Portal:Current events/2006 November 2

November 2, 2006 (Thursday)

Competing software manufacturers Microsoft and Novell hold a press conference to announce a collaboration on technologies for inter operation between Microsoft's Windows and Novell's SUSE Linux operating systems.
The governments of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles sign an agreement in The Hague, disbanding the Netherlands Antilles on July 1, 2007. The islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten become autonomous associated states within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius become Dutch municipalities. (Nu.nl) (Dutch language)
The Rev. Ted Haggard resigns as head of the National Association of Evangelicals in the United States amidst allegations of a gay affair. (Fox Colorado)
The journal Science publishes a study by B. Worm et al. predicting the collapse of commercial fisheries in 2048, due to overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors. (The Washington Post)
Iran fires dozens of unarmed missiles to begin 10 days of military war games, with "ranges from 300 km to up to 2,000 km," some of which have "the capacity to carry 1,400 bombs," Iranian state television reported. (CNN).
The UK Office for National Statistics announces that, in 2005, 565,000 immigrants arrived in the UK, mainly from Poland, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while there were 380,000 emigrants, over half of whom were UK citizens. The most popular emigration destinations were Australia, Spain, and France. The net immigration total, 185,000, was 17,000 less than 2004's record. (BBC)
Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly, intends to double the price it charges Georgia. This follows the 2006 Georgian-Russian espionage controversy in early October. (Civil Georgia)
Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, conveys the support of the Commonwealth of Nations to the Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase. He warned Fijian military commander Frank Bainimarama against staging a coup d'etat. (ABC News Australia)
The U.S. military identifies Ahmed Qusai al-Taai, an Iraqi-American translator, as the U.S. soldier kidnapped at gunpoint in Iraq on October 23, 2006. (CNN)