01|United Nations (UN) officials announce that Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, is to undergo a single trial for war crimes allegedly committed during the 1990's in separate conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. Officials with the UN tribunal originally planned a separate, second trial for crimes against humanity in Kosovo, but prosecutors successfully argued that the conflicts were inseparably linked.|
02|A committee appointed by the Enron board of directors to investigate the energy trading company's financial collapse reports that Enron executives used a complex network of partnerships to hide financial problems and overstate profits. The report discloses that certain executives realized enormous personal profits from these partnerships at Enron's expense. An employee who invested $5,800 in one of the partnerships--Southhampton Place--netted $1 million in two months. Enron's former chief financial officer, Andrew Fastow, enjoyed a $4.5-million return on a $25,000 investment during the same period. The committee concludes that Enron executives, company attorneys, and the outside accounting firm of Arthur Andersen LLP of Chicago all signed off on the partnership arrangements.|
03|Adam Vinatieri kicks a 48-yard field goal at Super Bowl XXXVI, handing the National Football League championship to the New England Patriots. The Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 at the Superdome in New Orleans.|
03|More than 40 people are killed and hundreds of others are left homeless when an earthquake of 6.2 magnitude shakes central Turkey. The quake is centered in Turkey's Afyon province about 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Ankara.|
04|The Bush administration submits to the United States Congress details of a proposed military buildup that would increase the budget of the Department of Defense by $120 billion over the next five years and boost annual spending on weapons and other military supplies from $61 billion to $99 billion.|
04|Kenneth L. Lay, the former chief executive of the bankrupt energy trading company Enron, formally resigns as chairman of the board of directors. In his resignation to the board, Lay notes that federal investigations into the depth of his involvement in Enron's financial collapse in late 2001 have distracted his concentration on reorganizing the company.|
05|Members of the Senate Commerce Committee vote to issue a subpoena to compel former Enron chief executive Kenneth L. Lay to appear before the committee to answer questions about business practices that led to Enron's economic collapse in early December 2001. On Feb. 3, 2002, Lay reversed his decision to appear before the committee voluntarily, on the advise of his attorneys.|
05|Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Bud Selig announces that MLB officials have dropped plans to eliminate two teams before the start of the 2002 baseball season. In 2001, the MLB had announced that the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos would be eliminated because neither had been profitable in recent seasons. However, an injunction issued by a Minnesota state court in November 2001 requires the Twins to honor its 2002 lease of the Metrodome, the Minneapolis stadium where the team plays. Selig notes that the MLB most probably will eliminate the Twins and the Expos before the start of the 2003 season.|
06|U.S. forces in Afghanistan release 27 prisoners captured during a January 23 raid north of Qandahar (Kandahar). After interrogating the prisoners, U.S. intelligence officials determined that the men were not members of the Taliban or al-Qaida terrorist network. Their release follows an announcement by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld that American forces may have mistakenly killed friendly Afghan troops during the raid.|
06|The British government launches a year-long celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II with a 40-gun salute in London's Hyde Park and a 62-gun salute from the Tower of London. To mark the 50th anniversary of her accession to the throne, the queen visits cancer patients at a hospital in Norfolk, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London, in honor of her father, King George VI, who died of lung cancer on Feb. 6, 1952.|
07|Former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling tells members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that he left the Houston-based energy trading company in August 2001 believing that it was in "no peril." Skilling testifies that he was unaware of the dire financial state of the company's many partnerships or that Enron executives were involved in and profiting from such partnerships at the expense of the company. Other Enron officials have testified that Skilling had been warned about the partnerships as early as March 2000. They also testified that Skilling had been informed that the role Enron's chief financial officer (CFO), Andrew Fastow, played in running the partnerships constituted a grave conflict of interest. Fastow, who refused to testify before the House committee on the grounds that he might incriminate himself, reportedly earned at least $30 million from the partnerships he supervised while serving as Enron's CFO.|
07|The flight crew of a Boeing 777 en route from Miami, Florida, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, subdues a Uruguayan banker as he attempts to kick his way into the cockpit of the aircraft. Security officers describe the banker as a belligerent passenger, rather than a terrorist.|
