May 8, 2005

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[edit] May 8, 2005 (Sunday)

• Point guard Steve Nash of the NBA's Phoenix Suns makes history by becoming the first Canadian to win the NBA's MVP award. Nash edges out Shaquille O'Neal of the Miami Heat by seven votes to win the award. (CBC)
• Worldwide celebrations commemorate the 60th anniversary of V-E Day, the official end of World War II in Europe with the capitulation of Germany under Karl Dönitz. In several German cities, Germans also mourn today the millions of people massacred under the National Socialist (Nazi) regime in the 1930s and 1940s. (Wikinews)
  • United States President George W. Bush uses the anniversary of V-E Day to call the Soviet Union's occupation of the Baltic states after World War II "one of the greatest wrongs of history". He also attended Europe's third largest war cemetery in the town of Margraten, the Netherlands. (CNN)
  • Germans hold a candlelight vigil in Berlin against neo-Nazis. They stood in a 33 km (21 mile) chain from Spandau to Mahlsdorf passing through the Brandenburg Gate, protesting a planned march by neo-Nazis to mark the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany's surrender. (Reuters)
  • French Minister of Defense Michèle Alliot-Marie commemorates the end of World War II in Europe in Reims, where Alfred Jodl signed the documents of unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945 ending the war in Europe. (CNN)
• Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the al-Qaeda suspect captured in Pakistan on May 2 and thought to be third-in-command in al-Qaeda, turns out to be a mid-level member in the organization. Officials describe the mistake as a case of "mistaken identity". (TimesOnline)
• Exiled Christian army general Michel Aoun returns to Lebanon from France. His supporters in the Free Patriotic Movement call for his election as a new president. (Al-Jazeerah) (BBC) (Daily Star) (Reuters AlertNet)
• In Belgium, two Rwandan men, Etienne Nzabonimana and Samuel Ndashyikirwa, are put into trial accused of involvement with the Rwandan genocide. (IOL) (Reuters AlertNet)
• People in the Central African Republic vote in the second round of presidential election. Incumbent president François Bozizé, who took over in a coup in 2003, is in favorable position. (Reuters AlertNet)
• Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika demands that France admits its part in Sétif massacre, the killing of 45,000 Algerians who demonstrated for independence on May 8, 1945 when Europe celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany. (ABC) (Reuters AlertNet)
• 6000 anti-Nazi demonstrators force cancellation of a National Democratic Party march in Berlin, Germany. (Deutsche Welle) (Reuters)
• The Spanish Royal Palace announces that princess Letizia is three months pregnant. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Seven Nepalese opposition parties join forces against King Gyanendra. (BBC)