Timeline Wednesday 12 March 2003

Events on Wednesday 12 March 2003 2

• 2003 Assassination of Zoran Djindjic Serbian prime minister shot dead in Belgrade Zoran Djindjic, the reformist prime minister of Serbia who had helped transfer Slobodan Milosevic to the war crimes tribunal, was killed by a sniper outside a government building in Belgrade. Members of a special police unit and organised crime figures were later convicted of the murder.
• 2003 SARS epidemic New coronavirus spreads from southern China along air routes A novel coronavirus that emerged in Guangdong province spread along air-travel routes to Hong Kong, Hanoi, Singapore and Toronto, prompting the World Health Organization to issue its first global health alert on 12 March. Around 8,000 people were infected and roughly 770 died before transmission was broken through quarantine and travel restrictions. The WHO declared the outbreak contained in July.