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March 2006' :
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Events
===
1 March 2006 (Wednesday)===
★
Fijian Prime Minister
Laisenia Qarase announces that the
2006 Fiji general elections will be held in the second week of May 2006 from the 6th to the 13th.
(Radio New Zealand)
★ A member of the board of directors of major German
steel manufacturing company
ThyssenKrupp AG says the company is "examining all its options," and may not complete its proposed acquisition of Canadian steel company
Dofasco.
(MSN Money)
★ A video obtained by the Associated Press shows
U.S. President George W. Bush being warned that the levees in
New Orleans could break one day before
Hurricane Katrina hit.
(MSNBC.com)
===
2 March 2006 (Thursday)===
★ The
United States Senate voted 89-10 to renew the
USA PATRIOT Act after two extensions. In its vote next week, the
United States House of Representatives will likely also vote to renew the Act, analysts say.
(MSNBC)
★ In a major turnaround for
American policy, the United States signs a historic
civilian nuclear pact with
India, which promises to bolster India's rapidly growing economy.
(Forbes) (Times of India) (CNN)
★ A shipwreck from the
14th century was found buried in
Riddarfjärden Bay in
Stockholm,
Sweden. If the ship is well preserved, there are plans to remove it from the waters.
(ABC)
★
Alaksandar Kazulin, the
Social Democratic Party candidate for the office of
President of Belarus, was detained by
Minsk police after he was rejected entrance to a congress hosted by current leader
Alexander Lukashenko. Kazulin also suffered injuries during the course of his detention, which is still being enforced, though the
elections will commence in 17 days.
(BBC).
★ Traces of a prehistoric, 8,000-year-old civilization are found in
Shahrud,
Iran. The discoveries included ovens, craft workshops, and other evidence of settlements.
(Payvand)
★ Televangelist
Pat Robertson loses his bid for re-election to the board of directors of the
National Religious Broadcasters.
(Associated Press)
★
Dubai Ports World controversy: The
United States urges the
United Arab Emirates to end its boycott of
Israel: "The Bush administration said yesterday it is pressing the United Arab Emirates to drop its economic boycott of Israel - a major sticking point in the proposed takeover of key U.S. ports by a UAE-owned firm."
(The Washington Times)
★ Sir
Menzies Campbell has been elected the new leader of the UK
Liberal Democrats Party.
(BBC)
★ The
European Central Bank raises
Euro base interest rates by 0.25% to 2.5%. The move affects the 12 members of the
Eurozone.
(FT)
★
Kenya: Masked gunmen, since revealed to be
Kenyan police, attack the offices of leading newspaper ''
The Standard'' and its television station
KTN, following their report that
President Mwai Kibaki held secret meetings with key opposition figure
Kalonzo Musyoka.
(BBC),
(Reuters)
★
CIA flights: French newspaper ''
Le Figaro'' reveals that the
attorney general of
Bobigny has opened up an investigation concerning the landing of a
CIA flight in
Le Bourget Airport following a complaint deposed at the end of December 2005 by
NGOs
International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and the French ''
Ligue des droits de l'homme''.
(Le Figaro)
★ Crowds of 100,000 people protest against
President of the United States George W. Bush while he is in
Delhi.
(Times of India)(Khaleej Times).
★ Just two days before
U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit
Pakistan, a car bomb exploded in the Marriot Hotel Karachi parking lot adjacent to a United States
consulate in
Karachi, killing at least four people including a US diplomat and his driver and injuring at least fifty others.
(CNN)
★ A
prison riot involving close to 1,300 prisoners at
Afghanistan's
Pul-e-Charkhi prison ended after four days.
(BBC)
★
Italian judges in
Milan to charge Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi and
David Mills (husband of
Tessa Jowell, a
British Minister) in connection with a
bribery scandal.
(Independent).
★ Former
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, member of the moderate wing of the regime, describes the
Holocaust as a "historical reality," contradicting the current leader
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an extremist who has described it as a "myth" last year.
(BBC)
===
3 March 2006 (Friday)===
★
Research In Motion, a
Waterloo, Ontario,
Canadian based company, agrees to pay
NTP Inc. $612.5 million to settle NTP's
patent-infringement suit against RIM. NTP had argued RIM's
BlackBerry wireless-communication devices use technology patented by NTP.
(AP)
★ The ruling
African National Congress takes 66% of the votes in the
2006 South African municipal election. Voter turnout was 46%. No
party in the
City of Cape Town claims an outright majority.
(BBC)
★
Russian-Hamas talks, 2006:
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in his talks with the Hamas leader
Khaled Mashal , calls on
Hamas to transform itself into a
political organisation, recognise
Israel's right to exist, and to keep previous peace accords.
(BBC),
(Reuters)
★
Kenya and
Sudan, completing trade talks that have gone on since 2001, announce plans to sign a landmark
trade agreement.
