Portal:Current events/2005 November 8
November 8, 2005 (Tuesday)
- 2005 Liberian elections: Liberians go to the polls in a presidential run-off election between millionaire soccer star George Weah and former finance minister, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Sirleaf wins 59.4 percent to Weah's 40.6 percent. (Scotsman) (CBC)
- 2005 United States elections. In the off-year elections, Democrats Tim Kaine and Jon Corzine are elected governor of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively.
- 2005 civil unrest in France: French President Jacques Chirac declares a state of emergency on the twelfth day of rioting in the banlieues. This followed the re-activation in a cabinet emergency session of a 1955 law allowing local authorities to impose curfews. (New York Times) (registration required)
- Trial of Saddam Hussein: Three gunmen assassinate Adel al-Zubeidi, the defense lawyer for Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was vice president of Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
- Italian state-owned channel RaiNews 24 airs a controversial documentary in which Iraqi people and ex-U.S. soldiers report that white phosphorus, a chemical weapon, and Mk-77 napalm bombs were used by the U.S. Army against civilians in Fallujah last year. (BBC) (Rai News 24, with video)
- 2005 Sydney terrorism plot: Australian authorities arrest nine men, led by Abdul Nacer Benbrika, in a counterterrorism raid. Benbrika and six other men are later convicted of terrorism-related offenses. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says that the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research is about to start a controversial program that could kill up to 940 whales in the name of scientific research, abusing the rights under the International Whaling Convention.