A British Airways flight from London to Washington, D.C. is canceled one day after the same flight is delayed for three hours on the tarmac at Dulles International Airport for security screening. (Yahoo)
Comparing planned United States finger-printing and photographic security controls on travelers from Brazil and other nations to Nazi actions, a Brazilian judge orders the fingerprinting of all arriving United States citizens in response. (Yahoo)
The Republic of Ireland takes over the presidency of the European Union, succeeding Italy, whose presidency is widely criticised as having been a failure due to the collapse of efforts to adopt a European constitution. (RTE News)
Religion
Ireland's Roman Catholic and ProtestantBoy Scouts organisations merge after nearly a century of division, in spite of efforts by the Roman Catholic bishops to block the merger.
Science and technology
No leap second is added this year. This is the fifth year in a row without a leap-second after 28 years of adding leap-seconds to compensate for the slowing of the Earth's rotation. (CNN)
It appears that Stardust has successfully flown past Comet Wild 2 collecting samples that it will return to Earth in two years time. This is the first sample return mission to a comet and the first time that samples have returned to Earth from any celestial body since 1974. The spacecraft also took detailed images of the comet's icy nucleus. (Stardust)(Space Flight Now)(Space.com)
A Boeing 737, Flight 604, flown by Egyptian charter company Flash Airlines headed for Cairo crashes into the Red Sea minutes after take-off from the holiday resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. All 148 people on board are killed, of whom more than 120 were French tourists. Though both United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak were in the area, neither were involved in the incident, contrary to initial reports.
The BBC cancels the appearance of Coca-Cola sponsorship credits in the music charts in its BBC OneTop of the Pops show, after criticism from politicians and health campaigners that it would be promoting junk food and unhealthy drink products to teenagers.
Ricardo Palmera, better known as Simon Trinidad, one of top seven Colombian rebel group, FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) is arrested in Ecuador.
Exploration of Mars: The first of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit, has successfully landed on the Martian surface with a "very strong signal" being received from the lander. It was a tense few minutes as no signal was received from the lander during the minutes while it bounced over the surface. Mission Control is described as being a wild place with the mission scientists very happy. The first pictures are expected at the earliest around 0730 UTC
The People's Republic of China's fifth-largest brokerage is seized by China Securities Regulatory Commission and local authorities for "illegal and irregular management operations and disorderly management." The unusual move to clamp down on China Southern Securities is a high-profile attempt to stem corruption.
Exploration of Mars: American Mars probe "Spirit" mission is successful and is sending back images. Spirit is alive after rolling to a stop on the surface of Mars; confirmed by NASA's Deep Space Network (9:00 p.m. PST).
Bolivian Gas War: In a televised speech, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa announces that a national referendum will be held on 28 March to resolve the issue of how Bolivia's large natural gas reserves will be exploited.
Britney Spears abruptly marries a childhood friend, Jason Allen Alexander, in a Las Vegas wedding chapel at 5:30 a.m.; by afternoon, the couple have arranged an annulment, which is expected to be made official when the courts reopen on Monday.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee meet face-to-face to discuss improving relations between their two countries.
Norwegian prosecutors announce that they have abandoned their attempts to prosecute Jon Johansen for his release of the DeCSSDVD decryption software.
Panhellenic Socialist Movement, the ruling political party of Greece, is about to change leadership. The official report is expected to be published on January 7, 2004. It is expected by many that the new leader will be George Papandreou, junior. See and (Greek)
A potential local root vulnerability has been found in Linux 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6, and Linux Kernel developers have corrected the issue in 2.4 and 2.6; distributors are expected to offer the patches soon, for the benefit of those users who do not compile their own kernels.
The man charged for the murder of Sweden's FM Anna Lindh on September 10, Mijailo Mijailovic, through his defence lawyer requests an interrogation to give critical details on the stabbing. Seemingly Mijailovic thereby confesses the assault.
The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid, publishes the blacked out portion of a letter wherein Diana, Princess of Wales alleged that someone was trying to kill her. The relevant portion reads: "[M]y husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure & serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry." The part "my husband" (referring to Charles, Prince of Wales) had been previously blacked out, and the word "him" replaced with "Charles" in transcripts of the letter released by Diana's butler, Paul Burrell. The revelation comes on the same day the inquest into the death of Diana and her lover Dodi Al-Fayed is officially opened.
