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The year in Europe: Voters make waves, bombers strike again PARIS (AFP) Dec 22, 2005 Voters in several European countries delivered notable upsets in 2005, while suicide bombers again caused havoc in a major city, striking London after the previous year's bloody mayhem in Madrid. The electorates of both France and the Netherlands spurned politicians' entreaties by rejecting the European Union's proposed Constitution Treaty, while in Germany voters were unable to decide between conservatives and social-democrats, finally delivering an uneasy left-right coalition headed by the country's first woman chancellor. An election in Britain delivered a clearer verdict, handing Tony Blair a third term as premier. Suicide bombers struck London just as Blair was hosting a Group of Eight summit; they turned out to have been British-born Muslims. The Roman Catholic Church mourned the death of Pope John Paul II and hailed his German-born successor, Benedict XVI. Violence continued in the Russian republic of Chechnya and its region, and would-be immigrants continued to die trying to get into western Europe.
- Europeans, most of them tourists taking winter breaks, are among the dead from the tsunami that devastated coastlines in 11 Asian countries on December 26, 2004. At least 1,300 of the estimated 217,000 dead are European visitors; remains are still being identified at the year's end. - An unmanned European spacecraft, Huygens, lands on one of Saturn's moons. - President Viktor Yushchenko appoints Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the "Orange Revolution" to head the government. Less than nine months later he sacks her and her entire team over a corruption scandal. - Adriana Iliescu, a retired Romanian university professor who has undergone fertility treatment, becomes the oldest woman ever known to have given birth. She is 67.
- Spain begins an operation to grant residency to no fewer than 500,000 illegal immigrants. - Boris Tadic makes the first visit by a Serbian president to Kosovo since the province fell under United Nations administration in 1999. - The Germany city of Dresden marks the 60th anniversary of the British and American firestorm that destroyed it in the closing months of World War II. In October the city's lovingly reconstructed Frauenkirche church is consecrated. - The Portuguese Socialist Party scores a resounding win in parliamentary elections.
- Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist held hostage in Iraq, is released, but US troops open fire on her vehicle, injuring her and killing her Italian rescuer. The latter becomes an instant hero in Italy, increasing pressure for the withdrawal of the country's 3,000 troops from Iraq. - In the Russian republic of Chechnya, officials announce the killing of Aslan Maskhadov, a radical rebel leader. - Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj of Kosovo, the former head of an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group, is indicted for war crimes. He resigns.
- Roman Catholic leader Pope John Paul II dies aged 84 after struggling for years against illness. He is replaced by German cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who becomes Pope Benedict XVI. Like his predecessor, he is a conservative. - Britain's Prince Charles weds longtime sweetheart Camilla Parker Bowles, who becomes the Duchess of Cornwall. - Monaco's Prince Rainier dies, to be replaced by his son Albert. A French magazine later reveals that the latter fathered a child with a former air hostess from the west African state of Togo. - Mehmet Ali Talat wins a presidential vote in the breakaway state of Northern Cyprus. He supports reunification of the island. - Romania and Bulgaria sign accession treaties with the European Union; they hope to join in 2007. - The Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, makes its first test flight in France. It later proves the star turn at the biennial Paris Air Show.
- Tony Blair becomes the first ever British Labour leader to win a third term for his party, albeit with a sharply reduced majority. - Widespread celebrations mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe; US President George W. Bush visits both the east and the west of the continent. - Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey open the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, a US-funded project aimed at getting oil out of the Caspian Sea area without going across Russian territory. - French voters conclusively reject the proposed European Constitution Treaty, voting "no" by over 54 percent. President Jacques Chirac appoints Dominique de Villepin to the post of prime minister. - Mikhail Khodorkovsky, founder of the Yukos oil firm and once the richest man in Russia, is sentenced to nine years in prison on charges including tax evasion.
- Voters in the Netherlands, following on from France, reject the EU Constitution Treaty. - China agrees to limit its textile exports to the European Union, amid tensions in many countries over the ending of a quota arrangement at the start of the year. - French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi guide are released after 157 days of captivity in Iraq. - The EU plunges into a new budget crisis, centering on farm subsidies and Britain's long-standing payment rebate. At the end of the month, Britain takes over the bloc's rotating presidency from Luxembourg. - France wins out over Japan to host ITER, an experimental energy project based on nuclear fusion.