(AllAfrica) Kenya, which is currently in a drought, is in desperate need of food to feed 3.5 million Kenyans by the end of March, despite the presence of the U.N. food agency. Sudan has had a huge surplus this season.
(Reuters)
★ Three Israelis ignite
firecrackers in an attempt to detonate gas canisters smuggled into the
Church of the Annunciation in
Nazareth during prayer services, sparking riots and confrontation between thousands of protestors and
Israeli police.
(CBC) (YNet)
★ After four years of legal efforts to get the names of about 490
Guantanamo Bay inmates released, the
United States is forced by
a federal judge's ruling to release transcripts of hearings of 317 of them.
(ABC)
★ Former
U.S. House Representative
Randy "Duke" Cunningham (
Rep.,
CA) is sentenced to eight years and four months in prison, the longest sentence ever for a congressman, for collecting $2.4 million in bribes.
(CNN)
★
British Labour Party MPs close to
Gordon Brown call for Culture Secretary
Tessa Jowell to resign over her husband,
David Mills' alleged acceptance of money from
Silvio Berlusconi.
(Financial Times)
★ The
2006 Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference opens in
Beijing.
(People's Daily)
★ British Rock star
Gary Glitter is convicted of the molestation of one 11- and one 12-year-old girl in the town of
Vung Tau in southern
Vietnam. He is sentenced to 3 years in prison, but may be back in the
United Kingdom by December.
(BBC News)
★ An
Italian parliamentary commission accuses the former
Soviet Union of orchestrating the 1981 attempt to assassinate
Pope John Paul II (Telegraph)
★
Ukraine imposed new customs regulations on its border with
Transnistria, leading to the
Ukraine-Transnistria border customs conflict.
===
4 March 2006 (Saturday)===
★ The central
Papeete power station is damaged by a fire, resulting in limited power for some areas of
Tahiti for a couple of weeks.
(Pacific Magazine)
★
Anti-war campaigners criticised
British Prime Minister Tony Blair after he suggested his decision to go to
war in
Iraq would ultimately be judged by
God.
[1]
★ British Culture Secretary
Tessa Jowell splits from her husband,
David Mills' following allegations of an alleged acceptance of money from
Silvio Berlusconi.
[2]
★ A new species of
shark, ''
Mustelus hacat'', is discovered in
Mexico's
Sea of Cortez, bringing the number of ''
Mustelus'' species found in the eastern
North Pacific to five.
★ The
Deep Space Network tries one final contact attempt to
Pioneer 10.
[3]
===
5 March 2006 (Sunday)===
★
78th Academy Awards: ''
Crash'' wins
Best Picture,
Ang Lee (''
Brokeback Mountain'') wins
Best Director,
Reese Witherspoon (''
Walk the Line'') wins
Best Actress, and
Philip Seymour Hoffman (''
Capote'') wins
Best Actor.
(CNN)
★ The
2006 National People's Congress opens in
Beijing, beginning a 10-day session of China's parliament. Premier
Wen Jiabao makes a Working Report and vows for support for the poor.
(CNN) (People's Daily)
★
Benin presidential election, 2006: Voters in
Benin go to the polls to decide who will succeed
Mathieu Kérékou as
President. Results are expected to be announced by Wednesday. If no single candidate of the 26 wins an outright majority, a
runoff election will take place in two weeks.
(Scotsman),
(VOA),
(Reuters)
★ Tens of thousands of protesters in
Bangkok demand the resignation of
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of
Thailand.
(BBC),
(Reuters),
(CNN)
===
6 March 2006 (Monday)===
★ The
United Kingdom government is defeated in the
House of Lords over a plan to make
biometric ID cards compulsory for passport applicants. The government is to seek to overturn the defeat in the
House of Commons, and has suggested that it might invoke the
Parliament Act.
(United Press International)
★
Israeli aircraft fire rockets at a car in
Gaza, killing two
Islamic Jihad members and three innocent bystanders as well as wounding seven other people, mostly children. Commander-in-Chief of the
Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen.
Eliezer Shkedy said: "We are doing everything we can possibly think of to prevent innocent people from being harmed, but this is a war and nothing is certain."
(JPost)
★
Milan Babić, former leader of the breakaway
Republic of Serbian Krajina, commits
suicide in prison while serving a sentence for
war crimes.
(BBC)
★
M. Michael Rounds,
governor of the
U.S. State of
South Dakota, signs an
abortion ban that conflicts with the
United States Supreme Court's landmark
1973 ''
Roe v. Wade'' decision.
(MSNBC)
★ The sentencing hearing of
Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted in the US for a direct role in the
9/11 attacks, has opened in Virginia.
(BBC)
★ Avian flu outbreak:
Poland confirms first outbreak of
H5N1, the
bird flu virus, in two wild
swans.
(News-Medical Net) (BBC)
★ In
South Africa, former Deputy President (1999-2005)
Jacob Zuma pleads
not guilty of
rape as his trial starts.
