11/ 1/03 Saturday
In the California wild fires area, residents of Big Bear Valley
mountain resort town were given the go-ahead to return home.
Sixteen U.S. troops were killed and 20 were wounded when their
Chinook helicopter was shot down near Fallujah, in Iraq. The
Chinook helicopter, carrying dozens of soldiers to their R&R leaves
abroad, was struck by a missile and crashed in corn fields west of
Baghdad. In a separate incident, a U.S. soldier from the 1st
Armored Division was killed in an explosion in Baghdad.
11/ 2/03 Sunday
With the Southern California wildfires nearly contained, a wave of
residents returned to the San Bernardino Mountains to see if their
homes survived. The Episcopal Church consecrated V. Gene Robinson
Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in a heartfelt ceremony, making
him the first openly gay man to rise to that rank in any of the
world's major Christian bodies. Sixteen U.S. soldiers wounded in
the helicopter attack arrived in Germany for treatment at an
an American military hospital. Two civilians working for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers were killed in hostile attack in Iraq.
11/ 3/03 Monday
Iraqi guerrillas mounted fresh attacks on occupation forces, firing
mortars into Baghdad and killing an American soldier near Tikrit,
when his vehicle hit a land mine. Exhausted firefighters were sent
home, as remaining crews doused hotspots and watched for new ones -
vast wildfires that ravaged parts of Southern California are all
but surrounded. More than 27,000 people remained displaced from
their homes, but that was well down from the 80,000 at the peak of
the fires. Senators continue questioning the responses of federal
regulators to purported widespread trading abuses within the mutual
fund industry and among brokers that siphon money from ordinary
investors.
11/ 4/03 Tuesday
Republicans picked up two governorships in the South, ousting
Mississippi's Democratic incumbent and seizing Kentucky's top job
for the first time in 32 years. Testing was reported on an
experimental treatment that seems to work like "liquid Drano" for
clogged arteries stems from remarkably healthy villagers in
northern Italy found to have paradoxically lousy cholesterol
levels. Turkish official said his country won't send peacekeeping
troops without a significant change in the situation there. Huge
explosions thundered throughout central Baghdad, in Iraq, about
7:45 p.m. as insurgents targeted the 2-square-mile "Green Zone,"
which includes coalition headquarters, the military press center
and other key facilities.
11/ 5/03 Wednesday
Insurgents attacked three American military convoys in the northern
city of Mosul in Iraq, with RPG's and roadside bombs, killing three
Iraqi civilians and wounding five Americans. In a speech to the
National Endowment for Democracy, questioning past U.S. policy in
the Middle East, President Bush argued that supporting undemocratic
governments in the name of regional stability has produced only
"frustration and pent-up emotions" there. President Bush's signed
a bill banning late-term abortions, sometimes called "partial birth
abortions" - the first major limit on abortion in the U.S. for 30
years.
11/ 6/03 Thursday
Repudiating decades of U.S. policy, President Bush said the United
States and its allies have been wrong in "excusing and
accommodating" a lack of freedom in the Middle East. The legal
attack against a new ban on certain late-term abortions rapidly
escalated, as federal judges in New York and California blocked the
law, delivering a major setback to President Bush only a day after
he signed the measure. An Army helicopter crashed into a riverbank
near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in Iraq, killing all six
U.S. soldiers in the craft; also, one U.S. soldier was killed in an
ambush in the northern city of Mosul.
11/ 7/03 Friday
Insurgents kept up attacks on U.S. troops and their allies across
Iraq despite a show of force in Saddam Hussein's hometown following
the crash of a Black Hawk helicopter that apparently was shot down.
The U.S. economy has created nearly 300,000 new jobs in the past
three months, after a half-year drought, pushing unemployment down
to 6.0 percent in October. Turkey said that it was withdrawing its
offer to deploy troops to help stabilize Iraq. The decision ended
a lengthy and almost entirely futile effort by the Bush
administration to solicit large numbers of foreign troops to
bolster the American presence in Iraq.
11/ 8/03 Saturday
Three explosions rocked a residential compound in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, killing at least 17 people and wounding 86, in a suicide
car bombing; one American was reported to be wounded. A U.S.
soldier from the 1st Armored Division was killed and one wounded
when their vehicle struck a land mine in Baghdad; also, a British
soldier was injured in a land mine explosion in Basra, in Iraq. In
a report to Congress, the CIA has concluded that North Korea has
been able to validate its nuclear weapons designs without nuclear
testing.
