Information about March 2006

Events

1 March 2006 (Wednesday)

• Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase announces that the 2006 Fiji general elections will be held in the second week of May 2006 from the 6th to the 13th. (Radio New Zealand)
• A member of the board of directors of major German steel manufacturing company ThyssenKrupp AG says the company is "examining all its options," and may not complete its proposed acquisition of Canadian steel company Dofasco. (MSN Money)
• A video obtained by the Associated Press shows U.S. President George W. Bush being warned that the levees in New Orleans could break one day before Hurricane Katrina hit. (MSNBC.com)

2 March 2006 (Thursday)

• The United States Senate voted 89-10 to renew the USA PATRIOT Act after two extensions. In its vote next week, the United States House of Representatives will likely also vote to renew the Act, analysts say. (MSNBC)
• In a major turnaround for American policy, the United States signs a historic civilian nuclear pact with India, which promises to bolster India's rapidly growing economy. (Forbes) (Times of India) (CNN)
• A shipwreck from the 14th century was found buried in Riddarfjärden Bay in Stockholm, Sweden. If the ship is well preserved, there are plans to remove it from the waters. (ABC)
• Alaksandar Kazulin, the Social Democratic Party candidate for the office of President of Belarus, was detained by Minsk police after he was rejected entrance to a congress hosted by current leader Alexander Lukashenko. Kazulin also suffered injuries during the course of his detention, which is still being enforced, though the elections will commence in 17 days. (BBC).
• Traces of a prehistoric, 8,000-year-old civilization are found in Shahrud, Iran. The discoveries included ovens, craft workshops, and other evidence of settlements. (Payvand)
• Televangelist Pat Robertson loses his bid for re-election to the board of directors of the National Religious Broadcasters. (Associated Press)
• Dubai Ports World controversy: The United States urges the United Arab Emirates to end its boycott of Israel: "The Bush administration said yesterday it is pressing the United Arab Emirates to drop its economic boycott of Israel - a major sticking point in the proposed takeover of key U.S. ports by a UAE-owned firm." (The Washington Times)
• Sir Menzies Campbell has been elected the new leader of the UK Liberal Democrats Party. (BBC)
• The European Central Bank raises Euro base interest rates by 0.25% to 2.5%. The move affects the 12 members of the Eurozone. (FT)
• Kenya: Masked gunmen, since revealed to be Kenyan police, attack the offices of leading newspaper The Standard and its television station KTN, following their report that President Mwai Kibaki held secret meetings with key opposition figure Kalonzo Musyoka. (BBC), (Reuters)
• CIA flights: French newspaper Le Figaro reveals that the attorney general of Bobigny has opened up an investigation concerning the landing of a CIA flight in Le Bourget Airport following a complaint deposed at the end of December 2005 by NGOs International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and the French Ligue des droits de l'homme. (Le Figaro)
• Crowds of 100,000 people protest against President of the United States George W. Bush while he is in Delhi. (Times of India)(Khaleej Times).
• Just two days before U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Pakistan, a car bomb exploded in the Marriott Hotel Karachi parking lot adjacent to a United States consulate in Karachi, killing at least four people including a US diplomat and his driver and injuring at least fifty others. (CNN)
• A prison riot involving close to 1,300 prisoners at Afghanistan's Pul-e-Charkhi prison ended after four days. (BBC)
• Italian judges in Milan to charge Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and David Mills (husband of Tessa Jowell, a British Minister) in connection with a bribery scandal. (Independent).
• Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, member of the moderate wing of the regime, describes the Holocaust as a "historical reality," contradicting the current leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an extremist who has described it as a "myth" last year. (BBC)

