text:
January 1
A suicide truck bomber attacks a crowd watching a volleyball match in the village of Shah Hasan Khel outside South Waziristan in Pakistan, killing some 91 people; it is thought that the assault is aimed against an anti-Taliban militia being organized in the village.
In the third annual Winter Classic National Hockey League outdoor match, the Boston Bruins defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 2–1 in overtime before a crowd of 38,112 at Boston's Fenway Park.
The yearlong celebration marking the bicentennial of composer Frédéric Chopin's birth begins with a ceremony in his birthplace, Zelazowa Wola, Pol., and a concert in Warsaw.
January 2
Afghanistan's legislature rejects 17 of the 24 people nominated for cabinet positions by Pres. Hamid Karzai for his second term of office.
A magnitude-5.3 earthquake in the eastern Pamir Mountains devastates the villages of Rog and Gishkon in Tajikistan; some 20,000 people are left homeless.
January 3
The United States and the United Kingdom close their embassies in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, in view of apparent threats from the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
A curbing of supplies of crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline from Russia to Belarus is reported; an agreement between Russia and Belarus on oil-export tariffs expired on Dec. 31, 2009.
January 4
The price of a barrel of crude oil closes at $81.51, its highest price since October 2008.
The world's tallest building is ceremonially opened in Dubai, U.A.E.; the 160-story, 828-m (2,717-ft)-high tower, which dwarfs the Taipei 101, the previous record holder, is given the name Burj Khalifa in honour of the leader of Abu Dhabi, which gave financial assistance to Dubayy at the end of 2009.
January 5
Pres. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland vetoes legislation passed in 2009 to compensate the governments of Britain and the Netherlands for funds they used to repay depositors who lost money when the Icelandic banking system collapsed in late 2008.
Beset by demands and intimidation from the Islamist militant group al-Shabaab, the UN World Food Programme announces the indefinite suspension of much of its program in southern Somalia.
January 6
Hirohisa Fujii resigns as Japan's finance minister just before the presentation of the budget for the next fiscal year to the legislature; he is replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
In Turkmenistan, Turkmen Pres. Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ceremonially open a natural gas pipeline that runs from Turkmenistan to Iran.
A suicide car bomber detonates his weapon outside a traffic police station in Makhachkala, the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan; seven police officers are killed.
January 7
China's central bank raises its short-term interest rate slightly; the move is regarded as significant.
In southern Egypt thousands of Coptic Christians riot in response to an overnight drive-by shooting in Najʿ Hammadi in which six Christians were killed.
A UN official reports that fighting between members of the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups in southern Sudan in the past few days has left at least 140 people dead; a report by a coalition of aid groups says that some 2,500 people were killed in violence in southern Sudan in 2009.
The University of Alabama defeats the University of Texas 37–21 in college football's Bowl Championship Series title game in Pasadena, Calif., to win the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision championship.
The Gilmore International Keyboard Festival of Kalamazoo, Mich., announces that the sixth winner of the $300,000 Gilmore Artist Award, given every four years, is pianist Kirill Gerstein.
January 8
Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court rules that the Financial Market Supervisory Authority overstepped its authority when it ordered the banking giant UBS to give U.S. investigators financial data on some 300 clients suspected of tax evasion.
Pres. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announces a devaluation of the country's currency; Venezuela's economy shrank by 2.9% in 2009.
Portugal's legislature passes a bill that allows same-sex marriage; if approved by the president, as expected, it will make Portugal the sixth European country to legalize gay marriage.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in December 2009 remained at 10% but that the economy lost 85,000 jobs.
January 9
Togo withdraws from the African Cup of Nations association football (soccer) tournament after the team bus was ambushed and three of those aboard, including an assistant coach, were killed en route to a match in Cabinda, Angola.
Spain undertakes flooding the wetlands of Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park in Castile-La Mancha with waters from the Tagus River in hopes of saving the sanctuary, which had dried because of illegal wells and excessive diversion of water from the Guadiana River and is under threat from an underground peat fire that ignited in August 2009.
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning wins a record fourth National Football League Most Valuable Player award.
January 10
After three days of race riots in Rosarno, Italy, in southern Calabria, some 1,000 guest workers from sub-Saharan Africa have been evacuated to immigrant centres.
Three Christian churches and a convent school are struck by Molotov cocktails in Malaysia, adding to the firebombing of four churches over the previous two days; resentment over a recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned a law preventing members of religions other than Islam from using the term Allah to refer to their supreme deity is believed to be behind the attacks.
Ivo Josipovic of the opposition Social Democratic Party wins the runoff presidential election in Croatia.
The French overseas départements of Martinique and French Guiana both reject proposals for greater autonomy from France in referendums.
Solar physicist Jacob Heerikhuisen reports that the ribbon of energetic neutral particles found by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft at the edge of the solar system in 2009 may indicate a galactic magnetic field reflecting solar particles back into the solar system.
January 11
Peter Robinson temporarily steps down as Northern Ireland's first minister as a scandal unfolds involving loans taken by his wife for her lover.
Figures are released showing that China has passed the U.S. to become the largest automobile market in number of vehicles sold; data released a day earlier showed that it has also passed Germany to become the biggest exporter of manufactured goods.
The state legislature of New Jersey passes a law allowing the tightly regulated use of marijuana to treat certain severe diseases, including multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy; when the bill is signed into law by Gov. Jon Corzine on January 18, New Jersey will become the 14th U.S. state to permit the medical use of marijuana.
Former St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire, who holds the Major League Baseball record for home runs in a single season, publicly admits that he used steroids throughout the 1990s; his record of 70 home runs was set in 1998.
The Pak Institute for Peace Studies reports that 3,021 Pakistanis were killed in terrorist attacks in 2009, 33% more than in the previous year, and that 667 people were killed in air strikes from American drones.
January 12
Logan Abassi—Minustah/Getty ImagesA devastating magnitude-7.0 earthquake flattens Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, and the death toll is feared to be enormous; among the buildings destroyed or heavily damaged are the national cathedral, the presidential palace, those housing the parliament, the tax office, and the Ministries of Commerce and Foreign Affairs, and the headquarters of the UN mission in the country.
The Internet company Google announces that it will cease cooperating with censorship of search results in China and that it may withdraw from China entirely; it cites cyberattacks that took place the previous month, many of which appeared to target Google e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
Hundreds of people march in Abuja, Nigeria, to protest the lengthy absence of Pres. Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who has been in Saudi Arabia getting medical treatments since late November 2009.
Saudi Arabia announces that its forces have killed hundreds of al-Huthi insurgents in the border village of Al-Jabri, and fighting between Yemeni forces and al-Huthi rebels takes place in Saʿdah, Yemen.
Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a nuclear scientist and professor at Tehran University who has spoken out in support of the opposition movement in Iran, is killed in a bomb attack near his home in Tehran; the Iranian government publicly blames the U.S. and Israel for the attack.
January 13
The UN releases a report saying that in 2009 in Afghanistan 2,412 civilians were killed—a 14% increase from the previous year—and that 1,630 of them were killed by Taliban and other insurgent groups; the figure is the highest since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
The journal Nature publishes online a study led by Jennifer Hughes and David Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., in which it was found that the human Y chromosome, the male-determining chromosome, constantly renews itself and undergoes rapid evolutionary change; it had been thought that the chromosome was decaying.
January 14
Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission surprises observers by barring 499 candidates from running for office in upcoming legislative elections because of their ties to the outlawed Baʿth Party.
The European Central Bank leaves its benchmark interest rate at 1%, and its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, warns that Greece should not expect special treatment from the bank.
Aid begins to trickle in to the decimated city of Port-au-Prince, where Haitian Pres. René Préval says that 7,000 people have been buried in a mass grave, and the death toll is thought to be in the neighbourhood of 200,000.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announces at the New York Academy of Sciences that the Doomsday Clock, which illustrates how close mankind is to self-destruction, has been set back one minute, to 11:54 pm, citing international cooperation in nuclear disarmament and agreements to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
January 15
After three days of negotiations, Moussa Dadis Camara, leader of the junta in Guinea, agrees to remain in exile in Burkina Faso and to allow the deputy leader, Sékouba Konaté, to oversee a transition back to democracy.
Russia's legislature ratifies a protocol to reform the European Court of Human Rights; with this final ratification, the court may now commence implementing the procedures set forth in the protocol.
Radio Mashaal, a Pashto-language station of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, begins broadcasting in the border regions of Pakistan.
American banking giant JPMorgan Chase reports that its profit in 2009 was more than double that of 2008 and that it will pay out compensation, including bonuses, totaling $26.9 billion—about 18% more than in the previous year.
January 16
Iraq's legislature rejects 10 of the new cabinet choices offered by Pres. Hamid Karzai and the following day begins its winter break.
The Dakar Rally concludes in Buenos Aires; the winners are Spanish driver Carlos Sainz in a Volkswagen automobile, French driver Cyril Despres on a KTM motorcycle, Russian driver Vladimir Chagin in a Kamaz truck, and Argentine driver Marcos Patronelli in a Yamaha ATV.
January 17
Violent fighting between Christians and Muslims breaks out in Jos, Nigeria; over the next three days, some 400 people, most of them Muslims, are killed.
Conservative candidate Sebastián Piñera wins the runoff presidential election in Chile, defeating Eduardo Frei of the ruling Concertación coalition, which has held power for some 20 years.
At the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., best picture honours go to Avatar and The Hangover; best director goes to James Cameron for Avatar.
January 18
An attack by a group of armed militants on the central bank in downtown Kabul is repulsed, leading to a street battle pitting the militants against Afghan soldiers and police that lasts for hours; all seven militants, three soldiers, and two civilians are killed.
Jean-Marie Doré, head of the opposition coalition Forces Vives, is chosen to serve as prime minister of a transitional government in Guinea.
In the field of children's literature, the Newbery Medal is awarded to Rebecca Stead for her novel When You Reach Me, and Jerry Pinkney wins the Caldecott Medal for The Lion & the Mouse; the Printz Award for best young-adult book goes to Libba Bray for Going Bovine.
At Thoroughbred horse racing's 2009 Eclipse Awards, the four-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra is named Horse of the Year.
Sylvie Kauffmann is named the first woman to become executive editor of Le Monde in the respected French newspaper's 65-year history.
January 19
Japan Airlines, Japan's flagship carrier, files for bankruptcy protection; it faces wrenching reorganization.
In Massachusetts, Republican candidate Scott Brown wins election over Democrat Martha Coakley to fill the seat in the U.S. Senate that was long held by Ted Kennedy.
After lengthy and contentious negotiations, the venerable British candy maker Cadbury agrees to be acquired by the American-based food and beverage giant Kraft Foods.
January 20
A riot between rival gangs breaks out in the prison in Parral in Mexico's Durango state; 23 inmates die in the violence.
A magnitude-6.1 aftershock rattles Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where people continue to die for lack of medical attention; the dearth of infrastructure is one element hampering the efficient deployment of aid.
The New York Times announces that beginning in January 2011 people who do not subscribe to the print newspaper and who read a set number of online articles in a month will be charged to get unlimited online access to the paper's articles.
January 21
In a politically explosive ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns two previous decisions that were issued in 1990 and 2003 and rules that spending on political campaigns by corporations is protected free speech and cannot be curtailed by the government; Justice John Paul Stevens files a vigorous dissent.
Angola's legislature approves a new constitution that, among other things, replaces the direct election of the president with a system in which the party that wins the majority of seats in legislative elections will choose the president.
NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies releases figures showing that the decade 2000–09 was the warmest on record, agreeing with conclusions earlier disseminated by the National Climatic Data Center; the Goddard Institute also reports that 2009 tied a group of years for second hottest year, after 2005, since 1880.
The carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. issues a recall for 2.3 million cars from model years 2005–10 to fix a reported problem with accelerators' becoming stuck, causing unintended acceleration; in November 2009 Toyota recalled 4.2 million vehicles to address a problem of accelerator pedals' getting stuck under floor mats.
The American television network NBC agrees to pay The Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien $32.5 million to quit the network; it plans to return Jay Leno as host of the show, which he left in May 2009, undoing a plan that was put in place in 2004.
January 22
U.S. government figures reveal that unemployment rates rose in December 2009 in 43 states, reaching record highs in Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
On a beach of the French island of Corsica, a boatload of 124 would-be migrants who had apparently been put ashore the previous night is found; many of the migrants are Kurds from Syria.
January 23
British officials say that the owner of ATSC Ltd. has been arrested on fraud charges; hundreds of bomb detectors the company supplied to the Iraqi government have been found to be useless.
Yokozuna Asashoryu defeats ozeki Harumafuji to win his 25th Emperor's Cup at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo.
January 24
Heavy rains cause mud slides in the area of Machu Picchu in Peru, killing some five people and cutting off road and rail access to the Inca site; hundreds of stranded visitors have to be airlifted to safety.
The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan postpones the country's legislative elections from May 22 to September 18, saying that the logistic challenges are too great to make the earlier date possible.
Kelly Kulick defeats Chris Barnes 265–195 in the championship match to win the 45th Professional Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions; she is the first woman to win a PBA Tour title.
January 25
Bombs go off at each of three large hotels that cater largely to foreign journalists and businesspeople in Baghdad; at least 36 people are killed.
The European Union decides to create a military mission headed by Spain and located in Uganda that will train forces of Somalia's interim national government to aid in the fight against insurgents.
It is reported in China that health officials have removed dairy products from store shelves in Guizhou province after finding that several food companies have supplied products tainted with the toxic industrial ingredient melamine.
January 26
A far-reaching new constitution, the country's 38th, is proclaimed in the Dominican Republic; among other measures, it increases the size of the lower chamber of the legislature to 190 and bans abortion.
The carmaker General Motors announces that it has found a buyer for its Swedish unit Saab; Spyker Cars, a Dutch manufacturer of elite sports cars, has agreed to acquire the unit.
The American Wind Energy Association reports that the capacity of the wind-power industry grew 39% in 2009, adding a record 9,900 MW.
NASA officials announce that the Mars rover Spirit, which began its mission in 2004, will never leave the sand pit in which it became stuck in spring 2009, but it is hoped that the rover will be able to continue to carry out scientific observations on-site.
Raveendran—AFP/Getty ImagesA military and cultural parade in New Delhi marks Republic Day on the 60th anniversary of India's constitution.
The ticket sales of the movie Avatar, directed by James Cameron, reach $1.86 billion, making it the highest-grossing film in history; the previous sales leader was the 1997 movie Titanic, also directed by Cameron.
January 27
Voters in Sri Lanka reelect Pres. Mahinda Rajapakse in a landslide in the country's presidential election.
After negotiations fail twice, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen declare that the parties governing Northern Ireland must within 48 hours reach an agreement on the issues of the powers of justice and the police or the British and Irish governments will publish their own solutions.
The journal Nature publishes a report from a team of British and Chinese scientists led by paleontologist Michael Benton who studied the melanosomes of structures that seem to be feathers in the fossils of the dinosaur species Sinornithosaurus and Sinosauropteryx and concluded that the former had dark feathers with reddish tints and the latter striped chestnut and white feathers; this is the first credible clue as to what colours dinosaurs may have been.
Deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya flies into voluntary exile in the Dominican Republic, and Porfirio Lobo is sworn in as Honduras's new president.
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama delivers his first state of the union address; he focuses on initiatives to create more jobs and increase employment.
In San Francisco, Apple CEO Steven P. Jobs introduces a tablet computer called the iPad; it combines features of laptops, smartphones, and electronic readers.
Kazakhstan agrees to allow NATO to ship supplies through its territory to Afghanistan; this is the final link in a route that will allow NATO to bypass the treacherous Khyber Pass from Pakistan to Afghanistan in supplying its troops.
January 28
At an international conference on Afghanistan in London, Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai says that he plans to attempt reconciliation with Taliban members and that it could take as long as 10 years for the Afghan military to be able to take over responsibility from U.S.-led coalition forces.
Former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin is acquitted of charges that he was part of a conspiracy to besmirch the reputation of Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004 with false information; three other defendants are found guilty.
The U.S. Senate confirms Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
The Fall of Heaven, the first play written by crime novelist Walter Mosley, adapted from his novel The Tempest Tales, has its world premiere at the Cincinnati (Ohio) Playhouse in the Park.
A report in Science magazine online describes findings that the amount of water vapour in the stratosphere has decreased by about 10% over the past 10 years, reducing the rate of global warming by approximately 25%; in 1980–2000 increased water vapour from methane emitted in the industrial period likely increased the rate of warming.
January 29
The U.S. Commerce Department reveals that the country's GDP in the last fiscal quarter of 2009 expanded at an annual rate of 5.7%, its fastest expansion since the third quarter of 2003, but that the economy shrank drastically for the year as a whole.
Spain's government proposes broad and deep spending cuts in an effort to decrease its budget deficit; unemployment in Spain in the last fiscal quarter of 2009 is reported at 18.8%.
January 30
A large group of masked gunmen attack a house in Juárez, Mex., where high school students are attending a party; at least 16 people are shot to death.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta states that the cease-fire that began on Oct. 25, 2009, is no longer in effect; the militant group is not satisfied with the Nigerian government's response to the cease-fire.
American Serena Williams defeats Justine Henin of Belgium to win the Australian Open women's tennis championship; the following day Roger Federer of Switzerland defeats Briton Andy Murray to take the men's title and extend his record string of Grand Slam victories to 16.
Top awards at the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, go to Winter's Bone, Restrepo, Happythankyoumoreplease, and Waiting for Superman.
January 31
At the African Union's annual summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Eth., Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi succeeds Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi as chairman of the union.
Egypt wins the African Cup of Nations in association football (soccer) for a record seventh time when it defeats Ghana 1–0 in the final match in Angola.
The stunning new Art Gallery of Alberta, designed by Randall Stout, opens to the public in Edmonton.
At the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, the top winner is Beyoncé, who wins six awards, including song of the year for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"; the award for record of the year goes to the Kings of Leon for "Use Somebody"; the album of the year is Taylor Swift's Fearless; and the best new artist is the Zac Brown Band.
February 1
UN officials announce that 55 countries, representing 78% of global greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, submitted emission-reduction plans to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by the deadline set by the Copenhagen Accord; the pledges, which do not include submissions from Russia or Mexico and are not enough to meet the goals of the agreement, are regarded as a positive step.
Outside Baghdad a female suicide bomber kills at least 38 Shiʿite pilgrims making their way to Karbalaʾ for a religious observance.
February 2
In testimony before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, support the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, in place since 1993, that prevents people who are openly gay from serving in the armed forces.
The British medical journal The Lancet retracts a 1998 article that suggested that the combined measles, mumps, and rubella childhood vaccination is a cause of autism, in light of a finding by a medical panel that Andrew Wakefield, lead author of the paper, had been dishonest.
The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publishes a report of a study that found that hardwood trees along the Eastern Seaboard in Maryland are growing two to four times as fast as normal in response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
February 3
The European Commission approves Greece's plan to reduce its deficit, currently 12.7% of GDP.
A bomb goes off in Karbalaʾ, Iraq, killing at least 21 Shiʿite pilgrims.
Pres. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina formally dismisses Martín Redrado as president of the country's central bank and replaces him with Mercedes Marcó del Pont.
Peter Robinson returns to his post as first minister of Northern Ireland after having been cleared of wrongdoing in a scandal involving his wife.
A report posted online by The New England Journal of Medicine describes a study in which MRI testing revealed that some persistently unconscious patients show brain activity in response to instructions and are capable of using thoughts to signal answers to yes-or-no questions.
Walking Man I, a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, sells at Sotheby's auction house for £65,001,250 (about $104.3 million), a new world record price for a work of art sold at auction.
February 4
The Democratic Unionist Party members of Northern Ireland's legislature approve a government agreement negotiated with Sinn Fein to transfer police and justice functions to local control on April 12.
Indian linguist Anvita Abbi reports that with the January 26 death of Boa Sr, the last known speaker of the Andamanese language of Bo, the language, thought to be among the oldest in the world and to have originated in Africa, is extinct.
Lisa Dejong—The Plain Dealer/LandovA team of paleontologists publishes in Science magazine online a full-colour portrait of the extravagant plumage of Anchiornis huxleyi, a 150-million-year-old theropod.
Yokozuna Asashoryu announces his retirement from sumo in the face of reports that he had attacked a man outside a nightclub in Tokyo the previous month.
February 5
At least two explosions take place in Karbalaʾ, Iraq, among the crowd of Shiʿite pilgrims marching to the final resting place of Imam Hussein on the final day of a religious observance; a minimum of 27 people die.
In Karachi, a bomb mangles a bus carrying Shiʿites to a religious procession, and within a few hours another bomb explodes in a hospital where the wounded from the first attack were taken; at least 25 people are killed in the attacks.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in January fell to 9.7% although 20,000 jobs were lost from the economy during the same period.
February 6
In Northern Ireland, the Irish National Liberation Army declares that it has surrendered its weapons; of the groups that signed the 1997 truce bringing peace to the province, it is the last to lay down its arms.
A winter storm that began the previous day leaves the mid-Atlantic U.S. states buried in snow, with more than 51 cm (20 in) in Washington, D.C., and a record 76 cm (30 in) in Baltimore, Md.; the governors of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia declare states of emergency.
February 7
Former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych wins the runoff presidential election in Ukraine, though his opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, does not concede.
Laura Chinchilla of the ruling National Liberation Party is elected president of Costa Rica.
As workers clear natural gas lines at the Kleen Energy Systems electrical power plant being built in Middletown, Conn., a huge gas explosion that is felt as far as 48 km (30 mi) away collapses part of the plant; at least five workers are killed.
In Miami Gardens, Fla., the New Orleans Saints defeat the Indianapolis Colts 31–17 to win the National Football League's Super Bowl XLIV; it is the first time the Saints have won the championship.
The Escogido Lions (Leones) of the Dominican Republic defeat the Caracas Lions (Leones) of Venezuela 7–4 to win baseball's Caribbean Series.
The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, which opened in Dubai, U.A.E., on January 4, is closed to the public because of problems with the power supply.
February 8
Former opposition presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka is brutally arrested by the military police in Sri Lanka; the following day Pres. Mahinda Rajapakse dissolves the legislature to force early elections.
Military officials in Pakistan report that the military has retaken the town of Damadola in the Bajaur region, where Pakistan began an offensive against the Taliban in August 2008; Taliban leaders, however, are believed to have escaped into Afghanistan.
The space shuttle Endeavour blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on a mission to the International Space Station; it carries a seven-windowed cupola and the Tranquility module, which is the last major U.S. component to be installed on the station.
Nielsen figures show that some 106.5 million people watched the Super Bowl on February 7, passing the 105.97 million people who watched the series finale of the television program M*A*S*H to make the football game the most-watched TV program in American history.
February 9
Nigeria's legislature passes a motion to recognize Vice Pres. Goodluck Jonathan as the country's acting president in view of the lengthy absence of its president; the constitution requires the president to transfer authority in the event of his absence or incapacity, but he has not done so.
Pres. Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Pres. Idriss Déby of Chad agree to stop supporting rebels in each other's countries and to engage in direct talks and joint projects.
Haiti's government raises the death toll from the earthquake that took place on January 12 to 230,000.
February 10
Civil servants in Greece engage in a one-day strike to protest austerity measures proposed by the government to reign in its budget deficit.
Iran slows Internet service and shuts down text messaging in an effort to prevent large opposition demonstrations for the following day's celebration of the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution; it also blocks Gmail (Google's e-mail service) in a stated effort to persuade people to use a recently announced national e-mail service.
A suicide bomber attacks a police convoy in the area of the Khyber Pass near Peshawar, Pak., and a rescue team is also ambushed; 17 people, including 13 police officials, die.
February 11
At a summit meeting in Brussels called by European Council Pres. Herman Van Rompuy, EU leaders agree to aid Greece in order to safeguard the euro but, at the behest of Germany, offer no specifics beyond monitoring the country's austerity plan.
South Korean news organizations report that North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-Il the previous week apologized for the country's currency reform, which had caused inflation and deprivation, and lifted the ban imposed under the reform on the use of foreign currency.
Pres. ʿAli ʿAbdallah Salih of Yemen announces an immediate cease-fire with al-Huthi rebels; a rebellion had flared up in late 2009.
A report in the journal Nature describes the decoding of the genome of a man who lived at Qeqertasussuk, Greenland, some 4,000 years ago; the genome, drawn from a sample of his hair found in 1986, indicates that his ancestry was Siberian, which suggests a previously unknown migration from Siberia across North America to Greenland.
February 12
Pres. Laurent Gbagbo of Côte d'Ivoire declares the government dissolved and asks Prime Minister Guillaume Soro to form a new government; Gbagbo also disbands the electoral commission.
The XXI Olympic Winter Games officially open in Vancouver, though the opening ceremony is overshadowed by the accidental death earlier in the day of Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili during a practice run for the luge competition.
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company begins its final tour in Columbus, Ohio; it will visit 35 cities around the world, ending in New York City at the end of 2011, after which the troupe will disband.
Renowned chef Ferran Adrià announces that he will close his storied avant-garde restaurant, elBulli, in Roses, Spain, at the end of 2011.
February 13
Afghan, U.S., and British military forces begin a major offensive to take the town and area of Marjah in Afghanistan from the Taliban; Marjah is a Taliban stronghold.
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai issues a decree giving the responsibility for appointing members of the Election Complaint Commission to the president; the commission, which documented irregularities in the 2009 presidential election, previously had membership appointed by the UN.
Iraq's election commission announces that an appeals court reversed the disqualification of 26 candidates in upcoming legislative elections but allowed the disqualification of 145 other candidates to stand.
U Tin U, the deputy leader and cofounder of the National League for Democracy, is freed from house arrest in Myanmar (Burma); he had been under detention since 2003.
The first gold medal of the Vancouver Winter Olympics is awarded to Simon Ammann of Switzerland in the normal hill individual ski jump; a week later Ammann also wins gold in the large hill final.
February 14
Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas suspends his chief of staff, Rafiq Husseini, and appoints a committee to investigate accusations, backed up by videotape, that Husseini attempted to trade political favours for sex.
During an intense battle in the offensive in Marjah, Afg., an American rocket strike misses its target and instead hits a civilian compound; at least 10 civilians are killed.
In Daytona Beach, Fla., the 52nd running of the Daytona 500 NASCAR race is won by Jamie McMurray.
After two and a half years of court battles, American challenger BMW Oracle, owned by Larry Ellison, wins the America's Cup yacht race 2–0 in a head-to-head competition; its yacht, USA-17, comes in five minutes ahead of Swiss defender Alinghi 5 in the final race off the coast of Valencia, Spain.
Alexandre Bilodeau wins the gold medal in men's moguls; the freestyle skier thus becomes the first Canadian competitor to win a gold medal at an Olympics hosted by Canada.
February 15
A police camp in India's West Bengal state is attacked by some 100 Maoist rebels, who kill at least 15 police officers before setting the camp on fire.
In response to the revelation in 2009 of the longtime perpetration and cover-up of sexual abuse of children by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, Pope Benedict XVI begins a series of individual meetings with Irish bishops.
Gov. Felix Camacho of the U.S. territory of Guam issues an executive order to government agencies to henceforth in all official communications refer to the island territory as Guahan, which is believed to reflect the island's original name in the Chamorro language.
The British team Helly Hansen-Prunesco wins the 600-km (373-mi) Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race in Chile, which involves trekking, kayaking, and biking, for the second consecutive year.
February 16
The council of European Union finance ministers agrees that if Greece has not complied with austerity demands by the meeting of March 16, it will have spending cuts imposed.
The U.S. military reports that the number of U.S. troops in Iraq has dropped to 98,000; it is the first time since the invasion in 2003 that there have been fewer than 100,000 American soldiers in Iraq.
The winners of the George Polk Awards for excellence in journalism are announced; they include a new award for videography, which this year honours the anonymous people responsible for recording and disseminating the video of the killing of a woman at a pro-democracy protest in Iran in June 2009.
