October 2004 Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

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See also: October 2004 in sports

< October 2004 > S M T W T F S           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Deaths in October • 29 HRH Princess Alice • 25 John Peel • 24 James Cardinal Hickey • 23 Robert Merrill • 19 Paul Nitze • 18 K. M. Veerappan • 16 Pierre Salinger • 10 Christopher Reeve • 9 Max Faget • 8 Jacques Derrida • 6 John A. Kelley • 5 Maurice Wilkins • 5 Rodney Dangerfield • 4 Gordon Cooper • 3 Janet Leigh • 1 Joyce Jillson • 1 Richard Avedon • 1 Juraj Beneš Other recent deaths Ongoing events Ramadan (Oct 15 - Nov 14) AIDS pandemic al-Qaqaa missing explosives Iran's nuclear program Nigerian oil crisis Same-sex marriage debates Tropical cyclone season: • 2004 Atlantic hurricane season • 2004 Pacific hurricane season • 2004 Pacific typhoon season Ongoing armed conflicts War on Terrorism Arab-Israeli conflict Russia-Chechnya conflict Congo Civil War Conflict in Iraq Darfur conflict in Sudan Ongoing wars Upcoming events November 19: Children in Need 2004 November 20: Jr. Eurovision Song Contest November 24: IAEA on Iran atomics Upcoming elections October 31: Ukraine presidential November 2: U.S. President, U.S. Congress November 2: Puerto Rico general November 22: Alberta legislative November 28: Romania general December 1-2: Mozambique presidential December 11: Taiwan legislative Feb 10-Apr 21: Saudi Arabia municipal 2005: U.K. parliamentary (probable) 2005: New Zealand parliamentary Election results in October 31: Botswana: general 9: Afghanistan: presidential 9: Australia: legislative 3: Slovenia: parliamentary 1: Ireland: presidential Ongoing trials Chile: Augusto Pinochet ICTY: Slobodan Milošević Iraq: Iraqi Special Tribunal — Saddam Hussein, among others USA: Scott Peterson USA: Michael Jackson USA: Zacarias Moussaoui Related pages About this page Year in Wikipedia Announcements

October 31, 2004

• Two days before the 2004 United States presidential elections, President George W. Bush and challenger John Kerry tour the swing states of Ohio, New Hampshire and Florida. (CNN)
• A section of the Berlin Wall is re-erected at the former Checkpoint Charlie as a memorial to the 1,065 people who were killed trying to escape from East Germany. (BBC)
• Three United Nations workers taken hostage in Afghanistan are shown on a video issued by their captors. (BBC)
• Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel commander who claimed responsibility for the September 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, threatens more attacks against Russian civilians. (BBC)
• The 2004 presidential election in Ukraine is held, with challenger Viktor Yushchenko reported to be leading in exit polls. However, international monitors report "serious irregularities" in the voting. (BBC)
• Darfur conflict: Rwanda begins deploying a contingent of 237 troops to Darfur, as part of an African Union mission to bring stability to the troubled region of Sudan. Sixty-five soldiers have been sent this weekend; the rest will be deployed as the week progresses. (CNN)
• 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

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • United States armed forces officials say that eight marines have been killed and nine wounded near Falluja. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • A car bomb kills seven and wounds 19 outside an office of Saudi owned Al-Arabiya television station in Baghdad. (Reuters) (BBC)
• 36th Chess Olympiad finished in Calvia, Spain. Winners were Ukraine (men) and China (women).
• Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi indicates that he will likely withdraw the controversial nomination of Rocco Buttiglione to the European Union Commission which caused deadlock in the European Parliament this week. (BBC)

October 29, 2004

• Vaughn Meader, whose The First Family comedy-album spoof of John F. Kennedy was the fastest-selling American album of all time and won the 1963 Grammy Award for best album of the year, dies in Auburn, Maine. (CNN)
• Fighting broke out for the second time in a month in Somalia between the declared independent Republic of Somaliland and the autonomous Puntland. So far, fighting in the disputed region has left over a hundred dead.(BBC)
• 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)
• Norodom Sihamoni is crowned King of Cambodia. (BBC)
• 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)
• 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. (see 26 October current events.) (INQ7.net)
• A British medical journal, The Lancet, publishes a Johns Hopkins study using a random sample of 1,000 Iraqi households which estimates 100,000 civilian deaths since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a figure much higher than previous unofficial estimates. (The Lancet (subscription)); (pdf) (BBC)
• The New York Times reports the existence of a videotape made by a KSTP St. Paul, Minnesota television crew embedded with U.S. 101st Airborne Division troops on April 18, 2003, nine days after Hussein's fall. The videotape shows the sealed explosives containers at Al Qaqaa, clearly displaying the ammunition cache of explosives and other weapons supplies, sealed with the IAEA seals which were reported by the IAEA 18 months ago. (NY Times)
• 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)
• Belgium : Strike of the buses, metros and tramways of the Brussels public transport company STIB/MIVB. Buses of De lijn however worked. (Expatica.com) (Xinhua)

