Faroese Prime Minister's Office announces that from then on the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's Office would use a new version of the Faroese Coat of Arms. The colours were inspired from the Merkið (flag) and yellow/gold was added. The new Coat of Arms depicts a Ram on a blue shield ready to defend. It can be used by the Government Ministries and by Faroese embassies, but some still use older versions of the Coat of Arms.
PalestinianGeneral Haj Ismail Jabber is discovered to have been claiming the payroll for 37,000 members of the Palestinian Authority's National Security force when only 30,000 members exist. The difference of $2 million is kept by General Jabber each month. (HaAretz)
At least three persons suspected in involvement in the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings blow themselves up in an apartment building in the Madrid suburb Leganés as police officers try to arrest them. Besides the suspects, one police officer is killed and 11 injured. (CBC)
At least two Shiite Muslim followers of militantIraqicleric, Moqtada Sadr, are killed early in the day after throwing themselves in front of United States tanks during a demonstration in Baghdad. (AFP)
Supporters of Moqtada Sadr outside a coalition military base in Najaf, Iraq throw rocks and fire shots. Spanish troops and Iraqi police return fire. Nineteen people (including some soldiers) are killed from the fire. (BBC)(VOA)
Mordechai Vanunu seeks to renounce his Israeli citizenship to avoid confinement to the nation after his release from jail. (Reuters)
For the first time in six years, a Norwegian policeman is killed in the line of duty. (Aftenposten)
Economists from Harvard and UNC - Chapel Hill determine that peer-to-peer file sharing and music downloads "have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero, despite rather precise estimates." (NYT)
A United States government study finds that an African-American woman was 23 times more likely to be infected with AIDS than is a white woman. Recent studies suggest that 30 percent of all black bisexual men may be infected with HIV. (NYT)
After "serious social resonance", the Duma's United Russia majority backpedals from outright support of a billbanning public protests in many public places. (Moscow Times)
ABC reports that British government sources believe that suspects arrested last week in the UK may have been plotting to make an improvised chemical weapon using the toxic agent osmium tetroxide. (ABC/US)(BBC)
Iraqi insurgents and rebellious Shiites challenge Coalition occupation forces. At least 30 Iraqis are killed. Sixteen Iraqis died in battles with Marines in Fallujah. At least 18 American soldiers and more than 116 Iraqis have died in three days of clashes. A Salvadoran soldier and one from Ukraine also are killed. (AP)(Democracy Now!)
United States civilian administrator Paul Bremer states that there is "no question" that coalition forces are in control. "I know if you just report on those few places, it does look chaotic. But if you travel around the country ... what you find is a bustling economy, people opening businesses right and left, unemployment has dropped." (CNN)
Study reports estimates of how long it took for the last four reversals of the Earth's magnetic field. It also reports that the turnarounds occur more quickly nearer the equator than at higher latitudes closer to the poles. (MSN)
Militants inside the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque shoot at US Marines, and Lt. Col. Brennan Byrne orders his men to return fire. "If they use the mosque as a military machine, then it's no longer a house of worship and we strike", he said. (AP)
30 Americans and more than 150 Iraqis are dead in the fighting for the city in Fallujah. A U.S. helicopter hits militants in a mosque with three missiles; 40 individuals are killed in the mosque. Marines and rebels continue to exchange fire. (TWEAN)
South Korea announces the deployment of 3,700 soldiers in Iraq by August, despite recent attacks. The augmentation will make it the coalition's third largest contingent. (World Tribune)
Coalition forces retake Kut, meeting little opposition.
US Marines resume their advance into Fallujah, after a pause to allow humanitarian supplies to enter the city. An attempt to use the pause to negotiate terms of surrender fails when the representatives from the city fail to show.
