November 2004

From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature

November 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
See also: November 2004 in sports November 2004 in science

Events

November 1, 2004

• The Grímsvötn volcano under the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland erupts (BBC).
• An inquiry by the Egyptian Interior Ministry into last month's bombings of hotels in the Sinai concludes that the perpetrators received no external help, contradicting assertions by Israeli officials that the blasts were linked to al-Qaeda. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • The deputy governor of Baghdad, Hatem Kamil, is assassinated. The militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna claims responsibility. (Reuters)(BBC)
  • A Reuters cameraman is shot dead by suspected sniper fire. In Ramadi, hospital officials report six dead from fighting between United States armed forces and rebels. A U.S. citizen, an unidentified Nepali and four Iraqi workers are taken hostage at gunpoint from their office in Baghdad. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Over 300 mm of rain fall on Venice, Italy, flooding an estimated 80% of the city and shutting down the public transit system. (Reuters) (SBS)
• Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William H. Rehnquist, who has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments for thyroid cancer, announces he will delay his return to the courtroom on the advice of his doctors. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A suicide bombing by a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Tel Aviv kills three and wounds over 30 people. The Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claims responsibility. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Martial law is imposed in parts of China's Henan province after fighting between Hui Chinese and Han Chinese ethnic groups kills between 7 and 148 people. (TIME)(BBC)
• Bank of Japan began to issue new Japanese yen banknotes, known as Series E.[1]

November 2, 2004

• Conflict in Iraq: Iraqi officials report at least eight dead in a car bomb outside the education ministry in Baghdad. In Mosul, another car bomb kills two and wounds four Iraqi National Guard. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Darfur conflict: United Nation officials say Sudanese troops have surrounded two refugee camps in Darfur and are blocking access. The Sudanese military say they were asked to protect refugees and evict imposters. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Attempts to totally outlaw parents spanking children in England and Wales fail as a majority of 424 to 75 members of parliament vote against the ban. (BBC)
• NASA says it will resume its space shuttle program next May or early June after a lengthy investigation of the Columbia disaster in 2003, and a setback of a March date due to an active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. (BBC)
• UAE president and founding father Sheikh Zayed dies. Vice-President and Prime Minister Sheikh Maktoum temporarily assumes presidential role. (Reuters)
• Controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh is stabbed and shot dead in Amsterdam; the suspected murderer is arrested after a firefight with police. van Gogh had received numerous death threats after his movie Submission elicited criticism among the Dutch Muslim community. (Reuters) (ABC US)
• U.S. presidential election:
  • U.S. civil rights organizations report on a number of misleading voter fliers and phone calls aimed at African-American voters, alleging that these are an attempt to suppress the African-American vote in today's U.S. presidential election. (Reuters)
  • U.S. presidential election, 2004 timeline: Voting begins for the 2004 U.S. presidential election, as well as for elections to the U.S. Congress and many state and local offices. The incumbent, Republican George W. Bush, and the challenger, Democrat John Kerry, are statistically tied in the latest opinion polls.
• Puerto Rico General Elections:
  • Aníbal Acevedo Vilá leads with 3,880 votes of advantage against Pedro Rosselló with 98.27% of the total votes counted. By law, a recount must be performed when the winning margin is less than 0.5%. The official winner will be certified on December 31 after the recount is finished. (CEE-PUR)
  • The Puerto Rican Independence Party has been unable to reach 3% of the total votes so far, putting in danger their franchise as a principal political party by Puerto Rican electoral laws. Because of this, the party may not receive funds from the government of Puerto Rico nor have a separate column in ballot papers on the following elections. However, Maria de Lourdes Santiago makes history by becoming the first woman to be elected Senator in the party's history. (El Nuevo Dia)

