Chronology of events in 2003

Brazil's first elected leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, takes office.

Jan. 3

President Bush tells soldiers, 'We are ready' for war if needed.

Jan. 4

Democratic presidential hopefuls pledge to oppose President Bush's economic-growth plan.

Jan. 6

Saddam Hussein accuses U.N. inspectors of engaging in intelligence work.

Jan. 7

President Bush unveils $674 billion economic stimulus plan.

Jan. 8

Commuter plane crashes at Charlotte, N.C., airport; 21 dead.

U.S. flu deaths up sharply, surpassing AIDS as killer.

Jan. 10

North Korea, warning of world war, withdraws from nuclear treaty

Jan. 11

Gov. George Ryan clears Illinois' death row, commuting 167 condemned inmates' sentences.

Wreckage of Peruvian plane found on mountain; 46 dead

Jan. 13

Steve Case, CEO of AOL Time Warner, says he will resign.

Twin Guatemalan girls born fused at the skull return home after successful surgery at UCLA hospital.

Jan. 14

Kmart closing more stores; more than 20,000 layoffs feared.

Jan. 15

Texas Tech professor triggers terrorism-alert plan by telling authorities 30 vials of plague are missing from laboratory.

White House budget chief envisions deficits in $200 billion to $300 billion range over next two years.

Jan. 16

President Bush says Michigan affirmative action program unconstitutional.

Jan. 18

Protesters nationwide demonstrate in opposition to possible war in Iraq.

Jan. 21

Grand jury indicts 17-year-old Lee Boyd Malvo on murder charges for alleged role in Washington-area sniper attacks.

Census Bureau says Hispanics have surged past blacks to become largest minority group in U.S.

Jan. 22

British Columbia avalanche kills snowboard pioneer Craig Kelly.

Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rally on 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade ruling.

Methane gas explosion in West Virginia coal mine kills three workers.

Two military helicopters crash while helping Border Patrol on drug mission, killing four Marine reservists.

Jan. 24

Start of U.S. government program to vaccinate half-million front-line health care workers in case of bioterrorist attack.

Jan. 27

Bush administration dismisses Iraq's response to U.N. disarmament demands as inadequate.

Jan.28

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party and other hawkish parties win Israeli election.

Jan. 29

Congressional Budget Office says this year's federal deficit will soar to $199 billion.

Jan. 30

Richard Reid, who tried to blow up jetliner with explosives hidden in shoes, sentenced to life in prison.

FEBRUARY

Feb. 1

Space shuttle Columbia falls to pieces during descent; seven astronauts die.

Feb. 3

President Bush sends lawmakers $2.23 trillion budget for 2004.

Record producer Phil Spector arrested in shooting death of woman.

Feb. 4

President Bush leads nation in mourning the seven Columbia astronauts.

Feb. 7

Government raises national terror alert from yellow to orange, second-highest level in color-coded system.

Feb. 9

U.S. Navy ends last planned bombing exercises on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island.

Feb. 10

Chinese court convicts U.S.-based dissident Wang Bingzhang of spying and terrorism, sentencing him to life in prison.

Feb. 13

Protests plunge Bolivian capital into chaos, leaving 14 dead.

Feb. 14

Major powers rebuff United States in U.N. Security Council, insist on more time for weapons inspections in Iraq.

Cloning pioneer Dolly the sheep euthanized.

Feb. 15

Millions of protesters demonstrate worldwide against possible U.S. attack on Iraq.

Feb. 17

Stampede at packed Chicago nightclub kills 21.

Feb. 18

Arson attack on two South Korean subway trains kills 198.

Feb. 20

Florida engineering professor, seven other men charged with financing Palestinian terrorist group.

Feb. 21

Rhode Island nightclub goes up in flames during rock concert; death toll eventually reaches 100.

Feb. 22

Mexican teenager Jesica Santillan dies after undergoing two heart-lung transplants, first of which was botched.

Feb. 24

Britain and Spain submit resolution to U.N. Security Council declaring that Saddam Hussein has missed "final opportunity" to disarm peacefully.

Feb. 25

Chief U.N. weapons inspector says Iraq showing new signs of cooperation.

Feb. 26

Supreme Court lifts nationwide ban on protests that interfere with abortion clinic business.

MARCH

March 1

Train filled with tourists overturns while descending mountain in Taiwan, killing 17.

