2006 Month-By-Month

January 2006

World

February 2006

World

• Hundreds Die in Ferry Accident (Feb. 3): An Egyptian ferry carrying mostly workers and vacationers returning from Saudi Arabia sinks off the coast of Egypt. Nearly 200 people die and another 800 are missing.
• Atomic Energy Board to Report Iran to the UN (Feb. 4): At an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, board members vote to refer Iran to the Security Council, citing its continued nuclear activity. (Feb. 6): Iran formally tells the IAEA that it will not be allowed to inspect Iran's facilities and that Iran will resume enrichment of uranium.
• Protests Over Cartoons Turn Violent (Feb. 4 et seq.): Throughout the Muslim world, angry demonstrators smash windows, set fires, and burn flags, protesting cartoons that depict Muhammad in a negative light. The cartoons have appeared in newspapers in several European countries. In Syria, mobs burn the Danish and Norwegian embassies. (Feb 5): In Lebanon, protesters torch a building that houses the Danish Mission. One person dies in the blaze. (Feb. 6): Violence spreads to Turkey, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and New Zealand. Five protesters die in Afghanistan.
• Benefits of Low-Fat Diets Are Refuted (Feb. 8): A $415 million, eight-year federal study finds that a low-fat diet does not decrease the risk of heart disease, cancer, or stroke. Many in the medical community call the results stunning.
• Olympic Games Open (Feb. 10): The XX Olympic Winter Games open in Turin, Italy.
• Iraqi Lawmakers Reelect Prime Minister (Feb. 12): Members of the Shiite alliance vote, 64–63, to retain Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister. He wins after securing the backing of radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
• UN Report Calls for Closure of Guantánamo Prison (Feb. 16): Investigators also urge the United States to either release or try the camp's prisoners and to “refrain from any practice amounting to torture.”
• Haiti Declares Winner of Presidential Election (Feb. 16): After protracted negotiations, Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council agrees to discard blank ballots and recalculate the results from the Feb. 7 election. The new formula gives René Préval more than 50% of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff election.
• Mudslide Destroys Town in the Philippines (Feb. 17): More than 1,000 are feared dead in Guinsaugon, a town of 1,857 people.
• New Palestinian Parliament Opens (Feb. 18): Militant group Hamas dominates the legislature, holding 74 out of 132 seats. Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas tells lawmakers they are obligated to honor agreements reached by other leaders. (Feb. 19): Israeli leaders vote to withhold $50 million per month to Palestinians, saying the Palestinian Authority is being led by a terrorist group. Hamas nominates Ismail Haniya as prime minister.
• Bomb Damages Shiite Shrine in Iraq (Feb. 22): A terrorist attack destroys the golden dome atop the most revered Shiite shrine in Iraq, the Askariya Shrine in Samarra. Shiites retaliate against Sunni mosques. (Feb. 23): Sectarian violence continues; nearly 140 people die in two days. (Feb. 24): Iraq imposes an extraordinary daytime curfew to stem the rising violence. (Feb. 27): The curfew is lifted, but the violence continues. Nearly 380 people have died in sectarian attacks related to the shrine bombing.
• Dubai Company to Delay Port Operations (Feb. 23): Responding to the furor among members of Congress, the public, and other government officials, Dubai Ports World says it will delay exercising control of several American ports when it finalizes a deal with Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, a British company that manages several U.S. ports.
• Hussein Prosecutors Present Evidence (Feb. 28): Head prosecutor in the trial of Saddam Hussein displays pages of documents that he says show that Hussein signed death warrants for nearly 150 men and boys in Dujail.

