YEAR IN REVIEW 2001: CHRONOLOGY

April The Court concludes that Microsoft maintained its monopoly power by anticompetitive means and attempted to monopolize the Web browser market, both in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, in his "conclusions of law" at the end of the second phase of the U.S. government's suit against Microsoft Corp., April 3 1 Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame, a Tutsi, is nominated by the Rwandan Patriotic Front to run for president of Rwanda; he has been acting as interim president since Pasteur Bizimungu resigned the post (see March 23) and is duly elected to office on April 17. Nineteen-year-old American Michelle Kwan wins the women's title at the world figure-skating championships in Nice, France, with a program that includes seven triple jumps; Kwan had captured this title in 1996 and 1998 as well. 2 Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffers a stroke and is rushed to a Tokyo hospital; he dies on May 14 after having lain in a coma for 43 days. (See April 5.) A cyclone, the third in two months to hit Madagascar, destroys the coastal town of Antalaha. Zambia's former longtime president, Kenneth Kaunda, officially announces his retirement from politics just a few months before the presidential elections that he was expected to enter. 3 Leaders of the European Union and the Organization of African Unity hold the first African-European summit in Cairo. The Michigan State University Spartans win the NCAA men's Division I basketball tournament by defeating the University of Florida Gators 89-76; the previous day the women's tournament had been won by the University of Connecticut Huskies when they beat the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers 71-52. 4 The government of South Korea orders some 85% of the country's livestock markets closed in an attempt to end an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that had struck livestock in South Korea and Japan in recent days. The United Nations Development Programme issues a report saying that bad government is frequently a major cause of poverty. Waiting, a novel by Chinese migr writer Ha Jin, wins the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction; the book had earlier won the 1999 National Book Award. 5 The Diet (parliament) elects Yoshiro Mori of the Liberal-Democratic Party prime minister of Japan, replacing Keizo Obuchi. (See April 2.) A computer glitch closes down the London Stock Exchange for nearly eight hours on the last day of Great Britain's fiscal year. The Turkish Grand National Assembly votes down a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed a president a second term in office; the measure had been supported by Pres. Suleyman Demirel and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. 6 At the end of a 10-week trial beset with controversy, Nawaz Sharif, who had been deposed as prime minister of Pakistan in October 1999, is found guilty of hijacking and terrorism and is sentenced to life imprisonment. 7 The World Health Organization reports that more than two-thirds of the world's nations do not maintain safe blood supplies. Momcilo Krajisnik, a Bosnian Serb leader, appears before an international war crimes tribunal in The Hague to face charges of genocide. In a bid to reduce its dependence on diminishing oil reserves, Oman begins exporting gas; the first shipment, bound for South Korea, is carried out of the port of Qalhat. 8 Pres. Hugo Bnzer Surez declares a state of emergency in Bolivia after five days of protest, which erupted in Cochabamba over a plan to raise water rates 35%, virtually shut down the country; the water plan is dropped on April 11, but antigovernment protests continue. A tilt-rotor aircraft being used in a U.S. Marine Corps training exercise in Arizona crashes, killing all 19 marines aboard. 9 Eduard Shevardnadze is reelected president of Georgia with what some observers believe is an improbably large margin of victory. The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) party of Konstantinos Simitis wins a narrow majority in the Greek parliamentary elections. German race-car driver Michael Schumacher wins the San Marino Grand Prix in his Ferrari, making a clean sweep of the first three events of the season; he had previously won the Australian (March 12) and Brazilian (March 26) Grand Prix races. Fijian golfer Vijay Singh wins the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Ga., with a final score of 10 under par. In the first single-drama production broadcast live on American television in almost 40 years, a revival of Fail Safe, the 1964 film by Sidney Lumet, is shown on CBS television; reviews are generally favourable. 10 The winners of the Pulitzer Prizes are announced at Columbia University, New York City; recipients of journalistic awards include the Washington Post and the Denver Post, and in arts and letters the winners include Jhumpa Lahiri for fiction and Donald Margulies for drama. The British Home Office proposes that pubs be permitted to serve drinks past 11 PM, the cutoff time that has been in effect since World War I. 11 David Irving, a British right-wing historian, loses the lawsuit he brought against Deborah Lipstadt, an American writer; Irving claims that she libeled him by calling him a Holocaust denier in her book Denying the Holocaust, but the judge rules that Lipstadt's description of Irving is accurate. The Egyptian government approves the sale of a parcel of land near Cairo for the construction of a private French-language university, which will open in 2001. 