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January 2005 - February 2005 - March 2005 - May 2005
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Articles: April 2005
April 30, 2005
- Nepal's King Gyanendra lifts the state of emergency he imposed three
months ago when he fired the government and assumed absolute power.Press censorship and ban of political activities
continues.
(NDTV) (IHT)
(PolitInfo)
- Tourists in the
Egyptian capital
Cairo are
targeted in two separate
terrorist
attacks.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- A team of senior African leaders is in Togo to try to end a political
crisis, following several days of rioting over disputed presidential elections.
(PolitInfo)
- US releases a report that clears soldiers who shot
Italian
intelligence agent
Nicola Calipari and journalist Giuliana Sgrena.
(full text on BBC)
(CNN) (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- Candidates for Afghanistan's local councils and national parliament begin
registering for the races. The three-week registration period is the first
step for candidates planning to compete in September's elections.
(PolitInfo)
April 29, 2005
- A spate of car bombs around the Iraqi capital kills at least 30 people
dead and wounds more than 90. Officials in Baghdad say at least 10 car bombs
were detonated in quick succession across the capital.
(PolitInfo)
- Leaders of China's historic enemies, the Communist party and the
Taiwan-based Nationalist party, the Kuomintang, hold a historic meeting in
Beijing.
in the highest level contact between leaders of the two parties since the
meeting of
Chiang Kai-shek and
Mao
Zedong in August
1945 at the end of the
Second Sino-Japanese War.
(FTimes) (PolitInfo)
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro strongly
criticizd the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas as a plan by
Washington to dominate Latin America.
(PolitInfo)
- Sri Lanka's government has ordered a full-scale investigation into the
murder of a prominent Tamil journalist who was abducted outside a restaurant
Thursday night.
(PolitInfo)
April 28,
2005
- The African Union has agreed to boost the number of troops in Sudan's
Darfur region from about 2,200 to 7,700. The troops are expected to be
deployed in Darfur by September.
(PolitInfo)
- British Prime Minister
Tony
Blair publishes the
controversial Attorney General's advice on the legality of the
Iraq War.
(BBC News) (Guardian)
(PolitInfo)
- Iraq's parliament approves a cabinet for the country's transitional
government, nearly three months after landmark elections.
(PolitInfo)
- Several thousand Togolese are fleeing the capital, Lome, and southern
towns along the coast, following two days of deadly violence that killed at
least 20 people and injured more than 100.
(PolitInfo)
- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his new center-right cabinet
win a confidence vote in the Senate, one day after winning approval in
the lower house of parliament.
(PolitInfo)
- Ivory Coast's officials say presidential elections will be held on October
30 as part of the effort to reunify the West African nation that has been
divided since a rebel uprising in September 2002.
(PolitInfo)
April 27,
2005
- U.S. government statistics show a dramatic spike in the number of
significant international terrorist attacks last year. A newly created agency,
the National Counterterrorism Center, issued its first incident report on
terrorism around the world. The report shows 651 serious international
terrorist attacks occurred last year. That number suggests a threefold jump in
attacks from a government report for 2003.
(PolitInfo)
- Peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the western
region of Darfur are expected to resume in May, acoording to a spokesman for
the African Union (AU) .
(PolitInfo)
- In Togo,
opposition resistance against election victory of
Faure Gnassingbé escalates into violence. At least 20 have died in the
clashes. Opposition leader
Bob Akitani declares himself president
(News24) (Reuters)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- In Nepal,
former Prime Minister
Sher Bahadur Deuba is arrested for alleged
corruption after he refuses to appear in court.
(Reuters AlertNet) (United
We Blog)
(PolitInfo)
- The first members of a U.N. peacekeeping mission for southern Sudan have
arrived in the country to help implement a January peace deal.
(PolitInfo)
- Lebanon's new government led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati wins an
overwhelming vote of confidence in parliament, clearing the way for
parliamentary elections, set for
May 29.(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- In Mexico, president Vicente Fox accepts resignation of his attorney
general Rafael Macedo and orders review of the contempt of court case of
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(El Universal)
(Reuters)
- In the
Ivory
Coast, opposition leader
Alassane Ouattara welcomes President
Laurent Gbagbo's decision to let him contest elections.
South
African president
Thabo
Mbeki welcomes it as well
(ReliefWeb)
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC)
April 26,
2005
-
Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo says he will allow all candidates to
run in a presidential election later this year in accordance with a South
African brokered peace process.
(PolitInfo)
-
Faure Gnassingbé (Profile) wins the
Togolese presidential election with more than 60% of the votes. Results
cause riots in Lomé, Togo when the opposition doesn't acknowledge the
election, denouncing massive fraud.
(AFP via Yahoo!) (PolitInfo)
-
In a resolution adopted almost unanimously during its plenary session in
Strasbourg, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) calls
on the United States government to cease torturing and mistreating detainees
at Guantanamo Bay – and challenged it to either try them fairly or release
them, in line with international law.
(PolitInfo)
- The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard
Myers, says the Iraq insurgency is about as strong as it was a year ago, in
spite of ongoing efforts to defeat it.
