International Events in 2002
Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • Jul • Aug • Sep • Oct • Nov • Dec
JANUARY
| Jan 1 | The euro becomes legal tender for 300 million people in 12 of the 15 EU countries and Reunion Island is the first European territory to handle the currency. | Full Story |
| Jan 2 | Eduardo Duhalde, is sworn in the fifth Argentinian President in two weeks, as the nation is in a mess, caused by a $ 134 billion debt crisis. | Full Story |
| Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, is sworn in Zambian President after winning the Dec. 27, 2001 polls. | ||
| Jan 6 | The SAARC summit in Kathmandu affirms resolve to redouble efforts to prevent terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. | Full Story |
| The Italian Foreign Minister, Renato Ruggiero, quits the Silvio Berlusconi Cabinet over euro. | Full Story | |
| Jan 7 | Malaysia deports the Moro National Liberation Front chief, Nur Misuari, who faces rebellion charges in the Philippines for leading a failed uprising in Mindanao region. | Full Story |
| The Yves Saint Laurent fashion house in Paris closes, bringing to an end a historic era in haute couture. | ||
| An asteroid, 2001 Yb5 misses earth by a whisker in cosmic terms, less than twice the distance of the moon from the planet. | ||
| Jan 9 | The corruption trial of Italian Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, begins after a failed Government attempt to remove one of the judges | |
| Jan 10 | Michael Jackson is presented with the artist of the century award, at the 29th American Music Awards in Los Angeles. Jan 12: The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, bans the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad in his address to the nation. | Full Story |
| Jan 12 | Pak. President Pervez Musharraf bans Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad along with three other extremist outfits. | Full Story |
| Jan 15 | The Canadian Premier, Jean Chretien, names the Foreign Minister, John Manley, the Deputy Premier in a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle. | |
| Sri Lanka relaxes its seven-year restriction on the movement of food, medicines and civilians into LTTE-held areas. | ||
| A huge fire devastates 13 of the 16 floors of the Shaheed-e-Millat Secretariat building in the Blue Area, in Islamabad. | Full Story | |
| Jan 16 | Pakistan's military regime scraps the discriminatory electoral system for religious minorities. | Full Story |
| Pakistan allows private radio and television channels. | ||
| Jan 17 | Forty five persons die after the eruption of Mount Nyirangongo in downtown Goma, Congo. | |
| Jan 18 | Eighty nine nations sign a pact to ban child prostitution, pornography and slavery. | |
| Jan 21 | Ron Howard's emotional thriller, "A Beautiful Mind" wins the Golden Globe Award for best motion picture, at ceremonies in Beverly Hills, California. | Full Story |
| The Taiwan Presidential Secretary, Gen. Yu Shyi-Kun is named the new Premier in a major Cabinet shuffle. | ||
| Jan 22 | Colm Murphy charged in connection with the murder of 29 persons in the Omagh bombing, Northern Ireland's worst terrorist outrage, is convicted of playing a key role in the attack. | |
| Jan 24 | Kenneth Lay steps down as Enron chief. | Full Story |
| Jan 28 | Over 580 people fleeing an arms depot fire in Lagos, Nigeria, drown after falling into a canal. | Full Story |
FEBRUARY
| Feb 1 | Yoriko Kawaguchi is appointed Japan's new Foreign Minister. | Full Story |
| Feb 5 | Don't ignore the poor, says the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan at the final session of the 32nd World Economic Forum, in New York. Power, wealth unequally shared, he remarks. | Full Story |
| Feb 9 | The former Taliban Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Wakil Muttawakil, surrenders in Kandahar. | Full Story |
| Antar Zouabri, leader of the Algerian extremist group, Armed Islamic Group (GIA), killed in a house in Boufarik, near Algiers. | ||
| The U.N. pulls out of the Extraordinary Chambers proposed by Cambodia to try Khmer Rouge leaders. | ||
| Feb 12 | Pakistan police arrest Jaish-e-Mohammad leader, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, prime suspect in the kidnapping of the American journalist, Daniel Pearl from Karachi on Jan. 23, in Lahore. | Full Story |
| Russia and India sign a $2.5 billion deal for delivery of two reactors for the Koodankulam nuclear power plant. | Full Story | |
| All the 117 passengers and crew die after an Iranian Tupolev-154 crashes in mountains in southwestern Iran. | Full Story | |
| The historical trial of former Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, opens at the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal, at The Hague.An international treaty banning child soldiering comes into force. | ||
| Feb 14 | The head of state of Bahrain, Shikh Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa, proclaims the Gulf archipelago a kingdom and himself king, besides promulgating a new Constitution. | Full Story |
| The Afghan Aviation and Tourism Minister, Abdul Rahman, is lynched by angry pilgrims, at the Kabul airport. | Full Story | |
| The U.S. President, George W. Bush, announces a ``new environmental path for America'', his alternative to the Kyoto protocol. | ||
| Feb 15 | The U.K. and Italy form an axis for speeding up European economic reforms after a meeting between British Premier, Tony Blair and his counterpart, Silvio Berlusconi. | |
| Feb 17 | Maoist rebels in Nepal kill 134 people in surprise attacks on Government buildings in Mangalsen, headquarters of Achham district, 750 km from Kathmandu. | Full Story |
| Feb 18 | The Fiji High Court sentences to death coup leader George Speight on treason charge but it is commuted to a life term by the President, Josefo Iloilo. | Full Story |
| The EU imposes targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe after Harare's refusal to allow its observers freely monitor the March 9-10 Presidential polls. | ||
| Feb 20 | Three hundred and seventy three Egyptians die following a fire triggered by a cylinder blast aboard a train leaving Cairo for a religious holiday. | Full Story |
| Feb 21 | The U.S. will adhere to ``One China'' policy, says the visiting President, George W. Bush after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, in Beijing. | Full Story |
| Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines sign a draft agreement to combat terrorism. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl is brutally slain by his captors, say U.S. authorities after viewing a videotape depicting the deed. | ||
| Feb 22 | The Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE sign a ceasefire accord brokered by Norway, in Vavuniya. | Full Story |
| Feb 23 | The UNITA rebel leader, Jonas Malheiro Savimbi (67), is killed during a gunbattle with security forces in Moxico province in south-east Angola. | Full Story |
| Feb 24 | Israel releases the Palestinian Authority President, Yassar Arafat from confinement inside his Ramallah compound. | Full Story |
| Feb 25 | Zimbabwe's Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is charged with treason. | |
