August 2005 - August 19, 2005 (Friday)

August 19, 2005 (Friday)

• Mounir El Motassadeq, the first person to be convicted for his role in the 9/11 attacks who had his conviction overturned in 2004, is re-convicted in Hamburg, Germany and sentenced to seven years in prison. (Reuters), (CBC), (Chicago SunTimes), (Guardian)
• Pope Benedict XVI speaks inside a synagogue at World Youth Day 2005 about the Judeo-Christian relationship. He also speaks with Protestant and Orthodox Christians about upcoming challenges within Christianity. BBC News
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • 3 members of the main Sunni Arab political party in Iraq are kidnapped and killed as they put up posters urging people to vote in the upcoming elections in Mosul. (BBC)
  • Two Iraqis have died following an IED explosion near Tikrit.(BBC)
• Pierre Nkurunziza of the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy, a former rebel leader of the Hutu majority in Burundi, has been elected unopposed as the new President of Burundi by the parliament, the first president chosen through democratic means since the start of the civil war in 1993. He will be sworn in on 27 August. (BBC), (BBC)
• Former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam has died in a hospice at the age of 55. (BBC)
• A Jordanian soldier dies when three unexploded Katyusha rockets miss their targets and hit a warehouse and hospital in Aqaba, Jordan and hit a road by the airport in nearby Eilat, Israel. A group with alleged links to Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the attacks, stating the targets were US ships docked at the Red Sea port in Aqaba, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Ashland. (CNN), (MSNBC)
• In a bid to end the armed conflict with Morocco, the Polisario Front independence movement in Western Sahara frees its last 404 Moroccan prisoners of war, many of them having been held for almost two decades. (Reuters), (Reuters), (MSNBC), (BBC), (Guardian)
• New York authorities reveal the existence of a letter from a deceased woman who claims her husband (according to the New York Daily News, WINS 1010 cites a cab driver named Frank Burn) and two others killed Judge Joseph F. Crater and buried him under the boardwalk at Coney Island. Crater has been missing since 1930 and has since become one of the most famous "missing person" stories. (1010 WINS) (Fox News) (MSNBC) (New York Daily News) (New York Post)
• Merck & Co. loses the first wrongful death lawsuit over its painkiller Vioxx, with a jury awarding $253 Million in damages. There have been over 4000 cases filed against Merck over this drug. (MSNBC) (CNN)
• Pennsylvania police announced the discovery of a body presumed to be that of missing woman LaToyia Figueroa and the arrest of former boyfriend Stephen Poaches.(CNN)
• Pakistan's Supreme Court upholds the death sentence awarded to Manjeet Singh, an alleged Research and Analysis Wing agent who was also reportedly involved in five bomb blasts in the country. Singh was arrested by security forces at the Indo-Pak border on August 30, 1990. (Indian Express) (Hindustan Times)
• In one of the worst confrontations on the Indo-Bangla frontier in recent months, Bangladesh Rifles opens unprovoked fire at the India side at some outposts in West Bengal. About 500 rounds were fired in the skirmishes, but there was no casualty. (Press Trust of India) (Sify)
• During one of the most intense thunderstorms in Toronto, Canada, a very heavy downpour of rain caused widespread flooding in the Greater Toronto Area and on the major freeway leading into downtown Toronto, the Don Valley Parkway. Damage is estimated at at least CAN$ 500,000,000.
• First episode of Channel 4 TV series Balls of Steel
• The id Tech 3 source code was released under the GPL.