April

The stock market rollercoaster continued, the United States Nasdaq measure of high-tech stocks falling 12 per cent in just a week after reaching a record high the previous month. Black Monday, April 17, saw a paper loss of $2.4 billion on the local sharemarket. But, in standard rollercoaster fashion, sharp falls were followed by steady climbs.

Microsoft was given the thumbs down in the arena of United States courts, Washington District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruling that Bill Gates' company illegally protected its Windows monopoly by bullying computer makers and internet services into not using rival software.

At home, Singapore Airlines boosted its interest in Air New Zealand to 25 per cent but Lion Nathan decided to move its head office to Sydney.

Guerrillas of an Islamic fundamentalist group kidnapped 21 people, including 10 foreign tourists, from a Malaysian Borneo resort and transported them to a base in the southern Philippines.

Being a prominent Serb became a dangerous occupation. Zika Petrovic, director of Yugoslav Airlines and an ally of President Slobodan Milosevic, became the third high-profile casualty in two months, shot down in a Belgrade street.

Eliam Gonzales came face-to-face with the full power of United States law. Defiance by the six-year-old's Miami relatives towards an Immigration Service order in January to hand the boy over to his Cuban father came to a sudden end as federal agents raided their home and removed Eliam.

Anarchy ruled in Zimbabwe as the increasingly violent takeovers of white farms were symptomatic of President Robert Mugabe's commitment to squashing growing opposition to his regime.

Thousands of Fijians provided a portent, marching through the streets of Suva in protest at land-leasing policies of the Government of the country's first Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry.

Former Samoan cabinet ministers Leafa Vitale and Toi Aukuso Cain were sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of conspiring to have Leafa's son Alatisi Vitale kill the country's Public Works Minister, Luaga Levaula Kamu. The son was already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to the killing at a political rally on July 16, 1999.

Honoured prominent New Zealanders will be but titled they will not. The Prime Minister signalled an end to "Dames" and "Sirs" for the top levels of the New Zealand Order of Merit – although the National Party said it would reinstate them at the first opportunity.

A New Zealand first: the Minister of Local Government sacked the dysfunctional Rodney District Council and appointed a commissioner in its place.

Telecom found itself in a David and Goliath battle as court intervention blocked the company from interfering with providers of free internet services.

Gisborne became the site of one of the most emotionally charged investigations into the country's health services, the inquiry into cervical cancer screening.

A pub with no beer – the Australian horror story was transplanted to Auckland as up to 20 tavern owners failed to renew their licences and had their doors closed until they did.

Bees became a threatened species as the Varroa mite made its presence felt in South Auckland hives. Live-bee exports were banned and a control area was applied from Rodney to Waikato.

Police practices and community relations and name suppression issues all had an airing in the wake of the fatal shooting of Stephen Wallace after the Waitara man ran amuck in the Taranaki town.

In sport it was the action off the cricket field that dominated the month. After years confined to behind-the-scenes whispering, match-fixing burst into the public domain. The South African captain, Hansie Cronje, admitted taking money for providing information to bookmakers but denied Indian charges of conspiring to rig matches. The fall was just beginning.