08|The 19th Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, open with an elaborate celebration of the human spirit and the Olympic ideal of peace through understanding. The opening ceremony, with U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in attendance, culminates with 2,318 athletes from 77 nations parading into Rice-Eccles Stadium for the lighting of the Olympic caldron. The sports program at Salt Lake City is the largest in the history of the winter games, with 78 events scheduled over 16 days at 5 indoor and 5 mountain (outdoor) facilities. New events include two-person women's bobsled; men's and women's 1500-meter short track speed skating; men's 12.5-kilometer biathlon; women's 10-kilometer biathlon; men's and women's sprint biathlon; skeleton, a Swiss sledding event similar to luge; and Nordic combined, an individual event consisting of ski jumping and a 7.5-kilometer cross-country race.|
08|United Nations (UN) officials announce that the UN is ending its efforts to place former leaders of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge on trial for genocide (the deliberate and systematic mistreatment or extermination of a national or cultural group). The Khmer Rouge was a Communist regime that controlled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 during which at least 1 million Cambodians were murdered or died of malnutrition. UN officials note that Cambodia's current government refuses to cooperate in organizing the trials. Cambodia officials respond that Cambodians must be tried under Cambodian law, not international law.|
09|A spokesperson for the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center announces that a 51-year-old man was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, through an emergency blood transfusion he received while undergoing surgery in August 2000 at a hospital in Temple, Texas. The tainted blood came from a regular donor at a San Antonio blood bank. The infection is believed to be the first case of the virus being transmitted through donated blood in the United States since new HIV-screening technology was implemented in 1999.|
10|Public health officials quarantine a hotel in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, after a Massachusetts woman attending a convention dies of bacterial pneumonia and seven other conventioneers are hospitalized with a respiratory illness that physicians describe as flulike. Officials fear a new outbreak of Legionnaire's disease, a pneumonialike sickness caused by bacteria that commonly grows in water supplies. The disease was named for a July 1976 outbreak that killed 34 people at an American Legion convention at a hotel in Philadelphia.|
10|A fire driven by winds of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour burns across 2,000 acres (810 hectares) in southern California, destroying 16 houses in an area of avocado groves near Fallbrook, some 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of San Diego. A second fire scorches 1,400 acres (565 hectares) outside Anaheim Hills, California, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.|
11|Prosecutors open their case against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. The prosecutors accuse Milosevic of "medieval savagery" and "calculated cruelty" during military campaigns in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo between 1992 and 1999. Milosevic is the first former head of state to be placed on trial for crimes against humanity and genocide.|
11|Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials place the United States on high alert for possible terrorist attacks against U.S. interests either at home or abroad. The warning, posted on an FBI Web site, names a Yemeni man, Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, as the primary operative. According to the FBI, evidence of a planned terrorist attack by al-Rabeei was uncovered by American forces in Afghanistan and substantiated during interrogation of Afghan detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.|
12|The former chairman of Enron, Kenneth L. Lay, invokes his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuses to answer questions posed by members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee about the failure of the Houston-based energy trading company. Lay tells the committee that he wants to answer questions but must remain silent on the advice of his attorneys. Committee members respond by questioning Lay's ethics. One senator compares him to a carnival barker running a shell game. Lay and other Enron executives sold at least $1 billion in company stock and received $100 million in bonuses in the months before the company collapsed in early December 2001. The bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history, ruined the retirement accounts of many of Enron's 20,000 employees who were heavily invested in company stock but barred from selling even as the value of their shares plummeted.|
12|Officials at Enron inform the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that 6 of 14 current board members have announced their intention of resigning. The board recently issued a report claiming that the directors were unaware of partnerships and accounting practices that Enron executives used to hide losses and inflate profits. However, Enron's auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP of Chicago, released minutes of Enron board meetings that indicate the directors were aware of and approved the practices that led to the company's collapse. Wendy Gramm, a former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the wife of U.S. Senator Phil Gramm (R.,Texas), remains on Enron's board.|
12|An Iran Air Tours jet, flying in dense fog, crashes into a mountain near Khorramabad, Iran, 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Tehran, the capital. All 188 passengers and crew members aboard the Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 airliner are killed.|
13|Four armed Palestinians and one civilian are killed when Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers move into four Palestinian-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip--a refugee camp at Jabaliya and the towns of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and Deir al-Balah. Israeli soldiers set up a permanent position in Beit Hanoun, which is considered a stronghold of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. According to the Israeli military officials, the attacks were made in response to Hamas firing homemade rockets into southern Israel on February 10. Although no one was injured in that attack, Israeli officials are concerned that other homemade rockets could be used to attack Israeli towns and cities.|