(Iafrica) (BBC)
===
7 March 2006 (Tuesday)===
★ The
Dutch Labour party gains more than five hundred seats in the country's
municipal election.
(Financial Times)
★ Fifteen people die and many others are injured in
three blasts throughout
Varanasi,
India.
(CNN)
★
Kizza Besigye, formerly opposition presidential candidate in the
recent Ugandan elections, is cleared of
rape charges.
(BBC)
★
Israel's defense minister
Shaul Mofaz says that the
Hamas PNA prime minister-designate,
Ismail Haniyeh, may be subject to an Israeli
targeted killing if Hamas resumes attacks against Israel.
(AP)
★
British Lieutenant General Nick Houghton announces that the UK's 8,000
soldiers in Iraq could begin leaving the country within weeks. Most would be home by 2008, he says.
(Guardian Unlimited)
★
Anibal Ibarra, former mayor of
Buenos Aires is removed from office over allegations of poor government safety regulation in last year's club fire.
(The Mercury News)
===
8 March 2006 (Wednesday)===
★ The world's biggest
Expo on
information technology,
CeBIT, opens in
Hanover,
Germany.
(news.com)
★
Slovenia asks to join the
Euro monetary union.
(Business week)
★ The
United States House Appropriations Committee votes to block the
Bush administration's plan for
Dubai Ports World to take over operations at six major U.S. ports.
(Houston Chronicle)
★ The
Government of Chad renews accusations of
Sudanese support for attacks by the
UFDC into eastern Chad, despite the recent signing of the
Tripoli Accord and the successful formation of the ministerial committee. Sudan has accused Chad of supporting
ARFWS rebels in the past, and Chad is believed to have stepped up support in light of recent attacks.
(AlertNet)
★ The
Channel Island of
Sark votes to maintain its
feudal system of governance
(BBC)
★
Iran threatens 'harm and pain' against the
United States for its role in putting Iran before the
United Nations Security Council.
(Channel 4 News)
★ The
European Union announces that it has lifted a worldwide ban on the export of
British beef introduced in
1996 to prevent the spread of
BSE (Mad Cow Disease).
(BBC)
★ An
Argentine military aircraft crashes after take off from
El Alto International Airport in
La Paz, Bolivia, killing all six people on board. The aircraft was a
Learjet 35A.
(planecrashinfo.com)
===
9 March 2006 (Thursday)===
★ Astronomers announce that the
Cassini-Huygens probe has detected possible
geysers of
water on
Saturn's moon
Enceladus, perhaps the first example of naturally-occurring liquid water beyond
Earth.
(AP) (JPL)
★
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan launches the
Central Emergency Response Fund to provide aid to regions of
Africa currently facing
starvation.
(BBC)
★ The
Sablé-sur-Sarthe hostage crisis in
France ends peacefully with no casualties. The gunman had suffered from depression.
(ABC)
★ The
notorious Abu Ghraib prison in
Iraq is to close and its prisoners to be housed elsewhere, the
U.S. military has said.
(Channel 4 News)
===
10 March 2006 (Friday)===
★ Further evidence accrues to show that the
polar ice caps are shrinking.
(BBC)
★ The
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around
Mars.
(BBC)
★ More than 250 medical experts sign a letter in
The Lancet urging the
United States to stop
force-feeding of
Guantanamo Bay detainees and close down the prison.
(BBC)
★ The
World Health Organization announces that the number of people killed by
measles declined by 48% between 1999 and 2004, from 871,000 to 454,000. The greatest decline, 60%, was in
sub-Saharan Africa. The improvement is attributed to increased
vaccination.
(BBC)
★
John Profumo, the man at the centre of
Britain's most famous
political scandal of the 20th century, has died at the age of 91.
(Channel 4 News)
★
Italian prosecutors ask for
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and
British lawyer
David Mills to be
indicted in the on-going alleged bribery case
(BBC)
★
Twenty-six people are killed in
Dera Bugti, southwest
Pakistan, when their vehicle hits a
landmine. The victims were primarily women and children. Both tribal rebels and security forces
planted landmines in the area.
(BBC)
★ Terminal D at
LaGuardia Airport in
New York City was closed due to a security breach.
(CNN)
★
Gale Norton has announced her resignation as
United States Secretary of the Interior, effective March 31, 2006.
(CNN)
===
11 March 2006 (Saturday)===
★ The former
Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milošević has been found dead in his prison cell in
The Hague,
Netherlands.
(CNN) (Reuters) (BBC) (Times)
★
Michelle Bachelet takes office as the first female
President of
Chile.
(BBC) (CBC) (VOA) (CNN)
===
12 March 2006 (Sunday)===
★
Algerian "national reconciliation".
Abdelhak Layada, one of the founder of the
Armed Islamic Group (GIA), is released from prison due to the February 28, 2006 national reconciliation charter decree of application
RFI.
★
Venezuela introduces its new
national flag with eight, instead of seven, stars and a slightly altered
coat of arms.
