August 16, 2006 (Wednesday)
- John Mark Karr is arrested in Bangkok for the 1996 murder of U.S. child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey. (Denver Post) (USA Today) (MSNBC)
- Terminal 18 of the Port of Seattle is evacuated after bomb-sniffing dogs indicate that at least one container recently taken off a ship may contain explosives. (AP via NBC) However, none of the containers are found to hold explosives. (Seattle Herald)
- Javier Arellano Félix, leader of the Arrellano Félix drug cartel and brother of former FBI Ten Most Wanted listee Ramón Arellano Félix, is arrested by the United States Coast Guard in a boat in the Gulf of California off La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. (FoxNews.com)
- A Russian border patrol boat fires on a Japanese crab fishing boat near Kaigara Island, part of the Kuril Islands. One fisherman is killed and three others detained by the Russian authorities. (AP via NBC)
- The International Astronomical Union proposes a new definition for a planet to be voted on August 24 which would include Charon, Eris, and Ceres as planets. (ABC) (BBC)
- United Airlines Flight 923 makes an emergency landing in Boston. The original course was London to Washington D.C. Fighter jets escorted the plane to the airport. (AP via Fox News)
- 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict:
- The Israeli ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, criticises Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe for participating in an Aug. 6 Montreal march in which a few Hezbollah supporters also took part. The march was, however, a protest against war and not a show of support for Hezbollah. (CTV) Archived 2007-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
- The Government of Israel says the withdrawal from South Lebanon will stop if Lebanese troops are not deployed there within days. (Reuters)
- Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader and the supreme religious authority to Hezbollah followers, praises Hezbollah resistance. (AP via Yahoo!)
- The South Korean based Good Friends aid agency estimates that in North Korea 54,700 people have died due to massive flooding in July. The DPRK Government claims only "hundreds" have died. (ABC) (IHT)
- The death toll from the flooding of the Omo River in southern Ethiopia nears 500. (BBC)