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's AIDS program, Pedro Chequer, says the government will
violate patents on anti-AIDS drugs by copying
them, citing unsustainable increases in cost. (BBC)
(parliament of Ukraine) passes a vote of no confidence to dismiss
Viktor Yanukovich as Prime
Minister. The opposition led by Viktor Yushchenko agrees to continue
negotiations and end the blockade of official buildings. (Reuters) (BBC)
's interior
minister says the "assassination attempt" on president Boris Tadić was a case of road rage against
his motor convoy in Belgrade
traffic. (Reuters)
appeals
court reduces former Prime
Minister Alain Juppé's
disqualification from holding public office from ten years to one,
opening up the way for him to contend in the 2007 presidential
election. (BBC) officials
acknowledge troops killed around 20 people during clashes with
anti-French protestors, but maintain the French troops acted in
self-defense and gave warning shots, contrary to Ivoirian
police claims. (BBC)
province on November 28
are dead. (Xinhua) (BBC)
troops are spotted by UN personnel in eastern Congo
where Congolese officials say the troops are
attacking and burning villages. The last invasion started
the Congo Civil War, which resulted
in the deaths of 3-4 million people. (Reuters)
MD-82 from the charter airline
Lion Air crashes in Central Java
, killing at least 31 people and injuring at least
62 people. (CNN) (Reuters)
and Israel
hold talks
in Jerusalem
to discuss the planned Israeli withdrawal from the
Gaza
Strip
. (BBC)
in his first
official visit to the country and agrees to work together to combat
terrorism. (BBC)
Home Secretary,
insists that he did no wrong in the controversy surrounding the
alleged misuse of his position, and receives the backing of
Prime Minister
Tony Blair. Sir Alan Budd is
appointed to carry out an independent enquiry. (BBC)
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to respond to alleged voting
irregularities. (House.gov (PDF))
's conviction
and continued imprisonment of U.S. citizen
Lori Berenson on
terrorism charges. (BBC) (AP)
release dissident opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was recently extended.
(BBC)
Governor
Mike Johanns to become the next
Secretary of
Agriculture. If confirmed by the Senate, Johanns would fill the Cabinet position currently held by
resigning Secretary Ann Veneman.
(Reuters) (Transcript)
minister Anna Lindh, is
confirmed by the Swedish Supreme
Court (BBC) (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
in peacekeeping
operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
, largely replacing the NATO-led SFOR with a new Eufor.
(BBC)
announces a
new effort to survey and decontaminate the area affected by the
December 3, 1984
Bhopal
chemical disaster
.
(BBC)
and tour
extensions bringing the number to an all time high of
150,000. (Reuters) (CNN)
for three years during the Bosnian Civil
War surrenders to the United
Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia
. 12,000 people died during the siege.
(AFP) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
launches a new long-range nuclear submarine and an accompanying class of
ballistic missiles, with a range in excess of 7,400 km (4,600 miles), developed by
the People's Liberation
Army. (AP) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)) on December 8. (House.gov (PDF)), says Indian
firms are welcomed to bid. (BBC)
's
parliament elects a former KLA commander, Ramush Haradinaj, who has been questioned
twice by UN war
crimes investigators. (BBC)
Sunni district, killing 14
worshippers and wounding 19. Mortars land on a police station in Baghdad,
followed by an assault which kills 12 people and results in the
freeing of 50 prisoners. A website allegedly tied to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claims
responsibility for the police station attack. (BBC) (Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)) to 18 hours
a day by the end of next year from 11 to 15 hours now, estimably
higher than before the 2003 U.S.
invasion. (Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
, embroiled in the presidential election
controversy, votes to ask outgoing president Leonid Kuchma to withdraw Ukraine's 1,600
troops in Iraq.
(Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
security
forces arrest three alleged members of Ansar al-Islam who are suspected of planning
the assassination of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi while he was on a state visit to Germany. (CNN) (Spiegel (German))
.
(Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)) (BBC) . Lau
conveyed concern over rise in antisemitism and fading of the Holocaust
remembrance in Europe. (Haaretz) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)) denies it
has sent any troops to Congo
. Reuters (Link dead
as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC))quotes
unnamed diplomatic sources that claim that the troops were there
only temporarily. (BBC) (Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)) paleontologists of the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro
announce a find of a new dinosaur species, Unaysaurus tolentinoi. The
find also shows links to Europe when both
continents were part of Pangaea. (Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:01, 15 January 2007 (UTC)) (BBC) (News 24)
in the Philippines
, less than a week after tropical depression locally
called "Winnie" caused landslides and floods in the region also
affected by the earlier typhoons Muifa and Merbok. Floods
and landslides by Winnie killed at least 495 persons. More people
are expected to be declared missing or dead as typhoon Nanmadol
leaves the country later today. (CNN) (Inquirer/GMA7)
presidential election
vote count continues in all of the country, with Frelimo and its candidate Armando Guebuza leading, according to the
preliminary results already known, and especially in Maputo
, Gaza and
Inhambane, traditional regions of influence for the party in power.
, Jammu and Kashmir
, India killing a
major, 9 soldiers of the
Rashtriya Rifles and 2 civilians
using an improvised
explosive device. (Reuters)
, rallies are held in support of candidates in
elections to
the Legislative Yuan.
Party
sources estimate that separate rallies held in Taipei
by the
Kuomintang and Taiwan Solidarity Union drew around
100,000 each. (VOA) (TaipeiTimes)
to grant citizenship to ethnic Hungarians living in
other countries appears to have failed due to insufficient
turnout. The proposal has angered the governments of
countries with significant Hungarian populations, particularly
Romania
. The Prime Minister of Hungary,
Ferenc Gyurcsány, opposed the
referendum. (Reuters)
election is thrown out for being a day
late. The suit claims paperwork is missing from 59 of
Volusia's 179 precincts and that precinct printouts show different
numbers. (AP)
, Pattani
and Yala
, saying
that they are a gesture of goodwill and peace. (Channel News Asia) (BBC) working for the United States by Iraqi insurgents today. (ABC) (BBC) (Reuters) Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin seeks to ban
Hizbullah's TV channel al-Manar from broadcasting in France due to
purported anti-Semitic content, most
recently involving a commentator speaking of "Zionist attempts to transmit AIDS to Arab countries".
al-Manar claims to be anti-Israeli rather than anti-Semitic. (BBC) and Egypt, Egypt
releases Azzam Azzam, an Israeli
Druze businessman sentenced to 15 years
imprisonment by Egypt in 1997 on charges of spying for Israel, while Israel releases six Egyptian
students who allegedly infiltrated Israel to kidnap
soldiers. (Haaretz) (BBC) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo suspends
logging and pledges to prosecute violators. (Malaysia Star) (Boston Globe) (New York Times)-Irish
power-sharing plan for Northern Ireland
that involves the public decommissioning of the
arms held by the Irish Republican
Army. Ian Paisley of
the loyalist Democratic Unionist Party may
become first minister of Northern Ireland, with former IRA member Martin McGuinness as his deputy.
(BBC)
company
that won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil for
Food program. ( BBC) consular compound in Jeddah
, Saudi Arabia
is stormed by gunmen, who kill nine Saudis in a
four-hour battle but do not gain entry to the consulate building itself. Saudi security
forces kill three of the gunmen, arrest two others, and pursue
several more. There are no Americans dead, though some are slightly
wounded. (BBC) (Reuters/AFP)
the Basque separatist
group ETA detonate seven bombs in bars, cafes and town squares across the
country. The cities attacked are León
, Ávila
, Santillana
del Mar
, Ciudad
Real
, Málaga
, Valladolid
, and Alicante
. All the attacks were preceded by warnings
and nobody was seriously hurt. (BBC)
for talks on the country's political
crisis. (BBC)
.
hears oral argument in
Granholm v.
Heald.
for shipping chemical
weapons precursors to Saddam
Hussein during the Iran–Iraq
War (CNN) soldier have died following clashes in the central
Gaza
Strip. (BBC)
, is
sentenced to eight years imprisonment for membership of an
extremist group. He was found guilty of being a member of the
Bat
Ayin
cell, which has killed eight Palestinians. (BBC) - certifies election results. Two parallel
vote count efforts are pending, one claims evidence that John Kerry is the legitimate winner of Ohio.
(Associated Press) (NYT) city of
Fallujah
, saying they plan to make it a model city for the
whole of Iraq. (Boston Globe)
, Peru, sign a deal
creating the South
American Community of Nations, a bloc modelled on the European Union. (BBC) government indicates that it will recognize
same-sex partnerships for certain benefits, and will introduce
legislation formalizing this status. (365gay.com)
affirms that, despite reports to the contrary,
John Snow will remain Treasury Secretary
during President
George W. Bush's second
term of office. Meanwhile, Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Anthony
Principi announces his expected resignation. (CNN) Senate follows
the U.S. House of
Representatives in approving a complete overhaul of government
intelligence services, creating the post of United States
Director of National Intelligence. (BBC), set after the Tiananmen
Square protests of 1989
. (BBC)
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Tan Chai Ho announces that once an extended
amnesty sought by Indonesia comes to an end later this year,
illegal immigrants will face up
to 5 years in prison and a whipping; their employers will also be
punished. More than 18,000 undocumented migrants have
already been whipped since the 2002 amendment to the Malaysian
Immigration Act. (China View) (Channel News Asia)'s southern
Tamil
Nadu
state. (BBC) presidential candidate
Viktor Yushchenko in Vienna
, announced
Yushchenko had been poisoned, and that the
specific poison would be identified within
days, but later denied the report, saying he had been cited wrongly
and that it would be hard to gain hard evidence for a
poisoning. (Times Online) (Yahoo News) (Link dead as of 00:47, 15 January 2007 (UTC))
in Columbus,
Ohio
, guitarist Dimebag
Darrell Abbott was shot and killed onstage by Nathan Gale. Abbott was shot a total of
five times. He was 38 years old. Three others were killed in the shooting:
concert attendee Nathan Bray, 23, of Columbus; club employee Erin
Halk, 29, of northwest Columbus; and Damageplan security guard Jeff
"Mayhem" Thompson, 40, of Texas
.