Pakistan is cited as the source of nuclear weapon technology supplied to Libya, Iran and North Korea. The components intercepted at sea by Italy en route to Libya were fabricated in Malaysia. There is no evidence that the Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf knew about the transfer of technology of Libya.
Pakistan and India have agreed to a new round of talks to settle the Kashmir dispute. The talks will be begin February 2004.
Exploration of Mars: The first color images have been released from the Spirit rover on Mars. They are the highest resolution images ever taken on the surface of another planet. It has also been announced by NASA that they plan to name the rover's landing site on Mars "Columbia Memorial Station" in honor of the crew of STS-107.
In the United States, the Bush administration proposes a major reform of immigration law, creating a temporary worker program and giving legal status to both illegal and foreign workers for renewable three-year periods.
Costas Simitis, the prime minister of Greece and president of the ruling PASOK, after informing the country's president Costis Stephanopoulos, announced his resignation. At the same time he announced national elections for March 7, 2004, when PASOK will have a new president, expected to be George Papandreou. PASOK will be challenged by the New Democracy opposition led by Kostas Karamanlis. See, (Greek) and, (English).
Exploration of Mars: Mars Express failed to hear any signal from the Beagle 2 spacecraft during its first pass over the landing site. This is major blow, but scientists have once again not given up all hope. They will attempt again tomorrow using a different communication mode. The Beagle 2 mission manager, Colin Pillinger, set February 7 as the day to abandon contact efforts. By that time Beagle 2 would have switched into an autotransmit mode after having not received any signal for over a month if it was still alive.
A report from the International Monetary Fund expresses alarm regarding mounting budget deficits in the United States due to recession, tax cuts, and spending for the war on terrorism. The report says that the unprecedented level of external debt incurred poses "significant risks" not just for the United States but for the rest of the world. However, many outside economists note that other countries are also running large deficits and that underlying economic conditions in the U.S. are still robust.
U.S.-led occupation of Iraq: Mortar attacks by Anti-American insurgents wound 35 U.S. soldiers at a military camp west of Baghdad. Six mortar rounds exploded around 6:45 p.m. local time.
An RTÉPrime Time investigation accuses the Garda Síochána, the Republic of Ireland's police force, of violent abuse of people arrested. Irish Minister of StateDick Roche accuses Gardaí of "torture" of one student beaten up in a Dublin police station, while a former judge accuses police of committing perjury in his courts. The Gardaí deny all allegations.
The United States withdraws a group of 400 weapons inspectors from Iraq after finding nothing of substance. 1400 inspectors remain.
Occupation of Iraq: Nine United States soldiers are reported killed after a Black Hawk helicopter makes an emergency landing near the central Iraqi town of Falluja.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace publishes a report accusing the United States of "systematically misrepresenting" the threat posed by "Iraq's weapons of mass destruction".
The New Jersey legislature passes a bill creating a domestic partnership status for same-sex couples, with many of the same legal rights as marriage. It becomes the fifth U.S. state to offer such a status to same-sex couples.
Exploration of Mars: Engineers at JPL decide to turn the Mars Spirit Rover around on its lander after it was found the airbags could not be retracted enough to allow it to move off in a forward direction. It is expected the rover will drive off sometime next week. The Rover has also stood up and deployed its front wheels.
In Guatemala City, fifteen people die and twenty are hurt when a public bus collides with a crane.
Enron Corporation: Former Assistant Treasurer Lea Fastow and wife of Andrew Fastow, failed to respond to a plea agreement by the deadline. The offer would have allowed her to plead guilty in federal court to lesser charges and serve five months in return for her testimony. Her trial for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion is scheduled to start February 10.
Occupation of Iraq: Protests in the city of Amarah because of unemployment occur. Police officers and soldiers open fire on demonstrators. Five or six are killed and one or eleven wounded.