14|The United States House of Representatives votes 240 to 189 to pass legislation designed to curb the influence of money on U.S. politics. After almost 17 hours of continuous debate, 41 Republicans join all but 12 Democrats in support of a bill that was strongly opposed by the Republican leaders of the House. The bill, which opponents characterized as an "unconstitutional infringement of free speech," bans political parties from raising or spending so-called "soft money"--unlimited contributions from corporations, labor unions, and individuals. It also prohibits corporations and unions from funding advertising that mentions a federal candidate within specific time periods before elections. Political experts believe support for the campaign finance reform bill grew after the collapse of the Houston-based Enron Corp. focused public attention on the political influence of many large corporations. The U.S. Senate passed a similar campaign finance reform bill in March 2001.|
14|A domestic cat has been cloned by a group of scientists in Texas, announce executives with Genetic Savings and Clone, a company in College Station, Texas, that invested $3.7 million in the project. The cat clone was created by transplanting genetic material from a female cat into an egg cell whose genetic material had been removed. The embryo was implanted into a surrogate mother. The cloned cat--named Cc for carbon copy--is genetically, but not physically identical to the DNA donor--a two-year-old named Rainbow. Both cats are calico, but the coats of the cloned cat and the original have different markings and coloring. Cat geneticist Stephen O'Brien of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, notes that the color of a cat's coat is determined by how color-containing cells separate during embryonic development, which is only partly determined by genetics. Officials at Genetic Savings and Clone, as well as many scientists and other experts, believe that the first commercial use of cloning will applied to the reproduction of pets.|
14|The Emir of Bahrain, Sheik Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, crowns himself king of the small Persian Gulf emirate. Announcing his promotion, the new king informs his 650,000 subjects that he is creating a constitutional monarchy and calls for parliamentary and municipal elections in October.|
15|U.S. President George W. Bush approves a plan to move radioactive waste from all of the nation's nuclear power plants to a single storage site some 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The facility, which engineers believe can be completed by 2010, is to be adjacent to a former nuclear test site at Yucca Mountain. Many Nevada residents, including Governor Kenny Guinn, condemn the plan, claiming Department of Energy officials have failed to prove that the stored nuclear waste will not seep into groundwater. Conservationists also warn of the dangers of transporting 77,000 tons (69,850 metric tons) of spent nuclear fuel rods to Nevada on crowded interstate highways and over the nation's aging rail lines.|
15|A group of J. P. Morgan Chase stockholders file a lawsuit against the New York City bank, claiming Morgan misled investors about the extent of the bank's losses in the financial collapse of Enron Corp. Morgan recently divulged that its Enron losses total nearly $2 billion--$1 billion more than was announced after Enron filed for bankruptcy in late 2001. The additional $1 billion in loans were made by the Chase Manhattan Bank before Chase merged with J. P. Morgan in December 2000. Newly disclosed Enron records reveal that Chase loaned money to Enron partnerships chartered outside the United States. The money flowed into Enron when the offshore companies contracted with and prepaid Enron for future delivery of natural gas. This allowed Enron accountants to record the loans as profits on the contracts.|
15|The International Olympic Committee overturns controversial judging results that gave a Russian team a gold-medal victory in the mixed pairs figure skating event. The committee awards a second pair of gold medals to Canada's David Pelletier and Jamie Sale. Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze keep their gold medals. The controversy began on February 11 when figure skating judges voted 5 to 4 to award the gold to the Russian team. However, many skating experts felt the Canadian team should have won because of their near-perfect performance. Allegations of impropriety centered around a French judge who reportedly was pressured into voting for the Russian team. The International Skating Union, which has been investigating the incident, suspended the French judge, claiming it had evidence of misconduct.|
16|The government of Zimbabwe revokes the visa of a European Union (EU) representative sent to observe the upcoming presidential election and ordered him to leave the country. The EU representative, Ambassador Pierre Schori of Sweden, was to lead a team of 150 observers to track the election scheduled for March 9 and 10. The EU has threatened to impose economic sanctions on Zimbabwe if the election is not conduced openly and fairly. A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe government claims that Schori, who arrived in Harare, the capital, on February 9, violated the conditions of his temporary visa by speaking to the news media about Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe. Various EU governments, particularly Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, have been highly critical of Mugabe's support of militants who attack and loot farms in an attempt to drive white landowners from their property. According to political experts, these attacks typically increase in the weeks before elections. Mugabe describes the actions of the militants as a justified response to the inequitable land ownership resulting from Zimbabwe's colonial past.|
