| Current events of January 1, 2006 (2006-01-01) (Sunday) |
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- At least three Qassam rockets landed in the western Negev, despite Israel Defense Forces' Operation Blue Skies. At least one Qassam rocket landed in Sderot, in which the Red Dawn alert system was activated around 15:30. Two Qassam rockets landed in an open area near Israeli communities in the western Negev. In all the cases there were no injuries. (Ynetnews)
- Disasters and accidents
- International relations
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accuses European nations of trying to complete the Holocaust by creating a "Jewish camp" Israel in the Middle East. "Don't you think that continuation of genocide by expelling Jews from Europe was one of their aims in creating a regime of occupiers of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Isn't that an important question?" He went on to say that Europe should cede some of their territory for a Jewish state, and that anti-Semitism has a long history in Europe, while Jews have lived peacefully among Muslims for centuries. (Reuters)
- Russia-Ukraine gas dispute
- Russian natural gas supplier Gazprom cuts gas supplies to Ukraine, following Ukraine's rejection of a 460% price increase. President Vladimir Putin had offered a three-month price freeze if Ukraine would agree to pay the higher price thereafter, but this was rejected. Ukraine pays US$50 per 1000 cubic metres, Russia claims the market rate is $230. (BBC)
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| Current events of January 2, 2006 (2006-01-02) (Monday) |
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- Arts and culture
- Business and economy
- Russia-Ukraine gas dispute:
- Countries across Europe report reductions in gas supplies after Russia disconnected supplies to Ukraine yesterday. Russia accuses Ukraine of stealing 100 million cubic metres of gas yesterday from pipelines transiting the country; Ukraine denies this but has previously claimed the right to 15% of the gas as a transit toll. Hungary reports supplies are down by 40%, France and Italy by 30%, and Poland by 14%. Germany, Russia's principal customer, also reports reductions. Russian supplier Gazprom says that it will increase supplies and return them to normal by Tuesday night. (Sky News)
- Disasters and accidents
- Thirteen U.S. coal miners are trapped after an underground explosion in Upshur County, West Virginia. (ABC)
- Eleven people are killed when the roof of an ice rink collapse in Bad Reichenhall, southern Germany, under the weight of recent snowfall, trapping some 50 skaters underneath. (CNN)
- Severe storms affected East Java, Indonesia, leading to flooding and landslides. At least 57 people are believed to have been killed in the flooding and up to a further 200 people were assumed to be buried alive in the town of Cijeruk 350 kilometers east of Jakarta. (BBC)
- Law and crime
- Politics and elections
- The leader of the Maoist guerrillas in Nepal issued a statement that his group, the People's Liberation Army, will resume its war with the monarchy after a four-month truce. (New Kerala)
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| Current events of January 3, 2006 (2006-01-03) (Tuesday) |
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- U.S. pilots targeting a house outside of Baghdad where they believed insurgents had taken shelter killed a family of 12. (Washington Post)
- Israeli television claims that Police in Tel Aviv found evidence that proves Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon's family took bribes while Sharon was running for the leadership of the Likud Party. An aide dismissed the allegations. (BBC)
- Sago Mine disaster: In West Virginia, US, family members now say only one trapped miner has been brought out alive from the collapsed coal mine. All 12 others are dead. Earlier news reports, at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST, indicated that 12 miners were found alive. Rescue crews found one body late Tuesday after 13 miners were trapped following an explosion on Monday. (Yahoo!) (ABC)
- Russia-Ukraine gas dispute: The Russian and Ukrainian natural gas companies agree to end their dispute and resume gas supply to Ukraine under a complex price scheme in which OAO Gazprom will sell gas to the Rosukrenergo trading company (owned by Gazprom Bank and Raiffeisen Bank) for US$230 (E195) per 1,000 cubic meters as of Jan. 1, and Ukraine will buy gas from the company for US$95 (E80). (IHT)
- Chinese journalist and whistleblower Jiang Weiping, who was jailed in 2000 for violating the State Secrets Law on charges of "subversion," is released after the one year left on his prison sentence is commuted. In 1999 Jiang wrote two articles for a Hong Kong magazine accusing Bo Xilai, who at the time was governor of Liaoning province, but is now China's economic minister, of covering up corruption. (Reuters)