3 March 2006 (Friday)

• Research In Motion, a Waterloo, Ontario, Canadian based company, agrees to pay NTP Inc. $612.5 million to settle NTP's patent-infringement suit against RIM. NTP had argued RIM's BlackBerry wireless-communication devices use technology patented by NTP. (AP)
• The ruling African National Congress takes 66% of the votes in the 2006 South African municipal election. Voter turnout was 46%. No party in the City of Cape Town claims an outright majority. (BBC)
• Russian-Hamas talks, 2006: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in his talks with the Hamas leader Khaled Mashal , calls on Hamas to transform itself into a political organisation, recognise Israel's right to exist, and to keep previous peace accords. (BBC), (Reuters)
• Kenya and Sudan, completing trade talks that have gone on since 2001, announce plans to sign a landmark trade agreement. (AllAfrica) Kenya, which is currently in a drought, is in desperate need of food to feed 3.5 million Kenyans by the end of March, despite the presence of the U.N. food agency. Sudan has had a huge surplus this season. (Reuters)
• Three Israelis ignite firecrackers in an attempt to detonate gas canisters smuggled into the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth during prayer services, sparking riots and confrontation between thousands of protestors and Israeli police. (CBC) (YNet)
• After four years of legal efforts to get the names of about 490 Guantanamo Bay inmates released, the United States is forced by a federal judge's ruling to release transcripts of hearings of 317 of them. (ABC)
• Former U.S. House Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (Rep., CA) is sentenced to eight years and four months in prison, the longest sentence ever for a congressman, for collecting $2.4 million in bribes. (CNN)
• British Labour Party MPs close to Gordon Brown call for Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to resign over her husband, David Mills' alleged acceptance of money from Silvio Berlusconi. (Financial Times)
• The 2006 Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference opens in Beijing. (People's Daily)
• British Rock star Gary Glitter is convicted of the molestation of one 11- and one 12-year-old girl in the town of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam. He is sentenced to 3 years in prison, but may be back in the United Kingdom by December. (BBC News)
• An Italian parliamentary commission accuses the former Soviet Union of orchestrating the 1981 attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II (Telegraph)
• Ukraine imposed new customs regulations on its border with Transnistria, leading to the Ukraine-Transnistria border customs conflict.

4 March 2006 (Saturday)

• The central Papeete power station is damaged by a fire, resulting in limited power for some areas of Tahiti for a couple of weeks.(Pacific Magazine)
• Anti-war campaigners criticised British Prime Minister Tony Blair after he suggested his decision to go to war in Iraq would ultimately be judged by God. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4773124.stm
• British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell splits from her husband, David Mills' following allegations of an alleged acceptance of money from Silvio Berlusconi. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4773468.stm
• A new species of shark, Mustelus hacat, is discovered in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, bringing the number of Mustelus species found in the eastern North Pacific to five.
• The Deep Space Network tries one final contact attempt to Pioneer 10. http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/pioneer_anomaly/update_200603.html

5 March 2006 (Sunday)

• 78th Academy Awards: Crash wins Best Picture, Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) wins Best Director, Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) wins Best Actress, and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) wins Best Actor. (CNN)
• The 2006 National People's Congress opens in Beijing, beginning a 10-day session of China's parliament. Premier Wen Jiabao makes a Working Report and vows for support for the poor. (CNN) (People's Daily)
• Benin presidential election, 2006: Voters in Benin go to the polls to decide who will succeed Mathieu Kérékou as President. Results are expected to be announced by Wednesday. If no single candidate of the 26 wins an outright majority, a runoff election will take place in two weeks. (Scotsman), (VOA), (Reuters)
• Tens of thousands of protesters in Bangkok demand the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. (BBC), (Reuters), (CNN)

6 March 2006 (Monday)

• The United Kingdom government is defeated in the House of Lords over a plan to make biometric ID cards compulsory for passport applicants. The government is to seek to overturn the defeat in the House of Commons, and has suggested that it might invoke the Parliament Act. (United Press International)
• Israeli aircraft fire rockets at a car in Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad members and three innocent bystanders as well as wounding seven other people, mostly children. Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy said: "We are doing everything we can possibly think of to prevent innocent people from being harmed, but this is a war and nothing is certain." (JPost)
• Milan Babić, former leader of the breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina, commits suicide in prison while serving a sentence for war crimes. (BBC)
• M. Michael Rounds, governor of the U.S. State of South Dakota, signs an abortion ban that conflicts with the United States Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. (MSNBC)
• The sentencing hearing of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted in the US for a direct role in the 9/11 attacks, has opened in Virginia. (BBC)
• Avian flu outbreak: Poland confirms first outbreak of H5N1, the bird flu virus, in two wild swans. (News-Medical Net) (BBC)
• In South Africa, former Deputy President (1999-2005) Jacob Zuma pleads not guilty of rape as his trial starts. (Iafrica) (BBC)

