|
You are here:
PolitInfo.com > Current Events > March 2004
January 2004 - February 2004- April 2004 - May 2004 - June 2004 - July 2004 - August 2004 - September 2004 - October 2004 - November 2004 - December 2004
See also:
Articles: March 2004
- The International Court of Justice rules that the USA violated the rights of 51 Mexican citizens on death row for murder and orders a review of their cases. (AP) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
Georgian parliamentary elections: With nearly all the votes counted, the
National Movement-Democratic Reform Front gained a two-thirds majority in the
235-member parliament. Only one opposition party, the New Right, cleared the
seven percent minimum to win parliamentary seats.
(PolitInfo)
-
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, announces a major cabinet
reorganization just three days after his conservative party fared dismally in
local and regional elections. The new government is composed of close
associates of French President Jacques Chirac. (PolitInfo)
-
Newly-released, declassified documents show senior U.S. government officials
were well-informed about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
(PolitInfo)
- Four U.S. civilian contractors are killed in a grenade attack by Iraqi guerrillas in Fallujah, Iraq. A violent mob then pull the bodies from the burning vehicles, desecrate them, and hang the remains from a bridge over the Euphrates. In a separate incident, five U.S soldiers are killed in a large roadside bomb attack 12 miles (20 km) northwest of Fallujah. (CNN) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- The Guardian newspaper quotes British security service sources as believing that yesterday's raids may have stopped a major terrorist bombing. The sources state that MI5 and MI6 worked with police during the investigation leading to the raids. (Guardian)
- The Philippines prevents a "Madrid-level attack" after arresting four members of the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group. (SFGate)
(PolitInfo)
- The White House allows Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security advisor, to publicly testify under oath on the investigation into the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (XINHUA) (CNN)
(PolitInfo)
- Eight men are arrested after a series of raids in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000. Half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser was found during the raids. (Guardian)
(PolitInfo)
-
Israel's Supreme Court orders Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's son to turn over
documents in corruption scandals that loom as major threats to the Israeli
leader. The ruling comes a day after Israel's chief prosecutor recommended
that the prime minister be indicted in one of the cases. (PolitInfo)
- ROC presidential election, 2004: The Pan-Blue Coalition drops its demand for another round of voting by members of the military and the police who were put on a hightened state of alert on election day. Chen Shui-bian and Annette Lu sign letters promising not to contest the Pan-Blue petition for a recount.(Miami Herald)(Bloomberg)
- An explosion occurs close to the main bazaar in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, killing two and injuring around twenty; preliminary reports point to two female suicide bombers. Also in the capital, three police officers are shot dead; and, in the city of Bukhara, another explosion at a suspected terrorist bomb factory claims ten fatalities. (Reuters) (BBC)
- NATO welcomes seven new members, as Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia formally became members by depositing their instruments of accession with the United States' government, though the countries will join officially next month at a NATO meeting. All but Slovenia were formerly members of the Warsaw Pact. (BBC) (NATO)
(PolitInfo)
- Afghanistan's interim president, Hamid Karzai, says national elections
will be delayed until September.
(PolitInfo)
- Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, leader of Hamas, states that God has declared war on the United States. (NYTimes) (abs-cbnNEWS) (Reuters) (INDOlink)
(PolitInfo)
- The Arab League summit is postponed. The meeting was put off indefinitely because of differences of opinion regarding ways to encourage reform in the region, including democratization. (VOA) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Israeli State Attorney Edna Arbel recommends that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon be indicted for taking bribes. (AP)
- The French regional elections result in massive losses for the governing conservative parties and victories for socialist-green alliances in at least 20 of 22 regions. (BBC) (Spiegel) (Yahoo France)
- A coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo fails. (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- John F. Kerry joins other Democrats calling for National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to testify before the September 11 commission and states the White House should learn from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's openness during an inquiry after Pearl Harbor. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- ROC presidential election, 2004: 500,000 Pan-Blue protesters take to the streets in Taipei to demand a recount. (Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- In Brussels, European Union Leaders express a sense of unity in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings, and state that there is a new impetus to reaching a deal on the Union's draft constitution. (IHT) (PolitInfo)
- ROC presidential election, 2004: The controversial victory of Chen Shui-bian is confirmed by the state electoral commission, with a margin of only 29,518 votes – 0.2% of the total – separating the candidates. Pan-Blue protestors storm and hurl eggs at the Central Electoral Commission building. (BBC)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The United States vetoes a United Nations Security Council resolution (sponsored by Algeria and Libya) condemning the killing by Israel of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin along with six other Palestinians outside a mosque in Gaza City and calling for a complete cessation of executions. The resolution made no mention of suicide bombings committed by Hamas and attributed to Yassin. 11 votes are recorded in favour, with three (United Kingdom, Germany, and Romania) abstaining and one (the United States) against. (BBC)
(PolitInfo) (KC Star)
- US President Bush and his presumed Democratic opponent, John Kerry, lay
out competing economic plans aimed at creating jobs in separate campaign
appearances.
