Top Stories
Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted on five charges I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Chief of Staff to US Vice President Cheney, resigned today after he was charged with obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, and two counts of making false statements. Australian anti-terror laws will be delayed Jon Stanhope, the Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister, is the first Australian state or territory chief to reject the Howard Government's proposed anti-terror legislation in its current state.

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Japan likely to change law to allow female heirs to the throne Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi suggested yesterday that the government would submit a draft allowing female heirs to the Japanese Throne.

Wikipedia Current Events
Conflict in Iraq: At least 20 Shia Militia members and Iraqi Police have died following a Sunni Arab ambush in Nahrawan, South East of Baghdad. Israeli troops raid the Palestinian town of Jenin, in the West Bank. At least seven Palestinians, including one militant, have died following Israeli Air Strikes in the Gaza Strip. (BBC) Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon calls for the expulsion of Iran from the United Nations after the Iranian President called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". As the relief operation of 2005 Kashmir earthquake is facing great difficulties in reaching victims due to bad weather, mountainous terrain, landslides and blocked roads, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz makes an appeal to millions of survivors in the mountains to leave their villages and come down to the valleys and cities for shelter before the start of winter in about three weeks. Former Northern Irish footballer George Best's medical condition worsens in an intensive care unit at a private English hospital, as he is reportedly suffering from serious internal bleeding. President George W. Bush's nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Harriet Miers, has turned down the nomination made on October 3, 2005. The President has accepted her withdrawal.

Body of Rosa Parks to lie in honor at U.S. Capitol
The body of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, who died on Monday, will lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, a tribute usually reserved for deceased presidents and war heroes.

The Senate passed a resolution on Thursday for Parks to lay in the Rotunda on Sunday and Monday so that "the citizens of the United States may pay their last respects to this great American". The House of Representatives approved the resolution today.

Parks will be the first woman to be honored in this way.

Senate Majority leader Bill Frist said allowing Parks to lie at the Capitol is "a testament to the impact of her life on both our nation's history and future". Minority leader Harry Reid said that Parks' actions "changed not only our country, but the entire world, as her actions gave hope to every individual fighting for civil and human rights." Senator Christopher Dodd added that Parks "is not just a national hero, she is the embodiment of our social and human conscience and the spark that lit the flame of liberty and equality for African Americans and minority groups in this country and around the globe".

Meanwhile, officials in Montgomery, the place of her historic act of defiance, and Detroit, her later home and deathplace, ordered that the first seat of every public bus will be reserved to honor Parks until her funeral, which is set for Wednesday.

Japanese riot police deployed around consulates
Japanese riot police were deployed on streets surrounding the Korean and Chinese consulates in the city of Fukuoka, the largest city on the south-western island of Kyushu. Sound trucks belonging to right-wing nationalist groups were circling the area and the police presence appeared to be an effort to control these groups. Police officers on the scene declined to comment.

Relations between Japan and its neighbors have been tense due to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy of visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, where the remains of Japanese soldiers killed in wars since the mid-nineteenth century are interred. Koizumi visited the shrine on October 17. Convicted war criminals from the Second World War are also interred at Yasukuni, so Prime Ministerial visits have been severely criticized by other Asian leaders. Territorial disputes between China and Japan have also increased tension in recent months.

Japan-Korea premiers' meeting in doubt over shrine visit
During talks between the respective Foreign Ministers, Ban Ki-moon, the South Korean minister has expressed doubt that the South Korean President would be able to visit Japan due to opinion regarding Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. The Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister described the prospects for such a visit as "grim".

Ban is currently on a visit for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Nobutaka Machimura where he said that the "people of South Korea were disappointed" at the Japanese Prime Minister's visit to the controversial shrine.

The Yasukuni Shrine is dedicated to the spirits of dead Japanese soldiers, originally constructed in 1869. The controversy arose as a result of the shrine honouring a number of convicted war criminals. The shrine's policy was to honour all fallen Japanese soldiers, which was not an issue at the time. However, the perception of the shrine in the eyes of some Asian countries occupied during the Second World War is that it is a rallying point for right-wing and nationalist groups within Japan. Japanese peace movements view the shrine in a similar light.

Today in History
1268 - Conradin, the last Duke of Swabia, was beheaded in Naples after failing to reclaim Sicily for the House of Hohenstaufen from Charles of Anjou.

1787 - Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

1923 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (pictured) became the first President of the Republic of Turkey, a new nation founded from remnants of the Ottoman Empire.

1956 - The Suez Crisis began: Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and pushed Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

1998 - After more than three decades, 77-year old John Glenn returned to space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery to study the effects of space flight on the elderly.

October 29 is Republic Day in Turkey

Quote of the Day

"Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man's papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive." ~ Jonas Salk

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2005-10-28T21:39:28