December 2003

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This article covers breaking news and events in December 2003.

Daily events

Monday December 1, 2003

• Geneva / Switzerland : On World AIDS Day , the United Nations and the World Health Organization are launching an aid program that will give around three million HIV- infected people in the Third World access to drugs over the next two years .
• Geneva / Switzerland : The work of the Geneva Initiative to draw up an agreement for the final solution to the Middle East conflict is officially concluded with a ceremony. In principle, the Geneva initiative recommends that the lines of the 1949 armistice agreement be made into a state border between Israel and a future state of Palestine . The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon already stated that he had no sympathy for the plan.

Tuesday December 2, 2003

• Hanau / Germany : China wants to buy the Hanau fuel element plant. Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder supports the deal and at the same time calls for the arms embargo against the People's Republic to be lifted.

Wednesday December 3, 2003

• The Hague / Netherlands : The Christian Democrat Bernard Bot is sworn in as Dutch Foreign Minister. Bot is the successor to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer , who will change to the post of NATO Secretary General on January 1, 2004 .

Thursday December 4, 2003

• Warsaw / Poland : The Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller breaks two vertebrae when the government helicopter crashes.
• Washington, DC / United States : US President George W. Bush gives way in the steel dispute with the European Union and lifts the protective tariffs introduced in 2002 on steel products. In return, the EU waives the announced punitive tariffs on US products.

Friday 5th December 2003

• Cologne / Germany : The Islamist leader Metin Kaplan , who became known as the “Caliph of Cologne” , is withdrawn from recognition as a political refugee in Germany. The possibility of deportation to Turkey is being examined.
• Stavropol / Russia : At least 36 people are killed in a bomb attack on a train.

Saturday December 6, 2003

• Berlin / Germany : Party founder Ronald Schill is replaced as Hamburg state chairman by the federal executive committee of the Rule of Law Offensive party . Schill does not recognize the resolution.

Sunday December 7, 2003

• Moscow / Russia : In the parliamentary elections , the party alliance United Russia wins 37.1% of the vote and becomes the strongest force. The Communist Party received 12.7%, the LDPR 11.6% and the Rodina party ( German  Heimat ) 9.1%. The election result strengthens the President of Russia Vladimir Putin from the United Russia party, which forms the ruling coalition with LDPR and Rodina. The OSCE election observation mission , headed by Rita Süssmuth from Germany, was present in many polling stations and found that processes were “95% correct”. However, the executive and the mass media were used too heavily for the benefit of the ruling party.

Monday December 8, 2003

• Buckinghamshire / United Kingdom : Rock musician Ozzy Osbourne fractured his collarbone and eight ribs in an accident with a quad bike on his Buckinghamshire estate. A neck vertebra has broken. The emergency operation succeeds and Osbourne is out of danger.
• Harare / Zimbabwe : President Robert Mugabe declares his country's withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations . a. includes the formerly ruled by the United Kingdom of the fallen British Empire .

Tuesday December 9, 2003

• Hamburg / Germany : Hamburg's First Mayor Ole von Beust dissolves the government coalition and orders new elections.
• Moscow / Russia : At least five people were killed in a suicide bombing in downtown Moscow. Ten others were injured when one or two presumably Chechen women blew themselves up near the Kremlin .
• Solar system : The Japanese mission to Mars Nozomi has failed. Due to a defective circuit on the Nozomi spacecraft , it cannot enter Mars orbit.

Wednesday December 10, 2003

• Bern / Switzerland : Parliament has elected the Federal Council. The resigned Kaspar Villiger FDP had to be replaced. In addition, the SVP demanded a second seat. Christoph Blocher (SVP) and Hans-Rudolf Merz (FDP) are newly elected . Ruth Metzler was no longer elected by the CVP . This is only the third election of a member of the Federal Council. This ends the so-called “magic formula” that has been in effect in the Federal Council since 1957.
• Bern , Geneva , Zurich / Switzerland : In some Swiss cities, spontaneous protest demonstrations take place v. a. held by women and young people against the new government. The Federal Palace in Bern and the surrounding buildings are cordoned off by the police and the demonstrations are peaceful.
• Munich / Germany : The Munich Higher Regional Court confirms a fundamental claim for damages by media entrepreneur Leo Kirch against Deutsche Bank . Deutsche Bank boss Rolf-E. Breuer had left out in a television interview in February 2002 about the financial situation of the ailing Kirch group and thus violated banking secrecy . The amount of the compensation must be negotiated in further proceedings.