- Conflict in Iraq: Six members of the same family of 14 have been confirmed killed following a U.S. airstrike in Northern Iraq. (BBC)
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel Police prevents Palestinians in East Jerusalem from campaigning in the upcoming Elections in the Palestinian National Authority. (BBC)
- Rescue workers are still battling to find survivors after the roof of an ice rink collapsed in Bad Reichenhall, southern Germany, leaving at least 10 people dead, some of them children. It is thought many are still trapped under the rubble. (BBC)
- Bidding continues in an international auction for Canadian steel company Dofasco Inc., Hamilton, Ont. – the latest bid, C$4.9 billion, came Tuesday from German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG. (CBC Business News)
- Four years after defaulting on its external debt, Argentina pays its USD 9.57 billion debt with the International Monetary Fund. (Reuters)
- Jack Abramoff of the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal pleads guilty to federal conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges. According to NPR, this puts Abramoff on the prosecutor's side and he is expected to cooperate in the continuing investigation that could involve "up to 20 members of Congress" (NPR). The court filing is available as a PDF on NPR.org
- Mirant Corp., Atlanta, Georgia, a power generation company that filed for bankruptcy court protection in July 2003, emerges from Chapter 11 status after converting more than $6 billion of debt and liabilities into equity. (company website)
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| Current events of January 4, 2006 (2006-01-04) (Wednesday) |
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- Turkey announces two confirmed human cases of the avian influenza. (BBC)
- The King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah al-Saud, offers to pay for repairs to the Jama Masjid in Delhi, India. The King also offers to fund education in India. (BBC)
- Conflict in Iraq: At least 50 die following a series of insurgent attacks across Iraq, including a suicide bomb at a Shia funeral which left 36 mourners dead. (BBC)
- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, suffers "a significant stroke". He is "[currently] under anesthesia and receiving breathing assistance". Power is transferred to his deputy, Vice Minister Ehud Olmert. (CNN)
- Dow Jones & Co., one of the world's most important financial publishers, announces its new CEO, Richard Zannino, takes over from Peter Kann. Since Mr. Zannino is not a reporter, this breaks a century-old tradition of keeping newsmen at the helm. (New York Sun)
- A leaked intelligence report states that Iran has been "successfully scouring Europe" for the equipment needed to create a nuclear bomb, as well as parts for a ballistic missile. (The Guardian)
- Fourteen people are killed, with many more feared dead, after a landslide destroys a village in Java after flash floods in the region. It is the second such incident in the region within a week. (BBC)
- Fourteen people are now confirmed dead in the Bad Reichenhall ice rink roof collapse, with one person still trapped in the rubble. (New York Times)
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
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| Current events of January 5, 2006 (2006-01-05) (Thursday) |
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- Peru recalls Carlos Urrutia, its ambassador to Venezuela, after Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez praises Peruvian presidential hopeful Ollanta Humala for his left-leaning policies. A spokeswoman for the Peruvian Foreign Ministry stated, "There are concerns of political meddling in Peru's electoral affairs and comments by President Chávez were out of place." (Yahoo! News)
- The leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat Party, Charles Kennedy, admits being treated for alcohol-related problems for the last 18 months but has not drunk for the last two months. The revelation comes following mounting criticism of his leadership from party MPs. He calls a party leadership election, in which he will stand. (BBC)
- At least 130 people have died following insurgent attacks on the Iraqi cities of Kerbala and Ramadi. (BBC)
- At least 76 people have died following the collapse of a five-story hotel in Mecca. The death toll is expected to rise. Most of the dead are foreign Muslim pilgrims who had made their way there for the Hajj. (Forbes)
- Hewlett-Packard, a computer manufacturing giant, and a private equity firm, the Blackstone Group, may bid for Computer Sciences Corporation, according to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. (thestreet.com)
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| Current events of January 6, 2006 (2006-01-06) (Friday) |
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- Janjaweed militants cross the Sudanese border into Chad and attack the villages of Boroto, Ade, and Moudaina, killing nine and seriously wounding three others. Chad once again warns Sudan that it will retaliate for attacks by Janjaweed and UFDC rebel attacks. (Reuters)
