Portal:Current events/2005 April 18

April 18, 2005 (Monday)

The largest moving object on Earth, the iceberg B15A in Antarctica has collided with the Drygalski ice tongue, a feature large enough to be included in Antarctic maps. During the collision, a five-kilometre-long section of the ice tongue was broken off. (ESA) (AP) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory announce that they have created a newly discovered state of matter by smashing atoms in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. This new state of matter behaves like a hot and dense liquid made up of basic atomic particles such as quarks and gluons. Researchers claim that all matter in the universe for a fraction of a second after the Big Bang was in the form of this liquid. (BNL News)
Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia win in the 109th Boston Marathon. Negussie was successful in finally breaking the Kenyan-dominated men's race. Defending champion Ndereba became the first four-time woman's winner. (ABCnews) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)) (CNN) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)) (Boston.com) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Black smoke signals no new Pope is chosen in the first ballot in the Papal conclave, 2005. (BBC), (ABC) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (Yahoo! News/AP) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Two Israelis, one a soldier in the Combat Engineering Corps, and one a civilian, are wounded by a Palestinian sniper in an attack on Philadelphi Route of the southern Gaza Strip, close to the Egyptian border. The Popular Resistance Committees claims responsibility. (Haaretz) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Adobe Systems buys Macromedia for $3.4 billion. (Yahoo! Financial) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (New York Times) (registration required), (USA Today), (MSNBC).
The death toll in the collapse of a garment factory in Dacca, Bangladesh reaches 74. Dozens are still missing. (Reuters AlertNet) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Japanese history textbooks controversy: Sino-Japanese relations worsen after a meeting between Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Beijing. China continues to refuse an apology for the increasing number of anti-Japanese protests, and further accuses Japan for handling the issues of history and Taiwan "incorrectly". (Radio Australia)
The Ecuador congress votes to dismiss supreme court judges. A debate for the selection of the new ones is set for Tuesday. President Lucio Gutiérrez lifts a day-old state of emergency, but thousands of protesters still demand his resignation. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-18 at the Wayback Machine (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (BBC)
The government of the Philippines begins talks with Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (Manila Times) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi refuses to resign and intends to continue with minority government. (AGI) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-19 at the Wayback Machine (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (Bloomberg)
Bosnian Serb officer Vujadin Popović, accused of complicity in Srebrenica massacre in 1995, pleads not guilty in The Hague. He surrendered to the ICTY on 14 April. (FENA) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (BBC)
The governments of India and Pakistan declare that peace between them is "irreversible". United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan welcomes the move. (Hindu) (Deepika) (IHT) (Daily Times)
Mexican government rules out pardoning Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His supporters continue their protests. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-24 at the Wayback Machine (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
The Pakistani government releases 500 members of Pakistan Peoples Party it detained prior to return of opposition leader Asif Zardari. Zardari hopes to have dialogue with the government. (Pakistan Times) (Daily Times) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
Former Lebanese minister Bassel Fleihan dies of wounds he received in the bombing that killed Rafik Hariri. (Daily Star) (Reuters AlertNet) (CNN) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Spain returns Rabei Osman Ahmed, who had been extradited as a prime suspect in the Madrid bombings, to Italian custody. (Reuters Alertnet), (World Peace Herald) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (BBC)
The Rwandan supreme court hears appeals for Pasteur Bizimungu, first president of Rwanda after the genocide, who was arrested last June. (Rwanda Information Exchange) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (IOL), (BBC)
Four people are charged with the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi. Suspects have Mafia ties. (Financial Times), (Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)), (BBC)