Portal:Current events/2003 June 17
June 17, 2003 (Tuesday)
- United States troops shoot dead two former Iraqi soldiers who were protesting that they had not been paid since their country was occupied.
- Following an international outrcy, the Romanian government retracts an official statement that no holocaust occurred on its territory during the Second World War.
- Linus Torvalds announces that he will take a leave of absence from his job at Transmeta to work full-time at OSDL on the Linux kernel.
- Same-sex marriage in Canada: The Canadian government announces that it will not appeal the Ontario appeals court ruling that permitted same-sex marriage. Instead, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien indicates that his government will introduce legislation to change the definition of marriage but protect the rights of churches to decide which marriages they will solemnize.
- The New York Times reports about allegations of severe child abuse within the Tranquility Bay correctional facility for unruly children, run by the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
- Kyodo reports that United States Armed Forces arrest the Japanese journalist Rei Shiba and two Iraqi guides on around June 8 in Ar Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, while covering a university. The American forces reportedly put a bag on their heads during the arrest and gagged them in custody.[1]