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 PolitInfo.com > Current Events > October 2004

January 2004 - February 2004 - March 2004 - April 2004 - May 2004 - June 2004 - July 2004 - August 2004 - September 2004 - November 2004 - December 2004

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Articles: October 2004

October 31, 2004

• The 2004 presidential election in Ukraine is held. Preliminary results indicate Viktor Yanukovich in first place with 40% and Viktor Yushchenko in second with 39%. The run-off will be held on November 21. International monitors report "serious irregularities" in the voting. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Darfur conflict: Rwanda begins deploying a contingent of 237 troops to Darfur, Sudan, as part of an African Union mission to bring stability to the troubled region. Sixty-five soldiers have been sent this weekend; the rest will be deployed as the week progresses. Rwanda already had some troops in Darfur. (CNN) (PolitInfo)
• Tabaré Vázquez is elected the next president of Uruguay. (Reuters UK) (PolitInfo)
• Three United Nations workers taken hostage in Afghanistan are shown on a video issued by their captors. The kidnappers  say they will kill their hostages by Wednesday if a list of demands is not met. Those demands include the United Nations withdrawal from the country.  (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• In Tehran, Parliament approves a bill calling on the Iranian government to continue the country's nuclear-energy program, including uranium enrichment, which is strongly opposed by the United States and the European Union. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: 15 Iraqi Shia workers are killed and eight wounded in a rocket attack on a hotel in the predominately Sunni city of Tikrit. (Reuters)

October 30, 2004

• Italy's European commissioner designate, Rocco Buttiglione, announces he has agreed to withdraw from the incoming new executive, to help the European Commission president-designate assemble a new team. His nomination as justice and security commissioner had been strongly opposed by a large number of European parliament deputies.  (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • United States armed forces officials say that eight marines have been killed and nine wounded near Fallujah. (BBC) (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
  • A car bomb kills seven and wounds 19 outside an office of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television station in Baghdad. (Reuters)  (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra orderd the release of at least 900 men, but officials plan to prosecute about 300 for their part in a violent demonstration on Monday. The government's efforts to halt the demonstration left more than 80 people dead in the Muslim-dominated south of the country. (PolitInfo)
   

October 29, 2004

• In Rome, heads of state and government from the countries of the European Union sign the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe. The treaty is still subject to ratification by the member nations. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Arab television network Al Jazeera broadcasts a new video tape of Osama bin Laden, addressing citizens of the United States, acknowledging his responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks, threatening further action against the U.S., and criticizing U.S. President George W. Bush. He said that the security of the American people depended neither on Mr. Bush nor on John Kerry, but on US policy. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Yasser Arafat is flown to Paris, France for medical treatment at Percy military hospital which specializes in blood disorders and cancer. Ahmed Qurei will manage the daily affairs of the Palestinian Authority and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestine Liberation Organization. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• Two bombings occur in southern Thailand, in the wake of clashes between minority Muslim protesters and Thai soldiers in which about 80 protesters were suffocated while being transported to detention camps. (INQ7.net) (PolitInfo)

October 28, 2004

• A new scientific study estimates that as many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians died in the US-led invasion and its aftermath. The study, reported in a respected international medical journal, says most of the casualties came from aerial bombardment.  The report is the first attempt to scientifically calculate civilian casualties of the Iraq war. Previous non-governmental estimates range anywhere from 10,000-30,000. (PolitInfo) (PolitInfo)
• Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may leave the West Bank city of Ramallah to seek medical treatment abroad. His failing health has caused great uncertainty among Palestinians and has raised serious questions about who might succeed him at the head of the Palestinian leadership. (PolitInfo)
• Incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says he will make changes in his proposed commission, one day after withdrawing his slate in the face of a likely European Parliament veto. (PolitInfo)
• At least 15 people are injured in Thailand when a bomb goes off in the troubled southern province of Narathiwat, where 85 people died earlier this week after a clash with security forces. (PolitInfo)
• Three foreign election workers are kidnapped in the Afghan capital, Kabul.  (PolitInfo)
• U.S. presidential election: Election officials in Broward County, Florida report that over 50,000 absentee ballots for next Tuesday's U.S. presidential election are missing. Officials mailed 60,000 absentee ballots earlier this month, but only 2,000 were delivered. (BBC)