- 2005 Kashmir earthquake: SOS Children report gastroenteritis, pneumonia and bronchitis rife in emergency camps as landslides block route to Muzaffarabad. The organization now has a total of 106 children with missing parents in its care. SOS
- The People's Republic of China announces that the last surviving member of the Gang of Four, Yao Wenyuan, died on December 23, 2005. (BBC)
- Zapatistas, led by Subcomandante Marcos, begin a six-month nationwide tour of Mexico to unite social movements for positive change. The tour coincides with presidential election campaigns. Marcos claims that the all the party candidates are liars and criminals who do not care about the Mexican people. (Scotsman)
- A third child from the same family in eastern Turkey dies of H5N1 avian influenza. Hülya Koçyiğit, 11, was the sister of Mehmet Ali, 14, who died last weekend, and of Fatma, 15, who died on Thursday. She was the third human fatality outside China and South-East Asia. A six-year-old brother is also being treated for the same disease. (Reuters) (Times)
- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon successfully undergoes a third round of surgery to correct a rise in cranial pressure. (AP)
- The Supreme Court of India denies access to the Alang port to the French warship Clemenceau since it contains tonnes of asbestos. (BBC)
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| Current events of January 7, 2006 (2006-01-07) (Saturday) |
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| Current events of January 8, 2006 (2006-01-08) (Sunday) |
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- An estimated two million Muslims officially begin the annual pilgrimage, or hajj, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia (CNN).
- Singapore holds its largest civil counter-terrorism exercise, codenamed Exercise Northstar V, simulating bombing and chemical attacks at four Mass Rapid Transit stations and a bus interchange. Thirteen MRT stations and part of Toa Payoh Bus Interchange are closed for three hours, causing travel disruptions for over 15,000 commuters and triggering a response from some 2,000 personnel from 22 governmental organizations. (CNA)
- A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the moment magnitude scale hits Greece at 13:34. The earthquake's epicentre was in the sea region 25 km east of the island of Kythira, about 200 km south of Athens. Although it was felt as far as Sicily, south Italy, Egypt, and Amman in Jordan, it was not disastrous due to its deep hypocentre and the sea-bed epicentre. Little damage (mainly in Kythira) and few light injuries are reported. (CNN.com) (USGS)
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| Current events of January 9, 2006 (2006-01-09) (Monday) |
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| Current events of January 10, 2006 (2006-01-10) (Tuesday) |
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| Current events of January 11, 2006 (2006-01-11) (Wednesday) |
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| Current events of January 12, 2006 (2006-01-12) (Thursday) |
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| Current events of January 13, 2006 (2006-01-13) (Friday) |
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| Current events of January 14, 2006 (2006-01-14) (Saturday) |
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| Current events of January 15, 2006 (2006-01-15) (Sunday) |
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| Current events of January 16, 2006 (2006-01-16) (Monday) |
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- Former United States President Gerald Ford is hospitalized with pneumonia. (CNN)
- Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, tenders his resignation, following criticism of his handling of the trial. (Daily Times)
- The United Nations appeals for US$240 million of food aid for West Africa to feed at least 10 million people affected by the food crisis, with Niger being the worst-affected country. (Reuters)
- A dockworkers' strike in Europe has thousands of workers off the job in protest over proposed liberalization of European Union rules on port services. A demonstration outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg leaves twelve French police officers injured. (BBC)
- Former US Vice President Al Gore blasts President George W. Bush's policy of spying on American citizen conversations with suspected overseas terrorists, saying President Bush "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law in connection with the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, says the United States Constitution is in danger. (Houston Chronicle) (Text of Speech)
- The Premier of Western Australia, Geoff Gallop, resigns his office after announcing he is suffering from depression. (ABC Australia)
