April 1, 2005 (2005-04-01 ) (Friday)
April 2, 2005 (2005-04-02 ) (Saturday)
Pope
John Paul II dies at 9:37 p.m. Vatican time (
CEST ) at the age of 84, thus ending the third longest papacy in history and the beginning of a
Sede vacante period.
(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) [
permanent dead link ] (Independent) [
permanent dead link ]
In
Nepal , former prime minister
Girija Prasad Koirala is released from
house arrest and demands the return to
democracy .
(New Kerala)
(Telegraph, India)
(BBC)
Newcastle United teammates
Kieron Dyer and
Lee Bowyer are sent off for fighting each other in a 3-0 home defeat to
EPL rivals
Aston Villa at
St. James' Park
(The Guardian)
April 3, 2005 (2005-04-03 ) (Sunday)
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) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
WWE presents
WrestleMania 21 in
Hollywood, California
April 4, 2005 (2005-04-04 ) (Monday)
War in Afghanistan :
Israel is to begin dumping 10,000 tonnes of rubbish in the
West Bank every month. Opponents say the move is a breach of international treaties and may also pollute the main
Palestinian water supply, an assertion denied by the Israelis.
(Haaretz)
(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) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
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 .
(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) [
permanent dead link ] (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.
(Al Jazeera)
In
basketball , the
North Carolina Tar Heels beat the
Illinois Fighting Illini ,
75-70 , to win the
2005 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament .
(CBS News)
April 5, 2005 (2005-04-05 ) (Tuesday)
April 6, 2005 (2005-04-06 ) (Wednesday)
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)
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.
(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)
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 7, 2005 (2005-04-07 ) (Thursday)
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 :
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)
Archived 2005-12-01 at the
Wayback Machine
(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) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
Archived 2005-04-10 at the
Wayback Machine . Nepalese radio begins to block
BBC World Service
(Hindustan Times)
Archived 2007-09-30 at the
Wayback Machine
(AsiaMedia)
The
Swiss cabinet intends to outlaw English-sounding names of government departments.
(SwissInfo)
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)
April 8, 2005 (2005-04-08 ) (Friday)
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) (Link dead as of 22:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC))
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) (Link dead as of 22:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC)),
(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 5 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) (Link dead as of 22:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC))
Presidential elections begin in
Djibouti . Incumbent president
Ismail Omar Guelleh is the only candidate.
(BBC)
April 9, 2005 (2005-04-09 ) (Saturday)
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)
Spring 2005 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) [
permanent dead link ]
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict :
Islamic Jihad have announced that they are to "re-evaluate" their cease-fire after
Israeli soldiers kill 3
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) [
permanent dead link ] (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 :
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)
Calling for the abolition of
death penalty , the
Dalai Lama , currently on a visit to
Japan , says criminals must be treated with compassion and made to feel part of the society.
(Peninsula On-Line)
April 10, 2005 (2005-04-10 ) (Sunday)
April 11, 2005 (2005-04-11 ) (Monday)
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 ,
United States .
(BBC Video)
(BBC)
(CNN)
Tulip Revolution : The Parliament of
Kyrgyzstan finally approves the
resignation of deposed
President
Askar Akayev .
(Fox News)
2005 anti-Japanese demonstrations : 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
Dave 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 (2005-04-12 ) (Tuesday)
A 15-year
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]
[2]
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)
Archived 2005-04-12 at the
Wayback Machine
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)
In
Hungary , a group of people that claim descent from
Attila the Hun demand minority status.
(BBC)
Three
British men are
indicted by a
United States court in a
2004 alleged plot to destroy financial institutions in the USA, 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) [
permanent dead link ]
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 (2005-04-13 ) (Wednesday)
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)
Archived 2008-06-05 at the
Wayback Machine
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 :
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)
Archived 2005-04-15 at the
Wayback Machine
(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)
Archived 2005-04-13 at the
Wayback Machine
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 be 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 (2005-04-14 ) (Thursday)
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) [
permanent dead link ]
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 :
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)
Archived 2005-04-18 at the
Wayback Machine
(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)
Archived 2005-04-15 at the
Wayback Machine
(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)
Archived 2005-04-15 at the
Wayback Machine
(CNN)
South Korean
Tongsun Park ,
Texas oilman David Chalmers and two others are indicted for
bribery in the
oil for food scandal.
(Reuters)
Archived 2005-04-16 at the
Wayback Machine
(Washington Post)
United States Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales announces that law enforcement agencies have arrested 10,340 fugitives in
Operation Falcon between
April 4 -
10 .
(Operation Falcon website)
(ABC)
(Reuters)
Archived 2005-04-16 at the
Wayback Machine
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 denied
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 Multiconference 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)
Archived 2005-04-15 at the
Wayback Machine
April 15, 2005 (2005-04-15 ) (Friday)
NASA reports that the
Gulf Stream is slowing. The resulting colder climate could cause severe climatic and economic disruption in Northern Europe.