| Feb 27 | Singer Alicia Keys, is crowned the new queen of the music industry after winning five Grammy awards at the 44th version of the event, in Los Angeles. | Full Story |
| Feb 28 | Hong Kong's pro Beijing leader Tung Chee-Hwa, wins a second five-year term as the Chinese territory's Chief Executive. | |
| Finland, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal make euro the legal tender. |
MARCH
| Mar 2 | The CHOGM leaders adopt an action plan to stamp out terrorism, in Coolum, Australia. | Full Story |
| Mar 3 | Swiss vote in a referendum to join the U.N. after more than five decades on the fringes, in a sharp reversal of a similar vote in 1986. | |
| Mar 4 | Lawmakers in Kosovo elect the moderate ethnic Alabanian leader, Ibrahim Rugova, as President. | |
| Mar 5 | The U.S. President, George W. Bush announces steep hike in steel imports and Russia one of the big losers bans U.S. poultry. | |
| Mar 7 | Tommy Suharto, son of former Indonesian ruler, Suharto, is charged with the July 2001 murder of Supreme Court Judge, Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, who sentenced him to an 18-month jail term for corruption. | |
| The Myanmar junta arrests ex-dictator, Ne Win's son-in-law, Aye Zaw Min and three grandsons in Yangon for plotting to overthrow the military regime. | ||
| Mar 8 | Thirty-two Palestinians are killed in an Israeli blitzkrieg on targets in West Bank and Gaza. | Full Story |
| The Indonesian Parliament Speaker, Akbar Tandjung, is arrested in a case of embezzlement of $4 million from the State logistics agency, Bulog. | Full Story | |
| Mar 10 | Saudi Arabia offers Israel a "complete peace plan" in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands and the creation of an independent Palestine. | Full Story |
| Mar 11 | Twenty six civilians die as Israeli troops launch its largest offensive against Palestinians in 35 years. | Full Story |
| Mar 13 | The Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe sweeps to victory in the extended polls defeating Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change. | |
| The U.N. Security Council for the first time adopts a resolution backing the idea of a Palestinian State. | Full Story | |
| Mar 17 | Terrorists strike inside a church in the diplomatic enclave in Islamabad killing five persons and injuring 45 others. | Full Story |
| Zimbabwe's longtime ruler, Robert Mugabe, is sworn in to serve another six-year term, in Harare. | ||
| Nepalese security forces kill 68 Maoists, including 62 at training camps in Rolpa district. | Full Story | |
| Portugal's Social Democrats, headed by the former Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso win parliamentary polls defeating the Socialists under Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues. | ||
| Mar 19 | The Commonwealth suspends Zimbabwe from its decision-making bodies for a year. | |
| Mar 20 | The trial of Tommy Suharto, the youngest son of the former Indonesian dictator, Gen. Suharto, for his role in the murder of a Supreme Court judge, opens in Jakarta. | Full Story |
| Mar 22 | The British born militant, Sheikh Omar is formally charged with kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and ordered to stand trial in a Pakistani court. | Full Story |
| The former British Premier, Lady Margaret Thatcher, bows out of public life on health grounds. | Full Story | |
| Mar 24 | Halle Berry wins the first best actress Oscar ever presented to a black performer for her role in the racially-charged film, Monster's Ball. Denzel Washington bags the second Oscar of his career (Training Day). Sidney Poitier and Robert Redford b | Full Story |
| ags awards for their lifetime achievement, at the 74th annual Academy Awards, in Los Angeles. | Full Story | |
| Over 1,800 people are killed after a devastating earthquake wipes out Nahrin, a town 175 km north of Kabul. | Full Story | |
| The former Indonesian Speaker, Akbar Tandjung goes on trial for "embezzling" $4 million belonging to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog). | Full Story | |
| Mar 30 | Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, dies in her sleep at Buckingham Palace. She was 101. | Full Story |
| Mar 31 | The Chinese Government orders deportation of immigrants from Hong Kong who were born before their parents became permanent residents. | |
| Victor Yush Chenko's Our Ukraine coalition wins the Parliamentary polls, pushing the Communists to the second position in the Ukraine. |
APRIL
| Apr 4 | Five Palestinians killed as Israeli troops take over Nablus, fight intense battles with gunmen barricaded in nearby refugee camps and tighten a cordon around armed Palestinians holed up in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. | Full Story |
| The Angolan Government and the UNITA sign a broad ceasefire pact, pledge to abide by a U.N.-brokered 1994 peace accord. | ||
| Apr 5 | The trial of Omar Sheikh - prime accused in the abduction and kidnap of US journalist Daniel Pearl - and three of his accomplices starts in the main jail of Karachi. | Full Story |
| Apr 6 | The Foreign Ministers of India, Thailand and Myanmar, agree to create a 1,400 km transport corridor linking the three nations, after a conference in the Myanmar capital, Yangon. | Full Story |
| Apr 7 | The Conservative psychiatrist and television personality, Abel Pacheco wins a historic second round presidential election in Costa Rica. | |
| Apr 8 | Gujarat events "painful" but will not hit India's investment climate, says the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in Singapore. | Full Story |
| The Irish Republican Army announces a second phase of arms decommissioning, taking a unilateral initiative. | Full Story | |
| Apr 9 | The New York Times wins a record seven Pulitzers for coverage of the September 11 attacks, at the 86th annual awards in Columbia University. | Full Story |
| India, Cambodia sign pacts on air services, visa exemption and restoration of the Ta Prohm temple near Angkor Vat, during the Prime Minister, A. B. Vajpayee's visit, the first such after Jawaharlal Nehru's in 1954. | Full Story | |
| Jerry Ross, a space walker becomes the first person to be launched into space for a record seventh time, on board the space shuttle Atlantis heading for the International Space Station. | ||
| Apr 10 | The Bangladesh Parliament passes a controversial Bill that will allow lawbreakers to be put on summary trial. | Full Story |
| Time not ripe to give up Eelam goal, says the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabakaran at his first media outing in more than a decade, in Killinochchi. | Full Story | |
| The SAARC Finance Ministers and Planning Ministers' meet endorses an action plan to activate the South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA). | Full Story | |
| Apr 12 | Over 102 people, including 84 policemen are killed as Maoist rebels raid posts at Satbaria and Lamahi areas in Dang district, southwest Nepal. | Full Story |
| The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez resigns under military pressure after a massive Opposition demonstration a day earlier ends in a bloodbath in downtown Caracas. | Full Story | |
