Portal:Current events/May 2012

• Syrian uprising: The United Nations says both government and opposition forces have violated the ceasefire. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising: Police break up protests in the capital Manama. (Reuters)
• An attack by a suicide bomber in a café attached to a hotel in Dhusamareb, Somalia, causes an indeterminate number of fatalities, including according to witnesses two MPs, Yusuf Mire Seerar and Abdiweli Sheik Mohamud. (Shabelle Media Network)
• 2012 Mali counter-coup attempt: Heavy fighting takes place in the Malian capital Bamako between coup supporters and opponents. (Al Jazeera)
• 2012 South Sudan–Sudan border conflict: Tensions rise between the two nations as South Sudan accuses Sudan of attacking locations in its territory. (Reuters)
• Up to 20 people are arrested amid the investigation about last month's massacre at Železarsko lake in the Republic of Macedonia. (B92)

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches a four-year high due to strong manufacturing figures and company earnings. (CNN)
• Tens of thousands of people march in Asia, Europe and North America, protesting against job cuts, inequality, and austerity measures. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (The Guardian) (Christian Science Monitor) (MSNBC) (ABC News)
• April car sales in Japan rise by 92% year-over-year, a gain partially realized due to low sales in the wake of last year's earthquake and tsunami. (Kuwait News Agency)

• U.S. President Barack Obama visits Afghanistan on an unannounced visit coinciding with the first anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's assassination by the U.S. Special Forces in Pakistan, signing an agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai outlining a continuing U.S. role in Afghanistan after 2014. (BBC)
• Five European presidents and the President of the European Commission cancel visits to Ukraine over the treatment of the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Egypt security services foil an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Cairo. (AFP via Google News)
• Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang visits Moscow. China and Russia sign trade deals worth $15 billion. (Asia Times)

• News International phone hacking scandal: The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee publishes its report into phone hacking at the News of the World. The committee concludes that Rupert Murdoch "is not a fit person" to run a major international company and exhibited "wilful blindness" to phone-hacking and other practices going on in his media empire. The report also accuses three News Corporation executives of giving misleading evidence. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• A New York judge rules that Nafissatou Diallo's civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault by Dominique Strauss-Kahn can proceed to trial. (BBC)

• Tomás Borge, the last surviving founding member of Nicaragua's socialist political party Sandinista National Liberation Front, dies. (BBC)
• A parliamentary committee begins work on Turkey's first fully civilian constitution. (BBC)
• Former opposition leader and foreign minister Tzipi Livni quits the Israeli parliament. (Shanghai Daily)

• Norwegian world swimming champion and Olympic medalist Alexander Dale Oen dies at age 26 after suffering a cardiac arrest during a training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona. (BBC)
• Kenya rugby captain Aberdeen Shikoyi is paid tribute to in death after being injured in a match against Uganda. (BBC)
• The sale for Guggenheim Partners to purchase the Los Angeles Dodgers is finalized for US$2.1 billion, the most ever for a professional sports franchise. ESPN/AP

• Arab Spring:
  • At least 20 people are killed in Cairo as unidentified attackers unleash rocks, clubs, firebombs and shotguns on a protest near the Egyptian Ministry of Defence. Police and the military intervene after six hours. (BBC)
  • The New York-based Human Rights Watch accuses Syrian forces of continuing their killing sprees in opposition areas even after peace talks began. (Al Jazeera)
• 2012 South Sudan–Sudan border conflict: The United Nations Security Council passes a resolution threatening sanctions if hostilities do not end within 48 hours. (Al Jazeera)
• At least six people are killed in a suicide bombing attack on a Kabul suburb popular with westerners. (Reuters)
• Mexican Drug War:
  • A gunfight between the Mexican Army and suspected gunmen of a drug cartel left 12 dead in the western state of Sinaloa, the homestate of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, Mexico's most-wanted drug lord. (BBC)

• Imprisoned journalist and blogger Eskinder Nega is awarded the PEN America's "Freedom to Write" annual prize for publishing articles critical of Ethiopia's human rights record. (BBC)
• Edvard Munch's The Scream sells for a record $US119,922,500 in an auction in New York City. (AP via Sydney Morning Herald)

• A court in the German city of Mannheim rules that Microsoft has infringed Motorola Mobility's patents and bans Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system from sale in Germany. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
• The News Corporation board expresses its "full confidence" in Rupert Murdoch following a UK government media committee's conclusion yesterday that Murdoch is "not a fit person" to run a major international business. (BBC)

• Visit to China by Hillary Clinton:
  • United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Beijing for high-level talks with the government of China. She also contacts dissident Chen Guangcheng. (AP via MSNBC)
  • Chen later leaves the U.S. embassy after a week spent there after fleeing house arrest in China, after alleged threats to his family. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang travels to Budapest and holds talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. (China Daily)
• The Japanese owner is found of a Harley-Davidson that drifted to Canada in a container that had been swept out to sea in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (BBC)

• Coroner Fiona Wilcox states that Secret Intelligence Service officer Gareth Williams was "on the balance of probabilities" unlawfully killed and that it is unlikely he found his way all by himself into the padlocked red sports bag in which his body was found in the bath at his home. (BBC)
• A man, believed by the media (but not confirmed) to be J. T. Ready, a Neo-Nazi, and a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, is among five individuals in Gilbert, Arizona, found dead with gunshot wounds. It is unclear what role he may have played in the apparent shootings, and what precise type they were, but he is believed to have shot the others and then himself in a possible murder-suicide. (MSNBC)

• The Egyptian military expresses its willingness to hand over political power on May 24 if an outright winner emerges in the first round of the presidential elections. (RIA Novosti)
• Presidential candidates Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande go head-to-head in a televised debate in France. (BBC)
• The Australian Federal Police launches a formal investigation into allegations that Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives Peter Slipper misused Cabcharges. (Daily Telegraph)
• Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, is sworn in as a member of the Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of the parliament of Burma. (AP via Washington Post) (Al Jazeera)
• 2012 United States presidential election: Newt Gingrich suspends his campaign for the Republican Party nomination. Mitt Romney is declared the presumptive nominee. (CBS News)
• Gujarat MP Prabha Taviad breaks down and weeps in parliament alleging assault by police as she tried to attend a government function. (BBC)

• Lionel Messi breaks Gerd Müller's scoring record for a single European football season with a league hat-trick as Barcelona defeat Malaga. (GOAL) (National Post) (BBC)
• Papiss Cissé fires two goals past UEFA Champions League finalists Chelsea to keep Newcastle United firmly in contention for a place in the Premier League's top four which would require Chelsea to defeat Bayern Munich in the final to qualify for next season. (BBC)
• Fabrice Muamba makes an emotional return to the Reebok Stadium following his collapse on the pitch on 17 March 2012. (BBC)
• Former National Football League All-Pro and Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau is found dead in his home in Oceanside, California, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. (ESPN)

• Thirty-four people are killed in raids by gunmen opposed to the burning of a colleague at a cattle market in northern Nigeria. (AP via Google News)
• Seven people are killed and 30 injured in explosions near a police post in Makhachkala, Dagestan, southern Russia. (euronews)
• Activists say four students are killed in an attack on anti-government demonstrations at Aleppo University, Syria. (Al Jazeera)
• Farhan Jeemis Abdulle, a Somali journalist and well-known local reporter for Radio Daljir is shot and killed by an unidentified gunman in Galkayo while walking to his home district of Garsor. Puntland authorities arrived on scene to investigate the killing but no arrests have been made. Abdulle is the fifth journalist to be murdered in Somalia this year, and the second in Galkayo. (Shabelle Media Network)

• The 59th National Film Awards is held in New Delhi with Deool and Byari winning the Award for Best Feature Film. (CNN-IBN), (Deccan Herald)
• A 70-year-old widow, who is a mother of three and grandmother of five, makes her solemn vows as a Poor Clare contemplative nun in the town of Canals in Spain. (Catholic News Agency)

