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May 2006 was a month with thirty-one days.
The following events also occurred during the month:
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- Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association outraged Vatican by planning to ordain another bishop, Liu Xinhong in Anhui Province. On Sunday, China has already ordained Ma Yinglin, not approved by the Holy See, as a bishop in Yunnan. Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen urged the Vatican to stop diplomatic talks with China [1]
- King Gyanendra of Nepal swears in Girija Prasad Koirala as the new Prime Minister of Nepal. Baburam Bhattarai of the CPN(M) which controls two thirds of the country, states that his party will respect the results of an election to a constituent assembly, so long as these are "free and fair". (BBC)
- President of Chad Idriss Déby refuses to delay upcoming presidential elections despite pressure from U.S. diplomat Donald Yamamoto, high ranking Chadian Christian officials, and the head of the Chadian human rights league. However, he announced the Chadian government is negotiating with the United Front for Democratic Change rebel group to avoid violence. (VOA)
- Spain, Portugal, Finland and Greece join the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and Sweden in allowing workers from the ten countries which joined the European Union two years ago free access to their labour markets. (BBC)
- Bolivian Gas War: President Evo Morales has signed a decree nationalising the nation's natural gas industry, instructing foreign energy firms to channel their activities through the Bolivian government within a six-month deadline or face expulsion, and ordering the Bolivian military to occupy and secure key energy installations. (BBC)
- Puerto Rico budget crisis: The government of Puerto Rico is partially shut down, including public schools. More than 90,000 employees of the public sector are put in license without salary. Their salary will not be paid until further notice, but they will remain employed whether they present themselves to work or not. If they present themselves to work it will be on a voluntary basis without retroactive payment. (Reuters)
- Terrorism in Kashmir: At least 22 Hindus in two small villages in Indian-administered Kashmir are killed by Islamic militants. (BBC), (Reuters)
- Darfur conflict: The African Union extends the deadline for a peace deal by 48 hours. (BBC), (Reuters)
- Beaconsfield mine collapse: Rescuers at a mine in Beaconsfield, Tasmania have begun work after two miners were detected alive. The two had been trapped alive over 1 kilometre underground for the past five days. (BBC)
- Immigrant workers and their supporters across the United States stay home from work or school and abstain from commerce during the 2006 Immigration Policy Boycott in the United States, also called the "Great American Boycott" or "Day Without Immigrants", a protest against the enforcement of immigration law. Demonstrations are planned nationwide. In Latin America, a one-day boycott of American products called the "Nothing Gringo Boycott" is planned in conjunction with U.S. events. (Guardian) (CNN) (SFGate)
- Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: The first day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States.
- Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka:
- A second wave of pollutants from last year's toxic chemical spill in Jilin City, China, trapped in the frozen Amur and Songhua Rivers during the winter, is now being released by the spring thaw, affecting Khabarovsk and other settlements in the Russian Far East. (BBC), (Guardian), (CNN)
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- Violence continues during the police raids of San Salvador Atenco, Mexico.
- Manasseh Sogavare is elected Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, following Snyder Rini's brief period in office. Sogavare was previously prime minister from 2000 to 2001. (ABC)
- In Israel, a new Cabinet under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is sworn in. (BBC)
- A tsunami warning was issued for Fiji and New Zealand following a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Tonga which occurred at 15:26 UTC (04:26 May 4, local time). The warning was canceled when it was found that the earthquake did not produce a tsunami. (USGS) (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center)
- Picasso's Dora Maar With Cat is sold in an auction for US$95,216,000, becoming one of the most expensive paintings in the world. (BBC)
- Shahrir Abdul Samad resigns as chairman of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club in the Parliament of Malaysia, after a motion to refer a Member of Parliament implicated in a corruption scandal to the Dewan Rakyat House Rights and Privileges Committee failed. (The Sun)
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party suffers one of its worst electoral defeats, losing more than 200 council seats in the 2006 UK local elections, and coming third in total votes, behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. (Reuters), (BBC)
- The latest update is the 2006 Red List. It evaluates 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160 subspecies, varieties, aquatic stocks, and subpopulations.