7 March 2006 (Tuesday)

• The Dutch Labour party gains more than five hundred seats in the country's municipal election. (Financial Times)
• Fifteen people die and many others are injured in three blasts throughout Varanasi, India. (CNN)
• Kizza Besigye, formerly opposition presidential candidate in the recent Ugandan elections, is cleared of rape charges.(BBC)
• Israel's defense minister Shaul Mofaz says that the Hamas PNA prime minister-designate, Ismail Haniyeh, may be subject to an Israeli targeted killing if Hamas resumes attacks against Israel. (AP)
• British Lieutenant General Nick Houghton announces that the UK's 8,000 soldiers in Iraq could begin leaving the country within weeks. Most would be home by 2008, he says. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Anibal Ibarra, former mayor of Buenos Aires is removed from office over allegations of poor government safety regulation in last year's club fire. (The Mercury News)

8 March 2006 (Wednesday)

• The world's biggest Expo on information technology, CeBIT, opens in Hanover, Germany. (news.com)
• Slovenia asks to join the Euro monetary union. (Business week)
• The United States House Appropriations Committee votes to block the Bush administration's plan for Dubai Ports World to take over operations at six major U.S. ports. (Houston Chronicle)
• The Government of Chad renews accusations of Sudanese support for attacks by the UFDC into eastern Chad, despite the recent signing of the Tripoli Accord and the successful formation of the ministerial committee. Sudan has accused Chad of supporting ARFWS rebels in the past, and Chad is believed to have stepped up support in light of recent attacks. (AlertNet)
• The Channel Island of Sark votes to maintain its feudal system of governance (BBC)
• Iran threatens 'harm and pain' against the United States for its role in putting Iran before the United Nations Security Council. (Channel 4 News)
• The European Union announces that it has lifted a worldwide ban on the export of British beef introduced in 1996 to prevent the spread of BSE (Mad Cow Disease). (BBC)
• An Argentine military aircraft crashes after take off from El Alto International Airport in La Paz, Bolivia, killing all six people on board. The aircraft was a Learjet 35A. (planecrashinfo.com)

9 March 2006 (Thursday)

• Astronomers announce that the Cassini-Huygens probe has detected possible geysers of water on Saturn's moon Enceladus, perhaps the first example of naturally-occurring liquid water beyond Earth. (AP) (JPL)
• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan launches the Central Emergency Response Fund to provide aid to regions of Africa currently facing starvation.(BBC)
• The Sablé-sur-Sarthe hostage crisis in France ends peacefully with no casualties. The gunman had suffered from depression. (ABC)
• The notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is to close and its prisoners to be housed elsewhere, the U.S. military has said. (Channel 4 News)

10 March 2006 (Friday)

• Further evidence accrues to show that the polar ice caps are shrinking. (BBC)
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars. (BBC)
• More than 250 medical experts sign a letter in The Lancet urging the United States to stop force-feeding of Guantanamo Bay detainees and close down the prison. (BBC)
• The World Health Organization announces that the number of people killed by measles declined by 48% between 1999 and 2004, from 871,000 to 454,000. The greatest decline, 60%, was in sub-Saharan Africa. The improvement is attributed to increased vaccination. (BBC)
• John Profumo, the man at the centre of Britain's most famous political scandal of the 20th century, has died at the age of 91. (Channel 4 News)
• Italian prosecutors ask for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British lawyer David Mills to be indicted in the on-going alleged bribery case (BBC)
• Twenty-six people are killed in Dera Bugti, southwest Pakistan, when their vehicle hits a landmine. The victims were primarily women and children. Both tribal rebels and security forces planted landmines in the area. (BBC)
• Terminal D at LaGuardia Airport in New York City was closed due to a security breach. (CNN)
• Gale Norton has announced her resignation as United States Secretary of the Interior, effective March 31, 2006. (CNN)

