August 2005 - August 12, 2005 (Friday)

August 12, 2005 (Friday)

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Moqtada Sadr, the Shia cleric and leader, has announced that his Mahdi army has freed four hostages. (BBC)
• Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is assassinated by suspected Tamil Tigers sniper team in Colombo. (CNN)
• Shipwreck: 104 Ecuadorians trying to emigrate to the United States are killed when their ship sinks in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia. Nine people are rescued after floating at sea for two days.
• At least 80 people have died from water-borne diseases and over 5,000 are sick in the western Indian state of Maharashtra following recent floods. (BBC)
• An unofficial strike by ground staff at Heathrow forces British Airways to cancel over 100 flights. Flights have resumed. (BBC)
• Salva Kiir, the new vice-president of Sudan, is opposed to independence for the country's south. (BBC) The Ugandan government shuts down a radio station for broadcasting a debate on the cause of death of former Sudanese vice-president John Garang. (BBC)
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launches successfully from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:43 GMT (BBC)
• Omar Bakri Mohammed is banned from returning to the United Kingdom. (BBC)
• Former Israeli sergeant Taysir Hayb is sentenced to eight years in prison and two years suspended sentence for shooting and killing Tom Hurndall. (Jerusalem Post) (Jerusalem post)
• Kashmiri insurgents kill two defence committee soldiers and three members of their families, and injured nine others, three of them critically, in Mahore area of Udhampur district. (Economic Times)