Timeline of 2003 April - June
Return to home
2003 Apr 1, In
the 14th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom American soldiers on the road
to Baghdad fought bloody street-to-street battles with militants loyal
to Saddam Hussein. The US opened the assault on Karbala. US cluster
bombs reportedly killed 11 civilians in Hilla.
(AP, 4/1/03)(WSJ, 4/2/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/03, p.W1)
2003 Apr 1, Pfc. Jessica Lynch
(19), part of the 507th Maintenance Company captured on Mar 23, was
rescued in a U.S. commando raid on an Iraqi hospital in Nasiriyah. 11
bodies were also recovered and 8 were identified as US personnel. It
was later reported that Iraqi troops had already left the hospital.
Later in the year Rick Bragg authored "I Am A Soldier, Too," an account
of the Lynch story. About the same time Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief and
Jeff Coplon authored "Because Each Life Is Precious." Rehaief, a former
Iraqi lawyer, disclosed Lynch's location to US forces and provided
detailed information prior to her rescue.
(AP, 4/2/03)(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/14/03,
p.W8-9)
2003 Apr 1, A Cuban plane hijacked
the day before with 32 people aboard landed at Key West, Fla., where
the hijacker surrendered.
(AP, 4/1/04)
2003 Apr 1, A cloned Javan banteng
was born by a beef cow in Iowa. Only 3-5,000 cattle-like bantengs
remained worldwide.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 1, Air Canada filed for
bankruptcy protection.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R9)
2003 Apr 1, Congo's government
agreed to a power-sharing deal with rebel groups.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 1, Seven EU nations,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Portugal and
Belgium, said they oppose a proposal by larger countries for a new
permanent European Union presidency.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 1, In Hong Kong Leslie
Cheung, Chinese pop singer and movie star, jumped to his death at the
Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
(NW, 3/17/03, p.58)
2003 Apr 1, In India members of
the Hmar Peoples Convention attacked a cluster of villages in southern
Assam state's Cachar district, burning huts and took 28 villagers as
hostages. 22 farmers were later found shot dead.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 1, In Jordan authorities
said they had foiled two recent Iraqi terror plots, including one by
Iraqi diplomats allegedly planning to contaminate water supplies to
Jordanian and US troops on Jordan's desert border with Iraq.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 1, In Nigeria the 12-day
rampage by Ijaw extremists has cut the normal oil output of 2 million
barrels a day by 40 percent. Nigeria is the fifth-biggest supplier of
US oil imports.
(AP, 4/1/03)
2003 Apr 2, In the 15th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom American forces crossed the Tigris River in the
drive toward the Iraqi capital and destroyed the Baghdad Division of
Iraq's Republican Guard. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, supported the war plan along with Defense Sec. Donald
Rumsfeld against criticism. US Marines took Numaniya, a city of 80,000.
American forces fought their way to within sight of the Baghdad
skyline; Iraqi soldiers discarded their military uniforms by the
roadside to hide their identity.
(SFC, 4/2/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/03, p.W1)(AP, 4/2/08)
2003 Apr 2, A US B-52 bomber
dropped 2 new CBU-105 bombs on the first 30 vehicles of an Iraqi
armored convoy approaching a small American reconnaissance unit. The
bombs each released 10 submunitions, each of which ejected 4 disks that
used infra-red scanners to locate the vehicles. Soldiers in the
remaining 70 vehicles surrendered immediately.
(Econ, 1/30/10, p.88)
2003 Apr 2, A Navy F/A-18C Hornet
after his fighter jet went down during a bombing run over Karbala. In
2004 it was reported that the jet was shot down by an Army Patriot
missile. 7 US Army soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk
helicopter was shot down.
(AP, 4/3/03)(SFC, 4/3/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/11/04, p.A12)
2003 Apr 2, Polish troops fighting
with the US-led coalition in Iraq reported encountering many Iraqi
combatants in civilian clothes.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, Saddam Hussein
declared that "victory is at hand," and issued a new statement urging
Iraqis to fight on and defend their towns according to a broadcast on
Iraqi satellite television.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, Mirko Sarovic, a
Bosnian Serb who was the chairman of the country's three-member
multiethnic presidency, resigned after being implicated in a local
company's violation of the UN arms embargo against Iraq.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, Burundi said Ethiopia,
Mozambique and South Africa will send 3,500 peacekeepers to enforce a
truce ending nearly 10 years of civil war.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, Guatemala City police
raided the house of a suspected drug lord and found $14 million in cash.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A18)
2003 Apr 2, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir the chief of the largest militant group was killed in a
shootout with police in the strife-torn Himalayan province.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, Israeli forces raided
Gaza and 6 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 4/3/03, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 2, The Japanese
government said a Japanese whaling fleet killed 400 minke whales during
a five-month scientific expedition in Antarctic waters.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, In Mexico 9 people
were found tortured and killed near the border city of Nuevo Laredo in
apparent drug-related violence.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, In the southern
Philippine city of Davao a bomb exploded near a bustling wharf, and
killed 16 people including two children.
(AP, 4/3/03)(SFC, 4/3/03, p.A11)
2003 Apr 2, The UN health agency
advised travelers to avoid going to Hong Kong and the Chinese province
of Guangdong because of the deadly outbreak of SARS.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 2, Vietnam's PM Phan Van
Khai spoke with Thich Huyen Quang, the leader of a banned Buddhist
church, about religious freedoms. Quang has been under house arrest in
1982.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, Moving with a sense of
wartime urgency, the House and Senate separately agreed to give
President Bush nearly $80 billion to carry out the battle against Iraq
and meet the threat of terrorism.
(AP, 4/3/04)
2003 Apr 3, In the 16th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US Marines and infantry moved with surprising
speed toward Baghdad. Central Command said there was "increasing
evidence" that Saddam Hussein's regime had lost control of its fighting
forces. US troop casualty totaled: 51 dead, 16 missing and 7 captured.
A power blackout in Baghdad coincided with heavy artillery fire. US
forces attacked Saddam Int'l. Airport.
(AP, 4/3/03)(SFC, 4/4/03, p.W1)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.C3)
2003 Apr 3, US Sec. of State Colin
Powell assured NATO allies and the EU that the Bush administration
seeks a partnership with the United Nations for the reconstruction of
post-war Iraq.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, The International
Monetary Fund warned that the US housing market, after two years of
record sales over and strong increases in home prices, could be headed
for a fall.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, It was reported that
Alzheimer's symptoms were slowed by the drug memantine.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 3, Afghan militia
soldiers and 2-day blistering airstrikes by US-led coalition planes
killed eight suspected Taliban fighters in the southern mountains.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 3, In Chechnya a bus was
blown apart by a remote-controlled mine, killing at least six people.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, The Colombia
government said it is handing over about 14,000 acres of farmland
seized from drug traffickers to poor farmers, marking Pres. Alvaro
Uribe's first effort at agrarian reform. Efforts to cancel the property
rights of drug traffickers were to be stepped up along with the
transfer of some 750,000 acres of their property to peasants.
(AP, 4/3/03)(WSJ, 4/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 3, Cuban security forces
arrested the hijackers of a passenger ferry, rescuing nearly 50
hostages.
(AP, 4/3/04)
2003 Apr 3, French air traffic
controllers, postal workers and other public employees brought much of
the country to a halt with a one-day strike over government plans to
overhaul the pension system.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroder said he hoped for a quick victory by US and British
forces in Iraq.
(WSJ, 4/4/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 3, Haiti's government
officially sanctioned voodoo as a religion, allowing practitioners to
begin performing ceremonies from baptisms to marriages with legal
authority.
(AP, 4/10/03)(AP, 2/11/04)
2003 Apr 3, A car exploded at a US
checkpoint in western Iraq, killing 3 coalition soldiers, a pregnant
woman and the car's driver. Banditry and plundering were reported
across the countryside. Atlantic magazine editor Michael Kelly (46),
became the first American journalist to be killed while covering the
war when his Army Humvee came under fire and rolled into a canal.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)(AP, 4/4/03)(AP, 4/3/08)
2003 Apr 3, In northeastern Congo
966 people were killed in attacks by armed militants on villages in
Ituri province. UN investigators later discovered some 20 mass graves
in the region.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 3, Israeli forces evicted
some 1,500-3,000 Palestinian men from their homes in the Tulkarem
Refugee Camp and told them to stay out for 3 days. Several Palestinians
were killed in Gaza and West Bank raids.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 3, Ivory Coast's
insurgents ended their boycott of a new unity government and urged the
international community to help make it work.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, Peru's Congress voted
to create a Senate and return to a bicameral legislature, a decade
after former Pres. Fujimori shut down the two houses in his so-called
self coup.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, Serbia and Montenegro
became a member of the Council of Europe.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, In Spain a female
doctor described as mentally unbalanced stabbed several people at a
Madrid hospital, killing a colleague and a patient and wounding six
others.
(AP, 4/3/03)
2003 Apr 3, Venezuela’s government
fired 828 more employees from Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state
oil monopoly, for participating in a two-month strike to oust Pres.
Chavez. PDVSA lost many of its most experienced and best-qualified
employees.
(AP, 4/4/03)(Econ, 8/12/06, p.56)
2003 Apr 4, Pres. Bush issued an
executive order giving federal health officials power to quarantine
anyone suspected of being infected with SARS. The disease had spread to
17 countries killing at least 90 people and infected some 2,300.
(SFC, 4/5/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A9)
2003 Apr 4, On the 17th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom thousands of Iraqis fled Baghdad as US forces
seized the international airport to the west and armored convoys
pressed in from the south. Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was
killed in the battle. In 2005 Pres. Bush awarded him the 1st US Medal
of Honor of the Iraq campaign. A Marine unit found concentrations of
cyanide and mustard-gas agents in the Euphrates River near Nasiriyah.
(AP, 4/4/03)(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/7/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 4, Peter Arnett, fired by
NBC earlier this week for giving an interview to state-run Iraqi
television, began reporting for pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya.
Atlantic Monthly journalist Michael Kelley was killed in a Humvee
accident near Baghdad.
(AP, 4/5/03)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.C3)
2003 Apr 4, Six more moons were
reported to have been found orbiting Jupiter, pushing to 58 the total
number of known natural satellites of the solar system's largest planet.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 4, Dr. Russell R. Monroe
(82), neurologist and authority on brain mechanisms, genius and
criminal behavior, died. His books included "Creative Brainstorms: The
Relationship Between Madness and Genius."
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A28)
2003 Apr 4, In Algeria 8 Austrian
tourists were reported missing. Searchers using camels and helicopters
equipped with heat-seeking sensors were already scouring the Sahara
Desert for 21 tourists, mostly Germans, who vanished in Algeria over
the past six weeks.
(AP, 4/4/03)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 4, In northeastern
Bangladesh a river boat carrying more than 170 people capsized, killing
79 people, including 49 children.
(AP, 4/4/03)(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 4, In southern Brazil 2
buses crashed head-on during heavy rains, killing 18 people and
injuring seven others.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 4, Chinese experts in
hard-hit Guangdong province told the scientists they have found a rare
form of airborne chlamydia in some of their SARS patients, raising the
possibility that more than one germ may be involved. Other Chinese
cases suggest the disease might be passed by touching something tainted
by a sick person's mucous or saliva.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 4, A standoff between
Cuban troops and the hijackers of a small ferry who had tried to sail
to Florida ended as soldiers stormed the boat and hostages jumped
overboard to safety.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 4, Israeli troops
uncovered an explosives lab and arrested Anwar Alian (22), a senior
Islamic Jihad militant, during a sweep of Tulkarem.
(SFC, 4/5/03, p.A9)
2003 Apr 4, Mexican police over
the last 2 days arrested 9 members of the powerful Juarez Cartel during
raids across the country.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 5, In the 18th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US 3rd Infantry troops entered Baghdad for the
first time. Coalition troops took several objectives surrounding the
capital in the north and northwest. US warplanes hit Iraqi positions
near the commercial center of Mosul. Up to 3,000 Iraqi fighters were
killed as American armored vehicles moved into Baghdad.
(AP, 4/5/03)(AP, 4/6/03)(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 5, Ali Hassan al-Majid
(king of spades), Saddam Hussein’s 1st cousin and dubbed "Chemical Ali"
by opponents for ordering a 1988 poison gas attack that killed
thousands of Kurds, was killed by an airstrike on his house in Basra.
(AP, 4/7/03)(SFC, 4/26/03, A14)
2003 Apr 5, The Belgian Senate
approved a measure gutting a 1993 war crimes law.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 5, Croatian police have
arrested Ivica Rajic (45), a Bosnian Croat long sought by the UN war
crimes tribunal, for allegedly carrying out atrocities against Muslim
civilians during the Bosnian war.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 5, In East Timor Jose
Cardosa Fereira, senior militia leader, was found guilty of murder,
rape and torture of civilians in East Timor who supported the
territory's 1999 independence from Indonesia. He was sentenced to 12
years.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 5, A prison riot in
northern Honduras left 69 prisoners dead and dozens more injured at the
1,600-inmate El Porvenir prison outside of La Ceiba. Soldiers and
police searched for escaped inmates. Honduras' 26 prisons were built to
house 5,500 inmates but are crammed with 13,000 prisoners. In 2008 a
court sentenced 22 soldiers and police to a combined 740 years in
prison for the massacre. In 2008 a Honduran court sentenced Dimas
Antonio Benitez, a former prison official, to 1,051 years in jail for
the deaths in the prison massacre.
(AP, 4/6/03)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/08)(AP,
9/7/08)
2003 Apr 5, In Israel Brian Avery
(23), a peace activist from Albuquerque, NM, was wounded when Israeli
troops opened fire in Jenin.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 5, In the southern
Philippines two bombings killed two people and wounded eight.
(AP, 4/5/03)
2003 Apr 5, Uganda Army troops
killed at least 30 LRA rebels in the northern Pader and Gulu districts,
days after a three-week cease-fire expired.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 6, In the 19th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom 18 Kurdish fighters were killed and 45 wounded
in northern Iraq when a US warplane mistakenly bombed a convoy. The 1st
US transport plane landed at Baghdad Airport.
(AP, 4/6/03)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 6, US forces near Baghdad
reportedly found a weapons cache of around 20 medium-range Rockets,
BM-21 missiles, equipped with sarin and mustard gas and "ready to
fire." David Bloom (39), NBC correspondent, died of a pulmonary
embolism south of Baghdad.
(AP, 4/7/03)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A26)
2003 Apr 6, Ahmed Chalabi, Iraqi
exile leader, was airlifted by the US along with 700 "freedom fighters"
to southern Iraq to join coalition troops and form the nucleus of a new
national army.
(AP, 4/6/03)(WSJ, 4/8/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 6, A convoy of Russian
diplomats, including the ambassador, came under fire as the group was
evacuating Baghdad.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 6, The Int'l Committee of
the Red Cross said the number of casualties in Baghdad is so high that
hospitals have stopped counting the number of people treated.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 6, Babatunde Olatunji,
Nigerian drummer, died at the Esalen Inst. in Big Sur, Ca. He pioneered
African music in the US with his 1959 album "Drums of Passion."
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A31)
2003 Apr 6, Afghan officials
announced a plan to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate an estimated
100,000 fighters over the next 3 years.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 6, Police in Chechnya
said they had discovered four graves filled with disfigured bodies,
many of them with their heads and arms cut off. Pro-Moscow Chechen
policeman Ruslan Visarigov was killed by a mine near his home in the
Shelkovskaya district. Rebels killed 4 servicemen and wounded 10 others
in attacks over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 4/6/03)(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 6, In eastern China a
fire roared through a food processing plant, killing 21 workers.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 6, Indian troops killed
Fayaz Ahmad Khan, a top commander of Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, a Kashmiri
guerrilla group that is suspected in the 1995 abduction of six Western
tourists and a 1999 airliner hijacking.
(AP, 4/6/03)
2003 Apr 6, Israeli troops in the
Gaza Strip killed a Hamas gunman and a 14-year-old boy.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 6, In Capetown, SA,
Roxanne Dickson (5) became the 7th child to die from gang violence in
the last month. Some 280 gangs operated in Western Cape, a province of
about 3 million people, 5 percent of whom are believed to belong to
gangs.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 7, Syracuse beat Kansas
81-78 in the NCAA Basketball finals.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 7, Pulitzer Prize winners
included Jeffrey Eugenides for fiction (Middlesex); Rick Atkinson for
history (An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943); and
Samantha Power for general nonfiction (A Problem from Hell: American
and the Age of Genocide”). The Boston Globe won the Pulitzer Prize for
public service for its coverage of the priest sex abuse scandal.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A2)(AP, 4/7/08)
2003 Apr 7, The US Supreme Court
voted 6-3 to uphold a 50-year-old Virginia law making it a crime to
burn a cross as an act of intimidation.
(AP, 4/7/04)
2003 Apr 7, Jewelry valued at $4.5
million was stolen from the Lang Estate and Jewelry store on Union
Square in SF. 2 men were later arrested. In 2006 Troy Smith (44) was
convicted in the robbery and faced 35 years to life in prison. His
brother Dino Smith (48) and George Turner (46) were convicted in 2005.
The robbers entered on a Sunday night and forced employees to open the
safes the next morning and escaped with 1,300 pieces of jewelry.
(SFC, 12/21/04, p.B3)(SFC, 11/1/06, p.B7)(SFC,
10/1/09, p.E3)
2003 Apr 7, In the 20th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed
into the center of Baghdad, seizing Saddam Hussein's Sijood and
Republican palaces. As many as 5 marines were killed. Many Iraqis died
in constant suicidal attacks. It was later speculated that the US and
the Baath regime arranged a secret deal (safqua) to hand over Baghdad.
(AP, 4/7/03)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/8/03,
p.A1)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.D3)
2003 Apr 7, A US warplane dropped
4 precision-guided 2,000-pound JDAMs and left a smoking crater 60 feet
deep in the upscale al-Mansour section of western Baghdad, where Saddam
Hussein was believed to have been in a meeting with top officials.
(AP, 4/8/03)(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 7, Capt. Harry Alexander
Hornbuckle on the road to Baghdad led 80 US soldiers against 300 Iraqi
and Syrian fighters. 200 enemy were killed with no US casualties.
(WSJ, 11/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 7, The SF Chronicle ran a
$45,000 full-page ad that called for the impeachment of Pres. Bush.
Former US Attorney Gen'l. Ramsey Clark led the ad sponsors.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A12)
2003 Apr 7, Juan Emeterio Rivas,
Colombia radio journalist for station Calor Estereo, was shot and
killed by gunmen after he told his police body guards to take time off.
Rivas' body and that of an engineering student were discovered in a
rural area outside Barrancabermeja. Julio Cesar Ardila, the mayor of
Barrancabermeja, was later charged with ordering the murder. He was
among three men convicted in the murder of Jose Emeterio Rivas. In 2009
Ardila was sentenced to 28 years in prison for ordering the murder.
(AP, 4/7/03)(AP, 7/12/03)(AP, 1/22/09)
2003 Apr 7, Cuba handed down
sentences of 15-27 years to the 1st 7 of 80 recently rounded
dissidents. Activists of Oswaldo Paya’s Christian Liberation Movement
made up more than two-thirds of those arrested. In response the EU
imposed diplomatic sanctions and Cuban officials boycotted embassy
functions in what came to be called the “cocktail war.” The sanctions
were suspended in 2005 and lifted in 2008.
(AP, 4/8/03)(Econ, 12/17/05, p.38)(Econ, 6/28/08,
p.44)
2003 Apr 7, Cecile de Brunhoff
(99), the inspiration for Babar the elephant whose adventures
captivated generations of children, died in Paris. She first invented
the tale of a little elephant as a bedtime story for her boys in 1931.
They in turn told their father, painter Jean de Brunhoff, who
illustrated the story and filled in details.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 7, Ahmad Chalabi, head of
the exiled Iraqi National Congress, returned to Iraq.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.C3)
2003 Apr 7, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a Palestinian man who approached the fence of a Jewish
settlement in the Gaza Strip overnight. In Tulkarem, Israeli troops
arrested Maslama Thabet, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 7, Mexico said it would
prepay $3.84 billion in the last outstanding Brady par bonds. They
originally totaled $34 billion.
(WSJ, 4/9/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 7, In the northern
Siberian republic of Yakutia a fire engulfed an old wooden school,
killing 21 students and a teacher.
(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 8, Connecticut won its
second straight NCAA women's basketball championship, defeating
Tennessee 73-68.
(AP, 4/8/04)
2003 Apr 8, In the 21st day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom George W. Bush and Tony Blair met in Northern
Ireland and endorsed a "vital role" for the United Nations when
fighting ends in Iraq.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 8, The US Dept. of
Homeland Security announced $100 million in grants to 7 major US cities.
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 8, Kidnapper-rapist John
Jamelske, was arrested. He had imprisoned 5 women and girls, one after
another, as sex slaves inside a makeshift dungeon in his DeWitt, NY,
home.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2003 Apr 8, In Ohio a Dassault
Aviation Falcon 20 crashed short of the runway at Toledo Express
Airport and 3 people were killed.
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 8, An American warplane
mistakenly bombed a house, killing 11 civilians near Afghanistan's
eastern border with Pakistan.
(AP, 4/9/03)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 8, In Burundi battles
started between the Tutsi-dominated army and the rebel Forces for the
Defense of Democracy, or FDD, after the army tried to intercept
insurgents moving into Gitega province. More than 6,000 people fled
their homes in response.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 8, In Chechnya a Russian
armored personnel carrier hit a land mine in Grozny and exploded,
killing two soldiers and injuring several others.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 8, A jobless man died in
a southern Czech village after setting himself on fire in the sixth
case of self-immolation in recent weeks.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 8, Twenty-two European
countries submitted a proposed resolution to the UN's top human rights
body accusing Russia of grave rights violations in the breakaway
republic of Chechnya.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 8, Indonesia police and
the military in Aceh killed nine people.
(AP, 4/8/03)
2003 Apr 8, A US errant rocket
struck in Iran near the Iraqi border and killed a 13-year-old boy.
(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A21)
2003 Apr 8, In Iraq 2 cameramen
and one other journalist were killed and at least 3 others wounded when
an American tank hit the Hotel Palestine where they were staying. An
Al-Jazeera journalist was killed by US fire. In 2005 a Spanish judge
issued an arrest warrant for the 3-member US tank crew, for the death
of Jose Couso, who worked for the Spanish television network Telecinco.
Khalid Ibrahim Sa'id, Iraqi physicist, was killed in Baghdad by a US
tank crew as he rode in a car to check on his home. British forces
began establishing the first post-war administration, putting a local
sheik into power in the southern city of Basra. Looting erupted shortly
after their troops took control of the city. A US warplane was shot
down near Baghdad. US forces seized Rasheed military airport.
(AP, 4/8/03)(AP, 4/9/03)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A1)(AP,
10/19/05)(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A14)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.C3)(SSFC, 3/6/11, p.F6)
2003 Apr 8, Khalid Ibrahim Sa'id,
Iraqi physicist, was killed in Baghdad by a US tank crew as he rode in
a car to check on his home.
(SSFC, 11/9/03, p.A14)
2003 Apr 8, In Iraq British forces
began establishing the first post-war administration, putting a local
sheik into power in the southern city of Basra. Looting erupted shortly
after their troops took control of the city. A US warplane was shot
down near Baghdad. US forces seized Rasheed military airport.
(AP, 4/8/03)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.C3)
2003 Apr 8, An Israeli AH-64
Apache helicopter fired a missile at a car in Gaza City after sundown,
killing at least 6 people, including Saed Arabeed, a Palestinian
militant, and 2 boys aged 4 and 15.
(AP, 4/8/03)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 9, In the 22nd day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US commanders declared Saddam Hussein's rule
over Baghdad over and jubilant crowds swarmed into the streets here,
dancing, looting, cheering and bringing down images of the Iraqi
leader. No more than 150 Iraqis gathered in Farbus Square to watch
American Marines, not Iraqis, pull down a statue of Hussein.
(AP, 4/9/03)(SFC, 4/10/03, p.A1)(AP, 4/16/03)
2003 Apr 9, The US said it will
move its main military base in South Korea out of the capital as soon
as possible.
