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Articles: June 2004
June 30,
2004
-
Ethnic Cleansing / Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan's Darfur Region:
- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visits Sudan's troubled Darfur region,
assessing the humanitarian needs of hundreds of thousands of people who have
been displaced by a civil war. Colin Powell says Washington expects Sudan to
act with urgency to improve the security situation in the western region of
Darfur in order to help end the humanitarian crisis. He says his talks with
the Sudanese government on the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region
yielded an agreement.
(PolitInfo)
(PolitInfo)
- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrives in Khartoum for talks with
Sudanese government officials about the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur
region.
(PolitInfo)
- The United States is proposing a U.N. Security Council resolution that
would impose an arms embargo and travel ban on Sudanese "Janjaweed" militiamen,
who are blamed for widespread human rights abuses, including ethnic cleansing
in Sudan's western Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- As efforts continue to end the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur
region, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad need urgent
care as well.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israel's Supreme Court orders changes in the route of the controversial
security barrier the government is building in and around the West Bank.
(PolitInfo)
-
Iraq officially takes legal custody of former dictator Saddam Hussein along
with 11 of his top lieutenants.
(PolitInfo)
-
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sworn in to a new six-year term as
president of the Philippines following a disputed victory in the
May 2004 presidential election.
(PolitInfo)
-
A survey of American Muslim voters indicates a majority favor John Kerry in
the coming presidential election - and that hardly any support President Bush.
(PolitInfo)
June 29,
2004
-
European Union leaders formally nominate
Portuguese
Prime Minister
José Durão Barroso to the post of
European Commission
president.
(PolitInfo)
(BBC)
-
U.S. presidential election: Two new public opinion polls suggest the race
between President Bush and Democrat John Kerry is a dead heat with the
national election four months away.
(PolitInfo)
-
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the head of the ruling party in
Pakistan,
is elected as the new interim
Prime Minister of the nation after the resignation of
Zafarullah Khan Jamali.
(PolitInfo)
(Guardian)
-
A militant group in Iraq led by suspected al-Qaida linked terrorist Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi frees three Turkish hostages it was threatening to kill.
(PolitInfo)
- The
United States Supreme Court rules 5-4 in
Ashcroft v. ACLU
that the
Child Online Protection Act is likely in violation of the
First Amendment's guarantee of
free
speech. The case will be reheard at a lower court.
(MSNBC)
June 28,
2004
-
Canadian federal election, 2004: Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal
Party is re-elected. Although the party does better than pre-election opinion
polls predicted, the Liberals earn only enough votes to form a minority
government.
(CBC)
(PolitInfo)
- The
United States Supreme Court rules six-to-three that terrorist suspects
held as "enemy combatants" must be allowed to challenge their detention in
U.S. courts.
(BBC)
(NYT)
(PolitInfo)
-
Occupation of Iraq:
- At a low key ceremony in
Baghdad,
Paul
Bremer hands over power in
Iraq two days
before the U.S.-imposed
deadline.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- The
Islamic Retaliation Movement/Armed Resistance Wing threatens to
decapitate
Hassoun Wassef Ali, a
Muslim
U.S.
Marine of
Lebanese descent, if detainees in US-led occupation prisons are not
freed.
(AlJazeera)
(NYT)
(PolitInfo)
- A previously unknown Iraqi group claimed that it has executed
Keith Maupin, a
U.S. Army
Private First Class captured in
April 9.
(AlJazeera)
(PolitInfo)
- India and Pakistan agree to a 'sustained dialogue' to solve their
long-standing and often violent dispute over Kashmir.
(PolitInfo)
- In
Mongolia, the ruling
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party suffers considerable losses in the
general election. Official results have not yet been announced, and it remains
unclear whether the MPRP will retain its majority. The MPRP has accused the
opposition of vote rigging, and has refused to concede defeat.
(Ulaanbaatar Post)
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
-
The currencies of
Estonia,
Lithuania,
and Slovenia
enter ERM II, the
European Union's
Exchange Rate Mechanism, in a move towards joining the
euro.
(BBC)
(ECB)
June 27,
2004
- In the
2004 Serbian presidential election,
Boris
Tadic defeats
Tomislav Nikolic in the run-off, with 53.7% to 45.0% of the votes.