The band's drum technician, John Brooks, and tour manager, Chris
Paluska, were injured.
and
Germany have jointly declared they want permanent seats on
the United Nations
Security Council with the veto power of the five current
permanent members. (VOA) Law Lords
hold treatment of Czech
Roma by UK immigration officers at Prague
Airport
to be discriminatory. (opinions) Since the enlargement of the European
Union earlier this year, free movement of EU citizens includes
Czechs. (Guardian) (BBC)
. (Guardian)
, the Canadian Supreme Court
states that a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Canada
would be constitutional. They decline to say if the Constitution requires that
recognition, saying that by not appealing several provincial
courts' decisions to that effect, the government has already
adopted that position. (CBC) Prime Minister Paul Martin says his government will introduce
same-sex marriage legislation in January. (CBC) troops kill at least four Palestinians found crawling into Egypt on the
Gaza
Border. (China View) (Haaretz) soldiers at a
West
Bank
checkpoint. (BBC)
announces plans to give women legal equality and property rights within a
year. (Reuters) troops kill Rania Siam, an 8-year-old Palestinian girl, as she eats lunch in
the kitchen of her home in Khan Yunis
, Gaza
Strip. Earlier, three mortar shells are fired into
the nearby Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim injuring four people,
one of them a child. Hamas claims responsibility. Israeli
troops fire in the general direction the source of mortar fire. The Israeli army says it will
investigate Rania Siam's death. (NYT)
Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi is acquitted of
bribery thanks to the statute of
limitations. The court's ruling implied that Berlusconi
probably was guilty of bribing a judge in 1991, but said that too
much time had passed for him to be punished. Financial Times Reuters
and
Stockholm
. (Canadian Press) (BBC)
city of Quetta
, leaving at least ten people dead.
(BBC)
to pay USD
$7.9 million in compensation to 317 survivors of the 1982 Plan de
Sánchez massacre in which soldiers and paramilitaries killed
268 villagers.
, the first solo ascension of a eight-thousander in winter from a new route
in the South face.
Prime
Minister Serge Vohor is ousted in a
vote of no-confidence and replaced by Ham
Lini. Vohor had fallen out of favor with his
cabinet after he unilaterally travelled to Taipei and
established diplomatic
relations with the Taiwan. The Vanuatu Council of Ministers voted to
void the decision and continue relations with the People's
Republic of China.
confirm that Ukrainian presidential candidate
Viktor Yushchenko's illness was
caused by dioxin
poisoning. It is alleged that he first
became ill after dining with the chairman of the Ukrainian Security Service in
early September. (Link dead as of
21:43, 14 January 2007 (UTC))
in hope of finding information that would help
remove ElBaradei from his post. (CNN) (The Washington Post) soldiers are killed and 10 are injured as a tunnel
rigged with 1500 kg of explosives exploded near the Rafah crossing
between Rafah
and
Egypt. Hamas and an al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades'
offshoot called "Fatah Hawk" claimed
joint responsibility. (Haaretz) (CNN) Tank Fire. (Ha'Aretz)
, Philippines, supermarket
leaves at least 58 people injured and 15 dead. (AOL news)
, South
Korea
. (Xinhua)'s highest administrative court, the Conseil d'État, bans Hizbullah's al-Manar TV station on the
grounds that it incites racial hatred and
antisemitism. (BBC)
prosecutors for alleged involvement in murder and
"disappearances" in Chile in
the 1970s, and is placed under house arrest. (BBC)
to cast their electoral votes, including an
unexpected single vote for John Edwards
by an elector in Minnesota
. (Minneapolis Star Tribune) delegation
of the Electoral College cast their ballots for George W. Bush while a legal recount is still ongoing,
after a written request by 11 Democratic congressmen (pdf) to suspend voting. (ABC) (ABC) Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator
Michael O. Leavitt is nominated by President George W. Bush
to succeed outgoing Secretary
of Health and Human Services Tommy
Thompson in the Cabinet-level post. (Bloomberg)
in Baghdad, Iraq.
(The Guardian) city of
Fallujah after eight US Marines were killed by
insurgent over the weekend.