(AP, 4/9/03)
2003 Apr 9, James Smith (59), a
senior FBI counterintelligence agent, was arrested in LA along with
Katrina Leung (49), prominent venture capitalist, for the alleged theft
and transfer of a classified defense document to the Chinese
government. In 2004 Smith pleaded guilty failing to disclose his 2-year
sexual relationship with Leung.
(SFC, 4/10/03, p.A9)(NW, 4/21/03, p.6)(SFC, 5/13/04,
p.A3)
2003 Apr 9, A large shipment of
African rodents, including Gambian rats, dormice and sun squirrels,
arrived in Dallas aboard a commercial flight from Ghana. An "unusually
large number of sick and dead animals." Some of the larger animals had
consumed the smaller ones. African rodents imported as pets caused a
monkeypox outbreak in the Midwest that sickened dozens of adults and
children with a virus related to smallpox.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2003 Apr 9, China closed the
People's Armed Police Hospital in Beijing due to SARS.
(SFC, 4/26/03, A3)
2003 Apr 9, The European Union's
parliament ratified a historic expansion, making it nearly certain that
10 mostly eastern European countries will join the bloc next year.
(AP, 4/9/03)
2003 Apr 9, Israeli forces in the
Gaza Strip killed 5 Palestinians following rocket fire on Sederot.
(SFC, 4/10/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 9, In Geneva inventions
from around the planet were presented during the world's largest
inventions fair.
(AP, 4/10/03)(SFC, 4/10/03, p.A2)
2003 Apr 9, Abraham Zabludovsky
(78), Polish-born Mexican architect, died. His projects included the
Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A28)
2003 Apr 10, The US House passed a
bill creating a national Amber Alert system and strengthening child
pornography laws.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2003 Apr 10, Eva Narcissus Boyd,
the singer known as "Little Eva," died in Kinston, N.C.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2003 Apr 10, Iraqi television
aired videotaped greetings from President Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2003 Apr 10, In the 23rd day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US and Kurdish troops seized oil-rich Kirkuk
without a fight and held a second city within their grasp as opposition
forces crumbled in northern Iraq. Looting in Baghdad prompted orders
for US Marines to crack down on thieves. Over 40 suicide vests were
found in a Baghdad school. Looting in Kirkuk stripped the North Oil Co.
facilities and pumping of 850,000 barrels a day ceased.
(AP, 4/10/03)(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/13/03,
p.W8)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 10, In Najaf clerics
Haider al-Kadar, a widely hated loyalist of Saddam, and Abdul Majid
al-Khoei, a high-ranking Shiite cleric and son of one of the religion's
most prominent spiritual leaders, were hacked to death at the shrine of
Imam Ali by a crowd during a meeting of reconciliation. Majid al-Khoei
had been give as much as $13 million by the CIA to cultivate supporters.
(AP, 4/10/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A14)
2003 Apr 10, Aid workers fled a
north Afghan town after factional fighting killed at least 13 people.
(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 10, In Estonia Juhan
Parts, a 36-year-old former auditor, took over as prime minister,
becoming Europe's youngest leader.
(AP, 4/10/03)
2003 Apr 10, An Israeli missile
strike in Gaza City killed Mahmoud Zatme, an Islamic Jihad commander,
and injured 12 bystanders. In Tulkarem Israeli troops fired on a car
carrying members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The driver was killed
and 4 others were injured. 2 gunmen shot 2 Israeli soldier dead in the
Jordan Valley and were themselves killed.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 10, In Dagestan, Russia,
a fire killed 28 deaf children in a boarding school in Makhachkala.
Fires in Russia killed some 50 people a day, i.e. 18,000 a year.
(AP, 4/10/03)(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 11, US Congress approved
a $2.2 trillion budget with Vice pres. Cheney casting the tie-breaking
vote. It limited a tax cut to half of what Pres. Bush proposed.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 11, In the 24th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom the northern city of Mosul fell into US and
Kurdish hands after an entire corps of the Iraqi army surrendered. The
Pentagon said no major military forces remain in the country. Defense
Sec. Rumsfeld called Iraqi looting and chaos a natural "untidiness"
that accompanies the transition from tyranny to freedom. The US
military issued a most-wanted list in the form of a deck of 55 cards.
(AP, 4/11/03)(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A10)(SSFC, 5/4/03,
p.C3)
2003 Apr 11, Amnesty International
said at least 1,526 people were executed worldwide last year, with 80
percent of all known executions carried out in China (1,060), Iran
(113) and the United States (71).
(Reuters, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 11, NATO-led peacekeepers
in Bosnia arrested Naser Oric (35), a Bosnian Muslim wanted by the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and flew him to The Hague. He was the
wartime army commander in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. In
2006 Oric was acquitted of direct involvement in the murder of
prisoners in the early years of the 1992-95 Bosnia war. But the court
found he had closed his eyes to their mistreatment and failed to punish
their killers. He was sentenced to 2 years and then ordered to be
released since he has been in jail for more than three years.
(AP, 4/11/03)(AP, 6/30/06)
2003 Apr 11, Cambodia and Thailand
agreed to resume full diplomatic relations, which were suspended after
anti-Thai riots shook Cambodia's capital in January.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 11, Fidel Castro's
government executed three men who hijacked a ferry by firing squad in a
chilling message to anyone else who tries to commandeer a boat or plane
to the United States.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 11, Israeli troops
critically wounded Thomas Hurndall (21), a British peace activist, as
he tried to remove 2 children from a line of fire outside the Rafah
refugee camp. Hurndall died after 9 months in a vegetative state. In
2005 an Israeli military court convicted an Israeli soldier of
manslaughter in the killing Hurndall.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A6)(AP, 1/14/04)(AP, 6/27/05)
2003 Apr 11, In southern Japan an
explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing seven people and
injuring four others.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 11, The leaders of
Russia, France and Germany gathered for a summit that was expected to
push for the United Nations to play the leading role after the end of
hostilities in Iraq.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 11, In Uganda hundreds of
Pokot tribesmen from Kenya attacked villages in eastern Uganda, killing
more than 30 people. Victims were members of the Sabiny tribe.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 11, In Yemen 10 suspects
in the bombing of the US destroyer Cole escaped from prison.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 11, The Venezuela
government of Hugo Chavez and his opponents agreed to a plan for a
referendum on his presidency, and the chief of state pledged to leave
office if he loses.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 12, The US Congress
approved almost $79 billion to pay for the war in Iraq.
(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 12, Finance officials
from the seven richest industrial countries, meeting in Washington,
agreed to support a new UN Security Council resolution as part of a
global effort to rebuild Iraq and promised to begin talks on reducing
Iraq's massive foreign debt burden.
(AP, 4/12/04)
2003 Apr 12, In the 25th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US officials said 1,200 police and judicial
officers will go to Iraq to help restore order. In western Iraq, US
forces stopped a busload of men who had $630,000 in cash and a letter
offering rewards for killing American soldiers. Baghdad Museum lost
some 50,000 artifacts after 48 hours of looting. Unesco later reported
150,000 items lost with a combined value in the billions. It was later
reported that losses were minimal and that curators had put away most
valuables into vaults before the war began.
(AP, 4/12/03)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.W1)(WSJ, 4/16/03,
p.B1)(WSJ, 6/12/03, p.D8)
2003 Apr 12, Lt. Gen. Amer
al-Saadi (7 of diamonds), Saddam Hussein's science adviser, surrendered
to US military authorities. He insisted Iraq had no weapons of mass
destruction and that the invasion was unjustified.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 12, Rescued POW Jessica
Lynch returned to the United States after treatment at a U.S. military
hospital in Germany.
(AP, 4/12/04)
2003 Apr 12, Women's activists
took their fight against the all-male Augusta National as close as they
could get to the Masters tournament.
(AP, 4/12/04)
2003 Apr 12, In eastern
Afghanistan a car packed with explosives exploded, killing four people
who apparently were planning a terrorist attack.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 12, In northern
Bangladesh up to 100 people were reported missing after a ferry
capsized in the Nagchinni River. Searchers recovered the bodies of
victims, bringing the death toll to 16.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 12, Belgium's Prince
Laurent married English-born commoner Claire Coombs in an elaborate
state ceremony.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 12, Canada reported 3
more deaths from the deadly SARS virus, lifting the national toll to
13. 274 probable or suspect cases have been reported across Canada, up
from 266. Canadian scientists reported that they had broken the genetic
code of the SARS virus.
(AP, 4/13/03)(SFC, 4/14/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 12, In San Pedro Sula,
northern Honduras, gunmen opened fire on a restaurant killing 11 people
and wounding 7 others in what police said appeared to be a dispute
between rival drug gangs.
(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 12, Some 83.8% of voters
in Hungary agreed to be part of the historic eastward expansion of the
European Union.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 12, Malta held
parliamentary elections. PM Eddie Fenech Adami won and said his nation
will go ahead with European Union membership.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 12, Mexican army troops
manning a roadblock near the Arizona border seized a truck packed with
more than four tons of marijuana.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 12, In Nigeria
parliamentary elections took place for 469 seats in the House and
Senate. 61 million voters were registered. The ruling party led
legislative elections, but violence accompanying voting in the oil-rich
south left at least two dozen people dead.
(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.A8)(AP,
4/14/03)
2003 Apr 12, North Korea hinted it
could accept US demands for multilateral talks to discuss the communist
country's suspected nuclear weapons program.
(AP, 4/12/03)
2003 Apr 13, In Columbus, Ohio, a
fire at a student-rented house left 5 people dead.
(SFC, 4/14/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 13, The environmental
Goldman Prize winners included Pedro Arroyo-Agudo (Spain); Von
Hernandez (Philippines); Odigha Odigha (Nigeria); Eileen Wani Wingfield
and Eileen Kampakuta (Australia); Julia Bonds (US); Maria Elena Foronda
Farro (Peru).
(SFC, 4/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 13, Mike Weir became the
first Canadian to win the Masters after the first sudden-death playoff
in 13 years.
(AP, 4/13/04)
2003 Apr 13, In northern Greece a
bus carrying high school students crashed on a mountain road, killing
21 people and injuring about 30 others.
(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 13, In the 26th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US troops pushed into Tikrit. Army engineers
worked to help restore electricity in Baghdad. US-led forces announced
the capture of Watban Ibrahim Hasan, a half-brother of and adviser to
Saddam Hussein. After three weeks of captivity, seven US POW's,
including Army Specialist Shoshana Johnson, were released by Iraqi
troops near Tikrit, Iraq.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 13, Israel's PM Ariel
Sharon in a published interview said Israel will hand over some Jewish
settlements for peace, but the Palestinians must give up their demand
that refugees be allowed to return to their former homes.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 13, In the southern
Philippines some 40 Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters attacked
soldiers in Barira. The firefight left 12 guerrillas and possibly 3
soldiers dead.
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A5)
2003 Apr 14, In the 27th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom US troops poured into Saddam Hussein's hometown
of Tikrit and fought pockets of hard-core defenders. Iraqis and US
troops began jointly patrolling the streets of Baghdad to quell the
lawlessness. US commandos in Baghdad captured Abul Abbas, the leader of
the violent Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked
cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985. Abbas died in 2004 while in US
custody.
(AP, 4/14/03)(AP, 4/15/03)(AP, 4/14/04)
2003 Apr 14, In New Orleans a
gunman with an AK-47 shot a killed one boy (15) at the John McDonough
High School. 3 teenage girls were wounded. 4 suspects were arrested in
the gang-related shooting.
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A4)
2003 Apr 14, Scientists reported
that the human genome map was finished with an accuracy of nearly 100%
following 13 years of work.
(WSJ, 4/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 14, The US EPA launched
an investigation into perfluorooctanoic acid, an ingredient in teflon,
for possible health risks to humans.
(SFC, 4/15/03, p.A5)
2003 Apr 14, The US followed the
lead of 14 European countries and lifted a travel ban imposed last
November on the president and seven top ministers of Belarus over
alleged human rights violations in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Apr 14, A boat off the coast
of the Dominican Republic loaded with more than 100 Haitian migrants
struck a reef and capsized after drifting nearly a week, killing 4
passengers.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Apr 14, In Finland 3
political parties agreed to form a center-left government led by Anneli
Jaatteenmaki.
(AP, 4/14/03)
2003 Apr 14, In eastern India
Communist guerrillas staged two separate attacks on police, killing
eight officers.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Apr 14, Four Islamic
militants were convicted in a deadly bombing outside the U.S. Consulate
in Pakistan.
(AP, 4/14/04)
2003 Apr 14, Sierra Leone began
holding truth commission public hearings across the nation.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Apr 14, In Somaliland
elections incumbent Dahir Riyaleh Kahin was re-elected president of the
breakaway republic by 80 votes. The opposition candidate said he would
not accept the results.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 15, Baseball umpire Laz
Diaz was attacked by a fan during a game between the Kansas City Royals
and Chicago White Sox; the fan, Eric Dybas, was later sentenced to six
months in jail and 30 months probation.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2003 Apr 15, US and Canadian
officials announced the disruption of a major methamphetamine supply
system. An 18-month investigation netted 67 arrests.
(WSJ, 4/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 15, Theodore Weiss
(b.1916), poet and teacher at Princeton, died. He and his wife had
edited the Quarterly Review of Literature for nearly 60 years.
(SFC, 4/21/03, p.B5)
2003 Apr 15, In Chechnya 16
people, mostly female construction workers, were killed last week in a
bus explosion. The incident was not reported until Apr 21.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 Apr 15, Finnish lawmakers
appointed Anneli Jaatteenmaki the country's first female prime
minister, making Finland the only state in Europe with women as
president and premier.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Apr 15, US forces about this
time cut off oil flow from Iraq to Syria. Oil flow had reached 130,000
barrels a day providing both countries over $10 million a month in
profits.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A18)
2003 Apr 15, In the 28th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom selected Iraqi leaders met with retired US Lt.
Gen. Jay Garner to shape a new government with 13 goals, the 1st being
"Iraq must be democratic." Secretary of State Colin Powell said the
United States has no plans to go to war with Syria. Looters and
arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq's National Library and the
principal Islamic library. Marines came under fire while seizing an
airstrip on the outskirts of Tikrit. 7 Iraqis died when American troops
opened fire to keep an angry crowd from storming a government complex
in Mosul. US troops in Baghdad arrested Abul Abbas, head of the
Palestinian terrorist group that attacked the Italian cruise ship
Achille Lauro in 1985.
(AP, 4/15/03)(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A1, A16)(AP,
4/15/04)(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.C3)
2003 Apr 15, US forces signed a
cease-fire agreement with the People's Mujahedeen (Mujahedeen Khalq), a
designated terrorist organization. The Iranian group had an estimated
10,000 members and was led by a woman.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A10)
2003 Apr 15, Israeli-Palestinian
clashes in Gaza and the West Bank left 6 people dead.
(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 15, Slovakia Pres. Rudolf
Schuster signed an accession document committing Slovakia to joining
NATO, the next-to-last step on the long road to membership in the
military alliance.
(AP, 4/15/03)
2003 Apr 16, During a visit to a
fighter jet factory in St. Louis, President Bush called for lifting
economic sanctions against Iraq as commanders of both the U.S. military
and the reconstruction effort prepared to move into the country.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2003 Apr 16, The Bush
administration lowered the terror alert level from orange to yellow.
(SFC, 4/17/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 16, Michael Jordan played
his last NBA game with the Washington Wizards, who lost to the
Philadelphia 76ers, 107-87.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2003 Apr 16, In the 29th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom Shooting in Mosul killed three people and
wounded at least 11 and some Iraqis blamed US troops. War casualties
totaled 121 US soldiers with 16 from friendly fire; 31 British troops
with at least 4 from friendly fire; at least 3,160 Iraqi soldiers dead
along with over 1,250 Iraqi civilians.
(AP, 4/16/03)(WSJ, 4/16/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 16, Colorado Republican
Gov. Bill Owens signed a law that established the 1st state school
voucher program.
(SFC, 4/17/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 16, NATO agreed to take
command of the UN peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. The NATO
stabilization force soon started in Kabul and then spread across the
country.
(AP, 4/16/03)(Econ, 3/28/09, p.69)
2003 Apr 16, In Afghanistan
Romanian troops found a large stash of weapons. Two caves there were
stuffed with thousands of rockets and more than 1.25 million rounds of
ammunition.
(AP, 4/18/03)
2003 Apr 16, In Jahangir, Brazil,
4 young men were killed by police in the Borel shantytown on Rio's poor
north side. The community was unanimous that they were not gang members
and had no involvement in crime. More than 800 civilians died from
police bullets in Rio during the first eight months of this year. In
2006 Capt. Marcos Duarte Ramalho was the third police officer to stand
trial and the first to be convicted in connection with the killings.
Two more officers awaited trial for the killings.
(AP, 11/10/03)(AP, 10/20/06)
2003 Apr 16, US, Chinese and North
Korean officials announced talks in Beijing to try to resolve standoff
over North's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 16, Leaders of 25
European nations gathered in Athens to sign treaties sweeping away the
20th century's Iron Curtain divide. The 10 new EU members will formally
join May 1, 2004 following ratification of treaties.
(AP, 4/16/03)
2003 Apr 16, SARS deaths totaled
some 154 with at least 3,412 affected in 22 countries. A World Health
Organization team disclosed that there were unreported cases of the
SARS virus in Beijing's military hospitals and that investigators have
been barred from releasing details.
(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A3)(AP, 4/17/03)
2003 Apr 16, Greek Cypriots signed
a treaty to join the European Union.
(SSFC, 4/27/03, A6)
2003 Apr 16, Scientists announced
that the US military sprayed roughly 1.8 million more gallons of
dioxin-containing herbicides like Agent Orange in Vietnam (1961-1971)
then had been previously estimated. 3,181 villages were sprayed
directly with herbicides. "At least 2.1 million but perhaps as many as
4.8 million people would have been present during the spraying."
(Reuters, 4/17/03)
2003 Apr 17, Denver police reached
an agreement with the ACLU to end the practice of keeping files on
protesters.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 17, Bechtel was awarded a
contract for up to $680 million to rebuild Iraqi infrastructure.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 17, It was reported that
scientists had linked a single gene mutation to the Hutchinson-Gilford
progeria syndrome that makes children age prematurely.
(SFC, 4/17/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 17, Dr. Robert C. Atkins
(72), cardiologist, died in NYC from a fall on ice. In 1972 he
published his weight loss plan "Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution," which
allowed patients to eat fat but restricted carbohydrates. A medical
report in 2004 said Atkins weighed 258 pounds at his death and that he
had a history of congestive heart failure. Atkins weighed 195 pounds
when he fell on ice, but gained some 63 pounds from fluids during
efforts to revive him.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/10/04, p.D1)(WSJ,
2/13/04, p.B3)
2003 Apr 17, Sir William Gunn
(89), a sheep farmer who took over his family's flock as a teenager and
rose to become one of the most powerful men in Australian agriculture,
died.
(AP, 4/18/03)
2003 Apr 17, Sir J. Paul Getty Jr.
(70), reclusive American-born billionaire philanthropist and art lover
who became a British citizen late in life, died in London.
(AP, 4/17/03)
2003 Apr 17, Graham Stuart Thomas
(94), who reintroduced many forgotten plants to British and American
gardens, died. His books included "Old Shrub Roses" and the
meticulously illustrated "The Garden Through the Year."
(AP, 4/28/03)
2003 Apr 17, In central Cuba a bus
and a semi truck collided on a highway, killing at least 30 people and
injuring 71.
(AP, 4/17/03)
2003 Apr 17, John Latsis (b.1910),
the last of Greece's shipping billionaires from the post-war boom
years, died. His staggering wealth was used to aid the needy and gain
access to world leaders.
(AP, 4/17/03)(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A24)
2003 Apr 17, India reported it 1st
case of SARS.
(WSJ, 4/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 17, In the 30th day of
Operation Iraqi Freedom American forces released more than 900 Iraqi
prisoners, beginning the process of sorting through the thousands
detained in the war. Coalition forces still held 6,850 prisoners. The
Bush administration planned to send in a 1,000-man team to search for
weapons of mass destruction. US Special Forces captured Barzan Ibrahim
Hasan al-Tikriti (5 of clubs), a half brother of Saddam Hussein. He was
3rd the list of 55 former Iraqi officials wanted by the US. The US
Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha (MET Alpha) found an Iraqi scientist who
led the them to sites that contained precursors for a banned toxic
agent. A riot broke out at a Baghdad bank after thieves blew a hole in
the vault and dropped children in to bring out fistfuls of cash. US
troops calmed the situation by arresting the thieves and removed $4
million in US dollars for safekeeping.
(AP, 4/17/03)(AP, 4/18/03)(WSJ, 4/17/03, p.A3)(SFC,
4/18/03, p.A12)(SFC, 4/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 17, The Ivory Coast new
unity government held its first Cabinet meeting with newly sworn-in
rebel ministers, even as the rebels accused the government of new
attacks.
(AP, 4/17/03)
2003 Apr 17, A Dutch veterinarian
(57) died from avian influenza 2 days after working on a farm where
animals were infected with the bird flu. He was believed to be the 1st
victim of the current epidemic.
(WSJ, 4/21/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 17, Sergei Yushenkov
(52), co-chairman of the Liberal Russia Party, was shot to death in
front of his home in Moscow.
(SFC, 4/18/03, p.A6)
2003 Apr 17, Rafiq Jwaijatti (81),
a former Syrian ambassador to the US and a renowned Syrian literary
figure, died in Paris.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 18, Scott Peterson was
arrested in San Diego for the death of his wife, Laci, who was eight
months pregnant when she vanished on Christmas Eve.. Genetic testing
proved that two bodies found Apr 13-14 near the SF Bay Berkeley Marina
were Laci Peterson and her baby. [see Dec 24, 2002]
(AP, 4/19/03)(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 18, Burt Rutan, aircraft
designer, unveiled SpaceShipOne, a rocket-powered spacecraft. He hoped
to win the $10 million 1996 X Prize, offered for the 1st private launch
of 3-people to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in 2 weeks.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A2)
2003 Apr 18, In the Florida Keys
at least 28 pilot whales stranded themselves and 5 were reported dead.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A4)
2003 Apr 18, Iraqi opposition
leader Ahmad Chalabi said he expects an Iraqi interim authority to take
over most government functions from the U.S. military in "a matter of
weeks rather than months." Protesters marched in Baghdad denouncing US
presence. Kurds were reported expelling Arab families from towns and
villages where they had lived decades ago.
(AP, 4/18/03)(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 18, Samir Abd al-Aziz
al-Najim (4 of clubs), a senior leader of the shattered Baath party,
was handed over to US forces overnight by Iraqi Kurds near the northern
city of Mosul. US troops in Baghdad uncovered numerous boxes of UC
currency estimated at $650 million.
(AP, 4/18/03)(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 18, Videotape was shot by
a Minnesota television crew traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq when
they first opened the bunkers at the Al-Qaqaa munitions base nine days
after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The tape shows what appears to be
high explosives still in barrels and bearing the markings of the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
(AP, 10/29/04)
2003 Apr 18, Iraqi police captured
Hikmat Ibrahim al-Azzawi (8 of diamonds), a deputy prime minister and
number 45 on an American list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 18, North Korea said it
was ready to begin reprocessing more than 8,000 spent nuclear fuel
rods. US experts said it will give the communist state enough plutonium
to make several atomic bombs.
(AP, 4/18/03)(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 18, At least 13 Filipino
devotees were nailed to wooden crosses north of Manila in an annual
Good Friday re-enactment of Jesus Christ's crucifixion.
(AP, 4/18/03)
2003 Apr 18, Poland signed a deal
to buy 48 US-made F-16 jet fighters for $3.5 billion, the biggest
defense contract by a former Soviet bloc country since the end of the
Cold War.