• At least 15 are killed and 21 are injured when a bus plunges into a ravine in a mountainous region of northern Pakistan. (AFP via The Telegraph)

• Four dismembered bodies, including two of journalists, are found in the Mexican state of Veracruz. (CNN)
• The Argentine Chamber of Deputies approves the bill submitted by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to nationalize 51% of YPF by a 207-32 vote. (Reuters)

• Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng telephones the U.S. Congress for help in his attempts to leave China with his family. (BBC)
• 2012 Malian coup d'état: The Economic Community of West African States pledges to send troops to Mali if the country agrees. (AFP via Google News)
• China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States urge Iran to co-operate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. (AFP via Google News)

• Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa grants new powers to parliament. (Al Jazeera)
• Voters in the United Kingdom go to the polls for local elections with the opposition Labour Party expected to do well. (BBC)
• Haiti's Chamber of Deputies appoints Laurent Lamothe as the new Prime Minister ending a two month standoff with President Michel Martelly. (AP via ABC News)

• At least one person is killed and at least 373 others are wounded when armed forces fire water cannon, tear gas and rocks on demonstrators near Egypt's defence ministry in Cairo. (Al Jazeera)
• Official figures indicate that at least 144 people were injured at an Armenian government campaign event in Yerevan's central square after an explosion during a political rally. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• At least eleven people are killed in a suicide bombing attack in a crowded market in Pakistan's Bajaur Agency. (Xinhua), (Reuters via MSNBC)
• Mexican Drug War
  • 23 bodies—14 of them decapitated and 9 of them hanged from a bridge—are found in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo; those killed were reportedly members of the Gulf Cartel who were killed by Los Zetas, a rival cartel. (Yahoo! News)
  • Three journalists are killed and their bodies dumped in plastic bags in a canal in Boca del Río in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where the rival criminal groups of Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel are fighting for territorial control. (The Huffington Post) (Houston Chronicle)

• Adam Yauch, founding member of the influential hip hop group the Beastie Boys, dies aged 47. (BBC)

• A new study published in The Lancet finds that up to 90 per cent of school-leavers in Asia's major cities are suffering from myopia, or short-sightedness and that 10 to 20 per cent have high myopia, which can lead to blindness. (Al Jazeera)

• Chinese official Beijing Daily describes dissident Chen Guangcheng as a "tool and a pawn of American politicians". (Reuters via MSNBC)

• Former media mogul Conrad Black is released from prison in Miami after being locked up for just over three years for defrauding investors. (BBC)
• Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong's largest real estate developer, advises the markets that former chairman Walter Kwok was arrested for corruption and released on bail. (Reuters)
• The UK government is to launch a consultation process on introducing measures requiring internet users to opt in if they wish to view adult content. (BBC)
• The trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, starts at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (CNN)

• Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete sacks six ministers amid allegations of government corruption. (BBC)
• Voters in Iran go to the polls for the second round of legislative elections. (Reuters)
• Boris Johnson is reelected as the Mayor of London for a second term. (Politico)
• The Labour Party make significant gains in local elections throughout the United Kingdom. (BBC)

• A U.S. drone attack kills at least nine insurgents in Pakistan's North Waziristan. (AP via The Guardian) (NineMSN)
• Five prisoners of the United States at Guantanamo Bay, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (a reported subject of torture by U.S. authorities), appear before a military judge. (Al Jazeera)
• Arab Spring:
  • Bahrain Centre for Human Rights's president Nabeel Rajab is arrested by representatives of Bahrain's Interior Ministry on arrival at Manama airport from Lebanon ahead of his scheduled court appearance. (Al Jazeera)
  • Several people are killed or injured in a blast in Syria's second city of Aleppo. (BBC)
  • 300 people are arrested in Egypt following yesterday's violent clashes outside the Defense Ministry in Cairo. (Wall Street Journal)

• Japan shuts down its last nuclear reactor, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970. (Reuters)

• At least 14 people are killed at a fire at a drug rehabilitation centre in Lima. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• At least 13 people are killed and dozens of others are declared missing as a result of a Nepal flash flood after a mountain river burst its banks. (BBC)
• At least nine people are killed in a fire at a karaoke venue in Busan, South Korea. (Yonhap News)

• The Cambodian government closes an investigation into the shooting of anti-logging activist Chhut Vuthy and a military policeman after the arrest of a security guard. (Straits Times)

• A supermoon is formed as the moon gets closest to the earth for the year. (Herald Sun)

• In US horse racing, I'll Have Another wins the 2012 Kentucky Derby. (NBC Sports)
• In English soccer, Chelsea defeat Liverpool in the 2012 FA Cup Final. (BBC)
• In Spanish soccer, Lionel Messi scores all the goals, including a Spanish league-record 50th goal, to take his season tally to an unprecedented 72 in the 4-0 defeat of rivals Espanyol. (AP via The Guardian)

• Off the coast in the north of Peru hundreds of dolphins and more than 1,000 birds, mostly pelicans, die under unexplained circumstances. (BBC)(New York Times)

• The Government of Egypt extends a curfew around its Defence Ministry in Cairo to deter attacks for a third night. (Egyptian Independent)

• Voters in France go to the polls for the second round of the French presidential election, with François Hollande elected President. (ABC News Australia) (BBC)
• Voters in Greece go to the polls for a parliamentary election with parties opposed to austerity measures winning 60 per cent of the vote and the two main parties in favour of austerity suffering withering defeats. (Al Jazeera) (Bloomberg) (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• Voters in Armenia go to the polls for a parliamentary election with exit polls showing the ruling Republican Party doing well. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Voters in Serbia go to the polls for a presidential and parliamentary election. (AP via ABC News America)
• Voters in Schleswig-Holstein go to the polls for a state election with the governing coalition of CDU and FDP losing their majority, paving the way for a coalition between SPD, The Greens and the Danish minority's SSW. (BBC)

• In Italian football, Juventus wins the Serie A title for the 28th time. (AFP via Google)

• At least 14 civilians are killed and at least 6 other civilians are wounded by a NATO air strike in Badghis Province. (Al Jazeera)
• The tomb of Muslim saint Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar, part of the World Heritage Site in Timbuktu, Mali, is attacked and burned by Islamist fighters. (Al Jazeera)

• The death toll from flash floods on the Seti River in Nepal reaches 17 with another 47 people missing and presumed dead. (AP via Mercury News)

• South Korea seizes thousands of smuggled capsules from Northeastern People's Republic of China filled with powdered human flesh. (IOL)(Al Jazeera)(The Telegraph)
• Clerics in Malaysia issue a fatwa against Muslims participating in "unproductive demonstrations". (Jakarta Post)
• The CIA announces it had foiled a plot by Fahd al-Quso, a Yemeni affiliate of al-Qaida, to have a suicide bomber, using an improved version of the underwear bomb used by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in 2009, to blow up an American-bound airliner; no lives were ever at risk. (MSNBC)

• Bahamian general election, 2012:
  • Voters in The Bahamas go to the polls for a general election. (Bahamas Weekly)
  • Former Prime Minister Perry Christie's Progressive Liberal Party wins in a landslide, with Christie expected to become the next Prime Minister on May 8. (Washington Post)
  • Outgoing Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, whose Free National Movement party suffered heavy losses, concedes defeat in the election and announces his retirement from politics. (Nassau Guardian)
• USL Leader, Victor Ponta, becomes Prime Minister of Romania. (Yahoo)
• Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces his desire to hold the country's general election on 4 September, more than a year early. (BBC)
• Vladimir Putin is sworn in for a third six-year term as President of Russia. (BBC)
• Voters in Syria go to the polls for parliamentary elections as the death tolls from the uprising continues to increase. (Al-Arabiya)

• Paeleoclimatology research published in Current Biology suggests that the greenhouse gas methane from dinosaur's flatulence may have warmed the Earth. (The Telegraph)(Wall Street Journal)

