Leaders of member countries of ASEAN and the Premier of the People's republic of China held an emergency summit in Bangkok, Thailand in order to address the SARS problem. Among the decisions made were the setting-up of a ministerial-level task force and uniform pre-departure health screening in airports.
Israeli forces assassinate three Palestinian militants in Gaza, including Nidal Salamah, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The action prompts accusations that Israel is trying to sabotage the Palestinian government's attempts to transform itself.
Apple computer revealed a new online music store, entitled the iTunes Music Store, for its iTunes and iPod products. Each song can be downloaded for 99 cents and there is no subscription fee.
Argentinians go to the polls to elect a president for the first time since the December 2001 economic collapse provoked street riots that unseated four presidents in two weeks. Carlos Menem beats fellow PeronistNestor Kirchner in the first round of voting, but the closeness of the vote necessitates a runoff vote scheduled for May 18. Other candidates included former economy minister Ricardo L?ez Murphy, former caretaker president Soyuz spacecraft blasts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome towards the International Space Station, the first launch since the Columbia disaster.
Pitcher Kevin Milwood of baseball team the Philadelphia Phillies, throws a no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants. The Phillies' Ricky Ledee hits a home-run for the game's only run. It is only the ninth time in Phillies history a pitcher throws a no-hitter, and the first time for them since Tommy Greene did it in 1991.
The Dixie Chicks pose nude on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, with political slogans on their bodies, in response to their critics' reaction to lead singer Natalie Maines' derogatory remark against President Bush. [1]
In the Red Lion Area Junior High School cafeteria (Red Lion, Pennsylvania), eighth-graderr James Sheets, carrying multiple weapons, fatally shoots the principal, Eugene Segro, and then fatally shoots himself. Two years earlier, the same school district was the site of a machete attack that injured another principal, two teachers and 11 pupils.
The Canadian federal fisheries minister, Robert Thibault, announces the complete closure of the Atlantic cod fishery, in order to prevent the commercial extinction of cod. [1]
An article in Nature states that the chemical pyrroloquinoline quinone should be classed as one of the B vitamins.
A U.S commanding officer in Baghdad announces that five U.S. soldiers are under investigation for the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from caches of money found in Iraq. [1]
The British and Irish governments publicly ask three questions of the IRA. Depending on clarification offered, the Northern Ireland Executive may be reinstated or the Assembly elections postponed.
Boston Marathon: Robert Cheruiyot wins in 2:10:11, Svetlana Zakharova in 2:25:20 (legally blind American Marla Runyan finishes 5th), Ernst Van Dyk and Christina Ripp win the wheelchair races in 1:28:32 and 1:54:57 respectively.
A bench clearing brawl happens in a baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the St. Louis Cardinals. Apparently, Cardinals player Tino Martinez said some words to pitcher Miguel Batista while on his way to second base. Batista then threw the ball at Martinez, and players from both teams joined the altercation. The Diamondbacks ultimately won the game, 1-0, and the MLB suspends Martinez for four games, and Batista for ten.
United States forces announce that a "disease control" plant in Baghdad has been raided by unknown persons, and strains of cholera, black fever, HIV, polio and hepatitis may have been lost. [1]
United States Army troops found over $656 million dollars in United States and Iraqi currency in sealed metal boxes in several bricked up cottages on the grounds of the homes of members of the Iraqi elite in Baghdad. Preliminary indications were that the money was real uncirculated bills, and not counterfeit.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard announces that Australian forces in Operation Falconer will completely pull out by June.
The Bechtel Corporation is awarded a $680 million contract for the rebuilding of parts of Iraqs electricity system, water supplies and other key infrastructures.
Save the Children announces that U.S forces continue to prevent their airplane from landing in Arbil, Iraq to deliver medical supplies and emergency feeding kits. U.S. officials contend that the area is not yet safe, while the United Nations has already declared Arbil a "safe and secure" area. [1]
Martin Sullivan and Gary Vikan, of the U.S Presidential Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, announced their resignations in protest of the US failure to prevent looting of the Iraqi National Museum. [1]
Sir John Stevens releases the Stevens Report, which states that the police and other security services in Northern Ireland colluded in the murders of many innocent people, including Pat Finucane and Francisco Notarantonio, in the 1970s and 1980s.
