2000 January 5
Israeli and Syrian negotiators open long-awaited peace talks at a conference center in
West Virginia. They are the first such discussions for four years. The talks bog down in disagreement after four days.
2000 February 8
Israeli jets strike targets in Lebanon, after a spate of guerrilla attacks by the Islamist
Hizbollah movement in which five Israeli soldiers died.
2000 February 10
An Israeli government report, released five years after it was compiled, admits that the
internal security service, Shin Bet, uses systematic torture on Palestinian suspects.
2000 February 22
The Israeli army chief of operations hints that occupation forces will pull out of south
Lebanon by the end of the year, even if there is no peace with Syria.
2000 March 5
The Israeli cabinet votes to pull troops out of south Lebanon by July, ending the 18-year
occupation.
2000 March 10
The technology stock market collapses and the so-called "Dot.Com Boom" comes to an abrupt end. The U.S. stock market begins a steady decline, during which millions of investors lose billions of dollars. The Clinton administration attempts to downplay the news because of the coming November 2000 presidential elections.
2000 March 19
Israel approves the handover of another sliver of West Bank land to Palestinian control,
raising the proportion of the territory ruled by Yasser Arafat to just under 40%. The moves precedes yet more peace
talks, aimed at bringing about a final settlement by September.
2000 March 22
Pope John-Paul II, on his first visit to the Holy Land, makes an impassioned plea for a
homeland for the Palestinian refugees.
2000 March 23
Russia's Mir space station is successfully ditched in the Pacific Ocean.
2000 March 26
Vladimir Putin is elected president of Russia.
2000 April 17
The Republic of China Finance Ministry allows two local insurance companies to set up offices in mainland China, marking the first mainland foray for the island's insurance industry.
2000 April 18
Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui confers the Order of Brilliant Starwith Grand Cordon on U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) for his contributions to promoting bilateral relations between the ROC and the United States.
2000 April 19
Taipei's president-elect, Chen Shui-bian, promises that his administration will help the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (WJIB) transform itself into a " National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)."
2000 May 15
On the 52nd anniversary of the nakba - the day that Israel was founded and in Arabic
literally the day of catastrophe - the West Bank explodes in fury. Two die and 30 are wounded, as Palestinian and Israeli security forces exchange fire. The violence eclipses the news that Israel is to hand over to the Palestinians two strategically important villages on the eastern flank of Jerusalem. Although the handover offer is later withdrawn due to continuing violence, rightwing Israeli parties say the move marks the beginning of the end for Ehud Barak's coalition government.
2000 May 22
After eight days of continuous violence in the Palestinian territories, Ehud Barak calls an
end to peace talks in Stockholm. Israel abruptly ends its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon. Its client militia, the South Lebanon Army, disintegrates in panic, and militant Islamists of the Hizbollah guerrilla group take up positions
along the Israeli border
2000 May 31
Latin bandleader Tito Puente dies in New York at age 77.
2000 June 7
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson orders the breakup of Microsoft Corporation.
2000 June 10
President Hafez Assad, the autocratic ruler of Syria for 30 years, dies after a long illness.
One of Israel's most implacable enemies, he derided all Arab leaders who came to terms with the Jewish state, and
resisted peace overtures from the Israelis and the Americans.
2000 June 11
Hafez Assad's 34-year-old son Bashar is nominated to succeed him as president, as the
ruling Ba'ath party frantically moves to shore up the old regime. Bashar, who is western educated, is inexperienced but is seen as a moderniser.
2000 June 13
The presidents of South Korea and North Korea open a summit in the northern capital of Pyongyang with pledges to seek reunification of the divided peninsula.
2000 June 13
Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who attempted to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2000 June 16
Federal regulators approve the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corporation, creating the largest local telephone company in United States.
2000 June 16
Dowager Empress Nagako, widow of Japan's Emperor Hirohito, dies in Tokyo at age 97.
2000 June 19
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, prohibits school officials from letting students lead stadium crowds in prayer before football games.
2000 June 22
After frenzied wheeler-dealing, Ehud Barak secures the survival of his action-ridden
coalition government, but observers believe it is now too weak to secure a peace deal with the Palestinians.
