February 22, 2004

• 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) (TV4.se) (Aftonbladet) (dn.se) (SVD)
• Rebels capture Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien, after just a few hours of fighting Sunday. (Washington Post)
• 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) (Haaretz)
• 2004 U.S. Presidential Election: Ralph Nader declares his candidacy for the position of President of the United States as an independent candidate. (Guardian) (BBC)
• Same-sex marriage in the United States: Saying he will defend California's laws limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples, state attorney general Bill Lockyer dismisses California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's "order" in the San Francisco marriage licenses debate, saying his office is independent of gubernatorial power. (Mercury News)
• A Pentagon report is leaked predicting global doom from climate change. The report was reportedly suppressed by the Bush administration. (Guardian)
• The death toll from an outbreak of dengue fever on Java has risen to 224. (ChannelNewsAsia)
• 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 Minister Fatos 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. (BBC) (ChannelNewsAsia)
• The Lord's Resistance Army kills more than 190 people in an attack on a camp for displaced persons near Lira, Uganda. (BBC)