Timelines 2004 October - December

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2004        Oct 1, G7 ministers met in Washington DC. Chinese officials were invited to attend for the 1st time.
    (Econ, 10/2/04, p.11)
2004        Oct 1, The U.S. Postal Service canceled a brief experiment that allowed ordinary people to make postage stamps using images of their dogs, babies and even, it turned out, outlaws such as the Unabomber.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 1, The Utah state medical examiner's office used dental records to identify Lori Hacking's remains about six hours after they were discovered in a landfill.
    (AP, 10/2/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 1, Mount St. Helens quieted down after spewing a plume of steam and ash, but only briefly. Within hours of the eruption, seismic readings suggested pressure was building again inside the volcano, which had been dormant for 18 years.
    (AP, 10/2/04)
2004        Oct 1, Richard Avedon (81), US fashion photographer, died in San Antonio, Tx.
    (SFC, 10/2/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/9/04, p.81)
2004        Oct 1, Australia’s PM John Howard promised new legislation if it was needed to fight child pornography following more than 200 arrests in a major country-wide crackdown on Internet pornography.
    (AFP, 10/1/04)
2004        Oct 1, British PM Tony Blair reportedly underwent a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat.
    (AP, 10/1/04)
2004        Oct 1, US aid to Egypt for fiscal 2005 began. The budget request of $535 million was down $40 million from 2004.
    (WSJ, 7/14/04, p.A13)
2004        Oct 1, India's Border Security Force (BSF) asked Bangladeshi authorities to hand over 126 Indian insurgents, including top leaders of guerrilla groups it says are based in the neighboring country.
    (Reuters, 10/1/04)
2004        Oct 1, A violent Maoist rebel group proposed a seven-point peace agreement to the government of a southern Indian state at their first-ever talks to end an insurgency in which thousands of people have been killed.
    (AP, 10/1/04)
2004        Oct 1, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a major assault to regain control of the insurgent stronghold of Samarra, trading gunfire with rebel fighters as they pushed toward the city center. The US said over 100 insurgents were killed.
    (AP, 10/1/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 1, In Iraq hospital officials said at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded during a US bombing attack in Falluja.
    (AP, 10/2/04)
2004        Oct 1, Israel's security Cabinet approved a large-scale military operation, dubbed "Days of Penitence," to stop Palestinian rocket fire. Two Palestinians were killed and three wounded when an Israeli tank fired a shell in the Jebaliya refugee camp. 8 Palestinians were killed in the northern Gaza Strip.
    (AP, 10/1/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A9)
2004        Oct 1, In Lebanon a car bomb exploded in central Beirut, wounding a former Lebanese Cabinet minister in an assassination attempt. The explosion killed the politician's driver and seriously wounded his bodyguard.
    (AP, 10/1/04)
2004        Oct 1, In eastern Pakistan a suicide attacker detonated a huge bomb inside a crowded Shiite Muslim mosque during prayers, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens more.
    (AP, 10/1/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A9)
2004        Oct 1, Spain's Socialist government approved a controversial law that would give gay and lesbian couples the same right to marry, divorce and adopt children as heterosexuals.
    (Reuters, 10/1/04)
2004        Oct 1, The United Nations launched a massive voluntary repatriation program to return an estimated 340,000 Liberian refugees still scattered across West Africa.
    (AP, 10/1/04)

2004        Oct 2, The Loveparade, which originated in Berlin in 1989, came to San Francisco for its 1st annual bash. Matthias Roeingh, founder, was on hand.
    (SSFC, 10/3/04, p.B1)
2004        Oct 2, IMF and World Bank officials in Washington DC failed to resolve their differences over debt relief for the world's poorest countries and Iraq while expressing concern about the impact high oil prices would have on a strengthening global economy.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 2, Afghan intelligence agents backed by international peacekeepers arrested 25 people allegedly linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida in an early morning raid in eastern Kabul.
    (AP, 10/2/04)
2004        Oct 2, In Ontario, Canada, a record 1,446 pound pumpkin was unveiled.
    (SFC, 10/12/04, p.B1)
2004        Oct 2, Two US ships carrying 300 pounds of plutonium were scheduled to dock in Cherbourg, France. A French nuclear factory planned to transform it into fuel assemblies and return it next year to Charleston, SC.
    (SFC, 10/1/04, p.A15)
2004        Oct 2, In Haiti authorities recovered the decapitated bodies of three policemen, among at least seven people killed in a 2nd day of violence. Aristide supporters demanded his return from exile in South Africa, launching what they called "Operation Baghdad."
    (AP, 10/2/04)(AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 2, In northeast India a spate of bombings and gun attacks in crowded public places killed 73 people in markets and a railroad station across Assam and Nagaland states.
    (SSFC, 10/3/04, p.A8)(AP, 10/2/05)
2004        Oct 2, A militant group in Iraq claimed in an Internet statement that it abducted and beheaded an Iraqi construction contractor who worked on a U.S. military base.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 2, About 100,000 Kurds demonstrated outside provincial government offices, demanding that the turbulent, oil hub of Kirkuk be made part of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
    (AP, 10/2/04)
2004        Oct 2, Israeli troops killed 10 Palestinian militants, as the military expanded one of its largest offensives against Palestinian militants in four years of fighting.
    (AP, 10/2/04)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.A11)
2004        Oct 2, In Lebanon a military prosecutor has charged 35 Arab nationals and alleged members of an al-Qaida-linked terror group with plotting to bomb foreign targets, including the Italian and Ukrainian diplomatic missions.
    (AP, 10/2/04)
2004        Oct 2, In eastern Pakistan thousands of minority Shiite Muslims rampaged through the city of Sialkot in a riot sparked by a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque that killed 31 people.
    (AP, 10/2/04)
2004        Oct 2, Turkish troops and Kurdish rebels clashed in southeastern Turkey in fighting that killed two soldiers and a guerrilla.
    (AP, 10/3/04)

2004        Oct 3, National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, interviewed on ABC's "This Week" program, defended her characterization of Saddam Hussein's nuclear capabilities in the months before the Iraq invasion.
    (AP, 10/3/05)
2004        Oct 3, Janet Leigh (77), actress in Alfred Hitchcock thriller "Psycho," died in Beverly Hills, Ca.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 3, The party of Brazil's left-leaning president emerged stronger from nationwide municipal elections but did not come in first in the Sao Paulo.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 3, In southwest Colombia suspected drug dealers opened fire on a rival gang at a ranch, killing at least 10 people, including a toddler and a pregnant woman.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 3, In northeast India suspected separatists in Assam state bombed a crowded market, a tea plantation and other sites, killing seven people in a second day of explosions and gun attacks that have left at least 57 dead and more than 100 wounded.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 3, Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops claimed success in wresting control of Samarra from Sunni insurgents in fierce fighting.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 3, An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a group of Palestinians who launched a homemade rocket at Israel, killing two militants.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 3, Serbs voted for mayors and other municipal posts in runoff elections.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 3, Slovenians voted in parliamentary elections. Janez Jansa’s right-leaning party won weekend elections and promised to maintain Slovenia's pro-Western course after taking power from the Liberal Democrats.
    (AP, 10/4/04)(WSJ, 10/4/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 3, Two of Spain's most wanted alleged terrorists and at least 16 other suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA were captured in a vast French-Spanish police operation. Mikel “Antza” Albizu Iriarte was arrested with his girlfriend Soledad Genetxea.
    (AP, 10/3/04)(Econ, 10/9/04, p.48)
2004        Oct 3, In central Thailand a huge explosion at a fireworks factory killed eight workers and injured three others.
    (AP, 10/3/04)
2004        Oct 3, Twenty-two would-be immigrants drowned and 42 were missing after a boat that was to have carried them across the Mediterranean broke up and sank off the Tunisian coast.
    (AFP, 10/4/04)

2004        Oct 4, Americans Dr. Richard Axel (58) of Columbia Univ. and Linda Buck (57) of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their 1991 discovery of how people recognize odors. In 2008 Linda Buck and her co-authors retracted their 2001 paper on smell due to inconsistencies on data.
    (SFC, 10/5/04, p.A5)(SFC, 3/7/08, p.A6)
2004        Oct 4, Pres. Bush signed an extension of middle-class tax cuts.
    (WSJ, 10/5/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 4, Mike Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan, climbed to 367,442 feet in a 2nd leg and captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The single pilot was accompanied by the weight of 2 others to meet a 3-person requirement.
    (SFC, 10/5/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/9/04, p.75)
2004        Oct 4, Gordon Cooper (b.1927), US astronaut in the Mercury program, died in Ventura, Ca. He piloted Faith 7 around Earth on May 15-16, 1963.
    (SFC, 10/5/04, p.B7)
2004        Oct 4, Cambodia's legislature approved a long-delayed agreement to put surviving Khmer Rouge leaders on trial for atrocities that claimed nearly two million lives during their murderous rule in the late 1970s.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, The Denmark Science Ministry said it aims to show the North Pole belongs to Denmark and is sending an expedition to try to prove that the seabed there is a natural continuation of Danish territory.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, Officials in Haiti said they have found hundreds more bodies, raising the death toll from Tropical Storm Jeanne to nearly 2,000 people. Later estimates put the death toll at 3,000.
    (AP, 10/4/04)(AP, 11/1/07)
2004        Oct 4, Suspected separatist rebels attacked sleeping villagers in northeastern India, killing six in a third day of explosions and gun attacks that have left at least 63 people dead.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, Retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was confirmed as Indonesia's next leader as final counting from the country's first direct presidential polls gave him a landslide victory over his predecessor.
    (AFP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami arrived in Khartoum to start a three-day visit to Sudan.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, Insurgents unleashed a pair of powerful car bombs near the symbol of U.S. authority in Iraq, the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and key government offices are located as well as hotels occupied by hundreds of foreigners. Two other explosions brought the day's bombing toll to at least 26 dead and more than 100 wounded.
    (AP, 10/4/04)(SFC, 10/5/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 4, Six separatist rebels were killed in a clash between separatist rebels and security forces in a thickly forested area in Jammu and Kashmir.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, Palestinian militants fired off two more rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, lightly wounding one person, according to rescue workers. Ongoing violence in northern Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians, including a teenager.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced about one-third of his Cabinet, bringing new faces to the key interior and information ministries.
    (AP, 10/4/04)
2004        Oct 4, It was reported that Vietnam had embarked on a major overhaul of its debt-laden companies as it opens up its economy.
    (WSJ, 10/4/04, p.A15)

2004        Oct 5, Americans David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek won the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics for their explanation of the force that binds particles inside the atomic nucleus. Their theory of quantum chromodynamics explained who quarks behave.
    (AP, 10/5/04)(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 5, The US vetoed an Arab-backed UN Security Council resolution demanding that the Jewish state immediately end military operations and called the resolution "lopsided and unbalanced." 11 of 15 voted in favor with 3 abstentions.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 5, US Vice Pres. Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards slugged it out over jobs, judgment and Iraq in a hard-hitting debate.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 5, A Louisiana state judge threw out the new constitutional amendment banning gay marriage because it also banned civil unions.
    (SFC, 10/6/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 4, Tiger Woods married Swedish model Elin Nordegren in Barbados.
    (AP, 10/5/05)
2004        Oct 5, Supermarket janitors in California won a $22.4 million settlement against 3 grocery chains and a cleaning contractor in a class-action suit over failure to pay for overtime.
    (SFC, 10/6/04, p.B3)
2004        Oct 5, The first Web 2.0 Conference opened for a 3-day session at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco.
    (Econ, 3/21/09, p.71)(http://conferences.oreillynet.com/web2con/)
2004        Oct 5, Light crude oil for November closed at a record $51.09 per barrel.
    (SFC, 10/6/04, p.C1)
2004        Oct 5, Rodney Dangerfield (82), comedian and film actor, died in LA. He was best known for his line: "I don't get no respect."
    (AP, 10/6/04)(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 5, Texas executed Edward Green despite pleas by Houston’s police chief for a moratorium because of suspect work by the city’s crime lab.
    (WSJ, 10/6/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 5, Britain pulled the license of a Liverpool factory responsible for manufacturing half of Chiron Corp.’s US flu vaccine supply due to contamination by the bacteria serratia.
    (SFC, 10/6/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.B6)
2004        Oct 5, The Canadian submarine HMCS Chicoutimi went adrift in the Atlantic off the northwestern coast of Ireland since a blaze onboard caused a loss of power. Lieutenant Chris Saunders, one of nine crew members hurt in the fire, died after a British helicopter flew him to a hospital in Ireland.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 5, In Chechnya Maj. Gen. Alu Alkhanov was sworn in as president.
    (AP, 10/5/04)
2004        Oct 5, New data showed unemployment in Germany, the eurozone's biggest economy, is continuing to rise and could even reach five million by the winter.
    (AP, 10/5/04)
2004        Oct 5, In India at least 10 people were killed and seven wounded in a fresh bout of militant violence in the restive northeastern state of Assam.
    (AFP, 10/5/04)
2004        Oct 5, Iran said its missiles now have a range of more than 1,200 miles, a substantial extension of their previously declared range.
    (AP, 10/5/04)
2004        Oct 5, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said negotiators hammered out the basis for an agreement to end fighting with followers of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. 2 car bombs exploded in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, killing four Iraqis and prompting clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen. 10 Iraqi policemen, including a lieutenant colonel, were killed in two separate attacks south of Baghdad.
    (AP, 10/5/04)
2004        Oct 5, An Israeli aircraft launched a missile at a car in Gaza City, killing at least 2 militants and wounding three others. A helicopter strike in Gaza killed Bashir Al Dabash (42), a senior Islamic Jihad leader, as well as his bodyguard. Iyman Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, was shot and killed by Israeli forces, which soon prompted an investigation. In 2005 an Israeli military court acquitted an army captain who was charged with intentionally killing the Palestinian girl, saying she was already dead when he shot her.
    (AP, 10/5/04)(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A17)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A14)(AP, 11/16/05)
2004        Oct 5, A Russian cargo plane crashed in war-ravaged southern Sudan, killing all four people onboard.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 5, In Belgrade, Serbia, 2 soldiers were killed guarding the entrance to a secret complex. It was soon revealed that a 2-square-mile complex, dubbed a "concrete underground city" by the local media, had been built deep inside a rocky hill in a residential area in the 1960s on the orders of communist strongman Josip Broz Tito.
    (AP, 11/19/04)

2004        Oct 6, American Irwin Rose and Israelis Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering a key way cells destroy unwanted proteins, the ubiquitin proteasome system, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  
    (AP, 10/6/04)(SFC, 10/7/04, p.A2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteasome)
2004        Oct 6, The US Senate approved an intelligence reorganization bill endorsed by the Sept. 11 commission.
    (AP, 10/6/05)
2004        Oct 6, Charles Duelfer, the chief U.S. weapons hunter, reported that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction programs had deteriorated into only hopes and dreams by the time of the U.S.-led invasion last year.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 6, Sirius Satellite Radio planned to spend $500 million to sign “shock jock” Howard Stern for 5 years beginning in 2006.
    (SFC, 10/7/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 6, Light crude oil for November closed in NYC at a record $52.02 per barrel.
    (SFC, 10/6/04, p.C1)
2004        Oct 6, The EU recommended Turkey be put on the path to full membership.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 6, In Guinea-Bissau soldiers recently back from a U.N. peacekeeping mission and angry over unpaid wages staged a revolt, surrounding a main military building in the West African nation's capital.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 6, Followers of renegade Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have agreed to a cease-fire with Iraq's interim government aimed at ending weeks of fighting in the vast Baghdad slum of Sadr City.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 6, A car bomb exploded at an Iraqi military camp northwest of Baghdad, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding more than 20.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 6, In Peru villagers in the country's remote Lake Titicaca region doused Alejandro Noalca Mamani (54), an accused thief, with gasoline and setting him ablaze. State-run television station broadcast images the next day.
    (AP, 10/8/04)
2004        Oct 6, The Interfax news agency reported that the key production unit of beleaguered Russian oil giant Yukos was handed a back taxes bill for $951 million.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 6, In Spain a judge ordered the top banker to stand trial on charges of tax fraud.
    (AP, 10/6/04)
2004        Oct 6, Sudan's U.N. ambassador challenged the US to send troops to the Darfur region if it really believes a genocide is taking place.
    (AP, 10/6/04)

2004        Oct 7, Austria's Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize for Literature for novels and plays that depict violence against women, explore sexuality and condemn far-right politics in Europe. Her books included “The Piano Teacher” (1988), which was adopted for a 2001 film.
    (AP, 10/7/04)(SFC, 10/8/04, p.A4)
2004        Oct 7, Pres. Bush and VP Dick Cheney conceded that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, even as they tried to shift the Iraq war debate to a new issue, whether the invasion was justified because Saddam was abusing a UN oil-for-food program.
    (AP, 10/7/05)
2004        Oct 7, US President George W. Bush told Chinese President Hu Jintao in a phone conversation that he supports reunifying Taiwan with the mainland but warned against "any unilateral attempt" to do so.
    (AFP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 7, It was reported that municipal tax shelters would cost the US government an estimated $4.4 billion in uncollected taxes for fiscal year 2004.
    (WSJ, 10/7/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 7, US House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called on Texas Rep. Tom DeLay to step down or be ousted after his 3rd rebuke from the ethics committee in a week.
    (SFC, 10/8/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 7, Light crude oil for November closed in NYC at a record $52.67 per barrel.
    (WSJ, 10/8/04, p.C1)
2004        Oct 7, An Asia-Europe forum accepted Myanmar and 12 other new members ahead of a summit strained by Yangon's human rights record. ASEM comprises 39 members: 25 from Europe, 13 from Asia and the European Commission.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 7, Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk (81) abdicated due to poor health.
    (SFC, 10/7/04, p.A9)
2004        Oct 7, A car bomb at Egypt’s Taba Hilton killed at least 35 people on the last day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The attack was quickly followed by two more car bombings outside beach-bungalow camps south of Taba. The next day Israeli officials said they believe al-Qaida was probably behind 3 suicide car bomb attacks targeting Red Sea resorts filled with Israeli tourists. It was later reported that all 4 bombers who attacked the resorts escaped on foot minutes before their vehicles exploded.
    (AP, 10/8/04)(SFC, 10/8/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/13/04)
2004        Oct 7, In Ethiopia British PM Tony Blair spoke before the Africa Commission and warned that poverty and instability in Africa is providing a fertile breeding ground for terror and criminal organizations.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 7, In Haiti 2 beheaded bodies, one wrapped in tires and set ablaze, turned up Port-au-Prince.
    (AP, 10/8/04)
2004        Oct 7, US authorities, meanwhile, raised the security alert in the heavily guarded Green Zone after an improvised bomb was found in front of a restaurant there. 2 American soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in separate attacks involving roadside bombs.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 7, In Kashmir 4 Islamic militants were killed by Indian forces while rebels killed a paramilitary soldier and critically wounded a pro-India political activist.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 7, In Pakistan 2 bombs planted in a car and motorcycle exploded at a gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in Multan, killing at least 39 people and wounding about 100 others. Authorities in response banned all political and religious meetings except Friday Prayer. In 2006 Irfan Ali Shah was found guilty of masterminding the bombing in Multan.
    (AP, 10/7/04)(WSJ, 10/7/04, p.A1)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A5)(AP, 9/1/06)
2004        Oct 7, Two Palestinian boys, ages 15 and 14, were killed in an Israeli missile strike.
    (AP, 10/7/04)
2004        Oct 7, In Poland organizers of the 5th annual erotic fair in Warsaw said they would defy an order from the mayor's office and go ahead and stage a "test" for the woman who can carry out a sex act with as many men as possible.
    (AP, 10/8/04)

2004        Oct 8, Wangari Maathai (64) of Kenya won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. During the 1980s and 1990s, she also campaigned against government oppression and founded Kenya's Green Party in 1987. She was repeatedly arrested and beaten for protesting former President Daniel arap Moi's environmental policies and human rights record. In 1991 Maathai won the Goldman Environmental Prize.
    (AP, 10/8/04)(SFC, 10/9/04, p.A14)
2004        Oct 8, In a testy 2nd debate, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry quarreled over the war in Iraq, jobs, education, health care, abortion, the environment, cheaper drugs and tort reform at a town-hall session in St. Louis.
    (SFC, 10/9/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/8/05)
2004        Oct 8, The US September job report showed a disappointing 96,000 new jobs.
    (SFC, 10/9/04, p.C1)
2004        Oct 8, Martha Stewart reported to the Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia to begin serving her sentence for lying about a stock sale.
    (AP, 10/8/05)
2004        Oct 8, Jacques Derrida (74), one of France's best-known philosophers and the founder of the deconstructionist school, died of cancer in Paris.
    (SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A14)(Econ, 10/23/04, p.89)
2004        Oct 8, In Iraq kidnappers displayed a video of the beheading of British hostage Kenneth Bigley (62) following an unsuccessful escape attempt.
    (AP, 10/8/04)(SFC, 10/9/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 8, American warplanes struck a building where the U.S. command said leaders of al-Zarqawi's network were meeting. Residents said the house was full of people who had gathered for a wedding. The attack killed 13 people, including the groom.
    (AP, 10/8/04)
2004        Oct 8, Israeli Soldiers shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian girl and three other Palestinians died in missile strikes during a massive offensive into the northern Gaza Strip.
    (AP, 10/8/04)
2004        Oct 8, In northeast Nigeria Islamist rebels attacked a major police patrol taking a number of hostages in a remote area near the Cameroonian border.
    (AFP, 10/9/04)
2004        Oct 8, A Puerto Rican attorney asked a federal appeals court to end "the state of servitude" that island residents find themselves in and allow them to vote in the Nov. 2 presidential election.
    (AP, 10/9/04)

2004        Oct 9, A bus carrying Chicago-area tourists to a Mississippi casino crashed and overturned on I-55 in northeastern Arkansas, killing 15 people.
    (SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A6)(AP, 10/9/05)
2004        Oct 9, Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was thrust into turmoil hours after it started when all 15 candidates challenging interim leader Hamid Karzai alleged fraud over the ink meant to ensure people voted only once and vowed to boycott the results.
    (AP, 10/9/04)(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 9, An exit poll conducted by an American non-profit group found that interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai won the first-ever presidential election with the outright majority needed to avoid a second round.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 9, US forces in Afghanistan fought militants on the ground and aircraft bombed them in a clash that left 25 rebels dead before the nation's landmark elections.
    (AP, 10/9/04)
2004        Oct 9, Prime Minister John Howard scored a convincing victory in Australia's federal election, winning a historic fourth term.
    (AP, 10/9/04)
2004        Oct 9, Queen Elizabeth opened Scotland's new parliament building in Edinburgh, which was finished late and cost 430 million pounds ($845 million), 10 times over budget.
    (Reuters, 2/16/12)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.27)
2004        Oct 9, In Brazil a member of a government task force working to stop illegal diamond mining on Indian reservations in the Amazon was shot dead at an ATM.
    (AP, 10/10/04)
2004        Oct 9, In Nottingham, central England, a teenage girl was gunned down near her home in an apparently random attack. Danielle Beccan (14) was shot as many as six times from a passing car while walking back from a funfair with friends.
    (AP, 10/10/04)
2004        Oct 9, French President Jacques Chirac declared that France was a natural trade partner to China and, amid a flurry of air, rail and energy deals.
    (AP, 10/9/04)
2004        Oct 9, Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said they will begin handing weapons over to Iraqi police next week.
    (AP, 10/9/04)
2004        Oct 9, Israeli troops shot at Hamas militants about to fire an anti-tank missile, setting off an explosion that killed one man and wounded three. Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza killed 5 Palestinians including Hamas militant Abed Nabham (25).
    (AP, 10/9/04)(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A16)
2004        Oct 9, Typhoon Ma-on hit Japan. It was the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan's Pacific coastline in a decade and left 2 dead with 5 missing.
    (AP, 10/9/04)(WSJ, 10/11/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 9, In Karachi, Pakistan, gunmen killed Mufti Muhammad Jamil Ahmed, a leading pro-Taliban Sunni Muslim cleric and an associate.
    (AP, 10/9/04)(SFC, 10/11/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 9, In Serbia Ljubisa Beara, former colonel and the security chief for the Bosnian Serb army's main staff, was arrested. He was accused of genocide for the 1995 mass killing of Muslims in the U.N.-protected zone of Srebrenica.
    (AP, 10/10/04)

2004        Oct 10, Christopher Reeve (52), "Superman" actor who turned personal tragedy into a public crusade, died in Mount Kisco, NY, of complications from an infection. Reeve became a quadriplegic after a May 1995 horse riding accident.
    (Econ, 10/16/04, p.83)(AP, 10/10/05)
2004        Oct 10, Ken Caminiti (41), the National League's 1996 most valuable player who later admitted using steroids during his major league baseball career, died in New York.
    (AP, 10/10/05)
2004        Oct 10, PM Paul Martin of Canada arrived in Russia for two days of talks with Russian leaders.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 10, In eastern Congo 2 boat accidents on Lake Kivu killed 68 people.
    (AP, 10/12/04)
2004        Oct 10, Gerard Pierre-Charles (b.1935), a prominent Haitian intellectual and politician, died of heart failure in Cuba, where he was receiving emergency treatment for a lung infection. Pierre-Charles was an economist, who wrote at least 16 books, and a longtime communist whose ideology shifted toward the center after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
    (AP, 10/12/04)
2004        Oct 10, In India at least 62 bodies were recovered after flash floods in Assam state, taking the death toll from fresh flooding in the past three days to 88.
    (AP, 10/10/04)
2004        Oct 10, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Iraq. In Baghdad 2 car bombs shook the capital in quick succession, killing at least 11 people, including an American soldier, and wounding 16.
    (AP, 10/10/04)(WSJ, 10/11/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 10, Iraq's Ministry of Science and Technology told the UN nuclear agency that 377 tons of explosives had disappeared from the Al-Qaqaa facility. The Iraqis say the materials were stolen after the April 9, 2003, fall of Baghdad because of a lack of security.
    (AP, 10/27/04)
2004        Oct 10, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a home near a Hamas stronghold in the Jebaliya refugee camp, killing one civilian and wounding 8 other Palestinians.
    (AP, 10/10/04)
2004        Oct 10, Libyan officials said police have arrested 17 non-Libyans suspected of being al-Qaida members who entered this North African country illegally.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 10, In Pakistan a suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Lahore, leaving at least four people dead.
    (AP, 10/10/04)
2004        Oct 10, In Karachayevo-Cherkessia, a Russian republic north of Abkhazia, 7 businessmen were killed and their bodies thrown down a mine. The men disappeared after being summoned to a meeting at a cottage belonging to Ali Kaitov, son-in-law of regional Pres. Mustafa Batdyev. On Nov 9 a crowd stormed the local government building in Cherkessk.
    (AP, 11/9/04)(Econ, 2/12/05, p.21)
2004        Oct 10, Members of Somalia’s transitional parliament elected Col. Abdullahi Yusuf (70) as interim president.
    (SFC, 10/11/04, p.A3)

2004        Oct 11, Pres. Bush proclaimed Oct 11 as Columbus Day. In 1968 Pres. Johnson had set Columbus Day, previously celebrated on Oct. 12, to be held on the 2nd Monday of October.
    (www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041011-8.html)
2004        Oct 11, Edward C. Prescott (63), an American, and Finn E. Kydland (60), a Norwegian, won the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics for shedding light on how government policies and actions affect economies around the world. In a 1977 paper they demonstrated the importance of credibility in economic policy.
    (AP, 10/11/04)(Econ, 10/16/04, p.74)
2004        Oct 11, Light crude oil for November closed in NYC at a record $53.64 per barrel.
    (SFC, 10/12/04, p.E12)
2004        Oct 11, The main opposition candidate in Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election backed off a boycott of the vote, saying he would accept the formation of an independent commission to look into alleged cheating.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 11, Voters in Cameroon elected Pres. Paul Biya (71) to another 7-year term amid allegations of fraud.
    (http://4newz.net/nov2004/Cameroon.html)
2004        Oct 11, The European Union ended 11 years of sanctions against Libya and eased an arms embargo to reward the North African country for giving up plans to develop weapons of mass destruction.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 11-12, Records at Haiti’s Port-au-Prince hospital showed 17 people with gunshot wounds died, eight of them in the Cite Soleil seaside slum.
    (AP, 10/13/04)
2004        Oct 11, In Iraq followers of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr trickled in to police stations in Baghdad's Sadr City district to hand in weapons. Two soldiers from Task Force Baghdad were killed and five wounded in a rocket attack in southern Baghdad.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 11, An Arabic language television station broadcast video showing three hooded gunmen threatening to behead a Turkish hostage within three days unless the Americans release all Iraqi prisoners and all Turks leave Iraq.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 11, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, wounding five people, including a top Islamic Jihad leader.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 11, In Nigeria a nationwide strike to protest fuel price hikes shut down Lagos.
    (AP, 10/11/04)
2004        Oct 11, A Swiss paleontologist said hundreds of dinosaur prints dating back 152 million years have been discovered in the Jura mountains in the northwest of Switzerland.
    (AFP, 10/11/04)

2004        Oct 12, The Seattle Storm won their first WNBA title with a 74-60 victory over the Connecticut Sun.
    (AP, 10/12/05)
2004        Oct 12, A jury in Baton Rouge, La., took 80 minutes to find suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Charlotte Murray Pace. Lee was later sentenced to death for Pace's killing.
    (AP, 10/12/05)
2004        Oct 12, In Canada tens of thousands of public servants were on strike across the country as negotiators for the federal government and their union continued marathon talks.
    (AP, 10/12/04)
2004        Oct 12, Iranian vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was a close ally of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, resigned, saying he could not work with the conservative-dominated parliament.
    (AP, 10/12/04)
2004        Oct 12, A videotape surfaced on the Internet showing what was said to be the confession and beheading of an Arab Shiite Muslim, presumably Iraqi, who was accused of serving the U.S. Army by "assassinating Sunni leaders." US warplanes hit Fallujah and knocked out the celebrated Haji Hussein kebab restaurant killing the owner’s son and nephew.
    (AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 12, Police found 7 young people slumped over dead in a parked van outside Tokyo in what was believed to be Japan's biggest-ever group suicide. Another 2 people were found dead in a rented car parked in Yokosuka.
    (AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 12, Pakistan successfully test-fired a medium-range, nuclear-capable missile that would be able to hit most cities in neighboring India.
    (AP, 10/12/04)
2004        Oct 12, in northwest Pakistan an attacker tossed a grenade into a wedding ceremony at the home of an Afghan refugee, killing four people and injuring 35.
    (AP, 10/13/04)

2004        Oct 13, In Tempe, Ariz., Pres. Bush and Sen John Kerry held their 3rd and final debate trading blows on taxes, gun control, abortion and jobs, striving to cement impressions in voters' minds in the run-up to Election Day.
    (SFC, 10/14/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/13/05)
2004        Oct 13, National Hockey League games failed to begin as a lockout entered day 27.
    (SFC, 10/12/04, p.A16)
2004        Oct 13, The US government approved a microchip that can be implanted under the skin to provide doctors with patient data. Two weeks after the device's approval took effect on Jan. 10, 2005, Tommy Thompson left his Cabinet post, and within five months was a board member of VeriChip Corp. and Applied Digital Solutions. He was compensated in cash and stock options. In 2007 it was reported that a series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.
    (SFC, 10/14/04, p.A1)(AP, 9/9/07)
2004        Oct 13, Bernice Rubens (76), author, died in London. She won the 1970 Booker Prize for “The Elected Member.” Her book "Madame Sousatzka" was turned into a 1988 film.
    (SFC, 12/28/04, p.D12)
2004        Oct 13, The Canadian federal government confirmed that its tax intake massively outweighed spending in the past fiscal year - producing a budget surplus of $9.1 billion.
    (AP, 10/13/04)
2004        Oct 13, In Shanghai, China, the Houston Rockets, featuring Yao Ming, played an exhibition basketball game against the Sacramento Kings. Advertisers paid some $10 million to sponsor the game and another in Beijing.
    (WSJ, 10/15/04, p.B1)
2004        Oct 13, In Iraq roadside bombings killed 4 American soldiers in Baghdad.
    (AP, 10/13/04)
2004        Oct 13, The Israeli military killed 4 Palestinian militants as troops extended a 2-week operation in the Gaza Strip to silence Palestinian rocket fire.
    (SFC, 10/14/04, p.A8)
2004        Oct 13, A Mexican judge found bus driver Victor Garcia Uribe, guilty of eight slayings, giving prosecutors their second conviction in the decade-long series of murders of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
    (AP, 10/13/04)
2004        Oct 13, In Pakistan talks aimed at freeing two Chinese engineers taken hostage by al-Qaida-linked militants in a lawless region near the Afghanistan border have broken down and tribal elders said they would support the military using force to free the pair.
    (AP, 10/13/04)
2004        Oct 13, Russia and China settled a dispute over their 2,700-mile border during a visit by Pres. Putin.
    (WSJ, 10/14/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 13, A Russian rocket lifted off in Kazakhstan carrying 2 Russians and an American to replace the crew of the int’l. space station.
    (SFC, 10/14/04, p.A2)

2004        Oct 14, The US Treasury reported that the federal deficit surged to $413 billion in 2004.
    (SFC, 10/15/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 14, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced the initiation of a civil action against Marsh & McLennan, a US insurance brokerage firm, alleging impropriety in the steering of clients to insurers with whom the company maintained payoff agreements, and for soliciting rigged bids for insurance contracts from the insurers. The firm later apologized and paid $850 million in compensation.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_&_McLennan)(WSJ, 10/27/04, p.C1)(WSJ, 10/28/04, p.C1)(Econ, 4/10/10, p.70)
2004        Oct 14, General Motors Europe said it plans to shed 12,000 jobs, almost 20 percent of its work force, in order to halt chronic losses.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Google Inc. introduced a program that quickly scours hard drives for documents, e-mails, instant messages and past Web searches.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Light crude oil for November closed in NYC at a record $54.76 per barrel.
    (SFC, 10/15/04, p.C1)
2004        Oct 14, The US Army announced that up to 28 U.S. soldiers face possible criminal charges in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at an American-run prison in Afghanistan two years ago.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, In southern Afghanistan a homemade bomb killed 2 American soldiers and wounded 3 others.
    (AP, 10/16/04)
2004        Oct 14, In Brazil Pres. da Silva signed an executive order permitting farmers to plant genetically modified soybeans.
    (SFC, 10/16/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 14, A Boeing 747-200 cargo jet owned by British-based MK Airlines crashed upon take off at the Halifax International Airport. The Ghanaian-registered Boeing, which was taking off for Spain with a cargo of seafood, crashed and burned killing all seven crew on board.
    (http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20041014-0)
   
2004        Oct 14, In Cambodia Prince Norodom Sihamoni, retiring King Norodom Sihanouk's son, a former ballet dancer and U.N. cultural ambassador, was officially confirmed to succeed his father on the throne.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, In Chile Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno (90) died. He played a key role in efforts to restore democracy in Chile during the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 14, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder arrived in Libya for an official visit during which he is to hold talks with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Insurgents struck deep inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, setting off bombs at a market and a popular cafe that killed at least 10 people, including four Americans.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, In Iraq up to 19 members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company were detained for refusing to deliver fuel under conditions that they deemed unsafe.
    (SFC, 10/16/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 14, A video that appeared on an Islamic Web site showed militants in Iraq beheading a man identified as a kidnapped Turkish driver.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon said all 8,200 Jewish settlers will be pulled out of the Gaza Strip starting next summer.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began.
    (SFC, 10/14/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 14, Nigerian unions called off a general strike which had jeopardized oil supplies from the world's seventh largest exporter for four days.
    (Reuters, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Pakistan's lower house of parliament passed a bill to allow President Pervez Musharraf to stay on as army chief despite his pledge to give up the job by the end of the year.
    (Reuters, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Pakistani special forces attacked kidnappers holding two Chinese engineers near the Afghan border, killing all five of the al-Qaida-linked militants. One of the hostages was killed in the raid, while the other survived.
    (AP, 10/14/04)
2004        Oct 14, Thousands of Paraguayans took to the streets to protest increasing crime, spurred on the two high-profile kidnappings.
    (AP, 10/15/04)