11/ 9/03 Sunday
Saudis blamed al-Qaida militants for the recent car bomb attack and
said it was proof of the terror network's willingness to shed
Muslim blood in its zeal to bring down the U.S.-linked monarchy. In
a speech, former Vice President Al Gore accused President Bush of
failing to make the country safer after the Sept. 11 attacks and
using the war against terrorism as a pretext to consolidate power.
A U.S. soldier with the 18th Military Police Brigade was killed in
an RPG attack in central Iraq, about 40 miles south of Baghdad.
Two soldiers were killed when their vehicle ran over a homemade
bomb on a main highway west of Fallujah, about 30 miles west of
Baghdad, in iraq.
11/10/03 Monday
Some American officials believe key members of the 25-seat Iraqi
Governing Council are stalling in hopes of winning concessions from
American politicians eager to turn power over to the Iraqis quickly.
Federal regulators approved rules making it easier for consumers to
go totally wireless by allowing them to transfer their home number
to their cell phone. A World Trade Organization panel in Geneva
declared the present U.S. steel tariffs illegal. An explosion on a
road used by British troops killed four Iraqi civilians and injured
three in the southern city of Basra in Iraq.
11/11/03 Tuesday
A truck bomb rocked the headquarters of the Italian Carabinieri
police in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, killing 32 people,
wounding 80 and possibly trapping others under the debris. U.S.
President Bush's top foreign advisers summoned Iraq's American
administrator, Paul Bremer, for hurried White House talks focused
their growing frustrations with the Iraqi Governing Council and a
logjam in transferring political power to Iraqis. U.S. authorities
have launched 50 separate investigations to stop unscrupulous power
wheelchair suppliers from defrauding Medicare and causing anxiety
to beneficiaries.
11/12/03 Wednesday
U.S. troops destroyed an empty dye factory in Baghdad and chased
attackers who were seen firing mortars. A Japanese government
spokesman indicated Tokyo will likely postpone sending troops to
Iraq until sometime next year. Searches for mortar launch sites
continue in Baghdad and are part of "Operation Iron Hammer," a new
"get tough" policy for confronting insurgents. Paul Bremer said he
would tell the Iraqi governing council that "we need to pull this
all together and integrate it into a plan going forward" and that
Bush was steadfast in his determination to defeat terrorism and to
give Iraqis authority over their own country.
11/13/03 Thursday
President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said
it was necessary to give Iraqis control of their country more
quickly because "they are clamoring for it; they are, we believe,
ready for it." "It does not mean we would physically leave the
country any sooner," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told
troops in Guam. "What it means is the Iraqis would begin to take on
a greater portion of responsibility for governing themselves
sooner." Windstorms gusting to more than 70 mph swept across the
Midwest and the East, knocking out power to more than 1.4 million
customers and bringing rain and flooding.
11/14/03 Friday
Suicide car bombers attacked two synagogues in downtown Istanbul in
Turkey, at almost the same time, killing 23 people. At a joint
news conference with Japan's top defense official, U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld thanked the government for the
billions of dollars in humanitarian aid it has pledged for Iraq's
reconstruction. Chief U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer presented
Iraq's Governing Council with Washington's new policy proposals
aimed at speeding up Iraq's sovereignty to within six or seven
months. A roadside bomb in Baghdad's central Tounis district
killed a U.S. soldier, the 400th to die in Iraq since hostilities
started on March 20th.
11/15/03 Saturday
The new accelerated plan for restoring self-rule in Iraq does not
mean U.S. troops will withdraw anytime soon, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld said, in an interview en route to a U.S. Air Force
base in southern Japan. Democratic Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco became
the first woman ever elected governor of Louisiana. In a
residential neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, two
Black Hawk helicopters collided and crashed, killing 17 American
soldiers in the U.S. military's worst single loss of life since the
Iraq war began.
11/16/03 Sunday
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld assured South Korea that a
planned pullback of U.S. troops from the border area with communist
North Korea will strengthen the ability of the American military to
respond to an invasion from the north, not lessen the American
commitment to defending against a North Korea attack. Mortar and
tank fire lit up the night sky over Saddam Hussein's hometown of
Tikrit in a show of force to intimidate the resistance, while U.S.
troops angered residents by mounting their biggest-ever hunt for
weapons and explosives in a middle class Baghdad area. A tape
purportedly made by Saddam Hussein emerged to urge the rebels to
escalate attacks against the occupation and "agents brought by
foreign armies", an apparent reference to Iraqis supporting the
coalition; and to return Saddam and his now-outlawed Baath Party to
power.
