- Title: VARIOUS: REUTERS NEWS REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2003 - YEARENDER
- Date: 1st January 2003
- Summary: INNER MONGOLIA, CHINA (OCTOBER 16, 2003) (CCTV - NO ACCESS CHINA/INTERNET) ASTRONAUT YANG LIWEI CLIMBING OUT OF SPACE CAPSULE AND WAVING TO CROWD
- Embargoed:
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS SEE SHOTLIST
- City:
- Country: Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Brazil Iraq France Germany
- Topics: Asia / Pacific,Conflict,Disasters,Europe,General,South America / Central America,Middle East,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVADYC6Q7FFB8UCNFOA4IS2XBP7S
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: January 1st saw Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva becoming Brazil's first working class President, realizing the "dreams of generations and generations of Brazilians." The month was overshadowed though by the ongoing question of what would happen in Iraq. United Nations weapons inspectors sprung surprise inspections on Iraq's own weapons monitoring directorate, while Saddam Hussein accused them of carrying out intelligence work.
North Korea shocked the world by pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. "Our government declares that our withdrawal from the the nuclear non-proliferation treaty is automatically and immediately effective, the effectiveness of the withdrawal from NPT has been unilaterally and temporarily suspended until necessary." an announcer on North Korean Television said as he broke the news. North Korea accused the United States of trying to topple its political system. Both U.S. President Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin expressed concern.
The build up towards war in Iraq continued as U.S. troops from around the world began moving towards the Gulf. On January 12th American troops left their base in Germany to head towards the region. But on the 22nd January during celebrations of the fortieth anniversary of the 1963 Elysees Treaty French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder together restated their opposition to any war in Iraq.
Over in Asia the first Taiwan commercial flight to China for more than 50 years arrived in Shanghai, a step towards direct air links between the two.
Two days later in Israel on January 28th Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right wing Likud party swept to victory in the elections winning 37 seats, up from 19, in the Knesset. On the same day across the Atlantic President George W. Bush warned he would use the full force of the United States military against Iraq if needed, he added that Iraq had shown "utter contempt" for the United Nations.
"And if war is forced upon us we will fight with the full force and might of the United States military and we will prevail." he said.
On January 30th Richard Reid, a British born follower of Osama bin-Laden was sentenced to life in prison for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes, giving the nick name the 'Shoe bomber.' February started with disaster in the United States as the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas on re-entering the atmosphere.
All seven astronauts on board were killed including the first Israeli in space. The accident grounded NASA's shuttle programme.
After pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty North Korea announced in February it had restarted and put the atomic facilities at the centre of its suspected nuclear weapons programme on a "normal footing." In a huge wave of demonstrations, the biggest since the Vietnam war, more than six million peace protesters took to the streets across the world against a war in Iraq.
Hundreds of people were killed in South Korea as smoke and flames engulfed two crowded subway trains in the city of Taegu after a fire.
Mounir El Motassadeq was sentenced to a fifteen year jail term for his part in the September 11 attacks. It was the first trial of an attack conspirator.
In the U.S. 96 people were killed and almost 200 injured in a fire during a rock band's pyrotechnics display in a night club in Rhode Island. Hundreds more were killed four days later in China after a strong earthquake hit the north western region of Xinjiang Province flattening over a thousand homes.
On March 1st Pakistani security agents arrested Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He was accused of being the mastermind behind the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon and the biggest catch in the global war on terror.
Fifteen people were killed and about forty injured when a bomb tore apart a bus in the Israeli port of Haifa. In retaliation the next day Israel killed at least 11 Palestinians in a major raid in the Gaza Strip.
In Algeria, a Boeing 737-200 of the state owned national airline Air Algerie crashed after take off killing all 102 people on board.
United States bombers were posted to Guam in early March as a deterrent to North Korea, in the event of a U.S. led war on Iraq.
Hans Blix, the UN's chief weapon's inspector reported back to the Security Council that Iraq's co-operation fell short of the Council's demands, but added that the destruction of al-Samoud missiles was a significant step towards disarmament.
The Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindic was assassinated in front of the main government building in Belgrade. In China the Peoples Congress elected Hu Jintao as the country's new President. He took over from Jiang Zemin, who kept control of the military.
On March 16 the Israeli army killed a female American peace protester along with two Palestinians in the Gaza strip. The shootings were a fresh blow to U.S. attempts to calm Israeli - Palestinian violence.
