1. Fire kills 21 at S. Korean hospital for elderly

    A fire believed to have been set by an 81-year-old dementia* patient blazed through a hospital ward* for the elderly on May 27 and killed 21 people in southern South Korea, mostly from smoke inhalation*, police and fire officials said.

    The fire on the second floor of the Hyosarang Hospital in Jangseong County also injured seven people and raised concerns about lax* fire regulations.

    2. Snowden worked as a spy: NBC

    U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden “trained as a spy” and worked “undercover overseas” for intelligence agencies, he told NBC News in aired excerpts from* an interview.

    In his first interview in U.S. media, Snowden hit back at claims that he was merely a low-level contractor, saying he worked “at all levels from — from the bottom on the ground, all the way to the top.”

    In the interview, taped a week ago and aired in full on May 27, Snowden defended himself against claims minimizing his intelligence experience before he stole and leaked a trove of classified documents revealing the NSA’s program of phone and Internet surveillance.

    3. Man charged with murdering student

    Australian police have charged a former detective with murder, and has found the body of a Sydney student of Chinese origin six days ago.

    Jamie Gao, the victim, 20, is understood to have been taking part in a drug deal when he was last seen getting into a white car after talking to two men in Padstow in the city’s southwest last week.

    Officers say Gao had drug, which was ice, on him when he got into the car and was driven to a nearby location, where they believe he was killed.

    A body was found off a beach near Cronulla on May 26, and the police have confirmed it is the remains of Gao.

    Former detective Glen McNamara, 55, was charged with murder and commercial drug supply at St. George Police Station.

    4. Man castrates and kills French mayor

    A jealous man murdered the mayor of a hamlet in northern France whom he suspected of having an affair with his girlfriend, officials said on May 30.

    Mayor Dominique Leboucher, 55, was brutally stabbed in the neck by a 39-year-old electrician, the prosecutor of the northern city of Caen told reporters.

    The attacker had no previous police record and was “clearly very much in love” with his girlfriend, Catherine Denis said.

    He subsequently committed suicide.

    5. Separatists shoot down Ukrainian helicopter

    Pro-Russian separatists* on May 29 shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter in eastern Ukraine and 14 people on board, including a general, were killed, acting President Oleksander Turchinov told the parliament.

    “I have just received information that terrorists using Russian anti-aircraft missiles shot down our helicopter near Slavyansk. It had been ferrying servicemen for a change of duty,” Turchinov said.

    Pro-Russian separatists are holding four monitors of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who went missing in eastern Ukraine on May 26, but are likely to release them soon.

    6. Sisi sweeps to victory in Egypt vote

    Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the general who toppled* Egypt’s first freely elected leader, swept to victory in a presidential election.

    Sisi captured 93.3 percent of votes cast as counting nearly came to a close. And the counting closed last week. His only rival, leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, gained 3 percent while 3.7 percent of votes were declared void.

    Sisi is the latest in a line of Egyptian rulers from the military that was only briefly broken during President Mohammed Morsi’s year in office.(SD-Agencies)