(ABC {aus})
based NGO claims that another three
prisoners have died while in U.S. detention in
Afghanistan. (BBC)
outside Egypt's Supreme
Judiciary buildings, defying a ban on public protests, to call for
an end to Hosni Mubarak's 23-year
presidency of Egypt.
(BBC)
, the smallest Persian Gulf
nation, unfurls the world's largest national flag at a sports stadium car
park. (BBC)
by Palestinian
mortar shells. (Haaretz)
government blames Israel for a failed attempt to kill an alleged senior
Hamas member in Damascus
yesterday. (BBC) soldiers. (Reuters) President Chen Shui-bian resigns as Chairman of the
Democratic Progressive
Party to take responsibility for the pan-green alliance's failure to win a
majority in the legislative election.
(BBC) state of
Punjab
, killing at least 37 people. One of the
trains was carrying Hindu pilgrims returning
from Vaishno Devi. (BBC) (The Times-UK) admits that
more prisoners have died in American custody in Afghanistan than it has previously acknowledged.
(BBC) of Baghdad. Iraqi doctors
claim at least 7 deaths and 12 injuries. (BBC) (News24). The Millau Viaduct
over the River Tarn
is higher than the Eiffel Tower
. It is expected to open to traffic on
Thursday. (BBC). It is the first new macaque discovered since 1903
and the first new primate in 49 years.
(NCF India)
Home
Secretary David Blunkett resigns
from his post in the wake of numerous controversies. He is replaced
by Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State
for Education and Skills. Ruth Kelly
takes over from Clarke as Education Secretary and becomes the sixth
woman in prime minister Tony Blair's
Cabinet. Kelly is replaced as Cabinet Office minister by David Miliband. (Sky) (BBC)
, Greece
, two gunmen, possibly Albanian
, seize a bus at 7:00 local time
and take 25 hostages on board. The hijackers
threaten to blow up the bus at 08:00 Greek time (06:00 GMT,
Thursday) if their demands for €1 million and a
flight to Russia
are not met. The hostage crisis ends
peacefully after 18 hours when the two gunmen surrender. All the
hostages are released unharmed. (Sky) (News24) (OfficialWire) (Reuters)
, a suburb of the capital
Skopje
, citing poor conditions and repression by state
authorities. The fledgling multi-ethnic governing coalition
plays down the incident stating it is a local problem stemming from
the slow implementation of the peace agreement after the 2001 civil
war, while some opposition parties call for "strong action".
(RealityMK) (TOL)
investigation into alleged Ohio voting problems, (NYT) (pdf) prompted by affidavits and sworn
testimony taken at a congressional forum held on December 13. [98663]
National Missile Defense system by
the Missile Defense Agency is
aborted when an unknown anomaly is detected before the launch of an
interceptor missile in the Marshall
Islands
, 16 minutes after the launch of the target from
Kodiak
Island
, Alaska
. It is the first test since a previous
failed test in 2002. As in 2002, the Bush
administration abandons plans to activate the system by the end
of the year, and projects its activation in early 2005. (Reuters) (Associated Press).
(MSNBC) is forced to
release evidence which shows prisoners in Iraq were subject
to mock executions, electric shocks, and burns by US Marines. (BBC)'s defense
minister accuses Iran
and
Syria of supporting terrorists
and charges that a senior Iraqi Shiite was
leading a "pro-Iranian" coalition into next month's national
elections. (AP via Yahoo)
announces that if Japan is to
impose any sanctions over the ashes of kidnap victim Yokota Megumi, it will be regarded as a
declaration of war.
(Japan Today) The Japanese government downplays
the criticism. (News24) (Bloomberg) (Japan Today) train accident, blamed by railway officials on the
driver of a van stopped on train tracks near Villupuram district of
Tamil Nadu. The new accident comes after the previous day's
train crash with a death toll of at least 37. (The Tribune, Chandigarh, India)
to monitor the forthcoming peace deal.
(Reuters Alertnet)
child killer Marc
Dutroux loses an appeal against his life sentence . (Expatica) (News.Com)
, agree to invite Turkey
to begin negotiations to join
the EU from 3 October 2005, about 36
years after they first applied to join. (BBC)
, nearly 50 people are killed in clashes between
Nepalese troops and Maoist rebels.
(BBC)
who allegedly insulted President Robert Mugabe could face up to five years in
prison for undermining the president's
authority. (BBC) and Busan
.
at the 10th round of international talks on
climate change. (NYT) (Democracy Now!) final court of appeal, the Law Lords, rule
that the suspension of habeas
corpus for foreign nationals detained under the Anti-terrorism,
Crime and Security Act 2001 is illegal, being incompatible with
the European
Convention on Human Rights. (BBC) (judgment)
soldiers discover a cache of Angkor Wat
-era carvings that were to be smuggled out of the country. (Reuters)
security
forces pursue 100 people connected to the unrest in the south of
the country. Four Islamic teachers have
been arrested on suspicion of inciting terrorism. (Channel News Asia) (Reuters)
. He is currently detained in Japan, and is
wanted by the United
States. (BBC) (Reuters)
report the discovery of a 30,000 to
37,000-year-old flute, the earliest musical
instrument ever found. [98664]
in Dublin
,Ireland
when
questioned about vehicle armor.