11 March 2006 (Saturday)

• The former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević has been found dead in his prison cell in The Hague, Netherlands. (CNN) (Reuters) (BBC) (Times)
• Michelle Bachelet takes office as the first female President of Chile. (BBC) (CBC) (VOA) (CNN)

12 March 2006 (Sunday)

• Algerian "national reconciliation". Abdelhak Layada, one of the founder of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), is released from prison due to the February 28, 2006 national reconciliation charter decree of application RFI.
• Venezuela introduces its new national flag with eight, instead of seven, stars and a slightly altered coat of arms. (The Washington Post)
• Reports claim that a post-mortem examination has found that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević died from heart failure. (Channel 4 News)
• Six car bombs explode in Sadr City, a neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least forty-six people. (CNN)
• In Malta, the Malta Labour Party makes a big victory in the Local Council Elections (Times of Malta)
• Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh began their Visit to Australia which she will open the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
• U.S. Senator Russ Feingold announces that he will introduce a motion of censure against President George W. Bush. (RawStory)
• Schering, a Berlin, Germany based pharmaceutical firm, announces that it has received a hostile merger bid from Frankfurt-based rival Merck. (MSNBC) (Reuters)

13 March 2006 (Monday)

• A cash-for-honours scandal has erupted around UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. A millionaire donor has revealed that Labour fundraisers had arranged secret loans from businessmen who were then nominated for peerages. (Daily Mail)
• A major tornado outbreak finally ends in the central United States. In all, more than 100 tornadoes were reported and 11 people were killed. Two tornadoes hit Springfield, Illinois late on the 12th, causing major damage to the city.
• U.S. climate scientists working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level. (BBC)
• A major oil slick, which could contain some 40 tonnes of fuel, has been detected off the coast of Estonia, one week after the Runner-4 cargo vessel sank in the Baltic Sea. Heavy sea ice prevents an accurate estimate of the content of the oil slick that may have killed 35,000 sea birds. (Yahoo News)
• The judge in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is considering throwing out the death penalty as an option after lawyers from the Federal Aviation Administration coached four government witnesses. (CNN)
• German drug & chemical manufacturer Merck KGaA announces plans to buy Schering in a merger of €14.6 billion. Merck and Schering would become Germany's largest pharmaceutical company. - (Telegraph)
• London Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair admits secretly recording conversations with the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, an act that could lead to a civil legal proceedings if the other party has not granted permission for conversations to be taped. (BBC)

14 March 2006 (Tuesday)

• An attempted coup d'état against Chadian President Idriss Déby is foiled. (AP via The Guardian)
• In London, six men taking part in a clinical trial for a new monoclonal antibody anti-inflammatory drug, TGN1412, are placed in intensive care, some in a life-threatening condition, after suffering adverse side-effects. (BBC)
• Euronext, a derivatives exchange based in Amsterdam and Paris, announces that it might join the ongoing auction for the London Stock Exchange — which would put it in competition with bidders Nasdaq and Deutsche Börse. (Forbes)
• Jordan is to indict Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for bombings that killed over 60 people. (ABC)
• At least 80 people die in Iraq following an attack on a Shiite holy site. (LA Times)
• At least seven people have died in wildfires in the U.S. state of Texas which have burned 1,000 mi² (2500 km²), forcing 1,900 people to evacuate. (AP)
• The 2006 National People's Congress concludes in Beijing, China. Premier Wen Jiabao holds annual press conference from Chinese and foreign reporters. Wen reiterates Taiwan issue in serious tone. (People's Daily)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
• Israeli troops shell and demolish a Palestinian prison in Jericho, seizing Ahmad Sa'adat, imprisoned for allegedly assassinating an Israeli minister. (BBC)
• In retaliation for the Israeli attack in Jericho, Palestinian gunmen kidnap and then release American professor Douglas Johnson. (Forbes)

