Portal:Current events/2006 November 22

Current events of November 22, 2006 (2006-11-22) (Wednesday)

A gas pipeline explodes near the city of Surabaya in Java, killing seven people. (Reuters via ABC Australia) Hinting at Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tells Orthodox Union (OU) in Jerusalem: "Israel's main problem is threat that comes from those who openly talk about wiping us off the map; we have heard these voices in the past; we can't afford to listen and not to react." (Yedioth Ahronoth) General elections in the Netherlands have resulted in a landslide gain for the Socialist Party. The Christian Democratic CDA remains the largest party, but no two parties can form a cabinet with a majority in the House of Representatives. (NOS) (AP via ABC News) The Prime Minister of Lebanon has asked the United Nations for help in investigating the assassination of Pierre Amine Gemayel. (Reuters via The Age) Flooding in southern Somalia causes 73 deaths. Up to 1.8 million people have been affected by the floods. (AFP via Mail and Guardian) The United Nations claims that 3,709 Iraqi civilians died during October 2006 as sectarian violence worsens. (AP via Houston Chronicle) United States district judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana Eldon Fallon rules that over seven thousand federal lawsuits against pharmaceutical company Merck claiming that its drug Vioxx caused heart problems could not be combined into one class action suit. (AP via Chicago Tribune) Seven foreign oil workers are taken hostage in Nigeria. Four people die in a rescue effort including one hostage, a soldier and two of the kidnappers. (AP via ABC News) According to UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, British troops stationed in the Iraqi city of Basra could hand over control to local authorities as early as next spring. (The Times) The Prime Minister of Nepal Girija Prasad Koirala and Maoist guerilla leader Prachanda sign a peace treaty ending 11 years of civil war in Nepal. (Sydney Morning Herald)