Portal:Current events/2012 May 10

• Syrian uprising: Two large explosions occur in quick succession in the embattled Syrian capital Damascus, with dozens of people reportedly killed or injured. (Al Jazeera) (Al-Arabiya) (Reuters)
• An airstrike reportedly kills five al-Qaeda militants in the southern Yemeni town of Jaar. (AP via Atlanta Journal Constitution)
• The International Committee of the Red Cross suspends all humanitarian work in Pakistan after a worker was kidnapped and killed. (CNN)

• Sleeping Girl, a picture by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, sells at auction for US$44.9 million, setting a new record for a Lichtenstein artwork. (BBC)
• Figure Writing Reflected in a Mirror, a painting by Francis Bacon, sells at auction for US$44.9 million in New York. (RTÉ)
• Salman Rushdie, Art Spiegelman and Mario Vargas Llosa are among those to protest against the planned spending of US$300 million on the Fifth Avenue branch of the New York Public Library, saying it is "a misplaced use of funds in a time of great scarcity". A letter signed by more than 700 writers, academics and others is sent to the library. (The Guardian)
• Pope Benedict XVI meets with a delegation from the Latin American Jewish Congress, and speaks about progress in relations between the two faiths in the past 50 years. (Catholic World News)

• British public sector protests:
  • As many as 400,000 public sector workers in the United Kingdom resolve to stage a 24-hour mass strike in protest against planned pension cuts. (BBC) (The Scotsman)
  • More than 30,000 police officers from across the UK protest against police reforms, budget cuts and pay cuts in the biggest demonstration by police officers ever held in England and Wales. (The Guardian)
• An Air India industrial dispute escalates, with over 20 flights cancelled. (IBN Live)

• The wreckage of a missing Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane, which vanished from radar on a demonstration flight with 45 people on board on May 9, is found in Indonesia. There are reportedly no signs of survivors. (AP via KSL) (AP via The Australian)
• A helicopter ditches in the North Sea off Aberdeen. (The Guardian)

• Members of the United Nations peacekeeping force sent to Haiti are alleged to have raped a Haitian teenage boy and sexually abused him at a UN base in the town of Port-Salut: he is to testify in a closed hearing. (Al Jazeera)
• Chinese tour companies suspend tourist flights to the Philippines amid rising tensions between the two countries over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. (BBC)
• A dozen members of the Australian Federal Police are expelled from Vanuatu, following a diplomatic row over the arrest of the Prime Minister of Vanuatu's private secretary in Australia last month. (AFP via Yahoo News Australia)

• London's Metropolitan Police launches its 14th investigation into alleged police racism in six weeks. (The Guardian)

• British prime minister David Cameron allowed his former spokesman Andy Coulson, the ex-editor of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, access to some of the British government's most sensitive secrets without full security clearance, the Leveson Inquiry is told. (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian)
• In Greece, Evangelos Venizelos of the Pasok party makes a third effort to create a coalition government, amid increasing political and economic turmoil in the country. (BBC)
• Voters in Algeria go to the polls for a legislative election. (BBC)