• Part of New York City's Times Square is evacuated and sealed off as a car bomb is discovered and deactivated before it could be detonated. (ABC News) (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Dozens of people are killed by twin bomb blasts inside a Mogadishu mosque. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (San Francisco Chronicle) (The Times)
• Four soldiers are killed and several sustain wounds in a rocket, rifle and grenade attack on a military outpost near Nazimiye in Turkey. (BBC)
• In thoroughbred racing, Super Saver, ridden by Calvin Borel, wins the 2010 Kentucky Derby. (AP)
• At least one person is killed and 21 others are injured at a horse race in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria. (Al Jazeera)
• At least two civilians are killed and ten more are wounded by a suicide attack on a market in Swat Valley. (Al Jazeera)
• Johnson & Johnson announces the recall of 43 over-the-counter medicines intended for infants and children, affecting the United States and nine other markets. (Washington Post)
• At least 150,000 people gather in Kathmandu to support Maoists who want the Prime Minister to resign; a general strike is called for on Sunday, May 2. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The News International) (CNN)
• Greek police shoot tear gas at protesters in Athens during an anti-government march. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Times)
• Thousands of people protest in Tirana, demanding a recount of votes from last June's parliamentary elections. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (France24)
• In a non-title boxing match, welterweight champion Shane Mosley loses to Floyd Mayweather by unanimous decision. (LA Times)
• Bolivia nationalises four electricity companies. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Bangkok Post) (Reuters)
• Pope Benedict XVI will appoint an envoy and a commission to reform Legion of Christ (LC), whose Mexican founder, Marcial Maciel, abused children before being dismissed in 2006. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Albania becomes the 37th member of the European Patent Organisation. (EPO)
• Taiwan employs capital punishment for the first time since 2005, executing four men for "grave offences such as fatal kidnappings and murders". (BBC)
• Two retired generals tell The Washington Post that, with more than 25 per cent of young Americans being "too fat to fight", obesity is threatening the future of the United States military. (BBC) (The New Zealand Herald) (Radio New Zealand)
• A Taipei-Shanghai flight makes an emergency landing in Hangzhou after an American passenger makes an inappropriate reference to a bomb. (The Times of India) (The Age) (BBC)
• A major pipe rupture in Weston, Massachusetts leaves up to 2 million people in the Greater Boston area without drinkable tap water for 59 hours. (Boston Globe)

• The death toll from the Mogadishu bombings on May 1 rising to at least 45; authorities say al Qaeda is likely to blame for the attack. (CNN) (VOA)
• The Pakistani military kills approximately 40 Taliban militants in a helicopter attack. (UPI)
• Approximately 70 Iraqi Christian students are wounded and one other Iraqi killed in bombing on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq. (The New York Times)
• Notable Hollywood personalities, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Robert Redford and Francis Ford Coppola, sign a petition asking the Iranian government to release director Jafar Panahi, who was arrested alongside his wife, daughter and 15 other guests at his home on 1 March. (BBC)
• The European Union and the International Monetary Fund agree to a bailout package for Greece that will provide approximately €120 billion to end the sovereign debt crisis in that country. (Bloomberg)
• The United Nations investigates reports of a possible massacre of 100 people by Ugandan rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• After Iran’s selection to the Commission on the Status of Women, a United Nations panel on women’s rights, Canada cites “serious concerns” about Iran’s participation in the panel and Iran’s human-rights record. (The Vancouver Sun) (The Jerusalem Post)
• Hizbul Islam members enter Harardhere in Somalia, and meet no resistance; they promise to enter other towns in the region. (Al Jazeera)
• A large Maoist-led strike in Kathmandu shuts down the city in a bid to force Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to resign. (The Guardian)
• Five people are killed and at least 12 others are injured in a stampede at an Intocable concert in Guadalupe, Nuevo León. (BBC)
• Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says his government is preparing to take back Bangkok and end the seven-week-long protests. (VOA)
• A group of Asian finance ministers announce a new US$700 million bond fund to promote the issuance of local bonds because of the guarantee the new funds would provide potential investors. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Chris Solinsky becomes the first non-African runner to break the 27 minute mark in the 10,000 meters, improving the American record by 14 seconds. (The Flint Journal)
• The World number one snooker player John Higgins and his manager are reported by the News of the World to have been videoed accepting a £261,000 bribe in Ukraine to lose frames in four separate matches later this year; an investigation is launched and the player is immediately suspended on the final day of his reign as world champion ahead of the final of the 2010 World Snooker Championship. (BBC) (News of the World) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Roman Polanski speaks out about his possible extradition to the United States after several months of silence. (The New York Times)
• Japanese supercentenarian and oldest living person in the world Kama Chinen dies 8 days short of 115 and leaves French supercentenarian Eugénie Blanchard as the oldest living person.

• Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving terrorist involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is found guilty of murder, conspiracy, and waging war against India. (AP) (NDTV)
• American air carriers United and Continental officially announce a merger that will create the world's largest airline. (CNN) (Bloomberg)
• Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, breaks off peace talks with the Sudanese government, accusing it of a renewing the conflict with a military offensive that has included airstrikes and ground attacks over the past week. (USA Today) (The Washington Post)
• The death toll reaches 28 as flooding from weekend storms worsens in southern US towns and cities, including Nashville in Middle Tennessee, and parts of Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi. (USA Today) (CNN)
• Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva proposes to hold elections on 14 November to end the political crisis in the country. (Bangkok Post) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• World Press Freedom Day:
  • Journalists protesting against the prison death of Cameroon newspaper editor Bibi Ngota clash with police in Yaoundé as hundreds are prevented from staging a sit-in at the office of the prime minister. (BBC)
  • Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders names the leaders of North Korea (Kim Jong-il), Russia (Vladimir Putin) and Rwanda (Paul Kagame) as some of the world's worst "predators of freedom" and lists offences against press freedom in 40 countries. (BBC) (New York Daily News)
• The Irish Aviation Authority closes Donegal Airport, cancels at least two flights and announces the closure of all airspace in Ireland on Monday due to Icelandic volcanic ash, while British Airports, including some in Scotland, may also be affected due to continued eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. (Herald Sun) (BBC) (RTÉ)
• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchange criticism of each other’s countries nuclear policies at the opening of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. (Chicago Tribune) (CNN) (USA Today)
• Australian mining stocks plummet after the government passes a new 40% profit tax on the industry. International mining companies warn that many new mining projects may be canceled. (Reuters)
• Norsk Hydro secures 100 years worth of bauxite supply in a US$4.9 billion deal. (Bloomberg)
• Hundreds of Egyptian workers protest outside Egypt's cabinet building to request a rise in their minimum wage. (Al Jazeera)
• A manual recount gets underway in Baghdad. (Al Jazeera)
• Neil Robertson becomes the first Australian to win the World Snooker Championship since 1952 and the first player from outside the UK and Ireland to win the world title since 1980. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrives in China on a rare foreign visit. (Hong Kong Standard) (The Times) (Yonhap) (China Daily) (Al Jazeera)
• The European Commission proposes rules for imports of fishery products from Greenland into the EU. (EU Business)
• Uganda's highest ice cap in the Rwenzori mountain range splits. (BBC)
• Natavia Lowery, PA to former Ramones manager Linda S. Stein, is given a 25 year to life jail sentence for beating Stein to death on 30 October 2007. (BBC) (CNN) (Houston Chronicle) (The Washington Post)

• Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters reach a qualified agreement to hold general elections in November, but questions over the dissolution of parliament prevent an end to the two-month standoff in central Bangkok. (ABC News) (AP)
• Former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner is unanimously elected the first Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) at a heads of state summit held in Campana, Argentina. Télam (Argentina), Washington Post,ABC (Spain),Semana (Colombia)
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrest Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, in connection with the attempted car bombing in Times Square as he tried to flee the country. (MSNBC) (CNN) (USA Today)
• Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption:
  • Flights in and out of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are grounded for several hours. (BBC News)
  • The Civil Aviation Authority announces that airspace over Scotland and Northern Ireland will be closed from 0700 BST on Wednesday. (BBC News)
• Rising floodwaters from the Cumberland River flood the Grand Ole Opry House with several feet of water, and cause evacuations in Nashville, Tennessee. (USA Today) (The New York Times) (The Washington Post)
• The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico causes slowing shipping and increased prices for gasoline, food and other items in the United States. (CBS News) (MSNBC)
• Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sells for US$106 million at Christie's in New York, becoming the most expensive work of art sold at auction. (Reuters)
• A new European Jewish group, JCall, supported by thousands of European Jews is founded to lobby for a resolution to the Middle East conflict.(Jerusalem Post) (Al Jazeera)
• At least 10 people die and 14 are injured in a fire at a dormitory for railway workers in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Dozens of people are injured when panic breaks out at the Remembrance of the Dead in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (NOS)
• Experts announce a rescue plan intended to preserve the existence of the endangered snubfin dolphin, the only dolphin unique to Australia. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

• Umaru Yar'Adua, President of Nigeria, dies at age 58. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan succeeds Yar'Adua as President in his own right. (Sky News) (CNN)
• 2010 Greek riots
  • One hundred thousand Greeks participate in a general strike in Greece to protest against "austerity measures" set up by the recent Papandreou's gouverment. (The Times) (CBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • Three people die of asphyxiation due to fires set by protesters. (Reuters) (BBC)
• The Supreme Court of India in a landmark judgment declares the use of narco tests, brain mapping tests and lie detector tests by investigative agencies unconstitutional. (HindustanTimes)
• Landsides killed 15 Chinese workers in the Tengchong County, Yunnan Province. (China.com) (People)
• Somali pirates seize the Russian oil tanker Moscow University with 23 people on board, 500 miles off the Somali coast. (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
• An Egyptian-led proposal for a nuclear arms free Middle East receives support from the United States, Russia, Britain, France, and China. Israel is the only Middle Eastern nation believed to possess nuclear weapons. (Reuters)
• Around 23 people are killed when a bus overturns while traveling to Cape Town, South Africa. (AP) (IOL) (Daily Nation)
• The European Parliament calls on Canada to ensure visa-free travel for all EU citizens in a wide-ranging resolution, while expressing hope that the EU-Canada summit will speed up negotiations on a comprehensive trade agreement. (Europarl) (Isria) (MSNBC)
• A prominent journalist in Somalia, Sheikh Nur Abkey, is kidnapped and then killed in Mogadishu. (Press TV) (Reuters India) (BBC)
• Two men are killed and another one is wounded when unidentified gunmen open fire at a Lexus in the capital of Russia’s Caucasian republic of Dagestan, Makhachkala. (ITAR)
• The European Parliament calls for tougher EU fiscal rulebook. (EU Business) (Expatica)
• Twenty-one-term U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, announces he will not run for re-election in November. (AP at Yahoo)
• Democracy Now! producers file a lawsuit against multiple law enforcement agencies for allegedly unjustifiably encroaching on their First Amendment rights at the 2008 Republican National Convention. (StarTribune)