15 March 2006 (Wednesday)

• Two armed gunmen attacked the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) compound in Yei, Sudan, killing a local guard and leaving two others in critical condition. (Angola Press)
• The U.S. online magazine salon.com publishes the most extensive documentation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. (salon.com)
• United Kingdom: The House of Commons votes to approve an education reform bill. The Prime minister, Tony Blair's authority is called into question for his relying on the opposition Conservative party to secure the vote, due to revolt within his own Labour party. (Bloomberg)
• War in Iraq: A raid by the United States military kills eleven Iraqis, mostly civilians. (Channel 4 News)
• The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council, a new human rights organization to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, with only the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau opposing. (United Press International) (Reuters.uk)
• Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth opens the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. (BBC)
• Five arrests are made over the UK Islamist demonstration outside the Danish Embassy in London against the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. (Guardian)

16 March 2006 (Thursday)

• Tens of thousands of Thai anti-government protesters continue their rally against the country's current Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra today. They also demand his resignation from the post. The opposition leader, Sondhi Limthongkul, declared he and his party would not stop protesting all day and night until the PM resigns. (Reuters)
• U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as United States Secretary of the Interior. (CNN)
• Near the third anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, U.S. and Iraqi forces on Thursday launch an air assault known as Operation Swarmer into Salahuddin province in what was termed the largest air assault since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. (ABC News), (BBC), (USDoD)
• The Iraqi National Assembly meets for the first time since it was elected in December 2005. (Reuters)
• An international child pornography network is discovered using information from an Internet chat room, leading to the world-wide arrests of 4 Australians, 13 Americans, 10 Canadians, and 2 Britons. (National Nine News)

17 March 2006 (Friday)

• Beijing's wealthiest millionaire, Yuan Baojing, and two alleged accomplices are sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection for murder by a Liaoyang court, making Yuan the wealthiest person to be executed in PRC history. (Xinhuanet) (Washington Post)
• The European Parliament demands that Senegal turn over Hissène Habré to Belgium to be tried for his actions while he was President of Chad. Senegal is not expected to comply, as it already refused extradition demands from the African Union. The ATDPH has expressed its approval of the decision. (allafrica)
• Six people have been charged in connection with Kenya's biggest fraud, which cost the government about $600m. (BBC)
• Following an outbreak of bird flu in Israel, Europe bans imports of Israeli chicken; Ministry of Agriculture halts exports of unprocessed birds; Kibbutzim in the south, heart of Israel put under closure; four people hospitalized in the south are found not to be infected with the disease. (Ynetnews)
• Thomas Lubanga, former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, becomes the first person arrested on behalf of, and then referred to the International Criminal Court for war crimes.(ICC)
• The fourth global World Water Forum meets in Mexico City to address problems of water shortages and conflicts. Protesters claim the forum is a platform for further privatization of water supplies. (AP via Forbes)
• The International Crisis Group warns that continued neglect of the Darfur conflict may lead to thousands more deaths and spill over into neighboring countries, further destabilizing the region. (Reuters)

18 March 2006 (Saturday)

• Hamas announces the formation of its new cabinet to govern the territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, however, in a last ditch effort to include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the government, postponed by one day the submission of the new cabinet to the approval of PNA President Mahmoud Abbas. (IOL) (Al-Jazeera)
• 2006 labor protests in France: In Paris, and other major French cities, hundreds of thousands of people march in protest of the Contrat de première embauche (First Employment Contract), a labor law set to take effect in April that gives employers the right to fire workers under the age of 26 in the first two years of their employment without justification.(BBC)
• US Navy warships engage pirates off the coast of Somalia, killing one, capturing 12, after the U.N. Security Council on March 15, encouraged any naval forces near Somalia to take action against suspected piracy. This occurred after an attack on a UN World Food Program-chartered ship bringing drought-relief food supplies on March 13. (AP)(UPI)
• The Labor government of South Australia, led by Mike Rann, has been returned with a ten percent swing. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

