Prime Minister
Ahmed Qurei blasted ongoing
Israeli extrajudicial executions of
Palestinianactivists, which claimed two more lives on Sunday, and blamed Israel for the weekend of violence, whilst accusing his Israeli counterpart's government of trying "to kill any possibility for (achieving a) mutual cease-fire".[1]
The
Palestinian Authority's prisoners' affairs ministry states in its monthly statistical report that the number of Palestinian prisoners has risen to around 7,500. Of those 336 are children, 75 female and 943 in need of medical treatment. Of the 166 prisoners who died, 41% died as a result of medical negligence, while 18% died as a result of
torture.
(palestine-info.co.uk)(Jihad Unspun)
Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics reports 1,850 new housing units in the Jewish settlements Israel built in the
West Bank and
Gaza Strip in 2003, up by 35 percent from the previous year.
(BBC)
Jason West, mayor of
New Paltz, New York, is charged with 19 criminal counts of solemnizing marriages without a license. If convicted, he faces up to a $500 fine and a year in jail on each count.
(Newsday)
Multnomah County, Oregon, prepares to begin solemnizing same-sex marriages, after its attorney issues a legal opinion deeming such marriages lawful.
(SF Chronicle)
Multiple explosions hit Shiite shrines in
Baghdad and
Karbala on the
Shia festival of
Ashura. Over 180 people are reported killed. A three-day-long period of national mourning is announced.
(BBC)
The U.S. declares its 2,000-man force to have leadership over all foreign military forces in
Haiti. President Bush chose not to wait for the
UN Security Council but, instead, to intervene immediately to "restore order" in the
Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
(Washington Times)
The
European Union imposes additional 5%
tariffs on a wide range of goods imported from the United States, such as
honey,
paper, and
nuclear reactors. The tariffs were sanctioned by the
World Trade Organization in 2002 as punitive measures after a ruling declaring that United States
tax law unfairly favors U.S.-based companies.
(BBC)
Researchers at
Harvard University announce that they will give scientists free access to 17 human embryonic
stem cell lines created without U.S. federal funding. This move is expected to boost stem cell research in the face of federal funding restrictions announced in 2001 by the
Bush administration.
(CNN)
Israeli aircraft destroy a car in the
Gaza strip with missile fire, killing three people acknowledged by Palestinian officials as members of the militant group
Hamas.
(BBC)
In the trial of
Martha Stewart and her broker, Judge Miriam Goldman gives the jury its instructions.
(TheStreet)
New claims of
bubble fusion are made, claiming that the results of previous experiments have been replicated under more stringent experimental conditions.
(RPI press release)(NY Times)
In an interview published today, former U.S. and
U.N. weapons inspector
David Kay says that President
George W. Bush and his administration should admit the United States was wrong about the existence of
weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq. "It's about confronting and coming clean with the American people," he said.
(The Guardian)
Michael Dell, head of
Dell Computers announces that he will step down as CEO of the computer manufacturer. However, he will still retain his position as chairman of the board. Dell president and COO,
Kevin Rollins will assume the role of CEO.
(CNN)
US Democratic Party labels the Bush campaign an "attack machine" which they vow to thwart at every turn. "Fund raising and the race to define your opponent before he defines you that's what it's all about," said one Democratic strategist yesterday.
(Washington Times) The
White House defends the use of images from the 2001 terror attacks in adverts for President Bush's re-election campaign. Karen Hughes states, "It's a reminder of our shared experience as a nation ... not just some distant tragedy from the past. It really defined our future".
(BBC)
Israeli tanks (around 15 armoured vehicles escorted by several bulldozers) enter the town of
Rafah in the southern
Gaza Strip, exchanging gunfire with resistance and later demolishing a four-storey building, claiming "anti-terrorist operations".
(Australian)
The U.S.
Republican National Committee sends a letter to hundreds of television stations, warning the stations about airing anti-Bush advertisements sponsored by
MoveOn.org. The letter warns that the ads may be financed with money raised in violation of the 2002
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.
(CNN)
SCO v. IBM: U.S. District Judge Brooke Wells orders the two involved companies to produce, within 45 days, lines of code and documentation supporting their cases.