• The ruling Mauritian Labour Party under Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam wins re-election after the opposition Mauritian Militant Movement concedes the 2010 general election. (Times of India)
• Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates become the first countries to have non-Latin ccTLDs. (BBC)
• A powerful tornado hits Chongqing municipality in south-western China, killing at least 25 and injuring more than 160 people in Dianjiang and Liangping counties. (The Independent) (BBC) (news.com.au) (China Daily) (Xinhua)
• Former chief executive of collapsed Kaupthing Bank, Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, is arrested on suspicion of embezzlement, Iceland's first high-profile arrest since the 2008 financial collapse. (BBC)
• Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi, disbands after it refuses to register under new election laws. (Al Jazeera) (AFP)
• Nigeria's acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, is sworn in as President of Nigeria following the death of Umaru Yar'Adua. (The Punch) (AP)
• The Irish Aviation Authority announces new flight restrictions at several airports, including Shannon Airport and Ireland West Airport Knock, from midnight because of the (Iceland) volcano. (RTÉ)
• Hundreds of people in Afghanistan demonstrate against alleged mistreatment and executions of Afghan refugees in Iran. (BBC)
• Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, in a rare display of solidarity, call for an end to international sanctions on Zimbabwe and instead request investment. (BBC)
• United Kingdom general election:
  • Voters in the United Kingdom head to the polls to elect Members of Parliament. (BBC)
  • Sit-ins result from thousands of voters being disenfranchised in the United Kingdom general election, 2010 as commentators and historians say Britain is "shamed in the eyes of the world". (Daily Mail) (The Guardian) (Businessweek)
  • Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party, is injured in a light aircraft crash in Northamptonshire. (The Daily Telegraph) (TVNZ)
• Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving member of a group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is sentenced to death. (The Times of India) (BBC)
• United States Baptist minister George Rekers, a campaigner who opposes homosexuality, responds to allegations of a holiday in London/Madrid with a male prostitute he met at Rentboy.com. (BBC)
• Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of Joseph Duffy, a bishop mentioned in the reports into child sexual abuse by clergy. (RTÉ) (BBC) (The Irish Times)
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges nearly 1,000 points for a record intraday loss before recovering about 70% of its losses. (Reuters) (CNBC) (The Wall Street Journal)
• North Korean leader Kim Jong-il allegedly meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing. (Straits Times) (BBC)
• Russian military sailors release the tanker MV Moscow University from Somali pirates. (RIA Novosti)
• Ireland's Supreme Court rules, after a ten-year campaign, that there is no constitutional obligation for political and legal acts to be written in both the English and Irish languages (RTÉ)
• The inaugural African Grandmother Gathering convenes in Swaziland to discuss HIV/AIDS. (BBC) (The Hindu)
• The funeral of broadcaster Gerry Ryan takes place in Dublin, attended by many public figures and broadcast live on RTÉ 2fm. U2 perform a special version of "With or Without You", while Westlife also perform. (Irish Examiner) (RTÉ) (Sky News)

• United Kingdom general election, 2010:
  • Caroline Lucas becomes the first ever Green Party MP, having won the Brighton Pavilion constituency with a majority of 1,252. (BBC)
  • Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg describes the election as a "disappointing night" for his party, in his speech at the count for his Sheffield Hallam constituency.
  • Two former Labour Home Secretaries, Charles Clarke (2004–2006) and Jacqui Smith (2007–2009, first woman in the post), lose their seats. (BBC) (BBC)
  • Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Northern Ireland First Minister, loses the seat he has held for 31 years in Belfast East to Naomi Long of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. (BBC) (The Irish Times) (RTÉ)
  • Gloria De Piero, the former GMTV newsreader, wins the Ashfield constituency for the Labour party with a majority of just 192. (BBC)
• 4 policemen are killed and another seriously injured when militants open fire in Pakistan's Mansehra district of North-West Frontier Province. (PTI)
• Dubai police name five new suspects in connection with the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January, involving passports from Australia, Britain and France. An Israeli citizen, Zev Barkan, wanted by New Zealand since 2004 for passport fraud, may have used a New Zealand passport. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian) (Xinhua)
• Dozens of people are reported dead or disappeared after a boat carrying 125 people capsizes in a river in Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Al Jazeera) (TVNZ) (AP)
• Thousands rally in Kathmandu and other cities against the six-day shut down of public transport, businesses and schools across Nepal by millions of the country's poor. (Al Jazeera) (The Hindu) (The New York Times)
• The death toll from Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in South Africa has risen to 17. (Xinhua)
• An appeals court in Lithuania overturns a ruling which had earlier, due to fears over homophobic violence, prevented the country's first gay pride parade going ahead in Vilnius tomorrow. (BBC)
• Lobbying for the role of Nigeria's new vice-president begins after Goodluck Jonathan's inauguration and Umaru Yar'Adua's death. (BBC)
• 5 insurgents and 2 soldiers die in a gunbattle between Islamic rebels and Indian security forces in Kashmir. (Arab News)
• 2 die and 2 are wounded in an attack on an aid vehicle near the village of Dembia in the Central African Republic. (IOL)
• 2 Egyptian peacekeepers are killed and 3 are injured by gunmen near Edd al-Fursan, South Darfur. (BBC) (IOL) (The Warpington Post) (UN)
• Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Issa Hayatou asks his executive committee to lift sanctions imposed on the Togo national football team following an attack on their team bus ahead of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola. (BBC)
• A faction of the National League for Democracy in Burma forms its own political party to compete in elections, one day after the party disbanded. (Arab News)
• The head of Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission, Abdul Tejan-Cole, resigns. (BBC)
• Flights take to the skies again in Ireland following recent Icelandic volcanic disruption. (Al Jazeera) (RTÉ)
• The Supreme Court of the Philippines rejects several petitions calling for a presidential election to be postponed and asking for manual counting of votes to be maintained. (Arab News)
• Starlin Castro makes his MLB-debut, hitting a home run in his first career at-bat, and later adding a three-run triple to set the MLB record for RBI's in an MLB Debut.

• 2010 Philippine general election
• United Kingdom general election, 2010:
  • Eligible voters in the United Kingdom general election, 2010 who are living in New Zealand are the latest to be disenfranchised as anger grows over the disfranchisement of citizens living in the UK who were queuing to vote as polls closed. (The New Zealand Herald)
  • The value of the pound sterling drops to a 13-month low as a result of the election. (Businessweek)
• U.S. Senator Bob Bennett, Republican from Utah, is ousted from his party's primary ballot at the state's Republican convention, meaning he will not have a chance for a fourth term. (AP at Yahoo)
• Mudslides and floods have killed 16, and more than 40 are missing in some districts of the southern Khatlon region in Tajikistan. (ITAR)
• Icelandic volcanic disruption:
  • Most flights between Europe and North America face delays today. (The Times of India) (RTÉ)
  • Transatlantic flights are forced to change routes and carry extra fuel in case of delay. (CBC)
  • Spain closes 19 airports. (Al Jazeera) (RTÉ)
  • In Great Britain, at least 29 flights from London Stansted Airport to Spain/Portugal/Canary Islands, at least seven flights from London Gatwick Airport to Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid and Portugal, and at least one flight from London Heathrow Airport to La Coruña are cancelled. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Hundreds of people take part in a two-hour march, "For Equality", in Vilnius at Lithuania's first gay pride, with police shooting tear gas and arresting at least 12 people who threw stones and fireworks at marchers. (BBC) (The Washington Post) (iafrica.com)
• Naxalite rebels blow up a bullet-proof vehicle of the Central Reserve Police Force in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh, India, killing seven officers. (PTI)
• United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discusses climate change with Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma. (UN)
• Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of Walter Mixa of Augsburg, a bishop who admitted physically abusing children after initially denying accusations. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Washington Post)
• Former Venezuelan defence minister Raúl Baduel is sentenced to almost eight years in prison for corruption. (BBC)
• Italy's first divorce fair, Ex? Punto e a capo, opens in Milan. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times of India)
• London's Harrod's department store is sold to the Qatari royal family by Mohamed Al-Fayed who retires after 25 years as its chairman. (Al Jazeera) (CNN) (The Times) (RTÉ)
• In mixed martial arts, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua wins the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship from fellow Brazilian Lyoto Machida at UFC 113 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Sherdog)

• BP's containment chamber fails, prolonging the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (Reuters)
• The regional coalition of Christian-Democrats (CDU) and Free Democrats (FDP) are voted out of office in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which may lead to the federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel losing its majority in the upper house. (BBC) (Financial Times) (The Guardian) (The Independent)
• Sandro Bondi, Italy's minister of culture, calls for a boycott of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival after a documentary on the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake was included in the programme. (AFP) (Reuters)
• An earthquake strikes Sumatra sparking fears of a tsunami. (BBC) (Bangkok Post) (France24) (IAfrica.com)
• A mine explosion in Mezhdurechensk (Kemerovo Oblast), Russia, kills at least 12 people and injures 24 others with 64 unaccounted for. (BBC) (TVNZ)
• U.S. missiles kill five people in North Waziristan, Pakistan. (AP)
• A Chinese man is freed from prison after 10 years after the man he had been convicted of killing is found alive. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Somali pirates seize MS Marida Marguerite, a German-owned tanker, off the coast of Somalia. (Press TV)
• Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics throws the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history in a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. (ESPN)
• The 26th annual Vancouver Sun Run happens today in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

• Iraqi insurgents kill 102 and injure over 200 people, mostly Iraqi civilians, in a series of suicide bombings from Mosul to Basra in Iraq, the highest number in one day this year, and jeopardizing a planned US withdrawal. (The Times)
• Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown announces his intention to resign as Leader of the Labour Party, and calls for a leadership election to be completed by September. (BBC)
• Stock markets rise significantly and bond prices fall around the world after investors are reassured by the European Union and International Monetary Fund’s nearly $1 trillion plan to avoid a European debt crisis. (USA Today) (The Times)
• President Obama nominates Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the youngest Justice and third woman for the Supreme Court of the United States. (USA Today) (The Times)
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government loses its majority in the upper house of parliament in a state election marked by voter anger over the bailout to avoid the Greek debt crisis. (The Australian) (Los Angeles Times)
• BP sprays more chemicals into the main massive undersea oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico using a deep-sea robot in an attempt to thin the oil which is rushing up from the seabed at the rate of about 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) per day. (USA Today)
• A mass grave containing the bodies of 250 ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo War is discovered in Serbia. (USA Today) (B92) (AFP)
• Presidential elections, legislative elections and local elections start today in the Philippines. (Philippine Inquirer) (BBC)
• The South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young announces that investigators have found traces of explosives in the wreck of the ROKS Cheonan that sank in March. (BBC) (Xinhua) (Kyodo)
• Rescue efforts continue in the aftermath of the May 2010 Siberia mine explosion. (RIA Novosti)
• A senior U.S. official, Kurt M. Campbell, meets with Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (AP) (The New York Times) (Press TV)
• Severe rainstorms have killed at least 70 people since a powerful tornado hit Chongqing municipality in south-western China in Dianjiang and Liangping counties. Inclement weather in the next two days will affect Guangdong, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces. (Sina)
• Multiple tornadoes across Oklahoma and Kansas result in at least 5 deaths and 58 injuries. Twisters hit a truck stop near Midwest City and locations in Oklahoma City. (KTUL) (AP) (NWS Norman) (NewsOK)

