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PolitInfo.com > Current Events > January 2005
February 2005 - March 2005 - April 2005 - May 2005
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Articles: January 2005
January
31, 2005
-
A U.S. federal judge has ruled that military tribunals for prisoners at the
U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are unconstitutional. In a setback for the
Bush administration, a U.S. district judge in Washington D.C. also ruled that
the Guantanamo detainees have constitutional protections under the law. The
military tribunals have been criticized by human rights groups as
fundamentally unfair to defendants.
(PolitInfo)
-
Arab-Israeli Conflict: A ten-year-old
Palestinian girl dies after being shot in the head as she played in her
school playground in
Rafah.
Palestinian witnesses allege she was shot by
Israeli fire
from the nearby military position, but Israel said an initial investigation
suggested they were not responsible, as its troops had not opened fire in that
area. Hamas
launches mortar shells in retaliation, damaging a house in an Israeli
settlement.
(BBC)
(CBS) (PolitInfo)
-
The 53-nation African Union ends a two-day summit in Abuja, Nigeria,
pledging unity on the continent, progress to combat diseases and African
solutions to end conflicts.
(PolitInfo)
- Indonesia's separatist Aceh rebels offere to put their independence
demands on hold, if the government agrees to a referendum within 10 years. But
the government quickly rejects the idea, placing future peace talks in
question.
(PolitInfo)
- To allay fears that sectarian tensions in Iraq could worsen in the
aftermath of Sunday's elections, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says he
will start a national dialogue to ensure that all minority groups have a voice
in Iraq's next government.
(PolitInfo)
- A car bomb explodes in
Dushanbe, the capital of
Tajikistan
(ITAR-TASS) (
(Interfax)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- In Chile,
former head of secret
police, general
Manuel Contreras, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail for the
1975
disappearance of left-wing activist
Miguel Angel Sandoval
(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
30, 2005
-
Conflict in Iraq:
-
Polls close in
Iraq marking the first multi-party election in 50 years. Electoral
officials estimate about a 60% turnout. Turnout was especially heavy in
Shi'ite and Kurdish-dominated regions of the country. A series of election day attacks
across the country killed at least 44 people, mainly in
Baghdad.
The 275-member
National Assembly will create a new
constitution, choose a new president and two new vice presidents.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Between nine and fifteen
British
soldiers die as a
C-130 Hercules transport plane crashes about 40km north west of
Baghdad.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
(BBC)
(CNN) (PolitInfo)
- The summit of the
African Union begins in
Nigeria,
with 25 African
heads of state and
United Nations Secretary General
Kofi
Annan in attendance. African leaders are seeking ways to ensure progress for
the continent and better representation at the United Nations Security Council.
(News24)
(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Talks between the
Indonesian government and
Free Aceh Movement leaders in
Helsinki
end a day early, possibly signaling a breakdown in negotiations.
(IHT) (PolitInfo)
- In eastern
Sudan, demonstrators on their way to a meeting with tribal leaders clash
with police leaving up to 17 protestors dead. A Sudanese general states that
the protestors were looting and inciting violence against his men. Members of
eastern tribes, mainly
Beja, presented a
list of demands which included better representation to the provincial
governor three days ago.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
29, 2005
- Israelis and Palestinians are scheduled to hold the first high-level talks
between the two sides in nearly two years. A Palestinian
official announces that President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon will meet the second week of February.
(PolitInfo)
- In Bangladesh, the political opposition has called a general strike
shutting down much of the country. The Awami League called the nationwide
strike after its former finance minister, Shah A.M.S. Kibria, was killed on
Thursday in a grenade attack on a party rally, the latest in a series of
violent incidents over the last year and a half in which scores of people have
been killed or wounded.
(PolitInfo)
- The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has been hit in an apparent rocket or
mortar attack, and U.S. officials confirm two Americans have been killed and
at least four others wounded.
(PolitInfo)
- Nonstop flights between China and Taiwan take off for the first time in
more than half a century as part of a temporary plan to ease tensions across
the Taiwan Strait..(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- A low-key and tightly controlled funeral is held for purged
Chinese Communist leader
Zhao
Ziyang.(AP) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
28, 2005
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- Hamas, contesting their first election, have swept to power in local elections in
Gaza, unofficial
reports say.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Thousands of Palestinian police have begun deploying in the southern Gaza
Strip. Palestinian authorities say security forces headed for two of the most
volatile areas - the refugee camps of Khan Younis and Rafah. Militants there
have launched rocket and mortar attacks at Israeli troops and Jewish
settlements.
(PolitInfo)
- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, addressing the World Economic Forum
in Switzerland, says that any dispute over Iran's intentions must be
resolved by diplomacy and not military force.
(PolitInfo)
- In
Bangladesh, a grenade attack kills former finance minister
Shah AMS Kibria of
Awami
League and four others
(Reuters Alertnet)
(Channel News Asia) (PolitInfo)
- The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration says
out-of-country voting for Iraqi expatriates is now in full swing in most of
the 14 countries where registration took place.
