January

1: Brazil: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the country's first left-wing, takes office.

5: Israel: A double suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv kills 23 plus the bombers.

Lithuania: Former prime minister Rolandas Paskas beats outgoing leader Valdas Adamkus in the country's presidential election. Impeachment proceedings are launched against Paskas on December 11 over his alleged links with organised crime.

10: North Korea: Pyongyang announces its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

18-19: Australia: Massive bushfires destroy some 400 homes in several suburbs of the capital Canberra, killing four people.

20: United Nations: The UN adopts a resolution on world terrorism, warning of the "serious and growing danger" that terrorists would acquire and use nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

United Nations: In Geneva, Libya is elected to the presidency of the Human Rights Commission despite protests by the United States and the Human Rights Watch pressure group.

24: Ivory Coast: Signing of the Marcoussis agreement, sponsored by France, which paves the way for the sharing of power between the main political parties, both government and opposition and rebel factions.

23-28: The third World Social Forum is held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in direct opposition to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland at the same time. The main theme is opposition to war on Iraq.

24: World Labour Organisation figures show a record number of 180 million people were unemployed across the globe at the end of 2002, 20 million more than the previous year.

29: United States: AOL Time Warner, the world's second largest media group, announces losses of 100 billion dollars for 2002, the biggest deficit ever by an American company.

30: United States: Richard Reid, a British Muslim, is sentenced to life imprisonment in Boston, Massachussets, for attempting to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Paris to Miami with a 'shoe bomb' in Decmeber 2001.

February

1: United States: The space shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas as it returns to Earth, killing all seven astronauts on board including the first Israeli in space, Ilan Ramon, and Indian-born Kalpana Chawla. All US space missions are suspended, leaving a Russian and two Americans stranded on the International Space Station until a Russian Soyuz craft rescues them in May.

2: Venezuela: The opposition ends a general strike which paralysed the economy for two months in an attempt to bring down President Hugo Chavez. A petition is launched and by November has gathered 3.6 million signatures, 1.2 million more than the minimum required for a national referendum.

4: Serbia-Montenegro: The federal republic of Yugoslavia ceases to exist, replaced by the state of Serbia-Montenegro. Svetozar Marovic is elected president on March 7.

5: United Nations: US Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the UN and warns Baghdad that war is imminent if it continues to hold weapons of mass destruction. He also accuses Iraq of links with the al-Qaeda terror organisation.

10: United Nations: France, Germany and Russia issue a joint declaration calling for further weapons investigations in Iraq to halt the march towards war. French President Jacques Chirac indicates he is ready to use France's UN veto to avert war.

11: Iraq: Osama bin Laden calls on Arab countries to join a holy war in support the "socialist apostate" regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein against the United States "Crusaders", a call denounced by Washington as indicative of a growing terror alliance.

14: United Nations: The UN Security Council votes in favour of continued weapons inspections, leaving the US in a minority. The following day sees the biggest worldwide anti-war protests yet, with 10 million people taking to the streets, mostly in Europe.

Korea: Hundreds of South Korean tourists cross into North Korea as the border is opened for the first time in 50 years.

Britain: Dolly, the first cloned sheep, is put down at the age of six, highlighting health problems in cloned animals.

19: Germany: Mounir el Motassadek, a Moroccan, is jailed in Hamburg for 15 years as an accessory to murder, the first man to be convicted in connection with the September 11 attacks in United States.

Iran: 275 people, including many Revolutionary Guards, are killed when a military aircraft crashes in the south-east of the country.

South Korea: More than 200 people die in a fire started deliberately in the underground railway system in the south-eastern city of Daegu. The arsonist, who is found to be mentally disturbed, is jailed for life in August.

27: Netherlands: Former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic is sentenced to 11 years imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague for crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

28: Austria: Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's conservative party renews its coalition with the extreme right-wing party led by Joerg Haider, three years after their first alliance caused outrage across Europe.

Czech Republic: Former liberal prime minister Vaclav Klaus is elected President, in succession to Vaclav Havel.

The World Health Organisation draws up a global health treaty, The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to curb deaths from smoking, including international rules on tobacco taxation, smoking prevention and illicit trade.

March

1: Pakistan: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda number three, and the organisation's financier, Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, are arrested near Islamabad.

2: New Zealand: Alinghi from landlocked Switzerland wins the America's Cup yachting trophy, beating a New Zealand syndicate in Auckland, the first victory by a European country since 1851.

12: Serbia: Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is shot dead in a Belgrade street, allegedly by a policeman with mafia links. A state of emergency which will last 42 days and see a government crackdown on the mafia is declared.

The World Health Organisation launches an international alert over a virulent form of pneumonia, known as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in Vietnam, Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province, where it was first discovered in November 2002. The epidemic will spread to some 30 countries, infect 9,000 people and kill 900 before the WHO all-clear on July 5, saying the disease is contained but not eradicated.

15: Central African Republic: President Ange-Felix Patasse is overthrown in a coup d'etat led by General Francois Bozize, who proclaims himself president and installs a transitional government.

17: Iraq: US President George W. Bush issues Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his two sons with a 48-hour ultimatum to leave the country or face the threat of war.

Spain: Batasuna, the political wing of the Basque separatist organisation ETA, is outlawed. The party is added to the US list of terrorist organisations on May 7.

20: Iraq: The war on Iraq begins with US air raids on Baghdad and an invasion by US and British ground forces in the south. Saddam Hussein issues a call to arms on television.

23: Russia: A referendum in Chechnya, with a 90 percent turnout, votes in favour of a constitution tying the separatist Caucasus republic to the Russian Federation. On October 5, Akmad Kadyrov is endorsed as president in elections organised by Russia.

April

3: Cuba: Fidel Castro's government launches a campaign of repression against dissidents, resulting in the convictions of 75 people to life imprisonment and the three hijackers of a ferry who tried to reach Florida are sentenced to death, the first executions in the country after a three-year moratorium, causing worldwide protests.

9: Iraq: the fall of Baghdad as US soldiers take the capital, sparking celebrations and looting while Iraqis, with the help of a US tank, symbolically drag down a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein in the centre of the city.

10-14: Iraq: US and Kurdish forces take the towns of Kirkuk, Mosul and Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit. Looting continues in Baghdad with the archaelogoical museum and its ancient Mesopotamian treasures, a particular target.

16: Europe: In Athens, the European Union approves the enlargement of the community from 15 to 25 members on May 1, 2004. The 10 newcomers, primarily from the former Soviet bloc, will ratify their membership, mostly by referendum.

21-22: Cyprus: Turkish Cypriots are allowed across the Green Line separating them from the Greek-run south of the island for the first time in 20 years and Greek Cypriots flock to visit the north once the border is reopened to them. But UN-brokered peace talks founder and only the Greek republic will be admitted to the EU in May 2004.

30: Middle East: Publication of the "roadmap" for peace, drawn up by the US, UN, EU and Russia, the day after the investiture of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. The plan, which forsees a Palestinian state by 2005, is adopted by Israel on May 25, despite a list of 14 reservations.

Burundi: Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, succeeds Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president in a peaceful handover of power in a country torn apart since the 1993 civil war.

Thailand: End of the anti-drug campaign launched on Feburary 1 by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, highly criticised by human rights group and which has cost the lives of 2,275 people, all said to be drug traffickers.

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