November 3, 2004

• Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan who died yesterday, is elected President by the United Arab Emirates' federal council. (Reuters)
• 2004 U.S. Presidential election:
  • Senator John Kerry concedes to President George W. Bush "The outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process," Kerry said. "I would not give up if there was a chance we could prevail." (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Republican President George W. Bush wins the popular vote, receiving 3.58 million more votes than Democratic Senator John Kerry. (51.6% to 48.4%, 59.0 million to 55.4 million) Claiming victory in the swing state of Ohio, Bush will probably have more than the 270 votes needed when the U.S. Electoral College meets on December 13. (CNN)
  • The Republican Party widens its majority in the Senate and House of Representatives. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle concedes defeat to Republican challenger John Thune, thus becoming the first Senate leader in 52 years to lose a re-election bid and leaving the leadership of the Democratic Party in the Senate open. (CNN)
  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reports that on November 2, touch-screen electronic voting machines in at least six U.S. states had incorrectly recorded their choices, including for the presidential election. Incorrectly recorded votes make up roughly 20 percent of the e-voting problems. (EFF)
  • Same-sex marriage in the United States: Gay rights activists suffer a severe setback when state constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage are passed in eleven states: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, and Utah. The measures in Oregon, Mississippi, and Montana bar same-sex marriage only; those in the other states bar civil unions and domestic partnerships as well; and Ohio bars granting any benefits whatsoever to same-sex couples. (365Gay)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • A roadside bomb kills a U.S. soldier and wounds another in Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. An Iraqi Oil Ministry official is shot dead while leaving his house in Baghdad. The militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna release a video on their website confirming the beheading of an Iraqi officer kidnapped in Mosul. In Tikrit, fires continue to burn from major oil wells and a pipelane attacked earlier, halting oil exports. The militant Brigades of Iraq's Honorable People release videos showing beheadings of three Iraqi security guards kidnapped in Baghdad. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • The court martial begins for nine U.S. marines charged with the death of an Iraqi prisoner who died after being dragged by his neck to a pen at Camp Whitehorse jail near Nassiriyah. (Reuters)
  • Hungary announces the withdrawal of its 300 troops by the end of next March. Poland says it will scale back the 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq early next year. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, who crossed over the DMZ to North Korea in 1965, pleads guilty to desertion and aiding the enemy at his court martial in Japan. He is sentenced to 30 days in prison and given a dishonorable discharge. (BBC)
• The Republic of China (Taiwan) establishes diplomatic relations with Vanuatu, bringing its international recognition to 27 countries. (CNN)
• Puerto Rico General Elections:
  • The State Commission of Elections of Puerto Rico preliminarily certifies Aníbal Acevedo Vilá as the winning candidate for Governor of Puerto Rico, and Luis Fortuño as Resident Commissioner after computing 98.3% of the total votes. A full recount will begin on November 9 to announce the official winner. (El Nuevo Día) (CEE-PUR)
  • The Senate of Puerto Rico and the House of Representatives wlll be dominated by the New Progressive Party for the new term. Future senators from the party have already decided certain positions for once they are in office, and how do they plan to work with a governor of the opposing party. (El Nuevo Día)

