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- The Indian government initiates The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act to provide free and compulsory education to all children aged between 6 and 14 years, making education a fundamental right for millions of children. (The Hindu) (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Times) (Press TV)
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, speaking at Holy Thursday mass in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, criticizes Catholics who believe the church should move on from recent child abuse scandals in Ireland. (RTÉ)
- Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols says he "understands arguments for condoms", in apparent conflict with Roman Catholic Church teaching on contraception. (Reuters)
- Southern Sudan's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) announces its decision to withdraw its presidential candidate, Yasir Arman, from elections. Most other opposition parties join them. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Star)
- Almost 25,000 homes remain powerless after part of Northern Ireland's electricity network is knocked out. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Guinea-Bissau's chief of staff and Prime Minister Carlos Domingos Gomes Júnior are "seized" as national radio broadcasts are replaced by military music. (BBC) (France24) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
- India launches its new 2011 biometric census, the largest census in the world. (The Times of India) (BBC) (The Guardian) (France24) (Bangkok Post)
- President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev pays an unexpected visit to Dagestan, the day after the deaths of 12 people occur there in a double suicide attack. (BBC) (The Sydney Moning Herald) (France24)
- Missing four-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah, whose disappearance from her home in Huixquilucan, Edomex, achieved major publicity in Mexico, is found dead under a mattress in her bedroom. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Melbourne Age)
- Dozens of prisoners escape/are wounded after an explosion occurs at a prison in Daleh. (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters)
- A landmark ruling at the Court of Appeal allows science writer Simon Singh to rely on the defence of fair comment in a libel action taken by the British Chiropractic Association over a 2008 article in The Guardian newspaper. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Times)
- Justice Victoria Sharp blocks a rail work stoppage by signallers over pay cuts and working conditions, which would have been Britain's first national rail strike in 16 years. (Reuters)
- The Nigerian government asks that criminal charges against Nuhu Ribadu be withdrawn. (BBC)
- 12 people are wounded in a seven-vehicle pile-up on the M6 motorway near Rugby in Warwickshire, England. (BBC)
- South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd (Shakespeare Country), which promoted Stratford-upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwick and Kenilworth, ceases to trade. (BBC)
- Machu Picchu reopens with the help of actress Susan Sarandon. (BBC) (Channel 4 News) (The Guardian)
- Academy Award winning actor Anna Paquin's unexpected public acknowledgement of her bisexuality in a video causes the anti-discrimination Give a Damn campaign website she is promoting to crash. (Reuters) (The Daily Telegraph) (The New Zealand Herald) (RTÉ) (The Vancouver Sun)
- Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson are inducted into the hall of fame at New York's Apollo Theater. (BBC)
- Members of the Christian militia group Hutaree plead not guilty to a court in Michigan, United States, to claims of plotting to kill American police officers. (CNN)
- Sarah Palin spoke to thousands of tea party activists gathered in the Nevada desert about Harry Reid. (Main line)
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- 114 miners trapped in a flooded mine for more than a week in Shanxi, China, are rescued. (AP) (Xinhua)
- At least 10 Indian security personnel are killed and three injured when Maoist guerrillas blow up a police bus in Orissa's Koraput district. (Times of India)
- President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade announces in a televised address marking 50 years of independence that his country is to resume control of all military bases held by former colonial power France. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (euronews)
- The Chinese coal ship Shen Neng 1 is reported to be leaking oil after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, Australia. (Al Jazeera)
- Three car bombs hit the Egyptian, German and Iranian embassies in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in quick succession, killing at least 30 people. (BBC)
- President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai threatens to join the Taliban if the Afghani Parliament refuses to approve his proposal to take control of the electoral apparatus from the United Nations. (Wall Street Journal Online)
- A 7.2-magnitude earthquake hits Baja California, about 108 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, says the U.S. Geological Survey. (USGS Earthquake Hazards Program) (News Channel 10)
- Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon witnesses one of the world's worst environmental disasters as he flies over the shrinking Aral Sea, the world's fourth largest lake, which has in recent decades shrunk in size by more than 70 percent. (UN)
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- A series of coordinated bombings at the U.S. consulate in Peshawar and at a ruling party rally in the Pakistani North-West Frontier Province kills fifty people and injures one hundred. (Reuters)
- An explosion at a coal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia kills 25 miners and leaves several missing. This is the deadliest mining accident in the U.S. in at least 35 years. (BBC News) (Herald Sun)
- The United States Supreme Court declines to take up a case by residents of Bikini Atoll and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands, who are seeking compensation for U.S. nuclear tests conducted on the islands. (Christian Science Monitor)
- Wikileaks releases a video from 2007 showing the killing of civilians, including two Reuters news staff, by the U.S. military in Baghdad, Iraq. (BBC News)
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently attempting to gauge the risk of the recently-discovered XMRV virus, linked to rare forms of prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, to the blood donation supply. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Iran invites 60 countries to a two-day nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran on April 17–18, entitled "Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear arms for no one". China says it will attend the conference which invites "the world to disarm and prevent proliferation". (Al Jazeera)
- A United Nations peacekeeper dies in Mbandaka, Équateur, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Al Jazeera)
- The Duke Blue Devils defeat the Butler Bulldogs, 61-59, to win their fourth U.S. men's college basketball title. (AP at Yahoo)
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Palestinians fire another Qassam rocket at southern Israel, causing no harm, despite Gaza groups agreement to stop rockets attacks. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Teenager from the Gaza Strip who was alleged to have been killed by IDF soldiers last week, released from an Egyptian prison, after infiltrating the Egyptian border through an underground tunnel and saying that he and several Palestinian teenagers who were with him were tortured by Egyptian soldiers while in prison. (The Jerusalem Post)
- The Israeli military criticises its own soldiers for killing four young Palestinian demonstrators near Nablus in the West Bank in March, with the Commander describing the killings as "an unnecessary operational occurrence with dire consequences". (BBC) (Arab News)
- Israel's Nahalat Shimon settler group presents an eviction warrant to two further Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, bringing the current total number of Palestinian houses facing eviction in that neighbourhood to eight. (Arab News)
- Israeli troops arrest for an unrevealed reason three Palestinian civilians in Beit Ommer village and later move them to a military detention centre, as the Israeli military also ransacks homes in Nablus and Hebron. (The Muslim News)
- Egypt allows a rare opening of the Rafah border to permit the first-known Palestinian conjoined twins, their family and a medical team to travel to the National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for separation surgery 10 days after their birth. Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is to pay for the surgery. (Ha'aretz)
- 23-year-old Israeli Arab Rawi Fuad Sultani is imprisoned for nearly six years for passing on sensitive information about Israeli Army Chief Gabi Ashkenaz. (BBC) (France24) (The Jerusalem Post) (Ha'aretz)