(PolitInfo)
- European Council Meeting: European Union leaders approve new
bloc-wide security measures following the Madrid bombings two weeks ago. They
include the appointment of a counterterrorism tsar and the adoption of a
solidarity clause that says a terrorist attack on one member should be
regarded as an attack on all.
(PolitInfo)
- Richard Clarke, the former National Coordinator for Counterterrorism in
the White House, says in the months before the September 11, 2001 attacks on
the United States, the Bush administration considered the threat of terrorism
important, but not urgent. Clarke made the comments before the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
(PolitInfo)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- The leader of Hamas states that the group has no plans to attack US targets, retreating from earlier threats by its armed wing. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is announced as a new target, instead. (News Limited)
- Sharon states that Israel has a "natural right" to pursue those who would destroy it. (Jewish Press)
- A 14-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber fails to detonate his bomb-vest at an Israeli checkpoint outside Nablus. The child was paid $23 and promised sex in heaven as his reward. An armed wing of Fatah takes responsibility for sending the boy. (HaAretz)
- Unrest in Kosovo: an UNMIK police patrol is attacked on the road Pristina-Podujevo. A UN police officer from Ghana is killed, a local police officer later dies of his wounds, and their translator is also wounded but in stable condition. (Kosovo.net)
- United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell defend their pre-September 11th actions, saying that even if Osama Bin Laden had been killed, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would have still occured. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen also testify before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. (AP via SFGate)
- Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi is chosen to lead Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and the movement's exiled politburo chief Khaled Meshaal is chosen as its overall leader. (BBC) (Washington Post)
- Salvadoran presidential election: Tony Saca of the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) declares victory over a former Communist Party guerrilla leader, with 60% of the votes. (Seattle Times) (CoLatino) (El Salvador)
- Israel assassinates Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the relatively-moderate spiritual head of Hamas, in the Gaza Strip. It then seals off both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (Reuters) (BBC) The British, French, and German governments, amongst others, condemn the killing. (BBC) (FOX)
- The former chief counter-terrorism aide to US President Bush, Richard Clarke, claims that Bush diverted attention towards Iraq, ignoring the main threat of Al-Qaeda. (Guardian) (Reuters) (FT)
- Malaysian general election: Secular ruling coalition Barisan Nasional wins a two-thirds majority and wrests back the state of Terengganu from Islamist party PAS. A recount is pending for the closely contested state of Kelantan. [Source]
- ROC presidential election: Taiwan's High Court has ordered all ballot boxes to be sealed, in order to preserve evidence. However, a recount of votes was not ordered. Various protests are held throughout the island. (AP)
- ROC presidential election, 2004: Chen Shui-bian is declared the winner over Lien Chan by by fewer than 30,000 votes of nearly 13,000,000 cast (0.25%). Lien calls the result unfair and demands it be voided. A controversial referendum is invalidated by low turnout. (BBC) (CNN)
- On the first anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, hundreds of thousands join protests in cities across the world to demonstrate against the war and the continued occupation. In London two Greenpeace protesters evade newly-tightened security and scale the Houses of Parliament's Clock Tower to unfurl a banner calling for the truth to be told by the UK government. (BBC) (CNN)
- Stephen Harper is elected as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, winning 56% of the possible points on the first ballot. (Global TV) (CBC) (Globe and Mail)
- Same-sex marriage in Canada: The Quebec Court of Appeal upholds a Quebec superior court ruling that same-sex marriages are valid under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (CBC) It joins Ontario and British Columbia in permitting same-sex marriage. The couple which brought the suit is scheduled to be wed on April 10, after a required 20-day waiting period.
- Taiwan presidential election and referendum:
- The People's Republic of China announces joint military exercises with France close to Taiwan, to coincide with the elections.(BBC)
- President Chen Shui-bian and Vice-President Annette Lu are shot while campaigning in Tainan. A bullet hits Lu in the knee, before striking Chen in the stomach. The pair were travelling in the presidential motorcade. Both have left hospital after treatment. (Wash. Post) (ChannelNewsAsia) (BBC)
- Pakistani Pervez Musharraf reported that his soldiers had surrounded a cadre of Al-Qaida men located in Waziristan, Pakistan that was protecting Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command for the organization.
