Portal:Current events/November 2004

See also: November 2004 in sports and November 2004 in science

2004

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The following events occurred in November 2004:

Deaths

November 30 Pierre Berton November 29 John Drew Barrymore November 26 Bill Alley November 24 Arthur Hailey November 23 Rafael Eitan November 16 Bobby Frank Cherry November 16 John Morgan November 13 Russell Jones November 12 Mike Smith November 11 Yasser Arafat November 9 Iris Chang November 9 Emlyn Hughes November 7 Howard Keel November 7 Gibson Kente November 6 Fred Dibnah November 3 Sergei Zholtok November 2 Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan November 2 Theo van Gogh More deaths

Ongoing events
AIDS pandemic Iran's nuclear program Nigerian oil crisis Same-sex marriage debates U.S. election controversy U.S. presidential transition Ukrainian election controversy Orange Revolution

Ongoing armed conflicts
Arab-Israeli conflict Conflict in Chechnya Second Congo War Conflict in Iraq Conflict in Fallujah Darfur conflict in Sudan Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire Second Sudanese Civil War

Elections

November 28: Romanian presidential election, 2004 November 28: Romanian legislative election, 2004 November 22: Alberta general election, 2004 November 21: Ukrainian presidential election, 2004 (runoff) November 2: U.S. presidential election, 2004 November 2: U.S. Congress election, 2004 November 2: U.S. gubernatorial elections, 2004 November 2: Guam general election, 2004 November 2: 2004 Puerto Rico General Elections

Ongoing trials
Chile: Augusto Pinochet ICTY: Slobodan Milošević trial Iraq: Iraqi Special Tribunal Saddam Hussein, among others US: Michael Jackson US: Zacarias Moussaoui India: Jayendra Saraswathi

Events

November 1, 2004

• The Grímsvötn volcano under the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland erupts (BBC).
• An inquiry by the Egyptian Interior Ministry into last month's bombings of hotels in the Sinai concludes that the perpetrators received no external help, contradicting assertions by Israeli officials that the blasts were linked to al-Qaeda. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • The deputy governor of Baghdad, Hatem Kamil, is assassinated. The militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna claims responsibility. (Reuters)(BBC)
  • A Reuters cameraman is shot dead by suspected sniper fire. In Ramadi, hospital officials report six dead from fighting between United States armed forces and rebels. A U.S. citizen, an unidentified Nepali and four Iraqi workers are taken hostage at gunpoint from their office in Baghdad. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Over 300 mm of rain fall on Venice, Italy, flooding an estimated 80% of the city and shutting down the public transit system. (Reuters) (SBS)
• Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William H. Rehnquist, who has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments for thyroid cancer, announces he will delay his return to the courtroom on the advice of his doctors. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A suicide bombing by a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Tel Aviv kills three and wounds over 30 people. The Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claims responsibility. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Martial law is imposed in parts of China's Henan province after fighting between Hui Chinese and Han Chinese ethnic groups kills between 7 and 148 people. (Time)(BBC)
• Bank of Japan began to issue new Japanese yen banknotes, known as Series E.

November 2, 2004

• Conflict in Iraq: Iraqi officials report at least eight dead in a car bomb outside the education ministry in Baghdad. In Mosul, another car bomb kills two and wounds four Iraqi National Guard. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Darfur conflict: United Nations officials say Sudanese troops have surrounded two refugee camps in Darfur and are blocking access. The Sudanese military say they were asked to protect refugees and evict imposters. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Attempts to totally outlaw parents spanking children in England and Wales fail as a majority of 424 to 75 members of parliament vote against the ban. (BBC)
• NASA says it will resume its space shuttle program next May or early June after a lengthy investigation of the Columbia disaster in 2003, and a setback of a March date due to an active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. (BBC)
• UAE president and founding father Sheikh Zayed dies. Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Maktoum temporarily assumes presidential role. (Reuters)
• Controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh is stabbed and shot dead in Amsterdam; the suspected murderer is arrested after a firefight with police. van Gogh had received numerous death threats after his movie Submission elicited criticism among the Dutch Muslim community. (Reuters) (ABC US)
• U.S. presidential election:
  • U.S. civil rights organizations report on a number of misleading voter fliers and phone calls aimed at African-American voters, alleging that these are an attempt to suppress the African-American vote in today's U.S. presidential election. (Reuters)
  • U.S. presidential election, 2004 timeline: Voting begins for the 2004 U.S. presidential election, as well as for elections to the U.S. Congress and many state and local offices. The incumbent, Republican George W. Bush, and the challenger, Democrat John Kerry, are statistically tied in the latest opinion polls.
• Puerto Rico General Elections:
  • Aníbal Acevedo Vilá leads with 3,880 votes of advantage against Pedro Rosselló with 98.27% of the total votes counted. By law, a recount must be performed when the winning margin is less than 0.5%. The official winner will be certified on December 31 after the recount is finished. (CEE-PUR)
  • The Puerto Rican Independence Party has been unable to reach 3% of the total votes so far, putting in danger their franchise as a principal political party by Puerto Rican electoral laws. Because of this, the party may not receive funds from the government of Puerto Rico nor have a separate column in ballot papers on the following elections. However, Maria de Lourdes Santiago makes history by becoming the first woman to be elected Senator in the party's history. (El Nuevo Dia)

November 3, 2004

• Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who died yesterday, is elected President by the United Arab Emirates' federal council. (Reuters)
• 2004 U.S. Presidential election:
  • Senator John Kerry concedes to President George W. Bush "The outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process", Kerry said. "I would not give up if there was a chance we could prevail." (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Republican President George W. Bush wins the popular vote, receiving 3.58 million more votes than Democratic Senator John Kerry. (51.6% to 48.4%, 59.0 million to 55.4 million) Claiming victory in the swing state of Ohio, Bush will probably have more than the 270 votes needed when the U.S. Electoral College meets on December 13. (CNN)
  • The Republican Party widens its majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle concedes defeat to Republican challenger John Thune, thus becoming the first Senate leader in 52 years to lose a re-election bid and leaving the leadership of the Democratic Party in the Senate open. (CNN)
  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports that on November 2, touch-screen electronic voting machines in at least six U.S. states had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for the presidential election. Incorrectly recorded votes make up roughly 20 percent of the e-voting problems. (EFF)
  • Same-sex marriage in the United States: Gay rights activists suffer a severe setback when state constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage are passed in eleven states: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, and Utah. The measures in Oregon, Mississippi, and Montana ban same-sex marriage only, while Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Utah ban both same-sex marriage and civil unions and Michigan bans granting any benefits whatsoever to same-sex couples.
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier and wounds another in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. An Iraqi Oil Ministry official is shot dead while leaving his house in Baghdad. The militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna release a video on their website confirming the beheading of an Iraqi officer kidnapped in Mosul. In Tikrit, fires continue to burn from major oil wells and a pipeline attacked earlier, halting oil exports. The militant Brigades of Iraq's Honorable People release videos showing beheadings of three Iraqi security guards kidnapped in Baghdad. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • The court martial begins for nine U.S. marines charged with the death of an Iraqi prisoner who died after being dragged by his neck to a pen at Camp Whitehorse jail near Nassiriyah. (Reuters)
  • Hungary announces the withdrawal of its 300 troops by the end of next March. Poland says it will scale back the 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq early next year. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, who crossed over the DMZ to North Korea in 1965, pleads guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy at his court martial in Japan. He is sentenced to 30 days in prison and given a dishonorable discharge. (BBC)
• The Republic of China (Taiwan) establishes diplomatic relations with Vanuatu, bringing its international recognition to 27 countries. (CNN)
• Puerto Rico General Elections:
  • The State Commission of Elections of Puerto Rico preliminarily certifies Aníbal Acevedo Vilá as the winning candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico, and Luis Fortuño as Resident Commissioner after computing 98.3% of the total votes. A full recount will begin on November 9 to announce the official winner. (El Nuevo Día) (CEE-PUR)
  • The Senate of Puerto Rico and the House of Representatives will be dominated by the New Progressive Party for the new term. Future senators from the party have already decided certain positions for once they are in office, and how do they plan to work with a governor of the opposing party. (El Nuevo Día)

