A
truck bomb destroys a military hospital in
Mozdok in Southern Russia, near
Chechnya, killing 41 and wounding at least 76. The Russian government blames the attack on
Chechen separatists. A media spokesman for rebel political leader,
Aslan Maskhadov, denied any connection with the incident.[1]
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health plans to propose an amendment to Finnish
tobacco legislation which would make retail sales of tobacco products subject to a license.[3]
The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom claims attempts by the British
Ministry of Defence (MoD) to destroy allegedly important documents about its treatment of BBC source
Dr. David Kelly in the weeks before his suicide were foiled by a security guard, who found the documents scheduled for destruction and called the police. The MoD insists the documents were not that important but will now be preserved and supplied to the Hutton Inquiry into the Kelly case.
The
United Nations authorizes an international
peacekeeping force for
Liberia. The United States is criticized by members of the
Security Council for insisting that UN peacekeepers serving in Liberia be granted immunity from
war crimes prosecution. The U.S. demand is described by its critics as a breach of international law.
José Bové, a radical French activist against
genetically modified food, is released from prison after serving only five weeks of a 10-month jail sentence.
Construction workers of
Qiqihar,
Heilongjiang Province, People's Republic of China accidentally dig out five Japanese
mustard gas bombs from the
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Two of the bombs are damaged, and the gas
poisons 43 (one died 19 days later). Japan a week later accepts responsibility and sends doctors and compensation to China.[7]
The clergy and lay people of the
Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by a comfortable margin, vote in favor of the appointment of an openly
gaybishop. The vote is thought likely to get confirmation from the bishops' collegium, which however is delayed due to last minute independent allegations of misconduct and intense conservative opposition.[8][9]
SCO v. IBM Linux lawsuit: Reuters have reported that
Red Hat intends to start legal action against
SCO to establish that SCO's claims against the Linux operating system are invalid.
A planned meeting between
Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon and
Palestinian prime minister
Mahmoud Abbas is cancelled by Abbas. He accuses Israel of not doing enough in a US-backed
road map for peace. Israel had said that 540
Palestinian prisoners would be freed but only released 342 names in a prisoner list. Israel accuses the Palestinians of not curbing terrorist attacks on Israel.
A further twist to the British
David Kelly scandal occurs, as
Tony Blair's official spokesman, Tom Kelly, apologizes to David Kelly's family for having compared the late and still un-buried Dr. Kelly to a "
Walter Mitty" character in a "private" conversation with a journalist.[13][14]
The Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the
Anglican Communion, approves its first openly
gaybishop as the final vote was cast to confirm
Gene Robinson as the
Diocese of
New Hampshire. Robinson was cleared of allegations of misconduct before the vote. The action incites protests, a declaration of a "pastoral emergency", and calls for intervention by the Anglican Communion chief bishops.[15][16][17]
An Italian laboratory announces the birth of the world's first
cloned horse,
Prometea.[24]
The United States
Pentagon establishes that a unit of military personnel has arrived in
Liberia, coordinating support for the West African peacekeepers in the country.[25][26]
North Korea and
Iran are planning to form an alliance to develop long-range ballistic missiles with
nuclear warheads. Under the plan, North Korea will transport missile parts to Iran for assembly at a plant near
Tehran, Iran.[27][28]
Real IRA leader
Michael McKevitt is convicted in the
Republic of Ireland's
Special Criminal Court of two
terrorist offences, "directing terrorism" and "membership of an illegal organisation". One of the key witnesses was
David Rupert, an
FBI agent who posed as a member of the Real IRA to get close to McKevitt. The three judges of the SCC will sentence McKevitt later.[29]
Occupation of Iraq: A
car bomb explodes near the Jordanian
Embassy in
Baghdad, Iraq. At least 10 people are killed and more than 30 are injured. The bomb, hidden in a
minibus, is believed to be detonated remotely.[34]
Hezbollah, a militant Lebanese group backed by
Syria and
Iran, fires artillery toward
Israeli border posts, drawing return fire. It was the first such exchange in eight months.
