Portal:Current events/March 2006

May 25, 2024 (2024-05-25) (Saturday)

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6 March 2006 (Monday)

• Poland confirms first outbreak of H5N1, the bird flu virus. (News-Medical Net) (BBC)
• In South Africa, Jacob Zuma pleads not guilty of rape as his trial starts. (Iafrica) (BBC)

5 March 2006 (Sunday)

• 78th Academy Awards: Crash wins Best Picture, Ang Lee wins Best Director, Reese Witherspoon wins Best Actress, and Philip Seymour Hoffman wins Best Actor at the 78th Academy Awards. (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)
• Milan Babić, the convicted Croatian Serb war criminal, is found dead in his detention cell in Scheveningen. (Reuters) (UN warcrimes tribunal) (BBC)

3 March 2006 (Friday)

• Research In Motion, a Waterloo, Ontario 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 a federal judge's ruling, the United States releases transcripts of hearings at Guantanamo Bay. (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)

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. [1]
• 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)

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 United States president George W. Bush being warned that the levees in New Orleans could break one day before Hurricane Katrina hit. (MSNBC.com)