Today in History - January 4
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
871 Jan 4, Ethelred of Wessex was defeated by Danish forces at Reading.
(PCh, 1992, p.72)
1493 Jan 4, Columbus departed La Navidad, Hispaniola, and sailed eastward along the coast. He left behind 38 men, all of whom were later killed in disputes with the local Indians.
(ON, 8/09, p.2)
1493 Jan 4, Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, announced the 1st war with Lithuania. In fact the war had begun in 1487.
(LHC, 1/4/03)
1581 Jan 4, James Ussher (d.1656), Irish prelate and scholar, Archbishop of Armagh, was born. According to Ussher and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on Oct 23, 4004BC, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
(WUD, 1994, p.1574)(NG, Nov. 1985, edit. p.559)(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 1/4/02)
1642 Jan 4, King Charles I attacked the English House of Commons with an armed guard. He was forced to retire, empty-handed.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England)
1643 Jan 4, (NS) Sir Isaac Newton, scientist, was born. He developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations [See Dec 25, 1642].
(HN, 1/4/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1710 Jan 4, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (d.1736), Italian composer (Il Prigioniero Superbo), was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B6)
1754 Jan 4, Columbia University was founded as Kings College in NYC. [see July 7]
(MC, 1/4/02)
1757 Jan 4, Robert Francois Damiens made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
(HN, 1/4/01)
1785 Jan 4, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, German philosopher who wrote Grimm’s Fairy Tales, was born.
(HN, 1/4/99)(MC, 1/4/02)
1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1809 Jan 4, Louis Braille (d.1852), inventor of a universal reading system for the blind, was born in Coupvray, France. He was blinded at age four as the result of an accident in his father's shop. He became an accomplished organist and cellist and won a scholarship in 1819 to attend the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. In 1821 Louis learned of a communication system devised by Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army. While Barbier's system was too complex to be practical, Braille simplified and adapted it to a six-dot code representing letters that enabled people with impaired vision to not only read but also write for themselves. In 1829 his first Braille book was published, but Braille himself died of tuberculosis at age 43--before his system gained widespread acceptance.
(AP, 1/4/98)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Braille)
1813 Jan 4, Isaac Pitman, inventor (stenographic shorthand), was born in Britain.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1821 Jan 4, Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint, died in Emmitsburg, Md.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1837 Jan 4, In Peru Hippolyte Bouchard (aka Hipólito Bouchard, b.1780), French Argentine sailor and corsair, was killed by one of his servants. Bouchard had retired as a gentleman farmer in Peru after serving in the Peruvian Navy.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Bouchard)(SFC, 11/25/17, p.C2)
1838 Jan 4, Charles Sherwood Stratton (d.1883), later known as the dwarf Tom Thumb, was born in Bridgeport, Conn. In 1842, P.T. Barnum discovered Charles, who measured 25 inches and weighed 15 pounds, only six pounds more than his birth weight.
(www.barnum-museum.org)
1843 Jan 4, Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1849 Jan 4, San Francisco’s The Star and Californian newspaper under Edward Kemble changed its name to the Alta California.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C1)
1862 Jan 4, In the Romney Campaign Stonewall Jackson occupied Bath.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1863 Jan 4, Roller skates with 4 wheels were patented by James Plimpton of NY.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1865 Jan 4, The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad Street near Wall Street in NYC. The Corinthian-style structure would serve the Exchange until 1903 when more spacious quarters opened at 18 Broad Street.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan04.html)
1874 Jan 4, Josef Suk, Czech violinist and composer (Asrael), was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1877 Jan 4, Cornelius Vanderbilt (b.1794), US financier, railroad and shipping magnate, robber baron, died. His estate at $105 million was worth more than all the money in the US Treasury. His value in 2007 dollars would be $143 billion. In 2007 Edward J. Renehan Jr. authored “Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt)(SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 12/19/07, p.D9)
1881 Jan 4, The "Academic Festival Overture" by Johannes Brahms premiered in Breslau.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1883 Jan 4, Benjamin Butler (1818-1893) began serving as the 33rd governor of Massachusetts and continued until January 3, 1884.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Butler_%28politician%29)
1885 Jan 4, Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is believed to have been the first appendectomy; the patient was 22-year-old Mary Gartside.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1890 Jan 4, Alfred G. Jodl, German Wehrmacht general and chief of staff, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1893 Jan 4, US president Cleveland granted amnesty to Mormon polygamists.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1896 Jan 4, Utah was admitted to the Union as the 45th state.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1902 Jan 4, The French offered to sell their Nicaraguan Canal rights to the U.S.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1903 Jan 4, Topsy the elephant was poisoned electrocuted in Luna Park, Coney Island, NYC. The 10-foot elephant had killed 3 keepers over the last 2 years. Edison used the opportunity to demonstrate the lethal potential of alternating current, promoted by rival George Westinghouse.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.33)(Internet)
1904 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the US freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them US citizens.
(AP, 1/4/08)
1904 Jan 4, Mary Ellen Pleasant (89), abolitionist and SF businesswoman, died after years of work on the Underground Railroad and in civil rights. She was buried in Napa, Ca. Her monument reads “Mother of Civil Rights in California." She had built a mansion at 1661 Octavia, where Gov. elect Newton Booth boarded. In 1902 Pleasant authored her autobiography.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellen_Pleasant)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15,18)(SFC, 6/10/04, p.B4)
1907 Jan 4, George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" scene from "Man and Superman" premiered in London.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal, Austrian nude model, Hitler's cousin and lover, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Antony Winkler Prins (70), writer (Grolier Encyclopedia), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1910 Jan 4, Leon Walrus (b.1834), French economist, died. In 1874 he wrote and published the first edition of his magnum opus, the “Elements of Pure Economics."
(http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/walras.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/pdw34)
1912 Jan 4, Ecuador’s former President Eloy Alfaro returned to Ecuador and attempted another coup but was defeated, arrested and jailed by General and former President Leonidas Plaza.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_in_Ecuador)
1914 Jan 4, Jane Wyman, U.S. film actress who was the first wife of President Ronald Reagan, was born.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1914 Jan 4, In San Francisco pilot Lincoln Beachey looped the loop a record seven times in his biplane in an aerial show before a crowd of some 25,000 people. Motion pictures were taken from tethered balloon.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.42)
1920 Jan 4, William Egan Colby, CIA director under Nixon, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1920 Jan 4, The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, was organized by Rube Foster.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1921 Jan 4, Congress overrode President Wilson’s veto, reactivating the War Finance Corps to aid struggling farmers.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1923 Jan 4, Emile Coué (1857-1926), French pharmacist, arrived in NYC. Coue was a proponent of "auto-suggestion," and believed positive thinking could cure disease. He recommended chanting "every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."
(http://tinyurl.com/4ke2gvp)
1923 Jan 4, The Paris Conference on war reparations hit a deadlock as the French insisted on the hard line and the British insisted on Reconstruction.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1934 Jan 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for $10.5 billion to fund recovery programs over the next 18 months.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1935 Jan 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed in his State of the Union message that the federal government would provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1935 Jan 4, Ft. Jefferson National Monument was established in Florida.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1936 Jan 4, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1937 Jan 4, Grace Bumbry, soprano (Venus, in "Tannhauser"), was born in St. Louis.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1939 Jan 4, Hermann Goering appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Jewish Emigration.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1941 Jan 4, On the Greek-Albanian front, the Greeks launched an attack towards Valona from Berat to Klisura against the Italians.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1942 Jan 4, Japanese forces began the evacuation of Guadalcanal
(HN, 1/4/00)
1944 Jan 4, The British Fifth Army attacked Monte Cassino, Italy.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1944 Jan 4, Soviet troops crossed the former Polish border.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1945 Jan 4, The last German offensive in Bastogne, Belgium, failed.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1945 Jan 4, Ricardo Jimenez Oreamuno (b.1859), 3-term president of Costa Rica, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Jim%C3%A9nez_Oreamuno)
1947 Jan 4, J. Danforth Quayle (Sen-R-Ind, 44th VP 1989-93) was born. [see Feb 4]
(MC, 1/4/02)
1948 Jan 4, Britain granted independence to Burma (later renamed to Myanmar). Aung San had arranged for national independence on this day but was assassinated before the event by political rivals. The new rulers tried to limit citizenship to those whose roots predated 1823 and British rule.
(SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.4)(AP, 1/4/98)(Econ, 11/3/12, p.44)
1951 Jan 4, During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul. UN forces abandoned Seoul, Korea, to the Communists.
(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 1/4/99)
1952 Jan 4, The French Army in Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh division from the Ba Tai forest.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1954 Jan 4, Elvis Presley recorded a 10 minute demo in Nashville.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1960 Jan 4, Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. His work included the play “Caligula" and a collection of journalistic pieces for the clandestine newspaper Combat (1944-1947). In 1997 Oliver Todd wrote the biography “Albert Camus." In 1979 Herbert Lottman also wrote a biography: “Albert Camus." In 2006 Camus’ WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as "Camus at Combat." In 2010 Virgil Tanase authored “Albert Camus."
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/4/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1961 Jan 4, The Danish barbers' assistants strike ended after 33 yrs. It was the longest strike on record.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1962 Jan 4, The 1st automated (unmanned) subway train ran in NYC.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1965 Jan 4, President Johnson outlined the goals of his "Great Society" in his State of the Union address. The “Great Society" was to be achieved through a vast program that included an attack on diseases, a doubling of the war on poverty, greater enforcement of Civil Rights Law, immigration law reform and greater support of education.
(AP, 1/4/98)(HNQ, 9/11/99)
1965 Jan 4, T.S. Eliot, English poet, died in London at age 76. In 1995 Anthony Julius published "T.S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form." Julius was the lawyer who won a divorce settlement of $23 million for Princess Diana in 1996. "Little Gidding" is an Eliot work. In 2015 Robert Crawford authored “Young Eliot: From St. Louis to The Waste Land."
(SFC, 7/17/96, p.E6)(NH, 8/96, p.57)(AP, 1/4/98)(Econ., 2/14/15, p.74)
1967 Jan 4, Mohamed Khider (b.1912), Algerian politician and a leading figure in the FLN, was assassinated in Madrid, Spain.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Khider)
1969 Jan 4, Spain returned the Ifni province to Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifni)
1974 Jan 4, President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1975 Jan 4, Pres. Ford’s signed Executive Order No. 11828 on CIA Activities within the US. He directed the Commission, chaired by VP Nelson A. Rockefeller, to determine whether or not any domestic CIA activities exceeded the Agency's statutory authority and to make appropriate recommendations.
(www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1975.html)(http://tinyurl.com/5ukhxo)
1975 Jan 4, Pres. Ford signed into law the US Indian Self-Determination Act. It began the transfer of administration from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the tribal governments.
(http://tinyurl.com/6rh5v3y)(Econ, 4/7/12, p.35)
1976 Jan 4, "Candide" closed at Broadway Theater in NYC after 740 performances.
(www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=1675)
1978 Jan 4, Said Hammami, the PLO representative in London, was assassinated. It was initially believed to be the work of Abu Nidal but was later reported to have been organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_attributed_to_Abu_Nidal)
1978 Jan 4, Chile’s Gen. Pinochet held a National Consultation, "in defense of the dignity of Chile," which took place one week after it was first announced, on December 27.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1979 Jan 4, Ohio officials approved an out-of-court settlement awarding $675,000 to the victims and families in the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, in which four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops.
(HN, 1/4/99)(http://members.aol.com/nrbooks/chronol.htm)
1979 Jan 4, Charles Mingus (56), the most accomplished bassist in jazz history, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In 1999 the film "Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog" was written and directed by Don McGlynn. In 2000 Gene Santoro authored “Myself when I Am Real: the Life and Music of Charles Mingus."
(WSJ, 4/18/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.E3)(SFC, 5/21/99, p.C3)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.9)(WSJ, 8/22/00, p.A24)
1984 Jan 4, The NBC sitcom "Night Court" began airing and continued to 1992.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Court)
1986 Jan 4, Christopher Isherwood, British born author, died of prostate cancer in Santa Monica, Ca. He was best know for his 1935 semi-autobiographical "The Berlin Stories," which was the basis for the 1966 musical Cabaret and made into a 1972 film. His life-partner was painter Don Bachardy. His "Diaries: Volume II, 1939-1960" were published in 1997. In 2005 Peter Parker authored “Isherwood: A Life Revealed."
(www.booksfactory.com/writers/isherwood.htm)(SFC, 1/16/97, p.E3)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.B6)
1987 Jan 4, An Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston collided with Conrail engines approaching from a side track in Chase, Md., and 16 people were killed.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1988 Jan 4, Drinking water began to dry up in Pittsburgh suburbs because of a massive diesel oil spill two days earlier that fouled the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1989 Jan 4, US Navy F-14s shot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean.
(www.history.navy.mil/wars/foabroad.htm)
1990 Jan 4, Charles Stuart, who had claimed a gunman had killed his pregnant wife and wounded him, leaped to his death from a Boston Harbor bridge after he became a suspect.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1990 Jan 4, Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was arraigned in federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1990 Jan 4, In Sindh Province, Pakistan, an overcrowded 16-car passenger train collided with standing freight train and more than 210 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1991 Jan 4, With a week and a-half left before a U-N deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, Iraq agreed to hold its first high-level talks with the United States since the start of the Persian Gulf crisis.
(AP, 1/4/01)
1992 Jan 4, President Bush, visiting Singapore as part of a Pacific trade tour, announced plans to shift to Singapore the Navy logistics command that was being evicted from the Philippines.
(AP, 1/4/02)
1993 Jan 4, President-elect Clinton spoke by telephone with Russian President Boris Yeltsin about the newly signed START II treaty; Clinton pledged to do all he could to get early ratification.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1993 Jan 4, Junk bond king Michael Milken was released from jail after 22 months.
(www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=2223)
1994 Jan 4, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced a plan to drive most gun dealers out of business by proposing sharp increases in the licensing fee and stricter controls on people who buy and sell weapons.
(AP, 1/4/04)
1995 Jan 4, The 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A4)(AP, 1/4/00)
1995 Jan 4, Eduardo Mata (52), Mexican conductor, died in air crash.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0557996/)
1996 Jan 4, Bowing to pressure from NATO and the United States, Bosnian Serbs freed 16 civilians who had entered Serb-held territory after NATO forces had declared roads in Bosnia open to all.
(AP, 1/4/01)
1996 Jan 4, The Boeing Sikorsky Comanche helicopter was unveiled.
(NPub, 2002, p.26)
1996 Jan 4, Ramon Vinay (83), operatic tenor, baritone, died.
(www.grandi-tenori.com/tenors/vinay.php)
1997 Jan 4, President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, took credit for policies reducing teen-age pregnancy and said he would work for even greater reductions over the next four years.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1997 Jan 4, Harry Helmsley (87), self-made billionaire and husband to Leona, died in Scottsdale, Ariz. His vast real estate holdings included the Empire State Building. His entire $1.7 billion estate was left to his wife except for $25k left to a longtime secretary.
(SFC,1/6/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A1)(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/4/98)
1997 Jan 4, In Argentina thieves tunneled into a Buenos Aires bank and robbed as much as $25 million.
(SFC, 1/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 4, In Brazil some 54 people were killed during 4 days of torrential rain in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 4, Czech President Vaclav Havel married his girlfriend Dagmar Veskrnova, less than a year after the death of his first wife Olga Havlova.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)
1997 Jan 4, In New Zealand during the week Cyclone Fergus, the worst to hit in 8 years, produced heavy rains and wind damage along the northern coast.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A19)
1998 Jan 4, The History of the Future Museum, a part of the Star Trek: The Experience, a $70 million attraction, was scheduled to open at the Las Vegas Hilton.
(SFEC,12/28/97, Par p.18)
1998 Jan 4, In Oakland, Ca., Dante Jones (2) died of internal bleeding. Damon Valery was later convicted of the boy’s murder. Investigators said he had beaten his girlfriend’s nephew as punishment over toilet-training problems. Valery (40) died in prison in 2012.
(SFC, 3/8/12, p.C3)
1998 Jan 4, Four residents of Vallejo, Ca., were injured by a bomb disguised as a batch of holiday goodies left a front porch.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A14)
1998 Jan 4, Actress Mae Questel (89), who had supplied the voices of cartoon characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, died in New York.
(AP, 1/4/08)
1998 Jan 4, In Canada Nirmal Singh Gill (65) was found beaten and bleeding in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey near Vancouver. He soon died. 5 young men linked to a white supremacist group, White Power, were later jailed on charges of murder.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1998 Jan 4, In Israel David Levy, the foreign minister, resigned. He denounced Netanyahu’s government for abandoning the peace process and not addressing problems with the poor and unemployed.
(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, The US stance towards Cuba was reported to be easing following the completed report by the Council on Foreign Relations. It was proposed to restore mail service, increase flights, permit food sales to non-government entities, and allow more Americans to send money.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, The US mint began distributing a new series of commemorative state quarters. The first one from Delaware marked the 1776 ride of Caesar Rodney from Dover to Philadelphia to vote for the Declaration of Independence. Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware dreamed up the program in 1996.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)(WSJ, 12/29/03, p.A4)
1999 Jan 4, Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1999 Jan 4, Elizabeth Dole quit as the head of the American Red Cross and it was speculated that she might run as the Republican candidate for president.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)
1999 Jan 4, In Nevada a sniper hit at least 4 vehicles on I-80 between Reno and the California border. Police arrested Christopher Lee Merritt (20) of Mankato, Minn., who hoped to rob the drivers after they crashed. Merritt pleaded guilty in 1999.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A2)(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 4, The euro, the new money of 11 European nations, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets and closed in New York at $1.181. A founding principal of the euro area held that national central banks be independent of their governments.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.C2)(AP, 1/4/00)(HN, 1/4/01)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.77)
1999 Jan 4, In Angola UNITA rebels denied shooting down 2 UN planes and claimed that there were no survivors.
(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, A footbridge in Chongqing, China, collapsed and killed 40 people. A week later another bridge in Fujian province collapsed and killed 7. Bridge officials were arrested on suspicion of graft or using shoddy materials. A Party official in Chongqing was later convicted of taking bribes and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.D1)(WSJ, 4/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, Chevron received word of an attack on its Searrex oil rig. Soldiers dispatched to the rig allegedly fired on Opia village from a helicopter and 2 villagers were killed. 2 more villagers were killed a short time later at Ikenyan. A day later Chevron was invoiced $109.25 for the services of the soldiers.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A4)
1999 Jan 4, In Sha Jamal, Pakistan, in the eastern Punjab gunmen on motorcycle opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshipers and killed 16 people and wounded at least 25.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A22)(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 4, In Sierra Leone Nigerian troops repelled a rebel attack on Freetown's airport. Gambia and Mali agreed to send troops to join the Nigerian forces.
(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
2000 Jan 4, Former presidential rival Elizabeth Dole endorsed fellow Republican George W. Bush.
(AP, 1/4/01)
2000 Jan 4, In China the State Development Planning Commission announced that private enterprise should be put on "equal footing with state-owned enterprises."
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)
2000 Jan 4, In Colombia Red Cross work shut down after peasant refugees took 40 hostages in Bogota and demanded homes.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 4, In Indonesia at least 17 people were killed when troops opened fire on Christian and Muslim mobs on Seram Island in Maluku province. Thousands of people fled violence and poured into Ternate, the capital of North Maluku. Refugees claimed that hundreds of people died in fighting over 2 days.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)(SFC, 1/7/00, p.D3)
2000 Jan 4, Israel and Palestine agreed on an Israeli troop pullback and the transfer of an additional 5% of West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)(AP, 1/4/01)
2000 Jan 4, In Srinagar, Kashmir, 13 people and a horse were blown up in an explosion set by insurgents in a vegetable market used by Indian troops.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 4, In Namibia gunmen attacked a family of French tourists, killed 3 children and wounded the parents. Unita rebels were blamed.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 4, In Norway 2 passenger trains collided 110 miles north of Oslo. At least 20 people were believed to have died.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 4, In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a suicide bomber set off explosives strapped to her body and killed herself and 19 [12] others near the prime minister's office. A Tamil politician was shot dead by motorcycle assassin nearby.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/6/00, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, It was announced that George, the politics and lifestyle magazine founded by the late John F. Kennedy Jr., would fold.
(AP, 1/4/02)
2001 Jan 4, California state regulators approved raising electricity rates by an average 10% as state utilities stood near bankruptcy.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, Orchestra leader Les Brown, known for his “Band of Renown," died at age 88.
(AP, 1/4/02)
2001 cJan 4, In Colombia a right-wing death squad killed 11 people in a northeast town.
(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, India test flew its 1st locally developed jet fighter.
(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, In Indonesia rival villages clashed on Lombok and 9 people were killed. 7 others were killed in fighting between rival villages in North Sulawesi.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, It was reported that Russia had moved nuclear warheads into storage areas at its Kaliningrad naval base over the past year. Russia called the charges a dangerous joke.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A20)
2001 Jan 4, In Sri Lanka the defense ministry announced that the civil war left 3,753 people dead in 2000, including 87 civilians.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D2)
2002 Jan 4, The US Postal Service announced an increase in 1st class stamps to 37 cents from 34 to take place June 30.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 4, A WSJ editorial by former US Army officer Ralph Peters blamed Saudi Arabia as the source of fundamentalist terrorism. “We must be prepared to seize the Saudi oil fields and administer them for the greater good."
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A12)
2002 Jan 4, Florida coach Steve Spurrier resigned to pursue an NFL job, two days after leading the Gators to victory over Maryland in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2002 Jan 4, The WSJ quoted Ali K. Shukri, retired Jordanian general: a strike on Iraq “is not a question of whether it’s going to happen, but when—and it is coming." Action in the spring was suggested.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, George and Marisol Gari, members of the Wasp network Cuban spy ring, were sentenced in Florida to 7 and 3.5 years.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, US Army Special Forces Sgt. Ross Chapman (31) was killed by enemy fire near Khost, Afghanistan. He became the 1st US soldier to die there by enemy fire.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 4, Antonio Todde, an Italian shepherd listed by Guinness as the world’s oldest man, died just shy of his 113th birthday. “Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day."
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 Jan 4, In Argentina Pres. Duhalde acknowledged that the nation will devalue the peso.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, In England a twin-engine Bombardier Challenger plane crashed at Birmingham International Airport. Pilots Thomas Boydston (51) Robert Norton (58) and Timothy Vandevort (41) were killed along with John Shumejda (56) the president and chief executive of agricultural giant AGCO, and Ed Swingle (60), the company's senior VP for sales and marketing. A 2004 report said that the crash was caused by the crew's failure to de-ice the wings before takeoff.
(AP, 8/19/04)
2002 Jan 4, India reported the death of 15 soldiers and a number of civilians near Amritsar due to the mishandling of an ammunition filled truck.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A18)
2002 Jan 4, Pakistan continued to round up alleged militants. Some 200 were said to have been arrested in the last 10 days. Key leaders of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were among the detained. Pakistan also handed over senior al Qaeda trainer al-Shaykh al-Libi to the US military.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A3,15)
2002 Jan 4, Dolly the 1996 Scotland-born cloned sheep, was reported to be suffering from arthritis, a sign of premature aging.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A2)
2002 Jan 4, Russia announced that it would reduce its military by over 15%.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, South Asian leaders began a 2-day meeting in Nepal.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 4, It was reported that $54 million in short term food aid was needed to ward off widespread starvation in Zimbabwe. The AIDS epidemic, called “Nkondombera" (a Shona word for “no condom") was claiming over 2,000 people per week. Inflation was running at over 100% per month. Unemployment was estimated at 50%.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A5)
2003 Jan 4, Pres. Bush said he will ask Congress to boost federal education aid for poor children by $1 billion. As Bush put the finishing touches on an economic growth package costing $674 billion over 10 years, Democrats who wanted his job, pledged to scuttle what they characterized as a plan that would help the wealthy without reviving the economy.
(AP, 1/4/03)(AP, 1/4/04)
2003 Jan 4, Clonaid, the company that claims to have produced the first human clone, said a second child was born to a Dutch lesbian Jan 3.
