January 11, 2005

• Purged Chinese Communist leader Zhao Ziyang is hospitalized, but in stable condition, according to the People's Republic of China government. The announcement came after rumors spread that he had died. (BBC)
• Italian motorcyclist Fabrizio Meoni is the second competitor to die in as many days in the 2005 Paris Dakar Rally. (TSN)
• In Nigeria, Audu Ogbeh, chairman of the ruling People's Democratic Party, resigns over disagreements with President Olusegun Obasanjo. (Vanguard) (NigeriaWorld) (Reuters Alertnet) (BBC)
• Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez signs a land reform decree aimed at reducing unused and absentee-owned agricultural properties. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• In Australia, 9 people are dead and 15 others are unaccounted for, in a bushfire in Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. (News.com.au) (The Australian) (Reuters)
• 4 die, 11 are injured, and 13 are missing after a mudslide in La Conchita, California, in the U.S. (Reuters) (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Intense flooding hits the Caribbean coasts of southern Central America; Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco declares a state of emergency. (BBC)
• Dr. Albert Hofmann celebrated his 99th birthday. Dr. Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basle, Switzerland. He became the first person to discover its psychedelic effects on April 16, 1943. (MAPS)