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- 67 die and about 300,000 people are affected by floods in Ethiopia's Somali Region of Ogaden after the Shabelle River bursts its banks. (Angola Press)
- The UN Security Council votes unanimously to extend the mandate of Côte d'Ivoire's transitional government by one year, granting its Interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny sweeping powers over security forces. UNSC deadline for Elections, originally set for November 2006, was delayed to November 2007. (AP)
- Arab League-sponsored talks between the Somali transitional government and the Islamic Court Union are postponed indefinitely after the latter seek a delay. A Somali Minister says that war appears likely. (Reuters)
- Bolivian President Evo Morales retracts plans to nationalize the country's mining industry, promising to do so at an unspecified later date. (UPI)
- Venezuela and Guatemala have agreed to withdraw from the race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council; both agreeing to support Panama after 47 rounds of voting. (The Canadian Press)
- White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in a statement that "We are therefore increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically elected government," and that "We're making it clear to everybody in the region that we think that there ought to be hands off the [Prime Minister Fouad] Siniora government; let them go about and do their business."(Reuters)
- The Swedish Ro-Ro ship M/S Finnbirch sinks in a blizzard in the Baltic Sea, killing two of its fourteen crew members. The vessel had some 260 tons of fuel and lubrication oil onboard which might present a hazard to the environment. (Helsingin Sanomat) (Reuters) (CNN)
- Turkish archaeologist Muazzez Ilmiye Cig is acquitted of inciting religious hatred; a charge made after she published a book stating that the Muslim headscarf originated in the clothing of Sumerian priestesses who initiated young men into sex. (BBC News)
- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attack a rural police command in Colombia, killing at least 16 officers as part of a two-week offensive. President Álvaro Uribe had earlier withdrawn from negotiations. (Reuters)
- The government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels sign a second truce as negotiations restart in Juba, Sudan. (IRIN)
- An Israel Defense Forces soldier and six Palestinians were killed in an IDF operation in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. (Haaretz), (BBC News)
- The Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase reportedly meets with his security chiefs this morning after yesterday trying to sack Fiji's military commander Frank Bainimarama. Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister of Australia, has raised concerns about a coup. (ABC News Australia)
- The World Confederation of Labour and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions merge to form the International Trade Union Confederation. (International Herald Tribune)
- Typhoon Paeng (Cimaron) kills at least 19 people, displaces some 65,000 families and damages more than 3,000 houses as it moves across Luzon. (Xinhua via ReliefWeb.int), (Sun.Star)
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- 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)
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- The death toll in a fire at the historic Mizpah Hotel in Reno, Nevada rises to nine with not all of the ruins having been searched yet. (Las Vegas Sun)
- Ted Haggard resigns after the New Life Church's investigative board finds him guilty of "sexually immoral conduct". (AP via WCBS)
- Tomihiro Taniguchi, Deputy Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announces that Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, and possibly Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, will launch nuclear programs for desalination. A proliferation expert asserts the real reason behind the programs is for a "security hedge." (The Times)
- The North Korean Foreign Ministry releases a statement calling for Japan to leave the six-party talks regarding DPRK's nuclear program because the Japanese officials involved in the talks are "imbeciles" and Japan is a state of the U.S. The Foreign Ministry accuses the United States of "warmongering." (ABC News)
- Operation Autumn Clouds: Israeli forces have mounted a series of air strikes as part of an ongoing Gaza offensive, killing at least eight.(BBC NEWS), (Al Jazeera)
- Two women have been killed as Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of women gathered to help besieged gunmen flee a mosque in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. (BBC NEWS), (Al Jazeera)
- Former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon is admitted to the intensive care unit of the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv with a chest infection. (BBC)
- Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China, promises to double foreign aid to Africa at a conference attended by many of the top African leaders. (CNN)
- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is greater than at the beginning of the war on Iraq with 1.6 million Iraqis displaced internally and 1.8 million in overseas countries. (ABC News Australia)
- Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase drops amnesty provisions for the leaders of the 2000 coup after threats from the military to remove him from office. (NZ Herald)
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- Somalian War: Heavy fighting has been reported between forces of Union of Islamic Courts and Puntland, the semi-autonomous region of Somalia. (Al Jazeera)
- Felipe Pérez Roque, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, backs away from earlier predictions that Fidel Castro would return as the President of Cuba by December raising concerns about the progress of Castro's recovery from intestinal surgery. (USA Today)