| Apr 13 | The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international panel demarcates the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, dispute over which had triggered a war costing tens of thousands of lives. | |
| Apr 14 | Hugo Chavez reassumes office as the Venezuelan President after his removal from office during a two day coup | Full Story |
| Apr 15 | At least 108 persons are killed as an Air China aircraft from Beijing to Pusan in South Korea crashes into a mountain in Kimhae due to bad weather. | Full Story |
| Apr 16 | Independence hero Xanana Gusmao, wins the East Timor Presidential polls defeating his sole challenger, Francis Xavier do Amaral. | Full Story |
| The Dutch Prime Minister, Wim Kok and his Government quits following the publication of a report on the massacre in the Bosnian safe haven of Srebrinica in 1995 which Dutch UN troops were supposed to protest. | ||
| Apr 18 | A Rawalpindi court declares the former Pak. Premier, Benazir Bhutto a proclaimed offender in an assets accumulation case. | Full Story |
| In an unprecedented move, the Dutch army chief, Gen. Ad Van Baal is persuaded to step down for unwittingly assisting in ethnic cleansing by Serbian troops. | Full Story | |
| The former King of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah returns home after 29 years in exile. | Full Story | |
| A small plane slams into a skyscraper in Milan, killing three and injuring 15. | Full Story | |
| Apr 20 | The U.N. Security Council votes to send a fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp, where Israeli troops allegedly massacred Palestinian civilians. | Full Story |
| Ebrahim Yazdi, the top opponent of Iran's ruling clerics returns from the U.S. in a stunning gesture. | ||
| Apr 21 | Extreme right wing presidential candidate Jean Marie Le Pen creates major upset by coming second in the first round of the French presidential poll, just behind incumbent Gaullist President, Jacques Chirac. | Full Story |
| Hungary's Opposition Socialists score a decisive victory in the second round of legislative polls ousting the conservative Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. | ||
| Apr 22 | The trial of Omar Sheikh and three other accused in the Daniel Pearl abduction and murder case begins in Karachi. | Full Story |
| Apr 25 | Russia launches the World's second space tourist, South African businessman, Mark Shuttleworth into orbit aboard a Soyuz TM-34 spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome. | Full Story |
| Apr 26 | Robert Steinhauser (19), an expelled teenager shoots himself after killing 16 persons, including 12 teachers at his former Guttenberg secondary school in eastern Erfurt in Germany's worst mass murder since World War II. | Full Story |
| Apr 28 | Former General Alexander Lebed, (52), one of the most charismatic political figures in post-Soviet Russia, dies after his MI-8 helicopter crashes in the mountains in the Krasnoarsk region, eastern Siberia, after hitting a powerline. | Full Story |
| Apr 29 | The European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France, rejects the right-to-die plea of terminally-ill, Diane Pretty (43) of Britain bringing the curtains down on a long legal battle. | Full Story |
| Apr 30 | Pakistanis vote in a referendum to uphold the rule of the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, for a further period of five years, beginning October. | Full Story |
| Britain's Queen Elizabeth says she intends to remain on the throne to help the nation prosper, addressing both Houses of Parliament, in her Golden Jubilee year. | Full Story | |
| U.S. Auto Giant, General Motors Corp., signs a $1.2 billion deal to take over South Korea's bankrupt Daewoo Motor Co., in Seoul. | Full Story | |
| Russia retires the world's first nuclear reactor unveiled on January 24, 1954 in Obninsk, a small town 100 km south of Moscow. |
MAY
| May 2 | Israeli military lifts the prolonged siege of the Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters where he has been penned in since December. | Full Story |
| May 3 | In an unprecedented move, the European Union blocks the assets of 11 non-European terrorist organisations, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Kurdish separatists in Turkey. Nearly 500 people die after a ferry capsizes in Meghna river, Bangladesh. | Full Story |
| May 4 | A Nigerian BAC-11-500 airliner crashes into the residential district of Gwammaja killing 116 people, about 40 of them on the ground. | Full Story |
| The NASA launches the Aqua satellite on a $952 million project to improve weather forecasts and track changes in the global climate from the Vandenberg Air Force base. | ||
| May 5 | France's incumbent President, Jacques Chirac wins a landslide victory over his far right opponent, Jean Marie Le Pen to secure another five year term. | Full Story |
| May 6 | The Myanmar military junta "unconditionally" frees Aung San Sun Kyi, general secretary of the National League for Democracy after 19 months of house arrest. | Full Story |
| French President Jacques Chirac appoints Jean Pierre Raffarin the new Prime Minister. | Full Story | |
| May 7 | Pim Fortuyn, leader of Holland's right wing anti-immigration party, L.P.F. is shot dead shortly after a radio interview in Hilversum, 20 km from Amsterdam. | Full Story |
| The U.S. pulls out of the International Criminal Court on war crimes | Full Story | |
| Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines sign an anti-terrorism pact in Putrajaya, Malaysia's new administrative capital. | Full Story | |
| May 8 | All 112 passengers and crew aboard a China Northern Airlines flight die after the plane from Beijing to Dalian plunges into the Yellow Sea. | Full Story |
| Fourteen persons, including 11 French nationals die after a suicide bomber blows up a mini-bus, in Karachi. | Full Story | |
| Over 100 Nepalese security personnel and 20 rebels die after a Maoist attack on an army post in Gam village of Rolpa district. | Full Story | |
| Let us not make children pay for out failures anymore, says the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan opening the first U.N. children's summit. | ||
| May 9 | Thirty persons are killed as a powerful bomb explodes during Victory Day celebrations in Kaspiisk town in southern Russia. | Full Story |
| Bahraini voters go to the polls for the first time in 29 years to elect the members of the five local bodies. | Full Story | |
| May 10 | The 38-day-long siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is lifted and all the 126 people trapped inside head for different destinations. | Full Story |
| More than 180 nations pledge to improve the health of the world's two billion children after a 30-hour final blitz, at the United Nations. (NA) | ||
| May 11 | Diane Pretty whose right to die plea was rejected by the European Court of Human Rights, dies in a hospice near her home in Bedfordshire. | |
| May 12 | The Central Committee of the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party votes against the creation of a Palestinian state, at a meet in Tel Aviv. | |
| May 13 | Moscow reports a breakthrough in talks with the U.S. on new drastic cuts in their nuclear arsenal. | Full Story |