• Germany and the Republic of Ireland name their squads for UEFA Euro 2012. (Deutsche Welle) (Irish Examiner)
• Gaël Givet, troubled by a heart problem, suffers a further health scare during the live televised Premier League game between Blackburn Rovers and Wigan Athletic, prompting treatment from physios and paramedics. (Sports)
• Former Premier League champions Blackburn Rovers are relegated to The Championship. (BBC)

• 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)

• 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)

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

• 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)

• 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 onto 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)

• Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko ends her hunger strike in detention. (Ukrainian News Agency)
• Thirty-second government of Israel: 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)

• 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)

• Mexican Drug War:
  • 15 mutilated bodies are found inside two abandoned SUVs in the state of Jalisco, a region that is under dispute between Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel. The Mexican authorities believe the massacre is a response by Los Zetas for the 2012 Nuevo Laredo massacres reportedly carried out by Joaquín Guzmán Loera (a.k.a. El Chapo), Mexico's most-wanted drug lord. (BBC) (Houston Chronicle)
• A bomb explodes in Daraa, Syria, near a convoy carrying several United Nations observers in the country. (BBC)
• Missile strikes kill eight militants near the Al-Qaeda stronghold of Jaar in southern Yemen. (Reuters)

• Mark Rothko's Orange, red, yellow sells at auction for $86.9 million at Christie's. (BBC)
• Andy Warhol's Double Elvis sells at an auction for $37 million at Sotheby's in New York City. (CNN)

• Portugal scraps four public holidays as an austerity measure. (BBC)
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is to close after 15 months due to slumped ticket sales. (BBC)
• The Jockey Club, British horse racing's largest commercial group, is to increase prize money after a rise in turnover and profits. (BBC)

• 17 people are killed in a blaze at a clothing store in Butuan City, Philippines. (Manila Bulletin)
• A Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger jet disappears after taking off from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, with 44 people on board. (BBC) (CNN)

• India halts a plan to re-introduce cheetahs to the country by shipments from Africa. (Straits Times)
• Two Palestinian prisoners held in Israel enter the 71st day of their hunger strikes. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concern about the condition of the hunger strikers. (Daily Mail) (UN News Centre)

• Adam Mayes, wanted by authorities on suspicion of four charges of kidnapping and two charges of first-degree murder, is spotted on store cameras in a Guntown, Mississippi store and is added to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Most Wanted List. (MSNBC)
• A Honduras radio journalist is kidnapped days after another journalist is killed. (Yahoo News)

• Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is moved to a hospital after a political compromise, and ends her hunger strike. (Reuters)
• United States President Barack Obama officially states that he supports the right for same-sex partners to marry. (CNN)

• Atlético Madrid defeat Athletic Bilbao in the 2012 UEFA Europa League Final in Bucharest to win the competition for the second time in three years. (BBC)
• Lionel Messi is embroiled in a racism scandal. (GOAL)

• Syrian uprising: Two large explosions occur in quick succession in the embattled Syrian capital Damascus, with dozens of people reportedly killed or injured. (Al Jazeera) (Al-Arabiya) (Reuters)
• An airstrike reportedly kills five al-Qaeda militants in the southern Yemeni town of Jaar. (AP via Atlanta Journal Constitution)
• The International Committee of the Red Cross suspends all humanitarian work in Pakistan after a worker was kidnapped and killed. (CNN)

• Sleeping Girl, a picture by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, sells at auction for US$44.9 million, setting a new record for a Lichtenstein artwork. (BBC)
• Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror, a painting by Francis Bacon, sells at auction for US$44.9 million in New York. (RTÉ)
• Salman Rushdie, Art Spiegelman and Mario Vargas Llosa are among those to protest against the planned spending of US$300 million on the Fifth Avenue branch of the New York Public Library, saying it is "a misplaced use of funds in a time of great scarcity". A letter signed by more than 700 writers, academics and others is sent to the library. (The Guardian)
• Pope Benedict XVI meets with a delegation from the Latin American Jewish Congress, and speaks about progress in relations between the two faiths in the past 50 years. (Catholic World News)

• British public sector protests:
  • As many as 400,000 public sector workers in the United Kingdom resolve to stage a 24-hour mass strike in protest against planned pension cuts. (BBC) (The Scotsman)
  • More than 30,000 police officers from across the UK protest against police reforms, budget cuts and pay cuts in the biggest demonstration by police officers ever held in England and Wales. (The Guardian)
• An Air India industrial dispute escalates, with over 20 flights cancelled. (IBN Live)

• The wreckage of a missing Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane, which vanished from radar on a demonstration flight with 45 people on board on May 9, is found in Indonesia. There are reportedly no signs of survivors. (AP via KSL) (AP via The Australian)
• A helicopter ditches in the North Sea off Aberdeen. (The Guardian)

• Members of the United Nations peacekeeping force sent to Haiti are alleged to have raped a Haitian teenage boy and sexually abused him at a UN base in the town of Port-Salut: he is to testify in a closed hearing. (Al Jazeera)
• Chinese tour companies suspend tourist flights to the Philippines amid rising tensions between the two countries over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. (BBC)
• A dozen members of the Australian Federal Police are expelled from Vanuatu, following a diplomatic row over the arrest of the Prime Minister of Vanuatu's private secretary in Australia last month. (AFP via Yahoo News Australia)

• London's Metropolitan Police launches its 14th investigation into alleged police racism in six weeks. (The Guardian)

• British prime minister David Cameron allowed his former spokesman Andy Coulson, the ex-editor of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, access to some of the British government's most sensitive secrets without full security clearance, the Leveson Inquiry is told. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• In Greece, Evangelos Venizelos of the Pasok party makes a third effort to create a coalition government, amid increasing political and economic turmoil in the country. (BBC)
• Voters in Algeria go to the polls for a legislative election. (BBC)

• Syrian uprising: the death toll of the May 10 Damascus double bombing reaches 55, with as many as 370 reportedly injured. Syrian authorities claim that over 1,000 kilograms (2,200 lb) of explosives were used in the attacks. (Daily Mail)
• Mexican Drug War: Gunmen open fire on an El Mañana newspaper office in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, shortly after drug-related massacres in the city. (Washington Post)
• The United States Armed Forces are embroiled in controversy over a defunct officer training course called Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism, which taught that Islam is America's irreconcilable enemy. (AP via The Guardian) (BBC) (Wired) (San Francisco Gate) (Democracy Now)

• An American study reveals that North Koreans have an increasing level of informal access to foreign media, despite the intense censorship efforts of the North Korean government. (BBC)
• Security is tightened in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, ahead of anti-China protests amid an ongoing Sino-Philippine territorial dispute in the South China Sea. (Reuters)

• A woman is arrested on suspicion of murder after five children die in a suspected arson fire in the English city of Derby. (BBC)
• William Balfour is found guilty of murdering the mother, brother and nephew of American entertainer Jennifer Hudson. (ABC News America)
• At the Leveson Inquiry into British media practices, former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks discloses an email that appears to show that Britain's Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, sought advice from News International over how Downing Street should respond to the News of the World phone hacking scandal. (The Guardian)

• Chinese scientists use quantum teleportation to transmit photons over a distance of 97 kilometres (60 mi) – a world record for quantum teleportation. (PopSci)
• A panel of American health experts recommends formal approval of the Truvada anti-HIV drug for prescription to non-infected men who have sex with multiple male partners, a decision opposed by some health workers and groups active among those with HIV. (BBC)
• American researchers report that preventable infections are the leading cause of child mortality worldwide. Of the 7.6 million children who died before their fifth birthday in 2010, over 60% died of infections such as pneumonia. (BBC)

• Thousands of fans attend a memorial service for the late San Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau at Qualcomm Stadium. Team president Dean Spanos announces that Seau's #55 will be retired by the team. (ESPN)

