May 2004

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This article covers breaking news and events in May 2004.

Daily events

Saturday May 1st 2004

The now 25 member states of the EU

• Berlin / Germany : At lunchtime there are clashes between the police and left- wing protesters in the Friedrichshain and Lichtenberg districts who are protesting against a demonstration by the right-wing extremist party NPD . In the above-mentioned districts, the police arrested 348 people involved in the riots.
• Dublin / Ireland : The European Union is enlarged by ten member states in a solemn act . Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , Malta , Poland , Slovakia , Slovenia , the Czech Republic , Hungary and the Republic of Cyprus are admitted to the international community .
• Janbu / Saudi Arabia : Several locals and at least six foreigners are killed in a terrorist suicide attack in the Saudi port city of Janbu on the Red Sea. Among these are three Americans , two British and one Australian .
• Rome / Italy : Three people die in a fire in the luxury hotel “Parco dei Principi”. The German Tennis poker pro Tommy Haas and other players escape the flames.

Sunday May 2, 2004

Marek Belka, Leszek Miller

• Panama City / Panama : Martín Torrijos wins the presidential elections in Panama.
• Thun / Switzerland : With a 2-0 away win at FC Thun , FC Basel secured their tenth title as Swiss football champion four rounds to go, crowning a championship dominated exclusively by the new champion.
• Warsaw / Poland : One day after his country joins the EU , Prime Minister Leszek Miller of the Federation of Democratic Left (SLD) resigns from his post. The resignation previously agreed with his own party is the consequence of a lack of support for Miller both in the population and in the SLD. He is accused of being involved in a number of corruption scandals and of being responsible for the high unemployment rate of 20%. His successor will be the former Finance Minister Marek Belka , who was not party to any party .

Monday May 3, 2004

• Bursa / Turkey : With the arrest of at least 16 suspected members of the terrorist organization Ansar al-Islam , the Turkish police are presumably foiling an attack on the NATO summit, which is to take place on June 28 and June 29. Numerous heads of state and government are expected to attend the meeting. The group is apparently connected to the Al-Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden . The arrests are part of raids in which explosives , weapons , computers , false passports and CDs are also seized. According to the media, private apartments and business premises in Istanbul are also searched.
• Jerusalem / Israel : Ariel Sharon puts the withdrawal of the armed forces of Israel from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank to the vote in his Likud party . If the voter turnout is 45%, 60% of the electorate reject a withdrawal of the troops.
• Sheffield / United Kingdom : Ronnie O'Sullivan confidently wins the final of the Snooker World Championship against Graeme Dott and thus takes his second World Championship title after 2001.
• Worldwide : A computer worm named Sasser infects computers with Windows - operating systems that do not use a new patch from Microsoft or a personal firewall feature. The computers start downloading the malware, of which several variants appear within a few hours, immediately after establishing a connection to the Internet.

Tuesday May 4, 2004

• Central Europe : From around 8:45 p.m., it is possible to watch the umbra of the earth fall on the surface of the moon from central Europe . From around 10 p.m. the moon is completely in the umbra for about 75 minutes and only receives sunlight that had previously passed through the earth's atmosphere. Therefore the visible moon disc appears in a reddish tone.
• Paris / France : The airlines Air France and KLM from the Netherlands merge to become the largest airline in the world. The new company is named Air France-KLM and is based in Paris.
• Prague / Czech Republic : In Hockey - World Championship for Men defeated team of Switzerland , the German team with 1: 0 . Switzerland reached the play-offs, Germany eliminated from the tournament.
• Washington, DC / United States : The International Monetary Fund announces that the former Spanish Minister of Economic Affairs, Rodrigo Rato, will succeed Horst Köhler in the position of managing director.

