2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Seven American
Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the
Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. Around 3 a.m. local time a
Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, causing a soldier to fall out and damaging a hydraulic line. The helicopter made an emergency landing a half-mile away. A second helicopter on the mission picked up the first helicopter's crew and flew to where the crew member had fallen. The soldiers soon came under heavy fire, and six were killed. The remaining soldiers returned fire and retrieved the bodies before returning to base.
Bubble fusion: Scientific papers for and against the observation of apparent
nuclear fusion in imploding bubbles become available online. If this can be repeated, this is an important scientific breakthrough. Other
physicists fear that this may be a repeat of the
cold fusion fiasco.
Robert Mugabe wins the
Zimbabwe elections with 54% of the vote to
Morgan Tsvangirai's 40% on a turnout of 55.9%. His victory is controversial and comes amid claims that many have been prevented from voting and there has been a campaign of intimidation. But election observers from
South Africa and the
Organisation of African Unity state that the outcome is legitimate.
The
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions calls a three-day
general strike protesting police interference with union meetings, harassment of
trade unionists, and general lawlessness following the general elections, which has led to slow-downs in business.
In
South Korea, 5,600 power plant workers are on the 25th day of their strike, protesting the
neoliberal government plans to
privatize the state-run electricity plants. A vote among the remaining power plant workers to strike is cancelled due to company interference.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli troops exchange gunfire with guards of
Yasir Arafat in
Ramallah. A
suicide bomber identified as
Shadi Tubasi, a resident of the refugee camp
Jenin, kills 14 and wounds more than 40 in
Haifa. Later, a suicide bomber wounds four members of an
intensive-care unit, one critically, in a
paramedics' dispatch station in
Efrat. In the past 18 months, according to the
Associated Press, 1262 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and on 401 on the Israeli side.