The Journal of the American Medical Association publishes the results of a new genetic and medical study of the mummies buried in the pharoah Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt; among the findings are the identification of the mummy of Tutankhamen's father and predecessor as pharoah, Akhenaton, and evidence that Tutankhamen died from the combination of a degenerative bone disease and malaria.
Roundtown Mercedes of Maryscot wins Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club's 134th dog show; the Scottish terrier, known as Sadie, becomes the first dog to take the Triple Crown, having previously won at the National Dog Show and the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship.
February 17
Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev and Sergey V. Bagapsh, president of Georgia's separatist republic of Abkhazia, announce an agreement for a Russian military base to be established in Abkhazia.
A three-judge panel in North Carolina rules that Gregory Taylor was wrongly convicted of a 1991 murder and frees him from prison after hearing the recommendation of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission; the state, which established the commission in 2006, is the only U.S. state to have such a panel.
February 18
A military coup d'état takes place in Niger, and the increasingly unpopular Pres. Mamadou Tandja is taken into military custody; the coup leader is named as Salou Djibo.
At a meeting of militants in a mosque in the Khyber region of Pakistan, a bomb explosion leaves at least 30 people dead.
Yvo de Boer, who leads UN climate change negotiations, announces his resignation as executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The U.K. unexpectedly posts a budget deficit for January, the month in which its tax receipts are usually highest; it is the country's first recorded January deficit.
A software engineer, apparently frustrated by a provision of tax law pertaining to his field, crashes his small private airplane into the office building of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in Austin, Texas, killing himself and one other person.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, an adventure game by Sony, wins the prize for game of the year at the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas.
In Vancouver, American Evan Lysacek wins the Olympic gold medal in men's figure skating.
February 19
Officials in the Philippines say that the country is in the grip of a drought that has caused $61 million in damage to crops and is threatening electrical power from hydroelectric dams; Filipinos are asked to recycle water within their homes.
As the first week in the offensive in the Marjah area of Afghanistan draws to a close, 12 NATO soldiers, at least 8 of whom are Americans, have died in battle; it is estimated that 3 Afghan soldiers and 120 Taliban have also been killed.
Pope Benedict XVI approves sainthood for Sister Mary of the Cross (Mary Helen MacKillop), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart; she will be Australia's first Roman Catholic saint.
February 20
The government of the Netherlands falls over bitter disagreement as to whether Dutch troops should continue to fight as part of the NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine withdraws her court challenge to the election of Viktor Yanukovych as president, saying that she does not believe that she would get a fair hearing.
Roslyn M. Brock is announced as the new chairperson of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); she will replace Julian Bond, who has held the position since 1998.
Short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno becomes the most decorated American Winter Olympian in history with his seventh career medal, a bronze in the men's 1,000-m final; on February 26 he adds an eighth Olympic medal, also bronze, in the men's 5,000-m relay.
Christian Charisius—Reuters/LandovThe Turkish-German film Bal (Honey), directed by Semih Kaplanoglu, wins the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
February 21
Israel's air force introduces a fleet of Heron TP drones with wingspans of 26 m (86 ft) that are capable of remaining in the air for a full day and flying as far as the Persian Gulf.
Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana asks the Rio Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries to issue a statement in condemnation of plans by Britain to drill for oil in the seabed surrounding the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean; Argentina has opposed the plan with threats and by insisting that ships ask permission to travel through its waters en route to the Falklands.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson releases a detailed five-year plan for the restoration of the Great Lakes, setting out specific goals and actions to be taken by federal agencies in concert with state, local, and tribal governments.
February 22
After opposition leaders refuse to join a proposed new government in Côte d'Ivoire, violent demonstrations take place in Abidjan in which at least two protesters are killed.
At least 23 people die in various attacks in Iraq; in the worst single event, a family of eight in a Shiʿite town south of Baghdad is slaughtered.
Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi pleads guilty to charges of terrorism in New York City, admitting that he had intended to carry out a suicide bombing on the city's subway.
The publishing company Macmillan introduces DynamicBooks, an electronic textbook that professors can freely modify; the digital books, as edited by the professors, will be available for students to purchase.
February 23
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemns an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of a plan to recognize as an Israeli national heritage site the so-called Cave of the Patriarchs, known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the West Bank city of Hebron, declaring that the action could lead to war.
The winner of the Emporis Skyscraper Award, given annually to a building at least 100 m (328 ft) in height and completed within the award year, is announced as Aqua, an 81-story residential and hotel building in Chicago.
Niger's military junta appoints Mahamadou Danda prime minister of a transitional government.
Prime Minister Guillaume Soro announces the formation of a new unity government in Côte d'Ivoire.
Leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) agree to join with Latin American countries to create a new regional grouping provisionally called the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States; details of the proposed new bloc are to be determined at a meeting in July 2011.
The Communist Party of China issues an ethics code that prohibits speculation in property, profit-making deals, and lavish expenditures; corruption among officials is endemic.
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government releases a report showing that state tax revenues in the U.S. shrank in the final quarter of 2009, which makes five consecutive quarters of falling state revenues.
February 24
A second 24-hour strike against new austerity measures takes place in Greece, and thousands of aggrieved citizens march in Athens.
An Italian court convicts three executives of the Internet company Google of having violated privacy laws because of a video that was posted in 2006; the judge maintains that Google is a content provider rather than a service provider and is thus responsible for the content made available on its site.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issues new rules restricting certain short sales of stocks.
Carmaker General Motors announces that the withdrawal of China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. from a deal to purchase GM's Hummer division means that the division must be shut down.
Akio Toyoda, head of the Toyota Motor Corp., testifies before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about his company's response to the problem of sticking accelerators in some models of its cars.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown formally apologizes for a program that between the 1920s and the 1960s sent some 130,000 children, many living in orphanages and institutions, to other Commonwealth countries, often without their families' knowledge.
February 25
In a ceremony attended by the governor of Helmand province, the flag of Afghanistan is raised over Marjah, symbolizing the reclaiming of the area from the Taliban.
In Vancouver, Kim Yu-Na of South Korea wins the Olympic gold medal in ladies' figure skating with the highest score ever recorded in the event.
The U.S. National Medal of Arts is awarded to, among others, actor and director Clint Eastwood, musician Bob Dylan, architect Maya Lin, soprano Jessye Norman, and composer and conductor John Williams.
The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan meet for informal talks, the first between the countries since the terrorist attack in Mumbai (Bombay) in November 2008.
In the first visit by a French president to Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy visits Kigali, where he admits that France had been mistaken in its approach to Rwanda at the time of the genocide and agrees on cooperation on a range of subjects with Rwandan Pres. Paul Kagame.
The Darfur rebel group the Sudan Liberation Army says that the Sudanese army made three attacks on its positions in Darfur the previous day, the same day that Pres. Omar al-Bashir declared the war in Darfur over because of an agreement with the Justice and Equality Movement.
February 26
Colombia's Constitutional Court strikes down a proposed referendum to ask voters to allow Pres. Álvaro Uribe to run for a third term of office; the constitution limits the president to two consecutive terms.
With the appointment of a new electoral commission, the opposition in Côte d'Ivoire agrees to join the new government.
A spokesman for the UN Environment Programme says that the organization will appoint an independent board of scientists to review the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The U.S. government-owned mortgage backer Fannie Mae reports that it lost $16.3 billion in the final quarter of 2009 and asks for $15.3 billion from the U.S. Treasury; the number of delinquencies on mortgages continues to rise.
February 27
A magnitude-8.8 earthquake strikes central Chile, causing major damage in the area around Concepción, and is followed by a tsunami, which devastates Talcahuano and Constitución; 562 people are killed, with a further 98 missing, and more than a million are left homeless.
A court in Italy declines to suspend a corruption trial against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; a bribery charge against his lawyer had earlier been dropped, and Berlusconi is charged in the same crime.
On the island of Basilan in the Philippines, members of the Muslim militant organization Abu Sayyaf attack the town of Tubigan, leaving at least 11 people dead.
February 28
Legislative elections in Tajikistan result in a large win for the ruling People's Democratic Party; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says the election failed to meet democratic standards.
On the final day of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada defeats the U.S. 3–2 in overtime to win the gold medal in men's ice hockey.
March 1
Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev visits Paris, where he and French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy agree to negotiate the sale of four amphibious assault ships from France to Russia.
José Mujica takes office as president of Uruguay.
The UN World Food Programme reports that, last week, pirates in Somalia seized three trucks that had just unloaded food aid; in the first incidence of land piracy in Somalia, the pirates continue to hold the trucks and drivers.
March 2
Guatemala's national police chief and its antinarcotics unit leader are arrested on drug-trafficking charges stemming from a shootout the previous April between rival drug gangs over stolen cocaine.
Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of Rwandan Pres. Juvenal Habyarimana, whose death when his airplane was shot down in 1994 set off the Rwandan massacre, is arrested in France; she is believed to be among those who orchestrated the genocide.
March 3
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko loses a no-confidence vote in the legislature.
After talks with the European Union commissioner for monetary affairs, Greece announces new austerity measures.
Two car bombings outside government and campaign offices, followed by a suicide bombing in a hospital emergency room, leave at least 33 people dead in Baʿqubah, Iraq.
Meeting in Cairo, the foreign ministers of the Arab League endorse a plan for U.S.-mediated indirect peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Leonid V. Tyagachev resigns as head of Russia's Olympic Committee because of Russia's poor showing in the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
March 4
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces that U.S. aid to Honduras, which was suspended after the overthrow of its president in 2009, will be resumed.
Faure Gnassingbé wins reelection as president of Togo.
Both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank decide to leave their benchmark interest rates unchanged; the level is 0.5% for the Bank of England and 1% for the European Central Bank.
Egypt's Court of Cassation overturns the murder conviction of and death sentence against well-connected multimillionaire Hisham Talaat Moustafa for having ordered the death of Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim; a new trial is ordered.
March 5
Youssouf Saleh Abbas resigns as prime minister of Chad; he is replaced by Emmanuel Nadingar.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in February remained steady at 9.7%; the number of jobs lost, 36,000, is lower than was anticipated.
The American car manufacturer General Motors announces plans to reopen 661 of the more than 1,000 dealerships that it shut down in 2009 as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.
A study published in the journal Science describes new research on Arctic undersea permafrost that has been found to be melting, causing the release of heat-trapping methane gas into the atmosphere.
Biologists in California's Pinnacles National Monument confirm the presence of the first condor egg laid by wild condors within the park in more than 100 years.
March 6
Russia's Federal Security Service reports that militant leader Aleksandr Tikhomirov (nom de guerre Said Buryatsky) was killed in a raid in the republic of Ingushetiya several days previously and that proof had been found that Tikhomirov's organization was behind several recent attacks, including the bombing of the Nevsky Express train in November 2009.
O.Corsan—Maxppp/LandovAmerican musician Stevie Wonder accepts an award as Commander of Arts and Letters from France; the honour was originally announced in 1981.
March 7
Closely contested, pivotal legislative elections take place in Iraq; it is expected to take weeks to tally the vote.
Near Jos, Nigeria, attacks on the primarily Christian villages of Dogo na Hauwa, Ratsat, and Zot leave as many as 500 people dead; the attacks appear to be revenge for violence that occurred in January against Muslims.
At the 82nd Academy Awards presentation, hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, Oscars are won by, among others, The Hurt Locker (best picture) and its director, Kathryn Bigelow (the first woman to win the award for best director), and actors Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz, and Mo'Nique.
The synagogue and office of the 12th-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides is quietly unveiled after a major restoration in Cairo.
March 8
The government of Myanmar (Burma) declares that it has completed an election law; the law sets draconian limits on political participation, including conditions that would bar the candidacy of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Guinea's interim government announces that a presidential election will be held on June 27.
March 9
China and India formally agree to join the Copenhagen Accord, the nonbinding international agreement to attempt to ameliorate global warming that was arrived at in December 2009.
The Central and Southern Andes GPS Project reports that the February 27 earthquake in Chile caused Santiago to move 28 cm (11 in) and Concepción 3 m (10 ft) to the west.
The United Nations holds a memorial service to honour the 101 UN employees who died in the earthquake in Haiti in January.
The $250,000 A.M. Turing Award for excellence in computer science is granted to Chuck Thacker for his pioneering work as a cocreator of the early Alto personal computer and of Ethernet networking.
March 10
Shortly after a visit to Afghanistan by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran meets with Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai in Kabul.
China reports a 46% year-on-year increase in its exports in February; this is a much larger increase than was expected.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that unemployment increased in 30 states in January, with new records set in California, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia; the highest unemployment rate in the country, 14.3%, is in Michigan.
The board of the troubled school district of Kansas City, Mo., votes to close 28 of the city's 61 schools.
March 11
Two strong aftershocks of the February 27 earthquake in Chile, the first measured at 7.2 magnitude and the second at 6.9, startle dignitaries attending the inauguration of Sebastián Piñera as president of Chile.
Mykola Azarov takes office as prime minister of Ukraine.
In New York City the winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards are announced as Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall (fiction), Richard Holmes for The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (nonfiction), Blake Bailey for Cheever: A Life (biography), Diana Athill for Somewhere Towards the End: A Memoir (autobiography), Rae Armantrout for Versed (poetry), and Eula Biss for Notes from No Man's Land: American Essays (criticism); Joyce Carol Oates is granted the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.
At the Laureus World Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is named sportsman of the year, while American tennis star Serena Williams wins sportswoman of the year; South African swimmer Natalie du Toit takes the award for sportsperson of the year with a disability.
March 12
At a market in Lahore, Pak., two suicide bombers leave at least 45 people dead, about a dozen of whom are Pakistani soldiers.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; the leaders sign agreements to cooperate on nuclear, military, and space projects.
On the same day that Pope Benedict XVI (formerly Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger) meets with Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, head of the German Bishops Conference, the archdiocese of Munich and Freising in Germany reveals that in 1980 Ratzinger (then head of the archdiocese) permitted the transfer for therapy of a priest who was accused of molesting boys and who later returned to both pastoral duties and child molestation.
March 13
At least four bombings take place in Kandahar, Afg.; one explosion causes buildings to collapse near the prison, and at least 35 people are killed.
An employee of the U.S. consulate and her husband are shot to death in an attack in Juárez, Mex., and the husband of another consular worker is also killed; in addition, some 50 people die in drug-related violence throughout Mexico over the weekend.
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama proposes a number of changes to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002—changes intended to reduce the focus on testing and to reward top-performing schools, among other reforms.
In New Delhi, Australia defeats Germany 2–1 to win the International Hockey Federation World Cup in field hockey.
March 14
Tens of thousands of supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, known as red shirts, march in Bangkok to demand the resignation of Thailand's government.
Katie Spotz, age 22, lands in Georgetown, Guyana, after having left Dakar, Senegal, on January 3 and rowed for 4,533.5 km (2,817 mi) across the Atlantic Ocean to become the youngest person and first American to row solo across an entire ocean.
Hungargunn Bear It'n Mind wins Best in Show at the Crufts dog show in Birmingham, Eng.; the Hungarian Vizsla, known as Yogi, is the first of its breed to win the coveted title.
March 15
Somalia's transitional government agrees to give government posts, including five ministries, to leaders of the militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama'a in return for their military support against Islamist insurgents.
The government of Haiti releases a report compiled with various international agencies that estimates that some 220,000 people died in the earthquake in January, with a further 869 people missing, that some 105,000 houses were destroyed and 1,300 schools and 50 hospitals were rendered unusable, and that it will need $11.5 billion over the next three years for reconstruction.
Peter Hullermann, the Roman Catholic priest at the centre of a child molestation controversy in Germany that dates to 1980, is for the first time suspended from duty.
In a ceremony in New York City, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts musician Jimmy Cliff, the groups Abba, Genesis, the Hollies, and the Stooges, songwriters Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman, and Otis Blackwell, and producer David Geffen.
March 16
The Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Uganda comprising the burial places of four kings of the historic kingdom of Buganda, is destroyed by fire; the cause of the fire is unknown.
The High Court in Sierra Leone overturns a ban on a woman's becoming paramount chief of Kissy Teng chiefdom, allowing Iye Kendor Bandabla, a daughter and granddaughter of paramount chiefs, to become the first woman in the country's eastern Kailahun district to be a candidate for paramount chief.
Golf star Tiger Woods announces on his Web site that he plans to return to professional golf at the Masters tournament in April after a hiatus that began in November 2009.
Lance Mackey wins the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for a record fourth consecutive year, passing under the Burled Arch in Nome, Alaska, after a journey of 8 days 23 hours 59 minutes 9 seconds.
March 17
Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's acting president, dissolves the cabinet; he had earlier dismissed the national security adviser in the wake of mass killings near Jos.
In the traditional kingdom of Buganda in Uganda, riots erupt over the destruction of the royal tombs at Kasubi as supporters of the Bugandan king, or kabaka, blame arson for the destruction and try to block Ugandan Pres. Yoweri Museveni from the site.
A U.S. Court of Appeals upholds an injunction barring the prosecution of minor children for "sexting"—transmitting sexually suggestive text messages and images by cell phone or over the Internet—in a case in which parents of children whose images were found on cell phones objected to the prosecution.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 47.69 points to close at 10,733.67, its highest level since 2008; the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index posts a gain of 6.75 points, while the Nasdaq rises 11.08 points.
The Dresden Historians' Commission publishes a report after five years of research on the 1945 Allied bombings of Dresden, Ger., during World War II; it concluded that about 25,000 people were killed, fewer than had been widely believed.
It is reported that local authorities have taken control of the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Shenyang, China, after 11 Siberian tigers at the zoo starved to death.
March 18
According to unverified news reports in South Korea, North Korea's chief financial official, Pak Nam-Gi, appears to have been arrested and may have been executed.
In an effort to balance its budget during a time of fiscal crisis, Arizona eliminates its Children's Health Insurance Program, which covered about 47,000 children in the state.
At a meeting in Doha, Qatar, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora rejects U.S.-backed proposals to ban international trade in the severely depleted bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears.
American astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev return to Earth in a Soyuz space capsule after nearly six months aboard the International Space Station.
March 19
India's central bank raises its benchmark repurchase interest rate to 5% from 4.75% after having not raised its rates for almost two years; both Australia and Malaysia previously raised rates in March.
March 20
Pope Benedict XVI sends a pastoral letter to Roman Catholics in Ireland, offering a passionately worded apology for decades of abuse of children at the hands of Irish clergy and condemning church leaders for having allowed the abuse to go on.
After the breakdown of contract talks between the Unite trade union and the management of British Airways, cabin crews of the airline begin a three-day strike, leading to the cancellation of 1,100 flights.
With its 12–10 defeat of England, France wins the Six Nations Rugby Union championship, having achieved a record of 5–0; the previous day the women's championship had gone to England for the fifth consecutive year.
March 21
Both Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Pres. Jalal Talabani of Iraq express support for calls for a recount of the country's parliamentary election held on March 7; the election commission, which has not yet released the complete results, rejects the calls.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora dismisses a proposal to restrict trade in 31 species of corals; in another vote, however, it chooses not to relax the prohibition on trade in ivory, first enacted in 1989.
In London Spring Awakening wins four Laurence Olivier Awards: best new musical, best actor in a musical or entertainment (Aneurin Barnard), best supporting performance in a musical or entertainment (Iwan Rheon), and best sound design.
March 22
The Internet company Google closes its online search service in mainland China, directing users there to its service in Hong Kong, where search results are not censored, as they were in mainland China.
Former British cabinet members Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon, and Patricia Hewitt—having been caught in a televised sting in which they offered to sell access to government contacts—are suspended from the Labour Party.
A delegation of the major Afghan insurgent group Hezb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) meets in Kabul with Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai to present and discuss a peace plan.
The ruling Justice and Development Party in Turkey proposes changes to the constitution that would weaken the independence of the judiciary.
Air pollution in Hong Kong reaches a record level, exceeding 400; a level above 200 is considered severe, and the previous record, set in July 2008, was 202.
March 23
After a long and bruising legislative battle, a sweeping and complex health care reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is signed into law by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama.
At New York City's Museum of Modern Art, French architect Jean Nouvel unveils his Bedouin-inspired design for the National Museum of Qatar.
The winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is announced as Sherman Alexie for his story and poem collection War Dances.
March 24
Japan's legislature approves a record ¥92.3 trillion (about $1 trillion) budget intended to stimulate the economy; the government also announces a reversal of a plan started by former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi to privatize the postal banking system.
Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of Bishop John Magee of Ireland, who apologizes for his failure to act to protect children when he was confronted with accusations that priests had engaged in child molestation.
A small island in the Bay of Bengal claimed by both India (which called it New Moore Island) and Bangladesh (which called it South Talpatti Island) is reported by the School of Oceanographic Studies in Kolkata (Calcutta) to have disappeared, a victim of rising sea levels.
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters awards its annual Abel Prize for outstanding work in mathematics to American mathematician John T. Tate for his contributions to the theory of numbers.
The winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for children's literature is announced as Belgian author and illustrator Kitty Crowther.
March 25
The countries of the euro zone agree on a rescue package for Greece that includes bilateral loans from the members of the grouping and from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to be used if Greece cannot find funding in the commercial markets; in addition, the European Central Bank announces that it will not tighten lending rules until 2011.
Francisco J. Ayala, a Spanish-born American evolutionary biologist and geneticist, is named the winner of the Templeton Prize for his contributions to affirming the roles of both science and religious faith in advancing human understanding.
Pakistan makes air strikes on two Taliban targets in the northwest of the country, killing nearly 50 people, 38 of whom are militants, according to the government.
Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of the independent television station Globovisión in Venezuela, is arrested by Venezuelan military intelligence but released several hours later, though he is told that he remains under investigation; he is an outspoken critic of the government.
In the U.A.E., the emirate of Dubayy announces plans to recapitalize and restructure the investment company Dubai World and to take over its real-estate arm, Nakheel.
Spain's Supreme Court allows an investigating magistrate to continue with a case filed by conservative organizations against Judge Baltasar Garzón; the case maintains that Garzón's inquiry into the forced disappearances of people during the rule (1936–75) of dictator Francisco Franco is an abuse of his powers.
The journal Nature publishes online a study of the DNA of a fossil finger bone found in Siberia's Altai Mountains in 2008; the analysis indicates that the bone may belong to a previously unknown hominin species whose lineage diverged from that of Neanderthals and modern humans about a million years ago.
March 26
The results of the March 7 election in Iraq are announced: the al-Iraqiyyah bloc, headed by former prime minister Ayad ʿAllawi, wins 91 seats—the highest number won by any party—while the State of Law coalition, led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, wins 89 seats; in order to form a government, a coalition must control 163 seats.
Two bombs explode near a cafe and a restaurant in Khalis, Iraq, in Diyala province; at least 59 people are killed.
A South Korean navy patrol ship near disputed waters west of the Korean peninsula is sunk by what is believed to be a torpedo attack from North Korea; 46 crew members are killed.
March 27
Pres. Hosni Mubarak of Egypt returns to the country after having undergone an operation to remove his gallbladder and convalesced for three weeks in Germany.
Gloria de Campeao wins the Dubai World Cup, the world's richest horse race, in a photo finish with Lizard's Desire.
March 28
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan (his first as president), where he meets with troops and sits down with Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai; Obama asks for greater progress on a number of fronts—in particular, the fight against corruption in the Afghan government.
For the first time, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva meets with leaders of antigovernment protesters; both sides agree to continue talks.
The American car company Ford Motor agrees to sell its Swedish-based subsidiary Volvo to the Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.
Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev orders that the Pacific Far East time zone be eliminated and drops a second time zone in central Russia, reducing the number of time zones in the country to nine.
Thieves make off with at least £22 million (about $32.8 million) in cash and jewelry from safe-deposit boxes in the vault of a Crédit Lyonnais bank in Paris that was closed for renovations; the thieves had tunneled in through walls from a neighbouring basement the previous night.
A gang of masked men armed with pistols and machine guns invades a crowded casino near Basel, Switz., and quickly steals hundreds of thousands of dollars from registers.
Germany defeats Scotland to win the women's world curling championship in Swift Current, Sask.; German skip Andrea Schöpp is, at 45, the oldest skip ever to have won the title.
Zak Hussein—PA Photos/LandovJapanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA are named winners of the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize; among their works are the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Kensington Gardens in London.
March 29
Two female suicide bombers blow themselves up at two stations on a Moscow subway line during the morning rush hour; 40 commuters are killed.
In Myanmar (Burma), the opposition National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, announces that it will boycott the as-yet-unscheduled election; under new election laws, this means that the party must be dissolved.
Human Rights Watch reports that in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the brutal Ugandan militia the Lord's Resistance Army in December 2009 rounded up and kidnapped hundreds of people from villages outside Niangara, killing at least 320 of them.
After FBI raids in the U.S. states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, indictments are unsealed against nine members of a Michigan-based apocalyptic Christian militia called the Hutaree; the militia is said to have planned to kill police officers in hopes of triggering an antigovernment revolution.
Four executives of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto are convicted in a Shanghai court of having accepted bribes and having stolen business secrets; they are given prison sentences ranging from 7 to 14 years.
March 30
Pakistan's Supreme Court orders the arrest of Ahmad Riaz Sheikh, the head of the white-collar-crime division of the Federal Investigation Agency, who is under investigation for corruption; in addition, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry threatens to arrest the head of the National Accountability Bureau if by the following day he has not sought to reopen corruption cases against Pres. Asif Ali Zardari in courtrooms in Switzerland.
For the first time, physicists succeed in creating collisions between subatomic particles in the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva.
March 31
The opposition Sudan People's Liberation Movement announces that its candidate for president, Yasir Arman, will not take part in national elections in Sudan that are to begin April 11; Arman was widely considered to have been the principal challenger to Pres. Omar al-Bashir.
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar unveil proposals to open much of the Atlantic coastline, parts of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska's north coast to offshore oil and natural gas drilling.
The U.S. Federal Reserve ends its program, begun in November 2008, of buying mortgage-backed securities; the program was, to date, the Fed's largest single effort to stabilize the economy.
April 1
A law making universal primary education both compulsory and free goes into effect in India.
Several opposition parties announce that they intend to boycott upcoming elections in Sudan.
The U.S. government announces new fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks that will require vehicles to reach an average of 35.5 mi per gallon of gas by the 2016 model year, about 10 mi per gallon more efficient than current requirements.
April 2
In the Iraqi village of Hawr Rajab, near Baghdad, men claiming to be part of a joint American-Iraqi military unit go from house to house rounding up members of a prominent family that was active in the Awakening Council movement; 25 adult family members are slaughtered.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in March remained steady at 9.7% and that the economy added 162,000 nonfarm jobs.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advises owners of buildings that contain Chinese-made drywall that emits unacceptable levels of hydrogen sulfide to remove and replace not only all such drywall but also all associated electrical systems, gas piping, sprinkler systems, and other components that contain metal; hydrogen sulfide has a corrosive effect on metal.
Artist, playwright, director, and choreographer Robert Wilson is announced as the recipient of the $100,000 Jerome Robbins Award.
April 3
Tens of thousands of antigovernment red-shirt protesters block the main commercial district in Bangkok, vowing to continue the protest until new elections have been scheduled.
Shortly after departing from the port of Gladstone, the Shen Neng 1, a Chinese freighter carrying tons of coal and bunker fuel and traveling 14.5 km (9 mi) outside its shipping lane, runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia in what is feared to be an ecological catastrophe.
Rebecca Blackwell/APAs part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Senegal's independence, a 50-m (164-ft) copper-clad statue of a man, woman, and child, intended as a monument to Africa's renaissance, is unveiled.
Cambridge comes from behind to defeat Oxford in the 156th University Boat Race; Cambridge now leads the series 80–75.
April 4
Three suicide car bombings in Baghdad's diplomatic quarter kill at least 30 people and injure scores.
