Portal:Current events/2005 January 31

January 31, 2005 (Monday)

Arab–Israeli conflict: A ten-year-old Palestinian girl dies after being shot in the head as she played in her school playground in Rafah. The source of the gunfire is disputed. Hamas launches mortar shells in retaliation, damaging a house in an Israeli settlement. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (Jerusalem Post) (BBC) (CBS) (Haaretz)
Conflict in Iraq: U.S. guards shoot dead four Iraqi prisoners following an alleged riot at the Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq. (BBC)
US entertainer Michael Jackson pleads his innocence before his trial for alleged child molestation begins in Santa Maria, California. (Reuters) (CNN) (LA Times)
In Chile, former head of secret police, general Manuel Contreras, is sentenced to 12 years in jail for the 1975 disappearance of left-wing activist Miguel Angel Sandoval. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
In Uganda, police find the body of Shaban Kirunda Nkutu, killed in 1973 during the reign of Idi Amin. (AllAfrica) (BBC)
The summit of the African Union begins in Nigeria, with 25 African heads of state and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in attendance. (News24) (Reuters) (BBC)
Bird flu spreads in Vietnam with the 12th reported death. (Bloomberg) (Reuters)
In the Solomon Islands, former rebel leader Harold Keke is put on trial for the murder of a priest Augustine Geve. (ABC) (Channel News Asia) (BBC)
Sefer Halilović, former head of the Bosnian army, goes on trial for killing Bosnian Croats during the Yugoslav wars. (FENA) (BBC)
In France, 16 people and companies go on trial for effective manslaughter for the Mont Blanc Tunnel fire in 1999. (IHT) (Expatica) (BBC)
Car bomb explodes in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. (ITAR-TASS) (Interfax) (BBC)