August 2004 :
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See also:
August 2004 in
sports
Events
- The
WTO authorizes the imposition of sanctions
against the United
States
for persistent violation of global trade
laws. (NYT)
- A
female suicide bomber kills
ten and injures 51 others near a subway
station in Moscow
.
(CNN) (Reuters) (BBC)
- Despite demands from Iraqi resistance Islamist militant elements
threatening to kill two French
hostages,
France upholds its
law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools,
specifically its ban on Muslim hijabs. (ABC News) (Reuters)
- In
Iraq, the radical Islamist group, Army of Ansar al-Sunna, kill 12
Nepali
civilians employed as cooks and cleaners, stating
"We have carried out the sentence of God against 12 Nepalis who
came from their country to fight the Muslims
and to serve the Jews and the Christians ... believing in Buddha as their God"
(Reuters)
- Repeated attacks on pipeline linked to southern oil fields have significantly hampered oil exports from Iraq
.
(Washington Post) (Moscow Times)
- Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević, a University of Belgrade
Faculty of Law graduate, opens his defence at the trial which
accuses him of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his alleged role in the conflicts
in which tens of thousands were killed. He maintains the charges
are 'unscrupulous lies'. (BBC News) (Reuters)
- Palestinian suicide bombers kill at least 16 Israelis
and wound more than 91 others aboard two city buses in Beer Sheva
, Israel
in the first
successful Palestinian suicide bombings since March
14, 2004, with Hamas
claiming responsibility. (BBC) (Haaretz)
- Afghan
police say a United States bombing raid killed at least six civilians in the eastern province of Kunar. (Reuters) (BBC)
- 2004 Atlantic hurricane
season: Hurricane Frances
affects the British Virgin Islands
, the United States Virgin Islands
and the northern-east part of Puerto Rico. (AP/The Star Tribune)
- California
Governor and former
Hollywood
star Arnold
Schwarzenegger extols the United States as a greater source of good in the world than the
UN: "If you believe this country, not
the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world, then you are a Republican," he shouts, at
the Republican
National Convention. (Washington Times) (BBC)
- Following a dramatic intra-party campaign,
Betty Castor and Mel Martinez win primary elections in Florida
for the U.S. Senate election, 2004. The seat
is the most heavily contested in the U.S. Congress, with over $30
million budgeted among twelve candidates' campaigns. (AP/Bradenton Herald)
- The two smallest extrasolar
planets ever discovered are announced: one orbiting 55 Cancri in the constellation Cancer, and another orbiting Gliese 436 in the constellation Leo. They are both around the size of Neptune. (Globe and Mail)
- 2004 Atlantic hurricane
season: Tropical Storm Gaston
makes landfall at Bulls Bay, South Carolina
with near hurricane
strength 70 mph winds. (CNN)
- An
explosion at a school in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 10 people, many of them
children, the US military has
said. (BBC)
- Australian Prime
Minister John Howard announces that
the 2004
Australian federal election will take place on October 9, 2004. (ABC Au)
- The
2004 Summer Olympics are closed
by IOC
President Jacques
Rogge. (Reuters)
- More
than 400,000 demonstrators march in New York City
, protesting
U.S.
President George W. Bush
and the policies of the Republican Party on the eve
of the 2004
Republican National Convention. Republican delegates and
politicians, including Vice President Dick Cheney, also begin to arrive in the city.
(The Scotsman) (Houston Chronicle) (Reuters) (BBC)
- The
Lebanese
Cabinet, under Syrian
pressure and
despite widespread opposition, votes to modify the constitution to
allow President Émile Lahoud a second term in office.
