February 17, 2006 (Friday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy:
- In Libya, at least eleven protesters are killed in riots protesting the Muhammad cartoons in Tripoli outside the Italian consulate in Benghazi. (MSNBC)
- Russian authorities order the closing of a Volgograd newspaper that published a cartoon of Muhammad. (New York Times)
- Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony narrowly escapes an attempted assassination by Ugandan troops attacking in Sudan. Several of his bodyguards are killed as he flees to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Reuters)
Arts and culture
- Christian worship leader and songwriter Brenton Brown released his first solo album, Everlasting God.
Disasters and accidents
- 2006 Southern Leyte mudslide
- A mudslide in Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte, Philippines, has buried more than 300 homes and an elementary school. An estimated 300 people are killed, with more than 1500 missing. (CNN)
International relations
- International demands grow that the United States close Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The European Parliament votes overwhelmingly for a resolution urging that the prison be closed and inmates given a fair trial. (The Age) UK Prime Minister Tony Blair calls Guantanamo an "anomaly" (Guardian). UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls for the camp to be closed "as soon as possible" (Toronto Star) (BBC). Former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson urges the US to act on the findings of the UN report (RTÉ), while Northern Ireland Secretary of State Peter Hain also calls for its closure. (Scotsman) This follows a United Nations report which calls for it to be closed.
Politics and elections
- Interim Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert postpones until Sunday official discourse which would ban Palestinian movements between Gaza and the West Bank, bar Palestinians from working in Israel and stop transfer of $50 million tax receipts to the Palestinian Authority. All these measures, criticized by Israeli Labor Party leader Amir Peretz, follows the victory of Hamas over Fatah during the January 2006 legislative elections. (Reuters) (AP).