2002 :
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December
A timeline of events in the news for November, 2002.
See also:
- Kenyan hotel bombing: Three suicide bombers detonated themselves at a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, killing a number of people, including Israeli tourists who have been presumed to be the targets of the attack. At the same time two anti-aircraft missiles were fired at a passenger aircraft, which only narrowly missed. The two attacks are suspected to be connected, and it is suspected that al-Qaeda may be involved in the attacks.
- Henry Kissinger has been appointed as the chairman of the supposedly independent panel investigating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America. This has made many people on the political left suspicious of the motives for appointing such a controversial figure as Kissinger to such a sensitive position, given his past association with political intrigue.
- The controversial physician Severino Antinori has claimed that a project to clone human beings has succeeded, with the first human clone due to be born in 2003. His claims were received with scepticism from many observers. The even more controversial organization Clonaid then announced that they had five clones waiting to be born, one of whom, they claimed, would be born in December 2002.
- Professor Gunther von Hagens carried out the first public dissection in London for over a century. This was an illegal act, but was not prevented by the authorities.
- José Bové, member of the anti-globalization movement, will have to carry out a fourteen months time in prison for destruction of the transgenic rice seedlings in France.
- The tanker Prestige, which has been leaking oil off the north-west coast of Spain for several days, split into two at 8 o'clock in the morning (0700 GMT). The vessel was reported to be about 250 km away from the Spanish coast at that time. The entire load of oil is 70,000 ton; most of it is still in the two parts of the ship; if all leaks out the resulting damage could be twice that of the Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska in 1989. Despite efforts, the oil reached the coast. See : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2488229.stm
- Recent celebrity deaths: James Coburn, actor, age 74, of a heart attack.
- A plot by a group of terrorists believed to be a part of or affiliated to the al-Qaeda network was revealed as having been uncovered by MI5. The plot involved a plan to release poison gas in the London Underground railway network.
- Abdullah Gül[?] becomes the new prime minister of Turkey
- Ethiopian famine: Meles Zenawi[?], the Prime Minister of Ethiopia is reported as saying that the famine that threatens his country could be worse than the 1984 famine. He is reported as saying that "if that was a nightmare, this will be too ghastly to contemplate", and has appealed for famine relief[?] for Ethiopia.
- Antibiotic resistance: A woman in the US city of Detroit who was infected in July by a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to vancomycin, the antibiotic often viewed by doctors as the "antibiotic of last resort", is now reported to have tested to be clear of the infection. She is still being kept in isolation to prevent the infection from being spread to others.
- Anti-Semitism: Harvard University canceled an invitation to Irish poet and Oxford University lecturer Tom Paulin[?] after some statements attributed to him in an article in an Egyptian newspaper, al-Ahram[?], were labelled anti-Jewish by university officials. Paulin is quoted (amongst other things) as saying that American Jewish settlers in Israel should be "shot dead. ... I think they are Nazis, racists. I feel nothing but hatred for them." He is also quoted as saying that he understands "how suicide bombers feel", and recommends that Palestinians take up guerrilla warfare against civilians in order to create a sense of solidarity. Paulin, whilst outspoken, is a prominent supporter of many liberal causes.
- A team of Italian researchers has produced an analysis of their experimental results that may be indirect evidence of the existence of gravitational waves. Their paper, entitled "Study of the coincidences between the gravitational wave detectors EXPLORER and NAUTILUS in 2001" is based on a statistical analysis of the results from their detectors.
- President of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin announced several key policies at 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing. Although Marxism-Leninism would remain the official ideology of China, entrepreneurs and people in unconventional occupations, who are building "socialism with Chinese characteristics", would have a voice in establishing Communist Party ideology. Mr. Jiang is preparing to yield the position of General Secretary of the Party to Hu Jintao, but will maintain the presidency.
- Former President of France Valery Giscard d'Estaing, head of the Convention on the Future of Europe, told the newspaper Le Monde that Turkey should not become a member of the European Union, even though Turkey is a very important country with a true elite. He particularly mentioned that the capital and 95% of the population were not located on the European continent. He also mentioned that one cannot discuss, as we do it, the national legislation of the Union, on very important points of everyday european issues and pretend that some discussions could be extended to countries which, for perfectly estimable reasons, have another culture, another approach, another way of life.