From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
April 2008 was the fourth month of the current leap year. It began on a Tuesday and ended after 30 days on a Wednesday.
[edit] International holidays and other major events
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- An Antonov An-28 operated by Blue Wing Airlines crashes upon landing in Benzdorp, Suriname. All nineteen on board are presumed dead. (BBC News)
- Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008:
- Bagatur is named the acting Chairman of Inner Mongolia, succeeding Yang Jing, who is the new minister in charge of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.(Xinhua)
- Jules Verne, the first European Automated Transfer Vehicle, successfully performs a fully automated docking with the International Space Station. (ESA)
- In a procedural decision, the European Court of Justice overturns the addition of the Kurdish rebel organization PKK to the EU's terrorist blacklist. (BBC News)
- Serbian Minister on Kosovo Slobodan Samardžić submits to UNMIK a plan suggesting Kosovo's division into cantons along ethnic lines. (Tanjug via Portalino)
- Greek and Turkish Cypriots open a crossing at Ledra Street, a main shopping street in Cyprus' divided capital Nicosia that has come to symbolize the island's ethnic partition. (AP via The International Herald Tribune)
- The Iraqi military says a suicide bomber has attacked a checkpoint near Mosul, killing 7 people and wounding 12. (AP via Google News)
- At its summit in Bucharest, NATO invites Albania and Croatia to join the alliance. (Washington Post)
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- The National Assembly of Haiti removes the Prime Minister of Haiti Jacques-Edouard Alexis following a week of food riots in which six deaths had occurred. (Los Angeles Times)
- The President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao meets with the Vice-President-elect of Republic of China (Taiwan) Vincent Siew in the highest level talks between the two sides since 1949. (BBC News)
- The Herald, a government-run newspaper, reports that Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, will not attend the regional crisis meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, to discuss the crisis over the 2008 presidential election. (AP via Google News)
- International reaction to the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence:
- Russia threatens to block Ban Ki Moon from serving a second term as United Nations Secretary-General because of his stance on Kosovo's recent independence. The Kremlin is pressing Ban to ignore, or at least prolong, a proposed 120-day transition period to Kosovo independence from Serbia that expires on 16 June. Renewal of Serbia-Kosovo talks is possible. (Makfax)
- A Sudanese cargo plane crashes in Moldova, killing eight people. (Reuters)
- A call to boycott French hypermart Carrefour from 1 May began spreading through mobile text messaging and online chat rooms amongst the Chinese over the weekend from 12 April, accusing the company's major shareholder, the LVMH Group, of donating funds to the Dalai Lama.[1] There were also calls to extend the boycott to include French luxury goods and cosmetic products.[2] According to the Washington Times on April 15, however, the Chinese government was attempting to "calm the situation" through censorship: "All comments posted on popular Internet forum Sohu.com relating to a boycott of Carrefour have been deleted."[3]
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- It is reported that Josef Fritzl had incarcerated his daughter in a custom-built cellar in Amstetten, Austria, for 24 years, raped her and fathered seven children by her, three of whom he left in the cellar.
- The New Zealand Soldier was added to the plinth facing towards the east on the western side of the ANZAC Bridge, it was unveiled by the Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark in the presence of Premier of New South Wales Morris Iemma.
- Dignitaries including the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai take cover as automatic gunfire breaks out at a ceremony in Kabul. (AP via Google News)
- A father-and-son duo who owned and managed the factory that burnt down with 55 deaths in Casablanca have been arrested over serious safety violations. (AFP via Google News)
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[edit] References