(PolitInfo)
-
The UN refugee agency says abandoned villages in West Darfur are being burned
by Janjaweed militias, apparently in an attempt to prevent displaced people
from returning home.
(PolitInfo)
- The
US
chief weapons inspector,
Charles Duelfer states that search of
weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq has "gone as
far as feasible" and found nothing.
(Washington Post)
(Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Syria informs the United Nations that its withdrawal from Lebanon is
complete.
(Daily Star, Lebanon)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
-
The head of Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang arrives in China - the first such
visit by a nationalist party leader since the end of the Chinese civil war 56
years ago.
(PolitInfo)
-
People in Ukraine, Belarus and other countries commemorate the 19th
anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
(PolitInfo)
April 25,
2005
- The international relief group Save the Children says more than 120,000
girls and young women around the world have been forced to take an active role
in armed conflicts, many of them to serve as child soldiers..
(PolitInfo)
- Togo's two main political rivals agree to form a unity government, in an
attempt to avert more violence following this weekend's disputed presidential
elections. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made the annocuement
after hosting emergency talks with the leaders of the two sides.
(PolitInfo)
- Bulgaria
and Romania
sign accession treaty to the
European Union, continuing the
enlargement process.
(press release) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Czech President Vaclav Klaus formally announces Jiri Paroubek as the
country's new prime minister. Paroubek will replace former Prime
Minister Stanislav Gross, who resigned hours earlier amid a three-month-old
political crisis centering on his personal finances.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- A key opposition leader in Kyrgyzstan announced his candidacy to run in
July presidential elections to choose a successor to the country's ousted
leader, Askar Akayev. Felix Kulov's candidacy will pit him against acting
President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was appointed to the position after a popular
uprising drove Akayev from power last month.
(PolitInfo)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia has no future, if it turns
its back on democracy. In his annual state-of-the-nation address he
urges lawmakers and the public to strengthen democracy and rule of law.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Amnesty International has called on the
Israeli Government to investigate the poisoning of
Palestinian Land, alledgedly by
Israeli Settlers around
Hebron
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Liberians
register to vote in the first
elections
after a long civil war. Elections are due on
October
11.
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
April 24,
2005
-
Togolese presidential election, 2005: Violence has broken out immediately
after voting in controversial presidential elections in the West African state
of Togo, with opposition activists saying police killed at least one protester.
Authorities and the regional grouping, ECOWAS, are appealing urgently for calm.
(CNN)
(PolitInfo)
- Tens of thousands of
Armenians mark the 90th anniversary of the
mass killings of Armenians (Genocide) in the
Ottoman Empire.
(CBC)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- Human Rights Watch says U.S.General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top
American commander in Iraq, should be investigated for war crimes and torture.
HRW also calls for an investigation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,
ex-CIA Director George Tenet, and Major General Geoffrey Miller, the former
commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in cases of detainee
torture and abuse.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq: At least 15 people are killed in twin bombings
near a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad, and a double car bombing in Tikri kills at
least six people.
(PolitInfo)
- Ousted president of
Ecuador,
Lucio Gutierrez, moves to exile in
Brazil
(Reuters)
(ITV) (PolitInfo)
- Leaders from Africa and Asia, meeting in Indonesia, have wrapped up their
summit with a nostalgic visit to the resort town of Bandung. They marked the
anniversary of the first Asian-African summit held there 50 years ago.
(XinHua) (PolitInfo)
April 23,
2005
- Three days after resigning as prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi is sworn
in as head of Italy's 60th post-war government.. Although.Berlusconi replaces
five ministers, his team is not very different from the previous one.
(PolitInfo)
- Leaders from Asia and Africa meeting in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta,
wrap up their first bi-continental summit in 50 years. The leaders signed a
declaration called the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership that promises
to create stronger bonds between the two continents economically, politically
and culturally.
(PolitInfo)
- The U.S. Army has cleared four top officers, including a former top U.S.
commander in Iraq, of any wrongdoing in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
The findings are to be released in an upcoming report.
(PolitInfo)
- Sudan promises to implement a resolution adopted by the 53-nation U.N.
Human Rights Commission that unanimously condemns human-rights violations in
Sudan's western Darfur region.
(PolitInfo)
- A series of explosions and insurgent attacks across Iraq leaves more than
12 people dead and injures dozens more.
(PolitInfo)
- The leaders of Japan and China meet in Jakarta on the sidelines of a
summit for African and Asian leaders, in an attempt to ease tensions over
Japan's wartime past.
(PolitInfo)
- South and North Korean officials have had their highest face-to-face
contact since 2000 on the sidelines of the Asian-African Summit in Jakarta.
The officials discuss a wide range of issues, but did not announce any
breakthroughs on the dispute over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
(PolitInfo)
- Conservative Muslim candidates have swept elections in Saudi Arabia's
first nationwide municipal vote.
(PolitInfo)
April 22,
2005
- The Italian president asks Silvio Berlusconi to form a new government, two
days after Mr. Berlusconi stepped down as prime minister in the wake of a
crushing defeat in regional elections.