17|At least 129 police, soldiers, and civilians are killed when Communist rebels in Nepal stage a series of attacks in the district of Achham, some 375 miles (600 kilometers) northwest of Katmandu, the capital. The insurgents, who number approximately 3,000, follow the teachings of the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedung. They are currently calling for a general strike to celebrate the 6th anniversary of their campaign to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy. The U.S. Department of State recently issued a warning to Americans to avoid travel in Nepal after the rebels attacked Lukla, the main point of entry to Mt. Everest for mountain climbers.|
18|U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking before the Japanese parliament in Tokyo, reaffirms the role of the U.S. military forces in Asia. The president vows to defend South Korea in case of aggression and maintain military commitments to Taiwan and support of the Philippines. Bush notes that the United States continues to press forward with a missile defense system.|
19|The Israeli Supreme Court issues a temporary order halting the Israeli Army from carrying out further demolitions of Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip, pending a hearing in which Army officials are to explain to the court the reason for the demolitions. The order is made in response to a rare petition to the court by a Palestinian whose house was demolished and by an Israeli Arab member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.|
20|Israel launches rocket strikes and ground assaults against Yasir Arafat's official headquarters in Gaza City and other targets in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, killing at least 16 people, including 3 members of the Palestinian leader's elite guard. The raids are a reprisal for a Palestinian attack on an Israeli military outpost in the West Bank on February 19, during which six Israeli soldiers were killed.|
20|More than 360 people are killed and hundreds of others badly injured when a fire spreads through seven crowded passenger carriages of an Egyptian train en route from Cairo, the capital, to Luxor, in upper Egypt. Many victims leap to their deaths from the fast-moving train in an attempt to escape the fire, which authorities believe began when a small stove used for cooking exploded in the cafe car.|
20|Italian police raid an apartment in a suburb of Rome and arrest four Moroccan immigrants suspected of planning a terrorist attack on the U.S. Embassy in Rome and on the city's water system. Searching the apartment, the arresting officers uncover maps with the location of the embassy marked, a diagram of the water system, and several pounds of a chemical substance that contains cyanide.|
21|Daniel Pearl, the American reporter who was kidnapped by Islamic militants in Pakistan on January 23, is dead, announce executives of The Wall Street Journal, the newspaper for which Pearl was on assignment in Pakistan. Authorities in Pakistan, who showed American diplomats a videotape with graphic images of Pearl's murder, arrested a number of suspects they believe were involved in the kidnapping.|
22|The General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, sues Vice President Dick Cheney in an effort to force him to disclose the names of the people who attended the 2001 planning meetings of the task force that prepared the Bush administration's national energy policy. GAO officials ask the vice president for the criteria he used in selecting members of the task force; the dates and locations of meetings; and the purpose and agenda of meetings. Vice President Cheney issued a statement that the GAO has no authority to demand the information and that supplying the information to Congress sets a precedent that would inhibit the ability of presidents and vice president to obtain candid advice.|
22|Angolan government soldiers kill rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, who spent more than 35 years fighting, initially for independence, and then for control of the country. Experts on African politics suggest that Savimbi's death could lead to the end of Angola's civil war, which began when the Portuguese pulled out in 1975.|
23|The Bush administration plans to target fewer Superfund industrial waste cleanup sites and to shift the bulk of the cost from industry to the taxpayer. According to an administration spokesperson, the shift in policy reflects dwindling reserves in the Superfund account, which was financed with special corporate taxes that expired in 1995 without being renewed by Congress. Federal accountants expect the reserves to drop from a high of $3.8 billion in 1996 to an estimated $28 million in 2003. Approximately 30 percent of the 1,551 contaminated sites targeted by Environmental Protection Agency officials have been cleaned up with Superfund money.|
24|The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, close with the Canadian men's hockey team beating the United States 5-2, giving Canada its first gold medal in hockey in 50 years. Germany is the big overall winner among nations with 35 medals, with the United States close behind with 34 medals. Norway comes in third with 24 medals. Controversy plagued the 2002 games, which end with the Russian and South Korean teams protesting the decision of judges in several sports. Three athletes are disqualified just before the closing ceremony for testing positive for the drug darbepoetin, which increases endurance by boosting the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen to the muscles. Olympic officials strip gold medals for the women's 30-kilometer and the men's 50-kilometer cross-country races from Larissa Lazutina of Russia and Johann Muehlegg of Spain. Lazutina and Muehlegg are allowed to retain the medals they won earlier in the games because both had passed prior drug tests. A third cross-country skier, Olga Danilova of Russia, also tests positive for darbepoetin.|
