Portal:Current events/2006 April 24
April 24, 2006 (Monday)
- Famous Bangladeshi social worker and human rights activist Nasreen Pervin Huq died at her own house in Dhaka, Bangladesh, by a tragic accident. She had been the country director of the ActionAid Bangladesh (ActionAid) since 2003 up until her death.
- Former Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, and current Leader of the Opposition, Basdeo Panday, is convicted on three counts of failing to declare a London bank account in 1997, 1998, and 1999. He is sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour, fined TT$20,000 on each count, and ordered to forfeit approximately TT$1,600,000 (the accumulated year-end balances of the account in question). He intends to appeal the sentence, but resigned as Leader of the Opposition. (T&T Express), (Radio Jamaica)
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly lifts a 27-year ban on female attendance of public sporting events in Iran. They still need permission of the male head of the household to attend and they will sit in a special female-only section. (AP) (Guardian) (BBC)
- 2006 Democracy movement in Nepal: Hundreds of Maoist rebels stormed the town of Chautara, attacking government offices and a prison. (BBC). King Gyanendra orders the recall next Friday of the parliament which he suspended in 2005 – a key demand of the protestors. (BBC)
- 2006 Dahab bombings: Witnesses reporting hearing three explosions in the Egyptian Sinai resort town of Dahab at about 1715 UTC. Dr. Said Essa, who runs the Sinai Peninsula rescue squad, estimates there were at least 100 dead or wounded. (CTV)
- Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have agreed to a relaxation of rules for the use of condoms. (BBC)
- Dubai International Finance Centre, owner of the Dubai stock exchange, announces that it has increased its equity stake in Euronext NV, which runs stock exchanges in four European capitals. There are rumors of an impending take-over bid. (MSN)
- Sri Lankan Civil War: Two suspected Tamil Tiger rebels are shot dead in Batticaloa while being caught planting mines, after rebels reportedly hacked a young mother to death. In the eastern part of the island, two Sinhalese guards are killed as they returned from a funeral and one Tamil is shot dead by unidentified gunmen. (BBC)
- Ken Lay, former chairman of the board of defunct Enron Corporation, took the stand in his own defense in his criminal trial in Houston, Texas. (Houston Chronicle)
- A collision between a passenger bus and a truck kills 10 people, members of two different families, in Marcos Paz, Argentina. (Telefe video, in Spanish)