__NOTOC__
'
April 2006' :
↠-
January -
February -
March - April -
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December-
→
| Elections |
|---|
★ 2: Thailand, Legislative (Lower house)
★ 9: Peru, President (1st Round) and legislature
★ 9 and 10: Italy, Parliament
★ 9: Hungary, Parliament (1st Round)
★ 17: India, State legislature
★ 19: Thailand, Legislature (Upper house)
★ 21: Haiti, Parliament (2nd Round)
★ 23: Hungary, Parliament (2nd Round)
★ 27: Scotland, Moray by-election
★ 30: Laos, Parliamentary |
Events
===
1 April 2006 (Saturday)===
★
Marcos Pontes,
Brazil's first
astronaut, reaches the
International Space Station.
(CNN)
★ A small aircraft goes missing whilst in flight towards
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil with 19 people onboard. It is found to have crashed near
Saquarema, about 100 km from Rio. There are no survivors.
(BBC)
★ The
Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the 'British FBI', is launched in the
United Kingdom.
(BBC)
★
First Great Western,
First Great Western Link and
Wessex Trains combined into the new Greater Western franchise.
(BBC)
===
2 April 2006 (Sunday)===
★ In
Thailand, the
2006 legislative election is held. All three major opposition parties have announced they are boycotting the election.
(Indep. UK)
★ An outbreak of tornadoes, the
April 2, 2006 Tornado Outbreak, hits northeastern
Arkansas, the
Missouri Bootheel, and
West Tennessee killing 27.
★
Lucent Technologies announced its merger agreement with
Alcatel.
(BBC)
★ The
Human Rights Protection Party wins
Samoa's
general election. The HRPP was already the ruling party, and its leader
Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi the
Prime Minister, but the party did better in the election than polls had indicated.
(Radio NZ)
★ After about 3 months captivity as a
hostage in Iraq, American journalist
Jill Carroll returns to
American soil in
Boston, Massachusetts.
(CNN)
===
3 April 2006 (Monday)===
★ The jury in the first phase of the trial of
Zacarias Moussaoui has decided that he is eligible for the
death penalty.
(CNN)
★ A large
air force C-5 Galaxy military cargo jet crashed when landing at
Dover Air Force Base in the
U.S. state of
Delaware.
(CNN)
★ Judge
Anand Satyanand has been appointed to succeed Dame
Silvia Cartwright as
Governor-General of New Zealand. He will take up office on
August 4 2006.
(Beehive)
===
4 April 2006 (Tuesday)===
★
2006 labor protests in France: Three million people march against the
First Employment Contract (CPE) law, 700 000 in
Paris. Student organizations call for a
general strike.
(Washington Post)
★ In the
Republic of Ireland,
Denis Donaldson a former senior
Sinn Féin member, is found shot dead near the village of
Glenties,
County Donegal, close to where it is believed he had been living since he admitted, in
December 2005, to being a paid
British agent for over twenty years.
(BBC)
★
Thailand legislative election, 2006:
Thaksin Shinawatra resigns as
Prime Minister of
Thailand despite his ruling
Thai Rak Thai party winning an overwhelming majority in the
House of Representatives.
(BBC)
★ A security expert testifies to an inquest that
film director James Miller was shot intentionally by an
Israeli soldier while making a film in a
Palestinian refugee camp in the
Gaza Strip.
(The Independent) (BBC)
★ Former
Majority Leader Tom DeLay announces his resignation from the
United States House of Representatives.
(TIME)
★ The
39th Canadian Parliament opens in
Ottawa, with the
Speech from the Throne delivered by the
Governor General on behalf of the newly-elected government of
Stephen Harper.
(Toronto Star)
===
5 April 2006 (Wednesday)===
★ US scientists have successfully
implanted artificial bladders (
artificial urinary bladders) grown in the laboratory from patients' own cells into patients.
(VoA)
===
6 April 2006 (Thursday)===
★ An
earthquake of 5.5 magnitude is reported in Western
Gujarat in
India.
★ The
World Meteorological Organization has announced the retirement of a record five storm names from the
2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Retired names include
Dennis,
Katrina,
Rita,
Stan and
Wilma.
(CNN)
★ The
National Geographic Society unveils the restored
Gospel of Judas in
Washington D.C. Written in
Coptic, the document is thought to have come from the
2nd Century. It had been deteriorating rapidly when found.
(NPR)
★ A 1,500 year old
pyramid called the
Hill of the Star has been found in
Mexico City.