• The Conservative Party's David Cameron kisses the hands of Queen Elizabeth II to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after Gordon Brown resigns as Prime Minister and as Leader of the British Labour Party. (BBC)
• The son of Corazon Aquino, Benigno Aquino III, appears set to win the presidency in the Philippine elections, which have been marred by deadly violence and malfunctioning voting machines. (Chicago Tribune) (USA Today)
• The Egyptian parliament votes to extend the country's almost three decade state of emergency for a further two years, drawing criticism from foreign governments, opposition groups, dissidents and human-rights organizations concerned with the effect that extensive police powers and the suspension of constitutional rights has on human rights in Egypt.(The Jerusalem Post) (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Star)
• Lost Planet 2 is Released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• At least three people are injured by authorities as protesters attempt to storm Dáil Éireann in a campaign against bank bail-outs. (RTÉ) (Irish Independent) (The Irish Times)
• U.S. missiles kill 24 suspected insurgents in North Waziristan, Pakistan, in the latest two of three strikes since an attempted car bombing in New York linked to the Taliban. The identities of most of those killed are not known. (Chicago Tribune) (USA Today)
• Pope Benedict XVI and child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church:
  • Tens of thousands of people line the streets as Pope Benedict XVI begins his four-day trip to Portugal. (RTÉ)
  • The Pope blames the clerical child abuse scandal on "sin within" the Church while on his trip to Portugal. (BBC)
  • The Pope encounters thousands of Facebook protesters after a seven-week online campaign against his views on contraception and HIV/AIDS. (The Guardian)
  • Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin speaks of "never being so disheartened and discouraged" about how the Church is handling the scandal at a conference in Dublin. (RTÉ) (Irish Independent) (BBC) (Irish Examiner) (BusinessWeek)
• Gulf of Mexico oil spill:
  • United States Coast Guard commander, Admiral Thad Allen, is appointed by President Obama to lead the federal response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (USA Today)
  • United States Congress begins hearings on the massive oil spill threatening sensitive marshes and marine life along the Gulf Coast as the three companies involved in the drilling activities that unleashed the environmental crisis blame each other. (Chicago Tribune)
  • Louisiana state health officials close oyster harvesting areas as a precaution against contaminated products from the oil spill. (USA Today)
• Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption:
  • Four airports in the Canary Islands and three in southern Spain are closed, Spain's air traffic control agency Aena said. (BBC)
  • Morocco closes ten airports, including Casablanca, Rabat-Sale, Tangiers, Fes, Agadir, Tan-Tan and Essaouira, for the first time. This is the first African country affected.(BBC)(CNBC)
  • Turkey imposes a four-hour flight ban over the country's north-west from 1200 GMT, but the main Istanbul international airport remains open. (BBC)
• 9 trapped miners found dead in coal gas leak in northwest China's Gansu Province Tuesday. (China Daily)
• Swedish artist Lars Vilks is headbutted and has his glasses broken by a man sitting in the front row while delivering a lecture about the limits of artistic freedom at Uppsala University, with police using pepper spray and batons on the crowd. (BBC) (CBS News) (Houston Chronicle) (Radio Free Europe)
• South Africa's team manager Sipho Nkumane and commercial director Victor Nosi are suspended by the South African Football Association (SAFA) one month before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
• China cracks down on dissenters, banning two leading human rights lawyers from practicing and exiling a leading HIV/AIDS campaigner from the country. (The Australian)
• Pakistan's ambassador to Iran, Mohammad Bakhsh Abbasi, is hospitalised after becoming injured in an attack by an Afghan on his car in Tehran. (BBC)
• A nearly $1 trillion rescue package to prevent the Greek sovereign debt crisis spreading in Europe will impact various facets of the Chinese economy. (Sina)

• Global Green USA attends BioShield 2010 Tabletop Exercise in Tbilisi, Georgia. (Global Green)
• Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 arriving from South Africa en route to London crashes at Tripoli airport, Libya, killing 104 people; a 10-year-old child is the sole survivor. (BBC) (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
• Airports in Morocco, Spain and Portugal reopen after days of Icelandic volcanic disruption. (BBC) (NEWS.com.au)
• The International Committee of the Red Cross confirms reports of a second, secret US prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan after new allegations of torture. (BBC)
• Russia and Turkey sign a $20 billion deal permitting Moscow to build and own a controlling stake in Ankara's first nuclear power plant. (Al Jazeera)
• Philippine general election, 2010
  • Mayor Jejomar Binay and Senator Mar Roxas are still in a tight race for the vice-presidency. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
  • Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is elected as representative of Pampanga, the first outgoing president to be elected to the House of Representatives. (GMA News)
  • Former First Lady Imelda Marcos is elected as representative of Ilocos Norte. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
  • World-renowned boxer Manny Pacquiao is elected as representative of Sarangani. (Philippine Star)
• The Chengdu-Dujiangyan High-Speed Railway begins operation in Sichuan, China, on the second anniversary of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. (China Daily)
• In South Sudan there is violence for the third time in a week between the army and forces led by the former general George Athor. (BBC) (Reuters)
• 9 people, including 7 children, are killed at a school near Hanzhong city, Shaanxi, China. (Xinhua) (AP)
• A bomb planted inside a grocery store in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad kills three people and wounds 23. (TVNZ)
• Irish authorities launch an investigation into last night's "violent incident" which saw protesters attempt to storm Dáil Éireann in a campaign against bank bail-outs. (The Irish Times) (TV3)
• Spain's Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announces wage cuts for state employees and a reduction in investment in response to his country's budget deficit. (Al Jazeera)
• Pope Benedict XVI, accompanied by tens of thousands of pilgrims, visits the famous Catholic shrine to the Virgin Mary in Fatima, as part of his four-day visit to Portugal, and recalls the assassination attempt on his predecessor there. (BBC) (RTÉ) (France24) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• North Korea says it has undertaken nuclear fusion, a claim disputed by international scientists. (BBC) (AP) (China Daily)
• A possible supermassive black hole is witnessed being hurled from its parent galaxy at high speed. (BBC)

• 2010 Thai political protests:
  • A general associated with the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship, Khattiya Sawasdipol, is seriously injured after being shot in the head while giving an interview. (Reuters) (Bangkok Post)
  • Gunfire and explosions occur in the capital Bangkok after the red shirt protesters ignore a government deadline to end their street protests. (Al Jazeera)
• 5 people are killed and a further 19 injured in two bombings in Baghdad. (Xinhua)
• Three alleged organisers of Moscow suicide bombings in March 2010 are killed after apparently resisting arrest. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Seven countries who have faced accusations of human rights violations win three-year seats on the United Nations Human Rights Council in an uncontested election. (AP) (The Guatemala Times) (Reuters Canada)
• At least 21 people are killed and five are wounded in an outburst at a colliery in Puding County, Anshun, Guizhou. (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera) (DAWN) (BBC)
• A report from Human Rights Watch claims that the Israeli army unlawfully destroyed civilian property in the Gaza War of 2008 and 2009, while the Israeli army asserts they only targeted property used for combat or terrorist activities. (BBC) (Ha'aretz)
• President Goodluck Jonathan nominates Namadi Sambo to serve as Nigeria's vice president. (Al Jazeera)
• Following a warning, a bomb explodes outside a maximum security prison in Korydallos, Greece. (BBC)
• The Aban Pearl, a natural gas platform, sinks off the coast of Venezuela, with all 95 workers evacuated safely. (CBC)
• As many as half a million pilgrims from 35 nations, including India, China and Vietnam, attend open-air Mass at Fátima, Portugal, celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope criticises abortion and same-sex marriage in a speech. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• The ".рф" (".rf" - Russian Federation) Cyrillic country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is officially launched, the fourth internationalized country code. The first two web sites available on “.рф” are президент.рф (president.rf) and правительство.рф (government.rf). (Voice of Russia) (ITAR-TASS) (RIA Novosti)
• The second case of poliomyelitis in two days is reported in Russia, in Russia's first polio cases in 15 years, with the virus believed to have come from Tajikistan. (RT) (RIA) (The Moscow Times)
• Supporters of ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev seize government buildings in the south of the country. (BBC) (AFP)
• One of Nigeria's most influential politicians, James Ibori, is arrested on corruption charges in Dubai. (NEXT) (BBC)
• Sudan asks Interpol to arrest Justice and Equality Movement chief Khalil Ibrahim. (Al Jazeera)
• Five people are arrested, two in Massachusetts, and three in New York by the FBI in connection with the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt (NECN) (NJ News) (WJZ) (Al Jazeera)
• The U.S. state of Hawaii enacts a law permitting officials to ignore multiple attempts by the same person to view the birth certificate of President of the United States Barack Obama. (BBC)

