, who had been killed in battle during World War II. Kennedy died from an assassin’s bullet June 6, 1968, in Los Angeles after proclaiming victory in California’s Democratic Party primary election.
(AP, 11/20/97)(HNQ, 7/14/98) (HN, 11/20/98)
1927 Nov 20, Karl Wilhelm Eugen Stenhammer (56), composer, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1928 Nov 20, Mrs. Glen Hyde became the first woman to dare the Grand Canyon rapids in a scow. Her flat bottomed boat used sweep oars for maneuvering.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1929 Nov 20, Kenneth DeWitt Schermerhorn, conductor, was born in Schenectady, NY.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Nov 20, Salvador Dali held his 1st one-man show.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1929 Nov 20, The radio program "The Rise of the Goldbergs" debuted on the NBC Blue Network.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1931 Nov 20, AT&T began commercial teletype service.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1931 Nov 20, Japan and China rejected the League of Council terms for Manchuria at Geneva.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1934 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's "Children's Hour," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1934 Nov 20, The McCormack–Dickstein Committee began examining evidence on the Business Plot against Franklin Roosevelt. On November 24 the committee released a statement detailing the testimony it had heard about the plot and its preliminary findings. On February 15, 1935, the committee submitted its final report to the House of Representatives. During the hearings Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified that Gerald C. MacGuire attempted to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, DC, and financial backing. Butler testified that the pretext for the coup would be that the president's health was failing.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot)
1935 Nov 20, Borden and Coca Cola were removed from the DJIA. Du Pont and National Steel were added.
(WSJ, 4/8/04, p.C4)
1936 Nov 20, Don DeLillo, author, was born. His work includes “White Noise" and "Libra."
(HN, 11/20/00)
1938 Nov 20, The 1st documented anti-Semitic remarks over US radio were made by Father Coughlin.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1941 Nov 20, Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu handed over Japan’s last diplomatic note.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, Joseph Biden, later US Senator for Delaware, was born in Scranton, Pa. In 2008 Barack Obama named Biden as his vice presidential running mate.
(SSFC, 8/24/08, p.A15)
1942 Nov 20, Meredith Monk, choreographer, composer and performing artist, was born in Lima, Peru.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, British 8th Army recaptured Benghazi, Libya.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, Hitler named field marshal Erich von Manstein to command.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1942 Nov 20, The 26th Russian Armored Corps recaptured Perelazovski. A million Russians breached German lines in a Soviet army offensive.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1943 Nov 20, US Marines began landing on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands, encountering fierce resistance from Japanese forces but emerging victorious three days later. The US 2nd marine division invaded the tiny isle of Betio on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts. It was the first seriously opposed landing experienced by the Americans in WWII. After 3 days 1,027 US Marine and Navy personnel were killed. Of some 4,800 Japanese and Korean laborers on Betio, 146 survived, including 17 Japanese troops. In 2006 John Wukovits authored “One Square Mile Of Hell."
(AP, 11/20/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa)(AH, 6/07, p.72)
1943 Nov 20, US Marine cinematographer Norman Hatch (1921-2017) began filming much of the 76-hour battle for the island of Tarawa. The film was edited and made into a 20-minute documentary: “With the Marines at Tarawa." In 1945 the film received an Academy Award for best short documentary.
(https://archive.org/details/WiththeMarinesatTarawa)(SFC, 4/28/17, p.D8)
1943 Nov 20, U-538 sank in the Atlantic Ocean.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1944 Nov 20, The 1st Japanese suicide submarine attack was at Ulithi Atoll, Carolines.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, Dmitri Shostakovitch's 9th Symphony premiered.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1945 Nov 20, In Nuremberg, Germany 22 out of 24 indicted Nazi officials went on trial (one in absentia) before an international war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
1946 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's "Another Part of the Forest," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1947 Nov 20, "Meet the Press" made network TV debut on NBC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1947 Nov 20, Princess Elizabeth (future Queen Elizabeth II) married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster Abbey.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFEM, 1/26/97, p.44)(AP, 11/20/97)
1949 Nov 20, Jewish population of Israel reached 1,000,000.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1950 Nov 20, U.S. troops pushed to Yalu River within five miles of Manchuria.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1950 Nov 20, Francesco Cilea (84), opera composer, died.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1952 Nov 20, George Axelrod's "7 Year Itch," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1955 Nov 20, The Maryland National Guard was ordered desegregated.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1959 Nov 20, The United Nations issued its "Declaration of the Rights of the Child."
(AP, 11/20/99)
1959 Nov 20, Seven European nations (Austria, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland) signed the Stockholm Convention to form the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The organization becoming operative on May 3, 1960. After the accession of Denmark, Ireland, and the UK to the EEC in January 1973, the EFTA began to falter. Portugal (1985), followed in 1995 by Austria, Finland and Sweden, left to join the EU. In 2017 Four members remained: Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Association)
1962 Nov 20, President Kennedy barred religious or racial discrimination in federally funded housing.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1962 Nov 20, USSR agreed to remove bombers from Cuba and US lifted its blockade.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1964 Nov 20, Regents of UC Berkeley ratified the suspension of eight students, placed students Mario Savio and Art Goldberg on probation and allowed on-campus political advocacy that doesn’t lead to unlawful activity.
(SSFC, 9/21/14, p.A13)
1965 Nov 20, UN Security council called for a boycott of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe).
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, "Cabaret" opened at Broadhurst Theater, NYC, for 1166 performances.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1966 Nov 20, Men in Zurich voted against female suffrage.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1967 Nov 20, The Census Clock at the US Commerce Department ticked past 200 million.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, The Nixon administration announced a halt to residential use of the pesticide DDT as part of a total phase-out.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1969 Nov 20, A group of 80 Native Americans, all college students, seized Alcatraz Island in the name of “Indians of All Tribes." The occupation lasted 19 months. They offered $24 in beads and cloth to buy the island, demanded an American Indian Univ., museum and cultural center, and listed reasons why the island was a suitable Indian reservation.
(SFEC, 3/8/98, p.W38)
1969 Nov 20, Mary Scott (23) was found dead at her apartment in San Diego. She had been strangled and raped. The case went cold until 2020 when the San Diego Police Department announced that with the help of forensic genealogy, a suspect had been identified. On Oct. 24, John Jeffrey Sipos (75), was arrested in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, in Scott's murder.
(NY Times, 10/30/20)
1970 Nov 20, In Oklahoma 3 teenagers in a Chevrolet Camaro failed to return home after a high school football game. In 2013 divers on a training exercize discovered Their skeletal remains in a Camaro in Foss Lake.
(SFC, 9/19/13, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/m9owvbn)
1970 Nov 20, UN General Assembly accepted membership of the People’s Republic of China.
(www.un.org/documents/ga/res/25/ares25.htm)
1971 Nov 20, U.S. planned to give Turkey $35 million for farmers who agreed to stop growing opium poppies.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1973 Nov 20, Allan Sherman (b.1924), American musician, parodist and producer, died. He was the creator and original producer of the popular “I've Got a Secret" from 1952 to 1958.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Sherman)
1974 Nov 20, The US Dept. of Justice filed an antitrust suit to break up ATT.
(HN, 11/20/98)(www.spectrum.ieee.org/jul05/1571)
1975 Nov 20, Ronald Reagan announced his intention to battle Gerald Ford for the Republican presidential nomination.
(SSFC, 6/6/04, A16)(www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/timeline.asp)
1975 Nov 20, An interim report by the US Senate’s Church Committee said that the CIA failed to assassinate Fidel Castro at least 8 times. The report also covered CIA activity in Chile, the Congo, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A9)(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Church_Committee)
1975 Nov 20, After nearly four decades of absolute rule (1936-1975), Spain's General Francisco Franco died, two weeks before his 83rd birthday. He was entombed in a mausoleum built by his regime between 1940 and 1959, in part by the forced labor of some 20,000 political prisoners. Juan Carlos, grandson of King Alfonso, was his designated successor and the monarchy was restored. In 2002 Gabrielle Ashford Hodges authored "Franco: A Concise Biography."
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/5/97, p.A17)(AP, 11/20/97)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.M4)(AFP, 8/24/18)
1976 Nov 20, Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (b.1898), Soviet agronomist and biologist, died in Moscow. Lysenko was a strong proponent of soft inheritance and rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of pseudoscientific ideas termed Lysenkoism.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko)(Econ., 7/18/20, p.70)
1977 Nov 20, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to address Israel's parliament.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1979 Nov 20, The first US artificial blood transfusion occurred at Univ. of Minn. Hospital. The patient was a Jehovah's Witness, who had refused a transfusion of real blood because of his religious beliefs.
(www.todayinsci.com/11/11_20.htm)
1979 Nov 20, Some 200 armed men and women, Mahadiists, seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca. They denounced the monarchy and demanded an end to corrupting modernization and "foreign ways." Saudi preacher Juhayman al Uteybi (Juhayman al-Otaibi) led the radicals. After two weeks French special forces shot dead all the Wahhabi extremists.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Siege_of_Mecca)(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.C3)(WSJ, 11/12/03, p.A18)(WSJ, 9/18/07, p.A8)
1980 Nov 20, Faced with disastrous reviews from New York critics, United Artists announced it was withdrawing its $36 million movie "Heaven's Gate" for re-editing.
(AP, 11/20/05)
1980 Nov 20, In China the Gang of Four, scapegoats for the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, were put on trial. They were tried and sentenced in nationally televised court proceedings. Jiang Hua led the special tribunal that was set up to try Jiang Qing and her 3 Politburo allies known as the Gang of Four. Qing was sentenced to death but her sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A4)(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/2tfc9u)
1982 Nov 20, At the California Memorial Stadium of UC Berkeley Cal player Kevin Moen scored the game winning touchdown against Stanford amidst Stanford band members, who had run onto the field thinking the game was over. The winning catch was caught by photographer Bob Stinnett (1924-2018).
(SSFC, 11/11/18, p.C1)
1982 Nov 20, South Africa backed down on a plan to install black rule in neighboring Namibia.
(HN, 11/20/98)
1984 Nov 20, McDonald's made its 50 billionth hamburger.
(http://tinyurl.com/2p8ua9)
1986 Nov 20, The US Federal Reserve Board approved a $500 million equity investment by Japan’s Sumitomo Bank in Goldman Sachs.
(Econ, 5/19/07, SR p.20)(http://tinyurl.com/3xdm2q)
1986 Nov 20, UN's WHO announced 1st global effort to combat AIDS.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycyxmk)
1987 Nov 20, The film "Nuts" starring Barbra Streisand premiered.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuts_%28film%29)
1987 Nov 20, President Reagan and congressional leaders announced agreement on a two-year, $76 billion deficit-reduction plan designed to reassure jittery financial markets.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1988 Nov 20, Egypt and China announced they were recognizing the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1989 Nov 20, More than 200,000 people rallied peacefully in Prague, Czechoslovakia, demanding democratic reforms and the ouster of Communist Party leader Milos Jakes.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1990 Nov 20, The space shuttle “Atlantis" landed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, after completing a secret military mission.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1990 Nov 20, The Soviet Union again rebuffed President Bush’s efforts to rally support for a UN Security Council resolution authorizing military force against Iraq.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1990 Nov 20, Margaret Thatcher failed to defeat Heseltine's bid for party leadership.
(http://tinyurl.com/krb66)
1991 Nov 20, California Democrat Alan Cranston accepted a Senate reprimand for his dealings with former savings-and-loan chief Charles H. Keating Jr., but then denied he was guilty of many of the allegations, prompting an angry rebuttal by New Hampshire Republican Warren B. Rudman.
(AP, 11/20/01)
1991 Nov 20, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic, and Veselin Sljivan-Canin, officers in the Yugoslav National Army, ordered the Serb army and military police to withdraw from the hospital at Vukovar. The paramilitary forces then took 194 Croat men in small groups to an area nearby and shot them. Radic surrendered to Serbian authorities in 2003. Mrksic and Sljivancanin were convicted by a UN tribunal in 2007. Radic was acquitted.
(SFC, 11/30/96, p.A15)(SFC, 4/22/03, A7)(AP, 9/27/07)(WSJ, 9/28/07, p.A1)
1992 Nov 20, The United States and the European Community announced they had resolved a dispute over EC farm subsidies, but French officials expressed dissatisfaction.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1992 Nov 20, Fire seriously damaged the northwest side of Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1993 Nov 20, The U.S. Senate ended a filibuster against the Brady Bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases, and passed it by a 63-36 vote; the Senate also approved legislation implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement, 61-38.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1994 Nov 20, The Angolan government under dos Santos and rebels under Savimbi signed a treaty in Zambia to end 19 years of war, even as fighting continued in their homeland.
(AP, 11/20/99)(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A11)
1994 Nov 20, The most heavily mined country in the world was Afghanistan, with between 10 and 15 million deadly mines. In Angola, one third of the countryside was strewn with mines and the toll of nearly 25 people a day who were injured or killed by land mines has left 20,000 amputees. Cambodia’s 7 million mines amount to two for every single Cambodian child, and between 200 and 250 people became victims every month. In Somalia, the laying of mines rose to new heights of terror as civilian areas were deliberately targeted. Truck loads of mines were scattered in houses, wells, river-crossings, markets, and even cemeteries. Presently, the area being mined most heavily is the war zone of the former Yugoslavia, where 3 million mines have been laid in just a few years. The US State Dept. estimated that 25,000 people are killed or maimed each year by mines. About 1.5 to 2 million new mines go into the ground each year. There is a British Rapid Antipersonnel Minefield Breaching System (RAMBS) manufactured by Pains-Wessex Schermuly that is fired from a rifle and clears a path 60 meters long and one meter wide in less than a minute.
(UNICEFF Mailer, 11/94)(WSJ, 5/17/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.A13)
1995 Nov 20, Radio stations began airing a new Beatles recording, “Free As a Bird," which had debuted on ABC TV the night before.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, US Federal employees, idled during a government shutdown, returned to their jobs.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, The US FDA approved new therapy for use as an initial AIDS treatment, 3TC.
(www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/NEW00519.html)
1995 Nov 20, Olympic figure skating champion Sergei Grinkov (28) died of a heart attack in Lake Placid, New York.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1995 Nov 20, BBC Television broadcast an interview with Princess Diana, who admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1995 Nov 20, France conducted its 4th nuclear test at the Mururoa atoll in French Polynesia. [other news sources indicated a severe earthquake with the epicenter in the Red Sea]
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A-1)
1996 Nov 20, US House Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be speaker for a second term.
(AP, 11/20/97)
1996 Nov 20, San Francisco began posting signs along its waterfront to warn fisherman of health hazards from fish caught in the Bay.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.A22)
1996 Nov 20, In Zagreb, Croatia, thousands protested the government’s attempt to close the independent Radio 101.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C6)
1996 Nov 20, In Hong Kong a fire raged in the 16-story Garley Building and 39 people died.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)(SFC, 11/22/96, p.A22)(AP, 11/20/97)
1996 Nov 20, In Zambia Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy won re-election. Former pres. Kaunda and his United National Independent Party boycotted because he was declared ineligible to run.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C3)
1996 Nov 20-1996 Nov 25, In the Philippines the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) was to be held in Manila. APEC has 18 member countries and its goal is to remove all trade barriers by 2020.
