UN death-toll figures show more than 1000 people died from violent attacks in Iraq during the month of May, making it the country's deadliest month since 2008. (VOA)
A car bomb explodes near a police station in the Damascus suburb of Jobar, killing at least eight members of the security forces and injuring civilians. (CNN)
It is announced that three professional storm chasers who were members of TWISTEX were among those killed by tornadoes in Oklahoma, US, on May 31. (Washington Post)
Two British Labour Party peers are suspended by their party after allegations they offered to undertake Parliamentary work in exchange for payment. A third peer, from the Ulster Unionist Party resigns the whip following the allegations. (BBC)
The Czech Republic experiences its worst flooding of the decade with huge volumes of water surging towards Prague. (BBC)
A Cebu Pacific flight carrying 165 passengers inbound from Manila, overshoots the runway during heavy rain in Davao City, Philippines. There are no fatalities, however the plane is heavily damaged. (ABS-CBN News)
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says the agency's latest report verifies that Iran is having "technical and scientific success in its peaceful nuclear activities" and that this is "an important message to the whole world". (Press TV)
Three corpses are dug up near a former U.S. military base in Narkh bringing the number of corpses whose deaths locals blame on the presence of United States personnel to 10; people flood the streets of Maidan Shar calling for the U.S. to leave. (The Guardian)
Two British soldiers are court martialed for "sexually and racially abusing civilians" during their time in Afghanistan. (RTT)
Lawyers gather outside Britain's Ministry of Justice to demonstrate against £220 million of proposed legal aid cuts and removal of the right of defendants to choose their own solicitor. (The Guardian)
An image known as "The Lady in the Red Dress" showing a policeman in a gas mask hosing a woman with pepper spray becomes the defining image of Turkey's pro-democracy demonstrations thus far. (The Huffington Post)(The Guardian)(The National)
Following Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's denunciation of Twitter as a "menace to society", police arrest 25 people on charges relating to the use of social media to speak ill of the government. (The Guardian)
After a long-running battle, Britain announces a compensation fund of £2,600 each for more than 5,000 survivors of the prison camps it operated across Kenya in the 1950s. (The Guardian)
An 84-year-old woman from the U.S. state of Florida comes forward as the sole winner of the record-breaking $590 million Powerball lottery drawing in May. (Reuters)
A second case of Legionnaires' Disease in less than a week is confirmed in Australia, leading to fears of a possible outbreak of the rare disease. (Herald Sun)
Brian Madrid, who trained Manning, testifies that he ordered him to undergo "corrective training" for an unauthorized use of the phrase "top secret". (The Guardian)
It is reported that an increasing number of hunger-striking Guantánamo inmates are being force fed by military medical teams since Barack Obama's recent speech promised again to close the prison camp. (The Guardian)(Press TV)(The Washington Post)
12 Russian citizens appear in a Moscow court charged with offences at a 2012 anti-Vladimir Putin rally; critics claim it is reminiscent of the Soviet-era show trials. (BBC)
The US government comes under heavy criticism at home and abroad when news of its secret PRISM surveillance program to monitor emails and other person information is leaked. (Welt)
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin calls on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign over the U.S. Department of Justice's seizure of journalist phone records. (TPM)
The Guardian reveals U.S. President Barack Obama ordered a list of foreign targets for cyber-attacks "to advance US national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging". Obama's order also authorizes hits on foreign nations without their government's consent. (The Guardian)
U.S. director of national intelligence James Clapper denounces the revelations of government surveillance into civilian lives as "reprehensible". (The Guardian)
British Prime Minister David Cameron is urged to launch an investigation into allegations that the UK's electronic listening post GCHQ had access to data from the program. (BBC)
Richard Ramirez, a prolific American serial killer during the 1980s, dies on death row from liver failure. (Reuters)
In a separate unrelated incident, an Italian soldier is killed and three are wounded when a child throws a grenade at a NATO convoy in west Afghanistan's Farah Province. (NBC)
An outbreak of Hepatitis A linked to a fruit juice product made by Townsend Farms sickens 79 people in the United States. (RTT News)
Law and crime
U.S. government surveillance programs (including PRISM):
A former CIA employee named Edward Snowden comes forward as the source of recent NSA leaks in the United States. Fearful of prosecution for his actions, he defects to Hong Kong. (Washington Post)
