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April 14, 2005
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)
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) (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) (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) (CNN)
South Korean Tongsun Park, Texas oilman
David Chalmers and two others are indicted for bribery in the
oil for food scandal. (Reuters) (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)
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 released on 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 Multi-Conference
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)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2005
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