Portal:Current events/2012 May 31

• A series of bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad kills 14 people. (CNN)
• A suicide bomber kills five policeman at a police headquarters in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar. (BBC)
• A German engineer taken hostage by gunmen in Kano, Nigeria, in January is killed by his captors during a failed rescue operation by Nigerian forces. (BBC)

• American conservative Christian lobby group One Million Moms launches a campaign against the decision of DC and Marvel Comics to include openly gay characters in their comics. (The Guardian)
• BBC Radio 4 announces a five-and-a-half-hour celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses on this coming Bloomsday, claiming it as the novel's first full-length dramatisation in Britain. (The Guardian)

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

• The 2012 Bilderberg Conference begins in Chantilly, Virginia. (The Guardian) (RT)

• British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt appears at the Leveson Inquiry into media practices in the UK. The inquiry hears that he congratulated James Murdoch on the progress of News Corporation's takeover bid for BSkyB just hours before he was charged with overseeing it, but acted impartially once he took on the role. Prime Minister David Cameron says he will not order an inquiry into Hunt's ministerial conduct. (BBC)
• A jury clears former Democratic Party candidate for Vice-President of the United States John Edwards on one count of corruption, with the judge ordering a mistrial on the other five counts. (The Guardian)
• California's prison system is facing a lawsuit from the Center for Constitutional Rights for its use of long terms of solitary confinement, some of which last decades. (The Guardian)

• Egypt formally ends its 31-year state of emergency, which gave security forces broad powers to suppress civil unrest and detain dissenters. (BBC)
• Voters in Ireland go to the polls for a referendum on whether the Irish government can approve the European Fiscal Compact. (Irish Examiner) (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera) (France24) (BBC)
• After four days of negotiations with student leaders, the Quebec government pulls out of talks meant to end a mass student protest against tuition fees. Demonstrations have been ongoing since February 13, with more than 150,000 students on strike. (CBC)

• SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule successfully returns to Earth following its demo mission to the International Space Station, landing intact in the Pacific Ocean. It is later recovered and shipped back to the United States. (AP via Google) (USA Today) (NASA)
• Astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope predict that the Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in four billion years' time. (Los Angeles Times)

• Kevin Pietersen announces his retirement from all forms of international limited overs cricket. (The Daily Telegraph)
• Defenseman Nicklas Lidström of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings announces his retirement from professional ice hockey after a 20-year career in Detroit, including six years as Detroit's captain. (Houston Chronicle)