November 4, 2004

• The shutdown of the Number 2 Balakovo nuclear reactor in the Saratov region of southern Russia due to a turbine malfunction causes widespread local panic. Local pharmacies' supplies of iodine sell out; residents flee, urging each other to drink vodka and avoid public water. Engineers at the plant find no leak of radiation. A number of people are hospitalized for iodine overdose; the government and media are criticized for poor coordination. (Bellona)
• The Number 4 Rivno nuclear reactor of the Ukraine is shut down after 19 days of operation due to an oil leak. No leak of radiation is found.
• Spammer Jeremy Jaynes, rated the world's eighth most-prolific spammer, is convicted of three felony charges of sending thousands of junk e-mails through servers located in Virginia, and is recommended to be sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. His sister is fined $7500 for related offences. (Computerworld) (CBC)
• President designate of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso announces that Franco Frattini from Italy and Andris Piebalgs from Latvia will complete his commission.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill approving parliament's ratification of the Kyoto protocol bringing the number of countries bound by the treaty to 126. (Reuters)
• The Israeli senior commander in the Gaza Strip, Brig. Gen. Shmuel Zakai, resigns amid allegations of telling the press Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered to increase Operation Days of Penitence on Day 14 while the army considered the operation extracted itself. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • The NGO aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières ends work in Iraq due to the "escalating violence" and "the warring parties have repeatedly shown their disrespect for independent humanitarian assistance." (BBC)
  • A suicide car bomb and mortar fire kills three Black Watch(Scottish) soldiers and an Iraqi translator south of Baghdad at Camp Dogwood. (BBC)
• The United States recognizes the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name rather than the name "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" used by the United Nations, the first major foreign policy move by the re-elected Bush administration. The move outrages Greece, who had the European Union's support in lobbying against recognition since Macedonia's independence in 1991. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, announces that she has breast cancer.
• Yasser Arafat, who is on a life-support machine, has been officially declared brain-dead while in intensive care at a hospital in Paris, according to medical sources inside the hospital. (Seattle Times) (BBC)
• The High Court in the Republic of China rejects a petition by the Kuomintang to nullify the March 2004 presidential election result that saw Chen Shui-bian re-elected president by a margin of 0.2% over Lien Chan. The KMT plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. (BBC)
• Researchers of Type 2 diabetes at a Winnipeg laboratory announce that they have isolated a previously hypothetical second substance, called hepatic insulin sensitizing substance or HISS, that participates in sugar storage along with insulin. (Globe and Mail)
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: Two lesbian couples denied marriage licences file a lawsuit against the governments of Canada and of Newfoundland and Labrador, asking for the legalization of same-sex marriage in that province. (365Gay)
• Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Maryland State Police say Phelps was stopped around 11:30 Thursday night, near the intersection of Route 13 and Bateman Street in Salisbury, after a trooper spotted an SUV that failed to stop at a stop sign. Beside the charge of driving under the influence, Phelps was also charged with driving while impaired by alcohol, violation of a license restriction, and failure to obey a traffic control device. (WBAL Radio)

November 5, 2004

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Two Palestinian children are killed by an explosion in the refugee camp of Khan Yonis in the Gaza Strip. Hospital officials say it was from a tank shell that hit a house. Israeli spokesmen said there had been no army fire in the area. They believe it was either caused when a Palestinian mortar misfired or by the detonation of a roadside bomb. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warns that an assault on Falluja may result in a Sunni Muslim boycott of January elections. British ambassador to Iraq Jones Parry states: "You can't have an area the size of Falluja operating as a base for terrorism." Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi describes Annan's letter as confused and unclear. (Reuters)
  • Two U.S. soldiers are killed and five wounded when fighting breaks out near a base on the outskirts of Falluja. After weeks of intensive airstrikes, U.S. and Iraqi troops seal off all roads to the city. They drop leaflets and play loudspeaker messages encouraging all civilians to leave, but say they would arrest any men under 45. Near Baghdad, two children are killed when a mortar shell lands near a police station. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Dutch-Moroccan Muslim Mohammed Bouyeri, identified by the Dutch media as "Mohammed B.", is to be charged for murdering filmmaker Theo van Gogh and for being a member of a group with "terrorist intentions". (Reuters)
• Illness of Yasser Arafat: Israel refuses to allow Yasser Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem. The ailing leader of the Palestinian Authority is still in a coma, which might be reversible; an aide rejects reports that Arafat is "brain dead". Palestinians claim they will only trust a successor who is "determined and steadfast on the fundamental Palestinian rights", some say who is less willing to compromise. (Reuters)
• Voters in the north east of England decisively reject plans for a devolved assembly for the region. With a turnout of 47.8% 197,310 vote for and 696,519 vote against the plans. It is a serious setback for the British Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, who had championed the plans. (BBC)
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: A judge in Saskatchewan rules that same-sex couples must enjoy the right to equal marriage in that province. (CBC)
• Episcopal Church: The Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh approves an amendment to its Constitution which allows it to differ with the opinion of the national church on issues which the diocese believes to be "contrary to the historic faith and order" of the church. (Diocese of Pittsburgh)