In publicity for a new book for which former U.S. Treasury SecretaryPaul O'Neill is the primary source, 60 Minutes reveals O'Neill's claims that the Bush administration was making plans for an invasion of Iraq within days of Bush's inauguration. Bush officials note that regime change in Iraq had been official U.S. policy since 1998, three years before Bush took office. O'Neill, fired for his opposition to tax cuts, also characterized Bush as so disengaged in cabinet meetings that he "was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people". On the positive side, O'Neill also described Bush as such a good listener that he (O'Neill) was able to give a non-stop monologue for nearly an hour in a one-on-one meeting.
SCO v. IBM: SCO Group claims that it has "low-level talks" with Google about a possible license agreement related to Linux.
A speed boat carrying illegal immigrants from Albania, bound for Italy broke down and capsized. There were 11 survivors, while as many as 21 died due to drowning and exposure. Two have been arrested by Albanian authorities for people smuggling, while other senior officials have been implicated in connection with the tragedy.
Exploration of Mars: NASA's Spirit rover now has its arm and all six of its wheels free, and only a single cable must be cut before it can turn and roll off its lander onto the soil of Mars. As that milestone is completed, scientists are taking opportunities to take extra pictures and gather other data.
U.S. military records show that attacks against coalition soldiers have decreased by 22% in the four weeks following the capture of Saddam Hussein.
More protests in Amarah take place. Demonstrators, many of them related to the victims of January 10, requested compensation. No significant violence reported.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announces the ten top United States patent recipients. For the 11th year in a row, IBM tops the list; the next three in the list are headquartered in Japan. Companies from the Netherlands (Philips) and Korea (Samsung) also make appearances.
The deadline for SCO Group to present evidence "with specificity" in the SCO v. IBM lawsuit expires
IBM and Intel Set Up $10m SCO Defense Fund.
Astronauts on board the International Space Station think that a leak in a hose used to stop the fogging of an Earth observation window was causing the slow loss of pressure in the station. Although it would have taken a couple of months for the crew to be in any danger, some equipment on the station was only rated to just below the normal pressure. Although the cause appears to have been located, ground controllers are still getting the crew to close the station into three sections to allow them to get baseline pressure readings and to make sure that there are no more leaks.
Iran's provincial governors are threatening to resign unless a decision by the conservative Guardian Council is reversed.
Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Spirit's air bags that cushioned its landing on Mars have been obstructing the vehicle's path, and this complication has postponed its exit of the launch vehicle until Wednesday or Thursday.
AyatollahAli Khamenei, religious leader of Iran, announces that he will not intervene in a growing political confrontation between progressives and hardliners after the Guardian Council, which he controls, barred thousands of candidates from running in upcoming Parliamentary elections (including 80 current members of Parliament).
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Tom Hurndall, a British peace activist with the International Solidarity Movement, dies after being shot in the head by an Israeli soldier on April 11, 2003. The Israeli government say that they may consider bringing manslaughter charges against the soldier; the man's family claim that he should be tried for murder.
Occupation of Iraq: A United States Army] AH-64 Apache attack helicopter is shot down near the central Iraqi town of Habbaniya, but is able to land without casualties.
A Yak-40airliner en route from Termez in Uzbekistan crashes near the capital Tashkent, killing all 37 crew and passengers, including the U.N.'s top official in the country, Richard Conroy.
J.P. Morgan Chase strikes a $58 billion merger deal to buy Bank One to create the second-largest bank in the United States.
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction: Tests performed by American and Danish military experts indicate no chemical agents are present in the "suspicious" mortar shells discovered in Iraq on January 9.
Self-confessed killer of Swedish FM Anna Lindh, 25-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic, says during cross-examination in a Stockholm court that he heard voices in his head commanding him to attack Lindh when he encountered her in a Stockholm shopping mall 10 September last year. Lindh died the next day from the many stab wounds she received.
Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan said, "It's just a matter of time before we begin to see employment start to pick up quite significantly, as it always has in the past." Greenspan is also not worried about the fall of the dollar or the half trillion dollar U.S. trade deficit.
Jack Kelley, USA TODAY foreign correspondent and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize just two years ago, was forced to resign after the newspaper determined he repeatedly misled editors during an internal investigation into stories he wrote. Among the stories that are being investigated is one published September 4, 2001, contains an account of an attack on Palestinians by 13 Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Mark Memmott, the reporter asked to investigate Kelley, said he could not find anyone with first-hand knowledge of the attack.