(The Washington Post)
★ Reports claim that a post-mortem examination has found that former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milošević died from heart failure.
(Channel 4 News)
★ Six car bombs explode in
Sadr City, a neighborhood in
Baghdad, killing at least forty-six people.
(CNN)
★ In
Malta, the
Malta Labour Party makes a big victory in the
Local Council Elections (Times of Malta)
★ Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh began their Visit to Australia which she will open the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
★ U.S. Senator
Russ Feingold announces that he will introduce a motion of
censure against President
George W. Bush.
(RawStory)
★
Schering, a
Berlin,
Germany based pharmaceutical firm, announces that it has received a hostile merger bid from
Frankfurt-based rival
Merck.
(MSNBC) (Reuters)
===
13 March 2006 (Monday)===
★ A cash-for-honours scandal has erupted around
UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair. A millionaire donor has revealed that
Labour fundraisers had arranged secret loans from businessmen who were then nominated for peerages.
(Daily Mail)
★ A
major tornado outbreak finally ends in the
central United States. In all, more than 100
tornadoes were reported and 11 people were killed. Two tornadoes hit
Springfield, Illinois late on the 12th, causing major damage to the city.
★
U.S. climate scientists working for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level.
(BBC)
★ A major oil slick, which could contain some 40 tonnes of fuel, has been detected off the coast of
Estonia, one week after the Runner-4 cargo vessel sank in the
Baltic Sea. Heavy sea ice prevents an accurate estimate of the content of the oil slick that may have killed 35,000 sea birds.
(Yahoo News)
★ The judge in the trial of
Zacarias Moussaoui is considering throwing out the
death penalty as an option after lawyers from the
Federal Aviation Administration coached four government witnesses.
(CNN)
★
German drug & chemical manufacturer
Merck KGaA announces plans to buy
Schering in a merger of €14.6 billion. Merck and Schering would become Germany's largest
pharmaceutical company. -
(Telegraph)
★
London Metropolitan Police chief
Sir Ian Blair admits secretly recording conversations with the
Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, an act that could lead to a civil legal proceedings if the other party has not granted permission for conversations to be taped.
(BBC)
===
14 March 2006 (Tuesday)===
★ An
attempted coup d'état against
Chadian President Idriss Déby is foiled.
(AP via The Guardian)
★ In
London, six men taking part in a
clinical trial for a new
monoclonal antibody anti-inflammatory drug,
TGN1412, are placed in
intensive care, some in a life-threatening condition, after suffering adverse side-effects.
(BBC)
★
Euronext, a derivatives exchange based in
Amsterdam and
Paris, announces that it might join the ongoing auction for the
London Stock Exchange — which would put it in competition with bidders
Nasdaq and
Deutsche Börse.
(Forbes)
★
Jordan is to indict
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for bombings that killed over 60 people.
(ABC)
★ At least 80 people die in
Iraq following an attack on a
Shiite holy site.
(LA Times)
★ At least seven people have died in
wildfires in the U.S. state of
Texas which have burned 1,000 mi² (2500 km²), forcing 1,900 people to evacuate.
(AP)
★ The
2006 National People's Congress concludes in Beijing, China. Premier
Wen Jiabao holds annual press conference from Chinese and foreign reporters. Wen reiterates Taiwan issue in serious tone.
(People's Daily)
★
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
★
★
Israeli troops shell and demolish a
Palestinian prison in
Jericho, seizing
Ahmad Sa'adat, imprisoned for allegedly assassinating an Israeli minister.
(BBC)
★
★ In retaliation for the Israeli attack in Jericho,
Palestinian gunmen kidnap and then release American professor Douglas Johnson.
(Forbes)
===
15 March 2006 (Wednesday)===
★ Two armed gunmen attacked the UN Refugee Agency (
UNHCR) compound in
Yei, Sudan, killing a local guard and leaving two others in critical condition.
(Angola Press)
★ The
U.S. online magazine
salon.com publishes the most extensive documentation of the
Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse.
(salon.com)
★
United Kingdom: The
House of Commons votes to approve an education reform bill. The
Prime minister,
Tony Blair's authority is called into question for his relying on the opposition
Conservative party to secure the vote, due to revolt within his own
Labour party.
(Bloomberg)
★
War in Iraq: A raid by the
United States military kills eleven
Iraqis, mostly civilians.
(Channel 4 News)
★ The
United Nations General Assembly votes to establish the
United Nations Human Rights Council, a new
human rights organization to replace the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights, with only the
United States,
Israel, the
Marshall Islands and
Palau opposing.
(United Press International) (Reuters.uk)
★
Queen Elizabeth II,
Head of the Commonwealth opens the
2006 Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne, Australia.
(BBC)
★ Five arrests are made over the
UK Islamist demonstration outside the Danish Embassy in
London against the
cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad.
