01|In one of the largest demonstrations by the extreme right in Germany in recent years, about 5,000 neo-Nazis march through Munich, recalling a similar march by Adolf Hitler in 1923. The marchers are protesting against an exhibition documenting atrocities committed by Hitler's armed forces during World War II.|
01|After a recent visit to an orphanage, King Hussein of Jordan announces that he will give up his Hashimiyyeh palace near Amman, which has been used as a guest palace, to homeless children. King Hussein will move from the Nadwa palace in central Amman to a residence outside the city. The Nadwa palace will become Jordan's official guest residence.|
02|The Albanian parliament declares a state of emergency in the face of continuing violent protests in Albania. The move comes a day after President Sali Berisha has announced the dismissal of the prime minister, Aleksander Meksi, and the rest of the cabinet. The protests have been sparked off by the collapse of a series of pyramid investment schemes in which many Albanians lost all their savings, but are also an expression of a deeper dissatisfaction with Berisha's government.|
03|Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga is unhurt after a bomb explodes near a house she is visiting in the central town of Nuwara Eliya. Kumaratunga is visiting the town to attend an election meeting, and the attack is believed to be related to election violence. The bomb has apparently exploded prematurely, killing the man who is carrying it and injuring one other person.|
03|More than 120 people die in a railway accident in Pakistan when an express train en route to Karachi runs out of control and is switched to a dead-end line to avoid a head-on collision with the Karachi-Lahore express. The train crashes into a sandbank at the end of the line.|
04|Talks begin in New York with the hope of resolving the conflict over the division of the Korean Peninsula. Meetings are planned between representatives from North Korea, South Korea, China, and the United States. The separate states of North Korea and South Korea were formed in 1948. North Korea is a Communist state and South Korea is strongly anti-Communist, and the Korean War of 1950-1953 became a major conflict between Communist and non-Communist nations. After the war, negotiators were unable to sign a permanent peace treaty, and Korea has been an area of tension ever since.|
04|Israel orders the closure of four offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in East Jerusalem, saying that it will not proceed with a scheduled withdrawal from the West Bank without the closures. The United States, traditionally a firm ally of Israel, is among those who criticize the Israeli move. Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza strip in the Six-Day War of 1967, gaining control of an area occupied by about 1 million Palestinians. The area has been the source of ongoing conflict, but in 1993 Israel and the PLO signed an agreement that called for Israel's staged withdrawal.|
05|Six containers of nuclear waste finally reach the northern German town of Gorleben for disposal, after thousands of protesters from all over the country have attempted to block the railway and road route to the disposal site. Some 30,000 police were needed to clear the way for the containers, and the protest is seen as a success in shifting the country's attitude against nuclear power.|
05|At an extensive site near Montpellier in southern France, scientists discover a large number of dinosaur eggs of a type never seen before. The eggs are between 68 million and 71 million years old and date from a geological period known as the Cretaceous Period. The eggs have been preserved in very good condition, and some are believed to contain dinosaur fetuses.|
06|Cheddi Jagan, president of Guyana since 1992, dies in hospital in Washington D.C. Jagan, who was born in 1918, was a leading figure in his country's struggle for independence from the United Kingdom, which was achieved in 1966. As founder and leader of the People's Progressive Party, he was leader of the opposition from 1964 to 1992. Hours after Jagan's death, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds is sworn in as Guyana's new president.|
06|Michael Manley, prime minister of Jamaica from 1972 to 1980 and 1989 to 1992, dies at the age of 72. Manley achieved respect as one of the great leaders in Caribbean politics and was a signatory of the 1973 treaty that created CARICOM, the Caribbean Community. He also fought for improved conditions for developing countries within the world economic order.|
07|A bomb blast on a bus in one of Beijing's main shopping streets is reported to have killed 2 people and injured 30 others. Responsibility is claimed by Uygur Muslim separatists from China's western region of Xinjiang, who have threatened to continue their violent campaign until they have gained complete independence from China.|
