Portal:Current events/2012 May 30

May 30, 2012 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

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

Arts and culture

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

Disasters

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

International relations

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

Law and crime

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

Politics and elections

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

Science

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

Sports

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