October 27, 2004

• Four British citizens, who were detained at the U.S. military installation in Guantanamo Bay for almost three years, sue the U.S. government for $10 million each, alleging torture and other human rights violations. The principal defendants are Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Amnesty International declares the Bush administration to be "guilty of setting conditions for torture and cruel treatment by lowering safeguards and failing to respond adequately to allegations of abuse", amid other criticisms of the "war on terror", which the report says is "violating basic rights in the name of national security" and urged the President and challenger John Kerry to support an independent inquiry into detention and interrogation policies. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• The incoming chief of the European Commission, the European Union's executive body, withdraws his proposed team of commissioners in the face of a veto threat by the European Parliament. José Manuel Durão Barroso asks for more time to reshuffle his team. (EUobserver) (PolitInfo)
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejects calls from four cabinet ministers for a national referendum on pulling out of Gaza, after his plan won parliament approval in a historic vote Tuesday night. (PolitInfo)
• A group in Iraq believed led by Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has taken a Japanese man hostage, and is threatening to behead him if Tokyo does not remove its troops from Iraq within 48 hours. (PolitInfo)
• Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's health declines sharply, and a team of doctors is called in to treat him. (Reuters) (Haaretz)  (PolitInfo)
• Slobodan Milošević trial: Slobodan Milošević's defense team asks for a withdrawal, saying Milošević refuses to cooperate. (Reuters)

October 26, 2004

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Knesset approves Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip and 4 from the West Bank by next year. Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three other cabinet ministers from Sharon's ruling Likud government threaten to resign over the plan. (Reuters) (Guardian) (PolitInfo)
• A report by the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks press freedom across the world. The ten lowest scoring countries (least free) in the report were North Korea, Cuba, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, while the ten highest were Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Latvia. (BBC News)(RSF report) (PolitInfo)
• Darfur Crisis:
  • The U.N. Security Council will travel to Africa next month to focus world attention on the two separate conflicts in Sudan: the conflict in the western Darfur region, and the war in southern Sudan; (PolitInfo)
  • The African Union says, after some last-minute diplomatic hitches, Nigerian and Rwandan peacekeepers will begin to be airlifted to Darfur later this week. (PolitInfo)
• 78 people died of suffocation while in the custody of Thailand police following the dispersal of a violent demonstration on October 25 in the restive Muslim-majority southern region of the country. The deaths appeared to have occurred during a five hour trip in closed trucks to a detention facility. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Iraq's appointed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi tells the interim national council that yesterday's killing of 49 unarmed army recruits "was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational (forces)." (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
  • The U.S. military reports a known associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an early morning air strike on a safe house in Fallujah. Local residents say that the houses destroyed were empty for over a month and hospital staff report no casaulties. (CNN) (Reuters)
• A new public opinion poll shows more Iraqis favor Democratic challenger John Kerry than President Bush, who launched the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. But more than half of the two-thousand peopled polled throughout Iraq don't care who wins the U.S. presidency in next week's election. (PolitInfo)

October 25, 2004

• The United Nations nuclear agency reports to the U.N. Security Council that nearly 350 tons of explosives is missing in Iraq and may have been stolen. The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that two weeks ago, the Iraqi government informed the agency that about 380 tons (345,000 kg) of powerful explosives, potentially usable in detonators for nuclear bombs, apparently disappeared from the Al-Qaqaa weapons facility, a site about 30 miles south of Baghdad, sometime shortly before or after Saddam Hussein's government fell. (Reuters: 1, 2 )
(PolitInfo)
• Sudanese government envoys and rebel leaders from the western province of Darfur formally open peace talks in Nigeria's capital, Abuja. Three weeks of talks held last month in Abuja ended in failure. (PolitInfo)
• With more than 95 percent of the ballots counted in Afghanistan's first presidential election, transitional leader Hamid Karzai appears to have won a landslide victory in the October 9 election. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier and wounds five others in western Baghdad. Hospital officials say five civilians are killed from U.S. snipers in the western city of Ramadi. In Kirkuk, a roadside bomb kills an Iraqi civilian. An Estonian soldier is killed and five wounded in a bomb blast in Baghdad. A mortar lands on a Iraqi National Guard checkpoint north of Baghdad, killing an Iraqi civilian. In Mosul, a car bomb kills a tribal leader and two civilians. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: 14 Palestinians are killed in the Gaza Strip following "ceaseless mortar attacks" on neighboring Israeli settlements. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• Egyptian authorities arrest five men they say carried out the bombings that killed at least 34 people earlier this month at seaside resorts on the Sinai Peninsula. (PolitInfo)