• Arab Spring:
  • Syrian uprising: At least eight more people are killed in the ongoing violence in Syria, despite the presence of 145 United Nations ceasefire monitors. (Al Jazeera)
  • The United States resumes shipping armaments to Bahrain, after a pause that coincided with the ongoing popular uprising against the Bahraini regime. (Al Jazeera)
• The United States conducts two drone strikes in southeastern Yemen, killing 11 suspected Al-Qaeda militants. (Washington Post) (Huffington Post)
• Nigerian police claim to have captured a senior commander of the radical Islamist militant group Boko Haram. (BBC)
• Four NATO soldiers die in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan – two in a gun attack by insurgents, one in a roadside bombing, and one of non-combat injuries. (CNN)

• Eurozone debt crisis:
  • The European Commission states that the combined eurozone economy is likely to contract by 0.3% in 2012, as an ongoing debt crisis and high unemployment continue to wrack the 17 euro-using nations. (Sky News Australia)
  • The Spanish "Indignants" protest movement celebrates its first anniversary, with at least 100,000 people gathering in Spanish cities to protest against the politicians and bankers widely blamed for the country's economic downturn. Similar protests take place in other world cities, including London, Lisbon, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv, as part of a global day of action. (BBC) (Reuters via Yahoo News) (Al Jazeera) (Wall Street Journal)
  • Leading European Central Bank policymakers state that crisis-hit Greece may be able to abandon the euro without compromising the wider eurozone. (Reuters)

• Three Boston University students are killed and another five are injured in a minivan crash during a trip to New Zealand. (Boston Herald)

• China denies that its military has been placed on a war footing amid an ongoing dispute with the Philippines over territorial claims in the South China Sea. (BBC)
• Two Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are reportedly close to death, having refused to eat for 74 days. A further 1,600 prisoners have been on hunger strike since 17 April. Leaders of the strikers wait for a response from the Israeli Prison Service to calls for negotiation on issues such as the allowing of family visits for prisoners from Gaza and the ending of the use of extended solitary confinement. (Daily Telegraph) (Ha'aretz)
• President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls Israel "nothing more than a mosquito" and downplays the idea of war between the two countries, ahead of talks regarding Iran's nuclear program. (CNN)

• President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez returns home after successfully completing of a course of radiotherapy for cancer in Cuba. (BBC)
• The President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, begins efforts at forming a coalition government, after three failed attempts by major political parties to reach a coalition agreement. (BBC)
• In the United States, prospective Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney condemns same-sex marriage as illegitimate. At the evangelical Christian Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, he describes marriage as exclusively "a relationship between one man and one woman." (BBC)

• The discovery of a missing piece of the Mayan calendar appears to render the 2012 phenomenon obsolete, by proving that the Maya did not believe 2012 to be the end of the world. (WBRC)

• Fans clash in Istanbul, Turkey, as Galatasaray draw with Fenerbahçe S.K. to secure their 18th Turkish football title. (AFP via Google) (Al Jazeera)

• Mexican Drug War: 49 dismembered bodies are discovered by Mexican authorities on Mexican Federal Highway 40. The decapitated and mutilated bodies were dumped on a roadside near the northern city of Monterrey, presumably by members of the powerful Los Zetas drug cartel. (CNN) (BBC)
• Several people are killed in clashes in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, in a violent spillover from the Syrian civil war. (Al Jazeera)
• Arsala Rahmani, a key peace negotiator for the Afghan government, is shot dead by assassins in Kabul, Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Following American drone strikes against suspected militants in southern Yemen, at least 15 other militants are killed in a Yemeni Army offensive. (Al Jazeera)
• The Ugandan army captures Caesar Achellam, a senior commander of the militant Lord's Resistance Army, in the Central African Republic. (BBC)

• Torrential rainfall and flooding in China's Hunan Province destroys a bridge and 3,500 homes, leading to the evacuation of 28,000 people in Pingjiang County. (Shanghai Daily) (Xinhua via Shanghai Daily)

• Paul Watson, the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, is arrested in Germany for allegedly violating Guatemalan territorial waters in 2002. (The Australian)

• Voters in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia head to the polls for an election, with the Social Democratic Party of Germany winning the most votes, allowing it to continue in government with the support of the Greens. (Reuters via ABC Australia). (AP via Cleveland Plain-Dealer)
• Chinese security tsar and Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang reportedly transfers his security-related duties to Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu, following the Bo Xilai scandal. (Financial Times)
• The President of Greece, Karolos Papoulias, fails to broker a coalition deal between Greece's major political parties. (RIA Novosti)

• Scientists claim that there is a visible link between the loss of biodiversity and the disappearance of endangered languages and cultures. (BBC)

• Manchester City win the Premier League for the first time, beating Manchester United on goal difference. (Reuters via Yahoo! Australia)
• British international motorcycle speedway racer Lee Richardson dies in hospital in the Polish city of Wrocław following a crash in a racing event. (BBC)
• After winning the Spanish Grand Prix with driver Pastor Maldonado, the British Formula One team Williams suffers a fire in its pit garage, leaving 31 people injured. (BBC)

• Syrian uprising: At least 30 people die in a battle between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters in the town of Rastan. Reportedly, 23 of the dead are government soldiers. (Daily Telegraph)

• An Air India pilots' strike enters its seventh day, with the airline cancelling 13 international flights. (NDTV) (BBC)

• An Agni Air flight carrying 21 people crashes while trying to land at Jomsom Airport in mountainous northern Nepal. 15 people are reported dead. ("The News") (Indian Express) (AP via Huffington Post)
• A 6.2-magnitude earthquake strikes the Peruvian–Chilean border, causing power cuts but no serious immediate damage. No casualties have been reported. (AFP via Google)

• The President of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, commences the first official visit by a South Korean leader to Myanmar since 1983, when North Korean commandos attempted to assassinate the then-President, Chun Doo-hwan, in a bomb attack. (AP via Washington Post)
• Over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons end their mass hunger strike after reaching an agreement with Israeli authorities in an Egyptian-mediated deal. (BBC)(The Jerusalem Post)

• News Corporation scandal:
  • Tony Blair's former Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell, tells the Leveson Inquiry that there was no "express deal" between Blair and News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch in the run-up to the 1997 UK general election. (BBC)
  • Entertainment manager Louis Walsh seeks access to documents which allegedly show that Murdoch's tabloid The Sun paid €700 to a man who made, in a high profile case, what turned out to be a false sexual assault accusation against Walsh. The senior counsel for Walsh tells Ireland's High Court: "The Sun directed the operation to take out Louis Walsh as a public person." (Irish Independent)

• A fourth successive attempt by major Greek political parties to form a coalition government ends in failure. Another attempt is scheduled for May 15; if a coalition cannot be agreed, emergency elections must be held in June. (BBC)
• American Republican politician Ron Paul states he will be ending his active presidential campaign bid. However, he will still try to secure delegates before the Republican National Convention in August. (CNN)

• Scientists at California's Stanford University invent a working bionic eye powered only by focused light. Though currently a prototype, the device could eventually restore the sight of millions of people suffering from eye diseases such as macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa. (BBC)

• Tens of thousands of people line the streets of Manchester in celebration of Manchester City's victory in the Premier League season finale – the team's first Premier League win since 1968. (BBC)
• Queens Park Rangers player Joey Barton is charged by the Football Association in relation to his behaviour during yesterday's game at Manchester City, in which he assaulted several opposing players. (BBC)
• Málaga CF player Ruud van Nistelrooy announces his retirement from professional football. (BBC)

• Syrian uprising: At least 20 civilians are killed in the Syrian province of Idlib after security forces open fire on a funeral procession. (BBC)
• At least 44 people are killed amid a Yemeni government offensive to retake Zinjibar and Jaar from Islamist militants. Among the casualties are three soldiers and at least 11 civilians. (Trust.org via AP)
• A targeted bombing in the Colombian capital Bogota injures former Interior Minister Fernando Londoño, and kills his driver and a police officer. (Trust.org via AP)

• Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, one of the leading authors of the Latin American literary boom, dies in Mexico aged 83. (BBC)

• The combined economy of the 17 eurozone nations narrowly avoids a recession, largely due to relatively high economic growth in Germany. However, overall growth in the eurozone was zero in the first quarter of 2012. (The Daily Telegraph)
• A customer of American multinational retail corporation Wal-Mart is bitten by a rattlesnake on the premises of the Clarkston, Washington store. (BBC)