12 Prime Minister Andris Skele of Latvia resigns as a result of a disagreement over privatization issues; on April 25 Pres. Vaira Vike-Freiberga names Andris Berzins to replace him. The National Office of Electoral Processes announces that Pres. Alberto K. Fujimori of Peru must face Alejandro Toledo in a runoff election; Toledo's supporters had alleged electoral fraud. (See May 28.) 13 Government leaders of the 11-member Council of the Baltic Sea States meet in the Danish town of Kolding; discussions centre on relations with Russia and increasing the prominence of the Baltic region in Europe. South Africa announces plans to construct a deepwater port at Coega, Eastern Cape province; the port, to be built in 2000, is visualized as the centre of a new industrial zone. 14 Explosions at Ndjili International Airport in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, triggered by a fire in an ammunition dump, kill more than 100 people. The Nasdaq Composite Index, which reflects the performance of a number of mostly high-technology stocks, falls 10% in a single day, the most precipitous drop in three years; the index bounds back by 7% on April 18, however. The top prize of the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva is awarded to the Swedish-made Aqua Barrier, a temporary flood barrier that can be erected easily and quickly. 15 A team of scientists in Australia announces the discovery of the fourth largest crater in the world, located in Western Australia near Shark Bay; researchers believe it may be the result of the impact that caused a mass extinction of terrestrial life in the late Triassic or Permian Period. U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton proclaims the creation of the Giant Sequoia National Monument, a 133,000-ha (328,000-ac) area in the Sierra Nevada in California. A new eight-lane highway bridge connecting the cities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mex., across the Rio Grande is formally opened; the route handles about 40% of all merchandise that moves overland across the U.S.-Mexico border. 16 The International Monetary Fund holds its spring meeting in Washington, D.C.; protests, while smaller than those that assembled for the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Wash., in December 1999, nonetheless bring the city to a standstill. The London Marathon is won by Antnio Pinto of Portugal, with a time of 2 hr 6 min 36 sec, and by Tegla Loroupe of Kenya, with the best women's time of 2 hr 24 min 33 sec. 17 Israel informs the United Nations that it will withdraw all its forces from Lebanon by July 7; the action will end its 18-year occupation of an area in southern Lebanon that Israel called a security zone. Dutch architect and author Rem Koolhaas is named the winner of the 2000 Pritzker Architecture Prize; the award is presented in ceremonies in Jerusalem on May 29. Business Week magazine reports that in 1999 the average pay of a corporate chief executive officer rose 17% over 1998 levels and that the average CEO in 1999 received 475 times what the average blue-collar worker was paid. The Boston Marathon is won by Kenyan Elijah Lagat, who just barely beats out Gezahenge Abera of Ethiopia with a time of 2 hr 9 min 47 sec; in the women's race Catherine Ndereba of Ethiopia triumphs with a time of 2 hr 26 min 11 sec. 18 The European Roma Rights Centre files a suit in the European Court of Human Rights in which the government of the Czech Republic is accused of racial discrimination in education; the suit is brought on behalf of 18 Roma (Gypsy) families who say that their children were placed in schools for the mentally deficient because of their race. "Ant Noises," an outrageous new art exhibit that follows up on the 1997 "Sensation" show and features works by Damien Hirst, Ron Mueck, and Jenny Saville among others, opens for a private showing at London's Saatchi Gallery; it opens to the public on April 20. 19 The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, votes to ratify the START-II treaty; the Duma (lower house) had approved the treaty, which called on Russia to halve its strategic arsenal, on April 14. A Philippine Airlines Boeing 737 airliner crashes in the Philippines upon its landing approach, killing all 131 people aboard. The Oklahoma City National Memorial, built to commemorate the 168 victims of the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, is officially dedicated. 