The December 4, 2004 was a Saturday under the star sign of ♐. It was the 338 day of the year. President of the United States was George W. Bush.
If you were born on this day, you are 21 years old. Your last birthday was on the Thursday, December 4, 2025, 203 days ago. Your next birthday is on Friday, December 4, 2026, in 161 days. You have lived for 7,873 days, or about 188,969 hours, or about 11,338,177 minutes, or about 680,290,620 seconds.
Date: 04 December 2004
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Aon Corp reportedly receives $320.5 million through sale of almost all of its shares in Endurance Specialty Holdings, which offers business insurance and reinsurance, to Goldman Sachs Group (S)
Date: 04 December 2004
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Former Disney directors Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, following board's promise that successor for chief executive Michael Eisner would be found by June and that Eisner would step down when process is complete, say they will not propose alternate slate of candidates for board next year (S)
Date: 04 December 2004
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Pfizer asks US and European regulators to approve Viagra as treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, potentially fatal lung disorder (S)
Date: 05 December 2004
By Frank Rich
Frank Rich
Frank Rich column on new journalism in America that panders to Nascar dads, 'moral values' voters and red states; discusses Brian Williams, NBC's new Nightly News anchor, and effort to try to repackage ABC anchor Peter Jennings as sentimental populist; offers other examples; photo (M)
Date: 04 December 2004
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Car sales in Italy rise 0.9 percent in November as companies offer discounts on new models (S)
Date: 04 December 2004
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Canadian jobless rate reportedly rises to five-month high of 7.3 percent in November from 7.1 percent in October; economy loses 25,300 full-time jobs as factories lay off workers for fourth consecutive month (S)
Date: 04 December 2004
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries agrees to purchase Burtonwood, which operates 460 British pubs, for 119 million pounds sterling ($231 million); Wolverhampton reports 26 percent rise in annual profit, to 48.4 million pounds sterling; graph (S)
Date: 05 December 2004
INTERNATIONAL 3-33 Ukraine Challenger Surges Viktor A. Yushchenko, the opposition candidate who is trying to remake Ukraine through a sweeping change of power, is now surging, and he is the leading candidate in a second presidential runoff that Ukraine's Supreme Court ordered. 8 Violence Continues in Iraq Militants carried out deadly strikes in Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul, with suicide car-bomb attacks on police stations and Kurdish militiamen that killed at least 26, the latest in an increasingly violent assault on the country's beleaguered security forces. 26 Increasing attacks have curtailed the activities of Japanese troops in southern Iraq, but Japan's government appears poised to extend their mission and provide continued support for the Bush administration. 26 British Financial Aid for Malawi Britain pledged more than $100 million to increase the salaries of thousands of nurses and other health workers in Malawi, and to increase the number of medical staff being trained in the impoverished African nation. The aid will enable Malawi to try to offset the drain of British nurses. 10 Mozambique's Elections Ending Mozambique's governing party, Frelimo, and its presidential candidate, Armando Guebuza, were headed for an unexpectedly sweeping victory in the nation's third national elections since a civil war ended in 1992. 33 Poppy Spraying in Afghanistan Unidentified planes have been spraying opium poppy fields with a toxic chemical in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai called in the ambassadors of Britain and the United States, the two main donors involved in efforts to combat narcotics in Afghanistan, but both countries have denied any involvement. 33 NATIONAL 34-41 Bush Pushes for Spy Bill President Bush sought to stem a near-rebellion by members of his own party by describing a sweeping intelligence-overhaul bill they oppose as an effort to fight terrorism and calling for its passage during a brief Congressional session next week. 1 Texas Death Penalty Cases The Supreme Court appears poised to deliver a fourth reversal of a decision made by one of the two courts that review the state's death penalty cases. The actions of the two appeals courts may help explain why the state leads the nation in execution. 1 SCIENCE/HEALTH Concerns Over Medicare A wide range of experts on long-term care say the new Medicare law appears to be unworkable for most of the 1.5 million Americans who live in nursing homes and cannot easily shop around for insurance plans to find the bargains on their drugs, as other Medicare beneficiaries are supposed to do. 38 OBITUARIES 51 NEW YORK/REGION 43-50 Doubts Voiced Over Kerik As Bernard Kerik moves toward becoming Homeland Security secretary, some are questioning whether that unwieldy structure can be tamed by a man who comes from an ordered paramilitary world. 1 Neediest Cases 49 Chess 48 Weather 53
Date: 04 December 2004
