Portal:Current events/2008 May 8
May 8, 2008 (Thursday)
- The Congress of Bolivia agrees to hold a recall election by 7 August on whether the President of Bolivia Evo Morales should remain in power. (CNN)
- Commissioner Édgar Eusebio Millán Gómez of Mexico's Federal Preventive Police is shot dead in central Mexico City. (CNN)
- The United States House of Representatives approves legislation developed by Barney Frank to let the United States government insure up to $300 billion in mortgages to help homeowners avert foreclosure. (Bloomberg)
- The Iraqi Minister of Defence claims that the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, has been captured. (BBC News)
- North Korea hands over thousands of pages about its nuclear program to a visiting diplomat from the United States that will help verify its plutonium holdings. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Russia expels two United States military attachés following earlier expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the United States. (Bloomberg)
- Latvia and Lithuania become the latest EU member states to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon. (RTÉ)
- 2008 unrest in Lebanon: Gunbattles erupt in Beirut as the government of Lebanon cracks down on Hezbollah. Two people are killed and eight injured in the fighting. (AFP)[permanent dead link] (AP via Google News)[permanent dead link]
- The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay reaches the peak of Mount Everest. (AP via Google News)[permanent dead link]
- Cyclone Nargis:
- An international relief operation begins after cyclone Nargis strikes Burma, with at least 63,500 people reported killed or missing. (Reuters via NineMSN)
- Three planes carrying vital food aid for the World Food Programme to Burma are delayed in Bangkok, Dhaka and Dubai due to a failure by Burma's State Peace and Development Council to grant approval. After approval is granted, planes start arriving in Yangon. (Reuters via NineMSN) (AP via Google News)[permanent dead link]
- Silvio Berlusconi is sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy for the fourth time. (EuroNews)
- The PRO-IP Act passes through the United States House of Representatives. (Ars technica)