Timeline 2006 July-September
Return to home
2006 Jul 1,
New Jersey failed to approve a budget and Gov. Jon S. Corzine began
closing the state government amid a bitter dispute with fellow
Democrats in the Assembly over his plan to increase the sales tax,
threatening to shutter beaches, parks and possibly casinos in the
(AP, 7/1/06)(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/8/06,
2006 Jul 1, An estimated 5,000
bikers rode into Hollister, Ca., for the annual 4th of July
motorcycle rally, even though it was officially cancelled last year
by the City Council.
(SSFC, 7/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 1, Thunderstorms
forced NASA to call off the launch of Discovery, delaying the first
space shuttle flight in a year. Discovery was launched three days
later, on July 4.
2006 Jul 1, Phillip Rieff (83),
sociologist and a severe critic of contemporary academic culture,
died. He was best known for his 1966 book “The Triumph of the
Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud." His final work: “Charisma:
The Gift of Grace, and How It Has Been Taken Away from Us," was
published in 2007.
(WSJ, 2/17/07, p.P12)(http://tinyurl.com/lphph)
2006 Jul 1, In southern
Afghanistan 2 rockets fired by insurgents slammed into the main
coalition military base. The wounded included five American and two
Canadian soldiers, as well as three foreign contract workers. 2
British soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed when their
base in Sangin district in Helmand province came under attack.
Afghan forces killed 11 militants in a separate attack in the same
area. A total of five British troops have been killed since the
start of Operation Mountain Thrust.
(AP, 7/1/06)(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 1, China’s new $4.2
billion, 710-mile-long railway from Golmud to Lhasa, Tibet, began
operations. Canada’s Bombardier manufactured high-tech cars for the
Sky Train with regulated oxygen levels to cope with 16,500-foot
(SFC, 6/30/06, p.A18)(Reuters, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, It was reported
that Chinese consumers had begun ganging up on retailers by arriving
en masse at pre-arranged times, arranged online, to push for bargain
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.59)
2006 Jul 1, China reported a
new outbreak of bird flu near Zhongwei in the Ningxia region.
(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 1, Sources said East
Timor's outgoing foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta will head the
government until a new premier is appointed in coming days.
2006 Jul 1, About 100 Ethiopian
troops entered the Somali border town of Beled-Hawo in eight
military vehicles, the latest sign that Ethiopia might try to
bolster this country's weak interim government as an Islamic militia
gains increasing power.
2006 Jul 1, Finland began its
6-month rotating presidency of the EU.
2006 Jul 1, Thousands of people
marched through Paris to protest plans to tighten restrictions on
immigration and step up deportations of immigrant families with
children who are in the country illegally.
2006 Jul 1, The 3-week Tour de
France began. 4 favorites, including Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich,
were barred with 5 others from the cycling competition after their
names popped up in a Spanish probe of a network that allegedly
supplied riders and other athletes with banned drugs and doping
(AP, 6/30/06)(SFC, 7/1/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 1, In Gambia a summit
of more than 50 African leaders opened with the aim of pursuing
regional integration, but conflicts in Darfur and Somalia are
inevitably topping the agenda. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
called on Africa to forge closer ties with Latin America to combat
what he called a threat of U.S. hegemony.
(AFP, 7/1/06)(Reuters, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, Thousands chanted
slogans and marched through Hong Kong's streets in a pro-democracy
protest, while a pro-Beijing parade also drew a big crowd to mark
the ninth anniversary of the former British colony's return to
2006 Jul 1, India's PM Manmohan
Singh announced an 835-million-dollar relief package to aid farmers
in the country's main cotton belt where crippling debts and falling
prices have led to thousands of suicides. A court convicted three
men of involvement in a 2002 terrorist attack on a Hindu shrine in
western India that killed 33 people, and it sentenced them to death.
(AP, 7/1/06)(AFP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 1, Ryutaro Hashimoto
(68), former Japanese PM (1996-1998), died. He had stood up to the
US in trade negotiations and helped diffuse tensions over US
military bases in Japan.
2006 Jul 1, A parked car bomb
exploded at a popular outdoor market in a Shiite slum in Baghdad,
killing at least 66 people and wounding dozens. It was the bloodiest
attack to hit Iraq since the death of terror leader Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi. Gunmen in Baghdad kidnapped a Sunni female legislator
along with seven of her bodyguards. Iraqi and US authorities freed
495 prisoners from US facilities, completing a mass release
announced by the prime minister last month as part of his national
2006 Jul 1, Palestinian
militants holding an Israeli soldier issued a new set of demands,
calling for the release of 1,000 prisoners and a halt to Israel's
military offensive in Gaza. But Israel rejected them.
2006 Jul 1, A new law, combined
with a series of bureaucratic bungles, forced some 30% of Russian
liquor stores to close indefinitely because they will have nothing
to sell. The law, which aimed to block counterfeit wine sales,
requires distributors to place new, government-issued excise labels
on all wine and liquor. But a series of delays and misunderstandings
has meant few properly labeled imports will be ready in time.
2006 Jul 1, In Geneva
developing countries emerged from a failed World Trade Organization
meeting more united than ever and warned rich countries not to
undermine the development thrust of the Doha Round of global trade
2006 Jul 2, US researchers
reported that astemizol, an allergy drug pulled off the market in
1999, could work to treat malaria. It was marketed under the brand
name Hismanal by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson &
Johnson, and can kill the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes
2006 Jul 2, Jan Murray (born as
Murray Janofsky in 1916), comedian and film and TV actor, died in
Beverly Hills. He hosted the TV game show “Treasure Hunt"
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 2, In Afghanistan up
to 30 extremists, firing guns and mortars, attacked a coalition
patrol that had just found a weapons cache in Sangin. About 20
militants were killed. Afghan police killed seven insurgents that
attacked a police checkpoint in Nawzad district in southern Helmand
2006 Jul 2, Africa's leaders
meeting in Gambia agreed to send troops to Somalia to support
regional efforts at calming the chaotic east African state.
2006 Jul 2, In Bangladesh 2
people were killed and nearly 200 injured in clashes as opposition
parties enforced a countrywide transport shutdown.
2006 Jul 2, Bolivians voted for
a national assembly that will rewrite the constitution. They voted
"yes" or "no" on a ballot question on whether to offer the country's
nine states greater autonomy in political and financial affairs.
President Morales' supporters failed to win control of an assembly
that will rewrite Bolivia's constitution, leaving him no choice but
to compromise over his ambitious plans to empower the indigenous
majority and boost state control over the economy. Morales allies
won 132 seats in the 255-person body. Voters in four of Bolivia's
nine states overwhelmingly chose greater political and economic
autonomy for their states.
(AP, 6/29/06)(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 2, EADS's French
co-chief executive Noel Forgeard and Airbus's German head Gustav
Humbert tendered their resignations over delays to deliveries of the
A380 superjumbo that has wiped billions of euros (dollars) off
EADS's share price. Louis Gallois became the new EADS co-CEO;
Christian Strieff was named the new president and CEO of Airbus.
(AFP, 7/2/06)(WSJ, 7/3/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 2, Pirates in the
Strait of Malacca off Indonesia's coast boarded two UN-chartered
ships carrying construction material for the reconstruction of the
tsunami-hit Aceh. They stole and damaged equipment on the first ship
and robbed the crew of cash and personal belongings on the other.
2006 Jul 2, Israeli aircraft
sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian PM Ismail
Haniyeh in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free
an Israeli soldier.
2006 Jul 2, Iraq’s largest
Sunni Arab bloc in parliament said it was suspending its
participation in the legislature until a kidnapped colleague was
released, dealing a blow to efforts to involve the disaffected
minority in the political process. A roadside bomb in Baghdad killed
Col. Muthanna Faeq Abdul-Razzaq, the assistant commander of the
Iraqi army's 7th Division, and wounded his driver. 2 policemen were
killed and six were wounded in a shootout between gunmen and Iraqi
police. A bomb struck a house in Baqouba, killing two people and
wounding four. Clashes between insurgents and Iraqi police southwest
of Kirkuk left one policeman and two insurgents dead.
2006 Jul 2, Liechtenstein
remained on the list of uncooperative tax havens because, unlike 33
other jurisdictions, it had not made a commitment to the OECD to
improve transparency and to establish effective exchange of
information for tax purposes with OECD countries. The population
stood at some 34,600.
2006 Jul 2, Mexico held
presidential elections. Felipe Calderon (43) calling himself “the
candidate of jobs," faced Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: “For
everyone’s good, the poor first." Lopez Villanueva, head of the
Francisco Villa Popular Front, arranged to have 10,000 members as
poll watchers for Lopez Obrador. A tight race delayed the results to
July 5. The per capita GDP was $10,000. Oil production was 3.35
million barrels per day. On July 6 Calderon was named the winner by
234,000 votes. The final outcome rested with the electoral court,
Trife, and its decision was due by September 6.
(Econ, 6/10/06, p.36)(WSJ, 6/28/06, p.A1)(Econ,
7/15/06, p.35)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 2, In Nicaragua Herty
Lewites (b.1939), former mayor of Managua (2000-2004) and recent
presidential candidate, died of a heart attack. He broke with the
leftist Sandinista party to run against its leader Daniel Ortega.
2006 Jul 2, A Peruvian rescue
team found the bodies of 3 American mountaineers killed during an
icy climb high in the Andes. They located Kristen Yoder (21), her
brother Dustin Yoder (23) and Brennan Larson (24) in a 100-foot-deep
crevasse on the Artesonraju peak.
2006 Jul 2, Senegal's President
Abdoulaye Wade said his country would try Chad's former leader
Hissene Habre, wanted by Belgium for trial on charges of war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
2006 Jul 2, Sri Lanka’s Tamil
Tigers, claiming they have just trained 6,000 civilians in armed
combat, accused the UN of exaggerating the number of child
fighters in the rebels' ranks. Police said Sampath Lakmal, a
freelance Sri Lankan journalist, has been gunned down near the
(AFP, 7/2/06)(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 3, Former Private
Steven D. Green was charged in federal court in Charlotte, N.C.,
with raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl (Abeer Qassim al-Janabi) and
killing her (March 11), her parents and sister. Four members of
Green's unit were charged as well; one later pleaded guilty and was
sentenced to 100 years in prison.
2006 Jul 3, A US federal judge
issued a temporary retraining order barring the Navy from using a
type of high-intensity sonar that could harm marine animals during
war games that began last week in the Pacific Ocean. On July 7 the
US Navy and environmental groups agreed on a settlement which
prevented the Navy from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly
established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument
during the exercises.
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A3)(SFC, 7/8/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 3, Benjamin
Hendrickson (55), an Emmy Award-winning actor on the "As the World
Turns" soap opera, was found dead of suicide with a gunshot to the
head in his Long Island home.
2006 Jul 3, Jack Smith
(b.1913), singer and TV host for “You Asked for It," died at his
home in southern California. In 1958 he replaced Art Baker, who
created the show in 1950.
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B4)
2006 Jul 3, A US general said
the United States is giving $2 billion worth of military weapons and
vehicles to modernize Afghanistan's national army.
2006 Jul 3, Judges and
prosecutors from Cambodia and abroad were sworn in to begin the
UN-backed judicial process to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for
genocide and crimes against humanity.
2006 Jul 3, China's new train
from Beijing to Tibet arrived in the ancient capital of Lhasa,
ending its maiden journey after climbing to elevations so high that
ballpoint pens and packaged foods burst.
2006 Jul 3, It was reported
that 579 Cubans had entered the US over the last 9 months by landing
on Puerto Rico’s Mona Island, 40 miles from the coast of the
(SFC, 7/3/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 3, Iraq’s parliament
convened despite a boycott by Sunni Arab legislators protesting a
colleague's abduction. Bombs struck markets north and south of
Baghdad, with nationwide attacks killing at least 10 people and
2006 Jul 3, Nissan Motor Co.
approved opening talks with General Motors Corp. over a possible
2006 Jul 3, In India's
Jammu-Kashmir state clashes between Indian government forces and
suspected Islamic separatist militants killed 13 people.
2006 Jul 3, Two bitter rivals
declared themselves Mexico's next president, sparking fears of
violence. Electoral officials said they wouldn't name a winner until
a vote-by-vote hand count.
2006 Jul 3, In northwestern
Pakistan an explosion hit a bus carrying paramilitary troops,
killing at least 6 soldiers and wounding 5 others.
2006 Jul 3, Palestinian
militants holding an Israeli soldier gave Israel less than 24 hours
to start releasing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and implied that he
would be killed if it did not comply, but Israel said it would not
2006 Jul 3, A subway train
derailed in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia, killing 43 people.
"Initial investigations show it was an accident," said Vicente
Rambla, spokesman for the Valencia regional government.
2006 Jul 3, At least seven
people were killed and dozens wounded in three Claymore mine attacks
carried out by Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka's northern and
2006 Jul 3, Sudan's foreign
minister rejected calls by the top UN envoy in the country to make
additions to a peace deal for Darfur after widespread rejection of
the accord. A group of Sudanese rebels in more than 50 cars attacked
the town of Hamarat Sheikh in the Kordofan region of Darfur. At
least a dozen people were killed. In southern Sudan at least six
people were killed and 11 wounded when gunmen ambushed a German aid
agency vehicle. Witnesses said the attackers, some of whom were
uniformed, were rebel fighters with the LRA.
(Reuters, 7/3/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(AFP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 4, The US space
shuttle Discovery took off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, with 7 astronauts. Up to six pieces of debris
that could be foam insulation fell off Discovery's troublesome
external fuel tank minutes after liftoff. News arrived that North
Korea had launched test missiles [see July 5].
(AFP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 4, In Gustine, Ca.,
Trevor Branscum (38) killed his 4 young children with a hunting
rifle and then turned the weapon on himself.
(SFC, 7/5/06, p.B3)
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan
5 laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US
military base. US-led coalition forces killed 35 suspected militants
during a raid late in the village of Gujdar in Helmand province.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 4, Two former currency
dealers for Australia's biggest bank were jailed for their part in a
260 million US dollar rogue trading scandal. Vince Ficarra (27) and
David Bullen (34) made a raft of fictitious trades for the National
Australia Bank (NAB) between September 2003 and January 2004 to mask
massive losses. Bullen was sentenced to 44 months in prison and
Ficarra to 28 months.
2006 Jul 4, A bomb exploded in
downtown Kabul, wounding at least 10 people. In eastern Afghanistan
5 laborers were ambushed and fatally shot on their way to a US
2006 Jul 4, Gunmen attacked a
Russian military convoy in the Chechnya region, killing at least
five troops and wounding as many as 25 others, officials said.
Pro-rebel Web sites claimed more than 20 Russian soldiers were
2006 Jul 4, A French court
convicted respected wine exporter Georges Duboeuf Wines of fraud
after one of its wineries mixed a variety of grapes in its
2006 Jul 4, Iraq’s justice
minister demanded that the UN Security Council ensure that a group
of US troops are punished in the March 11 rape and murder of a young
Iraqi and the killing of her family. In eastern Baghdad gunmen in
camouflaged uniforms kidnapped Iraq's deputy electricity minister
along with 11 of his bodyguards. The minister was released after
2006 Jul 4, PM Ehud Olmert
ignored a deadline to begin releasing Palestinian prisoners and
instead issued a veiled threat against Syria, vowing to strike
"those who sponsor" the militants in the Gaza Strip who seized a
young Israeli soldier.
2006 Jul 4, Japan initiated new
rules that tightened 89 existing laws covering the financial
industry. It doubled the maximum jail sentence for fraud to 10 years
and gave extra power and broader authority to the Financial Services
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.67)
2006 Jul 4, The parties of
Kazakhstan's leader and his eldest daughter announced a merger, a
move that tightens President Nursultan Nazarbayev's grip on power.
2006 Jul 4, Lopez Obrador,
Mexico’s leftist presidential candidate, called for a recount of
election results that showed him trailing his conservative rival by
1 percentage point.
2006 Jul 4, Lars Korvald (90),
the first Christian Democrat to serve as prime minister of Norway
2006 Jul 4, Palestinian
militants hit an Israeli city with a rocket from Gaza for the first
time, causing no casualties but drawing a pledge of harsh
retaliation from Israel while it was already in the midst of a
2006 Jul 4, Radical Islamic
militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were
watching a World Cup soccer broadcast. The Islamic group that
controls Somalia's capital soon arrested two of its own militiamen
for killing two people who were watching the soccer match.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 4, President Hugo
Chavez marked Venezuela's entry into the South American trade bloc
Mercosur with a six-nation summit, an alliance that he says should
be a common front against US free trade deals.
2006 Jul 5, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Saakashvili and backed Georgia’s bid to join NATO.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Japan, the United
States and Britain readied a UN Security Council resolution
demanding that nations withhold all funds, goods and technology that
could be used for North Korea's missile program.
2006 Jul 5, New Jersey's
casinos ushered the last of the gamblers away from slot machines and
tables, and janitors locked the doors behind them as a state
government shutdown claimed its latest victims.
2006 Jul 5, Greg Anderson,
weight trainer for Barry Bonds, was sent to federal prison fro
refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Bonds and
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Crude oil for
August delivery jumped to a record close of $75.19 per barrel. The
previous high was $75.15. The DJIA closed down 76 to 11,151.
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 5, Researchers
reported that carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, from
industrial emissions was raising the acidity of the world’s oceans
and threatening organisms that form the base of the entire marine
(SFC, 7/6/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 5, Kenneth Lay
(b.1942). Enron Corp. founder and chief executive, died of a heart
attack at his vacation home in Colorado. He was convicted in May for
his role in the in the Houston-based company's downfall.
(Reuters, 7/5/06)(Econ, 7/8/06, p.81)
2006 Jul 5, Prince Tu'ipelehake
(56), a Tongan prince known for promoting political reform in his
South Pacific island nation, died in a car crash along with his
wife, Princess Kaimana (46) and driver Vinisia Hefa when a teenage
driver, Edith Delgado (18), slammed into them on Highway 101 in
Menlo Park, Ca. In 2007 Delgado was sentenced to 2 years in jail and
3 years probation.
(AP, 7/7/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B3)(SFC, 11/6/08,
2006 Jul 5, In Afghanistan 3
bombs targeting government workers and security forces exploded in
Kabul, killing one bystander and wounding at least 47 other people.
A coalition soldier and eight rebels were killed in new clashes in
Paktika province. A British soldier and six more militants were
killed and six captured in two separate incidents southern Zabul
province. The family of Abdul Khaliq, a legislator from Uruzgan
province, was fired upon killing Khaliq’s brother-in-law. Khaliq put
the blame on American and Australian troops.
(AP, 7/5/06)(AFP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 5, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai met Japanese Emperor Akihito in Tokyo and said he
wanted to build peace in the war-torn nation so he could some day
invite the emperor and empress. Tokyo has provided about $1 billion
in assistance for security and development, and in January pledged
another $450 million.
2006 Jul 5, In El Salvador
violence broke out after police fired tear gas to disperse students
protesting against a hike in electricity rates and public
transportation fees. Two officers were killed and 10 others were
wounded by gunshots. The next day police arrested Luis Antonio
Herrador Funes (37), who allegedly was captured on tape shielding a
man who was shooting an M-16 rifle. Police were still looking for
2006 Jul 5, A France court
convicted 38 people in a vast party financing scandal centered on
Paris City Hall from 1987 to 1993, when Jacques Chirac was mayor.
2006 Jul 5, France beat
Portugal 1-0 and will play Italy for Soccer’s World Cup on July 9.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, Germany's Cabinet
approved a 2007 budget that foresees trimming the deficit to comply
with EU rules, and the finance minister said Berlin likely would hit
the target this year.
2006 Jul 5, In India heavy
rains kept schools and colleges shut for a third day and
meteorologists forecast more downpours in Bombay, as the nationwide
death toll rose to more than 250 since the monsoon began in June.
2006 Jul 5, An Iraqi vice
president said kidnappers of a Sunni legislator have demanded the
release of all detainees, a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign
troops and an end to attacks on Shiite mosques in exchange for her
2006 Jul 5, Israeli leaders
authorized troops to move into residential areas of the Gaza Strip
as they increase pressure on militants holding an Israeli soldier
and look to create a security zone to prevent Palestinians from
firing rockets into Israel.
2006 Jul 5, Italian prosecutors
said they had arrested two Italian intelligence officers and were
seeking four more Americans as part of an investigation into the
alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003.
2006 Jul 5, Macedonia held
parliamentary elections. President Branko Crvenkovski urged a free
and fair vote in a country struggling to ease tensions between
majority Macedonian Slavs and the ethnic Albanian minority, which
makes up about a quarter of the nation's population.
2006 Jul 5, Mexico’s recount of
election results put Lopez Obrador ahead of Louis Calderon with 83%
of the votes tallied.
(WSJ, 7/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, North Korea
test-fired a long-range missile that may be capable of reaching
America, but it failed seconds after launch. North Korea also tested
shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House termed "a
provocation" but not an immediate threat. The early morning tests
came as the US celebrated the Fourth of July and just minutes ahead
of the US launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
(AP, 7/4/06)(AP, 7/5/06)(SFC, 7/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 5, In southwestern
Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter gunships targeted
hideouts of tribal militants accused of blowing up gas pipelines and
attacking officials, killing 25 suspects in a 2-day operation.
2006 Jul 5, Venezuela marked
its Independence Day showcasing recent arms deals that have alarmed
Washington. Pres. Chavez proposed that Mercosur members: Brazil,
Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Paraguay, should one day join
their militaries to guarantee the region's security.
2006 Jul 6, A US federal rule
was published designating some 36,750 square miles in the Bering Sea
and Gulf of Alaska as critical habitat for right whales. The rule
takes effect Aug. 7.
2006 Jul 6, New Jersey’s
governor and lawmakers reached a deal on a new state budget. The
deal included an increase in sales tax from 6 to 7%, half of which
would be used to lower property taxes, which were among the highest
in the US.
(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A7)
2006 Jul 6, New York's highest
court ruled that gay marriage is not allowed under state law,
rejecting arguments by same-sex couples who said the law violates
their constitutional rights.
2006 Jul 6, Emmanuel "Toto"
Constant (49), an elusive former strongman from Haiti, accused of
sanctioning rape to silence dissent there in the early 1990s, was
arrested in a mortgage fraud scheme on Long Island, NY.
2006 Jul 6, Alan Newton (44) of
NYC was released from prison after DNA evidence cleared him of a
1985 rape conviction. He had served 20 years of a 40 year sentence.
(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 6, The Amalgamated
Santas gathered in Branson, Missouri, for their first annual
convention. In 2007 the group started to splinter following internal
(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/5mw4kv)
2006 Jul 6, The space shuttle
Discovery docked with the international space station, bringing with
it European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, who began a
six-month stay aboard the station.
2006 Jul 6, Ralph Ginzburg
(b.1929), journalist, magazine publisher and photographer, died in
NYC. His magazine included Eros (1962), Avant Garde (1968) and Fact
(1964). In 1962 he wrote “100 Years of Lynchings," a chronicle of
racist hangings in the South. He was at the center of two First
Amendment battles in the 1960s and served 8 months in federal prison
(AP, 7/6/07)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.B9)
2006 Jul 6, Kasey Rogers (80),
film and TV actress, died in Los Angeles. Her films included
“Strangers on a Train" (1951).
(SFC, 7/15/06, p.B6)
2006 Jul 6, In southern
Afghanistan a US-led coalition soldier and five militants were
killed in a clash in the Baghran Valley in Helmand province.
2006 Jul 6, An Australian
consortium led by Macquarie Bank said it has agreed to a friendly
1.59 billion US dollar takeover of US utility Duquesne Light
2006 Jul 6, Brazilian police
broke up an international drug ring and arrested Luciano Geraldo
Daniel, a man suspected of being the country's top cocaine
2006 Jul 6, China’s state media
said torrential rains and a tornado killed at least 30 people as
storms battered eastern China this week, with millions more affected
by flooding and other storm damage.
2006 Jul 6, China and India
reopened the 14,000-foot Nathu La pass, an ancient Silk Road pass
high in the Himalayas, more than 40 years after it was shut by war.
2006 Jul 6, The European
Central Bank held its key interest rate steady at 2.75% as was
widely anticipated but pledged to exercise "strong vigilance" on
2006 Jul 6, Four former
officers in Georgia's Interior Ministry were convicted of causing
bodily harm leading to death in the case of a banker, Sandro
Girgvliani (28), whose beating and stabbing death became a political
scandal in this former Soviet republic.
2006 Jul 6, In Iraq a suicide
car bomb tore through buses carrying Iranian pilgrims near a Shiite
shrine on the outskirts of Kufa, killing 14 people and wounding 38.
(AP, 7/7/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 6, Israeli forces took
over the remains of three abandoned Jewish settlements in the
northern Gaza Strip and entered a nearby Palestinian town, creating
a temporary buffer zone to prevent Palestinian militants from firing
rockets at Israel. At least 21 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier
were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 6, Israel signed a
contract with Germany for 2 new Dolphin submarines capable of
carrying nuclear warheads.
2006 Jul 6, It was reported
that African scholars have launched the continent's first bible
commentary which tackles issues like female circumcision, HIV/AIDS
and ethnic violence to make the scriptures more relevant for
Africans. The African Bible Commentary was launched this week in
Kenya and is meant to interpret the bible for Africans by using
local proverbs and tradition and by applying Christian teaching to
contemporary problems on the poorest continent.
2006 Jul 6, PM Vlado Buckovski
conceded defeat to the nationalist opposition in Macedonia's
parliamentary elections, a vote considered crucial for the tiny
Balkan nation's aspirations to join the EU and NATO. Nikola Gruevski
led the winning VMRO-DPMNE party.
2006 Jul 6, Felipe Calderon won
the official count in Mexico's disputed presidential race, a
come-from-behind victory for the stiff technocrat. But his leftist
rival refused to concede and said he'd fight the results in court.
Calderon won 35.9% of the vote against Obrador’s 35.3%.
(AP, 7/7/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, Survey p.4)
2006 Jul 6, In Moldova an
explosion ripped apart a small bus in Tiraspol, capital of the
separatist region of Trans-Dniester, killing eight people and
injuring 46. The blast was caused by a bomb carried onboard by a
passenger. Transdniestrian politicians blamed Moldovan provocateurs.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.48)
2006 Jul 6, A general strike in
Niger demanding lower prices for basic goods paralyzed the capital
of one of the world's poorest nations, following a similar attempt
last month that was met with inaction from the government.
2006 Jul 6, In Nigeria a Dutch
oil worker was kidnapped by armed men from a Royal Dutch Shell gas
plant. He was released July 10.
(AP, 7/6/06)(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 6, A defiant North
Korea threatened to test-fire more missiles and warned of even
stronger action if opponents of the tests put pressure on the
2006 Jul 6, Members of the
radical Islamic group that controls Somalia's capital met African,
Arab and European officials and repeated their opposition to the
deployment of peacekeepers to stabilize the lawless country.
2006 Jul 6, A delegate from
Spain's ruling party met with the leader of an outlawed Basque
separatist group in historic talks hailed by both sides as a
possible step toward peace.
2006 Jul 6, Ukraine's
pro-Russian opposition ended a 10-day parliament blockade and
lawmakers elected a speaker. The pro-Western coalition was sent into
a tailspin by a ballot that in a surprise move saw its smallest
faction, the Socialists, join with pro-Russian parties to elect its
leader Olexander Moroz as speaker.
2006 Jul 6, A UAE freighter
sank in strong winds in the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa,
killing seven crew members. The ship was owned by al-Hufuf Maritime
Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, but it sailed under the flag
2006 Jul 7, The Arkansas state
board barred Dr. Randeep Mann from prescribing narcotics after
officials said 10 of his patients died from a lethal mix of drugs or
an overdose of prescription medicines.
2006 Jul 7, Louisiana joined 21
other states in banning Internet hunting, the practice of using a
mouse click to kill animals on a distant game farm.
2006 Jul 7, Oil hit a fresh
record high of $75.78 a barrel, boosted by strong demand in the US
and global tension ranging from Iran's nuclear work to North Korea's
2006 Jul 7, Fighting in
southern Afghanistan killed a US-led coalition soldier and at least
eight suspected Taliban militants.
2006 Jul 7, Syd Barrett (60), a
founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died at his home in
Cambridge, England. The band’s first album was “The Piper at the
Gates of Dawn."
(Reuters, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B7)(Econ,
2006 Jul 7, In Canada 2
Mounties were wounded near the Saskatchewan community of Spiritwood
as they investigated what appeared to be a family dispute.
Constables Robin Cameron (29) and Marc Bourdages (26) died from
their wounds on July 15 and 16.
2006 Jul 7, In northern China a
fire ignited explosives at a home in Dongzhai, a village in the
coal-mining province of Shanxi, killing at least 47 people, many of
them neighbors who had rushed to the scene to battle the flames. A
seven-story apartment building collapsed in the major city of
Zhengzhou in central China, killing at least two people and burying
an unknown number of others.
2006 Jul 7, UN peacekeepers in
Haiti found the bodies of 16 people believed killed in a surge of
2006 Jul 7, Iraqi forces backed
by US aircraft battled militants in a Shiite stronghold of eastern
Baghdad, killing or wounding more than 30 fighters and capturing an
extremist leader who was the target of the raid. Residents claimed
up to 11 civilians died. A series of bombs and a mortar round
targeting the main Islamic weekly service struck four Sunni mosques
in the Baghdad area and a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, killing 17
people and wounding more than 50.
(AP, 7/7/06)(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 7, Israel launched an
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three
Palestinians were killed. The Israeli military said the attack on
the town of Beit Lahiya targeted a group of militants. Palestinians
said 32 people had died in days of Gaza fighting.
(AP, 7/7/06)(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 7, Former Italian PM
Silvio Berlusconi was ordered to stand trial following an
investigation into the sale of television rights at Mediaset SpA.
2006 Jul 7, The first batch of
Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq.
2006 Jul 7, North Korea
announced a scientific breakthrough. State-run media boasted
that researchers developed a new cosmetic agent to make skin supple.
2006 Jul 7, Pakistan's
president amended a controversial Islamic law so that women facing
charges for adultery and other minor crimes can be released on bail.
The much-awaited amendment by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the
Hadood Ordinance will initially affect 1,300 female prisoners.
2006 Jul 7, In the Philippines
6 fugitive military officers linked to a failed 2003 mutiny against
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were arrested.
2006 Jul 7, Officials said
Russian authorities have dramatically curtailed the number of
stations broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of
America news programs, sending an unsettling signal about the state
of press freedoms in Russia.
2006 Jul 7, A Spanish judge
charged two former Guatemalan dictators with genocide and issued
international warrants for their arrest. National Court Judge
Santiago Pedraz issued warrants on charges of genocide, torture,
terrorism and illegal detention against Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Gen.
Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores and six other men.
2006 Jul 7, Spain’s Agriculture
Ministry said it has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu. The
deadly strain was found in a water fowl in a marsh area outside the
northern city of Vitoria.
2006 Jul 7, The UN General
Assembly unanimously approved a series of reforms that were welcomed
by the US as a long overdue step toward greater efficiency and
accountability. A two-week UN conference reviewing efforts to fight
the illegal weapons trade ended in failure, with nations too divided
on too many contentious issues to agree on the best way to combat a
scourge that fuels conflict worldwide. Japan introduced a draft UN
Security Council resolution to sanction North Korea for
test-launching a series of missiles. The Council unanimously adopted
a compromise resolution on July 15.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 8, The US military
charged 4 more US soldiers with rape and murder and a fifth with
dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi
woman and the March killings of her relatives in Mahmoudiya.
2006 Jul 8, New Jersey Gov. Jon
S. Corzine issued an executive order that ended a weeklong state
government shutdown, bringing slot machine bells noisily to life as
Atlantic City casinos reopened.
2006 Jul 8, Georgia police
found the decomposed body of Carlnell Walker (23), a Morehouse
student from Richmond, Ca., in the trunk of his car in Riverdale. On
July 21, 2006, 3 men were arrested for his murder. In 2007 4 men
were indicted for the murder.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.B1)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A1)(SFC,
2006 Jul 8, Discovery
astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum went on a 7 1/2-hour
spacewalk to test a repair technique for space shuttles.
2006 Jul 8, June Allyson
(b.1917), chorus girl and film star, died in Ojai, Ca. her films
included “The Glenn Miller Story" (1953).
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 8, The Guggenheim
Foundation announced it had commissioned American architect Frank
Gehry to build a new branch of the Guggenheim modern and
contemporary art museum in Abu Dhabi.
2006 Jul 8, Afghan and
coalition forces pounded a Taliban stronghold in southern
Afghanistan, killing five rebels and leaving an Afghan and three
foreign soldiers wounded. An explosion attributed to a land mine in
western Afghanistan killed a Peruvian solder and slightly wounded
four Spanish troops.
(AFP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, China launched a
Web site, www.linese.com, offering free Chinese lessons and
materials to promote the study and use of the language abroad.
2006 Jul 8, In central China a
landslide at a construction site buried migrant workers sleeping in
a tent, killing 11 of them.
2006 Jul 8, In Kinshasa, Congo,
gunmen killed Mwamba Bapuwa (64), an independent journalist, a day
after foreign donors called on the government to guarantee press
freedoms ahead of historic elections this month. Bapuwa had recently
criticized the government and survived a previous attack several
2006 Jul 8, Jose Ramos-Horta,
Nobel peace laureate, was named East Timor's new prime minister.
2006 Jul 8, In Hungary several
thousand labor union members demonstrated in Budapest against a
government austerity package they say requires a disproportionate
sacrifice from workers.
2006 Jul 8, In northern India
15 people were killed and eight injured when the bus they were
traveling in plunged into a gorge and fell into Bhagirathi river.
2006 Jul 8, In Iraq 3 American
soldiers were killed in fighting in the western province of Anbar.
Gunmen in two cars stopped a vehicle in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood,
forced the two passengers to get out and killed them in front of
horrified bystanders. Gunmen killed three people working in an ice
cream shop in the mostly Shiite Baghdad neighborhood of Nahrawan.
Police also reported finding two bodies in separate locations in
eastern Baghdad. At least 17 others died in a wave of bombings and
mortar attacks against mostly Sunni mosques in the Baghdad area and
northern Iraq. Iraqi and US authorities released 368 prisoners as
they continue to whittle down the number of inmates.
2006 Jul 8, In Indian Kashmir a
politician and four civilians died and at least 45 others were
injured when suspected Islamic rebels hurled a grenade outside a
2006 Jul 8, Leftist
presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged his
supporters to take to the streets, claiming the governing party
stole his victory in Mexico's extremely narrow elections. Obrador
called on a huge crowd of supporters to keep peacefully protesting
as he goes to court to challenge what he called his fraudulent
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 8, A Mexican federal
judge threw out genocide charges against former President Luis
Echeverria, ruling that a 30-year statute of limitations had run
2006 Jul 8, In western Mexico 4
children, who won an airplane ride for good grades at school, were
killed along with the pilot when the small aircraft crashed near
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent
two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to
release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until
Hamas releases the soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with
militants in eastern Gaza.
2006 Jul 8, Poland's governing
party accepted the resignation of PM Marcinkiewicz and recommended
party chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president's twin brother, to
replace him. A group with roots in Poland's anti-communist
Solidarity trade union movement signed an unprecedented accord to
join forces with the country's two main post-communist parties.
2006 Jul 8, Saudi officials
said 7 suspected terrorists had escaped from a prison in Riyadh a
few days earlier.
2006 Jul 8, The Islamic
militiamen controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding
celebration because a band, the Mogadishu Stars, was playing and
women and men were socializing together. Band members were flogged
with electric cables.
(AP, 7/8/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.47)
2006 Jul 8, Pope Benedict XVI
stressed family values during a visit to Spain, where church
influence has waned and the government has angered the Vatican with
its liberal take on issues including gay marriage.
2006 Jul 8, A Yemeni court
acquitted 19 alleged al-Qaida members of charges they plotted to
blow up a hotel frequented by Americans, citing a lack of evidence.
The state prosecutor appealed the collective acquittal, and the
defendants were returned to their cells at the intelligence
services' jail where they have been held for more than two years. 14
Yemenis and 5 Saudis had been caught with guns and fake Iraqi
(AP, 7/8/06)(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 9, Freescale
Semiconductor, a former division of Motorola, announced the
commercial availability of a chip called Magnetoresistive
random-access memory (MRAM), which is fast to read and write and can
keep data without power. In September the Blackstone Group offered
$17.6 billion for Freescale.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A3)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.73)
2006 Jul 9, In Washington DC
Alan Senitt (27), a British volunteer for the potential presidential
campaign of former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, was killed in the
Georgetown neighborhood by robbers who slashed his throat and tried
to rape his female companion. Within three hours of the attack,
police arrested and charged two men, and two other suspects
surrendered a few hours later. On May 21, 2007, Christopher Piper
and Jeffery Rice pleaded guilty to robbing and killing Alan, and
committing other robberies in the city. They were sentenced August
24, 2007, to 37 and 52 years respectively in prison.
2006 Jul 9, In Missouri 5
youths (10-17) including 4 siblings drowned in the Meramtec River
during a church outing at Castlewood State Park. One had become
caught in an undertow and the others jumped in to help.
(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 9, In southern
Afghanistan a Canadian coalition officer died of wounds suffered in
fighting near an opium-rich insurgent stronghold. At least 15
militants were killed. A coalition patrol found the bodies of 10
militants killed in an airstrike in Panjwayi.
(AP, 7/9/06)(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 9, Roger Federer ended
a five-match losing streak to Rafael Nadal, winning 6-0, 7-6 (5),
6-7 (2), 6-3 to earn his fourth straight Wimbledon title.
2006 Jul 9, India test-fired
its nuclear-capable Agni III missile for the first time. The missile
plunged into the Bay of Bengal short of its target. 14 more people
were reported to have died in rain-related incidents in northern
India, taking the nationwide death toll since the beginning of the
monsoon season in May to 286. Supporters of Shiv Sena, a Hindu
fundamentalist party, went on a rampage in Mumbai protesting the
defacing of a statue of Meenatai, the wife of the movement’s
founder, Balasaheb Thackeray.
(AFP, 7/9/06)(AP, 7/10/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.39)
2006 Jul 9, Masked Shiite
gunmen stopped cars in western Baghdad and grabbed people off the
streets, singling out the Sunni Arabs among them and killing at
least 42. Gunmen killed an Iraqi intelligence officer in the Shiite
city of Karbala, one of several deadly shootings targeting security
forces. Iraqi troops launched a pre-dawn raid on Kadhimiya, a mainly
Shi'ite district next to Shula, killing nine militants and capturing
(Reuters, 7/9/06)(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 9, Top officials said
Israel will push forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip until
Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and halt
their rocket attacks.
2006 Jul 9, Italy beat France
5-3 in a shootout following a 1-1 tie in the World Cup final.
Zinedine Zidane, captain of the French team, was sent off for
head-butting an Italian player.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.49)
2006 Jul 9, A Russian Airbus
310 passenger plane skidded off a rain-slicked Siberian runway and
plowed through a concrete barrier, bursting into flames. At least
125 of 203 people on board were killed.
(AP, 7/9/06)(AP, 7/9/07)
2006 Jul 9, In Somalia 20
people were killed in bloody fighting as Islamic fighters fought
supporters of Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, who refused to disarm.
2006 Jul 10, A US presidential
commission urged Washington to spend $80 million to help
nongovernmental groups hasten change in Cuba, but some dissidents
here said the move would do them more harm than good.
2006 Jul 10, Colorado Gov. Bill
Owens cut a deal with Democratic leaders on a package of bills to
deny some state services to illegal immigrants and to punish
employers who hire them.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 10, In Berkeley, Ca.,
Cody’s flagship bookstore on Telegraph Ave. opened and closed for
the last time, one day after celebrating its 50th anniversary. Its
last store on Shattuck Ave. closed in 2008.
(SFC, 7/10/06, p.B1)(SFC, 6/23/08, p.A7)
2006 Jul 10, In NYC a
four-story townhouse collapsed and burned in an apparent gas
explosion after what witnesses described as a thunderous explosion
that rocked the neighborhood just off Madison Avenue. Dr. Nicholas
Bartha (66), owner of the building, was pulled alive from the
rubble. He had recently lost a $4 million judgement in a divorce
case. Bartha died from his wounds on July 15.
(AP, 7/10/06)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A4)(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 10, Falling concrete
slabs crushed a car inside one of Boston's troubled Big Dig tunnels,
killing Milena Delvalle (38) and tying up traffic with another
shutdown in the massive building project that has become a central
route through the city. In 2007 the family of Delvalle reached a $6
million settlement with the epoxy supplier blamed for the accident.
In 2008 the family settled a wrongful death suit for over $28
(AP, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A5)(SFC, 12/26/07,
p.A4)(SFC, 10/1/08, p.C5)
2006 Jul 10, Kraft Foods Inc.,
the No. 1 US food company, said it will pay about $1.07 billion to
acquire the Spanish and Portuguese units of United Biscuits and
reclaim the rights to Nabisco trademarks in the European Union,
Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
2006 Jul 10, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed more than 40 suspected Taliban militants as
a warplane dropped 500-pound bombs on a militant compound in Uruzgan
province. Britain announced it would send 900 more soldiers to
southern Helmand province.
(AP, 7/10/06)(SFC, 7/11/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 10, Fred Wander
(b.1917), writer and Holocaust survivor, died in Vienna. His 1970
novel, “The Seventh Well," describes his survival. The German
edition was translated to English in 2007.
2006 Jul 10, Bolivia's
education minister called for an end to religious education in the
country's schools, drawing criticism from the Roman Catholic Church
which could see its schools affected by the proposed change.
2006 Jul 10, Britain unveiled a
$6 million program to replace Belfast's towering paramilitary wall
murals in the most hard-line Protestant areas with more positive,
less threatening art works.
2006 Jul 10, Chechen warlord
Shamil Basayev (41) was killed in Ingushetia. He had claimed
responsibility for modern Russia's worst terrorist attacks including
Beslan in 2004. He was killed along with 4 other militant while
accompanying a truck filled with 220 pounds of dynamite that blew up
in the Ingush village of Ekazhevo. Shortly before his death he was
appointed vice-president of Ichkeria, the rebel’s name for their
(AP, 7/10/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.84)
2006 Jul 10, The government of
Colombia announced that it was nominating Ernesto Samper as
ambassador to France. This sparked outrage among many Colombians and
allies in Washington in the war on drugs. In a statement, Pres.
Uribe said Samper had declined the France ambassadorship so as not
to harm Colombia's national interests.
2006 Jul 10, Nobel laureate
Jose Ramos-Horta was sworn in as PM of East Timor in a move aimed at
ending months of political uncertainty and street violence.
2006 Jul 10, In Honduras a bus
with failing brakes slammed into the back of another bus on the
outskirts of Tegucigalpa, killing 15 people and injuring more than
2006 Jul 10, In Iraq 2 car
bombs struck a Shiite district in Baghdad, killing at least eight
people and wounding dozens. Gunmen also ambushed a bus in the
predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amariyah in western Baghdad,
killing six passengers, including a woman, and the driver. A bomb
exploded in the Shurja market in central Baghdad, killing 3 people
and wounding 18. In Kirkuk a suicide truck bomber struck an office
of one of the main Kurdish political parties in Iraq, the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, killing five people and wounding 12. A member of
the provincial council in Diyala, Adnan Iskandar al-Mahdawi, was
killed and two of his guards were wounded in a drive-by shooting. A
former high-ranking officer from Saddam Hussein's army, ex-staff
Maj. Gen. Salih Mohammed Salih, was killed in a shootout in the
southern city of Basra.
2006 Jul 10, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at a car in southern Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad
militants. Israeli PM Olmert rebuffed criticism of Gaza tactics as 8
(AP, 7/10/06)(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 10, In Morocco
ministers from 57 European and African countries gathered in Rabat
to seek ways to combat illegal immigration to Europe "with dignity
but firmness", from tightening border controls to stimulating
2006 Jul 10, In eastern
Pakistan a Fokker F-27 twin-engine aircraft operated by Pakistan
International Airlines slammed into a wheat field and burst into
flames minutes after takeoff. All 45 people on board were killed.
(AP, 7/10/06)(AP, 7/28/10)
2006 Jul 10, In the Philippines
a fire destroyed more than 200 shanties in a squatter colony north
of Manila, killing one resident, injuring 6 others and leaving about
5,000 people homeless.
2006 Jul 10, Somalia's Islamic
militia battled a pocket of resistance, pounding Mogadishu with
machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades and at least 7 people
2006 Jul 10, South African
writer Mary Watson was named the 7th winner of the Caine Prize for
African writing her 2004 book “Moss," a collection interlinked
stories. The prize was created in honor of the late Sir Michael
Caine, a British businessman with a deep interest in Africa who for
almost 25 years chaired the management committee of what is today
known the Man Booker Prize.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.83)
2006 Jul 10, In Taiwan the
son-in-law of President Chen Shui-bian was indicted on insider
trading charges, one of several high-profile corruption cases
involving Chen's family and inner circle.
2006 Jul 11, The American
League edged the National League 3-2 in the All-Star Game in
2006 Jul 11, The Bush
administration pledged that detainees at Guantanamo will be accorded
basic human rights protections under the Geneva Conventions.
(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, In Chicago, a Blue
Line train derailed and started a fire during the evening rush hour,
filling a subway tunnel with smoke and forcing dozens of
soot-covered commuters to evacuate.
2006 Jul 11, It was reported
that Nielsen Media Research will begin formal ratings for TV
(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, Kathy Augustine
(50), Nevada state controller, died suddenly. Her husband, Chaz
Higgs, said it was a heart attack and chalked it up to the stress of
an uphill election battle for state treasurer. But just days after
her death, Higgs tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists. On
Sep 29 Police arrested Higgs in Hampton, Va., after toxicology tests
found a drug in his wife’s system that would have paralyzed her.
Higgs was convicted on June 29, 2007, of killing Augustine by
injecting her with succinylcholine, a paralyzing drug. He was
sentenced to life with a possibility of parole after serving 20
(AP, 7/21/06)(SFC, 9/30/06,
2006 Jul 11, Barnard Hughes
(b.1915), film and theater actor, died in New York.
2006 Jul 11, Coalition and
Afghan forces hunting a Taliban commander killed an estimated 30
extremists in a raid on a hide-out in southern Afghanistan.
2006 Jul 11, In northern
Bangladesh a train plowed through a bus at an unmanned railway
crossing, killing at least 33 people and injuring about 15 others.
2006 Jul 11, The Bank of Canada
held its key overnight interest rate steady, as expected, and gave
no sign it was considering further hikes.
2006 Jul 11, Central American
presidents agreed on a plan to ease border controls and install a
common customs system on the way to negotiating an eventual
free-trade agreement with the EU. The agreement signed by Panama,
Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize
would allow residents to cross borders without passports or visas.
2006 Jul 11, EU finance
ministers made Slovenia the 13th member of the euro zone. This gave
Slovenia 5 months to print and mint euro notes to replace the tolar
on January 1.
(WSJ, 7/12/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 11, A survey,
sponsored by the German development agency GTZ, reported that breast
ironing, the use of hard or heated objects or other substances to
try to stunt breast growth in girls, is widespread in Cameroon. The
age-old practice was said to be traditional in West and Central
Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a
2006 Jul 11, China's president
issued an unusual public appeal to a visiting North Korean official
to avoid aggravating tensions with its missile test program, as the
US and Japan urged Beijing to press its ally Pyongyang for
2006 Jul 11, Andres Pastrana,
Colombia's ambassador to the United States, resigned in anger over
President Alvaro Uribe's selection of Ernesto Samper, a disgraced
former Colombian leader (1994-1998) as ambassador to France.
2006 Jul 11, Police in
Kinshasa, Congo, fired tear gas to break up stone-throwing
demonstrators who were alleging electoral irregularities ahead of
the country's first presidential vote in four decades.
2006 Jul 11, In India 8
explosions hit Mumbai's commuter rail network during the evening
rush hour, killing over 200 people and wounding over 500. Police
said Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.39)(AP, 7/11/07)(WSJ, 12/8/08,
2006 Jul 11, Indonesia passed a
law granting tsunami-ravaged Aceh province greater autonomy and
paving the way for elections, cementing the terms of a landmark 2005
peace accord with separatist rebels. The law allowed local political
parties and for the Acehnese to keep 70% of the revenues from their
oil and gas reserves.
(AP, 7/11/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.42)
2006 Jul 11, Sunni Arab
representatives said they will end their boycott of Iraq's
parliament following promises that a kidnapped colleague will be
released and a call for reconciliation by a radical Shiite cleric.
Gunmen in Baghdad intercepted a minivan carrying a coffin to the
Shiite city of Najaf, killing all 10 people on board. Another five
people were killed in a double bombing at a restaurant near the
Green Zone. Bombings and shootings killed at least 50 people
Baghdad. An al-Qaida-linked group posted a Web video purporting to
show the mutilated bodies of two US soldiers, claiming it killed
them in revenge for the rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by
American troops from the same unit. The Mujahedeen Shura Council had
previously claimed responsibility for killing the two soldiers, who
were seized in a June 16 attack near the town of Youssifiyah. The
bodies were found on June 20. Gunmen kidnapped Wissam Jabr al-Awadi,
an Iraqi diplomat who specializes in relations with Iran, as he was
driving near his home in Baghdad.
(AP, 7/11/06)(SFC, 7/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, Israeli leaders
ordered new incursions into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas leader
said he would not free an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian
2006 Jul 11, In Italy Piaggio
& C. SpA, the maker of the iconic Vespa scooter, defied weak
market conditions that have derailed other planned public offerings
recently to see its shares surge above the IPO price in their debut
2006 Jul 11, In Kashmir a
series of grenade attacks killed eight people and wounded more than
two dozen in the Srinagar.
2006 Jul 11, An officials said
Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry has decided to expel two US diplomats
for "inappropriate" contacts with nongovernment organizations.
2006 Jul 11, State Department
official Paula Dobriansky held talks with Libyan PM Baghdadi Mahmudi
and announced that the US has lifted sanctions on Libyan air
2006 Jul 11, In Mexico a man
was shot to death in front of Acapulco's City Hall and a naval
officer was abducted, the latest violence in this resort city hit by
a wave of drug-related crime. The 2 men slain were later identified
as military officers responsible for the mayor's security.
(AP, 7/11/06)(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 11, With the release
of hundreds of prisoners, wrestling matches and hordes of warriors
on horseback, Mongolia began a once-in-800-year party in honor of
its famed emperor Genghis Khan.
2006 Jul 11, Nepal's Maoists
revealed for the first time how many soldiers they have, 36,000, in
2006 Jul 11, In northwestern
Pakistan torrential rains triggered flooding that washed away homes
in a village, killing 13 people and injuring about 300.
2006 Jul 11, President Mahmoud
Abbas' office said it had received $50 million from the Arab League,
the most international aid Palestinians have gotten since the
Islamic militant group Hamas won legislative elections.
2006 Jul 11, Hundreds of
fighters who were battling Somalia's Islamic militia in Mogadishu
surrendered after a surge of violence that killed more than 70
people and wounded 150.
2006 Jul 11, In South Korea
more than 10,000 workers and activists rallied in the 2nd day of
demonstrations aimed at blocking a free-trade agreement under
discussion with the US.
2006 Jul 11, Four Tamil Tiger
rebels were killed when Sri Lanka's navy retaliated against an
attacking rebel boat in the sea off Northern Jaffna peninsula.
2006 Jul 11, Ukraine's newly
created pro-Russian governing coalition proposed Viktor Yanukovych,
a bitter rival of President Viktor Yushchenko, as the next prime
minister, an appointment that would mark a humiliating defeat for
2006 Jul 11, The tiny nation of
Vanuatu, one of the "happy isles of Oceania," has topped a new
index, the UK-based New Economics Foundation (NEF), that measures
quality of life against environmental impact, with industrial
countries, perhaps unsurprisingly, faring badly.
2006 Jul 12, The US government
announced a five-year, 547-million-dollar aid package to Ghana to
help the African nation develop agriculture and alleviate poverty.
2006 Jul 12, A spokesman said
computer break-ins at the US State Department that caused broad
disruptions in recent weeks apparently originated in the East
2006 Jul 12, The US FDA
approved Atripla, a single pill, 3-drug combination, to fight AIDS.
2 of the drugs were made by Gilead Sciences and the 3rd by Myers
(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 12, An experimental
spacecraft bankrolled by real estate magnate Robert Bigelow
successfully inflated in orbit, testing a technology that could be
used to fulfill his dream of building a commercial space station.
Genesis I flew aboard a converted Cold War ballistic missile from
Russia's southern Ural Mountains at 6:53 p.m. Moscow time.
2006 Jul 12, The Afghan defense
minister said it would take at least 150,000 troops to secure his
country, more than 5 times what he commanded. In eastern Afghanistan
a suicide attack on a US military convoy killed a boy playing
nearby, while a market bombing in a southern border town left two
people dead. British and Afghan forces repelled a brazen insurgent
attack on a police headquarters in the southern town of Nawzad,
killing at least 19 militants. In Musa Qala district insurgents
fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at coalition
troops, who returned fire and killed local Taliban commander Mullah
Saeef. In southern Zabul province, three Afghan border guards were
killed in a clash with armed tribesmen crossing from Pakistan.
(AP, 7/12/06)(AP, 7/13/06)(WSJ, 7/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 12, Tony Blair's top
fundraiser, Lord Levy, was arrested in an investigation into whether
Labour Party leaders improperly nominated their financial backers
for seats in the House of Lords.
2006 Jul 12, In central Chile
flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain left at least 11
people dead and forced 30,000 to flee their inundated homes.
2006 Jul 12, The EU fined
Microsoft Corp. $357 million and threatened new penalties of $3.82
million a day beginning July 31 because it says the software maker
failed to obey a 2004 antitrust order to share program code with
2006 Jul 12, The EU joined the
US in warning Iran it faced UN Security Council action if no
solution could be found to a stand-off over its nuclear program.
World powers agreed to send Iran back to the UN Security Council for
possible punishment, saying the clerical regime has given no sign it
means to negotiate seriously over its disputed nuclear program.
2006 Jul 12, Hong Kong's
supreme court struck down a ruling that allowed police to carry out
controversial government wiretaps, a move activists hailed as a
victory for freedoms in the Chinese city.
2006 Jul 12, The Iraqi
Accordance Front, the largest Sunni bloc in parliament, lifted its
legislative boycott. It thanked the parliament for its help in
seeking the release of kidnapped legislator Tayseer al-Mashhadani
and called for a new spirit of cooperation. Gunmen stormed a bus
station in Muqdadiya, seizing over 24 people and killing 22 of them.
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in the southeastern
mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad, killing eight people
and wounding 30. Gunmen on a motorcycles killed a former member of
the ousted Baath Party and a taxi driver in separate attacks in Kut.
The US military said Saddam Hussein and three of his co-defendants
have been on a hunger strike for nearly a week to protest what the
defense says is a lack of security for their attorneys. At least 45
people were killed across Iraq.
(AP, 7/12/06)(SFC, 7/13/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 12, Hezbollah
militants captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. 3
Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid along with one Hezbollah
militant. Dozens of Israeli troops crossed the Lebanese frontier
with warplanes, tanks and gunboats to hunt for the captives. 5 more
Israelis were killed in a tank that hit a mine. Two Lebanese
civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a coastal bridge
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.45)
2006 Jul 12, Israel killed 18
Palestinians in Gaza including nine members of one family in an air
strike that destroyed a residential building where the army said top
Hamas commanders were meeting.
