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- 67 die and about 300,000 people are affected by floods in Ethiopia's Somali Region of Ogaden after the Shabelle River bursts its banks. (Angola Press)
- The UN Security Council votes unanimously to extend the mandate of Côte d'Ivoire's transitional government by one year, granting its Interim Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny sweeping powers over security forces. UNSC deadline for Elections, originally set for November 2006, was delayed to November 2007. (AP)
- Arab League-sponsored talks between the Somali transitional government and the Islamic Court Union are postponed indefinitely after the latter seek a delay. A Somali Minister says that war appears likely. (Reuters)
- Bolivian President Evo Morales retracts plans to nationalize the country's mining industry, promising to do so at an unspecified later date. (UPI)
- Venezuela and Guatemala have agreed to withdraw from the race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council; both agreeing to support Panama after 47 rounds of voting. (The Canadian Press)
- White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in a statement that "We are therefore increasingly concerned by mounting evidence that the Syrian and Iranian governments, Hezbollah, and their Lebanese allies are preparing plans to topple Lebanon's democratically elected government," and that "We're making it clear to everybody in the region that we think that there ought to be hands off the [Prime Minister Fouad] Siniora government; let them go about and do their business."(Reuters)
- The Swedish Ro-Ro ship M/S Finnbirch sinks in a blizzard in the Baltic Sea, killing two of its fourteen crew members. The vessel had some 260 tons of fuel and lubrication oil onboard which might present a hazard to the environment. (Helsingin Sanomat) (Reuters) (CNN)
- Turkish archaeologist Muazzez Ilmiye Cig is acquitted of inciting religious hatred; a charge made after she published a book stating that the Muslim headscarf originated in the clothing of Sumerian priestesses who initiated young men into sex. (BBC News)
- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attack a rural police command in Colombia, killing at least 16 officers as part of a two-week offensive. President Álvaro Uribe had earlier withdrawn from negotiations. (Reuters)
- The government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels sign a second truce as negotiations restart in Juba, Sudan. (IRIN)
- An Israel Defense Forces soldier and six Palestinians were killed in an IDF operation in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. (Haaretz), (BBC News)
- The Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase reportedly meets with his security chiefs this morning after yesterday trying to sack Fiji's military commander Frank Bainimarama. Alexander Downer, the Foreign Minister of Australia, has raised concerns about a coup. (ABC News Australia)
- The World Confederation of Labour and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions merge to form the International Trade Union Confederation. (International Herald Tribune)
- Typhoon Paeng (Cimaron) kills at least 19 people, displaces some 65,000 families and damages more than 3,000 houses as it moves across Luzon. (Xinhua via ReliefWeb.int), (Sun.Star)
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- Competing software manufacturers Microsoft and Novell hold a press conference to announce a collaboration on technologies for inter operation between Microsoft's Windows and Novell's SUSE Linux operating systems.
- The governments of the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles sign an agreement in The Hague, disbanding the Netherlands Antilles on July 1, 2007. The islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten become autonomous associated states within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius become Dutch municipalities. (Nu.nl) (Dutch language)
- The Rev. Ted Haggard resigns as head of the National Association of Evangelicals in the United States amidst allegations of a gay affair. (Fox Colorado)
- The journal Science publishes a study by B. Worm et al. predicting the collapse of commercial fisheries in 2048, due to overfishing, pollution and other environmental factors. (The Washington Post)
- Iran fires dozens of unarmed missiles to begin 10 days of military war games, with "ranges from 300 km to up to 2,000 km," some of which have "the capacity to carry 1,400 bombs," Iranian state television reported. (CNN).