| May 14 | Russia, Kazakshtan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Belarus decide to set up a full-fledged military alliance, reminiscent of the Warsaw Pact, at a summit in Moscow. | Full Story |
| May 15 | The U.N. Security Council approves an overhaul of sanctions against Iraq. | Full Story |
| NATO Foreign Ministers and Defence Ministers approve an agreement accepting Russia into the alliance at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland. | Full Story | |
| The Christian Democrats Ousted from power eight years ago after 70 years of uninterrupted participation in government wins a record 43 seats in parliamentary polls in The Netherlands. | Full Story | |
| May 16 | Jacques Chirac is sworn in as France's President for another five year mandate. | Full Story |
| Tamae Watanabe (63), of Japan becomes the oldest woman to climb Mt. Everest. | ||
| May 19 | The centre-right Fianna Fail of the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern bags 43 per cent of the votes in general elections. | Full Story |
| East Timor declares independence after 450 years of oppressive foreign rule. Xanana Gusmao, takes oath as President. It will be the 190th member of the U.N. | Full Story | |
| Vietnamese vote for a new National Assembly in landmark polls. | Full Story | |
| Ahmed Tejan Kabbah (70) is sworn in Sierra Leone's President again after winning the May 14 polls. | ||
| May 20 | East Timor's President, Xanana Gusmao administers oath to the first sovereign government headed by Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri. | Full Story |
| May 22 | The Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE reiterate commitment to peace in their first direct meeting in seven years, at Killinochchi. | Full Story |
| The Kyrgyzstan Government headed by the Prime Minister, Kurmanbek Bakiev quits. | ||
| The Nepali Premier, Sher Bahadur Deuba dissolves Parliament. | ||
| May 23 | The Nepali Congress expels the Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba for three years for dissolving Parliament without consulting it. | Full Story |
| May 24 | The U.S. and Russia sign a landmark nuclear disarmament treaty (Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty) the first strategic arms reduction pact in nearly 10 years, in Moscow. | Full Story |
| At least 75 people die as a ferry capsizes in river Boleshwar after a storm near Kachubaria ghat in Mathbaria near Khulna district, in Bangladesh. | Full Story | |
| May 25 | 225 persons die after a Chinese Boeing 747-200 en route from Taiwan to Hong Kong crashes into the sea off Penghu islands, also known as the Pescadores. | Full Story |
| 117 persons are killed and 400 injured in a train accident near Tenga town, 40 km from the Mozambique capital, Maputo. | Full Story | |
| May 27 | Alvaro Uribe, a former Governor and Mayor of Medellin, wins Colombia's presidential polls. | Full Story |
| French director, Roman Polanski, wins the Golden Palm Award for his holocaust drama, "The Pianist" at the Cannes film festival | Full Story | |
| May 28 | Russia joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, at a landmark summit in Rome. | Full Story |
| Over 100 Maoists are killed during an attack on an army post in Rolpa district, about 300 km west of Kathmandu. | Full Story | |
| May 29 | Paul Boateng, a Ghanaian by descent becomes the U.K.'s first black Cabinet Minister following his appointment as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. | Full Story |
| May 30 | The European Union grants Russia free market status. | Full Story |
| Algeria's National Liberation Front wins absolute majority in parliamentary polls. | ||
| The U.S. West Asia envoy, William Burns, unveils a "three track" strategy to review peace talks with Israel. | Full Story | |
| Oxana Fedorova (24) of Russia wins the Miss Universe 2002 crown during the pageant in San Juan, Puerto Rico. | Full Story |
JUNE
| Jun 1 | The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, rules out possibility of nuclear war with India. | Full Story |
| All the 15 European Union member-nations ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change. | Full Story | |
| Jun 2 | British women, Ann Daniels (37) and Caroline Hamilton reach North Pole, becoming the first female explorers to walk to both the Poles. The duo walked to the South Pole in January 2000. | |
| Swiss nationals give overwhelming backing to a reform which will decriminalise abortion, in a referendum. | ||
| Jun 4 | Leaders of 16 nations sign the Declaration on Eliminating Terrorism and Promoting Dialogue among Civilisations at the first summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, at the Kazakhstan capital Almaty. | Full Story |
| Britain fetes Queen Elizabath II on the 50th anniversary of her reign. | Full Story | |
| The U.S. admits global warming is man-made in a major shift of policy. Japan ratifies Kyoto protocol. | Full Story | |
| Jun 5 | The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee proposes revival of joint patrolling of LoC, in Almaty. Pakistan says it is "unlikely to work." | Full Story |
| Jun 7 | The leaders of Russia, China and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, sign the Charter of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation making it a full-fledged international body. | Full Story |
| Jun 10 | The U.N. World Food Summit opens in Rome, with a call from the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan urging greater access for poorer farmers to land credit. | Full Story |
| Jun 14 | U.S. astronomers find a distant planet about five times the size of Jupiter circling a sun-like star. | Full Story |
| Hamid Karzai is elected President of Afghanistan in a landslide vote at a historic grand assembly, the loya jirga, in Kabul. | Full Story | |
| Russia leaves the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty, a day after the U.S. formally withdrew from the 1972 ABM Treaty. | Full Story | |
| Eleven persons are killed in a car bomb attack near the U.S. consulate in Karachi. | Full Story | |
| The Czech Republic's ruling Social democrats win legislative polls. | ||
| The Pakistan Foreign Minister, Abdul Sattar quits citing health reasons. | Full Story | |
| Jun 15 | Rolling Stone Mick Jagger (58), the ageing rock n' roll rebel is awarded a knighthood to mark Queen Elizabeth's official birthday. Playwright Harold Pinter and director Jonathan Miller are other celebrities to get the honour. | Full Story |
| Jun 16 | The French President, Jacques Chirac's center-right wins a sweeping parliamentary majority in polls. | Full Story |
| Jun 18 | Nineteen Israelis and a Palestinian suicide bomber are killed in an attack on a bus in Jerusalem. | Full Story |
| The Sri Lankan Parliament votes to repeal the Criminal Defamation Act. | Full Story | |
| Jun 19 | Seventeen Asian Ministers create a new Asia-wide forum - the Thai-promoted Asia Cooperation Dialogue, at the Dusit resort in southern Thailand. | |
| The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf promulgates an ordinance to regulate 'madrassas'. | Full Story | |
| Jun 20 | India and Spain sign an extradition treaty, in Madrid. | Full Story |
| Jun 21 | At least 111 people die after a gas blast rips through the Chengzihe coalmine in Jixi city, northeast China. | |
| The Bangladesh President, Prof. A.Q.M. Badrudouzza Chowdhury, quits just seven months into his five-year tenure after the ruling BNP demands his exit. | Full Story | |
| Jun 22 | More than 500 people are killed as a devastating earthquake rocks eight northwestern Iranian provinces, with the worst hit being Qazvin. | Full Story |
| An 18-year-old girl is gangraped by four persons on the orders of a tribal jury in the remote Punjab village of Meerwala, Pakistan. | ||
| Jun 24 | At least 200 people are killed after a passenger train collides with a goods train in Dodoma in central Tanzania. | Full Story |
| Afghanistan's new transitional Cabinet is sworn in by the interim President, Hamid Karzai | Full Story | |
| Jun 26 | The telecom giant, WorldCom Inc. reveals a $3.8 billion accounting fraud, sending share prices around the globe into a tailspin. | Full Story |
| The Spanish Senate overwhelmingly approves a law allowing the Supreme Court to outlaw political parties found to encourage or support terrorism. | Full Story | |
| The Russian Parliament legalises the sale of land in Russia. | Full Story | |
| Cuba's Parliament votes unanimously to declare the socialist system "irrevocable" and 'capitalism will never return again'. | ||
| Jun 27 | G-8 summit pledges $1 billion in debt relief to the world's 42 poorest countries. | Full Story |
| Jun 29 | Israel destroys the Palestinian municipal and security headquarters in Hebron. | Full Story |
JULY
| Jul 1 | Explosion of fuel in one of the Kursk submarine's torpedoes caused its sinking killing all 118 crew abroad says the Russian probe panel. | |
| Tung Chee-hwa is sworn in for a second five-year term as Hong Kong's Chief Executive in the presence of the Chinese President, Mr. Jiang Zemin. | Full Story | |
| At least 71 persons, including 52 children and teenagers die after a mid-air collision between a Russian passenger jet and a freight plane near Veberlingen, southern Germany. | Full Story | |
| Gen. Augusfo Pinochet is mentally unfit to stand trial rules the Chilean Supreme Court halting his prosecution for dozens of "Caravan of Death" squad political killings during his regime. | ||
| Jul 2 | The American adventurer, Steve Fossett becomes the first man to fly a balloon solo around the world, covering more than 31,000 km aboard the Spirit of Freedom. | Full Story |
| Jul 5 | The Croatian Premier, Ivica Racan steps down following a rift with a coalition partner. | |
| At least 30 persons die in a bomb attack on a crowded market in Algeria, even as it celebrated the 40th anniversary of freedom. | ||
| Jul 6 | Afghanistan's Vice-President, Abdul Qadir brother of the slain legendary rebel commander, Abdul Haq, is assassinated by two gunmen in Kabul. | Full Story |
| The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf issues an order banning any person from holding the office of Prime Minister for more than two terms. | Full Story | |
| Jul 8 | The world must not allow the AIDS crisis in Africa to be repeated in other continents, says Peter Piot, head of the UNAIDS at the Barcelona International AIDS conference. | |
| Jul 9 | African leaders usher in the 53-nation African Union bidding adieu to the Organisation Of African Unity created 39 years ago, at a summit in Durban, South Africa. | Full Story |
| Jul 10 | The Church of England, in a historic move decides to lift the 45-year-old ban on marriages between divorcees where a former spouse of either of the two is still alive. | Full Story |
| Malaysia's Federal Court upholds the former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim's conviction and six-year prison term for corruption. | Full Story | |
| Jul 11 | The Turkish Foreigh Minister, Ismail Cem, quits dealing a harsh blow to the Bulent Ecevit Government's push to stay on in power. | Full Story |
| Chang Sang is named South Korea's first woman Prime Minister and Lee Jun, Defence Minister in a Cabinet shake-up by the President, Kim Dae-jung. | Full Story | |
| Jul 13 | The U.N. Security Council votes to exempt American peacekeepers from the International Criminal Court jurisdiction for a year. | |
| Jul 14 | The French President, Jacques Chirac, narrowly escapes bid on life by a gunman while inspecting a military parade to mark Bastille Day, France's national day, on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris. | Full Story |
| A scale model of a Japanese supersonic jetliner crashes seconds after take-off in Woomera, Australia. | ||
| Jul 15 | An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan, sentences to death Omar Saeed Sheikh for his role in the abduction and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl | Full Story |
| In a blockbuster merger, drug major Pfizer Inc. agrees to buy rival Pharmacia Corp. for $ 60 billion. | Full Story | |
| Jul 16 | The Paraguay president, Luis Gonzalez Macchi, declares emergency following widespread demonstrations against his economic policies. | Full Story |
| Jul 17 | Spanish troops oust Moroccan gendarmes from the disputed Perejil island near Centa, an enclave in the latter's territorial waters. | Full Story |
| Jul 19 | British doctor death, Harold Shipman (jailed in 2000) killed over 215 persons since 1975, confirms an inquiry panel report. | Full Story |
| Jul 20 | The Sudanese Government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, sign an accord to resolve the 19-year-long civil war, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. | Full Story |
| North and South Korea open a landmark inter-Korean air route. | ||
| Jul 22 | Jan Peter Balkenende, is sworn in Dutch Premier. | |
| Salah Shehadeh, a founder and top commander of Hamas is killed in Israeli missile attack on an apartment in Gaza city. | Full Story | |
| Jul 25 | The United Nations Economic and Social Council nod for the Convention Against Torture. | Full Story |
| Jul 26 | An Indonesian court hands down a 15-year jail term for Hutoma Mandala Putra, son of former dictator Suharto for ordering the killing of Supreme Court judge, Syafiuddin Kartasasmita. | Full Story |
| Jul 27 | Sixty six persons die after an Su-27 fighter plane crashes into a huge crowd of spectators watching an air show at the Skniliv aerodrome, in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. | Full Story |
| Jul 29 | Filipino Supreme Court justice, Hilario Davide, Ruth Pfau, a German Catholic man working in Pakistan, Cynthia Maung, a South Korean monk and Sandeep Pandey, an Indian social activist win the Ramon Magsaysay awards. | Full Story |
AUGUST
| Aug. 1 | The U.S. and the ASEAN sign a joint declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism, in the Brunei capital, Bandar Seri Begawan. | |
| Aug. 3 | Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former Pakistan Premier, Nawaz Sharif, is elected president of the Pakistan Muslim League. | Full Story |
| Aug. 4 | Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is elected Bolivian President and Carlos Mesa the Vice-President by the Congress. | |
| Aug. 6 | Surgeons separate 1-year-old conjoined Guatemalan twins after a 22 hour $1.5 million operation at a Los Angeles hospital. | Full Story |
| Aug. 7 | Alvaro Uribe is sworn in Colombian President, in Parliament in Bogota. | |