• A man sets himself on fire outside the Oslo courthouse where mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is on trial for the 2011 Norway attacks. (The Guardian)
• Indian child actress Taruni Sachdev and her mother are revealed to be among the dead in yesterday's plane crash in northern Nepal, which killed 15 people. (BBC)

• Thousands of Palestinians demonstrate on the 64th anniversary of their Nakba ("Catastrophe"), in remembrance of their exodus from the former Mandate of Palestine after Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. Demonstrators and Israeli policemen are lightly injured in several clashes. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel)
• A free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia takes effect. (BBC)

• Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and her husband Charlie Brooks are charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the alleged destruction of evidence associated with the News International phone hacking scandal. (The Daily Telegraph) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• Majid Jamali Fashi, convicted of killing Iranian quantum field theorist and elementary-particle physicist Masoud Alimohammadi, is executed. (BBC) (Press TV)
• A mother kills her four children and then herself in Port St. John, Florida. (CNN)

• François Hollande is sworn in as the 24th President of France. Hollande appoints Jean-Marc Ayrault as his Prime Minister. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Crisis-wracked Greece is forced to hold new general elections, after efforts by major political parties to form a coalition government end in failure. (The Guardian)

• The United States announces a national plan to develop an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease by 2025. (BBC)
• American scientists develop a device which uses genetically-engineered viruses to generate electricity. The invention could allow the development of ubiquitous piezoelectric micro-generators which gather energy from everyday vibrations such as closing doors. (BBC)

• Botswana's senior football players end a training strike, despite not having received their bonus entitlements from this year's Africa Cup of Nations. (BBC)
• Manchester City apologises to Manchester United following Carlos Tevez's open-top bus display of a placard with the words "RIP Fergie" on it. (The Guardian)

• Cambodian police and soldiers clash with villagers after attempting to evict them from their land, where a Russian plantation project is to be headquartered. A teenage girl has reportedly been killed. (AP via The Jakarta Post)

• The black box from a Russian passenger jet that crashed in the Indonesian province of West Java on May 9 is recovered by Indonesian authorities. (CNN)

• The trial of former Bosnian Serb Army Colonel General Ratko Mladić starts in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands. (CNN)
• Police in the Australian state of Queensland remove an Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Musgrave Park in the state capital Brisbane. (ABC Online)

• Greek politics:
  • Greece is to hold a second round of elections on June 17, after final talks by the major political parties to form a coalition government were unsuccessful. (BBC)
  • Former judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos is appointed to lead a caretaker government in the meantime. (AP via Huffington Post)
• Jean-Marc Ayrault is sworn in as the Prime Minister of France. (AP via The San-Francisco Chronicle)

• Parachuting Rat, an artwork by Banksy, in Melbourne, estimated to be worth AU$50,000, has been accidentally destroyed by building work. (ABC News Australia)
• China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing is completed, a decade after its design by OMA. (The Guardian) (Huffington Post)

• 2012 East DR Congo conflict: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s military has been shelling positions it believes are held by rebels who have been fighting the army for weeks in the country's east. (AJE)
• Clashes between military troops and inmates at a prison in Caracas, Venezuela continue. (El Universal)

• Pop singer Donna Summer dies of lung cancer at the age of 63. (Newsday) (CNN)

• Unidentified North Koreans seize three Chinese boats with 29 crew and demand payment for their release. (BBC)
• Daniel B. Shapiro, United States ambassador to Israel, says that the United States "is ready" to attack Iran to prevent the development of nuclear weapons within Iran. (CBS News)

• The trial of former Bosnian Serb Army Colonel General Ratko Mladić is deferred indefinitely due to errors by prosecutors in disclosing evidence to the defence. (AP via Yahoo! News)

• The leader of the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, offers to resign after being accused of monopolizing power. (Al Jazeera)
• A group of Chinese Communist Party veterans call for the removal of security chief Zhou Yongkang. (Al Jazeera)
• The U.S. Senate confirmed two of the President's nominees to the Federal Reserve, bringing board membership up to the statutory complement of seven. This is the first time all seven seats have been filled in six years. (Reuters)

• Mexican Drug War:
  • Masked gunmen kidnap and kill Marcos Antonio Avila Garcia, a journalist who often wrote about organized crime. His corpse was found inside a plastic bag in the Mexican city of Empalme. (Associated Press)
• Three roadside bombs explode at an outdoor pet market in Baghdad, Iraq, killing five people. (CNN)

• German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau dies at the age of 86. (BBC)

• The social network Facebook holds an initial public offering and closes nearly flat at $38.23 a share. (CNBC) (Los Angeles Times) (The New York Times)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 close at their lowest levels of 2012. (CNBC)

• The Group of Eight meets in the United States at Camp David with the Greek debt crisis and associated Eurozone problems on the agenda. (The Washington Post)

• Sybrand van Haersma Buma is elected as the new party leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and becomes the lijsttrekker (top candidate) for the Dutch general election of 2012. (DutchNews)

• The Olympic Flame arrives in the United Kingdom on board a flight from Athens, Greece, ready for the torch relay ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games in July. (BBC)

• A car bomb explodes near a military complex in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, killing 9 people. (Al Jazeera)
• A bomb, made of three gas cylinders, explodes in front of a vocational school in the Italian city of Brindisi, killing a 16-year-old female student. (BBC) (La Repubblica)
• A suicide bombing at a police checkpoint in the eastern Afghan province of Khost kills 10 people, including a number of police officers. (BBC)
• Sri Lanka marks the third anniversary of the end of its 26-year civil war with a large military parade in Colombo. (BBC)

• Ethologist, evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins announces his support for British education secretary Michael Gove's plan to send free King James Bibles to every state school. (The Guardian)

• At least 20 people are killed in an explosion in a road tunnel being constructed in central China. (BBC)
• At least two people are killed and 17 others are injured when a rally car plows through a crowd of spectators in the Var region of southern France. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

• Three protesters are arrested in a police raid ahead of this weekend's 60-nation NATO summit in the U.S. city of Chicago. (Al Jazeera)
• Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and his wife and children arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, after boarding a flight from Beijing. (CNN)

• Retired American psychiatrist Robert Spitzer apologises for his "fatally flawed" study, published in 2001, which falsely lent credence to the myth that gay people could be "cured". (The Guardian)

• Association football:
  • The final of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League occurs in Munich, with Chelsea defeating Bayern Munich in a penalty shoot out after extra time, winning the competition for the first time in the club's history. (The Guardian) (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Hearts win the Scottish cup Final against city rivals Hibernian F.C. 5-1. The match was dubbed The Greatest Game in History between the two sides.
  • West Ham return to the Premier League by defeating Blackpool in the 2012 Football League Championship play-off Final. (BBC)
• Leinster defeat Ulster in the 2012 Heineken Cup Final at Twickenham, their third Heineken Cup win in four seasons. (RTÉ) (Setanta Sports)
• In horse racing, I'll Have Another wins the 2012 Preakness Stakes giving him the chance to become the first horse to win the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing since Affirmed in 1978. (AP via Yahoo Sports)

• Syrian uprising: A roadside bomb explodes near a United Nations convoy in the Syrian capital of Damascus, in the district of Douma. (BBC)
• Bahraini uprising: Jailed Bahrain Centre for Human Rights head Nabeel Rajab is granted $800 bail with a travel ban for a charge of "insulting an official authority", though according to his lawyer he is still locked up on a second charge. (Al Jazeera)

• Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb dies at the age of 62. (BBC)

• At least 6 people are killed and dozens injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy. (BBC) (Los Angeles Times)

• Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells his cabinet that hundreds of thousands of iIllegal immigrants from Africa would threaten Israel's identity. (The Guardian) (The Jerusalem Post)
• Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, dies at his home in the Libyan capital of Tripoli at the age of 60. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Yukiya Amano heads for Tehran to convince the Iranian government to co-operate with the agency. (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera)(BBC)

