What we know about 2006 on the second to last day of the year:
Three years after America overthrew Saddam Hussein, Iraq is still not at peace. In fact it has gone from bad to worse: Iraq is descending into a religious civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims. This is what Al Qaeda has been working so hard for. Even though al-Zarqawi, its top man in Iraq, was killed by the Americans in June, his work is finally bearing fruit.
Saddam himself was sentenced to death and, just this morning, was hanged.
In America the disaster in Iraq has cost the Republicans control of both houses of Congress in the November elections. Ten wise men led by James Baker came out with “The ISG Report” telling President Bush the least bad way to get out of Iraq.
Meanwhile North Korea and Iran moved forward on building an atom bomb.
North Korea now has the bomb: in October they tested one that worked.
Iran is still in the early stages. It says it only wants to build power stations and yet it also speaks of destroying Israel, of Iranians becoming mass martyrs in the cause if America or Israel attempt to stop it by force. President Ahmadinejad denies that Hitler ever did what he himself wants to do: kill most of the Jews in his part of the world.
A short war broke out in Lebanon. Hezbollah, the political party which rules the south of Lebanon and is armed by Iran, attacked Israel. Israel struck back hard, destroying every road and harbour that feeds the south. Israel used the opportunity to destroy most of Hezbollah’s long-range rockets. That did not stop Hezbollah from declaring victory.
Palestine: Hamas swept the elections in January, which led to infighting with Fatah and a cut-off of aid from the West. Israel had pulled out of Gaza in 2005 but found itself fighting there again by June.
Religious violence broke out in the Muslim world when Muhammad cartoons in a newspaper in Denmark pictured Muslims as violent. The pope gave a speech quoting a Byzantine ruler making a similar point, and again violence broke out, but on a much smaller scale.
Google, famous for saying “Do no evil”, allowed the Chinese Communist Party to limit internet searches made on website in China.
Pluto, considered a planet since its discovery in 1930, was declared to be one no longer. It is now a dwarf planet. This was because Eris, discovered in 2005, was larger than Pluto and yet did not seem like a proper planet.
Honourable mentions: Angelina Jolie, Darfur, “I’m a Mac”, Barack Obama, MySpace, Gospel of Judas, “Da Vinci Code”, burka, yuan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Steve Irwin, Wii, YouTube, Hugo Chavez.
Top song: “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley (according to iTunes).
Nobel Prize for Literature: Orhan Pamuk
Academy Award for Best Picture: “The Departed”
See also:
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