Portal:Current events/2004 February 20

February 20, 2004 (Friday)

Stanislaw Ryniak (88), the first person imprisoned at the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, is buried in Wroclaw, Poland. (AP)
Latvia's president Vaira Vike-Freiberga has appointed Indulis Emsis, a Green party legislator, as the new Prime Minister, after the resignation of Einars Repše's cabinet on 5 February. (BCC) (Greens-EFA)
Hubble Space Telescope measurements show that "Dark energy" is pushing apart the universe; this appears to be the constant, repulsive force that Albert Einstein once predicted. Astronomers announce this as evidence that the theory of the cosmological constant proposed, but later discarded, by Einstein may have been right after all. (Mercury News) (MSNBC) (Washington Post) Archived 2012-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
Microsoft denies that it illegally uses its desktop computer operating system monopoly to hurt digital media rivals. (CNet)
During the past month and a half, the total number of hits to NASA's homepage was 6.5 billion, a record for the agency. (CNet)
The insecticide Regent (fipronil), from BASF, is banned in France for its implication in Pollinator decline, The firm itself will be sued. (Le Monde)^{[permanent dead link]}
Lithuania's parliament starts impeachment proceedings against President Rolandas Paksas, who is charged with violating the constitution by leaking state secrets, rewarding a financial supporter with citizenship and illegally influencing companies. (Bloomberg)
Linda Schade, spokeswoman for Ralph Nader's presidential exploratory committee, states Nader will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" to announce whether he will make another run for the White House. (Kansas City Star)
Louise Arbour is nominated by Kofi Annan to serve as the next United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Arbour, currently a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will replace the late Sérgio Vieira de Mello, pending ratification by the General Assembly. (CBC) (UN)
5,500 workers for CN Rail, members of the Canadian Auto Workers, go on strike. (CBC)
90482 Orcus, a huge planetoid, is discovered by the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking survey team. (BBC)
Former Alabama attorney general Bill Pryor is appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during the U.S. Congress's recess period, avoiding U.S. Senate confirmation. Pryor was first nominated in April 2003. (ABC US)
Same-sex marriage:
- San Francisco judge denies request to immediately stop same-sex weddings. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine Homosexual couples win reprieve when the judge declines to stop San Francisco from granting them marriage licenses. (ABC US)
- Victoria Dunlap, the Republican county clerk of rural Sandoval County, New Mexico, starts issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing lack of legal grounds for denial. (AP) Republican state Senator Steve Komadina, criticizes the decision and urges state Attorney General Patricia Madrid to issue a prompt opinion. (WorldNetDaily)
- California Democratic leaders try to withdraw from the divisive political issue of same-sex marriage. A Public Policy Institute of California poll indicates that half of Californians oppose same-sex marriage. Some California Democratic officeholders were discontented over the matter becoming a national political issue. (SF Chronicle)
- Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger writes to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer telling him to take legal action to stop the city from granting marriage licences to homosexual couples, saying the practice presents "an imminent risk to civil order". (Al Jazeera)
- King Norodom Sihanouk, the constitutional monarch of Cambodia, states that he believes his country ought to allow same-sex marriage. He says he decided this upon seeing footage of same-sex couples marrying in San Francisco. He also says that transvestites ought to be well-treated in Cambodia. (Advocate)
- A proposed amendment to the state constitution of Oklahoma to outlaw same-sex marriage dies in Senate Human Resources Committee; the Republican leader of the Oklahoma Senate criticizes the Democratic Senate leadership for killing the proposed ban. (Oklahoman)^{[permanent dead link]}