A magnitude-7.2 earthquake with its epicentre near the Baja California city of Mexicali, Mex., causes property damage in both Mexico and southern California and kills two people in Mexicali; though it is an unusually strong earthquake, the damage is fairly light.
April 5
At least six Pakistanis are killed in a massive but unsuccessful assault by militants on the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, Pak.
Thousands of people march in downtown Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, demanding that the legislature be dissolved and that promises made in 2008 to share profits from the country's mineral wealth with the citizens be honoured.
Apple Inc. reports that more than 300,000 iPads were sold on the initial day of sale of the device.
The NCAA championship in men's basketball is won by Duke University, which defeats Butler University 61–59; the following day the University of Connecticut defeats Stanford University 53–47 to win the women's title and become the first team in women's college basketball to have two consecutive undefeated seasons.
April 6
Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's acting president, installs a new cabinet and fires the head of the national oil company.
In the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Naxalite (Maoist) insurgents ambush a paramilitary unit returning to base after a two-day patrol in the forest; at least 73 officers are killed.
Seven bombings, including five from bombs placed in apartment buildings, leave at least 35 people dead in Baghdad.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown officially sets parliamentary elections for May 6.
It is reported that a team of Russian and American scientists working at the Dubna cyclotron particle accelerator on the Volga River in Russia believe that by means of smashing isotopes of calcium into radioactive berkelium, they have produced six atoms of the previously unknown element 117.
April 7
After a day of fighting in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, between antigovernment protesters and police in which at least 85 people are killed, opposition politicians succeed in forcing Pres. Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the city; former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva is said to be in charge.
Antigovernment red-shirt protesters invade the parliament building in Bangkok; lawmakers flee, and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declares a state of emergency.
In response to pressure from the U.S. and other Western countries to institute political reform, Pres. Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan fires the top two officials of the country's discredited election commission.
A ceremony is held in Russia to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre of some 22,000 Poles by the Soviet secret police; for the first time Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has invited Polish officials to join in the ceremony, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk takes part in the observations.
April 8
Pakistan's National Assembly unanimously approves a change to the constitution that repeals many of the changes put in by previous military governments, transfers most authority from the president to the legislature, and gives the North-West Frontier Province a new name: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In legislative elections in Sri Lanka, the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance wins 60.3% of the vote.
In a ceremony in Prague, Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. Pres. Barack Obama sign the New START nuclear arms control treaty.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cancels plans to attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), scheduled to take place in Hanoi, because of the crisis caused by increasingly vehement antigovernment red-shirt protests.
April 9
Russia suspends adoptions of Russian children by Americans the day after a seven-year-old boy who had been adopted by an American woman in Shelbyville, Tenn., arrived alone in Russia carrying a note from his adoptive mother saying that for reasons of safety she no longer wants to be the child's parent.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announces that he plans to retire at the end of the present term of the court, of which he has been a member since 1975.
An article in the journal Science describes the finding in South Africa of hominin fossils that exhibit a mix of primitive and advanced characteristics that mark them as belonging to a previously unknown species, dubbed Australopithecus sediba, believed to be descended from A. africanus and possibly ancestral to Homo erectus.
April 10
A Tupolev Tu-154 plane carrying Polish Pres. Lech Kaczynski to a Polish memorial for the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre crashes near Smolensk, Russia, in bad weather, killing all 97 people aboard, among them Kaczynski, several legislators, the chiefs of the army and the navy, and the national bank head.
Thai military forces attempt to break up the antigovernment red-shirt occupation of the commercial centre of Bangkok and are repulsed by the protesters; 25 people are killed in the violence.
Favourite jumper Don't Push It, ridden by jockey Tony McCoy, wins the Grand National steeplechase horse race at the Aintree course in Liverpool, Eng., by five lengths.
April 11
Three days (later extended to five) of state, regional, and national elections get under way in Sudan.
Leaders of the 16 countries of the euro zone announce that they can offer Greece as much as €30 billion ($40.5 billion) at 5% interest, in addition to money that the IMF might be able to offer, to help the country meet its debt obligations.
Phil Mickelson of the U.S. wins the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga., finishing three strokes ahead of British golfer Lee Westwood.
April 12
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 8.62 points to finish at 11,005.97, its first close above 11,000 points in 19 months.
A study of maternal deaths from pregnancy and childbirth is published in the medical journal The Lancet; among its findings is that the number of such deaths worldwide decreased from an annual figure of 526,300 in 1980 to 342,900 in 2008.
A second investigation by an independent panel of scientists finds that the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, Eng., did not in any way distort its data on human-caused global warming; such accusations had arisen after private e-mail exchanges from the university were made public in 2009.
In New York City the winners of the 2010 Pulitzer Prizes are announced: four awards go to the Washington Post, which wins for international reporting, feature writing, commentary, and criticism; winners in letters include Liaquat Ahamed in history and Rae Armantrout in poetry.
April 13
The day after the freighter Shen Neng 1, which ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Australia on April 3, was refloated, an Australian government scientist estimates that it could take up to 20 years for the coral reef to recover from the damage; the ship left a scar 3 km (1.9 mi) long and as much as 250 m (820 ft) wide.
In response to an edict by the militant group Hizbul Islam, at least 14 radio stations in Somalia stop broadcasting music.
The magazine Consumer Reports warns that the 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV has a handling problem that can cause a rollover; the manufacturer, Toyota, quickly suspends sales of the vehicle.
Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska signs into law a measure that bans, with rare exceptions, abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, on the basis that fetuses at that stage of development can feel pain; researchers have not reached a consensus on the subject of fetal pain.
The winner of the 2010 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is named as Eleanor Ross Taylor.
April 14
China's Qinghai province, near its border with Sichuan province, is struck by a magnitude-6.9 earthquake, whose epicentre is in Yushu county; the town of Jiegu on the Plateau of Tibet is largely destroyed, and at least 2,260 people perish.
The U.S. Library of Congress announces an agreement to add the public content of the microblogging service Twitter to its archives.
At the culmination of the Kumbh Mela religious festival in Haridwar, India, some 10 million Hindus bathe in the Ganges River, which is believed to be especially sacred at this time.
April 15
Airspace over the British Isles and some airports in France and Germany are closed because of the cloud of silicate ash drifting over Europe from the previous day's eruption of the glacial volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland.
The first-ever televised debate between candidates for prime minister of the U.K. takes place in Manchester, Eng., as incumbent Gordon Brown of the Labour Party, Conservative Party leader David Cameron, and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats answer questions from a moderator on ITV1.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev resigns as president of Kyrgyzstan and goes into exile.
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama orders that rules be issued to hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid that require them to grant designated nonfamily members, including same-sex partners, the same rights to visit hospital patients as those granted to family members.
Rallies of generally conservative libertarian Tea Party groups take place in several cities in the U.S.
April 16
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission files suit against the investment firm Goldman Sachs, accusing it of having created and sold a mortgage investment vehicle that was intended to fail, causing investors to lose money to a hedge fund that the company also created; stocks drop precipitously in response.
Volcanic ash from the continuing eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland spreads eastward across northern Europe, expanding the area closed to air travel and thus stranding thousands of passengers and disrupting trade, business, and performance schedules.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that although 33 states posted gains in employment in March, 17 states saw higher unemployment, with new records set in California, Florida, Nevada, and Georgia and the highest rate, 14.1%, in Michigan.
The major American bank Bank of America reports a profit in the first fiscal quarter of the year, following two successive losing quarters; its CEO, Brian T. Moynihan, says that trading revenue from its subsidiary Merrill Lynch covered losses from home loans in the parent bank.
April 17
The UN endorses Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai's appointment of former Supreme Court justice Fazel Ahmed Manawi to head the country's discredited election commission and agrees to a plan to let the UN appoint two (rather than the previous three) members of the five-member Electoral Complaints Commission, with those members given veto power.
Two small bombs explode outside a stadium in Bangalore, India, where an Indian Premier League cricket match is about to begin; 15 people are injured and a wall is ripped apart, and several more bombs are later discovered and defused.
April 18
Dervis Eroglu is elected president of the unilaterally declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Somalia's transitional national government announces that radio stations that heed an edict by the militant Islamist group Hizbal Islam to cease playing music will be shut down by the government for cooperating with insurgents.
The last working sardine cannery in the U.S., owned by Bumble Bee Foods since 2004 but open for several decades, shuts down in Prospect Harbor, Maine.
April 19
Pakistani Pres. Asif Ali Zardari signs into law an amendment to the constitution that makes Pakistan a parliamentary democracy, with more power belonging to the prime minister than to the president.
In response to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's legal challenges to the official results of the March 7 legislative election, a judge in Iraq orders a recount of votes cast in the province that includes Baghdad.
Arizona's state legislature passes a bill that requires police to ask for documentation from people whom they suspect of being illegal immigrants and to arrest those who fail to produce proof of legality and that makes failure to carry such documents a crime; Gov. Jan Brewer signs it into law on April 23.
The 114th Boston Marathon is won by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot of Kenya with a time of 2 hr 5 min 52 sec; the fastest woman is Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia, who posts a time of 2 hr 26 min 11 sec.
April 20
U.S. Coast Guard—Reuters/LandovThe deep-sea oil-drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, leased by energy company BP and working in the Gulf of Mexico some 80 km (50 mi) off the coast of the U.S. state of Louisiana, suddenly explodes in what is thought to be an unprecedented accident; 17 crew members are injured, and 11 are lost, and the platform continues to burn the next day.
Brazil's electrical regulatory authority grants a consortium of companies the right to build a controversial hydroelectric dam that will be the third largest ever built; the deal to construct the Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon, is approved just a day after a federal judge suspended bidding on the project.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules unconstitutional a 1999 federal law that prohibits recordings and depictions of the deliberate maiming, torturing, or killing of animals, such as videos of dogfighting.
The space shuttle Discovery returns to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a mission to deliver scientific supplies to the International Space Station.
The musical American Idiot, with music by punk rock band Green Day and based on its 2004 album American Idiot, opens on Broadway in New York City to rapturous reviews.
April 21
Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, and Niger open a joint military headquarters in Tamanrasset, Alg., in order to coordinate responses to terrorism and crime related to drug trafficking.
The futuristically designed city of Brasília, the capital of Brazil, celebrates its 50th anniversary; though planned for a population of 600,000, the city is home to 2.6 million.
The U.S. unveils a redesigned $100 bill whose images—designed to make the bill difficult to counterfeit—change in appearance as the bill is manipulated.
April 22
The oil-drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded two days previously, suffers more explosions and sinks in the Gulf of Mexico, raising the spectre of ecological catastrophe.
In Belgium the Liberal Party leaves the five-party ruling coalition during a dispute over language rights in a bilingual district, and the government falls.
Eurostat revises its estimate of Greece's budget deficit in 2009 to 13.6% of GDP, higher than the Greek government's estimate of 12.9%, and the rating agency Moody's downgrades its rating for Greek bonds.
Pope Benedict XVI accepts the resignation of Bishop James Moriarty of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland in more fallout from the sex abuse scandal there, and German Bishop Walter Mixa of Augsburg—an outspoken conservative who has been accused of physically abusing children in an orphanage as well as of financial irregularities—offers his resignation to the pope.
In Bangkok's business district, near an area where pro-government demonstrators are gathered to shout at a much larger antigovernment red-shirt protest, five grenades explode; one person is killed, and 75 are injured.
At the National Magazine Awards in New York City, Glamour wins the inaugural Magazine of the Year award, for which both print and online publications are eligible; general excellence award winners are National Geographic, Men's Health, GQ, New York, Mother Jones, and San Francisco.
April 23
Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou formally requests financial aid from his country's euro zone partners and the IMF.
Three bombs explode near the headquarters of Shiʿite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad, and other bombings take place elsewhere in Baghdad; at least 58 people are killed.
North Korea confiscates five buildings owned by South Korea at the jointly run Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea; South Korea suspended tours to the resort after a South Korean tourist was killed there by North Korean soldiers in 2008.
Fighting between the Sudan People's Liberation Army and an Arab militia leaves at least 58 people dead in the Darfur area of Sudan.
For the first time since the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland began erupting on April 14, two airports in Iceland close because of the dangers to aircraft posed by volcanic dust; some 29% of global aviation has been disrupted by the volcano's eruption.
Five federal police officers and a city policeman are ambushed by a large number of gunmen and killed in a hail of bullets in Juárez, Mex.
April 24
The front half of the South Korean warship that sank on March 26 after an explosion believed to have resulted from a missile attack is lifted from the water; the rear half of the ship was salvaged earlier.
An election in Nauru fails to break the deadlock between rival parties, as all 18 of the legislators running for office are reelected.
April 25
Runoff elections are held in several legislative districts in Hungary two weeks after the first-round elections; the conservative opposition Fidesz–Hungarian Civic Alliance wins a convincing majority of seats.
Heinz Fischer wins election to a second term of office as president of Austria in a landslide.
Officials reveal that it has been found that the deepwater well drilled by the now-sunken oil rig Deepwater Horizon is leaking 159,000 litres (42,000 gal) of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico; BP is attempting to activate a blowout preventer to seal the well 1,525 m (5,000 ft) below the ocean's surface and is using chemical dispersants to break up the oil.
At its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the World Bank agrees to increase its operating capital by $5.1 billion and to give countries with emerging economies, including Brazil and India, a greater share of voting power.
Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia wins the London Marathon with a time of 2 hr 5 min 19 sec, and Liliya Shobukhova of Russia is the fastest woman in the race, with a time of 2 hr 22 min 0 sec.
April 26
Pres. Omar al-Bashir is announced as the winner of presidential elections held in Sudan on April 11–15; international observers say that the elections fell short of democratic standards.
King Albert II of Belgium accepts the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, though Leterme will remain as the head of a caretaker government.
An elections court in Iraq disqualifies a winning candidate in the legislative elections for having had ties to the former Baʿth Party and also disqualifies 51 losing candidates, whose votes will have to be redistributed; this action further muddies the question of which party should form a government.
The Audit Bureau of Circulations reports that in the six-month period ended March 31, American newspaper weekday circulation fell 8.7% from the same period the previous year.
A man dies of radiation exposure in a hospital in New Delhi; he, along with several others, was exposed to the radioactivity at scrap-metal shops, and it is thought that the source of the contamination is obsolete medical equipment discarded amid the scrap metal.
April 27
The rating agency Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's government bonds to junk status.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev announce that they have reached an agreement on the border between the countries that runs under the oil-rich Barents Sea; it extends the existing border north into the Arctic Ocean.
In spite of brawling and the throwing of eggs and smoke bombs, Ukraine's legislature agrees to extend Russia's lease on a naval base in Sevastapol, Ukr., for 25 years in return for lower prices on natural gas from Russia.
Germany opens an offshore wind farm some 45 km (28 mi) off the coast in the North Sea with a test field of 12 wind turbines; it is the country's first offshore wind farm.
April 28
The U.S. Department of the Interior authorizes the construction of the Cape Wind project, which is anticipated to be the country's first offshore wind farm; it is to be built in Nantucket Sound some eight kilometres (five miles) off the coast of Massachusetts.
The IMF pledges to increase the size of the aid package for Greece from €45 billion to as much as €120 billion over three years as it attempts to negotiate deeper cuts in Greece's budget.
A man enters a primary school in China's Guangdong province and stabs 15 children and a teacher; all victims survive.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater announces that choreographer Robert Battle will succeed Judith Jamison as the company's artistic director upon Jamison's retirement in June 2011.
April 29
The day after an announcement that oil from the undersea well drilled by the sunken oil rig Deepwater Horizon is spilling at a rate of 5,000 bbl, or 757,080 litres (200,000 gal), a day—five times the previous estimate—the U.S. government adds resources from the U.S. Navy to the Coast Guard and BP personnel trying to stop the spread of oil.
In China's Jiangsu province an unemployed man enters a school in Taixing and stabs 3 adults and 28 kindergarten students, critically injuring at least 5 of them.
April 30
Tens of thousands of protesters rally in Tirana, the capital of Albania, to demand a partial recount of the votes in the election that took place on June 28, 2009; the opposition believes that there was vote rigging.
Opening ceremonies for the six-month World Expo, expected to be attended by as many as 70 million people, are held in Shanghai.
May 1
A smoke-filled Nissan Pathfinder is reported to police by two street vendors who noticed it parked with its engine running near New York City's Times Square; it proves to contain a failed car bomb that would have caused a massive explosion if it had succeeded.
Two bomb explosions in a mosque frequented by leaders of the al-Shabaab rebel group in Mogadishu, Som., leave at least 39 people dead.
Pope Benedict XVI takes direct control of the widespread and influential religious order Legionaries of Christ; the order was founded in 1941 by Marcial Maciel Degollado, a Mexican priest who was later found to have engaged in sexual abuse.
Super Saver, ridden by Calvin Borel, wins the Kentucky Derby by two and a half lengths.
Long-shot colt Makfi, ridden by Cristophe Lemaire, beats Dick Turpin by a length and a quarter to win the Two Thousand Guineas horse race in Newmarket, Suffolk, Eng.
May 2
Greece signs an agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that commits it to deep cuts in the public sector, tax increases, and tax reform in return for bailout funds.
The Islamist militant organization Hizbul Islam seizes the pirate stronghold port city of Xarardheere, Som.; the pirates flee.
May 3
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva offers antigovernment red-shirt protesters a reconciliation plan that, in return for concessions from the protesters, calls for elections to be held in November, well before the end of Abhisit's term of office.
United Airlines announces its purchase of Continental Airlines; the combined company will be the world's largest airline.
The U.S. Supreme Court announces that as a security measure, it will no longer permit those seeking access to the courthouse to use the front door of the building; instead, they must enter through lower-level side doors.
The day after Lorena Ochoa of Mexico retired from professional golf, she is surpassed as the top-ranked woman golfer, a position she held for the previous 158 weeks, by Shin Ji-Yai of South Korea.
In Sheffield, Eng., Neil Robertson defeats Graeme Dott of Scotland 18–13 to win the world championship in snooker; he is the first Australian to gain the title.
May 4
Transportation ministers from the member countries of the EU, meeting in Belgium, agree to accelerate plans for unified control over EU airspace and to develop guidelines for determining what conditions make it unsafe to fly and for responding to such conditions.
A mosque in the West Bank village of Luban al-Sharqiyah is destroyed by fire; local residents believe it was burned down by Israeli settlers, though the cause has not been determined.
May 5
Pres. Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who left Nigeria in political crisis when he departed from the country for emergency medical treatment in November 2009 without transferring executive power, dies in Abuja; the following day Goodluck Jonathan is sworn in as president.
During a demonstration in Athens by tens of thousands of people against announced austerity measures, groups of people identified as anarchists engage in violent behaviour, throwing rocks and gasoline bombs; a firebomb thrown into a bank kills three people.
The mortgage insurer Freddie Mac, which was taken over by the U.S. federal government in 2008, asks for $10.6 billion in federal aid, bringing the total amount needed to bail out the entity to $61.3 billion.
The Washington Post Co. puts the weekly newsmagazine Newsweek, which it has owned since 1961 and which has been published since 1933, up for sale.
May 6
In legislative elections in the U.K., no single party wins a ruling majority, with the Conservatives taking 306 seats, Labour 258, and the Liberal Democrats 57; this result makes a coalition government necessary for the first time since World War II.
The stock of Procter & Gamble, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, appears to plunge 37% in a few seconds, helping cause the Dow Jones itself to rapidly fall nearly 1,000 points; much of the original price drop is illusory, and the market rebounds to close with a less-drastic loss.
A containment dome is lowered into the Gulf of Mexico by the energy company BP; the company hopes the dome will capture most of the estimated 794,900 litres (210,000 gal) of oil spewing daily from the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon before the rig exploded and sank in April.
Depositors in the Gaza Strip stampede local branches of the Jordan-based Arab Bank after the bank announces the closing of the branches, citing difficulties in operating there.
May 7
The legislature of Turkey passes a package of constitutional changes; they must be approved in a referendum in order to become law.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in April rose to 9.9%, although the economy added 290,000 nonfarm jobs, the biggest increase in job creation in four years.
The Maoist party ends its indefinite strike in Nepal; the strike caused hardship but did not topple the government.
May 8
Near the encampment of antigovernment red-shirt protesters in Bangkok, shooting and explosions kill one police officer and injure five other police officers and two civilians.
Eight paramilitary soldiers die in the Bijapur district of India's Chhattisgarh state when Naxalite (Maoist) insurgents bomb an armoured truck bearing soldiers.
In her first stage appearance in Britain in more than three decades and her first vocal performance in 13 years, Julie Andrews performs with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London in a tribute to the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
May 9
The U.S. government announces that the first round of agreed-to indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, with U.S. special envoy George J. Mitchell shuttling between them, has taken place.
Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics pitches the 19th perfect game in Major League Baseball history when he dismisses 27 consecutive batters in his team's 4–0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
May 10
Finance ministers of the member countries of the European Union agree to provide $560 billion in new loans and $76 billion under an existing program to shore up countries suffering debt crises; stock markets in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. react positively.
Benigno Aquino III handily wins election to the presidency of the Philippines; in addition, boxing star Manny Pacquiao wins a seat in the country's legislature.
Two car bombs in the parking lot of a newly renovated textile factory in Al-Hillah, Iraq, kill at least 41 people; other bombings and attacks by gunmen in cities throughout Iraq bring the total death toll above 100.
Larry Downing—Reuters/LandovU.S. Pres. Barack Obama nominates Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.
As the containment dome intended to capture most of the escaping oil from the oil well under the Gulf of Mexico is stymied by a buildup of gas hydrates, executives of the oil company BP declare that they will attempt to place a smaller containment cap on the spewing well.
Roy Bennett, a leader of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party, is acquitted by a High Court judge of charges of attempting to overthrow the government of Pres. Robert Mugabe.
Some antigovernment Red Shirt protesters in Thailand indicate willingness to accept Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's compromise offer, which includes a promise to hold elections in November, but the following day negotiations break down.
Violent storms that spawn several tornadoes leave destruction in their wake in Oklahoma; at least two people are killed.
May 11
Conservative leader David Cameron takes office as British prime minister in a Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government; Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is to serve as deputy prime minister.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announces that the Minerals Management Service, which both regulates offshore oil drilling and leases offshore tracts to oil companies, will be split into separate agencies for the conflicting functions; the agency has been criticized as having been lax in its oversight of safety.
Quarterly filings show that Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. all posted perfect quarters, in which each banking entity lost no money in trading on any day of the first quarter of 2010, a highly unusual occurrence.
Egypt's legislature extends the state of emergency put in place after the assassination of Pres. Anwar el-Sadat in 1981 for a further two years.
In the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) world chess championship in Sofia, Bulg., reigning champion Viswanathan Anand of India defeats challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 12th and final game to take the match 6.5–5.5 and retain the title.
May 12
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announces a series of austerity measures, including decreases in public pay, that are intended to reduce the country's deficit.
A man armed with a meat cleaver attacks a small kindergarten in the village of Linchang in China's Shaanxi province, killing at least seven children between the ages of two and four as well as the school's teacher and her elderly mother; he later kills himself.
The price of gold reaches record heights, selling for more than $1,240 a troy ounce in London and trading for €982.
The Spanish association football (soccer) team Club Atlético de Madrid defeats Fulham FC of Britain 2–1 in extra time to win the inaugural Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA) Europa League title in Hamburg.
May 13
The Thai military announces a blockade of the encampment of antigovernment red-shirt protesters in Bangkok, and hours later Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawasdipol, who joined the protesters, is shot in the head and fatally wounded while being interviewed by a reporter.
In Kyrgyzstan protesters storm government buildings in the three regional capitals of the southern part of the country and restore the former governor and seize the airport in Osh, one of the capitals; the following day supporters of the government retake the government buildings in violent confrontations.
The UN General Assembly adds 14 new members to the Human Rights Council, including Angola, Libya, Malaysia, Thailand, and Uganda.
May 14
Thai troops move against antigovernment red-shirt protesters in Bangkok, and demonstrators fight back; at least 16 people are killed in the confrontation.
The opposition Republican People's Party asks Turkey's Constitutional Court to overturn 28 amendments to the constitution passed by the country's legislature; a referendum on the amendments is scheduled for September.
After some 13 years of negotiations, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda sign the Cooperative Framework Agreement in Entebbe, Ugan.; the agreement, which Egypt and Sudan declined to sign, is intended to replace treaties from 1929 and 1959 governing the use and sharing of the waters of the Nile River system.
After NATO and Afghan troops raid a village in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, killing at least 10 people whom Afghan officials say are civilians, violent protests break out; at least one other person is killed.
May 15
The Thai military continues to press against the antigovernment red-shirt protesters in Bangkok as the death toll in the three days of confrontation rises to 24; Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva appears on television to explain the government crackdown.
Lookin at Lucky, under jockey Martin Garcia, wins the Preakness Stakes, the second event in U.S. Thoroughbred horse racing's Triple Crown, by three-quarters of a length; Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver finishes eighth.
May 16
Iraq's election commission declares that at the conclusion of the partial recount of votes from the March 7 election, the results remain the same, with a very narrow victory for the coalition led by former interim prime minister Ayad ʿAllawi.
Engineers from the energy company BP succeed in inserting a tube into the damaged wellhead pipe from which oil is leaking and are able to siphon some of the escaping oil to a drill ship on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico; it is the company's first success in stanching the flow of oil since the April 22 collapse of the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon.
Lin Dan leads China to its fourth consecutive team world championship in badminton as it defeats Indonesia in tournament play in Kuala Lumpur, Malay.
May 17
Iran announces that it has reached an agreement with Brazil and Turkey to ship about half of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for high-enriched uranium for medical uses.
In India's Chhattisgarh state, a passenger bus carrying both Indian police officers and civilians hits a bomb in the road near the Dantewada district, and at least 23 people are killed in the explosion; police believe that Naxalite (Maoist) insurgents are to blame.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Constitution does allow the federal government, under the civil commitment law, to continue detention of violent sex offenders who are deemed a threat to society after the completion of their sentences.
A team of physicists working at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., post online a report describing their finding that particles called neutral B-mesons, which oscillate between a state of matter and a state of antimatter, appear to change to matter more quickly than to antimatter, providing a possible explanation for the apparently inexplicable preponderance of matter over antimatter in the universe.
Sweden's Polar Music Prize Foundation announces that the winners of the Polar Music Prize are Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk and Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
May 18
The U.S. announces that it has reached agreement with Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany on a new set of proposed sanctions against Iran for its continued uranium enrichment; the sanctions must be voted on by the UN Security Council.
A police convoy in northwestern Pakistan is struck by a bomb attached to a bicycle; at least 12 people, including a senior police officer active in operations against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, are killed.
A suicide bomber kills at least five U.S. soldiers in Kabul, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in the conflict in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war in 2001 above 1,000; three of the Americans were high-ranking NATO officers, and a Canadian NATO officer also perishes.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) nearly doubles the area in the Gulf of Mexico that is closed to fishing because of the impact of the oil spill unleashed by the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in April.
Michael Lutch—Boston Symphony/APThe Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers, a musical piece composed by Peter Boyer with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, has its world premiere in Boston, performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus conducted by Keith Lockhart, with celebrity narrators Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, and Morgan Freeman.
May 19
The Thai military moves in to put an end to what remains of the encampment of antigovernment red-shirt protesters, and leaders of the protest are arrested; 12 people are killed in the crackdown, and rioting and arson take place in response elsewhere in Bangkok and in provinces in northeastern Thailand.
In Jalalabad in southern Kyrgyzstan, an attack by ethnic Kyrgyz people on a building of the People's Friendship University, which is affiliated with the country's ethnic Uzbek minority, unleashes rioting in which at least two people are killed.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that in April consumer prices fell 0.1% from the previous month and that the core index for consumer prices for the 12-month period that ended in April was 0.9%, the lowest rate of increase since the 1960s.
