November 2004

November 29 2004

November 28 2004

November 27 2004

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 Ontario Court of Appeal 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 Brasilia, 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 8 and injures four people with a knife at a Chinese high school in Ruzhou, Henan. (BBC) (Xinhua)

  November 25, 2004

• India proposes to Pakistan that India will grant Kashmir a large amount of autonomy, in order to end the state of war between the two countries, but that 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 28th. (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)

  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. [1]
• 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 September 9 suicide bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. (BBC) (CNN)

  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 MPss. 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, Organization 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)

  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 Durão 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 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 billon 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 compund. 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)

  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 £1717 million (£1.5 million more than in 2003). (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: A Polish woman, Teresa Borcz Khalifa, held hostage in Iraq has been freed and flown to Warsaw. (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 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)
• Ol' Dirty Bastard draws thousands of mourners at his funeral in the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York City. An investigation into the cause of his death is ongoing. (New York Post)
• 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 politicans, 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 anomolous statistical discrepancies related to voting machine technologies. [1] [1]
• 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 an ugly 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 bottle 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. Also see November 19, 2004 disturbance at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
• 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 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[1] 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)
• 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)
• The UK House of Commons invokes the Parliament Act (1911) for only the seventh time. 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 Clinton Presidential Center, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Speakers include former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, and current president George W. Bush. (BBC)
• Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin expels Mississauga—Erindale Member of Parliament Carolyn Parrish from the Liberal Party caucus, after the controversial MP tells the Canadian Press she feels no loyalty to the party, or to the prime minister. (CBC)
• 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 Durão Barroso. (Xinhua) (Bloomberg)
• The Israeli military, 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 New Zealand Parliament finally passes a controversial bill on the foreshore and seabed ownership dispute, which has caused considerable tension between Maori and non-Maori. (TVNZ)
• The Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society is held for the 28th time. (Newsday)

  November 17 2004

• Conflict in Iraq: U.S officers in Falluja 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. [1]
• 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.
  

  November 16 2004

• Japan says the People's Republic of China has apologized for one of its submarines sailing into Japanese waters last week. The PRC has refused to confirm the apology, saying only that a "diplomatic" resolution has been reached. (VOA)
• 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 6 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)