December 2006

• The 2006 Asian Games are officially opened by Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani at the 50,000 seater Khalifa Sports Stadium in Doha, Qatar. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles settles 45 lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests for $60 million. (AP via Minneapolis-St Paul Tribune)
• Hezbollah members demonstrate their opposition to the Siniora administration in Beirut, Lebanon. (The Guardian) (BBC)
• As Bahrain prepares for tomorrow's second round of its parliamentary elections, a Member of Parliament from the Kingdom's largest party calls for legislation to restrict women's employment. (Gulf Daily News)
• Felipe Calderón becomes the President of Mexico. (Reuters)
• Typhoon Durian has killed at least 388 people in Albay province on the island of Luzon in the Philippines with the death toll expected to climb as rescuers get to affected villages. (Bloomberg) (CNN)
• Kim Beazley calls a vote for the leadership of the Federal Australian Labor Party for Monday. He will face a challenge from Kevin Rudd, the Opposition spokesman on foreign affairs. Jenny Macklin faces a challenge from Julia Gillard for the Deputy Leadership. (Melbourne Herald Sun) (AAP via News Limited)
• Fijian military commander Frank Bainimarama says he intends to begin a "clean up" campaign of Government now that his deadline has passed. Laisenia Qarase, the Prime Minister of Fiji, has advised that he has been given a new deadline of noon on Monday. (NZ Herald) (ABC News Australia)
• The United States warns of a possible al-Qaeda attack to disrupt the stock market and other financial institutions with a cyber attack. (BBC)
• Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian sold off the last of his shares in General Motors, the Wall Street Journal reported. It was clear that Kerkorian had sold 14 million shares for $28.75 per share, or about $400 million, slicing his stake to 4.95%. (MSN Money)

• Protestors begin their second day of demonstrations in their bid to convince the current Lebanese administration to step down. (BBC)
• Leaked Pentagon memo by United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says US policy in Iraq is "not working well enough or fast enough." (The New York Times)
• Iraqi insurgency: At least 50 people are killed by three car bombs exploding in Baghdad. (BBC)
• Bahrainis go to the polls today in the second round of voting in the Kingdom's parliamentary elections. (BBC)
• Rescuers in the Philippines continue to look for survivors of Typhoon Durian. (ABC News Australia)
• London police are examining whether the killers of Alexander Litvinenko also tried to poison Mario Scaramella, an Italian security expert who met the Russian exile on the day that he fell ill. (The Times)
• War in Chad (2005–present)/Darfur conflict: Chadian rebels have attacked the eastern town of Guéréda, neighbouring Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. (BBC)
• Police and aid workers recover more than 100 bodies from Malakal in south Sudan resulting from fighting between former rebels and Government forces. (AP via CBS News)
• As Kazakhstan begins its nuclear program the Japanese Government sends a delegation to make sure nuclear materials are not susceptible to theft by Kazakh terrorists. (Japan Today)
• Fijian military commander Frank Bainimarama announces that he has taken control of Fiji. (NZ Herald)
• Stéphane Dion is elected leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, defeating Michael Ignatieff. (CBC)
• Ed Stelmach is elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and will become the next premier of Alberta, replacing outgoing leader Ralph Klein and defeating competitors Jim Dinning and Ted Morton. (CBC)

• The protests in Lebanon led by Hezbollah last for a third day. (Reuters via CNN)
• Venezuela holds elections, with incumbent president Hugo Chávez facing a challenge from Manuel Rosales, Governor of the western state of Zulia. With 78% of votes counted by the National Electoral Council, Chávez wins with 61% over 38% for Rosales. (Reuters)
• At least 804 people are dead or missing in the Philippines as a result of Typhoon Durian with the death toll expected to rise further. (Bloomberg)
• Former President of Chile Augusto Pinochet is in a military hospital after having had a heart attack. Doctors decide to perform coronary artery bypass surgery. (BBC), (Ireland Online)
• Madagascar holds an election with incumbent Marc Ravalomanana expected to be elected as the President of Madagascar. (Reuters via the Scotsman)
• The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was won by The Tolmachevy Twins from Russia with the song "Vesenniy Dzhaz". (ESC Today)
• Russia wins the 2006 Davis Cup after a 3-2 victory over Argentina (BBC Sport)

