Portal:Current events/2006 September 1

September 1, 2006 (Friday)

AU officials report that Sudan has launched a major offensive in Darfur, a day after it rejected UNSC Resolution 1706, calling for a new 20,000 UN peacekeeping force. Over 20 people are reported dead and 1,000 displaced in clashes which broke earlier in the week. (AP)
Disputed Mexican election: Deputies and senators of the PRD occupy the stage of Congress and prevent President Vicente Fox from delivering his final State of the Nation speech. Fox later addresses the nation on an all-channel telecast. (Associated Press) (Washington Post)
Category 2 Hurricane John makes landfall near the tip of Baja California at around 7 p.m. PDT (0200 UTC September 2). (U.S. National Hurricane Center) (CBS)
An Iranian passenger jet Tu-154, (Iran Air Flight 945) carrying 148 passengers crashes in Mashad, Iran killing 29 people. (CNN), (BBC)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- The European Union proposes new talks on the Middle East roadmap for peace. (Reuters)
Spain approves plans to deploy 1,100 troops to Lebanon as part of a UN peacekeeping force. (BBC)
The Japanese Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Takao Kitabata, says Japan has enough petroleum reserves to prevent an oil crisis if economic sanctions are imposed on Iran over its nuclear program. Japan is almost entirely dependent on the Middle East for its oil and imports 15 percent of its total oil consumption from Iran.
The 2006 Zakouma elephant slaughter is the latest of a series of massacres which has killed off over 97 percent of the original (the year 1970) Chadian elephant population of 300,000 animals. (National Geographic)
Prime Minister of Poland, Jarosław Kaczyński, calls on the EU to develop a common foreign policy and build a "credible" military force. (Yahoo!)
The Miss World 2006 pageant officially starts with the arrival of 104 nations to Warsaw, Poland for a month of activities across the country prior to the pageant's final on September 30th, 2006. (Times of India)