• Staines becomes Staines-upon-Thames. (BBC)
• Two women in Jieyang, Guangdong, PRC, are executed for counterfeiting nearly 300 million yuan RMB. (NetEase) (Inside China)

• Pan-Green protesters pelt eggs at a poster of Ma Ying-jeou as Ma is sworn in for a second term as the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), after winning the presidential election in January. (Al Jazeera)
• Voters in the Dominican Republic go to the polls for a presidential election with early results showing Danilo Medina as the winner. (AP via ABC America) (Reuters via Yahoo News)
• Tomislav Nikolić is elected President of Serbia with 49.4% of the vote. (Deutsche Welle)

• Thousands of people gather in London for an open-top bus parade to celebrate Chelsea's UEFA Champions League victory over Munich in last night's final. (BBC)
• A homegrown Montpellier overcome big-spending rivals Paris Saint-Germain to shock fans worldwide by winning their first Ligue 1 title and qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history. (Al Jazeera)
• Russia wins 2012 IIHF World Championship. (Yahoo! Sports)

• A suicide bomber attacks soldiers rehearsing for the annual Unity Day parade in the Yemeni capital Sana'a, killing at least 120 people and injuring more than 350 others. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claims responsibility. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Trust) (Yemen Post)
• FARC rebels kill 12 Colombian soldiers and wound four more in an ambush near the Colombian border with Venezuela. (AFP via Google) (AP)
• Two people are killed in ongoing clashes in the Lebanese capital Beirut between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. (Ya Libnan)

• Australian airline Qantas announces cuts to 500 maintenance jobs. (News Limited)

• At least 13 people – most of them students – are killed and 22 others are injured after a bus plunges 80 metres (260 ft) off a cliff in Albania. (BBC)
• Four climbers from Canada, China, Germany and South Korea die whilst returning from the summit of Mount Everest; a Nepalese guide is missing. (The Himalayan Times)

• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Yukiya Amano begins talks in Tehran aimed at convincing the Iranian government to co-operate with the agency. (Al Jazeera)
• US President Barack Obama speaks at a NATO summit concerning the future of war-ravaged Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the case concerning the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, is buried in a private ceremony in a western suburb of Tripoli, having died of cancer aged 60. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

• Dharun Ravi, the U.S. student who secretly filmed the sexual activities of his gay room-mate Tyler Clementi, who later committed suicide when the film was exposed, is sentenced to 30 days in prison by a New Jersey judge. Ravi avoids the maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka is freed from prison with a pardon from President Mahinda Rajapaksa. (Times of India)
• The criminal trial of Rajat Gupta on charges of insider trading begins in a federal courtroom in New York. (Reuters)

• The Acting President of Mali, Dioncounda Traoré, is taken to hospital after an angry encounter with demonstrators who object to a deal for the 70-year-old to remain in office for a year. (BBC)
• Greek leftist politician Alexis Tsipras, head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, begins a tour of European capitals. (Reuters)

• A rare annular solar eclipse occurs, visible from East Asia, the North Pacific, and the Western United States. (AAP via SBS News) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)

• Yahoo! sells its Alibaba Group stake for US$7.1 billion. (Reuters)
• The Securities Division of the government of Massachusetts subpoenas financial services firm Morgan Stanley (MS), in connection with an MS analyst's talks with institutional investors prior to the Facebook initial public offering. (Reuters)

• At least 14 people die and 30 are injured after the Hampi Express collides with a goods train in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. (IBN Live) (AAP via News Limited)

• A military court in Lebanon releases anti-Syrian government activist Shadi al-Moulawi after his arrest sparked violent clashes that killed eight people. (Al Jazeera)
• The trial begins in Mauritius of two hotel workers accused of murdering Irish woman Michaela McAreavey while she honeymooned on the island in 2011. (RTÉ)

• The Burmese government appeals for "understanding" after rare protests in Mandalay and Yangon over power shortages. (BBC) (VOA)
• Voters in the US states of Arkansas and Kentucky go to the polls, with Mitt Romney winning the Republican primaries, and President Barack Obama winning but performing relatively poorly against token opposition in the Democratic primaries. (ABC News)
• British naval officer Commander Sarah West is appointed commander of the Royal Navy frigate HMS Portland, becoming the first female officer to take command of a major British warship. (The Scotsman)

• After months of delays, American company SpaceX successfully launches its unmanned Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, beginning a test mission to the International Space Station (ISS). (BBC)

• A drone attack conducted by the United States kills five people in a tribal area of North Waziristan, Pakistan. (Xinhua)
• The Iranian navy assists an American cargo ship that was attacked by pirates off the United Arab Emirates. (San Francisco Chronicle)

• Georgia-native Phillip Phillips is crowned the eleventh American Idol. Runner-up Jessica Sanchez is the first contestant of Asian ancestry to advance in the finals. [http://www.news-press.com/article/20120523/NEWS0101/120523009/Philip-Phillips-wins-American-Idol-over-Jessica-Sanchez?odyssey=mod

• A United States drone attack kills ten people in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. (Reuters)

• Elton John checks into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, due to a respiratory infection, according to the singer's publicist. (CNN)

• Revised figures indicate the UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of 2012, more than initially thought. (BBC)

• The United States National Hurricane Center advises that Hurricane Bud has formed off the Pacific Ocean coast of Mexico and has reached category two strength. (AP via Washington Post) (AFP via Google News)

• London's Metropolitan Police is to send a team of detectives to Libya to continue the investigation into the 1984 murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher. (BBC)
• News Corporation lobbyist Fred Michel tells the Leveson Inquiry there was nothing inappropriate in his relationship with Adam Smith, a special adviser to UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt. Smith later tells the hearing Hunt sent a memorandum to Prime Minister David Cameron in which he said he was in favour of News Corp's bid to take control of BSkyB before he was given a key role in the process. (BBC)
• Four Russian citizens are arrested and accused of espionage in Diyala, Iraq. They are allegedly beaten while in Iraqi custody. (AFP)

• Voters in Egypt go to the polls for a second day to vote in a presidential election. (BBC)

• Football goal-line technology will be tested at Wembley Stadium when England play Belgium in a friendly on 2 June. (BBC Sport)

• A car bomb exploded in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, injuring 10 police officers during the Mexican Drug War. The attack was believed to have been carried out by Los Zetas, one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking organizations. (CNN)
• Dozens of women and children are killed in a massacre by the Syrian army in the town of Houla, Homs province, Syria during the ongoing Syrian uprising. (AFP)

• The President of France, François Hollande, makes a surprise visit to Afghanistan to visit French troops. (AFP via France 24)

• As the Leveson Inquiry releases emails exchanged between UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt and News Corporation lobbyist Fred Michel, Prime Minister David Cameron says he does not regret his decision to let Hunt rule on News Corp's bid for BSkyB. (BBC)

• Police blockade the Parliament of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby the day after the government led by Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill lays sedition charges against the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea, Sir Salamo Injia. (AP via The Washington Post)
• First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond launches the "Yes" campaign for Scottish independence at Cineworld in Edinburgh. (BBC)

• A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft ever to dock with the International Space Station, completing docking at 12:02 pm EDT (16:02 UTC). (CNN)

• War in Afghanistan:
  • CNN estimates that the death toll of NATO forces reaches 3,000. (The Telegraph)
  • The Parliament of Afghanistan approves a strategic pact with the United States which should see US troops present in Afghanistan until 2014. (Reuters)
• Two rebel groups in northern Mali, Ansar Dine and the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad join forces to form an independent Islamic state in the territory they occupy. (Miami Herald)
• There are widespread reports of at least 92 people being killed in the village of Houla in Syria Homs Governorate. (Agencies via The Canberra Times)

• Swedish pop music singer Loreen wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with her song Euphoria. (Reuters via ABC Online)

• The anime-oriented action animation TV block, Toonami, makes its return on Adult Swim after being canceled for four years following its 11 year run on Cartoon Network.

