Portal:Current events/April 2004
Time: 11:17 UTC |
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
- More than a thousand Nepalis are arrested in Kathmandu for taking part in a demonstration calling on their king to restore democracy. (Morning Star)
- Henry C. Lee arrives in Taipei to investigate the March 19, 2004 assassination attempt in Taiwan. (Miami Herald)
- Basketball: Euroleague Final Four tournament will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel despite concerns over Palestinian terrorism. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel beats Zalgiris Kaunas, Lithuania to qualify. (NYT)
- Good Friday - Ruben Enaje is crucified for the 18th time in San Pedro Cutud, Philippines. (NYT)
- Iraq Occupation and Insurgency:
- South Korea announces deployment of 3,700 soldiers in Iraq by August, despite recent attacks. The augmentation will make it the coalition's third largest contingent. (World Tribune)
- Japan refuses to withdraw troops from Iraq in the face of the death threats from insurgents holding three of its citizens. (BBC)
- Coalition forces retake Kut, meeting little opposition. (NYT)
- US Marines resume their advance into Fallujah, after a pause to allow humanitarian supplies to enter the city. An attempt to use the pause to negotiate terms of surrender fails when the representatives from the city fail to show. (NYT)
- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges stepped-up efforts to protect civilians and end the violence in the deteriorating security situation in Iraq. (UN)
- Bulgaria Mourning Day - Bulgaria mourns 12 children who died in a bus crash between Serbia and Montenegro on April 4
- Bangladesh is paralysed by a general strike called in protest at alleged government corruption. (Morning Star)
- US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice testifies before the Sept. 11 Commission.(Transcript) Rice states President George W. Bush understood threat from al-Qaeda before September 11. (BBC) She asserts "the terrorists were at war with us, but we were not yet at war with them." (AP) She also says that President George W. Bush came into office in 2001 determined to develop a "more robust" policy to combat Al-Qaida. (BBC) The commission asks the White House to declassify a key August 2001 document entitled Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States. (CNN)
- Iraq Occupation and Insurgency:
- Iraq Alliance troops are locked in heavy fighting, one year after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Ukrainian troops cede Kut to Moqtada al-Sadr supporters. Sunni Muslim insurgents engage in two fronts west of Baghdad; a Shiite uprising spreads in southern and central Iraq. (IHT)
- Militiamen in black outfits of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army are visible at grand mosque of Kufa; Moqtada al-Sadr is in the golden-domed mosque. (IHT)
- Shiite Muslim militias hold two southern Iraqi cities. Sunni insurgents kill U.S. Marine in Fallujah. Militants kidnap three Japanese, eight South Korean, and two Israeli Arab civilians. The South Koreans are later released. Al-Jazeera television airs videotape of militants threatening to burn alive blindfolded Japanese hostages unless Tokyo withdraws its troops from Iraq. (IHT) (INN) (NYT)
- 30 Americans and more than 150 Iraqis are dead in the fighting for the city in Fallujah. U.S. helicopter hit militants in mosque with three missiles. 40 individuals are killed in the mosque. Marines and rebels continue to exchange fire. (TWEAN)
- Militia forces loyal to Abdurrashid Dostum take Meymaneh, the capital of Faryab province, Afghanistan, from the interim government and force the governor to flee. (WP)
- Middle East Forum is seeking support to form the Islamic Progress Institute, a progressive Islamic institute, that would represent liberal Muslims living in the United States. (UPI)
- Occupation of Iraq -- Iraq Insurgency:
- Baghdad office of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr is surrounded by U.S. tanks and troops amid efforts to arrest the Iraqi cleric. Some 500 armed Sadr militia burn tires, forming roadblocks and promising jihad near the office. Snipers have also been placed in homes in the neighborhood in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City. (UPI photo)
- Militants inside the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque shoot at US Marines, and Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne orders his men to return fire. "If they use the mosque as a military machine, then it's no longer a house of worship and we strike," he said. (AP)
- Same-sex marriage in the United States: Represented by the ACLU, New York State Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell and his partner and 12 other same sex couples file suit against the New York Department of Health to strike down a state law defining marriage as between "a man and a woman." (365Gay.com) (Newsday)
