Portal:Current events/2008 May 29

May 29, 2008 (Thursday)

2008 Sichuan earthquake: China begins inspecting the ruins of thousands of schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake, searching for clues about why they crumbled. (VOA)
Tornadoes of 2008: The Governor of Nebraska Dave Heineman declares a state of emergency in relation to tornadoes in the towns of Kearney, Nebraska, and Aurora, Nebraska. (NTV)
In a 6–5 ruling, the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court upholds a 2005 law permitting embryonic stem cell research in the country. (NBC)^{[permanent dead link‍]} (Folha de S. Paulo)
The National Indian Foundation publishes photographs of a tribe of uncontacted peoples in a remote area of Amazonia. (CNN)
A helicopter crashes into a building in Panama City, killing the Director-general of the Carabiniers of Chile and several civilians. (AP via MSNBC)
Tropical Storm Alma, the first tropical storm of the 2008 Pacific hurricane season, makes landfall in Nicaragua near the city of León bringing heavy rains and strong winds. (Bloomberg)
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale strikes Iceland near the town of Selfoss. (CNN)
The World Bank announces a US$1.2 billion package to fight the global food crisis including $200 million in grants for those most at risk in Third World countries. (AFP via Google News)
Track and field coach Trevor Graham is convicted of lying to investigators of links to a steroids dealer in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative investigation. (AP via Google News)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
The United States Department of Commerce revises its estimate of economic growth in the United States to 0.9% for the first quarter of 2008. (AFP via Google News)
At least 20 people are killed and 42 injured after two suicide bombings in northern Iraq. (AFP via Google News)
A bomb at Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines kills two people and injures another 17. (BBC News)
Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China calls for resumption of official talks between mainland China and Taiwan in a meeting with Wu Po-hsiung, the Chairman of Taiwan's ruling party the Kuomintang. (CNN)
Twenty-six people are dead and fifty-one missing as a result of snowstorms in eastern Mongolia. (UB Post)
Luxembourg ratifies the Treaty of Lisbon becoming the fifteenth country to do so.
Iraq delivers a report on security, reconstruction, and economic progress at the U.N. conference on Iraq in Stockholm. Iraq seeks debt forgiveness and foreign investment to aid with reconstruction. (Mawtani) (VOA)
Torrential rain causes flash flooding across half of Somerset, United Kingdom. (BBC News)