11/17/03 Monday
House and Senate conferees mulled over a massive energy bill that
includes $23 billion in tax incentives. Arnold Schwarzenegger was
sworn in as governor of California and said he was ready to take on
the "massive weight we must lift off our state." Two U.S. soldiers
and a civilian were killed and at least two soldiers were wounded
in two incidents near Balad, north of Baghdad; the soldiers were
members of the 4th Infantry Division, which is leading what was
described as a massive offensive against insurgents around Saddam
Hussein's ancestral homeland of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.
11/18/03 Tuesday
Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court has declared that gay couples
have the right to marry under the state constitution. In England,
President Bush is defending the invasion of Iraq as a necessary use
of military power while likening reconstruction efforts to
rebuilding a shattered Europe after two world wars. Buckingham
Palace, the queen's London residence, was a focal point for
demonstrators bitterly opposed to the Iraq war. They shouted
"Murderer!" and "You are not welcome!" as Bush's helicopter ferried
him to the palace Tuesday night.
11/19/03 Wednesday
The nation's worst blackout should have been contained by operators
at Ohio's FirstEnergy Corp., a three-month U.S. and Canadian
investigation concluded, faulting other factors as well. Eight
competing designs for a memorial to the nearly 3,000 victims of
Sept. 11 were unveiled. Michael Jackson was urged to surrender on
an arrest warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation in
a case that authorities said will result in criminal charges.
President Bush urged Europe to put aside bitter war disagreements
with the U.S. and work to build democracy in Iraq or risk turning
the nation over to terrorists. Former Iraqi general who claims to
be part of the insurgency against U.S. troops says the guerrilla
war around this "Sunni Triangle" city is being waged by small
groups fighting on their own without direction from Saddam Hussein
or others.
11/20/03 Thursday
More than a dozen rockets fired from donkey carts slammed into
Iraq's Oil Ministry and two Baghdad hotels. The National Academy
of Sciences has concluded that some techniques the FBI has used for
decades to match bullets to crimes are flawed or imprecise. Two
truck bombs struck the British consulate in Istanbul, Turkey; the
top UK diplomat in the city, Consul-General Roger Short, was among
at least 16 people killed. It was said that al-Qaeda and the
Turkish Islamic militant group IBDA-C had jointly carried out the
attacks. U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said this
kind of attack would encourage unity between the US and its allies,
rather than drive them apart. England's Blair said at a joint news
conference with Bush, "Once again, we're reminded of the evil these
terrorists pose to innocent people everywhere and to our way of
life."
11/21/03 Friday
U.S. House of Reps mulled over historic Medicare prescription drug
legislation into late night hours. An intelligence report presented
to Turk authorities said some Islamic radicals who fought in
Chechnya, Afghanistan and Bosnia may have returned to Turkey to
work with militant groups. Two car bombs exploded at police
stations in two towns near Baghdad, killing 12 people, all but one
of them policemen.
11/22/03 Saturday
Senate Democrats threatened to use delaying tactics to kill the
Medicare prescription drug bill after Republicans jammed the bill
through the House. In Baghdad, a missile slammed into the wing of
a DHL cargo jet, forcing it to land in the first such attack on a
commercial plane in Iraq. In Dallas, thousands of mourners,
conspiracy theorists and the just plain curious gathered along the
downtown street where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 40
years earlier. U.S. warplanes struck targets in central Iraq and
at least three people were wounded when mortar shells hit an oil
company compound in the northern city of Kirkuk.
11/23/03 Sunday
President Bush is defended U.S. involvement in Iraq and consoled
relatives of fallen troops at Fort Carson, Colorado, grieving the
deaths of 27 of its soldiers. A transport helicopter packed with
American soldiers crashed in Afghanistan, killing at least five of
them and wounding seven others. Three American soldiers were killed
in Iraq, including two whose throats were slashed, after they came
under attack in the northern city of Mosul with rocks and gunfire.
Near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, an oil pipeline was on fire
- sabotage was suspected.
