Portal:Current events/April 2005

2005

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The following events occurred in April 2005:

Ongoing events
WrestleMania 21 took place in Los Angeles
Ongoing trials
ICTY: Slobodan Milošević Iraq: Iraqi Special Tribunal Saddam Hussein, among others

Events

For the details of one day at a time, click date; April 1 includes worldwide 'April-the-first' hoaxes.

April 1, 2005

• Hamas and Islamic Jihad have declared, in principle, their intention to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). (Al Ahram)
• A death squad guns down at least 30 people in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Several teenagers and a child were among those killed in the districts of Queimados and Nova Iguacu on Thursday night. Authorities blame rogue police officers for the massacre. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• Google doubles the storage space of its Gmail service to two gigabytes. (internetnews.com)
• Pope John Paul II is on the verge of death as a result of his recent health problems. The Vatican announces that the pope has suffered cardiovascular collapse and septic shock. (CNN) The Vatican denies "unsourced" media reports claiming he has already died. (Reuters)
• The United Nations Security Council votes to refer those suspected of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. (Sudan Tribune) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Zimbabwe parliamentary elections, 2005: In Zimbabwe, the ruling Zanu-PF gains a two-thirds majority over opposition party Movement for Democratic Change amidst claims of dis-enfranchisement and fraud. (News24) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Indian security forces launch an offensive against the United Liberation Front of Assam. (BBC)
• The World Bank agrees to fund a controversial hydroelectric dam project in Laos. (Planet Ark) (BBC)
• The Minuteman Project starts a month-long patrolling of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona for illegal immigrants, with about 100 volunteers, some of them armed. (ABC News)
• The government of Argentina delays the restructuring of its debt by the exchange of old bonds for new because of a decision by a federal court judge in the United States that froze the processing of the old bonds in the possession of the Bank of New York pending a hearing before the appeals court. (Financial Times)
• Japanese girl group Zone (band) played final concert as a band.

April 2, 2005

• Pope John Paul II passes away at 9:37 p.m. Vatican time (CEST) at the age of 84, thus beginning the period of sede vacante. (Wikinews)
• Sumatran earthquake: Nine Australian Defence Force personnel are missing, presumed dead, after a Sea King helicopter crash on the Indonesian island of Nias. Two personnel survive. (Wikinews)
• Scientists at the California Institute of Technology devise a method to weigh the smallest mass ever, a cluster of xenon atoms weighing a few zeptograms, or billionths of a trillionth of a gram. (BBC) (AIP Bulletin)
• Riccardo Muti resigns as music director of La Scala opera house, Milan after 18 years, following a vote of no-confidence by 700 orchestra members and staff last month. (BBC)
• In France, radical wine producers attack the offices of agriculture ministries in Montpellier and Carcassonne with dynamite. A group calling itself Comité Régional d'Action Viticole (Crav) takes responsibility.(BBC) (WineNews, SA) (Independent)
• In Nepal, former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala is released from house arrest and demands the return to democracy. (New Kerala) (Telegraph, India) (BBC)

April 3, 2005

• Conflict in Iraq: A group of at least 40 Iraqi insurgents attacks Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, using car bombs, grenades, and small arms. At least 20 American soldiers and 12 Iraqi prisoners are injured, but the US Army says it has put down the assault. (NYT) (BBC)
• Various world leaders express their condolences for the death of Pope John Paul II, including Queen Elizabeth II, John Howard, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Lawrence Gonzi. (AFR)
• Pope John Paul II lies in state in the Clementine Room of the Apostolic Palace for a private viewing, a ceremony to confirm and certify the death of the Pontifex Maximus. (Fox News)
• Deposed president of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev agrees to officially resign. (Moscow Times) (Reuters) (IHT)
• A man wielding a sword attacks a Tamil church congregation in Stuttgart, Germany, kills a woman and seriously injures three other people. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• The Marburg virus death toll in Angola rises to 146, one of them an Italian female physician in Uige. (Recombinomics) (News24) (BBC)
• In Thailand, two bombs explode in Hat Yai and one in Songkhla. Two are dead and dozens injured. (Channel News Asia) (BBC) (Bloomberg)

April 4, 2005

• Israel is to begin dumping 10,000 tonnes of rubbish in the West Bank every month. This move is believed to be a breach of international treaties, and may also pollute the main Palestinian water supply. (Relief Web) (Haaretz) (Independent UK) (BBC)
• A UNDP report, the third Arab Human Development Report criticizes the United States for their actions in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq. (TV4 Nyheterna – in Swedish) (Executive Summary of the Report)
• The United States awards its highest military award, the Medal of Honor, to Paul Ray Smith, who was killed in fighting at the Baghdad airport in 2003. This is the first presentation of the award since 1993 and only the third since the Vietnam War. (AP)
• The Vatican announces that Pope John Paul II's funeral is to take place on the morning of April 8 and that he is to be buried in the crypt of Saint Peter in the Vatican. (Guardian)
• The wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles, also scheduled for Friday, April 8, will be postponed one day to avoid a time conflict and allow Prince Charles to attend the Papal funeral. (BBC)
• Cuba announces three days of national mourning for Pope John Paul II. (BBC)
• Sudanese officials reject the United Nations resolution to use the International Criminal Court to prosecute the 51 people accused of responsibility for the Darfur atrocities. (ABC)
• Afghanistan:
  • Aid groups are accused of "squandering" large amounts of Afghan aid money. (Reuters)
  • Six to ten people are killed in a Taliban strike in southern Afghanistan. (BBC)
  • The United Kingdom makes plans to withdraw 5,500 troops from Iraq and place them in Afghanistan to hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda members. (The Scotsman) (Telegraph.co.uk)
• The Iraqi National Assembly elects Sunni Arab Hajim al-Hassani as its speaker. Shiite Hussain Shahristani and Kurd Aref Taifour are elected as his top deputies. The selections are the result of protracted debates between Iraq's top political parties. (BBC)
• Vandals deface the grave of Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah in the national cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, Israel, spray painting them with slogans. (Ha'aretz) (Arutz Sheva) (BBC)
• Amnesty International reports that at least 3,797 people were executed and 7,395 sentenced to death in 2004. (Amnesty International) (Independent) (BBC)
• Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo fires his housing minister Alice Mobolaji Osomo for corruption in a housing scandal. (Reuters SA) (IOL) (BBC)
• The United Nations Security Council extends the mandate of UN and French peacekeepers in Côte d'Ivoire. (Reuters SA) (BBC)
• South African president Thabo Mbeki hosts a meeting between rebels and the Côte d'Ivoire government in his presidential palace. (News24) (IOL)
• The Moldovan parliament re-elects president Vladimir Voronin. (Reuters) (RIA Novosti)
• Serbian ex-police general Sreten Lukić surrenders to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He is charged for connection with killings of Kosovo Albanians in 1999 when he was a head of paramilitary group MUP. (Reuters) (BBC) (Kosovareport commentary)
• Jörg Haider, the former leader of Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), together with almost all of FPÖ's parliamentary representatives, leaves the party to found a new party Alliance for Austria's Future. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Brazilian police arrest 11 men over the Rio Massacre last Thursday when 30 people were killed. (Reuters)

April 5, 2005

• The government of South Korea complains to the Japanese government about a revised set of official Japanese history schoolbooks. The complaint alleges the textbooks whitewash Japan's "imperialist" past, and question Korean sovereignty of the disputed Liancourt Rocks. (Korea Herald) (Japan Times)
• Tony Blair calls the General Election in the United Kingdom for May 5, 2005, on the same day as the local elections. (BBC)
• Five Guatemalan politicians are convicted of racial discrimination for taunts hurled at Rigoberta Menchú. (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Preliminary results of the Italian regional elections show heavy losses for the parties in Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition. (Bloomberg) (Reuters) (BBC)
• American newscaster Peter Jennings states that he has lung cancer and will begin chemotherapy. (New York Times)
• Rwandan official Aloys Mutabingwa, a representative at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, says that 100 Rwandans connected to the Rwandan genocide are "comfortably living in France". (BBC)
• Mumbai, India, police investigate a fire in which 21 circus animals died. They suspect that the Russian Circus on Ice intentionally abandoned the animals. (The Hindu) (Calcutta Telegraph) (Mumbai Newsline) (BBC)
• In Egypt, thousands of university students demonstrate for reform. (Middle East Online) (BBC)
• Nigerian senate speaker Adolphus Wabara resigns because of accusations that he took a large bribe from the education minister. (AllAfrica) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)

