February 2006

2006
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February 2006 was the second month of that common year. The month, which began on a Wednesday, ended on a Tuesday after 28 days.

Portal:Current events

This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from February 2006.

February 1, 2006 (Wednesday)
  • Governor of West Virginia Joe Manchin asks for a halt in coal mining following two more coal mining deaths in the state that saw fourteen people die in coal mining disasters in January. (CNN).
  • More than 200 Israeli settlers and Israeli Security Forces are injured when the Security Forces brutally beat the settlers of the Amona outpost in the West Bank. (Haaretz)
  • The controversy surrounding the Muhammad cartoons escalates as newspapers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain republish the controversial pictures in defiance of widespread Muslim protests in the Middle East and elsewhere.(BBC)
  • The Latin American TV station teleSUR, backed by the Venezuelan government, has signed a co-operation agreement with the Arabic channel al-Jazeera. (BBC)
  • Shares in Google fall dramatically after the company reported profits below Wall Street estimates. $12 billion in market value was lost. (AP)
  • Astronomers measure the size of newly discovered dwarf planet Eris as larger than Pluto with 84% probability. (astro.uni-bonn.de), (AP via Yahoo!)
February 2, 2006 (Thursday)
  • A leaked memo in the UK, detailing a conversation between U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2003, has revealed that Blair intended to follow the US into Iraq even without a UN resolution, and that Bush considered provoking a response from Iraq using falsely marked Lockheed U-2 spy planes to provide an excuse for war. (Guardian)
  • Venezuela has expelled U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Correa, a military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Caracas, on suspicion of espionage. (Newsweek) (BBC)
  • Representative John Boehner of Ohio becomes the U.S. House Majority Leader, beating out acting majority leader Roy Blunt in a house vote. (New York Times)
  • Royal Dutch Shell breaks the record for the highest ever annual profit for a British company with a total of £13.12bn (BBC)
  • The oil tanker Seabulk Pride, carrying approx 100,000 barrels (16,000 m3) (approx. 16 million L) of oil, runs aground in the port of Nikiski, Alaska. (BBC)
  • The mobile phones of high ranking Greek government officials, including Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis have been revealed to have been tapped by unknown eavesdroppers. (Reuters) (Athens News Agency)
February 3, 2006 (Friday)
  • Jamal al-Bedawi, who masterminded the USS Cole bombing, and Fawaz al-Rabeiee, who planned the 2002 attack on the French tanker Limburg, escape from a prison in Yemen along with 22 other prisoners, 12 of whom were convicted members of Al-Qaida. (BBC)
  • The United States expels Venezuelan diplomat Jeny Figueredo Frias in retaliation for yesterday's expulsion of suspected US spy John Correa from Venezuela. A State Department spokesman described the move as part of "tit-for-tat diplomatic games". (VOA)
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency has deferred until Saturday a vote on whether to report Iran to the UN Security Council over concerns its nuclear programs may produce weapons. (CBC)
  • A plot to assassinate President Mikhail Saakashvili of Georgia by shooting down his helicopter has been foiled. (Yahoo)
  • Queues build up at vendors as the EuroMillions lottery offers a jackpot of €180 million after 11 successive rollovers (statistically expected once in 25 years). Some British vendors report a 1200% increase in sales. EuroMillions tickets are sold in Austria, Belgium. France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. An Irish woman won €115,436,126 last July. (BBC), (Guardian). UPDATE: The winning numbers were 9 21 30 39 50 with Lucky Star numbers 01 and 03; the jackpot was shared between three winning tickets, two in France and one in Portugal. (UK National Lottery)
  • Two car bombs explode minutes apart in southern Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 90 others. (CNN)
  • A strong earthquake registering magnitude 5.9 shakes northeastern Japan, but there is no danger of a tsunami. (CNN)
  • Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
    • Hezbollah fires some 30 mortar shells at IDF outposts along the northern Israeli border, lightly wounding an Israeli soldier. In response, Israeli Air Force strikes Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. (Reuters) (YNET)
    • At least three Qassam rockets are fired from Gaza by Palestinian militants at Israeli civilian targets. One rocket strikes a home in Kibbutz Karmiyah, injuring four people, including a one-year-old infant. The home belongs to a family recently evicted during Israel's 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip. (YNET)
  • The United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld likens Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to Adolf Hitler. In retaliation, Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente Rangel refers to the US as the Third Reich. (AP), (AP)