• Baidu, the leading search engine in Chinese language, announces its plan to provide service in Japanese. (Reuters via The Washington Post)
• NASA announces plans to build a base on either the north pole or south pole of the Moon. (Reuters) (Money Times)
• John Bolton will resign as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations when his recess appointment expires in January 2007. (The Times)
• It is now widely expected that Kazakhstan will head the OSCE in 2009 despite strong opposition from the United States. Kazakh President Nazarbayev is visiting Brussels, Belgium, which supports Kazakhstan's bid, and he recently visited London, meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose government also supports Kazakhstan. (RFE/RL)
• President of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo declares a "state of national calamity" following the death and destruction caused by Typhoon Durian. (The Australian)
• A US Marine is jailed for raping a woman at Subic Bay after joint exercises with the Philippines. Three other Marines were acquitted in a case which caused anti-American protests. (INQ7 Philippines)
• Kevin Rudd is elected as the new leader of the Federal Australian Labor Party with the caucus electing him by 49 votes to 39 votes for Kim Beazley. Julia Gillard is the new deputy leader. (The Age)
• Fijian troops take over the headquarters of the armed police division, occupy the main police station in Suva, and surround a police academy in an escalation of the 2006 Fijian coup d'état plot. (The NZ Herald)
• The Government of Iran blocks Wikipedia, IMDb and nytimes.com, among many sites both commercial and informative. (The Guardian)

• Yury Chaika, the Prosecutor General of Russia, has stated that Russia will not extradite any suspects in the radioactive poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko. (CNN)
• The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services unanimously approves the nomination of Robert Gates to be the next United States Secretary of Defense. (Reuters)
• A majority of a 15-judge panel in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rules that Kamehameha Schools can favour Native Hawaiians in admissions. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• An outbreak of E. coli bacteria has sickened more than a dozen people on Long Island, including several who ate at Taco Bell. Officials have asked eight Taco Bell restaurants be closed. (CBS)
• The Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase warns that Fiji faces the imminent threat of a coup as troops reportedly surround his complex. Later, Fiji's military commander Frank Bainimarama confirmed that the military was in control of the country while the Foreign Minister of Australia Alexander Downer warned that Fiji would face international sanctions. (BBC) (ABC)
• Early election results indicate that Marc Ravalomanana will be re-elected in a landslide as the President of Madagascar. (IOL)
• The French Government launches state-owned and controlled France 24, a 24-hour television news show. (NPR)
• U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appoints former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano as the new United Nations-envoy to negotiations between the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel paramilitary group. (BBC News)
• The World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik loses a final game and a match with a computer program, Fritz-10. The final score is 2-4. (Seattle Post)
• German painter Tomma Abts wins the 2006 Turner Prize. (BBC)

• Joseph Kabila, the first freely elected leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 40 years, is inaugurated as President. (BBC)
• The Iraq Study Group Report calls the situation in Iraq "grave and deteriorating" and calls for a change in strategy including the removal of most United States troops by early 2008. (CNN)
• The Australian House of Representatives passes private members legislation allowing therapeutic cloning after a conscience vote. The Australian Senate had already approved the bill prepared by Senator Kay Patterson meaning that it will become law. (News Limited)
• The United States Senate confirms Robert Gates as the next United States Secretary of Defense by 95-2. Gates will be sworn in on December 18. (CNN)
• Philippe Douste-Blazy, the Foreign Minister of France, says that the United Nations Security Council will impose sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program. However, the five permanent members of the Security Council as well as Germany have failed to agree on what the sanctions should be. (AFP via Khaleej Times)
• 2006 Fijian coup d'état:
  • Fijian military Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the leader of the coup, usurps Ratu Josefa Iloilo as President of Fiji. He promises to ask the Great Council of Chiefs to reappoint Iloilo to the office in one week's time. (The NZ Herald)
  • Bainimarama appoints Jona Senilagakali as interim Prime Minister of Fiji. (Fiji Times)
  • The Fijian military deports deposed Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase to his home island in the remote Lau Group. The military has also arrested senior Government officials. (Sydney Morning Herald)
  • The Fiji Times resumes publication after the military promises to refrain from further attempts at press censorship. (Fiji Times) Editors immediately blast the coup as illegal. (Fiji Times)
  • The United Kingdom joins the United States, Australia and New Zealand in halting defence foreign aid. (Fiji Times)
  • Bainimarama fires Fiji police commissioner Moses Driver, who had declared that the Fiji Police will stand up to the Fiji Military. Bainimarama warned against a popular uprising against the coup. (CNN)
• NASA presents "compelling" evidence that liquid water flowed recently on the surface of Mars. (NASA), (BBC)
• A large explosion occurs near downtown Milwaukee, killing 3, injuring 37 others and leveling a factory compound.(AP)
• Officials of the Islamic Courts Union in power in Bulo Burto, Somalia, declare that, under their interpretation of Sharia, all people in the city must pray five times a day, or they will be beheaded on sight. (Fox News)
• Hundreds of thousands of Dalits stage a mass rally in Mumbai to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of their leader, B. R. Ambedkar. (BBC)
• James Kim is found dead in Oregon after spending 11 days in the wilderness. (CNN) (CNET)