On March 17 the U.S., Britain and Spain finally abandoned efforts to get an international legal endorsement for war in Iraq. The U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the world, "I think the time for diplomacy has passed." and Kofi Annan ordered all United Nations international staff to leave Iraq.
The American President George Bush told Saddam Hussein, "All the decades of deceit and cruelty have now reached an end. Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing." Within two days the first U.S. strikes rained down on Baghdad with George Bush telling the world, "Coalition forces have begun striking select targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. They are in the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign." Coalition troops swept over the Iraqi - Kuwaiti border finally capturing the port of Umm Qasr and Basra after unexpected heavy resistance as they pushed on for Baghdad. Iraq's 51st division Commander and his deputies surrendered in Southern Iraq as a devastating blitz was unleashed on Baghdad.
By March 23rd coalition forces were fighting around the town of al-Nassirya on the road to Baghdad. On the 26th U.S. soldiers started parachuting into a key airfield in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq, becoming the first sizeable U.S.
military force in the north of the country.
The air raids on Baghdad continued and on both March 26th and 28th markets were hit killing 76 people. The U.S. denied they were attacking civilian areas claiming the explosions could have been from anti-aircraft fire instead. In the north in the Daka mountains American bombers carpet bombed areas where Iraqi forces were thought to be holding out, while in the South the first aid finally arrived provoking chaotic scenes as British soldiers had to fire in the air to try and control the crowds hungry for food.
On April 1st American special forces launched a midnight raid on an Iraqi hospital rescuing Private Jessica Lynch and recovering the bodies of two other soldiers. Initial accounts of the raid were later discredited.
The coalition forces finally reached Baghdad and on the morning of April 7th. U.S. tanks smashed their way into the main presidential complex in central Baghdad and heavy battles were fought around the banks of Tigris River. But despite the sound of heavy gun fire and artillery smoke Iraq's Information Minister remained adamant that U.S. forces were not invading the capital.
"My feelings? As usual we will slaughter them all. Those invaders their tombs will be here in Iraq." he told journalists in the capital. Within two days the coalition was deep inside the capital and being greeted by jubilant crowds. The crowd finally gathered around a huge bronze statue of Saddam Hussein in the centre of Baghdad where with the help of an American tank they pulled it down hitting it with shoes and dragged the head through the streets.
While the war on Iraq dominated the news, the world was also in the grip of the virus SARS. First reported when a U.S. businessman died of the virus in Hong Kong in mid-March, the illness caused panic in the South East where people started wearing masks to try and protect themselves. Travel in the region fell as cases appeared in China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore. The cases caused the World Health Organisation to start issuing advisories stopping people from travelling to infected countries.
In Israel another foreigner was shot by Israeli troops. Tom Hurndall was a British member of the International Solidarity Movement. He was shot and critically wounded while helping Palestinian children cross a street under gunfire. Two weeks after Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) was finally sworn in as Palestinian Prime Minister.
On April 25th Winnie Mandela was sentenced to five years in jail with one year suspended by a South African court for fraud and theft. In Space, a Russian Soyuz, the first manned space mission to be launched since the shuttle disaster docked successfully with the International Space Station.
By April the SARS virus had spread world-wide, the WHO issued travel advisories against going to Canada, where cases started appearing in Toronto. People had now been diagnosed with SARS on every continent. The virus was thought to have originated from cats in China and by the end of the year over 800 hundred people were thought to have been killed by the virus, almost one in ten of those infected.
On May 1st U.S. President George W Bush announced that the major fighting in Iraq was over. The President used the day to visit the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln off the coast of California as a way of thanking those involved in the war.
In Turkey an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the south eastern province of Bingol about 200 people died including 84 boys and their teacher who died when their school collapsed.
Dozens were killed in South Africa when a bus carrying trade union members to a South African May Day rally plunged off the road into a reservoir. The accident proved to be one of the worst road crashes the country had ever seen.
Back in Europe Poles voted overwhelmingly yes in a referendum on joining the European Union.
In Liberia, West Africa, French troops swooped into the capital Monrovia to evacuate hundreds of foreigners as rebel troops crept closer to the centre of the capital. The civil war raging for years in Liberia looked finally to be coming to an end as President Charles Taylor finally agreed to go into exile.
But the fighting continued as new President Moses Blah took over and called on the U.S. to intervene. West African peace keepers in the country failed to stop the violence and in October the United Nations took over command of the peace keeping force. Washington sent a low key naval force to Liberia's coast but left as the UN took command.