(ABC)
(PolitInfo)
- In the
2004 Lithuanian presidential election,
Valdas Adamkus wins in the run-off against Kazimiera Prunskiene, with
52.1% to 47.8% of votes
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
Iraq Occupation and
resistance:
Iraqi insurgents kidnap three
Turkish
citizens and threaten to
decapitate them.
(NYT)
(PolitInfo)
-
The Washington Post says the CIA has stopped using some cruel interrogation
methods on terrorist suspects while officials study the legality of the
measures.
(PolitInfo)
- Gay
pride celebrations, parades and protests are held globally, marking the
35th anniversary of the
Stonewall Riots, the traditional birth of the modern
LGBT
civil
rights movement.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
-
Fahrenheit 9/11 breaks the record for highest opening-weekend
earnings in the
United States for a
documentary, earning
USD
23.9 million.
(Box Office Mojo)
June 26,
2004
- In in a joint statement issued at the end of a summit in Ireland the
European Union and the United States call on the Sudanese government to
immediately stop the violence perpetrated by the militias in the region.
(PolitInfo)
- Pakistan's
Prime Minister
Zafarullah Khan Jamali resigns.
(PolitInfo)
(BBC)
-
Czech
Prime Minister
Vladimir Spidla resigns after narrowly surviving a vote of no confidence.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
Talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons development have concluded in Beijing.
While major differences remain between Pyongyang and Washington, officials say
some progress has been made. The six nations have agreed to meet for a fourth
round of talks in September.
(PolitInfo)
-
U.S. presidential election: The
United States Green Party, in a rebuff to
Ralph
Nader, nominates
Texas lawyer
David
Cobb as their candidate for
President of the United States. This means that Nader will need to
attain ballot access on his own in over 23 states, instead of being able to
be placed on the ballots automatically as the Green Party candidate.
(The Progress Report)
June 25,
2004
-
Ethnic Cleansing / Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan's Darfur Region: U.N.
Secretary General Kofi Annan appeals to world leaders to use their influence
to stop the killing in Sudan's western Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- United Nations human rights investigators are calling for access to
prisoners held by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
(PolitInfo)
-
British
Attorney General
Lord Goldsmith says that he is "unable to accept" that the
U.S.
military tribunals will yield a fair trial for prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba.
(Scotsman)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
U.S. presidential election: A new poll shows a big swing in U.S. public
opinion against the war in Iraq this month, with a majority of Americans now
saying they believe the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq
and the war there has made the US less safe from terrorism.
(PolitInfo)
-
The European Parliament askes the European Court of Justice to annul a treaty
with the United States that allows airlines to give U.S. authorities personal
data on passengers.
(PolitInfo)
June 24,
2004
- Iraqi
insurgents
explode multiple car
bombs and seize police stations in a six-city offensive, killing over 100
and wounding at least 320, nearly all Iraqis. U.S officials accuse
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network of involvement.
(AP)
(PolitInfo)
- Bombs
explode in Ankara
and Istanbul,
Turkey,
killing three and wounding at least 18.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- The US Congressional Black Caucus calls on the Bush Administration to
declare that genocide is taking place in Sudan’s Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
June 23,
2004
-
U.S. policy on (a) the use of
torture to
extract information from captured enemy combatants and (b) on whether the
Taliban and al Qaeda detainees qualify as "prisoners
of war" under the
Geneva Convention:
- The
White
House releases a
February 7,
2002 memo in which
President
George W. Bush ordered humane treatment of captured
Taliban
and al
Qaeda fighters despite a
Justice Department legal opinion that the Geneva Convention doesn't
apply. 21 other memos requested by
Senate
Democrats have not yet been released; no released memos address
Iraq or
Abu-Ghraib Prison.
(MSNBC)
(Memo)
(PolitInfo)
- The U.S. administration releases a
U.S. Justice Department memo asserting that the legal opinion that the
president had "the legal authority to order prisoners to be tortured". The
memo indicates that
Donald Rumsfeld denied approval to strongly coercive physical measures,
but approved what has been described as "mild, noninjurious physical
contact", and use of "detainee's individuals
phobias
(such as fear of dogs)".
(VOA)
(News24)
- The U.S. administration asserts that it refused to permit the use of
torture, even if to do so would be legally permissible.
- The
United States abandons an attempt to shield its peacekeepers from
war
crimes prosecution by the
International Criminal Court.
(Washington Post)
(PolitInfo)
- A
class action
lawsuit of
an unprecedented 1.6 million women is allowed by a
federal
judge in a case about
sexual discrimination at
U.S. retailer
Wal Mart.
