December 2003
Encyclopedia
Events
See also: 2004 Canadian Federal Election Canadian federal election, 2004 The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections... 2004 Taiwan Presidential Election ROC presidential election, 2004 The Election for the 11th-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China , the third direct presidential election in Taiwan's history and the 11th presidential election overall under the 1947 Chinese Constitution, was held on March 20, 2004... 2004 U.S. Presidential Election Bloody Sunday Inquiry Search for Beagle 2 Beagle 2 Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere... Kyoto Protocol Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming... Liberian Crisis Politics of Liberia Politics of Liberia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic modeled on the government of the United States, whereby the President is the head of state and head of government; unlike the United States, however, Liberia is a unitary state as opposed to a... Same-sex Marriage Same-sex marriage in Canada On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act which provided a gender-neutral marriage definition... SCO v. IBM Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Israeli-Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
North Korean Crisis War on Terrorism War on Terrorism The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
Occupation of Iraq
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December 1
- Occupation of Iraq:
- The firefight in which more than 50 IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
is are reported killed is now thought to have been an attempted currencyCurrencyIn economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
heist. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3253236.stm - One GI is killed Monday in fighting west of BaghdadBaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/01/sprj.irq.main/index.html
- The firefight in which more than 50 Iraq
- World AIDS DayWorld AIDS DayWorld AIDS Day, observed December 1 every year, is dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. Government and health officials observe the day, often with speeches or forums on the AIDS topics. Since 1995, the President of the United States has made an...
:- US Health SecretaryUnited States Secretary of Health and Human ServicesThe United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, concerned with health matters. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet...
Tommy ThompsonTommy ThompsonThomas George "Tommy" Thompson , a United States Republican politician, was the 42nd Governor of Wisconsin, after which he served as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Thompson was a candidate for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, but dropped out early after a poor performance in polls...
warns that the world is losing the war against AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
. Thompson said, "We need America, the European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and everybody. Nobody is going to be spared unless we all come together in the fight against this disease." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3254706.stm - UK Secretary of State for International DevelopmentSecretary of State for International DevelopmentIn the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State for International Development is a Cabinet minister responsible for the Department for International Development and for promoting development overseas, particularly in the third world...
Hilary BennHilary BennHilary James Wedgwood Benn is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds Central since 1999. He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007 and as the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs...
announces that the UK's funding for UNAids will rise to GBPPound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
in 2004; this figure compares to the UK's projected Iraq War-related costs of approximately GBPPound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3252238.stm - UN Secretary-GeneralUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralThe Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
Kofi AnnanKofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
reportedly tells the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that the world is losing the war against AIDS because governmentGovernmentGovernment refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s remain indifferent to the threat. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/11/30/un.aids.ap/index.html - Chinese PremierPremier of the People's Republic of ChinaThe Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...
Wen JiabaoWen JiabaoWen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
marks World AIDS Day by visiting AIDS victims in a BeijingBeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
hospital. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3252160.stm
- US Health Secretary
- The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for RwandaInternational Criminal Tribunal for RwandaThe International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan...
hands down a life sentence to Juvenal Kajelijeli, a former mayor of Mukingo, for his role in the 1994 genocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
in which more than 500,000 RwandaRwandaRwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
ns were killed. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=515&ncid=723&e=5&u=/ap/20031201/ap_on_re_af/un_rwanda_tribunal - King Harald V of NorwayHarald V of NorwayHarald V is the king of Norway. He succeeded to the throne of Norway upon the death of his father Olav V on 17 January 1991...
is announced to be suffering from cancer of the bladderBladder cancerBladder cancer is any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. It is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control in the bladder. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; it is located in the pelvis...
; he will be operated on next Monday, December 8. During the King's illness and two to three month convalescence, Crown Prince Haakon will be acting regentRegentA regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
. http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=682035 - PresidentPresident of the Republic of ChinaThe President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China...
Chen Shui-bianChen Shui-bianChen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
says that the hundreds of missiles the People's Republic of China has aimed at TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
justifies holding a referendum on independenceTaiwan independenceTaiwan independence is a political movement whose goals are primarily to formally establish the Republic of Taiwan by renaming or replacing the Republic of China , form a Taiwanese national identity, reject unification and One country, two systems with the People's Republic of China and a Chinese...
. The referendum bill recently passed by the Legislative YuanLegislative YuanThe Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China .The Legislative Yuan is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, which follows Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People...
only allows votes on sovereignty if the countryRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
is attacked by a foreign power. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3252246.stm - BoeingBoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
Chairman and Chief Executive OfficerChief executive officerA chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Phil Condit resigns, a week after the aviationAviationAviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
giant fires its Chief Financial OfficerChief financial officerThe chief financial officer or Chief financial and operating officer is a corporate officer primarily responsible for managing the financial risks of the corporation. This officer is also responsible for financial planning and record-keeping, as well as financial reporting to higher management...
in an ethicsBusiness ethicsBusiness ethics is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations.Business...
scandalScandalA scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...
. The move comes as the company faces scrutiny by the Defense DepartmentUnited States Department of DefenseThe United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
for a government plan to acquire Boeing 767 planes for use as refueling tankersAerial refuelingAerial refueling, also called air refueling, in-flight refueling , air-to-air refueling or tanking, is the process of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during flight....
and answers questions about the ousters of two executives for ethical misconduct during the period it was being negotiated. Former McDonnell DouglasMcDonnell DouglasMcDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. It formed from a merger of McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft in 1967. McDonnell Douglas was based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport...
CEO Harry Stonecipher will succeed Condit as CEO, while former Hewlett-PackardHewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
chairman and CEO Lewis Platt takes over as chairman. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=412789§ion=finance - In FlandreauFlandreau, South DakotaFlandreau is a city in Moody County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 2,341 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Moody County...
, South Dakota, jury selectionJuryA jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
begins in the manslaughterManslaughterManslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
trialJury trialA jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge...
of former South Dakota GovernorGovernor of South DakotaThe Governor of South Dakota is the head of the executive branch of the government of South Dakota. They are elected to a four year term on even years when there is no Presidential election. The current governor is Dennis Daugaard, a Republican elected in 2010....
and current US CongressmanUnited States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Bill JanklowBill JanklowWilliam John "Bill" Janklow served as the 25th Attorney General of South Dakota, before being elected as South Dakota's 27th and 30th Governor, as well as to the United States House of Representatives where he served for a little more than a year. A Republican, Janklow's career has continued as a...
. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104431,00.html - The cross country cycling organization "LOCOLoco-Computers:* LocoRoco, a 2006 game for PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3* LOCO-1, a near-lossless image compression algorithm used in JPEG* Loco Linux, Linux distribution* Loco team, a group of Linux and open source advocates...
" was founded in Shreveport / Bossier City. - The Xbox Music MixerXbox Music MixerThe Xbox Music Mixer is a multimedia accessory/utility developed by Wild Tangent and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. The Xbox Music Mixer was released on December 1, 2003. The Xbox Music Mixer allows one to transfer certain types of music and pictures directly from a PC to the...
was released.
December 2
- VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n opposition leaders claim to have gathered enough petition signatures to force a referendum to recall President Hugo ChávezHugo ChávezHugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
; in response, the government alleges the four-day signature drive was tainted by "massive fraud". http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/60165/1/.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3258200.stm - The second trial of DeCSSDeCSSDeCSS is a computer program capable of decrypting content on a commercially produced DVD video disc. Before the release of DeCSS, there was no way for computers running a Linux-based operating system to play video DVDs....
releaser Jon Johansen begins. http://www.ipjustice.org/media_releases/120103jj.html - The US dollarUnited States dollarThe United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
continues to decline, hitting a new low of 1.2 against the euroEuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
; the dollar is suffering from deteriorating support against the background of a large current accountCurrent accountIn economics, the current account is one of the two primary components of the balance of payments, the other being the capital account. The current account is the sum of the balance of trade , net factor income and net transfer payments .The current account balance is one of two major...
deficit and fears of growing protectionismProtectionismProtectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=ae5WntLCCGd0&refer=japan - Andrei Illarionov, economic advisor to President Vladimir PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
, indicates Russia will not ratify the Kyoto ProtocolKyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
in its current form, a decision that would kill the accord. Some observers speculate that this is purely domestic posturing for forthcoming electionElectionAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
s. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3256604.stm - Mark LathamMark LathamMark William Latham , an author and former Australian politician, was leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005....
is elected to succeed Simon CreanSimon CreanSimon Findlay Crean is an Australian politician, and the current Minister for the Arts and Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government in the Australian Federal Government. He was leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition at the Federal level,...
as the new leader of the opposition Australian Labor PartyAustralian Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
, defeating former leader Kim BeazleyKim BeazleyIn the October 1998 election, Labor polled a majority of the two-party vote and received the largest swing to a first-term opposition since 1934. However, due to the uneven nature of the swing, Labor came up eight seats short of making Beazley Prime Minister....
by 47 votes to 45. In 2004 Latham will face LiberalLiberal Party of AustraliaThe Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Prime MinisterPrime Minister of AustraliaThe Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John HowardJohn HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
at a general electionGeneral electionIn a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/02/1070127386800.html - The IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i governmentPolitics of IsraelThe Israeli system of government is based on parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the Knesset. The Judiciary is independent of the executive...
has called on U.S. Secretary of State Colin PowellColin PowellColin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
not to meet with former ministers of Israel and the Palestinian Authority who have drawn up the unofficial Geneva plan. http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=10A4368A-A917-4370-A4EB40CDB94EF998 - US Defense SecretaryUnited States Secretary of DefenseThe Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
Donald RumsfeldDonald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
wins the annual "Foot in Mouth Prize" awarded by the UK's Plain English CampaignPlain English CampaignThe Plain English Campaign is a commercial editing and training firm based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 by Chrissie Maher, the company positions itself as a leader in plain-language advocacy, working to persuade organisations in the UK and abroad to communicate with the public in plain...
for the most nonsensical remark made by a public figure. Among the runners-up are Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
and Chris PattenChris PattenChristopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC , is the last Governor of British Hong Kong, a former British Conservative politician, and the current chairman of the BBC Trust....
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3254852.stm - Hospitals around ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
struggle to cope with an outbreak of influenzaInfluenzaInfluenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
and gastro-enteritis. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3253286.stm - The European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
threatens retaliatory sanctions unless the United States lifts its threat of restrictions on imports of steelSteelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
; the US measures have been declared illegal by the WTO. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20031201_936.html - Pirate copies of a pre-alpha version of MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Windows "Longhorn"Windows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
operating system go on sale in Malaysia more than a year ahead of its expected release date. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3255120.stm - GIMPSGreat Internet Mersenne Prime SearchThe Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search is a collaborative project of volunteers who use freely available computer software to search for Mersenne prime numbers. The project was founded by George Woltman, who also wrote the software Prime95 and MPrime for the project...
has confirmed that 220,996,011-1 is primePrime numberA prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. A natural number greater than 1 that is not a prime number is called a composite number. For example 5 is prime, as only 1 and 5 divide it, whereas 6 is composite, since it has the divisors 2...
. At 6,320,430 decimalDecimalThe decimal numeral system has ten as its base. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations....
digitsNumerical digitA digit is a symbol used in combinations to represent numbers in positional numeral systems. The name "digit" comes from the fact that the 10 digits of the hands correspond to the 10 symbols of the common base 10 number system, i.e...
, it is easily the largest known prime number. 220,996,011-1 is the 40th known Mersenne primeMersenne primeIn mathematics, a Mersenne number, named after Marin Mersenne , is a positive integer that is one less than a power of two: M_p=2^p-1.\,...
and the sixth Mersenne prime discovered by GIMPS. http://mersenne.org/primes/20996011.htm - The PentagonThe PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
announces that U.S.-born illegal combatant and Taliban fighter Yaser Esam HamdiYaser Esam HamdiYaser Esam Hamdi is a now-former American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan in 2001. It is claimed by the U.S. government that he was fighting against U.S. and Afghan Northern Alliance forces with the Taliban...
will be allowed access to a lawyer after having been denied such counsel for two years. http://www.myafghan.com/news2.asp?id=985750365&search=12/3/2003
December 3
- Deng PufangDeng PufangDeng Pufang is the first son of former China's Paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. He is mostly known for being crippled by the Red Guards, and becoming a paraplegic. He has since dedicated his life to improving the rights of handicapped people.-Biography:Deng Pufang was born to Deng Xiaoping and...
, Sérgio Vieira de MelloSérgio Vieira de MelloSérgio Vieira de Mello was a Brazilian United Nations employee who worked for the UN for more than 34 years, earning respect and praise around the world for his efforts in the humanitarian and political programs of the UN...
, the Plaza de Mayo Grandmothers and others are announced as the winners of the UN human rights prizesUnited Nations Prize in the Field of Human RightsThe United Nations Prizes in the Field of Human Rights were instituted by United Nations General Assembly in 1966.They are intended to "honour and commend people and organizations which have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the...
, which are awarded every five years. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=9047&Cr=human&Cr1=rights http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3286865.stm - Up to 50 employees of Australia's national postal serviceAustralia PostAustralia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
have been caught sending pornographicPornographyPornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
emails, including some involving childrenChild pornographyChild pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
in sex acts, according to an investigation published by the SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
-based Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph (Australia)The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
. Two have been sacked, at least four have resigned, and dozens have been suspended pending further investigations. http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8058890%5E2,00.html - In KasselKasselKassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, Germany, the trial of Armin MeiwesArmin MeiwesArmin Meiwes is a German man who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh...
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 cannibalismCannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
is not explicitly prohibited by the German penal code, and the defence argues that as the victim was willing, no murder took place. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3286721.stm - The Russian government backtracks on statements made the previous day on the Kyoto ProtocolKyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
, saying it is still considering ratificationRatificationRatification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent where the agent lacked authority to legally bind the principal. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutionals in federations such as the United States and Canada.- Private law :In contract law, the...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3288683.stm - Two mediaMass mediaMass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
figures are sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for RwandaInternational Criminal Tribunal for RwandaThe International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in Resolution 955 in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan Genocide and other serious violations of international law in Rwanda, or by Rwandan...
for fueling the 1994 Rwanda genocideHistory of RwandaHuman occupation of Rwanda is thought to have begun shortly after the last ice age. By the fifteenth century the inhabitants had organized into a number of kingdoms...
; a third receives a 35-year prison term. http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/rwa031204.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3290621.stm - Politics of CanadaPolitics of CanadaThe politics of Canada function within a framework of parliamentary democracy and a federal system of parliamentary government with strong democratic traditions. Canada is a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is head of state...
: Natural Resources MinisterMinister of Natural Resources (Canada)The Minister of Natural Resources is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for Natural Resources Canada. As of January 19, 2010, the Minister of Natural Resources is Joe Oliver.-Ministers:Key:...
Herb DhaliwalHerb DhaliwalHarbance Singh Dhaliwal, PC is a Canadian politician.Born to a Sikh family in Punjab, India, Dhaliwal's family immigrated to Vancouver when he was six. He attended John Oliver Secondary School, graduating in 1972...
, Canada's first Indo-Canadian cabinetCabinet (government)A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
minister, announces he is leaving politicsPoliticsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. Dhaliwal intends to quit his ministerial post when incoming Prime MinisterPrime Minister of CanadaThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Paul MartinPaul MartinPaul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
swears in a new cabinet on December 12, and has indicated he will not seek re-election in the anticipated 2004 electionCanadian federal election, 2004The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...
. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/03/dhaliwal_031203 - Devi Prasad ShettyDevi Prasad ShettyDr Devi Prasad Shetty is an Indian philanthropist and a cardiac surgeon. He also served as a member of the Board of Governors of Medical Council of India for 1 year between May 2010 and May 2011, after the MCI was reconstituted.-Life and career:...
married Shruthi Mahesh in Bangalore. - In AbidjanAbidjanAbidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...
, Côte d'IvoireCôte d'IvoireThe Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, policePoliceThe police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
fire tear gas at hundreds of protesters who want France to withdraw its 3,800 peacekeepers so that the Christian and animist government of PresidentPresidentA president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Laurent GbagboLaurent GbagboLaurent Koudou Gbagbo served as the fourth President of Côte d'Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest in April 2011. A historian by profession, he is also an amateur chemist and physicist....
in the south can march against Muslim rebel-held areas in the north. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3257264.stmhttp://www.iht.com/articles/119994.html - The Parliament of New ZealandParliament of New ZealandThe Parliament of New Zealand consists of the Queen of New Zealand and the New Zealand House of Representatives and, until 1951, the New Zealand Legislative Council. The House of Representatives is often referred to as "Parliament".The House of Representatives usually consists of 120 Members of...
voted 68–52 to pass the Smokefree Environments Amendment Bill, introducing a progressive ban on smoking in all workplaces including offices, clubs, pubs, restaurants, airports, schools etc.
December 4
- PolishPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Prime Minister Leszek MillerLeszek MillerLeszek Cezary Miller is a Polish central-left-wing politician, leader of the Democratic Left Alliance , Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland in 2001-2004.-Childhood and youth:...
is injured in a helicopterHelicopterA helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
crash outside WarsawWarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3292481.stm - Facing the threat of a tradeTradeTrade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
war, U.S. PresidentPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
lifts 20-month-old tariffs on foreign steelSteelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
. Within minutes of the announcement, the European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
announces that it is lifting its threat of sanctions on of U.S. products that would have taken effect in mid-December based on a ruling from the World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
that the tariffs were in violation of global trade rules. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&e=1&u=/ap/20031204/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_steel - Hourly productivityProductivityProductivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
of U.S. employees increased in the third quarter of 2003 at an annual rate of 9.2%, the highest since the ReaganRonald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
years (Q2 of 1983). http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20031203-111745-2647r.htm - Interpol issues a red noticeRed noticeAn Interpol notice or international notice is issued by Interpol to share information between its members. There are seven types, six of which are known by their colour codes: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black, Orange....
for the arrest of former President of Liberia Charles Taylor. http://www.interpol.int/Public/ICPO/PressReleases/PR2003/PR200334.asp http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8070094%5E1702,00.html
December 5
- Suicide bombers blow up a morning rush-hour commuter train in Russia's Northern Caucasus, on the border with ChechnyaChechnyaThe Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
; at least 40 people are killed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3294445.stm http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20031205/wl_nm/russia_explosion_dc - As part of a spending bill passed by the United States CongressUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
this week, the University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
will have to compete for the management contract of all three of its national laboratories: Lawrence BerkeleyLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryThe Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory conducting unclassified scientific research. It is located on the grounds of the University of California, Berkeley, in the Berkeley Hills above the central campus...
, Lawrence LivermoreLawrence Livermore National LaboratoryThe Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...
, and Los AlamosLos Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
. Previously, it was expected that only Los Alamos would be up for bidding. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/04/MNG0Q3FSQ51.DTL - The CommonwealthCommonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is opened in AbujaAbujaAbuja is the capital city of Nigeria. It is located in the centre of Nigeria, within the Federal Capital Territory . Abuja is a planned city, and was built mainly in the 1980s. It officially became Nigeria's capital on 12 December 1991, replacing Lagos...
, NigeriaNigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, by Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
. The future of ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
's membership is threatening to dominate the gathering. The debate has been marked by bitter personal polemics between Zimbabwean President Robert MugabeRobert MugabeRobert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
and Australian Prime Minister John HowardJohn HowardJohn Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, whom Mugabe accuses of leading an "Anglo-SaxonAnglo-SaxonsAnglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
conspiracy" against Zimbabwe. Mugabe himself is barred from entering the European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth last year on charges that Mugabe had rigged his re-election in 2002. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=470202http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8088518%5E401,00.html - Members of the Canadian AllianceCanadian AllianceThe Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
vote 96% to 4% in favour of forming a union with the Progressive Conservative PartyProgressive Conservative Party of CanadaThe Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
, called the Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
. The Progressive Conservatives will vote tomorrow. http://www.cjad.com/content/cjad_news/article.asp?id=n120513A http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=4ED58154-89F5-4649-AFFA-DA6C5B386C73 - SCO v. IBMSCO v. IBMSCO v. IBM is a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court of Utah. The SCO Group asserted that there are legal uncertainties regarding the use of the Linux operating system due to alleged violations of IBM's Unix licenses in the development of Linux code at IBM.-Summary:On March 6, 2003,...
: in the opening discovery stages of the SCO v. IBM conflict, a judge grants IBM's two motions to compelMotion to compelA motion to compel asks the court to order either the opposing party or a third party to take some action. This sort of motion most commonly deals with discovery disputes, when a party who has propounded discovery to either the opposing party or a third party believes that the discovery responses...
against SCO, and defers consideration of SCO's motions until later. - The 22nd SEA Games2003 Southeast Asian GamesThe 22nd Southeast Asian Games were held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 5 December - 13 December 2003. The games were opened by Vietnamese prime minister Phan Van Khai in the newly constructed My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi. The games torch was lit by Nguyen Thuy Hien of Wushu...
open in Ho Chi Minh CityHo Chi Minh CityHo Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
, VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. This is the first time Vietnam has hosted the regional athletic event and the first time East TimorEast TimorThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
has sent a delegation. IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and Vietnam are expected to top the medal tallies. http://english.seagames22.com.vn/ http://www.internationalgames.net/seagames.htm - The draw for the qualifying stages of the 2006 Football World Cup is made. England, WalesWalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and Northern IrelandNorthern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
are drawn together in group 6 of the Europe (UEFAUEFAThe Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
) section, making the group three-quarters of a home nations championship – Scotland missed out by being drawn (amongst others) against Italy and Norway.
December 6
- Australian DemocratsAustralian DemocratsThe Australian Democrats is an Australian political party espousing a socially liberal ideology. It was formed in 1977, by a merger of the Australia Party and the New LM, after principals of those minor parties secured the commitment of former Liberal minister Don Chipp, as a high profile leader...
leader Andrew BartlettAndrew BartlettAndrew John Julian Bartlett is an Australian politician. He was formerly an Australian Democrats member of the Australian Senate from 1997 to 2008, representing the state of Queensland. He was the leader of the Democrats from 2002 to 2004, and deputy leader from 2004 to 2008.-Early life and...
stands aside after allegedly assaulting LiberalLiberal Party of AustraliaThe Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Jeannie Ferris on the floor of ParliamentParliament of AustraliaThe Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...
. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1005103.htm - Occupation of Iraq:
- George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
asks James BakerJames BakerJames Addison Baker, III is an American attorney, politician and political advisor.Baker served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush...
to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq's USD foreign debt. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493769017&p=1012571727102 - US soldiers in and returning from IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
are affected by "Baghdad Boil" (LeishmaniasisLeishmaniasisLeishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly...
) that can cause disfiguring skin lesionLesionA lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...
s. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=676&e=1&u=/usatoday/20031205/ts_usatoday/12058219 - Japan mourns the two Japanese diplomats killed in Iraq. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20031207a1.htm
- George W. Bush
- The US admits that at least nine children have been mistakenly killed in a bombing attack near GhazniGhazniFor the Province of Ghazni see Ghazni ProvinceGhazni is a city in central-east Afghanistan with a population of about 141,000 people...
, AfghanistanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3297575.stmhttp://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/12060000aaa06ae9.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking - Delegates representing the Progressive Conservative Party of CanadaProgressive Conservative Party of CanadaThe Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
vote 90% to 10% in favour of forming a union with the Canadian AllianceCanadian AllianceThe Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
. The Alliance approved the measure even more overwhelmingly yesterday, with 96% support. The new party is to style itself the Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/06/tories_vote031206 - The first major winter storm strikes the North East United States. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=U2L1QQTAK433OCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3949879
- 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. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-flu-severity,0,4102867.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines The US is running out of the injectable version of the vaccineVaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
and is encouraging people to use the nasal spray. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-flu-vaccine,0,5012242.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines - ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
fails to find supporters at the CommonwealthCommonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
Prime Minister's Conference in Nigeria. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493769766&p=1012571727169 - George ClintonGeorge Clinton (funk musician)George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
, founder of P-FunkP-FunkP-Funk is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed...