November 6, 2004

• Talks between Iran and three European Union members, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, on the Iranian nuclear program end without an agreement and no further meetings planned. Iran has offered a six-month suspension of its uranium enrichment program. The European Union seeks an indefinite halt to the program. The issue is expected to be referred to the United Nations Security Council at the November 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Reuters) Others report, however, that a prelimary agreement has been reached. (AP) (BBC)
• An express train has collided with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England. It is thought that nine carriages of the 17:35 First Great Western service between London Paddington and Plymouth have been derailed. Six people have reportedly been killed, with around 150 more injured. (BBC)
• An Indian spokesman says the Indian Army has been conducting counter-insurgency operations on the border of Burma. Two Indian soldiers and 13 rebels have been killed so far. (BBC)
• Chilean army commander General Juan Emilio Cheyre releases a statement saying abuses under Augusto Pinochet were "punishable and morally unacceptable acts of the past", reversing its previous stance that they were excesses carried out by individual officers. (BBC)
• African Union mediators adjourn negotiations with Sudan on the Darfur conflict after numerous security issues are not agreed upon, mainly a no-fly zone in Darfur. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Three suicide car bombs in Samarra kill 19 Iraqi police, two Iraqi National Guardsmen, two Iraqi Rapid Reaction Forces, and 11 civilians, with 48 wounded. In Ramadi, an Iraqi is killed and 20 U.S. Marines are wounded after a shoot-out between the Marines and rebels. A physician at Fallujah General Hospital reports two dead and maintains no foreign fighters have been admitted to his hospital. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Nine French peacekeepers and a U.S. citizen are killed in the rebel-held town of Bouake in Côte d'Ivoire after government warplanes bomb the town to root out insurgents. In response, the French military launches attacks which destroy two warplanes at Yamoussoukro airport. (CNN) (BBC)

• At an anti-nuclear waste shipment protest rally near the French town of Avricourt a protester, Sébastien Briat, is killed after a train severs his leg. The 23-year-old French man was protesting against the CASTOR transport. (BBC)
• Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Lebanese Militant group, Hezbollah, has flown a reconnaissance drone over Israeli territory for the first time. (BBC)
• Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites is officially awarded the Ansari X Prize for the first privately funded space flight. (AP)
• The Iraq interim government declares a state of emergency ahead of an expected assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
• Illness of Yasser Arafat: A spokesman for Yasser Arafat claims that all the Palestinian president's vital functions are fine although it remains unclear why Arafat has not regained consciousness and if or when he will. (AP) (The Age)
• The Ralph Nader/Peter Camejo campaign has filed a challenge to the voting results in New Hampshire after receiving numerous complaints from voting rights activists. This effort is widely encouraged by Democrats and Independents due to suspected flaws related to Diebold Election Systems voting machines. (Portland Independent Media Center) (Nashua Telegraph)