March 2006

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April 2006

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Mai 2006

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June 2006

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July 2006

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Sepember 2006

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Octomber 2006

World

• Runoff Election Necessary in Brazil (Oct. 1): Incumbent president Luiz Inácio da Silva fails to win a majority in presidential election, taking 48.65% of the vote. He'll face Geraldo Alckmin of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party.
• Violence Intensifies Between Palestinian Factions (Oct. 2): At least 10 people are killed and more than 100 wounded in two days of fighting between Hamas and Fatah. The situation casts doubt that Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will be able to form a unity government.
• Gunman Kills Three at Amish School (Oct. 2): Charles Roberts lines up 11 girls, kills three of them and critically wounds eight before killing himself. It is the third shooting at a U.S. school in a week.
• Monitoring Group Says IRA Has Stopped Terror Activity (Oct. 4): Report by the Independent Monitoring Commission finds that the Irish Republican Army has ceased paramilitary activity and has stopped sponsoring criminal enterprises.
• Google Agrees to Buy YouTube (Oct. 9): The online search giant will pay $1.65 billion in stock for YouTube, a video-sharing website that has exploded in popularity, with users watching about 100 million videos each day.
• North Korea Tests a Nuclear Missile (Oct. 9): International outrage and condemnation follows the explosion of a nuclear device in the mountains of North Korea. President Bush calls the test a “threat to international peace and security.” The United Nations Security Council meets to consider sanctions on the country.
• Iraqi Parliament Passes Law to Divide Country into Regions (Oct. 11): Parliament votes in favor of a law that would allow provinces to unite and form semi-independent regions. Sunnis in parliament, who oppose the move out of fear that Shiites and Kurds will control most of the country's oil, boycott the vote.
• Plane Crashes into Manhattan High Rise (Oct. 11): A single-engine plane carrying two peopl`e, one of them New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, crashes into a 42-story building on the Upper East Side. Both men die in the crash. Several others, including residents of the building and firefighters, are injured.
• New Secretary General of the UN Is Appointed (Oct. 13): General Assembly approves the nomination of Ban Ki-moon, South Korea's foreign minister. He will begin his five-year term on Jan. 1, 2007.
• Security Council Agrees on Sanctions for North Korea (Oct. 14): Votes unanimously in favor of a resolution punishing North Korea for its reported testing of a nuclear weapon. Resolution bans the sale of materials that could be used to produce nuclear, biological, chemical, or ballistic weapons and allows authorities of other countries to inspect cargo entering and leaving North Korea. The resolution does not mention using military force against North Korea. After voting in favor of the resolution, China says it will not take part in cargo inspections.
• Earthquake Strikes Hawaii (Oct. 15): Quake with a magnitude of 6.6 hits the Island of Hawaii. It is the largest earthquake since 1983.
• Iraqi Government Replaces Top Police Commanders (Oct. 17): Under pressure to control violence that has spiralled out of control, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fires two police generals. The security forces have been criticized for having been infiltrated by members of Shiite militias.
• U.S. Says Campaign to Stem Violence in Baghdad Has Failed (Oct. 19): Maj. Gen. William Caldwell IV says attacks on U.S. troops have increased and sectarian violence has soared since the additional troops were deployed to the Iraqi capital in August.
• Militias Battle for Control of Amarra (Oct. 20): The Mahdi Army, which is connected to Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and the Badr Organization destroy police stations and bring the city to a standstill.
• Bush Speaks Candidly About the War in Iraq (Oct. 25): In a news conference, president acknowledges that the war is not going as planned, Iraqi troops are falling far short of expectations, and that the U.S. military may have to change tactics to succeed. “The fact that the fighting is tough does not mean our efforts in Iraq are not worth it,” Bush said. “To the contrary; the consequences in Iraq will have a decisive impact on the security of our country, because defeating the terrorists in Iraq is essential to turning back the cause of extremism in the Middle East.” Iraqi prime minister Nura al-Maliki also makes a speech, which seems to contradict Bush's plan.
• Five Firefighters Die on Duty (Oct. 26): Four U.S. Forest Service crew members die while fighting a wildfire in California, which officials believe was set by an arsonist. More than 40,000 acres are burned and 34 homes are destroyed. (Oct. 31): A fifth firefighter dies.
• Reports Say Iran Is Enriching Uranium at Second Facility (Oct. 27): News report from Iran says that a second set of 164 centrifuges is in operation, doubling the country's ability to enrich uranium.
• U.S. Has Failed to Track Arms in Iraq (Oct. 29): Report by the Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction, which was requested by Republican senator John Warner, says the U.S. military has not appropriately tracked or maintained thousands of weapons that were sent to Iraq.
• President of Brazil Is Reelected (Oct. 29): Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva prevails over Geraldo Alckmin, 60.8% to 41.6% in the runoff election.
• Pakistan Military Targets Islamic School (Oct. 30): Missiles kill about 80 people who government officials say were militants when they destroy a school on the Afghanistan border. Officials also claim the school harbored members of al-Qaeda.
• North Korea Says It Will Return to Negotiations (Oct. 31): China announces that North Korea has agreed to resume disarmament talks with China, Russia, the U.S., and South Korea.
• U.S. Removes Checkpoints from Baghdad Streets (Oct. 31): Move follows demand by Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki. The U.S. military had set up checkpoints in an attempt to find a U.S. soldier who had been kidnapped.
• NASA Approves Mission to Repair Hubble Telescope (Oct. 31): Astronauts will fix and upgrade the telescope during a 11-day mission in 2008.