- Terrorism: In Garden Grove, California a 45-year-old Anaheim man has been arrested for uttering a bomb threat against two OCTA buses. The "devices" turned out to be a backpack containing pills and a lunch pail containing garbage; meanwhile the disturbance occasioned the attendance of dozens of police, as well as the disruption of about fifty businesses and a thousand workers. (KABC-TV)
- The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress rules that the right to amend the Basic Law of Hong Kong belongs to the National People's Congress. The Standing Committee also issued an "interpretation" (effectively an amendment) of the Basic Law which set out an additional step required for any changes in Hong Kong's political structures. (CNN)
- State security in the People's Republic of China is on high alert as disgraced Premier Zhao Ziyang seems to be near death.(CNN)
- The parliament of Lithuania narrowly votes to impeach President Rolandas Paksas for violating the constitution. Parliamentary speaker Arturas Paulauskas will act as president for two months pending new elections. (BBC)
- ABC reports that British government sources believe that suspects arrested last week in the UK may have been plotting to make an improvised chemical weapon using the toxic agent osmium tetroxide. (ABC/US) (BBC)
- Palestinian officials state that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) asks Hamas fighters to join a decision making body to run the Gaza Strip if Israel pulls out. (Al Jazeera)
- Iraq:
- Shiites want Iraqi political control by June 30 but say the violence the Mahdi Army has incited since Sunday is dangerous. (Christian Science Monitor)
- Iraqi insurgents and rebellious Shiites challenge Coalition occupation forces. At least 30 Iraqis are killed. Sixteen Iraqis died in battles with Marines in Fallujah. At least 18 American soldiers and more than 116 Iraqis have died in three days of clashes. A Salvadoran soldier and one from Ukraine also are killed. (Associated Press)
- Militant cleric Moqtada Sadr rallies his Mahdi Army militia in a third day of urban warfare with coalition forces after fleeing to a refuge close to Shia Islam's holiest shrine. (Financial Times)
- Muqtada al-Sadr is accused of confiscating the "khums" (or donations) of worshipers to mosques and shrines in southern Iraq. (Al Jazeera)
- United States civilian administrator Paul Bremer states that there is "no question" that coalition forces are in control. "I know if you just report on those few places, it does look chaotic. But if you travel around the country ... what you find is a bustling economy, people opening businesses right and left, unemployment has dropped." (CNN)
- IBM requests that the court dismiss the SCO Group's copyright charges against it "with prejudice". (Salt Lake Tribune)
- University of Connecticut becomes the first NCAA Division I school to win the men's and the women's U.S. amateur national basketball championships in the same season, after the women's team three-peats. (ESPN), (Sports Illustrated)
- Occupation of Iraq:
- Paul Bremer states that militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is an outlaw and warns that uprisings by the cleric and his followers will not tolerated. (Middle East Online)
- The U.S. Army closes off the turbulent Iraqi city of Falluja ahead of a major operation against insurgents following the slayings of four civilian American security contractors. (Middle East Newsline) (NYT) (NPR)
- The U.S. is examining the possibility of sending more troops to Iraq if situation gets out of control. (BBC)
- An Iraqi judge issues arrest warrant for Muqtada al-Sadr, whom the Coalition Provisional Authority accuses of igniting anti-American violence that led to the deaths of eight U.S. troops. (Online NewsHour)
- Secretary-General's Special Adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi holds talks with the Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad. (UN)
- Queen Elizabeth II begins a state visit to France in honour of the centennial of the Entente Cordiale, arriving in the Eurostar via the Channel Tunnel. The following day, she is to address the French Senate. (CBC)
- Ottawa orders the slaughter of 19 million chickens in British Columbia due to bird flu fears. (CBC)
- The Los Angeles Times wins five journalism awards in the 2004 Pulitzer Prize. (Mercury News)
- Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, of Qatar, calls upon Arab states to consider United States proposals for democratic reform. He states that Arabs should no longer use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and security fears to justify delaying such reform. (HaAretz)
- Mordechai Vanunu seeks to renounce his Israeli citizenship to avoid confinement to the nation after his release from jail. (Reuters
- For the first time in six years, a Norwegian policeman is killed in the line of duty. (Aftenposten)
- Economists from Harvard and UNC - Chapel Hill determine that peer to peer file sharing and music downloads "have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero, despite rather precise estimates." (NYT)
