May 21, 2010 (Friday)
- The death toll from Friday's suicide minibus bomb attack in Diyala province, Iraq rose to 35 killed and 69 wounded. (Xinhua)
- Salva Kiir Mayardit is inaugurated as the first elected president of Southern Sudan. (BBC) (France24) (The Washington Post)
- Gurkha leader Madan Tamang is stabbed to death by a mob at the start a public meeting in West Bengal. (Hindustan Times)
- Nigeriens flee across the border into Nigeria due to a food crisis in Niger. (BBC)
- Delhi High Court acquits three accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case at Shastri Nagar in North Delhi following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. (The Hindu)
- At least 22 people are killed and at least 53 others are injured after a car bomb explodes at a market in Al Khalis, Diyala in Iraq. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Channel 4 News)
- Hundreds of people protest in Cannes over Hors-la-loi, a Rachid Bouchareb directed film about Algeria's struggle for independence against France. (BBC) (CBC) (The Times)
- Campaigners against an immigration law in the U.S. state of Arizona adopt children's cartoon character Dora the Explorer as a symbol of their cause. (BBC) (ABC News) (The Washington Post)
- Guards at the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) near Guwahati intercept and kill four poachers in the most successful operation ever against poachers in the northeast of India. (Hindustan Times)
- Prosecutors of the Special Court for Sierra Leone request United Nations judges to force supermodel Naomi Campbell to testify over allegations that she received a blood diamond from the former President of Liberia Charles Taylor. (Times Online) (CNN)
- Taliban and Afghan government representatives meet for unofficial talks in the Maldives. (Al Jazeera)
- A court restores the Indian Hockey Federation, two years after it was dissolved by the country's Olympic chiefs over bribery allegations and poor on-field results. (AFP) (Hindustan Times) (Press Trust of India)
- A bid is unsuccessful by South Africa's Jamiatul Ulama Transvaal to stop the publication of Jonathan Shapiro's cartoon of Muhammad on a psychiatrist's couch bemoaning his followers' sense of humour failure. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Six girls aged between eight and twelve years drown in the Rapti in Balrampur while bathing. (Press Trust of India)
- Middle East:
- Israeli troops kill two Palestinian militants as they attempt to infiltrate into Israel from the Gaza Strip. (BBC)
- An Israeli soldier patrolling the Gaza border is wounded by a Palestinian sniper firing from inside Gaza. (Ynetnews)
- Israeli warplanes bomb three tunnels in Gaza in response to a rocket attack on Israel the previous day. [http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-soldier-wounded-by-palestinian-sniper-fire-on-gaza-border-1.291399 (Haaretz)
- Deepwater Horizon oil spill :
- The COO of BP says a gusher of oil pouring from its damaged Gulf of Mexico well could be shut off as early as next week, but noted the plugging operation is "quite complex" and has never been tried in water that deep. (CNN)
- United States Director of National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair, announces his resignation. (Al Jazeera)]
- Around 125 people become ill at a wedding ceremony in Khanpur. (Press Trust of India)
- French prosecutors seek a suspended prison sentence in the manslaughter trial of the former head of the Concorde programme over Air France Flight 4590 which crashed near Paris in 2000, killing 113 people. (BBC)
- JAXA successfully launched venus probe and IKAROS, the first interplanetary spacecraft with a solar-sail.(BBC)
- Popular musician Bono undergoes emergency spinal surgery in Munich, causing the cancellation of a leg of U2's current world tour. (The Irish Times) (BBC) (CBC) (TIME) (CNN)