(AP, 4/18/03)
2003 Apr 18, The IMF approved the
release of $701 million in loans to Turkey, part of an $18 billion
package approved in Feb 2002.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A12)
2003 Apr 18, In north central
Venezuela a fight between inmates wielding homemade knives and machetes
left 11 dead and 40 injured inside a maximum security prison.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, In northeast
Pennsylvania Hadley Bilger (13) was abducted by her uncle after he shot
and killed her parents. Bilger was released the next day and Robert Lee
Hixson (42) surrendered to police.
(AP, 4/20/03)(SFC, 4/21/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 19, US forces captured
Abd al-Khaliq Abd al-Ghafar (4 of hearts), Saddam's scientific research
minister.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Brazil a tourist
schooner with 64 people on board sank in a canal east of Rio de
Janeiro, killing at least 11 people.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Burundi a mortar
shell apparently fired from rebel positions in the hills northwest of
Bujumbura crashed into a house, killing three children and wounding a
woman and another child. The latest fighting has forced 50,000 people
to flee their homes.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, Cameroon was reported
to have banned gorilla, chimpanzee and elephant meat from its
restaurants with prison terms and fines up to $16,000 for violations.
Extermination of the animals in a decade was feared if hunting was not
stopped.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.B6)
2003 Apr 19, In Colombian rebels
kidnapped eight people on Mucura Island.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, Hong Kong reported 12
SARS patients died in a single day. Malaysia banned workers from
Vietnam, which considered sealing its border with China due to the
disease.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, India's prime
minister acknowledged the government had manipulated elections in
Indian-controlled Kashmir and promised residents it would not be
repeated.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, Nazeh Darwazeh (45),
an cameraman with Associated Press TV News, was killed while covering
skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians who were throwing
rocks and firebombs. He died of a bullet wound to the head and
Palestinian witnesses said he was shot by an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, The Israeli army
killed 5 Palestinians and wounded around 70, many of them civilians, in
a raid on the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Near the West Bank
city of Qalqilya, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who threw a petrol
bomb at them.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, In Nigeria elections
Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler turned civilian
statesman, sought a second term against some 20 other candidates.
Obasanjo won 62% of 42 million votes. Opponents denounced the elections
as fraudulent and claimed serious rigging in 16 of 36 states.
(AP, 4/21/03)(WSJ, 4/22/03, A1)(Econ, 1/29/05,
p.45)
2003 Apr 19, Striking Nigerian oil
workers took about 100 foreign workers hostage on several offshore oil
installations.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 19, A Pakistani
helicopter flying over tribal areas in southern Pakistan came under
fire from the ground, injuring three US officials and four Pakistani
army personnel.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 cApr 19, In Sierra Leone an
international war crimes tribunal indicted Augustine Gbao, a former
rebel battlefield commander in the decade-long civil war declared over
in 2002. He was the 8th person indicted by the special court.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 20, An Australian navy
vessel boarded a North Korean ship off Sydney and charged it with
involvement in a $48 million heroin shipment to Victoria.
(WSJ, 4/22/03, A1)
2003 Apr 20, After reporting a
nearly tenfold increase in SARS cases in the capital, China announced
the sacking of its top health official and the capital's mayor from key
Communist Party positions. The number of infections in Beijing soared
from 37 to 346.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 20, Chechen rebels opened
fire on Russian troops, killing 7 soldiers and wounding 7 others.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 20, In Colombia the army
said it killed 16 members of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia) in eastern Antioquia state.
(AP, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 20, It was reported that
the US planned a long-term military relationship with the emerging
government in Iraq to include access to military bases in the region.
US Army forces took control of Baghdad from the Marines in a changing
of the guard that thinned the military presence in the capital.
Celebrating Easter, the Reverend Emmanuel Delly, a longtime Iraqi
bishop, pleaded for safeguards against the persecution of Christians in
the new Iraq.
(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.A3)(AP, 4/20/04)
2003 Apr 20, Jamal Mustafa
Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti (9 of clubs), son-in-law to Saddam Hussein
and former deputy head of Iraq's tribal affairs office, left Syria and
surrendered to members of the Iraqi National Congress.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 Apr 20, In southern
Kyrgyzstan a landslide swept through a village, killing 38 people.
(AP, 4/20/04)
2003 Apr 20, In northern Laos
gunmen opened fire at a bus, killing at least 12 people and injuring 30
others, in an attack officials with the communist government blamed on
Hmong rebels.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 Apr 21, The Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA) was established as the temporary governing
body of Iraq. Retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, Pres. Bush’s appointed
post-war administrator, arrived in Baghdad. His priority was to restore
basic services such as water and electricity.
(AP, 4/21/03)(WSJ, 4/19/04, p.A14)
2004 Apr 21, In California Scott
Peterson pleaded innocent in the deaths of his pregnant wife and unborn
son.
(AP, 4/21/04)
2003 Apr 21, In the Boston
marathon Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya won for the men (2:10:11) and
Svetlana Zakharova of Russia won for the women (2:25:20).
(WSJ, 4/22/03, A1)
2003 Apr 21, AOL Time Warner sold
its 50% stake in Comedy Central to Viacom for about $1.2 bil.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R9)
2003 Apr 21, Ninone Simone
(b.1933), dubbed the high priestess of soul, died in France. She was
born as Eunice Waymon in Tryon, NC., and had her 1st hit in 1959 with
"I Loves You, Porgy." In 1992 Simone had authored her own memoir: “I
Put a Spell on You.” In 2010 Nadine Cohodas authored “Princess Noire:
The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone.”
(SFC, 4/22/03, A21)(AP, 4/21/08)(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.F1)
2003 Apr 21, Luis Moreno Ocampo of
Argentina, currently a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, was
elected as the chief prosecutor of the world's first permanent war
crimes tribunal, headquartered in The Hague.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 21, In Bangladesh two
ferry boats capsized during tropical storms on different rivers, and
hundreds of people were missing. MV Mitali, went down in the Buriganga
River, and the ML Majlishpur ferry, carrying about 90 members of a
wedding party, capsized in the Meghna River.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 21, State-run media in
China reported the government had dismissed Beijing's mayor following
the disclosure of a steep increase in SARS cases in the Chinese capital.
(AP, 4/21/04)
2003 Apr 21, China (13) and Hong
Kong (6) reported 19 new deaths from SARS.
(SFC, 4/22/03, A3)
2003 Apr 21, Estonia was reported
to rank No. 2 in Internet banking and 3rd in e-government.
(SFC, 4/21/03, p.E3)
2003 Apr 21, Muhammad Hamza
al-Zubaydi (queen of spades), was captured by the Iraqi opposition. He
was known as Saddam's "Shiite Thug" for his role in Iraq's bloody
suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991.
(AP, 4/22/03)(SFC, 4/26/03, A14)
2003 Apr 21, In Uruapan, western
Mexico, gunmen disguised as police killed six members of a family in a
suspected drug gang dispute.
(AP, 4/21/03)
2003 Apr 22, President Bush
announced he would nominate Alan Greenspan for a fifth term as Federal
Reserve chairman.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2003 Apr 22, A new study reported
that tea boosts the body's defenses against infections. L-theonine in
black tea is broken down in the liver to ethylamine, a molecule that
primes the response of the immune system.
(SFC, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 22 American soldiers in
Baghdad found $112 million sealed inside 7 animal kennels.
(SFC, 4/23/03, A12)
2003 Apr 22, Felice Bryant (77),
bluegrass song writer, died in Gatlinburg, Tenn.. She and her late
husband wrote such tunes as "Bye Bye Love" and other Everly Brothers
hits and "Rocky Top" (1968).
(SFC, 4/23/03, A21)(AP, 4/22/08)
2003 Apr 22, France proposed that
the UN suspend economic sanctions against Iraq, but continue to operate
the oil-for-food program.
(SFC, 4/23/03, A8)
2003 Apr 22, Hundreds of thousands
of Shiite pilgrims marched to the holy shrine in Karbala, where
Hussein, the grandson of Muhammad, was killed in the 7th century Battle
of Karbala between a small group of his followers and the Umayyad Army.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 22, In Kashmir a bomb
exploded beside a rural road, killing five people and injuring 12
others, as former Indian Home Secretary N.N. Vohra made a weeklong
visit to the state to explore the possibility of talks with separatist
groups.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 22, In Senegal nearly a
million people traveled to Touba, the hometown of 19th-century
religious leader Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba. Fearing his growing influence,
the French exiled Bamba in 1895 to their other colonial holdings in
West Africa. Bamba returned to Touba in 1902 to launch and guide one of
Senegal's main Muslim brotherhoods, the Mourides, until his death in
1927.
(AP, 4/22/03)
2003 Apr 23, American Airlines
reported a $1-billion first-quarter loss.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2003 Apr 23, US forces captured 4
more former Iraqi government officials, including 3 on the top wanted
list: Muzahim Sa'b Hassan al-Tikriti (queen of diamonds), Gen. Zuhayr
Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib (7 of hearts), and Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih
(6 of hearts).
(SFC, 4/24/03, A14)(SFC, 4/26/03, A14)
2003 Apr 23, Guy Mountfort,
ornithologist and co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund (1961), died.
His books included "Portrait Of A Wilderness" (1958), "The Vanishing
Jungle" (1969), "Saving The Tiger" (1981) and "Rare Birds Of The World"
(1988).
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 23, In southern
Afghanistan Taliban fighters attacked a government office with rockets
and automatic weapons, setting off a four-hour shootout that left two
Afghan soldiers and three assailants dead.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 23, U.S. negotiators met
with North Korean and Chinese representatives in Beijing for the first
three-way meeting by the governments since the Korean War.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2003 Apr 23, Beijing closed all
its primary and secondary schools until at least May 7 due to the SARS
epidemic.
(SFC, 4/23/03, A16)
2003 Apr 23, A Chinese fuel
tanker, "Daqing 767" carrying a 1000 tons of oil, sank and 3 crew
members were missing after the vessel collided in heavy fog with
another ship off China's southeastern coast.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 23, Colombia and
Venezuela agreed Wednesday to build a $120 million pipeline to deliver
natural gas to northeastern Colombia and western Venezuela.
(AP, 4/23/03)
2003 Apr 23, In Cyprus Turkish
Cypriot leaders lifted travel restrictions across the 1974 buffer zone
separating the Greek and Turk sides.
(SSFC, 4/27/03, A6)
2003 Apr 23, Paris police arrested
28 airport workers for allegedly stealing digital cameras, perfumes,
jewelry, clothing and other goods from the bags of travelers.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 23, A mudslide in western
Guatemala killed seven people and left more than a dozen missing.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 23, In northern Uganda
rebels waging a 16-year insurgency attacked two villages and abducted
more than 180 people.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 23, The WHO added Toronto
to its list of places to avoid due to SARS. Global health officials
warned travelers to avoid Beijing and Toronto, where they might get the
SARS virus and export it to new locations.
(SFC, 4/24/03, A1)(AP, 4/23/04)
2003 Apr 23, In Zimbabwe many
banks, factories and stores were forced to close as workers stayed off
the job to protest a government increase gasoline prices.
(AP, 4/23/03)
2003 Apr 24, A new Cesar Chavez
stamp was issued by the US postal service.
(SFC, 4/25/03, A27)
2003 Apr 24, In Red Lion, Pa.
James Shetts (14), a student armed with at least two handguns, fatally
shot Eugene Segro (51), his school principal, in a crowded cafeteria
before killing himself.
(Reuters, 4/24/03)(SFC, 4/25/03, A7)
2003 Apr 24, Canada banned cod
fishing off the Atlantic provinces and Quebec due to the collapse of
cod stocks.
(SFC, 4/25/03, A8)
2003 Apr 24, China shut down a
major hospital in Beijing and put more than 2,000 employees under
observation for severe acute respiratory syndrome. The global death
toll from SARS surpassed 260
(AP, 4/24/04)
2003 Apr 24, In Congo at least 60
members of the Lendu tribe were killed by the rival Hema in the Ituri
region near the Uganda border. The attack was ordered by Hema militia
leader Chief Yves Kahwa Mandro. The Lendu then killed about 60 Hema who
were fleeing to Uganda to escape ongoing violence.
(AP, 4/28/03)
2003 Apr 24, Iceland opened a
filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 24, Tariq Aziz (8 of
spades), Iraqi deputy prime minister, surrendered to US forces.
(AP, 4/25/03)(SFC, 4/25/03, A1)
2003 Apr 24, Japanese scientists
reported that a new vitamin that plays an important role in fertility
in mice and may have a similar function in humans. They said
Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), a substance discovered in 1979, can be
categorized as a vitamin.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 24, A Palestinian suicide
bomber killed Alexander Kostyuk (23), a security guard, in a rush-hour
attack at an Israeli train station. Israeli forces on patrol killed 2
Palestinians in Qarawat Bani Zeid.
(AP, 4/24/03)(SFC, 4/25/03, A3)
2003 Apr 24, In the Turks and
Caicos Islands the governing party narrowly held on to power in
elections, giving Chief Minister Derek Taylor an unprecedented third
term.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, The Pentagon
announced that Army Secretary Thomas White, whose tenure as civilian
chief of the military's largest service was marked by tensions with his
boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was leaving office.
(AP, 4/25/04)
2003 Apr 25, Georgia lawmakers
voted to scrap the Dixie cross from the state's flag.
(AP, 4/25/04)
2003 Apr 25, Nuclear talks in
Beijing ended after U.S. officials said North Korea claimed to have
nuclear weapons and might test, export or use them.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, Beijing reported 180
new SARS infections and 5 deaths. Some 2,000 people at the People's and
Ditan Hospitals were quarantined.
(SFC, 4/26/03, A3)
2003 Apr 25, Farouk Hijazi, who
once helped run Saddam Hussein's intelligence service and was linked to
al-Qaida, was delivered by Syria to US forces.
(AP, 4/25/03)(SFC, 4/26/03, A1)
2003 Apr 25, Fighters from Sierra
Leone and Liberia killed rebel leader Sgt. Felix Doh near the town of
Gbinta, in western Ivory Coast.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 25, In the northern state
of Kashmir a powerful explosion ripped through a courthouse, killing
three people and injuring 34.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, A Pakistani army
helicopter crashed into a mountain in northern Pakistan, killing all 13
military personnel on board.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, The Philippines
reported its first deaths from SARS; Taiwan authorities quarantined
over 1,100 doctors, nurses and patients in a hospital and Asian health
chiefs met on ways to tackle the deadly flu-like disease.
(Reuters, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, In South Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the fiery anti-apartheid leader and ex-wife
of former President Nelson Mandela, was sentenced to four years in
prison for her conviction on fraud and theft charges.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 25, UN agencies reported
that malaria kills 3,000 children a day in Africa and robs the
continent of millions of dollars in lost productivity, even though the
disease could be controlled with nets costing $5 and other simple
measures.
(AP, 4/25/03)
2003 Apr 26, Charlton Heston (78),
diagnosed with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, made his last
appearance as president of the National Rifle Association during a
convention in Orlando, Fla., where he briefly thanked the membership.
Kayne Robinson took over. In 2006 Emilie Raymond authored “From My
Cold, Dead Hands: Charlton Heston and American Politics.”
(SSFC, 4/27/03, A8)(AP, 4/26/04)(WSJ, 9/2/06, p.P9)
2003 Apr 26, In Washington state
Crystal Brame (35), the wife of Tacoma Police Chief David Brame (44),
was in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head after being
shot by her husband, who then turned the gun on himself.
(AP, 4/27/03)
2003 Apr 26, It was reported that
a methillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) had begun infecting
healthy people through skin contact.
(SFC, 4/26/03, B8)
2003 Apr 26, David Lavender (93),
American Western historian, died in Ojai, Ca. His books included "The
Great Persuader," a biography of railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington
(1970).
(SFC, 4/28/03, B4)
2003 Apr 26, Health ministers from
across east Asia came up with a joint plan to fight SARS during a
meeting, and hundreds of medical workers in Beijing were forced to
sleep in their offices because of hospital-wide quarantines. The death
toll climbed to 122 and a new 1,000-bed Beijing hospital was built in 5
days.
(AP, 4/26/03)(SSFC, 4/27/03, A1)
2003 Apr 26, A Colombian school
teacher was found shot to death, days after she was kidnapped,
allegedly by leftist rebels who sought to force her father to kill an
enemy fighter.
(AP, 4/26/03)
2003 Apr 26, In Iraq attackers
fired into an ammunition dump guarded by Americans on Baghdad's
southeastern outskirts, setting off thunderous explosions that killed
at least six Iraqis and wounded four. As many as 40 were thought killed.
(AP, 4/26/03)(SSFC, 4/27/03, A18)
2003 Apr 26, In Indian-controlled
Kashmir a car bombing and ensuing gunbattle at the offices of state-run
radio and television killed 3 suspected Islamic militants and 2
soldiers. A boat carrying 30 schoolchildren capsized in a mountain
waterway in Kashmir, drowning at least three, police said. 21 other
children were missing.
(AP, 4/26/03)
2003 Apr 26, Russia launched a
Soyuz rocket carrying American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian
cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko to keep the int’l. space station operating
while Shuttle flights are suspended.
(WSJ, 4/28/03, A1)(AP, 4/26/08)
2003 Apr 26, In Sri Lanka
Bastiampillai Deogupillai (86), a former bishop of the troubled
northern city of Jaffna, has died. Deogupillai had aided tens of
thousands of people during Sri Lanka's 19-year civil war.
(AP, 4/27/03)
2003 Apr 27, Kevin Millwood
pitched his first career no-hitter to lead the Philadelphia Phillies
over the San Francisco Giants 1-0.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2003 Apr 27, Peter Stone (73),
screen and stage writer died in New York.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2003 Apr 27, In Argentina former
President Carlos Menem (72) finished first in presidential elections
but failed to win an outright victory in his comeback bid, setting up a
runoff vote with Nestor Kirchner, governor of Patagonia.
(AP, 4/28/03)(SFC, 4/28/03, A3)
2003 Apr 27, In China's central
Hunan province a wagon overturned and tumbled into a gully, killing 16
people and injuring seven others. In Beijing theaters, cafes and
karaoke bars were closed as 126 new SARS cases were reported. Total
confirmed cases in China rose to 2,914 with 131 deaths. 26 of China's
31 provinces were infected.
(AP, 4/27/03)(WSJ, 4/28/03, A1)(SFC, 4/28/03, A1)
2003 Apr 27, Lt. Gen. Hossam
Mohammed Amin al-Yasin (6 of clubs), chief Iraqi liaison with UN
weapons inspectors, surrendered to US forces.
(AP, 4/28/03)
2003 Apr 27, The U.S. military
arrested the self-anointed mayor of Baghdad, Mohammed Mohsen
al-Zubaidi, reflecting U.S. determination to brook no interlopers in
its effort to build a consensus for administering Iraq.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2003 Apr 27, In Indonesia a bomb
ripped through a crowded terminal at Jakarta's main airport, wounding
11 people and sending hundreds of passengers fleeing from the building.
(AP, 4/27/03)
2003 Apr 27, In Paraguay elections
were held for a successor to Pres. Luis Gonzalez Macchi, a former
Senate leader appointed president in March 1999 after the resignation
of Raul Cubas amid a political crisis stemming from the assassination
of the country's vice president. Colorado Party leader Nicanor Duarte
(49) extended his party's 55-year grip on power, winning a presidential
election by handily defeating two challengers seeking to tap building
anger over the country's deepening economic crisis.
(AP, 4/26/03)(AP, 4/28/03)(SFC, 4/28/03, A12)
2003 Apr 27, In Yemen
parliamentary elections for 301 seats were marred by gunfights that
wounded at least 15 people.
(SFC, 4/28/03, A12)
2003 Apr 28, US soldiers opened
fire on Iraqis at a nighttime demonstration against the American
presence here after people shot at them with automatic rifles. The
director of the local hospital said 13 people were killed and 75
injured. Amer Mohammed Rashid (6 of spades), known to UN weapons
inspectors as the "Missile Man" and ranked 47th on the US most-wanted
list of 55 members of Saddam's inner circle, surrendered.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 28, The US moved an air
operation center from Saudi Arabia to Qatar.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 28, The United States
pledged $4 million to help keep peacekeepers in the Ivory Coast in
addition to the $5 million it has already given to ECOWAS.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 28, Ten of the largest US
Wall Street firms agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle government
charges involving abuse of investors during the late 1990s. Details of
the settlement, which called for one of the largest penalties ever
levied by securities regulators, will change the way major investment
firms do business.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A1)
2003 Apr 28, An environmental
group reported that chemical perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in
rocket fuel, was found in samples of lettuce traced to growers in
southern California or Arizona. The Bush administration had already
imposed a gag order on the EPA from publicly discussing perchlorate
pollution.
(SFC, 4/28/03, A1)(WSJ, 4/28/03, A3)
2003 Apr 28, Scientists reported
the discovery of a type of mouse that appears to the have a genetic
resistance to cancer.
(Reuters, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 28, In Colombia Rafael
Rojas, a 20-year veteran of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) and the commander of the group's 46th Front, surrendered and
urged his former comrades to do the same.
(AP, 4/28/03)
2003 Apr 28, On Saddam Hussein's
66th birthday, some 300 prominent Iraqis met in Baghdad under US
direction to convene a national conference to create an interim
government.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A1)(AP, 4/28/04)
2003 Apr 28, Japan’s Nikkei 225
stock prices hit bottom more than a decade after they first started
falling.
(Econ, 10/18/08, p.86)(http://tinyurl.com/6d5bz8)
2003 Apr 28, The Soyuz space
capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian space crew docked with the
international space station.
(AP, 4/28/04)
2003 Apr 28, Ukraine's Pres.
Leonid Kuchma signed a bill prohibiting media censorship amid claims by
journalists that his administration is meddling in their work.
(AP, 4/28/03)
2003 Apr 29, Pres. Bush embraced a
plan for a $15 billion AIDS initiative that included money for groups
that promote birth control and abortion.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A3)
2003 Apr 29, The US said it would
withdraw all combat forces from Saudi Arabia.
(SFC, 4/29/03, A14)
2003 Apr 29, The governor of
Virginia signed a tough antispam law that called for prison and asset
seizures.
(WSJ, 4/30/03, A1)
2003 Apr 29, Tyco Corp. reported
some $1.2 billion in fresh accounting problems on top of some $265-325
million reported in March. [See Sep 29]
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R9)
2003 Apr 29, The World Health
Organization ended its warning that travelers avoid Toronto, Canada.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 29, China reported 9 more
deaths and more than 200 new SARS cases, most of them in the capital
Beijing.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, In Colombia the high
court has stripped President Alvaro Uribe of the emergency powers he
assumed last year to battle leftist rebels.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 29, Croatian wartime army
chief Janko Bobetko (84), hailed at home as a hero of Croatia's 1991
struggle for independence but charged with war crimes by a UN court,
died.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, The leaders of
France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, all critics of the U.S.-led
war on Iraq, agreed to beef up their military cooperation in an effort
to make Europe's defense less reliant on the US.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, Indian troops raided
a base of suspected Islamic militants in Kashmir, sparking a firefight
that lasted more than five hours and resulted in 17 deaths.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 29, Pakistani police
arrested six men linked to al-Qaida, including a Yemeni man, Tawfiq
Attash Khallad (Waleed bin Attash), wanted in connection with the Sept.
11 attacks and the bombing of the USS Cole.
(AP, 4/30/03)(WSJ, 5/1/03, A1)(AP, 4/29/04)
2003 Apr 29, The Palestinian
parliament approved Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister, clearing the final
obstacle to the launch of a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2003 Apr 29, A Palestinian suicide
bombing killed 3 Israelis in a crowded Tel Aviv nightclub. The bomber,
Asif Hanif (21), grew up in Britain. A 2nd bomber escaped.
(AP, 4/30/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 29, Qataris voted on
their first permanent constitution.
(AP, 4/29/03)
2003 Apr 30, Donald Rumsfeld
visited Iraq and hailed its liberation. US soldiers fired on
anti-American protesters in the city of Fallujah; the mayor said two
people were killed and 14 wounded.
(AP, 4/30/03)(SFC, 5/1/03, A1)
2003 Apr 30, The U.S. Navy
withdrew from its disputed Vieques bombing range in Puerto Rico,
prompting celebrations by islanders.