- The Iraqi government prepares a law that may see former Baath Party supporters restored to their former jobs. (ABC News)
- Tony Blair opposes the death penalty for Saddam Hussein but says the trial had reminded the world of Hussein's brutality. (CNN)
- Bombs explode at Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, an opposition party's headquarters and a bank in the capital. (RTÉ News)
- Operation Autumn Clouds: A female Palestinian suicide bomber has blown herself up in a Gaza Strip town, killing herself and injuring an Israeli soldier, the Israeli army says. (BBC)
- The Polish President, Lech Kaczyński, proposes that there be a 100,000 man-strong EU Army designed to work with NATO. (RTÉ News)
- Ariel Sharon is moved out of the intensive care unit at the Sheba Medical Center. (AP via Malaysia Star)
- Daniel Ortega has an early lead over Eduardo Montealegre, according to partial results from the general elections in Nicaragua. (CNN)
- The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-12) opens in Nairobi, Kenya. (UNFCCC)
- The legal challenge to President George W. Bush's ratification of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Conyers v. Bush) led by United States Congressman and member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers (together with ten other representatives of the House of Representatives) is dismissed due to lack of standing (ABC)
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- The World Trade Organization invites Vietnam to become the WTO's 150th member. [1] (BBC News)
- Daniel Ortega is elected President of Nicaragua in the 2006 general election, after rival candidate Eduardo Montealegre concedes defeat. (BBC News) (CNN) (Reuters)
- After 48 rounds of voting, Panama is elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. (DPA)
- José Montilla becomes the new President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, renewing the left-of-centre tripartite pact between his PSC, the pro-independence ERC and the leftist ICV-EUiA alliance after the election held on 2006-11-01. (Monsters and Critics)
- John R. Bolton, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, claims that United States diplomat Josette Shiner has been selected to head the United Nations World Food Programme. (ABC News)
- Dhiren Barot of London is convicted of conspiracy to murder for developing al-Qaeda plots to kill thousands of people in the United Kingdom and United States in the 2004 Financial buildings plot. (BBC News)
- United States general elections, 2006: Voters go to the polls today in the United States. (Scotsman)
- Trial of Saddam Hussein:
- Operation Autumn Clouds: The Israeli Defense Forces began to pull its troops out of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, Palestinian officials said. Fifty-three Palestinians, including 16 civilians, and an IDF soldier have been killed since the operation began on October 31. (Haaretz)
- A deadly tornado kills nine and injures twelve in Saroma, Hokkaido, Japan. (Sky News)
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- Ken Mehlman is to step down as chairman of the National Committee of the United States Republican Party. (CNN)
- Eight synchronized bombs hit car showrooms in Southern Thailand, nine injured. (Reuters)
- Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev formally signs the new Constitution of Kyrgyzstan. The Constitution drastically weakens the power of the executive branch in favor of the legislative. Bakiyev and Prime Minister Felix Kulov are expected to maintain their positions until 2010. (EurasiaNet)
- United States general elections, 2006:
- BP settles the last remaining lawsuit from the 2005 explosion at its Texas oil refinery that cost 15 lives. (Reuters via Interactive Investor)
- The Bank of England raises interest rates in the United Kingdom to five percent. (Daily Telegraph)
- Israel braces itself for revenge attacks after yesterday's dawn barrage in the Gaza Strip leaves a family of 18 dead. The general in charge of Israel's Southern Command, Youav Galant, blames problems with the targeting device for the artillery strike. (The Times)
- Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack announces he will be running in the 2008 US Presidential Election. (CNN)
- Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, is hospitalized following a heart attack. (CNN)
- France successfully performs the first flight test of its new nuclear missile, the M51. (AP via CBS)
- Hundreds of young British Muslims are being radicalised, groomed and set on a path to mass murder, according to the head of MI5 (Security Service), Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller. (The Times)
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- General John Abizaid, head of the United States Central Command, tells the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services that he is optimistic that "we can stabilize Iraq." (CNN)
- An earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale occurs at 11:14:19 UTC on the Pacific Ocean seafloor with an epicentre 390 kilometres (244 miles) east of Etorofu island (latitude 46.7 North, longitude 153.5 East). Tsunami warnings and watches are issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and the East Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. After expectations of a tsunami at least 2 metres (6 feet) high, the largest wave to hit Hokkaidō measures only 40 centimetres (16 inches).(BBC News) (CNN)
- Joseph Kabila wins the presidential run-off election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 58% of the vote according to the electoral commission. His opponent Jean-Pierre Bemba claims that there were widespread instances of fraud. (BBC)
- India and Pakistan agreed today to set up a panel to combat terrorism during the first peace talks between the countries in almost a year. However, there has been no progress in the core dispute over Kashmir, the mountain region both countries claim. (The Times)
