Portal:Current events/2006 March 3

March 3, 2006 (Friday)

Research In Motion, a Waterloo, Ontario, Canadian based company, agrees to pay NTP Inc. $612.5 million to settle NTP's patent-infringement suit against RIM. NTP had argued RIM's BlackBerry wireless-communication devices use technology patented by NTP. (AP)
The ruling African National Congress takes 66% of the votes in the 2006 South African municipal election. Voter turnout was 46%. No party in the City of Cape Town claims an outright majority. (BBC)
Russian–Hamas talks, 2006: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in his talks with the Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, calls on Hamas to transform itself into a political organisation, recognise Israel's right to exist, and to keep previous peace accords. (BBC), (Reuters)
Kenya and Sudan, completing trade talks that have gone on since 2001, announce plans to sign a landmark trade agreement. (AllAfrica) Kenya, which is currently in a drought, is in desperate need of food to feed 3.5 million Kenyans by the end of March, despite the presence of the U.N. food agency. Sudan has had a huge surplus this season. (Reuters)
Three Israelis ignite firecrackers in an attempt to detonate gas canisters smuggled into the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth during prayer services, sparking riots and confrontation between thousands of protestors and Israeli police. (CBC) (YNet)
After four years of legal efforts to get the names of about 490 Guantanamo Bay inmates released, the United States is forced by a federal judge's ruling to release transcripts of hearings of 317 of them. (ABC)
Former U.S. Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, a Republican, is sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes. It is the longest prison term that any former member of Congress has ever been sentenced to. (CNN)
British Labour Party MPs close to Gordon Brown call for Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to resign over her husband, David Mills' alleged acceptance of money from Silvio Berlusconi. (Financial Times)
The 2006 Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference opens in Beijing. (People's Daily)
British rock star Gary Glitter is convicted of the molestation of one 11- and one 12-year-old girl in the town of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam. He is sentenced to three years in prison, but may be back in the United Kingdom by December. (BBC News)
An Italian parliamentary commission accuses the former Soviet Union of orchestrating the 1981 attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II (Telegraph) Archived 2008-01-09 at the Wayback Machine
Ukraine imposed new customs regulations on its border with Transnistria, leading to the Ukraine-Transnistria border customs conflict.