- Howard Dean announces plans to form Democracy for America, a political organization intended to help progressive candidates holding similar views. (CNN)
- Indian government officials warn that rebels from northeast India based in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan are planning major attacks to disrupt upcoming national elections. (Reuters)
- Unrest in Kosovo: NATO announces that it will reinforce its Kosovo peacekeeping force, following ethnic unrest there that has killed at least 31 people over the past two days. Numerous Kosovo Serb enclaves were emptied of their Serb inhabitants with the latter's houses being set on fire in what was described by some as ethnic cleansing. 14 Serbian Orthodox Churches (mostly in Prizren but also Pristina, Kosovo Polje, Urosevac)) have been set ablaze by Albanians and violence has continued in and around Kosovo Serb enclaves. Russia and Serbia-Montenegro call for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council. United Nations officials attempt to restore order in the province and blame the unrest on nationalist extremists on both sides. More demonstrations have taken place across Serbia, so far without the violence seen the previous day. (Washington Post) (BBC) (B92)
- Unrest in Kosovo: After two Albanian children are found drowned in the Ibar river in Kosovo and Metohia, with a third still missing, riots erupt in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica and later spread to the entire province. Mitrovica Serbs are blamed by Albanian media for forcing the children into the river, but this is later denied by United Nations officials. At least 22 people are killed by the end of the day with hundreds injured in clashes between Serbs and Albanians; enclaves of Kosovo Serbs elsewhere in the province experience attacks by Kosovo Albanians as well as offices of UN officials which were abandoned. In reaction to the violence in Kosovo, demonstrators in Serbia march in Belgrade and set ablaze mosques in Belgrade and Nish. (B92) (B92) (SwissInfo) (NYT) (BBC) (CNN) (B92) (RTS, in Serbian)
- Occupation of Iraq: A car bomb flattens the Mount Lebanon Hotel in central Baghdad at 20:10 (UTC+3), killing at least 17 people and injuring 45 more. (BBC) (CNN)
- Rwandan President Paul Kagame accuses France of direct involvement in the 1994 genocide. (BBC)
- March 11, 2004 Madrid attacks: Spanish police identify six Moroccans suspected to have carried out the Madrid attacks. Five of the suspects are still at large but one is in custody. (BBC) (Washington Post)
- George W. Bush calls on his Iraq War allies to stick with the United States. (Reuters)
- Four U.S. Baptist missionaries working on a water purification project are killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. (CNN)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States: Commissioners of Multnomah County, Oregon dismiss state attorney general Hardy Myers' non-binding opinion that same-sex marriages are illegal and vow to continue issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (Seattle Times)
- Newly elected Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announces his government's opposition to the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq and his intention to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq by June 30, unless they are part of a U.N. force. (BBC)
- Iran will reallow the entry of UN nuclear inspectors after March 27, says IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei. (BBC) (AFP)
- Haiti recalls its ambassador of neighbouring Caribbean state Jamaica, where ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is said to be making a personal visit. Haiti also threatens to boycott a 2-day Caricom meeting. (AP) (BBC) (Reuters)
- The opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) wins the Spanish Legislative elections with almost 43% of the votes. (El Mundo) (BBC) (CNN) (Ministry of Home Affairs)
- Madrid bombings: Spanish police receives a videotape where a man identifying himself as an al-Qaeda spokesman says the terrorist network claims responsibility for the attack, according to an announcement from the country's interior minister. The authenticity of the video has not been verified. The al-Qaeda claim overshadows voting in the general election. (BBC) (BBC) (Toronto Star)
- Two suicide bombers kill 10 people in Ashdod, Israel. (BBC) (CNN)
- Occupation of Iraq: Six United States soldiers are killed over the weekend in three separate insurgent roadside bomb attacks, two in Baghdad and one in Tikrit. This occurs amidst the largest U.S. troop rotation since World War II.
