Portal:Current events/2011 May 29

May 29, 2011 (Sunday)

Armed conflict and attacks

NATO killing of civilians in Afghanistan:
- NATO kills 14 civilians, 12 children and 2 women, with an airstrike on homes in Helmand Province. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Afghan President Hamid Karzai issues a "last warning" to the United States and NATO after yet another raid kills 14 more civilians. (BBC)
U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, the largest military contractor in the world, is targeted by a "significant and tenacious" cyber attack. (Al Jazeera)
2011 Yemeni uprising:
- Three French foreign aid workers disappear in Yemen's Hadramout province. (TV New Zealand)
- Reports from the coastal town of Zinjibar claim that al-Qaeda gunmen have captured the town. (Al Jazeera) (The Telegraph)
2011 Syrian uprising:
- The regime's forces attack the towns of Rastan and Talbisa, located north of Damascus, storming houses and using tanks and helicopters to cut the towns off from the outside world. (BBC)
- Students and pro-democracy demonstrators are attacked by the government, killing at least two. (Al Jazeera)
A bomb blast in the Nigerian city of Bauchi kills 12 people and injures 25. (Reuters via MSNBC)

Business and economy

Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa issue a joint statement criticising Europe's 66-year stranglehold on the leadership of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), calling it "obsolete" and requesting that developing nations be given a chance. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

US hip hop singer Sean Kingston is rushed to hospital after crashing his jet-ski into a Miami Beach bridge. (Miami Herald)

Disasters

3 Greenpeace activists successfully evade a Danish warship to scale an oil rig off the coast of Greenland, attempting to begin deepwater drilling in the arctic. (Irish Independent)
Dennis Daugaard, the Governor of the US state of South Dakota, warns residents living south of the state capital of Pierre to prepare evacuation plans ahead of likely flooding of the Missouri River. (AP via MSNBC)
Storms in the US state of Michigan lead to the loss of power to 100,000 houses. (Detroit Free Press)

Politics and elections

Ferenc Mádl, the President of Hungary (2000-2005), dies in Budapest. (Index.hu)
Sergei Bagapsh, the President of the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, dies from complications of lung surgery in Moscow. (BBC)
Goodluck Jonathan is sworn in as President of Nigeria at a ceremony attended by foreign heads of state in Abuja. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (AFP via France 24) (Reuters)
Malta legalises divorce, becoming the last European Union country to do so. (BBC)
At least 10,000 people protest in central Belgrade against the arrest of Ratko Mladić. (Al Jazeera)
Political parties in Nepal agree to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly for three months. (Al Jazeera)
Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar announces he is to no longer run for the presidency of FIFA. (BBC)
Sepp Blatter is found to have no case to answer. (Al Jazeera)
Georges Tron resigns from his position as Civil Service Minister in the French government over accusations of sexually harassing his own staff. (BBC)

Sport