• At least six people are dead and another six missing after a landslide at an illegal gold mine in the Bogor district in Indonesia's West Java area. (AAP via News Limited)

• China releases an annual report on human rights, criticizing the United States' human rights record, citing the arrest of Occupy Wall Street protesters and Internet restrictions. (CNN)

• A gunman in the town of Hyvinkää near the Finnish capital Helsinki kills 2 people and injures 7 in a shooting before being arrested. (AP via ABC News America) (AP via Google News)
• The brother of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng is reported as missing, and is then found a day later. (Reuters)
• The Vatican confirms that the butler to Pope Benedict XVI has been arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents. (AP via Washington Post)
• The "Miami cannibal attack" on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami, Florida.

• Voters in Lesotho go to the polls for a general election with a close result expected. (Reuters)
• In Singapore, the Hougang by-election conclude with almost 22,000 voters casting ballots. Png Eng Huat of the Workers' Party emerged as the winner with 62.08% of the valid votes cast. This was the first Singaporean by-election after over 19 years. (Channel NewsAsia)

• War in Afghanistan: A NATO air strike kills a family of eight, including six children. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The News)
• Arab Spring:
  • Six people are given up to 15 years in prison as the Bahraini regime continues its clampdown on protesters. (Al Jazeera)
  • Syrian uprising:
    • The death toll from the Houla massacre is updated to 116. (Rueters)
    • Opposition activists accuse the Syrian army of firing artillery into a neighborhood in Hama, killing at least 30. (Reuters)
    • The United Nations Security Council unanimously condemns the Houla massacre. (The Guardian)

• Michael Haneke scoops the Palme d'Or for Love at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. (BBC)

• Tropical Storm Beryl makes landfall near the US city of Jacksonville with northern Florida and southern Georgia. (New York Times) (Florida Times Union)

• IMF head Christine Lagarde is accused of "insulting the Greek people" following her latest controversial comments about the country. (BBC)

• French police arrest the military leader of the Basque separatist group ETA Oroitz Gurruchaga Gogorza and his deputy Xabier Aramburu in the village of Cauna. (AFP via Google News)

• Taoiseach Enda Kenny makes a televised address on the European Fiscal Compact ahead of Thursday's referendum. (The Irish Times)
• Thousands of people rally in Tbilisi calling for the ousting of President Mikheil Saakashvili's regime. (Al Jazeera)
• The new season of the Parliament of Iran is opened. (Press TV)

• Kolkata Knight Riders win the 2012 Indian Premier League Championship, defeating defending two-time champions Chennai Super Kings 192/5 to 190/3.
• Mark Webber wins the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix, his second victory there in Formula 1 racing. (BBC Sport)
• Ryder Hesjedal wins the 2012 Giro d'Italia, becoming the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour in cycling. (CBC Sports)
• Scottish driver Dario Franchitti wins the 2012 Indianapolis 500, making it his third victory in the event. (AP via Yahoo! Sports)

• Arab Spring:
  • Syrian uprising:
    • The Syrian opposition claims that the Syrian Army has killed at least 41 people in the city of Hama over the past day. (Reuters via The Daily Star)
    • United Nations Special Envoy Kofi Annan visits Syria a day after the Security Council unanimously condemns the Houla massacre. (BBC)
    • France says Syrian regime leaders will answer for "murderous folly". (Al Arabiya)
  • Bahraini uprising:
    • Bahraini authorities release human rights activist Nabeel Rajab on bail, though he still faces a travel ban and criminal charges. (AFP via Google News) (Al Jazeera)
    • Reports are coming in that Bahraini human rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja is to consider ending his 110-day hunger strike against the regime. (BBC)
• Colombian armed conflict (1964–present):
  • The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) releases a video proving that Romeo Langlois, a French reporter they kidnapped on 28 April 2012, is still alive. (Reuters)
• A suspected bomb explodes in a shopping complex in Nairobi, Kenya, injuring 33 people. (BBC)
• For the first time a series of self-immolations have reached the Tibetan capital of Lhasa when two Tibetans set themselves on fire.(Al Jazeera) (The Times of India)
• Following the UN Committee Against Torture's condemnation of the Irish government's failure to acknowledge and assist former detainees of the country's Catholic-run Magdalene asylums, the Justice for Magdalenes campaign group announces its discovery that women were transferred from State-funded mother and baby homes to Magdalene laundries, where they were held against their will and without their children. (RTÉ)

• Against Me! singer Laura Jane Grace performs in public for the first time since announcing she is transgender. (The Guardian)
• An image of Brett Murray's controversial painting The Spear is removed from the website of a South African newspaper. (BBC)
• Awaara has been included in the All-Time 100 greatest films by the Time Magazine. (Time Entertainment)

• Financial irregularities are revealed at Bloxham Stockbrokers. (RTÉ)

• A helicopter crashes in eastern Afghanistan, killing two ISAF troops. (CNN)
• 19 people are killed in a fire at a shopping centre in Doha, Qatar. (BBC)

• Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh makes the first official visit to Myanmar by an Indian PM since 1987. (BBC) (The Times of India)

• Leveson Inquiry:
  • Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair tells the Leveson Inquiry he had a "working relationship" with News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, but that Murdoch did not influence policy during his time in office. (BBC)
  • An intruder interrupts proceedings to accuse Blair of being a war criminal, on the payroll of U.S. multinational JPMorgan Chase and implicit involvement in war crimes committed in Iraq. (Al Jazeera) (UPI) (MSNBC) (The Belfast Telegraph)

• The Parliament of Malawi reverts the Flag of Malawi to the original version used between 1964 to 2010. The outgoing flag was introduced in 2010 by the late President Bingu wa Mutharika. (The Nation) (Nyasa Times)
• The father of a victim of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests commits suicide in Beijing after failing attempts for government redress. (Washington Post)
• The Chinese Communist Party expels the former railways minister, Liu Zhijun, over corruption. (China Daily)
• Political parties in Nepal fail to agree on a new constitution, leaving the country with no constitution and no sitting national Legislature. (UPI)
• Early voting begins in the Irish European Fiscal Compact referendum, 2012. (The Daily Telegraph)

• Several Italian football players, including Lazio captain Stefano Mauri, are arrested as part of an ongoing investigation of a sports betting scandal involving match fixing. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

• Syrian uprising:
  • Several Arab and Western countries expel Syrian diplomats in response to the Houla massacre. (Al Jazeera)
  • A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander admits that the country has sent troops to Syria to fight against opposition forces. (RIA Novosti)
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that 98 people were killed in Syria today including 61 civilians. (AAP via News Limited)
• Rebels attack the convoy of Somali president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed during an overland trip; he escaped unharmed. (Reuters)
• 2012 South Sudan–Sudan border conflict: Sudan and South Sudan restart talks to avoid war amid accusations of bombing raids. (Reuters)

• The gallery which exhibited Brett Murray's controversial painting The Spear agrees to take down an image of the artwork from its website as thousands of people march in protest through the streets of Johannesburg. (Al Jazeera)
• China's best-known microblogging site Sina Weibo introduces new restrictions on the content its 300 million users can post. (Radio Television Hong Kong)

• Four of Wall Street's market makers involved in Facebook's botched IPO are expecting losses from technical glitches to be around US$115 million. (Reuters)
• Three Spanish savings banks - Ibercaja, Liberbank and Caja3 - approve a merger. (BBC)
• Russian social network VK announces that it will postpone its planned initial public offering indefinitely, following the recent botched float of Facebook. (Reuters via Chicago Tribune)

• A 5.8-magnitude earthquake rocks northern Italy near Bologna, killing at least 24 people. (Al Jazeera) (AP via Google News)
• North Korea faces its worst drought in 50 years. (CNN)

• Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy opposition party in Burma and MP for Kawhmu, leaves Yangon for Bangkok, Thailand on her first overseas trip in 22 years. (Al Jazeera) (AFP via Google News)

