Portal:Current events/2004 January 30
January 30, 2004 (Friday)
- Hutton Inquiry: Reporter Andrew Gilligan resigns from the BBC in the continuing fallout of the publication of Lord Hutton's report into the circumstances of the death of Dr David Kelly. This follows the earlier resignation of the Director-General Greg Dyke and chairman of the Board of Governors Gavyn Davies.
- Former French Prime Minister and current Mayor of Bordeaux Alain Juppé is convicted of a party funding scam in the 1980s and early 1990s, and is given an 18-month suspended jail sentence and disqualified from elected office for 10 years, although he retains his mayoralty pending his appeal. He had been viewed as Jacques Chirac's likely successor in the 2007 Presidential election.
- Muslims begin the annual Hajj today amid fears of a possible attack by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.
- Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of Hamas, announces that his group is making an all-out effort to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, following the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in which the remains of three Israeli soldiers and a businessman were exchanged for over 400 prisoners on January 29, 2004.
- Self-confessed German cannibal Armin Meiwes is sentenced to eight years and six months' imprisonment for manslaughter. The prosecution had sought a life sentence for murder.
- David Bradley, creator of the famous "Ctrl-Alt-Del" keystroke combination, retires from IBM.