- A United States government study finds that an African-American woman was 23 times more likely to be infected with AIDS than is a white woman. Recent studies suggest that 30 percent of all black bisexual men may be infected with HIV. (NYT)
- In South Korea, Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young calls on the opposition parties to withdraw the motion for impeachment against President Roh Moo-hyun. (Hankooki)
- Investigators trace ties of international Islamist groups to Madrid train bombers from six international arrest warrants. (Reuters)
- Swedish business weekly Veckans Affärer argues that Ingvar Kamprad, a Swede who founded the furniture retail chain store IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest person. IKEA disagrees, stating that he does not personally own the company. (Hindustan Times) (KTVU.COM)
- Australia's biggest supplier of the potential explosive ammonium nitrate will pull the product from its stores in response to concerns it could be used by terrorists. (News Limited)
- After "serious social resonance," the Duma's United Russia majority backpedals from outright support of a bill banning public protests in many public places. (Moscow Times)
- Iran asks EU members (France, Britain, and Germany) to stand by their commitments within the framework of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Tehran Declaration. (Tehran Times)
- Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the commission investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks and former Republican governor of New Jersey says that the attacks could have been prevented had the United States government acted sooner to dismantle Al Qaeda and responded more quickly to other terrorist threats. (NYT)
- Iraqi interior minister arrives in Tehran for security talks. (Islamic Republic News Agency)
- The US Customs and Border Protection Agency begin patrols with unmanned aerial vehicles to identify illegal immigrants at U.S. land borders. (Post-Newsweek Media)
- Serhane ben Abdelmajid Farkhet (alias "The Tunisian") is suspected of dying in April 3 Madrid explosion (along with three other suspects). Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes announces that the ringleader of the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings is dead. 200 detonators and 22 pounds of dynamite were found "in the apartment where the four terrorists blew themselves up as police closed in", Acebes said. (BBC News) (NYT)
- UK Police refuse discussion of reports over tonnes of unaccounted ammonium nitrate fertiliser stolen from a Welsh farm near Abergavenny, South Wales. (Ananova)
- Occupation of Iraq:
- At least two Shiite Muslim followers of militant Iraqi cleric, Moqtada Sadr, are killed early in the day after throwing themselves in front of United States tanks during a demonstration in Baghdad. (AFP)
- Supporters of Moqtada Sadr outside a coalition military base in Najaf, Iraq throw rocks and fire shots. Spanish troops and Iraqi police return fire. Nineteen people (including some soldiers) are killed from the fire. (BBC) (VOA)
- Police chief of Kufa, Saeed Tryak, is killed and one of his escorts is injured when their car is attacked at al-Adala in Najaf, southeast of Baghdad. Police chief of al-Mahmudiya in Baghdad, Usama Husayn, is also killed leaving his house in al-Khadra neighbourhood. He is shot by men in police uniforms. (Al Jazeera)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- Palestinian Yasser Arafat dismisses Israel's threat to kill him. American representatives, and other world leaders, criticize Israel's prime minister for the suggestion. (ArabNews)
- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon conflicts with right-wing ministers over a plan to unilaterally disengage from the Gaza Strip. Housing and Construction Minister, Effie Eitam, and Tourism Minister, Benny Elon, demand that the plan receive cabinet approval. (Jerusalem Post)
- British European Parliament Member Charles Tannock, who was part of the probe into possible use of European Union funds going to Palestinian terrorism, describes the report as "a partial whitewash." "The Working Group Majority Report has chosen to ignore signed payment orders by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to the tune of $39,000 to people linked to terrorist activities or their families on the basis that these are circumstantial evidence only and do not prove anything, as payment cannot actually have been shown to have taken place." (Jerusalem Post)
- NASA announces that the Gravity Probe B is ready for launch on April 17. (Globe)
- Jordanian officials report that suspected terrorists were arrested when their vehicle filled with explosives, detonators and bombs was apprehended in a Jordanian town on the Syrian border. (Jerusalem Post)
- Vladimir Meciar has won the first round of Presidential election in Slovakia.