October 28, 2004

• In Latvia, Indulis Emsis, the first Green Party prime minister steps down when the country's minority coalition government dissolves after the parliament rejects its 2005 budget. (CNN)
• An article in the Washington Times, citing U.S Defense Department official John A. Shaw, alleges that Russian special forces moved weapons, explosives, and related materials out of Iraq and into Syria, Lebanon, and possibly Iran, shortly before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Russia denies the allegation, calling the claims "absurd". U.S. officials later say they cannot corroborate the claim, but are investigating. (Washington Times) (VOA) (Interfax)
• A Los Angeles-based company, Allerca, announced that within three years it will be able to produce a hypoallergenic cat using genetic modification. At the same time, the company denied that it will be able to do the same for dogs, because whereas cats have a single gene that produces the allergenic protein, dogs have many allergenic proteins controlled by multiple genes. (San Jose Mercury News) (New Scientist)
• U.S. presidential election:
  • Election officials in Broward County, Florida report that over 50,000 absentee ballotss 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)
  • Iraq explosives issue: U.S presidential candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry accuse each other regarding Monday's announcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency that 380 tons (345,000 kg) of explosives are missing from the Al Qa'qaa industrial facility in Iraq. (Japan Today)
• A methane gas explosion in Russia's Listvyazhnaya mine, which is located in Siberia near the border with Mongolia, kills 13 people and injures 23. (Reuters)
• A total lunar eclipse, visible in western Europe, western Africa, and most of North and South America, takes place. It lasts for 3 hours, 40 minutes (1:15 to 4:54 UTC); the next total lunar eclipse will not occur until March 2007. (NASA) (Seattle Times)

October 27, 2004

• The Boston Red Sox win their first World Series title since 1918 — and break the "Curse of the Bambino" — by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3–0 in the fourth game of the 2004 World Series of baseball.
• The United States Air Force commissions its first F/A-22 Raptor jet, the world's most expensive fighter aircraft. The Air Force has ordered 277 of the planes. (BBC)
• Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's health declines sharply, and a team of doctors is called in to treat him. Doctors performed a minor diagnostic procedure on Arafat on Monday, after he complained of stomach pains. (Reuters) (Haaretz)
• Scientists announce the discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores of the skeleton of a previously unknown species of extinct human, named Homo floresiensis. Unusually, the creature, while quite different from modern humans — as an adult, it stood only 3 feet (90 cm) tall — dates from only 18,000 years ago, disproving the accepted theory that modern humans became the sole human species 160,000 years ago. (AP)
• 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 Ł5.5 million ($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)
• Three Russian policemen are charged with negligence over the Beslan school hostage crisis; more than 350 people, about half of whom were children, died in that event. (Reuters)
• Three militants with alleged links to al-Qaeda are killed by Pakistani forces near the border with Afghanistan. (Reuters)
• 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)
• Slobodan Milošević trial;: Slobodan Milošević's defense team asks for a withdrawal, saying Milošević refuses to cooperate. (Reuters)
• U.S. presidential election: The BBC reports that it has obtained a document from George W. Bush's Florida campaign headquarters containing a list of 1,886 names and addresses of voters in largely African-American and Democratic areas of Jacksonville, Florida. Democratic Party officials allege that the document is a "caging list" that the Bush campaign intends to use to issue mass challenges to African-American voters, in violation of federal law. (BBC)
• A vote by the European Parliament over the approval of the new European Commission has been delayed, after incoming president José Manuel Durão Barroso; asks for more time to reshuffle his team. (EUobserver) (BBC)
• The Cassini-Huygens space probe makes its first close flyby of Titan, resulting in images up to 100 times better than anything seen before. (Astrobio)

October 26, 2004

• The co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 587 caused the November, 2001, crash in New York City that claimed the lives of 265 people, the staff of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said. (Globe and Mail)
• 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)
• 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 Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three other cabinet ministers from Sharon's ruling Likud government threaten to resign if a referendum over the plan will not be held. (Reuters) (Guardian)
• A food fight breaks out during a lunchtime conference in the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. (BBC) (Reuters) (USA Today)
• The People's Republic of China shuts down dozens of illegal or unsanitary blood collection stations as part of its efforts to curb the spread of AIDS in the country. (VOA)
• 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)
  • 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)
• 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)