(CNN)
authorities put up photos of abused Iraqi prisoners in front of
the US interests section in Havana
after the U.S. displayed
Christmas decorations in a protest against Cuba's human rights record.
(BBC) declares Hizbullah's
al-Manar TV channel to be a
terrorist
organization. (White House Official Statement) (Al-Jazeera) claims the killings were "not
deliberate". 78 people suffocated to death after being piled
into army trucks by Thai security forces; 7 were shot at the
separatist protests on October 25. (BBC)
President George W. Bush
signs the Intelligence
Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, creating the office of the
Director
of National Intelligence to oversee the country's fifteen spy
agencies. (ABC News) forces, accompanied by armored bulldozers and helicopter gunships, raid the Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, killing 8 Palestinians, including 2 civilians, and wounding 24, after 50 mortar shells were fired on the Gush Katif settlements and
caused injuries to some Israeli Soldiers and killed a Thai worker. (BBC) (Maariv) (Haaretz) raid, Palestinians from
Hamas and the Abu-Reish faction shoot at least five anti-tank missiles, wounding two Israeli
soldiers. (BBC) (Haaretz) (Maariv) (CTV Canada). (BBC) (Haaretz), five Palestinians are
trapped when the tunnel they were
digging collapsed. Rescue efforts, with the assist of Israeli bulldozers, are in
progress though estimations are that the five are dead.
(Haaretz) (Yahoo\Reuters), vows to push through big reforms to the
Social Security
program, including partial privatization of the state pension fund,
during his second term. (BBC) must recognize the ethnic-Greek government of E.U. member state Cyprus
before it can begin negotiations for E.U.
membership. Currently Turkey is the only country that
recognizes the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus
. (ITV) (Turkish Press)
, Indonesia, say that they have found nine home-made bombs on a
bus during a security operation. (Channel News Asia) (Jakarta Post)
flee while on bail. An
appellate court overturned their
earlier acquittals yesterday. They had been sentenced to prison for
17 years. (BBC) (Ireland Online)
's ban on the sale of all tobacco products comes into effect. (Hindustan Times) (BBC) intends to allow Polish
officials to see files related to the Katyn
massacre
. (BBC)
in a room used by ministers from major powers last
year during private talks on Iraq.
(BBC) (NZZ)
, England
theatre against a play (Behzti) depicting sex abuse and murder in a Sikh
temple. Theatre stormed by a few
demonstrators. (BBC)
over the lawsuit filed by the state in September
alleging that Diebold was not truthful about the security and
reliability of its
electronic voting machines. (internetnews.com)
, USA, infant
Victoria Jo Stinnett is
returned to her father three days after her mother was allegedly
strangled to death and she was cut from her mother's uterus and
abducted. The AMBER Alert system
is credited with helping to safely recover the child. (CNN)
and the northern Negev
, causing damage but no casualties. (Haaretz) soldiers on Saturday during an Israeli incursion
into the Khan
Younis
refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, raising the death toll to 11. According to
Palestinian sources, three of those killed were civilians, the rest
were militants from Hamas and Fatah's Abu Reish
Brigades. The IDF has officially ended Khan Yunis raid, dubbed
"Operation Orange Iron", and threatened to return if mortar
shelling will be renewed by militants. (BBC), (Haaretz) forces were in control at the local cemetery, medics told the Reuters news agency. (BBC)-controlled corridor in the Egypt-Gaza
border
area. (BBC) President Augusto
Pinochet has been taken to hospital after suffering a stroke. (BBC)
to find a solution to the conflict would
end. (BBC) official
Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka
"Chemical Ali") is questioned by Iraqi judges in a pre-trial
hearing. He is accused of crimes committed by the regime,
such as the gassing of Iraqi Kurds in 1988.
(BBC) (Reuters) Shia cities of Karbala
and Najaf
kill up to 60 people and injure a further
120. (BBC) auctions off the main production unit of oil giant
YUKOS to the small Baikalfinansgroup for 260.75bn rubles (US$9.37bn).
Before the sale, YUKOS was said to owe US$27bn
in unpaid taxes, specifically an average of 90%
of its revenue. Former CEO jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other YUKOS
officials maintain it is politically motivated. (BBC)
go to the polls to elect a new parliament. Voters will choose between
candidates, all of whom have pledged support to President Niyazov, the "Turkmenbashi" or "leader of
Turkmens". (BBC)
production unit yesterday. The value of the
January futures contract fell 64
cents to $45.64 on the Nymex
. announces reforms to its legal system effective in
2005, including the introduction of jury
trials and a 10% increase in the number of judges.