(PolitInfo)
- The interim leader in the west African nation of Togo replaces Interior
Minister Francois Boko, after Mr. Boko's sudden call to cancel Sunday's
election, amid fears of violence.
(PolitInfo)
- Japanese
prime minister Junichiro Koizumi publicly apologizes for actions of Japanese troops in
China during
the
World War Two. He intends to meet Chinese president Hu Jintao
in
Asia-Africa Conference in
Jakarta.
(Japan Today) (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- Ecuador's deposed president is stranded in the Brazilian ambassador's
residence as the new government considers whether to allow him to go into
exile. Brazilian authorities are negotiating with the new government and have
an airplane ready to whisk the ousted president to asylum.
(PolitInfo)
- United Nations officials say some indigenous groups in Colombia face
extinction because of ongoing political fighting that has forced them to flee
their ancestral homes.
(PolitInfo)
- Nepal
releases 61
political prisoners, including former deputy prime minister.
(Sify)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo) Amnesty
International states that
human
rights violations have escalated under the
state of emergency.
(Indian Express) (ReliefWeb) (PolitInfo)
- Israeli security chiefs agree to postpone the planned withdrawal of Jewish
settlements from Gaza and small portions of the northern West Bank for several
weeks - until mid August.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq
- A car bomb kills at least nine people and wounds at least 20 at a Shi'ite
mosque in Baghdad during midday prayers.
(PolitInfo)
- The Arabic news channel al-Jazeera reports that the kidnappers of three
Romanian journalists have given the Romanian government four days to withdraw
its forces from Iraq, or the group says it will kill the reporters.
(PolitInfo)
- A U.S. court accepts a guilty plea from alleged French terrorist Zacarias
Moussaoui, the only person charged in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the
United States killing nearly 3,000 people.
(PolitInfo)
- Asian and African leaders open a two-day summit in Indonesia calling for
greater economic and political cooperation between the two continents.
(PolitInfo)
April 21,
2005
- Opposing sides in Ivory Coast's civil war have begun pulling back heavy
weapons from the front lines in the first concrete step towards what many hope
is the beginning of total disarmament. The move is part of new peace making
efforts in the divided West African nation.
(PolitInfo)
- U.N. Human Rights Commissi
- The United Nations Human Rights Commission adopts a resolution condemning
human rights abuses in Sudan's troubled Darfur region. The resolution, passed
by consensus Thursday without a formal vote, blames both pro-government Arab
militia and rebels in Darfur for the violations.
(PolitInfo)
- The United Nations Human Rights Commission has rejected a Cuban resolution
that would have forced a U.N. investigation into alleged human rights
violations of detainees in U.S. custody in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq: A militant group in Iraq says it shot down a civilian
helicopter that crashed near Baghdad. Six Americans and three Bulgarians were
among 11 people killed people on board.
(PolitInfo)
- In Ecuador,
new president
Alfredo Palacio orders the arrest of
Lucio Gutiérrez. Former president takes refuge in the
Brazilian
embassy
(BBC) (Reuters
AlertNet) (PolitInfo)
- Foreign ministers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda
are meeting with officials from the European Union, the United Nations and the
United States in southern Congo to try to quell mounting tension in the region.
(PolitInfo)
- Parliament of
Spain gives initial approval to legalized
same-sex marriages
(Berria) (EITB)
(Reuters)
- Australia is under pressure from the United Nations to end its
controversial policy of detaining asylum seekers on the remote Pacific island
of Nauru. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has called on the government
in Canberra to find a humanitarian solution for asylum seekers who have been
held on Nauru for more than three years.
(PolitInfo)
April 20,
2005
- Vice President
Alfredo Palacio is sworn in as new interim
President of Ecuador, after
Congress removes President Lucio Gutiérrez from office after a week of escalating street protests
demanding his ouster. Gutiérrez flees the government palace.
(ABC)
(Independent) (BBC)
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq
- Over 50 human corpses are removed from the
River Tigris. Some appeared to have their
throats
cut, some others
decapitated.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In
Haditha, a town North-West of
Baghdad,
at least 19 men are shot dead. The Interim Government maintains that they
are the bodies of Iraqi soldiers and had been killed by
insurgents.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- The
Prime Minister of Italy,
Silvio Berlusconi, resigns so as to form a new
government. He is expected to maintain the post of Prime Minister in this
new government.
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- United Nations Commission on Human Rights demands that government of
Nepal restore
civil
liberties and
democracy
(Bloomberg)
(Reuters AlertNet) (PolitInfo)
- Israel has begun moving military equipment out of the Gaza Strip in
preparation for its summer pullout. Palestinians are urging Israel to
coordinate the withdrawal with them.
(PolitInfo)
- Connecticut Governor
Jodi Rell
signs a bill making same-sex civil unions legal. Connecticut is now the second
U.S.
state to legalize same-sex civil unions.
(ABC)
- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Russia to stay
the course of democratic development, saying it will benefit all nations,
including Russia.
(PolitInfo)
April 19,
2005
- The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urges the Sudanese
government to offer more protection to people displaced by conflicts in the
south and the western region of Darfur.