• 25 people die and 120 others are injured in a suicide attack while attending a football match in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (France24) (Xinhuanet)
• Death toll rises to at least 8 and up to 121 injured as anti-government protests escalate in Thailand during a day of violence sparked by yesterday’s shooting of a key figure, Khattiya Sawasdipol, of the Red Shirt protesters. (The Times) (WCNC)
• At least one person is killed and 42 injured as live ammunition is fired during clashes between interim government supporters and backers of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev in southern Kyrgyzstan. (Xinhua)
• Iran announces that it hanged 5 prisoners convicted of the so-called crime of "enmity against God", at least 4 of whom were members of Iran's Kurdish minority. (VOA)
• The sole survivor of the Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771 crash in Libya is informed of the death of his family members. (BBC) (Fox News) (Sky News) (The Guardian)
• The body of a Palestinian teenager said to have been shot dead by Jewish settlers is found. He is the first to die since Israel and the Palestinian National Authority began indirect peace talks on Saturday. In a retaliation shooting, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claims responsibility for firing on a car of Jewish civilians in the West Bank. (Reuters) (The Jerusalem Post)
• Pakistan arrests a suspect with connections to a Pakistani group who said he acted as an accomplice to the man accused of trying to bomb Times Square in New York. (The Washington Post)
• The chairman of the Nigerian People's Democratic Party (PDP), Vincent Eze Ogbulafor, resigns days after facing fraud charges in court. (BBC)
• Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón is suspended ahead of his trial. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Reuters) (The Times of India)
• Tens of thousands of people protest in Tirana against last years election, demanding a recount. (BBC)
• Hundreds of people demonstrate and police shoot dead one person after a NATO-led raid murders civilians in Jalalabad Afghanistan. (Al Jazeera)
• The ban given following the Togo national football team attack ahead of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola is lifted with immediate effect as confirmed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) at a meeting in Cairo. (AFP) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda sign an agreement to seek more water from the Nile, a move opposed by Egypt and Sudan. Kenya issues a support statement. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (IOL) (The Miami Herald)
• Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC) sign a €18 billion (£16 billion) deal. (BBC)
• Sweden expels Syrian diplomat over suspected kidnapping plot. (The Jerusalem Post)
• British Labour MP Stephen Timms, a former treasury minister, is stabbed in the abdomen by a woman in east London. (Fox News) (RTÉ) (Sky News) (The Independent) (BBC)
• New Zealand and South Africa's rugby unions make "landmark apologies" for excluding Maori and black players from their teams during the apartheid era. (BBC)
• Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off for its final planned flight in the Space Shuttle program after a quarter century of service. (The New York Times)
• The Aviva Stadium, Ireland's new national stadium, is officially opened by Taoiseach Brian Cowen in Dublin. (The Irish Times) (BBC) (Reuters)

• Following the phenomenal success of James Cameron's Avatar, a ceremony marking the start of the shoot of China's first IMAX3D film. (Global Times)
• Italy fines Ryanair €3 million for failing to help passengers after cancelling their flights during the Icelandic volcanic crisis as the cloud threatens to wreak more havoc. (Reuters) (BBC) (euronews) (Wikinews) (Radio New Zealand)
• A by-election begins in Hong Kong. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
• Government troops in Thailand continue operations to end anti-government protests by red shirt protestors in the capital Bangkok. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
• Sudanese forces announce they have gained control of a rebel held area in Darfur after killing more than 150 members of the Justice and Equality Movement. (Al Jazeera) (AP) (BBC) (The Times of India) (France24)
• Former Mexican presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos is abducted from one of his homes in Pedro Escobedo, Querétaro. (El Universal) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• Seven people are charged with public order offences after around 80 people from the éirígí group demonstrate and burn effigies in an anti-NAMA fashion outside Anglo Irish Bank HQ in Dublin. (The Irish Times) (Evening Herald) (RTÉ)
• At least two people are killed and 43 injured after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Northern Algeria. (Alertnet)
• Google admits it has been mistakenly collecting information people have sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks for the past three years and grounds its Street View cars from collecting wi-fi information. (BBC)
• A fire at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, destroys its entire collection of preserved snakes—the world's largest—and nearly half a million arachnid specimens, including many novel and yet-unclassified species. (The Guardian)

• 20 people were killed and more than 60 others were wounded in shelling in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. (CNN)
• Thailand's Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, warns of escalating violence, and is considering a curfew after clashes with protesters kill 25 over the last 3 days. (The Jerusalem Post) (The Australian) (Chicago Tribune)
• At least 11 people are killed after rebels from the Al-Shabab militant group attack the Somali parliament as it meets for the first time this year. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Daily Nation)
• Maoist guerillas kill six villagers in an alleged revenge attack in Chhattisgarh, India. (Hindustan Times) (IOL) (AFP)
• One person is killed and 28 injured in two grenade attacks in the Rwandan capital Kigali. (AFP)
• Voters in the Dominican Republic go to the polls in a parliamentary election. (AFP) (AP)
• A recount of votes in the March 7 Iraqi election found no change in seat allocation for any of the blocs in the most populous province, Baghdad, in a setback for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who claimed there was election fraud and won a court appeal for the recount after his coalition came in second by two seats. (CNN)
• Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan flies to Tehran to join talks also attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva aimed at convincing Iran of the advantages of sending its nuclear material abroad for processing to ease fears from the West that Iran wants to build a bomb. (BBC)
• Canadian fighter jets escort a Cathay Pacific airliner to land at Vancouver International Airport during a bomb alert and the passengers are removed. (BBC) (CBC)
• United States President Barack Obama is to ask the US Congress for an extra $200m in military aid to help Israel get a short-range rocket defence system called Iron Dome in place against mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza or Southern Lebanon. (BBC)
• French lecturer Clotilde Reiss, charged with spying in Iran after last June's disputed election, is released and returns to Paris. (The Times) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots as fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the United States government and BP have given. (USA Today) (The New York Times) (The Times)
• A by-election takes place in Hong Kong triggered by activists calling for universal suffrage in the territory. (Straits Times) (Reuters India) (Radio Television Hong Kong)
• An earthquake of 5.8 magnitude is felt on Puerto Rico. (Reuters) (AP)
• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva flies from Moscow, where he met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, to Tehran for a meeting with Iranian officials there on the nuclear issue. (BBC)
• The Republic of Korea Navy fires shots at a patrol boat from North Korea during a skirmish. (Yonhap) (BBC)
• Airspace in Ireland is closed down again due to the Icelandic volcanic eruptions. (BBC)
• David Triesman, Baron Triesman resigns as chairman of The Football Association as well as England's 2018 FIFA World Cup bid after his "entrapment" by The Mail on Sunday in which he suggested Spain could drop its bid if Russia bribed referees at the 2010 FIFA World Cup next month. (BBC) (The Mail on Sunday) (The Scotsman)
• Oxford United F.C. get promoted out of the Conference National after beating York City F.C. 3-1 at Wembley Stadium

• The design for the New Bus for London is revealed. (BBC)
• The refusal of Israel to permit entry of internationally renowned American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky to the West Bank on May 16, sparks intense debate in the country. (New York Times)
• Naxalite insurgents blow up a bus in India filled with police and para-militaries, 50 are feared killed. (NDTV)
• A Pamir Airways plane with 43 people on board crashes in Afghanistan between the cities of Kabul and Kunduz. (AFP) (Oneindia.in) (Xinhua)
• Six people are attacked with a meat cleaver before the assailant commits suicide at a market in Foshan, China. (AP) (Shanghai Daily) (CNN)
• Brazil, Iran and Turkey agree on a nuclear fuel swap aimed at easing concerns from the West that Iran might building a bomb. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• 2010 Thai political protests:
  • Hospital officials confirm the death of Thai general, Khattiya Sawasdipol, after he was shot on Thursday as he backed protesters in Bangkok. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • Thousands of red shirt protesters continue to defy a government deadline to disperse. (Bangkok Post) (CBC)
• Dublin Airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Britain's two busiest airports all close due to the latest round of Icelandic volcanic disruption. (Al Jazeera) (RTÉ) (BBC)
• The Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, Brazil, which had one of the world's largest snake collections, is destroyed by fire. (BBC) (MercoPress)
• The national day of Norway

• A new study has found that the gap in wealth between white and black Americans increased by more than four times between 1984 and 2007. (BBC)
• Hamas' interior ministry executes three Palestinians in Gaza, without the approval of the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. (The Jerusalem Post)
• A Taliban suicide car bomber kills at least 12 Afghan civilians and wounds dozens more in an attack on a NATO convoy in the capital, Kabul. (TVNZ)
• A suicide car-bomber attacks a police van in the north western Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan, killing 12 people. (TVNZ)
• Suspected Maoists kill 35 people in a land mine attack against a bus in central India on a road roughly 280 miles (450 km) south of the state capital of Raipur. (CNN)
• Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appoints Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica to lead United Nations efforts to combat climate change and global warming. (UN)

• Aljazeera's Manama bureau is shut down by the Bahrain government for a "breach of media norms" after the channel broadcasts a report on poverty in the country. (Aljazeera) (Ynetnews) (Ha'aretz) (BusinessWeek)
• An independent investigation concludes that a North Korean torpedo caused the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan warship Cheonan. (China Daily) (Yonhap) (BBC) (DailyNK)
• 2010 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
  • Cyclone Laila approaches landfall in southeastern India, having already caused at least ten deaths and prompting the evacuations of 10,000 people in Tamil Nadu.(IndiaServer.com)
  • Tropical Cyclone 02A forms off the east coast of Somalia, although it is expected to dissipate before making landfall.(Joint Typhoon Warning Center)
• Battle of Bangkok:
  • Red shirt protesters surrender in Bangkok, Thailand. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)
  • Buildings across Bangkok have been set ablaze by anti-government protesters after the military stormed a protest camp in the centre of the city. (Al Jazeera)
• 2010 Kyrgyzstani uprising:
  • Two people are killed and a state of emergency is declared in the city of Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan after protesters attempted to storm an Uzbek university. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (AP)
• At least 40,000 Romanians rally in Bucharest to protest planned wage cuts the government says are needed to shore up the ailing economy. (BBC) (Yahoo) (Reuters) (Mediafax)
• Pakistan Telecommunication Authority acting on orders from Lahore High court blocks access to Facebook in the country until May 31 due to a Facebook group encouraging drawings of the Prophet Mohammed on May 20, labeled as Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. (Geo TV) (CNN)
• Ukraine and China are interested in cooperation in cargo transportation sphere. Konstyantyn Hryshchenko says this at the joint news conference with Foreign Minister of China Yang Jiechi. (unian)
• 10 people are confirmed dead and one is missing after a coal mine gas explosion Tuesday in north China's Shanxi Province (Xinhua)
• Hackers have attacked 81 Chinese government websites in the past week leaving 29 still paralyzed, according to figures released by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Center of China (CNETCC). (china.org)
• Yandex, Russia's largest search engine and the eighth-largest in the world, launches an English language search engine. (RT) (RIA Novosti) (The Moscow Times)

• Floods in Poland kill 5. The downpours also cause flooding in areas of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. (cntv)
• At least one police officer is killed and five other people are injured in a battle with a dissident army unit in Antananarivo. (Al Jazeera)
• Numerous countries condemn North Korea for the sinking of the South Korean vessel Cheonan; North Korea denies involvement, and threatens war if sanctions are imposed. (BBC)
• Malawi, considering them to be a gay couple, sentences a transgender woman and a cisgender man to 14 years of hard labour. (The New York Times) (BBC)
• Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute announce the successful transplant of a synthesized genome into an existing cell, creating the world's first artificial lifeform (Mycoplasma laboratorium). (The Guardian) (Economist) (BBC) (Financial Times)

