Portal:Current events/2006 October 21

October 21, 2006 (Saturday)

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda meets rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army for the first time in an attempt to revive the Juba talks. (BBC)
Dariga Nazarbayeva, daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, says it is time for Kazakhstan to "stop behaving like an obedient colony that bows to a foreign gentleman," referring to Lakshmi Mittal of Arcelor Mittal, "whose name appears on the Forbes magazine list." (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
An earthquake of magnitude 5.2 hits the central Philippines. The quake struck at 10:30 p.m. with its epicenter some 35 kilometers south of Boac, Marinduque. The temblor was felt at intensity 4 in the capital Manila. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Tropical Storm Paul forms off Mexico's west coast and forecasters predict it could strengthen into a hurricane and reach land within days. The storm is over the Pacific Ocean about 315 miles (500 km) south of Cabo Corrientes on the Jalisco coast. (AP via ABC Chicago)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
Iraqi insurgency:
- President of the United States George W. Bush confers with his top Iraq commanders. The meeting is met with a surge in sectarian violence. (Bloomberg)
- Mortar fire on a crowded outdoor market in Mahmoudiyah south of Baghdad kills at least 18 people and injures dozens, police say. (Boston Herald)
- Three U.S. Marines are killed in combat in Anbar province, making October the deadliest month for American forces in Iraq in 2006. (Boston Herald)
- Senior U.S. Department of State diplomat Alberto Fernandez says on Al-Jazeera that the United States had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq but was ready to talk with any group except Al-Qaida in Iraq to facilitate national reconciliation. (AP via Southern Illinoisan)
Fighting has broken out between Somalian troops and a local militia in alliance with the country's new Islamic movement. (Reuters)