October 24, 2004

• Iran's nuclear program: Iran rejects an European Union proposal to provide civilian nuclear technology to Iran in exchange for Iran scrapping its uranium enrichment program, calling for more negotiations. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • 49 unarmed Iraqi army recruits, based at Kirkush, are ambushed, forced from their vehicles, laid out in rows of twelve people, and murdered by gunshot to the head. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claims responsibility, describing the dead as apostates. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
  • In Falluja, hospital officials report five civilians dead resulting from what witnesses claim were U.S. military airstrikes. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • A U.S. diplomat is killed when mortars land near Baghdad airport. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
  • A car bomb kills a Bulgarian soldier in Kerbala. A Turkish truck driver is killed by gunmen north of Baghdad. (BBC)
• The European Union says it will contribute $ 100 million to an African force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. The announcement comes just several days after the African Union agreed to increase its force in Darfur by about 3,000 troops. (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • The Israeli cabinet approves a bill to compensate settlers who leave the occupied Gaza Strip under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's controversial withdrawal plan. (PolitInfo)
  •  In Khan Yunis, located in the Gaza Strip, two Palestinian militants are killed and a third wounded by a missile fired from an Israel Defence Force drone. (Reuters)
• The leaders of the two main U.S. political parties traded accusations of voter disenfranchisement, one of the issues that is taking center stage as the presidential election campaign heads into its final days. (PolitInfo)
• Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is re-elected in a widely expected landslide. As in previous elections, there were allegations of fraud. The main opposition party, the Progressive Democratic Party, boycotted the race, calling it "a political masquerade." (PolitInfo)
   

October 23, 2004

• General elections are under way in the U.N.-administered province of Kosovo. Despite appeals by international officials and Serb leaders, many of Kosovo's 100,000 Serbs are expected to stay away from the polls. (PolitInfo)
• Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia's new president, requests 20,000 African Union troops to help secure the country. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: A suicide car bomb kills 16 and wounds 40 at a police training base in Ramadi west of Baghdad. A separate car bomb kills four Iraqi National Guard soldiers at a check point in Samarra. Two die and four are injured in U.S. air strikes on Falluja. In Mosul, two Turkish drivers are killed and two wounded when their convoy is attacked. Mortars land in central Baghdad killing two civilians.  (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Prosecutors in France file charges against former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet for the disappearance and torture of four French citizens in the 1970s. (BBC)
• Officials in Afghanistan say an apparent suicide bombing has injured at least seven people in downtown Kabul's market district. The bomber was reportedly killed in the blast. (PolitInfo)

October 22, 2004

• The Kyoto Treaty on climate change is ratified by Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament. The treaty will now go to the upper house and President Vladimir Putin for their approval. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Darfur Crisis: Officials from the European Union (EU) say the regional bloc is likely to provide $ 125 million to support an African force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. The African Union agreed this week to increase its force monitoring a cease-fire in Darfur from the current 400 to more than 3,300 personnel. (PolitInfo)
• U.S. military and intelligence officials say the size and resources of Iraq's insurgency are much greater than originally thought.Pentagon officials told reporters this week that foreign and domestic fighters in Iraq number between 8,000 and 12,000 people, and as many as 20,000 when active sympathizers are added. (PolitInfo)
• A United Nations report says Israel's recent military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip killed 107 Palestinians and left almost 700 others homeless. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Aid worker for CARE International Margaret Hassan, captured by kidnappers in Iraq, is shown on al-Jazeera television pleading for her life. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
  • Officials from the Republic of Macedonia confirm that three Macedonian contract workers kidnapped on August 21 have been executed. (BBC)

October 21, 2004

• Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse: The U.S. Army sentences Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick to eight years in prison for sexually and physically abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• The United Nations' top envoy overseeing humanitarian assistance in Africa, Jan Egeland, calls what is happening in northern Uganda the world's most neglected humanitarian emergency. (PolitInfo)
• Darfur Crisis: The African Union has agreed to expand its peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region. The move comes as the Sudanese government begins peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, with Darfur's two rebels groups. (PolitInfo)
• A key Senate Democrat is accusing the U.S. Defense Department of exaggerating the threat from Iraq to justify the war. Senator Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a member of the Intelligence Committee, says an investigation by his staff into prewar intelligence shows that the Pentagon shaped its analysis to justify a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. (PolitInfo)
• Iran is considering an offer by key European nations to resolve the stalemate with the International Atomic Energy Agency on its uranium-enrichment program. Iran has promised to consider an offer made by France, Germany and Britain, under which Tehran would receive nuclear technology, if it gives up parts of its nuclear program that could be used to make weapons. (PolitInfo)
• Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the incoming head of the European Commission, the European Union's executive body, says he will stand by a controversial appointee to his cabinet despite widespread opposition to the nominee among members of the European Parliament. The dispute could prevent the new commission from taking office on November first. (PolitInfo)
• Lebanese President Émile Lahoud names staunch pro-Syrian politician Omar Karami as Prime Minister following Rafic Hariri's resignation on October 20, 2004. Karami, Prime Minister from 1990 to 1992, was forced to resign in 1992. (Jerusalem Post)

