Portal:Current events/April 2006

PLEASE DO NOT REVERT - THIS IS NOTEWORTHY!  [[

== Recently students are protesting a new immigration law by walking out of classes, despite that being a crime in and of itself, truancy!]]

August 12, 2024 (2024-08-12) (Monday)

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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 Hannah Clark, whose original heart was reconnected after a donor heart was rejected by her body. (BBC)
• John Howard denies being aware of an Australian company giving "kick-backs" to Saddam Hussein during the United Nation's Oil for food programme. (BBC)
• The United Kingdoms Terrorism Act 2006 comes into force, making illegal the act of glorifying terrorism. (BBC)

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 the controversial 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)
• Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka: 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)

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 García 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 News)
• Italian general election, 2006: Romano Prodi declares victory in a tight election as preliminary results show 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 News) (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)
• Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka: 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)

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)

8 April 2006 (Saturday)

• Shedden massacre: Eight bodies are found by a resident in a cornfield in southwest Ontario, Canada. 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. The event which is the oldest rugby sevens tournament in the world (founded in 1883)was sponsored by Cala Homes.

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)

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 Māori. (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).

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)

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)

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)

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)
• Lucent Technologies announce its merge 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)

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 created in the United Kingdom. (BBC)