  • The M/V al-Salam Boccaccio 98, a ferry carrying 1272 passengers and 105 crew, sinks in poor weather in the Red Sea while travelling between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. 314 people have been rescued so far. (BBC) (Wikinews)
  • Dutch D66 party chairman Boris Dittrich resigns because the Dutch Government voted 'Yes' to Dutch participation in a NATO-led ISAF operation in Afghanistan. (Expatica)
February 4, 2006 (Saturday)
February 5, 2006 (Sunday)
February 6, 2006 (Monday)
  • In Costa Rica, the presidential election is a tight race and too close to call. (Reuters)
  • Mauritania denounces amendments to an oil contract made by former leader Maaouiya Ould Taya with Woodside Petroleum. The Mauritanian authorities declare that the amendments were signed "outside the legal framework of normal practice, to the great detriment of our country", and could cost Mauritania up to $200 million a year. (BBC) (Radio France International)
  • U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearings begin regarding the NSA warrantless surveillance program, with testimony from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (NPR)
  • As Stephen Harper is sworn in as Canada's 22nd Prime Minister, David Emerson crosses the floor from the Liberal Party to join Harper's Conservative Party, and is appointed as Minister of International Trade. Harper also appointed Michael Fortier, an unelected party supporter, to minister of public works and government services and to the senate. (CTV) (CBC)
  • United States, Indonesian, and Australian scientists working in the Foja Mountains in eastern Papua, Indonesia, discover 20 previously unknown frog species, a new species of honeyeater, four new butterflies, and at least five new plants. Also discovered were a kangaroo unknown in Papua, and a Six-wired Bird of Paradise, previously known only from dead specimens whose origin was unknown. (ABC)
  • German car company BMW is banned from the Google index after attempting to deliberately deceive Google users. (Outer Court)
  • In the Egyptian port of Safaga, relatives of hundreds of passengers killed when the ferry al-Salam Boccaccio '98 sank in the Red Sea, attack the office of El Salam Maritime Transport. (BBC)
  • Isabelle Dinoire, the French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant appears before the media for the first time, saying she expects to resume a normal life. (CBC)
  • The Austrian Embassy in Tehran is pelted with stones by some 200 youths, in retaliation for the printing of the Muhammed Cartoons by three Austrian newspapers.
February 7, 2006 (Tuesday)
February 8, 2006 (Wednesday)
February 9, 2006 (Thursday)
  • I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, US Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff tells federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq. (AP)
  • Early results indicate that René Préval has an overwhelming lead in the Haitian general election (BBC)
  • The General Synod of the Church of England unanimously votes to apologise to descendants of the slaves on Barbados where, two hundred years ago, the church's Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that owned the Codrington Estates, used slaves for labour. (The Times) (BBC)
  • U.S. forces are searching for the USS Cole attacker who escaped from prison last Friday. According to Interpol, an al-Qaida operative who had been sentenced to death for plotting the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 escaped with a group of convicts from their prison last week in Sanaá, Yemen. (BBC) This is not the first group to have escaped. Ten other chief suspects escaped from custody in Aden during April 2003 (BBC)
  • Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announces the discovery of an intact pharaonic tomb in the Valley of the Kings – the first to be discovered since King Tutankhamun's in 1922. (Scotsman)
  • In Turkey, Istanbul's police chief said a bomb blast at an Internet cafe in the city had wounded 14 people. (ABC)
  • A suicide bombing occurs during a Shiite Muslim procession in Hangu, Pakistan, resulting in riots during the Muslim branch's most important holiday, Ashura. At least 27 people were killed and dozens injured in the result violence. (ABC)
  • A large-scale slaughter is planned at a Nigerian farm where thousands of chickens have died from bird flu. (BBC)
  • The House of Keys, the lower house of the Isle of Man, a crown dependency of the United Kingdom, votes to lower the voting age to 16. (BBC)
  • Mannheim, Germany—Ernst Zündel, a German white supremacist extradited from Canada on accusations he repeatedly denied the Holocaust, returned to court Thursday to face charges of incitement, libel and disparaging the dead. (ABC)
  • Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy: administration at the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, ordered a halt to the on-campus distribution of the student newspaper Cadre after the cartoons were re-printed in the newspaper. Campus authorities also attempted to seize all 2,000 copies of the edition containing the cartoons. (CBC)
  • Legendary producer J Dilla dies.