Iraq marks the anniversary of Saddam Hussein's fall with fighting and bloodshed. Kurds, in the relatively stable north, celebrate with parties and the melting of an ice statue of the ousted dictator. (Al Jazeera)
Food and sanitation are allegedly being denied to more than 2500 people who were arrested in Nepal over the last few days for protesting against the suspension of democracy. (Morning Star)
Three European researchers say that if Greenland's average temperature were to increase by 3 °C (5.4 °F) or more, its massive ice sheet would melt, gradually swamping coastal communities as seas rise 7 metres (23 feet) over the next 1,000 years. They hypothesize that the upward trend of worldwide carbon dioxideemissions could cause this. (Indianapolis Star)
Gunmen shoot down a helicopter during fighting in western Baghdad. Rebels threaten to kill and burn a civilian, Thomas Hamill, unless the Alliance troops end their assault on Fallujah by 6 am. The deadline passes with no word on Hamill's fate. (Tribune India)
President Bush, praying with U.S. troops on Easter Sunday at a military base hit hard by hostilities in Iraq, acknowledges that it had been "a tough week" and it is unclear if the violence would ebb soon. (Reuters)[permanent dead link]
A new Iraqi battalion refuses to support Coalition forces in the town of Falluja after a command failure which lead to miscommunication over their role in the area. (BBC)
Canadian scientists report on a study of mammals from around the world that the species with the best-endowed males live in polar regions, rather than in more equatorial climates. (Toronto Star)
West Indies captain Brian Lara sets the highest score in Test cricket - 400 not out on the third day of the fourth Test against England in Antigua. He makes his 400 in 773 minutes off 582 balls, hitting 43 fours and four sixes. (BBC)
Hungarian police detain a Hungarian citizen of Palestinian origin and two Syrian men who are alleged to have been planning to blow up a Jewish museum in Budapest and assassinate Israeli president Moshe Katsav who arrived to attend the museum's inauguration ceremony. (HaAretz)
The Australian Family Court allows a thirteen-year-old child, born female, to start preliminary hormone treatment: the child identifies as being male and has been suffering from gender dysphoria. (transcript)(The Australian)
India beats Pakistan 2-1 in the historic friendship Test cricket series. This is India's first away win after 11 years and the first against archrivals Pakistan, in Pakistan.
Long-time Canadian NDPmember of ParliamentSvend Robinson admits that he stole a piece of jewelry at a public sale in what he describes as "a moment of total, utter irrationality." He states he has turned the ring into police, with whom he is cooperating, and that he is putting his career on hold, taking medical leave to obtain psychological help. The auction house later accepted Svend's apology and decided not to press charges, but a special prosecuter was appointed by the government to weigh the decision of whether to prosecute Robinson.(CBC)
Three planets are discovered via gravitational microlensing orbiting stars many light years away, including one that is more than three times farther away than the previous record holder. (Space.com)
Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa submits a report on the constitutional development to NPC, asking Beijing's permission to reform the way HK's legislature and the top leadership are chosen in 2007 and 2008.
Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad says the "life of an unbeliever has no value, it has no sanctity" and states that several Islamicmilitant groups are planning a terrorist attack on London, making such an attack inevitable. (Reuters)
In Kosovo, a JordanianUN police officer opens fire upon a convoy of UN police officers killing two female Americans and injuring eleven others. The attack reportedly stemmed from an argument between American and Jordanian UN police over Iraq policies. (BBC)
Ten Iraqi Kurds and North Africans are arrested by UK police on suspicion of violating the Terrorism Act 2000. The arrests are made in dawn raids in Greater Manchester and other parts of the North and Midlands. (BBC)
The law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell makes public a 463-page report on accounting and corporate governance issues affecting oil giant Royal Dutch/Shell. The report, prepared at the request of Shell's audit committee, explains how lax standards have allowed the company to vastly overstate the extent of its oil and natural gas reserves. (company website)
Three car bombs explode outside police stations in Basra, killing 68 people and wounding over 100 more. Iraqi officials blame suicide bombers for the terrorism. 23 of the casualties are school children. A fourth car bomb explodes in Zubeir, south of Basra, killing three and wounding four. British soldiers assisting the wounded are pelted with stones, injuring four, two seriously. (BBC)(NYT)
Ryongchon disaster: at least 154 people are killed and over 1200 are injured, according to the Red Cross, in a massive explosion after a train carrying explosives came in contact with live electrical wires in Ryongchon, North Korea. 1850 homes were destroyed and thousands more damaged. (BBC)(BBC)(NYT)
Palestinian gunmen attack a police station in the Gaza Strip, freeing three men arrested for the October 2003 bomb attack against an American diplomaticconvoy. A fourth man arrested for the bombing refuses to leave the police station. (AP)
A major fire in downtown Bangkok leaves thousands of residents homeless. Hundreds of buildings, including several hotels, are destroyed in the area near the Australian and German embassies. (AP)
A bomb in Baghdad's Sadr City market kills 12 Iraqis. In a separate incident, five US soldiers are killed in a rocket attack on a military base north of Baghdad. (CNN)(AP)
Leaders of Australia and Bulgaria visited their troops Sunday. Australian Prime Minister John Howard joined Australian troops in Baghdad for ceremonies honoring the country's war dead. Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov visited his country's troops two days after a Bulgarian soldier was shot dead in Karbala, the sixth from that country to die in the war.
