May 19, 2010 (Wednesday)
- Aljazeera's Manama bureau is shut down by the Bahrain government for a "breach of media norms" after the channel broadcasts a report on poverty in the country. (Aljazeera) (Ynetnews) (Ha'aretz) (BusinessWeek)
- An independent investigation concludes that a North Korean torpedo caused the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan warship Cheonan. (China Daily) (Yonhap) (BBC) (DailyNK)
- 2010 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- Cyclone Laila approaches landfall in southeastern India, having already caused at least ten deaths and prompting the evacuations of 10,000 people in Tamil Nadu.(IndiaServer.com)
- Tropical Cyclone 02A forms off the east coast of Somalia, although it is expected to dissipate before making landfall.(Joint Typhoon Warning Center)
- Battle of Bangkok:
- Red shirt protesters surrender in Bangkok, Thailand. (BBC) (Bangkok Post)[permanent dead link]
- Buildings across Bangkok have been set ablaze by anti-government protesters after the military stormed a protest camp in the centre of the city. (Al Jazeera)
- 2010 Kyrgyzstani uprising:
- Two people are killed and a state of emergency is declared in the city of Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan after protesters attempted to storm an Uzbek university. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (AP)
- At least 40,000 Romanians rally in Bucharest to protest planned wage cuts the government says are needed to shore up the ailing economy. (BBC) (Yahoo) (Reuters) (Mediafax)
- Pakistan Telecommunication Authority acting on orders from Lahore High court blocks access to Facebook in the country until May 31 due to a Facebook group encouraging drawings of the Prophet Mohammed on May 20, labeled as Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. (Geo TV) (CNN)
- Ukraine and China are interested in cooperation in cargo transportation sphere. Konstyantyn Hryshchenko says this at the joint news conference with Foreign Minister of China Yang Jiechi. (unian)
- 10 people are confirmed dead and one is missing after a coal mine gas explosion Tuesday in north China's Shanxi Province (Xinhua)
- Hackers have attacked 81 Chinese government websites in the past week leaving 29 still paralyzed, according to figures released by the National Computer Network Emergency Response Center of China (CNETCC). (china.org)
- Yandex, Russia's largest search engine and the eighth-largest in the world, launches an English language search engine. (RT) (RIA Novosti) (The Moscow Times)