TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2002: Deliberations begin in the trial of accounting American firm Arthur Andersen LLP. The firm is accused of obstructing justice by shredding files of international energy-trading firm Enron Corp. Accounting fraud led to Enron’s collapse in December 2001. OTHER EVENTS1520: England’s King Henry VIII and France’s King Francis I sign a treaty ending French interference in Scotland.1523: Gustav Vasa is crowned king of Sweden, establishing Swedish independence from Denmark.1660: Peace of Copenhagen ends a generation of war between Sweden and Denmark and fixes the borders the way they are today, with Denmark regaining Fyn and Bornholm from Sweden.1654: Sweden’s Queen Christina abdicates, shocking Europe, and is succeeded by Charles X. She later moves to Rome and becomes a patroness of the arts.1797: Napoleon Bonaparte forms Ligurian Republic in Genoa.1860: Volunteers and Sicilians under Giuseppe Garibaldi seize Palermo from Neapolitan forces.1871: Alsace is annexed to Germany after the French army is defeated in Franco-Prussian War.1884: Under Treaty of Hue, emperor of Vietnam recognises French protectorate.1944: “D-Day” Allied troops land on German-held beaches in Normandy, France.1964: Malawi gains independence from Britain with Kamuzu Banda as prime minister.1967: Egyptians close Suez Canal during Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. It remains closed to international shipping for eight years.1972: Coal mine explosion in Rhodesia kills 431 workers.1982: Israel invades Lebanon with 60,000 troops to drive out Palestine Liberation Organisation.1985: Israel withdraws bulk of its troops from Lebanon after three-year occupation, but retains border strip.1988: War between guerrillas and Afghan government forces enters new stage as Soviet troops proceed with their withdrawal from Afghanistan.1993: At least 460 refugees, most of them women and children, are massacred in Liberia, allegedly by rebels led by faction leader Charles Taylor.1994: An earthquake in Colombia sets off a landslide that buries several villages, killing as many as 1,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless.1996: Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz resigns, paving the way for the first Islamic-led government in the history of modern Turkey.1997: German authorities decide to place the Scientology movement under surveillance for one year, claiming the group is aiming to undermine democratic society.1998: With a border dispute escalating into bombing raids, hundreds of foreigners scramble out of Eritrea, fearing war with Ethiopia.1999: NATO announces it will intensify its air campaign against Yugoslavia after talks on the Kosovo peace plan collapse. The Yugoslavs sought to delay the entry of a NATO peacekeeping force.2000: A former Japanese doomsday cult leader is sentenced to life in prison for the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subways that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.2001: Russian lawmakers defy public opposition and pass a law allowing nuclear waste to be imported and stored indefinitely. Proponents argue the move will earn billions of dollars, and promise to use some of that money to clean up pollution.2003: A female suicide bomber kills herself and at least 17 others as she tries to board a bus in Russia’s North Ossetia republic, which shares a border with the rebellious republic of Chechnya.2005: The International Criminal Court announces the investigation of alleged war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region, where an estimated 180,000 people have died and two million have been displaced since the conflict began in 2003.2006: Haiti’s president, Rene Preval, appoints a coalition Government in an effort to unite the impoverished nation two years after a bloody revolt toppled the last elected president.2007: Three gunmen kill Zakia Zaki, owner and manager of Peace Radio in Afghanistan since its opening after the fall of the Taliban, in her house in front of her eight-year-old son.2008: Bombs rip through two buses in Sri Lanka, including one packed with commuters near the country’s heavily fortified capital, officials say. At least 23 people were killed and 67 wounded.2009: President Barack Obama honours valiant dead and the improbability of their D-Day victory, commemorating the 65th anniversary of the decisive World War II invasion even as he remakes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tries to thwart nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea.2010: The Vatican says that the international community is ignoring the plight of Christians in the Middle East, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq and political instability in Lebanon have forced thousands to flee the region.2011: An erupting Chilean volcano sends a towering plume of ash across South America, forcing thousands from their homes, grounding airline flights in southern Argentina and coating ski resorts with a gritty layer of dust instead of snow.2012: The US and its allies in Europe, Turkey and the Arab world agree to work on a political transition plan for Syria hoping to persuade President Bashar Assad’s powerful ally Russia to join a broadened diplomatic effort to ease the embattled leader out of power.2013: A leaked document lays bare the monumental scope of the US Government’s telephone surveillance programme that besides collecting records of hundreds of millions of Americans’ calls included listening in on some foreign leaders, most notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the first hard evidence of a massive data collection programme aimed at combating terrorism. TODAY BIRTHDAYSThomas Mann, German novelist (1875-1955); Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president (1901-1970); Aram Khachaturian, Soviet composer (1903-1978); Levi Stubbs, lead singer with The Four Tops (1936-2008); Harvey Fierstein, US actor (1954- ); Sandra Bernhard, US actress/comedian (1955- ); Bjorn Borg, Swedish tennis player (1956- ); Paul Giamatti, US actor (1967- )— AP