- Naxalite–Maoist insurgency: At least 70 Indian soldiers are killed in an attack by Naxalites in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. (Times of India) (AP)
- Iraq War: At least eight explosions rock Baghdad and kill at least 35 people and wound over 140 others. (Al Jazeera)
- Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010: Hundreds of protesters seize a government office in Bishkek to request the resignition of Kurmanbek Bakiyev after battling flashbangs and lachrymators. A local governor is taken hostage by protesters. Hundreds surround police HQ. Almazbek Atambayev is seized by police. There are riots in Talas. (BBC)
- Piracy in Somalia: A South Korean warship catches up with an oil tanker that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. (BBC) (Korea Times)
- Arts and culture
- Business and economy
- Disasters and accidents
- International relations
- Law and crime
- Politics and elections
- Science and technology
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- James Hansen wins the Sophie Prize. (350.org) (Reuters) (The Independent)
- The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announces that the number of LGBT characters on scripted programs in the United States has doubled since 2005. (CNN)
- 2010 Kyrgyzstan riots:
- July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike WikiLeaks video controversy:
- Fox News alleges "many who have viewed the video" WikiLeaks released recently showing American forces killing civilians in a July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike have accused the website of "selectively editing" (by slowing down selected parts of it) after a report by The Pentagon was released claiming that several of those killed did have weapons. (Fox News)
- Families of the victims request that those responsible be taken to court as two young children who were injured ask why their dead father was targeted when he tried to bring an injured man to hospital. (Al Jazeera)
- Conjoined twins:
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Human Rights Watch requests that the Government of Peru investigate the deaths of six civilians after police opened fire on a mining demonstration last Sunday. At least 30 others were injured. (BBC)
- Brazil is hit by a second day of heavy rain. (Al Jazeera)
- At least six people die and at least twelve others are injured after a boat sinks in Lake Kivu while carrying people to commemorations to mark the 16th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. (BBC)
- A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Sumatra, Indonesia. (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
- Blacktown District Soccer Football Association's CEO says he will ignore a FIFA ruling to ban the hijab even if it is enforced by Football Federation Australia after the Iran girls' football team is disqualified from the Youth Olympic Games by FIFA for their view on the hijab. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, declares a state of emergency after widespread anti-government protests and shortly after demonstrators stormed the country's parliament. (CNN)
- Amnesty International’s Secretary-General sparks a furor by saying that “jihad in self-defense” is not “antithetical” to human rights. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Sixteen countries attend a two-day conference organised by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo to discuss the retrieval of old items which were pillaged by other nations, such as the Rosetta Stone (held by the British Museum, London) and Queen Nefertitti's bust (held by the Neues Museum, Berlin). (BBC) (France24)
- A starving Grey Seal claiming to be from London Zoo is found in Skerries, Ireland. The Irish Seal Sanctuary asks the UK and Europe for help identifying it. (RTÉ) (BBC)
- Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, describes Israel as the "main threat to peace" in the Middle East. (BBC)
- FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi is widely hailed as the best footballer in the world after scoring four goals for the first time in his career in one UEFA Champions League game, including his fourth hat-trick of 2010. (BBC) (The New York Times) (AFP) (BusinessWorld) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph)
- Tennis player Martina Navratilova announces she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (The Guardian) (The New York Times)
- Shanghai mayor Han Zheng, leading a delegation with a presence from some 50 companies, visits Taiwan for investment talks. (Focus Taiwan)
- Norway experiences its first Catholic child abuse scandal as it becomes known that a bishop, Georg Müller, was forced to resign in 2009 because of sexual abuse of an altar boy in the early 1990s. (The New York Times) (CNN)
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- 2010 Kyrgyzstan riots:
- Sri Lankans vote in the country's 2010 parliamentary election. (The Guardian)
- Pakistan adopts the 18th amendment to the Constitution, stripping President Asif Ali Zardari of key powers. (Dawn) (Hindustan Times) (Press TV) (CNN) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
- 5 people are killed and 11 others are injured in separate attacks in Diyala and Nineveh. (People's Daily Online)
- United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign a new arms reduction treaty that will cut both countries' arsenals by a third. (BBC) (AP) (TIME)
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will send deputy prime-minister to a summit on nuclear weapons in the United States over concerns that Egypt and Turkey might shift the focus away from preventing militants from obtaining nuclear weapons by insisting that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). (BBC) (Reuters)
- A Palestinian teen reported to have been killed returns home safely. (Ottawa Citizen)
- Professor Lee R. Berger announces the discovery of a new hominid species, Australopithecus sediba, believed to be an ancestor of either Homo habilis or Homo erectus. (Time)
- The Bangladeshi army distributes drinking water among more than 12 million people in Dhaka as fears grow over the city's water crisis. (Arab News)
- More than 50 doctors in Edo State, Nigeria go on strike after a colleague is kidnapped by unidentified gunmen. (BBC)
- 29 paramilitary troops are convicted of mutiny and imprisoned for up to seven years at a Bangladeshi tribunal. (Arab News)
- The death toll in the storm which caused severe damage to Brazil's Rio de Janeiro metro area reaches 200. (The Huffington Post) (Xinhua)
- Separation surgery is declared successful in London on the conjoined twins from Cork, Ireland, born on 2 December. (RTÉ) (The Daily Telegraph) (Irish Examiner) (Sky News) (BBC) (CNN)
- Scientists say Glacier National Park has lost two more of its glaciers to global warming. (Xinhua)
- Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, notorious for the banned "God Save the Queen" single, dies in New York. (The Independent) (BBC) (The Guardian) (Sky News)
- 14 people die of dengue fever in Dominican Republic. 2,000 cases of dengue fever have been registered. A total of 52 died of the disease last year. (Xinhua)
- Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, which holds 1.5 million corpses, is reopened with a new museum after an €11 million redevelopment. (The Irish Times)
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- Aftermath of 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash:
- Pakistan:
- Iran:
- Iraq's election seeks a recount in five provinces after up to 750,000 votes are "tainted by fraud". (Reuters)
- Sudan hosts its first general elections in 24 years. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Press TV) (Arab News)
- A 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes the southern Solomon Islands, 97 km southwest of Kirakira on Makira Island. (The Australian) (TVNZ)
- Israel is set to impose a military order, which ten human rights groups fear could see thousands of Palestinians deported from the West Bank if they do not have a residency permit. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian) (The Times) (The Jordan Times)
- The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) asks China to pressure Israel to have its nuclear sites inspected during the forthcoming international nuclear conference, saying "world silence on the issue of the Israeli nuclear capabilities is creating tension in the region, especially with the relentless international focus on Iran and North Korea". (Brunei News)
- Kyrgyzstan's interim government considers arresting and charging President Kurmanbek Bakiyev for the deaths of 81 people in riots earlier this week. (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (Xinhua)
- South African police investigate a possible link between homosexual sex and the murder of Eugène Terre'Blanche. (IOL) (The New York Times) (The Times)
- Centre-right Fidesz wins majority of parliamentary seats in the first round of the Hungarian general elections. (Reuters) (AP/Yahoo!)
- Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Vietnamese President Nguyễn Minh Triết discuss bilateral ties in oil, food and manpower and sign three major agreements — a treaty avoiding double taxation, a protocol to promote ties in the oil and gas sectors and an agreement to promote agricultural cooperation. (Arab News) (Reuters) (Daily Star Lebanon) (Radio Australia) (Saudi Gazette)
- Nine people, including three Italian medical workers, are detained over accusations of plotting to kill Governor of Helmand Gulab Mangal. (Al Jazeera)
- The death toll in clashes between anti-government protesters and Thai troops in the capital Bangkok rises to at least 20 people. (BBC) (Thai News Agency)
- Two Chinese singers become the country's first to be punished for lip-synching nearly two years after the Beijing Olympiad. (Reuters South Africa)
- The Belfast Wheel ceases to function. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- Texas Stadium, the former home of the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys, is demolished by implosion. (ESPN Dallas)
- Analysts predict the 2011 bankruptcy of one of the world's largest economies, Japan, with a public debt figure larger than any other industrialised nation. (Press TV) (AFP) (The Economist)
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- Sudan's landmark elections are extended by two days after delays delivering ballot papers. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Hungarian parliamentary election, 2010
- 2010 Holywood car bombing:
- Northern Ireland appoints its first justice minister in 38 years. (BBC)
- Aftermath of 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash:
- Polish President Lech Kaczyński lies in state in Warsaw as Russia marks a day of mourning and Poland appoints an acting head of the central bank to replace the one killed in Saturday's air disaster near Smolensk. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- His funeral and burial and that of his wife who died with him are to take place on Saturday. (CNN)
- The search for body parts continues at the crash site, with only 14 corpses easily identified by relatives and 20 others by forensic experts, with DNA testing necessary to identify the rest of the corpses. (RIA Novosti)
- Poland's acting President is to review travel rules for military officials after the late President and all his army generals die in one plane crash. (BBC)
- Western experts mull the causes of the plane crash. (RIA Novosti)
- Nine people are thought to have been killed and 30 others are injured, some seriously, after a landslide caused a train to derail in Merano, near the Austrian border with Italy. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- The United States opens fire on a bus in Afghanistan, knocking the driver unconscious, killing as many as five civilians, including a woman, and wounding at least 18 other passengers.(The New York Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Nuclear Security Summit
- The UK General Election countdown:
- The Labour party launches its manifesto, which states that it will halve the budget deficit within four years through a mixture of spending restraint and tax increases, mainly for the higher paid, that failing police forces will be taken over by successful ones, that every primary-school child who needs it will get one-to-one tuition and that there will be no switch to the euro without a referendum. (Guardian)
- SNP leader Alex Salmond urges the Scots to vote for an "alternative vision of the future" as he launched the party's election campaign. The Scottish first minister attacks Labour and the Tories for cuts which he said posed a danger to public services. (BBC)
- Welsh Assembly Government ministers are accused of "abuse of position" by announcing £17.5 miles in tourism grants during the general election campaign. Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne says Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones and Environment Minister Jane Davidson must "face questions". (BBC)
- The Washington Post wins four awards at the 2010 Pulitzer Prizes. (The New York Times)
- Pope Benedict XVI and the child sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church:
- An Iranian and a Tajik are jailed for 25 years in Dubai over the 2009 killing of a Chechen militant commander. (BBC) (The Washington Post) (Miami Herald) (Reuters) (People's Daily Online) (The Star)
- Leading Russian federal judge Eduard Chuvashov is shot dead at his apartment building in central Moscow. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Three former Labour Party MPs – David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine – face criminal charges over their expenses win the right to have their legal fees paid for by the taxpayer. (BBC)
- The World Trade Organization overturns Australia's ban on importing New Zealand apples, which had been in place since 1919. (The Age)
- The world's deepest undersea volcanic vents are discovered in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. (BBC)
- The Copenhagen Conference was destroyed from the start by the leak of the "Danish draft" negotiating text to The Guardian, the Indian environment minister said this weekend in a warning that the breakdown of international trust would continue to undermine climate talks this year. (The Guardian)
- A 6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Spain, one of the first large earthquakes to strike the Iberian region in half a century.
- Microsoft launches two new mobile phones marketed to young people. The phones, the Kin One and Kin Two, are built around their social networking features. (New York Times)
- SS Columbia, feared lost at sea after the 8.8-magnitude Chile earthquake, arrives in a Chilean port, more than a month after it was scheduled to dock. (Times Online)
- Manchester City and Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor announces his retirement from international football at the age of 26, saying he is "still haunted" by the Togo national football team attack which killed three of his colleagues in Angola ahead of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations three months ago. (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Thierry Henry, the footballer involved in a notorious handball controversy in the France vs Republic of Ireland 2010 FIFA World Cup play-off in November 2009, is not assured of playing for his team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, according to his manager Raymond Domenech on French television show Canal Football Club. (ESPN) (Metro) (RTÉ)
- Tiger Woods announces he will take more time off from golf after finishing fourth in the 2010 Masters Tournament. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
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- Nuclear Security Summit:
- A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes southeastern Qinghai, China, near the Yangtze River. There were no immediate reports of casualties. (The Associated Press)(Vancouver Sun)
- A bar of radioactive cobalt-60 found in a New Dehli market causes life-threatening radiation sickness in one person and contingency measures from the authorities. ("The Faster Times")
- Kyrgyzstan's ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev says he will resign if the interim government guarantees his family's safety. (The Telegraph) (Al Jazeera)
- A huge glacier breaks off and plunges into a lake in Peru sparking a 23-metre high tsunami wave that destroyed a nearby town. The massive chunk of ice - around the size of four football pitches - tumbled into the '513 lake' in the Andes near Carhuaz, around 200 miles north of Lima. (Sky News) (The Peruvian Times)
