November 2003
Encyclopedia
November
November
November is the 11th month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of four months with the length of 30 days. November was the ninth month of the ancient Roman calendar...

 2003: January
January 2003
January 2003: ← – January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:-January 1, 2003:...

 – February
February 2003
February 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:-February 1, 2003:...

 – March
March 2003
March 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December – →-Events:-March 1, 2003:...

 – April
April 2003
April 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-April 1, 2003:...

 – May
May 2003
May 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December – →-Events:-May 1, 2003:...

 – June
June 2003
June 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:-June 1, 2003:...

 – July
July 2003
July 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:-July 1, 2003:...

 – August
August 2003
August 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-August 1, 2003 :...

 – September
September 2003
September 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:-September 1, 2003:*Dutch dispensaries are to become the first in the world to offer cannabis as a prescription drug...

 – October
October 2003
October 2003: January – February – March – April – May – June – July – August – September – October – November – December-Events:-October 1, 2003:...

 – NovemberDecember
December 2003
-Events:-December 1:* Occupation of Iraq:** The firefight in which more than 50 Iraqis are reported killed is now thought to have been an attempted currency heist. ** One GI is killed Monday in fighting west of Baghdad. * World AIDS Day:...


Events


See Also:

Iraq Timeline

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...



North Korean Crisis

Hutton Inquiry
Hutton Inquiry
The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of David Kelly, a biological warfare expert and former UN weapons inspector in Iraq.On 18 July 2003, Kelly, an employee...



Bloody Sunday Inquiry

Road Map to Peace
Road map for peace
The 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...



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...



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 U.S. Presidential Election

2004 ROC 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...



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

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...



Timeline of the War in Afghanistan (November 2003)

November 1, 2003

  • 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...

    : In Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

    , a hard-hitting UN report says that Israel will effectively annex large areas of Palestinian territory
    Palestinian territories
    The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

     as a result of the permits it intends to issue to Palestinians near the wall being built. The Israeli West Bank barrier
    Israeli West Bank barrier
    The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...

     has been built inside the internationally recognised Green Line
    Green Line (Israel)
    Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its neighbours after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...

     about 18,000 acres (73 km2) and cuts off the rest of the West Bank. It has been declared a "closed military zone". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/02/wmid02.xml
  • The October Taylor Nelson Sofres
    Taylor Nelson Sofres
    Taylor Nelson Sofres is a leading market research and market information group. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the firm was acquired by WPP Group in October 2008 for 1.6 billion pounds.-History:...

     / EOS Gallup EU poll reportedly shows that 59% of Europeans think that Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

     is a threat to world peace (greater threat to world peace than North Korea
    North Korea
    The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

    , Iran
    Iran
    Iran , 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...

    , or Afghanistan
    Afghanistan
    Afghanistan , 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...

    ). Also according to the poll, Europeans believe the United States surpasses the "axis of evil
    Axis of evil
    "Axis of evil" is a term initially used by the former United States President George W. Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002 and often repeated throughout his presidency, describing governments that he accused of helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction...

    " (i.e., Iran, Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

    , and North Korea) and Afghanistan for countries that contribute most to world instability. Around 7,500 people from 15 different European countries were surveyed. Some of the results not yet published are still reportedly "unstable". Representatives will be meeting the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana
    Javier Solana
    Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...

     to discuss the results of the poll and issues around combating anti-Semitism
    Anti-Semitism
    Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

     in Europe. http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=0D296037-B448-42D0-89CBE259FB229ED7&title=60%20Percent%20of%20Europeans%20See%20Israel%20as%20Threat%20to%20Peace&catOID=45C9C78C-88AD-11D4-A57200A0CC5EE46C http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=20031031155139494 http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35383 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AEBF5DC8-F1C3-4E15-9C29-C092051D4BF6.htm
  • Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe 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 Mugabe
    Robert Mugabe
    Robert 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 an overhaul of his cabinet and changes to the central bank aimed at tackling acute economic problems. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3233375.stm
  • Communications in the United Kingdom are disrupted as the Royal Mail
    Royal Mail
    Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...

     faces a wave of unofficial strikes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3232593.stm
  • North Korea nuclear weapons program: A North Korean defector to the South says the US cannot trust Pyongyang to stick to any deal about nuclear weapons. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3229291.stm
  • Fire fighters in California
    California
    California 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...

     begin to gain the upper hand as they battle against the wildfire
    Wildfire
    A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

    s in Southern California. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=N11CBYEFICTUWCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3736363
  • The United States prosecutes Greenpeace
    Greenpeace
    Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

     for protesting illegal mahogany
    Mahogany
    The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....

     trade under an 1872 law against "sailormongering
    Sailormongering
    Sailormongering is the practice of waylaying ships coming into port and luring sailors away from their posts with prostitutes.-Greenpeace charge:...

    ". http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/11/01/2003074192
  • Taipei
    Taipei
    Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

     celebrates the first gay pride parade
    Gay pride parade
    Pride parades for the LGBT community are events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender culture. The events also at times serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage...

     in either part of China. Approximately 1,000 people march. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2003/11/02/2003074355

November 2, 2003

  • Occupation of Iraq: In the heaviest single loss for the coalition troops since cessation of the military campaign in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

     two US Chinook
    CH-47 Chinook
    The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter. Its top speed of 170 knots is faster than contemporary utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s...

     helicopters are fired on by two surface-to-air missile
    Surface-to-air missile
    A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...

    s and one crashes near Fallujah and on its way to Baghdad airport; 16 soldiers are killed and 20 wounded. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DWZGY4XS5WOC4CRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3737651 http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/02/sprj.irq.int.main/index.html A blast damages an oil pipeline near Kirkuk
    Kirkuk
    Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...

    , north of Baghdad. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s980590.htm
  • 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...

    : The New York Times reports that militant
    Militant
    The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...

     Muslim recruits are "streaming into Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

    " and answering the call of Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

     and other extremists. These individuals are joining the fight against the coalition's occupation in Iraq, state counterterrorism officials. Intelligence officials (in six countries) have detected an estimate of hundreds of militant young Muslims from various countries headed for Iraq (primarily by crossing the Syria
    Syria
    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

    n or Iran
    Iran
    Iran , 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 borders). http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/01/1067597202524.html
  • The Yukos
    YUKOS
    OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...

     crisis continues, and Dmitry Medvedev
    Dmitry Medvedev
    Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev is the third President of the Russian Federation.Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint...

    , the new Chief of Staff of the Russian president, warns of risks to the economy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3234015.stm Following his appointment, the silovik
    Silovik
    Silovik is a Russian word for politicians from the security or military services, often the officers of the former KGB, the FSB, the Federal Narcotics Control Service and military or other security services who came into power...

    s continue to dominate Putin's administration in a larger degree than in the Boris Yeltsin
    Boris Yeltsin
    Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

     and Mikhail Gorbachev
    Mikhail Gorbachev
    Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...

     years. http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/11/03/002.html
  • In the United Kingdom, Tony Blair
    Tony Blair
    Anthony 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...

     faces a formal complaint that has been made to the International Criminal Court
    International Criminal Court
    The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...

     about the prosecution of the Iraq War. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_443202,0005.htm
  • In Hawaii
    Hawaii
    Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

    , a shark bites the arm off a 13-year-old girl surfing at Kauai
    Kauai
    Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...

    , the fourth such amputation in Hawaiian waters in 20 years. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DWZGY4XS5WOC4CRBAEZSFFA?type=domesticNews&storyID=3737032
  • In the Sudan
    Sudan
    Sudan , 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...

    , Locust
    Locust
    Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...

    s cause breathing difficulties and some deaths in Sudan. http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/11010004aaa02aa7.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking
  • Former brokers of Prudential Securities are to be charged in Massachusetts as part of a widening investigation into abuses at mutual funds. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DWZGY4XS5WOC4CRBAEZSFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=3737397

November 3, 2003

  • Occupation of Iraq: US Congress allocates for occupation and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. The funding bill omits a provision included in the Senate
    United States Senate
    The 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...

     version of the bill, demanding that Iraq repay some of the of the funds dedicated for rebuilding. U.S. President Bush had been strongly opposed to this provision.
  • At a campaign fundraiser in Birmingham
    Birmingham, Alabama
    Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

    , Alabama, President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     states that the tax cut
    Tax cut
    A tax cut is a reduction in taxes. The immediate effects of a tax cut are a decrease in the real income of the government and an increase in the real income of those whose tax rate has been lowered. Due to the perceived benefit in growing real incomes among tax payers politicians have sought to...

    s are working to help the economy. Bush also vows that the coalition forces will stay in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

    . The president states the deaths of 15 soldiers in an attack on a helicopter
    Helicopter
    A 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...

     will not deter the United States. Bush states, "The enemy in Iraq believes America will run. That's why they're willing to kill innocent civilian
    Civilian
    A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...

    s, relief workers, coalition troops. America will never run." http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/news/1067885186126782.xml http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3238459.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq: Attacks consisting of six explosions, reportedly coordinated, occur (one in Kirkuk
    Kirkuk
    Kirkuk is a city in Iraq and the capital of Kirkuk Governorate.It is located in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, north of the capital, Baghdad...

    , five in Baghdad
    Baghdad
    Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

    ). The series of explosions in Baghdad, which may have come from mortar
    Mortar (weapon)
    A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....

     shells, is in an area that is home to several coalition headquarters buildings. The Kirkuk bomb
    Bomb
    A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...

     blast northeast of Baghdad kills one Iraqi and wounds 15. The target of this explosion was the deputy governor
    Deputy Governor
    A Deputy governor is a gubernatorial official who is subordinated to a governor, rather like a Lieutenant governor.-British colonial cases:In the British empire, there were such colonial offices in :...

     of the northern Diyala province Aqil al-Hamid, who was in a convoy
    Convoy
    A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

     driving near the city of Baquba. He escapes uninjured. Also, another blast occurs near a holy Shiite Muslim shrine
    Shrine
    A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....

     in the city of Karbala
    Karbala
    Karbala is a city in Iraq, located about southwest of Baghdad. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 572,300 people ....

     kills three people and injured 12. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102051,00.html http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AD3C25C9-F2C0-4214-82F8-16CC4EB10439.htm
  • The European Commission
    European Commission
    The 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....

     comes out with another Eurobarometer
    Eurobarometer
    Eurobarometer is a series of surveys regularly performed on behalf of the European Commission since 1973. It produces reports of public opinion of certain issues relating to the European Union across the member states...

    , a survey of EU citizens. According to the survey, most Europeans think that the war in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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 not justified, that UN should supervise Iraq and provide security, and that U.S. should pay for the rebuilding of Iraq. As to which countries pose a threat to world peace, 59% think it is Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

    , and 53% that it is the United States. http://gandalf.ics.uci.edu/blog/2003/11/eurobarometer_iraq_and_peace_in_the_world.html
  • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finds further evidence of widespread irregularities in the mutual fund industry. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3238985.stm The head of Putnam Investments
    Putnam Investments
    Putnam Investments is a privately owned investment management firm founded in 1937 by George Putnam, who established one of the first balanced mutual funds, The George Putnam Fund of Boston...

     has resigned. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=E1Y0MT232C3LOCRBAELCFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=3746739
  • Embattled energy tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky
    Mikhail Khodorkovsky
    Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky is a Russian prisoner, considered by some - such as Amnesty International - to have been imprisoned for political reasons, jailed until 2016 and a former Russian oligarch and businessman...

     has quit as CEO of Yukos
    YUKOS
    OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...

    . http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=E1Y0MT232C3LOCRBAELCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=3746830
  • 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...

    : Saudi Arabia
    Saudi Arabia
    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

    n authorities have broken up, for the second time, a militant
    Militant
    The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...

     ring in Mecca
    Mecca
    Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

     amid a wide crackdown on Islamic extremists
    Islamism
    Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

    . The police
    Police
    The 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...

     combated militants in the streets of the holy city of Mecca, killing two of the suspects and uncovering a large cache of weapon
    Weapon
    A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...

    s. The raid on two buildings in Mecca's al-Share'a neighborhood foiled a terrorist
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

     operation "that did not respect the sanctity of holy places and the month of Ramadan
    Ramadan
    Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

    ". http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7763652%5E1702,00.html http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102009,00.html

November 4, 2003

  • The U.S. National Cancer Institute
    National Cancer Institute
    The National Cancer Institute is part of the National Institutes of Health , which is one of 11 agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI coordinates the U.S...

     is funding human clinical studies to test experimental reovirus-based cancer
    Cancer
    Cancer , 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...

     treatments, after initial studies show promising results against a number of different types of tumor which contain the Ras oncogene
    Oncogene
    An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, they are often mutated or expressed at high levels.An oncogene is a gene found in the chromosomes of tumor cells whose activation is associated with the initial and continuing conversion of normal cells into cancer...

    . http://www.oncolyticsbiotech.com/what.html http://www.bloodjournal.org/cgi/gca?sendit=Get+All+Checked+Abstract(s)&SEARCHID=1048034467148_12950&JOURNALCODE=&FIRSTINDEX=0&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&gca=2002-02-0503
  • 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...

    : In Saudi Arabia
    Saudi Arabia
    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

    , an attempt at a terror attack on Saudi officials, pilgrims, or both, in the holy city of Mecca
    Mecca
    Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

     is foiled; plotters believed to be linked to Al Qaeda. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3751356
  • Occupation of Iraq: For the second night running the HQ of the coalition in central Baghdad comes under attack; huge explosions are heard. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3241785.stm Spain, one of the staunchest supporters of the US in the Iraq war, withdraws many of its staff from its embassy in Iraq. http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2003/nov/04/110404366.html
  • Whilst the Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is visiting the United States, the country's president Chandrika Kumaratunga
    Chandrika Kumaratunga
    Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga born June 29, 1945) was the 4th Executive president of Sri Lanka, serving from November 12, 1994 to November 19, 2005. The daughter of two former Prime Ministers, she was also the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party until end of 2005...

     suspends parliament and deploys troops, effectively putting the country into a state of martial law
    Martial law
    Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...

    .
  • The Anglican Church splits over gay bishop. Half the archbishops of the Anglican union denounce the Episcopal Church's consecration of the world's first openly gay, non-celibate bishop and vowed not to recognize the appointment. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031104-120602-5953r.htm
  • The sun
    Sun
    The 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...

     surprises astronomers by launching another solar flare
    Solar flare
    A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...

    , this time the largest ever recorded.
  • Software company Novell
    Novell
    Novell, 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 announced that it will purchase Linux distributor
    Linux distribution
    A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...

     SuSE. http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/11/pr03069.html http://www.suse.com/us/company/press/press_releases/archive03/novell_suse.html
  • A study in Germany shows that leech
    Leech
    Leeches are segmented worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. Like other oligochaetes such as earthworms, leeches share a clitellum and are hermaphrodites. Nevertheless, they differ from other oligochaetes in significant ways...

    es can help with arthritis
    Arthritis
    Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....

     pain, apparently because their saliva contains anti-inflammatories. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=3751996http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59399-2003Nov3.html
  • Mark Messier
    Mark Messier
    Mark Douglas Messier is a former Canadian professional ice hockey centre of the National Hockey League and current special assistant to the president and general manager of the New York Rangers. He spent a quarter of a century in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, and Vancouver...

     of the New York Rangers
    New York Rangers
    The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...

     scores two goals against the Dallas Stars
    Dallas Stars
    The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The team was founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minnesota North Stars, based in Bloomington, Minnesota. The...

    , giving him 1851 to pass Gordie Howe
    Gordie Howe
    Gordon "Gordie" Howe, OC is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey player who played for the Detroit Red Wings and Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League , and the Houston Aeros and New England Whalers in the World Hockey Association . Howe is often referred to as Mr...

     and to move into second place on the NHL
    National Hockey League
    The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

     career points list. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/sports/topstories/stories/110503dnspostarslede.1c53aad9.html
  • Mexican
    Mexico
    The 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...

