August

Thieves took their own donation from the Auckland Museum, fleeing with a Charles Goldie painting they had wrenched from the wall. A week later an anonymous businessman returned the work after handing over $10,000 for the $65,000 Memories of a Heroine.

Indonesia's Attorney-General formally charged the country's disgraced leader Suharto with corruption while his frail successor, Abdurrahman Wahid, handed the daily duties of government over to his vice-president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. In Chile, the Supreme Court removed former leader Augusto Pinochet's immunity from prosecution on human rights charges. And, in Fiji, George Speight was charged with treason.

In Moscow, a rush-hour bomb blast blamed on Chechen separatists killed seven people and began a month of misery for Russia. Within a couple of weeks it had lost a submarine, the Kursk, with all 118 sailors on board under the Barents Sea, and had seen Moscow's Ostankino landmark turned into a towering inferno.

In Spain, bomb blasts attributed to Basque separatists continued their deadly harvest, four in the month claiming seven lives. In the Philippines, Muslim rebels released five tourists held since April, retaining seven of the original 21 taken. And the Irish were at it again, but this time it was in-fighting among Protestant gangs that claimed three lives in Belfast.

New Zealand firefighters headed out to help Americans battling forest blazes sweeping through more than 1.5 million hectares over 11 western states. In other natural and man-made disasters, floods and slips triggered by monsoon rains claimed 110 lives in Nepal; a Gulf Air Airbus fell just short of Bahrain Airport, killing all 143 people on board; and 10 people died in a train derailment in western Kenya.

Power struggles within Tainui came to a head as the Maori Queen directed the dismissal of the tribe's ruling executive. That left her representative and stepbrother, Sir Robert Mahuta, as the sole member – until the executive stepped outside Maori protocol and won an injunction in the High Court against the dismissal. Which prompted a prominent Maori academic to label the courts "an arm of the Government." Meanwhile, Associate Minister of Maori Affairs Tariana Turia's unfortunate choice of words left the Prime Minister with a Maori thorn in her side that her predecessor would recognise.

The horror of the Kylie Jones killing in June gained another dimension as it was revealed that Taffy Herbert Hotene, who pleaded guilty to her murder, had been out of prison just two months after completing two-thirds of a 12-year sentence for multiple rape. It was also revealed that the judge at the time had refused prosecution pleas for preventive detention.

Petrol prices continued their upward surge, unleaded 91 heading towards the $1.15, with the claims of the low dollar and higher refinery costs failing to placate the Deputy Prime Minister. However, Mr Anderton's dismissal of the oil companies as parasites came as international focus turned towards the tax-take Governments enjoyed from petrol sales. And the dollar continued its downward spiral, by the end of the month buying just 42.8 American cents.

A police investigation concluded that the officer who shot Waitara man Stephen Wallace in April had acted lawfully and should not face any charges.

In a gloomy local month, the naming of Dame Silvia Cartwright as the next Governor-General brought some relief. So, for the Herald, did the Court of Appeal's ruling that the paper could identify the drug-smuggling billionaire Ohio insurance man, Peter Lewis, given name suppression in January – eight months to bring an outcome that the Chief Justice described as "inevitable."

Parliament became embroiled in yet another "You did/I didn't" slanging match, this time over the relationship between Local Government New Zealand and its minister. Meanwhile, in the real business of Parliament, the marathon passage of the contentious Employment Contracts Bill turned into something of yawn. And refocusing defence capabilities continued with a boost to the Army's vehicle and communications requirements while plans to upgrade the Air Force's Orions were scrapped.

At least one International Olympic Committee member showed some sense. The Princess Royal, president of the British Olympic Association, spoke out against team sports being part of the Olympics – and then joined the rest of the royal family to celebrate her grandmother's 100th birthday.

The All Blacks were given a salutary reminder that rugby is more than an 80-minute game when an overtime penalty at the Wellington Coliseum gave the Australians the Bledisloe Cup and opened the door for them to take the Tri-nations series.

And the Tiger went on and on, this time taking the United States PGA championship, but only after a three-hole play-off against the unheralded American Bob May.