November 2006

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• California Man Is Charged with Murder in Wildfire (Nov. 2): Raymond Oyler pleads not guilty to charges of murder, arson, and other charges. He is accused of setting the Esperanza fire that killed five firefighters in late October.
• Taiwanese President Accused of Corruption (Nov. 3): Prosecutors indict Wu Shu-chen, the wife of President Chen Shui-ban, charging that she spent $450,000 in public funds on personal expenditures. Authorities also say that President Chen submitted fake receipts when drawing from the same fund and lied about how he spent the money.
• Hussein Is Found Guilty (Nov. 5): An Iraqi court convicts the former Iraqi president of crimes against humanity and sentences him to death by hanging. An appeal of the death sentence is automatic.
• Israel Ends Gaza Incursion (Nov. 7): Military withdraws from Gaza Strip after six-day mission to stop Palestinians from firing rockets into Israel. More than 50 Palestinians are killed in the operation and about 30 houses are destroyed. (Nov. 8): Israeli artillery kills 18 Palestinians, including eight children and six women, in Gaza. Israel expresses regret and says it was a preventive attack.
• Ortega Returns to Power (Nov. 7): Daniel Ortega, the former Marxist president of Nicaragua, is declared the winner of the country's presidential election.
• Democrats Take Over Congress in Midterm Elections (Nov. 7): Democrats pick up 27 seats in the House of Representatives, giving them a 230 seats to Republicans' 205. In the Senate, Democrats gain six seats, enough for a 51–49 majority.
• Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary (Nov. 8): A day after a majority of American voters voiced their opposition to the war in Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld announces his resignation as U.S. Secretary of Defense. President Bush nominates Robert Gates, the former chief of the CIA, as his successor.
• Dozens Are Kidnapped in Iraqi (Nov. 14): About 150 people are abducted from Iraq's Ministry of Higher Education by gunmen wearing police commando uniforms. (Nov. 16:) Four American security guards on one Austrian are taken when a supply convoy is hijacked in southern Iraq.
• South African Parliament Votes to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage (Nov. 14): Overwhelmingly approves proposal to legalize same-sex marriages.
• Data Say Land Occupied by Israel Is Palestinian (Nov. 20): Maps and figures obtained by Peace Now, an Israeli group, indicate that about 40% of the land in Israeli settlements in the West Bank is owned privately by Palestinians.
• Lebanese Minister Is Assassinated (Nov. 21): Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, a critic of Syria, is shot several times while in his car. His father, Amin Gemayel, is a former president of Lebanon.
• Nepal Government and Rebels Sign Accord (Nov. 21): Maoist rebels agree to lay down their arms and participate in government. They agree that elections will determine if the monarchy is to continue.
• Civilian Deaths Reach Record High in Iraq (Nov. 22): Some 3,700 Iraqi civilians died in October, the highest toll since the war began in 2003, according to the United Nations. Report also says that about 100,000 Iraqis flee each month to Jordan and Syria.
• Sectarian Violence Plagues Iraq (Nov. 23): More than 200 people die when five car bombs and a mortar shell explode in the Shiite-dominated Sadr City district of Baghdad. (Nov. 24): Shiites retaliate, attacking mosques in Baghdad and Baquba. Dozens die in the attacks.
• Bombs kill 160 in Bagdad, curfew imposed (Nov 23) Six car bombs killed 160 people in a Shi'ite stronghold on Thursday in the bloodiest attack in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion and the authorities imposed an indefinite curfew on a city fearful of a sectarian civil war.
• Israelis and Palestinian Agree to Cease-fire in Gaza (Nov. 25): Palestinian militants will end attacks into Israel and the Israelis will withdraw troops from the territory.
• Leaked Memo Questions Iraqi Leader (Nov. 28): A classified document, which was leaked to the New York Times, written by Stephen Hadley, President Bush's national security adviser, says Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki may not have the clout to stem the sectarian violence that has ravaged Iraq. “The reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”
• Bush Meets with Maliki in Jordan (Nov. 30): After meeting with Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Bush says the United States will not withdraw a large amount of troops from Iraq in the near future. Malilki says he expects his troops to be ready to assume security of the country by June 2007. Maliki had canceled an earlier meeting with Bush shortly after a memo by Bush's national security adviser that was critical of Maliki was leaked in the press.
• Hundreds Die in Philippines Typhoon (Nov. 30): About 460 people are killed in landslides in Albay Province that were caused by a typhoon.