(AP, 1/5/03)(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid)
2003 Jan 4, Conrad L. Hall (76), Oscar-winning cinematographer, died in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2003 Jan 4, In Algeria Islamic militants (GSPC) ambushed a military convoy in the northeast village of Theniet el-Abed. 43 soldiers were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 1/5/03)
2003 Jan 4, In southern Iran a bus carrying university students overturned on a rain-slick road, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others.
(AP, 1/5/03)
2003 Jan 4, Ivory Coast's main rebel movement agreed to respect an oft-violated cease-fire and to resume peace talks with the government later this month in Paris.
(AP, 1/4/03)
2003 Jan 4, A boat from Somalia to Yemen developed engine trouble and capsized and at least 80 people were feared dead.
(AP, 1/16/03)
2004 Jan 4, Louisiana State University won college football's Sugar Bowl, defeating Oklahoma 21-14.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2004 Jan 4, In Iowa, seven of the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls participated in a feisty, first debate of the election year.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2004 Jan 4, Michael Straight (87), former US State Dept employee (1938) and later editor of the new Republic, died. In 1983 he authored "After Long Silence." He had passed reports to the Russians in 1938.
(Econ, 1/17/04, p.76)
2004 Jan 4, John Toland (91), historian, died in Danbury, Conn. His books included "The Rising Sun" (1971), an account of Japan from 1936-1945, and "Adolph Hitler: The Definitive Biography" (1976).
(SFC, 1/6/04, p.A19)y
2004 Jan 4, Rival Afghan factions agreed to a new national constitution. 502 delegates accepted a system with a strong president and a weaker parliament.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 4, In Denmark residents who openly bought and sold hashish at a famous hippie enclave in Copenhagen abruptly demolished their booths, trying to head off a Danish government crackdown on illegal drug sales.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 4, The former Soviet republic of Georgia voted for a successor to President Eduard Shevardnadze. Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's young firebrand opposition leader, declared himself the victor in presidential elections with some 85% of the vote.
(AP, 1/5/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon issued an order to dismantle two West Bank settlement outposts.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 4, In the southern Philippines a bomb exploded at a packed basketball game, killing 11 people and wounding at least 68 including Parang Mayor Vivencio Bataga, who was the likely target of the attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 4, South Korean prosecutors, investigating corruption in the bidding on government contracts by an affiliate of IBM Corp., indicted 48 government and company officials.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 4, In southern Thailand assailants set fire to 18 schools and stormed a military armory, killing four soldiers in nearly simultaneous raids.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2005 Jan 4, The 109th US Congress convened and took up tsunami aid. The Republican edge was 55 to 45.
(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 4, In the Orange Bowl #1 Southern California overwhelmed #2 Oklahoma 55-19.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2005 Jan 4, Wade Boggs was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and Ryne Sandberg made it with just six votes to spare on his third try.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2005 Jan 4, Kelbessa Negewo (54), an Ethiopian immigrant suspected of torturing and murdering more than a dozen political opponents of the Ethiopian government in the 1970s, was arrested at his home near Atlanta. Negewo has lived in the US since fleeing Ethiopia in 1987.
(Reuters, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Robert Heilbroner (b.1919), author of the 1953 economics classic “Worldly Philosophers," died.
(WSJ, 1/11/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 4, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the island nation was renewing contacts with France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Sweden after an EU panel recommended that member states stop inviting dissidents to their National Day celebrations at their embassies in Havana.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Diplomats said the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Doctors at Haiti's largest public hospital extended a weeklong strike to protest overdue paychecks.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Insurgents assassinated the highest-ranking Iraqi official in eight months, gunning down the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards. A suicide truck bomber killed 10 people at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters. 5 US soldiers were killed in assaults elsewhere.
(AP, 1/4/05)(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 4, Two Israeli tank shells slammed into a field in response to Palestinian mortar fire, killing seven Palestinians youths working in a strawberry field.
(AP, 1/4/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 4, In Peru the leader of an armed nationalist group that seized a remote police station, took 10 officers hostage and allegedly killed four others was detained while most of his 125 followers were rounded up.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Polish PM Marek Belka arrived in Tripoli for a two-day visit that will include talks on cooperation in the oil sector and a meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 4, Portugal’s national meteorology office said many regions, including the southernmost province of Algarve, the country's main tourism center, are facing their worst drought in over a decade.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 4, Venezuela's left-leaning government promised to grant poor farmers at least 100,000 plots of land carved from either state property or large private holdings, a step toward implementing a controversial agrarian reform law.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2006 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court allowed federal prosecutors to take custody of “enemy combatant" Jose Padilla so he could face criminal charges.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 4, A US federal appeals court in Atlanta reinstated a $54.6 million verdict against two retired Salvadoran generals, Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova (67), and Jose Guillermo Garcia (72), accused of torture during the civil war (1980-1992) in their home country.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 4, The Univ. of Texas Longhorns scored a 41-38 win over Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Official tickets sold for $175 and resellers on the internet hawked them for as much as $3000.
(AP, 1/5/06)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.58)
2006 Jan 4, In a triple-overtime game that began Jan. 3 and finished after midnight, No. 3 Penn State beat No. 22 Florida State 26-23 in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 4, Scientists said protected ocean areas are needed to save deep-sea fish which have been driven to near extinction by commercial fishing.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Chad's President Idriss Deby urged the UN to take control of Sudan's volatile Darfur region because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to destabilize neighboring states.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In China’s central province of Hunan a mismanaged silt clean-up project allowed the industrial chemical cadmium, which can cause neurological disorders and cancer, to flood out of a smelting works and into the Xiangjiang River.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 4, Two Egyptian guards were shot dead at the border with Gaza after armed Palestinians made a hole in the border wall. Palestinian militants angry at the jailing of their leader stole two bulldozers and smashed through the border wall between Gaza and Egypt.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France will create a special police force to ensure security for railway passengers after a band of marauding youths robbed and sexually assaulted train travelers Jan 1 in southeast France.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Indonesia landslides triggered by heavy rains swept down on a village on Java island, burying homes beneath tons of mud and leaving dozens of people missing and feared dead. The number of dead or missing from days of wet weather rose to over 200.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 4, An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said more than 7,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians, were killed in violence in 2005, the first year that Iraqi officials have kept such records.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Iraq a suicide bomber killed 32 mourners and wounded dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks across the country that killed a total of 53 people.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon was rushed to an operating room to staunch a brain hemorrhage; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 4, The world’s largest bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), opened for business with $1.6 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 4, The Russian and Ukrainian natural gas companies agreed on a plan to resume gas shipments to Ukraine that allowed both sides to claim victory after a commercial and political dispute that had raised fears of gas shortages in Europe.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Tanzania rocks and boulders tumbled down Mount Kilimanjaro and crashed into tents where tourists were sleeping, killing 3 American climbers and seriously injuring 2.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 4, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum (62), the emir of Dubai and prominent owner and breeder of thoroughbred horses, died during a visit to Australia.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Intel asked the Vietnamese government for a license to build a chip plant worth 605 million dollars in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Regulators approved the plans in February.
(AFP, 1/5/06)(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A6)
2007 Jan 4, The 110th Congress convened with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate for the first time in a dozen years. "Today we make history. Today we change the direction of our country," exulted Rep. Nancy Pelosi, poised to become the first woman speaker in history. The House of Representatives, after installing its new Democratic leadership, voted to ban lawmakers from flying on corporate jets and accepting gifts and meals from lobbyists. Keith Ellison of Minnesota's 5th District became the first Muslim member of Congress.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Jan 4, The US Federal Trade Commission fined the marketers of four weight loss pills $25 million for making false advertising claims ranging from rapid weight loss to reducing the risk of cancer.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Harriet Miers resigned as White House counsel.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Jan 4, Vincent Sardi Jr. (91), owner of Sardi's restaurant, the legendary Broadway watering hole, died in Berlin, Vt.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Jan 4, NATO and Afghan forces fought a three-hour ground battle with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghan mountains, killing 15 of them. 3 suspected Taliban died when a land mine they were planting on a highway in Grieshk district exploded prematurely.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, US officials said Colombia has extradited to the US a police officer and a former policeman charged with helping smuggle more than 2 tons of cocaine into the US on cargo flights in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Pieces of a spent Russian rocket reentered the atmosphere over Colorado and Wyoming, showering parts of the western United States with space debris.
(Reuters, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, John W. Simpson (1914-2007), former president of Westinghouse (1969-1977), died. He had worked with Adm. Rickover to create a nuclear US Navy.
(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.A5)
2007 Jan 4, Victor Ramirez (27), a day laborer from El Salvador, was gunned down by 2 black teenagers in Richmond, Ca. Ramirez was taken off life support after 2 weeks and died Jan 19.
(SFC, 1/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 4, Overshadowed by an Israeli raid into the Palestinian territories, a summit between Israel and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled Mideast peace process, highlighting instead the disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Two car bombs exploded near a fuel station, killing 13 people and wounding 25 amid a relative downturn in violence in Baghdad during an Islamic holiday that ended this week.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in downtown Ramallah after undercover Israeli forces tried to arrest fugitives in the city's vegetable market. Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded. Pres. Abbas demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to shops and cars in Ramallah. Fatah Col. Mohammed Ghayeb and six of his bodyguards were killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Musir Salem Jawher (28) from Bahrain won the 30th International Tiberias Marathon, around the Sea of Galilee. The Kenyan runner (Leonard Mucheru), adopted by Bahrain 4 years earlier, faced anger from Bahrain for running in an Israeli marathon.
(WSJ, 4/16/07, p.A1)(www.tiberias-marathon.co.il/en/)
2007 Jan 4, Kenya said it has closed its border with Somalia in an apparent effort to keep Islamic militants and refugees from entering the country.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Jorge Bajos Valverde, a Mexican state legislator, was gunned down in the center of Acapulco on his way to an interview at a radio and TV station.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria has repaid 1.4 billion dollars (1.12 billion euros) to the so-called London Club of private creditors and that the rest of the debt will be cleared by March. At least 3 people were killed in violent clashes between farmers and nomads in the northwestern state of Zamfara. A 4th died in hospital the next day.
(AFP, 1/4/07)(AFP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 4, Authorities lifted a ban on kite-flying in Pakistan’s Punjab province after the sport was forbidden last year following a series of deaths caused by glass-coated or metal reinforced kite strings. The ban was lifted ahead of Basant, Feb 25, an annual festival that heralds spring.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Polish newspapers reported that Stanislaw Wielgus (67), who is poised to be sworn in as archbishop of Warsaw, was a "secret and conscious" collaborator with Poland's hated communist-era security forces from 1973-1978.
(AFP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, A Somali government spokesman said government troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, were fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the south.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Marais Viljoen (91), former president of South Africa (1979-1984), died. The post of president in the then apartheid state was largely ceremonial during his term.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Police in the Basque region said they had found a bomb in northern Spain, five days after a Madrid car bombing, blamed on the separatist group ETA, killed 2 people.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 4, Sudan described the alleged sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in south Sudan as "outrageous" and said it would launch its own investigation into the affair.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, In Uzbekistan Elena Urlayeva, a prominent human rights advocate, was attacked and beaten by a group of women she said were sent by police. Urlayeva has accused the tightly controlled ex-Soviet state of abuse and torture.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2008 Jan 4, The US Labor Department said hiring practically stalled in December, driving the nation's unemployment rate up to a two-year high of 5 percent and fanning fears of a recession. The DJIA fell 256.54 to 12800.18.
(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 4, The United States 700 MHz FCC wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 73, was started by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). AT&T, Verizon and others paid close to $20 billion for the 700MHZ band covering channels 52-69 on the television dial.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_2008_wireless_spectrum_auction)
2008 Jan 4, Flights were grounded and trucks overturned in Northern California as wind gusted to 80 mph during the second wave of the arctic storm that has sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power from central California into Oregon and Washington. An estimated 1.9-2.1 million PG&E customers lost power.
(AP, 1/5/08)(SFC, 1/8/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 4, In Texas Jana Shearer (21), the girlfriend of Christopher Lee McCuin (25), was taken by McCuin from her home and killed. McCuin was arrested Jan 5 after police found that he had cooked parts of her body and may have tried to eat them. On Dec 7 McCuin was found dead in his jail cell.
(AP, 1/7/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Jan 4, In Oakland, Ca., Jessica Birden (19) died from wounds suffered on Jan 1, when she was found unconscious on a trail in the King Estates Recreation Area in the Oakland Hills. On Jan 8 Kenneth Jovan Washington, a man suspected in her assault and that of others in the Bay Area, was charged with her murder and another attack on Dec 24.
(SFC, 1/8/08, p.B3)(SFC, 1/9/08, p.B3)
2008 Jan 4, Mort Garson (b.1983), Canadian-born composer and arranger, died in SF. He co-wrote the 1963 hit “Our Day Will Come," performed by Ruby and the Romantics. He also fused the Moog synthesizer with orchestral music and composed music that was used by CBS-TV in 1969 in film footage of NASA spaceflights as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.
(SFC, 1/16/08, p.B9)
2008 Jan 4, In Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province a clash between NATO troops and Taliban insurgents near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, left two civilians dead and five others wounded.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 4, Young men stormed the streets of Guinea, hurling rocks and setting tires ablaze as labor unions called for a strike, threatening to throw the African nation into gridlock.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 4, P. Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, urged state-run banks to reduce lending rates by half a percentage point to spur consumption and investment as signs emerge of a slowdown in consumer spending. Police arrested 14 men for allegedly harassing two women outside a five-star hotel in Mumbai during New Year's celebrations, a case that drew widespread criticism after police initially refused to pursue it.
(AP, 1/4/08)(AFP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 4, Israeli troops on a night mission in the Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen in the early hours as Israel responded to Palestinian rocket fire with strikes against militants that left 11 dead in 24 hours.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Kenya's opposition called for a new presidential election to settle a dispute that has sparked deadly riots from the capital to the coast, but a government spokesman said a new vote could come on only on orders from the highest court. The World Food Program warned that 100,000 people faced starvation in western Kenya.
(AP, 1/4/08)(SFC, 1/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 4, Kosovo's legislators were sworn in at the first session of a new parliament that is widely expected to declare independence from Serbia early this year.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, A Moroccan court sentenced 51 Islamists of the Ansar El Mahdi group to between two and 25 years in jail for plotting to overthrow the government here and install an Islamist regime.
(AFP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Myanmar's Independence Day was marked by opposition calls for the freeing of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as the military rulers urged national discipline.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Russian rescuers saved 11 people stranded for nearly three months in a remote area of the Pacific coast after a fishing trip went wrong. Their two boats were damaged in a storm on October 10 during a fishing expedition off the Kamchatka Peninsula.
(Reuters, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, The annual 5,760 Dakar Rally was canceled on the eve of the race across the Sahara Desert because of terror threats and the recent Christmas Eve killings of a French family in Mauritania blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. The race, organized by the France-based Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), had been due to start in Lisbon, Portugal, and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.
(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 4, Fresh fighting erupted between southern Sudanese forces and Khartoum-backed Arab tribesmen near key oil areas of the country, former southern rebels said, further denting hopes of an end to north-south hostilities.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Taiwan's ties with its ally Malawi were shaky after the African country snubbed the island's top diplomat in an aborted visit to the African nation aimed at persuading it to resist diplomatic wooing by China.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, A private plane carrying 14 people, including 8 Italians, crashed into the sea after taking off from Venezuela's Los Roques islands.
(AP, 1/5/08)(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 4, The Zambian government awarded a 1.2 billion dollar crude oil deal to a Kuwait firm to supply over 1.4 million tons of oil to the southern African nation.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 4, Zimbabwe’s state-owned The Herald daily reported that a diarrhea outbreak has hit Harare following weeks of uncollected garbage, sewer blockages and erratic water supplies.
(AFP, 1/4/08)
2009 Jan 4, Pres. Obama signed a law expanding SCHIP, a health scheme covering children in poor families.
(Econ, 2/7/09, p.26)
2009 Jan 4, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrew under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 4, In Louisiana 8 people were killed when a PHI Inc. helicopter, bound for offshore oil fields, crashed about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.
(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 4, In Syracuse, NY, Shawn Rhines (15) killed public works department employee Casimir Snyder (47). Police later said Ja-Le Johnson and Rhines would often hang out in an attic across the street and shoot target practice with rifles from a window. Police recovered two rifles from the attic. Rhines confessed and faced 10 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In Afghanistan 12 insurgents and 11 civilians were killed in fighting in central Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, British PM Gordon Brown pledged to create 100,000 jobs through a public works program and said he would press banks to resume normal lending as Britain faces its sharpest economic downturn in decades.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, A northern Guatemala mudslide left at least 37 people dead. At least 50 people were still missing in Aquil Grande.
(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Indonesia a series of powerful earthquakes toppled or badly damaged more than 100 buildings and left one person dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, In Iraq a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a crowd of pilgrims worshipping at a revered Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, killing at least 38 people and wounding about 72.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar fire. The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec 27. At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel, wounding five people. 2 women waving white flags were killed in the Juher a-Dik neighborhood in Gaza City. The incident occurred when the Abu Hajaj family evacuated their home after it was hit by a tank shell. On Aug 12, 2012, an infantry sergeant, who was initially charged with manslaughter for the deaths of the 2 women, was convicted in a military court of illegal weapons use as part of a plea deal and will serve 45 days in prison.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 6/16/10)(AP, 8/12/12)
2009 Jan 4, In a densely forested region of Indian Kashmir a gun battle between government forces and suspected Islamic insurgents raged for a fourth day leaving at least seven combatants killed.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Nepal dozens of people were missing after an overcrowded boat carrying mostly women and children capsized in the Saptakosi river. More than 50 people were believed on board the boat and only 14 were rescued.
(AP, 1/4/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 4, Gunmen hijacked a vessel and 9 crewmen belonging to French oil services group Bourbon off Nigeria's Niger Delta as it traveled toward a Royal Dutch Shell offshore oilfield. The 9 crewmen: five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one Cameroonian and one Indonesian aboard. were released on Dec 7.
(Reuters, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked police as they rushed to treat civilians injured by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and wounding at least 25 others. During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, the army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of explosives. Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a house in the Khyber tribal region.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Russia's military leaders approved a plan by the navy to station warships permanently in friendly ports across the globe.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Russia asked the EU to provide monitoring of Ukraine's gas transit system and charged Ukraine was stealing gas bound for Europe, as Kiev leveled its own charges. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the state-controlled company wanted $450 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from its last offer of $418. The reductions in gas supplies spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.
(AP, 1/4/09)(Reuters, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, A French warship foiled attempts by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, Sri Lanka’s rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that the insurgents stalled a military advance on the road to Mullaittivu, killing 53 soldiers and wounding 80 others.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, Jimmy Mohlala, a South African official who blew the whistle on alleged corruption in the building of a stadium for the 2010 World Cup, was shot dead by unknown gunmen. The 46,000-capacity Mbombela stadium, scheduled for completion this year, is one of 10 venues for the 2010 World Cup.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In South Africa a lethal storm on the eastern coast killed 18 people over the weekend, including four family members struck dead by lightning.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2010 Jan 4, James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark. Along with "Titanic," the others are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $1.13 billion, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at $1.06 billion and "The Dark Knight" at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, The US Census Bureau kicked off its $300 million campaign to prod, coax and cajole the nation's more than 300 million residents to fill out their once-a-decade census forms.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Solis Palma, a Mexican migrant, was shot and killed after he reportedly attacked a US Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona with rocks.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 4, Bobby DeLaughter (55), a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, reported to federal prison for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation. DeLaughter was sentenced to 18 months in November after pleading guilty to lying about secret conversations he had with a lawyer while presiding over a dispute between wealthy attorneys over legal fees. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped conspiracy and mail fraud charges.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Nevada Las Vegas Johnny Lee Wicks (66), disgruntled over cuts in his Social Security benefits, opened fire in the lobby of the federal court house in Las Vegas killing a court security officer and wounding a deputy. Police officers returned fire and Wicks was killed as he fled across the street.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 4, Novartis, a Swiss drug company, agreed to buy a controlling 52% stake in Alcon, an American listed but Swiss-based eyecare company, from food giant Nestle Corp.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.66)
2010 Jan 4, NASA scientists reported that the new Kepler space telescope has discovered 5 fiery-hot planets in the depths of the Milky Way, each far larger than Earth.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 4, Edward Nathan (1919), longtime grantmaker for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, died in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 4, In Algeria an Algerian employee of Canadian construction firm SNC-Lavalin was kidnapped by insurgents southeast of Algiers. The engineer was freed on Jan 7.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 4, A new report by Canada's Alzheimer Society said Canadians are developing dementia at such a rapid rate that dealing with the problem will cost a total of more than C$870 billion ($835 billion) over the next 30 years unless preventive measures are taken.
(Reuters, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China 21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Dubai inaugurated the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, hoping to shift international attention away from the Gulf emirate's deep financial crisis and rekindle the optimism that fueled its turbocharged growth. The name was secretly switched from Burj Dubai and unveiled to the public as the Burj Khalifa, after the emir of Abu Dhabi and UAE president Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The observation deck was the only part of the tower that opened. It was closed in February following an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped. The deck reopened on April 4. Work continued on the rest of the building's interior.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/5/10)(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 4/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iran dozens of Tehran University professors appealed to the supreme leader to halt the ongoing violence against protesters, adding a new and respected voice in support of the opposition.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iraq 3 policemen were killed and eight people were wounded by two explosions in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Irish writer Colm Toibin was named novelist of the year in Britain's lucrative Costa Book Awards for his emigrant saga "Brooklyn."
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Israel approved construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the US is laboring to get peace talks moving again.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Kenya US citizen Sharon Brown (39) and her daughter Margaux (1) were trampled to death when a lone elephant charged out of the brush just outside Mount Kenya National Park.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Mexico Josefina Reyes, a human rights activist, was been killed in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Myanmar's ruling junta chief confirmed that the country's first general elections in two decades will be held this year but gave no date for the balloting, which is expected to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Nigerian soldiers shot 2 contract workers dead and injured 4 others at a Chevron plant under construction. This led to a riot and left several buildings destroyed and halted operations at the southern Escravos gas project.
(www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10293513)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 4, The Norwegian Chess Federation said Magnus Carlsen (19) is the youngest person to hold the title since ratings were introduced in 1971.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Serbia filed a lawsuit against Croatia at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide during the 1991-1995 Balkan war, which killed or displaced thousands of people.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, A tsunami unleashed by an earthquake plowed into the Solomon Islands with the crashing waters devastating at least one village, leaving over a thousand people homeless. The US Geological Survey recorded 8 earthquakes in the region since late Jan 3. The magnitude 7.2 was centered 64 miles (103 km) southeast of Gizo, and followed a 6.5 tremor less than two hours earlier centered 54 miles (90 km) southeast of Gizo at a depth of 6 miles (10 km).
(AP, 1/4/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Africa Pres. Jacob Zuma formalized his marriage to a third wife in a traditional ceremony in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Korea Seoul residents slogged through the heaviest snowfall in modern Korean history after a winter storm dumped more than 11 inches (28 cm), forcing airports to cancel flights and paralyzing traffic in the bustling capital.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Yemeni security forces killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in clashes outside the capital Sanaa, as the US and British embassies extended their closure for a second day because of threats of attack by the terror group's offshoot here. France became the latest foreign mission to close in Yemen as security around embassies and the airport was boosted.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/4/10)
2011 Jan 4, Pres. Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act, but Congress failed to adequately fund the program, a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation’s food-safety system.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.A4)(SFC, 4/8/15, p.A7)
2011 Jan 4, The Internal Revenue Service kicked off the US tax filing season, announcing that taxpayers will have until April 18, 2011 to file their 2010 returns and pay their tax bills because of a holiday on April 15.
(Reuters, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, Owen Honors, Captain of the US aircraft carrier Enterprise, was permanently relieved of his command for making a series of ribald and offensive videos that aired on the ship’s closed-circuit TV system when he was second in command in 2006-207.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.A4)
2011 Jan 4, Cornelius Dupree Jr., a Texas man, was declared innocent after 30 years in prison. He had at least two chances to make parole and be set free, if only he would admit he was a sex offender. Dupree refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery. In the process he serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Officials in Louisiana said 500 birds were discovered dead, shortly after thousands of birds were discovered dead in neighboring Arkansas.
