Events in April 2005
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Apr. 1
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India and Mauritius agree to set up a team to negotiate a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement. |
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The former Nepal Prime Minister, Girija Prasad Koirala (82), and 258 Nepali Congress activists are freed. |
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Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF wins the parliamentary polls. |
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Apr. 2
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Pope John Paul II (84), at the helm since October 16, 1978 and the first non-Italian pontiff in four-and-a-half centuries dies in his apartments in the Vatican two days after suffering heart failure. |
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Apr. 3
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The Iraqi Transitional National Assembly chooses Hajim al-Hassani as the Parliament Speaker. Hussain al-Shahristani is elected the Deputy Speaker, while Aref Taifour is named Second Deputy Speaker. |
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Apr. 4
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Eight militants are killed by Saudi forces after a 24-hour gunbattle in the northern town of Al-Ras in the conservative Qassim province. |
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TOPOFF 3, a $16 million anti-terrorism drill gets under way in the U.S. with a mock biological attack in New Jersey and a simulated chemical weapons explosion in Connecticut. |
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Apr. 5
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The Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao and the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, sign a Treaty of Friendship after talks in Islamabad. Twentyone more agreements are inked. Pakistan launches the joint promotion of JF-17 fighter aircraft with China. |
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Top fugitives, Abdulkarim al-Mejjati and Sund Homoud al-Oteibi are killed in a raging gunbattle by Sandi Arabian forces. |
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The AP wins its 48th Pulitzer for breaking news photography for pictures of bloody combat in Iraqi cities. |
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Apr. 6
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China will never pose threat to any country, never seek hegemony, says the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, at the fourth Asia Cooperative Dialogue meeting in Islamabad. |
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Kurdish leader, Jalal Jalabani, is chosen Iraqi President. Ghazi Al Yawer and Adel Abdul Mahdi are named Vice-Presidents. |
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The Ivory Coast Government, rebels and Opposition leaders reach a pact in the South African capital Pretoria. |
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The way forward lies in building political support for democratic aims, says the Sinn Fein leader, Jerry Adams in a dramatic speech in west Belfast directed at Irish Republican Army members. |
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Apr. 7
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Jalal Talabani is sworn in Iraqi President making him the first non-Arab head of an Arab nation. Shia leader Ibrahim Jaafari is nominated Prime Minister. |
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Over 100 Maoist rebels are killed after a major battle in Khara village in Nepal’s Rukum district. |
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British intelligence chiefs admit that claims on former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussien’s weapons of mass destruction are wrong and unsubstantiated. |
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Britain’s last major carmaker MG Rover collapses after the Government refuses a $187.9 million loan. |
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Apr. 8
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Pope John Paul II, the “People’s Pope” or the “Travelling Pope”, is laid to rest in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, in Vatican. |
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Thirtyeight students are killed as a truck crashes on the outskirts of Kawambwa town in Zambia. |
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Apr. 9
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Britain’s Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles are married at a brief civil ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor. |
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Apr. 11
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Jerusalem honours Major Karl Plagge German engineer for an elaborate deception that helped save 250 Jews from the Nazis. |
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Apr. 12
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The Canadian Parliament supports call for a public probe in the Kanishka bombing case. |
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France’s Parliament passes a right-to-die law empowering the terminally ill to refuse treatment but does not legalise euthanasia. |
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Apr. 13
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A U.S. Federal judge approves a $ 21.9 million award to heirs of two wealthy families in a case against Swiss banks accused of selling out to the Nazis. |
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Apr. 14
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Asian countries destroy stocks of a deadly flu strain that was sent mistakenly by a U.S. company on April 8. |
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The U.S. Senate approves Michael D. Griffin as NASA chief. |
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Eighteen persons, many of them kids, are killed in a double suicide car bombing in Baghdad. |
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Kangkang (20), a giant panda undergoes a two-and-a-half hour surgery to mend a broken back at the Animal Experimental Centre of the Xijing Hospital in Xian, China. |
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Apr. 15
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The Ecuador President, Lucio Gutierrez declares emergency, dissolves the Supreme Court. |
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At least 20 persons, including 10 children are killed as a fire destroys the six-storey Paris Opera Hotel in the French capital. |
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Pro-Syrian lawmaker, Najib Mikate, is named Lebanon Premier two days after Prime Minister designate, Omar Karami quits over failure at government formation. |
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NASA’s automated, self-docking DART spacecraft (Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology) suffers a glitch and the mission is scrapped. |
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Apr. 16
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Chinese stage protests in major cities against Japan’s attempt to “distort” its wartime past, through a history textbook. |
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Even out pace of growth or face market stock, the IMF Managing Director, Rodrigo Rato, warns major powers at the G-7 summit in Washington. |
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Apr. 17
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Turkish Cypriots elect Mehmet Ali Talat as their leader, ending decades of hawkish rule by Rauf Denktash. |
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Take “correct view” of the Japanese “history of invasion” during World War II, Beijing tells Tokyo following the Foreign Ministers meeting in the Chinese capital. |
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Apr. 18
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Pakistan launches its first locally designed car 800 cc Revo in Karachi. |
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Apr. 19
