Portal:Current events/October 2003

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April 18, 2003

United States forces announce that a "disease control" plant in Baghdad has been raided by unknown persons, and strains of cholera, black fever, HIV, polio and hepatitis may have been lost.

April 17, 2003

2003 Iraq war - The Bechtel Corporation is awarded a $680 million contract for the rebuilding of parts of Iraqs electricity system, water supplies and other key infrastructures.
2003 Iraq war - Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, top advisor and half-brother of Saddam Hussein is captured by U.S. forces (the second of Hussein's half brothers captured this week). [1]
Sir John Stevens releases the Stevens Report, which states that the police and other security services in Northern Ireland colluded in the murders of many innocent people, including Pat Finucane and Francisco Notarantonio, in the 1970s and 1980s.
Save the Children announces that U.S. forces continue to prevent their airplane from landing in Arbil, Iraq to deliver medical supplies and emergency feeding kits. U.S. officials contend that the area is not yet safe, while the United Nations has already declared Arbil a "safe and secure" area. [2]
Martin Sullivan, chair of the U.S. Presidential Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, announced his resignation in protest at the failure of U.S. forces in Iraq to prevent looting of priceless treasures from the Iraqi National Museum. [3]

April 16, 2003

A Bush administration official announces that the United States, China, and North Korea will meet in Beijing from April 23 to April 24 to discuss North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program. The United States had refused bilateral discussions with North Korea since October 2002, insisting on multinational talks. The United States will be represented by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly. [4].
The Helsingin Sanomat reports that in late March, a RITEG-beacon was disassembled by thieves in Kurgolovo, Russia who dumped the highly radioactive nuclear material into the Gulf of Finland, 100 km south of Finland. [5]
The Passover holiday begins.

April 15, 2003

Abu Abbas captured by United States forces in Iraq. [6]
Parliament of Finland elects Anneli Jäätteenmäki as the nation's first woman Prime Minister. [7]
In New York, Omar Portee, founder and leader of the United Blood Nation, receives a sentence of 50 years in jail. He had been convicted in August of racketeering, murder conspiracy, credit card fraud and drug selling. [8]
10 Iraqis are reported killed and 16 injured in the city of Mosul. Marines insist they were fired at, survivors say demonstrators only threw stones. [9]

April 14, 2003

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former United Nations Secretary General, reports that the United Nations is increasingly "being marginalised" and that preparation is needed for a new organisation to succeed the UN.
U.S. President George W. Bush says that U.S.-led coalition victory in the 2003 Iraq war is "certain, but not complete." [10]
In Quebec, the governing separatist Parti Québécois is defeated in a provincial election. The Liberals are returned to power after nine years and Jean Charest becomes the new premier.
The Congregation for Sainthood Causes in the Vatican, in the presence of Pope John Paul II, promulgates a decree declaring that Emperor-King Karl of Austria-Hungary (r: 1916-1918) possessed "heroic virtues". This decree marks a significant step towards canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church for the last Austrian emperor and king of Hungary.
The bodies of a headless woman and a newborn fetus with the umbilical cord still attached washed up separately on the shore of San Francisco Bay near Richmond, California. DNA testing is being performed to determine if the body is that of Laci Peterson, the Modesto, California woman missing from her home since December 24, 2002.

April 13, 2003

Ari Fleischer, press secretary to U.S. President George W. Bush, gives credit to the Pentagon for the aparent victory in the 2003 Iraq war. [11]
Accoring to the Washington Times, the objectives of Operation Iraqi Freedom have shifted from victory in Iraq to "destroying remnants of Fedayeen Saddam and other paramilitaries, and rebuilding Iraq to nurture a new democracy." The Times also suggests that the Operation is hunting for evidence of weapons of mass destruction and for members of the former regime. [12]
Seven U.S. Prisoners of War are released to Coalition troops approaching Tikrit in Northern Iraq. The POWs included two Apache helicopter pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr. and Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, and five members of the Army’s 507th Maintenance Company; Spc. Shoshana Johnson, Sgt. James Riley, Spc. Joseph Hudson, Pfc. Patrick Miller and Spc. Edgar Hernandez. All seven POWs had previously been shown held captive by Iraqi state television and Al Jazeera. [13]

April 12, 2003

Looting and lawlessness plague Baghdad. Hospitals looted, humanitarian aid hindered by unsafe conditions. [14], [15], [16]
Prince Laurent of Belgium marries British-born 'commoner' Claire Coombs at the St. Michael and Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. [17]
Poet Linda Gregerson receives the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for her collection Waterborne. The award is presented annually by the Claremont Graduate University for a "mid-career poet". Joanie Mackowski receives the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
Canadian scientists announce that they have decoded the genetic code for the virus which is thought to cause Severe acute respiratory syndrome. The code is published on their website: http://www.bcgsc.ca/bioinfo/SARS/ . (News item: [18])