(PolitInfo)
- Armed militiamen have burnt down a village in the district of Ituri, in
northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing at least 1,500 residents to
flee to nearby localities.
(PolitInfo)
- China says it is willing to reopen negotiations with rival Taiwan if the
island's government halts what Beijing officials see as moves toward
independence. Beijing's overtures comes hours before the start of the first
nonstop flights between the mainland and Taiwan. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
27, 2005
-
Conflict in Darfur:
- Around 100 people have been killed following an
Air Raid
into the Darfur
region of Sudan according to the
African Union. Jean Baptiste Natama, the A.U's spokesperson has described
it as a "major ceasefire violation".
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Days before a U.N. commission of inquiry issues its opinion on whether
genocide has been committed in Darfur, U.S. diplomats have approached the U.N.
Security Council about ways of prosecuting those responsible for atrocities in
Sudan's Darfur region. But the discussions are stalled over Washington's
opposition to the International Criminal Court.
(PolitInfo)
-
Holocaust survivors, former
Red Army
soldiers, leaders of more than 40 countries, and other people gather in
Oświęcim,
Poland for
the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the
Auschwitz concentration camp where more than 1 million people were killed.
(Jerusalem Post)
(Deutsche Welle)
(BBC)
(Bloomberg)
(Reuters Alertnet) (PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In an interview with
Yedioth Ahronoth,
Israeli
Prime Minister,
Ariel
Sharon, has said he is "very satisfied" with
Palestinian
President
Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to restore calm. Sharon pledged to further peace
process efforts with Abbas, with a meeting possible within two weeks.
(Swiss Info)
(PolitInfo)
- The fifth
World Social Forum begins in
Porto
Alegre,
Brazil. The event is accompanied by tens of thousands of activists
(Forbes)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq: Insurgents in Iraq kill at least 15 Iraqis and
wound several others and attack several polling stations in their campaign to
disrupt Sunday's national elections.
(PolitInfo)
- An Indonesian government delegation is in Finland preparing for talks with
the exiled leadership of the Aceh-separatist movement known as GAM.
(PolitInfo)
- Opposition candidates and journalists say international standards are
being violated in the Kyrgyz parliamentary election campaign and fear the
government will act to close independent newspapers before the election next
month.
(PolitInfo)
January
26, 2005
-
The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, is appealing for more than 760
million dollars to help millions of children struggling to survive conflicts
and other emergencies in countries around the world. In its annual
Humanitarian Action Report, UNICEF outlines the concerns and needs of children
in so-called forgotten emergencies in 33 crisis countries.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A meeting between senior Israeli and
Palestinians officials has ended a ban imposed on diplomatic contacts by
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon nearly two-weeks ago. There are also
reports that Israel has decided to stop targeted killing of Palestinian
militants.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq: 36
US soldiers have died in a single day in
Iraq. A
helicopter crash in western
Iraq has claimed
the lives of 30 US
marines and a
sailor. It is the single worst loss of life for US forces since they
invaded Iraq in March 2003. Elsewhere insurgents killed 4 US troops in
Anbar, and
another soldier was killed in
Baghdad
following an
RPG attack.
(Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
The United Nations says fresh fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan
killed at least 100 people and displaced more than nine-thousand.
(PolitInfo)
-
Condoleezza Rice is confirmed in the
U.S. Senate by a vote of
85-13 to become the first
African-American woman to serve as
U.S. Secretary of State.
(CNN) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In Burundi,
South African mediator, deputy president
Jacob
Zuma has warned the president of the
transitional government,
Domitien Ndayizeye, not to try to change the
draft
constitution to let himself run in the forthcoming elections
(Reuters Alertnet)
(IOL)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- The
World Economic Forum begins in
Davos,
Switzerland
(BBC)
(SwissInfo) (CNN) (PolitInfo)
- In Liberia,
United Nations peacekeeping forces have sent troops and imposed a
curfew to
town of Harper to quell riots over alleged ritual killings
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC)
- In
China, the
death sentence of
Tibetan
lama
Tenzin Delek Rinpoche is commuted to
life imprisonment
(Reuters AlertNet)
(Human Rights Watch)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
January
25, 2005
- After being incarcerated without trial for almost three years, the four
remaining
British detainees at
Guantanamo Bay,
Moazzam Begg,
Feroz
Abbasi,
Martin Mubanga and
Richard Belmar, are released and flown back to the United Kingdom, where they
are in police custody for questioning.
(BBC)
(Guardian) (PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq:
- Human Rights Watch says Iraqi security forces are committing systematic
torture of people detained for suspected criminal or militant activities.
(PolitInfo)
- Iraqi police say gunmen have assassinated an Iraqi judge as he was heading
to work in eastern Baghdad.
(PolitInfo)
- Insurgents in Iraq release a video tape that shows a U.S. citizen held
hostage and saying his life is in danger.