     President Vicente Fox
    Vicente Fox
    Vicente Fox Quesada is a Mexican former politician who served as President of Mexico from 1 December 2000 to 30 November 2006 and currently serves as co-President of the Centrist Democrat International, an international organization of Christian democratic political parties.Fox was elected...

     begins a three state trip to the United States with a stop in Arizona
    Arizona
    Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

    , where he addresses immigration issues. A man is reportedly injured at a shooting near the place Fox spoke.http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20031104215209990005
  • Canadian author M.G. Vassanji is awarded the Giller Prize for his book The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/giller_vassanji031104 http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/critiques/Something_Fishy_at_AFP.asp
  • In Ecuador
    Ecuador
    Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

    , Angel Shingre, a campesino
    Peasant
    A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

     leader and human rights campaigner who played a key role in bringing to light environmental problems caused by oil exploration in Ecuador's Amazon region, is assassinated in the city of Coca. http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/561p18d.htm

November 5, 2003

  • United States – Politics
    Politics
    Politics 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...

    : Democratic intel memo by staff disturbs the US Senate. Senator
    United States Senate
    The 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...

     Zell Miller
    Zell Miller
    Zell Bryan Miller is an American politician from the US state of Georgia. A Democrat, Miller served as Lieutenant Governor from 1975 to 1991, 79th Governor of Georgia from 1991 to 1999, and as United States Senator from 2000 to 2005....

     (D-GA) states "heads should roll" over the memo of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that outlines a strategy to politicize intelligence data. http://mensnewsdaily.com/archive/newswire/nw03/talonnews/1103/110603-leak.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3242353.stm
  • After 26 years, and at a distance from Earth
    Earth
    Earth 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...

     of over miles, Voyager 1
    Voyager 1
    The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...

     exits the solar system. It is expected to keep on transmitting into the 2020s
    2020s
    The 2020s or "twenty twenties" is the decade that will begin on January 1, 2020 and will end on December 31, 2029. It is the third decade of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium.-Notable predictions and known events :...

    . http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=460913 http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/spacecraftlife.html
  • The Australian Central Bank raises interest rates by 0.25% in a bid to curb surging consumer borrowing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3242311.stm
  • Saskatchewan general election, 2003: The NDP
    Saskatchewan New Democratic Party
    The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It currently forms the official opposition, but has been a dominant force in Saskatchewan politics since the 1940s...

     government of Lorne Calvert
    Lorne Calvert
    Lorne Albert Calvert, MLA was the 13th Premier of Saskatchewan, from 2001 to 2007. Calvert, was the leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party from 2001 to June 6, 2009, when he was succeeded by Dwain Lingenfelter.In 1975, Calvert married Betty Sluzalo of Perdue, Saskatchewan. After attending...

     is returned to power with a majority government.
  • The third Matrix movie, The Matrix Revolutions
    The Matrix Revolutions
    The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction film and the third installment of The Matrix trilogy. The film was released six months following The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers and released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5,...

    , opens simultaneously worldwide. http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/
  • The European Union
    European Union
    The 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...

     says it will press ahead with retaliation against US steel tariffs if the WTO
    World Trade Organization
    The 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 in its favour next week. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3242151.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • The United States states foreign terrorists
      Terrorism
      Terrorism 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...

       are slipping into Iraq and believes the people behind recent attacks in Iraq have come in from neighbouring countries. Iraq's Governing Council head, Jalal Talabani
      Jalal Talabani
      Jalal Talabani is the sixth and current President of Iraq, a leading Kurdish politician. He is the first non-Arab president of Iraq, although Abdul Kareem Qasim was half Kurdish....

      , urges Iraq's neighbours to crack down on "terrorists" crossing into Iraq. Talabani states terrorists had entered from Syria
      Syria
      Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

      , Saudi Arabia
      Saudi Arabia
      The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

       and Iran
      Iran
      Iran , 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...

      . Syria urges America to withdraw troops from Iraq. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3244203.stm
    • Soldiers recount crash horror. One soldier states that he "heard a crash and prayed". Recovering from wounds suffered when their helicopter was shot down in Iraq, the U.S. soldiers expect to be needed in action again. http://www.feedroom.com/
    • Turkey
      Turkey
      Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

       says it will not send troops to Iraq without a significant improvement in security there. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=2&u=/ap/20031105/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq_troops
    • Talabani plans visit to Turkey in bid to ease crisis over Turkey's troops to Iraq. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/55741/1/.html
    • An Iraqi senior judge, Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, investigating former officials of Saddam Hussein
      Saddam Hussein
      Saddam 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 regime is kidnapped and shot dead. The Najaf
      Najaf
      Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...

       prosecutor-general, Aref Aziz, was also kidnapped and later released unharmed. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/04/1067708213053.html
    • A second judge, Ismail Yussef Saddek, investigating members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime is shot dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul
      Mosul
      Mosul , 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...

      . http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/05/1068013255533.html
    • US intelligence-gathering in Iraq is being questioned partly as a result of disbanding the army. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=655&ncid=655&e=4&u=/oneworld/20031103/wl_oneworld/4536718631067871579http://www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/bal-te.insurgents05nov05,0,1675620.story?coll=bal-news-nation
  • The ninth case of mad cow disease is confirmed in Japan. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20031105a2.htm
  • An article in the November issue of J. Climate argues that global warming
    Global warming
    Global 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...

     will bring more snow to the Eastern Great Lakes
    Great Lakes
    The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

     region. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20031104/sc_nm/environment_warming_dc
  • The United Nations
    United Nations
    The 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...

     votes again and overwhelmingly in a non-binding and non-enforceable resolution for an end to sanctions against Cuba; only the US, Israel, and the Marshall Islands
    Marshall Islands
    The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...

     vote against. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3242077.stm The US's United Nations ambassador John Negroponte
    John Negroponte
    John Dimitri Negroponte is an American diplomat. He is currently a research fellow and lecturer in international affairs at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs...

     avoided the forum. Washington responded to the vote through a mid-level diplomat, Sichan Siv
    Sichan Siv
    Sichan Siv is an American diplomat and former U.S. representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council from 2001 to 2006, holding the rank of ambassador in serving that position....

    , who tells the General Assembly delegates that the Cuban embargo was a "bilateral issue" which was really none of the UN's business. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/5/100224.shtml
  • Arizona
    Arizona
    Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

     officials believe two rival immigrant smuggling rings are responsible for a shootout in Arizona that killed four people, and wounded several others. http://www.feedroom.com/
  • In Portland
    Portland, Oregon
    Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

    , Oregon, a local election to establish a PUD
    Public utility district
    In the United States, a public utility district is a special-purpose district or other governmental jurisdiction that provides public utilities to the residents of that district.PUDs are created by a local government body, such as a city, county, or...

     that would investigate public ownership of Portland General Electric
    Portland General Electric
    Portland General Electric is an electrical utility based in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - half of the inhabitants of Oregon...

     failed when 69% of the voters voted against the measure. Both Portland General Electric, an Enron
    Enron
    Enron 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...

     subsidiary, and PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Scottish Power contributed to fight the measure. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1068037163276520.xml
  • In Seattle
    Seattle, Washington
    Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

    , Washington, Gary Ridgway
    Gary Ridgway
    Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River. He strangled them, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures...

     confesses to the murder of 48 women, who were the victims of the Green River Killer. In return, he will not be subject to capital punishment
    Capital punishment
    Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

    , but serve life imprisonment for his crimes. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/146967_greenriver05.html
  • North Korea nuclear weapons program: United States allies in Asia and Europe agree to stop cooperation on nuclear power plant project. They suspend a multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear power reactors in North Korea. Japan, South Korea
    South Korea
    The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

    , the United States, and the European Union
    European Union
    The 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...

     will announce the fate of the project by November 21.http://www.iht.com/articles/116452.html
  • Microsoft
    Microsoft
    Microsoft 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...

     contributes $500,000 to fund the search of computer virus
    Computer virus
    A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...

    es and other malicious code writers, starting with the MSBlast computer worm
    Computer worm
    A computer worm is a self-replicating malware computer program, which uses a computer network to send copies of itself to other nodes and it may do so without any user intervention. This is due to security shortcomings on the target computer. Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach...

     and the Sobig virus originators. Microsoft will be working with law enforcement agencies (FBI, the Secret Service
    United States Secret Service
    The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

    , and Interpol
    Interpol
    Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...

    ) in the search. The initiative marks the latest move by Microsoft and law enforcement to curtail attacks that plague the Internet. http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5102485.html?tag=nefd_lede

November 6, 2003

  • Weather is an unseasonably warm 18 degrees c in London Heathrow Airport
    London Heathrow Airport
    London 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...

  • A Foxborough company, Cyberkinetics Inc, plans to asks permission from United States federal regulators to test a device that would enable paralyzed people to control computers directly with their brains or possibly help them move their limbs. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/biotechnology/articles/2003/11/06/approval_sought_to_test_brain_implant/
  • Scientists report to United States senators the potential to find energy
    Energy
    In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...

     on the moon
    Moon
    The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

    . Solar power
    Solar power
    Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

     from the moon could provide clean, affordable, and sustainable electric power
    Electric power
    Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...

    . http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10926
  • An intruder attempts to insert a Trojan horse
    Trojan horse (computing)
    A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.-Malware:A destructive program that masquerades as a benign...

     program into the code of the next version of the Linux kernel
    Linux kernel
    The 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....

    , stored at a publicly accessible source-code repository database
    Database
    A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

    . Security features of the BitKeeper
    BitKeeper
    BitKeeper is a software tool for distributed revision control of computer source code. A distributed system, BitKeeper competes largely against other systems such as Git and Mercurial...

     system detect the illicit changes within 24 hours. The changes, which would have introduced a security flaw to the kernel, never became a part of the Linux code. http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5103670.html?tag=nefd_top
  • The United States will focus its foreign policy
    Foreign policy
    A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...

     on bringing democracy to all peoples of the Middle East
    Middle East
    The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

    . In a major policy speech, US President
    President of the United States
    The 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. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     states that some states people of the region should have responsible democratic leaders, announcing a new American "forward strategy of freedom
    Freedom (political)
    Political freedom is a central philosophy in Western history and political thought, and one of the most important features of democratic societies...

     in the Middle East." Bush states a failure to establish democracy in Iraq would embolden terrorists
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

     around the world, increase the danger to the US, and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region. "Our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East," Bush states. He describes democratic reforms in the region as the next great turning point and blames decades of post-colonial Western foreign policy for allowing the many dictatorship
    Dictatorship
    A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...

    s and violent theocracies
    Theocracy
    Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....

     to develop. "As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish," Bush states, "it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export. And with the spread of weapon
    Weapon
    A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...

    s that can bring catastrophic harm to our country and to our friends, it would be reckless to accept the status quo
    Status quo
    Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...

    ." http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7799135%5E663,00.html http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-11/06/article12.shtml http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/07/bush.mideast.ap/
  • 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...

    : Suspected al Qaeda member tried unsuccessfully to enter the country around the same time as the September 11 hijackers may have been part of a plan to launch other attacks on targets in the United States. Identities of the suspects were discovered after a comparison of visa
    Visa (document)
    A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...

     applications received before September 11 with names recovered from documents seized in caves in Afghanistan
    Afghanistan
    Afghanistan , 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...

    . Roger Cressey, former director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council
    United States National Security Council
    The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

    , states the attack may have been "not on 9/11 but certainly afterward. [Osama] bin Laden and his people think strategically." http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/Investigation/hijackers_more031106-1.html
  • In the United States, Democratic candidate Howard Dean
    Howard Dean
    Howard 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...

     issues an apology for controversial remarks. He stated previously he wanted to be a candidate for "guys with Confederate flags on their pickup truck
    Pickup truck
    A pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...

    s
    ." http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/11/06/dean_offers_apology_over_flag_remark/
  • Also in the United States, New York Attorney General
    Attorney General
    In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

     Eliot Spitzer
    Eliot Spitzer
    Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011...

     is reported ready to take further action in widening mutual fund
    Mutual fund
    A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :...

     investigations. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GTCUU2FBNAMJCCRBAE0CFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=3773020
  • SCO v. IBM: Lawyers representing SCO Group
    SCO Group
    TSG 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...

     in intellectual property
    Intellectual property
    Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

     litigation stand to benefit significantly if the company settles lawsuits or is sold. http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5103505.html
  • In the United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales
    Charles, Prince of Wales
    Prince 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...

     issues a denial of an unspecified allegation whose publication has been prohibited by court injunction granted against the Mail on Sunday tabloid newspaper. The injunction had been granted to one former Royal Aide, but earlier today The Guardian
    The Guardian
    The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

    newspaper had been granted permission to name a person who had sought an injunction. Sir Michael Peat
    Michael Peat
    Sir Michael Charles Gerrard Peat, GCVO was the Principal Private Secretary to Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall between 2002 and 2011.-Life and career:...

    , the Prince's Private Secretary
    Private Secretary
    In the United Kingdom government, a Private Secretary is a civil servant in a Department or Ministry, responsible to the Secretary of State or Minister...

     who issues the Prince's statement, attacks the person who had made the original allegation now subject to a court injunction, describing him as someone "who, unfortunately, has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and has previously suffered from alcoholism following active service in the Falklands" and who has a history of making wild allegations which when investigated by police were found to be untrue. Peat says the country has been awash with rumours on the issue for the last week and that the Prince's unprecedented statement was intended to kill off the unfounded speculation. The Prince's Household
    Royal Household
    A Royal Household in ancient and medieval monarchies formed the basis for the general government of the country as well as providing for the needs of the sovereign and his relations....

     was previously embroiled in allegations of homosexual rape
    Rape
    Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

     involving a staff member, amid the allegation that the Prince failed to take appropriate action against the person who allegedly committed the offence. Though details of the incident are not clear, they appear to involved the alleged witnessing of a male royal in bed with a male servant. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3249031.stm http://www.itv.com/news/1590218.html http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003510556,00.html http://www.throneout.com/viewstory.asp?STORY_ID=108
  • A book reveals the details of the capture and captivity of Jessica Lynch
    Jessica Lynch
    Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former Private First Class in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S...

    . She was treated brutally (resulting in Lynch's shattered body) and, says medical records, confirm she was anally rape
    Rape
    Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

    d. The book says some Iraqi doctors said Lynch was virtually dead. http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Primetime/GMA031106LynchBook-1.html
  • The U.S. nickel design changes for the first time since 1938. http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/index.cfm?flash=no&action=nickel_series
  • US President Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     signs Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
    Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
    The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 is a United States law prohibiting a form of late-term abortion that the Act calls "partial-birth abortion", often referred to in medical literature as intact dilation and extraction...

    . This new law, supported by 70% of Americans, takes effect in all states but Nebraska
    Nebraska
    Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

    . http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031105-115308-3555r.htm
  • Just hours after Bush signed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, federal judges in California
    California
    California 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...

     and New York
    New York
    New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

     issue injunctions against the newly signed "partial birth abortion" law, forcing the United States government to stop any legal action against doctors who work for Planned Parenthood
    Planned Parenthood
    Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...

     and the National Abortion Federation
    National Abortion Federation
    The National Abortion Federation is an organization of abortion providers. Though originally a U.S. group, NAF has expanded to include practitioners in Canada and Australia as well as many European countries and Mexico...

    , until full hearings can be held on the law's constitutionality
    Constitutionality
    Constitutionality is the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution. Acts that are not in accordance with the rules laid down in the constitution are deemed to be ultra vires.-See also:*ultra vires*Company law*Constitutional law...

    . http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1229646.html
  • In the United States, NPR
    NPR
    NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

     is given , bequeathed by Joan B. Kroc
    Joan B. Kroc
    Joan Beverly Kroc was the third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc and a philanthropist.-Early life:...

    , the widow of Ray Kroc
    Ray Kroc
    Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American fast food businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime...

    , the founder of McDonalds. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6973-2003Nov6.html
  • In the United Kingdom, Michael Howard
    Michael Howard
    Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...

     is confirmed as the new leader of the Conservative Party
    Conservative Party (UK)
    The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3245561.stm
  • The Bank of England
    Bank of England
    The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

     increases base interest rate 0.25% to 3.75% in an attempt to damp down rising consumer borrowing. This is the first increase in base rate for four years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3246383.stm
  • In Rwanda
    Rwanda
    Rwanda 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...

