Portal:Current events/September 2005
January 8, 2025 (Wednesday)
- Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Irineos is dismissed following a scandal which saw the Church sell land to Zionist businesses eager to increase the Jewish presence in Jerusalem. (BBC)
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An Israeli commander is suspended, pending a full inquiry, from his position following the deaths of two teenage cousins in Beit Lakia, near Ramallah, on May 4. (BBC)
- British polls open in the 2005 general election. Voters will elect 645 members of the House of Commons. Most expect Tony Blair and his Labour Party to win, but both Michael Howard and the Conservative Party along with Charles Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats are expected to make major gains in Parliament. (Wikinews) (BBC) (CNN)
- An explosion outside the United Kingdom consulate in New York City occurs at 07:35 GMT. There were no reported injuries. Police say they have found fragments of an explosive device. (Wikinews) (BBC) (Reuters)
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- Israel freezes the handover of West Bank Palestinian towns to the Palestinian Authority. Israel claims they will resume the handover process when militant groups are disarmed. The Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, had agreed to hand over five West Bank towns to Palestinian control, but thus far has only handed over Tulkarm and Jericho. (BBC)
- Israeli troops shoot dead two teenage boys. The cousins were protesting against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier among a group of people, many of whom were throwing stones at the soldiers. According to the Stop the Wall group, protestors were chased by Israeli soldiers using live ammunition. (BBC)
- War on terrorism:
- The Pakistani government announces that it has captured Abu Faraj al-Libbi. If verified, this is the most important Al-Qaeda suspect to have been arrested thus far. (BBC)
- A former CIA agent reveals the CIA sent a team to Afghanistan only days after the September 11, 2001 attacks with orders to "Capture Bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box on dry ice" and to leave other Al-Qaeda leaders' "heads up on pikes." (BBC) (Wikinews)
- Conflict in Iraq:
- A suicide bomb in Irbil, a Kurdish city of Northern Iraq, kills more than 50 people. (BBC)
- Ayman Sabawi Ibrahim, the nephew of former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, has been arrested, accused of aiding the insurgency. (BBC)
- Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister of Australia, appears on al-Jazeera to urge for the release of Douglas Wood. Mr Wood is being held hostage by insurgents who demand the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia has said he refuses to negotiate. (BBC)
- In Cambodia, the Municipality of Phnom Penh grants JC Royal Co. a 30-year charter to develop the memorial at the Choeung Ek killing fields. (Yahoo! News)
- A Peruvian congressional committee accuses President Alejandro Toledo of electoral fraud. (BBC)
- Peru suspends free trade talks with Chile due to allegations that Chile supplied arms to Ecuador during that nation's 1995 war with Peru. (BBC)
- Italy's supreme court clears three men who had received a life sentence for 1969 bombing in Milan bank. (Reuters) (BBC)
- U.S. firefighter Donald Herbert, blind and virtually silent due to brain injury since 1995, recovers unexpectedly, regaining the powers of speech. (New York Times) (Buffalo News) [http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03219104.htm (Reuters
AlertNet)]
Winnipeg,Manitoba:
Local buffoon Christian Towle was caught swimming nude in a public pool! We will keep you updated on these events
- Two United States Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet jets collide over Iraq while flying a mission in Iraq. The body of one of the pilots is later recovered and an ejected seat was found, but the second one is still missing. (BBC) (Washington Post)
- In Nepal, thousands of journalists march in protest to restore press freedoms on World Press Freedom Day. (Guardian) (BBC)
- United Nations chief prosecutor of Sierra Leone's war crimes court David Crane claims that Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is still plotting to kill Guinean leader Lansana Conté. Conté has been in a hospital since he survived an assassination attempt in January. (Reuters AlertNet) (UN Regional Information) (World Peace Herald) (BBC)
- A Togolese constitutional court announces Faure Gnassingbé as a winner of presidential election. Refugees continue to flee to neighboring countries. (Reuters AlertNet) (News24)
- Indonesian authorities confirm second case of polio. (Jakarta Post) (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
- In Peru, four members of a government health team are found with their throats slit. (Reuters AlertNet)
- An explosion in a football stadium in Mogadishu, Somalia kills 15 people when new prime minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi begins his speech. Authorities later state that a security guard accidentally set off a grenade. (IOL) (IHT)
- Eight people are arrested in Senegal for an e-mail scam that had fooled at least one American and one Norwegian victim. (BBC)