February 10, 2006 (Friday)
  • National Hockey League great Wayne Gretzky has denied placing any bets with an illegal sport gambling operation. (Reuters)
  • Finance chiefs of the G8 countries meet this weekend in Moscow with energy security at the top of their agenda. (BBC)
  • Israel has criticised Russia's decision to invite Hamas leaders to Moscow for talks, following the militant group's victory in Palestinian elections. (BBC)
  • KV63, tomb from the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, dating back more than 3,300 years, has been uncovered in the famed Valley of the Kings, an ancient desert burial ground near the southern city of Luxor. (CTV)
  • United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan wishes editors to stop reprinting the controversial Muhammad cartoons. (CBC)
  • A medium-sized earthquake, registering 4.9, shook central Chile, rattling buildings, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damages. (ABC)
  • H5N1 bird flu virus:
    • The deadly strain of H5N1 avian flu has been found in wild birds in Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea coast. (CBC)
    • Two Indonesian women from an area just east of the capital are in hospital after local tests showed they had the H5N1 bird flu virus. (ABC)
  • At least eight people are killed and 22 wounded by a car bomb in the southern Doura district of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. (BBC)
  • An atheist who sued a small-town priest for saying that Jesus Christ existed has had his case thrown out of court by a judge in Italy. (BBC)
  • The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin, Italy, with the opening ceremony at the Stadio Olimpico. It is the 20th winter games and the second hosted by an Italian city. (CBC)
February 11, 2006 (Saturday)
  • United States Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shoots and injures Harry Whittington while hunting in Corpus Christi, Texas. (ABC News)
  • H5N1 avian flu virus: Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy report their first cases of H5N1-infected wild birds, all swans thought to have migrated from Russia in recent months. (BBC)
  • Steve Fossett completes the world record for the longest non-stop, unrefuelled, flight when the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer lands at Bournemouth airport in southern England after a flight lasting 76 hours and 45 minutes which covered a distance of 26,389.3 miles (42,469.46 km). The aircraft had to declare an emergency landing after suffering total electrical failure, and had only 200 lb (90 kg) of fuel remaining. (BBC)
  • Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon undergoes emergency surgery due to digestive problems. His condition is critical. (Reuters)
  • Tokelau begins voting in a referendum to determine whether it remains a New Zealand territory, or becomes a state in free association with New Zealand. (NZ Herald)
  • In the United States, it has been revealed that the White House knew of extensive flooding of New Orleans in the hours after Hurricane Katrina struck last August. Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told a Senate Committee that he informed the White House of the seriousness of the situation at a time when even the media were not fully aware of the extent of the flooding. (ABC)
  • Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy:
    • The Danish editor who first published the Muhammad cartoons that sparked global protests has been placed on leave. (ABC)
    • Thousands of people are planning to gather in London on Saturday to rally against the controversial cartoons of the Muhammad. (Channel4)
February 12, 2006 (Sunday)
February 13, 2006 (Monday)
  • In a televised address to the nation, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announces the resignations of two government ministers in connection with two separate corruption scandals, the "Goldenberg" and "Anglo Leasing" affairs. Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and education minister George Saitoti both deny any wrongdoing. (BBC)
  • In Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonates an explosive belt in a line of people waiting to receive government payments, killing at least eight other people and wounding about 30, including children and police. (CTV)
  • Saddam Hussein is forced to attend the latest session of his trial, wearing a traditional Islamic robe rather than his usual crisp suit, as he shouted "Down with Bush." (CTV)
  • Tongan Prime Minister Prince Lavaka Ata 'Ulukalala resigns suddenly on 11 February 2006, and also gives up his other cabinet portfolios. He was replaced in the interim by the elected Minister of Labour, Dr. Feleti Sevele. (Pacific Magazine)