Wednesday May 5, 2004

• Athens / Greece : In the morning, two explosive devices explode in front of a police station in the south of the city with an interval of five minutes, a third explosion follows 30 minutes later. A Greek anti-terrorist unit defused a fourth bomb that night. It is still unclear whether there is a connection to the Summer Olympics in Athens, which will start in exactly 100 days .
• Batumi / Georgia : For the second day in a row, mass protests continue without interruption in the Georgian province of Adjara . Thousands are calling for the resignation of the dictatorial president of Aslan Abashidze Province and for democratic reforms.
• Klagenfurt / Austria : In letters to some Carinthian that offers Nauru College selling Doctor Date title and other academic degrees for a four-figure donation. Purchase is permitted, but use is prohibited. The financially troubled Nauru College denies it was the sender of these letters.
• New York / United States : On an auction by Sotheby's is the 1905 by Pablo Picasso created paintings Boy with a Pipe for the bid of 104.2 million US dollars sold to an unknown, the switched via telephone bidder and is now the most expensive painting in the world .
• Washington, DC / United States : US President George W. Bush apologizes on an Arab television station for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by members of the United States' armed forces . Previously, his security advisor Condoleezza Rice expressed her deepest regret about the incidents. So far, 25 Iraqi prisoners have died in US-run prisons. New incidents become known every day that increase public pressure on the Bush administration. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is said to have known about the abuse for months, which Rumsfeld denies.

Thursday May 6, 2004

• Lima / Peru : In Peru, more than 200 imprisoned guerrillas of the Shining Path , among them their leader Abimael Guzmán , are on hunger strike to protest the conditions of their detention .
• Melitopol , Novo-Bogdanowka / Ukraine : Several people are injured in a weapons depot explosion in the city of Melitopol. 10,000 people in neighboring cities are evacuated, a state of emergency is also declared in the capital Kiev , 600 km away, and the gas supply to the city is cut off. At the scene of the accident, the fire brigade cannot intervene directly because of the explosions. In Novo-Bogdanovka in Zaporizhia Oblast , an arsenal with artillery shells and anti-tank missiles on a base of the Ukrainian Army is on fire. The fire causes a chain explosion and several buildings at the base as well as part of the city are destroyed.
• Najaf / Iraq : Insurgents occupy a police station. According to its own account, the United States forces killed 41 Iraqis in the city that day.
• Warsaw / Poland : With reference to government circles, the Polish media announce the intention of the new Prime Minister Marek Belka to withdraw all of the approximately 2,500 Polish soldiers from Iraq .

Friday May 7, 2004

• Ankara / Turkey : Various changes to the constitution are being made in Turkey in order to comply with the demands of the European Union (EU). All of the country's political leaderships have pursued the goal of accession in the last few decades , but with reference to the lack of democratic structures and the lack of guarantee of human rights , the EU never negotiated specifically with Turkey about accession.
• Berlin / Germany : The Bundestag decides to introduce a training tax . Companies with at least ten employees whose training quota is below 7% must pay financial compensation. The law does not require approval in the Bundesrat , but can fail there due to a two-thirds majority if some of the SPD- governed states also vote against the levy.
• Kathmandu / Nepal : Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa resigns after opposition protests. He will be succeeded by Sher Bahadur Deuba .
• Moscow / Russia : The President of Russia Vladimir Putin of the United Russia party is sworn in for his second term.
• Rotenburg / Germany : The alleged programmer of the Sasser computer worm is arrested in Rotenburg (Wümme) in Lower Saxony . It is an 18 year old student.
• Zaporizhia / Ukraine : After the fire and the explosions in an arms depot, the Ukrainian defense minister apologizes Yevgeny Marchuk with the people of the region and complained that the ammunition depot of the army up to 30% contained more weapons than permitted, including many old stocks of the Red Army of Soviet Union .
• Washington, DC / United States : In a questioning by the Senate Armed Forces Committee , Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld assumes political responsibility for the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners in Baghdad's Abu-Ghraib prison by soldiers of the United States Armed Forces and officially apologizes for the incident. He admits that there are far more incidents of this type than are currently known. Senators from the Democratic Party call on Rumsfeld to resign. The non-governmental organization Amnesty International calls the term "mistreatment" a trivialization and speaks of torture .

