Portal:Current events/June 2006

For the broadcast news genre, see Current affairs (news format)

September 10, 2024 (2024-09-10) (Tuesday)

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June 8, 2006 (Thurssday)

• Conflict in Iraq: According to an aide to Iraq's prime minister, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and one of the worlds most wanted men, was killed by an air raid. (CNN)(BBC)

June 7, 2006 (Wednesday)

• A constitutional amendment to ban Same-sex marriage fails to gain the required three-fifths majority in the United States Senate. 49 Senators voted for the cloture motion, and 48 voted against. (ABC News)
• A Syrian military court issues an arrest warrant for former Syrian Vice President Abdual-Halim Khaddam on charges of accusing a foreign country to invade, and having contacts in Israel. Another military court sentences prominent pro-Democracy and pro-Kurd Syrian blogger Mohammad Ghanem to 6 months in prison after he is convicted of insulting the president, discrediting the Syrian government and fomenting sectarian unrest. (Al Jazeera)
• Swiss investigator Dick Marty concludes that there are "serious indications" that the CIA operated secret prisons for suspected al-Qaeda leaders in Poland and Romania, adding that "authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know." (Washington Post)

June 6, 2006 (Tuesday)

• 2006 Toronto terrorism case: Toronto police uncover an alleged subplot where Steven Vikash Chand, alias Abdul Shakur, intended to lead an invasion of the Parliament of Canada building and assassinate Prime Minister Stephen Harper. (CBC)
• Iraqi insurgency: Iraqi Health Ministry figures show 6,025 civilian bodies were delivered to Baghdad's central mortuary in the first five months of this year. (BBC)
• Chad-Sudan conflict
  • The Sudanese Janjaweed steal 350 head of cattle from Goz Beida, Chad. (Voice of America)
  • Rebel leader Timane Erdimi's UFDC-SCUD forces kill 32 people and wound 50 others in attacks from Sudan into the Chadian city of Tine. Rebels briefly took control of the city before the Military of Chad chased them back over the border. (Mail and Guardian)
• Australia's Howard government commissions Ziggy Switkowski to lead a commission on the introduction of nuclear energy in Australia. (Bloomberg)
• BAA plc, the owners of London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports, accept a £10 billion takeover bid from a consortium led by Spains' Grupo Ferrovial and including the Quebec public employees' pension fund. (BBC)
• The trial of Tim Selwyn for sedition begins in Auckland, New Zealand. Selwyn is the first New Zealander in over 80 years to be charged with sedition. (Newswire)
• Iceland's Prime Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson resigns after poor showings in local elections. Foreign Minister Geir Haarde takes over.(BBC)

June 5, 2006 (Monday)

• Javier Solana, foreign policy chief of the European Union, arrives in Tehran to talk with the Iranian Government about its plans to develop uranium enrichment facilities. (CNN)
• The Islamic Court Union announces that it has seized Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, after battles with the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism, a group of secular US-backed warlords. (AP)
• Alan García of the APRA is re-elected President of Peru after winning a runoff with the Union for Peru's Ollanta Humala on Sunday. (FoxNews.com)
• Serbia confirms the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro and declares independence. (BBC)
• Australia calls for more South East Asian troops and police to help quell civil unrest in East Timor. (Reuters)

June 4, 2006 (Sunday)

• The Islamic Courts militia captures the key town of Balad, located near the Somalian capital Mogadishu, from a member of the warlord coalition, ARPCT. Reports say at least 15 people are killed in the fighting. (BBC)

June 3, 2006 (Saturday)

