April 21, 2005 (Thursday)
- 400 Iranian volunteers sign up to sacrifice their lives in "occupied Islamic countries", particularly Israel, after being inspired by a fatwa from a top hardline cleric giving religious backing to suicide missions. (Reuters)
- American, French and Israeli naval forces rescue three Syrian and Egyptian sailors from a North Korean ship that sank in international waters off the coast of Nahariya. (Ynet)
- The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) fires two members suspected of passing on U.S. secrets to Israel. (BBC)
- Three Israeli soldiers are hurt when their jeep triggers an IED roadside bomb, near the Karni crossing, on the edge of the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
- The next launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-114, is postponed until at least May 22. This is to be the first Space Shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. (BBC)
- New Ecuadorian president Alfredo Palacio orders the arrest of former president Lucio Gutiérrez, who takes refuge in the Brazilian embassy. (BBC) (Reuters AlertNet)
- According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the army of Myanmar (Burma) has used chemical weapons against Karen rebels. (BBC)
- In Zanzibar, an electoral commission accepts Seif Shariff Hamad, secretary general of the opposition party Civic United Front, as a legitimate voter and therefore eligible candidate. (IPPMEdia, Zanzibar) (BBC)
- U.S. Army Sergeant Hassan Akbar is found guilty by a military jury of the murder of two fellow officers in Kuwait, just prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (ABC)
- Five American Muslims sue the Department of Homeland Security for racial profiling after they were detained for hours on the Canadian border while returning from a religious conference. (Newsday) (Buffalo News) (IslamOnline) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-21 at the Wayback Machine (BBC)
- The parliament of Spain gives initial approval to legalized same-sex marriages and adoption by homosexual couples. (Berria) (EITB) (Reuters) Archived 2005-04-24 at the Wayback Machine