, is arrested for cocaine possession in TallahasseeTallahassee, FloridaTallahassee is the capital of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, and is the 128th largest city in the United States. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2010, the population recorded by...
, Florida. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=529&ncid=529&e=2&u=/ap/20031209/ap_en_ot/george_clinton_arrest_2
December 7
- Former NicaraguaNicaraguaNicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
n President Arnoldo Alemán receives a 20-year prison sentence for money launderingMoney launderingMoney laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
, embezzlementEmbezzlementEmbezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
, electoral crimePolitical corruptionPolitical corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, etc. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=4&u=/ap/20031208/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/nicaragua_former_president http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20031207_1235.html - ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an President Robert MugabeRobert MugabeRobert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
announces that he is withdrawing his country from the Commonwealth of NationsCommonwealth of NationsThe Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
. The Commonwealth had earlier decided to maintain Zimbabwe's suspension until human rightsHuman rightsHuman rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and democratic reforms had taken place. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=417200§ion=news - President PutinVladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's United Russia Party 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 PartyCommunist Party of the Russian FederationThe Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a Russian political party. It is the second major political party in the Russian Federation.-History:...
, with ZhirinovskyVladimir ZhirinovskyVladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is a Russian politician, colonel of the Russian Army, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Vice-Chairman of the State Duma, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe....
's LDPRLiberal Democratic Party of RussiaThe Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Liberal'no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii is a political party in Russia. Since its founding in 1991, it has been led by the charismatic and controversial figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky...
nationalists close behind with 11.5%. However, electoral monitors say the democratic process was "overwhelmingly distorted" in the government's favour. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3299091.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3300483.stm - AfghanAfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
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. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/central/12/07/afghan.strike/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3298945.stm - Currency analysts remain negative on the US dollar. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3298543.stm
- One US soldier is killed and two are injured Sunday in MosulMosulMosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
when a convoy is attacked. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/07/sprj.irq.main/index.html
December 8
- The European Commission refuse to approve a controversial genetically modified sweet cornGenetically modified foodGenetically modified foods are foods derived from genetically modified organisms . Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA by genetic engineering techniques...
, thus de facto refusing to lift the moratorium on GMOGMOA GMO is a genetically modified organism.GMO may also refer to:* Gell-Mann–Okubo mass formula in particle physics* General Medical Officer, a designation for United States Army soldiers* Generalised molecular orbital theory, in chemistry...
s. See also Trade war over genetically modified food. - The United States CongressUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
passes the Can Spam Act of 2003. http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/12/08/HNspambill_1.html - King Harald VHarald V of NorwayHarald V is the king of Norway. He succeeded to the throne of Norway upon the death of his father Olav V on 17 January 1991...
of NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
successfully undergoes a 5½-hour cancerBladder cancerBladder cancer is any of several types of malignant growths of the urinary bladder. It is a disease in which abnormal cells multiply without control in the bladder. The bladder is a hollow, muscular organ that stores urine; it is located in the pelvis...
operation in which his bladder is removed and a new one constructed, at Rikshospitalet University Hospital in OsloOsloOslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=686979 - German Justice Minister Brigitte ZypriesBrigitte ZypriesBrigitte Zypries is a German politician. She was Federal Minister of Justice of Germany from 2002 to 2009. She is member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .- Career :...
unveils a draft bill aimed at policing company accounts following the EnronEnronEnron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...
and WorldCom scandals in the US. http://www.finance24.co.za/Finance/Companies/0,,1518-24_1456622,00.html - South DakotaSouth DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
CongressmanUnited States House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Bill JanklowBill JanklowWilliam John "Bill" Janklow served as the 25th Attorney General of South Dakota, before being elected as South Dakota's 27th and 30th Governor, as well as to the United States House of Representatives where he served for a little more than a year. A Republican, Janklow's career has continued as a...
is convicted of a series of criminal charges including second-degree manslaughterMurderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, which can carry a prison term of up to 10 years. He says he will resign his congressional seat. http://www.msnbc.com/news/999765.asp?vts=120820031804&cp1=1 - The new Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
, resulting from the merger of the Canadian AllianceCanadian AllianceThe Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
and the Progressive Conservative Party of CanadaProgressive Conservative Party of CanadaThe Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
, is officially registered with Elections CanadaElections CanadaElections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency reporting directly to the Parliament of Canada. Its ongoing responsibility is to ensure that Canadians can exercise their choices in federal elections and referenda through an open and impartial process...
. The party's first interim leader is John Lynch-StauntonJohn Lynch-StauntonJohn George Lynch-Staunton is a former Canadian senator and was the first leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. He represented the Senate division of Grandville, Quebec.-Personal background:...
, with a leadership race scheduled for March 2004. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031208.wmerg1208/BNStory/National/ - In San Juan, Puerto RicoSan Juan, Puerto RicoSan Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
, four men are killed and a woman critically injured during a massacre in a discothèque. It is the largest massacre in Puerto Rico since 1988. http://vocero.com/noticia.asp?n=36816&d=12/9/2003 (in SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) - British musician Ozzy OsbourneOzzy OsbourneJohn Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
is seriously injured in an ATVAll-terrain vehicleAn all-terrain vehicle , also known as a quad, quad bike, three wheeler, or four wheeler, is defined by the American National Standards Institute as a vehicle that travels on low pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control...
accident. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=9&u=/ap/20031208/ap_on_en_tv/osbourne_accident - 750,000 people crowd the streets of LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to see the victory parade of the England rugby team following their victory in the Rugby Union World Cup. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3299835.stm - Rubén González, the successful CubaCubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n pianistPianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, dies at home in HavanaHavanaHavana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, at the age of 84. http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1103619,00.html - Greek electronic game banGreek electronic game banIn 2002 the Greek government, ostensibly in an attempt to fight illegal gambling, passed the ambiguous and controversial law 3037/2002 which effectively banned all electronic games in public places...
: The Greek government in an attempt to fight illegal gambling passes an old decision (1107414/1491/T. & E. F.) regarding the 3037/2002 law.
December 9
- A suicide bombing in central MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
at 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. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=NQGNBFDUPS5L2CRBAEKSFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=418934§ion=news - Doctors at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are worried that the 2003–2004 influenzaInfluenzaInfluenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
season will be the worst in years. Early signs indicate that a particularly virulent strain of the flu virusVirusA virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
that is not well-covered by that year's vaccineVaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
is hitting hard in some states. Young children and the elderly have been urged to receive the vaccine, doses of which are running low. http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/4256831.html - Former U.S. SenatorUnited States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Bob KerreyBob KerreyJoseph Robert "Bob" Kerrey was the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and a U.S. Senator from Nebraska . Having served in the Vietnam War, earning the Medal of Honor for his actions, he moved into politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992...
is appointed to the 9/11 Commission to replace Max ClelandMax ClelandJoseph Maxwell Cleland is an American politician from Georgia. Cleland, a Democrat, is a disabled US Army veteran of the Vietnam War, a recipient of the Silver Star and the Bronze Star for valorous action in combat, and a former U.S. Senator...
, who is stepping down to become president of the U.S. Export-Import BankExport-Import Bank of the United StatesThe Export-Import Bank of the United States is the official export credit agency of the United States federal government. It was established in 1934 by an executive order, and made an independent agency in the Executive branch by Congress in 1945, for the purposes of financing and insuring...
. - Al GoreAl GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
endorses Howard DeanHoward DeanHoward Brush Dean III is an American politician and physician from Vermont. He served six terms as the 79th Governor of Vermont and ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. He was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009. Although his U.S...
's candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2004 U.S. presidential election. http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002878.asp?0sl=-21&cp1=1 - The M6 TollM6 TollThe M6 Toll , connects M6 Junction 4 at the NEC to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with of six-lane motorway. The weekday cash cost is £5.30 for a car and £10.60 for a HGV...
road, the United Kingdom's first toll motorway, partially opens in the West MidlandsWest Midlands (region)The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
. It is due to open fully on December 13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/3298789.stm - Occupation of Iraq:
- Some 60 U.S. soldiers and a handful of IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
is are injured in Tal AfarTal AfarTal Afar is a city and district in northwestern Iraq in the Ninawa Governorate located approximately 30 miles west of Mosul and 120 miles north west of Kirkuk.While no official census data exists, the city which had been...
, west of MosulMosulMosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
, when a pre-dawn car bombCar bombA car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
explodes at an entrance to an army base. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3302629.stm http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=2&u=/ap/20031209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq - A U.S. KiowaOH-58 KiowaThe Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine, single-rotor, military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. Bell Helicopter manufactured the OH-58 for the United States Army based on the 206A JetRanger helicopter. The OH-58 has been in continuous use by the U.S...
helicopter makes a controlled landing after being struck by an RPGRocket propelled grenadeA rocket-propelled grenade is a shoulder-fired, anti-tank weapon system which fires rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable while others are single-use. RPGs, with the exception of...
near FallujahFallujahFallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries....
; the two-man crew is uninjured. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&e=1&u=/ap/20031209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_helicopter - An early-morning car bombCar bombA car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
kills three people at a Sunni mosqueMosqueA mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in a predominantly Shi'ite district of BaghdadBaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=5&u=/nm/20031209/wl_nm/iraq_mosque_dc - Japan cabinet approves troops to Iraq. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=7&u=/ap/20031210/ap_on_re_as/japan_iraq
- Some 60 U.S. soldiers and a handful of Iraq
- Political status of TaiwanPolitical status of TaiwanThe controversy regarding the political status of Taiwan hinges on whether Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu should remain effectively independent as territory of the Republic of China , become unified with the territories now governed by the People's Republic of China , or formally declare...
: Standing next to visiting PremierPremier of the People's Republic of ChinaThe Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...
Wen JiabaoWen JiabaoWen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
, George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
reiterates U.S. support for the one China policy and states that he opposes holding a referendum on TaiwanRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/09/bush.china.taiwan/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3302339.stm - Democrat Gavin NewsomGavin NewsomGavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
defeats Green Party challenger Matt GonzalezMatt GonzalezMatthew Edward Gonzalez is an American politician, lawyer, and activist prominent in San Francisco politics. He currently serves as chief attorney in the San Francisco Public Defender's office....
in run-off election for San Francisco mayor, succeeding term-limit blocked Willie Brown. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20031210_872.html - United States Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentUnited States Secretary of Housing and Urban DevelopmentThe United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the President's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Housing...
Mel MartinezMel MartinezMelquíades Rafael Martínez Ruiz, usually known as Mel Martinez , is a former United States Senator from Florida and served as Chairman of the Republican Party from November 2006 until October 19, 2007, the first Latino to serve as chairman of a major party...
resigns, effective Friday at noon. http://www.msnbc.com/news/1003368.asp?0dm=N15ON - ShanghaiShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
announces plans to ban bicycleBicycleA bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
s from main roads in the city centre http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3303655.stm
December 10
- Western leaders are criticised at the World Summit on the Information SocietyWorld Summit on the Information SocietyThe World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis...
in GenevaGenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=3968760§ion=news - 2004 Taiwan Presidential ElectionROC presidential election, 2004The Election for the 11th-term President and Vice-President of the Republic of China , the third direct presidential election in Taiwan's history and the 11th presidential election overall under the 1947 Chinese Constitution, was held on March 20, 2004...
: PresidentPresident of the Republic of ChinaThe President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China...