Troubles (1970), by J.G. Farrell, is named the winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize; a change in 1971 from granting the British literary award to novels published in the previous year to granting it to those released during the year of the award had left books published in 1970 ineligible for a Booker Prize.
May 20
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announces that he has decided to honour a 2006 agreement to move the U.S. air base on Okinawa to a less-populated part of that island, in spite of widespread support in Japan for Hatoyama's previous promise to insist that the base be moved off Okinawa entirely.
South Korean officials publicly present the results of an investigation, based on forensic evidence, that they say proves that North Korea was responsible for the March sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in international waters near the border between the two countries.
A gay male couple who celebrated a traditional engagement ceremony in December 2009 in Malawi and were then arrested are sentenced in a court in Blantyre to 14 years of hard labour in prison for unnatural acts and gross indecency.
The Mars rover Opportunity, designed by NASA for a three-month mission, becomes the longest-surviving spacecraft on Mars as it continues to operate after 2,246 Sols, or Martian days (2,307 Earth days), since its arrival on Jan. 25, 2004; the previous record holder, the Viking I lander, lasted 2,245 Sols, from July 20, 1976, to November 1982.
The journal Science publishes a report by a team led by J. Craig Venter that describes the creation of what Venter calls the first "synthetic cell"—a procedure in which the genetic code of one species of bacterium was synthesized and then placed into another species of bacterium, where the synthetic DNA began operating.
Stocks in the U.S. and Europe drop in value, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 376.36 points, or 3.6% of its value; the price of a barrel of sweet crude oil falls to $68.01.
The conglomerate Dubai World announces that it has reached a deal with a group of more than 90 banks to restructure its debt.
Officials at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris find that the previous night five paintings were stolen from the museum's permanent collection: one each by Picasso, Matisse, Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani, and Fernand Léger.
May 21
Germany's legislature narrowly passes an agreement to pay the German contribution to a package intended to stabilize the euro.
Salva Kiir, leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, is sworn in as the first president of the semiautonomous region of southern Sudan; a referendum on independence for the region is to be held in 2011.
A suicide bomber driving a truck detonates his weapon near a commercial strip in the predominantly Shiʿite village of Khalis in Iraq's Diyala province; at least 21 people are killed.
Workers at the Honda car parts factory in Foshan, China, begin a strike that leads to the shutdown of four automobile factories that depend on the parts factory for supplies.
May 22
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, in an address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., lays out a new national security strategy that is more modest than the previous strategy, outlined in 2002; the new strategy emphasizes alliances and diplomacy.
In association football (soccer), Inter Milan of Italy defeats the German team Bayern Munich 2–0 to win the UEFA Champions League title in Madrid.
May 23
Insurgents attack areas of Mogadishu, Som., that are under the control of the transitional national government and African Union peacekeepers; at least 14 people are killed in the fighting.
Legislative elections take place in Ethiopia; as expected, the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front wins an overwhelming victory in elections that fail to meet international standards.
The medical journal The Lancet publishes an analysis of worldwide childhood death rates; it finds that improvements for children under the age of five are taking place quickly even in some of the poorest countries and that worldwide death rates have dropped on average by about 2% annually for the past 20 years.
The Czech Republic defeats Russia 2–1 to win the men's International Ice Hockey Federation world championship.
Drivers Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, and Richard Petty, along with NASCAR founder Bill France and former president, chairman, and CEO Bill France, Jr., are inducted into the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.
The finale of the six-year science-fiction mystery television series Lost, which has caught the imagination of a large audience, is broadcast; the following day sees the final episode of the influential political thriller 24, which debuted in 2001.
May 24
Four regional savings banks in Spain agree to merge some of their operations in a joint banking group in an effort to strengthen their assets; two days earlier the Spanish government had taken control of another savings bank, CajaSur, when its merger negotiations with Unicaja fell through.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning's People's National Movement party loses a snap election in Trinidad and Tobago to the People's Partnership coalition; Kamla Persad-Bissessar is sworn in as prime minister two days later.
Bashar Muhammad Hamid, who won a legislative seat in Iraq's elections in March, is murdered in his office in Mosul.
The final episode of the television series Law & Order is broadcast; the police procedural, which debuted in 1990, won a large and loyal audience and spawned several spin-offs, including Law & Order: Los Angeles, a new program slated to premiere in the fall.
May 25
A large group of armed men gain entrance to what was considered a secure area of Baghdad, prevail in a firefight against Iraqi police officers and soldiers, and violently rob several jewelry stores, killing at least 14 people.
After a three-day standoff, police storm the Tivoli Gardens slum in Kingston, Jam., in an attempt to arrest the gang leader Christopher Coke, whom the government has agreed to extradite to the U.S., where he is wanted for drug and firearms trafficking; residents of the neighbourhood, who regard Coke as a benefactor, resist, and at least 70 people die in the fighting.
Queen Elizabeth II formally opens the new session of Parliament in London with a speech describing the legislative priorities of the new coalition government; decreasing the country's budget deficit is set out as the first priority.
A Malaysian oil tanker suffers a collision with a merchant ship in the Singapore Strait; its hull is punctured, and some 18,000 bbl of oil are spilled into the strait.
Lori Berenson, an American who spent 15 years in prison in Peru on a conviction of collaboration with the insurgent Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, is released on parole in Lima.
Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, while visiting the Detroit Economic Club in Michigan, says that the auto company has received so many preorders for its new all-electric vehicle, the Leaf, that the entire expected production for this year has already been sold.
May 26
The energy company BP begins an attempt to fill the drill pipes of the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico with heavy drilling fluid; the maneuver, known as "top kill," has never been tried on a well at such an extreme depth as this one, and the attempt is halted the next day.
As the five-year review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty comes to a close, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, in a speech to the House of Commons, reveals for the first time that the U.K. has a stockpile of 225 nuclear warheads; at the beginning of the review, the U.S. disclosed an arsenal of 5,113 nuclear warheads.
Apple Inc. overtakes Microsoft Corp. to become the world's most valuable technology company.
After late-day losses, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 9974.45, its first close below 10,000 since February 8.
The space shuttle Atlantis lands in Florida, having completed its final planned mission; Atlantis first took wing on Oct. 3, 1985, and counted among its accomplishments the launching of robotic probes and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and the completion of 7 flights to Russia's Mir space station and 11 flights to the International Space Station.
May 27
U.S. federal officials raise their estimate of the rate at which oil has been flowing into the ocean daily since the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in April to between 12,000 and 19,000 bbl a day; the previous estimate, released on April 27, was 5,000 bbl a day.
Spain's legislature passes by a single vote a package of spending cuts proposed by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
North Korea announces that it will cut off a telephone hot line between Pyongyang and Seoul that was instituted in 2004 in an effort to prevent clashes at sea near the disputed sea border between North Korea and South Korea.
The government of Ukraine declares that it is no longer seeking to become a member of NATO.
A flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Movement and a Turkish organization prepares to disregard the Israeli blockade and take assorted supplies directly to the Gaza Strip.
In Oslo 58 countries represented at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference agree to a framework convention on channeling funds from richer countries to poorer ones in order to protect forests, a vital component of efforts to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases; the previous day Norway had announced a $1 billion package to save forests in Indonesia.
In Guatemala the Pacaya volcano erupts, killing a television reporter and raining ash on Guatemala City; the following day the Tungurahua volcano, a glacier-topped volcano in Ecuador, begins a spectacular eruption, and hundreds of people are evacuated.
May 28
The leaders of the three major parties in Nepal reach an 11th-hour agreement to extend the term of the constituent assembly, extending the peace process for a further year; as part of the agreement, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will eventually resign.
Two mosques at which members of the minority Ahmadi sect worship in Lahore, Pak., are attacked during Friday prayer by suicide bombers and by fusillades of bullets and grenades; more than 80 people are killed.
The World Bank cancels Haiti's debt to the bank's International Development Association in order to help the country recover from the devastating earthquake in January.
An express train in the Indian state of West Bengal derails, apparently as a result of sabotage, between the stations of Khemasuli and Sardiha, and 13 cars that have fallen onto an adjacent track are then struck by a freight train; at least 135 passengers perish.
May 29
Two days of legislative elections in the Czech Republic lead to a narrow victory for the Social Democratic Party, with 22.1% of the vote as against 20.2% for the conservative Civic Democratic Party, but 27.6% of the vote goes to two smaller conservative parties.
Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, after meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, pardons the gay couple who were sentenced to 14 years of hard labour after having conducted a traditional engagement ceremony.
Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies pitches the 20th perfect game in Major League Baseball history in his team's 1–0 victory over the Florida Marlins only 20 days after the previous perfect game.
In Oslo, German singer Lena Meyer-Landrut wins the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Satellite."
May 30
A presidential election in Colombia results in the need for a runoff, to be held in June.
The Social Democratic Party drops out of the three-party coalition governing Japan because it disagrees with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's decision to keep the U.S. air base on Okinawa.
The National Museum of XXI Century Arts, also known as MAXXI, opens in Rome; the new museum, with curving walls and floor-to-ceiling windows, was designed by Zaha Hadid.
The 94th Indianapolis 500 automobile race is won by Dario Franchitti of Scotland.
May 31
As an aid flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Movement and a charitable Turkish organization heads toward Gaza, Israeli commandos descend from a helicopter and board one of the ships in international waters; when activists on the ship resist, the commandos open fire, and nine passengers, most Turkish, are killed.
Horst Köhler resigns as president of Germany after having said that German soldiers in Afghanistan and on other peacekeeping missions are deployed to protect German economic interests.
The carmaker Honda Motor announces a 24% pay raise for striking workers at a Honda parts factory in China; the strike shut down all Honda automobile manufacture in China.
An acclaimed and popular retrospective of the work of performance artist Marina Abramovic, "The Artist Is Present," closes at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; in the retrospective's best-known component, Abramovic sits silently and still, looking at an audience member sitting across from her.
June 1
Iraq's highest court ratifies the results of the March 7 election, making it necessary for the legislature to convene to choose a president and prime minister.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that suspects who wish to invoke their right to remain silent must explicitly state that they are invoking that right; otherwise, any statement they make may be construed as waiving the right.
Five presidential candidates in Burundi announce their intention to boycott the upcoming presidential election, saying that local elections the previous month were rigged.
June 2
Yukio Hatoyama resigns as prime minister of Japan; his popularity had waned as a result of his failure to move a U.S. air base from Okinawa.
Foxconn Technology, a Taiwan-based company whose factories manufacture components for computers sold by companies that include Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard, announces a 33% pay raise for many of its workers in China; there has been a well-publicized rash of suicides at Foxconn factories in southern China.
American automobile company Ford Motor announces that it will discontinue the manufacture of the 71-year-old Mercury brand by fall; the original Mercury Eight went on sale in 1939.
In a crime that shocks Britain, a cab driver in England's Lake District shoots down three other drivers and then drives through the district, shooting passers-by; at least 12 people are murdered and 25 injured before the gunman turns his weapon on himself.
June 3
The energy company BP successfully places a containment dome over the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico; the device allows BP to collect some of the oil and send it to a ship on the surface to be processed.
A gala celebration of the life and career of National Ballet of Cuba founder Alicia Alonso is hosted by the American Ballet Theatre, where Alonso danced in 1941 and 1943–48; the occasion is part of the 2010 celebration of Alonso's 90th birthday and the company's 70th anniversary.
June 4
Former finance minister Naoto Kan takes office as prime minister of Japan.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in May fell to 9.7% and that the economy added 431,000 nonfarm jobs; the vast majority of those jobs are temporary hiring by the Census Bureau, however, and the stock markets fall on the news.
The Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) makes its first successful test launch of its Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee is won by Anamika Veeramani of Incarnate Word Academy in Parma Heights, Ohio, when she correctly spells stromuhr.
June 5
Francesca Schiavone of Italy defeats Australian Samantha Stosur to win the women's French Open tennis title; the following day Rafael Nadal of Spain defeats Robin Söderling of Sweden to capture the men's championship for the fifth time.
Long shot Drosselmeyer, with jockey Mike Smith aboard, wins the Belmont Stakes, the last event in Thoroughbred horse racing's U.S. Triple Crown.
The Derby at Epsom Downs in Surrey, Eng., is won by an astonishing seven lengths by Workforce, ridden by Ryan Moore.
The comedy 3 Idiots wins 16 International Indian Film Awards, including best film and best director (Rajkumar Hirani), in a ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
June 6
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai ousts the head of Afghanistan's intelligence agency, Amrullah Saleh, and Minister of the Interior Hanif Atmar, to the surprise of NATO leaders.
The energy company BP finds that it must limit the amount of oil it is capturing from the gushing oil well under the Gulf of Mexico lest it overwhelm the company's processing capacity on hand, and Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen warns that the oil will continue to be a problem long after the well has been capped.
Djibouti and Eritrea agree to pull back from their disputed border at the Red Sea coast and allow Qatar to develop a mechanism for the resolution of the disagreement.
June 7
At a legislative session attended by leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea's cabinet undergoes a major reshuffle, with a number of technocrats demoted; Kim Yong-Il is replaced as prime minister by Choe Yong-Rim.
The first criminal convictions stemming from the 1984 chemical leak at a Union Carbide plant that left some 5,000 people dead in Bhopal, India, occur in a courtroom in Bhopal: eight former executives of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary are found guilty of negligence, and the seven still living are sentenced to two years in prison.
After two and a half years at the head of a UN commission for fighting corruption in Guatemala, Carlos Castresana resigns in frustration.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel presents an austerity package intended to reduce the country's budget deficit.
Helen Thomas, a ground-breaking journalist known as the unofficial dean of the White House press corps, of which she has been an increasingly famous member since the early 1960s, abruptly retires in the face of a furor over impolitic remarks she made about Israel.
June 8
A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says that the agency has been told that it must leave Libya, where it has operated since 1991 and serves as the country's only asylum system.
It is reported that a cache of 75 silent films that have been found in the New Zealand Film Archive will be sent to the U.S. for restoration; the films include the only copy of Upstream (1927), directed by John Ford, and the earliest Mabel Normand film.
June 9
In legislative elections in the Netherlands, the ruling Christian Democratic Appeal comes in fourth, with just 13.7% of the vote; the top vote getters are the centre-right People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, with 20.4%, and the centre-left Labour Party, with 19.6%.
In Afghanistan's Kandahar province, a bomb goes off at the wedding celebration of a man who was a member of a recently formed anti-Taliban militia; at least 40 wedding guests are killed.
Alastair Grant/APBarbara Kingsolver wins the Orange Prize, an award for fiction written by women and published in the U.K., for her novel The Lacuna.
The Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 4–3 in sudden-death overtime to win the Stanley Cup, the National Hockey League championship trophy, for the first time since 1961.
June 10
Researchers for a U.S. government panel raise the estimate of the amount of oil that has been flowing from the oil well under the Gulf of Mexico since the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in April to 25,000–30,000 bbl a day, nearly double the previous estimate.
Guatemala's constitutional court removes Conrado Reyes as attorney general, a position he was appointed to on May 25 in spite of his suspected links to organized crime.
June 11
Attacks that began the previous night involving rival drug-trafficking organizations leave some 85 people dead throughout Mexico.
June 12
U.S. officials reveal that geologists have found in Afghanistan many previously unknown mineral deposits, including iron, copper, gold, cobalt, and lithium, worth an estimated $1 trillion, enough to become a major component of the country's economy, which is presently based largely on opium production.
The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., inducts players Rebecca Lobo, Teresa Edwards, and Teresa Weatherspoon, coaches Chris Weller and Leta Andrews, and athletic director Gloria Ray.
Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old girl from California who is attempting to sail solo around the world, is rescued some 3,200 km (2,000 mi) west of Australia after losing a mast in heavy seas in the Indian Ocean.
June 13
In legislative elections in Belgium, the largest percentage of the vote goes to the New Flemish Alliance, a Flemish separatist party, followed by the French Socialist Party; no party wins an absolute majority.
Kyrgyzstan's national news agency reports that three days of ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, largely in and around Osh, has killed at least 114 people and that tens of thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have fled the violence.
In the 78th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance automobile race, the Audi team consisting of Mike Rockenfeller of Germany, Romain Dumas of France, and Timo Bernhard of Germany takes the victory, completing 397 laps, a new distance record.
The filly Zenyatta comes from behind to win the Vanity Handicap in Inglewood, Calif., her 17th consecutive victory, which is a new record in top-tier Thoroughbred horse racing; Citation and Cigar achieved 16 straight wins in 1948–50 and 1994–96, respectively.
The 64th annual Tony Awards are presented in New York City; winners include Red (which takes six awards), Memphis, Fences, and La Cage aux Folles and the actors Denzel Washington, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Douglas Hodge, and Scarlett Johansson.
The Golden Ticket, an opera based on Roald Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has its world premiere with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis in Missouri; the score is by Peter Ash, and the libretto is by Donald Sturrock.
For the second consecutive year, the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership will not be awarded; its administrators say no worthy candidates have emerged.
June 14
Iraq's new legislature convenes, takes the oath of allegiance, and is immediately suspended, as no new government has been agreed on and no bloc commands a majority.
Scientists head to South Australia to retrieve the capsule of the Japanese space explorer Hayabusa, which landed there overnight after a seven-year journey to collect samples from an asteroid and return them to Earth.
June 15
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights asserts that the ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan was deliberately orchestrated; it is thought that at least 100 people were killed.
Speaking before the House of Commons, British Prime Minister David Cameron apologizes for the "Bloody Sunday" killings in 1972 in which 14 unarmed demonstrators in Londonderry, N.Ire., were killed by British soldiers, saying that the shootings had no justification.
American stock markets make a sustained rise throughout the day of more than 2%; the Dow Jones Industrial Average rises 213.88 points to close at 10,404.77.
June 16
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan, carrying two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station, where they will remain for six months.
After four days of negotiations, U.S. Pres. Barack Obama announces that the energy company BP has agreed to set up a fund of $20 billion to compensate people who lost their livelihoods and suffered other damage from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Bob King is elected president of the United Automobile Workers union, replacing Ron Gettelfinger.
David Beckmann, president of the Christian advocacy organization Bread for the World, and Jo Luck, president of Heifer International, which provides animals for food and income to poor families throughout the world, are honoured with the World Food Prize.
June 17
Estonia becomes the 17th country to join the euro zone.
Switzerland's legislature agrees to adhere to the terms of an agreement made in August 2009 for the bank UBS to disclose information on 4,450 accounts held by Americans suspected of tax evasion.
The Los Angeles Lakers defeat the Boston Celtics 83–79 in game seven of the best-of-seven tournament to secure the team's 16th overall and 2nd consecutive National Basketball Association championship.
June 18
Six member countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States sign an agreement in Castries, St. Lucia, to form an economic union; the remaining three members are expected to sign on within a few weeks.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that in May unemployment rates fell in 37 states and rose in 6 others; the highest rate, 14%, was in Nevada.
The 2010 winners of the Kyoto Prize are announced: medical scientist Shinya Yamanaka (advanced technology), mathematician Laszlo Lovasz (basic sciences), and visual artist William Kentridge (arts and philosophy).
Red Huber—MCT/LandovThe Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a new theme park within the Universal Orlando entertainment complex, opens to the public in Orlando, Fla.; at opening there is a six-hour wait to enter.
June 19
China announces that it will allow its currency, the renminbi, to move a little more freely in relation to the U.S. dollar; in later days it is seen that the change is quite small.
Kurdish militants attack a Turkish military post near the Iraqi border, killing 8 soldiers and triggering an attack by Turkish warplanes that leaves 12 Kurdish insurgents dead.
Gunmen thought to be associated with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula storm a jail used by Yemeni intelligence services in Aden, Yemen, killing at least 11 people and escaping with several prisoners.
June 20
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces an easing of Israel's land blockade of Gaza, including plans to expand operations at checkpoints to facilitate the passage of larger amounts of civilian goods and plans to issue a list of prohibited items to replace the currently used list of permitted items.
Conservative economist Juan Manuel Santos convincingly wins election as president of Colombia, defeating Antanas Mockus of the Green Party in a runoff.
Two simultaneous car bombs outside the Bank of Trade in Baghdad kill at least 26 people.
Kyrgyz soldiers begin bulldozing the makeshift barriers ethnic Uzbeks used to defend themselves from ethnic violence in Osh, Kyrgyz.
Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland secures a one-stroke victory over Gregory Havret of France to win the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif.
June 21
Faisal Shahzad pleads guilty in a U.S. federal court to having created the failed car bomb found on May 1 in Times Square in New York City, explaining in detail how and why he engineered the attempted attack.
After two large demonstrations by people angry about the lack of services, especially the chronic shortage of electricity, Karim Wahid resigns as the minister of electricity in Iraq's caretaker government.
The death of a British Royal Marine in a hospital in Birmingham, Eng., from wounds he received on June 12 in a bombing in Afghanistan's Helmand province marks the 300th British military death in the war in Afghanistan.
June 22
Mari Kiviniemi becomes prime minister of Finland, replacing Matti Vanhanen, who resigned on June 18.
George Osborne, British chancellor of the Exchequer, unveils an austerity budget of deep spending cuts and tax increases.
A bighead Asian carp is caught in a fishing net in Lake Calumet, about 9.7 km (6 mi) from Lake Michigan and beyond the electric fence designed to keep the voracious invasive species out of the Great Lakes system.
June 23
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama fires Gen. Stanley McChrystal and replaces him as top commander in the war in Afghanistan with Gen. David Petraeus; the dismissal follows an interview published in the magazine Rolling Stone in which McChrystal and his staff had criticized administration officials.
At a meeting of the International Whaling Commission, compromise talks aimed at controlling commercial whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland collapse.
The U.S. Census Bureau releases statistics that show that the sales of new homes in May fell to the lowest level since 1963, when reporting began; sales plunged 32.7% from the previous month.
June 24
Jamaican gang leader Christopher Coke, after having been arrested outside the U.S. embassy, is extradited to the U.S., where he is wanted on charges of drug trafficking and on weapons charges.
Kevin Rudd resigns as prime minister of Australia; he is replaced by Julia Gillard, who is Australia's first female prime minister.
Five American Muslim men who were arrested in Pakistan are found guilty in a court in Sargodha, Pak., of having conspired to carry out terrorist attacks and are sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Kimberley Process negotiations over whether diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange diamond fields should be certified as conflict-free (that is, not funding conflict) break down; Zimbabwe's government, which has been accused of violently seizing control of the fields, threatens to market the diamonds without certification.
At Wimbledon the longest match in the history of professional tennis concludes—after three days and 182 games—with a victory by American John Isner over Nicolas Mahut of France in five sets: 6–4, 3–6, 6–7, 7–6, 70–68.
June 25
Hong Kong's Legislative Council approves a plan to expand the legislature by 10 seats beginning in 2012 and for the first time makes most of the seats subject to direct popular election; the committee that chooses the chief executive is enlarged to 1,200 members.
June 26
A presidential election is held in Somalia's self-declared independent enclave of Somaliland; opposition candidate Ahmed Silanyo is declared the winner on July 1.
June 27
Free elections take place in Guinea for the first time in the country's history; they result in the need for a presidential runoff.
A referendum on a proposed new constitution that reduces the power of the president and makes the country a parliamentary democracy takes place in Kyrgyzstan; the document is overwhelmingly approved.
Darci Kistler, the last working ballet dancer to have been trained by the legendary choreographer George Balanchine, makes her farewell performance with the New York City Ballet after a 30-year career.
Cristie Kerr of the U.S. wins the Ladies Professional Golf Association Championship tournament by 12 strokes over Kim Song-Hee of South Korea.
June 28
Pres. Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic names Petr Necas, leader of the centre-right Civic Democratic Party, prime minister.
Five couples who were arrested in New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia the previous day are charged with conspiracy to act as unlawful agents of a foreign government as part of a Russian espionage ring; an 11th person is charged but has not been apprehended.
In a presidential election in Burundi, Pres. Pierre Nkurunziza is the sole candidate as opposition parties boycott the polls; the parties later denounce the election as a farce.
Rodolfo Torre Cantú, a front-running candidate for governor of Mexico's Tamaulipas state, is gunned down together with at least four other people near Ciudad Victoria; it is believed that drug cartels are responsible for the assassination.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd, who served a record 51 years in the U.S. Senate and was also the longest-serving member of Congress, having spent an additional 6 years in the House of Representatives, dies at the age of 92 in Virginia.
June 29
In Chongqing, China, representatives of China and Taiwan sign a framework trade agreement that will, among other things, remove tariffs from hundreds of goods exported from Taiwan to China as well as some goods exported from China to Taiwan.
Larry King, host of the once-essential cable television talk show Larry King Live since 1985, announces his retirement.
Ukraine's minister of the interior announces that a Caravaggio painting known as The Taking of Christ or The Kiss of Judas, which was stolen from a museum in Odessa in 2008, has been recovered in Germany, where the thieves were attempting to sell it.
June 30
In accordance with an agreement with the Maoist party in Nepal, Madhav Kumar Nepal resigns as prime minister.
The World Trade Organization releases a ruling that the European airplane manufacturer Airbus has for some 40 years received improper subsidies in the form of low-interest and interest-free loans from European governments—subsidies that gave it an unfair advantage over its American rival Boeing.
Christian Wulff is chosen to replace Horst Köhler as president of Germany.
July 1
Two suicide bombers attack the Data Ganj Baksh, a major Sufi shrine, in Lahore, Pak.; at least 42 worshippers are killed.
The East African Community, consisting of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, launches a common market for products, capital, and workers.
China's state-run news service, the Xinhua News Agency, publicly introduces CNC World, a 24-hour English-language news channel; it also announces plans to open a newsroom in New York City.
James H. Billington, the American librarian of Congress, names W.S. Merwin the country's 17th poet laureate; Merwin succeeds Kay Ryan.
The Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy is won by D Light Design of India for its innovative low-cost solar lamp that can be used in place of the kerosene lamps commonly relied on in areas of less-developed countries that lack access to electricity.
July 2
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in June fell to 9.5% and that the private sector added 83,000 jobs, though the economy as a whole lost 125,000 nonfarm jobs as temporary Census Bureau jobs ended.
The UN General Assembly approves the creation of a new umbrella agency, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be called UN Women.
July 3
Igor Kovalenko—EPA/LandovRoza Otunbayeva is sworn in as Kyrgyzstan's transitional president under the country's new constitution; she will also serve as prime minister until legislative elections take place in October.
American Serena Williams defeats Vera Zvonareva of Russia to take her fourth All-England (Wimbledon) women's tennis championship; the following day Rafael Nadal of Spain wins the men's title for the second time when he defeats Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
July 4
In Poland's runoff presidential election, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski of the ruling Civic Platform party defeats Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of Lech Kaczynski, whose death in a plane crash in April left the office vacant.
A fire on a shuttle bus for employees of the Xuefeng Steel Co. in Wuxi, China, kills at least 24 passengers; police later say that one of the employees, who was among those who died, deliberately set the fire.
July 5
A one-day strike accompanied by large protests against an increase in the cost of fuel takes place across India.
The leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan sign an agreement forming a customs union of the three countries.
A new and controversial law allowing an unrestricted right to abortion within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy goes into effect in Spain.
July 6
In Indian-administered Kashmir, three civilians are killed when Indian police fire on protesters throwing stones; at least 14 people, mostly protesters, have been killed in the past three weeks, and this has led to a rise in violent anti-Indian demonstrations.
China's first full-size commercial offshore wind farm, the 102-MW Donghai Bridge Wind Farm in the East China Sea, begins transmitting power; it initially is providing electricity to the Shanghai Expo but is expected eventually to generate enough power for 200,000 households in Shanghai.
The automobile manufacturer Chrysler announces that it plans to open about 200 dealerships in 2010 in the U.S. to sell the subcompact Fiat 500; they will be the first Fiat dealerships in the country in 26 years.
