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A timeline of events in the news for March, 2002.

See also:

• Afghanistan timeline March 2002

March 31, 2002: Easter

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israeli troops exchange gunfire with guards of Yasir Arafat in Ramallah. A suicide bomber identified as Shadi Tubasi , a resident of the refugee camp Jenin, kills 14 and wounds more than 40 in Haifa. Later, a suicide bomber wounds four members of an intensive care unit, one critically, in a paramedics' dispatch station in Efrat. In the past 18 months, according to the Associated Press, 1262 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and on 401 on the Israeli side.

March 30, 2002

• Recent celebrity deaths: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, dies.
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A suicide bomber explodes in My Coffee Shop, a Tel Aviv café at around 9:30 PM local time, wounding 32 people.

March 28, 2002

• Recent celebrity deaths: Billy Wilder dies.
• Arab-Israeli conflict: Delegates to the summit of the Arab League endorse the "land for peace" plan proposed by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
• Pope John Paul II accepts the resignation of Archbishop Juliusz Paetz , who had been accused of sexual abuse.

March 27, 2002

• Recent celebrity deaths: Milton Berle dies.
• Recent celebrity deaths: Dudley Moore dies.
• President Bush signs the campaign finance reform bill.
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict: At the start of Passover, a suicide bomber kills 20 and injures more than 100 in a hotel in Netanya.

March 24, 2002

• 74th Academy Awards ceremony.

March 23, 2002

• 2-3 million trade union members rally in Rome in protest both of labor legislation filed by Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and of the assassination of Marco Biagi, an advisor to the Labor Minister, by the re-formed Red Brigades. Labor leaders threaten a general strike if the legislation is passed.

March 21, 2002

• Wikipedia reaches the 27,000 article mark on its front page article counter.

March 20, 2002

• The U.S. Senate passes the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill 60-40.

March 19, 2002

• The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has called a three-day general strike protesting police interference with union meetings, harassment of trade unionists and general lawlessness following the general elections, which has led to slow-downs in business. In South Korea, 5,600 power plant workers are on the 25th day of their strike, protesting the neoliberal government plans to privatize the state-run electricity plants. A vote among the remaining power plant workers to strike was cancelled due to company interference.

March 12, 2002

• Israel ground troops invade the West Bank and Gaza Strip in her largest offensive since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Dozens of tanks occupy Ramallah. 37 total dead so far, Israeli and Palestinian.

March 11, 2002

• Robert Mugabe has won the Zimbabwe elections with 54% of the vote to Morgan Tsvangirai's 40% on a turnout of 55.9%. His victory is controversial and comes amid claims that many were prevented from voting and there was a campaign of intimidation. But election observers from South Africa and the Organisation of African Unity have stated that the outcome was legitimate.

March 4, 2002

• 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Seven American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed as they attempt to infiltrate the Shahi Kot Valley on a low-flying helicopter reconnaissance mission. Around 3 a.m. local time a MH-47 Chinook helicopter was hit by an rocket-propelled grenade, causing a soldier to fall out and damaging a hydraulic line. The helicopter made an emergency landing a half-mile away. A second helicopter on the mission picked up the first helicopter's crew and flew to where the crew member had fallen. The soldiers soon came under heavy fire, and six were killed. The remaining soldiers returned fire and retrieved the bodies before returning to base.
• Bubble fusion: Scientific papers for and against the observation of apparent nuclear fusion in imploding bubbles are now available online. If this can be repeated, this is an important scientific breakthrough. Other physicists fear that this may be a repeat of the cold fusion fiasco.

March 2, 2002

• 2001 U.S. Attack on Afghanistan: Army Chief Warrant Officer Stanley L. Harriman , of the Third Special Forces Group, is killed in an ambush along the road from Gardez to the Shahi Kot Valley.

March 1, 2002

• Space shuttle mission STS-109 is launched at 6:22 a.m. EST today.
• The Bush Administration admits the existence of a shadow government with the implementation of the Continuity of Operations Plan.

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