November 8, 2004

• In Broward County, officials find the software used in Broward can handle only 32,000 votes per precinct. After that, the system starts counting backward. The problem affected running tallies and not the final vote totals. All absentee ballots had been placed in a single precinct to be counted and only the votes for constitutional amendments reached the threshold and encountered the problem. (The Palm Beach Post)
• In Palm Beach County, about 88,000 more votes are recorded than voters recorded as having turned out for the election. (The Washington Dispatch)
• U.S. Federal District Judge James Robertson rules that the system of tribunals set up by the United States military to try and sentence prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay is illegal. (Washington Post) (ACLU) (The Guardian)
• Microsoft announces it will pay Novell USD $536 million to settle its ten-year-long antitrust suit and will pay legal costs incurred by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA). In return, CCIA will not pursue its arguments in favor of the European Union's antitrust suit. (Reuters)
• The Pitcairn Island governing council selects the first female mayor in its 214 year history after the former mayor, Steve Christian, was convicted of rape. (BBC)
• The United States dollar falls to a record low of $1.2985 against the euro. (BBC)
• China confirms that two Hong Kong officials have been convicted and jailed for spying for the United Kingdom. (BBC)
• Intelligence services intercept FARC guerrilla communications calling all units to focus on assassinating Colombian President Álvaro Uribe. (BBC)
• Russian troops storm a Chechen rebel base and kill 22 militants. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi publicly authorizes an offensive in Fallujah and Ramadi to "liberate the people" and "clean Falluja of terrorists". U.S. and Iraqi forces advance. A hospital doctor in Falluja reports 15 people killed and 20 wounded. (Reuters)(BBC)
  • In Baghdad, three Iraqis are killed when a suicide car bomb explodes near a U.S. convoy. A U.K. soldier is killed by a roadside bomb near Camp Dogwood. A U.S. soldier is killed when gunmen open fire on a military patrol. At least three people are killed and 40 others injured in explosions at two Christian churches. (Reuters)(BBC)
• Illness of Yasser Arafat: Officials of the Palestinian Authority travel to France to see Yasser Arafat. Suha Arafat, wife of Yasser Arafat, says, "They are trying to bury Abu Ammar (Arafat) alive". Israeli security officials believe Arafat is brain-dead or comotose, and is on life support equipment and will be disconnected on Tuesday, the Muslim holiday of Lailat-ul-Qadr so that he will be declared dead on that day. (Reuters)
• A 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocks northern Japan. It was centered close to the earth's surface in the Chuetsu area of Niigata prefecture. (CNN)
• A Muslim school in Eindhoven in the Netherlands suffers a bomb attack. It is believed to be a revenge attack in retaliation for the murder of Theo van Gogh, following a weekend in which several mosques were attacked throughout the Netherlands. (BBC)
• The current wave of violence in Côte d'Ivoire causes London markets to fear a lack of cocoa exports, sending cocoa to a five-year high. French forces, including tanks, deploy throughout the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, to restore order. (BBC)
• An electronic voting machine in 1B in Franklin County, Ohio recorded 260 votes for John Kerry and 4258 votes for George W Bush though only 638 people voted there, one of several alleged problems. (IDG) (c|net) (Dissident Voice)
• Supercomputers: The Top 500 Supercomputers list, which officially charts the records for the 500 fastest computers in the world, announces IBM's Blue Gene/L prototype as the world's fastest supercomputer. Using the Linpack benchmark, it achieved a record computational speed of 70.72 TFlops, taking the title away from Japan's Earth Simulator (35.86 TFlops) which held the title since June 2002. NASA's Columbia takes second place with 51.87 TFlops. (BBC)

November 9, 2004

• Halo 2, a game for the Xbox system, exceeds more than US$ 125 million in sales on its first day of release. This makes it the biggest opening day in the history of entertainment, surpassing any other games or movies. Microsoft, the publisher of the game, estimates more than 2.4 million units sold. (Tom's Hardware)
• Darfur conflict: The Sudanese government and rebel leaders sign two accords that include a no-fly zone over Darfur, disarming Janjaweed militia and informing the location of forces to cease-fire monitors. United Nations officials arrive to investigate claims of genocide. (Reuters)(BBC)
• United States Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans resign. (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: U.S. troops reach the center of Falluja with heavy fighting reported throughout the city. The Pentagon announces 10 U.S. and two Iraqi soldiers killed in the assault. One third of prisoners captured in Falluja by Iraqi forces have been foreigners from Egypt and Syria. Residents say a U.S. airstrike hit a clinic killing medical staff and patients. A 9 year old boy dies because of lack of medical assistance after he was hit by shrapnel in what parents say was a separate airstrike. The mainly Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party withdraws from the Iraq Interim Governing Council. Iraqi and U.S. forces capture a mosque in northwest Falluja that was being used as an arms depot and insurgent meeting place and the Muslim Clerics Association called for a boycott of the election in protest of the assault. In Mosul, two U.S. soldiers are killed when mortars land in a military base. Three police stations are attacked in Baquba with casualty reports ranging from 25 to 45 people killed. A car bomb outside an Iraqi National Guard base near Kirkuk kills three people and wounds two. In Samarra, a senior local government official is assassinated. (Reuters)(BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Belgium upholds a decision of the Court of Appeal of Ghent condemning the Vlaams Blok political party for permanent incitation to racism and discrimination. The decision amounts to banning the party, one of the most popular in Flanders. (AFP)(BBC)
• Michael Scheuer, a senior intelligence official in the U.S. CIA, claims that the number of "experienced" officers assigned to the agency's Osama bin Laden unit is fewer than before the 9/11 Attacks. Scheuer claims that the most experienced have been reassigned elsewhere in the homeland security apparatus or are in Iraq. (Washington Post)
• Illness of Yasser Arafat:
  • Three unnamed senior Palestinian sources state he has died. Nabil Shaath and Saeb Erekat state that he is still alive. Tayeb Abdel Rahim explains that Arafat has suffered a brain hemorrhage. (Reuters)(AP)
  • Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas have visited Arafat at his bedside, and Mr. Abbas has described his condition as "very serious" (BBC)
• House Judiciary Committee Democrats request a GAO investigation into voting irregularities in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election. (first letter) (follow-up letter)
• Same-sex marriage in Ireland: An Irish High Court judge rules that a lesbian couple who married in Canada may proceed with their case seeking to have their marriage recognized in Ireland. (CBC) (RTÉ)
• The Mozilla Foundation releases the first official version of its open source web browser, Firefox. (Reuters)
• Violence in Côte d'Ivoire has left 20 dead and 600 injured and stopped cocoa exports. South African President Thabo Mbeki has flown to the country to help find a settlement. (CNN)

