February 2004
2004 :
January -
February -
March -
April -
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June -
July - August - September - October - November - December
February 29, 2004
\n* Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of
Haiti and flees the country for the
Central African Republic. The chief justice of the Haitian supreme court,
Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president.
(Sydney Morning Herald) (Reuters) (Globe and Mail)\n*
Occupation of Iraq\n**
Iraq's leaders meet deadline for drafting interim
constitution.
(CNN)\n**
Saddam Hussein's government systematically extorted billions of dollars in
illegal payments from companies doing business with
Iraq.
(Seattle Times)\n**
Kurdistan activists bring petition to the authorities in
Baghdad asking for a
referendum on whether
Kurds will stay within a united
Iraq or to form an independent Kurdistan.
(BBC)\n*
76th Academy Awards:
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins
Best Picture and
Director awards and nine others for a total of 11
Academy Awards, a tie for the most ever won by a single film, and the largest sweep ever for a single film, having received 11 nominations. Acting honors were as follows:
Best Actor:
Sean Penn for
Mystic River,
Best Actress:
Charlize Theron for
Monster,
Best Supporting Actor:
Tim Robbins for
Mystic River,
Best Supporting Actress: Renee Zellweger for
Cold Mountain.
(Newsday) (Box Office Mojo) (IMDB)
February 28, 2004
\n* 2004 in film: The
2004 Golden Raspberries are handed out in commemoration of the low points struck last year by the
motion picture industry.
(Yahoo) (Age)\n*
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Ronnie Kasrils, the
South African minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, calls the
Israeli West Bank barrier a "wall of shame" and states that the wall is meant to dispossess Palestinians of their land and water resources.
(palestine-info.co.uk) (iafrica)
February 27, 2004
\n* Same-sex marriage in the United States: The
California Supreme Court refuses a petition by
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer asking for an immediate ruling on the constitutionality of
same-sex marriage laws and a
cease and desist order against
San Francisco's granting of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
(365Gay)\n*In an angry public exchange,
Yasser Arafat calls
Fatah official Nasser Yousef a "traitor" and hurls a microphone at him.
(Al Bawaba) (Maariv)\n*
International Space Station crew
Michael Foale and
Alexandr Kaleri perform the first ever
spacewalk involving the station's entire crew; the spacewalk is cut short by a malfunction in Kaleri's
spacesuit.
(BBC) (ABC)\n*
Shoko Asahara, the leader of a
Japanese cult that gassed the
Tokyo subway in 1995, is
sentenced to death by
hanging.
(BBC)\n*The
U.S Justice Department says it will move to block
Oracle Corporation's hostile $9.4 billion takeover bid for larger rival
PeopleSoft, saying a merger of the two largest
accounting and
human resources software companies in the U.S. would hurt competition.
(SF Chronicle) (Toronto Star)\n*
Iranian state radio reports
Osama bin Laden captured.
United States officials discount the reports.
(ORF) (Iran Mania) (AP)
February 26, 2004
\n* IDF soldiers fire against protesters against the
Israeli West Bank barrier killing two and injuring 60, several of them seriously.
(palestine-info.co.uk)\n* The
United States lifts a ban on travel to
Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years.
(Reuters)\n* Expressions by Disney shareholders of a lack of confidence in its management continue. Five more state pension funds announced that they will not vote for the re-election of chairman (and chief executive)
Michael Eisner at next week's meeting. These pension funds – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia – are following the lead of California – CalPERS made its announcement to the same effect Wednesday.
(TheStreet)\n* Russian President Vladimir Putin opens the 2,165 km (1,345 mile)
Chita-to-
Khabarovsk Amur Highway connecting the
Russian Far East alongside the
Pacific to the rest of the country. Construction of the highway was begun in 1978.
(Guardian) (Tri-Valley Herald)\n*
Swiss police are investigating a man in the killing of an
air traffic controller. The suspect apparently lost his family in a midair collision in
2002; the murder victim was on duty at the time of the crash.\n*
Microsoft's
Japan headquarters are raided on suspicion of violating anti-monopoly laws by the fair trade watchdog.
(BBC) (Mainichi)\n*
Israel raids four
banks in the
West Bank seizing currency amounting to over 6 million dollars from accounts which it alleged had been used to fund
terrorism. Israel claims it will use the funds for humanitarian projects in Palestinian areas. The
U.S. State Department criticized the
Israeli raid, and
Palestinian Arabs condemned it utterly.
(VOA) (SVT)\n*
Clare Short, former
British Cabinet Minister, alleges on the
BBC Today radio programme that
British spies regularly intercept
UN communications, including those of
Kofi Annan, its
Secretary-General.
(BBC) (Scotsman) The claim comes the day after
Katharine Gun, formerly an employee of British spy agency
GCHQ, had a charge of breaching the
Official Secrets Act dropped after prosecutors offered no evidence, apparently on the advice of the
Attorney-General. Gun had admitted leaking American plans to bug UN delegates to a newspaper.
