Portal:Current events/2004 February 11
February 11, 2004 (Wednesday)
- A Black Hawk helicopter has reportedly crashed near Amberley air force base, Mount Walker, Australia, with at least five seriously injured.
- Scientists find a fossilised head and identify it as part of a 400 million-year-old fly, making it the oldest known insect.
- The United States Army in Iraq announces a $10 million dollar reward for the capture of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam, blamed for the deaths of unknown numbers of Iraqi citizens and U.S. military during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.
- Scientists in South Korea report that they have created human embryos by cloning and extracted embryonic stem cells.
- Intel scientists say that they have made silicon chips that can switch light like electricity.
- Comcast Corp. makes an uninvited bid for The Walt Disney Company. The US$50 billion to $66 billion deal would create the world's largest media company.
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopts enhanced mutual fund expense and portfolio disclosure, part of the continuing fall-out from the mutual fund late-trading scandal of 2003.
- U.S. Presidential Election, 2004: Retired General Wesley Clark officially announces his departure from the race.
- The Sudanese government cancels plans to attend scheduled peace talks in Geneva with western rebels just days after the Sudanese president proclaimed military victory in the insurgency. The talks were scheduled to begin February 14, 2004. At this time, the Sudanese government is contending with a southern rebellion as well.
- French prosecutors reveal that a money-laundering probe into the transfers of millions of dollars to accounts held by the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was opened in October 2003. The probe was opened after discovering that nearly $1.27 million is transferred with some regularity from Switzerland to Mrs. Arafat's accounts in Paris. Tracfin, an organization that collates information about money laundering, detected the movements of funds.
- Occupation of Iraq: At least 47 people, mostly Iraqi army recruits, are killed by a car bomb in Baghdad in the second major bomb attack in two days.
- Richard Desmond, the owner of Britain's Daily Express and Daily Star newspapers, confirms that he has made a bid for the troubled Daily Telegraph.
- Josh, a Newfoundland, wins Best in Show at the 129th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York.
- Mayer Mofeid Hawash is sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to enter Afghanistan and aid the Taliban after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.