November 13, 2004

• US Troops are preventing a Red Crescent aid convoy from entering the city of Falluja, reportedly for safety reasons (Reuters)
• Conflict in Iraq: Hundreds of US Troops are diverted from Falluja as insurgents appear to take control of the northeastern city of Mosul. (BBC)
• Iran is reportedly concluding a deal with the European Union which would spare it from possible United Nations sanctions over its nuclear arms programme. (Reuters)
• United States Vice President Dick Cheney has been taken to George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. after experiencing shortness of breath. (CNN)
• United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige announces his intent to resign from his post, making him the third member of President George W. Bush's Cabinet to resign since his re-election. No time-table has been set for his actually leaving the post. White House domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings has been suggested as his successor. (Washington Post) (Reuters)
• Former Afghan leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has made a rallying call to his Taliban forces. He sent a two-page message to the Afghan Islamic Press agency to mark the Muslim Eid ul Fitr festival. (BBC)
• A fire has badly damaged a mosque in the south-eastern village of Helden, Netherlands, in the latest of a series of attacks on Dutch Muslim sites. (BBC)
• Rapper Russel Jones (a.k.a. Ol' Dirty Bastard) dies of a drug overdose in a recording studio in New York City.