Thursday December 11, 2003

• Hamburg / Germany : The Hamburg terrorist trial bursts. The Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi has been released from custody because it cannot be proven that he was involved in the attacks of September 11, 2001 .

Friday December 12, 2003

• London / United Kingdom : Prince Charles suggests Mick Jagger knighted. Jagger is allowed to bear the title of nobility “Sir” from today because of his “services to popular music” .
• Ottawa / Canada : Paul Martin is sworn in as head of the new Canadian government.

Saturday December 13, 2003

• Berlin , Frankfurt am Main , Leipzig / Germany : Around 50,000 people took to the streets in Berlin and other German cities to demonstrate against the increasing cuts in education and social security.
• Bern / Switzerland : In Bern , around 15,000 women and men demonstrated against the results of the Federal Council elections last Wednesday.
• Brussels / Belgium : The EU summit on the European constitution has failed. No agreement was reached on the future distribution of votes. The large countries ( France , Great Britain , Germany and Italy ) prefer a distribution by population. Spain and Poland , on the other hand, stuck to the distribution of the EU summit in Nice , which gave them greater influence. The Convention's constitutional proposal does not come into force for the time being.

Sunday December 14, 2003

Saddam Hussein after his arrest

• Baden-Württemberg , Rhineland-Palatinate / Germany : The RheinNeckar S-Bahn goes into operation. On four lines , travelers u. a. from Kaiserslautern to Osterburken or from Speyer to Karlsruhe .
• Bern / Switzerland : The new division of departments in the Federal Council has been determined: Christoph Blocher will be given the Federal Department of Justice and Police , Hans-Rudolf Merz the Federal Department of Finance . The previous ones keep their respective departments.
• Iraq : Former President Saddam Hussein was caught in a raid on his hometown of Tikrit last night around 6 p.m. CET , according to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a spokesman for the US Department of Defense . The identity is said to have already been confirmed by a DNA test .
• Lefkoşa / North Cyprus : In the North Cypriot election on Sunday, the opposition and government each won 25 seats in parliament. In the event of an election victory, the opposition had promised new negotiations aimed at reunifying Cyprus.
• Yokohama / Japan : The football world cup for club teams goes to the Argentinian club Atlético Boca Juniors from Buenos Aires after a 3-1 win on penalties against AC Milan .

Monday December 15, 2003

• Germany : After negotiations between the Bundestag and Bundesrat in the mediation committee on Monday night , a compromise was announced in the morning: the tax reform will be reduced. There was also agreement on the other reform proposals.
• Framingham / United States : The term Web 2.0 is first made known to the general public in a special publication by CIO magazine . For Web 1.0 z. B. Framework conditions such as HTTP and html explained, on the other hand, the Internet in Web 2.0 offers an integration platform for interactive exchange. The term will later experience a shift in meaning (“interactive web”).
• Samarra / Iraq : US soldiers killed 11 people after rioting in Saddam Hussein's hometown . According to their own statements, the patrol was exposed to heavy rifle fire.

Tuesday December 16, 2003

• Hanover / Germany : The federal executive committee of the Rule of Law Party ( Schill Party ) decides to expel its founder and namesake Ronald Schill .
• Kabul / Afghanistan : Afghan President Hamid Karzai is committed to fighting corruption. For this purpose he wants to set up a supervisory authority. While the Loja Jirga council was in session, three rockets hit Kabul. Nobody was injured in the process.
• New York / United States : UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is committed to a fair trial against the ex Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein one.
• Rome / Italy : Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi refuses to put his signature on a new media law in Italy. In doing so, he is stopping Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's efforts to enable the state to further expand his media group.

Wednesday December 17, 2003

• Athens / Greece : A court in Athens has sentenced the 59-year-old head of the left-wing Greek terrorist organization " November 17th ", Alexandros Giotopoulos , to 21 life sentences.
• Baghdad / Iraq : In one attack , a tanker truck exploded in the working-class district of El Bajaa, killing 17 people and injuring many more.
• Germany : The mediation committee has agreed on the proposed reform package. However, 30% of the tax relief must be financed through loans.
• Paris / France : President Jacques Chirac announces a comprehensive law banning headscarves and other religious symbols in schools.
• United States : Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein deserves the death penalty for George W. Bush . That is what the President said in a television interview today. Meanwhile, the ex-dictator's interrogation by the CIA has begun.

