Portal:Current events/2014 May 19

May 19, 2014 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Two Chinese workers are kidnapped from a controversial copper mine in Burma by activists. (AP)
2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine:
- Russia's President Vladimir Putin says he ordered troops in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions to withdraw and return to their permanent bases. (BBC News)
- NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, says the Western allies had not seen any sign of a withdrawal of Russian forces. (Kyiv Post) (New York Times)

Business and economy

AstraZeneca rejects the latest, and likely the last, takeover price from Pfizer, close to 70 billion pounds or US$118 billion. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Sinking of the MV Sewol:
- Park Geun-Hye, the President of South Korea, announces that the Republic of Korea Coast Guard will be broken up in the wake of the ferry disaster. (BBC)
An apartment building collapses in Pyongyang, North Korea, with casualties estimated to be in the hundreds. (CNN) (The Guardian)
An electrical problem causes an explosion south of Seoul in Seoul Metropolitan Subway Gunpo station, injuring 11 people. (AP via Yahoo! News)

International relations

China–United States relations:
- The United States Department of Justice charges five Chinese military officers with hacking into private-sector American companies in a bid for competitive advantage. (BBC News)
Saudi Arabia closes its embassy in Tripoli over security concerns in Libya. (Chicago Tribune)

Politics and elections

Same-sex marriage in Oregon becomes legal as a U.S. federal district court judge rules that the state's ban on such marriages violates equal protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (The Oregonian)

Law and crime

An Egyptian court acquits 169 Muslim Brotherhood members for charges relating to unrest that followed the ousting of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. (Reuters)
Radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri has been found guilty of supporting terrorism. (BBC News)