April 12, 2005

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See also: April 11, 2005 - April 2005 - April 13, 2005

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• A 15-year Palestinian boy was caught in Hawara checkpoint (near Nablus), hiding five pipe bombs under his coat. He apparently tried to ignite them with a match when the soldiers apprehended him. Soldiers later pose for photographs with the boy. His brother says he did so in order to study for his high-school matriculation exams in an Israeli prison. [1] [2]
• Andrus Ansip is confirmed by the Riigikogu, the Estonian Parliament, as the country's next Prime Minister, following the 24 March resignation of former Prime Minister Juhan Parts. (BBC)
• Four girls who were held hostage for four hours are freed from a house in Ennepetal, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. (BBC)
• Israeli citizens against the proposed Israeli dismantling of Jewish settlements on the Gaza Strip have chained shut 167 schools and nurseries in Tel Aviv as part of their protest. The Fire Service quickly cut through the chains. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post) (Haaretz)
• The death toll in the collapse of a factory in Dacca, Bangladesh rises to 21 and hundreds are still trapped. (New Kerala) (Reuters)
• Anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles applies for asylum in the United States. Fidel Castro accuses the US of hypocrisy for protecting a terrorist. (Prensa Latina) (Wired)
• MareNostrum, Europe's most powerful (and the world's fourth most powerful) supercomputer, is booted up for the first time in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain. (BusinessWeek)
• In Hungary, a group of people that claim descent from Attila the Hun demand minority status. (BBC)
• Three British men are indicted by a United States court in a 2004 alleged plot to destroy financial institutions in the USA, including such notable landmarks as the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, the Prudential building in New Jersey, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.. The U.S. claims that one is a senior Al-Qaeda member. (Wired) (ABC News)
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: The Canadian government's Bill C-38 survives a vote on a wrecking amendment which would have defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, introduced by the Conservative Party of Canada. (CBC)
• According to report of the Human Rights Watch, young veterans of wars in West Africa have been recruited to fight in other conflicts because they have had no other means of support. (Human Rights Watch) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• The Iranian parliament approves abortion in cases where mother's life is in danger or the fetus is deformed. The bill still needs the approval of the Guardian Council. (IranMania) (Reuters UK) (Middle East Online) (Persian Journal)
• In Israel, Mordechai Vanunu is charged with 21 counts of violating the terms of his parole. (Ha'aretz) (Arutz Sheva) (Reuters)
• In Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh rules that forcing women marry against their will is against Islam. (Arab News) (Al Jazeera) (Middle East Online)
• The Indonesian army promises to give up its businesses within two years. (Jakarta Post) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Anheuser-Busch, the largest U.S. beer brewer and the No. 1 buyer of rice in the United States said it would not purchase rice grown in Missouri if it were genetically modified. This decision was prompted by a Ventria Bioscience plan to grow 200 acres (800,000 m²) of genetically engineered rice in Missouri. (AP)