(Guardian Unlimited) (BBC)
★
Orthodox Jews in
Boro Park in
New York City continue to protest after a 75-year-old Hasidic man was beaten and arrested by police for talking on a cell phone while driving.
NYPD Chief
Joseph Esposito allegedly cursed out the protestors in anti-Semitic terms, resulting in condemnations and calls for him to step down.
(FOX news) (New York Sun)
★
Palaeontologists announce the discovery of the ''
Tiktaalik'' genus, an important
fossil link between fish and land animals.
(BBC)(Guardian)(New York Times)
★
Israeli police arrest and release
Khaled Abu Arafa, minister of
Jerusalem affairs in the new
Hamas-led government of the
Palestinian Authority.
(Associated Press)
★ The
New Zealand Parliament passes a bill that on receiving
Royal Assent will make
New Zealand Sign Language the third official language of New Zealand, alongside
English and
MÄori.
(TVNZ)
★ Health experts announce that a dead
swan found in
Scotland has tested positive for
bird flu.
(BBC). It has been further confirmed that the bird had the deadly
H5N1 strain of the virus
(Bloomberg). Scotland and the UK confirm H5N1 virus, but say a GB-wide poultry housing requirement would be "disproportionate."
(Farmers Weekly).
===
7 April 2006 (Friday)===
★ For the
second time in less than a week, a number of
tornados strike the
U.S. states of
Tennessee,
Kentucky, and
Indiana.
(FOX News)
★ ''
The Da Vinci Code'' author
Dan Brown and his publisher,
Random House, win the lawsuit that claimed that Brown committed
copyright infringement by using ideas similar to those in ''
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail''.
(CNN)
★ At 10 o'clock
UTC NASA's
Pluto probe ''
New Horizons'' crossed the orbit of
Mars, after 78 days journey. This is a new Earth-to-Mars-distance flight record.
===
8 April 2006 (Saturday)===
★
Shedden massacre: The bodies of eight members of the infamous
Bandidos biker group are found by a resident in a cornfield in southwest
Ontario,
Canada. The incident is considered a cleansing of the gang's inner circle. The
Ontario Provincial Police launch a full-scale
murder investigation.
(CBC) (London Free Press (Ontario)) (National Nine News)
★ The
United Front for Democratic Change has attacked and gained control of the cities of
Haraze Mangueigne,
Am Timan, and
Abou-Deia, in
Chad. Their initial attack came from northern
Central African Republic with the help of the
Military of Sudan. This is the largest and most successful attack since the start of the
Chadian-Sudanese conflict despite taking only an hour, with only four men injured and none killed because the
Chadian military has either fled or refused to fight the rebels.
(AlertNet)
★ The
death toll in the
Djibouti ferry disaster reaches 109.
(Reuters)
★ The
Aligarh Riots between
Hindus and
Muslims enter its fourth day. At least 5 people have been killed in the
rioting in the
North Indian town of
Aligarh so far.
(Reuters)
★ Three protesters are wounded and six buildings are burned down in the fourth day of the pro-
Democracy general strike in
Nepal against
King Gyanendra.
(AFP)
★ The
World Health Organization announces that the average
life expectancy of
Zimbabweans has declined to 37 years for men and 34 years for women.
(BBC)
★
Newcastle Falcons sevens team win the annual
Melrose Sevens rugby tournament in
Scotland. They beat
Edinburgh team
Heriots in the final.
===
9 April 2006 (Sunday)===
★
Scooter Libby says
U.S. President George W. Bush okayed leaks of secret
CIA intelligence material.
(Buffalo News)
★
Hungarian parliamentary election, 2006: The ruling
Hungarian Socialist Party wins the first round.
Voter turnout was 67.7 percent.
(XinHua)
★
Peru hold presidential election:
Peruvian national election, 2006
===
10 April 2006 (Monday)===
★ Preliminary results from the
general election in Peru shows
Ollanta Humala leading, but certain to face a runoff election in late
May or early
June.
Alan GarcÃa is narrowly leading
Lourdes Flores for second place and a spot in the runoff.
(Bloomberg) (BBC)
★
Non-violent demonstrations for immigrant rights are held in dozens of
U.S. cities today in opposition to
H.R. 4437, which would classify
illegal aliens as
felons.
(Reuters) (New York Times) (AP via Wired)
★
Shedden massacre:
Ontario Provincial Police announce that five people have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of eight people found dead in southwestern
Ontario,
Canada. The OPP also confirms that the deaths were connected to an "internal cleansing" of the
Bandidos biker gang.