- Israel tells all of its citizens visiting the Sinai Peninsula to leave immediately after Israeli intelligence warns that a terror cell may be planning to kidnap an Israeli national and bring him to Gaza. (Yahoo! News) (The Telegraph)
- Israeli soldiers kill four heavily-armed Islamic Jihad gunmen sent to attack Israeli forces and believed to be planting explosives along the security fence with Gaza. (JTA)
- A group of Lebanese politicians play a match of association football to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Lebanese Civil War. AFP
- The body of Poland's First Lady, Maria Kaczyńska, is flown to Warsaw to lie in state alongside that of her husband, President Lech Kaczyński. Poland has seen an outpouring of grief since the couple and scores of other senior Polish officials died in a plane crash in western Russia on Saturday. (BBC News) (Xinhua)
- The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, makes an unannounced visit to Haiti. It is her first official trip overseas without US President Barack Obama since he took office last year. (BBC News)
- 11 people are killed in Isabela City, Philippines, after 25 suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group clash with security forces. (CNN)
- At least 73 civilians were killed when an army jet bombed a remote village in Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, a local official has told the BBC. (BBC News)
- UK General Election countdown
- Conservative leader David Cameron launches his party's election manifesto, which he says is a "plan to change Britain for the better". He said the "optimistic" plan would bring a "new kind of government" with less state and more "people power". (BBC News)
- The UK Independence Party says they will not campaign against election candidates from other parties who are "committed" Eurosceptics, and Plaid Cymru have also launched their manifesto in Cardiff with a pledge to protect the vulnerable and front-line services. (BBC News)
- All 103 passengers and crew escape alive after a Boeing 737-300 overruns the runway at Rendani Airport, Manokwari, Indonesia. (JACDEC), (Aviation Herald)
- An American Boeing 767 passenger jet makes an emergency landing in Iceland after reports of chemical fumes in the cabin. A spokesman for Keflavik airport outside Reykjavík says several crew members on the American Airlines flight had complained of dizziness. (BBC News)
- Japanese car maker Toyota faces further safety concerns after Consumer Reports issues a recommendation not to buy the Lexus GX 460 four-wheel drive because of fears that the car could roll over. (BBC News)
- The Australian authorities say a Chinese bulk carrier which ran aground off Queensland has caused widespread damage to the famed Great Barrier Reef. The cleanup is likely to be the biggest operation ever undertaken there. (BBC News)
- A mentally ill man goes on a stabbing rampage outside a primary school in southern China, killing two and wounding five. (The Telegraph)
- Former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, cross-examines the first prosecution witness at the resumption of his war crimes trial at The Hague. (BBC News)
- Twitter sells advertising on its site for the first time. Advertisers will be able to buy "Promoted Tweets" that will appear on Twitter's search results pages. (BBC News)
- Spanish police say they have seized more than 800kg (1,760lbs) of cocaine from a lorry disguised as an official backup vehicle for the Dakar rally. (BBC News)
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- 2010 Yushu earthquake
- At least 100 people are killed in India after a powerful storm demolished thousands of homes in West Bengal. (BBC News)
- Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva says that President Kurmanbek Bakiyev must stand trial over riots last week. (Times of India) (Al Jazeera)
- Eruption in glacier volcano Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, enters a new phase, causing local evacuations. (Morgungblaðið)
- It is reported that U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday will unveil a "bold and daring" new space mission to send astronauts to Mars months after he controversially scrapped a project to return to the Moon. (The Telegraph)
- Controversy arises over the decision to bury Polish President Lech Kaczyński in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków—a place reserved for Poland's kings and heroes. Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in protest, and thousands have joined an internet campaign objecting to the plan. (BBC News)
- Tokelau outlaws whaling within its territorial waters. (RNZI)
- The Liberal Democrats send out a "four step" manifesto plan to "hardwire fairness into British society". Leader Nick Clegg says his policies, including raising the state pension and a tax cut for low and middle earners, combined "hope and credibility". (BBC News)
- The Vatican seeks to "clarify" remarks made by a senior cardinal, who linked homosexuality with paedophilia in the abuse scandal facing the Church. (BBC News)
- For the first time in decades, researchers report a significant drop worldwide in the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980. (The New York Times)
- A cargo aircraft crashes on take-off from General Mariano Escobedo International Airport, Monterrey, Mexico, killing five crew members and one person in a car on the ground. (Aviation Safety Network)
- Australia arrests the captain and chief officer of a Chinese ship that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, damaging three kilometres of coral reef and leaking tonnes of oil. (New Straits Times) (BBC) (Economic Times)
- Apple delays the international launch of its iPad computer for a month, blaming "surprisingly strong US demand" that has outstripped its ability to produce them. (The Guardian)
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- 2010 Yushu earthquake:
- Sudanese general election, 2010:
- Due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Belgian, British, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Norwegian, Polish, Russian and Swedish airspaces are affected by the eruption. (BBC) (euronews) (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
- Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a prime suspect in a large corruption scandal, law enforcement sources have told the BBC. (BBC)
- The leaders of the United Kingdom's three main political parties take part in the first of three televised debates ahead of the 2010 General Election. (BBC) (The Guardian)
- The maiden flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk.II, India's first launch with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, ends in failure, resulting in the loss of the GSAT-4 satellite. (The Hindu)
- Three explosions occur in the former Burmese capital of Yangon during the city's Water Festival, killing at least 9 people and injuring 178. (Xinhua) (BBC) (Radio Australia News)
- Gunfire disrupts a rally in support of former President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev in the southern city of Osh. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
- At least three security officers are killed after riots in north Jakarta, Indonesia, over plans to bulldoze a cemetery containing a memorial to a revered Muslim scholar. (Antara) (Ninemsn) (Jakarta Post)
- The 2010 IBSA summit comes to a close in Brasilia.