• NASA delays the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-116 until Saturday. (CNN)
• George W. Bush, the President of the United States says that Syria and Iran might be included in regional talks on the future of Iraq if they meet certain conditions. (CNN)
• Hewlett-Packard pays a fine of $14.5 million to settle an investigation by the Attorney General of California related to leaks from its boardroom. (Bloomberg)
• Police in Phoenix, Arizona believe that they have captured the Baseline Killer who has nine killings attributed to him. They had Mark Godeau in custody since September in relation to two alleged sexual assaults in 2005. (CNN)
• A tornado has ripped through Kensal Green in North West London, injuring 6.(The Times)
• The Doha Asian Games suffered a tragedy when South Korean rider Kim Hyung-chil died after falling from his horse during the equestrian competition. (Aljazeera)
• Nigerian gun men attack an Agip oil terminal in the Niger River delta and take three Italians hostage. (Reuters)
• Nearly 100 people are dead or unaccounted for in Vietnam as a result of Typhoon Durian. It had earlier killed over 550 people in the Philippines and left a similar number missing. (Reuters)
• Seven towns are under immediate threat from bushfires in Gippsland in the Australian state of Victoria. (Reuters)
• A motion brought by the Conservative government to reopen debate on same-sex marriage in Canada is defeated by the Canadian House of Commons. (CBC)
• 2006 Fijian coup d'état:
  • Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs condemns the coup d'état and calls on coup leader Frank Bainimarama to stop his activities. It refuses to meet with him. (ABC News Australia)
  • Jona Senilagakali, the newly-installed Prime Minister of Fiji, conceded the coup had been "illegal" but it was "an illegal takeover to clean up the mess of a much bigger illegal activity of the previous government." (BBC)
  • Claims are being made that the military may attempt to arrest Ratu Ovini Bokini, Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs. Around 300 villagers have surrounded his compound in Tavua to defend him. (Fiji Times)
• Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani of Iran issues a fatwa calling for the deaths of Azeris Rafiq Tağı, a writer, and Samir Sadagatoglu, his editor, who were charged in November 2006 with "inciting national, racial and religious enmity" after they criticized Islam. (EurasiaNet)
• The Hard Rock Cafe chain of cafes, hotels and casinos, as well as its extensive collection of rock and roll memorabilia, is purchased from the Rank Group by the Seminole Tribe of Florida for US$965 million. (Fox News)
• Nintendo's next generation gaming console, the Wii, is released in Australia. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

• Three people are killed and a fourth injured when a gunman starts shooting at a Chicago skyscraper. The gunman was then shot dead by a Chicago Police Department SWAT sniper. (Chicago SunTimes)
• Bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria threaten at least six townships in the Gippsland region with extreme weather conditions over the weekend expected to increase the danger. The Victorian Department of Education closes 24 schools due to threat of fire. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• Ethiopian involvement in the Somali Civil War: The Somali and Ethiopian militaries engage the Islamic Court Union inside Somalia. (BBC)
• Officials organizing the 2006 ASEAN summit in the Philippines, originally due to begin on December 10, have announced that it has been postponed due to Severe Tropical Storm Utor. Officials also denied that the postponement was due to a terror threat. (BBC)
• Research linking the spread of the AIDS virus with malarial infections in Africa is published in Science. (BBC)
• 2006 Fijian coup d'état:
  • Fiji is suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations following a meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers in London. (BBC)
  • Former Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase warns that Fijians are planning a campaign of civil disobedience against the regime of Commodore Frank Bainimarama. (AFP via ABC Online)
• Alaska State Representative Tom Anderson (R) is taken into custody by the FBI in connection with the probe of alleged unethical association by Alaska Legislature with VECO Corporation. (KTUU)
• Nintendo Wii is released in Europe

• William J. Jefferson is reelected as the member for Louisiana's 2nd congressional district in a runoff election defeating fellow Democrat Karen Carter despite facing an ongoing bribery investigation. (AP via CNN)
• The United States Senate passes legislation normalising trade with Vietnam, renewing tax cuts and opening the Gulf of Mexico to new drilling for oil and gas fields. The legislation had earlier been passed by the United States House of Representatives and will now go to President of the United States George W. Bush for approval. (Reuters)
• A fire at a Russian drug treatment hospital kills 45 people with arson suspected. (CNN)
• The Space Shuttle Discovery makes a rare night time launch. (Yahoo/AP)
• Two months after it opened, the "The World of Turkmenbashi Tales" themepark in Turkmenistan is made operational. The park, which is named after the Turkmenbashi, Saparmurat Niyazov, is expected to attract more children now that the rides work and all libraries have been closed. (USA Today)
• 2006 Fijian coup d'état: Media reports that gunfire had been heard near military barracks in Suva have been dismissed as being mistaken identification of a game of cricket. (AFP via OptusNet)
• DNA testing confirms that blood with a high blood alcohol content did indeed belong to Henri Paul, the driver in the crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi al Fayed and Paul himself in 1997. (BBC)