• The death toll from Friday's suicide minibus bomb attack in Diyala province, Iraq rose to 35 killed and 69 wounded. (Xinhua)
• Salva Kiir Mayardit is inaugurated as the first elected president of Southern Sudan. (BBC) (France24) (The Washington Post)
• Gurkha leader Madan Tamang is stabbed to death by a mob at the start a public meeting in West Bengal. (Hindustan Times)
• Nigeriens flee across the border into Nigeria due to a food crisis in Niger. (BBC)
• Delhi High Court acquits three accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case at Shastri Nagar in North Delhi following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. (The Hindu)
• At least 22 people are killed and at least 53 others are injured after a car bomb explodes at a market in Al Khalis, Diyala in Iraq. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Channel 4 News)
• Hundreds of people protest in Cannes over Hors-la-loi, a Rachid Bouchareb directed film about Algeria's struggle for independence against France. (BBC) (CBC) (The Times)
• Campaigners against an immigration law in the U.S. state of Arizona adopt children's cartoon character Dora the Explorer as a symbol of their cause. (BBC) (ABC News) (The Washington Post)
• Guards at the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) near Guwahati intercept and kill four poachers in the most successful operation ever against poachers in the northeast of India. (Hindustan Times)
• Prosecutors of the Special Court for Sierra Leone request United Nations judges to force supermodel Naomi Campbell to testify over allegations that she received a blood diamond from the former President of Liberia Charles Taylor. (Times Online) (CNN)
• Taliban and Afghan government representatives meet for unofficial talks in the Maldives. (Al Jazeera)
• A court restores the Indian Hockey Federation, two years after it was dissolved by the country's Olympic chiefs over bribery allegations and poor on-field results. (AFP) (Hindustan Times) (Press Trust of India)
• A bid is unsuccessful by South Africa's Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal to stop the publication of Jonathan Shapiro's cartoon of Muhammad on a psychiatrist's couch bemoaning his followers' sense of humour failure. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Six girls aged between eight and twelve years drown in the Rapti in Balrampur while bathing. (Press Trust of India)
• Middle East:
  • Israeli troops kill two Palestinian militants as they attempt to infiltrate into Israel from the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
  • An Israeli soldier patrolling the Gaza border is wounded by a Palestinian sniper firing from inside Gaza. (Ynetnews)
  • Israeli warplanes bomb three tunnels in Gaza in response to a rocket attack on Israel the previous day. [http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-soldier-wounded-by-palestinian-sniper-fire-on-gaza-border-1.291399 (Haaretz)

• Deepwater Horizon oil spill :
  • The COO of BP says a gusher of oil pouring from its damaged Gulf of Mexico well could be shut off as early as next week, but noted the plugging operation is "quite complex" and has never been tried in water that deep. (CNN)
• United States Director of National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, announces his resignation. (Al Jazeera)]
• Around 125 people become ill at a wedding ceremony in Khanpur. (Press Trust of India)
• French prosecutors seek a suspended prison sentence in the manslaughter trial of the former head of the Concorde programme over Air France Flight 4590 which crashed near Paris in 2000, killing 113 people. (BBC)
• JAXA successfully launched venus probe and IKAROS, the first interplanetary spacecraft with a solar-sail.(BBC)
• Popular musician Bono undergoes emergency spinal surgery in Munich, causing the cancellation of a leg of U2's current world tour. (The Irish Times) (BBC) (CBC) (TIME) (CNN)

• Air India Express Flight 812:
  • Air India Express Flight 812, with 166 people on board, crashes near Mangalore International Airport. (Aviation Safety Network) (Al Jazeera) (CNN) (BBC)
  • An investigation into the cause of the crash begins; the flight's black box is located. (BBC) (RTÉ)
  • Only eight passengers have survived the crash. (CNN)
• Apa, a Nepalese Sherpa mountain climber who already held the world record for summiting Mount Everest more than any other person, reaches the summit for the 20th time. (Xinhua) (Press Trust of India) (Asian Tribune)
• The death toll of Cyclone Laila in Andhra Pradesh, the worst storm to hit the Indian state in 14 years, reaches 36. (IndiaTimes) (BBC)
• The death toll from yesterday's car bomb at a market in Diyala reaches 30. (BBC)
• The Texas Education Agency adopts controversial changes to the Texas public school curriculum, including dropping coverage of enlightenment thinker Thomas Jefferson and suggesting United Nations is a "threat to freedom". The proposal to refer to the slave trade as the "Atlantic triangular trade" is not implemented. (BBC)
• Irish authorities arrest two men and foil a "major dissident bomb operation". (RTÉ) (Press Association)
• Afghan police seize a cache of hundreds of rockets hidden on the outskirts of Kabul. (BBC)
• At least 13 people have died in a clash between a Somali militia and Ethiopian forces who had crossed the border in Somaliland. (BBC)
• Campaigning closes ahead of the Ethiopian general election, 2010 to be held tomorrow. (Al Jazeera)
• Abbott Laboratories buys a Piramal Healthcare unit in India to become the country's largest drug-maker. (The Irish Times) (Economic Times)
• Five people are shot dead by 100 armed Maoists who storm and burn market buildings in Sheohar, Bihar. (Economic Times) (The Hindu)
• British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh is surrounded by demonstrators who storm the headquarters of the Acas building in London. (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian) (CNN) (Hindustan Times)
• Ariane 5 launch vehicle carries out its 50th mission, putting two large telecommunications satellites in orbit. (BBC)
• In the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final, Inter Milan defeats Bayern Munich 2–0, for their first major European title since 1965. (BBC)
• More than 74,000 South African football fans attend the first match at Soccer City—venue for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final—less than three weeks before the tournament begins. (BBC)
• Thirteen-year-old American Jordan Romero becomes the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. (AP via ESPN)
• Blackpool Football Club beat Cardiff City Football Club 3-2 in the 2010 Final of the Football League Championship play-offs to be guaranteed "the biggest windfall in global sport from the outcome of a single event". (The Sunday Times) (BBC) (The Independent)
• Republic of Ireland defender Shane Duffy undergoes life-saving surgery in Dublin after lacerating his liver. (BBC) (RTÉ) (ABC News) (USA Today)
• Nicolaus Copernicus is disinterred from an unmarked grave and reburied by Poland. (AP) (The Voice of Russia)
• A range of activities occur across the United Kingdom to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity. (BBC)

• At least 19 passengers were killed and more than 70 were injured, when a landslide in rain-drenched Yujiang, East China's Jiangxi Province. (Global Times)
• A state of emergency is declared in the Jamaican capital Kingston after armed gangs attacked police and blockaded parts of the city in an attempt to prevent the arrest of a drug lord. (Jamaica Observer) (BBC) (CNN)
• A five-day strike at British Airways is announced to begin tomorrow following a breakdown in talks which were invaded by protesters yesterday. (Al Jazeera) (The Australian) (The Daily Telegraph) (Wall Street Journal)
• Ethiopian general election, 2010:
  • Voters in Ethiopia go to the polls to elect members of the House of Peoples' Representatives. (BBC) (Xinhua) (Montreal Gazette) (Walta Information Center) (TIME)
  • The opposition reveals evidence of corruption by the government as the elections are happening, including rigging, blocking, arrests, intimidation and privacy concerns. (Taiwan News) (Al Jazeera)
  • Voting ends and the counting begins. (Al Jazeera)
• Voters in Nagorno-Karabakh vote in a parliamentary election as more than 70 international observers watch. (Voice of Russia) (Reuters)
• A train traveling from Shanghai to Guilin derails in a mountainous area near Fuzhou, Jiangxi, China, and is destroyed, killing at least 19 and injuring 71 others. (Xinhua) (BBC) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
• The death toll in Poland's worst flooding in 60 years reaches 12. (Al Jazeera)
• Clashes break out between Indian and Pakistani troops near the border in the disputed Kashmir region. (Al Jazeera) (Hindustan Times)
• Dozens of masked gunmen from an Islamist group break into a United Nations-run Gaza summer camp for children and set it on fire, after beating up the guard and destroying the plastic tents. (The Jerusalem Post) (Al Jazeera)
• Somalia's presidential palace is targeted by Al-Shabab militants in a mortar attack. (Press TV) (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (AP)
• Rescue teams hunt for the data recorders from Air India Express Flight 812. (BBC) (The Times) (Japan Today)
• Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama makes an apology for breaking an election promise to get rid of a U.S. military base located in Okinawa which he and the United States believe is "needed to guarantee regional security". Demonstrators affected by this failure order him to "go home". (BBC)
• Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear whistleblower who spent 18 years in prison, goes back to jail for violating the terms of his parole. (AP) (CNN)
• Sinking of the ROKS Cheonan:
  • South Korea announces it will take the case of the sinking of the Cheonan to the United Nations Security Council. (CBC) (The Guardian) (Xinhua)
  • South Korean President Lee Myung-bak says North Korea will pay the price for the sinking. (VoA)
• The Cuban government eases jail conditions for political prisoners following talks with Catholic Church leaders and President Raúl Castro. (Reuters) (Press Trust of India) (BBC)
• Maria Vittoria Longhitano, Italy's first woman priest, belonging to a breakaway Catholic order, is ordained. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• The Catholic Church requests the public to donate at least £1 million to church collections today to fund three big open air masses at which Pope Benedict XVI will present while in the UK. The rest of the money is paid for by the British government. (BBC)
• Nine ships under the banner Freedom Flotilla, from the UK, Ireland, Algeria, Kuwait, Greece and Turkey, with of 800 people from 50 nationalities, begin a trip to Gaza, the biggest attempt by international aid groups to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel informs them they will be stopped for "breaching Israeli law". (Al Jazeera)
• Two militants are killed in the woods near Serzhen-Yurt in Shali, Chechen Republic. (Voice of Russia)
• Sarah, Duchess of York's involvement in a "cash for royal access" scandal is filmed by undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood; she asked for a $40,000 (£27,650) golden handshake in cash and for £500,000 to be sent to her bank in return for access to Prince Andrew. (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph) (News of the World) (Al Jazeera)
• Sweden's "Treskilling Yellow", the most expensive postage stamp in the world, retains its title at a private auction. (AP) (The Times of India)
• The UK tourist resort of Blackpool is expected to benefit "tens of millions" of pounds, described by the tourism chief as "unthinkable", following the local football club's elevation to the Premier League as an open-top bus tour is announced. (BBC)
• The Champs-Élysées is covered in earth and turned into a huge green space by young financially impoverished farmers. (BBC) (The Independent) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (pictured) wins the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival much to the surprise of the BBC. (BBC)
• The Rolling Stones achieve their first UK number one album for 16 years with a re-release of Exile on Main St.. (BBC)
• Czech Republic defeats Russia in 2010 IIHF World Championship final. (The Washington Post)

