Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat announced that he has called off presidential and legislative elections scheduled for next month, as he feels that continued
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory will make a free election impossible.
North Korea announced that it is physically removing monitoring devices placed on the
Yongbyon nuclear reactor. The devices were placed by the United Nations following the
1994 nuclear agreement to shut down Yongbyon, which is capable of making weapons-grade material, in exchange for deliveries of oil. In November 2002, Korea admitted that it is working on a
weapons of mass destruction program in response to "imperialist threats." The United States states it does not trust the North Koreans.
Demonstrators estimated in the tens of thousands supported proposed national security laws for
Hong Kong, following last week's demonstrations with similar numbers against these proposed laws. The
Government Consultation Exercise for the proposed laws received 18,000 comments. Article 23 of the
Basic Law of Hong Kong, negotiated by Britain and China before the 1997 handover to China, stated that Hong Kong must enact national security legislation by itself banning treason, turning over state secrets, and urging separation from China.
A senior member of
ETA,
Ibon Femandez de Iradi, escaped from French custody yesterday. He and a woman companion was arrested Wednesday after their car was found to have false number plates. Ibon Femandez de Iradi was the logistics chief for ETA, a
Basque separatist group which has been implicated in terrorist activities.