2006 Jul 12, Tens of thousands
of supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador headed to Mexico City, leaving mountain towns and sprawling
industrial cities to demand a ballot-by-ballot recount.
2006 Jul 12, In Nigeria 2
explosions hit oil installations belonging to an Italian oil company
along two Agip pipelines in Baleysa state.
2006 Jul 12, Protestants will
share power with the Catholics of Sinn Fein "over our dead bodies,"
Ian Paisley thundered as tens of thousands of Protestant marchers
celebrated the most divisive day on Northern Ireland's calendar.
2006 Jul 12, Acting on behalf
of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft UN Security
Council resolution demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza
Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.
2006 Jul 12, President Vladimir
Putin signed into law a bill cutting the length of military service
in Russia, but also canceling many deferments from the draft. The
legislation reduced the current two-year conscription term to 1½
years beginning next year, then to one year in 2008.
2006 Jul 12, In South Korea
some 70,000 people, including 13,000 farmers, rallied in a plaza in
downtown Seoul on the third straight day of anti-FTA demonstrations.
2006 Jul 12, A UN official said
rebels in Darfur are fighting each other with the Sudanese military
apparently supporting one faction, sometimes with aircraft disguised
as relief planes.
2006 Jul 12, UNESCO, meeting in
Vilnius, Lithuania, added 8 sites added to its World Heritage list
including a panda refuge in China and an agave producing region in
2006 Jul 13, President Bush met
with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Stralsund, Germany, while on
his way to the G8 summit in Russia.
2006 Jul 13, Former CIA officer
Valerie Plame sued Vice President Dick Cheney, presidential adviser
Karl Rove and other White House officials, saying they orchestrated
a "whispering campaign" to destroy her career.
2006 Jul 13, Tongsun Park (71),
a South Korean businessman accused of being an Iraqi agent and
trying to influence the oil-for-food program, was convicted of
conspiracy in New York federal court. Park, arrested last year, was
the first person tried in the scandal. He will be sentenced in
October and could face more than a dozen years in prison for his
role in the decade-long conspiracy.
2006 Jul 13, The Massachusetts
Turnpike authority said it found as many as 240 potential defects in
ceiling bolts on Boston’s Big Dig tunnel. Gov. Mitt Romney filed
emergency legislation and called for the resignation of the head of
the Turnpike Authority in the wake of falling concrete slabs that
killed a woman on July 10.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 13, Hazleton, Pa.,
passed Mayor Louis Barletta’s Illegal Immigration Relief Act in an
effort to get rid of undocumented immigrants. In August federal
lawsuits were filed against Hazleton and other local governments for
attempting to regulate immigration. A 1976 US Supreme Court decision
said regulation of immigration is exclusively a federal power. In
2007 a federal judge struck down the Hazleton anti-illegal
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A5)(SFC, 7/27/07, p.A13)
2006 Jul 13, The Dow Jones fell
166 to 10846 and Nasdaq closed down 36 to 2,054. Crude oil for
August delivery closed at a record $76.70.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 13, The Sawtooth
Complex fire in southern California grew to 40,000 acres and
remained out of control. It looked to soon merge with the 2,500-acre
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 13, Red Buttons (87),
comic film and TV star, died at his home in Century City, Ca. His
over 30 films included “Hatari" and “The Poseidon Adventure."
Buttons was born as Aaron Chwatt in NYC on Feb. 5, 1919.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.B9)
2006 Jul 13, A collaborative
effort to study malaria went public via the Web site Africa@home.
Project leaders planned to use spare computing capacity to study
malaria. By July 19 it reached the stable level of some 5000
computers needed at this stage for MalariaControl.net.
2006 Jul 13, British and Afghan
forces battled Taliban holdouts after repelling a brazen insurgent
attack on a police headquarters a day earlier. Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed nine militants after suspected Taliban
fighters attacked two army checkpoints in the latest fighting to
rock southern Afghanistan. More than 30 enemy extremists were killed
in an operation in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 7/13/06)(AP, 7/14/06)(AFP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Belarus
Alexander Kozulin (50), an opposition leader, was convicted of
organizing an unauthorized rally against the disputed election of
Pres. Lukashenko and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in jail.
2006 Jul 13, In Brazil gangs
torched buses and attacked banks and police stations across Sao
Paulo, deepening crime fears as a wave of rampant violence entered
its third day.
2006 Jul 13, The NatWest
British bankers David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby were
extradited to the US for a $20 million fraud linked to the collapsed
Enron Corp. Many viewed the March, 2003, US and British extradition
treaty as imbalanced and favoring US interests.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.12, 56)
2006 Jul 13, The Guardian
newspaper said PM Tony Blair wants China, India, Brazil, Mexico and
South Africa to join the G8 to secure multilateral deals on trade,
climate change and Iran.
2006 Jul 13, Three Canadian
military personnel were killed and four others injured on after
their helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean during a search and
rescue training exercise off Canada's east coast.
2006 Jul 13, Canada confirmed
its second case of mad cow disease in as many weeks, and the 7th
2006 Jul 13, A Chinese reporter
who posted essays on foreign Web sites criticizing the ruling
Communist Party was sentenced to two years in prison on subversion
2006 Jul 13, The EU criticized
Israel for using "disproportionate" force in its attacks on Lebanon
following the cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas who captured
2 Israeli soldiers.
2006 Jul 13, Indian police
detained about 350 people for questioning in the Bombay train
bombings amid suspicion that Kashmiri militants could be linked to
the attacks that killed at least 200 people. Officials said they
believe the bombings were the work of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a
Pakistan-based Islamic militant group.
(AP, 7/13/06)(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A17)
2006 Jul 13, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad shrugged off a decision by world powers to refer Iran to
the U.N. Security Council over its atomic program, saying Tehran
would never abandon its "right to exploit peaceful nuclear
2006 Jul 13, British and
Australian forces handed over security duties for a relatively
peaceful southern province to Iraqis in the first such transfer of
an entire province. Gunmen killed the coach of Iraq's national
wrestling team in a botched abduction attempt but a player escaped.
A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol in the northern city of
Mosul, killing five people and wounding five. At least 19 people
were killed in attacks nationwide.
2006 Jul 13, An Israeli
warplane bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, collapsing part of
the structure and causing widespread damage in the area.
2006 Jul 13, Israel unleashed a
furious military campaign on Lebanon's main airport, highways,
military bases and other targets, retaliating for scores of
Hezbollah guerrilla rockets that rained down on Israel and reached
as far as Haifa, its third-largest city, for the first time. The
death toll in two days of fighting rose to 57 people. Lebanese
guerrillas fired three rockets at the northern Israeli town of
Safed, wounding seven people. Israel imposed a sea and air blockade
on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to Lebanese militants. Israel
hit hundreds of targets in Lebanon as part of its effort to force
the release of two soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Television broadcast pictures of the Iranian
supplied 333mm Raad-1 rocket used in an attack on the Israeli army
base near Safed.
(AP, 7/13/06)(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 13, In the northern
Philippines a powerful Asian storm strengthen to a typhoon after
killing at least nine people.
2006 Jul 13, In Thailand a top
court decided to accept a case that accuses PM Thaksin Shinawatra's
ruling party and its main rival of electoral fraud.
2006 Jul 13, The presidents of
Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia formally opened a pipeline designed
to bypass Russia and bring Caspian oil to Europe, a route that
President Bush said would bolster global energy security.
2006 Jul 14, A US federal
appeals court reversed a ruling that struck down Nebraska's same-sex
marriage ban, which was approved by voters in 2000.
2006 Jul 14, The US Court of
International Law slapped an injunction on the United States
government preventing it from handing over any more duties from
Canadian softwood lumber imports to US industry competitors.
2006 Jul 14, US Gen. Bantz
Craddock, head of the US Southern Command, was announced as the next
chief of NATO.
(WSJ, 7/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 14, The Dow Jones fell
106 to 10,739 and Nasdaq closed down 16 to 2,037. Crude oil for
August delivery closed at a record $77.03. Spurred by Mideast
fighting, oil prices rose to an intraday record $78.40 a barrel.
(SFC, 7/14/06, p.D1)(AP, 7/14/07)
2006 Jul 14, The Sawtooth
Complex fire in southern California merged with the Millard fire
creating a 69,000-acre blaze. Some 1,800 firefighters battled the
fire which so far had destroyed 45 homes.
(SFC, 7/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 14, Actress Carrie Nye
(b.1936) died in New York at age 69.
2006 Jul 14, A suicide bomber
was the sole victim in a failed attack on an Afghan police convoy in
the Gurbuz district of southeastern Khost province, bordering
Pakistan. Skirmishes between coalition and Taliban militants raged
throughout the southern Uruzgan province. An estimated 31 enemy
extremists were killed during engagements in Chora, Kala Kala, and
Khorma villages. Afghan and coalition soldiers also killed two male
"foreigners" wearing burkas, the body-shrouding veil worn by women,
and detained five Taliban in Uruzgan's Dihrawud district. The Afghan
army killed eight rebels in Sangin.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AFP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 14, The World Bank
said it and Chad had resolved a dispute over oil revenues that will
result in significant increases in government spending on projects
that benefit the poor.
2006 Jul 14, In China Qiu
Xinhua (47) killed the abbot of the Tiewadian temple in the northern
city of Ankang, five staff members and four pilgrims. He reportedly
believed the abbot had flirted with his wife. Xinhua was executed on
2006 Jul 14, East Timor's
President Xanana Gusmao swore in a new government as his tiny nation
looked for a return to political order after several weeks of
2006 Jul 14, Militants forced
open a border gate between Egypt and Gaza, wounding an Egyptian
officer and letting hundreds of Palestinians who had been trapped on
the Egyptian side of the border to get into Gaza.
2006 Jul 14, India's PM Singh
said the Bombay train bombers were "supported by elements across the
border" and that Pakistan must rein in terrorists before a peace
process can move ahead.
2006 Jul 14, A bomb struck a
Sunni mosque in Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding five,
while mortars barraged a Shiite mosque north of the capital, leaving
five wounded. At least 26 people were killed across Iraq, including
13 Iraqi soldiers in an attack on their checkpoint near the northern
oil hub of Kirkuk.
2006 Jul 14, Israel tightened
its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside
world and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time
to punish Hezbollah and with it, the country for the capture of 2
Israeli soldiers. Israel destroyed the home and office of
Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Lebanese guerrillas
fired a barrage of at least 60 Katyusha rockets throughout the day,
hitting more than a dozen communities across northern Israel.
Israeli warplanes destroyed the building housing the headquarters of
Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Beirut. Hezbollah guerrillas
attacked an Israeli warship that had been firing missiles into
southern Beirut. A senior Israeli intelligence official said Iranian
troops helped Hezbollah fire a missile that damaged the warship off
the Lebanese coast. He also said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in
Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-802 at the
ship that killed 4 sailors. Deaths in 3 days of fighting rose to 61
people in Lebanon and 10 in Israel.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AP, 7/14/07)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.58)
2006 Jul 14, Japan’s central
bank raised a key interest rate for the first time in six years,
ending an unorthodox experiment meant to jump-start the country
after a decade of economic doldrums. The rate increased from zero to
(AP, 7/14/06)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.65)
2006 Jul 14, In Kazakhstan
police under Mayor Imangali Tasmagambetov moved in to destroy the
illegal Shanyrak settlement on the outskirts of Almaty. 30-40 people
on each side were injured. A policeman died after being doused with
petrol and set on fire.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.39)
2006 Jul 14, Kyrgyzstan and the
US resolved a payment dispute that had threatened the future of the
US military base near Bishkek.
2006 Jul 14, In Karachi,
Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric
and two other people in an attack that was likely to heighten
sectarian tensions. About 80% of Pakistan's 150 million people are
Sunni; most of the rest are Shiite.
2006 Jul 14, Malaysia's
government declassified documents on negotiations with Singapore
over an aborted bridge in a bid to counter criticism from defiant
ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad.
2006 Jul 14, Poland's Pres.
Lech Kaczynski (57) swore in his identical twin brother, Jaroslaw,
as prime minister, along with a socially conservative Cabinet made
up largely of the same ministers who resigned in a shake-up days
2006 Jul 14, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, authorities detained more than 200 anti-globalization
activists hoping to protest the G-8 summit, as protest organizers
vowed to hold a march despite a ban on demonstrations.
2006 Jul 14, In Serbia criminal
charges were filed against 9 people accused of helping UN war crimes
suspect Ratko Mladic evade justice. The 9 were indicted for "hiding
and helping hide Mladic although they knew that he was charged" with
2006 Jul 14, Somalia's nearly
powerless interim government said it would boycott weekend peace
talks with the Islamic militia that has seized control of nearly all
the nation's south, accusing the group of civilian massacres and
ties to foreign terrorists.
2006 Jul 14, Sri Lankan
government troops clashed with Tamil Tiger rebels in the worst
fighting since a cease-fire halted the civil war in 2002, leaving as
many as 16 dead. The military said 13 soldiers were missing.
2006 Jul 14, In Trinidad a
high-court judge convened a special hearing that stayed an
arrest order against Satnarine Sharma, the chief justice of
Trinidad, who was charged with attempting to pervert the course of
justice by helping former PM Basdeo Panday.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.40)
2006 Jul 15, In a chilly
prelude to a Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, President
Bush blocked Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization.
Russia and the US failed to strike a bilateral deal allowing Russia
to join the WTO but agreed to set a deadline to wrap up talks within
(AP, 7/15/07)(Reuters, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, US authorities
extradited Jean Succar Kuri, a Mexican businessman with alleged ties
to associates of a powerful state governor, to face charges in
Mexico of child pornography, statutory rape and corruption of
2006 Jul 15, Robert Wilson
(64), theater and opera director, opened his $12 million Watermill
Center on Long Island, NY. The arts center was setup to host
conferences, student workshops and serve as an intercultural
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.82)
2006 Jul 15, Phoenix, Ariz.,
residents were reported to be in fear of 2 serial killers, who have
struck in recent months. Six killings were being attributed to the
"Baseline Killer," whose name refers to the street where he is
believed to have committed his first crimes. The 2nd suspected
predator, dubbed the "Serial Shooter," has been definitively linked
to the Dec. 29 wounding of one man and authorities believe he could
be responsible for a total of five shooting deaths.
2006 Jul 15, The space shuttle
Discovery undocked from the international space station.
2006 Jul 15, More than 40
insurgents were killed as hundreds of coalition troops, many dropped
by helicopter, wrested a desert town from the Taliban and U.S.
forces battled militants across southern Afghanistan.
2006 Jul 15, Arab foreign
ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo over Israel's expanding
assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24
2006 Jul 15, A gas explosion in
a coal mine in Shanxi province killed at least 50 miners in the
Linjiazhuang Coal Mine in Jinzhong. In Hunan province 14 coal miners
were killed after rains burst a dam, flooding the pit and collapsing
buildings above ground at the Shenjiawan Colliery.
2006 Jul 15, Thousands of
Ecuadorian villagers fled their homes on the slopes of the
Tungurahua volcano since it began erupting lava and toxic gases.
2006 Jul 15, GDP for the
Falkland Islands was estimated at $25,000 per head. Fishing licenses
around the Falkland Islands generated some $40 million a year.
Seismic studies indicated a possible 500,000 barrels of oil in the
surrounding waters. Britain insisted that it would not discuss
sovereignty of the islands unless its 3,000 citizens there requested
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.38)
2006 Jul 15, In Haiti thousands
of demonstrators demanding the return of ousted president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide marched to the National Palace, pushing past
riot police in a dramatic show of support for the exiled former
2006 Jul 15, A Honduras
newspaper quoted a senior military official that the United States
is helping Honduras establish a new military base to combat
international drug trafficking in the northeastern province of
Gracias a Dios.
2006 Jul 15, Police
investigating Bombay's deadly train bombings swept through several
neighborhoods, rounding up more than 300 people for questioning.
2006 Jul 15, Heavy clashes
between Iraqi soldiers and gunmen in downtown Baghdad left 11 people
wounded. Provincial police in Ramadi confirmed that gunmen had
killed a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party. Gunmen kidnapped Ahmed
al-Sammarai, the head of Iraq's Olympic committee, and more than a
dozen employees storming a sports conference in Baghdad. The
kidnappers wore camouflage Iraqi police uniforms and security guards
outside the meeting said they did not interfere because they thought
the gunmen were legitimate law enforcement.
(AP, 7/15/06)(AP, 8/22/08)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli warplanes
pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold and roads around the
country killing at least 33 people. At least 12 Lebanese villagers,
including women and children, were killed in what appeared to be an
Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the
border with Israel in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah expanded its
rocket fire, hitting another of Israel's main cities, and Israel
warned that the guerrillas could strike Tel Aviv. At least 88 people
have died in Lebanon, most of the them civilians, in the four-day
Israeli offensive, sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli
soldiers. On the Israeli side, at least 15 have been killed, four
civilians and 11 soldiers.
(AP, 7/15/06)(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli aircraft
fired at least one missile at a house in Gaza City. Palestinian
rescue workers said two Palestinians were killed and many others
wounded. Since the offensive began in Gaza, 86 Palestinians have
been killed, many of them gunmen.
2006 Jul 15, US Middle East
envoy David Welch flew into Tripoli for talks with Libyan officials
on strengthening economic and financial ties between the two
2006 Jul 15, A landslide
triggered by monsoon rains swept through a village in northwest
Nepal before dawn, killing at least 17 people as they slept.
2006 Jul 15, In Karachi,
Pakistan, hundreds of youths set fire to a Pizza Hut, two gas
stations and a dozen vehicles after a funeral for an Islamic Shiite
cleric killed in a suicide attack.
2006 Jul 15, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, world leaders tore up a carefully prepared G8 summit agenda
and turned their attention to a growing crisis in the Middle East,
hoping to reach common ground on ways to stop the fighting. About
150 protesters faced off with police as they tried to exercise their
right of assembly.
2006 Jul 15, The UN Security
Council unanimously passed resolution 1718 condemning North Korea's
multiple missile launches on July 5 and imposed limited sanctions; a
defiant North said it would launch more missiles.
(AP, 7/16/07)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.63)
2006 Jul 16, President Bush and
other Group of Eight world leaders meeting in St. Petersburg,
Russia, urged Israel to show "utmost restraint" and blamed Hezbollah
and Hamas for escalating violence in the Middle East. G8 leaders
adopted statements on the summit's three priority areas of energy
security, education and the fight against infectious diseases.
(AP, 7/16/06)(AP, 7/16/07)
2006 Jul 16, US federal
officials arrested David Carruthers in Texas, the British boss of
BetonSports, as he changed planes enroute from London to Costa Rica.
He was charged the next day, along with 10 others, with conspiracy
and fraud related to online gambling.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.61)
2006 Jul 16, Robert Brooks
(b.1937), chairman of Hooters of America, died in South Carolina. He
made a fortune selling chicken wings served by scantily clad
2006 Jul 16, In Afghanistan
Amir Gul Hassanyar was arrested in northern Kunduz province. He
allegedly carried out numerous roadside bombings and trafficked in
weapons and drugs.
2006 Jul 16, A British soldier
was killed and 3 others wounded in two different attacks near Iraq's
main southern city of Basra. 17 people were killed in rebel violence
across Iraq. Six of 29 people seized at an Iraqi Olympic Committee
meeting were released in Baghdad.
2006 Jul 16, Seven Canadians
from the same Montreal family, including four young children, were
killed in Lebanon when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the south
of the country.
2006 Jul 16, Hundreds of
exhausted evacuees flew into Cyprus as Western countries moved their
citizens from the Middle East amid continued Israeli bombardment of
2006 Jul 16, A small German
tourist plane crashed on takeoff from the Italian island of Elba,
killing four people aboard and seriously injuring one.
2006 Jul 16, Iran said that
Western incentives to halt its nuclear program were an "acceptable
basis" for talks, and it is ready for detailed negotiations.
2006 Jul 16, A suicide bomber
detonated explosives inside a cafe packed with Shiites in Tuz
Khormato, a mostly Turkomen city 130 miles north of Baghdad. 26
people were killed and 22 injured. In the south, a British soldier
was killed and another wounded during a raid against a "terrorist
suspect" in Basra.
2006 Jul 16,
Lebanese guerrillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the
northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing eight people at a railway
depot and wounding seven in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old
conflict that has shattered hopes for Mideast peace. Israeli
airstrikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked
out electricity in swaths of Beirut.
2006 Jul 16, In Mexico City
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador led hundreds of thousands of marchers
demanding a full recount of in the disputed election.
(SFC, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 16, North Korea
rejected a UN Security Council resolution sanctioning the communist
nation for recent missile tests and warned the measure was a prelude
to a renewed Korean War.
2006 Jul 16, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan signaled that his government was planning a tough
response to mounting violence by Kurdish rebels after 13 members of
the security forces were killed in the southeast over the past week.
2006 Jul 16, Ugandan
negotiators at talks to end one of Africa's longest wars demanded on
that Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels disarm and hand over all
their weapons in order to receive amnesty.
2006 Jul 17, US Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales said President George W. Bush blocked a
Justice Department probe into a secret program to tap international
phone calls and electronic communications of US citizens.
2006 Jul 17, Louisiana Attorney
General Charles Foti alleged that a doctor and two nurses decided to
administer lethal doses of morphine and a sedative to at least four
trapped and desperately ill patients during Hurricane Katrina.
2006 Jul 17, Space shuttle
Discovery and its crew of 6 returned to Earth through thick clouds,
ending an impressive mission that put NASA's space program back on a
solid, safer course.
2006 Jul 17, Mickey Spillane
(b.1918), American mystery writer, died in South Carolina. His 13
Mike Hammer novels began with “I, the Jury" (1946). A number of his
books were made into films including “The Girl Hunters" (1963) in
which he played the starring role.
(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.78)
2006 Jul 17, In southeastern
Afghanistan coalition forces killed four al-Qaida suspects and
captured three others. Separate attacks killed three Afghan soldiers
and three government employees in the south.
2006 Jul 17, In China tropical
storm Bilis left at least 612 people dead as it pounded the
southeast over the weekend, toppling houses and forcing the
evacuation of a prison and thousands of villages.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 17, Congo officials
said Peter Karim, a warlord accused of kidnapping seven UN
peacekeepers, has agreed to disband his militia and become a colonel
in Congo's army. Gunmen opened fire on an election rally and killed
several people in Congo's volatile east, the latest outburst of
violence as the nation prepares for its first free legislative and
presidential balloting in 46 years.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 17, Europe’s Airbus,
reeling from a management shakeup that followed delays in its
flagship superjumbo jet program, unveiled a long-awaited revamp of
its mid-sized A350 at the Farnborough Air Show in England.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 17, In India some 500
suspected communist rebels attacked a government-run relief camp and
two police stations in eastern Chattisgarh state, killing at least
26 villagers. Four rebels also died.
2006 Jul 17, In Indonesia a
magnitude 7.7 earthquake sent a 6-foot-high tsunami crashing into
Pangandaran on Java island, killing at least 659 people with some
(AP, 7/19/06)(AP, 7/22/06)
2006 Jul 17, Iraq and the US
signed a commercial cooperation agreement. In Mahmoudiya dozens of
heavily armed attackers raided an open air market, killing at least
41 people and wounding about 90. Police said they found 12 bodies in
different parts Mahmoudiya, possible victims of reprisal
killings. A bomb killed two people and wounded nine in east
Baghdad. 3 American soldiers were killed in separate attacks, two in
the Baghdad area and one in Anbar province west of the capital.
(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israeli warplanes
pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, killing at least 17 people.
Hezbollah patron Iran said a cease-fire and a prisoner swap were
possible, and the international community signaled willingness to
send peacekeepers to back a diplomatic solution. 3 rounds of rockets
fired by Hezbollah guerrillas struck Haifa, with one destroying a
three-story building and wounding three people. Hezbollah fired a
total of 50 rockets in to Israel. Total deaths in Lebanon reached
210 and 24 in Israel.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/18/06, p.A1,7)
2006 Jul 17, Israel bombed the
Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, pushing ahead
with its 3-week offensive in Gaza.
2006 Jul 17, British PM Tony
Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment
of international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, a
proposal that Israel quickly rejected.
2006 Jul 17, One of two young
twin brothers who led a small band of ethnic rebels calling
themselves "God's Army" surrendered to Myanmar's military
government. Johnny Htoo (18) and 8 fellow members of the group
surrendered with weapons in two separate groups on July 17 and 19 at
the coastal region military command in southeastern Myanmar.
2006 Jul 17, Nigeria signed a
deal with the Clinton Foundation to make cheap AIDS drugs available
to fight the disease.
2006 Jul 17, G8 leaders called
on North Korea to stop its missile tests and to abandon its nuclear
2006 Jul 17, The presidents of
Russia and Kazakhstan agreed at the G8 summit to create a joint
venture to process natural gas from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak gas
2006 Jul 17, In Moscow full
trading began in the shares of Rosneft Oil Co. The company raised
$10.4 billion with shares at $7.55. The next day a London court
dismissed a blocking plea by Yukos and full trading began in London.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.71)
2006 Jul 17, A Serbian court
issued an international arrest warrant for the widow of former
President Slobodan Milosevic, who now lives in Moscow.
2006 Jul 17, In western
Venezuela a fire broke out at the Amuay oil refinery. Officials said
it was soon extinguished without reported injuries or loss of
2006 Jul 18, The US Senate
voted after two days of emotional debate to expand federal funding
of embryonic stem cell research, sending the measure to President
George Bush for a promised veto.
2006 Jul 18, A doctor and two
nurses who labored at a flooded-out New Orleans hospital in
Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath were arrested and accused of
killing four trapped and desperately ill patients with injections of
morphine and sedatives.
2006 Jul 18, The Club Deluxe on
Haight Street in SF celebrated the 1st anniversary of its open mike
poetry and jazz. It was initiated by New York poets Jennifer Barone
and Ingrid Keir and jazz musician Dan Heffez.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.E1)
2006 Jul 18, The Seattle Sonics
basketball team said a group of Oklahoma businessmen had purchased
the club for $350 million. The new ownership group said it plans to
keep the team in Seattle, if it can work out a deal for a new arena
in the next 12 months. Officials in Seattle said they planned to
hold the Sonics to their lease, which expires in 2010.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.33)(http://tinyurl.com/qga3e)
2006 Jul 18, A heat wave in the
US left at least 7 people dead including 5 in Oklahoma and 2 in
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 18, US researchers
reported that men and boys with autism have fewer neurons in the
amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotion and memory.
2006 Jul 18, The Afghan
government announced plans to re-establish a Vice and Virtues
Ministry, but it assured the public the office would not resemble
the Taliban version that became a symbol of the brutal regime
toppled by US forces in 2001. One coalition soldier was killed in
fighting in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 7/18/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A13)
2006 Jul 18, China reported its
fastest economic growth in a decade and warned that booming
construction and bank loans could fuel inflation, raising
expectations that Beijing might nudge up interest rates and possibly
the value of its currency.
2006 Jul 18, The UN said
fighting between the army and leftist guerrillas in western Colombia
has forced hundreds of civilians from their homes and trapped others
in their villages.
2006 Jul 18, Egypt and Israel
reopened the Rafah border crossing for the first time in three
weeks, triggering a rush to the border by thousands of Palestinians
who had been waiting in Egypt.
2006 Jul 18, In India
Lashkar-e-Qahhar (Army of Terror), a little-known Islamic militant
group that claimed responsibility for the Bombay train bombings,
warned that it was planning attacks against government and historic
sites in India in an e-mail to an Indian television station. Indian
police called the e-mail a hoax.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 18, In India several
telecom operators confirmed that they had blocked a number of Web
sites on orders from India’s Dept. of Telecommunications.
(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 18, In southern Iraq a
suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a crowd of laborers
gathered across the street from a major Shiite shrine in Kufa,
killing 59 people and wounding 105. National Security Adviser
Mouwafak al-Rubaie said Diyar Ismail Mahmoud (known as Abu
al-Afghani), a Jordanian who killed two U.S. soldiers last month,
was fatally wounded in a clash with security forces. The country's
largest Sunni Arab party called for a conference of all religious
and political leaders to end sectarian killing and save the country
from sliding into civil war.
(AP, 7/18/06)(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 18, The UN reported
that nearly 6,000 civilians were slain across Iraq in May and June,
a spike that coincided with rising sectarian attacks. The report
said 2,669 civilians died in May and 3,149 in June, the first full
month of the al-Maliki government.
2006 Jul 18, Israel struck a
Lebanese army base outside Beirut and flattened a house near the
border, killing 31 people in a new wave of bombings. Hezbollah fired
more rockets at northern Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding
several others. Israel said its offensive in Lebanon could last
several more weeks and involve large numbers of ground forces.
(AP, 7/18/06)(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 18, Authorities freed
about 100 Poles forced into virtual slavery as Italian and Polish
police arrested 25 people involved in a human trafficking ring that
brought farm workers to Italy.
2006 Jul 18, Kyrgyz police in
Osh arrested six men suspected of taking part in an uprising in
neighboring Uzbekistan last year and seized 14 ounces of TNT from
2006 Jul 18, Pakistan welcomed
a move by Britain to ban one of the major rebel groups, the
Baluchistan Liberation Army. Islamabad outlawed the group in April.
In eastern Pakistan 3 men convicted of gang-raping a woman during a
robbery in 2000 were hanged after President Musharraf rejected their
plea for mercy.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 18, In the southern
Philippines Armando Pace (56), who often attacked corruption among
politicians and the illegal drug trade in Digos city, was gunned
down as he was riding home on a motorcycle. He was the ninth
journalist killed in the country this year and the 82nd since 1986,
based on a count by the National Union of Journalists of the
2006 Jul 18, In Somalia Islamic
militiamen who rule Mogadishu arrested about 60 people for watching
videos in several overnight raids.
2006 Jul 18, South Korea's
disaster agency said a fifth straight day of monsoon rains have left
19 people dead and 31 missing.
2006 Jul 18, In northern Sri
Lanka a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others,
including four government soldiers.
2006 Jul 18, Nearly 300
striking doctors in Zimbabwe ignored government demands for them to
return to hospital wards. The junior doctors walked out on July 13
after authorities extended their seven-year attachment to state
hospitals by another year, to be spent working at rural facilities.
2006 Jul 19, President Bush
used his first veto to underscore his politically risky stand
against federal funding for the embryonic stem cell research that
most Americans support.
2006 Jul 19, Chicago
prosecutors reported that local police tortured scores of black
suspects from the 1970s to the 1980s to extract confessions, but
that the cases were too old or too weak to prosecute.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 19, The Dow Jones rose
212.19 to 11,011 and Nasdaq closed up 37.49 to 2,080 following
remarks by Ben Bernanke that inflation seems to be under control.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 19, Alain Rappaport
premiered the web site www.medstory.com, a consumer search product
for information on health and medicine.
(SFC, 7/19/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 19, Jack Warden
(b.1920), an Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated actor, died in
NYC. He played gruff cops, coaches and soldiers in a career that
spanned five decades and included almost 100 feature films.
(AP, 7/22/06)(SFC, 7/22/06, p.B6)
2006 Jul 19, In southern
Afghanistan coalition forces retook Garmser and killed 2 Taliban.
(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A13)
2006 Jul 19, Britain faced the
hottest day ever recorded in July as a heat wave swept much of
Europe. Temperatures hit 96.6 degrees south of London.
2006 Jul 19, In Canada
teamsters railway workers said they initiated a strike against
Canadian National Railway in an effort to resolve a long-standing
2006 Jul 19, Doku Umarov, the
leader of the Chechen rebels, dismissed a Russian amnesty offer,
saying attacks outside his home region would be his rebels' answer
2006 Jul 19, It was reported
that factories and cities in China dump some 40-60 billion tons of
waste-water and sewage into lakes and rivers each year.
(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 19, Director Gerard
Oury (87), a cultural icon of France whose decades-old comedies
remain hits today, died at his Riviera home. His top hits include
the 1973 movie "Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob" (The Mad Adventures of
2006 Jul 19, In Iraq gunmen
kidnapped 20 employees of a government agency that cares for Sunni
mosques and shrines nationwide, and the organization suspended its
work until further notice. At least 49 people were killed in a
string of bombings and shootings, mostly in Baghdad. Sixteen other
bodies were found in widely separate parts of the country, apparent
victims of sectarian death squads. An explosion in a cafe killed 5
people in Kirkuk. In Basra assailants slit the throats of a mother
and her 3 children and killed the mother’s sister. The family had
fled there to escape threats that they had cooperated with
(AP, 7/19/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 19, A government
report said Ireland's population has surged this year to a modern
high of more than 4.2 million people largely because of immigrants
from the newest EU nations.
2006 Jul 19, Israeli troops
clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the
border, while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 56
people overnight as fighting entered its second week with the US
signaling it will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire.
Lebanon's PM Fuad Saniora called for a cease-fire and said that 300
people have been killed, 1,000 have been wounded and a half-million
displaced in Israel's eight-day-old onslaught on Lebanon. Hezbollah
rockets slammed into the Arab-Israeli town of Nazareth killing two
young brothers as they played outside and wounding 18 other people.
(AP, 7/19/06)(Reuters, 7/19/06)(SFC, 7/20/06,
2006 Jul 19, Israeli forces
killed six Palestinians after tanks moved into a refugee camp in
central Gaza under cover of machine gun fire.
2006 Jul 19, In Nigeria a
4-story apartment building collapsed overnight in Lagos. Red Cross
officials confirmed that at least 24 people were killed.
2006 Jul 19, Pakistani police
mounted more raids to catch suspected Taliban fighters living in
Baluchistan province. Police said more than 200 Afghans have been
arrested in the last 3 days.
2006 Jul 19, South Korea's
president condemned North Korea for potentially sparking an arms
race with its recent missile launches, while the North said it was
ending reunions between relatives separated by the Korean Peninsula
divide. An aid group in North Korea said floods and landslides have
left more than 100 people dead or missing.
2006 Jul 19, Sweden launched a
fresh effort to salvage Sri Lanka's troubled truce as ceasefire
monitors reported at least 900 people killed in a surge of ethnic
violence since December.
2006 Jul 19, Taiwan’s largest
air carrier launched the 1st direct cargo flight between the island
and China since 1949.
(WSJ, 7/20/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 20, President Bush
delivered his first address to the 97th annual NAACP convention
after having declining invitations for five years in a row. He
received mixed support. Bush said he knew racism existed in America
and that many black voters distrusted his Republican Party; Bush
promised to improve the GOP's rocky relations with blacks.
(AP, 7/20/06)(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A4)(AP, 7/20/07)
2006 Jul 20, The US Senate
voted 98-0 to renew the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act for another
2006 Jul 20, The US released
new postage stamps featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman,
Supergirl and a half dozen other superheroes.
2006 Jul 20, The SEC filed
criminal and civil charges against executives at Brocade
Communications in San Jose, Ca., for back-dating stock options.
Estimates had it that some 29% of 7,774 US companies may have
backdated option grants from 1996-2002.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.C3)
2006 Jul 20, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger authorized $150 million in loans to the state’s stem
cell agency. A day earlier Pres. Bush vetoed legislation that would
have expanded federal funding for stem cell research.
(SFC, 7/21/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 20, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed 6 Taliban in the district of Garmser in
2006 Jul 20, The UN food agency
said China became the world's third-largest food aid donor in 2005,
the same year it stopped receiving assistance from the World Food
Program, while the US and the EU remained the top two contributors.
2006 Jul 20, German and US
scientists began a 2-year project to decipher the genetic code of
(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 20, India arrested
three men in connection with last week's Mumbai bombings that killed
more than 180 men.
2006 Jul 20, Iraq's top Shiite
cleric urged his followers to refrain from reprisal violence against
Sunnis, his strongest call yet for an end to increasing sectarian
bloodshed that threatens to erupt into full-scale civil war. Car
bombs in Baghdad killed 9 police officers and 6 civilians. A
roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad killed 2. Police in Baghdad found
38 bodies, most of whom were shot in the head. A car bomb exploded
at a village gas station in Tikrit, killing 13 people who had
gathered around the vehicle after discovering a corpse inside. An
explosion in Kirkuk killed 7 people. Gunmen assassinated a former
official of Saddam's Baath party in Karbala.
(AP, 7/20/06)(SFC, 7/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli troops met
fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas as they crossed into
Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, and
Israel hinted at a full-scale invasion.
2006 Jul 20, Israeli forces
killed 3 people and wounded six in the Gaza Strip. The army dropped
leaflets on towns and villages warning that homes hiding weapons
would be attacked.
2006 Jul 20, In southwest
Pakistan 300 tribal militants surrendered to authorities, where
President Pervez Musharraf says an insurgency is dying down. In a
search near the former rebel stronghold of Dera Bugti, troops seized
10 surface-to-air missiles, 195 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines,
270 hand grenades, 205 rockets and 201 mortar shells.
2006 Jul 20, Residents of
central Somalia said that hundreds of Ethiopian troops were
patrolling the town of Baidoa in armored vehicles, less than a day
after Islamic militants moved near the base of the weak, UN-backed
2006 Jul 20, Bio Fuel Systems,
a Spanish company, claimed to have developed a method of breeding
plankton and turning the marine plants into oil, providing a
potentially inexhaustible source of clean fuel.
2006 Jul 20, Luis Jefferson
Lira Rodriguez (20), a Venezuela soldier, massacred 8 people at
Ranch Adi, but said he acted on orders from at least one other
lieutenant who claimed there was a Colombian rebel camp nearby.
Officials later said rape was the motive and that the soldier acted
2006 Jul 21, In NYC residents
of Queens suffered through a 5th day of power blackouts. ConEdison
said power blackouts in Queens had affected some 25,000 customers.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 21, The California
Dept. of Education said an estimated 5% of high school seniors
(40,173 of 436, 374) did not qualify for graduation because they
failed exit exam.
(SFC, 7/22/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 21, Mako (b.1933 as
Makoto Iwamatsu), Japanese-born film and TV actor, died at his home
in Ventura Ct., Ca. His films included “The Sand Pebbles" (1966). In
1965 he co-founded the East West Players, the 1st Asian-American
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.B8)
2006 Jul 21, The Netherlands’
military chief said Dutch commandos had killed 18 enemy fighters who
set up positions in rugged hills overlooking a Dutch camp in
2006 Jul 21, In Cambodia Ta Mok
(80), known as "The Butcher" for his brutality as military chief of
the communist Khmer Rouge, died.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.77)
2006 Jul 21, India urged
Pakistan to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its
determination to fight terrorism.
2006 Jul 21, In Iraq US troops
raided a neighborhood northeast of Baghdad, killing 5 people,
including two women and a child, after gunmen fired from the
rooftops of buildings. Bombs killed two worshippers at mosques in
Iraq during prayers and the authorities extended a daytime curfew on
Baghdad after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, Israel called up
reserve troops and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled
southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set
up a deep buffer zone. Hezbollah guerrillas fired two volleys of
rockets at Haifa, wounding five people and damaging shops and office
buildings. At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the
Israeli campaign. 34 Israelis also have been killed, including 19
2006 Jul 21, A Hamas activist
and three relatives were killed in an explosion at his home in Gaza
City, hospital officials said. Palestinians said the house was hit
by an Israeli tank shell.
2006 Jul 21, An Islamic militia
leader called for a holy war against Ethiopian troops protecting
Somalia's weak UN-backed government.
2006 Jul 21, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
protests initiated by striking teachers continued. Protest leaders
said their fight is not with the tourists but with Gov. Ulises Ruiz,
whom they accuse of rigging the state election in 2004 and using
force to repress dissent.
2006 Jul 21, It was reported
that Saudi Arabia has ordered 76 artillery howitzers from the French
armaments manufacturer Giat Industries as defense minister Crown
Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz completed a two-day visit.
2006 Jul 21, The UN refugee
agency said international aid operations in refugee camps in the
Zalinge area of Sudan's Darfur region have been suspended after
three water workers were killed by a mob.
2006 Jul 21, Turkey killed 4
Kurdish rebels after a soldier died in an attack.
(WSJ, 7/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 21, Venezuela formally
entered Mercosur, increasing the South American trade bloc's
economic might and vowing to transform the policy organization into
a force for profound social change. Cuba’s Fidel Castro signed a
modest trade at the 2-day Mercosur meeting in Cordoba, Argentina.
(AP, 7/21/06)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.36)
2006 Jul 22, President Bush in
Texas conferred with PM Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey about how to help
the Lebanese people caught up in the conflict between Israel and
2006 Jul 22, Some 3,000 people
gathered at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas for the annual
Lifestyles conference, a five-day, $700-per-couple event that offers
a mix of seminars, socializing and sex.
2006 Jul 22, Former Spokane,
Wa., Mayor James E. West (55), ousted by a sex scandal in 2005, died
of complications from recent cancer surgery.
(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.B6)
2006 Jul 22, Tamika Mack Norton
(31), the wife of Quincy Norton Sr. (32), was stabbed to death at
her home in Daly City, Ca. Norton was arrested a month later and
charged with her murder. In 2008 he was convicted of murder after
his sons testified against him, but the conviction was overturned on
the grounds that his defense attorney was incompetent. In 2009 a new
trial date was set. In 2010 Norton was again convicted of 1st degree
murder and faced 26 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/22/08, p.B2)(SFC, 5/16/08, p.B5)(SFC,
9/23/09, p.D2)(SFC, 10/8/10, p.C5)
2006 Jul 22, In Afghanistan
coalition forces killed 13 Taliban over the last 48 hours in the
district of Garmser in Helmand province. 2 suicide blasts struck in
Kandahar. A suicide car bomb ripped into a Canadian patrol and
killed two soldiers and wounded eight others. Ten Afghans were
wounded. About an hour later an attacker blew himself up among a
crowd of people who had assembled about 100 meters (yards) from the
site of the first explosion. Four Afghan passers-by were killed.
(AP, 7/22/06)(AFP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 22, In Preston,
England, Shezan Umarji (20), a bank worker and business student, was
stabbed in the brawl between around 50 white and South Asian youths.
Days later 3 men, one aged 17 and two aged 19, were "jointly charged
with murder and violent disorder."
2006 Jul 22, A magnitude-5.1
earthquake hit southwestern China, killing at least 19 people.
2006 Jul 22, East Timor's newly
installed PM Jose Ramos-Horta offered a weapons amnesty to prevent a
repeat of communal clashes which left 21 dead two months ago.
2006 Jul 22, Ethiopian troops
sent to bolster Somalia's weak government against a powerful Islamic
militia moved into a second Somali town and seized a strategic
2006 Jul 22, In Haiti a new
rash of kidnappings has raised fears that well-armed, politically
aligned street gangs are seeking to destabilize the new government,
threatening UN-led efforts to restore security 2 1/2 years after a
crippling revolt. At least 30 people have been kidnapped so far in
July, about the same number for all of June.
2006 Jul 22, Iraq's parliament
speaker Mahmud Mashhadani bitterly criticized US forces in Iraq,
accusing them of "butchery" and demanded that they pull out of the
country. 7 Shiite workers were gunned down in a religiously mixed
area of west Baghdad, and explosions in the heart of the capital
shattered a one-day calm after a ban on private vehicles expired. 3
people were killed and 5 injured in a bombing and shooting in the
market in Baqouba. At least 6 more people died in attacks elsewhere
across Iraq. US and Iraqi troops battled Mahdi fighters in Musayyib,
40 miles south of Baghdad in a three-hour gunbattle that killed 15
extremists and one Iraqi soldier. 2 US soldiers were killed in
Baghdad, one from a roadside bomb, the other from small arms fire.
(AP, 7/22/06)(AP, 7/23/06)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 22, Israeli tanks and
hundreds of troops moved in and out of Lebanon, taking over Maroun
al-Ras village, entering a UN observation post and engaging
Hezbollah militants by land, sea and air. Israeli warplanes blasted
communications and television transmission towers in central and
northern Lebanese mountains. Over 130 rockets struck northern
Israeli, hitting Karmiel, Kiriyat Shemona, Nahariya and smaller
communities such as Bet Hilel, Mayan Baruch and Mashov Am. Five
Israelis were wounded. The Lebanese health ministry reported 362
deaths in Lebanon so far in the onslaught. 34 Israelis also have
(AP, 7/22/06)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 22, Japan's death toll
from floods and mudslides triggered by this week's torrential rain
rose to 19 as an evacuation warning was issued in the country's
southwest. Heavy rains caused mudslides and flooding killed four
people in southern Japan. About 100,000 people were urged to flee
(AFP, 7/22/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 22, Police said
Mudassir, a top Kashmiri militant commander blamed for dozens of
attacks and tourist killings, has been arrested in the Indian
portion of Kashmir. He was believed to be the chief planner of
Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group linked to
"25 incidents of grenade attacks and other violent incidents.
2006 Jul 23, US cyclist
Floyd Landis (31) won the 3-week, 2,267-mile Tour de France 57
seconds ahead of Oscar Pereiro of Spain. Reports on July 27 Landis
said had tested positive for the male sex hormone testosterone. In
2007 arbitrators upheld results that showed he had used synthetic
testosterone and that he must forfeit his title.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.D1)(Reuters, 7/27/06)(WSJ,
2006 Jul 23, Tiger Woods won
his 2nd consecutive British Open golf title.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, In southern
Indiana 2 sets of sniper attacks within hours of each other left one
man dead, another wounded and four vehicles peppered with bullet
holes. On July 25 police said a Gaston youth (18) confessed to
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, In Afghanistan 19
Taliban were killed and 17 fighters, including two Pakistani
nationals, arrested in a raid by Afghan forces in southern Helmand
province. Police said three policemen were killed and three others
kidnapped in a Taliban attack on a police checkpoint in southeastern
Ghazni province. Attackers hurled grenades into the home of a
village postman in eastern Khost province, killing three of his
(AFP, 7/23/06)(AFP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot
Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from
Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night
hundreds of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members
were rescued the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui
O.S.K. Lines and listed on its side for several weeks before being
righted. 4,703 of the cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100
million. After a year of planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for
complete reduction to scrap in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08,
2006 Jul 23, In England a gust
of wind blew an inflatable art exhibit from its moorings at a park
in Durham, killing two people and injuring 12. Up to 30 people were
on the "Dreamspace", an inflatable network of multicolored tunnels,
when wind blew it 30 feet in the air.
2006 Jul 23, Police in India
raided a forest hideout for communist rebels in the southern state
of Andhra Pradesh state, killing Burra Chinnaiah, a guerrilla chief,
and at least 7 other people.
2006 Jul 23, PM Al-Maliki left
for Washington for talks on reversing the country's slide toward
civil war. A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden minibus
amid a crowd of day laborers seeking work in a crowded market in
Baghdad's mainly Shiite district of Sadr City, killing at least 34
people. This was followed by a bomb attack in front of the area's
town hall, which killed eight. Three hours later a one-ton car bomb
exploded outside a courthouse in the mixed northern city of Kirkuk,
leaving at least 22 dead and 100 injured.
2006 Jul 23, Israeli warplanes
struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting in southern
Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and
Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep
the peace along the border. Hezbollah rockets killed two civilians
in northern Israel. Layal Nejim (23), a photographer working for a
Lebanese magazine, was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near
2006 Jul 23, In Indian Kashmir
4 people were killed in three separate incidents.
2006 Jul 23, Palestinian
militants in Gaza fired three rockets at Israel, despite reports
that they had agreed to halt such attacks.
2006 Jul 23, Zuleyka Rivera
Mendoza (18) of Puerto Rico was crowned as Miss Universe 2006. She
hoped to someday star in US and Latin American films.
2006 Jul 23, In Somalia a local
rights group said gunmen have killed 682 civilians, including a
foreign journalist, in executions over the past year.
2006 Jul 23, Syria, one of
Hezbollah's main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end
the fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group but only
in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative.
2006 Jul 24, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to launch
diplomatic efforts aimed at ending 13 days of warfare.
2006 Jul 24, Amnesty Int’l.
issued a report saying security agents in Jordan were torturing
terrorism suspects on behalf of the US.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, The US FDA
approved Anthelios SX, a sunscreen that protects against a type of
ultra-violet radiation linked to skin cancer.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, Rescuers from the
US Coast Guard and Alaska Air National Guard saved 23 crew members
from a cargo ship taking on water south of the Aleutian Islands.
2006 Jul 24, Police officers in
Salt Lake City found the body of missing 5-year-old Destiny Norton
in the basement of a home in her neighborhood and arrested Craig R.
Gregerson (20) who lived there. Destiny disappeared from outside her
house on July 16.
2006 Jul 24, SF City Attorney
Dennis Herrera announced that his office had obtained a civil
injunction and $20,000 in penalties against Carlos Romero for his
graffiti. This marked the 1st time SF has filed a civil suit against
a graffiti tagger.
(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A4)
2006 Jul 24, HCA Inc., the
largest US for-profit hospital operator, has agreed to be purchased
by a group of investors for about $21.3 billion plus the assumption
of $11.7 billion in debt. Shareholders of the Nashville-based
company, which was founded by the family of Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist, will receive $51 in cash for each share of common stock.
2006 Jul 24, Power companies
worked to restore electricity to thousands of customers throughout
California as a scorching heat wave threatened to push the state
into a power emergency with the potential for more blackouts. Storm
problems cut power to areas of New York and Missouri.
(AP, 7/24/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, It was reported
that Jeff Bezos (42), founder of Amazon.com, planned to develop a
private spaceport at his private ranch in West Texas. A draft
environmental review was filed with the FAA and a timetable set
commercial flights to begin in 2010.
(SFC, 7/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 24, In southwestern
Afghanistan hundreds of Taliban fighters firing rocket-propelled
grenades attacked a district headquarters overnight in Farah,
killing 3 police and wounding 7. Four suspected suicide attackers
riding two motorcycles died in a confrontation with Afghan police.
In the west, gunmen killed two Afghans working for international aid
agency World Vision who had been delivering medicine. Fighting in
Kunar province left a US soldier dead. 7 suspected Taliban were
killed in Paktika province.
(AP, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 24, In Belarus leftist
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez exchanged declarations of
solidarity with the authoritarian leader of isolated Belarus, who
shares his anti-US views. During the talks with Lukashenko, the two
sides signed seven agreements on military-technical cooperation,
economic and other ties as well as a declaration pledging a
strategic partnership. Bilateral trade was just under $16 million in
2006 Jul 24, In Colombia 13
doctors were abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia,
or FARC. They were on a 10-day mission to remote communities and
Indian tribes in Putumayo province.
2006 Jul 24, A UNICEF report
said more than 600 children die every day in war-ravaged Congo and
even more are displaced, sexually abused or swept into the camps of
2006 Jul 24, Costa Rica relaxed
visa requirements for visitors from 102 nations, in the Central
American country's most sweeping migration reform in decades.
2006 Jul 24, Hungary’s central
bank raised its core interest rate half a percentage point to 6.75%
in an aggressive move to stabilize its currency. This followed a
quarter point raise in June. Inflation stood at 2.8%.
(WSJ, 7/25/06, p.A8)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.64)
2006 Jul 24, A UN report on the
economic impact of HIV/AIDS in India estimated infections there,
currently over 5 million, could increase to 20-25 million by 2010.
(WSJ, 7/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 24, Hezbollah's
representative in Iran struck a defiant tone, warning that his
Islamic militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until
"no place" is safe for Israelis.
2006 Jul 24, Iraqi PM Nuri
al-Maliki condemned Israel's bombing of Lebanon's civilian
infrastructure and vowed to push for a ceasefire during talks with
his British PM Tony Blair. Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi police unit in
central Baghdad, triggering a gunbattle in which six officers were
killed and 30 were wounded. Mahmoud Ali Hussein al-Nida, the head of
Saddam Hussein's Baijat tribe, was killed when gunmen attacked a
meeting in the office of a prominent sheik in Tikrit. The gunmen
also killed a lawyer and wounded sheik Mizahim al-Mustafa. Two other
civilians caught in the crossfire also were killed.
(AFP, 7/24/06)(AFP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli ground
forces pushed deeper into Lebanon in heavy fighting with Hezbollah
guerrillas. An Israeli Apache helicopter crashed near the Lebanese
border while attempting an emergency landing, and there were two
2006 Jul 24, Israeli artillery
shelled a town in the Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to
fire rockets, and hospital officials said three Palestinians were
killed and eight were wounded.
2006 Jul 24, Kosovo formally
made its pitch for independence in Vienna, Austria, face-to-face
with Serbia at their 1st top-level talks since NATO bombs drove Serb
forces from the province in 1999.
2006 Jul 24, Liberia began
training the first soldiers of a post-war army that officials hope
will grow into a small but effective force to take over peacekeeping
from UN troops.
2006 Jul 24, A Malaysian
princess was stabbed to death by her son as she tried to stop him
from attacking her husband (74). The son (21) later died of an
apparent drug overdose. Tengku Puteri Kamariah, whose brother is
Sultan Ahmad Shah, ruler of the eastern state of Pahang, died at her
home in Pekan town, Pahang.
2006 Jul 24, Gunmen raided a
pharmaceutical laboratory in Mexico City, killing four guards and
stealing about a ton of ephedrine, a key ingredient in making
2006 Jul 24, In Sudan’s South
Darfur's vast Kalma camp, 17 women were raped by armed militiamen as
they went out to collect firewood.
2006 Jul 24, WTO members in
Geneva called a halt to more than five years of commerce
liberalization talks (the Doha talks) as differences over farm aid
proved unbridgeable. The 25-nation EU criticized US intransigence
over agricultural subsidies for the breakdown, while the US blamed
Brazil and India for being inflexible on cutting barriers to
industrial imports and the EU for refusing to make deeper cuts in
its farm import tariffs.
2006 Jul 25, President Bush was
visited at the White House by Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki, who said he
and Bush agreed that training and better arming Iraqi forces as
quickly as possible was central to efforts to stabilizing his
country. A Darfur rebel leader was in Washington to meet President
Bush, who is trying to convince Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers
to quell the increasing violence in Sudan's remote west. President
Bush pressed Darfur rebel leader Minni Arcua Minnawi to help
implement a deal aimed at ending the violence in western Sudan.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/25/07)
2006 Jul 25, In NYC 14 athletes
competed in the 10th annual Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile Race in
Jamaica, Queens. The 51-day event was sponsored by followers of
meditation master Sri Chinmoy.
2006 Jul 25, SF Supervisors
gave final approval to a plan to provide health care coverage to the
city’s estimated 82,000 uninsured residents.
(SFC, 7/26/06, p.B1)
2006 Jul 25, Hewlett-Packard
signed a $4.5 billion agreement to buy Mercury Interactive Corp., a
maker of software for information technology networks.
(SFC, 7/26/06, p.C1)
2006 Jul 25, The Afghan
government, together with the UN, appealed for $76 million to head
off an "imminent food crisis" due to drought. A roadside bomb
exploded in Kabul, killing two Afghans riding in a taxi. US-led
coalition troops killed seven suspected Taliban militants in
southern Afghanistan. In Musa Qala district 10 militants were killed
and 15 wounded by coalition and Afghan forces backed by airstrikes.
(AP, 7/25/06)(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 25, Canada said it
planned to pay a total of C$1.1 billion ($965 million) to around
5,500 people who had contracted hepatitis C from transfusions.
