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17 December 2005 (Saturday)

• Hong Kong police detain 900 protesters at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2005 after an anti-globalization demonstration became violent. The protesters object to trade rules that they say hurt poor farmers. 74 people are injured. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Palestinian militant Khaled Abu Sitta is killed and three others injured when Sitta's car explodes in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources say the explosion was caused by an Israeli air strike, although this has not been verified, and the Israeli Defense Force denies any involvement. (BBC) (Y-Net) (Haaretz) (Reuters)
• Condoleezza Rice and the African Union request additional funds to enable the A.U.'s peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan to continue. Without additional aid, the African peacekeeping force will run out of funds in four months. Violence in the region has resurged recently. (Boston Globe) (Reuters) (LA Times via Chron.com)

• Bulgaria starts withdrawing its troops from Iraq. (Reuters)
• Extreme levels of radiation have been found at a chemical factory in Chechnya. (BBC)
• United States Government:
  • Senator John McCain persuades President George W. Bush to accept a ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees. (AP)
  • The United States House of Representatives has requested that the Bush administration give Congress details on any secret detention facilities overseas. (AP)
  • The United States Senate rejects the extension of the PATRIOT Act. Critics had said it infringed on civil liberties and made the government too powerful. (AP).
  • United States President George W. Bush refuses to comment on whether the National Security Agency spied on American citizens without a legal warrant. (AP)
• Conflict in Iraq: Iraqi Police claim that they captured Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and then released him by mistake. (BBC)
• Hamas, the main Palestinian opposition party make a large series of gains in the West Bank municipal elections. (BBC)
• At least 39 people, 33 of whom were patients, die after a fire breaks out in a hospital in the city of Liaoyuan, near Changchun in China's Jilin Province. The cause of the fire is unknown. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: An Israeli settler dies following a drive-by shooting claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Islamic Jihad. (Ynetnews) (RTÉ)

• Former United States presidential candidate Al Sharpton agrees to pay $100,000 to the Federal Election Commission in a settlement over alleged corrupt practices during his 2004 electoral bid. (Reuters)
• South Korean biomedical researcher Hwang Woo-Suk admits that he faked nine of eleven stem cell colonies used in what had been hailed as a medical breakthrough in the journal Science. (BBC)
• Thousands of Iraqi Shia protest against Al Jazeera after a guest on a talk show on the network suggested that the Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Shia Islam's most senior cleric, should stay out of politics. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel continues to strike Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip. (RTÉ)
• The European Council meets to discuss the next 7-year budget for the European Union. (BBC)
• Voting starts in Iraq to elect the first permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly under the new Constitution of Iraq. (BBC)
• A comparison of 42 articles by the journal Nature concludes that Wikipedia is almost as accurate on science topics as the Encyclopædia Britannica. The study also notes that Wikipedia's writing is more disorganized than Britannica's. (Nature) (BBC) (NPR)
• A Nepalese soldier shoots dead 11 people at a temple in Nagarkot, near Kathmandu. (BBC)
• Marwan Barghouti launches a new party called al-Mustaqbal (The Future), splitting from the Fatah movement in the Palestinian National Authority. (BBC)
• Bradley John Murdoch, convicted murderer of British backpacker Peter Falconio, is sentenced to a non-parole period of 28 years in prison in Australia. (NineMSN)

• The European Parliament has adopted the directive on Telecommunications data retention. (BBC)
• U.S. Budget Approval — More than 100 religious activists were arrested on Wednesday after they staged a peaceful sit-in at the Cannon House Office Building, near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.. They were protesting the proposed cuts to health care and other social welfare programs in the Federal Budget. The protest was organized by Jim Wallis, editor of the liberal Christian journal Sojourners Washington Post SJMN
• U.S. President George W. Bush says that the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was the result of faulty intelligence, and accepts responsibility for that decision. He maintains that his decision was still justified. (BBC)
• Doctors in Pakistan marvel at the survival of Naqsha Bibi, rescued last Saturday, 63 days after she was buried in the 8 October 2005 Kashmir earthquake. (BBC)
• The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announces that Brazil will clear its IMF debt of $15.5bn two years early. (BBC)
• In India, 11 Hindus are sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in the murder of Muslims in the 2002 Gujarat violence. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • An Israeli Air-Strike in the Gaza Strip leaves four Palestinians dead. Israel claims that all four were militants and were about to launch a rocket attack into Israel. (BBC) (Haaretz)
  • Israel has approved further expansion of the Jewish Settlements within the West bank. A further 300 Jewish houses will be added to the Maale Adumim settlement. (BBC)
• The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, describes the holocaust as a myth. He also said that Europe should house the Jews of the world, rather than the Palestinians. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• A reservoir bursts near Lesterville, Missouri at the Taum Sauk hydroelectric power plant on the Black River, causing significant damage. (DisasterNews)