(CBC)
★
Matthias Platzeck resigns from the Chair of
Germany's
Social Democratic Party (SPD) after suffering a major
hearing loss in March 2006 because of occupational stress. The next SPD chairman will be
Kurt Beck (Minister President of
Rhineland-Palatinate).
(BBC)
★
Italian general election, 2006:
Romano Prodi declares victory in a tight election as preliminary results show
L'Unione (The Union) ahead of
Silvio Berlusconi's
House of Freedoms by 0.1 percent in the
Chamber of Deputies, but Berlusconi refuses to concede.
(BBC) (La Stampa)
★ The government of
France announces the withdrawal of its
youth employment law. The proposed law had catalyzed more than a month of sometimes-violent protests on the streets of
Paris and other cities.
(Washington Post)
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: a
claymore mine explodes in northern
Jaffna, killing 5 soldiers on patrol and 2 civilians working for the
Caritas Internationalis aid agency.
(BBC)
★
Pakistan's foreign office declares that the
United States did not keep it fully informed about the Indo-US nuclear deal as the information shared initially with it did not match the final agreement.
(Pakistan Link) (The Dawn, Pakistan)
===
11 April 2006 (Tuesday)===
★ The city of
Essen,
Germany is selected to be the
European Capital of Culture of 2010 by the
EU jury.
(Deutsche Welle)
★ A suspected
suicide bomber detonates a bomb at a religious gathering in
Karachi,
Pakistan, killing at least 47 and injuring more than 80 celebrating
Mawlid al-Nabi.
(BBC)
★
Bernardo Provenzano, boss of the
Sicilian Mafia (''capo di tutti i capi''), is caught near the town of
Corleone.
(BBC)
★ The ''
Venus Express'' spacecraft of the
European Space Agency approaches
Venus approximately 5 months after it was launched and starts its main engine burn to slow itself down and allow the capture into
orbit around Venus.
(BBC) (ESA)
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: a bus carrying soldiers from
Trincomalee hits a
claymore mine, killing 10
navy sailors, their driver and leaving another 8 wounded. A pair of British tourists are also injured in the blast.
(BBC)
★
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that
Iran has successfully
enriched uranium. In a televised address from the northeastern city of
Mashhad, Ahmadinejad said "I am officially announcing that Iran has joined the group of those countries which have nuclear technology".
(Bloomberg)
★ Musician
Proof of
Eminem's hip hop group
D12 is shot to death in a
Detroit night club.
===
12 April 2006 (Wednesday)===
★
United Front for Democratic Change rebels approach
N'Djamena, the
capital of
Chad.
(BBC)
★ Coronary specialist Sir
Magdi Yacoub operates on Welsh schoolgirl
cardiomyopathy patient Hannah Clark, whose original
heart is reconnected, after a donor heart was rejected by her body. This is a UK-first
organ-replacement reversal.
(BBC)
★ The
UK's
Terrorism Act 2006 comes into force, making illegal the act of glorifying terrorism.
(BBC)
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: coordinated bombings and rioting in the north-eastern part of the country leaves 16 dead. A
claymore anti-personnel mine explodes in
Trincomalee, killing 2 policemen in their vehicle. Another blast set off in a crowded vegetable market kills 1 soldier and civilians. Ensuing rioting leaves more than a dozen dead. Authorities have blamed
LTTE rebels for the recent attacks since Monday.
(BBC) (Reuters)
★
Fossils of ''
Australopithecus anamensis'' help bridge a long gap during a crucial phase of
human evolution.
(BBC)
===
13 April 2006 (Thursday)===
★
Battle of N'Djamena: The
United Front for Democratic Change's attack on the
Chadian
capital of
N'Djamena is repelled by the
Chadian army.
(Canadian Press) The
UN Security Council condemns the rebel attack.
(BBC)
★
John Howard,
Prime Minister of Australia denies being aware of an Australian company giving "kick-backs" to
Saddam Hussein during the
United Nation's
Oil for food programme.
(BBC)
===
14 April 2006 (Friday) ===
★
Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticizes
Israel in a three-day conference attended by
Palestinian Hamas officials. He calls the Israeli regime "a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
(Washington Post)
★
Chad severs diplomatic ties with
Sudan following an
attempted coup by Chadian rebels in which around 350 died. Chad accuses Sudan of sponsoring the rebels.
(AP)
★
Burundi lifts a midnight-to-dawn
curfew that has been in place for 34 years.