July 7
As hundreds of thousands of Shiʿite worshippers head toward the Imam Musa al-Kadhim mosque in Baghdad for a religious observation, a suicide bomber at a checkpoint kills nearly 60 people.
Turkey's Constitutional Court strikes down parts of the country's proposed new constitution, including provisions that increase the authority of the president over the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors and that allow people without legal backgrounds to serve on the board; a referendum on the document is to be held in September.
A court in France finds former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega guilty of money laundering and sentences him to seven years in prison; Noriega was extradited to France in April after having served a 20-year sentence in the U.S.
British researchers announce the discovery near Norfolk, Eng., of 78 flint tools that date to some 800,000 years ago, suggesting the earliest-yet-discovered hominin occupation in northern Europe.
July 8
The European Parliament agrees to reactivate a program that allows the U.S. to monitor banking and financial transfers in Europe for possible financing of terrorist activity; the program was suspended in February.
The U.S. and Russia agree that the 10 people recently arrested as unregistered Russian spies in the U.S. will be released to Russia in exchange for the release of 4 men held in Russian prisons for their contacts with Western intelligence agencies.
Bombs targeting Shiʿites taking part in the final day of a religious observance in Baghdad leave at least 15 people dead.
In Boston, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro rules that the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which allows only opposite-sex couples to marry, violates the Constitution in that it interferes with the rights of states to define marriage.
Striking union members at a nickel mining and processing plant in Sudbury, Ont., agree to a new contract though it gives them less than they had sought, ending a strike that began on July 13, 2009.
July 9
In Mohmand agency of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a suicide bomber on a motorbike kills at least 102 people outside the headquarters of the agency's civilian government.
A demonstration in favour of independence for southern Sudan takes place in the region's capital, Juba; a referendum on the issue is scheduled to take place on Jan. 9, 2011.
The conservation organization WWF announces that the global population of wild tigers has fallen to as low as 3,200.
The last Chrysler PT Cruiser rolls off an assembly line in Mexico; the retro-style car model was a major hit when it was introduced a decade earlier and inspired many imitators, but sales had stagnated more recently.
July 10
The energy company BP removes a cap that partially contained the gushing of oil from the broken oil well under the Gulf of Mexico in order to be able to attach a tighter cap.
The first performance of The Demons, a 12-hour Italian theatrical adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel also known as The Possessed, takes place on Governors Island in New York City.
July 11
Bombs explode in a restaurant and a rugby club in Kampala, Ugan., both crowded with fans watching the association football (soccer) World Cup final; at least 76 people are killed, and suspicion falls on the al-Shabaab militants of Somalia.
In elections for the House of Councillors, the upper house of Japan's legislature, the ruling Democratic Party wins only 44 seats, leaving it short of a majority.
In Johannesburg, Spain defeats the Netherlands 1–0 with a goal in the 116th minute by Spanish striker Andrés Iniesta to win the country's first association football (soccer) World Cup.
Paula Creamer of the U.S. scores a four-stroke victory over Choi Na-Yeon of South Korea and Suzann Pettersen of Norway to win the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament in Oakmont, Pa.
July 12
Britain's Office for National Statistics releases revised figures showing that the recession in 2008–09 in the country cut deeper into the economy than previously thought and that economic growth in the first quarter of 2010 was only 0.3%.
Switzerland rejects a U.S. request to extradite film director Roman Polanski to face charges in a 1977 case involving sex with an underage girl and sets Polanski free; he was arrested in Zürich in September 2009.
July 13
The Russian Grain Union, an industry lobbying group, declares that amid the heat wave engulfing Russia, the country is also suffering its worst drought in 130 years and has lost about a fifth of the total planted grain area.
The first 7 of the 52 political prisoners that Cuba has agreed to release arrive in Madrid, together with members of their families.
Police in Italy arrest more than 300 people and seize weapons, drugs, and property in an operation against the 'Ndrangheta criminal organization; among those arrested are government officials and Domenico Oppedisano, believed to be the head of the syndicate.
Éric Woerth, France's labour minister, announces his resignation as treasurer of the ruling party due to his suspected connection to a burgeoning scandal that involves an illegal campaign donation from Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oréal cosmetics heiress.
July 14
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai, after several days of negotiations with NATO military leaders, agrees to a program to create local defense forces to bolster military and police forces.
Ugandan police lure Rwandan asylum seekers in a refugee camp in Uganda with the promise of food and proceed to load some 1,700 refugees on a truck, which takes them to Rwanda in an illegal forced repatriation.
July 15
The U.S. Congress passes a major bill to increase government oversight of financial companies and markets in an effort to remedy the causes of the severe recession that began in 2008; Pres. Barack Obama signs it into law on July 21.
The energy company BP successfully tests a new containment cap on the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico, completely stopping the flow of oil for the first time in 86 days.
The U.S. military ceremonially cedes control of detainment facilities in Iraq to the Iraqi government.
A double suicide bombing leaves at least 26 people dead at a gathering of Revolutionary Guards outside a mosque in Zahedan, Iran.
Rioting in Roman Catholic areas of Belfast, N.Ire., continues for a fourth night.
An explosives-laden car is detonated in Juárez, Mex., by a cell phone call, and four people, among them two federal police officers, are killed; it is believed to be the first car bomb in Mexico's drug wars.
Argentina's legislature legalizes same-sex marriage on an equal basis with conventional marriage.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration releases a report that says, among other things, that June 2010 surpassed June 2005 as the warmest June on record worldwide and that the month also recorded a record low in Arctic sea ice.
July 16
Imaginechina/APTwo oil pipelines in Dalian, China, explode after an oil tanker unloaded its cargo into the pipelines; a fire and a large oil spill follow.
July 17
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard sets the national legislative election for August 21.
Talks on a financial rescue package for Hungary between the IMF, the EU, and Hungary break off.
The annual EuroPride march of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals from throughout Europe and North America takes place in Warsaw, where it is not universally welcomed; it is the first time that the event has been held in a formerly communist country.
July 18
As Awakening Council members await paychecks at an Iraqi army base in Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonates his weapon, leaving at least 45 people dead.
Gunmen invade a birthday celebration in Torreón, Mex., and open fire, killing at least 17 people, including the celebrant.
A strike against government policies in Tehran's Grand Bazaar comes to an end after 12 days.
Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa defeats England's Lee Westwood by seven strokes to win the British Open golf tournament on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Fife, Scot.
July 19
Hungary's minister of the economy, Gyorgy Matolcsy, responds to pressure from the IMF and the EU with a declaration that the country will not undertake further austerity measures.
Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that 77 people trying to cool off during the country's ongoing heat wave have drowned over the past two days, adding to July's total of more than 400; the numbers are similar to those in most summers, however, and most drowning victims are deemed likely to have been drunk.
Syria's Ministry of Education issues a ban on the wearing of the niqab, a veil that covers the face and leaves only the eyes visible, by students and faculty at schools and universities at all levels.
The online bookseller Amazon.com announces that for the past three months its sales of e-books have been greater than its sales of hardcover books.
More than 150 comic-book stores in the U.S. open at midnight to make the final chapter in the popular saga of Scott Pilgrim, Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, written and drawn by Bryan Lee O'Malley, available to fans.
July 20
A conference of international leaders takes place in Kabul; the conferees agree to grant a larger portion of foreign aid to the Afghan government rather than to individual ministries or nongovernmental organizations and approve a timetable proposed by Pres. Hamid Karzai for a transition to Afghan-led security.
A firefight that began the previous night with an attack by militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Turkish soldiers near the border with Iraq leaves six of the soldiers dead.
July 21
Five days after the explosion of an oil pipeline in Dalian, China, the oil has spread over 427 sq km (165 sq mi) of the Yellow Sea; it is the largest oil spill ever reported in China.
The IMF cancels Haiti's debt of $268 million and approves a loan of an additional $60 million.
In the Shiʿite village of Abe Sayeda, Iraq, a car bomb explodes in a crowd, killing at least 13 people.
Astronomers at the University of Sheffield, Eng., report that they have found the most massive star yet observed in the universe; the star, measured at 265 solar masses, is in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
July 22
In response to Colombia's presentation to the Organization of American States of evidence of what it says are 1,500 Colombian insurgents taking refuge in Venezuela, Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez publicly severs diplomatic ties with Colombia.
The International Court of Justice rules, in response to a complaint lodged by Serbia, that Kosovo did not violate international law when it declared itself independent in February 2008.
Somali government officials concede that three members of the presidential guard have defected to the Islamist militant organization al-Shabaab; al-Shabaab had introduced the defectors at a news conference the previous day.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission files charges of disclosure accounting fraud against the computer maker Dell in a case involving payments to Dell by chip manufacturer Intel; Dell and some of its executives, including CEO and founder Michael S. Dell, settle the case for $100 million.
In a cricket Test match in which Sri Lanka defeats India, Sri Lankan spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan, in his final Test cricket match, becomes the first cricketer ever to take 800 Test wickets.
July 23
During an African Union summit meeting in Kampala, Ugan., Guinea agrees to send a battalion to join African Union peacekeepers in Somalia; together with a force from Djibouti, these will be the first African Union peacekeepers in Somalia from predominately Muslim countries.
Financial regulators report that all but 7 of the 91 European banks subjected to stress tests passed the tests; those that failed included 5 small Spanish savings banks, a Greek bank, and a German bank.
July 24
In Duisburg, Ger., the Love Parade, an annual techno music festival that originated as a peace demonstration in Berlin in 1989, takes place in an old freight railway station, but overcrowding in a tunnel that is the only entrance to the venue leads to a panic in which 21 concertgoers are crushed to death.
Relentless rains result in the breach of the 83-year-old Lake Delhi dam in Iowa, which causes the recreational lake to drain away and releases floodwaters into the Maquoketa River, resulting in great destruction to homes, businesses, and farmland.
July 25
The organization WikiLeaks.org posts on its Web site tens of thousands of pages of classified U.S. military field reports on the war in Afghanistan.
The U.S. and South Korea begin joint war games in the Sea of Japan, mobilizing 20 ships, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington, and more than 200 warplanes.
Tony Hayward is removed as CEO of the energy company BP; his replacement is announced two days later as Robert Dudley, who will be the first American to head the company.
Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador wins the Tour de France for the second year in a row.
Brazil wins the FIVB World League championship in volleyball in Córdoba, Arg., defeating Russia to take a record ninth World League title.
Yokozuna Hakuho defeats ozeki Baruto to win the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, becoming the first wrestler in the history of sumo to win three consecutive meets without a single defeat.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., inducts slugger Andre Dawson, manager Whitey Herzog, and umpire Doug Harvey.
July 26
Afghan officials declare that 52 civilians in a house where women and children were taking refuge from a firefight between NATO and Taliban forces in Helmand province on July 23 were killed by a rocket fired by NATO troops.
Bomb attacks kill some 20 Shiʿite pilgrims traveling from Al-Najaf to Karbalaʾ in Iraq; also, a car bomb explodes in front of the Baghdad offices of the news channel Al-Arabiyah, and six people, none of them journalists, die.
Central bankers and regulators on the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision reach a preliminary agreement on new capitalization standards for banks worldwide to improve stability in the financial system.
In fighting between al-Huthi rebels and a group loyal to the government in northern Yemen, dozens of people are killed, and the al-Huthi rebels gain control over two important military posts.
In Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes tribunal's first verdict, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who oversaw the torture and executions of thousands of prisoners at the Tuol Sleng prison under the Khmer Rouge regime, is found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 35 years in prison; his sentence is lessened to 19 years for time served and for a period of illegal military detention.
The U.S. Library of Congress grants an exception to a copyright law; the exception gives owners of smartphones, such as Apple's iPhone, the right to engage in "jailbreaking"—that is, to install software that has not been approved by the phone's creator.
In Jerusalem the Israel Museum reopens after a three-year renovation, expansion, and redesign under the direction of James S. Snyder.
July 27
Heavy rains continue in China, and a resultant landslide in Sichuan leaves 21 people missing, while waters threaten to overtop the Three Gorges Dam; China's State Flood Control and Drought Prevention department reports that at least 823 people have died in flooding in 2010.
The U.S. Forest Service announces that caves on federal land in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming will be closed to explorers for a year in an effort to contain the spread of white-nose syndrome, a disease that has killed more than one million bats.
July 28
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm calls on the U.S. federal government for additional help in cleaning up an oil spill of more than 3,028,330 litres (800,000 gal) that resulted from a broken pipeline on July 26 on Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River; Granholm calls the effort so far by the pipeline's owner, Enbridge Energy Partners, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "wholly inadequate."
In Spain the legislature of Catalonia votes to ban the Spanish tradition of bullfighting in the region.
Australian coral researchers announce the discovery at Arno atoll in the Marshall Islands of the giant Pacific elkhorn coral, a previously unknown species that may be the rarest of all corals, confined only to that atoll.
July 29
South African Pres. Jacob Zuma announces that 6 of the country's 13 black ethnic monarchies are to be abolished; some of the leaders of the kingships were appointed by the former apartheid-era government with an eye to generating support for the government.
Pres. ʿAli ʿAbdallah Salih of Yemen invites leaders of the al-Huthi rebels to join talks between the Yemeni government and assorted opposition parties.
Mexican soldiers in a firefight kill Ignacio ("Nacho") Coronel, one of the top leaders of the Sinaloa drug cartel, in what is viewed as a major victory in the Mexican government's fight against the cartels.
Shipping officials in the United Arab Emirates attempt to ascertain the cause of damage, including a dented hull and broken windows, sustained by the Japanese oil tanker M. Star the previous day in the Strait of Hormuz.
July 30
Violent fighting between those who support and those who oppose ongoing peace talks with the Sudanese government break out in a refugee camp in the Darfur region of Sudan, and some 10 people are killed; UN reports indicate that about 600 people have died in violence in Darfur in the past few months.
American marine conservationist Rick Steiner declares that the oil spill into the Yellow Sea following a pipeline explosion in Dalian, China, two weeks earlier was likely to have spilled more than 430,000 bbl of oil, rather than the 11,000 bbl reported by China.
July 31
Genevieve De Manio—UPI/LandovChelsea Clinton, daughter of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. president Bill Clinton, weds Marc Mezvinsky in a ceremony in Rhinebeck, N.Y.
A four-man team skippered by Leven Brown of Scotland sets a record for rowing across the Atlantic from New York to Britain when it lands in the Isles of Scilly 43 days 21 hr 26 min 48 sec from its departure on June 17, a journey of 5,250 km (3,262 mi); the previous record, 55 days 13 hr, was set in 1896 by a team of two Norwegians.
August 1
A government official in Pakistan declares that flooding in the country has cost 1,100 lives thus far; some 10,000 people are thought to be stranded in the Swat valley and Dir Ismail Khan.
The Netherlands withdraws its forces from Afghanistan; it is the first NATO member to end its mission there.
The United Arab Emirates declares that it intends to start blocking data services for Blackberry smart phones, including e-mail and text messaging, because the producer of Blackberry devices, Research in Motion, routes such data in a way that makes it all but impervious to government monitoring.
Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng captures the Women's British Open golf tournament.
August 2
Raza Haidar, the head of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement political party, is assassinated in Karachi; violent anti-Pashtun rioting breaks out within hours and continues for two days, leaving at least 78 people dead.
Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev declares a state of emergency in seven regions because of wildfires, which have left at least 40 people dead and more than 2,200 homeless.
Officials in Indian-administered Kashmir say that two days of violent clashes between armed security forces and stone-throwing protesters have raised the number killed so far to 33 people.
A rocket strikes near the InterContinental resort hotel in Al-ʿAqabah, Jordan, killing a taxi driver, and the remains of another rocket are found on the grounds of the Eilat resort in Israel; the provenance of the rockets is unknown.
Nepal's legislature fails in its third attempt to choose a president as neither candidate wins more than half the votes and many legislators remain neutral on the question.
A U.S. federal team of scientists and engineers estimates that the amount of oil that flowed into the Gulf of Mexico following the explosion of the energy company BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20 is roughly 4,900,000 bbl, about 800,000 bbl of which was captured, making it the largest-ever accidental release of oil into marine waters; the previous record was 3,300,000 bbl in the Bay of Campeche, where a well dug by the Ixtoc I oil platform blew out in 1979.
The Washington Post Co. announces the sale of its newsmagazine Newsweek to Sidney Harman, founder and former CEO of audio equipment manufacturer Harman International Industries; Jon Meacham declares that he will step down as the magazine's editor when the sale has been completed.
August 3
Israeli and Lebanese troops stationed at the border between the countries exchange gunfire, reportedly leaving four Lebanese and at least one Israeli dead; each side blames the other for starting the incident.
New York City zoning officials clear the way for the building of a community centre and mosque to be constructed two blocks north of the site of the World Trade Center, commonly referred to since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as "ground zero"; opposition to the planned centre, often fanned by right-wing commentators, has appeared in much of the country and frequently takes on an anti-Islam tone.
August 4
A new constitution that decreases the power of the presidency and includes a bill of rights is resoundingly approved by the electorate in Kenya; it is signed into law on August 27.
The U.S. government says that the energy company BP's use of a so-called static kill to seal the broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico by filling it with mud is a success and that there should be no further leaking from the well; the following day cement is used to plug the pipe for the first time.
Naxalite rebels ambush a police patrol in India's Chhattisgarh state; some 70 police officers are missing after the attack.
In San Francisco, Vaughn R. Walker, a U.S. federal judge, rules that the law approved by voters in 2008 that allows only opposite-sex couples to marry violates the equal-protection clause of the Constitution; he stays the ruling, however, pending appeal.
August 5
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signs a decree banning the export of grain from August 15 through the end of the year because of the continuing drought, which has decimated the wheat harvest.
An iceberg covering at least 251 sq km (97 sq mi) breaks off from Greenland's Petermann Glacier; it is the largest ice island to break free in the Northern Hemisphere since 1962.
August 6
In the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan, 10 members of a medical aid group—6 Americans, 2 Afghans, 1 Briton, and 1 German—are lined up and executed.
Pal Schmitt is sworn in as president of Hungary.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in July remained steady at 9.5% and that, though the private sector added 71,000 jobs, the economy as a whole lost 131,000 jobs.
Investigators for the United Arab Emirates report that the damage suffered by the Japanese oil tanker M. Star on July 28 as it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz was caused by a terrorist attack involving homemade explosives.
The technology company Hewlett-Packard astonishes observers by announcing the departure of Mark V. Hurd as chairman and CEO; Hurd, who had made the company the world's largest such concern, had been found to have fudged expense reports.
August 7
At least 43 people are killed by an explosion in a marketplace in Basra, Iraq.
Elena Kagan is sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Muscle Massive wins the Hambletonian harness race by a half length over favourite Lucky Chucky at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, inducts running backs Emmitt Smith and Floyd Little, wide receiver Jerry Rice, cornerback Dick LeBeau, linebacker Rickey Jackson, guard Russ Grimm, and defensive tackle John Randle.
August 8
South Korean Pres. Lee Myung-Bak carries out a cabinet shuffle; he names Kim Tae-Ho to replace Chung Un-Chan as prime minister, but Kim withdraws on August 29.
A UN spokesman declares that within 60 days the organization will return staff members to Somalia for the first time since it withdrew from the country in 1993.
August 9
Pres. Paul Kagame is overwhelmingly elected to a new seven-year term as president of Rwanda.
The head of Russia's weather service declares that the heat wave engulfing the area around Moscow is the worst the country has ever experienced; tens of thousands of people flee the heat, which has doubled the city's death rate, and 557 fires are burning, with 747,722 ha (1,847,661 ac) having been consumed by fires.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time issues rules limiting mercury emissions from the manufacture of cement; the agency says that the new rules should reduce such emissions and particulate matter 92% annually from 2013.
August 10
The U.S. Federal Reserve announces that it intends to buy long-term government debt in hopes of preventing a slowing of the tenuous economic recovery.
Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez and Colombian Pres. Juan Manuel Santos meet in Santa Marta, Colom., and agree to exchange ambassadors.
The journal Archives of Neurology publishes a study that found that a test of spinal fluid can accurately diagnose and predict the development of Alzheimer disease; it is hoped that this knowledge will make it possible to develop effective treatments.
August 11
China reports a slowing of its economy's growth, the Bank of England reduces its forecast for the country's economy, and the U.S. reports decreased exports; in response, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 265 points.
Russia announces that it has deployed an advanced air defense missile system in the separatist Georgian enclave Abkhazia.
Essa Mohammad/APThe Mecca Clock Tower, with four faces 46 m (151 ft) in diameter and illuminated by LED lights, begins marking time in Saudi Arabia; it runs on Arabia Standard Time and is intended to challenge Greenwich Mean Time as the world standard.
August 12
Dési Bouterse, who twice led the country at the head of a military junta and was on trial for murder at the time of his election by the legislature, takes office as president of Suriname.
French Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux declares that the government has dismantled some 40 illegal Roma camps over the past two weeks and will deport 700 camp residents to Bulgaria and Romania; the day of the announcement a Roma camp in Choisy-le-Roi is shut down.
August 13
In Sri Lanka retired general Sarath Fonseka, who led the military campaign that defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and who later unsuccessfully ran against Pres. Mahinda Rajapakse for president, is convicted in a court-martial of having engaged in politics while in uniform and is dishonourably discharged.
The ruling junta of Myanmar (Burma) announces that elections will take place on November 7.
Patrice Trovoada of the opposition Independent Democratic Action party is named as prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe after elections on August 1; his government is sworn in the following day.
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO federation of labour unions, announces that the Laborers' International Union has decided to leave the Change to Win federation and rejoin the AFL-CIO.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., inducts as members NBA players Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, Dennis Johnson, and Gus Johnson, WNBA star Cynthia Cooper, Brazilian player Maciel Pereira, owner Jerry Buss, and high school coach Bob Hurley, Sr., as well as the U.S. Olympic teams from the Games of 1960 and 1992.
August 14
In California's Mojave Desert, at the California 200, a popular 80-km (50-mi) off-road nighttime race attended by hundreds of spectators, a modified Ford Ranger going over a steep hill spins and rolls over into the crowd; eight spectators are killed.
The opening ceremonies for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games take place in Singapore, where some 3,600 athletes 14 to 18 years of age from 204 countries will compete in two dozen summer sports over the next 12 days.
The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, the largest such museum in the world, officially reopens after extensive renovation.
August 15
In a speech marking the 65th anniversary of the end of Japanese rule in Korea, South Korean Pres. Lee Myung-Bak suggests that the time has come to consider a special tax to finance the eventual reunification of South and North Korea.
At the Whistling Straits golf club in Kohler, Wis., Martin Kaymer of Germany defeats Bubba Watson of the U.S. in a three-hole playoff to win the PGA championship tournament.
Danielle Kang of California wins the U.S. women's amateur golf title in Charlotte, N.C.
The 51st Edward MacDowell Medal for outstanding contributions to the arts is awarded to American jazz composer and musician Sonny Rollins at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H.
August 16
Japanese government figures are released showing that the country's economy in the second fiscal quarter was valued at $1.28 trillion, thus resulting in China (which posted $1.33 trillion in the same quarter) surpassing Japan to become the second biggest economy in the world.
Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago sign an agreement on the sharing of the Loran-Manatee gas field, which straddles the maritime border between the two countries.
Astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Douglas Wheelock succeed in installing a replacement cooling pump on the International Space Station on their third spacewalk to replace a pump that failed on July 31.
August 17
At an Iraqi army recruiting centre in Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonates his weapon among a crowd of applicants, killing at least 61 people.
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai orders that all private security companies, both domestic and foreign, be phased out within four months, a deadline that is widely regarded as impossibly short.
Lebanon passes a law granting Palestinians in the country, of whom there are an estimated 400,000, the same rights to work that other foreigners enjoy.
It is reported that 51 people died in drug-related violence August 13–15 in Juárez, Mex.
Taiwan's legislature ratifies the trade agreement that was signed with China in June.
The pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly halts two late-stage trials of drugs intended to treat Alzheimer disease by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme gamma secretase in order to reduce production of amyloid plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of the disease; those taking the drugs were suffering worse cognitive functioning than those taking the placebo.
August 18
The body of Edelmiro Cavazos, the kidnapped mayor of Santiago, Mex., is found on the side of a road; five police officers, one of whom was part of the mayor's security detail, and a transit officer are later arrested in connection with the crime.
China's state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission announces that it will invest billions of dollars in development of electric and hybrid automobiles and that a consortium of 16 large state-owned companies will do research and development for the vehicles.
Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, recalls 380 million eggs that have been sold throughout the country; an outbreak of salmonella was traced to some of the company's facilities.
The New England Journal of Medicine publishes online a study that found that cancer patients who received palliative care beginning at the time of diagnosis outlived those who received standard cancer treatment without palliative care.
August 19
Taliban fighters attack sleeping private security guards hired to safeguard a road-construction project in the Helmand River valley in Afghanistan; at least 21 of the guards are slaughtered.
North Korea acknowledges that it is holding a South Korean squidding boat and its seven crew members, saying that they were fishing in North Korean waters.
The computer chip maker Intel announces an agreement to acquire the computer security company McAfee.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution announce that they have found that over the past billion years, the Moon has shrunk by about 183 m (600 ft) in diameter and that it may still be shrinking, as shown by ridges on the body.
The Fields Medals, awarded every four years to mathematicians aged 40 or younger, are presented to Elon Lindenstrauss, Ngo Bao Chau, Stanislav Smirnov, and Cédric Villani; also, the inaugural Chern Medal for lifetime achievement goes to Louis Nirenberg.
August 20
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will engage in direct talks with Israel in hopes of finding a way to return to the peace process.
Aleksey Savinov is fired as head of Russia's forestry service for his handling of the forest fires that burned 809,370 ha (2,000,000 ac) of land and left at least 54 people dead.
U.S. bank regulators shut down Community National Bank at Bartow (Fla.), Independent National Bank of Ocala, Fla., Imperial Savings and Loan Association of Martinsville, Va., and ShoreBank in Chicago, bringing the number of bank failures so far in 2010 to 114.
August 21
Legislative elections in Australia result in no clear majority for any party, with the ruling Labor Party taking 38% of the vote and the conservative Liberal-National coalition winning 43.6%.
Near Bushehr, Iran, officials from Iran and Russia ceremonially open Iran's first nuclear power plant; it will be jointly operated with Russian technicians.
Several days of torrential rain cause flooding along the Yalu River on the border between China and North Korea; 127,000 people in China and 5,150 people in North Korea are evacuated, and China reports at least four deaths in Liaoning province.
A valuable painting by Vincent van Gogh called Poppy Flowers, or Vase and Flowers, is stolen from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo.
August 22
Officials from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and from the International Medical Corps report that they have learned that hundreds of members of the Hutu rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda attacked and gang-raped at least 150 women July 30–August 3 in and around the village of Ruvungi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Seventeen days after the collapse of a gold and copper mine in northern Chile, 33 miners trapped 700 m (2,300 ft) underground tie a note to a rescuers' drill that has penetrated the area in which they have taken refuge, notifying those above of their survival; plans for their rescue begin.
August 23
A suicide bomber kills at least 26 people at a mosque in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan.
A former police officer who was fired in 2009 takes over a tour bus in Manila, holding the passengers hostage in an apparent bid to regain his job; there is a televised standoff for the next 12 hours before police commandos storm the bus, and the gunman and eight tourists from Hong Kong are killed.
Nepal's legislature fails in its fifth attempt to choose a prime minister; the next vote is scheduled for September 5.
U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, to the shock of the scientific community, overturns an executive order allowing limited federal funding of stem cell research.
A traffic jam in China that stretches for about 100 km (62 mi) between the former city of Jining in Inner Mongolia and Huai'an in Jiangsu continues into its ninth day; road repair is a major cause of the tie-up.