(AP, 4/30/04)
2003 Apr 30, Burundi's Tutsi
minority handed over the presidency to Domitien Ndayizeye of the Hutu
majority as part of the peace process aimed at ending 9 1/2 years of
civil war.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 30, In Israel some
700,000 workers closed down public services in an open-ended strike to
protest proposed spending cuts and mass firings.
(SFC, 5/1/03, A9)
2003 Apr 30, US Ambassador Dan
Kurtzer met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to present him
with an internationally backed Mideast peace plan, that envisioned
Palestinian statehood within three years. Mediators presented Israeli
and Palestinian leaders with a new Middle East "road map," a
U.S.-backed blueprint for ending 31 months of violence and establishing
a Palestinian state.
(AP, 4/30/03)(AP, 4/30/04)
2003 Apr 30, Mahmoud Abbas took
office as Palestinian prime minister.
(AP, 4/30/04)
2003 Apr 30, Libyan Foreign
Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam said his government accepted
responsibility for the 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland.
(SFC, 5/1/03, A7)
2003 Apr 30, North Korea was
reported to be a country with 1.17 million military personnel, the
world's 5th largest. Its air force had more than 1,700 aircraft and the
navy more than 800 ships. In March Gen. Leon J. LaPorte said "North
Korea maintains a substantial chemical weapons stockpile and a
production capability that threatens both our military forces and
civilian population centers in South Korea and Japan." In addition, he
said, North Korea has the capability "to develop, produce and
potentially weaponize biological warfare agents."
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr 30, South and North Korea
agreed in Cabinet-level talks to peacefully resolve the nuclear crisis
on the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 4/30/03)
2003 Apr, The new magazine
"Believer" published its 1st issue from 826 Valencia, SF, part of the
Dave Eggers publishing family. The storefront featured a Pirate Supply
Store to conform with commercial zoning requirements. The backend
featured tutoring services for school kids.
(SSFM, 7/13/03, p.11)(SFC, 3/1/08, p.C2)
2003 Apr, Apple Corp. launched its
iTunes music store to provide downloadable music for its iPod.
Downloads were offered at 99 cents per track.
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.70)(Econ, 11/14/09, p.18)
2003 Apr, A $4 million Peace
Palace opened at the Univ. of Kentucky paid for by a local businessman.
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi pushed followers to build 200 similar palaces
across the US and 3,000 worldwide.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr, Officials at the Iraqi
Embassy in Prague handed over weapons to Czech authorities. Iraqi spies
had used a diplomatic vehicle to smuggle in the weapons for an attack
on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The weapons included an RPG-7
anti-tank missile, six machine guns and ammunition.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2003 Apr, Ali Shahin Brisam,
general director of irrigation for Nasiriya, ordered the demolition of
one dam and opened regulators in others to return water to the dried
marshlands of southern Iraq. After 8 months marsh recovery jumped from
about 7% of their original size to about 16%.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.A6)
2003 Apr, Amrat Cola was launched
in Pakistan.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.D1)
2003 May 1, Pres. Bush, standing
on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Navy aircraft carrier in San Diego,
announced that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." Bush
landed on the carrier in a Navy S-3B jet and spoke below a banner that
read “Mission Accomplished.”
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/11/04, p.A22)(WSJ,
11/3/04, p.A6)
2003 May 1, Sec. of Defense
Rumsfeld visited Afghanistan and declared most of the nation secure. He
said the 9,000 US soldiers there were engaged mainly in reconstruction.
(WSJ, 5/2/03, p.A1)
2003 May 1, The US Navy withdrew
from Vieques Island, Costa Rica.
(AP, 5/1/03)
2003 May 1, In Utah climber Aron
Ralston (27) amputated his own arm to escape from a canyon where he was
pinned by a boulder.
(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A18)
2003 May 1, A female homicide
victim, Jane Doe, was found near a garbage bin at a restaurant in
Castro Valley, Ca. She was buried Sep 17 as "Unknown child of God.
Female, 12-17..." In 2006 police using DNA identified the girl as
Yesenia Nungaray (16) and said she was from Yahualica, Mexico.
(SFC, 9/18/03, p.A1)(SFC, 12/9/06, p.B1)(SFC,
12/22/06, p.B3)
2003 May 1, Flooding hit
northwestern Argentina and at least 13 people were killed and 50,000
driven from their homes.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 1, The Australian stock
market began trade in Australia's first-ever listed brothel, The Daily
Planet. Shares began trading at 31 cents. Heidi Fleiss was on hand to
promote the enterprise and her new book, "Pandering."
(AP, 5/1/03)
2003 May 1, The British Joint
Terrorism Analysis Center (JTAC) began operations.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.33)
2003 May 1, Thousands of people in
Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines celebrated May Day by
protesting for higher wages, better hours and political change.
(AP, 5/1/03)
2003 May 1, Three top members of
Saddam Hussein's ousted regime: Mizban Khadr Hadi (military
commander), Abdel Tawab Mullah Huweish (director of the Office of
Military Industrialization and a deputy prime minister in charge of
arms procurement), and Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf (a Kurd who served as
one of two ceremonial vice presidents), were captured.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 1, Israeli troops raided
a Hamas stronghold and exchanged fire with dozens of masked gunmen. At
least 13 Palestinians were killed, including two boys ages 2 and 13. 2
Palestinian militants were killed in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/1/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)
2003 May 1, In South Africa a bus
believed to be carrying about 90 people plunged into a reservoir in
South Africa. 10 survivors were rescued outside the town of Bethlehem.
51 people were killed.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 1, A 6.4 magnitude
earthquake rumbled through southeastern Turkey. 177 people were killed
and 390 injured including 80 students were trapped in the debris of
their school dormitory in Bingol.
(AP, 5/1/03)(SFC, 5/1/03, A16)(SFC, 5/2/03,
p.A3)(AP, 5/4/08)
2003 May 2, A US official warned
that the US is ready to sacrifice the free flow of trade with Canada if
necessary to respond to a planned Canadian decriminalization of
marijuana.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, A federal court struck
down most of the new campaign finance law's ban on the use of large
corporate and union contributions by political parties. However, the
Supreme Court later ruled that rooting out corruption, or even the
appearance of it, justified limitations on the free speech and free
spending of contributors, candidates and political parties.
(AP, 5/2/04)
2003 May 2, The US jobless rate
was reported at 6%, an 8-year high.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B1)
2003 May 2, China reported an
accident on a diesel-powered submarine that killed all 70 sailors
aboard.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, James Miller (34), a
British journalist filming a documentary in the southern Palestinian
city of Rafah, was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between
Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. In 2006 a British jury ruled that
the shooting was an act of murder.
(AP, 5/2/04)(AP, 4/6/06)
2003 May 2, India and Pakistan
agreed to hold talks and restore diplomatic and air links.
(WSJ, 5/5/03, p.A1)
2003 May 2, Striking Nigerian oil
workers released the first of hundreds of people they have held for
days on oil rigs as part of an agreement to free all the captives.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Papua New Guinea a
landslide buried a meeting hall under mud and debris, killing at least
eight people as they listened to election results.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 May 2, In eastern Sicily
Giuseppe Leotta (42), a disgruntled worker, opened fire with a handgun
in the Aci Castello town hall, killing 5 people. He fled and then
killed himself.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Taiwan 11 more
cases of SARS were confirmed with 5 new deaths. Confirmed cases totaled
100 with the death toll at 8. Mutations of the virus were also reported.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.A7)
2003 May 2, Chuwit Kamolvisit, A
sex club operator in Thailand, was arrested for unlawfully demolishing
a downtown Bangkok block housing scores of bars and shops to make way
for another massage parlor, the Taj Mahal. He soon claimed to have
spent about $289,156 each month in payoffs to policemen.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 May 2, In Vietnam an aging
Russian-made bus, carrying more than 40 passengers, burst into
flames. 6 people died and 70 were badly burned. Flammable cargo was
suspected.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 May 3, In the Kentucky Derby
Jose Santos rode Funny Cide to victory.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)
2003 May 3, President Bush told a
news conference in Crawford, Texas, it was a matter of when — not if —
weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2003 May 3, The New Hampshire
granite symbol called the "Old Man of the Mountain," 1,200 feet above
I-93 (65 miles north of Concord), collapsed overnight into rubble.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A4)
2003 May 3, Suzy Parker (69),
model and actress, died in Montecito, Calif.
(AP, 5/3/04)
2003 May 3, The US picked a new
head of Iraq's Health Ministry on Saturday, a Baath Party member, whose
appointment was so critical that US officials designated the
announcement "Public Notice No. 1."
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 3, In Baghdad, Iraq,
schools re-opened for the 1st time since the start of war.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A11)
2003 May 3, In Cotonou, Benin, 16
people died in a late night concert stampede at the gates of the
nation's Friendship Stadium.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 3, It was reported that
British researchers had shown that fish feel pain.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 3, An apartment building
collapsed in Cairo, killing 7 people with at least 5 more reported
missing in the rubble.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 3, The Ethiopian drought
was reported to be the worst in 2 decades with millions of people
forced to stand in line each day for food.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 3, It was reported that
half of Germany's bee colonies failed to survive the winter due to a
mite that began spreading from Southeast Asia about 90 years ago.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 3, In far eastern Russia
a transport helicopter crashed as it returned from dropping water on a
forest fire, killing all 12 people on board.
(AP, 5/3/03)
2003 May 3, Pope John Paul II
began a whirlwind visit to Madrid, Spain. He urged hundreds of
thousands of young people outside Madrid to be "artisans of peace."
(AP, 5/3/04)
2003 May 4, In Glenbrook, Ill.,
senior girls of Glenbrook North High engaged in a "powder puff"
football game with junior girls that turned into a hazing melee that
was caught on video and shown on national TV. Several seniors were
later suspended for 10 days. A Civil Suit was later filed on behalf of
3 of the juniors girls.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A4)
2003 May 4, New lab studies
reported that the SARS virus can survive outside an infected body for
hours to days.
(SSFC, 5/4/03, p.A1)
2003 May 4, Idaho Gem, the 1st
cloned mule, was born at the Univ. of Idaho.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A2)
2003 May 4, Swarms of violent
thunderstorms and tornadoes crashed through the nation's midsection,
killing at least 30 people in Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee. 8 people
were missing in Pierce City, Mo.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, In eastern Bangladesh
a tropical storm flattened hundreds of flimsy huts in several villages,
killing 19 people.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, Huda Salih Mahdi
Ammash (49), a top biological weapons scientist and among the top 55
most wanted members of Saddam Hussein's fallen regime, was taken into
custody.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, Police in Baghdad,
Iraq, returned to work in force.
(AP, 5/4/04)
2003 May 4, In Ivory Coast a new
cease-fire agreement took effect, just hours after rebels accused
government forces of fresh attacks.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Kenya floods caused
by two weeks of heavy rain have washed out roads and submerged entire
villages, killing at least 30 people and forcing thousands from their
homes.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 4, In the Philippines
Muslim guerrillas attacked the town of Siocon in the southern province
of Zamboanga del Norte, and took hostages as they withdrew from
fighting that killed at least 22 people.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, A Soyuz spacecraft
safely delivered a three-man, US-Russian crew to Earth in the first
landing since the Columbia space shuttle disaster.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 4, In Spain Pope John
Paul II proclaimed five new saints and urged Spaniards to emulate them.
They included: Pedro Poveda, a priest killed in 1936; Angela de la
Cruz, who founded the Sisters of the Company of the Cross; Genoveva
Torres, who founded the Sisters of the Sacred Heart and of the Holy
Angels; Maravillas de Jesus, who founded convents for the Order of
Barefoot Carmelites, and Jose Maria Rubio, a Jesuit priest.
(AP, 5/4/03)
2003 May 5, Tornadoes across
Missouri, Kansas and Tennessee left at least 40 people dead.
Tornado-packed storms flattened communities in four Midwestern states,
killing 19 people.
(SFC, 5/6/03, p.A3)(AP, 5/5/04)
2003 May 5, China said there
were 160 new infections and 9 new deaths, similar to totals in the past
several days. It has now recorded 4,280 cases, the bulk of the world's
total. Beijing closed its schools for another 2 weeks.
(AP, 5/5/03)(WSJ, 5/5/03, p.A1)
2003 May 5, In Colombia rebels
killed Guillermo Gaviria, a state governor, Gilberto Echeverri, a
former defense minister and 8 other hostages as army troops tried to
rescue them; three hostages survived. In 2008 a court sentenced 9 rebel
leaders in absentia to 40 years in prison for the killings.
(SFC, 5/6/03, p.A3)(AP, 4/9/08)
2003 May 5, Hong Kong reported
three more SARS deaths, for a total of 187, and 8 new infections. In
Singapore SARS has killed 26 of the 203 people infected, a fatality
rate of 12.8 percent, more than double the global average.
(AP, 5/5/03)
2003 May 5, In Indonesia singer
Inul Daratista's (24) grinding moves to Indonesia's "Dangdut" folk
music have made her a celebrity in a matter of weeks. Religious
conservatives demanded that she be banned from the stage.
(AP, 5/6/03)
2003 May 5, Pakistan will get rid
of its nuclear arsenal if rival India does as well, a Pakistani Foreign
Ministry spokesman said.
(AP, 5/6/03)
2003 May 5, In South Africa Walter
Sisulu (b.1912), anti-apartheid hero, died. He brought Nelson Mandela
into the ANC and together with Oliver Tambo formed the ANC Youth League
in 1944.
(AP, 5/6/03)
2003 May 6, President Bush lifted
Clinton-era sanctions (1993-1998) against Angola's UNITA rebels, citing
the end of a quarter-century of civil war.
(AP, 5/7/03)
2003 May 6, White House budget
chief Mitchell Daniels announced his resignation.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2003 May 6, Florida Senator Bob
Graham launched his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination
by accusing President Bush of retreating from the war on terrorism to
"settle old scores" between the Bush family and Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2003 May 6, Kmart Corporation
emerged from bankruptcy after more than 15 months of Chapter 11
protection.
(AP, 5/6/04)
2003 May 6, Six Algerian soldiers
were killed when suspected Islamic fighters bombed their vehicle and
sprayed the survivors with gunfire.
(AP, 5/7/03)
2003 May 6, In northeastern India
suspected separatist guerrillas killed 19 Bengali settlers in Tripura
state.
(AP, 5/6/03)
2003 May 6, Ghazi Hammud, Baath
regional chairman in the Kut district, was put in custody. He is No. 32
on Central Command's list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's
regime.
(AP, 5/7/03)
2003 May 6, The Liberian
government announced that Sam Bockerie (39), a guerrilla RUF leader,
was killed in a shootout with Liberian soldiers.
(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A1)
2003 May 6, Saudi authorities
seized a weapons cache and foiled plans by suspected terrorists. At
least 19 men were sought.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A1)
2003 May 6, It was reported that
AIDS in Zambia had cut the average life expectancy to 33 years from 44
a decade ago. One in 5 adults was reported to have HIV.
(WSJ, 5/6/03, p.A1)
2003 May 7, President Bush ordered
U.S. sanctions against Iraq lifted, allowing U.S. humanitarian aid and
remittances to flow into Iraq.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2003 May 7, The White House
announced President Bush had chosen New Mexico oilman Colin R. McMillan
to be secretary of the Navy and Air Force Secretary James Roche to
replace the dismissed secretary of the Army, Thomas White. However,
McMillan died an apparent suicide the following July, while Roche's
nomination was held up in Congress.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2003 May 7, It was reported that
scientists had altered a common cold virus to destroy a common brain
tumor in mice.
(WSJ, 5/7/03, p.D7)
2003 May 7, In Afghanistan
Habibullah, a Muslim cleric close to U.S.-backed President Hamid
Karzai, was killed outside a mosque in the village of Kalacha.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 7, In Israel a Hamas
militant was killed when a bomb exploded in his West Bank apartment. In
northern Gaza a Hamas member was killed near a Jewish settlement. In
the southern Gaza Strip a Palestinian toddler was killed from Israeli
gunfire.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A17)
2003 May 7, In northeastern India
assailants killed 10 sleeping villagers and wounded six others in the
second attack blamed on separatist guerrillas in two days.
(AP, 5/8/03)
2003 May 8, The US Senate
unanimously endorsed adding to NATO seven former communist nations:
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2003 May 8, The US House
International Relations Committee narrowly approved the measure saying
that any accord on immigration issues with Mexico should include an
agreement to allow U.S. companies to invest in the state oil company
Pemex. The measure is a nonbinding "sense of Congress" amendment and
still needed to be approved by both houses of Congress.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 8, A federal grand jury
indicted Chinese-born California socialite Katrina Leung on charges
that she'd illegally taken, copied and kept secret documents obtained
from an FBI agent. A federal judge later dismissed the case against
Leung, rebuking prosecutors for misconduct.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2003 May 8, Halliburton Corp.,
already under fire over accusations that its White house ties helped
win a major Iraqi oil contract, has admitted that a subsidiary paid a
multi-million dollar bribe to a Nigerian tax official.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 8, In Oklahoma a tornado
swept through Oklahoma City and flattened hundreds of homes. At least
104 people were injured.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A10)
2003 May 8, The Michigan
Wolverines were barred from the next postseason and put on three and
a-half years' probation by the NCAA for a booster's payments to players
dating to the Fab Five era.
(AP, 5/8/04)
2003 May 8, Elizabeth Neuffer
(46), an award-winning reporter for The Boston Globe, died in a car
accident in Iraq.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 8, Rival tribal fighters
battled for control of a northeastern Congolese town, killing at least
21 people and forcing thousands to flee. Fighters of the Union of
Congolese Patriots, a rebel group dominated by Hema tribesmen, had
attacked Bunia in a bid to seize its airport
(AP, 5/8/03)
2003 May 8, A Russian-built cargo
plane lost a back door ramp over Congo, hurling more than 100 Congolese
soldiers and their families to their deaths.
(Reuters, 5/9/03)(AP, 5/8/04)
2003 May 8, In Honduras 2 gunmen
with automatic weapons fatally shot Arnulfo Gutierrez (62), an honorary
Belgian consul as he drove his car in San Pedro Sula. His wife was
kidnapped March 18 as she left a San Pedro Sula beauty parlor.
(AP, 5/8/03)
2003 May 8, In Hungary a passenger
train collided with a double-decker bus, slicing the bus in two. At
least 30 people were killed, all German tourists on the bus.
(AP, 5/8/03)
2003 May 8, Israeli helicopters
fired 3 missiles at a car in northern Gaza, killing a senior Hamas
militant.
(AP, 5/8/03)
2003 May 9, The US and its allies
asked the UN Security Council to legitimize their occupation of Iraq
and sought permission to use revenue from the world's second-largest
oil reserves to rebuild the war-battered country.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, The Republican-led
House approved 222-203 a $550 billion tax cut package.
(AP, 5/9/04)
2003 May 9, The Fizzer computer
virus began circulating aided by its ability to propagate through the
Kazaa file sharing network.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.D3)
2003 May 9, In Cleveland, Ohio,
Biswanath Halder (62), a camouflage-clad gunman, fired hundreds of
rounds as he roamed the halls of the Case Western Univ. Weatherhead
School of management, killing Norman Wallace (30), of Youngstown and
wounding others. He was arrested after a 7-hour standoff. Halder was
later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A3)(SSFC, 5/11/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/9/08)
2003 May 9, In Tyler, Texas,
Deanna LaJune Laney (38) bludgeoned to death her 2 sons Joshua (8) and
Luke (6). A toddler was in critical condition. In 2004 a jury found
Laney legally insane.
(SFC, 5/13/03, p.A6)(AP, 4/4/04)
2003 May 9, Russell Long (b.1918),
U.S. senator from Louisiana, died. He was 1st elected to the senate in
1948 and served for over 32 years.
(HN, 11/3/98)(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A13)
2003 May 9, In northern Iraq 3
U.S. soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed into the Tigris
River.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 9, Japan launched a
rocket carrying the Muses-C probe, which planned to make contact with
asteroid 1998 SF36 in June of 2005.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A7)
2003 May 9, Spain's highest court
barred nearly 1,500 Basque nationalists from running in municipal
elections, calling them camouflaged members of the outlawed party
Batasuna.
(AP, 5/9/03)
2003 May 10, The New York Times
announced on its Web site that one of its reporters, Jayson Blair, had
"committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud," according to an
investigation conducted by the paper.
(AP, 5/10/04)
2003 May 10, A Brazilian police
SWAT team killed eight men in a shootout as they raided a shantytown
looking for drug traffickers.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 10, Colombia rebels in
overnight attacks bombed a reservoir and energy towers, killing 3
security guards and cutting water to Cali and power to Buenaventura.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 10, In northeastern Congo
tribal militias battled for control of Bunia, killing at least 14
people.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 10, Iceland voters
re-elected David Oddsson, Europe's longest serving prime minister
supporting his conservative economic policies rather than the
progressive spending plans of the former Reykjavik mayor.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 10, In northern India a
fire raged through a garment factory, killing at least 12 people and
injuring 70 others.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 10, The leader of Iraq's
largest Shiite Muslim group, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim,
returned triumphantly to his U.S.-occupied homeland after two decades
in Iranian exile.
(AP, 5/10/04)
2003 May 10, Lithuanians began
casting ballots in a two-day referendum that could allow this nation of
3.5 million people to become the first ex-Soviet republic to vote
itself into the EU.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 10, In the Philippines a
bomb exploded at a crowded market in a southern Koronadal city, killing
at least 9 people with 41 injured. Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 11, The United States
declared Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Baath Party dead.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2003 May 11, The Burundi army
killed 23 Hutu rebels during fighting in central Burundi, but the
insurgents claimed the dead were civilians.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 11, Anson Carter scored
at 13:49 of overtime to give Canada a 3-2 victory over Sweden and win
its first world ice hockey championship since 1997.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 11, In Lithuania's 2-day
referendum to join the European Union 91 percent voted in favor of
joining, while 9 percent voted "no." Election officials said more 64
percent of the nation's 2.7 million registered voters cast ballots over
two days of voting this weekend. The country will become the first
former Soviet republic to vote itself into the EU bloc.
(AP, 5/11/03)(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 11, Montenegro held its
3rd presidential election in six months and former prime minister Filip
Vujanovic, who favors independence from Serbia, won a landslide
victory. He promised to hold a referendum in 3 years on whether to
split with Serbia.
(AP, 5/11/03)(AP, 5/12/03)(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)
2003 May 11, A Palestinian gunmen
killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank and Israeli troops raided a
Palestinian town. Palestinian leaders put aside reservations to
parts of the US-developed plan for peace and PM Mahmoud Abbas said
Israel was ready to get started on it.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 12, Fifty-nine Texas
Democrats fled to a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma to thwart a Republican
drive to redraw the state's congressional districts.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 12, Chicago and Seattle
launched 5-day homeland security drills costing an estimated $16
million.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.3A)(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)
2003 May 12, L. Paul Bremer, the
new American civilian administrator, took over the task of piecing Iraq
together. He replaced retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner. In 2006 Bremmer
with Malcolm McConnell authored “My Year in Iraq.”
(AP, 5/12/03)(WSJ, 1/13/06, p.P10)
2003 May 12, US officials said
Rihab Rashid Taha, called "Dr. Germ" for her work with germ warfare
agents, was reported to be in coalition custody. Ibrahim Ahmad Abd al
Sattar Muhammad, No. 11 on the most-wanted list, was also reported in
custody.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 May 12, Prince Sadruddin Aga
Khan (70), a wealthy philanthropist who held a string of top UN
humanitarian posts and was the uncle of the spiritual leader of the
Ismaili sect of Shiite Islam, died in Boston. Khan served as the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (1965-1977).
(AP, 5/13/03)(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A21)
2003 May 12, In Brazil some 1,000
other landless farmers knocked down the barbed-wire fences surrounding
the Tres Marias ranch in southern Brazil, evicted its owner and claimed
the land for themselves. 90 percent of the Brazil's land was owned by
just 20 percent of the people, while the poorest 40 percent of the
population held just 1 percent.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 May 12, A British government
doctor reported that the brains of at least 20,000 people, many of them
depressed or mentally ill when they died, were removed without their
families' consent from 1970-1999.