- Senator Mitch McConnell becomes the leader of the Republicans in the United States Senate. (Reuters)
- Widespread flooding is reported in East Africa especially Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, with at least five reported dead in Mogadishu where the Shabelle and Juba rivers have burst their banks and more than 70,000 people reported displaced in total. (SOS)
- A patient in southern Kazakhstan has been accidentally infected with HIV. Earlier this year 79 children were accidentally infected resulting in a political scandal and the dismissal of Health Minister Yerbolat Dosayev and several lower level officials. There was another widespread infection in 2005. (RIA Novosti)
- Al Jazeera establishes a 24-hour English language news channel Al Jazeera English, formerly Al Jazeera International, and started broadcasting today. (Bloomberg)
- Forests begin to revive as global devastation of trees is reversed. A new study offers hope for endangered species and climate change. (The Times)
- United States Army soldier James P. Barker pleads guilty to raping and murdering a girl in Iraq thus avoiding a possible death sentence. (BBC News)
- Richard Causey, former Chief Accounting Officer at Enron is sentenced to 66 months or five and a half years in prison for his role in the collapse of the company. (Reuters)
- A building collapses under the force of a British Columbia wind storm. The storm has also prompted the evacuation of West Vancouver neighbourhoods because of the forceful gusts. (CTV)
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- Abkhazia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, South Ossetia, and Transnistria mutually recognized each other.
- In an interview British Prime Minister Tony Blair says Iraq "is pretty much a disaster." (The Times)
- The Government of the Netherlands announces it will introduce a bill banning the wearing of the burqa in public, stating that burqas disturb public order, citizens and safety. About 5% of the Dutch population is Muslim, but only a small percentage of those wear the burqa. (BBC)
- Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant reports that officers of the Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands have physically abused prisoners in the Iraqi governorate of Al Muthanna. (BBC)
- 2006 Tonga riots:
- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev calls on the Government to switch the alphabet used in the Kazakh language from Cyrillic letters to Latin. (EurasiaNet)
- Former Uruguayan dictator Juan María Bordaberry is arrested in connection with the 1976 abduction and assassination of two Congressmen. (BBC) (CNN)
- President of the United States George W. Bush and Prime Minister of Australia John Howard discuss Iraq strategy over lunch. The two leaders are attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Hanoi. (ABC News Australia)
- The Government of the People's Republic of China blocks internet access to Wikipedia in China less than one week after a year-long ban was lifted. (CNN), (RSF)
- Greg Anderson, personal trainer to U.S. professional baseball player Barry Bonds, is ordered to go to prison for the third time for contempt of a grand jury for refusing to testify against Bonds regarding alleged perjury in connection to an earlier steroids investigation. (ESPN)
- A change to Nicaragua's abortion law bans abortion in all cases, removing an exception where the woman's life was in danger. (Guardian)
- Sony releases its new console in North America with 14 launch titles, the PlayStation 3.
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- Muslim women in New York City want to start a Koran council to interpret strict sharia law. (Reuters)
- The British Columbia Lions win the 94th Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League, game 25-14 over the Montreal Alouettes in Winnipeg, Manitoba. (CFL)
- Gunmen abduct Iraq's Deputy Health Minister Ammar al-Saffar. (CNN)
- Somali Civil War: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan warns Somalia's neighbours to stay out, as UN experts paint an alarming picture of foreign and extremist intervention in a nation on the brink of all-out war that could engulf the Horn of Africa. (allAfrica)
- Suspected assassination plot: Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who defected to Britain six years ago, is fighting for his life in a London hospital after being poisoned with polonium-210 in a sushi bar. (The Sunday Times)
- India test fires a Prithvi missile, a surface-to-surface missile, capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. (NDTV)
- Russia and the United States sign a key trade agreement paving the way for Russian membership of the World Trade Organization. (AP via ABC News)
- A suicide bomb explodes in Hillah, Iraq, killing 17 and wounding 49. (ABC News)
- 2006 Tonga riots: A leader of the Tongan pro-democracy movement, MP Akilisi Pohiva, criticises the intervention of Australian and New Zealand peacekeepers following riots. (ABC News Australia)
- An attempted military coup d'état in Madagascar announced by Général Andrianafidisoa appears to have failed. (BBC) (NY Times) (ABC News)
- The 2006 meeting of the G20 industrial nations in Melbourne ends, with discussions centering on the global economy and climate change. Protesters clash with police during the event. (The Age - discussions) (The Age - protests)
- The annual APEC meeting in Hanoi concludes with a call for the resumption of World Trade Organization talks, but references to climate change were removed from the final statement. (International Herald-Tribune)
- Sri Lankan Army troopers opened fire on a group of minority Sri Lankan Tamil and Muslim students at an Agricultural College at Thandikulam close to Vavuniya in Sri Lanka. Five students were killed along with 10 injured. (Reuters)
- Nintendo releases its 7th generation video game console in North America with 21 launch titles, the Wii.
