The 2005 Paris riots continue for the sixth consecutive night. Rioting spread through impoverished suburbs, which was sparked by the death of two youths who were allegedly fleeing police and were accidentally electrocuted while hiding in an electrical substation. The riots have caused increased strains between the authorities and the inhabitants of the poor suburbs. (AP)
Measles Initiative (MI) announces that since 1999, more than 200 million children in Africa have been vaccinated against measles, reducing the infection rate by 60 percent and saving 1 million lives. (allAfrica)
A 12 year old Palestinian boy is in a critical condition after being shot by an Israeli soldier. The soldiers had been in a firefight with Islamic Jihad members, and the boy was carrying a toy gun. Haaretz(BBC).
Conflict in Iraq: Seven U.K. troops accused of murdering an Iraqi civilian have had their cases dropped after a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence against the soldiers and that the Iraqi witnesses lied. (BBC)
Clashes continue in Debre Berhan, while government forces succeed in pacifying Bahir Dar and Awasa. The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa remained calm, with few shops open and no taxis operating. (BBC)
One of three men arrested last month in the U.K. is charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. The others were charged with, among other things, conspiracy to murder and possessing bomb-making materials. (BBC)
The 2005 Paris suburb riots continue for an eighth consecutive night. Hundreds of arson attacks have taken place in the last few nights. Shots fired at police and firefighters. Rioting continues to spread. France described as facing a crisis. (BBC)
The tenth night of the 2005 French riots is reported as being the most intense yet, and the riots are now the subject of crisis meetings in the French government. President Jacques Chirac has called for the arrest, trial and punishment of the rioters. (BBC)
Sierra Leone Health and Sanitation Minister, Abator Thomas says that polio has been eradicated in the country, following a successful immunization program. (allAfrica)
The United Nations is asking donors for US$3.2 million to help six West African countries fight cholera. The disease has killed at least 700 people and infected over 42,000 in the region since June, a sharp rise due to the unusually heavy rains this year. (allAfrica)
China closes all Beijingpoultry markets. Authorities ordered all live poultry markets in China's capital to close immediately and went door-to-door seizing chickens and ducks from private homes, as the government dramatically ramped up its fight against avian influenza today. (Business Week)
Alberto Fujimori, former President of Peru, is arrested in Chile whilst a Chilean judge considers a Peruvian extradition request. (BBC)
In Israel, archaeologists discover two lines of a Phoenician or Hebrew alphabet on a stone dating to the 10th century BC, suggesting that literacy existed in ancient Israel earlier than had been thought. "All successive alphabets in the ancient world, including the Greek one, derive from this ancestor at Tel Zayit," says the excavation's director. (IHT)(AP)
In the United States, the visit of Iraqi Deputy Premier Ahmed Chalabi to the Department of State and Department of the Treasury arouses controversy. (BBC)
A Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner jet aircraft breaks the record for the longest non-stop passenger airline flight. The 20,000-kilometer (12,500-mile) flight from Hong Kong to London lasted 23 hours. (Boeing)(BBC)
In Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia, 7 members of the police have been killed and 250 sustained injuries from attacks by rioters using guns, hand grenades and stones. (allAfrica)
Albania suffers its worst ever electric power shortage. Due to low water levels, hydroelectric power is reduced to the minimum and there are blackouts in all the country. Water supplies won't last for more than two weeks, so electricity is currently available just six hours a day. The government plans to import power from Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. (BBC)
The United States government issues warning after receiving credible information that a terrorist threat may exist against official U.S. government facilities in Guangzhou, China. (IHT)
Knesset Member Omri Sharon, the son of the Prime Minister of IsraelAriel Sharon, struck a deal with prosecutors that would see him plead guilty to a series of charges in connection with illegal fundraising during Ariel Sharon’s 1999 primaries campaign. (Ynetnews)
The New York Stock Exchange reaches an out-of-court settlement with some of its seat holders who had filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent the NYSE's proposed acquisition of electronic trading firm Archipelago Holdings. The settlement requires a new independent financial review of the merits of the deal. Dissidents complain that the NYSE is over-paying. (Reuters)
Students at the University of Tennessee (UT) received international criticism and praise for interrupting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's keynote speech at the groundbreaking of the Harold Baker Center. The students protested in favor of ending the Iraq War by "heckling" Cheney while a group of 50-100 protesters gathered outside the building also protesting the war. This incident has come to be known as the Baker Center Protest. [4]
The United States government has won its fight to keep its supervisory authority over the internet through the ICANN, despite opposition from many nations. (BBC)
Just 13 days before his 3rd birthday, Steven Jacob Gaines sets fire to his home in Oceanside, CA. Stevie was thought to be taking a nap but was instead playing with a bbq lighter behind the closed doors of his bedroom. Stevie touched hundreds of lives in his 3 short (but full) years. Those who love him and were loved by him, continue to miss him terribly every day.
Two car bombs strike outside a Baghdad interior ministry building at the centre of a detainee abuse scandal. (BBC)
The United States House of Representatives reject a Republican resolution offered by Duncan Hunter (R-California) "expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately" by a vote of 403-3. Ohio Republican Jean Schmidt is forced by Democratic (and quiet Republican) protests to apologise to Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha for quoting a marine who said those wishing to "cut and run" from Iraq are called "cowards" The Marine she claimed to be quoting told he never said any such thing. (Associated Press)
In the town of Haditha in Iraq, a squad of United States Marines is alleged to have murdered about two dozen Iraqi civilians in the aftermath of an ambush there in which a roadside bomb and automatic weapons had been used against the Marines.
Conflict in Iraq: Five Iraqi civilians, including three children, are shot dead by U.S. troops as they approached a checkpoint in Baquba. The minibus they were travelling in failed to stop as it approached a roadblock. (BBC)
As more than one million Zambians face severe food shortages due to drought, President Levy Mwanawasa declares a national disaster and appealed for international food aid. (BBC)
