Portal:Current events/2013 May 27

Current events of May 27, 2013 (2013-05-27) (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks Seven Philippine police officers are killed by a New People's Army land mine in the municipality of Allacapan, Cagayan. (Philstar) At least 75 people are killed and over 200 injured in a wave of bombings in Shi'ite neighbourhoods across Baghdad as sectarian violence in Iraq continues to increase. (Reuters via News24) Syrian Civil War: 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) Art and culture Romania unfurls the world's largest flag ever made, according to Guinness World Records. (Herald Sun) (Guardian) Business and economics Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals announces it will purchase Bausch & Lomb for US$8.7 billion. (Washington Post) Digital currency Liberty Reserve is shut down and its founder arrested on money laundering charges in Costa Rica. (Salon) Health and environment Seventeen people die during an H1N1 outbreak in Venezuela, and a further 250 are infected. (Reuters) Law and crime Nurse Roger Dean pleads guilty to eleven counts of murder in relation to a fire at a nursing home in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill. (Sydney Morning Herald) Politics and elections King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia upgrades the National Guard to a ministry position and appoints his son Mutaib bin Abdullah as the first minister. (The Nation) Science and technology 400-year-old bryophyte specimens left behind by retreating glaciers in Canada are brought back to life in the laboratory. (BBC)(PNAS) Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History announces the discovery of nearly 5,000 cave paintings near Burgos, Tamaulipas. (io9)