Unix Timestamp: 1071878400
Saturday, December 20. 2003, 12:00:00 AM UTC

An earthquake in California kills 2.

A PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion in Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, kills 234.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan escapes the second assassination attempt in 2 weeks.

The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. on Christmas Eve inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.

At the request of the U.S. Embassy in Paris, the French Government orders Air France to cancel several flights between France and the U.S. in response to terrorist concerns.

Libya admits to building a nuclear bomb.

Beagle 2 is scheduled to land on Mars, but nothing is heard from the lander.

A BSE (mad cow disease) outbreak in Washington State is announced. Several countries including Brazil, Australia and Taiwan ban the import of beef from the United States.

Parmalat is first accused of falsifying accounts to the tune of USD $5 billion, later admitted by founder Calisto Tanzi observers call it Europe's Enron.

WTO becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.

The final episode of Britain's biggest entertainment show, "Only Fools and Horses", is aired.