- Oxfam International says the number of sexual assaults in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has increased "dramatically". (Al Jazeera)
- Israel's Communications Ministry imposes a blanket ban on the iPad and will confiscate them from anyone carrying them into the country. (Ha'aretz) (PC World)
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- Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano:
- Travel chaos spreads across Europe as planes are grounded in the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia as a result of the giant cloud of ash coming across from Iceland. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
- The UK's National Air Traffic Service (NATS) confirms flight restrictions will now remain in place until at least 07:00 tomorrow. (Sky News)
- Ireland opens its air space and transatlantic flights resume from Dublin Airport. A small section off the south coast remains closed. (RTÉ)
- Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, cancels all flights to and from Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the Baltic states until 12:00 GMT on Monday: CEO Michael O'Leary calls the situation "unprecedented". (Reuters) (Barcelona Reporter) (Irish Independent)
- The BBC reports that share prices have fallen in many European airlines as a result of the grounding of many jets. (BBC)
- The World Health Organisation does not know what effects the ash could have on human beings, but they have advised Europeans to stay indoors, if possible. (BBC)
- Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway, is stuck in New York City due to the eruption. (New York Daily News) (CNN) (Los Angeles Times)
- 2010 Yushu earthquake:
- The death toll from the earthquake in China which occurred on Wednesday has risen to 1144, officials have announced. Another 417 people are reported to be unaccounted for. (BBC)
- Premier Wen Jiabao travels to the earthquake zone, having postponed a scheduled visit to Brunei, Indonesia and Myanmar. President Hu Jintao calls the Presidents of Chile and Venezuela to postpone trips to those countries. (CNN)
- Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad writes a letter to President of the United States Barack Obama urging cooperation between the two countries. (CNN) (One India) (The Washington Post)
- Victims of the recent severe storm in India angered by slow government response attack officials and raid an aid storage facility. (AFP)
- Gary Jackson, former president of the US private security firm, Blackwater Worldwide (Xe Services LLC), and four other former workers are indicted on federal weapons charges. (BBC)
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors. (The Wall Street Journal)
- Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is named as the key suspect in "one of the biggest corruption scandals in Israel's history". (Voice of America) (The Times) (Ha'aretz)
- The United Nations commission investigating the events and circumstances surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto submits its report which states that the murder was "avoidable" and the inquiry was bungled. (Dawn) (BBC)
- At least ten people die and another 35 are wounded in a suicide attack on a hospital in Quetta. (BBC) (The Times of India) (Al Jazeera) (Sky News)
- The seven candidates running in Sunday's Northern Cyprus presidential election, 2010 take part in a live televised election debate on Turkish Cypriot TV. (Famagusta Gazette) (Hürriyet) (Today's Zaman)
- UK general election countdown:
- As a result of popular protests in the north and capital of the country President Kurmanbek Bakiyev officially resigns after he leaves Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan. (The Hindu)
- Vote counting begins in Sudan after the five-day landmark multi-party election. (BBC)
- Al-Qaeda reportedly free an Italian couple that they had been holding since December 2009. (BBC)
- It is reported that Mohammad Khatami, an ex-president of Iran, has been barred from leaving the country. (BBC)
- The 2010 BRIC summit opens in Brasília amidst growing cooperation and calls for a bigger role. (The Hindu)
- Senior red-shirt leader Arisman Pongruangrong climbs down a rope to escape an arrest attempt by Thai security forces laying siege to Thaksin Shinawatra's SC Park Hotel in Bangkok. He urges protesters to leave Ratchaprasong "to avoid being used as human shields". (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
- United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls again on Israel and the Palestinians to make a better effort to pursue peace. (BBC)
- Lady Gaga breaks a YouTube most viewed record, becoming "Queen of YouTube" with more than one billion views. (NBC Philadelphia) (Digital Spy)
- General Motors runs a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze into a pole at 12 MPH as part of a development crash test on FMVSS 214 standards.
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- Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, 2010:
- Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull:
- Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- April 2010 Kohat bombings:
- Twin bombs injure eight people outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore ahead of an IPL-3 league game between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians. A third device is located outside. (Indian Express) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- Over 100,000 mourners attend a memorial service to honour the death of the Polish president Lech Kaczyński, and 95 others who were killed in a plane crash the previous week. (The Guardian)
- Snowfall in central Tokyo matches a record set in April 1967. (The Japan Times) (MSN Malaysia)
- Two oil tankers collide and burst into flames, killing at least five people and wounding several more, in southwest Nigeria. Three large freight trucks along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway also ignite. (AFP)
- Internal e-mails reveal Porter Goss, a former head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), agreed with a decision to destroy hundreds of tapes purportedly showing agents waterboarding two al-Qaeda suspects being held in Thailand in 2002 over fears that public release of the tapes would be "devastating". (Al Jazeera)
- An earthquake strikes Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and is felt 50 kilometres away. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- An investigation is launched after a plane crashes into a field and bursts into flames in Weyhill, Andover, Hampshire, United Kingdom, killing at least two people. (The Daily Telegraph) (RTÉ) (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian)
- Toyota is to recall 600,000 Sienna minivans in the US over fears of corrosion. "In the worst case, the carrier cable may fail and the spare tyre could become separated from the vehicle" a statement from the company read. (BBC)
- The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia buys 202 double decker buses from China's Zhengzhou Yutong Group for €35 million in the first cooperation between the two countries. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
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- The Dow Live Earth Run for Water started on April 18th. The host cities are: Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chicago, Hong Kong, Jimbaran, London, Los Angeles, Manchester, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Minneapolis, New York, Lisboa, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Singapore City, Stockholm, Toronto and Washington, D.C.. (The Independent) (Live Earth)
- The Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, 2010 concludes.
- Air travel disruption after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull:
- Benedict and child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Independence Day in Zimbabwe:
- President of China Hu Jintao visits survivors in the earthquake zone as the death toll climbs to more than 1,700 people. (BBC)
- The semi-finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament are moved from Bangalore to Mumbai following the discovery of further explosive devices after yesterday's bombing. (Al Jazeera)
- Seven people are killed and twenty others are injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Kohat, one day after twin bomb attacks kill more than 40 people and wound at least 60 others at a camp for the displaced in the city. All the dead are civilians. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
- Nigerian gunmen take two German men, from Port Harcourt and Lagos, in Abia State. (BBC) (France24) (IOL) (ABC News)