October 20, 2004

• U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick pleads guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault, and committing an indecent act for his actions in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. He is the third person to plead guilty in the scandal. (CNN) (PolitInfo)
• Sudan's government and two rebel groups in the country's western Darfur region are set for another round of peace talks aimed at ending an 18-month conflict. (PolitInfo)
• Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired general has been sworn in as the sixth president of Indonesia. (PolitInfo)
• Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri resigns and says he will leave the government, ending several weeks of conflict between Hariri and the Syrian-backed President, Émile Lahoud. (Reuters) (Daily Star [Lebanon]) (ABC) (PolitInfo)
• The anti-corruption watchdog group, Transparency International, has ranked Bangladesh and Haiti as the world's most corrupt countries in its annual report. The Transparency International corruption index finds that rampant corruption persists in 60 countries out of 146 surveyed. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • CARE International, a health and water aid agency, announces that it is suspending operations in Iraq. Its local manager, Margaret Hassan, was abducted yesterday. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
  • In Samarra, two car bombs kill at least 8 civilians, including a child, and wound 11 U.S. soldiers.  (Reuters)

October 19, 2004

• Darfur Crisis: Tens of thousands of the families in Sudan's Darfur region face starvation as the ongoing violence there has kept most farmers from planting crops, the International Red Cross warns. (PolitInfo)
• Burma's state radio and television announc that Prime Minister Khin Nyunt has left his post and been replaced. The announcement follows a statement by Thai officials that the prime minister was dismissed and placed under house arrest. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • An unknown militant group kidnaps Margaret Hassan, head of the international charity CARE International, in Baghdad, Iraq. Ms. Hassan holds British, Irish and Iraqi citizenship. (Reuters) (AAP Australia)
  • A mortar attack on an U.S. army compound in central Baghdad kills a U.S. contractor, while another mortar attack, on an Iraqi National Guard base in Mushahida, kills four guardsmen and injures 80.  (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• In Minsk, Belarus, protests continue over the results of Monday's referendum, which permitted President Alexander Lukashenko to seek a third term. At least 30 protesters are arrested, including opposition leader Anatoly Lebedko. Supporters say Lebedko was badly beaten by police and was refused treatment for his injuries. (BBC)
• British and German officials announce that, on Thursday, representatives of France, the United Kingdom, and Germany will meet in Vienna with Iranian officials to offer Iran a final chance to halt uranium enrichment plans before proposed U.N. sanctions are imposed. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• In its annual report on national militaries, the International Institute for Strategic Studies says that the US-led invasion of Iraq has, at least for the short term, increased the risk of terrorism. (ABC) (Reuters)

October 18, 2004

• A referendum is held in Belarus on a proposal by President Alexander Lukashenko to permit Lukashenko to run for a third term by amending the country's constitution to remove term limits. The Belarus electoral commission says the referendum won the support of at least 75 percent of voters, but independent elections monitors say that the voting procedures "fell significantly short" of international standards. In Minsk, the capital, more than 2,000 people protest the results of the referendum. (BBC) (Reuters) (PolitInfo) (PolitInfo)
• Venkaiah Naidu resigns from his post as president of India's main opposition party, BJP. He will be replaced by Lal Krishna Advani. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The United Nations and a leading human rights group say Israel has violated international law by destroying Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip. (PolitInfo)
• Early voting begins in Florida and ten other U.S. states for the 2004 U.S. presidential election, which officially takes place November 2. (CNN) (PolitInfo)
• Afghan and United Nations officials say an explosion in southeastern Afghanistan has killed an election worker and four others, as vote counting continues in the country's landmark presidential election. (PolitInfo)
• Iran says that it is willing to negotiate with the U.K., Germany, and France regarding a suspension of its uranium enrichment activities, but that it will never renounce its right to enrich uranium. Iran's nuclear program is currently under investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)

October 17, 2004

• A U.S. newspaper report says detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba were regularly subjected to abuse and torture, including sleep deprivation and exposure to loud noise and extreme temperatures over a long period of time.  The New York Times based its report on interviews with guards and intelligence agents who worked at Guantanamo. (PolitInfo)
• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the war in Iraq has not made the world any safer.  Annan has told British television that considering the "violence," "terrorist attacks around the world," and the situation in Iraq, the international community has "a lot of work to do" to make the world safer. (PolitInfo)
• About 20,000 protesters march in London, United Kingdom to demand an end to the "illegal occupation" of Iraq. (Reuters) (The Scotsman) (PolitInfo)
• Parliamentary elections are underway in Belarus. Voters also are being asked to decide whether the constitution should be changed to allow President Alexander Lukashenko to serve a third term. Opposition parties claim widespread irregularities in Sunday's election. (PolitInfo)
• Jewish settler leaders say Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rejected their proposal to put his controversial Gaza withdrawal plan to a public vote. (PolitInfo)