April 6, 2005

• Warring factions sign a peace treaty to end the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire, start immediate disarmament and make plans for new elections. (Globe&Mail)
• The Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party in Zimbabwe, presents 'proof of fraud' in the recent parliamentary elections that kept Robert Mugabe and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front in office. (BBC) (Reuters via Yahoo!News)
• At least 16 people are killed in Afghanistan when a U.S. military Chinook helicopter crashes in the south-eastern province of Ghazni. (BBC)
• The College of Cardinals sets April 18 as the date for a conclave for a papal election to select a successor to Pope John Paul II. (CNN)
• The world famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci, the Mona Lisa, is taken to its original location, the Salle des Etats, in the Louvre, Paris. (SKY News)
• Hong Kong's government asks Beijing to intervene in a dispute over the term to be served by new Chief Executive. (BBC)
• Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, is named as Iraq's President. (FOX News)
• The United Nations is looking at the allegations that some UN staff added false details to a UN document about the conflict of Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. William Church, former UN employee and US intelligence analyst, says that some UN staff added false information about Rwandan military incursions to Congo last year. (BBC)
• Murdered British banker Alistair Wilson is buried in Nairn. The murderer is still at large. (Scotsman) (BBC)
• Monaco's Prince Rainier III dies at age 81. He's succeeded by his son, Prince Albert II (NYT)
• In Brazil, members of Landless Workers' Movement (MST) occupy 12 farms trying to pressure the government to speed up land reform. (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• A court on Guernsey in the English Channel blocks the release of papers that would name alleged backers of an aborted coup in Equatorial Guinea last year, due to bank secrecy in that jurisdiction. (This Is Guernsey) (BBC) (Reuters SA)
• Togolese police clash with demonstrators of the opposition party the Union of Forces for Change, who are demanding that presidential elections be postponed so that they would have more time for campaigning. (Reuters AlertNet) (Republic of Togo)
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, by a 3-2 vote, adopts a set of rules designed to create a National Market System. The dissenting commissioners describe the measure as 'anticompetitive'. (SEC press release)

April 7, 2005

• The Mexican Chamber of Deputies votes by 360 to 127 to suspend the executive immunity of Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico City, thereby removing him from office to face criminal charges. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • A Palestinian-fired Qassam rocket hits a cemetery in the Israeli town of Sderot, causing minimal damage and no injuries. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz says Israel will not let it pass and criticises the PA's lack of action. This is the first rocket fired inside the carrot-shaped "Green line" since late January. (Haaretz)
  • Two Jews are arrested on suspicion of planting fake bombs in Jerusalem in an attempt to disrupt the planned Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
  • Environmental groups condemn a plan by Israel to relocate Israeli settlers from Gaza to the Nitzanim nature reserve in southern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supports the request of some settlers to relocate the entire Gush Katif to the Nitzanim area and orders experts to start checking this issue thoroughly. Nitzanim is home to endangered turtles and around 100 gazelle. (BBC) (Haaretz)
• The last British mass car manufacturer MG Rover Group enters administration after a £1 billion deal with Shanghai Automotive fails to materialise. Its Longbridge plant in Birmingham, UK, was once the largest manufacturing site in the world and still one of the largest in Europe when it collapsed.
• Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shia, has replaced Iyad Allawi as the interim prime minister of Iraq. (BBC)
• Passenger buses set out from India to Pakistan across the Indian Kashmir barrier through the troubled and controversial Kashmir region in a symbolic "Caravan of Peace." Some attacks on the buses were reported in the militant-occupied area, but none were successful, according to local media outlets. (MSNBC)
• The President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Chen Shui-bian will be accompanied by his foreign minister as well as Roman Catholic and Muslim religious figures for the trip to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II. (CNN) (BBC) (TVBS)
• Representatives of the government of Canada withdraw from a business conference with Iran in protest of the case of deceased journalist Zahra Kazemi. Kazemi died in Iranian police custody and Iranian refugee doctor Shahram Azam says that she had extensive injuries and had been tortured. Iranian officials deny the charges. Canada has unsuccessfully demanded return of Kazemi's body. (CTV) (BBC)
• In London, Sir Ian Blair, the chief of metropolitan police, orders an inquiry of claims that journalists of The Sun smuggled a fake bomb into grounds of Windsor Castle. (BBC)
• Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams appeals to the IRA to stop violence. (Reuters UK) (Reuters) (Irish Times) (BBC)
• In Nepal, according to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of the country, 42 people die in clashes between Maoist rebels and villagers (Reuters). Nepalese radio begins to block BBC World Service (Hindustan Times) (Asia Pacific Media Network)
• The prime ministers of Malaysia and Australia announce that they intend begin talks of free trade agreement (Bloomberg) (Radio Australia) (Malaysian Star)
• Police in the Netherlands arrest a gang that has smuggled Chinese asylum seekers and sold them for cheap labor. (Expatica) (BBC)
• The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) announces that it has drilled a hole to the lowest level of the Earth's crust, and that it is poised to break through to the mantle, in search of the Mohorovicic discontinuity. SPACE.com

April 8, 2005

• The funeral of Pope John Paul II takes place. (BBC)
• Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty to four bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in exchange for four life sentences. (AP/Yahoo! News)
• Islamic insurgents kill 14 people in an attack outside Algiers, trapping the victims at a fake roadblock, then killing them and burning their vehicles. (AP\Ynet News)
• A suicide bomber kills two foreign tourists in a Cairo market and injures a further score of bystanders. A group called "Islamic Pride Brigades" claims responsibility. (Haaretz), (BBC)
• Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz announces that private homes in the Gaza strip settlements will not be demolished after the disengagement plan. Religious structures such as synagogues, Mikveh baths and cemeteries will be dismantled and transferred inside the "Green line". (Haaretz), Ynet News
• Scientists at Manchester's Christie Hospital claim a cure for cancer could be available in five years. (BBC)
• In an interview with the Financial Times, a Hezbollah leader announces that the group would be willing to discuss potential disarmament after Israel withdraws from the Shebaa Farms. Lebanon and Syria maintain that the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese territory, while the rest of the world community insists that the farms are part of the Golan Heights, thus part of Syrian territory occupied by Israel. (Financial Times) (Haaretz)
• Presidential elections begin in Djibouti. Incumbent president Ismail Omar Guelleh is the only candidate. (BBC)

April 9, 2005

• A zircon crystal, thought to be the oldest piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old, goes on a one-day display at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. (BBC)
• Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China: Chinese rioters storm the Japanese embassy in Beijing. The riot grew from a protest against Japan's newly approved history textbooks, which according to critics, whitewashed Japanese wartime atrocities. (Wikinews)
• The South African New National Party, successor to the National Party which governed in the apartheid era, votes to dissolve itself following poor results in last year's elections. Its elected representatives are expected to join the governing African National Congress. (Daily News (South Africa)
• The World Health Organization announced a worsening of the Marburg virus in Angola. Doctors have suspended casualty counts due to worsening conditions; medical personnel are under increasing attacks by residents who blame doctors for the virus's spread. (CNN)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Islamic Jihad have announced that they are to "re-evaluate" their cease-fire after Israeli soldiers kill three Palestinians, all aged 14. Palestinian witnesses allege they were killed trying to retrieve a football in a no-go area near the Egypt border at the Rafah refugee camp. According to Israel Radio, Palestinian security services notified Israel they had detained two boys who were not hit by IDF fire, and that the group of five youths were smugglers. At least 10 mortar shells are then fired at the Gush Katif settlements. A Hamas leader, Saeed Siyam, is quoted by the AP as saying the boys deaths would be "avenged". (Haaretz) (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (Scotsman)
• Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles in a 20-minute ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, which is followed by a blessing at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle. (BBC) (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • 15 Iraqi soldiers have been killed following an insurgent attack near the town of Latifiya. (BBC)
  • Tens of thousands of Iraqis have staged an anti-American protest in Firdus Square, where Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled on April 9, 2003. (BBC)
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says that despite his plans to go to New Delhi to watch the last Indo-Pak cricket ODI, Kashmir, and not cricket, was on top of his agenda. (Hindu)