    , four former government ministers go on trial on charges of masterminding genocide
    Genocide
    Genocide 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 1994. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3246065.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • In Seattle
    Seattle, Washington
    Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

    , Washington, the text of Gary Ridgway
    Gary Ridgway
    Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River. He strangled them, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures...

    's ("Green River Killer") confession is released. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-green-river-confession,0,1151481.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines
  • Free software
    Free software
    Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

    : The People's Republic of China government has announced that it will fund Linux
    Linux
    Linux 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...

     software development as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows
    Microsoft Windows
    Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

     operating system. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/11/05/china.linux.reut/index.html
  • In Brisbane
    Brisbane
    Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

    , Australia, the criminal convictions of controversial right wing politicians Pauline Hanson
    Pauline Hanson
    Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...

     and David Etteridge for electoral fraud, were completely overturned on appeal http://www.courts.qld.gov.au/qjudgment/QCA%202003/QCA03-488.pdf
  • Pornographic movie
    Pornographic movie
    Pornographic films are motion pictures with the purpose of promoting sexual arousal in the viewer, often featuring depictions of sexual activity. They are sold and rented out on DVD, shown through Internet and special channels and pay-per-view on cable and satellite, and in adult...

    s: A Seattle-based porn site reportedly will broadcast the sex video of the Los Angeles
    Los Angeles, California
    Los 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...

    -based celebutante, Paris Hilton
    Paris Hilton
    Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...

    . Friends of hotel heiress state that new video is a "terrible invasion of her privacy". Roger Vadocz, president of the company, claims the video is Hilton and Rick Solomon having sex. http://www.nynewsday.com/entertainment/nyc-flsecond3527458nov06,0,832594.story?coll=nyc-flash-headlines

November 7, 2003

  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • Turkey
      Turkey
      Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

       announces it will not send troops to Iraq
      Iraq
      Iraq ; 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://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V2385.AP-Turkey-Iraq.html
    • With the Turkish announcement, there are 24,000 non-American troops in Iraq, but almost half of them are British. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/08/international/middleeast/08TURK.html?ex=1068872400&en=9220027f16fc2877&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
    • Jessica Lynch
      Jessica Lynch
      Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former Private First Class in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S...

       accuses the US military of manipulating news about her capture, treatment and release for propaganda
      Propaganda
      Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

       purposes. She also states that she has no memory of the supposed anal
      Anal sex
      Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...

       rape which a former New York Times reporter claims in a book that she was subjected to. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3251731.stm
    • United States Army
      United States Army
      The 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...

       Black Hawk helicopter crashes near Tikrit
      Tikrit
      Tikrit 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:...

      . Six soldiers are killed. All of the dead are from the 101st Airborne
      101st Airborne Division
      The 101st Airborne Division—the "Screaming Eagles"—is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France, Operation Market Garden, the...

      . It is unknown if the craft went down because of mechanical failure or hostile fire. Reportedly, a military
      Military
      A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

       source says it may have been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade
      Rocket propelled grenade
      A 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...

      . http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/topstories_story_311075616.html
    • 57% of Poles oppose the mission in Iraq as the first Polish soldier dies. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=V1O5KDCJ3RDYWCRBAELCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=3777387
    • Vietnam War
      Vietnam War
      The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

       vets comment on the worrisome parallels between Vietnam and Iraq. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-11-06-vets-usat_x.htmhttp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=679&ncid=742&e=1&u=/usatoday/20031107/cm_usatoday/11941631
  • A monitoring panel states to the United Nations Security Council
    United Nations Security Council
    The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

     tells of violations of the arms embargo
    Embargo
    An embargo is the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country, in order to isolate it. Embargoes are considered strong diplomatic measures imposed in an effort, by the imposing country, to elicit a given national-interest result from the country on which it is...

     against Somalia
    Somalia
    Somalia , 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...

     have taken place over a six-month period and the weapons are arriving now continuously in many small quantities (while large quantities arrive less often). http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=8825&Cr=somalia&Cr1=
  • In Pakistan
    Pakistan
    Pakistan , 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...

    , President
    President
    A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

     Pervez Musharraf
    Pervez Musharraf
    Pervez 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...

     pledges that Pakistan will match India's military spending spree. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3775297
  • Medical marijuana: The largest study to date on the effectiveness of cannabis
    Cannabis
    Cannabis 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...

     treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis
    Multiple sclerosis
    Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...

     produces mixed results; doctors
    Physician
    A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

     state that there is enough evidence to warrant licensing the treatment for the illness. http://msnbc.com/news/990073.asp?0cv=CB10
  • 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...

    : US military
    Military
    A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

     commander for the Middle East
    Middle East
    The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

     reportedly creates a covert commando
    Commando
    In 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...

     force (named Task Force 121
    Task Force 121
    Task Force 121 is an example of the United States' 'Joint Task Force' concept of conducting special operations. TF121 is a multi-service force commanded by U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Gregory L. Trebon. The spearhead of the force is a forty-man team made up of operators from the U.S. Army's...

    ) to hunt Saddam Hussein
    Saddam Hussein
    Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

     and Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Laden
    Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

     (and other key terrorists throughout the region). Military officers state a broader, regional mission is given to the force, which has become one of the Pentagon's most highly classified and closely watched operations. The Special Operations
    Special forces
    Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

     organization to act with greater speed on intelligence
    Intelligence (information gathering)
    Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...

     tips about "high-value targets" and not be contained within the borders where American conventional forces are operating in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

     and Afghanistan
    Afghanistan
    Afghanistan , 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...

    . General
    General
    A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

     John Abizaid
    John Abizaid
    John Philip Abizaid, AO is a retired General in the United States Army and former Commander of the United States Central Command , overseeing American military operations in a 27-country region, from the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, to South and Central Asia, covering much of the Middle...

    , who commands all American forces in the strategic crescent from the Red Sea
    Red Sea
    The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

     to the Indian Ocean
    Indian Ocean
    The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

    , had previously decided to disband two Special Operations missions (Task Force 5 in Afghanistan and Task Force 20
    Task Force 20
    Task Force 20 is a designation that has been used by at least two United States Department of Defense units.-United States Navy:Task Force 20 is one of the task force designators assigned to the United States Fleet Forces Command in the Atlantic, and was previously one of the task force designators...

     in Iraq). http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=68&u=/nyt/20031107/ts_nyt/pentagonsaysacovertforcehuntshussein&printer=1
  • Foreign relations of the Republic of China
    Foreign relations of the Republic of China
    The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan, is recognized by sovereign states. The course of the foreign relations of the ROC is dominated by maintaining diplomatic relations with these countries, as well as unofficial relations with other countries via its de facto embassies and...

    : The South Pacific island nation of Kiribati
    Kiribati
    Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...

     recognizes the Republic of China
    Republic of China
    The 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...

    , bringing the number of countries recognizing Taiwan to 27. Although it has not yet severed ties with the People's Republic of China and has expressed the intention to continue relations, Beijing is expected to break relations in response to this move.http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/11/08/1068256362.htm
  • Some Arab scholars state Bush's speech over how "Western governments should not back undemocratic regimes" is an important message to the Arab political elite and important message when it comes to the idea of democracy
    Democracy
    Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

    . http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec03/democracy_11-07.html
  • The United States Senate
    United States Senate
    The 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...

    's permanent ban on Internet
    Internet
    The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

     access taxes fails, with senators vowing to negotiate over the weekend and return to the topic. State and local governments warn that a permanent extension of an existing moratorium, which expired on November 1, would cost billions in lost tax revenue. The moratorium
    Moratorium (law)
    A moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity or a law. In a legal context, it may refer to the temporary suspension of a law to allow a legal challenge to be carried out....

     had applied to special tax
    Tax
    To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...

    es that singled out dial-up and some other Internet access methods and is not related to sales tax
    Sales tax
    A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....

    es. http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5104596.html?tag=nefd_top

November 8, 2003

  • The Countess of Wessex has given birth to a daughter by Caesarean section one month early. As the first child of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
    Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
    Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex KG GCVO is the third son and fourth child of Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh...

    , the baby is eighth in the line of succession to the throne of the United Kingdom.
  • In Pakistan
    Pakistan
    Pakistan , 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...

    , United Press International
    United Press International
    United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...

    reports a letter sent to members of the opposition in Pakistan on a military
    Military
    A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

     letterhead causes panic in President
    President
    A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

     Pervez Musharraf
    Pervez Musharraf
    Pervez 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...

    's government because it says he "has been imposed on this nation." The letter reportedly states that "We want to assure the nation that this army belongs to you and to Pakistan ... Pervez Musharraf and his clique has been imposed on this nation". http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031107-125247-8004r
  • The All Blacks
    All Blacks
    The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....

     defeat South Africa
    South Africa
    The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

     in the first quarter final of the rugby World Cup. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=8&u=/afp/20031108/ts_afp/rugbyu_wc2003_nzl_rsa_031108093908
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • British scientists develop a gel
    Gel
    A gel is a solid, jelly-like material that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state...

     that allows wounds to heal in the half the time it took formerly; the gel speeds wound closure and reduces inflammation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3243633.stm
  • Germany's upper house rejects controversial economic policy changes (tax cuts and changes to labour law) aimed at kick-starting Europe's largest economy. Social Democrat
    Social Democratic Party of Germany
    The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

     Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
    Gerhard Schröder
    Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...

     has invested much political capital in the reforms, but they are opposed by many labour unions and left-wing politicians. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3250233.stm
  • An expert says that the AIDS
    AIDS
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

     epidemic in the People's Republic of China is reaching major proportions. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/11/7/latest/14833ChinasAI&sec=latest
  • North Korea nuclear weapons program: The CIA says North Korea already has one or two nuclear devices and does not need to test them to confirm they are viable. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3780709
  • Faced with a hazardous-waste crisis, The Pentagon
    The Pentagon
    The 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...

     is pushing to exempt itself from United States environmental laws. http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2003/45/ma_571_01.html
  • The longest U.S. hiring slump in more than 60 years appears to be ending. http://www.iht.com/articles/116877.html
  • 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...

    : The Commission set up to investigate the September 11, 2001, attacks votes to serve a subpoena
    Subpoena
    A 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:...

     on the North American Aerospace Defense Command
    North American Aerospace Defense Command
    North American Aerospace Defense Command is a joint organization of Canada and the United States that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and defense for the two countries. Headquarters NORAD is located at Peterson AFB, Colorado Springs, Colorado...

     but rejects a proposal to subpoena the daily counter-intelligence briefings that the CIA receives from the president. After a series of field inquiries and interviews with NORAD personnel, commission staff realize that the materials NORAD had provided were incomplete. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031107-070415-2790r

November 9, 2003

  • Guatemalan election: Large numbers of voters turn out for the general election, despite fears of violence. In the presidential race, former Guatemala City mayor Óscar Berger
    Óscar Berger
    Óscar 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...

     receives 34% of the vote, and center-left candidate Álvaro Colom
    Álvaro Colom
    Álvaro Colom Caballeros is the President of Guatemala for the 2008–2012 term and leader of the social-democratic National Unity of Hope .-Early years:...

     gets 26%; former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt
    Efraín Ríos Montt
    José Efraín Ríos Montt is a former de facto President of Guatemala, dictator, army general, and former president of Congress. In the 2003 presidential elections, he unsuccessfully ran as the candidate of the ruling Guatemalan Republican Front .Huehuetenango-born Ríos Montt remains one of the most...

     comes in third in with 19%. A run-off vote between Berger and Colom is to take place on December 28. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10212574.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3256721.stm
  • Coca Cola sends some of its most senior executives to Dublin to discuss a spreading student boycott
    Boycott
    A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...

     of Coca Cola products. Students in University College Dublin
    University College Dublin
    University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

    , Trinity College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
    National University of Ireland, Maynooth
    The National University of Ireland, Maynooth , was founded by the Universities Act, 1997 as a constituent university of the National University of Ireland. It is Ireland's second oldest university, having been formed from St Patrick's College, Maynooth, itself founded in 1795.The university is...

     and Queens University Belfast announced their boycott amid allegations of ill-treatment of Colombia
    Colombia
    Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

    n workers who bottle the company's drinks for sale in Latin America
    Latin America
    Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

    . http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-887398,00.html
  • Japan general election
    Japan general election, 2003
    A general election took place in Japan on November 9, 2003. Incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of the Liberal Democrat Party won the election but with a reduced majority. The main opposition Democratic Party made considerable gains, winning 177 of the 480 seats in the House of...

    : Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
    Junichiro Koizumi
    is 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...

     wins the election in Japan but with a reduced majority. The opposition Democratic Party is projected to win almost 180 seats which for the first time will take them into the position of forming a credible opposition. Other small parties like Japan Communist Party loses seats significantly, making two-party system
    Two-party system
    A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...

     realistic in politics of Japan
    Politics of Japan
    The politics of Japan is conducted in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy, where Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government. Japanese politics uses a multi-party system. Executive power exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the Diet, with...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3254075.stm http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20031110e1.htm
  • 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...

    :
    • Seventeen people are killed and more than 120 are injured, many of them children, in a midnight car bomb
      Car bomb
      A 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,...

       attack in Riyadh
      Riyadh
      Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...

      , Saudi Arabia
      Saudi Arabia
      The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

      . http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=MPGZ5XEVQGOHSCRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3783647 Suspicions immediately fall on the terrorist movement al-Qaeda
      Al-Qaeda
      Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

      . The victims included Saudis as well as Sudan
      Sudan
      Sudan , 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, Lebanese
      Lebanon
      Lebanon , 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...

      , and Egypt
      Egypt
      Egypt , 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 residents of the compound, which was less rigorously protected than similar facilities inhabited by westerners. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3254103.stm http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1110593,00.htm http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/24/terror/main579968.shtml
    • The Venice Commission
      Venice Commission
      The Venice Commission is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin wall, at a time of urgent need for constitutional assistance in Central and Eastern Europe...

      : (The European Commission for Democracy through Law) criticizes the regime under which men are held in Guantanamo Bay
      Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
      The 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...

      . It concludes that it is wrong to ignore the Geneva Conventions
      Geneva Conventions
      The 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...

       and basic human rights
      Human rights
      Human 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...

       law. http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031108001265&query=Venice&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form
    • British special forces commanders criticise the quality of the intelligence given to them before and during the conflict with Iraq. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/09/nirq09.xml
    • The UK Secretary of Defence Geoff Hoon
      Geoff Hoon
      Geoffrey "Geoff" William Hoon is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Ashfield from 1992 to 2010...

       is accused of providing misleading figures about the true cost of conflict in Iraq. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200311/09/eng20031109_127925.shtml
    • U.S. troops shoot and kill Mohannad Ghazi al Kaabi, the appointed interim mayor of Sadr City
      Sadr City
      Sadr City is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr....

       (formerly Saddam City), Baghdad
      Baghdad
      Baghdad 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.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=7741 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3260469.stm The incident reportedly occurs from a confrontation following Mohannad's refusal to follow instructions from the on-site security official. The security official was enforcing security procedures stemming from recent car bombing incidents in accordance with standard rules of engagement. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s986884.htm
  • Peru
    Peru
    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

    vian armed forces capture a leader of the Shining Path
    Shining Path
    Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...

     rebel group after a clash in the Andes in which four guerrillas
    Guerrilla warfare
    Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...

     were killed and an officer wounded. http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=400935§ion=news
  • 2003 Rugby Union World Cup: England beats Wales to reach the semi-final of the World Cup, but Wales led in the first half. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3243911.stm
  • Beginning at about 1 a.m. UTC there is a lunar eclipse
    Lunar eclipse
    A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes behind the Earth so that the Earth blocks the Sun's rays from striking the Moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a...

    , visible from the Americas, Europe, Africa, central Asia.
  • William Donaldson
    William Donaldson
    Charles William Donaldson was an English satirist, writer, playboy and, under the pseudonym of Henry Root, author of The Henry Root Letters.-Life and career:...

    , chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, launches a scathing attack on the US securities and mutual fund
    Mutual fund
    A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :...

     industries. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565719033&p=1012571727088 Eliot Spitzer
    Eliot Spitzer
    Eliot Laurence Spitzer is an American lawyer, former Democratic Party politician, and political commentator. He was the co-host of In the Arena, a talk-show and punditry forum broadcast on CNN until CNN cancelled his show in July of 2011...

    , New York Attorney General, is expected to shortly file civil and criminal charges against a widening group of fund management companies. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565747059&p=1012571727088
  • Experts conclude that dioxin probably killed off the trout in the Great Lakes
    Great Lakes
    The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

    . http://apnews.myway.com/article/20031109/D7UMP0OO0.html
  • In the United States, support for George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     decreases as casualties mount in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=461948
  • British bank Barclays Bank Plc is reported to be in talks with three US banks with regard to a takeover bid for one of them. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1PNZWSW3S0YMCCRBAEOCFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=3782435

November 10, 2003

  • The World Trade Organization
    World Trade Organization
    The 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...

     declares United States tariff
    Tariff
    A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

    s on steel
    Steel
    Steel 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...

     imports inconsistent with free trade
    Free trade
    Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

    , opening the way for the European Union
    European Union
    The 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...

     to impose punitive tariffs on goods of US origin. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3256197.stm http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=B0B066D9-AE0C-473A-97DAEB321A1C79D3
  • 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...

    : The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals by 16 people detained at Guantanamo Bay
    Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
    The 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...

    . The Supreme Court will consider whether alleged illegal combatants held by the United States since the War in Afghanistan
    War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
    The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

     can use American courts to challenge their detainment. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3258017.stm http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2LK45WXG2ZZQICRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3791927 http://www.citizenonline.net/citizen/archive/article26C1BAA15E574B1185A8EC2D67CF555D.asp http://www.iht.com/articles/117176.html
  • In India, heavy rain boosts economic growth forecasts for the Indian economy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3256743.stm
  • In the United Kingdom, Michael Howard
    Michael Howard
    Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...

    , new leader of the Conservative Party
    Conservative Party (UK)
    The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

    , announces his first Shadow Cabinet
    Shadow Cabinet
    The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...

    ; membership is trimmed down to 12 from 26. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=462619 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3255441.stm
  • Alliance Capital Management, owned by AXA
    AXA
    AXA S.A. is a French global insurance group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries. The AXA group of companies engage in life, health and other forms of...

    , fires two senior executives as a result of enquiries into mutual fund abuses. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=3789383
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • Security officials in Saudi Arabia
    Saudi Arabia
    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

     order 4600 extra troops into Mecca
    Mecca
    Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...

     to provide increased security during Ramadan
    Ramadan
    Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

    , saying that additional attacks could occur at any moment. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/11/09/saudi.explosion/index.html
  • Questions surround Yasser Arafat
    Yasser Arafat
    Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...

     after further allegations about money moved out of the West Bank
    West Bank
    The 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 secret bank accounts. http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/bu/financing/articles/where/where.htm
  • Researchers report that some patients who recovered from SARS have developed bone disease, possibly as a result of drugs used to fight the infection. http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/11090002aaa06120.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking
  • Toronto municipal election, 2003
    Toronto municipal election, 2003
    The Toronto municipal election of 2003 was held on November 10, 2003, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to elect the Mayor of Toronto, 44 city councillors, and school board trustees.David Miller was elected mayor ....

    : David Miller is elected mayor of Toronto
    Toronto
    Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

    . http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/10/torontovotes031110
  • In the United Kingdom, the Prince of Wales
    Prince of Wales
    Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

     returns from a foreign trip to confront enormous media interest in rumours of homosexual acts involving him and a former aide arising from allegations made by another former royal servant, George Smith
    George Smith (royal servant)
    George Anthony Smith was a former footman and valet in the Royal Household of Prince Charles.Smith alleged:*that he was raped by Michael Fawcett, a favoured servant of the Prince Charles; and...

    . Charles is considering legal action, but his staff have ruled out the possibility of a televised
    Television
    Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

     statement or interview. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=462282
  • Survivors of the massacre of Srebrenica
    Srebrenica
    Srebrenica is a town and municipality in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska. Srebrenica is a small mountain town, its main industry being salt mining and a nearby spa. During the Bosnian War, the town was the site of the July 1995 massacre,...

    , the worst European atrocity since World War II, are to sue the United Nations
    United Nations
    The 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...

     and the Netherlands
    Netherlands
    The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

     for almost USD  for failing to protect the Muslim enclave. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/10/1068329489680.html
  • Fine arts: A striking piece of art, the life-like sculpture of the Nazi
    Nazism
    Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

     leader Adolf Hitler
    Adolf Hitler
    Adolf 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...

     kneels in an empty room in a Munich
    Munich
    Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

     art museum, Germany (where the Nazi past has made it taboo to display Hitler in any form except in documentary films). The exhibition is at the neo-classical museum, which the Nazi leader ordered built in 1937. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/hitler_dc

November 11, 2003

  • The US Senate
    United States Senate
    The 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...

     backs legislation imposing sanctions on Syria
    Syria
    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

    ; the bill allows the president to adjust sanctions as a function of Syria's co-operativeness. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3262413.stm
  • Following yesterday's WTO
    World Trade Organization
    The 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...

     decision, the People's Republic of China and Japan indicate that they will retaliate against US tariffs on steel
    Steel
    Steel 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...

     imports if the U.S. fails to amend its policy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3259761.stm
  • U.S. Presidential election, 2004: George Soros
    George Soros
    George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...

     pledges USD  to help defeat President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     in 2004. Soros says a "supremacist ideology" guides the White House
    White House
    The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

     and describes the US under the Bush administration as a danger to the world. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A24179-2003Nov10?language=printer
  • 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...

    : An Arab magazine claims to have received an e-mail
    E-mail
    Electronic 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...

     from a member of the Al Qaeda group claiming responsibility for Saturday's bombing in Riyadh
    Riyadh
    Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...

     that killed 17 people and injured over 100. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102733,00.html
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • The Control Risks Group reports that London
    London
    London 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...

     is the leading terrorist
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

     target in Western Europe
    Western Europe
    Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...

     due to British involvement in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

     and the UK's large Muslim population. http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3259337.stm
  • Large parts of central London
    London
    London 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...

     are to be sealed off during US President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

    's state visit to the United Kingdom next week. Due to security concerns Bush is to be denied the traditional state ceremonial carriage-ride up the Mall to Buckingham Palace
    Buckingham Palace
    Buckingham 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...

     normally accorded to heads of state
    Head of State
    A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3259005.stm
  • Toyota nudges out Ford
    Ford Motor Company
    Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

     in Q3 to become the world's second-largest manufacturer of automobile
    Automobile
    An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

    s behind General Motors. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565782245&p=1012571727088
  • Pornographer
    Pornography
    Pornography 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,...

     Larry Flynt
    Larry Flynt
    Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....

     states that he has bought topless photos of famous Iraq war soldier Jessica Lynch
    Jessica Lynch
    Jessica Dawn Lynch is a former Private First Class in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S...

     and was planning to publish them in January 2004; later, he says he bought them to prevent them from ever being published. The photos reportedly show Lynch frolicking with male soldiers prior to her deployment to Iraq. http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/10513.htm http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102736,00.html http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/135799p-120870c.html
  • Negotiations break down between Montréal 2006 and the Federation of Gay Games on having the Gay Games
    Gay Games
    The Gay Games is the world's largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes, artists, musicians, and others. It welcomes participants of every sexual orientation and every skill level...

     in Montreal
    Montreal
    Montreal 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...

     in 2006. Montreal 2006 insist that they will still have an event in 2006, while the FGG mull moving the Games to a different city. The two parties were unable to agree on the size of the event. http://www.planetout.com/pno/health/hiv/news/splash.html?2003/11/10/1

November 12, 2003

  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • A top-secret CIA intelligence report warns about growing numbers of Iraqis concluding the coalition can be defeated and supporting the resistance. The CIA report also cautions that more aggressive counterinsurgency tactics will induce other Iraqis to join the resistance. Slate magazine
      Slate (magazine)
      Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...

      notes the new anti-insurgency measures in "postwar Iraq" means the situation is "Iraq War – Phase II." http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1112/dailyUpdate.html
    • In response to a leaked report, Paul Bremer says that terrorists "are trying to encourage the Iraqi people to believe that the United States is not going to stay the course". The CIA report says that the incipient insurgency is deep rooted, growing rapidly and not confined to ex-Baathists. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=Y3I52G5DY2MFGCRBAEKSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3808966http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1083829,00.html
    • President Bush
      George W. Bush
      George 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....

       and senior advisers meet in Washington to determine how to move forward in Iraq, given the slow progress of the Iraqi Governing Council
      Iraqi Governing Council
      The Iraqi Governing Council was the provisional government of Iraq from July 13, 2003 to June 1, 2004. It was established by and served under the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority...

       and the deteriorating political situation as outlined in the CIA report. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20031112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/us_iraq
    • Thirty-one people, mostly members of Italian security forces, are killed in a mid-morning truck bombing
      Car bomb
      A 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,...

       in Nasiriya. Italian opposition politicians call for a pullout from Iraq. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3263087.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1083284,00.html
  • 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...

    : The Palestinian parliament approves a new cabinet led by Prime Minister
    Prime minister
    A 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...

     Ahmed Qurei
    Ahmed Qurei
    Ahmed Ali Mohammed Qurei , also known by his Arabic Kunya Abu Alaa is a former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3262729.stm
  • The United Kingdom government announces plans to introduce identity cards, which are intended to eventually become compulsory. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1083046,00.html
  • The Peru
    Peru
    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

    vian Congress approves more charges against ex-President Alberto Fujimori
    Alberto Fujimori
    Alberto Fujimori Fujimori served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability, though his methods have drawn charges of...

    , alleging he trafficked arms to Colombia
    Colombia
    Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

    n guerrillas, sanctioned torture, was responsible for the disappearance of student activists, and mismanaged millions of dollars from Japanese charities to build schools for poor children in Peru, with an unexplained shortfall in funds received, among other irregularities.
  • Shanghai
    Shanghai
    Shanghai 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...

     With 501 km/h (311 mph) the Shanghai Transrapid sets up a new world record for commercial railway systems. http://www.transrapid.de/cgi-tdb/en/basics.prg?session=543d3&a_no=9

November 13, 2003

  • SCO v. IBM: SCO Group
    SCO Group
    TSG 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...

     files subpoena
    Subpoena
    A 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 for Richard Stallman
    Richard Stallman
    Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...

     and Linus Torvalds
    Linus Torvalds
    Linus 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...

    . http://www.linuxinsider.com/perl/story/32140.html
  • A British Daily Mirror opinion poll suggests nearly half the people of the United Kingdom see the United States as the biggest threat to world peace
    World peace
    World Peace is an ideal of freedom, peace, and happiness among and within all nations and/or people. World peace is an idea of planetary non-violence by which nations willingly cooperate, either voluntarily or by virtue of a system of governance that prevents warfare. The term is sometimes used to...

     and are opposed to President Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

    's state visit
    State visit
    A state visit is a formal visit by a foreign head of state to another nation, at the invitation of that nation's head of state. State visits are the highest form of diplomatic contact between two nations, and are marked by ceremonial pomp and diplomatic protocol. In parliamentary democracies, heads...

     to the UK. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13622444_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-BUSH-OFF---POLL-REVEALS-BRITS-FURIOUS-AT-COST-OF-VISIT-name_page.html
  • A Belfast Telegraph opinion poll
    Opinion poll
    An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

     in Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland
    Northern 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...

     in the run up to the Northern Ireland Assembly
    Northern Ireland Assembly
    The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...

     elections predicts that the Ulster Unionist Party
    Ulster Unionist Party
    The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

     will remain the largest unionist party, defeating the Democratic Unionist Party
    Democratic Unionist Party
    The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

    , while the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party
    Social Democratic and Labour Party
    The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

    , contrary to many expectations, will outpoll Sinn Féin
    Sinn Féin
    Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

    . At the start of the campaign, many commentators had predicted that both the DUP and Sinn Féin would topple their rivals. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3264535.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • Japan delays sending troops to Iraq
      Iraq
      Iraq ; 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....

       because of the worsening security situation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3266215.stm
    • According to military analysts, recent attacks on coalition forces in Iraq are, reportedly, part of a guerrilla
      Guerrilla warfare
      Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...

       strategy to isolate the United States during attempts to achieve international support for rebuilding the country. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-11-12-strategy-usat_x.htm
    • With growing insurgency in Iraq and increasing criticism in the United States, the White House
      White House
      The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

       is pushing for faster action on crucial aspects of its strategy toward Iraq, accelerating the timetable for Iraqi self-government, redoubling military
      Military
      A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

       efforts against insurgent
      Iraqi insurgency
      The Iraqi Resistance is composed of a diverse mix of militias, foreign fighters, all-Iraqi units or mixtures opposing the United States-led multinational force in Iraq and the post-2003 Iraqi government...

      s via "Operation Iron Hammer", and increasing efforts to convince the American public of the long-term benefit of the transformation of Iraq. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1114/p01s01-woiq.html
  • Mass media
    Mass media
    Mass 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...

    :
    • Leading Saudi Arabia
      Saudi Arabia
      The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

      n newspaper al-Riyadh (which often reflects government thinking) claims that Qatar
      Qatar
      Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...

      's Al Jazeera
      Al Jazeera
      Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

       television coverage of the bombing in Riyadh
      Riyadh
      Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of Riyadh Province, and belongs to the historical regions of Najd and Al-Yamama. It is situated in the center of the Arabian Peninsula on a large plateau, and is home to 5,254,560 people, and the urban center of a...

       is aimed at inciting more violence
      Violence
      Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...

      . http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters11-13-031429.asp?reg=MIDEAST
    • Thirty media outlets claim, with two separate letters sent to The Pentagon
      The Pentagon
      The 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...

      , that United States troops are harassing journalists in Iraq and sometimes confiscating equipment, digital camera media and videotapes. A statement by a Pentagon official states the military is aware of reports that soldiers had sometimes not followed procedures on dealing with the media and promises to take appropriate action.http://www.mediainfo.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2027078
  • In Canada, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP
    Royal Canadian Mounted Police
    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

     rules that the police force used excessive force
    Police brutality
    Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....

     during the anti-globalization
    Anti-globalization
    Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....

     protests at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas
    Quebec City Summit of the Americas
    The 3rd Summit of the Americas was a summit held in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, on April 20--22, 2001.This international meeting was a round of negotiations regarding a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas...

     FTAA negotiations in April 2001. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/13/rcmp_summit031113
  • The Economy
    Economics
    Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

    : Germany, France and the Netherlands
    Netherlands
    The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

    , which together account for more than half the economic activity of the eurozone
    Eurozone
    The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...

    , report returns to growth in the third quarter as a global economic recovery stokes demand for exports. http://www.iht.com/articles/117547.html
  • Chief Justice of Alabama
    Alabama
    Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

     Roy Moore is removed from office by the Alabama Court of Judiciary for failure to remove Ten Commandments
    Ten Commandments
    The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

     monument from court house pursuant to order by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson
    Myron Thompson
    Myron Thompson is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons. He represented the riding of Wild Rose in Alberta....

    . http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031113.wjudge1113/BNStory/International/
  • A British court rejects a request by the Russian government for extradition
    Extradition
    Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...

     of Akhmed Zakayev
    Akhmed Zakayev
    Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev is the former Deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , which is unrecognised by other countries...

    , an envoy of the Chechen
    Chechnya
    The 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...

     rebels, who is accused of being a terrorist
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

     and having committed a number of crimes including kidnapping, murdering Russian soldiers, and levying war. The request was denied on the grounds that Mr. Zakayev was considered likely to be tortured if he was extradited, which would make such deportation illegal under article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights
    European Convention on Human Rights
    The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...

    . The prosecution's evidence was described as a "farce" by one BBC reporter, and reminiscent of Soviet
    Soviet Union
    The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

    -era show trials. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3266325.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3269385.stm http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2003/11/13/51210.html
  • Cybercrime
    Black hat
    A black hat is the villain or bad guy, especially in a western movie in which such a character would stereotypically wear a black hat in contrast to the hero's white hat, especially in black and white movies....

