May 2 — Africa: ZIMBABWE

More than a month after the March 29th presidential election, Zimbabwe’’s Electoral Commission announces that incumbent President Robert Mugabe has gathered 43 percent of the vote, while his challenger, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, has won 48 percent. The Commission also says that both contenders will have to face a run-off election in June. The opposition claims that the government tampered with the votes and Tsvangirai won an outright victory. However, projections by independent monitors were close to the official results. It is expected that government repression against supporters of the opposition will increase, making it hard for Tsvangirai to contest the second round.

May 2 — East Asia: MYANMAR

A powerful cyclone devastates southern Myanmar, flattening villages and submerging swathes of the Irrawaddy delta under salt water. The estimated death toll is over 100,000 people and 2.4 million are without food, water, or shelter. The ruling military government is criticized for failing to organize evacuations ahead of the cyclone.

May 9 — Latin America: MEXICO

The commander of Mexico City’’s investigative police force, Esteban Robles Espinosa, is shot and killed a day after Mexico’’s federal police chief Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez was shot dead in Mexico City. Their murders are the latest in a string of attacks against police and military personnel in Mexico. It is believed that the slayings are in retaliation for Mexico’’s President Felipe Calderón’s crackdown on the country’s drug smugglers and organized crime. An estimated 200 police officers have been killed since Calderón first deployed troops to fight the cartels in December 2006.

May 11 — Europe: SERBIA

A pro-European coalition led by Serbian President Boris Tadic comes out ahead with 39 percent of the vote in Serbia’s parliamentary elections, seen as a referendum on whether Serbia should strive toward European Union membership. The hard-line nationalist Radical Party takes only 29 percent. Pro-European support was likely swayed in part by the European Union signing a stabilization agreement with Serbia on April 29th, usually a first step on the long path to EU membership. The Radical Party advocated a pro-Russia policy.

May 12 — East Asia: CHINA

A massive earthquake strikes Sichuan Province in southwestern China, killing more than 69,000 people and injuring another 370,000, with up to 18,000 missing and more than 5 million homeless. The 7.9 magnitude quake and continuing strong aftershocks destroy millions of buildings and devastate entire towns. An estimated 10,000 students and teachers die in the many schools that collapse during the earthquake. The quake also creates dozens of dangerous landslide dams and lakes. The Chinese government responds with an all-out rescue and relief effort, and welcomes foreign aid supplies.

May 13 — South Asia: PAKISTAN

Pakistan’’s six-week-old coalition government consisting of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by Asif Zardari, widower of a former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), falls apart when nine ministers from PML-N resign. The coalition disagreed on how to reinstate 60 judges dismissed by President Pervez Musharraf during the martial law last year. The PML-N says it will not, however, vote with the opposition.

May 21 — Africa: SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa’’s President Thabo Mbeki approves deployment of the army to quell a wave of xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa. It is the first time that troops have been used to control unrest since the end of apartheid in 1994. The violence, which began in Alexandra on May 11th before spreading to other towns, has left at least 42 people dead and displaced an estimated 20,000. Gangs of poor South Africans accuse the immigrants, mainly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi, of stealing their jobs, undercutting wages, and of being criminals.

May 21 — Middle East: LEBANON

An agreement between the government of Lebanon and the Hezbollah-led opposition ends a crippling 18-month political stalemate, including the six-month wrangling that followed the departure of President Emile Lahoud in November 2007. The crisis turned violent two weeks ago after Hezbollah’s brief takeover of West Beirut and subsequent deadly sectarian street battles, the worst since the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. The complex peace agreement, which meets Hezbollah’s key demands, includes the formation of a unity government with the opposition gaining a veto power; election of a neutral candidate, General Michel Suleiman, as President of Lebanon; electoral reform; and banning the use of weapons in any intra-Lebanese disputes.

May 23 — Former Soviet Republics: GEORGIA

Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili consolidates his power after his ruling United National Movement-Democrats party wins a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary elections. The opposition, saying the election was rigged, calls for mass protests, and threatens to boycott the new parliament. The president vows to work with the opposition.

May 23 — East Asia: MYANMAR

Myanmar’s military government tells visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that it will let in all foreign aid for the first time since Cyclone Nargis devastated southern parts of the country on May 2-3, leaving some 134,000 people dead or missing. However, the junta continues to restrict access to the most heavily affected Irrawaddy delta area, where an estimated 2.4 million people are without adequate shelter and food. Since the disaster, the ruling junta has been heavily criticized for not allowing foreign aid workers and supplies into the country, and for the slowness and meagerness of its own relief efforts.

May 28 — Latin America: ARGENTINA

Hundreds of thousands of Argentina’’s farmers resume a strike, blocking roads and suspending grain exports and meat sales, after negotiations with the government on increased export taxes fail. Previous rounds of negotiations also failed. The dispute began in March when President Cristina Fernandez’’s government raised export taxes on farm products, triggering weeks of strikes and roadblocks that generated food shortages and protests nationwide. The farmers say they are being unfairly taxed, while the government argues an increase of export taxes is necessary to fight poverty and inflation.

May 28 — South Asia: NEPAL

Nepal’’s newly elected government ends 240 years of monarchy by officially declaring the country a republic. It instructs King Gyanendra to step down and vacate the royal palace in Kathmandu.