December 2, 2003

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December 2, 2003

Venezuela n opposition leaders claim to have gathered enough petition signatures to force a referendum to recall President Hugo Chávez ; in response, the government alleges the four-day signature drive was tainted by "massive fraud". [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3258200.stm

The second trial of DeCSS releaser Jon Johansen begins. {Link without Title}

The US Dollar continues to decline, hitting a new low of 1.2 against the Euro ; the dollar is suffering from deteriorating support against the background of a large Current Account deficit and fears of growing Protectionism . {Link without Title}

Andrei Illarionov , economic advisor to President Vladimir Putin , indicates Russia will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol in its current form, a decision that would kill the accord. Some observers speculate that this is purely domestic posturing for forthcoming Election s. {Link without Title}

Mark Latham is elected to succeed Simon Crean as the new leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party , defeating former leader Kim Beazley by 47 votes to 45. In 2004 Latham will face Liberal Prime Minister John Howard at a General Election . {Link without Title}

The Israel i Government has called on U.S. Secretary Of State Colin Powell not to meet with former ministers of Israel and the Palestinian Authority who have drawn up the unofficial Geneva Plan . {Link without Title}

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wins the annual "Foot in Mouth Prize" awarded by the UK 's Plain English Campaign for the most nonsensical remark made by a public figure. Among the runners-up are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris Patten . {Link without Title}

Hospitals around Paris struggle to cope with an outbreak of Influenza and gastro-enteritis. {Link without Title}

The European Union threatens retaliatory sanctions unless the United States lifts its threat of restrictions on imports of Steel ; the US measures have been declared illegal by the WTO . {Link without Title}

Pirate copies of a pre-alpha version of Microsoft 's Windows "Longhorn" operating system go on sale in Malaysia more than a year ahead of its expected release date. {Link without Title}

GIMPS has confirmed that 2^20996011-1 is Prime . At 6320430 Decimal Digits , it is easily the largest known prime number. 2^20996011-1 is the 40th known Mersenne Prime and the 6th Mersenne prime discovered by GIMPS. {Link without Title}

The Pentagon announces that U.S. -born Illegal Combatant and Taliban fighter Yaser Esam Hamdi will be allowed access to a lawyer after having been denied such counsel for two years. {Link without Title}