- Three Italian aid workers, Matteo Dell'Aria, Marco Garatti and Matteo Pagani, accused of being involved in a plot to assassinate Governor of Helmand Gulab Mangal, are released after being found "not guilty". (Al Jazeera)
- Increasing numbers of women from Saudi Arabia are running away from home, studies by the International Muslim Organization for Women and Family (IMOWF) in Jeddah say. (Arab News)
- Bahrain gives Abdullah of Saudi Arabia the Ajrab sword of Imam Turki bin Abdullah kept by Bahrain for 140 years and confers on him the Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifah Medal during a ceremony at Al-Sakhir Palace. (Arab News) (Bahrain News Agency) (Gulf Daily News)
- King Oyo, Rukidi IV of Toro, one of Uganda's last remaining kings and the world's youngest monarch, reaches the age of 18 at the end of a four-day ceremony and takes full control of his kingdom. (CNN) (Xinhua)
- Former President of the United States George Washington owes $300,000 for overdue library books he borrowed from New York Society Library five months into his presidency and which he failed to return. (The Guardian) (New York Daily News)
- 69-year-old Spanish tenor opera star Plácido Domingo returns to the stage at Milan's Teatro alla Scala weeks after colorectal cancer surgery. (BBC)
- A recently unearthed track by The Rolling Stones is released as a limited edition 7" single for Record Store Day. The first song recorded by Blur's original line-up since guitarist Graham Coxon quit in 2002 is also released for the same purpose. (BBC)
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- Air travel disruption after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull:
- Another plume threatens to cause further disruptions. (Los Angeles Times)
- Half of all scheduled European flights are expected to go ahead, though airspace remains closed in many countries, including Ireland, Norway and Poland. Denmark accepts no landings. (BBC)
- Planes return to the air in France, Germany and Italy. (CNN) (ABC News)
- Ryanair cancels all of its flights between Ireland and the United Kingdom until 13:00 on Friday 23 April and all Northern European flights — Ireland, UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Baltic States and North Italy — until 13:00 on Thursday 22 April. (Irish Examiner)
- The Irish Aviation Authority closes Cork Airport and Dublin Airport until at least 22:00, opens Shannon Airport for limited services. (Irish Independent) (The Wall Street Journal)
- All United Kingdom airports reopen at 10:00pm BST, with the first planes landing at London Heathrow (BBC)
- Iraq:
- The Transocean-owned oil rig Deepwater Horizon explodes, leaking about 4,900,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. At least seven people were injured and over a dozen were missing at sea. (MSNBC)
- Bishop of Augsburg Walter Mixa apologises and asks for forgiveness for his physical abuse of children in the 1970s and 1980s. (BBC)
- 82-year-old General Reynaldo Bignone, former military ruler of Argentina, is imprisoned for 25 years for abductions and tortures committed between 1978 and 1979. (BBC) (Houston Chronicle) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- A New York businessman, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari is sentenced to 10 years in prison for funneling money to a terrorism training camp in Afghanistan. (London Evening Standard)
- Dozens of people gather in central Cairo in a rare protest against the use of force on pro-democracy demonstrations which "pose a threat to the national security". (Al Jazeera)
- Omar al-Bashir's ruling party agrees to accept the results of the recent general election in Sudan. (Al Jazeera)
- Palestinian officials say they will oppose new Israeli orders on deporting Palestinians from the West Bank. (BBC)
- The Yushu earthquake death toll rises to 2,046. (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera)
- Lorena Ochoa, the world's number one golfer for the past three years, announces her retirement from the sport at the age of 28. (Brisbane Times) (The Globe and Mail) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (The New York Times)
- President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announces the ousted President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who is wanted by his successors in connection with the recent unrest, is in Minsk. (BBC) (VOA) (Al Jazeera)
- The United Kingdom is accused of complicity in torture in Afghanistan as peace campaigner Maya Evans seeks a judicial review of the government's role in the extraordinary rendition of suspects. (The Independent)
- Deputy Mayor of Kandahar Azizollah Yarmal, Afghanistan is shot dead while praying at a mosque. (BBC)
- Repeat polls for Sri Lanka's April parliamentary election are held in Nawalapitiya and Trincomalee where ballots were annulled due to violence. (BBC) (People's Daily Online) (The Washington Post)
- President of the United States Barack Obama speaks of the "unbreakable bonds" and "special relationship" between his country and Israel on the 62nd anniversary of Israel's birth. (Sky News) (The Jerusalem Post)
- The United States Supreme Court, in ruling on United States v. Stevens, strikes down a law outlawing videos that depict animal cruelty. (Washington Post)
- Two Canadian men are accused of committing an act of "flag desecration" in La Quinta, California, United States for allegedly replacing an American flag with a Canadian flag following Canada's ice hockey victory at the 2010 Winter Olympics. (CBC)
- Two prisoners are killed and several others are injured during an attempted jail break in Kaduna, Nigeria. (BBC)
- Two high-ranking officers are suspended from Rwanda's military and arrested; Maj-Gen Charles Muhire is accused of corruption and misuse of office, whilst Lt-Gen Karenzi Karake is accused of immoral conduct. (BBC)
- An Indonesian court upholds a 1965 blasphemy law which permits punishment for people or organisations that "distort" the orthodoxies of six officially recognised religions — Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Confucianism — and is criticized as a blow to permitting religious freedom. (AFP) (New York Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Speaking in Tehran, Iranian Islamic cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi blames promiscuous women for causing earthquakes. (BBC) (news.com.au) (Fox News) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- The International Court of Justice in The Hague rules that Uruguay should have informed Argentina about its plans to build two paper mills on the banks of the River Uruguay, although it allows the one mill which was built to continue operating. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Production of the 23rd James Bond film is put on indefinite hiatus due to uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM. (businessweek)
- The shortlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction is announced. (BBC)
- Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa are named as being involved in the France national football team's sex scandal. Franck Ribéry admits sexual relations with an underage prostitute. (The Guardian)
- Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president (1980 - 2001) and honorary life president Juan Antonio Samaranch is in a "very critical" condition in Quiron Hospital, Barcelona, after suffering a heart attack. (BBC) (CNN) (The Daily Telegraph) (Herald Sun) (RTÉ)
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- Juan Antonio Samaranch, the 7th president of the International Olympic Committee (1980 - 2001), dies at the age of 89. (BBC) (CNN) (ESPN)
- 52 civilians are killed and 55 others are wounded in renewed tribal clashes in Sudan's South Darfur state. (Kazinform) (China Dialy) (China.org)
- A Rovos Rail luxury tourist train derails near Pretoria, South Africa, killing at least two people – a pregnant woman and her baby whose birth occurred during the derailment – and injuring at least 25 others. (BBC) (Mail & Guardian) (News24)
- Poland announces the date of its presidential election — June 20 — to elect plane crash victim Lech Kaczyński's successor. (Al Jazeera)
- Pope Benedict XVI makes an explicit promise that the Roman Catholic Church will take action against child sexual abuse by priests. (BBC) (News24) (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- GetEQUAL activists shout at President of the United States Barack Obama while he is speaking, expressing their annoyance over the slow progress of repealing the ban on open homosexuality in the country's armed forces. (The Daily Telegraph)
- The Nigerian military exhumes seven fresh corpses from shallow graves near Jos in the latest round of apparent revenge killings. (BBC)
- Bosnian police fired tear gas and water at war veterans in Sarajevo, during a protest against proposed state benefit cuts. (Al Jazeera)