- Spain becomes the latest country to legalise a former of civil union between people of the same sex. - London is named as the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games, notably beating Paris. - With activist-inspired rock concerts providing a backdrop, Group of Eight leaders meet in Scotland and agree to a debt forgiveness deal for Africa. - On July 7, the summit is overshadowed by coordinated bomb blasts on three London underground trains and a bus. A total of 56 people die, including the four presumed bombers, who are later found to be British Muslims. The Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda claims responsibility. Two weeks later, an apparent attempt to repeat the bombings fails as the charges fail to ignite. Armed police hunting terrorists shoot dead an unarmed Brazilian man in a London train. It later becomes clear that he posed no threat, and had no connection with terrorists. - The Irish Republican Army says it is giving up its armed campaign in Northern Ireland and becoming an ordinary political movement.
- The United States and three European Union states, Britain, France and Germany, issue the first of a series of warnings to Iran over what they suspect are moves to build a nuclear bomb. - A wildcat strike in support of workers at a catering firm causes massive disruption at London's main airport. - In one of several major air disasters during the year, all 121 people aboard a Cypriot airliner die when it crashes in Greece after suffering a sudden loss of cabin pressure. - Fires aggravated by parched conditions rage over much of southern Europe, with Portugal suffering the most. In Spain, 11 volunteer firefighters are killed in one blaze. - Would-be immigrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, make desperate attempts to get into two Spanish enclaves on the coast of Morocco. At least 14 are killed by security forces, and many others are deported. - Floods caused by heavy rains leave at least 70 people dead in central Europe.
- Sali Berisha, who led Albania out of the communist era, returns as prime minister after eight years in opposition. - The Norwegian Labour Party under Jens Stoltenberg wins a parliamentary election, ousting the conservatives. - Veteran Nazi-hunter Simon Weisenthal dies at his home in Vienna, aged 96. - An early election results in deadlock in Germany, with the conservatives under Angela Merkel ahead of the outgoing Social Democrats but without enough seats to form a stable coalition. Over two months of horse-trading ensue before Merkel is finally named, on November 22, to head a left-right "Grand Coalition."
- The European Union opens accession talks with Turkey, despite a last-ditch effort from Austria to offer the country less than full membership. - Initial talks on possible EU membership for the former Yugoslav republic of Montenegro also start. - European countries take measures to stem the arrival of avian flu, believed to be carried by migrating birds. Reports of bird deaths in several countries cause alarm. - British playwright Harold Pinter is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He seizes the opportunity to make a blistering attack on his country and the US for invading Iraq. - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says Italy will hold elections in April - Russian special forces intervene after an attack by militants on the North Caucasus city of Nalchik kills over 100 people. - Lech Kaczynski, a conservative and fervent Catholic, is elected president of Poland, confirming the rightward shift shown in a parliamentary vote in September. - Following an incident in which two youths are killed near Paris, rioting breaks out in poor suburbs, and later spreads to other French cities. Over three weeks some 9,000 vehicles and numerous buildings are gutted by fire.
- British Prime Minister Tony Blair suffers his first parliamentary defeat, over a plan to let police hold terrorism suspects for up to 90 days without trial. - A German woman and her Iraqi driver are kidnapped in northern Iraq; they are released in late December. Also in November, two Canadians a Briton and an American are abducted in Baghdad, and in early December a French national is abducted. - In Spain, the biggest-ever trial related to Basque armed separatist group ETA begins, with 56 people facing charges of helping the separatists. - Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Britain, Germany and Spain, - The British-led Commonwealth holds its biennial summit in Malta. - Informal talks open on the final status of Kosovo. - War-ravaged Chechnya holds its first parliamentary election in eight years, but rights group dismiss it as a fraud. - The Vatican bans bishops around the world from ordaining homosexuals as priests.
- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tries to counter reports that the CIA shuttles secret prisoners around the world and tortures them, sometimes in Europe. Visiting Romania, she signs an agreement for the opening of US bases in that country. - A top war crimes suspect from the wars that broke up the former Yugoslavia, Croatian general Ante Gotovina, is arrested in Spain. But two top Serbs, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain at large. - Forty-three people are hurt when an oil depot north of London explodes accidentally, causing a massive fire that rages for several days. - At a summit in Brussels, EU leaders reach a hard-won deal on the bloc's budget for 2007-13, but hardly anyone is happy. - Pop star Elton John "marries" his partner as Britain introduces new civil partnerships for gay couples.
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