(BBC)
★
2006 European floods: The
Danube, swollen by heavy rain and melting snow, rises to record levels, and
floods hundreds of homes in
Serbia,
Bulgaria and
Romania.
(BBC)
★ In
Delhi,
India,
two explosions inside the
16th century mosque Jama Masjid injure at least nine people.
(BBC) (VOA)
★ An editorial in ''
The Lancet'', an influential
medical journal, says that researchers should study the effects of
drugs by
using them themselves, and thereby weakening the force of the social demonization of such substances.
(Guardian)
★ An accident occurs on the
Yurikamome rail line in
Tokyo,
Japan when a damaged axle causes a rubber traction tire on a train to fall off, forcing the cancellation of all weekend train services.
(Kyodo News)
★
Suspected militants kill at least four civilians in a series of
grenade attacks in
Indian-administered Kashmir. A fifth civilian dies after police opens fire on the suspected militants. At least 17 others are injured.
(BBC)
★ A man disfigured in a bear attack becomes the first in China to have a
face transplant.
(BBC)
===
15 April 2006 (Saturday)===
★
2006 European floods: The
Danube rises to its highest level in more than a century.
(CNN)
★ In a gunfight with the
Afghani Police Force, the
Taliban lose 41 fighters and the police lose 6.
(National Nine News)
★ Two trains collide in
Java,
Indonesia, killing at least 13 people and injuring 26 others.
(BBC)
★ The
Jammu and Kashmir police arrest nine suspected
Jaish-e-Mohammad members in connection with the
grenade attacks that shook
Srinagar killing five and injuring 40 others.
(The Tribune) (The Hindu)
★
April 2006 Nepalese general strike: Thousands of people have taken part in pro-democracy marches in towns and cities across
Nepal.
(BBC)
===
16 April 2006 (Sunday)===
★ In
Dublin, Irish military forces parade for the first time since 1970 in commemoration of the 1916
Easter Rising.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern lays a wreath at
Kilmainham Jail, where most of the rebel leaders were subsequently shot, in memory of the civilian and military dead of both sides.
(BBC)
★
Hu Jintao,
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, holds an official meeting and banquet with the Honorary Chairman of the
Nationalist Party of China (Kuomintang),
Lien Chan. The two reached on the new "15 Favourable Policies" on relations between the Chinese mainland and
Taiwan.
(People's Daily)
===
17 April 2006 (Monday)===
★ A
general strike in
Nepal called by political parties opposed to
King Gyanendra enters its 12th day, with food shortages and price rises triggering
panic buying in some areas.
(BBC) Security forces fatally shot a protester and wounded five in
Nijgadh, 75 miles south of
Katmandu.
(CNN)
★ 21-year-old
Palestinian Sami Hammad, a
suicide bomber, blew himself up at the old central bus station in southern
Tel Aviv, in the Neveh Sha'anan neighborhood. Eleven people were killed and 70 more were wounded in the blast.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility for the bombing. A
Hamas spokesman calls the attack an "act of self-defense."
(Haaretz) (Ynetnews) (CNN) (BBC)
===
18 April 2006 (Tuesday)===
★
Hu Jintao arrives in
Seattle, Washington on his first visit to the
United States since becoming
President of the People's Republic of China in 2003.
(CNN).
★ The
H5N1 strain of
avian flu is reported in
Sudan following reports in neighbouring
Egypt.
(BBC)
★ The
New York Stock Exchange is in merger talks with
London Stock Exchange. If the merger went ahead, it would create a stock exchange giant.
(Reuters)
★ The
Tenth National Congress of the
Communist Party of Vietnam opens in
Hanoi amid the
PMU-18 corruption scandal.
(Reuters) (BBC)
★
2006 European floods: Thousands of emergency workers in
Romania,
Bulgaria and
Serbia try to bolster
dikes to prevent
flooding along the swollen
Danube River, which has surged to its highest level in more than a century.
(CNN) Several thousand people have been evacuated from their homes.
(BBC)
★ An
El Al airplane in which a malfunction had been detected made a successful
emergency landing at the
Ben Gurion Airport. The flight, which had departed for
Moscow made its way back to
Tel Aviv after a malfunction was discovered in one of its wheels upon liftoff. The plane emptied its fuel tank above the sea and then landed at the Ben Gurion airport.
(Ynetnews)
★ Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake. Events marking the centennial will be held today and will continue through the end of the year.
(CBS) (BBC)
★ The head of
Gazprom, Russia's natural-gas monopoly, told officials of the
European Union not to "politicize" the gas market -- the speech was part of an escalating war of words between Russia as supplier and the EU as customer.