(AFP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, The archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, filed for bankruptcy becoming the 8th in the US to do so. It had become besieged by lawsuits related to priests molesting boys.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.36)
2011 Jan 4, Motorola Corp. split into 2 companies: Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.
(Econ, 1/1/11, p.57)
2011 Jan 4, Alireza Pahlavi (44), the former shah of Iran's youngest son, died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Boston. He was the second of the four children of the late Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi and former Empress Farah Pahlavi to die in exile. His sister Leila was found dead of a drug overdose in 2001.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai told foreign powers to stop meddling in the country's internal affairs. A bomb exploded in central Kabul, killing one police officer and wounding three other people. Hundreds of police swept through villages 220km northeast of Kabul, killing at least eight rebels in an operation against militants. In Kandahar province four rebels were killed when an IED they were planting on a road went off prematurely.
(AP, 1/4/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mick Karn (52), bass player in the 1980s group Japan, died in London. Karn, born in Cyprus as Andonis Michaelides, was co-founder of Japan along with David Sylvian and Steve Jansen. The group's 1982 album, "Tin Drum," included a hit song, "Ghosts."
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, In China a gunfight in Tai’an City of Shandong Province left four police officers dead and five people injured.
(http://english.caing.com/2011-01-05/100214120.html)
2011 Jan 4, In India school principal Rupan Pathak fatally stabbed Raj Kishore Kesri (51), a Hindu nationalist lawmaker, while he was meeting with some of his supporters at his residence in eastern Bihar state. Pathak accused Kesri of sexually harassing her over a three-year period. Kesri's guards overpowered Pathak, who is in her early 40s, and beat her up.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Iran’s government confirmed that it has invited world powers and its allies in the Arab and developing world to tour Iranian nuclear sites before a high-profile meeting late this month on its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Italian protesters rallied against the Brazilian president's refusal to extradite ex-militant Cesare Battisti, amid government assurances that relations with Brazil will not be affected.
(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mediators said Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo has agreed to negotiate a resolution to the crisis gripping the west African nation and lift a blockade around his rival's headquarters.
(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Kenya's industrialization minister resigned over a car imports scandal that will see the country's anti-graft agency taking him to court on corruption charges.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mexican federal police announced they had arrested three US citizens in a sport utility vehicle loaded with 159 packages of marijuana hidden in the bodywork and gas tank. , Prosecutors said the David Romo, the leader of Mexico's Death Saint cult, has been detained on suspicion of participating in a kidnapping ring. Romo was one of nine suspects placed under a form of house arrest for 30 days pending investigation. The Mexican army detained the local operations leader for the Sinaloa cartel, Jesus de la Cruz Lopez, alias "The Tomato."
(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, Pakistan's main opposition leader gave the government a three-day deadline to accept a list of demands if it wants to avert its possible collapse after the loss of its ruling majority in parliament. A gunman assassinated the governor of Punjab province, a senior member of the ruling party, in Islamabad. Salman Taseer was killed by Malik Mumtaz Qadri, one of his guards, because of Taseer’s opposition to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law. On Oct 1 Qadri was convicted and sentenced to death.
(AP, 1/4/11)(Reuters, 1/4/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.45)(AP, 10/1/11)
2011 Jan 4, In Puerto Rico police officers seized nearly 200 bags of cocaine and roughly 30 bags each of heroin and marijuana. A caiman was tied near the drugs, which were found during a routine patrol in La Perla neighborhood of historic Old San Juan.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Zambian prosecutors applied for arrest warrants after the mining officials Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua failed to attend the preliminary hearing regarding the Oct 15 shooting of nearly a dozen miners at a Chinese-run coal mine.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2012 Jan 4, President Barack Obama, tired of Senate Republicans stalling his nominee to lead a new consumer protection agency, put Richard Cordray in charge over their opposition.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, In San Diego, Ca., Benjamin Arellano Felix (58), Mexican drug kingpin, pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money in exchange for a sentence of no more than 25 years. On April 2 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/5/12, p.A6)(SFC, 4/3/12, p.A10)
2012 Jan 4, Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala (60) resigned under the code of canon law that lets bishops step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they're sick or for some other reason that makes them unfit for office. Zavala had told the Pope in December that he had two children who lived with their mother in a different state.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Texas Jaime Gonzalez (15) was shot 3 times by police in a hallway at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville after he refused to drop a pellet gun.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Utah Army veteran Matthew David Stewart killed a police officer and wounded 5 others as authorities descended on his home in a marijuana raid.
(http://tinyurl.com/paqc29c)(SFC, 5/25/13, p.A6)
2012 Jan 4, US car giant Ford said it is opening a new dealership in India every 10 days to feed demand in a market it expects to be the third-biggest worldwide by the end of the decade.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Anti-whaling activists claimed a small victory in their Antarctic campaign with the discovery of a Japanese harpoon ship.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, British engineers battled to restore electricity to thousands of homes after fierce storms battered the UK, killing two men and causing widespread travel chaos.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, British company Everything Everywhere said it is launching a mobile virtual network in Britain in partnership with telecoms giant China Telecom, targeting Chinese residents and visitors.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In the Central African Republic taxi and bus drivers in Bangui held a one-day strike. The government promised to look into grievances about its decision to raise fuel prices.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Chinese steelworkers began a 3-day strike at a state-controlled enterprise in the Qingbaijiang district of Sichuan province. Workers managed to get a small wage increase.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.21)
2012 Jan 4, In southern China a bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge, killing at least 18 people in Guizhou province.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, An Ecuadoran appeals court upheld last year’s landmark $9.5 billion judgement against Chevron Corp. over oil contamination in the Amazon rain forest.
(SFC, 1/5/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 4, Egyptians voted again in the final round of a phased election to choose the first parliament since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak in February last year.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Iraq 6 roadside bombs targeted the homes of police officers in Baqouba. Two children died in the blasts and nine people were wounded. Gunmen stormed the house of a leader in the anti al-Qaida militia in the predominantly Sunni suburb of Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, killing him and his wife.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Kenya's military said its forces killed three militant fighters from al-Shabab in a battle in Somalia. A Kenyan soldier was also killed in the battle.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Mexico suspended first-division soccer goalkeeper Omar "El Gato" Ortiz was arrested for alleged participation in a kidnapping ring. Prosecutors later said he was arrested at his home in a Monterrey suburb after two kidnapping suspects were detained on Jan 2 and implicated him in the crimes.
(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Mexico a fight among inmates armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones left 31 people dead in a prison in the Gulf Coast city of Altamira, Tamaulipas state. 20 inmates were detained for involvement in the riot.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, Senegalese bus and taxi drivers ended a two-day strike that had left people stranded and resorting to horse-drawn carts to get to work. Drivers in Senegal were protesting against the high price of fuel, the cost of insurance, police harassment and a lack of social protection from their employers.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Syrian activists accused President Bashar Assad's regime of misleading Arab League observers by taking them only to areas loyal to the government and changing street signs to confuse them. Security forces and pro-government gunmen reportedly shot dead at least three people, two in the province of Homs and one in the central province of Hama.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Venezuela more than 950 relatives of inmates were refusing to leave the Yare I and II prison in a protest to demand faster trial for inmates. President Hugo Chavez has told authorities to negotiate peacefully.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Yemen Islamic militants stormed a hotel where alcohol is served in Aden, setting the building on fire, killing two people and wounding 20.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2013 Jan 4, The US House overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by the storm. The Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A Beechcraft BE35 crashed on its way to the Flagler County Airport in Palm Coast, Florida, killing at least 3 people.
(SFC, 1/5/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 4, Afghan Police Maj. Jalal Uddin said that 80 prisoners, formerly held by the US, were freed from prisons across the country today, the latest batch of a total of 400 to be released this week. The released prisoners had been captured in operations against the Taliban and other groups.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, British police charged Nepali army colonel Kumar Lama (46) with two counts of torture committed in 2005 during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war, despite the Nepali government's demanding his immediate release.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, The Church of England confirmed that its House of Bishops, one of its most senior bodies, has ended an 18-month moratorium on the appointment of gays in civil partnerships as bishops. The decision was made in late December.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, In southern Chile Werner Luchsinger (75) and wife Vivian McKay, whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians, were killed in an arson attack while trying to defend their home. The attack began the previous evening as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. In 2014 Celestino Cordova Transito (27) was convicted for killing the couple.
(AP, 1/4/13)(SFC, 2/21/14, p.A2)
2013 Jan 4, Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007. Hamas condoned the demonstration.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, Six Russians were killed and two seriously injured when the snowmobile and sled they were riding veered off an Italian Alpine ski slope at night, slammed into a barrier and flew through the air into a ravine.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 4, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who moved to Somalia to wage jihad alongside al-Shabab militants, was given 15 days to surrender to militants or be killed. The FBI has named Hammami as one of its most-wanted terrorists.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 4, Syrian ground and air forces bombarded rebel strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country. Anti-government forces targeted a military post near the capital with a car bomb.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A small plane disappeared off the Venezuelan coast with six people aboard, including Vittorio Missoni (58), a top executive in Italy's Missoni fashion house. Wreckage of the plane was found in June.
(AP, 1/5/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2014 Jan 4, This issue of the Economist reported that most non-African humans carry around 2% of Neanderthal DNA.
(Econ, 1/4/14, p.28)
2014 Jan 4, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck outside joint NATO-Afghan in the Nangarhar province's Ghani Khail district. One US solider and 5 Taliban attackers were killed. Hours later an explosion hit one of the entrances to Camp Eggers in Kabul.
(AP, 1/4/14)(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 4, Bahrain named Ali Mafoudh al-Moussawi, a Bahraini citizen who lives in Iran, as a main suspect in planned "terrorist acts" and said he and his collaborators had received training and other help from Tehran.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In Bangladesh scores of polling booths were torched and a train set alight on the eve of elections as the opposition launched a strike against the vote "farce."
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, Cambodia's government launched a broad crackdown on the political opposition, clearing its main protest site, banning its street demonstrations and having a court call in opposition party leaders for questioning on charges of inciting social unrest.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, An Egyptian soldier was killed and at least two were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted their armored vehicle in the restive Sinai peninsula.
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In India a five-story building under construction in the southern state of Goa collapsed, killing at least 15 workers and leaving dozens more feared trapped under the rubble.
(AFP, 1/4/14)(AP, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 4, The Lebanese army said Saudi citizen Majid al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades fighting in Syria, died while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In western Mexico a small plane crash-landed, killing one person and injuring four others, including the leader of a vigilante group fighting drug cartels.
(AFP, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin reversed a blanket ban on protests at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, bowing to pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, Senegal said its navy has boarded a Russian ship that was allegedly illegally fishing in its waters and is escorting it toward Dakar. The Russian trawler left the port of Dakar on Jan 22 following an agreement by Moscow to pay $1 million.
(AFP, 1/4/14)(AP, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 4, South Sudan’s rebel and government sides met mediators from the regional IGAD grouping in Ethiopia for a second day but did not sit down together.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In Syria an alliance of Islamist and other rebel factions battled fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) across the north-west in apparently coordinated strikes against the powerful al Qaeda-linked group.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, Tunisian lawmakers rejected Islam as the main source of law for the country that spawned the Arab Spring as they voted for a second day on a new constitution.
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, The Tunisian coast guard fired on three Egyptian fishing boats intercepted in its territorial waters. One boat captain was killed.
(SFC, 1/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 4, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of three Kurdish lawmakers, in addition to two freed a day earlier.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In Yemen renewed clashes in the north between rebels belonging to a Shiite-branch of Islam and ultraconservative Salafis backed by allying tribes killed 17 people.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2015 Jan 4, Thousands of police officers in NYC defied calls not to stage a protest at the funeral of a slain comrade, pointedly turning their backs as Mayor Bill de Blasio paid tribute to the murdered patrolman.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 4, In Afghanistan insurgents killed 5 policemen, including their commander, in the volatile eastern province of Logar.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Australian PM Tony Abbott made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, meeting with top officials to discuss ways his country can aid Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following five days of non-stop military operations. Five gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into a bar and shot dead 3 ruling party activists before torching the local party office in the eastern Gisuru region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, A city in central India elected the country's first transgender mayor, nine months after a court ruled that transgender be recognized as a legal third gender. Madhu Kinnar (35) won the mayoral election in Raigarh in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In India a 16-year-old victim was attacked and gang-raped after arriving in eastern Bihar state late today where the gang, including a local administrator's driver, approached her and offered her a lift to a relative's home. Police soon arrested one of five suspects.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, In eastern India 14 langur monkeys died after snatching and then eating biscuits laced with rat poison being sold by a hawker in West Bengal state. The hawker who fled in the aftermath of the deaths.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya Fidel Odinga (41), the son of main opposition leader Raila Odinga, was found dead in his home near Nairobi, prompting a major police investigation and minor unrest in the capital.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya at least 2 people were killed and several others were injured when a six-storey residential building collapsed in Nairobi.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government launched air strikes on the country's biggest steel plant at Misrata. A warplane from forces loyal to the internationally recognized government bombed a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored offshore, killing 2 crewmen. The Liberian-flagged ARAEVO was carrying 12,600 tons of crude oil when it was struck off the eastern port of Derna. No oil was spilled.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northeastern Mali six Nigerian soldiers of the UN's MINUSMA mission were injured, with gunmen also burning four UN trucks.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a US drone strike killed at least six suspected militants in North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Saudi Arabia a general and two soldiers were killed in a rare attack and suicide bombing by "terrorists" on the border with Iraq. 4 attackers were also killed in the clash, 2 in suicide blasts.
(AFP, 1/5/15)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.43)
2015 Jan 4, In Somalia a car bomb targeting security officials exploded in Mogadishu, and was followed by shooting. An al Shabaab car bomb killed four people in Mogadishu.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 4, Sudan's parliament passed constitutional amendments allowing President Omar al-Bashir (71) to appoint state governors directly and expanding the mandate of its powerful security agency.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Syria Islamist fighters seized a suburb east of Damascus after driving out a smaller rival insurgent group in deadly clashes.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Syria's western-backed opposition group elected Khalid Khoja as its new leader during a three-day meeting in Istanbul of the National Coalition. Khalid Khoja announced the next day that his group is not yet willing to go to peace talks in Moscow.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, At the Vatican Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals from 14 countries, including many from Latin America and Africa.
(AP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Jan 4, In Yemen a bomb explosion in Dhamar, a mainly Shiite city, killed at least 4 people including a reporter and wounded 25 others. The bombing targeted a gathering of Shiite Huthi militiamen, also known as Ansarullah.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2016 Jan 4, Editas Medicine filed for an IPO. The company offered new technology, called CRISPR Cas9, allowing DNA to be cut and edited.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.54)
2016 Jan 4, Afghan troops rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of a four-story building near the Indian Consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif to drive out gunmen who had attacked the diplomatic mission the night before. A truck bomb attack on Camp Baron, a compound for civilian contractors near Kabul airport, wounding at least 30 Afghan civilians. Earlier today a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police checkpoint without causing any other casualties. The bodies of 5 soldiers were found on the outskirts of the eastern city of Ghazni. They had been abducted from a main highway around a week earlier by Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 1/4/16)(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Bahrain announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with Iran, a day after its ally and neighbor Saudi Arabia also severed relations with Tehran.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Chinese authorities detained Peter Dahlin, a Swedish national who worked on legal aid and rule of law issues, on suspicion of endangering state security.
(Reuters, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 4, Denmark and Sweden tightened border checks. Six countries in Europe's document-free travel area now have wide-ranging border checks in place.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, A powerful earthquake struck northeast India and Bangladesh, killing at least 11 people and injuring nearly 200, with efforts to reach remote areas where people may be trapped hampered by severed power lines and telecommunication links.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Indian security forces battled for the third day to clear out militants who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab state and killed 7 soldiers.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Islamic State militants attacked Iraqi troops and allied tribal fighters outside the western town of Haditha, killing at least 11 and wounding dozens. In central Iraq overnight blasts rocked two Sunni mosques, amid fears of renewed sectarian strife following Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
(AP, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Israeli forces destroyed the east Jerusalem homes of two Palestinians who killed four Israelis on Oct 13, one of the deadliest days in the recent surge in violence.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said it had targeted an Israeli army border patrol with a bomb in an attack that prompted retaliatory fire from the Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, In northern Libya jihadists carried out a suicide car bomb attack on a military checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Al-Sidra, killing 2 soldiers. They then launched an attack on the town of Ras Lanouf via the south but did not manage to enter.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen wearing soldiers' uniforms and female suicide bombers unleashed separate attacks on Izghe, a village 123 km (76 miles) southwest of Maiduguri. At least 18 people were killed.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 4, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif started a three-day visit to Sri Lanka during which several agreements aiming to strengthen relations between the south Asian nations are to be signed.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli woman in Jerusalem before being shot and wounded.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Puerto Rico’s government missed a $36 million coupon on paper issued by its Infrastructure Financing Authority.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.21)
2016 Jan 4, In Puerto Rico Antonio Soto (66), a former senator, died. He was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to tax evasion and misappropriation of public funds.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Poland’s government said 21 people died over the weekend because of freezing weather amid one of the country's deadliest cold spells.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Saudi Arabia widened its rift with Iran, saying it would end air traffic and trade links with the Islamic republic and demanding that Tehran must "act like a normal country" before it would restore severed diplomatic relations.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Turkish security sources said 2 civilians, 2 soldiers and a police officer have been killed in the southeast over the last 24 hours as military operations to root out armed fighters focused on urban centers across the mainly Kurdish region. 3 female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in curfew-hit Silopi town as the authorities press an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 4, Ugandan police said they were investigating reports nearly $4 million worth of cocaine seized by customs officers at its main airport had disappeared from secure stores.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Yemeni authorities announced a dusk to dawn curfew in Aden starting today following a night of gunbattles between armed men and government forces that killed at least 12 people from both sides.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2017 Jan 4, Pres.-elect Donald Trump chose Jay Clayton, a Wall Street attorney, as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A5)
2017 Jan 4, In Chicago a federal jury convicted Hobos gang boss Gregory “Bowlegs" Chester, alleged hit man Paris Poe and four others for racketeering conspiracy.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pea)
2017 Jan 4, In Kentucky former LaRue County High School principal Stephen Kyle Goodlett (36) was indicted in Louisville on federal charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. He had admitted to investigators that he has a pornography addiction and downloaded images from phones confiscated from students.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, In Massachusetts about $20 million in cash was found hidden inside a box spring in a Westborough apartment. It was seized as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the TelexFree internet telecom company that authorities say was actually a massive international pyramid scheme. Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha was charged with conspiring to commit money laundering. TelexFree filed for bankruptcy in 2014, its assets frozen, and its two principals were indicted on federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy.
(AP, 1/6/17)(SFC, 1/7/17, pea)
2017 Jan 4, In Nevada Faraday Future’s FF91 was unveiled during a press event for CES17 in las Vegas. The company was backed by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting. Production was scheduled to start in Nevada this year with first deliveries in 2018.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pp.)
2017 Jan 4, Macy’s said it will move forward with 68 store closures and eliminate more than 10,000 jobs following a disappointing holiday shopping season.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pp.)
2017 Jan 4, In China Chen Zhongshu, the land and resources chief of Panzhihua city in Sichuan province, allegedly shot and injured two leaders of the city as the pair held a meeting in a conference center, and later killed himself.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In southern China a man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, seriously wounding three, the latest such attack in recent years.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Czech authorities said they had detected highly-contagious bird flu at two small poultry farms and in dead swans in the first such cases in a decade.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Egypt released political activist Ahmed Maher (36), a leading figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled the government, after he completed his jail term. Maher was the founder and spokesman of the April 6 protest movement, one of the main groups that campaigned for more freedom under longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
(AFP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, In France former Kosovar PM Ramush Haradinaj was arrested at Basel Mulhouse Freiburg airport on a Serbian warrant. He faced possible extradition to Serbia to face war crimes charges.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, French customs officials intercepted 70 kg of Captagon, dubbed the "jihadists' drug", at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, a first for France. Another 67 kg of the drug were found at the airport in February. Captagon, a type of amphetamine, is one of the most commonly used drugs among fighters in the Syrian war.
(AFP, 5/30/17)
2017 Jan 4, The Gambia's army chief reaffirmed his loyalty to Pres. Yahya Jammeh despite the threat of a regional military intervention if the strongman refuses to step down.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Indian officials said police have rescued nearly 200 children, most of them under the age of 14, who had been found working in a brick kiln in the southern state of Telangana in one of the biggest operations in the region.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In India a 24-year-old housemaid died in hospital, two weeks after she was admitted with multiple fractures and injuries. She had said she was abused by her New Delhi employers after being lured to the city with the promise of a job.
(Reuters, 1/6/17)
2017 Jan 4, The UN said more than 2,000 Iraqis a day are fleeing Mosul, several hundred more each day than before U.S.-led coalition forces began a new phase of their battle to retake the city from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, The Israeli government said China has agreed for thousands of migrant construction laborers to work in Israel in a bid to alleviate a housing crisis.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Israel released billionaire businessman Beny Steinmetz from house arrest without charge, following his detention over bribery allegations involving BSGR in Africa.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Israeli Sergeant Elor Azaria, who shot dead a Palestinian assailant lying wounded and motionless on the ground in the occupied West Bank last March 24, was convicted of manslaughter in one of the most polarizing cases in Israel's history.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Italy vowed to increase deportations of migrants whose asylum requests have been rejected, after a riot in a reception center sparked by the death of a young woman.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Niger said around 20 more members of the jihadist group Boko Haram have surrendered. About 50 Boko Haram fighters have now given themselves up since December 27.
(AFP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, Pakistan's Supreme Court asked the police to look into allegations that a 10-year-old girl working as a maid was tortured by her employers, an influential judge and his wife, after disturbing photographs of the girl, purporting to show her badly beaten and bruised, circulated on social media. A day earlier the girl's parents announced they have "forgiven" the judge and his wife, apparently after reaching a financial settlement.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In Pakistan four campaigners of the Civil Progressive Alliance of Pakistan (CPAP) activist group went missing.
(Reuters, 1/19/17)
2017 Jan 4, Palestinian fisherman Mohammed Al-Hissi (33) disappeared after colliding with an Israeli navy ship off the Gaza coast.
(AP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 4, In the southern Philippines more than 100 suspected Muslim rebels stormed a jail before dawn allowing 158 inmates to escape. Six inmates were killed in firefights with police and eight others were caught and returned to prison.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pea)
2017 Jan 4, Romania's Parliament approved a left-leaning government led by Sorin Grindeanu, who vowed to stop thousands of Romanians emigrating, build highways and encourage the consumption of local produce.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2018 Jan 4, Pres. Donald Trump's legal team demanded that author Michael Wolff and his publisher halt the release of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." They demanded that Wolff apologize of face a possible lawsuit. Henry Hold & Co. said it would make the book available January 5 instead of the original January 9 release date.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 4, The US State Department said it has placed Pakistan on a special watch list for "severe violations of religious freedom". The United States said it was suspending at least $900 million in security assistance to Pakistan until it takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network militant groups.
(AP, 1/4/18)(Reuters, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions urged federal prosecutors to override state marijuana laws and file criminal charges in those that have legalized sale and use of the drug.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A1)
2018 Jan 4, High winds and heavy snow barreled into the US Northeast, closing schools and government offices and disrupting travel as work crews scrambled to clear roads before plummeting temperatures turn snow into treacherous ice. The cold has been blamed for at least nine deaths over the past few days. Utilities along the East Coast said about 65,000 homes and businesses were without power from the massive snow and ice storm battering Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Four people were reported killed in North Carolina and South Carolina after their vehicles ran off snow-covered roads. More than 5,000 flights were reported cancelled across the US.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A5)
2018 Jan 4, The state of Oregon sued Monsanto over pervasive pollution from PCBs and sought $100 million to mitigate pollution , particularly along a 10-mile stretch of the Willamette River. Federal authorities in 2016 announced a $1 billion cleanup in the area.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 4, In Virginia incumbent Republican David Yancey won a tied state House of Delegates race, over challenger Shelley Simonds, when his name was pulled from a ceramic bowl.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A5)
2018 Jan 4, Brookfield Business Partners LP acquired Westinghouse Electric, the US nuclear unit of embattled Japanese electronics giant Toshiba, in a deal valued at about out $4.6 billion.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Afghanistan the Taliban shot and killed three members of the Afghan security forces in western Farah province. The attack unfolded when a group of Taliban fighters stopped a bus travelling in the Bala Buluk district.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Britain's PM Theresa May apologized to tens of thousands of patients whose operations were canceled to free up staff and beds to deal with emergency patients. A flu outbreak, colder weather and high levels of respiratory illnesses have put hospitals in England under strain with many operating at or near full capacity.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, France's interior ministry said a second person has died in the country as a result of the violent storm battering northern Europe. Storm Eleanor swept through Europe. The body of a man was pulled from the Breda River. He was soon identified the missing firefighter who was swept away just after saving a family. The death brought to four the number of people killed in France this week as winter storms battered western Europe. At least two other people have disappeared in other eastern France regions.
