February 18, 2005

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[edit] February 18, 2005

• It is discovered that the tsunami resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake uncovered an ancient city near the coastal town of Mahabalipuram in India. (AP via Yahoo!)
• A number of blasts hit Shi'a mosques in Baghdad, Iraq, leaving at least 27 dead and 60 wounded on day before the Shi'a holy festival of Ashura. (BBC News) (CNN)
• An Iraqi rebel group calling itself the Army of Warriors claims responsibility for the kidnapping of two Indonesian journalists. The journalists had been last seen near Ramadi in central Iraq three days ago. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Northern Bank robbery investigation:
  • Police in Northern Ireland recover an undisclosed sum of money at a sports and social club in Belfast. It is thought to perhaps be a diversion, but it is being investigated. (Sky News)
  • A top Irish businessman and associate of the Taoiseach, Phil Flynn, steps down from a number of positions pending the outcome of a Garda investigation into Chesterton Finance, of which he is a non-executive director. £2.3 in mixed sterling notes are found at the house of the company's director Ted Cunningham. Phil Flynn steps down as chairman of a government body overseeing decentralisation, as well as a member of the board of Voluntary Health Insurance and as chairman of the Bank of Scotland (Ireland). (Ireland Online) (Guardian)
  • A man was arrested by Gardaí in the town of Passage West in County Cork, Ireland, after he was discovered attempting to burn sterling bank notes. (Ireland Online)
  • Gardaí release two men who were being questioned in Dublin, as well as a Sinn Féin member in Cork. A suspected Real IRA member arrested at Heuston Station is remanded in custody, as are four people arrested in Farran in Cork. (RTÉ)
  • Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams again denies any involvement on the part of his party with money laundering in the country. The Irish Government Minister for Justice Michael McDowell describes the IRA as a colossal crime machine laundering huge sums of money. (RTÉ)
• The UK Food Standards Agency orders the withdrawal of over 350 food products from sale following the discovery that a batch of chilli powder used to produce a batch of Worcestershire sauce subsequently used to produce processed foods was contaminated with the possibly carcinogenic dye Sudan I. The problem was first identified with food products tested in Italy. (BBC) (FSA: List of Withdrawn Products).
• Telephone connections in Nepal are severed again, on Nepal's National Democratic Day. Authorities continue to arrest opposition figures who had planned demonstrations against the new government of King Gyanendra. (Times of India) (Reuters) (Scotsman) (BBC)
• In the United Kingdom, the Hunting Act, the ban on hunting with dogs, comes into force. Its opponents intend to challenge the law and hunt. (Politics.co.uk) (BBC) (Reuters)
• Iraq War: The American Civil Liberties Union releases documents obtained from the United States Army alleging the destruction of photographs documenting the army's abuse of prisoners in Iraq, following the exposure of the Abu Ghraib scandal. (AP).
• Sir Mark Thatcher returns to court in Cape Town, South Africa, to answer charges about his involvement in a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. (BBC) (IAfrica)
• The 42nd known Mersenne prime is discovered by Martin Nowak of Germany, a participant of the GIMPS distributed computing project. The prime number is the largest known Mersenne prime at the time of its discovery, and is nearly eight million digits long.