November 4, 2004

• The shutdown of the Number 2 Balakovo nuclear reactor in the Saratov region of southern Russia due to a turbine malfunction causes widespread local panic. Local pharmacies' supplies of iodine sell out; residents flee, urging each other to drink vodka and avoid public water. Engineers at the plant find no leak of radiation. A number of people are hospitalized for iodine overdose; the government and media are criticized for poor coordination. (Bellona)
• The Number 4 Rivno nuclear reactor of the Ukraine is shut down after 19 days of operation due to an oil leak. No leak of radiation is found.
• Spammer Jeremy Jaynes, rated the world's eighth most-prolific spammer, is convicted of three felony charges of sending thousands of junk e-mails through servers located in Virginia, and is recommended to be sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. His sister is fined $7500 for related offences. (Computerworld) (CBC)
• President designate of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso announces that Franco Frattini from Italy and Andris Piebalgs from Latvia will complete his commission.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill approving parliament's ratification of the Kyoto protocol bringing the number of countries bound by the treaty to 126. (Reuters)
• The Israeli senior commander in the Gaza Strip, Brig. Gen. Shmuel Zakai, resigns amid allegations of telling the press Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered to increase Operation Days of Penitence on Day 14 while the army considered the operation extracted itself. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • The NGO aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières ends work in Iraq due to the "escalating violence" and "the warring parties have repeatedly shown their disrespect for independent humanitarian assistance." (BBC)
  • A suicide car bomb and mortar fire kills three Black Watch(Scottish) soldiers and an Iraqi translator south of Baghdad at Camp Dogwood. (BBC)
• The United States recognizes the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name rather than the name "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" used by the United Nations, the first major foreign policy move by the re-elected Bush administration. The move outrages Greece, who had the European Union's support in lobbying against recognition since Macedonia's independence in 1991. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, announces that she has breast cancer.
• Yasser Arafat, who is on a life-support machine, has been officially declared brain-dead while in intensive care at a hospital in Paris, according to medical sources inside the hospital. (Seattle Times) (BBC)
• The High Court in the Republic of China rejects a petition by the Kuomintang to nullify the March 2004 presidential election result that saw Chen Shui-bian re-elected president by a margin of 0.2% over Lien Chan. The KMT plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. (BBC)
• Researchers of Type 2 diabetes at a Winnipeg laboratory announce that they have isolated a previously hypothetical second substance, called hepatic insulin sensitizing substance or HISS, that participates in sugar storage along with insulin. (Globe and Mail)
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: Two lesbian couples denied marriage licences file a lawsuit against the governments of Canada and of Newfoundland and Labrador, asking for the legalization of same-sex marriage in that province. (365Gay)
• Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Maryland State Police say Phelps was stopped around 11:30 Thursday night, near the intersection of Route 13 and Bateman Street in Salisbury, after a trooper spotted an SUV that failed to stop at a stop sign. Beside the charge of driving under the influence, Phelps was also charged with driving while impaired by alcohol, violation of a license restriction, and failure to obey a traffic control device. (WBAL Radio)

November 5, 2004

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Two Palestinian children are killed by an explosion in the refugee camp of Khan Yonis in the Gaza Strip. Hospital officials say it was from a tank shell that hit a house. Israeli spokesmen said there had been no army fire in the area. They believe it was either caused when a Palestinian mortar misfired or by the detonation of a roadside bomb. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warns that an assault on Falluja may result in a Sunni Muslim boycott of January elections. British ambassador to Iraq Jones Parry states: "You can't have an area the size of Falluja operating as a base for terrorism." Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi describes Annan's letter as confused and unclear. (Reuters)
  • Two U.S. soldiers are killed and five wounded when fighting breaks out near a base on the outskirts of Falluja. After weeks of intensive airstrikes, U.S. and Iraqi troops seal off all roads to the city. They drop leaflets and play loudspeaker messages encouraging all civilians to leave, but say they would arrest any men under 45. Near Baghdad, two children are killed when a mortar shell lands near a police station. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Dutch–Moroccan Muslim Mohammed Bouyeri, identified by the Dutch media as "Mohammed B.", is to be charged for murdering filmmaker Theo van Gogh and for being a member of a group with "terrorist intentions". (Reuters)
• Illness of Yasser Arafat: Israel refuses to allow Yasser Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem. The ailing leader of the Palestinian Authority is still in a coma, which might be reversible; an aide rejects reports that Arafat is "brain dead". Palestinians claim they will only trust a successor who is "determined and steadfast on the fundamental Palestinian rights", some say who is less willing to compromise. (Reuters)
• Voters in the north east of England decisively reject plans for a devolved assembly for the region. With a turnout of 47.8% 197,310 vote for and 696,519 vote against the plans. It is a serious setback for the British Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, who had championed the plans. (BBC)
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: A judge in Saskatchewan rules that same-sex couples must enjoy the right to equal marriage in that province. (CBC)
• Episcopal Church: The Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh approves an amendment to its Constitution which allows it to differ with the opinion of the national church on issues which the diocese believes to be "contrary to the historic faith and order" of the church. (Diocese of Pittsburgh)

November 6, 2004

• Talks between Iran and three European Union members, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, on the Iranian nuclear program end without an agreement and no further meetings planned. Iran has offered a six-month suspension of its uranium enrichment program. The European Union seeks an indefinite halt to the program. The issue is expected to be referred to the United Nations Security Council at the November 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Reuters) Others report, however, that a preliminary agreement has been reached. (AP) (BBC)
• An express train has collided with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England. It is thought that nine carriages of the 17:35 First Great Western service between London Paddington and Plymouth have been derailed. Six people have reportedly been killed, with around 150 more injured. (BBC)
• An Indian spokesman says the Indian Army has been conducting counter-insurgency operations on the border of Burma. Two Indian soldiers and 13 rebels have been killed so far. (BBC)
• Chilean army commander General Juan Emilio Cheyre releases a statement saying abuses under Augusto Pinochet were "punishable and morally unacceptable acts of the past", reversing its previous stance that they were excesses carried out by individual officers. (BBC)
• African Union mediators adjourn negotiations with Sudan on the Darfur conflict after numerous security issues are not agreed upon, mainly a no-fly zone in Darfur. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Three suicide car bombs in Samarra kill 19 Iraqi police, two Iraqi National Guardsmen, two Iraqi Rapid Reaction Forces, and 11 civilians, with 48 wounded. In Ramadi, an Iraqi is killed and 20 U.S. Marines are wounded after a shoot-out between the Marines and rebels. A physician at Fallujah General Hospital reports two dead and maintains no foreign fighters have been admitted to his hospital. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Nine French peacekeepers and a U.S. citizen are killed in the rebel-held town of Bouake in Côte d'Ivoire after government warplanes bomb the town to root out insurgents. In response, the French military launches attacks which destroy two warplanes at Yamoussoukro airport. (CNN) (BBC)
• At an anti-nuclear waste shipment protest rally near the French town of Avricourt a protester, Sébastien Briat, is killed after a train severs his leg. The 23-year-old French man was protesting against the CASTOR transport. (BBC)
• Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Lebanese Militant group, Hezbollah, has flown a reconnaissance drone over Israeli territory for the first time. (BBC)
• Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites is officially awarded the Ansari X Prize for the first privately funded space flight. (AP)
• The Iraq interim government declares a state of emergency ahead of an expected assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
• Illness of Yasser Arafat: A spokesman for Yasser Arafat claims that all the Palestinian president's vital functions are fine although it remains unclear why Arafat has not regained consciousness and if or when he will. (AP) (The Age)
• The Ralph Nader/Peter Camejo campaign has filed a challenge to the voting results in New Hampshire after receiving numerous complaints from voting rights activists. This effort is widely encouraged by Democrats and Independents due to suspected flaws related to Diebold Election Systems voting machines. (Portland Independent Media Center) (Nashua Telegraph)