- The Asadho human rights group says the Democratic Republic of the Congo's army killed at least 11 civilians at the airport in Mbandaka this month. (BBC)
- 500 Greenpeace environmentalists protest against the awarding of a tender for the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric project by dumping tonnes of manure at the National Electric Energy Agency's (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica, ANEEL) offices in Brasilia. (Al Jazeera)
- More than a dozen suspects are indicted in the Philippines in connection with last year's Maguindanao massacre. (Taiwan News) (Al Jazeera)
- South Korea claims it has uncovered a North Korean plot to assassinate the most senior official to defect from the North to the South, Hwang Jang-yop. (BBC) (Korea Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is arrested on charges such as collaboration with a terrorist organisation and genocide denial. (BBC)
- Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev agree to extend the lease between Kiev and Moscow that allows Russia's Black Sea Fleet to be stationed in Ukraine in return for cheaper gas until 2042. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)
- 2010 Yushu earthquake: China holds a national day of mourning for the victims. Public entertainment activities are cancelled, all Chinese flags around the world flew at half-staff. (AP via Google News)
- Nicolas Sarkozy speaks out against the niqāb, telling a cabinet meeting it "hurts the dignity of women and is not acceptable in French society", as his government moves to outlaw the garment. (Al Jazeera)
- The U.S. Obama administration charges that Sudan’s recent election was plagued by "serious irregularities" and says the United States is committed to ensuring that a 2011 Sudanese referendum on southern independence would be conducted fairly. (The New York Times)
- Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger launch a joint command centre in Tamanrasset to counter al-Qaeda, according to the Algerian defence ministry. (Al Jazeera)
- The British government announces that British airports will reopen and passenger flights will resume, but officials caution that it will take time for flight schedules to return to normal after the six-day shutdown caused by volcanic ash from the 2010 eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. (USA Today) (Chicago Tribune)
- Police in Himachal Pradesh arrest Paramhamsa Nityananda, a Hindu holy man who faces charges of obscenity after he fondles two women in bed on television. (BBC) (iAfrica) (Indian Express) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Syria becomes the first Arab state to implement a ban on smoking in public places. (BBC) (The Miami Herald)
- U.S. pop singer Kelly Clarkson is criticised by anti-smoking groups in Indonesia and the United States for promoting cigarettes at an upcoming concert in Jakarta. (BBC)
- Five men accused of conspiring to extort £4.25 million for the safe return of Madonna of the Yarnwinder, an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, are cleared. (BBC) (The Times)
- Cirque du Soleil announces it will stage a live tour featuring the works of Michael Jackson. (BBC) (Financial Times) (The Guardian) (Los Angeles Times) (Xinhua)
- The man who attacked Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher on stage at the 2008 Virgin Festival in Toronto is put under house arrest for 12 months. (BBC) (Billboard) (CBC) (Digital Spy) (The Globe and Mail) (Toronto Star)
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- 80 people die after drinking illegal home-made banana gin (waragi) laced with methanol in Kabale, Uganda (BBC) (News24) (TMC)
- Dozens of people are killed and more than 100 others are wounded by a series of bomb explosions in Baghdad, mostly near Shia mosques around the time of Jumu'ah (BBC) (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- Seven people, including six police officers and a civilian, are killed and two other officers are injured in a shoot-out with suspected gang hitmen in Ciudad Juárez. (BBC) (CNN) (The New York Times)
- Two supporters of defeated independent state candidate Angelina Teny are killed by police and four others are injured during post-election protests in Bentiu. (BBC) (Reuters)
- In a major transfer of power in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, Zhang Chunxian replaces Wang Lequan as the region's Party Committee Secretary; Wang has served in the post since 1994. (AP) (Xinhua)
- Red Shirt leader Veera Musikapong agrees to end the protests in Bangkok if the government agrees to dissolve parliament and hold elections within 90 days. (The Guardian)
- Greece activates the €45 billion aid package it was offered by Europe earlier in the month to combat the country's debt crisis. (Washington Post)
- A Spanish hospital claims to have performed the world's "first full-face transplant". (AP)
- Response to child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- The Boy Scouts of America are ordered to pay $18.5 million in damages following the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy. (The New York Times) (ABC News) (Miami Herald) (CNN)
- Keflavík International Airport, Iceland's largest airport, is shut down due to volcanic ash. (news.com.au) (Reuters India) (IceNews) (Al Jazeera)
- Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu resists calls from the United States to stop construction in Jerusalem; the United Nations claims Israel's blockade of Gaza prevents it from educating thousands of Palestinian children. (BBC) (MSNBC)
- A car bomb explodes outside a police station in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. (BBC) (CNN) (The Guardian) (People's Daily Online)
- North Korea seizes five properties owned by South Korea in Kŭmgangsan. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (Al Jazeera)
- President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opens a trade fair in Bulawayo on his tour of Zimbabwe as the country's President Robert Mugabe back's Iran's "just cause" for developing nuclear energy. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Times of India) (Al Jazeera)
- Police issue a French Muslim woman with a fine of €22 for wearing a burqa while driving in Nantes, causing controversy and threatening her husband's status. (BBC) (Expatica France) (news.com.au) (iAfrica)
- A Frenchman and his Algerian driver are kidnapped by armed men in Niger. (BBC) (France24) (Arab News) (News24)
- China requests that Tibetan monks leave Qinghai where an earthquake struck on 14 April. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- A total of 2.89 million new jobs were created in China's urban areas during the first three months this year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) (China.org)
- Arizona governor Jan Brewer signs the state's controversial immigrant detention bill into law. Supporters say it will take 'the handcuffs' off police; opponents say it will violate people's civil rights. (The Washington Post)
- The 2009 ascent of Kangchenjunga by Korean climber Oh Eun-sun, aiming to be the first woman to climb the 14 highest peaks on Earth, is declared "disputed" by Himalayan climbing records arbiter, Elizabeth Hawle. (BBC)
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- In separate events, 29 people are killed in a suicide attack on a prison van, six NATO oil tankers are torched, and the Pakistan Army attacked Taliban fighters. (Arab News)
- Paraguay passes a bill, requested by President, Fernando Lugo, that suspends constitutional rights for 30 days in parts of the country after the Paraguayan People's Army (PPA) kills four people. (BBC)
- A tornado in Mississippi kills at least 10 people. (USA Today)
- Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand rejects protester demands to dissolve the Parliament within 30 days. (Sky News)
- A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 strikes in the Maluku Islands north of Ambon Island. (Arab News)
- al-Shabaab seizes three towns from Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a in central Galguduud, Somalia. (Al Jazeera)
- Iraq holds funerals for those killed in yesterday's series of bombings in Baghdad. (Al Jazeera)
- Russia's Proton-M rocket sends a United States SES-1 telecommunications satellite into space. (Xinhua)
- An unmanned American aircraft kills seven militants in Pakistan. (Washington Post)
- Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- In Chile, Catholic Church leaders and President Sebastián Piñera meet for more than an hour to discuss the child sexual abuse scandal and agree to send a letter to all the country's parishes. (BBC)
- A retired priest says he was ignored when he spoke out about Belgium's longest-serving bishop having sexually abused a boy years before his admission and immediate resignation yesterday. (CBC)