2006 Jul 25, Greek protesters
toppled a statue of President Truman and clashed with police during
demonstrations against the fighting in Lebanon.
2006 Jul 25, The first edition
of a newspaper owned by the Iranian version of Hezbollah appeared on
newsstands with messages of support for its Lebanese cousins in
their fight against Israel.
2006 Jul 25, In Iraq police in
Diyala province said five bodies were found on the streets in
Muqdadiyah. Gunmen killed a police officer in front of his office in
Mosul. 2 roadside bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing two civilians
and wounding two bystanders and a policeman. 4 other civilians were
shot dead around the capital. Two members of a Shiite family were
killed and one was wounded when their removal van was sprayed with
bullets. US and Iraqi soldiers captured six members of an alleged
"death squad" in Baghdad, hoping to quell the rampant sectarian
violence dividing the capital. Attacks elsewhere in Iraq left at
least 34 people dead, including an American soldier.
(AP, 7/25/06)(AFP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, Israeli troops
sealed off the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in fierce
fighting in south Lebanon. Warplanes struck Nabatiyeh and destroyed
a house killing seven people, four from the same family. Guerrillas
fired rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl. An Israeli
airstrike killed 4 UN observers at a UNIFIL post in southern
Lebanon. The observers were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
Irish observers had warned that airstrikes were too close. UNIFIL
was created in 1978 after Israel's first major invasion of southern
Lebanon and has been there ever since.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/27/06,
2006 Jul 25, Italian carmaker
Fiat Group and India's Tata Motors Ltd. announced they have signed
an agreement for a joint-venture in India to make passenger
vehicles, engines and transmissions for Indian and overseas markets.
2006 Jul 25, The Slovak central
bank raised key interest rates by 50 basis points.
2006 Jul 25, Sri Lanka, which
at 80,000 has the largest contingent of expatriate workers in
Lebanon, wants those trapped in the conflict to stay put and those
who have fled the bombings to return, a minister said.
2006 Jul 25, Officials and news
reports said the Swedish government knew in 2000 that Saddam
Hussein's government demanded kickbacks from companies participating
in the UN Oil-for-Food Program.
2006 Jul 25, Thailand's three
election commissioners, seen as close allies of embattled PM Thaksin
Shinawatra, were convicted of allowing unqualified candidates to run
in parliamentary elections and sentenced to four years in prison.
2006 Jul 26, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki addressed US Congress and asked for more US reconstruction
aid. He did not talk of sectarian violence in Iraq and did not
(SFC, 7/27/06, p.A12)
2006 Jul 26, The Washington
state Supreme Court upheld a ban on gay marriage, saying lawmakers
have the power to restrict marriage to unions between a man and
2006 Jul 26, Chicago’s City
Council voted by a veto-proof margin to require big-box stores like
Wal-Mart to pay employees at least $10 per hour plus benefits.
(WSJ, 7/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 26, In a dramatic
turnaround from her first murder trial, a jury in Houston found
Andrea Yates not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning of her
children in the bathtub; she was committed to a state mental
2006 Jul 26, SF police officer
Nick-Tomasito Birco (39) was killed when a Dodge van carrying 4
robbery suspects broadsided his patrol car at Cambridge and Felton.
Steven Wayne Petrilli (19) was charged the next day with murder,
manslaughter, evading police and robbery. In 2010 Petrilli was
convicted of 1st degree murder. In 2011 Carl Lather (25) and
Nicholas smith (26) pleaded guilty to manslaughter and robbery
(SFC, 7/27/06, p.A1)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.B1)(SFC,
9/24/10, p.C3)(SFC, 2/5/11, p.C2)
2006 Jul 26, In southern Zabul
province, gunmen ambushed and killed one Afghan worker and wounded
three others as they drove to work on a road being built between the
town of Qalat to a new US air base just outside town. 5 militants
were killed and 11 were wounded when they battled 200 Afghan police
in Garmser. All 16 people including two Dutch soldiers and at least
2 American civilians were killed when their helicopter crashed in
southeast Afghanistan. The Russian-made helicopter was operated by a
logistics company ferrying supplies and fuel from Kabul to the Khost
(AP, 7/26/06)(AFP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 26, China's PM Wen
Jiabao called for urgent steps to prevent economic overheating, as
the government forecast more double-digit growth in the next
2006 Jul 26, Xinhua News said
heavy rain from Tropical Storm Kaemi caused a levee in southern
China to collapse, threatening to inundate an area that's home to
2006 Jul 26, An unhappy China
said that Canada's decision to bestow honorary citizenship on the
Dalai Lama could hurt commercial relations between the two
2006 Jul 26, Jessica Gilbert
(19), a British chess prodigy, fell from an eighth-floor hotel room
window in the Czech Republic where she was competing in an
international chess tournament. Her death took place days before the
trial of her father, whom she had accused of rape, was to begin. In
December Ian Gilbert (48), a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland,
was acquitted of 5 counts of raping Jessica, while she was still a
child, and 6 sexual offenses against other people.
2006 Jul 26, Georgian
authorities reported sporadic fighting in a mountainous region where
police are trying to subdue a defiant militia leader, the latest
confrontation in a volatile former Soviet republic plagued by
2006 Jul 26, Germany, Israel
and the US signed an agreement opening to researchers an archive of
millions of Nazi files describing how the Holocaust was carried out.
2006 Jul 26, Israel suffered
its bloodiest day in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah,
with militants killing at least nine soldiers in a battle for the
strategic town of Bint Jbail.
2006 Jul 26, Israeli strikes
killed 23 people in the Gaza Strip, including 16 militants and a
mother and her two young daughters, in the deadliest day of fighting
since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last year.
2006 Jul 26, In Indian Kashmir
5 people were killed and 12 wounded, including nine in a tourist
area, in 4 different gun battles.
2006 Jul 26, Pro-government
militia fighters in western Ivory Coast began laying down arms, the
first step of a delayed nationwide disarmament program.
2006 Jul 26, Power was restored
to parts of Liberia's dilapidated capital Monrovia for the first
time in 15 years, another step in the country's emergence from more
than a decade of civil war.
2006 Jul 26, A UN report said
the death toll from floods and landslides in North Korea this month
has risen to at least 154 people, with 127 others missing.
2006 Jul 26, Somalia's
virtually powerless government said a cargo plane landed at the
capital's airport and was carrying weapons for Islamic militants who
have seized control of much of southern Somalia. A spokesman for the
country's official government, based 150 miles northwest of
Mogadishu, said the plane was carrying land mines, bombs and
long-range guns from Eritrea for a militia loyal to the Supreme
Islamic Courts Council.
2006 Jul 26, Sri Lanka's
military carried out air attacks against suspected Tamil Tiger
positions in northeast Sri Lanka after the rebels allegedly blocked
an irrigation canal.
2006 Jul 27, Pres. Bush signed
the Adam Walsh Act of 2006. It required convicted child molesters to
be listed on a national Internet database and face a felony charge
for failing to update their whereabouts.
p.A1)(www.fd.org/odstb_AdamWalsh.htm)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.9)
2006 Jul 27, Floyd Landis'
stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown
into question when he tested positive for high levels of
testosterone during the race. Landis denied cheating.
2006 Jul 27, An Arkansas judge
approved a $90 million settlement between Google Inc. and
advertisers who claimed improper billing for fraudulent clicks on
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D3)
2006 Jul 27, In California as
many as 126 people were reported dead over the last 12 days from a
heat wave. The heat also killed an estimated 16,000 livestock in the
Central Valley as well as some 1 million poultry. By the end of the
month the heat wave left 164 dead in California and moved east.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A1)(SFC,
2006 Jul 27, In Richmond,
California, police and federal agents arrested Jose Santos Bonilla
(33), a suspected leader of the local MS-13 street gang. The gang
was in a street war with Richmond Sureno Trece (RST).
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.B5)
2006 Jul 27, Sharman Networks
Ltd., the company behind Kazaa file-sharing software, said it will
redesign its software and pay over $115 million in penalties to
leading music and movie companies.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D3)
2006 Jul 27, Robert Charles
Browne, serving a life sentence in Colorado for murdering a teenage
girl, claimed responsibility for as many as 48 slayings across the
country dating back from 1970 until his arrest in 1995. The other
claims include 17 murders in Louisiana, nine in Colorado, seven in
Texas, five in Arkansas, three in Mississippi, two each in
California, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and one in Washington state.
2006 Jul 27, In California the
Trust for Public Land donated 6,845 acres of coastline property
north of Santa Cruz to the state for public use. The Coast Dairies
property was initially settled by the Moretti and Respini families
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 27, Matthew Amorello,
chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, resigned in the
wake of problems with Boston’s Big Dig tunnels.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 27, Intel introduced a
new line of microprocessors called Core 2 Duos. New features
included higher performance and lower power consumption.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 27, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, issued a worldwide call for Muslims to rise
up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and
Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."
2006 Jul 27, A fire raged
through a rain forest along Brazil's eastern coastline, burning up
to 25,000 acres of trees.
2006 Jul 27, Canadian police
said they had busted two cross-country drug smuggling schemes,
seizing 110 kilograms (243 pounds) of cocaine worth C$8.8 million
($7.8 million) and charging six people.
2006 Jul 27, China’s government
introduced new taxes on real estate to discourage speculation. State
media said flooding and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Kaemi
have killed at least 25 people in southern China, including six who
died when a torrent of water washed away a military barracks.
(AP, 7/27/06)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 27, In Kinshasa,
Congo, 3 policemen and a civilian were killed in clashes outside a
stadium where 40,000 supporters greeted Vice-President Jean-Pierre
Bemba, a rebel leader turned presidential candidate.
2006 Jul 27, The European Court
of Human Rights found Russia guilty of violating the "right to life"
of a young Chechen who disappeared after a Russian general ordered
him shot. Khadzimurat Yandiyev (25) was last seen in the hands of
Russian troops in February 2000.
2006 Jul 27, French health
officials said 64 people have died in a heat wave that has gripped
the country for nearly two weeks.
2006 Jul 27, Georgia’s Pres.
Saakashvili said his troops had established control over the Kodori
Gorge area after Emzar Kvitsiani, a former presidential envoy, said
he was reactivating a local militia.
(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 27, Greek authorities
said 5 schoolchildren have been charged with killing an 11-year-old
boy who disappeared five months ago. Alex Mechisvili dropped from
sight in the northern town of Veroia. His body has not been found.
2006 Jul 27, Former Haitian PM
Yvon Neptune was released from jail, more than two years after his
arrest on charges of orchestrating the killing of political
opponents at the start of a rebellion that engulfed the country.
2006 Jul 27, In India police
arrested two more men in connection with Bombay's deadly train
blasts, bringing to eight the number of people detained by
investigators since the explosions killed more than 200 people
earlier this month.
2006 Jul 27, In Iraq a rocket
and mortar barrage followed by a car bomb blasted an upscale, mostly
Shiite district of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding 153. 4 US
Marines died in action in western Anbar province. A Salvadoran
soldier was killed in Iraq, the 2nd soldier from El Salvador to be
killed in the conflict in 8 days. Armed men in Iraqi army uniforms
and driving Iraqi army vehicles stole $1.35 million in Iraqi
currency in West Baghdad. Gunmen killed 3 men working for a foreign
security company in Baghdad’s Mansour neighborhood. The bodies of at
least 19 men, shot in the head and bearing signs of torture, were
found in various parts of Baghdad.
(AP, 7/27/06)(AP, 7/28/06)(SFC, 7/28/06,
2006 Jul 27, Top Israeli
Cabinet ministers decided not to expand the country's Lebanon
offensive but ordered the call up of thousands of additional reserve
soldiers to boost the campaign. The decision came as Israeli jets
pounded across Lebanon, extending their air campaign.
2006 Jul 27, The Israeli air
force fired missiles at a target in eastern Gaza City, wounding 15
people, at least one of them critically. 5 Palestinians were killed
including a woman (75) and a child. A Palestinian was shot and
killed in Jerusalem after he attacked a police patrol. The severely
burned body of man, thought to be Israeli, was found in the West
(AP, 7/27/06)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 27, Japan said it will
allow US beef imports, suspended for the past six months, to restart
from all but one of 35 US beef processing plants authorized by the
US government as suppliers to Japan.
2006 Jul 27, Malawi's former
President Bakili Muluzi was arrested on corruption charges related
to millions of dollars in donor funds that allegedly ended up in his
personal account. He was released on bail after being questioned.
Muluzi faced 42 counts of theft, corruption and breach of trust.
2006 Jul 27, President-elect
Alan Garcia made good on a pledge to draw talent from across the
political spectrum in his 16-member Cabinet by appointing six women,
including Peru's first female justice and interior ministers.
2006 Jul 27, The head of
Russia's state arms-trading agency said that Russia has signed
contracts with Venezuela for 24 military planes and 53 helicopters.
2006 Jul 27, A Russian rocket
that was to put 18 satellites in orbit crashed shortly after
liftoff. The Dnepr rocket crashed about 15 miles south of the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket was carrying a Russian
satellite and 17 from other countries, including the United States
2006 Jul 27, At least 20
members of Somalia's parliament resigned, accusing the country's
virtually powerless government of failing to bring peace. The
parliament is supposed to have 275 member but 16 members have
defected to the Islamic militia and other seats remain unfilled
after members' deaths.
2006 Jul 27, Police found the
bodies of four Africans on a boat packed with 26 other would-be
immigrants that was intercepted off Spain's Canary Islands.
2006 Jul 27, Zambian opposition
leaders were scrambling after President Levy Mwanawasa called
elections for Sept. 28 and dissolved the parliament and Cabinet.
2006 Jul 28, Actor-director Mel
Gibson launched an anti-Semitic tirade as he was arrested on the
Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Calif., for driving drunk; Gibson
later apologized and was sentenced to probation and alcohol
2006 Jul 28, Clark McLeod, who
had been chairman and chief executive of McLeodUSA, agreed to turn
over $4.4 million in profits he was accused of receiving from the
so-called act of "spinning." The former executive was accused by NY
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of directing more than $77 million of
McLeodUSA's investment banking business to Salomon Smith Barney. In
exchange, the company "secretly" gave McLeod shares of 34 stocks
before its initial public offering, which resulted in a windfall of
$4.8 million on the first day of public trading of the stock.
2006 Jul 28, The Pfizer Board
of Directors named Jeffrey B. Kindler Pfizer's chief executive
officer. He succeeds Hank McKinnell, who will remain Pfizer's
chairman of the board until his retirement in February, 2007.
McKinnell vacated Pfizer’s CEO spot 19 months before he was
scheduled to step down, under pressure from investors angered about
his retirement package and a drop of as much as 40% in the company's
stock price during his five years in charge. The company later
disclosed in a filing with the SEC that the package totaled more
than $180 million. It includes an estimated $82.3 million in pension
benefits, $77.9 million in deferred compensation, and cash and stock
totaling more than $20.7 million.
2006 Jul 28, Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. said it is ending its loss-generating business in Germany just
two months after leaving South Korea in what analysts welcomed as a
move to focus resources on expanding in more profitable
international markets like China and Latin America. Wal-Mart sold
its 85 German stores to Metro, the local market leader.
(AP, 7/28/06)(Econ, 8/5/06, p.54)
2006 Jul 28, In Seattle, Wash.,
gunman Naveed Afzal Haq (30) killed Pam Waechter (58) of Seattle and
wounded five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Haq
said he was "angry at Israel." On June 4, 2008, a jury found him not
guilty on one count of attempted murder (for victim Carol Goldman);
on the remaining counts, the jury declared itself to be hung. The
judge declared a mistrial. In 2009 a jury found Haq guilty of 8
counts, including aggravated first-degree murder. The murder verdict
carried an automatic life sentence.
7/30/06)(http://tinyurl.com/6myx9k)(SFC, 12/15/09, p.A9)
2006 Jul 28, In New Orleans 4
men, 3 brothers and a friend, were killed in the Treme neighborhood
as they sat on the porch of an abandoned house. The dead included
16-year-old twins, their brother (21) and a friend (39). Another
shooting the next day put the year to date homicide number in New
Orleans at 77.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A15)
2006 Jul 28, Fourteen Taliban
fighters were killed in a "clearance operation" in southern Helmand
province's Garmser district. In the northeastern province of Kapisa,
police killed four Taliban militants including a "famous commander"
while also losing one of their own men. 2 policemen guarding an
archaeological site in northern Balkh province were killed and
another was wounded when unknown assailants attacked them overnight.
2006 Jul 28, A US airman
convicted of raping three teenage British girls was sentenced to 12
years in prison. Prosecutors said Staff Sgt. James Gardner took
advantage of vulnerable girls who lived in a children's home near
the US base at Menwith Hill in northern England.
2006 Jul 28, David Gemmell
(b.1948), British writer of fantasy novels, died. He wrote over 30
2006 Jul 28, In eastern China
an explosion at a chemical plant killed at least 22 people and
prompted the evacuation of 7,000 others. 28 people were missing.
2006 Jul 28, In Haiti hundreds
of people fled their homes in a hillside slum of Port-au-Prince to
escape fierce fighting between gangs that has killed at least 30
people in the past 2 months.
2006 Jul 28, A bomb planted
between a Sunni mosque and a youth center exploded during prayers,
killing four people and wounding another nine. gunmen in Tikrit
killed two civilians who were employed by US troops.
2006 Jul 28, Israeli warplanes
and artillery intensified strikes, hitting Hezbollah positions and
crushing houses and roads in towns in southern Lebanon, killing as
many as 12 people. Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket,
called the Khaibar-1, striking near the northern Israeli town of
Afula. Beirut said 600 people have been killed in Lebanon, with
confirmed fatalities at 445, since fighting broke out, most of them
Lebanese civilians. 33 Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting
and 19 civilians were killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket
attacks on Israel's northern towns.
(AP, 7/28/06)(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 28, Hezbollah
politicians, while expressing reservations, joined their critics in
the government in agreeing to a peace package that includes
strengthening an international force in south Lebanon and disarming
2006 Jul 28, The UN decided to
remove 50 unarmed observers (UNTSO and UNIFIL) from posts
along the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly
armed UN peacekeepers.
2006 Jul 28, Israeli troops
withdrew from northern Gaza after a bloody two-day sweep that killed
2006 Jul 28, The Laos
government and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said an
outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 2,000
chicken on a poultry farm. The Xaythani district farm found 155 dead
chickens on July 14, and about 2,000 dead birds the following day.
2006 Jul 28, In Nepal Communist
rebels and the government have extended a cease-fire for another
three months to allow talks aimed at ending a decade-long conflict
2006 Jul 28, Dutch retail giant
Ahold has announced that its 1.1 billion-dollar (941,000-euro)
settlement with US and Dutch investors over the company's accounting
scandal that broke in 2003 and sent share prices plummeting, is now
2006 Jul 28, In Quetta,
Pakistan, a bomb believed rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a
bank and wounded 21 people, one critically.
2006 Jul 28, Alan Garcia
returned to the presidency of Peru, pledging to battle poverty 16
years after ending his first term.
2006 Jul 28, Poland's
conservative President Lech Kaczynski vowed to campaign for a return
of the death penalty in the European Union.
2006 Jul 28, In Russia Pres.
Putin signed a law making slander of a public official a crime.
(WSJ, 7/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 28, Hundreds of people
rioted near the headquarters of Somalia's virtually powerless
government after a Cabinet minister was fatally shot outside a
2006 Jul 28, South Korea sent a
satellite into orbit primarily for making geographical surveys but
also possibly for tracking military movements in North Korea, which
raised regional security concerns by launching missiles on July 5.
2006 Jul 28, The Spanish
government approved a divisive bill allowing reparations for victims
of the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship of Gen.
2006 Jul 28, Sudanese
government forces and allied militias attacked bases of a new rebel
alliance in Darfur despite a ceasefire in the violent west.
2006 Jul 28, Taiwanese
prosecutors indicted a man for murder, alleging he helped his
brother stage a train derailment that ultimately led to the death of
his brother's wife, and said they will seek the death penalty. The
wife of Lee Suan-chuan, a train-ticket seller, was injured when the
train she was traveling on derailed and tumbled into a deep valley
on March 27 in southern Taiwan's Pingtung region.
2006 Jul 28, The five permanent
members of the UN Security Council reached a deal on a resolution
that would give Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium
enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
2006 Jul 28, Danilo Astori,
Uruguay’s Finance Minister, said Uruguay will make an early debt
payment of $900 million to the IMF due in 2007. The move will save
about $40 million in interest payments. This would cancel about half
its entire debt to the IMF.
(WSJ, 7/31/06, p.A6)
2006 Jul 29, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice flew back to the Middle East for diplomatic
discussions aimed at ending the violence there.
2006 Jul 29, Actor-director Mel
Gibson issued a lengthy statement apologizing for his
drunken-driving arrest and for what he called his "despicable"
statements toward the deputies who arrested him in Malibu, Calif.
2006 Jul 29, Nebraska
climatologist Mark Svoboda said more than 60% of the US has
abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to
Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana
2006 Jul 29, In Brazil about
$200,000 was found in a house in Natal, about 1,400 miles northeast
of Sao Paulo. Police were convinced the money was part of the $70
million stolen from the Central Bank in Fortaleza in Aug 2005. By
this time only $8 million was recovered.
2006 Jul 29, The Middle East
crisis dominated the first full day of PM Tony Blair's tour of
California, forcing his promotion of British business interests here
to take a back seat. Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
condemned Israeli action against Lebanon as "disproportionate" in
the first such comment by a senior British government minister. PM
Blair said an international agreement, leading to a cease-fire in
the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is possible sometime in the next few
(AFP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Daniel Lev (72), a
leading Indonesia scholar and longtime University of Washington
professor, died following a battle with lung cancer.
2006 Jul 29, US-led coalition
forces detained 4 suspected al-Qaida operatives in eastern
Afghanistan. In southern Afghanistan US-led coalition forces and
Afghan police killed 20 suspected Taliban who had attempted an
ambush in Uruzgan province. In Kandahar province 3 militants blew
themselves up as they laid an explosive on a road.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Bangladesh more
than 20,000 activists marched in Dhaka, defying driving rains, in
the fifth day of protests to press for electoral reforms ahead of
2006 Jul 29, Workers at
Wal-Mart stores in China formed their 1st trade union.
(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A3)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.43)
2006 Jul 29, Iran state radio
said the government would reject a proposed UN resolution to suspend
uranium enrichment by Aug. 31 or face the threat of international
sanctions. State media also reported that President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use
modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into
the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic
2006 Jul 29, In Tehran the
presidents of Iran and Venezuela pledged to support one another in
disputes with Washington, with the Iranian calling Hugo Chavez "a
brother and trench mate."
2006 Jul 29, A car packed with
explosives blew up in a residential district of Kirkuk, killing four
people and injuring 13. A Sunni cleric from a tribe opposed to
al-Qaida in Iraq was killed while driving in Samarra. 4 unidentified
bodies riddled with bullets were found, two behind a school in
western Baghdad and two by the Tigris river. Gunmen fired on a taxi
in Baghdad carrying a father and son, killing the boy. The US
command announced that it was sending 3,700 troops to Baghdad to try
to quell the sectarian violence sweeping the capital, and a US
official said more American soldiers would follow as the military
gears up to take the streets from gunmen. The tours of 4,000 US
soldiers in Iraq were extended for up to 4 months. 4 US Marines were
killed in combat in Anbar province.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)(SSFC, 7/30/06,
p.A3)(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 29, Israel said it had
pulled forces out of Hezbollah's stronghold in south Lebanon after
completing its current operation there. Israeli planes targeted
bridges in southern and eastern Lebanon in new airstrikes,
destroying one in a resort area on the Syrian border. Israel
rejected a request by the UN for a three-day cease-fire in Lebanon
to deliver humanitarian supplies and allow civilians to leave the
2006 Jul 29, Israeli tanks
pushed back into the Gaza Strip before dawn, a day after ending a
bloody, 3-day sweep that killed 30 Palestinians. Israeli troops
killed 2 militants including Hani Awijan (29), a leader of the
radical Islamic Jihad’s militant wing in Nablus, in a West Bank
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, A strike
protesting against a visit by India's president to Indian Kashmir
shut much of the region for a second day, while four soldiers were
reportedly hurt in a rebel attack.
2006 Jul 29, In Puerto Rico
drug kingpin Jose Lopez Rosario (b.1976), who allegedly controlled
the drug trade in the US island's northeastern region, died from
gunshot wounds received on July 23. His death and his alleged
connections to political figures were controversial in Puerto Rico,
as local newspapers such as El Nuevo Dia and El Vocero covered the
story for days after he died.
2006 Jul 29, Somalia's PM
Mohammed Ali Gedi accused Egypt, Libya and Iran of providing weapons
for Islamic militants who have seized control of much of this
2006 Jul 29, Sri Lanka's air
force bombed Tamil Tiger rebel positions for a fourth day, killing
at least 8 rebels and wounding 14.
2006 Jul 29, Marathon talks to
end Ukraine's political paralysis broke off without an agreement
between President Viktor Yushchenko and the pro-Russian
parliamentary majority that has nominated his former Orange
Revolution rival as prime minister.
2006 Jul 29, An oil spill
occurred in Russia’s western Bryansk region on the border with
Ukraine and Belarus. It affected a 4-square-mile area and
contaminated water sources. 2 days later Russia’s Natural
Resources Ministry said that the oil pipeline leak threatened
environmental damage, but the pipeline’s operator said the spill
only affected a 4,000-square-foot area and that the consequences had
been dealt with over the weekend.
2006 Jul 30, Afghan and
coalition forces killed 23 Taliban militants in clashes in Helmand
province's Garmser district.
2006 Jul 30, In Bahrain 16
Indian workers died when a fire broke out in the building where they
lived in the capital Manama. The six-storey building housed some 300
workers, mostly Indians, working for a contracting company.
2006 Jul 30, It was reported
that China had lowered the estimated number of HIV/AIDS infected
people from 840,000 to 650,000.
(SSFC, 7/30/06, p.A17)
2006 Jul 30, Congolese voted in
their first democratic election in more than four decades. Incumbent
President Joseph Kabila later won a runoff.
(AP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 30, Afghan soldiers
and police killed six Taliban fighters and captured eight during a
clash in southeastern Paktika province's Waza Khwa district. A
suspected Taliban died when a land mine he was planting north of
Kandahar city exploded.
2006 Jul 30, In India at least
8 people died during heavy monsoon rains at the weekend and more
than 25,000 were evacuated in the western state of Gujarat.
2006 Jul 30, In Iraq gunmen
killed at least 23 pilgrims on their way to Najaf. A car bomb in
Kirkuk killed 6 people and wounded 17.
(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 30, Israeli missiles
hit several buildings in Qana, a southern Lebanon village, as people
slept, killing 29, mostly children, in the deadliest attack in 19
days of fighting. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert expressed "great sorrow"
for the airstrikes but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for using the
area to launch rockets at Israel. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
called an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Israel
suspended air attacks on south Lebanon for 48 hours in the face of
widespread outrage over the airstrike.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 30, In Indian Kashmir
6 people were killed in shootings and 10 wounded in a grenade attack
on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims.
2006 Jul 30, Residents on the
tiny island nation of Sao Tome and Principe off West Africa voted
for a new president.
2006 Jul 30, The first
commercial flight in a decade departed Mogadishu’s newly reopened
international airport, demonstrating how Islamic militants have
pacified the once-anarchic capital and much of southern Somalia.
2006 Jul 30, The Seychelles
held presidential elections. External debt was reported to be $590
million for the population of 82,000 people.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.40)
2006 Jul 30, Sunbathers on a
beach in Spain's Canary Islands came to the aid of 88 African
migrants whose boat ran aground, giving them food, water and
blankets after their dangerous trip in search of a new life.
2006 Jul 30, Duygu Asena (60),
a best-selling writer and crusader for women's rights in Turkey,
died after a two-year battle with a brain tumor. In 1978 she founded
the first women's magazine in Turkey. Asena was the first Turkish
writer to explore such topics as women's rights, sexuality and
wife-beating. Her 1987 book “Woman Has No Name" broke sales records
when it was printed, but was soon banned by the government which
found it to be too lewd and obscene. The ban was lifted after a
two-year court battle. A film adaptation of the book broke box
office records in Turkey.
2006 Jul 30, In eastern Uganda
a minibus that was speeding collided with a fuel truck killing 30
2006 Jul 31, In California PM
Blair and Gov. Schwarzenegger committed to a number of actions to
fight global warming including a look for market-based ways to stem
emissions of the gases believed to cause global warming.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Jul 31, In Los Angeles 2
women, Olga Rutterschmidt (73) and Helen Golay (75), were charged
with killing homeless men in hit-and-run car crashes in order to
collect over $2 million in life insurance. In 2008 both women were
convicted of murder and conspiracy. They were sentenced to spend the
rest of their lives in prison.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)(SFC, 4/18/08, p.B6)(SFC,
2006 Jul 31, SanDisk Corp. of
Milpitas, Ca., agreed to buy M-Systems Flash Disk Pioneers Ltd. of
Israel for $1.56 billion in stock.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.D1)
2006 Jul 31, Scientists
reported the development of a vaccine to control obesity in rats.
The vaccine produced antibodies against ghrelin, a hormone that
stimulates hunger and fat storage.
(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A2)
2006 Jul 31, NATO took command
of southern Afghanistan from the United States, and the new
commander of the push to pacify the insurgency-wracked region vowed
that he would not fail millions of Afghans seeking peace and
stability. A bomb exploded outside a mosque in eastern Afghanistan
during a memorial service for a mujahedeen commander, killing at
least eight people and wounding 16.
2006 Jul 31, Australian PM John
Howard said he would seek a fifth straight term, ending his
ambitious deputy's leadership hopes and cementing his place as one
of the world's most successful conservative leaders.
2006 Jul 31, A lesbian couple
lost a legal battle to have their Canadian marriage legally
recognized in Britain.
2006 Jul 31, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency said two separate anthrax outbreaks in the
Canadian Prairies have killed about 500 animals on an estimated 100
2006 Jul 31, In Colombia
suspected rebels ambushed an army patrol, exploded a car bomb in
Bogota and another bomb in the southwest, killing at least 18 people
in a wave of attacks a week before the presidential inauguration.
2006 Jul 31, Dozens of polling
stations reopened in Congo’s second-largest city, offering citizens
stymied by violence during their nation’s historic elections another
chance to vote.
2006 Jul 31, Cuban President
Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to his brother, Raul, after
gastrointestinal surgery. In 2011 Fidel Castro said he resigned five
years ago from all his official positions, including head of Cuba's
(AP, 7/31/07)(AP, 3/22/11)
2006 Jul 31, France's
agriculture minister condemned the destruction of two fields of
genetically modified corn by activists in southwestern France.
2006 Jul 31, Akbar Mohammadi
(34) died in Tehran’s Evin Prison after a nine-day hunger strike to
protest a lack of medical care. Mohammadi had been arrested for
taking part in protests at Tehran University in July 1999, Iran's
biggest anti-government demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic
revolution. The EU later expressed grave concern regarding the harsh
treatment of dissidents, opposition leaders, student activists and
all human rights defenders in Iranian prisons.
2006 Jul 31, In Iraq gunmen
wearing military fatigues kidnapped 26 employees and customers from
a mobile phone store in the main shopping area of Baghdad. Sectarian
killings claimed 30 lives.
(AP, 8/1/06)(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, hours after agreeing to
temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed
nearly 60 Lebanese civilians. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese
soldier when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior
2006 Jul 31, In Indian Kashmir
four rebels and a policeman were killed in three separate gunbattles
in southern Poonch and Pulwama districts.
2006 Jul 31, Every Kuwaiti
citizen will get a $694 gift from the government after parliament
unanimously backed the one-time payout. 2 million foreign workers,
who make up the rest of Kuwait's population of 3 million, do not get
2006 Jul 31, Malawi's top
prosecutor said theft and corruption charges against the former
president Bakili Muluzi have been dropped after Pres. Bingu wa
Mutharika suspended the chief investigator in the case.
2006 Jul 31, In Mexico
supporters of the country’s leftist presidential candidate paralyzed
the Mexico City’s financial district and said they won’t leave until
the top electoral court rules on their demands for a recount in the
2006 Jul 31, Mexican police
found the body of a woman on a dirt road in the border city of
Ciudad Juarez. Abigail Rodriguez (29), who apparently had been
killed by a blow to the head and thrown out of a moving car, was the
14th woman found dead in Juarez so far this year.
2006 Jul 31, Peru’s President
Alan Garcia cut government salaries, including his own, three days
after announcing a long list of austerity measures in his inaugural
2006 Jul 31, Russian officials
said more than 220 pieces, including jewelry and enameled objects
worth about $5 million, stolen from the State Hermitage Museum in
St. Petersburg, were not insured. The theft was discovered after a
routine inventory check that began in October 2005 and was completed
at the end of July.
(AP, 8/1/06)(SFC, 8/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 31, Serbia’s PM
Vojislav Kostunica said in published remarks that Serbia will reject
independence as a solution for Kosovo and continue to consider the
province part of its territory.
2006 Jul 31, In South Korea
Jeong Kyung-hak (48) was arrested on charges of being a spy for
North Korea and having illegally arrived on Jul 27 with forged
Philippines identity documents.
2006 Jul 31, In northeastern
Sri Lanka heavy fighting over control of a water supply killed 35
Tamil rebels and seven soldiers. A rebel leader declared the island
nation's four-year-old cease-fire over.
2006 Jul 31, Turkey named Gen.
Yasar Buyukanit as the new military chief. He favored a tougher line
against Kurdish rebels and negotiations on joining the EU.
2006 Jul 31, The UN passed
Resolution 1696, which demanded that Iran suspend uranium enrichment
by the end of August.
2006 Jul 31, The UN scrapped a
meeting of nations that might contribute troops to help stabilize
south Lebanon, a decision that reflected the deep divisions among
key nations on how to end the three-week war between Israel and
2006 Jul 31, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez praised Vietnam for its battle against
"imperialism" and pledged to help the communist country develop its
nascent oil and gas industry during a two-day state visit.
2006 Jul 31, Zimbabwe devalued
its currency by 60% and slashed loan rates 550 points to 300%. 3
zeroes were off denominations amid 1200% inflation.
(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul, Interpol, at the
request of the Bush administration, assembled central bankers,
police agencies and banknote industry officials to make the US case
against counterfeiting by North Korea. In 2008 a 10-month
investigation by the McClatchy newspapers found that evidence
supporting charges was uncertain at best.
(SFC, 1/10/08, p.A13)
2006 Jul, US Scientists
reported that the number of fires in the western United States had
increased fourfold since 1986 and attributed the increase to climate
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.37)
2006 Jul, Eclipse Aviation of
Albuquerque, NM, hoped to get approval from the FAA for its new very
light jet (VLJ), which sets 5 passengers and a pilot.
(Econ, 7/1/06, p.61)
2006 Jul, A study led by Roland
Griffiths of Johns Hopkins Univ. showed that psilocybin, the active
ingredient in “magic mushroom," induces mental states akin to the
highest religious experiences, and that it has lasting effects on
those who take it.
2006 Jul, Canada’s Montreal
Exchange announced plans to start trading credits for carbon-dioxide
emissions, a scheme modeled on the Amsterdam-based European Climate
Exchange set up in 2005.
(Econ, 7/22/06, p.39)
2006 Jul, In Shanghai, China, a
financial scandal was uncovered that involved the misappropriation
of one-third of the city’s $1.2 billion social-security fund. An
official said that $2 billion had been embezzled from the fund since
1998. Chinese investigators began looking into corruption and
malfeasance associated with Shanghai’s $1.2 billion pension fund. On
Sep 24 the probe brought down the city’s top official, Communist
party Secretary Chen Liangyu, a British educated architect. In 2007
the government made a propaganda film titled “The Harm of Greed"
featuring confessions from 11 people involved in the scandal.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.42)(WSJ, 11/14/06, p.C14)(WSJ,
2/6/07, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/30/08, p.A9)
2006 Jul, The Dominican
Republic government imposed a new law to combat crime, all bars,
liquor stores and nightclubs must close at midnight on weekdays and
at 2 am on weekends.
2006 Jul, Some 162,000 Iraqis
had registered as refugees with 30,000 in this month alone. About
3,500 violent deaths were reported across Iraq including 1,500 in
the Baghdad area for just this month. Figures showed a steady
increase in killings since the beginning of the year.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.45)(AP, 8/9/06)(WSJ, 8/17/06,
2006 Jul, In Japan fans of
pachinko slot machines queued up to play the latest Hokuto-no-ken
(North-star Fist) game. It was estimated that Japanese spent $260
billion playing pachinko and pachislot slot machines. Parlors gave
non-cash prizes, but shops nearby allowed winners to trade their
prizes for cash.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.60)
2006 Jul, Mauritania netted
$700 million from the EU for fishing rights over 6 years. The amount
of fish in West African waters has declined by 50% over the past 3
(WSJ, 1/18/07, p.A13)
2006 Jul, In Myanmar the
daughter of junta supremo Than Shwe (73) was married. In November a
leaked video of the lavish wedding sparked outrage among ordinary
people in the military-ruled and deeply impoverished nation.
2006 Jul, Oman and the UAE
completed the delineation of their 1,000-km (625-mile) shared
borders, in line with a June 2002 accord.
2006 Jul, In Pakistan some 7%
of Sindh province landowners hold over 40% of the Sindh’s land.
(Econ, 7/8/06, Survey p.12)
2006 Jul, Willie Hofmeyr, head
of South Africa’s Special Investigating Unit, said 400,000 civil
servants had been identified getting welfare payments to which they
were not entitled.
(http://tinyurl.com/yflgrxl)(Econ, 2/6/10, p.52)
2006 Jul, In Spain employees of
the airline Iberia blocked Barcelona runways over a new baggage
check arrangement. In 2011 Spain’s Supreme Court confirmed 2-year
prison sentences for 23 employees whose actions affected some 600
flights leaving 100,000 passengers stranded.
(SFC, 1/29/11, p.A2)
2006 Jul, Spain’s inflation
stood close to 4%, almost 1.5 points above the average for the euro
area. Spain’s current account deficit was among the highest in the
world heading for over 9% of GDP. Housing was estimated to be
overvalued by as much as 25-30%.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.49)
2006 Jul, In Sudan 8 Sudanese
aid workers were killed this month in attacks across Darfur.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul, Istanbul’s seventh
high court reopened prosecution against Elif Shafak (b.1971),
Turkish writer, for “denigrating Turkishness" in her latest novel
“The Bastard of Istanbul." Her trial was set for Sep 21, 4 days she
was due to give birth.
2006 Aug 1, Former President
Clinton and mayors of some of the world's largest cities announced
an initiative to combat climate change and increase energy
efficiency in everything from street lights to building materials.
2006 Aug 1, A US report said
graft in Iraq reconstruction is running at $4 billion a year and
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 1, US sanctions on
Myanmar were extended for up to three years under a law signed by
President Bush, an attempt to increase pressure on the government to
follow through with democratic reforms.
2006 Aug 1, Mel Gibson issued a
statement in which he denied being a bigot; he also apologized to
"everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful
words" he'd used when he was arrested in southern California for
investigation of drunken driving.
2006 Aug 1, Kansas voters in
the state’s primary ousted the conservative majority on the Board of
Education that favored “intelligent design" over Darwin’s theory of
(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 1, Philip H. Knight,
founder of Nike Inc., pledged $105 million to the Stanford Graduate
School of Business. Most of it will be used for a new $275 million
facility to be called the Knight Management Center.
(SFC, 8/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Aug 1, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban militants killed three British soldiers. 18
Taliban militants and one policeman were killed as Afghan forces and
coalition aircraft raided an insurgent hide-out near Garmser.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/2/06)
2006 Aug 1, Cabinda, a 7,000
sq-km province of Angola located on the western coast just north of
the CongoDRC, signed the “Memorandum of Understanding for Peace in
Cabinda" with the government of Angola, granting it “a special
statute" and greater autonomy. In 2007 the province pumped over half
of Angola’s 1.7 million barrels per day oil production.
(Econ, 1/5/08, Angola p.8)
2006 Aug 1, Britain launched
the country's first public terror alert system and said it faces a
severe risk of another terrorist attack.
2006 Aug 1, Chinese official
media reported that Mouding county in Yunnan killed as many as
50,000 dogs in a 5-day government campaign ordered after three
people died from rabies. China’s government said police have seized
about 6,000 illegal firearms and tons of explosives in a two-month
crackdown across three provinces.
2006 Aug 1, A Congolese
opposition party and former rebel group denounced widespread fraud
in the country's historic elections in a protest that heralded a
divisive political dispute over the polls.
2006 Aug 1, Fidel Castro
remained out of sight after undergoing intestinal surgery and
temporarily turning over power to his brother Raul. He released a
statement in which he sought to reassure Cubans that his health was
stable after intestinal surgery.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/1/07)
2006 Aug 1, In northern India a
school bus carrying about 50 children plunged into a canal, killing
at least six children.
2006 Aug 1, Iran's President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the UN Security Council resolution
giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment. Ahmadinejad
added that Tehran will pursue its nuclear program.
2006 Aug 1, Bombings and
shootings across Iraq killed over 70 people, including 24 people in
a bus destroyed by a roadside bomb in Beiji. In the Karradah
neighborhood of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded during morning rush
hour near a bank, killing at least 14 people and injuring 37. A US
report said graft in Iraq reconstruction is running at $4 billion a
year and growing.
(AP, 8/1/06)(AP, 8/2/06)(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 1, Israel's air force
fired missiles into northern Gaza, killing a 14-year-old boy and
wounding four others near Beit Hanoun.
2006 Aug 1, In Indian Kashmir 4
security personnel were killed in a shooting at a popular tourist
2006 Aug 1, Heavy fighting
raged in the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, and Hezbollah
television said 35 Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded in
the fighting. Israeli warplanes pounded Shiite Lebanese villages in
many areas along the border and struck Hezbollah strongholds deep
inside the country.
2006 Aug 1, The Papua New
Guinea government declared a state of emergency in the resource-rich
Southern Highlands province. PM Somare said security forces had been
sent to the graft-ridden province and government controllers
appointed to try to restore good governance.
2006 Aug 1, A Moscow judge
declared the Yukos oil company bankrupt, paving the way for the
liquidation of what was once Russia's biggest oil producer.
2006 Aug 1, Dutch Cardinal
Johannes Willebrands (96), a key figure in the Roman Catholic
Church's efforts to improve relations with other Christians and
2006 Aug 1, Officials said
incumbent Seychelles President James Michel of the People's
Progressive Front won nearly 54% of the vote over the weekend, while
opposition leader Wavel Ramkalawan got 46%.
2006 Aug 1, A pro-rebel Web
site reported said Tamil Tiger rebels destroyed a Sri Lanka navy
boat in a battle near an eastern port killing 8 sailors. Navy
spokesman Commander D.K.P Dassanayake denied the report and said
sailors destroyed three rebel attack boats.
2006 Aug 1, Assailants carried
out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks in Thailand's three
Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces. At least three people were
2006 Aug 2, A Pentagon official
said evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha
supports accusations that US Marines deliberately shot the
civilians, including unarmed women and children on Nov 19, 2005.
2006 Aug 2, Five days after
being pulled over by police, actor-director Mel Gibson was charged
with misdemeanor drunken driving, having an elevated blood-alcohol
level and having an open container of liquor in his car. Gibson
later pleaded no contest to drunken driving under a deal in which he
received three years' probation, paid a fine and agreed to attend
alcohol rehabilitation classes.
2006 Aug 2, Florida and CSX
Transportation struck a deal on a nearly $1 billion commuter rail
system in central Florida to relieve gridlock in and around Orlando.
2006 Aug 2, AOL shifted to an
advertising strategy as customers cancelled their dial-up service
and jumped to high-speed Internet connections.
(SFC, 8/3/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 2, Australia's central
bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points to a six-year high of
6.0% in an effort to head off inflationary pressures in a booming
2006 Aug 2, The Australian
government said it had started reducing troop numbers in East Timor
as security in the tiny nation was steadily improving.
2006 Aug 2, In southern
Colombia a land mine planted by leftist rebels killed six coca
eradicators and injured seven others.
2006 Aug 2, A Paris commercial
court granted Eurotunnel protection from creditors, enabling the
operator of the Channel Tunnel to freeze payments on its debt
mountain of 9.0 billion euros (11.5 billion dollars).
2006 Aug 2, India banned
children under the age of 14 from working as domestic servants or at
hotels, tea shops, restaurants and resorts. The labor ministry said
the ban would come into effect from October 10.
2006 Aug 2, President Jalal
Talabani said that Iraqi forces will assume security duties for the
whole country by the end of the year, taking over responsibility
from US and other foreign troops now policing all but one of the 18
provinces. Sectarian and political violence claimed at least 53
lives, including 11 young soccer players and spectators who died
when two bombs exploded in a field in a Shiite neighborhood of
Baghdad. 2 US Marines died in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/2/06)(AP, 8/3/06)(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Aug 2, Israel pressed the
first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 8,000 troops
into southern Lebanon and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah
fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town.
Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel,
firing a record number of more than 230 rockets. An Israeli-American
was killed as he fled for home by bicycle, and a stray rocket hit
the West Bank for the first time. People in the Lebanese village of
Al Jamaliyeh, outside the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, used a
front-end loader to carry away some of the dead after a night of
Israeli airstrikes and a commando raid inside Baalbek that residents
said killed at least 15 civilians.
(AP, 8/2/06)(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 2, In Oaxaca, Mexico,
about 500 women banging spoons against pots and pans seized a
state-run television station and broadcast a homemade video that
showed police kicking protesters out of Oaxaca's main square last
month. In southern Monte Orden village heavy rains caused a
mountainside to give way, burying 2 homes and killing 11 people, 4
of them children.
2006 Aug 2, Production at
Cantarell, Mexico’s biggest oil field, was reported to be declining.
The site accounted for about 60% of Mexico’s oil. A third of
Mexico’s federal budget depended on oil sales.
(WSJ, 8/2/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 2, Somali leaders
struggled to regroup after a week in which 29 ministers quit the
government, with the defectors urging the virtually powerless
administration to reconcile with Islamic militants who have seized
2006 Aug 2, South Africans
faced one of their harshest winters in years, with at least four
deaths blamed on flooding from heavy rain that has caused travel
delays in the south and west of the country.
2006 Aug 2, Tamil rebels said
they had overrun four Sri Lankan army camps around the northeastern
port of Trincomalee. The Defense Ministry acknowledged that five
soldiers were killed in the attacks and claimed its forces killed 40
insurgents and wounded 70 others.
2006 Aug 2, In southern
Thailand a bomb planted along a railroad exploded and killed three
2006 Aug 3, US authorities
confirmed at least 25 deaths in 9 states from the heat wave that set
in on July 30.
(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 3, In Phoenix, Ariz.,
Dale S. Hausner (33) and Samuel John Dieteman (30), accused of
shooting two dozen people, including six fatally, were arrested
after police tailed them for a week. In 2009 Hausner was convicted
of 6 murders. In 2009 Dieteman was sentenced to life in prison for
random shootings in the Phoenix area in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 3/28/09, p.A2)(SFC, 7/30/09,
2006 Aug 3, Arthur Lee (61),
rock pioneer, died in Memphis. He fronted the band Love and
established himself as the 1st black rock star in the post Beatle’s
era. The group’s debut album, “Love," was the 1st rock record
released by Electra Records.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.B6)
2006 Aug 3, Afghanistan's
government ordered around 1,500 South Korean Christians who came to
the Islamic republic for a "peace festival" to leave the country.
The US-led coalition killed 25 Taliban fighters in a joint operation
with Afghan forces in the country's south. A gunbattle near the
capital killed one militant. A suspected Taliban suicide car bomber
killed 21 civilians and wounded 13 at a bazaar in Panjwayi. On the
outskirts of Kandahar city militant attacks killed 4 Canadian
soldiers and wounded another 10.
(AFP, 8/3/06)(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 3, Elisabeth
Schwarzkopf (90), German-born opera soprano, died in Schrums,
(SFC, 8/4/06, p.B9)(Econ, 8/12/06, p.72)
2006 Aug 3, In Brazil officials
said authorities are evicting thousands of peasants who have been
ordered off ranches in northern Brazil by a court ruling obtained by
the land owners.
2006 Aug 3, More than 230,000
customers in Ontario and Quebec were without power following a
series of violent thunderstorms over the past couple of days.
2006 Aug 3, Typhoon Prapiroon
slammed into southern China, packing heavy rain and 75 mph winds as
authorities evacuated tens of thousands of people from their homes.
2006 Aug 3, State press
reported that China is building a 27-billion-dollar train line from
Beijing to the southern economic hub of Shenzhen and foreign
investors will be invited to join the project. The new
2,300-kilometer (1,420-mile) railway will cut travel time between
Beijing and Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, from 24 hours to 10.
2006 Aug 3, In eastern Congo a
small passenger plane crashed into a mountain and then tumbled into
a valley, killing all 17 passengers and crew.
2006 Aug 3, A pair of European
central banks raised interest rates, increasing expectations on Wall
Street that the Federal Reserve would follow suit next week. The
European Central Bank hiked rates .25% to 3%, with a similar hike by
the Bank of England to 4.75%.
2006 Aug 3, A French law that
allows regulators to force Apple Computer Inc. to make its iPod
player and iTunes online store compatible with rival offerings went
2006 Aug 3, French health
officials said the sweltering temperatures that gripped Europe last
month killed 112 people.
2006 Aug 3, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, making his first trip to Haiti, called
for strengthening the national police force to stem an upsurge in
kidnapping and lawlessness.
2006 Aug 3, In India federal
MPs demanded a nationwide ban on Pepsi and Coke after the
privately-funded Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said 11
drinks sold by the two US companies contained unacceptable doses of
2006 Aug 3, Siti Fadilah
Supari, Indonesia’s health minister, declared that genomic data on
bird flu viruses could be accessed by anyone.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.65)
2006 Aug 3, In Iraq an
improvised explosive device in a pile of garbage exploded in the
center of Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and injuring 32.
Gunmen shot to death four people in separate incidents in Baghdad,
Amarah, Mosul and Basra. The bodies of 9 men were found floating in
separate places in the Tigris River. At least two of the bodies were
blindfolded, bound and shot. Coalition forces killed at least three
"terrorists" during an air strike and multiple raids southeast of
Baghdad. A suicide bomber drove into a soccer field in the town of
Hatra near Mosul, setting off a blast that killed 7 spectators and 3
policemen. Gunmen shot and killed 4 people and wounded 8 from a
Shiite family in Dujail. 2 US Marine were killed in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A9)
2006 Aug 3, A massive wave of
guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes,
killing 8 people. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader,
offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. Israel
lost four soldiers in fighting. Israeli military said four Hezbollah
fighters were killed and two wounded. Lebanese security officials
said a missile crashed into a two-story house in the border village
of Taibeh, killing a couple and their daughter. Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora said Lebanon's death toll in more than three weeks of
Israel-Hezbollah fighting has reached more than 900. France
circulated a revised UN resolution calling for an immediate halt to
Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and spelling out conditions for a
permanent cease-fire in Lebanon.
2006 Aug 3, Israeli troops
raided southern Gaza, killing at least eight Palestinians, including
four militants and an 8-year-old boy.
2006 Aug 3, Japanese Foreign
Minister Taro Aso arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit, bringing
with him a loan of 3.3 billion yen ($29 million) to jump-start
Iraq's economic development.
2006 Aug 3, In Malaysia the
Islamic world's largest organization of countries demanded on that
the UN implement an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and investigate
what it called flagrant human rights violations by Israel.
2006 Aug 3, In Mexico Mrs.
Alberta Alcantara Juan and Mrs. Teresa Gonzalez Cornelio were
arrested (along with Jacinta Francisco Marcial) for events that
supposedly occurred on March 26, 2006 when Federal Investigation
Agents attempted to confiscate local merchants’ goods and damaged
some of them. In 2010 Mexico's Supreme Court overturned kidnapping
convictions and ordered the release of the two Otomi Indian market
vendors whose case received international attention. Marcial was
freed last year.
2006 Aug 3, Pakistani Interior
Minister Aftab Sherpao and US envoy Ryan Crocker signed a memorandum
of understanding for $2.7 million in security and communications
gear and to help build more posts on the Afghan frontier.
2006 Aug 3, Fresh fighting
broke out between Philippine forces and Al-Qaeda-linked militants
after four people were killed in a major operation to capture two
suspected Bali bombers.
2006 Aug 3, In Sri Lanka
artillery fire hit 4 schools being used as shelters from fighting
raging between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, killing at
least 17 people in the northeastern town of Muttur.
(AP, 8/3/06)(SFC, 8/4/06, p.A10)
2006 Aug 3, Ukrainian Pres.
Viktor Yushchenko nominated former foe Viktor Yanukovych for prime
minister after Yanukovych signed a memorandum on national unity.
(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 4, The US placed
sanctions on 7 firms from North Korea, Russia, India and Cuba for
arms dealings with Iran.
(WSJ, 8/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 4, In Philadelphia
Danieal Kelly (14), a disabled girl, was found dead in her mother's
squalid house covered with bone-deep, maggot-infested bedsores. She
weighed 42 pounds. In 2008 4 social workers were among 9 people
charged in relation to her death. In 2008 Andrea Kelly, the mother,
was charged with murder and Daniel, the father, was charged with
child endangerment. Both parents retained lawyers who filed suits
against their criminal co-defendants, blaming them for the girl's
demise. In 2009 mother Andrea Kelly pleaded guilty and was sentenced
to 20-40 years in prison. In 2010 case worker Julius Murray was
sentenced to 11 years in prison on fraud and obstruction in the
case. He had skipped visits and still faced involuntary manslaughter
p.A4)(SFC, 6/12/10, p.A9)
2006 Aug 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 police officers were killed and eight others wounded
in a roadside bomb aimed at a district governor. UNICEF said schools
are increasingly being attacked across Afghanistan and an estimated
100,000 children in the south are shut out of the classroom due to
(AFP, 8/5/06)(Reuters, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Argentina Julio
Simon, a former police officer, was sentenced to 25 years in prison
for human rights abuses in connection with the 1978 disappearance of
Chilean Jose Poblete and his Argentine wife, Gertrudis Hlaczik,
during the military dictatorship.
2006 Aug 4, Bangladesh
announced a fresh round of polio vaccination drives amid growing
signs that the lethal disease has staged a comeback in the
impoverished South Asian country.
2006 Aug 4, In Colombia leftist
rebels were blamed for two attacks, a car bomb that killed four
officers outside a Cali police station and an attack that killed two
soldiers in a western province.
2006 Aug 4, In India floods
caused by heavy monsoon rains swept away people and destroyed homes
in the southern coastal area of Andhra Pradesh, killing at least 31
people over the last 2 days.
2006 Aug 4, Hundreds of
thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to
America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite
district in a massive show of support for Hezbollah in its battle
against Israel. At least 35 people were killed elsewhere in Iraq,
many of them in a car bombing and gunbattle in the northern city of
Mosul. Some 3,700 soldiers of the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade moved
into Baghdad from the northern city of Mosul. In Mosul 20 militants
were believed to have been killed during prolonged street gunfights
with security forces in the city's eastern neighborhoods. Gunmen
killed a bodyguard of a senior Justice Ministry official in western
Baghdad, and a police commando was killed by a roadside bomb in the
central city of Samarra.