(BBC)\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: \n**The mayor of
New Paltz, a village in
New York State, announces that the town will start performing civil marriages for same-sex couples. It will not attempt to issue marriage certificates, but married couples in New York State have six months from the date of their wedding to seek a certificate.
(365Gay)\n**
Rosie O'Donnell marries her partner Kelli Carpenter at
San Francisco City Hall.
(AP)
February 25, 2004
\n* Maysun Al-Atawana, director of family and children affairs in the Palestinian Authority's social affairs ministry, claims that
Israeli shelling of heavily populated suburbs was targeting children. She noted that 35.5% of casualties among the
Palestinians wounded since start of the Aqsa
intifada in late September 2000 were children including 1.4% less than five years old.
(palestine-info.co.uk)\n*
Libya's Foreign Minister, Abdulrahman Shalgam, issues a statement reaffirming its acceptance of culpability for the
1988 bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, after the Prime Minister
Shukri Ghanem, in an interview for the
BBC, claimed Libya had "bought peace" with the $2.7bn compensation payments, but had not accepted guilt.
(BBC) (Mercury News)\n*A
wolverine, the
state animal of
Michigan, has been spotted in that state for the first time in 200 years.\n*The California Public Employees' Retirement System, CalPERS, a major shareholder in
The Walt Disney Company, indicated that it will withhold its votes from Disney chief executive
Michael Eisner at next week's shareholders' meeting, a new sign of a growing rebellion against Eisner's leadership,
(TheStreet)\n*The controversial
film,
The Passion of the Christ opens in
theaters in the
United States.
Jewish leaders fear the film will stoke
antisemitism, while some
Christians laud the realistic depiction of the last 12 hours of
Jesus Christ's life.
(Washington Post) A woman in
Wichita, Kansas collapses and dies of a massive heart attack while viewing the harrowing Crucifixion scene.
(KAKE)\n*
Pakistani leaders pressure
Muslim militants in
Kashmir to declare a ceasefire with
India. Meanwhile,
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tries to gain Muslim votes for his
Bharatiya Janata Party with the prospect of peace with Pakistan.
(Reuters) (Reuters)\n*In the northern
Uganda city of Lira, protests and riots cause at least nine deaths after the Ugandan army announces it killed 21 members of the
Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group, in retaliation for an attack on a refugee camp at Barlonyo.
(CNN)\n*King
Norodom Sihanouk of
Cambodia, who recently made a statement in support of
same-sex marriage, responded to an "insulting" e-mail by announcing he is not
gay. The king is 81 years old and has 14 children.
(Telegraph)\n*
Guantanamo Bay:
The Pentagon announces that the first charges are to be filed against two of the six hundred detainees of the detention camp, but
human rights groups have had their request to observe the military tribunals turned down. The defendants are named as Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, both alleged to be
Al-Qaeda members and charged with "conspiracy to commit
war crimes".
(BBC) The Pentagon also confirms that even if cleared by the tribunals, the defendants may still not be released.
(BBC)
February 24, 2004
\n* The writer and Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer criticized Israel for treating the Palestinians people in the same way the Nazis treated Jews during the Second World War.
(palestine-info.co.uk) \n* In an piece on the
Israeli state-run radio, deputy minister Zeive Boim asked "is it genetic defect that explains the continuing criminality of the Palestinians?"
(palestine-info.co.uk)\n* Dozens of schoolchildren in the town of Beitonia in the district of
Ramallah have fainted or suffocated as a result of excessive inhalation of teargas fired by
IDF soldiers at their secondary school.
(palestine-info.co.uk)\n*The British Olympic Association bans
European 100 meter champion Dwain Chambers from competing in the
Olympic Games for life for a positive test for the designer
steroid THG.\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States:
U.S. President George W. Bush announces his support for a
constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Bush did not explicitly endorse the
Federal Marriage Amendment, proposed by Representative
Marilyn Musgrave (
R-
Colorado), which has been criticised for potentially also denying
states the ability to recognise same-sex
civil unions and
domestic partnerships. However, he said that the FMA "
meets his principles" in protecting the "
sanctity of marriage" between men and women.
(CNN) (USA Today)\n*
Russian president
Vladimir Putin dismisses Prime Minister
Mikhail Kasyanov and implicitly the entire Russian cabinet less than a month prior to presidential elections.
(CNN) (BBC)\n*At least 564 people are killed in
Morocco, in an
earthquake of 6.1-6.5
Richter magnitude, occurring outside the tourist resort Al Hoceima in the middle of the night (0227
UTC).
(BBC)\n* In protest of
EMI's attempts to stop the distribution of
DJ Danger Mouse's The Grey Album, several hundred websites post the album for download in a coordinated act of
civil disobedience known as
Grey Tuesday.
