Portal:Current events/2004 September 14

September 14, 2004 (Tuesday)

The China Times reports that the People's Republic of China has deployed heavily armed troops to guard the Three Gorges Dam from a possible terrorist attack. (BBC)
An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), by a vote of 15–8, recommends that warnings be added to antidepressants, stating that the medications can be linked to suicidal behavior in some children. The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of its advisory panels, but usually does so. (FOX News) (Reuters)
In the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person yet tried in the U.S. in relation to the 9/11 attacks, the court refuses to allow Moussaoui to call Camp X-Ray detainees as witnesses, but does allow him to use written evidence from some of the detainees. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Moussaoui, who admits to being a member of al-Qaeda but denies involvement in the 9/11 plot. (BBC)
At least 45 people are killed and over 100 others are injured when a car bomb explodes in central Baghdad, Iraq. The blast leaves a three-meter (10 ft) crater in the road in a busy shopping area; many of the dead are Iraqi job-seekers who were queuing up outside a nearby police station. (BBC)
The United States lifts its siege of the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar after Turkey threatens to end all cooperation with the U.S. in Iraq if the attacks, which had killed many civilians in the largely Turkmen city, continue. (Xinhua)
The Ontario Superior Court permits the first divorce of a same-sex couple in Canada (and perhaps the first in the world), declaring that the portion of Canada's Divorce Act that excludes same-sex marriages from the act's effects is unconstitutional. (Globe and Mail) (Reuters)
2004 Atlantic hurricane season:
- Hurricane warnings are issued for Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands in anticipation of Tropical Storm Jeanne, which is expected to become a hurricane by tomorrow. (NOAA/NHC)
- As of 13:00 local time (1800 UTC September 14), Hurricane Ivan is located about 650 km (400 mi) south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and is moving along a north-northwest path at about 9 mph (14.5 km/h). The hurricane is now projected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast of the United States on Thursday morning. (NOAA/NHC)
- As of 23:00 local time (0300 UTC September 14), Ivan is located about 60 km (40 miles) west-northwest of the western tip of Cuba. Forecasters are predicting landfall somewhere between eastern Louisiana and the panhandle of Florida late Wednesday. (NOAA/NHC)
- The center of Hurricane Ivan passes over the Guanahacabibes peninsula on the western tip of Cuba, flooding coastal areas, ripping roofs off houses, and knocking down trees and power lines, but sparing Cuba its worst effects. (Reuters)