A secondary school student in the Netherlands kills a teacher in his school cafeteria.
Greek electronic game ban: Greek police raid Internet cafés in Larissa. 80 computers are taken by the police as evidence and three Internet café owners are arrested. (in Greek).
Education in Greece: 114 University professors sign a document against George Papandreou's positions on private universities and their recognition (anagnorisi). (Greek)
U.S. President George W. Bush, in a speech at NASA headquarters, announces a plan to develop a new space vehicle to return humans to the moon by 2015 and proposes the retirement of the space shuttle fleet by 2010 along with a $1 billion funding increase for NASA.
Enron Corporation: Former CFOAndrew Fastow and his wife Lea Fastow, former Assistant Treasurer, accept a plea agreement. Andrew Fastow will serve a ten-year prison sentence and forfeit $23.8 million. Lea Fastow will serve a five-month prison sentence and a year of supervised release, including five months of house arrest. Both will provide testimony against other Enron corporate officers.
Turkey and Greece: 22 Turkish military aircraft entered into the Greek AthensFIR. Five of these aircraft were loaded with ammunition. Greek aircraft intercepted them. Source: Athens News Agency and in.gr. (Greek)
The United Nations sides with the United States on voting in Iraq. Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan and other UN officials call direct elections in advance of July 2004 impractical, due to continuing disorder in Iraq and other factors.
30,000 Shiite protesters in Basra call for immediate country-wide elections in Iraq, a move that would give them more power than the UN-backed plan for regional caucuses mandated by the US-led coalition
South Korea's foreign minister Yoon Young-kwan resigns after a controversy in which his ministry was accused of diverging from the government's policy of increased independence from the United States.
Italy has indicted three Germans, all former members of an SSPanzergrenadier Division, on charges of massacring 560 people in 1944 in the Italian village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema. The three Germans, Gerhard Sommer, 83; Alfred Schonenberg, 83; and Ludwig Sonntag, 80, are currently living in Germany. It is not clear whether Italy will request the three men's extradition from Germany.
The date for the publication of the Hutton Inquiry's report into the death of British weapons scientist Dr David Kelly is announced as January 28, 2004.
The creditors of ailing Finnish low-cost carrierFlying Finn have threatened to confiscate the airline's planes.
Exploration of Mars: The Spirit Rover has rolled off its lander to start its exploration. The first journey was only three metres. It took the rover about 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover being 0.7 metres from the lander.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announces the release of the Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP 1.0). W3C's new standard profiling language CC/PP provides a standardized format of the description of information that will allow Web-enabled devices to effectively communicate their capabilities to the desired server and aids in delivering Web content to broad range of devices.
Planned NASA servicing missions for the Hubble Space Telescope are cancelled. Safety concerns are cited as the main reason behind the decision.
Human cloning: Fertility expert Dr. Panos Zavos claims to have successfully transplanted a two-week-old embryo into a 35-year-old woman. He said he had not done the act anywhere where "the spirit of the law" was against such a procedure.
George Papandreou of Greece promised that he will suggest to sign a mutual agreement with Turkey for lowering their defense military expenses. (Greek).
Protesters call for resignation of German Federal Police chief Ulrich Kersten: about 6,000 people demonstrates against moving Germany's Federal Police (BKA) headquarters from Wiesbaden to Berlin.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praises the Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Zvi Mazel, for vandalising the artwork entitled "Snow White and The Madness of Truth" displayed at a Stockholm museum. The piece, created by an Israeli-born composer/musician, consists of a white float carrying a picture of a Palestinian suicide bomber in a pool of blood-coloured water. Mazel was caught on surveillance video disconnecting the electric power from the display and throwing a lamp into the water. Mazel says, "This exhibit was the culmination of dozens of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish events in Sweden."
Cargo ship MS Rocknes with a crew of 30 including the pilot capsizes near Bergen, Norway at 1630 local time (1530 UTC). Two people are reported dead and 24 still missing the morning after the accident. The ship was carrying a heavy load of rocks for use as shielding on top of a gas pipeline to Emden, Germany, from the Norwegian Ormen Lange offshore gas field.