AP story
A Ma'arivopinion poll shows 37% of his supporters think
IsraeliPrime MinisterAriel Sharon is involved in corruption, with 52% saving he will have to resign if he behaved illegally. The controversy is over a $1.5 million loan given in January 2002 to Sharon's son, Gilad that was the loan originated from Cyril Kern, a friend of Ariel Sharon.[36]
Occupation of Iraq: At his ranch in
Crawford, Texas, President
Bush noted the 100th day since overt military action in Iraq ended, saying that the United States has made "good progress" in helping Iraq's democratic processes, overall
national security, and economy.[37][38][39]
It is reported that the Canadian Grand Prix is dropped from the
2004Formula One calendar as a result of its anti-
tobaccolaws. The
Montreal race was given a grace of seven years before the introduction of the new law, announced in 1997. This comes a week after it was announced that the
Belgian GP will be re-introduced in the 2004
season.[50] However, Formula One director general Bernie Ecclestone says that no such decision has been made.[51]
The draft
EUconstitution could lead to the establishment of foreign-owned private health care and educational services.[52]
A historic
heat wave continues to afflict Europe and is expected to continue for another week. Spain and Portugal are particularly hard hit;
forest fires in Portugal are declared a national disaster, with damages estimated at €1 billion. Other fires are reported on
Majorca and in the
Canary Islands. Temperatures of 49 °C are recorded in
Andalusia. Scotland records its highest temperature in history, 32.9 °C (91.2 °F) at Greycrook, near
Newtown St. Boswells,
Borders, the previous record had stood since 1908. The cause of the heat wave is believed to be a stagnant air mass over the
Sahara sending hot air as far north as Sweden.[53]
Occupation of Iraq: United States Central Command military officials confirm that Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed, the Iraqi Minister of Interior was in its custody. He occupies the number 29 position on the
U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis. The Iraqi Minister of Interior surrendered to coalition forces yesterday. He was the seven of spades on the
deck of cards distributed to U.S. troops.[54][55][56]
SCO v. IBM Linux lawsuit:
Aduva, Inc., a Linux developing company, releases this week a tool to allow companies to replace any offending Linux code, if it exists, with code that does not infringe on SCO's intellectual property rights.[57][58][59] It is unknown how this tool will work, as SCO has not disclosed which code it considers infringing.
One hundred thousand people attend a rally in the French countryside to condemn next month's round of trade liberalisation talks being held under auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in
Cancún in Mexico.[61]
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir
John Stevens gives British police in London "shoot-on-sight" orders to deal with possible
suicide bombers as expectations rise of an
Al-Qaeda attack on the British capital.[62]
War on Terrorism: The Sunday Times reports that
Al-Qaedaterrorists have infiltrated Iraq from surrounding
Arab countries and have aligned themselves with former intelligence agents of
Saddam Hussein to fight the Coalition forces. Their attacks have killed Coalition soldiers and Iraqi police officers, among others.[63]
Pope John Paul II urges Catholics to pray for rain in Europe as the
heat wave continues. The heat wave in Britain reaches 100 Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) at
Heathrow, for the first time in history.[64] Warnings of avalanches are issued in the Alps, as mountain glaciers melt.
Liberian President and convicted
war criminalCharles Taylor, who is to step down tomorrow, has appealed to rebels to "submit to the democratic process'". He also accuses the United States of funding the rebels who have besieged the capital,
Monrovia, for a week.[65]
A 16-year-old
Israeli was killed and five people were injured in
Hezbollah shelling of the northern Israeli town of Shlomi. Israeli planes attacked Hezbollah targets in
Lebanon in response. Some sources claim Hezbollah's attack was a response to Israel's car-bomb assassination of Hezbollah member
Ali Hussein Saleh in Beirut on August 3 in which two passersby were injured.[67]
While retired South African Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and his successor, Archbishop
Njongonkulu Winston Ndungane, fail to see what "all the fuss" is over the ordination of a
gay bishop, other African Anglicans suggest that their churches may
sever relations with the American dioceses that supported the election of a gay priest as bishop if what they called the "path of deviation" is not changed.[68][69]
The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK – 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) at
Brogdale near
Faversham in
