International Events in April 2000
Apr. 4:
The Obuchi Cabinet in Japan quits.
A U.S. court rules that Microsoft has violated anti-trust laws by illegally protecting its Windows monopoly.
Apr. 5:
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party elects Mr. Yoshiro Mori as the Prime Minister.
Apr. 6:
A special anti-terrorism court in Karachi convicts and sentences the deposed Prime Minister, Mr. Nawaz Sharif to a 15-year life term on charges of hijacking and terrorism.
Apr. 6:
The Zimbabwean Parliament amends Constitution giving the Government the right to seize white-owned farms without compensation.
Apr. 9:
Iran frees 500 Iraqi prisoners of war as a unilateral gesture to improve strained ties following the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The Greek Prime Minister, Mr. Costas Simitis (64) wins mandate for a second five-year term.
Apr. 12:
``Hegemonism cannot monopolise international affairs in the post-cold war era'', says the Chinese President, Mr. Jiang Zemin in Israel on a historic tour, being the first ever by the Head of State of the Communist nation.
``Another Nuremberg is required to put on trial the economic order imposed on the third world'', says the Cuban President Mr. Fidel Castro at the G-77 summit.
Apr. 13:
The Indonesian Government slaps a ban on foreign travel by the former President, Gen. Suharto and places him under ``arrest'' within the confines of Jakarta.
Apr. 14:
The Russian Parliament ratifies the Start-II nuclear arms reduction treaty.
Apr. 15:
The U.S. Justice Department asks the Federal Appeals court in Atlanta to order the relatives holding the Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez to turn the boy over to his father, now in the U.S., waiting for the reunion.
Fifty persons die after blasts rock the airport of the Congo capital Kinshasa.
Zimbabwean squatters kill a White farmer, Mr. David Stevens after abducting him from home.
Apr. 18:
Squatters kill another White farmer, Mr. Martin Olbs (42), in his farm at Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city.
Apr. 19:
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr. Massimo D'Alima resigns.
A Philippines airliner packed with Easter holidaymakers crashes on a resort island near the southern city of Davao leaving 131 dead.
Apr. 21:
The Russian Parliament overwhelmingly ratifies the Comprehensive Test Bank Treaty.
Apr. 22:
The Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez and his father, Mr. Juan Miguel Gonzalez reunite after four and a half months after Federal officials free the boy in a pre-dawn raid in Miami's Little Havana neighbourhood.
Apr. 23:
Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame takes office as the sixth President of Rwanda.
Philippine rebels kidnap 21 persons at the holiday resort of Sipadan island, off Malaysia's Sabah coast.
Apr. 25:
China cracks down on Falun Gong, detains 100 protestors for trying to stage a sit-down in Tiananmen Square.
Apr. 26:
The 58th Government since WWII takes office in Italy under the Prime Minister, Mr. Giuliano Amato.
Apr. 27:
The talks in London between Britain and Zimbabwe to resolve the crisis caused by land takeover by the war veterans fail.
Apr. 28:
The U.N. withdraws its staff from the Jaffna peninsula following the fall of Elephant Pass and further advances by the LTTE.
Apr. 29:
Malaysia's court of appeal upholds the conviction of the former Deputy PM, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim and the six-year prison sentence.