January 2005 - January 28 2005

January 28 2005

• Riggs Bank agrees to pay a $16 million fine after pleading guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by hiding transfers of millions of dollars in accounts controlled by Chilean despot Augusto Pinochet and top officials of Equatorial Guinea. (The Seattle Times)
• Michael McManus, author of the U.S.-wide syndicated newspaper column "Ethics & Religion", was paid $10,000 by the DHHS for writing articles promoting a marriage initiative. (Salon)
• An Australian recently freed from Guantanamo Bay claims U.S. agents told him they killed his whole family and strung the interrogation room with faked photos of his wife and children with animals' heads. He also says he was sexually assaulted and menstrual blood had been put all over him before being left alone in a cell with no water. (news.com.au) (yahoo/AP)
• Asia's richest woman, Nina Wang, is formally charged with forgery of her kidnapped husband's will. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Hamas, contesting their first election, have swept to power in local elections in Gaza. (BBC)
• Kim Beazley is re-elected to the leadership of the Australian Labor Party unopposed, succeeding Mark Latham, in the fourth leadership change since losing government in 1996. (ABC News).
• A month after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis, more than 1000 bodies a day are still being recovered in Aceh. (Melbourne Herald Sun)
• Latest investigation into the career of UK serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman increases the count of his victims to 284, the first having been killed just after he left medical school. (Reuters) (Telegraph) (BBC)
• 70 Nobel Prize laureates have released a statement that supports United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in the face of US Republican calls for him to resign (Reuters) (BBC)
• Thailand's prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra demands that Malaysia extradite separatist leader of Gerakan Mujahideen Islam Pattani party known as Jehkumir Kuteh or Abdul Rahman Ahmad (in addition to other names). Malaysian government refuses because he is Malaysian but they would cooperate the best they can (Malaysia Star)(Bangkok Post) (Reuter AlertNet) (Channel News Asia)
• In Russia, special forces have killed seven people in a fight against what they described as islamic militants. The fight happened in an apartment block in Nalchik near Chechnya border (Reuters) (MosNews) (BBC)
• President of Ireland Mary McAleese causes an uproar when she says that Nazis taught their children to hate Jews like Northern Ireland Protestants taught theirs to hate Irish Catholics (Ireland Online) (RTE) (BBC)
• A heavy blizzard in Algeria causes death of at least 13 people and paralyzes traffic in the capital Algiers (Reuters) (BBC)