Portal:Current events/2004 October 27

October 27, 2004 (Wednesday)

The Boston Red Sox win their first World Series title since 1918—and break the "Curse of the Bambino"—by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3–0 in the fourth game of the 2004 World Series of baseball.
The US Air Force commissions its first F-22 Raptor jet, the world's most expensive fighter aircraft. The Air Force has ordered 277 of the planes. (BBC)
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's health declines sharply, and a team of doctors is called in to treat him. Doctors performed a minor diagnostic procedure on Arafat on Monday, after he complained of stomach pains. (Reuters) (Haaretz)
Scientists announce the discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores of the skeleton of a previously unknown species of extinct human, named Homo floresiensis. Unusually, the creature, while quite different from modern humans—as an adult, it stood only 3 feet (90 cm) tall—dates from only 18,000 years ago, disproving the accepted theory that modern humans became the sole human species 160,000 years ago. (AP)
Four British citizens, who were detained at the US military installation in Guantanamo Bay for almost three years, sue the U.S. government for £5.5 million ($10 million) each, alleging torture and other human rights violations. The principal defendants are Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers. (BBC)
Three Russian policemen are charged with negligence over the Beslan school hostage crisis; more than 350 people, about half of whom were children, died in that event. (Reuters)
Three militants with alleged links to al-Qaeda are killed by Pakistani forces near the border with Afghanistan. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-26 at the Wayback Machine
Amnesty International declares the Bush administration to be "guilty of setting conditions for torture and cruel treatment by lowering safeguards and failing to respond adequately to allegations of abuse", amid other criticisms of the "war on terror", which the report says is "violating basic rights in the name of national security" and urged the President and challenger John Kerry to support an independent inquiry into detention and interrogation policies. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine
Slobodan Milošević trial: Slobodan Milošević's defense team asks for a withdrawal, saying Milošević refuses to cooperate. (Reuters)
U.S. presidential election: The BBC reports that it has obtained a document from George W. Bush's Florida campaign headquarters containing a list of 1,886 names and addresses of voters in largely African-American and Democratic areas of Jacksonville, Florida. Democratic Party officials allege that the document is a "caging list" that the Bush campaign intends to use to issue mass challenges to African-American voters, in violation of federal law. (BBC)
A vote by the European Parliament over the approval of the new European Commission has been delayed, after incoming president José Manuel Barroso asks for more time to reshuffle his team. (EUobserver) (BBC)
The Cassini-Huygens space probe makes its first close flyby of Titan, resulting in images up to 100 times better than anything seen before. (Astrobio)