- At least 27 people are killed in two suicide bombings in Afghanistan. (CNN)
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. (CNN)
- Nine people die after jumping from a burning eight-story office building in the Russian city of Vladivostok amid allegations of blocked emergency exits and fire code violations. (CBC)
- Iran bans CNN from the country after a translator mistranslated a remark by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he defended Iran's right to nuclear energy. The comment was translated as the right to construct nuclear weapons. (ABC News)
- Iraq's electoral commission rules Monday that more than 99 percent of the ballots from the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections are valid, opening the way for a new government to start coming together. (CBS News)
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| Current events of January 17, 2006 (2006-01-17) (Tuesday) |
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| Current events of January 18, 2006 (2006-01-18) (Wednesday) |
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- Human Rights Watch in its annual report strongly condemns the United States, saying "it became disturbingly clear that the abuse of detainees had become a deliberate, central part of the Bush administration's strategy of interrogating terrorist suspects". (CBC) (BBC News) (Human Rights Watch press info)
- The Tokyo Stock Exchange closes 20 minutes early due to a flood of sell orders overwhelming the capacity of its trading system. (AP/Yahoo!News)
- Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers are attacked by Laurent Gbagbo's "Young Patriots" in Côte d'Ivoire. At least three people have been killed, and the UN has warned that the country is sliding towards war. (BBC)
- China has recorded its sixth death from the avian flu virus, according to a report on the Chinese Health Ministry's Web site. (CNN)
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il says he is committed to a peaceful resolution of the standoff over his country's nuclear ambitions. (CBS)
- A building collapses on the outskirts of New Delhi on Wednesday, trapping at least 15 people in the rubble. (CNN)
- Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels have ambushed a navy bus in Sri Lanka's northeast, injuring six sailors and a civilian. (CBC)
- Two people who conspired to extort money from Wendy's by planting a severed finger in a bowl of chili and then suing the restaurant are sentenced to about ten years each in prison. (CTV)
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| Current events of January 19, 2006 (2006-01-19) (Thursday) |
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- Al Jazeera airs an audiotape from Osama bin Laden saying al-Qaeda is making preparations for attacks in the United States but offering a "long-term truce" to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan. (MSNBC)(BBC)
- Iran warns of a world oil crisis if sanctions are imposed over its nuclear program even as the United States and Europe struggle to get support for UN Security Council action. (AFP)
- President Jacques Chirac warns that France could respond with nuclear weapons against any state-sponsored terrorism attack. (ABC News) (BBC)
- Two suicide bombings in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, leave at least 22 people dead and 26 wounded. (BBC)
- Italy will conclude its mission in Iraq by the end of the year, in the first clear timetable for Rome to withdraw its troops, says Defense Minister Antonio Martino. (ABC)
- The United States' largest independent film festival, the Sundance Film Festival, begins in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah. 2006's entries include documentaries about prominent politicians Al Gore and Ralph Nader. (Reuters)
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: At least 32 people are injured, including one seriously, when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonates himself at a food stand near Tel Aviv's central bus station. Palestinian Islamic Jihad's al-Quds brigades claims responsibility for the attack. It is the first terrorist attack of the year in Israel. (YNETnews)
- Isabelle Dinoire, the world's first face transplant recipient, is using her new lips to take up smoking again, which doctors fear could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection. (CTV)
- A Slovak Antonov An-24 military aircraft carrying troops back from Kosovo crashes into a mountainside in northeastern Hungary, killing 42 people. Only one person survived. (CNN)
- At least thirty-one people have died during a four-day cold snap in Russia where temperatures have plunged to as low as −42 °C (−44 °F). (CBC)
- A leaked memo from the United Kingdom's Foreign Office reveals that the British government had a strategy aimed at suppressing a debate about the US practice of transporting detainees to secret centres where they are at risk of being tortured. (Guardian Unlimited).