Kent.[70] It is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
European
heat wave: Parisian health authorities charge that fifty people have died in Paris owing to the heat wave, particularly elderly people, and that the government is ignoring the crisis.[80] In
Catalonia, five people from one family are killed by a wildfire that encircles their home. Four villages are evacuated in the
Algarve.[81]
Doctors in
Montreal successfully deliver by
Caesarean section a healthy baby who grew in an
ectopic pregnancy. Such a pregnancy, which begins outside the
uterus, is all but invariably fatal to the fetus and is extremely dangerous to the mother. The woman and her doctors were unaware of the ectopic pregnancy until she went into labour.[82]
War on Terrorism: An exclusive
BBC report says a joint United States, Russia and United Kingdom "sting" halted a plot to shoot down
Air Force One using an
Igla surface-to-air missile. According to the BBC, the plot, initially unearthed by the Russians, led President
Vladimir Putin to request that an
FBI agent go to
Saint Petersburg, where the agent posed as an Islamic extremist and met the British arms dealer supplying the missile. The missile was shipped from Saint Petersburg to
Baltimore in the United States. The British arms dealer "arranging" the deal was arrested when he arrived in
Newark, New Jersey, in the United States today. The White House has publicly denied that Air Force One was to be the target of the missile. However
Tom Mangold, the BBC veteran investigative reporter who broke the story, claims the British dealer supplying the missile recommended to the undercover FBI agent that the President's jet, rather than a commercial jet, be the target, saying that he could get another 60 Ingla missiles which could then be used to launch a co-ordinated attack on Air Force One.[84]
The
Serbian government has indicated that it wants to retake control of the province of
Kosovo, arguing that the
United Nations, which currently has control, has failed to reestablish the
rule of law.[93][94]
Sir Jocelyn Gore-Booth announces the sale of the historic
Lissadell estate in
County Sligo in Ireland, the childhood home of early 20th-century Irish republican Constance Gore-Booth (
Constance Markievicz) and which had major associations with the poet
W.B. Yeats. Critics condemn the Irish government for failing to buy the estate; Sir Jocelyn had offered it first refusal. The identity of the buyer has not yet been revealed but rock singer
Bono had shown major interest in the property.[95]
The remains of a
viking warrior are found at a building site in
Dublin. The warrior had been stabbed to death during a 9th-century Viking raid on Dubhlinn monastery. The dagger was still attached to his body when his remains were found. The
archaeological dig is expected to continue at the site for six months.
Ivan Jovovic and Bogdan Bukomiric, both 16 years old, from
Goraždevac near
Pec die after two attackers fired
AK-47s on a group of children from Goraždevac who were bathing in the river
Bistrica. Four children were injured in the attack, two of which are in critical condition.
UNMIK and
KFOR claimed that they transferred one of them, Marko Bogicevic, to
Belgrade, but he is actually in a German military hospital at
Prizren, against his parents' wishes. An Italian KFOR patrol refused to lend fuel for the car which was transporting wounded children to hospital in Pec, when it ran out of fuel, and took no action when car was stoned by local
Albanians. After finally arriving at Pec, doctors there refused to treat the children. KFOR claims that it is researching the location of the incident with 300 men.[citation needed]
Discovery of a
Saudi Arabia airplane plot. Intelligence agencies producing alerts and relaying them to Washington, D.C., and London of a specific threat to airlines flying around
Riyadh international airport. The plan to shoot down a
British Airways plane was discovered after a member of the plot drove his car through a checkpoint in Riyadh. In response to the threat BA cancels all flights to Saudi Arabia until further notice. The United States issues a travel alert for Saudi Arabia citing the threat of
terrorism including potential attacks against
civil aviation.[99][100][101]
Arnold Schwarzenegger names
Warren Buffett as his economic adviser on Wednesday. Mr Buffett will help the actor build a team to lead the state out of its fiscal crisis.[103]
Disgraced Irish former
TaoiseachCharles Haughey sells his historic home and estate, Kinsealy, in north
Dublin to a property developer for 35 million euro. The former taoiseach, whose financial dealings and
tax-evasion is the subject of a judicial inquiry and which have largely destroyed his reputation, bought the palatial mansion for £120,000 in the 1960s. Haughey, who is suffering from terminal
prostate cancer, will not be allowed to remain in the house as a sitting tenant for the rest of his life, a demand of his which scuppered past attempts to sell.