(SFC, 11/18/96, p.A12)(SFC, 11/23/96, p.A8)
1997 Nov 20, It was reported that Lucent Tech.’s Bell Labs has developed a new tiny transistor that is 5 times faster and 1/4th the size of commercially available transistors.
(WSJ, 11/20/97, p.B4)
1997 Nov 20, From Ethiopia it was reported that flooding has killed 297 people and uprooted 65,000 and that heavy rains continued to fall.
(SFC, 11/20/97, p.B2)
1997 Nov 20, In India S.V. Ramanna Reddy, a former legislator of Andhra Pradesh, surrendered to police in relation to the previous days bomb blast.
(SFC, 11/21/97, p.D6)
1997 Nov 20, Iraq agreed to allow US arms inspectors back into the country after Russia agreed to help work to lift UN Security Council sanctions. Prodded by Russia, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein agreed to allow U.S. arms monitors back into his country, ending a three-week crisis that had raised fears of a military confrontation with the United States.
(SFC, 11/20/97, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/98)
1997 Nov 20, In Nigeria the government of Gen’l. Sani Abacha gave 5 political parties $637,000 each to campaign in elections to restore civilian rule. Opposition groups called politicians of the 5 parties government stooges. 18 parties had applied for recognition but only 5 were deemed suitable.
(SFC, 11/21/97, p.D6)(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A6)
1998 Nov 20, A $206 billion tobacco settlement over health costs for treating sick smokers was endorsed by 46 eligible states. It was the largest settlement of a civil lawsuit in history.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, President Clinton wrapped up a visit to Japan and flew to South Korea.
(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, In Baltimore Toni Bullock (16) was stabbed and died during a robbery. A few weeks later Malcolm Jabbar Bryant was soon arrested and in August, 1999, was convicted of stabbing Bullock and sentenced to life in prison. In 2016 Bryant (42) was released from prison after new DNA evidence showed that blood on the victim’s T-shirt did not match his.
(http://tinyurl.com/gtxwndz) (SFC, 5/12/16, p.A5)
1998 Nov 20, Rolando Alphonso, tenor saxophonist for the ska group Skatalites, died in Los Angeles at age 67. He was an original member of the Jamaican group that was formed in 1964.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A25)
1998 Nov 20, Phase 2 began in the construction of the int’l. space station. It would take 5 years, 43 flights and 16 nations to assemble the outpost. The first human crew arrived in November 2000.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A3)(CSM, 11/22/18)
1998 Nov 20, Re: Congo it was reported that Kabila was signing away large stakes in Congo’s biggest enterprises to businessmen from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia in return for support against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, In Indonesia thousands of students marched and demanded the resignations of Pres. Habibie and military chief Wiranto following doctor’s confirmation that protestors were killed with live ammunition on Nov 13-14. In Pinrang thousands of villagers rioted after finding that they could not withdraw savings from an outlawed bank.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A24)
1998 Nov 20, Iraq balked at handing over documents on chemical and biological weapons and missile systems.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, Israel ceded control of a 200-sq. mile patchwork area, 2 percent of the West Bank, to the Palestinian Authority in the 1st of 3 withdrawals. 250 prisoners were released but 150 of them were common criminals rather than political detainees,
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/99)
1998 Nov 20, Israel carried out its 100th air raid along with ground attacks in southern Lebanon. One Amal fighter was reported killed.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 20, In Italy a court ordered the release of Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan under a law barring extradition in death penalty cases and planned to grant him asylum.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 20, In Kazakhstan a Russian Proton booster rocket lifted up the first stage of the new int’l. space station called Zarya (Sunrise).
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A18)(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A13)
1998 Nov 20, In Pakistan Prime Minister Sharif ordered soldiers to quell violence in Karachi and suspended civil rights in Sindh province, which surrounds the city.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 20, Galina Starovoitova, a member of the State Duma, was shot to death in St. Petersburg. She had recently formed a coalition called Northern Capital to push the candidacy of liberals for the Dec. 6 elections to the regional legislature. In June, 2005, two men were convicted of the actual killing. Four others charged in the case were acquitted. In 2006 two more men were convicted on charges relating to the murder. Vyacheslav Lelyavin was sentenced to 11 years in prison for being a member of the gang. Pavel Stekhnovsky, guilty of buying the rifle used to shoot Starovoitova, was freed after prosecutors failed to prove he knew the gun was intended for the killing.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)(SFEC, 11/22/98, p.A26)(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/29/06)
1998 Nov 20, From Senegal it was reported that land mines had made 80% of Casamance province unusable. The mines, laid by separatist rebels, had killed or wounded close to 500 people in the 1st 8 months of this year.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 20, UN sponsored autonomy negotiations on East Timor were suspended after 44 people were reported killed under a military crackdown by the Indonesian government. The Red Cross later denied the reports of a massacre.
(WSJ, 11/23/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/27/98, p.A1)
1999 Nov 20, A day after violent anti-American protests in Greece, President Clinton sought to heal old wounds by acknowledging the United States had failed its “obligation to support democracy" when it backed Greek’s harsh military junta during the Cold War.
(AP, 11/20/00)
1999 Nov 20, In Algeria some 20 people were killed in a clash between guerrillas and security forces south of Algiers.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A15)
1999 Nov 20, China completed its first unmanned test of a spacecraft. The Shenzhou 1, or "Divine Vessel," was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province.
(SFEC, 11/21/99, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Lawyers for Al Gore and George W. Bush battled before the Florida Supreme Court over whether the presidential election recount should be allowed to continue.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 20, China singed an agreement with the UN for cooperation and training on individual rights and the rule of law.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A13)
2000 Nov 20, The EU began to build its own defense force, a 60,000 man, rapid reaction corps. EU defense chiefs pledged 100,000 soldiers, 400 planes and 100 ships for a rapid-reaction force.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, Israel fired a barrage of missiles on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack on a school bus that killed 2 Jewish settlers and wounded 9 others including 3 siblings who lost limbs. At least 35 people were reported wounded in the missile attack.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 20, In Mozambique Carlos Cardoso, founder and editor of the Metical newspaper, was murdered while driving in Maputo. He had been investigating a 1996 theft of $14 million from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique. In 2003 six men were convicted of the murder. Businessman Vicente Ramaya was later convicted of ordering the murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison. In 2013 a judge signed papers granting Ramaya's release because of good behavior.
(AP, 1/31/03)(AP, 1/22/13)
2000 Nov 20, Peru’s Pres. Fujimori announced his resignation from Tokyo, ending a 10-year reign. Acting president Ricardo Marquez also stepped down.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/01)
2000 Nov 20, Philippine senators presented Pres. Estrada a 270-page articles of impeachment for corruption and constitutional violations.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A12)
2001 Nov 20, Pres. Bush called on Americans to support charities of all kinds.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A16)
2001 Nov 20, A federal judge extended a court order blocking an attempt by Attorney General John Ashcroft to dismantle Oregon's one-of-a-kind law allowing physician-assisted suicides.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, US federal health officials approved sale of the world's first contraceptive patch, Ortho-Evra.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, The Sep 11 death toll at the WTC was reduced to just under 3,900.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A2)
2001 Nov 20, Portland police said they would not cooperate with FBI efforts to interview some 5,000 Middle Eastern men because the questioning violated state laws.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov 20, Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm computer, was reported to hold that the brain works by anticipating and completing patterns more than it does through inputs and outputs of information.
(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.B1)
2001 Nov 20, In Afghanistan the Northern Alliance gave the Taliban in Kunduz 3 days to give up. The alliance controlling Afghanistan's capital and much of its countryside agreed to attend power-sharing talks in Germany the following week.
(WSJ, 11/21/01, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/02)
2001 Nov 20, Abu Qatada (40), a Muslim cleric living in London, was named in a Spanish indictment as a pivotal figure in the al Qaeda network in Europe.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)
2001 Nov 20, Chinese police on Tiananmen Square detained some 35 foreigners who protested the crackdown on the Falun Gong. The protesters were all expelled from the country.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A1)(SFC, 11/22/01, p.A21)
2001 Nov 20, A speedboat, believed to be carrying 30 smuggled Cubans, capsized in the Florida Straits and all were believed drowned.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 20, The Liberal (Venstre) Party under Anders Fogh Rasmussen (1953) won elections in Denmark. It formed a minority government with the Conservative People’s Party.
(http://www.andersfogh.dk/807.0.html)
2002 Nov 20, On the eve of a NATO summit in the Czech Republic, President Bush, recalling Europe's grim history of "excusing aggression," challenged skeptical allies to stand firm against Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 20, Louisiana began offering a $4-a-tail bounty on the swamp-dwelling nutria rodent, due to wetlands damage from devoured plants.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A2)
2002 Nov 20, Thomas Mohaghan (65), founder of Domino's Pizza, pledged at least $220 million to build the Catholic Ave Maria Univ. near Naples, Fla.
(SFC, 11/21/02, p.A7)
2002 Nov 20, A German doctor conducted Britain's first public autopsy in more than 170 years, an event denounced by the British Medical Association's Head of Ethics as "degrading and disrespectful."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 20, Francoise Ducros, aide to PM Chretien of Canada, called Pres. Bush a moron during a private conversation in Prague. She resigned Nov 26.
(SFC, 11/23/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/26/02)
2002 Nov 20, In Riobamba, Ecuador, a series of explosions at an ammunition depot left at least 7 people dead and 140 injured.
(WSJ, 11/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 20, The EU, except for Portugal. banned Belarus Pres. Lukashenko and top aides to protest human rights abuses under his rule.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 20, Israel's Labor Party chose Amram Mitzna, ex-general and Haifa mayor, as its leader in the Jan 28 elections.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 20, Israeli troops shot and killed Amr Qudsi (15), a Palestinian teenager in a confrontation in Tulkarem.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2002 Nov 20, In Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Phillip Seerattan (17) opened fire with a pistol at a school for foreign students, wounding a security guard before being shot to death by police.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida ministers from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas," (FTAA).
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)
2003 Nov 20, Michael Jackson turned himself over to police in Santa Barbara, Ca., on an arrest warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation. He posted a $3 million bail bond. Jackson was later acquitted at trial.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, Record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting death of an actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif., in February 2003. As of 2008 Spector was being retried after his first trial ended in a deadlocked jury.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named the Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, Advanced Micro Devices said it would build $2.4 billion chip factory in Germany to produce microprocessors on 300-mm silicon wafers.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.B1)
2003 Nov 20, Eugene Kleiner (80), California pioneer venture capitalist, died.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.79)
2003 Nov 20, Tens of thousands of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to show their anger over the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2003 Nov 20, In Canada Conrad Black, newspaper magnate, stepped down as CEO of Hollinger Int'l. following reports that he other top officials received unauthorized payments of some $32.2 million.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 20, David Dacko (76), the first president of Central African Republic as an independent nation (1960-1966, 1979-1981), died.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a bomb apparently hidden in a pickup truck exploded at the offices of a US-allied Kurdish political party, killing five people and wounding 40.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, A group of UN agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services have put the country in a state of "chronic emergency."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, The London Privy Council ruled that Trinidad's mandatory death penalty for murder convictions was unconstitutional, forcing the country to begin giving discretion to judges when handing out sentences.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Turkey trucks packed with explosives blew up at the HSBC London-based bank and the British consulate. The 32 people killed included London's consul-general Roger Short. Some 450 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/20/03)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A16)
2003 Nov 20, In Florida ministers from 34 countries announced a framework to establish a Free Trade Area of the Americas" (FTAA), as police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.A12)(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, Michael Jackson turned himself over to police in Santa Barbara, Ca., on an arrest warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation. He posted a $3 million bail bond.
(AP, 11/19/03)
2003 Nov 20, Record producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of actress, Lana Clarkson, at his home in Alhambra, Calif.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, Motor Trend named the Toyota's hybrid Prius as "Car of the Year."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, Advanced Micro Devices said it would build $2.4 billion chip factory in Germany to produce microprocessors on 300-mm silicon wafers.
(SFC, 11/21/03, p.B1)
2003 Nov 20, Eugene Kleiner (80), California pioneer venture capitalist, died.
(Econ, 12/6/03, p.79)
2003 Nov 20, In Canada Conrad Black, newspaper magnate, stepped down as CEO of Hollinger Int'l. following reports that he other top officials received unauthorized payments of some $32.2 million.
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Nov 20, David Dacko (76), the first president of Central African Republic as an independent nation (1960-1966, 1979-1981), died.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, Tens of thousands of demonstrators in London burned an effigy of President Bush to show their anger over the Iraq war.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2003 Nov 20, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a bomb apparently hidden in a pickup truck exploded at the offices of a US-allied Kurdish political party, killing five people and wounding 40.
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, A group of UN agencies is asking for $221 million in international aid for North Korea, where food shortages, poverty and poor health care services have put the country in a state of "chronic emergency."
(AP, 11/20/03)
2003 Nov 20, The London Privy Council ruled that Trinidad's mandatory death penalty for murder convictions was unconstitutional, forcing the country to begin giving discretion to judges when handing out sentences.
(AP, 11/21/03)
2003 Nov 20, In Turkey trucks packed with explosives blew up at the HSBC London-based bank and the British consulate. The 32 people killed included London's consul-general Roger Short. Some 450 people were wounded.
(AP, 11/20/03)(WSJ, 11/21/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A16)
2004 Nov 20, US Republicans whisked a $388 billion spending bill through the House.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, The new NYC MOMA opened in midtown Manhattan. Its new tower was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.
(Econ, 11/20/04, p.85)
2004 Nov 20, The NBA suspended 9 players without pay over the Nov 19 Piston and Pacer brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich.
(Econ, 11/27/04, p.34)
2004 Nov 20, Juan Rodriguez (49) of NYC, a Colombian immigrant and parking garage worker, won the $149 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot. He chose to take a single payment of $88.5 million before taxes.
(USAT, 11/21/04, p.3A)
2004 Nov 20, Scientist Ancel Keys (100), died in Minneapolis. He invented the K rations eaten by soldiers in World War II and who linked high cholesterol and fatty diets to heart disease.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, Fifteen African presidents and UN chief Kofi Annan signed a common declaration in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to promote peace and security in the Great Lakes region.
(AFP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Brazil gunmen raided the camp Terra Prometida and torched huts and crops in Minas Gerais state. 5 victims were executed with shots at close range and 12 other people, including a child, were injured. In 2013 rancher Adriano Chafik was sentenced to 115 years in prison for ordering and taking part in the Massacre of Felisburgo.
