Portal:Current events/2012 May 8

Current events of May 8, 2012 (2012-05-08) (Tuesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Arab Spring:
  • Syrian uprising: Opposition fighters say they are amassing weapons amid a lull in fighting. (Al Jazeera)
• Former Libyan rebels who fought to topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 launch an attack on the interim Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib's office in Tripoli, Libya. (BBC)

Arts and culture

• Paul Simon and Yo-Yo Ma are awarded the Polar Music Prize. (BBC)
• A court in Beijing intends to hear artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, held and gagged on charges of tax evasion by the People's Republic of China. (BBC)

Business and economics

• The U.S. state of Nevada approves the country's first self-driven vehicle licence. (BBC)

International relations

• Thaer Halahla, a Palestinian national on hunger strike for 71 days after being jailed by Israeli authorities, is transferred to a civilian hospital. (BBC)
• A South African court rules that the country is obliged under international law to investigate human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. (IOL)

Law and crime

• Al Jazeera closes its English-language bureau in China after its reporter Melissa Chan is expelled from the country. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• A Thai man in his 60s who was jailed for 20 years for sending text messages deemed offensive to the Thai royal family has died, his lawyer said. (BBC)
• A CIA double agent was involved in a foiled bomb plot by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to blow up an U.S.-bound flight, according to government officials. (CNN)
• The New York Court of Appeals, in The People v. James Kent, rules that merely viewing child pornography (or having a cache of it, as on a cell phone), despite its offensiveness, is not in itself illegal in the state, so long as one is not aware of the cache or did not download the images ono a drive in order to view them; state legislators have stated they will work to close those loopholes through formulation of legislation. Distribution, production, and purposeful possession would still be illegal.(Huffington Post)

Politics and elections

• Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko ends her hunger strike in detention. (Ukrainian News Agency)
• Next Israeli legislative election: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaches an agreement with the Head of Opposition Shaul Mofaz for Kadima to join the current government, thus canceling the early election supposed to be held in September. (Ynetnews)
• Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is given a passport for the first time in 24 years. (Straits Times) (BBC)
• United States elections
  • The U.S. state of North Carolina bans same-sex marriage. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • Richard Mourdock wins a Republican primary election in the US state of Indiana defeating incumbent Senator Richard Lugar. (MSNBC)
  • U.S. President Barack Obama wins the Democratic primary in West Virginia with less than 60%, losing most of the remaining votes to a perennial candidate included on the ballot. (CBS News)

Sport

• Former Northern Ireland U-21 footballer James McClean, who burst onto the scene in the 2011–12 Premier League, is subjected to sectarian abuse by disgruntled fans after Giovanni Trapattoni named him in the Irish UEFA Euro 2012 squad yesterday. (BBC)