(Moscow Times)
===
19 April 2006 (Wednesday)===
★ The
Italian Supreme Court has confirmed the victory of centre-left opposition candidate
Romano Prodi in last week's contested
Italian general election, 2006, dismissing complaints by Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi that the vote was marred by irregularities.
(BBC) (Reuters)
★
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan announces his resignation.
Karl Rove is expected to lose his position as Deputy Chief of Staff for political development. President
George W. Bush tries to shake up his cabinet because of the mid-term elections in November.
(BBC)
★ The
Bolivian army frees three ministers taken hostage by local village people in
El Mutún, the world's largest
iron ore deposit
(''Le Monde'').
★
Elections in the Solomon Islands: The announcement of the new
Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands,
Snyder Rini, causes riots in
Honiara. Australia and New Zealand promise to send more troops to keep order.
(Radio NZ) (VOA)
===
20 April 2006 (Thursday)===
★ The
President of Singapore,
Sellapan Ramanathan, "on the advice of the
prime minister (
Lee Hsien Loong), has dissolved
parliament" to prepare for the
2006 general election, to be held on
May 6.
(BBC)
★ Following reports of the
UK government's hostility to a takeover of
Centrica,
Russian gas giant
Gazprom warns of Europe-wide supply disruption
(Channel4 News)
★
April 2006 Nepalese general strike:
Nepali police open fire on pro-democracy protesters to prevent them from marching into
Kathmandu, the capital, killing at least three people and injuring dozens.
(Reuters) The
United Nations condemns the "the excessive and deadly use of force by members of the security forces against protesters and innocent bystanders".
(BBC)
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: The
Tamil Tigers have ended peace talks, stating they are not viable indefinitely.
(Reuters)
★ Famous U.S.
test pilot Scott Crossfield dies in an air crash of a
Cessna 210.
(AP)
★ A vast
river system connecting various
subglacial lakes is discovered under the
Antarctic ice shield.
(MSNBC) (BBC) (nationalgeographic.com)
★
U.S. President George W. Bush welcomes the
Chinese President Hu Jintao at the
White House. A
Falun Gong protester — an accredited journalist from
The Epoch Times — interrupts Hu's speech at the arrival ceremony before being removed by the
Secret Service. The announcer violates protocol by accidentally calling the
March of the Volunteers the "
National Anthem of the Republic of China".
(BBC)
★ German automaker Volkswagen is in talks for a restructuring program to cut costs and make the core unit
Volkswagen more profitable.
(AP via Yahoo)
★
Snyder Rini was sworn in as the new
Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands and took office in secret, amid continued post-
election rioting targeting
ethnic Chinese.
(Guardian)
===
21 April 2006 (Friday)===
★
April 2006 Nepalese general strike:
King Gyanendra of
Nepal asks for
Prime Minister nominations to be made to assist in ending unrest in the country.
(BBC)
★
Queen Elizabeth II of the
United Kingdom and the
Commonwealth Realms celebrates her 80th birthday. On the same day, the
BBC marks eighty years since the granting of its first
Royal Charter.
(BBC)
★ The
California court of appeal heard oral arguments over
bloggers' challenges to an effort by
Apple Computer to force the
ISP of an Apple news site to hand over the email records of bloggers it claims revealed trade secrets.
(ITWire)
★
Haitian elections, 2006:
Voter turnout in the second round of the legislative elections is deemed low.
(Reuters)
★ The 2005-2006
National Hockey League playoffs started.
===
22 April 2006 (Saturday)===
★
Colombian Armed Conflict: Seventeen
Colombian soldiers and a secret policeman were killed by rebels in an ambush in the mountains near the Venezuelan border.
(BBC)
★
Conflict in Afghanistan: Four
Canadian soldiers were killed 75 kilometers north of
Kandahar by a roadside bomb planted by
Taliban militants.
(Canada.com)
★
April 2006 Nepalese general strike: Opposition leaders in
Nepal reject
King Gyanendra's proposals for restoring democracy. Thousands of protesters approaching the
royal palace in
Kathmandu are fired upon by security forces with
tear gas.
(VOA),
(Reuters),
(CBC)
★ The first
city-wide election in
New Orleans after
Hurricane Katrina takes place.
(Reuters)
★ The
Iraqi Parliament meet to vote on choosing a
Prime Minister, only the second time since the December elections. The nominee
Jawad al-Maliki has been put forward by the dominant
Shia block.