- NASA Pluto probe New Horizons successfully launches at 14:00 EST. (NASA) (BBC)
- In Azerbaijan, two students (Turan Aliev from Baku State University and Namik Feiziev of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University) are readmitted and end their 22-day hunger strike, started in protest at their expulsion which they claim resulted from their political activities. (IWPR)
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| Current events of January 20, 2006 (2006-01-20) (Friday) |
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- At 4 o'clock UTC NASA's Pluto probe New Horizons crossed the orbit of the Moon, eight hours and thirty-five minutes after launch. This is a new Earth-to-Moon-distance flight record.
- Three former workers at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio are indicted for repeatedly falsifying inspection reports and other information to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The plant's owner, FirstEnergy Corporation, accepts a plea bargain and $28 million in fines in lieu of criminal prosecution. (Toledo Blade)
- Archeologists digging under the Roman Forum, Rome, Italy, discover a tomb estimated at 3000 years old, predating the creation of the Forum by several centuries. (USA Today)
- Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan have defused a huge car bomb found not far from their base near Kandahar. The discovery comes just days after a suicide bomber killed Canadian diplomat Glyn Berry and seriously wounded three soldiers travelling with him. (CBC)
- Embroiled in a nuclear standoff with the West, Iran says it is moving funds out of Europe to shield them from possible U.N. sanctions. (Reuters)
- Iraq's election commission says that an alliance of Shiite religious parties, the United Iraqi Alliance, has won the most seats in Iraq's new National Assembly after the December 2005 legislative elections. (CBS)
- At least 52 people including five children are killed after an overcrowded bus plunges down a deep gorge in Indian Kashmir. (CBC)
- Israel says it has proof that Iran financed the bombing of a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv, and that Syria carried it out. (ABC)
- Rescue teams search for two West Virginia miners missing after a coal mine fire. (ABC)
- Japan has halted the import of U.S. beef after an animal spine was found in a beef shipment at Tokyo International Airport. A ban has now been reinstated. (CNN)
- Turkish police are reported to have taken into custody, Mehmet Ali Ağca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 after an appeals court ordered his return to prison to serve more time for killing a journalist. (CNN)
- A whale, identified as a 5 metre (17') long Northern Bottlenose whale, is observed in the River Thames in Central London passing upstream of the Houses of Parliament. The "River Thames whale" is believed to have passed through the Thames Barrier about 1515 UTC on Thursday afternoon. Attempts are being made to guide it back to the Thames estuary, where a second whale has been sighted off Southend on Sea. (BBC), (Sky News)
- Protests by the pro-government Young Patriots in Côte d'Ivoire end after their leader, Charles Blé Goudé, tells them to "go home and clean up the streets". (BBC)
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| Current events of January 21, 2006 (2006-01-21) (Saturday) |
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| Current events of January 22, 2006 (2006-01-22) (Sunday) |
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| Current events of January 23, 2006 (2006-01-23) (Monday) |
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- In the ongoing dispute between the United States and Venezuela, the US has tried to veto a sale of Embraer airplanes to Venezuela. Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim branded the US attempted veto as "indefensible nonsense". The US recently failed to block a large sale of Spanish military equipment to Venezuela. (El Universal), (Spain Herald).