Patriarch Sfeir states "we have completely lost sovereignty of our
territory and our independence and freedom in choosing our rulers
and deciding our own affairs." (NYT)
- The British Royal Society, with 68
other organizations, urges the UN to ban reproductive but not
therapeutic use of the technology in response to a US bid to ban
human cloning altogether. (BBC)
- Between 5,000 and 6,000 participants take part in the Critical Mass bicyclist ride as part of the
2004
Republican National Convention protest activity. The monthly
NYC Critical Mass ride usually attracts about 1500 riders. Police
eventually arrested 264 people for deliberately blockading roads
during the event. This is the first time the NYPD made any
significant arrests of Critical Mass participants. (NYC-IMC)
- Interbrew completes its merger with
Ambev. Both were among the top five largest
breweries in the world, and together they will become the largest,
when measured by volume. The merged company will be called InBev (Bloomberg)
- The
FBI
has launched a full espionage investigation into
Larry Franklin after obtaining
evidence pointing to a high-ranking spy in
the
Pentagon
.
According
to CBS News, the spy has been giving classified
secrets to Israel which could
compromise U.S. national security. Israel denies
the charges.
- Following the intervention of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, an agreement
is found to end the standoff
in Najaf
.
Although the terms are not clear, the deal requires both the
al-Sadr militia and U.S. troops to leave the city, to be
replaced by the police interim
government. Responsibility for the Imam Ali
Mosque
goes to Sistani. (BBC) This resolution occurs two days before the one
year anniversary of the assassination of Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim,
a prominent Shi'ite cleric from Najaf.
- The
Russian
Federal
Security Service announces that traces of the explosive hexogen have been
found in the wreckage of the two Russia airliners which crashed on August 24, 2004. The
Islamic group "the Islambouli Brigades"
claims responsibility. (AP)
- Enzo Baldoni, an
Italian
journalist kidnapped by
Islamic militants in Iraq, is killed
by his kidnappers. (Reuters)
- The
Interior Minister of France announces
that the number of anti-Semitic attacks
in France this year is more than double that of the same period
last year. (Reuters)
- An
on-going battle, apparently between a combination of U.S. and Iraqi forces, and the al-Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, damages two of minarets of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq, which
al-Sadr's forces occupied. (CNN)
- Artillery and
mortar fire again rock Georgia's
breakaway republic of
South
Ossetia
, scuppering efforts to enforce a ceasefire. (BBC)
- At
the Non-Aligned Movement summit
in Durban
, South African President Thabo Mbeki calls for reform of the UN and other international institutions, saying that
developing countries should not allow powerful nations to dictate
the world on their own terms. (BBC)
- A
jury including U.S. talk show host
Oprah Winfrey convicts Dion Coleman of murder
after two hours of deliberation.
(BBC)
- Israel's prime
minister, Ariel Sharon, vows to press
on with his disengagement plan, despite it receiving another
rejection from his Likud party.
(BBC)
- Nature magazine
reveals that five new satellites and a further candidate moon have been discovered orbiting
Neptune, bringing its tally to 13. (BBC)
- Shares of stock in Google, Inc. begin trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange
at around $100 per share in one of the most highly anticipated
initial public offerings of
the year. It is estimated that the IPO raised a total of $1.66
billion, the third highest ever for an IPO. (Reuters) (CBS MarketWatch)
- Hungarian
prime minister Péter Medgyessy resigns following a row
with his Socialist party's
liberal coalition partner, the Free Democrats. (BBC)
*ZED Corporation Officially Opened.
- Aides
to rebel Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al
Sadr report that he has been wounded in fighting in the holy
city of Najaf; the
government denies the reports. The Najaf offensive triggers
pro-Sadr protests in cities all over Iraq. (BBC) (protest pictures - BBC)
- In
Basra
, Iraq, masked
militants kidnap and threaten to kill
James Brandon, 23, a freelance British
journalist, working for
the Sunday Telegraph,
unless US troops withdraw from Najaf within 24
hours. He is released after intervention by al-Sadr. (BBC)
- Hurricane
Charley makes landfall just north of Cape
Coral, Florida
, USA, around
15:45 EDT (2000 UTC). At landfall, Charley has a windspeed
of 150 mph (241 km/h), air pressure 941 mbar, Category 4 storm
on the Saffir-Simpson
hurricane scale. There are multiple fatalites. (CNN)
- A
spectacular opening ceremony marks
the start of the 2004 Summer
Olympics in Athens
, Greece
. (Athens 2004) (BBC)
- A
group of women kill an alleged rapist during
his trial in Nagpur
, India
.