March 3

Israeli troops arrest Hamas ideologue Mohammed Taha in raid.

March 4

Bomb in backpack kills 22 at airport terminal in southern Philippines.

After eight years, Today Sponge contraceptive goes on sale again

March 5

Thousands of students around U.S. walk out of class to protest possible war with Iraq.

March 6

Democrats block President Bush's nomination of Miguel Estrada to federal appeals court.

March 7

Broadway musicians go on strike.

March 8

Israeli helicopters fire missiles at car in Gaza, killing top Hamas leader, three bodyguards.

March 9

Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins seat in Turkish parliament, clearing way for him to become prime minister.

March 11

Army helicopter crashes near Fort Drum in upstate New York, killing 11.

March 12

Elizabeth Smart, 15, found with two drifters, nine months after her abduction from Utah home.

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic assassinated.

March 14

Hu Jintao chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as China's president.

Cold War spy Christopher Boyce released after quarter-century in prison.

March 16

Rebels in Central African Republic capture the capital.

March 17

American student run over by bulldozer and killed while trying to block Israeli troops from demolishing Palestinian home in Gaza.

March 18

Texas jury finds Bayer Corp. not liable in $560 million lawsuit over cholesterol drug.

March 19

President Bush declares war with Iraq.

March 20

Brian Patrick Regan, retired Air Force master sergeant, sentenced to life in prison for offering to sell intelligence secrets to Saddam Hussein and Chinese government.

March 21

House approves $2.2 trillion budget embracing President Bush's tax-cutting plan.

March 22

U.S. forces seize large weapons cache in Afghanistan.

March 23

Grenades explode at 101st Airborne command center in Kuwait, killing one and wounding 13 servicemen; U.S. soldier detained as suspect.

U.S. Army maintenance convoy ambushed in Iraq; 11 soldiers killed, seven captured, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

March 27

Serbian police kill two suspects in assassination of Prime Minister Djindjic.

March 28

Hijacker commandeers Turkish flight; surrenders in Greece. More than 200 people aboard freed unharmed.

March 31

U.S. troops in southern Iraq shoot and kill seven women and children in van when driver fails to stop at checkpoint

APRIL

April 1

American troops rescue Pfc. Jessica Lynch, held as POW in Iraq since her unit was ambushed March 23.

April 2

Bomb blast near wharf in southern Philippine city of Davao kills 15.

April 3

Police arrest Islamic preacher suspected of role in November suicide attacks on hotel that killed 11 Kenyans, three Israeli tourists.

April 4

U.S. forces attack Saddam International Airport outside Baghdad, fight running battles with Iraqis along the city's southern fringes.

April 5

Congolese rebel leaders say rival Ugandan troops and tribal fighters kill nearly 1,000 civilians in northeast Congo.

April 7

U.S. troops roll into Baghdad, taking over major roads and settling into a presidential palace.

April 8

Two journalists killed when U.S. forces fire on their hotel in Baghdad.

April 10

House passes bill creating national Amber Alert system and strengthening child pornography laws.

April 11

Cuban firing squad executes three men convicted of hijacking passenger ferry.

April 12

Rescued POW Jessica Lynch leaves for United States after treatment at U.S. military hospital in Germany.

April 13

Nigerian authorities report more than two-dozen people killed in election-related violence.

April 14

Four Islamic militants convicted in deadly bombing outside U.S. Consulate in Pakistan.

April 15

Looters sack, burn Baghdad's major libraries.

April 17

U.S. government awards Bechtel Corp. major contract for helping rebuild Iraq's power, water and sewage systems.

April 20

Saddam Hussein's son-in-law surrenders to Iraqi opposition group.

April 22

President Bush says he will nominate Alan Greenspan for fifth term as Federal Reserve chairman.

April 23

Georgia Senate votes to change state flag, which had included Confederate emblem.

American Airlines reports billion-dollar first quarter loss.

World health officials warn travelers to avoid Beijing and Toronto because of SARS virus.

April 24

Student kills principal, self at Pennsylvania junior high school.

April 25

Army Secretary Thomas White resigns.

April 26

Soyuz rocket carrying American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut blasts off for international space station.

April 29

Rare Southern quake near Georgia-Alabama state line rattles several states; 4.9 magnitude.

April 30

Pakistani authorities capture Waleed bin Attash, accused of playing leading role in Sept. 11 attacks.

