November 5, 2003

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[edit] November 5, 2003

• United States - Politics : Democratic intel memo by staff disturbs the US Senate. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) states "heads should roll" over the memo of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that outlines a strategy to politicize intelligence data. [1]
• The sun surprises astronomers by launching another solar flare, this time the largest ever recorded. [2]
• After 26 years, and at a distance from Earth of over 8 billion miles, Voyager 1 exits the solar system. It is expected to keep on transmitting into the 2020s. [3] [4]
• The Australian Central Bank raises interest rates by 0.25% in a bid to curb surging consumer borrowing. [5]
• Saskatchewan general election, 2003: The NDP government of Lorne Calvert is returned to power with a majority government.
• The third Matrix movie, The Matrix Revolutions, opens simultaneously worldwide. [6]
• The European Union says it will press ahead with retaliation against US steel tariffs if the WTO rules in its favour next week. [7]
• Occupation of Iraq:
  • The United States states foreign terrorists are slipping into Iraq and believes the people behind recent attacks in Iraq have come in from neighbouring countries. Iraq's Governing Council head, Jalal Talabani, urges Iraq's neighbours to crack down on "terrorists" crossing into Iraq. Talabani states terrorists had entered from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Syria urges America to withdraw troops from Iraq. [8]
  • Soldiers recount crash horror. One soldier states that he "heard a crash and prayed". Recovering from wounds suffered when their helicopter was shot down in Iraq, the U.S. soldiers expect to be needed in action again. [9]
  • Turkey says it will not send troops to Iraq without a significant improvement in security there. [10]
  • Talabani plans visit to Turkey in bid to ease crisis over Turkey's troops to Iraq. [11]
  • An Iraqi senior judge, Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili, investigating former officials of Saddam Hussein's regime is kidnapped and shot dead. The Najaf prosecutor-general, Aref Aziz, was also kidnapped and later released unharmed. [12]
  • A second judge, Ismail Yussef Saddek, investigating members of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime is shot dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. [13]
  • US intelligence-gathering in Iraq is being questioned partly as a result of disbanding the army. [14][15]
• The ninth case of mad cow disease is confirmed in Japan. [16]
• An article in the November issue of J. Climate argues that global warming will bring more snow to the Eastern Great Lakes region. [17]
• The United Nations votes again and overwhelmingly in a non-binding and non-enforceable resolution for an end to sanctions against Cuba; only the USA, Israel, and the Marshall Islands vote against. [18] The US's United Nations ambassador John Negroponte avoided the forum. Washington responded to the vote through a mid-level diplomat, Sichan Siv, who tells the General Assembly delegates that the Cuban embargo was a "bilateral issue" which was really none of the UN's business. [19]
• Arizona officials believe two rival immigrant smuggling rings are responsible for a shootout in Arizona that killed four people, and wounded several others. [20]
• In Portland, Oregon, a local election to establish a PUD that would investigate public ownership of Portland General Electric failed when 69% of the voters voted against the measure. Both Portland General Electric, an Enron subsidiary, and PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Scottish Power contributed $1.9 million to fight the measure. [21]
• In Seattle, Washington, Gary Ridgway confesses to the murder of 48 women, who were the victims of the Green River Killer. In return, he will not be subject to capital punishment, but serve life imprisonment for his crimes. [22]
• North Korea nuclear weapons program: United States allies in Asia and Europe agree to stop cooperation on nuclear power plant project. They suspend a multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear power reactors in North Korea. Japan, South Korea, the United States, and the European Union will announce the fate of the project by November 21.[23]
• Microsoft contributes $500,000 to fund the search of computer viruses and other malicious code writers, starting with the MSBlast computer worm and the Sobig virus orginators. Microsoft will be working with law enforcement agencies (FBI, the Secret Service, and Interpol) in the search. The initiative marks the latest move by Microsoft and law enforcement to curtail attacks that plague the Internet. [24]