December 16, 2003

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[edit] December 16, 2003

• Space Adventures, a space tourist company, announces that two American customers have paid to board a Soyuz spacecraft on its journey to the International Space Station and back in 2004 and 2005. [1]
• Capture of Saddam Hussein:
  • Congressman Jim McDermott suggests that George W. Bush timed the capture of Saddam Hussein for political gain. [2]
  • The Israeli military reveals it developed a secret plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein in retaliation for Scud missile attacks on that country during the Gulf War. The plan was called off after five commandos were accidentally killed while training for the mission. [3]
  • Saddam Hussein's daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, tells the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television network, Saddam "should not be tried by the Iraqi governing council which was put in place by occupiers ... we want an international, fair and legal trial". [4]
• Occupation of Iraq:
  • United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking in a UN Security Council debate, urges member states to define a clearer role for the UN in Iraq. [5]
• Prosecutors in Santa Barbara, California, announce that they will file charges against the singer Michael Jackson on December 18 or 19. [6]
• A major expansion of British airports is announced by the UK government, with Stansted, Heathrow and Birmingham set to gain extra runways. [7]
• An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends that the morning-after pill (for emergency contraception) be made available without a prescription. [8]
• Somalia: 31 people die in the course of fighting between rival militias.[9]