Portal:Current events/2002 December 22

December 22, 2002 (Sunday)

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat announced that he has called off presidential and legislative elections scheduled for next month, as he feels that continued Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory will make a free election impossible.
North Korea announced that it is physically removing monitoring devices placed on the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. The devices were placed by the United Nations following the 1994 nuclear agreement to shut down Yongbyon, which is capable of making weapons-grade material, in exchange for deliveries of oil. In November 2002, Korea admitted that it is working on a weapons of mass destruction program in response to "imperialist threats." The United States states it does not trust the North Koreans.
Demonstrators estimated in the tens of thousands supported proposed national security laws for Hong Kong, following last week's demonstrations with similar numbers against these proposed laws. The Government Consultation Exercise for the proposed laws received 18,000 comments. Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, negotiated by Britain and China before the 1997 handover to China, stated that Hong Kong must enact national security legislation by itself banning treason, turning over state secrets, and urging separation from China.
A senior member of ETA, Ibon Femandez de Iradi, escaped from French custody yesterday. He and a woman companion was arrested Wednesday after their car was found to have false number plates. Ibon Femandez de Iradi was the logistics chief for ETA, a Basque separatist group which has been implicated in terrorist activities.
Time announced that its "Persons of the Year" are three female whistleblowers – Coleen Rowley, FBI agent who wrote a memorandum to FBI Director Robert Mueller claiming that the Minneapolis office had been remiss in its investigation of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui; Cynthia Cooper, former WorldCom auditor, who alerted the company's Board of Directors of accounting irregularities; and Sherron Watkins, former Enron Vice President, who reported to the company's former Chairman Kenneth Lay in 2001 that the company was about to collapse as a result of false accounting.
Musician Joe Strummer dies of a heart attack, aged 50.
Singer Kristyn Osborn of the country music group SHeDAISY filed a $3.5 million lawsuit against karaoke companies for failure to pay songwriters.
British/Irish pop girl group Girls Aloud are formed on Popstars: The Rivals.