• Incumbent Igor Smirnov wins the presidential elections in the self-declared state of Transnistria. (DPA)
• Ex Chilean president Augusto Pinochet dies. (The New York Times) (CNN)
• A video has emerged showing the current president of Croatia Stjepan Mesić praising the German puppet-state Independent State of Croatia during a speech in the early 1990s. (index.hr)
• According to results released by the Interior Ministry of Madagascar, a total of 61.45% of the country's registered 7.3 million voters went to the polling stations on December 3 and re-elected Marc Ravalomanana as President with 54.8% of the votes, Jean Lahiniriko and Roland Ratsiraka received 11.68% and 10.1%, respectively. (BBC), (AP)
• Nobel Prizes: Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus accepts the Peace Prize, urging world leaders to end terrorism by fighting poverty. (AP via The Guardian)

• In Nagorno-Karabakh 98.6 percent of voters vote in favor of a constitution favoring independence from Azerbaijan. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLibery)
• Former GAM rebel leader Irwandi Yusuf is elected governor of the Indonesian province of Aceh in elections that are part of a peace deal ending the civil war. (Bernama)
• Former Prime Minister of Fiji Sitiveni Rabuka is cleared of two charges of mutiny in relation to the mutinies of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. (ABC News Australia)
• Archaeologists working for the Vatican have found the tomb of Paul of Tarsus. (USA Today)
• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly criticizes the United States, in particular the Bush administration, claiming it has strayed from multilateralism and human rights, in his final speech. (BBC)
• The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust gets underway in Iran to examine whether the Holocaust took place or not. (BBC)
• Traces of polonium-210 are found in a flat in Hamburg, Germany, on objects touched by former Russian spy Dmitri Kovtun a day before he met poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London. (The Times)
• Unidentified gunmen try to assassinate Baha Balousheh, a security chief associated with Fatah, but instead shoot and kill his three children in the Gaza Strip. The assassination attempt may have been a revenge attack for the attempted assassination of Interior Minister Sayid Seyam of Hamas. (BBC) (JTA)
• The Space Shuttle Discovery successfully docks with the International Space Station with the crew to spend a week rewiring the space station. (CNN)
• In an interview with Jeff Stein, a national security editor for Congressional Quarterly, Silvestre Reyes, the incoming Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee incorrectly claims that Al Qaeda is a "predominantly Shiite" organization. When asked if Hezbollah is a Sunni or a Shiite organization, Reyes said "It's hard to keep things in perspective and in the categories." (Fox News)
• A devastating bushfire rips through the town of Scamander, Tasmania in Australia, destroying 23 homes. (News.com.au)

• An Ethiopian court finds exiled former president Mengistu Haile Mariam guilty of genocide. (BBC)
• Leading climatologists warn that most of the Arctic ice will have melted by 2040 and the North Pole will be open water. (The Times)
• The President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, orders security forces to deploy across the Gaza Strip in response to the murder of a Fatah security chief's three sons. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
• Police in Ipswich, UK are hunting a possible serial killer after five prostitutes are found dead within the last ten days. (BBC)
• Vietnam will become the 150th member of the World Trade Organization on January 11, 2007. The move finalises Hanoi's near-12-year wait to join the WTO. (BBC)

• The High Court of Botswana rules that thousands of Bushmen should not have been evicted from their ancestral home which is now the Central Botswana Game Reserve. (Washington Post)
• Belgian state TV station RTBF shows a spoof news report announcing the secession of Flanders and thus the dissolution of the Belgian state. It further reported the escape of the Belgian Royal Family into exile. The report fools foreign diplomats and panics Belgian viewers. (BBC News) (AP via Yahoo)
• Bomb and mortar attacks kill 23 Iraqis and wound at least 52 in Baghdad and Kirkuk. (CNN)
• Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych arrives in Kazakhstan. He plans on meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• The Dutch care-taker government of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende is in crisis after the House of Representatives passes a motion of disapproval against immigration minister Rita Verdonk. (Financial Times)
• Malaysia crowns its thirteenth king - the second youngest ever - in a traditional ceremony in Kuala Lumpur. Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, 44, takes over from outgoing King Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, 63, whose five-year term as monarch ended on December 12. (BBC)
• In a survey conducted by the Social Opinion Center of Uzbekistan, 93.7% of respondents said they opposed religious extremism and 3.9% said religious freedom is restricted, but only 39.4% said they had conditions that "satisfied their religious needs." (Interfax)
• 78-year-old assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian is to be paroled in June. (Detroit News)
• In the largest such crackdown in American history, U.S. federal immigration authorities raid numerous Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six U.S. states, arresting nearly 1,300 illegal immigrant employees [1] [2] [3] [4].