- In the Canadian federal election, the Conservatives win a plurality of seats in the House of Commons to form a minority government. Stephen Harper is to become the next Prime Minister. (Globe and Mail)
- An archeological expedition from Johns Hopkins University uncovers a statue of Queen Tiye, wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and mother of Akhenaten, at the temple complex at Karnak. (Al-Jazeera)
- Kuwait emir Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah has agreed to abdicate his position. (Al-Jazeera)
- After its brakes fail, a train crashes near Bioče, a village nine miles northeast of Podgorica in Montenegro, killing at least 39 and injuring more than 130 people, in the country's worst train disaster. (BBC News)
- Another case of mad cow disease has been confirmed in Canada but officials do not expect international borders to close to Canadian beef as a result. (CBC)
- United Nations says eight Guatemalan special forces soldiers deployed as U.N. peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo were killed and five wounded in a battle with Ugandan LRA rebels. (Reuters)
- Ford Motor Company announces plans to close 14 plants and cut up to 30,000 jobs (25% of its workforce) by 2012. (Detroit News)
- A five-story building in Nairobi, Kenya, collapses and kills at least eight people, burying dozens more. Rescuers use their bare hands to dig through the rubble. (Sky News) (BBC) (CTV)
- Azerbaijan has started supplying Russian natural gas to Georgia, the Georgian gas company says, helping compensate for a fuel cutoff caused by explosions in southern Russian pipelines that brought a new energy crisis to the region this weekend. (International Herald Tribune) (CBC)
- The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal from Research In Motion Ltd. which had asked it to reverse a lower-court ruling that found its BlackBerry wireless email device in violation of patents held by NTP, Inc., a Virginia patent-holding firm. The case now moves to a federal district court in Virginia, which will decide whether to reinstate an injunction against the U.S. sale of the popular BlackBerrys. (MarketWatch)
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| Current events of January 24, 2006 (2006-01-24) (Tuesday) |
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| Current events of January 25, 2006 (2006-01-25) (Wednesday) |
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- Lucia Pinochet, daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, asks for political asylum in the United States following her arrest at Washington Dulles International Airport on a Chilean arrest warrant for tax evasion. (Miami Herald)
- A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that Trasylol, a drug marketed by Bayer, designed to prevent excessive blood loss during heart surgery, doubles the risk of kidney failure and stroke. (Reuters)
- An international team of astronomers discovers the most earth-like exoplanet found thus far. The planet, OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, is about 25,000 light years away, close to the centre of the Milky Way. (Nature).
- Microsoft, in an effort to resolve a controversy with the antitrust authorities of the European Community, announced that it will license some of its source code to rivals. (c|net news).
- Google's launch of a new, self-censored search engine in China is a "black day" for freedom of expression, says leading international media watchdog Reporters without Borders. (BBC)
- Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, and the world's most profitable airline, announces that it intends to charge up to €7 per bag checked in by customers. In return, the airline fares will drop by 9%. (Ryanair press release)
- Uzbekistan joins the Eurasian Economic Community. (Interfax)
- Deus caritas est (Latin: God is love), the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, is published (BBC)
- 2006 Palestinian elections: Palestinians prepare for the first elections to the PLC in ten years. (BBC)
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| Current events of January 26, 2006 (2006-01-26) (Thursday) |
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- Islamist party Hamas' landslide victory in Palestinian elections ends four decades of rule by the Fatah party. Hamas secures 76 seats in the 132-member legislature through parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei announces he will resign and Fatah declares it will not join a Hamas-led coalition, although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to continue negotiations with Israel through the Palestine Liberation Organization.(BBC) (Haaretz)
- Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran reacts sharply to US Ambassador David Mulford's warning over the future of the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying on Thursday that it was "inappropriate" and not conducive to good relations between the two countries. (Express India)
- One day after US ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza claimed that Mexican soldiers had helped drug smugglers to escape pursuit by Texas state police on US soil near El Paso, Texas, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez suggested that the people involved may have been US soldiers wearing the uniforms of Mexican military. (Forbes)
- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf rejects US objections to a proposed Iran–Pakistan–India pipeline for natural gas saying "It is in our economic interest. If somebody wants to stop us they should compensate us ... But at the moment we are going ahead". Musharraf also repeats his condemnation of the recent U.S. air strike in northern Pakistan which killed 18 people, including women and children. (VOA News)
- Liberal Democrat MEP for London, Sarah Ludford, who is leading a European Parliament investigation into the U.S. policy of "extraordinary rendition", says she may invite Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld or United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify. (Irish Independent Newspaper)
- In the long running dispute over Iran's nuclear program, the ambassador of the United States to India, David Mulford, has warned India to back the US plan to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council or face cancellation of a US-India nuclear deal.(Financial Times)
- India's foreign ministry calls the comments inapproapiate and summons the ambassador to Delhi for an explanation (BBC news).