(AP, 5/12/03)(USAT, 5/13/03, p.10A)
2003 May 12, In Toronto, Canada,
Holly Jones (10) disappeared after she walked a friend home in broad
daylight. Less than 24 hours later, a man found some of the
girl's remains in a gym bag off Ward's Island in Lake Ontario. More
body parts were found some distance away on the mainland. Michael
Briere (35) was arrested for the murder on Jun 20.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 May 12, In northern Chechnya
a truck bomb ripped through a government compound, killing 60 people
and wounding some 300 others.
(AP, 5/13/03)(WSJ, 5/19/03, p.A1)
2003 May 12, Haiti agreed to cut
spending and stabilize its currency in a deal with the International
Monetary Fund.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 12, Israel sealed the
Gaza Strip, imposing the most sweeping restrictions in years, and its
troops killed three Palestinians in clashes there.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 12, The UN Security
Council tentatively agreed to send peacekeepers to the Ivory Coast to
help enforce an agreement aimed at ending nine months of civil war.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 12, The Kurdish regional
parliament in Erbil declared Apr 9, the date of the fall of Baghdad to
US forces, as a national holiday.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.11A)
2003 May 12, North Korea declared
that the 1992 agreement with South Korea to keep the Korean Peninsula
free of nuclear weapons was nullified, citing a "sinister" U.S. agenda.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 12, In Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, multiple, simultaneous suicide car bombings at 3 foreign
compounds killed 26 people, including 9 US citizens. The next day Saudi
authorities linked Khaled Jehani (29) head of a 19-member al-Qaida team
to the carnage. Ali Abd al-Rahman al-Faqasi al-Ghamdi, a senior al
Qaeda figure, surrendered Jun 26. On Jan 8, 2004, 8 accomplices were
arrested in Switzerland.
(SFC, 5/14/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/14/03, p.A1)(SFC,
6/27/03, p.A16)(SFC, 1/10/04, p.A3)(AP, 5/12/08)
2003 May 13, The US government
unveiled a new $20 bill with color added to help thwart counterfeiters.
$130 million of counterfeit US money was estimated to be circulating
globally. It began circulating in October.
(USAT, 5/13/03, p.1B)(SFC, 10/10/03, p.A1)
2003 May 13, A judge ruled that
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols should stand trial in
state court on 160 counts of first-degree murder. Nichols was later
found guilty on 161 counts; the 161st count was for the fetus of a
pregnant victim. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2003 May 13, Kathleen
Aiello-Loreck (49), a mother of 3 from Antioch, Ca., was killed during
a lunchtime stroll along the Contra Costa Canal Regional Trail in
Concord. The next day John Kahler (32), who lived nearby, threw himself
off the Golden Gate Bridge. On Sep 22 police in Indiana arrested Robert
Ward Frazier (39) for the murder based on DNA evidence. On June 21,
2006, a jury convicted Frazier of murder, rape and sodomy. A judge
sentenced Frazier to death on Dec 15, 2006.
(SFC, 5/21/03, p.A15)(SFC, 9/26/03, p.A1)(SFC,
6/22/06, p.B1)(SFC, 12/16/06, p.B3)
2003 May 13, Algerian army
commandos freed 17 European tourists kidnapped in the Sahara Desert by
an al-Qaeda-linked terror group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and
Combat. 9 captors were killed and 15 hostages remained.
(AP, 5/14/03)(Econ, 9/3/05, p.44)
2003 May 13, It was reported that
coca production in Bolivia was on the rise due in part to a failed
US-supported crop-substitution program.
(WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)
2003 May 13, In eastern China a
gas explosion ripped through a coal mine, killing at least 63 miners
and leaving 23 others missing 1,500 feet underground.
(AP, 5/14/03)
2003 May 13, L. Paul Bremer, the
new US administrator in Iraq, reportedly authorized troops to shoot
looters on sight. Rumsfeld said muscle would be used to stop looting.
(SFC, 5/14/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A1)
2003 May 13, South Korea's
military deployed soldiers and trucks to the world's third-busiest port
to alleviate a crippling five-day truckers' strike.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 14, Pres. Bush met for
the first time with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun; both leaders
said they were united in seeking a Korean peninsula free of nuclear
weapons.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2003 May 14, In Texas Victoria
County Sheriff's deputies found 17 people dead in and around a
tractor-trailer rig at a South Texas truck stop. Another died at
hospital. The victims were illegal immigrants. In 2006 a Texas jury
convicted 3 US citizens for the suffocation of 19 smuggled immigrants
in an airtight truck. In 2007 truck driver Tyrone Williams (36) was
sentenced to life in prison for his role in the smuggling. In 2008 the
last of 14 people indicted in the smuggling pleaded guilty. In 2010
Octavio Torres-Ortega was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role
in the smuggling operation. In 2011 Williams was resentenced to nearly
34 years after a federal appeals court overturned the multiple life
sentences he had received.
(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/9/06, p.A1)(SFC,
1/19/07, p.A3)(SFC, 4/15/08, p.A3)(SFC, 6/8/10, p.A5)(SFC, 1/25/11,
p.A6)
2003 May 14, Dave DeBusschere
(62), basketball Hall-of-Famer, died in New York.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2003 May 14, Robert Stack (84),
the tough-guy hero of TV's "Untouchables" (1959-1963), died. His film
debut was in 1939 with "First Love."
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May 14, Dame Wendy Hiller
(90), actress, died in Beaconsfield, England.
(AP, 5/14/04)(www.imdb.com/name/nm0384908/)
2003 May 14, In Argentina Carlos
Menem withdrew from the presidential elections making Nestor Kirchner,
governor of Santa Cruz province, the new president-elect.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A12)
2003 May 14, A Belgian attorney
filed suit against US Gen. Tommy Franks and Col. Brian P. McCoy for war
crimes in the war in Iraq. The use of some 1,500 cluster bombs in Iraq
was part of the suit.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A6)
2003 May 14, In Chechnya a female
suicide attacker killed 18 people at a funeral service in an apparent
attempt on the life of the Moscow-backed chief administrator (Akhmad
Kadyrov).
(AP, 5/14/04)
2003 May 14, In Iraq villagers
pulled body after body from a mass grave in Mahaweel, exhuming the
remains of up to 3,000 people they suspect were killed during the 1991
Shiite revolt against Saddam Hussein's regime.
(AP, 5/14/03)
2003 May 14, An Israeli helicopter
fired a missile into a crowd in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip,
wounding 30 people and killed three Palestinian policemen, after 10
Israeli soldiers were wounded nearby in a mortar attack.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 14, In Italy Premier
Silvio Berlusconi inaugurated the ambitious $4 billion "Moses" project
to ease the flooding in Venice. Construction soon began on a breakwater
for Venice to prevent high tides from entering its lagoon.
(AP, 5/15/03)(Econ, 9/27/03, p.80)
2003 May 15, The three-year
championship reign of the Los Angeles Lakers came to a decisive end as
the San Antonio Spurs overpowered the Lakers 110-82 to win the Western
Conference semifinal series 4 games to 2.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2003 May 15, Emergency officials
rushed to a series of mock catastrophes in the Chicago area on the
busiest day of a national weeklong exercise.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2003 May 15, Runaway Texas
Democrats boarded two buses and returned home after a self-imposed
weeklong exile in Oklahoma that succeeded in killing a redistricting
bill they opposed.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2003 May 15, San Francisco
attorney Stephen Joseph withdrew his recent suit against Kraft Inc. to
stop the sale of Oreo cookies. He was satisfied with the media
attention on the high trans fat content in the cookies and other
products.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A3)
2003 May 15, Scott S. Sheppard of
the Univ. of Hawaii reported 43 more moons around Jupiter and said he
expects to find 50 more. The total number of Jupiter moons reached 80.
(SFC, 5/15/03, p.A9)
2003 May 15, June Carter Cash
(73), the Grammy-winning scion of one of country music's pioneering
families and the wife of Johnny Cash, died of complications from heart
surgery.
(AP, 5/16/03)
2003 May 15, Britain cancelled all
flights to and from Kenya following US warnings of a possible terrorist
attack.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A12)
2003 May 15, China threatened
possible execution or jail sentences for people who cause death or
injury by deliberately spreading SARS.
(WSJ, 5/16/03, p.A1)
2003 May 15, Fleeing Congo
civilians jammed roads out of Bunia by the thousands, trying to escape
rival ethnic militias battling for control with mortars and machetes.
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May 15, The Dominican
government took control of the Caribbean nation's oldest and most
respected newspaper and seized 70 radio and four television stations
after Ramon Baez, banker and media baron, was charged with bank fraud.
(AP, 5/15/03)(WSJ, 6/30/03, p.A1)
2003 May 15, French Foreign
Minister Dominique de Villepin said in an interview that France wants
"lies and calumny" published in both the U.S. and British press to stop.
(AP, 5/16/03)
2003 May 15, The economies of
Germany, Netherlands and Italy contracted during the first three months
of 2003 as the European Union as a whole showed no growth for the first
time in almost two years.
(AP, 5/16/03)
2003 May 15, In northern India a
fire engulfed the rear three coaches of a moving express train, killing
at least 39 passengers and injuring 20 others.
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May 15, The Development Fund
for Iraq was established to fund reconstruction projects with Iraqi oil
revenue.
(WSJ, 10/28/03, p.A4)
2003 May 15, US Army forces
stormed into a village near the northern city of Tikrit before dawn,
seizing more than 260 prisoners, including one man on the most-wanted
list of former Iraqi officials.
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May 15, Israeli troops killed
5 people including 3 youths during a raid at Beit Hanoun aimed to stop
Palestinian fighters from firing rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A10)
2003 May 15, In Karachi, Pakistan,
a series of explosions shook 18 Shell gas stations, slightly injuring
four employees.
(AP, 5/15/03)
2003 May 16, President Bush
launched his re-election campaign.
(AP, 5/16/04)
2003 May 16, The US Senate
committed $15 billion to fight global AIDS. Congress approved the
President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In his Jan 28,
State of the Union address Pres. George W. Bush had made a commitment
to substantially increase US support for addressing HIV/AIDS worldwide.
(AP,
5/16/04)(www.pepfar.gov/documents/organization/115411.pdf)
2003 May 16, Bosnia signed an
agreement with the United States on Friday that exempts Americans from
prosecution by a new international criminal court.
(AP, 5/17/03)
2003 May 16, In northeastern Congo
rival tribes fighting signed a cease-fire. There were over 100
confirmed killings and evidence of cannibalism.
(AP, 5/16/03)(SFC, 5/20/03, p.A8)
2003 May 16, Slovak voters began a
two-day referendum to reaffirm their nation's top foreign policy goal
to be membership in the European Union.
(AP, 5/16/03)
2003 May 16, In Morocco suicide
attackers set 5 nearly simultaneous explosions in the heart of
Casablanca, killing 33 people and a dozen suicide bombers at a Jewish
community center, the Belgian consulate, a Spanish social club and a
major hotel. The attackers all came from the shantytown of Carriere
Thomas. In 2007 a Paris court convicted eight people of supporting the
suicide bombers.
(AP, 5/17/04)(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.10)(AP, 7/12/07)
2003 May 17, Funny Cide ran away
from the field in the Preakness, two weeks after winning the Kentucky
Derby. However, Funny Cide came up short at the Belmont Stakes,
finishing third.
(AP, 5/17/04)
2003 May 17, In G-8 talks at a
Normandy resort the United States secured a commitment from the world's
wealthiest nations and Russia not to demand that Iraq begin paying off
its huge debts before 2005. The Paris Club's 19 members, which include
the US, are alone believed to be owed an estimated $26 billion, not
including interest accrued on the debt, most of which dates from the
1970s.
(AP, 5/18/03)
2003 May 17, In southern China
heavy rainstorms caused flooding killing 45 people and causing millions
of dollars in damage to homes and crops.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 17, A German tour bus
overturned on a French highway in heavy rain, killing at least 28 of
the 74 people on board.
(AP, 5/17/03)
2003 May 17, In Iraq US forces
arrested Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti, former secretary of
the Republican Guard (listed as No. 10 and the queen of clubs). Univ.
students and teachers returned to their campuses.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.A12)
2003 May 17, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing an
Israeli man and his pregnant wife.
(AP, 5/17/04)
2003 May 17, Slovaks in a 2-day
plebiscite voted to join the European Union. About 92 percent of voters
approved EU membership, with a turnout of some 52 percent.
(AP, 5/17/03)
2003 May 17, In south-central Sri
Lanka flash floods and landslides killed at least 300 people and drove
some 150,000 people from their homes.
(WSJ, 5/19/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 17, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will open its doors next week
to Greek Cypriot tourists, signaling an end to a decades-long travel
ban.
(AP, 5/18/03)
2003 May 17, Cardinal Giovanni
Battista Re acknowledged that Pope John Paul II was suffering from
Parkinson's disease.
(AP, 5/17/04)
2003 May 18, "Les Miserables"
closed on Broadway after more than 16 years and 6,680 performances.
(AP, 5/18/04)
2003 May 18, The US in a surprise
reversal announced support for a int'l. treaty to combat tobacco use
around the globe.
(SFC, 5/19/03, p.A1)
2003 May 18, It was reported that
many California community state pension expenses will soon exceed 40%
of the public safety payroll.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.D3)
2003 May 18, Belgium held
parliamentary elections. PM Guy Verhofstadt and his center-left
coalition of free-market liberals and socialists. The Greens suffered a
huge defeat in both Dutch-speaking Flanders and Wallonia. The
socialists scored even stronger gains than their liberal coalition
partners.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 May 18, In northeastern Congo
the savagely killed bodies of 2 UN military observers were found after
having been reported missing for several days.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 May 18, Ecuadorian anti-drug
agents seized three tons of cocaine in one of the nation's largest drug
seizures ever. In Oct 2001 police seized 3.2 tons in Guayaquil.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 18, In Indonesia 2 days
of talks between separatist rebels and government officials ended with
no agreement on how to salvage a faltering peace pact and avert war in
the resource-rich province of Aceh. Pres. Sukarnoputri singed a decree
authorizing 6 months of martial law and ordered 30,000 government
troops to crush the 5,000 Aceh rebels.
(AP, 5/18/03)(SFC, 5/21/03, p.A3)
2003 May 18, In Kirkuk, Iraq, a
weekend of Arab-Kurdish violence left at least 11 people dead and a
U.S. soldier wounded.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 18, A Hamas suicide
bomber killed seven passengers on a Jerusalem bus, while a second
bomber blew himself up on the city's outskirts. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon
postponed a trip to Washington. Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip shot
and killed a Palestinian man. On June 3, 2010, Steve Averbach (44), who
had been hit by shrapnel on the bus and paralyzed from the neck down,
died as a result of complications from his wounds.
(AP, 5/18/03)(AP, 6/4/10)
2003 May 18, In the Philippines
the Manila Water Co dumped large doses of the disinfectant into a
reservoir serving the eastern part of the capital after the young man
fell into an aqueduct while picking fruit.
(Reuters, 5/20/03)
2003 May 18, Swiss voters agreed
to modernize their armed forces, overhaul the country's civil defense
and keep nuclear energy.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 May 18, Taiwan reported a
record 36 new cases of SARS and 3 deaths.
(SFC, 5/19/03, p.A3)
2003 May 18, In the Vatican Pope
John Paul II celebrated his 83rd birthday.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 May 19, The US Supreme Court
dealt a defeat to the drug industry, ruling 6-3 that a state may try to
force companies to lower prices on prescription medications for the
poor and uninsured.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2003 May 19, In central Iraq 4 US
Marines on a resupply mission were killed when their Ch-46 Sea-Knight
helicopter crashed into a canal and a fifth drowned trying to save them.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 19, It was reported that
a loose affiliation of people worked to coordinate Internet attacks on
span generators. E-mail marketer Optinrealbig.com was one of those
targeted.
(WSJ, 5/19/03, p.A1)
2003 May 19, MCI agreed to pay
investors $500 million to settle fraud charges that it acquired in its
merger with WorldCom.
(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.A1)
2003 May 19, In France more than
300,000 protesters marched in anger over government pension reforms and
striking teachers prevented students from taking part of their
high-school graduation exams.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 19, Indonesian war planes
attacked a rebel base and troops parachuted into restive Aceh province
as the military launched a major offensive just hours after peace talks
broke down and the president imposed martial law.
(AP, 5/19/03)
2003 May 19, A Palestinian riding
a bicycle blew himself up near an Israeli army jeep. A female suicide
bomber detonated at the entrance to a shopping mall in Afula and killed
3 others in the 5th suicide bombing in 48 hours.
(SFC, 5/20/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/19/04)
2003 May 20, The TV show "Buffy
the Vampire Slayer" had its finale. Set in the fictional California
town of Sunnydale, "Buffy" depicted high school as a literal Hell. The
TV series began in 1997 based on a 1992 movie.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 20, The Bush
administration raised the terrorism alert level to orange on and called
for increased security nationwide.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 20, The United States
banned all beef imports from Canada after a lone case of mad cow
disease was discovered in the heart of Canada's cattle country.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2003 May 20, Afghan governors
signed an agreement with President Hamid Karzai to pay vital customs
revenues to the central government. Karzai had threatened to resign due
to lack of revenue payments.
(AP, 5/20/03)(WSJ, 5/20/03, p.A1)
2003 May 20, Canadian agriculture
officials said that it took 15 weeks -- from Jan. 31 to May 16 --
before a battery of tests ordered on a sickly, underweight cow that had
been deemed unfit for human consumption proved it had mad cow disease.
In 2004 investigators identified 68 British cattle as the probable
source of Canada's mad cow cases.
(AP, 5/20/03)(WSJ, 3/22/04, p.A1)
2003 May 20, In northern China a
powerful gas explosion at the Yongtai mine, an unlicensed coal mine,
killed 25 miners. On May 23 flooding in a coal mine in central China
trapped 15 miners,
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 20, Indonesian troops
killed or captured dozens of insurgents in its northwestern province of
Aceh, the 2nd day of a major offensive aimed at destroying a separatist
rebellion.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 20, Malaysia launched its
government sponsored BioValley complex at a cost of $150 million. In
2005 the journal Nature reported it as a failed project.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.78)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioValley_%28Malaysia%29)
2003 May 20, The first of more
than 12,000 Somali Bantus awaiting resettlement set out for the US,
leaving at long last the refugee camps where most have lived for a
decade.
(AP, 5/20/03)
2003 May 21, Ruben Studdard edged
Clay Aiken to win the second "American Idol" competition on Fox TV.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2003 May 21, Christie Whitman
(56), former New Jersey governor, announced her resignation as chief of
the Environmental Protective Agency.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A1)
2003 May 21, In Algeria a 6.7
earthquake struck near Algiers. More than 2,200 people were killed and
thousands injured. Thenia, 40 miles east of Algiers, was worst hit.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/25/03)(SFC, 5/27/03,
p.A12)
2003 May 21, American troops
guarding the US Embassy in Kabul shot and killed four Afghan soldiers,
apparently mistaking them for assailants.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 21, In Barbados PM Owen
Arthur's governing Labor Party won elections in a landslide victory
that secured the party 23 seats in the legislature. The opposition
Democratic Labor Party won seven seats in the 30-seat Parliament.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 21, In northeastern Congo
the death toll from more than a week of tribal fighting rose to 280
people.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 21, In Iraq US forces
captured Aziz Saleh Numan, former Baath regional command chairman for
west Baghdad. He was No. 8 on the most wanted list.
(SFC, 5/23/03, p.A20)
2003 May 21, Israeli troops shot
to death 2 Palestinians including a mother of 8 during a clash at the
West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Zeid.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 21, In Myanmar bombs
exploded on the border with Thailand, killing four people.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 21, The Mexican Justice
Department said that 258 women had been killed since 1993 in Ciudad
Juarez.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 21, NATO's 19 nations
agreed unanimously to start planning to help Poland lead a
multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 21, Taiwan reported 35
new cases of SARS for a total of 418 with 52 deaths.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 22, Annika Sorenstam
became the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to tee off
against the men on the pro tour, playing in the first round of the
Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. Sorenstam missed the cut
the next day by four shots.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2003 May 22, LeBron James, high
school basketball star, agreed to a deal with Nike worth more than $90
million.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 22, Maryland Gov. Robert
Ehrlich signed a bill that reduced criminal penalties for seriously ill
people who smoke marijuana to a maximum $100 and no jail time.
(SFC, 5/23/03, p.A5)o
2003 May 22, NASA released the 1st
photo of Earth taken from Mars, 86 million miles away. The record
distance was a 1990 shot by Voyager 1 from 4 billion miles.
(WSJ, 5/23/03, p.A1)
2003 May 22, In Colombia
Government troops killed at least 29 rebels in a two-day battle in
eastern Colombia.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 22, Iceland PM David
Oddsson announced that he will step down in September 2004 in favor of
the current foreign minister, who leads the other party in his
coalition government.
(AP, 5/22/03)
2003 May 22, The UN Security
Council overwhelmingly approved an end to 13-year-old sanctions against
Iraq and gave the United States and Britain extraordinary powers to run
the country and its lucrative oil industry. Security Council Resolution
1483 identified the US and Britain as “occupying powers” in Iraq.
(AP, 5/22/03)(Econ, 4/19/08, p.102)
2003 May 23, Golfer Annika
Sorenstam failed to make the 36-hole cut at the PGA Tour in Fort Worth,
Texas, missing the cut by four strokes. She was the first woman to play
in a PGA Tour event in 58 years.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2003 May 23, The US Congress gave
its final approval to $330 billion in new tax cuts for families,
investors and businesses. Congress passed a $350 billion, 10-year tax
cut.
(AP, 5/23/03)(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A6)
2003 May 23, US defense officials
reported that American troops had confiscated gold bars valued at $34
million from a truck in northern Iraq.
(AP, 5/23/03)
2003 May 23, Another travel alert
for Toronto, Canada, was issued following the report of 20 possible new
cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
(AP, 5/24/03)
2003 May 23, Researchers from
China and Hong Kong identified a coronavirus in 3 wild mammals, palm
civets, a raccoon dog and a ferret badger, sold in the live-animal food
markets of South China.
(SFC, 5/24/03, p.A1)
2003 May 23, In India officials
reported that a heat wave in southern Indian has killed at least 198
people in the past eight days.
(AP, 5/23/03)
2003 May 23, Israel's PM Ariel
Sharon agreed to work with a US-backed peace plan to end 32 months of
fighting and to set up a Palestinian state.
(AP, 5/23/03)
2003 May 23, The Democratic Party
in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten won legislative
elections, winning support for its platform of working with the
regional government before seeking independence from the Netherlands.
(AP, 5/24/03)
2003 May 24, The $16 million
Nevada Museum of Art opened in Reno.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.D2)
2003 May 24, In Las Vegas Chris
Moneymaker (27), an accountant, walked away with $2.5 million and the
title of champion in the 34th annual World Series of Poker.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 24, Furious crowds hurled
debris and insults at Algeria's president Abdelaziz Bouteflika when he
visited a town devastated by a deadly earthquake.
(AP, 5/24/04)
2003 May 24, Ontario health
officials said they were monitoring 33 people for the deadly SARS virus
with another 500 in quarantine and warned that the number of suspected
cases could grow in coming days.
(Reuters, 5/24/03)
2003 May 24, British actress
Rachel Kempson, matriarch of the Redgrave acting dynasty, died in
Millbrook, N.Y., four days short of her 93rd birthday.
(AP, 5/24/04)
2003 May 24, In China Chen
Yongfeng (20), was arrested in Wenzhou on charges of killing and
dismembering 10 people, who had made their living picking through
garbage.
(AP, 5/30/03)
2003 May 24, In Colombia Capt.
Leonardo Moore disappeared while driving from Bogota to the southern
city of Cali. He was freed in 2007 following a skirmish with ELN rebels.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2003 May 24, In Iran some 130
reformist lawmakers called on Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to
accept democratic reforms for the ruling establishment to survive.