• Trinidad and Tobago holds a general election, resulting in the victory of the United National Congress, and Kamla Persad-Bissessar becoming its first female Prime Minister. (CaribbeanWorldNews), (Xinhua)
• The death toll as a result of severe flooding in Poland reaches 15 as Interior Minister Jerzy Miller says "The situation is worse than expected". (Deutsche Welle) (The Irish Times) (Press TV) (RTÉ)
• Hamas announces that it will boycott Palestinian municipal elections, saying said that the elections were being held under the supervision of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s “unconstitutional government” and would lack fairness and credibility. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Israel:
  • President of Israel Shimon Peres denies a claims that there was an alleged nuclear pact between Israel and South Africa. (BBC)(The Jerusalem Post)
  • Australia expels an Israeli diplomat after a probe reveals Israel was behind the forging of four Australian passports linked to the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai. (BBC)
• Operation Herrick:
  • Colonel Bob Seddon resigns as principal ammunition technical officer of the Royal Logistic Corps citing concerns about "the pressures on his team operating in Afghanistan". (Sky News) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Hindu) (Hindustan Times)
  • The widow of an army bomb disposal expert killed there in October admits her husband was under relentless pressure and his elite unit "badly overstretched". (Reuters)
• Sinking of the ROKS Cheonan:
  • South Korea cuts off trade with North Korea and announces that North Korean ships will no longer be allowed to use South Korean waters. The government demands an apology over the sinking. (BBC)
  • The South Korean military announces that it will resume the suspended practice of psychological warfare against North Korean guards on the Demilitarized zone, and that it would hold anti-submarine military exercises with the United States. (Yonhap) (Al Jazeera)
  • South Korea announces that it will refer North Korea to the United Nations Security Council. (BBC)
  • South Korea and the United States pressure China to allow UN action against North Korea. (The Guardian)
• Two police officers are killed and six others are wounded by gunmen during unrest in Jamaica's capital, Kingston. (BBC) (Sky News)
• The first China-Europe High-Level Political Party Forum convenes in Beijing. (Global Times)
• The second round of the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue begins in Beijing, China. (CNN) (Xinhua)
• The assassination of Bashar al-Ageidi from the election-winning Iraqiya bloc of Ayad Allawi takes place outside his house in Mosul. (BBC)
• Partial results show Western-backed leader Meles Zenawi's party is going to win the national Ethiopian election, although there are allegations it was rigged. (BBC) (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph)
• A panel of judges rules that Kenya's Islamic courts favour Islam and that this is unconstitutional as Kenya is a secular country. (BBC)
• Niger proposes reforms that would see only those with a university degree be allowed to run in presidential elections and parliamentary candidates be under the age of seventy and have some form of secondary education. Opposition groups say this discriminates against the 80 per cent of the population that is illiterate. (BBC)
• President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is met with protests during a speech in Khorramshahr. (BBC) (Reuters) (Voice of America)
• The International Monetary Fund says "far-reaching" reforms are vital for Spain's economy. (BBC)
• Plane Stupid protesters break into Manchester Airport and lock arms around an aircraft. Flights are suspended. (Sky News)
• At least three people die and four others are critically injured in a school bus crash in Keswick, Cumbria in the Lake District of North West England in the United Kingdom.
• Twentieth Century Fox's hit TV show 24 went completely off the air.

(Sky News)

• The people of Huddersfield in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees of West Yorkshire in England are ordered to remain indoors and several schools are shut down after a huge fire engulfs a chemical plant in the area. (Sky News)
• The UK's General Medical Council bans Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who was the first to publish research suggesting a connection between the MMR vaccine and autism, from practicing in the country, finding him guilty of "serious professional misconduct." (AP) (BBC) (The Washington Post) (Wall Street Journal)
• Peter Harvey, the UK teacher who attacked a pupil with a dumbbell while shouting "die, die, die", is sentenced to community order as his trial ends in Nottingham. The judge calls him as a "thoroughly decent man". (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian) (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (The Times)
• Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader and South Down MP Margaret Ritchie resigns from the Northern Ireland Executive. Alex Attwood is the new Minister for Social Development. (RTÉ)
• Sarah, Duchess of York receives support from businessman Simon Cowell and an award for her work with the disadvantaged children of the U.S. city of Los Angeles despite being caught in a newspaper sting in Britain. (Sky News)
• Iran's largest water supply project is inaugurated in Khorramshahr. (Bernama) (Press TV) (Tehran Times)
• Paul Gray, bassist and founding member of heavy metal group Slipknot, is found dead at the age of 38 by a hotel employee in his room in Iowa, United States. (The Guardian) (Xinhua) (TIME) (ABC News)

• Curfew imposed in central Nepal after clash. Central Nepal district Dolakha’s government issued curfew order on Sunday following clashes between the police and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)-aligned Young Communist League (YCL) activists. (alice.boseviews)
• The death toll from the fighting in Kingston, Jamaica's capital, jumps to 27. (BBC)
• May 2010 Central European floods:
  • Warsaw residents prepare to flee floodwaters as the Vistula river overflows. (The Guardian) (The Hindu)
  • Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announces 2 billion złoty from budget reserves to be given to those affected. (Reuters) (Voice of America)
  • Polish Minister of the Interior, Jerzy Miller, says beavers caused the floods; local authorities up hunting quotas for the animals. (The Daily Telegraph)
  • A Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations plane with humanitarian aid for Poland begins its flight to Warsaw. (RIA Novosti)
  • The Oder's water levels rise in eastern Germany as flood warnings are issued in Ratzdorf and Eisenhüttenstadt. (Sky News)
• An international operation against a major drug trafficking gang deals "a major blow" as 26 people are arrested in Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom, including a capo di tutti capi. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (BBC) (France24) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva launches TV Brasil Internacional, an international television station currently broadcasting to African nations. (BBC) (France24) (MercoPress)
• Increased tensions over the sinking of the South Korean warship ROKS Cheonan (PCC-772): South Korea begins broadcasting propaganda over its border with North Korea. North Korea severs all ties and communications with the South and expels Southern workers from a jointly-run factory above the border. (Yonhap) (BBC)
• A court in Thailand issues an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on charges of terrorism, following a report by the Thai Department of Special Investigations, which concluded that he had financed Red Shirt protesters and had helped them smuggle in weapons and fighters from Cambodia, during the 2010 political crisis. (Al Jazeera)
• At least 17 people die after a tourist bus crashes in Antalya. (RIA Novosti) (BBC) (CBS News) (Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review) (Today's Zaman)
• A white teacher in Dahlonega, Georgia is suspended after permitting non-black students to bring bed sheets and cone-shaped party hats to school to dress in the traditional costume of right-wing white supremacist nationalist organisation Ku Klux Klan for a film project. She refuses to apologise after the issue is raised by African-American students when one of them was asked to take part in a re-enactment of a lynching. (BBC) (Pretoria News) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Iran releases film director Jafar Panahi after more than two months in custody, including a hunger strike, following an international campaign led by the actress Juliette Binoche. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)
• The Malaysian tanker MT Bunga Kelana 3 and a bulk carrier collide in the Singapore Strait, resulting in an estimated 2,000 tonnes of oil spilled. (Reuters) (The Times) (Straits Times)
• The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismisses a government appeal to detain Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, a Muslim cleric suspected by India to have masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (Reuters) (AP)
• Italy's cabinet approves an austerity budget to cut its deficit by €24 billion in 2011 and 2012. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Miami Herald)
• Sicilians react with outrage to an advert for a clothing shop in Palermo featuring Adolf Hitler dressed in pink and a heart instead of a swastika. (BBC)
• Russia's new Cyrillic Internet domain (.рф) launches on 476 sites. (RIA Novosti)
• A study indicates that the Pac-Man game Google put on its home page Friday led to the loss of almost five million man-hours (or 550 years) of work time. (BBC) (CBC News) (Daily Mail)
• Bono is released from hospital in Munich following his spinal surgery as U2 confirm the postponement of the North America leg of the U2 360° Tour and cancel their headlining slot at the Glastonbury Festival 2010. (The Irish Times) (CNN) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Swedish model Charlotte Lindström is released from Long Bay Prison in Sydney after serving a three year sentence for plotting to kill two people; she served the time in total isolation because of death threats towards her. (Herald Sun)
• South African opera star Siphiwo Ntshebe, chosen by Nelson Mandela to sing "Hope" at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup next month, dies suddenly aged 34 after contracting meningitis. (IOL) (BBC) (CBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)
• Ivor Powell, the world's oldest football coach and "one of the great footballers of his generation" retires at the age of 93. (BBC)

• More than 80 students are sickened in a girls' school in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in a poison gas attack suspected to have been carried out by Taliban assailants whose version of Islam is opposed to girls being educated.(USA Today)
• International Criminal Court judges tell the UN Security Council that the Sudanese government is protecting suspects wanted for war crimes in Darfur instead of arresting them to face trial. (The Globe and Mail)
• Jamaican police arrest more than 500 people after an unsuccessful attempt to arrest a suspected drug kingpin in Kingston, the capital, results in violence that leaves at least 44 people dead. (CNN) (BBC)
• Two of Ethiopia's main opposition leaders call for a rerun of Sunday's elections won by Western-backed Meles Zenawi. They say the elections were not free and fair and that two politicians were killed by security forces. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Hindu) (Reuters)
• Brandenburg reaches level four on the disaster alert scale as water levels along the Oder and Neisse rivers continue to rise. (Deutsche Welle)
• Israel launches two night-time air strikes on the Gaza Strip in response to mortar attacks and the detonation of 200 kg of explosives laden on a donkey-cart next to the border fence. (BBC) (The Jerusalem Post)
• Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns Iran, saying his people were “hijacked, at the hands of the Iranians”; possibly referring to Hamas's refusal to reconcile with Fatah on Iran's command by announcing on that it would boycott the Palestinian municipal elections (The Jerusalem Post)
• Palestinian Authority security forces arrest scores of Hamas officials and supporters in the West Bank a day after Hamas announced that it would boycott the Palestinian municipal elections scheduled for July 17. (The Jerusalem Post)
• The chief rabbi of a West Bank settlement declares that women should be prohibited from standing in a local community election. (BBC)
• Nuclear program of Iran:
  • Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev disagree over Russia's support for United Nations sanctions concerning Iran's nuclear program, with some analysts describing it as the worst row between the countries for several years. (Reuters)
  • Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva questions why American President Barack Obama ignored Iran's nuclear agreement with Brazil and Turkey and presented new sanctions to the United Nations Security Council, saying this is "not the attitude that someone who won the Nobel Peace Prize has" and describing himself as "disappointed". (Buenos Aires Herald)
• Lori Berenson is freed on parole after serving 15 years in a Peruvian prison for aiding the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. (BBC)
• Iraq announces the dissolution of state-owned Iraqi Airways over the next three years and the pursuit of private options to avoid asset claims made by Kuwait over their 1990-91 war. (Al Jazeera)
• The International Criminal Court reports Sudan to the United Nations Security Council for refusing to arrest former Minister Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Muhammad Al Abd-Al-Rahman. (BBC)
• A Lusaka court convicts former Zambian Finance Minister Katele Kalumba of corruption and sentences him to five years with hard labour. Six other people, including former officials in the finance ministry, are also found guilty of corruption. (BBC) (IOL)
• Two people are injured and several vehicles are destroyed during a blast in Kandahar. (Al Jazeera)
• Charles Djou is sworn into the United States House of Representatives, representing Hawaii's 1st congressional district. (Fox News)
• Space Shuttle Atlantis completes its final scheduled mission after landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. (Xinhua) (CNN) (BBC)
• Elton John makes his Moroccan debut at the Mawazine festival in Rabat, ignoring calls for him to be banned by Islamists who feared he would offend public morals. (BBC)
• Virtual band Gorillaz are announced to replace U2 as headliners of the Glastonbury Festival 2010. (BBC) (CBC) (RTÉ) (Reuters) (The Times)
• The Alaotra grebe, a grebe endemic to Madagascar, is declared extinct 25 years after its last reported sighting. (BBC)