November 8, 2004

• In Broward County, officials find the software used in Broward can handle only 32,000 votes per precinct. After that, the system starts counting backward. The problem affected running tallies and not the final vote totals. All absentee ballots had been placed in a single precinct to be counted and only the votes for constitutional amendments reached the threshold and encountered the problem. (The Palm Beach Post)
• In Palm Beach County, about 88,000 more votes are recorded than voters recorded as having turned out for the election. (The Washington Dispatch)
• U.S. Federal District Judge James Robertson rules that the system of tribunals set up by the United States military to try and sentence prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay is illegal. (Washington Post) (ACLU) (The Guardian)
• Microsoft announces it will pay Novell USD $536 million to settle its ten-year-long antitrust suit and will pay legal costs incurred by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA). In return, CCIA will not pursue its arguments in favor of the European Union's antitrust suit. (Reuters)
• The Pitcairn Island governing council selects the first female mayor in its 214-year history after the former mayor, Steve Christian, was convicted of rape. (BBC)
• The United States dollar falls to a record low of $1.2985 against the euro. (BBC)
• China confirms that two Hong Kong officials have been convicted and jailed for spying for the United Kingdom. (BBC)
• Intelligence services intercept FARC guerrilla communications calling all units to focus on assassinating Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. (BBC)
• Russian troops storm a Chechen rebel base and kill 22 militants. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi publicly authorizes an offensive in Fallujah and Ramadi to "liberate the people" and "clean Falluja of terrorists". U.S. and Iraqi forces advance. A hospital doctor in Falluja reports 15 people killed and 20 wounded. (Reuters)(BBC)
  • In Baghdad, three Iraqis are killed when a suicide car bomb explodes near a U.S. convoy. A U.K. soldier is killed by a roadside bomb near Camp Dogwood. A U.S. soldier is killed when gunmen open fire on a military patrol. At least three people are killed and 40 others injured in explosions at two Christian churches. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Illness of Yasser Arafat: Officials of the Palestinian Authority travel to France to see Yasser Arafat. Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser Arafat, says, "They are trying to bury Abu Ammar (Arafat) alive". Israeli security officials believe Arafat is brain-dead or comatose, and is on life support equipment and will be disconnected on Tuesday, the Muslim holiday of Lailat-ul-Qadr so that he will be declared dead on that day. (Reuters)
• A 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocks northern Japan. It was centered close to the Earth's surface in the Chuetsu area of Niigata prefecture. (CNN)
• A Muslim school in Eindhoven in the Netherlands suffers a bomb attack. It is believed to be a revenge attack in retaliation for the murder of Theo van Gogh, following a weekend in which several mosques were attacked throughout the Netherlands. (BBC)
• The current wave of violence in Côte d'Ivoire causes London markets to fear a lack of cocoa exports, sending cocoa to a five-year high. French forces, including tanks, deploy throughout the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, to restore order. (BBC)
• An electronic voting machine in 1B in Franklin County, Ohio, recorded 260 votes for John Kerry and 4258 votes for George W. Bush though only 638 people voted there, one of several alleged problems. (IDG) (c|net) (Dissident Voice)
• Supercomputers: The Top 500 Supercomputers list, which officially charts the records for the 500 fastest computers in the world, announces IBM's Blue Gene/L prototype as the world's fastest supercomputer. Using the Linpack benchmark, it achieved a record computational speed of 70.72 TFlops, taking the title away from Japan's Earth Simulator (35.86 TFlops) which held the title since June 2002. NASA's Columbia takes second place with 51.87 TFlops. (BBC)

November 9, 2004

• Halo 2, a game for the Xbox system, exceeds more than US$ 125 million in sales on its first day of release. This makes it the biggest opening day in the history of entertainment, surpassing any other games or movies. Microsoft, the publisher of the game, estimates more than 2.4 million units sold. (Tom's Hardware)
• Darfur conflict: The Sudanese government and rebel leaders sign two accords that include a no-fly zone over Darfur, disarming Janjaweed militia and informing the location of forces to cease-fire monitors. United Nations officials arrive to investigate claims of genocide. (Reuters)(BBC)
• United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans resign. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: U.S. troops reach the center of Falluja with heavy fighting reported throughout the city. The Pentagon announces 10 U.S. and two Iraqi soldiers killed in the assault. One third of prisoners captured in Falluja by Iraqi forces have been foreigners from Egypt and Syria. Residents say a U.S. airstrike hit a clinic killing medical staff and patients. A nine-year-old boy dies because of lack of medical assistance after he was hit by shrapnel in what parents say was a separate airstrike. The mainly Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party withdraws from the Iraq Interim Governing Council. Iraqi and U.S. forces capture a mosque in northwest Falluja that was being used as an arms depot and insurgent meeting place and the Muslim Clerics Association called for a boycott of the election in protest of the assault. In Mosul, two U.S. soldiers are killed when mortars land in a military base. Three police stations are attacked in Baquba with casualty reports ranging from 25 to 45 people killed. A car bomb outside an Iraqi National Guard base near Kirkuk kills three people and wounds two. In Samarra, a senior local government official is assassinated. (Reuters)(BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Belgium upholds a decision of the Court of Appeal of Ghent condemning the Vlaams Blok political party for permanent incitation to racism and discrimination. The decision amounts to banning the party, one of the most popular in Flanders. (AFP)(BBC)
• Michael Scheuer, a senior intelligence official in the U.S. CIA, claims that the number of "experienced" officers assigned to the agency's Osama bin Laden unit is fewer than before the 9/11 Attacks. Scheuer claims that the most experienced have been reassigned elsewhere in the homeland security apparatus or are in Iraq. (Washington Post)
• Illness of Yasser Arafat:
  • Three unnamed senior Palestinian sources state he has died. Nabil Shaath and Saeb Erekat state that he is still alive. Tayeb Abdel Rahim explains that Arafat has suffered a brain hemorrhage. (Reuters)(AP)
  • Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas have visited Arafat at his bedside, and Mr. Abbas has described his condition as "very serious" (BBC)
• House Judiciary Committee Democrats request a GAO investigation into voting irregularities in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. (first letter) (follow-up letter)
• Same-sex marriage in Ireland: An Irish High Court judge rules that a lesbian couple who married in Canada may proceed with their case seeking to have their marriage recognized in Ireland. (CBC) (RTÉ)
• The Mozilla Foundation releases the first official version of its open source web browser, Firefox. (Reuters)
• Violence in Côte d'Ivoire has left 20 dead and 600 injured and stopped cocoa exports. South African President Thabo Mbeki has flown to the country to help find a settlement. (CNN)