In an open letter to Tony Blair, 52 former high ranking British diplomats, including former ambassadors to Iraq and Israel, condemn the Prime Minister's foreign policy stance in the Middle East as "doomed to failure" and also condemn George W. Bush's recent endorsement of Ariel Sharon's offer to withdraw settlers from the Gaza Strip while leaving some in the West Bank as "one-sided and illegal and which will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood."[2]
Authorities in Jordan announce that they have broken up an attempt to set off massive explosions in Amman, possibly including the release of toxic chemicals. Alleged targets include the office of the Prime Minister, Jordanian intelligence headquarters, and the US embassy. The plot is attributed to Al Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (CNN)
Three Irishmen arrested in Colombia in August 2001 on charges of training FARC rebels are acquitted. (BBC)
Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen (13) becomes the world's youngest international Grandmaster (GM), and the second youngest ever, after four wins and four draws out of nine games in the 6th Dubai Open Chess Championship. (Aftenposten)
A bomb explosion and gun battle occur in Damascus, Syria between security forces and a "terrorist group," in which four people are killed and a vacant United Nations building badly damaged. The identity and motives of the attackers is unclear but Islamist militants are the prime suspects. (BBC).
South African president Thabo Mbeki is sworn in for a second term after being overwhelmingly reelected on April 14. The event is marred by controversy over the attendance of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe.[4]
Intense fighting breaks out in Fallujah as U.S. forces respond to attacks on their positions by insurgents. Artillery and AC-130 gunships are used to bombard guerrilla positions, but the number of casualties is as yet unknown. (BBC)
According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 71 percent of Iraqis see the U.S. troops in their country as "occupiers" while 19 percent see them as "liberators," although 61 percent say that ousting Saddam Hussein was worth any hardships they had suffered. Still, 57 percent would like U.S./British forces to leave immediately. (CNN)(USA Today)
Cable TV giant Comcast abandons its US$66bn bid to take over Disney, citing a lack of interest from the Disney board. (BBC)
Google announces plans for an initial public offering to raise as much as US$2.72 billion. The IPO will be unconventional in that it will use an auction process and a complex averaging formula designed to prevent brokers' elite customers from winning more shares than average investors. (SF Chronicle)(The Age)
Ten U.S. soldiers are killed in three attacks in Iraq, raising the number of U.S. combat deaths in April to 126. More U.S. troops have been killed this month than during the six weeks of "major combat" in 2003. (Washington Post)[permanent dead link]
Federal authorities file the first criminal charges under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 against a group that had spammed ads for allegedly worthless "diet patch" products. (Detroit Free Press)
U.S. newscast Nightline is taken off the air by several stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group because of its planned airing of a list of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Sinclair claims it is a political ploy, while network ABC says it is meant as "an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country.
President George W. Bush expresses his "disgust" at images of Iraqi prisoners being mistreated by U.S. soldiers: "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people."[6]
Macedonian officials admit that they staged a bogus gun-battle with "terrorists" in March 2002 and that they knew the seven men slain had no terrorist connections. Four members of the security forces face murder charges for their staged killing.[7]