(USA Today)
The
National People's Congress convenes in
Beijing. Premier
Wen Jiabao makes his first state address, saying that "solving the problems of agriculture, villages and farmers is one of the most crucial parts of our entire work".
(BBC)
Civilian Russian engineers may have secretly aided Saddam Hussein's long-range
ballistic missile program, providing technical assistance for prohibited Iraqi weapons projects.
(IHT)
The Russian polar station will be evacuated. Russia launches rescue operation to evacuate 12 of its
scientists stranded on a research station (which partially sank) near the
North Pole.
(Pravda)(BBC)
Tony Blair defends the
war in Iraq, stating that "global threat we face in Britain and round the world is real and existential and it is the task of
leadership to expose it and fight it, whatever the political cost."
(ABC)(Scotsman)
Police hold a
Haifa man, Eliran Golan, and his 54-year-old father in custody on suspicion of involvement in making and planting
bombs over the last three years. Haifa Magistrate court extends for five days the remand of Yivgeny Grossman. Grossman denies any connection.
(Haaretz)(Jerusalem Post)[permanent dead link]
Key Tokyo stock indexes (
Nikkei 225 and
Topix) hit 21-month highs.
The trial of former Finnish Prime Minister
Anneli Jäätteenmäki ends. She has been accused of leaking secret foreign ministry documents referring to her predecessor
Paavo Lipponen's meetings with
George W. Bush.
(BBC)
The
Philadelphia Flyers and
Ottawa Senators set a
National Hockey League single-game record with 419 combined penalty minutes, due to a brawl involving all six players (including the goalies) on both teams. The Flyers also set a team record for most team penalty minutes in a game with 213.
Tens of thousands demonstrate in
Caracas, Venezuela, against what they see as the government's fraud committed by the
National Electoral Council related to the realization of a presidential referendum in mid-2004.
The United States puts forth a
UN Security Council resolution seeking to freeze the assets of
Charles Taylor, the exiled former president of
Liberia. The U.S. also announces that it is pledging $35 million to help rebuild Liberia's armed forces and that it supports the cancellation of Liberia's international debt, providing that economic reforms are implemented.
(BBC)
Turkishpoliticians claim that there is political consensus within Turkey to join the
European Union, despite the EU's demands for changes before that can occur.
(IHT)
Up to 80,000 people march through the
Turkish capital
Ankara against plans to reform the country's
civil service. The marchers fear that the reforms could lead to the civil service becoming politicised or losing its secular status.
(BBC)
The scientists of the Russian polar research station near the
North Pole are evacuated from their shifting and cracking ice floe by two Russian helicopters via Norway's
Spitzbergen island.
(BBC)
An explosion rocks a
Moscow apartment block. Initial reports from
police suggest that the explosion was caused by a
bomb, in spite of increased security in the run-up to the
presidential election on March 14. Later reports state that the explosion was due to a
gas leak.
(BBC)
Palestinian sources say that 14 people died after an
Israeli raid into the refugee camps of al-Bureij and Nusseirat. Israeli sources say it was a "pinpoint" operation against the "terrorist infrastructure".
(BBC)
In
Austria there are elections in the states of
Salzburg and
Carinthia. In Salzburg, the
SPÖ earns a majority for the first time. In Carinthia, the election is an unexpected success for
Jörg Haider (
FPÖ).
The headquarters of the US-led coalition in
Baghdad come under rocket attack from
Iraqi guerillas, the day before the new
Iraqi temporary constitution is due to be signed.
(BBC)
United States
Marines shoot and kill a
Haitian gunman in front of
Port-au-Prince's presidential palace after the man fired rounds at the marines and protesters. Supporters of former President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide had shot and killed several anti-Aristide demonstrators.
(NYT)
Iraq's governing council unanimously approves the country's new
constitution.
(AP)
Five of the nine Britons held by American authorities at
Guantanamo Bay under suspicion of having links to terrorist organisations are returned to Britain. They are to be questioned by British anti-terrorism police on arrival.