November 10, 2004

• ROC President Chen Shui-bian calls for a ban on the use of weapons of mass destruction across the Taiwan Strait and asked the People's Republic of China to do the same. (VOA)
• The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismisses a petition seeking the release from house arrest of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan for health reasons. (VOA)
• Darfur conflict: Sudanese Police beat people and tear gas women and children at a refugee camp (BBC)
• White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales has been announced by President George W. Bush as his nominee for United States Attorney General, succeeding John Ashcroft. (CNN)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Three relatives of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi have been kidnapped. The kidnappers have demanded that the siege on Fallujah be lifted, or the hostages will be killed. (BBC)
  • The Iraqi City of Mosul has gone under curfew following a rebel strike which left four Iraqi National Guards and a Foreign contractor dead. (Fox)
• The First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, announces to the Scottish Parliament that the Executive intends to introduce a law to prohibit smoking in all public enclosed spaces in Scotland. Both of the ruling coalition parties, as well as the main opposition party, the SNP, are in favour and the move is likely to come into effect in Spring 2006. (BBC)
• The euro reaches a new record high against the United States dollar, valued at more than $1.30. Concerns over the U.S. trade deficit, the $427 billion budget deficit and $166 billion current account deficit are thought to be behind the dollar's recent losses. (BBC) (BBC)
• The Association of International Educators reports that the number of foreign graduate students in the U.S. has fallen. (Express India) (New York Times) (Reuters)
• The trial of the suspected French serial killer Émile Louis proceeds, as the Yonne assize court transports itself to the location where the bodies of two victims were found under Louis' indications.
• Illness of Yasser Arafat
  • Muslim cleric Mufti Taissir Dayut Tamimi, a close personal friend of Arafat, flies to Paris to attend to Arafat's spiritual needs. Aides deny reports that Arafat will be taken off life support. (National Post {Canada}) (BBC)
  • The Israeli government agrees to allow Arafat to be buried at his compound in Ramallah, West Bank. State funeral services are being planned for Cairo, Egypt followed by burial in Ramallah, if Arafat dies. (Jerusalem Post) (CNN) (Haaretz)
• A Dutch police squad comes under a grenade attack, injuring 3 policemen, following an antiterrorist raid on a house in The Hague. The area's airspace is closed as a precaution. Two arrests have been made.(BBC) (Reuters)
• A Muslim school in Uden was set on fire in another of a series of sectarian attacks on Islamic schools in the Netherlands . (BBC)
• Conflict in Côte d'Ivoire: Canada has decided to airlift its citizens out of the troubled Côte d'Ivoire following a similar course of action by France and the United Nations. Other countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom will do so. (Toronto Star) (The Scotsman)
• Reports of irregularities in the votes for the 2004 Presidential election emerge. Reports of voting machine error and electoral fraud center on Ohio and Florida.