• Pakistan bans The Da Vinci Code film because it is said to contain blasphemous material about Jesus. (AP)
• A strong quake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hits Southern Iran killing a young girl in the village of Ramkan. (Pakistan Daily Times)
• The United States military finds its soldiers innocent of any wrongdoing in the Ishaqi incident involving the deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians. (The Age)
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while continuing to maintain that his country has the right to continue development on their nuclear technology, says that he "will not pass judgment on the proposals hastily," referring to the incentives package being offered by the US, Russia, United Kingdom, Germany, France and China in order to dissuade Iran from further nuclear development. (Reuters)
• Human Rights Watch releases a video showing South Sudanese Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon bribing cult and rebel leader Joseph Kony and his second-in-command Vincent Otti of the Lord's Resistance Army to not attack southern Sudanese citizens. (Scoop)
• A Russian diplomat is killed and four kidnapped in an attack near the Russian embassy in Baghdad, according to Russian and Iraqi officials. (BBC)
• In a special session of parliament, Montenegro declares its independence from Serbia. (AP)
• 2006 Toronto terrorism arrests: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announce the arrest of 17 suspected Islamic terrorists in connection with a planned terrorist attack around Toronto. The RCMP say that three tons of ammonium nitrate was seized. In comparison, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing used one ton. (CBC), (CNN), (BBC), (Reuters), (VOA)
• Czech parliament election leaves the Czech Republic with a even split between party blocs.
• In response to his million dollar bill gospel tracts being seized from The Great News Network by the United States Secret Service, Ray Comfort, founder of Living Waters Publications, states that he will refuse to turn over his supply of tracts without a warrant. (WorldNetDaily)

June 2, 2006 (Friday)

• The UK Independent newspaper reports that a great-grandson of Apache leader Geronimo has appealed to US President Bush to help recover the remains of his famous relative. The remains were purportedly stolen over 90 years ago by a group of students including the President's grandfather, and employed in ceremonies by Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale University. (Independent) (Yale Alumni Magazine) (Newwest.net) (CNN) (NYT)
• British police shoot a suspect in an anti-terrorism raid, although his injuries are non-life threatening. The 23 year old was shot in front of his family as police raided his home in Forest Gate, London. (BBC) (ABC)
• The BBC shows a video about a new alleged massacre by US troops in Ishaqi, Iraq, on March 15, 2006. (BBC)
• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., writing in Rolling Stone magazine, accuses George W. Bush and his Republican Party of widespread voting fraud during the 2004 Presidential Election. (Rolling Stone) (Editor and Publisher)
• China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States propose a set of incentives and possible sanctions in an effort to encourage Iran to suspend or abandon its plans of nuclear development. (Washington Post)
• Female genital cutting is found to increase infant mortality and childbirth complications. (BBC) (WHO)
• Expedition 13/Soyuz TMA-8: Pavel Vinogradov and Jeffrey Williams spend more than six hours outside the International Space Station, conducting an extended maintenance spacewalk. (VOA), (CNN)

June 1, 2006 (Thursday)

• Extraordinary renditions. The Bundesnachrichtendienst (German intelligence agency) declares that it had known of Khalid El-Masri's seizure 16 months before Germany was officially informed of his mistaken arrest in the name of the War on Terror. Germany had previously claimed that it did not know of el-Masri's abduction by the CIA and his stay in the Salt Pit in Afghanistan until his return to the country in May 2004
• The 16th World Economic Forum on Africa is convened in Cape Town, South Africa.(BBC).
• China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States agree on a package of incentives and sanctions for Iran. (CNN).
• A report issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers admits their responsibility for 2005 levee failures that flooded the majority of New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (AP) (Full report via NOLA.com)
• The United States Department of Homeland Security reveals that it plans to reallocate anti-terrorism funding to cities across the nation. Funding to New York City and Washington, D.C. is cut, while funding to cities such as Omaha, Nebraska and Los Angeles, California increases. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office calls the report's statement that there are no "national monuments or icons" in New York City "outrageous."(NYT)
• The Government of Spain overturns the conviction of Imad Yarkas on charges of conspiracy in the September 11, 2001 attacks after the prosecutor admits that evidence of involvement in the conspiracy was "inconsistent, almost nonexistent." The Spanish government says it will provide further explanation in the coming days. (AP)
• Iran refuses to negotiate with the U.S. over its nuclear program.(CNN)
• The new Italian Justice Minister, Clemente Mastella, announces that left-wing militant Adriano Sofri could be pardoned before the end of the year (AGI).
• A number of fake million dollar bill gospel tracts, printed by Living Waters Publications, are seized from The Great News Network by the United States Secret Service as possible counterfeits. (WorldNetDaily)