MAY

May 1

President Bush lands aboard aircraft carrier, declares major combat over in Iraq.

Earthquake kills 176 in Turkey, including scores of children in school dormitory.

May 3

Russian transport helicopter crashes in Siberia, killing 12.

May 4

Police in Baghdad return to work; some say they feel unsafe.

May 5

Tornadoes kill 40 in Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee.

May 6

World Health Organization says SARS can be contained.

May 7

Columbia accident board backs "working scenario" that damaged tiles let in fatal gases.

May 8

Senate unanimously backs NATO entry for seven former communist nations.

May 9

U.S., allies ask Security Council to legitimize occupation of Iraq

May 10

Top Iraqi Shiite leader returns from exile, calls for Islamic state

May 11

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas says Palestinians are ready to accept U.S.-backed plan for peace with Israel.

May 12

Explosives attack kill more than 40 outside government compound in Chechnya

May 13

Judge rules Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols must stand trial in state court, could get death penalty

Car bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kill 34, including eight Americans.

Mass graves with thousands of bodies found at two Iraq sites.

May 14

Smugglers abandon more than 100 illegal immigrants in locked trailer at Texas truck stop; 19 die.

May 16

Senate commits $15 billion to fight global AIDS.

May 17

Terrorists set off explosions in Casablanca, Morocco, killing at least 40.

May 20

House votes to accelerate tree cutting on 20 million acres of overgrown woodlands prone to wildfires

May 21

Christie Whitman resigns as Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

May 22

U.N. Security Council gives U.S. and Britain mandate to rule Iraq, ends 13 years of economic sanctions.

Congress completes work on $330 billion in new tax cuts.

May 23

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agrees to submit U.S.-backed "road map" for peace to Israeli Cabinet

May 24

U.S. coalition orders Iraqis to give up weapons by mid-June.

May 25

Nestor Kirchner sworn in as Argentina's president.

May 27

Study shows women who take hormones for years run higher risk of Alzheimer's or other types of dementia.

May 28

Suspect in Louisiana serial killings, Derrick Todd Lee, arrested in Atlanta.

May 29

AOL Time Warner and Microsoft announce settlement in battle over Internet browsers; software giant pays AOL $750 million.

May 30

President Bush visits Auschwitz and Birkenau Nazi death camps.

May 31

Atlanta Olympic bombing suspect Eric Rudolph arrested in North Carolina.

JUNE

June 1

Leaders of world's seven wealthiest nations and Russia pledge billions of dollars to fight AIDS and hunger.

June 2

Federal Communications Commission eases limits on media ownership.

June 3

Two Arab immigrants convicted in Michigan of conspiring to support Islamic terrorists.

June 4

Martha Stewart indicted, pleads innocent in insider-trading scandal.

June 5

New York Times' top two editors resign after Jayson Blair scandal.

June 6

U.S. unemployment hits 9-year high of 6.1 percent.

June 8

With four Wisconsin cases, monkeypox is confirmed in humans for first time in Western Hemisphere.

June 9

As rebels bear down on Liberian capital, French helicopters rescue more than 500 Americans, Europeans and other foreigners.

June 10

ImClone chief Sam Waksal sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

June 11

U.S. military launches large operation against Saddam Hussein loyalists north of Baghdad; 400 captured.

June 14

Charter fishing boat carrying 19 people capsizes off northern Oregon coast; nine dead, two missing.

June 16

Authorities free 12 people sent to prison on false testimony in Tulia, Texas, drug bust.

Supreme Court rules that government can force medication on mentally ill criminal defendants only in rare circumstances.

June 18

Max Factor heir and fugitive rapist Andrew Luster captured in Mexico after five months on the run.

June 19

Ohio truck driver who met Osama bin Laden and admitted plots against trains and Brooklyn Bridge pleads guilty to felony charges.

June 20

Wildfires fueled by high winds burn 250 homes in southern Arizona.

June 22

Iraq re-enters world oil market with first shipment of crude since war; sabotage along largest pipeline delays oil flow.

June 23

Supreme Court allows colleges to select students based in part on race.

June 25

Music industry threatens to sue hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files online.

June 26

Supreme Court strikes down state bans on homosexual sex.

June 27

More than 735,000 people register with national do-not-call list.

June 29

Porch collapses during party in Chicago, killing 13.

JULY

July 3

U.S. offers $25 million reward for information on Saddam Hussein.

