June 2 2005 (Thursday)

• In Brazil, police have issued 124 arrest warrants from people suspected of illegal logging in the Amazon Rainforest over the last 15 years. 89 people are arrested, many of them from government agencies (Planet Ark) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• In Western Australia, large number of volunteers have helped 74 beached False Killer Whales return to sea. Only one dies on the ground (SMH) (ABC transcript) (News.com.au) (BBC)
• Cedar Revolution:
• In Lebanon, bomb kills journalist Samir Qasir, who had been critical of Syria (Al-Jazeera) (Arabic News)
• In Niger, 200 protesters march in the capital Niamey to demand that government alleviate the food shortage (AllAfrica) (Reuters AlertNet)
• United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan announces a report that states that the AIDS epidemic is accelerating despite the major efforts to stop it. (UN News Centre) (Medical News Today) (Reuters)
• In the Maldives, parliament members support move to multi party democracy. Before the parliamentary debate, government arrested number of dissidents (Dhivehi Observer) (Reuters) (BBC)
• Schabir Shaik, a financial advisor to South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, is found guilty of two counts of corruption and one of fraud in a 165-page judgment broadcast live as it was delivered over three days. The affair is considered to be a blow to Mr Zuma's ambitions to succeed the current president, Thabo Mbeki. (BBC)
• In Serbia several former soldiers are arrested after the transmission on Serbian TV of video showing them executing six Bosniak men from Srebrenica in July 1995. The video is evidence from the trial of former president Slobodan Milošević. Hitherto polls have shown that only half the population of Serbia believe that the Srebrenica massacre of 8000 men happened. (BBC)
• John Kerry criticizes the media for its coverage of the Downing Street memo, and joins calls for an inquiry. John Kerry criticizes news media, joins call for inquiry on Downing Street Memo (South Coast Today)
• The parliament in Latvia votes to ratify the European Constitution in an overwhelming majority of 71 to 5. (Spiegel online, German)
• In China, authorities have arrested Lu Jianhua and Chen Hui of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for espionage (Reuters)
• In the Philippines, male students organize a naked protest in Manila to demonstrate against too little funding in education (ABS-CBN, Philippines)
• United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan dismisses senior official Joseph Stephanides for oil for food scandal (UN News Centre) (Bloomberg)
• Protests in European cities of Brussels and Helsinki against software patents occur. (NPE)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
• Two alleged Islamic Jihad members, involved in a twin suicide bombing attempt on Jerusalem were arrested by IDF forces. (Haaretz)
• Israel released 398 Palestinian prisoners, the final phase of an Israeli pledge to release 900 prisoners as a goodwill gesture towards Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. (Haaretz)