September 19, 2005
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- Hurricane Rita is forecast to become a major storm in the Gulf of Mexico this week. Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered an evacuation of New Orleans. (KHON.com), (BBC), (CTV)
- Conflict in Iraq:
- A US diplomat and three American security guards are killed following an insurgent Suicide car bomb attack in Mosul, northern Iraq. (BBC), (Washington Post)
- Two undercover UK soldiers are detained on claims they had been planting bombs, evading arrest, exchanging fire with police, killing one, and failing to stop at a checkpoint. An operation to free the two prisoners ends with civilians gathering around the tanks sent to free the prisoners and setting the tanks they were in alight. Soldiers from the tanks flee the scene while being stoned by the locals, one man, Sergeant George Long, of the Staffordshire Regiment, was seen on fire and another man was seen being surrounded and beaten by locals. One Iraqi official claimed that 150 prisoners escaped including the two soldiers. (China view)(The Times)(BBC) (Washington Post), (the Independent)
- At least 10 people, nine police and one civilian, have died following a series of explosions at a Shia festival marking the birth of the Imam Mehdi in Karbala. (BBC)
- Former president Bill Clinton under pressure from Democratic party leaders criticises President George W. Bush's policies on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and budget deficits. (Yahoo News)
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An Israeli judicial inquiry rules out prosecuting police officers who allegedly shot dead 13 Israeli Arabs during a violent demonstration in 2000 due to lack of sufficient evidence, as fellow soldier refused to testify against the man. (BBC) (Ha'aretz)
- At least 154 of the dead in New Orleans were patients in hospitals and nursing homes. They represent more than 25 percent of the bodies recovered to date. (CivilRights.org)
- One person is injured following an apparent letter bomb attack in the British Embassy in the Croatian capital Zagreb. (BBC)
- 7th Heaven officially became the longest running family drama in television history when former network The WB began airing the series' 10th season.
- One person dies following an apparent grenade explosion at the Kuwait information office in the Lebanese capital Beirut. (BBC)
- North Korea agrees to drop all nuclear weapons programs and return "at an early date" to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Yahoo News/AP) (Reuters)