07|President Boris Yeltsin, who has only recently recovered from heart surgery and pneumonia, appoints his chief of staff, Anatoly Chubais, as first deputy prime minister, the number two position in the Russian government. Chubais has been largely responsible for Russia's privatization campaign and is expected to promote further free-market reforms. His economic approach is extremely unpopular with opposition leaders.|
08|In Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Philippines President Fidel Ramos sign an agreement to cooperate on the use of nuclear energy. The two leaders also agree to develop ties in agriculture and industry. President Ramos is on a three-day visit to Pakistan.|
08|In Srinagar in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, three leaders of a Muslim separatist group are killed in a gun battle with Indian police. The region of Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. The majority of Jammu and Kashmir's inhabitants are Muslims and the separatists want the state to be independent from Hindu-dominated India and to become part of Pakistan.|
09|In the Afghan capital, Kabul University reopens for the first time since the Taliban Islamic militia took control of the city in September 1996. The Taliban are a fundamentalist group who have been fighting the Afghan government since 1994. Under the strict new religious order, the university no longer admits female students.|
09|Motor racing world champion Damon Hill fails to start at the Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 1997 season and Hill's first appearance for the Arrows team after his controversial departure from the leading Williams team at the end of his winning season last year. The race is won by David Coulthard for the McClaren team.|
10|Angered by the German government's plans to reduce coal subsidies, thousands of striking miners demonstrate outside political parties' headquarters in Bonn. The proposed cuts are likely to lead to the closure of 10 pits and the loss of up to 50,000 miners' jobs.|
10|President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland dismisses the country's head of armed forces, General Tadeusz Wilecki. The general's attitude has been seen as an obstacle to Poland's negotiations for membership of NATO. One of the conditions for entry into NATO is that there should be civilian control of the army, and Wilecki has been in dispute with the Polish government, trying to maintain the military's authority.|
11|In Japan, 10 workers at a nuclear reprocessing plant north of Tokyo are exposed to radiation after a fire and an explosion. Officials say that the radiation leak is minimal, but the Japanese government criticizes the company for not notifying the authorities of the incident more quickly.|
11|Algerian journalist Salima Ghezali is named international editor of the year by the World Press Review. She has achieved this recognition for her work covering the conflict between the Algerian government and Islamic militants. A military government took control of the country in 1992 to prevent an election victory by an Islamic political party, and thousands of people have died in the ensuing violence.|
12|Mary Robinson, the Irish president, announces that she will not stand for reelection when her seven-year term ends in November 1997. She intends to seek a new role in international diplomacy with the United Nations. Robinson is an extremely popular and successful president who is regarded as having played an important part in transforming Ireland into a modern European nation.|
12|In a cabinet reshuffle, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin announces that he is forming a new government composed of liberal reformers. President Boris Yeltsin, in a move strongly contested by his Communist opponents, has demanded that all members of the government with the exception of Chernomyrdin and Anatoly Chubais should resign.|
12|The Nigerian military government accuses Wole Soyinka, the Nobel prize-winning writer, of treason. Soyinka lives in exile in California, U.S.A., and has been a fierce critic of the government of General Sani Abacha, who seized power in 1993. The treason charges, which carry the death penalty, are in relation to a series of bomb blasts in Nigeria in 1996.|
13|A council of the Missionaries of Charity, a charitable organization that cares for the poor and homeless in Calcutta, India, elects Sister Nirmala as its new Superior General. She succeeds Mother Teresa, who founded the order in 1947, and who has stepped down at the age of 83 because of her failing health.|
13|A Jordanian soldier armed with an automatic rifle opens fire on a group of Israeli schoolgirls, killing seven and wounding several others. The soldier, Mustafa Mousa, is overpowered by fellow Jordanian soldiers after firing for about 30 seconds. The children have been on a school trip to the Island of Peace at Naharim, on the Jordan River at the border between Israel and Jordan.|
14|As the 46th person since January dies in the central Asian country of Tajikistan from typhoid fever, the World Health Organization expresses fears that the outbreak is becoming a widespread epidemic and that the number of cases of the disease in the country could rise to 60,000 in the coming months.|