| Aug. 10 | Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly amends statute to allow direct presidential polls and to kick the military out of Parliament. | Full Story |
| Aug. 13 | Augustin Bizimungu, a key figure in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, is captured by Angolan authorities. | |
| Aug. 14 | A Jakarta human rights court convicts Abilio Soares, the last Governor of East Timor of massacres and slaps a three-year sentence. | |
| Aug. 16 | Abu Nidal, leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, is shot dead in his Baghdad house. | |
| Aug. 19 | Over 115 persons, mostly Russian servicemen die as their helicopter crashes in Chechnya. | Full Story |
| Aug. 21 | The Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf proclaims himself as the President and Chief of the Army till 2007. | Full Story |
| Aug. 22 | Russia and China announce a strategic entente to fight terrorism after a meeting between the two nations Premiers, in Shanghai. | Full Story |
| Aug. 25 | Irans Parliament approves a Bill giving women equal right for divorce. | |
| Aug. 26 | Unite to overcome global apartheid in the path towards sustainable development, the South African President, Thabo Mbeki tells delegates at the opening of the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development, in Johannesburg. | |
| Aug. 27 | The Spanish Parliament votes to outlaw the Basque separatist organisation ETAs political wing, the Batasuna party. | Full Story |
| Aug. 28 | South Koreas Parliament rejects the President, Kim Dae-Jung's Prime Ministerial nominee the second time in a month, Chang Dae-Whan. | |
| Aug. 30 | The Pakistan poll panel rejects the former Premier, Benazir Bhutto's nomination to contest the October 10 polls, in view of her conviction by an accountability court. | Full Story |
| The Kenyan President, Daniel Arap Moi, dismisses his Vice-President, George Saitoti for spearheading a mutiny in the Cabinet. | ||
| Aug. 31 | A Pak. anti-terrorism court sentences six men to death for gangraping a woman in the Punjab province. | Full Story |
SEPTEMBER
| Sep 1 | At least 42 people die after Typhoon Rusa, the most powerful to hit South Korea in 40 years wreaks havoc. | |
| Israel and Jordan announce a $1 billion 290 km pipeline project to save the Dead Sea bordering the two nations, on the sidelines of the Earth Summit, in Johannesburg. | ||
| Sep 4 | The Earth Summit adopts a controversial action plan on poverty and the environment. Developing nations thwart move to impose trade barriers. Eco-labelling criteria deleted from declaration. | |
| The Indonesia Speaker, Akbar Tandjung is convicted for graft and sentenced to three years in jail. | Full Story | |
| Sep 5 | The Sri Lankan Government lifts ban on the LTTE. | Full Story |
| The Afghanistan President, Hamid Karzai survives a bid on his life as a security guard fires at his car in Kandahar. | Full Story | |
| Prof. Iajuddin Ahmed is elected the 18th President of Bangladesh. | Full Story | |
| Israeli police detonate a 600 kg car bomb, one of the largest ever discovered averting a catastrophe. | ||
| Sep 8 | Forty policemen are killed by Maoists in Nepal's Sindhuli district. | Full Story |
| Sep 9 | The Austrian Government led by Chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel quits. | |
| Maoist rebels kill 85 security personnel in Nepal in a major offensive. | Full Story | |
| At least 183 civilians are slain by rebels fighting the Burmodian army. | ||
| Sep 11 | "We will not give up, the war will continue, long and hard and in distant lands," says the U.S. President, George Bush at Pentagon as America commemorates victims of Sept. 11, 2001. | Full Story |
| Switzerland becomes the 190th member of the U.N., after remaining neutral for 57 years. | ||
| Pakistan police nab 12 suspected Al-Qaeda members, including Ramzi Binalshibh, wanted by the U.S. for the 9/11 attacks, in a raid on an apartment in Karachi. | Full Story | |
| Sep 12 | Brazilian diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mello, takes over as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. | |
| U.S. President, George Bush vows to continue war on terror. | Full Story | |
| Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding or will it be irrelevant?'' asks the U.S. President, George Bush addressing the General Assembly and urges the world body to confront Iraq. | Full Story | |
| North and South Korea sign a pact on a rail-and-road link across the demilitarised zone. | Full Story | |
| Sep 13 | "Pakistan is indulging in nuclear blackmail following India's efforts to stamp out cross-border terrorism," says the Prime Minister, A. B. Vajpayee in his address at the 57th U.N. General Assembly session. | Full Story |
| Sep 15 | Social Democratic Party led by the Swedish Prime Minister, Goeran Persson sweeps national elections. | |
| The Opposition Together for Macedonia coalition led by the former communist, Branko Crvenkovski, wins general elections. | ||
| Sep 16 | Colombo-LTTE direct talks begin at the Sattahip naval base in Thailand. | Full Story |
| Sep 17 | Iraq agrees to unconditional weapons inspections by U.N. inspectors. | Full Story |
| Sep 18 | The LTTE says it is ready to accept "autonomy and self-governance" in northern and eastern Sri Lanka and asserts separation only the last resort, at the Sattaip peace talks. | Full Story |
| Work on the 1,760 km pipeline linking Azerbaijan's oil terminal to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan lan begins in Sangachal, 40 km south of Baku. | ||
| Koreas begin work on rail, road links. | Full Story | |
| Sep 19 | The former military leader, Gen. Robert Guei dies after soldiers foil an attempted coup in the Ivory Coast. | |
| Sep 20 | Underworld don and an accused in the 1993 Bombay serial blasts case, Abu Salem is arrested in the Portuguese capital Lisbon. | Full Story |
| Over 100 people die after a huge glacier slides down the Caucasus mountain range tearing 20 km through rural communities near Karmadon village in Russia's North Ossetia region. | ||
| Sep 22 | Israeli troops blow up buildings in the compound of the PA president, Yasser Arafat in the West Bank town of Ramallah in retaliation for a Tel Aviv bus bombing that killed six persons. | Full Story |
| Sep 23 | The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, earns a second term with a wafer thin majority, defeating Chrisitan Democrat leader Edmund Stoiber. | Full Story |
| Israel calls off demolitions in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's West Bank office compound. | Full Story | |
| Irrational political motivations are hindering our efforts for closer economic integration within SAARC, Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee said after talks with the Maldives President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. | Full Story | |
| Sep 24 | Miss Universe, Russia's Oxana Fedorova loses title to Miss Panama, Justine Pastek | Full Story |
| Sep 25 | Pakistani gunmen kill seven persons during a raid on a Christian NGO in Karachi. | Full Story |
| Sep 26 | Dhaka court slaps seven years RI on ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia | Full Story |