(BBC)
- Microsoft issues Service Pack 2 for its Windows XP operating
system. (BBC)
- Pakistan
protests to the U.S. over an
FBI sting operation
involving a fake plot to kill Pakistan's UN
envoy. (BBC)
- At
least 15,000 people are left homeless after several days of storms
and heavy rains around the South
African city of Cape
Town
. (BBC)
- A
non-radioactive steam leak at the
nuclear power plant in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture
, Japan
, kills 4
and scalds 8 others. (AP)
- Richard Butler, the controversial
governor of the
Australian state of Tasmania
, resigns. (ABCnews)
- Fierce fighting continues between U.S. forces and
backers of Shiite cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr. Sadr threatens that he "will defend
Najaf until my last drop of blood." According to the
U.S. military, U.S forces have killed 300 supporters of Sadr in
some of the most violent clashes since the fall of Baghdad
. (democracy now!)
- Scientists speaking at a news conference on
natural disasters raise the alarm
that the Cumbre
Vieja
volcano on La Palma
, Canary Islands
, could erupt at any time, sending a
250 km2. rock crashing into the Atlantic
Ocean
and producing a tsunami that
could devastate the Atlantic's coastline, within hours. Very
little seismological monitoring of the
volcano is being carried out. (BBC)
UFO seen over Tinsley park IL USA
- Pacific Islands Forum
leaders call for assistance for Nauru to
prevent the emergence of another "failed
state". (The Age)
- U.S. Senate election, 2004: Alan Keyes, a resident of Maryland, indicates he
will seek the Republican
nomination for the Illinois seat, to run against Barack Obama. (CNN)
- Mohammed M. Hossain and Yassin M. Aref, leaders
of the Masjid as-Salam mosque in Albany,
New York
, are arrested for their part in an alleged plot
(actually an FBI sting operation) to use an RPG-7 to assassinate a
Pakistani diplomat in New York
City.
- A Kuwaiti transport company says it is willing to pay
millions of dollars ransom to secure hostages'
release. (Times of India)
- In
Derry
, Northern Ireland
, police are attacked by people carrying petrol
bombs. (Reuters)
- Saudi
police arrest terror suspect Faris Ahmed Jamaan
al-Showeel al-Zahrani. (ABC)
- Israel reopens the Gaza
-Egypt
border crossing after a three-weeks shutdown,
allowing 1,500 Palestinians on the
Egyptian side to return home. (AP)
- Two
Afghan men deny being enemy fighters, in appearances
before U.S. military tribunals reviewing the status of
Guantanamo Bay detainees. For
the first time, the US allows journalists to attend the hearings. (BBC)
- Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr
calls for a truce to be restored after a day of heavy fighting
between his militia and U.S. troops in
Najaf. (BBC)
- The
U.S. claims that
over 300 of Sadr's fighters have been killed in two days of
clashes. (Reuters)
- Chess master Bobby Fischer, apparently seeking to avoid
deportation to, and trial in the U.S., says he is renouncing his
U.S.
