April 29 2005 was a Friday

• The next launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-114, is delayed until at least July 13. This is to be the first Space Shuttle launch since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. (BBC) (CNN)
• U.S. Congressman Rob Portman was confirmed by the United States Senate to be United States Trade Representative. (CBS Marketwatch)
• The death toll in the Amagasaki rail crash in Japan totals 106. Rescue efforts are over and police begin the crash investigation. (Japan Today)
• Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan meets with Communist Party of China Secretary-General Hu Jintao in the highest level contact between leaders of the two parties since the meeting of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in August 1945 at the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• A prominent article in the state-owned China Securities Journal says conditions are ripe for changes in the country's policy of keeping the yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar. (Washington Post)
• Three currencies join the ERM II: The Cyprus pound, the Latvian lat, and the Maltese Lira. The ERM II is one of the steps needed for a currency to become part of the Eurozone. EUbusiness