Chen Shui-bianChen Shui-bianChen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
is officially nominated by his Democratic Progressive PartyDemocratic Progressive PartyThe Democratic Progressive Party is a political party in Taiwan, and the dominant party in the Pan-Green Coalition. Founded in 1986, DPP is the first meaningful opposition party in Taiwan. It has traditionally been associated with strong advocacy of human rights and a distinct Taiwanese identity,...
and picks Vice President Annette LuAnnette LuAnnette Lu Hsiu-lien , was the Vice President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008, under Chen Shui-bian. She announced her intentions to run for President of Taiwan on March 6, 2007, but withdrew in order to support DPP presidential nominee, Frank Hsieh...
as his running mate. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V1414.AP-Taiwan-Vice-Pre.html - Campaign finance reformCampaign finance reformCampaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in politics, primarily in political campaigns....
, passed as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002Bipartisan Campaign Reform ActThe Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were Senators Russell Feingold and John McCain...
, is upheld by a slim majority of the U.S. Supreme CourtSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031210-102525-5148r, http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/03pdf/02-1674.pdf - Canada's BC FerryBC FerriesBritish Columbia Ferry Services Inc. or BC Ferries is a de facto Crown Corporation that provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia...
system experiences a total shutdown due to job actionStrike actionStrike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
by its union, after an 80-day cooling-off period, imposed by the provincial government, was not rescinded. http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_strikepm20031210 - The Barron Report into the Dublin and Monaghan BombingsDublin and Monaghan BombingsThe Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 17 May 1974 were a series of car bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. The attacks killed 33 civilians and wounded almost 300 – the highest number of casualties in any single day during the conflict known as The Troubles.A loyalist...
in 1974 concludes that the Ulster Volunteer Force was responsible for the largest terroristTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
attack in the history of the Irish TroublesThe TroublesThe Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
, which killed 33 people. It also concludes that some members of the Royal Ulster ConstabularyRoyal Ulster ConstabularyThe Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
and British military intelligence may have been involved in the attacks. The report strongly criticises the Irish National CoalitionGovernment of the 20th DáilThe 20th Dáil was elected at the 1973 general election on 28 February 1973 and first met on 14 March when the 14th Government of Ireland was appointed...
government (1973–77) for its handling of the crisis and criticises the United Kingdom for failures to offer assistance and information to track down the murderers. http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/1210/bombings.html - Shirin EbadiShirin EbadiShirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
of IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
receives the Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in OsloOsloOslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
, NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. In her acceptance speech she delivers heavy criticism against the War on TerrorismWar on TerrorismThe War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
as an excuse for human rights violations. She also repeats her argument that discrimination against women in Muslim countries has no foundation in religion, but rather in culture. http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=688293 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3306803.stm - Occupation of Iraq:
- The Iraq Interim Governing Council announces the creation of a war crimeWar crimeWar crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s tribunal, to prosecute crimes against humanityCrime against humanityCrimes against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Explanatory Memorandum, "are particularly odious offenses in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings...
committed under the Ba'ath Party régime ( 1968 to 2003). http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V9823.AP-Iraq.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3306605.stm - The European CommissionEuropean CommissionThe European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
announces it will investigate whether exclusion of Iraq war2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
opponents from industrial contracts to rebuild the country constitutes a violation of WTOWorld Trade OrganizationThe World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
rules by the U.S. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GGH0V1F5OSAHOCRBAE0CFFA?type=worldNews&storyID=419989§ion=news UNUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Secretary-GeneralUnited Nations Secretary-GeneralThe Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
Kofi AnnanKofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
condemns the "divisive" exclusion. http://sify.com/news/international/fullstory.php?id=13331865 - The People's Republic of China urges Japan not to send Japan Self-Defense ForcesJapan Self-Defense ForcesThe , or JSDF, occasionally referred to as JSF or SDF, are the unified military forces of Japan that were established after the end of the post–World War II Allied occupation of Japan. For most of the post-war period the JSDF was confined to the islands of Japan and not permitted to be deployed...
to IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
.http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters12-10-182227.asp
- The Iraq Interim Governing Council announces the creation of a war crime
- Following electoral success in the Northwest Territories general election, 2003Northwest Territories general election, 2003The Northwest Territories general election, 2003 was the 20th general election in the Canadian territory's history, conducted on November 24, 2003, to elect the 19 members of the Legislative Assembly.The election was called on October 27...
Joe HandleyJoe HandleyJoseph "Joe" L. Handley, MLA is a former teacher and civil servant and was the tenth Premier of the Northwest Territories, Canada.-Early life:Handley was born in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan...
is unopposed for election as premier of the Northwest TerritoriesNorthwest TerritoriesThe Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
by the legislature. Two prospective opponents had chosen not to run against him. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/10/nwt_premier031210 - Scott BrisonScott BrisonScott A. Brison, PC, MP is a Canadian politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. Brison has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Kings-Hants since the 1997 federal election. Brison was originally elected as a Progressive Conservative but crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party in 2003...
becomes the fourth caucus member of the former Progressive Conservative Party of CanadaProgressive Conservative Party of CanadaThe Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
to leave the new Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of CanadaThe Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
, crossing the floor to the LiberalsLiberal Party of CanadaThe Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1071056728899&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154 - Elizabeth IIElizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
, 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 CoppsSheila CoppsSheila Maureen Copps, PC is a former Canadian politician who also served as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada from November 4, 1993 to April 30, 1996 and June 19, 1996 to June 11, 1997....
, who is of Acadian descent. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/10/acadian031210
December 11
- Spamming: VirginiaVirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
indicts two men (one arrested) on felony charges for violating state laws on bulk e-mailE-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
solicitations. http://www.wtop.com/?sid=150989&nid=25 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-11-spam_x.htm - Electronic votingElectronic votingElectronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....
comes under scrutiny at a conference in Maryland. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/15/technology/15neco.html?ex=1072155600&en=9c98ed85b043f73f&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113879,00.asp - According to PentagonThe PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
investigations, HalliburtonHalliburtonHalliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....
overcharged the US ArmyUnited States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
for fuel in Iraq. Dick CheneyDick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
was chairman of Halliburton prior to becoming Vice President of the United StatesVice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20031211_2133.html http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/12/12/MNGTA3LVD21.DTL - In IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, an explosion at a money exchange office in a shopping district near the city center of Tel AvivTel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
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. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3309825.stm - A general strikeStrike actionStrike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
in QuebecQuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
interrupts road and port traffic as well as non-essential surgeries and day-care service in MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec CityQuebec CityQuebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, and Trois-RivièresTrois-Rivières, QuebecTrois-Rivières is a city in the Mauricie region of Quebec, Canada, located at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence Rivers. It is situated in the Mauricie administrative region, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of Bécancour...
. The strike was called in opposition to the CharestJean CharestJohn James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
government's policies. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/11/quebec_031211 - US Economy: The Dow Jones Industrial AverageDow Jones Industrial AverageThe Dow Jones Industrial Average , also called the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index, and one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow...
closes above 10,000 for the first time since May 24, 2002. http://www.washtimes.com/business/20031211-094903-1269r.htm http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/a/2003/12/11/national1610EST0666.DTL - The InuitInuitThe Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
Circumpolar Conference says it hopes to petition the inter-American human rights systemInter-American Commission on Human RightsThe Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States .Along with the...
to rule that Inuit basic rightsHuman rightsHuman rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
are being violated by global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. They claim that the greenhouse effectGreenhouse effectThe greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
, exacerbated by the failure of Russia and the US to sign the Kyoto ProtocolKyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
, will lead to the destruction of their way of life. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/11/inuit031211 http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=dec11inuitright11122003
December 12
- A plot by militants linked to Al Qaeda to blow up the United Kingdom embassy in YemenYemenThe Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
is foiled. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=421471§ion=news - Germany announces plans to commemorate gayHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
victims of the NaziNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Holocaust, with a monument to be erected in central BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3314887.stm - Queen Elizabeth IIElizabeth II of the United KingdomElizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
has a benign non-cancerCancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
ous growth removed from her face. Buckingham PalaceBuckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
confirms the removed growths will be subject to further tests but denies there are any cancer fears surrounding the 77 year old sovereignMonarchA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
. She also underwent a knee operation. http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12947243,00.html - Canada's BC FerryBC FerriesBritish Columbia Ferry Services Inc. or BC Ferries is a de facto Crown Corporation that provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia...
system returns to normal operations after the company and its union agree to commit to binding arbitration. http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=bc_strike_two20031212 - A European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
defence policy is agreed upon by Britain, France and Germany at the beginning of an EU summit in BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
where the member countries will discuss a forthcoming constitutionConstitutionA constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...
for the EU. Defence policy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3312265.stm; EU constitution: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3252628.stm. - Paul Martin, Jr. is appointed Canada's 21st Prime MinisterPrime Minister of CanadaThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
, and takes his oath of office along with his cabinetCabinet of CanadaThe Cabinet of Canada is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada...
. Notable Ministers include Deputy Prime MinisterDeputy Prime Minister of CanadaThe Deputy Prime Minister of Canada is an honorary position in the cabinet, conferred at the discretion of the prime minister. There is currently, , no deputy prime minister....
Anne McLellanAnne McLellan|-...
in Domestic SecurityMinister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness (Canada)The Minister of Public Safety is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's domestic security department, Public Safety Canada...
, Ralph GoodaleRalph GoodaleRalph Edward Goodale, PC, MP was Canada's Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006 and continues to be a Liberal Member of Parliament...
in FinanceMinister of Finance (Canada)The Minister of Finance is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible each year for presenting the federal government's budget...
, Pierre PettigrewPierre PettigrewPierre Stewart Pettigrew, PC is a Canadian politician.Born in Quebec City, Pettigrew has a BA in Philosophy from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and an M.Phil in International Relations from Oxford University...
in HealthMinister of Health (Canada)The Minister of Health is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's health department and the enforcing the Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada Health Act, the law governing Medicare...
and Intergovernmental AffairsMinister of Intergovernmental Affairs (Canada)The Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the federal government's relations with the governments of the provinces and territories of Canada...
, Lucienne RobillardLucienne RobillardLucienne Robillard, PC is a Canadian politician and a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. She sat in the Canadian House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the riding of Westmount—Ville-Marie in Montreal....
in IndustryMinister of Industry (Canada)The Minister of Industry is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's economic development and corporate affairs department, Industry Canada. The Minister of Industry is also the minister responsible for Statistics Canada...
, Irwin CotlerIrwin CotlerIrwin Cotler, PC, OC, MP was Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the constituency of Mount Royal in a by-election...
in JusticeMinister of Justice (Canada)The Minister of Justice is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for the Department of Justice and is also Attorney General of Canada .This cabinet position is usually reserved for someone with formal legal training...
, Bill Graham in Foreign AffairsMinister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's international relations section of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada....
and David PrattDavid Pratt (Canadian politician)David Pratt, PC is a former Canadian politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Nepean—Carleton from 1997 until 2004.-Early political career:...
in DefenceMinister of National Defence (Canada)The Minister of National Defence is a Minister of the Crown; the Canadian politician within the Cabinet of Canada responsible for the Department of National Defence which oversees the Canadian Forces....
. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/12/martin_cab031212 - Keiko (whale) from Warner Brothers movie's Free Willy dies at age 27, at NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
's bay - In HaitiHaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
the biggest anti-government demonstrations in a decade take place, calling for the removal of President AristideJean-Bertrand AristideJean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
; after nightfall, squadrons of armed Aristide supporters take to the streets in response. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/haiti/7473826.htm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/13/whait13.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/12/13/ixportal.html - Mick JaggerMick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
is knighted. http://www.nynewsday.com/entertainment/nyc-mick1213,0,6245456.story?coll=nyc-ent-short-navigation - According to a poll published in the IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i daily MaarivMaarivMaariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
, half of Israelis distrust their Prime Minister Ariel SharonAriel SharonAriel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=421224§ion=news - Spanish filmmaker's Belén Funes and Marçal Cebrian felt in love.
- In the central province Bie, AngolaAngolaAngola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, a land mineLand mineA land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
explodes and kills six Angolan staff of the international humanitarian organization, CARE. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031218/ap_on_re_af/angola_mine_explosion - The documentary Anatomy of t.A.T.u.Anatomy of t.A.T.u.Anatomy of t.A.T.u. , is a documentary film directed by Vitaly Mansky, chronicling the lives of the group t.A.T.u. on their promotional tour in USA, but most of all, revealing the girls' true lives, including their sexuality....
