Venezuelan opposition leaders claim to have gathered enough petition signatures to force a referendum to recall President Hugo Chávez; in response, the government alleges the four-day signature drive was tainted by "massive fraud". [1][2]
The US dollar continues to decline, hitting a new low of 1.2 against the euro; the dollar is suffering from deteriorating support against the background of a large current account deficit and fears of growing protectionism. [4]
Andrei Illarionov, economic advisor to President Vladimir Putin, indicates Russia will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol in its current form, a decision that would kill the accord. Some observers speculate that this is purely domestic posturing for forthcoming elections. [5]
Hospitals around Paris struggle to cope with an outbreak of influenza and gastro-enteritis. [9]
The European Union threatens retaliatory sanctions unless the United States lifts its threat of restrictions on imports of steel; the US measures have been declared illegal by the WTO. [10]
Pirate copies of a pre-alpha version of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system go on sale in Malaysia more than a year ahead of the official release date. [11]
GIMPS has confirmed that 220996011-1 is prime. At 6320430 decimaldigits, it is easily the largest known prime number. 220996011-1 is the 40th known Mersenne prime and the 6th Mersenne prime discovered by GIMPS. [12]
December 2 is the 336th day (337th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hugo Rafael Chávez FrÃas (IPA: ; born July 28, 1954) is the 53rd[1] and current President of Venezuela. ... DeCSS is a computer program capable of decrypting content on a DVD video disc encrypted using the Content-Scrambling System (CSS). ... Jon Lech Johansen (born November 18, 1983), also known as DVD Jon, is a Norwegian who was involved in the release of the DeCSS software. ... This article is about general United States currency. ... The euro (plural euro, symbol: €; banking code: EUR) is the official currency of the European Union and single currency for over 300 million Europeans in the following twelve European Union member states: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain; collectively also known as... The term current accountrk usually refers to the current account of the balance of payments (BOP) and contains the import and export items of goods and services as well as transfer payments including net investment income. ... Protectionism is the economic policy of protecting a nations manufacturing base from the effects of foreign competition (such as including Dumping) by means of high tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and other means of reducing importation. ... Andrei Nikolayevich Illarionov (Андрей Николаевич Илларионов) is the economic policy advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin. ... Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: ВладиÌмир ВладиÌмирович ПуÌтин, (help· info), VladÃmir VladÃmirovich Pútin; born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician, and the current President of the Russian Federation. ... Kyoto Protocol Opened for signature December 11, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan Entered into force February 16, 2005. ... An election is a decision making process whereby people vote for preferred political candidates or parties to act as representatives in government. ... Mark Latham Mark William Latham (born 28 February 1961), an Australian politician, was Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from December 2003 to January 2005. ... Simon Findlay Crean (born 26 February 1949) is an Australian politician. ... The Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australias oldest political party. ... Hon Kim Beazley Kim Christian Beazley (born December 14, 1948), Australian politician, is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, and has been Leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition since 28 January 2005. ... It has been designated the: International Year of Rice (by the United Nations) International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO) 2004 World Health Day topic was Road Safety (by World Health Organization) Year of the Monkey (by the Chinese calendar) See the world in... The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian liberal conservative political party. ... Judicial High Court Lower Courts Constitution State and territory governments Executive Governors and Administrators Premiers and Chief Ministers Legislative Parliaments and Assemblies State electoral systems ACT - NSW - NT - Qld. ... John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian politician and the countrys 25th and current Prime Minister. ... A general election is an election in which all members of a given political body are up for election. ... The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. ... General Colin Luther Powell, United States Army (Ret. ... The West Bank The Palestinian National Authority (PNA or PA) is a semi-autonomous state institution nominally governing the bulk of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (which it calls the Palestinian Territories). It was established as a part of Oslo accords between the PLO and Israel. ... This article is about the proposal for peace between Israel and Palestine. ... Seal of the United States Department of Defense The United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense, concerned with the armed services and The Secretary is appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate, and is a member of the Cabinet. ... Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is currently serving as the 21st United States Secretary of Defense, since January 20, 2001, under President George W. Bush. ... The Plain English Campaign is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. ... Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American bodybuilder, Golden Globe award winning actor, and Republican politician, currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. ... Lord Patten of Barnes The Right Honourable Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC (born 12 May 1944) is a prominent British Conservative politician. ... , The Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in Paris, is an international symbol of the city. ... Influenza, commonly known as the flu or the grippe, is a contagious disease of the upper airways and the lungs, caused by an RNA virus of the orthomyxoviridae family. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... For other uses of the initials WTO, see WTO (disambiguation). ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, SEHK: 4338) is an international computer technology corporation with 2005 global annual sales of close to $40 billion USD and about 64,000 employees in 85 countries and regions which develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices. ... Windows Vista is the next major version of Microsoft Windows, the proprietary operating system developed by Microsoft. ... The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS, is a collaborative project of volunteers, who use Prime95 and MPrime, special software that can be downloaded from the Internet for free, in order to search for Mersenne prime numbers. ... A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number that only has trivial divisors. ... The decimal (base ten or occasionally denary) numeral system has ten as its base. ... In mathematics and computer science, a numerical digit is a symbol, e. ... In mathematics, a Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a prime power of two. ... A pre-9/11 view of The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... Motto: E pluribus unum (1789 to present) (Latin: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York, New York Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto Government • President • Vice President Federal republic... Unlawful combatant (also illegal combatant or unprivileged combatant) describes a person who engages in combat without meeting the requirements for a lawful belligerent according to the laws of war as specified in the Third Geneva Convention. ... Flag flown by the Taliban. ... Yaser Esam Hamdi was a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan while fighting U.S. forces with the Taliban in 2001. ...
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