(Baltimore Sun)
(PolitInfo)
-
Saudi Arabia offers an amnesty from execution to any
al Qaida-affiliated
militants within the kingdom who turn themselves in within the next month.
(Reuters)
June 22,
2004
- The U.S. State Department, in an embarrassing admission, says that 625
people were killed in terrorist attacks last year, more than twice what it
initially reported in April.
(PolitInfo)
- Heavy fighting in southern Russia has left at least 96 people dead and
scores injured in the republic which borders the breakaway region, Chechnya.
Fighting raged through much of the night in the region of Ingushetia, in a
series of coordinated attacks against government and police buildings.
(PolitInfo)
- An
Islamic militant group beheads
Kim
Sun-il, a
South
Korean contractor, according to
Al
Jazeera television.
(Al Jazeera)
(PolitInfo)
- Ethnic Cleansing / Humanitarian Crisis in Sudan's Darfur Region:
- The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says the Darfur region of
western Sudan remains a violent place, with displaced people subjected to
attacks by militias and rapes.
(PolitInfo)
- Despite a ceasefire agreement Janjaweed militias, backed by the Sudanese
government, are launching assaults across the border into Chad, attacking and
looting Chadian villagers as well as refugees from Darfur, Human Rights
Watch says.
(PolitInfo)
- The Iranian
Islamic Republic News Agency reports Iran could soon free eight
British
military sailors
seized yesterday on the Iranian side of the
Shatt al-Arab waterway shared with
Iraq if
interrogations show they had "no bad intention."
(ABC)
-
Francisco Ortiz Franco, editor of
Mexican
newsweekly
Zeta, is ambushed and killed by gunmen in
Tijuana.
Ortiz Franco and Zeta were particularly well known for their work in
investigating drug trafficking and reporting government corruption.
(BBC)
June 21,
2004
- A report by the
New York Times alleges that the
United States administration overstated the intelligence value and
importance of the prisoners held at the controversial
prisoner
camp at
Guantanamo Bay. The report, based on interviews with government officials,
concludes that only a relatively small percentage of the prisoners were sworn
members of Al
Qaeda, and that most were relatively unimportant, low-level people.
(NYT)
(IHT)
(PolitInfo)
- UN
Secretary-General
Kofi
Annan warns
Security Council
members not to grant the
United States another exemption from prosecution by the
International Criminal Court, stating that it was wrong, especially after
the
abuse of prisoners in Iraq.
(New Zealand Herald)
(NYT)
- 48
Nobel laureates
endorse
John
Kerry as they think that he would increase the prosperity,
health,
environment, and
security
of Americans. They
criticize
the
Bush
administration for reducing funding for
scientific research, setting restrictions on
stem cell research, ignoring
scientific consensus on critical issues such as
global warming, and hampering cooperation with foreign scientists by using
deterrent immigration and visa practices.
(Reuters)
- Iran seizes
three British
Royal
Navy patrol boats on the
Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iran from
Iraq. Their eight
British crew members have been detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
(BBC)
June 20,
2004
- The commission probing the 2001 terror attacks in the United States asks
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney to provide any evidence he has showing a
strong link between Iraq and the al-Qaida terrorist network.
(PolitInfo)
- India and
Pakistan
agreed Sunday to extend a
nuclear testing ban and to set up a hotline between their foreign
secretaries aimed at preventing misunderstandings that might lead to a
nuclear
war.
(CNN)
(PolitInfo)
- The
Philippine
Congress announces that
Gloria Arroyo has been reelected to a second term as
President of the Philippines in the
2004 general election.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
June 19,
2004
- Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir orders the disarmament of all fighters in
the Darfur region, including those backed by the Sudanese government.
(PolitInfo)
- Witnesses and hospital officials say that 22
Iraqis, among
them children, women and youth, are killed in a
U.S. air strike in a residential neighborhood in
Fallujah.
U.S. officials say that they targeted an
al-Zarqawi safe house.
(Reuters)
(CBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Iran's top national security official backs off threats to resume uranium
enrichment after the International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution "deploring"
Tehran's failure to fully cooperate with international inspections.
(PolitInfo)
- The Saudi government confirms the top al-Qaida terrorist in the royal
kingdom Abdulaziz al-Muqrin was killed late Friday along with three of his
associates.