, aired on STS, reveals that the two women of the Russian band t.A.T.u.T.A.T.u.t.A.T.u. was a duo formed in Moscow, Russia in 1999 by Ivan Shapovalov. The group consisted of Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova.Their debut single "Ya Soshla S Uma" was released in December 2000. The single had a huge success in Russia and Eastern Europe...
are not lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s, among other revelations. - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, was captured in Tikrit by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division
December 13
- Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
is captured and arrested by U.S. forces in TikritTikritTikrit is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river . The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.-Ancient times:...
, IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. - SpainSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
has announced an agreement with MoroccoMoroccoMorocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
to proceed with plans to build a rail tunnelTunnelA tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
beneath the Strait of GibraltarStrait of GibraltarThe Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. The name comes from Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic Jebel Tariq , albeit the Arab name for the Strait is Bab el-Zakat or...
, linking Europe and Africa. Assuming the project is technically and financially feasible, digging would start in 2008. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=421709§ion=news, http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1107136,00.html - At the EU summit, EU Commissioner Chris PattenChris PattenChristopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC , is the last Governor of British Hong Kong, a former British Conservative politician, and the current chairman of the BBC Trust....
describes the United States' method of awarding contracts for the rebuilding of IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
as politically maladroit. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/13/1071125715026.html - The European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
fails to reach agreement on a new constitution. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3315447.stm - OperaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic singer (tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
) Luciano PavarottiLuciano Pavarottiright|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
marries his partner and producer Nicoletta Mantovani at a ceremony in Northern Italy. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1009496.htmhttp://newsobserver.com/24hour/entertainment/story/1086978p-7593243c.html - CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
legislators approve Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
's bond issue.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3312341.stm - ChadChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
's government signs a cease-fire with the rebel Movement for Democracy and Justice in ChadMovement for Democracy and Justice in ChadMovement for Democracy and Justice in Chad is a Chadian rebel group that tried to oust the government of the current Chadian president Idriss Déby from October 1998-2003...
(MDJT) in Burkina FasoBurkina FasoBurkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031214/ap_on_re_af/chad_cease_firehttp://www.irinnews.org/Report.asp?ReportID=38409 - 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 CuritibaCuritibaCuritiba is the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is the largest city with the biggest economy of both Paraná and southern Brazil. The population of Curitiba numbers approximately 1.75 million people and the latest GDP figures for the city surpass US$61 billion according to...
, BlumenauBlumenauBlumenau is a city in Vale do Itajaí, state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. It was founded on September 2, 1850 by Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau along with 17 German immigrants. A few years later Fritz Müller migrated to Blumenau as well....
, and Porto AlegrePorto AlegrePorto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
.
December 14
- Occupation of Iraq:
- IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
's Civil Administrator L. Paul BremerL. Paul BremerLewis Paul "Jerry" Bremer III is an American diplomat. He is most notable for being the U.S. Administrator to Iraq charged with overseeing the country's occupation after the 2003 invasion. In his role as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he reported primarily to the U.S. Secretary of...
announces that Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
was captured by US forces. Saddam was found approximately south of his home town of TikritTikritTikrit is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river . The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.-Ancient times:...
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-DawrAd-DawrAd-Dawr, is a small agricultural town near the Iraqi town of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace....
. 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. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=FQJLXKS0VTLAWCRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=421992§ion=news http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=4516 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3317429.stm http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.main/ - In an address to his nation, US president George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
comments on the capture of Saddam, "Now the former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions." http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031214-014908-7612r.htm - British Prime Minister Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
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". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3319097.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3317971.stm - A car bombCar bombA car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
explodes at a police station in Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 and wounding 30. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/3317245.stm
- Iraq
- PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i President Pervez MusharrafPervez MusharrafPervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
narrowly escapes a bombing. "The president's motorcade passed a minute before the blast", according to officials. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64187-2003Dec14.html - In an interview with The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
newspaperNewspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, a 78-year-old African-American Los AngelesLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
woman claims to be the illegitimate daughter of the late U.S. SenatorUnited States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Strom ThurmondStrom ThurmondJames Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60363-2003Dec12.html - The famous Italian operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
house La FeniceLa FeniceTeatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
in VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
reopens after being destroyed by fire in 1996. It was rebuilt at the cost of €EuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
90mn.http://launch.yahoo.com/read/news.asp?contentID=215989 - Jason WhiteJason White (American football)Jason White is a former American football quarterback who played for the University of Oklahoma from 1999 to 2004, during which he won the 2003 Heisman Trophy...
, quarterbackQuarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
of the University of OklahomaUniversity of OklahomaThe University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
Sooners, wins the Heisman TrophyHeisman TrophyThe Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
, awarded to the best player in college football. http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpNWZic251BF9TAzI1NjY0ODI1BHNlYwN0aA—?slug=ap-heismantrophy&prov=ap&type=lgns
December 15
- Wesley ClarkWesley ClarkWesley Kanne Clark, Sr., is a retired general of the United States Army. Graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later graduated from the...
concludes his first day of closed-door testimony against Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former YugoslaviaInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former YugoslaviaThe International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/15/hague.tribunal.clark.reut/index.html - US Secretary of State Colin PowellColin PowellColin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
successfully undergoes two hours of prostate cancerProstate cancerProstate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
surgery at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. http://us.cnn.com/2003/US/12/15/powell.surgery/index.html - Capture of Saddam Hussein:
- US President George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
promises a "fair trial" for Saddam, refusing demands to hand him over to an international court. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3321983.stm - U.N. Secretary-GeneralSecretary-General-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...
Kofi AnnanKofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
says, about Saddam, "... as secretary-general ... I am not going to now turn around and support a death penalty". http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20031215/wl_nm/iraq_un_dc
- US President George W. Bush
- The results of parliamentary elections in the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern CyprusTurkish Republic of Northern CyprusNorthern Cyprus or North Cyprus , officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern part of the island of Cyprus...
are announced: pro-European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
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. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3317125.stm - SafewaySafeway (UK)Safeway was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in the United Kingdom. It started as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold off in 1987....
, a British grocery storeGrocery storeA grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
chain, is the subject of a £3bn ($5.2bn USD) takeover bid from rival supermarket chain Morrisons. http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/15/news/international/safeway_morris.reut/ - Liberian Crisis: the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
announces the suspension of its disarmament campaign for a month. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=515&ncid=723&e=6&u=/ap/20031215/ap_on_re_af/liberia_disarmament
December 16
- Space AdventuresSpace AdventuresSpace Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. , offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights , and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours...
, a space tourist company, announces that two American customers have paid to board a Soyuz spacecraftSoyuz spacecraftSoyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...
on its journey to the International Space StationInternational Space StationThe International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
and back in 2004 and 2005. http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tourism-03d.html - Capture of Saddam Hussein:
- CongressmanUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Jim McDermottJim McDermottJames Adelbert "Jim" McDermott is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1989. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The 7th District includes most of Seattle and Vashon Island, and portions of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Tukwila, SeaTac, and Burien.He serves on the House Ways and Means...
suggests that George W. BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
timed the capture of Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
for political gain. http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-saddam-mcdermott,0,2235697,print.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines - The Israeli military reveals it developed a secret plan to assassinate Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
in retaliation for ScudScudScud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies...
missile attacks on that country during the Gulf WarGulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. The plan was called off after five commandoCommandoIn English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
s were accidentally killed while training for the mission. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/16/israel_saddam031216 - Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
's daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, tells the DubaiDubaiDubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
-based Al ArabiyaAl ArabiyaAl Arabiya is a Pan-Arabist Saudi-owned Arabic-language television news channel. Launched on March 3, 2003, the channel is based in Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates, and is majority-owned by the Saudi broadcaster Middle East Broadcasting Center ....
television network, Saddam "should not be tried by the IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
i governing council which was put in place by occupiers ... we want an international, fair and legal trial". http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1108190,00.html
- Congressman
- Occupation of Iraq:
- United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
Secretary General Kofi AnnanKofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...
, speaking in a UN Security Council debate, urges member states to define a clearer role for the UN in Iraq. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3325251.stm
- United Nations
- Prosecutors in Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, California, announce that they will file charges against the singer Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
on December 18 or 19. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/3323237.stm - A major expansion of British airportAirportAn airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
s is announced by the UK government, with StanstedLondon Stansted Airport-Cargo:-Statistics:-Infrastructure:-Terminal and satellite buildings:Stansted is the newest passenger airport of all the main London airports. The terminal is an oblong glass building, and is separated in to three areas: Check-in concourse, arrivals and departures...
, HeathrowLondon Heathrow AirportLondon Heathrow Airport or Heathrow , in the London Borough of Hillingdon, is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe...
and BirminghamBirmingham International Airport (UK)Birmingham Airport , formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England...
set to gain extra runways. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3322277.stm - An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
recommends that the morning-after pill (for emergency contraceptionContraceptionContraception is the prevention of the fusion of gametes during or after sexual activity. The term contraception is a contraction of contra, which means against, and the word conception, meaning fertilization...
) be made available without a prescriptionMedical prescriptionA prescription is a health-care program implemented by a physician or other medical practitioner in the form of instructions that govern the plan of care for an individual patient. Prescriptions may include orders to be performed by a patient, caretaker, nurse, pharmacist or other therapist....
. http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/12/16/morning.after.pill/index.html - SomaliaSomaliaSomalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
: 31 people die in the course of fighting between rival militias.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031217/ap_on_re_af/somalia_fighting
December 17
- LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
kernelLinux kernelThe Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
2.6.0 is released by Linus TorvaldsLinus TorvaldsLinus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
. - Capture of Saddam Hussein:
- Mowaffaq al-Rubaie says that Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
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. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031217-113503-9915r.htm - United States Secretary of DefenseUnited States Secretary of DefenseThe Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
Donald RumsfeldDonald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
confirms that Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
will not be treated as a prisoner of warPrisoner of warA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
subject to the Geneva ConventionsGeneva ConventionsThe Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...
. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/146787p-129619c.html
- Mowaffaq al-Rubaie says that Saddam Hussein
- Stephen Kenny, the first civilian lawyer to visit any of the former Afghan war suspects in Guantanamo BayGuantanamo Bay detainment campThe Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a detainment and interrogation facility of the United States located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. The facility was established in 2002 by the Bush Administration to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq...
, 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.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3329631.stm http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4012139 - Occupation of Iraq: A fuel tanker explodes in downtown BaghdadBaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, killing 10 and wounding 15. Initially believed to be caused by a bomb, officials later conclude that a traffic accident was responsible. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3326499.stm - TerrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
:- 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. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3326609.stm
- Thomas KeanThomas KeanThomas Howard Kean is an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 48th Governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990. Kean is best known globally, however, for his 2002 appointment as Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, widely known as the...
, 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. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/17/eveningnews/main589137.shtml http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/13807.htm
- Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr are convicted for their roles in the August 2002 murders of 10-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in the English village of SohamSohamSoham is a small town in the English county of Cambridgeshire. It lies just off the A142 between Ely and Newmarket . Its population is 9,102 , and it is within the district of East Cambridgeshire.-Archaeology:...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3312551.stm - TaiwanRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
reports the first confirmed SARS case in five months, a medical researcher who had studied the virus. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=753&e=10&u=/ap/20031217/ap_on_sc/taiwan_sars - The United States National Weather ServiceNational Weather ServiceThe National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
warns of "excessive heat" after the EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
reportedly breaks out of its orbit and begins falling into the sunSunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
. Fortunately, it turns out to be a mistakenly published test message. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17000138 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
, the final part of Peter JacksonPeter JacksonSir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's film adaptation of J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
, goes on broad public release in the United States and much of Europe. Industry pundits predicted that it could have become the second film, after TitanicTitanic (1997 film)Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
, to earn over at the box office. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3325051.stm - Republic of Congo: A gunbattle breaks out in BrazzavilleBrazzaville-Transport:The city is home to Maya-Maya Airport and a railway station on the Congo-Ocean Railway. It is also an important river port, with ferries sailing to Kinshasa and to Bangui via Impfondo...
