Political leaders in Cyprus held emergency talks after the country's parliament rejected an international bail-out deal that included a one-off tax on bank deposits. The controversial levy had been proposed as the condition for a €10 billion ($13 billion) European Union and IMF rescue package. With the banks shut for the entire week, the Cypriot government was hastily trying to put together a "Plan B." Concentrating their minds, the European Central Bank issued an ultimatum to cut off its emergency lifeline to Cypriot banks within days in the absence of an agreed deal. Russian authorities dropped their inquiry into the death in prison of Sergei Magnitsky, a whistleblower. An investigating committee decided no crime had been committed against the lawyer, who was detained in 2008 after revealing an alleged embezzlement scam by officials at the interior ministry. His family and human-rights groups insist he was badly beaten and denied medical treatment. Jérôme Cahuzac, France's budget minister, resigned amid allegations of tax fraud. He denied any wrongdoing after a report by Mediapart, an investigative website, said that he had kept an undeclared Swiss bank account until 2010. Police searched the Paris home of Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, in relation to a long-running case alleging that she gave favourable treatment in a dispute to a political supporter of the government when she was French finance minister. Ms Lagarde has not yet been placed under any formal investigation. Pre-emptive psyche Chuck Hagel, America's defence secretary, announced the deployment of extra missile interceptors in Alaska to counter any potential attack from North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom has stepped up its bellicose rhetoric lately, threatening to strike South Korea and America if sanctions are expanded against it. It is also threatening to hit American bases in Japan and Guam. In Colorado a bill that introduces some stricter gun-control measures in the state, such as expanding background checks on gun buyers, was signed into law. The night before the signing ceremony the head of Colorado's prison service was shot and killed at his front door. Frenemies Barack Obama made his first trip to Israel as America's president. The relationship between Mr Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has been tetchy over the years; the visit was carefully staged to reaffirm America's friendship with Israel and avoid public disagreements over a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Mr Obama also went to the Palestinian West Bank and Jordan. The pace of killing in Syria's civil war is twice as fast as in the Iraq war, according to figures published by the Iraq Body Count, an independent outfit. The conflict in Syria has claimed at least 70,000 lives in two years; in Iraq it took four years to reach that number. Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported a poison-gas attack in Aleppo. Both sides in the conflict accused the other of carrying out the attack in the city, which has not been confirmed independently. Meeting in Turkey, Syria's opposition coalition selected Ghassan Hitto as its prime minister. Mr Hitto, 50, was born in Damascus but for decades has lived in Texas, where he was a successful IT businessman. A wave of bombings killed at least 60 people in Iraq on the tenth anniversary of the American-led invasion. A group linked to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. Kenya's president-elect, Uhuru Kenyatta, asked the International Criminal Court in The Hague to drop charges against him for crimes against humanity. A trial is scheduled for July. One of Congo's most notorious warlords, Bosco Ntaganda, walked into the American embassy in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, and asked to be taken to the ICC, which issued an arrest warrant for him in 2006 for conscripting child soldiers, among other things. Voters in Zimbabwe overwhelmingly approved a new constitution ahead of elections this summer. Turnout was high. The country's presidents will now be limited to two five-year terms, though the change does not apply retroactively to Robert Mugabe, the incumbent. Out on a limb in Lima Susana Villarán, the mayor of Lima, appeared narrowly to have survived an attempt to oust her by winning a recall referendum, according to a partial vote count in the Peruvian capital. But many councillors from her left-of-centre party lost their jobs. Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemala's military dictator in 1982-83, went on trial in Guatemala City for genocide and crimes against humanity. Argentina's president, Cristina Fernández, met her compatriot, Pope Francis, and asked him to intervene to back Argentina's demand for talks with Britain over its claim to the Falkland (Malvinas) islands. Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, said that the pope should respect the wishes of the islanders, who recently voted overwhelmingly to remain a British territory. Xi Jinping's right-hand man China completed its transition to a new clutch of leaders. Li Keqiang (right) took over as prime minister. Zhou Xiaochuan is to stay on as head of the central bank, despite reaching the mandatory retirement age of 65. Two banks and three television stations in South Korea reported that their computer systems had come under attack by hackers. Initial suspicions fell on North Korea, though officials said it may have originated in China. The president of Bangladesh, Zillur Rahman, died in Singapore after a lengthy illness. He was 84. His post was largely ceremonial, but he was an ally of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Pakistan's democratically elected government, the first in the country's history to complete a five-year term without being overthrown, set May 11th as the date for an election. A power cut shut down cooling systems for spent fuel rods at the stricken nuclear plant at Fukushima in north-east Japan. The operating company later blamed it on a now-frazzled rat that had caused a switchboard short-circuit.