Flash floods leave 16 people dead and 3 others missing in Saudi Arabia, with authorities urging citizens to avoid low-lying wadis. At least two others were killed in neighboring Oman in some of the heaviest rainfall in more than 25 years. (Al Arabiya)
Heavy rain and a whirlwind sweeps over eights districts and towns in Lào Cai Province, northern Vietnam, destroying 52 houses and 2 schools, ripping roofs off of 1600 houses, and damaging crops of local people. (Talkvietnam)
A May Day protest in Seattle, United States, escalates into violence, causing injuries to eight police officers and damage to storefront property. (Seattle Pi)(CNN)
Bangladesh's finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, downplays the impact of last week's factory-building collapse on his country's garment industry. (AP via News24)
A top investigator probing the disaster says that vibrations from four huge generators placed on the roof of the building caused it to collapse. (AFP via News24), (BBC)
The UK Independence Party wins 140 seats, achieving 25% of the votes in areas where it fielded candidates, the party's most significant results to date. (BBC)
An international team of scientists announce the discovery in China of a new meat-eating Theropod dinosaur, Aorun zhaoi, dating from 161 million years ago. It is the oldest Coelurosaur known to date. (Design & Trend)
Activists claim that 77 people are massacred in the Syrian city of Baniyas by government forces; the government claims it was fighting against "terrorist groups." (BBC)
39 people are killed during religiously motivated clashes at a funeral in Wukari, Nigeria. (Bloomberg)
Hundreds of protestors gather in Chinese cities to rally against planned large-scale industrial projects. (Bloomberg)
Disasters and accidents
A train carrying toxic flammable chemicals derails and causes a major fire near the Belgian town of Wetteren, killing two and wounding forty-nine. (BBC)
Eight people are dead after a suicide bomber rams an explosive-laden car into a convoy carrying Qatari officials through the center of Somalia's capital Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack. (Voice of America)
A UN official on a Swiss television station says the UN has "concrete" suspicions that the rebels have used Sarin gas. The UN later released a statement in response stressing that it has not reached any official conclusions, and has yet to have acquired proof that either side used chemical weapons. (The New York Times),(BBC)
Bank of America agrees to pay US$1.6 billion to insurer MBIA to settle a long-running dispute between MBIA and two companies Bank of America had since acquired. (The New York Times)
U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Krusinski, who was in charge of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, is arrested on charges of sexual assault. (ABC News)
Bears attack villages in Orissa, India, killing eight people and injuring a dozen more. The bears are said to have become aggressive due to excessive consumption of the mahua flower. (BBC)
The Italian cargo ship Jolly Nero crashes into the port of Genoa, destroying the traffic control tower. Seven people die, four are injured and at least two are missing. (News.com.au)
Nineteen people are killed in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in suicide bombings and firefights between Al-Shabaab militants and government forces. (Xinhua)
Amid protests for free education by tens of thousands of people in major cities across Chile, police clash with protesters. (BBC)
British Conservative Party MP Nadine Dorries is allowed to rejoin the party, having been suspended in November 2012 for her appearance on a reality television show during parliamentary time. (BBC)
It is revealed today that in February hackers stole $45 million from worldwide bank ATM's with large numbers of criminals using fradulent debt cards. (AP via FOX News)(The New York Times)
Evidence mounts that the brothers may be involved in an unsolved triple murder in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States from September 11, 2011 - one of the victims, Brendan Mess, was once a roommate of Tamerlan. (ABC News)
A Guatemala court finds former military leader Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentences him to 80 years in prison. (BBC)
A Ghanaian national goes on a spree attack with a pickaxe in Milan, Italy killing a passerby and wounding four others in an apparently random attack. (AP via News24)
Partial results reveal former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to be the winner, though no party manages to obtain an absolute majority in the 342-seat National Assembly. (Al Jazeera)
Voters in Bulgaria go to the polls for a parliamentary election. Boyko Borisov's GERB party wins between 30% and 32% of the votes, closely followed by Sergey Stanishev's resurgent BSP with 26 to 28 percent. No party manages to obtain a majority, while analysts predict a political deadlock amid low voter turnout and economic woes. (BBC)(Al Jazeera)
Kevyn Orr, a state-appointed emergency manager of the finances of the city of Detroit, Michigan, issues a report describing the city as "clearly insolvent on a cash flow basis." (BBC)
Disasters and accidents
A military aircraft crashes in residential area in Yemen's capital of Sana'a. (Xinhua)
Greek civil servants hold a 24-hour strike after the government proposes to use emergency powers to stop striking teachers from disrupting university exams. (AP via ABC)
Disasters and accidents
Due to dehydration and exhaustion, Beyoncé cancels night one of what was to be two consecutive nights performing in Antwerp, Belgium, on the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour; reschedules it to May 31, 2013.