citizenship. (AFP)
- The
National
Institutes of Health
decides not to override drug patents to allow
generic production of anti-AIDS drug Norvir in the United States, despite claims of price
gouging by patients' groups and some members of
Congress. (ABC)
- U.S. aviation regulators threaten to cap commercial
flights at
Chicago
's O'Hare airport to reduce delays that are affecting the
nation's aviation system. (Reuters)
- Saddam
Hussein wants to be transferred to a Swedish
jail to await his trial. (Khaleej Times)
- The
death toll from monsoon flooding in India exceeds
1,000. (MSNBC)
- NASA
dedicates
its new supercomputer 'KC' to the
memory of India-born
astronaut Kalpana Chawla, one of the seven crew members
who died when the space Shuttle
Columbia disintegrated in mid-air in 2003. (NDTV)
- A
bomb explodes near an electrical substation
outside Athens, 9 days prior to the beginning of the Olympic Games. (Melbourne Herald Sun)
- The
FBI warns that Mumbai
, Delhi
, or Bangalore
could be the target of terrorist attacks. (Times Of India)
- A
ceremony is held at London
's Cenotaph
to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the
United
Kingdom's entry into the First World
War. Four of the 23 surviving British veterans of the
war, aged between 103 and 108, are well enough to attend. (BBC)
- Mary Kay
Letourneau is released from a Washington
prison after serving a sentence of over seven
years for statutory rape. The
former elementary school teacher became notorious for her sexual
involvement with one of her male students, who was 12 years old
when the illicit relationship began. She bore two children by the
boy, who is now 21 years old. (FOX News)
- Saddam
Hussein's daughter Raghad reveals
her willingness to hire an American lawyer as long as her father
gets a fair trial. (Times Of India)
- Two
'high-value' al-Qaida targets are arrested
in Pakistan. (Tampa Bay Online)
- A
U.S. court martial hears allegations by the lead
criminal investigator that Iraqi prisoners
were abused 'for fun' at Abu Ghraib
. (Reuters)
- The
truce between Muqtada al-Sadr's
militia and occupation troops ends as US
troops surround his house in Najaf to arrest him. (BBC)
- Reports state that information that led the
US
to raise the terror alert for five
financial centers in New York
city, northern New Jersey
and Washington D.C.
was mainly three or four years old but had been
updated as recently as January. Administration officials
note, too, that al Qaeda is known for its
advance planning, and that this information became available
following the apprehension of a Pakistani member of the
organization. (CNN) (Xinhuanet)
- NASA launches
its MESSENGER spacecraft. It is due
to reach the planet Mercury in
2011. (JHUAPL)
- The
Statue
of Liberty
opens to the public for the first time since
the September 11, 2001
attacks. (BBC)
- Missouri
votes to ban same-sex
marriage through a state constitutional amendment.
The amendment passes with 72% of the vote. Louisiana
will vote on the same issue September 18, followed by Arkansas
, Georgia
, Kentucky
, Mississippi
, Montana
, Oklahoma
, Oregon
, and Utah
on November 2. (CBS) Meanwhile, in Washington, a state judge rules that its recently-enacted
ban on same-sex marriage violates the state constitution.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
- Tropical
Storm Alex strengthens into the first hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane
season, and skirts North Carolina
's Outer
Banks
without making landfall. (CNN)
- The
People's
Republic of China
says it may delay talks on a free trade agreement with Singapore following a
recent visit to Taiwan by
Singapore
's deputy prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. (AtOL) (StraitsTimes)
- The
death toll in the market fire in Asunción
, Paraguay
rises to 464. Six people, including the
co-owner, are arrested for manslaughter
on charges that they locked the doors after the fire started, in
order to prevent looting. (The Scotsman) (ABC News)
- U.S.
President George W. Bush
urges Congress to create a
national intelligence director and a national counterterrorism center. (Centre Daily)
- Jorge Hank
Rhon, candidate of the left-conservative PRI party—which had
held power in Mexico for more than 70 years—wins the Tijuana
mayoral election by just 1.09%, on a platform of
solving organized crime by
omnipresent public surveillance.
(El Universal Online)
- A
poll shows that U.S. presidential
candidate John Kerry gained limited
support after the Democratic
Convention. (ABC News)
- The
U.S. plans to
shift 3,600 soldiers to Iraq from
South
Korea
. (Reuters)
- Turkey
's truckers' association says it will stop
delivering goods to U.S. forces in
Iraq, in what appears to be a direct response to
insurgents' videotaped killing of a
Turkish hostage. (Herald Sun)
- Doom 3, the long-awaited second follow-up
to the 1993 first-person shooting classic, is leaked online.