19 March 2006 (Sunday)

• Three of the six men left seriously ill during a drugs trial (of a monoclonal antibody TGN 1412) have been taken off organ support.(BBC)
• The Liberal Party of Canada announces it has scheduled the vote for a new leader for December 3. (CBC)
• Part of a tunnel in the Moscow Metro collapses on a train setting the train on fire. Russian emergency services were dispatched to the scene, passengers were evacuated, and no one was hurt. (BBC)
• Former Prime Minister of Iraq Iyad Allawi says that he believes that Iraq is engaged in a civil war, although the country has not passed "the point of no return." British and American officials dispute calling the conflict a civil war. (BBC)
• Polling stations open for the Belarusian presidential election, 2006. (VOA) The main opposition candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič calls for a re-run of the presidential election within hours of polls closing. (BBC)
• With the exception of Uganda and South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa is failing to meet United Nations standards for accessibility to clean water or sanitation. (Reuters)

20 March 2006 (Monday)

• The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, says it has been ordered to leave Uzbekistan within one month. (BBC)
• Belarusian presidential election, 2006: Alexander Lukashenko has been re-elected president of Belarus with 82.6 percent of all votes, in an election which is considered by many to have been rigged.
• The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitored the election, concluded that the presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections. (Reuters), (BBC)
• The Commonwealth of Independent States also monitored the election and declared that the election was fair and that the results must be respected. (Monsters and Critics)
• The United States and EU condemn the elections. The White House, which has previously labeled Mr Lukashenko a dictator, says it does not accept the results. The EU says it is likely that it will impose sanctions.(BBC)
• At 0730 AEST, Tropical Cyclone Larry makes landfall near Innisfail, Queensland, Australia, with wind gusts of 290 km/h (180 mph) recorded, which would make it a Category 5 storm on the Australian scale for severity of cyclones. (AAP).
• Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Beijing on energy talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao. (Forbes)
• Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, begin official visit to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India.
• The Northern Hemisphere Vernal Equinox and the Southern Hemisphere Autumnal Equinox occurred at 18:26 UTC.

21 March 2006 (Tuesday)

• The French National Assembly votes on "DADVSI" ("Right of the Author and related rights in the information society") with 296 votes for against 193. The DADVSI act implements the 2001 EU Copyright Directive with some modifications. The UMP (right-wing), which has the absolute majority at the National Assembly, voted for, while the left voted against it. MPs of the center-right UDF voted either against the text or abstained themselves. Le Monde
• Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The growing rebel movement seeks to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby. (AP via Forbes)
• In the United Kingdom, Metropolitan Police confirm they are to investigate claims the ruling Labour Party broke the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 in the ongoing controversy over "cash for Peerages" row. (BBC)
• Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said in the Dáil that he believes the British security forces colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the planning of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane's murder in 1989. (Irish examiner)
• In a major Sino-Russian energy deal, it is announced that Gazprom intends to build two large natural gas pipelines directly to China within the next 5 years. (Forbes) Russia will also help with the construction of two nuclear power plants in China. (Makfax)

22 March 2006 (Wednesday)

• A bankruptcy court judge in New York has authorized the creation of an equity holders' committee in connection with the reorganization of auto parts maker Delphi Corporation, (Reuters)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists believe they may have discovered a reason why the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus cannot yet jump easily between humans. (BBC)
• The MV Queen of the North, a 125 metre ferry operated by BC Ferries, strikes a rock in British Columbia's Inside Passage shortly after midnight, and sinks. All passengers and crew are thought to have safely abandoned ship, but two passengers are later declared missing and presumed dead. (CBC)
• Basque separatist group ETA announce a permanent ceasefire to their 38-year campaign for independence from Spain, which has cost over 800 lives. (BBC)
• Russian President Vladimir Putin pays a visit to the Shaolin Temple, the symbol of Chinese Martial arts on his state visit to China. (SINA)
• Tracy Williams from Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, is ordered to pay £10,000 damages, plus £7,200 legal costs for libelling former parliamentary candidate Michael Keith Smith in a Yahoo chat room and in her blog, making history in respect of legal actions involving the Internet. She had accused Smith of being a sex offender and a racist bigot. Williams did not file a defence to the libel writ. (Manchester Evening News), (Times), (BBC)
• Ethiopia: Government procecutors withdrew charges against 18 out of 129 opposition figures and journalists facing charges following last year's violent skirmishes in the country. However, none of the party leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) were included in this action.