.http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031217/ap_on_re_af/republic_of_congo_fighting - HealthHealthHealth is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
: The UK government says that a case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may have occurred through blood transfusionBlood transfusionBlood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3327745.stm - Former Governor of IllinoisGovernor of IllinoisThe Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
George 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 IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/politics/national/stories/121703dnnatindict.9f1c0.html - Governor of Connecticut John G. RowlandJohn G. RowlandJohn Grosvenor Rowland was the 86th Governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004; he is a member of the Republican Party. He is married to Patty Rowland, his second wife, and the couple have five children between them...
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. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-12-13-ct-governor_x.htm - Islam in France: the hidjab issue: President of France Jacques ChiracJacques ChiracJacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
announces that he will support a ban on the wearing of Muslim headscarves, Jewish yarmulkes and large Christian crossCrossA cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...
es in schools and government offices. If passed, the law will come into effect in September 2004. Muslim clerics counter that the ban is an attack on their religion. http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=75137®ion=3 http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-346398,0.html - Space explorationSpace explorationSpace exploration is the use of space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft....
:- Space tourismSpace tourismSpace Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...
magnates celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright BrothersWright brothersThe Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
' first flight by demonstrating SpaceShipOne, a privately funded passenger-ferrying suborbital space plane, flying at supersonic speeds to an altitude of 68,000 feet. http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/rutan_update_031217.html - Space AdventuresSpace AdventuresSpace Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. , offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights , and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours...
announces the availability of two more tickets to fly to the International Space StationInternational Space StationThe International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
at a cost of US$United States dollarThe United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
20 million each. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=13235 http://space.com/missionlaunches/next_tourists_031217.html
- Space tourism
December 18
- NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
announces that the new name for the "Space Infrared Telescope Facility" will be the Spitzer Space TelescopeSpitzer Space TelescopeThe Spitzer Space Telescope , formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003...
(after the late Dr. Lyman Spitzer, Jr.Lyman SpitzerLyman Strong Spitzer, Jr. was an American theoretical physicist and astronomer best known for his research in star formation, plasma physics, and in 1946, for conceiving the idea of telescopes operating in outer space...
). This coincides with the release of the telescope's first images, which show the glowing stars of the Elephant's Trunk nebulaElephant's Trunk nebulaThe Elephant's Trunk nebula is a concentration of interstellar gas and dust in the star cluster IC 1396 – an ionized gas region located in the constellation Cepheus about 2,400 light years away from Earth...
, the dusty arms of the Messier 81Messier 81Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa...
spiral galaxy, a disc of planet-forming debris, and organic material light years away. http://sirtf.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2003-06/release.shtml http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2517041,00.html http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,8210502%5E1702,00.html - Legal status of suspected terroristsTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
:- A committee of the UK Parliament recommends that the power to hold terrorist suspects without trial be repealed. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3330221.stm
- A United States federal appeals courtAppellate courtAn appellate court, commonly called an appeals court or court of appeals or appeal court , is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal...
rules that José PadillaJosé Padilla (alleged terrorist)José Padilla , also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah, is a United States citizen convicted of aiding terrorists....
, accused by the U.S. Government of taking part in a terrorist "dirty bombDirty bombA dirty bomb is a speculative radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the explosion with radioactive material, hence the attribute "dirty"....
" plot with possible links to al-Qaida, cannot be designated an illegal combatant and must be released from military custody within 30 days. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/18/padilla.case/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3332009.stm The Bush administration announces that it will seek a stay of the Padilla decision. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4017473 - A United States federal appeals courtAppellate courtAn appellate court, commonly called an appeals court or court of appeals or appeal court , is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal...
rules that the "illegal combatants" being held at Camp X-RayCamp X-RayCamp X-Ray was a temporary detention facility at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Joint Task Force Guantanamo on the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.The first twenty detainees arrived at Guantanamo on January 11, 2002....
in CubaCubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
should have access to lawyers and to US courts. http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2003/dec/18/121808704.html - It is alleged that, in cases where their treatment of a detainee may never come under public scrutiny, The PentagonThe PentagonThe Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
and CIA are using a number of controversial techniques to extract information. http://www.iht.com/articles/122006.html
- Capture of Saddam Hussein: a Jordanian news source claims that Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
was drugged and betrayed by his personal bodyguard, General Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al-Muslit, a member of his own family. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,6119,2-10-1460_1461125,00.html - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rules to disqualify Spanish athlete Johann MühleggJohann MühleggJohann Mühlegg is a Spanish top level cross-country skier who has competed in international competitions first representing Germany and then Spain, after becoming a Spanish citizen in 1999...
and Russian athlete Olga DanilovaOlga DanilovaOlga Danilova is a Russian cross country skier who competed from 1991 until she was banned for using performance enhancing drugs in 2002...
from all the cross-country skiingCross-country skiingCross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
races they participated in during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and thus withdraw their medals, due to dopingDoping (sport)The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is commonly referred to by the term "doping", particularly by those organizations that regulate competitions. The use of performance enhancing drugs is mostly done to improve athletic performance. This is why many sports ban the use of performance...
by darbepoetin. http://www.tas-cas.org/en/medias/media3.htm - Prosecutors in CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
charge singer Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
with seven counts of child molestation and schedule hearings for January 16, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/3323237.stm - IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i Prime Minister Ariel SharonAriel SharonAriel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
warns the Palestinian Authority that Israel will take unilateral steps to separate from the Palestinians unless there is progress on the road map peace planRoad map for peaceThe roadmap for peace or "road map" for peace is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by a "quartet" of international entities: the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan, originally drafted by U.S. Foreign Service...
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. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3332361.stm - Red HatRed HatRed Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
, in its third quarter, buys Sistina SoftwareSistina SoftwareSistina Software was an organization that focused on storage solutions designed around a Linux platform. It was acquired by Red Hat in December, 2003. Their two primary offerings were Global File System and logical volume management .-GFS:...
. Red Hat expects that it will close the deal by early January for dollars. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34598.html - SudanSudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
ese authorities close the KhartoumKhartoumKhartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
office of the Arab satellite channel Al JazeeraAl JazeeraAl Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...
and detain its bureau chief for questioning. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031219/ap_on_re_af/sudan_al_jazeera
December 19
- Italian dairy company ParmalatParmalatParmalat SpA is a multinational Italian dairy and food corporation. Having become the leading global company in the production of ultra high temperature milk, the company collapsed in 2003 with a €14 billion hole in its accounts in what remains Europe's biggest bankruptcy...
declared a euro hole in its accounts when the amount held by Cayman Islands-based unit, Bonlat Financing Corporation, was declared false by Bank of America. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=4022497 - LibyaLibyaLibya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
n leader Muammar al-GaddafiMuammar al-GaddafiMuammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
acknowledges that his countryCountryA country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
was pursuing a development program for weapons of mass destructionWeapons of mass destructionA weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...
but now agrees to its dismantling. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3335965.stm - A revised plan is unveiled for the new Freedom TowerFreedom TowerOne World Trade Center , more simply known as 1 WTC and formerly known as the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan in New York City...
which will be erected on the site of the World Trade CenterWorld Trade CenterThe original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. At a symbolic height of 1,776 feet ' onMouseout='HidePop("22439")' href="/topics/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence">United States Declaration of IndependenceUnited States Declaration of IndependenceThe Declaration of Independence was a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. John Adams put forth a...
) the projected edifice will be among the tallest buildings in the world. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106206,00.html http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/19/tower_freedom031219 - Occupation of Iraq:
- U.S.-appointed civil administrator of IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, L. Paul BremerL. Paul BremerLewis Paul "Jerry" Bremer III is an American diplomat. He is most notable for being the U.S. Administrator to Iraq charged with overseeing the country's occupation after the 2003 invasion. In his role as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he reported primarily to the U.S. Secretary of...
reveals that he survived an attack on his convoy on December 6. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20031219/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq - Prime Minister of JapanPrime Minister of JapanThe is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...
Junichiro KoizumiJunichiro Koizumiis a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics when his term in parliament ended.Widely seen as a maverick leader of the Liberal Democratic Party , he became known as an economic reformer, focusing on Japan's government debt and the...
orders the deployment of Japanese forces for non-combat duties in Southern Iraq; polls show that most Japanese voters are opposed to the mission. http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=A0342F1B-8524-49BE-9C1C29AB0FD73089&title=Japan%20Orders%20Iraq%20Troop%20Deplotment&catOID=45C9C78B-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C&categoryname=Asia%20Pacific
- U.S.-appointed civil administrator of Iraq
- Flights from Vancouver International AirportVancouver International AirportVancouver International Airport is located on Sea Island in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, about from Downtown Vancouver. In 2010 it was the second busiest airport in Canada by aircraft movements and passengers , behind Toronto Pearson International Airport, with non-stop flights daily to...
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. http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.asp?id=CB66EEAE-4EF9-4542-82EC-654371F49BD1 - SARS quarantine orders are lifted on up to 75 people in SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
but concerns remain that the deadly virusVirusA virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...
could yet make a comeback across Asia. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/19/1071337158736.html - Australia sends A$Australian dollarThe Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
to NauruNauruNauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
so that the Pacific island-state can pay its public servants before Christmas in a move that Foreign Minister Alexander DownerAlexander DownerAlexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...
says illustrates the need for long-term solutions to the island's deep-seated problems. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/19/1071337160714.html - In a major blow to the recording industry'sRecording Industry Association of AmericaThe Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
efforts to stamp out online file sharingFile sharingFile sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
, a United States federal appeals courtAppellate courtAn appellate court, commonly called an appeals court or court of appeals or appeal court , is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal...
invalidates subpoenaSubpoenaA subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
s issued against Verizon to identify individual P2PPeer-to-peerPeer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
users. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14836-2003Dec19.html - The British spacecraft Beagle 2Beagle 2Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere...
successfully separates from the ESAEuropean Space AgencyThe European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...
's Mars ExpressMars ExpressMars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency . The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was...
orbiter and is now less than 10 days away from its scheduled landing on the surface of MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
; it will attempt to parachute onto the surface on Christmas morning. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20031219/sc_nm/space_britain_mars_dc http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/marsexpress/031219deploy.html http://www.esrin.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEMSSY274OD_index_0.html - Police seal off the printing plant and offices of ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
's last remaining independent daily newspaper, Daily NewsDaily News (Harare)The Daily News was a Zimbabwean independent newspaper published in Harare. Its presses were bombed and it was banned in 2003.-History:The Daily News was first launched on July 31, 1999, and controversially banned in defiance of a court ruling in 2003. Its founder, Geoffrey Nyarota, was a journalist...
. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031219/ap_on_re_af/zimbabwe_media - Same-sex marriage in CanadaSame-sex marriage in CanadaOn July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act which provided a gender-neutral marriage definition...
: an OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
court rules that Canadians whose same-sex partners died after 1985 are entitled to survivors' benefits. It is believed to be the first class-action lawsuit awarding compensation to gayGayGay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
s and lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s anywhere in the world. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/19/samesex_benefits031219 - The University of DelawareUniversity of DelawareThe university is organized into seven colleges:* College of Agriculture and Natural Resources* College of Arts and Sciences* Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics* College of Earth, Ocean and Environment* College of Education and Human Development...
's Blue Hens shut out Colgate UniversityColgate UniversityColgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...
to win the NCAANational Collegiate Athletic AssociationThe National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division I-AA footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
national championship. http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2003/12/20hensarenational.html - Jason Cooper, a cousin of Alonzo Mourning (a player of the NBA Team the Miami Heat), donated him his kidney because he Mourning had suffered from a career ending kidney disease.
