Portal:Current events/April 2005

November 14, 2024 (2024-11-14) (Thursday)

April 11 2005

• Yad Vashem bestow the honour of "Righteous Among the Nations" posthumously upon a Nazi Major, Karl Plagge. Plagge saved around 1,200 Jews 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 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)
• President George W. Bush praises the Israeli P.M., 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 Askar Akayev. (Fox News)
• Spring 2005 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)
• In Australia, 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)
• In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a 9-story factory building collapses; 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

April 10 2005

• Earthquake of 6.7 Richter scale occurs near Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia at 10:18 UTC. (BBC)
• The Mainland Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan) bans reporters from the People's Daily and Xinhua from Taiwan saying the mainland's state-controlled media "tried to present their people with a distorted image of Taiwan". (BBC)
• Over 20,000 Lebanese women, Children and infirm begin the United We Run fun-run. The event began with Rafik Hariri's sister releasing fifty white pigeons and calling for Lebanese unity.
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pushed for cooperation between India and the PRC to dominate high-tech industries. Urging the historical rivals to forget past tension, Wen said cooperation "will signify the coming of the Asian century of the IT industry" (ABC News)
• Former South African President FW de Klerk has called for a new political party to be set up following the dissolution of the New National Party. (BBC)
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
  • Israel arrests Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef on his return home after he illegally makes his way from Ramallah to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to deliver a sermon. (UPI) (Haaretz)
  • A large security operation in Jerusalem appears to have prevented Israeli Zionist extremists from staging a rally at the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif. The rally was to be in opposition to the proposed Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip. The police are also able to quell a stone-throwing Arab counter-demonstration. (BBC) (Haaretz)
  • Israeli Zionist extremists block a road near Tel Aviv during rush hour. Protesting the proposed Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip, they set tires alight and sit down on the road. Several are arrested and police are able to end the blockade within minutes. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • Militant Palestinian extremists again fire mortars at settlements in the Gaza Strip. They are believed to have been fired by Islamic Jihad. (Al Jazeera)
  • Al Jazeera states that Palestinian sources report that Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has apologised to Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Nasr Yusuf for the deaths of 3 Palestinian teenagers on Saturday, April 9. (Al Jazeera)
• US spammer Jeremy Jaynes is sentenced for nine years in prison. The sentence is suspended until further appeals (Spamfo) (E-Commerce News) (CNN)
• 6.1 Richter scale earthquake strikes Tokyo. There are no reports of serious damages (Japan Times) (Reuters)
• British carmaker MG Rover receives a loan of £6.5 million from the British government (BBC) (Bloomberg) (Financial Times)
• Spanish police seizes an ETA cache of explosives in Hernani, near San Sebastián (EITB) (Reuters AlertNet)
• In Italy, deputy prime minister Marco Follini calls for an early general election after the centre-right coalition of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi lost in in a regional ballot last week (AGI) (ITH)
• In Mexico, Raul Gibb Guerrero, editor of La Opinion newspaper who covered mexican drug cartels is killed (Prensa Latina) (Reuters AlertNet) (San Diego Tribune)
• Haitian police team and UN peacekeepers kill a prominent gang leader Grenn Sonnen (Jean Anthony Rene) and five of his supporters in a shootout (Haiti Action Committee) (Reuters)
• Tiger Woods wins his fourth U.S. Masters golf tournament in a sudden-death playoff.

April 9 2005

• 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)
• 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)(Wikipedia ongoing event)
• 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), (RTÉ), (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:
  • 15 Iraqi soldiers have been killed following an insurgent attack near the town of Latifiya. (BBC)
  • Tens of thousands of Iraqis have staged an Anti-American protest in Firdus Square, where Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled on 9 April 2003. (BBC)
• Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf says that despite his plans to go to New Delhi to watch the last Indo-Pak cricket ODI, Kashmir, and not cricket, was on top of his agenda. (Hindu)
• Calling for the abolition of death penalty, the Dalai Lama, currently on a visit to Japan, says criminals must be treated with compassion and made to feel part of the society. (Peninsula On-Line)

April 8 2005

• The Funeral of Pope John Paul II takes place. (BBC)
• Eric Rudolph agrees to plead guilty to four bombings including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in exchange for four life sentences. (AP/Yahoo! News)
• Islamic insurgents kill 14 people in an attack outside Algiers, trapping the victims at a fake roadblock, then killing them and burning their vehicles. (AP\Ynet News)
• A suicide bomber kills two foreign tourists in a Cairo market and injures a further score of bystanders. A group called "Islamic Pride Brigades" claims responsibility. (Haaretz), (BBC)
• Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz announces that private homes in the Gaza strip settlements will not be demolished after the disengagement plan. Religious structures such as synagogues, Mikveh baths and cemeteries will be dismantled and transferred inside the "Green line". (Haaretz), Ynet News
• Scientists at Manchester's Christie Hospital claim a cure for cancer could be available in 5 years. (BBC)
• In an interview with the Financial Times, a Hezbollah leader announces that the group would be willing to discuss potential disarmament after Israel withdraws from the Shebaa Farms. Lebanon and Syria maintain that the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese territory, while the rest of the world community insists that the farms are part of the Golan Heights, thus part of Syrian territory occupied by Israel. (Financial Times), (Haaretz)
• Presidential elections begin in Djibouti. Incumbent president Ismail Omar Guelleh is the only candidate (BBC)