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- A fire in a marketplace in Guatemala City kills at least fifteen people. The fire started from a cigarette in a fireworks stall. (BBC)
- Kremlin dismisses claims of Russian involvement in the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko as "sheer nonsense". (RTT via NASDAQ)
- An explosion on a train in East India at 1240 GMT kills 5 and injures 25 to 50 others. It occurs near a station in West Bengal, 550 kilometers (345 miles) north of the capital Kolkata. The cause of the explosion is unknown. (CNN)
- Syria and Iraq will restore diplomatic ties during a visit by Walid Moallem, the Syrian Foreign Minister, to Iraq. (CBS News)
- The Kazakh Government arrests 11 suspected terrorists in Stepnogorsk. (EurasiaNet)
- Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, accuses Home Secretary Jack Straw of participating in "demonization of Muslims only comparable to the demonization of Jews from the end of the 19th century" for his comments regarding veils. (JTA)
- A Berlin underground train rear-ends a stationary maintenance vehicle at the busy Südkreuz station injuring 33 people, two of them seriously, officials said. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- American stock exchange Nasdaq launches a formal bid of £2.7 billion to take over the London Stock Exchange. (The Times)
- The President of the United States George W. Bush visits Indonesia to meet with the President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with large crowds protesting US foreign policy. (ABC News Australia)
- An 18-year-old armed man takes hostage several children and teachers of his former school in the German town of Emsdetten. He dies from bullet wounds. According to a police spokesman, these wounds were self-inflicted. Several hostages are injured. (German) (WDR) (Reuters)
- Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was narrowly defeated in the Mexican general election, is proclaimed "Legitimate President of Mexico" by his supporters and promises to set up a "parallel government". (BBC)
- A school bus carrying high school students falls nose-first 40 feet to the ground off an Interstate 565 overpass in downtown Huntsville, Alabama, killing four teenage girls. (Reuters)
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- Same-sex marriage in Israel: The Supreme Court of Israel orders the Israeli government to recognize same-sex marriage performed abroad. (Wash Post)
- Police in Sweden announce that they may have found the weapon used in the unsolved murder of prime minister Olof Palme in 1986. (BBC News)
- A helicopter with 13 passengers and 4 crewmembers makes an emergency landing in the North Sea between Texel and Den Helder, The Netherlands. One passenger is taken to hospital with hypothermia. The passengers were being evacuated from an offshore oil rig after a power outage. (BBC News)
- Lebanese Minister of Industry and Maronite Christian Pierre Gemayel is assassinated by a gunman in Beirut. (CNN)
- President of the United States George W. Bush and the Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki announce plans to meet next week to discuss security issues in Iraq. (AP via Fox 31 Colorado)
- Twenty-three miners are killed in a gas explosion in a coal mine in Ruda Śląska, Poland, approximately 1,000 meters below the ground. (BBC News)
- Klaus Volkert, former chairman of the works council of Volkswagen, is arrested. He is suspected of attempting collusion and perfidy in the trial concerning Volkert's role in the corruption affair with the German car maker. (German) (NDR)
- A collision between a passenger train and a freight train at Arnhem station in the Netherlands injures 31 people. The driver of the freight train, who is alleged to have ignored a red signal, is arrested by police. (Dutch) (Nu.nl)
- American actor and comedian Michael Richards, best known for playing character Cosmo Kramer, apologizes on the nation's The Late Show this morning after referring to two African Americans as "niggers" at a Los Angeles area comedy club. (Newsday)
- A British mother facing the death penalty in Vietnam for heroin smuggling will not have a defence in court - because her lawyer has been put under house arrest by the Vietnamese Government. (The Times)
- An international consortium signs a deal formally launching ITER, a project to develop an experimental nuclear fusion reactor. (BBC News)
- Syria and Iraq restore diplomatic relations and agree to cooperate on security issues. (AFP via New Strait Times)
- Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, winner of five Olympic, eleven World Championship, and ten Commonwealth gold medals, announces his retirement at the age of twenty-four. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Part of the Supreme Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo burns down during a gunfight, thereby suspending the Court's review of electoral fraud and irregularities alleged to have taken place during the contested second round of the 2006 presidential election. (IRIN)