October 16, 2004

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Bombs explode at five Christian churches in Baghdad. No casualties are reported. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
  • Car bombs are detonated in Qaim and Mosul, Iraq, killing three U.S. soldiers and a civilian in Qaim, and one U.S. soldier in Mosul. A mortar attack in Qaim kills four Iraqis and wounds 30. (Reuters)
  • Two U.S. military transport helicopters crash in southwestern Baghdad leaving two U.S. soldiers dead and two others wounded. (Reuters)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israeli forces withdraw from the northern Gaza Strip, ending Operation Days of Penitence. Three men, allegedly militants, and a 70-year-old Palestinian woman are killed on the final day. Over 100 Palestinians have died in the course of the 16-day operation. (PolitInfo)
• In Afghanistan, at least seven people, including two U.S. soldiers, have died in separate incidents. The attacks come as the vote count in Afghanistan's historic presidential election is under way. (PolitInfo)

October 15, 2004

• Darfur Crisis:
  •  The World Health Organization says at least 70,000 people in Sudan's western Darfur Province have died from poor conditions in camps for internally displaced people since March. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
  • The United Nations says it continues to receive reports from internally displaced persons (IDPs) of attacks on villages in Darfur, Sudan. (PolitInfo)
• The leader of Zimbabwe's largest opposition party is acquitted of treason charges  by a High Court in Harare. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The United Nations chooses Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan, and Tanzania as the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for its next two-year term, which begins in January 2005. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The UK ambassador to Uzbekistan is recalled and suspended after criticizing the use of intelligence allegedly obtained under torture by the Uzbekistan government. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Indonesian prosecutors file charges against Abu Bakar Bashir, alleging he was involved in an August 2003 bomb attack on a Jakarta hotel and accusing him for the first time of involvement in the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing. (BBC) (ABC) (PolitInfo)
• Key European allies tell the United States they will offer Iran a package of inducements next week in an effort to persuade Tehran to end its drive for nuclear weapons. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • The U.S. Army is investigating up to 19 members of a Army Reserve unit stationed in Iraq who refused to take part in a fuel delivery convoy mission they considered unsafe. (Daily Telegraph)(San Francisco Gate)  (Washington Times)  (PolitInfo)
  • Senior British military sources say that the U.S. has asked that some British troops be moved to an area south of Baghdad to replace U.S. troops moved to Fallujah. (BBC)

October 14, 2004

• U.S. military commanders are considering filing criminal charges against as many as 28 soldiers in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at the hands of U.S. forces in another case of prisoner abuse, this time in Afghanistan. (PolitInfo)
• Prince Norodom Sihamoni is named the new King of Cambodia by the country's Throne Council. His father, former King Norodom Sihanouk, abdicated on October 7. (CBC News) (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepts an Israeli Defence Force plan to begin withdrawing troops from Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip this weekend. (Haaretz) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • United States warplanes launch sustained air strikes against the rebel-held city of Fallujah, following a breakdown in peace talks between the Iraqi government and representatives of the city. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
  • Iraqi insurgents carry out two bomb attacks within Baghdad's heavily fortified "Green Zone", which houses Iraqi government offices and U.S. military facilities. U.S. officials say that 6 Iraqis and 4 Americans were killed in the attacks. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad militant group later claims responsibility for the bombings. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Security forces in Pakistan kill five kidnappers as they tried to rescue two Chinese engineers. Officials say one of the hostages died during the rescue while his companion received minor injuries. (PolitInfo)
• State radio in Cameroon declares long-time President Paul Biya the winner in Monday's election, even though opposition parties are contesting the results. (PolitInfo)
• Pakistan's lawmaking National Assembly passes a bill to allow President Pervez Musharraf to stay on as chief of the military. (PolitInfo)

October 13, 2004

• U.S. presidential debates: U.S. President George W. Bush and challenger Senator John Kerry meet at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona for the last of three U.S. presidential debates. (ABC) (PolitInfo)
• France and Germany turn down a U.S. proposal that the NATO peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan and the bigger U.S.-led force fighting insurgents there be merged into one single command. (PolitInfo)
• The People's Republic of China says the President Chen Shui-bian's offer for a peace dialogue made during Double Tenth Day is meaningless and that he is angling to declare Taiwan independence by equating Taiwan with the Republic of China and by seeking "to create separate countries on each side of the Taiwan Strait" in his speech.  (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: The U.S. military in Iraq says four American soldiers have been killed in two separate roadside bomb blasts in Baghdad. (PolitInfo)
• Lawyers representing some of the more than 500 detainees being held without charge by the U.S. military in the war on terror were in court in Washington Wednesday arguing that the government continues to hold their clients without justification. (PolitInfo)