(Guardian)
===
16 March 2006 (Thursday)===
★ Tens of thousands of
Thai anti-government protesters continue their rally against the country's current Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra today. They also demand his resignation from the post. The opposition leader,
Sondhi Limthongkul, declared he and his party would not stop protesting all day and night until the PM resigns.
(Reuters)
★ U.S. President
George W. Bush nominates
Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as
United States Secretary of the Interior.
(CNN)
★ Near the third anniversary of the beginning of the
Iraq war, U.S. and Iraqi forces on Thursday launch an
air assault known as
Operation Swarmer into
Salahuddin province in what was termed the largest air assault since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
(ABC News),
(BBC),
(USDoD)
★ The
Iraqi National Assembly meets for the first time since it was elected in
December 2005.
(Reuters)
★ An international
child pornography network is discovered using information from an Internet
chat room, leading to the world-wide arrests of 4
Australians, 13
Americans, 10
Canadians, and 2
Britons.
(National Nine News)
===
17 March 2006 (Friday)===
★
Beijing's wealthiest millionaire,
Yuan Baojing, and two alleged accomplices are sentenced to death and executed by
lethal injection for
murder by a
Liaoyang court, making Yuan the wealthiest person to be executed in
PRC history.
(Xinhuanet) (Washington Post)
★ The
European Parliament demands that
Senegal turn over
Hissène Habré to
Belgium to be tried for his actions while he was
President of Chad. Senegal is not expected to comply, as it already refused
extradition demands from the
African Union. The
ATDPH has expressed its approval of the decision.
(allafrica)
★ Six people have been charged in connection with
Kenya's
biggest fraud, which cost the government about $600m.
(BBC)
★ Following an outbreak of
bird flu in
Israel,
Europe bans imports of Israeli
chicken; Ministry of Agriculture halts exports of unprocessed birds;
Kibbutzim in the south, heart of Israel put under closure; four people hospitalized in the south are found not to be infected with the disease.
(Ynetnews)
★
Thomas Lubanga, former leader of the
Union of Congolese Patriots militia in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, becomes the first person arrested on behalf of, and then referred to the
International Criminal Court for
war crimes.
(ICC)
★ The fourth global
World Water Forum meets in
Mexico City to address problems of
water shortages and conflicts. Protesters claim the forum is a platform for further
privatization of water supplies.
(AP via Forbes)
★ The
International Crisis Group warns that continued neglect of the
Darfur conflict may lead to thousands more deaths and spill over into neighboring countries, further destabilizing the region.
(Reuters)
===
18 March 2006 (Saturday)===
★
Hamas announces the formation of its new cabinet to govern the territory under the control of the
Palestinian Authority. Hamas, however, in a last ditch effort to include the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the government, postponed by one day the submission of the new cabinet to the approval of
PNA President Mahmoud Abbas.
(IOL) (Al-Jazeera)
★
2006 labor protests in France: In
Paris, and other major French cities, hundreds of thousands of people march in protest of the
Contrat de première embauche (First Employment Contract), a labor law set to take effect in April that gives employers the right to fire workers under the age of 26 in the first two years of their employment without justification.
(BBC)
★
US Navy warships engage
pirates off the coast of
Somalia, killing one, capturing 12, after the
U.N. Security Council on
March 15, encouraged any naval forces near Somalia to take action against suspected piracy. This occurred after an attack on a UN
World Food Program-chartered ship bringing drought-relief food supplies on
March 13.
(AP)(UPI)
★ The
Labor government of
South Australia, led by
Mike Rann, has been returned with a ten percent swing.
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
===
19 March 2006 (Sunday)===
★ Three of the six men left seriously ill during a drugs trial (of a
monoclonal antibody TGN 1412) have been taken off organ support.
(BBC)
★ The
Liberal Party of Canada announces it has scheduled the
vote for a new leader for
December 3.
(CBC)
★ Part of a tunnel in the
Moscow Metro collapses on a train setting the train on fire. Russian
emergency services were dispatched to the scene, passengers were evacuated, and no one was hurt.
(BBC)
★ Former
Prime Minister of Iraq Iyad Allawi says that he believes that Iraq is engaged in a
civil war, although the country has not passed "the point of no return."
British and
American officials dispute calling the conflict a civil war.
(BBC)
★
Polling stations open for the
Belarusian presidential election, 2006.
(VOA) The main opposition candidate
Alaksandar MilinkieviÄ calls for a re-run of the presidential election within hours of polls closing.
(BBC)
★ With the exception of
Uganda and
South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa is failing to meet
United Nations standards for accessibility to clean water or sanitation.
(Reuters)
===
20 March 2006 (Monday)===
★ The
UN's refugee agency, the
UNHCR, says it has been ordered to leave
Uzbekistan within one month.
(BBC)
★
Belarusian presidential election, 2006:
Alexander Lukashenko has been re-elected
president of
Belarus with 82.6 percent of all votes, in an election which is considered by many to have been rigged.
