International Events in April 2002

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.
Events 2002