April 10, 2005

• An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 occurs near Padang, Indonesia, at 10:18 UTC. (BBC)
• The Mainland Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan) bans reporters from the People's Daily and Xinhua from Taiwan, saying the mainland's state-controlled media "tried to present their people with a distorted image of Taiwan". (BBC)
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pushed for cooperation between India and the PRC to dominate high-tech industries. Urging the historical rivals to forget past tension, Wen said cooperation "will signify the coming of the Asian century of the IT industry." (ABC News)
• Former South African President FW de Klerk has called for a new political party to be set up following the dissolution of the New National Party. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israel arrests Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef on his return home after he illegally makes his way from Ramallah to the Al-Aqsa mosque to deliver a sermon. (Haaretz)
  • A large security operation in Jerusalem appears to have prevented Israeli Zionist extremists from staging a rally at the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif. The rally was to be in opposition to the proposed Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip. The police are also able to quell a stone-throwing Arab counter-demonstration. (BBC) (Haaretz)
  • Israeli Zionist extremists block a road near Tel Aviv during rush hour. Protesting the proposed Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip, they set tires alight and sit down on the road. Several are arrested and police are able to end the blockade within minutes. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • Militant Palestinian extremists again fire mortars at settlements in the Gaza Strip. They are believed to have been fired by Islamic Jihad. (Al Jazeera)
  • Al Jazeera states that Palestinian sources report that Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has apologised to Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Nasr Yusuf for the deaths of three Palestinian teenagers on April 9. (Al Jazeera)
• American spammer Jeremy Jaynes is sentenced for nine years in prison. The sentence is suspended until further appeals. (Spamfo) (E-Commerce News) (CNN)
• A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Tokyo. There are no reports of serious damages. (Japan Times) (Reuters)
• British carmaker MG Rover receives a loan of £6.5 million from the British government. (BBC) (Bloomberg) (Financial Times)
• Spanish police seize an ETA cache of explosives in Hernani, near San Sebastián. (EITB) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Italian deputy prime minister Marco Follini calls for an early general election after the centre-right coalition of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi lost in a regional ballot last week. (AGI) (ITH)
• In Mexico, Raúl Gibb Guerrero, editor of La Opinión newspaper, who covered Mexican drug cartels is killed. (Prensa Latina) (Reuters AlertNet) (San Diego Tribune)
• A Haitian police team and UN peacekeepers kill a prominent gang leader Grenn Sonnen (Jean Anthony Rene) and five of his supporters in a shootout. (Haiti Action Committee) (Reuters)

April 11, 2005

• Yad Vashem bestow the honour of "Righteous Among the Nations" posthumously upon a Nazi Major, Karl Plagge. Plagge saved around 1,200 Jews, mostly women and children, from execution during the Holocaust by putting them in forced labor positions at a vehicle workshop. (BBC)
• At least 54 Hindu pilgrims have been killed when a dam in the Madhya Pradesh state in India is apparently opened by mistake. (BBC)
• Hezbollah, the Lebanese political and militant organisation, flies another unmanned drone plane over Israel. Hezbollah claims the "reconnaissance mission" was in retaliation for alleged Israeli violations of Lebanese Airspace. Israel quickly retaliates by sending jets to fly at a low altitude over southern Lebanon and caused sonic booms. (BBC)
• The election of a new secretary general of the Organization of American States ends in an unprecedented stalemate after five rounds of voting. (BBC)
• U.S. President George W. Bush praises the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his "courageous initiative" to pull all Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip, however Bush also told Sharon not to expand other existing settlements. The two leaders met in Texas, US. (BBC Video) (BBC) (CNN)
• Tulip Revolution: The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan finally approves the resignation of deposed President Askar Akayev. (Fox News)
• Anti-Japanese demonstrations in China: 20,000 protesters marching in two cities in southern Guangdong province objecting to a recently amended Japanese schoolbook which allegedly glosses over Japan's imperialist past. (CNN)
• Jeremy Jaynes, estimated to be the world's eighth most prolific spammer, is sentenced to nine years imprisonment. (IDG), (Spamfo.co.uk)
• The International Court of Justice at The Hague begins hearing a complaint by the Democratic Republic of Congo that Uganda of invaded its territory and committed human rights violations. (AllAfrica) (BBC)
• Australian Liberal MP David Tollner urges people to kill poisonous cane toads with cricket bats and golf clubs. The toads have become a nuisance in the Northern Territory. Animal rights groups prefer freezing them to death. (ABC) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• A 9-story factory building collapses in Dhaka, Bangladesh; five deaths are reported. (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• The World Health Organization announces that 203 people have died in Angola from the Marburg virus. News.com.au
• A court in Oslo, Norway, detains a man suspected of involved with the theft of the Edvard Munch paintings The Scream and Madonna. (Afternposten) (Reuters)
• Nepal allows United Nations Human Rights Commission to send monitors to the country to investigate claims of human rights abuses. (Times of India) (Bloomberg) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)

April 12, 2005

• A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was caught in Hawara checkpoint (near Nablus), hiding five pipe bombs under his coat. He apparently tried to ignite them with a match when the soldiers apprehended him. Soldiers later pose for photographs with the boy. His brother says he did so in order to study for his high-school matriculation exams in an Israeli prison. [1] (Haaretz)
• Andrus Ansip is confirmed by the Riigikogu, the Estonian Parliament, as the country's next Prime Minister, following the 24 March resignation of former Prime Minister Juhan Parts. (BBC)
• Four girls who were held hostage for four hours are freed from a house in Ennepetal, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. (BBC)
• Israeli citizens against the proposed Israeli dismantling of Jewish settlements on the Gaza Strip have chained shut 167 schools and nurseries in Tel Aviv as part of their protest. The Fire Service quickly cut through the chains. (BBC) (Jerusalem Post) (Haaretz)
• The death toll in the collapse of a factory in Dacca, Bangladesh, rises to 21 and hundreds are still trapped. (New Kerala) (Reuters)
• Anti-Castro militant Luis Posada Carriles applies for asylum in the United States. Fidel Castro accuses the US of hypocrisy for protecting a terrorist. (Prensa Latina) (Wired)
• MareNostrum, Europe's most powerful (and the world's fourth most powerful) supercomputer, is booted up for the first time in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Spain. (BusinessWeek)
• Three British men are indicted by a United States court in a 2004 alleged plot to destroy financial institutions in the US, including such notable landmarks as the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, the Prudential building in New Jersey, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.. The U.S. claims that one is a senior Al-Qaeda member. (Wired) (ABC News)
• Same-sex marriage in Canada: The Canadian government's Bill C-38 survives a vote on a wrecking amendment which would have defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, introduced by the Conservative Party of Canada. (CBC)
• According to report of the Human Rights Watch, young veterans of wars in West Africa have been recruited to fight in other conflicts because they have had no other means of support. (Human Rights Watch) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• The Iranian parliament approves abortion in cases where mother's life is in danger or the fetus is deformed. The bill still needs the approval of the Guardian Council. (Reuters UK) (Middle East Online) (Persian Journal)
• In Israel, Mordechai Vanunu is charged with 21 counts of violating the terms of his parole. (Ha'aretz) (Arutz Sheva) (Reuters)
• In Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh rules that forcing women marry against their will is against Islam. (Arab News) (Al Jazeera) (Middle East Online)
• The Indonesian army promises to give up its businesses within two years. (Jakarta Post) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Anheuser-Busch, the largest U.S. beer brewer and the No. 1 buyer of rice in the United States, said it would not purchase rice grown in Missouri if it were genetically modified. This decision was prompted by a Ventria Bioscience plan to grow 200 acres (800,000 m²) of genetically engineered rice in Missouri. (AP)