(AP, 8/4/06)(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 4, Israel expanded its
assault on Lebanon, launching its first major attack on the
Christian heartland north of Beirut and severing the last
significant road link to Syria. Hezbollah renewed attacks on
northern Israel, killing two civilians in a barrage of 120 rockets.
An Israeli airstrike hit dozens of farm workers loading vegetables
near the Lebanon-Syria border, killing as many as 33. Five
Lebanese civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the Israeli
airstrikes north of Beirut in Christian areas where Hezbollah has
little support. Hezbollah's leader offered to stop attacking if
Israel ends its airstrikes. Israeli airstrikes flattened two
southern Lebanese houses and more than 50 people were buried in the
rubble, security officials and the state news agency said. Israel
denied attacking the villages.
(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/5/06, p.A11)
2006 Aug 4, Israel began
pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion.
Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches in the southern
Gaza Strip and killed three Palestinians with tanks and air strikes.
2006 Aug 4, In Mexico's
southernmost Chiapas state a 7-year-old boy and his father died,
bringing to 10 the number of people killed after eating poisonous
mushrooms. Officials said recent genetic mutations have made some
mushrooms, consumed for years in Indian communities, newly
2006 Aug 4, In southern Nigeria
3 Filipinos working for a US construction firm were kidnapped, a day
after a German was abducted in the same region.
2006 Aug 4, In northern
Pakistan monsoon rains triggered fresh landslides and floods, as
officials and reports said 37 people had died over the last 4 days
in weather-related incidents.
2006 Aug 4, Sri Lankan troops
thwarted a Tamil Tiger rebel attack in northeastern Muttur, killing
35 insurgents. The Red Cross said 6,000 to 7,000 families were still
trying to flee Muttur.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 4, In Turkey 2
explosives detonated within minutes of each other in a southern city
of Adana, seriously wounding one person and injuring 16 others.
2006 Aug 4, In Uganda Vincent
Otti, deputy leader of The Lord's Resistance Army, said his group
has declared a unilateral cease-fire, but government negotiators
said they have not yet agreed to peace.
2006 Aug 4, The Ukraine
Parliament named Viktor Yanukovych prime minister. His fraud-tainted
2004 presidential victory was turned back by the Orange Revolution.
2006 Aug 5, The late Reggie
White was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame along with
Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, John Madden, Rayfield Wright and Harry
2006 Aug 5, In Oakland, Ca.,
CHP Officer Brent Clearman (33) was critically wounded at the 66th
Ave. on-ramp in a hit-and-run incident. Clearman died the next day
of his severe injuries. Russell Rodrigues (47) surrendered on August
7, 2006, and pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run charges on
September 26, 2006. He faced up to 4 years in prison.
2006 Aug 5, Susan Butcher (51),
four-time Iditarod champion, died in Seattle, Wa. In 1986 she became
the Alaska race's second female winner and brought increased
national attention to its grueling competition.
2006 Aug 5, Afghan and NATO
forces aided by air strikes killed 17 Taliban in southern
Afghanistan. A NATO soldier was killed and three were injured when
their armored jeep crashed in Kandahar province. Taliban attacked a
police patrol in southern Ghazni province overnight which left an
intelligence official and a rebel killed and two police wounded.
(AP, 8/5/06)(AFP, 8/5/06)(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 5, The US and France
reached agreement on a UN Security Council resolution aimed at
ending the fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah
2006 Aug 5, Thousands marched
through London to demand a halt to the Lebanon war as the British
government tried to deflect criticism that it has failed to call for
an immediate ceasefire.
2006 Aug 5, Marie Stopes
International hosted Europe's first "Masturbate-a-thon" with the
HIV/AIDS charity the Terrence Higgins Trust. It expected up to 200
people to attend the sponsored masturbation session in Clerkenwell,
2006 Aug 5, Floyd Landis was
fired by his team and the Tour de France no longer considered him
its champion after his second doping sample tested positive for
higher-than-allowable levels of testosterone. Landis maintained his
2006 Aug 5, In Iraq 2 members
of Saddam's former regime were shot dead in separate incidents. A US
soldier died in Anbar province.
2006 Aug 5, Israeli naval
commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre,
while a guerrilla rocket killed a soldier in clashes on the border
and Israeli raids left at least eight people dead in multiple
strikes across the country. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief
Council said 907 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict. 75
Israelis have been killed, 45 soldiers and 30 civilians.
2006 Aug 5, Israel pressed
ahead with its incursion into the southern Gaza Strip as airstrikes
killed 5 Palestinians, including a mother and her 2 children. Tanks
rolled to the edge of Rafah.
2006 Aug 5, Mexico's top
electoral court rejected a full recount in the disputed presidential
election, ordering a 9% partial count instead, angering leftist
protesters camped in the capital demanding a new vote-by-vote tally
over their fraud allegations.
(AP, 8/5/06)(WSJ, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 5, A minister said
Nepal plans to seize lands owned by King Gyanendra and other royal
family members and distribute them to the poor as it moves toward
treating the monarch like a "normal citizen."
2006 Aug 5, In northwestern
Pakistan a bridge collapsed amid heavy rains, killing at least 23
2006 Aug 5, Interfax news said
Russian police have detained the husband of a museum curator and a
2nd person suspected of stealing hundreds of artworks from St.
Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.
2006 Aug 5, Russia's
state-controlled arms trader and top aircraft maker criticized
Washington for imposing sanctions on them over dealings with Iran.
The defense ministry said the move reflected US annoyance at arms
sales to Venezuela. A Russian rocket carrying US telecommunications
equipment blasted off, 10 days after another rocket carrying 18
satellites crashed after launch.
2006 Aug 5, Sri Lankan soldiers
retook control of Muttur after six days of fighting Tamil rebels
there, and the military urged thousands of displaced civilians to
2006 Aug 6, Oil giant BP
announced an indefinite shutdown of the biggest oilfield in the US,
at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, after finding a pipeline leak. BP was able
to maintain partial operations.
2006 Aug 6, Walt Disney World
hiked ticket prices for the second time in 2006, raising the cost of
a basic one-day, one-park admission to $67, according to a pricing
chart posted on the company's media Web site.
2006 Aug 6, Scientists said a
recurring "dead zone" of low-oxygen water off the Oregon coast is
larger than in previous years and may be triggered by global
warming. They concluded that it is being caused by explosive blooms
of tiny plants known as phytoplankton, which die and sink to the
bottom, then are eaten by bacteria which use up the oxygen in the
2006 Aug 6, In Afghanistan 4
suspected Taliban killed two police using rocket-propelled grenades
and heavy machine guns at a checkpoint in Murghab district in
western Badghis province. A suspected suicide bomber in a small
truck hit a military convoy outside Kandahar, wounding at least one
foreign soldier. A British soldier was killed in Helmand province.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 6, Bolivia’s President
Evo Morales officially opened a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the
2006 Aug 6, In Burundi gunmen
hurled a grenade at a bar frequented by army officers, killing four
people. Authorities said the attack was an attempt to undermine the
2006 Aug 6, Cambodian customs
over the weekend seized 12 luxury vehicles stolen in Canada,
including a Hummer and a Cadillac popular with hip-hop music stars,
giving an intriguing insight into the world of international car
2006 Aug 6, In China an
explosion aboard a bus in Hunan province's Guiyang county killed
eight people, just days after a similar explosion killed 11. Fatal
explosions aboard public buses in recent years have been blamed on
both bomb attacks and accidents with gas canisters and other
2006 Aug 6, A former official
of Egypt's Gama'a Islamiya said that even if some members of the
Islamist group had joined al Qaeda it was unlikely that most would.
2006 Aug 6, In eastern Ethiopia
over 250 people were killed by flooding in Dire Dawa. As many as 300
(Reuters, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 6, Hong Kong's
legislature passed a law regulating phone tapping and other
surveillance measures, a move critics fear will curtail civil
liberties in the former British colony now ruled by China.
2006 Aug 6, In India a boat
capsized in a rain-swollen river near New Delhi, leaving 3 people
dead and 27 others missing as the nationwide death toll from the
monsoon rose to at least 359.
2006 Aug 6, It was reported
that illegal logging in Indonesia’s Aceh province had risen to
record levels as people reached into virgin forests to rebuild some
130,000 homes destroyed in December, 2004, tsunami. Deforestation
across Indonesia had already led to a 40% loss in the last 50 years.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.A20)
2006 Aug 6, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator said that Iran will expand uranium enrichment, in
defiance of a UN Security Council resolution giving the Islamic
Republic until Aug. 31 to halt the activity or face the threat of
political and economic sanctions.
2006 Aug 6, In Iraq 3 US
soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing southwest of Baghdad.
2006 Aug 6, Israeli forces
arrested the speaker of the Palestinian parliament at his house in
the West Bank, and pressed their monthlong offensive in Gaza against
2006 Aug 6, Hezbollah
guerrillas unleashed their deadliest barrage of rockets yet into
northern Israel, killing 12 reservists at a staging area. Israeli
bombardment killed at least 25 people in southern Lebanon as
fighting only intensified despite a draft UN cease-fire resolution.
Hezbollah rockets crashed into Haifa, killing at least three people
and wounding more than 40.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 6, In Kyrgyzstan Imam
Mokhammadrafik Kamalov (53) was killed in the city of Osh along with
two suspected Islamic radicals during an operation to track down men
suspected of attacking Kyrgyz and Tajik border posts in May, killing
2006 Aug 6, In Scotland the
Fringe Festival kicked off when an estimated 100,000-strong crowd
turned out on the streets of Edinburgh to watch a parade by 3,000
performers from the Fringe and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
2006 Aug 6, A government
spokesman said Somalia's top interim leaders have agreed to end a
rift threatening the fragile administration after crisis talks led
by Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia's foreign affairs minister.
2006 Aug 6, Crews fought more
than 20 forest fires in northern Spain and stopped blazes from
advancing into two historic towns. The fires killed three people and
destroyed thousands of acres of woodland. Authorities said most of
the blazes were deliberately set.
(AP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 6, Sri Lanka rejected
peace broker Norway's deal with Tamil Tiger rebels to lift a water
blockade at the root of the latest bloodshed that has claimed at
least 425 lives.
2006 Aug 6, Taiwan condemned
China after oil producer Chad switched diplomatic ties to Beijing
from Taipei, forcing Premier Su Tseng-chang to scrap his plans to
visit the African nation at the last minute.
2006 Aug 7, In Arizona 9
illegal immigrants died when their SUV, crammed with up to 22
people, flipped while trying to evade pursuit by the Border Patrol.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, In the SF Bay Area
Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies seized over 20,000 marijuana
plants on Mount Hamilton. Street value at maturity was estimated at
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.B5)
2006 Aug 7, Sue Bierman (82),
former SF supervisor (1992-2000) died in a car crash in Cole Valley.
A park created in the wake of the demolition ramps leading to and
away from the Embarcadero Freeway (1959-1992) was soon renamed Sue
Bierman Park, after the former supervisor (d. 2006 at 82) who
battled city freeways.
2006 Aug 7, Wal-Mart announced
chainwide pay caps and said they were intended to move people up the
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D3)
2006 Aug 7, Utah doctors
successfully separated conjoined twins Kendra and Maliyah Herrin.
The 4-year-old sisters had been born fused at the midsection with
just one kidney and one set of legs. Reconstruction surgery
2006 Aug 7, A new finding
implied that the universe is about 15.8 billion years old and about
180 billion light-years wide based on new evidence, which suggested
that the Hubble constant, a number that measures the expansion rate
and age of the universe, is actually 15% smaller than other studies
2006 Aug 7, Oil company BP
scrambled to assess pipeline corrosion in Alaska that will shut
shipments from the nation's biggest oil field, removing about 8% of
daily US crude production and driving oil and gasoline prices
sharply higher. BP said it would have to replace 16 miles of
pipeline at the Prudhoe Bay field.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/7/07)
2006 Aug 7, John Weinberg (81),
former head of the Goldman Sachs investment firm, died. He and John
Whitehead led the firm from 1976-1985. Weinberg led it by himself
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.73)
2006 Aug 7, Suspected Taliban
militants hanged a woman (70) and her son (30) from a tree in
Helmand province after accusing them of spying for the government.
2006 Aug 7, Robert McNaught of
the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia made the 1st sighting of
a comet that came to be called Comet McNaught.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.89)
2006 Aug 7, Belgian officials
said thefts of drain covers in Charleroi have soared in recent days
as skyrocketing metal prices have made them lucrative.
2006 Aug 7, In Brazil suspected
PCC gang members in the pre-dawn hours attacked 78 symbols of
government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, many in the city
itself. Police killed two suspects after they allegedly opened fire
on a gas station, torched a bus and tried to flee in a car as
officers chased them. This marked the third time in four months that
the gang has unleashed its fury on the streets to oppose the prison
transfer of its leaders.
2006 Aug 7, China’s state media
said the death toll from Tropical Storm Prapiroon, named after the
Thai god of rain, rose to 80 with 9 more people missing.
(AFP, 8/6/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, An explosion at a
Chinese perfume factory killed at least seven people and left three
2006 Aug 7, Colombia’s
President Alvaro Uribe inaugurated an unprecedented second term,
promising to seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while
maintaining the hardline security policies credited with a sharp
drop in murder and kidnappings.
2006 Aug 7, Gunmen in Haiti
killed Guido Vitiello (67), an Italian businessman, and kidnapped
his wife, Gigliola Martino (65), amid a spate of violence in the
impoverished Caribbean nation. Martino was released Aug 10.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 7, Indonesia barred
Islamic militants from traveling to the Mideast to fight Israel
after a Jakarta group said more than 200 had already gone.
(WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, A suicide truck
bomber struck the provincial headquarters of an Iraqi police
commando force north of Baghdad, killing ten policemen. In Baquba
six Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded when
insurgents attacked their checkpoint. In all insurgent and militia
attacks left at least 30 Iraqis killed or found dead. Two Iraqi
journalists were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad. Mohammed
Abbas Hamad (28), a journalist for the Shiite-owned newspaper
Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida, was shot by gunmen at he left his home.
Police found the bullet-riddled body of freelance journalist Ismail
Amin Ali (30), about a half mile from where he was abducted two
(AP, 8/7/06)(AFP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)(WSJ,
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in
an Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut
reached 41. Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with
three Israeli soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli
raids on a Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez
disaster that despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed.
the Jiyyeh plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15
a few days into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of
leaking oil had already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles)
of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, Morocco’s state
news agency reported that security services have arrested 44
suspected terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police
arrested a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and
charged him with war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the
1994 genocide that tore apart his home country.
2006 Aug 7, A pro-North Korean
newspaper in Japan said floods last month in North Korea killed at
least 549 people and left 295 others still missing.
2006 Aug 7, In northwestern
Pakistan a discarded ordnance shell exploded in a tribal village,
killing three young brothers who were playing with the explosive. A
relief official said flooding and heavy rains in northwestern
Pakistan in recent days have left 144 people dead and 97 others
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Sri Lanka 17
civilians working for a French aid agency were found slain execution
style in Muttur after fierce battles between rebels and the
government over water supplies. All but one were Tamils. In 2008 a
local rights group accused Colombo of a major cover-up of the August
2006 killing of Action Against Hunger (ACF) workers and for the
first time named a list of suspects.
(AP, 8/7/06)(AP, 8/29/06)(AFP, 4/3/08)
2006 Aug 7, The only rebel
leader to have signed onto a peace deal for Darfur was sworn in as a
senior aide to the Sudanese president as international aid groups
said the fighting in the war-torn region has intensified.
2006 Aug 7, Venezuelan
authorities captured Elias Verde, the alleged head of an
international drug trafficking group that was involved in a major
cocaine smuggling operation earlier this year in France.
2006 Aug 8, The US Federal
Reserve halted interest rate hikes at 5.25%. the DJIA fell 45.79 to
11,173. Nasdaq fell 11.65 to 2,060. Jeffrey Lacker, head of the
Richmond Fed, voted against the decision halt rate hikes.
(SFC, 8/9/06, p.C1)(Econ, 8/12/06, p.59)
2006 Aug 8, Medicare said it
plans to cut doctor payment rates by 5.1% and force hospitals to
disclose financial data.
(WSJ, 8/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 8, Voters in
Connecticut rejected three-term Sen. Joe Lieberman for Ned Lamont, a
political newcomer, in the nation's first major test of the depth of
anger over the Iraq war. Lieberman ended up winning re-election to
the Senate by running as an independent.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/8/07)
2006 Aug 8, Roger Goodell was
chosen as the NFL's next commissioner.
2006 Aug 8, In Indianapolis,
Indiana, a fatal stabbing boosted the homicides to 13 in just one
week in the midst of an upsurge of violence that has police working
longer shifts and saturating high-crime areas.
2006 Aug 8, In eastern
Afghanistan US military killed 15 insurgents who attacked a US base
in Nuristan province. 12 militants and 8 policemen were killed in
fighting in Kandahar.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 8, Clive Goodman,
royal editor at Britain’s News of the World, and Glenn Mulcaire, a
private investigator, were arrested for hacking phones between
November 2005 and August 2006. Both men were jailed in January,
(Econ, 7/16/11, p.26)
2006 Aug 8, Chad and Sudan
agreed to reopen their borders and resume diplomatic relations that
they severed in a dispute four months ago.
2006 Aug 8, In Chile police
used tear gas and water cannons to disperse about 2,000
rock-throwing students seeking better equipment for 21 schools in
the Santiago area.
2006 Aug 8, Gustavo Arcos
Bergnes (79), who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban
revolution but was later imprisoned as a dissident, died in Havana.
2006 Aug 8, A car bomb killed a
prosecutor in Dagestan, Russia, and two police were shot dead as
they arrived on the scene.
2006 Aug 8, Eritrea announced
that Brigadier General Kemal Gelchu, a dissident Ethiopian general,
had defected to Eritrea, said that he would be joining the OLF to
fight for his Oromo people's rights.
(Econ, 8/19/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 8, Gunmen with
automatic weapons stormed Kaieteur News, Guyana's largest newspaper,
killing at least six people and wounding three in an attack that may
have been connected to a simultaneous protest at the nation's main
2006 Aug 8, Indian officials
said flooding caused by monsoon rains have killed 69 people in
western India in the past three days, and caused tens of thousands
to flee their homes.
2006 Aug 8, Indonesian health
officials said 2 teenagers have died of bird flu. This would bring
Indonesia's death toll to 44 and make it the world's hardest-hit
2006 Aug 8, A series of
bombings and shootings killed at least 31 people in Baghdad and
other parts of Iraq as more US troops were seen in the capital as
part of Operation Together Forward, a campaign to reduce
Sunni-Shiite violence that threatened civil war. A US Army
helicopter crashed in Iraq's western Anbar province, leaving two
crew members missing and four injured. A policeman was killed and
another wounded when they were trying to defuse a roadside bomb in
Samarra. An explosion at a mosque in Baqouba left four people dead.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 8, Israeli forces
battled Hezbollah guerrillas across southern Lebanon as diplomats at
the United Nations struggled to keep a peace plan from collapsing
over Arab demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. At least 19
Lebanese civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel
reported five soldiers killed.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 8, The Philippine
Congress began hearing new impeachment complaints against President
Gloria Arroyo, linking her to corruption and human rights abuses and
alleging she cheated in the 2004 election.
2006 Aug 8, Russian officials
said drawings by the late architect Yakov Chernikhov (d.1951), worth
millions of dollars, had disappeared from the Russian State Archive
of Literature and Art. Chernikhov was widely admired for his
avant-garde and constructivist designs. Rosokhrankultura said it
became aware of the Chernikhov thefts after nine missing drawings
were sold at auction by auction house Christie's on June 22.
2006 Aug 8, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels released water from a disputed reservoir, ending a 19-day
blockade that sparked some of the worst fighting between government
troops and guerrillas in four years. In Colombo a car bomb killed
two people, including a 3-year-old girl.
2006 Aug 8, Turkey battled the
largest recorded outbreak of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, which
has killed at least 20 people this year, and experts said more cases
of the Ebola-like disease are inevitable in coming months.
2006 Aug 8, Five Yemeni army
officers were killed when their military helicopter crashed during a
2006 Aug 9, The White House
said neither Israel nor Hezbollah should escalate their month-old
war, as Israel decided to widen its ground invasion in southern
2006 Aug 9, In Ohio Osama Sabhi
Abulhassan (20) and Ali Houssaiky (20), both of Dearborn, Mich.,
were charged with money laundering in support of terrorism after
authorities said they found airplane passenger lists and information
on airport security checkpoints in their car.
2006 Aug 9, The American Humane
Society said it will give China $100,000 to vaccinate dogs against
rabies if it promises to immediately stop their mass slaughter in
areas where humans have died from the disease.
2006 Aug 9, Physicist James A.
Van Allen (91), who discovered the radiation belts surrounding the
Earth that now bear his name, died in Iowa City, Iowa.
2006 Aug 9, Hamid Karzai,
Afghanistan's first democratically elected president, strongly
hinted in an interview that he will not run for another term in
office. A roadside bomb killed 2 Afghan soldiers and wounded 3 as
they returned after a mission to help police surrounded by
insurgents in Paktika province. In the eastern province of Nuristan
US soldiers and warplanes drove off an insurgent attack on a new
American base, killing 19 militants. Local authorities pleaded for
emergency relief for thousands of villagers made homeless by heavy
rain and flooding that has ravaged provinces in eastern Afghanistan
and left at least 35 people dead.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Roland Horngacher,
Vienna's top police commander, was suspended from duty on suspicion
of improperly accepting gifts, including travel vouchers from the
former head of an Austrian bank linked to the collapse of U.S.
commodities broker Refco Inc.
2006 Aug 9, In Buenos Aires
Raul Antonio Guglielminetti, a former intelligence agent and two
retired military officers, were arrested in connection with human
rights abuses dating to Argentina's "Dirty War" against political
2006 Aug 9, In Brazil suspected
gang members threw homemade bombs, sent banks on fire, and torched
buses in the region and two other cities overnight in Sao Paulo
state. In Rio de Janeiro gunbattles between gangs vying for control
of the city's lucrative drug trade have resulted in the deaths of 19
people since Aug 6.
2006 Aug 9, Brazil’s
environment ministry said police had arrested 46 people, including
16 agents of the federal environmental protection agency, for
allegedly operating illegal logging operations in the Amazon
rainforest and in southern Brazil.
2006 Aug 9, Two teenage Britons
were finally found guilty of killing 10-year-old Nigerian schoolboy
Damilola Taylor following a six-year investigation marred by legal
and forensic blunders. Danny Preddie (18) and Ricky Preddie (19)
from Peckham, south London, were convicted of the manslaughter of
Taylor who died in November, 2000, after being stabbed in the leg
with a broken bottle.
2006 Aug 9, Masked gunmen
killed five Indians in Colombia even as UN officials marked World
Indigenous Day with a call for illegal combat groups to keep Indians
out of the country's armed conflict. Colombian rebels kidnapped two
engineers and a helicopter pilot who were part of a seismographic
oil exploration crew in Choco state. The National Liberation Army
(ELN) was believed to be responsible.
2006 Aug 9, Ethiopia’s army
killed 13 rebels and caught other commanders of the eastern Ogaden
National Liberation Front, a separatist movement, after they crossed
2006 Aug 9, Kerala, a southern
Indian state, banned the sale and production of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite
and other soft drinks because of concerns over pesticide
contamination. Four Indian states, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh and Chattisgarh, have already imposed a ban on sale of Coke
and Pepsi at colleges, schools and government offices. Several other
states have said they are examining the issue.
2006 Aug 9, In India
authorities arrested Pritam Singh, a former army soldier and his
wife, for allegedly aborting female fetuses, several of which were
found dumped in a well behind an illegal clinic in Patran town,
2006 Aug 9, Swollen rivers
swamped thousands of villages and towns across India's south and
west, forcing 4.5 million from their homes as rescuers struggled to
bring them food and drinking water.
2006 Aug 9, Gunmen on two
motorcycles assassinated Col. Qassim Abdel-Qadir, administrative
head of an Iraqi army division in the southern city of Basra. A
roadside bomb exploded near a US patrol in eastern Baghdad's Shiite
neighborhood of Habibiya, killing one bystander and wounding one US
soldier. Police found the bodies of three men who were shot in the
head and dumped in two locations in southwestern Baghdad.
2006 Aug 9, Israel's Security
Cabinet approved a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon that was
expected to take 30 days as part of a new push to badly damage
Hezbollah. Israeli's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian
refugee camp, killing at least one person and wounding three others.
An Israeli airstrike killed a family of 7 in the Bekaa Valley. 15
Israeli soldiers were killed in a single day of fighting. Israel
said it killed as many as 40 Hezbollah fighters but a Hezbollah
spokesman said only 3 had been killed. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan
Nasrallah warned all Israeli Arabs to leave the port city of Haifa
so the militant group could step up attacks without fear of shedding
the blood of fellow Muslims.
(AP, 8/9/06)(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A10)
2006 Aug 9, In Mexico the body
of Enrique Perea Quintanilla (50), publisher of the magazine Dos
Caras, Una Verdad (Two Faces, One Truth) was found on a dirt road
about 10 miles from Chihuahua City. Authorities said that organized
crime was likely behind the killing.
2006 Aug 9, Maoist rebels and
the Nepal government said they had settled a dispute over monitoring
each other's fighters and weapons, a move which revives their peace
process and power-sharing plans.
2006 Aug 9, Two Norwegians and
two Ukrainians were kidnapped at gunpoint from an oil services ship
off the coast of Nigeria.
2006 Aug 9, In Poland the US
specialists secretly removed 90 pounds of weapons-grade uranium from
a research reactor and transferred it to Russia for re-processing.
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/10/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 9, Sergei Skripal
(55), a retired colonel in the Russian military intelligence, was
sentenced by a military court in Moscow to 13 years imprisonment for
passing along state secrets to Britain. He was accused of revealing
the names of several dozen Russian agents working in Europe. In 2010
he was released as part of a spy swap with the US.
(AP, 8/9/06)(AP, 7/9/10)
2006 Aug 9, A South Korean
citizens' group said North Korea has requested help from South Korea
to cope with devastating floods.
2006 Aug 9, A Justice Ministry
official said Swiss authorities will provide the US with details
from bank accounts US investigators suspect of being used for
2006 Aug 9, In Venezuela 8
candidates opposing Pres. Chavez called off a primary and agreed to
support front runner Gov. Manuel Rosales in the Dec 3 presidential
(SFC, 8/10/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 10, In NYC organizers
said Germany's Madhupran Wolfgang Schwerk (51) won the 3,100-mile
Self-Transcendence event, capturing the world's longest foot race in
41 days, eight hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds. Suprabha Beckjord
(50) was 14th overall and the only woman to finish, doing so after
60 days, four hours, 35 minutes and 24 seconds.
2006 Aug 10, Wal-Mart Stores
said it will work with Chinese government officials to establish
labor unions in all its outlets in China.
(SFC, 8/11/06, p.D2)
2006 Aug 10, NASA satellite
data showed that the ice sheet in Greenland is melting faster than
(WSJ, 8/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 10, In Afghanistan a
roadside bomb killed two Afghan civilians in Jalalabad.
2006 Aug 10, A Brazilian
congressional committee approved a report recommending the expulsion
of 72 federal lawmakers from Congress on charges of participating in
a nation-wide plan to divert funds from the country’s health-care
(WSJ, 8/11/06, p.A5)
2006 Aug 10, British
authorities said they had thwarted a terrorist plot to
simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the US using
explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. US Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff said the terrorists planned to use liquid
explosives disguised as beverages and other common products and
detonators disguised as electronic devices.
2006 Aug 10, In Chile a drug
trafficking network working on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) was dismantled. Police seized almost a
half-ton of cocaine and arrested 12 people.
2006 Aug 10, Saomai, the most
powerful typhoon to hit China in five decades, slammed into its
southeastern coast, destroying hundreds of homes and battering the
region with rain and wind after more than 1.3 million people were
evacuated. It ultimately killed at least 483 people.
2006 Aug 10, Hector Orlando
Martinez Quinto (38) was captured in Costa Rica. He was accused of
participating in a 2002 rebel (FARQ) attack that killed 119
civilians in Boyaya, in one of the worst tragedies in Colombia's
four-decade-old guerrilla war.
2006 Aug 10, Rights activists
said at least nine inmates have died in Georgian prisons in the past
10 days as the Caucasus Mountains nation suffers through high
temperatures not seen in two decades.
2006 Aug 10, In India 2 more
states banned the sale of Coca-Cola and PepsiCo soft drinks at
government-run schools and colleges over allegations they contain
high levels of pesticides.
2006 Aug 10, In Iraq a suicide
bomber detonated a belt of explosives near a highly revered Shiite
shrine in Najaf, killing at least 35 people and injuring 122.
(AP, 8/10/06)(SFC, 8/11/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 10, Israel said it
will hold back on its new ground offensive in Lebanon until the
weekend to give cease-fire efforts another chance. In Jerusalem a
tourist (25) was stabbed to death by an Arab youth near one of the
gates to the walled Old City in what was believed to be a political
2006 Aug 10-2006 Aug 11,
Italian police raided Internet cafes, money-transfer offices and
long-distance phone call centers catering to Muslims and arrested 40
people in a crackdown linked to Britain's announcement it had
thwarted an alleged terror plot.
2006 Aug 10, Yasuo Takei,
Japan’s richest man, died. Forbes listed his assets at $5.4 billion.
In 1966 he founded Fuji Shoji, a consumer loan company. In 1974 it
was renamed Takefuji and grew to become a leader in Japan’s loan
industry. In 2004 he was convicted for ordering an illegal
wiretapping of a reported who criticized his company.
(SFC, 8/14/06, p.B8)
2006 Aug 10, Malawi's President
Bingu wa Mutharika demanded the resignation of Ishmael Wadi, a top
prosecutor, for withdrawing corruption charges against the nation's
previous leader. Wadi dropped the charges after Mutharika suspended
the head of the anti-corruption bureau, Gustave Kaliwo. Wadi said
the suspension left the bureau with no powers to prosecute.
2006 Aug 10, In Mexico leftist
activists blockaded bank headquarters and called for a march on the
offices of federal prosecutors, as officials recounted some of the
ballots from the disputed presidential election. A protester was
shot dead when assailants fired on a march of about 8,000 people
calling for the governor's resignation in Oaxaca.
(AP, 8/10/06)(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 10, In southern
Nigeria gunmen in military fatigues seized two foreign oil workers.
A Belgian and a Moroccan were abducted as they traveled through the
city of Port Harcourt taking to at least 10 the number kidnapped in
the past week.
2006 Aug 10, In Serbia a panel
of international judges convicted and sentenced Selim Krasniqi and
two other former rebel fighters to 7 years in prison for detaining
and beating fellow ethnic Albanians who allegedly collaborated with
Serb authorities during the 1998 Kosovo war.
2006 Aug 10, The Sri Lankan
military attacked Tamil Tiger rebels from land and air, and the
rebels retaliated in heavy fighting that killed at least 13
combatants. A Nordic cease-fire monitor warned that the situation
2006 Aug 11, A Kentucky judge
ruled that Gov. Ernie Fletcher, under fire for a hiring scandal, is
protected by executive immunity and cannot be prosecuted while in
2006 Aug 11, BP PLC announced
it would keep one side of the Prudhoe Bay oil field open as it
replaced corroded pipes, averting a larger crimp in the nation's oil
2006 Aug 11, In SF Ed Jew,
operator of a Chinatown flower shop, filed to run as supervisor for
District 4. He won a surprise victory in November. In 2007 he faced
residency questions and an FBI investigation regarding money
accepted from a businessmen facing permit problems. On January 10,
2008 he resigned from the Board of Supervisors. Jew had been accused
of violating the city charter by not living in the district he
represented. On November 6, 2007, federal prosecutors obtained a
grand jury indictment of Jew on five felony bribery, fraud and
extortion charges, accusing him of running a scheme to shake down
Sunset District businesses for $84,000 in bribes. His trial on
federal charges was slated to being in July 2008.
2006 Aug 11, Jamie Gold (36), a
former Hollywood talent agent, won the $12 million grand prize in
the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nv.
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 11, In Michigan 3
Palestinian American men from Texas were arrested after buying
dozens of cell phones at a Wal-Mart store. They were found with a
1000 cell phones and later charged with federal fraud conspiracy and
money laundering. Initial terrorism charges were dropped.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 11, Mike Douglas (born
in 1925 as Michael Delaney Dowd Jr.), popular television host, died
in Florida. His Mike Douglas Show began in Cleveland in 1961 and
ended in 1982. In 1999 he authored the memoir “"I’ll be Right Back:
Memories of TV’s Greatest Talk Show."
(SFC, 8/12/06, p.B6)
2006 Aug 11, A suicide car
bomber struck a NATO-led convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing one
soldier. In northeastern Afghanistan 3 US soldiers were killed and 3
wounded after militants attacked an American patrol with
rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, In Brazil
officials said police had arrested 30 businessmen, government
officials and soldiers accused of taking part in a scheme to net
millions of dollars by over-billing for meals in the military and at
2006 Aug 11, British officials
identified 19 of the suspects accused of planning to blow up
US-bound aircraft in the biggest terrorist plot to be uncovered
since 9/11, while investigators probed their movements, background
and finances. In addition, five Pakistanis have been arrested in
Pakistan as suspected "facilitators" of the plot, as well as two
Britons arrested there about a week ago. A Pakistani intelligence
official said 10 Pakistanis were arrested in Bhawalpur district, 300
miles southwest of Islamabad, in connection with the terror plot in
(AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 11, Typhoon Saomai,
the strongest storm to strike China in 50 years, weakened to a
tropical depression but drenched the country's southeast after
killing at least 105 people with another 190 missing.
2006 Aug 11, German novelist
Guenter Grass (78) admitted in an interview that he served in the
Waffen SS, the combat arm of Adolf Hitler's dreaded paramilitary
forces, during World War II. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1999 for works including his 1959 novel, "The Tin Drum." His new
memoir about the war years, Peeling the Onion" was published in
September, 2006. The English translation came out in 2007.
(AP, 8/11/06)(SSFC, 7/8/07, p.M1)
2006 Aug 11, Indonesian
officials issued a last-minute stay of execution for three Christian
militiamen on death row, but they added that the sentences would
still be carried out. Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and
Dominggus da Silva, were scheduled to be executed August 12. They
had been sentenced to death for inciting and carrying out attacks on
Muslims in 2000 during religious violence on Sulawesi that left
1,000 dead from both faiths.
2006 Aug 11, US soldiers raided
a funeral and detained 60 men suspected of ties to al-Qaida car
bombings in the first major roundup of suspected insurgents since
troop reinforcements began arriving for a new crackdown in Baghdad.
2006 Aug 11, Israeli airstrikes
pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least
14 people across Lebanon as ground fighting picked up intensity in
the south. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accepted an emerging
Mideast cease-fire deal and informed the United States of his
decision. An Israeli drone fired at a convoy of refugees fleeing
southern Lebanon, killing at least six people and wounding 16.
2006 Aug 11, North Kenya
authorities said they caught at least 45 sympathizers or members of
the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), a small Ethiopian group operating
on the border. Ethiopia reported having shot dead 11 Ogaden National
Liberation Front (ONLH) fighters.
(Reuters, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/19/06, p.44)
2006 Aug 11, An oil tanker sank
in rough seas off the Philippine coast of Guimaras Island, about 312
miles southeast of Manila. About 528,000 gallons of industrial fuel
was leaking from the accident.
2006 Aug 11, The Sri Lankan air
force bombed Tamil Tiger-held areas in the east. Tamil Tigers warned
of a humanitarian crisis after 42,000 people were displaced by a
surge in violence that has left Sri Lanka's truce in tatters, as
fighting erupted on two new fronts.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AFP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, The UN Human
Rights Council condemned Israel for "massive bombardment of Lebanese
civilian populations" and other "systematic" human rights
violations, and decided to send a commission to investigate. UN
Resolution 1701 called for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and the
disarmament of Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/26/06,
2006 Aug 11, The Zimbabwe
Cabinet slashed fuel prices for private motorists by almost half,
but experts said the move could lead to further shortages and fail
to snuff out a flourishing black market.
2006 Aug 12, Thousands of
people gathered across from the White House, even though President
Bush was out of town, to condemn US and Israeli policies in the
Middle East. In SF thousands of protesters decried US Mideast policy
and Israel’s military actions in Lebanon and Palestine. A smaller
group demonstrated on behalf of Israel.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.B1)(AP, 8/12/07)
2006 Aug 12, Afghanistan's
Health Ministry said the worsening security situation contributed to
a fourfold rise in polio cases this year, almost entirely in the
insurgency-wracked south. A highway police commander was killed by a
blast on his way to work in eastern Lagman province.
2006 Aug 12, Rashid Rauf and
Tayib Rauf (22), brothers arrested in Pakistan and England, emerged
as key figures in the suspected plot to destroy US-bound aircraft
during flight. Prominent Muslims in Britain accused the government
of encouraging extremism through its foreign policy.
(AP, 8/12/06)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 12, President Joseph
Kabila's share of the vote in Congo's historic elections rose above
50% as 1 million more votes were counted and certified.
2006 Aug 12, The government
said PM Nouri al-Maliki had banned the Kurdistan Workers Party, a
rebel group fighting for autonomy in southeastern Turkey, from
operating in Baghdad. Two people were killed in the southern city of
Basra when a bomb exploded at a shop selling CDs featuring sermons
and interviews of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Police
found a dozen bodies trapped in a grate in the Tigris River, and a
roadside bomb killed two US soldiers on a foot patrol south of
Baghdad as nearly 50 violent deaths were reported across Iraq.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, Oil smuggling in
Iraq was said to be worth $4 billion a year.
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.40)
2006 Aug 12, Israel staged
wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah
heartland as the UN raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire
blueprint and stop the heavy fighting still raging in southern
Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the militant
organization would abide by the UN cease-fire resolution but would
keep fighting as long as Israeli troops remained in southern
Lebanon. Israel lost 24 soldiers, including five on a helicopter
shot out of the air by guerrillas.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, In Indian Kashmir
7 people, including two civilians mistaken by the army for Islamic
guerrillas, died as a strike paralyzed life in the region's main
2006 Aug 12, In northern Italy
the stabbed body of Hina Saleem (21) was found in the garden of the
family home at Sarezzo. She was killed by her father because she
refused to conform to an Islamic lifestyle. News reports said the
family had been insisting on an arranged marriage with a cousin in
Pakistan. The father and three other men, including her uncle, were
charged with premeditated murder and hiding the body.
2006 Aug 12, A passenger bus
skidded off a highway in central Mexico and rolled down a 320-foot
slope, killing 13 people and injuring a dozen others.
2006 Aug 12, Nigeria pulled
thousands of troops out of the Bakassi peninsula ahead of an August
12 UN deadline for a complete withdrawal, but many residents said
they would resist a handover to Cameroon.
2006 Aug 12, In Northern
Ireland about 15,000 Protestants paraded through Londonderry,
predominantly Roman Catholic city, following a night of Catholic
2006 Aug 12, Hundreds of
paratroopers joined the struggle to control scores of forest fires
in northwestern Spain. A total of 24 people have been arrested since
Aug. 1 on suspicion of deliberately starting many of the fires.
2006 Aug 12, Sri Lankan rebels
attacked a key naval base as they mounted a fierce push to retake a
northeastern peninsula considered the traditional home of the
country's ethnic Tamils. Sri Lankan war planes bombed Tiger rebel
positions as the fiercest fighting since a 2002 ceasefire left at
least 127 people dead. A Sri Lanka government spokesman said the
Tamil Tiger rebels offered to renew peace talks. Weeks of intense
fighting brought Sri Lanka close to resuming its civil war. Ketheesh
Loganathan, a Tamil senior peace official, was assassinated. He was
deputy chief of the secretariat which coordinated the government's
side of a Norway-brokered peace process.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AFP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The Ugandan army
killed Raska Lukwiya, the third in command of the rebel Lord's
Resistance Army and war crimes fugitive, which could affect the
stalled south Sudan-mediated peace talks.
2006 Aug 12, The UN Security
Council adopted a resolution seeking a "full cessation" of violence
between Israel and Hezbollah, offering the region its best chance
yet for peace after a month of fighting that has killed more than
800 people and inflamed Mideast tensions.
2006 Aug 13, In Michigan City,
Indiana, fire swept through a two-story house, killing at least six
people. An unknown number of others were missing. It was not clear
whether they had left the scene or were still inside the home.
2006 Aug 13, In Afghanistan at
least 5 Afghan troops and 25 militants were killed.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 13, The 16th
International AIDS conference opened in Toronto with some 24,000
people in attendance.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.A15)(Econ, 8/19/06, p.65)
2006 Aug 13, The death toll
from Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in 50 years,
rose to 114 as more evacuees died when buildings used as shelters
collapsed. China’s state media reported About 17 million people in
southwest China don't have access to clean drinking water due to
(AP, 8/13/06)(Reuters, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 13, On his 80th
birthday, Fidel Castro cautioned Cubans that he faced a long
recovery from surgery and advised them to prepare for "adverse
news," but he urged them to stay optimistic.
2006 Aug 13, Iraq's health
minister, who is aligned to a powerful Shiite militia, claimed that
US forces arrested seven of his personal guards in a surprise
pre-dawn raid on his office. 4 vehicle bombs killed 63 Iraqis and
wounded 140 in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AP, 8/14/06)(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 13, After a stormy
debate, Israel's Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to
silence the army's guns on Aug 14 at 8AM. The Israeli military
embarked on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas,
rocketing south Beirut with at least 20 missiles. Israeli warplanes
fired missiles into gasoline stations in the southern port city of
Tyre, killing at least 12 people in those and other attacks.
Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets at northern Israel, killing an
Israeli man. Two Israeli air raids on a village in Lebanon's eastern
Bekaa Valley killed at least seven people and wounded nearly two
2006 Aug 13, In Mexico a
recount confirmed Calderon as the next president. Lopez Obrador
vowed to mount new legal challenges.
(WSJ, 8/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 13, Sri Lankan troops
and Tamil Tiger rebels fought ground battles and artillery duels as
the weekend death toll rose to 186. The rebels denied they were
ready to talk peace. At least 15 people died in fighting around the
St. Philip Neri Church in Allaiiddy, a predominantly Tamil village
located on an island just west of the Jaffna Peninsula. The island,
like the peninsula, is held by the government.
(AFP, 8/13/06)(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 13, In Turkey the PKK
killed 2 policemen in a bomb attack near Tunceli.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.48)
2006 Aug 13, In Venezuela
prison officials discovered that Carlos Ortega, an anti-Chavez union
leader, had slipped out of the Ramo Verde prison west of Caracas,
where he was serving a 16-year sentence for civil rebellion. Three
convicted military officers also escaped.
2006 Aug 14, The US State
Department began issuing smart chip-embedded passports to Americans
as planned, despite ongoing privacy concerns and legal disputes
involving companies bidding on the project. New ones issued under
this program will cost $97, which includes a $12 security surcharge
added last year.
2006 Aug 15, NYC’s Mayor
Bloomberg said he is putting $125 million of his own money into a
new worldwide anti-smoking campaign.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 14, In the largest
electronics-related recall involving the Consumer Products Safety
Commission, Dell Inc. agreed to replace 4.1 million notebook
computer batteries made by Sony Corp. because they can burst into
2006 Aug 14, PepsiCo Inc.
announced that CFO Indra Nooyi will replace Steven Reinemundi as
CEO, making her the No. 2 female CEO in the Fortune 500 behind
Patricia Woertz of Archer Daniels Midland. ADM was ranked 56th in
the Fortune 500 and PepsiCo was 61st.
(SFC, 8/15/06, p.D5)
2006 Aug 14, Bruno Kirby (57),
a veteran character actor known for playing the best friend in two
of Billy Crystal's biggest comedies, "When Harry Met Sally" and
"City Slickers," died in LA.
2006 Aug 14, In southern
Afghanistan clashes between police and militants killed 11 suspected
Taliban and six policemen. 4 NATO troops were wounded in one of two
bombings in Kabul.
2006 Aug 14, Australian PM John
Howard ditched plans for a tough new immigration law, conceding he
did not have sufficient support in parliament.
2006 Aug 14, In Brazil
Guilherme Portanova (30), a kidnapped television reporter, was freed
after Globo met the gang's demand to broadcast a video calling for
improvements in Brazil's troubled prison system. In Rio de Janeiro
Andres Costa Ramos Bordalo was stabbed to death by an assailant who
stole his knapsack on Copacabana beach. Police stepped up patrols
but at least 22 tourists were robbed during the week.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 14, The British
government downgraded its terror threat level from critical to
severe, saying intelligence suggested an attack was no longer
2006 Aug 14, In Chile a tough
nationwide anti-smoking law that took effect.
2006 Aug 14, In China the death
toll from Typhoon Saomai rose to 255 after scores more bodies were
pulled from the sea.
2006 Aug 14, Cuban state
television aired the first video of Fidel Castro since he stepped
down as president to recover from surgery, showing the bedridden
Cuban leader talking with his brother Raul as well as Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.
2006 Aug 14, In southern
Ethiopia torrential rains spilled a river from its banks. At least
900 people died as continuing rains submerged five villages, knocked
down grain silos and swept away cattle. Tens of thousands were
marooned by the waters.
(AFP, 8/15/06)(Reuters, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 14, At least 10 people
were killed in shootings and bombings across Iraq, including three
blacksmiths shot by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul.
2006 Aug 14, Israeli soldiers
killed six Hezbollah fighters in three skirmishes in Lebanon after
the UN-imposed cease-fire took effect. The clashes came as Lebanese
civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their
homes in war-ravaged areas. Lebanese, Israeli and UN officers met on
the border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern
Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region.
Lebanon said nearly 791 people were killed since the fighting began.
Israel said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians were killed in fighting or
from Hezbollah rockets in the 34-day war.
2006 Aug 14, A Japanese tanker
spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian
Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship. The spill, which
would be about 4,500 tons, may be the largest ever involving a
Japanese tanker. The tanker was carrying about 77.6 million gallons,
or 250,000 tons, of crude. It had left port in Oman bound for Japan.
2006 Aug 14, Malaysia said it
would issue a "big fat no" to any nation or group that asked it to
dismantle a system of positive discrimination for its majority
ethnic Malays as part of trade talks.
2006 Aug 14, US authorities
arrested Tijuana drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (36)
aboard a boat off Mexico's Pacific coast. Mexican analysts doubted
the significance of Arellano Felix's arrest as the gang has
effectively lost much of its influence over the years.
2006 Aug 14, Nigeria formally
handed sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula
to Cameroon after withdrawing its 3,000 troops in compliance with a
UN-brokered deadline. This ended a 13-year feud between Abuja and
Yaounde. Nigeria will maintain administrative control of southern
Bakassi for the next two years, after which the area will be in a
state of flux for another five years before it will be finally
handed over to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Nigeria Ayo
Daramola, a member of the country's ruling party and a potential
candidate in Ekiti state, was found stabbed to death in his home,
the third killing of a potential gubernatorial candidate in recent
weeks. Armed men kidnapped four more foreign oil workers in the
southern oil city of Port Harcourt, but released 3 Filipinos
abducted more than 10 days ago.
(AFP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Gaza American
reporter Steve Centanni (60) and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig
(36) were seized by masked gunmen near the headquarters of the
Palestinian security services. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a
house in the Gaza Strip, injuring at least eight people. The
military said an Islamic Jihad command center was targeted but
Palestinians said the building was empty.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 14, Fighting in Sri
Lanka's north and east, and a bombing in the capital, left at least
50 people dead, including 43 schoolgirls killed in what the Tamil
Tigers charged was a government air raid on a children's home in
rebel territory. Hours later in Colombo, an auto rickshaw packed
with explosives blew up as a car carrying Pakistan's high
commissioner, Basir Ali Mohmand, passed along a crowded road. At
least seven people were killed, including four army commandos
guarding the envoy.
2006 Aug 15, US federal agents
arrested 138 alleged drug traffickers in 15 cities. They seized over
47 pounds of Mexican black tar heroin and confiscated over $500,000
in illegal profits.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 15, US officials
arrested Edgar Alvarez Cruz on immigration violations in Denver. He
was suspected of participating in the rapes and killings of at least
10 women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, where more than 100
young women have been killed since 1993.
2006 Aug 15, Seven northeastern
US states said they had agreed on a model rule that would create the
country's first market for heat-trapping carbon dioxide by curbing
emissions at power plants.
2006 Aug 15, Afghan and US
troops killed an al-Qaida suspect and detained 13 others in
2006 Aug 15, The official death
toll in China from Typhoon Saomai jumped to 295 as fishing families
grieving the loss of loved ones said authorities were no help and
had covered up the number of fatalities.
2006 Aug 15, In Colombia the
last major paramilitary leader to enter into a peace deal with the
government handed in his weapon, even as the future of that fragile
accord was called into doubt by other ex-militia leaders. Freddy
Rendon Herrera and 745 fighters from the Elmer Cardenas bloc handed
in 447 rifles in a disarmament ceremony in Unguia, a village 370
miles northwest of Bogota.
2006 Aug 15, French Interior
Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said nearly 30,000 illegal immigrants with
school-age children applied for French residency under a special
government offer, and about 6,000 will get it.
2006 Aug 15, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in
Haiti for six months and urged its troops and police to help fight
gang violence and kidnapping.
2006 Aug 15, A suicide bomber
killed nine people at the party headquarters of the Iraqi president.
In Basra tribal leader Faisal Raji al-Asadi, an anti-American Shiite
cleric, was killed. Gunbattles between his supporters and Iraqi
forces left at least six people dead. In Karbala street battles
between security forces and followers of anti-American cleric
Mahmoud al-Hassani, left 12 dead, including two Iraqi soldiers. A
suicide car bomber killed nine people in an attack on the Mosul
headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a Kurdish party
headed by President Jalal Talabani.
(AP, 8/15/06)(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)
2006 Aug 15, Israel began
slowly withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon and made plans
to hand over its captured territory as hopes were raised that a
UN-imposed cease-fire would stick, despite early tests on its first
2006 Aug 15, Japan’s PM
Junichiro Koizumi made a pilgrimage to a Tokyo war shrine reviled by
critics as a symbol of militarism, triggering a further erosion in
Japan's ties with its neighbors just a month before he leaves
2006 Aug 15, Maori Queen Te
Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu (75), aka Te Ata, died in New
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.B7)(AP, 8/15/07)
2006 Aug 15, Two Norwegian and
two Ukrainian oil workers being held hostage in Nigeria were freed
as the government promised to crack down on a surge in unrest in
Africa's largest oil producer.
2006 Aug 15, Pakistani forces
arrested 29 suspected Taliban militants in a raid on a private
hospital after they came from neighboring Afghanistan.
2006 Aug 16, New York City
officials released new tapes of hundreds of heart-wrenching phone
calls from the World Trade Center on 9-11, along with other
2006 Aug 16, Google launched a
free wireless network for its hometown of Mountainview, Ca.
(SFC, 8/16/06, p.C1)
2006 Aug 16, John Mark Karr
(41), a former American school teacher, was arrested in Thailand for
the December, 1996, murder JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo. He said
he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan
went awry and he strangled her. Karr's confession that he had killed
JonBenet was later discredited.
2006 Aug 16, Over 80 immigrant
workers in New Orleans filed suit against Decatur Hotels LLC saying
they were being exploited. The workers from Peru, Bolivia and the
Dominican Rep. had not been reimbursed for travel and were not
getting the promised work hours.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A16)
2006 Aug 16, In southeastern
Afghanistan US and Afghan forces raided compounds suspected of being
al-Qaida sanctuaries, seizing weapons and explosives and arresting 8
people. US-led forces killed eight suspected militants after coming
under attack in Kunar province. A US soldier was killed when his
vehicle struck a Soviet-era mine in Paktika province. Western
officials said opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit record
levels, up by more than 40% from 2005, despite hundreds of millions
in counternarcotics money.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, Alfredo Stroessner
(93), anti-communist dictator of Paraguay (1954-1989), died in exile
in Brazil. He used the right-wing Colorado Party to rule with a
blend of force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ouster
in 1989. During his rule membership in the Colorado Party was
compulsory for all teachers, doctors, engineers, officers or those
who hoped for government service. Party dues was docked from
(AP, 8/16/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.71)
2006 Aug 16, Colombian police
arrested 14 top paramilitary leaders for violating the terms of a
peace accord that has led to the demobilization of 30,000 right-wing
fighters. Anti-narcotics police said they chemically fumigated the
Sierra Macarena national park last week, clearing its entire 11,370
acres of coca. The spraying destroyed coca capable of producing 17.5
tons of high-grade cocaine and was likely a major blow to the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)(Econ, 8/26/06, p.28)
2006 Aug 16, In northeast India
a grenade exploded in a Hindu temple, killing at least four people
and leaving 40 others injured, mainly in a stampede that followed
2006 Aug 16, Bombings in
Baghdad, killed 21 people and wounded 59. One American soldier was
also killed as he was distributing candy to the children. British
troops drove off gunmen who attacked the Basra governor's office,
apparently to avenge a tribal leader killed the day before. In Mosul
armed clashes between police and assailants in three predominantly
Sunni Arab neighborhoods killed least five gunmen with six arrested.
A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol north of Hillah,
killing three soldiers and wounding four. In Karbala 10 militia
fighters were killed and 281 arrested. A US soldier died of wounds
suffered in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/16/06)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A14)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Kashmir 5
Islamic rebels were shot dead by Indian troops after they sneaked
across the de facto border from the Pakistani zone. The army
suffered one casualty.
2006 Aug 16, Top foreign
diplomats planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international
force to enforce a cease-fire in southern Lebanon, but the
government was divided over whether Hezbollah should lay down its
arms or even withdraw them from the border with Israel.
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen
from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza,
killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol
boat opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a
fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged
Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 16, In Mogadishu,
Somalia, Islamic leaders gave seven men 40 lashes each for using or
selling marijuana, meting out the punishment in public in a dramatic
example of the region's new fundamentalist rule.
2006 Aug 16, The presidents of
South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe gathered for the official
opening the new Giriyondo border post linking South Africa and
Mozambique. This was another step in the creation of the 14,000
square mile Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which would span the
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 16, A South Korean aid
group claimed that massive floods in North Korea last month left
about 54,700 people dead or missing and some 2.5 million homeless.
2006 Aug 16, Sri Lankan war
planes bombed Tamil Tiger positions as troops hunted rebel
infiltrators in northern Jaffna peninsula after resisting a
2006 Aug 17, President Bush
signed new rules to prod companies into shoring up their pension
2006 Aug 17, A federal judge in
Detroit ruled that President Bush's warrantless surveillance program
violated the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the
separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. The
administration said it would appeal.
2006 Aug 17, Several large
California auto insurers said they will set premiums based on
driving records rather than ZIP codes and reduce rates for most
(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 17, In New Orleans
Merck & Co. lost a second federal trial over its withdrawn
painkiller Vioxx and must pay $51 million to a retired FBI agent who
had a heart attack after taking the drug for more than two years.