(PolitInfo)
- Human Rights Watch says the United Nations needs to expand its monitoring
efforts in Afghanistan to combat widespread human abuses rights by the
country's powerful militia leaders.
(PolitInfo)
- Lawmakers in Kuwait approve legislation allowing women to take part in
municipal elections for the first time.
(Al-Jazeera)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In Lebanon,
prime minister
Najib
Mikati forms a new government to lead the country until the May elections
(Daily Star)
(Reuters)
(PolitInfo)
- The Parliament of
Greece ratifies
the European Union Constitution
(IHT)
(PolitInfo)
- Iran suspends
operations of
al-Jazeera
and accuses it of inflaming protests of the Iranian
Arab minority.
220 people have been arrested during the unrest
(Al-Jazeera)
(IRNA) (Reuters) (PolitInfo)
April 18,
2005
-
In his monthly report to the Security Council, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan says the security situation in the Darfur region of Sudan did not
improve in March and was marked by increased attacks against international
personnel.
(PolitInfo)
-
By a unanimous vote, The U.N. Security Council approves a resolution expanding
the reach of an arms embargo to cover all rebel groups and militia operating
in the vast eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
(PolitInfo)
- India and Pakistan pledg to increase cross-border links in the divided
territory of Kashmir, saying their peace process is now irreversible.
(Hindu)
(Deepika)
(IHT)
(PolitInfo)
- The Ecuador
congress votes to dismiss
supreme court judges. A debate for the selection of the new ones is set
for Tuesday.
President Lucio Gutiérrez lifts a day-old
state of emergency, but thousands of
protesters
still demand his
resignation.
(Reuters)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Italian
prime minister
Silvio Berlusconi refuses to resign and intends to continue with
minority government
(AGI)
(Reuters) (Bloomberg) (PolitInfo)
- Nepal's Maoist rebel leader Prachanda has ruled out peace talks or a
cease-fire with the government, saying he has confidence in the rebels'
ultimate victory.
(PolitInfo)
- Gunmen in Somalia shot dead a Somali aid worker and injured two others as
they drove in the capital, Mogadishu.
(PolitInfo)
- Pakistani
government releases 500 members of
Pakistan People's Party it detained prior to return of opposition leader
Asif Zardari. Zardari hopes to have dialogue with the government.
(Pakistan Times)
(Reuters AlertNet) (BBC)
April 17,
2005
- Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat wins the presidential
election in the breakaway enclave.
With all the votes counted, Talat had more than 55 percent of the vote, while
his nearest rival won just under 23 percent.
(PolitInfo)
- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf agree to push ahead with measures to help overcome decades of
hostilities between their countries. The two leaders met in New Delhi, after
watching their national teams face off in a cricket match.
(PolitInfo)
- Basques in northern Spain vote in regional elections with further autonomy
from the central government a prime issue. Voters are choosing a 75-member
regional parliament, and moderate nationalist President Juan Jose Ibarretxe is
seeking re-election.
(PolitInfo)
- At least six people are killed and dozens are injured in weekend
clashes between government and opposition supporters in Lome, the capital of
Togo, as tension mounted ahead of presidential elections.
(PolitInfo)
- China refuses to apologize to Japan's foreign minister, following days of
sometimes violent anti-Japanese demonstrations. Japan's foreign minister
met with Chinese officials Sunday in Beijing.
(PolitInfo)
- The finance ministers from the Group of Seven countries, ending a weekend
meeting, say they made some headway on wiping out the debt for the poorest
countries. But they failed to reach an agreement.
(PolitInfo)
- Tens of Thousands of people throughout
Indonesia tak part in Anti-Israeli
and
Anti-American protests. The protest was organised by the
Prosperous Justice Party in order to show
Muslim unity
regarding the
Al Aqsa Mosque.(Jakarta
Post)
April 16,
2005
-
Warring sides in Ivory Coast's conflict agree to move forward in the
long-delayed disarmament process. Both rebel forces and the army are
optimistic that the divided country is moving toward peace, and say they will
begin to pull heavy arms away from frontlines.
(PolitInfo)
-
Indonesian officials and rebels from the separatist Free Aceh Movement
conclude their third round of talks in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
Negotiators say progress is being achieved on both political and economic
issues, but each side acknowledges that security remains their biggest
obstacle.
(PolitInfo)
-
Pakistani police detain the husband of exiled former prime minister, Benazir
Bhutto, as he re-entered the country to lead an anti-government rally.
Hundreds of other opposition supporters have also been arrested in a
government crackdown on political protests.
(PolitInfo)
-
The Japanese government strongly protests China's failure to stop a new wave
anti-Japan protests. At least 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets
of Shanghai earlier Saturday. Thousands people protested in the eastern cities
of Hangzhou and Tianjin.
(PolitInfo)
- The G7 leaders
met in
Washington, D.C. in the
World
Bank headquarters. Among the main discussions were the rising
oil prices, the
pegging of the Chinese yuan to
the
U.S. dollar.
