The
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is opened in
Abuja,
Nigeria, by
Queen Elizabeth II. The future of
Zimbabwe's membership is threatening to dominate the gathering. The debate has been marked by bitter personal polemics between Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe and
Australian Prime Minister
John Howard, whom Mugabe accuses of leading an "
Anglo-Saxon conspiracy" against Zimbabwe. Mugabe himself is barred from entering the
European Union. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth last year on charges that Mugabe had rigged his re-election in
2002.
[4][5]
SCO v. IBM: in the opening discovery stages of the SCO v. IBM conflict, a judge grants IBM's two
motions to compel against SCO, and defers consideration of SCO's motions until later.
The draw for the qualifying stages of the
2006 Football World Cup is made.
England,
Wales and
Northern Ireland are drawn together in group 6 of the Europe (
UEFA) section, making the group three-quarters of a home nations championship - Scotland missed out by being drawn (amongst others) against Italy and Norway.