Heat wave: French health officials estimate that as many as 3,000 people may have died in France as a result of the heat wave. Fatalities and illnesses are swamping the French health system. The city of Paris launches its Plan blanc emergency response procedure. However, temperatures in Paris have now dropped from 40 °C to 30 °C.[111]
SARS: Public health officials are investigating seven deaths and several infections in an outbreak that resembles, but is not believed to be, SARS in a nursing home in
Surrey, British Columbia (a suburb of
Vancouver). However, until more is known about the disease, the home will be treated as a SARS site for safety's sake.[112]
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Israel frees another 76 prisoners, a week after releasing more than 300 people. Israel argues that it is a gesture of goodwill and in accordance with agreements. The Palestinian authority disagrees and says that most were not arrested for
terrorist activities, and that it was the people arrested for the latter that Israel originally agreed to release. Palestinian officials want the release of 6000 prisoners, many of whom it claims were wrongly arrested, to obtain public support for the US-backed
road map for peace.[119]
Power is restored to many, but not all areas of the north-eastern United States and Canada affected by the previous day's blackout.[120] Investigations into the root cause of the grid collapse are currently focusing on transmission lines circling
Lake Erie.[121]
Libya formally accepts responsibility for the 1988 bombing of
Pan Am Flight 103. It consists of general language that lacks expression of remorse for lives lost.[122] Although some claim the acceptance is just a business deal and not a true admission of guilt.[123]
Major blackout: Power is now restored in New York City,
Toronto, and most of
Ottawa. Authorities warn of possible future disruptions and advise conservation as work continues to restore power to the entire grid. Theories as to the cause of the event, meanwhile, are becoming more substantial and coherent.[124]
Major blackout: investigators now believe the blackout began in
Ohio.
FirstEnergy Corporation, which services 1.4 million people in the state, released a statement Saturday that three of its transmission lines tripped off at Unit 5 of their
Eastlake Plant hours before the blackout, and may have been its cause.[130]
Terrorists again fired on children in
Goraždevac, near
Pec, this time while they were in the center of the village. No children were injured in this incident, just four days since the last.[131]
Iceland resumes
whaling, 14 years after it stopped commercial whaling in 1989. It says that it will hunt 38
minke whales for research on the impact of the
whales on fish stocks.[134][135][136]
War on Terrorism: A
Moroccan court sentences four men to death and jails 83 others for their involvement in a wave of terror attacks in
Casablanca that killed 33 bystanders and a dozen suicide bombers in May 2003. The trial involved dozens of defendants accused of belonging to a clandestine Moroccan group, the
Salafia Jihadia. Moroccan authorities have linked the group to
Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaida network.
Afghanistan celebrates its Independence Day amid one of the bloodiest weeks in a year, with heavily armed
guerrillas killing at least nine police officers in the latest in a string of ambushes. In the last week, the country has been battered by an onslaught from insurgents, who are believed to be a mix of guerrillas from the ousted
Taliban regime,
al-Qaida fighters and supporters of renegade warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.[154]
Natural disaster: Start of the Booth and Bear Butte
forest fires in the
Cascade Mountains, the worst fire in
Oregon of this year. Within three days the resort community of
Camp Sherman is evacuated, affecting 1,500 residents and campers, closure of US highway 20 over
Santiam Pass, and burning at least 41,000 acres (170 km2).
