November 2003

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

A timeline of events in the news for November, 2003.

See Also:

November 30, 2003

November 29, 2003

  • In Norfolk, Virginia, the USS Cole leaves port on the destroyer's first overseas deployment since it was bombed is the year 2000 in Yemen's port at Aden. [1]
  • Police in Turkey announce the arrest of a yet-unnamed man they state has admitted giving the order to suicide bombers to attack Beth Israel synagogue in Istanbul on November 15. [1]
  • Luan Enjie, director of the National Aerospace Bureau of the People's Republic of China states that "By 2020, we will achieve visiting the moon." [1]
  • Occupation of Iraq: A team of 8 Spanish intelligence agents is attacked south of Baghdad; 7 are killed and 1 wounded. [1] Two Japanese diplomats are killed near Tikrit. Two U.S. soldiers and a Colombian civilian contractor are killed in Baghdad.
  • In Australia, the opposition Labor Party's finance spokesperson, Mark Latham, announces that he will contest the party leadership ballot on 2 December against the former leader Kim Beazley. Press reports place the two candidates at about 40 votes each, with about ten undecided. [1]
  • French and German university students continue to hold protests, including strikes, over controversial policies such as tuition fees. German students also occupied the central offices of the PDS in Berlin, following a similar protest earlier in the week in which 30 to 40 students occupied the office of Thomas Flierl for more than 24 hours. Protests in both countries have been continuing to spread for the last two weeks.[1] [1] [1] German press: [1], [1]

November 28, 2003

November 27, 2003

  • Scientists warn that a devastating influenza epidemic is not only inevitable but may be imminent. [1]
  • The People's Republic of China angrily rejects US anti-dumping measures on imports of televisions from China, saying that the US measures breach WTO agreements and discriminate against Chinese firms; Premier Wen Jiabao is due to visit Washington, DC next month. [1]
  • British police say that explosives have been found in the Gloucester home of a 24 year old man being held on suspicion of terrorist activity and links to Al-Qaeda; the suspect is British born of Asian origin. class="external">[1
  • Kofi Annan says that the global war against AIDS is being lost. [1]
  • War on Drugs: European Union justice ministers agree to tougher anti-drug laws, but the Netherlands say its "coffee shops" -- where cannabis is openly sold and smoked -- would survive. [1]
  • Peruvian police clash with campesinos in the town of Carhuamayo (department of Junín), leaving two dead and more than 20 people injured, during a protest against mining pollution. Strikers are demanding the government hand over $58 million from the privatization of a state electricity company for the cleanup. [1]
  • At the end of the First Count of elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, and reflecting the early tallies the Democratic Unionist Party attracts the highest popular vote, with Sinn Féin coming second, the Ulster Unionist Party third and the SDLP fourth. Minor parties like the Progressive Unionist Party, the Alliance Party and the UK Unionist Party suffer major collapse, with the Women's Coalition losing all its seats. Later counts are expected to boost the middle ground UUP and SDLP, who show greater possibilities of picking up inter-party transfers than the more extreme DUP and Sinn Féin. Nevertheless, Sinn Féin is widely expected to have more MLAs than the SDLP, a reversal of the results in the 1998 Assembly elections. It is too close to call whether the previous larger UUP or the Rev. Ian Paisley's DUP will have more seats after all counts. The final results will not be known until late on Friday, when all six seats in each constituency are filled. The election was held under PR.STV. [1]
  • Plans for the handover of power in Iraq have to be revised after senior Shiites object to indirect elections. [1]
  • President George W. Bush makes a surprise visit to Baghdad to visit the American troops on Thanksgiving Day. The visit is not announced publicly until after Bush has left. [1]
  • Larry Spencer of the Canadian Alliance Party makes public statements stating his desire to recriminalize homosexual behaviour in Canada to combat what he claimed was a conspiracy by the homosexual community to infiltrate social institutions to recruit children into the "homosexual lifestyle". He was quickly denounced by numerous public figures including his own party leader, Stephen Harper, who also made him resign his position as Family Issue Critic in the House of Commons with an apology. However, commentators have noted that these inflamatory homophobic statements have placed the pending vote on the proposed merger with the Progressive Conservative Party on December 6 in jeopardy by illustrating fundamental differences between the parties concerning social attitudes.

