Portal:Current events/2003 September 19

September 19, 2003 (2003-09-19) (Friday)

• Peace: United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan rings the Japanese Peace Bell, marking International Day of Peace at United Nations Headquarters in New York, cautioning that for some, the direst threat to peace was terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, while for others it was poverty, disease, deprivation, and civil war.
• Occupation of Iraq: Iraq's former defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmed, surrenders to Coalition troops. He was seen at Saddam Hussein's side in what is thought to have been the ousted dictator's last public appearance as Baghdad fell. He is number 27 on the most-wanted list of former top officials under Saddam Hussein (also eight of hearts). The ex-minister surrendered at a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and was being taken to Baghdad.
• Hurricane Isabel: Isabel, now a tropical storm, moves through western Pennsylvania before heading to Ontario, Canada. The storm leaves more than 4.3 million residents along the East Coast of the United States without power.
• Canadian Liberal Leadership Race: Balloting begins in delegate-selection meetings across Canada which will determine the outcome of the Liberal leadership convention this November. Paul Martin is expected to easily secure enough votes to beat opponent Sheila Copps. This all-but guarantees Martin will replace his longtime rival Jean Chrétien as the next Prime Minister of Canada.
• Email virus: Email users are swamped by a new fast-spreading computer virus circulating through email that purports to be security software from Microsoft, but actually tries to disable security programs that are already running. The worm, dubbed "Swen" or "Gibe", takes advantage of a two-year-old hole in Internet Explorer and affects systems that have not installed a patch for that security hole.
• Nuclear Weapons: Secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a leading hardline Iranian cleric, calls for Iran to withdrawal from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty because of the compliance protocols referred to by the International Atomic Energy Agency and not consent to unfettered inspections of its nuclear facilities. "The treaty has been denounced by a number of countries. Although Iran has inked the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is free to withdraw from it anytime". "North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Many countries have not even signed it. It would have been better if Iran had not signed it."

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