April 13, 2005

• Canada's most prominent white supremacist and founder of the Heritage Front, Wolfgang Droege, is shot to death in his apartment. One suspect is arrested at the scene. (CTV)
• Omar Karami resigns his position as the Prime Minister of Lebanon after he fails to form a government. Without a government to call them, no elections can take place in Lebanon. Elections are due this May. (BBC)
• The European Parliament votes to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union in 2007. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • At least nine Iraqi police have been killed by insurgents in Kirkuk. The police were defusing a decoy bomb, when another nearby bomb detonated and killed them. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
  • Al Jazeera broadcasts a video of the civilian contractor, Jeffrey Ake, abducted in Iraq earlier this week. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Japan increases the already boiling tension with China as Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry begins allowing Japanese companies rights to drill for oil in a part of the East China Sea claimed by both nations. (BBC)
• The College of American Pathologists asks laboratories worldwide to destroy a flu sample they sent in their testing kits. The Canadian National Microbial Laboratory identified it as a strain of Asian Flu virus that killed millions in 1957. People born after 1969 would have no antibodies to resist it. The World Health Organization supports the plea. (CNN) (Yahoo) (CBC)
• The National Geographic Society and IBM support a project to take DNA samples from various people all over the world to track migration of Homo sapiens from Africa. (Reuters) (New York Times)
• The death toll in the collapse of a factory in Dacca, Bangladesh, increases to 30. (The Hindu) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Mount Talang volcano erupts in Sumatra, Indonesia. 27,000 residents are evacuated. (Jakarta Post) (Indonesia Relief) (Reuters)
• In Nigeria, former education minister Fabion Osuji, former senate president Adolphus Wabara and five others are charged with corruption. (Vanguard) (NigeriaWorld)
• In Germany, Armin Meiwes appeals for the reduction his sentence of eight years for cannibalism. His defense says that the killing was a mercy killing, eligible only for five years. State prosecutors appeal as well so he could retried for murder. (Deutsche Welle) (Independent)
• A group of Indigenous Australians threaten to disrupt the Commonwealth Games next year unless prime minister John Howard and others are charged with genocide. (Radio Australia) (SBS) (BBC)
• Burundi's last rebel group, Hutu Forces for National Liberation, states that they are ready to negotiate with the government. (Reuters SA) (BBC)

April 14, 2005

• Microsoft Encarta launches a Nupedia-like version of its encyclopedia where anonymous users can submit their new or edited entries to be approved by a paid staff of editors. Server problems delayed the launch. (FairfaxDigital) (Business Week) (Encarta Blog)
• The claim that traces of the deadly poison ricin had been found in the London apartment of alleged al Qaeda operatives is proved wrong, according to a senior British official. (Seattle Times) (Guardian Unlimited)
• Researchers from the University of Miami have published a study which claims that prisoners executed by lethal injection in the U.S. may have been aware of what was happening to them. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israel kills a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade following a raid into the Palestinian town of Nablus. Palestinians maintain that a special unit disguised as Arabs carried out the act. Israeli Defence Forces say the man was a "ticking bomb" and that soldier shot only after he opened fire on them. Witnesses from the Balata camp, however, say the Israelis opened fire without warning and then took the body away. (BBC) (Haaretz) (NY Times)
  • The Israeli soldier accused of shooting British cameraman James Miller is cleared of any wrongdoing by an Israeli Judge, meaning the soldier will not be prosecuted. Miller's family accuse the Israel Defense Forces of a coverup and threaten to sue. (BBC)
• Conflict in Iraq: At least 11 people have been killed following a double suicide bombing in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. (BBC)
• In Quito, Ecuador, riot police clash with demonstrators and strikers that protest against the government of president Lucio Gutiérrez. Congress replaced the entire Supreme Court last December and has not come to an agreement with the political opposition. (Reuters) (World Peace Herald)
• The Czech coalition government agrees to form a new cabinet. Jan Kohout is expected to succeed Stanislav Gross as the new prime minister. (Bloomberg) (CNN) The deal collapses later in the day when the Social Democrats reject it. (Prague Post) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Police in China arrest 15 people involved with illegal blood trade that may have contributed to the spread of AIDS. (China Daily) (People's Daily) (Reuters) (Guardian)
• According to Amnesty International, prisoners of the Black Beach prison in the Equatorial Guinea are starving. (Amnesty International USA) (Reuters SA) (BBC)
• Three paparazzi who were pursuing Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed when they died face a new trial in France. (IHT) (Reuters UK) (BBC)
• Funding difficulties threaten the Murray-Darling Basin river system in Australia. (The Australian) (BBC)
• The trial of Schapelle Corby, an Australian facing drug smuggling charges in Indonesia, is adjourned after she collapses in the Bali courtroom. (ABC News)
• Bulgaria sends a diplomatic mission to Libya to seek a solution to the ongoing criminal prosecution of five nurses from Bulgaria for an HIV outbreak among Benghazi children. (Bulgaria News Network)
• Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, will contest election seat against UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw in order to highlight Straw's alleged use of false confessions extracted by CIA torture in Uzbekistan. (Guardian Unlimited) (Background: International Herald Tribune)
• In the face of the spread of the Marburg virus, the Angolan government tries to curb traditional funerary practice of kissing and hugging the dead for farewell. The death toll is already over 210. (Reuters) (CNN)
• South Korean Tongsun Park, Texas oilman David Chalmers and two others are indicted for bribery in the oil for food scandal. (Reuters) (Washington Post)
• United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announces that law enforcement agencies have arrested 10,340 fugitives in Operation Falcon between April 4 and 10. (Operation Falcon website) (ABC) (Reuters)
• In Zimbabwe, two British journalists, Sunday Telegraph correspondent Toby Harnden and photographer Julian Simmonds, are acquitted. They were accused of covering the last month's parliamentary elections without permission. They were charged with overstaying their visas and released on bail. (BBC) (AllAfrica) (Reuters)
• Three students of MIT successfully submit a paper "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy" into World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. The paper was made of computer-generated nonsense. (Boston Herald) (CNN) (SciGen)
• Indian police arrest 16 people in a case where more than US$400,000 was transferred from Citibank accounts to fraudulent accounts in India. (Times of India) (Reuters)

April 15, 2005

• The wedding of Ashley 'moley' Stephens and Emma Moule
• NASA reports that the Gulf Stream is slowing. The resulting colder climate could cause severe climatic and economic distruption in Northern Europe. (NASA)
• The ongoing anti-Japanese demonstrations in China might have been scripted and manipulated by the Chinese government as a bargaining tool against its neighbor in the recent Sino-Japanese energy and territory disputes. (NY Times). Personal announcements appeared on blogs [2] [3] attempting to stage massive anti-Japanese riots not only in the capital but also in 17 major Chinese cities, responding to the April 17 visit of the Japanese Foreign Minister to Beijing, and the 86th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement.
• UN Secretary General Kofi Annan accuses the United States and Britain of not accepting enough responsibility for the Oil for Food Scandal. (BBC) (Canberra)
• A Palestinian Fatah gunman infiltrates the Golan Heights from Syria and attacks an IDF outpost near the border. The outpost commander manages to disarm the gunman and arrest him. The IDF will investigate how the 21-year-old man, draped in a Palestinian flag, managed to penetrate so deep without being detected earlier. (Haaretz) (BBC)
• A Human Rights Watch report states that the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Canada rely on "flimsy" diplomacy in attempts to send foreign terror suspects back to countries that routinely use torture against their prisoners. (AP Wire)
• Soyuz TMA-6 lifts off at dawn from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying the Expedition 11 crew to the International Space Station. (Fox News) (Yahoo! News)
• Prince Rainier is buried in Monaco. (BBC) (CNN)
• In France, 20 people die in a fire at the Paris-Opera Hotel. (Reuters) (CNN)
• In Australia, Raymond Williams, former CEO of insurance company HIH Insurance, is jailed for four and a half years. (BBC)
• Canada's Federal Court of Appeal denies Chinese businessman Lai Changxing refugee status. China wants him for large-scale smuggling. (National Post, Canada) (Xinhua)
• UK passport applicants must give fingerprints. Preparation for ID cards goes ahead without parliament. (Guardian Unlimited)
• Greens Party of England and Wales unveil radical manifesto aiming at measures against climate change. (Science Daily)
• The European Union denies ruling out lifting an EU arms embargo on the People's Republic of China before June. (The Australian)