2006 Aug 17, Scientists believe
they have found a key gene that helped the human brain evolve from
our chimp-like ancestors. In just a few million years, one area of
the human genome seems to have evolved about 70 times faster than
the rest of our genetic code. It appears to have a role in a rapid
tripling of the size of the brain's crucial cerebral cortex,
according to an article published in the journal Nature.
2006 Aug 17, In the Arctic ice
Lt. Jessica Hill (31) and Boatswain's Mate Steven Duque (22), divers
on the US Coast Guard cutter Healy, died during a practice dive.
2006 Aug 17, In eastern
Afghanistan a bomb mistakenly dropped by a US-led coalition aircraft
killed 10 Afghan police officers in Paktika province. 16 more
people, including a US soldier, died in violence across the country.
(AP, 8/17/06)(WSJ, 8/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 17, An overnight
volcanic eruption in Ecuador's Andes mountains killed at least one
person and left more than 60 others missing. It was the first
fatality reported from a Tungurahua eruption since the volcano
rumbled back to life in 1999 after staying dormant for eight
2006 Aug 17, Dominican Republic
President Leonel Fernandez named four generals and a former law
partner to the Cabinet, a day after his party took control of the
Caribbean country's Congress for the first time.
2006 Aug 17, President Jacques
Chirac announced that France will immediately double to 400 troops
its contingent in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
2006 Aug 17, In Indonesia an
Islamic militant convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings was released
from prison and 11 others jailed for minor roles had their sentences
reduced to mark independence day.
2006 Aug 17, In Indonesia a
woman died of bird flu in a village where authorities were
investigating a possible cluster of human cases of the H5N1 virus.
2006 Aug 17, In central Baghdad
2 car bombs killed 13 people and injured 55, hours after another
bomb killed 8 laborers. One US soldier killed when a roadside bomb
exploded near a foot patrol south of Baghdad. A gallon of gasoline
on the black market in Baghdad sold for about $4.92, although the
official price was 64 cents a gallon. Iraq said it had doubled the
money allocated for importing oil products in August and September
to tackle the country's worst fuel shortage since Saddam Hussein's
(AP, 8/17/06)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A7)
2006 Aug 17, Jordanian envoy
Ahmed al-Lozi has presented his credentials to the Iraqi government,
becoming the first fully accredited Arab ambassador in the country
since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
2006 Aug 17, Lebanese troops,
tanks and armored vehicles deployed south of the Litani River, a key
provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended fighting between
Israel and Hezbollah. The deployment marks a first step toward
extending government control in a region Lebanese troops have
largely avoided for four decades. A Middle East Airlines passenger
jet flew into Beirut airport from Jordan as officials partially
lifted a 36-day Israeli air blockade.
2006 Aug 17, An outbreak of
strain of bluetongue, a disease transmitted to sheep by insects but
which is not contagious nor known to affect humans, was detected in
the southern Netherlands. Belgium and Germany soon reported cases.
2006 Aug 17, Sri Lankan troops
beat back a fresh attempt by Tamil Tigers to overrun the main
defenses of the northern peninsula of Jaffna and killed at least 98
guerrillas. At least six soldiers were killed and 60 wounded in the
2006 Aug 18, President George
W. Bush criticized a federal court ruling the day before that his
warrantless wiretapping program was unconstitutional, declaring that
opponents "do not understand the nature of the world in which we
2006 Aug 18, The US FDA
approved a mix of bacteria-killing viruses for spraying on cold
cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat deadly microbes.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 18, Raymond Payne, a
former HSBC Bank USA vice president, pleaded guilty in Manhattan
federal court to a conspiracy charge over his role in a $30 million
telemarketing fraud targeting low-income people with poor credit
histories. Prosecutors said First Choice, run by Canadian
co-defendants Stephen Clark and Leslie Pinsky, extracted $30 million
from people, and transferred the money to the HSBC account. In 2007
Clark was sentenced just over 11 years in prison.
(Reuters, 8/18/06)(Reuters, 6/15/07)
2006 Aug 18, In western
Missouri bone fragments from at least two people were found on a
three-acre wooded property northeast of Drexel. Michael Lee Shaver
Jr. (33) was arrested the next day and charged with murder for a
killing in 2001. Shaver claimed that he had killed, dismembered and
burned 7 men in his home following drug transactions.
(AP, 8/20/06)(SFC, 8/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 18, In Bristow,
Oklahoma, Donald Thompson (59), a former judge convicted of exposing
himself while presiding over jury trials, was sentenced to four
years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $40,000.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A2)
2006 Aug 18, The Washington
Post reported that sprinter Marion Jones had tested positive for the
endurance drug EPO at the US Track and Field Championships on June
23. A 2nd test came back negative and cleared the allegations. On
October 5, 2007, Jones pleaded guilty to using steroids before the
Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and acknowledged that she had, in fact,
lied when she previously denied steroid use. Her sanction required
disqualification of all her competitive results obtained after
September 1, 2000, and forfeiture of all medals, results, points and
prizes. On January 11, 2008, Jones was sentenced to 6 months
in jail. She began her sentence on March 7, 2008 and was released on
September 5, 2008.
(SFC, 8/19/06, p.A1)(SFC, 9/7/06,
2006 Aug 18, Ford Motor Co.
announced sharp cuts in its North American production that would
force it to partially shut down plants in the US and Canada in the
2006 Aug 18, Boeing took steps
toward shutting down production of its C-17 military cargo plane.
Production would continue until mid-2009 for the $200 million
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 18, Afghanistan
Education Minister Mohammed Hanif Atmar said attacks have closed
more than 208 schools, including 144 burned down, in the past year
as militants changed tactics to hit soft targets. At least 41
teachers and students have been killed over the past 12 months in a
wave of attacks on the country's schools.
2006 Aug 18, Anglo-Australian
resources giant BHP Billiton closed its operations at the world's
biggest copper mine in Chile and ended negotiations with striking
workers. The strike began on August 7 at the Escondida Mine,
majority owned by BHP. The Chilean government has signaled it was
ready to intervene.
2006 Aug 18, The Financial
Times reported that Britain has agreed to a multi-billion-dollar
defense deal to supply 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to Saudi
2006 Aug 18, In Canada the 16th
International AIDS Conference ended in a firestorm with vitriol
hurled at G8 countries and South Africa over lapses in the battle
against the disease that has claimed 25 million lives.
2006 Aug 18, Chile's Supreme
Court voted to strip Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from
prosecution, allowing him to be tried on corruption charges for his
once-secret multimillion dollar overseas bank accounts.
2006 Aug 18, China’s central
bank announced its 2nd interest rate hike in 4 months to choke off
excess investment. The benchmark lending rate rose .27% to 6.12%
effective Aug 19.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 18, The death toll
from Typhoon Saomai, the strongest storm to hit China in more than
five decades, jumped to 436 after more than 100 new deaths were
confirmed in the country's east.
2006 Aug 18, In southwest
Ethiopia search and rescue teams kept up frantic efforts to save
thousands marooned by fatal flash floods, where relief workers
reported near-total devastation. Some 73,000 people had been
affected by raging waters from unusually heavy seasonal rains.
2006 Aug 18, In Greece a
700-year-old icon, said to have the power to work miracles, was
discovered stolen from the cliff-side Elona Monastery. In September
police arrested a Romanian national in Crete and recovered the
Madonna and Child icon.
(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A26)(http://tinyurl.com/grxc8)
2006 Aug 18, The United
Liberation Front of Asom announced that it would stop attacking the
forces of the Indian government, which announced a unilateral
cease-fire Aug. 13. It was the first truce announced by the rebel
group since its formation in 1979.
2006 Aug 18, In Iraq 7 pilgrims
heading to a major Shiite religious gathering were shot dead in a
2006 Aug 18, Steorn, an Irish
company, said it has developed technology that it claims produces
free energy. The company said its discovery is based on the
interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean,
free and constant energy.
2006 Aug 18, Israeli soldiers
killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confrontations
in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 18, At least 10 people
died and as many as 40 were feared missing when a small boat packed
with illegal immigrants sank off Sicily, prompting Italy to call for
greater cooperation to fight human trafficking.
2006 Aug 18, The Lebanese army
reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time
in decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a
battered stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845
Lebanese were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers
and 68 Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the
Israeli side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many
from the 3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated
infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was
later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06,
2006 Aug 18, In Lesotho a
14-nation southern Africa summit closed with a pledge to speed up
regional economical integration, even as leaders expressed concern
about crisis-plagued member-state Zimbabwe.
2006 Aug 18, Nigeria’s military
launched a crackdown on suspected militants in the oil-rich south as
militants released another foreign hostage taken in a spate of
2006 Aug 18, Greenpeace warned
a sunken Philippine oil tanker was a pollution timebomb as oil from
its punctured tanks destroyed coral reefs and washed up blackened
fish on pristine beaches. Oil trapped in the tanks of the Solar I,
which went down last week with 500,000 gallons of industrial oil on
board, could pour out at any time. To date some 50,000 gallons had
leaked into the sea close to the central island of Guimaras.
2006 Aug 18, The UN said more
than 41,000 people on Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, about 10 percent
of its population, were believed to have fled their homes and warned
that supplies in the area had reached "alarmingly low levels".
2006 Aug 18, A bus carrying
Iranian tourists crashed into a truck in eastern Turkey, killing 18
and injuring 29.
2006 Aug 19, In California
explorers from the Cave Research Foundation discovered a large cave
in Sequoia National Park, which they named Ursa Minor.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, Afghan police
backed by NATO aircraft and artillery killed 71 suspected Taliban
militant in fierce clashes that also left five Afghan forces dead in
southern Kandahar province. 3 US soldiers were killed and 3 others
wounded during a clash against Taliban militants in eastern Kunar
province. In southern Uruzgan province, an American and an Afghan
soldier were killed and 3 other Americans wounded in a four-hour
clash with more than 100 insurgents. The latest violence came as the
country celebrated the 87th anniversary of its independence from
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Roger Deakin
(b.1943), English writer and film-maker, died. His last book
“Wildwood: A Journey Through Trees," was published posthumously in
2006 Aug 19, In East Timor
rampaging youths set houses on fire in Dili, a reminder that
stability has not yet returned to Asia's newest nation following
months of violence.
2006 Aug 19, In Germany a
21-year-old Lebanese was arrested in a police swoop on the railway
station in Kiel as he tried to flee the city, where he was a
student. He was one of two men suspected of planting bombs on German
trains in a failed terrorist attack in July.
2006 Aug 19, At least 13 people
were killed around Iraq, including four Iraqi soldiers in a roadside
bomb explosion in Diwaniyah. An American soldier was killed in
combat in Anbar province.
(AP, 8/19/06)(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli commandos
raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, sparking a fierce
clash with militants that left one Israeli soldier dead. Lebanon
called the raid a "flagrant violation" of the UN-brokered
cease-fire, while Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms
smuggling from Iran and Syria. A Lebanese civilian was killed when
unexploded Israeli munitions from the offensive detonated in the
village of Ras al-Ein, outside Tyre.
2006 Aug 19, Israeli soldiers
in Ramallah arrested Nasser Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime
minister. He was the highest-ranking Hamas official rounded up in a
seven-week-old crackdown against the ruling party.
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were
found and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd
boat in 2 days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian
island of Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water
after the boat sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people
on the boat.
2006 Aug 19, In Ivory Coast
waste, which contained hydrogen sulphide, was unloaded from a
Panamanian-registered ship, the Probo Koala, at Abidjan port and
then dumped in at least eight open air sites, including the city's
main rubbish dump. By mid-September 6 people had died and 16,000 had
sought treatment. Dutch-based Trafigura Beheer BV, one of the
world's leading commodities traders, said it had chartered the ship
and said the material was a "mixture of gasoline, water and caustic
washings" following the unloading of a cargo of gasoline in Nigeria.
(Reuters, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.58)
2006 Aug 19, French soldiers
landed in Lebanon, the first reinforcements for an expanded UN
peacekeeping force tasked with keeping the truce in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict. About 50 French troops, military
engineers, were to prepare for the arrival of 200 more soldiers
expected next week.
2006 Aug 19, Ten bodies were
found and about 20 other people were believed missing after a 2nd
boat in 2 days carrying would-be immigrants sank off the Italian
island of Lampedusa. Some 70 survivors were plucked from the water
after the boat sank, several of whom said there had been 120 people
on the boat.
2006 Aug 19, Mexican
prosecutors announced that they have charged two policemen with
protecting the Arellano Felix drug trafficking gang. Mexican police
said they had broken up a vote-buying scheme in Chiapas on the eve
of state elections.
2006 Aug 19, Demonstrations
erupted in Kathmandu, Nepal, after the government hiked fuel prices
by as much as 25% in a bid to save state-owned Nepal Oil Corp (NOC)
2006 Aug 19, In Nigeria
government troops arrested about 100 people in a search for
militants suspected of taking oil industry workers hostage in the
2006 Aug 19, Russia handed over
the body of a Japanese fisherman killed by a Russian patrol boat
that opened fire in disputed waters, sparking a diplomatic feud.
2006 Aug 19, In Sudan 2 African
Union peacekeepers from Rwanda were killed and 3 were wounded when
their convoy was ambushed in the Darfur region.
2006 Aug 19, The Turkish
Foreign Ministry said that it had forced two Syria-bound Iranian
planes to land and be searched for rockets and other military
equipment, one on Jul 27 and the other on Aug 8, during the conflict
between Israel and Hezbollah.
2006 Aug 19, A suspected
Kurdish rebel attack caused an explosion and huge fire on a natural
gas pipeline in eastern Turkey.
2006 Aug 20, Robert K. Hoffman
(59), one of the 3 founders of the National Lampoon magazine, died
in Dallas, Texas. Hoffman, Henry Beard and Doug Kenney sold their
interests in 1975.
2006 Aug 20, Joe Rosenthal
(94), former Associated Press photographer, who had taken the iconic
Iwo Jima flag-raising picture (2/23/1945) during World War II, died
in Novato, Calif.
2006 Aug 20, In Afghanistan
militants ambushed a police patrol in western Farah province,
sparking a gunbattle that left one officer and 2 attackers dead. In
Helmand province a clash with insurgents left one British soldier
dead and three others wounded. A NATO airstrike killed nine
militants including a local insurgent leader in Helmand province. A
roadside bomb killed three Afghan policemen traveling on the main
highway linking Murja and Lashkar Gah districts. Two roadside bombs
targeting border police in southeastern Khost province killed two
officers and wounded five others. Tens of thousands of health
workers fanned out across Afghanistan in a polio vaccination
campaign to immunize more than 7 million children under age 5.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 20, President Joseph
Kabila failed to win an outright majority in Congo's first elections
in more than four decades. Kabila won 45% of the 16.9 million votes
cast in the July 30 ballot; Bemba had 20%. Former rebel leader
Jean-Pierre Bemba will face Kabila in a second round of voting.
Security-forces loyal to Kabila and Bemba fought gunbattles that
killed at least two people.
2006 Aug 20, Arab League
foreign ministers convened in Egypt for an emergency meeting to
discuss how to fund reconstruction in war-ravaged Lebanon and defuse
Mideast tensions amid rising discord between moderate Arabs and
Syria, a main backer of Hezbollah.
2006 Aug 20, In northern France
a fire broke out in a run-down apartment building that mainly housed
immigrants, killing five people and injuring 10.
2006 Aug 20, In India a
Canadian was arrested with illegal drugs worth five million dollars
in New Delhi in what was billed as a major effort to stop narcotics
being shipped to the West. About 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of
ephedrine, hashish and other illegal drugs were seized overnight
from Girdish Singh Toor while he was leading a convoy of vehicles.
2006 Aug 20, Snipers firing
from rooftops and a cemetery killed 20 people and wounded dozens in
a series of attacks on a Shiite religious procession that drew
hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Baghdad. The "terrorist
assaults" took place when the pilgrims were walking through Sunni
areas on their way to the shrine of Imam Moussa Kadhim. 2 US Marines
and a sailor were killed in the western province of Anbar.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(Reuters, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 20, Israeli troops
detained Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the Hamas
parliament, pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant
2006 Aug 20, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against
humanity," and Lebanon's defense minister warned any group that
breaks the Middle East cease-fire will be dealt with harshly.
2006 Aug 20, Nepal’s government
withdrew hikes in gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel prices after
thousands of protesters clashed with police, blocked traffic and
vandalized government vehicles.
2006 Aug 20, In New Zealand
Tuheitia Paki (51), eldest son of the late Queen Te Arikinui Dame Te
Atairangikaahu, wore his mother's feather cloak as he was named the
new Maori king in the village of Ngaruawahia.
2006 Aug 20, At least 11 people
were killed when militants engaged Nigerian troops in a fierce gun
battle in the restive Niger Delta. Local press reports said 12
people, 10 militants, a Shell worker and a soldier, were killed
during the shootout.
2006 Aug 21, California’s Gov.
Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers agreed to raise California’s
minimum wage by $1.25 over the next year to $8.00 per hour, making
it the highest minimum wage in the nation.
(SFC, 8/22/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 21, NATO and Afghan
forces used aircraft in clashes that left 14 militants dead, capping
several days of intense fighting that killed more than 100 people
and threatened efforts to stabilize southern Afghanistan.
2006 Aug 21, Burundi police
arrested former President Domitien Ndayizeye, apparently in
connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the tiny central
African country's government.
2006 Aug 21, A fierce gun
battle pinned down foreign envoys in the Congolese capital Kinshasa
as fighting erupted for a second day following the announcement of a
presidential election run-off. At least five people died in
(Reuters, 8/21/06)(AFP, 8/21/06)
2006 Aug 21, In northern Egypt
a passenger train barreled into railway station and collided with a
second train outside Qalyoub, killing at least 58 people and
injuring more than 100.
(AFP, 8/21/06)(SFC, 8/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 21, In London,
England, 11 people were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in
the alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic jetliners.
One person, a woman, was released without charge. In 2009 Adam
Khatib (23) was sentenced for plotting with Abdulla Ahmed Ali, who
was convicted of leading the team. Ali was sentenced in September,
2009, to 40 years. Nabeel Hussain (25) received eight years while
Mohammed Shamin Uddin (39) was jailed for seven years.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 12/10/09)
2006 Aug 21, In Haiti Amaral
Duclona, the leader of a major gang, defied President Rene Preval's
orders to disarm, saying his followers would give up their weapons
only if UN peacekeepers stop conducting raids in the slums.
2006 Aug 21, Diplomats and UN
officials said Iran has turned away UN inspectors wanting to examine
its underground nuclear site in an apparent violation of the
2006 Aug 21, In Iraq a US
serviceman was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in was hit
by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad. A defiant Saddam Hussein
refused to enter a plea on genocide charges and dismissed the court
as illegitimate as his second trial began.
(Reuters, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/21/07)
2006 Aug 21, Police raided the
official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a
sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents.
Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in the
southern Lebanese village of Chamaa.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 21, In Mexico’s
Chiapas state Juan Sabines, of Lopez Obrador's Democratic Revolution
Party (PRD), held a razor-thin lead over Jose Antonio Aguilar
Bodegas, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who also is
backed by President Vicente Fox's National Action Party. Oaxaca sank
further into chaos as protesters armed with machetes, pipes and
clubs seized 12 private radio stations, cut off highways, and
blockaded bus terminals and newspaper offices.
2006 Aug 21, In Nigeria
soldiers stopped cars at checkpoints and arrested 60 people in the
third day of a crackdown on militants in the volatile oil region.
2006 Aug 21, In Russia a bomb
blast tore through a Moscow market, killing at least 11 people and
over 50 people. 3 detainees, all in their late teens or early 20s,
confessed to the crime.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/07)
2006 Aug 21, Somalia’s
embattled PM Ali Mohamed Gedi named a new Cabinet, two weeks after
the old one was dissolved amid a rift within the UN-backed
transitional government over how to respond to the growing influence
of Islamic militants.
2006 Aug 21, South Korea and
the US launched joint military exercises, held annually since 1975,
despite protests from North Korea. The Ulchi Focus Lens exercises
were scheduled to run until September 1.
2006 Aug 21, In northern Spain
at least 6 people died in a train derailment.
2006 Aug 21, Saudi police
killed two armed men during clashes in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.
2006 Aug 22, US sprinter Justin
Gatlin agreed to an 8-year ban for doping and will forfeit his 100m
world-record tie, set May 12 at the Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha.
(WSJ, 8/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 22, Paramount Pictures
severed ties to Tom Cruise after 14 years, citing unacceptable
2006 Aug 22, Berkeley, Ca.,
christened the new $70 million Berkeley City College, formerly known
as Vista College. Vista had begun in 1974 as Peralta College for
Non-traditional Study (PCNS). The name was changed to vista in 1978.
Classes were spread across more than 200 locations.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.B3)
2006 Aug 22, Sony Corp.
announced its purchase of Grouper, a small video-sharing site, for
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.58)
2006 Aug 22, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a
Canadian military patrol, wounding four soldiers. Insurgents
ambushed a police vehicle near the Pakistan border, killing five
officers. In Helmand province British troops using "high-explosive
ammunition" killed nine insurgents. In Kandahar province NATO
warplanes killed at least 11 Taliban fighters just hours after
militant attacks left one NATO soldier dead and five others wounded.
NATO troops killed one Afghan youth and wounded another after a
suicide bombing in Kandahar city that targeted a Canadian convoy,
killing one soldier and wounding three. 2 roadside bombs struck a
truck and a motorbike in the Kandahar district of Daman, killing
three civilians and wounding one.
(AP, 8/22/06)(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 22, British government
figures said Britain has taken in an estimated 427,000 migrants from
eight former communist states since they joined the European Union
in 2004, far more than an earlier prediction of 13,000 newcomers a
2006 Aug 22, In China visiting
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said China will expand its
cooperation in oil exploration and help his country build a
fiber-optic communications network under agreements to be signed in
Beijing this week.
2006 Aug 22, In Kinshasa
fighting flared for a third day between supporters of Congo's two
presidential candidates, as the UN called for an immediate
cease-fire and a European Union military force was sending
2006 Aug 22, An Egyptian tour
bus overturned in the Sinai peninsula killing 11 people, most of
them Israeli Arabs, and injuring more than 30.
2006 Aug 22, Kristjan Lepik of
Tallinn, Estonia, settled theft charges with the SEC. He agreed to
return over $550,000 in trading profits and pay a $15,000 penalty
for illegally trading on corporate information. The SEC said Lepik
and co-worker Oliver Peek made at least $7.8 million trading on
advanced looks at hundreds of press releases.
(SFC, 8/23/06, p.C2)
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopia began
releasing water from dams taxed by two weeks of heavy rain to
prevent them from bursting as the confirmed death toll from
devastating floods climbed to 626.
2006 Aug 22, Ethiopian troops
reportedly arrived in the central Somali town of Galkayo. The move
may stoke tensions with the Islamic militiamen who control most of
southern Somalia. They were seen inside the town in 13 vehicles.
2006 Aug 22, In India police
killed a Pakistani and arrested another in a shootout that
authorities said foiled a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India's
2006 Aug 22, In Iraq two people
were killed in a bomb explosion in Baghdad and two people were
killed during clashes between British forces and gunmen in the
southern city of Amarah. A policeman was shot to death in a drive-by
shooting in Al-Hay, north of Amarah.
(AP, 8/22/06)(AP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 22, Israeli troops
shot and killed three militants from the Islamic Jihad group near
the Israel-Gaza border, as soldiers conducted house-to-house
searches and made arrests elsewhere in the coast strip.
2006 Aug 22, The Orizont, a
leased Romanian oil rig off the coast of Iran, came under fire from
Iranian military vessels and was later occupied by Iranian troops. A
2nd Romanian rig had recently been towed from Iranian waters due to
(AP, 8/22/06)(WSJ, 10/14/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 22, A Russian
passenger jet with at least 170 people aboard crashed in Ukraine
after sending a distress signal. The Pulkovo airlines Tupolev 154,
en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St.
Petersburg, crashed near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
2006 Aug 22, In Spain Grigory
Perelman (40), a reclusive Russian, won a Fields Medal, the math
world's highest honor, for solving a problem that has stumped some
of the discipline's greatest minds for a century, but he refused the
2006 Aug 22, Thailand police
arrested 175 North Koreans, mostly women and children, who illegally
entered the country and were found hiding in an abandoned home in
2006 Aug 23, In Alaska
Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski finished last in a 3-day primary
election. Sarah Palin, a former Wasilla mayor, won with over 50% of
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Annie Donnelly
(38) of Long Island, NY, pleaded guilty to stealing $2.3 million
(1.2 million pounds) from her employers. She spent the money on
lottery tickets, buying as much as $6,000 worth of tickets a day in
a bid to hit the jackpot.
2006 Aug 23, The Citadel
released the results of a survey in which almost 20% of female
cadets reported being sexually assaulted since enrolling at the
South Carolina military college.
2006 Aug 23, In Washington
state Gov. Gregoire declared a state of emergency due to a group of
southeastern wildfires that had covered 70 square miles near Dayton.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 23, Maynard Ferguson
(78), Canadian-born jazz trumpeter, died in Ventura, Ca.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.B11)
2006 Aug 23, The Afghan and
Pakistani armies agreed to conduct coordinated and simultaneous
patrols with the US alongside their volatile border. The accord was
reached during the 17th meeting of Tripartite Commission. In
southern Afghanistan 18 Taliban rebels and an Afghan soldier were
killed in a clash that erupted after the militants attacked an army
post in Zabul province.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 23, Argentina
announced an ambitious plan to expand its nuclear program to meet
rising energy demands, including extending the life of existing
plants and possibly resuming uranium mining.
2006 Aug 23, Vytautas Pociunas,
a top Lithuanian spy posted to Belarus, was found dead in Brest.
Some linked his death to feuds within the Lithuanian security
service (VSD) over freight contracts. A parliamentary committee
called for Arvydas Pocius, the VSD chief, to go.
2006 Aug 23, The Canadian Food
Inspection Agency confirmed that a mature beef cow in the Prairie
province Alberta tested positive for mad cow case. It was the 8th
case since 2003.
2006 Aug 23, In western India
17 people were killed when a truck overturned and fell into a deep
ditch. Victims were sitting on top of sacks of salt that the truck
was transporting when it overturned into a ditch flooded from recent
2006 Aug 23, Iran urged Europe
to pay attention to what it called "positive" signals in its
counterproposal to a nuclear incentives package aimed at persuading
Tehran to roll back its nuclear program. Russia and China backed
Iran's call for negotiations to end the standoff.
2006 Aug 23, A roadside bomb
exploded in Baghdad and narrowly missed the interior minister's
convoy, killing two civilians and wounding several traffic
policemen. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police
headquarters in Mosul, killing at least one person. An Iraqi army
officer, 1st Lt. Hassanein Saadi al-Zerjawi (29) was gunned down in
a drive-by shooting in Amarah. A roadside bomb missed a US military
convoy in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, killing two
pedestrians and injuring 12. One US soldier was killed during a raid
to capture "foreign terrorists." Two militants also were killed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, In
Indian-controlled Kashmir a crowded bus swerved off a steep mountain
road and plunged into a gorge, killing at least 16 people and
injuring 35 others.
2006 Aug 23, A leader of
Kurdish rebels battling Turkey's government said in a rare interview
that his guerrillas will not give in to US pressure to disarm
without a "political project" that fulfills their calls for
autonomy. PKK party officials met with a group of journalists in the
rugged, isolated Qandil Mountain in Iraq's northeast corner where
the group is based.
2006 Aug 23, In southern
Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed while they dismantled an
unexploded missile. An Israeli soldier was killed and three others
wounded in southern Lebanon when their tank drove over a land mine.
2006 Aug 23, Assailants threw
grenades at the offices of a newspaper in the resort city of Cancun
in the latest in a series of attacks on news outlets across Mexico.
2006 Aug 23, In Oslo Villa
Grande, a sprawling mansion used by Norwegian Nazi collaborator
Vidkun Quisling during World War II, opened as a center to oppose
the intolerance, hatred and treachery he represented.
2006 Aug 23, A previously
unknown Palestinian group released the first video of two kidnapped
Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in US jails
be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men. Correspondent
Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 23, Russia’s Gazprom
threatened to cut off gas exports to Bosnia on Oct 1 if strides
toward repaying $104.8 million from debts incurred during wars that
ended in 1995.
(WSJ, 8/24/06, p.A6)
2006 Aug 23, Somalia’s seaport
in Mogadishu reopened for the first time in 11 years, the latest
sign that the city's Islamic fundamentalist rulers are trying to
restore confidence after more than a decade of anarchy.
2006 Aug 23, Sudan's ruling
party rejected a proposed Security Council resolution to transfer
peacekeeping duties in conflict-wracked Darfur to a UN force, saying
it would violate national sovereignty.
2006 Aug 23, Syria opposed
deployment of an international force along its border to prevent
arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in
Lebanon "explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were
killed while they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli
soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when
their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 23, Taiwan's cabinet
decided to increase military spending by nearly 30% next year as
President Chen Shui-bian warned of rival China's continuing
hostility towards the island.
2006 Aug 24, A US House report
said 70% of contracts for Hurricane Katrina were let with little or
no competition. 4 Katrina contractors were indicted for taking
$700,000 for no work.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, The US FDA
approved Plan B, also called the morning after pill, for sale
without prescription to women 18 and older.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, In Oakland, Ca.,
police moved to serve 65 arrest warrants and picked up 30 suspected
drug dealers. They planned to continue their sweep.
2006 Aug 24, A Kentucky judge
dropped charges against Gov. Fletcher in a plea deal in which
Fletcher acknowledged failure to follow the state’s merit-hiring
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, In Essex, Vermont,
Christopher Williams (26) shot and killed 2 people after breaking up
with his girlfriend, and then shot himself in the head. Williams
killed Andrea Lambesis (57), the mother of his girlfriend at her
home. He then went to Essex Elementary School where he killed
teacher Mary Shanks (56) and wounded 2 others.
(SFC, 8/25/06, p.A5)(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Deadly storms
swept across the northern Plains, bringing tornadoes that ripped
roofs off houses and hail that smashed car windshields. One man was
killed when a tornado hit his home in Minnesota, and in Wisconsin,
lightning apparently killed a dozen cows and struck a woman as she
left a supermarket.
2006 Aug 24, Carl C. Clark
(82), US auto safety and air-bag pioneer, died.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 24, Arthur Schiff
(b.1940), TV-advertising pitchman, died. His pitched products
included a kitchen knife, which he renamed Ginsu, made in Ohio. “But
wait, there’s more."
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A4)
2006 Aug 24, Ralph Schoenstein
(73), American humorist, writer and NPR commentator, died in
Philadelphia. His 18 books included “Fatherhood" (1987), ghost
written for Bill Cosby.
(SFC, 8/28/06, p.B4)
2006 Aug 24, Leading
astronomers meeting in Prague declared that Pluto is no longer a
planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system
from nine planets to eight.
2006 Aug 24, American and
Afghan forces killed seven suspected al-Qaida operatives after
coming under fire during a raid in eastern Afghanistan. Police,
however, claimed those killed were members of two families trying to
resolve a dispute.
2006 Aug 24, A Bangladesh court
acquitted former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad of graft
charges in an oil and defense deal, easing the way for his return to
the political mainstream ahead of elections next year.
2006 Aug 24, An explosion in
Chechnya's capital Grozny killed four people.
2006 Aug 24, In China a blind
activist who was arrested after recording complaints of forced
abortions was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
Chen Guangcheng was convicted of damaging property and "organizing a
mob to disturb traffic" after a trial in the eastern province of
2006 Aug 24, China reported
that a chemical spill on the Mangniu River in Jilin province was
contained. A 3-mile slick had been created by a xylidine spill from
a local chemical company.
(SFC, 8/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 24, A Danish
prosecutor charged four young Muslims with helping to supply weapons
and explosives for a planned terror attack in Europe. The four men,
arrested in Denmark last October 27, helped the two main suspects in
Bosnia get hold of weapons and explosives with the aim of committing
a terror act.
2006 Aug 24, France said it was
ready to send an extra 1,600 troops to bolster a revamped U.N. force
for Lebanon, bringing the total French contingent to 2,000 and
making it easier to recruit other nations.
2006 Aug 24, Murat Kurnaz
(b.1982), a German native, was released after spending more than 4
years locked up at Guantanamo Bay. He had been arrested in Pakistan
in late 2001. In 2007 he and Helmut Kuhn authored “Fünf Jahre meines
Lebens: Ein Bericht aus Guantanamo" (Five years of My Life: A Report
p.53)(http://tinyurl.com/36pdk5)(Econ, 6/9/07, p.97)
2006 Aug 24, In Iraq gunmen
overnight killed at least three people. A US soldiers was killed
south of Baghdad. 3 car bombs in Baghdad and a series of bombings
and shootings across the country killed 16 Iraqis and two US
soldiers. Police found four handcuffed bodies dumped separately in
the streets of Kut.
(AP, 8/24/06)(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 24, Israeli forces
crossed into the Gaza Strip in a raid that captured a local Hamas
militant leader and left his brother dead near a Gaza border town.
2006 Aug 24, Jihad Hamad (20),
the second main suspect in a failed plot to bomb two German trains,
was arrested in his native Lebanon after surrendering to police.
2006 Aug 24, Nigeria released
10,000 prisoners incarcerated for up to 10 years without trial.
(WSJ, 8/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 24, South Africa's
cabinet gave the green light for a bill allowing gay marriage, which
would make it the first country in Africa to accord homosexual
couples the same rights as their straight counterparts.
2006 Aug 25, A college
student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight that had
arrived in Houston from Buenos Aires, Argentina, was found to
contain a stick of dynamite, one of six security incidents that day
that caused US flights to be diverted, evacuated or searched.
2006 Aug 25, The US Navy
debuted Texas, its newest nuclear-powered submarine. in an Atlantic
Ocean swing off the Florida coast. This is the second in the latest
fast-attack class that marks a broad departure from the Cold War-era
2006 Aug 25, Bruce D.
Hopfengardner (46), a former US Army Reserve officer, admitted that
he steered millions of dollars in Iraq-reconstruction contracts in
exchange for jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors.
Hopfengardner (46) admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a US
citizen with businesses in Romania, Robert J. Stein Jr., a former
Defense Department contract official, and others to create a corrupt
bidding process that included the theft of $2 million in
2006 Aug 25, Michael John
O'Keefe, the deputy nonimmigrant visa chief at the US Consulate in
Toronto, was indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges.
International jewelry executive Sunil Agrawal, a native of India,
also was charged but remains at large.
2006 Aug 25, The Alabama
Supreme Court ruled that Richard Scrushy, the fired CEO of
HealthSouth Corp., must repay $47.8 million in bonuses he received
during a massive financial fraud at the medical services chain.
(WSJ, 8/26/06, p.A9)
2006 Aug 25, In SF former
Ukrainian PM Pavlo Lazarenko (53) was sentenced to nine years in
federal prison for money laundering, wire fraud and extortion. The
sentence, which also included $10 million in fines, was half of the
maximum sought by prosecutors. In March, he was elected to a
regional parliament office in Ukraine.
2006 Aug 25, Coca-Cola was sued
as part of a campaign to force US soft drink makers to eliminate
ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene. Two companies,
Zone Brands and TalkingRain Beverage Co., had already settled
(SFC, 8/26/06, p.A5)
2006 Aug 25, Joseph Stefano
(84), who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," died
in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
2006 Aug 25, President Hamid
Karzai ordered an investigation into the killings of eight people in
eastern Afghanistan during a raid that US forces claimed targeted
al-Qaida members. Afghan police clashed with suspected Taliban
militants in southern Zabul province, killing six insurgents and
wounding 12. Two French soldiers were killed in an ambush in eastern
Laghman province. Separate airstrikes in southern Uruzgan province
killed 23 militants, including a known Taliban commander. British
troops with a NATO-led force used artillery fire against a convoy of
insurgents that was moving into position for attack in Helmand
province. About seven insurgents were killed and seven vehicles
(AP, 8/25/06)(AP, 8/26/06)(AFP, 8/26/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Bangladesh
suspected Maoist attackers shot dead 4 policemen and a ruling party
official after hurling bombs and firing bullets in a crowded cattle
market. Police said they suspected the Purba Banglar Communist Party
(PBCP) was behind the attack.
2006 Aug 25, Officials said
drug users who don't engage in dealing will no longer be sent to
prison under a new drug law now in effect across Brazil.
2006 Aug 25, Zhao Yan (44), a
Chinese researcher for The New York Times who has been detained
since 2004, was cleared of charges of revealing state secrets but
convicted of fraud and sentenced to three years in prison. Xinhua
News said communities in southeastern China are straining to
resettle more than 15 million people left homeless by four
devastating typhoons in recent months. A moderate earthquake jolted
southwest China, killing two people.
2006 Aug 25, In China a tanker
truck loaded with 25 tons of liquid caustic soda, colorless,
transparent corrosive liquid that rapidly burns skin and eyes, fell
into a river 3 miles away from the Xuefeng reservoir in a city
within the municipality of Weinan in Shaanxi province. It polluted a
reservoir serving at least 100,000 residents for two days until
water quality returned to normal.
2006 Aug 25, The UN established
a new mission in East Timor but left Australian-led troops in place
following a dispute over whether they should remain independent or
be part of a UN force.
2006 Aug 25, German police
arrested a 3rd suspect in connection with a failed attempt to blow
up two trains. Lebanese authorities picked up a 4th man believed to
have been involved.
2006 Aug 25, Looters ravaged
Camp Abu Naji in Amarah, a former British base, a day after the camp
was turned over to Iraqi troops, taking everything from doors and
window frames to corrugated roofing and metal pipes. A police
officer was killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Samarra.
2006 Aug 25, Israeli aircraft
attacked two buildings in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least nine
2006 Aug 25, A military truck
carrying UN peacekeepers crashed in Ivory Coast, killing six
Bangladeshi troops and injuring 11 others.
2006 Aug 25, In Jordan top
leaders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party gave
their leader the go-ahead to begin forming a unity government with
the militant Hamas in an effort to end internal feuding and
2006 Aug 25, Japanese officials
said Kazusaku Tezuka, the president of precision instrument maker
Mitutoyo Corp., was arrested along with four other Mitutoyo
executives and employees for the alleged export to Malaysia of
equipment that can be used in making nuclear weapons.
2006 Aug 25, The UN said
unexploded cluster bomb litter homes, gardens and highways in south
Lebanon, as the US State Department reportedly investigated whether
Israel's use of the American-made weapons violated secret agreements
with the United States.
2006 Aug 25, In Mongolia the
Dalai Lama elevated a group of monks into the Buddhist priesthood's
higher ranks, bolstering the country's traditional faith as it
struggles to re-establish itself following decades of communist
2006 Aug 25, In Niger the UN
food agency inaugurated a program to help feed hundreds of thousands
of people as the impoverished West African nation struggles to
recover from severe shortages.
2006 Aug 25, Nigerian soldiers
in Port Harcourt burned hundreds of slum houses located close to the
compound of an Italian oil company where at least one Italian worker
was kidnapped and his bodyguard killed overnight.
2006 Aug 25, Peru's jailed
ex-intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos was sentenced to six
years in prison for using government money to fund former President
Alberto Fujimori's 2000 re-election campaign. The sentence will be
served concurrently with Montesinos' 15-year prison sentence for
various corruption convictions.
2006 Aug 25, The UN food agency
said fighting between Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and security
forces has forced at least 204,000 people from their homes in the
eastern and northern parts of the country. A food relief ship began
unloading in northern Sri Lanka to lift a two-week siege of the
Jaffna peninsula as fresh clashes left five rebels dead.
(AP, 8/25/06)(AFP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 26, Tropical Storm
Ernesto strengthened over the Caribbean as it headed toward Jamaica
and the Cayman Islands, threatening to become the first hurricane of
the 2006 Atlantic season.
2006 Aug 26, In Afghanistan a
large number of militants attacked the Musa Qala district government
compound in Helmand, provoking a clash with police that left 10
2006 Aug 26, Thousands of
farmers took to the streets across northern Bangladesh over the
fatal shooting of at least five people protesting against an
open-pit coal mine.
2006 Aug 26, Chad ordered US
energy giant Chevron and Malaysia's Petronas to leave the country
within 24 hours for failing to honor tax obligations, a move
apparently aimed at increasing control over its oil output. Chad's
president Idriss Deby suspended the oil minister and two other
Cabinet members who negotiated deals with the two foreign oil firms.
2006 Aug 26, Iran's hard-line
president inaugurated a heavy-water production plant, a facility the
West fears will be used to develop a nuclear bomb, as Tehran
remained defiant ahead of a UN deadline that could lead to
2006 Aug 26, Iraq's PM Nouri
al-Maliki urged hundreds of tribal leaders to join his efforts to
end sectarian strife and terrorism Kidnapped Sunni lawmaker Tayseer
al-Mashhadani was released after being held for nearly two months.
Al-Mashhadani and 7 of her bodyguards were seized July 1 by gunmen
in a Shiite area of east Baghdad. Gunmen in a speeding car opened
fire on two sisters working as translators for the British
consulate, killing one of them and seriously wounding the other. 26
people were killed in dozens of attacks across Iraq. One US soldier
was killed by a roadside bomb.
(AP, 8/26/06)(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Nepal a
landslide in a mountainous western village killed at least 10 people
and injured three others.
2006 Aug 26, In Pakistan
government forces killed Nawab Akbar Bugti (79), the most prominent
leader in the rebellion by Baluch tribesmen, in a raid on his cave
hideout in the mountainous area of the southwestern provinces of
Baluchistan. A top security official said at least 16 security
forces, including four officers, were killed.
2006 Aug 26, In the West Bank,
Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a
standoff at a fugitives' hideout and doctors said a 16-year-old
Palestinian was killed. Twenty Palestinians were wounded in the
clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus.
2006 Aug 26, In Russia's
Dagestan region police surrounded a home and exchanged gunfire with
suspected militants, killing four and wounding a woman who was with
2006 Aug 26, Vladimir
Tretchikoff (92), Manchurian-born artist, died in Cape Town. In 2013
his iconic painting "Chinese Girl," said to be one of the most
reproduced in the world, sold at auction for 982,050 British pounds
(nearly $1.5 million).
2006 Aug 26, In Sri Lanka
police found a large weapons cache hidden in a house on the
outskirts of Colombo, and arrested 17 people suspected of planning a
major attack. Sporadic fighting left 12 rebels killed and 20 injured
during a battle in the northeastern Batticaloa district. A
bomb killed six Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded 11 as they cleared
up after fierce fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels in the besieged
northern Jaffna peninsula.
(AP, 8/26/06)(AFP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 26, A Sudanese court
charged reporter Paul Salopek (44) with espionage. He was detained
by pro-government forces in Darfur on Aug 6. Salopek was on
freelance assignment for National Geographic magazine.
(SSFC, 8/27/06, p.A19)
2006 Aug 26, An international
rights groups said a court in tightly controlled Turkmenistan has
sentenced three rights defenders to jail terms of six to seven
2006 Aug 26, Officials said
Uganda and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army have signed a truce to
end a 19-year conflict that killed thousands of people.
2006 Aug 27, Heart-pounding spy
thriller "24" finally broke through at the Emmy Awards, winning the
prize as best drama series in its fifth try, while new workplace
satire "The Office" was crowned best comedy.
2006 Aug 27, In Kentucky a
Comair commuter jet carrying 50 people, crashed in a field and
caught fire shortly after taking off in light rain. The co-pilot was
the sole survivor. The taxi route for commercial jets using Blue
Grass Airport's main runway was altered a week before Comair Flight
5191 took the wrong runway and crashed.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/07)
2006 Aug 27, Ernesto became the
first hurricane of the Atlantic season with winds of 75 mph, and
forecasters said it would strengthen as it headed toward the Gulf of
2006 Aug 27, In Afghanistan
insurgent attacks in Helmand province killed a British soldier,
while 10 suspected Taliban militants died when police repelled an
attack on a government compound in the same province. Insurgent
attacks left seven wounded in Kandahar province.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Brazil
archbishop Luciano Mendes de Almeida (75), an avid human rights
2006 Aug 27, Britain’s National
Patient Safety Agency reported that 2,159 patients died between
April 2005 and March 2006 as a result of "patient safety incidents"
in the National Health Service (NHS).
2006 Aug 27, China adopted a
new bankruptcy law making it easier to restructure insolvent firms.
It became effective on June 1, 2007.
2006 Aug 27, State media quoted
officials saying that one-third of China's vast landmass is
suffering from acid rain caused by its rapid industrial growth,
while local leaders are failing to enforce environmental standards
for fear of hurting business.
2006 Aug 27, In western India a
water tank collapsed during a Bharatpur town fair, killing 45 people
who had climbed on top of it to watch a wrestling match.
2006 Aug 27, Iran test fired a
new submarine-to-surface missile during war games in the Persian
Gulf. A brief video clip showed the long-range missile, called
Thaqeb, or Saturn, exiting the water and hitting a target on the
water's surface within less than a mile.
2006 Aug 27, In Baghdad 2
explosions killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens. Gunmen in 3
cars opened fire at the outdoor market of Khalis, a mostly Shiite
town. 12 people were killed and 25 others were wounded. 7 US
soldiers were killed in and around Baghdad, 6 by roadside bombs and
one by gunfire. Bombings and shootings killed at least 73 people
across the country. A US service member died in fighting in Anbar
province west of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/27/06)(AP, 8/28/06)(SFC, 8/28/06,
2006 Aug 27, Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news
agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen. Two Hamas
militants were killed in separate airstrikes.
2006 Aug 27, Jordan's
parliament endorsed the country's first anti-terrorism law despite
objections by some lawmakers that the bill curtails freedoms.
2006 Aug 27, Mauritania police
said the bodies of 15 people found washed ashore on the beaches of
Nouakchatt, Mauritania's capital, are believed to be those of
African migrants who were trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands by
boat. Spain's Interior Ministry said more than 18,300 people have
reached the Canary Islands so far this year, the highest total ever.
2006 Aug 27, Mexican electoral
officials said Juan Sabines, a leftist candidate, won the governor's
race in Mexico's volatile southernmost state of Chiapas, edging out
Jose Antonio Aguilar, backed by President Vicente Fox's party by
about 6,300 votes.
2006 Aug 27, Hundreds of
rioters angered by the killing of a rebel Baluch tribal leader
rampaged through Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, burning shops,
banks and police vehicles. Police arrested 450 rioters who rampaged
2006 Aug 27, Militants freed
Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, two Fox News journalists in
the Gaza Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama.
2006 Aug 27, In Russia a man
doused himself with flammable liquids and set himself on fire on Red
Square before dozens of shocked tourists.
2006 Aug 27, In Turkey a bomb
on a minibus injured 21 people including 10 British tourists. The
explosion was in the popular Mediterranean resort town of Marmaris.
2 other bomb blasts hit at the same time in garbage cans on the main
2006 Aug 28, Prosecutors in
Colorado abruptly dropped their case against John Mark Karr in the
slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at
the crime scene despite his repeated insistence he'd killed the
6-year-old beauty queen.
2006 Aug 28, Rice farmers in
Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Texas
sued BayerCrop Science alleging that its genetically modified rice
has contaminated the nation’s crop. Japan had suspended imports of
US long-grain rice a week earlier. On Jul 31 US authorities learned
that Bayer’s unapproved rice had been found in commercial bins in
Arkansas and Missouri.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.E1)
2006 Aug 28, Columbus, Ga.,
beat Kawaguchi City, Japan, 2-1 to win the Little League World
Series championship game.
2006 Aug 28, In southeastern
Kentucky a small plane from Wichita Fall, Texas, crashed and all 7
people aboard were killed.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 28, Five people were
killed and dozens injured after a Montreal-bound Greyhound bus from
New York City overturned on a highway in upstate New York.
2006 Aug 28, Ed Benedict (94),
legendary animator, died in Auburn, Ca. He put life, love and
laughter in TV cartoon characters like Fred Flintstone (1960),
Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.
(AP, 10/10/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.B9)
2006 Aug 28, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in Lashkar Gah,
Helmand province, killing 21 people and wounding 43. US-led
coalition troops killed 18 suspected insurgents when about 60
militants attacked with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled
grenades in Cahar Cineh district of the southern Uruzgan province.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, Don Chipp (81), an
Australian politician famed for his pledge to "keep the bastards
honest," died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
2006 Aug 28, In Chile Paul
Schaefer (84), former leader of Colonia Dignidad, or Dignity Colony,
was sentenced to 7 years in prison for arms found at the secretive
enclave near Parral, 200 miles south of Santiago.
2006 Aug 28, Tropical Storm
Ernesto hit Cuba west of the US naval air base at Guantanamo after
killing 2 people in Haiti.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, Ene Ergma (62), a
Soviet-trained astronomer, failed to win enough votes in parliament
to become Estonia's next president, forcing a new vote on a second
2006 Aug 28, Gunmen opened fire
with assault rifles in a Guatemala pool hall, killing eight people
including a 17-year-old boy. The attack occurred in the poor
Guatemala City suburb of Ciudad Quetzal.
2006 Aug 28, Guyana held
elections. Critics accused Guyana's government of turning a blind
eye to the cocaine flowing Guyana to the US and Europe. President
Bharrat Jagdeo's party appeared headed to victory in Guyana's
election, according to vote results.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 28, In India officials
said monsoon rains and flooding have killed at least 130 people in
the western state of Rajasthan, with huge swathes of desert
2006 Aug 28, In Iraq a suicide
car bombing in Baghdad killed 16 people. Clashes in Diwaniyah
between Shiite militia and Iraqi security forces left 73 people
dead. A US service member died of wounds sustained in a vehicle
accident in Balad north of Baghdad.
(AP, 8/28/06)(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Ireland the
government and directors of the state-owned airline announced that
Aer Lingus Group PLC expects to raise more than $500 million by
selling stock for the first time in a public offering next month.
2006 Aug 28, An Israeli
airstrike on central Gaza killed 4 Palestinian militants.
2006 Aug 28, Italy approved
2,500 troops in a boost to an expanded international force in
2006 Aug 28, US Sen. Barack
Obama urged Kenyans to take control of their country's destiny by
opposing corruption and ethnic divisions in government during a
policy speech at the main university in his father's homeland.
2006 Aug 28, Mexico’s top
electoral court announced that a partial recount found no widespread
evidence of fraud.
(SFC, 8/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 28, In the Netherlands
prosecutors at the International Criminal Court filed their first
indictment, charging Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese warlord, for
allegedly abducting and recruiting children as young as 10 to fight
in Congo's brutal civil war.
2006 Aug 28, In Quetta,
Pakistan, mobs burned shops, banks and buses in a second day of
rioting over the killing of a top tribal chief by Pakistani troops,
raising fears that a decades-old conflict in the country's volatile
southwest could widen.
2006 Aug 28, Palestinian
municipal workers responsible for garbage collection, water
treatment, and sewage processing went on strike in Gaza City and two
other southern towns.
2006 Aug 28, In Sri Lanka at
least 31 people were killed and another 105 wounded as security
forces moved to push back rebel artillery threatening a strategic
2006 Aug 28, In South Africa
Adriaan Vlok, whose ministry helped suppress anti-apartheid
protests, last weekend visited the offices of the Rev. Frank
Chikane, a top presidential aide, to apologize. Vlok brought his
Bible and washed Chikane's feet in an attempt to atone for the sins
of the white racist regime that ruled the country until 1994.
2006 Aug 28, In Turkey a bomb
in the resort city of Antalya killed 3 people and injured 18. A
group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons claimed
(AP, 8/28/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.6)
2006 Aug 29, President George
Bush visited New Orleans one year after Hurricane Katrina devastated
the region to offer comfort and hope to residents.
2006 Aug 29, A US probe
determined that Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Broadcasting
Board of Governors, misused government funds on several occasions,
overbilling for his time and funneling unauthorized contracts to a
(AP, 8/29/06)(WSJ, 8/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 29, Omeed Aziz Popal
(29), a native of Afghanistan, killed one pedestrian in Hayward,
Ca., and injured another 16 at 11 locations in SF in a driving
rampage. SF police finally rammed him down at California and Spruce
streets. In 2008 a SF judge ruled that Popal was legally insane.
(SFC, 8/30/06, p.A1)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.B1)
2006 Aug 29, In East Oakland,
Ca., Anthony Quintero (24), a Brink’s guard, was killed during a
robbery that involved his partner Clifton Wherry Jr. and Dwight
Campbell, who shot Quintero. In 2009 Campbell (26) and Wherry (31)
were convicted of 1st degree murder. Both were sentenced to life in
prison without parole.
(SFC, 10/9/09, p.D5)(SFC, 12/12/09, p.C2)
2006 Aug 29, Warren Steed Jeffs
(50), a fugitive polygamist, was arrested in Nevada. He was on the
FBI’s 10 most-wanted list for sex crimes in Utah and Arizona. Jeffs
ruled the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
(FLDS) since his father died in 2002. The sect had broken from the
Mormon Church over a century ago.
(SFC, 8/30/06, p.A11)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.34)
2006 Aug 29, Tropical Storm
Ernesto's leading edge drenched Miami and the rest of southern
2006 Aug 29, A suicide car
bomber struck a NATO-Afghan military convoy, killing two civilians
and wounding one in the violence-wracked south. A remote-controlled
bomb killed two police officers on patrol.
2006 Aug 29, About 50 former
militants surrendered and handed over their weapons in a ceremony
led by Chechnya's powerful prime minister, who said rebel numbers
are dwindling in the war-ravaged region.
2006 Aug 29, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad challenged the authority of the UN Security Council as
Iran faces a deadline to halt its uranium enrichment and he called
for a televised debate with President Bush on world issues.
2006 Aug 29, The bodies of 13
people, believed to have been aged between 25 and 35, were found
dumped behind a Shiite mosque in the Turath neighborhood in western
Baghdad. All were handcuffed, showed signs of torture and had been
shot in the head. 11 of the bullet-riddled corpses were found near a
school in the Shiite dominated Maalif neighborhood in southern
Baghdad. A pipeline carrying oil byproducts exploded near Diwaniyah,
killing at least 36 people with 45 injured.
(AP, 8/29/06)(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 29, Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador, Mexico's leftist presidential candidate, rejected a
court decision upholding his rival's slim lead in the disputed July
2 race and called on his supporters not to recognize a government
led by Felipe Calderon.
2006 Aug 29, In Quetta,
Pakistan, gunfire and rioting broke out for a fourth straight day
after the funeral service for a prominent tribal chief killed by
Pakistani government forces. One policeman was killed and dozens of
shops destroyed. Three factory workers were killed in a restaurant
bombing in the Baluchistan town of Hub.
2006 Aug 29, An extremist
Kurdish militant group warned that "the fear of death will reign
everywhere in Turkey" and it urged tourists to avoid travel to the
2006 Aug 29, A cease-fire
between Uganda's government and the LRA, a shadowy rebel movement
that has terrorized this east African nation for nearly two decades,
went into effect.
2006 Aug 30, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger and Democrats struck a deal to require state
industries to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
(SFC, 8/31/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 30, Glenn Ford (90),
American actor, died at his home in Beverly Hills, Ca. He played
strong, thoughtful protagonists in films such as "The Blackboard
Jungle," "Gilda" and "The Big Heat."
