May 2, 2005

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[edit] May 2, 2005 (Monday)

• Data withheld from an annual report on terrorism by the U.S. State Department show a sharp increase in attacks in 2004. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • Following an Israeli raid on the Palestinian city of Tulkarm, one Israeli soldier and one Islamic Jihad leader are killed. The soldier was killed in a gunfight with 3 members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The three were suspected to have been part of the cell which was involved in Tel Aviv "Stage" club bombing in February 2005. Shafiq Abdul Rani, the leader of the Jihad cell in Tulkarm was killed and another militant was arrested. (Haaretz)
  • Palestinian militants fired 3 Qassam rockets on the Israeli town of Sderot. There were no casualties. (Haaretz)
  • Israeli Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky resigned from the government as a protest against Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan. (Haaretz), (BBC)
• Dozens of people reportedly die after a large explosion in a munitions dump in Pagja, Afghanistan 50 miles north of Kabul. (Seattle Times)
• Guardsman Anthony John Wakefield, from Newcastle upon Tyne, has been killed in Iraq after being injured in hostile action in the southern town of Al Amarah, bringing the total of UK servicemen killed in the Iraq conflict to 87. (BBC)
• Europe's largest sporting goods maker Adidas-Salomon sold its Salomon division for 485 million euros to Finnish company Amer Sports (which owns Wilson Sporting Goods). CNN News
• The government of Nepal ends the house arrest of two parliamentarian communist leaders, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Amrit Bohara. (BBC)
• In Togo, opposition party Union of Forces for Change refuses to join a new government, accusing Faure Gnassingbé of electoral fraud. About 12,000 people have fled the violence to Ghana and Benin. ECOWAS tries to mediate. (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet) (GhanaWeb) (ABC)
• Foreign ministers gather in New York to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Wired) (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Cairo terrorism: Following Saturday's terrorist incidents in Cairo, some 200 people are brought in for questioning by Egyptian police. Ten people were injured in the attacks, and three militants were killed. (BBC)
• In Germany, prosecutors demand 8-year sentence to neo-nazi leader Martin Weise and three others. (Reuters AlertNet)
• Former Haitian prime minister Yvon Neptune demands that the current government drops its claim that he organized a massacre in February 2004. Neptune has been on a hunger strike for 15 days and refuses treatment. (Haiti Action Committee) (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
• A gas cylinder explosion in Lahore, Pakistan causes collapse of three buildings - at least 16 people dead. (BBC) (Reuters)
• British rocket Skylark makes its last launch. (Independent) (BBC)
• United Nations chief prosecutor of Sierra Leone's war crimes court David Crane (prosecutor) claims that Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is still plotting to kill Guinean leader Lansana Conté. Conté has been in a hospital since he survived an assassination attempt in January. (Reuters AlertNet) (UN Regional Information) (World Peace Herald) (BBC)