(NASA)
Archived 2005-09-26 at the
Wayback Machine
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 ) (registration required). Personal announcements appeared on blogs
[3]
[4] 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 ) (Link dead as of 02:40,
15 January
2007 (UTC)),
(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) (Link dead as of 02:40,
15 January
2007 (UTC))
Prince Rainier is
buried in
Monaco .
(BBC)
(CNN)
In
France , 20 people die in a fire at the
Paris-Opera Hotel .
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] 15 January
2007 (UTC)),
(CNN)
In
Australia ,
Raymond Williams , former CEO of
insurance company
HIH Insurance , is
jailed for 4 and 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) (Link dead as of 02:40,
15 January
2007 (UTC))
(Xinhua)
UK passport applicants must give
fingerprints . Preparation for ID cards goes ahead without parliament.
(Guardian Unlimited )
Green Party of
England and
Wales unveil radical manifesto aiming at measures against
climate change .
(Science Daily )
France plans to introduce
biometric ID cards in 2007.
(Infoworld)
The
European Union denies ruling out lifting an EU arms embargo on the
People's Republic of China before June.
(The Australian )
The
Sea organ site opens to the public in
Zadar ,
Croatia .
April 16, 2005 (2005-04-16 ) (Saturday)
April 17, 2005 (2005-04-17 ) (Sunday)
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)
Archived 2008-04-18 at the
Wayback Machine
(Wikinews)
(Guardian)
(Telegraph) [
permanent dead link ]
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) [
permanent dead link ] (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) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
Archived 2005-04-18 at the
Wayback Machine
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)
Archived 2005-04-18 at the
Wayback Machine
(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)
Students at the
University at Albany in
Albany ,
New York set the record for the world's largest
pillow fight with 3,648 participants, observed by Guinness Records officials.
(Albany.edu)
April 18, 2005 (2005-04-18 ) (Monday)
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) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
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.
(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) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
(CNN) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
(Boston.com) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Black
smoke signals no new
Pope is chosen in the first ballot in the
Papal conclave, 2005 .
(BBC) ,
(ABC) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(Yahoo! News/AP) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
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) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Adobe Systems buys
Macromedia for $3.4 billion.
(Yahoo! Financial) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(New York Times) (registration required),
(USA Today) ,
(MSNBC) .
The death toll in the collapse of a garment factory in
Dacca ,
Bangladesh reaches 74. Dozens are still missing.
(Reuters AlertNet) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
Japanese history textbooks controversy :
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)
Archived 2005-04-18 at the
Wayback Machine (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(BBC)
The government of the Philippines begins talks with
Moro Islamic Liberation Front .
(Manila Times) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC)
Italian prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi refuses to resign and intends to continue with
minority government .
(AGI)
(Reuters)
Archived 2005-04-19 at the
Wayback Machine (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(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 14 April.
(FENA) [
permanent dead link ] (Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
Archived 2005-04-24 at the
Wayback Machine (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
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) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC))
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) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(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) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(IOL) ,
(BBC)
Four people are charged with the 1982 murder of
Roberto Calvi . Suspects have
Mafia ties.
(Financial Times) ,
(Reuters) (Link dead as of 04:02, 16 January 2007 (UTC)),
(BBC)
April 19, 2005 (2005-04-19 ) (Tuesday)
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)
Archived 2005-04-20 at the
Wayback Machine
(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. 220 people have been arrested during the unrest.
(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)
Archived 2005-04-20 at the
Wayback Machine ,
(BBC)
Japanese researchers have reversed
diabetes of a female patient with
transplantation of
pancreatic cells from her mother.
(Medical News Today)
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] (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) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
Archived 2005-04-28 at the
Wayback Machine
(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)
April 20, 2005 (2005-04-20 ) (Wednesday)
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)
Archived 2005-04-20 at the
Wayback Machine
(Bloomberg)
World-renowned Japanese novelist
Fumio Niwa dies in Tokyo.
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)
Archived 2005-04-24 at the
Wayback Machine
Maurice Strong ,
Canadian
United Nations representative, steps down due to allegations of involvement with
Tongsun Park and
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)
Archived 2005-04-24 at the
Wayback Machine
(BBC)
April 21, 2005 (2005-04-21 ) (Thursday)
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 disasterFebruary 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)
Archived 2005-04-21 at the
Wayback Machine
(BBC)
The parliament of
Spain gives initial approval to legalized
same-sex marriages and adoption by homosexual couples.
(Berria)
(EITB)
(Reuters)
Archived 2005-04-24 at the
Wayback Machine
April 22, 2005 (2005-04-22 ) (Friday)
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.
(The Hindu)
(Washington Post) There was no test however for over a year following.
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 textbooks 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)
Archived 2005-04-23 at the
Wayback Machine ,
(Guardian Unlimited) ,
(Telegraph UK)
Archived 2007-03-12 at the
Wayback Machine
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)
Archived 2005-11-01 at the
Wayback Machine ,
(Globe and Mail) ,
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] (BBC)
Togolese
interior minister
François Boko wants to postpone next Sunday's
presidential election , claiming that there is a threat of
civil war .