★
★ The
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitored the election, concluded that the presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections.
(Reuters),
(BBC)
★
★ The
Commonwealth of Independent States also monitored the election and declared that the election was fair and that the results must be respected.
(Monsters and Critics)
★
★ The
United States and
EU condemn the elections. The White House, which has previously labeled Mr Lukashenko a dictator, says it does not accept the results. The EU says it is likely that it will impose sanctions.
(BBC)
★ At 0730
AEST,
Tropical Cyclone Larry makes landfall near
Innisfail,
Queensland,
Australia, with wind gusts of 290 km/h (180 mph) recorded, which would make it a Category 5 storm on the Australian scale for severity of cyclones.
(AAP).
★ Russian President
Vladimir Putin visits Beijing on energy talks with Chinese President
Hu Jintao.
(Forbes)
★ Charles,
Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, begin official visit to
Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and
India.
★ The
Northern Hemisphere Vernal Equinox and the
Southern Hemisphere Autumnal Equinox occurred at 18:26 UTC.
===
21 March 2006 (Tuesday)===
★ The
French National Assembly votes on "
DADVSI" ("
Right of the Author and related rights in the information society") with 296 votes for against 193. The DADVSI act implements the 2001
EU Copyright Directive with some modifications. The
UMP (right-wing), which has the
absolute majority at the National Assembly, voted for, while the left voted against it. MPs of the center-right
UDF voted either against the text or
abstained themselves.
''Le Monde''
★ Over 150
Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern
Chad by members of the rebel
UFDC. The growing rebel movement seeks to overthrow Chadian president
Idriss Deby.
(AP via Forbes)
★ In the
United Kingdom,
Metropolitan Police confirm they are to investigate claims the ruling
Labour Party broke the
Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 in the ongoing controversy over "
cash for Peerages" row.
(BBC)
★ Irish
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said in the
Dáil that he believes the
British security forces colluded with
loyalist paramilitaries in the planning of
Belfast solicitor
Pat Finucane's murder in 1989.
(Irish examiner)
★ In a major Sino-
Russian energy deal, it is announced that
Gazprom intends to build two large
natural gas pipelines directly to
China within the next 5 years.
(Forbes) Russia will also help with the construction of two
nuclear power plants in China.
(Makfax)
===
22 March 2006 (Wednesday)===
★ A
bankruptcy court judge in
New York has authorized the creation of an equity holders' committee in connection with the
reorganization of auto parts maker
Delphi Corporation,
(Reuters)
★
University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists believe they may have discovered a reason why the deadly
H5N1 bird flu virus cannot yet jump easily between humans.
(BBC)
★ The
MV ''Queen of the North'', a 125 metre
ferry operated by
BC Ferries, strikes a rock in
British Columbia's
Inside Passage shortly after midnight, and
sinks. All passengers and crew are thought to have safely abandoned ship, but two passengers are later declared missing and presumed dead.
(CBC)
★
Basque separatist group
ETA announce a permanent ceasefire to their 38-year campaign for independence from
Spain, which has cost over 800 lives.
(BBC)
★ Russian President
Vladimir Putin pays a visit to the
Shaolin Temple, the symbol of Chinese
Martial arts on his
state visit to China.
(SINA)
★
Tracy Williams from
Oldham,
Greater Manchester,
England, is
ordered to pay £10,000 damages, plus £7,200 legal costs for
libelling former parliamentary candidate
Michael Keith Smith in a
Yahoo chat room and in her
blog, making history in respect of legal actions involving the Internet. She had accused Smith of being a sex offender and a racist bigot. Williams did not file a defence to the libel writ.
(Manchester Evening News),
(Times),
(BBC)
★
Ethiopia: Government procecutors withdrew charges against 18 out of 129 opposition figures and journalists facing charges following last year's violent skirmishes in the country. However, none of the party leaders of the
Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) were included in this action.
===
23 March 2006 (Thursday)===
★
French youths set fire to cars and loot shops in
Paris during protests against the ''
contrat première embauche'' law that
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had agreed to discuss with unions.
(Reuters)
★
Adwaitya, a
tortoise that once belonged to
British colonial Lord Clive in the 18th Century has died at the age of 250 in a zoo in
Calcutta.
(BBC)
★ More than 100 people die after their boat capsizes in
Cameroon.
(BBC)
★ The British Embassy in
Baghdad confirms the rescue of three
Christian Peacemaker hostages held in
Iraq for nearly four months; Briton
Norman Kember and Canadians
Harmeet Singh Sooden and
James Loney. They were freed during a British led
multinational military operation involving American, British, Canadian and Iraqi forces.
(Channel 4 News),
(BBC),
(CTV)
===
24 March 2006 (Friday)===
★ Clerics in
Kabul call for
Abdul Rahman to be put to death. He is accused of committing
apostasy for converting from
Islam to
Christianity.
(AP)
★
President Roh Moo-hyun nominates
Han Myung-Sook to become the
South Korea's first woman
prime minister.
