June 20, 2005

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[edit] June 20 2005 (Monday)

• In USA, chief US immigration judge Michael Creppy rules that Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk can be deported because he was a concentration camp guard during World War II (WBNS, Ohio) (Washington Post) (Reuters)
• In Brazil, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva names energy minister Dilma Rousseff as a cabinet chief because of José Dirceu's resignation (AE Brazil) (Reuters)
• Turkey sentences Islamist extremist Metin Kaplan, the "Caliph of Cologne", to life in prison for his role in a plot to blow up the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk.
• Cedar Revolution: The Anti-Syrian bloc of Saad al-Hariri captured control of the Lebanese Legislature in the Lebanese general election of 2005, winning 72 of the 128 available seats. (Yahoo!)
• A Suicide bomber in Iraq kills 13 policemen, and injured more than 100 people, in the city of Irbil, northern Iraq. BBC News
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • One Israeli is killed in West Bank ambush after Palestinian militants shot his car. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, calling it retaliation for arrests of Islamic Jihad members. (Ynet), (Haaretz)
  • An unarmed Palestinian teenager, Ihab an-Nabahin, is shot by Israelis in a closed border area of the Gaza Strip, and killed according to Palestinian sources. (BBC) (Al-Jazeera)
  • According to the Israeli army, a Palestinian female suicide bomber was caught in the Erez Crossing, carrying explosives and a detonator in her underwear. Israeli media added that she planned to carry out a suicide bombing attack in the Soroka hospital, where she received medical treatment and was scheduled for a doctor's appointment (the army has not confirmed this.) The woman was identified as Wafa Samir Ibrahim Bass and said she was sent by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades decline to comment. (Haaretz NewsFlash), (Ynet) (BBC) (Al-Jazeera)
• British Potato Council demonstrates for the removal of the term "couch potato" from the Oxford English Dictionary because potatoes are "inherently healthy" (BBC) (Guardian Unlimited)
• In Japan, magnitude 4.9 earthquake hits central Niigata Prefecture, with little reported damage and no tsunami risk (Japan Today) (Reuters AlertNet)
• International Whaling Commission meets in Ulsan, South Korea. Japan tries to ease its restrictions to whaling but its suggestion to exclude proposed creation of whale sanctuaries is voted down (CNN) (Reuters) (Japan Today)
• John Rigas, founder of cable company Adelphia Communications is sentenced to 15 years in prison on last summer's securities fraud conviction. (Bloomberg)
• The Second International Conference on Gross National Happiness opens at St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada