Portal:Current events/2002 December 30
December 30, 2002 (Monday)
- The Israeli Supreme Court rules that reservists may not refuse to serve in the West Bank or Gaza because of their objection to Israeli government policies. The Court ruled "the recognition of selective conscientious objection might loosen the links that hold us together as a people."
- Three Americans (the director, a doctor, and the administrator) at the Baptist hospital in Jibla, Yemen, were killed and one pharmacist was injured by Abed Abdul-Razzak Kamal. Kamal was captured and claims he was linked to the extremist Islamic Reform Party. Another member of his alleged cell, Ali al-Jarallah, was arrested for shooting a Yemeni left-wing politician on Sunday.
- The United Nations Security Council voted 13–0, with two abstentions, to revise the list of goods Iraq is allowed to purchase under the "food-for-oil" program. The list includes flight simulators, communications equipment, high-speed motorboats, and rocket cases, which the United States noted are dual-use technologies. The Security Council also agreed to ask the UN for standards to evaluate the quantities of medicine and antibiotics Iraq is allowed to import under this program.
- A tanker, the Amazonian Explorer, arrived in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, 200 kilometers east of Caracas, the capital. President Hugo Chávez traveled to the port to supervise the unloading of 525,000 barrels (83,500 m3) of gasoline. Gasoline is restricted due to a strike at Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA), the state-owned oil company, which is aimed at forcing President Chávez to call early elections.
- Crude oil futures on the New York market rose to $33 per barrel (208 $/m3) because of the Venezuelan oil strike and fears of war with Iraq.