May

This was the month that the bad old days returned to Fiji. A businessman, George Speight, and a handful of armed men raided Parliament Buildings and took parliamentarians, including the Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, hostage. The bid to force constitutional dominance by indigenous Fijians was played out over the latter part of May, through June and into July as the shroud of appeasement hung heavily in the air. A visit by the Commonwealth Secretary-General proved fruitless.

Israel ended nearly two decades of occupation of Lebanese territory, withdrawing from the security zone it established on its northern borders after its ill-fated invasion in 1982.

In the early 1980s he was head of the Greater London Council – and upsetting the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Nearly 20 years on and Red Ken Livingstone was back, this time as mayor of the newly constituted Greater London Assembly – and upsetting another Prime Minister, Labour leader Tony Blair. The maverick MP had been expelled from the party when he chose to stand for the London post as an independent after being rejected as the official Labour candidate.

Indonesia's eastern islands were struck by a 6.5 earthquake and resulting tsunami. In a man-made disaster, 20 people died in the Dutch town of Ennschede when a fireworks warehouse in a residential area caught fire and set off a fireball.

The United Nations Secretary-General called on Western states to send a well-equipped rapid reaction force to restore order in Sierra Leone as United Nations peacekeepers became entangled in the West African country's increasing violence. A forlorn hope. Britain sent the Navy and troops – for evacuation purposes only. And further south in Africa another visit by the Commonwealth Secretary-General, this time to Zimbabwe, made little impression on the country's descent into the politics of terror.

In Sydney, thousands of Australians put their best feet forward in support of Aborigine reconciliation. Prime Minister John Howard was unmoved.

A drop in local petrol prices was short-lived, the month beginning with premium unleaded returning beyond the $1 mark, part of the blame being laid on the falling dollar, which during the month hit a 15-year low. By the end of the month, 91 had followed its premium brother over the $1 barrier. It was probably no coincidence that the continuing rise in petrol prices should parallel the biggest single-month drop in business confidence in 12 years.

Winston Peters found his way back into the headlines with a claim of insider trading against Airways Corporation officials, overshadowing the significance of a cooperative venture between the corporation and the Lockheed organisation.

The Love Bug hit town, the Philippines-originating computer-nasty virulently spreading itself through systems as users failed to observe the first rule of preventive computer medicine: do not open unknown attachments. From the House of Commons in Britain through the Pentagon in the United States to the Health Funding Authority in New Zealand, the bug did its lethal worst.

The Prime Minister lived up to her claim to being a patron of the arts with an $80 million injection into cultural coffers.

Early May brought the sporting quote of the year: "To be honest, there will be some changes, and it is Team New Zealand's job to manage their way through them." – Russell Coutts. By the end of the month, the challenge of sailing rather than being desk-bound prevailed and America's Cup hero Coutts and his fellow sailor-turned-administrator, Brad Butterworth, announced their intention to sail for a Swiss challenger.

Troubles continued for Sydney's showpiece. Kevin Gosper, vice-president of the Australian Olympic Games organising committee and pretender to the top International Olympic Committee job, showed an appalling lack of judgment in allowing his daughter to displace a young Greek Australian as first from the host nation to carry the Olympic flame on its odyssey.

The Canterbury Crusaders won their third Super 12 final and kept the title in New Zealand. However, their winning the game without the ball and a last-round weekend in which all New Zealand teams lost did little for rugby in general or local rugby in particular. And Jeff Wilson confirmed that something was not great in the state of New Zealand rugby with his decision to give the national game a miss for a while.