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December 19, 2003

• Italian dairy company Parmalat declared a 3.96 billion euro hole in its accounts when the amount held by Cayman Islands-based unit, Bonlat Financing Corporation, was declared false by Bank of America. [1]
• Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi acknowledges that his country was pursuing a development program for weapons of mass destruction but now agrees to its dismantling. [2]
• A revised plan is unveiled for the new Freedom Tower which will be erected on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. At a symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 m) (1776 is significant as the year of the United States Declaration of Independence) the projected edifice will be among the tallest buildings in the world. [3] [4]
• Occupation of Iraq:
  • U.S.-appointed civil administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer reveals that he survived an attack on his convoy on December 6. [5]
  • Prime Minister of Japan Junichiro Koizumi orders the deployment of Japanese forces for non-combat duties in Southern Iraq; polls show that most Japanese voters are opposed to the mission. [6]
• Flights from Vancouver International Airport bound for the U.S. are delayed following the discovery of an envelope containing suspicious white powder and a threatening note at one of the terminals. [7]
• SARS quarantine orders are lifted on up to 75 people in Singapore but concerns remain that the deadly virus could yet make a comeback across Asia. [8]
• Australia sends AU$1.2m to Nauru so that the Pacific island-state can pay its public servants before Christmas in a move that Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says illustrates the need for long-term solutions to the island's deep-seated problems. [9]
• In a major blow to the recording industry's efforts to stamp out online file sharing, a United States federal appeals court invalidates subpoenas issued against Verizon to identify individual P2P users. [10]
• The British spacecraft Beagle 2 successfully separates from the ESA's Mars Express orbiter and is now less than 10 days away from its scheduled landing on the surface of Mars; it will attempt to parachute onto the surface on Christmas morning. [11] [12] [13]
• Police seal off the printing plant and offices of Zimbabwe's last remaining independent daily newspaper, Daily News. [14]
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: an Ontario court rules that Canadians whose same-sex partners died after 1985 are entitled to survivors' benefits. It is believed to be the first class-action lawsuit awarding compensation to gays and lesbians anywhere in the world. [15]
• The University of Delaware's Blue Hens shut out Colgate University to win the NCAA Division I-AA football national championship. [16]
• Jason Cooper, a cousin of Alonzo Mourning (a player of the NBA Team the Miami Heat), donated him his kidney because he Mourning had suffered from a career ending kidney disease.

• Juan Rozon and Angelica Ruiz, meet at an Outback Steakhouse in Queens NY and instantly fall in love!
• Ricardo Alfonso Cerna killed himself while in police custody.

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