(TheRegister) (P2PNet)\n*
2004 Haiti Rebellion: Rebels in
Haiti have wrested large parts of the island from government control. The capital,
Port-au-Prince is still held by supporters of the President,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Supporters of the president vowed to defend the city and fight to the death.
February 23, 2004
\n* Israeli soldiers confiscate villager's shoes. After what an Arab news sources characterized as an unprovoked incident of humilation and beating at an Israeli army roadblock near
Ramallah, the 30-year
West Bank resident was left to return to his village bare-footed.
(palestine-info.co.uk)\n*
United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige calls the
National Education Association, the nation's largest
teachers'
union, a "
terrorist organization." He later apologizes, calling his comments "an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against
No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms."
(CNSNews)\n* The
Iranian parliament starts processing the
resignation of more than 120 members, starting with
Fatemeh Haghighatjou who is among the few female members.\n* The
United States Army cancels the
RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program with US$8 billion already invested in the project and an additional US$450-680 million in contract cancellation fees to pay. The reconnaissance helicopter project is being phased out in favor of
unmanned aerial vehicles.
(Forbes) (Reuters)\n*
Palestinian representatives put their case to the
International Court of Justice against the
Israeli West Bank barrier.
(BBC)\n* A fire kills six people at the Dhawan Space Centre, the launch facility of the
Indian Space Research Organisation.
(CNN)\n*
2003 in film:
Return of the King becomes the second
film in history to gross more than $1 billion in worldwide box office receipts.
(CNN) (BCC)
February 22, 2004
\n* Zvi Mazel, the ambassador of
Israel in
Sweden, calls former foreign minister
Sten Andersson and Sweden's
UN ambassador
Pierre Schori "professional anti-Israelis".
(Aftonbladet) (TV4.se) (Aftonbladet) (dn.se) (SVD)\n* Rebels capture
Haiti's second-largest city,
Cap-Haitien, after just a few hours of fighting Sunday.
(Washington Post)\n*
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 8 Israelis are killed and 60 wounded, among them children on their way to school, in a
suicide bombing of a city bus in Jerusalem, Israel. The
Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades branch of
Fatah claimed responsibility. The attack occurs one day before the start of hearings at the
International Court of Justice regarding the
Israeli West Bank barrier. "This attack proves just how urgent it is to build the fence," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. "It is a clear preventive measure ... We will continue building it because it saves lives." The suicide bomber came from Husan, a populated area near
Bethlehem.
(NYT) (Haaretz)\n*
2004 U.S. Presidential Election:
Ralph Nader declares his candidacy for the position of
President of the United States as an independent candidate.
(Guardian) (BBC)\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: Saying he will defend
California's laws limiting
marriage to opposite-sex couples, state attorney general Bill Lockyer dismisses California governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger's "order" in the
San Francisco marriage licenses debate, saying his office is independent of gubernatorial power.
(Mercury News)\n* A
Pentagon report is leaked predicting global doom from
climate change. The report was reportedly suppressed by the
Bush administration.
(Guardian)\n* The death toll from an outbreak of
dengue fever on
Java has risen to 224.
(ChannelNewsAsia)\n* In
Tirana,
Albania, a crowd of up to 20,000 protesters, led by ex-president and opposition party leader
Sali Berisha, demanded once again that
Prime Minister Fatos Nano resign for failing to improve the economy. This protest, though a peaceful one, comes on the heels of a more violent protest two weeks ago in which protesters threw rocks at police and tried to storm the Prime Minister's office.
(BBC) (ChannelNewsAsia)\n* The
Lord's Resistance Army kills more than 190 people in an attack on a camp for displaced persons near
Lira,
Uganda.
(BBC)
February 21, 2004
\n* Taiwan presidential election 2004: the official campaigning period starts at 07:00 local time.\n* Prime Minister
Tony Blair is under pressure from British
human rights groups and
MPss because of the government's sweeping powers under the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act, which have allowed the detention of 14 foreign
terrorist suspects in the
UK at what has been described as 'Britain's
Guantanamo Bay'.
(The Independent)\n*
2004 European Parliament Election: The first pan-European
political party organization, the
European Greens, is established in
Rome.
(Reuters) (BBC)\n* Early results from
Iran's parliamentary elections show
conservative candidates get victory over
reformists.
(VOA)\n* Two
International Red Cross staff members visit
Saddam Hussein in
United States custody.
(ABC US) (ABC)
February 20, 2004
\n* Stanislaw Ryniak (88), the first person imprisoned at the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, is buried in
Wroclaw,
Poland.