- At least three persons suspected in involvement in the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings blow themselves up in an apartment building in the Madrid suburb Leganés as police officers try to arrest them. Besides the suspects, one police officer is killed and 11 injured. (CBC)
- Simpsons voice actors are on strike. (The Age)
- Germany: 500,000 people protest against lowering social standards in Berlin, Cologne, and Stuttgart as part of a European protest weekend. (SPIEGEL)
- An ongoing study by sociologist Robert Cushing for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper reveals a statistical anomaly: soldiers and Marines from rural areas are dying at twice the rate of troops from cities and suburbs. (NPR)
- Pennsylvania's chief auditor states that community notification about felons is often "incorrect, late, and ineffective," after review of state police monitoring of sexually violent predators under Megan's Law. (AP)
- United States Vice-president's wife, Lynne Cheney, stops reissue of sexy novel, "Sisters", authored in 1981. (CANOE)
- To stop the rapid spread of avian influenza in British Columbia, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could kill up to 16 million chickens in poultry farms around Abbotsford, British Columbia. (CBC)
- Federal commissioners investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks look into the 6,000 documents from former President Bill Clinton's presidential archive. (CNN)
- Teenagers from areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority provoke a riot by throwing large stones at Israeli police shortly after noon prayers at the Western Wall. When police try to stop them, hundreds of other Muslims join the stone throwers. Resisting apprehension, the rioters seek refuge at the Temple Mount, site of Al Aqsa Mosque, most holy place to Jews and third-holiest place for Muslims. (AP)
- Hong Kong police forcibly disperse a peaceful demonstration outside the Government Headquarters building, carrying away people, including journalists, one by one. The demonstrators hoped the Government would send a representative to accept an open letter from the demonstrators. The Hong Kong Journalists' Association condemns the police action for infringing freedom of press by removing journalists from the scene first. (BBC) (CNN) (Hong Kong Standard)
- Calm returns to Falluja as the desecrated remains of four US civilians are handed over to occupation authorities; townspeople state they were torn between pride in the attack and shame over the mutilations. (International Herald Tribune)
- A judge in New York declares a mistrial after eleven days of deliberations in the case of former Tyco International chairman and chief executive Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz after a juror received either a "threatening or coercive" letter in the previous 24 hours. Kozlowski and Swartz have been accused of stealing $600 million from Tyco.(AP)
- Sun Microsystems announces that it moves to a new phase of legal and technical cooperation with longtime foe, Microsoft, that will involve a payment of $1.95 billion to Sun. (CNet)
- Economy of the United States: "Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 308,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 5.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll job growth was fairly widespread, as construction employment rose sharply and several major service-providing industries also added jobs." (BLS)
- A report on anti-Semitism by the European Union's European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) concludes attacks against Jews in Europe are rising, primarily ascribed to youths from neighborhoods sensitive to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, principally of North African descent. (Israel Insider)
- Ariel Sharon states that he is ordering a halt to all construction and development in Gaza Strip settlements. (Jerusalem Post)
- The Spanish government discloses that a powerful bomb has been discovered on the high-speed AVE railway line between Madrid and Seville. (BBC) The bomb, found near Toledo, is revealed the next day to be the same type as those used in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks, which killed 191 people. (CBC)
- A United States federal judge in Providence, Rhode Island, finds Hamas guilty in a civil lawsuit resulting from the 1996 murder of Yaron and Efrat Ungar in Israel. Hamas is ordered to pay the family of Yaron and Efrat Ungar $116 million. The court has not yet ruled regarding the liability of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. (BostonGlobe)
- The BBC reports of a surgery which cured a patient of Tourette syndrome. (BBC)
- The BBC announces that Michael Grade will become its new Chairman on May 17, following the resignation of its previous Chairman Gavyn Davies in the fall-out from the Hutton Inquiry report. (BBC)
- Sri Lanka holds a parliamentary election. (BBC) (VOA)
- Former US marine Toby Studabaker, who abducted a 12-year-old British girl after "grooming" her via the Internet, is been jailed for four and a half years. (Ananova) (BBC)
- An estimated crowd of between 10,000 and 19,000 mourners show up to pay their final respects to Mexican singer Adan Sanchez in Los Angeles. Many in the crowd turn violent, jumping onto the van carrying the singer's body. Some are injured, and police and emergency rescue intervention is required. (Baltimore Sun)
- George W. Bush signs the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, commonly known as Laci and Conner's Law, that states that an act of violence that leads to the death of a pregnant mother and her child can be counted as two offenses. (White House) (UPI)
- The Turkish Interior Ministry states forty-one members of terrorist organization, Revolutionary People's Liberation Party (DHKP-C), are detained in synchronous operations in Turkey, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands. (Xinhua)
- Following a gun battle, in which Palestinians hiding in a World Health Organization psychiatric hospital, in Bethlehem, opened fire on Israeli troops outside who came to arrest them, 12 of the Palestinians, mostly known militants from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades that make up part of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, are arrested. (Reuters) (BBC)
- Astronomers estimate that Earth-like planets may orbit as many as one in twenty stars. (Webindia123) (BBC)
- Paul Bremer pledges justice for the contractors killed and mutilated in an attack in Falluja. (BBC)
- British Immigration Minister Beverley Hughes resigns over visa irregularities. (BBC)
- Palestinian General Haj Ismail Jabber is discovered to have been claiming the payroll for 37,000 members of the Palestinian Authority's National Security force when only 30,000 members exist. The difference of $2 million is kept by General Jabber each month. (HaAretz)
- Same-sex marriage in Canada: Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf become the first same-sex couple to legally wed in Quebec. (CBC)
- Various April Fool's hoaxes are perpetrated throughout the world as is custom on the first of April.
- Neil H. Shubin of the University of Chicago reports in the Journal Nature the discovery of a 365-million-year-old forelimb in Pennsylvania, representing the evolution of fish to land-dwelling animals. (Scientific American)
Past events by month
2004: January February March
2003: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2002: January February March April May June July August September October November December