August 24
Al-Shabaab fighters wearing Somali government military uniforms invade a hotel in Mogadishu, methodically shooting from room to room; at least 33 people, including 4 members of the country's legislature, are killed.
Peace talks between Yemen's government and al-Huthi rebels begin in Qatar.
The bodies of 72 migrants from Central and South America, the victims of a massacre, are found in San Fernando, Tamaulipas state, Mex.
The National Association of Realtors in the U.S. reports that home sales in July were 25.5% lower than in the previous July, in spite of historically low mortgage interest rates and falling prices.
A small turboprop airplane carrying passengers to Lukla, Nepal, a popular starting point for the trek to Mt. Everest, crashes near the village of Shikharpur; all 14 aboard perish.
August 25
A car bomb goes off at a police station in Baghdad, marking the beginning of a day of attacks that strike 12 other Iraqi cities, including Al-Fallujah, Al-Ramadi, Tikrit, Kirkuk, Basra, Karbalaʾ, and Mosul; at least 51 people die in the attacks, including 19 people killed by a car bomb in Kut.
The final unit of the 4.2-million-kW Xiaowan Hydropower Station in China's Yunnan province begins operating; the project, the second largest in China, gives the country the highest hydropower capacity in the world.
Danny Philip is chosen to be prime minister of the Solomon Islands.
August 26
France deports 300 Roma over the protests of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris and the EU justice commissioner.
Brazilian Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ceremonially signs the contract for the building of the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River; it is planned to be the third largest dam in the world and to supply electricity to 23 million homes.
Scientists with NASA's Kepler satellite say that they believe they have found a planet 1.5 times the diameter of the Earth orbiting the star Kepler-9, 2,000 light-years distant; it is the first possible Earth-like planet found by the Kepler satellite, which was launched in 2009 to search for such bodies.
The winners of the inaugural Horton Foote Prize for playwriting are announced: Ruined by Lynn Nottage wins the award for outstanding new American play, and the prize for promising new American play goes to Middletown by Will Eno.
August 27
Than Shwe, Muang Aye, and Thura Shwe Man resign from the military in Myanmar (Burma); the move makes the men, the top three rulers in the country's military junta, eligible to run for office under the new constitution.
Mexico's largest airline, Grupo Mexicana, suspends operations.
The North American Lutheran Church is created in Grove City, Ohio, by 199 congregations that opposed the more accepting stance toward gay clergy recently adopted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
August 28
Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, whom Pres. Hamid Karzai fired as deputy attorney general of Afghanistan on August 26, declares that he was sacked for pursuing corruption cases against high officials in the government; Western officials bear out his story about high-level interference with corruption investigations.
Conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck leads a rally of tens of thousands of people, many of them Tea Party partisans or libertarians, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.; he calls for Christian religious revival.
The Museum of Memory, dedicated to the victims of the long (1980–2000) conflict between the government and the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrilla organization, opens in Huancavelica, Peru.
August 29
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ceremonially opens a new oil pipeline that runs 67 km (42 mi) from Skovorodino, Russia, to northeastern China.
Roone Patikawa/APThe volcano Mt. Sinabung on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupts for the first time in four centuries; another eruption takes place the following day.
In London the tabloid newspaper News of the World publishes a story reporting that members of Pakistan's cricket team agreed to perform for money certain actions during Pakistan's match against England; Scotland Yard is investigating the so-called spot-fixing scandal.
The Emmy Awards are presented in Los Angeles; winners include the television shows Modern Family and Mad Men and the actors Jim Parsons, Bryan Cranston, Edie Falco, Kyra Sedgwick, Eric Stonestreet, Aaron Paul, Jane Lynch, and Archie Panjabi.
At a meet in Rieti, Italy, Kenyan runner David Rudisha sets a new 800-m world record of 1 min 41.01 sec, breaking his own record time set on August 22 by 0.08 sec; the previous record, 1 min 41.11 sec, was set in 1997 by Wilson Kipketer of Denmark.
In University Place, Wash., Peter Uihlein wins the U.S. men's amateur golf championship.
The Edogawa Minami team from Tokyo defeats the Waipio team from Waipahu, Hawaii, 4–1 to win baseball's 64th Little League World Series.
August 30
After a long debate, India's legislature ratifies the final legislation necessary to complete the implementation of a nuclear agreement made with the U.S. in 2005.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration releases reports of inspections that found numerous and egregious sanitation violations at farms run by egg producers Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the companies that were found to have produced eggs contaminated with salmonella.
August 31
In a nationally televised address, U.S. Pres. Barack Obama announces an end to the country's combat mission in Iraq, though 49,700 troops will remain in a supporting capacity for another year; the war began in 2003.
After more than five weeks during which nearly one-fifth of Pakistan was inundated and about a million homes damaged or destroyed, floodwaters rolling down rivers finally reach the sea.
The much-anticipated, well-reviewed novel Freedom by Jonathan Franzen arrives in American bookstores.
September 1
After 10 days of battles in the streets of Mogadishu, Som., that have left at least 100 people dead, the city is calm.
Three suicide bombers attack Shiʿites observing an annual day of mourning in Lahore, Pak., killing at least 31 people; rioting breaks out in response.
Police in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, open fire on rioting protesters objecting to rapidly rising food prices; at least six people are killed.
In Washington, D.C., U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian Pres. Hosni Mubarak, and King ʿAbdullah II of Jordan meet to begin a push to achieve agreement between Israel and Palestine.
September 2
The International Medical Corps says that the number of women and girls in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo who were raped during attacks on July 30–August 3 by the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda and the Mai Mai has been found to be more than 240, and it is expected that the number will rise with further investigation.
The IMF declares that it will provide Pakistan with $450 million in emergency aid to help with the flooding disaster the country is experiencing.
The American fast-food chain Burger King agrees to be bought by the Brazilian-backed investment firm 3G Capital.
September 3
A suicide bomber kills at least 53 people in Quetta, Pak., when he detonates his weapon among a parade of Shiʿites marching to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians.
A magnitude-7.0 earthquake with its epicentre about 45 km (28 mi) west of Christchurch strikes in New Zealand; most major buildings in Christchurch are built to withstand earthquakes, though some $1.4 billion in damage, largely to infrastructure, does result.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration publishes its assessment that salmon genetically engineered to grow quickly can be safely eaten and poses little risk of ecological disruption; a final decision will be made in the next few weeks.
September 4
The U.S. and Afghanistan reach a deal on bailing out Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest bank, as a run on the institution by worried depositors continues.
September 5
A referendum in Moldova on a constitutional amendment to allow direct popular election of the president fails to attract enough voters to be considered legally valid; the country's legislature has not agreed on a successor to Pres. Vladimir Voronin, whose term ended in 2009.
The Basque militant organization ETA publicly declares a cease-fire in Spain.
September 6
Trade unions in South Africa suspend a strike by hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers that has gone on for nearly three weeks, though the government's offer has not yet been accepted.
A suicide car bomber attacks a police station in the town of Lakki Marwat in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province; at least 19 people, including 9 police officers, are killed.
A 24-hour public-sector strike to protest pension-reform proposals that include raising the minimum retirement age begins in France, and a 24-hour transit strike in London opposes layoffs.
The International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran is continuing its refusal to adequately cooperate with the agency's requests for information and access to facilities.
September 7
Julia Gillard forms a coalition that allows her to retain her position as Australia's prime minister.
A bomb explosion kills at least 18 people in a residential compound in Kohat in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
A government minister in Mozambique announces that the price of bread will be rolled back to its earlier level after a major increase in the cost caused riots.
Israel, the newest member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, signs the OECD Convention, pledging its dedication to the organization's goals.
A British parliamentary committee announces plans to hold an inquiry into the issue of phone hacking after reports surfaced that the tabloid The News of the World had intercepted cell phone messages of politicians and celebrities.
Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago announces that he will not seek a seventh term of office in 2011; observers are dumbfounded.
September 8
Sri Lanka's legislature approves a constitutional amendment that allows the president to seek an unlimited number of terms of office and that increases the president's power of appointment.
China's Foreign Ministry summons Japan's ambassador to China for the second time to complain about Japan's seizure the previous day of a Chinese fishing boat's captain in the waters around islands called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan that are claimed by both countries.
The government of Ireland declares that it will break the troubled Anglo Irish Bank into two entities, one of which it intends to shut down.
The American cable television network CNN announces that British-born journalist Piers Morgan, who is a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent and hosts an interview series on the British network ITV, will replace Larry King in the interview show now called Larry King Live.
September 9
U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips rules that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prohibits the military from seeking to learn the sexual orientation of service members but permits the discharge of service members who are found through their own actions to be homosexual, is unconstitutional.
In Russia's North Ossetia–Alania republic, a suicide car bomb explodes in the central market of Vladikavkaz; at least 17 people are killed.
India's cabinet ratifies a plan to include data on caste status in the census scheduled for 2011; caste information was last collected in the 1931 census.
An enormous gas-line explosion destroys about 50 houses in San Bruno, Calif., and at least eight people are killed.
Crime statistics released in South Africa show that the country's murder rate has declined 8.6% over the past year to its lowest level since the 1990 end of the apartheid era; other violent crime statistics fall as well.
September 10
A report by a commission set up by the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium issues a report on its findings that sexual abuse of children by priests occurred throughout the country and involved hundreds of victims, with the most abuse occurring from the 1950s through the late 1980s.
The U.S. government announces that Staff Sgt. Salvatore A. Giunta will be granted the Medal of Honor for conspicuous bravery during a battle in eastern Afghanistan in 2007; he will be the first living service member since the Vietnam War to receive the honour.
In a complex deal, the telecommunications company Bell Canada takes control of the television network CTV, which includes several cable channels, while the newspaper the Globe and Mail reverts to the control of Woodbridge, the holding company of the Thomson family.
September 11
During the holiday of ʿId al-Fitr, thousands of Muslims who had been given permission to march in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, engage in violent protests.
North Korea proposes the resumption of reunions of families that were divided by the Korean War; it is the first time that North Korea has proposed such meetings.
Kim Clijsters of Belgium defeats Russian Vera Zvonareva to win the women's U.S. Open tennis championship for the third time; two days later in a final postponed by rain, Rafael Nadal of Spain defeats Novak Djokovic of Serbia to take the men's title for the first time in his career.
Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola, about a Hollywood star reconnecting with his daughter, wins the Golden Lion for best picture at the Venice Film Festival.
September 12
Turkish voters resoundingly approve 26 amendments to the country's constitution that increase civil rights, make the military responsible to civilian courts, and increase the control of the president and legislature over judicial appointments.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, a group of bank regulators from 26 countries and Hong Kong, agree on new rules to require banks to more than triple the amount of capital held in reserve; the rules are intended to bring more stability to the global economy.
Violent demonstrations take place in eastern Afghanistan over a widely publicized plan by Terry Jones, pastor of a small independent church in Gainesville, Fla., to burn copies of the Qurʾan on September 11, despite the fact that Jones eventually canceled the plan; police fire into the unruly crowd, killing two.
September 13
Javier Velásquez resigns as prime minister of Peru; he is replaced the following day by José Antonio Chang.
Cuba announces plans to lay off 500,000 people from the government payroll by March 2011 in a major turn toward the private sector.
Violence in Indian-administered Kashmir escalates, possibly in response to reports of plans, later canceled, by American pastor Terry Jones to burn copies of the Qurʾan; at least 18 people are killed.
It is announced that the 34th America's Cup yacht race will take place in 2013 and will be contested by wingsail catamarans.
September 14
India's government cancels all flights into and out of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, in response to continued bloodshed; two days earlier a round-the-clock curfew was imposed.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announces that former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet will head the new agency UN Women.
The UN World Food Programme says that the number of people in the world who can be classified as hungry has fallen from the record high in 2009 of 1.02 billion to 925 million, the first time in 15 years that the figure has fallen; the number remains higher than at any time before 2008, however.
Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers who apparently wandered into Iran in July 2009 and were held there on espionage charges, is released on bail and permitted to leave the country.
September 15
Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev signs a treaty with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg that settles a border dispute over a region of the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean that has undeveloped petroleum reserves.
The electoral commission in Guinea announces that the runoff presidential election scheduled to take place on September 19 will be postponed.
The classified advertisement Web site Craigslist declares that it has permanently shuttered its adult services section.
In the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Julia strengthens to a Category 4, marking the first time on record that a hurricane has become so strong such a distance east of land; Hurricane Igor is also a Category 4, and this is the first time since 1926 that two Category 4 hurricanes have been active simultaneously in the Atlantic.
Fredrik Von Erichsen—EPA/LandovThe Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology publishes a study of a recently discovered skeleton of a bony-toothed bird with a wingspan of 5 m (17 ft) and sharp toothlike projections in its beak; the bird, which lived some 5 million–10 million years ago, is dubbed Pelagornis chilensis.
September 16
The U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the poverty rate in 2009 rose sharply to 14.3%, a 15-year high, that the median household income, which had experienced a big drop in 2008, remained steady in 2009, and that the number of those without health insurance rose from 46 million in 2008 to 51 million in 2009.
Kim Hwang-Sik is named prime minister of South Korea.
Seven people connected with the French nuclear engineering company Areva, five of them from France and one each from Togo and Madagascar, are kidnapped in Arlit, Niger.
The winners of the Automotive X Prize, a competition to create a usable vehicle that can achieve at least 100 mpg (miles per gallon), are announced in Washington, D.C.; Oliver Kuttner's Edison2 Very Light Car, a four-seater that reaches a combined 102.5 mpg, is awarded the $5 million prize, and the runners-up are the Li-Ion Motors Wave II and the E-Tracer.
The Seattle Storm defeats the Atlanta Dream 87–84 to sweep the final series and win the Women's National Basketball Association championship.
September 17
The Taliban in Afghanistan declare, apparently accurately, that they have kidnapped 30 election officials and campaign workers, including one candidate, just before the country's legislative elections.
Former Nepali prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachanda, head of the Maoist party, withdraws his name from consideration for the office of prime minister.
Rioting nearly shuts down Karachi; the violence is in response to the stabbing death in London of Imran Farooq, an exiled leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the major political party in Karachi.
Colorado wildlife officials report that lynx have been successfully reestablished in Colorado after an 11-year program, as the animals are now reproducing faster than they are dying; the feline species had become extinct in the state by the early 1970s.
September 18
Legislative elections take place in Afghanistan in spite of Taliban efforts to disrupt the polling; turnout is reported to be light, and complaints of irregularities begin within days.
An antinuclear demonstration takes place in Berlin with a crowd that numbers tens of thousands; protesters who oppose plans to extend the life of nuclear power generators surround the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
September 19
The gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico is declared permanently sealed and the spill over after the completion of a relief well allowed the sealing of the broken well from the bottom on September 17 and testing showed that the seal will hold; the well ruptured with the collapse of the energy company BP's Deepwater Horizon platform in April.
In legislative elections in Sweden, the alliance of parties led by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt falls two seats short of a majority, and the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats win 20 seats, the first time they have gained enough votes to reach the legislature.
A military convoy traveling through the Rasht Valley in Tajikistan is attacked in an ambush in which at least 23 and possibly as many as 40 servicemen are killed.
A bomb explodes near a branch office of Iraq's Ministry of National Security in northern Baghdad, killing at least 19 people, and a car bomb outside the offices of the cell phone company Asiacell elsewhere in the city leaves 10 or more people dead.
In Juárez, Mex., the newspaper El Diario publishes an editorial addressed to the drug cartels asking for guidance as to what it is permitted to publish without risking the murder of its employees.
September 20
The Business Cycle Dating Committee declares that the recession in the U.S. ended in June 2009; it was the longest recession the country had experienced since World War II.
Authorities in Italy impound $30 million from the Vatican Bank and open a money-laundering inquiry into actions by its top two officials.
The British minister for overseas territories announces that elections scheduled for the Turks and Caicos Islands in July 2011 will be postponed and that direct rule from the U.K. will continue.
The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, which carries a $200,000 prize, is presented to Lynn Nottage.
September 21
Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke resigns as prime minister of the transitional federal government of Somalia; Abdiwahid Elmi Gonjeh becomes interim prime minister.
Hundreds of people attend a two-day seminar in Rosemont, Ill., in talks dealing with the growing scourge of bedbugs in the U.S.
September 22
In the Iranian city of Mahabad, a bomb goes off along the route of a parade marking the anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq War; at least 10 people are killed.
Fighting takes place between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in East Jerusalem after a Palestinian man is killed by an Israeli guard; peace talks continue.
September 23
Financial data shows that Ireland's economy, which expanded 2.2% in the first fiscal quarter of the year, shrank 1.2% in the second quarter.
Authorities in Colombia report that a multiday operation has resulted in a bomb raid against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in which the militant organization's second in command, known as Mono Jojoy, was killed.
In a speech at the opening of the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that it is widely believed that the U.S. government orchestrated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; 33 delegations walk out.
The Thanet wind farm opens in the North Sea off the southeast coast of England; with 100 turbines (planned to be 341 in four years) expected to produce 300 MW of electricity, it is the world's largest offshore wind farm.
The Prado Museum in Madrid announces that its curators have found that The Wine of Saint Martin's Day, a painting that was brought in for cleaning and restoration, was painted by the Flemish master Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, only some 40 of whose paintings are known.
In Ohio the Little Brown Jug, the second event of the pacing Triple Crown in harness racing, is won by Rock N Roll Heaven.
Nicol David of Malaysia wins her fifth squash World Open championship with her defeat of Omneya Abdel Kawy of Egypt, matching the record set by Australian Sarah Fitz-Gerald when she won her fifth championship in 2002.
September 24
In the face of unrelenting pressure from China, Japan releases the captain of a Chinese trawler whom it had held since his boat collided with Japanese patrol vessels two weeks earlier near islands that both countries claim.
On its 12th attempt Nepal's legislature elects as the country's new president Sushil Koirala; a decisive vote on prime minister continues to elude it.
On The Oprah Winfrey Show, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social-networking site Facebook, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker announce that Zuckerberg is donating $100 million to improve Newark's public school system.
Authorities in Nigeria's Kano state open the gates of the Challawa and Tiga dams to relieve pressure; floodwaters pour into neighbouring Jigawa state, displacing some two million residents.
Jeff Zucker announces that he will step down as CEO of the media and entertainment company NBC Universal once the acquisition of the entity by cable television company Comcast has been completed.
September 25
India announces a new approach to the unrest in Kashmir, including the relaxing of curfew, the release from jail of student protesters, the reopening of schools and universities, and opening of dialogue with various groups in Kashmir.
Ed Miliband is chosen as the new leader of the Labour Party in the U.K.
September 26
NATO military officials divulge that a battle to win Kandahar province from the Taliban in Afghanistan began five or six days earlier.
The Israeli freeze on construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank expires.
China announces the imposition of high tariffs on poultry imported from the U.S.
Patrick Makau of Kenya wins the Berlin Marathon with a time of 2 hr 5 min 8 sec; Aberu Kebede of Ethiopia is the fastest woman, with a time of 2 hr 23 min 58 sec.
September 27
In legislative elections in Venezuela, the opposition Democratic Unity Table coalition wins nearly half the votes and about one-third of the seats in the National Assembly, which is a significant increase.
Fatmir Sejdiu resigns as president of Kosovo after the Constitutional Court rules that he may not serve as head of state and leader of his political party simultaneously; Jakup Krasniqi becomes acting president.
Gustavo Sánchez Cervantes, who became acting mayor of the Mexican city of Tancítaro in December 2009 after the elected mayor resigned because of threats from organized crime, is found murdered; he is the 11th Mexican mayor to have been killed in 2010.
Colombia's inspector general, Alejandro Ordóñez, dismisses Sen. Piedad Córdoba and bars her from public service for 18 years, citing alleged ties with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
The low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines announces its purchase of the smaller low-cost airline AirTran Airways.
September 28
North Korea's official news agency reports that Kim Jong-Eun, the youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, along with Kim Jong Il's sister and four other people, have been made four-star generals; it is widely assumed that Kim Jong-Eun has been made heir to the leadership of the country.
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai appoints 70 people to a peace council that will be given considerable autonomy.
Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev dismisses political rival Yury Luzhkov as mayor of Moscow.
Banri Kaieda, Japan's minister of economic and fiscal policy, declares that a weeklong de facto halt in the export of rare earth minerals from China to Japan, which China denies, is threatening Japan's economy; the minerals are crucial in the manufacture of myriad products.
September 29
Public-sector strikes and demonstrations against government austerity measures take place in Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels, Athens, and other European cities.
Maatia Toafa replaces Apisai Ielemia as prime minister of Tuvalu following legislative elections on September 16.
A spokesman for Alberto Contador, the winner of the 2010 Tour de France, reveals that Contador tested positive for the banned muscle-building drug clenbuterol on the final rest day of the race.
Astronomers report having found in the constellation Libra orbiting the star Gliese 581 a planet, Gliese 581g, that appears to be in the so-called Goldilocks zone, a distance from the star that would be neither so hot nor so cold as to preclude the possibility of life.
At a meeting in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov, president of the Russian republic of Kalmykiya, is reelected president of the World Chess Federation; among his views are that chess comes from outer space.
September 30
Freddy Navas—dpa/LandovPres. Rafael Correa of Ecuador is shaken up, teargassed, and briefly trapped in a hospital by police officers and military service members during a large and angry protest against a reduction in pay increases and benefits; it is unclear whether the protest also encompasses a coup attempt, and a state of emergency is declared.
A three-judge panel in India's state of Uttar Pradesh issues a ruling in a case that was originally filed in 1950 over the rights to a place in Ayodhya believed by Hindus to be the birthplace of the god Ram and where the Babri Masjid mosque was built in the 16th century and burned down in 1992; it is ruled that two-thirds of the site belongs to Hindus and one-third to Muslims.
The U.S. government declares that it has reached an agreement with the American International Group (AIG) for the firm to begin repaying the funds given to it under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which will expire on October 3.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finishes the month 7.7% higher than it started, posting its best September in 71 years; the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gains 8.7% for the month, and the NASDAQ is up 12%.
October 1
Ukraine's Constitutional Court overturns changes to the government structure made in 2004, thereby returning a greater proportion of power to the president.
At a parade in Abuja to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Nigeria's independence, two bombs explode, killing at least 12 people and possibly many more; the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta claims responsibility.
The U.S. government formally apologizes for a recently uncovered American program in which some 700 Guatemalan prisoners and mental patients were deliberately infected with gonorrhea and syphilis in order to study the effects of penicillin in 1946–48.
The U.S. government releases its findings that the automated sale of $4.1 billion in futures by a hedge fund in Overland Park, Kan., triggered the stock market "flash crash" on May 6.
Kim Hwang-Sik takes office as prime minister of South Korea.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs into law a bill that reduces the penalty for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana to a fine of $100; offenders may not be arrested and will not have a criminal record.
The 2010 Lasker Awards for medical research are presented: winners are Douglas Coleman and Jeffrey Friedman, for their discovery of the appetite-regulating hormone leptin; Napoleone Ferrara, for his discoveries leading to a treatment for the wet form of macular degeneration, a major cause of blindness in the elderly; and David Weatherall, for his career in biomedical research, including research on thalassemia.
October 2
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi announces that arrests have been made in connection with the ongoing infection of computers in the country's nuclear operations by the destructive Stuxnet worm, which is believed to have been created by a government for the purpose of disrupting Iran's nuclear program.
In legislative elections in Latvia, the ruling Unity coalition retains power.
With his eighth-place finish in the Indy 300 race in Homestead, Fla. (the winner is Scott Dixon of New Zealand), Scottish driver Dario Franchitti wins his third overall IndyCar drivers' championship.
The Collingwood Magpies defeat the St. Kilda Saints 16.12 (108)–7.10 (52) in the Australian Football League Grand Final Replay after a tie in the Grand Final a week earlier, thus winning the AFL title.
October 3
In elections for the tripartite presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the moderate Bakir Izetbegovic wins the Muslim seat, Zeljko Komsic is reelected to the Croat seat, and separatist politician Milorad Dodik is elected to the Serb seat.
Presidential elections in Brazil result in the need for a runoff.
In spite of widely reported construction problems and delays as well as other difficulties in preparation, the 2010 Commonwealth Games begin on time with an opening ceremony in New Delhi.
Sébastien Loeb of France secures a record seventh successive world rally championship automobile racing drivers' title with his first-place finish in the Rallye de France.
October 4
At Ajka, Hung., a wall of a tailings dam of the Magyar Aluminium plant collapses, sending a wall of highly alkaline and thus caustic red mud into nearby waterways and engulfing the towns of Kolontar, Devecser, and Somlovasarhely; at least nine people are killed, as well as all life in the affected waterways, and some 1,000 ha (2,500 ac) of land is contaminated.
The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine is awarded to British physiologist Robert Edwards for his development, with British physician Patrick Steptoe (1913–88), of in vitro fertilization; Edwards won the Lasker Award in 2001 for the same work.
In golf's Ryder Cup competition in Newport, Wales, Europe defeats the U.S. with a 141/2–131/2 margin of victory.
October 5
Former French trader Jérôme Kerviel, whose illegal and risky trades in 2008 nearly led to the collapse of his employer, the bank Société Générale, is sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay back the entire amount of money (€4.9 billion [$7 billion])lost by the bank; he appeals the decision.
In Stockholm the Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their work on the creation of graphene, a one-atom-thick form of carbon with many possible applications.
It is reported that linguists on an expedition to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh to research two little-known Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in a small area have found a third, previously unknown language, Koro, that is spoken by some 1,000 people and is not closely related to other Tibeto-Burman languages.
October 6
The aid group Doctors Without Borders declares that over the past six months more than 400 children in Nigeria's Zamfara state have died of lead poisoning as a result of runoff from illegal gold mining that contaminated soil and water.
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Richard Heck of the U.S., Ei-ichi Negishi of Japan and the U.S., and Akira Suzuki of Japan for their independent advances in the use of palladium as a catalyst in linking carbon atoms to form complex structures widely used in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
It is reported that a team of U.S. Army scientists in Maryland working with entomologists in Montana have found that a combination of a fungus and a virus appears to be responsible for the colony collapse disorder afflicting honeybees in the U.S. and Europe.
October 7
Two explosions seconds apart kill at least seven people at a major Sufi shrine in Karachi.
The Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa.
October 8
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to imprisoned Chinese democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in September remained at 9.6% (to which it had risen in August) and that, though the private sector added 64,000 jobs, the economy as a whole lost 95,000 nonfarm jobs.
A bomb at a mosque in Taliqan, the capital of Afghanistan's Takhar province, kills at least 12 people, among them Muhammad Omar, the governor of neighbouring Kunduz province and the target of the attack.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 11,006.48, its first close above 11,000 since May.
October 9
Pakistan announces that it will reopen its main border crossing with Afghanistan; the crossing was closed after NATO helicopters killed two Pakistani soldiers in a strike on a Pakistani border post on September 30 and dozens of NATO and American supply trucks stranded at the closed crossing had been torched.
Tens of thousands of people in Stuttgart, Ger., rally to oppose the Stuttgart 21 project, which will expand and modernize the city's railroad station and move it underground.
October 10
The first legislative elections under the constitution adopted in June are held in Kyrgyzstan; though the vote is fairly evenly split among five parties, the party with the largest percentage is the nationalist Ata-Zhurt party, which is opposed to the new constitution.
Liu Xia, wife of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, is permitted to visit her husband in prison but is then escorted to her home in Beijing and placed under house arrest.
The Netherlands Antilles ceases to exist as a legal entity; it is replaced by the autonomous states Sint Maarten and Curaçao, which join Aruba as part of the Netherlands, and the Dutch overseas special municipalities of Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba.
Hanoi celebrates 1,000 years of history with an enormous procession and other festivities.
The Chicago Marathon is won by Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya with a time of 2 hr 6 min 24 sec; the women's victor is Liliya Shobukhova of Russia with a time of 2 hr 20 min 25 sec.