(AP)\n*
Latvia's president
Vaira Vike-Freiberga has appointed
Indulis Emsis, a
Green party legislator, as the new
Prime Minister, after the resignation of
Einars Repse's cabinet on
5 February.
(BCC) (Greens-EFA)\n*
Hubble Space Telescope measurements show that "
Dark energy" is pushing apart the universe; this appears to be the constant, repulsive force that
Albert Einstein once predicted. Astronomers announce this as evidence that the theory of the
cosmological constant proposed, but later discarded, by Einstein may have been right after all.
(Mercury News) (MSNBC) (Washington Post)\n*
Microsoft denies that it illegally uses its
desktop computer operating system monopoly to hurt digital media rivals.
(CNet)\n* During the past month and a half, the total number of hits to
NASA's homepage was 6.5 billion, a record for the agency.
(CNet)\n* The insecticide
Regent (fipronil), from
BASF, is banned in France for its implication in
Pollinator decline, The firm itself will be sued.
(Le Monde)\n*
Lithuania's parliament starts
impeachment proceedings against President
Rolandas Paksas, who is charged with violating the constitution by leaking state secrets, rewarding a financial supporter with citizenship and illegally influencing companies.
(Bloomberg)\n* Linda Schade, spokeswoman for
Ralph Nader's presidential exploratory committee, states Nader will appear on
NBC's "
Meet the Press" to announce whether he will make another run for the
White House.
(Kansas City Star)\n*
Louise Arbour is nominated by
Kofi Annan to serve as the next
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Arbour, currently a justice of the
Supreme Court of Canada, will replace the late
Sérgio Vieira de Mello, pending ratification by the General Assembly.
(CBC) (UN)\n* 5,500 workers for
CN Rail, members of the
Canadian Auto Workers, go on strike.
(CBC)\n*
2004 DW, a huge
planetoid, is discovered by the
Near Earth Asteroid Tracking survey team.
(BBC)\n* Former Alabama attorney general
Bill Pryor is appointed by
President Bush to the
11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during the U.S. Congress's recess period, avoiding U.S. Senate confirmation. Pryor was first nominated in April 2003.
(ABC US)\n*
Same-sex marriage: \n** San Francisco judge denies request to immediately stop same-sex weddings.
(Reuters) Homosexual couples win reprieve when the judge declines to stop San Francisco from granting them marriage licenses.
(ABC US)\n** Victoria Dunlap, the
Republican county clerk of rural
Sandoval County, New Mexico, starts issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing lack of legal grounds for denial.
(AP) Republican state Senator Steve Komadina, criticizes the decision and urges state
Attorney General Patricia Madrid to issue a prompt opinion.
(WorldNetDaily)\n**
California Democratic leaders try to withdraw from the divisive political issue of
same-sex marriage. A
Public Policy Institute of California poll indicates that half of Californians oppose
homosexual marriage. Some California Democratic officeholders were discontented over the matter becoming a national political issue.
(SF Chronicle)\n**
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger writes to
Attorney General Bill Lockyer telling him to take legal action to stop the city from granting marriage licences to homosexual couples, saying the practice presents "
an imminent risk to civil order".
(Al Jazeera)\n**King
Norodom Sihanouk, the constitutional monarch of
Cambodia, states that he believes his country ought to allow same-sex marriage. He says he decided this upon seeing footage of same-sex couples marrying in San Francisco. He also says that
transvestites ought to be well-treated in Cambodia.
(Advocate)\n** A proposed amendment to the state
constitution of
Oklahoma to outlaw
same-sex marriage dies in Senate Human Resources Committee; the
Republican leader of the
Oklahoma Senate criticizes the
Democratic Senate leadership for killing the proposed
ban.
(Oklahoman)
February 19, 2004
\n* One Dane and five of the nine
Britons held without trial as terror suspects at
Guantanamo Bay are to be released, probably within the next two weeks, according to British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The soon-to-be-released captives have been amongst the 660 detainees at the US base in
Cuba, held for the past two years as suspected
Al-Qaida or
Taliban 'combatants'.
(BBC) (BBC)\n*Former
Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling surrenders to the
FBI in
Houston and is
arraigned on charges of
fraud and
insider trading. Skilling pleads not guilty and the judge sets bail at $5 million and confiscates Skilling's
passport.
(CNN)\n*Lt. Gurgen Markarian, an
Armenian military officer attending a
NATO Partnership for Peace program, is hacked to death with an
axe and a knife by Lt.
Ramil Safarov, an
Azerbaijani participant. The officers were attending an English language course at the
Hungarian Military University within the framework of the Partnership for Peace program, which is aimed at increasing cooperation between neutral and former
Soviet bloc nations and NATO in peacekeeping and other areas.
(NYT)\n*
European Commission President
Romano Prodi vows stronger action to combat
anti-Semitism in Europe. Prodi states that some criticism of
Israel was inspired by "what amounts to anti-Semitic sentiments and prejudice." Youths from the large
Arab immigrant communities in
France,
Belgium and other European countries are blamed for the rise in attacks against
Jews in
Europe. The
European Union's
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in
Vienna,
Austria, found the increase of anti-Semitic attacks was "committed above all either by right-wing extremists or radical Islamists or young
Muslims mostly of Arab descent."
