US Health SecretaryTommy Thompson warns that the world is losing the war against AIDS. Thompson said, "We need America, the European Union and everybody. Nobody is going to be spared unless we all come together in the fight against this disease." [3]
Venezuelan opposition leaders claim to have gathered enough petition signatures to force a referendum to recall President Hugo Chávez; in response, the government alleges the four-day signature drive was tainted by "massive fraud". [12][13]
The US dollar continues to decline, hitting a new low of 1.2 against the euro; the dollar is suffering from deteriorating support against the background of a large current account deficit and fears of growing protectionism. [15]
Andrei Illarionov, economic advisor to President Vladimir Putin, indicates Russia will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol in its current form, a decision that would kill the accord. Some observers speculate that this is purely domestic posturing for forthcoming elections. [16]
Hospitals around Paris struggle to cope with an outbreak of influenza and gastro-enteritis. [20]
The European Union threatens retaliatory sanctions unless the United States lifts its threat of restrictions on imports of steel; the US measures have been declared illegal by the WTO. [21]
Pirate copies of a pre-alpha version of Microsoft's Windows "Longhorn" operating system go on sale in Malaysia more than a year ahead of its expected release date. [22]
GIMPS has confirmed that 220996011-1 is prime. At 6320430 decimaldigits, it is easily the largest known prime number. 220996011-1 is the 40th known Mersenne prime and the 6th Mersenne prime discovered by GIMPS. [23]
In Kassel, Germany, the trial of Armin Meiwes begins. He is charged with killing and eating Bernd-Jürgen Brandes who was one of 200 people who replied to an Internet advertisement for "a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then consumed". The whole episode was videotaped. The case is legally difficult as cannibalism is not explicitly prohibited by the German penal code, and the defence argues that as the victim was willing, no murder took place. [28]
Facing the threat of a trade war, U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush lifts 20-month-old tariffs on foreign steel. Within minutes of the announcement, the European Union announces that it is lifting its threat of sanctions on $2.2 billion of U.S. products that would have taken effect in mid-December based on a ruling from the World Trade Organization that the tariffs were in violation of global trade rules. [36]
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is opened in Abuja, Nigeria, by Queen Elizabeth II. The future of Zimbabwe's membership is threatening to dominate the gathering. The debate has been marked by bitter personal polemics between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whom Mugabe accuses of leading an "Anglo-Saxon conspiracy" against Zimbabwe. Mugabe himself is barred from entering the European Union. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth last year on charges that Mugabe had rigged his re-election in 2002. [43][44]
SCO v. IBM: in the opening discovery stages of the SCO v. IBM conflict, a judge grants IBM's two motions to compel against SCO, and defers consideration of SCO's motions until later.
The draw for the qualifying stages of the 2006 Football World Cup is made. England, Wales and Northern Ireland are drawn together in group 6 of the Europe (UEFA) section, making the group three-quarters of a home nations championship - Scotland missed out by being drawn (amongst others) against Italy and Norway.
Experts say that the US flu season will be worse than average, but they are not yet ready to say how bad it will be. [57] The USA is running out of the injectable version of the vaccine and is encouraging people to use the nasal spray. [58]
Zimbabwe fails to find supporters at the Commonwealth Prime Minister's Conference in Nigeria. [59]
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe announces that he is withdrawing his country from the Commonwealth of Nations. The Commonwealth had earlier decided to maintain Zimbabwe's suspension until human rights and democratic reforms had taken place. [63]
President Putin's United Russia wins a resounding victory in the 2003 Russian election, with 37% of the vote. Second place and 12.5% of the vote goes to the Communist Party, with Zhirinovsky's LDPR nationalists close behind with 11.5%. However, electoral monitors say the democratic process was "overwhelmingly distorted" in the government's favour. [64][65]
Afghan villagers have disputed United States claims that a bombing by the US that killed nine children had killed the intended target, Taliban militant, Mullah Wazir. They say Wazir had left the village ten days earlier. [66][67]
Currency analysts remain negative on the US dollar. [68]
One US soldier is killed and two are injured Sunday in Mosul when a convoy is attacked. [69]
King Harald V of Norway successfully undergoes a 5½-hour cancer operation in which his bladder is removed and a new one constructed, at Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo. [71]
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, four men are killed and a woman critically injured during a massacre in a discotheque. It is the largest massacre in Puerto Rico since 1988. [75] (in Spanish)
750,000 people crowd the streets of London to see the victory parade of the England rugby team following their victory in the Rugby Union World Cup. [77]
Greek electronic game ban: The Greek government in an attempt to fight illegal gambling passes an old decision (1107414/1491/T. & E. F.) regarding the 3037/2002 law.
