01|Senator John Kerry (D., Massachusetts) announces that he is contemplating running for president of the United States in 2004. A decorated veteran of the Vietnam War (1957-1975), Kerry was a public prosecutor before launching his political career with a successful run for the U.S. Senate in 1984. In 2002, he ran unopposed for a sixth term.|
02|A statement attributed to the al-Qa'ida terrorist network posted on an Arab Internet Web site claims responsibility for the suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned resort hotel in Mombassa, Kenya, on November 28. The explosions killed 13 people, 10 Kenyans and 3 Israelis, besides the 3 bombers. The authors of the statement also claim responsibility for the failed attempts to shoot down an Israeli aircraft on November 28, describing the attack as a Ramadan greeting to Palestinians. The wording of the posting also suggests that al-Qa'ida carried out the bombings in 1998 of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, including 12 U.S. citizens, and wounded 5,000 others. U.S. intelligence agents in Washington, D.C., describe the claims on the Web site as "credible."|
03|Four environmental groups sue the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush to block new rules that overturn a ban, issued by former President Bill Clinton, on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Environmentalists believe the vehicles, which have no pollution controls, endanger wildlife and imperil the health of park employees. The new rules limit the number of snowmobiles entering the parks to 1,100 per day. An average of 840 snowmobiles entered the parks daily before the Clinton ban went into effect.|
03|Agents with the Central Intelligence Agency may legally target and kill any U.S. citizen who is working with the al-Qa'ida terrorist network under rules governing the war on terrorism. The rules, issued by President George W. Bush's administration following the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001, direct the CIA to hunt down and covertly attack all al-Qa'ida operatives, regardless of citizenship or location. According to two U.S. government officials, a CIA-controlled rocket killed U.S. citizen Kamel Derwish in Yemen in November 2002. Derwish, who U.S. authorities allege was the leader of an al-Qa'ida cell outside Buffalo, New York, was riding in a car with other suspected members of the terrorist network.|
04|Air Transportation Stabilization Board refuses to approve a loan guarantee to United Airlines, the second largest U.S. commercial carrier. The loan guarantees were created to aid U.S. airlines suffering from the aftereffects of the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. The executive director of the board, Daniel Montgomery, characterizes United's business recovery plans as "fundamentally flawed."|
05|President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela orders the armed services to protect the nation's oil industry from opposition groups attempting to drive the president from office by cutting off the country's flow of oil. A four-day-old national strike already has significantly cut into the production of oil, which is largely exported to the United States.|
05|Widespread ice storms leave much of North Carolina and South Carolina under a heavy layer of ice that is snapping tree limbs and electric lines, leaving as many as 1.2 million households without electricity or heat. Officials believe at least 20 people are dead as a result of the storms, which have stranded thousands of travelers and disrupted air traffic up and down the East Coast of the United States.|
06|Paul H. O'Neill resigns as Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. President George W. Bush responds with a three-sentence statement to the news media, thanking O'Neill for "helping the president lead the nation out of a recession."|
07|Voters in a run-off election in Louisiana return Democrat Mary L . Landrieu to the U.S. Senate for a second term. Landrieu's victory over her Republican challenger, Suzanne H. Terrel, gives the Democrats 48 Senate seats, compared with the Republicans who hold the majority with 51 seats. There is one independent in the Senate, James M. Jeffords of Vermont, who is aligned with the Democrats.|
08|Serbian voters fail for a second time to elect a new president. Members of Serbia's election commission rule that only about 45 percent of Serbia's 6.5 million eligible voters turned out for the election. The Constitution requires that at least 50 percent of voters must cast ballots in a presidential election for the results to be valid. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, who led the popular movement in 2000 that toppled Slobodan Milosevic, took 58 percent of the vote. Experts on politics in Serbia attribute the low voter turnout to a power struggle between Kostunica and Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic over whether Serbia and Montenegro, the two republics that make up Yugoslavia, should separate into two distinct nations.|
09|The world's second largest air carrier, United Airlines of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, files for bankruptcy protection. United executives disclose that the airline is currently losing as much as $22 million a day.|
09|U.S. President George W. Bush nominates John Snow, the president and chief executive officer of CSX Corp, one of the largest U.S. railroad freight companies, to replace Paul O'Neil as secretary of the U.S. Treasury.|
10|Two Spanish warships halt a North Korean cargo vessel in the Gulf of Aden 600 miles (965 kilometers) off the coast of Yemen and discover a cache of Scud missiles hidden beneath sacks of cement in the ship's hold. U.S. military experts, called in by the Spanish Navy, believe the ship was headed for a port in Yemen.|
10|U.S. President George W. Bush nominates William H. Donaldson, a former investment banker and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The president announces that he intends to double the SEC budget, which critics allege is inadequate to root out the level of corporate fraud revealed by the bankruptcies of such companies as Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc.|