Saturday May 8, 2004

S-Bahn accident in Munich

• Munich / Germany : Shortly before the Leuchtenbergring S-Bahn station , a train on S-Bahn line 6 collides with an oncoming track-laying machine . 42 passengers are injured, ten of them are seriously injured.
• Munich / Germany : The top game of the Bundesliga ends in the home stadium of FC Bayern Munich 1: 3 for SV Werder Bremen . Thus, the Bremer are set ahead of time as the new German football champions .

Sunday May 9, 2004

• Barcelona / Spain : In his 200th Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher raced to first place for the 75th time. With his jubilee victory at the Spanish Grand Prix , the world's best Formula 1 driver set Nigel Mansell's starting record : five races, five successes.
• Berlin / Germany : According to calculations by the Federal Employment Agency leaked from the Federal Economic Committee , the ALG II planned from January 2005 will require 24,000 new agency employees for the payment alone.
• Grozny / Russia : In a bomb attack in a stadium in the Chechen capital Grozny in the morning 6 people were killed and 57 others injured. Akhmad Kadyrov, President of the Caucasus Republic, was among the dead . The explosive device exploded in front of the main stand of the stadium during a celebration to mark the anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over the National Socialists in 1945 .
• Prague / Czech Republic : Canada becomes ice hockey world champion with a 5-3 win against Sweden .

Monday May 10, 2004

• The Turkey fears further destabilizing a result of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers Iraq .
• The British Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized on French television for the abuses of Iraqis by British soldiers. The Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon takes in the House its observations.
• Philippines . Parliamentary and presidential elections are held in the Philippines. The winner is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo .

Tuesday May 11, 2004

• Baghdad / Iraq . A video was published on the Internet in which US American Nicholas Berg is beheaded by masked Islamists in front of the camera. According to the perpetrators, this is in retaliation for the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US troops.
• The alliance of the DaimlerChrysler group with the automobile manufacturer Hyundai has finally broken off.

Wednesday May 12, 2004

• Glasgow / Scotland . At least eight people were killed in an explosion in a plastics factory in the Scottish city of Glasgow. A number of people are still missing.
• Presentation of the Webby Awards 2004; Wikipedia is also among the winners.
• The qualifying round for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Istanbul / Turkey . The Swiss contribution Celebrate , presented by Piero Esteriore & The MusicStars , came last with zero points. Malta, on the other hand, qualified for the final with a song produced by Ralph Siegel .

Thursday May 13, 2004

• India . Sonia Gandhi wins the general election against incumbent Prime Minister Vajpayee .

Friday May 14, 2004

• Copenhagen / Denmark . At the royal wedding in Denmark, Crown Prince Frederik and the former Australian-British citizen Mary Donaldson tied the knot at 4 p.m. The small country is upside down. The Danish Mary is giving up her surname and will be the first native Australian in history to bear the title of Crown Princess, and later Queen.
• Cologne / Germany . Because of a cable fire in the second basement of Cologne Central Station , the station had to be evacuated for over an hour in the afternoon.
• Warsaw / Poland . The Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka resigns from his post after just 13 days. The resignation was preceded by a defeat in a confidence vote in the Sejm . Since President Aleksander Kwaśniewski rejects Belka's resignation, Belka continues to serve (until October).
• Russia . Charges are brought against the former head of the Yukos oil company , Mikhail Khodorkovsky .
• Ukraine . The former mayor of Frankfurt Rudi Arndt dies on a boat trip near Kiev .

Saturday May 15, 2004

• Moscow / Russia : A rolling Tupolev jet hit a shuttle bus with its wing at Moscow Airport. Thereupon kerosene splashed out of the plane and hit several passengers. Nine people were slightly injured in the accident. The Tu-154 aircraft collided with the bus on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo-1 domestic airport before taking off for Saint Petersburg . According to initial findings, the bus driver had violated the traffic rules.
• Tschaschinsk / Russia : A forest fire destroyed a mountain village in the Urals . The fire burned down 400 houses. A total of seven people were killed, and more than 600 were able to get to safety in time. The fire broke out on Friday near the village of Chaschinsk in Kurgan Oblast . It spread rapidly and destroyed the village around 1,700 kilometers east of Moscow. To fight the forest fire, the fire brigade is using fire-fighting planes and helicopters.
• Zurich / Switzerland : The world football association FIFA decides that the 2010 World Cup will take place in South Africa . South Africa prevailed against the applicants Morocco , Libya and Egypt , with the last two only given outsider opportunities.

