2006; THE YEAR IN REVIEW.

PositionNEWS

January The New Year begins the way the old one ended, with violence in Iraq. Thirteen are killed and more than a dozen are injured on Jan. 1. Census Bureau calculations peg the population of the United States at 297,900,000 as 2006 begins. The bureau estimates that the population will hit 300 million by October. It's likely the 300-millionth American will be born to a white Anglo-Saxon or Hispanic couple, probably in the suburban South or West. John J. Conte, the longest-serving district attorney ever in the Worcester district and the second-longest serving DA in the state's history, announces he will not seek re-election, clearing the way for Joseph D. Early Jr., son of the former Worcester congressman, to run and win. Rachel Entwistle and her 9-month-old daughter, Lillian, are found shot to death in the Hopkinton home they recently had moved into. Investigators focus their attention on Neil Entwistle, husband and father of the victims. February State Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, odds-on favorite to gain the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, sees his campaign start to disintegrate. He first announces his preference for state Rep. Marie P. St. Fleur, D-Boston, to be his running mate, but has to withdraw his support when revelations surface about her problems with unpaid taxes and education loans. More than 1,000 people die after an aging ferry sinks in choppy Red Sea waters 55 miles from the Egyptian port of Hurghada. Some 300 passengers are rescued 14 hours later. Protests, many turning violent, rage throughout Europe and much of the world following a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons with caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The drawings touched a raw nerve among Muslims, in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the prophet. British tabloids have a field day with stories about the relationship between Princess Beatrice, the 17-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and 24-year-old Paolo Liuzzo of Woodbury, N.Y. Mr. Liuzzo has Worcester ties. He was convicted here on charges stemming from a fight in 2002 in which another man was killed. He and the victim both attended the College of the Holy Cross at the time. March Journalist Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter on assignment for the Christian Science Monitor in Baghdad, is released after 82 days of being held hostage. The kidnapping had prompted an enormous outpouring of support and calls for her release around the world, including many Iraqi citizens. Her first phone call is to her sister. "Katie, it's me," she said. "I'm free." Holy Cross Crusaders' hockey players surprise everyone but themselves by advancing all the way to the West Regional finals of the NCAA Tournament. The team had won the Atlantic Hockey Association championship, then scored a stunning overtime victory over No. 1- seeded University of Minnesota in opening round of the regionals. The Crusaders fell to the University of North Dakota in the final game. Pope Benedict XVI elevates 15 priests to cardinal, including Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, who had replaced Cardinal Bernard F. Law as leader of archdiocese rocked by the clergy sex abuse scandal. Comments by Patrick Williams, coach of Worcester's South High Community School basketball team, touch off a furor in Worcester. The coach complains to a reporter that racism was a factor in the officiating by referees at a divisional tournament contest between South and Holy Name High School...

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