A suicide bombing in central Moscow at 11 a.m. local time (0800 UTC) kills six people and wounds 13 others. The police reports that one of the dead bombers has been identified as a woman. [79]
Doctors at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are worried that the 2003-2004 influenza season will be the worst in years. Early signs indicate that a particularly virulent strain of the flu virus that is not well-covered by this year's vaccine is hitting hard in some states. Young children and the elderly have been urged to receive the vaccine, doses of which are running low. [80][permanent dead link]
Some 60 U.S. soldiers and a handful of Iraqis are injured in Tal Afar, west of Mosul, when a pre-dawn car bomb explodes at an entrance to an army base. [83][84]
A U.S. Kiowa helicopter makes a controlled landing after being struck by an RPG near Fallujah; the two-man crew is uninjured. [85]
Canada's BC Ferry system experiences a total shutdown due to job action by its union, after an 80-day cooling-off period, imposed by the provincial government, was not rescinded. [97]
Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, issues a proclamation officially acknowledging the deportation of the Acadians, 248 years after it took place. The proclamation is delivered by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who is of Acadian descent. [108]
In Israel, an explosion at a money exchange office in a shopping district near the city center of Tel Aviv at 1230 local time (1030 UTC) kills three and injures at least eighteen people. Police say the cause of the explosion was probably criminal rather than terrorist. [115]
A general strike in Quebec interrupts road and port traffic as well as non-essential surgeries and day-care service in Montreal, Quebec City, and Trois-Rivières. The strike was called in opposition to the Charest government's policies. [116]
Queen Elizabeth II has a benign non-cancerous growth removed from her face. Buckingham Palace confirms the removed growths will be subject to further tests but denies there are any cancer fears surrounding the 77-year-old sovereign. She also underwent a knee operation. [123]
Keiko (whale) from Warner Brothers movie's Free Willy dies at age 27, at Norway's bay
In Haiti the biggest anti-government demonstrations in a decade take place, calling for the removal of President Aristide; after nightfall, squadrons of armed Aristide supporters take to the streets in response. [128][129]Archived 2007-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
Spain has announced an agreement with Morocco to proceed with plans to build a rail tunnel beneath the Strait of Gibraltar, linking Europe and Africa. Assuming the project is technically and financially feasible, digging would start in 2008. [133], [134]
Wanderley Carlos Stringhini, retired partner of Ernst Young, dies at age 51, of suicide. During his life, he was partly responsible for the founding of Ernst Young offices in Curitiba, Blumenau, and Porto Alegre.
Iraq's Civil Administrator L. Paul Bremer announces that Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces. Saddam was found approximately 15 km south of his home town of Tikrit at 2030 local time on December 13. Hussein was captured without resistance in a so-called "spider-hole" at a farmhouse in the town of ad-Dawr. He is in Coalition custody at an undisclosed location. At a press conference, Bremer presents video of Saddam in custody with a full beard, which is later shown removed. Bremer says that Saddam is in good health and is being "co-operative and talkative". He says that Saddam will "face justice" before an Iraqi court and under Iraqi law. [142][143][144][145]
In an address to his nation, US president George W. Bush comments on the capture of Saddam, "Now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions." [146]
British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomes the capture of Saddam, urging the Iraqi people "to reach out and to reconcile." Other world leaders offer similar sentiments: Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says that the arrest "will contribute to the strengthening of security in Iraq and to the process of political regulation in the country," while UN Secretary General Kofi Annan comments that Saddam's capture provides a chance "to give fresh impetus to the search for peace and stability in Iraq". [147][148]
A car bomb explodes at a police station in Khaldiyah, 60 km west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 and wounding 30. [149]
US Secretary of State Colin Powell successfully undergoes two hours of prostate cancer surgery at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. [155]
The results of parliamentary elections in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are announced: pro-European Union parties won a narrow victory over the ruling nationalist coalition, with the opposition Republican Turkish Party becoming the largest party. However, the republic's complicated electoral system means that the two sides will each have 25 seats in the 50-seat assembly. [158]
The Israeli military reveals it developed a secret plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein in retaliation for Scud missile attacks on that country during the Gulf War. The plan was called off after five commandos were accidentally killed while training for the mission. [163]
Saddam Hussein's daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, tells the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television network, Saddam "should not be tried by the Iraqi governing council which was put in place by occupiers ... we want an international, fair and legal trial". [164]
