June 1 2005 (Wednesday)

• In Côte d'Ivoire, renewed violence in the west of the country costs at least 41 lives (Reuters AlertNet) (SABC) (BBC)
• In Italy, court in Bologna gives life sentences to five members of Red Brigades for the murder of government advisor Marco Biagi in 2002. They are suspected members of the Communist Combatant faction of the Brigades (AGI) (IHT) (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
• Haim Yavin, one of Israel's most respected television news presenters has condemned the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, calling it "brutal", the first time he has spoken publicly on the subject. (BBC), (Boston Globe), (CBS), (The Guardian)
• The Shin Bet claim to have thwarted a double suicide bombing attack on Jerusalem, arresting 5 Islamic Jihad militants who had two explosive belts. (Haaretz)
• Arab residents of the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem protest Israeli plans to destroy 88 of their homes, many by Israeli court order, many of which pre-date the foundation of the State of Israel. (BBC)
• Dan Halutz, the former Israeli Air Force commander, was appointed as the 18th Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces. (IDF official announcement)
• An Australian man of Vietnamese origin has been jailed for 20 years in Vietnam after being convicted of trying to smuggle 200g of heroin from Vietnam to Australia. (News Limited)
• Mexican Secretary of Interior Santiago Creel turns in resignation to president Vicente Fox in order to pursue his party's candidacy to the 2006 Presidential Election. (BBC)
• The American Family Association, a Christian activist group, a week after ending its boycott of the Walt Disney Company, announced a boycott of the Ford Motor Company. In adding Ford to its ongoing boycotts of Kmart and the book One of the Guys by Robert Clark Young, the AFA argues that Ford promotes "the homosexual lifestyle." (MSNBC)
• At least 20 people are killed and 40 are injured in a bomb blast in the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Sweden shuts down the Barsebäck 2 nuclear reactor. (Planet Ark) (BBC)
• In Australia, embassy of Indonesia was closed after it received a package containing suspected "biological agent". The case is probably related to the sentence of Schapelle Corby (Bloomberg) (Reuters AlertNet)
• In the Netherlands, a national referendum on ratification of the European Constitution results in its rejection by a substantial margin. (Reuters)
• In Bolivia, continuing protests against privatisation of basic utilities force congress to abandon a key session in the capital La Paz (BBC)
• In the June 6 issue of TIME Magazine, Wikipedia and its founder Jimmy Wales have been featured in a story on the rise of wiki technology. (TIME)
• The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, William Donaldson, announces that he will leave that post at the end of June. (thestreet.com)
• In Crosby, Texas, United States of America an oil well owned by Louisiana Oil & Gas Co. exploded. <>