September 1, 2005

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[edit] 1 September 2005 (Thursday)

• A judge in Aruba orders the conditional release of Joran van der Sloot, the 18-year-old Dutch citizen being held in connection with the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.
• Al Jazeera broadcasts a video tape claimed to be supplied by Al-Qaeda which apparently shows suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan prior to the 7 July 2005 London bombings stating that he would take part in the attacks. He warned Westerners that they would not be safe because of their "crimes against humanity." (Guardian/AP)
• Hurricane Katrina:
  • President Bush in an early morning interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer at the White House said: "I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday" (ABC)
  • Unknown assailants open fire on a UH-60 Black Hawk military helicopter at New Orleans Superdome, halting evacuations. (BBC) (Wikinews)
  • US financial markets opened with mixed volatility in reaction to disruptions to the nation's oil distribution system along the Gulf coast and concerns for consumer spending. By the closing bell the NASDAQ and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped two percent. President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and top economic advisers gave the markets a favorable bump after a noon meeting to consider financial impacts of Hurricane Katrina's devastation. (MarketWatch)
  • Both houses of the United States Congress are set to reconvene later in the day, prior to their scheduled return September 6, to pass $10.5 billion in emergency spending legislation relating to storm relief. (Bloomberg)
• Typhoon Talim passes over Taiwan, killing at least 1 person and injuring 24. (BBC)
• On the eve of People's Republic of China President Hu Jintao's first visit to North America next week, a PRC foreign ministry spokesman warned against any government providing Taiwan (ROC) with missile defense systems. Hu Jintao arrives in Washington, D.C. on Monday, then visits Canada and Mexico before visiting the United Nations General Assembly. (BBC)
• Russia marks the first anniversary of the Beslan tragedy in which militants seized nearly 1,200 hostages, killing 331, more than half of them children. (The Guardian)
• Iraq hanged three men in the first executions in the country since the 2003 invasion. They were part of the Jaish Ansar al-Sunna group and had been convicted of kidnapping and murdering three policemen and abducting, raping and killing Iraqi women. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani refused to sign the death warrants, but his Deputy President Adel Abdul Mehdi signed instead. Talabani has also said he will refuse to sign the death warrant of Saddam Hussein should he be convicted and sentenced to death. (Times Online)
• The Common Chimpanzee genome sequence has been released, revealing genetic differences between chimps and humans including differences in a region of the genome thought to be involved in speech acquisition. (VoA))
• As part of celebrations for the 40th Anniversary for the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China, 20,000 people gather at the Potala Palace Square for a cultural performance. CPC Politburo's Jia Qinglin attended. (Dazhong Daily)
• The California Senate passes the first bill to allow same-sex marriage in the United States. The vote of 21 in favor and 15 against sets the stage for a showdown in the state Assembly, which narrowly rejected a similar bill in June by a margin of 2 votes. Since the June vote some major California organizations have changed stance to support same-sex marriage, including the influential latino group: the United Farm Workers. Latinos account for 34 percent of the population in the state.. (The Advocate) (San Francisco Gate)