(PolitInfo)
- The
Bush administration is requesting an additional $80
billion
from
Congress for
Iraq and
Afghanistan, bringing the total cost of both operations over $280 billion.
(Reuters)
(CNN) (PolitInfo)
- In the
Republic of China/Taiwan,
President
Chen Shui-bian names fellow
Democratic Progressive Party member
Frank
Hsieh, as the new
premier. He calls for a reconciliation with the political opposition,
which maintained its
legislative majority in last month's elections.
(Channel News Asia) (PolitInfo)
- In Kenya,
clashes between
Kikuyu and
Maasai in the
Rift
Valley have led to at least 14 deaths. The fight is over
water rights of
Ewaso Kedong River.
(Standard, Kenya)
(AllAfrica)
(Reuters Alertnet) (PolitInfo)
January
24, 2005
-
The United Nations General Assembly holds a special plenary session
commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps. The
session was the first-ever official U.N. remembrance of the Holocaust, part of
a week of remembrances around the world.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq: A suicide
car bomb
is detonated near interim Prime Minister
Iyad
Allawi's
Iraqi National Accord party office. Officials say Allawi was not in the
area at the time and that seven policemen and three civilians were wounded.
U.S. military
officials confirm the death of one soldier in
Mosul and state
four of Iraq's 18
provinces, a quarter of the total population and predominately
Sunni, will be
unsafe to vote in Sunday's
elections.
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
-
Yuliya Tymoshenko is appointed
Prime Minister of Ukraine as one of
President
Viktor Yushchenko's first official acts, before a state visit in
Moscow. Her
post still requires ratification by the
Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's
parliament.
(Kyiv Post)
(Guardian) (PolitInfo)
- In Sudan,
leader of
Sudan People's Liberation Army
John
Garang says that the northern government would have to say why the country
should stay united. SPLM leadership is to ratify the peace deal with the
Khartoum
government later.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
23, 2005
-
Viktor Yushchenko is
invested as president of
Ukraine at
a ceremony in Kiev
before a large crowd of supporters and attended by numerous
heads of state and other dignitaries from around the world.
(BBC)
(AP)
(PolitInfo)
- Palestinian militants are reportedly nearing an agreement with newly
elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt attacks against Israel.
Militant leaders are disputing an Israeli claim that a deal has already been
made, but officials on both sides express a willingness to respect a ceasefire
if and when one is established.
(PolitInfo)
- Sri Lanka's government is denying claims by Tamil Tiger rebels that it is
using tsunami relief money to buy weapons and obstructing aid deliveries to
areas under rebel control. A leader of the Tamil Tiger separatists on Saturday
accused the Sri Lankan government of taking advantage of last month's tsunami
disaster to build up its military strength.
(PolitInfo)
- Initial results indicate two pro-democracy candidates have won
parliamentary seats in the Maldives parliamentary election. The opposition has
dismissed the vote as a sham marred by irregularities. Political parties are
banned in the Maldives, and all 150 candidates officially ran as independents.
(PolitInfo)
January
22, 2005
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades agrees to a ceasefire if
Israel will
promise to fully halt military operations inside the
West Bank
and Gaza
Strip, including arrest raids and assassinations. The militant group
rejects Israel's
offer to ease operations.
(BBC)
(Reuters)
(Haaretz) (PolitInfo)
-
U.S. Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld cancels his attendance at the
Munich
Security Conference in February due to a
war
crimes investigation filed against him in Germany by the New York-based
Center for Constitutional Rights in connection with detainee abuses at
Iraq's
Abu Ghraib prison.
(Expatica) (DW)
-
Conflict in Iraq:
- The
Association of Muslim Scholars negotiates the release of 8
Chinese
hostages kidnapped by the
Islamic Resistance Movement (Iraq).
(BBC)
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- A militant group in Iraq says it has shot to death 15 National Guardsmen
who were abducted last week in Baghdad.
(PolitInfo)
- Political parties and the coup leader in the Central African Republic
reach an agreement on the participation of six of the seven candidates who
were still excluded from running in the presidential election, now pushed back
from next month to March 13th.
(PolitInfo)
- Delegates at the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction in
Kobe, Japan approve an action plan to reduce casualties and damage
caused by natural disasters.
(PolitInfo)
January
21, 2005
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The
Palestinian Authority redeploys paramilitary police in
Gaza for the
first time since the outbreak of the
Al-Aqsa Intifada. Hundreds of Palestinian security forces take up position
across northern Gaza to prevent militant attacks against Israeli
citizens.
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq:
- At least 14 people die and more than 40 others are wounded in a car bombing at a Shia mosque in Iraq's
capital.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- 5 Danish
troops, including an army intelligence officer, have been charged with
mistreating Iraqi
prisoners in southern Iraq last year.
(BBC)
- Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko is scheduled to be sworn in as the
next president of Ukraine Sunday.
(PolitInfo)
- The head of a cease-fire monitoring mission in northern Sudan's Nuba
Mountains says the mandate of the international monitoring mission has been
renewed.