Natural disaster: French
undertakers state that 10,000 more French people died during the early August summer heatwave than the first two weeks of August in 2002. It had previously been suggested that the number was 3,000. President
Jacques Chirac demands reports from cabinet ministers on the crisis, while in Italy the newspaper La Repubblica suggests that Italy had 2000 more deaths than normal due to the heatwave.[156]
One of the holiest sites in
Jerusalem, known to Jews as the
Temple Mount and to Muslims as the
Haram al-Sharif or the Noble Sanctuary, is re-opened to controversy. Jerusalem's police chief, Mickey Levey says the decision was taken before the most recent suicide bombing. However the decision is condemned by the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, who says the re-opening was done without the agreement of the
Waqf, the Muslim authority that oversees the site. Palestinians from outside Jerusalem who are under the age of 40 are currently barred from entering. The compound includes the
al-Aqsa Mosque and the
Dome of the Rock.[157]
A computer worm called W32.Welchia.Worm infects computers across the Internet. The virus has been labeled "good" by some, because it attempts to remove W32.Blaster.Worm, and downloads the Windows security patch which prevents W32.Blaster.Worm infections before spreading to other computers. It will also remove itself once the date hits 2004.[158][159][160][161][162]
Afghanistan: Afghan President
Hamid Karzai's spokesman comments that the issue of
Taliban crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan will be discussed during Pakistan Foreign Minister
Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's visit to
Kabul. Afghanistan claims Pakistani based Taliban have killed many Afghan
soldiers.[166]
A
Brazilian Space AgencyVLS-1 space rocket explodes on its launch-pad at
Alcântara space base, killing at least 21 people. It is thought that one of the rocket's four motors caught fire; the subsequent explosion destroyed the rocket, its cargo of two satellites, and the launch-pad, as well as the deaths of many of Brazil's space-specialists, causing an estimated US$12 million worth of damage. This ends Brazil's third attempt since 1997 at becoming a space power.[177][178]
Occupation of Iraq:
United NationsSecurity council members are split on the issue of
Iraq. France, Russia, People's Republic of China, and Germany are proposing differing ways to expand the United Nations mandate in Iraq beyond humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Secretary of State of the United StatesColin Powell states that there is no plan to cede authority to the United Nations from the Coalition forces.[181] Powell also sought a new Security Council resolution that would involve other nations to contribute troops and aid in securing and rebuilding Iraq.[182]
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Palestinian militants and the
Israeli Government vow to continue attacks on each other after the
terrorist attacks and bloodshed.
Hamas and
Islamic Jihad release an official joint statement on their participation ending in the peace plan.[184] They urge militant cells in Palestine to strike. Israeli security officials state this is "only the beginning" of responses to Palestinian attacks.[185][186]
Separation of church and state:
Alabama's
Chief JusticeRoy Moore is suspended by a Judicial Ethics Panel over his refusal to remove a monument listing the
Ten Commandments which he had installed in the state Supreme Court building. Moore had been ordered to remove the controversial monument by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, who in a judgment in 2002 said the monument "violates the constitution's ban on government promotion of a religious doctrine". Thompson's judgment was upheld by eight Associate Justices. Their ruling was criticised by Moore and the
Christian Defense Coalition, who have threatened to block the court building to prevent the monument's removal.[189][190]
In an unprecedented move, the British
government submit thousands of official documents (many of which would not normally be seen by the public for 30 years) to the
Hutton Inquiry, and publication on the Internet.[191][192]
Power outage happens all of Southern Finland for 30 to 60 minutes, because one underground line in Central
Helsinki short circuits. The lack of electricity begins at 20:20 and causes radio broadcasts, public lights, elevators, trains, trams and metro traffic to stop. Also people have to be evacuated in
Linnanmäki amusement park.[196]August 182357
Iran makes protest and cuts diplomatic ties with
Argentina over the arrest in Britain of its former
ambassador with the United Kingdom and Argentina for the alleged bombing Jewish community centre in
Buenos Aires in 1994 in which 85 people died.[198][199]
Two
explosions, apparently caused by
car bombs placed in taxis, kills at least 44 and injures a further 150 in
Mumbai, India. It is the sixth bombing in Mumbai in a year.[205]
In Australia's
One Nation Party case, it has been revealed that
FederalCabinetMinisterTony Abbott controlled "
slush funds" which were used to lay the groundwork for party leader
Pauline Hanson's prosecution, and to guarantee a private
lawsuit against the party.[206]Liberal ranks split as Abbot's colleague
Bronwyn Bishop joined many
LaborMPs in calling for disclosure of his role in the case, and described Hanson as a "
political prisoner". Remarkably, the nearly defunct One Nation Party's support surged to 21% on news of Hanson's imprisonment.[207]
The
Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed in Canada's
Northwest Territories. It grants the
Dogrib people self-government in an area the size of Belgium.[208]
O.J. Simpson, giving an interview to Playboy, states that he is still innocent, but says "dream team" lawyers saved him. Without the money to pay for a "dream team" of lawyers, he says he would not have prevailed by being acquitted. In the interview, he also states that after his acquittal he smoked
marijuana to get to sleep.[221][222][223][224]
Astronomy:
Mars passes Earth at a distance of under 55.76 million kilometers, the closest it has been in approximately 60,000 years[226][227]
Private
Jessica Lynch, whose rescue from an
Iraqi hospital has been surrounded by controversy, is honourably discharged from the United States
Army National Guard.