April 16, 2005

• Najib Mikati becomes the new Prime Minister of Lebanon, replacing Omar Karami, who has resigned for a second time after seven weeks of frustrated efforts to form a consensus government. (Reuters)
• The Gaelic Athletic Association congress votes overwhelmingly to suspend its controversial rule 42 ban on 'foreign games' being played at its sports venues, to enable Irish soccer and rugby international fixtures to be played at its Croke Park stadium. (RTÉ News)
• A magnitude 5.1 earthquake hits Southern California. No injuries or major damage have been reported. (CNN)
• The G7 leaders meet in Washington, D.C., in the World Bank headquarters. Among the main discussion points are the rising price of oil and the pegging of the Chinese yuan to the U.S. dollar. (CNN)

April 17, 2005

• A major breakthrough in the study of ancient Greek and Roman texts may lead to the revelation of hundreds of lost comedies, tragedies and epic poems. Using an infrared technique originally developed for satellite imaging, classicists at Oxford University, in the past four days alone, have made a series of new discoveries from Oxyrhynchus, including writings by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants. It may also be used to reveal lost Christian gospels. (The Independent), (Blogger News Network)
• Over one hundred thousand people throughout Indonesia have taken part in anti-Israeli and anti-American protests. The protest was organised by the Prosperous Justice Party in order to show Muslim unity regarding the Al Aqsa Mosque. (Herald Sun), (Guardian), (Jerusalem Post)
• Privacy groups in the United Kingdom along with opposition Liberal Democrats decry fingerprint passports as 'ID card by stealth'. (Telegraph) (Wikinews) (Guardian) (Telegraph)
• Marla Ruzicka, a US activist and aid worker, is killed by a car bomb in Iraq. (CIVIC Worldwide) (Guardian)
• 12 people die and 15 are injured when a coach plunges into a ravine near the Great St. Bernard Pass in Switzerland. (Swissinfo), (BBC)
• In the Comoros Islands, the volcano Mount Karthala begins to erupt, forcing hundreds of villagers to flee. (Reuters) (CNN)
• Seven people die in clashes between supporters of rival political factions prior to the forthcoming Togolese presidential election. (Reuters AlertNet) (ReliefWeb) (BBC)
• Turkish Cypriots elect Mehmet Ali Talat as their new president. Talat endorses unification of Cyprus and membership in the European Union. (Reuters) (Turkish Weekly) (Guardian)
• 100 supporters of the Party of the Democratic Revolution protest outside the ranch of Mexican president Vicente Fox. They protest against the trial of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, popular mayor of Mexico City. (El Universal, Mexico) (Reuters)
• The Basque National Party of Juan José Ibarretxe wins regional elections in the Basque autonomous region of Spain but votes to EHAK, the Communist Party of Basque Lands, denies them majority. EHAK may have gained votes of supporters of banned Herri Batasuna party. Results may threaten Ibarratxe's plans for autonomy. (EITB) (Reuters) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Jörg Haider launches his new party, Alliance for Austria's Future. (Deutsche Welle)
• Negotiations in Helsinki between the government of Indonesia and Free Aceh Movement end "constructively", according to mediator Martti Ahtisaari. Talks are scheduled to continue in May. (Bloomberg) (BBC)

April 18, 2005

• The largest moving object on Earth, the iceberg B15A in Antarctica has collided with the Drygalski ice tongue, a feature large enough to be included in Antarctic maps. During the collision, a five-kilometre-long section of the ice tongue was broken off. (ESA) (AP)
• Physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory announce that they have created a newly discovered state of matter by smashing atoms in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. This new state of matter behaves like a hot and dense liquid made up of basic atomic particles such as quarks and gluons. Researchers claim that all matter in the universe for a fraction of a second after the Big Bang was in the form of this liquid. (MSNBC), (BNL News)
• Catherine Ndereba of Kenya and Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia win in the 109th Boston Marathon. Negussie was successful in finally breaking the Kenyan-dominated men's race. Defending champion Ndereba became the first four-time woman's winner. (ABCnews) (CNN) (Boston.com)
• Black smoke signals no new Pope is chosen in the first ballot in the Papal conclave, 2005. (BBC), (ABC), (Yahoo! News/AP)
• Two Israelis, one a soldier in the Combat Engineering Corps, and one a civilian, are wounded by a Palestinian sniper in an attack on Philadelphi Route of the southern Gaza Strip, close to the Egyptian border. The Popular Resistance Committees claims responsibility. (Haaretz)
• Adobe Systems buys Macromedia for $3.4 billion. (Yahoo! Financial), (New York Times), (USA Today), (MSNBC).
• The death toll in the collapse of a garment factory in Dacca, Bangladesh, reaches 74. Dozens are still missing. (Reuters AlertNet)
• 2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations: Sino-Japanese relations worsen after a meeting between Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Beijing. China continues to refuse an apology for the increasing number of anti-Japanese protests, and further accuses Japan for handling the issues of history and Taiwan "incorrectly". (Radio Australia)
• The Ecuador congress votes to dismiss Supreme Court judges. A debate for the selection of the new ones is set for Tuesday. President Lucio Gutiérrez lifts a day-old state of emergency, but thousands of protesters still demand his resignation. (Reuters) (BBC)
• The government of the Philippines begins talks with Moro Islamic Liberation Front. (Manila Times) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi refuses to resign and intends to continue with minority government. (AGI) (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• Bosnian Serb officer Vujadin Popović, accused of complicity in Srebrenica massacre in 1995, pleads not guilty in the Hague. He surrendered to the ICTY on April 14. (FENA) (Reuters) (BBC)
• The governments of India and Pakistan declare that peace between them is "irreversible". United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan welcomes the move. (Hindu) (Deepika) (IHT) (Daily Times)
• Mexican government rules out pardoning Andrés Manuel López Obrador. His supporters continue their protests. (Reuters)
• The Pakistani government releases 500 members of Pakistan Peoples Party it detained prior to return of opposition leader Asif Zardari. Zardari hopes to have dialogue with the government. (Pakistan Times) (Daily Times) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Former Lebanese minister Bassel Fleihan dies of wounds he received in the bombing that killed Rafik Hariri. (Daily Star) (Reuters AlertNet) (CNN)
• Spain returns Rabei Osman Ahmed, who had been extradited as a prime suspect in the Madrid bombings, to Italian custody. (Reuters Alertnet) (World Peace Herald) (BBC)
• The Rwandan supreme court hears appeals for Pasteur Bizimungu, first president of Rwanda after the genocide, who was arrested last June. (Rwanda Information Exchange) (IOL) (BBC)
• Four people are charged with the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi. Suspects have Mafia ties. (Financial Times) (Reuters) (BBC)

