October 5, 2004

October 5, 2004

• A major British flu vaccine company, Chiron, has its manufacturing license revoked due to an outbreak of bacteria. Chiron had been expected to supply half of this season's flu vaccines in the United States. (BBC)
• U.S. presidential campaign: Incumbent United States Vice President Dick Cheney and challenger Senator John Edwards meet in Cleveland, Ohio, for the only vice presidential debate of the 2004 U.S. presidential election. (ABC) (MSNBC) (BBC)
• United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, when asked about connections between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, states "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two". Several hours later he issues a statement saying that he was "regrettably misunderstood" and that there was "solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al-Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad". (BBC) (Reuters)
• The incumbent President of Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri, concedes defeat in the country's presidential election, which took place last week. Her successor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will be inaugurated on October 20. (NEWS.com.au)
• Iran announces that its Shahab-3 missile has been modified to increase its range (originally 810 miles (1,300 km)) to 1,250 miles (2,000 km). This puts parts of Europe — and all of the Middle East — within range of Iran's missiles for the first time. (Reuters) (The Scotsman)
• Afghanistan presidential election: With elections due in four days, Hamid Karzai makes a public appearance in Ghazni, his only campaign rally outside of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul. One of Karzai's main opponents, General Abdul Rashid Dostum makes an appearance at Mazari Sharif, whilst another, Yunus Qanuni, addresses crowds in the capital. (BBC)
• American physicists David Gross, David Politzer, and Frank Wilczek are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for "the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction". (Nobel Prize)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • The United States vetoes a United Nations resolution urging Israel to halt its current offensive in the Gaza Strip. Over 70 Palestinians, including civilians, have died in the offensive. (Xinhua [China]) (Reuters)
  • Israel backs down from its claim that a rocket was loaded into a UN ambulance. The Israeli military said that it is "re-evaluating" its claim. (The Guardian) (AP)
  • Israel arrests 13 Palestinians employed by the United Nations, saying that they are suspected of links to terrorist groups. (Haaretz)
  • In Gaza City, Bashir al-Dabbash, a leader in the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, is killed by a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft. (INN [Israel]) (BBC)

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