| A Myanmar special court sentences to death former son in law and three grandsons of former dictator Ne Win for plotting to overthrow government. Ne Win and daughter placed under house arrest | ||
| UN prosecutors open genocide case against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for his role in the Croation and Bosnian wars from 1991-95. | ||
| Sep 27 | Malaysia, India sign draft extradition treaty | Full Story |
| Malaysian police nab Wan Min Wan Mat, accused of having Al Qaeda ties and plotting to bomb the US embassy in Singapore | ||
| Sep 28 | Over 700 persons die as an overcrowded ferry crossing from southern to northern Senegal sinks in a fierce storm | Full Story |
| East Timor joins UN as 191st member | Full Story | |
| Iraq rejects U.N. draft proposal demanding that it should surrender all its weapons within a month or face military action. | Full Story | |
| Former British Prime Minister, John Major, admits to affair with party colleague and junior Minister in the Margaret Thatcher government, Edwina Currie | Full Story | |
| Sep 30 | Ruth Dreifuss, the first woman and the first ever Jew to serve as Switzerland President announces her resignation |
OCTOBER
| Oct 1 | Greece bans smoking in public places | |
| Oct 2 | Iraq, U.N. agree on inspection and Baghdad rejects new draft resolution empowering use of force under consideration. | |
| Scientists unravel the genetic map of the mosquito and the malaria parasite. | Full Story | |
| Oct 4 | Nepal's King Gyanendra sacks the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his Cabinet, and declares himself the interim executive head of the Himalayan Kingdom. | Full Story |
| Dennis Donaldson, a senior Sinn Fein official allegedly an IRA 'mole' in the provincial assembly offices is held worsening the Irish crisis. | ||
| Oct 5 | John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban, is sentenced to 20 years in jail by the District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. | Full Story |
| South Korea's National Assembly confirms the appointment of Kim Suk-Soo as Prime Minister. | ||
| Aung San Suu Kyi, of Myanmar is named laureate of the UNSECO - Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence. | Full Story | |
| Oct 6 | The Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat designates East Jerusalem as the capital. Oct 6 Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, a Spanish priest and founder of Opus Dei, a conservative church group is canonised. | |
| Nationalists make strong gains in Bosnia's first self-organised polls since the 1992-95 war. | ||
| Oct 7 | Thirteen Palestinians die and over 110 are injured as a missile slams into a large crowd, during a four-hour raid by the Israeli army on Khan Younnis town, in Gaza Strip. | |
| Sydney Brenner and Sir John Sulston of Britian and Robert Horvitz of the U.S. share the 2002 Nobel Medicine for work on how genes affect organs and cell deaths | ||
| No question of handing over Kashmir to Pakistan. Kashmir is not a Hindu-Muslim issue, says the Prime Minister, in the Cyprus capital, Nicosia. | Full Story | |
| Oct 8 | "India has proved to be a model of integration and tolerance and its democratic credentials command universal respect", says the Cypriot President, Glafcos Clerides, in Nicosia. | Full Story |
| The Hubble telescope sights a new icy planet, Quaoar 10.8 billion km from earth. | ||
| Raymond Davis Jr. and Riccardo Giacconi of the U.S. and Masatoshi Koshiba of Japan win the 2002 Physics Nobel for proving why the sun shines. | Full Story | |
| Oct 9 | Shock therapy approach not possible. Our economic reform has a human face, says the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee at the Third India - EU Business Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark. | Full Story |
| John Fenn of the U.S., Japan's Koichi Tanaka and Kurt Wuethrich of Switzerland win the Chemistry Nobel; Americans Danniel Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith win the Economics Nobel. | Full Story | |
| Oct 10 | The U.S. House of Representatives approves the Iraq resolution authorising the use of force by the President. | Full Story |
| Imre Kertesz (72), a Hungarian who survived Auschwitz, wins the Nobel Literature Prize for his 1975 novel, 'Sorstalansay' ('Fateless'). | ||
| Mata Amrithanandamayi is presented the Gandhi-King award for non-violence, at the U.N. General Assembly. | Full Story | |
| Oct 11 | "The days of Iraq acting as an outlaw state are coming to an end," says the U.S. President, George Bush after getting the Senate nod for action. | Full Story |
| A pro-Taliban coalition, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, forges ahead in Pak. polls. | Full Story | |
| The former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter (78) is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for upholding democracy and human rights. | Full Story | |
| Lokendra Bahadur Chand is appointed head of the interim Nepal Government. | Full Story | |
| Oct 12 | The British Premier, Tony Blair endorses India's stand on cross-border terrorism after talks with his visiting Indian counterpart, A.B. Vajpayee. | Full Story |
| Oct 13 | At least 180 persons, most of them tourists, are killed in a car bomb blast at a beach side nightclub at Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia. | Full Story |
| Oct 15 | The British Government suspends the Northern Ireland Government for an indefinite period. | Full Story |
| Oct 16 | The U.S. President, George Bush signs into law the Iraq resolution. | Full Story |
| Oct 17 | The Dutch Government led by Jan Peter Balkenende, resigns. | Full Story |
| Pyongyang 'admits' to secret nuclear weapons programme. | Full Story | |
| Oct 20 | Irish voters say yes to EU expansion, in a referendum called to approve the Nice Treaty. | Full Story |
| Oct 23 | Yann Martel (27) from Montreal, wins the `Booker Man' prize for his novel, "Life of Pi". | Full Story |
| Chechen rebels take 800 hostage in a Moscow theatre. | Full Story | |
| Oct 24 | Bahrainis cast vote in the first parliamentary polls being held after three decades. Women get voting rights for the first time. | |
| Oct 25 | Kenyan Parliament is dissolved. | |
| Oct 26 | Russian commandos storm theatre, kill 50 gunmen and rescue hostages after a 57-hour standoff. At least 118 people also get killed. | Full Story |
| Oct 27 | Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is elected Brazil's first leftist President, with a record 52 million votes. | |
| Oct 30 | The Israeli Labour-Likud coalition collapses as the Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres and the Defence Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer quit. | |
| Oct 31 | A Sri Lankan court sentences the LTTE chief, V. Prabakaran to 200 years RI for the Central Bank bombing in 1996, even as the second phase of peace talks get under way in Thailand. | Full Story |
NOVEMBER
| Nov 01 | Sri Lanka, LTTE reach agreement on joint task force for North East at talks in Nakorn Pathom, Thailand. | Full Story |
| Nov 02 | A Federal Judge approves Microsoft deal with the U.S. Justice Department, brushing aside objections from nine states. | Full Story |
| Nov 05 | Turkey's pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party wins landslide victory in polls to Parliament. | Full Story |
| Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee moots an ASEAN-India free trade area at the inaugural of the ASEAN summit in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. | Full Story | |
| Nov 06 | Republicans gain full control of the U.S. Congress in midterm polls. | Full Story |
| India announces a $10 million Line of Credit each for Cambodia and Laos. | Full Story | |
| Nov 08 | The Communist Party of China should move away from its glasshouse and onto a new political turf says the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin at the opening session of the 16th National Congress, in Beijing. | Full Story |
| Gibraltar rejects British-Spain joint sovereignty, in a referendum. | ||
| The U.N. Secretary Council votes on a tough new Iraq resolution that warns Saddam Hussein to disarm or face serious consequences. | Full Story | |
| Nov 10 | Iranian Parliament gives the President, Mohammad Khatami, the right to suspend rulings by the judiciary. | |
| Nov 13 | Iraq accepts U.N. resolution on weapons inspections. | Full Story |
| Nov 14 | The Chinese President, Jiang Zamin, the Premier, Zhu Rongji and party veteran, Li Peng bid adieu to active politics on the last day of the party Congress. | Full Story |
| The WTO Trade Ministers' meeting in Sydney agrees on a plan to give the world's poorest nations access to affordable medicines. | ||
| Nov 15 | Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf revives the 1973 consitution, suspended after the October 1999, coup "except a few articles". | Full Story |
| The Vice-President, Hu Jintao, is elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. | Full Story | |
| Nov 16 | Pervez Musharraf is sworn in Pakistan President for five more years, till November 16, 2007. | Full Story |
| Abdullah Gul is named Turkey's Prime Minister. | ||
| Nov 18 | U.N. weapons inspectors arrive in Baghdad. | Full Story |
| Nov 19 | Chaudhry Amir Hussain of the Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam is elected Pakistan Speaker. | Full Story |
| An oil tanker, Prestige with 77,000 tonnes of oil spills threatening ecological disaster, off the Northwest coast of Spain and Portugal. | Full Story | |
| Russia decides to introduce religious education in schools for the first time since the Tsars. | ||
| Nov 20 | The U.S. Senate passes the Homeland Security Bill. | Full Story |
| In a historic eastward shift, NATO agrees to expand membership and invites seven ex-communist countries under its security umbrella, at a summit in Prague. | Full Story | |
| Nov 21 | A key suspect in the Oct. 12 Bali blasts, Imam Samndra is held in the port of Merak. | |
| A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 11 persons by blowing himself upon a Jerusalem city bus packed with students and soldiers. | ||
| Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali is elected Pakistan Prime Minister. | Full Story | |
| Twenty five persons die and 1,000 houses are destroyed as a deadly quake rocks the Gilgit region in Pakistan. | ||
| Nov 23 | Pakistani President, Pevez Musharraf swears in a 21-member Cabinet headed by Jamali. Khurshid Mehmood Qasoori is the new Foreign Minister. Rao Sikander Iqbal gets Defence and Faisal Saleh Hayat, Interior portfolios. | Full Story |
| Nov 24 | Lucio Gutierrez, a former army colonel wins Ecuador presidential polls. | |
| Chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel and his People's Party emerge victors in Austrian parliamentary polls. | ||
| Nov 27 | U.N. weapons inspectors begin search in Iraq. | Full Story |
| The U.S. President, Bush appoints former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger to head probe panel on Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. | Full Story | |
| Ready to consider regional self-rule as an alternative to Tamil Eelam, says the LTTE leader, V. Prabakaran. | Full Story | |
| Nov 28 | Fourteen persons die after suicide bombers blow up a hotel full of Israelis in Kikambala, near Mombasa in Kenya. Missiles are fired at an Israeli plane. | Full Story |
DECEMBER
| Dec 1 | Forty-seven persons die after fire sweeps through a nightclub in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. | |
| Janez Drnovsek, Premier since 1992 wins the Slovenian presidential polls. | ||
| Dec 2 | "China and Russia will be good neighbours, friends and partners forever," says the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin after a summit with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Singapore. | Full Story |
| Dec 5 | Sri Lankan Govt., LTTE agree on federal structure after talks in Oslo. | Full Story |
| Dec 7 | Miss Turkey, Azra Akin (21), is crowned Miss World at a pageant, in London. | |
| Fifteen persons are killed and 200 injured in blasts at four cinemas in Bangladesh's Mymensingh district. | Full Story | |
| Dec 8 | Anees Ibrahim Kaskar, one of the key accused in the 1993 Bombay serial blasts and younger brother of Dawood Ibrahim, is arrested in Dubai. | Full Story |
| Dec 9 | The Indonesian Government and Aceh rebels sign a landmark accord to end the 26-year separatist war. | |
| Venezuelan army takes over oil delivery as a strike to make the President, Hugo Chavez quit, enters the second week. | ||
| The U.N. Security Council lifts nine-year-old sanctions against Angola's UNITA movement. | ||
| Dec 10 | The former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter (78), is presented with the Nobel Peace Prize, in Oslo. | |
| Dec 11 | The first upgraded Ariane-5 rocket explodes soon after blastoff from French Guyana sending two satellites plunging into the Atlantic Ocean in a $600 million space disaster. | |
| North Korean ship carrying Scud missiles and bound for Yemen is intercepted and seized in the Arabian Sea. | Full Story | |
| Dec 13 | EU throws open its doors to 10 new countries, in a summit at Copenhagen. | Full Story |
| The Malaysian High Courts rejects the Indian Government's plea for the extradition of the Italian businessman, Ottavio Quattrocchi, in the Bofors pay off case. | Full Story | |
| Chinese scientists publish the world's first complete genome map of the Indica Rice. | Full Story | |
| Dec 14 | Henry Kissinger quits as chairman of the panel to probe the 9/11 attack. | Full Story |
| Pakistan frees Masood Azhar, chief of the banned militant group, Jaish-e-Mohammad. | Full Story | |
| Dec 15 | The Chechen Warlord, Salman Raduyev dies in prison serving a life sentence for terrorism and murder. | |
| US President, George W. Bush authorises the CIA to track down and kill terrorist leaders | Full Story | |
| Dec 16 | Sri Lankan peace talks move towards the more difficult phase with the LTTE hardening its stance. | Full Story |
| Dec 18 | Pakistan rules out Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status for India | Full Story |
| Dec 19 | Roh Moo-hyun of the New Millennium Party wins South Korean presidential election and becomes the country's 16th head of State. | Full Story |
| Dec 20 | Pope John Paul II approves a miracle attributed to Mother Teresa, thus bringing the Roman Catholic nun closer to sainthood. | Full Story |
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