(BBC)
- A
Philippine
lawyer who helped recover millions of dollars
stashed by late dictator Ferdinand
Marcos and a doctor who exposed China
's SARS outbreak are among this
year's winners of the Ramon
Magsaysay Award, a prestigious prize in Asia. (AP)
- Five
Moroccans
detained at the U.S. military
camp in Guantanamo Bay are turned
over to authorities in their home country. (The Australian)
- The
Indian Army claims to be confronting
teenaged militants, some as young as 13 or
14, wielding sophisticated arms, along the Line of
Control
in Jammu and Kashmir
. (Times Of India)
- The
Iraqi government blames
Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for a series of
church bombings that killed at least 11 people, saying the
aim was to spark religious strife and
drive Christians out of the
country. (Khaleej Times)
- Sudan
's army says the UN
resolution on the conflict in Darfur
is "a declaration
of war" and threatens to fight any foreign intervention.
(BBC)
- India's junior
Foreign Minister, Edappakath Ahamed, declares that the
Indian government has no confirmation of the release of 3 truck
drivers who were taken hostage in Iraq in late
July. (Reuters)
- The
government of Paraguay confirms that at least 275 people died in a
supermarket fire in
Asunción. The death toll is still expected to rise as
a more thorough search is completed. (Seattle Post) (CNN)
- Police make arrests
following the assassination attempt on
Pakistan's prime
minister-designate. (Herald Sun)
- U.S.
General Tommy Franks discloses that,
through a double agent codenamed "April Fool", he tricked Saddam Hussein into bungling the defense of
his country. (The Australian)
News collections and sources
See: .
: After leading rival Malik Saidullayev was disqualified on a
technicality. Putin-supported Alu Alkhanov wins in a landslide. US and EU
dispute results. (Reuters) (Reuters) (NYT)
of Khufu.
They believe the corridor would lead directly to Khufu's burial
chamber, a room which – if it exists – is unlikely to have been
accessed since the burial and may still contain the king's remains.
(The Guardian) (AustBC)
with up to 14 inches of rain, causing widespread
flooding. Governor Mark
Warner declares a state of emergency in Central Virginia
. (ABCNEWS)
. (VOA) (CNN)
lieutenant governor Ben F. Barnes apologizes for his role in getting
current United States
President George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. (Chicago Sun-Times)
's Cathedral of the Assumption by a Roman Catholic Cardinal as a goodwill gesture from
the Pope to the Russian Orthodox Church. The
image is an 18th century copy of the Virgin of Kazan, one of Russia's most
sacred images. (BBC)
's Supreme
Court
strips former military ruler Augusto Pinochet of his immunity from
prosecution, allowing him to be prosecuted for alleged crimes
including involvement in murder and torture. (BBC)
. 20 Shiite marchers in
Kufa are killed and 70 wounded by gunfire. The identity of the
attackers is unknown, reportedly though a source of gunfire was
near an Iraqi National Guard
base. (BBC) (Reuters) (CNN) (Albawaba)
rolls out a new $20 bill, the latest piece of
paper money to be given new anti-counterfeiting technology and a
facelift. (CBC)
. He is later released on bail, and is to
return to court on November 25. (BBC) Meanwhile, his "distressed" mother returns from
holiday in the US. (Guardian/Reuters) (AP)
shoot and kill a man holding a woman hostage
outside Union
Station
. (CBC) Timeline (Toronto Star)
. Police look for links to organized crime. (Toronto Star)
. The planes were carrying 78 passengers and
16 crew in total. (CNN) (Reuters) (AOL NEWS)
has
reiterated that it will retaliate if Israel
in a report written by an investigative panel
headed by James
Schlesinger. (Toronto Star)
are named by Justice Minister Irwin Cotler: Louise
Charron and Rosalie
Abella. They will undergo a new parliamentary screening
process, though their appointment cannot be blocked. (CBC)
officials
announce the arrest in Mexicali
of Gilberto
Higuera Guerrero, a suspected drug kingpin with ties to the Arellano Félix gang. Higuera is accused of
smuggling narcotics into the U.S. from Mexico, and the U.S.