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Four American Soldiers are killed following an IED attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. (AP)
  • The U.S. ambassador issues a statement saying that the total number of abused prisoners found so far in jails run by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry is about 121. (AP)
• The Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization opened in Hong Kong. European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said that he expected little progress on resolving disagreements between ministers. Meanwhile, some protesters from South Korea unsuccessfully attempted to bypass the cordon to reach the location of the conference by swimming across Victoria Harbour. (BBC) (AP via Yahoo) (Reuters via Yahoo)
• The collapse of a residential building in New Jersey kills three people and sends plumes of smoke into the air. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• The President of the United States, George W. Bush, acknowledges the deaths of approximately 30,000 Iraqi civilians since the commencement of the Iraq War. (The Australian)
• Swiss Councillor Dick Marty, commissioned by the Council of Europe to investigate CIA black sites and prisoner abuse in Europe says that the CIA has "disregarded all standards of legality". (CNN) (Houston Chronicle)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Palestinian stone thrower is shot in the head and killed by Israeli troops raiding the West Bank city of Nablus. At least ten other Palestinians were injured by the IDF troops while two Israeli soldiers were injured by a bomb during the raid. (BBC)
• An earthquake of Richter scale magnitude 6.7 rocks South Asia. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake was centred in the Hindukush region of northeastern Afghanistan. (Times of India) (BBC) (CNN)
• Stanley Williams is executed at San Quentin State Prison by the U.S. state of California. (BBC)
• In response to Canadian Prime Minister criticizing the United States on its resistance to climate change initiatives, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, openly responds to the statements that he complains were used for political advantage during an election.(Toronto Star)
• North America: The Canadian provinces, Ontario and Quebec and the US states Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin sign an international agreement to preclude significant water diversion from the Great Lakes. (Toronto Star)
• The $100 laptop project announces that it has chosen Quanta Computers to make its laptops, which it hopes to distribute to low-income people around the world. (IDG News Service)
• US Federal Reserve rises the target for the interest rate to 4.25%. The rate lead to the highest in more than four years.

• At an inquest into the death of UN worker Iain Hook, Paul Wolstenholme, a United Nations worker in Jenin claims that moments after Iain Hook was shot by a mysterious sniper rifle-shot to the pelvis, an Israeli sniper rifle laser was pointed at his head. He also supplied documentary evidence which stated that the Israeli army had delayed an ambulance which was sent to take the wounded Mr Hook to hospital. (BBC)
• grossed $65.6 million in the United States and Canada ($107 million worldwide) on its opening weekend, making it the #2 December opening weekend film of all time (behind and in front of the first two Lord of the Rings films). With this news, Disney has officially given the greenlight to cinema production of the second book in the series, Prince Caspian, by 2007.
• Stanley Williams is denied clemency by the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The US Supreme Court also refuses to stay his execution. Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 0:01 PST on December 13. There are some concerns of potential rioting and violence tonight across the state. (SF Chronicle) (Governor's statement (PDF))
• Gebran Tueni, a prominent Lebanese anti-Syrian member of parliament and managing editor of the leading liberal An-Nahar newspaper, has been killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut. He had spent months in Paris because of security concerns, reportedly only returning to Lebanon on Sunday. Another An-Nahar journalist, the anti-Syrian writer Samir Kassir, was killed in a car bomb in June. (BBC)
• ASEAN Summit begins in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Channel News Asia)