(SSFC, 10/13/12, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/lw7xkqq)
2004 Nov 20, In China a fire at a complex of iron mines in Shahe, Hebei province, left 68 dead. Most of the miners were suffocated by smoke.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Nov 20, An early morning 6.2 earthquake jolted San Jose, Costa Rica, and killed 8 people. Leaders of 21 nations were gathered there for the Ibero-American Summit.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Baghdad insurgents attacked a US patrol and a police station, assassinated 4 government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and 9 were wounded during clashes that left 3 Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, The bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers, all shot execution-style and seven of them decapitated, were discovered in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Germany and the United States agreed on a proposal to write off as much as 80 percent of Iraq's debt.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, India pulled out around 3,000 troops from Kashmir.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In southern Italy 8 people from two families were killed when a gas explosion destroyed their apartment building.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, In western Nepal at least 26 rebel and government soldiers were killed during a clash at a rebel training camp at Pandon.
(SFC, 11/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 20, In Ojobo, Nigeria, a protest at an oil rig operated by Shell left 7 people dead.
(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A23)
2004 Nov 20, Palestinians formally opened the campaign for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 20, A Polish woman abducted from her apartment in Baghdad reappeared in Poland after being suddenly released.
(AP, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Puerto Rico's two highest courts ordered election authorities in separate rulings to immediately begin recounting votes cast in the extremely tight Nov. 2 gubernatorial elections.
(AP, 11/21/04)
2004 Nov 20, In Togo at least 13 people died and others were injured in a crush at a demonstration to welcome an improvement in relations with the EU.
(Reuters, 11/20/04)
2004 Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12) and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces implicated in the killings were exonerated.
(www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)
2005 Nov 20, US President George W. Bush pressed President Hu Jintao to rein in China's swelling trade surplus and push forward currency reform after calling for greater religious freedom. Hu Jintao has rebuffed Bush's calls to allow greater religious and political freedom but promised to show more flexibility on Sino-US economic disputes.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Tacoma, Wash., Dominick Sergio Maldonado (20) went on a shooting spree at a crowded shopping mall. 7 people were injured, one critically, before he was arrested. Maldonado has been charged with attempted murder and kidnapping.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2005 Nov 20, Chris Whitley (45), a chameleon singer-songwriter who oscillated between roots rock 'n' roll, blues and alt-rock, died of lung cancer in Houston. He recorded 11 albums since his 1991 debut, "Living with the Law," including “Dirt Floor" (1998) and this year's "Soft Dangerous Shores."
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Brazil TV da Gente (Our TV), the 1st channel to be directed at Brazil’s black population, was launched.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A21)
2005 Nov 20, British military said a British soldier was killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq's southern city of Basra. A total of 98 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq, including 65 in hostile action, since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
(AFP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, China reported two new outbreaks of bird flu in which almost 3,700 poultry died and more than 7,000 were culled as provinces hit by the deadly virus tightened preventive measures.
(Reuters, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, A helicopter carrying a Colombian congressman and five others crashed Sunday in a storm in the mountains north of Bogota, killing all aboard. Conservative Party congressman Roberto Camacho, Cundinamarca state deputy Efren Bejerano and former Cundinamarca deputy governor Adolfo Leon were among those killed.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Widespread violence marred the second round of Egypt's parliamentary vote, with police saying a campaign worker was shot and killed in Alexandria and witnesses reporting scores of injuries. Police arrested 400 Muslim Brotherhood activists in a crackdown on the Islamist group.
(AP, 11/20/05)(Reuters, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Tropical Storm Gamma weakened into a tropical depression after it deluged the Central American coast, killing 14 people in Honduras and Belize. 2 US newlyweds were among the dead in Belize.
(AP, 11/20/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 20, Iran’s Parliament approved a bill requiring the government to block international inspections of its atomic facilities if the UN nuclear monitoring agency refers Iran to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Iraq a car bomb exploded by a convoy carrying the mayor of Madaen killing 5 civilians. 3 bodies, all blindfolded and shot in the head, were found in Sadr City. A headless body was found south of Baghdad. A policeman was shot dead in Baghdad. A roadside bomb in Baghdad killed a child and wounded 5 others. A US soldier was killed by small arms fire north of Baghdad. A US marine died from wounds suffered the previous day in Karma.
(SFC, 11/21/05, p.A6)
2005 Nov 20, Israel's dovish Labor Party voted Sunday to pull out of PM Ariel Sharon's coalition government, virtually assuring early general elections in March.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Project manager Junichiro Kawaguchi said Hayabusa, a Japanese spacecraft, has failed to land on the Itokawa asteroid in the 2nd setback for the landmark mission aiming to bring samples from such a celestial body to Earth for the first time. The space agency, after evaluating more data, said on Nov 23 that Hayabusa did land for a half-hour, but failed to collect any material.
(AFP, 11/20/05)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.A16)
2005 Nov 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin started a three-day visit to Japan but it appears unlikely there will be any progress in settling a 60-year territorial dispute that has prevented the two nations from formally ending World War II hostilities.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Turkey 12 people were detained after Kurdish demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails and stones at the police during a protest in Istanbul.
(AFP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, The Vatican beatified 13 Mexicans who died during a Roman Catholic uprising in the late 1920s that was crushed by the Mexican government.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said he will turn to nuclear power by processing recently discovered uranium deposits to resolve its chronic electricity shortage.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2006 Nov 20, President Bush in Indonesia shrugged off protests that greeted him in the world's most populous Muslim nation, calling it a sign of a healthy democracy. Bush praised Indonesia's "pluralism and its diversity" and said that the world should look to the predominantly Muslim country as an example.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, The US Mint announced designs for new one-dollar coins that will feature images of the presidents beginning in February.
(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 20, Six imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after passengers reported they were acting suspiciously.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2006 Nov 20, O.J. Simpson's book and TV special were canceled, an astonishing end to an imaginary confession that had sickened the public as the very worst kind of tabloid sensation. "If I Did It," in which Simpson was to have described how he would have killed his ex-wife, had been scheduled to air as a two-part interview Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox. The book was to have followed on Nov. 30. Harper Collins said all copies would be destroyed. The book was later brought out by a different publisher.
(AP, 11/20/06)(SFC, 11/24/06, p.A3)(AP, 11/20/07)
2006 Nov 20, A bus crash in Huntsville, Alabama, killed 3 teenage girls and left at least 30 students injured. A 4th student died the next day.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A3)(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 20, Robert Altman (b.1925), film director, producer and writer, died in Los Angeles. His numerous films included “M*A*S*H" (1970) and “Nashville" (1975).
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.A1)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.87)
2006 Nov 20, Dirk Dirksen (b.1937), the godfather of San Francisco punk rock, died. He moved to SF in 1974 and soon began presenting late-night events at the Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach, where punk rock found a home.
(SFC, 11/22/06, p.B7)
2006 Nov 20, British PM Tony Blair told soldiers fighting a resurgent Taliban that success in Afghanistan would be a step toward global security, and pledged Britain's commitment to the war-torn country "for as long as it takes."
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Austria 35 nations tried to find common ground in a fractious session focusing on what to do about Iran's requests to the UN nuclear watchdog agency for help on projects including building a plutonium-producing reactor.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, British Brig. Grismond "Gris" Davies-Scourfield died at age 88. He won a Military Cross for his part in the Allied defense of Calais during World War II and later escaped from the Nazis holding him prisoner in the notorious Colditz Castle.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Nov 20, Authorities seized a 50-foot homemade submarine with 3 tons of cocaine off the coast of Costa Rica.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A2)
2006 Nov 20, China’s Pres. Hu Jintao arrived in New Delhi for the second visit by a Chinese president.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Eritrea and Ethiopia both rejected plans by a UN-appointed border panel to demarcate their contentious frontier on paper.
(AFP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, French prosecutors approved international arrest warrants for 9 Rwandan officials in connection with the 1994 attack that killed Rwanda's president, triggering the central African country's genocide. Magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere also said there was evidence that "Paul Kagame and members of his military staff devised the operation" to destroy Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
(Reuters, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Kempten, Germany, nurse Stephan Letter was convicted of killing 28 of his patients (2003-2004) at a hospital in Sonthofen, Germany, and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In northwest Germany, Sebastian Bosse (18) with explosives strapped to his body, killed himself after storming a high school in Emsdetten and injuring several people with gunfire.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Guatemala City an enormous fire broke out at Central America's largest open-air market killing 15 people, including three minors.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, In eastern India an explosion ripped through two cars of a passenger train, killing at least 8 people and injuring about 60 people.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 20, Iran invited Iraq and Syria to talks in Tehran aimed at curbing violence in Iraq.
(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 20, Assassins killed Walid Hassan (47), a popular Baghdad television comedian and a professor at a university south of the capital, but failed in attempts to kill two government officials as the country's leader met with Syria's foreign minister about improving security and reopening diplomatic relations. At least 25 Iraqis were killed in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baquba. The bodies of 75 Iraqis, who had been kidnapped and tortured, were found in Baghdad, Dujail and in the Tigris River in southern Iraq. It was reported that at least 21 Iraqi interpreters had been kidnapped and shot in the head in Basra over the last month.
(AP, 11/20/06)(SFC, 11/20/06, p.A9)(AP, 11/21/06)(SFC, 11/21/06, p.A13)
2006 Nov 20, Italian Premier Romano Prodi’s center-left government got rid of the heads of its 3 intelligence chiefs: military service (SISMI), civil agency (SISDI) and the coordinating body CESIS.
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.48)
2006 Nov 20, Mexico’s defeated presidential candidate Lopez Obrador planned to be sworn in as the country's "legitimate president" as Mexico celebrated its 1910 revolution.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Armed men attacked the offices of a Nigerian aid group in the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, killing one person and wounding another. The dead man had offered to help find Ateke Tom, a militant wanted by the Nigerian government in connection with a string of kidnappings and bank robberies.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, A Paraguayan court dropped corruption charges against former President Luis Gonzalez Macchi, acknowledging it had failed to meet a deadline for hearing full testimony on accusations he maintained a secret Swiss bank account.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Gen. Addeh Museh, the president of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said he will rule according to Islamic law, a surprising move in a relatively stable area that has resisted the spread of Islamic militants who control most of southern Somalia.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In South Africa police said Ananias Mathe, a Mozambican national awaiting trial on rape, murder and other charges, escaped from Pretoria's C-Max prison by greasing himself up with petroleum jelly and squeezing out of a tiny window. This was the first reported escape at the top security prison in its 36-year history. On Dec 4 Mathe was shot and captured.
(AP, 11/20/06)(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Nov 20, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir's government hailed a new agreement with the UN over peacekeepers in Darfur as a diplomatic breakthrough, but said serious differences remain over the force's makeup and command.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, In Turkey police arrested 29 leftist activists who broke into The Associated Press office in Ankara to protest alleged mistreatment of prisoners.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2006 Nov 20, Uzbekistan blocked a UN resolution backed by the US and Western nations criticizing its human rights violations, including the harassment, beatings and arrests of journalists and civil activists.
(AP, 11/20/06)
2007 Nov 20, Freddie Mac, the larger US buyer and guarantor of home loans, reported a $2 billion loss for the 3rd quarter and warned that it may need to raise fresh capital. Fannie Mae, another US mortgage guarantor, had already posted a $1.4 billion loss earlier in the month.
(SFC, 11/21/07, p.C1)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.76)
2007 Nov 20, In Utah polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of a breakaway Mormon sect, was sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for forcing a 14-year-old to marry her first cousin. In 2010 the Utah Supreme Court reversed the convictions of Jeffs and ordered a new trial saying a jury received incorrect instructions. On April 7, 2011, a federal judge handed control of a $114 million communal land trust back to the leaders of Jeff’s polygamous church. Courts had seized control of the trust in 2005.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)(SFC, 7/28/10, p.A4)(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A5)
2007 Nov 20, Crude-oil futures surged to a record high settling at $98.03 a barrel on the NY Mercantile Exchange.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.C8)
2007 Nov 20, Researchers said they have decoded the gene map of a strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and that their work has identified mutations that may help develop better treatments.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In SF large grocery stores stopped using plastic bags as a new city ordnance banning the bags took effect.
(SFC, 11/20/07, p.D1)
2007 Nov 20, British Treasury chief Alistair Darling revealed a lapse at Britain's tax and customs service regarding missing computer disks with details of 25 million British individuals and 7.25 million families claiming child benefit. There were gasps from lawmakers when Darling described the scale of the loss.
(AP, 11/21/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.24)
2007 Nov 20, In Cambodia Kaing Guek Eav (66), also known as Duch, the head of the Khmer Rouge's largest and most notorious torture center appeared in court in the first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan nomad to eight years in prison for seeking Tibetan independence after he urged a crowd to proclaim loyalty to the Dalai Lama.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In China Huang Qingnan (34), a workers’ rights advocate in Shenzhen, was severely beaten and stabbed by thugs believed to have been hired by Chinese companies opposed to labor activism.
(SFC, 1/7/08, p.A18)
2007 Nov 20, The Paris-based World Association of Newspapers said imprisoned Chinese journalist Li Changqing has been awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom, its annual press freedom prize.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A landslide in central China buried a bus. Workers clearing rocks from the landslide discovered the bus underneath rubble three days later and recovered 29 bodies, that included 28 inside the bus. The landslide raised concern that the massive reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam, 120 miles away, was wreaking ecological havoc in the region. The death toll later increased to 34.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/24/07)(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Nov 20, It was reported that Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central African country.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Travel woes piled up in France with air traffic delays adding to a week of rail strikes as many of the nation's 5 million civil servants held a day-long walkout in the biggest test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's appetite for reform.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, A British Puma helicopter crashed southeast of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and seriously injuring two others. A sophisticated roadside bomb killed a US soldier and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded three other soldiers on patrol in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation, seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Jordan held elections. Supporters of King Abdullah II, a close US ally, handily defeated the country's Islamist opposition in parliamentary elections, dropping their number of parliament seats by nearly two-thirds.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Officials said Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua will not allow his country to be used as a base for the proposed US African military command AFRICOM.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, The British government announced that the legal age of sexual consent in Northern Ireland will be lowered to 16 in line with the rest of the United Kingdom.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 20, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said more than 3,000 people jailed under emergency rule have been released, the latest sign that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was rolling back some of the harsher measures taken against his opponents. Over 2,000 remained jailed. The government said the army had killed 15 militants in Shangla as Pres. Musharraf left for a visit to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in a key arms control treaty was a necessary response to NATO "muscle-flexing" near its frontiers. The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which originally set limits on weapons of NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, was revised in 1999. Russia ratified the updated treaty in 2004, but the US and other NATO members have refused to follow suit, saying Moscow first must fulfill obligations to withdraw forces from Georgia and from Moldova's separatist Trans-Dniester region.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, In Singapore Southeast Asian leaders (ASEAN) adopted a landmark charter but their vision to create an EU-style bloc faced hurdles because of concerns over Myanmar, whose military rulers have defied international calls to restore democracy.
(AP, 11/20/07)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.43)
2007 Nov 20, Ian Smith (88), Rhodesia's last white prime minister, died in South Africa. His attempts to resist black rule dragged the country, later renamed as Zimbabwe, into isolation and civil war.