- Tens of thousands of people rally and lay flowers at a monument in Yerevan to the victims on the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. (Al Jazeera)
- Marchers march in a dozen Spanish cities, including thousands in Madrid, to support Judge Baltasar Garzón who has been told he may face a trial for launching an inquiry into the acts of General Francisco Franco. Falange arranges a smaller protest in Madrid in opposition to Garzón. (BBC) (CBC)
- Former Nazi corporal and founder of Villa Baviera in Chile Paul Schäfer dies in prison at the age of 88. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (France24) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- Wang Lequan, Communist Party secretary since 1994, is replaced by Zhang Chunxian as the most powerful official in Xinjiang. (BBC) (Arab News) (The Hindu) (South China Morning Post)
- Two German men held in Abia State, Nigeria are released six days after being seized on a swim. (BBC)
- The Cheonan, which was destroyed in the Baengnyeong incident, is recovered. (Sky News)
- Mumbai's Oberoi Hotel reopens 18 months after sustaining damage in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (BBC)
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh injures his ankle in a carriage driving accident on the Queen's Windsor estate. (Arab News)
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- The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague orders the British government to pay £400 million to Iran for an arms deal cancelled following the Iranian Revolution. (Ha'aretz) (Press TV) (ABC News)
- 55 people are killed and 85 injured after clashes between Arab nomads from the Darfur region of Sudan and the Southern Sudan army. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (AFP)
- An inquiry is launched as at least 80 schoolgirls in different Kunduz schools are poisoned this week; the Taliban, opposed to female education, denies any knowledge. (BBC) (Japan Today) (Reuters)
- Zhou Qiang succeeds Zhang Chunxian as the provincial party secretary of Hunan Province in China. (China Daily)
- At least five people are killed and 20 others are injured by a bomb blast at a cafe in the Ethiopian town of Adi Haro. (Al Jazeera)
- Israeli police clash with Palestinian protesters objecting to an "extremely provocative" march by settlers in Silwan in East Jerusalem, calling for the removal of Palestinians who live in the area. (Al Jazeera)
- Mexican Labour Party leader in Guerrero Rey Hernández dies after being shot at least seven times outside his home in Tlacoachistlahuaca. (The Times of India) (People's Daily Online)
- Hungary's Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union wins a historic two-thirds general election victory, according to second round results. (BBC) (CBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- Heinz Fischer wins the Austrian presidential election, 2010. (Al Jazeera) (CBC) (The Irish Times)
- Nearly 100,000 people rally in Okinawa, Japan, demanding the removal of an American base from the island. (Kyoto) (Washington Post) (China Daily)
- Thousands of people rally in Beirut to ask for the separation of religion and state in Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
- A huge fire destroys hundreds of homes and leaves thousands homeless in Quezon City, Philippines. (ABS-CBN News) (BBC)
- The Spanish Navy captures eight suspected pirates off the Somalia coast. (Press TV) (The Washington Post)
- The Ladies in White are stopped from marching in Havana but stand silently instead. (BBC) (The Miami Herald)
- Cuba's Speaker of the Parliament Ricardo Alarcón challenges the United States to lift its 48-year embargo on the island if it believes Cuba benefits from the embargo, as Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested. (euronews) (Press TV) (Channel News Asia)
- Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki meets the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and says Iran remains interested in a nuclear fuel swap drafted by the United Nations. (Al Jazeera) (Press TV) (Xinhua)
- London Marathon:
- Chennai Super Kings defeat Mumbai Indians to win the third Indian Premier League cricket tournament. CNN, Al Jazeera, Sydney Morning Herald
- Pope Benedict XVI and his upcoming visit to Britain:
- South African President Jacob Zuma announces that he is HIV-negative in an effort to promote AIDS awareness. (BBC) (China Post) (France24) (News24)
- Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan reveals he has cirrhosis of the liver. (BBC) (CBC) (The Straits Times) (The Times)
- Professor Stephen Hawking warns humans about the dangers of contacting extraterrestrials. (BBC) (Fox News) (The Hindu) (Sky News) (The Sunday Times)
- The United Kingdom Professional Footballers' Association votes Wayne Rooney as "player of the year". (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
- The first passenger flight between Iraq and the United Kingdom in two decades touches down at London Gatwick Airport, nine days overdue because of volcanic ash problems. (BBC)
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- Belgium's King Albert accepts the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, ending his government's term and leading to early elections in June 2010. (BBC)
- In elections marred by boycotts and fraud allegations, Omar al-Bashir is re-elected president of Sudan despite facing war crimes charges and an international arrest warrant. (USA Today)
- 2010 Thai political protests:
- Robotic submarines attempt to stop leaking oil in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. (The Globe and Mail)
- The British ambassador to Yemen, Timothy Torlot, survives an attempted suicide bombing. (Washington Post)
- Former dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega is extradited from the United States to France. (CNN)
- Noma, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is named as the "world's best restaurant" in Restaurant magazine's annual survey. (The Guardian)
- A 6.5~6.9 earthquake strikes near Taitung, south east of Taiwan. (Focus Taiwan) (Xinhua)
- By a 6-5 margin, a United States federal appeals court rules that a sex-discrimination lawsuit, the largest employment discrimination case in history, against Wal-Mart can continue. (NY Times)
- The United States Supreme Court agrees to hear a case challenging laws that forbid the selling of violent video games to minors. (LA Times)
- A Hamas militant is killed in Hebron after a shootout with the Israeli Defense Forces. (Jerusalem Post) (Sydney Morning Herald) (BBC)
- South Koreans pay tribute to the victims of the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan in March. (Yonhap) (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera)
- The Government of South Korea announces the completion of the world’s longest seawall in a reclaimed tidal flat in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. (Korea Herald)
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- Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico
- A U.S. government panel, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, names Saudi Arabia and China among 13 countries as the most serious violators of religious freedom. (VOA) (AP) (USA Today)
- Millions of mostly Asian women who work in countries like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates remain at risk of human trafficking, forced labor, confinement and sexual violence, the New York-based Human Rights Watch group reports. (The Jakarta Globe)
- India and Pakistan agree to reopen discussion on "all issues of mutual concern." (LA Times) (Times of India)
- Twenty-eight children and three adults are stabbed at a nursery school in China. (BBC News) (China Daily)
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves Provenge (sipuleucel-T), the first "vaccine" approved to treat cancer, for men with advanced prostate cancer. (USA Today)
- Belgium's parliament votes to ban the wearing of burqas and other face coverings in public. (The Telegraph)
- The United States tells Israel that it must remove 23 West Bank outposts, as previously promised. (Jerusalem Post)
- The third round of leaders' debates takes place in the United Kingdom. (NY Times)
- Human rights workers Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Jyri Antero Jaakkola were killed by paramilitaries in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. (The Washington Post)
- Pakistani security forces announce that Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is likely still alive, contrasting early reports that stated a January 2010 drone attack had killed him. (LA Times)
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