October 11
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences goes to American economists Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen and Cyprus-born British economist Christopher Pissarides for their work on search theory, describing circumstances in markets in which buyers and sellers do not easily find each other.
October 12
The head of Armando Flores Villegas, Tamaulipas state police commander, is delivered to a military base in Mexico; he had been investigating the September 30 shooting of American tourist David Hartley on Falcon Lake on the border between Zapata, Texas, and Guerrero Viejo, Mex.
In Khorramabad, Iran, a fire reportedly spreads to an ammunition depot, causing an explosion in which 18 members of the Revolutionary Guard are killed.
A shipment of 162 Angus and Hereford cattle boards a UPS plane in North Dakota to be shipped to Kazakhstan as part of a plan to rebuild Kazakhstan's cattle industry.
The Man Booker Prize goes to British writer Howard Jacobson for his comic novel The Finkler Question.
October 13
Cezaro De Luca—EPA/LandovIn a dramatic rescue, the 33 Chilean miners who have been trapped underground since an August 5 explosion in the San José gold and copper mine are lifted to the surface, one by one, over 22 1/2 hours in a specially designed capsule.
Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad makes his first state visit to Lebanon, where he also addresses a large Hezbollah rally.
The UN Security Council agrees to extend for a year the authorization for the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
In Tokyo the Japan Art Association awards the Praemium Imperiale to Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, German sculptor Rebecca Horn, Italian painter Enrico Castellani, Italian actress Sophia Loren, and Japanese architect Toyo Ito.
October 14
Mark Rutte is sworn in as prime minister of the Netherlands at the head of a right-leaning minority government.
Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed is named to replace Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke as prime minister of Somalia's transitional national government; he is approved by the country's legislature on October 31.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization announces that the virus rinderpest, which for millennia was a worldwide scourge of livestock, with an 80% mortality rate, but was last reported in Kenya in 2001, has been eradicated; this is the second disease ever declared eliminated.
October 15
Georgia's legislature approves constitutional amendments that will increase the power of the prime minister after the presidential election scheduled for 2013 takes place.
Israel announces plans to build 238 housing units in Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make the capital of a future country; this ends an unofficial suspension of construction there.
The final section of the world's longest tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, is drilled through under the Swiss Alps; a high-speed railroad through the 57-km (35-mi) tunnel is planned to open in 2017.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reopens some 17,870 sq km (6,900 sq mi) of waters in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle to commercial and recreational fishing, almost one-third of the area that was closed after the BP oil spill that resulted from the April explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.
October 16
Hundreds of U.S. and Afghan troops begin an air assault on an area of Afghanistan from which Taliban forces have launched attacks on Kandahar.
October 17
Shootings that began the previous day leave at least 25 people dead in Karachi; the violence is believed to be in connection with the election to replace a member of the provincial legislature who was killed in August.
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission postpones the announcement of the results of the September 18 legislative election hours before it was expected; the reason is thought to be the pervasive fraud associated with the balloting.
Pope Benedict XVI canonizes six new saints, including the nun Mary Helen MacKillop (1842–1909), who becomes the first Australian saint, and Brother André of Quebec.
October 18
Chinese Vice Pres. Xi Jinping is named vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission; Xi is on track to succeed Pres. Hu Jintao.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says that Lake Mead, impounded by the Hoover Dam to provide water to people across the Southwest, has fallen to the record low level of 330.13 m (1,083.09 ft) above sea level.
The journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publishes findings that Paleolithic humans some 30,000 years ago ground plant roots to make flour used for flatbread; this is 10,000 years earlier than the previous earliest evidence for flour making.
October 19
China's central bank raises its key interest rate 0.25%; markets around the world drop in response.
It is revealed that China's unofficial embargo on shipping rare-earth minerals to Japan has spread to Europe and the U.S.
At a meeting in Ilo, Peru, Pres. Alan García of Peru and Pres. Evo Morales of Bolivia add to a 1992 agreement giving Bolivia 163 ha (403 ac) of land, including 5 km (3.1 mi) along the coast; the new agreement allows Bolivia to build facilities for import and export and to use dock facilities in Ilo.
A bridge 274 m (900 ft) high and 579 m (1,900 ft) long linking Arizona and Nevada over the Colorado River outside Boulder City, Nev., a short distance south of Hoover Dam, opens to traffic.
The winner of the annual $100,000 TED Prize is announced as French guerrilla artist J R, who pastes large photographs of ordinary people on building walls in slums in cities throughout the world.
October 20
The British government announces a 19% reduction in public spending, the deepest cut in six decades; the plan includes the elimination of 490,000 public-sector jobs and cutbacks in social welfare programs.
Pope Benedict XVI names 24 new cardinals.
October 21
Rioting takes place in the Italian towns of Terzigno and Boscoreale, near Naples, as residents object to the opening there of waste-disposal sites.
The government of Myanmar (Burma) changes the country's official designation from Union of Myanmar to Republic of the Union of Myanmar; it also introduces a new flag.
Col. David Russell Williams, a decorated military pilot and former commander of the largest air base in Canada, pleads guilty to two counts of murder and 84 other sexually related crimes, ranging from the stealing of underwear to sadistic sexual attacks; he is given sentences that will keep him in prison for a minimum of 25 years.
NASA scientists report that the LCROSS mission, in which a spacecraft was deliberately crashed into the Moon's Cabeus Crater to send data on the dust thus dislodged, has revealed a multitude of minerals reflecting the history of objects that have struck the Moon and also a surprisingly large amount of water ice, perhaps as much as 8.5% of the mixture.
October 22
The World Health Organization reports that at least 150 people have succumbed in an outbreak of cholera centred in northwestern Haiti; it is the first appearance of the disease in the Caribbean region in some 50 years.
Gunmen attack a house party in Juárez, Mex., slaughtering at least 13 people between the ages of 14 and 20.
The Web site WikiLeaks posts hundreds of thousands of documents from U.S. military archives about the Iraq War from 2004 to 2009.
Protests against a proposal to require school instruction in Tibet to be in Mandarin rather than Tibetan take place at Minzu University in Beijing; other protests have taken place at schools in and near Tibet since October 19.
October 23
The death toll in the cholera outbreak in Haiti rises to 208.
Prime Minister David Thompson of Barbados dies in St. Philip; Freundel Stuart is sworn in to replace him.
October 24
Iraq's Federal Supreme Court rules that the legislature, which has not met since an 18-minute session in March, must resume holding sessions.
A geologic study of the earthquake that occurred in Haiti in January reveals a previously unknown fault as the source of the quake; the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, originally thought to be the source, remains dangerously stressed.
In a drug-rehabilitation centre in Tijuana, Mex., 13 people are gunned down.
October 25
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake off South Pagai in the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia triggers a tsunami that destroys several villages and leaves at least 500 people dead or missing.
Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai publicly acknowledges that his government does regularly receive cash from Iran.
For the first time since early 2008, a shipment of food aid—5,000 tons of rice—departs South Korea for delivery to North Korea.
The European Union formally requests the European Commission to assess the suitability of Serbia for membership in the union, beginning the process of Serbia's joining the organization.
The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, financed by American and South Korean evangelical Christians and initially offering only classes taught in English, opens in North Korea.
October 26
The British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline settles for $750 million a U.S. lawsuit brought by a whistle-blower complaining that the company knowingly sold contaminated and substandard products made in a plant with quality-control problems.
Tariq Aziz, once Iraq's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, who frequently represented Iraq at UN and other international meetings, is sentenced to death in Baghdad after having been convicted of persecuting members of the Shiʿite Dawa Party.
On Java in Indonesia on the outskirts of Yogyakarta, the volcano Mt. Merapi begins a major eruption; at least 34 people perish.
Reuters/LandovWater at China's Three Gorges Dam reaches a level of 175 m (574 ft), achieving its maximum capacity for the first time.
October 27
At least 15 people at a car wash in Tepic, Mex., are killed in the third mass shooting in Mexico in five days.
Néstor Kirchner, former president (2003–07) of Argentina and husband of current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, unexpectedly dies in El Calafate, Arg.
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is awarded to Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe.
October 28
Strikes and demonstrations against pension reform in France take place in spite of the passage of the reform by the legislature, but the number of participants is smaller than in earlier rallies.
China's undeclared embargo on the export of rare earth minerals appears to end.
October 29
Two packages of toner cartridges packed with strong explosives are found in England and in Dubayy, U.A.E., after a tip from Saudi Arabia; the packages were shipped from Yemen and addressed to synagogues in Chicago.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity agrees on the Nagoya Protocol, a set of 20 goals, among them to at least halve the rate of extinction of species by 2020; it is also agreed that profits from pharmaceutical and other products derived from genetic material will be shared with both advanced and less-developed countries.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reveals that in the third fiscal quarter, the country's economy grew by only 2%.
A suicide bomber kills at least 21 people at a café in Balad Ruz in Iraq's Diyala province.
The U.S. Department of Justice issues a brief declaring that human or other genes that have been isolated but not otherwise changed should not qualify for patenting; this is a reversal of a position long held by the government.
October 30
About 100 families separated by the Korean War (1950–53) begin a multiday reunion at the Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea; it is the first such meeting in more than a year.
On the National Mall in Washington, D.C., tens of thousands of people attend the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," organized by satirists Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
October 31
In a runoff presidential election in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, who was endorsed by Pres. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, wins handily over José Serra.
A presidential election takes place in Côte d'Ivoire for the first time in 10 years; it results in a need for a runoff between Pres. Laurent Gbagbo, whose term of office ended in 2005, and Alassane Ouattara.
Gunmen, after attacking the stock exchange in Baghdad and killing two security guards, enter a packed Chaldean Catholic church and take the parishioners hostage; Iraqi forces later storm the church, and at least 58 people die in the siege.
A suicide bomber detonates his weapon in Taksim Square in central Istanbul; 15 police officers and 17 civilians are injured.
The Pontiac car brand, which began in 1926 in Pontiac, Mich., is retired by its owner, General Motors.
A monumental and ever-changing art installation on the roof of New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't and You Won't Stop," closes after six months.
November 1
Mikhail Klimentyev—RIA Novosti Kremlin/APRussian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev makes a visit to the Kuril Islands, claimed by both Russia and Japan; it is the first time the islands have been visited by a Russian leader, and the following day Japan recalls its ambassador to Russia.
China's decennial census gets under way; a change in method is expected to more accurately count city residents who have moved from their hometowns.
In the World Series, the San Francisco Giants defeat the Texas Rangers 3–1 in game five to win the Major League Baseball championship; it is the first championship for the Giants since 1954, when the franchise was in New York City.
November 2
In legislative elections in the U.S., the Republican Party gains 63 seats to win control over the House of Representatives, and the Democratic Party retains a narrow majority in the Senate; many Republican victors are champions of the Tea Party movement.
A small package bomb mailed from Athens to German Chancellor Angela Merkel is found in the chancellery's mail room; package bombs are also sent to the Athens embassies of Switzerland, Bulgaria, Chile, and Germany, while the previous day package bombs were sent to the embassies of Mexico, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and one was addressed to French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy sign an agreement creating a defense partnership between France and the U.K.
A no-confidence vote in Kosovo's legislature brings down the government.
Voters in Niger approve a new constitution that restores term limits to the presidency and adds other limits to presidential power; the constitution is to be the first step in the country's return to civilian rule.
November 3
The U.S. Federal Reserve states that because of the "disappointingly slow" pace of the economic recovery, it will purchase $600 billion in long-term Treasury securities in hopes of speeding progress.
Lourdes Lopez, director of the dance company Morphoses, declares that the founding artistic director, Christopher Wheeldon, who announced his departure in February, will be replaced with a new artistic director each season, beginning with Italian choreographer Luca Veggetti.
November 4
An engine on an Airbus A380 flown by the Australian carrier Qantas explodes over Indonesia, and the plane returns safely to Singapore, from which it had departed; Qantas, Singapore Airlines, and Lufthansa immediately ground their A380 fleets.
A small package bomb is delivered to the French embassy in Athens, and the Greek government charges two people in connection with the mailings.
Ireland announces plans to slash public spending and raise taxes to reduce its budget deficit; interest rates on Irish government bonds rise dramatically.
November 5
Pres. Jakaya Kikwete is declared the winner of the October 31 presidential election in Tanzania; losing candidates complain of fraud in vote counting.
Two mosques are attacked near the town of Darra Adam Khel in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; in the worst assault a suicide bomber kills at least 60 people.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that in October the unemployment rate was 9.6% for the third successive month and that after four months of losses, the economy added 151,000 nonfarm jobs.
Marine biologists report having found dead and dying coral reefs in an area of the Gulf of Mexico where plumes of oil from the BP oil spill were documented about 11 km (7 mi) southwest of the site of the broken well; it is considered almost certain that oil from the spill caused the damage.
The employees of the monthly newsmagazine U.S. News & World Report are told that the December issue will be its last regular printed issue; it will continue online and with printed issues on single topics and rankings of institutions.
November 6
Authorities in Mexico report that 18 of the bodies in a mass grave found a few days earlier outside Acapulco are those of some of the 20 men who were kidnapped in October when they went to the resort city for a vacation.
The famed House of the Gladiators in the ancient Roman city and archaeological site Pompeii in Italy collapses.
November 7
Legislative elections take place in Myanmar (Burma) for the first time since 1990; as expected, the military-backed party wins by a large margin.
In legislative elections in Azerbaijan, the ruling party and independent parties affiliated with it win the vast majority of the seats; election monitors report widespread fraud.
The Chiba Lotte Marines defeat the Chunichi Dragons 8–7 in 12 innings in game seven to win baseball's Japan Series.
Flavia Pennetta of Italy defeats CoCo Vandeweghe of the U.S. to clinch Italy's victory in tennis's Fed Cup.
Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia wins the New York City marathon with a time of 2 hr 8 min 14 sec, and Kenya's Edna Kiplagat is the fastest woman, with a time of 2 hr 28 min 20 sec.
The Breeders' Cup Classic Thoroughbred horse race is won by Blame at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.; Blame defeats the previously undefeated Zenyatta by less than a head.
November 8
Pres. Raúl Castro of Cuba announces that the ruling Communist Party will hold a congress in April 2011; it will be the first party congress since 1997.
Hours before a meeting in Manhasset, N.Y., between representatives of Morocco and of the Polisario Front over Western Sahara's future, a tent camp outside the territory's capital, Laayoune, that is made up of thousands of protesters demanding economic equality is violently broken up by Moroccan security forces; at least 13 people are said to have been killed.
Ice hockey players Dino Ciccarelli, Cammi Granato, and Angela James, manager Jim Devellano, and owner Daryl ("Doc") Seaman are inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
Three of the structures of the new museum campus housing the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art, designed by Frank Gehry, open in Biloxi, Miss.; the project was delayed and changed when much of what had been built was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
November 9
Legislative elections, boycotted by the Islamist main opposition party, take place in Jordan for the first time since the legislature was dissolved in November 2009; candidates who support King ʿAbdullah II win the majority of seats.
It is reported that the cholera epidemic in Haiti has reached Port-au-Prince and that at least 583 people have died of the disease in the country.
The World Health Organization says that polio has broken out in the Republic of the Congo, with most cases in Pointe Noire; in the past two weeks, 104 people have died of the disease and 201 people have become paralyzed, and a state of emergency is declared.
Scientists using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope declare that they have found that there are two enormous bubbles containing a vast amount of energy near the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy; the finding is unexpected and unexplained.
The 13th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is awarded to Tina Fey in a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
November 10
Students protesting a proposal to nearly triple university tuition costs riot outside the Conservative Party headquarters in London, and tens of thousands of people also protest outside the Parliament building.
Political leaders in Iraq tentatively agree on the composition of a new government; the agreement calls for Nuri al-Maliki to serve a second term as prime minister.
The New York Times announces that beginning in 2011 it will add the category of e-books to its publication of lists of best-selling books.
November 11
Armed men attack a heavily guarded area of Karachi and, in a firefight, succeed in detonating a car bomb at a building housing a counterterrorism office; at least 18 people are killed.
The Hellenic Statistical Authority reports that Greece's unemployment rate rose in August to 12.2%; the previous day the country's finance minister revealed that the budget deficit had fallen sharply but had not reached its target level.
UNICEF and WHO declare a campaign to immunize some three million people in the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Angola against polio in response to the outbreak of the disease in the Republic of the Congo.
In a reversal of official behaviour, Russian law enforcement unexpectedly reopens an inquiry into the near-fatal 2008 beating of investigative journalist Mikhail Beketov, who was the first of several people opposed to a proposed highway through the Khimki forest to have been attacked.
At the Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Mexican pop group Camila wins record of the year for "Mientes," and the award for album of the year goes to Dominican merengue star Juan Luis Guerra for A son de Guerra.
November 12
A meeting in Seoul of the Group of 20 countries with industrialized and emerging economies agrees to increase the amount of capital banks must hold but defers other major decisions; U.S. Pres. Barack Obama flies from Seoul to Yokohama for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum.
The Daily Beast, a Web site founded by Tina Brown, and the newsmagazine Newsweek announce a merger agreement; the new entity is to be called the Newsweek Daily Beast Co., and Brown will serve as editor in chief for both the magazine and the Web site.
November 13
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest in Myanmar (Burma) and is greeted by a jubilant crowd; she has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest, with her most recent detention beginning in 2003.
Final vote tallies are released in Arizona on a proposition that narrowly passed, making the state the 15th in the U.S. to approve the medical use of marijuana.
In Arlington, Texas, Manny Pacquiao, who was recently elected to the legislature in the Philippines, defeats Antonio Margarito of Mexico by unanimous decision to win the vacant WBC junior-middleweight boxing title.
November 14
French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy shuffles his cabinet, giving the body a rightward tilt; Éric Woerth, who was tainted by the complex scandal involving heiress Liliane Bettencourt, loses his position as minister of labour, and François Fillon is reappointed prime minister.
The APEC forum in Yokohama concludes with an agreement to work toward a free-trade zone.
An explosion apparently triggered by swamp gas kills at least seven people, five of them Canadian, in a luxury hotel in the resort town of Playa del Carmen, Mex.
With his win in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, German driver Sebastian Vettel secures the Formula One automobile racing drivers' championship.
November 15
The National Independent Electoral Commission in Guinea declares that Alpha Condé won the runoff presidential election on November 7; supporters of his opponent, Cellou Dalein Diallo, violently protest the results.
November 16
The British government announces a settlement in which it will pay millions of dollars in compensation to 15 men who had been released from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and one person still detained there; the detainees say that they were tortured with the collusion of British intelligence agencies.
In Baltimore, Md., Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York City is elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; he replaces Francis Cardinal George of Chicago.
Two years after his arrest, Viktor Bout of Russia is extradited to the U.S. from Thailand; U.S. officials accuse him of having run a large arms-trafficking network.
A panel of the U.S. House of Representatives finds Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York guilty of 11 counts of ethics violations; two days later the House ethics committee recommends that Rangel be formally censured.
Phusion Projects, maker of the caffeinated malt beverage Four Loko, declares that it will stop using caffeine and other ingredients common in energy drinks in making the beverage; the drinks, which were linked to several cases of alcohol poisoning, had come under fire from several state and local governments in the U.S.
Apple, Inc., announces that as a result of an agreement with the music company EMI, the music of the Beatles is now for the first time available on Apple's online music store, iTunes.
John Stillwell—PA/APThe engagement of Prince William of Wales, son of Charles, prince of Wales, and Diana, princess of Wales, to his longtime girlfriend, Kate Middleton, is announced in London.
November 17
On the day of a national referendum on a new constitution, several army officers declare that they have overthrown the government of Madagascar; they do not appear to have the backing of all of the army, however, and the coup attempt fails.
In the first civilian trial of a former detainee at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is found guilty of one count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property and acquitted on more than 280 other counts in a U.S. federal court; the judge had disallowed important parts of the prosecution's case as being the fruit of torture.
The automobile manufacturer General Motors, bailed out by the U.S. government in 2008, returns to the stock market in an eagerly anticipated initial public offering that proves to be the largest American IPO in history and halves the government's ownership of the company.
November 18
Hundreds of protesters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, throw stones at a UN peacekeeping patrol, and rioting against UN peacekeepers has taken place for several days in Cap-Haïtien; it has been reported that the source of cholera in the country, which has killed more than 1,110 people to date, was UN troops from Nepal.
NASA reports that a photograph taken by the spacecraft Deep Impact during its November 4 flyby of Comet Hartley 2 unexpectedly shows a cloud of particles and chunks of ice and snow being pushed upward by jets of carbon dioxide on the comet's surface.
Activision, the publisher of the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Black Ops reports that it generated $650 million in sales worldwide in its first five days of release, breaking the introductory five-day sales record for a video game.
November 19
Meeting in Lisbon, the member countries of NATO agree on a common missile-defense system.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration exempts uniformed airline pilots from new airline passenger screening procedures, including full-body scans and more intrusive pat-downs, which have raised objections from pilots and flight attendants in addition to passengers.
November 20
Incomplete results from the constitutional referendum held in Madagascar during an attempted coup on November 17 indicate that the document was approved; the new constitution allows Pres. Andry Rajoelina to remain in power until the next election and lowers the legal minimum age required for the presidency from 40 to 35.
In Boston the new Art of the Americas Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts opens to delighted reviews.
November 21
Ireland formally applies for the financial rescue package put together by the European Union and the IMF.
U.S. officials state their belief that a recently revealed new uranium-enrichment facility at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear plant indicates an intention to build more nuclear weapons.
Blaise Compaoré is reelected president of Burkina Faso.
After the final auto race of the season, Jimmie Johnson is crowned winner of the NASCAR drivers' championship for a record fifth consecutive year.
The Colorado Rapids win the Major League Soccer title with a 2–1 overtime victory over FC Dallas in the MLS Cup in Toronto.
November 22
Jean-Pierre Bemba, a former vice president and presidential candidate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, goes on trial before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, charged with having commanded a militia that committed war crimes in the Central African Republic in 2002–03.
The U.S. government issues new rules requiring medical insurance companies to spend a minimum of 80–85% of premiums collected on medical care.
The dome and terrace of the Reichstag in Berlin are closed indefinitely to tourism for security reasons, in spite of the historic legislative building's great popularity with tourists.
November 23
Unexpected artillery shelling by North Korea kills two marines and two civilians on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong; the attack causes international consternation.
The National Association of Realtors reports that sales of existing American homes in October were 26% lower than they had been in October 2009; the expiration of a tax credit for first-time home buyers is thought to be a major cause of the drop.
On the island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British beverage company Diageo opens a distillery that will produce Captain Morgan rum for the American market, bringing income and employment to the territory; the rum was previously produced in Puerto Rico.
November 24
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen unveils an austerity plan that includes deep cuts in public spending as well as tax increases.
The final results of the September 18 legislative elections in Afghanistan are announced; though the UN endorses the results, Pres. Hamid Karzai challenges them.
November 25
Pres. Jalal Talabani of Iraq formally nominates Nuri al-Maliki to a second term as prime minister; Maliki has 30 days to form a new government.
South Korean Pres. Lee Myung-Bak accepts the resignation of his defense minister and announces plans to put more troops and weapons on Yeongpyeong Island.
Ana Maria Matute of Spain is named the winner of the Cervantes Prize for literary achievement in the Spanish language.
November 26
Police and armed forces in Brazil declare that they have taken control of the favela Vila Cruzeiro in Rio de Janeiro, and they are fighting gang members in the Alemão favela complex; 41 people have died in violence in the favelas in the past six days.
Japan declares that its consumer prices fell for the 20th consecutive month in October, declining 0.6%.
November 27
Thousands of people march and rally in Dublin in protest against the government's proposed austerity plan.
In Paris the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas votes to reduce the allowable catch of the dangerously overfished bluefin tuna in 2011 to 12,900 tons from 13,500 tons in 2010; conservationists believe a moratorium is necessary.
November 28
The WikiLeaks Web site posts the first installment of some 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables from the past three years or so, exposing many private opinions and other secrets; some of the leaked cables are also made available to major news organizations.
A runoff presidential election takes place in Côte d'Ivoire; results are not expected quickly.
In spite of logistic challenges, a presidential election takes place in Haiti; many of the candidates charge widespread fraud, and results are not expected to be released for several days.
Elections take place in Egypt for a legislature that has been expanded to 518 seats with the addition of 64 seats reserved for women.
In legislative elections in Moldova, the highest number of seats is won by the Communist Party.
The finance ministers of the EU approve the release of bailout funds for Ireland and also agree on a permanent fund to be created, including rules stating that beginning in 2013, bondholders of troubled companies can face exposure in financial rescues.
The Montreal Alouettes capture the 98th Canadian Football League Grey Cup, defeating the Saskatchewan Roughriders 21–18.
November 29
Riots take place in several places in Egypt over accusations of widespread fraud in the previous day's legislative elections.
Bomb attacks are carried out by men on motorcycles against two of Iran's most important nuclear scientists, killing one of them and injuring the other.
The UN reports that militias and the armed forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have created criminal networks to steal mineral resources in the country and attempt to sell them for private gain.
November 30
Early results of the legislative elections in Egypt indicate that the opposition Muslim Brotherhood may have lost all of the 88 seats it held in the body.
Eurostat reports that in October the unemployment rate of the 16 member countries of the euro zone rose to 10.1%, its highest level since 1998; the rate for the European Union as a whole remained at 9.6%.
