June

Science hit the headlines with the announcement that an international consortium of scientists had cracked the human genetic code through the deciphering of 3.1 billion sub-units of human DNA.

A United States District Court Judge followed up his anti-trust verdict against Microsoft with an order that the software giant be split in two. In business activity closer to home, Qantas announced its plans for rebranding Ansett New Zealand. With Air New Zealand taking over Ansett Australia, prepare to be confused.

Long-suffering Indonesians again felt the heavy hand of nature's power, an earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale causing at least 120 deaths and leaving 100,000 homeless. Continuing man-made violence in the archipelago forced President Wahid to declare a state of emergence in the eastern Moluccas to counter fighting between Christians and Muslims.

In Spain, the Basque separatist organisation, Eta, added a long-time politician, Jesus Maria Pedrosa, to its list of victims for the year in a return to its tactics of violence. Terrorist tactics continued in Sri Lanka, the Industrial Development Minister and 21 others killed when a suicide bomb exploded among crowds celebrating Heroes Day in Colombo. And, in another country functioning through terror, Zimbabwe's opposition ran President Robert Mugabe's governing party close in general elections.

Chile's Appellate Court gave Augusto Pinochet the bad news: as far as it was concerned, he was no longer immune from prosecution for human rights abuses during his 17-year dictatorship.

The dangers inherent in the illegal migration business were graphically demonstrated with the discovery of 58 corpses of Chinese asylum-seekers suffocated in a sealed truck at Dover.

Syrians turned out en mass to farewell President Hafez al-Assad in an outpouring of grief that contrasted markedly with some of the western judgments on 30 years of often-brutal dictatorship.

The roller-coaster ride of the two Koreas produced another high with the South's President, Kim Dae-jung, welcomed to Pyongyang by his counterpart in the isolationist North, Kim Jong-il.

The Solomon Islands joined Fiji in suffering coup fever. Gunmen from a Malaitan independence movement placed the Prime Minister, Bartholomew Ulufa'alu, under house arrest and took control of the capital, Honiara. Australia earned a black mark when the Navy tried to charge evacuees for the privilege. In Fiji, George Speight remained defiant despite increasing pressure from the military.

At home, the soon-to-be-former Maori Affairs Minister, Dover Samuels, found himself on a downward slide in the face of accusations of an indecent relationship with a young woman in his care in the 1980s.

Even if murder has become frequent enough to occasion less comment than was once the case, the killing of Kylie Jones in a Glen Innes park was particularly chilling. She was just 23, she suffered multiple stab wounds, it was early in the evening, she was on her way home from work, the killing took place in a park with houses close by and just 150 metres from her home and a police station.

In a sequel to another murder, the former All Black Joe Karam successfully defended his book on the David Bain case against defamation claims by two police officers.

Golfer Michael Campbell produced a good-news-bad-news effort at the English Open. The good news: his initial six-stroke advantage was the highest first-round lead in the European tour's history. The bad news: by the end, his share of second place had left him in the tour's history books with the best first-round advantage from which to lose a tournament. No such problem for Tiger Woods, who began the United States Open with a 65 and ended it with a record-breaking 15-shot margin over the rest of the field.

Hansie Cronje variously blamed his love of money and Satan for his fall from grace. He admitted to the commission of inquiry into corruption in cricket that he had taken money but denied ever throwing matches. Mark Todd began trial by media over alleged activities outside the show ring.

And Elian Gonzalez, Cuba's "little absent prince," finally went home.