• The head of UK security service MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, has announced she will step down from her post after four years. (The Times)
• A research expedition concludes that the Chinese River Dolphin is now likely extinct, directly due to human action. (Globe & Mail)
• Ban Ki-moon is officially sworn in as the next United Nations Secretary-General. (BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Israel decides that the targeted assassination of Palestinian militants by the Israeli military can be legal under international law. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) undergoes surgery after suffering a brain hemorrhage due to an arteriovenous malformation. If he is incapacitated, the Republican Party Governor of South Dakota, Mike Rounds, will be able to appoint his replacement, potentially changing the balance of the Senate. (CNN)
• Gunmen dressed in military uniforms kidnap between 20 and 30 people in the Sanak area of central Baghdad. (BBC)
• Operation Paget, the inquiry into the death in 1997 of Diana, Princess of Wales headed by Lord Stevens, a former chief of London's Metropolitan Police, concludes that there were no suspicious circumstances and that the fatal car crash in which she died was a 'tragic accident'. (BBC)
• UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is interviewed by police investigating cash for honours allegations. (BBC)
• The European Union announces it will introduce a common EU-wide driving licence in 2013. (BBC News)
• The Nintendo Wii breaks record sales in Australia and is the fastest selling gaming console in Australian history. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Muqtada al-Sadr withdraws his support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. (RFE/RL)
• The Government of Saudi Arabia announces plans to build a separation barrier between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The barrier will cost $12 billion to build. (RFE/RL)
• The king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, abdicates in favor of his son, two years before he had initially planned to do so. (BBC)
• A severe windstorm hits the American Pacific Northwest overnight, with wind gusts reported as high as 97 miles per hour. Three people were killed in Washington, and at the peak of the storm about one million homes in western Washington and over 400,000 in the Greater Portland area were without electricity.In BC, Stanley Park had $5 million dollars damage. (Bellingham Herald) (Oregonlive)
• United States district court judge Jeremy Fogel imposes a moratorium on lethal injections in California stating that they are unconstitutional. In an unrelated incident, the Governor of Florida Jeb Bush has suspended lethal injections in Florida pending an investigation into the system after the recent execution of Ángel Nieves Díaz took 34 minutes after it was botched. (CNN #1), (CNN #2)
• The 2006 Asian Games is officially closed at the 50,000 seater Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar marking the end of 15 days of competition.(Doha 2006 Asian Games website)
• Retired Formula One driver Clay Regazzoni dies in a car accident when the Chrysler Voyager he was driving hit a lorry head on, outside Parma, Italy. (BBC)
• Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer announces that the United States has no plans to commit troops to intervene in the Somali civil war to root out al Qaeda cells operating in the country. (U.S. State Department)
• Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, says the six men involved in the Flying Imams controversy should have been "arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists." (UPI)
• Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals scores the fastest overtime goal in the history of the NHL in 6 seconds against the Atlanta Thrashers.

• The Financial Report of the United States Government for 2006 was released late Friday evening. The combined federal deficits now total more than 400% of GDP. [5]

• Time names "You" – contributors of user-generated content to websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia – as its Person of the Year. (Time), (MSNBC).
• Christopher R. Hill, US Chief negotiator in the six-party talks concerning North Korea's nuclear program, announces plans to meet with North Korea prior to the resumption of the talks on Monday. (AFP via New Strait Times)
• Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calls for early legislative elections to end the stalemate in creating a national unity government with the Hamas party. (CNN)
• Egyptian High Court rules that the members of the Bahá'í Faith in Egypt should not receive government Identification cards, thus removing their rights to health care, education, work and other basic rights. (IHT)

• Armed militia in Peru ambush and kill seven people involved in a crackdown on the illegal growing of coca. (BBC)
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offers to share Iran's nuclear technology with neighboring countries. (Concorde Monitor)
• Hamas-Fatah conflict:
  • Masked gunmen kill an officer of an elite force loyal to the President of PNA Mahmoud Abbas in a dawn raid on a Gaza training camp as tensions worsen between Hamas and Fatah. (Reuters)
  • The two sides now say that they have agreed to a ceasefire. (Haaretz)(BBC)
• A roadside bomb kills three United States Army soldiers and wounds another north of Baghdad. (USA Today)
• Masked gunmen kidnap 30 workers from the Red Crescent in Iraq with six low-level employees of the organisation later being released. (CNN)
• A climber who had been lost on Oregon's Mount Hood is found dead in a snow cave minutes after rescuers were exploring a nearby cave with various related equipment inside. (Fox News)