Thursday December 18, 2003

• Berlin / Germany : The former head of state and party leader of the GDR , Egon Krenz , is released early from custody.
• Hamburg / Germany : Ronald Schill founds a new parliamentary group in the Hamburg parliament. After his expulsion from the Schill party , he and five other Schill MPs overturned the majority of the center-right coalition. Schill's former partner Katrin Freund was elected chairman of the new Ronald Schill parliamentary group .
• Vilnius / Lithuania : The Parliament of Lithuania has initiated proceedings to impeach the incumbent President Rolandas Paksas .
• Vienna / Austria : Iran allows the United Nations inspectors to move around more freely than before to investigate the Iranian nuclear program .

Friday December 19, 2003

• Berlin / Germany : The Bundestag voted on the controversial tax reform today and adopted it with the votes of the government coalition and the opposition . In addition, the 2004 draft budget was rejected in the Federal Council today
• The Hague / Netherlands : The Kazaa swap exchange is declared legal in the Netherlands. The circumvention of the copyrights takes place only by the user, not by the software , it says in the explanation.
• San Francisco / United States : The US Court of Appeal ruled that prisoners of war imprisoned on Guantánamo as "enemy fighters" must be granted access to lawyers and US courts.
• Solar system : The Mars lander Beagle 2 successfully decouples from the Mars Express mother probe and approaches the surface of the planet.
• Wiesbaden / Germany : The phrase " Das alte Europa ", coined by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , as a name for the European states that are taking a critical stance on the war in Iraq, is the word of the year for the German Language Society Germany . According to the jury, Rumsfeld's negative connotation was reversed.

Saturday December 20, 2003

• Diwaniyya / Iraq : The Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar pays a surprise visit to his troops in Iraq.
• Hensies / Belgium : Eleven people were killed in a bus accident today at the French-Belgian border crossing in Hensies.
• Moroni / Comoros : In the civil war in the Comoros, the warring parties sign the Moroni Agreement, which provides for elections for April 2004.
• Tripoli / Libya : The government of President Muammar al-Gaddafi wants to stop all programs to develop ABC weapons and thus improve relations with the rest of the world.
• Washington, DC / United States : Even after the decision of a US appeals court, the administration under George W. Bush sees no reason to change anything in its controversial practice in Guantánamo

Sunday December 21, 2003

• Nairobi / Kenya : The government of Sudan and the rebels in the south of the country agreed on a distribution of the oil revenues in talks in the neighboring country. This is a decisive step on the way to peace.
• Philippines : About 200 people died in severe storms in the island nation.
• Rhodes / Greece : A boat from Turkey with 60 people on board sinks off the coast of the island . The migrants come from Afghanistan , Iraq and Jordan .

Monday December 22, 2003

• Belgrade / Serbia and Montenegro : The trial against the alleged murderers of the former Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia Zoran Đinđić begins under strict security precautions.
• Berlin / Germany : For the first time, a neo-Nazi band, Landser, was classified as a criminal organization . The members were sentenced to prison and suspended sentences.
• Israel : 13 Israeli elite soldiers protest in an open letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against the operations in the Palestinian Territory. They are now threatened with expulsion from the army.
• Jerusalem / Israel : During his visit to Israel, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was attacked by Palestinian extremists on the Temple Mount .
• Tripoli / Libya : According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Libyan government agreed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and allow inspections in the country.

Tuesday December 23, 2003

• Boussu / Belgium : A silent memorial service for the relatives of the victims took place near the site of the accident where the bus crashed on Saturday.
• Cambria / United States : The small town in California was the epicenter of a devastating earthquake in which two women were killed in Paso Robles .
• Rafah / Palestinian Autonomous Territories : Eight Palestinians are killed and many more injured in a military operation in the Rafah refugee camp of the Israeli army .
• United States : In the USA, BSE is first diagnosed in a cow .

Wednesday December 24, 2003

• Baghdad , Erbil / Iraq : people died again in attacks in Iraq. Four people died in a suicide attack in Erbil and three US soldiers were killed in an explosion in Baghdad. A missile narrowly missed the Sheraton Hotel in the capital.
• Berlin / Germany : Federal Minister of Health Ulla Schmidt calls for a flat fee for “non-parents” and “childless” to relieve long-term care insurance .
• Heidelberg / Germany : According to the police in Baden-Württemberg , it has been possible to strike a major blow against the international drug trade . Hundreds of pounds of narcotic drugs were confiscated, and 131 suspects are under investigation.
• Cologne / Germany : The entertainer Harald Schmidt finishes his last edition of the Harald Schmidt Show on Sat.1 .
• Madrid / Spain : An attack by the Basque Liberation Army ETA was prevented at the second largest train station in Madrid.
• Palestinian autonomous territories : Due to yesterday's military action by Israeli soldiers in a refugee camp near Rafah , talks between the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli government failed. The Palestinians canceled the meeting after nine people were killed in the operation.