• According to some reports, Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister of Israel, put the Israeli Defense Force on high alert for possible airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. Sharon's office, however, denied this or that they had any plans to do so. (Times Online) (Y-Net) (Y-Net)
• Chief minister of the Indian state of Karnataka, Dharam Singh announced that the state government had accepted Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy's suggestion to rename Bangalore to its colloquial name, Bengaluru. The new name will be effective from November 1, 2006. (The Times of India)
• Brian Chase of Nashville, Tennessee admits putting false information about John Seigenthaler Sr. into a Wikipedia article, leading to widespread debate. (NYT via Seattle Times) (CNN) (BBC)
• A suicide bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, injures 3 people while killing the bomber. (Reuters) (Guardian)
• 2005 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire: Explosions are reported at the Buncefield oil depot north of London ten miles from the Luton airport. (BBC) (Sky News)
• Racially motivated violence erupts in the suburbs of Sydney, leading authorities to condemn the incidents as "shameful". (ABC)
• Korean Air, both national and international has been shut down due to the strike going on in Korea. The national airplane circulation has been stopped already and the Korean Airline planes that were in a foreign country are returning to Korea.
• Vengeance of Rain is crowned Hong Kong's first World Racing Championship winner after winning the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse [1]

• The International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General Mohamed ElBaradei receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. (BBC)
• The other 2005 Nobel Prizes are handed out in Stockholm to Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren (Physiology or Medicine), Roy J. Glauber and John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch (Physics), Robert H. Grubbs, Richard R. Schrock and Yves Chauvin (Chemistry), Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling (Economics), and Harold Pinter (Literature). (CNN)
• At least 103 people are killed and 7 injured when Sosoliso Airlines Flight 1145 crashes en route to Port Harcourt from the Nigerian capital Abuja. (CNN)
• American comedian and actor Richard Pryor dies of cardiac arrest at the age of 65 at 7:58 AM (Pacific Time).

• Viacom's Paramount Pictures agrees to buy the Dreamworks SKG company founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen for $1.6 billion. (NY Times)
• The Groups for the 2006 FIFA World Cup to be held in Germany are finalized. (BBC) Both Group C and Group E have been dubbed "groups of death". (SI), (Globe&Mail), (ChicagoTribune)
• The Bush administration summons Canadian ambassador Frank McKenna, and is expected to formally lodge a complaint after Prime Minister Paul Martin's criticism on December 7 of the United States at the Montreal conference on climate change. U.S.-Canada relations are already a major issue in the upcoming Canadian federal election. (CBC)
• Reports emerge of an alleged massacre of protesting farmers and fisherman in Dongzhou, Guangdong, China by police forces. The protesters are believed to be upset with government plans to build a new power plant in the area and infill part of the bay. The death toll, pegged at 20, is the worst act of violence by Chinese security forces since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. The town is reportedly still sealed off by government forces. (IHT) (BBC)

• A six-year-old boy is killed after Southwest Airlines Flight 1248 skids off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Hamas leader Khaled Mashal declares at a rally in Damascus, Syria that its informal ceasefire with Israel, which expires at the end of the year, will not be renewed. (BBC)
  • Two Palestinians, believed to be militants, are killed following an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
  • An Israeli soldier dies after being stabbed by a Palestinian at a Checkpoint in the West Bank. (BBC)
• President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remarks that Israel should be moved to Europe and the "issue will be resolved." His remarks were widely condemned as Holocaust denial by Israeli, European and American politicians, The Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, issued a statement indicating that he "was shocked", while Saudi, Turkish and Iranian officials criticized his speech because it undermined a Mecca summit dedicated to showing Islam's moderate face.(DailyStar)(UN) (AP) (KUNA)(BBC) (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 32 people have died following an attack on a bus in Baghdad. (BBC) (Fox News)
• Croatian general Ante Gotovina, rated the third-most-wanted war criminal from the Yugoslav wars by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, is arrested by Spanish police in Tenerife and extradited to face the tribunal in The Hague. (BBC)
• Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher has left hospital after being given a clean bill of health by doctors after feeling faint yesterday. (BBC)
• The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement adopt a Red Crystal design, allowing Israel to join as a fully-participating member. (BBC)
• UK Law Lords rule in A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department that evidence which may have been obtained by torture cannot be used against suspects in terrorism cases. (BBC)
• Lawyers for convicted murderer and Crips co-founder Stanley "Tookie" Williams meet with Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger in a final plea for clemency. (MTV)
• In Australia, the voluntary student unionism (VSU) legislation has passed the Senate. (ABC)

• Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin addresses the Montreal conference on climate change, and is critical of the United States's stance on the issue. Martin's allegedly "undiplomatic" comments—"there is such a thing as a global conscience, and now is the time to listen to it"—reportedly anger Vice President Dick Cheney. (CBC)
• The third President of Singapore, Chengara Veetil Devan Nair, passes away in Canada at the age of 82. (CNA)
• Two people are wounded in Malawi, which is facing serious food shortages, following clashes between police and people trying to buy cornmeal. (BBC)
• Microsoft loses a South Korean antitrust case, and is fined ₩n32 billion (USD 32m). (Reuters) (BBC)
• A U.S. Federal Air Marshal fatally shoots Rigoberto Alpizar on American Airlines Flight 924 in a jetway at Miami International Airport in Florida. Alpizar, a U.S. citizen who had disembarked from an American Airlines flight from Medellín, Colombia, claimed to have a bomb. No explosive was found. (BBC) (CNN)
• Nobel Prize in Literature winner Harold Pinter accuses Britain and the United States of engaging in state terrorism in Iraq and demands the prosecution of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. (Reuters) (BBC)
• An Italian court rules that calling someone a "dirty negro" while commiting a crime is not necessarily a hate crime. (Reuters)

• The BBC World Service reports that the U.S. are moving into four new bases in Romania, one of the bases is where the CIA has been accused of carrying out extraordinary rendition. (BBC)
• An Iranian C-130 Hercules airplane crashes into a ten-story building in a civilian area of the Iranian capital Tehran, killing all 94 people aboard and 34 residents of the building - a total of 128+ people. (BBC) (BBC)
• David Cameron wins the leadership election for the United Kingdom Conservative Party. (BBC)
• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) photographs what appears to be a new species in Borneo. The lemur-like carnivorous mammal is apparently a member of the viverrid family, related to the mongoose and civet. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Two suicide bombers kill 27 Iraqi Police at a police academy in Baghdad. (BBC)
• The Red Cross mulls adding a new symbol to ensure continuing acceptance of its work. (BBC)
• Deposed Iraq president Saddam Hussein has refused to attend his trial for crimes against humanity, throwing the sometimes chaotic Iraqi proceedings into further confusion. (ABC)
• At least 123 miners are missing following an explosion at a coal mine in China's Hebei province, the official Xinhua news agency says. (ABC)
• South Africa's axed deputy president Jacob Zuma, who lost his job in post-apartheid South Africa's most sensational corruption scandal, has been charged with rape. (ABC)

• The 23rd Southeast Asian Games officially closes with Philippines gaining the top medal ranking for the first time. (Manila Bulletin)
• An earthquake strikes the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). Many people are feared dead after an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck Lake Tanganyika near the town of Kalemie. (TimesOnLine) (News24) (The Independent) (BBC)
• Civil Partnership Act 2004: The United Kingdom begins registration of civil unions for same-sex couples. (BBC)
• 2005 Kashmir earthquake: Pakistan renews SOS Children's Villages role as custodian of all orphans and unaccompanied children following the earthquake. (SOS)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A suicide bomb attack kills at least five people in Netanya, north-western Israel. The attack follows confirmation from Shaul Mofaz that Israel will resume its policy of "targeted killings". (Ynetnews) (BBC)
• Venezuelan parliamentary elections apparently result in Hugo Chávez's party and allies winning all 167 seats, as opposition parties boycott the election claiming election fraud. (BBC)

