1. Former Turkish president on trial

    Retired General Kenan Evren, symbol of an era when the military dominated Turkish politics, went on trial on April 4 for leading a 1980 coup* that shaped the country for three decades until reforms cut back the power of the “Pashas.”

    More than 30 years after the September 12, 1980 military takeover*, an Ankara court began hearing the case against 94-year-old Evren, who went on to serve for seven years as president, as well as the other surviving coup architect, former air force commander Tahsin Sahinkaya, 87.    

    2. Storm lashes* Japan, kills 4

    A powerful storm lashed Japan with heavy rain and strong winds, killing four people and paralyzing air and train traffic in Tokyo, officials said on April 4.

    The spring storm swept across Japan’s main island of Honshu on April 3, with winds of more than 150 kilometers per hour — typhoon strength. Two people were killed in separate warehouse collapses in Toyama in the north and Kagawa in the south and two more deaths were reported overnight — an elderly man who fell off a roof in Iwate and a woman crushed to death by a fallen tree in nearby Miyagi.    

    3. A 93-year-old retires her 1964 Mercury

    A United States woman in Florida decided to retire her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente after more than 921,600 kilometers on the road.

    Rachel Veitch, 93, who has modular degeneration in both eyes, said: “I am legally blind, so I can no longer drive my lovely chariot.” After running a red light in March, she decided to voluntarily give up the vehicle she’s been driving since Lyndon Johnson occupied the White House.    

    4. Malawi swears in first woman president

    Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda was sworn in on April 7 as president following her predecessor’s sudden death in office. The Malawi Government confirmed the president’s death on April 7, two days after the leader of the impoverished southern African country died.

    Banda is Malawi’s first woman president, and one of few women to have reached the top office in Africa. She may have to contend* with powerful enemies at home as she tries to lead her country out of economic crisis.   

    5. Mali’s interim president returns

    Mali’s interim president arrived in Bamako to take office after military coup leaders agreed to hand power to a civilian government in a deal with neighboring countries announced on April 7.

    Former speaker of parliament Dioncounda Traore will serve as president with a transitional* government until elections are held. He flew into Mali on April 7 from a temporary exile* in neighboring Burkina Faso.    

    6. Filipino Catholics observe Lent

    Hundreds of barefoot Filipinos marched on roads, carrying heavy wooden crosses and whipping their backs until they bled on Thursday in an annual gory* religious ritual as the mainly Catholic Philippines observed near the end of the Lenten season.

    Many Filipino devotees perform religious penance* during the week leading up to Easter on Sunday as a form of worship and supplication*, a practice discouraged by Catholic bishops, but widely believed by devotees to cleanse sins, cure illnesses and even grant wishes.    

    7. U.S. town of 1 sold

    The American town of Buford, Wyoming — population 1 — was sold for US$900,000 to an unidentified buyer from Vietnam on April 5 after an 11-minute Internet auction that attracted worldwide interest.

    The tiny western town garnered* online viewers and bidders from 46 countries for the sale of 4.05 hectares with a convenience store, gas station and modular home located in southeastern Wyoming.

    (SD-Agencies)