October 12, 2004

• A preliminary survey of voters who cast ballots Saturday in Afghanistan's first ever presidential election indicates current transitional President Hamid Karzai is the apparent winner. (PolitInfo)
• Human Rights Watch issues a report charging that the United States government's treatment of certain suspected terrorists being held outside the U.S. is in violation of U.S. treaties, international human rights law, and the Geneva Conventions. (BBC)  (PolitInfo)
• The trial of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević for alleged war crimes has resumed after a month's delay. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Cambodia's legislature votes to allow a nine-member council to choose a successor to King Norodom Sihanouk who is expected to be Prince Norodom Sihamoni.  (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • The Israeli parliament rejects Prime Minister Ariel Shoran's speech outlining his plans for a total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The Knesset rejected his traditional state-of-the-nation address at the opening of the winter session. (PolitInfo)
  • Moussa Arafat, cousin of Yasser Arafat and a top security official in the Gaza Strip, survives an apparent assassination attempt when a car bomb explodes in his convoy. (Reuters)
• The government of Saudi Arabia announces that women will be prohibited from running as candidates or voting in the country's upcoming municipal elections. The elections, the first in Saudi Arabia since the 1960s, will be held from February 10 to April 21, 2005. (CNN) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: A U.S. Air Force air strike destroys Haji Hussein, the most popular restaurant in insurgent-controlled Fallujah. The U.S. says the restaurant was being used by militants loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Witnesses say two civilian security guards were killed in the attack. (BBC) (ABC Australia) (Reuters) (PolitInfo)

October 11, 2004

• The joint U.N. - Afghan election commission asks the United Nations to appoint a panel of independent experts to investigate claims of voting fraud in Saturday's presidential election in Afghanistan. (PolitInfo)
• In Haiti, armed gangs loyal to former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide take to the streets, looting shops and burning cars. Two people die in gunfights. UN troops and national police are struggling to restore order throughout Port-au-Prince. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  •  A rocket attack in southern Baghdad kills two U.S. soldiers and injures five others, while in the northern city of Mosul a suicide car bomb detonated near a U.S. military convoy kills a U.S. soldier and two Iraqis and injures 27 others. (ABC/AP)  (News.com.au) (PolitInfo)
  • Militiamen in Baghdad are handing over their heavy weapons in a deal to bring peace to a poverty-stricken area of the capital. (PolitInfo)
• Early results in the first round of Lithuania's Lithuanian general election show the opposition Labour Party winning the largest proportion of the vote. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The U.S. Senate votes to repeal a tax subsidy for U.S. exports that the World Trade Organization says violates global trade rules. (PolitInfo)
• China rejects Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's call for dialogue and peace talks. President Chen made the overture during a much-publicized National Day speech in Taipei on Sunday. (PolitInfo)

October 10, 2004

• Somalia's Transitional National Government of Somalia parliament elects Abdullahi Yusuf, a former army officer, interim president. He will be Somalia's first head of state since 1991, when tribal warlords overthrew the ruling military dictatorship. The election was held in Nairobi, Kenya, since the situation in Somalia remains dangerous. (BBC)(ABC) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: Two car bombs explode in Baghdad, killing at least 10 people and wounding 17, including a U.S. soldier. (AP) (PolitInfo)
• Rescue efforts end in Taba, Egypt at the site of Thursday's bombing. Egypt and Israeli forensic experts announce that they have identified 12 Israelis, 6 Egyptians, 2 Italians, 1 Russian, and 13 Eastern Europeans among those killed. (Haaretz)  (Israeli MFA) (PolitInfo)
• Afghan and foreign officials are urging patience as they start investigating alleged cases of voter fraud in Afghanistan's first presidential election. (PolitInfo)
• In Pakistan, a suicide bomb attack at a Shiite Muslim mosque kills at least four people and injured several others. (PolitInfo)
• At least 17 people are killed following two car bombings in Baghdad. The attacks occurred while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Iraq to speak with military leaders and U.S. Marines. (PolitInfo)

October 9, 2004

• Afghanistan's presidential election ends peacefully, but its legitimacy comes into question when all 15 candidates opposing incumbent president Hamid Karzai withdraw, alleging that election irregularities had invalidated the vote. (Reuters)  (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Australia votes in its 2004 Federal election, with the incumbent Coalition government winning a fourth term. As a result, in December, Australian Prime Minister John Howard will become the nation's second longest-serving Prime Minister ever. (ABC) (PolitInfo)
• Leaders from 38 nations in Asia and Europe say they will strengthen ties to address international issues such as terrorism and energy shortages, as well as to promote trade and reduce the gap between rich and poor. The leaders make the pledge at the end of a summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Vietnam. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: A peace agreement is reached in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City between the Iraqi government and local militants loyal to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The militants will turn in medium and heavy weapons during a five-day grace period, and Iraqi and U.S. forces will then take control of the area. (CNN) (PolitInfo)