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- The People's Republic of China announces Vatican-approved Paul Pei Junmin will be ordained as a Catholic bishop on Sunday, just days after a diplomatic clash due to the unilateral ordination of two other bishops by Beijing. (Reuters)
- Mahamat Nouri, until recently the Chadian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who has previously served as the Chadian Defense Minister, defects to Sudan and joins the United Front for Democratic Change rebels. (Reuters)
- Grant McLennan, co-founder of the legendary Australian band The Go-Betweens dies at age 48, while sleeping in his house at Brisbane, Australia, from a reported heart attack.
- The People's Action Party is returned to government in Singapore for the twelfth time, winning 82 out of 84 seats with the ruling party winning 66.6% of the total votes in the 2006 general election. (CNA)
- The starboard engine of the cruise liner Calypso, sailing from Tilbury to St Peter Port on Guernsey, catches fire at 4 am, 16 miles off Eastbourne, southeast of the British coast. Its crew puts the fire out, after its 708 passengers are moved into its lifeboats. Rescue lifeboats attend but neither these nor the ship's lifeboats are needed.(Yahoo News).
- The People's Republic of China plans to launch satellites for lunar surveying, probing the moon's surface, physiognomy, landform and geological structure. (People's Daily)
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- Residents flee Mogadishu as warlords and Islamist militias battle for control of the Somali capital. The death toll in five days of fighting reaches 120. (VoA), (BBC)
- A grizzly-polar bear hybrid is found on Banks Island in Canada's Northwest Territories. (MSNBC)
- Baidu Baike, a collaborative online encyclopedia, is launched in People's Republic of China by Baidu.com, modelled on Wikipedia but heavily self censored. Wikipedia is largely inaccessible without a proxy in China. (BBC)
- The United States National Security Agency is reported to operate "the largest database ever assembled in the world", containing a record of all calls (domestic and international) placed through AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. Qwest Communications refused to provide customer records, citing the need for a warrant. (USA Today)
- Ernie Fletcher, Republican governor of the U.S. state of Kentucky, is indicted on three misdemeanor counts of conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination for hiring, promoting, demoting and firing state employees based on political loyalties.(Lexington Herald-Leader)
- Results for the state election held in Tamil Nadu, India, on May 8 were announced and the DMK and its allies have captured the power.And the AIADMK becoming a stronger opposition in the history of Tamil Nadu.
- The State of West Bengal also made a History. "The Communist Party of India (Marxsist) emerged victorius for another 5 years, making its stand of almost 35 years at a stretch"
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- CIA officials try to get the case of Khaled el-Masri, who says he was abducted and tortured, dismissed as it "could undermine U.S. relations with foreign countries". (Washington Post) (New York Times)
- The International Committee of the Red Cross criticizes the United States for denying access to detainees in violation of the Geneva Convention. The US admits holding detainees secretly but claims they do not fall under that convention. (ABC Australia) (Xinhua)
- Typhoon Chanchu makes landfall twice in the Philippines. 23 people are killed and five remain missing after a boat capsizes in the stormy seas off Masbate island. (CNEWS), (CNN), (Reuters), (SwissInfo)
- Chad:
- George Seitz, a Labor Party Member of the state Legislative Assembly in Victoria, Australia, is accused of running an elaborate branch stacking operation to manipulate results in state and federal elections and pre-selections. (The Age)
- Authorities in Indonesia issue a red alert for active volcano Mt. Merapi, evacuating 17,000 people in expectation of an eruption. (BBC) (MSNBC)
- Liverpool F.C. win the FA Cup against West Ham United F.C. on penalties after a last minute 40-yard Steven Gerrard equalizer. (BBC)
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- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- Ahmat Mahamat Bachir, the president of the Chadian Independent National Election Commission, announces that incumbent President of Chad Idriss Déby won the 2006 Chadian presidential election held on May 3 with 77.5% of the vote. The official turnout was 61%, though international observers estimated turnout at 4–10%. (Al Jazeera)
- Organized crime led by the group Primeiro Comando da Capital causes rioting in Brazil and claims over 50 lives. (BBC)
- Mount Merapi in Central Java, Indonesia, which has been rumbling for about a month, is shooting out black smoke, volcanic ash and lava, and a volcanic eruption appears to be imminent. Mandatory evacuations are under way. (BBC) (CNN) (Reuters)
- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, signs a petition in support of animal testing and condemns the acts of animal-rights extremists. (BBC)