2004        Oct 15, Former President Jimmy Carter urged the US and other international lenders to forgive part of Grenada's debt, saying the Caribbean country needs the money to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ivan.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, The US State Department said "restrictions on arms exports" to Haiti remained in place but promised to "consider requests from the interim government."
    (AP, 10/20/04)
2004        Oct 15, A federal judge struck down a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
    (AP, 10/15/05)
2004        Oct 15, A federal bankruptcy judge allowed U.S. Airways to cut union workers' pay immediately by 21 percent.
    (AP, 10/15/05)
2004        Oct 15, The Food and Drug Administration ordered that all antidepressants carry strong warnings that they "increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior" in children who take them.
    (AP, 10/15/05)
2004        Oct 15, Several thousand people opposed to gay marriage gathered on the National Mall in Washington to call for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.
    (AP, 10/15/05)
2004        Oct 15, The journal Science published a report that said 1,856 of 5,743 species of amphibians are “globally threatened.”
    (SFC, 10/15/04, p.A4)
2004        Oct 15, Authorities said the Northern Snakehead has invaded the Great Lakes. The voracious predator dubbed the "Frankenfish" can breathe out of water and wriggle across land.
    (Reuters, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, In an eastern Afghan province killed at least three children and a policeman on the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
    (AP, 10/16/04)
2004        Oct 15, Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he is a "victim of conscience" for having dared to speak out against human rights outrages. Murray had highlighted the allegedly systematic use of torture, including the alleged boiling to death of two prisoners, by Uzbek authorities.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, Canada’s Bombardier Transportation and two joint-venture partners won a $424-million order to supply 20 high-speed trains to China's Ministry of Railways.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi clashed over Iraq during their first-ever meeting in Tripoli while German business leaders touted for business in the oil-rich former pariah state. Schroeder praised the reforms of Muammar Gaddafi and invited the Libyan leader to visit Germany.
    (AP, 10/15/04)(Reuters, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, Indonesian prosecutors formally charged militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir with ordering his followers to launch a suicide attack on the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta last year.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, US Marines launched air and ground attacks on the insurgent bastion Fallujah after city representatives suspended peace talks with the government over PM Ayad Allawi's demand to hand over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. US officials said 10 people, including a family of four, were killed when a car bomb exploded near a Baghdad police station.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, Car bombs killed five US troops in Iraq.
    (AP, 10/16/04)
2004        Oct 15, Japan won a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council along with Argentina, Denmark, Greece and Tanzania.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that the European Union had broken international trade rules by subsidizing sugar producers.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 15, Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was acquitted on treason charges following a yearlong trial that his party had said was orchestrated by the government of President Robert Mugabe.
    (AP, 10/15/04)

2004        Oct 16, In Arizona a stolen truck filled with suspected illegal immigrants sped away from deputies and rolled over at a busy intersection near an Army post, causing an 11-car crash that killed six people and seriously injured 15.
    (AP, 10/17/04)
2004        Oct 16, Pierre Salinger (79), who served as press secretary to US presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died of a heart attack near his home in Le Thon, France.
    (AP, 10/16/05)
2004        Oct 16, Congo Pres. Joseph Kabila visited northeastern territory formerly held by rebels. The army claimed to have retaken a village near Zambia and killed at least 20 militiamen.
    (AP, 10/16/04)
2004        Oct 16, In India the ruling Congress party won power in Maharashtra, a victory that will boost the fortunes of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi's party and strengthen PM Manmohan Singh's minority national coalition.
    (AP, 10/16/04)
2004        Oct 16, In Iraq a Fallujah delegation offered to resume peace talks with the government if the US ceases attacks against the city and releases the chief negotiator. 2 US Army helicopters crashed in Baghdad and 2 soldiers were killed.
    (AP, 10/16/04)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 16, Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft was forced to manually dock with the international space station after it closed in on the station at a dangerously high speed.
    (AP, 10/16/05)
2004        Oct 16, Saudi security forces captured four suspected militants in the Khaleej neighborhood of Riyadh.
    (AP, 10/17/04)

2004        Oct 17, Betty Hill (85), who claimed that she and her husband, Barney, had been abducted, examined and released by extraterrestrials in 1961, died in Portsmouth, N.H.
    (AP, 10/17/05)
2004        Oct 17, Organizers of a campaign by French non-government organizations said African chicken farmers risk ruin from massive imports of European frozen poultry at less than a third of their prices.
    (AP, 10/17/04)
2004        Oct 17, Belarus voters went to the polls to decide whether to abolish presidential term limits and allow the authoritarian president to run for a third term in 2006. Opposition leaders accused the government of arresting exit-poll takers and turning away election observers.
    (AP, 10/17/04)
2004        Oct 17, Effective as of today Brazil's air force will be allowed to shoot down small planes suspected of carrying drugs under a law meant to stem the flow of cocaine.
    (AP, 10/15/04)
2004        Oct 17, US forces battled insurgents around Fallujah. Militants ambushed and killed nine Iraqi policemen returning from training in Jordan. A suicide driver in Baghdad killed at least 7 people. More than 200 detainees were released from Abu Ghraib prison after a security review deemed them no longer a threat.
    (AP, 10/17/04)(SFC, 10/18/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 17, Jordan's military prosecutor indicted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the most wanted insurgents in Iraq, and 12 other alleged Muslim militants for an alleged al-Qaida linked plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Amman and Jordanian government targets.
    (AP, 10/17/04)
2004        Oct 17, The Tawhid and Jihad group, a militant group led by terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared its allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
    (AP, 10/18/04)
2004        Oct 17, Military helicopters doused a 730-foot office tower in Caracas' Parque Central complex, one of Venezuela's tallest buildings, bringing under control a blaze that many feared would cause the tower to collapse.
    (AP, 10/17/04)

2004        Oct 18, President Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry traded biting accusations over the war in Iraq, with Bush saying his Democratic challenger stood for "protest and defeatism" while Kerry accused the president of "arrogant boasting."
    (AP, 10/18/05)
2004        Oct 18, The US FDA approved the 1st partially implantable artificial heart intended to keep patients alive while they wait for a heart transplant.
    (WSJ, 10/19/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 18, An Anglican church commission urged the U.S. Episcopal Church not to elect any more gay bishops and called on conservative African bishops to stop meddling in the affairs of other dioceses.
    (AP, 10/18/05)
2004        Oct 18, The Dover, Pa., school district voted 6-3 to mandate the teaching of “intelligent design” in public schools along with the theory of evolution. A number of parents soon filed suit. In 2007 Edward Humes authored “Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul.”
    (SFC, 11/30/04, p.A1)(SFC, 12/15/04, p.A4)(WSJ, 2/8/07, p.D7)
2004        Oct 18, In southeastern Afghanistan 5 people were killed when an explosive device hit a vehicle being used by election staff. Hamid Karzai’s chief rival Yunus Qanooni accused organizers of "robbing the people's vote."
    (AP, 10/18/04)
2004        Oct 18, In Belarus Elections Chairwoman Lidiya Ermoshina announced that the preliminary tally of all the ballots showed that more than 77 percent of registered voters approved dropping the two-term limit and that nationwide turnout was nearly 90 percent. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that the elections "fell significantly short" of democratic norms. Thousands of people took to the streets to protest the results.
    (AP, 10/18/04)(SFC, 10/19/04, p.A6)
2004        Oct 18, In Bolivia thousands of peasants and workers demonstrated in La Paz, demanding that former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada be tried for the deaths of more than 50 people in the suppression of protests that toppled his government one year ago.
    (AP, 10/18/04)
2004        Oct 18, In India Koose Muniswamy Veerappan (52), the country’s most-wanted bandit, was shot to death in Tamil Nadu state.
    (SFC, 10/19/04, p.A3)(Econ, 10/30/04, p.88)
2004        Oct 18, Iraqi PM Allawi said that an exchange of weapons for cash will be extended across the country. A militant group in Iraq said it had executed two Macedonian men accused of spying for the US. Macedonia has 32 soldiers stationed in Taji, north of Baghdad. Saboteurs attacked a key oil pipeline in northern Iraq, setting it on fire.
    (AP, 10/18/04)(AP, 10/19/04)(SFC, 10/19/04, p.A3)

2004        Oct 19, Paul H. Nitze (97), US Cold War strategist, died. In 2009 Nicholas Thompson authored “The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War.”
    (SFC, 10/21/04, p.B7)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.98)
2004        Oct 19, Thirteen people were killed when a Corporate Airlines commuter turboprop crashed near Kirksville, Missouri. 2 survived with only broken bones.
    (www.airsafe.com/events/fatal04.htm)
2004        Oct 19, Britain’s Man Booker Prize and a $90,000 check was awarded to Alan Hollinghurst for his novel “The Line of Beauty.”
    (SFC, 10/20/04, p.E2)(SSFC, 10/31/04, p.M1)
2004        Oct 19, British prosecutors charged radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri with incitement to murder for allegedly urging followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims. The indictment pre-empted a U.S. bid to extradite him on terror charges.
    (AP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, Canada raised its interest rates .025% from 2.25 to 2.50%.
    (WSJ, 10/20/04, p.A15)
2004        Oct 19, UN officials warned that the spread of AIDS in Ecuador's most populated province is reaching levels comparable to Africa and the Caribbean a decade ago and could mushroom into a national epidemic if left unchecked.
    (AP, 10/20/04)
2004        Oct 19, More than 40,000 people took to the streets in Europe to protest against plans by US auto giant General Motors to axe about one-fifth of its workforce in the region and possibly even close a plant.
    (AP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, In France 2 Muslim girls who refused to remove their head scarves in class were expelled from their schools, and two more risked the same fate.
    (AP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, Margaret Hassan, the British director of CARE International's operations in Iraq, was abducted from her car in Baghdad. She was killed on Nov 16. In 2005 Iraqi forces arrested 5 suspects who confessed to kidnapping and murdering Margaret Hassan. In June, 2006, Mustafa Mohammed Salman al-Juburi was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of aiding and abetting the kidnappers. His sentence was later reduced on appeal. In 2008 Ali Lutfi al-Rawi was arrested after he allegedly phoned the British Embassy in Baghdad to demand $1 million in exchange for information about the location of Hassan's remains. In 2009 a judge sentenced Ali Lutfi al-Rawi (36) to life in prison after a one-day trial in Baghdad. He faced charges of kidnapping, murder and extortion. In 2010 Ali Lutfi al-Rawi escaped from prison.
    (AP, 10/19/04)(AFP, 5/1/05)(AP, 6/5/06)(AP, 6/2/09)(AP, 4/5/10)(AFP, 8/22/10)
2004        Oct 19, A mortar attack on an Iraqi National Guard headquarters north of Baghdad killed four guardsmen and wounded 80 others.
    (AP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, Typhoon Tokage (Lizard), the biggest typhoon to hit Japan in more than a decade, roared over the country's main island with heavy rain and fierce winds leaving at least 16 people dead and 12 others missing.
    (AFP, 10/20/04)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 19, Thousands of sex workers from across South Korea rallied, protested a crackdown on prostitution and called for the resignation of the minister of gender equality. South Korea's sex industry accounts for more than four percent of gross domestic product, with its annual sales estimated at 24 trillion won (21 billion dollars) last year.
    (AFP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, Myanmar's state radio and television announced that PM Gen. Khin Nyunt was replaced by a top member of the country's ruling junta, Lt. Gen. Soe Win.
    (AP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, In Peru police fired on coca growers protesting government eradication of their cocaine producing crop, killing two of the farmers after they attacked a police station near the southern border.
    (AP, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said villages throughout Sudan's Darfur region face an "unprecedented food crisis," worse than the threat of famine in recent decades.
    (Reuters, 10/19/04)
2004        Oct 19, A Thailand tiger zoo housing hundreds of the big cats was shut down as bird flu tests confirmed 23 tigers had died of the virus since Oct 14, and another 30 had fallen ill. They caught the flu from feeding on chicken carcasses.
    (AFP, 10/20/04)(Econ, 4/16/05, p.36)

2004        Oct 20, Boston Red Sox fans poured into the streets outside Fenway Park to celebrate their team's victory over the New York Yankees. Victoria Snellgrove (21) died the next day after a crowd control pellet hit her in the eye.
    (AP, 10/21/04)(WSJ, 10/22/04, p.A1)(SFC, 10/23/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 20, Reservist Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick (38), the highest-ranking soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal pleaded guilty to 5 charges of abusing Iraqi detainees, as a 2-day court-martial opened in Baghdad.
    (SFC, 10/21/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/20/05)
2004        Oct 20, ABC announced it was dropping the Miss America beauty pageant. It was later picked up by cable country musical network CMT.
    (AP, 10/20/05)
2004        Oct 20, Scientists of the Human Genome Project reported a new estimate of human genes at 20k to 25k.
    (SFC, 10/21/04, p.A12)
2004        Oct 20, China formally arrested Zhao Yan, a New York Times researcher, who was detained Sep 16 for allegedly leaking state secrets. The crime could be punishable by death.
    (AFP, 10/21/04)
2004        Oct 20, In central China a gas explosion ripped through a coal shaft at the Daping Mine in Henan province killing at least 77 miners. Dozens miners were missing.
    (AP, 10/21/04)(AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 20, The EU revamped its trade rules. Nations with more than 15% of European market share of any goods were set to lose their discounted tariffs. China and India were expected to be the main losers.
    (WSJ, 10/20/04, p.A15)
2004        Oct 20, Workers at a General Motors plant in Bochum, Germany, swallowed their anger over job cuts and voted to end a seven-day stoppage that has disrupted output at three other GM car factories.
    (AP, 10/20/04)
2004        Oct 20, Senior Indian and Chinese officials met in New Delhi, India, to discuss a long-running border dispute between the two countries.
    (AFP, 10/20/04)
2004        Oct 20, US forces fired rockets in central Fallujah early, hitting a teacher's college and leveling a house, killing six people.
    (AP, 10/20/04)
2004        Oct 20, Terra Madre, an international meeting of food communities, held its first meeting in Turin, Italy. It formed as a part of the Slow Food movement. The group followed with meetings every 2 years.
    (SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A18)(www.worldchanging.com/archives/005321.html)
2004        Oct 20, Fiat SpA's auto unit said that it will temporarily reduce production at three factories next month, a move that will affect thousands of workers.
    (AP, 10/20/04)
2004        Oct 20, Lebanon’s PM Rafik Hariri resigned, dissolved his Cabinet and made the surprise announcement that he would not try to form the next government.
    (AP, 10/20/04)(Econ, 10/23/04, p.47)

2004        Oct 21, The St. Louis Cardinals won the National League pennant with a 7th game win over the Houston Astros.
    (SFC, 10/22/04, p.D1)
2004        Oct 21, An Associated Press poll found President Bush and Sen. John Kerry locked in a tie for the popular vote.
    (AP, 10/21/05)
2004        Oct 21, It was reported that the US government had begun identifying prisoners held at the Guantanamo Bay interrogation Center.
    (WSJ, 10/21/04, p.A6)
2004        Oct 21, Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick, the highest-ranking U.S. soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison case, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
    (AP, 10/21/04)
2004        Oct 21, American International Group (AIG) reported that it was the target of a grand jury investigation.
    (WSJ, 10/22/04, p.C1)
2004        Oct 21, WWF Int’l. said humanity is consuming 20% more natural resources each year than the Earth produces.
    (WSJ, 10/22/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 21, Anthony Hecht (81), American poet, died in Washington DC.
    (WSJ, 10/26/04, p.D8)
2004        Oct 21, Australian police arrested 3 Chinese men in Sydney after they uncovered $74 million worth of crystal methamphetamine hidden in hollowed-out candles from China.
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 21, China and Japan planned emergency talks over energy rights in the disputed waters between them.
    (WSJ, 10/21/04, p.A17)
2004        Oct 21, Fu Hegong sneaked into a Beijing kindergarten to rob it. When he was discovered, he smothered a teacher with a quilt and killed a 5-year-old boy by hitting him with a fire extinguisher. In 2005 Hegong (31) was sentenced to death.
    (AP, 9/10/05)
2004        Oct 21, Former Costa Rica Pres. Rafael Angel Calderon was detained in connection with a corruption investigation. He was charged with distributing and taking a share of a commission of some $9 million connected to the supply of medical equipment. He was under investigation for allegedly receiving nearly $500,000 from a Finnish government loan to Costa Rica for the purchase of medicines.
    (AP, 10/21/04)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.38)(AP, 2/5/06)
2004        Oct 21, An Ethiopian court sentenced three former rebels to death for killing dozens of people while rebel factions jockeyed for power in 1992. Iman Kelil Oumar was convicted for participating in the killings of 207 people; Beyan Ahmed Ousman was convicted of involvement in the murder of 205 people and Asli Ahmed, was found guilty of killing 89 people.
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 21, French health officials announced that a donor whose blood was used to transfuse 10 people and to manufacture medicines has been identified as France's eighth known victim of the human equivalent of mad cow disease.
    (AP, 10/21/04)
2004        Oct 21, An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car traveling in the Gaza Strip killing Adnan al-Ghoul,  a senior Hamas commander.
    (AP, 10/21/04)
2004        Oct 21, Japan's deadliest typhoon in more than two decades left at least 66 people dead as rescuers searched frantically for 22 still missing in floods and landslides.
    (AP, 10/21/04)
2004        Oct 21, Lebanon's Pres. Emil Lahoud appointed staunchly pro-Syrian politician Omar Karami as prime minister, asking him to form the next government.
    (AP, 10/21/04)
2004        Oct 21, Four gunmen abducted three U.S. citizens on a rural highway in southern Mexico, shot and killed two of them and left the third, a pregnant woman, bound and gagged. Her testimony led to arrests the next day of Isidro Diaz Pineda, Reynaldo Hernandez Ramirez, Francisco Velazquez Paredes and David Gaona Mondragon, all of Tierra Caliente.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 21, Negotiations between the Sudanese government and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), an umbrella organization for opposition groups from around Sudan, opened in Cairo under the auspices of Egypt.
    (AP, 10/23/04)

2004        Oct 22, Pres. Bush signed a $136 billion corporate tax cut bill. It offered a one-time tax holiday in 2005 when corporations could repatriate their foreign income at a massively reduced tax rate.
    (SFC, 10/23/04, p.A1)(www.slate.com/id/2139782)(Econ, 2/24/07, SR p.9)
2004        Oct 22, The Sinclair Broadcast Group planned to air “A POW Story,” with excerpts from the “documentary” film “Stolen Honor.” The program questioned John Kerry’s antiwar activities during the Vietnam conflict.
    (WSJ, 10/22/04, p.B1)
2004        Oct 22, It was reported that engineers in Arizona, in an effort to stave off global warming, were building a prototype machine that would remove carbon dioxide from the air and store it in rocks or under the Earth.
    (WSJ, 10/22/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 22, Suspected Algerian Islamic militants killed 16 people near Medea in the first attack on civilians since the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 22, Figures approved for public release by the British House of Commons, showed its 659 members claimed an average of 118,437 pounds in 2003, on top of their basic salary of 57,000 pounds.
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 22, Rosa Elena Simeon (61), Cuba's minister of science, technology and environment, died.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 22, The EU said its member states will contribute $125 million to an African Union (AU) force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 22, A videotape of Margaret Hassan, the kidnapped director of CARE International in Iraq, appeared on Al-Jazeera, weeping and pleading with British PM Tony Blair to withdraw troops from Iraq "and not bring them to Baghdad" because "this might be my last hours."
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 22, A UN aid agency reported that Israel's recent 17-day military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip killed 107 Palestinians, left nearly 700 homeless and caused more than $3 million dollars in property damage.
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 22, Defiant Palestinian militants pounded Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip with mortar fire, following the killing of a top Hamas militant in an Israeli airstrike.
    (AP, 10/22/04)
2004        Oct 22, Russia's lower house of parliament ratified the Kyoto Protocol on combating global warming.
    (AP, 10/22/04)

2004        Oct 23, The Boston Red Sox took Game 1 of the World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 11-9.
    (AP, 10/23/05)
2004        Oct 23, Robert Merrill (87), NY Metropolitan Opera star, died in NYC.
    (SFC, 10/26/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 23, A purported Taliban militant set off grenades strapped to his body on a bustling Kabul street, killing Jamie Michalsky (23), an American woman, and an Afghan girl.
    (AP, 10/24/04)(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 23, The U.S. military arrested a "senior leader" in the network run by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, along with five others during overnight raids in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 23, A suicide car bomber set off an explosion at a police station near Khan al-Baghdadi in western Iraq, killing at least 16 policemen and wounding 40 other people. A 2nd car bomb killed 4 Iraqi guardsmen at Ishaqi near Samarra. 2 foreign truck drivers were fatally shot in Mosul.
    (SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A3)
2004        Oct 23, Some 50 unarmed Iraqi soldiers were killed in eastern Iraq as they headed home on leave after basic training. Many were shot execution style with gunshots to the back of the head.
    (AP, 10/24/04)
2004        Oct 23, Gunmen opened fire on a convoy of Turkish trucks in Mosul, killing two Turkish drivers and wounding two others.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 23, Several earthquakes, the largest measuring 6.8, hit northwestern Japan, toppling homes, causing blackouts, cutting water and gas and derailing a bullet train. 40 people were killed and as many as 1,900 injured.
    (SFC, 10/28/04, p.A12)(Econ, 10/30/04, p.50)(AP, 10/23/05)
2004        Oct 23, Kosovo's Serb minority largely boycotted general elections, dealing a blow to international efforts to create multiethnic harmony in the province. About 1.3 million voters in Kosovo and some 108,000 Kosovo Serbs living in Serbia after fleeing the conflict were eligible to elect representatives to a 120-seat assembly, which will choose a president and a government that holds limited authority. 10 assembly seats are reserved for the Serb minority.
    (AP, 10/24/04)
2004        Oct 23, The bullet-riddled body of a Palestinian was found near a trash bin on a Gaza City. Hamas said it killed the man on suspicion he passed along information that helped Israel assassinate the group's founder and nine others.
    (AP, 10/23/04)
2004        Oct 23, Tunisia’s Pres. Ben Ali (68) won elections with 94.5% of the vote.
    (WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/23/04, p.46)
2004        Oct 23, In Ukraine tens of thousands of people supporting opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko rallied in Kiev demanding that next week's presidential election be free and fair.
    (AP, 10/23/04)

2004        Oct 24, The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 for a 2-0 World Series lead.
    (AP, 10/24/05)
2004        Oct 24, Arizona's Emmitt Smith broke Walter Payton's NFL record for 100-yard games rushing with his 78th.
    (AP, 10/24/05)
2004        Oct 24, A plane owned by Hendrick Motorsports crashed in thick fog en route to a NASCAR race in Martinsville, Va., killing all 10 people aboard, including the son, brother and two nieces of owner Rick Hendrick.
    (AP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 24, A fire in Toledo, Ohio, killed 7 children.
    (USAT, 10/27/04, p.3A)
2004        Oct 24, A medical air ambulance returning to Albuquerque crashed near San Diego. All 5 people aboard were killed.
    (SFC, 10/25/04, p.B5)
2004        Oct 24, Cardinal James A. Hickey (84), former archbishop of Washington, D.C., died.
    (AP, 10/24/05)
2004        Oct 24, Brazil launched its 1st rocket into space.
    (WSJ, 10/25/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 24, In China the Golden Resources Shopping Mall, the largest in the world, opened in the Haidan district of Beijing.
    (www.csmonitor.com/2004/1124/p01s03-woap.html)
2004        Oct 24, Colombia blew up its remaining 6,800 stockpiled land mines, winning the praise of Jordan's visiting Queen Noor who said the move took courage given that the nation is still fighting an internal conflict.
    (AP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 24, A US Marine warplane bombed suspected militants trying to rebuild a command post in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, and witnesses said six people were killed.
    (AP, 10/24/04)
2004        Oct 24, The Israeli Cabinet approved legislation to pay compensation to settlers uprooted by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan.
    (AP, 10/24/04)
2004        Oct 24, Militants bombed mourners arriving at a Kashmir graveyard for the funeral of a murdered opposition party leader, killing one and wounding six.
    (AP, 10/24/04)
2004        Oct 24, Lithuania's traditional parties teamed up in a bid to prevent a Russian-born tycoon from winning more support in a second round of parliamentary elections. The pro-Moscow Labor Party, led by Russian-born businessman Viktor Uspaskich, won 23 seats, more than any other party, in the first round of voting on Oct. 10 after pledging lower taxes and higher pay.
    (AP, 10/24/04)
2004        Oct 24, Six men on Pitcairn Island were convicted of charges ranging from rape to indecent assault following trials that exposed a culture of sexual abuse. They received up to 6 years with suspensions pending appeal.
    (AP, 10/25/04)(SFC, 10/30/04, p.A2)
2004        Oct 24, A Soyuz capsule, carrying 2 Russians and an American, landed in Kazakhstan. The crew had spent 6 months at the int’l. space station.
    (SSFC, 10/24/04, p.A7)

2004        Oct 25, The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously threw out the state's hate crimes law, calling it overbroad and "unconstitutionally vague."
    (AP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 25, Hamid Karzai was assured of a majority in Afghanistan's election to become its first democratically chosen president. A close to final tally soon gave Karzai 55.4% of the vote.
    (AP, 10/25/04)(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A12)
2004        Oct 25, Suspected Islamic militants decapitated three soldiers in Algeria in an upsurge of violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
    (AP, 10/27/04)
2004        Oct 25, Alberta’s Premier Ralph Klein called for a provincial election on Nov 22. His Conservative government held 73 of 83 legislature seats. Oil income stood to make it Canada’s 1st debt-free province.
    (Econ, 10/30/04, p.46)
2004        Oct 25, China’s state press reported that the population will grow to nearly 1.5 billion over the next 20 to 30 years.
    (AFP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 25, Cuba said that dollars will no longer be accepted at island businesses and stores in a dramatic change in how commercial transactions have been done here in more than a decade.
    (AP, 10/26/04)
2004        Oct 25, Egyptian authorities said a Palestinian refugee plotted the coordinated bombings targeting Israeli tourists at resorts in the Sinai and accidentally killed himself while carrying out the deadliest blast. Egypt announced it had arrested five of the nine men who bombed Red Sea resorts almost three weeks ago, saying the attackers used stolen cars packed with old war-time explosives and a washing-machine timer.
    (AP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 25, Hundreds of angry French farmers mounted blockades around the country to hold up fuel shipments in protest at soaring diesel and gasoline prices and to press their demands for government aid.
    (AP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 25, The UN nuclear agency warned that insurgents in Iraq may have obtained nearly 400 tons of missing explosives that can be used in the kind of car bomb attacks that have targeted U.S.-led coalition forces for months.
    (AP, 10/26/04)
2004        Oct 25, In Iraq bombs hit 4 coalition and Iraqi convoys killing at least 12 including an American and Estonian. Saboteurs blew up a pipeline feeding Iraq’s biggest refinery.
    (WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 25, Israeli troops killed 14 Palestinians in a Gaza raid.
    (WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 25, The Norwegian Shipowners Association threatened to lock out more oil and gas rig workers, a move analysts said could result in a near shutdown of the third-largest petroleum exporter's production and drive world oil prices even higher.
    (AP, 10/25/04)
2004        Oct 25, Typhoon Nock-ten hit Taiwan and at least 3 people were killed.
    (WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 25, In southern Thailand 78 people were suffocated or crushed to death after being arrested and packed into police trucks following a riot over the detentions of Muslims suspected of giving weapons to Islamic separatists. Over 1,300 people were packed in 6-wheeled trucks and taken on a 5-hour journey to barracks in Pattani province.
    (SFC, 10/27/04, p.A7)(AP, 10/25/05)(Econ, 10/28/06, p.52)

2004        Oct 26, The Boston Red Sox won game three of the World Series in St. Louis, defeating the Cardinals 4-1.
    (AP, 10/26/05)
2004        Oct 26, The Federal Communications Commission gave its approval to Cingular Wireless LLC's $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., completing the federal regulatory blessing necessary for creation of the country's largest cell phone company.
    (AP, 10/26/04)
2004        Oct 26, The SEC voted to require hedge funds with over $25 million to register with the agency, providing access to auditors in an effort to reduce fraud.
    (USAT, 10/27/04, p.1B)
2004        Oct 26, Low cost No. 10 airline ATA filed for bankruptcy.
    (USAT, 10/27/04, p.1B)
2004        Oct 26, In the SF Bay Area Prisheen Krishna (36) was killed outside his Brentwood home a day before he was to testify against a customer for refusing to pay a bill. In 2015 larry Fuller Jr. was arrested and charged with the murder.
    (SFC, 1/30/15, p.D5)
2004        Oct 26, Spacecraft Cassini flew within 745 miles of Titan providing scientists with new images of the Saturn largest moon.
    (SFC, 10/27/04, p.A4)
2004        Oct 26, The final vote count in the Afghan presidential election gave a sounding victory to interim leader Hamid Karzai.
    (AP, 10/26/05)
2004        Oct 26, In Haiti residents of Port-au-Prince said  13 people were executed by police.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 26, A US airstrike in Fallujah killed an aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. An Iraqi insurgent group, meanwhile, said on a Web site it had taken 11 Iraqi National Guard soldiers hostage.
    (AP, 10/26/04)
2004        Oct 26, India’s central bank announced it was raising its overnight repo rate for the first time in more than four years, citing concerns about a sharp rise in inflation in Asia's fourth-largest economy. The rate went up .25% to 4.75%.
    (AP, 10/26/04)(WSJ, 10/27/04, p.A15)
2004        Oct 26, Israel's parliament approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
    (AP, 10/26/05)
2004        Oct 26, In Nigeria a 2nd day of peace talks on the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region broke off after rebels called for more time to prepare proposals for a long-term political resolution to the conflict.
    (AP, 10/26/04)

2004        Oct 27, The Boston Red Sox won the World Series over the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in game 4. It was Boston's sixth championship, but the first after 86 years of frustration.
    (AP, 10/28/04)
2004        Oct 27, It was reported that Stefan Jaronski, a Montana researcher, had found that canola oil combined with a fungus can be used to get rid of grasshoppers.
    (USAT, 10/27/04, p.6D)
2005        Oct 27, New York City's subway system marked its 100th anniversary.
    (AP, 10/27/05)
2005        Oct 27, Bandleader Lester Lanin died in New York at age 97.
    (AP, 10/27/05)
2004        Oct 27-31, Violent clashes in a village in central China killed 7 people and injured 42. Police imposed martial law in Langchenggang, Zhongmou County, in Henan province after the fighting between hundreds of rioters that pitted Muslim Chinese against non-Muslims.
    (AP, 11/1/04)(WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 27, It was reported that a coalition of small leftist political groups in Chile has sued Pres. Bush and other US government officials for the abuses against prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
    (AP, 10/27/04)
2004        Oct 27, The Egyptian government approved the creation of a political party headed by a young ambitious lawyer, in only the third time that a new party was authorized there in almost three decades. Al-Ghad became Egypt's 18th party.
    (AFP, 10/27/04)
2004        Oct 27, Nigeria's state-owned news agency reported that an outbreak of measles in a remote Nigerian village had killed a dozen people. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 500,000 deaths from measles every year.
    (AP, 10/27/04)
2004        Oct 27, An ailing Yasser Arafat collapsed, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a serious condition.
    (AP, 10/27/04)
2004        Oct 27, In Russia the Kyoto Protocol overcame its final legislative hurdle when the upper house of parliament ratified the global climate pact and sent it on to Pres. Vladimir Putin to sign.
    (AP, 10/27/04)

2004        Oct 28, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly (55) settled a harassment lawsuit brought by Andrea Mackris (33), a former Fox producer, who accused him of graphically discussing sex with her.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 28, The US law Check 21, that allowed banks to transfer facsimiles of checks electronically, was scheduled to take effect.
    (WSJ, 1/26/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 28, Boston Red Sox fans turned out by the tens of thousands near historic Fenway Park to celebrate their World Series champion team, the city's first since 1918.
    (AP, 10/28/05)
2004        Oct 28, AMD released its new $185 personal Internet Communicator for consumers in developing countries.
    (SFC, 10/28/04, p.C3)
2004        Oct 28, A breakaway Taliban group abducted three foreign UN workers from Kabul because they assisted Afghanistan's "fake election" and threatened to kill them if a rescue mission was launched.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 28, Amar Saifi, one of North Africa's most wanted Islamic militant leaders, was taken into custody in Algeria. The No. 2 leader of the Salafists is accused in the kidnapping of 32 European tourists last year.
    (Reuters, 10/29/04)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 28, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni, the 51-year-old son of former king Norodom Sihanouk, was formally sworn in as monarch.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 28, China's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 9 years in a surprise move that was aimed at guiding a heated economy onto a path of slower growth. The rate increase .25% to 5.6%.
    (Reuters, 10/28/04)(Econ, 11/6/04, p.12)
2004        Oct 28, China and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding for an oil and gas agreement worth tens of billions of dollars.
    (WSJ, 11/1/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 28, For the 13th straight year, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly urged the United States to end its more than four decade trade embargo against Cuba.
    (AP, 10/28/04)
2004        Oct 28, An armed group claimed in a video to have obtained a large amount of explosives missing from a munitions depot facility in Iraq and threatened to use them against foreign troops.
    (AP, 10/28/04)
2004        Oct 28, Militants released a grisly video that showed the killing of 11 Iraqi troops held hostage for days, beheading one, then shooting the others execution-style. Another group released a video of a kidnapped Polish woman, demanding Warsaw pull its troops from Iraq.
    (AP, 10/28/04)
2004        Oct 28, A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months after the U.S. invasion than would be expected based on the death rate before the war.
    (AP, 10/28/04)
2004        Oct 28, Latvia's government resigned after lawmakers refused to pass the 2005 budget that had been proposed by PM Indulis Emsis.
    (AP, 10/28/04)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A13)
2004        Oct 28, Five policemen working for Nigeria's anti-drug enforcement agency were among 7 people killed by a mob that mistook them for armed robbers in a remote northern village.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 28, In western Siberia 13 coal miners died after an explosion ripped through a coal mine.
    (AP, 10/28/04)
2004        Oct 28, A contingent of 50 Nigerian soldiers arrived in Darfur, Sudan, aboard a US military plane, the first of 3,000 extra African Union troops deployed to monitor a shaky cease-fire.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 28, In southern Thailand a bomb exploded outside a bar, killing two people and injuring 21.
    (AP, 10/28/04)

2004        Oct 29, It was reported that US teen fashions had veered away from grunge and hip-hop looks toward a more preppy attire and that Axe, a deodorant body spray, was becoming popular among young boys.
    (WSJ, 10/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 29, Pres. Bush signed a Defense Department authorization bill that included a provision for up to $25 million to support foreign forces aiding US efforts against terrorists.
    (SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A4)
2004        Oct 29, Osama bin Laden appeared in a new video, dropped off at the Pakistan offices of Al-Jazeera television. He claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks and claimed more violence is possible regardless of who wins the US elections. Bin Laden vowed to bleed America to bankruptcy, according to a full transcript of the unaired portions.
    (AP, 10/30/04)(SFC, 10/30/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/2/04)
2004        Oct 29, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was sent home after a week in the hospital for treatment of thyroid cancer.
    (AP, 10/29/05)
2004        Oct 29, Comedian Vaughn Meader (68), who'd gained fame satirizing President Kennedy, died in Auburn, Maine.
    (AP, 10/29/05)
2004        Oct 29, Edward Oliver Leblanc (81), former Dominica Premier, died. He was described by some as a founding father of the Caribbean island in its transition to independence.
    (AP, 10/30/04)
2004        Oct 29, European leaders signed the EU's first constitution.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 29, Hundreds of British soldiers arrived at their base near Baghdad in a deployment aimed at provide cover for U.S. troops considering a new assault on Iraqi insurgents.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 29, Iraqi civilian deaths from the current war were estimated at almost 100,000 by the British medical journal Lancet. The study claimed 90% certainty for at least 40,000 deaths.
    (Econ, 11/6/04, p.81)
2004        Oct 29, In Liberia mobs brandishing machetes, sticks and Kalashnikov rifles rampaged through Monrovia, prompting interim head of state Gyude Bryant to order an immediate daylight curfew to stem the rare Muslim-Christian violence. A UN armored vehicle trying to disperse a crowd inadvertently crushed three people to death.
    (AP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 29, Mexican police and federal agents alleged Zetas leader Rogelio Gonzalez Pizana, alias "El Kelin," a top drug hit man during a fierce shootout in the border city of Matamoros. Scores of suspected assassins and drug smugglers used hand grenades and assault rifles to fire back at authorities.
    (AP, 10/30/04)
2004        Oct 29, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (75), suffering from a serious but mystery illness, was flown to France and rushed to a military hospital for treatment. Arafat’s secret assets have been estimated at $200 million to $6 billion. Details were only known by his financial advisor Mohammed Rashid.
    (AP, 10/29/04)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A10)
2004        Oct 29, In Peru a passenger bus plunged more than 650 feet off an isolated mountain highway in the Andes, killing at least 28 people and injuring 28 others.
    (AP, 10/31/04)
2004        Oct 29, The Russian State Duma approved President Vladimir Putin's plan to replace direct popular election of regional leaders with a system under which they would be nominated by the president.
    (AFP, 10/29/04)
2004        Oct 29, Sudanese rebel leaders demanded that Islam be kept out of government in the war torn region of Darfur.
    (AP, 10/29/04)