- The National People's Congress of China changes the constitution to protect private property, in order to stop state officials from requisitioning property and private possessions. (BBC) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- Voting takes place in the Russian presidential election. Incumbent Vladimir Putin wins by a large majority but the election is widely criticised for being unfair. (BBC) (Reuters)
- ROC presidential election, 2004: 2 million people march in 24 rallies across Taiwan in support of Lien Chan's bid for the presidency. (Reuters)
- The death toll in the Madrid bombings rises to 200; investigators continue search for perpetators, with suspicions against ETA complemented by the apprehension of five foreign citizens connected to terror attacks in Morocco. (BBC) (AP)
- U.S. forces launch new offensive aimed at the Taliban and al-Qaeda and the capture of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. (AP)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States: Oregon's attorney general issues his opinion on same-sex marriage within Oregon. He concludes that current state law prohibits issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but that the Oregon Supreme Court is likely to conclude those statutes violate the state's constitution. The Wisconsin State Senate approves state constitution amendment to ban same-sex marriages or civil unions, to counter efforts elsewhere to legalize such partnerships. (Oregon Attorney General's opinion — PDF) (Wisconsin State Journal)
- March 11, 2004 Madrid attacks: Millions of people pack rainswept streets across Spain in protest against the recent terrorist attacks. (Reuters)
- The parliament of South Korea votes to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun, saying he "breached election rules" by calling for support for the Uri party. Prime Minister Goh Kun will run the country until the Constitutional Court rules on the issue. Roh's supporters dismiss the move as a power play to influence the upcoming April elections. Thousands protest in support of Roh. (Reuters) (BBC) (BBC)
- The U.S. government announces its intention to stockpile as many as 25 million doses of an experimental anthrax vaccine. (AP)
- The parliament of South Korea votes to impeach President Roh Moo-hyun for violating election laws. The President is now suspended from office until the Constitutional Court rules on the issue. Prime Minister Goh Kun will run the country in the meantime. (Reuters)
- Madrid terrorist attacks: Bombs on Madrid commuter trains kill at least 192 people and wound more than 1400, the largest toll in any European terrorist attack (the 1988 Lockerbie bombing killed more but wounded fewer). (Washington Post) (BBC) (La Vanguardia) (CincoDías) (El Semanal) (Renfe) (Le Monde) (CBC) (Reuters) (CNN)
- Four British prisoners who had been arrested on their return from Guantanamo Bay are released without charge. A fifth was not arrested on arrival. A further four remain in the Cuban camp. British newspapers vie for the rights to their stories, with offers in the range of £300,000. Compensation lawsuits from the returned five are expected against the US and UK governments. (Guardian) (BBC) (BBC)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States: The California Supreme Court issues an interim stay ordering San Francisco officials to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The court said it would hear oral arguments regarding the controversy in May or June. (FNC/AP) (365Gay)
- UN inspectors find weapons-grade uranium in Iran. Iran objects to UN and US policy, considering it "unrealistic." (Asia Times) (Radio Free Europe) (NYT)
- An Australian Senate report on poverty is immediately dismissed by Prime Minister John Howard. The report shows between 2 and 3.5 million Australians, or up to 19 per cent of the population, are living in poverty. (Age) (West Australian) (Australian) (Channelnewsasia)
- ROC presidential election, 2004: Wei Chueh, one of four Buddhist masters in Taiwan, controversially endorses Lien Chan. (BBC)
- U.S. officials tell of their plans to impose sanctions against Syria under the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act. The Bush administration accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism and developing chemical and biological weapons. (CNN)
- U.S. presidential election: The Bush reelection campaign charges that an ad campaign funded with "soft money" from billionaire George Soros funding violates campaign finance laws. The Bush camp plans to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission regarding a planned anti-Bush advertising campaign by The Media Fund. (CNN)
- Canadian federal election: Monia Mazigh, the wife of former Syrian deportee Maher Arar, announces her run for candidacy with the NDP in the riding of Ottawa South. (Globe and Mail)
- Opposition members of South Korea's parliament undertake the first steps in impeachment proceedings against President Roh Moo-hyun. (Reuters)
- A genetically modified crop, Bayer's Chardon LL maize, is approved for growing in England for animal feed from 2005 until October 2006. The Scottish Executive also approves the move, but asks Scottish farmers to hold off. MPs and farmers protest in anger as the science is questioned. The Welsh National Assembly's Environment Minister announces he is still opposed to approving the crop. (New Scientist) (BBC) (BBC) (BBC) (Evening Standard)