October 8, 2004

• U.S. presidential debates: U.S. President George W. Bush and challenger Senator John Kerry meet at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri for the second of three U.S. presidential debates. (BBC) (AP) (Reuters) (AFP) (PolitInfo)
• Rescue teams retrieve at least 30 bodies from the ruins of the Hilton Hotel in Taba, Egypt. Officials say up to 20 more bodies could be recovered. (Haaretz) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Reports confirm that British hostage Kenneth Bigley was beheaded yesterday by his captors, members of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad militant group, despite last-minute exchanges between the group and the British government. (The Guardian) (The Telegraph) (Al-Jazeera) (PolitInfo)
  • A U.S. air strike destroys a building in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, killing at least 12 people and wounding 16. The U.S. says that it bombed a Safe-house used by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but local doctors say the strike hit a house soon after a wedding party, killing civilians, including children. (Swiss Info) (Boston Globe) (PolitInfo)
• Kenyan environmental and political activist Wangari Maathai is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace". (Nobel Prize) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• A bomb explodes outside the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, shattering windows in nearby buildings and injuring about 10 people. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)

October 7, 2004

• U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announces the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to determine whether acts of genocide have occurred in the Darfur region of Sudan. (PolitInfo)
• Three car bombs are detonated in Egyptian towns in the Sinai Peninsula frequented by Israeli tourists. The largest explosion, which killed at least 35 and wounding 114, was at a Hilton Hotel in Taba, near the border with Israel.  (Al Jazeera)  (Haaretz)  (ABC) (PolitInfo)
• Indonesia's highest court formally confirms that retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won last month's presidential elections, ending three days of uncertainty. (PolitInfo)
• Two bombs explode in the Pakistani city of Multan, killing 39 people at a memorial for murdered Sunni leader Azam Tariq. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia, announces his abdication. His successor will be chosen by a special council. (CNN) (PolitInfo)
• The latest, and perhaps the last, round of peace talks between the Sudanese government and the main rebel group in the south open in Nairobi. (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  • The United Nations issues a special report warning of an imminent humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The report says that 72.5 percent of Palestinians will be living in poverty by the end of 2006, that Israeli restrictions are hampering emergency aid deliveries, and that, since September 28, 82 Palestinians and 5 Israelis, including 26 children, have been killed. (BBC)  (UN)
  • Witnesses say that two Palestinian children were killed when the Israeli military shelled a crowd near the Jabaliya refugee camp. Israel says that an Israeli helicopter gunship fired at two people attempting to launch a Qassam rocket. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The FBI seizes the servers of the open-publishing network Indymedia in the US and the UK, disabling Indymedia websites in many countries. No reason was given. (IMC: 1  2 )

October 6, 2004

• Appearing before the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group announces that the group found no evidence that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had produced any weapons of mass destruction since 1991, when UN sanctions were imposed. This directly contradicts the main argument used by the Bush administration for invading Iraq in 2003. (CNN) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The European Commission recommends that talks be opened with Turkey aiming for it to join the European Union. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The World Food Program is warning that people living in the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan will need food aid until the end of next year. (PolitInfo)
• In a surprise move on the eve of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election, two candidates say they are withdrawing from the race. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Organizations representing 60,000 United Nations employees are urging Secretary-General Kofi Annan to pull all U.N. staff out of Iraq. (PolitInfo)
  • A suicide car bomb kills 16 and injures 24 people outside an Iraqi National Guard recruiting center in Anah, a roadside bomb kills a civilian and wounds four policemen in Basra, and a Kurdish tribal leader and his companion are shot dead in Mosul. (Reuters)

October 5, 2004

• Darfur Crisis: The United Nations says the Sudanese Government made no progress last month in stopping militia attacks against civilians in Darfur.  "There is no improvement in Darfur on the key issue of security," U.N. Special Envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk told the Security Council. (PolitInfo) U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan criticizes Sudan for failing to stop atrocities by pro-government militias in the western Darfur region. (PolitInfo)
• U.S. presidential campaign: Incumbent United States Vice President Dick Cheney and challenger Senator John Edwards meet in Cleveland, Ohio, for the only vice presidential debate of the 2004 U.S. presidential election. (ABC)  (MSNBC) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution urging Israel to halt its current offensive in the Gaza Strip. Over 70 Palestinians, including civilians, have died in the offensive. (Xinhua [China]) (Reuters)(PolitInfo)
  • Israel backs down from its claim that a rocket was loaded into a UN ambulance. The Israeli military said that it is "re-evaluating" its claim. (The Guardian)  (PolitInfo)
  • In Gaza City, Bashir al-Dabbash, a leader in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, is killed by a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft. (INN [Israel]) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, when asked about connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, states "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two". Several hours later he issues a statement saying that he was "regrettably misunderstood" and that there was "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad". (BBC)  (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
• The former U.S. administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, says the United States did not deploy enough troops in Iraq immediately after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, and 'paid a big price for it.' (PolitInfo)
• Iran announces that its Shahab-3 missile has been modified to increase its range (originally 810 miles (1,300 km)) to 1,250 miles (2,000 km). This puts parts of Europe — and all of the Middle East — within range of Iran's missiles for the first time. (Reuters)  (The Scotsman)