Jurors will be elected to a five-year term, and must have at least
two years' university education. (BBC) (Xinhua) Coptic Christian Church, Pope Shenouda III, has gone into seclusion in a desert monastery to draw attention to grievances among
Egyptian Christians. (BBC) and Afghanistan, but pledged to sign the letters personally in
future. (BBC), fighting has not stopped after a ceasefire between government troops and
rebels. Although the government of Sudan has said
that they have stopped the Darfur
offensive, there are still reports of
battles. Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail rules out any
withdrawal from the positions government troops have taken. An
observing African Union helicopter was shot at. (BBC) (Iafrica), announces his intention to disrupt elections
if the government refuses to abolish the monarchy. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has given them until
January 13, 2005 to begin peace talks.
(Reuters) asks for more time to think about it.
(Reuters) (BBC) city of
Mosul
. The dead include 13 US Soldiers, making the
attack one of the deadliest attacks on US forces since the start of
the war. (BBC) (CNN) hostages held in Iraq since August, are
freed. Their captors claim they were freed because
of France's anti-war stance.
(BBC) Home Secretary
David Blunkett's office is found to
have assisted in the fast-tracking of his lover's nanny's
visa-application, thereby confirming the allegation that led to his
dismissal. (BBC) announces that allegations of abuse of
prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay
by US military personnel will be "fully
investigated". The allegations were prompted by a memo,
obtained by ACLU FOIA
requests, dated two months after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke which
reference an executive order that authorized questionable
interrogation techniques. The White House spokesman flat out denied
this in saying "there is no executive order on interrogation
techniques". (BBC) (White House) (ACLU) issues a
tourist visa to former Taiwanese leader Lee
Teng-hui despite protests from the People's
Republic of China that such a move would harm bilateral relations. The PRC
considers Lee a Taiwan
independence agitator. (BBC)
finds the banning of same-sex marriage
unconstitutional, making that province the eighth of
Canada's provinces and territories to legalize same-sex
marriage. (CBC). (BBC) Prime Minister Tony Blair makes a surprise visit to Baghdad. (BBC) (Guardian) (Number 10)
, Northern Ireland. Two members of the bank's senior staff
and their families are reported to have been held hostage before
the robbery. This is likely to be the second biggest bank robbery
in British history, and the fourth largest in the world. (BBC) (Reuters) (Glasgow Evening Times)'s Anti Terrorism Court cancels the bail of Asif Ali
Zardari, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party and husband of
Benazir Bhutto. Zardari was
released last month after eight years in prison. He was charged
with corruption and conspiracy to murder. (GEO) (BBC) upholds the
indictment and house arrest of Augusto
Pinochet. Prosecution lawyers claim that his
hospitalization for a heart condition was a political ploy.
Pinochet's lawyers intend to appeal. (BBC) (Bloomberg) upholds the election of Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo. Opposition parties,
led by Muhammadu Buhari, have
challenged the result, and the EU and U.S. question the
election's validity. (AllAfrica) (BBC) (Vanguard, Nigeria) claims 49
lives and injures 15. (Reuters)
, United Arab Emirates
, find the remains of a 7,500-year-old man on the
island of Marawah. (Khaleej Times) (Reuters) President Jacques
Chirac demands improved hospital security after two nurses are
killed. A suspected mental patient was released. (Reuters Alertnet) pressures
Iceland not to grant Bobby
Fischer sanctuary. (Reuters)
journalists march in protest of the murder of Deyda
Hydara, newspaper editor who had criticised new strict press
legislation. UNESCO
also condemns the killing. (BBC) (UNESCO portal) increases its financial support for the
forthcoming re-run of election in Ukraine. (NZZ) bank heist was £22
million, comprising £1.15 million in new Northern Bank £100 and £50
notes, £12 million in new Northern Bank £20 and £10 notes, £5
million in used Northern Ireland notes issued by various banks, and
the remainder in other sterling banknotes. Since Northern
Irish notes are rarely seen outside Northern Ireland, the gang may
have difficulty in laundering most of their haul. (Scotsman) Army denies a claim by Physicians for Human Rights that
they were firing at a Khan
Yunis hospital. (Ha'Aretz) for discussions with Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon about reviving the
peace process. The two discuss the Road Map for Peace and Israel's disengagement plan.
Blair said that Palestinians must stop terror as a condition to
return for the Road Map. (Yahoo/Reuters), (BBC) after at least 15 rockets and mortar shells hit Israeli
settlements. Israeli forces kill either one or three
armed Palestinians in Khan
Yunis, and according to Palestinians, demolish seven
houses. (Haaretz) (Reuters) residents hold protests against the disengagement
plan and the lack of action against mortar shellings on the settlement in the
last week. Some of them wear an orange Star of David, similar to the yellow badge
which Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Many politicians and heads of Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, ask them to stop
wearing the star as they believe it trivializes the Nazi genocide.