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie says that Saddam Hussein will be tried in Iraq by an Iraqi court. Mowaffaq, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, denies reports that the prisoner has been taken out of Baghdad. [170]
Stephen Kenny, the first civilian lawyer to visit any of the former Afghan war suspects in Guantanamo Bay, describes it as a physical and moral black hole. He says prisoners are not treated equally and that there is a pecking order with Americans being treated best. (In fact there are no Americans being held at Guantanamo Bay.) [172][173]Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
Occupation of Iraq: A fuel tanker explodes in downtown Baghdad, killing 10 and wounding 15. Initially believed to be caused by a bomb, officials later conclude that a traffic accident was responsible. [174]
The head of the Greek terrorist group Revolutionary Organization 17 November and their chief hitman are jailed for life, along with four other members of the organisation. [175]
Thomas Kean, chairman of the independent commission investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks, says that the attacks could have been prevented and that public officials were to blame for not anticipating and pre-empting the threat. The commission's report is due in May, 2004. [176][177]
Taiwan reports the first confirmed SARS case in 5 months, a medical researcher who had studied the virus. [179]
The United StatesNational Weather Service warns of "excessive heat" after the Earth reportedly breaks out of its orbit and begins falling into the sun. Fortunately, it turns out to be a mistakenly published test message. [180]
Former Governor of IllinoisGeorge H. Ryan is indicted on corruption charges for receiving payoffs, gifts and vacations in return for government contracts and leases while he served as the Governor and Secretary of State of Illinois. [184]
Governor of ConnecticutJohn G. Rowland announces that he will not resign, despite allegations of corruption involving the receipt of free modifications to a vacation cottage, and the indictments of several of his top aides. [185]
It is alleged that, in cases where their treatment of a detainee may never come under public scrutiny, The Pentagon and CIA are using a number of controversial techniques to extract information. [199]
Prosecutors in California charge singer Michael Jackson with seven counts of child molestation and schedule hearings for January 16, 2004. [202]
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warns the Palestinian Authority that Israel will take unilateral steps to separate from the Palestinians unless there is progress on the road map peace plan and sets a deadline of "a few months" for Palestinian compliance. The speech is strongly criticised by the United States, the Israeli left, the Jewish settler movement and the Palestinians. [203]
Red Hat, in its third quarter, buys Sistina Software. Red Hat expects that it will close the deal by early January for $31 million dollars. [204]
Sudanese authorities close the Khartoum office of the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera and detain its bureau chief for questioning. [205]
Italian dairy company Parmalat declared a 3.96 billion euro hole in its accounts when the amount held by Cayman Islands-based unit, Bonlat Financing Corporation, was declared false by Bank of America. [206]Archived 2013-02-01 at archive.today
Prime Minister of JapanJunichiro Koizumi orders the deployment of Japanese forces for non-combat duties in Southern Iraq; polls show that most Japanese voters are opposed to the mission. [211]
Flights from Vancouver International Airport bound for the U.S. are delayed following the discovery of an envelope containing suspicious white powder and a threatening note at one of the terminals. [212][permanent dead link]
SARS quarantine orders are lifted on up to 75 people in Singapore but concerns remain that the deadly virus could yet make a comeback across Asia. [213]
Australia sends AU$1.2m to Nauru so that the Pacific island-state can pay its public servants before Christmas in a move that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says illustrates the need for long-term solutions to the island's deep-seated problems. [214]
The British spacecraft Beagle 2 successfully separates from the ESA's Mars Express orbiter and is now less than 10 days away from its scheduled landing on the surface of Mars; it will attempt to parachute onto the surface on Christmas morning. [216][217][218]
Police seal off the printing plant and offices of Zimbabwe's last remaining independent daily newspaper, Daily News. [219]
CCTV footage at Hampton Court Palace near London, once home of King Henry VIII of England, is released, and claimed to show a "ghost". The footage, taken in October 2003, shows a man in 16th century clothes closing a firedoor that had blown open. The palace markets itself as one of Britain's most haunted locations. [224][225]
Irish charity fundraiser John O'Shea attacks Manchester United football manager Sir Alex Ferguson as "greedy" for demanding £90,000 to attend a cancer charity function in Ireland in 1999. According to O'Shea, a sports celebrity demanding 'appearance money' from a charity is unheard of in his experience. Ferguson's appearance fee amounted to half the money raised. The fundraisers, until now unaware that Ferguson had taken half the proceeds, denounce his behaviour and say if they had known about it at the time they would have cancelled the event.