(CNN) (PolitInfo)
April 15,
2005
- UN
Secretary General
Kofi
Annan accuses the United States and Britain of not accepting enough
responsibility for the Oil for Food Scandal and for Iraq's illegal oil sales
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Italy's coalition government is on the brink of unraveling one week after
it was badly beaten in regional elections. Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi is in trouble after two small parties withdrew their support from
the governing center-right coalition.
(PolitInfo)
- A top European Union official says the 25-nation block is unlikely to lift
its 15-year ban on weapons sales to China soon. (PolitInfo)
- Najib Mikati becomes the new
Prime Minister of
Lebanon,
replacing
Omar Karami, who has
resigned for a second time after seven weeks of frustrated efforts to form
a consensus government.
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
- A
Human Rights Watch report states that the
United States,
Britain,
the
Netherlands and
Canada rely
on "flimsy"
diplomacy in attempts to send foreign terror suspects back to countries
that routinely use
torture
against their
prisoners
(AP Wire)
- Israeli officials say their troops have captured a Palestinian gunman who
infiltrated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria and opened fire on
an Israeli military outpost.
(Haaretz)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Egyptian judges are joining other groups in the country in calling for
reform ahead of this year's presidential elections. Over 1,000 Egyptian judges
say they won't supervise upcoming elections unless they are given more
independence and control.
(PolitInfo)
- Haitian police and U.N. peacekeepers have clashed with gunmen in a
volatile Port-au-Prince slum, leaving as many as 10 suspects dead.
(PolitInfo)
April 14,
2005
-
Warring parties in Ivory Coast are trying to resume their often stalled
disarmament process. Top Ivorian military and government officials meet with
northern-based rebels to discuss resuming the disarmament process.
(PolitInfo)
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
- Israeli troops kill a Palestinian militant at a West Bank refugee camp,
further straining a fragile cease-fire. Palestinians say the man killed near
Nablus was a member of the militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. (BBC)
(Haaretz) (NY
Times) (PolitInfo)
- The United States and its partners in the Middle East diplomatic quartet,
Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations, name outgoing World Bank
President James Wolfensohn to be a special envoy to help facilitate Israel's
withdrawal from Gaza.
(PolitInfo)
- The Israeli
soldier accused of shooting
British
Cameraman
James Miller is cleared of any wrongdoing by an Israeli
Judge,
meaning the soldier will not be prosecuted. Miller's family accuse the
Israel Defense Forces of a coverup and threaten to sue.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha tells U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Robert Zoellick that the Sudanese government is doing all it can to stop the
bloodshed in the war-ravaged Darfur region of western Sudan. The
second-ranking U.S. diplomat arrived in Sudan to begin a two-day visit aimed
at pressuring Khartoum to end the conflict in Darfur and to begin implementing
an accord which ended a separate war in the south.
(PolitInfo)
-
A U.N. Peacekeeper from the Philippines is killed in Haiti. The death comes
amid the U.N. Security Council visit to the troubled Caribbean nation.
(PolitInfo)
-
Czech Republic: The Government coalition agrees to form a new cabinet.
Jan Kohout is expected to succeed
Stanislav Gross as the new prime minister
(Bloomberg)
(CNN) Deal collapses later in the day
when the Social Democrats reject it
(Prague Post)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq: At least 15 people have been killed following a double
Suicide bombing in the
Iraqi
Capital of
Baghdad.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- In
Zimbabwe, two
British journalists,
Sunday Telegraph correspondent
Toby Harnden and photographer
Julian Simmonds, are acquitted. They were accused of covering the last
month's parliamentary elections without permission.
(BBC)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
April 13,
2005
- The
European Parliament votes to allow
Bulgaria
and Romania
to join the
European Union in
2007.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- The top U.N. human rights official says she is seriously concerned by the
havoc wreaked on the civilian population by Colombia's ongoing civil war. In a
report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Louise Arbour cites a lengthy list
of abuses committed by illegal armed groups, including torture, rape, and
summary executions.
(PolitInfo)
-
Conflicts in Sudan:
- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praises donor nations for pledging 4.5
billion dollars for rebuilding Sudan, but says promises alone are not enough.
In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Annan urges the donors to
immediately convert their pledges to cash:
(PolitInfo)
- The World Food Program that is helping refugees from Sudan's Darfur region
in eastern Chad is warning of a possible deterioration of the humanitarian
situation there. These new worries come amid fears the conflict could spread
to the Chadian-Sudanese border region.
(PolitInfo)
- The United Nations approves a treaty aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism.
The 191-member General Assembly adopted the "International Convention for the
Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism" by consensus.
(PolitInfo)
-
Omar Karami resigns his position as the
Prime Minister of Lebanon after he fails to form a
government. Without a government to call them, no elections can take place
in Lebanon.
Elections are due this
May.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq
- At least nine
Iraqi
police have been killed by
insurgents in Kirkuk. The
Police were defusing a
decoy bomb,
when another nearby bomb detonated and killed them.
(Al Jazeera)
(BBC)
- Al
Jazeera broadcasts a video of the civilian contractor,
Jeffrey Ake, abducted in
Iraq earlier
this week.
(BBC)
(Al Jazeera) (PolitInfo)
- Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
releases evidence of the massive rigging it alleges took place in last month's
parliamentary elections.