2006 Aug 30, Brazil’s central
bank cut its key interest rate 0.5% to 14.25%, a quarter point more
than had been expected. Brazil also released weaker-than-expected
data on GDP.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Aug 30, Canadian miner
Uranium One said it had approved Australia's fourth uranium mine,
the Honeymoon project in the South Australian outback.
2006 Aug 30, Conservationists
said the remains of 100 African elephants killed for their tusks
have been found in Chad not far from Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
2006 Aug 30, Nearly 60 inmates
escaped from an East Timor jail, including scores of people arrested
in recent violence that wracked the tiny nation and militiamen who
opposed the country's break from Indonesian rule.
2006 Aug 30, Naguib Mahfouz
(b.1911), Arab writer, died in Cairo. He became the first Arab
writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1988) for his novels
depicting modern Egyptian life. Across the span of 35 novels,
hundreds of short stories and essays, over 20 movie scripts and five
plays, Mahfouz depicted with startling realism the Egyptian
"Everyman" balancing between tradition and the modern world.
(AP, 8/30/06)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.78)
2006 Aug 30, Iran released
Ramin Jahanbegloo, a Canadian-Iranian writer, who was accused of
working with the US to overthrow the government.
2006 Aug 30, A roadside bomb
exploded in Baghdad's oldest and largest wholesale market district,
killing at least 24 people and wounding 35. An explosives-rigged
bicycle detonated near an army recruiting center in Hillah killed at
least 12 people and wounded 28. Bloodshed left at least 52 dead. 2
American soldiers and a Marine were killed.
(AP, 8/30/06)(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Aug 30, Israeli troops
launched airstrikes on the outskirts of Gaza City and exchanged
gunfire with Palestinian militants, killing six people.
2006 Aug 30, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora said that he refused to have any direct contact with Israel
and that Lebanon would be the last Arab country to ever sign a peace
deal with the Jewish state. Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief,
accused Israel of "shocking" and "completely immoral" behavior for
dropping large numbers of cluster bombs on Lebanon when a cease-fire
in its war with Hezbollah was in sight.
2006 Aug 30, Hurricane John
lashed tourist resorts with heavy winds and rain as the dangerous
Category 4 storm marched up Mexico's Pacific coast.
2006 Aug 30, Nigerian officials
and the UN refugee agency appealed to some 6,000 recalcitrant
Liberian refugees to go back home, warning that time and hospitality
were fast running out for them.
2006 Aug 30, In southwestern
Pakistan protesters angry over the killing of a rebel tribal chief
blocked highways in Quetta, preventing workers from reaching the
provincial capital and forcing most shops to close. In northwestern
Pakistan militants decapitated an Islamic cleric and an Afghan
refugee accused of spying for US and Afghan authorities.
2006 Aug 30, Russia released
two Japanese fishermen held since their boat was seized for
allegedly fishing in Russian waters in a confrontation in which a
crewman was killed.
2006 Aug 30, In Sudan riot
police fired teargas and beat a journalist in central Khartoum on as
opposition party supporters gathered to demonstrate against a recent
rise in petrol and sugar prices.
2006 Aug 30, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez said in Damascus that he and Syrian President
Bashar Assad shared a "decisive and firm" stance against American
"imperialism" and "domination."
2006 Aug 31, President George
Bush, speaking in Salt Lake City, predicted victory in the war on
terror, likening the struggle against Islamic fundamentalism with
the fight against Nazis and communists.
2006 Aug 31, The United States
carried out a subcritical nuclear experiment successfully at an
underground test site in Nevada, the 2nd this year and the 23rd such
test since 1997.
2006 Aug 31, In California Tony
J. Daniloo (32) of Turlock was indicted on 122 charges of fraud and
money laundering for allegedly embezzling $7 million from homeowners
in the East Bay and the Central Valley.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.B12)
2006 Aug 31, NASA awarded a
multibillion contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to send astronauts to
the moon and maybe on to Mars. The projected Orion crew exploration
vehicle program will cost an estimated $7.5 billion through
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A7)
2006 Aug 31, In southern
Montana a wildfire burned 20 houses and 15 other buildings as it
spread over some 156,000 acres.
(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 31, In New York 2
state troopers were shot while staking out the property of a former
girlfriend of escaped convict Ralph Phillips. Trooper Joseph
Longobardo (32) died from his wounds on Sep 3. Phillips, a
44-year-old career thief who has spent 20 of the past 23 years in
state prison, surrendered Sep 8 without firing a shot.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Aug 31, J.S. Holliday
(b.1924), California historian, died. His book included “The World
Rushed In" (1981), a history of the California gold rush.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.B1)
2006 Aug 31, In Afghanistan
Taliban militants attacked Naw Zad in Helmand province, sparking
intense fighting with government troops that left two insurgents
dead. In Zabul province a suicide attacker plowed his
explosives-filled car into a police convoy traveling on the main
road, wounding three officers. A Dutch F-16 fighter jet crashed in
the Ghazni province in central Afghanistan, killing the pilot.
2006 Aug 31, In Argentina tens
of thousands gathered in the central square of Buenos Aires for one
of the biggest anti-crime rallies ever seen there. It was organized
by Juan Carlos Blumberg, a businessman and leader of the
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.39)
2006 Aug 31, A minister said
Bangladesh has bowed to demands from protestors and cancelled a 734
million pound (1.4-billion dollar) plan by British firm Asia Energy
to build an open-pit coal mine.
2006 Aug 31, Heng Pov, former
Phnom Penh police chief, was arrested at a hotel in Singapore when a
clerk brought food for him. A Cambodian court warrant had been
recently issued against him accusing him of involvement in a number
of crimes such as the killing of Phnom Penh judge Sok Sethamony,
assassination attempts on general Sao Sokha and judge Uk Savuth, as
well as a number of other criminal cases. Pov claimed that he was
being framed for refusing orders to kill Hok Lundy, the internal
(http://tinyurl.com/gtumm)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Aug 31, A Chinese court
sentenced Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong reporter, to five years in
prison on spying charges in a case that prompted outcries by press
freedom groups. In Hunan Province a mine gas explosion killed at
least nine people.
(AP, 8/31/06)(Reuters, 9/3/06)
2006 Aug 31, Sen. Barack Obama,
D-Ill., visited a sprawling tent camp in eastern Ethiopia for people
displaced by devastating floods earlier this month, saying the US
military will continue to help the region.
2006 Aug 31, Sexus Politicus,
by co-authors Christophe Dubois and Christophe Deloire, was
published in France. It revealed decades of philandering, adultery
and seduction at the heart of the French state, with politicians of
all colors apparently sharing the same passion for extra-marital
2006 Aug 31, Guyana’s elections
commission said President Bharrat Jagdeo won re-election and his
ruling People's Progressive Party increased its majority in Guyana's
parliament. The PPP received 183,887 votes, or about 55%, and
increased its seats in parliament by two to 36.
2006 Aug 31, In eastern India
at least 30 people drowned when a crowded boat capsized in the
rain-swollen Ganges River in the state of Bihar.
2006 Aug 31, Indian officials
said more than 11,000 Tamil refugees have fled to India since
January to escape renewed fighting between the Sri Lankan army and
separatist rebels and more are likely to come.
2006 Aug 31, Iran defied a UN
deadline to stop enriching uranium.
2006 Aug 31, PM Nouri al-Maliki
said Iraqi security forces will take over Dhi Qar province in
September, and will take over the control of more provinces during
the rest of the year. A suicide car bomb targeting a line of cars
waiting at a Baghdad gas station killed two people and wounded 13. A
barrage of coordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad neighborhoods
killed at least 64 people and wounded 286 within half an hour. The
dead included at least 13 women and a dozen children. A total of 85
people were killed across the country.
(AP, 8/31/06)(AP, 9/1/06)(SFC, 9/1/06, p.A3)
2006 Aug 31, The Israeli army
said that it has transferred control over a portion of the
Israel-Lebanon border to Lebanese and international troops for the
first time in two decades.
2006 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers
searching for tunnels and explosives withdrew from the outskirts of
Gaza City, ending a five-day operation that Palestinians said left
20 people dead and heavily damaged houses, streets and farmlands.
Palestinian militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel,
defying the calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the
2006 Aug 31, Kenya stepped up
criticism of US Senator Barack Obama, accusing him of insulting the
Kenyan people and trivializing their achievements during a visit to
his father's homeland. Obama had rebuked Kibaki's government for
failing to address corruption and said Kenya's democratic progress
"is in jeopardy... being threatened by corruption."
2006 Aug 31, Hurricane John
pummeled Mexico's resort-studded Pacific Coast with wind and rain.
2006 Aug 31, The UN Security
Council passed a resolution that would give the United Nations
authority over peacekeepers in Darfur as soon as Sudan's government
gives its consent, which it has so far refused to do.
2006 Aug 31, An internal
investigation concluded that a UN official steered millions of
dollars in contracts to a company owned by the government of his
native India in exchange for favors that included low-rent
2006 Aug 31, In southern
Thailand nearly two dozen bombs exploded almost simultaneously
inside commercial banks, killing two people in a region bloodied by
a Muslim insurgency.
2006 Aug, A report by the US
Census Bureau in its 2005 American Community Survey indicated that
marriage did not figure in nearly 55.8 million American family
households, or 50.2%. The trend represented a dramatic change from
just six years ago, when married couples made up 52 percent of 105.5
million American households.
2006 Aug, Norman Buckley (44)
an assistant at Manchester's Central Library, pleaded guilty to
theft charges for stealing more than 450 centuries-old books and
documents between January 2005 and March 2006. In October he
received a 15-month jail sentence, but it was suspended for two
2006 Aug, Trading
counterparties of Amaranth hedge fund demanded $1.5 billion in
collateral to cover losses. The firm’s assets fell by $6 billion in
(Econ, 6/8/13, p.86)
2006 Aug, In China a project
was begun in Shanghai to treat industrial waste with iron filings, a
process which had been found to be a cheap and efficient way to
clean up polluted water.
(Econ, 12/6/08, TQ p.11)
2006 Aug, In Colombia the
telenovela “Sin Tetas no hay Paraiso" (Without Breasts There's No
Paradise) premiered. It was based on a best-selling, true-to-life
novel by the same name and became very popular.
2006 Aug, In India some 260
million people lived on less than one dollar a day. Nearly half the
country’s children under age six were undernourished and more than
half the women were illiterate. Half the homes in the country had no
(Econ, 8/12/06, p.64)
2006 Aug, In Macedonia within 3
days of the new government taking office as many as 544 managers and
top officials from state companies were sacked or shunted aside.
(Econ, 10/21/06, p.62)
2006 Aug, In Nigeria Transcorp
acquired NITEL, the state-run telecommunication company. Pres.
Olusegun Obasanjo was widely believed to have a large stake in
Transcorp. In 2009 the government voided the sale.
2006 Aug, In Romania the heads
of the leading spy agencies quit along with the top prosecutor after
they failed to keep track of Omar Hayssam. The Syrian-born
businessman, arrested on terrorism charges, fled Romania after being
paroled for health reasons.
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.62)
2006 Aug, In Sri Lanka Tamil
rebels abducted 56 boys and girls during a 4-day period this month
in Batticaloa district. UNICEF figures showed that 5,666 children
had been abducted between a cease fire in 2002 and July 2006. The
organization speculated that only about a third of such cases were
reported to them.
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A17,18)
2006 Aug, In Turkey a
parliamentary report found that 1,091 honor-related crimes had been
committed over the last 5 years. Blame for many honor of the
killings was placed on the patriarchal and feudal system entrenched
in the Kurdish provinces.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.62)
2006 Sep 1, US military forces
launched a rocket interceptor that destroyed a mock warhead in outer
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 1, US federal agents
began rounding up illegal immigrants in Stillmore, Georgia. More
than 120 illegal immigrants were loaded onto buses bound for
immigration courts in Atlanta. Hundreds more fled Emanuel County.
The Crider poultry plant was left scrambling for workers.
2006 Sep 1, Disrupting the
start of the Labor Day weekend, the remnants of Tropical Storm
Ernesto drenched the Mid-Atlantic region, cut power to more than
400,000 customers and forced evacuations. 3 people were reported
killed in North Carolina and Virginia.
(AP, 9/2/06)(SFC, 9/2/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 1, Nellie Connally
(87), the former Texas first lady who was riding in President
Kennedy's limousine when he was assassinated, died in Austin, Texas.
2006 Sep 1, In Afghanistan
fighting across the volatile south killed nine Afghan policemen, at
least 13 suspected Taliban and a British soldier.
2006 Sep 1, Brazil pressured
Google to turn over data from Web sites that the government said
were used by criminals. Authorities gave Google 15 days to comply or
face a daily fine of $23,000.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 1, Cambodia’s PM Hun
Sen pushed a bill through the lower house of parliament banning
extra-marital affairs. The legislation could get adulterers up to a
year in jail.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Sep 1, In Chad US Senator
Barack Obama held talks with President Idriss Deby Itno on the
crisis in Sudan's Darfur region and on Chad's oil production, on the
final stop of the African-American politician's tour of the
2006 Sep 1, In Colombia Jesus
Ignacio Roldan led special prosecutors and investigators to the
alleged grave of Carlos Castano, former right-wing paramilitary
leader, near the town of Valencia. Roldan says he killed Castano in
April 2004 on the order of Castano's older brother, Vicente Castano.
2006 Sep 1, Greece beat the
Americans 101-95 in the semifinals of the world championships in
2006 Sep 1, Hungarian poet
Gyorgy Faludy (95), a legend of resistance to the rise of Nazism and
Communism, died at his home in Budapest. He spent 1950-1953 in the
Stalinist concentration camp at Recsk. Faludy won international fame
with his autobiographical novel "My Happy Days in Hell" in the
1960s, which related his escape from fascist Hungary and his return,
and imprisonment, in a country under communist rule.
(Reuters, 9/2/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.96)
2006 Sep 1, Iran underlined its
disregard for the UN deadline to halt uranium enrichment, now
expired, when its president vowed never to give up its nuclear
program and accused the West of misrepresenting Tehran's nuclear
2006 Sep 1, In northeastern
Iran a Russian-made Tupolev 154 airplane with 148 people on board
skidded off the runway and caught fire, killing 29 people.
2006 Sep 1, Kurdish leader
Massoud Barzani ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with
the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region. Gunmen fatally
shot one policeman in each of two towns outside of Baghdad in
separate incidents. Police said they found the body of a Saddam
Hussein-era intelligence officer who had been kidnapped and shot. A
US soldier died from wounds sustained during action in Anbar
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 1, Shinzo Abe, the
front-runner to be Japan's next prime minister, announced his
candidacy, promising to defend Japan's interests and maintain the
security alliance with the US.
2006 Sep 1, In Mexico City riot
police, steel barriers, and water cannons surrounded Mexico's
Congress as protesters vowed to stop President Vicente Fox from
delivering his final state-of-the-nation address. Mexican lawmakers,
protesting conservative Felipe Calderon's victory in the July 2
presidential election, stormed the congressional stage and refused
to yield, making Fox the first president in modern Mexican history
not to deliver his annual address to Congress. Fox handed in a
written copy of his report and delivered it over television.
(AP, 9/1/06)(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 1, Morocco’s Interior
Ministry said security agents broke up a group planning terrorist
attacks on tourist sites and government facilities, arresting 56
people who included soldiers and the wives of two pilots at the
2006 Sep 1, A strike paralyzed
Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province after the controversial
burial of a top rebel leader whose killing sparked days of deadly
rioting. Partial strikes also hit southern Sindh and central Punjab
2006 Sep 1, World donors
pledged $500 million in aid for Palestinians, including $55 million
for a UN emergency appeal for humanitarian help. Carin Jamtin,
Sweden's aid minister and host of the donors' conference held in the
Swedish capital, said a total of $114 million of the money pledged
will go toward humanitarian aid, with the rest going to rebuilding
infrastructure and other projects.
2006 Sep 1, Spain's Cabinet
approved sending 1,100 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in
Lebanon, calling it a "legitimate" mission to help maintain peace in
2006 Sep 1, In Spain
self-contained, nonsmoking areas with their own ventilation systems,
became requisite for larger restaurants and bars.
2006 Sep 1, Sri Lanka's navy
said it sank 12 Tamil rebel boats overnight, including five suicide
craft, and killed as many as 100 rebel fighters during a fierce
six-hour sea battle off the country's northern coast.
2006 Sep 1, Human rights
activists and African Union officials said the Sudanese government
has launched a major offensive against rebels in war-torn Darfur.
2006 Sep 1, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that Syria had pledged to step up
border patrols and work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of
weapons to Hezbollah.
2006 Sep 1-2006 Sep 2,
Separatist Kurdish guerrillas killed 7 Turkish soldiers and wounded
two in stepped-up attacks against the military in southeastern
2006 Sep 2, USAID announced a
new contract totaling $1.4 billion awarded to the joint venture of
the Louis Berger Group, Inc. and Black & Veatch Special Projects
Corp. for work in Afghanistan. Two months earlier an employee
for US contractor Lewis Berger had handed the government evidence of
overbilling on contracts going back to the mid-1990s. In 2010 Berger
agreed to pay tens of millions to settle allegations of overbilling.
2006 Sep 2, In Nevada’s Black
Rock Desert the Burning Man art festival culminated with the burning
of a 40-foot wooden man. It included a Belgian art installation
titled “Uchronia" (aka the Belgian Waffle), a 250,000, 15-story
wooden cavern funded by Jan Kriekels and constructed by 90 Belgium
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 2, Bob Mathias
(b.1930), 2-time Olympic decathlon champion (1948, 1952), died at
his home in Fresno, Ca. He also served in the US House of
Representatives for 4 terms (1967-1976). He starred as himself in
the film “The Bob Mathias Story" (1954).
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 2, Walter Redman (75),
aka Dewey Redman, tenor saxophonist and bandleader, died in NYC. He
cut his 1st album in SF in 1966.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.B7)
2006 Sep 2, A NATO Nimrod
reconnaissance aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing 14
British servicemen. The alliance said there was no indication
hostile fire was involved. The Nimrod MR2 exploded after an
air-to-air refueling operation. A later investigation said that
leaking fuel ignited by a hot pipe was the most likely cause of a
fire that destroyed the plane. British patrol NATO and Afghan forces
began Operation Medusa in southern Afghanistan. Dozens of insurgents
were killed during the fighting.
(AP, 9/2/06)(AP, 9/3/06)(AP, 12/4/07)
2006 Sep 2, The UN said opium
cultivation in Afghanistan is spiraling out of control, rising 59%
this year to produce a record 6,100 tons, nearly a third more than
the world's drug users consume.
2006 Sep 2, Bangladesh's trade
shipments ground to a virtual halt as shipping companies refused to
use the nation's main port in a protest over container fees.
Operations began to resume the next day after 2 shipping companies
agreed to withdraw their boycott.
(AFP, 9/2/06)(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 2, British police
arrested 14 people in overnight raids and said they suspected the
men had been involved in training and recruiting for terror attacks.
Two others were arrested in an unrelated terror investigation in
2006 Sep 2, In Chile miners at
Escondida returned to work following a 25-day strike that cost the
company some $200 million in lost profits. Their new deal included a
bonus of $12,000 on account of high copper prices.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.40)
2006 Sep 2, In China’s Guizhou
Province a mine gas explosion killed at least 8 people. Six miners
died when their pit in central Hubei province flooded.
2006 Sep 2, A small boat of
African migrants from Eritrea was intercepted off the coast of
Sicily. They said eight people died during their grueling trip. They
had left from Libya 10-12 days earlier.
2006 Sep 2, Indonesia said it
will send up to 1,000 troops to southern Lebanon by the month's end,
after Israel dropped objections to its participation in the U.N.
2006 Sep 2, President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad vowed Iran would defend the aims of its nuclear program
during any negotiations as the EU gave Tehran extra time to show it
was serious about talks. Iran offered to help support the cease-fire
in Lebanon in talks with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and
insisted that diplomacy is the only way to resolve Tehran's nuclear
dispute with the West.
2006 Sep 2, In Iraq attacks
killed 13 Pakistani and Indian pilgrims south of Baghdad and three
bombings left six people dead.
2006 Sep 2, Italian soldiers
poured into Lebanon, part of the first large contingent of
international troops dispatched to boost the UN force keeping the
peace between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
2006 Sep 2, Hezbollah announced
the death of Hajj Ali Mohammed Saleh Bilal, a military commander,
from wounds suffered in monthlong fighting with Israel.
2006 Sep 2, At least eight
boats carrying 674 migrants from Mauritania reached the Canary
Islands in the space of 24 hours.
2006 Sep 2, The former Stella
Polaris, a historic ocean liner (1927-1970), sank overnight off
Japan's southeastern coast. The Swedish company Petro-Fast AB had
planned to operate the ship, renamed the Scandinavia, as a
hotel-restaurant in Stockholm.
2006 Sep 2, Unpaid teachers
shut down thousands of schools across the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
the first day of the school year, in a major challenge to the Hamas
2006 Sep 2, In Romania liberal
leaders expelled Mona Musca, one of the country's most popular
politicians, from the party after she admitted to having
collaborated with the Securitate secret police under the communist
dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.
2006 Sep 2-2006 Sep 3, In
northwestern Russia hundreds of people looted shops and burned a
restaurant belonging to Caucasus businessmen in Kondopoga in
Karelia. The outbreak of racial violence was triggered by the recent
killing of two locals.
2006 Sep 2, Sudan's president
ordered the release of an envoy of Slovenia's president who was
convicted of espionage in the war-torn region of Darfur and
sentenced to two years in prison. Tomo Kriznar, the Slovenian
president's envoy to Darfur, was arrested in July and convicted on
Aug. 14 by a court in the North Darfur capital of el-Fasher.
2006 Sep 3, It was reported
that 47% of US development aid is spent on overpriced technical
assistance. 70% of US aid was contingent upon the recipient spending
it on American stuff including American-made armaments. In total 86
cents of every dollar of US aid was said to be phantom aid, in that
it never shows up in recipient countries.
(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.E1)
2006 Sep 3, Andre Agassi
retired after losing the third-round match at the US Open.
2006 Sep 3, An apartment fire
in Chicago killed six children ages 3 to 14.
2006 Sep 3, Nina Reiser (31) of
Oakland, Ca., went missing. On Oct 10 police arrested Hans Reiser
(42), her estranged husband on suspicion of murder. In 2008 Reiser
confessed to strangling Nina in exchange for a reduced sentence and
was sentenced 15 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 10/11/06, p.B1)(SFC, 8/30/08, p.B1)
2006 Sep 3, NATO and Afghan
forces hit the Taliban with air strikes and artillery in Operation
Medusa in southern Afghanistan. Four NATO soldiers, including 3
Canadians, and more than 200 insurgents were killed in the first two
days of a major anti-Taliban operation under way in the Panjwayi
district, about 10 miles from the city of Kandahar.
2006 Sep 3, Another 4 boats
carrying 522 migrants from Mauritania reached the Canary Islands.
This brought the total for 2 days to nearly 1200.
2006 Sep 3, The SMART-1
spacecraft, Europe's first moon probe launched Sep 27, 2003, signed
off its mission on schedule by crashing into the lunar surface,
completing a project scientists hope will tell them more about the
(Reuters, 9/3/06)(SSFC, 9/3/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 3, Indonesia reported
that 18% of its population of some 220 million are officially poor.
The government benchmark was based on an income of $16.80 per month.
Use of a $1 a day benchmark would raise the poverty number to over
2006 Sep 3, Iraq's national
security adviser said that Iraqi and coalition forces had arrested
the second most senior figure in al-Qaida in Iraq. Hamed Jumaa Farid
al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured north of
Baghdad "along with another group of his aides and followers. A
later report dated his capture to June 19. At least 16 Iraqis and
two US soldiers were killed in bomb attacks and shootings
nationwide. A US soldier died from wounds in Anbar province and 2
Marines were killed while fighting there.
(AP, 9/3/06)(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 3, In Pakistan Abdul
Rahim Muslim Dost and his brother, Badruz Zaman Badar Dost,
published “The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo," an account of their 3
years in detention at the US prison. On Sep 29 Abdul was jailed by
the Pakistani intelligence service in apparent response to criticism
of the agency’s role in the US-led war on terrorism.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 3, A bomb damaged a
gas pipeline in southwestern Pakistan, cutting supplies to thousands
of homes in the region.
2006 Sep 3, In southeastern
Turkey a remote-controlled bomb exploded in a tea garden, killing
two people and wounding seven.
2006 Sep 4, Lt. Col. Marshall
Gutierrez (41), whistleblower on food overcharging for the Iraq war,
was found dead in his quarters in Kuwait. A Kuwaiti contractor had
accused Gutierrez of seeking bribes.
(WSJ, 10/20/07, p.A1)
2006 Sep 4, Tropical storm
Ernesto soaked the East Coast of the US claiming 6 lives and left
19,000 customers in the new York area without power.
(WSJ, 9/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 4, In Berkeley, Ca.,
Nicholas Beaudreaux shot and killed Wayne Drummond in front of
Blake’s Restaurant. In 2009 Lamar Crowder (21) pleaded no contests
to voluntary manslaughter and testified against Beaudreaux (23), who
was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting.
(SFC, 7/9/09, p.D2)
2006 Sep 4, In south-central
Montana a wildfire had spread across 180,000 acres, over 280 sq.
miles, since it was sparked by lightning on Aug 22. It was only 20%
(SFC, 9/5/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 4, In Newry, Maine, 4
people were found killed at the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast. The
victims were shot and then dismembered. Christian Nielsen (31), a
resident at the inn for 2-months, was arrested. The dead included
owner Julie Bullard (65), her daughter Selby (30), her friend Cindy
Beatson (43), and Arkansas resident James Whitehurst.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.B2)
2006 Sep 4, In southern
Afghanistan 2 US warplanes accidentally strafed their own forces,
killing one Canadian soldier and seriously wounding five others. A
British soldier attached to NATO was also killed in a Kabul suicide
bombing, which left another four Afghans dead. 16 suspected Taliban
militants and five Afghan police died in separate Afghan violence.
2006 Sep 4, Steve Irwin (44),
world-famous Australian "crocodile hunter" and television
environmentalist, was killed by a stingray blow to the chest while
filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. His "Crocodile
Hunter" show, in which the adventurer appeared in his trademark
khaki shorts and shirt, was first broadcast in 1992 and has been
shown around the world on the Discovery cable network ever since.
(AFP, 9/4/06)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.82)
2006 Sep 4, Global press titan
Rupert Murdoch launched a new free title: thelondonpaper, a 48-page
color paper, dominated by gossip and real-life stories, in the city
centre. The first free paper in London was launched seven years ago,
in 1999. Metro, a daily morning paper published by Associated
Newspapers, has a circulation of around a million copies in the
capital and 13 other big towns.
2006 Sep 4, In CongoDRC a boat
overloaded with passengers and freight sank in choppy waters on Lake
Kivu, killing at least 35 people.
2006 Sep 4, In Cyprus 3 British
holidaymakers were charged with willful manslaughter over the death
of a Cypriot teenager in a hit-and-run accident in the coastal
resort of Protaras last month. A rented Opel "repeatedly rammed" the
moped in what police described as a revenge attack following a fight
outside a Protaras disco in which a friend of the accused was beaten
2006 Sep 4, In Egypt a
passenger train collided with a cargo train north of Cairo, killing
5 people and injuring 30 others.
2006 Sep 4, In France the
Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger jet, took off with a full
load of passengers for the first time. Carrying 474 Airbus
employees, the 308-ton jet left from Toulouse, southern France, on
the first of four test flights.
2006 Sep 4, In Iraq a popular
Iraqi soccer star was kidnapped. 33 bullet-riddled bodies were found
in Baghdad and 2 more in Kut. At least two people also were killed
and six were wounded in and around Baqouba. Two suicide bombers
slammed into a checkpoint on the outskirts of Baghdad, killing an
Iraqi soldier and wounding eight. Gunmen in Ramadi killed Maj. Gen.
Mohammad Thumeil, who had served in former Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein's military. An American soldier was killed by a roadside
bomb north of Baghdad, while a 2nd soldier died of non-combat
related injuries. 2 US Marines and one sailor were killed in
fighting Anbar province.
(AP, 9/4/06)(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 4, Nabeel Ahmed Issa
al-Jaourah opened fire on tourists near a popular Roman ruins site
in Jordan's capital, killing Christopher Stokes, a British man, and
wounding five other foreigners and a local police officer. Police
overpowered and arrested the attacker at the scene. Al-Jaourah was
sentenced to death in December.
(AP, 9/4/06)(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Lebanon US civil
rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Hezbollah officials and
called on them to show proof that two captured Israeli soldiers are
still alive. A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
agreed to requests by Hezbollah and Israel that he mediate in
negotiations over the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers.
Qatar announced that it would contribute 200 to 300 troops to the UN
peacekeeping force in Lebanon, making the Persian Gulf state the
first Arab country to commit soldiers to the peace effort in
2006 Sep 4, Philippine marines
clashed with nearly 200 al-Qaida-linked rebels on Jolo Island. 6
government troops were killed and 19 wounded in the monthlong
US-backed offensive. In Dec the military said Khaddafy Janjalani,
head of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, was killed in the fighting
and that his remains had been found. DNA evidence confirmed his
(AP, 9/4/06)(AP, 12/27/06)(AP, 1/20/07)
2006 Sep 4, Somalia's weak
government and an Islamic militia that controls much of the south
signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.
2006 Sep 4, Sri Lanka President
Mahinda Rajapakse said security forces had captured Sampur, a key
town used by Tamil Tigers to target artillery at a major naval port.
Rajapakse urged the rebels to return to peace talks.
2006 Sep 4, Sudan said it would
allow African troops to remain in Darfur only under African Union
control and accused Washington of attempting "regime change" in
Khartoum by trying to bring in a UN force.
2006 Sep 5, Pres. Bush named
Mary Peters, former Federal Highway Administrator, to replace Norm
Pineta as transportation secretary.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 5, The Academy of
American Poets announced that Michael Palmer (63), a resident of San
Francisco, has been selected as the recipient of the 13th Wallace
Stevens Award for "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of
poetry." The award included $100,000.
2006 Sep 5, Dan Rather said he
has donated $2 million to his alma mater, Sam Houston State
University, the largest single monetary gift in the school's
2006 Sep 5, Chevron and Devon
energy announced successful oil production from a new deep water
region in the Gulf of Mexico estimated at 3-15 billion barrels of
oil plus gas.
(WSJ, 9/5/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 5, Bill Ford stepped
down as CEO of Ford Motor Co. and was replaced by Alan Mulally, a
top Boeing executive. Mulally will get a base salary of $2 million
and an immediate payout of $18.5 million which includes a $7.5
million hiring bonus and $11 million to offset forfeited performance
and stock option awards from Boeing.
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.C3)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 5, The US FDA granted
Abiomed approval to sell AbioCor, the world’s first implantable
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 5, The lower deck of
the SF Bay Bridge reopened after being shut down for the 3-day Labor
Day weekend due to demolition work.
(SFC, 9/5/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 5, The Wireless
Silicon Valley Project picked Silicon Valley Metro Connect, a
collaboration of Azulstar Networks, Cisco systems, IBM and Seakay,
to build and operate a wireless network across 38 cities in the SF
(SFC, 9/6/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 5, A cook was charged
with shooting and dismembering the owner of a Maine
bed-and-breakfast and three other people in a Labor Day weekend
killing rampage. Christian Nielsen has since pleaded not guilty to
murder by reason of insanity.
2006 Sep 5, In southern
Afghanistan US artillery and airstrikes killed between 50 and 60
suspected Taliban militants, the fourth day of a NATO-led offensive.
NATO said 700 Taliban were trapped by the offensive.
(AP, 9/5/06)(WSJ, 9/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 5, A federal judge in
Argentina ruled unconstitutional a 1990 presidential pardon extended
to Jorge Rafael Videla, who led Argentina's military junta during
the worst periods of the so-called "Dirty War" crackdown on
dissidents between 1976 and 1983. A day earlier the same judge ruled
that pardons for Albano Harguinday, the interior minister under
Videla, and Jose Martinez de Hoz, the economy minister under Videla,
were also unconstitutional.
(http://tinyurl.com/0)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 5, Burundi
Vice-President Alice Nzomukunda resigned over corruption and human
rights abuses that she says are hampering her nation's progress.
2006 Sep 5, Danish authorities
said they foiled a serious terror plot with the arrest of nine men
accused of preparing explosives for a planned attack in Denmark. The
suspects were Danish citizens between the ages of 18 and 33. Eight
of them had immigrant backgrounds. In 2007 a jury in Copenhagen
handed down guilty verdicts to Mohammad Zaher (34), Ahmad Khaldhadi
(22), and Abdallah Andersen (32). Riad Anwer Daabas (19) was
acquitted. Zaher and Khaldhadi, described as the two most active,
were each sentenced to 11 years in prison, while Andersen was given
a four-year sentence.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 11/24/07)
2006 Sep 5, Cellular telephones
were found inside four prisoners in El Salvador's maximum-security
prison after suspicious officials took X-rays of each of the
2006 Sep 5, French oil and gas
field surveyor Geophysique said it will buy US rival Veritas for
$3.1 billion in cash and stock, establishing a major new global
player in the booming oil exploration industry.
2006 Sep 5, The Iraqi
parliament voted to extend the country's state of emergency for 30
2006 Sep 5, Israeli forces left
five villages in southern Lebanon and were replaced by Lebanese
troops, who also moved into the center of a Hezbollah stronghold
devastated by weeks of fighting.
2006 Sep 5, In Kyrgyzstan Maj.
Jill Metzger (33), a US Air Force officer, went missing while
shopping in the capital of Bishkek. Metzger reappeared 3 days later
and said she had been seized by three young men and a woman in a
minibus and held in a rural area about 30 miles from the capital.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 5, In south Lebanon a
remote-controlled bomb wounded a senior police intelligence officer
who played a key role in the investigation into the slaying of a
former Lebanese prime minister. Four of the officer's aides and
bodyguards were killed in the sophisticated attack.
2006 Sep 5, The president of
Mexico's top electoral court recommended that the full tribunal
uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon.
Marcelo Garza, the top police investigator for Nuevo Leon, a
northern Mexican state that borders Texas, was shot to death by a
lone gunman outside an art gallery.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, Pakistan's
government and pro-Taliban militants signed an agreement in Miran
Shah to ensure "permanent peace" in a tribal region bordering
Afghanistan, seeking to end five years of violent unrest in the
area. Under the truce the Pakistan army pulled back to barracks tens
of thousands of troops that had been involved in bloody operations
against suspected Taliban and al-Qaida hideouts, and militants
agreed to halt attacks in Pakistan and over the border against
foreign troops in Afghanistan. Tribal elders were supposed to police
the deal. The truce ended in July 2007. Lawmakers from a coalition
of six Islamic groups threatened to vacate their parliamentary seats
if the government changes a rape law criticized by human rights
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 7/16/07)
2006 Sep 5, Palestinian
security officers went on the rampage in Gaza City to demand back
pay from the cash-strapped Hamas-led government. Israel pressed
ahead with its offensive against Hamas militants, killing five with
airstrikes in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 5, Russian President
Vladimir Putin met South African leader Thabo Mbeki at the start of
a visit intended to forge closer ties between the mineral and
2006 Sep 5, Turkey became the
first Muslim country with diplomatic ties to Israel to pledge troops
to an expanding international peacekeeping force that will monitor a
fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
2006 Sep 5, In Somalia
thousands of people massed in Mogadishu vowing to fight any foreign
peacekeepers sent to the embattled nation, while a coalition of East
African nations approved an ambitious plan to deploy troops in
Somalia by early next month.
2006 Sep 5, Police in Uruguay
arrested 27 people suspected of trafficking drugs to Europe and
seized a record 770 pounds of cocaine.
2006 Sep 6, Pres. Bush
acknowledged that the CIA had subjected dozens of detainees to
“tough" interrogation at secret prisons abroad and that 14 remaining
detainees have been transferred to the detention center at
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, In Phoenix,
Arizona, police arrested Mark Goudeau (42), a construction worker,
for 2 sexual assaults. In December police identified Goudeau as the
Baseline Killer and recommended charging him with 71 counts
including 9 murders committed from August, 2005, to June, 2006. His
trial opened in 2011.
12/8/06, p.A13)(SFC, 6/7/11, p.A4)
2006 Sep 6, In Chicago George
Ryan (72), former Illinois governor, was sentenced to 6½ years in
prison for offenses including racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 6, Philadelphia’s Art
Commission voted 6-2 to move a 2,000-pound bronze statue of Rocky
Balboa, commissioned by actor Sylvester Stallone, out of storage and
onto a street-level pedestal near the steps of the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.A2)
2006 Sep 6, Andy Ross, owner of
Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley, Ca., announced that the store had been
sold to Yohan Inc., a book company based in Tokyo.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 6, Intel announced it
would cut more than a tenth of its workforce as part of a drive to
become more efficient in the face of tough competition in the
computer chip market.
2006 Sep 6, Reporting in the
Annals of Internal Medicine, European researchers said virgin olive
oil may be particularly effective at lowering heart disease risk
because of its high level of antioxidant plant compounds.
2006 Sep 6, Research reported
in Nature magazine said thawing permafrost, due to global warming,
is releasing trapped methane at a much higher rate than was assumed.
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held
talks on counterterrorism in Kabul. NATO forces killed 21 militants
in air and ground attacks in southern Kandahar province. Afghan
police killed four Taliban fighters in southeastern Paktiya
province. 3 British soldiers were killed.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Six junior members
of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's government resigned to
protest his refusal to set a date to leave office amid a growing
Labour Party revolt.
2006 Sep 6, State media said
hundreds of people in northwestern China have been hospitalized with
lead poisoning that was likely caused by pollution from a nearby
smelter. The first sign of trouble in the villages of Xinsi and
Moba, Gansu province, came on Aug. 18.
2006 Sep 6, In eastern India 50
miners were killed after an explosion inside a state-owned coal mine
in Jharkhand state.
(AP, 9/7/06)(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 6, An Indonesian
appeals court sentenced four Australian members of a drug smuggling
ring to death, prompting a protest from the Australian government.
Scott Rush, Tan Duc Than Nguyen, Si Yi Chen and Matthew Norman had
originally received life terms for trying to take home more than 18
pounds of heroin from Indonesia's resort island of Bali last year.
2006 Sep 6, Iran unveiled its
first locally manufactured fighter plane during large-scale military
exercises. The report said the bomber Saegheh is similar to the
American F-18 fighter plane, but "more powerful."
2006 Sep 6, Iraq executed 27
"terrorists" convicted by Iraqi courts of killings and rapes in
several provinces. 2 bombs exploded in northern Baghdad within
minutes of each other, killing at least nine people and wounding 39
others. In northeastern Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on a procession
of pilgrims heading to the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles
south of Baghdad, killing one person and wounding two. Mortar
attacks in residential areas in Diyala province, north of Baghdad,
killed three people: a 2-year-old child in the Khan Bani Saad area
and two people in Muqdadiyah. In Baqouba gunmen killed three
construction workers waiting for a bus. An employee in the Diyala
police and army coordination office was shot to death as she left
her house in the city's Tahrir neighborhood. Gunmen also killed the
owner of a food store in the same area. Gunmen, in Baghdad kidnapped
the nephew of Iraq's parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. 2
American soldiers were killed in separate incidents. Attacks across
Iraq left 36 dead and 29 corpses were found.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Japan's Princess
Kiko gave birth to the royal family's first male heir in four
decades. The male heir was named Hisahito, meaning "virtuous, calm
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 6, In Macau Steve
Wynn, American gambling mogul, opened his $1.2 billion Wynn Macau, a
near replica of his Nevada casino.
(WSJ, 9/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 6, Mexico’s newly
declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his
government and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the
disputed July 2 election. Gunmen barged into a bar in central Mexico
and tossed five human heads on the dance floor. An avalanche left 10
villagers dead in northern Mexico.
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 6, Mexican authorities
arrested Jaime Maya Duran, a reputed major figure in one of
Colombia's largest and most feared drug cartels responsible for
nearly half of the cocaine smuggled into the US. He was flown
immediately to New York, where he is under indictment on drug
trafficking and money laundering charges.
2006 Sep 6, Unpaid employees in
the Palestinian prime minister's office joined a widespread strike
that is challenging the survival of the Hamas-led government. Sinn
Fein leader Gerry Adams met with a Hamas legislator in the West Bank
and advised Israel and the Palestinians to solve their problems
using the Northern Ireland formula, negotiations.
2006 Sep 6, The Philippine
government said it will take full control of Manila airport's
controversial new airport terminal despite an international court
ruling to return it to its builders. Philippine International Air
Terminals Co Inc (PIATCO) built the terminal under a
"build-operate-transfer" contract, but in 2002 President Arroyo
revoked the contract on the grounds that certain terms were
illegally renegotiated by Joseph Estrada, her deposed predecessor.
2006 Sep 6, A fire broke out
aboard the Daniil Moskovsky, a Russian nuclear submarine in the
Barents Sea, killing two crew members and injuring another. The navy
said there was no radiation threat.
2006 Sep 6, More than 80
international scientists and academics released a letter that
condemned South Africa's AIDS policies as ineffective and immoral
and called for the firing of the health minister in a letter to
President Thabo Mbeki.
2006 Sep 6, Sudanese security
forces in Khartoum fired tear gas and beat demonstrators with sticks
in a crackdown on protests against price increases for basic goods,
after thwarting similar protests a week ago. In Khartoum the
beheaded body of Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed, editor-in-chief of
the independent daily Al-Wifaq, was recovered, a day after he was
kidnapped by gunmen. He had been accused of insulting Islam. A group
claiming to be al-Qaida's branch in Sudan said that it killed the
chief editor. In 2007 ten people were sentenced to death for the
murder and beheading of Ahmed.
(Reuters, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/7/06)(AP, 9/13/06)(AP,
2006 Sep 7, American officials
said the US government has ordered Venezuela to close its military
purchasing office in Miami after suspending arms sales to the South
2006 Sep 7, Former Deputy
Secretary of State Richard Armitage confirmed he was the source of a
leak that had disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame,
saying he didn't realize Plame's job was covert.
2006 Sep 7, Mohammad Khatami,
former president of Iran (1997-2005), spoke at Washington National
Cathedral as part of a 2-week speaking tour in the US. He urged
dialogue instead of threats. A group of Jewish Iranians, who say
their missing relatives were kidnapped and tortured by the Iranian
government, filed suit in Manhattan against Khatami. They delivered
the summons to him directly the next day as he visited the US.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A13)(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 7, BP America, the US
arm of British energy giant BP, said it will spend more than 550
million dollars (432 million euros) over the next two years on
improvements to its Alaskan oil fields, including pipeline repairs.
2006 Sep 7, Hewlett-Packard
disclosed that an investigator, hired by its board of directors, had
secretly obtained phone records of 9 journalists as part of an
effort to unmask information leaks to the media. Director George
Keyworth resigned after he was found to be the source of the leak.
Sub-contractors engaged in pretexting, the use of false pretences,
to obtain personal information. HP faced Congressional hearings over
the tactics used to unveil Keyworth.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A1)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.70)
2006 Sep 7, Britain’s PM Tony
Blair reluctantly promised to resign within a year, hoping that
revealing a general time frame for his departure will appease
critics who are calling for him to step down.
2006 Sep 7, Burundi's
government and the country's last rebel group, the National
Liberation Forces (FNL) signed a permanent cease-fire as the central
African nation emerges from 12 years of civil war.
(AP, 9/7/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.57)
2006 Sep 7, Chad Pres. Idriss
Deby and Chevron CEO David O’Reilly met in Paris for talks on oil
taxes. Chad said Chevron agreed to pay back taxes.
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 7, Cyprus impounded a
Panama-flagged vessel on arms smuggling suspicion. It carried 18
North Korean mobile radar units and 3 command vehicles due for
delivery to Syria.
(WSJ, 9/8/06, p.A1)(Reuters, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 7, Gunmen held up a
truck in a restricted area of Guatemala City's international airport
and made off with $8 million of $22 million that was to be shipped
from the Bank of Guatemala to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
2006 Sep 7, Coalition forces
handed over control of Iraq's armed forces command to the
government. Initially, this would apply only to the 8th Iraqi Army
Division, the air force and the navy. The other nine Iraqi division
remain under US command, with authority gradually being transferred.
Six bomb attacks targeting police patrols in Baghdad killed at least
17 people and wounded more than 50. A British soldier died of
injuries sustained when his patrol came under fire in Qurnah.
(AP, 9/7/06)(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 7, Ivory Coast PM
Charles Konan Banny announced the resignation of his cabinet over
the Aug 19 toxic waste scandal.
2006 Sep 7, Workers at
Lebanon's only airport prepared to receive a full flow of commercial
flights. Israel began lifting its air blockade of Lebanon, but the
naval blockade will remain in place until troops from the new UN
international force are in place.
2006 Sep 7, In Mexico a
landslide buried buses and cars on a highway in the central state of
Puebla and killed at least four travelers.
2006 Sep 7, Russia's
state-owned nuclear power company said it was seeking to build
Morocco's first nuclear plant, as Russian President Vladimir Putin
signed cooperation deals with the Moroccan king as part of an
economic mission to expand Russia's African reach.
2006 Sep 7, In Siberia a blaze
broke out in the Darasun gold mine in the Chita region. 64 miners
were working underground when the fire broke out. 31 were rescued or
evacuated, including 15 who were hospitalized. Rescuers recovered 12
bodies. Eight miners emerged from the burning mine after two days.
The fate of at least nine others remained unknown in the accident
that killed at least 16. Rescuers on Sep 10 found the bodies of the
last four miners trapped deep underground at a remote Russian gold
mine, bringing the final death toll to 25. On Sep 11 Rescuers
recovered the bodies of the last of 25 miners.
(AP, 9/8/06)(AP, 9/9/06)(Reuters, 9/10/06)(AP,
2006 Sep 7, Medical experts
said a killer strain of drug-resistant tuberculosis has been found
in at least 28 hospitals across South Africa and that it jeopardized
efforts to deal with AIDS.
(SFC, 9/8/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 7, A Thai court
decided to extradite a Vietnamese dissident to face charges of
violating airspace for a stunt that involved hijacking a plane and
dropping 50,000 anti-communist leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. Ly
Tong, a South Vietnamese air force veteran who later became a US
citizen, hijacked the twin-engine plane from Thailand in November
2006 Sep 8, The Bush
administration said it has blocked access to the US financial system
by Iran’s Bank Saderat. The bank was alleged to have helped transfer
hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorist organizations including
Hezbollah and Hamas.
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 8, The United States
Naval Air Station Keflavik (NASKEF) closed at Iceland’s Keflavik
2006 Sep 8, A Senate report
faulted intelligence gathering in the lead-up to the 2003 US
invasion of Iraq, and said Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a
threat rather than a possible ally, contradicting assertions
President Bush had used to build support for the war.
2006 Sep 8, Walter C. Anderson
(52), US telecom mogul, pleaded guilty to evading over $200 million
in federal and local taxes in an offshore scheme from the sale of
Mid-Atlantic Telecom. His plea agreement only covered transactions
(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 8, The Miami Herald
reported that 10 South Florida journalists, including three with the
Herald's Spanish-language sister paper, received thousands of
dollars from the federal government for their work on radio and TV
programming aimed at undermining Fidel Castro's communist regime.
The Herald fired 3 of the journalists.
2006 Sep 8, SF Mayor Gavin
Newsom said 50 new security cameras will be installed in public
housing projects around San Francisco over the next 18 months.
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 8, In Minneapolis
ground was broken for the new Masjid An-Nur mosque, the 1st mosque
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.32)
2006 Sep 8, The Day fire in
California’s Los Padres National Forest burned out of control for a
5th day and blackened over 11,500 acres (18 square miles).
(SFC, 9/9/06, p.B2)
2006 Sep 8, In Florida Melinda
Duckett (21) shot herself to death one day after taping a TV
interview with Nancy Grace for CNN. Duckett had reported that her
2-year-old son had been kidnapped on Aug 27.
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.A13)
2006 Sep 8, A suicide car
bomber struck a convoy of US military vehicles in downtown Kabul,
killing at least 16 people, including two American soldiers, and
wounding 29 others. It was the Afghan capital's deadliest suicide
attack since the Taliban's 2001 ouster.
2006 Sep 8, Opponents of
President Evo Morales stayed home from work and blocked key streets
in four cities to protest the governing party's handling of an
assembly that is rewriting the Bolivian constitution.
2006 Sep 8, The Toronto
International Film Festival got off to a multi-cultural start night
with the premiere of "The Journals of Knud Rasmussen," a drama about
Canada's Inuit people being stripped of their traditions by
2006 Sep 8, In southern China
crowds angered by alleged police mishandling of a school teacher's
death attacked government offices in Rui'an City, sparking arrests
and beatings by riot troops. Students and local residents claimed
police falsified a report and colluded with the wealthy husband of
high school English teacher Dai Haijing, 30, to have her Aug 18
death classified as a suicide.
2006 Sep 8, The UN's
humanitarian chief called for an end to the rapes plaguing women in
war-battered Congo and said the perpetrators, including those
wearing military uniforms, must be severely punished.
2006 Sep 8, In western India 2
bombs rigged to bicycles struck in the crowded streets of the city
of Malegaon, Maharashtra state, as Muslim worshippers were returning
from afternoon prayers At least 37 people were killed and 100
wounded. 8 suspects later arrested for allegedly planting the bombs
were all members of the Students' Islamic Movement of India, or
SIMI. In 2011 seven of nine Muslim men, wrongfully arrested for the
blasts, were released on bail. Two of the men were not released
because of allegations they were involved in a separate series of
explosions on suburban Mumbai trains that also occurred in 2006.
(AP, 9/8/06)(AP, 11/27/06)(SFC, 11/28/08,
2006 Sep 8, A roadside bomb in
Baghdad and a mortar attack on Shiite pilgrims south of the capital
killed five people. A roadside bomb also struck an Iraqi army convoy
in a village near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad, killing four
Iraqi soldiers. An American soldier died after being wounded in a
roadside bomb explosion south of Baghdad. 3 mortar rounds landed on
a procession of pilgrims heading to Karbala for a ceremony, killing
at least three and wounding 22. A roadside bomb targeting a police
patrol In Baghdad killed two people and wounded six.
2006 Sep 8, Israel lifted its
nearly two-month naval blockade of Lebanon after European warships
began patrolling to keep out weapons shipments for Hezbollah
2006 Sep 8, In Mexico a small
plane crash near Ensenada on the US-Mexico border killed three
American medical volunteers.
2006 Sep 8, In Pakistan a bomb
killed at least five people in restive Baluchistan province. 21
other people were wounded in the explosion near a bus station in the
town of Barkhan.
2006 Sep 8, Engineers covered
in head-to-toe protective gear inserted a neutralizing solution into
bombs filled with a nerve agent, officially starting the work of
Russia's first plant for destroying the deadly chemicals.
2006 Sep 8, It was reported
that Saudi Arabia’s religious police have issued a decree in Jiddah
and Mecca banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western
2006 Sep 8, In South Africa
Hilda Bernstein (b.1915), a London-born anti-apartheid activist and
author, died. Her husband was tried for treason alongside Nelson
Mandela in 1964. Rusty Bernstein (d.2002) was the only defendant
acquitted and freed. Police harassment made life afterward so
difficult for the Bernsteins that the couple was forced into exile,
leaving their children behind. They crossed the border to Botswana
on foot, a journey described in Hilda Bernstein's book "The World
That Was Ours."
2006 Sep 8, Sudan's President
Omar al-Bashir agreed to release American journalist Paul Salopek
and his Chadian assistants after meeting with New Mexico Gov. Bill
2006 Sep 8, The UN General
Assembly adopted a long-awaited strategy to combat terrorism, though
many nations lamented that it does not include a definition or say
anything about states that commit terrorist acts.
2006 Sep 9, Space shuttle
Atlantis and its six astronauts blasted off on a mission to resume
construction of the international space station for the first time
since the Columbia disaster 3 1/2 years ago.
2006 Sep 9, Joanna Veil, aged
28 and pregnant, vanished after leaving work in Ben Lomond, Ca. Her
body was found Sep 14 in a remote area of Santa Cruz County. In 2007
authorities named Michael McClish (38) a suspect in the case.
McClish was convicted in 2007 for another murder and sentenced to 18
years in prison. In 2008 he was charged with Veil’s murder.
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.B1)(SFC, 5/8/08, p.B2)
2006 Sep 9, Clair Burgener
(84), 5-term US Republican congressman from San Diego (1973-1983),
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B9)
2006 Sep 9, Elisabeth Ogilvie
(89), writer, died at her home in Cushing, Maine. Her 46 books
included the Tide trilogy, which centered on the Bennet family and
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B9)
2006 Sep 9, Afghan and NATO
soldiers killed at least 40 suspected Taliban militants in fierce
raids that destroyed insurgent hideouts and a weapons-making factory
in Kandahar province. One NATO soldier died. 2 coalition soldiers
training Afghan troops were killed in combat. 2 policemen were
killed when dozens of Taliban rebels attacked their post in western
Farah province with machine guns and rockets. Gen. Ray Henault,
chief of NATO’s military committee, said he would ask the 26
alliance members for up to 2,500 more soldiers.
(AP, 9/9/06)(AP, 9/10/06)(SSFC, 9/10/06, p.A19)
2006 Sep 9, In Brazil Ubiratan
Guimaraes, the police colonel accused of ordering a 1992 jail
massacre of more than 100 inmates, was shot dead in his apartment in
2006 Sep 9, British PM Tony
Blair arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with his Israeli counterpart
Ehud Olmert and other key players in the region on the stalled
Middle East peace process.
2006 Sep 9, Five central Asian
countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan) signed a nuclear-free zone treaty, but it did not cancel
out a 1992 agreement to allow Russia to transport and deploy nuclear
weapons there under certain circumstances.
(SSFC, 9/10/06, p.A18)
2006 Sep 9, In CongoDRC it was
reported to take 155 days to register a business at a cost of 5
times the average annual income of $120.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.60)
2006 Sep 9, In Finland leaders
and top officials from 38 Asian and European nations gathered in
Helsinki for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). The agenda included
security issues, trade and global warming.
2006 Sep 9, In India recent
estimates by conservationists and some officials put the population
of Bengal tigers at 1,200 to 1,500. The government insisted the
tiger population was stable at around 3,500.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.46)
2006 Sep 9, Iran's top nuclear
negotiator met with the European Union foreign policy chief for
crucial talks seen as the last chance for Iran to avoid U.N.
sanctions over its nuclear defiance.
2006 Sep 9, In Iraq the US-led
coalition said an Iraqi court has convicted 38 people of charges
related to the insurgency, including kidnapping and murder. Their
sentences ranged from six months to life. At least 15 violent deaths
were reported across the country. Millions of Shiite pilgrims
thronged Karbala for a religious festival that ended peacefully amid
tight security. Authorities found the bullet-riddled bodies of 6
people dumped in Mahmoudiya. One unidentified body, blindfolded with
hands and feet bound, was found in the Tigris River in Suwayah.
(AP, 9/9/06)(AP, 9/10/06)
2006 Sep 9, The 10-week Israeli
military operation, code named Summer Rains, left 230 Gazans dead,
including over 60 children. It had no noticeable impact on militant
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 9, Italy's PM Romano
Prodi said Syria has agreed "in principle" to a European Union
presence on its border to help stem the flow of weapons into
2006 Sep 9, The Chinese movie
"Still Life" won the top award at the Venice Film Festival.
