August 2005 - August 8, 2005 (Monday)

August 8, 2005 (Monday)

• Banco Central robbery at Fortaleza: In Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, an estimated 156 million reais was discovered to be stolen over the weekend in one of the world's largest bank robberies. (Agencia Brasil), (BBC)
• Oil for food scandal: the UN-appointed panel released its third report. According to it, Benon Sevan took nearly $150,000 in cash bribes. A former UN procurement officer Alexander Yakovlev has pleaded guilty to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from UN contractors. (BBC)
• Same sex marriage debate: The top legislative body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is set to take key votes this week on ordaining gays and blessing same-sex unions. Conflicts over what the Bible says about homosexuality have been tearing at Protestant denominations for years. Cleveland Plain Dealer AP feed in Guardian UK
• Iran resumes its nuclear programme at its uranium facility near the city of Isfahan. (BBC) (Guardian)
• A suicide bombing kills 1 and injures 32 in Fuzhou, provincial capital of Southeastern China's Fujian Province. (Reuters)
• STS-114: The Shuttle Discovery was waved off by Mission Control in Houston for a landing at Kennedy Space Center due to bad weather. NASA has said they will land the Orbiter in 24 hours, with Six opportunities available — the first two at Kennedy Space Center and the second two at Edwards Air Force Base and the final two at the White Sands Missile Range (also known as the White Sounds Spaceport). (Reuters) (Space.com)
• Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has dissolved the Japanese House of Representatives and will call a snap election for September 11. The move came after rebel lawmakers from his own Liberal Democratic Party voted down postal reform legislation on which he had staked the party's mandate. The postal reform would have led to privatization of the country's postal service. It is thought that the move will plunge normally staid Japanese politics into great uncertainty.(Japan Today) (Channel News Asia) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• In Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia airline pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto goes on trial for poisoning human rights activist Munir Said Thalib (Channel News Asia)
• Benon Sevan, head of the United Nations' oil-for-food program, resigns before the publication of a report that is expected to accuse him of corruption. He blames Kofi Annan for "sacrificing" him and denies all charges (BBC) (Reuters)
• Chile plans to limit migration to Easter Island (MercoPress) (BBC)