23 March 2006 (Thursday)

• French youths set fire to cars and loot shops in Paris during protests against the contrat première embauche law that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had agreed to discuss with unions. (Reuters)
• Adwaitya, a tortoise that once belonged to British colonial Lord Clive in the 18th Century has died at the age of 250 in a zoo in Calcutta. (BBC)
• More than 100 people die after their boat capsizes in Cameroon. (BBC)
• The British Embassy in Baghdad confirms the rescue of three Christian Peacemaker hostages held in Iraq for nearly four months; Briton Norman Kember and Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney. They were freed during a British led multinational military operation involving American, British, Canadian and Iraqi forces. (Channel 4 News), (BBC), (CTV)

24 March 2006 (Friday)

• Clerics in Kabul call for Abdul Rahman to be put to death. He is accused of committing apostasy for converting from Islam to Christianity. (AP)
• President Roh Moo-hyun nominates Han Myung-Sook to become the South Korea's first woman prime minister. (Reuters)
• Lin Liang Ren, 29, is convicted on 21 counts of manslaughter arising from the February 2004 Morecambe Bay cockling disaster. (BBC)
• EU summit in Brussels: the EU leaders back plans to develop a common energy policy, but the specifics remain vague and difficult (Independent)
• Pentagon: It is alleged by a report that Russia gave intelligence information to Saddam Hussein's Iraq regarding American troop movements during the early stages of the Iraq War. (Reuters)

25 March 2006 (Saturday)

• A revolutionary scramjet jet engine designed to fly at 7 times sonic speed is successfully tested in Australia. (BBC)
• Canada's annual seal hunt has begun, amid international appeals for an end to the controversial cull of up to 325,000 young harp seal pups. The Canadian government says the cull, which reportedly earns C$16.5m (£8.3m) in meat and pelt sales, is also necessary to control seal numbers. (BBC)
• An explosion at a French university chemical research facility kills one professor. The cause is unknown. (National Nine News)
• Protests against the US immigration reform bill H.R. 4437 are held in several US cities. 500,000 people march in Los Angeles, California, 50,000 in Denver, Colorado, and 20,000 in Phoenix, Arizona, protesting proposed legislation that includes construction of a security wall along the United States-Mexico border. (CNN) (BBC) (CBS4Denver) (East Valley Tribune)
• A gunman killed six people at a party and then himself in the Capitol Hill massacre in Seattle, Washington. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

26 March 2006 (Sunday)

• The CBS television program 60 Minutes airs a story on a lawsuit against the hedge fund SAC, alleging that it orchestrated a fall in the stock price of Canadian drug company Biovail.
• Officials in Afghanistan say that Abdul Rahman may be released soon, although the case may have only been temporarily dropped to gather more evidence. (CNN) (BBC)
• The 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia draw to a close with the Closing ceremony. Australia finishes with a record 84 gold medals, making this their best Games ever. Samaresh Jung is adjudged the Best Athlete of the 18th Commonwealth Games. The 2010 games will be hosted by New Delhi, India. (M2006) (Rediff)
• Voters in Ukraine go to the polls to elect a new Verkhovna Rada (parliament). (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
• Scotland becomes the first part of the United Kingdom to introduce a full smoking ban in enclosed public places and workplaces. (BBC)

27 March 2006 (Monday)

• Iraqi security minister Abd al Karim al Enzi accuses American soldiers accompanied by Iraqi troops to have raided the Mustafa Shiite mosque in eastern Baghdad and executed 37 unarmed people who had been tied up. (Palestine Chronicle) (Times)
• The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, refers to the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert Tuttle, as a 'chiseling little crook' because the United States embassy continues to refuse to pay the London congestion charge. (Guardian Unlimited)
• The New York Times reports that it has seen a memo that shows George W. Bush was determined to go to war at least two months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (BBC) (NYT)
• In Germany, a rare tornado kills 2 and leaves more than 300,000 people without electricity. (NDR Television Germany)
• Preliminary results of the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election give former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Russian Party of Regions a narrow lead over the Yulia Tymoshenko Electoral Bloc, with President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Bloc trailing in third place. (BBC)
• Zacarias Moussaoui testifies in an American court that he and Richard Reid planned to fly a passenger jet into the White House as part of the September 11, 2001 attacks, contradicting his previous testimony. (Channel 4 News) (CNN) (BBC)
• The European Union agrees to introduce a standardized European driving licence. (BBC)