Convicted murderer, abortionphysicianKermit Gosnell, in a plea bargain, trades away his appeals in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. (CNN)
The U.S.Internal Revenue Service admits that it targeted certain classes of conservative groups (mainly those who had the words "Tea Party", "Patriot", and other related words in their titles) for special scrutiny. (FOX News)
American graphic designer Richard Swanson dies after being struck by a pickup truck in Oregon while attempting to dribble a soccer ball all the way to Brazil to raise money for charity. (AP via National Public Radio)
Plans for a £200m fifteen year expansion of Britain's Pinewood Studios are turned down by the local authority that oversees the area where the studios are situated. (BBC)
Business and economy
A man who found what he believes to be the secret recipe for Coca-Cola at an estate sale sells the instructions on eBay for $15 million. (Time)(EBAY)
A new study finds that the white blood cell levels in men decrease faster during aging than in women, possibly providing one clue as to why women have longer average lifespans. (Telegraph)
Many people are killed in two suicide bombings in Afghanistan, at least fifteen of which are killed in the capital Kabul when a suicide bomber from Hizb-i-Islami, a Taliban affiliate, targeted a convoy carrying foreign troops, injuring another 40. (Xinhua)(NBC)
A plane crashes while attempting to land on a mountain airstrip in northern Nepal, injuring all 21 passengers. (The Washington Post)
International relations
The Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Saeed Jalili, reiterates that Iran will never give up its right to use nuclear energy for peaceful means, but it will not seek nuclear weapons. (Xinhua)
The United States announces new sanctions against the Syrian government. (Los Angeles Times)
Pope Francis calls for worldwide "financial reform along ethical lines" to fight the "tyranny [of] financial speculation". (Irish Times)
In association football, midfielder David Beckham announces his retirement effective at season's end, a decision that came days after he won the Ligue 1 title with his last club, Paris Saint-Germain. (CNN)
One hundred thousand people march in Rome, the capital of Italy, to protest the austerity measures of the new government, demanding a new policy focus on the creation of jobs. (BBC)
North Korea captures a Chinese fishing boat and demands a ransom for its return. (The Guardian)
Law and crime
Authorities in hazardous-materials suits search a downtown Spokane, Washington apartment, investigating the recent discovery of two letters containing the deadly poison ricin. (AP via News24)
A wave of violence continues, with attacks across the country killing 133 and leaving 283 others injured. Almost 400 people have been killed in the last six days alone, as tribal leaders warn of impending civil war. (BBC)(Antiwar.com via AP)
Twin car bombs explode in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, killing 4 and injuring almost 50 others. Hours later authorities announced they have foiled a terror attack in Moscow.(Reuters)
A morning peak Tranz Metrocommuter train derails near central Wellington, New Zealand, after part of the undercarriage comes loose and punctures the carriage floor, injuring four people and delaying tens of thousands of commuters as services are cancelled. (Fairfax NZ)
A hot air balloon crashes in Cappadocia, Turkey, killing 2 tourists and injuring another 20. (BBC)
The BBC documentary series Panorama airs unseen footage from the 1989 Hillsborough disaster that casts doubt on medical evidence given at the inquest. (BBC)
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius' agent confirms that he will not take part in any sports this year as he awaits his trial for murder. (BBC Sports), (Sky News)
Elite Hezbollah reinforcements are sent from Lebanon across the border to al-Qusayr, Syria. Activists report that much of the city has been destroyed. (Al Arabiya)
Iain Banks posts an update on his cancer battle for the first time since announcing his impending death. (The Guardian)
Disasters and accidents
The death toll from the 2013 Moore tornado in the U.S. state of Oklahoma is revised sharply downward to 24, with over one hundred people injured and many missing. (Reuters)
Carl Pistorius, the brother of Paralympian athlete Oscar Pistorius, is acquitted of culpable homicide over the death of a motorcyclist in South Africa. (BBC)