November 11, 2004

• Iris Chang, acclaimed author of The Rape of Nanking, is found dead near a freeway in Los Gatos, California. Authorities believe her cause of death to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. (BBC) (CNN) (AP)
• Death of Yasser Arafat
  • Saeb Erakat announces that Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat has died at the age of 75 at a Paris hospital. Rawhi Fattouh becomes interim President of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas leads the Palestine Liberation Organization. Farouk Kaddoumi, foreign minister of the PLO, leads Fatah and Ahmed Qureia receives the security portfolio of the Palestinian Authority. (CNN) (Reuters)(BBC)
  • Tributes and condolences pour in from around the world for the former Palestinian leader, from leaders as diverse Jacques Chirac (France), Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia), Pope John Paul II (Vatican City), Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan), Bertie Ahern (Ireland), Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Malaysia), Crown Prince Abdullah (Saudi Arabia), and Hosni Mubarak (Egypt). (BBC)
  • President Bush says, "For the Palestinian people, we hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors." (Washington Times)
  • Israeli Justice minister Tommy Lapid says it is "good that the world is rid of him... The sun is shining in the Middle East". (BBC)
  • Tunisia, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Yemen and Jordan have announced three days of national mourning along with Egypt. (BBC)
• Lithuania became the first country to approve the new EU constitution. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: Heavy fighting continues in Falluja, where U.S. military officials say over 500 insurgents, 18 U.S. and five Iraqi troops had been killed. In Baghdad, 17 people are killed when a car bomb explodes near a shopping center. (BBC)
• Israel Defense Forces repel a al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attack on Netzarim in the Gaza Strip killing three Palestinians. In Hebron, one Palestinian, among a group of 400 throwing cement bricks at Jewish cars, is killed when Israeli soldiers open fire.(Reuters)
• Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu is arrested, again, on suspicion of leaking classified information. (BBC)
• British forces launch Operation Phillis, the service-assisted evacuation of Côte d'Ivoire, in response to riots in the country. (MoD)
• Spain has announced that solar panels will be mandatory on new and renovated buildings. (Times)
• Global warming is accelerating rapidly in the Arctic, according to Arctic Climate Impact Assessment scientists. Probable outcomes include a 1m rise in worldwide oceans by year 2100, elimination of habitat for the Polar Bear, reduction of tundra and migratory bird habitat. (AP)
• Alice Munro has won the Giller Prize for her short story collection Runaway. It is her second Giller. (CBC)

November 12, 2004

• Deputy director of central intelligence John E. McLaughlin and some other senior officials in the CIA resign amid conflict with new director Porter Goss's chief of staff, Patrick Murray. (Washington Post) (AFP)
• Scott Peterson is found guilty of murder in the first degree of his wife, Laci Peterson, and in the second degree of his unborn son, Connor. The penalty phase of the trial was scheduled for November 22, 2004. (CNN)
• Conflict in Iraq: The United States Armed Forces report that insurgents in Falluja, Iraq, are trapped. Hundreds of insurgents, 18 U.S. soldiers and five members of the Iraqi security forces have been killed in four days of fighting. (Reuters)
• President of the United States George W Bush states that it is possible for a Palestinian state to arise in the next four years but that it would depend greatly upon who they elect to replace Yasser Arafat. (Reuters)
• Ilda Boccassini, an Italian prosecutor in the Milan corruption trial, asks the court to sentence Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to eight years' imprisonment for bribing judges. (Reuters)
• Iran's nuclear program: The International Atomic Energy Agency delays issuing its report on Iran's nuclear activities as Iran, France, Germany and Britain remain deadlocked in talks aimed at freezing Iran's uranium enrichment program. (Reuters)
• Death of Yasser Arafat
  • Yasser Arafat's funeral procession is held in Cairo, Egypt. Arafat is given full military honours and his coffin is led by a horse drawn carriage. Leaders of Muslim and Arab countries as well as other dignitaries attend, including Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas, who is currently sought by Israel. (Reuters)(BBC)
  • Israel has barred the entire population of the Gaza Strip from attending Yassir Arafat's funeral in Ramallah, and has sealed off many West Bank towns. (BBC)
  • Ramallah is described as in a state of "chaos" as tens of thousands of people pack the area in and around the Muqata, prior to Arafat's burial. Gunmen in the crowd shot repeatedly into the air, but there is no serious violence; and plans for Arafat to lie in state appear to have been dropped due to the huge crowd. He was buried in soil from Al Quds.(BBC)

November 13, 2004

• US Troops are preventing a Red Crescent aid convoy from entering the city of Falluja, reportedly for safety reasons