14|In Auckland, New Zealand, the America's Cup, the famous 146-year-old yachting trophy, is damaged by a Maori activist wielding a sledgehammer. The attacker claims he is protesting against white occupation of New Zealand, but Maori leaders condemn the attack.|
14|Film director Fred Zinnemann dies aged 89. His films From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man for All Seasons (1966) won Academy Awards, and other famous films include High Noon (1952) and The Sundowners (1960). His work often portrays individuals who have the courage to follow their own principles in the face of opposition. Zinnemann was born in Vienna, Austria. He went to Paris to learn film techniques and moved to Hollywood in the late 1920's. He settled in London in the 1960's.|
15|Artist Victor Vasarely dies aged 90. He was born in Pecs, Hungary, but spent most of his life in Paris. Vasarely was known as the master of Op Art, a movement of the 1960's characterized by strong geometric shapes and optical illusions. Vasarely also pioneered kinetic art, in which lines and simple geometric figures are manipulated to give the impression of movement. He championed close links between art and industry, and believed that art should be accessible to all people.|
16|Gawain Jones, a nine-year-old British schoolboy, is the world's youngest chess player to defeat an international master. He beat Malcolm Pein, a chess writer for a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, in a tournament in Stockton in northern England. Jones, who learnt to play at the age of four, won fourth prize in the tournament.|
16|European Union (EU) ministers begin talks in Apeldorn, Netherlands, on how to admit at least 10 more countries within the next few years. Applicants include Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus. Major problems are envisaged with the possible admission of Turkey, which is linking a planned expansion of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) with its membership of the EU.|
17|John Major, prime minister of the UK, visits the Queen at Buckingham Palace and then announces that British elections will be held on May 1, 1997, the final possible date under the country's electoral rules. Major's Conservative Party has been in power since 1979, but opinion polls are showing the opposition Labour Party to have a commanding lead. The prospects are for a hard-fought election campaign.|
17|Allan Boesak, a South African clergyman who campaigned vigorously against the policy of apartheid and who was formerly renowned for his part in his country's fight for democracy that was finally achieved in 1994, appears in court in Cape Town charged with theft and fraud involving large sums of money given to South Africa in foreign aid.|
18|Japanese architect Tadao Ando receives the 1997 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture, awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects and considered the world's top award in its field. Most of his important buildings are in Japan, including religious buildings on Mount Roko, Kobe (1985-1986), and the Church of Light, Osaka (1987-1989). In Europe, he created Unesco's Meditation Space in Paris (1995) and the Japanese Pavilion for the 1992 Seville Expo. Ando is widely considered one of the world's greatest contemporary architects.|
18|Pope John Paul installs a new Roman Catholic bishop in East Timor, a territory that was annexed by Indonesia in 1976 and has been the site of unrest as activists have sought their independence. The United Nations has not recognized Indonesia's claim to the territory. The pope states that he hopes a just solution to the situation can be found.|
19|President Bill Clinton nominates George Tenet to be the head of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Tenet, the acting director of the CIA, is chosen after the previous candidate, Anthony Lake, withdraws because he has come under considerable pressure during questioning by the Senate Intelligence Committee deciding on the appointment.|
19|Willem de Kooning, one of the most influential artists of his time, dies at the age of 92. De Kooning was born in the Netherlands and settled in the United States in the 1920's. In New York he became a leading exponent of abstract expressionism, a movement in which artists use strong shapes and colours to portray emotions. Although he suffered from Alzheimer's disease, a degenerative brain disease that affects elderly people, producing loss of memory, de Kooning continued painting until he was well into his 80's.|
20|A summit meeting begins in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, between the American and Russian presidents, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin. The main issues for discussion are security in Europe, arms control, and the Russian economy. But the most controversial topic is the planned expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) into central and eastern Europe, which Russia sees as a potential threat. NATO was originally established as an alliance of Western nations against the Soviet Union and other Communist countries of Eastern Europe.|