28 March 2006 (Tuesday)

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: for the first time, a Katyusha rocket is fired from the Gaza Strip. The IDF says the attack is a "clear escalation". (JPost)(BBC)(MSNBC)
• One Canadian soldier has been killed and three others injured during a firefight with Taliban insurgents in a remote area outside of Kandahar. (CBC)
• Kadima leader Ehud Olmert declares victory in the 17th Israeli legislative election, ahead of main opponents Labor and Likud. (BBC)
• Over a million protesters join large protests in France amid strikes against the new contrat première embauche, which protesters say will harm job stability for workers under the age of 26. Violent clashes with the police in Paris are reported. (Reuters)
• More than one million local government workers in the UK strike over cuts to pension schemes, in an action co-ordinated by eight trade unions. (BBC)
• White House Chief of Staff Andy Card announces he will resign from his job on April 14 2006. Card is one of a few people who has been on duty in the Bush Administration since day 1. He will be replaced by Joshua Bolten, Director of Office of Management and Budget. (MSNBC)
• Former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappears after Nigeria agrees to extradite him to face war crime charges in Sierra Leone. (BBC)
• Abdul Rahman is deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, and released. He is seeking asylum in a Western country. His whereabouts are unknown. (CNN) (BBC)

29 March 2006 (Wednesday)

• Canada has officially cut all ties with the members of the Hamas cabinet and is suspending assistance to the Palestinian Authority. (CBC)
• The Beatles' record label Apple Corps accuse Apple Computer in court of breaching a trademark agreement by operating their iTunes Music Store. (BBC News)
• Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman takes political asylum in Italy. Many Islamic clerics and members of Afghanistan's parliament protest his release. (MSNBC), (BBC)
• A total solar eclipse may be observed from 08:36 GMT (09:36 BST) to 11:48 GMT (12:48 BST) in Eastern Brazil, West and North Africa, Turkey, Central Asia and Mongolia. (BBC)
• Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is captured after disappearing in Nigeria and is extradited to Sierra Leone. (BBC)
• The chief prosecutor in Austria seeks an arrest warrant for former Refco chairman Phillip Bennett and former Refco client Wolfgang Floettl on suspicion they helped defraud Austria's BAWAG Bank. (NY Post)

30 March 2006 (Thursday)

• Feleti Sevele is confirmed as the first non-noble Prime Minister of Tonga. (Matangi)
• Several large earthquakes rock western Iran, killing and injuring many people (BBC)
• Portia Simpson Miller is sworn in as Prime Minister of Jamaica, becoming the first woman to lead the Commonwealth of Jamaica.
• Janjaweed militias cross over the Chad-Sudan border and attack Chadian villagers in the city of Moudeina, but are beaten back by the Chadian military. (Al Jazeera)
• U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled her visit to a mosque after a protest group threatened to "invade the mosque" during scheduled prayers (see Condoleezza Rice visit to Blackburn and Liverpool). (BBC)
• Jill Carroll, a Christian Science Monitor journalist abducted in Iraq on January 7, is released. (CNN)
• NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency launch the thirteenth mission to the International Space Station when Expedition 13 takes off. On board is Marcos Pontes, the first Brazilian in space. (MSNBC)
• An outage of Optus B1 after realignment knocks out Sky TV's pay TV to an estimated 650,000 New Zealanders (NZ Herald). Conflicting reports suggest the outage could be fixed within a few hours (Newswire) or could be permanent as the satellite may be missing (National Business Review).
• At least 48 people died in the 2006 Bahrain ferry disaster. (Fox)
• U.S. Congresswoman Jean Schmidt has been claiming a degree in secondary education from the University of Cincinnati she did not receive. Her spokesman said Schmidt earned the degree but did not complete the paperwork to be awarded it. (The Plain Dealer)
• The Indiana Pacers retire Reggie Miller's #31 jersey.