October 4, 2004

• Darfur Crisis:
  • Senior U.S. officials warn up to 300,000 people in Sudan's western Darfur province could die by the end of the year, if they do not get more international assistance. (PolitInfo)
  • U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers calls the plight of the people of Sudan's Darfur Province a reality of enormous and tragic dimensions. (PolitInfo)
• Canada's 38th Parliament opens with the selection of the Commons Speaker. It is the first minority government in 25 years. 
• Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is officially declared the winner of last month's Indonesian presidential elections. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq:  Three car bombs — two in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and one in the northern city of Mosul — kill at least 26 people and wound at least 100. All the casualties are Iraqis. (Reuters) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The parliament of Cambodia ratifies legislation creating a tribunal that will try leaders of the former regime, the Khmer Rouge, for genocide and crimes against humanity. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• First official results from elections in three of the countries that once made up Yugoslavia show that nationalists retained their dominance in Bosnia, but moderates made some inroads there and in Serbia. In Slovenia, the liberal government was ousted in favor of a center-right party. (PolitInfo)

October 3, 2004

• Northeast India has been hit by a second day of deadly violence blamed on separatists in the region.
  Authorities in the far northeasternof Assam say three National Democratic Front of Bodoland militants were killed Sunday when a bomb they were hiding exploded. Officials say more than 50 people have been killed and 100 wounded since a string of bombings and shooting attacks began Saturday in  the state of Assam and neighboring Nagaland. (PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: On the third day of the assault on Samarra, which has left 125 insurgents and 70 civilians dead, U.S. and Iraqi government officials say they have secured 70 percent of the city. (AP) (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• The Prime Minister of Slovenia, Anton Rop, concedes defeat in today's parliamentary elections. Early results suggest the opposition will make large gains at the expense of the current government. (BBC)
• Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says the military operations in Gaza will go on for as long as it takes to end the rocket attacks against Israeli border towns. More than 65 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in clashes since the offensive was launched last Thursday. (PolitInfo)

October 2, 2004

• A series of bombings in the states of Nagaland and Assam in north-east India kill at least 48 people. Local police suspect a rebel group, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). (BBC) (Hindustan Times) (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel's military offensive continues in Gaza, despite an appeal from Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia for calm. More than 45 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in four days of bloodshed. (PolitInfo)
• Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims riot in Pakistan following a funeral for victims of a suicide bombing attack at a mosque that killed at least 30 people. (PolitInfo)
• The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) is reporting growing violence against Sudanese refugees in and around camps in eastern Chad. (PolitInfo)
• In Thailand, speakers at the opening of an international conference on endangered species appealed for measures to protect natural resources and stem illegal trade in endangered wildlife. (PolitInfo)
• U.S. presidential election: Fox News apologizes for an incident on Friday, October 1, in which it posted a story containing false quotes attributed to presidential candidate Senator John Kerry. (Houston Chronicle)  (The Guardian)

October 1, 2004

• A British man detained by the U.S. military as an enemy combatant in the war on terror says he was tortured while held in Afghanistan and claims he saw fellow detainees killed by American soldiers there. (PolitInfo)
• U.S. presidential debates: "Instant-response" polls of viewers of last night's U.S. presidential debate show that a majority of viewers thought the challenger, John Kerry, won the contest. (The Guardian)(BBC) (Indianapolis Star)  (CBS) (PolitInfo)
• At least 19 people are killed in an explosion — suspected to be a suicide bombing — at a Shia mosque in the Pakistani city of Sialkot (located near the border of Indian-controlled Kashmir). The attack follows the killing of a leading Sunni cleric. (BBC) (PolitInfo)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli troops, backed by tanks and other military vehicles, enter the northern Gaza Strip city of Jabaliya, and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. At least five Palestinians are killed by Israeli rocket strikes on Jabaliya. (BBC) (The Guardian) (PolitInfo)
• A new audiotape said to be from al-Qaida's second-in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, calls on young Muslims to organize and attack the United States and its allies. Qatar-based al-Jazeera television broadcast the tape.(PolitInfo)
• Conflict in Iraq: U.S. and Iraqi government forces attack the insurgent-held city of Samarra in northern Iraq. U.S. officials say over 100 militants were killed and 37 were captured, while local doctors say at least 80 people died, and 100 were wounded, including civilians. (BBC)  (The Independent) (PolitInfo)
• Same-sex marriage debates: The cabinet of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero approves a bill to legalize same-sex marriage; the government believes that the bill will pass the full parliament. (CNN) (BBC)

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