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. [1]
Occupation of Iraq: Americann and Iraqi officials are discussing the possibility of forming a large Iraqi militia or paramilitary force to help improve security in the country. [1]
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 leadership structure. [1]
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. [1]
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.
Russiannuclearsubmarine 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 12 August 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. [1]
Israel is alleged to have contingency plans to bomb an Iraniannuclear power plant if it begins producing weapons grade material. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1][1]
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. - [1]
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. [1]
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. [1][1][1][1][1]
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. [1]
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. [1][1] Only one in five (20%) Americanss approve of the federalcourt order under which workers removed the Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of Alabama's state judicial building Wednesday, according to a new poll. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1][1][1][1]
In Australia's One Nation Party case, it has been revealed that FederalCabinetMinister Tony Abbott controlled "slush funds" which were used to lay the groundwork for party leader Pauline Hanson's prosecution, and to guarantee a private lawsuit against the party. [1]. Liberal ranks split as Abbot's colleague Bronwyn Bishop joined many LaborMP's in calling for disclosure of his role in the case, and described Hanson as a "political prisoner". Remarkably, the nearly defunct One Nation Party's support surged to 21% on news of Hanson's imprisonment. [1]
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 Linnanmäki amusement park.[1][1]
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. class="external">[1
A Brazilian Space Agency VLS-1 spacerocketexplodes 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. class="external">[1
War on Terrorism - Canal Hotel: Investigators focus on the possibility that former Iraqi intelligence agents working as security guards may have assisted the attack. [1]
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. [1] They urge militant cells in Palestine to strike. Israeli security officials state this is "only the beginning" of responses to Palestinian attacks. [1][1]
Efforts by US broadcaster Fox News to seek an injunction preventing satiristAl 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." [1]
Separation of church and state: Alabama's Chief JusticeRoy 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 Christian Defense Coalition, who have threatened to block the court building to prevent the monument's removal. [1][1]
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 La Repubblica suggests that Italy had 2000 more deaths than normal due to the heatwave. [1]
A 4-week-old boy, born to Nigerian parents, dies after a botched home circumcision by a friend of the boy's parents, in the Republic of Ireland. The Garda Siochána are searching for the man, who had no medical qualifications. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1][1][1][1][1]
Afghanistan: Afghan PresidentHamid 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. [1]
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 Palestiniansuicide 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. [1][1][1][1]
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.
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. [1]
The International Survivors Action Committee releases a 152-page report on the controversial 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. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1]
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 [1].
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. [1] Although some claim the acceptance is just a business deal and not a true admission of guilt. [1]
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[1][1][1]ABCBBCCNN. 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 [1]. A press release with some technical details of the event is a available at [1]. The NRC reports that all 9 affected nuclear power plants have been safely shut down [1].
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. [1]
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. [1]
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. [1]
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. 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 Arabiaairplane 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. [1][1][1]
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. [1]
Disgraced Irish former TaoiseachCharles 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.
War on Terrorism: An exclusive BBC report says a joint United States, Russia and United Kingdom "sting" halted a plot to shoot down Air Force One using an Igla surface to air missile. According to the BBC, the plot, initially unearthed by the Russians, led President Vladimir Putin to request that an FBI agent go to St. Petersburg, where the agent posed as an Islamic extremist and met the British arms dealer supplying the missile. The missile was shipped from St. Peterburg to Baltimore in the United States. The British arms dealer "arranging" the deal was arrested when he arrived in Newark, New Jersey in the United States today. The White House has publicly denied that Air Force One was to be the target of the missile. However Tom Mangold, the BBC veteran investigative reporter who broke the story, claims the British dealer supplying the missile recommended to the undercover FBI agent that the President's jet, rather than a commerical jet, be the target, saying that he could get another 60 Ingla missiles which could then be used to launch a co-ordinated attack on Air Force One. [1]
The Serbian government has indicated that it wants to retake control of the province of Kosovo, arguing that the United Nations, which currently has control, has failed to reestablish the rule of law. [1][1]
Sir Jocelyn Gore-Booth announces the sale of the historic Lissadell estate in County Sligo in Ireland, the childhood home of early twentieth century Irish republican Constance Gore-Booth (Countess Markievicz) and which had major associations with the poet W.B. Yeats. Critics condemn the Irish government for failing to buy the estate; Sir Jocelyn had offered it first refusal. The identity of the buyer has not yet been revealed but rock singer Bono had shown major interest in the property. [1]
The remains of a viking warrior are found at a building site in Dublin. The warrior had been stabbed to death during a ninth century viking raid on Dubhlinn monastery. The dagger was still attached to his body when his remains were found. The archaeological dig is expected to continue at the site for six months.