10|Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. In his acceptance speech, Carter notes that meeting challenges to world peace is best handled by the United Nations, imperfect as the institution may be. The former president adds that "for powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventative war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences."|
11|Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy trading company that collapsed in late 2001, made enormous profits during the California energy crisis in 2000 by betting on the direction of gas and electricity prices, reveal company records under investigation by federal authorities. Enron realized as much as $7 billion in trading profits during a period when the company, according to federal investigators, was conspiring with other energy trading companies to manipulate power and natural gas prices in the West. Enron reaped $485 million on a single day in December 2000.|
12|U.S. President George W. Bush publicly rebukes the incoming majority leader of the Senate, Trent Lott (R., Mississippi), for comments Lott recently made during a televised 100th birthday celebration for retiring Senator Strom Thurmond (R., South Carolina). Lott said that the United States would have had fewer problems over the years if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948. Thurmond, then an avowed segregationist, bolted the Democratic Party in 1948 to run as a Dixiecrat against President Harry Truman after the president integrated the armed forces and endorsed a strong civil rights platform.|
12|The European Union (EU) rejects Turkey's bid to enter the organization of 15 European nations any time in the near future. EU leaders do agree to meet with Turkish officials in 2004 to decide if Turkey is sufficiently democratic and respectful of human rights to be reconsidered for membership.|
13|Leaders of the European Union (EU), meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, vote to expand the organization of 15 Western European nations with the addition of 10 Eastern European countries. The EU invites Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia to become member nations in 2004.|
13|Pope John Paul II accepts the resignation of Cardinal Bernard F. Law of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Law, the highest ranking Catholic clergyman in the United States, has been under attack for nearly a year for the manner in which he handled priests under his supervision who had been accused of sexually abusing children and young adults.|
14|A Norwegian-registered freighter, loaded with more than 2,860 BMW's, Volvos, and Saabs, valued at between $40 million and $50 million, collides in a thick fog with an oil container and sinks in the North Sea at the entrance of the Dover Straights between the United Kingdom and France.|
15|U.S. Senators Don Nickles (R., Oklahoma) and Chuck Hagel (R., Nebraska) break ranks with Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate and publicly demand that Trent Lott (R., Mississippi) resign his leadership position in the Senate. Lott has apologized several times for suggesting that the United States would have been better off if Senator Strom Thurmond (R., South Carolina) had been elected when he ran for president on a segregationist platform.|
16|Tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting the policies of President Hugo Chavez paralyze Venezuela's capital, Caracas. Anti-Chavez forces have maintained a nationwide strike for 15 days, which has nearly shut down the world's fifth largest oil industry, pushing up oil prices worldwide.|
17|The al-Qa'ida terrorist network is reestablishing training camps in eastern Afghanistan, and recruits are pouring in, the United Nations announces in a new report. The authors of the report believe that Western governments, such as the United States, have managed to choke off most new al-Qa'ida funding, but the leaders of the terrorist network continue to reap the benefit of investments made before the launch of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.|
18|U.S. President George W. Bush condemns Iraq's 12,000-page disclosure on Iraqi weapons programs as full of omissions and deceptions.|
19|U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell declares Iraq in "material breach" of various United Nations resolutions demanding Iraq must supply complete details of all weapons programs.|
19|At least 10 of the largest U.S. brokerage firms agree to pay more than $1 billion in fines to end an investigation into whether the companies gave customers misleading stock recommendations. The settlement forces the brokerage firms to make sweeping changes in how stock-research practices are conducted. It also bars brokerages from passing out lucrative stock deals to top executives or directors of public companies in order to curry their favor. Federal regulators and the New York State attorney general accused the companies of misinforming customers about the true value of stocks in exchange for highly profitable investment banking fees.|
19|A report prepared and issued by the General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigatory arm of the U.S. Congress, describes the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) as "dysfunctional" and "chaotic." The authors of the report note that the SEC lacks adequate funding and staff to succeed in its mission to administer and enforce federal laws governing the purchase and sale of stocks and bonds. The GAO also discloses that people appointed to the SEC since January 2001 were inadequately examined for possible conflicts of interest or for ethics or legal problems.|
20|Senator Trent Lott announces that he is stepping down as majority leader in the U.S. Senate for the 108th Congress, which is scheduled to begin on Jan. 6, 2003. Lott became embroiled in a political controversy after making remarks on December 5 that many people interrupted as racist.|