On June 10th Israel wounded Hamas spokesman Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in a helicopter strike in Gaza. The strike was fresh blow to to the U.S. backed peace plan.
At the beginning of July Italy took over presidency of the European Union. Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, quickly ruined his debut as the EU's head, stirring outrage by comparing a critical German law maker with a Nazi Concentration camp guard.
"Mr Schulz, I know there is a man in Italy producing a film on Nazi concentration camps. I would like to suggest you for the role of leader. You'd be perfect." Berlusconi said in the European Parliament.
The comment caused outrage in Germany and Berlusconi was quickly forced into apologising to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder saying he regretted the comment.
In Pakistan 53 people were killed and 60 injured in an explosion during Friday prayers at a mosque in the south western city of Quetta.
The next two Chechen women blew themselves up at an open air rock festival in Russia killing fifteen people.
On July 8th conjoined Iranian sisters Laleh and Ladan Bijani died within hours of each other from massive blood loss after Singaporean surgeons operated to separate them.
The United States released video of the bodies it claimed were Saddam Hussein's two sons Uday and Qusay Hussein. The brothers died after U.S. forces stormed a house in Mosul. The two were numbers 2 and 3 on the U.S. most wanted list.
In Spain two bombs tore through hotels in the Spanish seaside resorts of Benidorm and Alicante wounding 13 people. The attacks were carried out by the Basque separatist group ETA.
On August 1st Russia was once again hit by suicide attackers as a military hospital in North Ossetia was destroyed by a truck bomb killing 50 people. Once again Chechen rebels were blamed for the attack.
On August 4th a top Hyundai group executive committed suicide. Chung Mong-hun was enmeshed in a payments scandal over a landmark summit between North and South Korea.
The next day, August 5th, the world awoke to news of another suicide attack, this time in Indonesia's capital Jakarta. Ten people were killed and over 150 injured when a huge car bomb ripped through the Marriott Hotel.
In Iraq a further attack killed almost 20 when a truck bomb exploded outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.
On the same day an Indonesian court sentenced the Muslim radical Amrozi to death for his part in 2002's Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Amrozi, nicknamed by the media the laughing bomber, cheered and held his fist in the air as the sentence was read out. Three other men were sentenced for the same crime later in the year, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas were both sentenced to death, while Ali Imron was sentenced to life imprisonment after co-operating with the authorities.
NATO began its first operation outside Europe in its 54 year history when it took command of Kabul's peacekeeping force in Afghanistan on August 11th.
North America was plunged into darkness, when one of the biggest ever power outages hit large areas of the region trapping thousands in crowded subways and forcing millions of evacuated office workers onto the streets.
On August 16th, the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, finally died in a Saudi hospital where he had been critically ill for weeks. Amin was blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of Ugandans in the 1970s.
The U.S. peace plan for the Middle East suffered further when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 23 people on a bus in the Me'a Shearim area of Jerusalem.
Two days later Palestinian militants pronounced their 7 week truce dead after Israel retaliated by killing top Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab and two of his bodyguards.
Another bombing in Baghdad killed 22 people including the United Nation's top envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. A massive truck bomb exploded devastating the UN's headquarters in the most devastating attack on a UN civilian complex in the UN's history.
Computers ground to a halt across the world as an internet worm called Sobig.F became the fastest growing internet virus ever, turning P.C.s into spam machines and creating havoc as the web slowed down under the weight of masses of extra electronic traffic.
Twin car bombs in India's financial capital Bombay killed 52 people and injured over 150.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair was called to give evidence to the Hutton Inquiry in London. The Inquiry was looking into whether Blair's government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq in a key intelligence dossier. A civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, Dr Kelly, was found to have committed suicide after it was revealed he had leaked evidence to the British press claiming the U.K.
government had 'sexed up' the dossier.
Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim was killed along with 95 others in a car bomb at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf.
Thousands followed his funeral procession to Baghdad.
In early September Chinese officials reported that at least 86 people had died in floods and landslides as a result of the strongest typhoon to hit China in 25 years.
In the U.S. the archdiocese of Boston agreed to pay out 85 million U.S. dollars (USD) in an attempt to settle law suits filed by hundreds of people who claimed to have been sexually abused by clergy.
