January
ù If India is facing a military earthquake at the end of 2001, the year began with an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale in the Indian state of Gujarat on January 26, killing at least 30,000 people.
March
ù Millions of farm animals were slaughtered mainly in Britain and Western Europe to stop the spread of the foot-and-mouth disease.
April
ù A US spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter plane over Hainan Island. The fighter crashed and the plane made an emergency landing. China held the US crew for 11 days, sparking a major diplomatic row.
Eventually, the dispute was sorted out and China got a double bonus with US compliments - entry to the World Trade Organisation and the 2008 Olympic Games.
June
ù In what was described as the bloodiest palace coup in the 20th century, the Nepali royal family, including King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and their two children, were gunned down by Crown Prince Dipendra who was apparently angry over his parents' opposition to his love affair with a Nepali woman from a rival clan.
ù Premier Tony Blair led his new Labour to another landslide election victory on June 7, virtually wiping out the Conservative Party and forcing its leader William Hague to quit in disgrace.
July
ù Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, was in turmoil. After months and years of bloodshed and parliamentary bickering, President Abdurrahman Wahid was forced by parliament to leave office and make way for founder President Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri.
ù A summit between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf was held in Agra. Much was promised but little was produced and six months later, the two countries are virtually at war.
September
ù The world's mightiest power is brought to its feet in fear as hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC in a terrorist attack that killed around 3,000 people.
For a few hours the US and the world did not know what was happening or who was attacking as President Bush himself went into hiding.
October
ù Amidst an unprecedented international alert over Anthrax the US and Britain on October 7 launched a blistering attack on Afghanistan from air and sea, with ground troops coming in later.
ù In Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh National Party was swept back to office ousting pro-India incumbent Sheikh Hasina Wajed, marking another change in the South Asian equation.
ù The Good Friday agreement, after more than three years of pilgrimage across cliffs and valleys, experienced a resurrection with the IRA agreeing to begin the surrender of arms and an all-party government coming back to office.
November
ù Kabul fell to the opposition Northern Alliance after the Taliban fled the city under cover of darkness. The Northern Alliance went on to seize control of most of northern Afghanistan.
December
ù Suspected Kashmiri terrorists attacked the Indian parliament on December 13 to send the subcontinent plunging to the brink of what is described as a 'final war'.
In Afghanistan, a new all-party interim government was installed in office on December 22 while a multi-national peace force moved in on a UN mandate.
ù A social revolution in Argentina forced the country's President Fernando de la Rua to resign amidst economic chaos in what was once the IMF's role model.
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