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Including: Mugabe retains power in Zimbabwe; Pope John Paul II dies; Protests against Japanese history textbook; France rejects EU constitution; Khodorkovsky sentenced and more. MUGABE RETAINS POWER IN ZIMBABWE ELECTIONS CONDEMNED AS UNFAIR BY THE WEST Zimbabweans kept President Robert Mugabe in power after March 31 elections gave him an overall majority in the 150-seat parliamentary assembly. Despite turnout of less than 50 percent and accusations that the polls were flawed, Mugabe's Zanu-PF (Zimbabwe African National Unity-Patriotic Front) party took 78 seats, leaving the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai with 41 seats and one independent. 30 other seats are directly appointed by Mugabe. 81-year-old Mugabe has held power for 25 years since independence from Britain and has been isolated and criticised by the international community for misrule and wrecking the economy. POPE JOHN PAUL II DIES, CARDINAL RATZINGER ELECTED SUCCESSOR An estimated 300,000 people crammed into the Vatican city on April 8 to watch one of the most momentous funerals in recent history. Polish Pope John Paul II died on April 2nd after a 26-year papacy, after long bouts of illness and increasing frailty. He was buried a week later in a simple wooden coffin, after a huge outpouring of grief, during which millions files past his body as it lay in state. The conservative German 78-year-old Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI surprisingly quickly on April 19 and faced with the daunting task of leading 1.1 billion Roman Catholics through what some predict will be a difficult papacy. BRITAIN'S PRINCE CHARLES FINALLY MARRIES CAMILLA PARKER BOWLES AFTER 35-YEAR AFFAIR The day after attending the pope's funeral, Britain's heir to the throne, Prince Charles finally married his mistress of 35 years, Camilla Parker Bowles. Charles troubled first marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, was unable to survive his continuing affair with Camilla and they divorced before Diana's death in a Paris car crash. TOGO - VIOLENCE FOLLOWS DISPUTED POLL, KILLING AT LEAST 100 Togo voted for a new president amid opposition allegations of vote rigging and bouts of violence on April 24. Western diplomats said the rioting killed at least 100 people after the disputed presidential poll and thousands fled for neighbouring countries. The UNHCR said 20,000 refugees had left for Ghana and neighbouring Benin. Togo's constitutional court confirmed Gnassingbe as the winner of the poll with 60 percent of the vote, against 38 percent for the opposition candidate Emmanuel Akitani-Bob. PROTESTS ACROSS ASIA AS JAPAN USES CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY TEXTBOOK IN SCHOOLS Japan's use of controversial history textbook which critics said whitewashed the country's brutal colonial and wartime past provoked sometimes violent protests in South Korea and China. The New History Textbook, published in 2001, is used in only 18 of Japan's 11,102 junior high schools. The writers, the Society for History textbook reform have criticised other texts as offering a "masochistic" view of history. But the furore it created sold 600,000 copies to general readers and its approval by the Education Ministry ignited big demonstrations in China and violent protest in Seoul. The textbook reiterates Tokyo's claim to rocky south Korean-held islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Tokto in South Korea, and Japan's biggest teaching union said the text lacked an awareness of the "pain and suffering" caused to Asian people in World War II. Other critics say it does not provide enough detail of the 1937 Nanking massacre when Japanese soldiers killed civilians and does not mention "comfort women", a euphemism for women forced to become sex slave for the Japanese army before and after the war. ECUADOR CIVIL UNREST FORCES PRESIDENT GUITERREZ FROM OFFICE Street protests erupted in Quito after a Supreme Court decision to drop corruption charges against former President Abdala Bucaram, a key political ally of President Lucio Gutierrez. Within a week Gutierrez fled office after congress voted to oust him for "abandoning his post" and the state prosecutor's office ordered his arrest for two deaths during the huge demonstrations and rioting by rival groups. He was flown from the presidential palace by military helicopter and replaced by Vice President Alfredo Palacio. CALLS FOR US TO QUIT IRAQ GROW WITH VIOLENT INSURGENCY Thousands of supporters of rebel shi'ite leader Moqtada al Sadr marched on the second anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein to denounce the U.S. presence in Iraq and demand a speedy trial of their former president. The protesters marched from Sadr city to Firdos Square in central Baghdad where a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled two years previously by U.S. troops and celebrating Iraqis. Chanting 'No America, No Saddam, yes to Islam', protesters waved flags and displayed puppets of U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and their former president. UNITED KINGDOM - LABOUR WIN HISTORIC THIRD TERM DESPITE OPPOSITION OVER WAR IN IRAQ British Prime Minister survived opposition over the Iraq war to secure a historic third straight victory, but with a slashed majority in parliament. He was third leader of three key global allies in Iraq - the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, to win re-election postwar, but admitted voters had sent a clear signal they wanted to curb his power. UZEBKISTAN PROTESTERS MASSACRE Protests sparked by the trial of 23 Muslim businessmen in the Uzbek town of Andihzan capital turned into a bloody massacre on May 13 as troops moved to suppress what was deemed by President Islam Karimov an uprising fermented by Islamic extremists. Human Rights groups and opposition leaders estimate between 500 and 745 people died as witnesses said security forces using an armoured personnel carrier's machine gun opened fire on a crowd of rebels, protesters and onlookers, among them women and children, outside a school. The official death toll was 187. KHODORKOVSKY SENTENCED Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was found guilty of six of seven charges of fraud and tax evasion on May 31 and sentenced to nine years in prison, a year short of the maximum demanded by prosecutors. FRANCE AND NETHERLANDS REJECT NEW CONSTITUTION OF EUROPEAN UNION IN REFERENDUM France voted overwhelmingly against the European Union new constitution on May 29 in rejection that could sound the death knell for the proposed charter. The resounding "No" vote sent shock waves through Europe but was seen by some analysts as a punishment for the policies of French president Jacques Chirac's conservatives which have resulted in a fragile economy and high unemployment, which at the time of the poll was at a five-year high of 10.2 percent. The Netherlands emphatically rejected the EU referendum, plunging the bloc deeper into crisis. Official results confirmed 61.5 percent voted 'NO' with a turnout of 63.3 percent. The vote effectively meant the indefinite delay of the treaty designed to make the running of the EU smoother following its enlargement from 15 to 25 states. In September the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU will not have a constitution for "at least two or three years", leaving the issue on ice.