(PolitInfo)
- Japan
increases the already boiling tension with
China as
Japan's
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry begins allowing Japanese companies
rights to drill for oil
in a part of the
East China Sea claimed by both nations.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Burundi's
last rebel group
Hutu Forces for National Liberation states that they are ready to
negotiate with the government
(Reuters SA) (BBC)
April 12,
2005
-
International donors meeting in Oslo, Norway have pledged about 4.5 billion
dollars in aid to rebuild southern Sudan after 21 years of civil war.
(PolitInfo)
-
According to report of the
Human Rights Watch, young veterans of wars in West Africa have been
recruited to fight in other conflicts because they have had no other means of
support
(Human Rights Watch)
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Andrus Ansip is confirmed by the
Riigikogu,
the Estonian
Parliament, as the country's next
Prime Minister, following the
24 March
resignation of former Prime Minster
Juhan
Parts.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Seven African countries agree to contribute personnel to an East African
brigade that is to be part of a larger African Union peacekeeping force.
(PolitInfo)
- Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
has taken up its seats in parliament, which puts an end to speculation that
the MDC would boycott parliament to protest an election it alleges President
Robert Mugabe's party won fraudulently.
(PolitInfo)
April 11,
2005
- A new public opinion poll taken in 23 nations around the globe shows
people in many countries would prefer that Europe become more influential than
the United States in world affairs. The poll finds that in 20 countries, a
majority of citizens think it would be mainly positive for Europe to become
more influential than the US in world affairs.
(PolitInfo)
- The latest report from the Brussel-based International Crisis Group (ICG)
on the peace prospects in Northern Uganda says the insurgent Lord's Resistance
Army (LRA) has recently stepped up the scale and frequency of its horrific
attacks on civilians.
(PolitInfo)
- Nepal
allows
United Nations Human Rights Commission to send monitors to the country to
investigate claims of
human
rights abuses.
(Times of India)
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- 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) (PolitInfo)
- U.S. President Bush says Israel should not build new settlements in the
West Bank. The President says Israel must abide by an international peace plan
known as the road map, which prohibits the construction of new settlements.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with President Bush at his ranch in
Texas.
(CNN) (PolitInfo)
- The European Union pledges security support for the African Union in
dealing with conflicts that still plague the continent, at a meeting between
the organizations in Luxembourg.
(PolitInfo)
- Delegates at the Organization of American States fail to elect a new
secretary-general after five secret ballots and put-off the next round of
voting until May 2. The votes were evenly split between the candidates from
Chile and Mexico.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
The Parliament of
Kyrgyzstan finally approves the
resignation of deposed
President Askar
Akayev.
(Fox News) (PolitInfo)
-
India and China sign an agreement aimed at resolving a border dispute that has
dragged on for more than four decades. The accord was reached at the end of a
four-day visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
(PolitInfo)
- A report by the U.N. Panel of Climate Change Experts finds that
ozone-friendly chemicals used in air-conditioners and refrigerators are
continuing to have a harmful impact on climate.
(PolitInfo)
April 10,
2005
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Thousands of Israeli police prevent right-wing Jewish extremists from staging
a rally at the Temple Mount, a disputed holy site in Jerusalem.
(PolitInfo)
- Anti-Japanese demonstrations spread to two southern Chinese cities
following rowdy protests the previous day in Beijing. The Japanese government
is calling the actions "gravely regrettable" and demanding action, and an
apology, from the Chinese government.
(PolitInfo)
- Conflict in Iraq: Pakistan says a member of its embassy staff in
Baghdad has been kidnapped, but he is believed to be unharmed.
(PolitInfo)
April 9,
2005
-
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:
Israeli troops open fire on a group of Palestinian teenagers in a restricted
zone in the Gaza Strip, killing three of them and putting the two-month old
cease-fire in jeopardy. A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, says
Palestinian factions will re-evaluate the truce, but for now, it is still
intact.
(Haaretz)
(BBC)
(Al Jazeera) (PolitInfo)
-
Conflict in Iraq:
- 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) (PolitInfo)
- Fifteen Iraqi soldiers are killed and several others wounded by a
roadside bomb in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad. A separate attack kills four
truck drivers in Kut, 170 kilometers south of the capital.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
-
Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh wins another term as the only
candidate in an election held the previous day. Opposition leaders refused to
put up a candidate to run against Guelleh, saying the electoral process
was neither free nor fair.
(PolitInfo)
-
United Nations peacekeepers and government soldiers in Congo arrest a key
militia leader accused of human rights abuses in the Ituri region.
(PolitInfo)
-
Thousands of people take to the streets in China's capital Beijing to
voice their anger against Japan for approving a controversial history textbook.
Demonstrators call for a boycott of Japanese products to push Japan to
apologize for wartime aggression.
(PolitInfo)
April 8,
2005
- In his report to the United Nation Human Rights Commission, a UN
human rights expert is calling on the international community to step up its
pressure on the Sudanese government to stop, what he calls, the systematic
rape of women and other abuses against civilian victims of the war in Darfur.