(Haaretz)\n*Reformist newspapers
Shargh and
Yas-e-no are shut down by the
Iranian judiciary, only one day before the
parliament elections.
(BBC)\n*The
Kuwaiti newspaper
A-Siasa reports that
Palestinian and international
terrorist organizations have decided at a recent
Beirut conference to launch a wave of terror attacks against
Israeli and
Jewish interests worldwide. According to the report, there will also be similar attacks against coalition troops in
Iraq and
Afghanistan. The conference, which took place at the start of February, was also said to have been attended by senior members of the
Syrian,
Lebanese and
Iranian intelligence services who presented a list of Israeli intelligence officials to be
assassinated. Organizations in attendance included:
Al-Qaeda,
Ansar al-Islam,
Hezbollah,
Hamas,
Islamic Jihad.
(Haaretz) (Al Bawaba)\n*The
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the
United Nations nuclear agency, finds undeclared components in
Iran compatible with advanced uranium centrifuge designs, increasing Western concerns that it may be developing
nuclear weapons.
(Haaretz)\n*The
United Kingdom decides to award an honorary
knighthood to
Nazi-hunter
Simon Wiesenthal in recognition of a "lifetime of service to humanity". The knighthood also recognized the work of the Los Angeles-based
Simon Wiesenthal Center, which was founded in 1977 to promote remembrance of the
Holocaust and the defense of
human rights.
(Haaretz)\n*
ROC presidential election, 2004: Lagging behind his rival
Lien Chan in opinion polls, President
Chen Shui-bian promises not to declare
Taiwan independence if he is re-elected.
(BBC)\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: \n** The
White House reserves judgement on the
Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed
constitutional amendment to define
marriage as a "union of a man and a woman," until
Massachusetts legislature and
San Francisco courts take further action. Media reports speculate that the White House will probably also keep their opinion quiet until
Democratic presidential canidate
John Kerry takes a stand on the issue.
(Washington Times)\n**
San Francisco sues
California to force the state to accept marriage licenses it altered to remove reference to
bride and
groom and recognize
same-sex marriage.
(Kansas City Star)\n**
Laura Bush states that homosexual marriage is "
a very, very shocking issue" for some people. She hopes the subject can be debated by Americans together, rather than it be settled by a
Massachusetts court or the
mayor of
San Francisco.
(AP)\n*States of emergency are declared in
Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward Island,
Canada, after a prolonged
blizzard dumps 90 centimetres of snow on the provinces. This doubles the previous record, set in the 1950s. Roads are completely impassable, blocked with drifts of up to 3 to 4 metres.
(CBC)\n*It's reported that billionaire
Philip Anschutz is purchasing the
San Francisco Examiner for an estimated $20 million.
February 18, 2004
- The California state agency that records marriages states that forms that have been altered, which San Francisco has done slightly on its same-sex marriage licenses, will not be registered. (Washington Times)\n* An internal memo suggests that Apple Computer has paid off its remaining 3 million dollars debts and is now debt-free with 4.8 billion dollars in cash.\n* At least 200 people are reported to have been killed in Iran after rail wagons carrying sulphur, petrol and fertiliser derailed and exploded. The accident happened near the town of Neyshabur in Khorasan province. (BBC)\n* Occupation of Iraq: Suicide bombers in two vehicles killed 11 Iraqis and wounded 58 foreign troops and 44 Iraqis near the entrance to a Polish-manned coalition logistics base near the town of Hilla in central Iraq south of Baghdad. (BBC)\n*Howard Dean officially ends his campaign for President of the United States, after placing a distant third in the Wisconsin primary elections of February 17, 2004. "I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency," he announced.\n* Opinion poll results indicate either of the two main Democratic presidential candidates would beat President Bush by at least 10 points. (VOA)\n*Israel is condemned by the International Committee of the Red Cross for the location of the Israeli West Bank barrier. The aid agency declared that the barrier at its current position was contrary to international humanitarian law and had caused extensive damage to Palestinian land and property and deprived thousands of Palestinians access to water, health care and education. (ICRC)\n* A federal appeals court in the United States ruled that district court judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, presiding judge in the much-watched Martha Stewart trial, was in the wrong in barring the media from the voir dire process at the beginning of that trial. (AP)\n* Scientists at NASA and the ESA witness a supermassive black hole in galaxy RXJ1242-11 graze, partially consume, and tear apart a star. This is the first time such a phenomenon has been observed. (NASA)
February 17, 2004
\n* Bishop Thomas O'Brien, the former head of Arizona's largest
Roman Catholic diocese, is convicted of a hit and run making him the first Catholic bishop in the
United States to be convicted of a
felony.