25|An estimated 180,000 to 280,000 Americans infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, are unaware of their condition, announce officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC, which is located in Atlanta, is responsible for tracking HIV in the United States. Federal health officials also estimate that one-third of the 670,000 people who know that they are infected with HIV receive no treatment. In addition, approximately 40 percent of the people who are infected and do receive treatment begin anti-HIV therapy at a later stage than health officials recommend, resulting in a greater risk of death. According to the director of the CDC AIDS program, Harold W. Jaffe, a disproportionate number of the people who do not receive treatment are too young to have witnessed the full force of the AIDS epidemic in the mid-1980's. Jaffe suggests that many young people mistakenly believe that AIDS can be cured.|
25|Zimbabwe presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is charged with treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai denies the accusations. His supporters claim officials in Mugabe's government set the candidate up in order to damage his reputation. Although Zimbabwe police continue to investigate the case, they said the charges would not prevent Tsvangirai from running against Mugabe in the March presidential election.|
26|U.S. President George W. Bush endorses a Mideast peace plan proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The plan calls for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders, that is, to pull out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in exchange for full diplomatic recognition of Israel by the Arab nations of the Middle East. Israel gained control of the territories in the 1967 Six Day War and vowed not to withdraw until the Arab states recognized Israel's right to exist. Palestinian leaders, including Yasir Arafat, and some Israeli leaders reacted favorably to Abdullah's proposal, which essentially provides for the creation of a Palestinian nation in the vacated lands.|
27|A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Energy to make public more than 7,000 pages of documents related to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, announces a spokesperson for the U.S. District Court. The energy task force, chaired by the vice president, met in early 2001 to formulate the Bush administration's national energy policy. In a ruling made on Feb. 21, 2002, District Court Judge Gladys Kessler noted that the task force records were of "extraordinary interest" to the public and ordered their release within one month. The ruling was made in response to a suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a conservation advocacy group based in New York City.|
27|At least 57 people are killed in Godhra in northwestern India when an angry mob of Muslim activists attack a train packed with more than 2,500 Hindu nationalists. After throwing rocks to force the train to stop as it left the Godhra station, the Muslims toss gasoline bombs into passenger carriages. The people aboard the train were returning home from a pilgrimage to Ayodhya, where Hindu nationalists in 1992 destroyed a 450-year-old mosque that stood on a site that some Hindus believe is the birthplace of a Hindu god. The act triggered nationwide riots that resulted in the death of more than 2,000 people. Recent attempts to construct a Hindu temple on the site have aggravated religious tensions in India, where 13 percent of the country's 1 billion people are Muslim.|
27|The director of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) office of regulatory enforcement, Eric V. Schaeffer, resigns, claiming that Bush administration policies are undermining EPA efforts to crack down on industrial polluters. In a letter addressed to EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, Schaeffer accuses the Bush administration of weakening "rules we are trying to enforce." Administration officials are currently redrafting a program known as "new source review" that requires utility companies and factories to modernize pollution controls when they upgrade plants. Energy industry spokespersons claim the program retards the development of much needed new electrical generating plants.|
28|Executives of 18 energy that were among the top 25 corporate contributors to the Republican Party served as advisers to the Bush administration's national energy task force, reveals newly released task force correspondence. The largest contributor, Enron Corp. of Houston, was among the companies that sent representatives to meet with the vice president or members of the task force and its staff. An administration spokesperson notes, however, that the vice president received advice from representatives from various groups, including labor unions, that did not contribute to the Republican Party. The U.S. Senate is debating legislation based on recommendations issued by the task force in May 2001. These include constructing 1,300 to 1,900 new electric generating plants and opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.|
28|Executives at Enron received $320 million in bonuses 10 months before the Houston corporation filed for bankruptcy in late 2001, reveal company records subpoenaed by federal prosecutors investigating the financial collapse. In the 24 months before the collapse, the same executives received a total of $432 million in bonuses, which accountants describe as rewards for hitting a series of stock-price targets. Legal experts suggest that the various financial manipulations to drive up Enron's stock by inflating profits and hiding losses may provide prosecutors with the grounds to indict former Enron executives for criminal intent to defraud stockholders.|