INTERNATIONAL A3-11 New Election Runoff For Ukraine Leader Ukraine's Supreme Court overturned the results of the country's disputed presidential election and ordered a new runoff between the two main challengers. A1 BBC Tricked on Interview The BBC was tricked into broadcasting an interview with a man pretending to be a spokesman for Dow Chemical who claimed the company had taken the blame for the chemical plant disaster in Bhopal, India, in 1984. A4 Iraqis Said to Plan Allawi Attack The German police arrested three Iraqis who appeared to have been planning an attack on the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, who is in Germany for talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. A10 Continuous Attacks In Iraq Heavily armed insurgents launched attacks in Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 27 Iraqi civilians. The violence demonstrated the continued power of the insurgency and the ferocity of the militants' campaign against the fledgling Iraqi security forces. A1 An investigation into interrogation techniques at military detention centers, including the Abu Ghraib prison, concludes there was little oversight of interrogation policies, leaving field commanders to develop some ad hoc practices that were unauthorized. A10 Palestinians Restrain Militants Mahmoud Abbas, the new leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, is making progress in persuading militant groups to hold their fire against Israeli targets. A10 Canada Hesitates on Missiles Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada is hesitating about whether to join Washington's plans for a continental missile defense system. A4 Colombian Cartel Extradition President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia signed the final order to extradite Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, the former head of the powerful Cali cocaine cartel. A11 NATIONAL A12-16, 20 In Resigning, Health Chief Warns of Possible Crises Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, said he was resigning and expressed grave concern about the threat of a global flu epidemic and the possibility of a terrorist attack on the nation's food supply. A1 Nomination Suggests Change Administration and Congressional officials said that President Bush's selection of Bernard B. Kerik as the new secretary of homeland security signals potentially sweeping changes at a sprawling department. A14 Rumsfeld to Stay at Defense President Bush has decided to keep Donald H. Rumsfeld on as defense secretary. A14 Record Abuse Settlement The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County, Calif., has reached a record settlement with 87 victims of abuse by priests and lay employees. A1 Newspaper Sues Governor The Baltimore Sun filed suit against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Maryland, asserting that he has violated the paper's First Amendment rights by prohibiting state employees from talking to two Sun journalists. A12 Beliefs A16 EDUCATION Dispute Over SAT Data The College Board, which owns the SAT college exam, is demanding that a nonprofit group critical of standardized tests remove from its Web site data that breaks down scores by race, income and sex. A15 SCIENCE/HEALTH Study Cites Danger in Benzene The first study of a large group of workers breathing air with very low levels of benzene suggests that the chemical may harm the bone marrow, even in amounts below the threshold deemed safe under American law. A20 NEW YORK/REGION B1-5 M.T.A. Seeks Tax Money For 5-Year Rebuilding Plan Moving to address its financial crisis, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is proposing to increase a half-dozen business, real estate and fuel taxes to raise $900 million a year to help pay for the transit network's five-year rebuilding program. A1 Theft of Painting Shows Risks The theft of a 19th century French painting from an Upper East Side gallery was a disturbing reminder that life in the rarefied world of expensive paintings and hushed Manhattan galleries is not without its risks. B1 Lobbying at Ground Zero Lawmakers have been gathering with a handful of relatives of Sept. 11 victims at ground zero to urge the passage of a bill restructuring the national intelligence system. B2 Chase Ends in Shooting A police manhunt that began before dawn yesterday with the stakeout of a stolen van in Brooklyn ended last night in the shooting of a suspect by officers during a foot chase along a richly appointed block of the Upper West Side, the authorities said. B1 Neediest Cases B4 OBITUARIES A17 ARTS B7-19 SPORTSSATURDAY D1-6 Bonds Enters Steroids Scandal Barry Bonds, who is on pace to become baseball's all-time leading home-run hitter, was confronted with reports of his grand jury testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid distribution case. In his testimony Bonds admits to using a clear substance and a cream that were supplied by BALCO and are believed to be designer steroids. A1 Florida Hires Coach Soughtafter Utah football coach Urban Meyer accepted a seven-year deal to take over the University of Florida football team. D1 BUSINESS DAY C1-12 Falling Dollar Causing Anxiety As the dollar has slumped this fall, many investors have started to worry that investors in Asia will be tempted to pare their holdings, perhaps causing the currency to plunge much further and setting off a round of interest rate increases in the United States that could send the global economy into a tailspin. A1 Fewer Jobs Added in November The economy added 112,000 payroll jobs in November, far fewer than in October and not enough to keep up with average increases in the adult population, the Labor Department reported. C1 Chinese Companies' Future Formerly relegated to a low-profile as the cheap assemblers for the rest of the industrialized world, Chinese companies now have their sights set on becoming global powers in their own right. C1 California Kills Pension Fund Just days after the president of Calpers was ousted, some California officials are proposing that the state get out of the pension business and give state and municipal workers a 401(k) plan instead. C1 Business Digest C1 EDITORIAL A18-19 Editorials: Stop the stadium in its tracks; saying no to Vladimir Putin. Columns: David Brooks, Nicholas D. Kristof. Bridge B14 Crossword B16 TV Listings B19 Weather B20
Date: 05 December 2004
By Daniel Altman
Daniel Altman
Daniel Altman analysis of what plummeting value of dollar may mean for US economy; if dollar loses value slowly, giving businesses and investors time to adjust spending and portfolios, main effect may be to make American economy more competitive; if dollar takes abrupt dive, companies and consumers may find themselves stripped of purchasing power; permanent change in relative prices of goods and services could hamper long-term economic trends, including growing productivity; photo; graph (M)