Iraq

On the 4th, Operation River Gate was launched with about 2,500 US and 400-500 Iraqi troops to disrupt insurgent activities in and around Haditha, Haqlaniya and Darwana, in the west (CNN.com).

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2005

France

Rioting began in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois on 27 October. In following weeks it spread to other suburbs, then to other cities throughout France. It appeared that most of the rioting consisted of hit-and-run arson attacks by young men against public facilities and private property. The immediate catalyst may have been a government effort to crack down on crime in areas where many immigrants from North Africa have settled and where there has historically been high unemployment (AP).

1 OCTOBER 2005

Indonesia

There were terror bomb attacks on Bali island which killed at least 19 people and wounded at least 132. Jimbaran Bay and Kuta were the locations targeted. The government said the attacks apparently were planned by Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, believed to be connected to the Jemaah Islamiya terrorist group (CNN.com).

Azerbaijan

There were sometimes violent clashes in Baku between police and supporters of the political opposition to President Ilham Aliev. Protests by the opposition have increased in recent weeks. Aliev has said that the elections on 6 November will be fair (AP).

3 OCTOBER 2005

Asia and the Pacific, diplomatic affairs

Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Kasuri, met in Islamabad, Pakistan. They signed an agreement requiring each country to provide the other with advance notification of ballistic missile flight tests (AP).

France

The Spanish government said French police had arrested three senior members of ETA in Aurillac, including Harriet Aguirre (CNN.com).

4 OCTOBER 2005

Europe, diplomatic affairs

The EU and Russia held a summit meeting in London. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would remain a “reliable partner” for Europe in the provision of oil and gas (CNN.com).

6 OCTOBER 2005

United States, foreign policy

President Bush, in a speech on the war against al Qaeda, said, “we're not facing a set of grievances that can be soothed and addressed. We're facing a radical ideology with unalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.” He said al Qaeda wants to drive Western influence out of the broader Middle East, overthrow moderate governments in the region, “establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia” and, eventually, “to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people and to blackmail our government into isolation.”

Bush said, “Against such an enemy there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory.” He said, “Defeating a broad and adaptive network requires patience, constant pressure, and strong partners in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and beyond....We will not relent until the organized, international terror networks are exposed and broken and their leaders held to account for their acts of murder.” Bush said the US was “determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to outlaw regimes and to their terrorist allies who would use them without hesitation.” He reiterated that the US would hold to account governments which supported or harbored terrorists and was “determined to deny the militants’ control of any nation which they would use as a home base and a launching pad for terror.”

Bush said, “If the broader Middle East is left to grow in bitterness, if countries remain in misery, while radicals stir the resentments of millions, then that part of the world will be a source of endless conflict and mounting danger for our generation and the next. If the peoples in that region are permitted to chose their own destiny and advance by their own energy and by their participation as free men and women, then the extremists will be marginalized and the flow of violent radicalism to the rest of the world will slow and eventually end” (CNN.com).

7 OCTOBER 2005

Belgium

The country’s second largest union, FGTB/ABVV, called a 24-hour general strike over the government’s plans to raise the retirement age (Reuters).

8 OCTOBER 2005

Pakistan

A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck about 145 kilometers north-northeast of Islamabad, killing almost 90,000 people, most of them in Pakistan. About three million were left homeless (CNN.com).

9-23 OCTOBER 2005

Poland, politics

In the first round of the presidential election on the 9th, the top two vote getters were the Civic Platform’s Donald Tusk and Law and Justice’s Lech Kaczynski. In the runoff on the 23rd, Kaczynski defeated Tusk 54% to 46% (www.rulers.org, Reuters).

11 OCTOBER 2005

Kyrgyzstan, foreign policy

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev assured visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the US could continue its use of an air base there (Reuters).

Liberia, politics

The first round of a presidential election was held on 11 October. George Weah of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) won 28.3% of the vote, former finance Minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of the Unity Party (UP) won 19.8%, Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party (LP) won 13.9%, Winston Tubman of the National Democratic Party of Liberia won 9.2%, and Varney Sherman of the Coalition for the Transformation of Liberia (COTOL) won 7.8%; turnout was 74.8%. Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf went to a runoff. In elections for the House of Representatives, the CDC won 15 of 64 seats, the LP 9, the UP 8, COTOL 8, the Alliance for Peace and Democracy (APD) 5, and the National Patriotic Party (NPP) 4. In elections to the Senate, COTOL won 7 of 30 seats, the NPP 4, the CDC 3, the LP 3, the UP 3, and the APD 3.