In Israel two suicide bombs were detonated. The first outside an army base southeast of Tel Aviv, was followed later in the day by the second which exploded in a Jerusalem cafe killing seven people. In retaliation Israel decided in principle to to exile the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat. The decision sparked off protests by thousands of Palestinians pledging to protect him.
In Sweden in the run up to a public referendum on whether the country should join the european monetary union (EMU), the country's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, was stabbed and killed in Stockholm. Lindh was at the heart of the campaign to vote for EMU membership. Days later Swedes voted a resounding no to joining.
The most powerful typhoon on record to ever strike South Korea killed 117 people, South Korean officials said. Typhoon Maemi which hit the country on September 12 caused 4.78 million won in damage.
In Japan on September 20, the reformist Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi was re-elected by a landslide as head of Japan's ruling party.
Another election, this time in California saw the Austrian born Hollywood actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California after a recall election had the Democratic Governor Gray Davis thrown out of office.
On the Indonesian island of Bali hundreds of relatives and survivors from 2002's Bali bombings held a memorial service for the dead one year on from the tragedy. A memorial service was held on the cliffs overlooking Kuta Beach, later in the evening another memorial was held on the beach.
China celebrated on October 15 as the country became the third nation to send a man into space. Yang Liwei spent 21 hours in orbit where he ate kung pao chicken with eight treasures rice.
In the Middle East a roadside bomb ripped through a U.S.
diplomatic convoy killing three American security men. It was the first attack on U.S. officials in three years of violence.
Ten people were killed in New York City when the famous Staten Island ferry slammed into a pier crushing passengers to death. The ferry's captain was later sacked though he was known not to be at the controls at the time of the accident in high winds.
On October 16th Roman Catholics around the world gathered in the Vatican City as Pope John Paul II celebrated his 25th anniversary as head of the Church.
In Taiwan's capital Taipei, the Taipei Office 101 office block finally attained its full height of 508 metres (1,667 feet) unseating Malaysia's Petronas Towers as the world's tallest building.
October 24th was a sad day for aviation enthusiasts as three Concordes descended in London's Heathrow Airport in a spectacular finale to the end of the era of supersonic travel.
Bombers struck four times in Baghdad on October 27, killing 35 people and injuring 230. The attacks were aimed at the International Red Cross (ICRC) offices and three police stations. The ICRC later withdrew many of its staff from the country.
In The United States California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger faced the first crisis of his governorship as an army of 13,000 firefighters struggled to contain the worst wildfires seen in California for years, tens of people were killed and thousands of homes burnt to the ground.
The Chinese Parliament Chief Wu Bangguo arrived in North Korea at the end of October for talks over the growing nuclear crisis. In talks with North Korean officials and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Wu managed to get an agreement from North Korea to rejoin six party talks on the crisis. The other five countries involved in the talks are Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United States and China.
Almost thirty people almost all of Arab origin were killed when suicide bombers decimated a residential compound in the Saudi Arabian city of Ryadh.
Most people living in the compound were Syrian, Egyptian and Lebanese. Ahmed Qurie was sworn in as the new Palestinian Prime Minister on November 12. Qurie also known as Abu Ala became the states second Prime Minister this year Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, resigned from the position in September after disagreements with Yasser Arafat.
Construction of the highly controversial West Bank Barrier continued through out the year. Ground was broken for the project in 2002 between Qalqilya and Jenin. Upto this point about 150 kilometres of the wall has so far been built.
American President George W Bush became the first President to be invited on a state visit to Britain since Woodrow Wilson in 1918. Bush dined at stayed at Buckingham Palace against a backdrop of thousands of protesters who gathered on London's streets to demonstrate against the U.S. President. In an echo of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, a papier mache statue of Bush was pulled down in Trafalgar Square to the cheers of demonstrators.
On November 15 two bombs went of outside synagogues in the Turkish capital, five days later another two bombs went off in Istanbul this time outside the British Consulate and the headquarters of HSBC bank. The bombs were thought to be timed to match President Bush's visit to the U.K. So far more than 130 people have been detained in connection with the bombings and 21 people have been charged, though most with aiding or membership in an illegal organisation.
A Velvet Revolution took place in Georgia in November.
Opposition supporters stormed the parliament building in Tbilisi, while the country's president Eduard Shevardnadze was rushed out of the building by his security.
After initially promising to regain control, Shevardnadze finally stood down, saying he didn't want to see any bloodshed in Georgia.