- Pakistan announces a successful first flight test of its Hatf VI / Shaheen II long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile. The missile has a range of 2,000 km (1,250 mi) and can carry a payload of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). (BBC) (CNN)
- Five of the nine Britons held by American authorities at Guantanamo Bay under suspicion of having links to terrorist organisations are returned to Britain. They are to be questioned by British anti-terrorism police on arrival.(Reuters) (CNN)
- Abu Abbas, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front and mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro, dies in Iraq. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say that he died of natural causes while in US custody. (Fox)
- Belinda Stronach, candidate for leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is nominated as the Conservative candidate for the next federal election in the riding of Newmarket-Aurora, Ontario. (CBC)
- United States marines shoot and kill a Haitian gunman in front of Port-au-Prince's presidential palace after the man fired rounds at the marines and protesters. Supporters of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had shot and killed several anti-Aristide demonstrators.(NYT)
- Iraq's governing council unanimously approves the country's first democratic constitution. (AP)
- The United Kingdom's House of Lords votes to send the Constitutional Reform Bill, which will abolish the office of Lord Chancellor, create a new Supreme Court, and create a Judicial Appointments Commission, to a select committee for scrutiny, defeating the government. Government MPs claim this is a "wrecking" move, and threaten to use the Parliament Act to force the measure through. (BBC)
- Greek legislative election, 2004: New Democracy, led by Costas Karamanlis, wins over the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, led by George Papandreou.(BBC) (BBC)
- The White House reports that all of Libya's remaining nuclear weapons-related equipment has been sent to the United States. (BBC)
- Palestinian sources say that 14 people died after an Israeli raid into the refugee camps of al-Bureij and Nusseirat. Israeli sources say it was a pinpointed operation against the terrorist infrastructure. (BBC)
- In Austria there are elections in the states of Salzburg and Carinthia. In Salzburg, the SPÖ earns a majority for the first time. In Carinthia, the election is a unexpected success for Jörg Haider (FPÖ).
- The headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad come under rocket attack from Iraqi guerillas, the day before the new Iraqi temporary constitution is due to be signed. (BBC)
- Tens of thousands demonstrate in Caracas, Venezuela, against what they see as the government's fraud committed by the Consejo Nacional Electoral related to the realization of a presidential referendum in mid-2004.
- The United States puts forth a UN Security Council resolution seeking to freeze the assets of Charles Taylor, the exiled former president of Liberia. The U.S. also announces that it is pledging $35 million to help rebuild Liberia's armed forces and that it supports the cancellation of Liberia's international debt, providing that economic reforms are implemented. (BBC)
- Palestinians are killed and wounded in attack on the main crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claim the terrorist actions. (BBC)
- Canadian federal election: Former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps loses the Liberal constituency nomination to current Transport Minister Tony Valeri by 311 votes. She will likely appeal; there is some speculation that if the loss remains, she will either run as an independent or for the NDP. (Toronto Star)
- The U.S. Republican National Committee sends a letter to hundreds of television stations, warning the stations about airing anti-Bush advertisements sponsored by MoveOn.org. The letter warns that the ads may be financed with money raised in violation of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. (CNN)
- Libya admits to having stockpiled 44,000 pounds of mustard gas in its declaration to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. (AP)
- The National People's Congress convenes in Beijing. Premier Wen Jiabao makes his first state address, saying that "solving the problems of agriculture, villages and farmers is one of the most crucial parts of our entire work". (BBC)
- Last minute disagreement delays signing of Iraq's interim constitution. (Radio Free Europe) (USA Today)
- Tony Blair defends the war in Iraq, stating that "global threat we face in Britain and round the world is real and existential and it is the task of leadership to expose it and fight it, whatever the political cost." (ABC) (Scotsman)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States: The Wisconsin State Assembly approves state constitution amendment (voted 68-27) to ban same-sex marriages or civil unions, to counter efforts elsewhere to legalize such partnerships. The Kansas House passes, by 88 votes to 36, a proposed amendment. (Pittsburg KS Morning Sun) (USA Today)
- Nunavut general election, 2004: the new legislature returns Paul Okalik to office as premier of Nunavut, the largest territory of Canada. (CBC)
- The guilty verdict for Moroccan al-Qaeda suspect Mounir el Motassadeq's involvement in the September 11, 2001 attacks is overturned by the German appeals court, which orders a retrial. (Globe and Mail)
- Horst Köhler resigns as the head of the IMF in order to accept the nomination for Presidency of Germany.