(AP, 11/20/07)(SFC, 11/23/07, p.B14)(Econ, 11/24/07, p.92)
2008 Nov 20, A US federal judge ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, US Congressional efforts to rescue Detroit’s auto makers collapsed with lawmakers saying the industry lacks credibility to return to profitability. Democrats asked for a convincing turnaround plan by Dec 2.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 20, The DJIA fell 444.99 to its lowest level since March, 2003.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 20, In Afghanistan US-led forces killed an Afghan civilian in a battle that also left two militants dead.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Nov 20, The new Australian Sex Party launched at Sexpo, an annual sex exhibition in Melbourne. It has already gathered the required 500 members and plans to register with the electoral commission next week.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to extend the European Union's peacekeeping force in Bosnia for a year, emphasizing the importance of the country's progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Britain called on Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, A meteor streaked across the sky of the Canadian Prairies producing a fire ball that shone brightly enough to be seen over an area 700 km (435 miles) wide. Searchers soon found the remains of the 10-ton meteor.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 20, In southwestern Colombia the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted and loosed avalanches of mud and ash that injured nine, destroyed bridges and trapped people in their towns. At least 10 people died in landslides triggered by the eruption.
(AP, 11/22/08)(SFC, 11/29/08, p.B6)
2008 Nov 20, Dubai held a launch party for its Atlantis Hotel.
(Econ, 12/20/08, p.115)
2008 Nov 20, Egypt held emergency talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how to stop Somali gunmen from hijacking ships. Somali pirates had already seized at least 80 ships off the Horn of Africa this year.
(SFC, 11/21/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 20, The European Union formally recognized Welsh, which dates back to the 6th century, as a minority tongue. It became an official tongue in Wales in 1993, 450 years after British rulers gave it the boot in favor of English.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Finland's Finance Ministry said four Nordic countries will lend Iceland $2.5 billion (euro1.98 billion) to help the country recover from its economic meltdown.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The 2008 edition of Beaujolais Nouveau wine arrived, and vintners hoped it will lift spirits despite the financial crisis and a dismal crop.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Georgian officials said Russian and separatist forces attacked a Georgian police checkpoint near the village of Ganmukhuri, near the breakaway province of Abkhazia. Anatoly Zaitsev, the chief of staff for the Abkhaz armed forces, said that a group of Abkhaz troops patrolling the area were shelled from the Georgian side and returned fire, and no Russian troops were involved.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Iraqi opposition lawmakers shouted and pounded their desks in protest in a second day of emotional debate in parliament over a proposed agreement with the US that would allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three more years. Baghdad authorities announced a campaign to kill stray dogs who roam the Iraqi capital in packs, after a spate of fatal dog attacks left children in some neighborhoods fearful of going outside. An American soldier died of non-combat-related causes.
(AP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Jewish settlers in Hebron spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Latvia said it is looking to start talks with IMF and had formally entered into negotiations with the European Commission on emergency financial assistance.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 20, US oil group Chevron suspended export contracts on much of its Nigerian production after a militant attack on a key pipeline. Chevron said it was declaring "force majeure" until December 31 following the Nov 14 attack on the pipeline which carries supplies to its Escravos terminal in the Niger Delta.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The Norwegian government said it has picked the US developed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to replace its aging US-made F-16 aircraft in a roughly 60 billion kroner ($8.5 billion) deal.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Pakistan a militant Taliban group warned of reprisals if there was another US drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike in its territory. A suicide bomber killed at least four people when he blew himself up at a mosque northwest of Khar, the main town in the troubled Bajaur tribal region. Pakistani jets and artillery killed 17 people, including up to four Uzbek commanders, as they pounded suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideouts in Bajaur overnight and into the morning. Pakistani jets also killed 20 militants in attacks on militant centers in the northwestern Swat valley. A suicide bomber attacked a mosque in the border region where government-backed anti-militant tribesman were praying, killing 8, including the head of the group.
(AFP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, In the Philippines a mother and her 3 children were among the six people killed after a mudslide triggered by days of heavy rain buried houses in a southern gold mining town.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 20, Boris Fyodorov (50), Russian economic reformer, died.
(Econ, 11/29/08, p.88)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to impose sanctions on pirates, arms smugglers, and perpetrators of instability in Somalia in a fresh attempt to help end years of lawlessness in the Horn of Africa nation.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Africa said it will withhold aid for Zimbabwe until a representative government is in place, in what appeared to be the first punitive measure by a regional country to enforce a power-sharing agreement.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, South Korean activists sent propaganda leaflets over the border into North Korea, ignoring their own government's pleas to stop the practice and threats from the North to sever relations if it continues.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Sri Lanka's military said that it smashed a key Tamil Tiger defense line in the island's far north and seized an airfield, putting new pressure on the shrinking jungle mini-state.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The International Criminal Court prosecutor requested arrest warrants for rebels in Sudan's Darfur region, accusing them of storming an African Union camp and killing 12 peacekeepers in Sep, 2007.
(Reuters, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Switzerland’s central bank cut its benchmark interest by a full percentage point, the latest in a global round of aggressive rate cuts amid stuttering economic growth.
(WSJ, 11/21/08, p.A16)
2008 Nov 20, In Thailand a grenade attack on demonstrators occupying the Thai premier's offices killed one person and wounded 29, prompting protest leaders to call for a new march against the government.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 19, Turkey’s central bank cuts its core overnight borrowing rate by .5% to 16.25%.
(WSJ, 11/20/08, p.A15)
2008 Nov 20, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to send some 3,000 additional UN peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent a new war in the country's east.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, Vietnam's president Nguyen Minh Triet was set to meet Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, during the first visit by a head of state from the communist nation here, mainly focused on oil and gas ties.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Vietnam family planning chiefs said officials in Communist Vietnam, alarmed by a new baby boom, are to crack down on couples having more than two children. The government first launched a two-child policy in the early 1960s. A 2003 ordinance encouraged small families without making it illegal for families to have a third child.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 20, The US ambassador to Harare, James McGee, said that a total of 294 people have been confirmed dead from cholera in Zimbabwe, amid some 1,200 cases of the water-borne disease.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2009 Nov 20, A US judge blocked a Tennessee law that allowed people to bring handguns into restaurants and bars.
(Reuters, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 20, The Manhattan Declaration was signed by about 150 prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders and scholars and was released at a press conference in Washington, DC. A number of Christian leaders, known for their public witness on behalf of justice, human rights, and the common good, had come together in shaping the declaration. It was born out of an urgent concern about growing efforts to marginalize the Christian voice in the public square, to redefine marriage, and to move away from the biblical view of the sanctity of life. In December 2010 Apple removed it as an iPhone App.
(www.manhattandeclaration.org/the-movement/movement.aspx)(SFC, 12/7/10, p.A18)
2009 Nov 20, Oprah Winfrey announced that she will end her eponymous show in Sep 2011, 26 after it first aired nationwide.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.78)
2009 Nov 20, Lester Shubin (84), former US Justice Dept. researcher, died at his home in Virginia. In the 1970s he began developing Kevlar, a new DuPont fabric invented in 1965, into body armor for police and soldiers. DuPont had intended Kevlar to replace steel belting on tires and began marketing it in 1971. By the end of 2009 bulletproof vests had saved the lives of over 3,000 law enforcement officers.
(SFC, 11/28/09, p.C4)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.E2)
2009 Nov 20, Charis Wilson (96), American model and writer, died. She had modeled for photographer Edward Weston for 11 years beginning in 1934.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.96)
2009 Nov 20, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck Farah city, the capital of the southwestern province of Farah, killing 16 people near the governor's home. A roadside bomb targeted a controversial warlord, who escaped unscathed but killed five of his bodyguards northwest of Kabul. A similar device, of the type favored by Taliban insurgents, killed three civilians in the east.
(AFP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 20, In Australia 2 executives at Securency, a banknote-making firm part-owned by Australia's central bank, were suspended over a police probe into alleged bribery and kickbacks. According to a May 23 report by The Age newspaper, Securency officials had paid more than 12 million dollars in kickbacks for a printing contract to a Vietnamese businessman with links to the communist state's government. Officials were also accused of paying bribes worth millions of dollars into tax haven bank accounts of a politically-connected Nigerian businessman to win a 2007 contract.
(AFP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 20, Australian firefighters battled dozens of bush blazes as record-breaking hot weather sparked "catastrophic" warnings in two states, just months after the country's worst ever wildfire disaster.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Canada’s TD Bank was hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit calling it the "financial epicenter" of an alleged Ponzi scheme run by disgraced Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein.
(Reuters, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Cuba Reinaldo Escobar, the husband of acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger, Yoani Sanchez, was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob after he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his wife, to a street corner debate.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, Egyptian police shot and killed a Bedouin in north Sinai after the arrest of fellow tribesmen prompted clashes. Protesters injured dozens of police near the Algerian embassy in Cairo, fanning the flames of a diplomatic spat that erupted after Algeria won a football World Cup qualifier.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northern England military helicopters winched dozens of people to safety and emergency workers in inflatable boats rescued scores more as floods swamped the picturesque Lake District. One police officer was missing and feared dead after a bridge was swept away.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In France a man with an automatic rifle opened fire on a car near a Paris train station, killing one man and wounding two others.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Germany filed terrorism charges against a Turkish-German dual citizen allegedly linked to a member of a cell that plotted to attack US targets. The 24-year-old, identified only as Kadir T. in line with German privacy laws, was charged with supporting a foreign terrorist organization and violating export laws.
(AP, 12/9/09)
2009 Nov 20, German prosecutors said that around 200 football matches in nine European countries including at least three Champions League games are implicated in a new match-fixing scandal.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Guatemalan officials announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In India 7 people were arrested in Mumbai after activists from a hardline Hindu regional political party ransacked a television station's offices and beat up staff.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In the Northern Mariana Islands a gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan, killing 4 people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself. Li Zhongren (42), a Chinese citizen, was believed to have been employed at the shooting range and left notes indicating personal financial problems and frustrations.
(AP, 11/20/09)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 20, In Mexico Jesus Zambada Reyes, identified as the nephew of drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, was found dead in an apparent suicide in Guerrero state. A body found in Guerrero state was identified as Omar Guerrero Solis, a rebel leader who had accused the state governor of drug ties. Solis told local media in May that he believed Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca had ties to the Sinaloa cartel. He accused the army of not detaining Sinaloa gunmen, while cracking down on members of the rival Beltran Leyva cartel. US citizen Lizbeth Marin was shot in Matamoros and later died of the wound. A Mexican army soldier was said to have accidentally fired a round that hit Marin.
(AP, 11/21/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northwestern Pakistan a suspected US missile strike killed at least eight militants, the second attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region. Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed when militants ambushed their convoy in the North Waziristan area of Shawal. Two police officers were killed and four others wounded when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle in Peshawar.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, Somali pirates hijacked a Panamanian cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden between the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, Swiss authorities said that they had ordered some 350 million dollars of assets to be seized from the son of the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha for graft.
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Geneva, Sw., CERN scientists restarted the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) following more than a year of repairs. They were surprised that they could so quickly get beams of protons whizzing near the speed of light during the restart.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Tanzania members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha, headquarters of the EAC.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/21/content_12513712.htm)
2009 Nov 20, Hugo Chavez has defended the alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Sanchez Ramirez, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was an important "revolutionary fighter" who supported the cause of the Palestinians. Ramirez gained international notoriety during the 1970s and 80s as the alleged mastermind of a series of bombings, killings and hostage dramas. He is serving a life sentence in France for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informant.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2010 Nov 20, American scientist Siegfried Hecker, a former director of the US Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory, said in a report that he was taken during a recent trip to the North's main Yongbyon atomic complex to a small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility. It had 2,000 recently completed centrifuges. The North told him it was producing low-enriched uranium meant for a new reactor. North Korea told Hecker it began construction on the centrifuges in April 2009 and finished only a few days before the scientist's Nov. 12 visit.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Florida Brandi Peters (27) and her 3 young children were found slain in a Tallahassee home.
(SSFC, 11/21/10, p.A14)(SSFC, 11/21/10, p.A5)
2010 Nov 20, In eastern Afghanistan Taliban suicide bombers on bicycles killed four people and wounded 31. Hafiz Janan, a Taliban leader involved in training foreign fighters, was killed in the Bakwa district of Farah province. Another Taliban leader was captured in Baraki Barak district of Logar province.
(Reuters, 11/20/10)(AP, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Australia David Auchterlonie was murdered on his 17th birthday in New South Wales. Mathew Milat (17) and Cohen Klein (18) had planned for over a week to lure Auchterlonie to his death. In 2012 Matthew Milat, a relative of serial killer Ivan Milat, pleaded guilty to the ax murder and was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. Cohen Klein also pleaded guilty and was sentenced for at least 22 years.
(AFP, 6/8/12)
2010 Nov 20, China's government-backed Catholic church ordained a bishop who did not have the pope's approval, despite objections from the Vatican.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said a top FARC rebel leader who oversees major cocaine production may have been killed in the bombing of a guerrilla camp in the country's southern jungles. Fabian Ramirez's pistols, rucksack and computers were found at the scene of a pre-dawn bombing. At least six bodies were found.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Egypt a tour bus lost control and flipped over several times on a winding mountain road near a Red Sea resort, killing eight tourists.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Ireland moved towards finalizing its four-year crisis plan for cutting its budget deficit which could pave the way for a multi-billion euro bailout.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Yair Klein, an Israeli wanted in Colombia for training militias that killed hundreds of people, returned home after he was released from a Moscow jail. Klein has denied working with Colombia's cocaine cartels and said he only instructed paramilitaries in defense tactics.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, Madagascar PM Camille Vital told reporters that 16 officers have surrendered, ending an impasse that began Nov 17, when a faction of officers declared they were taking over from Andry Rajoelina.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Mexico a gang of suspected kidnappers were arrested by marines. They had detailed plans of security arrangements for next week's UN climate change talks in Cancun.
(Reuters, 11/22/10)
2010 Nov 20, NATO nations meeting in Portugal formally agreed to start turning over Afghanistan's security to its military next year and give them full control by 2014. The US and its allies appeared to take conflicting views on when NATO combat operations would end. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014. Russia was receptive but stopped short of accepting a historic NATO invitation to join a missile shield protecting Europe against Iranian attack.
(AP, 11/20/10)(Reuters, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 20, In Saudi Arabia a young woman in her twenties defying a driving ban in the capital died along with three female friends when her car overturned.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, Pope Benedict XVI formally created 24 new cardinals amid cheers in St. Peter's Basilica, bringing a mostly Italian group into the elite club that will eventually elect his successor. Benedict XVI reiterated that condoms are not a moral solution for stopping AIDS. But he added that in some cases, such as for male prostitutes, their use could represent a first step in assuming moral responsibility "in the intention of reducing the risk of infection.