In New York, Omar Portee, founder and leader of the United Blood Nation, receives a sentence of 50 years in jail. He had been convicted in August of racketeering, murder conspiracy, credit card fraud and drug selling. [1]
10 Iraqis are reported killed and 16 injured in the city of Mosul. Marines insist they were fired at, survivors say demonstrators only threw stones. [1]
U.S President George W. Bush says that U.S.-led coalition victory in the 2003 Iraq war is "certain, but not complete." [1]
In Quebec, the governing separatist Parti Québécois is defeated in a provincial election. The Liberals are returned to power after nine years and Jean Charest becomes the new premier.
Seven U.SPrisoners of War are released to Coalition troops approaching Tikrit in Northern Iraq. The POWs included two Apache helicopter pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Ronald D. Young Jr and Chief Warrant Officer David S. Williams, and five members of the Army's 507th Maintenance Company; Spc. Shoshana Johnson, Sgt. James Riley, Spc. Joseph Hudson, Pfc. Patrick Miller and Spc. Edgar Hernandez. All seven POWs had previously been shown held captive by Iraqi state television and Al Jazeera. [1]
Poet Linda Gregerson receives the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for her collection Waterborne. The award is presented annually by the Claremont Graduate University for a "mid-career poet". Joanie Mackowski receives the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
The northern Iraqi city of Mosul falls to coalition forces as the Iraqi army's 5th Corps offers a letter of surrender. The only remaining major city left to fall is Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, where some expect the remaining regime loyalists to make their final stand. [1]
Europe's largest civil engineering project, and the world's largest single metro expansion project, is officially opened in Madrid. Metrosur, a 40-kilometre loop of the Madrid metro in the southern suburbs of the city, took under 3 years to complete.
Microsoft announces that its will port its Windows Media Player to Linux, in a remarkable step that acknowledges Linux as a significant competing platform on the desktop [1]
In response to Baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey's April 8 decision to cancel a 15th anniversary celebration of "Bull Durham, sportswriter Roger Kahn cancels a planned appearance at the baseball museum. [1]
British Airways and Air France simultaneously announce that they will retire the supersonic Concorde aircraft later this year. Passenger numbers had never recovered following a crash that killed 113 in 2000. [1] In response, Sir Richard Branson offers to buy British Airways' Concordes for £1 for the use of his Virgin Atlantic Airlines. BA dismisses the offer as a stunt and indicates that the planes will go to air museums. [1]
A fire destroys a boarding school for the deaf in Makhachkala, Russia, killing 28 children, aged 8 to 14. About 100 other children suffer burns and smoke inhalation, 39 of which are in serious condition. [1]
Baghdad falls to coalition forces. American infantrymen seize deserted Ba'ath Party ministries and pull down a huge ironstatue of Saddam Hussein at the Fardus square in front of the Palestine Hotel, as a symbolic ending his autocratic rule of Iraq. Baghdad citizens then dragged the severed head of the statue through the streets of the city. Dozens of people there cheer U.S. soldiers, according to BBC. Much looting of cars and buildings is seen in Baghdad and other cities as the government and police lost control. [1], [1], [1], [1], [1]
The fate of Saddam Hussein remains unknown after a U.S B-1B bomber dropped four 2,000-pound bunker-busting bombs on a building where Hussein was thought to be meeting with his sons and senior aides on April 7. The bombs blew a 60-foot-deep crater in a residential neighborhood that is not under coalition control, refueling speculation about the possible death of Saddam Hussein. British intelligence officials said that they believed Hussein left the targeted building just minutes before it was destroyed, and that he probably survived the attack. [1][1][1][1]
Iraq's ambassador to the U.N Muhammad Ali al-Douri tells reporters that "the game is over." [1]
U.S Undersecretary of State, John Bolton, warns Iran, Syria, and North Korea that they should "draw the appropriate lesson from Iraq". [1]
Hong Kong health officials say that spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome may mean it's going to be around for a while. WHO officials are cautiously optimistic that it can be contained. [1], [1]
The Iraqi ambassador to the Arab League, Mohsen Khalil, announces that "Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities." [1]