20 According to a report circulated by the Associated Press, South Korean military and police forces executed at least 2,000 political prisoners early in the Korean War (1950-53). Paleontologists announce that they have discovered the fossilized heart of a dinosaur in a skeleton found in South Dakota; it appears to have four chambers and one aorta, which suggests that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded. 21 Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf announces that henceforth "honour killings" of women who are felt to have shamed their families will be legally treated as murders. French automobile manufacturer Renault agrees to purchase Samsung Motors of South Korea for an estimated $340 million-$350 million plus $200 million in debts; Renault acquired a 37% stake in the Japanese carmaker Nissan in 1999. UNICEF reports that the warring sides in Afghanistan have agreed to a three-day truce to permit a polio-immunization drive to take place. 22 On the first day of official celebrations commemorating the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil, a "march of the excluded" led by Brazilian Indians is broken up by military police in the town of Prto Seguro, Bahia state. Months after the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service had ordered the Miami, Fla., relatives of Elin Gonzlez to return the boy to his Cuban father's custody, agents stage a predawn raid and forcibly return Elin to his father. (See January 10 and June 28.) 23 Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim rebel group from the Philippines, takes 21 European and African tourists and Malaysian and Filipino workers hostage on the Malaysian island of Sipitang; Philippine Pres. Joseph Estrada rejects their ransom demands. (See August 27.) The archbishop of San Salvador, Fernando Senz, asks the El Salvador government to pardon two soldiers who have served 19 years for the rape and murder of three American nuns and a social worker in 1980. In Las Vegas, Nev., Brazilian rider Rodrigo Pessoa wins the World Cup 2000 competition in horse show jumping for a record third year in a row; his mount is the French-bred stallion Baloubet. 24 Seven children are wounded when a gunman fires into a crowd at the main entrance to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. 25 In the world weight lifting championships, held in Sofia, Bulg., Donka Mincheva of Bulgaria breaks her own world record set in 1999 for the snatch in the women's 48-kg (105.5-lb) division, and Halil Mutlu of Turkey breaks a world record in the clean and jerk in the men's 56-kg (123-lb) class. Small Square in the historic centre of Prague is renamed to honour Franz Kafka; a house in which the author lived was situated on the square. 26 A major exhibit of African art, "Art and Oracle: Spirit Voices of Africa," opens to the public at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art; two days earlier the collection had been blessed by a Yoruba priest. Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont signs into law a measure allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions that confer the same legal rights as those pertaining to marriage. 27 AT&T sells 360 million shares of tracking stock in a subsidiary, AT&T Wireless Group, in the largest initial public offering of stock in U.S. history. Scientists in France announce that they have successfully used gene therapy to cure three babies born with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), which otherwise would have doomed them to live in a sterile, controlled-atmosphere bubble. 28 After the resignation of Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema on April 19, Giuliano Amato is approved for the post by a narrow margin of votes in Parliament, and he sets about forming Italy's 58th government since World War II. The U.S. Department of Justice and 17 states ask Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to break Microsoft Corp. into two competing companies. (See June 7.) A U.S. federal judge agrees with five major music publishers that MP3.com, a company that distributes recorded music free over the Internet, is acting in violation of copyright laws. (See July 26.) 29 A Japanese tourist and a tour group bus driver are beaten to death in Todos Santos Cuchumatn, Guat., by a mob of some 500 people who reportedly believe that the tourists planned to steal the villagers' children. A major exhibit titled "Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga" opens at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.; the show features 300 items from 29 lenders and will travel to several other cities in the U.S. and Canada. Lennox Lewis of Great Britain knocks out American Michael Grant in the second round of a title fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City and retains the World Boxing Council and International Boxing Federation heavyweight titles. 30 Ceremonies to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War are held at the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; in a gesture of goodwill by the government, some 12,000 prisoners are released. Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, is the first company to buy the Airbus A3XX, the new generation of jumbo jet airliner; an order is placed for 10 of the huge craft. (See September 29.) August All the crew from the 6th, 7th and 8th compartments moved over to the 9th. There are 23 people here. We decided to do this because of the accident. None of us can get to the surface. . . . It's too dark to write here and I'm writing blindly. It seems we have no chance, no more than 10-20 percent. I hope that at least someone will read this.excerpts from the note written probably on August 12 or 13 and found on the body of Capt.