(AP, 11/20/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 20, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez stepped up his threats against the country’s only remaining opposition-aligned television channel, calling its owner, Guillermo Zuloaga, a fugitive criminal and accusing him of conspiring against his government.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2011 Nov 20, It was reported that South Carolina authorities have charged one person in connection with the mess of roughly 250,000 tires, which covers more than 50 acres on satellite images. Records showed the property is owned by Michael Keitt Jr. of Far Rockaway, NY.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Ted Forstmann, private equity pioneer, died. He and his brother Nick and Brian Little founded Forstmann Little in 1978.
(Econ, 12/3/11, p.78)
2011 Nov 20, In eastern Afghanistan over 1,000 university students blocked a main highway Jalalabad city to protest any agreement that would allow US troops to remain in the country after a planned transfer of authority in 2014. The Interior Ministry said Afghan and international forces killed 16 insurgents in fighting over the past three days in Nuristan province.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Benin Pope Benedict XVI led tens of thousands of people in a panoply of African tongues during a Mass in the national soccer stadium. He formally delivered to Africa's bishops an 87-page document known as a treatise. It applies church doctrine to address the continent's ills, especially the wars and conflicts caused by ethnic divisions and has been called a "papal road map" for Africa.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Eighteen Church of England bishops have signed an open letter published on Sunday criticizing planned welfare reforms, in a rare intervention by the religious establishment in politics. The bishops said that plans to cap the amount any household can claim in benefits at £500 ($790, 580 euros) a week risked pushing vulnerable children into poverty.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Egyptian riot police clashed for a second day in downtown Cairo with some five thousand rock-throwing protesters demanding that the ruling military quickly announce a date to hand over power to an elected government. Egypt's culture minister resigned in protest at the government response to demonstrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
(AP, 11/20/11)(AFP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, In India a fire blazed through a makeshift tent in east Delhi where eunuchs, a community of castrated men, transvestites and transsexuals, had gathered to honor deceased friends. 15 people were killed.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Iranian media reported that authorities have imposed a two-month ban on a reformist newspaper, Etemad, for printing what the country's press watchdog said was "lies and insults" to officials.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Israel officials and the "All for Peace" radio station operators said the government has ordered the shutdown of a dovish Israeli-Palestinian radio station. A shutdown order was issued last week. The West Bank station, which has been operating since 2004, said it would go to court in Israel to try to get back on the air.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Libya’s the information minister said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, Moammar Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, will be tried in Libya and not handed over to the International Criminal Court even though the country's new rulers have yet to set up a justice system.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Mexico Durango state prosecutors said troops found the remains of seven people in the town of San Juan del Rio, about 60 miles (100 km) north of the state capital, the city of Durango.
(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Myanmar ended 2 days of peace talks with 5 ethnic armies on the Thai-Burma border. More meetings were scheduled in upcoming months.
(SFC, 11/23/11, p.A7)
2011 Nov 20, In Pakistani gunmen in Baluchistan province torched three trucks carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak arrived in Manila for a three-day state visit at the invitation of Philippine President Benigno Aquino.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, South Sudan rebel chief George Athor vowed to continue battling the government in Juba and demanded new elections to end his bloody war.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Spain held a national election. It was expected to become the third eurozone country in as many weeks to throw out its governing party in an attempt to dig itself out of an economic crisis. Opposition leader Mariano Rajoy (56) and his conservative Popular Party were expected to win control of Parliament in a landslide. The Popular Party won 186 seats in the 350-seats lower chamber of Parliament, compared with 154 in the last legislature. The Socialists plummeted from 169 seats to 110, their worst performance ever.
(AP, 11/20/11)(AP, 11/21/11)
2011 Nov 20, Reports said a Sri Lankan government probe into the civil war against Tamil rebels has called for further investigations of alleged war crimes committed in the final stages of fighting in 2009. The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which has been widely criticized as biased by international rights groups, concluded that some evidence warranted a new inquiry.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Swaziland's king Mswati III's 12th wife, who was last year caught in bed with the justice minister, said she has been kicked out of the palace after pepper-spraying a security guard, who refused her effort to leave the palace to take her child to hospital. LaDube (23) is the third of Mswati's 13 wives to leave the palace since 2004.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, The Arab League said it has rejected amendments proposed by Syria to a peace plan to end the crisis in the country, saying the changes put forward by Damascus alter the "essence" of the plan. Syria's foreign minister attacked the Arab League for suspending Damascus and accused the organization of being used as a "tool" by the West.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 20, Turkish President Abdullah Gul in published comments said there was "no place for authoritarian regimes" in the Mediterranean region, heaping more pressure on the embattled Syrian regime.
(AFP, 11/20/11)
2012 Nov 20, The US and Mexico agreed to new rules on sharing water from the Colorado River.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 20, The SEC accused a Mathew Martoma, a former trader for a subsidiary of hedgefund SAC Capital, of insider trading that illicitly netted some $276 million. SAC Capital was founded in 1992 by Steven Cohen and his fortune was currently estimated at $9.5 billion.
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.80)(http://tinyurl.com/ahfjwu2)
2012 Nov 20, San Francisco lawmakers disappointed committed nudists by voting 6-5 t0 approve a ban on public nakedness despite concerns the measure would undermine the city's reputation as a sanctuary for free expression. Exemptions would be made for participants at permitted street fairs and parades.
(AP, 11/20/12)(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A1)
2012 Nov 20, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to allow the construction of hundreds of 220-square-foot residential units, which would allow up to 2 people to live in the micro-apartments.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.C1)
2012 Nov 20, In western Afghanistan a bombing in Farah province killed, Noor Mohammad Jahani, a former Taliban commander who had left the insurgency two years ago and joined the Afghan police force.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, In Afghanistan 8 prisoners were hanged. Pres. Karzai had signed off on the execution of 16 prisoners. The remaining 8 were executed the next day.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 20, A UN report said Afghan efforts to stamp out opium poppy cultivation are failing because of high prices for the illicit crop, pushing farmers to grow 18 percent more in 2012 than last year.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez faced a nationwide strike, led by union bosses who once were her most steadfast supporters.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Britain announced that it has formally recognized the newly formed Syrian opposition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli (32) was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail for the biggest fraud in British history, which resulted in a loss of $2.3 billion for the Swiss bank. Adoboli was released on parole in 2015 after serving about half his sentence.
(Reuters, 11/20/12)(AP, 6/24/15)
2012 Nov 20, Amnesty International workers in London walked off the job for the second strike in as many months. Tensions had been rising dramatically in recent weeks as Amnesty's international operations prepare to re-organize transferring some of its 500 jobs from a centralized London base to 10 regional hubs around the world.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, The Church of England’s governing General Synod failed to get a required two-thirds majority to allow women to serve as bishops.
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 20, In Cambodia President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that two Tibetan herdsmen had killed themselves by setting themselves on fire in two separate incidents.
(AP, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 20, A 5-year-old sex tape of an 18-year-old woman allegedly hired by developers to sleep with a city official exploded on the Chinese Internet when screenshots of it were uploaded by a Beijing-based former journalist Zhu Ruifeng to his Hong Kong-registered website, an independent online clearing house for corruption allegations.
(AP, 11/27/12)
2012 Nov 20, In eastern CongoDRC M23, a rebel group created just seven months ago, seized the strategic provincial capital of Goma, home to more than 1 million people, and its international airport.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, A Croatian court found former PM Ivo Sanader (2004-2009) guilty on corruption charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Judges found him guilty of accepting a $13 million bribe from Hungarian oil company MOL in return for securing rights in Croatia’s state oil company.
(SFC, 11/21/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 20, In Egypt youth activist Gaber Salah was shot in the neck in Cairo in clashes that started a day earlier, the first anniversary of the deadly confrontation between police and demonstrators known as "Mohammed Mahmoud."
(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 20, France ended its combat operations in Afghanistan, pulling hundreds of troops from a base in a volatile region northeast of Kabul and fulfilling promises to end its combat role on a faster track than other NATO allies.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Greek police said a man (35) has been arrested on suspicion of having stolen 9 million personal data files in what is believed to be the biggest breach of private information the country has ever seen.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Iraqi President Jalal Talbani, a leading Kurdish figure, met the head of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani. The commander of Kurdish Peshmerga forces warned that his troops might attack Iraqi government soldiers at "any minute" after the central government sent tanks and armored vehicles toward the disputed city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, Israeli aircraft battered the headquarters of the bank Hamas set up to sidestep international sanctions on its rule. A Palestinian rocket struck the outskirts of Jerusalem. Diplomats from across the world raced across the region to negotiate a cease-fire to end relentless Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket attacks. An Israeli airstrike killed two Al-Aqsa TV journalists in their car. Masked gunmen publicly shot dead six suspected collaborators with Israel at a large Gaza City intersection.
(AP, 11/20/12)(AP, 11/21/12)
2012 Nov 20, In northern Kenya 13 people were shot and one woman died as hundreds of shops burned to the ground amid rising Somali-Kenyan tensions.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, In northern Mali Islamist extremist rebels pushed secular Tuareg fighters from their last base in Menaka. More than 100 fighters were reported killed.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, A Nigerian official says the government owes its state-run oil firm more than $8.1 billion in gasoline subsidy payments.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, In Puerto Rico boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho (50) was struck in the jaw in a drive-by shooting. His friend Adrian Mojica Moreno was killed. Doctors at the Rio Piedras Medical Center in San Juan declared Camacho brain dead on Nov 22.
(Reuters, 11/23/12)
2012 Nov 20, Police in South Africa arrested three men, including a game ranger, they suspect shot 7 rhinoceros to death and dehorned them. South Africa's Department of Environmental Affairs said 570 rhinos had been hunted illegally and killed this year alone.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2012 Nov 20, A woman (37) in Sweden was charged "with violating the peace of the deceased" after investigators found some 100 skeleton parts in her apartment. Police also found a CD titled "My Necrophilia" as well as photographs in which a woman is seen kissing and hugging the skulls.
(AP, 11/20/12)
2013 Nov 20, Pres. Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 recipients including Gloria Steinem.
(http://tinyurl.com/j5ml52r)(Econ, 11/21/15, p.77)
2013 Nov 20, Members of Congress took part in a ceremony bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal to honor 33 tribes tribes for their WWI and WWII contributions as code talkers. Today’s ceremony was for tribes not included in the initial 2008 Gold Medal awards.
(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A5)
2013 Nov 20, Serafin Zambada (23), the son of one of the world's most-wanted drug lords, was arrested at an Arizona border crossing to face drug-trafficking charges in the United States.
(AP, 11/22/13)
2013 Nov 20, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation allowing same-sex marriages starting June 1, 2014.
(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A5)(SSFC, 6/1/14, p.A11)
2013 Nov 20, In New Jersey Jose Katz (69) was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison for fraudulently diagnosing patients with heart ailments and ordering tests. The fraud cost Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers some $19 million.
(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A5)
2013 Nov 20, In Missouri Joseph Paul Franklin (b.1950), a white supremacist who targeted blacks and Jews, was executed. He had admitted to shooting and wounding civil rights leader Vernon Jordan (1980) and Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt (1978).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Paul_Franklin)(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A10)
2013 Nov 20, Animal rights group PETA urged shoppers to boycott products made from angora rabbit fur, after it released footage of fur being plucked from the skins of live rabbits on Chinese farms.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Senior Afghan officials arrived in Pakistan to initiate peace talks with the Afghan Taliban following a breakthrough in negotiations during last month's summit in Britain. A powerful explosion killed 3 people at a restaurant in the southern city of Kandahar. A Taliban ambush took place in Helmand province killing Marjah police chief, Hajji Tooryalai Jan. A suicide car bombing has killed two paramilitary soldiers in near the Afghan border in the Shawa area of North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, The Church of England's ruling body voted overwhelmingly for proposals that could see the ordination of women bishops next year.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, About 4,000 Bulgarian workers rallied against low wages and a lack of jobs, in a possible sign that opposition to the Socialist-led cabinet may be spreading beyond daily protests staged mostly by students.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, China confirmed the deployment of a state-of-the-art hospital ship to the Philippines following foreign and domestic criticism that it was slow and less than generous in its response to one of the world's biggest typhoons, which killed at least 4,000 people.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, In Egypt a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into one of two buses carrying off-duty soldiers in northern Sinai, killing 11 and wounding 37. A bomb attack on a checkpoint in Cairo wounded four policemen including a major.
(AP, 11/20/13)(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, European Union lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to meet only in Brussels and avoid costly monthly treks to Strasbourg, France. The proposal must be approved by the 28 EU governments and France is certain to nix any change under the current conditions.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, The European Commission said Austria should pay a daily fine of more than 40,000 euros ($54,000) for breaking EU policy on renewable energy.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, In France Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai was handed the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize in recognition of her crusade for the right of all children, girls and boys, to an education.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Nuclear talks resumed between Iran and world powers. Iran's supreme leader voiced support for the negotiations over his country's nuclear program, but insisted there are limits to the concessions Iran will make in exchange for an easing of the sanctions choking its economy.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, A rights group said Iran is forcefully deporting Afghans by the thousands in violation of its international obligation to protect refugees.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Iraqi officials said flooding in central and southern Iraq has killed at least 11 people as rising waters swamped city streets and toppled buildings, sparking anger over the dilapidated sewage system. A wave of attacks hit commercial areas in Baghdad, killing 37 people and wounding over 80 in mostly Shiite areas.
(AFP, 11/20/13)(AP, 11/20/13)(SFC, 11/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 20, In Jordan Raed Hijazi, also known as Abu Ahmad, was arrested. He had been convicted of plotting al-Qaida terror attacks during New Year 2000 celebrations. Initially, he was sentenced to death in absentia. He was later captured and extradited from Syria and sentenced to 20 years, but was set free two years ago by Jordan's king to give him what was described as another chance to repent.
(AP, 12/4/13)
2013 Nov 20, In Kuwait Arab and African leaders wound up their first summit since the region's uprisings in 2011 by calling for closer economic and security cooperation.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, A Madagascar government statement showed changes to 10 of the Indian Ocean island's 22 regions. Three generals and five colonels assumed control of eight regions while two civilians headed the remaining two. This raised concern that the run-off vote in December will be rigged.
(Reuters, 11/22/13)
2013 Nov 20, Mexico’s El Heraldo reported that the National Human Rights Commission has found that visits to the country’s 101 most populous prisons indicated that 65 are run by inmates.
(SSFC, 11/24/13, p.A8)
2013 Nov 20, Mozambique held local elections. Preliminary results from the largely peaceful elections pointed to a comprehensive victory for the ruling Frelimo party and a potential shake-up among the country's opposition parties.
(AFP, 11/21/13)
2013 Nov 20, The International Criminal Court's vexed relationship with Africa took center stage on the opening day of the annual summit of its 122 member states at The Hague.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Poland’s PM Donald Tusk reshuffled his Cabinet. Jacek Rostowski, the man who has led the country’s economy since 2007, was among those sacked.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.56)
2013 Nov 20, At UN talks in Poland the governments of Norway, Britain and the United States said they will allocate $280 million of their multi-billion dollar climate change finances to a new initiative aimed at halting deforestation.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, In Russia six more Greenpeace activists arrested by Russian coast guards during a protest against Arctic oil drilling were granted bail on Wednesday, including the US captain of their ship. Eighteen of the 30 people detained on September 18 have now been granted bail this week.