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- Sectarian war in Iraq: A series of car bombs and mortar attacks in the predominantly Shi'a Sadr City area of Baghdad kills at least 202 people and wounds another 257. The incidents comprise the deadliest coordinated attack since the Iraq War started. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Lech Kaczyński, the President of Poland, announces three days of national mourning for the twenty-three victims of the mining disaster at the Halemba mine in Ruda Śląska, Poland. (Stuff New Zealand)
- Somali Civil War: Ethiopia has made preparations for a conflict with the Islamic Courts Union, whom control much of southern Somalia, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has told MPs. (BBC)
- Hamas claims responsibility for a suicide bombing attack in which a 57-year-old grandmother killed herself. She also admits to the use of women as human shields in order to save militant gunmen, (Breitbart)
- Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian ex-spy poisoned in London last weekend, dies. He had previously been put on a ventilator after suffering a heart failure, while objects discovered in his body when he was x-rayed are not a "major concern", doctors say. (The Times) (News Limited)
- Dick Cheney, Vice-President of the United States, is reported to have arrived in Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with US forces, though this is denied by his spokesperson. (BBC)
- Don Brash resigns as leader of the opposition New Zealand National Party, saying ongoing speculation about his leadership is damaging to the party. (NZ Herald)
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- Convicted killer and loyalist Michael Stone is seized by security guards and police at Northern Ireland's parliament building, Stormont, while carrying a gun, knife and several possibly "viable" explosive devices. (BBC)
- Rwanda breaks off diplomatic relations with France after a French judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière, issues warrants for the arrest of President of Rwanda Paul Kagame and nine associates for their alleged involvement in the shooting down of a plane carrying former President Juvenal Habyarimana. The incident sparked the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. (Reuters)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel and Palestinians have agreed to a ceasefire.(BBC)
- Campaigning has ended in Bahrain's parliamentary elections before tomorrow's vote. The International Herald Tribune says voter turnout is expected to be 'huge' after a divisive election campaign. (IHT)
- In the last statement before his death, poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko accuses Russian president Vladimir Putin of his murder. (The Times)
- Iraqi insurgency: Suicide bombers kill 22 people and wound 26 in the city of Tal Afar in northern Iraq. (Reuters)
- The European Union (EU) hosts the President of Russia Vladimir Putin in a summit. Poland has vetoed the launch of EU-Russia partnership talks. (Reuters via Melbourne Age)
- The Cole Inquiry delivers its report to the Australian Government to be tabled in the Parliament of Australia on Monday. It was inquiring whether Australian companies notably AWB Limited paid bribes to the Government of Saddam Hussein in order to sell wheat to Iraq. (The Australian)
- In a poll conducted by the U.S. Agency for Development, following President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's signing of the controversial, new Constitution of Kyrgyzstan, 62% of Kyrgyz citizens believe the country is moving in the right direction. (Angus Reid)
- Maximo V. Soliven, O.B. Montessori Center chairman and veteran publisher and writer of the Philippine Star, dies of cardiac and respiratory arrest in Japan. (Max Soliven Passes)
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- Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, expresses concern about a resumption of fighting in Sudan between the army and the Sudan People's Liberation Army. (BBC)
- Shibu Soren, a Cabinet Minister in India's coalition government, is convicted of murdering his secretary. The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh successfully demands Soren's resignation. (News Limited)
- Three British Airways planes are grounded in London and Moscow due to positive traces of radiation as the investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko widens. British Airways will attempt to contact the thousands of passengers who have travelled on the planes recently. (CNN)
- Turkmenbashi Saparmurat Niyazov fires Khojaberdy Byashymov, Governor of Mary Province. Niyazov has now fired every regional governor in Turkmenistan since the beginning of November. (RFE/RL)
- United States District Court judge Richard J. Leon orders the Bush administration to resume making payments to thousands of people who lost their homes as a result of Hurricane Katrina. (AP via International Herald Tribune)
- Brandon Mayfield, wrongly arrested after the 11 March, 2004 Madrid attacks settles a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation for $2 million. (USAToday)
- Al-Qaida in Iraq condemns Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey as being part of a "Crusader campaign" against Islam. Vatican officials respond by saying that the comments illustrate the need for religions to fight "violence in the name of God". (AP via Los Angeles Times)