November 10, 2004

• President of the Republic of China Chen Shui-bian calls for a ban on the use of weapons of mass destruction across the Taiwan Strait and asked the People's Republic of China to do the same. (VOA)
• The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismisses a petition seeking the release from house arrest of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for health reasons. (VOA)
• Darfur conflict: Sudanese Police beat people and tear gas women and children at a refugee camp (BBC)
• White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales has been announced by President George W. Bush as his nominee for United States Attorney General, succeeding John Ashcroft. (CNN)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have been kidnapped. The kidnappers have demanded that the siege on Fallujah be lifted, or the hostages will be killed. (BBC)
  • The Iraqi City of Mosul has gone under curfew following a rebel strike which left four Iraqi National Guards and a Foreign contractor dead. (Fox)
• The First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, announces to the Scottish Parliament that the Executive intends to introduce a law to prohibit smoking in all public enclosed spaces in Scotland. Both of the ruling coalition parties, as well as the main opposition party, the SNP, are in favour and the move is likely to come into effect in spring 2006. (BBC)
• The euro reaches a new record high against the United States dollar, valued at more than $1.30. Concerns over the U.S. trade deficit, the $427 billion budget deficit and $166 billion current account deficit are thought to be behind the dollar's recent losses. (BBC) (BBC)
• The Association of International Educators reports that the number of foreign graduate students in the U.S. has fallen. (Express India) (New York Times) (Reuters)
• The trial of the suspected French serial killer Émile Louis proceeds, as the Yonne assize court transports itself to the location where the bodies of two victims were found under Louis' indications.
• Illness of Yasser Arafat
  • Muslim cleric Mufti Taissir Dayut Tamimi, a close personal friend of Arafat, flies to Paris to attend to Arafat's spiritual needs. Aides deny reports that Arafat will be taken off life support. (National Post {Canada}) (BBC)
  • The Israeli government agrees to allow Arafat to be buried at his compound in Ramallah, West Bank. State funeral services are being planned for Cairo, Egypt followed by burial in Ramallah, if Arafat dies. (Jerusalem Post) (CNN) (Haaretz)
• A Dutch police squad comes under a grenade attack, injuring three policemen, following an antiterrorist raid on a house in The Hague. The area's airspace is closed as a precaution. Two arrests have been made.(BBC) (Reuters)
• A Muslim school in Uden was set on fire in another of a series of sectarian attacks on Islamic schools in the Netherlands. (BBC)
• Conflict in Côte d'Ivoire: Canada has decided to airlift its citizens out of the troubled Côte d'Ivoire following a similar course of action by France and the United Nations. Other countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom will do so. (Toronto Star) (The Scotsman)
• Reports of irregularities in the votes for the 2004 Presidential election emerge. Reports of voting machine error and electoral fraud center on Ohio and Florida.

November 11, 2004

• Iris Chang, acclaimed author of The Rape of Nanking, is found dead near a freeway in Los Gatos, California. Authorities believe her cause of death to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. (BBC) (CNN) (AP)
• Death of Yasser Arafat
  • Saeb Erakat announces that Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat has died at the age of 75 at a Paris hospital. Rawhi Fattouh becomes interim President of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas leads the Palestine Liberation Organization. Farouk Kaddoumi, foreign minister of the PLO, leads Fatah and Ahmed Qureia receives the security portfolio of the Palestinian Authority. (CNN) (Reuters)(BBC)
  • Tributes and condolences pour in from around the world for the former Palestinian leader, from leaders as diverse Jacques Chirac (France), Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia), Pope John Paul II (Vatican City), Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan), Bertie Ahern (Ireland), Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Malaysia), Crown Prince Abdullah (Saudi Arabia), and Hosni Mubarak (Egypt). (BBC)
  • President Bush says, "For the Palestinian people, we hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors." (Washington Times)
  • Israeli Justice minister Tommy Lapid says it is "good that the world is rid of him ... The sun is shining in the Middle East". (BBC)
  • Tunisia, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Yemen and Jordan have announced three days of national mourning along with Egypt. (BBC)
• Lithuania became the first country to approve the new EU constitution. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Heavy fighting continues in Falluja, where U.S. military officials say over 500 insurgents, 18 U.S. and five Iraqi troops had been killed. In Baghdad, 17 people are killed when a car bomb explodes near a shopping center. (BBC)
• Israel Defense Forces repel an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attack on Netzarim in the Gaza Strip killing three Palestinians. In Hebron, one Palestinian, among a group of 400 throwing cement bricks at Jewish cars, is killed when Israeli soldiers open fire.(Reuters)
• Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu is arrested, again, on suspicion of leaking classified information. (BBC)
• British forces launch Operation Phillis, the service-assisted evacuation of Côte d'Ivoire, in response to riots in the country. (MoD)
• Spain has announced that solar panels will be mandatory on new and renovated buildings. (Times)
• Global warming is accelerating rapidly in the Arctic, according to Arctic Climate Impact Assessment scientists. Probable outcomes include a 1 m rise in worldwide oceans by year 2100, elimination of habitat for the polar bear, reduction of tundra and migratory bird habitat. (AP)
• Alice Munro has won the Giller Prize for her short story collection Runaway. It is her second Giller. (CBC)

November 12, 2004

• The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database is launched on the web and revolutionizes chemical-gene-disease information for research scientists.
• Deputy director of central intelligence John E. McLaughlin and some other senior officials in the CIA resign amid conflict with new director Porter Goss's chief of staff, Patrick Murray. (Washington Post) (AFP)
• Scott Peterson is found guilty of murder in the first degree of his wife, Laci Peterson, and in the second degree of his unborn son, Connor. The penalty phase of the trial was scheduled for November 22, 2004. (CNN)
• Conflict in Iraq: The United States Armed Forces report that insurgents in Falluja, Iraq, are trapped. Hundreds of insurgents, 18 U.S. soldiers and five members of the Iraqi security forces have been killed in four days of fighting. (Reuters)
• President of the United States George W Bush states that it is possible for a Palestinian state to arise in the next four years but that it would depend greatly upon who they elect to replace Yasser Arafat. (Reuters)
• Ilda Boccassini, an Italian prosecutor in the Milan corruption trial, asks the court to sentence Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to eight years' imprisonment for bribing judges. (Reuters)
• Iran's nuclear program: The International Atomic Energy Agency delays issuing its report on Iran's nuclear activities as Iran, France, Germany and Britain remain deadlocked in talks aimed at freezing Iran's uranium enrichment program. (Reuters)
• Death of Yasser Arafat
  • Yasser Arafat's funeral procession is held in Cairo, Egypt. Arafat is given full military honours and his coffin is led by a horse-drawn carriage. Leaders of Muslim and Arab countries as well as other dignitaries attend, including Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas, who is currently sought by Israel. (Reuters)(BBC)
  • Israel has barred the entire population of the Gaza Strip from attending Yassir Arafat's funeral in Ramallah, and has sealed off many West Bank towns. (BBC)
  • Ramallah is described as in a state of "chaos" as tens of thousands of people pack the area in and around the Muqata, prior to Arafat's burial. Gunmen in the crowd shot repeatedly into the air, but there is no serious violence; and plans for Arafat to lie in state appear to have been dropped due to the huge crowd. He was buried in soil from Al Quds.(BBC)

November 13, 2004

• US Troops are preventing a Red Crescent aid convoy from entering the city of Falluja, reportedly for safety reasons (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: Hundreds of US Troops are diverted from Falluja as insurgents appear to take control of the northeastern city of Mosul. (BBC)
• Iran is reportedly concluding a deal with the European Union which would spare it from possible United Nations sanctions over its nuclear arms programme. (Reuters)
• United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige announces his intent to resign from his post, making him the third member of President George W. Bush's Cabinet to resign since his re-election. No time-table has been set for his actually leaving the post. White House domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings has been suggested as his successor. (Washington Post) (Reuters)
• Former Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has made a rallying call to his Taliban forces. He sent a two-page message to the Afghan Islamic Press agency to mark the Muslim Eid ul Fitr festival. (BBC)
• A fire has badly damaged a mosque in the south-eastern village of Helden, Netherlands, in the latest of a series of attacks on Dutch Muslim sites. (BBC)