-Lieut. Dmitry R. Kolesnikov aboard the sunken Russian submarine Kursk, as read by Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, commander in chief of the Russian navy, to the families of the crew in Murmansk, Russia, in October 1 The Steel Dragon 2000, the world's largest rollercoaster at 97 m (318 ft) in height, 2.4 km (1.5 mi) in length, and nearly four minutes in duration, opens at Nagashima Spaland, an amusement park in western Japan. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany's newspaper of record, gives up the use of the reformed German that had been agreed to by German-speaking countries in 1996 and returns to publishing in the traditional language. 2 Republican Party delegates, meeting at their national convention in Philadelphia, nominate Texas Gov. George W. Bush and former secretary of defense Richard Cheney as the party's candidates for president and vice president of the United States. (See August 16.) A number of Chinese, frustrated at their inability to obtain Hong Kong residency permits, set fire to the Hong Kong immigration offices. 3 The former president of Indonesia, Suharto, is formally charged with corruption. (See May 29 and September 28.) An official with South Korea's Ministry of Unification announces plans to rebuild the Pyongyang-Seoul railroad, which had been severed in 1945; ground is broken on September 18. (See June 25 and August 15.) Sri Lankan Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga proposes a new constitution that will give increased autonomy to Tamils in hopes of ending the war with Tamil separatists; she is forced to postpone voting indefinitely on August 8, however. (See June 7.) 4 The UN Security Council extends and strengthens the mandate of the peacekeepers in Sierra Leone but does not order more troops, notwithstanding the request for the additional help by the commander of the force. (See July 15.) More than 400 new forest fires are ignited by lightning in the western United States on a day during which 70 major fires, 15 of them in Montana, are burning 300,000 ha (747,000 ac) of land. (See August 18.) 5 Twenty-two years after authorization was granted to do so, United Nations peacekeepers begin spreading out in force to guard the border between Israel and Lebanon. (See May 24.) Chicago-based United Airlines cancels 156 flights because of a shortage of pilots, who, since their contract lapsed in April, have been refusing to work overtime; a tentative settlement is reached on August 26. 6 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei orders the Iranian legislature to drop a bill-which had been the centrepiece of the legislation to be considered since the electoral victory of the reformists earlier in 2000-to permit a free press; two days later Bahar, the last major reformist newspaper, is ordered closed. A conference of evangelical Protestants from 209 countries meeting in Amsterdam concludes with the issuance of a charter for future evangelical work. 7 The U.S. National Academy of Sciences reports that sites where nuclear bombs were built are likely to remain unacceptably toxic for tens of thousands of years; the report also notes the existing risk of contaminants' migrating to nearby areas. An agreement is signed between the U.S. government, the state of Michigan, and five Native American tribes to change the fishing method permitted Native Americans in the Great Lakes in northern Michigan; the measure is intended to rebuild fish populations and improve relations between whites and Native Americans. It is announced that by the decision of the International Court of Arbitration, Andersen Consulting must pay its parent firm Arthur Andersen $1 billion and give up the Andersen name for which it is allowed to become an independent company. 8 A bomb explodes in a pedestrian underpass in Moscow's Pushkin Square at the evening rush hour, killing 12 people; Russian authorities believe it is an act of Chechen terrorism, but Chechen spokesmen deny it. Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy prime minister and the leader of the opposition to Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, is convicted of sodomy and sentenced to nine years in prison. The Supreme Court of Chile rules that former dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte is not entitled to immunity from prosecution, clearing the way for a possible trial. (See March 2 and December 1.) 9 Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., announces the recall of 6.5 million tires, citing a tread-separation problem that has led to 46 deaths to date, though it will take up to a year to replace the tires; the company is faced with 50 lawsuits and a federal investigation relating to the problem. Prices of stock for Eli Lilly and Co. drop 31% following news that patent protection for the firm's top-selling pharmaceutical, the antidepressant Prozac, will end two years sooner than expected; the company can expect to lose billions of dollars in revenue as vastly cheaper generic substitute drugs go on the market. 