Microsoft has decided to appeal a verdict to pay $520.6 million from a Chicago federal jury that affirms the Internet Explorerbrowser violated Intellectual Property rights of Eolas Technologies (concerning Patent US 5838906). [1][1]
Europeanheat wave: Parisian health authorities charge that fifty people have died in Paris owing to the heat wave, particularly elderly people, and that the government is ignoring the crisis. [1] In Catalonia, five people from one family are killed by a wildfire that encircles their home. Four villages are evacuated in the Algarve. [1]
Doctors in Montreal successfully deliver by Caesarean section a healthy baby who grew in an ectopic pregnancy. Such a pregnancy, which begins outside the womb, is all but invariably fatal to the fetus and is extremely dangerous to the mother. The woman and her doctors were unaware of the ectopic pregnancy until she went into labour. [1]
British police in London are given 'shoot-on-sight' orders to deal with possible suicide bombers by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens as expectations rise of an Al-Qaeda attack on the British capital. [1]
War on Terrorism: The Sunday Times reports that Al-Qaedaterrorists have infiltrated Iraq from surrounding Arab countries and have aligned themselves with former intelligence agents of Saddam Hussein to fight the Coalition forces. Their attacks have killed Coalition soliders and Iraqi police officers, among others. [1]
Pope John Paul II urges Catholics to pray for rain in Europe as the heat wave continues. The heatwave in Britain reaches 100° Fahrenheit (just under 38° Celsius) at Heathrow, for the first time in history. [1] Warnings of avalanches are issued in the Alps, as mountain glaciers melt.
Liberian President and convicted war criminalCharles Taylor, who is to step down tomorrow, has appealed to rebels to 'submit to the democratic process'. He also accuses the United States of funding the rebels who have besieged the capital, Monrovia for a week. [1]
The Russianspace program has the been the first to send a man, a dog, a woman, and a tourist into space. And it may be the first to marry a couple in space. Yuri Malenchenko (41), aboard the international space station, and his bride, Yekaterina Dmitriyeva (26) in Texas, are making preparations for what seems to be the first cosmic wedding. [1][1][1][1]
16-year-old Israeli killed and five other injured in Hizbollah shelling on the northern Israeli town of Shlomi. Israeli planes attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to the shelling. Some sources claim Hezbollah's attack was a response to Israel's car bomb assassination of Hezbollah member Ali Hussein Saleh in Beirut on August 3 which also seriously injured 2 passers-by. [1]
While Retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his successor, Archbishop Njongonkulu Winston Ndungane, fails to see what "all the fuss" is over the ordination of a gay bishop, other African Anglicans suggest that their churches may sever relations with the American dioceses which supported the election of a gay priest as bishop if what they called the "path of deviation" is not changed. [1][1]
A historic heat wave continues to afflict Europe and is expected to continue for another week. Spain and Portugal are particularly hard hit; forest fires in Portugal are declared a national disaster, with damages estimated at €1 billion. Other fires are reported on Majorca and in the Canary Islands. Temperatures of 49°C are recorded in Andalusia. London records its highest temperature in history. The cause of the heat wave is believed to be a stagnant air mass over the Sahara sending hot air as far north as Sweden. [1]
Occupation of Iraq: United States Central Command military officials confirm that Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed, the Iraqi Minister of Interior was in its custody. He occupies the number 29 position on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis. The Iraqi Minister of Interior surrendered to coalition forces yesterday. He was the seven of spades on the deck of cards distributed to U.S. troops. [1][1][1]
SCO v. IBM Linux lawsuit: Aduva, Inc., a Linux developing company, releases this week a tool to allow companies to replace any offending Linux code, if it exists, with code that does not infringe on SCO's intellectual property rights. [1][1][1] It is unknown how this tool will work, as SCO has not disclosed which code it considers infringing.
Hezbollah, a militant Lebanese group backed by Syria and Iran, fires artillery toward Israeli border posts, drawing return fire. It was the first such exchange in eight months. AP story]
A Ma'arivopinion poll shows 37% of his supporters think IsraeliPrime MinisterAriel Sharon is involved in corruption, with 52% saving he will have to resign if he behaved illegally. The controversy is over a $1.5 million loan given in January 2002 to Sharon's son, Gilad that was the loan originated from Cyril Kern, a friend of Ariel Sharon. [1]
Michael Johnston, a prominent "ex-gay" Christian, is said to have engaged in unprotected gay sex, despite his own opposition to homosexuality. [1], [1], [1]
It is reported that the Canadian Grand Prix is dropped from the 2004Formula 1 calendar as a result of its anti-tobaccolaws. The Montreal race was given a grace of 7 years before the introduction of the new law, announced in 1997. This comes a week after it was announced that the Belgian GP will be re-introduced in the 2004 season. [1] However, Formula One director general Bernie Ecclestone says that no such decision has been made. [1]
The draft EUconstitution could lead to the establishment of foreign-owned private health care and educational services. [1]
Convicted terrorist, Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, found guilty yesterday by the Republic of Ireland's Special Criminal Court of "membership of an illegal organisation" and "directing terrorism", is sentenced to twenty years in prison. [1]
The United StatesPentagon establishes that a unit of military personnel has arrived in Liberia, coordinating support for the West African peacekeepers in the country. [1][1]
North Korea and Iran are planning to form an alliance to develop long-range ballistic missiles with
