May 2012 is the fifth month of that leap year. The month, which begins on a Tuesday, ends on a Thursday after 31 days.

This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from May 2012.

Armed conflict and attacks

Business and economy

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy

International relations

Law and crime
  • Coroner Fiona Wilcox states that Secret Intelligence Service officer Gareth Williams was "on the balance of probabilities" unlawfully killed and that it is unlikely he found his way all by himself into the padlocked red sports bag in which his body was found in the bath at his home. (BBC)
  • A man, believed by the media (but not confirmed) to be J. T. Ready, a Neo-Nazi, and a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, is among five individuals in Gilbert, Arizona, found dead with gunshot wounds. It is unclear what role he may have played in the apparent shootings, and what precise type they were, but he is believed to have shot the others and then himself in a possible murder-suicide. (MSNBC)

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks
  • Thirty-four people are killed in raids by gunmen opposed to the burning of a colleague at a cattle market in northern Nigeria. (AP via Google News)
  • Seven people are killed and 30 injured in explosions near a police post in Makhachkala, Dagestan, southern Russia. (euronews)
  • Activists say four students are killed in an attack on anti-government demonstrations at Aleppo University, Syria. (Al Jazeera)
  • Farhan Jeemis Abdulle, a Somali journalist and well-known local reporter for Radio Daljir is shot and killed by an unidentified gunman in Galkayo while walking to his home district of Garsor. Puntland authorities arrived on scene to investigate the killing but no arrests have been made. Abdulle is the fifth journalist to be murdered in Somalia this year, and the second in Galkayo. (Shabelle Media Network)

Arts and culture

Disasters

Law and crime

International relations

Politics
Armed conflict and attacks

Arts and culture

Health
  • A new study published in The Lancet finds that up to 90 per cent of school-leavers in Asia's major cities are suffering from myopia, or short-sightedness and that 10 to 20 per cent have high myopia, which can lead to blindness. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections
Armed conflict and attacks

Business and economy

Disasters

Law and crime
  • The Cambodian government closes an investigation into the shooting of anti-logging activist Chhut Vuthy and a military policeman after the arrest of a security guard. (Straits Times)

Science

Sport
Disasters
  • Off the coast in the north of Peru hundreds of dolphins and more than 1,000 birds, mostly pelicans, die under unexplained circumstances. (BBC)(New York Times)

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Disasters

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economics

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Art and culture

Business and economics

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections
Armed conflict and attacks

International relations
  • An American study reveals that North Koreans have an increasing level of informal access to foreign media, despite the intense censorship efforts of the North Korean government. (BBC)
  • Security is tightened in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, ahead of anti-China protests amid an ongoing Sino-Philippine territorial dispute in the South China Sea. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Science
  • Chinese scientists use quantum teleportation to transmit photons over a distance of 97 kilometres (60 mi) – a world record for quantum teleportation. (PopSci)
  • A panel of American health experts recommends formal approval of the Truvada anti-HIV drug for prescription to non-infected men who have sex with multiple male partners, a decision opposed by some health workers and groups active among those with HIV. (BBC)
  • American researchers report that preventable infections are the leading cause of child mortality worldwide. Of the 7.6 million children who died before their fifth birthday in 2010, over 60% died of infections such as pneumonia. (BBC)

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks

Business and economy

Disasters

International relations

Politics and elections

Science

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks

Disasters

Law and crime

Politics

Science

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks

Business and economy

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science
  • The United States announces a national plan to develop an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease by 2025. (BBC)
  • American scientists develop a device which uses genetically-engineered viruses to generate electricity. The invention could allow the development of ubiquitous piezoelectric micro-generators which gather energy from everyday vibrations such as closing doors. (BBC)

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks
  • Cambodian police and soldiers clash with villagers after attempting to evict them from their land, where a Russian plantation project is to be headquartered. A teenage girl has reportedly been killed. (AP via The Jakarta Post)

Disasters

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Art and culture
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

International relations

Law and crime

Politics
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy

International relations

Politics

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Disasters
  • At least 20 people are killed in an explosion in a road tunnel being constructed in central China. (BBC)
  • At least two people are killed and 17 others are injured when a rally car plows through a crowd of spectators in the Var region of southern France. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

International relations

Science
  • Retired American psychiatrist Robert Spitzer apologises for his "fatally flawed" study, published in 2001, which falsely lent credence to the myth that gay people could be "cured". (The Guardian)

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Business and economy

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science
Business and economy

Disasters

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture
Armed conflict and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy
  • Revised figures indicate the UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the first three months of 2012, more than initially thought. (BBC)

Disasters

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflict and attacks

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture
  • The anime-oriented action animation TV block, Toonami, makes its return on Adult Swim after being canceled for four years following its 11 year run on Cartoon Network.

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections
Armed conflict and attacks

Arts and culture

Disasters

International relations
  • IMF head Christine Lagarde is accused of "insulting the Greek people" following her latest controversial comments about the country. (BBC)

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sports
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economics

Disasters and accidents

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sport
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Sports
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Disasters

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science
  • Following the successful sequencing of the tomato genome, scientists state that tastier and more pesticide-resistant tomato varieties can be engineered for commercial use within five years. (BBC)
  • Scientists report that supervolcanoes can develop much faster than previously suspected – erupting within just a few hundred years of their formation, instead of tens of thousands of years. (BBC)

Sports
Armed conflicts and attacks

Arts and culture

Business and economy
  • A nationwide strike against rising petrol prices closes shops and disrupts public transport in India, with the government facing widespread criticism over its economic management. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

Law and crime

Politics and elections

Science

Sports
May 2012
SMTWTFS
12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031


 Ongoing events

Political

edit

Economic

edit

Scientific

edit

Medical

edit

Celebrations

edit

edit this archived sidebar

 Recent deaths

edit this archived sidebar

 Ongoing conflicts

Africa

edit

Europe

edit

Middle East

edit

Asia

edit

edit this archived sidebar

 Elections

Recent: May

edit

Upcoming: May

edit

Upcoming: June

edit

edit this archived sidebar

 Trials

Recently concluded

edit

Ongoing trials

edit

Upcoming Trials

edit

edit this archived sidebar