April 19, 2005

• George W. Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations receives a serious setback when Ohio senator George Voinovich announces in committee that he cannot vote to endorse Bolton for this important diplomatic position. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee agrees to postpone a vote for at least one month while allegations that Bolton abused subordinates is investigated. (Reuters) (NY Times)
• Papal conclave, 2005: Ringing bells and white smoke at the Vatican indicate that, after four ballots, a new Pope, German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, has been elected. He has taken the regnal name Pope Benedict XVI. (BBC)
• MyPyramid is released by the United States Department of Agriculture. The new food guidance icon is an update of the 13-year old food guide pyramid, which was itself an update of charts expounding on the four basic food groups. (NY Times)
• The United Iraqi Alliance, the leading coalition in the new Government of Iraq, demands the death penalty for Saddam Hussein, accused of genocide in Kurdistan as well as torture and other human rights violations in Baghdad. (Al Jazeera)
• Victims and families observe 168 seconds of silence on the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing at 9:02 a.m. (local time). (Guardian)
• Iran suspends operations of al Jazeera and accuses it of inflaming protests of the Iranian Arab minority. During the unrest, 220 people have been arrested. (Al Jazeera), (IRNA), (Middle East Online), (Reuters), (BBC)
• The inquiry into the murder of Rosemary Nelson, a Northern Ireland solicitor who was killed by a UDA bomb in 1999, begins. (Ireland On-Line), (BBC), (Scotsman)
• Peruvian authorities submit a $130 million plan to UNESCO to preserve the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu. (BBC)
• The first part of the Obelisk of Axum, a 1700-year-old artefact of the Axumite Kingdom taken to Rome by Benito Mussolini's troops in 1937, arrives back in Ethiopia. (Reuters), (BBC)
• Japanese researchers have reversed diabetes of a female patient with transplantation of pancreatic cells from her mother. (Medical News Today) (Reuters) (Forbes)
• A high court in Spain sentences Adolfo Scilingo, former Argentinian navy captain, for 640 years in prison for crimes against humanity during the Dirty War. (Reuters AlertNet) (IHT) (CourtTV) (Pensa Latina)
• The girlfriend of a Paris Opera Hotel employee admits that she might have accidentally started the fire that destroyed the hotel last Friday. Police later take her into custody. The death toll has risen to 24. (IHT) (Reuters AlertNet) (Scotsman)
• Israel extends the travel ban of Mordechai Vanunu. (Ha'arets) (Jerusalem Post) (BBC)
• In Syria, Jassem Alwan, who led a failed military coup in 1963, returns from exile in the United Arab Emirates. (BBC)
• The parliament of Kuwait gives initial backing to law that would allow women to vote. (Al Jazeera) (Middle east Online) (BBC)
• Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati forms a new government to lead the country until the May elections. (Daily Star) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• French police state that DNA tests confirm that the body found in the French Alps is Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury. (Scotsman) (BBC)
• Auction house Christie's withdraws an ancient Persian relic from sale when Iran states that it was smuggled out of the country illegally. (CHN) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• The parliament of Greece ratifies the European Union Constitution. (MPA) (EUBusiness) (IHT)
• President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf meets the president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, in Manila. (Pakistan Times) (Manila Bulletin) (Sun Star) (BBC)
• Zanzibar bars foreign workers. (IOL) (BBC)

April 20, 2005

• Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell signs a bill making same-sex civil unions legal. Connecticut is now the second U.S. state to legalize same-sex civil unions. (ABC)
• RTÉ News states that Pope Benedict XVI won "far more than the 77 votes" required to secure his election as pope. (RTÉ)
• Zacarias Moussaoui plans to plead guilty to charges in connection with the September 11, 2001, attacks, which could bring him the death penalty. (AP)
• Conflict in Iraq:
  • Over 50 human corpses have been removed from the River Tigris in past weeks. Some appeared to have their throats cut, some others decapitated. (BBC)
  • In Haditha, a town northwest of Baghdad, at least 19 men are shot dead. The Interim Government maintains that they are the bodies of Iraqi soldiers and had been killed by insurgents. (BBC)
• The Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, resigns so as to form a new government. He is expected to maintain the post of Prime Minister in this new government. (BBC)
• The Government of Singapore's approval for the building of two casinos as part of integrated resorts in Singapore's new downtown, and on Sentosa island ignites intense speculation on the likely winners from 19 submitted proposals, and caps off more than a year of moral debates in the traditionally conservative city. (The Standard) (BBC) (CNA)
• In Israel, Uriel Yitzhaki is arrested on allegations of selling passports for bribes. (BBC)
• A 5.8 Richter scale earthquake hits northern Kyūshū, Japan. (Japan Today) (Channel News Asia) (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• Vice President Alfredo Palacio is sworn in as new interim President of Ecuador, after Congress removes President Lucio Gutiérrez from office after a week of escalating street protests demanding his ouster. Riot police fire tear gas at protesters who demand the resignation of president Gutiérrez. One man has died of a heart attack during the demonstration. (ABC) (Independent) (BBC)
• The United Nations Commission on Human Rights demands that government of Nepal restore civil liberties and democracy. (Bloomberg) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Two members of the ruling Mexican National Action Party post bail for Andrés Manuel López Obrador so he would not run a presidential campaign from jail. He cannot return to his post as mayor of Mexico City. (Reuters)
• Maurice Strong, Canadian United Nations representative, steps down due to allegations of involvement with Tongsun Park and the oil for food scandal. (CBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
• European Union representatives cancel meeting with a Pakistan delegation because of the inclusion of hardliner Maulana Sami ul-Haq, who allegedly has links to the Taliban. (Pakistan Times) (Daily Times) (BBC)
• Spanish officials state that they are "concerned" about an apparent disappearance of Severo Moto, leader of an opposition political movement in Equatorial Guinea, who has lived in Spain in exile. His wife reported him missing. (AllAfrica) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• An explosion in a mining explosives factory near the Chambishi copper mine in Zambia kills 46. (Reuters) (BBC)

April 21, 2005

• 400 Iranian volunteers sign up to sacrifice their lives in "occupied Islamic countries", particularly Israel, after being inspired by a fatwa from a top hardline cleric giving religious backing to suicide missions. (Reuters)
• American, French and Israeli naval forces rescue three Syrian and Egyptian sailors from a North Korean ship that sank in international waters off the coast of Nahariya. (Ynet)
• The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) fires two members suspected of passing on U.S. secrets to Israel. (BBC)
• Three Israeli soldiers are hurt when their jeep triggers an IED roadside bomb, near the Karni crossing, on the edge of the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
• The next launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-114, is postponed until at least May 22. This is to be the first Space Shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. (BBC)
• New Ecuadorian president Alfredo Palacio orders the arrest of former president Lucio Gutiérrez, who takes refuge in the Brazilian embassy. (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
• According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the army of Myanmar (Burma) has used chemical weapons against Karen rebels. (BBC)
• In Zanzibar, an electoral commission accepts Seif Shariff Hamad, secretary general of the opposition party Civic United Front, as a legitimate voter and therefore eligible candidate. (IPPMEdia, Zanzibar) (BBC)
• U.S. Army Sergeant Hassan Akbar is found guilty by a military jury of the murder of two fellow officers in Kuwait, just prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (ABC)
• Five American Muslims sue the Department of Homeland Security for racial profiling after they were detained for hours on the Canadian border while returning from a religious conference. (Newsday) (Buffalo News) (IslamOnline) (Reuters) (BBC)
• The parliament of Spain gives initial approval to legalized same-sex marriages and adoption by homosexual couples. (Berria) (EITB) (Reuters)