November 14, 2004

• Iran has agreed to curb most of its uranium enrichment with three EU countries, France, Germany and the UK. (BBC) (EUObserver.com)
• The Belgian political party Vlaams Blok changes its name to Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) after being banned for being racist. (AFP)
• The Basque separatist party Batasuna calls for talks with a view to ending armed conflict in Spain. (BBC)
• Fierce storms cause three shipwrecks off Algiers. At least one sailor has been killed and 18 are missing. (BBC)
• Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declares a week-long truce with the Lord's Resistance Army starting Monday. (BBC)
• The BBC based on a water test of one well claims thousands in India still face a risk of poisoning after the Union Carbide Bhopal disaster 20 years ago that killed at least 4000 people. (BBC)
• Kidnappers release two female relatives of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. (Reuters)
• UK shadow arts minister Boris Johnson is sacked by Michael Howard following allegations about his private life. (BBC)
• Two bodyguards of former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) are killed as they exchange fire with masked Gunmen as Abbas pays a visit to a mourning tent for Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. (Haaretz)(BBC)
• Japan's trade minister Shoichi Nakagawa says he believes that a Chinese submarine, which Tokyo says intruded into Japanese waters last week, is linked to gas exploration by China in a remote island area claimed by both countries. (VOA)
• Elections to choose the successor to Yasser Arafat are to be held on 9 January 2005, Palestine Authority interim President Rawhi Fattuh announced today. (BBC)
• Groundbreaking animated/live action dramedy Tom Goes to the Mayor airs for the first time on Adult Swim in America.
• Researchers claim to have found the lost city of Atlantis on the bottom of the east Mediterranean, 80 kilometers southeast of Cyprus. The Cypriot government disputes the claim, saying more evidence is needed. (CNN)

November 15, 2004

• China and the United Nations: The President of the Republic of China Chen Shui-bian declares he will push to get the ROC included in the United Nations under the name Taiwan. The People's Republic of China condemns the move as a political trick to create an independent Taiwan. (Yahoo) (ABC US) (Reuters)
• The European Space Agency's ion propulsion spacecraft SMART-1 enters into lunar orbit, 14 months after its launch. (Space.com)(SpaceDaily.com)
• Media magnate Conrad Black has been sued for fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (BBC) (Bloomberg)
• Vanuatu's Council of Ministers drops its opposition to a surprise decision by Prime Minister Serge Vohor to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan). (Reuters)
• U.S. President George W. Bush accepts the resignation of Secretary of State Colin Powell. He is the sixth Cabinet member to resign since the re-election of President Bush. (CNN) (BBC). Other resignations today include Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman (Reuters), Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (Reuters) and Education Secretary Rod Paige.
• Bhutan announces a nationwide ban on tobacco sales. (BBC)
• Candidate cities for the 2012 Summer Olympics (Paris, London, Madrid, Moscow, and New York City) submit 120 copies of their candidate files to the International Olympic Committee. The IOC will announce the winning candidate in Singapore in July 2005. (IOC) (IOC – candidacy procedures (PDF)) (Guardian)
• The United States Secretary of State is to visit the West Bank next week for talks, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said today. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • US troops in Falluja have launched new air strikes and artillery attacks against suspected rebel positions. (BBC)
  • The US military says they believe civilian casualties are low in Falluja because so many people fled the city before the assault began, but this is disputed by some eyewitnesses. The military is still refusing to allow aid workers in and casualty figures cannot yet be confirmed. (BBC)(Gulf Daily News)(AP)

November 16, 2004

• The Pentagon announces that Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. James G. Roche, has submitted his resignation. (Reuters)
• French scientists at the Institut Pasteur announce they have successfully stimulated antibodies to block HIV from infecting human cells in vitro. The achievement is a significant breakthrough towards the goal of an HIV vaccine. (365gay.com)
• Indian military officials announce that a withdrawal of troops will begin from the Indian-administered part of Kashmir during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first visit to the disputed, Muslim-majority region which sparked two of the Indo-Pakistani Wars and a 15-year separatist movement. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Madrid Train Bombing: A 16-year-old Spaniard has been jailed for six years for his part in the bombing which killed 191. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • A possible war crime by a U.S. Marine in Fallujah, Iraq, is caught on film by an NBC camera crew. The marine shot and killed an apparently unarmed Iraqi while in a mosque. (NYT) (ABC US) (The Independent)
  • US troops have launched a major assault of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul following insurgents gaining control of key sites. (BBC)
  • 1,052 prisoners have been captured in the US assault on Fallujah, approximately two dozen of whom are non-Iraqi. (The Independent) (The Nation)
  • Margaret Hassan, the Irish-born aid worker kidnapped in Iraq, is believed to have been killed. A tape apparently showing her being shot has surfaced. (BBC)
• White House officials announce that Condoleezza Rice will be nominated to succeed Colin Powell as Secretary of State. (BBC)
• Congolese music star Papa Wemba has been found guilty of people-smuggling in a Paris court in France. (BBC)
• The British Government details a white paper to implement a smoking ban in public places to combat the risks of tobacco smoking. (BBC)
• A Queensland Rail Tilt Train, en route from Brisbane, Australia, to Cairns, derails 60 kilometers north of Bundaberg, injuring more than 150 people. (ABC News) (news.com.au)(BBC)
• Nearly 800,000 Bowflex exercise machines are recalled after dozens of users reported injuries caused by mechanical problems. (AP) (AP)
• NASA's X-43 research aircraft reaches a speed of Mach 10, a new record for an air-breathing engine. (ABC Au) (BBC)
• James Bond celebrates his fictional 80th birthday Mi6.co.uk.
• Half-Life 2 Releases in North America.

November 17, 2004

• Conflict in Iraq: U.S. officers in Fallujah say marines are "cleaning up" remaining insurgents, as artillery and airstrikes continue. In Baiji, A suicide car bomb kills 15 Iraqis and wounds 22. Three Turkish truck drivers are ambushed and killed in Mosul. In Ramadi, nine Iraqis are killed and 15 wounded when U.S. forces confront insurgents. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Three apparently home-made explosive devices are detonated in three Buenos Aires banks in Argentina, killing a security guard and wounding a police officer. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Kmart purchases Sears in a deal worth $11.5 billion. The combined resources of the companies results in a $55 billion/year company and encompasses close to 3,500 stores. (Reuters)
• The British House of Lords passes a bill to allow same-sex couples to obtain civil partnerships. This is the final legislative hurdle for the bill, which is expected to receive Royal Assent later in the week.
• Iran's nuclear program: A spokesman for the controversial National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) states that Pakistani nuclear scientist "Abdul Qadeer Khan gave Iran a quantity of HEU (highly enriched uranium) in 2001" and a nuclear bomb design and that Iran "continues to enrich uranium as we speak". (Reuters)
• Death of Yasser Arafat: Le Monde reports that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat suffered from cirrhosis before dying. (IOL, Ireland)
• The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has launched the National Children's Study to follow 100,000 humans from birth to age 21 in what will be the largest-ever comprehensive study of children. (Reuters)
• Dino Rossi defeats Christine Gregoire by 261 votes in the Washington governor's race, pending a state-mandated recount. It is the final undecided race of the 2004 United States election season. (Note: After the recount, Gregoire is shown to have, in fact, won the highly contested race.)

