October 17, 2003
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October 17, 2003

• Bolivia: Carlos Mesa is sworn in as the president of the country, after former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was forced to resign as protests and strikes escalated in the Bolivian Gas War.
• USA: A former employee of Diebold Election Systems (now Premier Election Solutions) has accused the firm of violating state and federal election-certification rules during Georgia's 2002 gubernatorial election, the outcome of which defied all polls. [1]
• Occupation of Iraq: Four US troops and at least two police officers are killed in an ambush in Karbala and another incident in Iraq.[2]
• Airport security: In a challenge of airport security, box cutters turned up on Southwest Airlines planes in New Orleans and Houston, prompting a search of all U.S. commercial aircraft (See Nathaniel Heatwole). [3]
• Economy of the People's Republic of China: The People's Republic of China's economy grows at 9% in the latest period, on course to become the largest economy in the world by 2050. [4]
• Sport - Performance enhancing drugs: 'Several' unnamed US athletes are reported to have tested positive for an anabolic steroid the athletes expected to be undetectable. [5]
• World's tallest structures: A 197 ft (60 m) spire is inserted on Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, unseating Malaysia's Petronas Towers as the world's tallest building. [6]