In the United States a Virginian jury found John Muhammad guilty of capital murder and he was sentenced to death. Muhammad was found to be the Washington sniper who terrorised suburban neighbourhoods when he killed thirteen people with a snipers rifle.
The first two of seven foreign backpackers taken hostage in Colombia in September were released at the end of November. The Colombian rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN) who kidnapped them hailed it as a propaganda victory and said they would release the remaining five hostages soon.
In Russia a suicide bomber on a commuter train killed 45 people. Once again the bombing was blamed on Chechen rebels. The Emergencies Ministry in Moscow said more than 160 people had been injured in the blast, which took place in Stavropol region north of Chechnya where separatists have been battling Russian forces for more than a decade.
The year was rounded off by the United States' successful capture of Saddam Hussein. Working with Kurdish forces 600 troops surrounded a 'spider hole' just outside of Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The former Iraqi President gave himself up without a shot being fired. Iraqi journalists in Baghdad erupted in cheers as the Head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer told a news conference, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him."
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VARIOUS: RUETERS NEWS REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2003 - (YEARENDER) PART TWO OF SCRIPT ONLY - SEE NOTES
Date: 01 Jan 2003
Order Ref: 301010061
Story
In Afghanistan, about 300 Afghans gathered outside the gates of President Hamid Karzai's palace in the first anti American protest since U.S. led forces toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001.
Thirty four people were killed in Saudi Arabia when bombers drove, guns blazing, into three guarded housing compounds for expatriates and set off huge car bombs. The bombings were the first major attack on U.S. targets since the United States waged war on Iraq.
In Russia another suicide bomb attack killed 40 people when Chechen rebels drove a truck bomb through the gates of an administration building north of the Chechen capital of Grozny.
Within days five separate attacks in Casablanca killed many more as a Spanish club and a Jewish centre became targets in another attack blamed on al-Qaeda.
Over two thousand were killed in Algeria when an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale struck the north of the country. The quake was the biggest to hit North Africa since 1980. It was followed by three further earthquakes each measuring more than 5.0 on the Richter Scale.
June 1st saw U.S. President George W Bush and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin meeting in St Petersburg in an attempt to put aside their differences over the Iraqi war. The two presidents signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) and called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
On the same day in China engineers blocked the Yangtze River and started filling a reservoir in the world's largest hydroelectric project.
In Kazakhstan, the European Space Agency's Mars Express blasted off, charged with the task of finding out if there is or ever was life on Mars.
In Jordan President Bush pushed his 'road map' for peace in the Middle East ahead, winning an Israeli pledge to uproot some settlement outposts in the West Bank and a Palestinian call to end the armed struggle.
"The Holyland must be shared between the State of Palestine and the State of Israel, living at peace with each other and every nation in the Middle East." he told a news conference at the landmark summit in Jordan.
Back in Europe Poles voted overwhelmingly yes in a referendum on joining the European Union.
In Liberia, West Africa, French troops swooped into the capital Monrovia to evacuate hundreds of foreigners as rebel troops crept closer to the centre of the capital. The civil war raging for years in Liberia looked finally to be coming to an end as President Charles Taylor finally agreed to go into exile.
But the fighting continued as new President Moses Blah took over and called on the U.S. to intervene. West African peace keepers in the country failed to stop the violence and in October the United Nations took over command of the peace keeping force. Washington sent a low key naval force to Liberia's coast but left as the UN took command.
On June 10th Israel wounded Hamas spokesman Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in a helicopter strike in Gaza. The strike was fresh blow to to the U.S. backed peace plan.
At the beginning of July Italy took over presidency of the European Union. Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, quickly ruined his debut as the EU's head, stirring outrage by comparing a critical German law maker with a Nazi Concentration camp guard.
"Mr Schulz, I know there is a man in Italy producing a film on Nazi concentration camps. I would like to suggest you for the role of leader. You'd be perfect." Berlusconi said in the European Parliament.
The comment caused outrage in Germany and Berlusconi was quickly forced into apologising to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder saying he regretted the comment.
In Pakistan 53 people were killed and 60 injured in an explosion during Friday prayers at a mosque in the south western city of Quetta.
The next two Chechen women blew themselves up at an open air rock festival in Russia killing fifteen people.
On July 8th conjoined Iranian sisters Laleh and Ladan Bijani died within hours of each other from massive blood loss after Singaporean surgeons operated to separate them.