(AP, 1/4/18)(AFP, 1/4/18)(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, Germany's highest civil and criminal court ruled that a transsexual woman, who used sperm she had banked prior to her sex change to have a baby with her female partner, cannot be legally registered as the child's mother.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, India began investigating a report that access to its database of the identity details of more than 1 billion citizens was being sold for just $8 on social media, in what could be one of the giant program's biggest security breaches.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A New Delhi court declared India's flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya a "proclaimed offender" for failing to appear to answer allegations of money laundering by flouting foreign currency laws. The order paved the way for the government to take over Mallya's businesses and real estate holdings.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Iran's army chief declared that police had already quelled anti-government unrest that has killed 21 people but that his troops were ready to intervene if needed, as Tehran staged more pro-government rallies.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld (b.1932), a Holocaust survivor who became one of the foremost contemporary Hebrew-language writers, died near Tel Aviv. He published the first of 46 novels and collections of poetry in 1962 and won several awards throughout his career.
(AFP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Mexico's acting attorney general said prosecutors were already working to improve investigations and cooperation with other countries following an international report that blasted the country for failing to punish money launderers.
(Reuters, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Mexico the dismembered bodies of two young men were found inside plastic bags outside the beach resort of Acapulco. The young men had been arrested by Chilpancingo police on December 30 after a brawl at a Christmas fair and officers were suspected of later murdering them.
(Reuters, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, The Nigerian military said it had rescued Salomi Pogu, one of more than 270 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok in 2014.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A court in Norway said that the government can hand out oil drilling licenses in the Arctic, dealing a blow to two environmental groups that had filed a lawsuit against further drilling in the Barents Sea. The court also said Nature and Youth and Greenpeace Nordic should pay legal expenses worth 580,000 kroner ($71,435).
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, It was reported that Poland has created a new, state-owned aviation company, the Polish Aviation Group, based on the national airline, LOT, that aims to capitalize on a planned major airport and on the region's growing air travel market.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Pres. Vladimir Putin authorized the resumption of regular Russian airline flights to Cairo, according to a document published on the Moscow government's website. It said the clearance for flights to resume was effective from Jan. 2.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Russia at least 10 people were killed in a warehouse fire in Chernoretsky village, Siberia. The dead were believed to be workers from China and Kyrgyzstan.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In South Africa more at least 18 people were killed and hundreds were feared injured after a train struck a lorry, derailed and burst into flames as it traveled between Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 4, South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. said it will begin selling its first self-driving vehicles by 2021 in partnership with US based self-driving technology startup Aurora Innovation Inc. Hyundai and Volkswagen each said they're partnering with Aurora Innovation, a US autonomous vehicle tech firm led by former executives from Google, Tesla and Uber.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In South Sudan new fighting erupted between government and opposition forces less than 20 km (12 miles) outside Juba.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Syria at least 30 civilians were killed when Russian jets dropped bombs on the Eastern Ghouta residential area, a besieged rebel enclave east of Damascus.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, It was reported that Turkey's broadcasting watchdog has fined a TV station nearly one million lira ($266,000) over footage of young girls dancing in shorts in a talent competition after viewers complained of "child abuse".
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Fugitive Vietnamese property tycoon Phan Van Anh Vu (42), accused of spilling state secrets, was arrested in Hanoi after Singapore deported him, despite appeals that his life could be in danger in Vietnam.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A Zimbabwean court freed "for now" Martha O'Donovan, an American woman charged with subversion for allegedly describing the former president on Twitter as a "sick man".
(AP, 1/4/18)
2019 Jan 4, In southern California three men were killed and four others injured during a brawl at the Gable House Bowl in Torrence.
(SFC, 1/7/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 4, In the SF Bay Area police found three people dead following gunfire at the 1000 blcok of Center Street in Oakland. Antonio Malike Durant (26) was arrested on Jan. 18 and soon charged with three counts of murder.
(SFC, 1/24/19, p.C6)
2019 Jan 4, In Texas Jenna Scott and her friend Michael Swearingin disappeared. Their bodies were later found in a shallow grave in Clearview, Oklahoma. Cedric Marks (44) was arrested this month in Michigan on a burglary charged related to Scott's house in Temple, Texas.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7986eun)(SFC, 2/4/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 4, Twitter suspended an account that posted links to sensitive personal data and documents stolen by hackers from hundreds of German public figures and politicians — from every political party but the far-right Alternative for Germany. The breach, discovered by journalists a day earlier, affected politicians at all levels.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Afghan officials said Taliban fighters are threatening major oil wells near the northern city of Sar-e Pul following days of fighting in which dozens of members of the security forces have been killed and wounded. At least seven border police officers were killed late today when their checkpoint came under attack by insurgents in southern Kandahar province. 16 insurgents were killed and 11 others wounded in an ensuing battle.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, An Australian man (24) rammed his four-wheel drive into a Sydney police car, hijacked a supermarket delivery truck and taxi, rammed other cars and stabbed and wounded a passerby before killing himself in front of police.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, It was reported that Bolivia's bee population is being decimated by massive and intensive use of chemical pesticides to protect coca plants, the region's biggest cash crop.
(AFP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, The People's Bank of China said it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves by one percentage point essentially freeing up about $218 billion to ease lending.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.D4)
2019 Jan 4, The China Academy of Social Sciences said in a research report that the country's population is set to reach a peak of 1.442 billion in 2029 and start a long period of "unstoppable" decline in 2030.
(Reuters, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, China's Jade Rabbit 2 space rover explored the lunar terrain in the world's first mission on the surface of the far side of the moon.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Colombia's government said it has asked Venezuela to verify whether certain members of the ELN rebel group are living in the country and to detain them under Interpol red notices if they are.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, The French government dismissed 'yellow vest' protesters as agitators whose only goal was to topple it, signaling a toughening stance against a movement that has shaken Emmanuel Macron's presidency.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Germany an Interior Ministry spokesman said personal data and documents from hundreds of German politicians and public figures have been published online, in what appears one of the most far-reaching cyber-attacks in a country that has become a target of choice for hackers.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Ghanaian religious leaders said angry young Muslims have attacked a charismatic church in Accra a day after its pastor predicted the country’s chief imam would die this year in a New Year's eve sermon.
(AFP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In India the office of the chief minister of Kerala state said a woman (46) has become the third to enter the Sabarimala Hindu temple in defiance of an ancient ban on females of menstruating age. Temple management denied that the Sri Lankan woman had in fact entered. Only small protests were reported from across the state.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Iraq a fire at a women's shelter in Baghdad killed several lodgers. A police chief called it a "group suicide" caused by women rioting in the shelter. Two women died from stab wounds and seven perished in the fire.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Parts of Lebanon's public and private sectors went on a union-organized strike to protest worsening economic conditions and months of delay in the formation of a new government.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Mexican federal police took steps to close a migrant shelter in Tijuana, sparking protests from some of the dozens of US-bound people who had been staying there after traveling in a caravan from Central America.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Myanmar thirteen policemen were killed and nine injured in early morning attacks on police outposts in Rakhine state by the insurgent Arakan Army, as the country celebrated Independence Day. The AA was led by Twan Mrat Naing.
(AP, 1/4/19)(Reuters, 1/18/19)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.25)
2019 Jan 4, Dutch authorities said they will hold Swiss shipping line MSC liable for the cost of cleaning up debris from more than 270 cargo containers that fell off one of its vessels and washed up on shore. Roughly 35 containers have been located and the remainder were lost at sea.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Nigeria the Koluama Seven Brothers militant group carried out an unconfirmed warning strike on an oil facility owned by local energy firm Conoil in the southern state of Bayelsa. The group soon threatened a production shut-down and demanded action from Conoil and a traditional ruler called King Solomon Eddy on issues such as job creation.
(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 4, A Palestinian broadcasting corporation said masked gunmen have raided its studios in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Peru foreign ministers from 12 Latin American countries and Canada said their governments would not accept Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's president when he is sworn in for a second six-year term next week. The 14-member Lima Group -- with the exception of Mexico -- said it would not grant recognition to Maduro's hardline socialist government.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, In the Philippines Talib Abo, a former mayor of the town of Parang, was killed in a shootout with police. His brother, Bobby Abo, was also killed in a separate raid. In 2016 Pres. Duterte had accused them of being involved the drug trade. Police reportedly found guns and methamphetamine at both of the brothers' homes.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 4, A Philippine court ordered the arrest of Japanese pachinko billionaire Kazuo Okada, about a month after the country's Department of Justice recommended the filing of charges against him over three counts of fraud. The warrant of arrest was made public on Dec. 6.
(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 4, Poland accused France of breaching European Union laws by exceeding spending limits. Paris last month forecast a 2019 deficit of 3.2 percent, which would violate the EU-mandated limit of 3.0 percent of GDP.
(AFP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Poland five teenage girls were killed by a fire in an "escape room" attraction in Koszalin. In "escape rooms", participants are locked in a room and race against the clock to solve puzzles and challenges to open a way out.
(Reuters, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Portugal a court in Lisbon said it was not proven that former Interior Minister Miguel Macedo had favored Chinese and Angolan investors in administrative procedures granting the so-called "golden visas." Two other senior Portuguese officials were found guilty of corruption while two Chinese citizens were convicted of influence-peddling. Another Chinese citizen and an Angolan were acquitted.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Romania Eugeniu Iordachescu (89), a civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, died.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Sudan dozens of protesters chanted anti-government slogans as they left a major mosque following Friday prayers in Omdurman, near Khartoum. Security forces fired teargas and the crowd quickly dispersed.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Syria an air strike by the US-led coalition on a village held by the Islamic State killed at least ten people.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 4, In southern Thailand one person was reported dead and another missing as rain, wind and surging seawater as Tropical Storm Pabuk buffeted coastal villages and world-famous tourist resorts, knocking down trees and utility poles and flooding roads.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, The UN human rights office called on Bahrain to release activist Nabeel Rajab, saying that the upholding of his five-year jail sentence by the top court this week showed "continued suppression of government critics".
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Zimbabwe's government said it has begun laying off 3,365 workers from its youth ministry, as it tries to make good on its promise to cut the bloated civil service and sort out the country's finances.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2020 Jan 4, The White House sent Congress a formal notification under the War Powers Act of the drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani a day earlier. Trump warned that America would target 52 sites "important to Iran & Iranian culture" and hit them "very fast and very hard" if American personnel or assets were attacked.
(NY Times, 1/5/20)(AFP, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, Demonstrators chanting "no war on Iran" rallied in Washington, New York and across the US to protest the assassination of a top Iranian military commander in a US drone strike.
(AFP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, John Baldessari (88), California artist, died in his sleep. In 2010 he was cited as "arguably America's most influential Conceptual artist".
(SFC, 1/10/20, p.C2)
2020 Jan 4, In Florida a pair of Chinese nationals attending the University of Michigan were arrested on a charge of entering a US Naval property for the purpose of photographing defense installations.
(Miami Herald, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 4, Wildfires raged in Australia, choking the sky with smoke, forcing thousands to flee and prompting the US to send more fire personnel to help battle the blazes.
(Good Morning America, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Members of Austria's Green party voted to join a new government led by conservative former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, clearing the final hurdle for a previously untested left-right alliance at the national level.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Austria's foreign ministry said it is facing a serious cyberattack, possibly from a foreign country.
(Reuters, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, In northwestern Burkina Faso at least 14 civilians, mostly students, died after their bus hit an explosive device on the way back from a school break.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, In France a businessman returned from a holiday break to find his collection of 19 top watches, including 11 Rolexes, had been swiped from a safe with police blaming “professional" criminals. Over the weekend burglars reportedly swiped more than €1 million (£850,000) worth of Rolex watches and other prestige timepieces in Paris.
(The Telegraph, 1/6/20)
2020 Jan 4, Indonesian officials said landslides and floods triggered by torrential downpours have left at least 60 people dead in and around Jakarta, as rescuers struggled to search for people apparently buried under tons of mud.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, In Iran US and Israeli flags were set alight in Tehran as thousands mourned the loss of top military commander Qasem Soleimani, a day after he was killed by American forces.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Iraq's PM Adel Abdel Mahdi attended a mourning procession in Baghdad for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. They were killed along with eight others in a precision US drone strike a day earlier as they drove away from Baghdad international airport in two vehicles.
(AFP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, A volley of missiles appeared to target the US’s embassy and one of its bases in Iraq late today, sparking fears an Iran-backed militia had begun taking revenge for the killing of its commander and Iran’s top general.
(The Telegraph, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, In Libya an airstrike hit a military academy used by the Tripoli-allied militias late today in the Hadaba area. The death toll climbed to at least 30 people, most of them military trainees. Evidence later indicated the cadets were hit by a Chinese Blue Arrow 7 missile and that the UAE had supplied and operated the drones that were stationed at the al-Khadim air base.
(AP, 1/5/20)(BBC, 8/28/20)
2020 Jan 4, In northern Mexico an American family returning to the US after a visit to San Luis Potosi came under attack late today in Tamaulipas state just south of Texas. Gunmen killed a boy (13) and wounded three others.
(SFC, 1/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 4, It was reported that NATO has suspended ongoing efforts to fight Isis in Iraq amid demands by Iran and its allies for revenge against the US following the assassination of an Iranian leader by American forces.
(The Independent, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, The Russian government published a plan to adapt the economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also "use the advantages" of warmer temperatures.
(AFP, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, Spanish human rights groups called for an investigation into potential human rights violations by Spanish authorities after the alleged expulsion of 42 migrants to Morocco without due process.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, It was reported that police authorities in Spain believe that a crackdown on criminal biker gangs in northern Europe could be behind a crime wave that saw 24 murders in the Costa del Sol province of Malaga over the last year.
(The Telegraph, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Sudanese activists said tribal clashes in eastern Sudan have killed at least nine people over the past two days. Security forces were deployed in Port Sudan to help contain the clashes between the Bani Amer tribe and the displaced Nuba tribe.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2021 Jan 4, President Trump gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Nunes was one of the president's biggest allies in his effort to undermine the Justice Department's investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
(The Week, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 4, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said he has finalized a rule to limit what scientific research the agency can use to formulate regulations, in a concession to big business weeks before President Donald Trump leaves office. Under the rule, the EPA will no longer be able to rely on scientific research that is underpinned by confidential medical and industry data.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, US President Donald Trump's administration announced that it has made final its plan to open up vast areas of once-protected Arctic Alaska territory to oil development.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Enrique Tarrio (36), the chairman of the Proud Boys, was arrested by the Washington DC Metropolitan Police on suspicion of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn from a historic Black church in Washington during protests last month.
(NY Times, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, The US Department of Homeland Security said a US-funded center in Cyprus will help train officials from countries in the eastern Mediterranean region and the Middle East on the latest techniques in border, customs, maritime and cyber security.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, More than 225 Google engineers and other workers said they have formed a union, called the Alphabet Workers Union, capping years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in California's staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley.
(NY Times, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that Rabble Wines of Paso Robles has been sold to O'Neill Vintners and distillers, one of the largest wine companies in California.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.C1)
2021 Jan 4, California to date had 2,378,980 cases of coronavirus and 26,637 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 277,146 cases and 2,637 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 20,805,262 with the death toll at 353,371.
(sfist.com, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, The New York Stock Exchange withdrew plans late today to delist shares of three Chinese state-owned phone carriers. The shares were to be removed under an order from President Donald Trump, a move Beijing had warned might lead to retaliation.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, BioNTech and partner Pfizer warned that they had no evidence that their jointly developed vaccine will continue to protect against COVID-19 if the booster shot is given later than tested in trials.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Slack, the messaging service used by millions of people for work and school, suffered a global outage, the first day back for most people returning from the New Year's holiday. The outage comes as Slack is in the process of being acquired by Salesforce.com for $27.7 billion.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, SkyBridge, a fund of hedge funds, announced it had started the Skybridge Bitcoin Fund with $310 million in assets under management invested from its $3 billion flagship fund. SkyBridge founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci previously served a short stint as US President Donald Trump's communications director.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Australia's New South Wales (NSW) sate reported zero local coronavirus cases for the first time in nearly three weeks, as Sydney battled multiple outbreaks and authorities urged tens of thousands of people to get tested.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Britain ramped up its vaccination program by becoming the first nation to start using the shot developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, UK scientists expressed concern that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in Britain may not be able to protect against a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in South Africa and has spread internationally.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, A British judge ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US, giving him a victory against the American authorities who accused him of conspiring to hack government computers and releasing confidential documents.
(NY Times, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co Ltd said it will manufacture and sell Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc's COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China. Inovio's vaccine candidate, INO-4800, is being tested in two trials, a mid-stage study in China in partnership with Advaccine and a mid-to-late stage trial in the United States.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that cash-strapped Chinese startup Byton, Apple assembler Foxconn and the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone have agreed to start building electric sport-utility vehicles in 2022.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Mainland China reported 33 new COVID-19 cases, with 14 of the 17 local cases recorded in Hebei and 16 cases imported from overseas.
(Reuters, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 4, Officials in eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, said they aim to vaccinate all 1.3 million residents against COVID-19 and will set aside at least 200 million emalangeni ($14 million) to do so.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that some EU specialist online retailers have said they will no longer deliver to the UK because of tax changes which came into force on 1 January.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, The center-right government in Greece named Nicholas Yatromanolakis (44), the country's first openly gay minister, as the new deputy minister of culture in a Cabinet reshuffle.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Greece started vaccinating elderly care home residents against COVID-19 in the next phase of its inoculation campaign begun nine days ago.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Representatives of the Indian government and protesting farmers failed again to reach agreement on the farmers' demand that new agricultural reform laws be repealed.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Iran said it has resumed enriching uranium up to 20 percent in the country’s biggest breach yet of the landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Iran’s revolutionary guard seized a South Korean-flagged ship carrying thousands of tons of ethanol in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that millions of mask-wearing pupils in Kenya have returned to school nine months after they were closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Kenya has reported almost 97,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 1,600 deaths since the start of the outbreak in March last year.
(BBC, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Elias Rahbani (82), a Lebanese composer and lyricist, died after battling COVID-19. He wrote the music for some of the Arab world’s top performers, including Lebanon’s diva Fairouz.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Mexico approved the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine for emergency use.
(SFC, 1/6/21, p.A5)
2021 Jan 4, A court in Lahore, Pakistan, abolished so-called virginity tests for women in sexual assault cases, saying the practice is humiliating and casts suspicion on victims rather than the accused.
(NY Times, 1/6/21)
2021 Jan 4, In Pakistan hundreds of Shiites blocked a key highway on the outskirts of Quetta for a 2nd straight day to protest the killing of 11 coal miners by the Islamic State group.
(SFC, 1/5/21, p.A3)
2021 Jan 4, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte directed the head of his military detail to ignore a legislative summons, foiling the Senate's attempt to probe his guards for inoculating themselves with an unauthorized COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Saudi Arabia opened its land, sea and air borders to Qatar late today, allowing Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to attend a regional summit and sign a new “stability and solidarity" agreement.
(The Telegraph, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 4, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a new lockdown in response to a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus. Sturgeon said the new COVID-19 variant accounts for nearly half of new cases in Scotland, and is 70% more transmissible.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Singapore said its police will be able to use data obtained by its coronavirus contact-tracing technology for criminal investigations, a decision likely to increase privacy concerns around the system.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Spain's region of Catalonia announced a tightening of restrictions to tackle an uptick in COVID-19 infections, banning people from leaving their municipality, closing gyms and shopping malls, and allowing only essential shops such as pharmacies to open at the weekend. The new restrictions in Catalonia, which has Spain's second-highest number of infections and deaths after Madrid, will start on Jan. 7 and last until Jan. 17.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Thailand registered 745 new coronavirus cases, with a new death reported in Bangkok, where a semi-lockdown went into effect. The new infections bring the total number since last January to 8,439, while the death toll has climbed to 65.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Turkish police clashed with hundreds of students protesting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a figure with ties to his ruling party as rector to Bogazici University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities.
(AP, 1/4/21)
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For Asia History: https://www.asiaobserver.org/category/news/on-this-day-in-asian-history
871 Jan 4, Ethelred of Wessex was defeated by Danish forces at Reading.
(PCh, 1992, p.72)
1493 Jan 4, Columbus departed La Navidad, Hispaniola, and sailed eastward along the coast. He left behind 38 men, all of whom were later killed in disputes with the local Indians.
(ON, 8/09, p.2)
1493 Jan 4, Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow, announced the 1st war with Lithuania. In fact the war had begun in 1487.
(LHC, 1/4/03)
1581 Jan 4, James Ussher (d.1656), Irish prelate and scholar, Archbishop of Armagh, was born. According to Ussher and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on Oct 23, 4004BC, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.
(WUD, 1994, p.1574)(NG, Nov. 1985, edit. p.559)(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 1/4/02)
1642 Jan 4, King Charles I attacked the English House of Commons with an armed guard. He was forced to retire, empty-handed.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_I_of_England)
1643 Jan 4, (NS) Sir Isaac Newton, scientist, was born. He developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations [See Dec 25, 1642].
(HN, 1/4/01)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton)
1710 Jan 4, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (d.1736), Italian composer (Il Prigioniero Superbo), was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)(SFC, 6/24/02, p.B6)
1754 Jan 4, Columbia University was founded as Kings College in NYC. [see July 7]
(MC, 1/4/02)
1757 Jan 4, Robert Francois Damiens made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
(HN, 1/4/01)
1785 Jan 4, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, German philosopher who wrote Grimm’s Fairy Tales, was born.
(HN, 1/4/99)(MC, 1/4/02)
1786 Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher (Haksalah), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1809 Jan 4, Louis Braille (d.1852), inventor of a universal reading system for the blind, was born in Coupvray, France. He was blinded at age four as the result of an accident in his father's shop. He became an accomplished organist and cellist and won a scholarship in 1819 to attend the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. In 1821 Louis learned of a communication system devised by Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army. While Barbier's system was too complex to be practical, Braille simplified and adapted it to a six-dot code representing letters that enabled people with impaired vision to not only read but also write for themselves. In 1829 his first Braille book was published, but Braille himself died of tuberculosis at age 43--before his system gained widespread acceptance.
(AP, 1/4/98)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Braille)
1813 Jan 4, Isaac Pitman, inventor (stenographic shorthand), was born in Britain.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1821 Jan 4, Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint, died in Emmitsburg, Md.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1837 Jan 4, In Peru Hippolyte Bouchard (aka Hipólito Bouchard, b.1780), French Argentine sailor and corsair, was killed by one of his servants. Bouchard had retired as a gentleman farmer in Peru after serving in the Peruvian Navy.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Bouchard)(SFC, 11/25/17, p.C2)
1838 Jan 4, Charles Sherwood Stratton (d.1883), later known as the dwarf Tom Thumb, was born in Bridgeport, Conn. In 1842, P.T. Barnum discovered Charles, who measured 25 inches and weighed 15 pounds, only six pounds more than his birth weight.
(www.barnum-museum.org)
1843 Jan 4, Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1849 Jan 4, San Francisco’s The Star and Californian newspaper under Edward Kemble changed its name to the Alta California.
