Events in May 2003
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May 1
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Over 105 people including 44 students in a dormitory die as a strong earthquake rocks south-eastern Turkey. |
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May 4
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Coalition forces capture Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, one of Iraq's top biological weapons scientists. |
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The Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt's coalition Government falls over a cabinet row on night flights over Brussels. |
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The U.S. President, George W. Bush names a former diplomat Paul Bremer, Iraq administrator. |
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May 8
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The Bush administration eases sanctions against Iraq. |
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May 9
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At least 29 passengers are sucked out as the rear door of a cargo plane bursts open, in Congo. |
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May 10
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Lithuania becomes the first former Soviet republic to vote itself into the European Union, after a referendum in the capital Vilnius. |
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May 12
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More than 40 persons are killed when a truck bomb rips through two government buildings in northern Chechnya. |
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May 13
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Al Qaeda suspected of triggering multiple suicide car bomb attacks on three housing compounds, in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, in which at least 29 lives were lost. |
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At least 63 persons are killed as a gas explosion rips through a coal mine in eastern China. |
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May 14
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At least 20 persons die after a woman suicide bomber blows herself up at a religious ceremony, in Chechnya. |
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May 17
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Forty persons are killed as a series of bomb attacks rocks Morocco's economic capital of Casablanca. |
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May 18
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The Belgian Premier, Guy Verhofstadt's coalition wins a resounding mandate in national polls. |
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May 19
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Indonesia launches a major military offensive against Aceh rebels. |
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British explorer, Pen Hadow becomes the first person to trek solo and unsupported to the North Pole. |
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The toll in the fighting which broke out on May 7 between Hema and Lendu tribal factions in Bunia, capital of Ituri district, Congo goes up to 280. |
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May 20
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The World Health Organisation gives approval to a landmark anti-tobacco convention. |
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May 21
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Over 2,000 people are killed as a devastating earthquake rocks Algiers, capital of the North African nation Algeria. |
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May 22
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The U.N. lifts sanctions against Iraq, after a historic vote by the Security Council. |
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May 25
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The Israeli Cabinet approves plan for Palestinian State by 2005. |
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Gus Van Sant's `Elephant' bags the Golden Palm at the Cannes International Film Festival and Turkish helmer Nuri Bilge Ceylan's `Distant', gets the Grand Prize. |
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Nestor Kirchner (53), is sworn in Argentina's 52nd President after he wins the poll by default following the dropping out of former President Carlos Menem of a run-off-race. |
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May 26
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All 74 persons aboard a Ukrainian plane are killed as it crashes and explodes at the Black Sea port of Trabzon. |
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Pakistan nominates Aziz Ahmed Khan its new envoy to India. |
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May 29
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The Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasango, takes oath of office for a second term in a landmark for democracy in the capital Abuja. |
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May 30
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Nepal's caretaker Prime Minister, Lokendra Bahadur Chand resigns. |
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The Russian President, Vladimir Putin leads the nation in the tercentenary celebrations of St. Petersburg. |
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France bids adieu to Concorde, the luxury aircraft in service since 1976, following a mishap on July 25, 2000 in which 113 people died. |
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May 31
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If India and China are to co-operate this can result in the 21st Century turning into the `Asian Century', says the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee in his first meeting with the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, in St. Petersburg. |
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Myanmar Junta arrests NLD leader, Suu Kyi in Yaway Oo, in the north of the country. |
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Events 2003
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
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