January 29, 2004
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- A 60-ton sperm whale carcass explodes in downtown Tainan, Taiwan, causing traffic chaos and showering vehicles and pedestrians with blood and entrails. [1]
- A report submitted today to the State of Maryland states that the electronic voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems "have such poor computer security and physical security that an election could be disrupted or even stolen by corrupt insiders or determined outsiders". The machines have been purchased by a number of states in the United States. [2] This is the third report to state that the machines do not meet the security requirements of an election. Previous reports are available online: [3], [4].
- Hutton Inquiry: The BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, resigns in the continuing fall-out from the report. Mr Dyke is the second high-ranking BBC official to resign. Mark Byford is appointed Acting Director-General. [5] The UK media in general condemns the report as a whitewash. [6]
- The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades of Fatah claim responsibility for a suicide bombing aboard a city bus, in which Ali Yusuf Jaara, a member of the Palestinian police force, kills 10 Israelis and wounds more than 50, outside the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem. Simultaneously with the bombing, Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Defense Minister, is meeting with American envoys Wolfe and Sauterfield, who have requested an easing-up of conditions for the Palestinians. The explosion also coincides with a German-brokered prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. [7] [8] [9]
