Portal:Current events/2005 April 14

April 14, 2005 (Thursday)

Microsoft Encarta launches a Nupedia-like version of its encyclopedia where anonymous users can submit their new or edited entries to be approved by a paid staff of editors. Server problems delayed the launch. (FairfaxDigital) (Business Week) (Encarta Blog)^{[permanent dead link]}
The claim that traces of the deadly poison ricin had been found in the London apartment of alleged al-Qaeda operatives is proved wrong, according to a senior British official. (Seattle Times) (Guardian Unlimited)
Researchers from the University of Miami have published a study which claims that prisoners executed by lethal injection in the U.S. may have been aware of what was happening to them. (BBC)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Israel kills a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade following a raid into the Palestinian town of Nablus. Palestinians maintain that a special unit disguised as Arabs carried out the act. Israeli Defence Forces say the man was a "ticking bomb" and that soldier shot only after he opened fire on them. Witnesses from the Balata camp, however, say the Israelis opened fire without warning and then took the body away. (BBC) (Haaretz) (NY Times)
- The Israeli soldier accused of shooting British cameraman James Miller is cleared of any wrongdoing by an Israeli judge, meaning the soldier will not be prosecuted. Miller's family accuse the Israel Defense Forces of a coverup and threaten to sue. (BBC)
Conflict in Iraq: At least 11 people have been killed following a double suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. (BBC)
In Quito, Ecuador, riot police clash with demonstrators and strikers that protest against the government of president Lucio Gutiérrez. Congress replaced the entire supreme court last December and has not come to an agreement with the political opposition. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-18 at the Wayback Machine (World Peace Herald)
The Czech coalition government agrees to form a new cabinet. Jan Kohout is expected to succeed Stanislav Gross as the new prime minister. (Bloomberg) (CNN) The deal collapses later in the day when the Social Democrats reject it. (Prague Post) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
Police in China arrest 15 people involved with illegal blood trade that may have contributed to the spread of AIDS. (China Daily) (People's Daily) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-15 at the Wayback Machine (Guardian)
According to Amnesty International, prisoners of the Black Beach prison in the Equatorial Guinea are starving. (Amnesty International USA) (Reuters SA) (BBC)
Three paparazzi who were pursuing Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed when they died face a new trial in France. (IHT) (Reuters UK) (BBC)
Funding difficulties threaten the Murray–Darling basin river system in Australia. (The Australian) (BBC)
The trial of Schapelle Corby, an Australian facing drug smuggling charges in Indonesia, is adjourned after she collapses in the Bali courtroom. (ABC News)
Bulgaria sends a diplomatic mission to Libya to seek a solution to the ongoing criminal prosecution of five nurses from Bulgaria for an HIV outbreak among Benghazi children. (Bulgaria News Network)
Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, will contest election seat against UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw in order to highlight Straw's alleged use of false confessions extracted by CIA torture in Uzbekistan. (Guardian Unlimited) (Background: International Herald Tribune)
In the face of the spread of the Marburg virus, the Angolan government tries to curb traditional funerary practice of kissing and hugging the dead for farewell. The death toll is already over 210. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-15 at the Wayback Machine (CNN)
South Korean Tongsun Park, Texas oilman David Chalmers and two others are indicted for bribery in the oil for food scandal. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-16 at the Wayback Machine (Washington Post)
United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces that law enforcement agencies have arrested 10,340 fugitives in Operation Falcon between April 4-10. (Operation Falcon website) (ABC) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
In Zimbabwe, two British journalists, Sunday Telegraph correspondent Toby Harnden and photographer Julian Simmonds, are acquitted. They were accused of covering the last month's parliamentary elections without permission. They were charged with overstaying their visas and denied bail. (BBC) (AllAfrica) (Reuters)
Three students of MIT successfully submit a paper "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" into World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. The paper was made of computer-generated nonsense. (Boston Herald) (CNN) (SciGen)
Indian police arrest 16 people in a case where more than US$400,000 was transferred from Citibank accounts to fraudulent accounts in India. (Times of India) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-15 at the Wayback Machine