(PolitInfo)
June 18,
2004
-
European Union
Intergovernmental Conference:
- The latest meeting of the
European Council in
Brussels
ends in the agreement of
a constitution for the
European Union.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Leaders of the
European Union grant
candidate country status to
Croatia.
Talks on accession are due to begin early next year.
(BBC)
(Irish Times Online)
- No consensus is reached on a candidate for head of the
European Commission.
(BBC)(PolitInfo)
- Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan's Darfur Region:
- The State Department says the Bush administration is considering imposing
travel and financial sanctions against officials of the Sudanese government to
pressure them to rein in Arab militiamen accused of ethnic cleansing in
Sudan's western Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- European Union leaders call on Sudan's government to disarm
militias and open the country's war-torn western Darfur region to aid agencies.
(PolitInfo)
- Chadian government officials say troops have killed 69 Sudanese Arab
militiamen who crossed the border from Sudan's neighboring Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- The television station
Al-Arabiya reports that kidnapped hostage
Paul Johnson has been
beheaded by
Al-Qaida
militants.
(CNN)
(PolitInfo)
- The International Atomic Energy Agency adopts a tough resolution, rebuking
Iran for concealing the full extent of its nuclear program.
(PolitInfo)
- Details are set for three debates during the U.S. presidential campaign
between President Bush and his likely Democratic challenger, Senator John
Kerry: An independent commission in Washington says the candidates will
discuss domestic policy on September 30. Eight days later, they will meet in a
second debate open to questions on all topics. The third debate between
President Bush and his Democratic challenger, less than three weeks before the
election, will be limited to foreign policy issues.
(PolitInfo)
June 17,
2004
-
Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan's Darfur Region:
- Britain's foreign aid chief says the international community may have to
intervene militarily in Sudan's western Darfur region if the security
situation does not improve.
(PolitInfo)
- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is planning a visit to Sudan to look
into reports that Arab militias in the Darfur region are massacring black
African civilians.
(PolitInfo)
- The U.S. military is preparing to send a special survey team to Chad to
assess a possible humanitarian mission to assist refugees from Sudan's
war-ravaged Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
-
The Pentagon confirms a report in
The New York Times that
CIA chief
George Tenet - who steps down from the post next month - was allowed by
U.S.
Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld to have an
Iraqi prisoner
secretly detained in alleged
violation of the
Geneva Convention.
(BBC)
(NYT)
(PolitInfo)
-
Human Rights First, a human rights group formerly known as "The Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights" , says the United States is holding suspects in
the war on terror in more than a dozen secret detention centers around the
world.
(PolitInfo)
-
The New York Times says President Bush should apologize to the American people
for what it calls his "plainly dishonest" effort to link the war in Iraq with
the war on terror.
(PolitInfo)
June 16,
2004
-
EU leaders
meet in
Brussels to try to agree on the draft
European constitution amid the showing of popular discontent with national
governments in the recent
European Parliament election.
(BBC)
(Guardian)
(PolitInfo)
(PolitInfo)
- The
USA's
9/11 Commission states that although meetings between
al Qaeda
representatives and
Iraqi government officials had taken place, it has found "no credible
evidence" of a "collaborative relationship" between
Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda in the
9/11 attacks or
in any other strike against U.S. interests. It also finds that the original
plan involved ten jets and that there was dispute within the terrorist network
about its implementation until only shortly before
September 11.
(Washington Post)
(AP)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- The
Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, a group of 27 retired
U.S. diplomats
and military officers, publishes an open letter that states that
U.S. President
George W. Bush has so harmed international relations that only a new
leader can repair them.
(BBC)
(Newsweek)
(PolitInfo)
- Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan's Darfur Region:
- The director of the United Nations Children Fund, warns the desperate
situation for tens of of thousands of refugees in Sudan's western Darfur
region will get worse without increased international aid.
(PolitInfo)
- State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher confirms that the United States
is looking into whether the violence and the ethnic cleansing taking place in
western Sudan's Darfur region meets the international definition of genocide.
(PolitInfo)
- U.S. lawmakers call on the United Nations to act to prevent a humanitarian
catastrophe in Sudan's Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- Iraqi
Shia cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr calls upon members of his
Mahdi
Army to return to their homes and end their attacks.
(NYT)
- The trial
begins of
Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
Russian
oil tycoon on charges of
tax
evasion and
fraud; the proceedings are later adjourned.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
June 15,
2004
-
Janis Karpinski, the
United States
Brigadier General at the center of the
Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse in
Iraq says that
she was "ordered from the top" to treat detainees "like dogs", as they are
treated in
Guantanamo.
