April 29, 2005

April 29, 2005 was a Friday

The next launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-114, is delayed until at least July 13. This is to be the first Space Shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. (BBC) (CNN)
U.S. Congressman Rob Portman was confirmed by the United States Senate to be United States Trade Representative. (CBS Marketwatch)
The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash in Japan totals 106. Rescue efforts are over and police begin the crash investigation. (Japan Today)
Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan meets with Communist Party of China Secretary-General Hu Jintao in the highest level contact between leaders of the two parties since the meeting of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in August 1945 at the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. [1]
A prominent article in the state-owned China Securities Journal says conditions are ripe for changes in the country's policy of keeping the yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar. (Washington Post)
Three currencies join the ERM II: The Cyprus pound, the Latvian lat, and the Maltese Lira. The ERM II is one of the steps needed for a currency to become part of the Eurozone. EUbusiness