(PI, 8/8/98, p.5)(SFC, 7/19/14, p.C1)
1862 Jan 4, In the Romney Campaign Stonewall Jackson occupied Bath.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1863 Jan 4, General Halleck, by direction of President Lincoln, ordered U.S. Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1863 Jan 4, Roller skates with 4 wheels were patented by James Plimpton of NY.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1865 Jan 4, The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad Street near Wall Street in NYC. The Corinthian-style structure would serve the Exchange until 1903 when more spacious quarters opened at 18 Broad Street.
(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan04.html)
1874 Jan 4, Josef Suk, Czech violinist and composer (Asrael), was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1877 Jan 4, Cornelius Vanderbilt (b.1794), US financier, railroad and shipping magnate, robber baron, died. His estate at $105 million was worth more than all the money in the US Treasury. His value in 2007 dollars would be $143 billion. In 2007 Edward J. Renehan Jr. authored “Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt)(SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 12/19/07, p.D9)
1881 Jan 4, The "Academic Festival Overture" by Johannes Brahms premiered in Breslau.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1883 Jan 4, Benjamin Butler (1818-1893) began serving as the 33rd governor of Massachusetts and continued until January 3, 1884.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Butler_%28politician%29)
1885 Jan 4, Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed what is believed to have been the first appendectomy; the patient was 22-year-old Mary Gartside.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1890 Jan 4, Alfred G. Jodl, German Wehrmacht general and chief of staff, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1893 Jan 4, US president Cleveland granted amnesty to Mormon polygamists.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1896 Jan 4, Utah was admitted to the Union as the 45th state.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1902 Jan 4, The French offered to sell their Nicaraguan Canal rights to the U.S.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1903 Jan 4, Topsy the elephant was poisoned electrocuted in Luna Park, Coney Island, NYC. The 10-foot elephant had killed 3 keepers over the last 2 years. Edison used the opportunity to demonstrate the lethal potential of alternating current, promoted by rival George Westinghouse.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.33)(Internet)
1904 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the US freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them US citizens.
(AP, 1/4/08)
1904 Jan 4, Mary Ellen Pleasant (89), abolitionist and SF businesswoman, died after years of work on the Underground Railroad and in civil rights. She was buried in Napa, Ca. Her monument reads “Mother of Civil Rights in California." She had built a mansion at 1661 Octavia, where Gov. elect Newton Booth boarded. In 1902 Pleasant authored her autobiography.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellen_Pleasant)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15,18)(SFC, 6/10/04, p.B4)
1907 Jan 4, George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" scene from "Man and Superman" premiered in London.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal, Austrian nude model, Hitler's cousin and lover, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1908 Jan 4, Antony Winkler Prins (70), writer (Grolier Encyclopedia), died.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1910 Jan 4, Leon Walrus (b.1834), French economist, died. In 1874 he wrote and published the first edition of his magnum opus, the “Elements of Pure Economics."
(http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/walras.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/pdw34)
1912 Jan 4, Ecuador’s former President Eloy Alfaro returned to Ecuador and attempted another coup but was defeated, arrested and jailed by General and former President Leonidas Plaza.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_in_Ecuador)
1914 Jan 4, Jane Wyman, U.S. film actress who was the first wife of President Ronald Reagan, was born.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1914 Jan 4, In San Francisco pilot Lincoln Beachey looped the loop a record seven times in his biplane in an aerial show before a crowd of some 25,000 people. Motion pictures were taken from tethered balloon.
(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.42)
1920 Jan 4, William Egan Colby, CIA director under Nixon, was born.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1920 Jan 4, The Negro National League, the first black baseball league, was organized by Rube Foster.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1921 Jan 4, Congress overrode President Wilson’s veto, reactivating the War Finance Corps to aid struggling farmers.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1923 Jan 4, Emile Coué (1857-1926), French pharmacist, arrived in NYC. Coue was a proponent of "auto-suggestion," and believed positive thinking could cure disease. He recommended chanting "every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."
(http://tinyurl.com/4ke2gvp)
1923 Jan 4, The Paris Conference on war reparations hit a deadlock as the French insisted on the hard line and the British insisted on Reconstruction.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1934 Jan 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for $10.5 billion to fund recovery programs over the next 18 months.
(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.D6)
1935 Jan 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt claimed in his State of the Union message that the federal government would provide jobs for 3.5 million Americans on welfare.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1935 Jan 4, Ft. Jefferson National Monument was established in Florida.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1936 Jan 4, Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1937 Jan 4, Grace Bumbry, soprano (Venus, in "Tannhauser"), was born in St. Louis.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1939 Jan 4, Hermann Goering appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Jewish Emigration.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1941 Jan 4, On the Greek-Albanian front, the Greeks launched an attack towards Valona from Berat to Klisura against the Italians.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1942 Jan 4, Japanese forces began the evacuation of Guadalcanal
(HN, 1/4/00)
1944 Jan 4, The British Fifth Army attacked Monte Cassino, Italy.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1944 Jan 4, Soviet troops crossed the former Polish border.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1945 Jan 4, The last German offensive in Bastogne, Belgium, failed.
(HN, 1/4/99)
1945 Jan 4, Ricardo Jimenez Oreamuno (b.1859), 3-term president of Costa Rica, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Jim%C3%A9nez_Oreamuno)
1947 Jan 4, J. Danforth Quayle (Sen-R-Ind, 44th VP 1989-93) was born. [see Feb 4]
(MC, 1/4/02)
1948 Jan 4, Britain granted independence to Burma (later renamed to Myanmar). Aung San had arranged for national independence on this day but was assassinated before the event by political rivals. The new rulers tried to limit citizenship to those whose roots predated 1823 and British rule.
(SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.4)(AP, 1/4/98)(Econ, 11/3/12, p.44)
1951 Jan 4, During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul. UN forces abandoned Seoul, Korea, to the Communists.
(AP, 1/4/98)(HN, 1/4/99)
1952 Jan 4, The French Army in Indochina launched Operation Nenuphar in hopes of ejecting a Viet Minh division from the Ba Tai forest.
(HN, 1/4/00)
1954 Jan 4, Elvis Presley recorded a 10 minute demo in Nashville.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1960 Jan 4, Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. His work included the play “Caligula" and a collection of journalistic pieces for the clandestine newspaper Combat (1944-1947). In 1997 Oliver Todd wrote the biography “Albert Camus." In 1979 Herbert Lottman also wrote a biography: “Albert Camus." In 2006 Camus’ WW II pieces, edited by Jacqueline Levi-Valensi, were published as "Camus at Combat." In 2010 Virgil Tanase authored “Albert Camus."
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 12/12/97, p.A16)(AP, 1/4/98)(WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P10)(Econ, 1/9/10, p.83)
1961 Jan 4, The Danish barbers' assistants strike ended after 33 yrs. It was the longest strike on record.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1962 Jan 4, The 1st automated (unmanned) subway train ran in NYC.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1965 Jan 4, President Johnson outlined the goals of his "Great Society" in his State of the Union address. The “Great Society" was to be achieved through a vast program that included an attack on diseases, a doubling of the war on poverty, greater enforcement of Civil Rights Law, immigration law reform and greater support of education.
(AP, 1/4/98)(HNQ, 9/11/99)
1965 Jan 4, T.S. Eliot, English poet, died in London at age 76. In 1995 Anthony Julius published "T.S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism and Literary Form." Julius was the lawyer who won a divorce settlement of $23 million for Princess Diana in 1996. "Little Gidding" is an Eliot work. In 2015 Robert Crawford authored “Young Eliot: From St. Louis to The Waste Land."
(SFC, 7/17/96, p.E6)(NH, 8/96, p.57)(AP, 1/4/98)(Econ., 2/14/15, p.74)
1967 Jan 4, Mohamed Khider (b.1912), Algerian politician and a leading figure in the FLN, was assassinated in Madrid, Spain.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.67)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Khider)
1969 Jan 4, Spain returned the Ifni province to Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifni)
1974 Jan 4, President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1975 Jan 4, Pres. Ford’s signed Executive Order No. 11828 on CIA Activities within the US. He directed the Commission, chaired by VP Nelson A. Rockefeller, to determine whether or not any domestic CIA activities exceeded the Agency's statutory authority and to make appropriate recommendations.
(www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/1975.html)(http://tinyurl.com/5ukhxo)
1975 Jan 4, Pres. Ford signed into law the US Indian Self-Determination Act. It began the transfer of administration from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the tribal governments.
(http://tinyurl.com/6rh5v3y)(Econ, 4/7/12, p.35)
1976 Jan 4, "Candide" closed at Broadway Theater in NYC after 740 performances.
(www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=1675)
1978 Jan 4, Said Hammami, the PLO representative in London, was assassinated. It was initially believed to be the work of Abu Nidal but was later reported to have been organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_attributed_to_Abu_Nidal)
1978 Jan 4, Chile’s Gen. Pinochet held a National Consultation, "in defense of the dignity of Chile," which took place one week after it was first announced, on December 27.
(www.chipsites.com/derechos/1978_eng.html)
1979 Jan 4, Ohio officials approved an out-of-court settlement awarding $675,000 to the victims and families in the 1970 shootings at Kent State University, in which four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops.
(HN, 1/4/99)(http://members.aol.com/nrbooks/chronol.htm)
1979 Jan 4, Charles Mingus (56), the most accomplished bassist in jazz history, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease. In 1999 the film "Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog" was written and directed by Don McGlynn. In 2000 Gene Santoro authored “Myself when I Am Real: the Life and Music of Charles Mingus."
(WSJ, 4/18/97, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.E3)(SFC, 5/21/99, p.C3)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.9)(WSJ, 8/22/00, p.A24)
1984 Jan 4, The NBC sitcom "Night Court" began airing and continued to 1992.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Court)
1986 Jan 4, Christopher Isherwood, British born author, died of prostate cancer in Santa Monica, Ca. He was best know for his 1935 semi-autobiographical "The Berlin Stories," which was the basis for the 1966 musical Cabaret and made into a 1972 film. His life-partner was painter Don Bachardy. His "Diaries: Volume II, 1939-1960" were published in 1997. In 2005 Peter Parker authored “Isherwood: A Life Revealed."
(www.booksfactory.com/writers/isherwood.htm)(SFC, 1/16/97, p.E3)(SFC, 5/11/99, p.B6)
1987 Jan 4, An Amtrak train bound from Washington to Boston collided with Conrail engines approaching from a side track in Chase, Md., and 16 people were killed.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1988 Jan 4, Drinking water began to dry up in Pittsburgh suburbs because of a massive diesel oil spill two days earlier that fouled the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1989 Jan 4, US Navy F-14s shot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean.
(www.history.navy.mil/wars/foabroad.htm)
1990 Jan 4, Charles Stuart, who had claimed a gunman had killed his pregnant wife and wounded him, leaped to his death from a Boston Harbor bridge after he became a suspect.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1990 Jan 4, Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega was arraigned in federal district court in Miami on drug-trafficking charges.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1990 Jan 4, In Sindh Province, Pakistan, an overcrowded 16-car passenger train collided with standing freight train and more than 210 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)
1991 Jan 4, With a week and a-half left before a U-N deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, Iraq agreed to hold its first high-level talks with the United States since the start of the Persian Gulf crisis.
(AP, 1/4/01)
1992 Jan 4, President Bush, visiting Singapore as part of a Pacific trade tour, announced plans to shift to Singapore the Navy logistics command that was being evicted from the Philippines.
(AP, 1/4/02)
1993 Jan 4, President-elect Clinton spoke by telephone with Russian President Boris Yeltsin about the newly signed START II treaty; Clinton pledged to do all he could to get early ratification.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1993 Jan 4, Junk bond king Michael Milken was released from jail after 22 months.
(www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=2223)
1994 Jan 4, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced a plan to drive most gun dealers out of business by proposing sharp increases in the licensing fee and stricter controls on people who buy and sell weapons.
(AP, 1/4/04)
1995 Jan 4, The 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A4)(AP, 1/4/00)
1995 Jan 4, Eduardo Mata (52), Mexican conductor, died in air crash.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0557996/)
1996 Jan 4, Bowing to pressure from NATO and the United States, Bosnian Serbs freed 16 civilians who had entered Serb-held territory after NATO forces had declared roads in Bosnia open to all.
(AP, 1/4/01)
1996 Jan 4, The Boeing Sikorsky Comanche helicopter was unveiled.
(NPub, 2002, p.26)
1996 Jan 4, Ramon Vinay (83), operatic tenor, baritone, died.
(www.grandi-tenori.com/tenors/vinay.php)
1997 Jan 4, President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, took credit for policies reducing teen-age pregnancy and said he would work for even greater reductions over the next four years.
(AP, 1/4/98)
1997 Jan 4, Harry Helmsley (87), self-made billionaire and husband to Leona, died in Scottsdale, Ariz. His vast real estate holdings included the Empire State Building. His entire $1.7 billion estate was left to his wife except for $25k left to a longtime secretary.
(SFC,1/6/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/3/97, p.A1)(SFC, 1/10/97, p.A3)(AP, 1/4/98)
1997 Jan 4, In Argentina thieves tunneled into a Buenos Aires bank and robbed as much as $25 million.
(SFC, 1/16/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 4, In Brazil some 54 people were killed during 4 days of torrential rain in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 4, Czech President Vaclav Havel married his girlfriend Dagmar Veskrnova, less than a year after the death of his first wife Olga Havlova.
(SFEC, 7/6/97, p.B4)
1997 Jan 4, In New Zealand during the week Cyclone Fergus, the worst to hit in 8 years, produced heavy rains and wind damage along the northern coast.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A19)
1998 Jan 4, The History of the Future Museum, a part of the Star Trek: The Experience, a $70 million attraction, was scheduled to open at the Las Vegas Hilton.
(SFEC,12/28/97, Par p.18)
1998 Jan 4, In Oakland, Ca., Dante Jones (2) died of internal bleeding. Damon Valery was later convicted of the boy’s murder. Investigators said he had beaten his girlfriend’s nephew as punishment over toilet-training problems. Valery (40) died in prison in 2012.
(SFC, 3/8/12, p.C3)
1998 Jan 4, Four residents of Vallejo, Ca., were injured by a bomb disguised as a batch of holiday goodies left a front porch.
(SFC, 1/6/98, p.A14)
1998 Jan 4, Actress Mae Questel (89), who had supplied the voices of cartoon characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, died in New York.
(AP, 1/4/08)
1998 Jan 4, In Canada Nirmal Singh Gill (65) was found beaten and bleeding in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey near Vancouver. He soon died. 5 young men linked to a white supremacist group, White Power, were later jailed on charges of murder.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)
1998 Jan 4, In Israel David Levy, the foreign minister, resigned. He denounced Netanyahu’s government for abandoning the peace process and not addressing problems with the poor and unemployed.
(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, The US stance towards Cuba was reported to be easing following the completed report by the Council on Foreign Relations. It was proposed to restore mail service, increase flights, permit food sales to non-government entities, and allow more Americans to send money.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, The US mint began distributing a new series of commemorative state quarters. The first one from Delaware marked the 1776 ride of Caesar Rodney from Dover to Philadelphia to vote for the Declaration of Independence. Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware dreamed up the program in 1996.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)(WSJ, 12/29/03, p.A4)
1999 Jan 4, Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's 37th governor.
(AP, 1/4/00)
1999 Jan 4, Elizabeth Dole quit as the head of the American Red Cross and it was speculated that she might run as the Republican candidate for president.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A2)
1999 Jan 4, In Nevada a sniper hit at least 4 vehicles on I-80 between Reno and the California border. Police arrested Christopher Lee Merritt (20) of Mankato, Minn., who hoped to rob the drivers after they crashed. Merritt pleaded guilty in 1999.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A3)(SFC, 1/6/99, p.A2)(SFC, 11/6/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan 4, The euro, the new money of 11 European nations, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets and closed in New York at $1.181. A founding principal of the euro area held that national central banks be independent of their governments.
(SFC, 1/5/99, p.C2)(AP, 1/4/00)(HN, 1/4/01)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.77)
1999 Jan 4, In Angola UNITA rebels denied shooting down 2 UN planes and claimed that there were no survivors.
(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, A footbridge in Chongqing, China, collapsed and killed 40 people. A week later another bridge in Fujian province collapsed and killed 7. Bridge officials were arrested on suspicion of graft or using shoddy materials. A Party official in Chongqing was later convicted of taking bribes and sentenced to death.
(SFC, 3/2/99, p.D1)(WSJ, 4/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 4, Chevron received word of an attack on its Searrex oil rig. Soldiers dispatched to the rig allegedly fired on Opia village from a helicopter and 2 villagers were killed. 2 more villagers were killed a short time later at Ikenyan. A day later Chevron was invoiced $109.25 for the services of the soldiers.
(SFC, 8/4/05, p.A4)
1999 Jan 4, In Sha Jamal, Pakistan, in the eastern Punjab gunmen on motorcycle opened fire on Shiite Muslim worshipers and killed 16 people and wounded at least 25.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A22)(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A8)
1999 Jan 4, In Sierra Leone Nigerian troops repelled a rebel attack on Freetown's airport. Gambia and Mali agreed to send troops to join the Nigerian forces.
(WSJ, 1/5/99, p.A1)
2000 Jan 4, Former presidential rival Elizabeth Dole endorsed fellow Republican George W. Bush.
(AP, 1/4/01)
2000 Jan 4, In China the State Development Planning Commission announced that private enterprise should be put on "equal footing with state-owned enterprises."
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)
2000 Jan 4, In Colombia Red Cross work shut down after peasant refugees took 40 hostages in Bogota and demanded homes.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 4, In Indonesia at least 17 people were killed when troops opened fire on Christian and Muslim mobs on Seram Island in Maluku province. Thousands of people fled violence and poured into Ternate, the capital of North Maluku. Refugees claimed that hundreds of people died in fighting over 2 days.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)(SFC, 1/7/00, p.D3)
2000 Jan 4, Israel and Palestine agreed on an Israeli troop pullback and the transfer of an additional 5% of West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)(AP, 1/4/01)
2000 Jan 4, In Srinagar, Kashmir, 13 people and a horse were blown up in an explosion set by insurgents in a vegetable market used by Indian troops.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 4, In Namibia gunmen attacked a family of French tourists, killed 3 children and wounded the parents. Unita rebels were blamed.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 4, In Norway 2 passenger trains collided 110 miles north of Oslo. At least 20 people were believed to have died.
(WSJ, 1/5/00, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Jan 4, In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a suicide bomber set off explosives strapped to her body and killed herself and 19 [12] others near the prime minister's office. A Tamil politician was shot dead by motorcycle assassin nearby.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A8)(WSJ, 1/6/00, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, It was announced that George, the politics and lifestyle magazine founded by the late John F. Kennedy Jr., would fold.
(AP, 1/4/02)
2001 Jan 4, California state regulators approved raising electricity rates by an average 10% as state utilities stood near bankruptcy.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, Orchestra leader Les Brown, known for his “Band of Renown," died at age 88.
(AP, 1/4/02)
2001 cJan 4, In Colombia a right-wing death squad killed 11 people in a northeast town.
(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, India test flew its 1st locally developed jet fighter.
(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, In Indonesia rival villages clashed on Lombok and 9 people were killed. 7 others were killed in fighting between rival villages in North Sulawesi.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/05/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 4, It was reported that Russia had moved nuclear warheads into storage areas at its Kaliningrad naval base over the past year. Russia called the charges a dangerous joke.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A20)
2001 Jan 4, In Sri Lanka the defense ministry announced that the civil war left 3,753 people dead in 2000, including 87 civilians.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.D2)
2002 Jan 4, The US Postal Service announced an increase in 1st class stamps to 37 cents from 34 to take place June 30.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 4, A WSJ editorial by former US Army officer Ralph Peters blamed Saudi Arabia as the source of fundamentalist terrorism. “We must be prepared to seize the Saudi oil fields and administer them for the greater good."
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A12)
2002 Jan 4, Florida coach Steve Spurrier resigned to pursue an NFL job, two days after leading the Gators to victory over Maryland in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2002 Jan 4, The WSJ quoted Ali K. Shukri, retired Jordanian general: a strike on Iraq “is not a question of whether it’s going to happen, but when—and it is coming." Action in the spring was suggested.
(WSJ, 1/4/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, George and Marisol Gari, members of the Wasp network Cuban spy ring, were sentenced in Florida to 7 and 3.5 years.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, US Army Special Forces Sgt. Ross Chapman (31) was killed by enemy fire near Khost, Afghanistan. He became the 1st US soldier to die there by enemy fire.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 4, Antonio Todde, an Italian shepherd listed by Guinness as the world’s oldest man, died just shy of his 113th birthday. “Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day."
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A22)
2002 Jan 4, In Argentina Pres. Duhalde acknowledged that the nation will devalue the peso.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, In England a twin-engine Bombardier Challenger plane crashed at Birmingham International Airport. Pilots Thomas Boydston (51) Robert Norton (58) and Timothy Vandevort (41) were killed along with John Shumejda (56) the president and chief executive of agricultural giant AGCO, and Ed Swingle (60), the company's senior VP for sales and marketing. A 2004 report said that the crash was caused by the crew's failure to de-ice the wings before takeoff.
(AP, 8/19/04)
2002 Jan 4, India reported the death of 15 soldiers and a number of civilians near Amritsar due to the mishandling of an ammunition filled truck.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A18)
2002 Jan 4, Pakistan continued to round up alleged militants. Some 200 were said to have been arrested in the last 10 days. Key leaders of Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were among the detained. Pakistan also handed over senior al Qaeda trainer al-Shaykh al-Libi to the US military.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A3,15)
2002 Jan 4, Dolly the 1996 Scotland-born cloned sheep, was reported to be suffering from arthritis, a sign of premature aging.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A2)
2002 Jan 4, Russia announced that it would reduce its military by over 15%.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 4, South Asian leaders began a 2-day meeting in Nepal.
(SFC, 1/4/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 4, It was reported that $54 million in short term food aid was needed to ward off widespread starvation in Zimbabwe. The AIDS epidemic, called “Nkondombera" (a Shona word for “no condom") was claiming over 2,000 people per week. Inflation was running at over 100% per month. Unemployment was estimated at 50%.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A5)
2003 Jan 4, Pres. Bush said he will ask Congress to boost federal education aid for poor children by $1 billion. As Bush put the finishing touches on an economic growth package costing $674 billion over 10 years, Democrats who wanted his job, pledged to scuttle what they characterized as a plan that would help the wealthy without reviving the economy.
(AP, 1/4/03)(AP, 1/4/04)
2003 Jan 4, Clonaid, the company that claims to have produced the first human clone, said a second child was born to a Dutch lesbian Jan 3.
(AP, 1/5/03)(SSFC, 1/5/03, p.A22)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonaid)
2003 Jan 4, Conrad L. Hall (76), Oscar-winning cinematographer, died in Santa Monica, Calif.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2003 Jan 4, In Algeria Islamic militants (GSPC) ambushed a military convoy in the northeast village of Theniet el-Abed. 43 soldiers were killed and 19 wounded.
(AP, 1/5/03)
2003 Jan 4, In southern Iran a bus carrying university students overturned on a rain-slick road, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others.
(AP, 1/5/03)
2003 Jan 4, Ivory Coast's main rebel movement agreed to respect an oft-violated cease-fire and to resume peace talks with the government later this month in Paris.
(AP, 1/4/03)
2003 Jan 4, A boat from Somalia to Yemen developed engine trouble and capsized and at least 80 people were feared dead.
(AP, 1/16/03)
2004 Jan 4, Louisiana State University won college football's Sugar Bowl, defeating Oklahoma 21-14.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2004 Jan 4, In Iowa, seven of the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls participated in a feisty, first debate of the election year.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2004 Jan 4, Michael Straight (87), former US State Dept employee (1938) and later editor of the new Republic, died. In 1983 he authored "After Long Silence." He had passed reports to the Russians in 1938.
(Econ, 1/17/04, p.76)
2004 Jan 4, John Toland (91), historian, died in Danbury, Conn. His books included "The Rising Sun" (1971), an account of Japan from 1936-1945, and "Adolph Hitler: The Definitive Biography" (1976).
