• Brazilian officials declare a state of emergency as flooding in the Southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina causes at least 79 deaths and forces the evacuation of over 54,000 people.
• The eruption of Nevado del Huila (pictured), a volcano in southern Colombia, causes at least 10 deaths and the evacuation of 12,000 people.
• Ibrahim Nasir, the first President of the Second Republic of the Maldives, dies of an unknown cause in Singapore.
• The United Nations Security Council votes unanimously to reinforce MONUC, the largest peacekeeping force in the world, stationed in Nord-Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The first successful tracheal transplantation using a tissue-engineered organ created from the patient's own stem cells is performed in Spain.
• New Zealand and Australian researchers identify a new species of penguin, the Waitaha penguin, which lived in New Zealand until its extinction 500 years ago.