• The death toll in the recent violence in Jamaica jumps to 73, and 44 in west Kingston alone. (Al Jazeera) (Montreal Gazette)
• At least seven people die and at least 40 others are injured after a bomb explodes before a performance in Stavropol. (CBC) (CNN) (Deutsche Welle) (RIA Novosti)
• The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is now the worst oil spill in U.S. history, surpassing the worst previous spill, the Exxon Valdez wreck on the Alaska coast in 1989, according to scientists' latest estimates. (Chicago Tribune)
• A US-born Yemenite cleric linked to Al-Qaeda, Anwar Al-Awlaki, advocates the killing of US civilians in a new Al Qaeda video. (USA Today)
• Two campaigners for LGBT rights in Zimbabwe are freed after spending six days in custody on charges of possessing pornographic material and insulting President Robert Mugabe. (BBC) (IOL) (News24.com)
• North Korea says it will scrap an accord aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea after being blamed for a torpedo attack that sank a South Korean warship. (CBC)
• France detains Rwandan doctor Eugene Rwamucyo, wanted by Interpol since 2006 and accused of involvement in the Rwandan Genocide. (BBC)
• Sudan:
  • Many international leaders stay away from the inauguration of Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, as he is sworn in as President of Sudan but at least five African presidents attend the event along with two UN representatives. (BBC) (Reuters)
  • The Sudanese government says it will no longer engage in peace talks with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), promising to prosecute its leaders instead. (Al Jazeera)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Israel summons the ambassadors of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Turkey to protest the expedition as an unnecessary provocation after eight ships, including four cargo vessels and a Turkish passenger ferry carrying 600 people, including a Nobel peace laureate and former U.S. congresswoman, set sail for Gaza with 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to break a three-year Israeli blockade on the territory. (RTÉ) (Associated Press) (Voice of America)(The Jerusalem Post)
  • Organizers of the aid flotilla refuse an offer of support by the family of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit if they would urge Hamas to allow the soldier to receive letters and food packages from his family and international organizations to visit him. (Ynetnews) (The Jerusalem Post) (Haaretz)
  • Israel invites the convoy to unload its cargo at the port of Ashdod, where the cargo will be checked for weapons and then the humanitarian goods will be distributed by land to Gaza. (Haaretz) (The Jerusalem Post)
  • The Israeli Army shows journalists a detention centre in Ashdod where those on board will locked up, saying Israelis would be arrested, Palestinians would be questioned by the Israeli secret service, and foreign nationals would be sent home. (Al Jazeera)
  • Cyprus bans flotilla vessels from gathering in its territorial waters, a move described by Israel as "an ethical deed and a voice of reason". (Ynetnews)
  • Two Palestinians are wounded in an Israeli air strike east of Gaza City in response to Palestinians firing mortar into Israel. (AFP)
• Pakistan:
  • A Pakistani army major is the latest suspect to be arrested in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing attempt. (Telegraph)
  • Pakistan restores access to the video sharing website YouTube, but 1,200 web pages remain blocked for hosting "blasphemous" content. (Al Jazeera)
• In its annual report, Amnesty International says human rights abuses and repression increased in Iran and China last year, the African Union refused to cooperate with the International Criminal Court after it indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council took little action while Sri Lanka’s army and Tamil militants both committed potential war crimes, and Israel and the militant group Hamas did not follow up on reports that accused both sides of human rights abuses during the Gaza War. (Xinhua)(Businessweek)(MSNBC)(VOA)
• Licences are granted to four private daily newspapers as part of media reforms in Zimbabwe. (BBC) (CNN)
• Singapore closes beaches along 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) of its east coast as an oil spill from the damaged Malaysian tanker MT Bunga Kelana 3 continues to spread. (AP) (Reuters India) (BBC)
• Libya welcomes the return of some ancient relics stolen by British soldiers in the 1950s and now on display in Tripoli's Museum of Libya. (IOL) (BBC) (Daily Mail) (News24.com)
• Tens of thousands of workers strike in protest against government plans to raise the retirement age in France. (BBC) (Bangkok Post) (RTÉ) (The Washington Post) (Al Jazeera)
• Stanley Kingaipe and Charles Chookole, two ex-officers in Zambia's air force, are awarded 10 million kwacha in damages following claims they were tested and treated for HIV without their knowledge. (BBC)
• Spain's parliament approves by one vote a €15 billion austerity package to rein in the country's budget deficit. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• French Polynesia Vice President Edouard Fritch is arrested in a bribery probe. (RNZI)
• Peter James Bethune, a New Zealand anti-whaling campaigner, pleads guilty to four charges over his alleged attacks on the Japanese whaling vessel MV Shōnan Maru 2 in February. (ABC) (Radio New Zealand) (The Jakarta Post)
• The first launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is delayed to no earlier than June 2, 2010, due to delays in a Delta IV GPS satellite launch. (Space.com News)
• Ten acts, including former winner Niamh Kavanagh, progress to the final of Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Bærum, Oslo. Sweden fails to qualify for the first time in its history. (The Irish Times) (BBC)
• Former child actor Gary Coleman is hospitalised in a critical condition in the United States. (CNN) (The Sydney Morning Herald)

• Terrorists attacked two major mosques simultaneously belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Lahore, Pakistan killing nearly 100 Ahmadis. See:May 2010 attacks on Ahmadi mosques in Lahore
• Contributions from Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland allow the World Bank to cancel $36 million in Haiti's remaining debt following January's devastating earthquake. (Al Jazeera) (The New York Times) (Reuters) (CNN)
• At least three people die, at least four others are missing, a 15-day state of calamity is declared and the international airport is shut down due to the eruption of the Pacaya volcano in Guatemala. (CNN)
• Assailants attack two mosques in Lahore, Pakistan, killing at least 80 and injuring 50 more. (Al Jazeera) (Times of India) (Malaysia Star)
• At least 25 people are killed and 150 injured in India after a Mumbai train with 13 passenger coaches is derailed by an explosion on the tracks and collides with another train as it traveled through the Paschim Medinipur district, a rebel stronghold in eastern India. (Reuters) (USA Today) (The Hindu) (Times of India) (BBC)
• Hundreds of corpses buried in a mudslide which swept away three villages on the slopes of Mount Elgon near Bududa, Uganda, three months ago are yet to be recovered. (BBC)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Five boats belonging to pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs leave Ashdod and Herzliya to demonstrate against the international flotilla by displaying “Free Gaza from Hamas” banners and wearing bloodstained T-shirts, representing Hamas’ attacks. (The Jerusalem Post)
  • The Israeli Navy also sets off to confront the international flotilla carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid as hundreds of people on board attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. (The Guardian)
  • The meeting is considered an international "public relations battle" to be "waged on the high seas". (The Australian) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Hindu) (CNN)
  • Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis and says the flotilla is "an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel" and promises that "Israel will not allow a violation of its sovereignty at sea, in the air, or on land". (Ynetnews)
  • Cypriot authorities prevent any activists from leaving the island to join the flotilla, while Turkey urges Israel to treat the convoy as humanitarian aid. (Reuters)
• Voters in the Czech Republic vote in legislative elections. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (France24) (Reuters)
• Nepal heads towards another political crisis. (Al Jazeera)
• North Korea:
  • A leaked United Nations report states that North Korea is exporting nuclear technology to Burma, Iran and Syria. (AP) (The Guardian)
  • China says it will "not protect" whoever sank the ROKS Cheonan in March. (Al Jazeera) (Joongang Daily) (BBC)
• Peruvian AIDESEP indigenous leader Alberto Pizango, detained on Wednesday as he returned from almost a year in exile in Nicaragua and charged with objecting to oil digging in the rainforest, is released on bail. (BBC)
• President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, in a rare disagreement with another African state, issues a statement of condemnation following Malawi's sentencing of a same-sex couple to 14 years in jail. (IOL)
• The BBC intervenes and tensions escalate after the UK cabinet members' threat to boycott Question Time unless Alastair Campbell, former adviser to Tony Blair, is removed from the panel. (The Guardian) (RTÉ) (Sky News) (BBC)
• Foxconn increases the wages of the workers in its Shenzhen factory, where several employees have committed suicide, increases wages, by 20 per cent in an effort to boost morale. (BBC)
• Gulf of Mexico oil spill:
  • BP and other agencies report progress in halting the flow of oil using a "top kill" operation. (Los Angeles Times)
  • U.S. President Barack Obama fends off criticism that he has been too slow to respond. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (Chicago Tribune)
• Australia promises to begin legal action against Japan due to disagreeing with its annual whaling hunt in the Southern Ocean. (BBC)
• Indonesia announces a two-year moratorium on rainforest logging in return for up to $1bn in aid from Norway, which will help preserve forests. (Al Jazeera) (The New York Times) (ABC), (The Norway Post) (The Jakarta Post)
• Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Spielberg help unveil the rebuilt outdoor sets with imitation New York streets of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, United States. The sets were destroyed in a 2008 fire. (BBC) (CBC)
• After a personal intervention from Nicolas Sarkozy, France beats Turkey and Italy for the right to stage the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament. (CBC) (BBC) (RTÉ) (France24)
• Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama give the United States men's national soccer team a presidential send-off to South Africa from the White House ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (China Daily) (IOL) (The News International)

