Portal:Current events/2005 June 21

June 21, 2005 (Tuesday)

In Canada, after 2 straight days of rain, the city of Calgary, AB is under another state of emergency and now the Elbow River is flowing steadily over the Glenmore Dam. The towns of Bragg Creek, High River, Sundre, Okotoks, Drumheller, and Cochrane have to be evacuated. The low lying area of Calgary also have to be evacuated. This wave of floods is the last of the floods and the damage of the floods is almost incalculable.
The Cosmos 1 experimental solar sail spacecraft, a project of international space advocacy group The Planetary Society and science based entertainment company Cosmos Studios, is launched by a Russian R-29R Volna ICBM from a Russian Delta III submarine submerged in the Barents Sea. However, the spacecraft is feared lost, for the rocket failed 83 seconds after launch. (PhysOrg) (Washington Post) (BBC) (SBS) (The Planetary Society)
The LA Times suspends an experiment called "wikitorial" after three days because of vandalism. (MSNBC) (BBC)
In Israel 8 people are killed and about 200 injured when a train is reported to have struck a truck on a level crossing near Kiryat Gat. (BBC)
At Stonehenge in England, some 19,000 people gather to celebrate the rising sun on the summer solstice.
Clearup operation continues in North Yorkshire after the serious flash flooding on Sunday Night / Monday Morning. The towns of Thirsk, Helmsley and Hawnby were seriously affected, as were several villages when the rivers Swale and Rye burst their banks.
In Manchester, UK, 30 police raid a house at 5 a.m. and arrest a 40-year-old man on suspicion of involvement in suicide bombings in Iraq. Another man resident in the same house is believed to have gone to Iraq in February to carry out a bombing. Last week, police in Spain and Germany also made arrests in connection with bombings in Iraq, but it is not known if the cases are related. (BBC)
New Zealand's telecoms network crashes for five hours when a rat chews one of the North Island's main fibre-optic cables at the same time as a workman damaged another cable in another part of the island. Mobile phone and Internet communications were badly affected, and the Stock Exchange had to close for several hours. (BBC)
In Mexico, Zapatista rebels are in alert, pulling out of villages and closing their radio stations. The reasons are unknown, although the move may be due to an army drug raid in Los Altos. Subcomandante Marcos announces that foreign aid workers can stay only at their own risk. Later news indicate that Zapatistas are gathering for a conference. Marcos announces that the movement is entering a "next step in the struggle" and that the organization has reorganized itself to survive the loss of current leadership. (Indymedia Chiapas, English translation (Indymedia Chiapas, English translation) (Reuters) (Reuters AlertNet) (Reuters AlertNet)
In Brazil, president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva demands that the opposition present proof of its allegations that government had given bribes for political support (Reuters) (BBC)
In Lebanon, a remote control bomb that had been placed under the passenger seat of his car kills anti-Syrian politician George Hawi, former secretary general of Lebanese Communist Party (Daily Star) (Ya Libnan) (Al-JAzeera) (IHT) (Reuters)
In the Philippines, congress begins an inquiry into allegations that president Gloria Arroyo had rigged votes in last year's presidential elections. President states that she will comment on the process later. Her supporters and the opposition demonstrate in Manila (INQ7, Philippines) (Manila Times) (Sun Star) (Channel News Asia)
In Zambia, former health ministry official Kashiba Bulaya has been charged again with accepting a bribe from a Bulgarian firm that manufactures anti-retroviral drugs against AIDS. Government's decision to halt the case a month ago aroused protests. (Reuters SA) (BBC)
A U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a regulation of the SEC designed to ensure an independent board of directors for mutual funds, holding that the SEC didn't comply with the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act. (Chamber of Commerce)
A hitherto unknown poem by Sappho was identified on an Oxyrhynchus papyrus by scholars of Cologne university, and published in the Times Literary Supplement [1].
The popular video game, Battlefield 2, was officially released.