October 25, 2004

• The Roman Catholic Church publishes a handbook intended to guide business, cultural, and political leaders in making decisions regarding social issues. The publication comes one week before the U.S. presidential election. In response to a journalist's question as to how Roman Catholics should vote, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls says that "the Holy See never gets involved in electoral or political questions directly". (MSNBC)
• At the behest of Premier Ralph Klein, the provincial legislative assembly of Alberta, Canada is dissolved and elections called for November 22. (CBC)
• Tensions remain high in French Polynesia as the Leadership remains in doubt. The Legislative Assembly failed to sit on Monday 25 October. Gaston Flosse, elected President on 22 October, attempted to enter the Presidential palace on the weekend but was met by closed gates. (Oceania Flash)
• 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)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Yasser Arafat undergoes minor exploratory surgery for stomach pains and vomiting. (Reuters)
  • Israeli television news reports that Yasser Arafat is granted permission to go to hospital due to suffering from gall stones and had an intestinal infection. Palestinian spokesman Saeb Erekat says "It is unfounded that President Arafat requested to go to a Ramallah hospital" and "He is recuperating from an acute case of the flu". (Reuters)
  • 14 Palestinians are killed in the Gaza Strip following "ceaseless mortar attacks" on neighboring Israeli settlements. (Reuters)
• 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 bombss, 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. The Iraqi director of planning attributed the disappearance to "the theft and looting of the governmental installations due to lack of security", although other sources indicate the explosives could have been removed by the Hussein regime itself. (Reuters: 1, 2) (CNN : 1, 2)
• Six men from Pitcairn Island, including mayor Steve Christian, are convicted of sexual offences involving women and girls as young as 12. The island has a population of 47, mainly descendants of the HMAV Bounty crew. (MSNBC) (ABC)

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. A decision to refer to matter from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the United Nations Security Council is expected on November 25, 2004. (Reuters)
  • Iran states that a facility for converting yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride is now 70 percent operational. Iran's first uranium mine will become operational by March 2005. (Reuters)
• 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)
  • In Falluja, hospital officials report five civilians dead resulting from what witnesses claim were U.S military airstrikes. Military officials say a precision strike had destroyed a known enemy command and control post. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • A U.S. diplomat is killed when mortars land near Baghdad airport. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • A car bomb kills a Bulgarian soldier in Kerbala. A Turkish truck driver is killed by gunmen north of Baghdad. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Brazil successfully launches its first rocket, a VSB-30, or Brazilian Exploration Vehicle, into space from the Alcantara rocket launch site, after its first attempt a year earlier failed and left 21 people, including key technicians, dead. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: 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)

October 23, 2004

• Political Crisis in French Polynesia continues with the fall of the government of Oscar Temaru and doubts cast on the legitimacy of the re-election of Gaston Flosse as President of French Polynesia. (Pacific Islands Report)
• Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia's new president, requests 20,000 African Union troops to help secure the country. (BBC)
• The United States Navy commissions the USS Virginia, the lead ship of the Virginia class. (AP) (AFP) (Virginian-Pilot)
• Prosecutors in France file charges against former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet for the disappearance and torture of four French citizens in the 1970s. (BBC)
• 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. The U.S. military say they have captured a senior official of al-Zarqawi's militant organization. (Reuters) (BBC)
• A powerful earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale strikes the Chuetsu region of Niigata Prefecture in Japan, killing at least 13 people. (BBC) (USGS)

October 22, 2004

• The state-of-art Canadian Light Source synchrotron opens for atomic research in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. (CBC)
• 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)
• Pakistani forces attack suspected Islamic militants using mortars and helicopters near the Afghanistan border. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Officials from the Republic of Macedonia confirm that three Macedonian contract workers kidnapped on August 21 have been executed. (BBC)
  • Carlos Valenzuela, top United Nations electoral expert in Iraq, says that despite the absence of international monitors, "Things could go wrong . . . But, so far, everything is on track" for Iraqi national assembly elections in January 2005. (AP/Boston Globe) (NYT)
  • Margaret Hassan, the humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped in Baghdad on October 19, is shown on the al-Jazeera television network pleading for her life. (BBC)
  • U.S and Iraqi forces reportedly detain Sheikh Abdel-Sattar Abdel-Jabbar, a Sunni Muslim cleric and a leading member of the Muslim Clerics' Association, a group which, according to members, has played a major role in hostage negotiations and in negotiating the recent cease-fire in Fallujah. The U.S. military, however, says it has no record of any Iraqi cleric being arrested in Baghdad. (Reuters) (al-Jazeera)
  • U.S Air Force planes strike suspected weapons dumps in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Local hospital officials say seven people were killed and three were wounded. (Turkish Press)