In the runoff on 8 November, Johnson-Sirleaf defeated Weah 59.4% to 40.6%; turnout was 61% (www.rulers.org, AP).

11-12 OCTOBER 2005

Iraq

A suicide car bomb attack killed 30 people in Tal Afar on the 11th. The next day another attack there killed 30 more (CNN.com).

12 OCTOBER 2005

Diplomatic affairs

President Bush called on Syria “not to agitate killers in the Palestinian territory” and “to do everything in her power to shut down the transshipment of suiciders and killers into Iraq....We expect Syria to be a good neighbor to Iraq". Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad said it was “impossible” to control the Syria-Iraq border (CNN.com).

Syria, politics

Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide (CNN.com).

13-14 OCTOBER 2005

Russia

About 150 militants carried out coordinated attacks on several police stations and other security-related facilities in Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkariya. The attacks were repelled with heavy losses to the militants (AP, CNN.com). Shamil Basayev later claimed to have been behind the attack (Reuters).

15 OCTOBER 2005

Iran

Two bomb blasts in Ahvaz killed five people (CNN.com).

United States

There was a small riot in a northern neigborhood of Toledo, Ohio after a neo-Nazi group prepared to stage a march there. The Nazis called off their march and police dispersed the rioters (CNN.com).

16 OCTOBER 2005

Iraq

A referendum on a permanent constitution was held. Seventy-eight percent voted for the constitution. Turnout was 63%. If the constitution had been rejected by at least two-thirds of voters in at least three of Iraq’s 18 provinces, it would have been defeated. There were significant Sunni Muslim populations in Anbar, Salaheddin, Nineveh and Diyala provinces. The ‘No’ votes in the first three of those provinces were 97%, 82% and 55% respectively. In Diyala, where there was a slight Sunni majority, 51% voted for the constitution.

The political system is to be federalist, with significant power being exercised by the regions, something which the Sunnis had been opposed to. During the negotiations on the constitution, concessions were made to the Sunnis regarding its amendment after the new government is formed. Elections for that are scheduled for 15 December (CNN.com).

20 OCTOBER 2005

Israel

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas met US President Bush in Washington. Abbas said Israel should halt construction of its security wall in the West Bank and permit movement of Palestinians between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (AP).

22 OCTOBER 2005

Egypt

About 5,000 Muslim rioters rampaged through two predominately Christian neighborhoods in Alexandria (AP).

24 OCTOBER 2005

Iraq

An attack, apparently by suicide bombers in three vehicles, on the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad killed 10 people (CNN.com).

26 OCTOBER 2005

Israel

A suicide bombing in Hadera killed at least five people. Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack (CNN.com).

27 OCTOBER 2005

Israel, Gaza Strip

There were some Israeli airstrikes, including one which killed four Islamic Jihad members and three civilians and wounded 14 others (CNN.com).

Colombia

Jhon Eildelber Cano, considered the No. 3 man in the Norte del Valle cocaine cartel, was arrested at a country home in the northwest (AP).

29 OCTOBER 2005

India

Three bomb attacks in New Delhi killed at least 59 people and wounded over 200. Targets included the Sarojini Nagar marketplace and the Paharganj marketplace. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Pakistan’s foreign office issued a statement condemning the attack (CNN.com).

31 OCTOBER 2005

Diplomatic affairs

The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution demanding that Syria fully cooperate with the UN investigation into the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri or face "further action." It also called for sanctions against people suspected of involvement in the "planning, sponsoring, organizing or perpetrating" of the assassination (CNN.com).

Democratic Republic of Congo

About 2,000 Congolese troops and 500 peacekeepers from the UN mission began an operation in North Kivu province against ethnic Hutu anti-Rwanda insurgents. It is estimated that there are 15,000 Rwandan Hutu insurgents still in the DRC (AP).

Iraq

A car bomb killed at least 15 people in Basra (CNN.com).

31 OCTOBER-4 NOVEMBER 2005

Ethiopia

Anti-government protests in Addis Ababa began on the 31st. The next day these turned into deadly clashes with police. On the 4th, protests spread to several towns in pro-opposition areas of the country (AP).