(BBC)
(Guardian)
(PolitInfo)
-
Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan's Darfur Region:
- Sudanese Refugees Continue to Cross Border To Chad to Escape Militia
Attacks.
(PolitInfo)
- The head of the United Nations children's relief agency says humanitarian
groups must increase their efforts in Sudan's western Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- Bombs
detonated against oil
pipelines in Iraq
result in the main Iraqi oil terminal being shutdown for at least 10 days, an
estimate revenue loss of
USD 600 million to the Iraqi government.
(NYT)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- A militant
Islamic group that has been identified as connected to
Al Qaida
releases a video-tape where they state they will kill an
American hostage,
Paul Johnson, if group members are not released from
Saudi Arabian prisons in 72 hours.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- FARC
guerrillas
massacre 34 coca
farmers in
Norte de Santander department,
Colombia,
in the worst such attack since
President
Álvaro Uribe took office.
(BBC)
June 14,
2004
-
European Parliament election: Near-complete preliminary results show general defeat of governing
parties and slight perceived rise of
eurosceptic parties, but the balance of power in the Parliament remains
similar despite the 10 new member states.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
Former Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus will face a former prime minister
in a runoff vote later this month after he fails to win an outright majority
in Sunday's election.
(PolitInfo)
-
Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan's Darfur Region: The U.N. Emergency Relief
Coordinator Jan Egeland appeals for greater international attention to the
plight of civilians in western Sudan.
(PolitInfo)
-
Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the
International Atomic Energy Agency accuses
Iran of "less
than satisfactory" cooperation during the IAEA's investigation of
its nuclear program. ElBaradei demands "accelerated and proactive
cooperation" from Iran, while Iran rejects further restrictions on nuclear
programs.
(NYT)
(BBC)
- The
Supreme Court of the United States overturns a
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (Newdow
v. United States Congress) that would have removed the phrase
under God from the
Pledge of Allegiance by an 8 - 0 ruling that the father cannot file a
complaint on behalf of his noncustodial daughter.
(AP)
June 13,
2004
- Results of
Serbian presidential elections show expected lead of
Tomislav Nikolic with 30.1% of votes, followed with
Boris
Tadic with 27.3%; but it comes as a surprise that
Bogoljub Karic has 19.3% of votes, more than government's candidate
Dragan Marsicanin with 13.3%. Second round will be held on Sunday
27 June.
(cesid.org)
(PolitInfo)
- Millions of Europeans cast ballots in the fourth and final day of voting
for the European Parliament. The parties of German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac suffer heavy losses in the elections that drew little interest from voters in 19 European
Union countries.
June 12,
2004
- A published report says Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, top U.S. commander in
Iraq, approved letting officials at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad use
military dogs and subject detainees to temperature extremes, reversed sleep
patterns and diets of bread and water.
(PolitInfo)
- Gunmen ambush and kill one of Iraq's interim deputy foreign ministers near
a mosque just north of Baghdad.
(PolitInfo)
- An Islamist website posts a purported al-Qaida statement claiming
responsibility for kidnapping one American and killing another in Saudi
Arabia.
(PolitInfo)
June 11,
2004
-
President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila says an attempt by
what officials said was a small band of renegade soldiers to overthrow his
government has failed.
(PolitInfo)
-
Voters in Ireland and the Czech Republic cast ballots in the second day of
elections for the European Parliament, in the first such vote since the
European Union expanded to 25 members in May.
(PolitInfo)
-
Ken Livingstone is re-elected
Mayor of London for a second four-year term after polling 828,380 first
and second preference votes, defeating his nearest rival
Conservative
Steve
Norris by 161,202 votes.
(Guardian)
June 10,
2004
- Group of Eight leaders end their summit at Sea Island, Georgia Thursday by
calling "on the Sudanese government to disarm immediately the 'Janjaweed' and
other armed groups which are responsible for massive human rights violations
in Darfur. "
(PolitInfo)
- The
U.S. State Dep't. announces that its
Patterns of Global Terrorism report for 2003 was incomplete and partially
incorrect. Instead of a decrease in
terrorist
attacks and casualties since 2002, the revised version will show a "sharp
increase" over the previous year.