October 21, 2004

• A University of Florida scientist, Thomas DeMarse, announces that he grown a "brain" of rat neurons that can fly an airplane simulator. A "brain" such as this could be used to study how actual brains compute information and, potentially, as a sort of living computer. (Wired) (Discovery) (U. of FL press release)
• 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)
• 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)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • A bus carrying workers to a Baghdad airport is attacked, leaving 4 dead and 11 injured. (Reuters)
  • Several mortar rounds land near Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi while he visits the city of Mosul, in northern Iraq. (Reuters)
• In Xinmi, China, a gas explosion in a coal mine kills 62 people; 86 are still missing. (Xinhuanet) (BBC)
• A U.S pilot is killed in Afghanistan when his Sikorsky HH-60 helicopter crashes due to technical problems. (BBC)
• Fidel Castro, long-time ruler of Cuba, falls after a televised speech, breaking a leg and an arm. (BBC)
• In response to dropping public support for his party, Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson reorganizes the Swedish government by replacing two cabinet ministers. (Bloomberg)
• 2004 Pacific typhoon season: Typhoon Tokage kills at least 66 people and injures hundreds more in southern Japan, making it the deadliest typhoon to hit Japan in 22 years. (BBC) (Reuters)
• The Human Genome Project revises its estimate of the number of genes in the human genome, putting the number at 20,000 to 25,000, about 30 percent fewer than the previous estimate. (ABC News)

October 20, 2004

• Conflict in Iraq:
  • U.S war planes strike a building in Fallujah. Local sources say the strike killed a family of six, including four children. The U.S. military, however, denies a family was killed and issues a statement saying that "intelligence sources indicate a known Zarqawi propagandist is passing false reports to the media". (Reuters: 1, 2)
  • In Samarra, two car bombs kill at least 8 civilians, including a child, and wound 11 U.S soldiers. In Baghdad, an adviser to the political party of Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is killed in a drive-by shooting. (Reuters)
  • 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)
• 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)
• 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;. Lahoud's term in office was extended last month, allegedly as a result of pressure from Syria; in response, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning foreign interference in Lebanon and demanding the withdrawal of foreign troops. (Reuters) (Daily Star [Lebanon]) (ABC)

October 19, 2004

• 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)
• Hassan Rowhani, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, says that he believes Iran's interests would be better served by the election of Republican incumbent George W. Bush, rather than Democrat John Kerry, to the U.S Presidency. (Yahoo News/AP)
• 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. Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. Marines, arrest 100 suspected insurgents south of Baghdad. Three car bombs kill two Iraqis in Mosul. (BBC)
• British police charge Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri with 16 crimes, including encouraging the murder of non-Muslims. (Reuters)
• 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)
• Thai officials say that Myanmar's military has removed the current prime minister of Myanmar, General Khin Nyunt, from office and placed him under house arrest. (BBC)
• 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

• India's most wanted bandit, sandalwood smuggler and elephant poacher Veerappan, is shot dead by the Special Task Force in Tamil Nadu at 11 PM IST, after having evaded capture for 20 years. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Venkaiah Naidu resigns from his post as president of India's main opposition party, BJP. He will be replaced by Lal Krishna Advani. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Dalibor Lazarevski and Zoran Naskovski, citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, are believed to have been beheaded by the group Islamic Army in Iraq. (Reuters)
  • U.S and Iraqi interim government officials decline a Saudi proposal for a Muslim peacekeeping force to be deployed in Iraq over concerns regarding the chain of command. (NYT).
  • The Iraqi resistance group Tawhid and Jihad declares an alliance with al Qaida. Group leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi swears loyalty to Osama bin Ladin and claims to have contacted him regarding operations in Iraq. (Arabic News)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• The Anglican Communion demands that the United States Episcopal Church apologize for ordaining the openly gay Reverend Gene Robinson as a bishop. (BBC)
• Australian journalist John Martinkus is released after approximately one day in the custody of unknown captors in Iraq. Martinkus strayed into an unsafe part of Baghdad while compiling a report for SBS' Dateline program. (AAP)