December 1 The Muslim Brotherhood and the New Wafd Party, the two major opposition parties in Egypt, withdraw from future rounds of legislative elections, claiming widespread fraud in the first round, in which the Muslim Brotherhood lost all of its 88 seats and Wafd lost 4 of its 6 seats. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero introduces measures intended to reduce the country's large public debt; they include selling stakes in assets and eliminating a new unemployment benefit. At a European security summit meeting in Kazakhstan, Belarus agrees to give up its stocks of highly enriched uranium by 2012; the 220-kg (485-lb) stockpile will be shipped to Russia, which will convert it to low-enriched uranium. The Health Ministry in Haiti reports the death toll from the cholera outbreak that began in October has reached 1,817. Pres. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela opens the doors of the presidential palace to 26 families who are among the more than 30,000 people who have been displaced by flooding in the past few weeks; 25 people have died because of flooding and landslides. Astronomers Pieter van Dokkum and Charlie Conroy announce that they have found that elliptical galaxies have 10 times more dwarf stars per Sun-like star than the Milky Way does and that the universe may therefore contain three times as many stars as has been believed. December 2 The electoral commission in Côte d'Ivoire announces that the winner of the runoff presidential election is opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara; the head of the Constitutional Council declares that the electoral commission lost the right to declare the winner because it missed the December 1 deadline to do so. Scientists reveal that an experiment led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon took bacteria from the bottom of arsenic-rich Mono Lake in California and gradually increased the amount of arsenic in their environment until the bacteria were able to live on arsenic alone, without the phosphorus that has been considered one of the six chemical elements necessary for life. December 3 The Constitutional Council in Côte d'Ivoire, discounting votes in areas where opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara is favoured, declares Pres. Laurent Gbagbo the winner of the presidential election. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency decides to create a bank for nuclear fuel that countries can use for nuclear reactors for energy production; it is hoped that this will free countries from the need to produce nuclear fuel on their own. The U.S. and South Korea sign a far-reaching free-trade agreement that will eliminate tariffs on most exports; legislatures in both countries must ratify the deal, which is a revision of a 2007 agreement. Chilean military personnel attempt to evict Rapa Nui activists occupying Chilean government buildings on their ancestral lands on Easter Island, and violent fighting breaks out; the native Rapa Nui now make up less than half of Easter Island's population, and many feel that Chile, of which the island is a dependency, ignores their rights. The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in November jumped to 9.8%, while only 39,000 nonfarm jobs were created in the private sector, not enough to offset public-sector layoffs. December 4 The day after Spain approved an austerity package that includes the partial privatization of the country's two major airports, sparking a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers, the government for the first time since its 1975 return to democracy declares a "state of alarm," which puts air traffic control under military supervision. In Côte d'Ivoire both Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo are sworn in as president in rival ceremonies, and Ouattara reappoints Guillaume Soro prime minister, while the UN representative to the country affirms the organization's recognition of Ouattara as the winner of the presidential election. Seven bomb attacks against various Shiʿite targets in Baghdad leave at least 14 people dead. December 5 Laurent Gbagbo appoints Gilbert Marie N'gbo Aké prime minister of Côte d'Ivoire, while Alassane Ouattara's prime minister, Guillaume Soro, forms a government. The annual Kennedy Center Honors are presented in Washington, D.C., to television talk show host Oprah Winfrey, country musician Merle Haggard, choreographer Bill T. Jones, musical theatre composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, and pop musician Sir Paul McCartney. Serbia defeats France 3–2 to win its first Davis Cup in men's international team tennis. December 6 A campaign to use a newly developed vaccine to inoculate millions of people in western Africa against bacterial meningitis gets under way in Burkina Faso. For the first time since October 2009, direct talks on Iran's nuclear program between Iran and the U.S., the U.K., Russia, China, France, Germany, and the EU are held in Geneva. Suicide bombers kill more than 40 people at a meeting of tribal elders and government representatives who are working to devise anti-Taliban strategies in the Pakistani tribal agency Mohmand. Dominic Lipinski—Press Association/APBritain's Turner Prize is presented in London to Scottish artist Susan Philipsz; her winning entry, "Lowlands," is a recording of her singing the 16th-century Scottish lament "Lowlands Away" under three bridges over the River Clyde in Glasgow. In a ceremony in Stockholm, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented to Nigerian environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey for his work exposing the ecological costs of oil production, to Erwin Kräutler for his work on behalf of indigenous peoples in Brazil, to Shrikrishna Upadhyay and his organization SAPROS for their work in Nepal helping communities improve their living conditions, and to the organization Physicians for Human Rights—Israel for providing access to health care to all people in Israel and Palestine. December 7 Haiti's electoral board announces that the November 28 presidential election resulted in the need for a runoff between Mirlande Manigat and ruling party candidate Jude Célestin; supporters of Michel Martelly, who is said to have come in third, riot in response. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange turns himself in to British authorities in London and is detained; he is wanted in Sweden on charges of sexual misbehaviour. A copy of Birds of America by John James Audobon sells at a Sotheby's auction in London for £6.5 million ($10.3 million), a new record for a printed book. Elizabeth Edwards, estranged wife of former senator and one-time vice presidential candidate John Edwards, dies of cancer at the age of 61 in her home in Chapel Hill, N.C. December 8 Rioting over the announced election results in Haiti brings the country to a virtual halt; four people are reported killed. Supporters of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launch denial-of-service attacks against Web sites that stopped hosting and that stopped facilitating donations to WikiLeaks. Falcon 9, a rocket built by the private company SpaceX, takes off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and places an empty capsule into Earth orbit in a successful demonstration for NASA. December 9 In London, Parliament passes a steep increase in university tuition while violent student protests take place outside, including an attack on a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Lady Camilla, to the theatre. The African Union suspends Côte d'Ivoire's membership in the organization pending the yielding of power by Laurent Gbagbo to Alassane Ouattara, who is internationally recognized as the winner of the November 28 presidential election. In the face of widespread unrest, Haiti's electoral council promises to review the preliminary results of the November presidential election. December 10 At the ceremony to present the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, the winner's chair is vacant and no representative attends to accept the award on his behalf; this is the first time since 1935 that this has happened. A law is passed in Bolivia that lowers the retirement age from 65 for men and 60 for women to 58 and that extends pensions to people working in the informal economy. December 11 Thousands of ethnic Russians engage in anti-Caucasian rioting in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square after an ethnic Russian was killed in a brawl against migrants from the Caucasus. A car bomb and a suicide bomber create two blasts in a shopping district in downtown Stockholm; the detonations largely fail, however, and there are no casualties beyond the attacker himself. A UN climate change conference in Cancún, Mex., concludes with an agreement that, among other things, creates a fund to help less-developed countries cope with climate change, funds preservation of tropical forests, and strengthens emission-reduction promises from the 2009 conference; it also allows a further year to decide whether to extend the Kyoto Protocol. Steer roper Trevor Brazile wins the all-around cowboy world championship for a record eighth time at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas; he also wins titles in team roping (header) and tie-down roping. December 12 In legislative elections in Kosovo, the Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, wins the highest number of votes. An attack on a government compound in Al-Ramadi, Iraq, leaves at least 13 people dead. A high-speed rail link between Helsinki and St. Petersburg is inaugurated, with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Finnish Pres. Tarja Halonen taking part. December 13 Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad surprises observers by dismissing Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki; Ali Akbar Salehi is named acting foreign minister. American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, dies after heart surgery in Washington, D.C. Scientists studying a massive eruption that covered a complete hemisphere of the Sun conclude that coronal events on the Sun are connected across vast distances, covering most of the body of the star, by magnetic fields. December 14 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi narrowly survives no-confidence votes in each house of the country's legislature, and violent protests against his government take place in Rome. An Islamic party withdraws from the governing coalition of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. A government commission in Russia approves a controversial plan to build a highway to link Moscow and St. Petersburg through the Khimki Forest. Officials in Mexico declare that the death toll from drug-related violence in Juárez in 2010 has reached 3,000; in 2007 the figure was 300. An ancient Roman statue of a female figure is found in a cliff that collapsed during a winter storm in Ashqelon, Israel; the same storm threatens the site of the ancient city of Caesarea, a national park in Israel. December 15 Thousands of people riot in Athens, incensed over new austerity measures eroding workers' rights and wages in public companies. At least 39 people are killed when two suicide bombers detonate their weapons outside a Shiʿite mosque in Chabahar, Iran. The International Committee of the Red Cross holds a news conference to express its dismay at the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, which is making it difficult for aid groups to assist victims of violence. The Micex securities exchange in Moscow begins direct trading between the Russian ruble and the Chinese renminbi (yuan). Pres. John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana ceremonially opens the Jubilee oil field, which is expected to produce initially 55,000 bbl and eventually 120,000 bbl per day of coveted light sweet crude oil. December 16 In Côte d'Ivoire, security forces loyal to Pres. Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to give up power, fire on a march on the state television headquarters by supporters of winning presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara; some 15 people are killed. A report prepared for the Council of Europe is released; it investigates criminal trafficking in human organs from executed Serbian prisoners during the 1999 conflict with Kosovo and names Prime Minister Hashim Thaci of Kosovo as the head of a criminal network involved in the organ trade. Julian Assange, founder of the organization and Web site WikiLeaks, is released on bond in London, though his movements are circumscribed. December 17 The Pan American Health Organization says that because of a worldwide shortage of cholera vaccine, a pilot program to test vaccination strategies should be instituted in Haiti, where 2,405 people have died of the disease since its outbreak in October. U.S. federal regulators shut down Appalachian Community Bank of McCaysville, Ga., Chestatee State Bank in Dawsonville, Ga., and Bank of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., bringing the number of failed banks in 2010 to 154. Carine Roitfeld announces that she will retire as editor in chief of French Vogue in January 2011 after 10 successful years. December 18 The U.S. Congress repeals the "don't ask, don't tell" rule, which prohibited openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military. December 19 Alyaksandr Lukashenka is reelected president of Belarus, and an opposition protest is violently suppressed. Five Afghan army training officers are killed in an attack in Kabul, and another assault in Kunduz leaves at least eight security force members dead. December 20 Mass arrests of opposition leaders and protesters, including at least six losing presidential candidates, are carried out in Belarus. South Korea conducts a live-fire military exercise on Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by North Korea in November; in spite of bellicose threats of retaliation from North Korea, it does not react to the exercise. December 21 Nine months after the elections, Iraq's legislature approves a new government headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Milo Djukanovic unexpectedly resigns as prime minister of Montenegro. A report is published online by PLoS Biology of a genetic analysis that found that the savanna elephants and forest elephants of Africa, previously classified as a single species, in fact are two separate species. The University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team, coached by Geno Auriemma, defeats Florida State University 93–62 to win its 89th consecutive game, breaking the record for Division I college basketball set by the UCLA men's team coached by John Wooden in 1971–74. December 22 U.S. Pres. Barack Obama overcomes political opposition in the U.S. Senate, which ratifies the New START treaty reducing nuclear stockpiles that Obama signed with Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev in April. Tens of thousands of students march in Rome and other cities in Italy to protest a proposed overhaul of the country's university system. Tu'ivakano, a member of the nobles, is sworn in as prime minister of Tonga. Government officials in Afghanistan complain that for the past 10 days, Iran has stopped delivering fuel to Afghanistan; there has been no explanation. December 23 Ireland takes majority control of Allied Irish Banks, once the country's largest banking institution. Parcel bombs explode when opened at the Rome embassies of Switzerland and Chile, injuring the employees who received the packages. In a news conference in Mogadishu, Som., the rival Islamist militant groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam announce that they are joining forces to fight for control of Somalia. December 24 A major Taliban offensive takes place in the Mohmand tribal agency in Pakistan; at least 11 members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps are killed. Bomb attacks at Christmas Eve celebrations in villages near Jos, Nigeria, leave at least 32 people dead. At the women's world chess championship in Hatay, Tur., Hou Yifan of China, aged 16, defeats Ruan Lufei, also of China, to become the youngest world chess champion in history; the previous record was held by Maya Chiburdanidze of the Soviet Union, who was 17 when she won the title in 1978. December 25 In the Bajaur tribal agency in Pakistan, a suicide bomber detonates her weapon at a checkpoint next to a World Food Programme distribution centre; at least 43 people are killed. China's central bank raises its benchmark lending interest rate for the second time in 2010, to 5.81%. Taiwan carries out an administrative restructuring; five large special municipalities are created. December 26 Thousands of people demonstrate in Moscow in favour of ethnic tolerance and an end to friction between Russians and migrants from the Caucasus. Near Aswan, Egypt, a bus carrying American tourists collides in the dark with a parked truck loaded with sand; eight passengers are killed. December 27 A minibus bomb and an ensuing suicide bomber kill at least 14 people outside government offices in Al-Ramadi, Iraq. The imprisoned former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is convicted of new counts of embezzlement in a court in Moscow; on December 30 he is sentenced to an additional six years in prison. Relief crews in Colombia say that they have closed 178 m (584 ft) of the breach in the levee containing the Dique Canal that opened on November 30 because of heavy rainfall and allowed the Magdalena River to flood a populated floodplain; 80 m (262 ft) of the levee remain ruptured. December 28 The Ministry of Commerce in China announces a 35% decrease in quotas of rare-earth minerals for export in the opening months of 2011. December 29 Five men are arrested in Denmark and Sweden; authorities in Denmark say that they were planning a major terrorist assault on the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which in 2005 inflamed Muslim opinion with the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Wild Oats XI is awarded line honours as the first boat to finish the 2010 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Australia;Secret Men's Business 3.5 is later delcared the overall winner. December 30 A major bomb explodes near downtown Athens; because of earlier warning calls, the area has been evacuated, and there are no casualties. The utility Northern Ireland Water reports that water pipes that burst as a result of thawing after record cold temperatures have left at least 6,000 homes in Northern Ireland without running water since December 27; the utility says that it may be several more days before service is fully restored. Moshe Katzav, who was in 2000–07 president of Israel, is convicted in a court in Tel Aviv of two counts of forcible rape. The Web site Iraq Body Count releases its final figure for civilian deaths in Iraq in 2010; it says 4,023 civilians died in violence during the year, slightly fewer than the 4,680 deaths it counted for 2009. The Vatican for the first time establishes a watchdog agency for the Vatican Bank and issues new rules prohibiting money laundering. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who ran as a write-in candidate after she lost the Republican primary election to Joe Miller, is certified as the winner of the November 2 Senate election in Alaska after all legal challenges by Miller have been dismissed. The Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opens to the public in Doha, Qatar; it will exhibit work that dates from the mid-19th century to the present. December 31 At a beer garden at an army barracks in Abuja, Nigeria, a bomb goes off, and some 30 people are reportedly killed. Anthony Skerman/APSeveral days after Cyclone Tasha made landfall on Australia's northeastern coast, nearly half of Queensland is covered by floodwaters. In defiance of international attempts to persuade him to step down, Laurent Gbagbo declares that he will not cede power as president of Côte d'Ivoire. At the last bell of the year at the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 11% since the beginning of the year.
December 1
The Muslim Brotherhood and the New Wafd Party, the two major opposition parties in Egypt, withdraw from future rounds of legislative elections, claiming widespread fraud in the first round, in which the Muslim Brotherhood lost all of its 88 seats and Wafd lost 4 of its 6 seats.
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero introduces measures intended to reduce the country's large public debt; they include selling stakes in assets and eliminating a new unemployment benefit.
At a European security summit meeting in Kazakhstan, Belarus agrees to give up its stocks of highly enriched uranium by 2012; the 220-kg (485-lb) stockpile will be shipped to Russia, which will convert it to low-enriched uranium.
The Health Ministry in Haiti reports the death toll from the cholera outbreak that began in October has reached 1,817.
Pres. Hugo Chávez of Venezuela opens the doors of the presidential palace to 26 families who are among the more than 30,000 people who have been displaced by flooding in the past few weeks; 25 people have died because of flooding and landslides.
Astronomers Pieter van Dokkum and Charlie Conroy announce that they have found that elliptical galaxies have 10 times more dwarf stars per Sun-like star than the Milky Way does and that the universe may therefore contain three times as many stars as has been believed.
December 2
The electoral commission in Côte d'Ivoire announces that the winner of the runoff presidential election is opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara; the head of the Constitutional Council declares that the electoral commission lost the right to declare the winner because it missed the December 1 deadline to do so.
Scientists reveal that an experiment led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon took bacteria from the bottom of arsenic-rich Mono Lake in California and gradually increased the amount of arsenic in their environment until the bacteria were able to live on arsenic alone, without the phosphorus that has been considered one of the six chemical elements necessary for life.
December 3
The Constitutional Council in Côte d'Ivoire, discounting votes in areas where opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara is favoured, declares Pres. Laurent Gbagbo the winner of the presidential election.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency decides to create a bank for nuclear fuel that countries can use for nuclear reactors for energy production; it is hoped that this will free countries from the need to produce nuclear fuel on their own.
The U.S. and South Korea sign a far-reaching free-trade agreement that will eliminate tariffs on most exports; legislatures in both countries must ratify the deal, which is a revision of a 2007 agreement.
Chilean military personnel attempt to evict Rapa Nui activists occupying Chilean government buildings on their ancestral lands on Easter Island, and violent fighting breaks out; the native Rapa Nui now make up less than half of Easter Island's population, and many feel that Chile, of which the island is a dependency, ignores their rights.
The U.S. Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in November jumped to 9.8%, while only 39,000 nonfarm jobs were created in the private sector, not enough to offset public-sector layoffs.
December 4
The day after Spain approved an austerity package that includes the partial privatization of the country's two major airports, sparking a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers, the government for the first time since its 1975 return to democracy declares a "state of alarm," which puts air traffic control under military supervision.
In Côte d'Ivoire both Alassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo are sworn in as president in rival ceremonies, and Ouattara reappoints Guillaume Soro prime minister, while the UN representative to the country affirms the organization's recognition of Ouattara as the winner of the presidential election.
Seven bomb attacks against various Shiʿite targets in Baghdad leave at least 14 people dead.
December 5
Laurent Gbagbo appoints Gilbert Marie N'gbo Aké prime minister of Côte d'Ivoire, while Alassane Ouattara's prime minister, Guillaume Soro, forms a government.
The annual Kennedy Center Honors are presented in Washington, D.C., to television talk show host Oprah Winfrey, country musician Merle Haggard, choreographer Bill T. Jones, musical theatre composer and lyricist Jerry Herman, and pop musician Sir Paul McCartney.
Serbia defeats France 3–2 to win its first Davis Cup in men's international team tennis.
December 6
A campaign to use a newly developed vaccine to inoculate millions of people in western Africa against bacterial meningitis gets under way in Burkina Faso.
For the first time since October 2009, direct talks on Iran's nuclear program between Iran and the U.S., the U.K., Russia, China, France, Germany, and the EU are held in Geneva.
Suicide bombers kill more than 40 people at a meeting of tribal elders and government representatives who are working to devise anti-Taliban strategies in the Pakistani tribal agency Mohmand.
Dominic Lipinski—Press Association/APBritain's Turner Prize is presented in London to Scottish artist Susan Philipsz; her winning entry, "Lowlands," is a recording of her singing the 16th-century Scottish lament "Lowlands Away" under three bridges over the River Clyde in Glasgow.
In a ceremony in Stockholm, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented to Nigerian environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey for his work exposing the ecological costs of oil production, to Erwin Kräutler for his work on behalf of indigenous peoples in Brazil, to Shrikrishna Upadhyay and his organization SAPROS for their work in Nepal helping communities improve their living conditions, and to the organization Physicians for Human Rights—Israel for providing access to health care to all people in Israel and Palestine.
December 7
Haiti's electoral board announces that the November 28 presidential election resulted in the need for a runoff between Mirlande Manigat and ruling party candidate Jude Célestin; supporters of Michel Martelly, who is said to have come in third, riot in response.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange turns himself in to British authorities in London and is detained; he is wanted in Sweden on charges of sexual misbehaviour.
A copy of Birds of America by John James Audobon sells at a Sotheby's auction in London for £6.5 million ($10.3 million), a new record for a printed book.
Elizabeth Edwards, estranged wife of former senator and one-time vice presidential candidate John Edwards, dies of cancer at the age of 61 in her home in Chapel Hill, N.C.
December 8
Rioting over the announced election results in Haiti brings the country to a virtual halt; four people are reported killed.
Supporters of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launch denial-of-service attacks against Web sites that stopped hosting and that stopped facilitating donations to WikiLeaks.
Falcon 9, a rocket built by the private company SpaceX, takes off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and places an empty capsule into Earth orbit in a successful demonstration for NASA.
December 9
In London, Parliament passes a steep increase in university tuition while violent student protests take place outside, including an attack on a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Lady Camilla, to the theatre.
The African Union suspends Côte d'Ivoire's membership in the organization pending the yielding of power by Laurent Gbagbo to Alassane Ouattara, who is internationally recognized as the winner of the November 28 presidential election.
In the face of widespread unrest, Haiti's electoral council promises to review the preliminary results of the November presidential election.
December 10
At the ceremony to present the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, the winner's chair is vacant and no representative attends to accept the award on his behalf; this is the first time since 1935 that this has happened.
A law is passed in Bolivia that lowers the retirement age from 65 for men and 60 for women to 58 and that extends pensions to people working in the informal economy.
December 11
Thousands of ethnic Russians engage in anti-Caucasian rioting in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square after an ethnic Russian was killed in a brawl against migrants from the Caucasus.
A car bomb and a suicide bomber create two blasts in a shopping district in downtown Stockholm; the detonations largely fail, however, and there are no casualties beyond the attacker himself.
A UN climate change conference in Cancún, Mex., concludes with an agreement that, among other things, creates a fund to help less-developed countries cope with climate change, funds preservation of tropical forests, and strengthens emission-reduction promises from the 2009 conference; it also allows a further year to decide whether to extend the Kyoto Protocol.
Steer roper Trevor Brazile wins the all-around cowboy world championship for a record eighth time at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas; he also wins titles in team roping (header) and tie-down roping.
December 12
In legislative elections in Kosovo, the Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, wins the highest number of votes.
An attack on a government compound in Al-Ramadi, Iraq, leaves at least 13 people dead.
A high-speed rail link between Helsinki and St. Petersburg is inaugurated, with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Finnish Pres. Tarja Halonen taking part.
December 13
Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad surprises observers by dismissing Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki; Ali Akbar Salehi is named acting foreign minister.
American diplomat Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, dies after heart surgery in Washington, D.C.
Scientists studying a massive eruption that covered a complete hemisphere of the Sun conclude that coronal events on the Sun are connected across vast distances, covering most of the body of the star, by magnetic fields.
December 14
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi narrowly survives no-confidence votes in each house of the country's legislature, and violent protests against his government take place in Rome.
An Islamic party withdraws from the governing coalition of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
A government commission in Russia approves a controversial plan to build a highway to link Moscow and St. Petersburg through the Khimki Forest.
Officials in Mexico declare that the death toll from drug-related violence in Juárez in 2010 has reached 3,000; in 2007 the figure was 300.
An ancient Roman statue of a female figure is found in a cliff that collapsed during a winter storm in Ashqelon, Israel; the same storm threatens the site of the ancient city of Caesarea, a national park in Israel.
December 15
Thousands of people riot in Athens, incensed over new austerity measures eroding workers' rights and wages in public companies.
At least 39 people are killed when two suicide bombers detonate their weapons outside a Shiʿite mosque in Chabahar, Iran.
The International Committee of the Red Cross holds a news conference to express its dismay at the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, which is making it difficult for aid groups to assist victims of violence.
The Micex securities exchange in Moscow begins direct trading between the Russian ruble and the Chinese renminbi (yuan).
Pres. John Evans Atta Mills of Ghana ceremonially opens the Jubilee oil field, which is expected to produce initially 55,000 bbl and eventually 120,000 bbl per day of coveted light sweet crude oil.
December 16
In Côte d'Ivoire, security forces loyal to Pres. Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to give up power, fire on a march on the state television headquarters by supporters of winning presidential candidate Alassane Ouattara; some 15 people are killed.
A report prepared for the Council of Europe is released; it investigates criminal trafficking in human organs from executed Serbian prisoners during the 1999 conflict with Kosovo and names Prime Minister Hashim Thaci of Kosovo as the head of a criminal network involved in the organ trade.
Julian Assange, founder of the organization and Web site WikiLeaks, is released on bond in London, though his movements are circumscribed.
December 17
The Pan American Health Organization says that because of a worldwide shortage of cholera vaccine, a pilot program to test vaccination strategies should be instituted in Haiti, where 2,405 people have died of the disease since its outbreak in October.
U.S. federal regulators shut down Appalachian Community Bank of McCaysville, Ga., Chestatee State Bank in Dawsonville, Ga., and Bank of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., bringing the number of failed banks in 2010 to 154.
Carine Roitfeld announces that she will retire as editor in chief of French Vogue in January 2011 after 10 successful years.
December 18
The U.S. Congress repeals the "don't ask, don't tell" rule, which prohibited openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military.
December 19
Alyaksandr Lukashenka is reelected president of Belarus, and an opposition protest is violently suppressed.
Five Afghan army training officers are killed in an attack in Kabul, and another assault in Kunduz leaves at least eight security force members dead.
December 20
Mass arrests of opposition leaders and protesters, including at least six losing presidential candidates, are carried out in Belarus.
South Korea conducts a live-fire military exercise on Yeonpyeong Island, which was shelled by North Korea in November; in spite of bellicose threats of retaliation from North Korea, it does not react to the exercise.
December 21
Nine months after the elections, Iraq's legislature approves a new government headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Milo Djukanovic unexpectedly resigns as prime minister of Montenegro.
A report is published online by PLoS Biology of a genetic analysis that found that the savanna elephants and forest elephants of Africa, previously classified as a single species, in fact are two separate species.
The University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team, coached by Geno Auriemma, defeats Florida State University 93–62 to win its 89th consecutive game, breaking the record for Division I college basketball set by the UCLA men's team coached by John Wooden in 1971–74.
December 22
U.S. Pres. Barack Obama overcomes political opposition in the U.S. Senate, which ratifies the New START treaty reducing nuclear stockpiles that Obama signed with Russian Pres. Dmitry Medvedev in April.
Tens of thousands of students march in Rome and other cities in Italy to protest a proposed overhaul of the country's university system.
Tu'ivakano, a member of the nobles, is sworn in as prime minister of Tonga.
Government officials in Afghanistan complain that for the past 10 days, Iran has stopped delivering fuel to Afghanistan; there has been no explanation.
December 23
Ireland takes majority control of Allied Irish Banks, once the country's largest banking institution.
Parcel bombs explode when opened at the Rome embassies of Switzerland and Chile, injuring the employees who received the packages.
In a news conference in Mogadishu, Som., the rival Islamist militant groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam announce that they are joining forces to fight for control of Somalia.
December 24
A major Taliban offensive takes place in the Mohmand tribal agency in Pakistan; at least 11 members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps are killed.
Bomb attacks at Christmas Eve celebrations in villages near Jos, Nigeria, leave at least 32 people dead.
At the women's world chess championship in Hatay, Tur., Hou Yifan of China, aged 16, defeats Ruan Lufei, also of China, to become the youngest world chess champion in history; the previous record was held by Maya Chiburdanidze of the Soviet Union, who was 17 when she won the title in 1978.
December 25
In the Bajaur tribal agency in Pakistan, a suicide bomber detonates her weapon at a checkpoint next to a World Food Programme distribution centre; at least 43 people are killed.
China's central bank raises its benchmark lending interest rate for the second time in 2010, to 5.81%.
Taiwan carries out an administrative restructuring; five large special municipalities are created.
December 26
Thousands of people demonstrate in Moscow in favour of ethnic tolerance and an end to friction between Russians and migrants from the Caucasus.
Near Aswan, Egypt, a bus carrying American tourists collides in the dark with a parked truck loaded with sand; eight passengers are killed.
December 27
A minibus bomb and an ensuing suicide bomber kill at least 14 people outside government offices in Al-Ramadi, Iraq.
The imprisoned former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky is convicted of new counts of embezzlement in a court in Moscow; on December 30 he is sentenced to an additional six years in prison.
Relief crews in Colombia say that they have closed 178 m (584 ft) of the breach in the levee containing the Dique Canal that opened on November 30 because of heavy rainfall and allowed the Magdalena River to flood a populated floodplain; 80 m (262 ft) of the levee remain ruptured.
December 28
The Ministry of Commerce in China announces a 35% decrease in quotas of rare-earth minerals for export in the opening months of 2011.
December 29
Five men are arrested in Denmark and Sweden; authorities in Denmark say that they were planning a major terrorist assault on the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which in 2005 inflamed Muslim opinion with the publication of cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad.
Wild Oats XI is awarded line honours as the first boat to finish the 2010 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Australia;Secret Men's Business 3.5 is later delcared the overall winner.
December 30
A major bomb explodes near downtown Athens; because of earlier warning calls, the area has been evacuated, and there are no casualties.
The utility Northern Ireland Water reports that water pipes that burst as a result of thawing after record cold temperatures have left at least 6,000 homes in Northern Ireland without running water since December 27; the utility says that it may be several more days before service is fully restored.
Moshe Katzav, who was in 2000–07 president of Israel, is convicted in a court in Tel Aviv of two counts of forcible rape.
The Web site Iraq Body Count releases its final figure for civilian deaths in Iraq in 2010; it says 4,023 civilians died in violence during the year, slightly fewer than the 4,680 deaths it counted for 2009.
The Vatican for the first time establishes a watchdog agency for the Vatican Bank and issues new rules prohibiting money laundering.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who ran as a write-in candidate after she lost the Republican primary election to Joe Miller, is certified as the winner of the November 2 Senate election in Alaska after all legal challenges by Miller have been dismissed.
The Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art opens to the public in Doha, Qatar; it will exhibit work that dates from the mid-19th century to the present.
December 31
At a beer garden at an army barracks in Abuja, Nigeria, a bomb goes off, and some 30 people are reportedly killed.
Anthony Skerman/APSeveral days after Cyclone Tasha made landfall on Australia's northeastern coast, nearly half of Queensland is covered by floodwaters.
In defiance of international attempts to persuade him to step down, Laurent Gbagbo declares that he will not cede power as president of Côte d'Ivoire.
At the last bell of the year at the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 11% since the beginning of the year.