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 .
[5]
April 23, 2005 (2005-04-23 ) (Saturday)
Israeli-Palestinian conflict :
The
Association of University Teachers , the leading
British
academic group, has voted to boycott two
Israeli universities,
Haifa University 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 3 suspected Palestinian militants on the Geha Highway near
Ra'annana ,
Israel . When the police arrived, the 3 suspects were barricaded in their car, while a 4th 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 4
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)
April 24, 2005 (2005-04-24 ) (Sunday)
Jawed uploads the first
YouTube Video
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 3
astronauts ,
Russian
Salizhan Sharipov ,
Chinese American
Leroy Chiao and
Italian
Roberto Vittori , safely back to
Earth from the
International Space Station .
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ]
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) [
permanent dead link ] (ITV)
Venezuelan president
Hugo Chávez ends military cooperation with
United States , claiming that US army training officers in the country have been agitating unrest against him.
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ]
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 (2005-04-25 ) (Monday)
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict :
Amnesty International has called on the
Israeli government to investigate the poisoning of
Palestinian land, allegedly by
Israeli settlers around
Hebron
(BBC)
Bulgaria and
Romania sign accession treaty to the
European Union , continuing the
enlargement process .
(press release)
(BBC)
Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark will have a baby in October, says the Royal House in
Copenhagen .
(Royal House)
(Danmarks Radio)
More than 20,000
Australians ,
New Zealanders ,
Turks and other nationalities gather at
Anzac Cove ,
Gallipoli ,
Turkey to mark the 90th anniversary of the
landing at Anzac Cove during
World War I . Thousands more attend
ANZAC Day dawn remembrance ceremonies and marches in cities around
Australia and
New Zealand , 250,000 in
Sydney alone.
(Reuters)
(Wikinews)
Amagasaki rail crash : In
Japan , a
Fukuchiyama Line train
derails and crashes into an apartment building in the city of
Amagasaki , near
Osaka . At least 55 people are dead and around 400 are injured as a result of the accident, Japan's worst rail crash since 1963.
(Japan Today)
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] (BBC)
The third and final part of the
Obelisk of Axum returns to
Ethiopia . Ethiopia has also asked for the return of the remains of prince
Alemayehu Tewodros .
(BBC)
(Independent)
Czech prime minister
Stanislav Gross resigns.
Jiří Paroubek is expected to succeed him.
(Bloomberg)
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] (BBC)
Same-sex marriage in Canada : Four same-sex couples in
New Brunswick file suit for the right to marry under the
Charter . This challenge, the first to be filed in over five months, would
make New Brunswick the eighth of ten provinces to recognize same-sex marriage.
(CBC)
Germany 's foreign minister,
Joschka Fischer admits in a public hearing that procedural mistakes allowed criminals to have
visas to enter the country. He also states that his political opponents had exaggarated the situation.
(Deutsche Welle)
(IHT)
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ] (Bloomberg)
A
Finnish man is accused of
sexual abuse of 445 boys in
Thailand
(Helsingin Sanomat)
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ]
Andrés Manuel López Obrador returns to his work as a
mayor of
Mexico City despite government demands that he is no longer eligible.
(BBC)
(Washington Post)
Archived 2012-09-19 at the
Wayback Machine
A 5000-strong
Richtersveld community in Northern Cape province,
South Africa , goes to
Land Claims Court seeking compensation. In the 1920s they were evicted from their land, that turned out to be rich in
diamonds and was mined by
Alexkor mining company.
(BBC)
(IOL)
Liberians register to vote in the first
elections after a long civil war. Elections are due on
October 11 .
(Land Claims Court)
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC)
Indian Rail Minister
Laloo Prasad Yadav is charged with
embezzlement .
(Deccan Herald)
(BBC)
April 26, 2005 (2005-04-26 ) (Tuesday)
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 doesn't 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) [
permanent dead link ] (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) [
permanent dead link ]
British
Labour Party member
Brian Sedgemore moves to the
Liberal Democrats .
(Independent) [
permanent dead link ] (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 (2005-04-27 ) (Wednesday)
A sandstorm in Iraq on 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) [
permanent dead link ]
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)
Archived 2005-04-27 at the
Wayback Machine
(Bloomberg)
(Reuters) [
permanent dead link ]
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) [
permanent dead link ] (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)
Archived 2005-04-27 at the
Wayback Machine
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)
Archived 2005-04-28 at the
Wayback Machine
(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)
Archived 2005-04-28 at the
Wayback Machine
(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) [
permanent dead link ] (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 (2005-04-28 ) (Thursday)
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.
(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) [
permanent dead link ] (Reuters)
Archived 2005-04-29 at the
Wayback Machine
Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield commenced operation in
South Yorkshire in the north of
England .
April 29, 2005 (2005-04-29 ) (Friday)
April 29
2005 was a Friday
April 30, 2005 (2005-04-30 ) (Saturday)
April 30 ,
2005 was a Saturday
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