Portal:Current events/2004 June 9
June 9, 2004 (Wednesday)
- Kurdish leaders in Iraq state that the Kurds would "refrain from participating in the central government" should the interim constitution be modified or replaced with a constitution that diminishes Kurdish political role in the central government. (NYT)
- An explosion injures at least 17 in a commercial district of Cologne, Germany. Authorities are treating it as a bomb attack. (CBC) (BBC)
- The British Phonographic Industry decides not to follow the rest of the IFPI in suing for file sharing of music. (CIO Today) (IFPI press release) It later turns out that this bombing was carried oout by Neo-Nazi group National Socialist Underground.
- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft tells the Senate Judiciary Committee that George W. Bush did not approve the torture of terrorist prisoners; he also reiterates his stance that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to al-Qaeda fighters. (Salt Lake Tribune) (BBC)
- Twenty heavily armed foreign militants are killed by Pakistan in the South Waziristan mountainous tribal region near the Afghan border where it is believed that hundreds of al-Qaida members are hiding. (NYT)
- Canada announces it will be increasing its non-military role in Iraq, while NATO is currently undecided about sending more support to Iraq. (The Globe and Mail)
- The village of Fucking, Austria, votes to keep its name, despite the cost of stolen traffic signs and possible embarrassment over its meaning in English. (Ananova) (Daily Record)
- Washington D.C. hosts the State Funeral for former President Ronald Reagan.