The English Court of Appeal calls for an end to the prosecution of parents whose babies may have died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (cot death) in cases where the only evidence is contended expert testimony.
Martha Stewart pleads not guilty to five criminal counts that include conspiracy, obstruction of justice and securities fraud stemming from a sale of ImClone stock in 2001. Conviction on any of the charges against her could put Ms. Stewart in federal prison. The five counts carry a total prison term of 30 years and a $1.25 million fine.[19]
Colonel Rashid Abu Shbak of the Palestinian Authority, said that information was still coming in and the investigating team had been upgraded, but he had no new leads on who was behind the bombing attack of an American diplomatic convoy on October 15, 2002. Three people died in the attack. U.S. officials have been stopped from going to Gaza since the attack. No decision has been made yet on when they might be allowed to return. Col. Shbak blamed Israel for the lack of progress in the investigation.[20]Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon Magnus's wife Crown Princess Mette-Marit gives birth to a daughter, at 0913 local time (0813 UTC), at Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo. The newborn princess, named Ingrid Alexandra, weighs in at 3,686 grams and is 51 cm tall. She is second in succession to the Norwegian throne.
Mars Exploration Rover Mission: MER-A Spirit rover stops transmitting meaningful data and has thought to have gone into safe mode. The cause of this is unknown but the rover is still able to send back a simple acknowledgement tone.
Staff members of the United States Republican Party are accused of infiltrating Democratic Party computers and making copies of confidential files stored on the compromised computers. The infiltrations reportedly began in early 2002.
Maher Arar sues the United States government for having deported him to Syria and not Canada, his country of citizenship. He was reportedly tortured in Syria.
Enron Corporation: Richard Causey, former chief accounting officer was indicted in Houston, Texas, on federal charges of securities fraud and conspiracy for his role in masking Enron's faltering fiscal health in late 2001. He has pled not guilty.
Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper resumes publishing.
NASA's Spirit rover communicated with Earth in a signal detected by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, at 12:34 Universal Time (4:34 am PST) this morning. The transmissions came during a communication window about 90 minutes after Spirit woke up for the morning on Mars. The signal lasted for 10 minutes at a data rate of 10 bits per second. Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, plan to send commands to Spirit seeking additional data from the spacecraft during the subsequent few hours. The flight team for NASA's Spirit received data from the rover in another communication session that began at 13:26 Universal Time (5:26 am PST) and lasted 20 minutes at a data rate of 120 bits per second.
A Thai man suspected of having bird flu died, according to the Public Health Ministry.
At least 51 people, including a bridegroom, were killed on Friday when a fire ripped through a makeshift wedding hall in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu during a marriage ceremony.
An explosion has killed two people at Zhengzhou railway station, one of the People's Republic of China's biggest transport hubs.
NASA isolates the flash memory aboard Spirit as the most probable cause of communications problems; work continues on a method to operate the rover without it.
MER-B Opportunity successfully lands on Mars and continues communications through all stages.
David Kay says, in his opinion, Iraq had no banned WMD stockpiles: "I don't think they existed", Kay said, "What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last (1991) Gulf War, and I don't think there was a large-scale production program in the '90s." David Kay also says that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme may have been hidden in Syria. Syria denies receiving Iraq arms.
Indonesia announces that millions of birds have died from avian influenza in the last few months.
Avian influenza has now been detected in a total of nine countries, with Pakistan and Laos as the latest additions. Pakistan has detected less dangerous strains H7 and H9. A six-year-old Thai boy became the seventh victim in Asia, with another ten suspected cases in the country. Around 19 million chickens have been slaughtered as a result of fighting the spread of the flu. The World Health Organisation expresses concern about a serious human outbreak. (WHO)
Top Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi offered a 10-year truce if Israel would withdraw from territory occupied since 1967 and acknowledge the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel dismissed the peace offer as "ridiculous".
The People's Republic of China announces an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza in the autonomous region of Guangxi, becoming the 10th country in Asia to do so. There are suspected cases in Hunan and Hubei provinces.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair narrowly defeats a rebellion in his own party over the Higher Education Bill – a highly controversial bill to reform higher education funding, including the introduction of increased and variable tuition fees. It is approved in the House of Commons by 316 votes to 311.
