Portal:Current events/2007 May 4

May 4, 2007 (Friday)

Greensburg, Kansas Tornado Outbreak: A massive tornado kills nine people in Kansas including 8 people in Greensburg, Kansas with the town suffering widespread damage. (AFP/Reuters via ABC Online)
Three U.S. Republican legislators from Alaska are charged with accepting bribes to support legislation favorable to oil services company Veco Corp. (AP via Forbes)
A heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket blasts off from French Guiana putting into orbit two telecommunications satellites, Astra 1L and Galaxy 17. (Reuters)
The Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong visits Washington D.C. for talks with the President of the United States George W. Bush about South East Asia. (BBC)
The Labour Party performs poorly in local and regional elections in the UK, with the Scottish National Party winning the most seats in the Scottish Parliament and the Conservatives performing well in English local government elections. (New York Times) (BBC)
Airline Partners Australia Ltd. nearly issues a bid for Qantas Airways until its investors rejected it. (Reuters)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (The Age) (Bloomberg.com: Asia) (Sydney Morning Herald) (CNN)
Mali's opposition Front for Democracy and the Republic calls on the Constitutional Court to annul last Sunday's presidential election. (BBC)
Convicted terrorist Carlos the Jackal will face charges in France relating to alleged involvement in deadly bombings in 1982 and 1983. (AP via IHT)
International delegates reach agreement at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the summary report on mitigating climate change despite some concerns raised by China. (AP via CNN)
Major world and Middle East powers discuss the future of Iraq on the second day of an International Compact for Iraq conference in Egypt. (BBC)
A boat carrying nearly 150 Haitian migrants capsizes in the Atlantic Ocean 1 km off the coast of one of the Turks and Caicos Islands, killing at least twenty, requiring the rescue of at least seventy-three and leaving at least fifty-eight unaccounted for. (CBS)
Two Cuban military deserters hijack a bus and reroute it to Havana Airport, before attempting to steal an empty passenger jet with the occupants of the bus as hostages. The plan is ultimately foiled but one hostage is killed before the men are captured. [1]