October 2005 - October 22, 2005 (Saturday)

October 22, 2005 (Saturday)

• Conflict in Iraq: Staff Sergeant George T. Alexander, Jr. becomes the 2000th U.S. military fatality in Iraq. (Yahoo/AFP) (DOD)
• Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Caribbean, threatening the island of Hispaniola and becoming the record-breaking 22nd named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. (Reuters)
• The first case of avian influenza (bird flu) has been discovered in the United Kingdom from a South American parrot. Tests are being carried out on the parrot, which died in quarantine, to determine whether it had the H5N1 strain of the virus. (BBC News) (The Daily Mail)
• The Lozells riots in Birmingham begin, leaving according to the most recent reports at least two dead. (BBC)* Rumours that a 14-year-old Afro-Caribbean girl had been sexually assaulted, and possibly raped, by several South Asian men, leads to a race riot in Birmingham, England. 20 are injured after violence between South Asian and black gangs, and local police. (The Mercury)
• Reporter Rory Caroll prints his kidnap story in The Guardian.
• The Chicago white Sox defeat the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the World Series, 5-3.