The United States released video of the bodies it claimed were Saddam Hussein's two sons Uday and Qusay Hussein. The brothers died after U.S. forces stormed a house in Mosul. The two were numbers 2 and 3 on the U.S. most wanted list.
In Spain two bombs tore through hotels in the Spanish seaside resorts of Benidorm and Alicante wounding 13 people. The attacks were carried out by the Basque separatist group ETA.
On August 1st Russia was once again hit by suicide attackers as a military hospital in North Ossetia was destroyed by a truck bomb killing 50 people. Once again Chechen rebels were blamed for the attack.
On August 4th a top Hyundai group executive committed suicide. Chung Mong-hun was enmeshed in a payments scandal over a landmark summit between North and South Korea.
The next day, August 5th, the world awoke to news of another suicide attack, this time in Indonesia's capital Jakarta. Ten people were killed and over 150 injured when a huge car bomb ripped through the Marriott Hotel.
In Iraq a further attack killed almost 20 when a truck bomb exploded outside the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.
On the same day an Indonesian court sentenced the Muslim radical Amrozi to death for his part in 2002's Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Amrozi, nicknamed by the media the laughing bomber, cheered and held his fist in the air as the sentence was read out. Three other men were sentenced for the same crime later in the year, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas were both sentenced to death, while Ali Imron was sentenced to life imprisonment after co-operating with the authorities.
NATO began its first operation outside Europe in its 54 year history when it took command of Kabul's peacekeeping force in Afghanistan on August 11th.
North America was plunged into darkness, when one of the biggest ever power outages hit large areas of the region trapping thousands in crowded subways and forcing millions of evacuated office workers onto the streets.
On August 16th, the former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, finally died in a Saudi hospital where he had been critically ill for weeks. Amin was blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of Ugandans in the 1970s.
The U.S. peace plan for the Middle East suffered further when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 23 people on a bus in the Me'a Shearim area of Jerusalem.
Two days later Palestinian militants pronounced their 7 week truce dead after Israel retaliated by killing top Hamas leader Ismail Abu Shanab and two of his bodyguards.
Another bombing in Baghdad killed 22 people including the United Nation's top envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. A massive truck bomb exploded devastating the UN's headquarters in the most devastating attack on a UN civilian complex in the UN's history.
Computers ground to a halt across the world as an internet worm called Sobig.F became the fastest growing internet virus ever, turning P.C.s into spam machines and creating havoc as the web slowed down under the weight of masses of extra electronic traffic.
Twin car bombs in India's financial capital Bombay killed 52 people and injured over 150.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair was called to give evidence to the Hutton Inquiry in London. The Inquiry was looking into whether Blair's government had exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq in a key intelligence dossier. A civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, Dr Kelly, was found to have committed suicide after it was revealed he had leaked evidence to the British press claiming the U.K.
government had 'sexed up' the dossier.
Iraq's top Shi'ite Muslim leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim was killed along with 95 others in a car bomb at the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf.
Thousands followed his funeral procession to Baghdad.
In early September Chinese officials reported that at least 86 people had died in floods and landslides as a result of the strongest typhoon to hit China in 25 years.
In the U.S. the archdiocese of Boston agreed to pay out 85 million U.S. dollars (USD) in an attempt to settle law suits filed by hundreds of people who claimed to have been sexually abused by clergy.
In Israel two suicide bombs were detonated. The first outside an army base southeast of Tel Aviv, was followed later in the day by the second which exploded in a Jerusalem cafe killing seven people. In retaliation Israel decided in principle to to exile the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat. The decision sparked off protests by thousands of Palestinians pledging to protect him.
In Sweden in the run up to a public referendum on whether the country should join the european monetary union (EMU), the country's foreign minister, Anna Lindh, was stabbed and killed in Stockholm. Lindh was at the heart of the campaign to vote for EMU membership. Days later Swedes voted a resounding no to joining.
The most powerful typhoon on record to ever strike South Korea killed 117 people, South Korean officials said. Typhoon Maemi which hit the country on September 12 caused 4.78 million won in damage.
In Japan on September 20, the reformist Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi was re-elected by a landslide as head of Japan's ruling party.
Another election, this time in California saw the Austrian born Hollywood actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California after a recall election had the Democratic Governor Gray Davis thrown out of office.
On the Indonesian island of Bali hundreds of relatives and survivors from 2002's Bali bombings held a memorial service for the dead one year on from the tragedy. A memorial service was held on the cliffs overlooking Kuta Beach, later in the evening another memorial was held on the beach.