(BBC) after rebels kill their aid workers.
(BBC) (IAfrica) (AllAfrica) election
commission investigates railways minister Laloo Prasad for
allegations of electoral bribery. He has given money to
dalit women in public. (ExpressIndia) (BBC) court restores bail for
Asif Ali Zardari. (BBC) (GEO), the national election commission declares Armando Guebuza, presidential candidate of
ruling party Frelimo, the winner of the
election. He received 64% of the vote despite alleged
irregularities. (AllAfrica) (Afrol)
(BBC), the funeral of Fernando Poe, Jr, movie star and
presidential candidate, attracts large numbers of
supporters. Security is high due to rumors of potential
anti-government revolt. The detained ex-president Joseph Estrada condemns incumbent president
Gloria Arroyo in his eulogy. (Reuters) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
. (USGS)
, Cortés department
, Honduras
, killing some 28 passengers. A note left
at the crime scene claims the attack for a defunct guerrilla group,
but suspicion immediately falls on the Mara Salvatrucha gang,
and have since been convicted for the crime. (BBC) United Nations worker
in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo is arrested for creating pornographic videos of young girls.
(Washington Times) (The Times) to create a buffer zone
between fighting factions. (Reuters)
. announces a criminal investigation of five
executives from Newmont Mining
Corp., the world's largest gold mining
company, based in Denver
, Colorado
, USA, on charges
related to heavy-metal pollution. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)'s FARC guerrillas kidnap a group of between seven
and ten holidaymakers from a spa resort near San Rafael, Antioquia. (BBC)
's Huygens probe
separates from NASA
's Cassini spacecraft at approximately 02:00
UTC, with deployment confirmed by the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory
. The probe will reach Saturn's moon Titan in 22
days, where it will make an atmospheric descent to the surface and
relay scientific information. (Spaceflightnow) and the
Commonwealth. Her
theme is religious and cultural
diversity and the benefits of a tolerant society. In a break
from tradition, the Queen also sends a special radio Christmas
Message to the UK armed
forces – the first time she has made a separate radio
broadcast. (BBC) (BBC)
to Beaumont
with as much as 13" in
Brazoria
. The snowfall began on Christmas Eve as a deep layer of below
freezing (below 32 °F/0 °C) temperatures settled across the region after the
passing of an artic cold front and an
upper level low pressure system crossed the region and dumped snow
in its wake. The reason very little snow fell north of I-10 was
because of the lack of moisture as you got further away from the
coast. (National Weather Service) reveals that 53% of its population can communicate
in Standard Mandarin, the official
spoken language of the country. (China Daily)
, the strongest earthquake
in 40 years, strikes in the Indian Ocean
off the western coast of Sumatra
. While initial reports state that the
resulting tsunamis killed approximately 100
people, by the end of the day this estimate has increased to over
14,000 people in coastal areas of Thailand, Sri
Lanka
, the Maldives
, India, Bangladesh
, Burma
, Indonesia and Malaysia. Tremors are also felt as far as Singapore
, eastern countries of Africa,
and north-western Australia. A
state of emergency is declared in Sri Lanka, where over 31,000
people are feared dead. (USGS) (CNN) (BBC) (The Star) (Channel News Asia) (The Times of India)
, France, a suspected gas explosion kills 17 people (BBC) (Scotsman) Transport Minister Heorhiy Kyrpa, a staunch supporter of Viktor Yanukovych, is found shot dead at
his home just outside of Kiev
.
It is unclear whether he was murdered or committed suicide.
(BBC) (Reuters) police arrest Palestinian presidential candidate
Mustafa Barghouti.
A
Jerusalem police spokesman says Mr Barghouti was "detained
for questioning because he has the right to transit through
Jerusalem but not be in Jerusalem itself". (BBC) is known to be at least 20,000 and possibly as high
as 45,000. (BBC) London Free Press Independent Online opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko claims victory.
Official results may not come out for days. (Reuters) (BBC)'s main
Sunni political movement, the Iraqi Islamic Party, withdraws from next
month's general elections, citing the refusal to delay elections
until all parts of Iraq could participate. (BBC)
volcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula
erupts, causing a large earthquake and producing a plume of hot
ash. (Russian Information Agency) (Washington Times) (KVERT) (webcam) unmanned
drone attempts to kill two suspected Hamas
militants in Khan
Yunis allegedly on their way to launch an attack on
Israelis in Gush
Katif with mortar
weapons.