- Former Prime Minister of Russia Yegor Gaidar is recovering in hospital in Moscow from a mystery illness contracted in Ireland prompting speculation of a connection with the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. (AFP via ABC)
- After Islamists win a large number of seats in the first round of Bahrain's parliamentary election last Saturday, rumours sweep the Kingdom that leaders of the Shia opposition party, Al Wefaq, will join the government in a cabinet reshuffle. (Gulf News)
- An Australian Army Black Hawk helicopter is lost at sea off the coast of Fiji where it had been operating from HMAS Kanimbla (L-51) preparing to evacuate Australian civilians in the event of a coup. The Fijian military is holding an exercise in the capital Suva claiming there are fears of a "foreign intervention". (News Limited), (BBC)
- The United Nations Security Council unanimously passes a resolution that extends the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq until December 31, 2007. The new resolution requires a review of the mandate to begin by June 15, 2007, or sooner if the government of Iraq requests it. The government of Iraq can also revoke the mandate before its end if it chooses to do so. (Guardian UK)
- The Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase meets with Fijian military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama in emergency talks in Wellington, New Zealand aimed at averting a coup. (News Limited)
- In the United Kingdom, the News of the World newspaper's royal editor Clive Goodman pleads guilty to conspiring to intercept the voicemail messages of Princes William and Harry. (BBC)
- The Liberal Party of Canada opens its leadership convention, expected to be the most contentious in decades, with a keynote speech by Howard Dean. (CBC)
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- Super Typhoon Durian (Reming), the strongest Typhoon to hit Philippines, impacts the Bical region. In Virac Catanduanes 265–300 km/h (165–186 mph) wind was recorded, while in Legaspi, Albay 4.66 mm (0.183 in) of rain is recorded and a total of 740 people are killed.
- Windows Vista goes on sale for bulk license holders with home users being able to buy it on January 30, 2007. (CNN)
- The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season officially ends with a total of nine storms having formed. (CBS News)
- Central African Republic Bush War: French fighter planes have fired at rebels in northern Central African Republic (CAR) where thousands have fled fighting in recent weeks. (BBC)
- The science journal Nature publishes a new reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism based on high resolution X-ray tomography. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient Greek mechanical analog computer designed to calculate astronomical positions. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- The U.S. Institute of Peace announces that the Iraq Study Group report will be released to the public December 6, 2006. The group, charged with conducting a forward-looking assessment of the situation in Iraq, is expected to present their findings to President George W. Bush on that day. The report will be available for download on USIP's web site. (Reuters)
- At least 300 people were killed in clashes between Sudan's army and former rebels in the south earlier this week, aid workers say. (BBC)
- Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, announces plans to run as a candidate for the French Presidency in elections in April 2007. (BBC)
- Hezbollah-led Lebanon opposition groups call for protests on Friday in an effort to bring down the Government, (LA Times)
- A meeting between the President of the United States George W. Bush and the Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki in Jordan is cancelled. A classified Bush administration memo critical of the ability of al-Maliki to bring sectarian conflict under control had previously been published in The New York Times. In a later meeting, they decided that Iraq should not be divided into semi-autonomous zones. (News Limited and AFP) (AP via Boston Globe)
- The Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase partially agrees to demands by the head of the Fijian military Commodore Frank Bainimarama in order to avert a coup. Bainimarama rejects the compromise and issues a deadline of noon on Friday. (News Limited) (ABC News Australia and AFP)
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| Elections |
- 1: Catalonia, Parliament
- 5: Nicaragua, General Election
- 6: Tajikistan, President
- 7: United States, House of Representatives, Senate (one third: "Class I" Senators), and many Governors
- 19: Mauritania, Parliament
- 22: Netherlands, House of Representatives
- 23: Isle of Man, House of Keys
- 25: Australia, Victorian State Election
- 25: Bahrain, Council of Representatives of Bahrain (1st round)
- 25: Alberta Progr. Cons. leadership (1st round)
- 26: Ecuador, President (2nd round)
- 26: Poland, local elections (2nd round)
- 30: Gibraltar, constitutional referendum
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