Portal:Current events/2004 November 8

November 8, 2004 (Monday)

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 nine-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) Archived 2018-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
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) Archived 2004-12-23 at the Wayback Machine (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) Archived 2004-11-27 at archive.today
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)