(Reuters, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Saudi health authorities announced a new MERS death, raising to 54 the number of people killed by the coronavirus.
(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, A Senegal judge said there is insufficient evidence to convict four women accused of violating the country's law banning homosexual acts. The four women were freed. A fifth woman arrested in the same raid on Nov 11 is a minor and will be tried separately.
(AP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Suicide bombers targeted Syrian troops and a hospital in the rugged Qalamoun hills north of Damascus killing at least 7 soldiers, as rebels struggled to reverse government gains that threatened to cut one of their chief supply lines.
(AP, 11/20/13)(AFP, 11/20/13)
2013 Nov 20, Tunisia signed a $500 million loan agreement with energy-rich Qatar to help bolster its currency reserves.
(AFP, 11/23/13)
2014 Nov 20, President Barack Obama issued executive orders granting new rights to millions of people living illegally in the United States.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, Regents of the Univ. of California approved a plan to raise tuition by up to 28% over five years despited protests by furious students.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A1)
2014 Nov 20, California state officials said AT&T Inc will pay $52 million in civil penalties and environmental compliance as part of a settlement over illegal dumping of hazardous waste but won't be required to clean up the resulting contamination.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, The California Public Utilities Commission voted to levy a $1.05 million fine against PG&E for lobbying the regulatory agency in back-channel communications related to the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion. The PUC also authorized a broad probe into PG&E’s gas distribution system and fined the company $10.8 million stemming from an explosion in March that destroyed a Carmel cottage.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.D1, D2)
2014 Nov 20, Florida police shot and killed Myron May (31), a Florida State Univ. alumnus, after May shot three people outside the campus library in Tallahassee. Journal notes indicated that May believed the government was targeting him for persecution.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A9)
2014 Nov 20, In Louisiana 3 children and 2 adults were killed when a boy (16) driving relatives from Texas to Disney World fell asleep causing the SUV to veer off the road and roll over. He and two passengers suffered minor injuries.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A6)
2014 Nov 20, In NYC rookie police officer Peter Liang (26) shot and killed Akai Gurley (28) in a darkened stairwell in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood. Police called the shooting an unfortunate accident. Liang was indicted on Feb 10, 2015, and convicted on Feb 11, 2016. On April 19, 2016, a judge reduced Liang’s manslaughter conviction to a lesser charge and spared prison time.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A5)(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A6)(AP, 2/20/16)(SFC, 4/20/16, p.A6)
2014 Nov 20, In western New York snow-bound residents awoke to as much as another foot of accumulation with possibly another 30 inches expected. A freakish storm swept off the Great Lakes on Nov 18 and after 3 days deposited 7 feet of snow and more and left at least 12 people dead.
(Reuters, 11/20/14)(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A5)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern Brazil 8 people were killed following a head-on car crash that also left three others seriously injured near Esplanada.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, British regulators fined Royal Bank of Scotland PLC 56 million pounds ($87 million) for computer problems that made it impossible for customers to get access to their accounts.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Britain's first bus powered entirely by human and food waste took to the road in Bristol. The Wessex Water subsidiary GENeco's Bristol sewage treatment plant became the first in the UK to start providing gas generated from food waste and sewage to the national gas grid network.
(AFP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, China’s state media reported that police have arrested 39 people as they broke up a telephone scam ring in Guangdong province that tricked Malaysians into wiring them money.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northeastern China 6 nurses and a janitor were killed in a knife attack at the Beidaihe Sanatorium, a military hospital and resort in the seaside town of Beidaihe. A 27-year-old employee was detained.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In CongoDRC between 50 and 80 people were killed in an attack near Beni, North Kivu province.
(AP, 11/22/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Dominica Msgr. Reginald LaFleur (60), a popular priest known as "Father Reggie" by parishioners in Grand Bay, was defrocked at the direction of the Congregation of the Faith in Rome. He was accused of sexually abusing a girl in 1994.
(AP, 11/22/14)
2014 Nov 20, An Egyptian court acquitted Dr. Raslan Fadl charged with committing female genital mutilation that led to a 13-year-old girl's death in a Nile Delta village. This was the country's first trial on charges of breaking the 2008 ban on the practice.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Egypt arrested Mohammed Ali Bishr, a leading Muslim Brotherhood member linked to a call for demonstrations at the end of the month. He had played a key role in negotiations between his now-banned group and the government.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, France formally opened a terrorism investigation into three French recruits of the Islamic State group calling for attacks back home in a propaganda video.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Donor nations meeting at a conference in Germany pledged a total $9.3 billion to the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF to help developing countries tackle climate change, but environmental campaigners said the funds fell short of what is needed.
(Reuters, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pardoned Iranian-Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan after six years in prison for spreading propaganda, insulting Islam and cooperating with hostile countries. He was imprisoned in 2008 in Tehran on suspicion of spying for Israel and sentenced in 2010 to 19-1/2 years in prison.
(Reuters, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi said that Iraq and Turkey have agred on closer security and intelligence cooperation in the face of threats posed by the Islamic State group.
(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A4)
2014 Nov 20, Israeli police handed home demolition notices to families of four Palestinian attackers from east Jerusalem, including two assailants who killed five people in a synagogue attack earlier this week.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Kashmir Indian forces reportedly fired across the border into the Pakistan-administered portion of the disputed Himalayan region, killing a soldier.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northern Mali the bodies of two Tuareg separatist militants were found near the village of Takabort, around 40 km outside Kidal.
(Reuters, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Mexico a largely peaceful march by tens of thousands demanding the return of 43 missing students ended in violence, as a small group of masked protesters battled police in Mexico City's main square.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, In western Nepal a bus plunged into the Bheri river, killing at least 47 people.
(AP, 11/20/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 20, Dutch authorities said a case of bird flu has been confirmed at a chicken farm, the second infection identified in the country this week.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Nigeria’s Senate President David Mark suspended legislative proceedings after police fired tear gas to prevent the House of Representatives from convening. The speaker of the House recently changed allegiance from the president's party to the main opposition party. Police then withdrew his security clearance, triggering today’s standoff.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, In northwestern Pakistan a US drone strike killed six suspected militants in North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, A Philippine court convicted nine people for graft over a 1996 nightclub fire that killed 162 people.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, The Serbian government secured an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $1.2 billion standby loan. The three-year deal was reached after Serbia agreed to narrow the budget deficit from 8 percent to 4.2 percent of economic output by 2016 by cutting public wages and pensions and reducing subsidies to unprofitable state companies.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, A South Korean court sentenced Kim Han-sik (71), president of Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, to 10 years in prison over the April 16 sinking of the Sewol ferry that killed more than 300 people, mostly high school students. On May 12 an appeals court reduced the sentence to seven years.
(AP, 11/20/14)(SFC, 11/21/14, p.A5)(SFC, 5/13/15, p.A3)
2014 Nov 20, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa called an early election to seek a third term in office amid growing criticism of his wide-ranging powers.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, A Swedish appeals court upheld the detention order on Julian Assange, dismissing a challenge by the WikiLeaks founder who is wanted by prosecutors in an investigation of alleged sex crimes. Assange has avoided being extradited to Sweden by taking shelter in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 20, Yemen's culture minister, Arwa Othman, who was recently honored for her work combatting extremism and discrimination against women, said she is giving her award to Yemen's dwindling Jewish population. Fewer than 90 Jews live in Yemen, half of them in a guarded compound which protects the US Embassy in the capital of Sanaa.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 20, In Zimbabwe 11 people were killed and dozens injured in a stampede at a stadium in Kwekwe, as thousands of people at an evening church service tried to leave through the same exit.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2015 Nov 20, Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard was released from prison, culminating an extraordinary espionage case that complicated American-Israeli relations for 30 years and became a periodic bargaining chip between two allies.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In California regulations banning the commercial and recreational trapping of bobcat went into effect.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Nov 20, Officials said that an outbreak of E. coli linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill in Washington and Oregon has now spread to six states including California, New York, Minnesota and Ohio.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Nov 20, British police issued an "unreserved apology" to seven women deceived into sexual relationships with officers on undercover assignments.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Cambodian officials said about 370 workers fainted at factories in the past two days, possibly because of pesticide spraying on nearby rice fields.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Police in China said they have cracked the country's biggest-ever underground banking network, which handled illegal foreign exchange transactions worth 410 billion yuan ($64 billion).
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Chinese authorities announced that police have killed 28 members of a "terrorist group" in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In China a fire broke out late today at a mine operated by state giant Longmay Mining Holding Group in Heilongjiang province's Jixi city. At least 21 people died at the mine operated by northeast China's biggest state-owned coal company.
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, EU interior and justice ministers in Brussels pledged solidarity with France in the wake of the Paris attacks a week ago and agreed a series of new measures on surveillance, border checks and gun control.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, The Bavarian Interior Ministry said more than 900,000 migrants have been registered in Germany since the beginning of the year.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Haiti one person was shot dead and another was wounded by a machete blow to the head during post-election skirmishes that erupted in Port-au-Prince.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Iraq bomb attacks on a Shiite mosque and elsewhere in southern Baghdad killed at least 15 people as a top religious official urged unity among Iraqis in the fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Italian police arrested six members of Sicily's Cosa Nostra mafia as part of an inquiry that uncovered a threat of violence against Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Malaysia deployed extraordinary security measures around Kuala Lumpur as leaders from 18 countries arrived for the East Asian and ASEAN weekend summits.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Mali a least two Islamist gunmen stormed the Raddison Blu luxury hotel in Bamako and took 170 people hostage in the former French colony. 19 people were killed including 6 Russians, 3 Chinese, one Israeli, one American, one Belgian and one Malian soldier. The 2 gunmen were killed. The al-Mourabitoun Islamic extremist group took credit for the attack. On Nov 26 two Malians were arrested for complicity in the attack.
(AFP, 11/20/15)(Reuters 11/21/15)(SFC, 11/21/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/16, p.A2)
2015 Nov 20, In Pakistan gunmen on motorcycles opened fire in Karachi, killing 4 members of the security forces who were deployed outside a mosque.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Portugal's Parliament approved laws allowing same-sex couples to legally adopt children and permitting lesbians to obtain medically assisted fertilization.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Russian and Syrian warplanes carried out more than 70 strikes in eastern Deir Ezzor province, killing at least 36 people including 10 children. Dozens of oil tankers were destroyed. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that more than 600 rebels had been eliminated as a result of a cruise missile strike a target in Syrian Deir ez-Zour province.
(AFP, 11/20/15)(Reuters, 11/20/15)(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, A Singapore court sentenced Kong Hee, the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church, to eight years in jail for misappropriating more than $35 million in donations to support his wife's singing career. Other sentences for five church leaders ranged from 21 months to six years.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 1,300 people, around two-thirds of them combatants, have been killed in Russian air strikes in Syria since Moscow's aerial campaign began on September 30.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish media reported that authorities have seized close to the Syrian border a record haul of almost 11 million pills of the synthetic stimulant drug captagon which is believed to play a crucial part in Syria's civil war. It has been repeatedly dubbed as the drug fueling Syria's civil war since its production provides income for the warring factions and also keeps fighters awake and energized over long periods.
(AFP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, Turkish army warplanes carried out a new wave of air strikes on northern Iraq hitting 23 suspected targets of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
(AFP, 11/21/15)
2015 Nov 20, The UN Security Council unanimously approved a French-sponsored resolution calling on all nations to redouble and coordinate action to prevent further attacks by Islamic State terrorists and other extremist groups.
(SFC, 11/21/15, p.S2)
2015 Nov 20, A new study was released that estimated poverty in Venezuela has hit an all-time high of some 73 percent of households. It was prepared by researchers at three Venezuelan universities on the basis of surveys with 6,000 people.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, The World Trade Organization ruled in favor of Mexico in a trade dispute with the US, saying Washington's requirement for "dolphin-safe" tuna labels is unfair to Mexican fishermen.
(AP, 11/20/15)
2015 Nov 20, In Yemen Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the army in the eastern region of Hadramawt that a security source said killed at least 19 soldiers and 35 militants.
(Reuters, 11/20/15)
2016 Nov 20, In Missouri an ambush-style attack left a sergeant in St. Louis critically injured. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)
2016 Nov 20, In North Dakota months-long protests over an oil pipeline came to a head in sub-freezing temperatures this evening, as hundreds of protesters tried to push past a police barricade on Backwater Bridge. They were met with what appeared to be tear gas, water cannon spray, and rubber bullets.
(CSM, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 20, In San Antonio an ambush-style attack left Detective Benjamin Marconi dead. Otis Tyrone McKane, the attacker in Texas, was arrested the next day. In 2021 McKane (36) was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A6)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.A6)(AP, 8/7/21)
2016 Nov 20, Acclaimed Irish novelist William Trevor (b.1928) died at his adopted English home. Trevor won the Whitbread Prize three times for “The Children of Dynmouth" (in 1978), “Fools of Fortune (in 1983), and “Felicia’s Journey" (in 1994). He was widely regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers of short stories in the English language.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Trevor)(SFC, 11/22/16, p.C4)
2016 Nov 20, Egypt’s state news reported that 292 suspects linked to the Islamic State group have been referred to a military tribunal over attacks and an alleged plot to assassinate Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
(SFC, 11/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 20, Estonia's Pres. Kersti Kaljulaid nominated Juri Ratas, the new leader of a center-left, traditionally pro-Russian party, as prime minister who promised to leave foreign policy unchanged in a region worried about possible Russian aggression. Ratas (38) headed a 3-way coalition consisting of his own Center Party, the left-leaning Social Democrats and the Conservative IRL party.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)(SFC, 11/24/16, p.A2)
2016 Nov 20, French conservatives voted in a nationwide primary for the first time to choose their nominee for next year's presidential election, after a campaign marked by concerns about immigration and Islamic extremism. The three leading candidates included Nicolas Sarkozy (61) and former prime ministers Francois Fillon (62) and Alain Juppe (72). Francois Fillon won 44 percent of the votes.
(AP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 20, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (62) told her party she will seek re-election next year, a move likely to be welcomed in many capitals as a sign of stability following poll triumphs for Brexit and Donald Trump.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, The German news agency dpa reported that some 8,800 geese on two poultry farms will be culled in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein because some of the animals are infected with the bird flu. Last week 30,000 chickens were destroyed in Schleswig-Holstein after H5N8 was detected in their enclosure.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Haitians voted in a long-delayed presidential election, hoping a new government will lift the economy after a devastating hurricane and more than a year of political instability. Jovenel Moise won with 56% of the vote in a field of 27 candidates. The turnout was only 21%.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)(SFC, 12/1/16, p.A3)(Econ 6/10/17, p.35)
2016 Nov 20, In northern India at least 146 people were killed close to 200 injured when an express train derailed in Uttar Pradesh state. The death toll soon climbed to 148 after two more people died from their injuries.