(PolitInfo)
January
20, 2005
- In Ukraine,
the Supreme Court dismisses prime minister
Viktor Yanukovych's appeal and confirms that
Viktor Yushchenko has won the presidential election.
(Bloomberg)
(ITAR-TASS)
(Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
United States: U.S. President
George W. Bush is sworn in for his
second term, with a pledge to seek "freedom
in all the world ".
(AP) (PolitInfo)
- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami issues a new warning that Tehran will
respond to any hostile military action from the United States, but he says he
does not believe U.S. forces will attack his country.
(PolitInfo)
- Guinea police are investigating a possible assassination attempt against
long-time President Lansana Conte, who says it was an attack by external
enemies.
(IAfrica)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- British officials are denying a newspaper report that London is urging the
United States to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
(PolitInfo)
- France
extradites
Holger Pfahls, former German deputy defence minister suspected of
corruption
(Deutsche Welle)
(Bloomberg)
(PolitInfo)
- U.S. Senate leaders postpone a confirmation vote on Secretary of
State-designate Condoleezza Rice until next week, after Democrats demanded
more time to debate the nomination.
(PolitInfo)
- Mozambique's top judicial body declares Armando Guebuza the country's new
president, after rejecting an opposition challenge to last month's vote.
(PolitInfo)
January
19, 2005
- Senior British politicians express shock and disgust over a series of
photos published in the nation's newspapers allegedly showing British troops
abusing Iraqi prisoners.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq: Several early-morning car bombings shook the Iraqi
capital of Baghdad, killing as many as 26 people.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel agrees to hold security talks with
Palestinian officials, reversing a total ban on contacts ordered by Israel
last week after a deadly attack by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(PolitInfo) Wednesday's
decision comes after newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered
his security forces in Gaza to crack down on militants launching attacks
against Israelis.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Indian Army
says that
Pakistan has violated
ceasefire
after a mortar
fire over the military line that divides
Kashmir.
Pakistan denies the charge.
(ExpressIndia)
(Reuters Alertnet)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Niger's President Mamadou Tandja has been chosen as the new chairman of
the Economic Community of West African states.
(PolitInfo)
-
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake: The number of people known to have died in
last month's
Asian tsunami has reached 226,000, following an announcement by
Indonesian
officials that more than 166,000 had been confirmed dead in their country
alone.
(BBC)
January
18, 2005
- Ukraine's Supreme Court lifts a ban on the official publication of
election results from the December 26 re-run presidential election. The
decision clears the way for the inauguration of a new president.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq:
- Insurgents in Iraq release a videotape of eight Chinese men allegedly
being held as hostages.
(PolitInfo)
-
Syrian Catholic Archbishop of
Mosul
Basile Georges Casmoussa is kidnapped in
Iraq. The
Vatican
condemns the act and demands his release; Casmoussa is later freed.
(Catholic World News)
(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- A
U.N.
World Conference on Disaster Reduction in
Kobe,
Japan begins. About 3,000 government officials, non-governmental experts
and other specialists from around the world will discuss the growing trend of
people affected by
natural disasters..
(BBC)
(WCDR Official Site)
(PolitInfo)
- The International Federation of Journalists says governments have a
responsibility to investigate the deaths of reporters and other media staff,
whether they occur in combat zones like Iraq or in local circumstances. The
group says investigations into the deaths of media personnel are often no more
than what it calls a "whitewashing exercise".
(PolitInfo)
- The government of
Sudan signs a
preliminary
peace
treaty with the
National Democratic Alliance (Sudan), an opposition
Umbrella group of rebels in the north and east of the country.
(Sudan Tribune)
(IslamOnline) (BBC)
- Somalia's prime minister announces plans for his new government to
relocate to Somalia's capital Mogadishu from its temporary base in Kenya.
(PolitInfo)
- The U.N. Refugee Agency reports up to 20,000 refugees have arrived in
Uganda from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo in the past week. The
agency says a recent upsurge of fighting in the Congo is causing chaos and
confusion.
(PolitInfo)
-
Mark Latham, leader of
Australia's
opposition
Labor Party, resigns from his position and from
parliament due to ill health.
(Melbourne Herald Sun)
(ABC)
(BBC)
January
17, 2005
- The United Nations unveils a package of proposals aimed at cutting
the number of people living in poverty by one half within 10 years. The plans
were developed by an independent panel including leading experts in the field
of development.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq: Iraqi officials say at least 15 Iraqi police and
national guardsmen are killed in two separate insurgents attacks.
(PolitInfo)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- Palestinian Cabinet ministers say
security forces have been told to prevent militant attacks against Israel.
(PolitInfo)
- Israeli soldiers kill eight Palestinians and militants fire mortar bombs
and rockets into Gaza settlements and one Israeli town, injuring two people.