(Washington Post)\n*
Democratic presidential nomination:
Wisconsin held its
primary election.
John Kerry got 40% of the vote, followed by
John Edwards with 34%, and
Howard Dean with 18%.\n* The US
FAA announces it will attempt to require a fuel tank
inerting system in most large airliners in an effort to prevent fuel tank explosions such as the one which apparently destroyed
TWA Flight 800 in
1996. The order could take two years to complete and then would require a retrofit of about 3,800 large Boeing and Airbus jets over the next seven years.
(Newsday) (NYT)\n* A
CNN survey finds that children made more than 11,000 allegations of
sexual abuse by
Catholic priests. The 4,450 accused priests represent about 4 percent of the 110,000 priests who served during the 52 years covered by the study. Nearly 3 percent, or 133 of the priests, had 10 or more allegations.
(CNN)\n* Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, a top
Vatican official arrives in
Moscow for sensitive talks with the
Russian Orthodox hierarchy, which accuses the
Catholic Church of aggressive proselytizing in traditionally Orthodox lands.
(NYT) (Russian Orthodox Church)\n* An outbreak of
dengue fever kills 91 people in
Indonesia and infects thousands more. Health officials report that 4,500 people have been hospitalized for the
mosquito-borne
disease, mostly in the capital and other parts of East
Java, including the city of
Yogyakarta. The number hospitalized is double that of last year.
(BBC) (NYT)\n* A study published in the latest issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association suggests
breast cancer is linked to the use of
antibiotics.
(Tucson Citizen) (NYT)\n*As expected, the
board of directors of the
Walt Disney Company unanimously rejects a hostile buyout offer by
Comcast, saying the
cable television giant's $66 billion bid is too low, but does not rule out accepting a higher bid in the future.
(AP)\n*
Cingular wins the auction for
AT&T Wireless by offering to pay $40.7 billion to become the
United States' largest
wireless telephone company.
(Forbes)\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: San Francisco
Superior court Judge James L. Warner postpones any decision to block the city and county of
San Francisco, California from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to void the 2,464
same-sex marriages that were performed in the city since
February 12. This was on the grounds that the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund's order for San Francisco to "cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before this court..." had an improper semicolon; to do both, rather than one or the other, would have exceeded the judge's jurisdiction.
(MSNBC)
February 16, 2004
\n*Temple in Jerusalem: An 800 year old wall holding back part of the hill jutting out from the
Western Wall leading up to the Mughrabim Gate partially collapses. Authorities believe a recent earthquake may be responsible.
(BBC) (Sydney Morning Herald)\n*
India and
Pakistan begin formal peace negotiations, with
Kashmir on the
agenda.
(BBC)\n*
L. Paul Bremer, the
United States administrator of
Iraq states he will veto any interim
constitution that would make
Islam "the chief source of law", as opposed to "a source of inspiration for the law." Many Iraqi women express fears that the rights they hold under Iraq's longtime secular system may be denied them in the interim constitution based upon Islam as "the chief source of law."
(NYT)\n*The
United States states that
Afghanistan's elections scheduled for this June may have to be postponed because of security problems and the failure to register enough voters. Only 8 percent of eligible Afghan voters have been enrolled to date.
(NYT)\n*The
Taiwan (ROC)'s pro-
independence president,
Chen Shui-bian, states that Taiwan may eventually reunify with
Mainland China. Nonetheless, Chen rejects the
People's Republic of China's
one country, two systems formula which was applied to
Hong Kong and
Macau. This is a new step for Chen who, shortly after taking office in 2000, had said unification was just one option—comments widely seen as a push for independence for the island.
(NYT)\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: \n** Officials at the city and county of
San Francisco, California estimate by the end of the day that they will have issued 2,000
licenses for
same-sex marriages in the four days since they started granting legal recognition to
gay and
lesbian unions.
(Mercury News)\n** The
San Francisco Chronicle reports that the decision of
San Francisco's mayor,
Gavin Newsom, to express his opinion on same-sex marriage was because of
George W. Bush's stance on the issue.
(Miami Herald)\n*The territory of
Nunavut,
Canada, holds its
second general election since its creation. Of the 19 members, one is chosen by acclamation. Eight members of the previous government are returned to office, and five are defeated. The members will elect a
premier on
March 5.
February 15, 2004
\n* Iraqi lawyers say Saddam Hussein is unlikely to stand trial for at least another two years. (Hi Pakistan)\n*
United Nations Afghanistan envoy voices disdain at the "
brutal and cold-blooded"
murder of four de
minersrs working to eradicate
landmines in Afghanistan.
