March 2005 - March 15 2005

March 15 2005

• U.S. Representative Henry Waxman sends a scathing letter to President George W. Bush, accusing the administration of having withheld until after the election a damaging audit regarding overcharges by Halliburton for services in Iraq (such as charging $27,000,000 for transporting $82,000 worth of fuel from Kuwait to Iraq). (Guardian) (Philadelphia Daily News)
• OPEC announces that it's unable to control oil prices. (MSNBC)
• The dedication of the new Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, Israel: leaders from 40 states and the General Secretary of the UN Kofi Annan attend inauguration of Holocaust museum. President of Israel Moshe Katzav said that the new museum serves as "an important signpost to all of humankind, a signpost that warns how short the distance is between hatred and murder, between racism and genocide." (Haaretz)
• In the Philippines, police storm the Camp Bagong Diwa prison. 26 die during the fighting, three of them Abu Sayyaf members. Six police officers are wounded. (Reuters) (Bloomberg) (Sun Star, Manila) (BBC)
• Japanese immigration officials state that they are going to deport Bobby Fischer back to USA, instead of allowing him to move to Iceland. (Mainich Daily News) (MSNBC)
• In Kosovo, an explosion hits the motorcade of president Ibrahim Rugova in the capital Pristina. (Reuters) (CNN) (BBC)
• The International Criminal Court will hear its first case, the allegations of war crimes during a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Daily Times) (BBC)
• The government of Italy announces that it will begin to withdraw its troops from Iraq in several months. (BBC)
• Thousands of protesters demonstrate violently outside parliament against rising prices and high tax increases. Some of them call for resignation of the president Mamadou Tandja (AllAfrica) (Reuters SA) (BBC)
• In Zimbabwe, new electoral court rules that jailed opposition politician Roy Bennett, member of the Movement for Democratic Change, can take part of parliamentary elections on March 31. (AllAfrica) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• In Paris, France, French-Algerian Djamel Beghal is sentenced to 10 years in jail for plotting to bomb US embassy in 2001. Five others received shorter sentences. (Reuters) (IHT) (BBC)
• In Lebanon, United Nations team that investigates murder of Rafik Hariri, completes its mission. They will present their findings to secretary general Kofi Annan in New York (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• In Italy, cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Roman catholic archbishop of Genoa, speaks against what he describes as "lies" in the popular book "The Da Vinci Code"; the book effectively claims that, among other things, the church suppresses information about Jesus' marriage with Mary Magdalene (Catholic News Service) (Catholic World News) (Reuters) (BBC)
• In Burbank, California, the last 78 General Motors EV1 vehicles were removed by General Motors from the storage lot, temporarily impeded by a group of EV1 activists, and transferred to the GM Desert Proving Grounds in Mesa, Arizona for disposal, crushing, and recycling.