November 26, 2003

November 25, 2003

November 24, 2003

November 23, 2003

  • A BBC Correspondent programme, based on computer-generated images, suggests that the Warren Commission's controversial magic bullet theory, in which is was claimed that the same bullet hit President John F. Kennedy and Governor John Connally during Kennedy's assassination in 1963, was correct. Using state of the art computer generated images based on the Zapruder film, the programme concludes that a lone gunman could have shot Kennedy. ABC News and Court TV arrived at a similar conclusion [1]
  • Beleaguered Georgiann President Eduard Shevardnadze resigns. Elections will be in 45 days, but until then, Nino Burdzhanadze will be the acting president. [1] [1]
  • Nationalist party HDZ appears set to beat the ruling centre-left coaltion in Croatia's general election. [1] [1]
  • EADS, the largest European aircraft company, is doing preliminary work on a hypersonic passenger aircraft that would take the place of the recently-retired Concorde; the planning includes collaboration with Japanese firms and METI. [1] However, its subsidiary Airbus' A380 'super-jumbo' sub-sonic vehicle is the product expected to become the dominant commercial aircraft in the near-future. [1]
  • The New York Times reports that the FBI is actively monitoring and gathering intelligence on anti-war protest movements' activities, ostensibly to detect possible terrorist activity. Opponents such as the ACLU criticize the practice as regressionary to the days of J. Edgar Hoover's intense monitoring of private organizations for potential Communist links. [1] [1]
  • The People's Republic of China plans to start tests of a SARS vaccine on humans by the end of December; trials with monkeys show that the vaccine was effective. [1]
  • 10,000 trade unionists, environmentalists, and farmworkers march in Miami to protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas expansion meeting. Other street protests erupt into violent confronations with police several times throughout the day. Protester sources indicate upwards of 250 protesters incarcerated, along with reports of physical and sexual assault while in custody. [1] [1] [1] [1] [1] Other demonstrations take place in cities throughout the Americas.
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • Three US troops are killed in Iraq, two of them in a civilian vehicle in Mosul and the third in a roadside bombing in Baquba. A mob desecrates the bodies of the Mosul victims and loots their gear. [1] [1]
    • A female acting ambassador to the USA is chosen by Iraq's Governing Council: Rend Rahim, an Iraqi/American educated in Britain, France and Lebanon. [1]
  • A US military helicopter crashes near Bagram, Afghanistan, killing five soldiers and wounding seven. [1]
  • An opinion poll in Pakistan says that about 75% of Pakistanis are completely dissatisfied with President Pervez Musharraf. [1]

November 22, 2003

November 21, 2003

  • President George W Bush arrives back in the United States after his controversial State Visit to the UK. [1]
  • U.S ambassador to the People's Republic of China Clark Randt is called to meet Chinese ministers twice (second day in succession) in connection with US plans to restrict imports of Chinese textiles; Beijing is shocked at the US move. [1]
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • In the pre-dawn hours RPGss are launched from donkey carts at two Baghdad hotels and the oil ministry building. Reports indicate slight damage and one casualty. [1]
    • Former senior U.S intelligence official and UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter urges the Parliament of the United Kingdom to investigate the questionable way in which units of British secret intelligence agencies massaged public opinion prior to war with Iraq. [1] [1]
  • The Global Environment Facility Council Approves $224 Million in Grants for 19 Projects to Improve the Global Environment [1]

November 20, 2003

November 19, 2003

November 18, 2003

November 17, 2003

  • Conrad Black is pushed to resign as chief executive of his media empire, which may be sold. [1]
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as Governor of California. [1]
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • Izzat Ibrahim, a top general in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, is directly implicated in recent attacks on US troops; he is number six on the US list of most wanted Iraqis and the second-highest target still at large after the former president himself. [1]
    • Italian official Marco Calamai resigns from the U.S.-led administration running Iraq, stating that "The provisional authority simply doesn't work". He says that the Iraqis are becoming angry and that the UN needs to step in. He accuses the US of underestimating the complexity of Iraq's social structure. [1]
  • Tony Blair publicly defends his decision to invite President Bush to the UK on a state visit. [1]
  • John Allen Muhammad is unanimously convicted of all four counts in the indictment against him, including two charges of capital murder, committed during the October 2002 sniper shootings in the Washington, DC metro area. The jury is currently deciding whether Muhammad will be sentenced to death or to life in prison. [1]
  • People living near remote submarine bases in the West Highlands of Scotland are to be issued with potassium iodate tablets in case of a nuclear accident. [1]
  • Coca eradication: The White House Drug Policy Office claims the area planted with coca in Peru and Bolivia combined fell by 3,500 hectares in the year up to June, suggesting that the coca eradication program in neighboring Colombia was not driving production over the borders. But the US figures were very different from preliminary estimates in September by the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Colombia, which suggested output in Peru and Bolivia may have risen by as much 21 per cent this year.[1]
  • Chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov is level-pegging against X3D Fritz after 3 games played. [1]
  • The United States contract bridge team defeats the team from Italy to win the 2003 Bermuda Bowl in Monaco. After thirteen days and over 1000 hands of bridge, the US team wins by one point, after Italian Lorenzo Lauria plays the wrong card from the dummy to lose the last hand. [1]