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel launches a series of air strikes as reprisals after the Palestinians fired Qassam rockets, hitting what what local officials called an Islamic Jihad charity in the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
• Hong Kong people marched today to oppose the political reform set out by Chief Executive Donald Tsang in favour of a timetable on the full inplementation of universal suffrage in the territory. Organisers claimed 250,000 attended the march, while police put the figure at 63,000. (AP via Yahoo!News) (NYTimes) (Xinhua)
• Exit polls indicate that Kazakhstan's incumbent leader Nursultan Nazarbayev wins the presidential election by a landslide. (Forbes) (Financial Times) (Guardian) (Xinhua)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Former chief of the RUC police force will head a British investigation into possible infiltration of Iraq's police force by insurgents. (BBC)
  • Former prime minister Iyad Allawi says he survived an assassination attempt at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf. Police say his group fled from the Shi'ite Muslim shrine under a hail of debris by a mob. (ReutersUK) (NYTimes)
• Former Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser calls for a worldwide ban on capital punishment. (The Australian)
• The people of Venezuela vote in Parliamentary Elections. (BBC)
• A London tabloid claims that the CIA's use of Scotland's airports was part of an alleged CIA operation to catch and transfer terrorist suspects to secret prison camps in Europe. The three airports allegedly involved were Glasgow International, Glasgow Prestwick, and Edinburgh Airport. (BBC News) (Hindustan Times) (Photo of aircraft (Airliners.net))

• Talks on the new EU budget may not be completed under the United Kingdom's presidency, the UK's minister for Europe warns. (BBC)
• ROC local elections, 2005: Republic of China (Taiwan) opposition party Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) makes major gains in municipal elections, taking 14 of 23 mayor or county magistrate seats. Ruling Democratic Progressive Party takes six seats. People First Party and New Party each takes one seat, and an independent wins one seat. DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang resigns to take responsibility for his party's defeat. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle)
• Pakistan's information minister claims Pakistani forces have killed al-Qaeda operational commander Abu Hamza Rabia in fighting along the Afghanistan border. (BBC)
• An attack about 60 miles from Baghdad, involving a roadside bomb, kills 19 Iraqi soldiers. (Yahoo)
• Some 40,000 protest inaction on global warming in Montreal. The demonstration, held as part of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, is one of the largest environmental protests ever and is accompanied by marches worldwide, including one in hurricane-devastated New Orleans. (CTV) (Independent)

• About 4,000 military history enthusiasts from 23 countries gathered at Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic to re-enact the Battle of Austerlitz on the 200th anniversary of the epic battle between the First French Empire, the Austrian Empire and Imperial Russia. (BBC) (BBC) (AP via CBS) (AP via ABC) (Austerlitz2005.com)
• Proposed internet domain .xxx for pornography has been dropped shortly before the domain was set to receive approval. (techtree)
• Conflict in Iraq: 10 U.S. Marines are killed following an insurgent roadside bomb attack in Falluja. (BBC)
• Scientists in Gabon and Congo discover that three species of fruit bat serve as animal reservoirs for the Ebola virus. The virus probably first spread from animal to human in 1976 by local hunters eating the bats. (Nature) (LA Times)
• Hurricane Epsilon strengthens from a tropical storm to become the record breaking fourteenth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. (CNN) (Reuters via Yahoo)
• Kenneth Boyd becomes the 1000th person to be executed in the United States since the re-introduction of capital punishment in 1976. (BBC)
• Australian Van Tuong Nguyen is executed by hanging in Singapore for drug trafficking. (AP via Yahoo)
• An independent commission to investigate the Malaysian prisoner abuse scandal is established by Prime Minister of Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. (The Sun Malaysia)
• The "Thermopolis" specimen, recently donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming and described in the Science article "A well-preserved Archaeopteryx specimen with theropod features", shows that the Archaeopteryx lacked a reversed toe—a universal feature of birds—limiting its ability to perch in trees and implying a terrestrial lifestyle. This has been interpreted as evidence of theropod ancestry. The specimen also has a hyperextendible second toe. "Until now, the feature was thought to belong only to the species' close relatives, the deinonychosaurs."

• South Africa's Constitutional Court declares that current marriage laws restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples are unconstitutional and must be changed within a year. Once the change is made, South Africa will be the fifth country in the world where same-sex marriages are recognized, after Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium. (AP via Yahoo)
• The European Central Bank raises interest rates for the first time in five years, from 2.0% to 2.25%. This will affect the cost of money in the twelve Eurozone countries. (BBC)
• A Buddhist manuscript written on birch bark in the 1st century or 2nd century passes from a private collection to the University of Washington library, becoming part of the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project. (uwnews.org)
• Muriel Degauque is identified as the Belgian suicide bomber who killed herself in Iraq on November 9, 2005. (BBC)

2005: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2003: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2002: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2001: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2000: January February March April May June July August September October November December