(BBC) (CNN International)
★
Kharkiv supermarket bombings: Two homemade bombs exploded at supermarkets in the
Ukrainian city of
Kharkiv, injuring 14.
(Seattle Post Intelligencer) (Interfax Russia) (ABC)
★ In India,
BJP leader
Pramod Mahajan is shot at his home, and reported to be in critical condition.
(Hindustan Times) (BBC)
===
23 April 2006 (Sunday)===
★
Osama Bin Laden calls for
Jihad against "
Crusaders" in
Darfur in audiotape released to Al Jazeera.
(Reuters)
★
Parliamentary elections in
Hungary: The
Hungarian Socialist Party wins with a
plurality of the votes and will therefore continue to govern in coalition with the
Alliance of Free Democrats; it also becomes the first re-elected government of
Hungary since the end of the
Cold War.
(BBC) (Washington Post) (Washington Post/Reuters)
★
Elections in the Solomon Islands:
Beijing begins to evacuate
ethnic Chinese from
Solomon Islands following
Anti-Chinese riots during the election protests that destroyed the
Chinatown.
(Xinhua) (Washington Post)
★
Cyclone Monica, a Category 5 cyclone on the Australian and Saffir-Simpson scales, threatens
Australia's northern coast including the city of
Darwin. The Australian
Bureau of Meteorology has warned of "dangerously high tides" that may cause "extensive flooding" along part of the coast and ordered the sounding of emergency
sirens in the
Gove Peninsula.
Alcan, the world's second-biggest
aluminum producer, has warned customers of potential interruptions to supplies on contracts from its Gove refinery.
(Bloomberg)
★ A silent march through
Brussels,
Belgium, takes place with 80,000 participants, following the
murder on April 12 of a teenager, stabbed at rush hour in
Brussels Central Railway station when he refused to hand over his MP3 player.
(VRT) (Le Soir)
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: six
Sinhalese rice farmers are executed in their paddy fields by suspected
Tamil Tigers terrorists in the northeastern
Trincomalee district.
(AlertNet)
★
Peru declares a
state of emergency in towns near the volcano
Ubinas.
(Reuters)
===
24 April 2006 (Monday)===
★ Famous
Bangladeshi social worker and human rights activist
Nasreen Pervin Huq died at his own house in
Dhaka,
Bangladesh by a tragic accident. She had been the country director of the
ActionAid Bangladesh (
ActionAid) since
2003 up until her death.
★ Former
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, and current Leader of the Opposition,
Basdeo Panday, is convicted on three counts of failing to declare a
London bank account in 1997, 1998, and 1999. He is sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour, fined TT$20,000 on each count, and ordered to forfeit approximately TT$1,600,000 (the accumulated year-end balances of the account in question). He intends to appeal the sentence, but resigned as Leader of the Opposition.
(T&T Express),
(Radio Jamaica)
★
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly lifts a 27-year ban on
female attendance of public
sporting events in Iran. They still need permission of the male head of the household to attend and they will sit in a special female-only section.
(AP) (Guardian) (BBC)
★
2006 Democracy movement in Nepal: Hundreds of
Maoist rebels stormed the town of Chautara, attacking government offices and a prison.
(BBC).
King Gyanendra orders the recall next Friday of the
parliament which he suspended in 2005 – a key demand of the protestors.
(BBC)
★
2006 Dahab bombings: Witnesses reporting hearing three explosions in the
Egyptian
Sinai resort town of
Dahab at about 1715 UTC. Dr. Said Essa, who runs the Sinai Peninsula rescue squad, estimates there were at least 100 dead or wounded.
(CTV)
★
Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have agreed to a relaxation of rules for the use of
condoms.
(BBC)
★
Dubai International Finance Centre, owner of the
Dubai stock exchange, announces that it has increased its
equity stake in
Euronext NV, which runs stock exchanges in four European capitals. There are rumors of an impending take-over bid.
(MSN)
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: Two suspected
Tamil Tiger rebels are shot dead in
Batticaloa while being caught planting mines, after rebels reportedly hacked a young mother to death. In the eastern part of the island, two
Sinhalese guards are killed as they returned from a funeral and one
Tamil is shot dead by unidentified gunmen.
(BBC)
★
Ken Lay, former chairman of the board of defunct
Enron Corporation, took the stand in his own defense in his
criminal trial in
Houston,
Texas.
(Houston Chronicle)
★ A collision between a passenger bus and a truck kills 10 people, members of two different families, in
Marcos Paz,
Argentina.