(AP, 5/24/03)
2003 May 24, Coalition forces
captured two more wanted Iraqis: Sayf al-Din al-Mashadani, No. 46 on
the list and Sad Abd al-Majid al-Faysal, No. 55.
(AP, 5/27/03)
2003 May 24, The U.S.-led
coalition ordered Iraqis to give up their weapons by mid-June.
(AP, 5/24/04)
2003 May 24, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian man near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.
(AP, 5/24/03)
2003 May 24, Malaysia PM Mahathir
Mohamad met with Brunei's 29th Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin
Waddaulah to address the issue of the Kikeh oil find off Borneo.
(WSJ, 6/27/03, p.A11)(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.C6)
2003 May 24, In Peru 19 Latin
American leaders ended the 17th summit of the Group of Rio nations by
promising to curb corruption and poverty, which they said undermine
democratic rule in the region as does terrorism.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 25, Gil de Ferran won the
Indianapolis 500.
(AP, 5/25/04)
2003 May 25, In Miami an explosion
on the cruise ship SS Norway, formerly the SS France, killed 4
boiler-room crew members.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/27/03, p.A1)
2003 May 25, A Boeing 727
chartered by an Angolan company vanished on a flight to either Burkina
Faso, South Africa, Libya or Nigeria.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 May 25, Nestor Kirchner took
office as Argentina's sixth president in 18 months.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 25, Armenians went to the
polls to select a parliament.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 25, Canada health
officials reported that SARS had killed three more people in Ontario.
(Reuters, 5/26/03)
2003 May 25, In the film festival
at Cannes, France, "Elephant" by Gus Van Sant won the Palme d'Or. It
was loosely based on the Columbine school shooting. The Turkish film
"Uzak" won the 2nd place Grand Prize. "At Five in the Afternoon" by
Samira Makhmalbaf of Iran won the jury prize.
(SFC, 5/26/03, p.D2)
2003 May 25, In France at least
300,000 workers marched through the streets of Paris to protest
government plans to reform the pension system.
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 25, Israel's Cabinet
approved a US-backed Middle East peace plan, recognizing for the first
time the Palestinians' right to establish an independent state in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 25, In Moldova the
Communist Party consolidated its hold on power in this former Soviet
republic, winning over 47 percent of contested posts for mayor and
other municipal offices. The Communists, who came to power in 2001,
were led by Pres. Vladimir Voronin.
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 25, In the Philippines a
passenger ferry collided with a larger boat and sank at the mouth of
Manila Bay. At least 23 people were killed and 198 were rescued.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 25, In Spain PM Jose
Maria Aznar's party held its ground in city and regional elections.
(AP, 5/26/03)
2003 May 26, FBI and state police
issued fugitive and murder warrants for Derrick Todd Lee, a prime
suspect in the killings of 5 women in south Louisiana.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A3)(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 26, The World Health
Organization (WHO) said it would put Canada's business capital Toronto
back on the list of areas where SARS is spreading.
(Reuters, 5/26/03)
2003 May 26, China's Pres. Hu
Jintao arrived in Moscow for talks with Pres. Putin.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A12)
2003 May 26, In Ecuador 9
renegade Huaorani killed 26 members of the Tagaeri tribe. They
justified the massacre as payback for a 1993 murder. Huaorani elders
pardoned all attackers. Loggers were suspected as influencing the
Huaorani.
(AP, 5/29/03)(SFC, 9/3/04, p.W1)
2003 May 26, PM Sharon said Israel
must end its occupation of Palestinian lands. Sharon declared in a
speech to his Likud Party that he was determined to reach a peace deal
and end 36 years of rule over the Palestinians.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/26/08)
2003 May 26, A 7.0 earthquake hit
Japan's main island of Honshu. At least 54 people were injured.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A3)
2003 May 26, Thomas R. Odhiambo
(72), the Kenyan scientist who founded an int'l insect research center
renowned for giving African farmers low-cost solutions for pest
control, died. He founded the African Academy of Sciences in 1985.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 26, Rwandans voted in the
country's first constitutional referendum. It was overwhelmingly
endorsed.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 26, An airplane carrying
Spanish peacekeepers crashed into a mountain in northeastern Turkey
while making its third attempt to land in thick fog. All 74 people
aboard were killed. The Yak-42 was chartered from a Ukrainian company.
(AP, 5/26/03)(WSJ, 5/27/03, p.A1)
2003 May 27, Derrick Todd Lee, a
suspected serial killer of women in Louisiana, was arrested in Atlanta.
(AP, 5/27/04)
2003 May 27, A study was released
that showed women who took hormones for years ran a higher risk of
Alzheimer's or other types of dementia.
(AP, 5/27/04)
2003 May 27, Colombia police
arrested Saul Nieto, known by the nom de guerre "Ezequiel." He was in
charge of a group of urban fighters of the National Liberation Army, or
ELN, in Medellin. 10 other rebels were also detained.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 27, In southern India
officials reported that a deadly heat wave has killed at least 430
people in the past two weeks.
(AP, 5/27/03)
2003 May 27, In India strong winds
and pounding rain toppled a Ferris wheel at a temple festival in Tamil
Nadu state, killing 12 people and injuring more than 20 others.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 27, In Iraq a US
weapons-inspection team arrived at Al Qaqaa weapons site and found that
the IAEA seals were broken and the high explosives missing. Two Iraqis
shot and killed two American soldiers in Fallujah, a hotbed of support
for Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 10/27/04, p.A3)(AP, 5/27/08)
2003 May 27, Israeli troops shot
and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy and critically wounded two
children, ages 7 and 9, during confrontations.
(AP, 5/27/03)
2003 May 27, In Peru Pres.
Alejandro Toledo declared a 30-day state of emergency and authorized
the military to clear strikers from Peru's major highways.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, Pres. Bush signed a
tax cut into law. It was the 3rd cut in 3 years and included a cut in
the rates on capital gains and dividends, breaks for small businesses
and funds for state governments. It was valued at $350 billion over 10
years. The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003
delivered substantial tax relief to 136 million American taxpayers.
(SFC, 5/29/03,
p.A4)(www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030528-9.htm)
2003 May 28, Actress Martha Scott
(90) died in Southern California.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2003 May 28, Amnesty International
released a report saying the U.S.-led war on terror had made the world
a more dangerous and repressive place, a finding dismissed by
Washington as "without merit."
(AP, 5/28/04)
2003 May 28, Prometea, the world's
1st cloned horse, was born in Cremona, Italy.
(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A2)
2003 May 28, Bangladesh authorized
police to shoot at will as part of its anti-crime campaign, after
reporting more than 350 deaths to gang violence in the past two months.
(AP, 5/30/03)
2003 May 28, In Canada SARS killed
two more people in Toronto and concern about the deadly virus shut down
a Toronto-area high school.
(AP, 5/29/03)
2003 May 28, Chinese President Hu
Jintao called for a "multipolar world" and a strategic partnership with
Russia to counter U.S. dominance, and oil executives signed a
preliminary deal for pipeline to carry Siberian oil to China.
(AP, 5/29/03)
2003 May 28, Pakistani police
arrested about three dozen opposition lawmakers from a provincial
assembly during two protests against constitutional changes made by
Pakistan's president to increase his power.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, In the southern
Philippines Muslim rebels declared a cease-fire and gave the government
10 days to meet their demands or face renewed fighting.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, Russia confirmed its
first case of SARS on the border with China in a major embarrassment
for visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao.
(Reuters, 5/28/03)
2003 May 28, Russia's upper house
of parliament ratified a landmark nuclear deal with the United States
that slashes both nation's nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 May 29, President Bush, in a
wide-ranging interview with reporters at the White House, repeated his
defense of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and hinted that relations with
France remained scarred over its opposition to the war.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2003 May 29, AOL Time Warner and
Microsoft announced a settlement in their battle over Internet
browsers, with the software giant paying AOL $750 million.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2003 May 29, Scientists reported
the discovery of a "master gene" in stem cells.
(SFC, 5/30/03, p.A5)
2003 May 29, The BBC, aired a
radio piece by journalist Andrew Gilligan quoting an anonymous official
accusing the government of inflating claims about Iraqi weapons. David
Kelly was later identified as the source and committed suicide Jul 17.
(AP, 7/23/03)(Econ, 1/31/04, p.54)
2003 May 29, US forces in Iraq
numbered some 200,000. An extended stay was expected.
(SFC, 5/29/03, p.A12)
2003 May 29, Tropical Storm Linfa
moved northeast of the Philippines toward Japan on Thursday after
leaving at least 25 people dead and more than 8,000 displaced following
five days of heavy rains and flooding.
(AP, 5/29/03)
2003 May 30, President Bush began
a 6-nation tour in Krakow, Poland, and brought personal thanks to the
country for standing up as a wartime ally in Iraq.
(AP, 5/30/03)(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A14)
2003 May 30, The US government
lowered the terrorist threat level from orange to yellow.
(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A3)
2003 May 30, A rebel ambush and
other attacks killed five Russian soldiers and wounded 11 others in and
around the breakaway republic of Chechnya.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 May 30, In Myanmar a
pro-government drunken mob of some 3,000 ambushed a 400-person convoy
carrying Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for
Democracy. At least 70 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A6)(SFC, 7/5/03, p.A16)
2003 May 30, In northern Spain ETA
committed its final fatal attack. A car bomb, placed by Basque
separatists, killed two police officers in Sanguesa in northern Navarra
region.
(AP, 5/30/03)(AP, 3/22/06)
2003 May 30, The U.N. Security
Council unanimously authorized the deployment of a French-led
international force in northeastern Congo, the scene of ethnic fighting.
(AP, 5/30/04)
2003 May 31, President Bush
visited the site of the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau in
Poland as he challenged allies to overcome their bitterness and
mistrust over the Iraq war and unite in the struggle against terrorism.
(AP, 5/31/04)
2003 May 31, Eric Rudolph, the
longtime fugitive charged in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and in
attacks at an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub, was arrested in the
mountains of North Carolina.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 May 31, American forces
arrested 15 members of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party as they met
at a police college in Baghdad.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 May 31, Toronto reported more
cases of SARS and said the disease may have caused the deaths of four
people at a hospital on the edge of the city.
(Reuters, 5/31/03)
2003 May 31, A Chinese freighter
sank in the Baltic Sea. It carried 66,000 tons of fertilizer and leaked
over 55,270 gallons of diesel oil. Some 38,000 gallons were recovered.
(SFC, 6/3/03, p.A3)
2003 May 31, Air France planned to
ground its last 5 Concorde airplanes. The Air France Concorde, the
world's fastest and most luxurious passenger jet, flew from New York to
Paris for the last time.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.B5)(AP, 5/30/03)(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.A2)
2003 May 31, Clashes between
Philippine troops and Muslim separatist guerrillas left at least 23
dead, just days before a 10-day unilateral cease-fire was set to begin.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 May 31, Russia officially
premiered the reborn Amber Room as part of the 300th anniversary of St.
Petersburg.
(SFC, 5/31/03, p.A2)
2003 May 31, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi and Hu Jintao, the new president
of China, agreed in a summit to work at defusing tensions over North
Korea.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 May 31, Singapore was taken
off the list of SARS countries.
(SSFC, 6/1/03, p.A3)
2003 May, Disney online was
launched. By 2005 it was the number-one kids' and family entertainment
destination attracting more than 12 million unique visitors each month.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/7ojnc)
2003 May, Freecycle, a global
recycling phenomenon started operating in Arizona. By 2008 it had grown
to more than 4 million members in more than 4,100 cities. It boasted of
keeping more than 300 million tons of trash out of landfills every day
and inspired imitators.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2003 May, Ethiopia began a $220
million relocation program for some 2 million people, who otherwise
faced starvation. It was part of a $3.2 billion rescue plan financed by
the government and donor groups to reverse dependency on int’l. aid.
(SFC, 7/19/04, p.A1)
2003 May, Germany published its
voluntary corporate governance code.
(Econ, 12/10/05, p.72)
2003 May, Munich, Germany, ousted
Microsoft from 14,000 government computers in favor of Linux.
(Econ, 9/13/03, p.59)
2003 May, Police in Tegucigalpa,
Honduras, found the dismembered body of Martha Isabel Moncada (28) in 2
suitcases. In 2007 Andrew Gole (49) of Long Island, NY, was sentenced
to 38 years in prison for killing and dismembering his Honduran wife.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2003 May, Alleged British
mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners took place at an aid camp near Basra,
Iraq. Photographs of prisoner abuse were made public in 2004. In 2005
court martial proceedings began. In 2006 3 British soldiers were
cleared of manslaughter charges in the death of Ahmad Jabbar Kareem
(15), who drowned in the Shatt al-Basra canal in Basra.
(Econ, 1/22/05, p.51)(AP, 6/6/06)
2003 May, In Iraq a Jewish archive
was found when US troops looking for weapons of mass destruction got a
tip to check out the basement of a building of the Mukhabarat, Saddam's
secret police. In a flooded basement they found books, photos and
papers floated in the murky water. Accumulated over the years were
photos, parchments and cases to hold Torah scrolls; a Jewish religious
book published in 1568; 50 copies of a children's primer in Hebrew and
Arabic; books in Arabic and English, books printed in Baghdad, Warsaw
and Venice, the lost heritage of what was once one of the largest
Jewish communities in the Middle East, dating to the 6th century B.C.
The collection was saved and soon taken to the US for preservation.
(AP, 1/17/10)
2003 May, In Italy construction
began on a breakwater for Venice to prevent high tides from entering
its lagoon.
(Econ, 9/27/03, p.80)
2003 Jun 1, President Bush arrived
in France from St. Petersburg and had a smile and firm handshake for
this year's Group of Eight nations summit host, French Pres. Jacques
Chirac.
(AP, 6/1/03)(SFC, 6/2/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 1, Thousands of
protesters blocked highways and bridges, set fire to barricades and
drew volleys of tear gas and rubber pellets from anti-riot police near
the Group of Eight summit in the French town of Evian. Leaders pledged
billions of dollars to fight AIDS and hunger on the opening day of
their summit.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 1, Genentech reported
that its drug Avastin lengthened survival time for colon cancer
patients. In 2004 the FDA approved it as a colorectal cancer treatment.
In 2007 researches said it could improve the treatment of kidney tumors.
(SFC, 6/2/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 6/3/07, p.G1)
2003 Jun 1, UC Berkeley
researchers revealed a new laboratory method for manufacturing the
anti-malarial drug, artemisinin.
(SFC, 6/2/03, p.A11)
2003 Jun 1, China began filling
the reservoir behind its gargantuan Three Gorges Dam, a major step
toward completion of the world's largest hydroelectric project.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 1, India officials
reported that a heat wave in southern Indian has killed at least 1000
people in the past 3 weeks.
(AP, 6/2/03)
2003 Jun 1, The Israeli military
eased travel restrictions and allowed thousands of Palestinian workers
to enter the country in an effort to lower tensions and build goodwill.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 1, Myanmar's military
junta closed universities and shut down offices of pro-democracy leader
Ang San Suu Kyi's party, after she and some of her key aides were
detained.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 1, In Pakistan the
Islamist-ruled Northwest Frontier province passed legislation to adopt
Shariah as the supreme law. A day earlier 5-times-a-day prayer was made
compulsory.
(SFC, 6/3/03, p.A8)
2003 Jun 1, In southern Pakistan a
motorboat taking people on a sightseeing trip sank in a lake, killing
at least 26 people.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 1, Togo's Pres.
Gnassingbe Eyadema, Africa's longest reigning ruler, faced elections.
Togo's per capita income fell from $600 in the 1980s to less than $300
in 2003.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 2, President Bush,
visiting the Middle East, pledged to work unstintingly for the goal of
Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side without bloodshed.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2003 Jun 2, The FCC eased media
ownership rules and allowed companies to own both a newspaper and a
broadcast station in the same market.
(SFC, 6/3/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 2, PeopleSoft announced
an agreement to buy J.D. Edwards for $1.7 billion.
(SFC, 12/14/04, p.D1)
2003 Jun 2, PipeVine Inc., a firm
that handled over $100 million in donations, shut down and said it did
not have enough money to pay owed funds to nonprofit organizations. The
SF firm later acknowledged that is had spent some of the money on its
own salaries and other operating expenses. Accounting problems dated
back 2 years.
(SFC, 6/4/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 2, Felix de Weldon
(b.1907), Austria-born American sculptor, died in Virginia. His most
famous piece is the Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington cemetery of
five U.S. Marines and one sailor raising the flag of the United States
on Iwo Jima during World War Two.
(http://tinyurl.com/yc7o9bd)
2003 Jun 2, In Denmark Thorkild
Grosboel, a Lutheran minister, was suspended for saying that God
doesn't exist and there is no eternal life. Lutheran pastors in Denmark
are employed by the state and bishops cannot fire them.
(AP, 6/3/03)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.55)
2003 Jun 2, Europe's space agency
launched a mars probe from Kazakhstan.
(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 2, Thousands of sacked
Iraqi soldiers marched on the U.S.-led administration and threatened to
launch suicide attacks on American troops in Baghdad unless they were
paid wages and compensation.
(AP, 6/2/03)
2003 Jun 2, In Evian, France,
world leaders projected confidence that they will turn around their
weak economies and pledged joint cooperation on a host of global issues
from terrorism to the need for a coordinated effort to rebuild Iraq.
(AP, 6/2/03)
2003 Jun 2, North Korea said it
has nuclear arms.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R10)
2003 Jun 3, Sammy Sosa was ejected
in the first inning of Chicago's 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays
after umpires found cork in his shattered bat.
(AP, 6/3/04)
2003 Jun 3, John Hickenlooper
(b.1952) was elected mayor of Denver.
(Econ, 11/3/07,
p.39)(www.boomerstv.com/episodes_profile.php?lid=346)
2003 Jun 3, Eric Robert Rudolph
pleaded innocent in a deadly 1998 abortion clinic bombing in
Birmingham, Ala.
(AP, 6/3/04)
2003 Jun 3, Jurors in Detroit
convicted Abdel-Ilah Elmardoudi and Karim Koubriti of supporting
planned terrorist strikes. Their case began 6 days after the Sep 11,
2001 attacks.
(SFC, 6/4/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 3, In Egypt Arab leaders
met with President Bush as he plunged into the labyrinth of Mideast
peace talks. They pledged to fight terror and violence and called on
Israel to "rebuild trust and restore normal Palestinian life."
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 3, The G-8 in Evian,
France, issued closing statements. These included: confidence in the
global economic future; they put North Korea and Iran on notice that
member countries will not stand by and let them acquire nuclear
weapons; they committed to further improve cooperation with African
nations to lift the world's poorest continent out of civil war, disease
and poverty; and adopted a plan to help halve the number of people
without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 3, Miss Dominican
Republic, 18-year-old Amelia Vega, was crowned in Panama City, Panama,
as Miss Universe 2003.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 3, Israel released about
100 prisoners, a goodwill gesture ahead of a Mideast peace summit with
U.S. President George W. Bush.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 3, Police in Nairobi,
Kenya, said a landlord's thugs had hacked 9 people to death in a
campaign to drive out shanty tenants and raise rents.
(WSJ, 6/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 3, In Peru thousands of
trade unionists and striking teachers marched through downtown Lima in
defiance of a state of emergency that put the armed forces in charge of
maintaining order.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 3, In Spain a head-on
train collision near Chinchilla in Albacete province left at least 11
people dead and another 16 missing.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 3, In Togo security
forces arrested opposition leaders and beat their followers, moving out
in force to quell protests of an election the military ruler claimed to
be winning.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 3, In Zimbabwe a general
strike shut down much of the already crippled economy, and security
forces prevented efforts to organize massive street protests against
Pres. Mugabe.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 4, Pres. Bush held
meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers, hoping to
advance a Middle East peace plan after winning new support from top
Arab leaders.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2003 Jun 4, Martha Stewart stepped
down as head of her media empire, hours after she was charged with a
9-count federal indictment in a stock trading scandal. Stewart was
convicted in March, 2004, of lying about why she'd sold her shares of
ImClone Systems stock in 2001, just before the stock price plunged.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/4/04)
2003 Jun 4, Palm Inc. said it
would buy rival Handspring in a stock deal valued at $195 mil.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.B1)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.B1)
2003 Jun 4, The Pews Ocean
Commission said US waters are so stressed by pollution and overfishing
that drastic federal intervention is required.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 6/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 4, Corey Marques Jasmin
(20), an airman at Travis Air Force Base, robbed an adult book store in
Fairfield, Ca. Hours later he killed two homeless women, Otilia
Carrington (48) and Ricksehlla Harrison (29). In 2008 a state appeals
court upheld his life sentence without parole.
(SFC, 9/27/08, p.B2)
2003 Jun 4, Delmar E. Brown (84),
renowned fly fisherman, died in Watsonville, Ca. He invented the Del
Brown Crab Fly and held a record-setting catch of a tarpon 15 times the
test of his line.
(SSFC, 6/8/03, p.A29)
2003 Jun 4, In Afghanistan 40
Taliban suspects were killed in one of the deadliest exchanges between
Taliban and government troops since the hardline religious regime was
overthrown in late 2001. 7 government soldiers also died in the nine
hours of fighting in three villages north of Spinboldak, near the
border with Pakistan.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Jordan Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to dismantle illegal settlements in
Palestinian areas, while the new Palestinian leader renounced all
terrorism against Israel. Both steps were sought by President Bush as
he brought the two sides together in a bid to advance Middle East peace.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Laos 2 European
journalists and an American were arrested on murder charges. Belgian
photojournalist Thierry Falise and French cameraman Vincent Reynaud
were arrested with an American of Hmong origin for allegedly helping
"bandits" kill a security official in the remote northeastern village
of Khai.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Nepal King
Gyanendra appointed a pro-monarchist Wednesday as Nepal's new PM. Surya
Bahadur Thapa replaces Lokendra Bahadur Chand, who resigned last week.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, A UN-backed war crimes
court indicted Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor, accusing him of "the
greatest responsibility" in the vicious 10-year civil war in
neighboring Sierra Leone.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, The Peruvian
government failed to meet wage demands by striking teachers, who vowed
to extend a 24-day walkout that triggered nationwide protests and
prompted President Alejandro Toledo to declare a state of emergency.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 4, The UN Security
Council agreed to end a ban on the export of so-called "blood diamonds"
from Sierra Leone because of government efforts to control the diamond
industry.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4,Togo President Gen.
Gnassingbe Eyadema, was declared winner of questioned presidential
elections.
(AP, 6/4/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Vietnam Truong Van
Cam, reputed underworld boss, was found guilty of 7 crimes. 154 alleged
associates included high-ranking government officials. He was sentenced
to death the next day.
(SFC, 6/5/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 5, Speaking to U.S.
soldiers in Qatar, President Bush argued the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
was justified and pledged that "we'll reveal the truth" on Saddam
Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2003 Jun 5, The United States
agreed to pull its ground troops away from the Demilitarized Zone
separating North and South Korea.
(AP, 6/5/04)
2003 Jun 5, In NYC Howell Raines,
NY Times executive editor, resigned along with Gerald M. Boyd, managing
editor, due to their handling of inaccurate stories by recently
released reporter Jason Blair.
(WSJ, 6/6/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 5, Pope John Paul II
began his landmark 100th foreign pilgrimage with a five-day, five-city
tour of Croatia.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 5, In Liberia deputy
ministers Isaac Nuhan Vaye and John Winpoe Yormie were arrested about
the same time that Pres. Taylor announced that a coup plot had been
uncovered. Vaye and Yormie were later reported killed.
(SFC, 7/16/03, p.A12)
2003 Jun 5, A bomber attacked a
bus near a Russian military air base near Chechnya on Thursday, killing
herself and at least 16 others.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 5, Thailand's
Constitutional Court ruled that Thai women will no longer be required
to take their husband's family name when they marry.
(AP, 6/5/03)
2003 Jun 6, A federal appeals
court ruled that cell phone users can keep their telephone numbers when
they change their phone companies.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R10)
2003 Jun 6, The US government
reported the unemployment rate had hit a nine-year high of 6.1 percent
the previous month.
(AP, 6/6/04)
2003 Jun 6, Already the holder of
U.S. rights to the Olympics through 2008, NBC secured the contracts for
the 2010 and 2012 games for $2.2 billion.