21|More than 100 United Nations (UN) weapons inspectors, supplied for the first time with intelligence data from the United States, begin checking 10 new sites in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration ordered the data opened to UN officials on December 20. The Central Intelligence Agency previously had been reluctant to share its information on Iraqi weapons systems for fear that the agency's confidential sources might be compromised or that plans of possible attack might be revealed.|
22|Fewer than 50 percent of registered voters in the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro cast ballots in a presidential election, invalidating the results. The Constitution requires a voter turnout of at least 50 percent in presidential elections. Attempts to elect a president in Serbia, the other Yugoslav republic, failed twice in recent weeks because of low voter turnout. Experts on Yugoslav politics blame the impasse on election boycotts staged by various political groups, including former Communists, in an attempt to halt the eventual breakup of Yugoslavia.|
23|U.S. Senate Republicans elect by acclamation Bill Frist (R., Tennessee) as their majority leader. Frist, who will assume leadership in the Senate when Congress convenes on January 6.|
23|U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issues a warning to North Korea that a possible U.S. war against Iraq would not deter the United States in its determination to force North Korea to halt its nuclear arms program. Rumsfeld notes that the United States is capable of conducting two wars simultaneously.|
24|A spokesperson for the government of North Korea warns of a possible "uncontrollable catastrophe" if the United States does not agree to a negotiated settlement of the current standoff between the two countries over the resumption of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.|
25|North Korea has begun moving fresh fuel into a nuclear reactor, announces a spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations (UN) organization in Vienna, Austria. The five-megawatt reactor is one of four in Yongbyon, North Korea, that is capable of producing nuclear weapons. The agency also has evidence that North Korea has disabled UN monitoring devices on the four Yongbyon facilities. U.S. officials believe that there is enough weapons-grade material at a plutonium storage facility on Yongbyon to make several nuclear bombs.|
26|Brazil sends 520,000 barrels of gasoline to Venezuela to help relieve shortages caused by a four-week-old nationwide general strike. Political experts suggest that the gasoline shipment is the Brazilian government's show of support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose political opponents are staging the strike in an attempt to drive him from office. The strike has nearly shut down Venezuela's state-owned oil industry.|
27|North Korean officials announce that inspectors with the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been ordered out of North Korea. In a letter informing the IAEA of the expulsion, North Korean officials reveal plans to reopen a nuclear laboratory that some experts believe is capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium within months.|
27|A spokesperson for Clonaid, a Bahamas-based company founded by a sect that believes that life on Earth was created by aliens, announces the birth of the first cloned baby. Many scientists express skepticism of the claim.|
28|A Russian counterterrorism official, speaking in Moscow, the capital, announces that Muslim fundamentalists were responsible for the bombings that killed at least 80 people in Grozy, the Chechen capital, on December 27. Three suicide bombers ran two trucks through various checkpoints and into the headquarters of the Russian-backed government of Chechnya. The subsequent explosions destroyed the four-story government center and an adjacent dining facility. The attack was one of the deadliest yet in Russia's three-year campaign to crush a rebellion in the breakaway republic.|
29|Election officials in Kenya announce that Mwai Kihaki received more than 60 percent of the vote in the December 27 presidential election, compared with his primary opponent, Uhuru Kenyatta, who took 30 percent. Kihaki leads the opposition National Rainbow Coalition. Kenyatta, candidate for the Kenya Africa National Union, was hand picked by the current president, Daniel arap Moi, who held power for 24 years.|
30|President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines announces that she will not run for reelection in 2004.|
30|A gunman enters a hospital run by the Southern Baptist International Mission Board in Yemen and kills three U.S. citizens, including a physician and two additional members of the hospital staff. A fourth citizen of the United States, a pharmacist, is wounded. The gunman, a member of Islam Jihad movement, tells police that he attacked the Christian outpost in order to get closer to God.|
31|The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is screening checked bags for explosives at the nation's airports, announces TSA head James Loy. Loy notes that by midnight tonight, the deadline set by the U.S. Congress in 2001, most luggage at commercial U.S. airports will be screened, primarily by bomb-detection systems involving CAT scan technology. Approximately 2 million pieces of luggage are checked on average each day in the nation's more than 400 commercial airports.|
31|The attorneys general of nine Eastern and Northeastern states file a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), challenging new air-pollution rules that allow utilities, refineries, and manufacturers to avoid installing expensive new antipollution equipment. The new rules, which the EPA published today, overturn a provision of the Clean Air Act of 1970 that requires companies to adopt the best available pollution controls when major sources of pollution, such coal-fired electric plants and refineries, are upgraded or enlarged. Defending the new rules, a spokesperson for the EPA noted that the old regulations discouraged renovation and investment in new infrastructure.|
31|The explosion of tons of illegally stored fireworks kills at least 28 people and ignites a fire that destroys an entire city block in Veracruz, Mexico.|