Deaths of 3 journalists in Baghdad: Two American air to surface missiles hit the Qatarsatellite station Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad and kill a reporter and wound a cameraman. U.S. Officials said that the offices were not targeted, but were right next to the Iraqi Ministry of Information building which was a target. The nearby office of Arab satellite channel Abu Dhabi is also hit by air strikess. Al Jazeera accuses the U.S. of attacking Arab media to hide facts. On the same day a U.S. tank fires into the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, where almost all remaining foreign journalists are based, and kills two cameramen and wounds three. In the Abu Dhabi case the station airs the picture of Iraqi fire from beneath of the camera. In the hotel case, however, other journalists on the scene deny any fire from or around the hotel. [1], [1], [1]
Baseball Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey cancels a planned celebration for the 15th anniversary of "Bull Durham." Petroskey cites recent comments made by film co-stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon as potential dangers to U.S troops in Iraq. The celebration was to take place April 26 and 27. [1]
In Oakland, California, police fired rubber bullets and beanbagss at anti-war protesters and dockworkers outside the Port, injuring at least a dozen demonstrators and six longshoremen standing nearby. Most of the 500 demonstrators were dispersed peacefully, but a crowd of demonstrators was blocking traffic on private property near the port and fail to disperse after police warnings. Oakland Police Chief said demonstrators also threw objects and bolts at them, and said the use of weapons was necessary to disperse the crowd. He indicated non-lethal projectiles were used to respond to direct illegal action. The longshoremen were caught in the crossfire. A dockworker spokeman reported Police gave two minutes to disperse, then didnot move to arrest people, instead they opened fire. Demonstrators also claim though the rubber bullets were supposed to be shot at the ground, the Police took direct aim at them. Oakland police said 31 people were arrested at the port.
U.S. Secretary of State Powell says that war in Iraq is "drawing to a close". [1]
Embedded NPRjournalists relay reports from a top official with the 1st Marine Division that U.S forces near Baghdad have discovered 20 medium range BM-21 missiles armed with warheads containing deadly sarin and mustard gas that are "ready to fire." [1], [1]
More than a dozen Coalition soldiers, a Knight Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman and two Iraqi prisoners of war are sent for chemical weapons decontamination after exhibiting symptoms of possible exposure to Tabun and Sarin nerve agents and lewisite blistering agents while searching an Iraqi agricultural warehouse and a nearby military compound on the Euphrates river between the cities of Kerbala and Hilla. U.S. soldiers found eleven 25-gallon barrels and three 55-gallon chemical drums, hundreds of gas masks and chemical suits, along with large numbers of mortar and artillery rounds. Initial tests of the chemicals were positive, then a second test was done which came back negative. A third test, conducted by a mobile testing unit provided by Germany confirmed the existence of sarin. Some reports indicate that the chemicals found at the agricultural werehouse may turn out to be pesticides. Further tests are planned in the United States. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said later in a Pentagon briefing that "almost all first reports we get, turn out to be wrong. We don't do first reports and we don't speculate." [1], [1]
British forces step up their presence in the southern city of Basra. According to embedded journalists, the citizens of Basra braved gunfire to dance in the streets and cheer for the British troops. UPI's Chief International Correspondent Martin Walker claimed that he had witnessed at least one Basra citizen kiss a British tank. [1]
In a friendly fire incident, U.S warplanes struck a convoy of allied Kurdish fighters and U.S. Special Forces during a battle in northern Afghanistan. At least 18 people are killed and more than 45 wounded, including senior Kurdish commanders.
The Senate of Belgium approves a change in the nation's war crimes law so that it will no longer apply to citizens of nations with sufficient human rights laws. The House of Representatives had already approved the change. The law had been used in the past to charge such people as George H. W. Bush, Colin Powell and Ariel Sharon with war crimes, and had interfered with Belgium's international relations. [1]
Cubana de Aviacion AN-24 airplane on a flight from the Isle of Youth in Cuba to Havana with 46 passengers on board is hijacked and directed towards the United States. After refueling in Havana the plane flew to Key West, under escort by two US jet fighters. The plane landed safely in Key West. [1]