Sunday May 16, 2004

• Istanbul / Turkey : Ukraine wins the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest . Singer Ruslana holds her own with her song "Wild Dance" with 280 points ahead of Serbia and Montenegro (263) and Greece (252). The 50th ESC will take place in 2005 in Ukraine. The German contribution Can't Wait Until Tonight by Max lands in 8th place with 93 points, the Austrian contribution Du bist von Tie Break in 21st place with nine points.
• Vienna / Austria : The winner of the 21st Vienna City Marathon is the Kenyan Samson Kandie with a course record time of 2:08:35 hours. Best woman (2:29:22 hours) was Rosaria Console from Italy.
• Dominican Republic : The winner of the presidential elections is opposition leader Leonel Fernández , who was president from 1996 to 2000.

Monday May 17, 2004

• Baghdad / Iraq : The President of the Iraqi Provisional Government Council, Essedin Salim , along with at least nine other people, including his deputy, were killed in a suicide attack near the US military headquarters in Iraq.
• San Pedro Sula / Honduras : In the city's overcrowded detention center, a short circuit in the air conditioning system triggers a fire disaster. The inmates are surprised by the flames in their sleep. The fire brigade can get the fire under control relatively quickly. 103 people die, 56 remain uninjured, and 24 more are rescued.
• The Stockholm Convention enters into force.

Tuesday May 18, 2004

• Nevada / United States . For the first time in human history, a private rocket reached space . The first private astronaut is expected in the coming weeks.
• Mannheim / Germany . At a campaign event for the European elections , Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was slapped in the face by a 52-year-old unemployed.
• Brussels / Belgium . The Competition Council of the European Commission this afternoon voted in favor of introducing software patents after heated discussions . The European Parliament still has to approve the draft law in autumn.
• Malé / Maldives . When a seaplane crashed with 14 vacationers on board, 4 people were injured in the Maldives.
• Ürümqi / People's Republic of China . All seven crew members were killed in the crash of an Azerbaijani cargo plane in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in northwest China. Shortly after the start of the Ilyushin Il-76 machine , it crashed into a neighboring field. No one was harmed on the ground. The machine was on its way to the Azerbaijani capital Baku .
• Lausanne / Switzerland . The IOC committee has decided that New York, Paris, Moscow, Madrid and London will become the official candidate cities for the 2012 Summer Olympics . This means that the cities of Leipzig, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul and Havana have been eliminated from the list of applicant cities.
• Basel / Switzerland . The 5th European Youth Choir Festival will take place until May 23 , it will open with two major concerts in Liestal and Basel.

Wednesday May 19, 2004

• Baghdad / Iraq : About 45 people, including 15 children, were killed in a US military helicopter attack on a wedding party in Maqarr adh-Dhib , western Iraq , according to eyewitness reports confirmed by the Baghdad police chief and a hospital .
• Gothenburg / Sweden : FC Valencia win the UEFA Cup after a 2-0 win against Olympique Marseille .
• Washington, DC / United States : Alan Greenspan , who has been head of the Federal Reserve System since 1987 , which has assumed the role of a central bank in the USA , is to remain in office for another four years , according to the will of the Bush administration .
• New York / United States : The UN Security Council was unable to find a common position on the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza . Meanwhile, under the name " Operation Rainbow ", the Israeli army is continuing one of its largest military operations in recent years. a. aims to destroy numerous Palestinian houses in the Rafah refugee camp .
• Stuttgart / Germany : The state parliament of Baden-Württemberg has stopped a petition against the ban on dancing "because of the great importance of the constitutionally required protection of Sundays and public holidays" . Critics see the decision as a one-sided preference for Christianity .
• Brussels / Belgium : The EU Commission has approved the GM maize from the Swiss company Syngenta. This is the first approval of genetically modified food in more than five years.
• Brussels / Belgium : EU and Switzerland have finished negotiations on the Bilaterals II. As a result, Switzerland will join the Schengen Agreement by 2007 . In addition, agreements were made on cross-border taxation of interest.
• Brussels / Belgium : The EU Commission has approved Germany 's coal subsidy amounting to 3 billion euros for 2004.
• India : The leader of the Congress Party , Sonia Gandhi , refrains from running for the office of prime minister after popular protests. Instead, she proposes the former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh .

Thursday May 20, 2004

• Aachen / Germany : EU Parliament President Pat Cox has been awarded the International Charlemagne Prize. This was justified with his services to the enlargement of the European Union ; he is "a European with a passion".
• Gunter / United States : A man was killed and several people injured in the collision of two freight trains in the US state of Texas . The two freight trains collided head-on near the northern Texas town of Gunter and folded like accordions . A train driver was killed and four other people injured. About 20 wagons derailed, one of the locomotives went up in flames. It is not yet known how the accident happened. The trains , one of them loaded with stones, were traveling on a single-track line. Both belong to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway .
• Lilongwe / Malawi : Bingu wa Mutharika , who succeeds Bakili Muluzi , prevails in the presidential elections in Malawi, Africa .
• Maria Enzersdorf / Austria : The Grazer AK is officially Austrian football champions 2004 .
• New York / United States : 14 of the 15 current members of the UN Security Council have approved a UN resolution condemning the actions of the Israeli army against civilians in the Gaza Strip . With the US abstaining, the resolution was passed. In recent years, the US has generally vetoed draft resolutions against Israel . The Israeli army , meanwhile, continues its attacks unabated.
• Paris / France : On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of FIFA , which takes place on Friday, May 21, Franz Beckenbauer and Günter Netzer were awarded the Organization's Order of Merit today .
• Paris / France : A painting by Pablo Picasso has apparently been stolen from a museum workshop . The painting “Nature Morte a la Charlotte” is valued at 2.5 million euros. The still life was last seen on January 12, the police said on Wednesday. The disappearance of the oil painting was only noticed on Friday . The 54 by 65 centimeter painting from 1924 belongs to a museum in Nancy .

Friday May 21, 2004

• Rafah / Palestinian Territories . The Israeli army begins withdrawing from two quarters of the Rafah refugee camp . Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Olmert had previously promised the US not to destroy any further houses in the Gaza Strip after the US waived a veto on May 20 in the UN Security Council against a resolution condemning the same practice.
• Moscow / Russia . The European Union and Russia agreed on the conditions for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization WTO . In return, Russia wants to ratify the Kyoto climate protection agreement more quickly. This agreement is also expected to give new impetus to negotiations with the US and Japan to approve their membership. Russia would be the last major economy to join the WTO.
• Washington, DC / United States . The US House of Representatives approved an increase in the defense budget with a large majority. Defense spending in 2005 will be 5.2 percent higher than in 2004. The US Senate has yet to approve the new defense budget.
• Khartoum / Sudan . The Sudanese government intends to facilitate aid deliveries to the crisis region. Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail promised that from May 24th, no special permit would be required, only a visa to enter the country.