December 2006

World

• Thousands Protest in Lebanon (Dec. 1): Members of Hezbollah and its supporters gather peacefully in Beirut and call for the resignation of Fouad Siniora, the U.S.-backed prime minister. The protests continue for nearly two weeks.
• Chávez Wins in a Landslide (Dec. 3): Hugo Chávez is reelected president of Venezuela, defeating Manuel Rosales 61% to 38%. Rosales accuses Chávez of voter intimidation and other tactics to win votes.
• UN Ambassador Resigns (Dec. 4): John Bolton steps down as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations when it becomes clear that he did not have enough votes in the Senate to win confirmation. President Bush appointed him in August 2005 without Senate approval during a congressional recess.
• NASA Announces Plan for Base on Moon (Dec. 4): Construction of the base is scheduled to begin after 2020, when astronauts will return to the Moon.
• Report Envisions Looming Crisis in Iraq (Dec. 6): Report by the Iraq Study Group, led by former secretary of state James Baker and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, says, “The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating” and calls on the Bush administration to reach out diplomatically to Iran and Syria to help prevent utter chaos. Report also recommends that the U.S. military beef up its effort to train Iraqi troops.
• Dozens Die in Suicide Bomb in Baghdad (Dec. 12): About 70 day laborers are killed in central Baghdad. The attack comes on the same day that the Iraqi government announces it wants to assume control of security in Baghdad.
• Circumcision Lowers Risk of Getting AIDS (Dec. 13): National Institutes of Health announces that the results of a study in Kenya and Uganda showed that male circumcision can reduce the risk of contracting AIDS through heterosexual sex by about half.
• Keep off the streets, British prostitutes urged(Dec. 13): A car bomb exploded in a parking lot at Madrid’s glittery new airport terminal on Saturday, following a warning call from the Basque separatist group ETA, officials said. Three people were slightly wounded.
Gunmen kill Hamas judge
• Gunmen kill Hamas judge(Dec. 13): Unidentified gunmen dragged a judge from the Hamas Islamist movement out of a taxi and shot him dead in front of his courthouse in Gaza on Wednesday, increasing fears of a Palestinian civil war.
• New UN Leader Is Sworn In (Dec. 14): Ban Ki-moon of South Korea is sworn in as the secretary general of the United Nations. He replaces Kofi Annan.
• Palestinian Leader Calls for Early Elections (Dec. 16): Expressing frustration with the growing violence between his Fatah party and the militant group Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas orders early presidential and parliamentary elections. Hamas leaders say he lacks the authority to demand the elections. The two groups have failed to create a unity government.
• Report Says Violence Has Reached a Peak in Iraq (Dec. 18): Pentagon assessment finds that attacks on Americans and Iraqis average about 960 a week, the highest number since it began writing the reports in 2005.
• Bush Signs Law Allowing Nuclear Pact with India (Dec. 18): President signs legislation that allows the U.S. to provide India with fuel for its civilian nuclear power program.
• Bush Calls for Expansion of Armed Forces (Dec. 19): President says military is strained and needs to increase the number of ground troops.
• Explosion rocks parking lot at airport Madrit (Dec. 28): Saddam Hussein is executed in the early hours before sunrise
• Saddam Houssein execution (Dec. 29): Saddam Hussein is executed in the early hours before sunrise
• Explosion rocks parking lot at airport Madrid(Dec. 30): A car bomb exploded in a parking lot at Madrid’s glittery new airport terminal on Saturday, following a warning call from the Basque separatist group ETA, officials said. Three people were slightly wounded.
• Bombs in Shi'ite areas kill 72 after Saddam hanged(Dec. 30): Four car bombs targeting Shi'ites in Baghdad and a town south of the capital killed more than 70 people on Saturday, hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged amid fears of revenge by his Sunni Arab supporters.