Bombs explode across Iraq, killing at least 70 people and wounding many more, following a month of attacks bloodier than any the country has experienced since June 2008. (BBC)(Al Jazeera)
A fierce battle has gone on over the last 24 hours as rebels launch another attack against the Menagh Air Base, the last remaining Syrian government controlled airbase in Aleppo. (Al Jazeera)
Seven heavily armed Taliban militants launch a coordinated attack near the main international airport of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and seize a five-story building under construction nearby. Afghan security forces retake the building, killing all seven militants and sustaining no military or civilian casualties. (BBC)
A residential block collapses during heavy monsoon rains in Mumbai. (Al Jazeera)
International relations
U.S. government surveillance programs (including PRISM):
William Hague answers parliamentary questions on Britain's role in the U.S. surveillance scandal, though MPs and activists express dissatisfaction with his answers on whether Britain is similarly spying on its own citizens. (The Independent)(The Guardian)(Press TV)(Al Jazeera)
U.S. government surveillance programs (including PRISM):
European Union officials send a letter to U.S. attorney general Eric Holder with seven detailed questions requesting concrete explanations about the country's data snooping programs and how it affects EU citizens ahead of a meeting in Dublin this Friday. (The Guardian)(The Journal)
The American Civil Liberties Union lays down the first constitutional challenge to the U.S. programs of spying on its own citizens. ACLU accuses the U.S. government of "snatching every American's address book". (The Guardian)
Expecting to be rendered or otherwise targeted by the CIA or its allies or third parties, Edward Snowden checks out of the Hong Kong hotel in which he based himself after revealing the U.S. spy scandal to the public. (Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
Due to lack of evidence, a French court drops a case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn for allegedly running a prostitution ring. (ITV)
A UK government decision to create a controversial marine park in the Indian Ocean gets the go-ahead, though the intentions are questioned by former residents of the Chagos Islands all of whom were expelled by the British between 1965 and 1973 so that an airbase could be built by the United States on Diego Garcia. (The Guardian)
Demonstrators rally at the "piggy bank" (local term) against wage hikes for newly elected "MPigs" (local term) in Kenya. (Al Jazeera)(The Washington Post)
Shenzhou 10, China's fifth manned spaceflight mission and the second and final one to the Tiangong-1 space laboratory, is launched with 3 taikonauts on a 15 day mission. (BBC)(CNN)
The incumbent President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, determines that elections will be scheduled for 31 July 2013, however Mugabe's leading presidential contestant and primary political rival Morgan Tsvangirai rejects this as being "a unilateral and flagrant breach of the constitution". (allAfrica)
The United States offers unspecified military equipment to the rebels after determining that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against the opposition. (Al Jazeera)
A day after an ethylene- and propylene- manufacturing chemical plant explosion in Geismar, Ascension Parish, Louisiana that killed two and injured 75, another chemical plant explosion occurs in the same Louisiana Parish (County), in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. One person is killed, three are critically injured, and 2 others suffer more minor injuries. (NBC)(CNN)
Four people are shot, leaving three critically injured, when Earnest Moore, 39, a convicted murderer, who was described as the boyfriend of one of the victims, walked up to their SUV and opened fire in Nashville, Tennessee. (NBC)
U.S. Army Judge Colonel Tara Osborn rules that the Fort Hood Massacre gunman Nidal Hasan cannot claim as a part of his defense that he was defending the Taliban. (NBC)
Six months after the crime which killed 20 children and six adult staff, the Newtown, ConnecticutSandy Hook massacre's victims' families gathered in remembrance of the tragedy. (NBC)
Charla Nash, 59, of Stamford, Connecticut, is told she cannot sue the state and its Dept. of Energy for $150 million, after being blinded for life and receiving a full face transplant after receiving a brutal mauling by Travis, an escaped chimpanzee. (NBC)
The City of Piedras Negras, Mexico was devastated by the June 14-15, 2013 flood affecting an estimated 40,000-50,000 residents, approximately 30-35% of its city residents, with more than 62 residential subdivisions (Colonias) flooded. (Eagle Pass Business Journal)
Boeing launches the biggest version of its Dreamliner plane, the 787-10, at the Paris Air Show with over 100 orders worth about US$30 billion. (AFP vis News24)
The San Antonio Spurs lead by 5 points against the Miami Heat with 28 seconds remaining in game 6 of the NBA finals as a victory will secure a fifth NBA title for the Spurs. They fail to collect a defensive rebound, allow Miami to score back-to-back three-pointers and go 1 out of 2 on the free throw line. The game is sent to overtime where they eventually lose by three points.
