January 15, 2004
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- The United Nations sides with the United States on voting in Iraq. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other UN officials call direct elections in advance of July 2004 impractical, due to continuing disorder in Iraq and other factors. [1]
- 30,000 Shiite protesters in Basra call for immediate country-wide elections in Iraq, a move that would give them more power than the UN-backed plan for regional caucuses mandated by the US-led coalition[2]
- South Korea's foreign minister Yoon Young-kwan resigns after a controversy in which his ministry was accused of diverging from the government's policy of increased independence from the United States. [3]
- The European Union asks the World Trade Organization for authorization to impose trade sanctions against the United States in response to the U.S.'s anti-dumping scheme, which has been ruled illegal by the WTO. [4]
- Canadian federal election, 2004: Former Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement declares his candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. Also confirmed is the candidacy of auto parts magnate Belinda Stronach, who will announce her entry into the leadership race next week. [5]
- Italy has indicted three Germans, all former members of an SS Panzergrenadier Division, on charges of massacring 560 people in 1944 in the Italian village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema. The three Germans, Gerhard Sommer, 83; Alfred Schonenberg, 83; and Ludwig Sonntag, 80, are currently living in Germany. It is not clear whether Italy will request the three men's extradition from Germany. [6]
- U.S. presidential election, 2004: Carol Moseley Braun drops out of the race and endorses Dr. Howard Dean, confirming rumors circulating the night before as she taped an appearance on The Daily Show. [7]
- The date for the publication of the Hutton Inquiry's report into the death of British weapons scientist Dr David Kelly is announced as January 28, 2004. [8]
- The creditors of ailing Finnish low-cost carrier Flying Finn have threatened to confiscate the airline's planes. [9]
- Exploration of Mars: The Spirit Rover has rolled off its lander to start its exploration. The first journey was only three metres. It took the rover about 78 seconds, ending with the back of the rover being 0.7 metres from the lander. [10]
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announces the release of the Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP 1.0). W3C's new standard profiling language CC/PP provides a standardized format of the description of information that will allow Web-enabled devices to effectively communicate their capabilities to the desired server and aids in delivering Web content to broad range of devices.
- José Bono, a prominent Socialist Spanish politician, is recorded calling Tony Blair "a complete dickhead" (un gilipollas integral). [11]
- Popeye, like Tintin, turns 75 this month. [12]