April 11, 2003

The northern Iraqi city of Mosul falls to coalition forces as the Iraqi army's 5th Corps offers a letter of surrender. The only remaining major city left to fall is Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, where some expect the remaining regime loyalists to make their final stand. [19]
Europe's largest civil engineering project, and the world's largest single metro expansion project, is officially opened in Madrid. Metrosur, a 40-kilometre loop of the Madrid metro in the southern suburbs of the city, took under 3 years to complete.
Microsoft announces that its will port its Windows Media Player to Linux, in a remarkable step that acknowledges Linux as a significant competing platform on the desktop [20]
Der Spiegel reports that Apple Computer is planning to buy Universal Music, one of the giants of the record industry, from Vivendi [21]
Cuba executes three men charged with terrorism for hijacking a passenger ferry on April 2. Another four men receive life sentences. [22]
In response to Baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey's April 8 decision to cancel a 15th anniversary celebration of "Bull Durham, sportswriter Roger Kahn cancels a planned appearance at the baseball museum. [23]

April 10, 2003

United States Green Berets and Kurdish fighters enter the city of Kirkuk in Iraq with little resistance. Turkey and U.S., in separate statements, say they will not allow the Kurds to occupy the city. [24], [25]
British Airways and Air France simultaneously announce that they will retire the supersonic Concorde aircraft later this year. Passenger numbers had never recovered following a crash that killed 113 in 2000. [26] In response, Sir Richard Branson offers to buy British Airways' Concordes for £1 for the use of his Virgin Atlantic Airlines. BA dismisses the offer as a stunt and indicates that the planes will go to air museums. [27]
A fire destroys a boarding school for the deaf in Makhachkala, Russia, killing 28 children, aged 8 to 14. About 100 other children suffer burns and smoke inhalation, 39 of which are in serious condition. [28]

April 9, 2003

At the International Science Festival at Edinburgh's Royal Museum, the stuffed remains of Dolly the sheep are for the first time displayed. [29]
Baghdad falls to coalition forces. American infantrymen seize deserted Ba'ath Party ministries and pull down a huge iron statue of Saddam Hussein at the Fardus square in front of the Palestine Hotel, as a symbolic ending his autocratic rule of Iraq. Baghdad citizens then dragged the severed head of the statue through the streets of the city. Dozens of people there cheer U.S. soldiers, according to BBC. Much looting of cars and buildings is seen in Baghdad and other cities as the government and police lost control. [30], [31], [32], [33], [34]
The fate of Saddam Hussein remains unknown after a U.S. B-1B bomber dropped four 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs on a building where Hussein was thought to be meeting with his sons and senior aides on April 7. The bombs blew a 60-foot-deep crater in a residential neighborhood that is not under coalition control, refueling speculation about the possible death of Saddam Hussein. British intelligence officials said that they believed Hussein left the targeted building just minutes before it was destroyed, and that he probably survived the attack. [35] [36] [37] [38]
Iraq's ambassador to the U.N. Muhammad Ali al-Douri tells reporters that "the game is over." [39]
U.S. Undersecretary of State, John Bolton, warns Iran, Syria, and North Korea that they should "draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq". [40]

April 8, 2003

U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei reiterates a statement he made on March 31, to which the United States has yet to respond, that only the UN IAEA has a mandate to search out and destroy any nuclear weapons or parts of a nuclear weapons program found in Iraq. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030416/wl_nm/iraq_nuclear_inspections_dc_2]
Hong Kong health officials say that spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome may mean it's going to be around for a while. WHO officials are cautiously optimistic that it can be contained. [41], [42]
The Iraqi ambassador to the Arab League, Mohsen Khalil, announces that "Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities." [43]
Deaths of 3 journalists in Baghdad: Two American air to surface missiles hit the Qatar satellite station Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad and kill a reporter and wound a cameraman. U.S. Officials said that the offices were not targeted, but were right next to the Iraqi Ministry of Information building which was a target. The nearby office of Arab satellite channel Abu Dhabi is also hit by air strikes. Al Jazeera accuses the U.S. of attacking Arab media to hide facts. On the same day a U.S. tank fires into the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where almost all remaining foreign journalists are based, and kills two cameramen and wounds three. In the Abu Dhabi case the station airs the picture of Iraqi fire from beneath of the camera. In the hotel case, however, other journalists on the scene deny any fire from or around the hotel. [44], [45], [46]
Baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey cancels a planned celebration for the 15th anniversary of "Bull Durham." Petroskey cites recent comments made by film co-stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon as potential dangers to U.S. troops in Iraq. The celebration was to take place April 26 and 27. [47]