    : Californian man is fined and sentenced to community service for cracking into the website of satellite TV network Al Jazeera
    Al Jazeera
    Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

    during the war in Iraq. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s988862.htm
  • United Nations Secretary-General
    United Nations Secretary-General
    The 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 Annan
    Kofi Annan
    Kofi Atta Annan is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006...

     holds talks with Bolivia
    Bolivia
    Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

    's President Carlos Mesa
    Carlos Mesa
    Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert is a Bolivian politician, historian and President of Bolivia from October 17, 2003 until his resignation on June 6, 2005....

    , Cabinet, indigenous leaders, and local UN
    United Nations
    The 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...

     staff during the final leg of his South American tour. The visit came several weeks after the tumultuous Bolivian Gas War
    Bolivian Gas War
    The Bolivian gas conflict was a social confrontation in Bolivia centering on the exploitation of the country's vast natural gas reserves. The expression can be extended to refer to the general conflict in Bolivia over the exploitation of gas resources, thus including the 2005 protests and the...

     forced the previous president out of office. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=8875&Cr=bolivia&Cr1=
  • Immigration
    Immigration
    Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

    : Long known as a haven of multicultural tolerance, the Netherlands
    Netherlands
    The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

    ' integration policy comes under scrutiny. http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2003%20Opinion%20Editorials/November/13%20o/Netherlands%20Integration%20Policy%20Comes%20Under%20Scrutiny.htm
  • Science
    Science
    Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

    : Craig Venter and his group announce creation of artificial virus
    Virus
    A 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 reproduces, and put the technology into the public domain. http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2003-11-13-new-life-usat_x.htm

November 14, 2003

  • 2003 California recall: California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley officially certifies the recall election and he declares Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arnold 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....

     the Governor-Elect. The swearing-in is set to take at PST
    Time zone
    A 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...

     on Monday November 17 on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento
    Sacramento, California
    Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...

    , California.
  • Four former heads of Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

    's internal security criticise the policies of the right wing Likud
    Likud
    Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...

    -led government of Ariel Sharon
    Ariel Sharon
    Ariel 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....

     towards Palestinians and say the policies if not changed would see Israel "headed for (an) abyss". The four headed the security services for two decades between 1980 and 2000. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/front/2003/1115/index.html
  • In Paris
    Paris
    Paris 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...

     over 40,000 people participate in the European Social Forum
    European Social Forum
    The European Social Forum is a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement . In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries...

    .
  • Attempting to calm fears that the recent takeover of oil giant YUKOS
    YUKOS
    OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...

     will mean a return to the era of a state-managed economy, Russian president Vladimir Putin
    Vladimir Putin
    Vladimir 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...

     tells Russian businessmen that the government is not planning to take control of the economy. http://www.latimes.com/business/investing/la-fg-putin15nov15,1,824675.story?coll=la-headlines-business-invest
  • Politics of Canada
    Politics of Canada
    The 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...

    : Paul Martin
    Paul Martin
    Paul 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....

     is elected leader of the Liberal Party
    Liberal Party of Canada
    The 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...

    . He becomes Prime Minister
    Prime Minister of Canada
    The 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...

    -designate and will assume office upon Jean Chrétien
    Jean Chrétien
    Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....

    's retirement by the end of February 2004. http://globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031114.wspee14/BNStory/Front/
  • The US trade deficit with the People's Republic of China hit a record USD $12.7 billion in September, with imports from mainland China also a record at . For the first nine months of that year, the total trade deficit was . At this pace, it will surpass the record of set in 2002. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,102973,00.html
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • During his visit to London
      London
      London 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...

      , President Bush
      George W. Bush
      George 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....

       plans to meet the families of UK troops killed in Iraq
      Iraq
      Iraq ; 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/1/hi/uk/3271003.stm
    • Two US troops are killed near Samarra
      Samarra
      Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700....

       when their vehicle is blown up. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=GTTD51RIN4Z1SCRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=3824518 US forces kill seven Iraqis thought to have been preparing a rocket attack. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=1&u=/ap/20031114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
    • Pentagon bans cameras at funerals in Arlington National Cemetery
      Arlington National Cemetery
      Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...

      . Coverage of bodies arriving at Dover Air Force Base is already banned. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38338-2003Nov13.html
  • Economy of Japan
    Economy of Japan
    The economy of Japan, a free market economy, is the third largest in the world after the United States and the People's Republic of China, and ahead of Germany at 4th...

    : Japan's economy grows 0.6% in Q3 to give the seventh quarter of growth after a long recession. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3269673.stm
  • 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...

    : A leaked UN report claims that attempts to cut off the flow of funds to al-Qaeda
    Al-Qaeda
    Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

     are being undermined by lack of will. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565876294&p=1012571727085
  • Politics of Germany
    Politics of Germany
    The Federal Republic of Germany is a federal parliamentary republic, based on representative democracy. The Chancellor is the head of government, while the President of Germany is the head of state, which is a ceremonial role but with substantial reserve powers.Executive power is vested in the...

    : German opposition party CDU votes to expel Member of Parliament
    Bundestag
    The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...

     Martin Hohmann
    Martin Hohmann
    Martin Hohmann is a German lawyer and politician without party affiliation. He was a member of the German Parliament for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union , from 1998 until 2005....

     after he made a speech that was widely criticised for being anti-Semitic
    Anti-Semitism
    Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3269597.stm
  • India and the People's Republic of China hold joint naval exercises near Shanghai. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3267731.stm

November 15, 2003

  • Two car bomb
    Car bomb
    A 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,...

    s explode outside synagogue
    Synagogue
    A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

    s in Istanbul
    Istanbul
    Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

    , Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

    , at about 0700 UTC (1000 local time), killing at least 20 people and injuring another 250. A radical Islamist
    Islamism
    Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

     group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front
    Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front
    The Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front is an Islamic militant organization which follows the Büyük Doğu ideology of Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, a well-known Turkish author, poet and Islamist ideologue...

    , claims responsibility. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3272815.stm
  • In Louisiana
    Louisiana
    Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

    , conservative
    Conservatism
    Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

     Democrat Kathleen Blanco
    Kathleen Blanco
    Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was the 54th Governor of Louisiana, having served from January 2004 until January 2008. She was the first woman to be elected to the office of governor of Louisiana....

     defeats Republican Bobby Jindal
    Bobby Jindal
    Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....

     to become the first woman in that state to be elected governor. Jindal is the son of immigrants from India. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,103178,00.html
  • One hundred thousand people of various organisations demonstrate in Paris
    Paris
    Paris 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...

     on occasion of the last day of the European Social Forum
    European Social Forum
    The European Social Forum is a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement . In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries...

     http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A3D63756-9075-4659-AB4B-1735A8029DA7.htm.
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • Former United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
    Robin Cook
    Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....

     expresses puzzlement as to why George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     should have been invited for a state visit to the UK. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3272951.stm Opinion polls suggest that 60% of the British people think President Bush is a threat to world peace. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3828725
  • Police in Hebei
    Hebei
    ' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...

     province, People's Republic of China, arrest a suspected serial killer alleged to have killed at least 65 people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3273585.stm
  • In Saint-Nazaire
    Saint-Nazaire
    Saint-Nazaire , is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France.The town has a major harbour, on the right bank of the Loire River estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. The town is at the south of the second-largest swamp in France, called "la Brière"...

    , France, 15 people, including 2 children, die and 32 are injured or missing when a gangway falls off the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship, which has just finished construction. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3274171.stm http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20031115101109990001
  • 2003 Rugby Union World Cup: In the semi-finals Australia defeats New Zealand
    New Zealand
    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

     by 22 points to 10 to win a place in next weekend's final. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3263711.stm

November 16, 2003

  • The Serbian presidential election fails as only 38% of the registered electorate show up to vote. About 18% of registered voters cast a vote for Tomislav Nikolic
    Tomislav Nikolic
    Tomislav "Toma" Nikolić is a Serbian politician, President of the Serbian Progressive Party. He is also a former member of the Serbian Radical Party, where he served as Deputy Leader of the party and parliamentary leader during the absence of Vojislav Šešelj...

    , 14% for Dragoljub Micunovic
    Dragoljub Micunovic
    Dragoljub Mićunović, PhD is a prominent Serbian politician and philosopher.-Early life:...

    , 4% for Velimir Ilic
    Velimir Ilic
    Velimir "Velja" Ilić is Serbian politician and a former Minister of Capital Investments in the Serbian government in the cabinet of Vojislav Koštunica.- Biography :...

    , and 3% for other candidates. With a turnout of less than 50%, the poll is declared invalid. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3274275.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • A BBC
    BBC
    The 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...

     poll suggests that there is dangerously poor AIDS
    AIDS
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

     awareness in China and India; the poll leaves little grounds for optimism. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3271947.stm
  • 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...

    : In Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

    , four former heads of Shin Bet say Israel is heading for disaster unless Prime Minister
    Prime minister
    A 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...

     Ariel Sharon
    Ariel Sharon
    Ariel 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....

    's right-wing government changes its policies with regard to the Palestinians and begins negotiations. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565898161&p=1012571727102 Ministers accuse the former security heads of creating a controversy for political reasons. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1068880715304&p=1008596981749
  • A 7.5-magnitude earthquake
    Earthquake
    An 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 the Aleutian Islands in Alaska
    Alaska
    Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

     triggers tsunami
    Tsunami
    A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

     warnings.
  • 2003 Rugby Union World Cup: England beats France 24–7 in high winds and heavy rain in the World Cup semi-final. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3263021.stm

November 17, 2003

  • Lord Black of Crossharbour
    Conrad Black
    Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...

     is pushed to resign as chief executive of his media empire, which may be sold. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/business/3276319.stm
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arnold Schwarzenegger
    Arnold 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....

     is sworn in as Governor of California
    Governor of California
    The 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...

    . http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/17/elec04.schwarzenegger/index.html
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • Izzat Ibrahim, a top general in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein
      Saddam Hussein
      Saddam 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 directly implicated in recent attacks on US troops; he is number six on the US list of most wanted Iraqis and the second-highest target still at large after the former president himself. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1C2H1KCRLOWLGCRBAEZSFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=3837452
    • Italian official Marco Calamai resigns from the U.S.-led administration running Iraq, stating that "The provisional authority simply doesn't work". He says that the Iraqis are becoming angry and that the UN needs to step in. He accuses the US of underestimating the complexity of Iraq's social structure. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3279019.stm
  • Tony Blair
    Tony Blair
    Anthony 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...

     publicly defends his decision to invite President Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     to the UK on a state visit
    State visit
    A state visit is a formal visit by a foreign head of state to another nation, at the invitation of that nation's head of state. State visits are the highest form of diplomatic contact between two nations, and are marked by ceremonial pomp and diplomatic protocol. In parliamentary democracies, heads...

    . http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1087195,00.html
  • John Allen Muhammad
    John Allen Muhammad
    John Allen Muhammad was a spree killer from the United States. He, along with his younger partner, Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks, killing at least 10 people. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert...

     is unanimously convicted of all four counts in the indictment against him, including two charges of capital murder, committed during the October 2002 sniper shootings in the Washington, DC, metro area. The jury is currently deciding whether Muhammad will be sentenced to death or to life in prison. http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,2763,1087587,00.html
  • People living near remote submarine bases in the West Highlands of Scotland
    Scotland
    Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

     are to be issued with potassium iodate tablets in case of a nuclear accident. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3277007.stm
  • Coca eradication
    Coca eradication
    Coca eradication is a controversial strategy strongly promoted by the United States government starting in 1961 as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by indigenous cultures but also, in modern society, in the...

    : The White House Drug Policy Office claims the area planted with coca in Peru
    Peru
    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

     and Bolivia
    Bolivia
    Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

     combined fell by 35 km2 in the year up to June, suggesting that the coca eradication program in neighboring Colombia
    Colombia
    Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

     was not driving production over the borders. But the US figures were very different from preliminary estimates in September by the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Colombia, which suggested output in Peru and Bolivia may have risen by as much 21 per cent that year.http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2730872a12,00.html
  • Chess
    Chess
    Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

     grandmaster Garry Kasparov
    Garry Kasparov
    Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

     is level-pegging against X3D Fritz
    X3D Fritz
    X3D Fritz was a version of the Fritz chess program, which in November 2003 played a four-game Human-computer chess match against world number one Grandmaster Garry Kasparov...

     after three games played. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3276979.stm
  • The United States contract bridge
    Contract bridge
    Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

     team defeats the team from Italy to win the 2003 Bermuda Bowl
    Bermuda Bowl
    The Bermuda Bowl is a trophy awarded to the winners of the Open series in the World Team Championship in contract bridge and is named for the site of the inaugural tournament held in 1950...

     in Monaco
    Monaco
    Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

    . After thirteen days and over 1000 hands of bridge, the US team wins by one point, after Italian Lorenzo Lauria plays the wrong card from the dummy to lose the last hand. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/17/wbridg17.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/11/17/ixportal.html

November 18, 2003

  • SCO v. IBM: SCO Group
    SCO Group
    TSG 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...

     plans to widen its legal battle against the open-source operating system
    Operating system
    An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

    , stating intent to sue large-scale Linux
    Linux
    Linux 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...

     users for copyright
    Copyright
    Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

     infringement. http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-5108956.html?tag=nefd_top
  • US President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     arrives in London
    London
    London 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...

     for the start of his three-day state visit to the United Kingdom amid an extremely high-security operation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3279179.stm
    • Protestors in the United Kingdom make preparations for President Bush
      George W. Bush
      George 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....

      's state visit to the UK starting Tuesday. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=7&u=/ap/20031117/ap_on_re_eu/britain_bush_protestshttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=HL4JNMBR0ZKDUCRBAEOCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3839417
    • More Britons approve of President Bush's
      George W. Bush
      George 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....

       visit to the UK than disapprove of it. In an ICM survey for The Guardian
      The Guardian
      The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

      , 43% of those questioned said they welcomed Bush's visit, while 36% said they did not. In the new poll, 62% agreed that the US was "generally speaking, a force for good", while 15% thought it was "an evil empire
      Evil empire
      The phrase evil empire was applied to the Soviet Union especially by U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities, in calling for a rollback strategy that would, in his words,...

      ". The survey contrasted with a poll published last week by Populus
      Populus Ltd
      Populus is a market research company in the United Kingdom formed in 2003. Populus co-founded the British Polling Council in 2004 and regularly publishes opinion polls on voting intention and as well as other political and commercial issues. Clients have included national brands such as the AA and...

       for The Times
      The Times
      The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

      newspaper. http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7901913%5E1702,00.html http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1087545,00.html
  • The Mexican
    Mexico
    The 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...

     government announces the imminent resignation of its ambassador to the United Nations
    United Nations
    The 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...

    , Adolfo Aguilar Zinser
    Adolfo Aguilar Zínser
    Adolfo Aguilar Zínser was a Mexican scholar, diplomat and politician who served as a National Security Advisor to President Vicente Fox and as a UN Security Council Ambassador in the midst of the US invasion of Iraq....

    , who, in a speech in Mexico City last week, said that the political and intellectual class of the United States sees Mexico as "a country whose position is that of a back yard". http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&e=7&u=/ap/20031118/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_official_resigns http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=279359
  • Enron announces proposed sale of Portland General Electric
    Portland General Electric
    Portland General Electric is an electrical utility based in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It distributes electricity to customers in parts of Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Yamhill, Washington, and Polk counties - half of the inhabitants of Oregon...

     for , including assumption of debt. The sale is to a newly formed LLC
    Limited liability company
    A limited liability company is a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions...

     backed by a private investment firm from Texas
    Texas
    Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

    . This happens after Portland-area
    Multnomah County, Oregon
    Multnomah County is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. Though smallest in area, it is the most populous as its county seat, Portland, is the state's largest city...

     residents defeated a ballot measure
    Initiative
    In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...

     to take over the utility on November 4. PGE had outspent supporters of the takeover 60-to-1. http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/releases/2003/ene/111803Release.html
  • The United States announces restrictions on the import of textiles from the People's Republic of China. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=OA4LBQR11IRSGCRBAEKSFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=3847694 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3282053.stm
  • An inquest finds that prominent Sky News
    Sky News
    Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

     journalist
    Journalist
    A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

     James Forlong
    James Forlong
    James George Roche Forlong was a Major General of the Indian Army who trained as an engineer. He joined the Indian Army in 1843 later filling various posts including that of Secretary and Chief Engineer to the government of Oudh...