10 Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, the world's first female prime minister, retires, and her daughter, Pres. Chandrika Kumaratunga, appoints Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to the post; Bandaranaike dies on October 10. Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chvez Fras becomes the first head of state to visit Iraq since the Persian Gulf War when he meets with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad; the stop is part of his tour to encourage unity among OPEC countries. 11 Veerappan, a legendary bandit in India, issues a list of new demands to be met before he will release his hostage, the at least equally legendary movie star Rajkumar, whom he kidnapped two weeks previously. (See November 15.) 12 The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sinks in the Barents Sea after the hull is damaged by a series of explosions; rescuers finally reach the submarine on August 21 only to find the vessel flooded and all 118 crew members dead. A week after the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service announced the closure of 260,000 sq km (100,000 sq mi) of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean to long-line fishing, the Natural Resources Defense Council and SeaWeb release 700 chefs from their pledge not to serve swordfish. 13 Paraguay holds an election to fill the vice presidential post left vacant when Luis Mara Argaa was assassinated in 1999; results are so close that the winner, Julio Csar Franco, of the opposition Authentic Radical Liberal Party, is not announced until August 24. 14 In the course of a four-day meeting in Moscow, the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church votes to canonize Tsar Nicholas II, the last of the Romanov dynasty to have ruled Russia, and his family; they were murdered on the orders of communist officials in 1918. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that natural gas prices have doubled in the past year and forecasts winter heating bills as much as 50% higher than the previous winter's; it warns that heating oil may also experience steep price rises. 15 Two hundred members of families separated by the Korean War are permitted to meet each other for the first time since then, half in South Korea and half in North Korea. (See August 3.) Colombian army troops fighting an insurgency in Antioquia province fire on an elementary-school hiking trip, killing six children. Muhammad Ibrahim Egal, the president of Somaliland, calls on the United Nations to grant it a special status, given that international recognition of the self-proclaimed republic is unlikely to be forthcoming, so that it can develop separately from Somalia. 16 Democratic Party delegates, meeting at their national convention in Los Angeles, nominate Vice Pres. Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman, senator from Connecticut, as the Democratic candidates for president and vice president of the United States. (See August 2.) A band of militant Muslims from Tajikistan, intending to destabilize the government of Uzbekistan, attempts to cross Kyrgyzstan but is held down by Kyrgyz troops in a fierce battle. 17 The Royal Ulster Constabulary holds its final graduation parade; it is to be renamed the Police Service of Northern Ireland and restructured in hopes that it will become a force that is supported by Roman Catholics as well as Protestants. A U.S. federal judge issues a ruling that prohibits the distribution of software that makes it possible to copy digital versatile discs (DVDs). 18 The People's Consultative Assembly of Indonesia decides to keep the military included as part of the government until 2009. More than 400,000 ha (1,000,000 ac) are on fire in the western region of the United States, more than at any other time since 1910, and Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt warns that the situation is very likely to worsen. (See August 4.) Brazilian authorities say a group of 250 Indians living near the border with Peru, who were noticed only when they turned out to protest the creation of a national park on their land, are the Naua tribe, thought to have become extinct in the 1920s. 19 A natural gas pipeline explodes near Carlsbad, N.M., sending a fireball into a nearby campsite and killing 11 people. In the German town of Neubrandenburg three young men, dubbed neo-Nazis in the press, beat a 15-year-old boy to death "out of frustration and boredom." 20 Pope John Paul II celebrates mass for more than two million youths at the close of the six-day World Youth Festival held by the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. As the culmination of the Hungarian celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of their nation, King Stephen I is canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church; the Roman Catholic Church canonized him over 900 years ago. Tiger Woods wins his second consecutive Professional Golfers' Association of America championship by one stroke; he is the second player ever to win three major tournaments in one year (the first was Ben Hogan, in 1953). 21 Charges against the Philippine student believed to be responsible for the Love Bug are dropped; the Philippines currently has no law against creating and disseminating such a virus. (See May 4.) 