China celebrated on October 15 as the country became the third nation to send a man into space. Yang Liwei spent 21 hours in orbit where he ate kung pao chicken with eight treasures rice.
In the Middle East a roadside bomb ripped through a U.S.
diplomatic convoy killing three American security men. It was the first attack on U.S. officials in three years of violence.
Ten people were killed in New York City when the famous Staten Island ferry slammed into a pier crushing passengers to death. The ferry's captain was later sacked though he was known not to be at the controls at the time of the accident in high winds.
On October 16th Roman Catholics around the world gathered in the Vatican City as Pope John Paul II celebrated his 25th anniversary as head of the Church.
In Taiwan's capital Taipei, the Taipei Office 101 office block finally attained its full height of 508 metres (1,667 feet) unseating Malaysia's Petronas Towers as the world's tallest building.
October 24th was a sad day for aviation enthusiasts as three Concordes descended in London's Heathrow Airport in a spectacular finale to the end of the era of supersonic travel.
Bombers struck four times in Baghdad on October 27, killing 35 people and injuring 230. The attacks were aimed at the International Red Cross (ICRC) offices and three police stations. The ICRC later withdrew many of its staff from the country.
In The United States California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger faced the first crisis of his governorship as an army of 13,000 firefighters struggled to contain the worst wildfires seen in California for years, tens of people were killed and thousands of homes burnt to the ground.
The Chinese Parliament Chief Wu Bangguo arrived in North Korea at the end of October for talks over the growing nuclear crisis. In talks with North Korean officials and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il Wu managed to get an agreement from North Korea to rejoin six party talks on the crisis. The other five countries involved in the talks are Japan, Russia, South Korea, the United States and China.
Almost thirty people almost all of Arab origin were killed when suicide bombers decimated a residential compound in the Saudi Arabian city of Ryadh.
Most people living in the compound were Syrian, Egyptian and Lebanese. Ahmed Qurie was sworn in as the new Palestinian Prime Minister on November 12. Qurie also known as Abu Ala became the states second Prime Minister this year Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, resigned from the position in September after disagreements with Yasser Arafat.
Construction of the highly controversial West Bank Barrier continued through out the year. Ground was broken for the project in 2002 between Qalqilya and Jenin. Upto this point about 150 kilometres of the wall has so far been built.
American President George W Bush became the first President to be invited on a state visit to Britain since Woodrow Wilson in 1918. Bush dined at stayed at Buckingham Palace against a backdrop of thousands of protesters who gathered on London's streets to demonstrate against the U.S. President. In an echo of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad, a papier mache statue of Bush was pulled down in Trafalgar Square to the cheers of demonstrators.
On November 15 two bombs went of outside synagogues in the Turkish capital, five days later another two bombs went off in Istanbul this time outside the British Consulate and the headquarters of HSBC bank. The bombs were thought to be timed to match President Bush's visit to the U.K. So far more than 130 people have been detained in connection with the bombings and 21 people have been charged, though most with aiding or membership in an illegal organisation.
A Velvet Revolution took place in Georgia in November.
Opposition supporters stormed the parliament building in Tbilisi, while the country's president Eduard Shevardnadze was rushed out of the building by his security.
After initially promising to regain control, Shevardnadze finally stood down, saying he didn't want to see any bloodshed in Georgia.
In the United States a Virginian jury found John Muhammad guilty of capital murder and he was sentenced to death. Muhammad was found to be the Washington sniper who terrorised suburban neighbourhoods when he killed thirteen people with a snipers rifle.
The first two of seven foreign backpackers taken hostage in Colombia in September were released at the end of November. The Colombian rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN) who kidnapped them hailed it as a propaganda victory and said they would release the remaining five hostages soon.
In Russia a suicide bomber on a commuter train killed 45 people. Once again the bombing was blamed on Chechen rebels. The Emergencies Ministry in Moscow said more than 160 people had been injured in the blast, which took place in Stavropol region north of Chechnya where separatists have been battling Russian forces for more than a decade.
The year was rounded off by the United States' successful capture of Saddam Hussein. Working with Kurdish forces 600 troops surrounded a 'spider hole' just outside of Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. The former Iraqi President gave himself up without a shot being fired. Iraqi journalists in Baghdad erupted in cheers as the Head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer told a news conference, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him." - Copyright Holder: CCTV (China) - NO RESALE MAINLAND CHINA
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