December 20
- The Holy SeeHoly SeeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
announces plans to beatifyBeatificationBeatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
the last Austro-HungarianAustria-HungaryAustria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
emperorEmperorAn emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
Karl. Karl, who was overthrown in 1918 and died in exile in 1922, is expected to be beatified, a step to saintSaintA saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
hood, in the next year. Karl's widow, Zita of Bourbon-ParmaZita of Bourbon-ParmaPrincess Zita of Bourbon-Parma was the wife of Emperor Charles of Austria...
died in 1989. His son, former Crown PrinceCrown PrinceA crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....
Otto von HabsburgOtto von HabsburgOtto von Habsburg , also known by his royal name as Archduke Otto of Austria, was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918, a realm which comprised modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,...
was until recently a German MEPMember of the European ParliamentA Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031220/en_afp/vatican_pope_austria_031220185645 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031220/od_uk_nm/oukoe_pope_emperor_1 - CCTVClosed-circuit televisionClosed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....
footage at Hampton Court Palace near London, once home of King Henry VIII of England, is released, and claimed to show a "ghostGhostIn traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
". 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. http://www.itv.com/news/1720815.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3336299.stm - Celebrations marking the Bicentennial of the Louisiana PurchaseLouisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
culminate in New OrleansNew Orleans, LouisianaNew Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, Louisiana. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1203/20louisiana.html - IrishIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
charity fundraiser John O'SheaJohn O'SheaJohn O'Shea can refer to:*John O'Shea, Irish footballer with Sunderland*John O'Shea , New Zealand film director*John O'Shea *John O'Shea , Wales international rugby union footballer*John O'Shea...
attacks Manchester UnitedManchester United F.C.Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
football manager Sir Alex FergusonAlex FergusonSir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
as "greedy" for demanding £90,000 to attend a cancerCancerCancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
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 ArgentinianArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
president Carlos MenemCarlos MenemCarlos Saúl Menem is an Argentine politician who was President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. He is currently an Argentine National Senator for La Rioja Province.-Early life:...
is charged with tax fraud for failing to declare a SwissSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
bank account containing $600,000. If convicted he could be debarred from public office. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3336367.stm - The World CourtWorld Court* any of the international courts located in The Hague:**the International Court of Justice , a UN court that settles disputes between nations...
says it will hear legal arguments about IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's construction of a controversial barrier in the West BankWest BankThe West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
to separate Israeli and PalestinianPalestinian National AuthorityThe Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
areas. The hearings will begin on 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3336229.stm - SpanishSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Prime MinisterPrime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
José María AznarJosé María AznarJosé María Alfredo Aznar López served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation.-Early life:...
pays a surprise visit to Spanish troops in IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3336565.stm - Massive landslides in the PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
caused by heavy rain result in the deaths of up to 90 people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3336327.stm - A Malaysian opposition websiteWebsiteA website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
is shut down by its British web-hosting company amid claims of "political censorship" from the opposition. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3337019.stm - ZimbabweZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an opposition leader Morgan TsvangiraiMorgan TsvangiraiMorgan Richard Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. He is the President of the Movement for Democratic Change - Tsvangirai and a key figure in the opposition to President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on 11 February 2009...
tells his supporters to "fight fear" as they campaign against President Robert MugabeRobert MugabeRobert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
. His comments follow the decision of Zimbabwe's police to occupy the offices of Zimbabwe's only privately owned newspaperNewspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in defiance of a court order that the newspaper could resume publication. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3337147.stm - Eleven people, mainly young people from Germany, die in a busBusA bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
crash in BelgiumBelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12955762,00.html - In ComorosComorosThe Comoros , officially the Union of the Comoros is an archipelago island nation in the Indian Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Africa, on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, between northeastern Mozambique and northwestern Madagascar...
, leaders signed an agreement clearing the way for legislative elections in April. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=38549&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=COMOROS
- CW meets KM
December 21
- "The American Soldier" is named as TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine'sMagazineMagazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
"Person of the YearPerson of the YearPerson of the Year is an annual issue of the United States newsmagazine Time that features and profiles a person, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year."- History :The tradition of selecting a Man of the Year...
". The periodical's editorsEditingEditing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
chose the anonymousAnonymityAnonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
soldierSoldierA soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
to represent the men and women serving in the United States Armed ForcesUnited States armed forcesThe United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
. http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2003/ http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20031221/ap_on_re_us/time_person_of_the_year http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-12-21-time-person_x.html http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106330,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3533323,00.html http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=22&art_id=qw1072012685498B211&set_id=1 http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_503640,00050001.htm - Citing increased "chatter" regarding potential terrorist attacks over the holiday period, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security raises its terrorismTerrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
alert level from "elevated" (yellow) to "high" (orange). http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4028248 - A senior French police source claims Diana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of WalesDiana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
was pregnant when she was killed in a car crash in ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1997. A Clarence HouseClarence HouseClarence House is a royal home in London, situated on The Mall, in the City of Westminster. It is attached to St. James's Palace and shares the palace's garden. For nearly 50 years, from 1953 to 2002, it was home to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, but is since then the official residence of The...
spokesperson for The Prince of WalesCharles, Prince of WalesPrince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
refuses to comment on the issue. Mohamed Al-FayedMohamed Al-FayedMohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed is an Egyptian businessman and billionaire. Amongst his business interests are ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge...
, the father of Diana's partner Dodi Al-FayedDodi Al-FayedEmad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed , known as Dodi Fayed , was an Egyptian film producer. He was best known internationally as the boyfriend of Diana, Princess of Wales, with whom he died in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris along with driver Henri Paul on 31 August...
had long insisted that Diana was pregnant with Dodi's baby and that she was murdered to stop her from giving birth. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=475166 http://www.itv.com/news/1839342.html - Quoting an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer, a report in the Sunday Express (Britain) claims that before Saddam HusseinSaddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
was captured by US troops, he had already been discovered by the Patriotic Union of KurdistanPatriotic Union of KurdistanThe Patriotic Union of Kurdistan is a Kurdish political party in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan was founded on June 1, 1975, by coordinations between Jalal Talabani and Nawshirwan Mustafa...
(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 HusseinUday HusseinUday Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti , was the eldest son of Saddam Hussein from his first wife, Sajida Talfah. He was the brother of Qusay Hussein. Uday was for several years seen as the heir apparent of his father; however, Uday lost his place in the line of succession due to his erratic behavior and...
. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/21/1071941609659.html - Retired Gen. Wesley ClarkWesley ClarkWesley Kanne Clark, Sr., is a retired general of the United States Army. Graduating as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and later graduated from the...
presented 4,000 petition signatures to qualify for South CarolinaSouth CarolinaSouth Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
'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 KerryJohn KerryJohn Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
of MassachusettsMassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
gave the state Democratic Party a check for $2,500 last week to qualify.
December 22
- After getting FCCFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
approval on December 19, News Corporation Ltd.News CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
completed a cash and stock deal to buy control of Hughes Electronics and its DirecTVDirecTVDirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
satellite television division from General Motors. http://www.hughes.com/ir/pr/03_12_22_gmh.asp - The People's Republic of China plans to peg its currencyCurrencyIn economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...
, the yuanRenminbiThe Renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China . Renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. It is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC...
, to a basket of ten currencies instead of only the U.S. dollar, according to its state press. http://money.inq7.net/breakingnews/view_breakingnews.php?yyyy=2003&mon=12&dd=22&file=9 - ParmalatParmalatParmalat SpA is a multinational Italian dairy and food corporation. Having become the leading global company in the production of ultra high temperature milk, the company collapsed in 2003 with a €14 billion hole in its accounts in what remains Europe's biggest bankruptcy...
is likely to declare "controlled administration" as Italian Prime MinisterPrime minister of ItalyThe Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...
Silvio BerlusconiSilvio BerlusconiSilvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
said the governmentPolitics of ItalyThe politics of Italy is conducted through a parliamentary, democratic republic with a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised collectively by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the President of the Council of Ministers, referred to as "Presidente del Consiglio" in Italian...
would intervene and "above all save the industrial part of the company and jobs". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3339459.stm - EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian Foreign MinisterForeign ministerA Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...
Ahmed MaherAhmad Maher (diplomat)Ahmad Maher was the foreign minister of Egypt from 2001 to 2004. He came from a family of diplomats and politicians...
is assaulted by Palestinians during prayerPrayerPrayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...
at the al-Aqsa MosqueAl-Aqsa MosqueAl-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem...
in Jerusalem. Mr. Maher was taken to an Israeli hospital for observation as a result of the incident after being treated at the scene by the Magen David AdomMagen David AdomThe Magen David Adom is Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service. The name means "Red Star of David"...
. After several hours care in the hospital, he was escorted to his airplane by an Israeli cardiologist and paramedic. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/23/international/middleeast/23MIDE.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3341435.stm - A list of people who have declined a British honour was leaked to The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times (UK)The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
. The list includes David BowieDavid BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, David HockneyDavid HockneyDavid Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
, Aldous HuxleyAldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, Nigella LawsonNigella LawsonNigella Lucy Lawson is an English food writer, journalist and broadcaster. Lawson is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa Salmon, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. empire...
, and Harold PinterHarold PinterHarold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-938915,00.html, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/whitehall/story/0,9061,1111643,00.html, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/22/ngong22.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/12/22/ixportal.html - The Gulf Cooperation Council announces that they will revise school textbooks and remove from them material describing followers of other religions as infidelInfidelAn infidel is one who has no religious beliefs, or who doubts or rejects the central tenets of a particular religion – especially in reference to Christianity or Islam....
s and enemies of Islam. http://english.aljzeera.net/NR/exeres/B97096D6-41FB-416A-9980-818FF4E26AAC.htm - SCO v. IBM:
- SCOSCO GroupTSG Group, Inc. is a software company formerly called The SCO Group, Caldera Systems, and Caldera International. After acquiring the Santa Cruz Operation's Server Software and Services divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, the company changed its focus to UNIX...
claims in a press release to be sending DMCA notification letters alleging copyright infringement http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031222/lam046_1.htmlhttp://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20031222084145237 - Linus TorvaldsLinus TorvaldsLinus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator...
says, in a post to the Linux kernelLinux kernelThe Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
mailing listMailing listA mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
, "... I think we can totally _demolish_ the SCO claim that these 65 files were somehow "copied". They clearly are not." http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0312.2/1241.html - NovellNovellNovell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
has also registered their claim to the copyright of original UNIXUnixUnix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
source code, effectively challenging SCO's registration of the same code http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/12/pr03080.html http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20031222051806656
- SCO
- An earthquakeEarthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
strikes near San SimeonSan Simeon, CaliforniaSan Simeon is a census-designated place on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California. Its position along State Route 1 is approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, each of those cities being roughly 230 mi away...
, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, at 19:15 UTC (11:15 PSTTime zoneA time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
). The quake registers a 6.5 magnitude on the Richter magnitude scaleRichter magnitude scaleThe expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
, and causes two deaths from the collapse of a building in the town of Paso RoblesPaso Robles, CaliforniaPaso Robles is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Paso Robles is the fastest growing city in San Luis Obispo County: Its population at the 2000 census was 24,297; in 2010 it recorded some 29,793 residentsLocated on the Salinas River north of San Luis Obispo, California,...
. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/12/22/ca.earthquake/index.html,http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Quakes/nc40148755.htm - The PhilippinesPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
declares a calamity in a southern province after floods killed up to 209 people. http://asia.news.yahoo.com/031223/3/19vvc.html
December 23
- The Supreme Court of CanadaSupreme Court of CanadaThe Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
announces (in a 6–3 decision) that the criminalization of marijuanaCannabisCannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
was not unconstitutional. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/23/pot031223 - The United States Department of AgricultureUnited States Department of AgricultureThe United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
confirms the first case of BSEBovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
(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 YakimaYakima, WashingtonYakima is an American city southeast of Mount Rainier National Park and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the eighth largest city by population in the state itself. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 91,196 and a metropolitan population of...
where the animal was raised. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=428006§ion=news http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1072270696315300.xml - CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
GovernorGovernor of CaliforniaThe Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
declares a state of emergencyState of emergencyA state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
in San Luis Obispo CountySan Luis Obispo County, CaliforniaSan Luis Obispo County is a county located along the Pacific Ocean in the Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census its population was 269,637, up from 246,681 at the 2000 census...
