Portal:Current events/2006 November 5
November 5, 2006 (Sunday)
- Operation Autumn Clouds: Israel Defense Forces troops kill two Palestinians in a northern Gaza Strip operation. (Haaretz)
- Trial of Saddam Hussein
- Sweeping curfews go into effect in Baghdad, Iraq, in anticipation of the reading of the verdict by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal in the trial of Saddam Hussein. (BBC News) (CNN)
- Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is convicted of crimes against humanity by a Baghdad court and sentenced to death by hanging. Two senior Ba'ath Party officials from Hussein's regime are also sentenced to death, one is jailed for life, three are jailed for 15 years, while a seventh is acquitted. (BBC News) (RTÉ News)
- Reactions to the verdicts against Saddam and his compatriots vary with approval from some areas, particularly Iran and Shi'a regions of Iraq, but condemnation of the trial and process from some other quarters of the Muslim world. United States officials called it "a good day for the Iraqi people". The European Union, while welcoming the guilty verdicts, expresses its opposition to the imposition of the death penalty on humanitarian grounds. (CNN) (Reuters)
- Nicaraguans go to the polls to elect a new President and National Assembly, with the presidential race led by Sandinista Daniel Ortega and conservative Eduardo Montealegre. (BBC News)
- A large area of Western Europe is affected by power cuts, starting when two high-voltage transmission lines fail in Germany, and causing a cascading failure which also knocks out power in areas of France and other surrounding nations. (BBC News)
- The Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, calls State Premiers to a crisis meeting to discuss the current drought and problems in the Murray–Darling basin. (ABC Australia)