1967

Diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Malaysia are re-established, following Indonesia's opposition to the formation of the Malaya federation.

1987

Government and opposition officials in South Korea agree on revising the constitution to clear the way for direct presidential elections and other reforms.

1990

After Armenian Republic's Parliament declares a state of emergency, 250 militant nationalists give up their weapons.

1991

Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan become the ninth and tenth Soviet republics to declare independence.

1994

Irish Republican Army declares an open-ended cease-fire in its 24-year campaign against British rule of Northern Ireland.

1998

North Korea launches a new, more powerful long-range ballistic missile that crosses over Japan's main island and crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The test draws strong protests from Japan and the United States.

2000

The United States decides to boycott several meetings in Japan dealing with science and the environment in a protest of the expansion of Japanese whaling.

2003

Negotiators at a meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva reach an agreement that would allow poor countries with severe epidemics of infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to import generic drugs designed to fight them.

2004

The European Union makes a solemn appeal for the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq by gunmen demanding France overturn a ban on Islamic head scarves in public schools.— AFP/REUTERS