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Uzbekistan ordered the United States to leave its special forces base at Karshi-Khanabad; the move came after international criticism of the killing in May of 200 (according to Uzbekistan) or 700 (according to human rights groups) demonstrators in Andizhan by soldiers under the notional command of President Islam Karimov. About 1,000 people died in fierce monsoon rains around Bombay, where 37 inches fell in one day. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died, aged about 83. He had had a stroke in 1995, since when Crown Prince Abdullah had ruled; he is now king and is aged at least 80. Prince Sultan, aged 77, is the new Crown Prince. King Fahd, one of the 42 sons of the founder of Saudi Arabia, had come to the throne in 1982, but had ruled in his brother’s stead since 1975. US oil prices rose to a nominal high of more than $62. John Garang, the vice-president of Sudan, who had led southern forces in a 21-year war against Khartoum, until a peace deal in January, died in a helicopter crash. Wim Duisenberg, the first president of the European Central Bank, was found dead in his swimming pool near Avignon; he was 70. President George Bush of the United States went ahead with the appointment of Mr John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, despite the Senate not having concluded its process of approval. All 309 people aboard an Air France aeroplane escaped, with only 43 suffering minor injuries, when the aircraft skidded off a runway at Toronto and burst into flames. A cull of thousands of chickens began in Siberia after the strain of avian influenza called H5N1, which can kill human beings, was detected in the Novosibirsk region; Ukraine banned imports of chickens from Russia. A Japanese MP hanged himself out of shame after changing sides to support government plans to privatise the post office.
CSH
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