July 4

Attackers kill about 50 Shiite Muslim worshippers in Pakistan mosque.

July 5

Suicide bombers kill 14 at Moscow rock festival.

July 6

Liberian leader Charles Taylor accepts Nigerian asylum offer.

July 7

Federal judge approves $750 million WorldCom penalty.

July 8

Sudanese airliner crash kills 116 passengers and crew.

Gunman opens fire at Lockheed Martin plant in Mississippi; six dead including shooter.

Iranian twins joined at head die after surgical separation.

July 9

Saddam Hussein's former interior minister taken into custody

July 10

Spain opens first mosque in 500 years.

Astronomers find oldest, most distant planet ever discovered.

July 11

Thousands mark anniversary of 1995 massacre at Srebrenica in Bosnia, bury 282 victims.

July 12

USS Reagan, first carrier named for living president, commissioned in Virginia.

July 13

Iraq's Governing Council holds first meeting.

July 15

Philadelphia's archbishop, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, retires.

July 16

Ten toxic waste sites chosen for Superfund cleanups.

July 17

Democrats Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich apologize to NAACP for bypassing presidential forum.

July 18

NBA star Kobe Bryant charged with sexual assault.

Body of British scientist David Kelly, expert of Iraqi weapons, found after suicide.

July 21

Heavy fighting in Monrovia, Liberia, kills at least 70 as rebels enter city; U.S. Embassy hit by shell.

President Bush seeks other nations to help in Iraq; accuses Syria, Iran of harboring terrorists.

July 22

Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai died in blaze of gunfire and rockets.

Months after POW ordeal, Jessica Lynch returns home to West Virginia.

July 23

Shots fired inside New York's city hall; councilman and gunman killed.

Liberian rebels announce cease-fire.

July 30

Iraq's Governing Council names first president as U.S. presses hunt for Saddam.

President Bush says he is exploring legal steps to define marriage as union between man and woman.

July 31

Vatican launches campaign against gay marriage, urges non-Catholics to join offensive.

AUGUST

Aug. 1

Suicide truck bombing destroys military hospital building near Chechnya; at least 33 killed.

Aug. 2

Liberia's Charles Taylor agrees to cede power.

Aug. 3

Iraq's Central Bank asks U.N. to urge countries to hand over frozen Iraqi assets.

Drought, heat ravage harvests in Europe.

Aug. 5

Episcopalians approve gay bishop, moving church closer to possible split.

Aug. 6

Israel frees hundreds of prisoners; Palestinians dismiss gesture as inadequate.

Aug. 7

Bombing outside Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad; 19 killed.

Aug. 8

Boston archdiocese offers $55 million to settle lawsuits stemming from sex abuse by priests.

Aug. 9

Army begins chemical weapons incineration in Alabama.

Aug. 11

President Bush picks Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head Environmental Protection Agency.

Aug. 12

Liberia's rebels agree to lift its siege of the capital.

Dennis Archer installed as first black president of American Bar Association.

Aug. 13

Remains of up to 1,000 victims of World Trade Center attack might never be identified, biologist says.

Aug. 14

Huge blackout hits northeast U.S., part of Canada; 50 million lose power.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore says he won't remove Ten Commandments monument from courthouse.

Aug. 17

Assault on Afghanistan police station; 22 killed.

Aug. 19

Suicide bomb strikes U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, killing 23, including top U.N. envoy.

Aug. 20

Hundreds of thousands march in Venezuela demanding recall of President Hugo Chavez.

Aug. 21

Palestinian militants abandon truce after Israel kills Hamas leader in missile attack.

Aug. 22

Alabama Supreme Court justices order Ten Commandments monument moved from courthouse.

Aug. 23

Former priest John Geoghan, key figure in Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, killed in Massachusetts prison.

Aug. 24

U.S. crime rate in 2002 lowest since studies began in 1973, report finds.

Aug. 27

Worker opens fire at Chicago warehouse; 7 dead, including gunman.

Stampede at Indian religious festival; 39 killed.

Aug. 28

World Trade Organization panel reaches agreement on low-cost drugs for poor countries.

Aug. 29

Mosque bombing in Iraq kills 85, including key Shiite cleric.

South Dakota congressman Bill Janklow charged with felony manslaughter in car accident.

Aug. 30

Russian nuclear-powered submarine sinks in Barents sea; nine dead.

