Thursday August 18, 2005

Holidays

• RC saints - Saint Helena of Constantinople,Saint Alberto Hurtado
• Buhe in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Events

• Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK serial killings.
• Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people.
• Ohio Governor Bob Taft pleads no contest to four counts of filing incomplete financial disclosure statements in Columbus, Ohio and a Franklin County municipal court judge finds him guilty, fines him $4,000, and orders him to apologize publicly. Taft says he will not resign his office. (The Cincinnati Enquirer)
• A man described as Al Qaeda's leader in Saudi Arabia, Saleh Mohammed al-Aoofi, is killed in a shootout with police.(CBS) (BBC)
• Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer, is sentenced 10 consecutive life sentences for 10 murders between 1974 and 1991. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Pope Benedict XVI made his first foreign trip to his homeland Germany, attending the World Youth Day 2005. He was welcomed with cheers and made several speeches to leaders of Germany and to pilgrims at the Rhine banks at a ship as well as in front of the Cologne cathedrale. - BBC Pictures; BBC News; MSNBC.
• Conflict in Iraq:: Insurgents kill 4 US Troops in an IED explosion in Samarra, north of Baghdad, Iraq. (Polit Info), (Xinhua)An angry Iraqi crowd thronged the Al-A'amiriya district of Baghdad, after US Troops killed 3 local brothers, including a disabled man, accusing them of being terrorists. (Reuters)
• Insurgents kill 4 US Troops in an IED explosion in Samarra, north of Baghdad, Iraq. (Polit Info), (Xinhua)
• An angry Iraqi crowd thronged the Al-A'amiriya district of Baghdad, after US Troops killed 3 local brothers, including a disabled man, accusing them of being terrorists. (Reuters)
• NASA has decided to push the next shuttle mission STS-121 to March 2006 and reassign it to the Space Shuttle Discovery (MSNBC)
• Israeli troops forcibly remove Zionist Jews opposed to Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan one by one from their strongholds in the synagogues in the Israeli settlements on the Gaza Strip. Some of the protesters threw paint, rocks and acid at the soldiers. (BBC), (ABC)
• See more

Famous Deaths

• Christopher Bauman

  American wrestler (Born 1982).

• Gao Xiumin

  Chinese comedy actress (Born 1959).

Top #5 songs in the USA

1. Mariah Carey - We Belong Together
2. The Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha
3. Rihanna - Pon de Replay
4. Bow Wow - Let Me Hold You
5. Missy Elliott - Lose Control

Top #4 songs in the UK

1. James Blunt - You're Beautiful
2. Daniel Powter - Bad Day
3. 2Pac featuring Elton John - Ghetto Gospel
4. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone

Top #5 R&B songs

1. Mariah Carey - We Belong Together
2. Bow Wow Featuring Omarion - Let Me Hold You
3. Destiny's Child - Cater 2 U
4. Fantasia - Free Yourself
5. Lyfe Jennings - Must Be Nice

Top #5 Latin songs

1. Shakira Featuring Alejandro Sanz - La Tortura
2. Luis Fonsi - Nada Es Para Siempre
3. Daddy Yankee - Lo Que Paso, Paso
4. Don Omar - Reggaeton Latino
5. Juanes - La Camisa Negra

Division 2

• Montpellier - Amiens : 2 - 1

Stock Markets

• ExxonMobil XOM: opens at $58.15
• Apple AAPL: opens at $46.91
• Microsoft MSFT: opens at $26.89
• General Electric GE: opens at $34.04
• International Business Machines IBM: opens at $81.10

Exchange Rates

• 1 USD = 110.51 JPY
• 1 USD = 1.2187 CAD
• 1 USD = 1.271 CHF
• 1 EUR = 134.57 JPY
• 1 EUR = 0.6787 GBP