- U.S. presidential election, 2004:
- Controversy erupts over the US Republican Party's use of imagery from the September 11, 2001 attacks in campaign advertising, with some supporting the President, like Republican ex-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and some victims' families objecting strongly. (AP) (Guardian) (BBC) (Scotsman)
- US Democratic Party labels the Bush campaign an "attack machine" which they vow to thwart at every turn. "Fund raising and the race to define your opponent before he defines you that's what it's all about," said one Democratic strategist yesterday. (Washington Times) The White House defends the use of images from the 2001 terror attacks in adverts for President Bush's re-election campaign. Karen Hughes states, "It's a reminder of our shared experience as a nation ... not just some distant tragedy from the past. It really defined our future". (BBC)
- Israeli tanks (around 15 armoured vehicles escorted by several bulldozers) enter the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, exchanging gunfire with resistance and later demolishing a four-storey building, claiming "anti-terrorist operations". (Australian)
- The Prime Minister of Malaysia dissolves the national parliament and all state assemblies except Sarawak's, paving the way for the general election to be held within 60 days as dictated by the constitution. (BBC)
- Researchers at Harvard University announce that they will give scientists free access to 17 human embryonic stem cell lines created without U.S. federal funding. This move is expected to boost stem cell research in the face of federal funding restrictions announced in 2001 by the Bush administration. (CNN)
- A new government of Serbia, headed by Vojislav Kostunica, is approved by parliament. (BBC)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- Israeli aircraft destroy a car in the Gaza strip with missile fire, killing three people acknowledged by Palestinian officials as members of the militant group Hamas. (BBC)
- A group of Israelis join a court challenge against the Israeli West Bank barrier out of concern it could turn their good Palestinian neighbors into deadly enemies. (Reuters)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- The Palestinian Authority's prisoners' affairs ministry states in its monthly statistical report that the number of Palestinian prisoners has risen to around 7,500. Of those 336 are children, 75 female and 943 in need of medical treatment. Of the 166 prisoners who died, 41% died as a result of medical negligence, while 18% died as a result of torture. (palestine-info.co.uk) (Jihad Unspun)
- Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics reports 1,850 new housing units in the Jewish settlements Israel built in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2003, up by 35 percent from the previous year. (BBC)
- U.S. Democratic Presidential Nomination:
- John Kerry wins the Super Tuesday primaries in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island and caucus in Minnesota, effectively clinching the nomination. Howard Dean wins in his home state of Vermont even though he is no longer actively campaigning. John Edwards is reported to be withdrawing from the race three hours before polls close in California and just as the caucuses begin in Minnesota.(NC News & Observer)
- Scattered problems crop up with electronic voting systems.(AP) (Tri-Valley Herald)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States:
- Jason West, mayor of New Paltz, New York is charged with 19 criminal counts of solemnizing marriages without a license. If convicted, he faces up to a $500 fine and a year in jail on each count.(Newsday)
- Multnomah County, Oregon prepares to begin solemnizing same-sex marriages, after its attorney issues a legal opinion deeming such marriages lawful. (SF Chronicle)
- Multiple explosions hit Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala on the Shia festival of Ashura. Over 180 people are reported killed. A three-day long period of national mourning is announced. (BBC)
- Iraq gets a Bill of Rights, including guarantees of freedom of religion and press, in the form of the Law of Administering the Iraqi State for the Transitional Period. (Washington Times)
- The U.S. declares its 2,000-man force to have leadership over all foreign military forces in Haiti. President Bush chose not to wait for the UN Security Council but, instead, to intervene immediately to "restore order" in the western hemisphere's poorest country. (Washington Times)
- The European Union imposes additional 5% tariffs on a wide range of goods imported from the United States, such as honey, paper, and nuclear reactors. The tariffs were sanctioned by the World Trade Organization in 2002 as punitive measures after a ruling declaring that United States tax law unfairly favors U.S.-based companies. (BBC)
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide claims that his resignation as President of Haiti was forced and that he was kidnapped by American forces and forced to leave the country against his will. United States Vice President Dick Cheney rejects the accusation. (Reuters) (CNN)
- The UK Conservative Party withdraws from the Butler Inquiry into intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, claiming the way its terms of reference have been interpreted is too narrow. The Liberal Democrats claim that this was obvious from the beginning. (BBC) (Guardian) (Independent, UK)
- President of Russia Vladimir Putin names Mikhail Fradkov as his new prime minister. (BBC)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States: President of the United States George W. Bush urges passage of a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman, as the only way to stop "municipal and judicial activists" from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. "If we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment." John Kerry denounces the amendment as "toying" or "tampering" with the Constitution of the United States for partisan advantage. (Washington Times)
- Several hundred United States, French and Canadian troops are deployed to Haiti. (Age)
- Palau National Congress' debate about whether to propose several constitutional amendments to Palau voters or ask them to consider more changes at a Constitutional Convention ended without an accord. (Guam Pacific Daily News)
|
