August 9, 2004

Microsoft issues Service Pack 2 for its Windows XP operating system. (BBC)
Pakistan protests to the U.S. over an FBI sting operation involving a fake plot to kill Pakistan's UN envoy. (BBC)
At least 15,000 people are left homeless after several days of storms and heavy rains around the South African city of Cape Town. (BBC)
A non-radioactive steam leak at the nuclear power plant in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, Japan, kills 4 and scalds 8 others. (AP)
Richard Butler, the controversial governor of the Australian state of Tasmania, resigns. (ABCnews)
Fierce fighting continues between U.S. forces and backers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Sadr threatens that he "will defend Najaf until my last drop of blood." According to the U.S. military, U.S forces have killed 300 supporters of Sadr in some of the most violent clashes since the fall of Baghdad. (democracy now!)
Scientists speaking at a news conference on natural disasters raise the alarm that the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, Canary Islands, could erupt at any time, sending a 250 km². rock crashing into the Atlantic Ocean and producing a tsunami that could devastate the Atlantic's coastline, within hours. Very little seismological monitoring of the volcano is being carried out. (BBC)