April 22, 2005

• Rumors abound that a nuclear test by North Korea may be imminent, and that the United States is urging the People's Republic of China to pressure North Korea not to do so. (Reuters) (The Hindu) (Washington Post) (Drudge Report)
• Zacarias Moussaoui pleads guilty to terror charges in U.S. federal court. (Yahoo)
• At London's Old Bailey, Saajid Badat, who had earlier pled guilty to being part of Richard Reid's shoe-bombing conspiracy, is sentenced to 13 years imprisonment. (BBC)
• A German court orders a retrial in the case of Armin Meiwes, who was jailed in 2004 for eight years for killing and eating a man (with the man's supposed consent). (BBC)
• In an attempt to ease recent tensions between the two Asian economic powerhouses in the Japanese history textbook controversy, Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi publicly expressed his "deep remorse" for actions of Japanese troops in China during World War II for the first time in a decade. He intends to meet PRC president Hu Jintao at the Asia-Africa Conference in Jakarta. However, 81 Diet members visit Yasukuni Shrine the same day, causing more controversy inside and outside Japan about the true attitude of Tokyo on this subject. (Japan Today), (Bloomberg), (Reuters), (Guardian Unlimited), (Telegraph UK)
• In the UK, the National Portrait Gallery states that the so-called Flower portrait of William Shakespeare is a 19th-century forgery. (BBC), (Herald)
• Canadian prime minister Paul Martin promises in a televised address to call for an early general election once the Gomery inquiry into the current corruption scandal is over. (CTV), (Globe and Mail), (Reuters), (BBC)
• Togolese interior minister François Boko wants to postpone next Sunday's presidential election, claiming that there is a threat of civil war. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wants them to continue as scheduled. (IOL), (Reuters AlertNet)
• Nepal releases 61 political prisoners, including the former deputy prime minister. (Sify), (BBC) Amnesty International states that human rights violations have escalated under the state of emergency. (Indian Express), (ReliefWeb)
• Medtronic, Inc. paid US$ 1.35 billion to settle a patent lawsuit and also to acquire disputed spine surgery-related patents from Gary K. Michelson. [4]

April 23, 2005

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
  • The Association of University Teachers, the leading British academic group, has voted to boycott two Israeli universities, the University of Haifa and Bar-Ilan University, over their alleged involvement in "illegal activity" in the occupied territories. The AUT said it voted for the boycott in response to a plea for action by a group of Palestinian academics. It was condemned by the Israeli Embassy, the British Ambassador in Israel, by Jewish Human Rights groups and by Universities UK. (BBC), (Guardian)
  • Israeli security forces arrest three suspected Palestinian militants on the Geha Highway near Ra'annana, Israel. When the police arrived, the three suspects were barricaded in their car, while a fourth suspect fled the scene. Earlier in the night, the Israeli Police put roadblocks and checkpoints after it received high alert on "rolling" suicide bombing attack. (Haaretz), (Ynet)
  • A 17-year-old Palestinian is caught carrying four pipe bombs in Beit Furik checkpoint. (Haaretz)
  • A Qassam rocket was launched toward northern Gaza community. No casualties were reported. Also, Palestinian militants stabbed a soldier near Ganim settlement, injuring him moderately. (Haaretz)
• A rodent species representing a new family of mammals, Laonastidae, is discovered in Laos. This is the first new family of mammals discovered since 1974. (Cambridge Journals)
• Bangladesh accuses the BSF of gunning down two farmers who had strayed into no man's land at Hairharpur on the Indo-Bangla border. Indian officials say the guards had only shot at and injured two Bangladeshis trying to sneak into West Bengal. (Gulf Times, Qatar) (Voice of America)
• YouTube is founded and launched.

April 24, 2005

• About 1 million people march silently through Mexico City in support of the capital's embattled mayor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. (Bloomberg) (CNN) (El Universal) (BBC) (The Guardian)
• Togolese presidential election, 2005: Three killed, amid claims of fraud in tense election in Togo to choose the successor to President Gnassingbé Eyadéma, hardline ruler for 38 years, from amongst Faure Gnassingbé, the 39-year-old son of the late leader, and several challengers led by Emmanuel Bob-Akitani. (Khaleej Times), (CNN)
• Leaders of Asian and African countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bandung Conference. (People's Daily Online), (KeralaNext), (XinHua)
• Tens of thousands of Armenians mark the 90th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. (CBC), (Reuters)
• Soyuz TMA-5: A Russian Soyuz spacecraft lands in Kazakhstan, bringing three astronauts, Russian Salizhan Sharipov, Chinese American Leroy Chiao and Italian Roberto Vittori, safely back to Earth from the International Space Station. (Reuters)
• Pope Benedict XVI is formally installed as Pope of the Catholic Church in an inaugural mass. (BBC) (CNN)
• Ousted president of Ecuador, Lucio Gutiérrez, moves to exile in Brazil. (Reuters) (ITV)
• Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez ends military cooperation with US, claiming that US army training officers in the country have been agitating unrest against him. (Reuters)
• In Kuwait, around 7000 Bengali workers storm the embassy of Bangladesh in Kuwait City to protest against unpaid wages. (Bangladesh Journal) (Al-Jazeera (Reuters)
• Forty Pakistani Christians are arrested in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for practicing their religion in violation of a Saudi law forbidding the practice of any religion but Islam. Christian Today.

April 25, 2005

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Israeli soldier killed in the West Bank on Monday night was shot by his comrades. It was believed he was killed by an Unarmed Taxi Driver, Iyad Dueik, who was shot seven times and whose car ran over the man, but news that he was shot questions this assessment. (BBC)
• Alassane Ouattara is allowed to run for Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire. (AP via Yahoo! France)
• 2005 Kuomintang visits to Mainland: a 70-member delegation led by Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan left Taipei for Nanjing via Hong Kong, launching Lien Chan's 8-day Taiwan Strait peace tour, also the first official visit by the highest leader of Kuomintang to Mainland China in 60 years. (BBC)
• Faure Gnassingbé wins the Togolese presidential election with more than 60% of the votes. Results cause riots in Lomé when the opposition does not acknowledge the election, denouncing massive fraud. (AFP via Yahoo!) (AFP via Yahoo! France)
• The Civil Unions and Relationships Acts take effect in New Zealand. These laws allow same-sex and de facto couples to form legal unions that are similar to marriage. (New Zealand Herald)
• The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash reaches 73. Police searches the offices of West Japan Railway Co looking for clues for the cause of the crash. (Japan Today) (Reuters) (Bloomberg) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Political unrest increases in Belize when opposition calls for the government to step down, telephone workers are on strike and teachers threatening to follow. (Reuters AlertNet)
• The U.S. chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer states that search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has "gone as far as feasible". (Washington Post) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Military action in Lebanon: After three decades, all Syrian troops leave Lebanon, fulfilling UN Security Council Resolution 1559. (Daily Star, Lebanon), (Reuters)
• British Labour Party member Brian Sedgemore moves to the Liberal Democrats. (Independent) (Times) (BBC)
• Following Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's plea on national television that a re-election ought to be delayed until the Gomery Commission has completed its report on the sponsorship scandal, a deal between the governing Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party may avoid the election in the near future as predicted earlier last week. (CBC)

April 26, 2005

• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Israeli soldier killed in the West Bank on Monday night was shot by his comrades. It was believed he was killed by an Unarmed Taxi Driver, Iyad Dueik, who was shot seven times and whose car ran over the man, but news that he was shot questions this assessment. (BBC)
• Alassane Ouattara is allowed to run for Presidential election in Côte d'Ivoire. (AP via Yahoo! France)
• 2005 Kuomintang visits to Mainland: a 70-member delegation led by Kuomintang chairman Lien Chan left Taipei for Nanjing via Hong Kong, launching Lien Chan's 8-day Taiwan Strait peace tour, also the first official visit by the highest leader of Kuomintang to Mainland China in 60 years. (BBC)
• Faure Gnassingbé wins the Togolese presidential election with more than 60% of the votes. Results cause riots in Lomé when the opposition does not acknowledge the election, denouncing massive fraud. (AFP via Yahoo!) (AFP via Yahoo! France)
• The Civil Unions and Relationships Acts take effect in New Zealand. These laws allow same-sex and de facto couples to form legal unions that are similar to marriage. (New Zealand Herald)
• The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash reaches 73. Police searches the offices of West Japan Railway Co looking for clues for the cause of the crash. (Japan Today) (Reuters) (Bloomberg) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Political unrest increases in Belize when opposition calls for the government to step down, telephone workers are on strike and teachers threatening to follow. (Reuters AlertNet)
• The U.S. chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer states that search of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has "gone as far as feasible". (Washington Post) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Military action in Lebanon: After three decades, all Syrian troops leave Lebanon, fulfilling UN Security Council Resolution 1559. (Daily Star, Lebanon), (Reuters)
• British Labour Party member Brian Sedgemore moves to the Liberal Democrats. (Independent) (Times) (BBC)
• Following Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's plea on national television that a re-election ought to be delayed until the Gomery Commission has completed its report on the sponsorship scandal, a deal between the governing Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party may avoid the election in the near future as predicted earlier last week. (CBC)