The Eiffel Tower is evacuated for two hours after a man threatens to throw himself off, in the latest of a string of suicide bids from the Paris landmark. (AFP via News24)
Russian smugglers carrying 213 bear paws are arrested in China. (Global Times)
Politics and elections
A Greek court decrees that ERT can resume transmission, following a truncation of broadcast due to direct order from Antonis Samaras. (BBC)
In basketball, the defending champion Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 103-100 in overtime of Game 6 of the NBA Finals despite trailing by five points with 28 seconds remaining in regulation. With 5.2 seconds remaining, the Heats’ Chris Bosh trapped an offensive rebound and passed to Ray Allen, setting in motion an Allen make that is widely regarded as one of the most iconic moments in the history of American sports.(New York Times)(ESPN)(EPSN)(Grantland)
The Indian Army is deployed to help rescue people in the flood-hit northern states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, where the number of confirmed deaths has reached 130. (BBC)
A man is killed and more than 6,000 people are evacuated following an explosion at an arms depot in the Samara Oblast in central Russia. (Sky News)
2013 Alberta floods: Extensive flooding begins throughout southern Alberta, Canada, leading to the evacuation of more than 100,000 people, notably in the City of Calgary and Town of High River. It would become the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.
New Zealand's South Island is lashed by wild weather. Dunedin and Christchurch have roads cut off and flights cancelled as conditions worsen. Heavy snow and flooding is reported in parts of Canterbury, Otago and Southland. (Stuff NZ)
Latvian authorities say the overnight fire has extensively damaged Riga Castle, the medieval fortress that houses the Baltic nation's National History Museum, and presidential residence. (EuroNews)
Latvian President Andris Bērziņš describes the fire as a "national disaster" during a morning visit to inspect the damage. (Russia Today)
100,000 workers and unemployed march against record unemployment in Rome, the first major demonstration since Enrico Letta's government took power earlier this year. (Al Jazeera)
The death toll from the disaster soars to more than 6,500, as units of the Indian Army struggle to reach thousands of people stranded in country's northwest. (Al Jazeera)
Clashes between the Lebanese Army and supporters of the Salafist cleric Ahmed Al-Assir continue for a second day around the Ain el-Hilweh camp near Sidon. The government reports at least 15 soldiers killed and 38 others injured in the violence, as it promises crackdown on ethnic strife across the country. (Al Jazeera)
According to reports in Catalonia, Argentinefootball star Lionel Messi has paid €10 million in Spanish back taxes for 2010 and 2011, and is looking to settle a claimed tax liability of €4.1 million for the 2007–2009 period that is the subject of a current investigation. (ESPN)
Italian police search more than thirty Italian football clubs including SS Lazio and Juventus FC searching for evidence of criminal conspiracy, international tax evasion, money laundering and invoice falsification. (Reuters)
A senior Vatican bank cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, and two others are arrested on suspicion of smuggling €20 million into Italy from Switzerland. (BBC)
French businessman Bernard Tapie is placed under investigation for improperly using political influence to benefit his businesses. (Xinhua)
Three German Gruenhelme e.V. aid workers have been missing since May 19 in the town of Harem in northern Syria and are believed to have been kidnapped. (AP)
The President of the European Parliament demands an explanation from the U.S. for allegations of spying, while new sources hint that the NSA could gather information from several European countries and had placed microphones in the Embassy of Italy to the U.S.. Many European leaders declare themselves greatly disappointed and the issue may bring serious political and economical consequences. (The Guardian)
90,000 people attended the 'Concert per la llibertat' (Concert for freedom) for the independence of Catalonia, organized by Òmnium Cultural and the Assemblea Nacional Catalana in Camp Nou in Barcelona, Catalonia. (Vilaweb)
