Portal:Current events/2005 June 7

June 7, 2005 (Tuesday)

Hungarian opposition candidate László Sólyom wins the 2005 presidential election in a 185-182 victory over Katalin Szili. [1]
United States Senator Jon Corzine wins the New Jersey Democratic Party gubernatorial primary. Doug Forrester, a former mayor, wins the New Jersey Republican Party gubernatorial primary after a heated contest with another former mayor, Bret Schundler. The November 2005 election will be the first since Governor James McGreevey resigned over a scandal in which he was revealed to be homosexual. (Boston Globe)
Scientists at UCLA use a pyroelectric crystal heated from -34.4 to 7.2 degrees Celsius to produce an electric field of about 100,000 volts, accelerating hydrogen nuclei and producing helium nuclei in the subsequent collisions. This cold fusion experiment has been repeated successfully, and other scientists have confirmed the results. (CSMonitor) (Nature) (UCLA) (MSNBC) The method is not suitable for power generation since it requires far more energy than it produces.
After a four-hour-long debate French centrist Party UDF refuse to vote confidence to the new government. - Yahoo France - AFP
General Motors announces that it will lay 25,000 people off. BBC News
Siemens announces the sale of its mobile phone assets to the Taiwanese electronics company BenQ. BBC News
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A day of violence erupts in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Haaretz.
A spokesman for Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, dismisses rumors that Mugabe has died of a heart attack, after privately owned media report that Mugabe went to a local hospital to have his heart tested. CNN
The leader of the opposition in the Indian Lok Sabha, Lal Krishna Advani, resigns from his post amid controversial comments he made about the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Advani had referred to Jinnah as a "secular" leader and drew intense criticism back at home in India. (BBC News)
A new type of sauropod has been discovered with a short, stubby neck. Unlike all other known sauropods, whose long necks could get up to four times the length of their backs, Brachytrachelopan's neck was shorter than its backbone. This species was also unable to lift its neck and head above horizontal. (National Geographic)
New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's veto of the plan to build the West Side Stadium, the key component to the New York bid, all but ends New York City's chances of receiving the 2012 Olympics, leaving the field to a face-off between Paris and London. (NYtimes) (Reuters)
The National Assembly of the Republic of China approves a package of amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of China to halve the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan and abolish itself.(Taipei Times) (TaiwanNews) (Reuters)
In the Philippines, the government orders the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate a case where opposition tapped the telephone conversation of president Gloria Arroyo. They allegedly used it to create a tape where she is supposedly talking about electoral fraud (ABS-CBN) (Manila Bulletin) (Bloomberg)
In Chile, the Santiago Court of Appeals cancels Augusto Pinochet's immunity from prosecution. Among other things, he faces charges of tax fraud. However, the court also ruled that he is too ill to face charges of human rights violations (Bloomberg) (BBC)
Human Rights Watch demands investigation about the unrest in Uzbekistan, accusing the leaders of the country trying to cover up a "massacre" (Human Rights Watch) (Reuters AlertNet) (RIA Novosti)
In Australia, Hao Fengjun, second Chinese defector, backs claims of Chen Yonglin about a large Chinese espionage network in the country (Radio Australia) (Reuters)
In Brazil, president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promises investigation on allegations that his party offered bribes to parliamentarians for political support (Bloomberg) (BBC)