(Reuters, 11/21/16)(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 20, Iraqi troops fortified their positions in Mosul neighborhoods retaken from the Islamic State group as their advance toward the city center was slowed by sniper fire and suicide bombings, as well as concern over the safety of civilians.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Iraq millions of Shiite Muslim pilgrims beating their chests in mourning thronged Karbala under the protection of thousands of members of the security forces. The commemoration of Imam Hussein's death in 680 AD culminates on Nov 21.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Israel dozens of LGBT activists protested in Jerusalem against comments reportedly made by the city's chief rabbi disparaging the gay community. Rabbi Shlomo Amar told an Israeli newspaper last week that gay people were an "abomination" and homosexuality a "cult."
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Mali held its first elections since 2013, with turnout low as security jitters remained high despite an international military intervention. Malians burned ballot boxes and one candidate was kidnapped during the local elections. Polls were canceled in at least seven districts for security reasons.
(AFP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Heavy rains and strong winds hit the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia destroying homes. At least three people were killed, including two children.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov 20, Norwegian police said they were investigating a pedophile network suspected to involve at least 51 people, which includes the abuse of infants and at least one case of a suspect acknowledging abusing his own children.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, In Peru President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to each other start of the opening session of APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima. Obama held separate meetings with the leaders of Australia and Canada as he wrapped up the final foreign trip of his presidency.
(AP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, The Syrian government refused a UN proposal to grant the rebel-held eastern districts of Aleppo autonomy in order to restore calm to the war-torn city. Fresh fighting in Aleppo killed at least eight schoolchildren. A barrel bomb killed a family of six in the rebel-held area.
(AP, 11/20/16)(AFP, 11/20/16)(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Pope Francis brought to a close the Catholic Church's "Year of Mercy," shutting the Holy Door at Saint Peter's after a year in which he raised Mother Teresa to sainthood and took in Syrian Muslim refugees.
(AFP, 11/20/16)
2016 Nov 20, Yemen's dominant Houthi movement launched Katyusha rockets into Saudi Arabia and residents reported Saudi-led air strikes in a Yemeni border province in exchanges that threatened to derail a 48-hour truce.
(Reuters, 11/20/16)
2017 Nov 20, The Trump administration said it is ending a temporary residency permit program that allowed almost 60,000 citizens from Haiti to live and work in the US following a 2010 powerful earthquake. Advocates and members of Congress asked for an 18-month extension of the program, known as Temporary Protected Status.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 20, US Pres. Donald Trump officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A4)
2017 Nov 20, The United States charged former top Hong Kong government official Chi Ping Patrick Ho (68) with links to a Chinese energy conglomerate and former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio (61) with bribing high-level officials in Chad and Uganda in exchange for contracts for the mainland company.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 20, US Gen. John Nicholson said there are 13 major drug trafficking organizations in Afghanistan, of which seven are in Helmand. Nicholson said the insurgents generate an estimated $200 million a year from poppy cultivation and opium production.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, US District Judge William Orrick II of San Francisco issued a final ruling saying Pres. Trump acted unconstitutionally when he threatened to strip billions of dollars in federal funding from sanctuary cities and counties.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A1)
2017 Nov 20, In Delaware Terminix was sentenced more than $9 million in criminal fines after admitting to using a pesticide called methyl bromide at 14 locations, including the St. John resort in the US Virgin Islands where the Esmond family of Delaware was vacationing in 2015. Three of the family members sustained neurological damage.
(AP, 11/22/17)
2017 Nov 20, US financier George Soros (86) denounced a Hungarian government campaign against him as "distortions and lies" designed to create a false external enemy.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Nebraska regulators approved a Keystone XL oil pipeline route through the state, but chose an alternate pathway to the one preferred by the pipeline operator. More time could be required to study the changes in the delayed $8 billion project.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 20, In NYC Kenneth Branagh won the International Emmy for Best Actor, while Anna Friel won the Best Actress trophy at the 2017 International Emmy Awards gala.
(AP, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 20, In New York state two explosions at the Verla Int’l. cosmetics factory left one person dead and 35 injured in New Windsor.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A8)
2017 Nov 20, In Oklahoma Tulsa police officer Shannon Kepler (54) was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2014 slaying of Jeremey Lake (19), his daughter’s black boyfriend.
(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A6)
2017 Nov 20, It was reported that Albania's PM Edi Rama has sent a letter asking European Union countries for support in cracking down on criminal gangs that profit from drug sales, prostitution, human trafficking and other illicit activities.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Belarus's KGB state security service said it had uncovered a spy ring working for the Ukrainian defence ministry that had been set up by a detained Ukrainian radio correspondent. Minsk-based journalist Pavlo Sharoyko was arrested in October and charged with being an undercover intelligence officer. The Ukrainian defence ministry denied the allegations against Sharoyko who it said had worked as a spokesman for the ministry before switching to journalism in 2009.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, China's foreign ministry said Myanmar and Bangladesh have endorsed its three-stage solution for a negotiated resolution of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, A high-level Chinese envoy wrapped up a four-day trip to North Korea after meeting with top officials and discussing the tense state of affairs on the Korean Peninsula and other issues.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, French police arrested Suleiman Kerimov (51), a Russian businessman and lawmaker, at Nice airport in connection with a French tax evasion case. Kerimov built his multi-billion natural resources business through a combination of debt, an appetite for risk, and political connections.
(Reuters, 11/22/17)
2017 Nov 20, Iran called on Saudi Arabia to stop its "barbaric attacks" on Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been at war with Tehran-backed rebels since March 2015. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi also called on Saudi Arabia to drop its boycott of the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar, which has warm ties with Iran.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Iraq's Supreme Federal Court ruled that the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum was unconstitutional and the results void. Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government called on the international community to intervene and help lift sanctions imposed by the central government in Baghdad in retaliation for a September referendum on Kurdish independence.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Kenya's Supreme Court upheld the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta in last month's repeat presidential vote, paving the way for him to be sworn in next week.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Medical staff in the southern Libyan city of Sabha said they were suspending work for 10 days in protest over poor security after a doctor was kidnapped.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, North Korea’s foreign minister arrived in Cuba, in search of support amid unprecedented pressure from the United States and the international community to cease its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, A Pakistani court granted the government three more days to find a way to clear an Islamist rally near Islamabad.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Romania's defense minister says the country will purchase Patriot missiles worth $3.9 billion from the United States in the first half of 2019.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for three hours of talks to lay the groundwork for a new push by Moscow to end Syria's conflict now that Islamic State's territorial caliphate is overrun.
(Reuters, 11/21/17)
2017 Nov 20, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea has punished two of its top military officers, including one widely seen as its second-most powerful official, during a highly unusual inspection of the military's powerful political bureau.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 107 teachers for suspected ties to the US-based cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating last year's coup.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Turkey said Syrian Kurdish fighters have attacked a Turkish observation post in the northern Syrian province of Idlib with mortar rounds. There were no casualties.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, In Ukraine Mikhail Saakashvili, former Georgian President, raised the pressure on Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, saying the country needs a new Cabinet and he's ready to lead it.
(AP, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, A UN human rights panel said on North Korean women are deprived of education and job opportunities and are often subjected to violence at home and sexual assault in the workplace.
(Reuters, 11/20/17)
2017 Nov 20, Zimbabwe’s Pres. Robert Mugabe ignored a midday deadline by the party's Central Committee to resign. Several hundred Zimbabwean students added their voices for Pres. Mugabe to quit. Classes at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare were cancelled and examinations postponed as students raged over Mugabe's insistence on staying in office.
(AP, 11/20/17)(AFP, 11/20/17)
2018 Nov 20, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer issued a report accusing China of stepping up hacking aimed at stealing American technology.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Massachusetts's first two legal pot shops opened in Leicester and Northampton.
(SFC, 11/21/18, p.A6)
2018 Nov 20, US federal judge Carlton Reeves struck down a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8nj2eqv)(SFC, 11/22/18, p.A8)
2018 Nov 20, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber targeted a gathering of hundreds of Muslim religious scholars in Kabul, killing at least 55 people as Muslims around the world marked the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. The Taliban denied involvement in the suicide bombing. 94 others were wounded in the attack.
(AP, 11/20/18)(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Award-winning Bangladeshi photographer and activist Shahidul Alam (63) was released from prison after more than 100 days behind bars. He was arrested on August 5 for making "false" and "provocative" statements on Al Jazeera television and Facebook during student protests.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, A Brussels police officer was wounded and a terrorism inquiry has been launched after pre-dawn knife attack. The suspect in the attack was shot by two of the officer's colleagues and was hospitalized in a "critical condition".
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Bosnia inaugurated the country's three-member presidency following last month's election, with nationalist politicians dominating a body designed to heal the country's ethnic divide.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Brazil's incoming justice minister, the former anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, picked Mauricio Valeixo to be director-general of the federal police with a mission to fight graft and organized crime.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Chile Luis Mayol, the top government official in the restive Araucania region, resigned late on today amid mounting political fallout after a controversial police raid last week ended in the shooting of an indigenous Mapuche man. Camilo Catrillanca (24), the grandson of a prominent Mapuche indigenous leader, was shot in the back of the head in Temucuicui. In 2021 officer Carlos Alarcón was sentenced to 11 years in prison over Catrillanca’s death.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)(The Guardian, 1/29/21)
2018 Nov 20, China's Pres. Xi Jinping held talks with President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials on a visit to the Philippines aimed at deepening relations with the American treaty ally. Jinping said negotiations between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations on a nonaggression pact to prevent clashes in the disputed South China Sea could be concluded in three years and promised that any differences will be dealt with peacefully.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The Shanghai Stock Exchange said billionaire Chinese actress Zhao Wei and her husband have been barred from taking on key positions at listed companies for five years for violating securities regulations.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, A Croatian court says a tycoon who founded a deeply indebted food and retail company should be released from jail after he deposited a one-million-euro bail ($1.1 million). Ivica Todoric must hand in his passport to authorities and won't be allowed to leave the capital pending the end of his trial.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Amnesty International said that Egypt has committed "shocking violations" against children, including torture and enforced disappearances.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Union said it will suspend 100 million euros ($114 million) of aid to Moldova over concerns about its democracy and the slow pace of reforms in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) urged Turkey to swiftly process the legal case of Selahattin Demirtas, the ex-head of the pro-Kurdish opposition, saying his pre-trial detention had gone on longer than could be justified.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Fiji's leader Voreqe Bainimarama was sworn in for four more years after winning an election with a reduced majority, after earlier lashing out at his opponents.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In France Rev. Robert Bonan was arrested in the town of Lautenbach on preliminary charges of raping minors. The charges were based on multiple complaints, some dating to the 1980s.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Iran a Revolutionary Court ruled to release Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent human rights lawyer, after eight years in prison.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, The World Health Organizations said that laboratory tests completed after a shocking fish die-off in Iraq's Euphrates River show the water is contaminated with high levels of bacteria, heavy metals, and ammonia.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would join the United States and other countries in rejecting the UN Global Compact for Migration, aimed at boosting cooperation to address the world's growing number of migrants, set to be adopted during a conference in Morocco on December 10-11.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Israel Palestinian teenager Abdul Rahman Abu Jamal (17), who attacked Israeli officers on Nov. 14 at a police station in annexed east Jerusalem before being shot, died of his wounds at the Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Italian prosecutors said they have ordered the seizure of the Aquarius, a migrant rescue ship, and accused the aid group Doctors Without Borders of illegally disposing of 24 metric tons (26.5 tons) of medical and contaminated waste accumulated during nearly 50 rescues.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Rome city officials sent in 600 police officers to evict a purported crime family from eight villas that were allegedly built without authorization decades ago. Mayor Virginia Raggi accused the Casamonicas of replacing public authorities in the area and of "terrorizing" honest Romans.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The MUDEC museum in Milan said it is hosting the first exhibit of street-artist Banksy's works in an Italian public museum, just weeks after the artist grabbed international attention by partially shredding one of his works at a London auction. The exhibition will open to visitors Nov. 21, 2018 through to April 14, 2019.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Iraq launched air strikes on Islamic State targets inside neighboring Syria, destroying two buildings housing 40 fighters and weapons.
(Reuters, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Assailants in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed Hafizullah Mir, a prominent separatist leader, as anti-India protests and clashes followed a gunbattle that killed four rebels and an army commando in the disputed region.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Kenya gunmen kidnapped Silvia Costanza Romano (23) and shot and wounded four people in Chakama, a small town south of the border with Somalia. Romano was working as a volunteer with an Italian humanitarian group when she was abducted. On Dec. 9 a suspect, identified as Ibrahim Adan Omar, was arrested in Bangali town in Tana county. Abductors eventually passed her into the hands of militants linked to Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamic extremists. On May 10, 2020, she returned home after 18 months as a hostage.
(Reuters, 11/21/18)(AP, 11/22/18)(AP, 12/11/18)(AP, 5/10/20)
2018 Nov 20, Interpol's general assembly, meeting in Dubai, voted against allowing Kosovo to join the international police agency. The bids of Pacific island nations Kiribati and Vanuatu were approved by delegates, but Kosovo did not secure the required two-thirds majority.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Libya eight gunmen attacked a substation of the National Oil Corporation's southwestern Sharara oilfield but no employees were hurt and production was unaffected. The attackers stole three company vehicles and mobile phones.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Former Macedonian premier Nikola Gruevski said that he has been granted asylum by Hungary. He fled to Budapest after being sentenced to jail for abuse of power.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Malaysian police detained two women and two men from Finland at their hotel after police received complaints about their distributing Christian materials at public places. He said police seized 47 pens with Bible verses and 336 notebooks containing texts from the Bible.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, FIFA Ethics Committee judge Sundra Rajoo was arrested on suspicion of corruption in his native Malaysia. He was held overnight, but released after a court accepted his representatives' arguments that he effectively has diplomatic immunity due to his high-profile legal roles. Rajoo resigned the next day from his position with the arbitration service.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, North Korea blew up some of its front-line guard posts as part of an agreement to ease tensions along its heavily fortified border with South Korea.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, In Papua New Guinea disgruntled police, military and prison guards stormed the Parliament in a violent pay dispute stemming from an international summit hosted by the impoverished South Pacific island nation over the weekend.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, The Polish government said that it will not support a global compact to promote safe and orderly migration, citing national sovereignty as it joins countries including Hungary, Austria and the United States in rejecting it.
(AP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Russia failed in its bid to stall the global chemical warfare watchdog's controversial new power to apportion blame for attacks like those in Syria. Member states approved the 2019 budget for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which includes funding for the new role.
(AFP, 11/20/18)
2018 Nov 20, Amnesty International, citing three separate testimonies, said activists, held since May in Saudi Arabia's Dhahban prison on the western Red Sea coast, have faced repeated electrocution and flogging, leaving some of them unable to stand or walk. Human Rights Watch said in a separate statement that at least three women activists also endured "forcible kissing and hugging".
