Portal:Current events/May 2004

Time: 09:33 UTC | Date: Friday, June 20, 2025

May 7, 2004

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies before the U.S. Congress, taking "full responsibility" and apologizing for the torture of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib Prison. The hearing highlights a split between how the abuses are perceived either as "isolated incidents" or as part of the "chain of command". (BBC)
A bomb blast during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque in Karachi, Pakistan kills 10 people and injures 100. A suicide bombing is suspected. The head cleric of the mosque is among the dead. (NYT) (National Post)
Two Polish journalists are killed and a third wounded by Iraqi gunmen on the road between Baghdad and Karbala. (BBC)
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos signs legislation legalizing divorce. (BBC)
U.S. attorney Brandon Mayfield is detained in the investigation of the 11 March Madrid attacks. (CNN) (BBC)
Vladimir Putin is sworn in for his second (and final) four-year term as Russian president. (BBC)
The Prime Minister of Nepal Surya Bahadur Thapa resigns amid protests by oppostion parties. Prime Minister Thapa was appointed by King Gyanendra eleven months ago. The opposing parties are demanding formation of an all party government with a Prime Minister of their choice. (BBC)

May 6, 2004

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber using a car packed with explosives and artillery shells kills 5 Iraqis and one American soldier and injures 25 people, including two American soldiers. (NYT)
Hamas co-founder Mohammad Taha, aged 68, is released from an Israeli prison. (INN)
Iraqi abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison
- The International Committee of the Red Cross states that, over a period of some months, it has repeatedly requested that the United States take action on alleged prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. (NYT)
- U.S. Democratic Senator Tom Harkin calls on Donald Rumsfeld to resign from office to protect the image of America around the world in light of the abuse. (AP)
President George W. Bush states that a resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would be the result of negotiations and that the United States would oppose "any developments in the region that might endanger your (Jordan's) interests." (NYT)
The television sitcom Friends airs its final episode in the United States and Canada. (CNN) (NBC)
It is announced that John Scarlett is to succeed Sir Richard Dearlove as the head of the Secret Intelligence Service with Dearlove becoming master of Pembroke College at Cambridge University. Scarlett is the first head of the SIS ever to have a current photograph published.

May 5, 2004

The Dalai Lama ends his visit to Canada with a ceremony initiating thousands in Tibetan Buddhism. (Toronto Star)
Israeli company Givot Olam announces that from a previously known oil reserve near Kfar Sava believed to contain 980 million barrels of oil, 20% of it is extractible. (INN) (Haaretz)
During a raid in Gaza Israeli troops kill a police captain and wound 15 people, in an area that is used to fire Qassam rockets into Israeli towns. (Reuters)
Maya artifacts are discovered in Cival, a ruined city in the Peten region of Guatemala, suggesting an earlier development of dynastic customs than previously known. (Washington Post)
Three bombs explode in Athens outside a single police station, 100 days before the start of the Olympic Games. One policeman was injured. (BBC) (Boston Herald)
George W. Bush speaks on the Al Arabiya and Alhurra Arabic-language television networks, stating he was 'appalled' at the conduct of U.S. soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. (Toronto Star)
Houston Astros baseball pitcher Roger Clemens records his 4,137th career strikeout to place him second on the all-time list behind Nolan Ryan. (AP) (Reuters)
A judge of the Ontario Superior Court, overseeing the bankruptcy and reorganization of Air Canada, approved an amended "standby purchase agreement" from Deutsche Bank, which stands to become a major owner of equity in the revived airline. (Globe and Mail)
President of the breakaway Georgian republic of Ajaria, Aslan Abashidze is forced to resign by Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili. (BBC) (Independent) (Guardian) (Washington Post)

May 4, 2004

The Legislative Yuan in Taiwan passes a bill mandating that official documents in Chinese be written from left to right instead of right to left, ending centuries of tradition. (Straits Times) (BBC)
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights elects thirteen countries to serve on it for 3-year terms. Sudan is elected unopposed to represent the African bloc, prompting a walk-out by the U.S. delegation. (NYT) (CNN)
Hundreds of Muslim cattle herders are killed by Christian farmers in central Nigerian town of Yelwa. (Reuters)
U.S. Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress condemn the alleged mistreatment of Iraqi detainees in the strongest terms and call for a congressional investigation. (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
Iraq Occupation and Insurgency:
- The Pentagon announces that it plans to keep as many as 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq through the end of 2005. (Bloomberg) (New York Times)
- The U.S. Department of Defense announces that 37,000 National Guardsmen and 10,000 active duty Army and Marine Corps troops are to be called up to serve a one-year tour of duty in Iraq by early 2005. (AP)
A Chicago laboratory announces they helped chose embryos by genetic testing to yield five babies who could donate stem cells to sick siblings. (CNN)
William Krar, a Texan with ties to white supremacists, is sentenced to 11 years in prison after he pled guilty to building and possessing chemical weapons in what has been described as one of the most serious cases of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing. (Reuters) (KRT) (AP)

