Portal:Current events/2008 May 2
May 2, 2008 (Friday)
- Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson is elected as the Mayor of London replacing Ken Livingstone, capping huge gains by the Conservatives in local elections, which gave them a net gain of 256 council seats and a net gain of 12 city councils. (BBC News)
- The Olympic flame is back on Chinese soil as the Olympics torch relay continues in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. (BBC News)
- May 1-2, 2008 tornado outbreak: Tornadoes affecting the south-central United States kill at least seven in Arkansas. (KAIT8)
- Over 10,000 people gather in Seoul, South Korea, to protest against the importation of U.S. beef, which is alleged to have a danger of mad cow disease. (YouTube Video)
- Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008
- The opposition Movement for Democratic Change proposes a power sharing arrangement with the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union, but not involving Mugabe. (AP via Google News)[permanent dead link]
- Robert Mugabe proposes a run-off election to determine the outcome. (Reuters)
- The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Russia and China agree to make a new offer to Iran over its nuclear program. (AFP via Google News)
- A plane crash kills more than a dozen in Southern Sudan, including defense minister Dominic Dim Deng. (AFP via Google News)
- United States non-farm payrolls fall by 20,000 jobs with the unemployment rate falling to 5 per cent. (The Guardian)
- A $38 million compensation deal is completed for victims of the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
- Teams in both Russia and the United States identify the remains of Tsarevich Alexei of Russia and his sister Grand Duchess Maria after the discovery of their bone shards on August 23, 2007. (AP via Google News)[permanent dead link]
- 2007 royal blackmail plot: Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan are jailed for five years each for attempting to extort money from an unidentified royal ("Witness A"). They demanded £50,000 from Witness A in exchange for audio tapes alleging gay sex. (BBC News)