(UN)\n*
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin goes on record that anyone found to be culpable in the
sponsorship scandal, including himself, will be immediately discharged. The issue could delay the upcoming
election until after the public enquiry is completed.\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: Officials at the city and county of
San Francisco, California turn away hundreds of would-be same-sex newlyweds after thousands of
gay and
lesbian couples show up to
marry over the weekend. The city claims it can only handle between 400 and 600 marriages a day, or about one a minute.
(365Gay) (AP) (Washington Post) (USA Today) (SF Chronicle) \n*Thousands of protestors in
Madrid and other
Spanish cities march in opposition to the U.S.
occupation of Iraq. The protests mark the one-year anniversary of the large protests against the U.S.
invasion of Iraq.
(Newsday)\n*Scientists at the
California Institute of Technology announce the discovery of a
galaxy which is the farthest known object in the universe. The galaxy was found with the help of the magnification effect from the
Abell 2218 galaxy cluster.
(AP)\n*
Russian rescue workers are digging through what remains of an indoor
water park in
Moscow after the roof collapsed yesterday. At least 25 people have been killed, more than 100 people are injured, and at least 17 people are missing.
(AP) (CNN)\n*Two fires sweep through
China, one in a shopping center and the other in a temple, killing at least 90 and injuring 71.
(AP)\n*The
British government draws up plans to break up the
BBC in the wake of the
Hutton inquiry.
(Times) (AFP)\n*
Iraqi police arrest Mohammed Zimam Abdul-Razaq, a member of the
Baath Party and number 41 on the
U.S. military's list of
most wanted Iraqis.
(AP)\n*
Iran offers to sell
nuclear reactor fuel on the international market under the supervision of the
United Nations nuclear watchdog, the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
(NYT)
February 14, 2004
\n*A new U.S-sponsored satellite TV channel called
Al Hurra (
The Free One) begins broadcasting in the
Middle East and pledges to provide accurate and balanced news, but faces a skeptical
Arab audience.
[1]\n*
Marco Pantani, world renowned
cyclist, winner of the
1998 Tour de France and the 1998
Giro d'Italia, is found dead in a hotel in the Adriatic city of
Rimini,
Italy.
[1]\n*
Same-sex marriage in the United States: Staff advisors for U.S. President
George W. Bush say he will support the proposed
Federal Marriage Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution which would outlaw
same-sex marriage and federalize
marriage law, which has been set by individual
states since the founding of the country.
[1] [1]\n*
U.S. President hopeful
John Kerry scores two more
Democraticic primary victories in the State of
Nevada and the federally controlled
District of Columbia.
[1]\n*In
Moscow, a roof collapses killing about 25 and injuring at least 110.
[1]\n*Approximately 550 qualified candidates suddenly drop out of
Iran's parliamentary election.
[1]\n*
Occupation of Iraq: At least 20 people are killed in the town of
Falluja as up to 50 gunmen attack government buildings, in one of the largest guerrilla attacks so far seen in
Iraq.
[1]\n*
ROC presidential election, 2004: Candidates
Lien Chan of the
Pan-Blue Coalition and President
Chen Shui-bian of the
Pan-Green Coalition participate in a televised debate.
[1]
February 13, 2004
- Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Mars surface temperatures appear to vary more frequently and dramatically than on Earth, preliminary data from NASA's Opportunity rover shows. [1]\n* Logging, conducted illegally, is destroying the equatorial rain forests of Indonesian Borneo. [1]\n* Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announces alleged al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, who are being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may apply annually for release. [1]\n* Scientists announce the possible discovery of a 10 billion trillion trillion (1×1034) carat diamond, 2,500 miles (4,000 km) across and 50 light-years away from Earth in the core of the decayed star BPM 37093 in the constellation of Centaurus. [1]\n*Ivan Rybkin, a Russian presidential candidate and fierce critic of president Putin, holds a press conference in London, stating that during his recent disappearance for several days he was drugged and made the subject of a compromising videotape. [1]\n* President Bush opens his National Guard file for resolving questions about Vietnam era military service. Reportedly, released papers do not document Bush's Alabama service. Roswell businessman John Calhoun, 69, remembers Lt. George W. Bush worked weekends at an Air Force base in Montgomery. [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] [1]\n*Democratic presidential nomination: Former Democrat candidate for the U.S. presidency Gen. Wesley K. Clark endorses current Democrat favorite Senator John Kerry. [1]\n*Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders accept U.N Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan for ending the partition of the island of Cyprus. The two sides will work under a tight timetable to agree by March 22 on reunification language that can be put to simultaneous islandwide referenda on April 21. Unless reunification is achieved, only the Greek Cypriot government will be entitled to enter the European Union on May 1. [1] admits it possesses a design for a far more advanced high-speed centrifuge to enrich uranium than it previously revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency after being confronted with evidence obtained from the secret network of nuclear suppliers surrounding Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.[1]\n*The United States, in a major shift of policy on the Middle East, says it may support an Israeli proposal for a unilateral partial withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage says that a pullout from Gaza would be "a step in the right direction." Administration official state "...negotiations were impossible because of Palestinian recalcitrance."