(SFC, 1/6/04, p.A19)y
2004 Jan 4, Rival Afghan factions agreed to a new national constitution. 502 delegates accepted a system with a strong president and a weaker parliament.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 4, In Denmark residents who openly bought and sold hashish at a famous hippie enclave in Copenhagen abruptly demolished their booths, trying to head off a Danish government crackdown on illegal drug sales.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 4, The former Soviet republic of Georgia voted for a successor to President Eduard Shevardnadze. Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's young firebrand opposition leader, declared himself the victor in presidential elections with some 85% of the vote.
(AP, 1/5/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon issued an order to dismantle two West Bank settlement outposts.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 4, In the southern Philippines a bomb exploded at a packed basketball game, killing 11 people and wounding at least 68 including Parang Mayor Vivencio Bataga, who was the likely target of the attack.
(AP, 1/4/04)(SFC, 1/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 4, South Korean prosecutors, investigating corruption in the bidding on government contracts by an affiliate of IBM Corp., indicted 48 government and company officials.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2004 Jan 4, In southern Thailand assailants set fire to 18 schools and stormed a military armory, killing four soldiers in nearly simultaneous raids.
(AP, 1/4/04)
2005 Jan 4, The 109th US Congress convened and took up tsunami aid. The Republican edge was 55 to 45.
(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 4, In the Orange Bowl #1 Southern California overwhelmed #2 Oklahoma 55-19.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2005 Jan 4, Wade Boggs was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and Ryne Sandberg made it with just six votes to spare on his third try.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2005 Jan 4, Kelbessa Negewo (54), an Ethiopian immigrant suspected of torturing and murdering more than a dozen political opponents of the Ethiopian government in the 1970s, was arrested at his home near Atlanta. Negewo has lived in the US since fleeing Ethiopia in 1987.
(Reuters, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Robert Heilbroner (b.1919), author of the 1953 economics classic “Worldly Philosophers," died.
(WSJ, 1/11/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 4, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said the island nation was renewing contacts with France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Sweden after an EU panel recommended that member states stop inviting dissidents to their National Day celebrations at their embassies in Havana.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Diplomats said the U.N. atomic watchdog agency has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Doctors at Haiti's largest public hospital extended a weeklong strike to protest overdue paychecks.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Insurgents assassinated the highest-ranking Iraqi official in eight months, gunning down the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards. A suicide truck bomber killed 10 people at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters. 5 US soldiers were killed in assaults elsewhere.
(AP, 1/4/05)(WSJ, 1/5/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 4, Two Israeli tank shells slammed into a field in response to Palestinian mortar fire, killing seven Palestinians youths working in a strawberry field.
(AP, 1/4/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 4, In Peru the leader of an armed nationalist group that seized a remote police station, took 10 officers hostage and allegedly killed four others was detained while most of his 125 followers were rounded up.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2005 Jan 4, Polish PM Marek Belka arrived in Tripoli for a two-day visit that will include talks on cooperation in the oil sector and a meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
(AFP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 4, Portugal’s national meteorology office said many regions, including the southernmost province of Algarve, the country's main tourism center, are facing their worst drought in over a decade.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 4, Venezuela's left-leaning government promised to grant poor farmers at least 100,000 plots of land carved from either state property or large private holdings, a step toward implementing a controversial agrarian reform law.
(AP, 1/4/05)
2006 Jan 4, The US Supreme Court allowed federal prosecutors to take custody of “enemy combatant" Jose Padilla so he could face criminal charges.
(SFC, 1/5/06, p.A5)
2006 Jan 4, A US federal appeals court in Atlanta reinstated a $54.6 million verdict against two retired Salvadoran generals, Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova (67), and Jose Guillermo Garcia (72), accused of torture during the civil war (1980-1992) in their home country.
(AP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 4, The Univ. of Texas Longhorns scored a 41-38 win over Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Official tickets sold for $175 and resellers on the internet hawked them for as much as $3000.
(AP, 1/5/06)(Econ, 1/7/06, p.58)
2006 Jan 4, In a triple-overtime game that began Jan. 3 and finished after midnight, No. 3 Penn State beat No. 22 Florida State 26-23 in the Orange Bowl.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 4, Scientists said protected ocean areas are needed to save deep-sea fish which have been driven to near extinction by commercial fishing.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Chad's President Idriss Deby urged the UN to take control of Sudan's volatile Darfur region because he said Khartoum was using the conflict there to destabilize neighboring states.
(Reuters, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In China’s central province of Hunan a mismanaged silt clean-up project allowed the industrial chemical cadmium, which can cause neurological disorders and cancer, to flood out of a smelting works and into the Xiangjiang River.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 4, Two Egyptian guards were shot dead at the border with Gaza after armed Palestinians made a hole in the border wall. Palestinian militants angry at the jailing of their leader stole two bulldozers and smashed through the border wall between Gaza and Egypt.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said France will create a special police force to ensure security for railway passengers after a band of marauding youths robbed and sexually assaulted train travelers Jan 1 in southeast France.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Indonesia landslides triggered by heavy rains swept down on a village on Java island, burying homes beneath tons of mud and leaving dozens of people missing and feared dead. The number of dead or missing from days of wet weather rose to over 200.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 4, An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said more than 7,000 Iraqis, most of them civilians, were killed in violence in 2005, the first year that Iraqi officials have kept such records.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Iraq a suicide bomber killed 32 mourners and wounded dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks across the country that killed a total of 53 people.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon was rushed to an operating room to staunch a brain hemorrhage; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 4, The world’s largest bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), opened for business with $1.6 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 4, The Russian and Ukrainian natural gas companies agreed on a plan to resume gas shipments to Ukraine that allowed both sides to claim victory after a commercial and political dispute that had raised fears of gas shortages in Europe.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, In Tanzania rocks and boulders tumbled down Mount Kilimanjaro and crashed into tents where tourists were sleeping, killing 3 American climbers and seriously injuring 2.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 4, Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum (62), the emir of Dubai and prominent owner and breeder of thoroughbred horses, died during a visit to Australia.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 4, Intel asked the Vietnamese government for a license to build a chip plant worth 605 million dollars in southern Ho Chi Minh City. Regulators approved the plans in February.
(AFP, 1/5/06)(WSJ, 2/24/06, p.A6)
2007 Jan 4, The 110th Congress convened with Democrats in control of both the House and Senate for the first time in a dozen years. "Today we make history. Today we change the direction of our country," exulted Rep. Nancy Pelosi, poised to become the first woman speaker in history. The House of Representatives, after installing its new Democratic leadership, voted to ban lawmakers from flying on corporate jets and accepting gifts and meals from lobbyists. Keith Ellison of Minnesota's 5th District became the first Muslim member of Congress.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Jan 4, The US Federal Trade Commission fined the marketers of four weight loss pills $25 million for making false advertising claims ranging from rapid weight loss to reducing the risk of cancer.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Harriet Miers resigned as White House counsel.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Jan 4, Vincent Sardi Jr. (91), owner of Sardi's restaurant, the legendary Broadway watering hole, died in Berlin, Vt.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2007 Jan 4, NATO and Afghan forces fought a three-hour ground battle with suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghan mountains, killing 15 of them. 3 suspected Taliban died when a land mine they were planting on a highway in Grieshk district exploded prematurely.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, US officials said Colombia has extradited to the US a police officer and a former policeman charged with helping smuggle more than 2 tons of cocaine into the US on cargo flights in 2005 and 2006.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Pieces of a spent Russian rocket reentered the atmosphere over Colorado and Wyoming, showering parts of the western United States with space debris.
(Reuters, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, John W. Simpson (1914-2007), former president of Westinghouse (1969-1977), died. He had worked with Adm. Rickover to create a nuclear US Navy.
(WSJ, 1/20/07, p.A5)
2007 Jan 4, Victor Ramirez (27), a day laborer from El Salvador, was gunned down by 2 black teenagers in Richmond, Ca. Ramirez was taken off life support after 2 weeks and died Jan 19.
(SFC, 1/30/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 4, Overshadowed by an Israeli raid into the Palestinian territories, a summit between Israel and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled Mideast peace process, highlighting instead the disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Two car bombs exploded near a fuel station, killing 13 people and wounding 25 amid a relative downturn in violence in Baghdad during an Islamic holiday that ended this week.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in downtown Ramallah after undercover Israeli forces tried to arrest fugitives in the city's vegetable market. Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded. Pres. Abbas demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to shops and cars in Ramallah. Fatah Col. Mohammed Ghayeb and six of his bodyguards were killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Musir Salem Jawher (28) from Bahrain won the 30th International Tiberias Marathon, around the Sea of Galilee. The Kenyan runner (Leonard Mucheru), adopted by Bahrain 4 years earlier, faced anger from Bahrain for running in an Israeli marathon.
(WSJ, 4/16/07, p.A1)(www.tiberias-marathon.co.il/en/)
2007 Jan 4, Kenya said it has closed its border with Somalia in an apparent effort to keep Islamic militants and refugees from entering the country.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Jorge Bajos Valverde, a Mexican state legislator, was gunned down in the center of Acapulco on his way to an interview at a radio and TV station.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo said Nigeria has repaid 1.4 billion dollars (1.12 billion euros) to the so-called London Club of private creditors and that the rest of the debt will be cleared by March. At least 3 people were killed in violent clashes between farmers and nomads in the northwestern state of Zamfara. A 4th died in hospital the next day.
(AFP, 1/4/07)(AFP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 4, Authorities lifted a ban on kite-flying in Pakistan’s Punjab province after the sport was forbidden last year following a series of deaths caused by glass-coated or metal reinforced kite strings. The ban was lifted ahead of Basant, Feb 25, an annual festival that heralds spring.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Polish newspapers reported that Stanislaw Wielgus (67), who is poised to be sworn in as archbishop of Warsaw, was a "secret and conscious" collaborator with Poland's hated communist-era security forces from 1973-1978.
(AFP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, A Somali government spokesman said government troops, backed by Ethiopian soldiers, were fighting about 600 Islamic militiamen in the south.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, Marais Viljoen (91), former president of South Africa (1979-1984), died. The post of president in the then apartheid state was largely ceremonial during his term.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Police in the Basque region said they had found a bomb in northern Spain, five days after a Madrid car bombing, blamed on the separatist group ETA, killed 2 people.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 4, Sudan described the alleged sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in south Sudan as "outrageous" and said it would launch its own investigation into the affair.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 4, In Uzbekistan Elena Urlayeva, a prominent human rights advocate, was attacked and beaten by a group of women she said were sent by police. Urlayeva has accused the tightly controlled ex-Soviet state of abuse and torture.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2008 Jan 4, The US Labor Department said hiring practically stalled in December, driving the nation's unemployment rate up to a two-year high of 5 percent and fanning fears of a recession. The DJIA fell 256.54 to 12800.18.
(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 4, The United States 700 MHz FCC wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 73, was started by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). AT&T, Verizon and others paid close to $20 billion for the 700MHZ band covering channels 52-69 on the television dial.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_2008_wireless_spectrum_auction)
2008 Jan 4, Flights were grounded and trucks overturned in Northern California as wind gusted to 80 mph during the second wave of the arctic storm that has sent trees crashing onto houses, cars and roads. Hundreds of thousands of customers lost power from central California into Oregon and Washington. An estimated 1.9-2.1 million PG&E customers lost power.
(AP, 1/5/08)(SFC, 1/8/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 4, In Texas Jana Shearer (21), the girlfriend of Christopher Lee McCuin (25), was taken by McCuin from her home and killed. McCuin was arrested Jan 5 after police found that he had cooked parts of her body and may have tried to eat them. On Dec 7 McCuin was found dead in his jail cell.
(AP, 1/7/08)(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Jan 4, In Oakland, Ca., Jessica Birden (19) died from wounds suffered on Jan 1, when she was found unconscious on a trail in the King Estates Recreation Area in the Oakland Hills. On Jan 8 Kenneth Jovan Washington, a man suspected in her assault and that of others in the Bay Area, was charged with her murder and another attack on Dec 24.
(SFC, 1/8/08, p.B3)(SFC, 1/9/08, p.B3)
2008 Jan 4, Mort Garson (b.1983), Canadian-born composer and arranger, died in SF. He co-wrote the 1963 hit “Our Day Will Come," performed by Ruby and the Romantics. He also fused the Moog synthesizer with orchestral music and composed music that was used by CBS-TV in 1969 in film footage of NASA spaceflights as Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.
(SFC, 1/16/08, p.B9)
2008 Jan 4, In Afghanistan’s Uruzgan province a clash between NATO troops and Taliban insurgents near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, left two civilians dead and five others wounded.
(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 4, Young men stormed the streets of Guinea, hurling rocks and setting tires ablaze as labor unions called for a strike, threatening to throw the African nation into gridlock.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 4, P. Chidambaram, India’s finance minister, urged state-run banks to reduce lending rates by half a percentage point to spur consumption and investment as signs emerge of a slowdown in consumer spending. Police arrested 14 men for allegedly harassing two women outside a five-star hotel in Mumbai during New Year's celebrations, a case that drew widespread criticism after police initially refused to pursue it.
(AP, 1/4/08)(AFP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 4, Israeli troops on a night mission in the Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen in the early hours as Israel responded to Palestinian rocket fire with strikes against militants that left 11 dead in 24 hours.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Kenya's opposition called for a new presidential election to settle a dispute that has sparked deadly riots from the capital to the coast, but a government spokesman said a new vote could come on only on orders from the highest court. The World Food Program warned that 100,000 people faced starvation in western Kenya.
(AP, 1/4/08)(SFC, 1/5/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 4, Kosovo's legislators were sworn in at the first session of a new parliament that is widely expected to declare independence from Serbia early this year.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, A Moroccan court sentenced 51 Islamists of the Ansar El Mahdi group to between two and 25 years in jail for plotting to overthrow the government here and install an Islamist regime.
(AFP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Myanmar's Independence Day was marked by opposition calls for the freeing of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as the military rulers urged national discipline.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Russian rescuers saved 11 people stranded for nearly three months in a remote area of the Pacific coast after a fishing trip went wrong. Their two boats were damaged in a storm on October 10 during a fishing expedition off the Kamchatka Peninsula.
(Reuters, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, The annual 5,760 Dakar Rally was canceled on the eve of the race across the Sahara Desert because of terror threats and the recent Christmas Eve killings of a French family in Mauritania blamed on al-Qaida-linked militants. The race, organized by the France-based Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), had been due to start in Lisbon, Portugal, and finish in Dakar, Senegal, on Jan. 20.
(AP, 1/4/08)(WSJ, 1/5/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 4, Fresh fighting erupted between southern Sudanese forces and Khartoum-backed Arab tribesmen near key oil areas of the country, former southern rebels said, further denting hopes of an end to north-south hostilities.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, Taiwan's ties with its ally Malawi were shaky after the African country snubbed the island's top diplomat in an aborted visit to the African nation aimed at persuading it to resist diplomatic wooing by China.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 4, A private plane carrying 14 people, including 8 Italians, crashed into the sea after taking off from Venezuela's Los Roques islands.
(AP, 1/5/08)(AP, 1/7/08)
2008 Jan 4, The Zambian government awarded a 1.2 billion dollar crude oil deal to a Kuwait firm to supply over 1.4 million tons of oil to the southern African nation.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 4, Zimbabwe’s state-owned The Herald daily reported that a diarrhea outbreak has hit Harare following weeks of uncollected garbage, sewer blockages and erratic water supplies.
(AFP, 1/4/08)
2009 Jan 4, Pres. Obama signed a law expanding SCHIP, a health scheme covering children in poor families.
(Econ, 2/7/09, p.26)
2009 Jan 4, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, withdrew under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 4, In Louisiana 8 people were killed when a PHI Inc. helicopter, bound for offshore oil fields, crashed about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.
(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 4, In Syracuse, NY, Shawn Rhines (15) killed public works department employee Casimir Snyder (47). Police later said Ja-Le Johnson and Rhines would often hang out in an attic across the street and shoot target practice with rifles from a window. Police recovered two rifles from the attic. Rhines confessed and faced 10 years to life in prison.
(SFC, 4/17/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In Afghanistan 12 insurgents and 11 civilians were killed in fighting in central Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, British PM Gordon Brown pledged to create 100,000 jobs through a public works program and said he would press banks to resume normal lending as Britain faces its sharpest economic downturn in decades.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, A northern Guatemala mudslide left at least 37 people dead. At least 50 people were still missing in Aquil Grande.
(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Indonesia a series of powerful earthquakes toppled or badly damaged more than 100 buildings and left one person dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, In Iraq a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a crowd of pilgrims worshipping at a revered Shiite shrine in northern Baghdad, killing at least 38 people and wounding about 72.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar fire. The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec 27. At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel, wounding five people. 2 women waving white flags were killed in the Juher a-Dik neighborhood in Gaza City. The incident occurred when the Abu Hajaj family evacuated their home after it was hit by a tank shell. On Aug 12, 2012, an infantry sergeant, who was initially charged with manslaughter for the deaths of the 2 women, was convicted in a military court of illegal weapons use as part of a plea deal and will serve 45 days in prison.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 6/16/10)(AP, 8/12/12)
2009 Jan 4, In a densely forested region of Indian Kashmir a gun battle between government forces and suspected Islamic insurgents raged for a fourth day leaving at least seven combatants killed.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Nepal dozens of people were missing after an overcrowded boat carrying mostly women and children capsized in the Saptakosi river. More than 50 people were believed on board the boat and only 14 were rescued.
(AP, 1/4/09)(SFC, 1/5/09, p.A12)
2009 Jan 4, Gunmen hijacked a vessel and 9 crewmen belonging to French oil services group Bourbon off Nigeria's Niger Delta as it traveled toward a Royal Dutch Shell offshore oilfield. The 9 crewmen: five Nigerians, two Ghanaians, one Cameroonian and one Indonesian aboard. were released on Dec 7.
(Reuters, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked police as they rushed to treat civilians injured by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and wounding at least 25 others. During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, the army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of explosives. Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a house in the Khyber tribal region.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Russia's military leaders approved a plan by the navy to station warships permanently in friendly ports across the globe.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Russia asked the EU to provide monitoring of Ukraine's gas transit system and charged Ukraine was stealing gas bound for Europe, as Kiev leveled its own charges. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that the state-controlled company wanted $450 per 1,000 cubic meters, up from its last offer of $418. The reductions in gas supplies spread to the Czech Republic and Turkey.
(AP, 1/4/09)(Reuters, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, A French warship foiled attempts by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, Sri Lanka’s rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site reported that the insurgents stalled a military advance on the road to Mullaittivu, killing 53 soldiers and wounding 80 others.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 4, Jimmy Mohlala, a South African official who blew the whistle on alleged corruption in the building of a stadium for the 2010 World Cup, was shot dead by unknown gunmen. The 46,000-capacity Mbombela stadium, scheduled for completion this year, is one of 10 venues for the 2010 World Cup.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 4-2009 Jan 5, In South Africa a lethal storm on the eastern coast killed 18 people over the weekend, including four family members struck dead by lightning.
(AFP, 1/6/09)
2010 Jan 4, James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark. Along with "Titanic," the others are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $1.13 billion, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at $1.06 billion and "The Dark Knight" at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, The US Census Bureau kicked off its $300 million campaign to prod, coax and cajole the nation's more than 300 million residents to fill out their once-a-decade census forms.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Solis Palma, a Mexican migrant, was shot and killed after he reportedly attacked a US Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona with rocks.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 4, Bobby DeLaughter (55), a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, reported to federal prison for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation. DeLaughter was sentenced to 18 months in November after pleading guilty to lying about secret conversations he had with a lawyer while presiding over a dispute between wealthy attorneys over legal fees. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped conspiracy and mail fraud charges.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Nevada Las Vegas Johnny Lee Wicks (66), disgruntled over cuts in his Social Security benefits, opened fire in the lobby of the federal court house in Las Vegas killing a court security officer and wounding a deputy. Police officers returned fire and Wicks was killed as he fled across the street.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A6)
2010 Jan 4, Novartis, a Swiss drug company, agreed to buy a controlling 52% stake in Alcon, an American listed but Swiss-based eyecare company, from food giant Nestle Corp.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.66)
2010 Jan 4, NASA scientists reported that the new Kepler space telescope has discovered 5 fiery-hot planets in the depths of the Milky Way, each far larger than Earth.
(SFC, 1/5/10, p.A5)
2010 Jan 4, Edward Nathan (1919), longtime grantmaker for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, died in Oakland, Ca.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.C5)
2010 Jan 4, In Algeria an Algerian employee of Canadian construction firm SNC-Lavalin was kidnapped by insurgents southeast of Algiers. The engineer was freed on Jan 7.
(Reuters, 1/10/10)
2010 Jan 4, A new report by Canada's Alzheimer Society said Canadians are developing dementia at such a rapid rate that dealing with the problem will cost a total of more than C$870 billion ($835 billion) over the next 30 years unless preventive measures are taken.
(Reuters, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In northern China 21 workers were killed by a gas leak at the Hebei Puyang Iron and Steel Co. Company officials initially said 16 workers were poisoned and seven died while nine were sent to a hospital. On Jan 7 senior executives "confessed" that they had covered up the death toll.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Dubai inaugurated the world's tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, hoping to shift international attention away from the Gulf emirate's deep financial crisis and rekindle the optimism that fueled its turbocharged growth. The name was secretly switched from Burj Dubai and unveiled to the public as the Burj Khalifa, after the emir of Abu Dhabi and UAE president Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The observation deck was the only part of the tower that opened. It was closed in February following an elevator malfunction that left visitors trapped. The deck reopened on April 4. Work continued on the rest of the building's interior.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/5/10)(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 4/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iran dozens of Tehran University professors appealed to the supreme leader to halt the ongoing violence against protesters, adding a new and respected voice in support of the opposition.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Iraq 3 policemen were killed and eight people were wounded by two explosions in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Irish writer Colm Toibin was named novelist of the year in Britain's lucrative Costa Book Awards for his emigrant saga "Brooklyn."
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Israel approved construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the US is laboring to get peace talks moving again.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Kenya US citizen Sharon Brown (39) and her daughter Margaux (1) were trampled to death when a lone elephant charged out of the brush just outside Mount Kenya National Park.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 3, In Mexico Josefina Reyes, a human rights activist, was been killed in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 4, Myanmar's ruling junta chief confirmed that the country's first general elections in two decades will be held this year but gave no date for the balloting, which is expected to exclude pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Nigerian soldiers shot 2 contract workers dead and injured 4 others at a Chevron plant under construction. This led to a riot and left several buildings destroyed and halted operations at the southern Escravos gas project.
(www.poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10293513)(SFC, 1/7/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 4, The Norwegian Chess Federation said Magnus Carlsen (19) is the youngest person to hold the title since ratings were introduced in 1971.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Serbia filed a lawsuit against Croatia at the International Court of Justice, accusing it of genocide during the 1991-1995 Balkan war, which killed or displaced thousands of people.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, A tsunami unleashed by an earthquake plowed into the Solomon Islands with the crashing waters devastating at least one village, leaving over a thousand people homeless. The US Geological Survey recorded 8 earthquakes in the region since late Jan 3. The magnitude 7.2 was centered 64 miles (103 km) southeast of Gizo, and followed a 6.5 tremor less than two hours earlier centered 54 miles (90 km) southeast of Gizo at a depth of 6 miles (10 km).
(AP, 1/4/10)(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Africa Pres. Jacob Zuma formalized his marriage to a third wife in a traditional ceremony in rural KwaZulu-Natal province.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, In South Korea Seoul residents slogged through the heaviest snowfall in modern Korean history after a winter storm dumped more than 11 inches (28 cm), forcing airports to cancel flights and paralyzing traffic in the bustling capital.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2010 Jan 4, Yemeni security forces killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in clashes outside the capital Sanaa, as the US and British embassies extended their closure for a second day because of threats of attack by the terror group's offshoot here. France became the latest foreign mission to close in Yemen as security around embassies and the airport was boosted.
(AP, 1/4/10)(AFP, 1/4/10)
2011 Jan 4, Pres. Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act, but Congress failed to adequately fund the program, a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation’s food-safety system.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.A4)(SFC, 4/8/15, p.A7)
2011 Jan 4, The Internal Revenue Service kicked off the US tax filing season, announcing that taxpayers will have until April 18, 2011 to file their 2010 returns and pay their tax bills because of a holiday on April 15.