• Assange v The Swedish Judicial Authority:
  • WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange learns he will find out tomorrow if he is to be deported to Sweden from the UK. (The Guardian)
  • The mother of Assange arrives in London ahead of his final legal bid against extradition to Sweden. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • Assange interviews representatives of the Occupy movement on World Tomorrow ahead of the verdict. (Digital Journal)
• The Senate of the Philippines finds the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona guilty of failure to disclose to the public his assets following a four-month-long impeachment trial. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (Channel News Asia) (Al Jazeera)
• Police in Indonesia seize over 1 million ecstasy pills totalling US$45 million, in the biggest drug bust in 10 years. (Bangkok Post)

• Voters in the US state of Texas go to the polls for primary elections, with Mitt Romney securing the Republican nomination in the Republican primary. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Boston Globe)
• Groups of indigenous peoples in Brazil block roads and occupy government buildings. (BBC)
• The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Papua New Guinea declares that the Prime Minister's office is vacant following a ruling by the Supreme Court. (ABC News Australia)
• Chen Xitong former mayor of Beijing apologises for deaths during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, adding that they could have been avoided, in a book released in Hong Kong this week. (AFP via Google News)
• U.S. president Barack Obama gives out the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 13 recipients, including Israeli president Shimon Peres, astronaut John Glenn and musician Bob Dylan, at the White House. (BBC)

• Italian prime minister Mario Monti suggests that professional football in Italy should be suspended immediately after the latest match-fixing row to hit the country. (BBC)
• More than 150 runners complete the world's highest marathon on Mount Everest. (AFP via Google News)

• Syrian uprising:
  • Several nations, including Turkey, Germany and Canada, expel Syrian diplomats in response to the May 25 Houla massacre. (BBC)
  • Russia states that it is "categorically against" foreign intervention into the ongoing Syrian conflict. (BBC)
  • The United Nations reports the deaths of 13 men in a mass execution in eastern Syria. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• Romeo Langlois, a freelance journalist from France 24 who was abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on April 28, is released by FARC in southern Colombia. (Reuters)

• The South African gallery which exhibited Brett Murray's controversial painting The Spear reaches a deal with the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which opposes its display. (BBC)
• It is announced that a UK concert by the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Venezuela's premier youth orchestra, is to be live-streamed online on 23 and 26 June, after live tickets sold out eight months in advance. (The Guardian)
• English novelist Terry Pratchett is awarded the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. (The Guardian)
• The winner of the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction is announced. (The Guardian)

• Aftershocks continue to strike northern Italy in the wake of yesterday's earthquake, which killed 17 people and left over 14,000 homeless in the Emilia-Romagna region. (Daily Telegraph)

• United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta calls for the United States to strengthen its naval presence in Asia, in order to counter China's growing military power. (BBC)
• President of the United States Barack Obama angers the people of Poland by referring to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz as "Polish". Prominent Poles demand an apology for the "outrageous" gaffe. (BBC)
• Enhanced security preparations are reported in the lead-up to the 2012 Bilderberg Conference in Chantilly, Virginia. (Daily Mail)

• Assange v The Swedish Judicial Authority:
  • Wikileaks founder Julian Assange loses his appeal in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom against extradition to Sweden on rape charges. (BBC) (AP via ABC News America)
• The former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, is sentenced to 50 years' imprisonment by the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague for aiding and abetting war crimes during Sierra Leone's civil war. (BBC)
• Andy Coulson, former director of communications for British Prime Minister David Cameron, is detained for questioning by police investigating claims of perjury. (BBC)
• At the Leveson Inquiry into British media practices, UK Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable, who initially had responsibility for overseeing News Corporation's bid to take full control of BSkyB, tells the hearing he was warned the Liberal Democrats would be "done over" by the company's newspapers if he ruled against the takeover. (BBC)
• A gunman opens fire in the U.S. city of Seattle, killing three people and injuring two more before shooting himself. A fourth person is killed in a separate incident in the city before the suspected gunman in both incidents kills himself. (AP via Washington Post) (King 5) (Seattle Times)
• Canadian police begin a manhunt for suspected murderer Luka Rocco Magnotta, who is believed to have dismembered a man and mailed his severed hand and foot to political party offices in Ottawa. (Montreal Gazette)

• Ireland's High Court refuses an application by Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty against the Referendum Commission's statements on the European Stability Mechanism, as voting continues on offshore islands in the referendum on the European Fiscal Compact. (RTÉ)
• The Parliament of Albania fails without a vote in the first round to elect the President of the republic. (Top Channel) (Reuters)
• The Parliament of Papua New Guinea meets to choose a new Prime Minister after a ruling by the Supreme Court last week, with de facto Prime Minister Peter O'Neill again chosen. (ABC News Australia) (The Australian)
• Doctors in the United Kingdom agree to stage a day of industrial action on 21 June, the first such action by the British medical profession since 1975. The strike will lead to cancellations of routine medical appointments, but will not affect emergency care. (BBC)
• The Prime Minister of Lesotho, Pakalitha Mosisili, resigns after his Democratic Congress party failed to win a majority in the recent general election, while opposition parties form a coalition. (Sky News Australia)

• Following the successful sequencing of the tomato genome, scientists state that tastier and more pesticide-resistant tomato varieties can be engineered for commercial use within five years. (BBC)
• Scientists report that supervolcanoes can develop much faster than previously suspected – erupting within just a few hundred years of their formation, instead of tens of thousands of years. (BBC)

• Viswanathan Anand defeats Boris Gelfand to win the World Chess Championship for the fourth consecutive time, and the fifth time overall. (The Guardian)

• A series of bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad kills 14 people. (CNN)
• A suicide bomber kills five policeman at a police headquarters in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. (BBC)
• A German engineer taken hostage by gunmen in Kano, Nigeria, in January is killed by his captors during a failed rescue operation by Nigerian forces. (BBC)

• American conservative Christian lobby group One Million Moms launches a campaign against the decision of DC and Marvel Comics to include openly gay characters in their comics. (The Guardian)
• BBC Radio 4 announces a five-and-a-half-hour celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses on this coming Bloomsday, claiming it as the novel's first full-length dramatisation in Britain. (The Guardian)

• A nationwide strike against rising petrol prices closes shops and disrupts public transport in India, with the government facing widespread criticism over its economic management. (Al Jazeera)

• The 2012 Bilderberg Conference begins in Chantilly, Virginia. (The Guardian) (RT)

• British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt appears at the Leveson Inquiry into media practices in the UK. The inquiry hears that he congratulated James Murdoch on the progress of News Corporation's takeover bid for BSkyB just hours before he was charged with overseeing it, but acted impartially once he took on the role. Prime Minister David Cameron says he will not order an inquiry into Hunt's ministerial conduct. (BBC)
• A jury clears former Democratic Party candidate for Vice-President of the United States John Edwards on one count of corruption, with the judge ordering a mistrial on the other five counts. (The Guardian)
• California's prison system is facing a lawsuit from the Center for Constitutional Rights for its use of long terms of solitary confinement, some of which last decades. (The Guardian)

• Egypt formally ends its 31-year state of emergency, which gave security forces broad powers to suppress civil unrest and detain dissenters. (BBC)
• Voters in Ireland go to the polls for a referendum on whether the Irish government can approve the European Fiscal Compact. (Irish Examiner) (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera) (France24) (BBC)
• After four days of negotiations with student leaders, the Quebec government pulls out of talks meant to end a mass student protest against tuition fees. Demonstrations have been ongoing since February 13, with more than 150,000 students on strike. (CBC)

• SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule successfully returns to Earth following its demo mission to the International Space Station, landing intact in the Pacific Ocean. It is later recovered and shipped back to the United States. (AP via Google) (USA Today) (NASA)
• Astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope predict that the Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in four billion years' time. (Los Angeles Times)

• Kevin Pietersen announces his retirement from all forms of international limited overs cricket. (The Daily Telegraph)
• Defenseman Nicklas Lidström of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings announces his retirement from professional ice hockey after a 20-year career in Detroit, including six years as Detroit's captain. (Houston Chronicle)