Portal:Current events/2003 February 25

February 25, 2003 (2003-02-25) (Tuesday)

• US plan to invade Iraq: The United States, Britain and Spain present to the UN Security Council a much-anticipated second resolution stating that Iraq "has failed to take the final opportunity" to disarm, but does not include deadlines or an explicit threat of military force. Meanwhile, France, Germany, and Russia offer a counter-proposal calling for peaceful disarmament through further inspections. Sometime reporter Jeff Gannon, actual name James Guckert, signs in at the White House for the first time, according to Secret Service White House access logs obtained through FOIA by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY).
• Both major parties of Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Northern Iraq, vow to fight Turkish troops if they enter Kurdistan to capture Mosul or interfere in Kurdish self-rule. Between them the two parties can mobilize up to 80,000 guerillas – most likely no match for the modern Turkish army, but a severe blow to the unity of U.S. allies on the Northern front expected in the U.S. plan to invade Iraq.
• Roh Moo-hyun becomes the new president of South Korea.
• North Korea fires test missiles into the Sea of Japan.
• Toshihiko Fukui, former Bank of Japan Deputy Governor, is named as a new chief of Bank of Japan.
• Four former executives of Qwest Communications International are criminally charged with fraudulently booking $33,000,000 in revenue during 2001. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also files a civil suit against seven former (including the four criminally charged) and one current Qwest executives, alleging fraudulent accounting practices in violation of SEC rules.
• NASA reports that the space probe Pioneer 10 finally ceased its transmissions from deep space, after more than thirty years of a mission which was originally intended to last less than two.

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