Portal:Current events/2005 June 9

June 9, 2005 (Thursday)

Italian Clementina Cantoni a worker with CARE International who was held hostage in Afghanistan is released unharmed. (Pakistan Dawn) (Reuters AlertNet)
In Syria, the ruling Baath party votes to end the state of emergency that has lasted for 40 years. (Al-Jazeera) (BBC)
In Norway, Mullah Krekar, Kurdish founder of Ansar al-Islam, goes to court to resist deportation to Iraq. (Aftenposten) (Kurdishmedia) (Al-Jazeera)
In Mexico, a court overturns the murder conviction of Raul Salinas de Gortari, brother of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
An Amnesty International report states that numbers of killed and sexually abused women have increased in Guatemala. (Amnesty International) (BBC) (BBC)
In Oman, Sultan Qaboos pardons 31 people previously convicted of a coup attempt. (Gulf Daily News) (Al-Jazeera) (BBC)
2005 Atlantic hurricane season: Tropical Storm Arlene, the first storm of the season, forms south of Cuba, and is expected to strike Cuba and the U.S. Gulf coast later in the week. (NHC) (CNN)
Protesters in Bolivia take over seven oil fields managed by BP and Repsol YPF. (IHT)
In Australia, Parliament House and the embassies of the US, the UK, Japan and South Korea receive suspicious packages containing white powder. Federal Police later state that analysis showed the powder to be "harmless", and was sent as a hoax, following similar events in the past week. (Radio Australia) (ABC) (Bloomberg) (Reuters)
Zimbabwean opposition groups are preparing for a two-day general strike to protest over the huge number of arrests in recent days. Police are on standby to quell protests. (IOL) (BBC)
Togolese president Faure Gnassingbé names Edem Kodjo, leader of the opposition Patriotic Pan-African Party, as prime minister. (Republique Togolaise) (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
A former Bank of America broker, Theodore Sihpol is acquitted by a jury in a New York Court of charges that he assisted a New Jersey hedge fund in trading illegally in mutual funds, at the expense of investors in the latter. (Lipper/HedgeWorld)