October 17, 2004

• A two meter long section of a Chinese scientific satellite strikes a house in Penglai, Sichuan, China. No one is hurt. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel Defense Force troops enter the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah with ten tanks and three bulldozers. (BBC)
• The UK ambassador to Uzbekistan is recalled and suspended after criticizing the use of intelligence allegedly obtained under torture by the Uzbekistan government. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Heavy fighting in Fallujah continues as U.S tanks blockade the city and insurgent targets are hit by air and artillery. Hospital officials say four civilians, including a child, were killed. (Reuters) (ABC)
  • A mortar round hits an arms collection depot in the Sadr City suburb of Baghdad shortly before the scheduled visit of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, killing two Iraqi National Guard members and a civilian. In Latifiyah (25 miles south of Baghdad), gunmen ambush and kill nine Iraqi policemen who were returning from training in Jordan. (Reuters) (ABC)
• About 20,000 protesters march in London, United Kingdom to demand an end to the "illegal occupation" of Iraq. (Reuters) (The Scotsman)

October 16, 2004

• The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, under The United States Department of Veterans Affairs, concludes in a report that "a substantial proportion of Gulf War veterans are ill with multisymptom conditions not explained by wartime stress or psychiatric illness" and a "probable link" to exposure to neurotoxins. (BBC) (NY Times)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • 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)
  • Bombs explode at five Christian churcheses in Baghdad. No casualties are reported. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Two U.S military transport helicopters crash in southwestern Baghdad leaving two U.S. soldiers dead and two others wounded. (Reuters)
• Expedition 10, carrying cosmonauts Salizhan Sharipov (Салижан Шарипов) and Yuri Shargin (Юрий Шаргин), and astronaut Leroy Chiao, docks successfully at the International Space Station. Chiao and Sharipov will be relieving Mike Fincke and Gennady Padalka (Геннади Падалка) from Expedition 9, and will spend six months aboard the station. (BBC News)
• 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; BBC sources say about one third were civilians.
  • Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Ala says that 140 Palestinians were killed during the operation. Israeli Defence Forces sources, however, place the number killed at about 130, with only a few civilian deaths. (BBC) (News First Class) (Haaretz)

October 15, 2004

• Presidential elections in the war torn country of Burundi are postponed until April 2005. (BBC)
• 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. Relatives of the soldiers say that several soldiers described it as a "suicide mission". Relatives also say that the soldiers were held under guard for almost two days, although an army spokesperson denies the claim. (Daily Telegraph) (San Francisco Gate) (Washington Times)
  • Major United States air strikes against Fallujah continue. The U.S. military says that the bombings are "not the beginning of a major offensive". (Reuters)
  • 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. Sources also say that the troops would be under U.S. command, a possibility which provokes criticism from opposition members of Parliament. (BBC)
• Former OAS and Costa Rican president, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, is arrested after stepping down last week on allegations of corruption. He is not formally charged but a judge is demanding him to testify. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • The Israeli army clears an officer accused of repeatedly shooting a Palestinian schoolgirl, Iman al-Hams, while she lay wounded or dead, accepting the officer's claim that he actually shot into the ground near the girl. A separate military police investigation is continuing. (BBC)
• 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)
• A United Nations official says that about 70,000 people have died in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan since March. (BBC)
• Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is acquitted of treason charges. (BBC)
• 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)

October 14, 2004

• 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)
• The British government orders the freezing of any assets that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militant group, Tawhid and Jihad — which has claimed responsibility for killing Kenneth Bigley — may hold in Britain. (BBC)
• 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)
  • About 100,000 Israelis in 100 cities march in a series of demonstrations across Israel opposing their government's proposal to withdraw Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
• 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)
  • 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 Americanss were killed in the attacks. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad militant group later claims responsibility for the bombings. (BBC)
  • The Iraqi government warns of a possible increase in terrorist activity during the Muslim month of Ramadan (which starts tonight), and says the government is taking extra precautions. (Reuters)
• The Israeli government announces that it will not restrict the number of worshippers allowed to enter Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound (located in the area known as the Temple Mount in Judaism) during the Muslim month of Ramadan, despite concerns voiced by security officials that the site is dangerously structurally unstable and could collapse if too many people visit. The Israeli government had earlier suggested it would limit the number of visitors, with mosque officials accusing Israel of having "political reasons" to do so. (Haaretz) (Jerusalem Post) (AFP)
• Russia and the People's Republic of China sign an agreement ending their last border dispute. Details of the agreement have not yet been released. (AP/Reuters) (Economic Times [India])
• The European Court of Human Rights agrees, for the first time, to hear cases brought against Russia by Chechen civilians. (BBC) (ECHR press release)
• Authorities in Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb division of Bosnia and Herzegovina, admit for the first time the actual scale of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, providing a list of over 7,000 Muslim victims. The Bosnian Serb president admitted in June that Serb forces had committed the massacre, but did not give a specific number of victims. (BBC) (Melbourne Herald-Sun) (Channel News Asia)
• A Boeing 747 cargo plane, en route to Spain, crashes at the end of a runway at H