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Britain’s general election on May 6th produced an inconclusive result, leaving the Conservatives as the largest party in Parliament but short of an overall majority. After five days of wrangling the Conservatives joined forces with the Liberal Democrats, who came third at the polls, behind Labour, to create the country’s first coalition government since the second world war. David Cameron is the new prime minister, and Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dems, will serve as his deputy.

Leaders of the euro-area countries agreed on a €750 billion ($950 billion) “stabilisation fund", with IMF help, for troubled countries in the currency zone. The package, designed to stave off speculative attacks, was seen as a triumph for France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and a defeat for Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

Mrs Merkel suffered a further blow in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, where her party’s ruling coalition lost badly in a regional election. The defeat means that Mrs Merkel will also lose her majority in the Bundesrat, Germany’s upper house.

An explosion in a coal mine in southern Russia killed at least 66 people. There were fears the death toll could rise to 90.

The French National Assembly unanimously passed a non-binding resolution condemning Islamic veils that cover the entire face. Legislation outlawing the garment is likely to follow later this month.

Around a hundred Iraqis, nearly all civilians, were killed on May 10th in a rash of bombings around the country, including Basra and Hilla as well as Baghdad, presumably by Sunni jihadists opposed to the new Shia-led order. It was the biggest toll in one day this year, raising sectarian tension when politicians are haggling to form a new government coalition.

Five Iranian Kurds, one of them a woman, were hanged for alleged terrorism by the Iranian authorities in Tehran’s Evin prison, probably to warn dissenters of the punishment they may expect.

Indirect “proximity” talks between Israelis and Palestinians resumed via an American intermediary after a gap of 18 months, with Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, denying that he had tacitly promised to stop building settlements in East Jerusalem or the West Bank.

In Zimbabwe Roy Bennett, a senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change, which is in a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, was acquitted of plotting to overthrow him. Mr Bennett claims the charges were politically motivated.

A Venezuelan court sentenced Raúl Baduel, a former defence minister, to eight years in jail on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Mr Baduel was once an ally of Hugo Chávez, the president, but became one of his most outspoken critics once Mr Chávez began a successful campaign to remove presidential term limits.

Laura Chinchilla was inaugurated as Costa Rica’s president. She is expected to continue the centrist policies of her predecessor, Óscar Arias, and increase efforts to fight crime.

Porfirio Lobo, the president of Honduras, announced that he would not attend a summit between European Union and Latin American leaders on May 18th. A group of South American countries threatened to boycott the event if he went, because he was elected under a coup regime. Mr Lobo will participate in a smaller meeting between the EU and Central America.

Mario Villanueva, a former state governor in Mexico, became the highest-ranking Mexican politician to be extradited to the United States, on drugs charges. One prosecutor accused him of turning Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula, into “a virtual narcostate” in the 1990s.

The UN reported that a target agreed on by governments to reduce significantly the rate of biodiversity loss had not been met. The abundance of vertebrate species fell by a third between 1970 and 2006. Nearly a quarter of plant species are threatened with extinction.

In an election in the Philippines Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, a senator and son of a late president, Corazon Aquino, was poised to become president himself, after taking a commanding lead. He had about 40% of the votes, compared with 25% for his nearest challenger, Joseph Estrada, a former president.

Maoist protesters in Nepal called off the general strike they had mounted to demand the resignation of the government. Little progress, however, was made towards meeting the May 28th deadline for drafting a new constitution.

Wan Yanhai, China’s best-known activist working on AIDS and gay and lesbian issues, left for America, saying official harassment was driving him into exile.

Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, was given a warm reception in Washington by an American administration anxious to repair relations after a very rocky patch. Barack Obama backed Mr Karzai’s efforts to reconcile some elements of the Taliban insurgency.

Eric Holder, America’s attorney-general, said the government had evidence that the Pakistani Taliban had helped to “direct” the recent failed attempt to set off a bomb in New York’s Times Square.

Barack Obama nominated Elena Kagan to replace the retiring John Paul Stevens on America’s Supreme Court. Ms Kagan is currently the solicitor-general and was previously a dean of Harvard Law School. The absence of any experience as a judge was raised by Senate Republicans as a potential stumbling block to her confirmation.

(From The Economist, May 13th 2010)