May 20, 2012 (Sunday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian uprising: A roadside bomb explodes near a United Nations convoy in the Syrian capital of Damascus, in the district of Douma. (BBC)
- Bahraini uprising: Jailed Bahrain Centre for Human Rights head Nabeel Rajab is granted $800 bail with a travel ban for a charge of "insulting an official authority", though according to his lawyer he is still locked up on a second charge. (Al Jazeera)
Arts and culture
- Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb dies at the age of 62. (BBC)
Disasters
- At least 6 people are killed and dozens injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Italy. (BBC) (Los Angeles Times)
International relations
- Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells his cabinet that hundreds of thousands of iIllegal immigrants from Africa would threaten Israel's identity. (The Guardian) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, dies at his home in the Libyan capital of Tripoli at the age of 60. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Yukiya Amano heads for Tehran to convince the Iranian government to co-operate with the agency. (The Guardian) (Al Jazeera)(BBC)
Law and crime
- Staines becomes Staines-upon-Thames. (BBC)
- Two women in Jieyang, Guangdong, PRC, are executed for counterfeiting nearly 300 million yuan RMB. (NetEase) (Inside China)
Politics and elections
- Pan-Green protesters pelt eggs at a poster of Ma Ying-jeou as Ma is sworn in for a second term as the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), after winning the presidential election in January. (Al Jazeera)
- Voters in the Dominican Republic go to the polls for a presidential election with early results showing Danilo Medina as the winner. (AP via ABC America) (Reuters via Yahoo News)
- Tomislav Nikolić is elected President of Serbia with 49.4% of the vote. (Deutsche Welle)
Sport
- Thousands of people gather in London for an open-top bus parade to celebrate Chelsea's UEFA Champions League victory over Munich in last night's final. (BBC)
- A homegrown Montpellier overcome big-spending rivals Paris Saint-Germain to shock fans worldwide by winning their first Ligue 1 title and qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history. (Al Jazeera)
- Russia wins 2012 IIHF World Championship. (Yahoo! Sports)