• Uzbekistan nearly doubles the price of natural gas it sells to Kyrgyzstan from USD $55 to $100 (£51) per 1,000 cubic meters of gas amid growing tension between the two nations over alleged spying. (BBC News)
• Six-party talks resume on North Korea's nuclear weapons program with North Korea and the United States being "poles apart" in their opening positions. (CNN)
• 2006 Ipswich murder investigation: Police arrest a 37-year-old man in Trimley St. Martin near Felixstowe, England on suspicion of the murders of five prostitutes. (BBC) (Guardian)
• Palestinian Civil Skirmishes increase after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas calls early elections and a truce between his forces and the Hamas government appeared close to collapse in the Gaza Strip. (Reuters)

• Somali Civil War: Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) say they are finalising plans to fight Ethiopian forces deployed in the country as a seven-day ultimatum for Ethiopia to pull out its troops nears its deadline. (Al-Jazeera)
• Kyrgyz Prime Minister Felix Kulov resigns, automatically dismissing the Ministers of the Kyrgyz government, after political parties throughout the country called on him to resign. Deputy Prime Minister Daniyar Usenov says President Kurmanbek Bakiyev should dissolve the Parliament and hold elections. (RFE/RL)
• Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev condemns the Iranian government for acting "as the center of growing insecurity in Asia" by supporting terrorism, weapons and drug trafficking, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and illegal migration. The Foreign Ministry later says news agencies misquoted him. (IRNA)
• Palestinian civil skirmishes:
  • Five people have been killed and 12 injured after gun battles erupted between armed Palestinians loyal to Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip. (Al-Jazeera)
  • The Prime Minister of Palestine Ismail Haniyeh calls for an end to the fighting and for all factions to unite in the fight against Israel. (AP via Boston Globe)
• Hugo Chávez announces his plans to merge the parties which support the Bolivarian Revolution into the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. (BBC)
• Further cases of patients and staff infected with a new strain of MRSA are revealed in a UK hospital after two people die from the superbug. (The Times)
• A Libyan court sentences five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for allegedly knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. (BBC)
• 2006 Ipswich murder investigation: Police investigating the murder of five women in Ipswich, Suffolk arrest a second man on suspicion of their murders. (BBC)
• Chilean congress approves the creation of two new administrative regions within the country. (Peoples Daily)

• The Home Office department of the United Kingdom Government announces plan to require foreign nationals living in Britain to have biometric ID cards. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, and Kosovo sign the Central European Free Trade Agreement extending the free trade zone to southeastern Europe. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• The Government of Kazakhstan is considering giving Kyrgyzstan USD $100 million in aid. (ITAR-TASS)
• The 2006 Malaysian floods caused by heavy monsoon rain force the evacuation of 26,000 people in the southern Malaysian state of Johor. Flooding is also reported in the southern states of Malacca and Negeri Sembilan but the situation there is not as serious. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• Somali Civil War: Heavy fighting breaks out on at least two fronts near the Somali interim government's base in Baidoa. Somalia's interim government and the Islamic Courts Union pledge to begin peace negotiations. (BBC) (Reuters)
• "Jack" Thomas will face a retrial under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005 based on media interviews. He had earlier been jailed under the act before an Appeals Court freed him on the grounds that an interview with Thomas in Pakistan had been involuntary. (AAP via SBS News Australia)
• The United States military claims to have captured a senior leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. (AP via ABC News)
• The €752 million, 5-kilometre Dublin Port Tunnel opens almost 2 years (23 months) after its originally planned date. (RTÉ)

• Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is cleared of any involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings by the Supreme Court of Indonesia. (News Limited)
• Ipswich murder case: Suffolk police announce that Steven Wright has been charged with all five murders. (Suffolk Constabulary statement)
• U.S. military prosecutors charge three Marines with murder in connection with the Haditha killings. (CBC)
• New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine signs a bill granting civil unions to same-sex couples, with all the rights and privileges of marriage. New Jersey becomes the third U.S. state to offer civil unions, and the fifth to offer some version of marriage to gay couples. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• War in Somalia:
  • Fresh heavy fighting is reported near the weak Somali government's Baidoa base, amid fears conflict could plunge the entire Horn of Africa into crisis. (BBC)
  • Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts says it is at war with Ethiopian troops. (Aljazeera)
• Opponents of the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad win a number of victories in local elections and elections to the Assembly of Experts as dissatisfaction grows with his Presidency. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Saparmurat Niyazov, the President-for-life of Turkmenistan, dies at the age of 66. (BBC) The date of the next presidential election is to be announced on 26 December 2006. (Pravda)
• Shane Warne, the leading test cricket wicket taker of all time, announces that he will retire from international cricket at the end of the 2006-07 Ashes series. (AP via CNN)
• Raymond Wang had no idea he was going to wet his pants, so he fell victim to it.

