Portal:Current events/2003 February 7

February 7, 2003 (Friday)

The Center for Public Interest, a United States nonprofit watchdog group, obtained a leaked draft version of John Ashcroft's proposed Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, also known as "the Patriot Act II". If enacted, the legislation would grant the United States government unprecedented secret internal surveillance powers and sharply curtail judicial review of such surveillance,
The chief United Nations arms inspector Hans Blix said Iraq appeared to be making fresh efforts to cooperate with U.N. teams hunting weapons of mass destruction, as Washington said the "momentum is building" for war with Iraq.
The United States said it was ready for any contingency after North Korea issued threats of pre-emptive attack and suggested it was poised to restart an atomic reactor central to its suspected drive for nuclear arms.
A car bomb at an upscale club in Bogotá, Colombia kills 36 and wounds 150 in the worst attack in many years.
Israeli police said they had found a suicide bomber's explosives belt hidden in a mosque in Israel, and said it was the first such discovery since the al-Aqsa Intifada began more than two years ago.
President George W. Bush ordered the government to draw up guidelines for cyber-attacks against enemy computer networks, according to a Washington Post report. The order is known as National Security Presidential Directive 16.
An oil tanker carrying 35,000 tons of fuel oil ran aground off Denmark but no immediate spill was reported in the area noted for its wildlife, a Danish Royal Navy spokesman said.
Pakistan's most feared Islamic militant group, branded by Washington last week a foreign terrorist group, was severely weakened by a crackdown on extremism, intelligence officials claimed.
Senior citizens groups began a call for a boycott of British-owned pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline, the largest in the world, after the company announced that it would no longer sell drugs to Canadian companies that sell drugs at steep discounts to Americans over the Internet. The boycott would include such brands as Tums antacid, Aquafresh toothpaste, Contac cold remedy, Paxil and Flonase.
The last game is completed in the FIDE Man vs Machine World Chess Championship, in which Garry Kasparov, the highest rated human chess master, competed against the world champion computer program, Deep Junior. The six game match was played to a 3–3 draw.