(Press briefing)
(Guardian)
(PolitInfo)
- Votes are counted on
Super Thursday in the
UK as elections are held for the
European Parliament,
local council elections and for
London Mayor and the
London Assembly. The local council elections show major losses for the
Labour Party, attributed by Labour to protest voting over the
2003 invasion of Iraq.
(BBC)
(Guardian)
(Daily Telegraph)
(PolitInfo)
- Voting begins in the four-day-long
European Parliament election; the
United Kingdom and the
Netherlands vote today. The Dutch authorities, in breach of an
EU-wide reporting embargo, release their results in the early evening.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Eleven Chinese
road construction workers and an Afghan guard are
murdered in
their sleep 20 miles south of the
Afghan
city of Kunduz.
Four more Chinese are hospitalized for wounds suffered in the same attack. The
dead are among more than 100 engineers and workers engaged on a
World
Bank project to build a road from
Kabul to the
Tajikistan border.
(NYT)
(PolitInfo)
June 9,
2004
- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft refuses to turn over to U.S. lawmakers
documents that are said to advise the White House that some torture could be
justified during interrogations in the war on terrorism. New York-based Human
Rights Watch says the abuse of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison was a "predictable
result" of policies it says cast aside the restraints of international law.
(Salt Lake Tribune)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
(PolitInfo)
- A Turkish appeals court orders the release of Turkey's most prominent
female Kurdish politician and three fellow activists pending an appeal.
(PolitInfo) Ethnic-Kurds across Turkey tune into the country's first
ever Kurdish language television and radio broadcasts.
(PolitInfo)
- Kurdish
leaders in Iraq
state that the Kurds would "refrain from participating in the central
government" should the interim constitution be modified or replaced with a
constitution that diminishes Kurdish political role in the central government.
(NYT)
(PolitInfo)
- An explosion injures at least 17 in a commercial district of
Cologne,
Germany.
Authorities are treating it as a
bomb attack.
(CBC)
(BBC)
June 8,
2004
-
The U.N. Security Council unanimously approves a resolution endorsing Iraqi
sovereignty.
(PolitInfo) See full text United Nations Security Council Resolution 1546
(2004)
(PolitInfo)
-
Venezuela's
National Electoral Council announces that
Hugo
Chávez's presidency will be subject to a
recall referendum on
15 August,
with general elections to follow within 30 days if the vote goes against the
president.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Al-Qaeda
members in
Saudi
Arabia threaten new attacks on
Western passenger airliners.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- A
March 2003 memorandum by US administration lawyers is released, which
concludes that President
George W. Bush was not bound by international
treaty or by
federal
law against
torture because the
commander-in-chief had the authority to protect
national security.
(BBC)
-
Occupation of Iraq:
- U.S.-led
special forces free three Italians and a Pole held
hostage
in Iraq. They are among the
civilians
kidnapped
on April 12
near Baghdad.
At that time, a fifth hostage was
murdered
after Italy
refused the kidnappers' demands to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- A suspected
car bomb
kills 4 Iraqis
and wounds 11 outside a
United States military base in the northern town of
Baquba.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- A suspected
suicide
car bomb kills 9 and wounds at least 25 others in
Mosul.
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
June 7,
2004
- The
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA) opens its two day conference on Humanitarian Needs of Palestinian
Refugess opens in Geneva, Switzerland. Participation in the conference is by
invitation only.
Israel is excluded from the conference.
(UNRWA)
(IMRA)
(PolitInfo)
- Gunmen attack a BBC
news team in
Riyadh,
Saudi
Arabia, killing cameraman
Simon Cumbers and seriously injuring correspondent
Frank Gardner.
(BBC)
- Iraq's new interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, says his government has
reached a deal to disband nearly all the militia groups in Iraq by early next
year.
(PolitInfo)
- Top American officials in Seoul are discussing sensitive plans for
sweeping cuts in U.S. troop numbers in South Korea and reportedly
proposed withdrawing up to one-third of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea.
(PolitInfo)
June 6,
2004
- Heads of state and war veterans mark the sixtieth anniversary of the
D-Day invasion
of Nazi-controlled
Europe in
World
War II. An estimated 250,000 people died in the
Battle of Normandy.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
The Israeli Cabinet approves in principle Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
modified disengagement plan from Palestinian areas.
(PolitInfo)
-
More than 20 people, including Iraqi police, U.S. contractors and other
foreign workers, are reported dead in three separate attacks in and near the
Iraqi capital.