• About 60,000 people in Johor, Malaysia have been displaced by the 2006 Malaysian floods. (CNN), (BBC)
• Rape charges are dropped against the three Duke University lacrosse players who were accused of raping a stripper in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal. (AP)
• Andrew Wallis of The Times accuses the French government of aiding and abetting genocidaires in the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Current Rwandan President Paul Kagame has also expressed his belief that the French and Belgian governments were complicit. (The Times)
• Space Shuttle Discovery lands safely at the Kennedy Space Center at 5:32 p.m. EST (22:32 UTC), concluding mission STS-116. They spent 13 days in space and visited the International Space Station. (NASA)
• The party of dictator Omar Bongo, the Gabonese Democratic Party, has apparently won a vast majority in the legislative election held on 17 December 2006. (BBC)
• Ethiopian war in Somalia:
  • Thousands of Somali civilians flee their homes as hundreds of troops and trucks move towards the front lines, after a night of artillery and mortar fire. (Aljazeera)
  • The Islamic Courts Union say they will send ground troops to attack on Saturday, instead of fighting from a distance with heavy weapons as they have been doing so far.(Al Jazeera)
  • The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) calls for the protection of citizens in the Somali Civil War, the latest of many ongoing diplomatic and humanitarian appeals and efforts to minimize the growing humanitarian crisis. (Common Dreams)
• The second part of the fifth round of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program end without any agreement being reached or a date for the next round being set. (The Guardian)

• The UN Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1737, sanctioning Iran for its nuclear program. (Bloomberg)
• The U.S. military reports that top Taliban military commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed on Tuesday by a U.S. airstrike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand. Taliban spokesmen deny he is dead. (CNN)

• United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warns of "troubling developments" in Burundi that could lead to violence. (allAfrica)
• Ethiopian intervention in Somalia:
  • Ethiopia has confirmed that its troops have invaded and are fighting Islamic militiamen that control much of Somalia. (BBC)
  • Ethiopian aircraft have dropped bombs and fired missiles on several towns in Somalia in what a government spokesman described as a "counter-attack" against the Islamic Courts Union. (Aljazeera)
• Raymond Wang injures his brother, dream-wise, and gets tickled in his private area until he pees in his

pants.

• Iraqi insurgency: Soldiers from the British Army storm a police headquarters in Basra, Iraq, arresting allegedly corrupt officers, transferring prisoners thought to have been subject to torture, and demolishing the building. [6]
• James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," dies of heart failure at the age of 73. (AP via Yahoo)
• Flooding in Indonesia's Aceh and North Sumatra provinces has killed up to 80 people. More than 100,000 people have been forced out of their homes. (BBC)
• The Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan does not pass amendments proposed by acting Prime Minister Felix Kulov to the Constitution, some of which would alter the make up of the Council by expanding the number of Parliamentarians and electing members by party-line-voting. The Supreme Council may vote again on the amendments over the next week. (EurasiaNet)
• War in Somalia:
  • Ethiopian jets have bombed two airports in Somalia in a widening operation against the Islamic Courts Union. (BBC)
  • The Ethiopians captured the town of Baladweyne. (Aljazeera)

• Gerald Ford, former President of the United States, dies at 93. (MSNBC) (BBC News)
• Almaz Atambayev, Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, warns that if Prime Minister Felix Kulov's proposed amendments to the constitution are passed, giving greater power to the executive branch, Kyrgyzstan will descend into civil war. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• Trial of Saddam Hussein: An appeal court in Baghdad has rejected former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's appeal against the death sentence handed down on November 5 for the 1982 killings of Shias in Dujail. By Iraqi law, the execution by hanging has to be carried out within 30 days after the announcement of the rejection. (BBC News)
• Between 200 and 500 people have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, according to the Red Cross. The blast is believed to have been caused by thieves puncturing the pipeline in an attempt to siphon off fuel into a tanker. (BBC)
• War in Somalia: Somalia's Islamist militia are reported to have withdrawn from frontlines after a sustained assault by government forces backed by Ethiopian troops. (BBC)
• Southwestern Taiwan is shaken by a 7.2 earthquake at 20:28 (GMT+8). A second aftershock, estimated at 7.1 and centered in Pingtung County, is felt 5 minutes later. According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, no Pacific-wide tsunami is expected. (TVBS) (CNN)