(AP, 6/6/04)
2004 Jun 6, Oracle issued a $5.1
billion hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft at $16 per share.
(SFC, 12/14/04, p.D1)
2003 Jun 6, In California a small
plane plunged into an apartment building near Hollywood, sending the
three-story structure into flames within minutes and killing at least
two people.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, Chile became the first
South American country to sign a free trade agreement with the United
States.
(AP, 6/7/03)(WSJ, 6/6/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 6, In southern China a
coach bus drove off a highway and plunged into a river, killing 12
people.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, French strikers
disrupted train and bus service and sanitation workers dumped garbage
in the street in the 4th day of a nationwide protest against government
plans to reform pensions.
(AP, 6/7/03)
2003 Jun 6, Monsoon rains arrived
in India's northeast, bringing hope for relief from a grueling heat
wave that has killed nearly 1,400 people nationwide in the past 3 weeks.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, An Iraqi prisoner (52)
of war was found dead at a camp run by the 1st Marine Division near
Nasiriyah. On Oct 8 Marine reservists stationed at Camp Pendleton were
charged in connection with his death.
(AP, 10/18/03)
2003 Jun 6, In Balastrera, Mexico,
a landslide followed by the blast of a ruptured gas pipeline hit a
truck-stop town between Mexico City and Veracruz. 15 people were
missing from the area.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, The Netherlands said
it will send 1,100 peacekeepers to southern Iraq to join the
British-led multinational stabilization force.
(AP, 6/7/03)
2003 Jun 6, In southern New
Zealand a twin-engine plane crashed in dense fog, killing eight people
and injuring two others.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, Russia's parliament
approved an amnesty for Chechen rebels who agree to disarm. Pres.
Vladimir Putin presented the move as a major step toward peace.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, In Yemen an explosion
close to a military base killed 3 people. The blast was caused by a
missile that blew up in the Beir Ahmed district of the southern port
city of Aden.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 6, Zimbabwe police
arrested Morgan Tsvangirai, the main opposition leader, and charged him
with treason as hundreds of security forces took control of the streets.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 7, At the Belmont Stakes
Empire Maker caught Funny Cide on the far turn and beat him soundly.
The defeat left thoroughbred racing still longing for its first Triple
Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
(AP, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 7, In a national first,
New Hampshire Episcopalians elected the Reverend V. Gene Robinson, an
openly gay man, as their next bishop.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2003 Jun 7, A virus related to
smallpox that has never been detected in the Western Hemisphere may be
the cause of a mysterious disease spreading from pet prairie dogs to
people across the upper Midwest.
(AP, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 7, In Afghanistan a car
packed with explosives pulled up to a bus carrying German peacekeepers
in Kabul and detonated, killing four and a teenage Afghan bystander.
More than two dozen were wounded in the first fatal attack on the
international force.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2003 Jun 7, In Chechnya a fierce
battle between rebels and Russian troops raged into its second day,
leaving six servicemen dead.
(AP, 6/7/03)
2003 Jun 7, In southern China 13
school children were reported missing after their ferry sank in rapids
on the Qingshui River in Guizhou province.
(AP, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 7, Justine Henin-Hardenne
beat Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-4 at the French Open, in the first
all-Belgian Grand Slam final.
(AP, 6/7/04)
2003 Jun 7, In Germany a new law
allowed stores to stay open 4 extra hours to 8 p.m.
(AP, 6/6/03)
2003 Jun 7, In northern Laos
suspected insurgents ambushed a bus, killing six people and wounding 10.
(AP, 6/27/03)
2003 Jun 7, The Saudi interior
minister linked last month's Riyadh bombings to the al-Qaida terror
network in an interview, and his ministry identified 12 of the
attackers.
(AP, 6/7/03)
2003 Jun 7, In eastern Turkey a
passenger bus slammed into a wall at the entrance of a tunnel, killing
27 people and injuring 33.
(AP, 6/7/03)
2003 Jun 8, "Hairspray" took firm
hold of the Tony Awards, collecting eight prizes, including best
musical. Brian Dennehy and Vanessa Redgrave won best actor and actress
for their roles in "Long Day's Journey into Night." The best play was
"Take Me Out," Richard Greenberg's play about a gay baseball player.
(AP, 6/9/03)(SFC, 6/9/03, p.D9)
2003 Jun 8, A coalition of US
mayors meeting in Denver asked federal officials to bypass state
governments and give them the money they needed to beef up homeland
security.
(AP, 6/8/04)
2003 Jun 8, Annika Sorenstam won
the LPGA Championship for her 5th major title. Spain's Juan Carlos
Ferrero won the French Open men's final over Martin Verkerk.
(AP, 6/8/04)
2003 Jun 8, George Foreman was
inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
(AP, 6/8/04)
2003 Jun 8, Toronto reported two
more SARS deaths, raising the Canadian toll from the deadly respiratory
illness to 33.
(Reuters, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 8, In Chechnya the deputy
director of the region's natural gas network was shot and killed in his
home.
(AP, 6/9/03)
2003 Jun 8, China began building
one of the world's longest bridges. The 22-mile, $1.4 billion bridge
across Hangzhou Bay, linking Shanghai to the port of Ningbo, was set
for completion in 2009.
(AP, 6/9/03)(SFC, 7/9/03, p.A16)
2003 Jun 8, In Germany storms left
10 people dead.
(WSJ, 6/10/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 8, In Quetta, Pakistan,
near the Afghan border 2 gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a group of
policemen with machine-gun fire, killing at least 11 officers and
wounding 9.
(AP, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 8, Three Palestinians
disguised as Israeli military sneaked into an army post and killed 4
soldiers before being killed by troops in the first major attack on
Israelis since last week's Mideast summit. Another Israeli soldier was
killed in Hebron. 6 Palestinians died in the violence.
(AP, 6/8/03)(SFC, 6/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 8, Poland ended a two-day
referendum to join the EU. 76% of the 59.6% turnout voted in favor.
(AP, 6/9/03)(SFC, 6/9/03, p.A7)
2003 Jun 8, In Barcelona, Spain,
more than 7,000 people gathered at daybreak and shed their clothes to
take part in artist Spencer Tunick's largest work yet, an installation
featuring a sea of nude bodies covering a central Barcelona avenue.
(AP, 6/8/03)
2003 Jun 9, Hillary Clinton's
memoir "Living History" was released.
(SFC, 6/9/03, p.A2)
2003 Jun 9, The New Jersey Devils
won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 3-0 in Game 7.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2003 Jun 9, Freddie Mac, a US
government-sponsored mortgage company, ousted 3 top officials. The 4th
largest US financial company had assets of $722 billion at the end of
2002. Leland Brendsel, CEO, was given a severance package valued at $24
million.
(WSJ, 6/10/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/12/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 9, Japan pledged $1
billion in aid to help rebuild war-torn Sri Lanka as a major donor
conference opened in Tokyo. $2 billion in aid was pledged but without
the participation of the country's Tamil rebels.
(AP, 6/9/03)
2003 Jun 9, As rebels bore down on
the capital of Liberia, French helicopters rescued more than 500
Americans, Europeans and other foreigners.
(AP, 6/9/04)
2003 Jun 9, In Mauritania heavy
explosions shook Nouakchott, the capital of the Arab-dominated west
African nation for a 2nd day as Pres. Maaouya Sid'ahmed Ould Taya, the
pro-Western leader, battled a coup attempt. Army officers were reported
to be angry over a campaign against Islamic extremists. Pres. Maaouya
Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya said the government had regained control.
(AP, 6/9/03)(WSJ, 6/9/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/9/03,
p.A3)(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 10, The archdiocese of
Louisville, Ky., settled a sexual abuse case with some 250 alleged
victims for $25.7 million.
(SFC, 6/11/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 10, Samuel Waksal (55),
founder of ImClone Systems, was sentenced to 7 years in prison and
ordered to pay $4.3 million for insider trading that engulfed family
members and friend Martha Stewart.
(SFC, 6/12/03, p.B1)
2003 Jun 10, In NY state John
Jamelske (68) pleaded guilty to holding 5 women captive as sex slaves
in a bunker at his home in Syracuse.
(SFC, 6/11/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 10, NASA launched a Mars
Exploration Rover named Spirit, the 1st of 2. Spirit arrived on Mars in
January 2004.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/10/08)
2003 Jun 10, Donald Regan (84),
former Treasury secretary and chief of staff to Pres. Reagan who was
ousted in during the Iran-Contra infighting, died in Va.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 10, Bernard Williams
(73), moral philosopher, died in Oxford. His books included:
"Utilitarianism: For and Against" (1973), "Ethics and the Limits of
Philosophy" (1985), "Shame and Necessity" (1993), and "Truth and
Truthfulness" (2002). He coined the term "moral luck."
(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A27)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.83)
2003 Jun 10, Toronto, Canada,
issued North America's 1st full marriage licenses to same sex couples
after a judge knocked down Canada's legal definition of marriage, the
union of a man and a woman, as a violation of the country's Charter of
Rights and Freedoms.
(SFC, 6/11/03, p.A7)
2003 Jun 10, In Iran riot police
and hard-line vigilantes clashed with teenage demonstrators who
denounced supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 10, In Iraq US forces
launched Operation Peninsula Strike aimed at rounding up Hussein
loyalists around Thuluya, 45 miles north of Baghdad.
(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A7)
2003 Jun 10, An AP tally of
civilian deaths in Iraq totaled at least 3,240, with 1,896 dead in
Baghdad. Allied deaths were 205 from Mar 20-Apr 20.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/11/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 10, Israel launched a
rocket attack in Gaza and wounded Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas
spokesman. Israeli counterfire to Hamas rockets killed 3 Palestinians.
Israel succeeded in killing Rantisi in April 2004.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 11, Houston's Roy Oswalt,
Pete Munro, Kirk Saarloos, Brad Lidge, Octavio Dotel and Billy Wagner
combined for the first no-hitter against the New York Yankees in 45
years, winning 8-0.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 11, The US military
launched a massive operation to crush opposition north of Baghdad and
captured nearly 400 suspected Saddam Hussein loyalists in a bid to end
daily attacks against American soldiers.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 11, Patrick James Dennehy
(21), a Baylor Univ. basketball player, disappeared in Waco, Texas, and
was feared to have been killed by team mates. Carlton Dotson (21) later
confessed to the slaying and was arrested in Maryland on Jul 21.
Dennehy's body was found Jul 25. In 2005 Dotson was sentenced to 35
years in prison.
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.A25)(SFC, 7/22/03, p.A1)(SSFC,
7/27/03, p.A1)(SFC, 6/16/05, p.B5)
2003 Jun 11, David Brinkley
(b.1920), TV news pioneer, died in Houston.
(SFC, 6/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 11, The Canadian
government said that gay marriages performed in the central province of
Ontario over the last two days were legal for now but refused to rule
out taking measures later to invalidate them.
(Reuters, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 11, Kazakhstan's PM
Imangali Tasmagambetov resigned after a prolonged battle with
parliament over a land reform bill that would allow private land
ownership in the former Soviet republic.
(AP, 6/11/03)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.40)
2003 Jun 11, A Palestinian blew
himself up on a Jerusalem bus and killed 16 other people. Israel
retaliated with 2 rocket strikes that killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza
City.
(AP, 6/11/03)(AP, 6/11/08)
2003 Jun 11, Poland's finance
minister quit in a power struggle over economic reforms. Grzegorz
Kolodko was the 11th minister, and the second finance minister, to quit
Miller's 20-month-old left-leaning administration.
(AP, 6/11/03)
2003 Jun 12, Lewis “Scooter”
Libby, chief of staff to VP Dick Cheney, 1st learned of CIA officer
Valery Plame in a conversation with VP Cheney. In 2005 Libby told a
Grand Jury that he was authorized to disclose information about the
National Intelligence Estimate to the press by his superiors.
(SFC, 10/25/05, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/10/06, p.A3)
2003 Jun 12, Air France turned the
oldest of its Concordes over to the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 12, EndoVascular Tech., a
unit of Guidant Corp., pleaded guilty for failure to report
malfunctions of their Ancure Endograft system and was ordered to pay
$92.4 million in civil and criminal penalties. Some 2,628 malfunctions
between 1999 and 2001 had not been reported.
(SFC, 6/17/03, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A25)
2003 Jun 12, Gregory Peck
(b.1916), film actor, died in Los Angeles at age 87. His many films
included "Moby Dick" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."
(SFC, 6/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 12, A US helicopter
gunship was shot down in western Iraq, just hours after US fighter jets
bombed "a terrorist training camp" in central Iraq. US troops stormed
through Sunni Muslim towns, seeking Saddam Hussein loyalists in one of
the biggest American military assaults since the war began.
(AP, 6/12/03)(AP, 6/12/08)
2003 Jun 12, Israeli helicopters
fired rockets at two cars carrying Hamas activists in Gaza killing
seven people, including a young child, and wounding 29. The first
strike killed two low-level Hamas activists, ages 22 and 24, from a
unit that guards city streets.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 12, The first-ever
Mexican freedom of information law took effect, designed to expose the
government and its once guarded records and secrets to greater public
scrutiny.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 12, In Peru teachers went
back to work after a month long strike that grew to include protests by
farmers and government workers and led President Alejandro Toledo to
impose emergency measures.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 12, Puerto Rico police
arrested more than 1,000 people during a major anti-drug operation.
(AP, 6/13/03)
2003 Jun 12, A container ship ran
aground off the coast of Singapore and leaked 165 tons of fuel oil into
the sea.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 13, Philip Giordano,
former 3-term mayor of Waterbury, Conn., was sentenced to 37 years in
federal prison for having oral sex with 2 young girls while in office.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 13, Wisconsin state
officials reported that probable 18 cases of monkeypox all came from
one prairie dog.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A6)
2003 Jun 13, Richard Armitage,
Deputy Sec. of State, told Bob Woodward about CIA operative Valerie
Plame. Woodward testified to this in 2007 during the Scooter Libby
trial.
(SFC, 2/13/07, p.A3)
2003 Jun 13, US forces killed 27
Iraqi fighters in a ground and air pursuit after the Iraqis attacked an
American tank patrol north of Baghdad, bringing the opposition death
toll in four days of skirmishes to about 100. Five Iraqi civilians were
shot by American troops who apparently mistook them for militants
fleeing after attacking a US tank patrol. Hundreds of pro-cleric
militants and security forces in Tehran clashed with Iranians
throughout the capital.
(AP, 6/13/03)(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 6/13/08)
2003 Jun 13, Scientists reported
that the new hydrogen fuel cell technology could lead to greater
destruction of the ozone layer that protects Earth from cancer-causing
ultraviolet rays.
(AP, 6/13/03)
2003 Jun 13, Belgium's foreign
minister said the country has already amended its war crimes laws to
avoid politically inspired lawsuits against US officials.
(AP, 6/13/03)
2003 Jun 13-14, Czechs voted in a
two-day referendum on whether their country of 10 million should join
the European Union. They voted overwhelmingly to join the European
Union. 77.33% of voters approved the measure, while 22.67 voted no.
Turnout was 55.21 percent.
(AP, 6/13/03)(AP, 6/14/03)(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jun 13, European Union
delegates agreed on a draft constitution that details how the coalition
of nations will be run as it adds new members and evolves into what
many hope will be a world power to rival the United States.
(AP, 6/14/03)
2003 Jun 13, In Iran
anti-government demonstrations took place for the third night in Tehran.
(AP, 6/13/03)
2003 Jun 13, Israel decided to
target top Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed, saying it
would strike political as well as military leaders who targeted Israel
with terrorism. An Israeli helicopter attack killed one Hamas member
and injured 22 Palestinians including 8 children.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/08)
2003 Jun 13, In Thailand Narong
Penaman (44) was arrested with as much as 66 pounds of radioactive
cesium-137 for sale.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 14, Off the northern
Oregon coast a large wave flipped over Taki-Tooo, a charter fishing
boat carrying 19 people, killing at least nine; eight survived by
swimming to shore.
(AP, 6/15/04)
2003 Jun 14, A car driven by
Phoenix Bishop Thomas O'Brien struck and killed pedestrian Jim Reed;
O'Brien was later convicted of leaving the scene of an accident and
sentenced to probation.
(AP, 6/14/04)
2003 Jun 14, A Colombia air force
commander said leftist rebel camps were bombarded and that an estimated
67 insurgents were killed in southern Meta and Cauca state.
(AP, 6/14/03)
2003 Jun 14, French troops leading
an international force engaged in a firefight with gunmen for the first
time in their mission to stabilize the northeastern Congolese town of
Bunia.
(AP, 6/14/03)
2003 Jun 14, Iran's hard-line
judiciary arrested "scores" of pro-clergy militants, including a
vigilante leader, over attacks on a Tehran student dormitory sparked by
attacks on pro-reform supporters.
(AP, 6/14/03)
2003 Jun 14, North and South Korea
connected railways at their heavily armed border in a symbolic ceremony
linking the two countries for the first time in more than a
half-century. North Korea still had 7 miles of tracks to complete
before trains could run.
(AP, 6/14/03)(SSFC, 6/15/03, p.A14)
2003 Jun 14, In eastern Uganda a
minivan bus plunged into a swamp and sank, killing 18 passengers.
(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jan 15, The San Antonio Spurs
beat the New Jersey Nets 88-77 in game 6 to win the NBA finals.
(SFC, 6/16/03, p.C1)
2003 Jun 15, Golfer Jim Furyk won
the U.S. Open.
(AP, 6/15/04)
2003 Jun 15, Scientists reported
that nearly 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises drown every day after
becoming tangled in fishing nets and other equipment.
(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jun 15, Hume Cronyn (91),
stage and film star, died in Fairfield, Conn.
(SFC, 6/17/03, p.A21)
2003 Jun 15, With a deadline
passed for Iraqis to hand in heavy weapons, U.S. forces fanned out
across Iraq to seize arms and put down potential foes.
(AP, 6/15/04)
2003 Jun 15, The Saudi government
said it foiled "an imminent terrorist" attack with an overnight raid on
a bomb-filled, booby-trapped apartment in the holy city of Mecca that
left five suspects and two security agents dead.
(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jun 15, Suspected Tamil Tiger
rebels killed a Tamil politician opposed to them, fueling tensions a
day after the murder of another politician and an ocean battle between
government and rebels forces.
(AP, 6/15/03)
2003 Jun 16, A divided US Supreme
Court said the government can force medication on mentally ill criminal
defendants only in the rarest of circumstances.
(AP, 6/16/04)
2003 Jun 16, Thomas J. O'Brien
(67), the Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix, was arrested in connection
with a fatal hit and run accident 2 days earlier. In 2004 O'Brien was
sentenced to 4 years probation.
(SFC, 6/17/03, p.A14)(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A1)
2003 Jun 16, Twelve people sent to
prison as the result of a Tulia, Texas, drug bust were released on bail
by a judge who said they'd been railroaded by an undercover agent. A
total of 35 people were later pardoned by Texas Governor Rick Perry.
(AP, 6/16/04)
2003 Jun 16, The 100th anniversary
of the founding of Ford Motor Co. Douglas Brinkley authored "Wheels for
the World," a history of the company.
(WSJ, 4/25/03, W6)
2003 Jun 16, Scientists reported
that they've identified a flawed gene that appears to promote
manic-depression, or bipolar disorder.
(AP, 6/16/03)
2003 Jun 16, Erica Young (16) and
Uchenna Okeigwe (22) were murdered in Richmond, Ca. In 2007 Kimiko
Kimio Wilson (22) was sentenced to life in prison for their murder and
the attempted murder of Sheianna Babcock.
(www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_6039474)
2003 Jun 16, The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations urged Myanmar's military government to free
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 6/16/03)
2003 Jun 16, In Colombia Pres.
Alvaro Uribe helped deploy the nation's latest weapon in a nearly
40-year civil war, sending 10,000 peasant soldiers back to their
villages to confront rebels and paramilitary fighters.
(AP, 6/17/03)
2003 Jun 16, In England Steve
Gough began a naked 847-mile trek Land's End to John 0'Groats at
Scotland's north end.
(SFC, 8/19/03, p.A11)
2003 Jun 16, In southern India a
coal mine collapsed with at least 17 miners feared killed.
(AP, 6/16/03)
2003 Jun 16, In Indonesia a
passenger train slammed into a minibus carrying wedding guests, killing
at least 15 people.
(AP, 6/16/03)
2003 Jun 16, Abid Hamid Mahmud
al-Tikriti, No. 4 on the wanted list, surrendered at a private home in
Tikrit following informants' tips. Nearby US soldiers found two boxes,
each counting $4 million in bundled hundred-dollar bills, along with
hundreds of pieces of jewelry, a sniper rifle and two pounds of plastic
explosive.
(AP, 6/19/03)(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 16, An explosion
collapsed the ceiling in the Ziminka mine in the town of Prokopyevsk,
one of central Siberia's oldest coal mines, killing 11 miners and
trapping 4 others, who were later rescued.
(AP, 6/17/03)(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 17, A US federal appeals
court ruled the government properly withheld names and other details
about hundreds of foreigners who were detained in the months after the
Sept. 11 attacks.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2003 Jun 17, The US Justice
Department issued a directive banning routine racial and ethnic
profiling at all 70 federal agencies with law enforcement powers.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2003 Jun 17, English soccer star
David Beckham was sold to Real Madrid by Manchester United for a $41
million transfer fee.
(AP, 6/17/04)
2003 Jun 17, Ivory Coast army and
rebel forces agreed to pull their forces back from battle positions,
strengthening a cease-fire in the former French colony.
(AP, 6/17/03)
2003 Jun 17, Jordanians voted for
a new parliament, six years after the previous one was dissolved.
Allies of King Abdullah II won more than half of the seats in Jordan's
parliamentary elections. Jordan's parliament, unlike many Arab
legislatures, can block bills and dismiss a prime minister and his
Cabinet.
(AP, 6/17/03)(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 17, Liberia's President
Charles Taylor pledged to yield power as part of a cease-fire with
rebels, but his government quickly hedged on the resignation.
(AP, 6/17/03)
2003 Jun 17, Peruvian
investigators dramatically increased their estimate of the death toll
from a two-decade fight against Shining Path rebels, saying they now
believe between 40,000 and 60,000 people perished or disappeared from
1980-1990s.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 17, Romania's government
acknowledged that its former leaders deported and exterminated Romanian
Jews during World War II.
(AP, 6/17/03)
2003 Jun 17, The Virgin
Islands Party was swept from power after spending 17 years at the helm,
according to final election results.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 18, Andrew Luster (39), a
convicted rapist and heir to the Max Factor fortune, was arrested after
5 months on the run. He was picked up by Mexican police in Puerto
Vallarta as he scuffled with bounty hunters who had trailed him from
California.
(AP, 6/18/03)(SFC, 8/16/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 18, The Mercury Policy
Project reported that 1/3 of albacore tuna contained levels of toxic
mercury exceeding a federally recommended dose for women of
child-bearing age.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A10)
2003 Jun 18, Larry Doby (70),
baseball Hall-of-Famer who broke the American League's color barrier in
1947, died in Montclair, N.J.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2003 Jun 18, In Finland PM Anneli
Jaatteenki resigned amid accusations that she lied about sensitive
political information during her election campaign.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A14)
2003 Jun 18, A demonstration by
former Iraqi army officers demanding back pay turned violent after an
American soldier fired into the crowd. 2 Iraqis were killed. One
American was killed in a drive-by shooting in south Baghdad.
(SFC, 6/19/03, p.A16)
2003 Jun 18, Japan began counting
the homeless. It estimated the homeless population at 25,000 compared
to 600,000 in the US.
(WSJ, 6/18/03, p.A1)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.86)
2003 Jun 18, Israel agreed to curb
its "track-and-kill" operations against Palestinian militants in a deal
struck with US officials to help them salvage a new peace plan torn by
violence.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 19, The FBI put cosmetics
heir Andrew Luster aboard a plane in Mexico and flew him back to
California, five months after he'd been convicted in absentia of
drugging and raping three women.