(Reuters)
★
Lin Liang Ren, 29, is convicted on 21 counts of
manslaughter arising from the
February 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster.
(BBC)
★
EU summit in Brussels: the EU leaders back plans to develop a common energy policy, but the specifics remain vague and difficult
(Independent)
★
Pentagon: It is alleged by a report that
Russia gave intelligence information to
Saddam Hussein's
Iraq regarding American troop movements during the early stages of the
Iraq War.
(Reuters)
===
25 March 2006 (Saturday)===
★ A revolutionary
scramjet jet engine designed to fly at 7 times sonic speed is successfully tested in
Australia.
(BBC)
★
Canada's annual
seal hunt has begun, amid international appeals for an end to the controversial
cull of up to 325,000 young
harp seal pups. The Canadian government says the cull, which reportedly earns C$16.5m (£8.3m) in meat and
pelt sales, is also necessary to control seal numbers.
(BBC)
★ An explosion at a French
university chemical research facility kills one professor. The cause is unknown.
(National Nine News)
★
Protests against the US
immigration reform bill
H.R. 4437 are held in several US cities. 500,000 people march in
Los Angeles,
California, 50,000 in
Denver, Colorado, and 20,000 in
Phoenix, Arizona, protesting proposed legislation that includes construction of a security wall along the
United States-Mexico border.
(CNN) (BBC) (CBS4Denver) (East Valley Tribune)
★ A gunman killed six people at a party and then himself in the
Capitol Hill massacre in
Seattle, Washington.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
===
26 March 2006 (Sunday)===
★ The
CBS television program ''
60 Minutes'' airs a story on a lawsuit against the
hedge fund SAC, alleging that it orchestrated a fall in the stock price of Canadian drug company
Biovail.
★ Officials in
Afghanistan say that
Abdul Rahman may be released soon, although the case may have only been temporarily dropped to gather more evidence.
(CNN) (BBC)
★ The
2006 Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne,
Australia draw to a close with the
Closing ceremony.
Australia finishes with a record 84 gold medals, making this their best
Games ever.
Samaresh Jung is adjudged the ''Best Athlete of the 18th Commonwealth Games.'' The
2010 games will be hosted by
New Delhi, India.
(M2006) (Rediff)
★ Voters in
Ukraine go to the polls to elect a new
Verkhovna Rada (parliament).
(RIA Novosti) (BBC)
★
Scotland becomes the first part of the
United Kingdom to introduce a full
smoking ban in enclosed public places and workplaces.
(BBC)
===
27 March 2006 (Monday)===
★
Iraqi security minister
Abd al Karim al Enzi accuses
American soldiers accompanied by Iraqi troops to have raided the Mustafa
Shiite mosque in eastern
Baghdad and executed 37 unarmed people who had been tied up.
(Palestine Chronicle) (Times)
★ The
mayor of London,
Ken Livingstone, refers to the
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom,
Robert Tuttle, as a 'chiseling little crook' because the United States embassy continues to refuse to pay the
London congestion charge.
(Guardian Unlimited)
★ ''
The New York Times'' reports that it has seen
a memo that shows
George W. Bush was determined to go to war at least two months before the
2003 invasion of Iraq.
(BBC) (NYT)
★ In
Germany, a rare
tornado kills 2 and leaves more than 300,000 people without electricity.
(NDR Television Germany)
★ Preliminary results of the
2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election give former
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-
Russian
Party of Regions a narrow lead over the
Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc, with
President Viktor Yushchenko's
Our Ukraine Bloc trailing in third place.
(BBC)
★
Zacarias Moussaoui testifies in an American court that he and
Richard Reid planned to fly a
passenger jet into the
White House as part of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, contradicting his previous
testimony.
(Channel 4 News) (CNN) (BBC)
★ The
European Union agrees to introduce a standardized
European driving licence.
(BBC)
===
28 March 2006 (Tuesday)===
★
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: for the first time, a
Katyusha rocket is fired from the
Gaza Strip. The
IDF says the attack is a "clear escalation".
(JPost)(BBC)(MSNBC)
★ One
Canadian soldier has been killed and three others injured during a firefight with
Taliban insurgents in a remote area outside of
Kandahar.
(CBC)
★
Kadima leader
Ehud Olmert declares victory in the
17th Israeli legislative election, ahead of main opponents
Labor and
Likud.
(BBC)
★ Over a million protesters
join large protests in
France amid
strikes against the new
contrat première embauche, which protesters say will harm job stability for workers under the age of 26. Violent clashes with the
police in
Paris are reported.
(Reuters)
★ More than one million
local government workers in the UK strike over cuts to
pension schemes, in an action co-ordinated by eight
trade unions.
(BBC)
★
White House Chief of Staff Andy Card announces he will resign from his job on
April 14 2006. Card is one of a few people who has been on duty in the
Bush Administration since day 1. He will be replaced by
Joshua Bolten, Director of
Office of Management and Budget.