November 16, 2003

November 15, 2003

November 14, 2003

November 13, 2003

November 12, 2003

  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • A top-secret CIA intelligence report warns about growing numbers of Iraqis concluding the coalition can be defeated and supporting the resistance. The CIA report also cautions that more aggressive counterinsurgency tactics will induce other Iraqis to join the resistance. Slate magazine notes the new anti-insurgency measures in "postwar Iraq" means the situation is "Iraq War – Phase II." [1]
    • In response to a leaked report, Paul Bremer says that terrorists "are trying to encourage the Iraqi people to believe that the United States is not going to stay the course". The CIA report says that the incipient insurgency is deep rooted, growing rapidly and not confined to ex-Baathists. class="external">[1
    • President Bush and senior advisers meet in Washington to determine how to move forward in Iraq, given the slow progress of the Iraqi Governing Council and the deteriorating political situation as outlined in the CIA report. [1]
    • Thirty-one people, mostly members of Italian security forces, are killed in a mid-morning truck bombing in Nasiriya. Italian opposition politicians call for a pullout from Iraq. [1] [1]
  • Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Palestinian parliament approves a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. [1]
  • The United Kingdom government announces plans to introduce identity cards, which are intended to eventually become compulsory. [1]
  • The Peruvian Congress approves more charges against ex-President Alberto Fujimori, alleging he trafficked arms to Colombian guerrillas, sanctioned torture, was responsible for the disappearance of student activists, and mismanaged millions of dollars from Japanese charities to build schools for poor children in Peru, with an unexplained $2.3 million shortfall in funds received, among other irregularities.

November 11, 2003

  • The US Senate backs legislation imposing sanctions on Syria; the bill allows the president to adjust sanctions as a function of Syria's co-operativeness. [1]
  • Following yesterday's WTO decision, the People's Republic of China and Japan indicate that they will retaliate against US tariffs on steel imports if the US fails to amend its policy. [1]
  • U.S. Presidential election, 2004: George Soros pledges USD $15.5 million to help defeat President George W. Bush in 2004. Soros says a "supremacist ideology" guides the White House and describes the US under the Bush administration as a danger to the world. [1]
  • War on Terrorism: An Arab magazine claims to have received an e-mail from a member of the Al Qaeda group claiming responsibility for Saturday's bombing in Riyadh that killed 17 people and injured over 100. [1]
  • Occupation of Iraq:
    • The Coalition detains about 20 people suspected of links to al-Qaida. [1]
    • Mayor of Fallujah says a US general threatens stern measures unless attacks on coalition forces stop. [1]
    • The British government and foreign policy establishment pushes privately for an early handover of sovereignty to Iraqis; they say the US shows too little sense of urgency. [1]
    • An Annenberg Public Policy Center poll, taken during widespread publicity over army helicopter shootdowns, says there has been a shift in US public opinion, now split about evenly over whether the war in Iraq is worthwhile. [1] [1] [1]
    • There is a rising trend of complaints from returning National Guardsmensmen and reservists as they return to work after assignments. [1]
  • The Control Risks Group reports that London is the leading terrorist target in Western Europe due to British involvement in Iraq and the UK's large Muslim population. [1]
  • Large parts of central London are to be sealed off during US President George W. Bush's state visit to the United Kingdom next week. Due to security concerns Bush is to be denied the traditional state ceremonial carriage-ride up the Mall to Buckingham Palace normally accorded to heads of state. [1]
  • Toyota nudges out Ford in Q3 to become the world's second-largest manufacturer of automobiles behind General Motors. [1]
  • Pornographer Larry Flynt states that he has bought topless photos of famous Iraq war soldier Jessica Lynch and was planning to publish them in January 2004; later, he says he bought them to prevent them from ever being published. The photos reportedly show Lynch frolicking with male soldiers prior to her deployment to Iraq. [1] [1] [1]
  • Negotiations break down between Montréal 2006 and the Federation of Gay Games on having the Gay Games in Montreal in 2006. Montreal 2006 insist that they will still have an event in 2006, while the FGG mull moving the Games to a different city. The two parties were unable to agree on the size of the event. [1]

November 10, 2003