[1]\n*Occupation of Iraq: South Korea's parliament on Friday approves sending 3,000 troops to Iraq, responding to a call from the United States for military help in restoring stability to Iraq.[1]\n*The European Union anti-fraud office (OLAF) is studying documents suggesting that Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority diverted tens of millions of dollars in EU funds to organizations involved in terrorism...."some of the money reportedly went to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in terror strikes." Their final report is expected in two months. [1]\n* A US National Guardsmansman stands accused of attempting to provide military data to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. [1]\n* The former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev is killed in an apparent car bomb explosion in Doha, the capital of Qatar. [1]
February 12, 2004
- South Korean scientists announce the world's first successfully cloned human embryo. [1] [1]\n* South Korea's parliament on Friday approves sending 3,000 troops to Iraq, responding to a call from the United States for military help in restoring stability to Iraq.[1]\n* Part of the source code for Microsoft's Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 products has been leaked to the internet. It is thought that the leak constitutes only a part of the source, and may have originated from Mainsoft. Copies of something purporting to be the Windows source have been reported to be available on various file sharing networks. [1] [1] [1] [1] \n* Occupation of Iraq: General John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, escapes injury when his convoy is attacked in Fallujah.\n* Same-sex marriage in the United States:\n** City officials in San Francisco, California start issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples, staging what they view as acts of civil disobedience, by performing the first known civil marriage of a homosexual couple in the U.S. by marrying the homosexual activists and lesbian couple, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. Over 80 couples whisked through quick ceremonies.[1]\n** Various conservative and other family groups, including the Campaign for California Families, plan to sue the mayor of San Francisco for violating California's marriage laws. [1] The Family Research Council (FRC) states that "It could not be clearer that the institution of marriage is under a direct assault by homosexual activists". [1]\n** Virginia House of Delegates give preliminary approval to legislation that would ban the recognition of same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships. [1]\n*Controversy erupts in Canada over a segment of Conan O'Brien's NBC television talk show, filmed in Quebec City and shown to a studio audience in Toronto, featuring his character Triumph the Insult Dog making ethnic insults against French-Canadians, including telling them to speak English. The Canadian government condemns the comments. The Government of Ontario, which had paid $1 million to sponsor the taping of four episodes of the show in Toronto to promote the city, also distances itself from the comments. [1]
February 11, 2004
\n* A Black Hawk helicopter has reportedly crashed near Amberley air force base, Mount Walker,
Australia with at least five seriously injured.
[1]\n* Scientists find a fossilised head and identify it as part of a 400 million-year-old
fly, making it the oldest known
insect.
[1]\n*The
United States Army in
Iraq announces a $10 million dollar reward for the capture of
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the
terrorist organization
Ansar al-Islam, blamed for the deaths of unknown numbers of Iraqi citizens and U.S. military during the
U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
[1]\n* Scientists in
South Korea report that they have created
human embryos by
cloning and extracted embryonic
stem cells.
[1]\n*
Intel scientists say that they have made
silicon chips that can switch
light like electricity.
class="external">[1\n*
Comcast Corp. makes an uninvited bid for
The Walt Disney Company. The
US$5050 billion to $66 billion deal would create the world's largest media company. \n* U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission adopts enhanced mutual fund expense and portfolio disclosure, part of the continuing fall-out from the mutual fund late-trading scandal of 2003.
[1]\n*
U.S. Presidential Election, 2004 Retired General
Wesley Clark officially announces his departure from the race.
[1] [1]\n* The Sudanese government cancels plans to attend scheduled peace talks in
Geneva with western rebels just days after the Sudanese president proclaimed military victory in the insurgency. The talks were scheduled to begin
February 14,
2004. At this time, the Sudanese government is contending with a southern rebellion as well.
[1]\n* French prosecutors reveal that a
money-laundering probe into the transfers of millions of dollars to accounts held by the wife of Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat was opened in October
2003. The probe was opened after discovering that nearly $1.27 million is transferred with some regularity from
Switzerland to Mrs. Arafat's accounts in
Paris.
Tracfin, an organization that collates information about money laundering, detected the movements of funds.
[1]\n*
Occupation of Iraq: At least 47 people, mostly Iraqi army recruits, are killed by a
car bomb in
Baghdad in the second major bomb attack in two days.
[1]\n*
Richard Desmond, the owner of
Britain's Daily Express and
Daily Star newspapers, confirms that he has made a bid for the troubled
Daily Telegraph.
[1]\n* Josh, a
Newfoundland, wins Best in Show at the 129th Westminster Kennel Club
Dog Show in New York.
class="external">[1\n*Mayer Mofeid Hawash is sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to enter
Afghanistan and aid the
Taliban after the
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
[1]
February 10, 2004