(PolitInfo)
- Investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh writes in the
New
Yorker that sources inside the military and the intelligence
communities say the United States administration has indicated its resolve to
attack Iran and
to conduct broad covert action in many countries.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- An Indian
train fire that killed up to 60
Hindus and
sparked deadly religious
riots in 2002 was started by accident - not firebombs thrown by
Muslims as
had been reported, an Indian Railways inquiry headed by a retired Judge
Bannerjee has said. Justice Banerjee said that according to eyewitness
accounts people had been cooking in the carriage at the time it caught fire.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Zhao Ziyang, former
Premier of the People's Republic of China and
General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, dies at age 85.
(XinhuaNet)
(Reuters)
(CNN) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
January
16, 2005
- Croatian
president
Stipe
Mesic wins a secondfive-year term in a run-off election
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- The leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization urges militants
to end attacks against Israel, saying such violence 'harms our national
interest.'
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon orders the military to step
up operations against Palestinian militants.
(PolitInfo)
- The armed Basque separatist group, ETA, says it is willing to take part in
peace talks with the Spanish government.
(PolitInfo)
- Algerian state media say the Algiers government has reached a peace deal
with tribal leaders in the Kabylie region, where ethnic Berber hostility
toward the government erupted into violence in 2001.
(PolitInfo)
January
15, 2005
- At Fort Hood, in Texas, a military court sentences U.S Army Specialist
Charles Graner to ten years in prison for abuse of Iraqi detainees at the
infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
(PolitInfo)
-
Palestinian presidential election:
Mahmoud Abbas is sworn in as President of the
Palestinian Authority in a ceremony in the
West Bank
town of
Ramallah, six days after winning the
Palestinian presidential election. The new
Palestinian President, has called for an end to the violence, and a mutual
ceasefire between the
Israelis and
the Palestinian Militant factions. Mahmoud Abbas
says he will ask the Palestinian Authority's current prime minister, Ahmed
Qureia, to stay on to form a new government.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- China and Taiwan agree to allow direct commercial flights for a limited
time between their territories for the first time in 55 years. The move is
expected to ease tensions in one of Asia's most contentious political disputes.
(BBC)
(CNN) (PolitInfo)
January
14, 2005
- A military jury at Fort Hood, in Texas, convicts U.S. Army
Specialist Charles Graner for charges related to abuse of Iraqi prisoners of
war at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- The Israeli government has cut all ties with the newly elected leader of
the Palestinian Authority until he curbs attacks against Israel.
(PolitInfo)
- The
Gaza Strip has been completely sealed off by
Israel,
following yesterday's events which saw the first major attacks by
Palestinians on Israeli civilians since
Abu Mazen
was elected, and followed several Israeli raids in the
Gaza
Strip and the
West Bank.
(BBC)
(Al Jazeera)
- Ukraine's former Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, files his last legal
appeal with the Supreme Court over the December 26th re-run presidential
election won by his rival, opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq: Iraqi authorities say attackers have gunned down
an election official in western Baghdad, in what is at least the seventh
killing of an election worker before Iraq's national election at the end of
this month.
(PolitInfo)
- Indonesia's vice president says his government will move beyond ceasefire
talks with separatist rebels in Aceh province and work toward a permanent
solution to the dispute. The vice-president made the remark during a visit to
the tsunami-hit area.
(PolitInfo)
- An
Argentinean ex-naval officer
Adolfo Scilingo goes to trial in
Spain accused
of killing
political prisoners during Argentina's "Dirty
War". He was declared fit for trial despite a
hunger strike.
(Reuters Alertnet)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
13, 2005
- In its annual report, Human Rights Watchs says human rights around the world were dealt a blow
last year in part because of ethnic cleansing in Sudan and prisoner abuse by
US military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq: Sheikh Al-Madaini, a senior aide to the
Ayatollah Sistani, 4 bodyguards and his son have been killed in an attack
in the Baghdad's
suburb
Salman Pak.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
-
Palestinian
militants
explode a
truck laden with explosives in the
Karni crossing in the eastern
Gaza
Strip. At least 6
Israelis
are killed, as well as three of the attackers, and about 10-20 are wounded
in the attack. The
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the
Popular Resistance Committees and
Hamas claim
joint responsibility.
(Haaretz)
(Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Somalian
transitional parliament in
Kenya approves
the second suggested cabinet of prime minister
Ali Mohammed Ghedi. They rejected his earlier suggested cabinet four weeks
ago
(AllAfrica) (Reuters) Alertnet)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Following several days of talks of the African Union's Peace and Security
Council, the AU calls for African states to put together a force to help the
Congolese army forcibly disarm Rwandan rebels in eastern Congo. The African
Union also urges the United Nations to bolster its peacekeeping mission in the
country where fighting continues, despite numerous peace deals.
(PolitInfo)
- In
Indonesia, rebels of the
Free Aceh Movement offer new truce talks.
(Jakarta Post)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In a report on long-term global trends, the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), says Iraq has become a magnet for international terrorist activity and
provides an ideal training ground for terrorists to enhance their skills.
