August 2003
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A timeline of events in the news for August, 2003.
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Terrorist: Terrorism group Jemaah Islamiyah has schemes, revealed in a 40-page manifesto (the Pupji book or General Guide to the Struggle of Jemaah Islamiyah), for a suicide bombing campaign designed to change Asia and the Pacific region into Islamic provinces. Jemaah Islamiyah is also shown to be a well-formed organization with a constitution, rules of operation, and 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.
- Software patents: After protests, the European Parliament has postponed its decision about legality of patents on software in the European Union from September 1st to September 22nd.
- WTO deal to allow poor countries to bypass drug patents and import cheap copies to treat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
- 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 nuclear submarine 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.
- Najaf, Iraq: A car bomb explodes during prayers outside the holiest shrine for Shiites, Imam Ali Mosque (Tomb of Ali), just as main weekly prayers are ending. More than 125 people are killed, including the influential cleric Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Dozens are injured.
- Israel is alleged to have contingency plans to bomb an Iranian nuclear power plant if it begins producing weapons grade material.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Inuit of Labrador sign an agreement with the Canadian federal government, giving them self-government in a 72,500 sq.km. region of northern Labrador called Nunatsiavut. -
- Sage may help combat Alzheimer's disease. Study finds chemical in the herb improves memory. The study was conducted to verify herbalists writings centuries ago.
- Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland remove a woman's heart, rebuild its upper chambers from bovine and human tissue, and reinstall it in her body.
- Congressman William J. Janklow, the only Representative from the state of South Dakota, is charged with vehicular manslaughter for an accident on August 16 in which Janklow's speeding car ran a stop sign and hit and killed a motorcyclist.
- 9/11: Nearly two years after the September 11th 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.
- 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.
- Nuclear program: North Korea announces that it is in possession of nuclear weapons, has the means to deliver them, and will soon be carrying out a nuclear test to demonstrate this capability. , , ,
- Archaeology: Archaeologists have determined how big the triangle-shaped log enclosure was at Jamestown, Virginia when it was founded in 1607.
- Astronomy: Mars passes Earth at a distance of under 55.76 million kilometers, the closest it's been in approximately 60,000 years
- Private Jessica Lynch, whose rescue from an Iraqi hospital has been surrounded by controversy, is honourably discharged from the United States Army National Guard.
- Occupation of Iraq: According to a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans polled say the war in Iraq was worth fighting.
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat calls on militant groups to reinstate a ceasefire they formally ended last week after a Hamas leader was killed by Israeli gunships.
- 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. 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.
- Crime: 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.
- Crime: A painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Madonna with the Yarnwinder is stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland, the home of the Duke of Buccleuch.
- Crime: 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.
- Crime: Two bombs explode at the Emeryville, California corporate offices of Chiron (corporation); electronic mail sent to reporters from Revolutionary Cells claims responsibility.
- War on Terrorism: President Bush, speaking to American Legion veterans convention, defends the Iraq policy, declaring the United States had hit terrorism in overthrowing the government of Saddam Hussein. President Bush vows "no retreat" from Iraq. President Bush also states that the United States may carry out other pre-emptive strikes.
- Space Shuttle program: Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) releases 200 page final dossier over the space shuttle Columbia's destruction (and the death of its seven astronauts). It states the cause is from NASA's cultural traits, lack of funds, and insufficient safety program.
- Technology: California Supreme Court rules that publishers could be barred from posting DVD descrambling code (DeCSS) online without infringing on free speech rights.
- 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.
- Former British Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath is flown home from his holiday in Salzburg, Austria to receive treatment in London for pulmonary embolism.
- 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.
- Natural disaster: Wildfires sweep into the southern suburbs of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, destroying more than 200 homes. 30,000 people, or one-third of the city's population, have been evacuated.
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Palestinian leaders state they will try to negotiate a new ceasefire by extremist groups and urge Israel to stop their action against top militants.
- 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 California recall: Republican Bill Simon drops out of the California gubernatorial recall race.
- 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.
- John Geoghan, a defrocked Roman Catholic priest and convicted child molester, dies following an attack in prison. Initial reports say that he was strangled to death.