Thursday December 25, 2003

• Baghdad / Iraq : The series of attacks in the capital of Iraq and in other cities continues. Three soldiers of the United States Armed Forces are killed in a bomb attack near Baghdad. In the Sheraton Hotel in Baghdad exploded a grenade, it does not cause bodily harm. Four people are killed in a suicide attack in the Kurdish city of Erbil .
• Chongqing / China : On Tuesday, there was an accident in the Chinese province of Kaixan while drilling a natural gas field . 191 people died within two days, and a further 4,000 to 5,000 farmers in the region suffered severe poisoning.
• Cotonou / Benin : In West Africa a crash Boeing 727 with the aim of Beirut shortly after takeoff because of a problem with the landing gear from. About 60 people die.
• Rawalpindi / Pakistan : Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf narrowly escaped an assassination attempt for the second time in just two weeks. The explosion occurred near the Pakistani capital Islamabad .
• Tel Aviv / Israel : The first suicide attack in two months at a bus stop kills five people.

Friday December 26, 2003

• Bam , Kerman / Iran : According to official information, at least 30,000 people were killed and many more injured in a severe earthquake in southeastern Iran near the city of Bam. In total, around 60% of the city was destroyed, including the historic city center and the city's citadel.
• Biblis / Germany : Germany's third oldest nuclear power plant is back on the grid after a nine-month mandatory break. The reason for the break was a fault in the emergency cooling system .
• Jerusalem / Israel , Palestinian Territories : After five people were killed in a suicide attack the previous day and two jihad leaders were killed at the same time , both the Israeli leadership and the Palestinians threatened retaliation.
• Solar System : There are still no signals from the Mars probe Beagle 2 , which was supposed to land on Thursday on Mars.

Saturday December 27, 2003

• Chongqing / China : The emission of poisonous gas from a natural gas source in China has been stopped. The accident killed 198 people, and more than 7,000 were poisoned.
• Italy : EU Commission President Romano Prodi survived an attack through a package sent to him. A group called the Informal Anarchist Bund is responsible for the attack and has announced even more attempts.
• Karbala / Iraq : With renewed attacks Iraqi insurgents are killed 19 people, including six soldiers of the US -led international occupation force.
• Nablus / Israel : Another Palestinian was killed in another military action by the Israeli military in Nablus . The government announced that military action would be stepped up after a suicide bomber killed several people in Tel Aviv two days ago .

Sunday December 28, 2003

• Bam , Kerman / Iran : The hope for survivors of the earthquake disaster in Bam is dwindling considerably. Almost 15,000 bodies have been recovered in the past 72 hours, and only about 1,000 people have been found alive.
• Belgrade / Serbia and Montenegro : The nationalist party SRS of the war criminal Vojislav Šešelj emerged as the strongest party in the Serbian parliamentary elections with 27 percent of the vote. The previous ruling party of the murdered Zoran Đinđić only takes third place. In the absence of a coalition partner, the SRS will not be able to form a government, but it will not be easy for the Democrats either.
• Guatemala City / Guatemala : The presidential election will take place in Guatemala today. The winner is the right-wing conservative ex-mayor of the capital Óscar Berger Perdomo of the party coalition Great National Alliance (GANA) with 55 percent of the vote. He offered his rival candidate, textile entrepreneur Alvaro Comon of the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party, to join the government.
• Iran : Three bicycle tourists from Germany and Ireland kidnapped at the beginning of December are freed from ransom without payment . They were kidnapped in the Sistan-Balochistan province between Bam and Sahedan .
• Kabul / Afghanistan : At least six people were killed in an attack in the Chwadscha district to the west of the airport, including probably members of the Afghan secret police.
• Tripoli / Libya : According to official information, the first inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have started their work in Libya. The head of the authority Mohammed el-Baradei met with a group of experts today with the deputy head of government and atomic commissioner in Libya, Matuk Mohammed Matuk .

Monday December 29, 2003

• The Hague / Netherlands : A letter bomb attack was also foiled by the European police, Europol .
• Germany : The council chairman of the Evangelical Church , Wolfgang Huber , has spoken out against the headscarf ban. He condemns the equality of religious symbols with political attitudes.
• Frankfurt am Main / Germany : A letter bomb sent to the chairman of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet was intercepted. A connection with the bomb on Romano Prodi the day before is being examined.
• Moscow / Russia : At the first session of the new Duma , Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted reforms in his government. The ruling party United Russia has a two-thirds majority in the government and can implement constitutional amendments relatively easily.
• Washington, DC / United States : The US government issued a directive requiring foreign airlines that fly to or over the US to take armed escorts (so-called sky marshals ) on board by order of the government . The first protest against the decree came from British Airways .