(PolitInfo)
- The Ivory Coast National Unity Prime Minister Seydou Diarra asks for
President Laurent Gbagbo to declare the end of hostilities with northern
rebels, amid stalled peacemaking efforts.
(PolitInfo)
January
12, 2005
- Members of the European Parliament vote overwhelmingly in favor of a
new E.U. draft constitution that is designed to streamline the way the
25-member bloc works. The vote at the European Parliament meeting in the
French city of Strasbourg, was 500 in favor, 137 against, and 40 abstentions.
(PolitInfo)
-
United States intelligence officials confirm that its search for
weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq ended last
month, after a fruitless effort of more than a year and a half.. The claim that Iraq had an active WMD program was the White House's key
justification for the
2003 invasion of Iraq.
(CNN)
(BBC)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- In the
Ivory
Coast, former rebels warn that controversy over a disputed nationality law
could restart the
civil war
(BBC) .
South
African president
Thabo
Mbeki is in the country to mediate but ex-rebels refuse to meet President
Laurent Gbagbo.
(SABC) (Reuters Alertnet) (PolitInfo)
- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government survives a crucial
no-confidence vote in parliament when lawmakers approved his national budget
for 2005.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Israel has
carried out a series of raids into the
West Bank
and the
Gaza Strip. Two armed men were shot and killed in
Ramallah,
while four men were arrested in
Gaza City.
An Israeli civilian was also killed, and three Israeli soldiers were wounded
following an
Islamic Jihad attack on
Morag, in the
southern
Gaza Strip.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In
Abkhazia, breakway province of
Georgia, government re-runs disputed presidential election of last
October.
Sergei Bagapsh and
Raul Khadzhimba run as a team. Most countries do not recognize Abkhazian
independence.
(ITAR-TASS)
(Interfax)
(BBC)
January
11, 2005
- Darfur Conflict:
- The top U.N. envoy to Sudan is warning that the conflict in Darfur could
intensify despite the landmark peace deal between Khartoum and rebels in the
south. Special envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council that security
conditions in Darfur are bad, and could get worse unless quick action is taken.
(PolitInfo)
- US lawmakers are urging that the situation in Sudan's Darfur region not be
forgotten amid efforts to help victims of the tsunami disaster.
(PolitInfo)
- The United States says it has reached agreement with the British and
Australian governments for the transfer of custody of four British nationals
and an Australian from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(PolitInfo)
- Ukraine's Central Election Commission officially declares Viktor
Yushchenko the next president of Ukraine. Ukraine's former Prime Minister,
Viktor Yanukovych, says he can never accept the final, official results of the
re-run presidential election.
(PolitInfo)
- The African Union wraps up a summit in Gabon, vowing to take more
assertive action in ending lingering conflicts in Ivory Coast, Sudan's western
Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq:
- Ukraine's parliament calls for the immediate withdrawal of the country's
troops from Iraq, following the death of eight Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday.
(PolitInfo)
- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says the United States is not
training Iraqi forces to target insurgency leaders for assassination. The
secretary was commenting on a report on the Newsweek Magazine Web site that
his department is considering sending U.S. military Special Forces teams to
Iraq to do such training.
(PolitInfo)
- Iyad
Allawi, the interim Prime Minister of
Iraq has admitted
parts of the country will not be voting in this month's election.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
January
10, 2005
-
Mahmoud Abbas is officially declared winner of the
Palestinian
presidential election, with 62.9% of the votes cast.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- The Israeli parliament approves Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new
government coalition that brings together his right-of-center Likud Party with
the two opposition factions, the left-of-center Labor Party and the right-wing
religious party, United Torah Judaism.
(PolitInfo)
- African leaders at a two-day summit in Libreville, Gabon are trying
to find breakthroughs to stop the three major conflicts remaining on the
continent -- in Ivory Coast, in Sudan's western Darfur region, and in the
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. About a dozen heads of state are
attending the African Union Peace and Security Council meeting,
(PolitInfo)
- A military court at Fort Hood, Texas, hears opening testimony in the trial
of US Army Specialist Charles Graner, who is accused of abusing Iraqi
prisoners of war at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq: Baghdad's deputy police chief, Brigadier Amer Nayef, is
assassinated. The al-Zarqawi Group claims responsibility:
(PolitInfo)
- In the
Philippines, the
truce between
the army and Islamist rebels collapses. Government forces exchange fire with
the
MILF rebels in
Mindanao.
At least 21 people are killed.
(Reuters Alertnet) (PolitInfo)
January 9,
2005
- In Nairobi,
Kenya, the Sudanese government and the southern rebel group called the Sudan
People's Liberation Movement sign a comprehensive peace agreement to end
almost 22 years of war.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- After a 66% turnout and extended hours, an exit poll shows
Mahmoud Abbas winning the
Palestinian presidential election with two-thirds of the vote and
challenger
Mustafa Barghouti getting 19.7%.
