September 2005 - 6 September 2005 (Tuesday)

6 September 2005 (Tuesday)

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israeli troops, who are still in the process of withdrawing from Gaza, shoot dead a Palestinian teenager as he and about 50 others breach a fence around the evacuated Israeli settlement of Gush Katif and climbed atop of IDF tanks. (BBC) (Haaretz)
  • The Israeli Minister for Education, Limor Livnat, has called on her government to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank as "dividend" of the pullout of the Gaza Strip. (BBC), (IMEMC)
  • The Israeli Housing Minister, Isaac Herzog, told Israel Radio that Israel does not intend to construct in E1 the area between the Maale Adumim Israeli settlement and Jerusalem in the coming years, adding that Israeli government statements to the contrary were part of the “internal conflict” at the Likud party. (IMEMC)
• Hurricane Katrina:
  • Jefferson Parish, Louisiana President Aaron Broussard told CBS's Early Show anchor Harry Smith today: "Bureaucracy has murdered people in the Greater New Orleans area and bureaucracy needs to stand trial in Congress today. Take whatever idiot they have at the top and give me a better idiot." (News Busters)
  • President George W. Bush announces he will head an investigation into the New Orleans disaster response. He tells reporters in the Cabinet Room: "People want us here to play a blame game. We got to solve problems. We're here to solve problems. There'll be ample time for people to figure out what went right and what went wrong." (Al Jazeera)
  • Barbara Bush comes under criticism while visiting Hurricane Katrina relief centers in Houston, TX. Mrs. Bush stated on the NPR program "Marketplace: "So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this (chuckles)--this is working very well for them." The former First Lady also said that the fact that the 15,000 evacuees in the Astrodome might want to stay in Texas was "kind of scary". (EditorAndPublisher.com)
• Cairo: At least 34 people were killed and 60 injured by flames and an ensuing stampede when a fire broke out in the theater run by Egypt's Culture Ministry; about 1,000 people were watching the play. (Y! & AP) (BBC)
• Four people died and 27 were wounded following an explosion in Gaza City at the home of Nidal Farhat, a senior Hamas member.(Haaretz & AP)
• Typhoon Nabi kills at least 21 in Japan with over 50 still missing. (AFP) Over 100,000 people were told to evacuate. (CBC)
• Almost 600 people have now been officially declared dead in an outbreak of Japanese Encephalitis in India. Officials fear the actual death toll might be much higher because many deaths in rural areas are not reported. (BBC)
• Australian telecommunication company Telstra's share price tumbles to a two year low of $4.32AU as Prime Minister John Howard condemns their new management team as disgraceful and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission launches a criminal probe of Telstra's leaked and negative statements. (The Australian) (The Australian)
• Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo survives the 2005 political crisis as the plenary session of the House of Representatives of the Philippines dropped the impeachment complaint filed against her. (SFGate.com) (ABS-CBN News) (ABC Australia)