Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigns as president of Haiti and flees the country for the Central African Republic. The chief justice of the Haitian supreme court, Boniface Alexandre, is sworn in as interim president. (Sydney Morning Herald) (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/02/29/1077989442372.html)(Reuters) (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4461959)(Globe and Mail) (http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040228.whaiti0228_2/BNStory/International/)
Occupation of Iraq
Iraq's leaders meet deadline for drafting interim constitution. (CNN) (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/02/29/sprj.nirq.main/index.html)
Saddam Hussein's government systematically extorted billions of dollars in illegal payments from companies doing business with Iraq. (Seattle Times) (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001867868_oilforfood29.html)
Kurdistan activists bring petition to the authorities in Baghdad asking for a referendum on whether Kurds will stay within a united Iraq or to form an independent Kurdistan. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3492630.stm)
2004 in film: The 2004 Golden Raspberries are handed out in commemoration of the low points struck last year by the motion picture industry. (Yahoo) (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=502&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20040228/ap_on_en_mo/film_razzies) (Age) (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/28/1077677019435.html)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Ronnie Kasrils, the South African minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, calls the Israeli West Bank barrier a "wall of shame" and states that the wall is meant to dispossess Palestinians of their land and water resources. (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4846.shtml)(iafrica) (http://iafrica.com/news/sa/303288.htm)
In an angry public exchange, Yasser Arafat calls Fatah official Nasser Yousef a "traitor" and hurls a microphone at him. (Al Bawaba) (http://www.albawaba.com/news/index.php3?sid=271360&lang=e&dir=news)(Maariv) (http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=3719)
International Space Station crew Michael Foale and Alexandr Kaleri perform the first ever spacewalk involving the station's entire crew; the spacewalk is cut short by a malfunction in Kaleri's spacesuit. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3486794.stm)(ABC) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1055200.htm)
The U.S.Justice Department says it will move to block Oracle Corporation's hostile $9.4 billion takeover bid for larger rival PeopleSoft, saying a merger of the two largest accounting and human resourcessoftware companies in the U.S. would hurt competition. (SF Chronicle) (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/27/ORACLE.TMP&type=tech)(Toronto Star) (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077837010994&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851)
Iranian state radio reports United States officials discount the reports. (ORF) (http://www.orf.at/index.html?url=http%3A//www.orf.at/ticker/139600.html)(Iran Mania) (http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=23003&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs)(AP) (http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V7725.AP-Bin-Laden.html)
IDF soldiers fire against protesters against the Israeli West Bank barrier killing two and injuring 60, several of them seriously. (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4825.shtml)
The United States lifts a ban on travel to Libya, ending travel restrictions to the nation that had lasted for 23 years. (Reuters) (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4447998)
Expressions by Disney shareholders of a lack of confidence in its management continue. Five more state pension funds announced that they will not vote for the re-election of chairman (and chief executive) Michael Eisner at next week's meeting. These pension funds – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia – are following the lead of California – CalPERS made its announcement to the same effect Wednesday. (TheStreet) (http://www.thestreet.com/p/_tscs/rmoney/jamesjcramer/10145911.html)
Russian President Vladimir Putin opens the 2,165 km (1,345 mile) Chita_to_KhabarovskAmur Highway connecting the Russian Far East alongside the Pacific to the rest of the country. Construction of the highway was begun in 1978. (Guardian) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3793188,00.html)(Tri-Valley Herald) (http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~1985699,00.html)
Swiss police are investigating a man in the killing of an air traffic controller. The suspect apparently lost his family in a midair collision in 2002; the murder victim was on duty at the time of the crash.