2004        Oct 30, The US Army extended Iraq tours by 2 months for some 6,500 soldiers.
    (SSFC, 10/31/04, p.A10)
2004        Oct 30, Peggy Ryan (80), actress-dancer died in Las Vegas.
    (AP, 10/30/05)
2004        Oct 30, A burst of poisonous gas in a coal mine in northeast China killed 15 miners at the Xilutian Mine in Fushun, a city in Liaoning province.
    (AP, 10/31/04)
2004        Oct 30, Eight American Marines were killed in fighting west of Baghdad. A car bomb killed at least seven people in attack on an Arab television network in Baghdad. Iraqi troops fired wildly on civilian vehicles, killing at least 14 people.
    (AP, 10/30/04)
2004        Oct 30, The decapitated body of a Japanese backpacker (Shosei Koda) was found wrapped in an American flag in northwestern Baghdad; the militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi later claimed responsibility. In 2006 Hussein Fahmi (28), an operative for al-Qaida in Iraq, confessed to carrying out 116 beheadings, including that of 24-year-old Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda.
    (WSJ, 11/1/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/30/05)(AP, 3/2/06)
2004        Oct 30, Liberians ventured back onto the streets of Monrovia during a temporary lifting of a round-the-clock curfew imposed after at least 7 people were killed in religious riots.
    (AP, 10/30/04)
2004        Oct 30, Rwandan troops arrived in Sudan's remote Darfur region to join Nigerian soldiers monitoring a shaky cease-fire in the country's troubled west.
    (AP, 10/31/04)

2004        Oct 31, In the closing hours of their bitter campaign, President Bush and challenger Sen. John Kerry charged through the critical battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio, with promises to keep America safe.
    (AP, 10/31/05)
2004        Oct 31, In Brazil Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suffered major defeats in an electoral test of his ruling party's influence. Silva’s PT Party won in 11 of the 23 cities where it fielded candidates. Jose Serra won the mayoral election in Sao Paulo over Marta Suplicy.
    (AP, 11/1/04)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.35)
2004        Oct 31, In Chechnya a car bomb exploded outside Grozny’s main hospital, injuring 17 people.
    (AP, 10/31/04)
2004        Oct 31, In Chile voters gave strong support to the center-left government of President Ricardo Lagos in nationwide municipal elections.
    (AP, 11/1/04)
2004        Oct 31, Iran's parliament unanimously approved the outline of a bill that would require the government to resume uranium enrichment.
    (AP, 10/31/04)
2004        Oct 31, In Iraq a rocket attack in Tikrit killed 15 Iraqis and wounded 8.
    (SFC, 11/1/04, p.A1)
2004        Oct 31, In Italy unusually high tides sent sea water sweeping through Venice, covering 80 percent of the city by afternoon.
    (AP, 11/1/04)
2004        Oct 31, Japan condemned the beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq as a despicable act of terrorism and vowed to keep its troops in the country on their reconstruction mission.
    (AP, 10/31/04)
2004        Oct 31, African and Asian leaders opened a two-day conference in Tokyo to spur trade and investment between the two regions. The gathering is a follow-up meeting of the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD III) held last year and is co-hosted by Japan, the World Bank. TICAD, a Japanese initiative, was started in 1993 to raise international support for African development and has been held every five years.
    (AP, 10/31/04)
2004        Oct 31, In Nigeria unions declared the top oil multinational here, Royal Dutch/Shell, "an enemy of the Nigerian people" and called a Nov. 16 nationwide strike.
    (AP, 11/1/04)
2004        Oct 31, Ukrainians cast ballots in a presidential vote. The opposition complained of violations just hours into the polling. Key contenders included pro-Russian PM Viktor Yanukovych and former PM Viktor Yushchenko, a reformist candidate. Yushchenko won by .5%, but failed to get a majority setting up a runoff vote for Nov 21. Observers from NATO and Europe said the balloting did not meet democratic standards.
    (AP, 10/31/04)(AP, 11/1/04)(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A12)
2004        Oct 31, In Uruguay elections socialist Tabare Vazquez (65), a cancer specialist and former mayor of Montevideo, won Uruguay's presidential election, becoming the nation's first leftist leader. Voters also called for all water resources to be put under state administration. Some 20% of the country’s work force was employed by the state.
    (AP, 10/31/04)(SFC, 11/1/04, p.A2)(WSJ, 11/5/04, p.A13)
2004        Oct 31, In Venezuela candidates backed by President Hugo Chavez swept all but two of 23 governorships in regional elections.
    (AP, 11/1/04)

2004        Oct, The US FDA approved the 1st artificial spinal disk, the Charite disc from Johnson & Johnson. It had been successfully implanted in patients in Europe since the 1980s.
    (WSJ, 11/2/04, p.D1)(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.A1)
2004        Oct, New Orleans began installing surveillance cameras, initially in drug-dealing hot spots. By March 2005 about 240 of the proposed 1,000 cameras were in operation.
    (AP, 3/8/05)
2004        Oct, US Pentagon auditors found that Halliburton overcharges for postwar fuel imports to Iraq totaled over $108 million. The report was not made public until March, 2005.
    (SFC, 3/15/05, p.A3)
2004        Oct, Michael Shellenberger of El Cerrito, Ca., and Ted Norhaus of Berkeley delivered a 36-page treatisse titled “The Death of Environmentalism” at a national gathering of environmentalists.
    (SFC, 4/23/05, p.B1)
2004        Oct, California authorities charged Chester D. Turner, a former pizza delivery man, for murdering 10 women between 1987 and 1998 after DNA evidence linked him to the victims. Turner’s trial began in 2007.
    (SFC, 4/4/07, p.B5)
2004        Oct, Jeremy Stoppelman, Russel Simmons and Geoff Donaker co-founded Yelp in San Francisco to help people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics. In 1012 the company was valued at $1.3 billion.
    (SSFC, 7/15/12, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp,_Inc.)
2004        Oct, The Enhanced Analytics Initiative (EAI) was established by a group of institutional investors. Members agreed to use part of their budget to reward brokers that publish research on extra-financial issues such as climate change.
    (Econ, 1/20/07, p.84)
2004         Oct, US Researchers pumped 1,600 tons of carbon dioxide into the Frio formation, a disused brine and oil reservoir, near Houston, Texas. They found that it increased the acidity of water in the aquifer, which in turn dissolved minerals in the sandstone.
    (Econ, 7/8/06, p.75)
2004        Oct, Congo’s government quelled an uprising near a mine owned by Australia’s Anvil Mining Ltd. The UN later accused Anvil of providing the government with vehicles and planes in the operation that killed scores of villagers. In 2007 a military court jailed two Congolese army officers for life for the 2004 massacre of civilians. The verdict cleared three Canadian mining company employees of complicity.
    (WSJ, 3/20/07, p.A13)(AFP, 6/29/07)

2004        Nov 1, US Chief Justice Rehnquist (80) disclosed that he has thyroid cancer.
    (SFC, 11/2/04, p.A2)
2004        Nov 1, In Napa, Ca., Leslie Ann Mazzara (26) and Adriane Michelle Insogna (26) were stabbed to death as a 3rd roommate escaped and called police. In 2005 police used DNA evidence and arrested Eric Matthew Copple (26) as a suspect. In 2007 Copple was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
    (SFC, 11/3/04, p.B2)(SFC, 9/29/05, p.B1)(SFC, 1/11/07, p.B1)
2004        Nov 1, James Edward, Baron Hanson (b.1922), English conservative industrialist, died at his Berkshire home. He built his businesses through the process of leveraged buyouts through Hanson PLC.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hanson,_Baron_Hanson)(Econ, 11/6/04, p.68)
2004        Nov 1, Roberto Lavagna unveiled a plan to restructure, at about 30% the original debt, $100 million of sovereign bonds that Argentina defaulted on 3 years earlier.
    (Econ, 11/6/04, p.40)
2004        Nov 1, Botswana voters gave the ruling Botswana Democratic Party 44 of parliament’s 57 seats. Pres. Festus Mogae promised to fight poverty and AIDS.
    (Econ, 11/6/04, p.50)
2004        Nov 1, Iraqi gunmen in Baghdad seized an American, a Nepalese and 4 Iraqi hostages working for a Saudi supplier to the US military. American contract worker Roy Hallums was one of several people kidnapped during an armed assault on the Baghdad compound where he lived; Hallums was rescued by coalition forces on Sept. 7, 2005.
    (WSJ, 11/2/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/1/05)
2004        Nov 1, Gunmen killed Hatim Kamil, deputy governor of Baghdad, on his way to work.
    (AP, 11/1/04)
2004        Nov 1, Diaa Najm, an Iraqi freelance television cameraman, was killed while filming clashes between U.S. troops and insurgents in Ramadi.
    (AP, 11/1/04)
2004        Nov 1, Libya’s PM Shukri Ghanem said he intends to abolish some five billion dollars worth of subsidies on electricity, fuel and basic food items in a move to liberalize the economy.
    (AFP, 11/1/04)
2004        Nov 1, A Palestinian (16) blew himself up in a crowded outdoor market in central Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and wounding 32. This was the 117th suicide bombing since Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in 2000. 494 Israelis have been killed in the attacks. Israeli troops killed 3 activists in Nablus and a boy (12) throwing stones in Askar.
    (AP, 11/1/04)(SFC, 11/2/04, p.A5)
2004        Nov 1, Puerto Ricans long have been U.S. citizens but cannot vote for the U.S. president, a situation that former Gov. Pedro Rossello promises to change if elected to return to the island's top job.
    (AP, 11/1/04)
2004        Nov 1, UN nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and called on North Korea to dismantle its weapons program.
    (AP, 11/1/05)

2004        Nov 2, In US presidential elections a federal appeals court cleared the way for political parties to send in people to challenge voters' eligibility at Ohio polling places. US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens allowed Republicans to challenge voter qualifications at the polls in Ohio. Pres. Bush won the elections spending an estimated $5.20 for each of his votes.
    (AP, 11/2/04)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.50)
2004        Nov 2, Gay marriage curbs won in all 11 US states where they were on ballots.
    (WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 2, Arizona voters passed Prop. 200 aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. It required proof of citizenship before receipt of  public benefits or voting.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.A4)(Econ, 10/21/06, p.32)
2004        Nov 2, California Prop. 64, limiting citizen’s rights to file lawsuits, won. Prop 71, a $3 billion stem cell research initiative, won. Prop 72, requiring business owners to pay for employee health insurance, was defeated. Prop 66, a measure to amend the 3 strikes law, was defeated. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was later charged with issuing grants with the bond money from Prop 71.
    (SFC, 11/4/04, p.B5,C1)(SSFC, 9/9/18, p.A10)
2004        Nov 2, Mike Easley (D) was elected governor of North Carolina. Pres. Bush carried the state with 56.3% of the vote. Voting problems plagued the state and impacted local races. A machine in Carteret County lost 4,438 votes.
    (SFC, 11/4/04, p.A18)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A6)
2004        Nov 2, Mitchell Daniels (R) was elected governor of Indiana with 53% of the vote.
    (SFC, 11/4/04, p.A18)(Econ, 8/21/10, p.21)
2004        Nov 2, Jon Huntsman (R) was elected governor of Utah.
    (SFC, 11/4/04, p.A18)
2004        Nov 2, Some 66% of Utah voters approved Amendment 3 to the state constitution and in effect banned same-sex marriage.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Constitutional_Amendment_3)     
2004        Nov 2, John Kerry carried Wisconsin by 11,400 votes.
    (Econ, 9/13/08, p.39)
2004        Nov 2, Afghan fighting killed at least 11 as troops tried to disarm southern militias.
    (WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 2, It was reported that some 3,000 Arab intellectuals had signed a petition calling for an int’l. court to try Muslim clerics who encourage terrorism.
    (SFC, 11/2/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 2, More than 3,000 workers walked out of 22 UPM-Kymmene forest industry plants throughout Finland, in a 24-hour strike to protest the timber and paper products company's planned layoffs and closures.
    (AP, 11/2/04)
2004        Nov 2, State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country's largest refiner, said it had signed an agreement with Iran's Petropars to bid for a $3 billion project to develop a gas field and set up a liquefaction plant in Iran.
    (AP, 11/2/04)
2004        Nov 2, A car bomb exploded near the Ministry of Education in a busy Baghdad commercial area, killing at least eight people and wounding 29 others. A car bomb in Mosul killed 4 civilians. Insurgents blew up a northern oil export pipeline.
    (AP, 11/2/04)(SFC, 11/3/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 2, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (47), the great-grandnephew of the painter Vincent, was shot and stabbed to death on an Amsterdam street after receiving death threats over “Submission,” a movie he made criticizing the treatment of women under Islam. A death threat to a Dutch politician was found pinned with a knife to Gogh’s body by his Islamic attacker. Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali collaborated with Van Gogh on the film. In January prosecutors said Mohammed Bouyeri (26), the alleged killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, ignored his victim's pleas for mercy and calmly shot him at close range before slitting his throat. In his trial in July, 2005, Bouyeri said he killed van Gogh for insulting God. In 2006 Ian Buruma authored “Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance,” an account of the van Gogh murder.
    (AP, 1/26/05)(SFC, 7/13/05, p.A10)(WSJ, 9/9/06, p.P8)(Econ, 9/2/06, p.74)
2004        Nov 2, Puerto Rico's delegate to the US Congress clung to an extremely narrow lead in the race for governor against former Gov. Pedro Rossello, who promised to fight for statehood.
    (AP, 11/3/04)
2004        Nov 2, Shares in Russia's No. 1 oil producer, Yukos, plummeted on news that tax authorities had served the company with fresh back tax bills for nearly $10 billion US, bringing the company's total tax debt to some $17.6 billion.
    (AP, 11/2/04)
2004        Nov 2, In Thailand Jaran Torae, a local Buddhist official, was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents as revenge for the deaths of 85 rioters last week.
    (AP, 11/2/04)
2004        Nov 2, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (86), United Arab Emirates President, died. Sheik Zayed became the ruler of Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest emirate, in 1966, four years after the emirate first began exporting the oil it just discovered off its shores. He left behind 19 sons including 4 brothers known as the Bani Fatima, whose mother was a favorite wife of Zayed. Eldest son Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed (b.1947) succeeded his father.
    (AP, 11/3/04)(Econ, 11/20/04, p.90)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.64)

2004        Nov 3, President Bush's campaign declared victory over Democratic Sen. John Kerry and claimed a second term in the White House, but Kerry refused to concede until all ballots were counted in the undecided state of Ohio. John Kerry conceded defeat to President Bush in make-or-break Ohio rather than launch a legal fight reminiscent of the contentious Florida recount of four years earlier. Bush won more votes than any other president in American history.
    (Reuters, 11/3/04)(AP, 11/3/05)(Econ, 8/18/07, p.26)
2004        Nov 3, Republicans tightened their grip on the US Senate adding 4 seats to hold 55. Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota lost to Rep. John Thune.
    (AP, 11/3/04)(WSJ, 11/4/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 3, Former U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Jenkins (64) pleaded guilty to abandoning his unit in 1965 and aiding the enemy by teaching English to North Korean military officer cadets. Jenkins was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail for desertion.
    (AP, 11/4/04)
2004        Nov 3, A Houston jury convicted 4 former Merrill Lynch executives and a former mid-level Enron Corp, executive for a 1999 bogus sale of power plants off the coast of Nigeria.
    (SFC, 11/4/04, p.C3)
2004        Nov 3, Jeremy Jaynes of North Carolina became the first person in the US to be convicted of a felony for sending unsolicited bulk email. He was charged in Virginia because his emails went through an AOL server there. In 2008 the Virginia Supreme Court declared the state’s antispam law unconstitutional and reversed Jaynes’ conviction.
    (WSJ, 9/13/08, p.A2)(www.phonebusters.com/english/legal_2004_nov3.html)
2004        Nov 3, A National Guard F-16 fighter plane mistakenly fired off 25 rounds of ammunition at the Little Egg Harbor Intermediate School in South New Jersey on this night.
    (Reuters, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 3, Hamid Karzai was officially declared the winner of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election after a 3-week probe into vote fraud found no grounds to invalidate his triumph.
    (AP, 11/3/05)
2004        Nov 3, British scientists reported an 89% decline since the 1970s in stocks of Antarctic krill, vital food for marine animals.
    (WSJ, 11/4/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 3, Hungary said it will withdraw its 300 non-combat troops from Iraq by March 31.
    (AP, 11/3/04)
2004        Nov 3, Indian troops killed five Islamic militants in a fierce gunbattle in insurgency-hit Kashmir after the rebels barricaded themselves inside a mosque.
    (AP, 11/3/04)
2004        Nov 3, Gunmen abducted a Lebanese-American contractor who worked with the U.S. Army from his Baghdad home. 4 Jordanian truck drivers were seized by assailants in a separate kidnapping. Gunmen also killed an Oil Ministry official, Hussein Ali al-Fattal, in a driveby shooting.
    (AP, 11/3/04)
2004        Nov 3, Liberia's three former warring factions jointly announced they had disarmed and disbanded their forces, marking a milestone in a quest for peace in this battered West African nation after nearly 15 years of war.
    (AP, 11/4/04)
2004        Nov 3, Puerto Rico's delegate to the U.S. Congress, who favors the island's current status as a U.S. commonwealth, claimed victory in a gubernatorial race so close that a recount has been ordered.
    (AP, 11/4/04)

2004        Nov 4, Pres. Bush laid out plans to revamp taxes, social security and medical malpractice awards. The DJ jumped 177 to close at 10314.76.
    (WSJ, 11/5/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/4/05)
2004        Nov 4, It was announced that Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, had been diagnosed with breast cancer the day her husband and Senator John Kerry conceded the presidential race.
    (AP, 11/4/05)
2004        Nov 4, VaxGen received an $878 million US contract for anthrax vaccine under a $5.6 billion federal Project Bioshield program.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.C1) 
2004        Nov 4, Algerian Islamic rebels killed two policemen in the latest attack during the holy month of Ramadan.
    (Reuters, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 4, Greece sharply protested a US decision to recognize the former Yugoslav state on its northern border as "Macedonia."
    (AP, 11/4/04)
2004        Nov 4, In Iraq US jets pounded parts of Fallujah, targeting insurgents in a city where American forces were said to be gearing up for a major offensive.
    (AP, 11/4/04)
2004        Nov 4, In Iraq SCIRI (Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq) militants dressed as police abducted and executed 12 Iraqi National Guards traveling home to Najaf.
    (AP, 11/7/04)
2004        Nov 4, In Iraq 3 British soldiers of the Black Watch regiment, recently moved northward, were killed in a suicide bombing.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 4, The international medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was closing its operations in Iraq because of escalating violence.
    (AP, 11/4/04)
2004        Nov 4, Ivory Coast government warplanes bombed Boauke, the largest city in rebel-held north, in what a military commander said was the launch of a new offensive to reunite the war-divided nation. Guillaume Soro, rebel leader of the New Forces, said 85 civilians were killed.
    (AP, 11/4/04)(Econ, 11/13/04, p.52)
2004        Nov 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill confirming his country's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
    (AP, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 4, In southern Thailand 9 Buddhists were killed including 2 policemen.
    (WSJ, 11/5/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 4, The UAR appointed Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the eldest son of Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as its president. Sheik Khalifa, crown prince of Abu Dhabi since 1969, automatically became ruler of Abu Dhabi following his father's death.
    (AP, 11/4/04)

2004        Nov 5, The US government said intelligence agencies had tripled their estimate of shoulder fired surface-to-air missile systems to be at large worldwide. At least 4,000 of the weapons from Iraq’s pre-war arsenal could not be accounted for.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.A11)
2004        Nov 5, The DJ rose 72 to 10,387. The euro reached a new high of 1.2962 to the dollar. The US dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro as EU political leaders signaled they have no unified plan to stem the rise in their five-year-old currency.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.C1)(AP, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 5, In Afghanistan Islamic militants holding 3 UN workers hostage set a new, fifth deadline for their execution.
    (AFP, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 5, In Canada Saskatchewan became the country’s 7th jurisdiction to allow homosexuals to wed.
    (SFC, 11/5/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 5, The Chilean army for the first time assumed institutional responsibility for widespread human rights violations during the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
    (AP, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 5, Abilio Jose Soares, the only Indonesian official to be punished for violence that killed up to 2,000 East Timorese in 1999, has been released from jail, following a court decision that overturned his conviction. Soares was the former governor of East Timor.
    (CP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 5, US warplanes pounded Fallujah in what residents called the strongest attacks in months, as more than 10,000 American soldiers and Marines massed for an expected assault.
    (AP, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 5, Latin American leaders wrapped up a two-day summit in Brazil with a pledge to help rid Haiti of political violence and grinding poverty.
    (AP, 11/5/04)
2004        Nov 5, Jose Gilberto Soto (49), a US citizen of Salvadoran origin from Cliffside Park, N.J., was shot in the back outside his family's house in Usulutan, 70 miles southeast of San Salvador. In December Salvadoran police arrested his mother-in-law, along with five other suspects, describing the slaying as a contract killing that was the result of a family dispute.
    (AP, 12/5/04)

2004        Nov 6, The designers of SpaceShipOne, the first privately manned rocket to burst into space [see Oct 4], were handed a $10 million check and the Ansari X Prize trophy.
    (AP, 11/6/05)
2004        Nov 6, The Cassini spacecraft was scheduled to launch its Huygens probe onto Titan. [see Dec 24]
    (SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.4)
2004        Nov 6, The African Union mandated South African President Thabo Mbeki to launch an urgent mission to resolve the crisis in Ivory Coast.
    (AFP, 11/7/04)
2004        Nov 6, In Baku, Azerbaijan, a gas explosion tore through a two-story apartment building, trapping residents under the debris. At least 4 people were killed.
    (AP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 6, China's central bank said it would take a "gradual and safe" approach to loosening the yuan-dollar peg.
    (AP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 6, In England 7 people were killed and 150 injured when a Eurostar high-speed train crashed into a vehicle that was stopped on a level crossing near Ufton Nervet in Berkshire. A motorist's suicide was suspected.
    (AP, 11/8/04)
2004        Nov 6, In northwestern Haiti an armed group fired on a police station, prompting officers to flee while prisoners escaped and more than 100 people started a flurry of looting.
    (AP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 6, Insurgents set off at least two car bombs and attacked a police station in the central Iraqi town of Samarra, killing at least 29 people and wounding 40. Over 50 people were killed across central Iraq including nearly 2 dozen Americans.
    (AP, 11/6/04)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 6, Israeli troops killed 5 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, in West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    (AP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 6, Ivory Coast warplanes bombed French peacekeepers, killing 8 French soldiers and wounding 23. French forces responded by destroying the entire  Ivory Coast air force, 2 Russian-made jets and 5 helicopter gunships.
    (AP, 11/6/04)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 6, In western Nepal 9 Maoist rebels, five of them women, and a policeman were killed in a series of clashes and an accidental explosion.
    (AP, 11/7/04)
2004        Nov 6, In an open letter to the Iraqi people and posted on the Internet, 26 Saudi scholars and religious preachers stressed that armed attacks launched by militant Iraqi groups on U.S. troops and their allies in Iraq were "legitimate" resistance.
    (AP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 6, In Ukraine tens of thousands of supporters of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko filled Kiev's main square, joining nationwide protests over alleged election fraud.
    (AP, 11/6/04)
2004        Nov 6, Atonazar Arifov, head of the Uzbek unregistered opposition Erk party, announced that Erk would boycott next month's parliamentary vote, saying the government has failed to embrace democracy and calling on the international community to ignore the election.
    (AP, 11/6/04)

2004        Nov 7, The NYC Marathon was won by Hendrik Ramaala of South Africa in 2:09:28; Britain’s Paula Radcliffe won the women's title in 2:23:10.
    (WSJ, 11/8/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/7/05)
2004        Nov 7, Howard Keel (85), star of MGM musicals, died.
    (SFC, 11/8/04, p.A2)
2004        Nov 7, In Egypt a passenger bus returning from Saudi Arabia collided with a truck, killing 33 people.
    (AP, 11/8/04)
2004        Nov 7, Iran and European nations reached a preliminary agreement about Iran's nuclear program at talks hoped to avoid a U.N. showdown. The UK, France and Germany persuaded Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
    (AP, 11/7/04)(WSJ, 2/8/05, p.A1)
2004        Nov 7, The Iraqi government declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout most of the country, as US and Iraqi forces prepared for an all-out assault on rebels in Fallujah.
    (AP, 11/7/04)
2004        Nov 7, Israeli undercover forces shot and killed 4 Palestinians in Jenin.
    (AP, 11/7/04)
2004        Nov 7, Hezbollah sent an aerial drone over northern Israel on a 1st test flight.
    (WSJ, 11/8/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 7, Machete-waving mobs looted and burned in Ivory Coast's largest cities, laying siege to a French military base and searching house to house for French families after a day of sudden clashes between forces of France and its former colony. France seized strategic control of Abidjan and deployed new forces to stop the rampage.
    (AP, 11/7/04)(SFC, 11/8/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 7, Kashmiri separatists gave a cautious welcome on to India's offer to allow them to visit Pakistan. Thousands of people in Indian Kashmir staged a protest, alleging that soldiers had raped a 10-year-old girl and her mother.
    (Reuters, 11/7/04)
2004        Nov 7, In Macedonia voters cast ballots on a referendum that would repeal a Western-brokered law that effectively grants local autonomy to the country's ethnic Albanians. The referendum fell short of a required 50% turnout.
    (AP, 11/7/04)(WSJ, 11/8/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 7, In central Mexico gunmen, identified as local police officers, opened fire on a group of revelers returning from a weekend dance, killing 7 people, including 2 children.
    (AP, 11/9/04)
2004        Nov 7, Nicaragua held municipal elections. The leftist Sandinista Front sought to capitalize on the recent fracturing of a rival party amid ongoing attempts to remove the country's president from office. Dionisio Marenco (58) led the mayoral elections in Managua.
    (AP, 11/8/04)(AP, 11/9/04)

2004        Nov 8, Jason Bay became the first Pittsburgh Pirates player to win the National League Rookie of the Year award, while Oakland shortstop Bobby Crosby took the American League honor.
    (AP, 11/8/05)
2004         Nov 8, A US judge ruled that military commission proceedings at Guantanamo violate federal law and Geneva Conventions. The proceedings were halted. An appeals court reversed the decision on July 15, 2005. The proceedings resumed on January 9, 2006. On June 29 the Supreme Court rejected the commissions.
    (WSJ, 6/30/06, p.A1)
2004        Nov 8, It was reported that a new polyester mesh stocking pulled over a weak heart was effective in reducing heart failure.
    (SFC, 11/8/04, p.A2)
2004        Nov 8, A comprehensive scientific study of the Arctic climate was released and confirmed that the North is melting, and faster all the time.
    (CP, 11/8/04)
2004        Nov 8, China’s state media reported that China will selectively reduce spending to help trim its ballooning fiscal deficit.
    (AP, 11/8/04)
2004        Nov 8, The U.S. dollar was eliminated from circulation in Cuba.
    (AP, 11/8/05)
2004        Nov 8, In Iraq some 10,000 US and Iraqi troops fought their way into the western outskirts of Fallujah. A car bomb hit a civilian convoy belonging to coalition forces on the main highway to Baghdad's airport.
    (AP, 11/8/04)(SFC, 11/9/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 8, Israeli police arrested Zeev Rosenstein on an int’l. warrant for smuggling drugs (ecstasy) from the EU to the US. The warrant called for extradition to the US.
    (SFC, 11/9/04, p.A7)
2004        Nov 8, In Ivory Coast clashes with French troops left another 5 people dead and some 250 wounded.
    (SFC, 11/9/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 8, Pitcairn Island selected its 1st female mayor, Brenda Christian, to fill the post until a Dec 15 election. Former Mayor Steve Christian was among the 6 men convicted of 5 rape charges.
    (SFC, 11/9/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 8, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah launched $8 billion in development projects in Mecca.
    (WSJ, 11/9/04, p.A1)

2004        Nov 9, Kenny Chesney won the US Country Music Association album of the year award for "When The Sun Goes Down" as well as entertainer of the year.
    (AP, 11/9/05)
2004        Nov 9, Baseball star Roger Clemens won his record seventh Cy Young Award.
    (AP, 11/9/05)
2004        Nov 9, US Attorney Gen’l. John Ashcroft and Commerce Sec. Don Evans resigned their posts with the Bush administration.
    (SFC, 11/10/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 9, It was reported that repeated injections of paromomycin, a low cost antibiotic, could cure the parasitic disease black fever, also known as visceral leishmaniasis.
    (SFC, 11/9/04, p.A6)
2004        Nov 9, Iris Chang (b.1968), author of the 1997 book "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of WW II," died by suicide in California. In 2007 Paula Kamen authored “Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind.” In 2011 Her mother Ying-Ying Change authored “The Woman Who Could Not Forget: Iris Change Before and Beyond The Rape of Nanking.”
    (Econ, 11/27/04, p.91)(SFCM, 4/17/05, p.5)(SSFC, 11/11/07, p.M1)(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.G1)
2004        Nov 9, Ed Kemmer (b.1921), TV star, died at Roosevelt Hospital in NYC. He played the heroic Cmdr. Buzz Corry on the 1950s children's science-fiction television program “Space Patrol.” After “Space Patrol,” Kemmer broke the heroic mold by playing villains in episodes of “Perry Mason,” “Gunsmoke,” and “Maverick.” He spent 19 years as a regular on “The Edge of Night,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children,” “Guiding Light,” and other soaps.
    (SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)
2004        Nov 9, Iraqi authorities imposed the first nighttime curfew in more than a year on Baghdad and surrounding areas. US Army and Marine units thrust through the center of the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, fighting bands of guerrillas in the streets and conducting house-to-house searches on the 2nd day of a major offensive. Some US artillery used white phosphorous rounds that melted skin. At least 10 American and 2 Iraqi soldiers were killed in the assault. In 2008 a civilian jury acquitted former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr. of voluntary manslaughter in the killings of 4 unarmed Iraqi detainees during the Fallujah battle. In 2009 Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer was acquitted of murder charges in the killing of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah.
    (AP, 11/9/04)(SFC, 11/10/04, p.A1,14)(AP, 8/29/08)(SFC, 4/10/09, p.A6)
2004        Nov 9, In a backlash over the Fallujah assault the Iraqi Islamic Party withdrew from the interim government and a leading group of Sunni clerics called for Iraqis to boycott nationwide elections.
    (SFC, 11/10/04, p.A15)
2004        Nov 9, Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians who entered an unauthorized area in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops in Nablus clashed with stone throwing youths, shooting dead a 22-year-old man and seriously wounding another.
    (AP, 11/9/04)
2004        Nov 9, In Ivory Coast French soldiers killed at least 7 Gbagbo loyalists in a presidential palace standoff.
    (WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 9, In Slovenia Janez Jansa (b.1956) took office as prime minister. He continued in office until 2008.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janez_Jan%C5%A1a)
2004        Nov 9, Sudan's government and rebels agreed to sign fresh accords meant to stop hostilities in Darfur.
    (AP, 11/9/04)
2004        Nov 9, Stieg Larsson (b.1954), Swedish novelist, died of a heart attack. By 2009 his “The Millennium Trilogy,” published posthumously, had sold more than 12 million copies around the world. The books centered on the heroine Lisbeth Salander, a tattooed bisexual waif with autistic tendencies, a profound distrust of authority, as well as astonishing computer skills and physical courage. The first book in the trilogy, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” was released as a film in 2010.
    (Econ, 10/31/09, p.98)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson)(Econ, 3/13/10, p.85)

2004        Nov 10, Bush named Alberto Gonzales, White House Counsel, to be attorney general. In 2006 Bill Minutaglio authored “The President’s Counselor: The Rise to Power of Alberto Gonzales.” In 2006 Bill Minutaglio authored “The President’s Counselor: The Rise to Power of Alberto Gonzales.”
    (WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/2/06, p.M1)
2004        Nov 10, The US Federal Reserve raised the overnight federal-funds interest rate a quarter point. Another raise was expected Dec 14.
    (SFC, 11/11/04, p.C1)
2004        Nov 10, In North Oakland, Ca., postal employee Harjit Singh Surajbansi was robbed of his cell phone, $3-12 and shot in the leg by 4 men. All 4 were later caught, convicted and sentenced from 2-14 years in prison.
    (SFC, 10/14/06, p.B3)
2004        Nov 10, Microsoft unveiled a preview of its new Internet search engine.
    (SFC, 11/11/04, p.C1)
2004        Nov 10, A gas station in Washington DC became the first in North America to have a hydrogen dispensing pump.
    (AP, 11/10/04)
2004        Nov 10, Bosnian Serb authorities apologized for the first time to relatives of around 8,000 Muslims killed by Serb forces in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
    (AP, 11/10/04)
2004        Nov 10, Chile confronted the grim legacy of abuses under the 1973-90 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet completing a lengthy report on torture and political imprisonment with testimonies from some 35,000 victims. The commission concluded that torture was a habitual practice of the armed forces and police throughout Pinochet’s dictatorship.
    (AP, 11/10/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.38)
2004        Nov 10, France and the UN began evacuating thousands of French and other expatriates in Ivory Coast.
    (AP, 11/10/04)
2004        Nov 10, Kidnappers abducted two members of PM Ayad Allawi's family in Baghdad and said they would be beheaded in two days if militant’s demands were not met. US forces bottled up insurgents in a narrow strip of Fallujah after a stunningly swift advance that seized control of 70 percent of the militant stronghold. Insurgents said 20 Iraqi soldiers were captured. Explosions shook the center of Ramadi and US troops clashed with insurgents.
    (AP, 11/10/04)(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 10, An Islamic court in northern Nigeria threw out a death by stoning sentence against a pregnant 18-year-old girl who had been condemned for adultery.
    (AP, 11/10/04)
2004        Nov 10, Japan's navy went on alert when a submarine was detected in Japanese waters between the southern island of Okinawa and Taiwan. Japan soon determined that it was Chinese nuclear submarine and incident strained relations between two of Asia's biggest economic and military powers.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 10, Dutch police mounted a major anti-terror raid against suspects holed up in an apartment in The Hague. 2 men were arrested following a daylong siege. Jason Walters (b.1985) was arrested along with Ismail Akhnikh after a massive 14 hour siege in The Hague. In 2010 Walters, while serving a 15-year sentence said he has renounced Islamic radicalism.
    (AP, 11/10/04)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Walters)
2004        Nov 10, The Scottish cabinet voted to ban smoking in public.
    (Econ, 11/13/04, p.61)
2004        Nov 10, In Siberia a fire in a wooden apartment building left at least 26 dead in the Tuva region capital, Kyzyl.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 10, Sudanese police raided a camp in Darfur for the second time this month, destroying makeshift homes, firing into the air and shouting at terrified villagers.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 10, Taiwan's leader, making a new appeal to China to hold talks, urged the communist giant to ban the development and use of weapons of mass destruction.
    (AP, 11/10/04)
2004        Nov 10, After a delayed final tally Reformist opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko edged the prime minister in the first round of Ukraine's presidential vote.
    (AP, 11/10/04)
2004        Nov 10, The Pacific island of Vanuatu withdrew a Nov 3 communique signed in Taipei to establish ties with Taiwan, handing Beijing a diplomatic victory over its arch rival.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 10, A WTO dispute panel published its decision that old American laws prohibiting gambling over wires that cross state lines violate global trade rules for the services sector.
    (Econ, 11/20/04, p.66)