    , who had resigned from the station when it was revealed that he had faked footage during the Iraq War, committed suicide
    Suicide
    Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

     by hanging himself. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=465051
  • The European Union
    European Union
    The 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...

     strongly criticises Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

    's plans to build the Israeli West Bank barrier
    Israeli West Bank barrier
    The Israeli West Bank barrier is a separation barrier being constructed by the State of Israel along and within the West Bank. Upon completion, the barrier’s total length will be approximately...

     encircling Palestinian
    Palestinian people
    The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

     areas on the West Bank
    West Bank
    The 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...

    . It also criticises the intensification of suicide attack
    Suicide attack
    A suicide attack is a type of attack in which the attacker expects or intends to die in the process.- Historical :...

    s by Palestinians and describes Israel's building of settlements in the West Bank as an "obstacle to peace". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3280435.stm
  • Fermilab
    Fermilab
    Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory , located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics...

     confirms the existence of a mystery subatomic particle
    Subatomic particle
    In physics or chemistry, subatomic particles are the smaller particles composing nucleons and atoms. There are two types of subatomic particles: elementary particles, which are not made of other particles, and composite particles...

     that is inconsistent with existing theories of how the universe works. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3277579.stm
  • The US Centers for Disease Control warn of a possible severe flu season and urges Americans to get a vaccination
    Vaccination
    Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

    . http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=HL4JNMBR0ZKDUCRBAEOCFEY?type=domesticNews&storyID=3839402
  • Occupation of Iraq: The United Kingdom is reportedly pushing for a changed approach in Iraq that goes beyond military strategy to reach out to the Iraqi people and the country's neighbours. http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/11170002aaa06e6e.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking
  • The United Nations
    United Nations
    The 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...

     suspends operations in south-eastern Afghanistan
    Afghanistan
    Afghanistan , 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...

     following the fatal shooting of Bettina Goislard
    Bettina Goislard
    Bettina Goislard was a French employee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , assigned to its mission in Afghanistan...

    , a French employee of the UNHCR. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3277077.stm
  • CalPERS
    CalPERS
    The California Public Employees' Retirement System or CalPERS is an agency in the California executive branch that "manages pension and health benefits for more than 1.6 million California public employees, retirees, and their families"...

    , the United States' largest pension fund, is to terminate its contracts with Putnam
    Putnam Investments
    Putnam Investments is a privately owned investment management firm founded in 1937 by George Putnam, who established one of the first balanced mutual funds, The George Putnam Fund of Boston...

     and withdraw its funds. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=HL4JNMBR0ZKDUCRBAEOCFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=3839384http://finance.myway.com/ht/nw/bus/20031117/hlm_bus-n17344018.html
  • Same-sex marriage in the United States
    Same-sex marriage in the United States
    The federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage in the United States, but such marriages are recognized by some individual states. The lack of federal recognition was codified in 1996 by the Defense of Marriage Act, before Massachusetts became the first state to grant marriage licenses...

    : The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
    Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
    The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.-History:...

     rules 4–3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
    Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
    Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 , was a landmark state appellate court case dealing with same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S...

    that the state's non-recognition of same-sex marriage
    Same-sex marriage
    Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....

     is unconstitutional and gives the state legislature 180 days to change the law. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/11/18/sjc_gay_marriage_legal_in_mass/
  • Santa Barbara County
    Santa Barbara County, California
    Santa Barbara County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, on the Pacific coast. As of 2010 the county had a population of 423,895. The county seat is Santa Barbara and the largest city is Santa Maria.-History:...

    , California, police search the Neverland ranch of pop icon Michael Jackson
    Michael Jackson
    Michael 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...

    , looking for evidence to corroborate a 12-year-old boy's complaint that he was sexually molested
    Sexual abuse
    Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...

    . http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20031118-1510-ca-michaeljackson.html
  • Roger Federer
    Roger Federer
    Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...

     beats Andre Agassi
    Andre Agassi
    Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...

     to win the final of the tennis Masters Cup
    Tennis Masters Cup
    The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is a tennis tournament played at the end of each year, involving the top eight players in the men's tennis world rankings....

     in Houston. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/3275909.stm
  • Barry Bonds
    Barry Bonds
    Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. Bonds played from 1986 to 2007, for the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star Bobby Bonds...

     is selected the National Baseball League's
    National League
    The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

     Most Valuable Player
    Most Valuable Player
    In sports, a Most Valuable Player award is an honor typically bestowed upon the best performing player or players on a specific team, in an entire league, or for a particular contest or series of contests...

    , for the third year in a row and the sixth time overall, both unprecedented. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/7292614.htm
  • Prominent British footballer
    Football (soccer)
    Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

     Jody Morris
    Jody Morris
    Jody Morris is an English football midfielder. He plays for Scottish club St. Johnstone. He has previously played for Chelsea, Leeds United, Rotherham United and Millwall.-Playing career:...

    , who plays for Leeds United, is charged with rape
    Rape
    Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

    . http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1111771,00.html

November 19, 2003

  • The Canada-U.S. Power System Outage Task Force releases an interim report, citing a loss of situational awareness in FirstEnergy Corporation's control room as the primary cause and "immature" monitoring software used at the Midwest Independent System Operator as a secondary cause. http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/media/docs/reports_e.htm
  • FTAA: The Bush administration says it is opening free-trade negotiations with Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Panama. It hopes to start the free trade talks by the second quarter of 2004. http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1486839-6078-0,00.html
  • The People's Republic of China expresses firm opposition to US restrictions on imports of textiles (from mainland China
    Mainland China
    Mainland 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...

    ) and vows to take the dispute to the WTO
    World Trade Organization
    The 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...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3282549.stm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62214-2003Nov19.html Abandoning tolerance toward Taiwan for the first time since 2000, the PRC threatens to use force and, ultimately, conduct war against Taiwan
    Republic of China
    The 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...

     if it pursues independence
    Taiwan independence
    Taiwan 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 PRC's state press condemns Taiwanese President
    President of the Republic of China
    The 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-bian
    Chen Shui-bian
    Chen 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...

    's move toward holding a referendum
    Referendum
    A 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...

     on "independence" and providing the legislative framework for declaring a Republic of Taiwan. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/11/18/taiwan.war/index.html http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EK20Ad04.html
  • An arrest warrant is issued for pop singer Michael Jackson
    Michael Jackson
    Michael 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...

     http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=7741850.
  • The United States Department of Justice
    United States Department of Justice
    The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

     charges 47 people, including former employees of JP Morgan and UBS, with offenses related to foreign exchange
    Foreign exchange market
    The foreign exchange market is a global, worldwide decentralized financial market for trading currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends...

     fraud. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=UJFB402DX5UH2CRBAEOCFEY?type=businessNews&storyID=3853910 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3284967.stm At the same time investigations into fraud in the US mutual fund industry widen. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=3853375 The U.S. House of Representatives
    United States House of Representatives
    The 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...

     approves a draft bill that explicitly bans some of the troublesome mutual fund practices. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3285905.stm Some commentators think these various financial scandals are undermining the US dollar, which falls to an all time low against the euro
    Euro
    The 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,...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3282917.stm
  • President Hosni Mubarak
    Hosni Mubarak
    Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

     of Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , 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...

     is taken ill during a live television broadcast; he had taken antibiotics whilst fasting during Ramadan
    Ramadan
    Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3283435.stm
  • Politics of Japan
    Politics of Japan
    The politics of Japan is conducted in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic monarchy, where Prime Minister of Japan is the head of government. Japanese politics uses a multi-party system. Executive power exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the Diet, with...

    : The Diet of Japan
    Diet of Japan
    The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...

     names Junichiro Koizumi
    Junichiro Koizumi
    is 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...

     Prime Minister in a short special session.
  • Speaking in London
    London
    London 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...

    , UK, Richard Perle
    Richard Perle
    Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor, consultant, and lobbyist who began his career in government, a senior staff member to Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 1970’s...

     says that the 2003 invasion of Iraq
    2003 invasion of Iraq
    The 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...

     was an illegal act but morally correct: "international law stood in the way of doing the right thing". http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1089042,00.html
  • A tabloid journalist
    Journalism
    Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

     claims to have penetrated Buckingham Palace
    Buckingham Palace
    Buckingham 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...

     security preceding the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     to the UK. The Palace is seeking a restraining order
    Injunction
    An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...

     to prevent The Mirror
    The Daily Mirror
    The Daily Mirror is a British national daily tabloid newspaper which was founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is often referred to in popular parlance. It had an...

    from publishing further information about the royal household. http://media.guardian.co.uk/pressprivacy/story/0,7525,1089581,00.html
  • The four-match chess
    Chess
    Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

     contest between Garry Kasparov
    Garry Kasparov
    Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

     and X3D Fritz
    X3D Fritz
    X3D Fritz was a version of the Fritz chess program, which in November 2003 played a four-game Human-computer chess match against world number one Grandmaster Garry Kasparov...

     ends in a draw. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3281037.stm
  • UEFA
    UEFA
    The 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....

    : The final five qualifying countries for the 2004 European Football Championship are settled, with Latvia
    Latvia
    Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

     astonishingly defeating Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

     3–2 on aggregate over two games. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/default.stm
  • London Bridge Tower, set to become the tallest skyscraper in Western Europe, is granted full planning permission by the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott
    John Prescott
    John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...

    .
  • Release date of violent computer-game Manhunt
    Manhunt (video game)
    Manhunt is a stealth game developed by Rockstar Games. It was released to the public on November 18, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 console, and on April 20, 2004 for Xbox and PC. Although it was generally well-received by critics, Manhunt created a controversy due to the graphic violence the player...

    . http://society.guardian.co.uk/urbandesign/story/0,11200,1088537,00.html

November 20, 2003

  • The FTAA negotiations in Miami end one day early; a menu approach is adopted to assure the future of the agreement, allowing individual countries to opt out of controversial or unacceptable provisions. Between 10,000 and 25,000 protestors demonstrate outside the conference center; the police use rubber bullet
    Rubber bullet
    Rubber bullets are rubber or rubber-coated projectiles that can be fired from either standard firearms or dedicated riot guns. They are intended to be a non-lethal alternative to metal projectiles...

    s, and over 100 people are arrested. http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/73394/1/ http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/798C19F0-648C-479E-9400-0963A2234919.htm
  • Terrorist attacks
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

    : Bombs hit Istanbul
    Istanbul
    Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

    , Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

    . At least 25 are killed and hundreds injured in two car-bomb
    Car bomb
    A 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,...

     blasts that devastate the Turkish headquarters of HSBC
    HSBC Bank (Turkey)
    HSBC Bank A.Ş., the Turkey subsidiary of the HSBC Group, is a bank with its head office in Istanbul.-History:HSBC Bank A.Ş. was established as Midland Bank A.Ş. in 1990. It was the subsidiary of Midland Bank and was renamed HSBC Bank A.Ş. in 1999. In October 2001, HSBC Bank A.Ş...

     and the British consulate. British Consul-General Roger Short
    Roger Short
    Roger Short MVO was a veteran British diplomat who was killed on 20 November 2003 in a truck bombing in Istanbul while serving as the British Consul-General in Turkey...

     is among the dead. The Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front
    Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front
    The Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front is an Islamic militant organization which follows the Büyük Doğu ideology of Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, a well-known Turkish author, poet and Islamist ideologue...

     (IBDA-C), a radical Islamist group, claims responsibility. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3222608.stm
  • Between 110,000 (according to the police) and 300,000 (according to the organization) people demonstrate in and around Trafalgar Square
    Trafalgar Square
    Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

     in London
    London
    London 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...

     against the war in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

     and George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

    's state visit. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/11/281262.html
  • The People's Republic of China says it may retaliate against restrictions the US is to impose on imports of Chinese textile products. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3222580.stm
  • Pop musician Michael Jackson
    Michael Jackson
    Michael 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...

     turns himself in to the Santa Barbara
    Santa Barbara, California
    Santa 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...

     Sheriff's office and is officially charged with child molestation. http://www.sbsheriff.org/wn/spr/11200301.html

November 21, 2003

  • President George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     arrives back in the United States after his controversial State Visit to the UK. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3228650.stm
  • U.S. ambassador to the People's Republic of China Clark Randt is called to meet Chinese ministers twice (second day in succession) in connection with US plans to restrict imports of Chinese textiles; Beijing is shocked at the US move. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3225618.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • In the pre-dawn hours RPGs
      Rocket propelled grenade
      A 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...

       are launched from donkey carts at two Baghdad
      Baghdad
      Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

       hotels and the oil ministry building. Reports indicate slight damage and one casualty. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3225626.stm
    • Former senior U.S. intelligence official and UNSCOM
      United Nations Special Commission
      United Nations Special Commission was an inspection regime created by the United Nations to ensure Iraq's compliance with policies concerning Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War...

       inspector Scott Ritter
      Scott Ritter
      William Scott Ritter, Jr. was an important United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and later a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass...

       urges the Parliament of the United Kingdom
      Parliament of the United Kingdom
      The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

       to investigate the questionable way in which units of British secret intelligence agencies massaged public opinion prior to war with Iraq. http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2205340 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3227506.stm
  • The Global Environment Facility
    Global Environment Facility
    The Global Environment Facility unites 182 member governments — in partnership with international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector — to address global environmental issues....

     Council Approves in Grants for 19 Projects to Improve the Global Environment http://www.thegef.org/Outreach/Media/Press_Releases/press_releases.html

November 22, 2003

  • In Tbilisi
    Tbilisi
    Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...

    , Georgia
    Georgia (country)
    Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

    , opponents of President Eduard Shevardnadze
    Eduard Shevardnadze
    Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...

     seize the parliament building and demand the president's resignation. Opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili vows to "trample" the country's leadership following unrest over disputed election results. Shevardnadze denounces what he calls an attempted coup
    Coup d'état
    A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

     and declares a state of emergency
    State of emergency
    A 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...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3227878.stm
  • The United States tests the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb or (MOAB), the world's largest non-nuclear bomb, in Florida. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=296312 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3873668
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • Car bomb
      Car bomb
      A 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,...

      s outside police stations in the towns of Khan Bani Saad and Baquba, north of Baghdad
      Baghdad
      Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

      , detonate around 08h local time (0500 UTC), killing upwards of 18 people. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3228680.stm
    • A cargo plane belonging to courier company DHL
      DHL
      DHL Express is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post providing international express mail services. DHL is a world market leader in sea and air mail....

       makes an emergency landing at Baghdad airport
      Baghdad International Airport
      Baghdad International Airport, originally Saddam International Airport, , BIAP is Iraq's largest airport, located in a suburb about west of downtown Baghdad in the Baghdad Governorate...

       after being hit by a surface-to-air missile
      Surface-to-air missile
      A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...

      . http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/22/1069027377782.html Commercial flights in and out of the airport are suspended. http://interestalert.com/brand/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/11220000aaa07196.upi&Sys=siteia&Fid=LATEBRKN&Type=News&Filter=Late%20Breaking
  • At 5:51 am, the United States House of Representatives
    United States House of Representatives
    The 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...

     passes the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act
    Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act
    The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act is a federal law of the United States, enacted in 2003. It produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program's 38-year history.The MMA was signed by President George W...

     by a vote of 220–215, as fifteen Democrats change their votes. Three hours earlier the same bill had failed, 211–222.
  • Peru
    Peru
    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

    vian President Alejandro Toledo
    Alejandro Toledo
    Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique is a politician who was President of Peru from 2001 to 2006. He was elected in April 2001, defeating former President Alan García...

     apologizes for the 70,000 people killed in the 15-year battle with the Shining Path
    Shining Path
    Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...

     rebel movement. He promises to punish members of Armed Forces who were responsible for many abuses. http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2003/11/23/in_peru_an_apology_for_wartime_abuses/
  • 2003 Rugby World Cup
    2003 Rugby World Cup
    The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World...

