31 May: Guardian newspaper reports Andrei Lugovoi, a Russian tycoon charged in the UK with murdering ex-KGB operative Litvinenko by radiation poisoning, says UK spy services implicated in death, had contracted Litvinenko, claims he has "proof", was even approached by MI6 himself as possible double-agent; Kremlin has refused to extradite Lugovoi to the UK, claiming he could not receive a fair trial...

25 May: The US Justice Dept. has broadened an internal inquiry into politicization of hiring practices under Attorney General Gonzales; Gonzales and other officials are already facing several probes into whether 8 federal prosecutors were fired for "political" reasons... US House of Representatives approves measure to fund Iraq war without timetable for withdrawal of troops; Pres. Bush predicts a bloody summer with attacks intensifying as his administration delivers progress reports to Congress in September...

23 May: The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a birth-control pill that blocks menstruation; the pill blocks the monthly menstrual period, but does not suppress all bleeding, which can occur in small quantities without warning; long-term health effects of such treatment are not known...

20 May: Orchestrated piles of rocks in forest outside small Rhode Island town may be Native American burial site from several hundred years ago, major archaeological find; burial site theory disputed by developers who plan to build 200 homes on nearby land... College in Urumqi, Xinjiang, in western China, forces new female students to undergo pregnancy tests, asks those who test positive to leave school or not to begin classes... Chávez decision to close RCTV, Venezuela's longest-operating broadcaster meets street protests; polls say majority of Venezuelans oppose closing station, Chávez alleges broadcaster provided support to the coup attempt in which he was kidnapped in 2002, before being returned to power...

18 May: Bipartisan group of senators reach deal with White House on draft legislation to reform federal immigration policy, legalize estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, tighten security at borders... World Bank pres. Paul Wolfowitz has officially resigned, to take effect at the end of June; the resignation comes amid mounting controversy over a pay-package Wolfowitz allegedly arranged for his girlfriend after taking over; officially the board accepted Mr. Wolfowitz' claim he acted "in good faith" in a clumsy attempt to avoid conflicts of interest...

17 May: Further violence in Gaza provokes fears of all-out civil war between Hamas, Fatah factions in Palestinian territories, despite Mecca truce reached in February, roles of respective parties in Palestinian "national unity" government... Reid-Feingold measure to cut off funding for Iraq war at end of March 2008 fails in Senate, but 29 senators voted in favor, including all 4 Democratic presidential candidates in the Senate, a sign that support for deliberate action to end the war is on the rise... CNN reports "Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the U.S. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Middle East program, was arrested on May 8 and taken to Tehran's Evin prison, the center and her family said last week"; Esfandiari is a dual US-Iranian citizen...

16 May: Nicolas Sarkozy has been sworn in as France's new president, and has received the codes needed to command the nation's nuclear arsenal... British pop performer Cliff Richards fighting to retain copyright over recorded material he produced; support shown in UK gov't for extension of copyright for performers' work as intellectual property, with House of Commons culture, media and sport committee stating in a new report "We strongly believe that copyright represents a moral right of a creator to choose to retain ownership and control of their own intellectual property... We have not heard a convincing reason why a composer and his or her heirs should benefit from a term of copyright which extends for lifetime and beyond, but a performer should not"... Reports say embattled World Bank pres. Paul Wolfowitz is in negotiations with the board of directors to permit him to resign in place of being removed by board vote; Wolfowitz has claimed that while his resignation is a sign that he takes responsibility for mis-steps in salary arranged for girlfriend, the Bank should also share guilt...

15 May: After several top military officials refused the post, US pres. Bush has named Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to serve as "war czar" for Iraq, Afghanistan conflicts; his official position will be Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan Policy and Implementation, actually replacing a civilian official already holding that policy post; some see move as further militarization of policy apparatus... US Secretary of State Rice has said she does not view escalating economic, diplomatic and rhetorical tensions with Russia as a "new cold war", in hopes of salvaging some possibility of progress in the EU-Russia summit; Russian pres. Vladimir Putin recently compared US foreign policy to Nazi expansionism, though spokespeople sought to moderate the comments as a simple reminder that major historical conflicts have lessons for current generations; the comments were seen as a frustrated remark based on Russia's opposition to NATO expansion to include former member states of the Soviet bloc...

11 May: Moderate Republicans in Congress yesterday warned US pres. Bush that lack of progress in Iraq conflict in coming months would wither support for the White House war policy... According to Xinhua, "The administration has been told that its battle to save Wolfowitz cannot be won" by a European official who warned that if the embattled bank president does not resign, he will be ousted by a board vote next week...

4 May: New IPCC report says the massive global effort needed to curb greenhouse gas emissions is affordable; world must stabilize carbon-based pollution by 2015 at 445 parts per million in order to prevent warming from exsceeding 3.6º above pre-industrial levels...

1 May: US pres. George W. Bush vetoes spending bill to fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, opposing provision requiring pullout to begin by 1 October 2007; veto is 2nd of Bush's 6 years in office, pres. said it would be irresponsible to alert insurgents to when the US would be leaving Iraq... Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate Newscorp has reportedly bid $5 billion in secret to take over the Dow Jones financial information firm, which manages the DJIA stock index and Wall Street Journal newspaper, as well as other major financial information services...