Microsoft's Japan headquarters are raided on suspicion of violating anti-monopoly laws by the fair trade watchdog. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3488186.stm) (Mainichi) (http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040226p2a00m0dm004000c.html)
Israel raids four banks in the West Bank seizing currency amounting to over 6 million dollars from accounts which it alleged had been used to fund terrorism. Israel claims it will use the funds for humanitarian projects in Palestinian areas. The Israeli raid, and Palestinian Arabs condemned it utterly. (VOA) (http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=F3713E59-ED0B-4EFB-9EFEF60D085BF0B0)(SVT) (http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=1805&a=180907)
Clare Short, former BritishCabinet Minister, alleges on the BBCToday radio programme that British spies regularly intercept UN communications, including those of Kofi Annan, its Secretary-General. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3488548.stm)(Scotsman) (http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2578236) The claim comes the day after Katharine Gun, formerly an employee of British spy agency GCHQ, had a charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act dropped after prosecutors offered no evidence, apparently on the advice of the Attorney-General. Gun had admitted leaking American plans to bug UN delegates to a newspaper. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3485072.stm)
The mayor of New Paltz, a village in New York State, announces that the town will start performing civil marriages for same-sex couples. It will not attempt to issue marriage certificates, but married couples in New York State have six months from the date of their wedding to seek a certificate. (365Gay) (http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/02/022604nyWed.htm)
Rosie O'Donnell marries her partner Kelli Carpenter at San Francisco City Hall. (AP) (http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.asp?id=FBE5BCB2-5EF7-4287-80D5-7A1478A7D271)
Maysun Al-Atawana, director of family and children affairs in the Palestinian Authority's social affairs ministry, claims that Israeli shelling of heavily populated suburbs was targeting children. She noted that 35.5% of casualties among the Palestinians wounded since start of the Aqsa intifada in late September 2000 were children including 1.4% less than five years old. (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4794.shtml)
Libya's Foreign Minister, Abdulrahman Shalgam, issues a statement reaffirming its acceptance of culpability for the 1988bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, after the Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem, in an interview for the BBC, claimed Libya had "bought peace" with the $2.7bn compensation payments, but had not accepted guilt. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3487562.stm)(Mercury News) (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8042204.htm)
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, CalPERS, a major shareholder in The Walt Disney Company, indicated that it will withhold its votes from Disney chief executive Michael Eisner at next week's shareholders' meeting, a new sign of a growing rebellion against Eisner's leadership, (TheStreet) (http://www.thestreet.com/tech/georgemannes/10145572.html)
The controversial film, United States. Jewish leaders fear the film will stoke antisemitism, while some Christians laud the realistic depiction of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus. (Washington Post) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2863-2004Feb24.html) A woman in Wichita, Kansas collapses and dies of a massive heart attack while viewing the harrowing Crucifixion scene. (KAKE) (http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/653662.html)
In the northern Uganda city of Lira, protests and riots cause at least nine deaths after the Ugandan army announces it killed 21 members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group, in retaliation for an attack on a refugee camp at Barlonyo. (CNN) (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/02/25/uganda.massacre.rebels.ap/index.html)
King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, who recently made a statement in support of same_sex marriage, responded to an "insulting" e_mail by announcing he is not gay. The king is 81 years old and has 14 children. (Telegraph) (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/25/wcam25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/25/ixworld.html)
Guantanamo Bay: The Pentagon announces that the first charges are to be filed against two of the six hundred detainees of the detention camp, but human rights groups have had their request to observe the military tribunals turned down. The defendants are named as Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al-Bahlul and Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, both alleged to be Al-Qaeda members and charged with "conspiracy to commit war crimes". (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3518653.stm) The Pentagon also confirms that even if cleared by the tribunals, the defendants may still not be released. (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3487958.stm)
The writer and Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer criticized Israel for treating the Palestinians people in the same way the Nazis treated Jews during the Second World War. (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4782.shtml)
In an piece on the Israeli state-run radio, deputy minister Zeive Boim asked "is it genetic defect that explains the continuing criminality of the Palestinians?" (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4783.shtml)
Dozens of schoolchildren in the town of Beitonia in the district of Ramallah have fainted or suffocated as a result of excessive inhalation of teargas fired by IDF soldiers at their secondary school. (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4787.shtml)
Russian president Vladimir Putin dismisses Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and implicitly the entire Russian cabinet less than a month prior to presidential elections. (CNN) (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/02/24/russia.putin.ap/)(BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3517331.stm)
At least 564 people are killed in Morocco, in an earthquake of 6.1-6.5 Richter magnitude, occurring outside the tourist resort Al Hoceima in the middle of the night (0227 UTC). (BBC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3515803.stm)
2004 Haiti Rebellion: Rebels in Haiti have wrested large parts of the island from government control. The capital, Port-au-Prince is still held by supporters of the President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Supporters of the president vowed to defend the city and fight to the death.