A new e-mailworm, Novarg/Mydoom, is spreading rapidly to thousands of machines running Microsoft Windows. It rapidly becomes the fastest-spreading e-mail worm to date.
David Kay testifies before a United States Senatecommittee stating that evidence of weapons of mass destruction was based on inaccurate intelligence. "I believe that the effort that has been directed to this point has been sufficiently intense that it is highly unlikely that there were large stockpiles of deployed, militarized chemical weapons there" and, even if Iraq did not have weapons stockpiles, this does not mean that nation was not dangerous. Kay urges for an inquiry into the intelligence failure and states that the United States needed better intelligence.
The Hutton Inquiry report is released, stating the suicide of Iraqi weapons expert David Kelly did not involve "dishonourable conduct" on the part of the United Kingdom's government and exonerates Prime MinisterTony Blair of any wrongdoing in Kelly's death. The BBC receives harsh criticism for the allegations within Andrew Gilligan's report on weapons of mass destruction and the BBC's subsequent backing of the report. Gavyn Davies takes full responsibility for any wrongdoing and resigns as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC.
The discovery of a new form of matter, Fermionic condensate, has been announced.
San Jose, California, mayor Ron Gonzales suffers a mild stroke while giving the State of the City address. The mayor is expected to make a full recovery.
A rare artefact from the 1800s used against witchcraft is found in the United Kingdom. Now displayed in a museum.
A 60-ton sperm whale carcass explodes in downtown Tainan, Taiwan, causing traffic delays and showering vehicles and pedestrians with blood and entrails.
A report submitted today to the State of Maryland states that the electronic votingmachines made by Diebold Election Systems "have such poor computer security and physical security that an election could be disrupted or even stolen by corrupt insiders or determined outsiders". The machines have been purchased by a number of states in the United States. This is the third report to state that the machines do not meet the security requirements of an election. Previous reports are available online.
Hutton Inquiry: The BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, resigns in the continuing fall-out from the report. Mr Dyke is the second high-ranking BBC official to resign. Mark Byford is appointed Acting Director-General. The UK media in general condemns the report as a whitewash.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades of Fatah claim responsibility for a suicide bombing aboard a city bus, in which Ali Yusuf Jaara, a member of the Palestinian police force, kills 10 Israelis and wounds more than 50, outside the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem. Simultaneously with the bombing, Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Defense Minister, is meeting with American envoys Wolfe and Sauterfield, who have requested an easing-up of conditions for the Palestinians. The explosion also coincides with a German-brokered prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
Former French Prime Minister and current Mayor of BordeauxAlain Juppé is convicted of a party funding scam in the 1980s and early 1990s, and is given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and disqualified from elected office for 10 years, although he retains his mayoralty pending his appeal. He had been viewed as Jacques Chirac's likely successor in the 2007 Presidential election.
Muslims begin the annual Hajj today amid fears of a possible attack by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of Hamas, announces that his group is making an all-out effort to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, following the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in which the remains of three Israeli soldiers and a businessman were exchanged for over 400 prisoners on January 29, 2004.
Self-confessed German cannibalArmin Meiwes is sentenced to eight years and six months' imprisonment for manslaughter. The prosecution had sought a life sentence for murder.
The United States defense budget is set to exceed US$400 billion next year—an almost 7% increase—according to budget proposals inadvertently posted on the Pentagon's website.
The People's Republic of China puts poultry export bans on three more areas after a World Health Organization warning that the chance of controlling the Avian flu outbreak is slipping. A new SARS case is confirmed in Guangdong province.
The Svalbard Undersea Cable System is officially put into operation, giving the island group at 78° North a 40Gb connection to the Norwegian mainland. The dual 1,440 km fiber optic lines from Svalbard to Harstad is needed for communicating with polar orbiting satellite stations on Svalbard, some owned by NASA and NOAA.
Copper prices rise to a 6-year high in New York as 441 unionised workers strike at BHP Billiton's Cerro Colorado mine in northern Chile after pay negotiations fail.
