2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January January 1–January 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. January 12 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 pilgrims. January 15 – NASA's Stardust mission successfully ends, the first to return dust from a comet. January 19 – NASA launches the first interplanetary space probe to Pluto, the New Horizons. January 25 – Hamas wins the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. February February 4 – Egyptian passenger ferry, , sinks in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia, killing over 1,000 people. February 6 – Stephen Harper is sworn in as the Prime Minister of Canada. February 10–26 – The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin, Italy. February 17 – A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines killing an estimated 1,126 people. February 22 – 2006 al-Askari mosque bombing: Explosions occurred at the al-Askari Shrine in Samara, Iraq. The attack on the shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, caused the escalation of sectarian violence in Iraq into a full-scale war (the Iraqi Civil War of 2006-2008). March March 9 – NASA's Cassini–Huygens spacecraft announces a geyser-like emission of vapor, dust, and small ice crystals on Saturn's moon Enceladus, possibly indicating the presence of water. March 10 – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars. March 10 – Michelle Bachelet becomes the first female president of Chile. March 15 – The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council. March 21 – Microblogging and social networking service website Twitter launched. April April 4 – The Faddoul Brothers, kidnapped on 23 February 2006 in Caracas, Venezuela, are found dead, causing outrage and mass protests against insecurity in the country. April 11 The European Space Agency's Venus Express spaceprobe enters Venus' orbit. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirms that Iran has successfully produced a few grams of low-grade enriched uranium. April 20 – Iran announces a deal with Russia, involving a joint uranium enrichment firm on Russian soil; nine days later Iran announces that it will not move all activity to Russia, thus leading to a de facto termination of the deal. May May 17 – The Human Genome Project publishes the final