11/24/03 Monday
The U.S. Senate cleared the way for final congressional passage of
landmark legislation to add a prescription drug benefit and a
free-enterprise flavor to Medicare; also dropped efforts to pass
energy legislation this year. Chief administrator Paul Bremer said
Iraqi insurgents have shifted from attacking U.S. and other
coalition forces to attacks on Iraqis who are working with the
U.S.-led occupation. President Bush honored the sacrifices of U.S.
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as he signed a $401.3 billion
defense authorization bill and said, "America's military is
standing between our country and grave danger."
11/25/03 Tuesday
An improving national economy and flat gas prices have travel
officials braced for the busiest Thanksgiving holiday season since
the 2001 terror attacks. CBS claimed its best performance during
the November sweeps since 1980, has dominated its closest rival,
NBC, by more than 3 million viewers a night on average. In regards
to the detention of terror suspects at Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay
in Cuba, top UK judge Lord Steyn said the U.S. was guilty of a
"monstrous failure of justice", detainees were "beyond the rule of
law, beyond the protection of any courts and at the mercy of
victors", and challenged UK ministers to condemn the decision to
hold any prisoners there.
11/26/03 Wednesday
The AAA travel group expected 36 million people nationwide to
travel 50 miles or more from their homes over the weekend; weather
is good for it - clear skies across much of the country. Several
thousand additional Marines will go to Iraq next year, the Pentagon
said in an update that indicated the total U.S. force won't be
reduced as much as planned. Also approved was the mobilization of
9,900 Army, 1,290 Navy and 3,208 Air Force reserve personnel for
the rotation, which will begin in January. Currently, the Pentagon
mobilized 17,000 reservists for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. In
Kabul, Afghanistan, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton promised that
America will stand with Afghanistan as it tries to rebuild after a
quarter-century of conflict, and warned Taliban rebels that they
"are fighting a losing battle."
11/27/03 Thursday
As holiday shopping starts in earnest Friday amid an improving
economy, many of the nation's retailers - particularly department
stores and apparel merchants - plan to be stingier with markdowns
than in past holiday seasons. They're counting on consumers to be
so pleased with new services and exclusive merchandise that they'll
be willing to pay full price. President Bush flew to Iraq under
extraordinary secrecy and security to spend Thanksgiving with U.S.
troops and thank them for "defending the American people from
danger." Bush spent 2 1/2 hours in Baghdad, and told reporters
aboard Air Force One that he wanted the troops "in harm's way to
know that their commander in chief and, more importantly, their
country support them." "This was the best way to thank them," he
said, "Having seen the reaction of those troops, you know it was
the right thing to do."
11/28/03 Friday
In Guantanamo, Cuba, the fenced compound of Iguana House holds
three teenagers accused of fighting alongside Afghanistan's ousted
Taliban - human rights advocates say the U.S. military should long
ago have released the boys, between the ages of 13 and 15, but
detention mission commander Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller said their
freedom is being held up at higher levels. A Japanese rocket
carrying two spy satellites meant to monitor North Korea failed to
reach orbit and had to be destroyed. At least 75 U.S. troops have
died so far in Iraq in November, making it the deadliest month for
American troops since the U.S.-led invasion began on March 20.
A total of 436 U.S. soldiers have died since the start of the war,
according to the Pentagon and the latest casualty figures released
by the U.S. military in Baghdad. They include 299 soldiers killed
in combat, while the others died from other causes such as
accidents.
11/29/03 Saturday
President Bush, having surprised the nation with his Thanksgiving
trip to Baghdad, asked Americans to volunteer to help military
personnel and their families. Guerrillas killed two U.S. soldiers
and wounded a third in an ambush in western Iraq. A day earlier,
seven Spanish intelligence agents and two Japanese diplomats were
killed in separate attacks near Baghdad. With the latest deaths,
guerrillas have killed 106 coalition troops in Iraq in November,
with 79 American soldiers slain along with 25 other allied
soldiers. It has been the bloodiest month of the war that began
March 20.
11/30/03 Sunday
Health workers hit the streets of China's capital, marking World
AIDS Day by teaching prevention in a country whose leaders have
promised an aggressive fight against the disease - and a new
openness learned during the battle against SARS. In the deadliest
reported firefight since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, U.S.
soldiers fought back coordinated attacks using tanks, cannons and
small arms in running battles throughout the northern city of
Samarra. The troops killed 46 Iraqi fighters, and five Americans
were wounded.
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