On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 2003, the world population was approximately 6,420,361,634 people[†]
2003Luciano Berio, Italian composer and educator (born 1925)[†]
Luciano Berio was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work, and for his pioneering work in electronic music. His early work was influenced by Igor Stravinsky and experiments with serial and electronic techniques, while his later works explore indeterminacy and the use of spoken texts as the basic material for composition.
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Americans' trust and confidence in military has soared; long-building trend has intensified with terrorist attacks of Sept 11 and successful military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq; in 2002, Americans who express great deal or lot of confidence in military rose, to 79 percent from 58 percent in 1975; positive image is particularly striking among children and grandchildren of baby boomers; Prof David C King, author of book on subject, says younger generations trust military more deeply than their baby boomer parents ever did; various polls back that assessment up; some researchers argue that trend in part reflects simple experience; say young people coming of age during quick and successful military actions are quite likely to have very different attitudes from those who came of age during Vietnam War; experts note that growing popularity does not, necessarily, translate into surge in enlistments; spokesmen for various branches of military report hitting their recruitment goals for last few years; photo; graph (M)
Latest massacre in Congo reveals, with graphic and embarrassing detail, impotence of international reaction to horrors that have befallen that country; death toll in town of Bunia stands at 350 as militias belonging to rival Hema and Lendu tribes battle for control; machete's ghastly wreckage is evident on men, women and children inside what passes for hospital; there is no telling when next round of carnage will unfold, or whether United Nations Security Council will send troops to bring order; Secretary Gen Kofi Annan has appealed to member countries to send soldiers for multinational force; peacekeepers sent to Bunia were overrun and two of them were also massacred; American officials say only long-lasting solution for peace in Congo is to persuade outsiders, namely Uganda and Rwanda, to stop arming proxy fighters and to support peace deal recently negotiated between warring factions; photos; map (M)
Evangelical Christians seek to woo Muslims away from Islam; teacher at recent seminar in church fellowship hall in Grove City, Ohio, shows passages from Koran that he says proves Islam is regressive, fraudulent and violent; incendiary comments about Islam from religious leaders like Franklyn Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Jerry Vines have drawn rebukes from Muslims and Christian groups alike, but many in grass roots of evangelical Christianity have absorbed their antipathy for Islam; in evangelical churches and seminaries across country, lectures and books criticizing Islam and promoting strategies for Muslim conversions are gaining currency; Arab International Ministry, group that leads crash courses on Islam, claims to have trained 4,500 American Christians to proselytize Muslims in last six years, many of those since 2001 terrorist attacks; their basic presumption is that world's two largest religions are headed for confrontation, with Christianity representing what is good, true and peaceful and Islam what is evil, false and violent; National Assn of Evangelicals has called on Christian leaders to temper their anti-Islam oratory, saying it is unhelpful to interfaith relations and dangerous to Christians spreading gospel to Muslims; historians note enmity between Christianity and Islam dates as far back as Crusades; photo (L)
Boston Red Sox defeat New York Yankees, 8-4; photos (M)
Public Company Accounting Bord decides to allow its new chief auditor Douglas R Carmichael to testify against accounting firms in private lawsuits only if he is subpoenaed to do so; board makes decision after being criticized for adopting Carmichael to testify at all; photo (M)
Ramon Baez Figueroa, who was arrested on May 15, along with two executives of his family's bank Banco Intercontinental, on charges that he schemed to embezzle 55 billion Dominican pesos ($2.2 billion) is still courted in Dominican jail cell; arrests and accusations have shaken Dominican Republic's economy to core; government officials say two-thirds of money that customers deposited in bank, hs been kept off its official books by custom-designed software system; money went to finance clandestine bank-within-a-bank that Baez Figueroa is accused of using to enrich himself, friends and political figures; officials say banking regulators and bank's auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers were deceived; Baez Figueroa's lawyer Marino Vinicio Castillo says who affair has been trumped up for political reasons, and that claim that 55 billion pesos was embezzled is 'a fable'; photo (M)
Three new robotic spacecraft are due to arrive on Mars in next six or seven months; NASA plans launch of twin rovers to navigate Mars' surface extracting samples and analyzing their composition while transmitting views of surface and sky; Britain, partnered with European Space Agency, will also attempt landing Beagle II, saucer shaped craft, that weighs mere 73 pounds and is designed to dig up to five feet into Martian soil; Beagle lead scientist Dr Colin T Pillinger, who is from Milton Keynes (England) Open University, shares details of project's creative engineering on limited time and budget; both projects are spurred by possibility of life on Mars since discovery of 1996 Martian meteorite that NASA announced contained microscopic fossils; graphs; photos; (L)
Michiko Kakutani reviews book Mortals by Norman Rush; photo (M)
Osvaldo Rodriguez Borunda publishes newspaper El Diario in Ciudad Juarez, Mex, and he wants to start newspaper across border in El Paso in challenge to El Paso Times, which was founded in 1881 and bought by Gannett Co in 1972; Gannett says Rodriguez is opportunist, seeking government help in his attempt to expand his private empire; rivalry between Rodriguez and Times has spilled over into news columns; Times has published reports connecting Rodriguez to drug-trafficking organization and to violent threats against his son; Rodriguez has denied allegations and El Diario has run editorials criticizing Times for its coverage; El Diario has published articles and editorials calling attention to what it says is disconnect between largely sanitized, formulaic and Anglo version of El Paso in Times and predominantly Hispanic version on streets; Mack Quintana, publisher of El Paso Times, comments; photo (M)
George Vecsey Sports of The Times column contends that New York Yankees' loss to Boston Red Sox overshadows fact that Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens did not get 300th career win, as loss extends Yankees slump to 12 defeats in last 15 games; photo (M)
In a torrent of rage, teenagers at the troubled Academy at Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica rose up over the weekend and overthrew their masters, walking off the ranch that was set up 19 months ago as a behavior modification program for troubled youths. Most of the children are going home, many to an uncertain future. Article, Page A6.
European Central Bank is expected to reduce its key interest rate at least one-quarter of percentage point at regular meeting next week; some experts predict cut will be more given recent surge in euro and tide of grim economic news in Europe; euro hits another four-year high against US, trading at $1.1852, before easing to $1.1352; International Monetary Fund report shows Germany, Italy and Netherlands are on brink of recession, while Germany risks falling into deflationary spiral; Ifo Institute president Hans-Werner Sinn comments (M)