  • Australian Renae Lawrence, 28, the only female member of the Bali Nine group arrested in 2005, and fellow accused Scott Rush, 19, are convicted in Indonesia of attempting to import heroin to Australia and sentenced to life imprisonment. (Sydney Morning Herald)
February 14, 2006 (Tuesday)
  • The British House of Commons votes by 384 to 184, on a conscience vote, to implement a full smoking ban in all enclosed public places in England from summer 2007. (BBC)
  • The U.S. Senate votes on a budgetary point of order on the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Recovery legislation. The bill's supporters fail to get the 60 votes they need to proceed with a vote on the bill's merits, so the legislation has effectively been returned to committee. (Business Week)
  • Harry Whittington, the 78-year-old lawyer who was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney in a hunting incident, has some birdshot lodged in his heart and he has had a "minor heart attack due to an irregulairty in his heartbeat.". (ABC)
  • Kenyan Police instruct 20 leading figures not to leave the country as investigations into two corruption scandals, the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scandals continue. Among the people told to hand in their passports is George Saitoti whose resignation as education minister was announced by President Mwai Kibaki yesterday. Meanwhile, 80 Members of Parliament have demanded the resignation of Deputy President Moody Awori, who is accused of involvement in the Anglo Leasing affair. (BBC)
  • A moderate earthquake shakes east India, recording a 5.7-magnitude. (Reuters)
  • Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein tells the court during the latest session of his trial that he and his seven co-accused are on hunger strike to protest at their treatment. (CTV)
  • A top Iranian official confirms that Iran has resumed small-scale enrichment of uranium at one of its main nuclear facilities last week. (CBC)
  • Iran's veterinary organization said the first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu had been detected in wild swans in the Islamic Republic. (Reuters)
  • The New York Times reveals the existence of a "destabilization plan" for Hamas, winner of the Palestinian legislative elections. The intention is, according to Israeli officials and Western diplomats, to make sure that Hamas officials fail in fulfilling their campaign promises so that the president, Mahmoud Abbas, is forced to call a new election. The plan would cut all Quartet funds from the Palestinian National Authority (PA), while Israel would refuse to release taxes and custom duties it collects on behalf of the PA and also block movements between the West Bank and the Gaza strip. A third of the Palestinian population would suffer from the Quartet's decision to cut funds to the PA. (NYT)
  • Australians Andrew Chan, 21, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, are sentenced to death by firing squad by an Indonesian court for their role in the Bali Nine heroin smuggling attempt. Fellow accused Martin Stephens, 29, and Michael Czugaj, 20, both receive life prison sentences. (ABC)
  • In Israel, the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court sentences Omri Sharon to a nine-month prison term, a nine-month suspended sentence, and a NIS 300,000 (USD 65,000) fine after he is convicted of violating political fundraising law and providing false testimony. (Ynetnews)
February 15, 2006 (Wednesday)
  • Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse: Australian television network SBS airs video and photographs of what it says are previously unpublished images of the abuse of Iraqis in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. (Metronews)
  • Italian ambassador Francesco Trupiano apologizes to Libya on behalf of Italian minister of Constitutional Reform Roberto Calderoli, who suggested Italy use "force against Muslims." (Angola Press)
  • The final three defendants in the Bali Nine hearings in Indonesia, Australians, Matthew Norman, 19, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23, and Si Yi Chen, 20, are sentenced to life imprisonment. (NineMSN)
  • The United States and Israel deny a "destabilisation plan" of Hamas, winner of the January 2006 legislative elections, which was revealed on February 14 by the New York Times. However, they do acknowledge that they would cut off funds and transfers of tax-receipts to the Palestinian Authority. The aim of the "destabilisation plan" was to push the PA to organize new elections (NYT).
