December 7, 2004

• The United States Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of state laws that block merchants from shipping wine across state lines. Affected businesses and consumers claim that such laws are invalid under the commerce clause, long held to ban a state's discrimination against interstate commerce.
• Frans van Anraat is arrested in the Netherlands for shipping chemical weapons precursors to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War (CNN)
• High profile Democratic New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer announces his campaign for Governor in 2006. (Yahoo)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
  • Two Hamas militants, two Islamic Jihad members and an Israeli soldier have died following clashes in the central Gaza Strip. (BBC)
  • Shahar Dvir-Zeliger, a Jewish settler in Nablus, has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment for membership of an extremist group. He was found guilty of being a member of the Bat Ayin cell, which has killed eight Palestinians. (BBC)
  • An entire Israeli Army elite unit has been suspended from duty while investigations continue into what B'Tselem alleges was a killing of an unnarmed injuried Palestinian man. (BBC)
• 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy:
  • In a sworn affidavit Monday, a former programmer for a NASA contractor said that he developed a vote-rigging prototype at the request of a then-Florida state representative, Tom Feeney, who is now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. (Blue Lemur)(bradblog)
  • Ohio Secretary of State, and Co-Chair of the George Bush Ohio Campaign, Ken Blackwell certifies election results. Two parallel vote count efforts are pending, one claims evidence that John Kerry is the legitimate winner of Ohio. (Associated Press) (NYT)
• The U.S. military discusses plans for mandatory visibly worn ID badges, forced labor, DNA testing, and retina scans at "citizen processing centers" for all residents of the rebellious Iraqi city of Fallujah, saying they plan to make it a model city for the whole of Iraq. (Boston Globe)
• Hamid Karzai is inaugurated as President of Afghanistan. (CNN) (BBC)