(Reuters, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, Owen Honors, Captain of the US aircraft carrier Enterprise, was permanently relieved of his command for making a series of ribald and offensive videos that aired on the ship’s closed-circuit TV system when he was second in command in 2006-207.
(SFC, 1/5/11, p.A4)
2011 Jan 4, Cornelius Dupree Jr., a Texas man, was declared innocent after 30 years in prison. He had at least two chances to make parole and be set free, if only he would admit he was a sex offender. Dupree refused to do so, doggedly maintaining his innocence in a 1979 rape and robbery. In the process he serving more time for a crime he didn't commit than any other Texas inmate exonerated by DNA evidence.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Officials in Louisiana said 500 birds were discovered dead, shortly after thousands of birds were discovered dead in neighboring Arkansas.
(AFP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, The archdiocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, filed for bankruptcy becoming the 8th in the US to do so. It had become besieged by lawsuits related to priests molesting boys.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.36)
2011 Jan 4, Motorola Corp. split into 2 companies: Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.
(Econ, 1/1/11, p.57)
2011 Jan 4, Alireza Pahlavi (44), the former shah of Iran's youngest son, died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Boston. He was the second of the four children of the late Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi and former Empress Farah Pahlavi to die in exile. His sister Leila was found dead of a drug overdose in 2001.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, Afghanistan's Pres. Karzai told foreign powers to stop meddling in the country's internal affairs. A bomb exploded in central Kabul, killing one police officer and wounding three other people. Hundreds of police swept through villages 220km northeast of Kabul, killing at least eight rebels in an operation against militants. In Kandahar province four rebels were killed when an IED they were planting on a road went off prematurely.
(AP, 1/4/11)(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mick Karn (52), bass player in the 1980s group Japan, died in London. Karn, born in Cyprus as Andonis Michaelides, was co-founder of Japan along with David Sylvian and Steve Jansen. The group's 1982 album, "Tin Drum," included a hit song, "Ghosts."
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, In China a gunfight in Tai’an City of Shandong Province left four police officers dead and five people injured.
(http://english.caing.com/2011-01-05/100214120.html)
2011 Jan 4, In India school principal Rupan Pathak fatally stabbed Raj Kishore Kesri (51), a Hindu nationalist lawmaker, while he was meeting with some of his supporters at his residence in eastern Bihar state. Pathak accused Kesri of sexually harassing her over a three-year period. Kesri's guards overpowered Pathak, who is in her early 40s, and beat her up.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Iran’s government confirmed that it has invited world powers and its allies in the Arab and developing world to tour Iranian nuclear sites before a high-profile meeting late this month on its disputed nuclear program.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Italian protesters rallied against the Brazilian president's refusal to extradite ex-militant Cesare Battisti, amid government assurances that relations with Brazil will not be affected.
(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mediators said Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo has agreed to negotiate a resolution to the crisis gripping the west African nation and lift a blockade around his rival's headquarters.
(AFP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Kenya's industrialization minister resigned over a car imports scandal that will see the country's anti-graft agency taking him to court on corruption charges.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Mexican federal police announced they had arrested three US citizens in a sport utility vehicle loaded with 159 packages of marijuana hidden in the bodywork and gas tank. , Prosecutors said the David Romo, the leader of Mexico's Death Saint cult, has been detained on suspicion of participating in a kidnapping ring. Romo was one of nine suspects placed under a form of house arrest for 30 days pending investigation. The Mexican army detained the local operations leader for the Sinaloa cartel, Jesus de la Cruz Lopez, alias "The Tomato."
(AP, 1/4/11)(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 4, Pakistan's main opposition leader gave the government a three-day deadline to accept a list of demands if it wants to avert its possible collapse after the loss of its ruling majority in parliament. A gunman assassinated the governor of Punjab province, a senior member of the ruling party, in Islamabad. Salman Taseer was killed by Malik Mumtaz Qadri, one of his guards, because of Taseer’s opposition to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law. On Oct 1 Qadri was convicted and sentenced to death.
(AP, 1/4/11)(Reuters, 1/4/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.45)(AP, 10/1/11)
2011 Jan 4, In Puerto Rico police officers seized nearly 200 bags of cocaine and roughly 30 bags each of heroin and marijuana. A caiman was tied near the drugs, which were found during a routine patrol in La Perla neighborhood of historic Old San Juan.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jan 4, Zambian prosecutors applied for arrest warrants after the mining officials Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua failed to attend the preliminary hearing regarding the Oct 15 shooting of nearly a dozen miners at a Chinese-run coal mine.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2012 Jan 4, President Barack Obama, tired of Senate Republicans stalling his nominee to lead a new consumer protection agency, put Richard Cordray in charge over their opposition.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, In San Diego, Ca., Benjamin Arellano Felix (58), Mexican drug kingpin, pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money in exchange for a sentence of no more than 25 years. On April 2 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/5/12, p.A6)(SFC, 4/3/12, p.A10)
2012 Jan 4, Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala (60) resigned under the code of canon law that lets bishops step down earlier than the normal retirement age of 75 if they're sick or for some other reason that makes them unfit for office. Zavala had told the Pope in December that he had two children who lived with their mother in a different state.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Texas Jaime Gonzalez (15) was shot 3 times by police in a hallway at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville after he refused to drop a pellet gun.
(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Utah Army veteran Matthew David Stewart killed a police officer and wounded 5 others as authorities descended on his home in a marijuana raid.
(http://tinyurl.com/paqc29c)(SFC, 5/25/13, p.A6)
2012 Jan 4, US car giant Ford said it is opening a new dealership in India every 10 days to feed demand in a market it expects to be the third-biggest worldwide by the end of the decade.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Anti-whaling activists claimed a small victory in their Antarctic campaign with the discovery of a Japanese harpoon ship.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, British engineers battled to restore electricity to thousands of homes after fierce storms battered the UK, killing two men and causing widespread travel chaos.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, British company Everything Everywhere said it is launching a mobile virtual network in Britain in partnership with telecoms giant China Telecom, targeting Chinese residents and visitors.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In the Central African Republic taxi and bus drivers in Bangui held a one-day strike. The government promised to look into grievances about its decision to raise fuel prices.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Chinese steelworkers began a 3-day strike at a state-controlled enterprise in the Qingbaijiang district of Sichuan province. Workers managed to get a small wage increase.
(Econ, 1/28/12, p.21)
2012 Jan 4, In southern China a bus went out of control and slipped from a snow-covered bridge, killing at least 18 people in Guizhou province.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, An Ecuadoran appeals court upheld last year’s landmark $9.5 billion judgement against Chevron Corp. over oil contamination in the Amazon rain forest.
(SFC, 1/5/12, p.D1)
2012 Jan 4, Egyptians voted again in the final round of a phased election to choose the first parliament since a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak in February last year.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Iraq 6 roadside bombs targeted the homes of police officers in Baqouba. Two children died in the blasts and nine people were wounded. Gunmen stormed the house of a leader in the anti al-Qaida militia in the predominantly Sunni suburb of Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, killing him and his wife.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Kenya's military said its forces killed three militant fighters from al-Shabab in a battle in Somalia. A Kenyan soldier was also killed in the battle.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Mexico suspended first-division soccer goalkeeper Omar "El Gato" Ortiz was arrested for alleged participation in a kidnapping ring. Prosecutors later said he was arrested at his home in a Monterrey suburb after two kidnapping suspects were detained on Jan 2 and implicated him in the crimes.
(AP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Mexico a fight among inmates armed with makeshift knives, clubs and stones left 31 people dead in a prison in the Gulf Coast city of Altamira, Tamaulipas state. 20 inmates were detained for involvement in the riot.
(AP, 1/4/12)(AP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 4, Senegalese bus and taxi drivers ended a two-day strike that had left people stranded and resorting to horse-drawn carts to get to work. Drivers in Senegal were protesting against the high price of fuel, the cost of insurance, police harassment and a lack of social protection from their employers.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, Syrian activists accused President Bashar Assad's regime of misleading Arab League observers by taking them only to areas loyal to the government and changing street signs to confuse them. Security forces and pro-government gunmen reportedly shot dead at least three people, two in the province of Homs and one in the central province of Hama.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Venezuela more than 950 relatives of inmates were refusing to leave the Yare I and II prison in a protest to demand faster trial for inmates. President Hugo Chavez has told authorities to negotiate peacefully.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 4, In Yemen Islamic militants stormed a hotel where alcohol is served in Aden, setting the building on fire, killing two people and wounding 20.
(AP, 1/4/12)
2013 Jan 4, The US House overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by the storm. The Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A Beechcraft BE35 crashed on its way to the Flagler County Airport in Palm Coast, Florida, killing at least 3 people.
(SFC, 1/5/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 4, Afghan Police Maj. Jalal Uddin said that 80 prisoners, formerly held by the US, were freed from prisons across the country today, the latest batch of a total of 400 to be released this week. The released prisoners had been captured in operations against the Taliban and other groups.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, British police charged Nepali army colonel Kumar Lama (46) with two counts of torture committed in 2005 during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war, despite the Nepali government's demanding his immediate release.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, The Church of England confirmed that its House of Bishops, one of its most senior bodies, has ended an 18-month moratorium on the appointment of gays in civil partnerships as bishops. The decision was made in late December.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, In southern Chile Werner Luchsinger (75) and wife Vivian McKay, whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians, were killed in an arson attack while trying to defend their home. The attack began the previous evening as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. In 2014 Celestino Cordova Transito (27) was convicted for killing the couple.
(AP, 1/4/13)(SFC, 2/21/14, p.A2)
2013 Jan 4, Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007. Hamas condoned the demonstration.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, Six Russians were killed and two seriously injured when the snowmobile and sled they were riding veered off an Italian Alpine ski slope at night, slammed into a barrier and flew through the air into a ravine.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 4, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who moved to Somalia to wage jihad alongside al-Shabab militants, was given 15 days to surrender to militants or be killed. The FBI has named Hammami as one of its most-wanted terrorists.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 4, Syrian ground and air forces bombarded rebel strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country. Anti-government forces targeted a military post near the capital with a car bomb.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A small plane disappeared off the Venezuelan coast with six people aboard, including Vittorio Missoni (58), a top executive in Italy's Missoni fashion house. Wreckage of the plane was found in June.
(AP, 1/5/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2014 Jan 4, This issue of the Economist reported that most non-African humans carry around 2% of Neanderthal DNA.
(Econ, 1/4/14, p.28)
2014 Jan 4, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber struck outside joint NATO-Afghan in the Nangarhar province's Ghani Khail district. One US solider and 5 Taliban attackers were killed. Hours later an explosion hit one of the entrances to Camp Eggers in Kabul.
(AP, 1/4/14)(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 4, Bahrain named Ali Mafoudh al-Moussawi, a Bahraini citizen who lives in Iran, as a main suspect in planned "terrorist acts" and said he and his collaborators had received training and other help from Tehran.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In Bangladesh scores of polling booths were torched and a train set alight on the eve of elections as the opposition launched a strike against the vote "farce."
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, Cambodia's government launched a broad crackdown on the political opposition, clearing its main protest site, banning its street demonstrations and having a court call in opposition party leaders for questioning on charges of inciting social unrest.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, An Egyptian soldier was killed and at least two were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted their armored vehicle in the restive Sinai peninsula.
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In India a five-story building under construction in the southern state of Goa collapsed, killing at least 15 workers and leaving dozens more feared trapped under the rubble.
(AFP, 1/4/14)(AP, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 4, The Lebanese army said Saudi citizen Majid al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades fighting in Syria, died while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In western Mexico a small plane crash-landed, killing one person and injuring four others, including the leader of a vigilante group fighting drug cartels.
(AFP, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin reversed a blanket ban on protests at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, bowing to pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, Senegal said its navy has boarded a Russian ship that was allegedly illegally fishing in its waters and is escorting it toward Dakar. The Russian trawler left the port of Dakar on Jan 22 following an agreement by Moscow to pay $1 million.
(AFP, 1/4/14)(AP, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 4, South Sudan’s rebel and government sides met mediators from the regional IGAD grouping in Ethiopia for a second day but did not sit down together.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In Syria an alliance of Islamist and other rebel factions battled fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) across the north-west in apparently coordinated strikes against the powerful al Qaeda-linked group.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, Tunisian lawmakers rejected Islam as the main source of law for the country that spawned the Arab Spring as they voted for a second day on a new constitution.
(AFP, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, The Tunisian coast guard fired on three Egyptian fishing boats intercepted in its territorial waters. One boat captain was killed.
(SFC, 1/6/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 4, A Turkish court ordered the release from jail of three Kurdish lawmakers, in addition to two freed a day earlier.
(Reuters, 1/4/14)
2014 Jan 4, In Yemen renewed clashes in the north between rebels belonging to a Shiite-branch of Islam and ultraconservative Salafis backed by allying tribes killed 17 people.
(AP, 1/4/14)
2015 Jan 4, Thousands of police officers in NYC defied calls not to stage a protest at the funeral of a slain comrade, pointedly turning their backs as Mayor Bill de Blasio paid tribute to the murdered patrolman.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 4, In Afghanistan insurgents killed 5 policemen, including their commander, in the volatile eastern province of Logar.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Australian PM Tony Abbott made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, meeting with top officials to discuss ways his country can aid Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following five days of non-stop military operations. Five gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into a bar and shot dead 3 ruling party activists before torching the local party office in the eastern Gisuru region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, A city in central India elected the country's first transgender mayor, nine months after a court ruled that transgender be recognized as a legal third gender. Madhu Kinnar (35) won the mayoral election in Raigarh in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In India a 16-year-old victim was attacked and gang-raped after arriving in eastern Bihar state late today where the gang, including a local administrator's driver, approached her and offered her a lift to a relative's home. Police soon arrested one of five suspects.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, In eastern India 14 langur monkeys died after snatching and then eating biscuits laced with rat poison being sold by a hawker in West Bengal state. The hawker who fled in the aftermath of the deaths.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya Fidel Odinga (41), the son of main opposition leader Raila Odinga, was found dead in his home near Nairobi, prompting a major police investigation and minor unrest in the capital.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya at least 2 people were killed and several others were injured when a six-storey residential building collapsed in Nairobi.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government launched air strikes on the country's biggest steel plant at Misrata. A warplane from forces loyal to the internationally recognized government bombed a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored offshore, killing 2 crewmen. The Liberian-flagged ARAEVO was carrying 12,600 tons of crude oil when it was struck off the eastern port of Derna. No oil was spilled.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northeastern Mali six Nigerian soldiers of the UN's MINUSMA mission were injured, with gunmen also burning four UN trucks.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a US drone strike killed at least six suspected militants in North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Saudi Arabia a general and two soldiers were killed in a rare attack and suicide bombing by "terrorists" on the border with Iraq. 4 attackers were also killed in the clash, 2 in suicide blasts.
(AFP, 1/5/15)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.43)
2015 Jan 4, In Somalia a car bomb targeting security officials exploded in Mogadishu, and was followed by shooting. An al Shabaab car bomb killed four people in Mogadishu.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 4, Sudan's parliament passed constitutional amendments allowing President Omar al-Bashir (71) to appoint state governors directly and expanding the mandate of its powerful security agency.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Syria Islamist fighters seized a suburb east of Damascus after driving out a smaller rival insurgent group in deadly clashes.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Syria's western-backed opposition group elected Khalid Khoja as its new leader during a three-day meeting in Istanbul of the National Coalition. Khalid Khoja announced the next day that his group is not yet willing to go to peace talks in Moscow.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, At the Vatican Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals from 14 countries, including many from Latin America and Africa.
(AP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Jan 4, In Yemen a bomb explosion in Dhamar, a mainly Shiite city, killed at least 4 people including a reporter and wounded 25 others. The bombing targeted a gathering of Shiite Huthi militiamen, also known as Ansarullah.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2016 Jan 4, Editas Medicine filed for an IPO. The company offered new technology, called CRISPR Cas9, allowing DNA to be cut and edited.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.54)
2016 Jan 4, Afghan troops rappelled from helicopters onto the roof of a four-story building near the Indian Consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif to drive out gunmen who had attacked the diplomatic mission the night before. A truck bomb attack on Camp Baron, a compound for civilian contractors near Kabul airport, wounding at least 30 Afghan civilians. Earlier today a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police checkpoint without causing any other casualties. The bodies of 5 soldiers were found on the outskirts of the eastern city of Ghazni. They had been abducted from a main highway around a week earlier by Taliban insurgents.
(AP, 1/4/16)(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Bahrain announced it was cutting diplomatic ties with Iran, a day after its ally and neighbor Saudi Arabia also severed relations with Tehran.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Chinese authorities detained Peter Dahlin, a Swedish national who worked on legal aid and rule of law issues, on suspicion of endangering state security.
(Reuters, 1/12/16)
2016 Jan 4, Denmark and Sweden tightened border checks. Six countries in Europe's document-free travel area now have wide-ranging border checks in place.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, A powerful earthquake struck northeast India and Bangladesh, killing at least 11 people and injuring nearly 200, with efforts to reach remote areas where people may be trapped hampered by severed power lines and telecommunication links.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Indian security forces battled for the third day to clear out militants who attacked the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab state and killed 7 soldiers.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Islamic State militants attacked Iraqi troops and allied tribal fighters outside the western town of Haditha, killing at least 11 and wounding dozens. In central Iraq overnight blasts rocked two Sunni mosques, amid fears of renewed sectarian strife following Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
(AP, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Israeli forces destroyed the east Jerusalem homes of two Palestinians who killed four Israelis on Oct 13, one of the deadliest days in the recent surge in violence.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said it had targeted an Israeli army border patrol with a bomb in an attack that prompted retaliatory fire from the Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, In northern Libya jihadists carried out a suicide car bomb attack on a military checkpoint at the entrance to the town of Al-Sidra, killing 2 soldiers. They then launched an attack on the town of Ras Lanouf via the south but did not manage to enter.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, In Nigeria Boko Haram gunmen wearing soldiers' uniforms and female suicide bombers unleashed separate attacks on Izghe, a village 123 km (76 miles) southwest of Maiduguri. At least 18 people were killed.
(AP, 1/7/16)
2016 Jan 4, Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif started a three-day visit to Sri Lanka during which several agreements aiming to strengthen relations between the south Asian nations are to be signed.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli woman in Jerusalem before being shot and wounded.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Puerto Rico’s government missed a $36 million coupon on paper issued by its Infrastructure Financing Authority.
(Econ, 1/9/16, p.21)
2016 Jan 4, In Puerto Rico Antonio Soto (66), a former senator, died. He was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to tax evasion and misappropriation of public funds.
(AP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Poland’s government said 21 people died over the weekend because of freezing weather amid one of the country's deadliest cold spells.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Saudi Arabia widened its rift with Iran, saying it would end air traffic and trade links with the Islamic republic and demanding that Tehran must "act like a normal country" before it would restore severed diplomatic relations.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Turkish security sources said 2 civilians, 2 soldiers and a police officer have been killed in the southeast over the last 24 hours as military operations to root out armed fighters focused on urban centers across the mainly Kurdish region. 3 female Kurdish political activists were killed in fighting in curfew-hit Silopi town as the authorities press an offensive against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
(Reuters, 1/4/16)(AFP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 4, Ugandan police said they were investigating reports nearly $4 million worth of cocaine seized by customs officers at its main airport had disappeared from secure stores.
(AFP, 1/4/16)
2016 Jan 4, Yemeni authorities announced a dusk to dawn curfew in Aden starting today following a night of gunbattles between armed men and government forces that killed at least 12 people from both sides.
(Reuters, 1/4/16)
2017 Jan 4, Pres.-elect Donald Trump chose Jay Clayton, a Wall Street attorney, as his nominee to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
(SFC, 1/5/17, p.A5)
2017 Jan 4, In Chicago a federal jury convicted Hobos gang boss Gregory “Bowlegs" Chester, alleged hit man Paris Poe and four others for racketeering conspiracy.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pea)
2017 Jan 4, In Kentucky former LaRue County High School principal Stephen Kyle Goodlett (36) was indicted in Louisville on federal charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. He had admitted to investigators that he has a pornography addiction and downloaded images from phones confiscated from students.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, In Massachusetts about $20 million in cash was found hidden inside a box spring in a Westborough apartment. It was seized as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the TelexFree internet telecom company that authorities say was actually a massive international pyramid scheme. Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha was charged with conspiring to commit money laundering. TelexFree filed for bankruptcy in 2014, its assets frozen, and its two principals were indicted on federal charges of wire fraud and conspiracy.
(AP, 1/6/17)(SFC, 1/7/17, pea)
2017 Jan 4, In Nevada Faraday Future’s FF91 was unveiled during a press event for CES17 in las Vegas. The company was backed by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting. Production was scheduled to start in Nevada this year with first deliveries in 2018.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pp.)
2017 Jan 4, Macy’s said it will move forward with 68 store closures and eliminate more than 10,000 jobs following a disappointing holiday shopping season.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pp.)
2017 Jan 4, In China Chen Zhongshu, the land and resources chief of Panzhihua city in Sichuan province, allegedly shot and injured two leaders of the city as the pair held a meeting in a conference center, and later killed himself.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In southern China a man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, seriously wounding three, the latest such attack in recent years.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Czech authorities said they had detected highly-contagious bird flu at two small poultry farms and in dead swans in the first such cases in a decade.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Egypt released political activist Ahmed Maher (36), a leading figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled the government, after he completed his jail term. Maher was the founder and spokesman of the April 6 protest movement, one of the main groups that campaigned for more freedom under longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.
(AFP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, In France former Kosovar PM Ramush Haradinaj was arrested at Basel Mulhouse Freiburg airport on a Serbian warrant. He faced possible extradition to Serbia to face war crimes charges.
(AP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, French customs officials intercepted 70 kg of Captagon, dubbed the "jihadists' drug", at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport, a first for France. Another 67 kg of the drug were found at the airport in February. Captagon, a type of amphetamine, is one of the most commonly used drugs among fighters in the Syrian war.
(AFP, 5/30/17)
2017 Jan 4, The Gambia's army chief reaffirmed his loyalty to Pres. Yahya Jammeh despite the threat of a regional military intervention if the strongman refuses to step down.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Indian officials said police have rescued nearly 200 children, most of them under the age of 14, who had been found working in a brick kiln in the southern state of Telangana in one of the biggest operations in the region.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In India a 24-year-old housemaid died in hospital, two weeks after she was admitted with multiple fractures and injuries. She had said she was abused by her New Delhi employers after being lured to the city with the promise of a job.
(Reuters, 1/6/17)
2017 Jan 4, The UN said more than 2,000 Iraqis a day are fleeing Mosul, several hundred more each day than before U.S.-led coalition forces began a new phase of their battle to retake the city from Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, The Israeli government said China has agreed for thousands of migrant construction laborers to work in Israel in a bid to alleviate a housing crisis.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Israel released billionaire businessman Beny Steinmetz from house arrest without charge, following his detention over bribery allegations involving BSGR in Africa.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Israeli Sergeant Elor Azaria, who shot dead a Palestinian assailant lying wounded and motionless on the ground in the occupied West Bank last March 24, was convicted of manslaughter in one of the most polarizing cases in Israel's history.
(Reuters, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Italy vowed to increase deportations of migrants whose asylum requests have been rejected, after a riot in a reception center sparked by the death of a young woman.
(AFP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, Niger said around 20 more members of the jihadist group Boko Haram have surrendered. About 50 Boko Haram fighters have now given themselves up since December 27.
(AFP, 1/5/17)
2017 Jan 4, Pakistan's Supreme Court asked the police to look into allegations that a 10-year-old girl working as a maid was tortured by her employers, an influential judge and his wife, after disturbing photographs of the girl, purporting to show her badly beaten and bruised, circulated on social media. A day earlier the girl's parents announced they have "forgiven" the judge and his wife, apparently after reaching a financial settlement.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2017 Jan 4, In Pakistan four campaigners of the Civil Progressive Alliance of Pakistan (CPAP) activist group went missing.
