- December 5, 2003
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December 5 ,2003 =*Suicide bombers blow up a morning rush-hour
commuter train inRussia 'sNorthern Caucasus , on the border withChechnya ; at least 40 people are killed. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3294445.stm] [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20031205/wl_nm/russia_explosion_dc]
*As part of a spending bill passed by theUnited States Congress this week, theUniversity of California will have to compete for the management contract of all three of its national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, and Los Alamos. Previously, it was expected that only Los Alamos would be up for bidding. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/04/MNG0Q3FSQ51.DTL]
*The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is opened inAbuja ,Nigeria , by Queen Elizabeth II. The future ofZimbabwe 's membership is threatening to dominate the gathering. The debate has been marked by bitter personal polemics between Zimbabwean PresidentRobert Mugabe andAustralia n Prime MinisterJohn Howard , whom Mugabe accuses of leading an "Anglo-Saxon conspiracy" against Zimbabwe. Mugabe himself is barred from entering theEuropean Union . Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth last year on charges that Mugabe had rigged his re-election in2002 . [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=470202] [http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8088518%5E401,00.html]
*Members of theCanadian Alliance vote 96% to 4% in favour of forming a union with the Progressive Conservative Party, called theConservative Party of Canada . The Progressive Conservatives will vote tomorrow. [http://www.cjad.com/content/cjad_news/article.asp?id=n120513A] [http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=4ED58154-89F5-4649-AFFA-DA6C5B386C73]
*SCO v. IBM : in the opening discovery stages of the SCO v. IBM conflict, a judge grants IBM's two motions to compel against SCO, and defers consideration of SCO's motions until later.
*The 22nd SEA Games open inHo Chi Minh City ,Vietnam . This is the first time Vietnam has hosted the regional athletic event and the first timeEast Timor has sent a delegation.Indonesia and Vietnam are expected to top the medal tallies. [http://english.seagames22.com.vn/] [http://www.internationalgames.net/seagames.htm]
*The draw for the qualifying stages of the 2006 Football World Cup is made.England ,Wales andNorthern Ireland are drawn together in group 6 of the Europe (UEFA ) section, making the group three-quarters of a home nations championship - Scotland missed out by being drawn (amongst others) against Italy and Norway.
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