Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N) won the Pakistani election, scooping 124 of the 272 contested seats and giving him his third term as prime minister. The better-than-expected result should mean that Mr Sharif will be able to rule without having to form a coalition. The outgoing PPP took second place, ahead of the party of Imran Khan, a former cricketer. Election violence was high. Around 40 people were killed including 11 killed by one bomb in Karachi. Benigno Aquino of the Philippines sent a representative to apologise for the death of a Taiwanese fisherman who was shot by the Philippine coastguard in disputed waters. The president's move came after Taiwan recalled its envoy from Manila and said it would suspend hiring Filipino workers. Joseph Estrada, a former Philippine president who was overthrown 12 years ago in a popular uprising, was elected mayor of Manila. Mr Estrada, a 76-year-old former film star, said he wanted to devote his final years to helping the poor. Mr Estrada was given a life sentence in 2007 for plunder, but freed after receiving a presidential pardon. At least 50 Rohingya Muslims are feared drowned after their boats capsized off western Myanmar. The boats were evacuating people from the path of cyclone Mahasen. China became one of a number of countries to be granted permanent observer status on the Arctic Council. India, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Singapore were also admitted. Chaos and contagion Turkey's government blamed Syria's for bombs which killed at least 50 people in Reyhanli, a Turkish town near the Syrian border. Meanwhile, a video showing a Syrian rebel apparently biting into the heart of a dead Syrian soldier stirred revulsion and embarrassment among sympathisers of the rebel cause. A car bomb killed three civilians near a hospital in Libya's eastern capital, Benghazi. A string of recent attacks have targeted the police and foreign diplomats, but this was the first apparently aimed at ordinary Libyans. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran, and Esfandiar Mashaei, an ally of the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sought to register their names as candidates for a presidential election on June 14th. Both oppose the ruling clerical establishment, which therefore may seek to block either or both of their candidacies. Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, declared a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, the three north-eastern states that have suffered most grievously from attacks by Boko Haram, a jihadist group which has killed more than a thousand people in four years. The president admitted his forces had lost control of some parts of the country and gave them free rein in the three states. Late in the day A court in Guatemala sentenced José Efraín Ríos Montt, an 86-year-old former military dictator, to 80 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity suffered by Ixil Mayan Indians during a war against left-wing guerrillas. Days later General Rios Montt fainted while on his way to a hearing and was taken to a military hospital. In the Canadian province of British Columbia, the ruling provincial Liberal Party retained power, defeating the left-of-centre New Democrats. The result was a personal triumph for Christy Clark, the premier, who backs proposed pipelines to carry heavy Alberta oil to Pacific ports. Venezuela's president, Nicolás Maduro, ordered 3,000 troops to patrol Caracas and other cities in a crackdown on escalating violent crime. The opposition worried that the plan is a means to allow the army to control municipal police forces. After several years of deliberation, Cuba's government approved a scheme by a British company to build a $350m golf resort, including apartments for sale to foreigners. The decision may herald a broader welcome for foreign investment from Raúl Castro's government. Irresponsible The Internal Revenue Service was heavily criticised for singling out small-government, conservative groups for auditing. It was reported that in 2012 agents at the organisation's Cincinnati office had been selecting applications for charitable status from right-leaning campaign outfits for extra scrutiny. No amount of explaining why this might have been a sensible strategy made it sound any better. The agency's boss was fired. A bad week for Barack Obama's administration got worse when it was revealed that his Justice Department had been going through telephone records at the Associated Press, searching for the source of a leak. Officials had obtained the details of more than 20 phone lines used by reporters and editors in New York, Washington, DC, and Hartford, Connecticut. Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, announced that he would run for a second term in 2015, rather than seeking a higher office. Kermit Gosnell, a doctor who performed illegal late-term abortions in Philadelphia, was given three life sentences. Both sides in America's abortion debate endorsed the verdict to make opposing points. Undone cover Russia arrested a purported American spy who was shown on television sporting a wig and allegedly carrying dark glasses, a compass and lots of cash. Ryan Fogle, a junior diplomat, was said to be trying to recruit a Russian security official dealing with the north Caucasus. Russia berated America. Bulgaria's election produced an inconclusive result. The GERB party of the former prime minister, Boyko Borisov, who had resigned amid street protests in February, came first but his win was so narrow that he may be unable to form a coalition. Britain's fever over its membership of the European Union broke out again. David Cameron, the prime minister, tried to appease his Eurosceptic critics by publishing a draft bill to provide for an in/out referendum. The bill has little chance of passing, but some of his Conservative Party wanted it in the government's legislative programme to head off a growing threat from the populist UK Independence Party.