Portal:Current events/2003 October 7
October 7, 2003 (Tuesday)
- California recall: The state of California held a special election to decide whether to recall Governor Gray Davis, and, if so, who to replace him with. Also on the ballot: Proposition 53, the "California Twenty-First Century Infrastructure Investment Fund," and Proposition 54, the "Racial Privacy Initiative."
- The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg and Anthony Leggett for their work on the theory of superconductors and superfluids.[1]
- United Nations envoy and Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Terje Roed-Larsen, condemns attack from Lebanese territory that killed an Israeli soldier across the southern withdrawal line and urges Beirut to control the use of force everywhere in its jurisdiction. Roed-Larsen, states the attack "constitutes a clear violation of the Blue Line and Security Council resolutions and could escalate tension between Israel and its northern neighbours" and he calls on all sides to use diplomacy and take no action that "could increase the already high level of tension in the region".[2]
- UN spokesman states that a peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has discovered 65 bodies, mostly children, apparently massacred.[3]
- Occupation of Iraq: The Turkish Parliament votes (358-to-183) to approve the dispatch of peacekeepers to Iraq, in a major victory for United States efforts to broaden foreign involvement in Iraq. In Baghdad, Iraqi Governing Council officials state that they would oppose any new foreign troop deployment to Iraq. No formal decision had been made by the Council and leaders of the council have stated they would support this if the United States requested this.[4]
- The South African government announce they would not prosecute the five policemen accused of killing Steve Biko in 1977, citing insufficient evidence to support a murder charge.[5]
- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) announces its intention to form a single-market "Asian Community" by 2020.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2003". Retrieved 22 December 2015.
- ^ "United Nations News Centre". UN News Service Section. 7 October 2003. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
- ^ "United Nations News Centre". UN News Service Section. 7 October 2003. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
- ^ [1] Archived March 12, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ [2] Archived January 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine