The 2005 Paris riots continue for the sixth consecutive night. Rioting spread through impoverished suburbs, which was sparked by the death of two youths who were allegedly fleeing police and were accidentally electrocuted while hiding in an electrical substation. The riots have caused increased strains between the authorities and the inhabitants of the poor suburbs. (AP)
Measles Initiative (MI) announces that since 1999, more than 200 million children in Africa have been vaccinated against measles, reducing the infection rate by 60 percent and saving 1 million lives. (allAfrica)
Conflict in Iraq: Seven U.K. troops accused of murdering an Iraqi civilian have had their cases dropped after a judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence against the soldiers and that the Iraqi witnesses lied. (BBC)
Clashes continue in Debre Berhan, while government forces succeed in pacifying Bahir Dar and Awasa. The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa remained calm, with few shops open and no taxis operating. (BBC)
One of three men arrested last month in the U.K. is charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. The others were charged with, among other things, conspiracy to murder and possessing bomb-making materials. (BBC)
The 2005 Paris suburb riots continue for an eighth consecutive night. Hundreds of arson attacks have taken place in the last few nights. Shots fired at police and firefighters. Rioting continues to spread. France described as facing a crisis. (BBC)
Former Peruvian PresidentAlberto Fujimori arrives in Santiago, Chile after being exiled in Japan since 2000. Although he is the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant, the Chilean government said he cannot be arrested without an order from a Chilean judge. Fujimori arrives at a time of tension between Chile and Peru over sea boundaries. (CNN) (Link dead as of 22:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC))
People in several parts of Germany report several fireballs in the sky, leading to speculation that they may be UFOs. Scientists report that the sightings are of the Taurid meteor shower. (Yahoo! News) (Link dead as of 20:57, 14 January 2007 (UTC))
The tenth night of the 2005 French riots is reported as being the most intense yet, and the riots are now the subject of crisis meetings in the French government. President Jacques Chirac has called for the arrest, trial and punishment of the rioters. (BBC)
Sierra Leone Health and Sanitation Minister, Abator Thomas says that polio has been eradicated in the country, following a successful immunization program. (allAfrica)
The United Nations is asking donors for US$3.2 million to help six West African countries fight cholera. The disease has killed at least 700 people and infected over 42,000 in the region since June, a sharp rise due to the unusually heavy rains this year. (allAfrica)
China closes all Beijingpoultry markets. Authorities ordered all live poultry markets in China's capital to close immediately and went door-to-door seizing chickens and ducks from private homes, as the government dramatically ramped up its fight against avian influenza today. (Business Week)
Alberto Fujimori, former President of Peru, is arrested in Chile whilst a Chilean judge considers a Peruvian extradition request. (BBC)
In the United States, the visit of Iraqi Deputy Premier Ahmed Chalabi to the Department of State and Department of the Treasury arouses controversy. (BBC)
A Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner jet aircraft breaks the record for the longest non-stop passenger airline flight. The 20,000-kilometer (12,500-mile) flight from Hong Kong to London lasted 23 hours. (Boeing)(BBC)
Albania suffers its worst ever electric power shortage. Due to low water levels, hydroelectric power is reduced to the minimum and there are blackouts in all the country. Water supplies won't last for more than two weeks, so electricity is currently available just six hours a day. The government plans to import power from Romania, Bulgaria and Italy. (BBC)
2005 Amman bombings: Following coordinated bombings in Amman on November 9, Jordanian police arrest a woman said to be the wife of a suicide attacker. (BBC)
The United States government issues warning after receiving credible information that a terrorist threat may exist against official U.S. government facilities in Guangzhou, China. (IHT)
Knesset Member Omri Sharon, the son of the Prime Minister of IsraelAriel Sharon, struck a deal with prosecutors that would see him plead guilty to a series of charges in connection with illegal fundraising during Ariel Sharon’s 1999 primaries campaign. (Ynetnews)
The New York Stock Exchange reaches an out-of-court settlement with some of its seat holders who had filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent the NYSE's proposed acquisition of electronic trading firm Archipelago Holdings. The settlement requires a new independent financial review of the merits of the deal. Dissidents complain that the NYSE is over-paying. (Reuters)
Students at the University of Tennessee (UT) received international criticism and praise for interrupting U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's keynote speech at the groundbreaking of the Howard Baker Center. The students protested in favor of ending the Iraq War by "heckling" Cheney while a group of 50-100 protesters gathered outside the building also protesting the war. This incident has come to be known as the Baker Center Protest. [8]
The United States government has won its fight to keep its supervisory authority over the internet through the ICANN, despite opposition from many nations. (BBC)
Two car bombs strike outside a Baghdad interior ministry building at the centre of a detainee abuse scandal. (BBC)
The United States House of Representatives reject a Republican resolution offered by Duncan Hunter (R-California) "expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately" by a vote of 403–3. Ohio Republican Jean Schmidt is forced by Democratic (and quiet Republican) protests to apologise to Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha for quoting a Marine who said those wishing to "cut and run" from Iraq are called "cowards" The Marine she claimed to be quoting told he never said any such thing. (Associated Press)
Conflict in Iraq: Five Iraqi civilians, including three children, are shot dead by U.S. troops as they approached a checkpoint in Baquba. The minibus they were travelling in failed to stop as it approached a roadblock. (BBC)
As more than one million Zambians face severe food shortages due to drought, President Levy Mwanawasa declares a national disaster and appealed for international food aid. (BBC)
Kenyan voters overwhelmingly reject a new constitution, which would have given the president greater power, in a national referendum, which used symbols on the ballot paper to assist illiterate voters. (BBC)
CHOGM - Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is currently underway in Malta.
The city of Khabarovsk in Far Eastern Russia declares a state of emergency as the 80 km benzene slick released by an explosion in a Chinese chemical plant on 13 November, which has already caused water supplies for 4 million inhabitants of the Chinese city of Harbin to be suspended, approaches the Amur river which is the main water source for 1.5 million people in Russia. (Forbes)(Moscow Times)
Prisoners at an Iraqi detention centre revealed to the BBC details of apparent widespread use of torture and abuse in prisons and detention centres in Iraq. (BBC)
There are further calls in the media and Parliament of the United Kingdom for Prime Minister Tony Blair to publish a full account of his discussions with US President Bush on the bombing of Al Jazeera TV station headquarters in Doha. A memo on the conversation has been partly leaked to the Daily Mirror newspaper, before the Official Secrets Act was invoked. (Guardian) The widow of journalist Tareq Ayyoub, who was killed in the 2003 bombing of Al Jazeera offices in Baghdad, says she is considering legal action against the US government. (Adnki) Al Jazeera staff later staged a 15 minute symbolic walk-out from all their offices around the world in protest. (BBC)
Papua New Guinea decides to evacuate the 1500 inhabitants of Carteret Atoll to Bougainville, 100 km away, over the next two years. The atolls, maximum elevation 1.5 metres, are the first inhabited land to be abandoned to rising sea levels and they are expected to be totally inundated by around 2015. (Guardian)(Straits Times)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres says he may leave the Israeli Labor Party to join Ariel Sharon's government after the next election if he is re-elected and if Sharon's new party is to form a government. (ABC)
The Government of Lesotho offers all its citizens a free HIV test. Aimed at stopping and reversing the spread of AIDS, this is believed to be the first programme of its kind in the world. (BBC)