(AP, 6/19/04)
2003 Jun 19, Federal authorities
said an Ohio truck driver who met Osama bin Laden and admitted plots
against trains and Brooklyn Bridge had pleaded guilty to felony charges.
(AP, 6/19/04)
2003 Jun 19, The U.S. Air Force
dropped manslaughter and aggravated assault charges against two fighter
pilots who'd mistakenly bombed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in
2002. One pilot was waiting trial on a charge of dereliction of duty.
(AP, 6/19/04)
2003 Jun 19, In Arizona a wildfire
burned up to 250 homes on Mount Lemon, north of Tucson.
(SFC, 6/20/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 19, Thousands of
Colombians marched on the presidential palace to defend their jobs
against what they described as a drive to turn the country's public
services into multinational corporations.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2003 Jun 19, The Congolese
government and two rebel factions agreed to halt fighting in an eastern
region and pull back from newly occupied areas, hours after a battle
for a key town there killed dozens of people.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2003 Jun 19, European leaders
gathered at a secluded Greek seaside resort for a three-day summit to
discuss Middle East peace, illegal immigration, and the contentious
draft of a first-ever European Union constitution.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2003 Jun 19, A team of Australian
researchers reported that bananas and taro were cultivated ion the
highlands of Papua New Guinea as long as 7,000 years ago.
(AP, 6/19/03)
2003 Jun 19, In France more
Iranians set themselves on fire to protest a crackdown on an Iraq-based
anti-Tehran group. Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the People's Mujahedeen
Organization of Iran, was among 150 people detained in a sweep of their
European headquarters in suburban Paris by hundreds of masked police
this month. Most of those detained were let go. In 2011 French
investigators dropped terror charges against 24 members of the group.
(WSJ, 6/20/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/12/11)
2003 Jun 19, In Iraq The special
"Task Force 20" commando team was joined in the convoy operation by an
AC-130 gunship and other air support, attacking by ground and air along
a known escape and smuggling route near the western city of Qaim.
(AP, 6/24/03)(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A18)
2003 Jun 19, An Israeli shopkeeper
was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber.
(WSJ, 6/20/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 19, In northeastern
Nigeria 30 miles north of the city of Umuahia, fuel gushing from a
vandalized pipeline exploded, killed at least 105 villagers as they
scavenged gasoline.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 20, President Bush named
Scott McClellan his new press secretary, succeeding Ari Fleischer.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003 Jun 20, Pres. Bush and
Brazil's Pres. Lula da Silva said that relations between the two
nations remain on track despite sharp disagreements over Iraq and some
trade issues.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 20, Secretary of State
Colin Powell met separately with the leaders of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority, praising the Israelis for efforts toward an
eventual peace settlement and urging speed on the Palestinians.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003 Jun 20, Gov. Davis announced
that car license fees would triple as of Oct. 1 and Finance Director
Steve Peace said California was now operating off of borrowed money.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 20, General Motors Corp.
said it will sell about $13 billion of bonds, one of the largest
corporate debt offerings ever, to help shore up its U.S. pension plan
which ended last year under funded by $19.3 billion. Standard &
Poor's 500 companies had a combined deficit of about $239 billion and
growing, an all-time high.
(Reuters, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Los Angeles County
31 train cars broke loose and rolled over 30 miles before workers
forced a derailing at Commerce.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 20, Wildfires fueled by
high winds burned 250 homes in southern Arizona.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003 Jun 20, In China Guangdong
health officials reported 211 encephalitis cases with 18 children
killed. 100,000 children were vaccinated as a precaution.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A5)
2003 Jun 20, China said it will
move 42,000 soldiers to civilian jobs this year as part of efforts to
shrink the world's largest military.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, A 31-nation
conference in Germany agreed to expand efforts to combat terrorist
financing and money laundering. The Financial Action Task Force issued
a 40-point program to keep international law enforcement abreast of
criminals' increasingly sophisticated efforts to conceal illegal money
flows.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Iran student
protests against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spread to at least 8 other
cities.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A8)
2003 Jun 20, Kazakhstan's
parliament passed a bill allowing private ownership of land for the
first time in this vast former Soviet republic.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Latvia Vaira
Vike-Freiberga easily won a second term as president.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, In Liberia Pres.
Charles Taylor renounced his peace pledge to cede power and announced
that he will serve to the January 2004 end of his term — and might run
again.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, Singapore launched an
automated commuter train system, filling a gap in the city's subway
network.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, A boat carrying some
250 people toward Italy sank off the Tunisian coast, killing at least
50 people. The boat's occupants were all thought to be illegal
immigrants.
(AP, 6/20/03)(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jun 20, In central Turkey a
student dormitory at an Islamic school exploded and collapsed, killing
10 students.
(AP, 6/20/03)
2003 Jun 20, Morgan Tsvangirai
(51), Zimbabwe's opposition leader, was released on bail after two
weeks in jail on treason charges. He said he will not stop putting
pressure on Pres. Robert Mugabe (79).
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 21, Lennox Lewis retained
his heavyweight title after a cut stopped Vitali Klitschko after six
brawling rounds in Los Angeles.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2003 Jun 21, Ten weeks after the
fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, President Bush offered a broadly
positive status report on the U.S. mission in Iraq in his weekly radio
address.
(AP, 6/21/04)
2003 Jun 21, J.K. Rowling's 5th
Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," went on
sale.
(SFC, 6/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 21, George Axelrod
(b.1922), playwright, died in Los Angeles. His plays included "The
Seven Year Itch" (1952).
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A27)
2003 Jun 21, Leon Uris (78),
author, died on New York's Shelter Island. His books included "Battle
Cry" (1953), the best-selling "Exodus" (1958) and "Mila 18" (1960).
(AP, 6/24/03)(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A25)
2003 Jun 21, In Afghanistan Abdul
Wali (28), a detainee held at a US base, died following 2 days of
interrogation. In 2004 David A. Passaro, former Army Ranger, was
charged with assault in connection to Wali’s death. In 2006 Passaro, a
former CIA contractor, was convicted in North Carolina of assaulting
Abdul Wali with a metal flashlight. In 2007 Passaro was sentenced to 8
½ years in prison.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.A1)(SFC, 8/18/06, p.A5)(SFC,
2/14/07, p.A3)
2003 Jun 21, China's Xinhua News
Agency reported that archaeologists in western China had discovered
five earthenware jars of 2,000-year-old rice wine in an ancient Han
dynasty tomb (206BCE-25CE), and its bouquet was still strong enough to
perk up the nose.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 21, Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder appealed for a swift end to three weeks of union strikes
demanding a shorter work week in formerly communist eastern Germany,
warning of further damage to the already weak economy.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 21, The Israeli army
killed Abdullah Kawasme, a local Hamas leader, in the West Bank town of
Hebron.
(AP, 6/22/03)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A9)
2003 Jun 22, It was reported that
Elko, Nevada, besieged by Mormon crickets (shield-backed katydids), had
spent $56,000 for 18 tons of the pesticide carbaryl to stop the
infestation. The 4-year Nevada plague, the worst in 5 decades, had
missed Elko until this year.
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 22, Vasil Bykov (79), one
of the best-known and most talented writers in Belarus and a harsh
critic of its authoritarian leader, died. His books about World War II
— including "Sign of Misfortune," "Alpine Ballad" and "Sotnikov" were
required reading for all Belarusian school children.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 22, The Belgian
government agreed on changes to narrow a war crimes law and prevent
complaints against foreign leaders that have provoked vehement
criticism from the US.
(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jun 22, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
some 800,000 danced their way through one of the world's biggest gay
pride parades.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 22, In Djibouti an
explosion caused by a bomb dropped from a B-52 killed a U.S. Marine and
wounded eight U.S. service members during a training exercise.
(AP, 6/22/03)(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 22, Greece seized a
Comoros-flagged cargo ship that wandered the Mediterranean Sea with 750
tons of explosives on board. The Baltic Sky set off from Gabes,
Tunisia, last month with the explosives and 8,000 detonators and fuses
destined for Sudan.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 22, In western India a
passenger train hit boulders spilled on the track by a landslide,
causing four cars to derail and killing 51 people.
(AP, 6/23/03)(AP, 6/24/03)
2003 Jun 22, Iraq returned to
world oil markets with its first crude oil exports since the U.S.-led
invasion. A fuel pipeline exploded and caught fire west of Baghdad, a
possible act of sabotage that sent flames high into the sky.
(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jun 22, Thousands of workers
at South Korea's oldest bank ended a five-day strike by agreeing to a
deal that guaranteed wage hikes and job security. Workers objected to
the sale of the state bank to Shinhan Financial Group.
(AP, 6/22/03)(Econ, 6/28/03, p.71)
2003 Jun 22, Russian private
television station whose critical reporting had irritated the Kremlin
was taken off the air and replaced by a state-run sports channel.
(AP, 6/22/03)
2003 Jun 22, Tajiks voted on
changes to their constitution that would allow President Emomali
Rakhmonov to potentially stay in power for another 17 years. An
overwhelming majority of voters approved the constitutional change.
(AP, 6/22/03)(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 23, Former Vermont Gov.
Howard Dean announced that he's running for president.
(WSJ, 6/23/03, p.A4)
2003 Jun 23, The US Supreme Court,
in Grutter v. Bollinger, upheld a University of Mich. law school
admissions policy that gave minorities an edge, ruling 6-3 that race
can be one of many factors that colleges consider when selecting their
students. A point system for undergraduate admission was ruled
unconstitutional.
(AP, 6/23/03)(WSJ, 6/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 23, The US Supreme Court
ruled that Congress can require libraries to install filters on
computers to screen out pornography.
(SFC, 6/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 23, Judith Miller,
reporter for the NY Times, met with Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of
staff for VP Dick Cheney, who gave her information about CIA operative
Valery Plame. Reporter Bob Woodward also spoke with Libby on this day
and on June 27 and in 2005 testified that Libby made no mention of
Plame. Woodward did say another senior government official told him
about Plame and her role in the CIA in mid-June.
(SFC, 10/22/05, p.A3)(SFC, 11/17/05, p.A3)(WSJ,
11/17/05, p.A5)
2003 Jun 23, Apple Computer Inc.
introduced new Macintosh computers that use its "G5" microprocessor, a
design by IBM Corp. that can handle twice as much data at once as
traditional PC microchips.
(Reuters, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 23, The WSJ reported that
General Motors had launched a $13 billion debt offering to shore up its
pension funds. Strong demand pushed it to $17 billion, the largest ever
by a US company.
(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R10)
2003 Jun 23, Idec Pharmaceuticals
Corp. said it agreed to acquire Biogen Inc. in a $6.79 billion
stock-for-stock transaction. The deal would create the world's 3rd
largest biotech company.
(AP, 6/23/03)(WSJ, 1/2/04, p.R10)
2003 Jun 23, The US-led civil
administrators announced the creation of a new Iraqi army.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 23, Maynard Jackson Jr.
(65), former black mayor of Atlanta (1973-1993), died.
(SFC, 6/24/03, p.A21)
2003 Jun 23, The head of the IMF
met with Argentina's new government, opening a 2-day visit to hear how
Pres. Kirchner plans to confront the country's worst economic crisis in
history.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 23, The World Health
Organization removed Hong Kong from its list of SARS-infected areas.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 23, India's PM Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, making the first visit to China by a leader of his
nation in a decade, told his Premier Wen Jiabao that he hoped for
friendship and trust between the nuclear-armed former rivals.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 23, In Iran Zahra Kazemi
(54), a Montreal-based journalist, was detained after taking pictures
of Tehran's notorious Evin prison. She died Jul 11 of brain hemorrhage
from inflicted blows. Iran later admitted that she was murdered while
under police custody. Her family sought $14 million in damages, but a
1985 Canadian law held that foreign states are immune from the
jurisdiction of Canadian courts.
(AP, 7/13/03)(SFC, 7/17/03, p.A7)(WSJ, 7/31/03,
p.A1)(SSFC, 12/6/09, p.A26)
2003 Jun 23, The main rebel group
in Liberia said it was pulling out of peace talks and accused the top
peace mediator of allowing Pres. Taylor to renege on a promise to step
down. Swiss authorities ordered a freeze on any bank accounts of
Pres. Charles Taylor, so war crimes prosecutors can search for possible
illegal diamond profits linked to West Africa's conflicts.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 24, Pres. Bush met
with Pakistan's Pres. Musharraf and promised a $3 billion aid package
that did no included F-16s.
(WSJ, 6/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 24, The WHO lifted its
warning against travel to Beijing due to SARS.
(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A7)
2003 Jun 24, In central Colombia
the bullet-riddled bodies of industrialist Helmut Bickenbach (68) and
his wife Doris Gil (65), Miss Columbia (1957), were found by an army
patrol lying in a ditch, with their hands bound. They had been
kidnapped 6 months earlier.
(AP, 6/25/03)
2003 Jun 24, Finland's parliament
elected Matti Vanhanen as PM.
(SFC, 6/25/03, p.A3)
2003 Jun 24, An Air France
Concorde bound for a German museum landed in Germany.
(AP, 6/23/04)
2003 Jun 24, In Majar al-Kabir,
Iraq, British troops in the Shiite south killed 4 Iraqis in a
gunbattle. In response a 400-strong Iraqi mob descended on the police
station and murdered 6 British troops. 8 suspects were later detained.
One was released in 2009 and cases against 5 were dropped in 2010. Two
suspects were held for trial. On Oct 10, 2010, a Baghdad court cleared
two Iraqi men accused of taking part in the mob slaying.
(WSJ, 6/25/03, p.A1)(BS, 6/26/03, 12A)(AP,
8/15/10)(AP, 10/10/10)
2003 Jun 24, Israel arrested more
than 130 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, targeting Hamas
as the Palestinian government awaited word on whether the Islamic
militant group would agree to a cease-fire.
(AP, 6/24/03)
2003 Jun 24, Pres. Vladimir Putin
flew to London to be feted as the guest of Queen Elizabeth II in the
first state visit by a Russian leader to Britain since Czar Alexander
II in 1874.
(AP, 6/24/03)
2003 Jun 25, The US Federal
Reserve cut short-term interest rates by one-quarter percent. The new
1% rate was the lowest since 1958.
(BS, 6/26/03, 1A)
2003 Jun 25, The music industry
threatened to sue hundreds of individual computer users who were
illegally sharing music files online.
(AP, 6/25/04)
2003 Jun 25, Lester Maddox (87),
segregationist and former Georgia governor (1967-1970), died in Atlanta.
(BS, 6/26/03, 5A)(AP, 6/25/08)
2003 Jun 25, An Australian
military spokesman said the army will kill as many as 15,000 kangaroos
to keep a southeastern army base from being overgrazed.
(AP, 6/25/03)
2003 Jun 25, The Malaysia
Parliament passed a post secondary school National Service Bill to
encourage nation building by integrating participants in a state-run
summer camp.
(Econ, 10/23/04, p.44)
2003 Jun 25, Three Palestinian
militant groups agreed to halt attacks on Israel for 3 months.
(BS, 6/26/03, 1A)
2003 Jun 25, Yemeni troops killed
at least 6 Islamic militants during an attack on a mountain hideout
following failed negotiations.
(SFC, 6/26/03, p.A10)
2003 Jun 26, The US Supreme court
struck down a Texas sodomy law and proclaimed that gay Americans have a
right to private sexual relations. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3
decision, struck down state bans on gay sex.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/26/08)
2003 Jun 26, The US Supreme court
ruled that a provision of the 1994 California penal code that extended
the statute of limitations for child molestation was unconstitutional.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 26, A jury in Fort Worth,
Texas, convicted former nurse's aide Chante Mallard of murder for
hitting a homeless man with her car, driving home with his mangled body
jammed in the windshield and leaving him to die in her garage. Mallard
was later sentenced to 50 years in prison.
(AP, 6/26/04)(AP, 6/26/08)
2003 Jun 26, Strom Thurmond
(1902-2003), former South Carolina Senator, died at 100.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/27/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 26, Researchers said the
Amazon rain forest is disappearing at an increasing rate, mainly
because of a growing appetite for farm land.
(AP, 6/26/03)
2003 Jun 26, The 24th annual
Montreal Jazz Festival opened. By Jul 6 it had drawn some 1.7 million
attendees.
(WSJ, 7/10/03, p.D8)
2003 Jun 26, Canada's health
ministry approved a "safe injection site" for illegal drug users in
Vancouver. After 5 years it was found that only about 500 of the city’s
8,000 addicts used the Insite program on a daily basis and that there
was no decrease in HIV cases.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.D1)(Econ, 8/9/08, p.37)
2003 Jun 26, Sir Denis Thatcher
(88), husband of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, died
in London.
(AP, 6/26/04)
2003 Jun 26, In Monrovia, Liberia,
3 days of rocket and mortar fire left at least 200 civilians dead.
(SFC, 6/27/03, p.A17)
2003 Jun 27, The American public
poured an avalanche of discontent into the new national do-not-call
list, registering over 735,000 phone numbers on the 1st day.
(AP, 6/28/03)(SFC, 6/28/03, p.A1)(www.donotcall.gov)
2003 Jun 27, The Central African
Republic's former PM fled after being granted asylum in France, ending
five months holed up in the French Embassy after a coup here.
(AP, 6/27/03)
2003 Jun 27, In India thousands of
fish in the Gomati River died when monsoon rains sent a huge overflow
of untreated sewage into the water, causing a drastic drop in oxygen
levels. The fish were already ailing from the persistent flow of
untreated sewage. A cleanup was important because Lucknow's 2 million
people depend on the river for drinking water.
(AP, 8/23/03)
2003 Jun 27, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders agreed for Israel to begin withdrawing forces from
areas of the Gaza Strip and returning security control to Palestinian
officers. In 33 months of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2,414
people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 806 on the Israeli
side.
(AP, 6/27/03)(SFC, 6/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 28, The Mississippi River
Museum and Aquarium opened in Dubuque, Iowa.
(SSFC, 9/14/03, p.C12)
2003 Jun 28, After days of intense
searching by ground and air, U.S. forces found the bodies of two
soldiers missing north of Baghdad, as the toll of American dead since
the start of war topped the grim milestone of 200.
(AP, 6/28/04)
2003 Jun 28, An Islamic Jihad
leader announced that the group accepted a conditional three-month halt
to attacks on Israelis — the first open confirmation of the deal from a
militant leader.
(AP, 6/28/03)
2003 Jun 28, Two suspected Islamic
militants stormed an army camp in Kashmir, killing 12 soldiers before
being slain themselves.
(AP, 6/28/03)
2003 Jun 28, West African leaders
promised to deploy a peace force of at least 5,000 troops to warring
Liberia after a cease-fire has been reached, and said France had
offered soldiers and logistical support.
(AP, 6/28/03)
2003 Jun 28, Malawi's army was
deployed to quell violent riots after demonstrators attacked an
American children's charity and several churches to protest the removal
of five Muslim foreign nationals suspected of working for al-Qaida.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, SF held its 33rd
annual SF Gay Pride parade on Market St.
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.A2)
2003 Jun 29, In Chicago a wooden
third-floor porch packed with dozens of friends in their early 20s
collapsed, killing 12 people as it pancaked onto porches below.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, Joseph Parker (30), a
bagger at Albertson's in Irvine, Ca.,, killed 2 people with a sword
before police fatally shot him.
(SFC, 6/30/03, p.B4)
2003 Jun 29, Bernard A. Goldhirsh
(b.1940), founder of Inc. Magazine, died of brain cancer. He sold Inc.
after his diagnosis in 2000 and gave $20 million to his employees and
put $50 million into the Goldhirsh Foundation.
(www.goldhirshfoundation.org/biography.htm)(WSJ,
7/20/06, p.B1)
2003 Jun 29, Katharine Hepburn
(b.1907), film actress, died at Old Saybrook, Conn. Her Oscars were for
"Morning Glory" (1933); "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967); "The
Lion in Winter" (1968); and "On Golden Pond" (1981). Her books included
"Me: Stories from My Life" (1991). In 2006 William J. Mann authored
“Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn.”
(AP, 6/30/03)(SFC, 6/30/03, p.A11)(SFC, 10/5/06,
p.E1)
2003 Jun 29, In Bangladesh monsoon
floods claimed 45 lives in the past four days, washing away many houses
and displacing thousands of villagers.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, Warring sides in
Congo agreed on the formation of a unified military.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder announced a plan to bring forward tax cuts worth
about $20.6 billion, a move that could inject new life into Europe's
largest economy.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, Hong Kong and China
signed a free-trade agreement, the Closer Economic Partnership
Agreement (CEPA).
(AP, 6/29/03)(Econ, 6/30/07, SR p.11)
2003 Jun 29, In Iraq US forces
launched a massive operation to crush insurgents and capture senior
figures from the ousted regime.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, The militant Hamas
and Islamic Jihad groups agreed to suspend attacks against Israel for
three months.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 29, Transportation across
South Korea was disrupted as railway workers opposed to a government
privatization plan went on strike for a second day.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 30, Buddy Hackett (78),
comedian and film actor born as Leonard Hacker, died in Malibu, Ca. His
films included "The Music Man" (1962).
(SFC, 7/1/03, p.A2)(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.E9)(AP,
6/30/08)
2003 Jun 30, In Algeria a military
plane slammed into a house west of the capital, killing at least 12
people, including women and children on the ground.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jun 30, In Chechnya armed
thieves opened fire on a crowd of Chechen villagers as they were
collecting unemployment benefits, killing four and wounding at least
eight.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jun 30, American troops
detained the U.S.-appointed mayor of Najaf, Iraq, accusing him of
kidnapping and corruption.
(AP, 6/30/04)
2003 Jun 30, In Iraq 10 people
died in a masque blast in Fallujah. US military later said the blast
was due to an accident during a "bomb manufacturing class." US ground
commanders said there was no evidence of a bomb factory and residents
blamed a US war plane.
(WSJ, 7/2/03, p.A1)(SFC, 7/2/03, p.A14)(SFC, 7/3/03,
p.A10)(SFC, 7/4/03, p.A17)
2003 Jun 30, Israeli and
Palestinian commanders shook hands, bulldozers dismantled checkpoints
and Palestinian traffic flowed freely in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian
shooting killed a Romanian truck driver in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jun 30, Ivory Coast Rebels
announced that they were suspending participation in the power-sharing
government, accusing the government of violating an agreement ending
nine months of civil war.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jun 30, A Laotian court
sentenced two European journalists and an American pastor to 15 years
in jail for the slaying of a village security official. They were
released Jul 9.
(AP, 6/30/03)(AP, 7/9/03)
2003 Jun 30, In Nigeria a general
strike called to protest massive fuel-price increases paralyzed the
major cities. Police fired tear gas to break up mobs of banner-waving
workers and roving armed gangs.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jun 30, Pakistan's new
ambassador to India arrived to take up his post, saying his country was
ready to restore normal ties with its nuclear rival after a gap of 18
months.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jun 30, Beatriz Merino (55),
Peru's first female PM debuted, pledging to bring discipline and
austerity to the beleaguered government amid hopes her appointment will
help salvage Alejandro Toledo's presidency.
(AP, 7/1/03)
2003 Jun 30, In Moscow an
investigation of 700 police officers of the criminal Investigation
Dept. began as "Operation Werewolves" continued into a 2nd week.
(SFC, 7/3/03, p.A14)
2003 Jun 30, Foreign ministers
from 16 South Pacific nations endorsed a plan to send more than 2,000
troops and police to impose civil order in the violence-wracked Solomon
Islands.
(AP, 7/3/03)
2003 Jun, China began a new $15.7
billion investment fund as an alternative to its dilapidated pension
system.
(WSJ, 8/26/03, p.C1)
2003 Jun, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (22),
a US citizen, was arrested in Medina as Saudi authorities were
investigating a wave of bombings. He was convicted in 2005 in a
Virginia federal court of conspiring with Al-Qaida. In 2008 a federal
appeals court upheld the conviction, but ordered a new sentencing
hearing. In 2009 he was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to
kill Pres. George W. Bush.
(SFC, 11/23/05, p.A14)(SFC, 6/7/08, p.A3)(SFC,
7/28/09, p.A5)
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