Portal:Current events/2004 October 24

October 24, 2004 (Sunday)

Iran's nuclear program:
- Iran rejects a European Union proposal to provide civilian nuclear technology to Iran in exchange for Iran scrapping its uranium enrichment program, calling for more negotiations. A decision to refer to matter from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the United Nations Security Council is expected on November 25, 2004. (Reuters)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
- Iran states that a facility for converting yellowcake into uranium hexafluoride is now 70 percent operational. Iran's first uranium mine will become operational by March 2005. (Reuters) Archived 2005-05-06 at the Wayback Machine
Conflict in Iraq:
- 49 unarmed Iraqi army recruits, based at Kirkush, are ambushed, forced from their vehicles, laid out in rows of twelve people, and murdered by gunshot to the head. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claims responsibility, describing the dead as apostates. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
- In Falluja, hospital officials report five civilians dead resulting from what witnesses claim were U.S. military airstrikes. Military officials say a precision strike had destroyed a known enemy command and control post. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
- A U.S. diplomat is killed when mortars land near Baghdad airport. (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-08 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
- A car bomb kills a Bulgarian soldier in Kerbala. A Turkish truck driver is killed by gunmen north of Baghdad. (Reuters) Archived 2004-12-26 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
Brazil successfully launches its first rocket, a VSB-30, or Brazilian Exploration Vehicle, into space from the Alcântara Launch Center, after its first attempt a year earlier failed and left 21 people, including key technicians, dead. (BBC)
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: In Khan Yunis, located in the Gaza Strip, two Palestinian militants are killed and a third wounded by a missile fired from an Israel Defense Forces drone. (Reuters)