Portal:Current events/2004 April 14
April 14, 2004 (Wednesday)
- 2004 South African legislative election: The African National Congress (ANC) of President Thabo Mbeki, which has been in power since the end of the apartheid system in 1994, is re-elected with an increased majority. (CNN)
- U.S. presidential election : An advertisement for John Kerry placed in a newspaper in Gulfport, Florida by a local Democratic Party club gets negative national publicity, as it suggests shooting United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The ad was placed by the Saint Petersburg Democratic Club of Florida, and has been condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, including Kerry's campaign. (Washington Times) (CNN)
- Israeli-Palestinian conflict :
- Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat rejects statements by President of the United States George W. Bush stating that Israel would be allowed to keep some West Bank Israeli population centers. (NYT)
- United States President George W. Bush endorses Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and states that Palestinian refugees should return to a new Palestinian state, not to Israel. Bush says it is unrealistic to expect "full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949." (NYT)
- Hungarian police detain a Hungarian citizen of Palestinian origin and two Syrian men who are alleged to have been planning to blow up a Jewish museum in Budapest and assassinate Israeli president Moshe Katsav who arrived to attend the museum's inauguration ceremony. (HaAretz)
- The United Nations warns of an imminent humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, where it is alleged that Arabs are waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the African population. (Morning Star)
- John Ashcroft tells the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that he blames former president Bill Clinton for intelligence failures and Jamie S. Gorelick for organizational failures leading to the September 11, 2001 attacks. (Washington Times) (Democracy Now!)
- The Australian Family Court allows a thirteen-year-old child, born female, to start preliminary hormone treatment: the child identifies as being male and has been suffering from gender dysphoria. (transcript) (The Australian)
- Panjshir, the only part of Afghanistan that was never conquered by the Taliban, and the last defence position of Ahmed Shah Massoud, is named the 34th province of Afghanistan. (PakTribune)