(Reuters)Archived 2005-03-06 at the
Wayback Machine(CNN)
The
Spirit rover takes the first picture ever of Earth from the surface of another planet which happens to be Mars.
(Space.com)
Four British prisoners who had been arrested on their return from
Guantanamo Bay are released without charge. A fifth was not arrested on arrival. A further four remain in the
Cuban camp. British newspapers
vie for the rights to their stories, with offers in the range of £300,000. Compensation lawsuits from the returned five are expected against the US and UK governments.
(Guardian)(BBC)(BBC)
Pop singer
George Michael announces that he will stop selling his music. Instead, he plans to distribute it freely over the
Internet and pass on any donations to charity.
(E! Online)
The death toll in the
Madrid bombings rises to 200; investigators continue search for perpetrators, with suspicions against
ETA complemented by the apprehension of five foreign citizens connected to terror attacks in
Morocco.
(BBC)(AP)
Nine people, eight of whom are children, are found dead in
Fresno, California, US. A man apparently related to the victims is arrested. The police speculate that the deaths may have been part of a ritual.
(CNN)(AOL news)
Madrid bombings: Spanish police receives a
videotape where a man identifying himself as an
al-Qaeda spokesman says the organisation claims responsibility for the attack, according to an announcement from the country's interior minister. The authenticity of the video has not been verified. The al-Qaeda claim overshadows voting in the
general election.
(BBC)(BBC)(Toronto Star)
Occupation of Iraq: Six United States soldiers are killed over the weekend in three separate
insurgent roadside bomb attacks, two in
Baghdad and one in
Tikrit. This occurs amidst the largest U.S. troop rotation since
World War II.
Voting takes place in the Russian
presidential election. Incumbent
Vladimir Putin wins by a large majority. The election is widely criticised by external observers who said Russian state television was very biased towards Putin during the campaign.
(BBC)(Reuters)
Unrest in Kosovo: After two
Albanian children are found drowned in the
Ibar river in
Kosovo, with a third still missing, riots erupt in the town of
Kosovska Mitrovica and later spread to the entire province. Mitrovica
Serbs are blamed by Albanian media for forcing the children into the river, but this is later denied by
United Nations officials. At least 22 people are killed by the end of the day with hundreds injured in clashes between Serbs and Albanians;
enclaves of Kosovo Serbs elsewhere in the province experience attacks by Kosovo Albanians as well as offices of UN officials which were abandoned. In reaction to the violence in Kosovo, demonstrators in
Serbia march in
Belgrade and set ablaze
mosques in Belgrade and
Nish.
(B92)(B92)(SwissInfo)(NYT)(BBC)(CNN)(B92)(RTS, in Serbian)[permanent dead link]
Howard Dean announces plans to form
Democracy for America, a political organization intended to help progressive candidates holding similar views.
(CNN)
Indian government officials warn that rebels from northeast India based in
Bangladesh,
Myanmar and
Bhutan are planning major attacks to disrupt upcoming national elections.
(Reuters)
Cleanup work at
Love Canal has been completed, federal officials said. The
EPA says it should be taken off the
Superfund list. Environmental activist
Lois Gibbs said the Bush administration was seeking to deflect criticism from a March 11 Senate vote against reauthorizing an expired user fee on corporations to fund environmental cleanup.
(NYT)
US Supreme Court Associate Justice
Antonin Scalia refuses to recuse himself from a case – involving his friend
Dick Cheney – considering whether the
White House must release information about private meetings of Cheney's
energy task force stating that duck hunting and fishing trip "was not an intimate setting" and that the energy case was never discussed.
(SC)
The newspaper USA Today admits that a former reporter,
Jack Kelley, invented or distorted important parts of at least eight major stories. He was, for example, a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize in 2001 on the basis of an eyewitness account of a
suicide bombing that, the publication now acknowledges, could not have happened as described.
(USA Today)
Jimmy Carter, former US president and 2002
Nobel Peace Prize winner, vehemently condemns
George W. Bush and
Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war "based upon lies and misinterpretations" in order to oust
Saddam Hussein. He claims that Blair had allowed his better judgment to be swayed by Bush's desire to finish a war that his
father had started.