November 18, 2004

• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy: According to a report called The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections George W. Bush received between 130,000 and 260,000 faulty votes in Florida. (IDG) (IT Week) (Scoop) (Vunet)

• In North Korea, portraits of Kim Jong-il vanish and the official media stops referring to him as the "Dear Leader" leading to speculation his cult of personality is undergoing revision or weakening. (VOA) (Asia Times)
• Former Canadian cabinet minister Alfonso Gagliano vehemently denies he has any links with New York's Bonanno crime family, as was reported on November 17 in the New York Daily News. The issue is raised by Opposition Leader Stephen Harper in the House of Commons, where Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin also denies knowing of any links between the Sicilian-born Gagliano and organized crime. (CP)
• The UK House of Commons invokes the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 for only the seventh time (since 1911). The Act was used to push through a bill which bans Hunting with dogs. (BBC)
• Former U.S. President Bill Clinton opens his presidential library, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Speakers include former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, and current president George W. Bush. (BBC)
• The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approves an application by the American news channel Fox News for a digital licence. Fox's previous exclusion from the Canadian airwaves had been criticized by some Canadians as being motivated by the network's perceived conservative bias. (CBC)
• The European Parliament approves the new make-up of the European Commission, headed by José Manuel Barroso. (Xinhua) (Bloomberg)
• In Israel, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), investigating alleged crimes by an Israeli officer, is seeking to exhume the body of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams. The schoolgirl was shot at least 15 times by the IDF. (BBC)
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture announces that a cow has tested positive for mad cow disease. Officials caution that the test is inconclusive until confirmed at a lab in Ames, Iowa, but if confirmed, it will be the second case in the U.S. The agency says the disease has not entered the food chain. Tech News World, (NY Times)
• Three Palestinians are buried while digging a smuggling tunnel in Rafah. The tunnel collapsed due to heavy rain. The Israeli Defence Force permitted Palestinian rescue forces to try to rescue them, and later sent its own bulldozers to help. The rescue efforts succeeded and three Palestinian were recovered from the ruins alive. They were treated by IDF medical staff and later taken to investigation. (Washington Times), (Maariv), (Haaretz)
• Three Egyptian paramilitary security officers stationed at the Sinai–Gaza border are killed by Israeli tank fire, after IDF troops allegedly mistook them for Palestinian terrorists or militants. The Egyptian government accepts an apology from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and demands an investigation on the incident. (Haaretz) (Reuters) (BBC)
• The Parliament of New Zealand finally passes a controversial bill on the foreshore and seabed ownership dispute, which has caused considerable tension between Māori and non-Māori. (TVNZ)
• The Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society is held for the 28th time. (Newsday)

November 19, 2004

• Research by the Medical Research Council shows that the antibiotic co-trimoxazole can halve the death rate in HIV-positive children in Zambia. (BBC)
• Attempts by the United States to draft a U.N. treaty banning human cloning have been abandoned. (CNN)
• U.S. President George W. Bush arrives at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Santiago de Chile for talks with China and other nations. The summit's agenda includes nuclear proliferation and new free trade agreements, particularly on agriculture. Bush hopes to revive six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program and promote the "War on Terrorism". The Chinese delegation ask Bush to take "all measures necessary" to halt the slide in value of the U.S. dollar. About 40,000 people protest against the summit, Bush, the war in Iraq, and globalization; they are blocked by Chilean police with tear gas and water cannon. (MSNBC) (CBC)
• Sudanese Civil War: At a special session of the United Nations Security Council in Nairobi, Kenya, the government of Sudan and southern rebels sign an agreement which states that both sides will commit themselves to ending the 21-year conflict by December 31. The Council then unanimously passes a resolution which promises substantial aid to the country after the wars in the south and in the region of Darfur come to an end. (Reuters)
• Sino-Japanese relations: Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian says information provided by his government helped Japan locate a Chinese nuclear submarine in Japanese waters a week ago. The PRC expressed "regret" after the incident. (VOA)
• Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, one of the most controversial Dutch politicians, advocates a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the murder of Theo van Gogh stating: "The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long, we should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country". (NYT)
• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy: A recount has begun in New Hampshire, testing anomalous statistical discrepancies related to voting machine technologies.
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The commander of the Israeli Defense Force, Moshe Yaalon, orders an investigation "to reach the truth" of claims by the Yediot Ahronot newspaper that IDF troops abused Palestinian corpses. (BBC)
• United States Congress: The U.S. Congress has passed a bill reinstating and extending a ban on taxation of internet access for another three years. (Reuters)
• Russia announces it will sell off the main production unit of Yukos, the energy company seized last year for supposedly failing to pay taxes. (BBC)
• The U.S. U.S. Congress raises the national debt ceiling by USD 800 billion to a total of USD 8.18 trillion. This makes the new borrowing cap 30% higher than the debt Bush inherited, and 70% of the size of the U.S. economy. (CNN) (Debt Clock)
• In Auburn Hills, Michigan, members of the NBA Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons engage in a brawl involving players and spectators. Ron Artest of the Pacers initiated the conflict with fans when he entered the crowd at The Palace of Auburn Hills after a fan threw a cup of beer at him. The game was postponed with 45 seconds remaining. Artest was suspended for the rest of the season, while several members of both teams were suspended by the league for their involvement.
  See also: Pacers–Pistons brawl
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • U.S. Military officials report that 102 soldiers, 85% of which are serving in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, have contracted a rather rare blood infection by Acinetobacter baumannii. Military investigators say there is no evidence of biochemical agents in the infection which surfaces occasionally in unsanitary hospitals, but that some soldiers were arriving with infections. (CNN)
  • World Vision, one of the last aid agencies left in Iraq, announces it will pull its staff out of the country following the murder of its senior manager. (BBC)
  • In Baghdad, two people are killed when clashes break out as Iraqi forces backed by U.S. troops enter a popular Sunni mosque to arrest dozens of members reportedly including the imam. (BBC)

November 20, 2004

• María Isabel from Spain wins the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004. (JESC)
• NASA launches a satellite, named Swift, to investigate gamma ray bursts. (BBC)
• The 25th annual BBC Children in Need telethon has raised over £17 million (£1.5 million more than in 2003). (BBC)
• The Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), an umbrella group of French Jewish organisations, accused the French government of failing to protect citizens from broadcasts by Hezbollah's al-Manar TV, which includes films that CRIF claims are anti-Semitic and incite Muslims to attack Jews. (Reuters-Haaretz)
• A small China Eastern airlines jet, an Bombardier CRJ2000, crashes in Mongolia, causing the deaths of 53 persons. (CNN)
• Indian policemen and soldiers of the Indian Army recover 300 kg of RDX from a grocery store near the southern Kashmir town of Anantnag, 55 km from Srinagar. This is the biggest ever explosive haul in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. (The Hindu) (Indian Express)
• The Madras High Court in India dismisses the bail petition of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, the prime accused in the murder of temple manager Sankararaman. (Times of India)

November 21, 2004

• Conflict in Iraq: The nineteen member Paris Club agrees to forgive 80% of nearly $40 billion in Iraqi debt, in three stages: 20% now, 30% in 2005 and 20% in 2008 in tandem with Iraq's implementation of an International Monetary Fund economic programme. $80 billion in debt to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among others, will remain. (BBC)
• Hifikepunye Pohamba, the candidate of the ruling South-West Africa People's Organisation party, is declared the winner of the Namibian presidential election with 76% of the vote. He succeeds Sam Nujoma, who is retiring after serving as president for 15 years. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrives in Israel for talks with leaders of both sides of the conflict with an aim to restarting the stalled peace process. (BBC)
  • Three Fatah militants are killed in a gunfight with YAMAM, an Israeli Police counterterrorist unit. Among those killed is Mohammed Rassan Sheikh, who hid in Arafat's compound. One Israeli police officer sustained light injuries.(Haaretz)
  • In the Gaza Strip, the IDF foils an attack on Kissufim road to Gush Katif, killing two militants. (Haaretz)
• Ukraine holds the second vote in a run-off presidential election today. Voters will decide between Moscow-oriented Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and western-leaning reformer Viktor Yushchenko. Observers have expressed concern over possible Russian interference, election abuses, and bias in reporting by the state media. With 74% of vote counted, Yanukovych leads Yushchenko 49–48%. Yushchenko has alleged that massive election fraud has taken place. (BBC) (BBC)
• The Electoral Commission of the Iraq interim government schedules parliamentary elections for January 30, 2005. Reuters
• The Grand Canyon is artificially flooded to bring natural sediment to the ecosystem. (CNN)
• Kurt Busch clinches the first NASCAR Nextel Cup championship trophy.
• The Nintendo DS was released in North America.