Israeli soldiers confiscate villager's shoes. After what an Arab news sources characterized as an unprovoked incident of humiliation and beating at an Israeli army roadblock near Ramallah, the 30-year West Bank resident was left to return to his village bare-footed. (palestine-info.co.uk) (http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/am/publish/article_4767.shtml)
The United States Army cancels the RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program with US$8 billion already invested in the project and an additional US$450-680 million in contract cancellation fees to pay. The reconnaissance helicopter project is being phased out in favor of unmanned aerial vehicles. (Forbes) (http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2004/02/23/rtr1271929.html)(Reuters) (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=4419627)
A fire kills six people at the Dhawan Space Centre, the launch facility of the Indian Space Research Organisation. (CNN) (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/02/23/india.fire.ap/index.html)
2003 in film: Return of the King becomes the second film in history to gross more than $1 billion in worldwide box office receipts.(CNN) (http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/23/leisure.rings.reut/)(BCC) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3516055.stm)
Zvi Mazel, the ambassador of Israel in Sweden, calls former foreign minister Sten Andersson and Sweden's UN ambassador Pierre Schori "professional anti-Israelis". (Aftonbladet) (http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,437040,00.html)(TV4.se) (http://tv4.se/visa/?ID=304771)(Aftonbladet) (http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/telegram/0,1082,63110927_852__,00.html)(dn.se) (http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1042&a=236848&previousRenderType=1)(SVD) (http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/inrikes/did_6951586.asp)
Rebels capture Haiti's second-largest city, Cap_Haitien, after just a few hours of fighting Sunday. (Washington Post) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp_dyn/articles/A62122_2004Feb22.html)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 8 Israelis are killed and 60 wounded, among them children on their way to school, in a suicide bombing of a city bus in Jerusalem, Israel. The Al_Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades branch of Fatah claimed responsibility. The attack occurs one day before the start of hearings at the International Court of Justice regarding the Israeli West Bank barrier. "This attack proves just how urgent it is to build the fence," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. "It is a clear preventive measure ... We will continue building it because it saves lives." The suicide bomber came from Husan, a populated area near Bethlehem. (NYT) (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Palestinians.html?hp)(Haaretz) (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/396964.html)
A Pentagon report is leaked predicting global doom from climate change. The report was reportedly suppressed by the Bush administration. (Guardian) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1153530,00.html)
The death toll from an outbreak of dengue fever on Java has risen to 224. (ChannelNewsAsia) (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/72205/1/.html)
In Tirana, Albania, a crowd of up to 20,000 protesters, led by ex-president and opposition party leader Sali Berisha, demanded once again that Prime MinisterFatos Nano resign for failing to improve the economy. This protest, though a peaceful one, comes on the heels of a more violent protest two weeks ago in which protesters threw rocks at police and tried to storm the Prime Minister's office.
Katie Lynn Forry, infant daughter of Todd and Deby Forry of Laramie, was born and died Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004, in Ivinson Memorial Hospital of Laramie.
Survivors include her husband, of Sheridan; a brother, Tim Winslow of Buffalo; and two sisters, Susan Young of Bridger, Mont., and Patricia Durham of Gallatin Gateway, Mont. Memorials may be made to the Sheridan Dog and Cat Shelter, 84 East Ridge Road, Sheridan, WY 82801.
17, 2004, in Chandler, Ariz. She was born Sept. 22, 1927, in Sheridan to Martin and Edna Timm.
February 13, 2004: I was cc'd on an e-mail from EMI's lawyers to my ISP, stating that I'm in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
February 19, 2004: Downhill Battle is organizing Grey Tuesday, a day of coordinated civil disobedience in protest of EMI's attempt to squash this album.
February 23, 2004: The law firm of Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman (representing Capitol Records) has started e-mailing cease-and-desist notices to the websites that are participating in the Grey Tuesday protest tomorrow, whether they're hosting the album or simply changing the colors of their homepage.
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