• More than 105 people have died following days of heavy rains in Indonesia, and hundreds more are still missing. (BBC)
• Six people die and one person goes missing after a helicopter carrying gas workers ditches into Morecambe Bay east of the Irish Sea, off the coast of Morecambe, England. (Times Online)
• The Kazakh KNB has broken up and arrested members of the Stepnogorsk zhamaat terrorist organization, confiscating weapons and religious literature. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• An earthquake near Taiwan damages undersea cables, disrupts phone and Internet service in Asia and the U.S. (MSNBC) (Reuters) (Guardian) (International Herald Tribune)
• The French Space Agency (CNES) spacecraft COROT was successfully launched in Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 14:28 UTC (GMT+4) to search for extrasolar planets.
• War in Somalia:
  • Ethiopian/Transitional Federal Government forces regain Jowhar after heavy fighting. The Islamist militia go into a retreat towards Mogadishu. (The Associated Press)
  • Mogadishu is besieged after Islamists retreated to it. (Reuters)
• Former U.S. Senator and 2004 Democratic Vice-Presidential Candidate John Edwards will run for the 2008 Democratic Presidential Nomination. (MSNBC)

• The Majilis of Kazakhstan approves a bill pledging not to engage in nuclear proliferation while Kazakhstan begins its nuclear program. (Kazinform)
• War in Somalia: Ethiopian and Transitional government troops capture Mogadishu without resistance. ICU fighters flee to Kismayo, their last remaining stronghold, 300 miles (500km) to the south. (BBC) (Aljazeera)

• Police discover skulls, bodies of 15 missing children in Noida, India.
• AT&T, Inc. acquires BellSouth Corporation to create the one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. [7]
• The United Kingdom pays off the last of its debts from World War II by paying the last $100 million to the United States and Canada. The country still has debts outstanding from the Napoleonic Wars, which are cheaper to pay interest on than to redeem. (International Herald Tribune) (BBC)
• Kazakh Foreign Minister Kassym-Jomart Tokayev says that in the event of a war in Turkmenistan over succession to Turkmenbashi Saparmurat Niyazov, "Kazakhstan is not going to get involved." (Interfax)
• Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev will address the Supreme Council on 30 December 2006 in an effort to compromise on proposed amendments to the constitution. Several Parliamentarians warn that Kyrgyzstan is on the verge of civil war. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
• A 25 square mile (66 km²) chunk of the Ayles Ice Shelf was discovered to have broken off of Ellesmere Island, Nunavat, Canada. (NatlGeog), (BBC), (Scotsman), (Reuters), (CBC)

• Saddam Hussein is executed, by hanging, at approximately 06:00 local time (03:00 UTC). (BBC News)
• A bomb exploding in the parking lot of Terminal 4 of Barajas Airport, Madrid, Spain, killes two people, damages cars and buildings. (CNN)
• The Supreme Council of Kyrgyzstan votes 50 to 1 in favor of amendments to the Constitution giving greater power to the executive branch after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev accuses Parliamentarians of "sabotaging" the political process. The President will now have the power to appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister and his cabinet and regional governors. The SNB, the domestic intelligence organization, will report to the President, not the legislature. (Al Jazeera)
• At least 500 people are feared to have drowned after the ferry Senopati Nusantara travelling between the port of Kumai on the Indonesian island of Borneo to Semarang on Java sank during a storm. (BBC)
• Former U.S. President Gerald Ford's funeral is held at the United States Capitol. (CBS)
• The coat of arms of Nepal is changed as a gesture of reconciliation after the Nepalese Civil War. (People's Daily)
• A 67-year-old Spanish woman, whose name has not been revealed, is reported to have given birth to twins in Barcelona, becoming the oldest birth mother. (BBC)
• Tiki Barber rushes for 234 yards in his final game in the nfl. This is a record for the most rushing yards in a running backs last game, and a New York Giants team record for the most rushing yards in a game.

• Austrian Minister of the Interior Liese Prokop dies of aortic dissection. (IHT)
• New Year's Eve 2006-2007:
  • The world begins celebrations of the beginning of 2007, starting at 10:00 UTC when midnight strikes in the Line Islands, Kiribati. (AP)
  • Terrorists set off eight coordinated explosions killing two people and injuring 12 in Bangkok, Thailand. The government cancels Bangkok's New Year's Eve celebrations. (CNN)
• War in Somalia: The Battle of Jilib erupts between the forces of the Ethiopian-backed Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Courts Union.(Reuters)
• The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq reaches 3,000 since the 2003 U.S. invasion. (Reuters)