Separation of church and state: The controversial Ten Commandments monument in Alabama's Supreme Court building is removed from public view, following a court order stating that the monument's location in the court building breaches the separation of church and state. The monument, nicknamed Roy's Holy Rock, was installed two years ago by the conservative Christian Chief Justice
Roy Moore.[230][231] Only one in five (20%) Americans approve of the federal
court order under which workers removed the Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of
Alabama's state judicial building Wednesday, according to a new
poll.[232]
Seven people, including the gunman, are killed in a
shooting in
Chicago as a worker opens fire on his colleagues at a car parts store. The police shoot the gunman dead.[233]
A body of a woman is found in a shallow grave on a beach near
Dundalk in the
Republic of Ireland. It is suspected to be the body of
Jean McConville, a young Belfast woman and mother of ten children kidnapped and murdered by the
Provisional IRA in the mid-1970s. The IRA had suggested two years ago that McConville was buried in the vicinity. Previous attempts to find her remains had failed.[234]
9/11: Nearly two years after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, transcripts of
World Trade Center emergency calls are released. Voices of victims are identified on emergency calls and radio transmissions.[235][236][237][238][239]
United Kingdom – London blackout: A 34-minute
power outage causes major disruptions in rail and Tube services in London and the South East when one of the National Grid circuits that feeds south London fails at about 6.15 pm.[240]
Israel is alleged to have contingency plans to bomb an Iranian
nuclear power plant if it begins producing weapons grade material.[250]
Tensions flare again over the main religious site in
Jerusalem, the location of both the
Temple Mount and the
Noble Sanctuary. The holy site had been closed to non-Muslims since September 2000.
Israeli officials say they are maintaining calm over a site sacred to three religions. But Muslim authorities say the Israeli government is risking a backlash here and throughout the Muslim world.[251]
Occupation of Iraq: General in Iraq says more soldiers are not needed. The American Coalition commander encouraged Muslim allies like Turkey and Pakistan to send peacekeepers and said accelerating the training of a new Iraqi
army should be considered.[252]
Tony Blair's communications director,
Alastair Campbell, resigns, leaving Blair with none of the three key players he has relied on for the last decade left.[253][254]
The
Inuit of
Labrador sign an agreement with the Canadian federal government, giving them self-government in a 72,500 km2 region of northern Labrador called
Nunatsiavut.[255]
Surgeons in
Baltimore, Maryland, remove a woman's heart, rebuild its upper chambers from
bovine and human tissue, and reinstall it in her body.[256]
Natural disaster: French official first report from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire was presented to
Jean-François Mattei (Health Minister). It reports 11,500 more deaths than the previous three years would be due to the heat wave of early August. It had previously been suggested that the number was 3,000.
Russian
nuclearsubmarine of
K-159 November class sinks in the
Barents Sea. The sub was decommissioned and it had 10 crew on board. The incident comes three years after Russia's worst peacetime naval disaster when all 118 crew of the nuclear submarine
Kursk died when it sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000. Environmental organizations say that the submarine could be dangerous for fishes, because radioactive material could leak to the sea from its two nuclear reactors.[260]
Tens of thousands of people turn out in
Baghdad for the funeral procession of the murdered
Shia Muslim leader Ayatollah
Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.[261] The
Iraqi police handling the investigation say they have arrested 19 men in connection with the blast, many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to
al-Qaeda.[145]
The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency declassifies
carbon dioxide as a pollutant, a move seen as leading to the elimination of restrictions on industrial emissions of the controversial gas. Climate scientists have debated carbon dioxide's role in
global warming for over a decade, with most voices (though notably fewer within the US) calling it the biggest factor, while others call it negligible.[262]
Occupation of Iraq: American and
Iraqi officials are discussing the possibility of forming a large Iraqi
militia or paramilitary force to help improve security in the country.[263]
Afghanistan:
Soldiers are killed in a remote region (near the town of
Shkin) near the Pakistani border.
Taliban reinforcements moved into mountainous region in southern Afghanistan where U.S. and Afghan forces have been attacking hideouts in a battle over the past week.[265]