Portal:Current events/2005 March 10

March 10, 2005 (Thursday)

Paul Schäfer, former leader of Colonia Dignidad community in Chile, is arrested in Argentina accused of child sexual abuse. He has been on the run for 8 years. (Reuters) Archived 2005-03-13 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
US withdraws from part of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations that gave the International Criminal Court the right to intervene in cases of foreigners held in death rows in US jails (CNN) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-07 at archive.today (BBC)
In Rwanda, traditional Gacaca community courts begin to judge cases of people accused of involvement in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 (Reuters AlertNet) (ReliefWeb) (AllAfrica)
In Djibouti, Mohamed Daoud Chehem, the only opposition candidate in the forthcoming presidential elections, withdraws from the race. The incumbent President Ismail Omar Guelleh remains the only candidate in the elections of April 8 (BBC)
Conflict in Iraq: At least 47 people have died following an apparent suicide bombing at a Shia funeral in the Iraqi city of Mosul. (BBC)
A U.S. Judge has dismissed a case brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs over the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. (BBC) (Judges Decision in Full)
Lebanese President Émile Lahoud, reappoints Omar Karami as Prime Minister of Lebanon and asks him to form a new government, less than two weeks after Karami resigned in the face of anti-Syrian protests. (BBC)
Israeli troops kill Mohammed Abu Hazneh, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and an alleged plotter of the recent Tel Aviv "Stage" nightclub suicide bombing. After he killed a K9 dog, the troops bulldozed his house, crushing him to death. (BBC)
The Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee Hwa, announces he is to resign. He blames his poor health for the decision, while some believe that he may have been dismissed by the Chinese government. (Yahoo! Hong Kong)(BBC)
16 people die following an explosion in a mine in the Shanxi province of China. (IOL)
A senior United Nations envoy has said far more people have died in Darfur during the two-year conflict than previously admitted.(BBC)
Flags across the nation fly at half-mast as the largest police memorial in Canadian history is held in Edmonton, to honour the four Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) victims of the Mayerthorpe Incident. Attending were about 10,000 officers from North America, Canadian dignitaries and entertainers with songs of reflection and sorrow. (CBC) (Toronto Star)
The Islamic Commission of Spain, that country's largest Muslim group, issues a fatwa against al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Ladin, ruling that his actions have made him an apostate, that he should not be regarded as a Muslim, and that his claim that the Qur'an justifies his terrorist actions constitutes istihlal, the sin of making up one's own law. It is claimed to be the first fatwa to be pronounced against Bin Ladin, and to have the tacit support of Muslim leaders in several Islamic countries. (CBC)
The Mozilla Foundation announces that the development of the Mozilla Internet Suite will no longer be ongoing. SeaMonkey will be the replacement.