2004        Nov 11, Delta Air Line pilots accepted over $1 billion in annual pay cuts and agreed to forgo raises through 2009.
    (SFC, 11/12/04, p.C2)
2004        Nov 11, It was reported that Beijing this month cancelled its bicycle registration requirements, a move viewed by the state press as highlighting the nation's full fledged entry into "car society" and the demise of the bicycle as a "transportation tool."
    (AFP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 11, It was reported that large swathes of southern and eastern China are in the grip of their worst drought in more than 50 years, prompting calls from the countries top leaders for better management of water conservation.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 11, Indian PM Manmohan Singh announced a reduction in troops in disputed Kashmir in a fresh initiative to push forward a fraying peace process with Pakistan.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 11, Iraqi security forces, backed by US troops, arrested Sheik Mahdi al-Sumaidaei, a hardline Sunni cleric and about two dozen others, after a raid of his Baghdad mosque uncovered weapons caches along with photographs of recent attacks on American troops. In Mosul guerrillas attacked at least five police stations and political party offices there in what could be a bid to relieve pressure on their allies in Fallujah.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 11, US and Iraqi forces, backed by an air and artillery barrage, launched a major attack into the southern half of Fallujah squeezing Sunni fighters into a smaller and smaller cordon. The military estimated 600 insurgents killed thus far in the offensive. Insurgents in Mosul overwhelmed several police stations and clashed with U.S. and Iraqi troops.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 11, Israeli police commandos stormed a Jerusalem church compound and arrested nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu for allegedly revealing classified information, seven months after he completed an 18-year prison sentence for treason.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 11, Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships raided a Gaza Strip town, killing 3 Palestinians and wounding at least 9 others.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 11, Lithuanian lawmakers ratified the newly signed EU constitution, making one of the bloc's newest members the first country to approve the historic document.
    (AP, 11/11/04)
2004        Nov 11, Yasser Arafat (75), Palestinian leader, died in Paris. He triumphantly forced his people's plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong quest for statehood. Arafat's body was flown back to the Mideast for funeral services in Egypt. Internment was to be in Ramallah.
    (AP, 11/11/04)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 11, Mahmoud Abbas, a former PM and veteran peace negotiator, was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Rauhi Fattouh, Palestinian parliament speaker, was set to serve as president until elections in about 60 days.
    (AP, 11/11/04)(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)

2004        Nov 12, Pres. Bush met with British PM Tony Blair and pledged to revive the deadlocked peace process in the Middle East.
    (SFC, 11/13/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 12, Former President Gerald R. Ford attended groundbreaking ceremonies at the Univ. of Michigan for the new home of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
    (SFC, 12/27/06, p.A11)
2004        Nov 12, John McLaughlin, deputy director of the CIA, resigned after a series of confrontations over the past week between senior operations officials and Patrick Murray, the CIA Director Porter J. Goss's new chief of staff. The riff left the agency in turmoil.
    (SFC, 11/13/04, p.A6)
2004        Nov 12, US Sec of State Colin Powell (67) submitted a Friday letter of resignation, but it was not made public until after the weekend.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 12, A jury in Redwood City, Ca., convicted Scott Peterson (32) of 1st degree murder of his pregnant wife and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay in Dec 2002 in what prosecutors portrayed as a cold-blooded attempt to escape marriage and fatherhood for the bachelor life. He was also convicted of 2nd degree murder for the unborn child.
    (AP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 12, It was reported that Japan and China owned about a quarter of outstanding US Treasury debt. They held $723 and $172 billion respectively.
    (WSJ, 11/12/04, p.C4)
2004        Nov 12, Scientists said that a new Glaxo vaccine could prevent most cases of cervical cancer.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, In southern Colombia suspected Marxist rebels gunned down Mario Canal (43), a state attorney, who had been prosecuting captured guerrilla commanders.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 12, Dutch police raided a suspected Kurdish separatist training camp in a small village in the southern Netherlands, arresting 29 people. 38 members of the group were arrested nationwide. Jason Walters threw a hand grenade and injured several police officers in a standoff at a barricaded house in The Hague. Walters was one of 7 men later convicted for belonging to a terrorist group associated with Mohammed Bouyeri, who killed filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov 2. In 2008 Their conviction was overturned, but a 15-year sentence against Walters was upheld. The court also reduced the sentence for Ismail Aknikh, who was with Walters during the standoff, from 13 years to 15 months.
    (AFP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A18)(AP, 1/23/08)
2004        Nov 12, In El Salvador US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld awarded bronze stars to six soldiers who fought in Iraq, and he praised the tiny nation for being the only Latin American country to have kept its troops there.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, It was reported that the French government plans to merge Airbus parent EADS with Thales, the country's largest defense company, to create a new European giant to rival Boeing Co.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, A strong earthquake rocked parts of eastern Indonesia injuring 40 and damaging hundreds of buildings. Six people on the island of Alor were killed.
    (WSJ, 11/12/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 12, In Iraq a gunbattle broke out in Mosul between gunmen and guards at the main headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Guards killed six attackers and captured four others before the rest fled.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, Mexico and a US environmental group agreed on a plan to protect 370,000 acres of tropical forest on the Yucatan Peninsula. Officials said it was the largest conservation project in the country's history.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, Pres. Enrique Bolanos told US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that Nicaragua would completely eliminate a stockpile of hundreds of surface-to-air missiles with no expectation of compensation from the US.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo attempted to calm labor discontent ahead of a planned general strike, saying he would order the reduction of kerosene prices.
    (AP, 11/12/04)
2004        Nov 12, Kings, princes and presidents from across the world paid a last tribute to Yasser Arafat at a military funeral in Cairo. Arafat was interned in Ramallah before a sea of mourners.
    (AP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A17)
2004        Nov 12, In the northern Philippines a passenger train derailed and tumbled down a ravine killing at least 10 people and injuring nearly 120 others.
    (AP, 11/12/04)

2004        Nov 13, At least 5,500 residents of St. Croix, the largest of the US Virgin Islands, have signed a petition asking Congress to make the island its own U.S. territory.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 13, Harry Lampert (88), the illustrator who created the DC Comics superhero 'The Flash' (1940) and later became known for his instructional books on bridge, died.
    (AP, 11/14/04)(SFC, 11/17/04, p.B8)
2004        Nov 13, Russell Jones, better know as rapper O.D.B. (old dirty bastard) died at age 35 inside a NYC recording studio.
    (SFC, 11/15/04, p.B3)
2004        Nov 13, Severe storms sank one ship and drove two aground near Algiers port, killing three seamen. About 20 sailors remained missing.
    (Reuters, 11/14/04)
2004        Nov 13, Australian police arrested two men and seized three million ecstasy tablets that the pair is accused of importing from Poland hidden inside a bakery oven.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 13, The new Lord Mayor of London, Michael Savory, paraded through the streets of the British capital in a traditional pomp-filled pageant. The mayor's one-year term consists mainly of acting as an ambassador for Europe's dominant financial centre.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 13, Egypt released 200 Islamic militants to mark Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadean fests. Egypt newspapers reported that some 700 members of the al-Gama'a al-Islamiya had  been released from prison in recent days. The Islamist group fought the government in the 1990s but has since renounced violence.
    (Reuters, 11/14/04)(AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 13, In New Delhi, India, a stampede at the main railway station killed at least five people and injured seven.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 13, US troops launched a major attack against insurgent holdouts in southern Fallujah. The US Army diverted an infantry battalion from Fallujah and sent them back to Mosul after an uprising there by insurgents. Video was recorded of a US Marine shooting an unarmed Iraqi prisoner in a Mosque.
    (AP, 11/13/04)(SFC, 11/16/04, p.A9)
2004        Nov 13, Pakistan said its army has demolished several terrorist hideouts and killed 30 to 40 militants in South Waziristan in an effort to capture foreign fighters and Pakistani militant leader Abdullah Mehsud.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 13, A 61-year-old German engineer, Gotthard L., was arrested in Switzerland on an international warrant on suspicion that he helped Libya's past efforts to build a nuclear bomb.
    (AP, 11/16/04)
2004        Nov 13, In Thailand's Muslim-majority south a 60-year-old Buddhist man was killed and at least 13 people injured in the 2 latest two bomb blasts. 5 bombs hit in the last 24-hours.
    (AP, 11/13/04)
2004        Nov 13, A Zimbabwe newspaper reported that the annual rate of inflation last month dropped to 209%, edging closer to a year-end target of 150% from a peak of 622.8% in Jan.
    (AFP, 11/13/04)

2004        Nov 14, Usher was honored with four trophies at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles, including favorite male soul-R&B artist, best pop-rock album, best pop-rock artist and best soul-R&B album.
    (AP, 11/14/05)
2004        Nov 14, It was reported that since 2002 the dollar has lost about 20% against a broad basket of currencies and over 40% against the euro.
    (SSFC, 11/14/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 14, Religious figures and Cuban government officials in Havana laid down the first stone of what will become the island's first-ever Russian Orthodox church.
    (AP, 11/14/04)
2004        Nov 14, The US military occupied Fallujah after six days of fighting. The military said 31 Americans have been killed in the siege. US Marines found the mutilated body of what they believe was a Western woman during a sweep of a street in central Fallujah.
    (AP, 11/14/04)
2004        Nov 14, Israel's military said it will stop allowing Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to carry weapons in public within the next 24 hours.
    (AP, 11/14/04)
2004        Nov 14, Gunmen in the Gaza Strip fired weapons near Mahmoud Abbas (69) and left 2 security men dead. Palestinian officials scheduled Jan. 9, 2005, for presidential elections.
    (AP, 11/14/04)(SFC, 11/15/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 14, A powerful South Korean labor union said hundreds of thousands of its members will strike from next week against a bill that aims to curb union militancy and allow companies to hire more temporary workers.
    (AP, 11/14/04)

2004        Nov 15, The Bush administration announced that it intended to negotiate trade agreements with Oman and the UAR.
    (Econ, 11/20/04, p.78)
2004        Nov 15, Energy Sec. Spencer Abraham announced his departure as did Agricultural Sec. Ann Veneman and Education Sec. Rod Paige.
    (SFC, 11/16/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 15, US Congressional investigators said Saddam Hussein’s regime made over $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the oil for food program. This was more than double the previous estimates.
    (SFC, 11/16/04, p.A9)
2004        Nov 15, Top CIA officials, Stephen Kappes and Michael Sulick announced their resignations after reported disputes with new Director Peter J. Goss.
    (SFC, 11/16/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 15, New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey stepped down from office amid rumors of that he was about to be sued for sexual harassment. Senate Pres. Richard Codey, also a Democrat, served out the final year of McGreevy’s term. McGreevey left office three months after admitting that he had had an extramarital affair with his homeland security advisor, Golan Cipel. Upon publicly revealing his homosexuality on August 12, 2004, McGreevey became the first and, to date, the only openly gay state governor in United States history.
    (SFC, 11/9/04, p.A2)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.27)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McGreevey)
2004        Nov 15, In Las Vegas 43 members of “Havana Night Club” revue, a Cuban dance troupe, asked for asylum. In 2005 the US granted asylum to 49 members of the troupe.
    (SFC, 11/16/04, p.A2)(SFC, 7/22/05, p.A8)
2004        Nov 15, China’s state media reported that shortages of coal and electricity are expected this winter.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 15, The Bank of France cut its 2004 economic growth forecast, placing further pressure on the government's budget plans as high oil prices and a weak dollar weigh on France's outlook.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 15, France concluded its evacuation efforts in Ivory Coast, where 5,000 Westerners fled a renewed civil war.
    (WSJ, 11/16/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 15, The UN atomic watchdog agency gave its support to Iran's agreement to suspend all uranium enrichment activities.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 15, Fierce battles between insurgents and US and Iraqi forces killed at least 16 people in Baqouba. Sgt. Rafael Peralta reportedly smothered a grenade to save the lives of other Marines during an exchange of fire in Fallujah. In 2015 a new US navy destroyer was named after Peralta.
    (AP, 11/15/04)(SFC, 3/7/12, p.A10)(SSFC, 11/1/15, p.A8)
2004        Nov 15, Israel offered its first indication it was reassessing relations with the Palestinians after Yasser Arafat's death, suggesting it might coordinate a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian Authority cracks down on militant groups.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 15, Macedonia’s PM Hari Kostov resigned over disagreements with ethnic Albanian coalition partners.
    (SFC, 11/16/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 15, Mexico's former ruling party, trying to fight its way back to the presidency, overwhelmingly won two gubernatorial elections and held razor-thin leads in two other races.
    (AP, 11/16/04)
2004        Nov 15, Nigeria ordered immediate cuts in domestic fuel prices, trying to avert a looming general strike.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 15, Nigeria's main labor union indefinitely suspended a looming countrywide strike that had threatened to shut down the oil industry.
    (AP, 11/15/04)
2004        Nov 15, Interim Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has asked Palestinian militants to halt violence during the campaign for Jan. 9 presidential elections.
    (AP, 11/16/04)
2004        Nov 15, In Peru the first public trial of Shining Path rebel leader Abimael Guzman fell apart as the 2nd of the 3 presiding judges stepped down citing a conflict of interest.
    (AP, 11/16/04)
2004        Nov 15, The UN Security Council imposed an immediate arms embargo on Ivory Coast's hard-line government.
    (AP, 11/16/04)

2004        Nov 16, President Bush picked National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as Sec. of State, replacing Colin Powell.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 16, US Senate Democrats selected Harry Reid of Nevada as party whip for the 109th Congress.
    (SFC, 11/17/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 16, A NASA unpiloted X-43A jet, part of its Hyper-X program, reached a record speed of 6,500 mph, Mach 9.6. It used the new scramjet engine.
    (SFC, 11/17/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 16, In northeast Australia a speeding high-speed passenger train derailed, injuring nearly all 163 people on board.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 16, In northeastern Colombia leftist rebels ambushed a police convoy, killing at least nine officers and wounding three others.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 16, India said its army will start reducing the number of troops in revolt-hit Kashmir  to coincide with a visit to the state by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Military experts estimate that India has about 250,000 troops in Kashmir.
    (AP, 11/16/04)
2004        Nov 16, US and Iraqi troops pushed into insurgent-heavy neighborhoods and stormed police stations in Mosul. US forces arrested a senior member of an influential Sunni political party after a dawn raid on his Baghdad home. The US military said it was investigating the videotaped fatal shooting of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a US Marine in a mosque in Fallujah. Sunni Muslims in Iraq expressed anger over videotape showing the fatal shooting of a wounded and apparently unarmed man in a Fallujah mosque by a US Marine. In 2007 the marine Corps charged a Marine sergeant with unpremeditated murder in the killing of the unarmed Iraqi prisoner in Fallujah. Another Marine was also charged in the same incident. In 2008 Sgt. Ryan Weemer became the 3rd person charged in the shooting.
    (AP, 11/16/04)(AP, 11/16/05)(SFC, 8/21/07, p.A13)(SFC, 3/19/08, p.A4)
2004        Nov 16, In Iraq a blindfolded woman, believed to be aid worker Margaret Hassan (59), was the shown being shot in the head by a hooded militant on a video obtained but not aired by Al-Jazeera television.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 16, Saudi police arrested 5 suspected militants in al-Qassim, 220 miles northwest of Riyadh, following a shootout that killed a policeman.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 16, Spanish police arrested 17 suspected members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA in a series of pre-dawn raids in northern Spain.
    (AP, 11/16/04)
2004        Nov 16, Darfur rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) handed over 20 prisoners of war to the African Union (AU).
    (Reuters, 11/16/04)

2004        Nov 17, US House Republicans adopted a rule change to allow majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas to keep his post if he is indicted on state corruption charges. In 2004 the change was rescinded. The US Senate passed an $800 billion debt limit increase.
    (SFC, 11/18/04, p.A3)(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/4/05, p.A1)
2004        Nov 17, In Washington state a recount was ordered in the governor’s race between Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi. The Nov 2 balloting left them separated by just a few of 2.8 million votes cast. A hand tally looked likely after a machine recount showed Rossi 42 votes ahead. After three counts of the ballots, Gregoire was declared the winner by just 129 votes out of 2.9 million cast.
    (SFC, 11/18/04, p.A5)(WSJ, 11/26/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/17/05)
2004        Nov 17, In Maryland the first US small office of the Chinese Confucius Institute opened at the Univ. of Maryland. By 2009 there were over 60 such facilities across the country offering Chinese culture to the American public.
    (http://english.people.com.cn/200411/19/eng20041119_164443.html)(Econ, 10/24/09, SR p.10)
2004        Nov 17, Kmart Holding Corp., led by Edward Lampert, announced an $11.5 billion acquisition of Sears Roebuck.
    (SFC, 11/18/04, p.C1)
2004        Nov 17, In Chile top government ministers from 21 Pacific Rim nations convened high-level talks on free trade and global security as police battled university students protesting the summit and a weekend visit by President Bush.
    (AP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 17, Millions of locusts swarmed into northern Egypt for the first time in 50 years, prompting authorities to order emergency pesticide spraying to protect the region's important agriculture industry.
    (AP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 17, The EU will consider giving Greece until the end of 2006 to cut its budget deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 17, India's PM Manmohan Singh paid a rare visit to the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, marking the start of a partial troop withdrawal that has been hailed by rival Pakistan as an important step in easing tensions. Pakistan's powerful Islamic parties dismissed the partial pullout of Indian troops from Indian-administered Kashmir as tokenistic "eyewash", saying a plebiscite was the only solution to the half-century dispute. India began pulling an estimated 40k of some 500k soldiers from Kashmir.
    (AP, 11/17/04)(AFP, 11/17/04)(WSJ, 11/18/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 17, A car bomber rammed a US convoy in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, during clashes with militants that killed 10 people.
    (AP, 11/17/04)
2004        Nov 17, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is developing a new form of nuclear missile unlike those held by other countries.
    (AP, 11/17/04)(SFC, 11/18/04, p.A3)

2004        Nov 18, In Little Rock, Ark., an estimated 30,000 guests attended the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center, a 30-acre, $165 million glass-and-steel home of artifacts and documents gathered during Clinton's eight years in the White House.
    (AP, 11/18/04)(Econ, 11/13/04, p.36)
2004        Nov 18, The US government reported a possible case of mad cow disease.
    (SFC, 11/19/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 18, US Army doctors said some 100 soldiers wounded in the Mideast and Afghanistan had come down with rare, treatment resistant blood infections.
    (WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 18, FDA officer David Graham identified 5 drugs with dangerous side effects: Crestor to lower cholesterol, Meridia for weight loss, Bextra for pain, Accutane for acne, and Serevent for asthma.
    (SFC, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 18, Genentech and its partners announced FDA approval of the experimental lung cancer drug, Tarceva.
    (SFC, 11/19/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 18, Former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry (74), who was convicted of killing four black girls in a racially motivated bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., church in 1963, died in prison.
    (AP, 11/18/05)
2004        Nov 18, Cy Coleman (75), composer, died in NYC. His Broadway musicals included “wildcat” (1960), “Sweet Charity” (1966) and “I Love My Wife” (1977).
    (SFC, 11/20/04, p.B6)
2004        Nov 18, A UN report said opium and heroin production in Afghanistan had rocketed to near record levels. It accounted for over 60% of Afghan GDP and 87% of world supply.
    (SFC, 11/19/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 18, Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales as elected legislators used the 1949 Parliament Act to win a dramatic standoff with the House of Lords to ban the popular country sport.
    (AP, 11/18/04)(SFC, 11/19/04, p.A2)
2004        Nov 18, A woman (48) became the first person in Chilean history to file for divorce.
    (AP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 18, Insurgents detonated a car bomb near a US military convoy in Baghdad and a roadside bomb exploded at a job recruiting center in the northern city of Kirkuk, in attacks that killed four people.
    (AP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 18, US troops discovered four decapitated bodies and captured dozens of militants during operations to purge northern Mosul of insurgents.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 18, Israeli troops killed three Egyptian policemen mistaken for Palestinian militants along the Gaza-Egypt border.
    (AP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 18, The Macedonian parliament accepted the resignation of PM Hari Kostov and his cabinet, leaving President Branko Crvenkovski 10 days to select a new premier.
    (AFP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 18, Myanmar's military government said it had begun releasing thousands of prisoners who may have been wrongly imprisoned by a recently disbanded military intelligence unit.
    (AFP, 11/18/04)
2004        Nov 18, A survey said Swiss teenagers smoke more cannabis than their peers in every other European country.
    (Reuters, 11/19/04)
2004        Nov 18, The UN Security Council opened an extraordinary two-day session in Nairobi, the first outside its New York headquarters in 14 years. Sudan topped the agenda. Great Lakes regional foreign ministers approved a pact for greater cross-border cooperation and confidence-building. It was due to be adopted at a summit in Dar es Salaam.
    (AP, 11/18/04)(AP, 11/19/04)

2004        Nov 19, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned about spiraling deficits and the impact on the declining dollar. The Dow Jones fell 115 to 10456.9.
    (SFC, 11/20/04, p.C1)
2004        Nov 19, In Auburn Hills, Mich., players and fans exchanged punches in one of the worst NBA brawls ever. Indiana Pacers’ Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson charged into the stands and fought with fans and forced an early end to the Pacers' 97-82 win over the Pistons win with 45.9 seconds left.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 19, Police in Abington, Pennsylvania, arrested Michael Cornelius Burke Jr. (38) for the assault and rape of 2 girls ages 10 & 13. In Apr 2006 Burke pleaded guilty but failed to show up for sentencing. In 2009 Burke was arrested in Mexico’s in central Veracruz state.
    (www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=66637)(AP, 12/9/09)
2004        Nov 19, Intel Corp., the world's largest computer chip maker, said it would spend $40 million to expand in the southern Indian city of Bangalore over the next two years.
    (AP, 11/19/04)
2004        Nov 19, Martin Edward Malia, historian and leading specialist on Russia who taught at the University of California, Berkeley, for more than three decades, died. “History’s Locomotives,” his last book, was published posthumously in 2006.
    (www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/11/23_malia.shtml)
2004        Nov 19, Terry Melcher (62), record producer and son of Doris Day, died. He co-wrote the Beach Boy song “Kokomo” and produced his mother’s “The Doris Day Show” (1968-1972).
    (SSFC, 11/21/04, p.A25)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Melcher)
2004        Nov 19, APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic cooperation summit, opened in Chile.
    (Econ, 11/20/04, p.40)
2004        Nov 19, Cuba and Panama agreed to restore consular relations, taking a step toward renewal of full diplomatic ties at a meeting on the sidelines of an Ibero-American summit.
    (AP, 11/19/04)
2004        Nov 19, Iraqi forces, backed by US soldiers, stormed one of the major Sunni Muslim mosques in Baghdad after Friday prayers, opening fire and killing at least 3 people. A suicide car bomber rammed into a police patrol in Baghdad, killing one policeman.
    (AP, 11/19/04)
2004        Nov 19, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper published photos of Israeli soldiers posing with dead Palestinians. Allegations of abuse followed.
    (SFC, 11/20/04, p.A16)
2004        Nov 19, Myanmar's junta freed Student democracy leader Min Ko Naing, the nation's number two political prisoner, as part of a release of 3,937 inmates. After 15 years in jail he became head of the “88 Generation students’ Group.”
    (AFP, 11/20/04)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.39)
2004        Nov 19, Rebel officials and the Sudanese government committed themselves to ending the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan before January, signing an agreement at a special meeting of the UN Security Council in Kenya.
    (AP, 11/19/04)
2004        Nov 19, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged leaders of Africa's blood-soaked Great Lakes region to implement a peace plan that could herald a "new era" for millions of Africans.
    (AP, 11/19/04)
2004        Nov 19, In Caracas a truck owned by a prosecutor pressing charges against supporters of Venezuela's failed 2002 coup exploded. Prosecutor Danilo Anderson was inside. In 2005 a court convicted 3 men in the murder of Anderson, who had been investigating opponents of Pres. Chavez and sentenced them to up to 30 years in prison. In 2008 Giovanny Vasquez, a star witness, recanted his testimony saying he testified against suspects after receiving $500,000 from a government official.
    (AP, 11/19/04)(AP, 12/21/05)(AP, 4/9/08)

2004        Nov 20, US Republicans whisked a $388 billion spending bill through the House.
    (AP, 11/20/05)
2004        Nov 20, The new NYC MOMA opened in midtown Manhattan. Its new tower was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.
    (Econ, 11/20/04, p.85)
2004        Nov 20, The NBA suspended 9 players without pay over the Nov 19 Piston and Pacer brawl in Auburn Hills, Mich.
    (Econ, 11/27/04, p.34)
2004        Nov 20, Juan Rodriguez (49) of NYC, a Colombian immigrant and parking garage worker, won the $149 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot. He chose to take a single payment of $88.5 million before taxes.
    (USAT, 11/21/04, p.3A)
2004        Nov 20, Scientist Ancel Keys (100), died in Minneapolis. He invented the K rations eaten by soldiers in World War II and who linked high cholesterol and fatty diets to heart disease.
    (AP, 11/20/05)
2004        Nov 20, Fifteen African presidents and UN chief Kofi Annan signed a common declaration in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to promote peace and security in the Great Lakes region.
    (AFP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, In Brazil gunmen raided the camp Terra Prometida and torched huts and crops in Minas Gerais state. 5 victims were executed with shots at close range and 12 other people, including a child, were injured. In 2013 rancher Adriano Chafik was sentenced to 115 years in prison for ordering and taking part in the Massacre of Felisburgo.
    (SSFC, 10/13/12, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/lw7xkqq)
2004        Nov 20, In China a fire at a complex of iron mines in Shahe, Hebei province, left 68 dead. Most of the miners were suffocated by smoke.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 20, An early morning 6.2 earthquake jolted San Jose, Costa Rica, and killed 8 people. Leaders of 21 nations were gathered there for the Ibero-American Summit.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, In Baghdad insurgents attacked a US patrol and a police station, assassinated 4 government employees and detonated several bombs. One American soldier was killed and 9 were wounded during clashes that left 3 Iraqi troops and a police officer dead.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, The bodies of nine Iraqi soldiers, all shot execution-style and seven of them decapitated, were discovered in the northern city of Mosul.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, Germany and the United States agreed on a proposal to write off as much as 80 percent of Iraq's debt.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, India pulled out around 3,000 troops from Kashmir.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, In southern Italy 8 people from two families were killed when a gas explosion destroyed their apartment building.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, In western Nepal at least 26 rebel and government soldiers were killed during a clash at a rebel training camp at Pandon.
    (SFC, 11/22/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 20, In Ojobo, Nigeria, a protest at an oil rig operated by Shell left 7 people dead.
    (SFC, 12/10/04, p.A23)
2004        Nov 20, Palestinians formally opened the campaign for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
    (AP, 11/20/05)
2004        Nov 20, A Polish woman abducted from her apartment in Baghdad reappeared in Poland after being suddenly released.
    (AP, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, Puerto Rico's two highest courts ordered election authorities in separate rulings to immediately begin recounting votes cast in the extremely tight Nov. 2 gubernatorial elections.
    (AP, 11/21/04)
2004        Nov 20, In Togo at least 13 people died and others were injured in a crush at a demonstration to welcome an improvement in relations with the EU.
    (Reuters, 11/20/04)
2004        Nov 20, Ugur Kaymaz (12) and his father Ahmet Kaymaz (30), a Kurdish truck driver from Kiziltepe, Turkey, were reportedly shot dead by police officers in front of their house. In 2007 all 4 members of the special forces implicated in the killings were exonerated.
    (www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/turkey.html)(Econ, 6/23/07, p.60)

2004        Nov 21, President Bush, trying to mend relations with Latin America, pledged during an economic summit in Chile to make a fresh push for stalled immigration reforms.
    (AP, 11/21/05)
2004        Nov 21, Donald Trump's casino empire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
    (AP, 11/21/05)
2004        Nov 21, The NBA suspended Indiana's Ron Artest for the rest of the season following a brawl that broke out at the end of a game against the Detroit Pistons.
    (AP, 11/21/05)
2004        Nov 21, In Texas Hasmukh Patel (53), a San Antonio convenience store owner, was fatally shot during an attempted robbery. In 2018 Christopher Young (34) was executed by lethal injection for the slaying.
    (SFC, 7/18/18, p.A6)
2004        Nov 21, A trespassing deer hunter in northern Wisconsin opened fire on other hunters when they asked him to leave, killing 5 and wounding 3. Another hunter died the next day. Police arrested Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong man of St. Paul Minn., for killing 6 hunters. In 2005 Vang (36) was convicted of 1st degree murder and sentenced to 6 life terms.
    (AP, 11/22/04)(WSJ, 11/23/04, p.A1)(SFC, 11/9/05, p.A3)
2004        Nov 21, Scientists began releasing water from Glen Canyon Dam to flood the Grand Canyon in a 5-day effort to restore the Colorado river ecosystem.
    (SFC, 11/22/04, p.A2)
2004        Nov 21, Noel Perrin (b.1927), Dartmouth professor and Vermont farmer, died. In 2006 Terry S. Osborne published “Best Person Rural,” a collection of Perrin’s best essays.
    (www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2004/11/23.html)(WSJ, 11/24/06, p.W8)
2004        Nov 21, US led troops mounted overnight raids on suspected al-Qaida compounds in eastern Afghanistan, killing four people and detaining several others.
    (AP, 11/21/04)
2004        Nov 21, In Chile Asia-Pacific leaders wrapped up an annual summit dominated by US President George W. Bush's core security agenda.
    (AP, 11/21/04)
2004        Nov 21, In northern China a Bombardier CRJ-200 passenger plane crashed in an ice-covered lake seconds after takeoff, killing all 54 people aboard and one person on the ground after an apparent midair explosion.
    (AP, 11/21/04)(WSJ, 11/22/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 21, Iraq's Electoral Commission set national elections for January 30.
    (AP, 11/21/04)
2004        Nov 21, In southern Israel swarms of locusts devoured lawns and palm trees.
    (AP, 11/21/04)
2004        Nov 21, At least 66 Maoist rebels and 10 government troopers were killed in an overnight clash in Nepal's far-western Pandon village.
    (AP, 11/21/04)
2004        Nov 21, Ukrainians cast ballots in a presidential run-off.
    (AP, 11/21/04)

2004        Nov 22, Pres. Bush traveled to Colombia following the summit in Chile.
    (WSJ, 11/22/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 22, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Fidel Castro in Havana for talks focusing on the broadening ties between Cuba and China.
    (AP, 11/22/04)
2004        Nov 22, In southern Colombia army troops killed Humberto Valbuena, head of the Teofilo Forero unit of FARC blamed for a string of high-profile attacks and kidnappings.
    (AP, 11/23/04)   
2004        Nov 22, A senior UN official said the UN is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by UN civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape. Health officials said an outbreak of a severe form of typhoid has killed at least 16 people in Kinshasa, sickening at least 144 more.
    (AP, 11/22/04)
2004        Nov 22, Stavros Dimas (b.1941), Greek politician, succeeded Margot Walstron of Sweden as the EU’s environment commissioner.
    (Econ, 10/25/08, p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavros_Dimas)
2004        Nov 22, Iran said it had frozen all uranium enrichment programs;  President Bush said he hoped the statement was true but added, "there must be verification."
    (AP, 11/22/05)
2004        Nov 22, The ruling Fatah party chose Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority in Jan. 9 elections.
    (AP, 11/22/04)
2004        Nov 22, A World Bank report said nearly half the Palestinian population was living in poverty on less than $2 a day.
    (AP, 11/22/04)
2004        Nov 22, In the Philippines 29 people were confirmed dead with 84 others missing and feared dead following tropical storm Muifa.
    (AP, 11/22/04)
2004        Nov 22, Fighting near a village in Sudan's crisis-plagued Darfur region killed at least 17 people, while helicopters rescued dozens of workers who fled into the bush.
    (AP, 11/22/04)
2004        Nov 22, Ukraine’s central electoral commission said that with 99.38 percent of polling stations reporting, PM Viktor Yanukovych had secured 49.42 percent of the vote compared to 46.7 for his Western-leaning rival, Viktor Yushchenko. Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed downtown Kiev in freezing temperatures, denouncing Ukraine's presidential runoff election as fraudulent and chanting the name of their reformist candidate. The color orange spread as the symbol of protest and the movement began to be called the Orange Revolution.
    (AP, 11/22/04)(WSJ, 11/29/04, p.A1)

2004        Nov 23, US news host Dan Rather announced he would step down as principal anchorman of "The CBS Evening News" in March 2005.
    (AP, 11/23/05)
2004        Nov 23, In Afghanistan 3 UN workers kidnapped 4 weeks ago were released unharmed.
    (AP, 11/23/04)
2004        Nov 23, In Brazil government data indicated that 47% of its rainforest was now occupied by man or logged.
    (WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 23, Some 5,000 US Marines, British troops and Iraqi commandos launched raids and arrested suspected insurgents aimed at clearing a swath of insurgent hotbeds south of Baghdad.
    (AP, 11/23/04)
2004        Nov 23, In Kashmir suspected Muslim rebels shot dead five people in overnight attacks.
    (AP, 11/23/04)
2004        Nov 23, In Mexico City a mob angry about recent child abductions cornered plainclothes federal agents taking photos of students at a school and burned the officers alive, mistaking the agents for kidnappers.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 23, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz arrived in India to help push forward a fragile peace process.
    (AP, 11/23/04)
2004        Nov 23, Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told parliament that he would follow Arafat's footsteps and demand that Israel recognize the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees.
    (AP, 11/23/04)
2004        Nov 23, Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared victory in Ukraine's presidential election and took a symbolic oath of office. About 200,000 supporters gathered in the capital to protest alleged election fraud. He won a court-ordered revote in December 2004.
    (AP, 11/23/04)(AP, 11/23/05)
2004        Nov 23, The UN Working Group on Internet Governance (40 delegates) met in Geneva.
    (Econ, 11/20/04, p.65)
2004        Nov 23, In Venezuela lawyer Antonio Lopez, a suspect in the slaying of a top prosecutor last week, was killed in a shootout with police.
    (AP, 11/23/04)
2004        Nov 23, A UN AIDS report said infections had risen 7.7% to 39.4 million over the last 2 years; growth was fastest in Asia and East Europe. New infections in 2004 were estimated at 4.9 million with 3.1 million deaths.
    (WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.82)

2004        Nov 24, Arthur Hailey (b.1920), author of the 1968 novel “Airport,” died in the Bahamas.
    (SFC, 11/26/04, p.B3)
2004        Nov 24, In southern Afghanistan a bomb exploded near a US patrol, killing two American soldiers and wounding another.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 24, The US military ended a 9-year peacekeeping role in Bosnia but kept on a small contingent to hunt down top war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 24, Canada’s PM Paul Martin visited Burkina Faso. Canada is investing about $20 million in a Basic Education Plan to pump $140 million into building schools across the country.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 24, In Fallujah the US military uncovered the largest arms cache yet inside the mosque of an insurgent leader. 5 Arab foreign fighters who had escaped from Fallujah were arrested near southern Basra. They were planning to attack coalition bases and police stations.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 24, An Iraqi woman, working as a translator, was shot and killed by 2 US soldiers playing with a firearm. In 2005 Spc. Charley Hooser was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and Spc. Rami Dajani of accessory after the fact.
    (SSFC, 1/23/05, p.A5)
2004        Nov 24, President Jacques Chirac arrived in Libya in the first ever visit by a French head of state.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 24, Paraguayan police captured Ivan Mezquita, a leading Brazilian drug trafficking suspect, after a gunbattle with occupants of a cocaine-laden plane near the border with Brazil.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 24, The UN mission said Rwanda has warned it will launch an attack "very soon" on Rwandan Hutu rebels sheltering in eastern Congo.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 24, Ukraine's election commission declared Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-backed prime minister, as winner. Ukraine's opposition called for a new round of presidential elections to resolve the political crisis gripping the nation. EU leaders, alleging fraud, warned of "consequences" if the poll was not reviewed.
    (AP, 11/24/04)
2004        Nov 24, Venezuela’s Congress passed a bill that lays down strict guidelines for sex and violence in broadcast programming and threatens multimillion dollar fines or even closure for media outlets that disobey.
    (AP, 11/25/04)