    : Regular time in a dramatic final match ends in a 14–14 tie. England finally defeat Australia 20–17 to win the William Webb Ellis Cup – the first time it has been won by a Northern Hemisphere team. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3227648.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/3228728.stm
  • The 2003 Heritage Classic is played in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the first outdoor ice hockey
    Ice hockey
    Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

     games in the history of the National Hockey League
    National Hockey League
    The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

    . Over 50,000 spectators watch the two games. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/indepth/heritageclassic/

November 23, 2003

  • Chrono Crusade
    Chrono Crusade
    , also known as Chrno Crusade due to a typo in the original logo, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Moriyama. It was originally published by Kadokawa Shoten in Dragon Magazine which began serialization in November 1998. A 24-episode anime television series based on the...

    premieres on Showtime Beyond.
  • A BBC
    BBC
    The 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...

     Correspondent programme, based on computer-generated images, suggests that the Warren Commission
    Warren Commission
    The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...

    's controversial magic bullet theory
    Single bullet theory
    The single bullet theory was introduced by the Warren Commission in its investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to explain what happened to the bullet which struck Kennedy in the back and exited through his throat...

    , in which is was claimed that the same bullet hit President John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy
    John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

     and Governor John Connally
    John Connally
    John Bowden Connally, Jr. , was an influential American politician, serving as the 39th governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in...

     during Kennedy's assassination in 1963, was correct. Using state of the art computer generated images based on the Zapruder film
    Zapruder film
    The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, asU.S. President John F...

    , the programme concludes that a lone gunman could have shot Kennedy. ABC News
    ABC News
    ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

     and Court TV
    Court TV
    truTV is an American cable television network owned by Turner Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Time Warner. The network launched as Court TV in 1991, changing to truTV in 2008...

     arrived at a similar conclusion http://www.courttv.com/onair/shows/kennedy/index.html
  • Beleaguered Georgian
    Georgia (country)
    Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

     President Eduard Shevardnadze
    Eduard Shevardnadze
    Eduard Shevardnadze is a former Soviet, and later, Georgian statesman from the height to the end of the Cold War. He served as President of Georgia from 1995 to 2003, and as First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party , from 1972 to 1985. Shevardnadze was responsible for many top decisions on...

     resigns. Elections will be in 45 days, but until then, Nino Burdzhanadze will be the acting president. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=2&u=/ap/20031123/ap_on_re_eu/georgia_protests http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3231534.stm
  • Nationalist party HDZ appears set to beat the ruling centre-left coalition in Croatia
    Croatia
    Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

    's general election. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3230260.stm http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031123/325/eeqic.html
  • EADS
    EADS
    The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. is a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide...

    , the largest European aircraft company, is doing preliminary work on a hypersonic
    Hypersonic
    In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that is highly supersonic. Since the 1970s, the term has generally been assumed to refer to speeds of Mach 5 and above...

     passenger aircraft that would take the place of the recently retired Concorde
    Concorde
    Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...

    ; the planning includes collaboration with Japanese firms and Ministry of International Trade and Industry
    Ministry of International Trade and Industry
    The Ministry of International Trade and Industry was one of the most powerful agencies of the Government of Japan. At the height of its influence, it effectively ran much of Japanese industrial policy, funding research and directing investment...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3231354.stm However, its subsidiary Airbus
    Airbus
    Airbus SAS is an aircraft manufacturing subsidiary of EADS, a European aerospace company. Based in Blagnac, France, surburb of Toulouse, and with significant activity across Europe, the company produces around half of the world's jet airliners....

    ' A380
    Airbus A380
    The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. It is the largest passenger airliner in the world. Due to its size, many airports had to modify and improve facilities to accommodate it...

     'super-jumbo' sub-sonic vehicle is the product expected to become the dominant commercial aircraft in the near-future. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=3877882
  • The New York Times reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
    Federal Bureau of Investigation
    The 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...

     is actively monitoring and gathering intelligence on anti-war protest movements' activities, ostensibly to detect possible terrorist
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

     activity. Opponents such as the American Civil Liberties Union
    American Civil Liberties Union
    The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...

     criticize the practice as regressionary to the days of J. Edgar Hoover
    J. Edgar Hoover
    John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...

    's intense monitoring of private organizations for potential communist links. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/national/23FBI.html?ei=5062&en=67560367b7120964&ex=1070168400&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=all&position= http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/23/security.fbi.reut/index.html
  • The People's Republic of China plans to start tests of a SARS vaccine on humans by the end of December; trials with monkeys show that the vaccine was effective. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3230418.stm
  • 10,000 trade unionists, environmentalists, and farm workers march in Miami to protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas
    Free Trade Area of the Americas
    The Free Trade Area of the Americas , , ) was a proposed agreement to eliminate or reduce the trade barriers among all countries in the Americas but Cuba. In the last round of negotiations, trade ministers from 34 countries met in Miami, United States, in November 2003 to discuss the proposal...

     expansion meeting. Other street protests erupt into violent confrontations with police several times throughout the day. Protester sources indicate upwards of 250 protesters incarcerated, along with reports of physical and sexual assault while in custody. http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/11/15/8771331 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/22/0011213 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1122-03.htm http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/03-11-19/story3.htm http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/7266885.htm Other demonstrations take place in cities throughout the Americas.
  • Occupation of Iraq:
  • A US military helicopter crashes near Bagram
    Bagram
    Bagram , founded as Alexandria on the Caucasus and known in medieval times as Kapisa, is a small town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul. It is the site of an ancient city located at the junction of the Ghorband and Panjshir...

    , Afghanistan
    Afghanistan
    Afghanistan , 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...

    , killing five soldiers and wounding seven. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/031123/325/eeqjm.html
  • Indian newspapers reported on the results of an in-depth 2002 survey of 57,321 Pakistanis in 89 districts
    Districts of Pakistan
    The Districts of Pakistan are the second order administrative divisions of Pakistan. Districts were the third order of administrative divisions, below provinces and "divisions", until the reforms of August 2000, when "divisions" were abolished...

     of Pakistan
    Pakistan
    Pakistan , 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...

    . Although the survey was primarily concerned with the performance of local governments, the newspapers mischaracterized its results as the "utter dissatisfaction" of Pakistanis with the government of Pakistani president
    President of Pakistan
    The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...

     Pervez Musharraf
    Pervez Musharraf
    Pervez 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...

    .http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=26297 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/297394.cms http://origin.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=&id=45317&callid=1

November 24, 2003

  • Radical Muslim cleric Sheik Nasser al-Fahd denounces suicide bombings, declaring on Saudi
    Saudi Arabia
    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

     TV that "blowing oneself up in such operations is not martyrdom; it is suicide". Some consider this a response to pressure from the Saudi government to recant previous statements.http://www.washtimes.com/world/20031123-111636-4783r.htm
  • The High Court in Glasgow
    Glasgow
    Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

     rules that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted in 1999 of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103
    Pan Am Flight 103
    Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...

     over Lockerbie
    Lockerbie
    Lockerbie is a town in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland. It lies approximately from Glasgow, and from the English border. It had a population of 4,009 at the 2001 census...

    , Scotland
    Scotland
    Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

    , in December 1988, must serve a minimum of 27 years before being considered for parole. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3233156.stm
  • A former ANC
    African National Congress
    The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...

     intelligence operative appears in a South Africa
    South Africa
    The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

    n Court on Monday in connection with an alleged plot to oust or kill President Thabo Mbeki
    Thabo Mbeki
    Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...

    . http://allafrica.com/stories/200311250399.html http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=24016
  • A fire in a student hostel at Moscow
    Moscow
    Moscow 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...

    's Patrice Lumumba University kills 32 and injures about 150 people, all foreign students. The fire services blame an electrical fault. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3232090.stm
  • Pro-democracy groups gain in the Hong Kong
    Hong Kong
    Hong 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...

     District Council
    District Council of Hong Kong
    The District Councils, formerly District Boards until 1999, are the local councils for the 18 Districts of Hong Kong. Under the supervision of Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, they are consultative bodies on district administration and affairs.- History :In 1982, under the...

     elections, as the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong
    Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong
    Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong , formerly known as Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, is the largest pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong...

     loses 21 of its previous 83 elected seats. DAB chairman Tsang Yok-sing
    Tsang Yok-sing
    Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, GBS JP was the founding Chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong , the largest pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong....

     offers to resign. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/24/international/asia/24HONG.html?ex=1070254800&en=e51df8e3b9b09716&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
  • Canada, Northwest Territories general election, 2003
    Northwest Territories general election, 2003
    The 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...

    : Voters in the NWT choose their new government, electing the independent members of their consensus legislature. The premier will be chosen by and among the members on Dec. 10. http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=nwte-ujpdate
  • In the United States, telephone number portability
    Local number portability
    Local number portability for fixed lines, and full mobile number portability for mobile phone lines, refers to the ability to transfer either an existing fixed-line or mobile telephone number assigned by a local exchange carrier and reassign it to another carrier...

     as mandated by the FCC
    Federal Communications Commission
    The 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...

     takes effect in major metropolitan areas. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/11/24/cellphone_number_portability_era_begins/
  • HIV-positive muppet Kami
    Kami (Takalani Sesame character)
    Kami is a character on Takalani Sesame and Sesame Square, the South African and Kenyan versions respectively of the children's television program Sesame Street....

     is appointed UN
    United Nations
    The 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...

     mascot for juvenile AIDS
    AIDS
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

     victims. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=553&ncid=751&e=9&u=/ap/20031124/ap_wo_en_he/un_gen_un_aids_puppet

November 25, 2003

  • Annualized Q3 growth rate in the US gross domestic product
    Gross domestic product
    Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....

     exceeds 8%, the highest rate of growth since the Reagan
    Ronald Reagan
    Ronald 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....

     administration. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=71000001&refer=home&sid=aXuXEm5y10Uo
  • In a speech to lawyers in London, one of the United Kingdom's most senior Law Lords, Lord Steyn, condemns the detentions at Guantanamo Bay
    Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
    The 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...

     as a monstrous failure of justice. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=467290 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3238302.stmhttp://www.hri.ca/partners/G78/bboard/creery.shtml Australia reaches a deal concerning two men detained at Guantanamo Bay. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3238302.stm
  • Occupation of Iraq: At least two rockets are reported fired near the US compound in central Baghdad. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=5BGQ4WT5KXZIWCRBAE0CFEY?type=topNews&storyID=3891326
  • Robert Mugabe
    Robert Mugabe
    Robert 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...

    , President of Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe
    Zimbabwe 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...

    , is not invited to the Commonwealth Heads of Government
    Commonwealth of Nations
    The 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...

     Conference to be held in Nigeria. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3236948.stm
  • UNAids and the World Health Organization
    World Health Organization
    The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

     report record numbers of new AIDS
    AIDS
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

     cases. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3236200.stm
  • Canadian National Railway
    Canadian National Railway
    The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

     buys British Columbia Railway from the British Columbia
    British Columbia
    British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

     provincial government. http://www.cn.ca/news/newsreleases/2003/en_News20031125.shtml

November 26, 2003

  • Action movie star FPJ
    Acronyms in the Philippines
    Acronyms are popular in the Philippines.- Geography :Geography is one area prone to acronyms. Many times, when a group of places is formed, instead of coining a descriptive term for the group, an acronym that stands for the individual places is created...

     (Fernando Poe, Jr.
    Fernando Poe, Jr.
    Ronald Allan Poe y Kelley , better known as Fernando Poe, Jr. and colloquially known as FPJ and Da King, was a Filipino actor and cultural icon. From the 1950s, Poe played steadfast film heroes who fight for the common man, which won him respect and admiration...

    ) announces he will seek the presidency of the Philippines
    Philippines
    The 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...

    . His popularity has caused political observers to suggest he'll have a major impact on the campaign to choose an opposition candidate for next May's race. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3238814.stm
  • Australian Test cricket
    Test cricket
    Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

     captain Steve Waugh
    Steve Waugh
    Stephen Rodger "Steve" Waugh, AO is a former Australian cricketer and fraternal twin of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman, he was also a successful medium-pace bowler...

     announces his retirement from international cricket. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s997612.htm
  • The People's Republic of China dismantles its satellite tracking station in Kiribati
    Kiribati
    Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...

     following the Pacific atoll
    Atoll
    An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...

     nation's recognition of the Republic of China
    Republic of China
    The 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...

     (Taiwan) on November 7.http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/australasia/view/59177/1/.html
  • ROC
    Republic of China
    The 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...

     Presidential Election 2004: The Kuomintang
    Kuomintang
    The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

     drops its opposition to holding a referendum on Taiwan independence
    Taiwan independence
    Taiwan 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...

    , a position that has been advocated by President Chen Shui-bian
    Chen Shui-bian
    Chen 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...

    .http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3240026.stm
  • Chairman Choe Byung-yul of the Grand National Party
    Grand National Party
    The Grand National Party is a conservative political party in South Korea. Its Korean name, Hannara, has a double meaning as "Great National" and "Korean National." The GNP holds a majority of seats in the 18th Assembly, lasting from 2008 to 2012....

     in South Korea
    South Korea
    The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

     has begun a hunger strike after President Roh Moo-hyun
    Roh Moo-hyun
    Roh Moo-hyun GOM GCB was the 16th President of South Korea .Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for student activists in South Korea. His electoral career later expanded to a focus on overcoming regionalism in South Korean politics, culminating in his...

     vetoed a bill demanding the appointment of an independent prosecutor for Mr. Roh's campaign finances.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3238888.stm
  • India and Pakistan announce a ceasefire
    Ceasefire
    A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...

     in the Kashmir
    Kashmir
    Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...

     region. http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=1377.
  • Last flight of the Concorde.

November 27, 2003

  • Scientists warn that a devastating influenza
    Influenza
    Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...

     epidemic
    Epidemic
    In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...

     is not only inevitable but may be imminent. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069493551160&p=1012571727088
  • The People's Republic of China angrily rejects US anti-dumping measures on imports of televisions from China, saying that the US measures breach WTO agreements and discriminate against Chinese firms; Premier Wen Jiabao
    Wen Jiabao
    Wen 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...

     is due to visit Washington, DC, next month. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&ncid=731&e=10&u=/ap/20031126/ap_on_re_as/china_us_trade
  • British police say that explosives have been found in the Gloucester
    Gloucester
    Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

     home of a 24-year-old man being held on suspicion of terrorist activity and links to Al-Qaeda
    Al-Qaeda
    Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

    ; the suspect is British born of Asian origin. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/3242812.stmhttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RO5Q3NYJ11RZKCRBAELCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=3903550
  • Kofi Annan
    Kofi Annan
    Kofi 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 that the global war against AIDS
    AIDS
    Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

     is being lost. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3244564.stm
  • War on Drugs
    War on Drugs
    The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...

    : European Union justice ministers agree to tougher anti-drug laws, but the Netherlands
    Netherlands
    The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

     say its "coffee shops"—where cannabis
    Cannabis
    Cannabis 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...

     is openly sold and smoked—would survive. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=6&u=/nm/20031127/od_nm/crime_eu_drugs_dc
  • Peru
    Peru
    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

    vian police clash with campesinos
    Peasant
    A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

     in the town of Carhuamayo (department of Junín), leaving two dead and more than 20 people injured, during a protest against mining pollution. Strikers are demanding the government hand over from the privatization
    Privatization
    Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

     of a state electricity company for the cleanup. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3438753,00.html
  • At the end of the First Count of elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly
    Northern Ireland Assembly
    The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...

    , and reflecting the early tallies
    Tally marks
    Tally marks, or hash marks, are a unary numeral system. They are a form of numeral used for counting. They allow updating written intermediate results without erasing or discarding anything written down...

     the Democratic Unionist Party
    Democratic Unionist Party
    The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

     attracts the highest popular vote, with Sinn Féin
    Sinn Féin
    Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

     coming second, the Ulster Unionist Party
    Ulster Unionist Party
    The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

     third and the SDLP
    Social Democratic and Labour Party
    The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

     fourth. Minor parties like the Progressive Unionist Party
    Progressive Unionist Party
    The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...