. No injuries are reported from the
Qassam rocket attacks. (BBC) (Haaretz) policemen are shot at a checkpoint outside of
Tikrit
. Four policemen and one national
guardsman are gunned down at a police station in Ishaki. A local police commander is assassinated in
Baquba
. A car bomb detonated near a US-Iraqi
military convoy in Samarra
kills three national guardsmen and three
civilians. All these attacks occurred in the Sunni Triangle. (BBC) is known to be at least 59,000 and still
rising. (BBC), government soldiers search for at least seven
people taken hostage by FARC rebels last
Friday. Kidnappers have not made any demands as of yet.
(BBC)
, USA, explodes
killing two workers. The blast is felt about away. The
company is later fined for workplace violations[98665][98666].
and subsequent tsunamis on
December 26 reaches more than
80,000. (washingtonpost.com)
issues a statement saying that the number of
dead is likely to rise above 100,000. (BBC), Australia, Japan and
India have formed
an international coalition to lead aid efforts after the 2004 Indian
Ocean earthquake. (BBC)
passes a law against
terrorism and against support of
terrorism. The controversial law prohibits funding
terrorists. It also prohibits aiding the families of perceived
terrorists and institutes inciting for terrorism. The law will give
Israel the right to confiscate property and funds of any
perceived terrorist organization, even though if they do not target
Israel or Israelis. The law is part of the state's legal
war against terrorism and was
approved 62-6. (Haaretz) parliament passes a law
abolishing several state holidays, including November 7, the anniversary of the 1917 October
Revolution. (CNN) police announce that they have apprehended
Dagoberto Flores Rios, a member of the Norte del Valle drug
cartel. The United
States government had offered a $5 million
reward for his capture of Niece B. (Jamaica Observer) (BBC) army incursion into the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. During the raid the local Hamas commander
is killed and two Israeli soldiers are slightly wounded. (BBC) (Haaretz) declares that a deal has been struck between
Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres to form a coalition
government. (BBC), the government and the rebel group SPLA have agreed to sign a ceasefire in Naiwasha on
the road to a peace deal. The treaty would end the civil war that began in 1983.
(IAfrica) (News24) (BBC) Central Election Commission rejects complaints
of prime minister Viktor
Yanukovych, who lost the presidential election. (Reuters) (BBC),
parliament of the Basque
regions favors increasing autonomy and eventual negotiated
independence (Independent Online) (BBC) court
hands down the country's first fines
to spammers. (PCWorld) (DV
Hardware)
, President Abdoulaye
Wade signs a peace deal with separatist rebels in the Casamance
region. The war has lasted 22 years.
(BBC) (News24), four people are charged for selling secrets to
unspecified foreign agents. They include former political
allies to President Robert Mugabe. (Iafrica) (Reuters) and subsequent tsunamis on December 26 reaches more than 120,000 in 12
countries from Malaysia to Somalia; the Norwegian newspaper
Verdens Gang reports a current
total of 115,982 deaths. The Malaysian News Agency reports the death toll in Sumatra may exceed 400,000. According to the
WHO, as many as five million people are at risk,
with little water, food or shelter. reported
what may be a second case of mad cow
disease in a ten-year old dairy cow at the same time as the
U.S.
Department
of Agriculture announced an
end to their ban on imports of live Canadian cattle.
(International Herald Tribune) (Bloomberg)
, a nightclub in
Buenos
Aires, Argentina
, kills 194 and injures 714. (Reuters) (CNN) (BBC) extradites FARC leader Simón Trinidad to the United States to
face conspiracy, kidnapping, and drug trafficking charges.
(BBC)'s Viktor
Yanukovych resigns from his post as Prime Minister.
(Reuters)
, the world's tallest skyscraper, is officially
opened by Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. (CNN) (Washington Times)
's ambassador to Malaysia, Rusdihardjo, claims that the death toll from
the 2004
Indian Ocean earthquake may eventually exceed 400,000 in Indonesia
alone. ( Malaysia Star) ( Washington Times) government pledges to match dollar-for-dollar the
donations of private Canadian citizens, in addition to the $40,000,000 in federal funds already
committed; so far, Canadians have donated CAD 20,000,000, mostly
on-line. The government also announces plans to forgive the
debt of the tsunami ravaged nations. (GM) (CTV) (Ottawa Citizen) charities have raised £45,000,000 from public donations; the UK
government increases its donation from £15,000,000 to
£50,000,000. (BBC) aircraft fires a missile at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. (BBC), near the border with Egypt.
(BBC), president Pervez
Musharraf announces that he will keep his additional role as an
army chief. He had previously stated that he would give it
up. (Reuters) (Pakistan
Dawn) (Times of India) announces that it may break off talks about the
fate of the eight Japanese citizens kidnapped
by North Korea in the 1980s. (Channel News Asia) (Mainichi Shimbun) (Reuters) approves
the Zapatero
administration's bill to legalize same-sex
marriage. It will now go to the Cortes. [98667]| Embed code: |
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