2004        Nov 25, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, said a deal was reached with Brazil on inspecting its uranium enrichment plant.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 25, The 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress closed in Bangkok. Its final resolutions included a resolution urging governments to limit the use of loud noise sources in the world’s oceans.
    (SFC, 12/13/04, p.C1)
2004        Nov 25, In China Yan Yanming (21) broke into a high school dormitory in Ruzhou with a knife and killed 8 students. A series of knife attacks have hit Chinese schools in recent months. Yanming was executed Jan 18, 2004.
    (AP, 11/26/04)(AP, 1/20/05)
2004        Nov 25, Congo Pres. Joseph Kabila suspended 6 cabinet ministers and 10 directors of state-run companies. A parliamentary inquiry alleged they had embezzled government funds.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 25, Eight former pro-Jakarta militiamen were convicted in East Timor for crimes against humanity committed in the mayhem surrounding a 1999 UN-backed vote that led to the country's separation from Indonesia.
    (AFP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 25, Ethiopia finally accepted a special commission's ruling designed to resolve a border dispute with Eritrea that sparked a devastating war between 1998 and 2000.
    (AFP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 25, French President Jacques Chirac set aside years of acrimony over the bombing of a French passenger jet in the 1980s and declared a "new chapter" in relations with Libya.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 25, Leading Sunni Muslim politicians in Iraq urged postponement of the Jan. 30, 2005, national elections. However, the elections ended up taking place as scheduled.
    (AP, 11/25/05)
2004        Nov 25, A mortar attack killed four employees of a British security firm and wounded 15 others in the Baghdad's Green Zone. Two Marines were killed and 3 others wounded when they came under fire during house-clearing operations in Fallujah. 3 rebels were killed in response.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 25, An Iraqi official said more than 2,000 people have been killed so far in the U.S.-Iraqi operation against the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 25, In Mexico the bodies of 9 people, including three federal agents, were discovered at two sites outside Cancun, and police are blaming the killings on a drug turf war.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 25, Mexican federal investigators said that two Mexico City police and 27 other people face homicide charges in the horrific vigilante killings of two federal agents this week.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 25, Myanmar announced it is to free more than 5,000 prisoners on top of the nearly 4,000 announced last week.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 25, Nicaragua's congress voted to give itself the power to ratify and dismiss Cabinet ministers and other officials in a deepening political crisis touched off by anti-corruption efforts.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 25, In Singapore China Aviation Oil, CAO Singapore, filed for bankruptcy protection following an estimated loss of $550 million from a series of bets on oil prices.
    (WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 25, The UN World Food Program said it has suspended its operations in most of the Sudanese state of North Darfur and relocated its staff to the capital due to renewed clashes between rebels and government forces.
    (AP, 11/25/04)
2004        Nov 25, Ukraine's Supreme Court prohibited making the results of the nation's disputed presidential election official until it considers an appeal.
    (AP, 11/25/04)

2004        Nov 26, The dollar reached a new low against the euro at 1.3288 euros per dollar. The euro peaked at 1.3329.
    (SFC, 11/27/04, p.C1)(WSJ, 11/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 26, A Cyprus-registered tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, creating a 20-mile-long slick that killed dozens of birds and threatened other wildlife.
    (AP, 11/28/04)
2004        Nov 26, In NYC a man jumped to his death from the 86th-floor observation deck at the Empire State Building.
    (AP, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 26, Philippe de Broca (71), French movie director ("King of Hearts"), died.
    (AP, 11/26/05)
2004        Nov 26, Leading Iraqi politicians called for a six-month delay in the Jan. 30 election because of spiraling violence; President Bush said, "The Iraqi Election Commission has scheduled elections in January, and I would hope they'd go forward in January." The vote took place as scheduled.
    (AP, 11/26/05)
2004        Nov 26, In Mosul 17 more Iraqi bodies were found following 15 discovered a day earlier. 65 bodies were reported found over the last 8 days with 20 confirmed as members of the new Iraqi security forces.
    (SFC, 11/27/04, p.A13)
2004        Nov 26, The ruling party in the Palestinian Authority set Aug. 4 as the date for an internal election in an apparent attempt to persuade the head of Fatah's restless young guard to drop out of the January presidential balloting.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 26, Rwanda said it was ready to hold talks with Democratic Republic of Congo Pres. Joseph Kabila to defuse growing tensions over Rwandan rebels based in eastern Congo.
    (Reuters, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 26, Sudan's pro-government Janjaweed militia killed 16 people in a western village in the troubled Darfur region.
    (AP, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 26, A UN spokesman said the son of Secretary-General Kofi Annan received payments from a firm with a UN Iraqi oil-for-food contract more than four years longer than the world body previously admitted.
    (AP, 11/26/04)
2004        Nov 26, The World Trade Organization gave final approval to the EU, Japan and others to hit the US with an initial $150 million in trade sanctions in a row over the 2000 Byrd amendment, an illegal anti-dumping law. Penalties on US exports ranged from apples to textiles.
    (AP, 11/27/04)(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A4)

2004        Nov 27, U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins was released from a military jail after serving 25 days for abandoning his squadron and crossing the border into North Korea in 1965.
    (AP, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 27, Billy James Hargis (79), televangelist, died. His books included “Is the Schoolhouse the Best Place to Teach Raw Sex.” In 1974 students at his American Christian College claimed Hargis had deflowered them.
    (Econ, 12/18/04, p.135)
2004        Nov 27, In Afghanistan 6 Americans died when a private plane used by the US Air Force crashed in snow-covered mountains. Search teams later recovered the bodies.
    (AP, 12/1/04)(WSJ, 12/1/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 27, In India Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, presented the triennial Aga Khan awards for architecture.
    (AP, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 27, Saudi security forces killed a suspected militant in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
    (AP, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 27, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels threatened to resume a two-decade war for self-rule if the government does not agree to discuss their demands soon.
    (AP, 11/27/04)
2004        Nov 27, Ukraine's parliament declared invalid the disputed presidential election that triggered a week of growing street protests and legal maneuvers, raising the possibility that a new vote could be held.
    (AP, 11/27/04)

2004        Nov 28, A private jet crashed while taking off in Montrose, Colo., killing 2 crewmen and Edward Ebersol (14), the son of NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, who escaped with his other son Charles.
    (SFC, 11/30/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 28, On southern Australia’s King Island about 80 whales and dolphins died after beaching, and about 50 more were still at risk.
    (AP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 28, In central China an explosion tore through a coal mine, sending smoke from air vents and trapping at least 166 miners in tunnels and shafts below without communications. The death toll was later confirmed at 166.
    (AP, 12/1/04)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.43)
2004        Nov 28, French Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy took over the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the ruling conservative party at a glitzy American-style congress. This put him on course to launch a presidential bid and possibly challenge Jacques Chirac in 2007.
    (AP, 11/28/04)(Econ, 11/27/04, p.14)
2004        Nov 28, In central India at least 16 people were killed when they were run over by a speeding train after getting off another train on a parallel line.
    (Reuters, 11/28/04)
2004        Nov 28, Iraq's most feared terror group claimed responsibility for slaughtering members of the Iraqi security forces in Mosul, where dozens of bodies had been found.
    (AP, 11/28/05)
2004        Nov 28, In Kazakhstan 2 powerful blasts rocked the headquarters of President Nursultan Nazarbayev's ruling Otan (Fatherland) party in Almaty's busy central district.
    (Reuters, 11/28/04)
2004        Nov 28, In Mexico gunmen killed Gregorio Rodriguez, a newspaper photographer, as he and his family ate in a restaurant the state of Sinaloa, the home turf of nearly all of Mexico's top drug bosses.
    (AP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 28, Romanians voted for a president to succeed Ion Iliescu and lead the former communist country into the European Union. A run off was scheduled for Dec 12 when neither ruling Socialist’s Nastase nor Bucharest Mayor Basescu received 50%.
    (AP, 11/28/04)(WSJ, 11/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 28, Ukraine’s outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called on opposition supporters to end their four-day blockade of government buildings, saying compromise is needed to solve the political crisis.
    (AP, 11/28/04)

2004        Nov 29, Pres. Bush nominated Carlos Gutierrez, head of Kellogg Co., to serve as secretary of commerce.
    (SFC, 11/30/04, p.C1)
2004        Nov 29, The US Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a gay-marriage law in Massachusetts.
    (AP, 11/29/05)
2004        Nov 29, John Drew Barrymore (72), the sometimes troubled heir to an acting dynasty and absent father of movie star Drew Barrymore, died in Los Angeles.
    (AP, 11/29/05)
2004        Nov 29, Butteur Metayer, a street gang leader who led the rebellion that forced Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee, was arrested in Miami.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Nov 29, A US Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed near Fort Hood, Texas, and 7 soldiers were killed.
    (SFC, 11/30/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 29, Congo said it will send up to 10,000 soldiers to its eastern province of North Kivu to prevent rebels and Rwandan forces from launching cross border attacks.
    (AP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 29, Rwandan troops attacked a town in eastern Congo. The next day a Congolese commander said at least 19 civilians were killed.
    (Reuters, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 29, President Jacques Chirac's office said French Agriculture Minister Herve Gaymard is to succeed Nicolas Sarkozy as Finance Minister.
    (AP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 29, More than a dozen people hunting rabbits being smoked out of a Honduran sugarcane field were engulfed by the fast-moving flames. Eleven children and four adults died.
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Nov 29, In western Iraq a car bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing seven government security force members and injuring nine.
    (AP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 29, A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, injuring at least 24 people.
    (AP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 29-Dec 3, Kenya hosted a conference on landmines in Nairobi. An estimated 40 people per day were killed by landmines. 144 countries had signed the 1997 Ottawa treaty banning landmines, but China, Russia, Pakistan, India and the US still refused to sign.
    (www.reviewconference.org/)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.46)
2004        Nov 29, The annual ASEAN summit opened in Vientiane, Laos.
    (Econ, 11/27/04, p.43)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.42)
2004        Nov 29, Southeast Asian nations and China signed an accord to create the world's biggest free trade area by removing tariffs for their 2 billion people by decade's end.
    (AP, 11/29/04)
2004        Nov 29, The Sudanese government declared the representatives of two British humanitarian organizations persona non-grata and gave them 48 hours to leave the country.
    (AP, 11/29/04)

2004        Nov 30, US Pres. George W. Bush flew to Ottawa, Canada, for a whirlwind visit designed to begin mending international fences in the wake of the Iraq war.
    (AP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 30, Tom Ridge, head of US homeland security, said he will leave his job no later than Feb 1.
    (SFC, 12/1/04, p.A1)
2004        Nov 30, Kweisi Mfume (56), head of the NAACP, said he is stepping down.
    (SFC, 12/1/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 30, Ken Jennings ended his 74-game winning streak on Jeopardy when he missed a question on H&R Block. His winnings had reached $2,520,700 as he lost to real estate agent Nancy Zerg. In 2006 Jennings authored “Brainiac,” an account of his Jeopardy experiences.
    (WSJ, 12/1/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/16/06, p.P10)
2004        Nov 30, Congo-based Rwandan rebels, under threat of imminent attack by Rwanda, repeated an allegation that Rwandan troops had crossed the border in recent days to seize the vast country's mineral-rich east.
    (AP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 30, Cuba's communist government freed dissident writer Raul Rivero from prison. Cuba unexpectedly released three political dissidents for health reasons: economics writer Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who has a liver ailment, Marcelo Lopez, who has a neurological disorder, and Margarito Broche, who suffered a heart attack in prison.
    (AP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 30, The 28th Cairo International Film Festival, the biggest in the Middle East, opened with US and British films excluded from competition for "technical" reasons.
    (AP, 11/28/04)
2004        Nov 30, A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives next to a US convoy on Baghdad's dangerous airport road leaving several casualties.
    (AP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 30, A Lion Air MD-82 passenger plane from Jakarta carrying nearly 150 people skidded off a runway in Solo, Indonesia, and split into two pieces killing at least 31 people.
    (AP, 11/30/04)(SFC, 12/1/04, p.A3)
2004        Nov 30, Italy ground to a halt as millions of workers observed a general strike in protest against the economic policies of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government.
    (AFP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 30, Pakistan's acting president signed legislation that will allow Gen. Pervez Musharraf to remain as both head of the state and army chief beyond Dec. 31.
    (AP, 11/30/04)
2004        Nov 30, Clashes between landless farmworkers and Paraguayan security forces left a police officer dead and 20 other people injured in a resurgence of violence.
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Nov 30, The death toll from landslides and flash floods in the eastern Philippines jumped to nearly 340 with 150 others missing, after a second rainstorm hit a region still reeling from last week's deadly typhoon. Excess logging was blamed for the landslides. Only some 70,000 sq. km. of forest remained from an estimated 300,000 a hundred years ago.
    (AP, 11/30/04)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.42)
2004        Nov 30, Opposition supporters tried to rush through the doors of the parliament building after Ukrainian lawmakers appeared to backslide from supporting measures that would overturn the results of last week's disputed presidential election.
    (AP, 11/30/04)

2004        Nov, The US announced an additional $780m for drug control efforts in Afghanistan.
    (Econ, 11/20/04, p.46)
2004        Nov, Digg, an Internet-based provider of content submitted by users, went live. Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson founded Digg.com, a web-based news site using collaborative editing to focus on news in technology.
    (SFC, 6/23/06, p.D5)(WSJ, 2/10/07, p.P4)
2004        Nov, Tom and Jackie Hawks of Arizona were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard from their yacht off Southern California. In 2009 Skylar Deleon (29) of Long Beach was convicted of their murder and sentenced to death.
    (SFC, 4/11/09, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylar_Deleon)
2004        Nov, Cynthia Alonzo (48) disappeared. In 2012 her ex-boyfriend Eric Mora (55) was convicted of 2nd degree murder. Her blood had been found at his home in the Oakland hills, but her body was still missing.
    (SFC, 2/29/12, p.C5)
2004        Nov, Cameron Doomadgee died on Australia’s Palm Island soon after he was arrested by Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley for public drunkenness. A first autopsy put the cause of death down to a fall, leading to a riot that saw the island's police station, barracks and watchhouse destroyed. In 2007 officer Hurley was charged for Doomadgee’s death.
    (AFP, 1/26/07)
2004        Nov, In Ecuador former government allies failed in an attempt to impeach Pres. Gutierrez. An ad hoc alliance between the populist Roldosista Party and banana magnate Alvaro Noboa sacked most of the Supreme Court.
    (Econ, 4/9/05, p.30)
2004        Nov, Manuel Durao Barroso, former PM of Portugal, took over as head of the European Commission.
    (Econ, 2/19/05, p.52)
2004        Nov, Italy’s National Magistrates Assoc. (ANM) staged their 3rd one-day strike under the current parliament to protest a bill to reform the judicial system.
    (Econ, 11/27/04, p.53)
2004        Nov, Human Rights Watch released a report, “Hated to Death,” on homophobia, violence and AIDS in Jamaica.
    (Econ, 11/27/04, p.42)
2004        Nov, Norway adopted new rules that barred investments in its national Petroleum Fund “which constitute an unacceptable risk that the Fund may contribute to unethical acts or omissions.”
    (WSJ, 12/1/05, p.A11)
2004        Nov, Pakistan released from prison Asif Zardari, husband of former PM Benazir Bhutto.
    (Econ, 11/27/04, p.45)
2004        Nov, Hot seasonal winds known as the Levante carried swarms of desert locusts to Spain’s Canary Islands.
    (SFC, 12/4/04, p.B10)

2004        Dec 1, US President George W. Bush arrived in Halifax to thank Atlantic Canadians for helping thousands of stranded Americans three years ago and to deliver a speech expected to outline his foreign policy goals for the next four years.
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Dec 1, The Pentagon said it will boost US troops in Iraq to 150,000.
    (SFC, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 1, Tom Brokaw signed off as anchor of NBC News after 21 years. He was succeeded by Brian Williams.
    (SFC, 12/2/04, p.A3)(AP, 12/01/05)
2004        Dec 1, World AIDS Day was observed around the globe. The CDC said nearly one million Americans had the AIDS virus.
    (AP, 12/1/04)(WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2005        Dec 1, Texas Gov. Rick Perry blocked the execution of Frances Newton two hours before she was to be lethally injected for the deaths of her husband and two young children so her lawyers can conduct new tests on evidence in the 17-year-old murder case. Newton was executed in September 2005.
    (AP, 12/01/05)
2004        Dec 1, Andrea Labbe (26), a Toronto woman, stabbed her husband and three-year-old daughter to death before fatally cutting her own throat in one of the most terrible tragedies ever encountered by the city's emergency workers.
    (AP, 12/3/04)
2004        Dec 1, A French appeals court reduced the suspended prison sentence for former Prime Minister Alain Juppe in a party financing scandal from 18 to 14 months, and barred him from elected office for 1 year instead of 10.
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Dec 1, A prison riot followed other violence that left at least 11 people dead and scores wounded as Secretary of State Colin Powell visited with Haitian leaders in an effort to stop the country's bloodshed.
    (AP, 12/2/04)
2004        Dec 1, Encore Software Ltd., one of the makers of India's cheap hand-held computer, the Simputer, forecast a surge in orders to 50,000 units next year.
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Dec 1, The US military command said multinational troops have arrested 210 suspected militants in a weeklong crackdown against insurgents in an area south of Baghdad known as the "triangle of death."
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Dec 1, Prince Bernhard (93), father of Queen Beatrix, died in Utrecht. It was soon reported that he had acknowledged in a series of secret interviews 2 illegitimate children and the acceptance of bribes in 1976 from Lockheed to persuade the Dutch government to purchase its planes. The money was reportedly passed to charities.
    (SFC, 12/15/04, p.A12)
2004        Dec 1, Unidentified gunmen in Iraq killed 5 leading members of a Kurdish group that led a 15-year rebellion in southern Turkey.
    (WSJ, 12/2/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 1, A Hamas leader announced that the militant group will boycott upcoming Palestinian presidential elections.
    (AP, 12/1/04)
2004        Dec 1, Ukraine's parliament brought down the government of PM Viktor Yanukovych with a no-confidence motion in a show of the opposition's strength. The outgoing president called for an entirely new presidential election to be held to resolve the spiraling political crisis.
    (AP, 12/1/04)

2004        Dec 2, Pres. Bush picked Bernard Kerik (49), a former NYC police commissioner, to take over the Dept. of Homeland Security. Kerik recently made millions from the sale of stock options granted when he joined the board of stun-gun maker Taser Int’l. in 2002. On Dec 10 Kerik requested that his name be removed from consideration saying he had not paid taxes for a recent nanny who may have been an illegal immigrant.
    (SFC, 12/3/04, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A8)(SFC, 12/11/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 2, President Bush announced that Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns was his choice as the next agriculture secretary, replacing Ann Veneman.
    (AP, 12/02/05)
2004        Dec 2, UN ambassador John Danforth resigned after five months representing the U.S. at the world body.
    (AP, 12/02/05)
2004        Dec 2, It was reported that United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) has forged a $100 million agreement with Sinotrans to take direct control of its international express operations in China's largest and most important cities by the end of 2005.
    (www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2004/11/29/daily33.html)
2004        Dec 2, Mona Van Duyn (b.1921), US poet laureate (1992), died at her home in University City, Missouri.
    (SFC, 12/4/04, p.B7)
2004        Dec 2, In Chile an appeals court ruled to strip former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution for a 1974 car bombing that killed an exiled Chilean general and the man's wife.
    (AP, 12/2/04)
2004        Dec 2, Dame Alicia Markova (b.1910 as Alice Marks), eminent ballerina and founder of the English National Ballet, died.
    (SFC, 12/3/04, p.B6)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.85)
2004        Dec 2, The European Union began its biggest-ever military operation, formally taking over NATO's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia with 7,000 troops (EUFOR).
    (AP, 12/2/04)(Econ, 3/19/05, p.60)
2004        Dec 2, In Iraq a mortar barrage hammered the heavily fortified Green Zone and elsewhere in central Baghdad, killing at least one person.
    (AP, 12/2/04)
2004        Dec 2, From Italy it was reported that a mob turf war claimed more than 20 lives in the last month in the Naples area, prompting police to launch an emergency security clampdown.
    (AP, 12/2/04)
2004        Dec 2, Interior Secretary Santiago Creel announced authorities had arrested 224 street gang members during a weeklong sweep across Mexico.
    (AP, 12/3/04)
2004        Dec 2, In the Philippines back-to-back storms killed more at least 842 people and left 751 missing. 1,100 were feared dead in the wake of Typhoon Nanmadol.
    (AP, 12/4/04)(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A26)

2004        Dec 3,    US Pres. George W. Bush signed a law extending normal trade relations to Laos.
    (AFP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 3, It was announced that US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was staying on the job.
    (AP, 12/03/05)
2004        Dec 3, Tommy G. Thompson (63), US sec. of health and human services, announced his resignation and expressed concern over the threat of global flu and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the nation’s food supply.
    (SFC, 12/4/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 3, It was reported that methamphetamine initially revs up the dopamine nervous system in the brain and that sex is the No. 1 reason people use it. The effect of an IV hit of meth is the equivalent of 10 orgasms all on top of each other lasting for 30 minutes to an hour, with a feeling of arousal that lasts for another day and a half. After you have been using it a little bit longer you can't have sex even when you're high. Nothing happens. It doesn't work. Later hair falls out and teeth fall out. A total of 1,083 clandestine methamphetamine labs were cleaned up in Tennessee in 2003.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 3, A boat carrying at least 91 Dominican migrants apparently trying to reach Puerto Rico illegally capsized, killing eight people.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 3, In France Liberation's founding CEO Serge July announced the start of exclusive negotiations with Banker Edouard de Rothschild over a $27 million capital increase that would let the banker acquire 37 percent of the popular daily.
    (AP, 12/3/04)
2004        Dec 3, In Germany 3 Iraqi citizens of Kurdish origin were arrested for plotting to kill Iraqi PM Ayad Allawi. In 2008 the 3 men were convicted and sentenced to prison. The Stuttgart state court convicted the three men of attempted participation in murder and membership in terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaida.
    (AP, 7/15/08)   
2004        Dec 3, In western Guatemala 2 buses collided head-on along a mountain highway, and one toppled into a nearby ravine, killing 21 people and injuring at least 20.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 3, India's foreign exchange reserves vaulted $3.8 billion in the week through Dec. 3 to a record $130.72 billion, as foreign capital poured into Asia's fourth-biggest economy and the dollar slid against the euro.
    (Reuters, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 3, Insurgents launched two major attacks against a Shiite mosque and a police station in Baghdad, killing 30 people, including at least 16 police officers.
    (AP, 12/3/04)
2004        Dec 3, Ramush Haradinaj (36) was elected prime minister of Kosovo.
    (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041213-112138-1866r.htm)
2004        Dec 3, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a top Hamas leader, said the militant group would accept the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as a long-term truce with Israel.
    (AP, 12/3/04)(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 3, In Russia 15 people were killed when a fire broke out in a furniture factory warehouse in the Moscow region.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 3, Ukraine’s Supreme Court overturned the results of the disputed presidential elections and ordered a new runoff by Dec 26.
    (SFC, 12/4/04, p.A1)

2004        Dec 4, President Bush received the president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in the Oval Office; afterward, Bush pronounced himself "very pleased" with Pakistan's efforts to flush out terrorists.
    (AP, 12/04/05)
2004        Dec 4, The euro closed at a record $1.3460. Over the next few years “it seems an excellent bet that there will be a large drop in the dollar.”
    (SFC, 12/7/04, p.D3)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.71)
2004        Dec 4, Miss Peru, Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia, an aspiring high school teacher, was crowned Miss World 2004 In Southern China.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 4, Colombian drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela was flown to the US, becoming the most powerful Colombian trafficker ever extradited to face US justice.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 4, Suicide attackers carried out a string of car bombings against Iraqi policemen in Baghdad and Kurdish militiamen in the north, killing 14 people and wounding at least 59.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 4, Two US soldiers were killed and four wounded when their patrol came under attack in the northwestern city of Mosul.
    (AP, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 4, A car accident in Bucharest killed Teofil Peter of the rock band Compact. In 2006 US Marine Sgt Christopher VanGoethem, a US embassy guard, was acquitted of negligent homicide by a Marine court in Virginia.
    (SFC, 2/1/06, p.A3)
2004        Dec 4, Russia said India should become a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council if the top decision-making body is enlarged to reflect post-Cold War realities.
    (Reuters, 12/4/04)
2004        Dec 4, Zimbabwe's ruling party elected longtime cabinet minister Joyce Mujuru as the country's first woman vice-president at the end of a party congress, putting her on course to succeed Mugabe when he eventually retires in 2008.
    (AFP, 12/4/04)

2004        Dec 5, US Senator McCain demanded that baseball players and owners take action to tighten drug testing and threatened legislation to that end.
    (WSJ, 12/6/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 5, In Bolivia Indian and peasant organizations promising better access to health care and education won every major city in local elections, trouncing long-dominant parties.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 5, Egypt freed an Israeli Arab businessman convicted of spying in exchange for Israel's release of six Egyptian students.
    (AP, 12/5/04)
2004        Dec 5, In Abkhazia (Georgia) the two candidates vying for the region's presidency agreed to conduct new elections and run on a joint ticket.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 5, Hungarians voted in a referendum on extending citizenship to millions of ethnic Hungarians living in the region.
    (AP, 12/5/04)
2004        Dec 5, Gunmen opened fire at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces at a weapons dump in Tikrit. 17 people died and 13 were wounded. A suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Beiji. 3 guardsmen, including a company commander, were killed and 18 wounded. Guerrillas ambushed a joint Iraqi-coalition patrol in Latifiyah and attacked Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling near Samarra. 2 Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 5, In Kashmir a remote-controlled roadside bomb blew up an army patrol car in a pre-dawn attack, killing an Indian army major and 10 other soldiers.
    (AP, 12/5/04)
2004        Dec 5, In Kazakhstan 23 people died and three others were injured in an explosion at a coal mine in the Karaganda region.
    (AP, 12/5/04)
2004        Dec 5, Authorities outside Mexico City found the body of Enrique Salinas (51), the former Pres. Salinas’ brother, with a bag tied around his head. 2 federal police officers were arrested in 2005 for trying to extort money Salinas prior to his murder.
    (AP, 7/15/05)
2004        Dec 5, In Nigeria hundreds of protesters besieged two oil platforms run by Royal Dutch/Shell Group Cos. and ChevronTexaco Corp. in the southern oil region, shutting down production of 90,000 barrels of oil a day.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 5, It was reported that the Norwegian firm Hydro and Qatar's state energy company signed a deal to build one of world's largest aluminium plants in the gas-rich Gulf state at a cost of three billion dollars.
    (AFP, 12/5/04)
2004        Dec 5, In Ramallah Jad al-Hindi (19) was abducted by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent militant group linked to the dominant Fatah movement. Police found al-Hindi's body the next day, saying he had been shot in the head 12 times.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 5, President Vladimir Putin made the first official visit by a Russian leader to Turkey, seeking to boost trade and counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries.
    (AP, 12/5/04)
2004        Dec 5, Carlos Moya beat Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (5) to clinch Spain's second Davis Cup title.
    (AP, 12/05/05)
2004        Dec 5, Thailand airdropped nearly 100 million Japanese-style origami cranes over the predominantly Muslim southern region in a psychological effort toward peace. A series of bomb attacks followed the next day.
    (AP, 12/6/04)   

2004        Dec 6, Ohio certified President Bush's victory over John Kerry, even as the Kerry campaign and third-party candidates prepared to demand a statewide recount. Bush won Ohio by 118,600 votes.
    (AP, 12/06/05)(Econ, 8/2/08, p.31)
2004        Dec 6, Mediaweek reported that 99.8% of indecency complaints to the FCC came from one group, the Parents Television Council.
    (SFC, 12/13/04, p.E1)
2004        Dec 6, Arson fires hit a new housing development in Charles County, Md., 25 miles south of Washington, DC. 14 homes, priced from $400-500k, were damaged. A security guard and 5 others were later arrested on arson charges. Damages were estimated at $10 million. On Sep 2, 2005, Patrick Walsh (21) was found guilty of masterminding the fires.
    (SFC, 12/8/04, p.A2)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.A3)(SFC, 12/21/04, p.A3)(SFC, 9/3/05, p.A3)
2004        Dec 6, China and Germany signed contracts worth $2.1 billion for Airbus jets and other industrial goods. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for an end to a 15-year-old European arms embargo on China.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 6, A Beijing newspaper reported that 9 out of 10 Chinese calling into a suicide-prevention hotline in the capital are getting the busy tone, adding that nationwide four people were killing themselves every minute.
    (Reuters, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 6, The Dubai Int’l. Film Festival (DIFF) opened its first season.
    (www.dubaifilmfest.com/en/about-diff/diff-facts-figures.html)
2004        Dec 6, In Haiti gunfire erupted in a stronghold of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide overnight, leaving at least three dead.
    (AP, 12/7/04)
2004        Dec 6, In Iraq 5 U.S. troops were reported killed in separate clashes in a volatile western province. Insurgents blew up part of a domestic oil pipeline in northern Iraq.
    (AP, 12/6/04)
2004        Dec 6, President Vicente Fox fired Mexico City's police chief for allegedly bungling the response to a mob attack that killed two federal police officers.
    (AP, 12/6/04)(WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 6, In Saudi Arabia Islamic militants threw explosives at the gate of the heavily guarded US consulate in Jiddah in a bold assault, then forced their way into the building, prompting a gunbattle that left 9 people dead and several injured. In 2005 two AK-47 assault rifles used in the attack were later traced to Yemen’s Ministry of Defense.
    (AP, 10/12/05)(AP, 12/06/05)
2004        Dec 6, In Spain bombs injured at least 18 people in 7 cities following warnings from callers claiming to represent the Basque separatist group ETA.
    (WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A1)

2004        Dec 7, In Illinois after Babs the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo, decided to allow surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in their social family. One by one, the gorillas filed into the Tropic World building where Babs' body lay, arms outstretched. Curator Melinda Pruett Jones called it a "gorilla wake."
    (AP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 7, IBM and China’s Lenovo Group planned a joint PC venture. Lenovo was expected to pay some $2 billion for a majority share of IBM’s PC business. Lenovo announced a $1.75 billion cash and stock deal to acquire a majority interest in IBM’s PC business.
    (WSJ, 12/7/04, p.A3)(SFC, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 7, Jay Van Andel (80) Amway co-founder died in Ada, Mich.
    (AP, 12/07/05)
2004        Dec 7, Singer Jerry Scoggins (93), who performed "The Ballad of Jed Clampett," the theme song to "The Beverly Hillbillies," died.
    (AP, 12/07/05)
2004        Dec 7, Hamid Karzai was sworn in as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president.
    (AP, 12/7/04)
2004        Dec 7, The mayor of Albania's capital Tirana, painter Edi Rama (40), was elected "World Mayor 2004" in an Internet competition organized by a London-based NGO.
    (AFP, 12/7/04)
2004        Dec 7, DragonMart, a 1.2km dragon-shaped mall in Dubai featuring Chinese products, opened its doors to the public as the biggest Chinese shopping mall outside of China.
    (www.dragonmart.ae/HelpFAQs.html)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.78)
2004        Dec 7, The German-registered MSC Ilona was punctured during a collision night with the Panama-registered Hyundai Advance near the mouth of the Pearl River, northwest of Hong Kong. The collision of the container ships caused a huge oil spill and cleanup effort.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 7, A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi National Guard patrol south of Baghdad, killing three guardsmen and wounding 11.
    (AP, 12/7/04)
2004        Dec 7, Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier and wounded four with an explosion in a booby-trapped chicken coop. An Israeli aircraft fired a retaliatory missile at armed Palestinians near Gaza City leaving 4 gunmen dead.
    (AP, 12/7/04)(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 7, Libya listed three conditions under which it is prepared to drop charges against five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death on suspect charges of spreading AIDS.
    (AFP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 7, Nigerian villagers lifted their blockade of three oil pumping stations in the volatile Niger Delta after energy giants Shell and ChevronTexaco agreed to discuss funding local development projects.
    (AP, 12/7/04)

2004        Dec 8, The US Senate approved an intelligence restructure bill. The legislation called for a new director of national intelligence.
    (SFC, 12/9/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 8, Disgruntled U.S. soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a question-and-answer session in Kuwait about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.
    (AP, 12/08/05)
2004        Dec 8, Treasury Secretary John Snow accepted President Bush's offer to remain in the Cabinet.
    (AP, 12/08/05)
2004        Dec 8, In Columbus, Ohio, Nathan Gale (25) charged on stage and opened fire on a heavy metal band at a crowded bar, killing top heavy metal guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott (38) and 3 others and wounding two before being killed by police.
    (AP, 12/9/04)(SFC, 12/10/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 8, The 738-foot freighter, Selendang Ayu, ran aground off Unalaska Island and began leaking oil. 6 crew members were missing following an attempted rescue in which a Coast Guard helicopter crashed. The ship carried some 500,000 gallons of bunker oil and diesel fuel.
    (SFC, 12/11/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 8, Some 18,000 US troops in Afghanistan began Operation Lightning Freedom, a new offensive to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida militants through the country's harsh winter.
    (AP, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 8, British and Irish leaders published a detailed plan for reviving a Catholic-Protestant administration in Northern Ireland.
    (AP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 8, Lord Scarman (93), English lawyer and judge, died. He investigated the 1981 Brixton riots and provided a report with ground breaking recommendations.
    (Econ, 1/1/05, p.68)
2004        Dec 8, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao repeated that China will move gradually to a flexible exchange rate.
    (WSJ, 12/9/04, p.A14)
2004        Dec 8, In Quito, Ecuador, inmates in the largest prison took 180 visitors hostage to protest what they called overcrowding, poor conditions and long sentences.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 8, In Cairo, Egypt, several thousand Christians who packed a cathedral compound hurled stones at riot police to protest a woman's alleged forced conversion to Islam. At least 30 people were injured.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 8, The European Union and China agreed to boost relations, but the EU made clear there can be no early lifting of its 15-year-old arms embargo until Beijing improves its human rights record.
    (AP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 8, In Iraq gunmen attacked the police headquarters in Samarra, killing an Iraqi policemen and a child who was caught in the cross fire. Insurgents detonated a car bomb in southern Baghdad, causing an unspecified number of casualties. 18 young Iraqi Shiites, aged 14-20, were shot and killed while seeking work at a U.S. base near Mosul. Their bodies were discovered Jan 5. Dale Stoffel, an American arms dealer and contractor, was killed along with Joe Wemple. Before Stoffel was shot dead in Baghdad, he had told of corruption and payoffs to senior military officers in the country’s reconstruction program. Stoffel and Wemple were reported to have been working on a $40 million dollar project in Iraq for a military facility in Taji which involved the arming of the 1st Iraqi Armored Brigade. Insurgents from the Brigades of the Islamic Jihad claimed they were responsible for the murder. However, the murders remain uninvestigated and unsolved.
    (AP, 12/8/04)(AP, 1/6/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Stoffel)(SSFC, 2/15/09, p.A10)
2004        Dec 8, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi (30), son of leader Moammar Gadhafi, said Libya will soon pass new laws that limit capital punishment to a small number of crimes. Saif was currently enrolled in a doctoral program in governance at the London School of Economics.
    (SFC, 12/9/04, p.A3)(SSFC, 9/23/07, p.A22)
2004        Dec 8, Presidents and high-ranking officials from 12 South American countries gathered at the ancient Inca capital of Cuzco, Peru, to create a political and economic bloc. They hoped to establish a 12-nation South American Community of Nations.
    (AP, 12/8/04)(Econ, 12/11/04, p.36)
2004        Dec 8, Russian authorities slapped a back tax bill of almost 160 million dollars (121 million euros) on the number two mobile phone operator Vimpelcom, in what is widely seen as a government-linked campaign against the firm.
    (AFP, 12/8/04)
2004        Dec 8, Ukraine's parliament adopted electoral and constitutional changes in a compromise intended to defuse the nation's political crisis.
    (AP, 12/8/04)

2004        Dec 9, President Bush ruled out raising taxes to finance a Social Security overhaul. Bush also announced he was keeping the heads of the Transportation, Interior, Housing and Labor departments.
    (AP, 12/09/05)
2004        Dec 9, Scientists tracked an algae bloom covering 400 square miles in the Gulf Coast that has caused a mass fish kill and dolphin deaths near Florida.
    (WSJ, 12/9/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 9, Canada's highest court said the government can redefine marriage to include same-sex couples, but it added that religious officials cannot be forced to perform unions against their beliefs.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, China reported that its monthly trade surplus widened in November for the fourth straight month, hitting $9.9 billion as exports surged at an annual rate of nearly 46 percent.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, An aid agency reported that some 1,000 Congolese civilians a day are dying from disease and malnutrition, due to a festering conflict that has killed 3.8 million people.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, General Motors Europe reaffirmed it will chop 12,000 jobs over two years, around a fifth of its workforce, to lop 500 million euros ($673 million) from costs to cut losses.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, The French government sold an 18.4 percent stake in Air France-KLM, the world's largest airline, to help reduce the state debt.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, Indian officials cautioned Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that a proposed US sale of military hardware worth $1.2 billion to Pakistan could damage a fragile peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors and harm India-US relations.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, In Iraq insurgent mortar fire in Baghdad left 3 people dead.
    (SFC, 12/10/04, p.A20)
2004        Dec 9, The Irish Republican Army declared for the first time that it's willing to get rid of its entire weapons stockpile within weeks.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, Interfax reported that Russian authorities have assessed a new tax claim for $114 million on one of Yukos' smaller subsidiaries.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, In Kiev, Ukraine, opposition protestors lifted their 2-week siege.
    (SFC, 12/10/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 9, In Venezuela a law that gives the government control over the content of radio and television programs took effect.
    (AP, 12/9/04)
2004        Dec 9, United Airlines was scheduled to begin service to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
    (SFC, 7/23/04, p.C1)
2004        Dec 9, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling party passed a controversial new law that aims to bar foreign rights groups from the country, as well as foreign funding for local groups doing similar work.
    (AP, 12/9/04)

