Two weeks worth…

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of Iraq declared martial law after twenty-two policemen were killed in one day. Doctors Without Borders announced that it will cease its operations in Iraq. American soldiers admitted to watching Iraqi looters haul off tons of explosives from the Al Qaqaa ammunition depot.

An Air National Guard warplane fired its 20-millimeter cannon at an elementary school in Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.

Election software in Onslow County, North Carolina, miscounted the votes for county commissioners. [Jacksonville Daily News] Some voting machines in Broward County, Florida, started counting backward once they reached 32,000. [Palm Beach Post] An electronic voting machine in Ohio added 3,893 votes to President Bush’s tally in a district that had only 800 voters. [New York Times] Four thousand five hundred and thirty early electronic votes in Carteret County, North Carolina, were lost. [New Bern Sun Journal] Votes were also lost in Palm Beach County, Florida, and [Bradenton Herald] in Tampa. It was noted that anomalous voting patterns in Florida (where a disproportionate number of Democrats apparently voted for George W. Bush) were all confined to counties where optical-scanning machines are used to read paper ballots. Such votes are tabulated by Windows-based PCs that are vulnerable to tampering. [Truthout] A poll taken just before the election showed that 75 percent of Bush supporters still believe that Iraq either was a close ally of Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the September 11 attacks.

Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and Attorney General John Ashcroft resigned, as did [ MSNBC ] Secretary of State Colin Powell. President Bush nominated Alberto R. Gonzales to replace Ashcroft.[ Washington Post ] Gonzales, a critic of the Geneva convention and long-time Bush loyalist, [ AP ] was instrumental in protecting then-Governor Bush from the details of clemency pleas for death row inmates in Texas,[ Common Dreams ] and in 1996 took pains to help Bush hide a 1976 drunk driving conviction.[ Texas Monthly ] Tennessee took steps to eliminate its public health programs, and Bush moved forward with his plan to privatize Social Security.[ USA Today ] The White House ordered the CIA to purge all agents who were disloyal to the president.[ Newsday ]

Eleven states passed ballot initiatives banning gay marriage. Saskatchewan legalized gay marriage. [New York Times]

A giant Wal-Mart opened up within a mile of the pyramids at Teotihuacán, Mexico. [New York Times]

Farmers in India were reportedly spraying their cotton and chili fields with Coca-Cola because it’s cheaper than pesticides and kills pests just as effectively. [Ananova]

A 29-year old Connecticut woman accused her eight-year-old boyfriend of being too controlling. In Japan, young women were being raped by the men with whom they’d hoped to commit suicide.[ The Japan Times ] A six-year-old Florida girl took $1,000 worth of crack cocaine to school; her mother said she must have got it trick-or-treating. [Associated Press]