(Telefe video, in Spanish)
===
25 April 2006 (Tuesday)===
★
Sri Lankan Civil War: A suspected
Tamil Tiger suicide bomber attacks the
Sri Lankan Army headquarters in the capital,
Colombo, killing 8. Twenty-seven have been injured, including the army commander Lieutenant General
Sarath Fonseka, as the
female suicide bomber, pretending to be
pregnant to conceal
explosives, detonates her bomb near the military's hospital. The
Sri Lankan military has begun aerial assaults on rebel positions in the north-eastern part of the island nation.
(BBC),
(MumbaiMirror),
(Reuters)
★
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appears unmasked in a newly released video taunting the "crusade" by the
American-led
coalition and Iraqi authorities. At one point, he addresses
U.S. President
George W. Bush.
(BBC),
(CNN)
★ The
UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on four
Sudanese citizens involved in the
Darfur conflict: Maj.-Gen.
Gaffar Mohamed Elhassan of the
Sudanese Air Force;
Sheikh Musa Hilal, paramount chief of the
Jalul Janjaweed tribe in
North Darfur; Commander
Adam Yacub Shant of the
Sudanese Liberation Army; and Commander
Gabril Abdul Kareem Badri of the
National Movement for Reform and Development. The vote marks the first time UN sanctions have been adopted against individuals involved in this conflict.
(CBC),
(BBC)
★ In the
Philippines, 49 people are charged with
rebellion over
an alleged plot to overthrow
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in
February 2006.
(CBC),
(BBC)
★ The
Communist Party of Vietnam announces at the closing of the
Tenth National Congress that
Nông Ãức Mạnh will be re-appointed as its
general secretary for another five year term. Other key positions, such as those of prime minister and president, are yet to be appointed. New faces are expected.
(BBC)
★
Darwin,
Australia is spared a projected direct hit by
Cyclone Monica.
(BBC)
===
26 April 2006 (Wednesday)===
★ The
Governor of Puerto Rico,
AnÃbal Acevedo Vilá, signs an
executive order in which the government's budget will be exclusively used for health and security services. 43 agencies of the government will be shut down, while 15 will provide services partially. Another 60 will continue operating normally. The order is a result of the budget running dry before the end of the fiscal year.
(AP via ABC News)
★
University of California at San Diego psychology researcher
Tim Gentner reportedly discovers that
songbirds are capable of learning simple
grammar, which may disprove
Noam Chomsky's long believed hypothesis that humans are the only organism able to comprehend
recursive grammar.
(AP)
★
Tony Snow is named
White House Press Secretary.
(AP via Guardian),
(BBC),
(VoA)
★
Ukraine marks the 20th anniversary of the
Chernobyl nuclear power station explosion.
(BBC),
(VoA)
★
Snyder Rini resigns as
Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands immediately before facing a
motion of no confidence in Parliament, prompting celebrations in the streets of
Honiara.
(NZ Herald) (BBC),
(VoA)
★
Egyptian police arrest 10 people in relation to the
2006 Dahab bombings, which has killed 24 people and injured more than 80 on
24 April.
(Independent)
★
Peacekeeping Forces in
Egypt were attacked outside the
Nile Delta by two suicide bombers. No casualties.
(Fox News)
===
27 April 2006 (Thursday)===
★ The
Scottish National Party wins the
Moray by-election, 2006 for the
Moray constituency to the
Scottish Parliament.
(BBC)
★ The
Government of Chad and the
World Bank end a four-month long dispute over allocation of Chadian
petroleum funds. The World Bank will allow Chad to spend more of its oil revenue on
its military in exchange for a resumption of oil output through the
Chad-Cameroon pipeline.
(New York Times)
★ Construction begins on the
Freedom Tower in
New York City breaking a deadlock between the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, and private developer
Larry Silverstein. The 1,776-foot tower is the centerpiece of the rebuilding effort for the
World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
(BBC)
★
Nepal Civil War:
Maoist insurgents in
Nepal, responding to a demand by the newly appointed
prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, announce a unilateral three-month
truce.
Kathmandu gradually resumes normality after
weeks of pro-democracy protests.
(BBC),
(VoA)
★ The head of the
London Stock Exchange publicly warned the president of
Russia,
Vladimir Putin, that his recent decision to bar the head of a large equity fund from that country could send "a very negative signal" to the world's equity markets.
(Guardian)
★ In
Israel, the centrist
Kadima party forms a
coalition government with the left-leaning
Labor party.