2006 Sep 9, In Indian Kashmir
suspected Muslim militants shot dead two policemen in an attack on a
police check post. They also looted arms and ammunition.
2006 Sep 9, The ship Moubarak
heading from Madagascar to the Comoros Islands sank in the Indian
Ocean this weekend in bad weather. Of the 76 people on board, 43
people were rescued after the boat sank. 33 people were missing.
2006 Sep 9, It was reported
that some 15,000 students from Saudi Arabia were enrolling on
college campuses across the United States this semester under a new
educational exchange program brokered by President Bush and Saudi
2006 Sep 9, In northern Sri
Lanka at least 26 troops were killed and over 125 wounded in new
fighting as Tamil rebels resisted an army advance into
2006 Sep 9, Sudan authorities
confiscated all copies of the independent al-Sudani newspaper, the
latest move in a resurgence of censorship since the beheading of a
journalist last week. Paul Salopek was released from a prison in the
war-torn Darfur region where he was held for more than a month on
2006 Sep 9, Tens of thousands
of red-clad protesters thronged Taiwan's capital, demanding that
President Chen Shui-bian resign over a series of alleged corruption
scandals involving his family and inner circle. Shih Ming-teh, a
former chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), began
camping with fellow protesters in the center of Taipei.
(AP, 9/9/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.48)
2006 Sep 9, Pope Benedict XVI
began a six-day homecoming to his native Bavaria.
2006 Sep 10, Peyton Manning and
the Indianapolis Colts defeated Eli Manning and the New York Giants
26-21 in the first NFL game to feature two brothers starting at
2006 Sep 10, Golf pioneer Patty
Berg (88) died in Fort Myers, Fla.
2006 Sep 10, Bennie Smith (72),
St. Louis blues guitarist, died.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B8)
2006 Sep 10, Florence
intensified into the second hurricane of the Atlantic season as it
headed for Bermuda, where residents installed storm shutters and
hauled their yachts onto beaches.
2006 Sep 10, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai formally opened a 25-million-dollar Coca-Cola bottling
plant, one of the most significant investments in Afghanistan since
the ousting of the Taliban five years ago. In eastern Afghanistan
Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal (63) was killed with his nephew and
bodyguard in a suicide attack outside his office in the Paktia
capital of Gardez. The US military warned that a suicide bombing
cell is targeting foreign troops in Kabul. In the Panjwayi district
of Kandahar 94 Taliban were killed and one was wounded in four
different engagements overnight. The alliance offensive near the
main southern city of Kandahar killed another 92 suspected Taliban
fighters, pushing its 10-day toll of militant dead past 510. Gunmen
kidnapped a Colombian aid worker and two Afghan employees of a
French-funded nongovernment organization west of Kabul.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AFP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)(SFC,
9/11/06, p.A3)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 10, Daniel Smith (20),
the son of Anna Nicole Smith (38) died suddenly in the Bahamas,
three days after the former Playboy Playmate gave birth to a girl. A
second round of toxicology tests revealed that he died of a toxic
combo of methadone and the antidepressants Zoloft and Lexapro.
(Reuters, 9/11/06)(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 10, in Bangladesh
police used batons to break up a protest, where demonstrators took
to the streets across the country in another general strike ahead of
elections in January.
2006 Sep 10, In Brazil
international trade officials sought to strike a positive tone at
the end of a two-day meeting aimed at restarting negotiations for
the stalled World Trade Organization's Doha Round. The talks were
billed as a High Level Meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) developing
nations, but they represented the first time nearly all the parties
involved have come together since the Doha talks were suspended.
2006 Sep 10, China announced
detailed controls on the distribution of news by foreign news
agencies, banning all content that violates its own tight media
2006 Sep 10, In Cuba leaders of
the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of 116 developing nations began
gathering for a 6-day summit (Sep 11-16). NAM was founded in 1961.
2006 Sep 10, Wrangling forced
Iraq's parliament to suspend debate on a bill that Sunni Arab groups
fear would break up the country. At least 27 people were killed
across Iraq. In Kut 6 bodies bearing signs of torture were found in
the Tigris River. 2 bodies were found in Musayyib and 3 more near
the Duluiya bridge.
(AP, 9/10/06)(SFC, 9/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 10, The Chinese film
“Still Life" won the top award as the 11-day Venice Film Festival
came to a close. The Chinese film was about the Three Gorges Dam
(SFC, 9/11/06, p.D5)
2006 Sep 10, Montenegrins voted
in the first parliamentary elections since the tiny state split from
Serbia. Police announced a crackdown on an alleged ethnic Albanian
terrorist group authorities said had threatened the ballot. The
coalition of PM Milo Djukanovic headed for an absolute majority with
a projected 41 seats in the 81-seat parliament.
(AP, 9/10/06)(SFC, 9/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 10, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb explosion outside a roadside restaurant wounded 14
people in Quetta. In northwestern Pakistan suspected Islamic
militants killed a tribal elder.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 10, One ethnic Russian
man was killed and three were injured in a brawl with ethnic
Armenians at a cafe in the town of Volsk in the Saratov region,
fueling fears of a rise of ethnic violence across Russia.
2006 Sep 10, Islamic militants
controlling much of southern Somalia shut down a radio station for
playing love songs and other music, the latest step to impose strict
religious rule which has sparked fears of an emerging, Taliban-style
regime. Islamic militants, who closed down a Somali radio station,
allowed it back on the air so long as it does not play music or love
(AP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 10, Officials said Sri
Lanka's military had lost 28 soldiers in 3 days of stiff artillery
and mortar attacks as it advanced slowly toward northern Tamil Tiger
rebel strongholds. The rebels accused Colombo of ignoring moves by
Norway to end the latest bloodshed.
2006 Sep 10, Taufa’ahau Tupou
IV (b.1918), King of Tonga, died in New Zealand. He was the son of
Queen Salote Tupou III and her consort Prince Tungi, and served as
the King of Tonga from the death of his mother in 1965.
2006 Sep 10, Armed Yemeni
tribesmen kidnapped four French tourists in the east of the country
to press for their relatives to be released from jail.
2006 Sep 11, The nation paused
to remember the victims of 9/11 on the fifth anniversary of the
terrorist attacks. In a prime-time address, President Bush invoked
the memory of the victims as he argued for a continued military
campaign in Iraq.
2006 Sep 11, It was reported
that Florida’s St. Lucie County was planning a $425 million
plasma-arc gasification facility to vaporize its garbage. The plant
by Geoplasma, a subsidiary of Jacoby Development Inc., was expected
to go operational in 2 years.
(SFC, 9/11/06, p.C4)
2006 Sep 11, The memorial
statue titled, 'To the Struggle Against World Terrorism', by Russian
artist Zurab Tsereteli, was dedicated in Bayonne, N.J. The
100-foot-tall bronze monument with a 40-foot steel teardrop at it's
center, a gift from the Russian government and Tsereteli, is
dedicated to victims of terrorism.
2006 Sep 11, In SF measures to
turn back a surge in violence included police enforcement of a
long-ignored curfew for young teenagers as well as more police in
high crime neighborhoods.
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 11, GlaxoSmithKline
agreed to pay $3.4 billion to settle a US tax dispute covering the
(SFC, 9/12/06, p.D6)
2006 Sep 11, The Pacifica,
California, town council voted to ban smoking on its public beaches
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B10)
2006 Sep 11, In eastern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck in the Tani district of Khost
province at a funeral for Gov. Abdul Hakim Taniwal, a provincial
governor assassinated by the Taliban a day earlier. Five people were
killed and 30 wounded, but four Cabinet ministers at the service
2006 Sep 11, Osama bin Laden's
deputy warned that Persian Gulf countries and Israel would be
al-Qaida's next targets, according to a new videotape aired by Arab
broadcaster Al-Jazeera on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11
2006 Sep 11, China said it will
send 1,000 peacekeeping troops to Lebanon.
(WSJ, 9/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 11, In Cuba a weeklong
summit of the Nonaligned Movement began with poverty, health care
and the Middle East at the top of the agenda. It will culminate with
the meeting of 50 heads of state, including anti-American leaders
from Iran and Venezuela.
2006 Sep 11, In Helsinki,
Finland, European and Asian leaders representing nearly half the
world's population promised to work to reduce global warming, to get
world trade talks back on track and to keep up the battle against
terrorism. They pledged to set new carbon dioxide emissions targets
that go beyond those now set for 2012 under the UN's Kyoto Protocol.
2006 Sep 11, Joachim Fest (79),
German journalist and historian, died. He worked closely with Adolf
Hitler's architect Albert Speer on his memoirs. Fest's biographical
portrait "Hitler," published in English in 1974 the year after its
German release, is widely regarded as the best, among many, on the
2006 Sep 11, Leaders of the
breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia said they would hold a
referendum on independence in November, a move likely to infuriate
the government in Tbilisi and stoke already spiraling tensions.
2006 Sep 11, In Haiti 3 gang
members surrendered their guns in the first handover of weapons in a
UN-led effort to disarm hundreds of Haitian criminals.
2006 Sep 11, Iran closed down
two opposition newspapers, one of which had recently poked fun at
hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the way his government
has handled nuclear talks with the West.
2006 Sep 11, In Iraq a mini bus
carrying a bomb exploded outside an army recruiting center in
Baghdad and killed 16 people, the deadliest of a string of attacks
that left 29 Iraqis dead. A US soldier also died over the weekend.
2006 Sep 11, Kazakhstan hosted
the Second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in
2006 Sep 11, Nicaragua
officials said at least 35 people have died from drinking
methanol-laced sugarcane liquor in the past week and nearly 600 have
fallen ill, overwhelming hospitals in Nicaragua's worst health
crisis in recent history.
2006 Sep 11, Taxi drivers in
Sierra Leone went on strike, bringing the capital to a standstill
after police jailed 100 of their colleagues for driving with bald
tires, broken lights or without a valid license.
2006 Sep 11, In Lebanon an
angry protester accusing Tony Blair of complicity in the Israeli
bombardment of Lebanon disrupted a news conference. Thousands of
demonstrators shouted outside as the British prime minister visited
Beirut. Blair pledged help in rebuilding war-ravaged Lebanon.
2006 Sep 11, Pakistan's
government agreed to a compromise deal with hardline Islamic
lawmakers over proposed changes to a law that has long made
punishing rapists almost impossible in the country. Senator S.M.
Zafar said the government had agreed to compromise by letting rape
victims choose between prosecuting suspects under the four-witness
rule, the 1979 Hudood Ordinance, or under Pakistan's civil
2006 Sep 11, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniyeh agreed that their
moderate Fatah and militant Hamas parties would form a coalition
2006 Sep 11, President Vladimir
Putin gave final orders for a battalion of Russian engineers and
explosives experts to travel to Lebanon to help repair the damage
inflicted by Israel's campaign to uproot Hezbollah guerrillas.
2006 Sep 11, In southern Russia
a military helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz, the
provincial capital of the republic of North Ossetia, killing at
least 10 servicemen and injuring another four.
2006 Sep 11, Sri Lankan troops
and Tamil Tiger rebels exchanged mortar and artillery fire across
their northern front lines. The military said the death toll from
five days of heavy fighting rose to 148.
2006 Sep 11, A top Ugandan
rebel leader, Lord's Resistance Army deputy Vincent Otti, arrived at
a neutral camp in southern Sudan as part of a truce to end 19 years
of conflict with the government.
2006 Sep 11, Uruguay arrested 7
former army and police officers in an investigation of dissidents
who disappeared during the South American country's military rule in
2006 Sep 12, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed a minimum wage bill that will boost the hourly
rate by 75 cents in January and another 50 cents a year later to $8
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B3)
2006 Sep 12, Hewlett-Packard
named CEO Mark Hurd to succeed Patricia Dunn as board chairman as of
mid-January 2007 following the recent furor over phone probes of
(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 12, Joan Valerie
Bondurant, former spy and UC prof. of political science, died in
Tucson, Az. She had translated documents for the CIA in India where
she met Gandhi and grew fascinated by satyagraha, a thesis of
nonviolent resistance. Her books included “Conquest of Violence: The
Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict" (1958).
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.B5)
2006 Sep 12, Hurricane Florence
headed toward north Atlantic shipping lanes after blowing out
windows, peeling away roofs and knocking out power to thousands in
2006 Sep 12, Afghan forces
killed 12 suspected Taliban militants in a shootout south of Kabul.
More than 30 suspected insurgents were detained as security forces
fought back against a deadly spike in violence. The UN urged NATO
forces to take military action to destroy the opium industry in
southern Afghanistan, saying cultivation of the crop is out of
2006 Sep 12, In Bangladesh
police in Dhaka baton-charged thousands of opposition supporters in
violent clashes outside the prime minister's office that left at
least 110 people injured. A 14-party opposition alliance led by the
Awami League is demanding electoral reforms ahead of January's
2006 Sep 12, Canada and the
United States formally signed an agreement to end a protracted
dispute over Canadian softwood lumber.
2006 Sep 12, Pope Benedict XVI
delivered a speech at Regensburg Univ. that included brusque words
about Islam. He quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying
“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will
find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by
the sword the faith he preached." The speech quickly provoked
criticism from the world’s Muslim communities. The pontiff later
said he regretted that Muslims were offended.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A17)(AP, 9/12/07)
2006 Sep 12, Iraqi PM Nouri
al-Maliki made his first official visit to Iran since taking office
and planned to ask Tehran to prevent al-Qaida members believed to be
in Iran from crossing into Iraq to carry out attacks. A parked car
bomb detonated in Baghdad's upscale Mansour neighborhood, killing at
least six people and wounding 18 others. Bombings, mortar attacks
and shootings overnight and during the day left at least 24 people
dead and dozens wounded around the country.
2006 Sep 12, An Israeli
military court ordered the release of 18 imprisoned Hamas lawmakers,
including three Cabinet ministers, and raised questions about the
army's case. A spokesman for the outgoing Hamas-led administration
said the group is prepared to back peace efforts with Israel as part
of the new coalition government being formed by the Palestinians.
Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier during a gunbattle in the
2006 Sep 12, In Mexico gunmen
ambushed and killed Enrique Barrera, police chief of the town of
Linares in the border state of Nuevo Leon, in the latest slaying of
a law officer in a region ravaged by a war between drug gangs.
2006 Sep 12, Montenegro's
election authorities said the governing pro-Western coalition led by
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won last weekend's parliamentary
2006 Sep 12, Serbia toughened
its stand on Kosovo as parliament decided that a planned new
constitution would refer to the disputed province as an "integral"
part of Serbia, regardless of U.N.-led negotiations on whether to
grant it independence.
2006 Sep 12, In Syria armed
Islamic militants attempted to storm the US Embassy in Damascus.
Four people were killed, including three of the assailants. One of
Syria's anti-terrorism forces was killed and 11 other people were
wounded. The only Islamic militant arrested in the attack died from
his wounds, and authorities were unable to question him.
(AP, 9/12/06)(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 12, In Turkey a bomb
exploded near a park in a primarily residential area of Diyarbakir
and 10 people were killed. 7 children were among the dead. The bomb
was made by hand, placed in a thermos and went off as it was being
2006 Sep 12, Uganda extended a
September 12 deadline for the rebel Lord's Resistance Army to agree
to a peace deal or lose an amnesty offer for war crimes charges its
2006 Sep 12, In Yemen a
stampede during a campaign rally for President Ali Abdullah Saleh
killed at least 51 people and injured more than 230, most of them
schoolchildren and teenagers.
2006 Sep 13, A letter from the
office of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, sent to the head of the US
House of Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence, said an
August 23 committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA
findings on Iran's nuclear activity.
(AP, 9/14/06)(SFC, 9/14/06, p.A15)
2006 Sep 13, In California
water users and environmentalists announced a settlement that
requires Friant to release 364,000 to 462,000 acre-feet of water in
normal years to the San Joaquin River, the state’s 2nd longest
(SFC, 9/13/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 13, The SEC froze
trade in the shares of Indigenous Global Development Corp. (IGDC),
run by Deni Leonard, a Native American businessman. An SEC suit said
Leonard claimed to have struck deals with Canadian tribes to develop
and purchase natural gas to be sold to power plants, but no deals
(SSFC, 11/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 13, Ann Richards
(b.1933), former Texas Gov. (1990-1994), died after a battle with
cancer. As governor, Richards appointed the first black University
of Texas regent, the first crime victim on the state Criminal
Justice Board, the first disabled person on the human services board
and the first teacher to lead the State Board of Education. Under
Richards, the fabled Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black
and female officers.
(AP, 9/14/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.96)
2006 Sep 13, US financier
George Soros pledged to invest 50 million dollars in a development
project that aims to show how targeted investment can end extreme
poverty in African villages. The Millennium Villages project is
involved in 79 villages in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali,
Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.
2006 Sep 13, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, while opening a road linking to Pakistan, said
Pakistan and Afghanistan must unite to save their people from the
menace of terrorism. Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed
as many as 30 Taliban in raids on three villages in Ghazni province.
In southern Helmand province police killed 16 Taliban in a
mountainous area outside the town of Garmser. NATO announced that
suicide bombings have killed 173 people in Afghanistan this year.
151 of the year's suicide attack victims were Afghan civilians,
(AP, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 13, NASA scientists
said the ice in the Arctic Sea is melting in winter as well as in
summer, likely due to global warming. The ice was reportedly melting
at 9% a decade.
(SFC, 9/14/06, p.A1)(Econ, 9/9/06, Survey p.6)
2006 Sep 13, The presidents of
Brazil and South Africa, at a trilateral trade meeting in Brasilia,
said they supported changes in international rules to allow India to
buy nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States and other
countries. The trio created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue
Forum (IBSA) in 2003 to promote the interests of their emerging
(Reuters, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, A man in a black
trench coat opened fire at a downtown Montreal college, slaying a
young woman, Anastasia De Sousa (18), a student at Dawson College,
and wounding at least 19 other people before police shot and killed
him. Officials soon identified the killer as Kimveer Gill (25),
resident of a Montreal suburb.
(AP, 9/13/06)(Reuters, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao vowed to continue his vast country's opening up to the
international community, notably rejecting suggestions Beijing is
set to crack down on foreign media.
2006 Sep 13, International
police deployed to East Timor in the wake of unrest in May formally
handed over their authority to the UN at a ceremony in the capital.
A battle between rival gangs armed with machetes killed one fighter
and injured five others in Dili.
(AFP, 9/13/06)(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, The EU's foreign
policy chief and Iran's top nuclear negotiator abruptly postponed
talks on easing tensions over the refusal of the Tehran regime to
suspend uranium enrichment.
2006 Sep 13, In Iraq police
found the bodies of 65 men who had been tortured, shot and dumped,
most around Baghdad. Car bombs, mortar attacks and shootings killed
at least 39 people around Iraq and injured dozens more.
(AP, 9/13/06)(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 13, In Jordan a
military court convicted 10 suspected militants in two separate
terrorism cases that included conspiracies to kill Americans.
Lawmakers approved a measure that would only allow a state-appointed
council to issue religious edicts, a move aimed at denying Islamic
hard-liners a forum for disseminating extremist ideology. The
measure will become law with the expected approval of the upper
house of Parliament and the king.
(AP, 9/13/06)(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 13, The Palestinian
Cabinet resigned to clear the way for a new unity government, and
President Mahmoud Abbas said he plans to send a delegation to the UN
to try to revive a Mideast peace plan.
2006 Sep 13, Andrei Kozlov
(41), the top deputy chairman of Russia's Central Bank, was shot in
Moscow along with his driver, by unidentified assailants. The driver
was killed immediately and Frankel died the next morning. Officials
suggested the attack was prompted by his efforts to clean up the
country's banking system. In October officials arrested 3 Ukrainian
citizens, who were allegedly hired to kill Kozlov. In Jan 2007
Alexei Frankel, whose license was revoked by Kozlov in 2004, was
charged with organizing the murder. On Oct 28 a Moscow jury found
Frankel guilty of organizing the murder.
(AP, 9/14/06)(WSJ, 9/22/06, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/06,
p.A15)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.76)(WSJ, 10/29/08, p.A14)
2006 Sep 13, A helicopter
crashed in Siberia, killing three of the four people aboard, an
emergency official said. The MD-600 helicopter crashed about 12
miles from the city Novokuznetsk in the Kemerovo region about 1,850
miles east of Moscow.
2006 Sep 13, In South Korea
hundreds of workers bulldozed homes in a village to make way for the
expansion of a US military base set to become the Americans' new
headquarters, despite strong objections from protesters.
2006 Sep 13, Zimbabwe police
arrested trade union leaders and blocked streets and the main square
of the capital to thwart an anti-government march, and the main
labor federation apparently called off a planned nationwide strike
at the last minute.
2006 Sep 14, US federal health
officials said an outbreak a deadly strain of E. coli (0157:H7) had
left at least one person dead in Wisconsin over 100 others sick and
warned consumers not to eat bagged fresh spinach. The outbreak in 8
states soon extended to 25. The number sickened rose to at least
190. Most of the spinach crop at this time of the year comes from
California. A special effort was under way in the Salinas Valley of
California, a major leafy-vegetable growing region, to look for any
possible source of contamination there. The outbreak was traced to
California’s Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista, which
recalled all suspect products. This was the same deadly strain that
in 1982 had sickened at least 47 people in Oregon and Michigan who
ate McDonald’s burgers. A surveillance system setup after a 1993
outbreak at the Jack-in-the-Box fast food chain helped single out
spinach as the likely source of this outbreak. A 2nd death on Sep
20, a 2-year-old boy in Idaho, was attributed to the spinach E.
coli. A 3rd death in late August, a woman (84) in Nebraska, was also
attributed to the spinach E. coli. On Sep 29 the FDA cleared spinach
from California’s Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara counties.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A4)(SFC,
9/30/06, p.A5)(SFC, 10/7/06, p.A6)
2006 Sep 14, In Green Bay,
Wisc., police arrested two 17-year-olds, suspected of plotting a
shooting spree at East High School. William C. Cornell and Shawn R.
Sturtz were arrested for suspicion of conspiracy to commit
first-degree intentional homicide and conspiracy to commit arson.
Police found homemade bombs and weapons at their homes.
2006 Sep 14, In Washington DC 2
people demonstrated prosthesis that moved in response to thoughts.
Their bionic arms were designed by the Rehabilitation Institute of
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 14, The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $68.2 million to fight parasitic
diseases that included leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis and hookworm.
The new money will support efficacy trials in India and Africa.
(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.A11)
2006 Sep 14, The hedge fund
Amaranth Advisors, led by Nick Maounis, announced a loss of some
$560 million. The name was taken from the Greek word for “unfading."
Brian Hunter (32), a Canadian energy trader, got caught on the wrong
side of falling natural gas futures.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.B5)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.83)
2006 Sep 14, Mickey Hargitay
(80), Hungarian-born actor and world champion bodybuilder, died. He
was named Mr. Universe, Mr. America and Mr. Olympia in 1955. He was
married to sex siren Jayne Mansfield (1957-1964) and his daughter is
the Emmy-winning actress Mariska Hargitay. California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger played Hargitay in the 1982 TV movie "The Jayne
2006 Sep 14, Prof. Frederic
Evans Wakemen Jr. (68), leading US scholar on China, died in Oregon.
His books included “Policing Shanghai 1927-1937" (1995) and
“Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service" (2004). Prof.
Wakemen had taught at UC Berkeley (1965-2006).
(SFC, 9/26/06, p.B5)
2006 Sep 14, Taliban militants
attacked police headquarters in western Afghanistan, raising fears
that insurgents fleeing NATO attacks in the south are opening new
fronts. Two police and two militants were killed.
2006 Sep 14, Some 200
Pakistanis and Sri Lankans reached the Canary Islands in a 40-meter
(100-feet) metal boat. Officials began making arrangements the next
day for the repatriation of the immigrants. Canaries regional
President Adan Martin said 500 African children out of 836 minors
who have arrived in the Canaries this year were to be transferred to
the Spanish mainland. Some 20,000 would-be immigrants to Europe had
reached the Canary Islands since the beginning of the year.
(AP, 9/15/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.64)
2006 Sep 14, China’s stock
market regulator made official a ban on foreign acquisitions of
domestic stockbrokers and investment banks.
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.84)
2006 Sep 14, Current and former
French officials specializing in terrorism said that an al-Qaida
alliance with the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known
by its French initials GSPC, was cause for concern. Al-Qaida's No.
2, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced the "blessed union" in a video posted
this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept.
11 attacks in the United States.
2006 Sep 14, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel said she has again raised human rights issues with
visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and urged Beijing to respect the
freedom of the press.
2006 Sep 14, Three men became
the first rabbis ordained in Germany since World War II.
2006 Sep 14, Ex-Col. Guy
Francois, former army commander twice accused of plotting to
overthrow Haiti's government, was shot to death in an upscale suburb
of the capital.
2006 Sep 14, An Indian federal
minister proposed a 1,000 US dollar incentive to encourage people to
break centuries-old taboos and marry across caste boundaries.
2006 Sep 14, An Iranian
opposition figure said Iran has secretly revived a program to enrich
uranium using laser technology, reportedly with favorable results,
citing information from members of the resistance inside the
2006 Sep 14, Iraqi officials
said Abu Jaafar al-Liby, described by the ministry as either the
second or third most important figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, was
killed by police earlier this week. Car bombs and drive-by shootings
killed at least 19 people, including 5 US soldiers, in a series of
attacks around central Iraq. Death squads left behind at least 22
(AP, 9/14/06)(AP, 9/15/06)(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A14)
2006 Sep 14, Libya's population
grew by 1.8% per year to 5.3 million in 2006 from 1995. A rare
government census showed that Libya had also cut its illiteracy rate
to 11.9% from 19% a decade ago.
2006 Sep 14, Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo held talks in Tokyo on the start of a
2006 Sep 14, Poland will send
at least 900 troops early next year to bolster the NATO mission in
Afghanistan. NATO said the offer did not ease the immediate need for
2,500 additional soldiers in the violence-wracked south.
2006 Sep 14, The Swiss central
bank raised its key Libor interest rate by a quarter of a percentage
point to a range between 1.25% and 2.25% to dampen the threat of
2006 Sep 14, Turkey's top
Islamic cleric asked Pope Benedict XVI to take back recent remarks
he made about Islam on Sep 12. He unleashed a string of
counteraccusations against Christianity, raising tensions before the
pontiff's November visit.
(AP, 9/14/06)(SFC, 9/15/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 14, Ukraine’s
pro-Russia premier suspended a bid to join NATO.
(WSJ, 9/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 15, The US joined with
the EU and Canada charging that China has erected illegal barriers
to the sale of U.S. and other foreign-made auto parts there.
2006 Sep 15, US Rep. Bob Ney,
R-Ohio, agreed to plead guilty to two criminal charges in the
congressional corruption probe spawned by disgraced lobbyist Jack
2006 Sep 15, In Costa Mesa,
Ca., the new $200 million Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
opened. It was designed by Cesar Pelli (79).
2006 Sep 15, In California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed legislation requiring the driver use of
hands-free devices for cell phones starting in 2008.
(SFC, 9/15/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 15, In East St. Louis,
Ill., Jimella Tunstall (23) bled to death after sustaining an
abdominal wound caused by a sharp object. Her body was found Sep 21.
On Sep 23 investigators found Tunstall’s 3 dead children in a washer
and dryer. Prosecutors charged Tiffany Hall (24), a family friend,
with the murder of Tunstall and her fetus.
2006 Sep 15, In Jackson,
Mississippi, Mayor Frank Melton was indicted along with 2 police
bodyguards on numerous felony charges stemming from his
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 15, In Missouri
Stephenie Ochsenbine (21) was slashed in the throat and had her
week-old baby stolen. Police recovered the baby on Sep 19. On Sep 20
Shannon Torrez (36) was charged with kidnapping and assault and
ordered held on $1 million bond. On September 12, 2008, Torrez was
sentenced to 30 years in prison.
2006 Sep 15, US automaker Ford
Motor Co. unveiled sweeping job cuts and plant closures to stem
losses and said it has no intention of selling its luxury brand
Jaguar. Ford said it would cut 10,000 more white-collar positions,
up from a previous goal of 4,000, and offer buyout and early
retirement to all 75,000 hourly employees. Ford stock closed at
(AFP, 9/15/06)(SFC, 9/16/06, p.C1)(WSJ, 9/16/06,
2006 Sep 15, A large
diabetes-prevention study found that the drug Rosiglitazone
(Avandia), made by GlaxoSmithKline, can help keep “pre-diabetics"
from developing Type 2 diabetes. The drug was already being used to
treat the disease, which afflicted over 200 million worldwide.
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 15, In southern
Afghanistan about 60 suspected Taliban militants attacked a police
checkpoint in Uruzgan province, starting a battle in which four
2006 Sep 15, China denounced
accusations by top US officials that it was selling weapons to Iran
and North Korea amid nuclear tensions with the two regimes. State
media said at least four children, among the hundreds of people
sickened by emissions from a lead smelter in western China, are
likely to suffer permanent brain damage.
2006 Sep 15, Cuba took over the
leadership of the Nonaligned Movement from Malaysia, with Defense
Minister Raul Castro standing in for his ailing brother Fidel.
2006 Sep 15, Iraq’s Interior
Minister said the government will ring Baghdad with a series of
trenches and traffic checkpoints to control movement. Police
found 30 bodies bearing signs of torture in Baghdad. A US Marine was
killed in Anbar province just hours after an American soldier was
killed by a roadside bomb northwest of Baghdad. In central Baghdad,
a gunman opened fire from the top of an abandoned building in a
Sunni Arab neighborhood, killing an Iraqi civilian and wounding five
others. Sheik Muhanad al-Gharairi was a spokesman for the Conference
of People of Iraq, a Sunni Arab party headed by Adnan al-Dulaimi,
was killed by gunmen.
(AP, 9/15/06)(SFC, 9/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 15, Oriana Fallaci
(76), the Italian writer and journalist best known for her abrasive
interviews and provocative stances, died in Florence.
(AP, 9/15/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.97)
2006 Sep 15, Ivory Coast
protesters beat up the transport minister in response to the Aug 19
toxic sludge shipment that sickened 30,000 people.
(WSJ, 9/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 15, Latvian President
Vaira Vike-Freiberga joined the race to become the next UN
secretary-general, becoming the first woman vying for the UN's top
2006 Sep 15, Mexico’s President
Vicente Fox backed down from a confrontation with thousands of
leftist sympathizers of Manuel Lopez Obrador, moving the annual
Independence Day celebration away from Mexico City's main square to
avoid protesters. Fox decided to move the ceremony to the central
town of Dolores Hidalgo, where Miguel Hidalgo made the first call
for independence from Spain in 1810. Supporters of leftist Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador ended the street protest that clogged the heart
of the capital for nearly seven weeks, but they vowed to find other
ways to resist the incoming conservative president.
2006 Sep 15, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire on a car in Gaza City carrying Brig. Gen. Jad Tayeh, a
top Palestinian security officer, in a drive-by shooting that killed
Tayeh and four of his bodyguards.
2006 Sep 15, In Singapore Paul
Wolfowitz, the chief of the World Bank, took a hard line on
corruption. Rodrigo de Rato, his counterpart at the IMF, said
policy-makers need to be ready to adapt to a more difficult economic
environment in the coming year as delegates gathered for the sister
institutions' annual meetings. Wolfowitz said that Singapore had
damaged its own reputation by imposing "authoritarian" restrictions
on the entry of activists for the World Bank/IMF meetings.
2006 Sep 15, Alberto Linero
(27) and Alberto Sanchez (24) both privates in the Spanish air
force, exchanged vows in a reception room at Seville's town hall, in
the first known wedding among same-sex members of the military since
Spain legalized gay marriage last year.
2006 Sep 15, More than 100,000
chanting protesters marched through downtown Taipei, trying to
pressure Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian to resign over a series
of corruption scandals.
2006 Sep 15, Tanzania’s energy
minister said ongoing drought in east Africa has forced Tanzania to
impose power cuts seven days a week.
2006 Sep 15, Over strong
opposition from China, the UN Security Council put Myanmar on its
agenda in what US officials called a "major step forward" in
American efforts to increase pressure on the country's military
2006 Sep 15, The World Health
Organization declared its support for indoor use of DDT to control
mosquitoes in regions where malaria is a major health problem.
(SFC, 9/16/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 15, In Yemen suicide
bombers tried to strike two oil facilities with explosives-packed
cars. Al-Qaida later claimed responsibility for the attempted
suicide attacks and vowed more strikes against the United States and
(AP, 9/15/06)(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Sep 15, Zimbabwe said its
annual inflation rate has reached a new record high of more than
1,200% in August despite the conversion to a new currency designed
to halt the upwards spiral.
2006 Sep 16, In SF Zachary
Roche-Balsam (19) was killed when he tried to stop a robbery of 2
women after a party in the Ingleside Heights neighborhood. In 2007
police arrested and charged Vernon Anderson Jr. (21) with the
(SFC, 4/11/07, p.B2)
2006 Sep 16, Thousands of
US-led coalition and Afghan troops launched Mountain Fury, a
large-scale anti-Taliban operation in five Afghan provinces. A bomb
blast south of Kabul killed three Afghan aid workers and wounded
(AP, 9/16/06)(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 16, In Cuba
representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations condemned
Israel's attacks on Lebanon and supported a peaceful resolution to
the US-Iran nuclear dispute in the final declaration.
2006 Sep 16, Fouad el-Mohandes
(82), one of Egypt's most beloved comedians, died in Cairo. His
plays and movies made over a half century brought him fans across
the Arab world.
2006 Sep 16, Iraq’s PM Nuri
al-Maliki launched a fresh peace bid and the US pledged more troops
to help restore stability in the Iraqi capital. At least eight
people were killed in rebel attacks. Police recovered 48
bodies from across Baghdad. Most were those of young men who had
been tortured, blindfolded, handcuffed and shot several times. Iraqi
police uncovered a large munitions cache stored in the southern town
of Ad Dayr.
(AP, 9/16/06)(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.A23)(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 16, Ivory Coast named
a new Cabinet, replacing the ministers of transport and environment
but reappointing most others, after a toxic waste dumping scandal
prompted the resignation of the entire 32-member body last week.
2006 Sep 16, In Mexico hundreds
of thousands of supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
elected him the leader of a "parallel government" opposed to
President-elect Felipe Calderon's administration. Mexico extradited
accused drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the US,
making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to
face trial on drug charges. He later pleaded guilty to federal
charges of selling cocaine in a San Diego motel. Hurricane Lane, a
Category 3 storm, battered Mazatlan.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/17/07)
2006 Sep 16, Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf and Indian PM Manmohan Singh held
"historic" talks on the disputed Kashmir region, on the sidelines of
a developing-world summit in Havana. They also agreed to restart
peace talks suspended since train bombings killed more than 200
people in Mumbai in July.
(AFP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 16, Leaders across the
Muslim world demanded Pope Benedict XVI apologize for his remarks on
Islam and jihad. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely"
regretted offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure
medieval text characterizing some of the teachings of Islam's
founder as "evil and inhuman," but the statement stopped short of
the apology demanded by Islamic leaders. Two West Bank Christian
churches were hit by firebombs, and a group claiming responsibility
said it was protesting Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/07)
2006 Sep 16, In Singapore top
finance chiefs stepped up pressure on China to relax its grip on its
currency, warning that trade imbalances threaten a flourishing
global economy. G7 finance ministers and central bank governors also
called for a resumption of global free trade talks and a revamp of
the IMF, saying China should be given a louder voice but must also
fulfill its broader economic responsibilities.
2006 Sep 16, Sten Andersson
(b.1923), a leading figure in Sweden's governing Social Democratic
Party and one-time mediator in the Middle East peace process, died.
As foreign minister from 1985 to 1991, Andersson helped start a
dialogue between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the US.
2006 Sep 16, In southern
Thailand bomb blasts killed four people including a Canadian (29),
who became the first Westerner to die in the two-year Muslim
insurgency. At least five bombs exploded: two in department stories;
two in front of a bar and a parking lot at the Odean Shopping Mall;
and a fifth at a nearby massage parlor in Songkhla province's Hat
2006 Sep 16, Togo's Pres. Faure
Gnassingbe named Yawovi Agboyibo (63), an opposition party leader,
as prime minister, bringing the nation one step closer to
long-delayed parliamentary elections.
2006 Sep 16, In Yemen 4
suspected al-Qaida members who were plotting attacks in San’a were
2006 Sep 17, In California a
fire in Los Padres National Forest crossed 60,589 acres, or about 93
square miles, since it began on Labor Day. Containment was estimated
2006 Sep 17, Time Warner Inc.
said it is selling AOL Germany's Internet access business to Telecom
Italia SpA for about $870 million.
2006 Sep 17, In South Carolina
Vinson Filyaw (36) was arrested and charged with raping a
14-year-old girl. Filyaw had abducted the girl on Sep 6 and kept her
in an underground bunker. The girl was rescued Sep 16 after she used
Filyaw’s cell phone to send a text message to her mother.
(SFC, 9/18/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 17, Elizabeth
Blackburn (57), a biochemist at UCSF, was named winner of the Lasker
Award for Basic Medical Research. She shared $100,000 the award with
Carol W. Greider, a former graduate student, and Jack W. Szostak
(53), a Harvard geneticist and longtime collaborator. Their
discoveries included proteins called telomeres that cap the ends of
chromosomes and regulate the longevity and death of human and animal
(SSFC, 9/17/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 17, Five Duquesne
basketball players were shot and wounded during an apparent act of
random violence on campus. As of 2007 two alleged gunmen and two
women who allegedly helped facilitate the shooting awaited trial.
2006 Sep 17, Patricia Kennedy
Lawford (82), the sister of President John F. Kennedy and ex-wife of
actor Peter Lawford, died in New York City.
2006 Sep 17, A top NATO general
said Operation Medusa, an offensive aimed at driving Taliban
militants out of their safe havens in southern Afghanistan, has been
"successfully completed." In southern Afghanistan a suicide bomber
plowed his explosive-laden vehicle into a Canadian military convoy,
killing one civilian and wounding five.
2006 Sep 17, In northern
Austria a Czech bus veered off a road and into a ditch, killing 4
people and injuring 38.
2006 Sep 17, Iran's president
made his first visit to Venezuela, seeking to strengthen ties with a
government that also opposes the US.
2006 Sep 17, In Iraq a series
of attacks, including two suicide car bombings in the northern city
of Kirkuk, killed 24 people and wounded dozens. A series of near
simultaneous mortar and bomb attacks targeting police patrols in
Fallujah killed 4 people, including two policemen, and wounded 10.
In Baghdad a bomb left in plastic bag exploded on the central
commercial Jumhouriyah street, killing two civilians and wounding 8.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 4 unidentified men were found in
separate neighborhoods in east Baghdad. Another two bodies were
found in the Tigris river in central Baghdad. Both had been shot,
and one had been decapitated. Another blindfolded and bound body was
found dumped in a river in the city of Kut. Ahmed Riyadh al-Karbouli
(25), an Iraqi journalist, was killed in Ramadi.
(AP, 9/17/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 17, The Israeli
Cabinet authorized an inquiry into the government's handling of the
recent war in Lebanon, capping weeks of disagreements over the scope
of the investigation.
2006 Sep 17, A strong typhoon
swept toward southwestern Japan with fierce winds and heavy rains,
leaving at least 8 people dead or missing and injuring dozens more.
2006 Sep 17, Voters in
Moldova's breakaway Trans-Dniester region overwhelmingly approved a
referendum for the separatist government's bid to eventually join
2006 Sep 17, A Nigerian
military transport aircraft, traveling from Abuja to the southern
town of Obudu, went down in the southeast with a group of military
officers on board. 12 of 17 people were killed and most were senior
2006 Sep 17, Sister Leonella
Sgorbati, an Italian nun, was shot dead at a hospital in Mogadishu
by Somali gunmen, hours after a leading Muslim cleric condemned Pope
Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence. The nun's
bodyguard and a hospital worker were also killed.
(AP, 9/17/06)(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 17, Sri Lanka's Tamil
Tiger rebels accused government soldiers in concert with
paramilitary units of killing nearly 100 civilians in the island's
embattled Jaffna peninsula this month. Sri Lanka's navy gunboats and
war planes bombed a suspected Tamil Tiger arms ship.
2006 Sep 17, Peace activists
around the world staged a day of action to highlight the "forgotten
war" in Darfur where tens of thousands of people have been killed
and more than 2 million left homeless.
2006 Sep 17, In Sweden PM
Goeran Persson, head of the minority Social Democrat government for
10 years, faced Fredrik Reinfeldt (41), who led the four-party
Alliance for Sweden, after a campaign focused on getting Swedes back
into the job market. The center-right opposition, vowing to
streamline Sweden's famed welfare state, ousted the Social
Democratic government with 48.1% of the vote, ending 12 years of
leftist rule. Fredrik Reinfeldt (41), head of the main opposition
Moderate Party, authored the 1993 book "The Sleeping Nation," in
which he criticized the cradle-to-grave welfare state. Fredrik
Reinfeldt renamed his party the “New Moderates."
(AP, 9/17/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.16)(Econ, 9/23/06,
2006 Sep 17, Pope Benedict XVI
said that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his
recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that
didn't reflect his personal opinion.
2006 Sep 18, The US Commerce
Department said the current account deficit had widened more than
expected in the second quarter to $218.4 billion, as surging oil
prices pushed goods imports higher.
2006 Sep 18, A jury in Santa
Clara, Ca., convicted Dean Schwartzmiller (64) of molesting 2 San
Jose boys. Authorities said he had molested over 100 boys and
chronicled his exploits in a manuscript.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 18, Researchers at
Intel and UC Santa Barbara announced new technology using lasers on
silicon chips for optical computing. Practical use was thought to be
5-7 years away.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 18, The body of Luz
Maria Franco-Fierros (49) was found dragged to death in Castle Rock,
Colorado, leaving a trail of blood more than mile long. Police the
next day arrested Jose Luis Rubi-Nava (36) as suspect in the murder.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A20)(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 18, Anousheh Ansari
(40), an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, took off
on a Russian rocket bound for the international space station,
becoming the world's first paying female space tourist. Aboard the
space station, an oxygen generator overheated and spilled a toxic
irritant, forcing the crew to don masks and gloves in the first
emergency ever declared aboard the 8-year-old orbiting outpost.
2006 Sep 18, The 184-nation IMF
approved reforms to increase the voice of China, South Korea,
Turkey, and Mexico to reflect their growing economic sway.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D2)
2006 Sep 18, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed four Canadian
troops handing out candy to children and wounded 27 civilians. A
suicide car bombing in Kabul killed at least four policemen and
wounded one officer and 10 civilians. In Heart a bombing killed 12
people and wounded 17 including the deputy police chief. An outdoor
wedding celebration north of Kabul was attacked by assailants who
threw a grenade, killing five women and wounding 18. Four suspects
were detained after the blast in the village of Sayadan.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 18, In Bangladesh at
least 100,000 opposition supporters rallied in Dhaka demanding
electoral reforms ahead of national elections and using strident
rhetoric against the ruling coalition.
2006 Sep 18, A court in Belgium
ordered Google to remove all links to French and German language
newspaper reports published in Belgium due to copyright laws.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.D7)
2006 Sep 18, Britain and Spain
reached a historic deal to resolve side issues stemming from their
300-year-old dispute over Gibraltar, but sidestepped the main one,
their claims to the Rock's sovereignty.
2006 Sep 18, Premier Wen Jiabao
said China will increase its peacekeeping force in Lebanon to 1,000
and double the humanitarian aid it has pledged.
2006 Sep 18, In Colombia
federal prosecutor Mario Iguaran delivered a televised apology for a
scandal surrounding psychic Armando Marti. In 2005 he had hired
Marti, a self-described clairvoyant, to help his staff deal with a
crushing caseload and to improve relations. The operation was
code-named “Mission Perseus of Zeus" and it granted Marti unfettered
access to the institution, as much as $1,800 a month, and a
government-issued armored car.
(SFC, 9/20/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 18, In Germany
Jacqueline Battles, the German wife of an American contractor
accused of cheating the US government in Iraq, was arrested on
suspicion of money laundering. In March a US jury ordered
contractors Mike Battles and Scott Custer to pay $10 million for
swindling the US government over Iraqi rebuilding projects in
connection with their Middletown, R.I.-based company, Custer Battles
2006 Sep 18, The Iraqi army's
4th division took over operational control of central Salahuddin
province from the US-led coalition. Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a
prominent Sunni tribal leader, said 15 of Ramadi's 18 tribes "have
sworn to fight those who are killing Sunnis and Shiites," and said
they had an armed force of about 20,000 men. Bombers and gunmen
killed 8 people in Baqouba as security forces prepared to further
tighten security ahead of the holy month of Ramadan. In southern
Basra police found the body of Lt. Col. Fawzi Abdul Karim
al-Mousawi, chief of the city's anti-terrorism department. Gunmen
killed a former member of the defunct Ba'th Party in Hillah. Police
in Baghdad found the bodies of 3 men, bound, blindfolded and shot in
the head. Six bombs killed 24 people and wounded 84 in Kirkuk. The
tortured bodies of 15 people were found elsewhere. In total bombers
and gunmen killed at least 41 people and wounded dozens across Iraq,
while parliament leaders again put off debate on legislation that
some Iraqis fear could threaten the country's unity and bring even
more violence. 3 US soldiers died, including one killed by a
roadside bomb explosion and another after being shot. A third
soldier died from non-battle-related injuries.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 18, Israel said it
will consider freeing Palestinian prisoners and releasing millions
of dollars in tax rebates to Palestinians if their government
moderates its hardline views. Israel charged three Hezbollah members
arrested in Lebanon during the recent war with murder for
involvement in deadly attacks on soldiers.
2006 Sep 18, Palestine’s PM
Ismail Haniyeh's bodyguards opened fire outside the parliament
building to disperse a crowd of protesters angry over the
government's failure to end a growing economic crisis in the Gaza
2006 Sep 18, Russia’s Ministry
of Natural Resources said it would cancel an environmental permit
for a $20 billion oil and natural gas project led by Royal Dutch
Shell on the Far East island of Sakhalin.
(WSJ, 9/19/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 18, In Somalia a
massive car bomb exploded outside the makeshift parliament building
in Baidoa, killing 11 people, including the president's brother, in
an apparent assassination attempt. As Pres. Yusuf fled, a gunbattle
broke out between his bodyguards and eight suspected accomplices of
an apparent suicide bomber. Six were killed and two were captured.
(AP, 9/18/06)(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 18, In eastern Sri
Lanka the bodies of 11 Muslim men were found hacked to death. Tamil
Tiger rebels and government forces blamed each other for the
2006 Sep 18, The Vatican opened
part of its secret archives to let historians review millions of
diplomatic letters, private correspondence and other church
documents to gain insight into how the Holy See dealt with the
growing persecution of Jews before World War II.
2006 Sep 19, President Bush
addressed the 61st meeting of the UN General Assembly with a call
for nations to unite to work for a more peaceful world where
"extremists are marginalized by the peaceful majority." UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered an emotional farewell
address, appealing to the world to unite against human rights
abuses, religious divisions, brutal conflicts and an unjust world
(AP, 9/19/06)(AP, 9/19/07)
2006 Sep 19, A Georgia judge
struck down the state’s photo ID requirement to vote.
(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 19, Sam Harris
published his polemic "Letter to a Christian Nation." It was a
philosophical attack on the basic tenets held by all major
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.B2)
2006 Sep 19, Warren Buffet,
billionaire investor, pledged $50 million to help set up an
international nuclear fuel bank that aspiring powers could turn to
for reactor fuel instead of making it on their own.
(SFC, 9/20/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 19, The MacArthur
Foundation announced the 25 winners of its genius awards.
(SFC, 9/19/06, p.B1)
2006 Sep 19, George Lucas,
creator of "Star Wars," announced that his private foundation will
give his alma mater, the University of Southern California, $175
million to endow and rebuild its School of Cinematic Arts in what
amounts to the largest donation in USC history.
2006 Sep 19, Motorola Inc.
agreed to buy Symbol Technologies, a maker of bar-code readers, for
(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A21)
2006 Sep 19, John Nejedly (91),
former 10-year California state senator, died. He helped lead the
1982 fight against the Peripheral Canal and wrote the bill
authorizing the construction of the bridge on Highway 160 near
Antioch, which was named in his honor.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.B9)
2006 Sep 19, In central and
southern Afghanistan clashes and bombings left up to 34 Taliban
fighters and one policeman dead in five separate incidents.
2006 Sep 19, In Argentina
Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (77) a former police investigator, was
sentenced to life in prison in connection with the disappearance of
six people during the so-called "Dirty War" against political
2006 Sep 19, In Australia Judge
Murray Wilcox granted Aborigines a title claim over Perth, the
capital of Western Australia.
2006 Sep 19, Australia and
Japan imposed financial sanctions on 11 North Korean companies, a
Swiss company and its president, based on allegations they helped
the communist nation's weapons programs.
2006 Sep 19, A British soldier
pleaded guilty to one count of inhumanely treating Iraqi civilians,
while he and his comrades denied all other charges in a landmark
2006 Sep 19, Cambodia's King
Norodom Sihamoni started the official part of a week-long visit to
the Czech Republic, a country where he spent 13 years from 1962-1975
and considers as his "second home."
2006 Sep 19, Supporters of
Congo's presidential challenger barricaded streets, stopped traffic
and threw stones in Kinshasa, a day after a fire at his headquarters
destroyed the party's television and radio stations.
2006 Sep 19, In southern
Germany a US AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter crashed on a
training mission, killing two American soldiers.
2006 Sep 19, Some 2,000-3,000
protesters stormed the headquarters of Hungarian state television
and forced it off the air briefly in an explosion of anger. The
protests began after a recording of PM Gyurcsany's comments made in
May was leaked to Hungarian media. In his speech to a meeting of
Socialist deputies, the prime minister admitted that the government
had lied about the state of the economy in order to ensure victory
in the elections.
2006 Sep 19, In India at least
two people were killed and more than 100 detained during violent
protests against a court-ordered crackdown on illegal shops in New
Delhi. At least 20 people were killed in coastal villages in eastern
India after a major storm swept in to the Bay of Bengal and
destroyed hundreds of mud huts.
2006 Sep 19, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the UN General Assembly and took aim
at US policies in Iraq and Lebanon. He accused Washington of abusing
its power in the UN Security Council to punish others while
protecting its own interests and allies.
2006 Sep 19, The Iraqi
government said it will shut down all offices belonging to the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) around the country. The chief judge in
Saddam Hussein's genocide trial was replaced amid complaints he was
being too easy on the deposed Iraqi leader. A rocket attack on a
Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad killed 10 people and wounded
19. In northern Iraq at least 17 people were killed and 11 wounded
in twin bombings in the town of Al-Shurqat.
(AP, 9/19/06)(AFP, 9/20/06)(AP, 9/19/07)
2006 Sep 19, Police in southern
Italy arrested scores of people in an overnight crackdown on
organized crime, including on clans that had a grip on the local
2006 Sep 19, Ivory Coast
authorities arrested 2 French executives of Trafigura Beheer BV, the
Dutch commodities company implicated in the recent dumping of toxic
waste. Claude Dauphin and Jean-Pierre Valentini, charged with
poisoning and infractions of toxic waste laws, were sent to
(WSJ, 9/20/06, p.A10)
2006 Sep 19, Einars Repse,
Latvia's former prime minister (2002-2004), accidentally killed a
pedestrian while driving on a remote road. He said he would stop
campaigning for parliament, although he will remain a candidate. The
EU's official statistics agency, Eurostat, said Latvia registered
222 traffic deaths per 1 million residents in 2004, the highest in
2006 Sep 19, A group of sexual
abuse survivors filed a lawsuit against Mexican Cardinal Norberto
Rivera, claiming he hid evidence to protect a priest accused of
molesting boys. A lawyer for the Chicago-based Survivors Network of
Those Abused by Priests filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior
Court. Rivera, now Mexico's top-ranking cardinal, helped cover up
abuse by the Rev. Nicolas Aguilar involving 50 boys when Aguilar
served as a parish priest in central Puebla state in 1987. Rivera
was bishop of Tehuacan in Puebla state at the time.
2006 Sep 19, Sudan's Pres. Omar
Hassan al-Bashir, on the sidelines of the UN General assembly, said
his country would never allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur and
charged that the West wanted to dismember his country in order to
help Israel. He agreed that the 7,000 AU peacekeepers could stay.
(Reuters, 9/19/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.51)
2006 Sep 19, In Thailand a
6-man military junta launched a coup against PM Thaksin Shinawatra,
circling his offices with tanks, seizing control of TV stations and
declaring a provisional authority pledging loyalty to the king. This
was the 18th coup since 1932. General Prem Tinsulanonda was widely
seen as the mastermind of the coup.
(AP, 9/19/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.27)(Econ, 12/6/08,
2006 Sep 20, Pres. Bush met
with Palestinian leader Abbas in a bid to restart Mideast peace
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 20, A US federal judge
overturned a Bush administration rule that would have allowed roads
to be built through nearly 60 million acres of national forest land.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 20, California sued 6
major auto makers for greenhouse-gas inaction.
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 20, The second annual
Clinton Global Initiative, on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly, kicked off in Manhattan and collected over $2 billion in
pledges in funds and programs on its 1st day to combat global ills.
A day later British mogul Richard Branson pledged to spend $3
billion in the next decade on projects to combat global warming and
reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The 3-day summit raised $7.3
billion in pledges.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A3)(AFP, 9/21/06)(SFC, 9/23/06,
2006 Sep 20, In Florida
Clarence Hill was executed for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police
officer. He had argued that Florida’s use of lethal injections
amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, but the US Supreme Court
denied him another stay of execution.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 20, Dean Everett
Wooldridge (93), scientist and co-founder of Ramo-Wooldridge (1953),
died. In 1958 Ramo-Wooldridge merged with Thomas Products to become
TRW Corp. Wooldridge helped develop the US intercontinental
ballistic missile program. He also authored 4 books on neuroscience
and predicted the rise of artificial intelligence.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 20, In Salt Lake City
a 2-year-old boy died from kidney failure due to an E. coli
infection attributed to spinach.
(SFC, 10/6/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 20, In southern
Afghanistan police clashed with militants who tried to set fire to
an oil tanker, killing four suspected members of the Taliban.
Authorities found the body of a Turkish national who was kidnapped
last month along with another Turk whose body was already recovered.
2006 Sep 20, The African Union
(AU) agreed to extend the mandate of its peacekeepers in Sudan's
troubled Darfur region for three months until December 31 after
receiving promises of financial and logistical support from the
United Nations and Arab states.
2006 Sep 20, In Australia
arrested 5 Canadian men after cocaine worth A$35 million ($26
million) was found hidden inside computer monitors. This was
believed to be Australia's fifth-largest illegal drugs seizure.
2006 Sep 20, EU regulators
fined 30 companies a total of $399.1 million for fixing prices for
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 20, Henri Jayer (84),
a master of balanced pinot noir, died in Dijon, France. He was
viewed by many connoisseurs to be the finest Burgundy winemaker of
2006 Sep 20, Hungarian PM
Ferenc Gyurcsany vowed to crack down on rioters. Police blaming the
violence on football hooligans and extreme right-wing groups.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated for a 4th day demanding that PM
(AFP, 9/20/06)(SFC, 9/21/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 20, An Iraqi police
headquarters in Baghdad was hit by a suicide truck bomb, killing at
least 7 people. Rebels killed at least 16 people in Iraq in a series
of bombings and shootings.
