Portal:Current events/2004 April 2
April 2, 2004 (Friday)
- United States Vice-president's wife, Lynne Cheney, stops publication/reissue of erotica/sexy novel, "Sisters", authored in 1981. (CANOE)
- To stop the rapid spread of avian influenza in British Columbia, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency could kill up to 16 million chickens in poultry farms around Abbotsford, British Columbia. (CBC)
- Federal commissioners investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks look into the 6,000 documents from former President Bill Clinton's presidential archive. (CNN)
- Second Intifada: Teenagers from areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority provoke a riot by throwing large stones at Israeli police shortly after noon prayers at the Western Wall. When police try to stop them, hundreds of other Muslims join the stone throwers. Resisting apprehension, the rioters seek refuge at the Temple Mount, site of Al Aqsa Mosque, most holy place to Jews and third-holiest place for Muslims. (AP)
- Hong Kong police forcibly disperse a peaceful demonstration outside the Government Headquarters building, carrying away people, including journalists, one by one. The demonstrators hoped the Government would send a representative to accept an open letter from the demonstrators. The Hong Kong Journalists Association condemns the police action for infringing freedom of press by removing journalists from the scene first. (BBC) (CNN) (Hong Kong Standard)
- Calm returns to Falluja as the desecrated remains of four US civilians are handed over to occupation authorities; townspeople state they were torn between pride in the attack and shame over the mutilations. (International Herald Tribune)
- A judge in New York declares a mistrial after eleven days of deliberations in the case of former Tyco International chairman and chief executive Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz after a juror received either a "threatening or coercive" letter in the previous 24 hours. Kozlowski and Swartz have been accused of stealing $600 million from Tyco.(AP)
- Sun Microsystems announces that it moves to a new phase of legal and Technology/technical cooperation with longtime foe, Microsoft, that will involve a payment of $1.95 1,000,000,000 to Sun. (CNet)
- Economy of the United States: "Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 308,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 5.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll job growth was fairly widespread, as construction employment rose sharply and several major service-providing industries also added jobs." (BLS)
- A report on anti-Semitism by the European Union's European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) concludes attacks against Jews in Europe are rising, primarily ascribed to youths from neighborhoods sensitive to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, principally of North African descent.
- Ariel Sharon states that he is ordering a halt to all construction and development in Gaza Strip settlements. (Jerusalem Post)
- The Spanish government discloses that a powerful bomb has been discovered on the high-speed AVE railway line between Madrid and Seville. (BBC) The bomb, found near Toledo, is revealed the next day to be the same type as those used in the 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people. (CBC)
- A United States federal judge in Providence, Rhode Island, finds Hamas guilty in a civil lawsuit resulting from the 1996 murder of Yaron and Efrat Unga in Israel. Hamas is ordered to pay the family of Yaron and Efrat Ungar $116 million. The court has not yet ruled regarding the liability of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. (BostonGlobe)
- The BBC reports of a surgery which cured a patient of Tourette syndrome. (BBC)
- The BBC announces that Michael Grade will become its new Chairman on May 17, following the resignation of its previous Chairman Gavyn Davies in the fall-out from the Hutton Inquiry report. (BBC)
- Sri Lanka holds a parliamentary election. (BBC) (VOA)
- Former US marine Toby Studabaker, who abducted a 12-year-old British girl after "grooming" her via the Internet, is jailed for four and a half years. (Ananova) (BBC)
- An estimated crowd of between 10,000 and 19,000 mourners show up to pay their final respects to Mexican singer Adán Sánchez in Los Angeles. Many in the crowd turn violent, jumping onto the van carrying the singer's body. Some are injured, and police and emergency rescue intervention is required. (Baltimore Sun)
- Disney's 44th animated movie, "Home on the Range", is released in theatres.