Portal:Current events/2006 October 13

October 13, 2006 (Friday)

Record Snowfall in Buffalo, New York and surrounding metro area leaves up to two feet of heavy wet snow, three people dead, damaged trees, and over 400,000 residents without power. [1]
Sharp and Fujitsu begin to recall laptop Lithium ion batteries made by Sony.(Associated Press via Houston Chronicle)
Vladimir Kramnik beats Veselin Topalov in a World Chess Championship reunification match. (NY Times)
Cellulose plant conflict: Demonstrators again block border crossings between Argentina and Uruguay after the World Bank announces its decision to continue funding the disputed paper mills. (BBC)
Abimael Guzmán, leader of Peru's Sendero Luminoso guerrillas, is sentenced to life imprisonment at the conclusion of his retrial on terrorism charges. (BBC)
Boulus Iskander, an Iraqi priest of the Syriac Orthodox Church, is kidnapped and beheaded by Islamist terrorists in Mosul. (MET) (ACI)
Ban Ki-moon is elected to be the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, to succeed Kofi Annan in January 2007. (BBC)
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration bans fixed-wing aircraft from the East River corridor in New York City unless they are in contact with air traffic control. The change follows a crash of a plane into an apartment building earlier in the week. (AP via CBS)
Wal-Mart is ordered to pay $78 million in compensation to current and former employees for breaking labor laws in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania by forcing its employees to work through rest breaks and off clock. (USA Today)
The US government has rebuffed UK calls to close its controversial detention centre at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. (BBC)
Iraq War:
- A coroner has recorded a verdict of unlawful killing on ITN reporter Terry Lloyd, who was shot dead by US forces in southern Iraq in March 2003. (BBC)
- Tony Blair has said he agrees with "every word" the new head of the British Army said on the Iraq war that UK troops "exacerbated" security problems and should withdraw "sometime soon". (BBC)
Two people protesting the impeachment of Plateau State governor Joshua Dariye are killed by riot police in Jos, Nigeria. (BBC)
The British and Irish governments set a provisional date of 26 March 2007 for restoring devolution to Northern Ireland through the St Andrews Agreement. (BBC)
Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank win the Nobel Peace Prize for working to advance economic and social development among the poor. (Bloomberg) (Nobel Foundation)
2006 North Korean nuclear test
- The United States is encouraging a vote on a United Nations resolution, which currently would impose an arms embargo and freezing of North Korean funds connected to North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs, despite opposition from the People's Republic of China, which has veto power. (Reuters)
Veterinarians are reported to use vasectomies to control elephant overpopulation in Africa. At Kruger National Park, their numbers have doubled in the last decade. (North County Times)