October 26, 2004

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[edit] October 26, 2004

• The co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 587 caused the November, 2001, crash in New York City that claimed the lives of 265 people, the staff of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said. (Globe and Mail)
• A report by the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks press freedom across the world. The ten lowest scoring countries (least free) in the report were North Korea, Cuba, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, while the ten highest were Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, New Zealand, and Latvia. (BBC News) (RSF report)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Knesset approves Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw 21 settlements from the Gaza Strip and 4 from the West Bank by next year. Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and three other cabinet ministers from Sharon's ruling Likud government threaten to resign if a referendum over the plan will not be held. (Reuters) (Guardian)
• A food fight breaks out during a lunchtime conference in the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan. (BBC) (Reuters) (USA Today)
• The People's Republic of China shuts down dozens of illegal or unsanitary blood collection stations as part of its efforts to curb the spread of AIDS in the country. (VOA)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Iraq's appointed Prime Minister Iyad Allawi tells the interim national council that yesterday's killing of 49 unarmed army recruits "was the outcome of major neglect by some parts of the multinational (forces)." (Reuters)
  • The U.S. military reports a known associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in an early morning air strike on a safe house in Fallujah. Local residents say that the houses destroyed were empty for over a month and hospital staff report no casualties. (CNN) (Reuters)
• 78 people died of suffocation while in the custody of Thailand police following the dispersal of a violent demonstration on October 25 in the restive Muslim-majority southern region of the country. The deaths appeared to have occurred during a five hour trip in closed trucks to a detention facility. (Reuters)(BBC)