(PolitInfo)
- In Djibouti, opposition protesters clash with security forces during
presidential elections, in which the incumbent seeking re-election is the only
candidate. Opposition leaders pulled out of the race, which they said was
marred by irregularities.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- The United States and China have agreed in principle for the first time to
hold regular, senior level talks on a range of political and economic issues.
(PolitInfo)
- The Ethiopian Human Rights Council releases a report accusing local
government and election officials of harassing members and supporters of
opposition parties ahead of next month's general elections.
(PolitInfo)
- The opening day of campaigning for Togo's presidential election is marred
by a confrontation between opposition supporters and security forces.
One man is reportedly killed and several are injured when police open fire on
demonstrators.
(IRIN)
(PolitInfo)
- Indonesia's president is visiting East Timor, six years after Indonesian
troops and their allies tore the country apart when it voted for independence.
(PolitInfo)
April 7,
2005
-
Iraq's newly sworn-in presidential council names Shi'ite politician Ibrahim
al-Jaafari interim prime minister. The announcement follows the historic
swearing-in of Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani as Iraq's first
freely-elected president in more than 50 years.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
(PolitInfo)
-
Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the United Nations needs a new human rights
commission to battle suffering around the world. In a speech to the
Commission, Annan calls for sweeping reforms of the body which, he said,
has become less effective in protecting people around the world.
(PolitInfo)
- In a historical step, bus passengers cross the border separating
Pakistani- and Indian-controlled Kashmir. Passengers braved the threat of
attacks by militant organizations who pledged to disrupt the historic new bus
link.
(MSNBC) (PolitInfo)
- Rwanda begins a week of mourning to mark the 11th anniversary of the 1994
genocide in which an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were
slaughtered.
(PolitInfo)
- A blast in a
Cairo market kills 3, including one
French
tourist and one
American
tourist. A group called "Islamic Pride Brigades" claims responsibility.
(Haaretz) (PolitInfo)
- Opposition parties in Djibouti are urging citizens to boycott Friday's
presidential election, in which the incumbent, President Ismail Omar Guelleh,
is the sole candidate.
(PolitInfo)
- The U.N. Security Council authorizes an international investigation into
the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
(PolitInfo)
- Israeli officials step up security in Jerusalem's Old City and warn of
plans by Jewish extremists to attack the city's most sensitive holy site.
(PolitInfo)
- Prime ministers of
Malaysia
and
Australia announce that they intend begin talks of free
trade agreement
(Radio Australia)
(Malaysian Star) (PolitInfo)
April 6,
2005
- Iraq's parliament elects Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's
new president, choosing a member of the long-repressed minority to be head of
state. The assembly also chose two vice-presidents: outgoing president Ghazi
al-Yawer, a Sunni, and interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shi'ite. (PolitInfo)
- Ivory Coast's warring sides agree to an immediate and final end to
hostilities following peace talks in South Africa.
(Globe&Mail) (PolitInfo)
-
Islamic militants claim responsibility for an attack on a government
guesthouse being used to shelter passengers on the first bus in 50 years to
cross between the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir. But authorities say
the bus will depart as scheduled Thursday.
(PolitInfo)
-
Movement for Democratic Change, the main
opposition party in
Zimbabwe,
publishes a report it claims confirms its allegation of massive rigging in
last week's parliamentary election that kept
Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF in office.
(BBC)
(Reuters via Yahoo!News) (PolitInfo)
- Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, the head of the Irish Republican Army's
political wing urges the movement to end its armed struggle amid heavy
pressure on the group to renounce violence.
(PolitInfo)
- 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) (PolitInfo)
- In Brazil,
members of
Landless Workers Movement (MST) occupy 12 farms trying to pressure the
government to speed up land reform.
(Reuters AlertNet)
(BBC)
April 5,
2005
- The United Nations turns over evidence of atrocities in Sudan's Darfur
region to the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The material includes
a list of suspected war criminals.
(PolitInfo)
- Tony
Blair calls the
General Election in the
United Kingdom for
5 May
2005 on the same
day as the local elections.
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
- Two days before the inauguration of new bus service between the Indian and
Pakistani sides of Kashmir, a bomb has exploded along the planned route,
injuring three people, and two other bombs have been found and defused.
(PolitInfo)
- In Italy,
preliminary results of regional elections show heavy losses for the parties in
Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition.
(Bloomberg)
(Reuters) (PolitInfo)
-
Amnesty International reports that at least 3,797 people were
executed
and 7,395
sentenced to death in
2004. The human
rights group says that revulsion toward the death penalty and use of the death
penalty both are growing around the world.
(Amnesty International)
(Independent)
(BBC)
(PolitInfo)
- Kyrgyzstan's parliament fails to gather enough lawmakers to formally
accept President Askar Akayev's resignation, technically leaving the deposed
leader in power.
(PolitInfo)
- The Sri Lankan military accuses Tamil rebels of breaching the country's
cease-fire by firing on a navy ship that was carrying a European truce monitor.
(PolitInfo)
- Police in Indonesia name two new suspects in the investigation into the
murder of a prominent human-rights activist last September. The activist,
Munir Sa'id Thalib, died on a flight to Amsterdam after ingesting a large
amount of arsenic.
