Portal:Current events/2004 November 9

November 9, 2004 (Tuesday)

President of the Republic of China 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 three 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) Archived 2004-12-23 at the Wayback Machine
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.