November 22, 2004

• 2004 Ukrainian presidential election: Ukraine's electoral commission declares Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko calls for supporters to protest "the total falsification of the vote". Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) say the run-off vote "did not meet international standards", and the senior U.S. election observer, Senator Richard Lugar, notes a "concerted and forceful program of election day fraud". (Reuters) (BBC)
• European Parliament lawmakers urge European Commission president José Manuel Barroso to suspend Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, after it was revealed that Barrot was involved in a party funding scandal in 2000. (CNN)
• Iran's nuclear program: Iran declares that it will suspend its uranium enrichment programme to comply with a European Union-brokered deadline. Iran will review its decision in three months. The EU seeks to have the suspension made permanent and is willing to provide economic and political incentives. (Reuters)(BBC)
• A mechanical failure has been blamed for an oil spill on the eastern coast of Canada. Experts estimate 170,000 litres of oil have been spilled into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, covering an area 9 km long by 1 km wide. (CBC)
• A Gulfstream II airplane heading to pick up former United States President George H.W. Bush crashes before landing, killing all three people on board, in Houston, Texas. (CNN)
• The American Journal of Psychiatry reports researchers from the University of Southern California conclude in a study of 1,000 Mauritian children that malnutrition and a poor diet are strongly correlated to a low IQ and anti-social behavior. (BBC) (AJP)
• The United Nations is investigating 150 sexual abuse allegations involving civilian staff and soldiers on the peace-keeping mission in the Congo, some reportedly caught on video. (Reuters)
• An Israeli military court indicts an unidentified outpost commander in charge of soldiers who killed a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip on October 5. (Haaretz)
• In the Canadian province of Alberta, the Progressive Conservative party under Premier Ralph Klein is re-elected to a 10th consecutive term, and the fourth for Klein. The PCs drop to from 74 to 60 seats in the 83-seat legislature.(Edmonton Journal) (CBC)

November 23, 2004

• CBS News anchor Dan Rather resigns from CBS Evening News effective in March 2005. He will remain a correspondent for 60 Minutes news magazine and other assignments. (Reuters)
• 2004 Ukrainian presidential election: Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declares himself winner and takes a symbolic oath of office at a parliament special session, boycotted by pro-government MPs. Crowds of around 200,000 Yushchenko supporters rally outside the parliament building in Kiev. Freedom House releases a statement saying that the runoff election was "tainted by massive voter fraud." Russian Foreign Ministry expresses "extreme concern" about the disobedience actions by the Ukrainian opposition. (BBC) (Reuters) (FH)
  • The city governments of Lviv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk announce their support for Yushchenko. A crowd estimated at 200,000 surrounds the Parliament building in Kiev, calling for Yanukovych to step down. (The Guardian)
• Conflict in Iraq
  • Officials from the Arab League, Organisation of the Islamic Conference, G8 nations, People's Republic of China and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan convene at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to discuss and issue declarations on Iraq. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • A second cleric of the Sunni Muslim Clerics Association in two days is gunned down in Miqdadiya near Baquba on his way to a mosque. (Reuters)
• The popular MMORPG World of Warcraft was released on this day, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

November 24, 2004

• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy: The U.S. Government Accountability Office plans to investigate complaints of several systemic problems with this month's elections. (CNN)
  • Ohio law requires state officials to perform a recount when called for by candidates on the ballot, but a federal judge today declared that the results can be declared final before the recount occurs. (CNN)
  • Justice Through Music has posted a minimum $200,000 reward for specific evidence of vote fraud in the recent election in light of the many instances of reported voter irregularities. (eMediaWire)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • Israeli Defence Force officer claims, he was right to repeatedly shoot an unarmed 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza, saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old.
• Iran's nuclear program: The European Union rejects a request by Iran to be allowed to continue using uranium enrichment centrifuges. (Reuters)
• U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have announced that the possible U.S. case of mad cow disease from the previous week has tested negative twice in tests run by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory. (Sac. Bee) (Wisc. Ag.)
• Despite earlier reports that Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko had agreed to hold talks over the country's heavily disputed elections, this now seems unlikely. Protests continue, with an official election result due to be announced at around 1400 UTC. (BBC)
• Indonesian police officials announce the arrest of four suspects wanted concerning the 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta. (BBC) (CNN)

November 25, 2004

• India proposes to Pakistan that India grant Kashmir a large amount of autonomy, in order to end the state of war between the two countries, but that the current border can not be modified. Pakistan recently proposed that Kashmir be demilitarized, split along ethnic/religious lines and granted independence or transferred to United Nations control. (Reuters)
• The Ukrainian Supreme Court bars publication of the presidential election results, delaying inauguration, and decides to examine a complaint alleging fraud on November 28. (Reuters)
• Iran's nuclear program: Just three days after an agreement with the European Union took effect, Iran prevents the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from sealing centrifuges at the Natanz enrichment facility. The IAEA begins its meeting to decide whether or not to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council. (Reuters)
• A previously scheduled EU–Russia summit in The Hague is overshadowed by the Ukraine presidential election crisis. (official EU) (BBC)
• Gang war between rival groups of Camorra continues in Naples, Italy. (SwissInfo) (Scotsman) (BBC)
• The Indian political party Congress Jananayaka Peravai merges into the Indian National Congress.

November 26, 2004

• A Wisconsin girl becomes the first person to survive rabies without a vaccination, after an experimental treatment using an induced coma and a cocktail of anti-viral drugs. (TheDenverChannel)
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf begins a tour of several American and European countries to urge Western leaders to resolve the Kashmir and Palestinian disputes, which he sees as root causes of terrorism by Muslims. (Reuters)
• Ukraine presidential election, 2004:
  • The Luhans'k region of Ukraine, the easternmost Russian-speaking region, has reportedly declared itself autonomous and requested recognition from the Russian Federation. Several more regions, including Donetsk, have ruled to put autonomy on popular referendum.
  • Supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko blockaded official buildings in Kiev Friday, in a direct challenge to the Moscow-backed government's control of the country. (Reuters)
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a summit meeting with the European Union that the results of the Ukrainian presidential elections are absolutely clear. (AFP)
  • Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma began meeting with key European envoys, including European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus and Russian parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has requested a new vote to be held on December 12 (BBC)
• Alberto Abadie, a professor at the Harvard University School of Government, theorizes that the level of political freedom, not poverty, explains terrorism. Areas with intermediate levels of political freedom experience the most terrorism, while societies with high levels of political freedom or authoritarian regimes have low levels of terrorism. (PDF) (Harvard Gazette)
• People are evacuated from Manam in northern Papua New Guinea during eruption of the island's volcano. (New Zealand Herald) (Scotsman) (SwissInfo)
• In one of Canada's largest class-action lawsuits, the Court of Appeal for Ontario upholds a lower court ruling whereby Canadians whose same-sex partners died after April 1985 are entitled to Canada Pension Plan survivors' benefits. (CBC News)
• The director for the western region of the World Health Organization says that an influenza pandemic is inevitable and plans to combat it are needed urgently. (In 1918–20, the Spanish Flu killed up to 40 million people.) The new virus is likely to develop out of avian influenza. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: In Baghdad, an American civilian contractor is shot near the Green Zone. The largest Sunni political party, Iraqi Islamic Party, calls for elections to be postponed for six months to allow better security and threatens a boycott. British troops join the operation to pacify the insurgency in the "Sunni Triangle." Iraqi police state they have arrested five suspected foreign fighters in the south. The Iraqi Minister of State says Iraqi National Guard discovered a small chemical and explosive lab in Falluja. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Fatah officially picks former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, already PLO chairman, as its candidate for January's presidential elections. (BBC) (Reuters)
• The President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, visits the province of Aceh for the first time, the location of a long separatist movement. (BBC)
• Over 8,000 landless activists, including the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), march on Brasília, Brazil, to demand the speeding up of land reform promised by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (Reuters)
• The Pakistani army states they find no evidence Osama bin Laden is hiding in the mainly tribal border with Afghanistan after combing through the area. (Reuters)
• A man kills eight and injures four people with a knife at a Chinese high school in Ruzhou, Henan. (BBC) (Xinhua)