(AP) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq:
- The Iraqi
interior ministry reports that
U.S. soldiers mistakenly shot and killed two Iraqi policemen and two
civilians after an attack on their convoy.
(PolitInfo)
- Gunmen kill the deputy police chief of the city of
Samarra,
Major Muhammad Muzaffar.
(BBC)
- U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is calling for the Sri Lankan government
and Tamil Tiger rebels to put aside their political differences as the country
starts to rebuild following last month's devastating tsunami.
(PolitInfo)
-
Iran says it will allow United Nations nuclear experts to take
environmental samples from a military site to disprove allegations Tehran is
secretly developing nuclear weapons.
(PolitInfo)
January 8,
2005
-
Conflict in Iraq:
U.S. Army
sergeant
Tracy Perkins is acquitted of
manslaughter but found guilty of
aggravated assault for forcing two
Iraqi civilians
to leap from a bridge into the
River Tigris
on 3
January 2004.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- International election monitors tour Israeli military checkpoints and
Palestinian voting sites, ahead of Sunday's presidential elections in the West
Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
(PolitInfo)
- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is in Kenya to witness the signing of
a peace deal to end a civil war in Sudan that has gone on for almost 22 years.
Mr. Powell says the peace deal may also prove helpful in ending a separate
crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
(PolitInfo)
January 7,
2005
- A U.S. Army reservist accused of being one of the key people in the abuse
of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad goeson trial at an army
base in Texas.
(PolitInfo)
-
Northern Ireland
police
Chief Constable
Hugh Orde publicly accuses the
Provisional IRA of the largest
bank
robbery in
U.K. history, now assessed at
£26.5
million. The money was taken from the
Northern Bank in
Belfast on
December 20.
(BBC)
(RTÉ) (PolitInfo)
-
Somalia's prime minister announces his new cabinet, following the rejection by
parliament last month of his first cabinet. The ministers were immediately
sworn in.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq:
- Insurgents in Iraq killed nine American troops. Seven US
soldiers are killed in a bomb attack in
Baghdad. In Al Anbar province, two U.S. Marines are killed.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- The French
newspaper
Libération reports that its journalist Florence Aubenas is missing
in Iraq.
(Libération)
(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
-
Palestinian
presidential candidate
Mustafa Barghouti is arrested by
Israeli
police on the last day of the campaign as he tried to enter the
Al-Aqsa mosque.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Violence on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict has killed at least
two people Friday. One Israeli is killed and four are wounded in a Palestinian shooting
attack in the north West Bank. Earlier, Israel said its soldiers shot and
killed a Palestinian man trying to infiltrate Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal
in the southern Gaza Strip. It was not clear if the man was armed.
(Haaretz) (PolitInfo)
- The United Nations says at least 30 civilians were massacred in eastern
Congo in mid-December in an apparent reprisal attack for the killing of three
dissident soldiers.
(PolitInfo)
- Chilean
officials search the offices of
Augusto Pinochet and investigate his
U.S. bank accounts.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- 80-year-old
Edgar Ray Killen is arrested for the
1964 killings of
three
civil rights workers that inspired the
American Civil Rights Movement and the film
Mississippi Burning.
(CNN) (PolitInfo)
-
2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake: The
Group of Seven Industrialised Nations (G7)
agrees to a moratorium on the debt repayments of countries worst affected by
the tsunamis in Asia.
(PolitInfo)
January 6,
2005
-
The
Ukrainian Supreme Court rejects
Viktor Yanukovych's appeal against the electoral commission's decision
that he lost the presidential election.
(BBC)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
-
President Bush's nominee to be U.S. Attorney General comes under harsh
questioning from U.S. lawmakers for his role in shaping policies that critics
say paved the way to the alleged torture of terror suspects.
(PolitInfo)
-
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake: World leaders gather in
Jakarta,
Indonesia,
for an emergency summit with the
United Nations. Aid pledges since the
Asian Tsunami disaster are near
USD 4 billion (€
3 billion). Nearly 150,000 people have been confirmed dead in the four hardest
hit nations - Indonesia,
India,
Sri Lanka
and Thailand.
(CNA) (PolitInfo)
- The
United States Department of Defense announces a new investigation into
allegations of prisoner abuse at the
Camp
X-Ray detention center in
Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has extended the country's
emergency laws for another 30 days, to guard against attacks in the run-up to
the January 30 election.
(PolitInfo)
-
2004 U.S. presidential election controversy: For the first time since 1877
the
Electoral vote certification in
Congress was interrupted by a formal challenge to an entire state's
Electoral votes. The challenge of
Ohio's Electoral
votes, brought by U.S. Representative
Stephanie Tubbs Jones and U.S. Senator
Barbara Boxer, lead to a 2-hour debate. The challenge was rejected by a
vote of
1-74 (Yea-Nay) by the
Senate and by a vote of
31-267 in the
House; the electoral vote for the
United States Presidency is officially certified as 286 for
Republican
George W. Bush, 251 for
Democrat
John
Kerry, and 1 for Democrat
John
Edwards, leading to Bush's reelection.