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Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany is elected the 265th Pope and is to be known as Benedict XVI. |
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The Axum obelisk a 176 tonne, 3rd century BC granite funeral stele, taken away from Ethiopia by the fascist troops in 1937 is returned. |
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Lebanon Prime Minister designate, Najib Mikate forms a new Government. |
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Captain Adolfo Scilingo of Argentina is jailed for 640 years by the national court in Madrid for throwing 30 prisoners to death from planes above the Atlantic. |
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Apr. 20
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The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, resigns to quell revolt by key allies after a drubbing in regional polls. |
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Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, escapes bid on life after a car bomb explodes near his convoy in Baghdad. |
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Bahraini lawmaker Alees Samaan, a Christian becomes the first woman in the Arab world to chair a Parliament session. |
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Apr. 21
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Russia and the NATO sign the Status of Forces Agreement facilitating joint military training at a meeting in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. |
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Thirty Vietnamese war veterans from Hanoi are killed as their bus bound for Ho Chi Minh city falls into a ravine while traversing the Lo So peak. |
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The Ecuadoran Senate sacks the President, Lucio Gutierrez, and swears in Vice-President, Alfredo Palacio, to replace him. |
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Apr. 22
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The Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, apologises for Tokyo’s wartime aggression at the Asian-African summit in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. |
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Zacarias Moussaoui (36), pleads guilty to plotting a second wave attack following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. at a federal court in Alexandria. |
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Europe’s biggest trial against suspected members of the Al-Qaeda network opens in the Spanish capital Madrid. |
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Four top U.S. army officers are cleared in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse in Baghdad by the Stanley Green probe report. |
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Apr. 23
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Asia and Africa should evolve a “framework” and end their anomalous dependence on the West to meet their energy needs, says the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in his address to the Asian-African summit in Jakarta. |
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Japan has deeply hurt Asian people by breaking commitment on certain “historical issues”, says the Chinese President, Hu Jintao after talks with the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi in Jakarta. |
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The former British Prime Minister, John Major is awarded a knighthood. |
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India reverses decision to suspend arms sales to Nepal. |
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Apr. 24
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Leaders from more than 100 countries sign a declaration on the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership in Bandung. Need of the hour is “horizontal” globalisation, says the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, at the Golden Jubilee meeting of the 1955 meet at Bandung’s Gedung Merdeka (Freedom Building). |
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Pope Benedict XVI takes on the mantle of supreme commander of the Roman Catholic Church at a three-hour ceremony in Vatican City. |
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Togolese people vote in presidential polls. |
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After 29 years, Syria withdraws troops from Lebanon. |
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Apr. 25
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At least 53 persons are killed and 400 injured as a commuter train derails and smashes into an apartment in Amagasaki, near Osaka in western Japan. |
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Jiri Paroubek is appointed Czech Premier to replace Stanislav Gross who quits due to a scandal over the financing of his luxury apartment. |
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The U.S. ends the hunt for Weapons of Mass Destruction whose purported presence formed the basis for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. |
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Apr. 26
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The last batch of Syrian troops crosses the Lebanese border back home after a farewell parade in Beqa’a valley. |
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The Togo Electoral Commission announces victory of Faure Gnassingbe in the presidential polls. |
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The Kuomintang Chairman and Taiwan’s Opposition leader, Lien Chan, arrives in Nanjing, China on an eight-day visit. |
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The South African Government confers the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo its highest honour for foreign nationals on Jawaharlal Nehru. |
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Apr. 27
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The ousted Nepal Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, is arrested on graft charges at his residence. |
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Thirtyfive persons are killed after a bus collides with a train near Polgahawela, 80 km from the Sri Lankan capital Colombo. |
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The $282 million, Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft takes off on its maiden flight from Blagngc, a suburbs of Toulouse in southwest France. |
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Iraqi MPs approve a 37-member Cabinet. |
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Apr. 29
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The Chinese President, Hu Jintao and leader of Taiwan’s Opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Lien Chan hold a historic meeting in Beijing for talks aimed at “revitalising the Chinese nation.” They agree to work for a ‘peace accord.’ |
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The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez and the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, strike an oil deal and trade pact, Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas trade agreement (ALBA), in Havana. |
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At least 23 Iraqis are killed and 80 wounded as militants carry out 10 car bombings in and around Baghdad. |
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The U.N. approves the setting up of a tribunal to try Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide. |
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Apr. 30
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Vietnam celebrates 30th anniversary of Communists’ victory over the Saigon government backed by the U.S. |
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King Gyanendra lifts emergency in Nepal. |
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Pius Langa is named South Africa’s first black Chief Justice. |
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Events 2005
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
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