State Department
soldier's Victoria
Cross, which vanished from the Canadian War Museum
about 30 years ago, will be back on public display
Monday. Cpl. Filip Konowal
received the Commonwealth's
highest decoration for valour for his bravery in the battle for
Hill 70
in France
to Puerto Rico have been
massacred by the ship's captains. (El Vocero, in Spanish)
. (Comcast)
, says that
he will not support the island if the People's
Republic of China
military plane crashes as it approaches its base
in the central industrial state of Aragua
, killing
all 25 on board. (Bloomberg)
, leaving
behind menacing graffiti including swastikas and the words "Jews
get out." (CTV)
mob torches a passenger
train, a day after a grenade attack on a political rally killed 19 people
and injured hundreds. (CBC News)
.
(BBC) (Aftenposten)
and Panama
, among
many other countries, are put on high alert about a possible
Al-Qaida attack in Latin America. (Columbia Daily Tribune) (Tucson Citizen)
, the capital of Nepal
announces that it offered, in July, to trade 50
imprisoned guerrillas in return for hostages being held by the
Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia. (BBC)
, Ireland
the Dublin Port Tunnel
excavation works were completed and the final
tunnel boring machine
breakthrough ceremony took place.
: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the
coat of arms is adopted for the
whole country. ( BBC)
in Cornwall
, UK
Spacecraft Cassini-Huygens discovers two new natural satellites of Saturn. They are provisionally named "S/2004 S
1" (later named "Methone") and
"S/2004 S 2" (later named "Pallene").
(NASA)
apologises for the genocide in Namibia
, but rules out reparations. (Guardian)
and the Carter Center
endorse the official result. (BBC) (AP)
, Assam
.
Immediate suspicion falls on ULFA separatists.
(BBC)
couples have filed suit requesting that the
provincial government be ordered to issue them marriage
licences. Such a ruling would make Nova Scotia the fifth
province or territory to recognize same-sex marriages. (365Gay.com)
camp for Congolese
Tutsi refugees in Burundi
, the UN says.
(BBC)
on a two-day pilgrimage to one of the Roman Catholic world's most revered
shrines. (BBC)
, north-west of Baghdad
– the country's first execution in nine years. (BBC)
same-sex marriages
are illegal, the California Supreme Court
votes 5-2 to annul all 4,000 such marriages
performed in San Francisco this year. (San Francisco Chronicle) (CNN) (BBC)
. (EU Press Release)
is shut down following allegations of sexual
impropriety. (BBC)
) become the first in Europe
to be granted permission to clone
human embryos. (The Guardian)
to a new site at Gongju in
South
Chungcheong
province. (BBC)
, killing two people and injuring at least
nine. (BBC)
Mounir
al-Motassadek, one of the only 9/11 suspects to face justice to
date, by refusing to allow an alleged al-Qaeda member to testify via videolink, citing security concerns and
the need to protect secret information. (BBC)
agrees to pay USD 35 million to some victims of the
1986
Berlin discotheque bombing
. (BBC)
is found in Hull
University library. (BBC) (Scotsman)
have failed to slow their weapons development
programs.
, Egypt
, stating that the consul has been acting in ways
incompatible with his diplomatic
status. (Reuters)
for the 13th time.
in Washington, DC
, the New York Stock Exchange
and companies in the New York City
bans Michael Moore's
Fahrenheit 9/11 because it
deems the movie insulting to the Saudi Arabian
, Jean Pierre Bercot, says that France
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