(CBC),
(Reuters)
★ The Metro Rail project for
Bangalore City (
India) has been cleared and work on the project will begin soon. The implementation of this project aims at decongesting the traffic and streamlining the public transport system in the city. Bangalore, also known as the
Silicon Valley of India, is one of the most congested cities in India.
===
28 April 2006 (Friday)===
★
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan becomes the highest ranking officer to have charges brought against him in connection with the
Abu Ghraib abuse.
(Seattle Times)
★ The
Bush administration takes initial steps to use the
States Secrets Privilege to block a lawsuit against
AT&T and the
NSA brought by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has alleged that the government has secret computer rooms conducting broad, illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens.
(News.com)
★
United States Congressman
John Conyers and others file a lawsuit (''
Conyers v. Bush'') against
President George W. Bush alleging a violation of the
United States Constitution in the passing of the
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
(ABC)
★
Guilliame Mbairessem, the secretary-general of the
Episcopal Conference of Bishops of Chad, joins U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
Donald Yamamoto in calling for a delay of the
upcoming presidential elections in
Chad.
(ABC News)
★ The
Congress of Mexico passes a bill which, if signed by the
President, will decriminalize possession of small amounts of
marijuana,
cocaine,
heroin,
opium,
LSD,
hallucinogenic mushrooms,
amphetamines, and
peyote.
(Reuters)
★ Five members of the
United States Congress are arrested outside the
Sudanese embassy in
Washington, D.C., for protesting the
Darfur genocide.
(CNN)
★ Around 50,000 people participate in the
Puerto Rico Shouts march in
San Juan,
Puerto Rico, demanding a budget agreement to avert a partial shutdown of government offices and
public schools.
(Reuters)
★
Chung Mong Koo, head of
Hyundai Motor Company, is arrested in
South Korea on charges of
embezzlement of 100 billion
won ($106 million USD), among other
corruption charges.
(CNN) (NY Times)
★ In
Port Arthur, Tasmania,
Australia, memorial services are held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the
Port Arthur massacre, in which a lone gunman murdered 35 people at the popular tourist town in the country's worst killing spree. Prime Minister
John Howard led prayers at the service.
(BBC)
★ US and Danish scientists conclusively date the massive
Thera eruption, which destroyed the
Minoan civilization on Crete, to the period around c.1627–1600 BC based on sophisticated radio-carbon analysis.
(The Telegraph) (MSNBC)
===
29 April 2006 (Saturday)===
★ In
Italy, after three weeks of wrangling over
a narrow election defeat,
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi finally says he will resign within a week, clearing the way for
Romano Prodi and his
L'Unione coalition to form a new government.
(CNN),
(CBC)
★ Protesters demonstrate against the
Iraq war and possible military actions against
Iran in
New York City.
(Washington Post) (The Hindu) (Al Jazeera)
★
United States-Iran relations continue to deteriorate after US officials called Iran one of the world's most active sponsors of
terrorism, as
IAEA reveals that
Tehran has successfully enriched
uranium and is racing ahead with its
nuclear programme.
Iran says it does not "give a damn" about the verdict from the IAEA director
Mohamed ElBaradei and what it might lead to.
(The Guardian) (AP/ABC News)
★
U.S. employers, workers, and police brace for a day-long
boycott and
strike to demonstrate the economic impact of
illegal immigrants on the
U.S. economy.
(Los Angeles Times) (CNN)
===
30 April 2006 (Sunday)===
★
Darfur conflict:
★
★ The
Sudanese government accepts a peace plan brokered by mediators of the
African Union.
(Reuters),
(CNN)
★
★ Various rebel
Janjaweed militias, required to be disarmed according to the deal, struggle to extract last-minute concessions and have yet to give a clear signal on whether they would sign.
(Reuters)
★ The rebel group the
Justice and Equality Movement refuses to sign on to the proposed peace agreement in its current form.
(Reuters)
★ The Government of the
Central African Republic joins the
United States Government and the
Government of Chad in formally accusing the Government of
Sudan of supporting the
United Front for Democratic Change rebels and further alleges that UFDC rebels are entering southern Chad through the CAR-Chad-Sudan border area.
(AFP via Yahoo!)
★ The
Parliament of Nepal,
reinstated last week after a 4-year hiatus, unanimously approves a proposal by new
prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala to hold
elections for a special assembly to draw up a
new constitution.
(Reuters),
(CBC)
★ 24
miners have been killed in a mine explosion in the
Chinese province of
Shaanxi.
(BBC)
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