(Reuters, 1/19/17)
2017 Jan 4, Palestinian fisherman Mohammed Al-Hissi (33) disappeared after colliding with an Israeli navy ship off the Gaza coast.
(AP, 1/7/17)
2017 Jan 4, In the southern Philippines more than 100 suspected Muslim rebels stormed a jail before dawn allowing 158 inmates to escape. Six inmates were killed in firefights with police and eight others were caught and returned to prison.
(SFC, 1/5/17, pea)
2017 Jan 4, Romania's Parliament approved a left-leaning government led by Sorin Grindeanu, who vowed to stop thousands of Romanians emigrating, build highways and encourage the consumption of local produce.
(AP, 1/4/17)
2018 Jan 4, Pres. Donald Trump's legal team demanded that author Michael Wolff and his publisher halt the release of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." They demanded that Wolff apologize of face a possible lawsuit. Henry Hold & Co. said it would make the book available January 5 instead of the original January 9 release date.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 4, The US State Department said it has placed Pakistan on a special watch list for "severe violations of religious freedom". The United States said it was suspending at least $900 million in security assistance to Pakistan until it takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network militant groups.
(AP, 1/4/18)(Reuters, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions urged federal prosecutors to override state marijuana laws and file criminal charges in those that have legalized sale and use of the drug.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A1)
2018 Jan 4, High winds and heavy snow barreled into the US Northeast, closing schools and government offices and disrupting travel as work crews scrambled to clear roads before plummeting temperatures turn snow into treacherous ice. The cold has been blamed for at least nine deaths over the past few days. Utilities along the East Coast said about 65,000 homes and businesses were without power from the massive snow and ice storm battering Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Four people were reported killed in North Carolina and South Carolina after their vehicles ran off snow-covered roads. More than 5,000 flights were reported cancelled across the US.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A5)
2018 Jan 4, The state of Oregon sued Monsanto over pervasive pollution from PCBs and sought $100 million to mitigate pollution , particularly along a 10-mile stretch of the Willamette River. Federal authorities in 2016 announced a $1 billion cleanup in the area.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A4)
2018 Jan 4, In Virginia incumbent Republican David Yancey won a tied state House of Delegates race, over challenger Shelley Simonds, when his name was pulled from a ceramic bowl.
(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A5)
2018 Jan 4, Brookfield Business Partners LP acquired Westinghouse Electric, the US nuclear unit of embattled Japanese electronics giant Toshiba, in a deal valued at about out $4.6 billion.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Afghanistan the Taliban shot and killed three members of the Afghan security forces in western Farah province. The attack unfolded when a group of Taliban fighters stopped a bus travelling in the Bala Buluk district.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Britain's PM Theresa May apologized to tens of thousands of patients whose operations were canceled to free up staff and beds to deal with emergency patients. A flu outbreak, colder weather and high levels of respiratory illnesses have put hospitals in England under strain with many operating at or near full capacity.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, France's interior ministry said a second person has died in the country as a result of the violent storm battering northern Europe. Storm Eleanor swept through Europe. The body of a man was pulled from the Breda River. He was soon identified the missing firefighter who was swept away just after saving a family. The death brought to four the number of people killed in France this week as winter storms battered western Europe. At least two other people have disappeared in other eastern France regions.
(AP, 1/4/18)(AFP, 1/4/18)(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, Germany's highest civil and criminal court ruled that a transsexual woman, who used sperm she had banked prior to her sex change to have a baby with her female partner, cannot be legally registered as the child's mother.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, India began investigating a report that access to its database of the identity details of more than 1 billion citizens was being sold for just $8 on social media, in what could be one of the giant program's biggest security breaches.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A New Delhi court declared India's flamboyant tycoon Vijay Mallya a "proclaimed offender" for failing to appear to answer allegations of money laundering by flouting foreign currency laws. The order paved the way for the government to take over Mallya's businesses and real estate holdings.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Iran's army chief declared that police had already quelled anti-government unrest that has killed 21 people but that his troops were ready to intervene if needed, as Tehran staged more pro-government rallies.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld (b.1932), a Holocaust survivor who became one of the foremost contemporary Hebrew-language writers, died near Tel Aviv. He published the first of 46 novels and collections of poetry in 1962 and won several awards throughout his career.
(AFP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Mexico's acting attorney general said prosecutors were already working to improve investigations and cooperation with other countries following an international report that blasted the country for failing to punish money launderers.
(Reuters, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Mexico the dismembered bodies of two young men were found inside plastic bags outside the beach resort of Acapulco. The young men had been arrested by Chilpancingo police on December 30 after a brawl at a Christmas fair and officers were suspected of later murdering them.
(Reuters, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, The Nigerian military said it had rescued Salomi Pogu, one of more than 270 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok in 2014.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A court in Norway said that the government can hand out oil drilling licenses in the Arctic, dealing a blow to two environmental groups that had filed a lawsuit against further drilling in the Barents Sea. The court also said Nature and Youth and Greenpeace Nordic should pay legal expenses worth 580,000 kroner ($71,435).
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, It was reported that Poland has created a new, state-owned aviation company, the Polish Aviation Group, based on the national airline, LOT, that aims to capitalize on a planned major airport and on the region's growing air travel market.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Pres. Vladimir Putin authorized the resumption of regular Russian airline flights to Cairo, according to a document published on the Moscow government's website. It said the clearance for flights to resume was effective from Jan. 2.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Russia at least 10 people were killed in a warehouse fire in Chernoretsky village, Siberia. The dead were believed to be workers from China and Kyrgyzstan.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In South Africa more at least 18 people were killed and hundreds were feared injured after a train struck a lorry, derailed and burst into flames as it traveled between Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)(SFC, 1/5/18, p.A2)
2018 Jan 4, South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. said it will begin selling its first self-driving vehicles by 2021 in partnership with US based self-driving technology startup Aurora Innovation Inc. Hyundai and Volkswagen each said they're partnering with Aurora Innovation, a US autonomous vehicle tech firm led by former executives from Google, Tesla and Uber.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, In South Sudan new fighting erupted between government and opposition forces less than 20 km (12 miles) outside Juba.
(AP, 1/5/18)
2018 Jan 4, In Syria at least 30 civilians were killed when Russian jets dropped bombs on the Eastern Ghouta residential area, a besieged rebel enclave east of Damascus.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, It was reported that Turkey's broadcasting watchdog has fined a TV station nearly one million lira ($266,000) over footage of young girls dancing in shorts in a talent competition after viewers complained of "child abuse".
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, Fugitive Vietnamese property tycoon Phan Van Anh Vu (42), accused of spilling state secrets, was arrested in Hanoi after Singapore deported him, despite appeals that his life could be in danger in Vietnam.
(Reuters, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 4, A Zimbabwean court freed "for now" Martha O'Donovan, an American woman charged with subversion for allegedly describing the former president on Twitter as a "sick man".
(AP, 1/4/18)
2019 Jan 4, In southern California three men were killed and four others injured during a brawl at the Gable House Bowl in Torrence.
(SFC, 1/7/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 4, In the SF Bay Area police found three people dead following gunfire at the 1000 blcok of Center Street in Oakland. Antonio Malike Durant (26) was arrested on Jan. 18 and soon charged with three counts of murder.
(SFC, 1/24/19, p.C6)
2019 Jan 4, In Texas Jenna Scott and her friend Michael Swearingin disappeared. Their bodies were later found in a shallow grave in Clearview, Oklahoma. Cedric Marks (44) was arrested this month in Michigan on a burglary charged related to Scott's house in Temple, Texas.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7986eun)(SFC, 2/4/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 4, Twitter suspended an account that posted links to sensitive personal data and documents stolen by hackers from hundreds of German public figures and politicians — from every political party but the far-right Alternative for Germany. The breach, discovered by journalists a day earlier, affected politicians at all levels.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Afghan officials said Taliban fighters are threatening major oil wells near the northern city of Sar-e Pul following days of fighting in which dozens of members of the security forces have been killed and wounded. At least seven border police officers were killed late today when their checkpoint came under attack by insurgents in southern Kandahar province. 16 insurgents were killed and 11 others wounded in an ensuing battle.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, An Australian man (24) rammed his four-wheel drive into a Sydney police car, hijacked a supermarket delivery truck and taxi, rammed other cars and stabbed and wounded a passerby before killing himself in front of police.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, It was reported that Bolivia's bee population is being decimated by massive and intensive use of chemical pesticides to protect coca plants, the region's biggest cash crop.
(AFP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, The People's Bank of China said it would cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves by one percentage point essentially freeing up about $218 billion to ease lending.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.D4)
2019 Jan 4, The China Academy of Social Sciences said in a research report that the country's population is set to reach a peak of 1.442 billion in 2029 and start a long period of "unstoppable" decline in 2030.
(Reuters, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, China's Jade Rabbit 2 space rover explored the lunar terrain in the world's first mission on the surface of the far side of the moon.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Colombia's government said it has asked Venezuela to verify whether certain members of the ELN rebel group are living in the country and to detain them under Interpol red notices if they are.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, The French government dismissed 'yellow vest' protesters as agitators whose only goal was to topple it, signaling a toughening stance against a movement that has shaken Emmanuel Macron's presidency.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Germany an Interior Ministry spokesman said personal data and documents from hundreds of German politicians and public figures have been published online, in what appears one of the most far-reaching cyber-attacks in a country that has become a target of choice for hackers.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Ghanaian religious leaders said angry young Muslims have attacked a charismatic church in Accra a day after its pastor predicted the country’s chief imam would die this year in a New Year's eve sermon.
(AFP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In India the office of the chief minister of Kerala state said a woman (46) has become the third to enter the Sabarimala Hindu temple in defiance of an ancient ban on females of menstruating age. Temple management denied that the Sri Lankan woman had in fact entered. Only small protests were reported from across the state.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Iraq a fire at a women's shelter in Baghdad killed several lodgers. A police chief called it a "group suicide" caused by women rioting in the shelter. Two women died from stab wounds and seven perished in the fire.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Parts of Lebanon's public and private sectors went on a union-organized strike to protest worsening economic conditions and months of delay in the formation of a new government.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Mexican federal police took steps to close a migrant shelter in Tijuana, sparking protests from some of the dozens of US-bound people who had been staying there after traveling in a caravan from Central America.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Myanmar thirteen policemen were killed and nine injured in early morning attacks on police outposts in Rakhine state by the insurgent Arakan Army, as the country celebrated Independence Day. The AA was led by Twan Mrat Naing.
(AP, 1/4/19)(Reuters, 1/18/19)(Econ, 4/18/20, p.25)
2019 Jan 4, Dutch authorities said they will hold Swiss shipping line MSC liable for the cost of cleaning up debris from more than 270 cargo containers that fell off one of its vessels and washed up on shore. Roughly 35 containers have been located and the remainder were lost at sea.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Nigeria the Koluama Seven Brothers militant group carried out an unconfirmed warning strike on an oil facility owned by local energy firm Conoil in the southern state of Bayelsa. The group soon threatened a production shut-down and demanded action from Conoil and a traditional ruler called King Solomon Eddy on issues such as job creation.
(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 4, A Palestinian broadcasting corporation said masked gunmen have raided its studios in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Peru foreign ministers from 12 Latin American countries and Canada said their governments would not accept Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's president when he is sworn in for a second six-year term next week. The 14-member Lima Group -- with the exception of Mexico -- said it would not grant recognition to Maduro's hardline socialist government.
(AFP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, In the Philippines Talib Abo, a former mayor of the town of Parang, was killed in a shootout with police. His brother, Bobby Abo, was also killed in a separate raid. In 2016 Pres. Duterte had accused them of being involved the drug trade. Police reportedly found guns and methamphetamine at both of the brothers' homes.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A4)
2019 Jan 4, A Philippine court ordered the arrest of Japanese pachinko billionaire Kazuo Okada, about a month after the country's Department of Justice recommended the filing of charges against him over three counts of fraud. The warrant of arrest was made public on Dec. 6.
(Reuters, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 4, Poland accused France of breaching European Union laws by exceeding spending limits. Paris last month forecast a 2019 deficit of 3.2 percent, which would violate the EU-mandated limit of 3.0 percent of GDP.
(AFP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Poland five teenage girls were killed by a fire in an "escape room" attraction in Koszalin. In "escape rooms", participants are locked in a room and race against the clock to solve puzzles and challenges to open a way out.
(Reuters, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Portugal a court in Lisbon said it was not proven that former Interior Minister Miguel Macedo had favored Chinese and Angolan investors in administrative procedures granting the so-called "golden visas." Two other senior Portuguese officials were found guilty of corruption while two Chinese citizens were convicted of influence-peddling. Another Chinese citizen and an Angolan were acquitted.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Romania Eugeniu Iordachescu (89), a civil engineer who devised an ingenious way to save 12 churches and many other historic buildings from being destroyed by the country's former Communist strongman, died.
(AP, 1/6/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Sudan dozens of protesters chanted anti-government slogans as they left a major mosque following Friday prayers in Omdurman, near Khartoum. Security forces fired teargas and the crowd quickly dispersed.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, In Syria an air strike by the US-led coalition on a village held by the Islamic State killed at least ten people.
(SFC, 1/5/19, p.A2)
2019 Jan 4, In southern Thailand one person was reported dead and another missing as rain, wind and surging seawater as Tropical Storm Pabuk buffeted coastal villages and world-famous tourist resorts, knocking down trees and utility poles and flooding roads.
(AP, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, The UN human rights office called on Bahrain to release activist Nabeel Rajab, saying that the upholding of his five-year jail sentence by the top court this week showed "continued suppression of government critics".
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2019 Jan 4, Zimbabwe's government said it has begun laying off 3,365 workers from its youth ministry, as it tries to make good on its promise to cut the bloated civil service and sort out the country's finances.
(Reuters, 1/4/19)
2020 Jan 4, The White House sent Congress a formal notification under the War Powers Act of the drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump that killed Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani a day earlier. Trump warned that America would target 52 sites "important to Iran & Iranian culture" and hit them "very fast and very hard" if American personnel or assets were attacked.
(NY Times, 1/5/20)(AFP, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, Demonstrators chanting "no war on Iran" rallied in Washington, New York and across the US to protest the assassination of a top Iranian military commander in a US drone strike.
(AFP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, John Baldessari (88), California artist, died in his sleep. In 2010 he was cited as "arguably America's most influential Conceptual artist".
(SFC, 1/10/20, p.C2)
2020 Jan 4, In Florida a pair of Chinese nationals attending the University of Michigan were arrested on a charge of entering a US Naval property for the purpose of photographing defense installations.
(Miami Herald, 1/7/20)
2020 Jan 4, Wildfires raged in Australia, choking the sky with smoke, forcing thousands to flee and prompting the US to send more fire personnel to help battle the blazes.
(Good Morning America, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Members of Austria's Green party voted to join a new government led by conservative former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, clearing the final hurdle for a previously untested left-right alliance at the national level.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Austria's foreign ministry said it is facing a serious cyberattack, possibly from a foreign country.
(Reuters, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, In northwestern Burkina Faso at least 14 civilians, mostly students, died after their bus hit an explosive device on the way back from a school break.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, In France a businessman returned from a holiday break to find his collection of 19 top watches, including 11 Rolexes, had been swiped from a safe with police blaming “professional" criminals. Over the weekend burglars reportedly swiped more than €1 million (£850,000) worth of Rolex watches and other prestige timepieces in Paris.
(The Telegraph, 1/6/20)
2020 Jan 4, Indonesian officials said landslides and floods triggered by torrential downpours have left at least 60 people dead in and around Jakarta, as rescuers struggled to search for people apparently buried under tons of mud.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, In Iran US and Israeli flags were set alight in Tehran as thousands mourned the loss of top military commander Qasem Soleimani, a day after he was killed by American forces.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Iraq's PM Adel Abdel Mahdi attended a mourning procession in Baghdad for Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. They were killed along with eight others in a precision US drone strike a day earlier as they drove away from Baghdad international airport in two vehicles.
(AFP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, A volley of missiles appeared to target the US’s embassy and one of its bases in Iraq late today, sparking fears an Iran-backed militia had begun taking revenge for the killing of its commander and Iran’s top general.
(The Telegraph, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, In Libya an airstrike hit a military academy used by the Tripoli-allied militias late today in the Hadaba area. The death toll climbed to at least 30 people, most of them military trainees. Evidence later indicated the cadets were hit by a Chinese Blue Arrow 7 missile and that the UAE had supplied and operated the drones that were stationed at the al-Khadim air base.
(AP, 1/5/20)(BBC, 8/28/20)
2020 Jan 4, In northern Mexico an American family returning to the US after a visit to San Luis Potosi came under attack late today in Tamaulipas state just south of Texas. Gunmen killed a boy (13) and wounded three others.
(SFC, 1/7/20, p.A2)
2020 Jan 4, It was reported that NATO has suspended ongoing efforts to fight Isis in Iraq amid demands by Iran and its allies for revenge against the US following the assassination of an Iranian leader by American forces.
(The Independent, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, The Russian government published a plan to adapt the economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also "use the advantages" of warmer temperatures.
(AFP, 1/5/20)
2020 Jan 4, Spanish human rights groups called for an investigation into potential human rights violations by Spanish authorities after the alleged expulsion of 42 migrants to Morocco without due process.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, It was reported that police authorities in Spain believe that a crackdown on criminal biker gangs in northern Europe could be behind a crime wave that saw 24 murders in the Costa del Sol province of Malaga over the last year.
(The Telegraph, 1/4/20)
2020 Jan 4, Sudanese activists said tribal clashes in eastern Sudan have killed at least nine people over the past two days. Security forces were deployed in Port Sudan to help contain the clashes between the Bani Amer tribe and the displaced Nuba tribe.
(AP, 1/4/20)
2021 Jan 4, President Trump gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Nunes was one of the president's biggest allies in his effort to undermine the Justice Department's investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
(The Week, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 4, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said he has finalized a rule to limit what scientific research the agency can use to formulate regulations, in a concession to big business weeks before President Donald Trump leaves office. Under the rule, the EPA will no longer be able to rely on scientific research that is underpinned by confidential medical and industry data.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, US President Donald Trump's administration announced that it has made final its plan to open up vast areas of once-protected Arctic Alaska territory to oil development.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Enrique Tarrio (36), the chairman of the Proud Boys, was arrested by the Washington DC Metropolitan Police on suspicion of burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn from a historic Black church in Washington during protests last month.
(NY Times, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, The US Department of Homeland Security said a US-funded center in Cyprus will help train officials from countries in the eastern Mediterranean region and the Middle East on the latest techniques in border, customs, maritime and cyber security.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, More than 225 Google engineers and other workers said they have formed a union, called the Alphabet Workers Union, capping years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labor organizers in California's staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley.
(NY Times, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that Rabble Wines of Paso Robles has been sold to O'Neill Vintners and distillers, one of the largest wine companies in California.
(SFC, 1/4/21, p.C1)
2021 Jan 4, California to date had 2,378,980 cases of coronavirus and 26,637 deaths. The SF Bay Area had 277,146 cases and 2,637 deaths. Total cases nationwide reached over 20,805,262 with the death toll at 353,371.
(sfist.com, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, The New York Stock Exchange withdrew plans late today to delist shares of three Chinese state-owned phone carriers. The shares were to be removed under an order from President Donald Trump, a move Beijing had warned might lead to retaliation.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, BioNTech and partner Pfizer warned that they had no evidence that their jointly developed vaccine will continue to protect against COVID-19 if the booster shot is given later than tested in trials.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Slack, the messaging service used by millions of people for work and school, suffered a global outage, the first day back for most people returning from the New Year's holiday. The outage comes as Slack is in the process of being acquired by Salesforce.com for $27.7 billion.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, SkyBridge, a fund of hedge funds, announced it had started the Skybridge Bitcoin Fund with $310 million in assets under management invested from its $3 billion flagship fund. SkyBridge founder and managing partner Anthony Scaramucci previously served a short stint as US President Donald Trump's communications director.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Australia's New South Wales (NSW) sate reported zero local coronavirus cases for the first time in nearly three weeks, as Sydney battled multiple outbreaks and authorities urged tens of thousands of people to get tested.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Britain ramped up its vaccination program by becoming the first nation to start using the shot developed by Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, UK scientists expressed concern that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in Britain may not be able to protect against a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in South Africa and has spread internationally.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, A British judge ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US, giving him a victory against the American authorities who accused him of conspiring to hack government computers and releasing confidential documents.
(NY Times, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Advaccine Biopharmaceuticals Suzhou Co Ltd said it will manufacture and sell Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc's COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China. Inovio's vaccine candidate, INO-4800, is being tested in two trials, a mid-stage study in China in partnership with Advaccine and a mid-to-late stage trial in the United States.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that cash-strapped Chinese startup Byton, Apple assembler Foxconn and the Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone have agreed to start building electric sport-utility vehicles in 2022.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Mainland China reported 33 new COVID-19 cases, with 14 of the 17 local cases recorded in Hebei and 16 cases imported from overseas.
(Reuters, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 4, Officials in eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, said they aim to vaccinate all 1.3 million residents against COVID-19 and will set aside at least 200 million emalangeni ($14 million) to do so.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that some EU specialist online retailers have said they will no longer deliver to the UK because of tax changes which came into force on 1 January.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, The center-right government in Greece named Nicholas Yatromanolakis (44), the country's first openly gay minister, as the new deputy minister of culture in a Cabinet reshuffle.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Greece started vaccinating elderly care home residents against COVID-19 in the next phase of its inoculation campaign begun nine days ago.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Representatives of the Indian government and protesting farmers failed again to reach agreement on the farmers' demand that new agricultural reform laws be repealed.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Iran said it has resumed enriching uranium up to 20 percent in the country’s biggest breach yet of the landmark nuclear deal with world powers.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Iran’s revolutionary guard seized a South Korean-flagged ship carrying thousands of tons of ethanol in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, It was reported that millions of mask-wearing pupils in Kenya have returned to school nine months after they were closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Kenya has reported almost 97,000 cases of Covid-19 and more than 1,600 deaths since the start of the outbreak in March last year.
(BBC, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Elias Rahbani (82), a Lebanese composer and lyricist, died after battling COVID-19. He wrote the music for some of the Arab world’s top performers, including Lebanon’s diva Fairouz.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Mexico approved the Oxford-Astra-Zeneca vaccine for emergency use.
(SFC, 1/6/21, p.A5)
2021 Jan 4, A court in Lahore, Pakistan, abolished so-called virginity tests for women in sexual assault cases, saying the practice is humiliating and casts suspicion on victims rather than the accused.
(NY Times, 1/6/21)
2021 Jan 4, In Pakistan hundreds of Shiites blocked a key highway on the outskirts of Quetta for a 2nd straight day to protest the killing of 11 coal miners by the Islamic State group.
(SFC, 1/5/21, p.A3)
2021 Jan 4, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte directed the head of his military detail to ignore a legislative summons, foiling the Senate's attempt to probe his guards for inoculating themselves with an unauthorized COVID-19 vaccine.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Saudi Arabia opened its land, sea and air borders to Qatar late today, allowing Sheik Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to attend a regional summit and sign a new “stability and solidarity" agreement.
(The Telegraph, 1/5/21)
2021 Jan 4, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a new lockdown in response to a highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus. Sturgeon said the new COVID-19 variant accounts for nearly half of new cases in Scotland, and is 70% more transmissible.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Singapore said its police will be able to use data obtained by its coronavirus contact-tracing technology for criminal investigations, a decision likely to increase privacy concerns around the system.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Spain's region of Catalonia announced a tightening of restrictions to tackle an uptick in COVID-19 infections, banning people from leaving their municipality, closing gyms and shopping malls, and allowing only essential shops such as pharmacies to open at the weekend. The new restrictions in Catalonia, which has Spain's second-highest number of infections and deaths after Madrid, will start on Jan. 7 and last until Jan. 17.
(Reuters, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Thailand registered 745 new coronavirus cases, with a new death reported in Bangkok, where a semi-lockdown went into effect. The new infections bring the total number since last January to 8,439, while the death toll has climbed to 65.
(AP, 1/4/21)
2021 Jan 4, Turkish police clashed with hundreds of students protesting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a figure with ties to his ruling party as rector to Bogazici University, one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities.
(AP, 1/4/21)
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