April 27, 2005

• The U.S. House of Representatives votes 406–20 to rescind controversial Republican ethics rules, in order to end a stalemate in the evenly divided Ethics Committee since their introduction in January. (AP), (Reuters)
• Johnson Beharry becomes the first recipient of the UK's highest military honor, the Victoria Cross since 1982 and the first living recipient since 1965. (AFP)
• Two Palestinians, both aged 15, are arrested in a checkpoint near Jenin after 11 explosive charges were found on them. One teenager told interrogators that he was recruited to act as a couriers by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the second by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. (Haaretz), (AP photo)
• The new Airbus A380 performs its maiden flight, in Toulouse, France. The A380 replaces the Boeing 747 ("jumbo jet") as the world's largest passenger plane. (BBC)
• The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash in Japan exceeds 91, and may increase to over 100. (Japan Today) (Asahi Shimbun) (Reuters) (Bloomberg) (Reuters)
• Former Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is arrested for alleged corruption after he refuses to appear in court. (Reuters AlertNet) (United We Blog) (NDTV)
• A Moscow court postpones verdict on the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky until May 16. (Mosnews) (RIA Novosti) (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• In central Sri Lanka, at Polgahawela, a passenger train crashes into a bus on a level crossing; 35–50 persons are feared to be dead. (BBC) (Bloomberg) (Reuters)
• The date of the next elections in Lebanon is set for May 29. (Reuters)
• Colombian president Álvaro Uribe sacks four top army generals for disagreeing with his army reforms. (Reuters AlertNet)
• In Togo, opposition resistance against election victory of Faure Gnassingbé escalates into violence. At least 33 have died in the clashes. Opposition leader Bob Akitani declares himself president. (AllAfrica) (News24) (Reuters) (BBC)
• Mexican president Vicente Fox accepts resignation of his attorney general Rafael Macedo and orders review of the contempt of court case of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. (El Universal) (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• Amnesty International appeals to the government of Yemen to stop execution of Amina Ali Abduladif. She is sentenced to death for murder and the execution is to take place May 2. (Yemen Times) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Zimbabwe opposition party Movement for Democratic Change says that the country has run out of maize grain and asks Robert Mugabe to apply for foreign food aid. (IOL) (ReliefWeb) (Reuters AlertNet)
• In India, Gautam Goswami, director of flood relief in Bihar, is accused of misdirecting funds. He denies any wrongdoing. (NDTV) (Times of India) (Times of India) (BBC)
• Cherif Bassiouni, former United Nations human rights envoy to Afghanistan, says he lost his job due to US pressure. (BBC)
• John Gudenus of the Austrian Freedom Party causes controversy when he questions the existence of Nazi gas chambers and later leaves the party. (Ha'aretz) (BBC)
• In Vietnam, six people are arrested for trying to sell human remains as remains of MIA US soldiers. (BBC)
• In Côte d'Ivoire, opposition leader Alassane Ouattara welcomes President Laurent Gbagbo's decision to let him contest elections. South African president Thabo Mbeki welcomes it as well. (ReliefWeb) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• In Scotland the M77 was opened by the First minister Jack Mcconnell, from Fenwick in East Ayrshire to Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire replacing the old dangerous A77 which has claimed many lives, including a local police officer.

April 28, 2005

• Almost three months after the legislative election in Iraq, the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to approve a Shi'a-led cabinet, establishing the first elected government in the history of Iraq. Two of the four deputy prime minister's slots remained vacant, however, and five ministries, including the important defence and oil slots, were left in the hands of temporary managers. (International Herald Tribune), (CBC)
• The Ivory-billed Woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in the "Big Woods" area of Arkansas. (CNN)
• British Prime Minister Tony Blair publishes the advice of Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, on the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (BBC News), (Guardian)
• The Edvard Munch paintings The Scream and Madonna, which were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo on August 22, 2004, may have been burned, says the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. The Oslo police do not confirm the rumour. The paintings reappear in August 2006. (Norway Post)
• The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash in Japan rises to 104. Rescuers find the body of the train's driver. (Japan Today), (Reuters AlertNet)
• The United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentences Mika Muhimana, former Hutu civic leader, to life imprisonment for his role in the Rwandan genocide. (IOL) (AllAfrica) (Reuters AlertNet)
• Gunmen kidnap Haitian political leader Jean Enold Buteau, head of the Movement for National Reconstruction. (Reuters AlertNet)
• A Bulgarian court releases Serbian war crimes suspect Čedomir Branković because of his diplomatic immunity. (Sofia News Agency) (Bulgarian News Network) (BBC)
• In France, Bernard Guillet, an aide to former interior minister Charles Pasqua is questioned in connection with the oil for food probe. (Financial Times) (BBC)
• Swiss engineers blast through the Lötschberg Tunnel through the Alps from Germany to Italy. The tunnel will be ready for traffic in two years. (SwissInfo) (NZZ) (BBC)
• In Kenya, British peer and Kenyan rancher Thomas Cholmondeley is charged with the murder of two Maasai game wardens. (IOL) (Guardian) (BBC)
• In Australia, Palacom has received permission to create a cemetery for upright burials. (Herald Sun) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez visits Cuba to foster cooperation between the countries. (BBC) (Periodico26) (Reuters)

April 29, 2005

• The next launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-114, is delayed until at least July 13. This is to be the first Space Shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. (BBC) (CNN)
• U.S. Congressman Rob Portman was confirmed by the United States Senate to be United States Trade Representative. (CBS Marketwatch)
• The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash in Japan totals 106. Rescue efforts are over and police begin the crash investigation. (Japan Today)
• Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan meets with Communist Party of China Secretary-General Hu Jintao in the highest level contact between leaders of the two parties since the meeting of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in August 1945 at the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. [5]
• A prominent article in the state-owned China Securities Journal says conditions are ripe for changes in the country's policy of keeping the yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar. (Washington Post)
• Three currencies join the ERM II: The Cyprus pound, the Latvian lat, and the Maltese Lira. The ERM II is one of the steps needed for a currency to become part of the Eurozone. EUbusiness

• Apple releases Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger.

April 30, 2005

• Cairo terrorism: Tourists in the Egyptian capital Cairo are targeted in two separate terrorist attacks. (BBC)
• U.S. Senator John Kerry formally endorses a candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, repaying Mr. Villaraigosa's support for his own presidential campaign in 2004(AP)
• King Gyanendra of Nepal ends the state of emergency. Press censorship and ban of political activities continues. (NDTV) (IHT)
• US releases a report that clears soldiers who shot Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari and journalist Giuliana Sgrena. (full text on BBC) (CNN) (Reuters)
• In Roraima, Brazil, Macuxi Indians release four policemen they had held as hostages since April 22. The Macuxi protested against the creation of a huge reservation and demanded better living conditions. (BBC) (ABC)
• In Honduras, six children die in a grenade accident. (Scotsman) (Reuters)
• Severo Moto, exiled politician from Equatorial Guinea, reappears in Spain. He says that he survived an assassination attempt in Croatia. (BBC) (Reuters)

Deaths

• 1: Harald Juhnke
• 2: Pope John Paul II
• 5: Dale Messick
• 5: Saul Bellow
• 6: Prince Rainier III
• 9: Andrea Dworkin
• 16: Marla Ruzicka
• 23: Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen
• 23: John Mills
• 24: Ezer Weizman
• 26: Augusto Roa Bastos
• Other deaths