(PolitInfo)
- 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)
April 4,
2005
- The
United Nations Security Council extends the mandate of
UN and French
peacekeepers in
Ivory
Coast.
(Reuters SA)
(BBC) Meanwhile South African-mediated
talks aimed at breaking a two-year impasse in the country's peace process
continue in Pretoria.
(News24)
(IOL) (PolitInfo)
- Saudi Arabian security forces say they have killed seven suspected members
of al-Qaida in a fierce gunbattle in the northern part of the country.
(PolitInfo)
- A group of NGOs working in war-torn northern Uganda, the Civil Society
Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda, lobbies the government o offer a
new ceasefire to the rebel movement, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), as an
incentive to re-establish peace talks.
(PolitInfo)
- A suicide bomber driving a tractor near Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has blown
himself up in the second attack on the facility in the past two days. Police
say at least four civilians were hurt in Monday's blast.
(PolitInfo)
- Zimbabwe's embattled opposition demands new parliamentary elections under
a different constitution, saying voting can never be free and fair under the
country's current government. This demand follows the victory of President
Robert Mugabe's party last week in parliamentary elections.
(PolitInfo)
- 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
Moldovan parliament re-elects
Vladimir Voronina, pro-Western leader of the Communist Party, to a second term
as president..
(Reuters)
(RIA Novosti) (PolitInfo)
- 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)
April 3,
2005
- 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) (PolitInfo)
- African observer groups say that Zimbabwe's general election on March 31
reflected the will of the people, despite allegations by opposition leaders of
fraud. The United States and Britain say the voting process strongly favored
the ruling party. Traditional observers, such as the European Union and the
Commonwealth were banned from observing this election.
(PolitInfo)
- After more than a decade in power, Kyrgyzstan's long-time leader, Askar
Akayev, is resigning. Akayev signs a resignation agreement in Moscow, where he
fled during an anti-government uprising last month that followed disputed
parliamentary elections.
(Moscow Times)
(Reuters)
(IHT) (PolitInfo)
- The president of South Africa is hosting the first round of Ivory Coast
peace talks to be held since a fragile cease-fire was shattered in November.
(PolitInfo)
- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says Sudan will not hand over any of its
citizens to a foreign court, after the United Nations voted to refer Darfur
war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court.
(ABC) (PolitInfo)
April 2,
2005
- In Zimbabwe, the ruling ZANU-PF party has won 78 of the 120 seats
contested in Thursday's parliamentary election. President Robert Mugabe urges
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to accept the result, in the
national interest. In addition to the seats the ruling ZANU-PF won, the
constitution gives Mugabe the power to appoint a further 30 members of the
unicameral parliament, giving him the two-thirds majority he needs to amend
the constitution.
(PolitInfo)
- Insurgents in Iraq attack the Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, injuring
at least 18 American soldiers and 12 detainees. Abu Ghraib is notorious for a
prisoner abuse scandal that resulted in charges against several U.S. soldiers.
(PolitInfo)
- Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas accepts the resignation of his top West
Bank security chief in a shake-up of Palestinian security forces,
after they failed to stem a new wave of armed chaos in the West Bank.
(PolitInfo)
- Kyrgyzstan's parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev says deposed President
Askar Akayev has agreed in principle to resign without conditions.
(PolitInfo)
April 1,
2005
-
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo
requests the Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to hand over thousands of pages
of documents related to war crimes in the Sudanese region. The move comes
after the U.N. Security Council late Thursday approved a resolution that,
despite U.S. misgivings, gives the International Criminal Court responsibility
to try Darfur war criminals.
(PolitInfo) Darfur Rebel groups are pleased with the resolution. But the
Sudanese Government says the U.N. action could hurt peace efforts.
(PolitInfo)
-
Zimbabwe parliamentary elections, 2005: In
Zimbabwe,
counting of the results of a relatively peaceful elections continues. Election
officials in Zimbabwe say the ruling ZANU-PF party is leading with a majority
62 of the 120 seats contested in Thursday's election. The opposition Movement
for Democratic Change is trailing with 35 seats, but is hinting it may not
accept the result.
(PolitInfo)
-
In the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province, the United Nations says
a little more than half of the area's fighters have handed in their weapons,
meeting a United Nations deadline.
(PolitInfo)
-
Deposed President Askar Akaev says in an exclusive interview with Radio Free
Euope that he was ousted as president in Kyrgyzstan in a "putsch" that was
aided financially and tactically by "foreign forces" backing the opposition.
(PolitInfo)
-
UN peace-keeping troops backed by tanks launched a new operation in Haiti's
capital of Port-au-Prince, to counter a new wave of violence by armed gangs
and former army troops. The on-going violence in the Caribbean nation is
threatening to destabilize democratic elections planned for this November.
(PolitInfo)
- The
World Bank agrees to fund controversial
hydroelectric dam project in
Laos.
(Planet Ark)
(BBC) (PolitInfo)
January 2004 - February 2004 - March 2004 - April 2004 - May 2004 - June 2004 - July 2004 - August 2004 - September 2004 - October 2004 - November 2004 - December 2004
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