U.S. Army Brigadier General Bryan T. Roberts, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Training Center, Fort Jackson (South Carolina), is suspended from his duties because of an investigation into alleged adultery (which is treated as a criminal violation, not just a civil matter, in the U.S. military), and for allegedly being in a physical altercation. (NBC)
One fourth-grade child is fatally injured, one is missing, and two others (from a St. Louis Park, Minnesota elementary school) were rescued by firefighters, after a gravel slide at St. Paul, Minnesota's Lilydale Regional Park, near the Mississippi River. The rescue effort was suspended for the night, after conditions got worse. (NBC)
In Orlando, Florida, Ibragim Todashev, a suspect under FBI questioning with ties to the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings suspects, after initially being cooperative, goes on to attack an agent (in the course of the questioning) and is shot dead as a result. (NBC)
A decorated combat veteran of the Iraq War and United States Military Academy (West Point) U.S. Army staff member, Sgt. 1st Class Michael McClendon, is relieved of his duties for allegedly planting cameras to spy on female cadets. (NBC)
Two suicide bombers strike in the northern Niger towns of Agadez and Arlit with twenty-one dead and ten more people killed in a gun battle between soldiers and Islamist fighters. (Euronews)
A cluster of mysterious and serious respiratory illnesses that affected Southeast Alabama and killed 2 people was nothing more than the ordinary common cold, mostly rhinovirus, and seasonal influenza A. (NBC)
Abdul-Baki Todashev, the father of Ibragim Todashev (the man who had confessed to the FBI the day before in Orlando, Florida, to working with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the deceased older brother in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, in a previously unsolved 2011 triple homicide, and subsequently while being questioned attacked an agent with a knife and was killed) claims that his son is innocent and that federal investigators are biased against Chechens and made up their case against him. (NBC)
A Spring Ford High School (Royersford, PA) senior, Julianne Siller, 17, is allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend, 16-year-old Tristan Stahley after a fight during a breakup. (NBC)
Fast & Furious 6 opens at the top of the movie sales charts in 59 countries, including the United States and Canada where it grossed an estimated $122 million. (New York Times)
Business and economy
The Governor of the Bank of Japan says that although interest-rate increases will cause some stress to Japanese financial institutions, they have "sufficient resilience against such shocks." (Reuters)
The European Union lifts its ban against arming Syrian rebels as full consensus among its 27 member states to extend the current embargo could not be reached. (CNN)(BBC)
At least 13 people are dead and at least 20 injured following a collision between a bus and a tanker near the Indian town of Dahanu in Maharashtra state. (IBN)
A series of bombings across Iraq kills at least eleven people. (BBC)
Abdul-Baki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev who was killed by the FBI last week, describes U.S. agents as "bandits" who killed his son "execution-style". (The Guardian)(Al Jazeera)
Arts and culture
Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine makes an "unpatriotic" comment on television, prompting calls for him to be removed to a "Communist country" or pursued by secretive anti-terrorism hit squads. Levine responds by tweeting dictionary definitions of words such as "joke", "humourless" and "lighthearted" but is later forced to apologise for his indiscretion. (The Guardian)
It is announced that Internet sensation Grumpy Cat will star in a feature-length movie. (Reuters)
Health and environment
There is no added benefit obtained from a double dose of Tamiflu according to a new study. (Reuters)
Nigeria soldiers uncover a large stock of weapons that they believe belonged to Hezbollah. (Fox News)
Law and crime
Parents in Polk County in the U.S. state of Florida protest against their children having their irises scanned by authorities without permission by schools. The EyeSwipe-Nano program is temporarily suspended. (RT)
After a three-year trial, a U.N. tribunal in The Hague acquits two former Serbian security officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1990s Bosnian War. (Al Jazeera)
A court in Mold, Wales, finds Mark Bridger guilty of abducting and murdering five-year-old April Jones in October 2012. (BBC)
The asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2, expected to approach within 3.6 million miles of Earth on May 31, is discovered to have its own moon.(Los Angeles Times)
