Health hazard / CHRONICLE

.WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE MAJORITY WORLD

JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC
Click a month above to read an alternative view of the key events of that month.

TAIWAN The candidate for the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, Chen Shui-bian, wins the presidential elections in Taiwan, putting an end to two decades of rule by the Kuomintang nationalist party.

WORLD Pope John Paul II asks for world forgiveness for 2,000 years of violence, persecution and blunders carried out by the Roman Catholic Church towards Jews, heretics, women, Gypsies and indigenous peoples. Critics lament his silence over the Holocaust and the Inquisition.

For the first time overweight people – 1.2 billion in total – equal in number those who are underfed. Hunger and overeating together account for more than half of the world’s diseases.

RUSSIA Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticizes the West for its passive attitude towards the cruel Russian war campaign in Chechnya. Russian generals, HRW says, are guilty of executions, torture and rape, and therefore liable to be judged for war-crimes before an international court.

CHINA A former deputy-governor of China, Hu Chanhquing, is executed for accepting bribes worth $650,000. He is the most important official to be executed in the country since 1949.

Meanwhile, the UN finds that China’s human-rights record has deteriorated markedly, and expresses its concern about the country’s repression of freedom of expression, religion and association.

KOSOVO New clashes between Serbs and Albanians leave 40 people injured – including 16 French peacekeepers – in the northern town of Mitrovica.

SOUTH ASIA Bill Clinton – the first American president to visit India in 20 years – attempts to act as a mediator in the ‘holy war’ peace process between India and Pakistan. 35 Sikhs are killed in the Indian part of Kashmir.

UKRAINE A new bill signed by President Leonid Kuchma promises to end the use of capital punishment in the country.

UNITED STATES Hundreds of thousands of tons of ‘unmarketable’ genetically modified maize are sent by the US to the Majority World as aid. At least 30 per cent of the products donated by the US to international relief programmes are genetically modified.

MADAGASCAR Two cyclones storm the country, killing 50 people and leaving 600,000 homeless. Although generally overlooked by the media, it is considered an environmental disaster on a larger scale than the recent floods in Mozambique.

BRAZIL More than 10,000 residents of Rio link hands around the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon to protest against the rising tide of pollution. Much of the pollution is blamed on soaring sewage levels – only a quarter of Brazil’s population have running water in their homes and one-eighth have proper sewage.

ZIMBABWE President Mugabe urges black squatters – most of them independence war veterans – to continue their illegal occupation of 600 white-owned farms. Frustration at the slow pace of land reform first prompted the invasions.