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 1

Chinese military, world's largest, to shed 200,000 troops as it seeks to modernize.

Sept. 2

San Francisco appeals court tosses out more than 100 death sentences in three states.

Sept. 3

Former minister Paul Hill executed for 1994 shotgun slaying of Florida abortion doctor.

Sept. 6

Mahmoud Abbas resigns as Palestinian prime minister.

Sept. 9

Democrats demand details of Iraq operations as condition for $87 billion package.

Sept. 10

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, 46, fatally stabbed.

Sept. 13

South Korea's most powerful typhoon ever leaves scores dead, missing.

Sept. 14

Swedes reject euro after emotional campaign.

Sept. 17

Spanish judge indicts Osama bin Laden, 34 others for terrorism.

New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso resigns amid furor over $139.5 million pay package.

Retired Army general Wesley Clark enters race for Democratic presidential nomination.

Sept. 18

Hurricane Isabel pounds North Carolina, knocks out power to 1 million.

Sept. 19

Saddam Hussein's former defense minister surrenders.

Sept. 20

Gunmen firing from pickup truck fatally wound woman serving on Iraq's Governing Council.

Sept. 21

Former Citigroup CEO John S. Reed named temporarily to head New York Stock exchange.

Paul Martin elected by Canada's Liberal Party to succeed Jean Chretien as prime minister.

Sept. 24

Texas lawmakers approve disputed congressional redistricting plan to boost Republican prospects.

Sept. 25

France says nearly 15,000 killed in summer heat wave.

Sept. 26

Eight killed in fire at Nashville nursing home.

Government issues recall for Segway scooters.

Sept. 28

Power outage hits Italy.

Sept. 29

Federal Communications Commission says it will enforce do-not-call list.

OCTOBER

Oct. 2.

South African J.M. Coetzee wins 2003 Nobel Prize for literature.

Oct. 6

American Paul Lauterbur, Briton Peter Mansfield win Nobel Prize for medicine.

Democrat Bob Graham ends presidential campaign.

Oct. 7

California voters recall Gov. Gray Davis, elect Arnold Schwarzenegger as new governor.

U.S.-based scientists Alexei Abrikosov and Anthony Leggett, and Russian Vitaly Ginzburg win Nobel Prize in physics.

Oct. 8

Americans Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon win Nobel Prize in chemistry.

American Robert Engle, Briton Clive Granger win Nobel Prize in economics.

Oct. 10

Iranian writer and activist Shirin Ebadi wins Nobel Peace Prize.

Oct. 12

Patient sets fire to mental hospital in Belarus; 29 killed.

Two-year-old conjoined twins from Egypt successfully separated.

Oct. 13

U.N. Security Council approves resolution expanding peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Oct. 14

China launches first manned spacecraft.

United States vetoes resolution condemning Israeli construction of wall separating it from Palestinians.

Oct. 15

Staten Island ferry slams into pier, killing 10 people.

Feeding tube removed from severely brain-damaged Florida woman at center of right-to-die battle.

Oct. 17

Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigns after protests.

Fire kills six at high-rise county building in Chicago.

Oct. 18

Iraq resumes pumping oil through northern pipeline to Turkey.

Oct. 20

Box cutters, other banned items found on Southwest Airlines planes.

Judge orders Kobe Bryant to stand trial for sexual assault.

Oct. 21

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush orders feeding tube reinserted into brain-damaged woman.

Iran agrees to give foreign inspectors unrestricted access to nuclear facilities

Oct. 23

Federal officials arrest more than 300 illegal workers at 61 Wal-Mart stores.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek dies in New York at 105.

Oct. 24

Last scheduled Concorde flight lands at London's Heathrow Airport.

Oct. 25

Prosecutor orders jailing of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, head of Russia's largest oil company, Yukos.

Oct. 26

Authorities report eight deaths in San Diego County wildfire.

Oct. 28

Sony Corp. says it will cut 20,000 jobs over three years.

Oct. 29

International Red Cross says it will reduce international staff in Baghdad after deadly car-bombing near its office.

Oct. 30

Atlantic City casino parking garage collapses; four people killed.

Oct. 31

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi sworn in as Malaysian prime minister, ending Mahathir Mohamad's 22-year reign.

NOVEMBER

Nov. 2

U.S. military helicopter downed in Iraq; 16 soldiers dead.