    , the Alliance Party
    Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
    The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons....

     and the UK Unionist Party
    UK Unionist Party
    The UK Unionist Party was a small unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, to contest a by-election the North Down by-election, 1995 and then further constituted to contest the 1996...

     suffer major collapse, with the Women's Coalition
    Northern Ireland Women's Coalition
    The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition was a minor political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1996 by Catholic academic Monica McWilliams and Protestant social worker Pearl Sagar to contest the elections to the Northern Ireland Forum, the body for all-party talks which led to the...

     losing all its seats. Later counts are expected to boost the middle ground UUP and SDLP, who show greater possibilities of picking up inter-party transfers than the more extreme DUP and Sinn Féin. Nevertheless, Sinn Féin is widely expected to have more MLAs
    Legislative Assembly
    Legislative Assembly is the name given in some countries to either a legislature, or to one of its branch.The name is used by a number of member-states of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as a number of Latin American countries....

     than the SDLP, a reversal of the results in the 1998 Assembly elections. It is too close to call whether the previous larger UUP or the Rev. Ian Paisley
    Ian Paisley
    Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...

    's DUP will have more seats after all counts. The final results will not be known until late on Friday, when all six seats in each constituency are filled. The election was held under PR.STV. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3242504.stm
  • Plans for the handover of power in Iraq
    Iraq
    Iraq ; 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....

     have to be revised after senior Shiites object to indirect elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/27/international/middleeast/27IRAQ.html?th
  • President
    President of the United States
    The 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. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George 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....

     makes a surprise visit to Baghdad
    Baghdad
    Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

     to visit the American troops on Thanksgiving Day
    Thanksgiving (United States)
    Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday,...

    . The visit is not announced publicly until after Bush has left. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/bush_iraq&cid=540&ncid=716
  • Larry Spencer of the Canadian Alliance
    Canadian Alliance
    The 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...

     party makes public statements stating his desire to recriminalize homosexual behaviour in Canada to combat what he claimed was a conspiracy by the homosexual community to infiltrate social institutions to recruit children into the "homosexual lifestyle". He was quickly denounced by numerous public figures including his own party leader, Stephen Harper
    Stephen Harper
    Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

    , who also made him resign his position as Family Issue Critic in the Canadian House of Commons
    Canadian House of Commons
    The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

     with an apology. However, commentators have noted that these inflammatory homophobic statements have placed the pending vote on the proposed merger with the Progressive Conservative Party
    Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
    The 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....

     on December 6 in jeopardy by illustrating fundamental differences between the parties concerning social attitudes.
  • The Final Build of Street Legal Racing: Redline
    Street Legal Racing: Redline
    Street Legal Racing Redline is a racing game by Invictus and distributed by Activision Value. Nintendo 3DS and Mac OS X versions are in development....

     was completed.

November 28, 2003

  • The November 28 issue of the journal Science
    Science (journal)
    Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....

    reports that the United States is not sufficiently prepared to respond to an influenza
    Influenza
    Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...

     pandemic. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031128082159.htm
  • The United States is about to back down over its restrictions on steel
    Steel
    Steel 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...

     imports that had caused such alarm in Europe and Asia. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3246976.stm
  • 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...

    : A terrorism
    Terrorism
    Terrorism 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...

     expert with access to intelligence on Al-Qaeda
    Al-Qaeda
    Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

     says the group wants to launch a catastrophic attack in the United States. http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2235560
  • The anti-Good Friday Agreement Democratic Unionist Party
    Democratic Unionist Party
    The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

     with 30 seats becomes the biggest party in Northern Ireland
    Northern Ireland
    Northern 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...

     in the Northern Ireland Assembly Election, 2003
    Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2003
    The second elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which at the time of the elections had been suspended for just over a year, were held on Wednesday 26 November 2003. Six members were elected by Single Transferable Vote from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary...

    , replacing the Ulster Unionist Party
    Ulster Unionist Party
    The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

     (27 seats), while Sinn Féin
    Sinn Féin
    Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

     at 24 seats replaces the SDLP
    Social Democratic and Labour Party
    The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

     (18 seats) as the major Irish nationalist party.
  • John Manley
    John Manley (politician)
    John Paul Manley, PC, OC is a Canadian lawyer, businessman and politician. He served as Liberal Member of Parliament for Ottawa South from 1988 to 2004, and a Cabinet Minister from 1993 to 2003. He is presently President and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.-Background:Manley was...

    , Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
    Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
    The 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....

    , announces he will not take a position in the new cabinet
    Cabinet of Canada
    The 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...

     of leadership rival Paul Martin that will take office on December 12, and will not run again in his riding of Ottawa
    Ottawa
    Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

     South in the forthcoming 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...

    . Martin praises Manley's past accomplishments and takes the unusual step of publicly offering Manley the posting of Ambassador to the U.S..http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/28/manley031128
  • In Italy
    Politics of Italy
    The 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...

    , Alessandra Mussolini
    Alessandra Mussolini
    Alessandra Mussolini is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and previously an actress and model...

    , granddaughter of Benito Mussolini
    Benito Mussolini
    Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

     and niece of Sophia Loren
    Sophia Loren
    Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...

    , resigns from the right wing National Alliance party after she considers that party leader and deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini
    Gianfranco Fini
    Gianfranco Fini is an Italian politician, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, leader of the center-right Future and Freedom party, and the former leader of the conservative National Alliance and the post-fascist Italian Social Movement...

     "dishonoured her family's history" when apologising in Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

     for Italy's actions before and during the Second World War and describing fascism as "an absolute evil". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3243420.stm
  • Simon Crean
    Simon Crean
    Simon 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,...

     announces his resignation as leader of the Australian Labor Party
    Australian Labor Party
    The 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...

    , the main opposition party in Australia. Crean has led the party since November 2001, but has consistently trailed Prime Minister John Howard
    John Howard
    John 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....

     in opinion polls. Crean becomes the first Labor leader to resign without having fought an election. His successor will be elected at a meeting of the Labor Caucus
    Caucus
    A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

     on . The candidates will probably be former leader Kim Beazley
    Kim Beazley
    In 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....

     and finance spokesman Mark Latham
    Mark Latham
    Mark 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....

    . Foreign Affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd
    Kevin Rudd
    Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...

     may also stand. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s999345.htm
  • ROC referendum, 2004
    ROC referendum, 2004
    A nation-wide consultative referendum was held in the Republic of China on March 20, 2004 to coincide with the 2004 presidential election. Voters were asked two questions regarding relations with the People's Republic of China...

    : In Taiwan
    Politics of the Republic of China
    The politics of the Republic of China ,takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President is head of state and the premier is head of government, and of a dominant party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative...

    , a referendum bill written by majority pro-Chinese reunification
    Chinese reunification
    Chinese reunification refers to the bringing together of all of the territories controlled by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China under a single political entity...

     pan-blue coalition
    Pan-Blue Coalition
    The Pan-Blue Coalition 泛藍聯盟 or Pan-Blue Force is a political alliance in the Republic of China , consisting of the Kuomintang , the People First Party , and the New Party . The name comes from the party colours of the Kuomintang...

     legislators, is passed by the Legislative Yuan
    Legislative Yuan
    The 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...

    . The move is met by opposition from the People's Republic of China as it is seen as a possible route for declaring Taiwan independence
    Taiwan independence
    Taiwan 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...

    , even though the bill blocks referendums on sovereignty issue and changing the official name of the Republic of China
    Republic of China
    The 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://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3242210.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3245428.stm
  • In Russia, the planned merger between YUKOS
    YUKOS
    OJSC "Yukos Oil Company" was a petroleum company in Russia which, until 2003, was controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of other prominent Russian businessmen. After Yukos was bankrupted, Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison.Yukos headquarters was located in...

     and Sibneft has reportedly been suspended by Sibneft. It is unclear whether the two oil firms will carry on with the merger.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3245884.stmhttp://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2234640
  • Global warming
    Global warming
    Global 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...

    : In a new report, the WWF
    World Wide Fund for Nature
    The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...

     warned that billions of people may suffer severe water shortages if glacier
    Glacier
    A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

    s, which contain 70 percent of the world's fresh water reserves, continue to melt. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1128-04.htm http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,7997921%5E30417,00.html

November 29, 2003

  • In Norfolk
    Norfolk, Virginia
    Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

    , Virginia, the USS Cole
    USS Cole (DDG-67)
    The second USS Cole is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis-equipped guided missile destroyer homeported in NS Norfolk, Virginia. The Cole is named in honor of Marine Sergeant Darrell S. Cole, a machine-gunner killed in action on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, during World War II...

     leaves port on the destroyer's first overseas deployment since it was bombed in 2000
    USS Cole bombing
    The USS Cole Bombing, or the USS Cole Incident, was a suicide attack against the United States Navy destroyer on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured...

     in Yemen
    Yemen
    The 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....

    's port at Aden
    Aden
    Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...

    . http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/29/cole.deploys.ap/index.html
  • Police in Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

     announce the arrest of a yet-unnamed man they state has admitted giving the order to suicide bombers to attack Beth Israel
    Bet Israel Synagogue (Istanbul, Turkey)
    Bet Israel Synagogue is located in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey. Bet Israel and Neve Shalom Synagogues are supported and governed by the Neve Shalom Foundation. The synagogue was initially built in the 1920s and enlarged into its present size in the early 1950s due to the majority of the Jewish...

     synagogue in Istanbul
    Istanbul
    Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

     on November 15. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/11/29/turkey.arrest/index.html
  • Luan Enjie, director of the National Aerospace Bureau of the People's Republic of China states that "By 2020, we will achieve visiting the moon." http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/11/29/china.moon.ap/index.html
  • Occupation of Iraq: A team of eight Spanish
    Spain
    Spain , 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...

     intelligence agents is attacked south of Baghdad
    Baghdad
    Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

    ; seven are killed and one wounded. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-attack,0,878878.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines Two Japanese diplomats are killed near Tikrit
    Tikrit
    Tikrit 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:...

    . Two U.S. soldiers and a Colombian civilian contractor are killed in Baghdad.
  • In Australia, the opposition Labor Party
    Australian Labor Party
    The 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...

    's finance spokesperson, Mark Latham
    Mark Latham
    Mark 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....

    , announces that he will contest the party leadership ballot on against the former leader Kim Beazley
    Kim Beazley
    In 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....

    . Press reports place the two candidates at about 40 votes each, with about ten undecided. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s999859.htm
  • French and German university
    University
    A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

     students continue to hold protests, including strikes
    Strike action
    Strike 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...

    , over controversial policies such as tuition fees
    Tuition
    Tuition payments, known primarily as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in British English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English and Indian English, refers to a fee charged for educational instruction during higher education.Tuition payments are charged by...

    . German students also occupied the central offices of the PDS in Berlin
    Berlin
    Berlin 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...

    , following a similar protest earlier in the week in which 30 to 40 students occupied the office of Thomas Flierl for more than 24 hours. Protests in both countries have been continuing to spread for the last two weeks.http://print.indymedia.org/news/2003/11/1699.php?theme=default http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/11/282025.html http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,3772-2852181,00.html German press: http://www.rhein-main.net/sixcms/list.php?page=fnp2_news_article&id=1387077, http://morgenpost.berlin1.de/inhalt/berlin/story644038.html

Lauren Rand Dimling married Gerald Robert Hanna in a beautiful ceremony in Cincinnati, Ohio

November 30, 2003

  • Syria
    Syria
    Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

     hands over 22 suspects to Turkey
    Turkey
    Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

     on Sunday in connection with four deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul
    Istanbul
    Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

    , the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=3&u=/ap/20031130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_bombings
  • According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, the People's Republic of China has freed three people detained on charges of posting information critical of the government on the Internet. http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap11-30-021719.asp?reg=PACRIM
  • The Observer
    The Observer
    The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

    newspaper reports that a deal is imminent to repatriate British men being held in Guantanamo Bay
    Guantanamo Bay detainment camp
    The 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...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3250282.stm
  • Israel
    Israel
    The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

    i army chief Moshe Yaalon and former heads of Shin Bet criticise Prime Minister
    Prime Minister of Israel
    The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...

     Ariel Sharon
    Ariel Sharon
    Ariel 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....

     for his unwillingness to consider the Geneva plan. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1096286,00.html http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3108B828-DBFE-49CA-AEF4-E9157E07FABD.htm http://www.spacewar.com/2003/031127023604.alueor56.html
  • The Japanese government announces its intention to temporarily nationalize regional bank Ashikaga Bank after inspections show that it is insolvent; the cost may exceed . http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XWMRLQXUW0REOCRBAEOCFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=3910239
  • Iribnews.com reports that Georgia
    Georgia (country)
    Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

    's parliament has elected Tedo Dzhaparidze as the new foreign minister
    Foreign minister
    A 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...

    . http://www.iribnews.com/Full_en.asp?news_id=193462&n=32
  • Occupation of Iraq: Two South Korea
    South Korea
    The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

    n civilians working for a US firm are killed on a highway near Tikrit
    Tikrit
    Tikrit 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:...

    .
  • There is evidence that the tuberculosis
    Tuberculosis
    Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

     drug D-cycloserine may be the first effective agent for the treatment of phobia
    Phobia
    A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational...

    s. http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/23e54e.htm
  • Pakistan
    Pakistan
    Pakistan , 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...

     is to end a ban on India
    India
    India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

    n flights over its territory, in another sign of improving relations between the neighbours http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3250516.stm
  • Nathaniel Jones, a 41-year-old, 350 lb (159 kg) unarmed black man dies after being clubbed by police with metal truncheon
    Baton (law enforcement)
    A truncheon or baton is essentially a club of less than arm's length made of wood, plastic, or metal...

    s in Cincinnati
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

    , Ohio. http://www.bet.com/articles/0,,c1gb8125-8971,00.html Six police
    Police
    The 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...

     officers are suspended from duty afterwards. A video
    Video
    Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

     of the beating, captured by the video camera
    Videotape
    A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...

     mounted in an officer's cruiser, is released to the public, stoking racial tensions in Cincinnati nearly three years after the city was rocked by riots
    Race riot
    A race riot or racial riot is an outbreak of violent civil disorder in which race is a key factor. A phenomenon frequently confused with the concept of 'race riot' is sectarian violence, which involves public mass violence or conflict over non-racial factors.-United States:The term had entered the...

    . Preliminary autopsy
    Autopsy
    An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...

     results show that Jones had an enlarged heart
    Heart
    The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

    , and his blood
    Blood
    Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

     contained cocaine
    Cocaine
    Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

     and PCP
    Phencyclidine
    Phencyclidine , commonly initialized as PCP and known colloquially as angel dust, is a recreational dissociative drug...

    , Hamilton County
    Hamilton County, Ohio
    As of 2000, there were 845,303 people, 346,790 households, and 212,582 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,075 people per square mile . There were 373,393 housing units at an average density of 917 per square mile...

     Coroner
    Coroner
    A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...

     Carl Parrott says.http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/02/1070127386206.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/02/wbeat02.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/12/02/ixworld.html
  • The draw is made for the 2004 European Football Championship. England are drawn with holders France, and hosts Portugal
    Portugal
    Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

     are drawn with neighbours Spain
    Spain
    Spain , 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...

    . http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/euro_2004_draw/default.stm
  • In tennis
    Tennis
    Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

    , Australia wins the Davis Cup
    Davis Cup
    The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

     by three rubbers to one when Mark Philippoussis
    Mark Philippoussis
    Mark Anthony Philippoussis is an Australian tennis player. He turned professional in 1994. His father is Greek, while his mother is of Italian ancestry....

     defeats Juan Carlos Ferrero
    Juan Carlos Ferrero
    Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat is a professional tennis player, and a former world no. 1 player, from Spain. He captured the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year, he became the 21st player to hold the world no. 1 ranking. He was also the runner-up at the 2002...

     of Spain
    Spain
    Spain , 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...

     in the first reverse singles match, played in Melbourne
    Melbourne
    Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

    . It is the 28th time Australia has won the trophy, the most prestigious title in men's team tennis. http://www.abc.net.au/sport/contentreferences/s1000318.htm
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