(Independent)
Measurements taken at
Mauna Loa Observatory show
carbon dioxide readings of 379 parts per million, up by 3 ppm in one year; average increase for the past decade has been 1.8 ppm. The reason for this accelerated buildup in a
greenhouse gas requires further analysis.
(AP)
ROC presidential election: Taiwan's High Court has ordered all ballot boxes to be sealed, in order to preserve evidence. However, a recount of votes was not ordered. Various protests are held throughout the island.
(AP)
Malaysian general election: Voting gets underway all over Malaysia to decide the new holders of seats in
Parliament and various state assemblies.
Microsoft is to be fined a record
€497 million (
$613 million) by the
European Commission as punishment for abusing its
Windows monopoly, according to reports ahead of a key meeting by EU Commissioners on Wednesday.
(Financial Times)
Same-sex marriage in the U.S.:
Benton County, Oregon, commissioners, after receiving a letter from state attorney general
Hardy Myers, reverse their earlier vote to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples this Wednesday. But, stating they will observe the principle of equal treatment under the law, the commissioners decide that the county will stop issuing any marriage licenses until the
Oregon Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of the law.
(Oregonian)(Register-Guard)
The leader of
Hamas states that the group has no plans to attack U.S. targets, retreating from earlier threats by its armed wing. However,
IsraeliPrime MinisterAriel Sharon is announced as a new target, instead.
(News Limited)
Hussam Abdo, a 14-year-old
Palestiniansuicide bomber fails to detonate his bomb-vest at an
Israeli checkpoint outside
Nablus. The child was paid $23 and promised sex in heaven as his reward. An armed wing of
Fatah takes responsibility for sending the boy.
The
terrorist group
AZF suspends its bombing campaign in France but continues to demand money from the
government. News agencies report that the government placed notices in Libération newspaper to contact the terrorists.
(BBC)
The
House of Representatives of US state of
Georgia passes a ban on
genital piercings for women, including consenting adults, as part of a bill to ban
female genital mutilation as performed by some Muslim populations, among others. The ban does not apply to men. The provision is not included in the version passed by Georgia's Senate.
(AP)
ROC presidential election, 2004: The controversial victory of
Chen Shui-bian is confirmed by the state electoral commission, with a margin of only 29,518 votes – 0.2% of the total – separating the candidates.
Pan-Blue protestors storm and hurl eggs at the Central Electoral Commission building.
(BBC)
NASA succeeds in a second attempt to fly its
X-43A experimental airplane from the
Hyper-X project, attaining speeds in excess of
Mach 7, the fastest ever air-breathing
hypersonic flight.
(CNN)
The
Arab Leaguesummit is postponed. The meeting was put off indefinitely because of differences of opinion regarding ways to encourage reform in the region, including
democratization.
(VOA)(BBC)
An
explosion occurs close to the main
bazaar in
Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, killing two and injuring around twenty; preliminary reports point to two female
suicide bombers. Also in the capital, three police officers are shot dead; and, in the city of
Bukhara, another explosion at a suspected terrorist bomb factory claims ten fatalities.
(Reuters)Archived 2005-04-08 at the
Wayback Machine(BBC)
The
Republic of Ireland becomes the first country to ban
tobacco smoking in all enclosed workplaces (including bars and restaurants); infringers risk a
€3,000 (
US$3,600) fine.
(BBC)
NATO welcomes seven new members, as
Bulgaria,
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Romania,
Slovakia and
Slovenia formally became members by depositing their instruments of accession with the United States' government, though the countries will join officially next month at a NATO meeting. All but Slovenia were formerly members of the
Warsaw Pact.
(BBC)(NATO)
A
suicide bomber sets off a small explosion inside the
Bolivian Congress. The bomber – a miner, protesting unpaid pensions – and the chief congressional security guard are killed; several bystanders are wounded.
(BBC)(USA Today)
The Guardian newspaper quotes British security service sources as believing that yesterday's raids may have stopped a major terrorist bombing. The sources state that
MI5 and
MI6 worked with police during the investigation leading to the raids.
(Guardian)