- Data withheld from an annual report on terrorism by the U.S State Department show a sharp increase in attacks in 2004. (BBC)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- Following an Israeli raid on the Palestinian city of Tulkarm, one Israeli soldier and one Islamic Jihad leader are killed. The soldier was killed in a gunfight with 3 members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The three were suspected to have been part of a the cell which was involved in Tel Aviv "Stage" club bombing in February 2005. Shafiq Abdul Rani, the leader of the Jihad cell in Tulkarm was killed and another militant was arrested. (Haaretz)
- Palestinian militants fired 3 Qassam rockets on the Israeli town of Sderot. There were no casualties. (Haaretz)
- Israeli Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky resigned from the government as a protest against Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan. (Haaretz), (BBC)
- Dozens of people reportedly die after a large explosion in a munitions dump in Pagja/Afghanistan 50 miles north of Kabul. (Seattle Times)
- Guardsman Anthony John Wakefield, from Newcastle upon Tyne, has been killed in Iraq after being injured in hostile action in the southern town of Al Amarah, bringing the total of UK servicemen killed in the Iraq conflict to 87. (BBC)
- Europe's largest sporting goods maker Adidas-Salomon sold its Salomon division for 485 million euros to Finnish company Amer Sports (which owns Wilson Sporting Goods). CNN News
- The government of Nepal ends the house arrest of two parliamentarian communist leaders, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Amrit Bohara. (BBC)
- In Togo, opposition party Union of Forces for Change refuses to join a new government, accusing Faure Gnassingbé of electoral fraud. About 12,000 people have fled the violence to Ghana and Benin. ECOWAS tries to mediate. (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet) (GhanaWeb) (ABC)
- Foreign ministers gather in New York to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Wired) (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
- Cairo terrorism: Following Saturday's terrorist incidents in Cairo, some 200 people are brought in for questioning by Egyptian police. Ten people were injured in the attacks, and three militants were killed. (BBC)
- In Germany, prosecutors demand 8-year sentence to neo-nazi leader Martin Weise and three others/ (Reuters AlertNet)
- Former Haitian prime minister Yvon Neptune demands that the current government drops its claim that he organized a massacre in February 2004. Neptune has been on a hunger strike for 15 days and refuses treatment (Haiti Action Committee (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
- A gas cylinder explosion in Lahore, Pakistan causes collapse of three buildings - at least 16 people dead (BBC) (Reuters)
- British rocket Skylark makes it last launch (Independent) (BBC)
- United Nations chief prosecutor of Sierra Leone's war crimes court David Crane claims that Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is still plotting to kill Guinean leader Lansana Conté. Conté has been in a hospital since he survived an assassination attempt in January (Reuters AlertNet) (UN Regional Information) (World Peace Herald) (BBC)
- Lenovo Group, the largest Chinese computer company acquires the personal computer business of IBM for US$ 1.25 billion in cash, and Lenovo assumes $500 million of IBM's debt. (Reuters)
- More than thirty Iraqis are killed and more than fifty are wounded as a bomb goes off at a funeral. (CBC)
- The United States informs Japan that North Korea may have launched another test missile towards the Sea of Japan. The report is now said to be confirmed. (ABC News) (Forbes)
- Astronomers have directly confirmed the existence of an extrasolar planet orbiting the brown dwarf numbered 2M1207a. The team says that this is the first-ever infrared view of an exoplanet. (Seattle Times) (ESO) (CP)
- Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian requests that the Chinese government meet directly with his government after China meets with Taiwan's opposition leader, Lien Chan. Taiwan and China are in conflict over Taiwan's increased calls for independence from the mainlaind. (CBC) (ABC)
- Iraqi and American military hold several suspects for questioning in the Margaret Hassan kidnapping case. Hassan, director of CARE's Iraq division, was kidnapped by insurgents in late October 2004 and subsequently believed to be killed. (CBC) (Reuters)
- In Nepal, 10.000 protesters march in Kathmandu against the policies of king Gyanendra and demand return of democracy. (Reuters AlertNet) (ABC)
- Italy intends to publish its own view of the killing of Nicola Calipari. Italian media has released classified details about a report the United States made. (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet) (ABC)
- Riot police clash with masked left-wing anarchists in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany. 100 people are arrested. (Deutsche Welle) (Reuters AlertNet)
- Honduran president Ricardo Maduro, and his daughter survive with minor injuries when their plane crashes into sea near Tela. (CNN) (Guardian Unlimited) (BBC)
Past events by month
- see list of months by year for a more complete list.
2005: January February March April
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
News collections and sources
- Wikipedia:News collections and sources.
- Wikipedia:News sources - This has much of the same material organized in a hierarchical manner to help encourage NPOV in our news reporting.