A Look at High-Profile Political Assassinations This Century

— Dec. 29, 2003: Archbishop Michael Courtney, the pope’s ambassador in Burundi, is shot by gunmen as he was returning from a funeral and died during surgery.

— March 12, 2003: Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is shot dead in front of the Serbian government headquarters in Belgrade. He was a key leader of the revolt that toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic in October 2000. Twelve people were convicted in connection with the killing, which was carried out to halt his pro-Western reforms, according to a Serbian court ruling.

— May 6, 2002: Populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is gunned down in a northern Netherlands city, days before a general election in which he was a candidate, by an animal welfare activist.

— June 1, 2001: Nepal’s King Birendra is killed when his son, Crown Prince Dipendra, opens fire on his family in the royal palace. The dead include Queen Aiswarya, a prince, and five others. Officials said the shooting followed a dispute over the prince's marriage.

— Jan. 18, 2001: Congo President Laurent Kabila is assassinated in the presidential palace in the capital, Kinshasa, by one of his bodyguards, who was killed minutes later by security forces.

Source: Associated Press