- The Foreign Ministry of China says "We oppose impulsively using sanctions or threats of sanctions to solve problems" and also indicates that they would support Russian efforts to resolve the dispute. (Reuters)
- Republic Day celebrations in India. Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud is in India as chief guest for the Republic Day celebration. (NDTV)
- Interpol issues red notices against Pakistan ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. (BBC)
- Saudi Arabia recalled their envoy from Denmark after Muhammad Drawings controversy, and has initiated a boycott of Danish products. (BBC)
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| Current events of January 27, 2006 (2006-01-27) (Friday) |
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| Current events of January 28, 2006 (2006-01-28) (Saturday) |
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- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez threatens to jail any United States spies caught gathering information about Venezuela. (BBC)
- The roof of a trade-exhibition hall in southern Poland collapses with several hundred people inside, trapping many beneath the wreckage, 62 people are killed and over 160 injured. Poland declares a day of national mourning. (CNN)
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| Current events of January 29, 2006 (2006-01-29) (Sunday) |
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| Current events of January 30, 2006 (2006-01-30) (Monday) |
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- International relations
- Law and crime
- In the United Kingdom, the High Court has ordered 10 Internet service providers to hand over the details of 150 UK customers accused of illegally sharing software. (BBC)
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| Current events of January 31, 2006 (2006-01-31) (Tuesday) |
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- U.S. President George W. Bush delivers the State of the Union Address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). (Wikinews)
- Moments before the address began, anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan is arrested in the U.S. Capitol Building for refusing to cover up a T-shirt she was wearing to protest the war and occupation of Iraq. (CNN)
- Also directed out of the U.S. Capitol Building was Beverly Young, wife of GOP congressman Bill Young, for wearing a T-shirt that read "Support the Troops: Defending Our Freedom" (ABC).
- Iran's nuclear program
- Iran reacts with anger to its referral to the U.N. Security Council, saying diplomatic avenues have been closed. (CNN)
- The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced it has evidence within its report for the Thursday meeting that Iran obtained documents showing how to mold highly enriched grade uranium into the core of warheads. (Reuters)
- In Iraq, the British Armed Forces records its 100th military death. (ABC)
- In the United States, a female ex-postal worker opens fire in a mail-processing plant, killing six people and critically wounding another before committing suicide in what's believed to be the deadliest workplace shooting ever carried out by a woman in U.S. history. (CNN)
- United States Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced renewed opposition to the U.S. decision to abandon the 30 year old Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in favour of missile defence saying it would damage world security. He also claimed that Russia has developed a new category of hypersonic intercontinental missile which can zig-zag in flight and is immune to any missile defense system. (Washington Post)
- Nominations for the 78th Academy Awards were announced in Beverly Hills, California, by Academy President Sid Ganis and actress Mira Sorvino. (CNN)
- Coretta Scott King, widow of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr, dies at age 78. (MSNBC)
- A former US Marine, Jim Massey, has claimed on the Irish radio station Live 95FM that the US military has been illegally shipping depleted uranium through Shannon Airport for use in Iraq. (UTV) (The Limerick Blogger)(Live 95FM) If true, this would be a major breach of Irish neutrality and Irish-US agreements on the use of Shannon. The airport's use by the US military is already highly controversial, in part due to the connection with CIA captives. (IOL.ie)
- U.S. oil company ExxonMobil announced profits for 2005 of $36.1 billion, a record amount in US corporate history. In anticipation of a public backlash, the company simultaneously posted newspaper advertisements in the US to explain its success. (Seattle Times)
- A tourist coach crash in Egypt on the highway between Hurghada and Luxor kills 14 and injures another 30 people. All casualties are from Hong Kong and were joining Jetour Holidays tours.
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