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May 30, 2012 | | STEALING THE SHOW Mitt Romney clinched the Republican nomination on Tuesday night with his victory in the Texas primary, but his new BFF Donald Trump stole the headlines when the two appeared together at a Las Vegas fundraiser just hours after Trump was called “ridiculous” for promoting birtherism. Now that Romney’s won the GOP nomination, he should be moving toward moderation, writes The Daily Beast’s John Avlon. So why is Mitt still captivated by extremists—and acting as though his captors are his friends? HACKING Andy Coulson, the former editor of News of the World and Prime Minister David Cameron’s former press secretary, was detained Wednesday in connection to a perjury inquiry. Coulson is currently being held in London and will be transferred to Glasgow, where he has been accused of committing perjury. Coulson was editor of Rupert Murdoch’s bestselling tabloid, the now-defunct News of the World, from 2003 until 2007, when he resigned amid phone-hacking allegations. Coulson has denied having any knowledge of the hacking at the tabloid, and he repeated his denial when he testified earlier this month at the Leveson Inquiry. Coulson gave evidence at the perjury trial of Tommy Sheridan in 2010, and Sheridan was jailed for three years for lying under oath during his defamation action against News of the World in 2006. INTERVENTION Russia and China both opposed a United Nations–sponsored intervention on Wednesday, one day after special envoy Kofi Annan returned from Damascus and said that Syria is at a “tipping point.” Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Wednesday that the country is “categorically against” foreign intervention in Syria and that any new steps by the Security Council—on which both Russia and China hold important veto power—would be “premature.” Annan arrived in Damascus earlier this week to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, although those talks have reportedly gone nowhere. Meanwhile, Turkey—Syria’s immediate neighbor—expelled Syrian diplomats, becoming the 13th country since Tuesday to order diplomats to leave. WIKILEAKS A British high court ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden, where he faces sexual-abuse allegations. The British government is expected to announce an extradition within 10 days, and on the appointed date, Assange will be handed over to Swedish authorities. The British Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the extradition request had been “lawfully made,” and the request followed the laws of the European Extradition Treaty. Although this is Britain’s highest court, Assange could appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Assange was accused in 2010 of “four offenses of unlawful coercion and sexual misconduct, including rape” by two WikiLeaks volunteers in Stockholm. The Daily Beast’s Mike Giglio reports on what this means for Assange—and why his real concern is the U.S. WAR CRIMES The International Criminal Court at The Hague on Wednesday sentenced former Liberian President Charles Taylor to 50 years in prison for aiding and abetting rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone in return for blood diamonds. In the ruling, presiding Judge Richard Lussaick said Taylor is “in a class of his own” when compared with others convicted by the United Nations–backed court, and that Taylor was responsible for “some of the most heinous and brutal crimes in recorded human history.” Taylor, 64, is the first head of state to be convicted for international war crimes since World War II. More than 50,000 people died in the decades-long Sierra Leone civil war. | | 
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