- A Brazilian Space Agency VLS-1 space rocket explodes on its launch-pad at Alcantara 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$12m worth of damage. This ends Brazil's third attempt since 1997 at becoming a space power.
- Natural disaster: Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano sends a column of smoke and ash three kilometres into the air.
- Natural disaster: Wildfire forces around 10,000 people from their homes in British Columbia. This is Western Canada's worst fire season in decades.
- Occupation of Iraq: United Nations Security 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 States Colin Powell states that there is no plan to cede authority to the United Nations from the Coalition forces. Powell also sought a new Security Council resolution that would involve other nations to contribute troops and aid in securing and rebuilding Iraq.
- War on Terrorism - Canal Hotel: Investigators focus on the possibility that former Iraqi intelligence agents working as security guards may have assisted the attack.
- 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. They urge militant cells in Palestine to strike. Israeli security officials state this is "only the beginning" of responses to Palestinian attacks.
- War on Terrorism: President of the United States George W. Bush announces a freeze on the assets of the Palestinian militant leaders of Hamas and organizations financially supporting the "terrorist organization". The action is taken due to the fact that Hamas officially claims responsibility for the act of terror on August 19.
- Efforts by US broadcaster Fox News to seek an injunction preventing satirist Al Franken from publishing a book backfire as the judge not merely refuses their request but ridicules it. Judge Denny Chin told Fox, which had claimed that the subtitle of the book, which included the words "fair and balanced", infringed on their trademark of the term, "this is an easy case. This case is wholly without merit, both factually and legally". Chin added "It is ironic that a media company, which should be protecting the First Amendment (guaranteeing free speech), is seeking to undermine it." Franken, who as a result of the Fox case had received massive media exposure, commented "I'd like to thank Fox's lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I've ever seen in my life."
- Separation of church and state: Alabama's Chief Justice Roy 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 August 21, 2003
- Occupation of Iraq: General Ali Hassan al-Majid (Chemical Ali) is reportedly captured in Iraq. He had previously been reported dead.
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel kills senior Hamas official, Ismail Abu Shanab, by a missile strike in the Gaza Strip and sent tanks into the West Bank towns of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem in response to a deadly suicide bombing of a bus in Jerusalem. In Hebron, troops destroy the terrorist bomber's home. Hamas and Islamic Jihad end their participation in the cease fire (in response to Israel's action from the two groups' bombing), declaring themselves as enemies to the peace plan, and vow further terrorist acts. The militants demand that Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, leave their area of control.
- Canadian transport minister David Collenette announces that Montreal Dorval International Airport will be renamed in September for former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.
- War on Terrorism - Canal Hotel: US officials comment terror group linked to al Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam, is emerging as a top suspect in the U.N. headquarters bombing in Baghdad. "It's part of a global war against terrorism that was officially declared on us on September 11. It's quite clear we do have terrorists inside Iraq now."
- 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 Nigerian parents, dies after a botched home circumcision by a friend of the boy's parents, in the Republic of Ireland. The Garda Síochána are searching for the man, who had no medical qualifications.
- 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.
- California recall: Republican recall candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger promises to take quick action.
- 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.
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, breaks negotiations with the Islamic militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in response to the bombing in Jerusalem. Israel notifies the public that it will retaliate with military strikes for bus bombing. There are conflicting reports that Israel will hold off on the attacks to see if the Palestinian administration takes action against terrorist groups.
- Fighting persists in Chechnya, with six Russian servicemen killed and 11 others wounded in the war-ravaged region.
- Pauline Hanson, former leader of the Australian anti-immigration One Nation Party, is sentenced in Queensland to three years in prison for electoral fraud.
- 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 Mehmood Kasuri's visit to Kabul. Afghanistan claims Pakistani based Taliban have killed many Afghan soldiers.
- 20 killed, 136 wounded by an explosion on board an Israeli bus in Jerusalem. Among the victims are several children. The explosion was caused by a Palestinian suicide bomber. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Hebron claims responsibility for the attack. There are conflicting reports that Hamas is responsible for the bombing. Israeli government reportedly freezes road map for peace negotiations. In the following days, two additional victims died of their wounds, raising the death toll to 22. , see also: Jerusalem bus 2 massacre
- 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.