(AFP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 20, In central Somalia the US military carried out an airstrike targeting al-Shabab that killed seven extremists.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 20, Thai police arrested British brothers Joseph Michael Mulhare and Gregory Michael Mulhare wanted on drug trafficking charges in their homeland.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2019 Nov 20, In his opening statement before the House Intelligence Committee, Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union — who has been widely seen as the impeachment inquiry’s most consequential witness — put President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani at the center of the effort to pressure the president of Ukraine to carry out Trump’s political agenda.
(Yahoo News, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Joe Biden sought to turn Donald Trump's impeachment to his own advantage at the fifth Democrat presidential debate, declaring it showed he was the candidate the president feared most. Bernie Sanders called the president a "pathological liar." Elizabeth Warren said she had already decided to convict Mr Trump in a Senate trial. Speaking on stage at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, California Senator Kamala Harris went after Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard on foreign policy. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker took on former Vice President Joe Biden over marijuana. And Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar characterized South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg as inexperienced.
(The Telegraph, 11/21/19)(Bloomberg, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, The US Justice Department said The Assistance Fund, a Florida-based charity, will pay $4 million to resolve claims that it acted as a conduit for companies including Biogen Inc and Novartis AG to pay kickbacks to Medicare patients using their high-priced multiple sclerosis drugs.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, The US House Judiciary Committee took the first step to legalizing marijuana in the US advancing a bill to remove pot from the Controlled Substances Act and create a 5% tax to fund programs to heal damage to people hurt by the war on drugs.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A4)
2019 Nov 20, In Arizona former Border Patrol agent Matthew Bowen (39), who hit a fleeing Guatemalan migrant with his truck in 2017, was sentenced to three years of probation. Bowen, more than two weeks before the encounter, had referred to immigrants in a text message as “subhuman" and “mindless murdering savages".
(NY Times, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, Michael J. Pollard (80), Hollywood character actor, died in Los Angeles. His more than 200 films and television show included his role as the gas station attendant turned criminal accomplice in "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967).
(SSFC, 11/24/19, p.B10)
2019 Nov 20, A Louisiana man who took the stand in his own defense was found guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a Shreveport police officer. Grover Cannon (31) said several people lied about his involvement in the shooting. He says he believes another officer’s bullets killed Officer Thomas LaValley (29) on Aug. 5, 2015.
(AP, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, Former Louisiana State University student Matthew Naquin (21) was sentenced to five years in prison in the 2017 hazing death of fraternity pledge Max Gruver.
(ABC News, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, In New Jersey Michael Tennant (10), who was shot at a high school game between Pleasantville and Camden on Nov. 15, died. Charges against the suspected gunman were upgraded to murder.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A4)
2019 Nov 20, A North Carolina county removed a Confederate statue from the historic outside the historic Chatham County courthouse early today, joining the handful of places around the state where such monuments have come down in recent years despite a law protecting them.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Gary Jones resigned as president of the United Auto Workers after the union moved to oust him and another official under the cloud of a broadening federal corruption investigation.
(The Week, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, In Afghanistan two US servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 20, It was reported that major hotels in Britain are failing to protect workers from debt bondage and sexual exploitation, according to a study that found 75% of hospitality businesses were flouting 2015 anti-slavery legislation.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Ethiopia's Sidama people voted overwhelmingly to form their own self-governing region as many of the country's ethnic groups demand greater autonomy under sweeping reforms led by PM Abiy Ahmed. The Sidama represent about 4% of Ethiopia's 105 million population.
(Reuters, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 20, Greece announced plans to overhaul its migration management system, replacing overcrowded refugee camps on the islands with smaller detention facilities and moving some 20,000 asylum seekers to the mainland over the next few weeks.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that street unrest had been put down in a victory over foreign enemies, after a wave of violent demonstrations swept the country following a hike in fuel prices last week. Amnesty International said it had documented at least 106 deaths of protesters killed by security forces.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Activists said six conservationists working to save the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah have been sentenced to prison on internationally criticized espionage charges in Iran.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Iraqi security officials say at least 27 protesters have been wounded in renewed clashes overnight in central Baghdad.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Israeli officials announced that dozens of world leaders will arrive in Jerusalem for the largest-ever gathering focused on combatting anti-Semitism amid a global spike in violence against Jews.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Israel struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria in a “wide-scale" operation in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before. The airstrikes killed at least 23 people, including 15 non-Syrians, some of them Iranians. The airstrikes targeted several areas in the capital Damascus and its suburbs.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Malta police arrested one of the country's most prominent businessmen as part of an investigation into the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Yorgen Fenech was detained by armed forces as he tried to leave the Mediterranean island before dawn aboard his luxury yacht.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen confirmed the return of the impounded ships.
(AP, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, In Somalia Almaas Elman, a Somali Canadian peace activist, was killed after she was hit by a stray bullet while traveling in a car inside a heavily defended base near the international airport where many diplomats and aid workers have offices.
(AP, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, In Syria more than 15 civilians, including six children, seeking shelter in a refugee camp in the town of Qah, Idlib province, were killed after it was hit by ballistic missiles fired by pro-government forces.
(The Telegraph, 11/21/19)
2019 Nov 20, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy unveiled a rebuilt bridge that was blown up in Stanytsia Luhanska in 2015, among several confidence-building measures before a summit next month meant to end a conflict with Russian-backed separatist forces.
(Reuters, 11/20/19)
2019 Nov 20, Pope Francis arrived in Thailand as part of a two-country tour to boost the morale of Thailand's and Japan's minority Catholic communities.
(SFC, 11/21/19, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, President-elect Joe Biden turned 78. He will enter office as the oldest president in the nation’s history.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The US Justice Department announced that Jonathan Pollard, the former US Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, had completed his parole, freeing him to move to Israel. He was arrested in 1985 after trying unsuccessfully to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and pleaded guilty.
(AP, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, A US federal judge ruled against Michael Pack, the head of the agency that runs the Voice of America and other US-funded news outlets. He was accused of trying to turn it into a propaganda vehicle to promote President Donald Trump’s agenda.
(AP, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, US Sec. of State Mike Pompeo wrapped up a trip to Israel. He announced a new policy allowing settlement products to be labeled "made in Israel" and a new initiative to combat the Palestinian-led international boycott movement.
(SFC, 11/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, California authorities said they have dismantled the senior leadership of the white supremacist Aryan Brotherhood as part of a statewide takedown of the notorious prison gang and its associates in the Fresnecks street gang in Fresno County. Half of the suspects were arrested a day earlier in California and others remained at large.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, California to date had 1,085,719 cases of coronavirus and 18,586 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 137,529 cases and 1,919 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 11,895,876 with the death toll at 254,297.
(sfist.com, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, In south Florida a divided federal appeals court (2-1) struck down laws that prohibited therapists from offering so-called conversion therapy to children struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) certified the state's presidential election results after a hand recount was completed. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) did the same, meaning Georgia's 16 electoral votes will go to President-elect Joe Biden.
(The Week, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, Michigan's Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) and House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R), the two state GOP lawmakers who met with President Trump at the White House, issued a joint statement following the encounter that they "have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan" and, therefore, they will "follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors".
(The Week, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, A federal appeals court ruled that Tennessee can begin outlawing abortions because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well as prohibit the procedure if it's based on the race or gender of the fetus.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two men and wounding a third at a demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was released on a $2 million bond.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Asia Pacific leaders put aside differences over trade to endorse their first joint communique in three years, calling for free and predictable trade to help support a global economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), who included US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping, also said they would not resort to protectionist trade policies.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Azerbaijani forces entered the war-ravaged ghost town of Aghdam, regaining a once-beloved city over a quarter of a century after being driven out by Armenian forces.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Brazil surpassed 6 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, becoming the third country in the world to pass that milestone after the United States and India. Brazil recorded 38,397 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 552 deaths from COVID-19. The official death toll has risen to 168,613.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, A British study reported that people who've had COVID-19 are highly unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after their first infection.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that GHB, the club and party drug, is to be reclassified to increase the penalties to up to five years in jail for possession after British Government advisers uncovered a “concerning increase" in the harm it causes. Reynhard Sinaga, the UK's most prolific rapist, was jailed earlier this year for drugging and raping more than 40 men, with his trials hearing that he laced his victims' drinks with drugs like GBH to render them unconscious.
(The Telegraph, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Burundi is no longer welcoming the UN special envoy to the East African nation, asserting that peace has been achieved after a deadly political crisis. The office had opened in 2016 in the wake of deadly political unrest around former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ultimately successful decision to pursue another term.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, In China nine people were killed after a truck plowed into a funeral procession in Huabin County, Henan province.
(SFC, 11/21/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 20, In Ethiopia the TPLF was accused of firing rockets into the city of Bahir Dar in the neighboring Amhara region. The Amhara government said there were no casualties and no damage caused. Aid agencies called for an immediate temporary ceasefire to allow aid to reach civilians affected by the fighting. Tigray's leader confirmed the losses of two towns but said it was a temporary setback and vowed to defeat the government.
(BBC, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Germany will make it compulsory for most listed and cooperative companies to have at least one woman on their boards after representatives of the ruling conservative and Social Democrat (SPD) parties reached agreement on the long-sought measure.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Germany reported a record number of new coronavirus cases, upping the pressure on leaders of the country's 16 federal states to implement stricter restrictions favored by Chancellor Angela Merkel to tame a second wave before Christmas.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, German prosecutors said there is evidence of "cannibalism" in the killing of a 44-year-old man whose remains were found on the northern edge of Berlin earlier this month. A day earlier a 41-year-old high school teacher was arrested on suspicion of murder with sexual motives at his home close to the site where the victim's bones were found.
(The Telegraph, 11/20/20)(Insider, 11/21/20)
2020 Nov 20, Hong Kong reported a spike in daily coronavirus cases to 26, two days before an arrangement with Singapore to allow a limited number of passengers to fly both ways without having to go through quarantine kicks in.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, India crossed the grim milestone of 9 million coronavirus cases, with 45,882 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours. Deaths rose by 584, with the total now at 132,162.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Italy registered 37,242 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours. The health ministry also reported 699 COVID 19-related deaths. Italy has seen 48,569 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Japan's Kagawa prefecture said it will cull 850,000 chickens at two poultry farms after the country detected a bird flu outbreak earlier this month. These will be the sixth and seventh cases of the avian flu in western Kagawa prefecture and the biggest culling to be done at one time since the country's first bird flu outbreak in more than two years was found in the poultry this month.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Portugal's parliament approved a 15-day extension of a state of emergency from next week to allow continuation of coronavirus measures as the government considers fresh steps.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Russia said it has sent troops to reinforce its border guards in Armenia and secure a peace settlement with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Russian authorities reported 24,318 new coronavirus infections and 461 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 35,311. Developers of Russia's second vaccine against COVID-19 said mass production would begin in 2021.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej (90), who often criticized Western policies toward Serbia and urged close relations with Slavic ally Russia, died after testing positive for the coronavirus.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, It was reported that Swiss-based Novartis aims to boost its respiratory treatment portfolio with a $50 million deal for an off-the-shelf cell therapy from Australia-based Mesoblast that it hopes to deploy for COVID-19 patients as well as others suffering from respiratory distress.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Turkey's daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high 141, as the country introduced new nationwide curbs amid a surge in cases in recent weeks. Health Ministry data showed 435,273 total COVID-19 cases as the overall death toll rose to 12,084.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Ugandan presidential candidate Bobi Wine (38) was released on bail after being charged with spreading coronavirus. Police said the death toll from protests over the arrest of Bobi Wine has risen to 37.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Ukraine reported 14,575 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. Total cases climbed to 598,085, with 10,598 deaths. Ukraine said it hoped to receive 8 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the first half of next year.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, The United Nations refugee agency said about 32,000 people have fled Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region into neighboring Sudan, and it is preparing to take in up to 200,000 in the next six months if necessary.
(AP, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 20, Jan Morris, British author, journalist and transgender movement leader, died in Wales. Her books included the best-selling memoir "Conundrum" (1974).
(SSFC, 11/22/20, p.C7)
2021 Nov 20, Total US COVID-19 cases reached over 47,672,306 with the death toll at 770,804.
(sfist.com, 11/21/21)
2021 Nov 20, About 80 looters in ski masks ransacked a Nordstrom location in Walnut Creek, about 25 miles outside San Francisco, in a scene described by witnesses as "insane" and like something "out of a movie." Most of the looters got away. Three people were arrested.
(Fox News, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, The Walt Disney Company paused a coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees of its Florida theme park after the State Legislature and the governor made it illegal for employers to require all workers get the shots.
(NY Times, 11/22/21)
2021 Nov 20, Officials said Afghanistan's Taliban administration will begin paying the overdue salaries of government workers today.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, In Austria thousands of people, many of them far-right supporters, protested in Vienna against coronavirus restrictions a day after Austria's government announced a new lockdown and said vaccines would be made compulsory next year.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, The British government said it is seeking to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste. Under proposals in a 12-week public consultation, businesses and consumers will need to move towards more sustainable alternatives.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Britain recorded 40,941 daily COVID-19 cases, a decrease on a day earlier when 44,242 cases were recorded.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Wu Liangyou, an official at the National Health Commission (NHC), said China had given 76.3% of its population complete COVID-19 vaccine doses by Nov. 19. A total of 1.076 billion people in the country have received the required number of doses for their COVID vaccination. 65.73 million people have received a booster dose.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, President Nayib Bukele said El Salvador plans to build the world's first "Bitcoin City", funded initially by bitcoin-backed bonds, doubling down on his bet to harness the crypto currency to fuel investment in the Central American country. The city will be built near the Conchagua volcano to take advantage of geothermal energy to power both the city and Bitcoin mining.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)(SFC, 11/22/21, p.A2)
2021 Nov 20, In France tens of thousands of people marched through Paris and other cities to demand more government action to prevent violence against women.
(SSFC, 11/21/21, p.A6)
2021 Nov 20, Indian police said they had charged senior executives of Amazon.com's local unit under narcotics laws in a case of alleged marijuana smuggling via the online retailer.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had seized a foreign ship in Gulf waters loaded with what they described as smuggled diesel.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Iran announced it has now fully vaccinated 44 million people, more than half of its population of 85 million. The country has been hit the worst by the pandemic in the Middle East.
(AP, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, The coalition of Malaysian PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob scored a crucial win in a state election seen as a test for the country's fractured political parties as they gear up for national polls that could be called by next year.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Five police officers were injured in the Netherlands and at least 40 people detained across three provinces as violent protests against COVID-19 restrictions continued for a second night.
(Reuters, 11/21/21)
2021 Nov 20, Prominent Somali journalist Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, also known as Abdiaziz Afrika, a critic of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, was killed in a suicide bomb attack in Mogadishu.
(BBC, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Two hundred vaccinated foreign tourists arrived in Vietnam's beach-fringed island of Phu Quoc, the first wave of visitors to the country in nearly two years as it seeks to resurrect its pandemic-ravaged tourism economy.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
2021 Nov 20, Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said it had fired 14 drones at several Saudi Arabian cities, including at Saudi Aramco facilities in Jeddah. Saudi state news said the Saudi-led coalition has attached 13 targets during a military operation against the Houthis in Yemen.
(Reuters, 11/20/21)
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