Tuesday December 30, 2003

• Bolívar / Colombia : Fighting between members of both FARC and ELN on the one hand and the paramilitaries originally set up by the government on the other hand killed at least 40 people on the Pozo Azul river, including one civilian . All parties to the conflict fight for shares in the drug trade .
• The Hague / Netherlands : A letter bomb sent to the European institution Eurojust was intercepted. In this case too, a connection with the letters to Romano Prodi , Jean-Claude Trichet and Europol headquarters is assumed.
• Hamburg / Germany : Apparently a terrorist attack was supposed to be carried out by the Islamist group Ansar el Islam on the Bundeswehr hospital in Hamburg. Other sources suspect a mix-up with Homburg in Saarland, where US soldiers were treated. It could be a message transmission error.
• Cambodia : The former head of state of the Khmer Rouge , Khieu Samphan , first admitted genocides on behalf of the government from 1975 to 1979 in Cambodia. He wants to face a United Nations tribunal for these crimes , but at the same time denied having ever given the order to kill.
• Mars : The space experts at the ESA control center want to use the mother ship of the Beagle 2 , the Mars Express Orbiter, to search for the missing probe.

Wednesday December 31, 2003

• Baghdad / Iraq : A new attack in Baghdad kills five people from a car bomb . At least 20 other people are injured.
• Bam / Iran : Five days after the severe earthquake in southern Iran, five people are rescued from rubble today, although the search was officially stopped yesterday.
• Berlin / Germany : After the introduction of massive security measures due to a terror warning against the Bundeswehr hospital in Hamburg , Federal Minister of the Interior Otto Schily ( SPD ) criticized the countermeasures as excessive, and the early disclosure of the incident endangered the work of the investigators.
• London / United Kingdom : Queen Elizabeth II publishes the list of the new Knight Commander of the order of the British Empire . The award will be presented on January 1, 2004 and may include a. to Tim Berners-Lee , director of the World Wide Web Consortium , whose proposals over the past two decades paved the way for the World Wide Web .
• Pereulak / Indonesia : Ten people are killed and at least 40 others are injured in a bomb attack on a New Year's Eve party in Aceh province . The terrorist organization Movement Free Aceh (GAM) accuses the Indonesian armed forces of authorship, while the police accuse the organization GAM.
• Rome / Italy : The Italian Post has stopped delivering letters and parcels to addresses in other member states of the European Union due to a series of attempted letter bomb attacks .

See also

• Nekrolog December 2003 for deaths that month
• List of annually recurring commemorative and action days in December
• Category for commemorative days, holidays or days of action in December

Web links

Carinthia in December 2003

Commons : December 2003  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ AIDS epidemic update. (PDF) In: unaids.org . December 2003, accessed November 12, 2018 . 
2. ↑ "In an emergency also in a wheelchair". In: welt.de . December 6, 2003, accessed February 27, 2017 . 
3. ^ The Russian parliamentary elections 2003. (PDF) In: uni-bremen.de . December 2003, accessed December 3, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Metal plate in the neck. In: laut.de . December 17, 2003, accessed September 15, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Protests against the downsizing of education. In: n-tv.de . December 13, 2003, accessed February 5, 2018 . 
6. ↑ World Cup, competitions 1960–2004. In: ifosta.de, Jörg Thomas. Retrieved November 3, 2016 . 
7. ↑ CIO : Fast Forward 2010 - The Fate of IT, 2004 - The Year of Web Services , limited preview in Google Book Search.
8. ^ Chronology of Key Events. In: iaea.org . Retrieved August 18, 2019 . 
9. ↑ stern.de : Dutch court declares “KaZaa” legal ( memento from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ "Old Europe" is word of the year. In: spiegel.de . December 29, 2003, accessed October 10, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Series of attacks shakes the country. In: rundschau-online.de . March 2, 2004, accessed June 3, 2020 . 
12. ↑ 40 Killed in Rebel Assault on Colombian Village. In: latinamericanstudies.org, material from The Washington Post . January 1, 2004, accessed August 7, 2019 . 
13. ↑ schwaebische.de : Schily speaks of "unsecured information" ( Memento from November 14, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
14. ^ W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee to be Knighted by Queen Elizabeth. In: w3.org . December 1, 2003, accessed December 3, 2017 . 
15. ↑ Bloody New Year's Eve in Indonesia. In: rp-online.de . January 1, 2004, accessed November 11, 2018 .