April 7 2005

• 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:
  • A Palestinian-fired Qassam rocket hits a cemetery in the Israeli town of Sderot, causing minimal damage and no injuries. Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz says Israel will not let it pass and criticises the PA's lack of action. This is the first rocket fired inside the "Green line" since late January.(Haaretz)
  • Two Jews are arrested on suspicion of planting fake bombs in Jerusalem in an attempt to disrupt the planned Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
  • Environmental groups condemn a plan by Israel to relocate Israeli settlers from Gaza to the Nitzanim nature reserve in southern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon supports the request of some settlers to relocate the entire Gush Katif to the Nitzanim area and orders experts to start checking this issue thoroughly. Nitzanim is home to endangered turtles and around 100 gazelle. (BBC), (Haaretz)
• 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 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)
• Switzerland cabinet intends to outlaw English-sounding names of government departments (SwissInfo)
• 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 arrests 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

April 6 2005

• 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)
• 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 Chinook helicopter of the U.S. military 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)
• In Togo, police clashes with demonstrations of the opposition party the Union of Forces for Change, that demands that presidential elections should be postponed so that they would have more time for campaigning (Reuters AlertNet) (Republic of Togo)
• In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a 3-2 vote, adopts a set of rules designed to create a National Market System -- critics complain that the NMS rules favor the New York Stock Exchange over competitors. SEC website

April 5 2005

• The government of South Korea complains to the Japanese government about a revised set of official Japanese history schoolbooks. The complaint alleges the textbooks whitewash Japan's "imperialist" past, and question Korean sovereignty of the disputed Liancourt Rocks. (Korea Herald) (Japan Times)
• Tony Blair calls the General Election in the United Kingdom for 5 May 2005 on the same day as the local elections. (BBC)
• In Guatemala, five politicians are convicted of racial discrimination for taunts hurled at Rigoberta Menchú. (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• In Italy, preliminary results of regional elections show heavy losses for the parties in Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition. (Bloomberg) (Reuters) (BBC)
• US newscaster Peter Jennings states that he has lung cancer and will begin chemotherapy. (New York Times)
• Rwandan official Aloys Mutabingwa, a representative at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, says that 100 Rwandans connected to the Rwandan genocide are "comfortably living in France". (BBC)
• In India, Mumbai police investigate a fire in which 21 circus animals died. They suspect that the Russian Circus on Ice intentionally abandoned the animals. (The Hindu) (Calcutta Telegraph) (Mumbai Newsline) (BBC)
• In Egypt, thousands of university student demonstrate for reform. (Middle East Online) (BBC)
• In Nigeria, senate speaker Adolphus Wabara resigns because of accusations that he took a large bribe from the education minister. (AllAfrica) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)

April 4 2005

• 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)
• An UNDP report, the third Arab Human Development Report criticizes the United States for their actions in the Middle East, particulary 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 Friday morning (local time) 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, 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:
  • Aid groups are accused of "squandering" large amounts of Afghan aid money. (Reuters)
  • Six to ten people are killed in a Taliban strike in southern Afghanistan. (BBC)
  • Britain makes plans to withdraw 5,500 troops from Iraq and place them in Afghanistan to hunt for Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda members. (The Scotsman) (Telegraph.co.uk)
• 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)
• In Israel, vandals deface the grave of Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah in the national cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, 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)
• In Nigeria, 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 Ivory Coast. (Reuters SA) (BBC) South African president Thabo Mbeki hosts a meeting between the rebels and the Ivory Coast government in the 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)
• In Austria, 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)
• In Brazil, police arrest 11 men over the Rio Massacre last Thursday when 30 people were killed. (Reuters)

April 3 2005

• 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)
• In Germany, a man wielding a sword attacks a Tamil church congregation in Stuttgart, kills a woman and seriously injures three other people. (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• In Brazil, police arrests 11 men over the Rio Massacre last Thursday when 30 people were killed (Reuters)
• 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)

April 2 2005

• Pope John Paul II passes away at 9:37 PM 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)

April 1 2005

• Hamas and Islamic Jihad have declared, in principle, their intention to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). (Al Ahram)
• A death squad guns down at least 30 people in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Several teenagers and a child were among those killed in the districts of Queimados and Nova Iguacu on Thursday night. Authorities blame rogue police officers for the massacre. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• Google increases the storage space of its Gmail service to two gigabytes. (internetnews.com)
• Pope John Paul II is on the verge of death as a result of his recent health problems. The Vatican announces that the pope has suffered cardiovascular collapse and septic shock. (CNN) The Vatican denies "unsourced" media reports claiming he has already died. (Reuters)
• The United Nations Security Council votes to refer those suspected of war crimes in Darfur to the International Criminal Court. (Sudan Tribune) (Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
• Zimbabwe parliamentary elections, 2005: In Zimbabwe, the ruling Zanu-PF gains a two-thirds majority over opposition party Movement for Democratic Change amidst claims of dis-enfranchisement and fraud. (News24) (Bloomberg) (BBC)
• Indian security forces launch an offensive against the United Liberation Front of Assam. (BBC)
• The World Bank agrees to fund a controversial hydroelectric dam project in Laos. (Planet Ark) (BBC)
• The Minuteman Project starts a month-long patrolling of the United States - Mexico border in Arizona for illegal immigrants, with about 100 volunteers, some of them armed. (ABC News)
• The government of Argentina delays the restructuring of its debt by the exchange of old bonds for new because of a decision by a federal court judge in the United States that froze the processing of the old bonds in the possession of the Bank of New York pending a hearing before the appeals court. (Financial Times)

Past events by month

see list of months by year for a more complete list.

2005: January February March
2004: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2003: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2002: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2001: January February March April May June July August September October November December
2000: January February March April May June July August September October November December

News collections and sources

• Wikipedia:News collections and sources.
• Wikipedia:News sources - This has much of the same material organized in a hierarchical manner to help encourage NPOV in our news reporting.