2004        Dec 10, Pres. Bush picked Samuel Bodman to be the new energy secretary. Bernard Kerik withdrew his name from consideration to be Pres. Bush's homeland security secretary.
    (AP, 12/10/05)
2004        Dec 10, Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr. (30) of Wilson, N.C., was sentenced to three years in prison for killing severely wounded Qasim Hassan (16) in Sadr City on Aug 18.
    (AP, 12/11/04)(SFC, 12/11/04, p.A13)
2004        Dec 10, Sprinter Michelle Collins was suspended for eight years for a doping violation linked to the BALCO scandal. The suspension was later reduced to four years.
    (AP, 12/10/05)
2004        Dec 10, A US trade panel gave final approval to anti-dumping duties of up to 198 percent on imports of about $1.2 billion worth of wooden bedroom furniture from China.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, In Paris a skating rink opened on an observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, 188 feet above the streets.
    (SFC, 12/11/04, p.A2)
2004        Dec 10, President Oscar Berger said Guatemalan academics will create a university dedicated to rescuing and developing the ancient knowledge of the country's Mayan cultures.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, Israeli troops shot and killed a 7-year-old Palestinian girl after militants fired mortar rounds at a Gaza Strip settlement, injuring four Israelis, one of them a child.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, Italy’s Premier Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted of corruption charges that have dogged his government from the start.
    (AP, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 10, Japan's government overhauled its defense guidelines, easing an arms exports ban and singling out North Korea and China as security threats.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, OPEC agreed to reduce output by one million barrels a day in hopes of staving off further price declines without triggering a new buying frenzy.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, In southwestern Pakistan a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded next to an army truck parked at a crowded outdoor market, killing at least 10 people and wounding 27.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, A Venezuelan military plane crashed in a mountainous region near Caracas on Friday, killing 16 people, including high-ranking officers.
    (AP, 12/10/04)
2004        Dec 10, A US passenger jet, United Flight 869, landed in Vietnam, the first since the Vietnam War ended nearly 30 years ago.
    (AP, 12/10/04)

2004        Dec 11, Vitali Klitschko stopped Danny Williams in the eighth round to retain his WBC heavyweight title.
    (AP, 12/11/05)
2004        Dec 11, Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart won the 70th Heisman Trophy.
    (AP, 12/11/05)
2004        Dec 11, Said Barkat, Algeria’s Agriculture Minister, said almost 170 million euros (225 million dollars) have been spent since 2003 dealing with locust infestation of farmland.
    (AP, 12/12/04)
2004        Dec 11, In Bangladesh millions of opposition activists formed a 900-km "human chain" to demonstrate no confidence in the government. Up to 100 people were injured in clashes.
    (Reuters, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 11, Ramiro Velez, regional leader of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the smaller of Colombia's two rebel groups, was arrested during an operation in Chachaui. He is suspected of masterminding the May 30, 1999, kidnapping of an entire church congregation from a Roman Catholic church in Cali.
    (AP, 12/12/04)(SFC, 12/13/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 11, China ended restrictions limiting foreign retailers to joint ventures.
    (WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A13)
2004        Dec 11, Rival factions of Congo's army battled in the eastern region of the vast country, killing several people.
    (AP, 12/12/04)
2004        Dec 11, In Iraq insurgents killed 5 Iraqi police officers in Baghdad. A US Marine was killed in Anbar province.
    (SSFC, 12/12/04, p.A10)
2004        Dec 11, Marcello Dell'Utri, a close political ally of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, was convicted of ties with the Sicilian Mafia and sentenced to nine years in prison.
    (AP, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 11, Myanmar's state media announced the military junta would release a further 5,070 prisoners.
    (AP, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 11, Somalia's parliament passed a motion of no-confidence against the country's new prime minister and his Cabinet, effectively sacking the government. Some 153 members of the 275-member transitional parliament voted against Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi, accusing him of failing to respect power-sharing arrangements agreed to by warlords and the country's main clans.
    (AP, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 11, Taiwan's pro-independence parties were defeated in legislative elections.
    (AP, 12/11/04)
2004        Dec 11, Doctors in Austria determined that Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko had been poisoned with dioxin, which caused the severe disfigurement and partial paralysis of his face.
    (AP, 12/11/05)

2004        Dec 12, Researchers said they may have discovered what causes psoriasis, a common and irritating skin ailment.
    (Reuters, 12/13/04)
2004        Dec 12, A US soldier died of wounds sustained when a roadside bomb hit his patrol in Baghdad. 8 US Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died while conducting "security and stabilization operations" in Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar province.
    (AP, 12/12/04)(SFC, 12/13/04, p.A9)
2004        Dec 12, The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) decided to leave the ruling coalition of Pres. Lula da Silva. The principals included 6 state governors.
    (Econ, 12/18/04, p.48)
2004        Dec 12, China dropped geographic restrictions against foreign insurers.
    (WSJ, 12/13/04, p.A14)
2004        Dec 12, In southern China a flood at a mine trapped 36 workers in Guizhou province.
    (AP, 12/12/04)
2004        Dec 12, The Israeli Cabinet agreed to release scores of Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to Egypt and the Palestinian leadership ahead of next month's Palestinian elections. The Israeli army fired three tank shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, wounding seven schoolchildren.
    (AP, 12/12/04)
2004        Dec 12, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas apologized to Kuwaitis for the Palestinian support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
    (AP, 12/12/05)
2004        Dec 12, Palestinians detonated a massive bomb under an Israeli military checkpoint killing at least 5 Israeli soldiers.
    (SFC, 12/13/04, p.A6)(AP, 12/12/05)
2004        Dec 12, In the southern Philippines a powerful explosion ripped through an outdoor market packed with Christmas shoppers, killing at least 15 people and injuring 58 others.
    (AP, 12/12/04)
2004        Dec 12, Romanians returned to the polls for a presidential runoff between PM Adrian Nastase and Bucharest Mayor Traian Basescu. Reformist opposition candidate Traian Basescu won Romania's presidential runoff election.
    (AP, 12/13/04)
2004        Dec 12, In Russia hundreds of Kremlin gathered on Constitution Day to denounce a retreat from democracy as Pres. Putin signed a bill eliminating gubernatorial elections.
    (SFC, 12/13/04, p.A3)

2004        Dec 13, A jury in Redwood City, Ca., recommended the death penalty for Scott Peterson for murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son. Sentencing was set for Feb 25.
    (AP, 12/14/04)(SFC, 12/14/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 13, Google announced plans to digitally scan the book collections of 5 major libraries, including the Univ. Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, NY Public Library and Oxford, which agreed to books published before 1900.
    (SFC, 12/14/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 13, Oracle Corp. raised its takeover bid for bitter rival PeopleSoft Inc. by 10 percent and sealed a $10.3 billion deal that will create the world's second largest maker of business applications software.
    (AP, 12/13/04)(SFC, 12/14/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 13, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe resigned.
    (AP, 12/13/05)
2004        Dec 13, It was reported that the math skills of US students were declining that some educators were importing texts from Singapore, where students routinely scored high.
    (WSJ, 12/13/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 13, Afghan intelligence agents arrested two senior Taliban military commanders, including a former security chief of the hardline regime's leader Mullah Omar.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 13, A Chilean judge indicted former dictator General Augusto Pinochet on charges of kidnapping nine political dissidents and killing one of them during his 17-year military regime.
    (AP, 12/13/05)
2004        Dec 13, The Chinese government said China and Russia will hold their first joint military exercise next year.
    (AP, 12/13/04)
2004        Dec 13, China said it will impose duties on its exports of textiles and apparel in an effort to alleviate the impact of eased restrictions effective Jan 1.
    (SFC, 12/14/04, p.D3)
2004        Dec 13, In Baghdad a suicide car bomber killed 13 people and injured at least 15 near the Harthiyah entrance on the western edge of the Green zone. Clashes resumed in Fallujah.
    (AP, 12/13/04)(AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 13, In Nigeria the first face-to-face working meeting between Sudan government and Darfur rebel negotiators began. Cease-fire violations were on the rise in Sudan's bloodied Darfur region and the fighting was "poisoning" peace talks.
    (AP, 12/13/04)
2004        Dec 13, The UN restricted its humanitarian operations in Sudan's troubled South Darfur area following a shooting that killed two aid workers. Rebels said they would boycott peace talks until the government stops a Darfur offensive.
    (AP, 12/14/04)(WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 13, In Uganda a boat carrying dozens of traders across Lake Albert capsized, killing at least 22 people.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 13, In Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's allies in Congress appointed 17 new justices to the supreme court.
    (AP, 12/13/04)
2004        Dec 13, Rodrigo Granda, the principle international spokesperson for the most powerful revolutionary guerrilla group in Latin America, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was kidnapped in broad daylight (4pm) in the center of Caracas.
    (www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=10216)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.36)

2004        Dec 14, Pres. Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor to Gen. Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer, and George Tenet, for their efforts in the war in Iraq.
    (SFC, 12/15/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 14, The US Federal Reserve raised its federal funds rate .25% to 2.25%. The Commerce Dept. reported that the US trade deficit in October swelled to $55.5 billion. By the end of the year the US trade deficit stood at a record $2.5 trillion.
    (SFC, 12/15/04, p.C1,3)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.74)
2004        Dec 14, It was reported that air cargo planes used by American subcontractors in Iraq were linked to Victor bout, a reputed Russian arms trafficker. The 2005 film “Lord of War” was a loose portrayal of Bout’s exploits.
    (SFC, 12/14/04, p.A3)(Econ, 10/2/10, p.65)
2004        Dec 14, Chile’s Congress passed a bill granting compensation, a monthly pension of $190, to some 28,000 former political prisoners from the dictatorship of Gen. Pinochet.
    (SFC, 12/17/04, p.A27)
2004        Dec 14, Congo's government insisted that its forces were fighting Rwandan troops in the mineral-rich east of the country and not dissident units of the national army.
    (Reuters, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) began with the Cuba-Venezuela Agreement.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivarian_Alliance_for_the_Americas)
2004        Dec 14, Egypt and Israel signed a first joint trade accord with the United States since their historic peace treaty 25 years ago.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, In southern France a roadway bridge, hailed as the tallest in the world, was officially inaugurated.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, Shootouts erupted between residents of a slum outside Haiti's capital and UN troops after hundreds of international peacekeepers stormed the stronghold of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in an attempt to control flashpoints of violence. 4 people were killed.
    (AP, 12/15/04)
2004        Dec 14, In northern India 2 passenger trains collided head-on, killing at least 27 people and injuring 60 in Punjab.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, In India at least one person was killed and 50 wounded in a string of grenade attacks launched by separatist rebels across the volatile northeastern state of Assam.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, In Iraq a suicide car bomber killed seven people at a Green Zone checkpoint, the second attack in two days near the same gate.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, PM Shukri Ghanem said Libya is planning to open up its banking sector to Arab investors and is to privatize two major government banks.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, Palestinian leader Abbas called for an end to attacks on Israel as Israeli troops destroyed 7 Palestinian houses in Gaza.
    (WSJ, 12/15/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 14, Fernando Poe (b.1939), former Philippine actor and presidential candidate, died from a stroke in Manila. Poe, a star in over 200 films, lost the recent elections to Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo by 1.1 million votes.
    (SFC, 12/14/04, p.B7)
2004        Dec 14, In Romania Pres.-elect Traian Basescu opened talks to form a coalition government with a party formerly allied with his opponent and one representing ethnic Hungarians.
    (AP, 12/14/04)
2004        Dec 14, Russia opened talks to buy back $10 billion in sovereign debt. This would cover some 22% of its $45 billion debt to sovereign creditors.
    (WSJ, 12/14/04, p.A12)
2004        Dec 14, In northeastern Turkey an avalanche roared down on a town, killing six people, including a 10-month-old baby.
    (AP, 12/14/04)

2004        Dec 15, A US interceptor missile failed to fire in a test flight from the Marshall Islands. It was the 1st test flight for the missile defense system in 2 years.
    (SFC, 12/16/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 15, Section 404 of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act came into effect. It required the chief executive and chief financial officers of public companies to appraise internal controls and report any weaknesses within 75 days of the company’s fiscal year.
    (Econ, 12/18/04, p.116)(http://tinyurl.com/q24ar)
2004        Dec 15, Time Warner Inc. agreed to pay more than $500 million to resolve federal securities fraud and accounting investigations of its America Online unit.
    (AP, 12/16/05)
2004        Dec 15, Sprint and Nextel announced a $35 billion merger agreement. The deal left 4 major wireless services in the US.
    (SFC, 12/16/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 15, Johnson & Johnson agreed to buy Guidant for $23.9 billion in stock and cash.
    (WSJ, 12/16/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 15, Pauline Gore (92), mother of former Vice President Al Gore, died in Carthage, Tenn.
    (AP, 12/16/05)
2004        Dec 15, In eastern Afghanistan the body of a kidnapped Turkish engineer was found, a day after he was snatched with his driver and interpreter by a band of armed men.
    (AP, 12/15/04)
2004        Dec 15, In Athens, Greece, 2 armed men, believed to be Albanians, hijacked a bus carrying 26 passengers, threatening to blow it up with explosives unless they were taken to the airport and put on a plane to Russia. All hostages were released after an 18-hour standoff.
    (AP, 12/15/04)(SFC, 12/16/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 15, Iraqi militants said they shot and killed an Italian citizen after he tried to break through a guerrilla roadblock on a highway outside the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi. A document from the Italian Embassy in Beirut seeking an Iraqi visa for Salvatore Santoro called him an aid worker helping Iraqi children.
    (AP, 12/16/04)
2004        Dec 15, A walking, talking child-size robot from Honda Motor Co. managed an easy, although comical, jog in the Japanese automaker's latest quest to imitate human movement.
    (AP, 12/15/04)
2004        Dec 15, Libya said its Central Bank has withdrawn $1 billion of assets which had been frozen for almost two decades in the United States on Washington's orders.
    (Reuters, 12/15/04)
2004        Dec 15, In western Nepal fighting killed at least 20 soldiers and six guerrillas.
    (AP, 12/15/04)

2004        Dec 16, Pres. Bush closed a 2-day economic conference that covered social security changes, tax cuts and federal spending.
    (WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 16, Donald Trump chose software executive Kelly Perdew (37) over SF lawyer Jennifer Massey in the season finale of “The Apprentice.”
    (SFC, 12/17/04, p.A2)
2004        Dec 16, Montana approved issuing licenses to hunt 10 bison that roam beyond Yellowstone. The practice was halted over a decade ago amid protests.
    (WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 16, Symantec agreed to acquire Veritas Software.
    (SFC, 12/17/04, p.D1)
2004        Dec 16, Bobbie Jo Stinnet (23) was found strangled to death in Maryville, Mo., with her baby girl cut from her womb. Police within days arrested Lisa M. Montgomery (36) of Melvern, Kansas. The baby was rescued alive. Montgomery faced trial for allegedly strangling Stinnett, performing a crude Caesarean section on her and parading the infant around as her own. Montgomery was convicted in Oct, 2007, and sentenced to death in April, 2008.
    (SFC, 12/22/04, p.A3)(AP, 12/16/05)(SFC, 4/5/08, p.A3)
2004        Dec 16, Agnes Martin (92), renowned abstract painter, died in Taos, NM.
    (WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 16, Farouk Ksentini, an Algerian government-appointed official, said security forces members are believed responsible for the deaths of 5,200 civilians who disappeared during a decade-long struggle with Islamic rebels and should face justice.
    (AP, 12/17/04)
2004        Dec 16, An Argentine judge struck down an arrest warrant for former President Carlos Menem, who was wanted for questioning in a federal court probe of multimillion-dollar accounts in Switzerland.
    (AP, 12/16/04)
2004        Dec 16, An apartment building was inaugurated in Brazil, each of whose 11 storeys turned independently, giving residents 360-degree views of the eco-friendly city of Curitiba.
    (AP, 12/16/04)
2004        Dec 16, Britain's highest court dealt a huge blow to the government's anti-terrorism policy by ruling that it cannot detain foreign suspects indefinitely without trial.
    (AP, 12/16/04)
2004        Dec 16, A Colombian court convicted three IRA-linked men of training Colombian rebels in terrorist tactics and sentenced them to up to 17 1/2 years in prison.
    (AP, 12/16/04)
2004        Dec 16, In France 10 accused Islamic militants were convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 10 years for their roles in a millennium plot to blow up a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg on New Year's Eve 2000.
    (AP, 12/16/04)
2004        Dec 16, Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein met with a lawyer for the first time since his capture a year earlier.
    (AP, 12/16/05)
2004        Dec 16, Rebel strikes across Baghdad killed 10 people, including three paramilitary policemen and a government official. A US Marine was killed in Anbar province.
    (AP, 12/16/04)(SFC, 12/17/04, p.A12)
2004        Dec 16, Italy’s Pres. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi vetoed a bill that would have placed magistrates under government oversight and forced them to choose between careers as judges or prosecutors.
    (SFC, 12/17/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 16, The Sudanese government agreed to stop a military offensive in Darfur region.
    (AP, 12/16/04)

2004        Dec 17, President Bush signed into law the largest overhaul of US intelligence-gathering in 50 years.
    (AP, 12/17/05)
2004        Dec 17, The FDA approved a Harvard proposal to test the benefits of 3-4 methylenedioxtmethamphetamine (MDMA). In Nov. researchers in North Carolina gained government approval to test the drug "Ecstasy" as a treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder for the first time since the drug was criminalized in 1985.
    (www.maps.org/mdma/)(WP, 11/6/04)
2004        Dec 17, Pfizer, maker of a popular pain reliever, admitted Celebrex appears to increase the risk of heart attack in users, but has no plans to remove it from the market.
    (AP, 12/17/04)
2004        Dec 17, Tom Wesselman (73), NYC pop artist, died. He was known for his “bedroom still lifes.”
    (SFC, 12/21/04, p.B7)
2004        Dec 17, Afghan forces retook control of Pul-e-Charkhi, the country's largest jail, following a day-long standoff. 4 inmates and 4 guards were killed in the violence.
    (AP, 12/17/04)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.A8)
2004        Dec 17, Bhutan began to enforce a total ban on tobacco sales and smoking in public. The royal National Assembly passed the resolution in July.
    (SFC, 11/30/04, p.A2)
2004        Dec 17, Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Dragan Mikerevic resigned, one day after the international community imposed sanctions against Bosnian Serb police and officials for allegedly helping fugitive war crimes suspects evade justice.
    (AFP, 12/17/04)
2004        Dec 17, It was reported that China paid out $15 billion per month to keep the yuan fixed at 8.277 to the US dollar.
    (WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A14)
2004        Dec 17, It was reported that China’s growing power industry was causing global concern over mercury accumulation in the world’s water and food supply.
    (WSJ, 12/17/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 17, Colombian authorities revealed that they had lost track in June of three IRA-linked men, convicted this week of training Marxist rebels in terrorist tactics.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 17, The UN said foreign troops have crossed into Congo and called on outside forces to stop giving weapons and reinforcements to renegade soldiers battling army loyalists.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 17, Dissident forces attacked the village of Buramba, Congo, targeting civilians suspected of sympathizing with pro-government militiamen. At least 30 civilians were killed in the massacre believed to have been a reprisal for the killing of 3 renegade soldiers by a pro-government militia.
    (AP, 1/7/05)
2004        Dec 17, Three days of trade talks ended in Havana. Cuba agreed to buy about $125 million in farm goods from attending U.S. companies.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 17, European Union leaders and Turkey agreed on a compromise formula to overcome differences over Turkish recognition of Cyprus' government as a condition for opening EU membership talks.
    (AP, 12/17/04)
2004        Dec 17, The US completely forgave $4.1 billion in debt Iraq owed it and urged other nations not part of an international debt relief agreement to follow suit.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 17, Gunmen attacked a car in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing four male passengers, and witnesses said three of the victims were foreigners.
    (AP, 12/17/04)
2004        Dec 17, Israeli troops raided a Gaza refugee camp in retaliation for a deadly Palestinian mortar fire, sparking fighting that killed 8 Palestinians and wounded 24 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier.
    (AP, 12/17/04)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.A14)
2004        Dec 17, Italy's interior ministry said 181 people had been arrested in the past three months in a crackdown on the Camorra in Naples whose turf warfare now overshadows that of the Sicilian mafia.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 17, It was reported that the AIDS drug nevirapine failed to meet int’l. standards in Uganda. The drug was used to protect babies from HIV infection, but that infected women could develop resistance.
    (SFC, 12/17/04, p.A23)

2004        Dec 18, Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet was hospitalized after suffering a stroke.
    (AP, 12/18/05)
2004        Dec 18, In Haiti bands of former soldiers and armed residents looted police arsenals, set bonfires and fired shots into the air amid escalating chaos.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 18, The former Iraqi general known as “Chemical Ali,” Ali Hassan al-Majid, went before a judge in the first investigative hearings of former members of his regime.
    (AP, 12/18/05)
2004        Dec 18, Insurgents claiming to represent three Iraqi militant groups issued a videotape saying they had captured 10 Iraqis working for an American security and reconstruction company and would kill them if the firm did not leave this turbulent country. A clash in Mosul left an Iraqi child dead. An insurgent attack in Mosul left one Iraqi dead. National Guardsmen there killed 3 insurgents.
    (AP, 12/19/04)(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A12)
2004        Dec 18, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians on the second day of an Israeli raid in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Israeli forces withdrew and ended a 2-day raid that left 11 Palestinians dead.
    (AP, 12/18/04)(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A15)
2004        Dec 18, Naples police said they have broken up a mob protection racket focused on local bakeries and flour makers.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 18, Maoist rebels attacked a police post near Nepal's capital with crude bombs and automatic weapons, killing five policemen.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 18, The African Union said Sudan had started withdrawing troops in Darfur ahead of an evening deadline to end fighting there, but Khartoum said the pullout was conditional on the rebels halting attacks.
    (AP, 12/18/04)
2004        Dec 18, Sudan's government kept up attacks on rebels in Darfur, defying a deadline set by African Union mediators for an end to active hostilities.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 18, UN talks on climate change ended with few steps forward as the US, oil producers and developing giants slammed the brakes on the European Union's drive for deeper emissions cuts to stop global warming.
    (AP, 12/18/04)

2004        Dec 19, President George Bush for the second time was chosen as Time magazine's Person of the Year.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 19, Renata Tebaldi (82), opera singer, died in San Marino.
    (AP, 12/19/05)
2004        Dec 19, A vehicle carrying a group of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a military checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, sparking a firefight that left six dead.
    (AP, 12/20/04)
2004        Dec 19, Canada’s PM Paul Martin met Moammar Gadhafi, the latest in a string of world leaders to visit Tripoli following the Libyan strongman's renunciation of terrorism. Martin said Canadian construction company SNC-Lavalin has won a $1 billion contract to help build a major water distribution system in Libya.
    (AP, 12/19/04)(Reuters, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 19, UN officials said about 100,000 civilians in eastern Congo have fled a week of fighting between renegade soldiers and army loyalists, hiding deep into the forest where humanitarian workers cannot reach them.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 19, Golkar, Indonesia’s largest party in parliament, removed Akbar Tandjung as leader and replaced him with Jusuf Kalla, the country’s new vice-president.
    (Econ, 1/1/05, p.29)
2004        Dec 19, The Iranian Red Crescent Society said heavy rains have caused flash floods that killed at least 34 people and injured 43 others in southern Iran.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 19, Car bombs rocked Najaf and Karbala, Iraq's two holiest Shiite cities, killing 67 people and wounding more than 120. In downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carried out a brazen ambush that killed three Iraqi employees of the organization running next month's elections.
    (AP, 12/19/04)(WSJ, 12/21/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 19, Israel approved the release of 170 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture toward Egypt and the new Palestinian leadership.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 19, It was reported that Pres. Vicente Fox’s administration had failed thus far  to dent corruption inside Mexico’s 445 prisons and jails.
    (SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A21)
2004        Dec 19, Suspected communist rebels ambushed an army patrol near the Nepalese capital, killing at least 9 soldiers. 3 rebels were killed in subsequent fighting.
    (AP, 12/19/04)
2004        Dec 19, A driver lost control of a bus in a heavy rainstorm in Peru's mountains and the vehicle plunged 165 feet into a river, killing 49 people on board and injuring 15.
    (AP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 19, Russia's little-known BaikalFinansGroup bought Yuganskneftegaz, the core production unit of oil giant Yukos, at auction for $9.3 billion US.
    (AP, 12/19/04)(Econ, 1/1/05, p.49)
2004        Dec 19, Polling stations were nearly empty in elections for Turkmenistan's rubber-stamp parliament, forcing officials to carry ballot boxes door-to-door in this nation ruled by a former Soviet Communist boss who has been declared president-for-life.
    (AP, 12/19/04)

2004        Dec 20, In a sobering assessment of the Iraq war, President Bush acknowledged during a news conference that Americans’ resolve had been shaken by grisly scenes of death and destruction, and he pointedly criticized the performance of US-trained Iraqi troops.
    (AP, 12/20/05)
2004        Dec 20, Attorneys presented opening statements in the Robert Blake murder trial in Los Angeles.
    (AP, 12/20/05)
2004        Dec 20, Researchers said radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, according to a new study majority-funded by the EU.
    (AP, 12/20/04)
2004        Dec 20, Jack Newfield (66), NYC reporter and columnist, died. His books included “Robert Kennedy: A Memoir” (1969).
    (SFC, 12/22/04, p.B5)
2004        Dec 20, Frank Seals (62), Chicago blues guitarist and singer, died.
    (WSJ, 12/22/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 20, A truck and a bus collided head-on in northeastern Brazil, killing 19 people and injuring 34 others.
    (AP, 12/20/04)
2004        Dec 20, A Chilean appeals court upheld the indictment and house arrest of General Augusto Pinochet on murder and kidnapping charges during his rule.
    (AP, 12/20/05)
2004        Dec 20, Thousands of mourners attended funerals and Iraqi authorities detained 50 suspects in connection with an explosion in the Shiite holy city of Najaf that killed at least 54 people and wounded 142.
    (AP, 12/20/04)
2004        Dec 20, Thieves stole more than $39 million from the Belfast headquarters of Northern Bank, the biggest robbery in Northern Ireland history. In 2008 detectives charged a man with laundering money from the robbery that authorities blamed on the outlawed IRA. In 2009 a jury found Ted Cunningham, a private financier, guilty of handling millions stolen from Northern Bank, a raid blamed on the outlawed IRA.
    (AP, 12/21/04)(SFC, 12/22/04, p.A3)(AP, 3/20/08)(AP, 3/27/09)
2004        Dec 20, The civil liberties group Freedom House said Russia has fallen to the status of “not free” for the 1st time since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
    (WSJ, 12/21/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 20, Ten men charged with plotting to overthrow Sierra Leone's government last year were convicted of treason and sentenced to death by hanging.
    (AP, 12/20/04)

2004        Dec 21, Federal officials announced that naproxen, a painkiller sold by prescription and also over the counter as Aleve, might increase people's risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
    (WaP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, The Associated Press told the Bowl Championship Series to stop using its college football poll to determine which teams would play for the national title and in the most prestigious bowl games.
    (AP, 12/21/05)
2004        Dec 21, The NFL fined Jacksonville safety Donovin Darius $75,000 for a hit across the neck of Green Bay's Robert Ferguson that left the wide receiver temporarily paralyzed.
    (AP, 12/21/05)
2004        Dec 21, Siemens CEO Heinrich von Pierer said his German industrial conglomerate has signed a $2 billion deal to provide Russia's national railway with 60 high speed trains. The InterCityExpress (ICE) trains would initially run between Moscow and St. Petersburg at speeds of up to 155 miles per hour. They also will be used between St. Petersburg and Helsinki, Finland, and between other large cities within Russia.
    (AP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, India’s parliament tabled the Employment Guarantee Act, which planned to give one member of every poor family at least 100 days of work at minimum wage on public works projects.
    (Econ, 1/1/05, p.28)
2004        Dec 21, British PM Tony Blair made a surprise visit to Baghdad, urging Iraqis to support national elections and describing violence here as a "battle between democracy and terror."
    (AP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, A suicide bombing on a base near Mosul killed 22 people and wounded 72 at Forward Operating Base Marez as US soldiers sat down to lunch. Halliburton Co. lost four employees in the attack at the military base. A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility. 2 French reporters held hostage for 4 months in Iraq were released.
    (WSJ, 12/22/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/21/05)
2004        Dec 21, The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to maintain economic sanctions against Liberia but promised to review a ban on diamond sales in three months and a ban on timber exports in six months.
    (AP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, Morocco tried to blot out stains of past human rights abuses with public testimony about tortures and disappearances in the Muslim kingdom.
    (Reuters, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, Pakistani police arrested the husband of former PM Benazir Bhutto in the killing of a former judge and his son in 1996, taking him back into custody just a month after he'd been freed on bail.
    (AP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, Janes’ Defense Weekly said the US will assign serving military officers to its de facto embassy in Taiwan for the first time since 1979 in a reversal of a longstanding policy.
    (AFP, 12/21/04)
2004        Dec 21, Sudan's government and Darfur rebels agreed to formally end faltering talks. The African Union urged both sides to stop fighting so peace efforts could resume in January. Save the Children UK is pulling out of the Darfur region of Sudan because four of its workers have been killed there.
    (AP, 12/21/04)

2004        Dec 22, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, stung by criticism that he'd been insensitive to the needs of troops and their families, offered an impassioned defense, saying when he meets wounded soldiers or relatives of those killed in battle, "their grief is something I feel to my core."
    (AP, 12/22/05)
2004        Dec 22, Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi received a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to assault, more than nine months after slugging Colorado forward Steve Moore from behind during a hockey game.
    (AP, 12/22/05)
2004        Dec 22, A Texas woman paid $50,000 for a cloned cat, Little Nicky, created by Genetic Savings and Clone of Sausalito, Ca.
    (SFC, 12/23/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 22, A European Union court ruled that Microsoft Corp. must immediately divulge some trade secrets to competitors and produce a version of its flagship Windows operating system stripped of the program that plays music and video.
    (AP, 12/22/04)
2004        Dec 22, Former Argentine president Carlos Menem returned to Argentina following months abroad to avoid arrest. Menem announced he would run again for the presidency after an Argentine judge last week dismissed a warrant against him.
    (AP, 12/22/04)
2004        Dec 22, In Mexico an explosion at a pumping station near Santiago Tuxtla caused a burst of high pressure that ruptured the oil line 70 miles away in Nanchital. 210,000 gallons of oil flowed into the Coatzacoalcos River, creating a 10-mile-long slick extending into the gulf.
    (AP, 12/24/04)
2004        Dec 22, Thieves stealing fuel from a pipeline in Nigeria set it ablaze as they fled from police, and at least 20 people died in the fire.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 22, The husband of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was freed from house arrest, a day after he was detained for failing to attend a court hearing.
    (AP, 12/22/04)
2004        Dec 22, Poland's PM Marek Belka and Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski arrived in Iraq for a Christmas visit to Polish troops.
    (AP, 12/22/04)
2004        Dec 22, In an apparently secret deal, the state-owned Rosneft oil company bought BaikalFinansGroup, the obscure company that purchased Yukos' most important production unit at auction Dec 19. The Yuganskneftegaz subsidiary was sold for $9.3 billion, half of what foreign auditors say it was worth.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 22, Saudi Arabia announced it was withdrawing its ambassador to Libya and ordered out Libya's envoy in response to reports that Tripoli plotted to assassinate the Saudi crown prince.
    (AP, 12/22/04)
2004        Dec 22, The US signed a 99-year lease on a site for its new de facto embassy in Taiwan, an event described as a milestone in relations.
    (AP, 12/22/04)
2004        Dec 22, Turkey and Syria signed a free-trade accord.
    (WSJ, 12/23/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 22-2004 Dec 26, Government troops in eastern Congo battled Rwandan militiamen in growing violence between the former allies from the country's bloody 1998-2002 war.
    (AP, 12/27/04)

2004        Dec 23, Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, driven from office by a corruption scandal, pleaded guilty to a single federal charge that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. He was later sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.
    (AP, 12/23/05)
2004        Dec 23, Washington state election officials announced that Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire was the winner in the governor’s race by 130 votes, out of 2.9 million ballots cast, over her Republican opponent Dino Rossi.
    (SFC, 12/24/04, p.A3)(AP, 12/23/05)
2004        Dec 23, The FDA said it approved the Ampli-Chip Cytochrome P450 Genotyping test made by Roche. The test was cleared for use with the Affymetrix GeneChip Microarray.
    (WSJ, 12/24/04, p.A9)
2004        Dec 23, Two men were convicted in Houston for their role in a smuggling attempt that resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed in a tractor-trailer.
    (AP, 12/23/05)
2004        Dec 23, Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai chose a new Cabinet, heeding calls to sideline warlords from top positions, including the defense minister, and creating a new post to oversee the fight against opium production.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 23, In Honduras assailants claiming to be members of a revolutionary group opposed to the death penalty ambushed a bus filled with people bringing home Christmas gifts and killed at least 28 people, including six children, in an escalation of the battle between gangs and the government. On Feb 10, 2005, US Border patrol officials arrested a Honduran gang leader wanted in the massacre. In 2007 a three-judge tribunal found two members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang guilty of killing 28 people in the shooting attack, and acquitted two other men. In 2008 Juan Carlos Miranda (22) and Darwin Alexis Ramirez (23) were accused of being among about 10 gang members. They received sentences totaling 822 years each.
    (AP, 12/24/04)(WSJ, 2/25/05, p.A1)(AP, 2/21/07)(AP, 3/13/08)
2004        Dec 23, P.V. Narasimha Rao (b.1921), India’s former Prime Minister (1991-1996) died. His free-market economic reforms in 1991 launched India's shift from a bankrupt nation hobbled by socialist policies into a regional economic power.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 23, An Indonesian military helicopter crashed into mountains on Indonesia's Java island, killing 14 soldiers on board.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 23, US Marines battled insurgents in Fallujah with warplanes dropping bombs and tanks shelling suspected guerrilla positions, causing deaths on both sides. Three U.S. Marines were killed. 24 guerrillas, most of them non-Iraqi Arabs, were killed in battles according to a posting on an Islamic web site the next day. The 1st Fallujah residents were allowed to return. A bomb killed a US soldier in Baghdad.
    (AP, 12/24/04)(SFC, 12/24/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/24/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 23, Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly will be fined as much as $200,000 and could face criminal charges for spilling 5,000 barrels of crude into a river leading to the Gulf of Mexico a day earlier.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 23, Nepali soldiers killed 22 Maoist rebels in a fierce gun battle in the west of the country.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 23, Thousands of Palestinians crammed polling stations in West Bank towns to vote in municipal elections, the first in nearly 30 years. Hamas made a strong showing in local elections in the West Bank. Palestinian women won 51 seats in local elections defeating many of their male opponents.
    (AP, 12/24/04)(AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 23, Acevedo Vila, Puerto Rico's congressional envoy, who favors the island's status as a U.S. territory narrowly, won a recount in the governor's race.
    (AP, 12/23/04)
2004        Dec 23, Russia launched an unmanned cargo ship to the int’l. space station.
    (WSJ, 12/24/04, p.A1)

