Portal:Current events/2006 January 16

January 16, 2006 (Monday)

Former United States President Gerald Ford is hospitalized with pneumonia. (CNN)
Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, tenders his resignation, following criticism of his handling of the trial. (Daily Times)
The United Nations appeals for US$240 million of food aid for West Africa to feed at least 10 million people affected by the food crisis, with Niger being the worst-affected country. (Reuters)
A dockworkers' strike in Europe has thousands of workers off the job in protest over proposed liberalization of European Union rules on port services. A demonstration outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg leaves twelve French police officers injured. (BBC)
Former US Vice President Al Gore blasts President George W. Bush's policy of spying on American citizen conversations with suspected overseas terrorists, saying President Bush "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law in connection with the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, says the United States Constitution is in danger. (Houston Chronicle) (Text of Speech)
The Premier of Western Australia, Geoff Gallop, resigns his office after announcing he is suffering from depression. (ABC Australia)
At least 27 people are killed in two suicide bombings in Afghanistan. (CNN)
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. (CNN)
Nine people die after jumping from a burning eight-story office building in the Russian city of Vladivostok amid allegations of blocked emergency exits and fire code violations. (CBC)
Iran bans CNN from the country after a translator mistranslated a remark by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in which he defended Iran's right to nuclear energy. The comment was translated as the right to construct nuclear weapons. (ABC News)
Iraq's electoral commission rules Monday that more than 99 percent of the ballots from the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections are valid, opening the way for a new government to start coming together. (CBS News)