Search teams continued to recover bodies from the submerged hull of the Sewol, a ferry that sank off the coast of South Korea on April 16th. The number of people known to have died in the accident passed 150, with a similar number still missing, most of them teenage children from a school near Seoul. Eleven crew members have been detained. See article
An avalanche on Mount Everest killed 16 sherpas in the deadliest accident to take place on its slopes. Other sherpas threatened a boycott unless they received a bigger share of revenue from foreign climbers. They also want better rescue measures put in place. The Nepali government agreed to raise the amount of compensation it is offering to the families of those who died.


Brunei postponed the introduction of strict Islamic punishments for some crimes. The government wants to introduce death by stoning for adulterers and the severing of limbs for theft in accordance with sharia law. An official said the delay was because of “unavoidable circumstances”. The UN has expressed deep concern about the potential changes.
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble
An agreement to end violence in eastern Ukraine, reached between America, Russia, the European Union and Ukraine on April 17th, failed to get off the ground. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, warned that Russia will respond if its interests in Ukraine are attacked. Meanwhile, violence in the pro-Russian east escalated, with at least a dozen people listed as “officially” missing”. Ukraine prepared “anti-terrorist operations” against pro-Russian militants in four cities. See article
Artur Mas, Catalonia’s president, promised to press on with a referendum on independence from Spain, saying that “frustration here will be absolute” if the poll does not go ahead in November. This came after Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, called for the referendum to be abandoned as it was “illegal”.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the first time offered “condolences” for the mass killings of Armenians in 1915. His comments came on the 99th anniversary of what Armenians term a genocide.
Britain’s opposition Labour Party hired David Axelrod, an American campaign strategist who steered Barack Obama to victory in 2008 and 2012, to help it fight next year’s election. The governing Conservative Party has employed Jim Messina, another veteran of the Obama campaigns. 
The British government granted people from Cornwall, a county on Britain’s south-west peninsula, special status as a “national minority”. Cornish, a dead language claimed by 557 people as their first, will now be protected.
Bins man reinstated
Gustavo Petro, the ousted mayor of Bogotá, was returned to office after a court ruled that his sacking was illegal. He was dismissed in March after Colombia’s inspector-general found him responsible for mismanaging rubbish collection, in a case that many thought politically motivated. See article
Skirmishes continued in Caracas between police and opponents of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro. Petrol bombs were met with tear gas and water cannon. More than 40 people have died in violent protests since February. See article
One person was killed in riots in Rio de Janeiro, which broke out after a young man was allegedly killed by police. The beaten body of the 26-year-old was discovered in the Pavao-Pavaozinho favela, not far from Copacabana beach.
Quelle surprise
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s ailing 77-year-old president, who has rarely been seen in public in the past year, won a fourth term in office, getting 81% of the vote, according to officials. His main challenger, Ali Benflis, a former prime minister, got 12%. See article
President Bashar Assad of Syria said there would be a presidential election on June 3rd, even though a third of Syrians have been displaced by the civil war or live in rebel-held areas. No one knows who might be able to oppose him. See article
Fatah and Hamas, rival Palestinian factions, announced a reconciliation deal to provide for an interim unity government within five weeks and elections six months after a vote of confidence by the Palestinian parliament. Similar deals have been proclaimed many times before and always fallen apart. This one comes soon after talks fizzled out between the Palestinians, under Fatah’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israelis. See article
The registration of candidates for Egypt’s presidential election, to be held on May 26th and 27th, closed, with only one challenger to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the military strongman currently running the country, who seems sure to win. His opponent will be Hamdeen Sabahi, an old-style secular socialist, who came third out of the 13 candidates nearly two years ago, when Muhammed Morsi, the Muslim Brother, was the winner. Mr Morsi was ousted a year later. See article
A rebel army massacred hundreds of people, most of them civilians, after capturing the oil town of Bentiu in South Sudan. Most of the killers were supporters of Riek Machar, the former vice-president, and from his own Nuer tribe. Mr Machar’s sacking last year by President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, led to the civil war that erupted in December. See article
Pivoting
Barack Obama started his Asian tour with the first state visit to Japan by an American president since 1996. Ahead of the trip he gave his most vocal backing yet to Japan in its dispute with China over five uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. A proposed trade deal was also high on the agenda. Mr Obama is also visiting South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
America’s Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s constitutional ban on using racial preferences in admissions to public universities. Voters had insisted on colour-blindness in a referendum in 2006. Plaintiffs claimed they had no right to do so. The justices disagreed, for a variety of reasons. Under Chief Justice John Roberts the court has tended to limit the use of affirmative action. See article
America’s Food and Drug Administration prepared rules to toughen its regulation of products for smokers, including the first curbs on e-cigarettes, such as warning labels that they contain nicotine and banning their sale to under-18s.