2004        Dec 24, US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, bearing gifts of praise and encouragement, paid a surprise Christmas Eve visit to US troops in some of the most dangerous areas of Iraq.
    (AP, 12/24/05)
2004        Dec 24, The Comair computer system crashed after it was overwhelmed by cancellations and delays due to winter storms in the Ohio Valley. Comair was forced to cancel all of its 1,100 flights the next day. US AIR cancelled numerous flights and baggage problems rippled through its system for days.
    (SFC, 12/27/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 24, The Huygens space probe was fired from the international Cassini spacecraft into a successful free fall from Saturn’s orbit to its moon, Titan.
    (SFC, 12/25/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/24/05)
2004        Dec 24, Afghan President Hamid Karzai swore in a new Cabinet.
    (AP, 12/24/05)
2004        Dec 24, Armenia’s parliament voted to send 46 noncom bat troops to Iraq.
    (SFC, 12/25/04, p.A10)
2004        Dec 24, The world's biggest earthquake in almost four years, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, struck off the coast of Australia's southern island state of Tasmania, but caused no damage or injury.
    (AP, 12/24/04)
2004        Dec 24, A church official said Marxist rebels in western Colombia had killed Javier Francisco Montoya, a Catholic priest who disappeared earlier this month on a pastoral mission in a rebel-controlled jungle region.
    (AP, 12/24/04)
2004        Dec 24, Marxist FARC rebels abducted at least eight Colombian tourists celebrating Christmas at a lakeside spa in the northwest.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 24, A suicide bomber blew up a gas tanker in Baghdad in an attack that killed at least nine people.
    (AP, 12/25/04)
2004        Dec 24, Suspected militants hurled a grenade in a village market in Indian Kashmir, killing one person and wounding eight others.
    (Reuters, 12/24/04)
2004        Dec 24, A Pakistani military spokesman said a soldier has been sentenced to death and another soldier given 10 years imprisonment after they were convicted in the Dec 14, 2003, attempt to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
    (AP, 12/24/04)
2004        Dec 24, Russia successfully test-fired a mobile version of the intercontinental Topol-M ballistic missile in the last of four test-firings before its deployment next year.
    (AP, 12/24/04)

2004        Dec 25, President Bush urged Americans to help the neediest among them by volunteering to care for the sick, the elderly and the poor in a Christmas Day call for compassion.
    (AP, 12/25/05)
2004        Dec 25, Algeria's Energy Minister Chakib Khelil said exports of oil and gas will bring in over 31 billion dollars (24 billion euros) in 2004.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 25, In southern China villagers of Da Lang battled police in a riot after security forces beat a resident to death.
    (SFC, 12/27/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 25, President Fidel Castro said a 100-million-barrel crude oil deposit had been discovered off Cuba by Canadian firms. Cuba imports about half the petroleum it needs.
    (AP, 12/25/04)
2004        Dec 25, Video footage aired on Turkish television showed a Turkish ship owner saying he and a ship captain were being held hostage in Iraq and that kidnappers demanded a $25 million ransom.
    (AP, 12/25/04)
2004        Dec 25, The Sudanese government said it has readied 13 planes for fighting swarms of desert locusts, poised to enter the country from Egypt.
    (AP, 12/25/04)

2004        Dec 26, The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia. The initial estimated death toll of 9,000 soon rose to some 230,000 people in 14 countries. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964. The epicenter was located 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the seabed of the Indian Ocean. In Indonesia at least 166,320 people were killed.
    Bangladesh reported 2 killed; India: at least 9,691 deaths: thousands were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia: At least 101,318 people were killed on Sumatra island and small islands off its coast. Kenya reported 1 killed. Malaysia: At least 68 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead. Myanmar: At least 90 people were killed. Sri Lanka: At least 30,680 were killed in government and rebel controlled areas. The Maldives, an archipelago of 1,190 low-lying coral islands and a tiny population of 280,000, at least 82 people were killed and missing. At least 42 islands were flattened in the low-lying atoll nation. Somalia: At least 298 were killed. Tanzania: At least 10 killed. Thailand: The confirmed death toll for Thailand reached 5,322, but many suspected Myanmar migrants were not counted. Some 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries.
    (SFC, 12/28/04, p.A1)(AP, 12/30/04)(SSFC, 1/2/05, p.A12)(AP, 1/7/05)(Econ, 1/22/05, p.41)(AP, 12/25/09)(AP, 11/12/13)
2004        Dec 26, Thousands of Europeans died in the Asian tsunami disaster. The dead included 543 from Sweden.
    (AP, 12/31/04)(Econ, 9/9/06, p.27)
2004        Dec 26, An unmanned cargo ship docked at the international space station, ending a shortage that forced astronauts to ration supplies.
    (AP, 12/26/05)
2004        Dec 26, Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record when he threw his 48th and 49th of the season against San Diego. The Colts defeated San Diego in overtime, 34-31.
    (AP, 12/26/05)
2004        Dec 26, Reggie White (43), NFL defensive star, died in Huntersville, NC. White played 15 seasons with Philadelphia, Green Bay and Carolina. He retired after the 2000 season as the NFL's career sacks leader with 198. The mark has since been passed by Bruce Smith.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 26, In eastern Algeria a gas explosion killed 17 people and injured at least 40 others when a residential block collapsed.
    (Reuters, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 26, In Brazil an angry mob destroyed police stations and a courthouse in two Amazon towns while trying to lynch murder suspects. One man was killed during the rioting and 44 people were arrested.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 26, In eastern France a gas explosion tore through a five-storey apartment building in Mulhouse, killing 15 people and injuring another 14.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 26, India issued a presidential decree to bring its patent laws into compliance with commitments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 26, Masked gunmen assassinated a high-ranking Iraqi police officer in southwestern Baghdad and wounded his bodyguards.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 26, The Independent reported that British PM Tony Blair has ordered the military to prepare to deploy up to 3,000 soldiers to the conflict-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 26, The Russian unmanned cargo ship, Progress M-51, docked at the int’l. space station with fresh supplies.
    (SFC, 12/25/04, p.A5)
2004        Dec 26, A woman doused her body with gasoline and set herself ablaze in a busy Istanbul square to protest Turkey's maximum security prison system.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 26, Ukraine re-ran its presidential election.
    (AP, 12/26/04)
2004        Dec 26, Uzbekistan held elections and all opposition groups were barred from running for office. Europe's top election watchdog criticized the parliamentary vote.
    (AP, 12/26/04)

2004        Dec 27, In southern Asia the death toll from the Dec 26 earthquake-tsunami catastrophe rose to more than 23,000.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 27, The Central Africa Republic (CAR) established a new Constitution.
    (AP, 3/26/13)
2004        Dec 27, The euro reached an intraday high of $1.364.
    (WSJ, 12/28/04, p.C2)
2004        Dec 27, A massive burst of energy from a neutron star, SGR 1806-20, was detected in the constellation Sagittarius. It was the equivalent of what the sun emits every 150,000 years.
    (SFC, 2/19/05, p.A2)
2004        Dec 27, Honduras' security minister pledged to eliminate violent youth gangs, nine of whose members have been charged with homicide in connection with a Dec. 23 shooting attack on a public bus that killed 28 people.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 27, The foreign secretaries of nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan began two-day talks that will include their first formal dialogue on disputed Kashmir since they launched a peace process a year ago.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 27, In an audiotape, a man purported to be Osama bin Laden endorsed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of January's elections in the country.
    (AP, 12/27/05)
2004        Dec 27, A suicide bomber detonated his car at the gate of the home of the leader of Iraq's biggest political party and most powerful Shiite political group, killing 15 people and injuring dozens. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's, was unharmed.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 27, The Iraqi Islamic Party, the biggest Sunni political group, pulled out of the Jan. 30 elections citing the deteriorating security situation.
    (AP, 12/28/04)
2004        Dec 27, Poisonous liquor sold by an illegal alcohol bar in India's financial capital killed at least 51 people and sent nearly 100 others to hospital over two days, prompting citywide raids on alcohol vendors.
    (AP, 12/28/04)
2004        Dec 27, Israel released 159 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to the new Palestinian leadership.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 27, Jordan's military court on acquitted 13 Muslim militants, including three Saudi fugitives, of conspiring to commit terror attacks against U.S. targets in Jordan, but sentenced 11 of them to prison terms ranging from six to 15 years for possessing explosives.
    (AP, 12/27/04)
2004        Dec 27, In western Sudan rebel forces attacked the market town of Ghubaysh and the government retaliated. The UN World Food Program suspended food convoys to the Darfur region following the attacks.
    (AP, 12/29/04)
2004        Dec 27, Ukraine election officials said opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won 51.99 percent to 44.19 percent for Moscow-backed PM Viktor Yanukovych. Supporters of the pro-Russian PM vowed to challenge the results in court.
    (AFP, 12/28/04)
2004        Dec 27, Ukrainian Transport Minister Heorhiy Kirpa, a supporter of the trailing candidate in the presidential election, was found dead in his house from a gunshot wound. Opposition figures claimed that Kirpa allocated trains to ferry Yanukovych supporters to vote at multiple polling sites in Nov. 21 presidential balloting that eventually was annulled by the Ukraine Supreme Court.
    (AP, 12/27/04)

2004        Dec 28, The US Agency for International Development said it was adding 20 million dollars to an initial 15 million-dollar contribution for Asian tsunami relief as Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled at a UN official's suggestion the United States was being "stingy."
    (AP, 12/28/05)
2004        Dec 28, The death toll from the Dec 26 earthquake-tsunami catastrophe rose to more than 55,000.
    (AP, 12/28/04)
2004        Dec 28, The US FDA approved a new drug for severe pain to be marketed by Elan as Prialt. It was part of a new class known as N-type calcium channel blockers.
    (SFC, 12/29/04, p.A5)
2004        Dec 28, Jerry Orbach (b.1935), actor, died of prostate cancer. He played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV's "Law & Order" and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man.
    (AP, 12/29/04)(SFC, 12/30/04, p.A2)
2004        Dec 28, Susan Sontag (71), writer, filmmaker and social critic, died of leukemia in NYC. Her 17 books included “Against Interpretation, and Other Essays.” In 2011 Sigrid Nunez authored “A Memoir of Susan Sontag.”
    (SFC, 12/29/04, p.A1)(Econ, 1/8/05, p.77)(SSFC, 4/3/11, p.G1)
2004        Dec 28, Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia gave political support to a $1.2 billion private trans-Balkan pipeline that will allow Russian and Caspian crude oil to avoid Turkish waters.
    (WSJ, 12/29/04, p.A7)
2004        Dec 28, In Colombia police captured a reputed leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel.
    (AP, 12/28/04)
2004        Dec 28, Haiti’s government agreed to give 10 years back pay to rebel soldiers, who helped overthrow Aristide, in a bid to end their insurrection.
    (WSJ, 12/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 28, India and Pakistan concluded a 2-day dialogue on their dispute over Kashmir.
    (SFC, 12/29/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 28, Insurgents launched multiple attacks on Iraqi police across the dangerous Sunni Triangle, killing at least 33 police officers and national guardsmen. 12 of the policemen near Tikrit had their throats slit.
    (AP, 12/28/04)(SFC, 12/29/04, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 28, Insurgents lured police to a house in west Baghdad with an anonymous tip about a rebel hideout, then set off explosives, killing at least 29 people and wounding 18.
    (AP, 12/29/04)(SFC, 12/29/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 28, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip suffered a setback after a parliamentary committee failed to approve a set of guidelines for dealing with Jewish settlers in the evacuation.
    (AP, 12/28/04)
2004        Dec 28, In Saudi Arabia security forces killed three suspected militants in a raid on their hideout in Riyadh.
    (AP, 12/29/04)
2004        Dec 28, The Spanish government has reached an agreement with unions and employers to raise the minimum monthly wage by 4.5 percent to euro512.90 ($699) on Jan. 1.
    (AP, 12/28/04)

2004        Dec 29, President Bush assembled a four-nation coalition to organize humanitarian relief for Asia and made clear the United States would help bankroll long-term rebuilding in the region leveled by a massive earthquake and tsunamis.
    (AP, 12/29/05)
2004        Dec 29, The international Red Cross said that the death toll from the Dec 26 earthquake and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean could rise to more than 100,000.
    (AP, 12/29/04)
2004        Dec 29, In Afghanistan masked gunmen killed Pashtun politician Shah Alam Khan, a close ally of Pres. Karzai.
    (WSJ, 12/30/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 29, The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island, finding thousands of bodies and increasing the death toll across 12 nations to more than 76,700.
    (AP, 12/29/04)
2004        Dec 29, Insurgents tried to ram a truck with half a ton of explosives into a U.S. military post in the northern city of Mosul then ambushed reinforcements in a huge gunbattle in which 25 rebels and one American soldier were killed.
    (AP, 12/30/04)(SFC, 12/30/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 29, In Israel 4 antiquities collectors and dealers were indicted on charges that they ran a global forgery ring for Bible-era artifacts.
    (SFC, 12/30/04, p.A2)
2004        Dec 29, About 10 Israeli tanks moved into the Khan Younis refugee camp to stop rocket fire. 2 Palestinian gunmen were killed by tank fire.
    (AP, 12/30/04)(WSJ, 12/30/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 29, Puerto Rico's governor-elect said he opposes the war in Iraq and wants to see a reduction in the number of U.S. troops, including islanders, posted in the troubled country.
    (AP, 12/29/04)
2004        Dec 29, Ramzan Kadyrov, a pro-Moscow Chechen leader accused by rights groups of kidnapping and murder, earned Russia's highest award for "valor and heroism."
    (AP, 12/29/04)
2004        Dec 29, In Saudi Arabia insurgents bombed two security headquarters in Riyadh, setting off violence that left 10 attackers and one bystander dead.
    (AP, 12/30/04)

2004        Dec 30, The death toll from the Dec 26 earthquake-tsunami catastrophe rose to more than 114,000. Indonesia estimated deaths in Aceh at over 80,000.
    (AP, 12/30/04)(SFC, 12/31/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 30, Arkansas vowed to appeal after a judge struck down a 1999 rule barring the state from placing a foster child in any household with a gay member.
    (WSJ, 12/31/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 30, Washington Sec. of State Sam Reed certified Democratic candidate Christine Gregoire as winner in the governor’s race by 129 votes over Republican opponent Dino Rossi.
    (SFC, 12/31/04, p.A2)
2004        Dec 30, In Tennessee 2 couples were charged with defrauding Wal-Mart of $1.5 million in 19 states by switching UPC bar codes.
    (SFC, 12/31/04, p.C3)
2004        Dec 30, Artie Shaw (94), jazz clarinetist, died in Thousand Oaks, Ca. His 8 wives included film stars Lana Turner and Ava Gardner. In 1952 he authored the autobiography: “The Trouble with Cinderella: An Outline of Identity.” In 2010 Tom Nolan authored “Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw.”
    (SFC, 12/31/04, p.A1)(SSFC, 5/2/10, p.F5)
2004        Dec 30, In Argentina a flare lit during a rock concert ignited the foam ceiling of the Cromagnon Republic nightclub in Buenos Aires packed with teenagers, starting an inferno that killed 194 people. Omar Chaban, promoter and owner of the club, later faced charges of manslaughter. In 2006 the Buenos Aires city council sacked Mayor Anibal Ibarra for failing to root out a culture of bribery and bureaucratic sloth. In 2009 judges convicted the concert promoter, three city officials and a band manager in the fire. The court absolved the Callejeros band of criminal responsibility for the blaze caused by fans' fireworks.
    (AP, 12/31/04)(AP, 12/30/05)(Econ, 3/11/06, p.35)(AP, 8/20/09)
2004        Dec 30, Mikhail Marinich, Belarus opposition figure and former economic affairs minister, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for stealing computers owned by the US Embassy. The embassy did not report any thefts and the charges were considered spurious.
    (SFC, 12/31/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 30, Bolivia’s government under Carlos Mesa announced a 23% increase in the cost of diesel fuel and a 10% rise for petrol. Protests soon followed.
    (Econ, 1/22/05, p.35)
2004        Dec 30, Officials said Canada has found what may be a second case of mad cow disease, just a day after the US said it planned to reopen its border to Canadian beef.
    (AP, 12/30/04)
2004        Dec 30, China accused the US of pressuring Israel not to return armed drone aircraft that were sent back for upgrades following their purchase in the 1990s.
    (WSJ, 12/31/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 30, In Iraq all 700 employees of the electoral commission in Mosul resigned following threats by militant groups.
    (SFC, 12/31/04, p.A3)
2004        Dec 30, In southern Gaza 2 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile strike, the 2nd day of an army raid to stop Palestinian rocket fire from the Khan Younis refugee camp.
    (AP, 12/31/04)
2004        Dec 30, King Mohammed VI of Morocco met with Canadian PM Paul Martin and ambassador Carmen Sylvain for talks about cooperation between their two countries.
    (AFP, 12/30/04)
2004        Dec 30, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf reiterated his intention to retain his dual role of army chief and called on the opposition to accept the decision of the majority.
    (AP, 12/30/04)
2004        Dec 30, Russia said it would form a new state oil company base on the core operations of Yukos and that it would offer a minority stake to China.
    (WSJ, 12/31/04, p.A1)
2004        Dec 30, Spain approved new guidelines on immigration, including a partial amnesty aimed at giving papers to some of the 800,000 illegal immigrants estimated to be living in the country.
    (AP, 12/30/04)
2004        Dec 30, South Korea's parliament approved extending the mission of its 3,600 troops in Iraq for another year.
    (AP, 12/31/04)
2004        Dec 30, Taiwan increased interest rates by .125% pushing the discount rate to 1.75%.
    (WSJ, 12/31/04, p.A6)

2004        Dec 31, The US pledged $350 million in grant aid for tsunami disaster relief. The World Bank committed $250 million. Great Britain offered $95 million.
    (AP, 1/1/05)(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A1)
2004        Dec 31, Bulgarian authorities picked up Suleyman Demirel, one-time owner of Egebank and nephew of former pres. Demirel, and returned him to Turkey for trial. Egebank’s collapse had caused financial losses of $1.2 billion.
    (Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.10)
2004        Dec 31, Ricardo Palmera (54) became the first leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to be sent to face prosecution in a U.S. federal court.
    (AP, 1/1/05)
2004        Dec 31, In Colombia suspected Marxist rebels massacred 16 peasants, including women and children, in a remote area in lawless Arauca province.
    (AP, 1/1/05)
2004        Dec 31, Gerard Debreu (b.1921), winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics (1983), died in Paris.
    (SFC, 1/6/05, p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_Debreu)
2004        Dec 31, Spain's socialist government approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriages.
    (AP, 12/31/04)
2004        Dec 31, Sudanese government and southern rebel officials signed landmark deals on how to implement a series of agreements on ending a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.
    (AP, 12/31/04)
2004        Dec 31, Thai authorities said more than 2,230 foreigners from 36 nations were confirmed dead from Thailand's southern resorts alone.
    (AP, 12/31/04)(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A1)
2004        Dec 31, Ukrainian PM Viktor Yanukovych resigned, acknowledging that he had little hope of reversing the election victory of his Western-leaning rival, Viktor Yushchenko.
    (AP, 12/31/05)

2004        Dec, Arkansas was reported to be infected with Asian soybean rust. 9 states were believed to be infected with spores carried over from South America by the recent hurricanes.
    (Econ, 12/11/04, p.33)
2004        Dec, Cox Communications, a major cable firm, went private for $8.5 billion.
    (Econ, 11/4/06, p.74)(http://tinyurl.com/ygd94t)
2004        Dec, Syrian-born Mustafa Setmarian Nasar (b.1958), a.k.a. Abu Musab, Nouradin, Blond Blond, Abu al-Abed, Omar Abdelhakin, Abu Musab al Siri, Umar Abd al-Hakim,  authored "The International Islamic Resistance Call." His book named enemies as "Jews, Americans, British, Russian and any and all of the NATO countries, as well as any country that takes the position of oppressing Islam and Muslims."
    (AP, 8/4/05)
2004        Dec, Deyda Hydara, a reporter for Gambian daily The Point, was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen. In 2017 Gambia issued arrests warrants for two suspects.
    (AP, 7/31/06)(AP, 5/19/17)
2004        Dec, Latvia’s President Vaira Vike-Freiberga appointed Aigars Kalvitis as PM, the 9th in 11 years.
    (Econ, 12/11/04, p.48)
2004        Dec, In Puerto Rico Antonio Barcelo Jimenez, an attorney who worked as a government advocate for children, was killed along with his daughters were Yajaira Barcelo Segarra and Laura Barcelo Rosario in a mistaken drive-by shooting.
    (AP, 7/13/17)
2004        Dec, Turkey signed a $10 billion 3-year economic agreement with the IMF.
    (Econ, 3/19/05, Survey p.12)

2004        Scott Greene, Albuquerque artist, created his painting “Stay the Course,” a not-so-veiled reference to the US ship of state.
    (SFC, 1/15/05, p.E10)

2004        An anonymous author, a senior CIA analyst, published “Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror.”
    (SSFC, 6/27/04, p.A16)
2004        Bruce Ackerman authored "Deliberation Day," in which he called for a new US national holiday for citizens to engage public discussions.
    (WSJ, 3/24/04, p.D12)
2004        Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser authored “Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference.”
    (Econ, 3/13/04, p.78)
2004        Graham Allison, Harvard security analyst, authored “Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe.”
    (SSFC, 11/21/04, p.B1)
2004        Fred Anderson and Andrew Cayton authored “The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America (1500-2000).”
    (WSJ, 1/4/05, p.D8)
2004        Richard Arum authored "Judging School Discipline," in which he examines the effect of litigation on schools' moral authority.
    (WSJ, 3/25/04, p.D6)
2004        Philip Ball authored “Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another,” in which he surveys recent attempts to apply to society certain tools developed for physics.
    (SSFC, 6/27/04, p.M3)
2004        Terrence Ball and Richard Bellamy edited "The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought." It was the 6th volume of a 6-volume world history.
    (Econ, 1/17/04, p.72)
2004        Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo of MIT authored “Poor Economics.”
    (Econ, 8/1/15, p.67)
2004        Dana Bell and Norman Polmar authored “One Hundred Years of World Military Aircraft.”
    (www.historynet.com/one-hundred-years-of-world-military-aircraft-book-review.htm)
2004        Richard Barber authored “The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief.”
    (WSJ, 12/23/05, p.W4)
2004        Jagdish Bhagwati authored “In Defence of Globalisation,” a general guide on global economic integration.
    (Econ, 5/1/04, p.84)
2004        James H. Billington, US Librarian of Congress, authored "Russia In Search of Itself."
    (WSJ, 4/20/04, p.D8)
2004        Hans Blix, former UN chief weapons inspector, authored “Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
    (Econ, 3/13/04, p.83)
2004        Lynn Brewer authored “Confessions of an Enron Executive.”
    (Econ, 3/25/06, p.67)
2004        Frank Bryan (62), political scientist at the Univ. of Vermont, authored “Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works.”
    (www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/01/25/real_democracy/)
2004        Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit authored "Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies." The title was an inversion of "Orientalism" (1978) by Prof. Edward Said.
    (WSJ, 4/8/04, p.D8)
2004        Richard Clarke, former White House counter-terrorism chief, authored "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," an account of his anti-terrorism work under the Clinton and Bush administrations.
    (WSJ, 4/1/04, p.D8)(SSFC, 4/25/04, p.M1)
2004        David Crystal authored “The Stories of English,” a non-technical account of the evolution of the English language.
    (WSJ, 4/18/09, p.W8)
2004        Jared Diamond authored “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.”
    (AM, 7/05, p.52)
2004        Slavenca Drakulic, Croatian novelist and journalist, authored “They Would Never Hurt a Fly: War Criminals on Trial in the Hague.”
    (SSFC, 8/8/04, p.M1)
2004        Bob Dylan authored a memoir titled “Chronicle: Volume One.”
    (SFC, 10/5/04, p.E1)
2004        Umberto Eco edited his “History of Beauty,” a collection of thoughts on the titled theme.
    (WSJ, 12/1/04, p.A1)
2004        Daniel Mark Epstein authored "Lincoln and Whitman."
    (WSJ, 2/12/04, p.D12)
2004        Paul and Anne Erlich authored “One With Nineveh,” a plan for reorganizing the world’s economy and systems of government in order to ward off a prospective collision with nature.
    (WSJ, 5/20/04, p.D10)
2004        Joe Eszterhas (59), film director, authored his memoir "Hollywood Animal."
    (SFC, 2/12/04, p.E1)
2004        Noah Feldman authored “What We Owe Iraq.”
    (WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A1)
2004        Niall Ferguson authored “Colossus: The Price of America’s Empire.”
    (SSFC, 5/2/04, p.M1)(WSJ, 6/17/04, p.D7)
2004        Thomas Frank authored his bestseller “What’s the Matter with Kansas.”
    (Econ, 9/10/16, p.70)
2004        Gen. Tommy Franks authored “American Soldier.”
    (SSFC, 8/1/04, Par p.5)
2004        John Lewis Gaddis, Yale historian, authored “Surprise, Security and the American Experience.”
    (Econ, 4/24/04, p.85)
2004        Daniel Gavron authored “The Other Side of Despair: Jews and Arabs in the Promised Land,” in which he called for the creation of a democratic, binational State of Jerusalem.
    (Econ, 3/16/13, p.25)
2004        Gary Gensler authored “The Great Mutual Fund Trap,” in which he warned that Wall Street is continuously trying to rip off investors. In 2008 he was named to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
    (Econ, 9/5/09, p.83)
2004        Bruce Gilley authored “China’s Democratic Future: How It Will Happen and Where It Will Lead.”
    (Econ, 6/26/04, p.83)
2004        David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy at the Claremont School of Theology, authored “The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Pearl_Harbor)
2004        Alan Gurney authored “Compass,” a  history of the instrument that made global navigation possible.
    (WSJ, 7/23/04, p.W12)
2004        Lee Harris authored "Civilization and its Enemies: The Next Stage of History."
    (WSJ, 2/11/04, p.D10)2004        Sam Harris authored “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason.”
    (SSFC, 10/1/06, p.G1)
2004        Stephen F. Hayes authored “The Connection,” an examination of the extensive array of contacts between Saddam Hussein and bin Laden.
    (WSJ, 6/22/04, p.D8)
2004        David V. Herlihy authored “Bicycle: The History.”
    (SSFC, 1/30/05, p.C2)
2004        Frits Hoekstra, a former Dutch security official authored “In the Service of the BVD” (In Dienst van de BVD), a book on Dutch secret service operations. It included an account of “Project Mongol,” the use of a mock Maoist movement to gather intelligence during the cold war, which the CIA called “Operation Red herring.”
    (WSJ, 12/3/04, p.A1)
2004        Samuel P. Huntington authored “Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity.”
    (Econ, 12/3/16, p.72)
2004        Eric Jackson authored “The PayPal Wars.” It describes how PayPal launched its online payment service and set out to revolutionize the world's currency markets. It describes how Max Levchin and David Gausebeck developed the Gausebeck-Levchin test to tell if a machine or a person was signing up accounts over the Internet.
    (www.worldaheadpublishing.com/titles/ppw.php)(SSFC, 2/26/06, p.D3)
2004        Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee authored “On Intelligence.”
    (Econ, 3/8/08, TQ p.31)
2004        Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner authored “Innovation and Its Discontents: How our broken patent system is endangering innovation and progress and what to do about it.”
    (Econ, 11/13/04, p.71)
2004        Kay Redfield Jamison authored “Exuberance: The Passion for Life.”
    (SSFC, 10/3/04, p.M1)
2004        Steven Johnson authored "Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life." He examined how the functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) might reveal the workings of the mind's emotional toolbox and its alleged 412 distinct emotions.
    (SSFC, 2/15/04, p.M8)
2004        Gilles Kepel authored “The War for Muslim Minds.”
    (WSJ, 9/16/04, p.D12)
2004        J.L. King authored "On the Down Low: A Journey Into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep With Men."
    (AP, 7/24/09)
2004        Rob Lachenauer and George Stalk authored “Hardball,” a business management book with advice such as: “people who don’t deliver need to be counseled, cautioned, moved or fired.
    (WSJ, 10/15/04, p.W6)
2004        Stephen and Donna Leeb authored “The Oil Factor” and claimed that the price of oil will soar above $100 per barrel by the end of the decade.
    (Econ, 3/20/04, p.62)(www.financialsense.com/fsu/posts/dancy/reviews/030904.html)
2004        Amory Lovins, head of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), authored “Winning the Oil Endgame.” Lovins offered a plan for reducing US oil use by 50% by 2025, and ending foreign oil dependency based on a study funded by the Pentagon.
    (www.amazon.com/Winning-Oil-Endgame-Amory-Lovins/dp/1881071103)
2004        Geert Mak (b.1946), Dutch journalist, authored “In Europe: Travels through the Twentieth Century.” An updated version in English was published in 2007.
    (Econ, 2/24/07, p.96)
2004        Paul W. MacAvoy and Ira M. Millstein authored "The Recurrent Crises in Corporate Governance." They held the position that "nothing short of separating the roles of board leadership and management leadership will suffice" to mend boardroom conduct.
    (WSJ, 2/18/04, p.D4)
2004        Mahmood Mamdani, Prof. of government at Columbia Univ., authored “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.”
    (SSFC, 5/9/04, p.M6)
2004        James Mann authored "Rise of the Vulcans," an examination of G. Bush's cabinet members: Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney.
    (WSJ, 3/10/04, p.D8)
2004        Cristina Marcano and Alberto Barrera Tyszka authored the biography “Hugo Chavez.” In 2007 Kristina Cordero translated it to English.
    (Econ, 8/4/07, p.70)
2004        John McMillan (1951-2007), economist and teacher, authored “Reinventing the Bazaar.” He had traveled the world to discover why markets succeeded or failed.
    (WSJ, 3/24/07, p.A8)
2004        Ken Midkiff authored “The Meat You Eat: How Corporate Farming Has Endangered America’s Food Supply.”
    (SSFC, 8/8/04, p.M1)
2004        Corinne Maier authored the French pamphlet “Bounjour Paresse” (Hello Laziness). It was sub-titled The Art and the Importance of Doing the Least Possible in the Workplace, and became a bestseller in France.
    (Econ, 7/21/07, p.51)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5698558/)
2004        Forrest McDonald (b.1927), American historian, authored his memoir “Recovering the Past.”
    (WSJ, 8/12/04, p.D8)
2004        John J. Miller and Mark Molesky authored “Our Oldest Enemy,” an examination of France’s relations with the US over the last few hundred years.
    (WSJ, 10/14/04, p.D7)
2004        Brad Miner authored “The Compleat Gentleman,” a social history on honor and gentlemanly behavior.
    (WSJ, 5/28/04, p.W3)
2004        Helen Nissenbaum presented her theory called “contextual integrity.” It proposed an alternative benchmark for privacy in public media.
    (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=534622)
2004        Martha Nussbaum authored “Hiding From Humanity: Shame, Disgust and the Law,” in which she discusses the psychology of scapegoating selected outsiders.
    (SSFC, 8/8/04, p.F1)
2004        John O’Neill, former US Navy officer, authored “Unfit for Command,” a slashing attack against presidential candidate John Kerry.
    (SFC, 9/11/04, p.A5)
2004        Barbara Peterson authored “Blue Streak: Inside jetBlue, the Upstart That Rocked an Industry.”
    (WSJ, 11/30/04, p.D10)
 2004        Kevin Phillips authored "American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush."
    (SSFC, 2/1/04, p.M3)
2004        C.K. Prahalad authored “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits.” Prahalad was one of the first management gurus to note the rise of the emerging-market consumer.
    (Econ, 11/5/05, Survey p.10)(Econ, 9/20/08, SR p.10)
2004        Christoph Reuter authored “My Life is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide bombing.”
    (Econ, 5/22/04, p.76)
2004        Jim Rogers authored “Hot Commodities: How anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World’s Best Market.”
    (WSJ, 12/28/04, p.D8)
2004        John Ross authored “Murdered by Capitalism: A Memoir of 150 Years of Life and Death on the American Left.”
    (SFC, 6/8/04, E1)
2004        Marc Sageman authored “Understanding Terror Networks.”
    (Econ, 2/2/08, p.93)
2004        Hiner Saleem, filmmaker, authored “My Father’s Rifle,” a memoir of his life growing as the son of a Kurdish peshmerga (“those who confront death”) fighter.
    (WSJ, 12/22/04, p.D8)(Econ, 5/7/15, SR p.3)
2004        Ed Shultz (1954-2018), former conservative radio and TV host, authored "Straight Talk From the Heartland."
    (SSFC, 7/8/18, p.C3)
2004        Paul Seabright, prof. of economics at the Univ. of Toulousse, authored “The Company of Strangers,” which examines the evolution of human cooperation.
    (Econ, 8/14/04, p.69)
2004        John Searle authored “Mind: A Brief Introduction.”
    (SSFC, 12/19/04, p.E3)
2004        Natan Sharansky authored “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.” The book had a strong influence on Pres. Bush.
    (Econ, 2/5/05, p.32)(www.americandaily.com/article/5980)
2004        Sarah Harrison Smith authored “The Fact Checker’s Bible: A Guide to Getting It Right.”
    (SSFC, 8/8/04, p.M6)
2004        Hugh D.H. Soar authored “The Crooked Stick: A History of the Longbow.”
    (WSJ, 11/4/04, p.D10)
2004        George Soros authored "The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power."
    (Econ, 1/31/04, p.81)
2004        Thomas Sowell authored "Applied Economics," a primer on the "key economic issues of our time."
    (WSJ, 3/19/04, p.W12)
2004        James Gustave Speth authored “Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crises of the Global Environment—A Citizen’s Agenda for Action.”
    (Econ, 3/20/04, p.91)
2004        Gabor Steingart authored "Decline of a Super Star," in which he argued that Germany's history since 1945 has been a big mistake.
    (Econ, 3/27/04, p.50)
2004        James Surrowiecki, columnist for the New Yorker, authored “The Wisdom of Crowds.“
    (SSFC, 7/4/04, p.M3)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.89)
2004        Richard Taruskin published his 5-volume “Oxford History of Western Music.” It was made available in paperback in 2009.
    (Econ, 8/15/09, p.79)
2004        David Thompson authored “The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood.”
    (WSJ, 12/8/04, p.D12)
2004        Joe Trippi, former head of the Dean campaign for president, authored “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
    (WSJ, 7/28/04, p.D10)
2004        Kevin Trudeau self-published “Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About.” Sales after a year reached some 3 million. Trudeau served 2 years in the early 1990’s for credit card fraud and in 2004 was barred by the FTC from selling products through infomercials.
    (SSFC, 8/28/05, p.A2)
2004        Siva Vaidhyananathan authored “The Anarchist: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control is Leaving Cyberspace and Entering the Real World.“
    (SSFC, 5/2/04, p.M3)
2004        Steven Vincent authored “In the Red Zone,” a look at Iraqi life outside the Green Zone.
    (WSJ, 12/17/04, p.W8)
2004        Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, authored “Why Globalisation Works.”
    (Econ, 7/17/04, p.75)
2004        Bob Woodward authored his book on the Iraqi war "Plan of Attack." He reported that the Saudis promised Pres. Bush to lower oil prices before the November elections.
    (SFC, 4/20/04, p.A1)
2004        Stephen Yafa authored “Big Cotton: How a Humble Fiber Created Fortunes, Wrecked Civilizations and Put American On the Map.
    (WSJ, 12/29/04, p.D8)

2004        The action film "Kill Bill: Volume 2" was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.
    (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Bill:_Volume_2)
2004        Canadian filmmakers Mark Achbar, Joel Bakan, and Jennifer Abbot produced the documentary film “The Corporation,” which asked the question: If the corporation is treated a person under law, what kind of person is it? Conclusions indicated a psychopath.
    (Econ, 5/8/04, p.64)
2004        The film Hotel Rwanda was directed by Terry George. It was based on the story of Paul Rusesabagina, who managed the Hotel des Mille Collines during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The hotel in Kigali was one of the few places where nobody was killed. Rusesabagina later criticized the government of Pres. Kagame for limiting opposition. Rusesabagina then faced attacks in Rwanda for profiting from the genocide.
    (WSJ, 12/5/06, p.A14)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0395169/)
2004        The documentary film “Lost Boys of Sudan” was first broadcast on PBS. It follows two Sudanese refugees, made homeless by civil war in 1987, on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America.
    (www.lostboysfilm.com/about.html)(SFC, 5/28/08, p.B5)

2004        The US government donated 3.4 million metric tons of commodities to use as food aid in about 80 countries.
    (WSJ, 10/26/05, p.A1)
2004        A US government found that some $700 million from Equatorial Guinea was held at Washington's Riggs Bank, making the country the bank's biggest customer. Riggs was fined millions of dollars in money-laundering fines. Nothing was done against Equatorial Guinea’s Pres. Obiang. Human rights groups have accused Obiang of using the oil wealth to make his family fabulously rich while most of his countrymen live in squalor.
    (AP, 11/3/09)
2004        The CIA hired Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al-Qaida. Blackwater of North Carolina, later renamed Xe Services, helped with planning, training and surveillance until the unsuccessful program was cancelled.
    (SFC, 8/20/09, p.A2)
2004        Sallie Mae, formed in 1972 as a government sponsored provider of student loans, completed a privatizing process begun in 1997.
    (Econ, 7/19/08, p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Mae)
2004        FiXs was founded and based in Fairfax, Virginia, to pilot a federated identity transaction model and was incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation.  A long-standing affiliation with the DoD credentialing program has enabled participating government organizations and industry members to establish secure and interoperable identity verification and authentication for secure facility and system access.
    (http://www.fixs.org/)