- The UK Office for National Statistics announces that, in 2005, 565,000 immigrants arrived in the UK, mainly from Poland, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, while there were 380,000 emigrants, over half of whom were UK citizens. The most popular emigration destinations were Australia, Spain, and France. The net immigration total, 185,000, was 17,000 less than 2004's record. (BBC)
- Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly, intends to double the price it charges Georgia. This follows the 2006 Georgian-Russian espionage controversy in early October. (Civil Georgia)
- Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, conveys the support of the Commonwealth of Nations to the Prime Minister of Fiji Laisenia Qarase. He warned Fijian military commander Frank Bainimarama against staging a coup d'etat. (ABC News Australia)
- The U.S. military identifies Ahmed Qusai al-Taai, an Iraqi-American translator, as the U.S. soldier kidnapped at gunpoint in Iraq on October 23, 2006. (CNN)
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- The death toll in a fire at the historic Mizpah Hotel in Reno, Nevada rises to nine with not all of the ruins having been searched yet. (Las Vegas Sun)
- Ted Haggard resigns after the New Life Church's investigative board finds him guilty of "sexually immoral conduct". (AP via WCBS)
- Tomihiro Taniguchi, Deputy Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, announces that Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, and possibly Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, will launch nuclear programs for desalination. A proliferation expert asserts the real reason behind the programs is for a "security hedge." (The Times)
- The North Korean Foreign Ministry releases a statement calling for Japan to leave the six-party talks regarding DPRK's nuclear program because the Japanese officials involved in the talks are "imbeciles" and Japan is a state of the U.S. The Foreign Ministry accuses the United States of "warmongering." (ABC News)
- Operation Autumn Clouds: Israeli forces have mounted a series of air strikes as part of an on-going Gaza offensive, killing at least eight.(BBC NEWS), (Al Jazeera)
- Two women have been killed as Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd of women gathered to help besieged gunmen flee a mosque in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. (BBC NEWS), (Al Jazeera)
- Former Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon is admitted to the intensive care unit of the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv with a chest infection. (BBC)
- Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China, promises to double foreign aid to Africa at a conference attended by many of the top African leaders. (CNN)
- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is greater than at the beginning of the war on Iraq with 1.6 million Iraqis displaced internally and 1.8 million in overseas countries. (ABC News Australia)
- Fijian Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase drops amnesty provisions for the leaders of the 2000 coup after threats from the military to remove him from office. (NZ Herald)
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- Somalian War: Heavy fighting has been reported between forces of Union of Islamic Courts and Puntland, the semi-autonomous region of Somalia. (Al Jazeera)
- Felipe Pérez Roque, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, backs away from earlier predictions that Fidel Castro would return as the President of Cuba by December raising concerns about the progress of Castro's recovery from intestinal surgery. (USA Today)
- The Iraqi government prepares a law that may see former Baath Party supporters restored to their former jobs. (ABC News)
- Tony Blair opposes the death penalty for Saddam Hussein but says the trial had reminded the world of Hussein's brutality. (CNN)
- Bombs explode at Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, an opposition party's headquarters and a bank in the capital. (RTÉ News)
- Operation Autumn Clouds: A female Palestinian suicide bomber has blown herself up in a Gaza Strip town, killing herself and injuring an Israeli soldier, the Israeli army says. (BBC)
- The Polish President, Lech Kaczyński, proposes that there be a 100,000 man-strong EU Army designed to work with NATO. (RTÉ News)
- Ariel Sharon is moved out of the intensive care unit at the Sheba Medical Center. (AP via Malaysia Star)
- Daniel Ortega has an early lead over Eduardo Montealegre, according to partial results from the general elections in Nicaragua. (CNN)
- The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-12) opens in Nairobi, Kenya. (UNFCCC)
- The legal challenge to President George W. Bush's ratification of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Conyers v. Bush) led by United States Congressman and member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers (together with ten other representatives of the House of Representatives) is dismissed due to lack of standing (ABC)
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- The World Trade Organization invites Vietnam to become the WTO's 150th member. [1] (BBC News)
- Daniel Ortega is elected President of Nicaragua in the 2006 general election, after rival candidate Eduardo Montealegre concedes defeat. (BBC News) (CNN) (Reuters)
- After 48 rounds of voting, Panama is elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. (DPA)
- José Montilla becomes the new President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, renewing the left-of-centre tripartite pact between his PSC, the pro-independence ERC and the leftist ICV-EUiA alliance after the election held on 2006-11-01. (Monsters and Critics)
- John Bolton, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, claims that United States diplomat Josette Shiner has been selected to head the United Nations World Food Programme. (ABC News)
- Dhiren Barot of London is convicted of conspiracy to murder for developing al-Qaeda plots to kill thousands of people in the United Kingdom and United States in the 2004 Financial buildings plot. (BBC News)
- United States general elections, 2006: Voters go to the polls today in the United States. (Scotsman)
- Trial of Saddam Hussein:
- Operation Autumn Clouds: The Israeli Defense Forces began to pull its troops out of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, Palestinian officials said. Fifty-three Palestinians, including 16 civilians, and an IDF soldier have been killed since the operation began on October 31. (Haaretz)
- A deadly tornado kills nine and injures twelve in Saroma, Hokkaido, Japan. (Sky News)
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- Ken Mehlman is to step down as chairman of the National Committee of the United States Republican Party. (CNN)
- Eight synchronized bombs hit car showrooms in Southern Thailand, nine injured. (Reuters)
- Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev formally signs the new Constitution of Kyrgyzstan. The Constitution drastically weakens the power of the executive branch in favor of the legislative. Bakiyev and Prime Minister Felix Kulov are expected to maintain their positions until 2010. (EurasiaNet)
- United States general elections, 2006:
- BP settles the last remaining lawsuit from the 2005 explosion at its Texas oil refinery that cost 15 lives. (Reuters via Interactive Investor)
- The Bank of England raises interest rates in the United Kingdom to five percent. (Daily Telegraph)
- Israel braces itself for revenge attacks after yesterday's dawn barrage in the Gaza Strip leaves a family of 18 dead. The general in charge of Israel's Southern Command, Youav Galant, blames problems with the targeting device for the artillery strike. (The Times)
- Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack announces he will be running in the 2008 US Presidential Election. (CNN)
- Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, is hospitalized following a heart attack. (CNN)
- France successfully performs the first flight test of its new nuclear missile, the M51. (AP via CBS)
- Hundreds of young British Muslims are being radicalised, groomed and set on a path to mass murder, according to the head of security service MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller. (The Times)
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