April 7, 2003

In Oakland, California, police fired rubber bullets and beanbags at anti-war protesters and dockworkers outside the Port, injuring at least a dozen demonstrators and six longshoremen standing nearby. Most of the 500 demonstrators were dispersed peacefully, but a crowd of demonstrators was blocking traffic on private property near the port and fail to disperse after police warnings. Oakland Police Chief said demonstrators also threw objects and bolts at them, and said the use of weapons was necessary to disperse the crowd. He indicated non-lethal projectiles were used to respond to direct illegal action. The longshoremen were caught in the crossfire. A dockworker spokeman reported Police gave two minutes to disperse, then didnot move to arrest people, instead they opened fire. Demonstrators also claim though the rubber bullets were supposed to be shot at the ground, the Police took direct aim at them. Oakland police said 31 people were arrested at the port.
U.S. Secretary of State Powell says that war in Iraq is "drawing to a close". [48]
United States troops push into the centre of Baghdad and enter at least one abandoned Presidential Palace. (see Invasion of Baghdad).

Embedded NPR journalists relay reports from a top official with the 1st Marine Division that U.S. forces near Baghdad have discovered 20 medium range BM-21 missiles armed with warheads containing deadly sarin and mustard gas that are "ready to fire." [49], [50]
More than a dozen Coalition soldiers, a Knight Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman and two Iraqi prisoners of war are sent for chemical weapons decontamination after exhibiting symptoms of possible exposure to Tabun and Sarin nerve agents and lewisite blistering agents while searching an Iraqi agricultural warehouse and a nearby military compound on the Euphrates river between the cities of Kerbala and Hilla. U.S. soldiers found eleven 25-gallon barrels and three 55-gallon chemical drums, hundreds of gas masks and chemical suits, along with large numbers of mortar and artillery rounds. Initial tests of the chemicals were positive, then a second test was done which came back negative. A third test, conducted by a mobile testing unit provided by Germany confirmed the existence of sarin. Some reports indicate that the chemicals found at the agricultural werehouse may turn out to be pesticides. Further tests are planned in the United States. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said later in a Pentagon briefing that "almost all first reports we get, turn out to be wrong. We don't do first reports and we don't speculate." [51], [52]
Syracuse University defeats the University of Kansas to win the NCAA's college basketball championship

April 6, 2003

British forces step up their presence in the southern city of Basra. According to embedded journalists, the citizens of Basra braved gunfire to dance in the streets and cheer for the British troops. UPI's Chief International Correspondent Martin Walker claimed that he had witnessed at least one Basra citizen kiss a British tank. [53]
In a friendly fire incident, U.S. warplanes struck a convoy of allied Kurdish fighters and U.S. Special Forces during a battle in northern Afghanistan. At least 18 people are killed and more than 45 wounded, including senior Kurdish commanders.

April 5, 2003

The Senate of Belgium approves a change in the nation's war crimes law so that it will no longer apply to citizens of nations with sufficient human rights laws. The House of Representatives had already approved the change. The law had been used in the past to charge such people as George Bush, Colin Powell and Ariel Sharon with war crimes, and had interfered with Belgium's international relations. [54]

April 4, 2003

Akamai Technologies unilaterally revokes the contract to host the website of Al Jazeera. The satellite TV station entered into the contract to prevent server downs from overload and DoS attacks it has experienced. [55], [56]
Video footage of Saddam Hussein is shown on Iraqi TV, and mentions the shooting down of an Apache helicopter, reducing speculation on the possible death of Saddam Hussein.
The Iraqi government promises to re-take Baghdad airport from United States forces, claiming the counter-attack would involve "some kind of martyrdom operation".

April 3, 2003

Dr. Julie Gerberding, a director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, states her concern that SARS threatens to become a global pandemic. [57]
Jean-Pierre Serre is announced as the winner of the first Abel Prize.
ArabNews reports that United States forces have captured the Saddam International Airport in Baghdad. [58]

April 2, 2003

U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks claims the Baghdad division of the Iraqi Republican Guard was "destroyed". Iraq information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf responded that this was another American "lie". [59]
The Iraqi Information Ministry bans Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite television from Baghdad. [60]

April 1, 2003

Hong Kong movie and Cantopop star Leslie Cheung commits suicide at the age of 46.
In Japan, The Postal Services Agency becomes Japan Post, a public corporation. [61]

In Japan, Hyosuke Kujiraoka, a former vice speaker of the House of Representatives, dies in Adachi Ward, Tokyo. He was 87.
Air Canada, the main airline company of Canada asks for bankruptcy protection.
The US Supreme Court hears oral arguments for Grutter v. Bollinger, (regarding the University of Michigan Law Schools' affirmative action admissions policy), and Gratz and Hamacher v. Bollinger, (examining the university's undergraduate admissions policy.)
Cubana de Aviacion AN-24 airplane on a flight from the Isle of Youth in Cuba to Havana with 46 passengers on board is hijacked and directed towards the United States. After refueling in Havana the plane flew to Key West, under escort by two US jet fighters. The plane landed safely in Key West. [62]
Prisoner of war United States Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch is rescued by U.S. forces from Nasiriya, Iraq.

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