• BP's effort fails to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which is the worst in U.S. history, and is fouling marshland and beaches, as estimates of how much oil is leaking grow more dire. (AP) (USA Today)
• Roy Halladay pitches the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history in the Philadelphia Phillies' 1–0 win over the Florida Marlins. (AP at Yahoo!)
• Tens of thousands of Portuguese rally in central Lisbon against the government's austerity measures in one of the biggest protests in recent years. (Al Jazeera)
• Thousands of people are evacuated as Attabad Lake in Pakistan's Hunza Valley begins to overflow. (Al Jazeera)
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meet in Jeju in a trilateral summit to discuss strengthening trade ties and the Cheonan incident. (Radio Australia) (Korea Times)
• Eurovision Song Contest 2010 at the Telenor Arena in Bærum, Oslo:
  • An audience member storms the stage during Daniel Diges performance. The Spanish entry has to be performed again. (Herald Sun) (Digital Spy)
  • With the song "Satellite", Germany's Lena wins the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, the first German victory since 1982. (ABC News) (RTÉ) (Reuters India)
  • The United Kingdom, represented by Josh Dubovie, finish last. (The Press Association) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Israel rejects call to take part in a conference aimed at achieving a nuclear-arms free Middle East, citing the document agreed to at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty talks in which Israel was singled out, but which did not mention Iran, widely suspected of having a nuclear-weapons program, or declared nuclear states India and Pakistan, who have not signed the treaty.(The Jerusalem Post) (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Gaza prepares a welcoming party to receive the flotilla of ships demonstrating against Israel's naval blockade, while the ships are delayed near Cyprus due to unsuccessful attempts to collect dozens of high-profile supporters from the island. (The Australian) (The Age) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
  • Six people are killed and twelve others are injured after a gas canister blasts in an underground tunnel in Rafah. (Xinhua) (AFP)
• Thousands of people flee the Pacaya volcano in Guatemala and the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador following eruptions. (BBC) (CBC)
• Two gay pride demonstrations are held in Moscow despite an official ban. It is the first time the event was not broken up by police since the initial attempt in 2006. (AP) (Russia Today) (Reuters)
• President of Malawi Bingu wa Mutharika pardons a gay couple sentenced to 14 years in prison for "gross indecency and unnatural acts". (BBC) (CNN) (Hindustan Times) (Xinhua)
• More than 50,000 Greeks with diabetes are left with insulin after Novo Nordisk, the world's leading supplier of the drug, withdraws from Greece in a "brutal capitalist blackmail" after being asked to reduce the cost of its medicine by the Greek government. (BBC) (euronews)
• At least 14 people are wounded after dozens of handball fans belonging to rival teams PAOK Thessaloniki and AEK Athens attack each other with petrol bombs, knives, bricks and furniture, leading to a street battle in Lamia. Police deploy tear gas to bring the city under their control. (BBC)
• Another riot occurs in Austria as the Serbia national football team meet the New Zealand national football team ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (The Times) (RTÉ)
• The leaders of Pakistan's Ahmadiyya religious minority ask the government to provide better protection for the group, as they bury those killed in yesterday's double mosque attack in Lahore. (Al Jazeera)
• Nepal's political leaders agree to extend the parliamentary term for another year following talks to avert a political crisis. (Al Jazeera) (The Rising Nepal)
• Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, winner of the 2010 parliamentary elections in Hungary, assumes office. (Reuters)
• Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva lifts a curfew in the capital Bangkok and 23 provinces in the aftermath of protests but a state of emergency would remain. (Bernama) (AP) (Bangkok Post)
• As part of the ongoing United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal, Liberal Democrat MP David Laws resigns from his position as Chief Secretary to the Treasury after it is revealed he used expenses to cover rent for a non-marital partner, a practice banned in 2006. (BBC) (RTÉ) (Al Jazeera)

• Flight recorders from Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771, which crashed in Libya on 12 May killing 103 people, suggest there was no technical failure. (BBC) (IOL) (Reuters)
• The death toll in yesterday's bus crash in Cameroon is said to have risen to at least 30 people and is expected to rise again. The bus broke into two pieces after rolling down a hill several times. (Al Jazeera) (news.com.au) (AFP)
• Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan bypasses Argentina on his South American tour, opting to travel straight to Chile after Buenos Aires officials call off an event honouring Mustafa Kemal Atatürk due to what Turkey considers "hostile" interference from Armenian pressure groups. (BBC)
• A second Danish pharmaceutical company, Leo Pharma, suspends sales of medical products in Greece over the government's decision to reduce the cost of medicine there. The government condemns these acts as "unfair". (BBC)
• It is discovered that a British businessman was among the 93 people killed in the twin mosque attack in Pakistan on Friday. (BBC)
• A roadside bomb kills seven police officers and injures one other in the Darayim District, Badakhshan. (Al Jazeera)
• Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva lifts a curfew imposed in the wake of deadly anti-government protests but keeps emergency rule after two months of rallies by "Red Shirt" demonstrators paralyzed Bangkok and left almost 90 people dead. (The Australian) (CNN)
• China encourages North Korea and South Korea to avoid violent clashes in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship. (CNN) (China Daily)
• BP turns to a new strategy to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but it will take at least four to seven days before the containment device that could capture the leaking oil can be put into place. (The Australian) (VOA) (CNN)
• Two potential pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia are disrupted by the Seychelles Coast Guard and the Australian navy. (CNN)
• Bangladesh blocks access to Facebook after satirical images of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the country's leaders were uploaded. (BBC) (AFP) (Al Jazeera)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Right-wing members of Knesset call for arrest and removal from Knesset of Balad MK Haneen Zoabi, who said she was proud to do her part to end what she called a siege on Gaza.(Jerusalem Post)
  • Israel jams communications of unarmed flotilla, fearing a public relations fiasco (Voice of America)
  • Ships of the Gaza protest flotilla set out from Cyprus (BBC)
  • The international flotilla of ships due to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza leaves Cyprus and sets sail for Gaza. (BBC) (Voice of America) (Jerusalem Post) (The Daily Telegraph) (Al Jazeera)
  • Three Irish politicians - Chris Andrews, Mark Daly and Aengus Ó Snodaigh - are prevented by police helicopters and port security from leaving Cyprus to join the flotilla. (RTÉ) (BreakingNews.ie)
  • Reports that Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah President and Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, is to visit the Gaza Strip are denied. (Xinhua)
• Colombian presidential election:
  • Colombians vote to replace Álvaro Uribe, who is standing down after two terms. (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (Al Jazeera)
  • Juan Manuel Santos wins the first round of the election but without a majority of the vote and a second round of voting will take place on 20 June with Antanas Mockus. (Colombia Reports)
• Jón Gnarr's Best Party (Besti flokkurinn) wins the elections in Reykjavík. (BBC)
• Legislative elections in the Czech Republic:
  • The Social Democrats gain the most votes, but 10 percentage points less than 2006, losing 18 seats. (CNN) (AP)
  • Centre-right parties win 118 seats, with two of them—TOP 09 and Public Affairs—standing in the election for the first time. A centre-right coalition, with Petr Nečas as new Prime Minister, is believed to be "almost certain". (BusinessWeek)
  • Social Democrats leader Jiří Paroubek resigns as party leader following the result. (Reuters)
  • The Communist Party, which was polling higher than 2006 before the election, fail to make any gains, remaining at 26 seats.
• In rugby sevens, Samoa wins the Cup final of the 2010 Edinburgh Sevens, defeating Australia 41–14. The result also gives Samoa Sevens overall victory in the 2009–10 IRB Sevens World Series. (International Rugby Board) (Samoa Observer)

• 6 died, 7 ill after eating poisonous plants in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (China Daily)
• Shanghai Expo receives over 8 million visitors in first month. (Xinhuanet)
• A mass grave containing between 20 and 25 bodies is found in an abandoned mine near Taxco, Guerrero, in Mexico. (BBC)
• German President Horst Köhler resigns after being criticized for some remarks about German military deployments. Pundits and opposition politicians call it an "overreaction" on his part. (BBC) (Der Spiegel)
• Colombia's former Minister of National Defence, Juan Manuel Santos, wins the first round of the country's presidential election, but without the majority needed to avoid a June run-off with rival Antanas Mockus (Aljazeera)
• An undersea volcano erupts near Sarigan, Northern Mariana Islands, sending an eruption cloud 40,000 feet into the atmosphere, prompting Governor Benigno Fitial to declare a state of emergency. (Saipan Tribune) (The Wall Street Journal)
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking at the launch of the 25th Africa-France summit in Nice, calls for Africa to be represented on the United Nations Security Council, and promises to back changes when France chairs the G8 and G-20 major economies groups in 2011. (Aljazeera) (BBC)
• The Sudanese army clashes with rebel groups, among them the Justice and Equality Movement, in the Um Sauna area in western Darfur. (Businessweek)
• In the International Atomic Energy Agency's report before the United Nations Security Council votes on sanctions against Iran, international nuclear inspectors state that Iran has now produced a stockpile of nuclear fuel that would be enough, with further enrichment, to make two nuclear weapons, and it appears to bolster the Obama administration’s case for a fourth round of economic sanctions against Iran. (The New York Times) (Washington Times)
• Wildfires burn across Quebec, sending smoke as far away as Ottawa and Cape Cod. (Boston Herald) (CBC News)
• Afghan authorities suspend two Christian foreign aid groups, Church World Service and Norwegian Church Aid, on suspicion of proselytizing in the strictly Islamic republic and said a follow-up investigation would include whether other groups were trying to convert Muslims. (USA Today)
• Gaza flotilla clash:
  • A number of Israeli warships follow the Gaza-bound international flotilla as it nears its destination and an aircraft flies overhead. (Al Jazeera) (The Press Association)
  • Three Israeli navy missile boats leave the Haifa naval base in northern Israel in a planned attempt to intercept the Gaza-bound international flotilla. (The New York Times)
  • Nearly all Israeli unions announce a boycott of organized workers' trips to Turkey due to the country's support for the flotilla, with one saying that "Turkey had been wiped off the workers unions' travel maps". (The Jerusalem Post)
  • Israeli forces storm the Gaza-bound international flotilla, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 activists. (Jerusalem Post) (Ynetnews) (Brisbane Times) (BBC)
  • 50 injuries are reported. (Ynetnews)
  • According to Israel's Defense minister, Ehud Barak, IDF chief of staff and Navy commander, the organisers are to blame for deaths from the Israeli attacks upon the flotilla, with Barak saying that the soldiers tried to board the ship peacefully but were forced to open fire to protect themselves. (Jerusalem Post) (Ynet)
  • Israeli Navy ships escort boats from the Gaza protest flotilla to the port of Ashdod, hours after the clash. (Jerusalem Post)
• Pope Benedict XVI and child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • The Vatican announces details of the Apostolic Visitation, a special inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland. (RTÉ) (BBC) (Reuters) (AP)
  • Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of Archbishop of Benin City in Nigeria, Richard Burke, following more allegations of child sexual abuse. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (The Press Association)
• The 25th EU-Russia summit begins in Rostov-on-Don with talks on industrial and trade links, human rights and a visa-free regime. (EU Observer) (Voice of Russia) (The Hürriyet)
• Six Turkish soldiers are killed in a rocket attack on a navy base by suspected Kurdish rebels in the south of the country. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• A court in Pakistan lifts a ban on Facebook imposed two weeks ago after an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" group appeared on the site. (Press Trust of India) (AP) (RTT News)