Current events of 13 December 2006 (2006-12-13) (Wednesday) edit history watch

The High Court of Botswana rules that thousands of Bushmen should not have been evicted from their ancestral home which is now the Central Botswana Game Reserve. (Washington Post) Belgian state TV station RTBF shows a spoof news report announcing the secession of Flanders and thus the dissolution of the Belgian state. It further reported the escape of the Belgian Royal Family into exile. The report fools foreign diplomats and panics Belgian viewers. (BBC News) (AP via Yahoo) Bomb and mortar attacks kill 23 Iraqis and wound at least 52 in Baghdad and Kirkuk. (CNN) Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych arrives in Kazakhstan. He plans on meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov. (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty) The Dutch care-taker government of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende is in crisis after the House of Representatives passes a motion of disapproval against immigration minister Rita Verdonk. (Financial Times) Malaysia crowns its thirteenth king - the second youngest ever - in a traditional ceremony in Kuala Lumpur. Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, 44, takes over from outgoing King Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, 63, whose five-year term as monarch ended on December 12. (BBC) In a survey conducted by the Social Opinion Center of Uzbekistan, 93.7% of respondents said they opposed religious extremism and 3.9% said religious freedom is restricted, but only 39.4% said they had conditions that "satisfied their religious needs." (Interfax) 78-year-old assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian is to be paroled in June. (Detroit News) In the largest such crackdown in American history, U.S. federal immigration authorities raid numerous Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six U.S. states, arresting nearly 1,300 illegal immigrant employees [1] [2] [3] [4].