 » A small group of terrorists stormed a heavily protected military base in Karachi and held a part of it during an 18-hour firefight. Perhaps as few as six attackers were able to penetrate the base, wreck two aircraft and kill at least ten personnel; two of them escaped. The Pakistani Taliban claimed they did it in retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden. See article » The Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that nuclear fuel in three of the reactors at its Fukushima power plant melted soon after the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11th. The disclosure implies that the plant released much more radiation than TEPCO had first estimated. » China acknowledged "urgent problems" afflicting the Three Gorges Dam. The State Council noted worrying damage to the surrounding region's water supply and geology as well as to the livelihoods of the 1.3m people its construction had displaced. An audit revealed dozens of financial irregularities. An additional 50 billion cubic metres of water will be released downstream by the dam this season, as the Yangzi basin suffers its worst drought in 50 years. » Kim Jong Il was spotted touring eastern China on his personal armoured train, in what may be his third such trip in a year (both North Korea and China keep mum about the details). North Korea has a number of reasons to shore up its relationship with China, not least the threat of food shortages this year and the eventual transition of power from Mr Kim to his son, Kim Jong Un. » At a trial in Chicago David Headley, a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty to conspiring in the terrorist assault on Mumbai in November 2008, testified that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency had provided financial and logistical support to the group that carried out the attack.
An upset upstate » The Democrats won an election to fill a vacant congressional seat in conservative upstate New York. The district had been held by the Republicans, but Kathy Hochul, the Democratic candidate, focused her campaign on arguing against the recent Republican proposal to overhaul Medicare. The tea-party candidate was a factor in the election, taking 9% of the vote. See article  » Mitch Daniels, the Republican governor of Indiana, decided not to run for president. His supporters hoped the former White House budget director would strongly challenge Barack Obama over his plans for reducing the government deficit. See article » The most deadly single tornado in America since 1947 hit Joplin, Missouri, killing at least 125 people. Around 900 were injured and more were missing. » A judge ruled that Jared Loughner, the suspect in January's shooting and wounding of Gabrielle Giffords, a congresswoman from Tucson, was mentally unfit to stand trial, in effect suspending the legal proceedings against him. Mr Loughner will remain in federal detention as he undergoes psychiatric treatment.
All the talk in Washington » In his biggest set-piece speech on the Middle East for two years, Barack Obama celebrated the Arab spring and promised financial aid to countries that sought to build a democracy. But he annoyed Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, by saying that Israel's borders with a Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 line with swaps. This, in Mr Netanyahu's view, would make them "indefensible". See article  » NATO stepped up its air attacks on Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and deployed Apache attack helicopters. Russia called this a "gross violation" of the United Nations Security Council resolution authorising force to protect civilians. See article » Prosecutors in Egypt announced that the former president, Hosni Mubarak, and his two sons would be tried on a series of charges that might include murder. » Scores of Yemenis were killed in clashes with security forces, as President Ali Abdullah Saleh continued to reject a deal, brokered by the Saudi-led Gulf Co-operation Council, which would require him to leave office within 30 days, with a guarantee of immunity from prosecution. » North Sudanese troops occupied the disputed town of Abyei along the border with the south, causing 40,000 people to flee. See article
A rumble about the jungle » After months of debate the lower house of Brazil's Congress approved a new forestry code, which reduces the area of protected land in river valleys, exempts small farmers from having to replant deforested land and grants them an amnesty for deforestation before July 2008. On the eve of the vote, two environmental activists were murdered in the Amazon state of Pará. » Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted as president of Honduras in a coup in 2009, signed an agreement with his replacement, Porfirio Lobo, under which he can return home without fear of arrest. The agreement, mediated by Colombia and Venezuela, paves the way for Honduras to be readmitted to the Organisation of American States. See article » Colombia's Senate approved an ambitious government bill that aims to compensate victims of violence and return land seized from displaced people. See article
The Spanish spring » Spain's ruling Socialists took a thumping in regional and municipal elections, falling almost ten percentage points behind the opposition conservative People's Party and losing its traditional strongholds of Barcelona and Seville. The elections followed spontaneous youth demonstrations in Madrid and other big cities, calling for political and economic reforms. See article  » Five days of opposition protest in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, ended in violence when riot police closed in on 1,000 demonstrators who had occupied a viewing stand ahead of a military parade. A policeman and a protester were killed by a car fleeing the scene. » Barack Obama visited Europe, sipping Guinness in the village of a distant ancestor in Ireland before crossing the Irish Sea to swap pleasantries with the queen and reassure Britain that its "special relationship" with America remained solid. A G8 summit in Deauville, France, was next on the agenda. The president was due to finish his tour in Poland. See article | 
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