(MSNBC)
★ Former
Liberian
President Charles Taylor disappears after
Nigeria agrees to
extradite him to face
war crime charges in
Sierra Leone.
(BBC)
★
Abdul Rahman is deemed
mentally unfit to stand trial, and released. He is seeking
asylum in a Western country. His whereabouts are unknown.
(CNN) (BBC)
===
29 March 2006 (Wednesday)===
★
Canada has officially cut all ties with the members of the
Hamas cabinet and is suspending assistance to the
Palestinian Authority.
(CBC)
★
The Beatles' record label
Apple Corps accuse
Apple Computer in court of breaching a
trademark agreement by operating their
iTunes Music Store.
(BBC News)
★
Afghan Christian convert
Abdul Rahman takes
political asylum in
Italy. Many Islamic clerics and members of Afghanistan's parliament protest his release.
(MSNBC),
(BBC)
★ A
total solar eclipse may be observed from 08:36 GMT (09:36 BST) to 11:48 GMT (12:48 BST) in Eastern
Brazil,
West and
North Africa,
Turkey,
Central Asia and
Mongolia.
(BBC)
★ Former
Liberian
President Charles Taylor is captured after disappearing in
Nigeria and is
extradited to
Sierra Leone.
(BBC)
★ The chief prosecutor in
Austria seeks an arrest warrant for former
Refco chairman
Phillip Bennett and former Refco client
Wolfgang Floettl on suspicion they helped defraud Austria's
BAWAG Bank.
(NY Post)
===
30 March 2006 (Thursday)===
★
Feleti Sevele is confirmed as the first non-
noble Prime Minister of Tonga.
(Matangi)
★ Several large
earthquakes rock western
Iran, killing and injuring many people
(BBC)(WikiNews)
★
Portia Simpson Miller is sworn in as
Prime Minister of Jamaica, becoming the first woman to lead the
Commonwealth of Jamaica.
★
Janjaweed militias cross over the
Chad-
Sudan border and attack
Chadian villagers in the city of
Moudeina, but are beaten back by the
Chadian military.
(Al Jazeera)
★
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled her visit to a
mosque after a protest group threatened to "invade the mosque" during scheduled prayers (see
Condoleezza Rice visit to Blackburn and Liverpool).
(BBC)
★
Jill Carroll, a ''
Christian Science Monitor'' journalist abducted in
Iraq on
January 7, is released.
(CNN)
★
NASA and the
Russian Federal Space Agency launch the thirteenth mission to the
International Space Station when ''
Expedition 13'' takes off. On board is
Marcos Pontes, the first
Brazilian in space.
(MSNBC)
★ An outage of ''
Optus B1'' after realignment knocks out
Sky TV's
pay TV to an estimated 650,000
New Zealanders
(NZ Herald). Conflicting reports suggest the outage could be fixed within a few hours
(Newswire) or could be permanent as the satellite may be missing
(National Business Review).
★ At least 48 people died in the
2006 Bahrain ferry disaster.
(Fox)
★ U.S. Congresswoman
Jean Schmidt has been claiming a degree in secondary education from the
University of Cincinnati she did not receive. Her spokesman said Schmidt earned the degree but did not complete the paperwork to be awarded it. (
The Plain Dealer)
★ The Indiana Pacers retire Reggie Miller's #31 jersey.
===
31 March 2006 (Friday)===
★ In
Ukraine, after days of vote tallying,
Viktor Yanukovych's
Party of Regions wins a
plurality in the
2006 parliamentary election.
Central Election Commission of Ukraine
★
Chadian senior army commander
Abakar Itno is
assassinated by a joint force of
Janjaweed,
Rally for Democracy and Liberty, and
Sudanese military forces.
(Reuters)
★ : Lobbyist
Tony C. Rudy, former chief of staff for Rep.
Tom DeLay (
R-
TX), pleads guilty to conspiracy and agrees to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the
Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal.
(Washington Post)
★
MINOS (the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) observes
neutrino oscillation, implying that
neutrinos have
mass, which would require a substantial revision to the
Standard Model of
particle physics.
(BBC) (PhysOrg.com) (MINOS)
★ A
The Nation Group's
newspaper critical of
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agrees to stop publishing for five days amid
protests about the way it referred to the
King of Thailand.
(Bangkok Post)
★ In
Brussels,
Microsoft claims a breakthrough, as an independent monitor of its hearings with
European Union regulators in
Brussels has outlined what it can do to avoid paying fines of 2 millions euros a day.
(IHT)
★ An earthquake measuring 6 on the
Richter scale rocks
Iran early in the morning killing 66 people and wiping out a number of villages.
(ABC News) ''See''
2006 Borujerd earthquake
★ An intruder enters a
church in
Malta during
mass and smashes a 200 year old
Jerusalem mother-of-pearl crucifix creating commotion.
(Times of Malta)
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