20|A convoy of eight trucks carrying food arrives in Iraq as part of a United Nations (UN) programme that allows Iraq to sell oil in order to buy food and medicine. Since the Persian Gulf War of 1991, in which a military coalition of UN countries fought to force Iraq out of Kuwait, a neighbouring country it had invaded Since then, a UN embargo has prohibited Iraq from selling its oil. But in December 1996, the UN agreed on an oil-for-food programme to prevent undue suffering for the population of Iraq.|
21|Three Israeli women are killed and more than 40 people injured in a cafe in Tel Aviv, Israel, when a Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up. The 28-year-old bomber is believed to have links to Hamas, a militant Islamic group opposed to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.|
21|In Germany, the Leipzig book prizes for work creating better understanding between European people are announced. First prize is received by the Hungarian author Imre Kertesz for his book Diary of a Slave, describing the experience of Jews during World War II. The second prize goes to Antonin Liehme, a Czech writer, for his cultural magazine Lettre International, which is published in Prague.|
22|Comet Hale-Bopp reaches its closest point to Earth, at a distance of 127 million kilometres. The comet, first spotted in the United States independently by Alan Hale of New Mexico and Thomas Bopp of Arizona, is readily visible to the naked eye. Scientists say it is the brightest comet of the 1900's. The nucleus consists of layers of ice, dust, and rock about 40 kilometres in diameter . It has 2 tails, a long, curved yellow dust tail, and a straight bluish plume, formed from gases boiling off from the nucleus as it approaches the sun. The comet will next appear in A.D. 6000.|
22|A Japanese "bullet" train claims a new record for the average speed between two stations. Carrying 1,300 passengers on route from Osaka to Fukuoka, the Nozumi-503 achieves an average of 261.8 kilometres per hour (kph) between Hiroshima and Kokura on the island of Kyushu. The Japanese train, capable of speeds up to 300 kph, regains the record from the French TGV (train a grand vitesse, or high-speed train), which holds the official record with an average speed of 251.2 kph between stations at Paris and St. Pierre des Corps.|
23|President Mobutu Sese Seko makes his first public appearance since his return on March 21 to Zaire from France, where he has undergone surgery for prostate cancer. Civil war has been raging in Zaire and in recent months rebels have gained control over large areas of the country. Observers believe that the rebels, under the leadership of Laurent Kabila, will soon be ready to topple Mobutu's regime.|
24|The Australian federal parliament repeals the Northern Territory's 9-month-old "assisted suicide" euthanasia law. The Senate of the Australian parliament in Canberra votes by 38 to 33 to overturn the Northern Territory's Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, enacted in July 1996, which gives patients the right to request and receive medical assistance to end their lives. With this act, the Northern Territory became the only place in the world where euthanasia has ever been legal. Under the territory's legislation, four people have been helped to die using a system in which terminally ill patients follow a series of instructions on a computer, which then administers a fatal dose of drugs.|
24|In the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, villagers claim to have found a Tasmanian tiger, a wolflike animal thought to be extinct, saying that it has been attacking chickens, dogs, and pigs in hills close to the border with Papua New Guinea. The last known Tasmanian tiger died in an Australian zoo in 1936. Like koalas and kangaroos, the animal is a marsupial, giving birth to its young in an extremely immature state and carrying them in a pouch while they develop.|
25|At the Hollywood ceremony for the presentation of the film industry's Academy Awards, the British film The English Patient scores a notable triumph with a total of nine Oscars, including those for best film, best director (Anthony Minghella), and best supporting actress (Juliette Binoche). The award for best actor is won by Australian Geoffrey Rush for his part as pianist David Helfgott in Shine.|
25|Spain issues a warrant for the arrest of Leopoldo Galtieri, who was president of Argentina from 1980 to 1982, in relation to the killing of three Spaniards during Argentina's "dirty war" of the 1970's and 1980's. Military governments from 1976 to 1983 carried out a campaign to end leftist opposition, during which thousands of people were imprisoned, tortured, and killed, and many of them disappeared and have never been found. A Spanish judge says he is asking the international police organization Interpol to arrest Galtieri if he leaves Argentina.|