22 Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors admits it had covered up tens of thousands of consumer complaints about its products since 1977 in order to avoid costly and embarrassing recalls. The Golden Venture, an old freighter used to smuggle refugees from China to the United States until it ran aground in 1993, is sunk off the coast of Boca Raton, Fla., to create an artificial reef. 23 In response to widespread anger over his ineffectual leadership, Indonesian Pres. Abdurrahman Wahid revamps his cabinet and signs a decree turning the day-to-day running of the government over to Vice Pres. Megawati Sukarnoputri. A Gulf Air Airbus A320 crashes just before approaching Bahrain International Airport in the capital, Manama, killing all 143 passengers and crew. 24 A record 23.9 cm (9.4 in) of rain fall in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh state, India, more than twice what was forecast; flooding in the state kills at least 120 people in three days, which brings the total of flood-related deaths in India for the year to 400. The journal Nature reports that a team of Finnish scientists has succeeded in creating a stable compound with the element argon, long believed to be inert. 25 Somalia's new legislature, meeting in Arta, Djibouti, elects Abdiqassim Salad Hassan as Somalia's first president in nine years; warlords in Somalia warn that they will not allow this government. (See July 19 and September 21.) A report in Science magazine says that magnetic readings from the Galileo spacecraft suggest that Jupiter's moon Europa has an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface ice. Ceremonies in Weimar, Ger., mark the centenary of the death of Friedrich Nietzsche; speakers include the controversial philosopher Peter Sloterdijk and the actress Libgart Schwarz. 26 U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton arrives in Nigeria to meet with Pres. Olusegun Obasanjo and show his support for the new civilian government; during his four-day trip he will also visit Tanzania and Egypt. Sparked by their retiring star, Cynthia Cooper, the Houston Comets defeat the New York Liberty two games to none to take the Women's National Basketball Association championship in Houston, Texas. The team of youngsters from Maracaibo, Venez., defeats the squad from Bellaire, Texas, 3-2 to claim the 2000 baseball Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. 27 A fire breaks out near the top of the world's second tallest freestanding structure, the 540-m (1,772-ft) Ostankino television tower; most television service to Moscow is knocked out, and three people die as firefighters find it exceedingly difficult to get equipment to the fire. The Philippine separatist group Abu Sayyaf releases 5 of the 21 hostages it seized from a Malaysian resort (see April 23), in addition to a hostage taken later (though it also takes a further hostage); Libya paid ransom for all the released hostages. 28 The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders opens at the United Nations; the four-day meeting of some 1,000 religious leaders explores ways for diverse religions to contribute to world peace. Northern Texas experiences its 59th consecutive day without rain; the drought in the state breaks the Dust Bowl record set in 1934 and tied in 1950. (See September 23.) The New York Stock Exchange begins listing the prices of seven stocks in dollars and cents; previously all stock was listed in fractions. Der Spiegel reports that the new Duden dictionary of the German language has reached bookstores; included are 5,000 new words, including many from the world of computers, such as the new verbs downloaden and mailen. 29 Pres. Andrs Pastrana Arango of Colombia says that his country cannot make progress against the production and trafficking of illegal drugs without a large reduction in demand elsewhere in the world. 30 A subway train entering the Notre-Dame de Lorette station in Paris mysteriously keels over and derails; 24 passengers are injured. East Timorese refugees riot in Kupang, the capital of West Timor, on the first anniversary of the vote for independence. Tatarstan, a largely Muslim republic in the Russian Federation, chooses to begin teaching the Tatar language in the Roman rather than the Cyrillic alphabet; the changeover is expected to be completed in 2011. The Supreme Court in Israel rules that a scholar working on the Dead Sea Scrolls has a copyright to his reconstruction of the text of one of the scrolls. 31 Poland marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity, originally a trade union and later a political party. The journal Nature reports that computer scientists have built a robot that has designed and built other robots. December He who wins by injustice may dominate the present day, but history will always judge him to be a shameful loser. There can be no exception.Kim Dae Jung, on accepting the Nobel Prize for Peace in Oslo, December 10 1 Vicente Fox Quesada is inaugurated as president of Mexico, ending the dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had ruled since 1929. Chinese officials confirm rumours that Gao Changli, the minister of justice, was removed from office in the past week; they make no comments on the reports that say Gao is under investigation for corruption. Charges of kidnappings are brought against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, and his arrest is ordered in Chile. (See August 8.) The U.S. Army announces that it has destroyed the last of the chemical weapons stockpiled on Johnston Island, a coral reef about 1,330 km (825 mi) southwest of Hawaii, and has begun a three-year cleanup of the depot. Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks attends a ceremony opening the Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery, Ala., and she is awarded the first Governor's Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage. 2 Indonesian troops open fire on independence supporters in the secessionist province of Irian Jaya (West Papua). (See June 2.) The popular and highly successful alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins holds its last concert, in Chicago, before breaking up after 13 years together. 3 The annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala celebrates the artistic contributions of tenor Plcido Domingo, rocker Chuck Berry, actress Angela Lansbury, dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and actor Clint Eastwood. Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten wins the Masters Cup in Lisbon and thereby attains the number one tennis ranking for the year. Sandra Baldwin is elected president of the U.S. Olympic Committee; she is the first woman to hold this position. 4 PepsiCo Inc. concludes a deal to purchase the Quaker Oats Co. for about $13.4 billion in stock; the deal brings the popular sports drink Gatorade to PepsiCo, a leader in carbonated beverage brands as well as the owner of Tropicana juices and Lipton teas. U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton creates the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, at 341,360 sq km (131,800 sq mi)-all underwater-the largest nature reserve in the nation. (See November 9.) 5 Pentagon investigators conclude that large numbers of unarmed Korean civilians were killed by U.S. forces at No Gun Ri in 1950, although the exact number killed and the reason for the incident remain unclear. 6 The French Internet service provider Wanadoo (a unit of France Tlcom) agrees to buy the troubled British Internet service provider Freeserve to create the second largest such company in Europe. At a time when many nations around the world are lowering their spending on defense, Australia plans to increase defense spending in light of the increased peacekeeping role being played in the Pacific region by Australian armed forces. Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, two giant pandas on long-term loan from China, arrive at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. Queen Elizabeth II formally opens the Great Court, the redesigned centre of the British Museum in London; the Great Court features a stunning translucent roof that covers the largest (0.8-ha ) covered public square in Europe. 7 The impeachment trial of Philippine Pres. Joseph Estrada opens in the Senate chamber in a suburb of Manila. ( See November 13.) Officials in California declare a stage-three power alert, the first ever in the state, as electricity reserves drop to dangerous levels. Nature magazine reports that a study of mitochondrial DNA from 53 people of diverse ethnic and geographic backgrounds indicates that the human race originated in Africa and that migration from Africa did not begin until 52,000 years ago. Construction begins on the Millennium Ribble Link, the first canal to be built in England in 150 years; the 6.5-km (4-mi) canal will have nine locks and link the Lancaster Canal with the River Ribble. The 45th annual Asia-Pacific Film Festival opens in Hanoi, Vietnam; 450 delegates from 17 countries are in attendance to view 57 films entered into competition. 8 The Florida Supreme Court rules that ballots in some Florida counties must be hand counted in order to determine the winner of the U.S. presidential election in Florida and thus the winner of Florida's electoral college votes, necessary to win the presidency; Republican candidate George W. Bush appeals the decision. (See November 26 and December 12.) An attack by a member of an outlawed fundamentalist Muslim sect kills 20 people at Friday prayers at a mosque in Khartoum, The Sudan. The Russian parliament votes to restore the old Soviet national anthem with new lyrics as the new national anthem of Russia to replace the wordless song by Mikhail Glinka that has been the Russian national anthem since 1990; the change becomes official on December 30. 9 Prime Minister Ehud Barak announces his resignation, forcing new elections in Israel, probably in early February 2001. The Heisman Trophy goes to Chris Weinke, a quarterback for the Florida State University Seminoles; the 28-year-old is the oldest player ever to win the trophy. 