December 15, 2004

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[edit] December 15, 2004

• CNN's business news network CNNfn ends transmissions. (CNN)
• U.K. Home Secretary David Blunkett resigns from his post in the wake of numerous controversies. He is replaced by Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. Ruth Kelly takes over from Clarke as Education Secretary and becomes the sixth woman in prime minister Tony Blair's Cabinet. Kelly is replaced as Cabinet Office minister by David Miliband. (Sky) (BBC)
• In Athens, Greece, two gunmen, possibly Albanian, seize a bus at 7:00 local time and take 25 hostages on board. The hijackers threaten to blow up the bus at 08:00 Greek time (06:00 GMT, Thursday) if their demands for €1 million and a flight to Russia are not met. The hostage crisis ends peacefully after 18 hours when the two gunmen surrender. All the hostages are released unharmed. (Sky)(News24) (OfficialWire)(Reuters)
• An armed group of young ethnic Albanians, allegedly former NLA guerrilla members, seal off the village of Kondovo, Macedonia, a suburb of the capital Skopje, citing poor conditions and repression by state authorities. The fledgling multi-ethnic governing coalition plays down the incident stating it is a local problem stemming from the slow implementation of the peace agreement after the 2001 civil war, while some opposition parties call for "strong action". (RealityMK) (TOL)
• Democratic Party members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary request an FBI investigation into alleged Ohio voting problems, (NYT) (pdf) prompted by affidavits and sworn testimony taken at a congressional forum held on December 13. [1]
• A US$85 million test of the U.S. National Missile Defense system by the Missile Defense Agency is aborted when an unknown anomaly is detected before the launch of an interceptor missile in the Marshall Islands, 16 minutes after the launch of the target from Kodiak Island, Alaska. It is the first test since a previous failed test in 2002. As in 2002, the Bush administration abandons plans to activate the system by the end of the year, and projects its activation in early 2005. (Reuters) (Associated Press)
• Sprint Corporation announces a US$35 billion deal to acquire Nextel Communications. With about $40 billion in combined yearly revenue the resulting company (called Sprint Nextel) will be the third largest wireless telephone service provider in the U.S.. (MSNBC)
• Human rights in Iraq: The U.S. is forced to release evidence which shows prisoners in Iraq were subject to mock executions, electric shocks, and burns by US Marines. (BBC)
• Iraqi transitional parliamentary election: Iraq's defense minister accuses Iran and Syria of supporting terrorists and charges that a senior Iraqi Shiite was leading a "pro-Iranian" coalition into next month's national elections. (AP via Yahoo)
• North Korea announces that if Japan is to impose any sanctions over the ashes of kidnap victim Yokota Megumi, it will be regarded as a declaration of war. (Japan Today) The Japanese government downplays the criticism. (News24)(Bloomberg) (Japan Today)
• At least four people die in a second Indian train accident, blamed by railway officials on the driver of a van stopped on train tracks near Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu. The new accident comes after the previous day's train crash with a death toll of at least 37. (The Tribune, Chandigarh, India)
• United Nations envoy Jan Pronk says that 10,000 peacekeepers are needed in Sudan to monitor the forthcoming peace deal. (Reuters Alertnet)
• Pitcairn Islands election, 2004: Jay Warren becomes Mayor of Pitcairn Island.