On this day
Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
In 2004, the world population was approximately 6,503,377,772 people[†]
2004Aiyathurai Nadesan, Sri Lankan journalist (born 1954)[†]
Aiyathurai Nadesan, a prominent and veteran minority Sri Lankan Tamil journalist was shot dead on 31 May 2004 on his way to work in eastern Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa by gunmen belonging to an armed paramilitary group widely believed to be so called Karuna Group.
2004Robert Quine, American guitarist (born 1941)[†]
Robert Wolfe Quine was an American guitarist. A native of Akron, Ohio, Quine worked with a wide range of musicians, though he himself remained relatively unknown. Critic Mark Deming wrote that "Quine's eclectic style embraced influences from jazz, rock, and blues players of all stripes, and his thoughtful technique and uncompromising approach led to rewarding collaborations with a number of visionary musicians."
2004Étienne Roda-Gil, French screenwriter and composer (born 1941)[†]
Étienne Roda-Gil was a songwriter and screenwriter. He was an anarchist and an anarcho-syndicalist.
Second article in series American Dreamers: The Lure of Las Vegas describes Bilbray Elementary School, where Jennifer Noble is one of more than 2,000 new teachers recruited last year in nation's fastest-growing school district; photos; new schools are tenuous outposts of community in glue-stick landscapes of raw housing developments; Bilbray itself was too small for growing population as soon as it opened last fall; Noble and husband Chris, who met in New Jersey, moved with three small children back to Las Vegas, where she lived as child, because their salaries, his as chef, were not enough in California; he now works 15-hour days at bistro in Venetian hotel; many of Noble's pupils on mobile frontier are veterans of multiple moves from ever-shifting boundaries of schools rising from desert (M)
Article on efforts to preserve old Jewish ghetto in North Bund neighborhood of Shanghai, China; urban renewal plans called for turning area into modern business and residential district; New York architect Christopher Choa and several architectural firms won design competition that would have saved old synagogue and some row houses, but momentum is growing in support of plan by Ian Leventhal and Thomas M Rado that would preserve entire neighborhood; photos; map (M)
Alessandra Stanley reviews made-for-TV movie Ike: Countdown to D-Day starring Tom Selleck; photo (M)
Computer scientists and engineers are raising questions about government plan to create multibillion-dollar computer system of 'virtual borders' intended to identify would-be terrorists entering United States; critics claim government has had bad record in building computereized systems based on unproved technology; system would capture biometric data, like fingerprints, photographs and voiceprints, at 211 visa-issuing posts overseas; Dept of Homeland Security is expected to announce award of contract to extend reach of its US-Visit program; photos (M)
Saudi commandos in helicopters storm residential complex in Khobar, freeing most of dozens of foreign hostages trapped by four armed militants for 24 hours; photo; map; government reports 22 people killed by militants and 25 wounded, with militants' leader wounded and captured; three other gunmen use hostages as cover to escape in stolen car; attack on luxurious Oasis Residential Resorts is second brazen assault this month against Saudi oil industry and comes as country tries to increase production to ease record global oil prices; one American known dead; most of others are Indian or Filipino; seven American government workers reportedly eluded capture; assault details are murky; Saudi Amb Prince Bandar bin Sultan says oil production will not be disrupted by terrorists; Al Qaeda group claims responsibility (M)
Air America Radio's first two months of broadcasting have been convulsive; fledgling talk-radio network has replaced five top executives, been taken off air in two of its top three markets and lost several crucial producers; current and former executives agree that company is perilously close to running out of money, although it has received infusion of cash from unidentified source; Al Franken, network's best-known star, says he has agreed not to draw salary temporarily; turmoil has laid bare mismatched collection of managers and investors, including Democratic Party fund-raisers, Internet entrepreneurs and radio veterans who do not get along well; photos; map (M)
Spammers have been sending more junk e-mail than ever, despite new federal antispam law that took effect Jan 1; few have been brought into court because it is hard to find them and link them to electronic offers of pills and pornography; vanguard of fight against spam has turned from software engineers to investigators in private industry, and increasing number of prosecutors and law enforcement agents who are learning how to combine traditional detective work with cyber-sleuthing; Sterling McBride of Microsoft's antispam unit says he uses tools he learned as United States Marshal to find spammers; photos (M)
Lyah Beth LeFlore, 34-year-old television producer and co-author of Cosmopolitan Girls, is one of several black women writing Manhattan-based novels about black women living high-octane lives; black 'chick-lit,' like white counterpart, centers on single women with dream jobs who precariously balance personal and professional lives; other books include The Accidental Diva by Tia Williams, beauty director at Teen People magazine; photos of several authors (M)
Face-recognition technology is often touted as promising tool in fight against terrorism; its performance is improving after initially failing miserably in some well-publicized tests for picking faces out of crowds; face-recognition systems use cameras and computers to map someone's facial features, collect data for storage in databases or on microchip on documents like passports; so far, making technology work has required nearly perfect lighting and co-operative subjects, conditions not present when trying to spot suspected terrorists and criminals in a crowd; those conditions are present at major casinos, which now use the tehcnology to spot card counters at blackjack tables; photos (M)
Rene Ramon Sanchez, Bronx auto-body worker, endured several ordeals with criminal justice system and immigration authorities because his fingerprints were mistakenly placed on official record of Leo Rosario, drug dealer and prime candidate for deportation; he was arrested three times and spent two months in detention after system made single error and then failed to correct it; case illustrates how easily person's identity can be smudged in era of shared databases, particularly if victim, like Sanchez, speaks little English and has minor criminal record of his own; photo; his strange, sometimes absurd odyssey through system and eventual exoneration recounted (M)
Profile of and interview with Donna Brazile, Democratic strategist who ran Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and whose new memoir is Cooking With Grease--Stirring the Pots in American Politics; Brazile comments on what went wrong in 2000 and what Democrats need to do in order to win in 2004; photos (M)