Saturday May 22, 2004

• Cannes / France The political documentary " Fahrenheit 9/11 " by Michael Moore was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival . The film is directed against the policies of US President George W. Bush , in particular against the Iraq war .
• In Germany , the 2003/04 season of the 1st Bundesliga came to an end today . German champion was Werder Bremen . Descended are the 1. FC Köln , Eintracht Frankfurt and 1860 München .
• Basel / Switzerland : FC Basel is officially the 2004 Swiss football champions .
• New Delhi / India . Manmohan Singh was sworn in today around ten days after the Congress party's election victory as prime minister of the world's largest democracy, India. Party leader Sonia Gandhi had previously renounced the office of prime minister.
• Baghdad / Iraq . A car bomb attack occurred this morning in front of the home of Iraqi Interim Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Jabar Yusef . Six people were killed in the explosion. The minister, several family members and some staff were injured. The organization of Osama bin Laden's confidante , Zarqawi , confessed to the act.
• Tunis / Tunisia . The heads of state and government of the Arab League will meet in the North African city today and tomorrow . It is primarily intended to discuss the situation in Iraq , the situation of the Palestinians and reforms in the member countries. In protest against the weak position of the league in the Middle East conflict that left Libyan revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi to the summit.
• Rafah / Palestinian Territories . Israeli soldiers shot a 3-year-old girl two times in the head in a Palestinian refugee camp today. The Israeli army is said to have taken position with tanks around the Tal el Sultan district. Yesterday she withdrew from parts of the refugee camp.
• Madrid / Spain . The Spanish Crown Prince Felipe de Borbón y Grecia and the former civil journalist Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano get married in the Almudena Cathedral.
• An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.7 on the Richter scale is registered shortly after seven in the morning in the southern Rhineland .

Sunday May 23, 2004

Horst Koehler

• Berlin / Germany . The Federal Assembly elected Horst Köhler as the new Federal President of Germany with an absolute majority of 604 votes. The opposing candidate Gesine Schwan received 589 votes, there were 9 abstentions and two invalid votes. On July 1st, Köhler will take up his new position.
• Wals-Siezenheim / Austria . In the Wals-Siezenheim stadium , the Grazer AK wins the ÖFB Cup final against Austria Wien with 8: 7 on penalties.
• In Germany, the 2nd Bundesliga is coming to an end. 1. FC Nürnberg will be the champion , further climbers are Arminia Bielefeld and FSV Mainz 05 , which will be playing in the 1. Bundesliga for the first time .
• Monte Carlo / Monaco . After various accidents involving David Coulthard , Giancarlo Fisichella , Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher , Jarno Trulli wins the Monaco Grand Prix . Jenson Button was second ahead of Rubens Barrichello . In total, only 9 of the 20 Formula 1 cars started made it to the finish.
• Kufa / Iraq . At least 20 people are said to have been killed in fighting between soldiers of the US Army and supporters of the radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr .
• Paris / France . A part of the departure lounge collapsed at Paris Roissy-Charles De Gaulle Airport . At least four people died.
• Oldenburg / Germany . The political author and linguist Noam Chomsky receives the Carl von Ossietzky Prize from the University of Oldenburg
• Mariazell / Austria . 80,000 pilgrims gather in the small town for the final assembly of the Central European Catholic Day.

Monday May 24, 2004

• Linus Torvalds wants to improve the documentation of submitted kernel patches for Linux in order to be able to completely prove the origin of future modifications.
• Berlin / Germany : Interior Minister Otto Schily is preparing an agreement with Afghanistan on the return of 16,000 of the approx. 80,000 Afghans living in the FRG. They continue to prefer the route of voluntary return, but will also support forced deportations if necessary.
• Bremen , Hanover , Cologne / Germany : Since 11.00 a.m., analogue , terrestrial TV channels can no longer be received in the metropolitan regions of the cities mentioned . Only digital DVB-T signals are broadcast.
• Frankfurt am Main / Germany : The rock formation Böhse Onkelz disbanded 24 years after it was founded. The group's last studio album is titled " Adios ".

Tuesday May 25, 2004

• Berlin / Germany : The government coalition and the opposition agree on the content of the immigration law .
• Berlin / Germany : The award-winning design by the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for the documentation center “Topography of Terror” is discarded and the facility is redesigned.
• Hispaniola / Dominican Republic , Haiti : Over 1,000 people die in floods. (NASA)
• Vienna / Austria . On the occasion of the EU enlargement on May 1st, the Vienna Philharmonic will give a “Concert for Europe” under conductor Bobby McFerrin in the Schönbrunn palace gardens in front of 90,000 visitors.

Wednesday May 26, 2004

• Gelsenkirchen / Germany . The FC Porto win after a 3: 0 victory against AS Monaco the football UEFA Champions League , making it to 1987 best for the second time European club team.

