April 2005
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Events
For the details of one day at a time, click date; April 1 includes worldwide 'April-the-first' hoaxes.
- 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)
- 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)
- 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:
- 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)
- 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. (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 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:
- The last British mass car manufacturer MG Rover Group enters administration after a £1 Billion deal with Shanghai Automotive fails to materialise. It's Longbridge plant in Birmingham UK was once the largest manufacturing site in the world and still the largest in western 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) (IranMania) (IranMania) (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 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)
- 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
- 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 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) (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)
- 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, USA. (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)