2006 Sep 20, Israeli forces
raided the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin, destroying five
foreign exchange depots and a bank and taking funds the army said
were earmarked for terrorism. Palestinian militants in the Gaza
Strip fired two rockets at an Israeli town, wounding a 15-year-old
boy and another person.
2006 Sep 20, Nationalist
candidate Shinzo Abe won the race for Japan's ruling party leader,
all but clinching next week's election as prime minister and
pledging to make his country a more robust force on the world stage.
2006 Sep 20, In northern
Kazakhstan a methane explosion tore through a coal mine, killing 41
miners. Seven miners were pulled out alive and hospitalized after it
ripped through the Lenin mine in the town of Shakhtinsk.
(AP, 9/20/06)(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 20, The UN's
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) acquitted former
Rwandan education minister Andre Rwamakuba of murder and incitement
charges related to the country's 1994 genocide.
2006 Sep 20, Gen. Sondhi
Boonyaratkalin, the army commander who seized Thailand's government
in a quick, bloodless coup, pledged to hold elections by October
2007. He received a ringing endorsement from the country's revered
2006 Sep 20, In South Africa a
judge dismissed corruption charges against Jacob Zuma after the
prosecution said it was not ready to proceed against a powerful,
populist politician who could be South Africa's next president.
2006 Sep 20, Sven Nykvist
(b.1922), Swedish cinematographer, died. He began working with
Ingmar Bergman in 1953, eventually became his full-time
cinematographer, pushing the director's work in a new direction.
Nykvist won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for two
Bergman movies, Cries and Whispers (1973), and Fanny and Alexander
2006 Sep 20, In eastern Ukraine
a methane blast ripped through a coal mine, killing 13 miners and
injuring 36 others.
2006 Sep 20, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez took his verbal battle with the US to the
floor of the UN General Assembly, calling President Bush "the
devil." "The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said. "He came here
talking as if he were the owner of the world."
2006 Sep 20, In Vietnam Pham
Xuan An (79), journalist and spy, died. He led a remarkable and
perilous double life as a communist spy and a respected reporter for
Western news organizations during the Vietnam War.
2006 Sep 20, Yemen's President
Ali Abdullah Saleh faced a serious challenger at the polls for the
first time. Roughly 5 million of the 9.2 million eligible Yemenis
cast ballots. Saleh has ruled since 1978, first as president of
North Yemen and then as head of the unified state after the 1990
merger of the North and South.
2006 Sep 21, The US White House
and rebellious Senate Republicans announced agreement on rules for
the interrogation and trial of suspects in the war on terror.
2006 Sep 21, The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention announced it would recommend all
Americans ages 13 to 64 be routinely tested for HIV.
2006 Sep 21, In NYC Venezuela’s
Pres. Chavez visited the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Harlem and
promised to double the amount of discounted heating oil his country
is shipping to needy Americans. His offer included 100 gallons of
heating oil for each of 12,000 households in rural Alaska.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A3)(SSFC, 10/8/06, p.A27)
2006 Sep 21, In Santa Cruz,
Ca., Kirby Scudder (50), former bike messenger, set up 500 giant
flashlights to shine skyward every 30 feet along West Cliff Drive
overlooking the Pacific Ocean in his tribute to International Peace
Day. The lights came on at 9PM.
(SFC, 9/21/06, p.B1)(SFC, 9/22/06, p.B7)
2006 Sep 21, The US space
shuttle Atlantis returned safely to its Florida home port, capping a
successful mission to resume International Space Station
construction after the 2003 Columbia accident.
2006 Sep 21, Time Warner Inc.
said it would sell AOL France's Internet access unit to Neuf Cegetel
for $365 million as it overhauls its online business in Europe to
2006 Sep 21, In Afghanistan a
NATO helicopter killed 8 suspected insurgents in Helmand province.
2006 Sep 21, The death toll in
Bangladesh and India rose to at least 95 and nearly 1,000 remained
missing after storms capsized boats, toppled houses and washed away
2006 Sep 21, Chile's President
Michelle Bachelet said her decision to allow the government to
distribute free morning-after contraception pills to girls as young
as 14 was a matter of "equality" within Chilean society.
2006 Sep 21, Iraq’s Defense
Ministry said insurgents are no longer using just volunteers as
suicide car bombers but are instead kidnapping drivers, rigging
their vehicles with explosives and blowing them up. Italy formally
handed over security responsibility of the southern Dhi Qar province
to Iraqi forces, the second of the country's 18 provinces to be
handed over to local control. 2 people were killed and another nine
were wounded when a car bomb exploded near an electricity company
office in Baghdad. The number of Iraqi civilians killed in July and
August hit a record-high 6,599. An American soldier was killed after
his vehicle was hit by a roadside bombing in eastern Baghdad.
(AP, 9/21/06)(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Sep 21, Israeli forces
killed at least 5 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as gunmen fired
rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A13)
2006 Sep 21, A Japanese court
ruled that an order forcing Tokyo teachers to stand before Japan's
flag and sing an anthem to the emperor violated the constitution, a
rare victory for the country's waning pacifist movement.
2006 Sep 21, Jordan sentenced 7
people to death for triple hotel bombings that killed 60 people in
Amman last November. Sajida al-Rishawi (35), an Iraqi woman, was
sentenced to death. 6 others were sentenced to death in absentia.
2006 Sep 21, Vladimiro
Montesinos (61), Peru's former spymaster, was sentenced to 20 years
in prison for engineering a deal that sent 10,000 assault rifles to
2006 Sep 21, In Russia Gennady
Melikyan, deputy chairman of the Central Bank, was appointed top
regulator to replace the recently murdered Andrei Kozlov.
(WSJ, 9/22/06, p.A6)
2006 Sep 21, Thailand's new
military rulers said that four top members of deposed PM Thaksin
Shinawatra's administration had been detained. The regime also
assumed the duties of parliament, which was dissolved when the
government was ousted in a coup earlier this week, and banned
meetings by all political parties.
2006 Sep 21, Elif Shafak, one
of Turkey's leading authors, was acquitted of "insulting
Turkishness" in her novel "The Bastard of Istanbul," that touched on
the mass killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman
Empire. The University of Arizona assistant professor gave birth to
a daughter on Sep 16 and did not attend her trial.
2006 Sep 21, Vietnam deported
an American pro-democracy activist, state-run television reported.
Cong Thanh Do (47) of San Jose, Ca., was accused of plotting to
overthrow the government.
2006 Sep 22, US President
George W. Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf met at the
White House for key anti-terror talks jarred by his public critiques
of US strategy.
2006 Sep 22, It was reported
that 11 Domino's employees in Pensacola, Fla., hoping to make a
little more dough and get a bigger slice of the profits have formed
the nation's first union of pizza delivery drivers.
2006 Sep 22, The new list of
Forbes 400 richest people in the US for the 1st time was composed
only of billionaires. As a group they were worth a record $1.3
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.B3)
2006 Sep 22, The US CDC
recommended that all Americans between 13 and 64 be routinely tested
2006 Sep 22, Hewlett-Packard
Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn resigned in the wake of the company's
ill-fated investigation of boardroom media leaks.
2006 Sep 22, Edward Albert
(b.1951), television and screen actor, died of lung cancer in
Malibu, California. He had a meteoric career as a film star in the
1970s after he starred with Goldie Hawn in “Butterflies Are Free"
(1972). He also starred in “40 Carats" (1973), “The Ice Runner"
(1993), and “Guarding Tess" (1994). Albert was a dedicated
environmentalist and worked with several groups, including the
California Coastal Commission and the state's Native American
2006 Sep 22, In southern
Afghanistan militants ambushed a bus carrying construction workers,
killing 19 of the laborers. The attack occurred in Kandahar province
when a roadside bomb exploded near the bus. A NATO helicopter killed
15 suspected insurgents in Helmand province.
(AP, 9/22/06)(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 22, Enrique Gorriaran
Merlo (65), a former Argentine rebel, died. He claimed that he led
the squad that killed exiled Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in
2006 Sep 22, In Shanghai health
officials added 3 more items to a list of toxic metals in SK-II
products, made in Japan by US consumer products giant Procter and
Gamble. P&G has pulled its popular SK-II line of beauty products
off the shelf after authorities a week earlier discovered traces of
the two toxic metals in nine SK-II products including powder,
foundation, lotion and cleansing oil products. The company said a
hotline had been set up and that all refund requests submitted by
September 21 would be honored.
2006 Sep 22, Democratic
Republic of Congo's first freely elected parliament in more than 40
years convened, with President Joseph Kabila's coalition poised to
appoint a prime minister.
2006 Sep 22, France and Russia
signed deals in the transport and aviation sectors worth 10 billion
dollars following a summit between Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin and
his French counterpart Jacques Chirac.
2006 Sep 22, Voters in Gambia
went to the polls in a presidential election widely expected to hand
incumbent strongman Yahya Jammeh a third elected term.
2006 Sep 22, In northwestern
Germany the high-speed, Transrapid magnetic train, traveling at 125
mph, crashed. 23 of the 29 people aboard were killed and others
injured in the first fatal wreck involving the high-tech system. A
gas tank exploded in a bakery in a south German village, burying a
dozen people in the rubble and injuring several more.
(AP, 9/22/06)(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 22, India’s High Court
overturned a ban on the production and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi
soft drinks in the southern Indian state of Kerala, but state
officials said they would seek ways to challenge the decision.
2006 Sep 22, In Indonesia
Christian mobs torched cars, blockaded roads and looted Muslim-owned
shops in violence touched off by the execution in Central Sulawesi
of 3 Roman Catholics convicted of instigating attacks on Muslims.
Fabianus Tibo (60), Marinus Riwu (48), and Dominggus da Silva (42),
were found guilty of leading a Christian militia that launched a
series of attacks on Muslims in May, 2000, that left at least 70
people dead. Some 200 prisoners escaped in the town of Atambua, and
only 20 had been recaptured by mid-afternoon.
2006 Sep 22, In Iraq gunmen
opened fire on Sunni mosques and homes in a religiously mixed
Baghdad neighborhood, killing four people in an attack that drew the
condemnation of Sunni leaders across the city. Muntasir Hamoud
Ileiwi al-Jubouri, an alleged leader of Ansar al-Sunnah, and two of
his aides were captured. He is a leader of the group believed to be
behind the 2004 attack on a US military mess hall. An American
contractor working for the State Department was killed in a rocket
attack in the southern city of Basra. Police found the blindfolded
and bound bodies of nine men from a Sunni tribe who had been dragged
out of a wedding dinner in east Baghdad the night before by men
dressed in Iraqi army uniforms. Four other bodies were found in
other parts of the capital, again blindfolded and with their hands
and legs tied.
(AP, 9/22/06)(AP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 22, Israelis marked
the Jewish New Year shaken by the inconclusive war in Lebanon, angry
at their leaders and coping with growing gaps between rich and poor.
2006 Sep 22, Some 800,000
Hezbollah supporters packed a 37-acre square in the suburbs of
Beirut to hear leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. In his first public
appearance since the start of his group's 34-day war with Israel, he
said his group has more than 20,000 rockets, and that an increased
UN peacekeeping force will not hurt its guerrillas' arsenal.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep 22, Nepal's interim
parliament passed a new law imposing tighter civilian control over
the army which was once fiercely loyal to the nation's royal family.
2006 Sep 22, In Norway police
accused four men suspected in an attack on Oslo's main synagogue of
also plotting to blow up the US and Israeli embassies. The men were
arrested Sep 19 in connection with an attack on the Mosaic Religious
Community synagogue, which was hit with at least 10 bullets on Sep
2006 Sep 22, Palestinian PM
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he will not head a government that
recognizes Israel, striking a potential blow to President Mahmoud
Abbas' attempts to create a national unity government.
2006 Sep 23, Barry Bonds hit
his 734th career home run in the Giants' 10-8 loss to the Brewers,
breaking Hank Aaron's NL record.
2006 Sep 23, Two days of high
winds, heavy rain and tornadoes pounded parts of the US Midwest and
the South, killing at least 10 people and stranding others in trees
and shelters while forecasters warned that the stormy weather was
expected to continue.
(AP, 9/23/06)(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A2)
2006 Sep 23, Three young
children were found dead in an East St. Louis, Ill., apartment,
hours after Tiffany Hall was charged with killing their pregnant
mother and her fetus in a grisly attack. Hall has since been charged
with first-degree murder in the deaths of Jimella Tunstall and her
children, as well as intentional homicide of Tunstall's fetus.
2006 Sep 23, Etta Baker (93),
blues guitarist, died in Fairfax, Va. In 1991 she won a Folk
Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her
albums included a 2004 recording with Taj Mahal.
(SFC, 9/26/06, p.D6)
2006 Sep 23, Afghan and
NATO-led security forces backed by war planes killed 40 rebels in
Helmand province's Greshk district.
2006 Sep 23, In Bolivia 90% of
the country’s productive land was still owned by just 50,000
families. Four-fifths of the rural population remained poor.
(Econ, 9/23/06, p.41)
2006 Sep 23, Toomas Hendrik
Ilves (52), a Western-leaning former diplomat and journalist, was
narrowly elected Estonia's president, ousting the incumbent who was
favored in the race.
2006 Sep 23, Russian Pres.
Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac joined
German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a three-way informal summit in a
chateau in Compiegne.
2006 Sep 23, In northern
England at least 10,000 anti-war demonstrators marched through the
city of Manchester, protesting the presence of British troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
2006 Sep 23, A French newspaper
reported that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23 of
typhoid fever. The report was not confirmed.
(SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A4)
2006 Sep 23, Gambian President
Yahya Jammeh easily won a third term and called for a concerted
effort to develop the country socially and economically.
2006 Sep 23, A square in front
of Hungary's parliament overflowed with demonstrators demanding that
PM Gyurcsany quit in the largest protest yet since a recording was
leaked on which he admitted lying to the people about the economy.
Hungary’s current-account deficit reached 9% of GDP and the budget
deficit hit 10%.
(AP, 9/24/06)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.64)
2006 Sep 23, In Indian Kashmir
suspected militants shot dead a man and a woman near Srinagar. A
border guard hurt in a bomb explosion died the next day.
2006 Sep 23, Indian security
officials in the western desert state of Rajasthan shot dead three
suspected militants who were trying to cross over from Pakistan.
2006 Sep 23, A bombing in the
Shiite slum of Sadr City killed 38 people and wounded 42 as they
stocked up on fuel for Ramadan. The severed heads of 10 Iraqi
soldiers that were tossed into a crowded market in Beiji by
unidentified gunmen. Minority Sunnis began the fasting month of
Ramadan. Police Col. Ismaiel Chehayyan was killed by gunmen while
having his Ramadan fast-breaking dinner at a friend's house. Iraqi
security forces arrested a leader of the al-Ashreen Brigades, a
group responsible for attacks and kidnappings. The leader along with
7 aides were captured in Kharnabat. 5 apparent death squad victims
were turned in to the morgue in Kut. The victims were blindfolded
with their arms and hands bound, and showed signs of torture.
(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 23, The TV series “The
Renegades," directed by Najdat Anzour of Syria, began showing in
Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world. It fictionalized the
devastating effects of terrorism on Muslim families.
(SFC, 10/4/06, p.A7)
2006 Sep 23, In Mexico the
governor of Oaxaca state warned 70,000 striking teachers that they
would be replaced and lose their pay unless they immediately
returned to work.
2006 Sep 23, In Nepal's
mountainous east a helicopter with 24 people aboard went missing.
Searchers found the wreckage on Sep 25. The 24 dead included 2
Americans, Nepalese Forestry Minister Gopal Rai, Finnish Embassy
Charge d'Affaires Pauli Mustonen and Canadian Jennifer Headley, a
coordinator for WWF, several Nepali journalists, government
officials and four crew members, two Russians and two Nepalis.
(AP, 9/23/06)(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep 23, In Pakistan at
least 8 people were killed and 55 injured when a bus collided with
another on the main highway near the Islamabad. According to
official statistics Pakistan has the world's third highest death
rate from road accidents.
2006 Sep 23, Spain's Basque
separatist group ETA has said it will not give up its weapons until
independence for the Basque region is won, fuelling concerns over
the future of a six-month-old ceasefire.
2006 Sep 23, In eastern Turkey
suspected Kurdish guerrillas set off an explosive-laden minibus
across from a police guest house, injuring 17 people.
2006 Sep 23, Yemen's President
Ali Abdullah Saleh was re-elected with more than 77% of votes in the
face of the strongest challenge since he came to power 28 years ago.
Faisal bin Shamlan won almost 22% of the vote. Opposition parties
backing bin Shamlan immediately rejected the election commission's
results, claiming their candidate won at least 40%.
2006 Sep 24, In a combative
interview on "Fox News Sunday," former President Clinton defended
his handling of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden, and accused
host Chris Wallace of a "conservative hit job."
2006 Sep 24, Democrats seized
on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war had increased
the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence Americans
should choose new leadership in upcoming elections.
2006 Sep 24, A survey by the
Pew Internet and American Life Project said machines after 2020 will
become intelligent, evolve rapidly, and could end up treating humans
(SFC, 9/25/06, p.F1)
2006 Sep 24, Residents in
Richmond, Ca., set up a tent city to protest violence, homicides and
drug dealing in their Iron Triangle neighborhood.
(SFC, 10/11/06, p.A7)
2006 Sep 24, Inco, one of
Canada’s two largest mining companies, agreed to be acquired by
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce of Brazil for $17.8 billion and absorbing
Inco's debt of $1.2 billion. The deal was closed in October.
2006 Sep 24, In China Chen
Liangyu, the Communist Party boss of Shanghai, was sacked for
corruption, toppling the highest leader so far in national party
chief Hu Jintao's drive to root out abuse and enforce loyalty.
(Reuters, 9/25/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.49)
2006 Sep 24, In Copenhagen,
Denmark, youths angered at a court decision to evict squatters from
a downtown building hurled stones, bottles and eggs at police during
a protest. More than 200 were detained.
2006 Sep 24, In Ecuador a
speeding bus overturned on a curving mountain road near Quito,
killing 47 people and injuring five children.
2006 Sep 24, India's federal
government called off a six-week truce with separatist rebels in
Assam and ordered the resumption of military operations in the
2006 Sep 24, Iraq’s PM Nouri
al-Maliki called for Shiites and Sunnis to use the Islamic holy
month of Ramadan to put aside their differences. Iraq's
parliamentary groups agreed to open debate on a contentious
Shiite-proposed draft legislation that will allow the creation of
federal regions in Iraq. Authorities reported that at least 20
people were killed in scattered violence across the country.
Authorities reported that 45 bodies were received at the morgue, the
apparent victims of sectarian death squads.
(AP, 9/24/06)(SFC, 9/25/06, p.A9)
2006 Sep 24, In Indian Kashmir
4 suspected Islamic militants were shot dead by troops in northern
Uri district in a gunbattle with troops. 2 more were killed in
2006 Sep 24, In Lebanon Samir
Geagea, an anti-Syrian Christian leader, dismissed Hezbollah's
claims of victory in its war with Israel as tens of thousands of his
supporters rallied in a show of strength that highlighted the
country’s sharp divisions.
2006 Sep 24, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, attackers stabbed to death Nitesh Kumar Singh, an Indian
medical student, in the latest in a series of hate crimes there.
2006 Sep 24, In Somalia
hundreds of Islamic militiamen in heavily armed trucks took over the
southern town of Kismayo, one of the last seaports that had been
outside their control.
2006 Sep 24, Swiss voters in a
national referendum backed tougher asylum rules put forth by justice
minister Christoph Blocher, despite fears that the new rules will
deny refugees a fair hearing. 68% approved a new immigration law
which was meant to tackle what authorities say is the lack of
integration of many foreigners into Swiss society.
(AP, 9/24/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.61)
2006 Sep 24, Thailand's
military council issued new orders intended to stave off any
possible opposition to their coup, banning political activities at
the district and provincial levels.
2006 Sep 25, US air safety
officials eased restrictions on liquids in carry-ons.
(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 25, It was reported
that the gap in between US debt payments and return from investments
abroad had reached $2.5 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2006. This
amounted to a quarterly debt payment of about $22 for each American
(WSJ, 9/25/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 25, A US federal judge
granted class action status to tens of millions of "light cigarette"
smokers for a potential $200 billion lawsuit against cigarette
2006 Sep 25, California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills to bar the state's massive
pension funds from investing in companies in Sudan and to indemnify
the University of California system from liability from divesting
its investments in the country.
2006 Sep 25, Murphy Oil agreed
to pay $330 million to settle a class-action suit filed by victims
of Hurricane Katrina whose homes and businesses were inundated when
floodwaters carried nearly 1.1 million gallons of crude oil from a
company storage tank.
(WSJ, 9/26/06, p.A12)
2006 Sep 25, The Louisiana
Superdome, a symbol of misery during Hurricane Katrina, reopened for
a New Orleans Saints game. The Saints defeated the Atlanta Falcons,
2006 Sep 25, In Afghan 2 gunmen
on a motorbike killed Safia Hama Jan, the provincial director of the
Ministry of Women's Affairs, outside her home in apparent
retribution for her efforts to help educate women. In Khost province
a bomb killed 2 policemen and a coalition soldier was injured in a
suicide attack. 2 men believed to be suicide attackers were killed
when the car they were in blew up on a road often used by the US-led
coalition and Afghan forces. In Paktika province six suspected
rebels were killed when they were escorting a suicide bomber whose
explosives detonated early.
(AFP, 9/25/06)(AFP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 25, UCB, a Belgian
drug firm, announced a takeover of Germany’s Schwarz Pharma for €4.4
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.71)
2006 Sep 25, Deutsche Oper, a
leading German opera house, canceled a 3-year-old production of
Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head
of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free
2006 Sep 25, In Athens, Greece,
a gang of robbers wielding machine guns stole an estimated $1.9
million from a casino's security van after ramming the vehicle with
a stolen truck.
2006 Sep 25, Guatemalan
security forces took over the Pavon prison farm, which had been
controlled for more than 10 years by inmates who produced drugs,
lived in spacious homes with luxury goods and even rented space for
stores and restaurants. 7 prisoners died when 3,000 police and
soldiers firing automatic weapons stormed the prison just after
(Reuters, 9/25/06)(AP, 11/14/10)
2006 Sep 25, Iraq's feuding
ethnic and sectarian groups moved ahead with forming a committee to
consider amending the constitution after their leaders agreed to
delay any division of the country into autonomous states until 2008.
In Basra British forces shot and killed Omar al-Farouq, a leading
al-Qaida terrorist, more than a year after he embarrassed the US
military by making an unprecedented escape from a maximum security
military prison in Afghanistan in July, 2005. A US soldier died of
wounds sustained from enemy fire in Mosul. A US Marine and soldier
were killed in action in western Anbar province.
(AP, 9/25/06)(AP, 9/26/06)(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Sep 25, In Nigeria an
inauguration ceremony in Lagos featured new bailiffs, a corps of 30
men and women, all graduates, in uniforms of black trousers,
ash-colored shirts, yellow badges and cowboy hats and handcuffs on
their belts. Former Lagos bailiffs had converted their role as
enforcer of court judgments on property into an extortion racket.
2006 Sep 25, Pakistan's
President Pervez Musharraf’s memoir “In the Line of Fire," was
published. He noted that the CIA has paid Pakistan millions for
catching al-Qaida fighters.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A3)(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 25, Somalia's interim
prime minister called on the UN to partially lift an arms embargo on
his country to allow for the deployment of African peacekeepers,
which he said are necessary to stop the advance of Islamic radicals.
A government order banned human smuggling. Ethiopian troops arrived
in Somalia to support the internationally recognized government in
its faceoff with radicals. The Islamic militia in the seaport of
Kismayo opened fire on thousands protesting the fundamentalists'
takeover of the southern town. Witnesses said a teenager was killed.
(AP, 9/25/06)(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A3)(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Sep 25, The Sri Lankan
navy said it had sunk 11 Tamil Tiger rebel ships loaded with troops
and weapons during a five-hour sea battle, killing around 70
2006 Sep 25, A spokesman for
the AU said the African Union will add 4,000 troops to its extended
Darfur peacekeeping mission, bringing the number of police and
soldiers in western Sudan to 11,000. The UN got its first pledges of
troops for a proposed peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region at
a meeting of 49 potential contributing nations.
(AP, 9/25/06)(Reuters, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep 25, The United States
donated patrol boats and electronic equipment to help Tajikistan
guard its borders and stem the flow of heroin from neighboring
2006 Sep 25, Pope Benedict XVI
told over 20 Muslim diplomats that Christians and Muslims must work
together to guard against intolerance and violence as he sought to
soothe anger over his recent remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/25/06)(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 25, In Yemen 4 French
tourists kidnapped Sep 10 were freed.
2006 Sep 26, President Bush
ordered release of a declassified version of a government
intelligence report that said the war in Iraq had become a "cause
celebre" for Islamic extremists.
2006 Sep 26, Former Enron chief
financial officer Andrew Fastow was sentenced by a federal judge in
Houston to six years in prison for his role in the fallen energy
2006 Sep 26, In Florida,
brothers Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela (67) and Miguel Rodriguez
Orejuela (62), who headed the Colombia’s Cali cocaine cartel, were
sentenced to 30 years in prison. They agreed to forfeit $2.1 billion
worth of assets linked to the drug trade as part of their plea
agreement. In exchange half a dozen of their relatives would not
(SFC, 9/27/06, p.A12)
2006 Sep 26, EMI Classics
released a CD of Paul McCartney’s four-movement oratorio “Ecce cor
meum." This was his 3rd large-scale choral work.
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.D6)
2006 Sep 26, Paul Allen,
co-founder of Microsoft Corp., announced a $41 million computerized
atlas of the 20,000 genes in the brain of a mouse. The atlas was
made available online at www.brainatlas.org.
(SFC, 9/27/06, p.A9)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.91)
2006 Sep 26, Researchers
reported that Earth’s temperature has climbed to a 12,000-year high
and that it has been warming at a rate of .36° Fahrenheit per decade
for the last 30 years.
(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A5)
2006 Sep 26, Iva Toguri
D’Aquino, (nee Iva Ikuko Toguri, 1916-2006), a Japanese-American
convicted in 1949 for being wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose,"
died in Chicago. [see Sep 5, 1945]
(SFC, 9/28/06, p.A18)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.93)
2006 Sep 26, In Afghanistan a
suicide bomber struck outside the compound of a southern governor,
killing 18 people, including several Muslim pilgrims seeking
paperwork to travel to Mecca. A bomb in Kabul killed an Italian
soldier and a child.
2006 Sep 26, In Brazil
officials said Rio will spend $1 million to map two sprawling
shantytowns as the first step toward granting land titles to
residents who otherwise have no property rights in the sprawling
2006 Sep 26, In Chile thousands
of public school teachers held a generally peaceful march in
Santiago to demand higher pay.
2006 Sep 26, The European
Commission recommended that Bulgaria and Romania join the EU next
year, but under some of the harshest terms ever faced by new
2006 Sep 26, Iraqi security
forces arrested another leader of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a
group accused of numerous attacks on US forces. A series of bomb
explosions killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens in and
around Baghdad, where police also found 23 tortured bodies,
apparently victims of sectarian death squads.
(AP, 9/26/06)(AP, 9/27/06)(WSJ, 9/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 26, In Japan
nationalist Shinzo Abe, a proponent of a robust alliance with the US
and a more assertive military, easily won election in parliament to
become the country’s youngest postwar prime minister. Abe faced a
government debt equivalent to 170% of GDP. Junichiro Koizumi
formally stepped down as prime minister. His achievements included
changing the way politics was carried out, advancing big economic
reforms, and extending Japan’s role in foreign affairs.
(AP, 9/26/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.14)(Econ, 9/23/06,
2006 Sep 26, Officials said a
cow in northern Japan is suspected of having the country's 29th case
of mad cow disease.
2006 Sep 26, Palestinian
militants fired at least two rockets from the Gaza Strip into
southern Israel, wounding at least one person.
2006 Sep 26, Russia and Iran
signed a deal in Moscow whereby Russia will ship fuel to a
controversial atomic power plant it is building in Iran by March.
2006 Sep 26, In Turkey 56
Kurdish mayors stood trial, accused in a freedom-of-speech case on
charges of helping terrorists by arguing to keep a Kurdish TV
station on the air.
2006 Sep 26, The UN and Sudan
discussed the deployment of UN military advisers to reinforce
African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, in a possible compromise in
their standoff over the war-torn region.
2006 Sep 26, The Vatican said
it has excommunicated Zambia’s Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, for
defying the Holy See by installing four married men as bishops. The
prelate had already angered the Vatican by getting married in 2001.
2006 Sep 26, A former chief of
environmental protection in the US Virgin Islands pleaded guilty to
charges of conspiracy to defraud the islands' government of more
than $1 million. Hollis Griffin (43) acknowledged engaging in a
five-year bribery scheme that paid up to $350,000 in kickbacks to at
least four government officials in exchange for consulting contracts
worth $1.4 million.
2006 Sep 27, President Bush
hosted a peacemaking dinner at the White House for the bickering
leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Hamid
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)(AP, 9/27/07)
2006 Sep 27, Republicans
announced they would hold their 2008 presidential convention in the
Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.30)(AP, 9/27/07)
2006 Sep 27, Jacob "Kobi"
Alexander, the former chief and founder of Comverse Technology Inc.,
was arrested in Namibia, where he awaited extradition to the US to
face criminal fraud charges related to stock options. Alexander had
recently transferred tens of millions of dollars to Namibia. He was
released after 6 days on $1.4 million bail.
(Reuters, 9/27/06)(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)(WSJ,
2006 Sep 27, The US FDA
approved Vectibix (panitimumab), a new colon cancer drug developed
by Amgen and Abgenix.
(SFC, 9/28/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 27, In Bailey,
Colorado, Duane Morrison (53) held 6 girls hostage at Platte Canyon
High School for hours before fatally wounding Emily Keyes (16). He
sexually molested the girls and then killed himself as authorities
(AP, 9/28/06)(SFC, 9/28/06, p.A3)(AP,
9/29/06)(SFC, 10/6/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 27, In Charleston,
South Carolina, a video store was held up by a group of children,
including a 14-year-old girl suspected of wielding a BB gun that
looked like a pistol. City Council member Larry Shirley, reacting
later to the video store holdup, said parents who can't properly
care for their kids should be sterilized.
2006 Sep 27, Afghan security
forces killed 25 suspected insurgents during a clash in southern
Afghanistan, while a suicide bombing targeting a NATO convoy wounded
2006 Sep 27, British
billionaire Richard Branson proposed changes to aircraft movements
at busy airports and the way planes land under a plan he said would
cut the world's aviation emissions by up to 25%.
(Reuters, 9/27/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.65)
2006 Sep 27, EU air safety
officials backed tightened rules on the amount of liquids and size
of carry-on baggage passengers can bring onto commercial flights.
2006 Sep 27, France ended a
decades-old system of inequality by bringing lagging pensions of war
veterans from former colonies into line with those of their French
counterparts whose retirement payment is two-thirds higher. The
decision was not retroactive.
2006 Sep 27, A team of French
doctors said they successfully operated on a man in near
zero-gravity conditions on a flight looping in the air like a roller
coaster to mimic weightlessness.
2006 Sep 27, Germany opened a
conference in Berlin on opening a 2-year dialogue separating Islamic
fundamentalism from Islam.
(Econ, 9/30/06, p.62)
2006 Sep 27, Indonesia’s
government said it will resettle more than 3,000 families whose
houses have been swamped by mud surging from a gas exploration site
and will dump the sludge into the sea to avoid more destruction. The
eruption took place 4 months earlier 150 meters from where PT
Lapindo Brantas was drilling an exploratory well. The company was
controlled by the family of Aburizal Bakrie, Indonesia’s welfare
(AP, 9/27/06)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.51)
2006 Sep 27, In Iraq the US
military said it killed four suspected terrorists and four
civilians, including a pregnant woman, in a raid in Baqouba. An
investigation followed as surviving family members said the attack
was unprovoked. Gunmen killed 10 people near a Sunni mosque at
(AP, 9/27/06)(SFC, 9/28/06, p.A19)(WSJ, 9/28/06,
2006 Sep 27, An Israeli court
released the Palestinian deputy prime minister, the highest ranking
Hamas official to be freed following a crackdown on the Islamic
militant group. But the court temporarily banned him from going to
his government office in the city of Ramallah. Israeli airstrikes on
a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah killed a
14-year-old girl and wounded seven other people.
2006 Sep 27, Jordan's military
court convicted five men of plotting attacks against US troops in
Iraq, including a cousin of slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab
2006 Sep 27, At the Hague,
Netherlands, a UN tribunal sentenced Momcilio Krajisnik (61), the
former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, to 27 years in prison
for war crimes, but acquitted him of the harsher charge of genocide.
2006 Sep 27, In northwestern
Pakistan drive-by gunmen killed two militants and wounded three in
another car. The militants who came under attack were believed to be
loyal to a pro-Taliban tribesman known only as Hanan, who had
started a campaign to oust Uzbek militants living in the Shakai
mountain valley region north of Wana.
2006 Sep 27, Russia's chief
election body dismissed a petition aimed at allowing President
Vladimir Putin to run for a third term.
2006 Sep 27, The Sri Lanka
government revealed that Tamil Tigers have agreed to resume
face-to-face negotiations and end a seven-month deadlock in talks.
2006 Sep 27, The Ugandan army
accused rebels of violating the increasingly fragile truce, which
was signed last month, by leaving neutral assembly points.
2006 Sep 27, In Venezuela’s Los
Roques islands Elena Vecoli (34), a newly married Italian woman, was
murdered and her husband, Riccardo Prescendi (46) beaten inside an
inn popular with foreign tourists. Police identified 3 suspects the
2006 Sep 28, It was reported
that US federal and state authorities were investigating a mortgage
fraud in Virginia that involved loans totaling about $80 million.
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 28, The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention warned that travelers to parts of
Africa and Asia are returning with a new mosquito-borne virus. Some
people returning to Europe, the US, Canada, Martinique and French
Guyana reported cases of Chikungunya fever (CHIKV). The virus first
emerged in Tanzania in 1953.
2006 Sep 28, It was reported
that Merck saved some $1.5 billion in US taxes by transferring
patents and income to an offshore holding in Bermuda called Project
Ryland from 1993-2003. In 2006 the IRS challenged the transactions.
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 28, Novartis
Pharmaceuticals Corp., the US unit of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG,
said that at least three out of four patients given an experimental
multiple sclerosis treatment were free of relapses for more than two
2006 Sep 28, William Whalen
(66), former director of the US National Park Service (1977-1980),
died of a heart attack. He served as the 1st director of the Golden
Gate National Recreation Area (1972-1977). In 1980 he implemented
the 1971 Alaska Native Lands Claims Settlement Act, which created 10
national parks in Alaska.
(SFC, 9/30/06, p.B6) (http://tinyurl.com/2v8onh)
2006 Sep 28, In Bangladesh
thousands of people set fire to power supply offices and attacked
government vehicles Dhaka in protest over electricity shortages.
2006 Sep 28, Belgian government
officials said the transfer of confidential banking records by a
Belgium-based company to US authorities for use in anti-terrorism
investigations breached Belgian and likely European Union data
2006 Sep 28, A leaked UK
Ministry of Defence (MoD) paper said Pakistan's intelligence
service, ISI, indirectly backs terrorism by supporting religious
parties in the country.
2006 Sep 28, Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country rejected the suspension of
uranium-enrichment activities by Tehran, "even for one day."
2006 Sep 28, An explosion on a
natural gas pipeline outside Bazargan, an Iranian border city, shut
down the flow of gas to Turkey. Officials believed the explosion was
an act of sabotage by separatist Kurdish rebels.
2006 Sep 28, Iraq's Central
Criminal Court said it had convicted 22 suspected insurgents of a
range of crimes, including weapons violations and illegally entering
the country. The bodies of 60 people who been tortured were found in
and around Baghdad in a span of 24 hours. 5 people died from a
car-bomb explosion near a restaurant. Attacks left 21 Iraqis dead.
Al-Qaida in Iraq released an audiotape calling for nuclear
scientists to join in a holy war and urged insurgents to kidnap
(AP, 9/28/06)(SFC, 9/29/06, p.A12)(WSJ, 9/29/06,
2006 Sep 28, It was reported
that the industrial city of Shymkent, Kazakhstan, was reeling after
learning that at least 63 children had contracted AIDS through
medical negligence many blame on corruption and the illicit sale of
blood. At least five infected toddlers had died after receiving
injections or blood transfusions. Parents said regional health
officials were aware of the outbreak in March, and have been trying
to cover it up by pulling pages from the infected toddlers'
treatment records to eliminate any mention of blood transfusions.
2006 Sep 28, Jailed Kurdish
rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has appealed to his Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) to call a ceasefire in its separatist campaign against
the Turkish government.
2006 Sep 28, Mexico’s
President-elect Felipe Calderon asked Congress to get tougher on
criminals, create a universal health care system and generate jobs
so millions of Mexicans do not have to migrate to the US to find
work. Calderon also called for reducing the gap between rich and
poor and called for a return to life sentences for hardened
criminals, including violent kidnappers.
2006 Sep 28, Nigeria's vice
president Atiku Abubakar was suspended by his party for three months
because of corruption allegations, preventing him from running for
president on the party's ticket.
2006 Sep 28, Typhoon Xangsane
battered the northern and central Philippines with rains and winds,
killing at least 76 people.
(AP, 9/29/06)(AFP, 10/1/06)
2006 Sep 28, Russia agreed to
grant Cuba credit worth $350 million and restructure some of its
recent debt during a visit by PM Putin. The two countries also
signed a military cooperation agreement.
2006 Sep 28, Singapore banned
the Far Eastern Economic Review magazine after it failed to comply
with media regulations. The Review, published by Dow Jones & Co
Inc., is being sued by Singapore's PM Lee Hsien Loong and his
father, Singapore's founding PM Lee Kuan Yew, over a July article
about opposition politician Chee Soon Juan.
2006 Sep 28, Somali police
investigating a car bomb assassination attempt on the president
arrested three suspected members of a fundamentalist Islamic group
and recovered explosives.
2006 Sep 28, South Korea and
the US agreed on a program to reshape their military alliance and
give Seoul a bigger role in countering any North Korean attack. The
two sides signed new terms for the decades-old alliance after talks
2006 Sep 28, European
cease-fire monitors said at least 200 civilians have been killed in
two months of fighting between Sri Lankan soldiers and separatist
Tamil rebels, and both sides are to blame.
2006 Sep 28, Thailand's auditor
general, Jaruvan Maintaka, told reporters that Gen. Surayud
Chulanont (62), a highly regarded retired officer, would lead the
country until promised elections next year. The US suspended $24
million in military aid due to the coup.
(AP, 9/29/06)(WSJ, 9/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 28, Thailand’s new
Suvarnabhumi Airport, built on an area known as "Cobra Swamp,"
officially opened its doors, more than four decades after the
(AP, 9/27/06)(AP, 9/28/06)
2006 Sep 28, Uganda state media
reported that rebels have walked out of peace talks aimed at ending
a 19-year conflict in which thousands of civilians have died.
2006 Sep 28, Zambians voted to
decide whether President Levy Mwanawasa would stay in office for a
second term despite a strong challenge from opposition candidates
who lambasted his economic policies. Voters jammed polling stations
after a national election campaign marked by bitter debate about the
president's effort to increase foreign investment and combat poverty
(AP, 9/28/06)(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep 29, Pres. Bush met
with Kazakhstan’s Pres. Nazarbayev and praised him. The meeting was
criticized as an unseemly gesture to an oil-rich ruler who tolerates
(WSJ, 9/30/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 29, US Rep. Mark
Foley, a prominent House Republican from Florida, resigned after the
revelation that he exchanged raunchy electronic messages with a
teenage boy, a former congressional page. Foley was the chairman of
the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.
(AP, 9/30/06)(SFC, 9/30/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 29, A Rhode Island
nightclub owner was sentenced to four years in prison and his
brother to probation, angering relatives of the 100 people who died
in a 2003 fire at their club.
2006 Sep 29, Police in Florida
said 2 Roman Catholic priests allegedly misappropriated more than $8
million from their church and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
on real estate, travel, rare coins and girlfriends.
2006 Sep 29, In Oakland, Ca.,
Anthony J. Quintero, a Brink’s security guard and former Marine, was
shot dead during a daylight robbery. Quintero’s partner, Clifton
Wherry Jr. (28), was soon arrested for the murder and admitted that
he had planned the robbery. On Oct 5 Dwight Omar Campbell (23) was
arrested in San Diego County for allegedly shooting Quintero.
(SFC, 9/30/06, p.B1)(SFC, 10/3/06, p.B3)(SFC,
2006 Sep 29, In Lakeland, Fla.,
9 SWAT team members fatally shot Angilo Freeland, a man suspected of
killing a sheriff's deputy a day earlier. An autopsy showed that
officers fired 110 rounds of ammunition at Freeland.
(AP, 9/29/06)(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep 29, In Cazenovia,
Wisconsin, Eric Hainstock (15) walked into Weston High School with a
shotgun. The principal confronted him in a corridor and was shot and
killed. Hainstock was taken into custody and all the children were
(AP, 9/29/06)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.38)
2006 Sep 29, In Bolivia police
killed two coca farmers and injured a third in the first violent
confrontation over coca eradication since President Evo Morales,
himself a former coca grower, was elected last year. An estimate 200
coca growers in the Chapare region ambushed a team of police sent to
destroy their crop, planted illegally inside the borders of a
national park 220 southeast of the capital of La Paz.
2006 Sep 29, A Brazilian
jetliner, Gol airlines Flight 1907, with 155 people aboard crashed
in the Amazon jungle after reportedly colliding with a smaller
ExcelAire executive jet carrying 16 passengers. The Legacy jet
stabilized after the apparent collision and then landed at a
Brazilian air force base in the Amazon state of Para. It was later
reported that the US executive jet was at the wrong altitude and
Brazil confiscated the passports of the pilots. In November it was
reported that the flight recorder transcript from the executive jet
involved in the air disaster showed that the jet's American pilots
were told by Brazilian air traffic control to fly at the same
altitude as a Boeing 737 before the planes collided over the Amazon
rainforest. Pilots Joseph Lepore (42), of Bay Shore, N.Y., and Jan
Paladino (34), of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., were allowed to return to
the US on Dec 8 after signing a document promising to return to
Brazil for their trial or when required by local authorities. In
2010 Air force Sgt. Jomarcelo Fernandes dos Santos was sentenced to
14 months in jail for failing to take action when he saw that the
Legacy's anti-collision system had been turned off. In 2011 the
American pilots were sentenced to four years of unspecified
community service in the USA. On May 19 air traffic controller
Lucivando de Alencar was convicted of endangering air safety and
sentenced to three years and four months of community service.
(AP, 9/30/06)(AP, 10/1/06)(WSJ, 10/5/06,
p.A1)(AP, 11/2/06)(AP, 10/27/10)(AP, 5/17/11)(AP, 5/19/11)
2006 Sep 29, The Nature
Conservancy of Canada announced that Roberta Langtry (1916-2005), a
Canadian teacher who lived a frugal life but gave large, anonymous
donations to people in need, has left a C$4.3 million ($3.8 million)
fortune to the environmental charity.
2006 Sep 29, Segolene Royal,
who tops polls as the Socialist choice to run for French president
next spring, formally announced her candidacy.
2006 Sep 29, Georgia charged
four Russian military officers with spying, while Russian government
planes evacuated dozens of diplomats and their relatives as the
diplomatic dispute worsened between Moscow and the former Soviet
2006 Sep 29, The World Diamond
Council suggested that all Ghanaian rough-diamond exports be
suspended to ensure that Ivorian diamonds were not being illegally
exported. Rebel-controlled mines in Ivory Coast produced diamonds
worth up to $23 million that were being smuggled to Mali and Ghana,
violating UN sanctions and funding the rebel war effort.
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.53)
2006 Sep 29, A senior official
said Indian authorities plan to nearly double the number of
treatment centers providing free drugs and medical care to people
2006 Sep 29, In central India,
higher cast villagers of Khairlanji attacked and brutally killed the
wife of Bhaiyalal Bhotmanje, a low cast Dalit, along with his 2 sons
(19 & 21) and daughter (17). Bhotmanje had left his ancestral
occupation of handling cow carcasses and successfully set up a small
farm causing envy among neighbors. He escaped the attack thinking
his family would not be bothered. Dalit neighborhoods soon exploded
across Maharashtra state as protesters set vehicles and store fronts
(WSJ, 12/27/07, p.A1)
2006 Sep 29, In Iraq Kadhim
Abdul-Hussein, the brother-in-law of Judge Mohammed Oreibi
al-Khalifa, the new judge presiding over Saddam Hussein's genocide
trial, was killed and his nephew was wounded in a shooting in
Baghdad. Al-Khalifa had been deputy to the original chief judge in
the trial. 3 other people died in scattered attacks. 10 bodies with
signs of torture were found in and around Baghdad, apparently
victims of the sectarian death squads. The names of more than 150
people who allegedly spied on their fellow Kurds for Saddam's
mukhabarat intelligence service after the Kurdish uprising of 1991
were published by the Awina (Mirror) and Hawalati (Citizen)
(AP, 9/29/06)(AFP, 10/1/06)
2006 Sep 29, Ireland’s PM
Bertie Ahern faced mounting pressure to explain why he received
money from Irish businessmen in England, a scandal threatening to
torpedo his leadership after nine years in power.
2006 Sep 29, Israeli soldiers
killed two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. Tens of
thousands of Hamas supporters marched in the Gaza Strip to show
their backing for the militant group, even as its efforts to form a
national unity government appeared stalled.
2006 Sep 29, A press report
said Japan has decided to stop financial support for the development
of Iran's largest onshore oil field if the Islamic republic
continues uranium enrichment. The move means Japan's virtual
withdrawal from its two billion-dollar contract to develop the
Azadegan field. The contract was signed in 2004 by Inpex Corp., a
Japanese oil exploration company that is supported by the government
but also has private stakeholders.
2006 Sep 29, In Mexico a judge
and four jail guards were killed in separate attacks in the Pacific
resort city of Acapulco.
2006 Sep 29, A new report by
Amnesty International alleged that Pakistani authorities have
illegally detained innocent people on suspicion of terrorism and
secretly imprisoned them or handed them to the US for money.
2006 Sep 29, Rosamund Carr, a
New Jersey fashion designer who lived a colorful and tragic life for
more than a half century in tumultuous central Africa, died in
Rwanda. In 1999 she authored her memoir "Land of a Thousand Hills -
My Life in Rwanda."
2006 Sep 29, In Scotland police
found the body of Angelika Kluk (23), a missing Polish student, at
Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in the Anderston area of
2006 Sep 29, Somalia's Islamic
fighters seized control of Jawill, a strategic village near the
Ethiopian border, widening their grip over much of the southern part
of the country. 3 pro-government militiamen and one Islamic courts
fighter were killed during the gunbattle for the village.
2006 Sep 29, In Sri Lanka war
planes bombed rebels and 8 people were killed in new violence. The
UN warned that fighting between troops and Tamil guerrillas had
badly hit tsunami reconstruction.
2006 Sep 29, The UN Security
Council extended the mandate of peacekeepers in Eritrea and Ethiopia
by four months, and threatened to overhaul the mission if the two
sides don't make progress toward demarcating their border.
2006 Sep 29, The UN Security
Council allowed UN experts, who have recommended sanctions on top
Sudanese officials, to continue monitoring atrocities and arms
embargo violations in Darfur.
2006 Sep 29, Yemeni government
forces raided a tribal settlement following the kidnappings of
foreign tourists, arresting five suspects but killing two women and
wounding three children.
2006 Sep 30, Police in North
Charleston, SC, discovered the bodies of Detra Rainey and her 4
children. Michael Simmons (41), her husband but not the father of
the children, was charged the next day with the murders.
(SFC, 10/2/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 30, Isabel Bigley
(80), Tony Award-winning actress, died in Los Angeles.
2006 Sep 30, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said that he and the Pakistani president will jointly
lead a series of tribal gatherings along their countries' shared
border to quell attacks by Pakistan-based Taliban rebels. A suicide
bomber detonated his explosives in a pedestrian alley next to the
Interior Ministry in Kabul, killing at least 12 people including a
woman and 2 children.
(AP, 9/30/06)(SSFC, 10/1/06, p.A21)
2006 Sep 30, In Canada at least
five people were crushed to death in their cars after the collapse
of an overpass near Montreal.
2006 Sep 30, André Schwarz-Bart
(b.1928), French novelist of Polish-Jewish origins, died in
Guadeloupe. His books included the novel “The Last of the Just"
(1960), based on the Jewish teaching that the fate of the world lies
with 36 just men.
2006 Sep 30, India’s PM
Manmohan Singh arrived in South Africa to expand trade links and
commemorate the passive resistance movement initiated by Mahatma
Gandhi in the African nation 100 years ago.
2006 Sep 30, A.N. Roy, Mumbai's
police chief, said his team had cracked the July 11 bombing case and
found solid evidence as that “the whole attack was planned by
Pakistan's ISI and carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba and their
operatives in India." ISI or the Inter-Services Intelligence agency
is Pakistan's military spy agency while Lashkar is a frontline
Islamist group fighting against Indian rule in the disputed region
of Kashmir. Pakistan and Lashkar rejected the allegations.
2006 Sep 30, Baghdad, Iraq, was
put under a day long curfew to help break the cycle of violence. 6
people were killed in scattered violence around the country. Police
found 10 bodies in Baghdad, apparently victims of sectarian death
squads. Two other bodies were turned in to the morgue in Kut.
(AP, 9/30/06)(SSFC, 10/1/06, p.A21)
2006 Sep 30, A Kurdish
guerrilla group declared a new unilateral cease-fire in its war for
autonomy in Turkey's southeast, heeding a call from its imprisoned
2006 Sep 30, In northwest
Nigeria families were swept away in a torrent of water and scores
were feared dead in flooding from a dam collapse outside Zamfara
state's capital city of Gusau. About 40 people were feared dead and
500 houses were washed away.
2006 Sep 30, Pakistan and
United States signed a letter of acceptance for a multi-billion
dollar package to supply the Pakistan Air Force with F-16 warplanes.
2006 Sep 30, Thousands of
government employees and security officials filled the streets of
Gaza, burning tires, blocking roads and firing in the air to protest
delays and complications in receiving their long-awaited salaries.
2006 Sep 30, Russia said that
it has suspended plans for further withdrawal of its troops from
Georgia amid worsening relations between the two neighbors.
2006 Sep 30, Serbia's
parliament approved a new constitution declaring UN-run Kosovo part
of the Balkan state despite ongoing negotiations on the breakaway
2006 Sep 30, In Siberia Enver
Ziganshin, chief engineer for Rusia Petroleum, was found shot dead
at his country home. Rusia Petroleum an affiliate of BP PLC’s
Russian joint venture, faced problems over its license to produce
natural gas at the large Konvykta field.
(WSJ, 10/3/06, p.A6)
2006 Sep 30, In South Africa
the 4th annual Homeless World Cup tournament ended. It brought
together 500 players from 48 countries in a project aimed at helping
homeless people turn their lives around. The first was held in
Austria in 2003 with just five countries competing.
2006 Sep 30, In Tibet Sergiu
Matei, a Romanian cameraman with an expedition climbing Cho Oyu,
shot a video that shows Chinese forces fatally shooting Tibetan
refugee Kelsang Namtso (17), who was with a group of people trying
to flee to Nepal at the 19,000-foot Nanpa La Pass. Chinese border
guards opened fire on some 75 Tibetans making their way over a
19,000-foot-high Himalayan pass, killing a 25-year-old Buddhist nun
and another person. 32 were caught and detained. In January Jamyang
Samten (15), one of those detained, escaped to India and provided
the first reported account of the fate of the group. Some 3,000
Tibetans continued to sneak across the border to Nepal and India
every year. In 2010 Jonathan Green authored “Murder in the High
Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet."
(AP, 10/14/06)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.18)(AP,
1/30/07)(Econ, 6/12/10, p.96)
2006 Sep, In New Mexico the
Second Chance prison facility opened for non-violent prisoners with
substance-abuse problems. It was founded by Rick Pendery, a
Scientologist and former real-estate developer, based on principles
of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.
(WSJ, 1/19/07, p.A1)
2006 Sep, The Bank of San
Francisco began operating as a program to provide banking services
to low income residents not qualifying for regular bank accounts.
The program was formed under the auspices of SF, the Federal Reserve
and 15 banks and credit unions.
(SFC, 12/4/07, p.A1)
2006 Sep, Rielle Hunter, a film
producer and mistress of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, created a
video sex tape with Edwards. In 2008 she had a child, fathered by
Edwards, who only admitted paternity in 2010. Andrew Young, a former
Edward’s loyalist, later viewed the tape and in 2010 authored a book
that chronicled the affair.
(SFC, 1/30/10, p.A6)
2006 Sep, Irving, Texas, a city
of some 200,000 people, signed up for the US government’s Criminal
Alien Program (CAP), run by the Immigration and Customs agency. By
the end of 2007 some 1,700 people from Irving were handed over for
(Econ, 12/15/07, p.36)
2006 Sep, In Ethiopia Shane
Etzenhouser, an American software developer, premiered “Tsehai Loves
Learning," an educational TV show for kids featuring a female
giraffe with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.E1)
2006 Sep, Japan’s government
approved measures to block the transfer of funds to North Korea. The
rules went into effect on Jan 4, 2007.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.39)
2006 Sep, In Kenya farmers in
the Machakos region built small dams and water retention ponds on
the Ikiwe River with some $70,000 in aid from people in Archbold,
Ohio. The Archbold Mennonite Church project was part of Foods
Resource Bank, a Michigan-based hunger fighting organization that
connects urban churches with rural farm groups.
(WSJ, 4/23/07, p.A1)
2006 Sep, Steve Wynn, a Las
Vegas casino operator, opened an upscale casino in Macao.
(Econ, 1/27/07, p.66)
2006 Sep, In Nepal a warrant
was issued for the arrest of Sitaram Prasain, who was accused of
stealing $4.3 million from his own bank. Members of the Young
Communist League kidnapped Prasain in June, 2007, and handed him
over to the police.
(Econ, 6/16/07, p.51)
2006 Sep, In Pakistan scores of
wives, mothers and children began protesting outside government
offices on behalf of hundreds of men arrested in secret and demanded
that Pres. Musharraf release them.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep, In Sesena, Spain, a
town of fewer than 10,000 40 km from Madrid, some 13,000 apartments
were under construction. Mayor Manuel Fuentes expected 40,000 new
(Econ, 9/16/06, p.61)
2006 Sep-2006 Oct, In Egypt for
the seventh year running, a mysterious black cloud appeared over
Cairo, triggering serious health concerns for the polluted city's 16
million residents. This year the black cloud coincided with the
month of Ramadan, notorious for its traffic jams.
2006 Sep, San Marino approved
new regulations on fund management.
(Econ, 3/10/07, p.74)
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