  • Haitian elections, 2006: In a case of apparent electoral fraud, hundreds of ballot boxes are discovered in a garbage dump in Haiti, throwing the results of the elections there in doubt. CBC
February 16, 2006 (Thursday)
February 17, 2006 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
Arts and culture
Disasters and accidents
International relations
Politics and elections
February 18, 2006 (Saturday)
February 19, 2006 (Sunday)
February 20, 2006 (Monday)
February 21, 2006 (Tuesday)
  • 33 people are killed and dozens are wounded amidst fighting between the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism and Islamic Court in Daynille, Mogadishu, Somalia. (AFP)
  • Enron: The High Court in London rules that three bankers may be extradited to the United States to face trial on Enron-related charges. The three, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby, former executives at Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC unit Greenwich NatWest, had argued unsuccessfully that since the majority of the alleged offenses took place in Britain, any trial should be held in that country. (Houston Chronicle)
  • Former Bosnian Serb Army General Ratko Mladić, wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in connection with the massacre of 8,000 men and boys on July 11, 1995, in Srebrenica, has been reported by Belgrade's Studio B TV to have been arrested. The Serbian government has denied the capture, decrying the report as "manipulation which damages the government". (BBC)
  • Eight men are acquitted of the 1999 murder which has many hundreds of witnesses of model Jessica Lal in India. The acquittal causes outrage among the Indian community with petitions to President Abdul Kalam for a review of the case (Hindustan Times).
February 22, 2006 (Wednesday)
February 23, 2006 (Thursday)
  • Uganda holds a general election, the first multiparty election in 25 years. (Times Online) (BBC)
  • Al Askari Mosque bombing: In Iraq over 100 people are killed in violence following yesterday's bombing of the Al Askari Mosque:
    • 47 factory workers are forced off buses and shot at Nahrawan, near Baghdad.
    • About 50 bullet-riddled bodies are found in Baghdad overnight.
    • Al-Arabiya TV reporter Atwar Bahjat and her two crew are killed in Samarra.
    • At least 11 people are abducted from jail in Basra by gunmen dressed as police, and shot.
    • One person is killed in a Sunni mosque in Baquba, where a bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol also kills 12 people. (BBC)
  • A roof at a marketplace in Moscow collapses under heavy snow at approximately 4:50 am local time (0150 UTC), killing at least forty-nine people. The 1970s-built building had the same architect as the Transvaal Water Park, whose roof collapsed in 2004 killing 28 people. (BBC) (CNN)
  • A magnitude 7.5 earthquake occurred at 12:19 am local time (Feb.22, 2219 UTC) in southern Mozambique, 140 miles (230 km) southwest of the coastal city of Beira, centered near Espungabera, a small farming town in a remote and sparsely populated area near the border with Zimbabwe. (USGS), (AP)
  • An ancient Egyptian sun temple has been discovered beneath a flea market in the Ein Shams suburb of Cairo, which is built on top of the ancient city of Heliopolis. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (MSNBC)
February 24, 2006 (Friday)
February 25, 2006 (Saturday)
February 26, 2006 (Sunday)
February 27, 2006 (Monday)
February 28, 2006 (Tuesday)
  • Al Askari Mosque bombing:
    • Sixty-eight people have been killed so far today in Baghdad, Iraq. Car bombs and mortar barrages rocked Baghdad streets, as news pundits speculate about the possibility of Iraq becoming embroiled in a full-fledged civil war. (MSNBC)
    • Baghdad's primary morgue says that the death toll resulting from violence after the Al Askari Mosque bombing has surpassed 1,300, contrary to earlier information from most news media and the United States military. (Washington Post)
  • The High Court of England and Wales grants the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, an order that delays a four-week suspension from his post ordered by an administrative tribunal last week. (Reuters)
  • For the first time in Europe, a domesticated cat is found infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus. The dead cat was found on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. (AP), (Handelsblatt), (Reuters AlertNet)
  • Congolese government forces and United Nations peacekeepers (part of the MONUC mission) engage militia fighters in the wartorn Ituri district in a battle to retake the town of Tchei. The operation is in conjunction with a more aggressive disarmament policy by the U.N. peacekeepers in the region. (CNN)
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