- Occupation of Iraq: Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, disguised as an Arab Bedouin, has been captured. Ramadan served as Saddam's thug and a member of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council. Kurdish group claims responsibility for the capture of Ramadan. He was handed over to Coalition forces in Mosul.
- Afghanistan celebrates its Independence Day amid one of the bloodiest weeks in a year, with heavily armed guerrillas killing at least nine policemen 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.
- The Tranquility Bay behavior correction facility.
- 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.
- 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.
- Terrorists again fired on children in Gorazdevac, near Pec, this time while they were in the center of the village. No children were injured in this incident, just 4 days since the last.
- Saboteurs cause a series of explosions that damaged oil and water pipelines in Iraq.
- 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.
- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appoints Hermenegilde Chiasson lieutenant governor of New Brunswick.
- A Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters, Mazen Dana, is shot dead by a Coalition tank crew in Iraq while trying to film around Abu Ghraib prison, after a mortar attack on the prison. The tank crew mistook the camera for a grenade launcher.
- 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 .
- West Virginia: Kanawha County Sheriff's office reports that a string of four fatal shootings over the past week were linked by ballistics testing to the same type of weapon. The perpetrator(s) remain at large. . The incident is reminiscent of the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.
- Idi Amin, whose eight years as president of Uganda were characterized by bizarre and murderous behavior, died in Saudi Arabia.
- Power is restored to many, but not all areas of the north-eastern United States and Canada affected by the previous day's blackout . Investigations into the root cause of the grid collapse are currently focusing on transmission lines circling Lake Erie .
- 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. Although some claim the acceptance is just a business deal and not a true admission of guilt.
- Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein announces that he will abdicate the throne in 2004, in favor of his son, Prince Alois.
- A major power outage due to a power grid failure affects more than 50 million people in the northeast of North America, including New York City, New Jersey, Cleveland, Ottawa, Toronto and Detroit . According to U.S. authorities, the cause is still unclear; according to the Canadian Department of National Defense, the chain reaction was started by a lightning strike in the Niagara Falls region on the U.S. side of the border . A press release with some technical details of the event is a available at . The NRC reports that all 9 affected nuclear power plants have been safely shut down .
- 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.
- 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.
- A single-celled microbe, of the domain Archaea, is found to be able to survive at 121°C (250°F), making it the life form that can tolerate the highest temperature. The microbe, temporarily named Strain 121, which was found 200 miles away from Puget Sound in a hydrothermal vent, may provide clues to when and where life first evolved on Earth. It metabolizes by reducing iron oxide.
- Terrorism: Hambali, an important leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, is in U.S. custody after being captured in Thailand.
- Liberian crisis: News services are reporting that Moses Blah met with Sekou Conneh of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) group and Thomas Nimley of a smaller faction known as Model. Meanwhile, the Pentagon expands the United States' military presence by adding a "quick reaction" force of 150 combat troops to back up Nigerian peacekeepers.
- 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 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.
- Ivan Jovovic and Bogdan Bukomiric, both 16 years old, from Gorazdevac near Pec die after two attackers fired from AK-47 on group of children from Gorazdevac who were bathing in river Bistrica. Four children got 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 German military hospital at Prizren, against his parents' wishes. An Italian KFOR patrol refused to borrow fuel to 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 to Pec, doctors there refused to treat the children. KFOR claims that it researches the location of the incident with 300 men.
- 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.
- Iraq's northern oil fields resumes exports.
- 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.
- Disgraced Irish former Taoiseach Charles J. 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.
- Same-sex marriage in Canada: At its convention in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, the United Church of Canada votes overwhelmingly to ask the federal government to allow same-sex marriage.
- A National Geographic team releases the discovery of a new species of large dinosaur, Rajasaurus Narmadensis, native to the Indian subcontinent. The research effort was made by a joint Indo-American group, including members from the University of Michigan,