(CNN)
-
A coalition of civil society groups have urged the Ugandan government and the
rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) to resume the talks that collapsed on
Friday, saying the world should bring pressure on both to stop hostilities.
(PolitInfo)
-
The government in the Central African Republic has asked the International
Criminal Court to look into whether war crimes have been committed in the
country during the two-and-a-half years since the U.N. tribunal began
operating.
(PolitInfo)
January 5,
2005
- Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has accepted the resignation of
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the man he had earlier hoped would be his
successor.
(PolitInfo)
- Reporters Without Borders is calling 2004 the deadliest year in a decade
for media professionals, with 53 journalists and 15 assistants killed around
the globe.
(PolitInfo)
- The African Union approves in principal a peace support mission for
Somalia. The African Union is currently working out the exact number of troops
and the timelines of deployment for its Somali peace mission.
(PolitInfo)
- Iraqi authorites say at least 10 people were killed in a suicide
car bomb attack on a police academy south of Baghdad.
(PolitInfo)
-
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has been officially placed
under house arrest, a day after the Supreme Court upheld his indictment on
murder and kidnapping charges.
(PolitInfo)
- A group of retired U.S. military leaders is expressing "deep concern"
about President Bush's nominee to lead the U.S. Justice Department. The
officers want Attorney-General nominee Alberto Gonzales to explain his views
on torture, and his role in crafting Bush administration policy on treatment
of terror suspects. As White House legal counsel, Mr. Gonzales wrote a 2002
memo advising Mr. Bush that prisoner-of-war protections in the Geneva
Convention were made "obsolete" by the U.S.-led war on terror.
(PolitInfo)
- Nepal says its soldiers backed by helicopters have raided a rebel camp in
the remote western part of the country, killing at least 30 Maoist insurgents.
(PolitInfo)
January 4,
2005
-
Conflict in Iraq: Governor of
Baghdad
Ali
al-Haidri is assassinated in a roadside ambush in the
Iraqi capital.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Seven
Palestinians are killed when an
Israeli tank
opens fire on farmland in the northern
Gaza
Strip. Palestinian presidential candidate and Fatah leader
Mahmoud Abbas responds to the deaths with a strong verbal attack on the
"Zionist enemy" Israel. Six of the dead were reported from the same family, including
an 11-year-old boy. All the dead were reported younger than 18.
(The Guardian) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Chile's Supreme Court has upheld an indictment against former dictator Augusto
Pinochet on murder and kidnapping charges.
(PolitInfo)
-
Britain, France and Germany are calling for a freeze on foreign debt payments
by the Asian nations hardest hit by last week's tsunami.
(PolitInfo)
January 3,
2005
- In Iraq, a
spate of suicide bombings (including one near
Iraqi National Accord headquarters) kills 27. Interim defence minister
Hazim al-Shaalan hints that the
assembly elections scheduled for
30
January could be delayed to allow for Sunni Muslim participation.
(Oman Times)
(Al Jazeera) (PolitInfo)
- In Uganda,
a seven-week
ceasefire
between the government and the
Lord's Resistance Army ends with the rebel ambush of government troops
near the town of Gulu.
President
Yoweri Museveni promises to increase military action against the rebels, but
also says he is open to new peace talks with northern rebels, but only if the
meetings take place outside the country.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In Burundi,
government forces and members of various armed groups begin to join to form a
national army.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Israeli settler leaders warn that thousands of soldiers could refuse to
obey orders to evacuate Gaza Strip settlements if the government goes ahead
with its plan to withdraw from the area later this year.
(PolitInfo)
January 2,
2005
- In the
Croatian presidential election, incumbent
Stipe
Mesic receives 49% of the vote. He will face Deputy Prime Minister
Jadranka Kosor in a second round commencing on
January
16.
(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- The
Washington Post and
Reuters
report that the US government is preparing to keep suspected terrorists in
detention without charge for life.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- U.S. military officials say at least 19 Iraqis - including 18 national
guardsmen - have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack north of Baghdad.
(PolitInfo)
- Ethiopian
opposition groups demonstrate against the government's plan to reopen border
talks with
Eritrea.
(IOL)
(BBC)
January 1, 2005
- Fighting resumes in Uganda after the collapse of a cease-fire agreement
designed to open the way to formal peace talks.
(PolitInfo)
- Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma is calling on the country's 48
million people to put the bitterness of the recent presidential election
behind them and rally behind the incoming president.
(PolitInfo)
-
Luxembourg takes over Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
- Pakistan's opposition holds a 'black day' of protests across the
country after President Pervez Musharraf's decision to retain the powerful
post of army chief.
(PolitInfo)
January 2004 - February 2004 - March 2004 - April 2004 - May 2004 - June 2004 - July 2004 - August 2004 - September 2004 - October 2004 - November 2004 - December 2004
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