Former Argentinian president Carlos Menem is charged with tax fraud for failing to declare a Swiss bank account containing $600,000. If convicted he could be debarred from public office. [227]
The World Court says it will hear legal arguments about Israel's construction of a controversial barrier in the West Bank to separate Israeli and Palestinian areas. The hearings will begin on 23 February 2004. [228]
Massive landslides in the Philippines caused by heavy rain result in the deaths of up to 90 people. [230]
A Malaysian opposition website is shut down by its British web-hosting company amid claims of "political censorship" from the opposition. [231]
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai tells his supporters to "fight fear" as they campaign against President Robert Mugabe. His comments follow the decision of Zimbabwe's police to occupy the offices of Zimbabwe's only privately owned newspaper in defiance of a court order that the newspaper could resume publication. [232]
A senior French police source claims Diana, Princess of Wales was pregnant when she was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997. A Clarence House spokesperson for The Prince of Wales refuses to comment on the issue. Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Diana's partner Dodi Al-Fayed had long insisted that Diana was pregnant with Dodi's baby and that she was murdered to stop her from giving birth. [243][244]
Quoting an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer, a report in the Sunday Express (Britain) claims that before Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops, he had already been discovered by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Kurdish forces had been alerted to his location by a member of the al-Jabour tribe whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday Hussein. [245]
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark presented 4,000 petition signatures to qualify for South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary ballot today. He's the second of the nine candidates for the Democratic nomination to file for the February 3 ballot. Campaign workers for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts gave the state Democratic Party a check for $2,500 last week to qualify.
The Gulf Cooperation Council announces that they will revise school textbooks and remove from them material describing followers of other religions as infidels and enemies of Islam. [254]
SCO claims in a press release to be sending DMCA notification letters alleging copyright infringement [255][256]
Linus Torvalds says, in a post to the Linux kernelmailing list, "... I think we can totally _demolish_ the SCO claim that these 65 files were somehow "copied". They clearly are not."[257]
Novell has also registered their claim to the copyright of original UNIX source code, effectively challenging SCO's registration of the same code [258][259]
The Philippines declares a calamity in a southern province after floods killed up to 209 people. [262]
Drive-By Truckers' bassist, Earl Hicks, leaves the band and is replaced by Shonna Tucker.
Brett Favre played one of the most memorable games of his career, leading the Green Bay Packers to a win over the Oakland Raiders, 41-7, the day after the death of his father, Irvin.
The United States Department of Agriculture confirms the first case of BSE (mad cow disease) in the United States, detected at a small slaughter house. The USDA has found no evidence that the infected materials made it into the food supply. Specimens have been sent to the United Kingdom for further analysis. Authorities quarantined a ranch near Yakima where the animal was raised. [264][265]
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa declares a state of emergency because of flooding in central Bolivia, which killed at least 19 people and collapsed a bridge crucial to Bolivian exports. [272]
Following Beagle 2's expected landing, US probe Mars Odyssey (already in Martian orbit) listens for the lander's distinctive musical callsign. A further scan for the lander is conducted using the Jodrell Bankradio telescope. No signal is detected. [274][275]
An Israeli helicopter gunship attacks a car in Gaza City, killing Islamic Jihad commander Mekled Hameid and two fellow militants, together with two bystanders. [276]
A suicide-bomber strikes a bus stop Tel Aviv, killing four civilians and himself. [277]
A UK lab confirms the presence of BSE in samples taken from a cow in Washington [279]. Mexico joins the list of countries which have banned imports of US beef.
Reports emerge of a major leak of natural gas in a gas field near the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing. Over 100 people are believed dead and up to 40,000 people have been evacuated from the area surrounding the leak. [280]
A powerful earthquake occurs near the southern Iranian city of Bam at 0156 GMT (5.26am local time). The USGS estimates its magnitude as 6.7 on the Richter scale. The BBC reports that "70% of the modern city of Bam" is destroyed. Iranian government officials estimate the death toll at over 20,000 with a further 50,000 injured. Bam Citadel the largest adobe structure of the world is destroyed. The area of the citadel is about 180,000 square meters and the construction date of parts of it goes back for about 2500 years. [282][283][284]
The death toll in the Chinese gas-leak rises to 191. [285]
The estimate of the number of dead in the Bam earthquake increases to 40,000, according to the provincial governor. Iran has refused earthquake aid from Israel.[287]
British scientists are continuing their efforts to make contact with the Mars probe Beagle 2, which was designed to perform advanced studies of the Martian soil in an effort to find microbial life. [291]Archived 2007-09-07 at the Wayback Machine
The United States Department of Homeland Security announces that it will require armed security personnel on all airline flights, whether US or foreign carriers, when the department has intelligence that there is a threat to a flight. [294]
Cuban officials are investigating who is responsible for altering a photograph of Fidel Castro on the front page of the official government newspaper, Granma, to make him look like Adolf Hitler. [295]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation issues a memo instructing police to be alert of people carrying almanacs, stating that information in these reference works could be used to aid in the planning of terrorist attacks. [296]
Occupation of Iraq: A car bomb detonates outside an upmarket Baghdad restaurant much favoured by foreign journalists, killing five New Year revelers. [302]