V. Gene Robinson consecrated as first openly gay bishop in Episcopal Church.

Nov. 4

Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy indicted on 85 counts in federal fraud case.

Firefighters contain 280,000-acre Cedar Fire, deadliest of Southern California's wildfires.

Nov. 5

President Bush signs bill outlawing procedure known by its critics as partial-birth abortion.

Green River serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway confesses to strangling four dozen women over two decades, mostly near Seattle.

Nov. 6

President Bush signs $87.5 billion package for Iraq, Afghanistan.

Nov. 8.

Howard Dean declines public money for White House race, citing need to compete financially against President Bush.

Nov. 10

World Trade Organization panel upholds ruling that U.S. duties on steel imports are illegal.

Federal regulators allow customers to switch home phone numbers to cell phones.

Nov. 11

Millionaire Robert Durst found innocent of murdering elderly neighbor in Texas.

Nov. 12

Two powerful labor unions endorse Democrat Howard Dean for president.

Truck bomb outside barracks in Iraq kills 19 Italians, 14 others.

Nov. 13

Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard denied request to press appeal of conviction for selling military secrets to Israel.

Nov. 14

Jury returns $11.9 billion judgment against Exxon Mobil in Alabama's suit over natural gas royalties.

Nov. 15

Two Black Hawk helicopters crash in Iraq; 17 U.S. soldiers killed.

Two synagogues bombed in Istanbul; 29 killed.

Nov. 17

John Allen Muhammad convicted of capital murder in Washington-area sniper shootings.

Rush Limbaugh returns to radio after five weeks of rehabilitation for painkiller addiction.

Arnold Schwarzenegger sworn in as California's governor.

Nov 18

U.N. refugee agency begins pulling foreign staff out of Afghanistan after killing of French worker.

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

Scott Peterson ordered to stand trial in California for murder of his wife, Laci, and unborn son.

Nov. 19

Investigators pin origin of Aug. 14 blackout on failures at Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp.

Nov. 20

Michael Jackson booked on suspicion of child molestation, posts $3 million bail.

Record producer Phil Spector charged with murder in February shooting death of woman at his home.

Bank, British consulate bombed in Istanbul; 32 killed.

Nov. 21

Health officials say green onions likely cause of hepatitis A outbreak in Pennsylvania that killed three people, sickened nearly 600.

Nov. 23

Five U.S. soldiers killed in helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

Fire kills 37 at Moscow dormitory housing foreign students.

Eduard Shevardnadze resigned as president of Georgia after protests.

Nov. 24

President Bush signs $401 billion defense authorization bill.

John Allen Muhammad sentenced to death for Washington-area sniper shootings.

Nov. 25

Senate passes bill adding prescription drug benefit to Medicare program.

Nov. 26

Hard-liners defeat moderates in Northern Ireland legislative elections.

Nov. 27

More than 180 killed in ferry collision on Congo River.

Nov. 29

Plane crashes in northeast Congo; 33 killed.

DECEMBER

Dec. 1

India, Pakistan agree to resume overflights Jan. 1, two years after ending transportation links.

Boeing Co. chairman and chief executive Phil Condit resigns.

Dec. 2

Police say 12 shootings along five-mile stretch of Ohio interstate are connected.

Dec. 3

U.N. tribunal convicts three media officials for roles in promoting 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Dec. 4

President Bush lifts steel tariffs in face of threatened foreign retaliation.

Beyonce, Jay-Z, OutKast, Pharrell Williams lead Grammy nominations with six each.

Baltimore-based federal prosecutor Jonathan Luna found dead.

Dec. 5

U.S. manufacturers of flu vaccine say they have run out of stocks.

Dec. 6

Nine children found dead after U.S. air raid in southern Afghanistan.

Dec. 8

President Bush signs $400 billion Medicare overhaul that includes prescription drug plan for seniors.

Congress approves measure to stem flood of unwanted e-mail.

Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D., convicted of manslaughter in car/motorcycle crash; he resigns from Congress.

Dec. 9

Owners of Rhode Island nightclub and tour manager for Great White rock band indicted on charges related to February fire that killed 100.

Former Vice President Al Gore endorses Howard Dean for Democratic presidential nomination.

Dow Jones industrials move past 10,000 for first time since May 2002.

Dec. 10

Appeals court orders new trial for Florida teen sentenced to life for death of playmate.