Timelines
2004
October
-
December
Return to home
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, 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, 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)
2005 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, 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, 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, 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, Gay marriage curbs
won in all 11 US states where they were on ballots.
(WSJ, 11/3/04, p.A1)
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, 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 U.S. and Iraqi forces killed at least 16
people in Baqouba.
(AP, 11/15/04)
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 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, 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, 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, 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, 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.
(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)
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 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. The slaying has never been solved.
(AP, 7/31/06)
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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 R.W. Johnson authored
“South Africa: The First Man, The Last Nation,” a history of South
Africa.
(Econ, 10/23/04, p.84)
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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'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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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)
2004-2008 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 its delicate demographic balance.
(SFC, 2/2/10, p.A2)
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