(PolitInfo)
June 5,
2004
- North and South Korea agree to a series of confidence building measures
aimed at easing tensions between the two nations.
(PolitInfo)
- Noël Mamère, mayor of
Bègles (near
Bordeaux),
France,
celebrates the first
same-sex marriage in France, between Bertrand Charpentier and Stéphane
Chapin. Interior minister
Dominique de Villepin states that the wedding is illegal and announces
that the mayor will face censure.
(swissinfo)
(PolitInfo)
- Former
U.S. President
Ronald Reagan dies at the age of 93 from complications of
Alzheimer's disease.
(SF Chronicle)
(BBC)
(Reuters)
June 4,
2004
-
A United Nations human rights report finds serious violations by some U.S.
troops, including abuse of Iraqi detainees. United Nations officials note that
the willful killing and torture of detainees "might be designated as war
crimes by a competent tribunal."
(PolitInfo)
-
George W. Bush meets
Pope
John Paul II who
criticizes him for the
Iraq war while more than 100,000
protest in Rome
and other Italian
cities.
(The Independent)
(PolitInfo)
(PolitInfo)
- The 15th anniversary of the crackdown of the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 is marked in
Hong Kong
by a candlelight vigil. Police keep
Tiananmen Square and other places in
mainland China free of demonstrators.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- A second high-ranking
CIA official,
Deputy Director for field operations
James
Pavitt, is to retire early, after 31 years, citing personal reasons;
speculation arises that his resignation and that of former Director
George Tenet are possibly linked with the
Iraq weapons of mass destruction or
9-11 intelligence issues.
(BBC)
(Reuters)
- New Iraqi Prime Minister
Iyad
Allawi gives his first televised national address.
(PolitInfo)
- Five U.S soldiers are killed and another five wounded when their convoy
comes under attack from roadside bombs and RPGs near Sadr City.
(PolitInfo)
June 3,
2004
-
The United Nations warn that thousands of people in the western Sudanese
province of Darfur and refugees from the area who have fled to neighboring
Chad will die over the coming weeks and months if they do not receive urgent
humanitarian assistance. Meanwhile, the human rights groups Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch urge in separate statements that
the human rights crisis and the protection of civilians against ongoing
attacks in Sudan should be addressed as well as the humanitarian crisis.
(PolitInfo)
(PolitInfo)
-
Central Intelligence Agency director
George Tenet tenders his resignation, citing "personal reasons". He will
serve as CIA Director until mid-July.
John McLaughlin, the deputy director for the CIA will become the acting
Director until a permanent Director is chosen and confirmed by Congress.
(AP)
(BBC)
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
-
Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal: Two
U.S.
Marines, Pfc. Andrew J. Sting and Pfc. Jeremiah J. Trefney, have been
jailed for
between eight to twelve months after pleading guilty to prisoner abuse at
Al Mahmudiya prison in
Iraq which
occured after the events at
Abu Ghraib prison.
(CNN) (BBC)
June 2,
2004
- The human rights group Amnesty International says Sudanese refugees are
describing summary executions and rapes by government forces in Sudan’s Darfur
region. Amnesty sent a mission to eastern Chad last week, where more than
100-thousand Sudanese refugees had fled fighting in Darfur.
(PolitInfo) The United Nations host a donors' conference in Geneva to try
to coordinate relief efforts in the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan.
(PolitInfo)
- Five aid workers representing
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are killed in a
Taliban
ambush in north-western
Afghanistan. The workers are one Dutchman, one Belgian, one Norwegian, and
two Afghans. The incident leads MSF to temporarily suspend their activities
nation-wide, except for life-saving activities.
(BBC)
(MSF Press Release)
(PolitInfo)
- Nepal's king appoints as prime minister the same person he removed
from the post two years ago. Sher Bahadur Deuba has pledged parliamentary
elections and peace with Maoist insurgents.
(PolitInfo)
June 1,
2004
-
Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, a powerful
Sunni
Muslim tribal
leader and critic of the U.S.-led occupation, is named president of
Iraq's incoming
government, after Iraqi leaders reject the Americans' preferred candidate for
the post.
(PolitInfo)
-
Shi'ite Muslims in
Karachi,
enraged by a mosque bombing that killed 20 worshippers, battle police as the government struggles to contain a third day of
violence in
Pakistan's largest city.
(CNN)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
January 2004 - February 2004 - March 2004 - April 2004 - May 2004
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