26|In San Diego, California, U.S.A., 39 members of a cult commit mass suicide. Followers of the Heaven's Gate cult believe that beings from another world are travelling in a spacecraft alongside Comet Hale-Bopp. They believe they are abandoning this life for some higher form of existence. Covered in purple cloth and wearing black clothing, they kill themselves by taking a mixture of alcohol and drugs.|
26|In Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan resigns in the wake of protests over the employment of foreign mercenaries to quell a rebellion on the island of Bougainville. Activists have been fighting for the island's independence from Papua New Guinea since 1988. The government signed a contract with the British-based company Sandline International to provide the mercenaries. Calls for Chan's resignation have been headed by General Jerry Singirok, head of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force.|
27|Scientists at NASA, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, report that an infra-red camera on the Hubble Space Telescope is not correctly focused and will have a shorter functional lifetime than expected. The Near Infra-red Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) was installed by astronauts on a shuttle mission in February. NICMOS consists of three infra-red cameras maintained at a very low temperature by a block of frozen nitrogen. It appears that the expansion of the nitrogen as it melted caused one of these three cameras to go out of focus, although the other two are functioning correctly. NASA are hoping that they will still be able to obtain most of the desired information from NICMOS.|
28|In the Adriatic Sea, a ship travelling from Albania to Italy carrying Albanian refugees is sunk by an Italian naval vessel. There are 34 survivors, but at least 80 drown. Survivors claim the Italian navy deliberately rammed the ship, as part of a policy to discourage refugees. Italy says it was an accident. Thousands of Albanians have escaped to Italy in recent weeks, seeking refuge from their country's political chaos and violence.|
28|Indian and Pakistani diplomats hold their first talks in three years in an attempt to reduce tension in the area. At the meeting in New Delhi, the two delegations are led by Indian foreign secretary Salman Haidar and Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad. The agenda for the talks includes the disputed territory of Kashmir, as well as economic cooperation.|
29|President Boris Yeltsin of Russia has a meeting in Moscow with leaders from neighbouring countries, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. These countries were all republics of the Soviet Union and are now members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The meeting is intended to improve relations between the countries and to reestablish Russia's role in the region.|
29|The Yala National Sanctuary, Sri Lanka's major wildlife reserve and a popular tourist site, is closed to the public for the fourth time since August 1996. The national park, in the forested southeast of the country, is being used by guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Since 1983, they have been fighting for an independent Tamil state in the north. The LTTE are using the cover of the forests to import arms and ammunition.|
30|In a grenade attack on members of the Cambodian opposition, at least 14 people are killed and more than 100 injured during a demonstration outside the national assembly in Phnom Penh, the capital. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy is thrown to the ground by a bodyguard, and escapes serious injury. The attack is the worst political violence in Cambodia since a coalition government came to power in 1993.|
30|In a surprise move, the Congress Party withdraws from the Indian government coalition. President Shanka Dayal Sharma gives prime minister H. D. Deve Gowda until April 11 to seek a vote of confidence in parliament, and it seems it will be very difficult for him to obtain a majority. Congress is expected to try to form a new government.|
31|Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif plans a constitutional change to remove the president's power to dismiss a government and its prime minister. The measure was introduced in 1985 during the military rule of General Zia ul Haq. The last four elected prime ministers have been removed from office. President Farooq Leghari dismissed prime minister Benazir Bhutto in November 1996 and Nawaz Sharif came to power in the elections that followed.|
31|New York Stock Exchange prices--after falling 140 points on March 2--again plummet when the market reopens after the Easter holiday weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial stocks, a composite of the prices of 30 major companies listed on the exchange, fall 157.11 points, bringing the two-day market decline to 297.22 points, or 4.3 per cent of the total market value.|