Thursday May 27, 2004

• Berlin / Germany . From the beginning of 2005 , following the agreement between the government and the opposition, in the case of newly concluded endowment life insurance policies, only half of the income will be taxed in future if the term of the contract is at least twelve years and the payment is made after the end of the sixtieth year of life. Otherwise the income is fully subject to tax.

Friday May 28, 2004

• Turkey . The Kurdish PKK ended the five-year ceasefire . According to the Hêzên Parastina Gel Command Council , the ceasefire will be broken on June 1st .
• Beirut / Lebanon . After calling the unions and religious leaders for a general strike took place in Beirut, capital of Lebanon, to riots .
• Baghdad / Iraq . Ijad Allawi becomes Prime Minister of the future Iraqi interim government . Allawi is the leader of the Iraqi National Unity (INA). From 1961 to 1971 he was a member of the Ba'ath Party and then emigrated to London via Beirut .
• Iran . More than 20 people were killed in a severe earthquake in northern Iran.

Saturday May 29, 2004

• Berlin / Germany . Werder Bremen wins the DFB Cup with a 3-2 win against Alemannia Aachen in the Berlin Olympic Stadium . In the women's final, 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam won 3-0 against 1. FFC Frankfurt .
• United States . The documentary filmmaker and author Michael Moore claims to own a video-recorded interview with Nicholas Berg, who was beheaded in front of the camera by alleged al-Qaeda terrorists . He interviewed Berg in connection with his latest film, Fahrenheit 9/11 . However, the interview does not appear in it. Moore does not want to publish the interview, just make it available to the Bergs family.

Sunday May 30, 2004

• Chobar / Saudi Arabia : 22 people were killed in a hostage-taking in the Saudi Arabian port city of Chobar. A Saudi special unit ended the hostage situation bloody in the morning. The terrorist organization Al-Qaeda has claimed to be hostage-taking . The attack was directed against US oil companies that would steal Muslim mineral resources, according to a website on which the terror group had spoken several times in the past.
• Hong Kong / China : A mass demonstration takes place in Hong Kong to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tienanmen massacre in Beijing.
• Milan / Italy : The overall winner of the 87th edition of the wheel - stage race Giro d'Italia goes to the Italians Damiano Cunego . It is his first overall victory on this tour and the 62nd for an Italian.

Monday May 31, 2004

• Berlin / Germany : The 9th Carnival of Cultures comes to an end with a new record number of participants , which also benefits from the fact that the Love Parade is canceled. The organizers report the number of 900,000 visitors.

See also

• Nekrolog May 2004 for deaths this month
• List of annually recurring commemorative and action days in May
• Category for commemorative days, holidays or action days in May

Web links

Commons : May 2004  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the May 1st riots. In: berliner-kurier.de . April 30, 2018. Retrieved May 25, 2019 . 
2. ↑ eastward expansion. In: lpb-bw.de . Retrieved September 17, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Time table Poland 1989-2011. In: deutsches-polen-institut.de . Retrieved January 14, 2019 . 
4. ↑ The ten most expensive paintings in the world. In: welt.de . May 17, 2007, accessed January 2, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Transcript of the Inauguration of Vladimir Putin as President of Russia. In: kremlin.ru . May 7, 2004, accessed March 16, 2018 . 
6. Jump up ↑ Ice Hockey World Championships: 68th Ice Hockey World Championships 2004 in the Czech Republic. In: ifosta.de. Retrieved February 22, 2017 . 
7. ↑ The worst prison fires in years. In: mz-web.de . October 27, 2005, accessed February 28, 2020 . 
8. ↑ Defense gives Valencia the title. In: uefa.com . Retrieved February 21, 2017 . 
9. ^ The 2004 Charlemagne Prize laureate Patrick Cox. In: karlspreis.de . Retrieved November 30, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Porto surprises the football world. In: uefa.com . Retrieved February 20, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Elenco Edizioni. In: museociclismo.it, Museo del Ciclismo Associazione. Retrieved October 24, 2017 (Italian). 
12. ↑ Exotic rush of colors in Berlin. In: spiegel.de . May 16, 2005, accessed September 17, 2016 .