May 3, 2004

French police seek 500 kg (1,100 lb) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer stolen from the port of Honfleur at the mouth of the Seine River. The fertilizer can be converted easily into a powerful explosive. Such an explosive was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing. AZF recently suspended operations inside France while the group seeks to upgrade its arsenal. (NYT)
Mexico and Peru recall their ambassadors from Cuba, citing recent "offensive" comments by Cuban head of state Fidel Castro. The Cuban ambassador to Mexico is also expelled, for "activities incompatible with his diplomatic status". (VOA) (BBC)
At US$38.21 per barrel of crude, oil prices hit their highest level since 1990. (AP)
In an open letter to George W. Bush more than fifty former high-ranking United States diplomats (including former ambassadors to Saudi Arabia and Qatar) complain about the Bush administration's policy towards the Middle East claiming that the President's approach, and specifically his endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan, is losing the U.S. "credibility, prestige and friends". The letter follows a similar one written by fifty-two former British diplomats sent to Tony Blair a few days ago. (BBC)

May 2, 2004

Investment banker Frank Quattrone of Credit Suisse First Boston is convicted of obstructing justice and witness tampering. Quattrone played a significant role in the Initial Public Offerings of Amazon, Netscape, Intuit and other Internet companies. (NYT)
Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller resigns one day after Poland becomes a member of the European Union. His government was the most unpopular of the nine that have ruled Poland since the fall of the communist regime in 1989. Miller's Left Democratic Alliance party, plagued by a series of corruption scandals (including the Rywin affair), hit a record low in popularity rankings in the last months which led some of its members to break away and form a new party, the Social Democracy of Poland. President Aleksander Kwaśniewski announces he will designate Marek Belka, a liberal economist, as new prime minister. (Reuters)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
- Israel's Likud Party votes in a referendum not to pull out of the Gaza Strip unilaterally. The referendum's defeat is seen as a major blow to the Sharon government. Sharon subsequently says that he will not resign and may modify the plan. (BBC)
- Terrorists kill an Israeli mother, Tali Hatuel, and four of her young children near the Kissufim Crossing in the Gaza Strip. The killers are shot dead by security forces. The incident is believed to have influenced voting intentions in the referendum held the same day. (INN) (BBC)
Martín Torrijos wins Panama's presidential election. (BBC)
U.S. civilian contractor Thomas Hamill, who was taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents on April 9, is found by U.S. forces south of Tikrit after escaping his captors. (MSNBC)
The Sasser worm is spreading. It has the chance of becoming as big as the Blaster worm epidemic because it can infect computers running Microsoft Windows directly without user interaction. (AP)
A government report has found that secret searches in the U.S. are up 85% since 2001. (Baltimore Sun)
Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball teams wins the Euroleague winning the final game 118-74. (INN)
Yelwa massacre, Yelwa, Nigeria, more than 630 nomad muslims are killed by Christians.

May 1, 2004

EU enlargement: Ten new member states (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) join the European Union, increasing the EU's population by 75 million people to a total of roughly 455 million. (BBC) (Guardian)
In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, gunmen kill five Westerners and a Saudi security guard in a shooting spree and car chase. (BBC)
A fire at the Parco dei Principe hotel in Rome kills three, and forces the evacuation of a number of professional tennis stars, including Andy Roddick, Marat Safin, Mariano Zabaleta, and Max Mirnyi. (AP)
Smarty Jones wins the Kentucky Derby. (AP)
The separatist region of Adzharia attempts to sever its links from Georgia by blowing up the three bridges connecting it to the rest of the country over the Choloki River. (AP)

Past events by month

2004: January February March April
2003: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2002: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Logarithmic timeline of current events

News collections

External links to news pages that can be used to gather new topics for the above list:

News sources

External links to leading English language news organizations from around the world:

Broadcast
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (UK)
- Cable News Network (CNN) (US)
- FOX News Channel (FOX) (US)
- Democracy Now! (US)
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) (CA)
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (AU)
- Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) (IE)
- Al Jazeera (ME / Qatar) [English Edition]
- Radio Netherlands (NL) [English Edition]
- NDTV (IN)
- tagesschau.de (Germany) [English Edition]
Print
- Gazeta Wyborcza (PL)
- Der Spiegel (DE)
- Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) (CH) [English Edition]
- The Times (UK)
- The Independent (UK)
- The Guardian (UK) (free registration required for media section)
- The Sun (UK)
- The Financial Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- The New York Times (US) (free registration required)
- The New York Post (US)
- The Washington Post (US) (free registration required)
- The Washington Times (US)
- The San Francisco Chronicle (US)
- The International Herald Tribune (US in Paris)
- The Globe and Mail (CA)
- The National Post (CA)
- The Toronto Star (CA)
- The Sydney Morning Herald (AU)
- The Age (AU)
- The Hindu (IN)
- The Times of India (IN)
- The Indian Express (IN)
- The New Indian Express (IN)
- The Statesman (IN)
- The Hindustan Times (IN)
- The Telegraph (IN)
- The Deccan Herald (IN)
- Granma International (CU) [English Edition]
- Aftenposten (NO)
- Pravda (RU)
- Dawn (PK)
- The News (PK)
- Haaretz (IL)
Wire
- Reuters (UK)
- Associated Press (US)
- MercoPress (Latin America)
Internet-only
- Yahoo! News, world news and general information
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- EUobserver.com (reports on the European Union; see also Wikipedia:EUobserver cooperation)
- UPI world news and general information
- What Really Happened General News
- underreported.com Surprising stories from the media and primary sources
- Google news The latest world news as it happens.
- memoryhole.org News stories that were "memory holed"

Deaths in May

Ongoing events

Upcoming elections

Election results in May

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