, following an earthquakeEarthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
in that county on the previous day. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/12/23/ca.earthquake/index.html - Beltway sniper attacksBeltway sniper attacksThe Washington sniper attacks took place during three weeks in October 2002 in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Ten people were killed and three others critically injured in various locations throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia...
: A VirginiaVirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
juryJuryA jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
recommends a life sentence without possibility of paroleParoleParole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
for Lee Boyd MalvoLee Boyd MalvoLee Boyd Malvo , is a spree killer convicted, along with John Allen Muhammad, of murders in connection with the Beltway sniper attacks, which took place in the Washington Metropolitan Area over a three-week period in October 2002...
, who was earlier convicted of capital murderMurderMurder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
, among other charges, in connection with the shootings. Malvo had faced the possibility of execution.http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/23/sprj.dcsp.malvo.trial/index.html
December 24
- An explosion occurs at BaghdadBaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
's Sheraton IshtarSheraton IshtarThe Ishtar Sheraton Hotel is a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq located on Firdos Square. It is the tallest building in Baghdad, and the tallest structure in Iraq after the Baghdad Tower....
hotel, probably caused by a rocket-propelled grenade. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3347243.stm - Following the detection of BSEBovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
in a MabtonMabton, WashingtonMabton is a city in Yakima County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,286 at the 2010 census. Incorporated during the first few years of the 20th century, it is located at the eastern edge of the Yakama Indian Reservation.-History:...
, Washington, cow, several countries (including Japan, Russia, SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, TaiwanRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, and Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
) announce a ban on the importation of U.S. beefBeefBeef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3345929.stm http://edition.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/12/24/madcow.reax/index.html - Three Air FranceAir FranceAir France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
flights from ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to Los AngelesLos Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
are canceled due to security concerns expressed by the U.S. embassy in France. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/24flight.html - BoliviaBoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
n President Carlos MesaCarlos MesaCarlos Diego Mesa Gisbert is a Bolivian politician, historian and President of Bolivia from October 17, 2003 until his resignation on June 6, 2005....
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. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=721&e=8&u=/ap/20031224/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_flood
December 25
- PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i President Pervez MusharrafPervez MusharrafPervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
survives a suicide bomber attack on his motorcade, the second attempt to assassinate him in two weeks. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/international/asia/26STAN.html - Following Beagle 2Beagle 2Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere...
's expected landing, US probe Mars Odyssey (already in MartianMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
orbit) listens for the lander's distinctive musical callsign. A further scan for the lander is conducted using the Jodrell BankJodrell BankThe Jodrell Bank Observatory is a British observatory that hosts a number of radio telescopes, and is part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester...
radio telescopeRadio telescopeA radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy. The same types of antennas are also used in tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes...
. No signal is detected. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994518http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/25/mars.beagle.nosignal/index.html - Israeli-Palestinian ConflictIsraeli-Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
:- An Israeli helicopter gunship attacks a car in Gaza City, killing Islamic JihadIslamic Jihad Movement in PalestineThe Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad , is a small Palestinian militant organization. The group has been labelled as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia and Israel...
commander Mekled HameidMekled HameidMekled Hamied was a top Islamic Jihad commander who was killed during an Israeli air strike on his car in the last week of 2003.-References:...
and two fellow militants, together with two bystanders. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3348535.stm - A suicide-bomber strikes a bus stop Tel AvivTel AvivTel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, killing four civilians and himself. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3348159.stm - Israel announces closure of the West BankWest BankThe West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
and GazaGaza Stripthumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/international/middleeast/26MIDE.html?hp
- An Israeli helicopter gunship attacks a car in Gaza City, killing Islamic Jihad
- A UK lab confirms the presence of BSEBovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
in samples taken from a cow in Washington http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3348969.stm. MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
joins the list of countries which have banned imports of US beef. - Reports emerge of a major leak of natural gasNatural gasNatural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
in a gas field near the south-western Chinese city of ChongqingChongqingChongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
. Over 100 people are believed dead and up to 40,000 people have been evacuated from the area surrounding the leak. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3347769.stm - A Boeing 727Boeing 727The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...
of United Transit Airlines originating in the GuineaGuineaGuinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...
n capital, ConakryConakryConakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea with a 2009 population of 1,548,500...
, stopping in FreetownFreetownFreetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
, Sierra LeoneSierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
, and bound for BeirutBeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, clips a building during takeoff and crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off BeninBeninBenin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
. Over 100 people die, most of them LebaneseLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/12/26/fWorld119.raw.html
December 26
- A powerful earthquakeEarthquakeAn earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
occurs near the southern IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian city of BamBam, IranBam is a city in and the capital of Bam County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 73,823, in 19,572 families.The modern Iranian city of Bam surrounds the Bam citadel. Before the 2003 earthquake the official population count of the city was roughly 43,000. There are...
at 0156 GMT ( local time). The USGS estimates its magnitude as 6.7 on the Richter scaleRichter magnitude scaleThe expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
. 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 adobeAdobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
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. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/uscvad.htmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3348613.stmhttp://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/26/iran.quake/index.html - The death toll in the Chinese gas-leak rises to 191. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/international/asia/26CHIN.html?hp
- Fearing the state's BSEBovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
outbreak may extend beyond a single farm, the U.S. Department of AgricultureUnited States Department of AgricultureThe United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
quarantines a second cattle farm in Washington stateU.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3350227.stm
December 27
- The estimate of the number of dead in the BamBam, IranBam is a city in and the capital of Bam County, Kerman Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 73,823, in 19,572 families.The modern Iranian city of Bam surrounds the Bam citadel. Before the 2003 earthquake the official population count of the city was roughly 43,000. There are...
earthquake increases to 40,000, according to the provincial governor. IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
has refused earthquake aid from IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=476263 - The U.S. Department of AgricultureUnited States Department of AgricultureThe United States Department of Agriculture is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food...
announces that it believes the BSEBovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
infected cow detected in Washington stateU.S. stateA U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
was imported from Canada in 2001. The location of the other 73 cows imported with it is unknown. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3351547.stm - Romano ProdiRomano ProdiRomano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, the PresidentPresident of the European CommissionThe President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission ― the executive branch of the :European Union ― the most powerful officeholder in the EU. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed...
of the European CommissionEuropean CommissionThe European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, survives a letter bomb attack. http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2342242 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3351697.stm - British scientists are continuing their efforts to make contact with the MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
probe Beagle 2Beagle 2Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere...
, which was designed to perform advanced studies of the Martian soil in an effort to find microbial life. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2003/12/24/ecnubeagle.xml
December 28
- Serbian parliamentary election, 2003Serbian parliamentary election, 2003Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of Serbia on December 28, 2003. The Republic of Serbia then was one of the two federal units of Serbia and Montenegro, formerly known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....
: SerbiaSerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
holds a parliamentary electionElectionAn election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
. The Serbian Radical PartySerbian Radical PartyThe Serbian Radical Party is a far-right Serbian nationalist political party in Serbia, founded in 1991. Currently the second-largest party in the Serbian National Assembly, it has branches in three of the nations that currently border Serbia – all former federal republics of Yugoslavia...
wins 81 seats in the 250-seat parliament. http://www.srbija.gov.rs/news/2003-12/29/332660.html - Guatemala election, 2003. Óscar BergerÓscar BergerÓscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo, born on 11 August 1946 in Guatemala City, is a former President of Guatemala.-Early years:Of Belgian descent, Berger was born to an upper class family with large sugar and coffee holdings...
wins the second round of the presidential election with a 54% share of the vote. - Shane FilanShane FilanShane Steven Filan was one of the lead singers in the Irish pop band Westlife. Filan is one of the five original Westlife members, along with other current members Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Nicky Byrne and former member Brian McFadden....
marries Gillian Walsh in Ballintubber Abbey, Ireland.
December 29
- Papal Nuncio to BurundiBurundiBurundi , officially the Republic of Burundi , is a landlocked country in the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east and south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Its capital is Bujumbura...
, IrishIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
-born ArchbishopArchbishopAn archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
Michael CourtneyMichael CourtneyMichael Aidan Courtney was the Apostolic Nuncio to Burundi and Titular Archbishop of Eanach DúinCourtney was born in Summerhill in Nenagh, County Tipperary...
, is killed in an ambush. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1113827,00.html - The United States Department of Homeland SecurityUnited States Department of Homeland SecurityThe United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...
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. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/30/politics/30TERR.html?ex=1073365200&en=b2c710d712341409&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE - CubaCubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n officials are investigating who is responsible for altering a photograph of Fidel CastroFidel CastroFidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
on the front page of the official government newspaperNewspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, GranmaGranma (newspaper)Granma is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party.Its name comes from the yacht Granma that carried Fidel Castro and 81 other rebels to Cuba's shores in 1956 launching the Cuban Revolution.-Editions:...
, to make him look like Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,11983,1113857,00.html - The Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
issues a memo instructing police to be alert of people carrying almanacAlmanacAn almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc...
s, stating that information in these reference works could be used to aid in the planning of terrorist attacks. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-3564366,00.html
December 30
- The European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
is investigating a series of parcel bombs targeting the European Central BankEuropean Central BankThe European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
in FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
and EuropolEuropolEuropol is the European Union's criminal intelligence agency. It became fully operational on 1 July 1999....
headquarters at The HagueThe HagueThe Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. Investigators state that it is too early to draw any connections between these bombs and the letter bomb sent two days ago to the BolognaBolognaBologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
home of Romano ProdiRomano ProdiRomano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
, the head of the European CommissionEuropean CommissionThe European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
. http://www.iht.com/articles/123228.html - The U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
announces a ban on the sale of dietary supplementDietary supplementA dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement, is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet...
ephedraEphedraEphedra refers to the plant Ephedra sinica. E. sinica, known in Chinese as ma huang , has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for 5,000 years for the treatment of asthma and hay fever, as well as for the common cold...
, citing "an unreasonable risk of illness or injury" from the use of the drugMedicationA pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease.- Classification :...
. http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/12/30/ephedra/index.html - U.S. Attorney General John AshcroftJohn AshcroftJohn David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
recusesRecusalJudicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, refers to the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer. Applicable statutes or canons of ethics may provide...
himself and his office from the CIA leak scandal, in which the identity of Valerie PlameValerie PlameValerie Elise Plame Wilson , known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, is a former United States CIA Operations Officer and the author of a memoir detailing her career and the events leading up to her resignation from the CIA.-Early life :Valerie Elise Plame was born on...
, a CIA operative, was leaked by WashingtonWashington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
insiders. Democratic political leaders had been calling for Ashcroft's recusal. http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/12/30/ashcroft.cia.leaks.reut/index.html - The man who was convicted of breaking into mainland ChinaMainland ChinaMainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
cable television networks and broadcasting footage of the banned Falun GongFalun GongFalun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
, an alleged cultCultThe word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
, reportedly dies in prison. Pro-Falun Gong groups and the Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
-based Information Centre for Human Rights and DemocracyInformation Centre for Human Rights and DemocracyThe Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy is a human rights organization based in Hong Kong that provides information human rights abuses in mainland China for news outlets...
claim he was beaten to death.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3356699.stm
December 31
- In TaiwanRepublic of ChinaThe Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
, PresidentPresident of the Republic of ChinaThe President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China...
Chen Shui-bianChen Shui-bianChen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
signs a law that allows referendumReferendumA referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
s to be held. The People's Republic of China condemns this. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3358655.stm - Occupation of Iraq: A car bombCar bombA car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
detonates outside an upmarket BaghdadBaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
restaurant much favoured by foreign journalists, killing five New Year revelers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3359687.stm - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
mails nomination ballots in which it qualifies 254 filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s released in 20032003 in filmThe year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
as eligible for OscarAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
consideration. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=4059933