November 27, 2004

• Prominent Chinese dissident Liu Jingsheng is released. (BBC)
• Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II presents Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I with reliquaries containing the bones of 4th-century Patriarchs Gregory Nazianzus and John Chrysostom, brought back to Rome as loot from Constantinople during the Crusades. The ceremony is applauded as a notable gesture of ecumenism between the divided churches. (BBC) (Reuters)
• According to the chairman of the Duma commission investigating the Beslan school massacre, there is indirect evidence of involvement by a foreign intelligence agency; however, the agency remains unnamed. (Interfax)
• Colombian Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe claims that FARC rebels plotted to assassinate U.S. President George W. Bush during his recent visit to the country. The U.S. Secret Service declines to comment. (BBC), (CNN)
• Ukraine presidential election, 2004:
  • Ukraine's parliament votes for the annulment of the election results and asks President Leonid Kuchma to dissolve the country's Central Election Committee. This is a non-binding request as the parliament cannot annul the results itself. (CNN)
  • Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot says that the EU believes fresh elections are the best option for Ukraine. (Reuters)
• Lieutenant General Joginder Jaswant Singh is named the next chief of army staff of the Indian Army. He will be the first Sikh to become the chief. (Times of India) (The Tribune, India)

November 28, 2004

• Swiss voters overwhelmingly approve government proposals to permit research using stem cells of human embryos. (BBC)
• An explosion in a coal mine in the Chinese central province of Shaanxi leaves 187 men trapped underground. Official figures show 4,153 mining accident deaths in the last nine months, while 119 miners are still missing from a November 20 iron mine fire in Hebei. (BBC) (Xinhua) (Xinhua)
• Conflict in Iraq: 42 primarily Shi'a parties release a statement saying a postponement of elections would be illegal. The U.S. military reports a U.S. soldier is killed by a roadside bomb in Duluiya north of Baghdad and that troops discover 17 more corpses in Mosul, raising the number found to at least 50 in two weeks. Hospital officials in Ramadi say two people are killed and three wounded when U.S. troops fire on suspected insurgents. (Reuters) (BBC)
• 2004 Ukrainian presidential election:
  • Russia intimates that its opposition to fresh elections might not be unshakable. (BBC)
  • The Donetsk regional council is to hold a referendum on 5 December on giving the region the status of a republic within Ukraine. (BBC)
• An oil tanker, the Athos 1, leaks approximately 30,000 US gallons (100 m³) of crude oil into the Delaware River in the eastern United States while pulling into a Citgo oil refinery. The Coast Guard closes part of the river to commercial traffic while cleanup begins. (Reuters)

November 29, 2004

• The People's Republic of China and Association of South East Asian Nations sign a trade pact that could eventually unite a quarter of the world's population in a free trade zone. (BBC)
• 2004 Ukrainian presidential election: The Supreme Court continues its public hearings of electoral fraud. Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma asks for a new election "to preserve peace and consensus and build this just democratic society". (Reuters) (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Two U.S. soldiers are killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb in Baghdad detonates. Four Iraqi National Guard are killed in an attack on a checkpoint in nearby Baghdadi. Six Iraqis are killed in a blast near a police station in Ramadi. The Iraqi Red Crescent establishes a relief center in Fallujah, while the International Red Cross says the city remains under siege and workers are unable to freely administer aid. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Deputy leader of al Qaida Ayman al-Zawahiri releases a videotape vowing to continue fighting "until the last hour" and urging the U.S. to cooperate with Muslims and stop dealing "with them as free loot, robbed land and violated sanctity." (Reuters)
• Researchers from South Korea have successfully used stem cell therapy to allow a paralyzed woman with spinal cord injury to walk again. (WPH)
• U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Kellogg Company CEO Carlos Gutierrez to be the next Secretary of Commerce. (USA Today)
• Iranian-born Dutch national Seyed Mahmoud Namini is being detained by the Canadian government as a potential security threat. He was arrested a month ago when 30 books related to Kurdish revolts in Iran were found in his bag. (Toronto Star)
• Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy, will have her third period of house arrest extended. (BBC)
• Five record labels sue Sharman Networks, the owner of peer-to-peer file-sharing system Kazaa, for facilitating copyright violations in an Australian court. (The Times) (Financial Times) (Wired)
• Romania's ruling Social Democratic Party claims victory in the country's legislative election, and the simultaneous presidential election goes to a second round with Prime Minister Adrian Năstase leading.
• President of Chile Ricardo Lagos proposes special lifetime pensions (approx. €150 a month) for 28,000 survivors of the Pinochet regime's torture camps. (SwissInfo) (Reuters Alertnet) (Washington Post)
• A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits Hokkaidō, Japan. (ABC News) (Bloomberg) (SwissInfo) (USGS)
• A huge number of whales and dolphins are beached on the King Island between the Australian mainland and Tasmania; rescue efforts are ongoing (SBS) (SwissInfo) (New Zealand Herald)
• The U.S. Supreme Court hears a landmark case to decide the rights of states to overrule federal restrictions on medical marijuana use. This case has important consequences for redefining the separation and limitation of powers between states and the federal government. (CSM)
• At the conclusion of The Greatest Canadian project, socialist politician Tommy Douglas was announced as being voted as The Greatest Canadian of all. Toronto Star

November 30, 2004

• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy:
  • Attorneys for Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb asked a federal court to take jurisdiction of, and ultimately dissolve, a temporary restraining order issued by a Delaware County, Ohio, judge attempting to prevent Cobb from seeking a recount of the presidential ballots cast in that county.
  • Attorneys representing John Kerry filed papers to join the Cobb/Badnarik Ohio recount case.
  • If the Ohio recount does not begin before the votes are certified, then electors will be chosen before the recount begins.
• The U.S. Department of Commerce imposes heavy tariffs against shrimp imported to the U.S. from China and Vietnam. (Bloomberg)
• Ken Jennings ends his 75-episode streak on Jeopardy!, becoming the foremost game show contestant in international television history.
• In Ottawa, Canada, sporadic violence occurs in protests against U.S. President George W. Bush's first official visit to Canada. (CBC) (Globe and Mail)
• U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge resigns. This is the latest in a string of resignations after the 2004 presidential election. (CNN) (Yahoo)
• A report from the International Committee of the Red Cross, recently leaked to the New York Times, describes the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba as being "tantamount to torture". The U.S. military disputes this. (New York Times)
• More than 300 persons have died in flooding and landslides in Quezon Province, in the northern Philippines. Illegal logging is blamed. (Reuters Alertnet)(ABS-CBN) (SwissInfo) (ABC News)
• Traian Băsescu, the leader of the Romanian opposition alliance Justice and Truth, demands a re-run of the 2004 legislative elections, claiming that 160,000 void ballots were awarded to Adrian Năstase and his Social Democratic Party. (BBC) (Guardian)
• Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio dissolves the parliament after Prime minister Pedro Santana Lopes fails to present a plan to solve cabinet instability. The elections are expected to be scheduled to February 2005. (CNN) (BBC)
• U.K. Home Secretary David Blunkett defends his actions after newspaper allegations that he used his position to acquire a fast-track visa application for his former lover's nanny, ordering an independent enquiry into his own actions and denying any impropriety, whilst apologising for inadvertently misusing government funds to obtain her a first class train ticket. (BBC)
• A South African court rules that the common law concept of marriage must be extended to include same-sex couples. Although the ruling does not immediately permit same-sex marriage in South Africa, it is considered a major step in that direction. (365gay.com)