- Seven people are wounded as two bombs explode in the Iranian city of Kermanshah. A local branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) claimed responsibility. (Reuters)
- Alligators kill three women in one week in separate incidents across the U.S. state of Florida. [2]
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- The United States releases a list of 759 former and current inmates of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in Cuba after a Freedom of Information Act action was filed by the Associated Press. (Pentagon list) (The Age)
- Darfur conflict: The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to initiate the process which would lead to a UN peacekeeping force relieving the beleaguered African Union peacekeepers in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan. The Government of Sudan opposes the move. (BBC), (VoA)
- Chadian Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor accuses the Government of Sudan of facilitating a new alliance between the Mahamat Nour's UFDC and the defected troops of Mahamat Nouri against the Déby administration. Neither group has confirmed or denied the merger. (CNN)
- Italian centre-left leader Romano Prodi is given the mandate to form a new government by President Giorgio Napolitano. Prodi is supposed to present his list of ministers on May 17. (BBC)
- At least 23 people have been killed in a shooting and bombing attack in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police say. (BBC)
- Mark Inglis, a New Zealander, became the first double-amputee to climb Mount Everest [http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=hampton
- A British-Ugandan team reports a substantial reduction in glacial cover atop the Rwenzori Mountains in Central Africa, attributable to increases in air temperature over the past four decades. This "Mountains of the Moon", according to 2nd Century geographer Ptolemy, is one of the sources of the Nile, and is projected in the study to disappear in two decades. (BBC)
- A tattooed mummy of a woman in her late 20s of the Moche tribe from 1,500 years ago is found near Trujillo, Peru. (BBC)
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- Captain Nichola Goddard, 26, of 1st RCHA is killed while engaged in combat against Taliban forces near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Captain Goddard is Canada's first female casualty since World War 2, and Canada's first female combat arms casualty. (BBC)
- A total of 155 people are killed in a recent wave of violence in São Paulo, Brazil. (CNN)
- Incumbent Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase of Fiji claims victory in the 2006 general election. (BBC)
- A gunman opens fire at the Turkish Council of State, the top court in Ankara, while the court is in session, injuring four judges, and killing one - Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin. The shooting represents a rise in tensions between the secular apparatus of state and supporters of Islamic fundamentalism. (BBC)
- Barcelona win the UEFA Champions League, defeating Arsenal 2-1 in the final. Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann became the first player ever sent off in a Champions League final. Barcelona's goals were scored by Belletti and Samuel Eto'o; Arsenal's goal was scored by Sol Campbell. (BBC) (SkySports)
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- Nepali legislators vote unanimously to strip the king (Currently Gyanendra) of his powers, effectively turning the Hindu kingdom into a secular constitutional monarchy. (CBC)
- Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase of Fiji swears in for a second term after winning the 2006 general election. (BBC)
- White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is unwilling to either confirm or deny U.S. financial and logistical support for the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism in Somalia. Previously, such accusations were denied. The current Prime Minister of Somalia, Ali Mohamed Gedi, criticized U.S. support for "criminals." (Philadelphia Inquirer)
- The European Parliament committee examining the claims of para-legal deportations of individuals for torture-based questioning, known as "extraordinary renditions", reports that it has CIA confirmation that between 30 and 50 individuals underwent such deportations to seven "black sites" in Asia, Europe and Africa. Those in Europe have reportedly been closed down following the public outcry, but there is still one such site operating in a North African country. (EU Observer) (UPI) (Reuters)
- New Italian prime minister Romano Prodi pledges to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq and calls the Iraq war a "grave mistake that has not solved but increased the problem of security". (Guardian) (Al Jazeera)
- Typhoon Chanchu, the strongest storm on record to have entered the South China Sea in May, makes landfall between the cities of Shantou, Guangdong and Xiamen, Fujian in China. (BBC) (Reuters)
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| Current events of May 19, 2006 | | | |