2004        In California William Danser, a Santa Clara County judge, was convicted of fixing traffic tickets for players and employees of the San Jose Sharks hockey team and San Jose Earthquakes soccer team. The state bar suspended his license. Los Gatos police Detective Randy Bishop was also convicted. Their sentences included fines and 90 days of house arrest.
    (SFC, 8/16/07, p.B4)
2004        Salt Lake City rare book dealer Ken Sanders helped San Jose, Calif., police put rare-book swindler John Charles Gilkey in San Quentin prison for three years. They caught Gilkey using a stolen credit card number to have a $6,000 edition of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" delivered to a Palo Alto hotel. Sanders describes him as "a collector gone to the dark side."
    (www.scads.org/scams/tribune_article_04jun04.htm)
2004        California’s spending on prisons surpassed spending on universities about this time.
    (Econ, 9/10/11, p.36)

2004        Hawaii gained control of Kahoolawe Island, south of Maui. It had been used by the US Navy for decades as a bombing range starting in WWII. By 2016 the 45-square-mile island remained uninhabited and was still littered with ordnance.
    (SFC, 6/3/16, p.A8)

2004        Massachusetts changed its law regarding a Senate vacancy and required a special election to fill empty Senate seats within 145-160 days of a vacancy. The Democratic legislature did not want Republican Gov. Mitt Romney to appoint a fellow Republican to the fill John Kerry’s seat, if Kerry were to win the presidential election.
    (Econ, 9/5/09, p.34)

2004        Oklahoma became the first US state to pass a law that made it harder to buy more than small quantities of medicine containing pseudoephedrine, one of the ingredients for the illegal production of methamphetamine. Other states soon followed.
    (Econ, 9/30/06, p.40)

2004        South Carolina repealed a law limiting firearms purchases to one a month. The measure, dating back to the 1970s, had been designed to stop gun trafficking.
    (Econ, 6/27/15, p.21)

2004        The new $480 million Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center opened in Grapevine, Texas. It covered 2.5 million square feet on 150 acres.
    (WSJ, 8/11/04, p.B1)
2004        Catherine Rohr, a venture capitalist, founded the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) in Texas to engage prisoners in studying business.
    (Econ, 3/22/08, p.36)

2004        America exported $10.5 billion worth of film and television shows.
    (SSFC, 8/6/06, p.E5)

2004        The Chicago Sun-Times revealed a racket in which the city was apparently hiring trucks to do nothing. The head of the program pleaded guilty to federal charges. 35 others were charged, of whom 23 pleaded guilty.
    (Econ, 3/18/06, Survey p.16)
2004        Illinois under Gov. Blagojevich began a prisoner reform program at its Sheridan Prison. Over the next 2 years prisoners who successfully completed the program had a 49% lower risk of returning to prison.
    (SFC, 8/7/06, p.A6)

2004        Utah banned execution by firing squad. This did not apply to past cases and a man was executed by firing squad in 2010.
    (Econ., 3/21/15, p.23)

2004        InVision Tech., top US supplier of explosive detection equipment, agreed to pay $800,000 to resolve a Justice Dept. criminal investigation on charges of bribery to foreign officials. This allowed General Electric to complete its $900 million acquisition of InVision.
    (SFC, 2/15/05, p.D1)

2004        Downtown Martin, Ky., was demolished and re-established on a hill to avoid regular flooding from Beaver Creek. The town was established almost a century earlier when Dick Osborn divided up his considerable acreage to establish the town. In 2006 Michelle Slatalla authored “The Town on Beaver Creek.”
    (WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P9)

2004        In the US the ratio of executive pay to that of the average worker stood at 431 to 1.
    (Econ, 11/26/05, p.75)
2004        Puerto Rico’s annual income per person was around $12,000 for this year.
    (Econ, 5/27/06, p.25)

2004        Joe Kraus co-founded JotSpot as the first company to provide an application wiki. JotSpot has since launched several other products.
    (http://www.jot.com/)(Econ, 4/22/06, Survey p.14)

2004        Billy Gaines and Duncan Carrroll, graduates of Carnegie Mellon Univ., developed a Web site called bpong.com along with a multiplayer online beer-pong game. Beer pong had gained popularity on college campuses in the 1990s.
    (WSJ, 8/29/07, p.A10)

2004        PatientsLikeMe, a social networking health site, was founded by three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers: brothers Benjamin Heywood and Jamie Heywood and longtime family friend Jeff Cole.
    (Econ, 3/3/12, TQ p.22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PatientsLikeMe)

2004        John McAfee, computer software multi-millionaire, formed a network of runways in New Mexico and Arizona for recreational light sport aircraft.
    (WSJ, 4/21/07, p.A10)

2004        Pierre Omidyar (b.1967), the founder of eBay, replaced his charitable foundation with a new organization, Omidyar Network, with a focus on being an active investor rather than a passive donor.
    (Econ, 10/26/13, p.76)

2004        Ruby on Rails, created by David Heinemeier Hansson, made its debut and rapidly become one of the most powerful and popular frameworks for building dynamic web applications.
    (http://ruby.railstutorial.org/ruby-on-rails-tutorial-book)

2004        WiMax technology, a long-range wireless standard, provided high-speed Internet access from a maximum range of 30 miles.
    (Econ, 3/13/04, p.64)

2004        The US FDA approved maggot therapy as a prescription treatment to prevent wound infections.
    (SFC, 12/8/12, p.A10)

2004        Gilead Sciences of California launched Truvada, a once-a-day, one-pill combination of two drugs to treat AIDS.
    (Econ, 6/2/12, p.80)(http://www.gilead.com/pdf/truvada_pi.pdf)

2004        The drug Avastin (bevacizumab), developed to inhibit blood vessel growth at tumor sites, was approved to treat advanced colorectal. Its used was later extended to kidney and lung cancers.
    (Econ, 9/16/17, TQ p.7)

2004        Vytorin, a drug for high cholesterol, came out. It combined Merck’s Zocor with Schering-Plough Corp.'s Zetia, which went on sale in 2002 and attacks cholesterol in a different way. In 2008 a study of Vytorin failed to show positive results.
    (http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/20/news/fortune500/vytorin/index.htm)(AP, 3/31/08)

2004        Scientists confirmed that the universe is accelerating.
    (SFC, 12/6/04, p.A4)
2004        Scientists using the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES) discovered a distant planet the size of Jupiter, 32 times further than the Sun. They named it TrES-1b.
    (Econ, 2/19/05, p.77)

2004        Zander Nosler, Seattle-based industrial designer, invented the Clover, a high-end coffee making machine with an inverse plunger. The first machines were sold in 2006.
    (Econ, 11/17/07, p.76)

2004        Dr. Edelman and associates in San Diego, Ca., constructed Darwin IX, a mobile physical device equipped with artificial whiskers and a simulated nervous system based on the neuroanatomy of the rat somatosensory system. The team built machines run by computer programs to work the way they thought that brains work and then studied the results.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, Survey p.11)(http://tinyurl.com/yhzf5s)
2004        Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, co-founded Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto, Ca., to build software that ties databases together to make it easier to search and analyze information.
    (SFC, 6/25/15, p.C6)

2004        Some 8.3 million households worldwide held assets of at least $1 million. This number was up 7% from a year earlier.
    (Econ, 12/24/05, p.66)

2004        Fifty-six journalists around the world were killed in 2004 because of their jobs.
    (SFC, 3/15/05, p.A8)

2004        Black band coral disease was first identified. It rose to outbreak levels in 2012 and in 2015 was found in reefs off the coast of Hawaii.
    (SFC, 5/1/15, p.A9)

2004        A $12.5 million Arctic Coring Expedition, run by a consortium called the Int’l. Ocean Drilling Program, drilled into layers of sediment millions of years old.
    (SFC, 6/1/06, p.A5)

2004        In Afghanistan Nizar Habibi served as Kabul’s chief price controller. Prices were limited by 5% profits in order to ensure that the poor could afford to eat.
    (WSJ, 10/8/04, p.A15)
2004        In Afghanistan Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Pres. Karzai, was implicated in an enormous cache of heroin found hidden beneath concrete blocks in a tractor-trailer outside Kandahar. Security forces released the vehicle and the drugs following a call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, later chief of the Kandahar Provincial Council.
    (SSFC, 10/5/08, p.A23)
2004        In Afghanistan Radio Watanda began broadcasting from a basement in a suburb of Kabul. Listeners soon discovered that they could use it as a platform to harangue the authorities.
    (Econ, 6/16/07, p.50)

2004        The South Pole Food Growth Chamber began operating. It provided at least one fresh salad a day during the winter months to the staff of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
    (Econ, 12/11/10, TQ p.15)

2004        Antigua owed some $85 million, over 10% of its GDP, to companies of financier R. Allen Stanford.
    (Econ, 2/28/09, p.42)

2004        The extreme poverty rate in Argentina fell to15% compared to 20.5% in 2003.
    (WSJ, 3/16/05, p.A23)

2004        Australia prohibited the importation of asbestos.
    (AP, 8/15/12)

2004        Bahrain’s population was about 675,000. 70% were Shia under a Sunni royal family.
    (Econ, 7/31/04, p.41)(Econ, 4/5/08, p.52)

2004        Brazil’s Congress accused Horacio Cartes of Paraguay of cigarette smuggling.
    (Econ, 4/27/13, p.35)
2004        Brazil’s public debt fell to 52% of GDP from 57% in 2003.
    (Econ, 2/5/05, p.36)

2004        The British government decided that pluralism requires all schools to include some instruction on atheism.
    (WSJ, 2/20/09, p.W11)
2004        In Britain Senior Lord of Appeal Tom Bingham (1933-2010) ruled that 9 foreign men, held at Belmarsh prison in London, had been detained illegally.
    (Econ, 9/18/10, p.107)(http://tinyurl.com/2b6j66v)
2004        In England Ali Parsa, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, formed Circle Healthcare, and shared ownership with its employees. The hospital treated a mixture of National Health Service and private patients.
    (Econ, 5/21/11, p.63)
2004        University of Manchester professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov used Scotch tape to isolate graphene, a form of carbon only one atom thick but more than 100 times stronger than steel, and showed it has exceptional properties, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.
    (AP, 10/5/10)(Econ, 12/5/15, TQ p.9)

2004        Burundi created a national army out of former army and seven former rebel movements.
    (AFP, 10/22/11)

2004        In Cameroon Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk), an anti-corruption campaign, was launched.
    (AFP, 4/17/12)
2004        In Cameroon Inoni Ephraim began serving as prime minister and continued to 2009.
    (AFP, 4/16/12)

2004        Canadian filmmakers Mark Achbar, Joel Bakan, and Jennifer Abbot produced the documentary film “The Corporation,” which asked the question: If the corporation is treated as a person under law, what kind of person is it? Conclusions indicated a psychopath.
    (Econ, 5/8/04, p.64)
2004        Canada’s mint produced nearly 30 million poppy quarters commemorating 117,000 war dead. The "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious US Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them.
    (AP, 5/7/07)

2004        In Chile days after the recipe was published in the paper's "Woman" magazine, hospitals around the country began treating women for burns suffered when the dough boiling in oil suddenly shot out of kitchen pots. In 2011 Chile's Supreme Court ordered the publisher of La Tercera to pay $125,000 to 13 people who suffered burns while trying out the churros recipe.
    (AP, 12/26/11)
2004        Goldman Sachs donated a 2,750 square km. property in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego to the Wildlife Conservation Society of NY. It became the Karukinka nature reserve. Goldman acquired the property in 2002 along with loans backing a failed 1990s project for logging lenga, a type of beech tree.
    (Econ, 3/11/06, p.74)
2004        In Chile Doug Tompkins, founder of Esprit Corp., purchased the 173,000-acre Valle Chacabuco ranch for $10 million. Their intent was to convert it into a national park.
    (SFCM, 9/10/06, p.10)
2004        Endesa, a Spanish-owned utility firm, and Hydro-Quebec of Canada announced their Aysen project, a $4 billion plan to build 4 dams in Chile’s Valle Chacabuco area.
    (SFCM, 9/10/06, p.10)

2004        In China the Ant Financial Group was founded as Alipay, a trusted payment platform for Alibaba's shoppers and merchants.
    (Econ., 10/10/20, p.20)
2004        Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Latin America and said that he hoped 2-way trade in the region would reach $100 billion by 2010.
    (Econ, 8/15/09, p.20)
2004        China introduced new identity cards with embedded microchips. Software limited the use to standard characters. In 2006 a police official moved to ban problematic characters, thereby limiting people’s choices in names.
    (Econ, 4/15/06, p.44)
2004        China’s national tax revenue of $318 billion came mostly from business taxes. The average Chinese paid $16 in income tax. Authorities in 90 Chinese cities turned some sales receipts into lottery tickets to encourage customers to demand trackable invoices.
    (WSJ, 3/31/05, p.A1)
2004        China and Hong Kong entered into a Closer Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The phased agreement eliminated tariffs on Hong Kong exports and by 2005 created 29,000 jobs in Hong Kong.
    (WSJ, 10/19/05, p.A11)
2004        In China some 130 mainland securities companies lost 15 billion yuan (almost $2 billion) under a falling stock market, a dearth of new flotations and bad management. Losses for 2005 were later estimated to be even higher.
    (Econ, 2/11/06, p.69)
2004        China experienced some 74,000 protests involving over 3.7 million people, up from 10,000 in 1994 and 58,000 in 2003.
    (Econ, 10/1/05, p.38)
2004        In China Li Shiming, a corrupt and rapacious local Communist Party secretary in Shanxi province, beat up a farmer and cleared his land for a housing development [see Sep 23, 2008].
    (Econ, 8/22/09, p.38)
2004        China’s 2004 economic growth rate was revised up to 10.1 percent from 9.5 percent following the completion of an economic census in 2006.
    (AP, 1/10/06)
2004        Chinese made shoes accounted for 82% of all shoes sold in the US. US quotas had been abandoned in 1982.
    (WSJ, 6/7/05, p.A13)
2004        Chinese car sales reached 2.3 million making it the world’s 4th largest car market. It was expected to overtake Germany in 2005 and Japan by 2010.
    (Econ, 4/23/05, p.61)
2004        In China Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, set up an online payments system called Alipay.
    (Econ, 1/1/11, p.55)
2004        A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) said some 600 people were killed daily in traffic accidents in China.
    (SFC, 12/7/07, p.A25)
2004        China invested almost $150 million in Sudan this year.
    (Econ, 10/28/06, p.54)

2004        Dominica’s population numbered about 71,000 inhabitants.
    (WSJ, 1/7/04, p.A1)

2004        The Dominican Republic joined the negotiations for the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the US and the agreement was renamed DR-CAFTA.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAFTA)

2004        The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) was set up in the city center as a 110-acre "free zone" to boost Dubai as both a financial waystation and investment destination.
    (Econ., 8/22/20, p.59)
2004        DP World, a ports operator owned by the government of Dubai (UAR), purchased the port operations of CSX, a US railroad company, for $1.15 billion formerly run by John Snow, US treasury secretary.
    (Econ, 2/25/06, p.33)
2004        Dubai reported 34 site-related deaths of construction workers this year. Human Rights Watch counted 880 bodies sent home by foreign embassies.
    (Econ, 12/16/06, p.71)

2004        In Egypt Kefaya, a loose gathering of mainly Nasserist and communist activists, was formed. It struggled to make an impact beyond its street protests since the regime started loosening the noose slightly on the political scene.
    (AP, 12/13/05)

2004        The population of El Salvador at this time was about 6.5 million.
    (AP, 3/21/04)

2004        After the March coup attempt led by Simon Mann and Nick du Toit in Equatorial Guinea, opposition leader Severo Moto was accused of being the instigator. He was tried in absentia and received a 63-year sentence.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severo_Moto)(Econ, 6/21/08, p.58)

2004        Estonia began paying women up to $1,560 for 15 months to have babies, in order to help reverse a trend of declining population.
    (WSJ, 10/20/06, p.A1)

2004        The European Union launched its European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) after the enlargement of the EU with 10 new member countries, in order to avoid creating new borders in Europe.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Neighbourhood_Policy)(Econ, 9/20/14, p.53)
2004        Frontex, a Warsaw-based agency, was created to manage the EU’s external borders. The agency started to be operational on October 3, 2005 and was the first EU agency to be based in one of the new EU states.
    (Econ, 8/21/10, p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontex)
2004        The EU’s GDP per head was $29,330. The average for the 8 new entrants was $9,240.
    (Econ, 1/6/07, p.43)

2004        Le Figaro, France’s leading center-right newspaper, was acquired by Dassault, a big defense company, which also acquired some 70 other titles.
    (Econ, 8/7/04, p.44)
2004        In France the APE agency was founded to oversee the jumble of state holdings that followed a wave of privatizations in the 1990s. It reported to the ministries of finance and industry.
    (Econ, 11/3/12, p.63)
2004        The French public health fund deficit was expected to top $15.7 billion.
    (Econ, 7/31/04, p.43)
2004        French retailer Carrefour SA agreed to buy 13 supermarkets in Poland.
    (WSJ, 4/15/08, p.B2)

2004        The German film “Gegen die Wand” (Head-On) by Hamburg-born Fatih Akin, won the Berlin film festival. It was a bleak, violent tale about Turkish-German cultural crossover.
    (Econ, 2/3/07, p.83)
2004        The German film “Der Untergang” (Downfall) by Oliver Hirschbiegel, was about Hitler’s last days.
    (Econ, 2/3/07, p.83)
2004        Germany passed an immigration law that required new immigrants to study German.
    (Econ, 2/11/06, Survey p.13)
2004        Germany's Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul traveled to Namibia and offered Germany's first apology for a 1904 massacre, which she said was "what today would be labeled as genocide".
    (AP, 8/29/18)
2004        Statistics from Germany’s Federal Crime Office (BKA) showed that a quarter of bribes received this year were by local government officials of whom 53 were mayors.
    (Econ, 9/9/06, p.67)
2004        BMW unveiled the world's fastest hydrogen-powered car at the 2004 Paris auto show. Dubbed the H2R, it can exceed 300 kilometers (185 miles) per hour and reaches 100 km per hour from a standing start in around six seconds.
    (Reuters, 9/12/06)

2004        Elena Votsi, Greek artist, designed the 2004 Olympic medal. It was the 1st re-design in 76 years.
    (AM, 7/04, p.25)(http://olympic-museum.de/w_medals/wmed2004.htm)
2004        Greece had a 2004 deficit of just over 6% of GDP.
    (Econ, 3/26/05, p.55)

2004        In Guatemala 527 women were murdered. Methods used in the murders were reminiscent of those employed against the guerrillas and the residents of rural indigenous villages during the 1960-1996 civil war.
    (IPS, 6/22/05)

2004        Guyana's government gave the indigenous Wai Wai control of 2,400 square miles of tropical forest and savanna, nearly half the size of Connecticut.
    (AP, 10/5/07)

2004        Hong Kong-based Ruyan, which means "like smoking," introduced the world's first electronic cigarette. It patented its ultrasonic atomizing technology, in which nicotine is dissolved in a cartridge containing propylene glycol, the liquid that is vaporized in smoke machines in nightclubs or theaters and is commonly used as a solvent in food.
    (AP, 2/2809)

2004        Hungary passed legislation to fully open the state security archives. It allowed names to be kept secret to protect modern day national security.
    (Econ, 5/31/08, SR p.13)

2004        Iceland’s PM David Oddsson pushed through a media law aimed at limiting Baugur’s interests. Baugur had large retailing interests and in the fall purchased Denmark’s Magasin de Nord department-store group. Oddsson, Europe's longest-serving prime minister, stepped down this year following 13-year tenure that transformed Iceland with a strong dose of free market medicine.
    (Econ, 7/25/05, p.54)(AP, 6/5/06)
2004        Halldor Asgrimson took over as PM of Iceland.
    (Econ, 3/4/06, p.48)
2004        In Iceland Hjalti Sigurjon Hauksson was convicted of raping his stepdaughter almost every day for 12 years.
    (AP, 9/16/17)

2004        The publication of Professor James W. Laine's book "Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India" infuriated hardline Hindu groups in the western state of Maharashtra, who claimed Laine was questioning Shivaji's parentage.
    (Reuters, 4/9/07)
2004        India’s Supreme Court issued a statement regarding activities in protected areas. This was based on a February 2002 order regarding the protection of some 600 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. The 2004 statement included a ban on razing that created a major problem for herders, especially the Raika class of herders in Rajasthan, where 83% of the country’s camels were raised.
    (SSFC, 9/9/07, p.A32)(http://tinyurl.com/3bzzgc)
2004        India planned to have its first nuclear-powered submarine completed.
    (SFC, 6/27/98, p.A13)
2004        In India electronic trading began in agricultural futures. In 2007 the NCDEX and MCX faced charges that trading in commodities futures encouraged hoarding and raised prices.
    (Econ, 3/10/07, p.72)
2004        Sunil Bharti Mittal, Indian businessman, launched FieldFreshFoods, a $50 million 50/50 joint venture with ELRO, an investment company founded by the Rothschild family. His aim was to turn India into a global preferred food basket.
    (Econ, 11/12/05, p.70)
2004        Mohan Murjani with local partners opened his 1st Tommy Hilfiger store in India.
    (WSJ, 3/27/07, p.A1)
2004        In India the Chennai-based NGO called Center for the Development of Disadvantaged People introduced a new rat trap that quickly improved living conditions for members of the Irula tribe of southern Tamil Nadu state, an impoverished community of some 3 million people. The new traps decreased health risks and increased the rat catcher’s average to 15-20 rats per day vs. 4-5 using older methods.
    (SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A13)
2004        In India Vedanta Resources of London constructed a $900 million bauxite refinery at the foot of the Niyamgiri Hills in eastern Orissa state, where there was an estimated 73 million tons of bauxite. A legal battle with the local Dongria Kond tribe delayed mining and bauxite was imported.
    (SFC, 2/22/08, p.A13)
2004        Laloo Prasad Yadav (b.1947) began serving as Minister of Railways in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He continued as the minister until 2009. Yadav and the Rashtrija Janata Dal party (RJD) also ruled Bihar state (1990-2005). Nitish Kumar served as his predecessor at Indian Railways.
    (Econ, 1/30/10, p.12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalu_Prasad_Yadav)
2004        India’s annual death rate due to train accidents was about 3,500.
    (SFC, 11/12/04, p.W1)
2004        In India the low-cost GoAir airline was founded. By 2014 it had 19 aircraft and a 9.2% national market share.
    (Econ, 11/29/14, p.58)

2004        In Indonesia the armed forces formally withdrew from politics. They gave up their reserved seats in parliament ending their “dwi fungsi,” or dual political and military function. The military still owned numerous businesses, foundations and cooperatives, which provided a good chunk of its budget. Law required that they cede control by 2009.
    (Econ, 2/18/06, p.43)

2004        The Iranian government seized some $200 million in assets from the Khoi Foundation, named after the late Grand Ayatollah Abol-Qassem Mussavi Khoi. This accelerated a growing trend for Shiite religious funds to move their assets out to Iraq.
    (WSJ, 9/14/05, p.A20)

2004        In Iraq 850 US troops were killed during this year.
    (SFC, 12/31/07, p.A6)

2004        Israel rejected a Syrian attempt to create a channel of communications. In response Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador, began talks with Ibrahim Suleiman, a Syrian in Washington with close ties to Pres. Assad, under the mediation of a Swiss diplomat.
    (Econ, 1/20/07, p.55)
2004        Israel’s PM Sharon agreed to allow Druze apple growers in the Golan Heights to trade with Syria. In 2009 the authorized consignment rose to 8,000 tons.
    (Econ, 2/21/09, p.49)

2004        In Italy the 15,000 sq.-meter Pirelli HangarBicocca art museum was founded in a former factory in Milan. In 2012 the museum re-launched its program of exhibitions and events.
    (http://tinyurl.com/puvvyzj)(Econ, 6/4/16, p.83)
2004        Italy imported more shoes than it exported for the 1st time.
    (WSJ, 6/13/05, p.A1)

2004        The Ivory Coast population was about 17 million people.
    (AP, 9/24/02)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A3)

2004        Akihiko Matsutani authored “Shrinking-Population Economics: Lessons from Japan.”
    (Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.6)
2004        Japan enacted civil defense legislation.
    (Econ, 9/2/17, p.31)
2004        Japan enacted a law stating that people wishing to register a gender change must have their original reproductive organs removed and have a body that "appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs" of the gender they want to register.
    (AP, 3/20/19)
2004        Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) grew to 331 investigators and a budget of ¥7.82 billion.
    (Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.9)
2004        In Japan workers’ pay dropped to about 64% of corporate earnings.
    (Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.4)
2004        Japan’s video game makers introduced the Nintendo DS (dual screen) and Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable).
    (Econ, 2/26/11, p.70)

2004        On the Channel island of Jersey a 19-year-old man originally from Northern Ireland tried to rape, then kicked to death, a 35-year-old nurse outside her home. It was the first murder here since the 1970s.
    (AP, 8/15/11)

2004        Kenyan MPs awarded themselves an average $169,625 a year in salary. The average Kenyan income was $400.
    (Econ, 12/18/04, p.65)

2004        Latvia’s highest court upheld the conviction of Vasily Kononov for ordering the killing of 9 civilians while fighting for Soviet forces in Nazi-occupied Latvia in 1944. Kononov's Soviet commando unit killed the unarmed Latvian villagers, who were suspected of collaborating with Nazi Germany. Kononov was sentenced to 20 months in prison, a much shorter sentence than the 12 years prosecutors had requested, but he was freed because he had already served that amount of time in pretrial detention. In 2010 Europe's highest human rights court upheld the war crimes conviction.
    (AP, 5/17/10)

2004        Chris Bradshaw visited Lesotho and became inspired to found the African Library Project: www.africanlibraryproject.org.
    (SSFC, 7/9/06, p.D2)

2004        GetJar, an independent app sales portal, was founded in 2004 by Lithuanian-born serial entrepreneur Ilja Laurs. By 2010 with roughly 57,000 applications contributed by about 350,000 registered developers, the GetJar catalog yielded about 60 million downloads per month, up from 15 million monthly a year ago and second in volume only to the App Store.
    (www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2010/february/204586.html)

2004        Malawi Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika closed the country’s embassy in Libya soon after his election.
    (AFP, 12/23/07)

2004        Mali’s population numbered 11-12 million people.
    (WSJ, 6/22/04, p.A1)(Econ, 7/30/05, p.41)

2004        Morocco banned cultivation of cannabis. This pushed cultivation of the plant into the hinterlands of the Rif Mountains.
    (Econ, 7/15/06, p.46)

2004        Myanmar enacted its Electronic Transactions Law. This allowed a person to be imprisoned for up to 15 years for distributing via the internet information that courts deem harmful to the state.
    (Econ, 8/25/12, p.32)

2004        Nepal’s government banned all diesel-run three wheelers in the Kathmandu Valley due to the smog.
     (www.environmentnepal.com.np/articles_d.asp?id=268)

2004        In North Korea the Kaesong Industrial Complex was set up and seen as a potent symbol of reconciliation between North and South Korea. It combined the South's capital and technology with the North's cheap labor.
    (AP, 6/11/09)
2004        In North Vietnam Nguyen Thanh Chan was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a woman in Ngia Trung village in 2003. He was released in 2013 after a neighbor confessed to the crime. In 2015 the country’s Supreme People’s Court announced that it would pay Mr. Chan $360,000 for his nightmare.
    (Econ, 6/20/15, p.40)

2004        In Baluchistan, Pakistan, Bugti and Marri tribesmen ended a 50-year feud.
    (Econ, 5/7/05, p.38)
2004        Maualana Fazlullah, local leader of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammad, began preaching in Swat, NWFP, and Pakistan. By 2007 he drew more than 15,000 weekly to his Friday prayers. His vision of militant Islam reached thousands more in the valley by way of his illegal radio station, which he used until recently to warn parents not to send their girls to school.
    (CSM, 5/29/07)
2004        In Pakistan Shafqat Hussain (14) was sentenced to death by a court in Karachi after it found him guilty of killing another boy. Hussain's brother Manzoor alleged that his brother was tortured by police to force a confession. Hussain was scheduled to be executed on March 19, 2015, but a temporary reprieve was issued hours before his execution.
    (AP, 3/14/15)(SFC, 3/20/15, p.A2)

2004        The Paraguayan Finance Ministry doled out $2 million to compensate some 400 people persecuted by the Stroessner government (1954-1989).
    (SFC, 8/17/06, p.A10)

2004        Peru’s northern Yanacocha gold mine extracted 3 million ounces. The mine was run by Newmont in partnership with Peru’s Buenaventura. The mining sparked political unrest due to ecological and social issues.
    (Econ, 2/5/05, p.33)
2004        Peru began producing large amounts of natural gas from its Camisea field in the southern jungle.
    (Econ, 6/5/10, p.44)

2004        The Philippine budget deficit was 3.9% of GDP. Its consolidated public-sector debt was almost 140% of GDP and some feared a default.
    (Econ, 3/26/05, p.72)
2004        Philippine police and soldiers killed 7 farmworkers at the Hacienda Luisita, a sugar plantation owned by the family of the Beningno Aquino.
    (Econ, 5/12/12, p.48)

2004        Romania’s main political parties formed the Coalition for a Clean Parliament, an anti-corruption pact.
    (Econ, 4/28/07, p.61)

2004        Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin signed an order establishing the "Day of People's Unity," designed to commemorate Moscow's liberation from Polish invaders in 1612. It was intended to replace the Nov 7 holiday marking the Bolshevik Revolution.
    (AP, 11/4/05)

2004        Carmen bin Ladin authored “Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia.” Carmen, the ex-wife of Osama’s older brother Yeslam, grew up in Geneva.
    (SFC, 7/29/04, p.D8)
2004        In Saudi Arabia women until this year were legally required to conduct business through a male agent.
    (Econ, 4/12/08, p.86)
2004        Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All-Share Index posted a 85% gain for the year.
    (WSJ, 4/4/05, p.C18)

2004        In Sierra Leone a government sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its conclusions and decided that rampant corruption during the preceding decades was a major cause of the civil war that erupted in 1991.
    (Econ, 11/21/09, p.50)

2004        R.W. Johnson authored “South Africa: The First Man, The Last Nation,” a history of South Africa.
    (Econ, 10/23/04, p.84)
2004        South Africa launched the Mzansi bank account, a basic account designed to bring citizens into the nation’s financial system. In May, 2005, it won its millionth customer.
    (Econ, 5/28/05, p.77)
2004        The government of South Africa launched Project Consolidate, an effort to help troubled municipalities by sending them managers from comparatively well-run cities.
    (Econ, 3/4/06, p.44)
2004        South Africa introduced its first-ever mining charter. It was revised six years later.
    (Econ 7/8/17, p.44)
2004         In South Africa the Incwala mining firm was born out of Lonwin Platinum (Lonplats), the world’s 3rd largest platinum producer. It was a product of South Africa’s black economic empowerment policy.
    (Econ, 2/10/07, p.72)
2004        South Africa reported some 19,000 murders for the year, about 9 times the rate in the US and 27 times the rate in Britain.
    (Econ, 10/1/05, p.44)
2004        Mark Shuttleworth of South Africa began funding the Ubuntu project, which made a user-friendly version of Linux, an open source operating system.
    (Econ, 6/9/07, TQ p.33)
2004        In South Africa white people, who were 8% of the population, made up 86% of those in the top bracket of living conditions. By 2015 that share had fallen to 49%.
    (Econ 5/20/17, p.40)

2004        Psy, a South Korean rapper famous for " Gangnam Style," said American soldiers should be killed "slowly and painfully" at a Seoul concert during the Iraq war. In 2012 he apologized for his words ahead of a holiday concert to be attended by US President Obama and his family.
    (AP, 12/8/12)

2004        In Sudan the Eastern Front was set up as an alliance between 2 eastern tribal rebel groups, the Rashaida tribe’s Free Lions and the Beja Congress. They were later joined by the Darfuri’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Eastern Front’s bases in Eritrea were clearly abetted by the government of Eritrea.
    (Econ, 10/1/05, p.53)
2004        Dr. Halima Bashir (24) was gang-raped by Sudanese soldiers after speaking out about atrocities in Darfur. She told UN workers about the attack by the Janjaweed militia. The military came after her. She was cut with knives, burned with cigarettes and gang-raped repeatedly. They let her live, taunting her with the words: "Now you can go and tell the world about rape." She wrote about her experiences in her memoir, "Tears of the Desert" (2008).
    (Reuters, 10/6/10)

2004        Taiwan passed a landmark education act that opened the way for tolerance of sexual identity to be taught even in primary school.
    (Econ, 12/3/16, p.34)
2004        Taiwan's government set up its Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) in the wake of the SARS epidemic. Chen Shih-chung, the minister of health, was put in charge.
    (Econ, 3/28/20, p.35)

2004        Dr. Frank Artress and his wife Susan Gustafson, formerly from Modesto, Ca., established the Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME) in Tanzania. Their decision to work in Africa followed a spiritual transformation during a climb on Mt. Kilimanjaro, during which Artress was rescued by his native crew.
    (SSFC, 5/4/08, p.A17)(www.fameafrica.org)

2004        Tonga’s King Tupou IV (1918-2006) announced that he would henceforth include people's representatives in the 12-member appointed cabinet.
    (www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/16092.htm)

2004        In Trinidad construction began on a drilling platform being built for BP Trinidad and Tobago LLC, the Trinidad branch of London-based BP Amoco PLC. It was scheduled to be completed in March, 2005, and be fully operational in January 2006.
    (AP, 10/18/04)

2004        The Ukraine Kryvorizhstal steelworks was privatized at half its market value to two of the country’s richest men, Victor Pinchuk, the son-in-law of Pres. Kuchma, and Rinat Akhmetov.
    (Econ, 10/30/04, p.27)(Econ, 12/18/04, p.102)

2004        Sheik Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (40), a half brother of the Emirati president, beat a man said to be the Afghan worker in an empty stretch of the Abu Dhabi    desert. The beating was filmed by Texas businessman Bassam Nabulsi. The victim, identified as Afghani grain dealer Mohammed Shapoor, survived the beatings. In 2009 Nahyan went on trial on torture charges.
    (AP, 12/21/09)

2004        In Venezuela Ivan Simanovis, the police chief of Caracas, was jailed in connection with the death of a pro-government protester who had rushed to the defense of Hugo Chavez  during a failed coup attempt in 2002. In 2014 Simanovis was released from jail and placed under house arrest.
    (SSFC, 9/21/14, p.A3)

2004        Vietnam passed a law on religion that criminalized the abuse of religion to undermine national security.
    (Econ, 9/26/15, p.39)
2004        Vietnam’s exports reached $30 billion, up from $1 billion in 1988.
    (SFC, 5/30/06, p.C1)

2004        Yemen fell from 88th to 112th place on a ranking of 145 countries tested for government transparency and corruption by Transparency International, a global anti-corruption group.
    (AP, 10/27/05)
2004        The archipelago of Socotra became attached to the Hadhramaut Governorate of Yemen. The archipelago was once part of the supercontinent of Gondwana and detached during the Miocene epoch, in the same set of rifting events that opened the Gulf of Aden to its northwest.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socotra)

2004-2006    In Spain Duke Inaki Urdangarin, the Duke of Palma de Mallorca and husband of Princess Cristina, headed the nonprofit Noos Institute. In 2011 it was revealed that the Duke and business partner Diego Torres used the institute to organize events related to sports and tourism diverting millions of euros in public and private funds into their own companies.
    (SFC, 12/13/11, p.A7)

2004-2007    In Haiti at least 134 Sri Lankan peacekeepers exploited nine children in a sex ring from during this period. In the wake of a UN report, 114 peacekeepers were sent home. Not one was ever imprisoned.
    (AP, 4/12/17)

2004-2008    Jordan stripped some 2,700 Jordanians of Palestinian origin of their citizenship during this period. Nearly half the kingdom’s people were of Palestinian origin. The government allegedly feared that if Palestinians were to become a majority, it would disrupt the delicate demographic balance.
    (SFC, 2/2/10, p.A2)

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