10 The Nobel Prizes are presented in ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo. In parliamentary elections in Cte d'Ivoire, the Ivorian Popular Party, the party of Pres. Laurent Gbagbo, wins 96 of the 225 seats; a boycott by Alassane Ouattara's Rally of Republicans party means that the seats for representatives of the Muslim north will remain vacant. (See October 25.) In a runoff presidential election, former president Ion Iliescu of the leftist Social Democratic Party of Romania handily defeats Corneliu Vadim Tudor of the nationalist extremist Greater Romania Party; Tudor characterizes the results as "a victory of the Antichrist." Spain clinches its first-ever Davis Cup international team tennis championship, knocking off Australia three matches to one (with a dead fifth match not played). Former prime minister Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, who had been convicted of abuse of power as well as kidnapping and hijacking in connection with the coup in Pakistan in 1999, is released from prison and flown into exile in Saudi Arabia. (See April 6.) 11 Parliamentary elections in Trinidad and Tobago result in a narrow victory for the United National Congress, the party of Prime Minister Basdeo Panday. Zinedine Zidane, a French midfielder who plays for Juventus of Turin, Italy, is named Player of the Year by FIFA, the world association football (soccer) governing body; the Algerian-born Zidane won the award in 1998 as well. Alex Rodriguez, shortstop for the Texas Rangers professional baseball team, nails down the largest contract in sports history; the team agrees to pay him $252 million over a 10-year period, more than doubling the previous record contract (Kevin Garnett of basketball's Minnesota Timberwolves in 1997). 12 In a complex and divided decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that, though Florida ballots should be hand counted, there are inadequate standards for such a count and there is insufficient time in which to perform it; in effect, the decision grants victory in the presidential election to George W. Bush. (See December 8 and December 18.) In Algiers Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Eritrean Pres. Isaias Afwerki sign a treaty to end their countries' destructive two-year border war; UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are among the observers. Spanish novelist, critic, and newspaper columnist Francisco Umbral is named the 2000 recipient of the Cervantes Prize, the highest honour in Spanish-language letters. General Motors announces plans to phase out production of the Oldsmobile; first produced in 1897, Oldsmobile is the oldest American automobile brand. 13 It is announced in Washington that an international 22-member team has discovered the source of the Amazon River, Carhuasanta Creek on Nevado Mismi mountain in Peru, some 6,400 km (4,000 mi) from its mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules that employers that provide insurance coverage for preventive medicines should also provide coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. Patrick McEnroe replaces his brother, John, as captain of the American Davis Cup tennis team. 14 Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin pardons Edmond Pope, an American businessman who on December 6 had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for espionage. Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Ataollah Mohajerani, known for having overseen liberalized press and artistic freedoms in Iran, is removed from office. 15 On the order of Ukrainian Pres. Leonid Kuchma, the Chernobyl nuclear station is powered down and officially closed.(See June 5.) Botanists in Australia report that they have found a stand of "living fossil" trees of the genus Eidothea in a remote area about 640 km (400 mi) north of Sydney; a similar discovery of a different genus of trees also believed to be unchanged since prehistoric times was reported in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in 1994. The Academy of American Poets announces that the Wallace Stevens Award for poetry will be given to Frank Bidart. 16 George W. Bush names retired general Colin Powell to be his secretary of state when he takes office as president of the United States in January; if confirmed, Powell will be the first African American to hold that post. The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in England, is performed for the 20,000th time; based on an Agatha Christie story, the play opened in the West End in 1952 and has employed 318 actors in the eight roles in the play. The findings of the Galileo spacecraft that suggest that there is water under ice on Jupiter's moon Ganymede are reported to the American Geophysical Union; previous findings had suggested the presence of water on Europa and Callisto. 17 Two Teamsters local unions ratify contracts with the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, ending a dispute that lasted five and one-half years. 18 Members of the electoral college from Nevada have the honour of formally electing George W. Bush to the U.S. presidency when they bring the total electoral vote cast for the Republican candidate to 271, one more than needed for victory. (See December 12.) Popocatpetl, a volcano near Mexico City, produces what observers believe is the biggest eruption in centuries and the fourth major eruption in the past 5,000 years. Aetna Inc., the biggest health insurance company in the United States, announces plans to raise premiums, drop two million customers, and lay off 5,000 workers. The Gillette