Portal:Current events/April 2017

• Military intervention against ISIL
  • An Iraqi airstrike near Al Qaim, Anbar province, Iraq, kills Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be ISIL's second-in-command. (Al Jazeera)

• Cyclone Debbie
  • Consequences of heavy rain from Cyclone Debbie kill at least three people and force 20,000 others to leave their homes in New South Wales and Queensland. (News Limited) (ABC)
  • Police search for four missing people in southeast Queensland as the Logan River reaches record levels. (AAP via Yahoo! News Australia)
• A landslide hits the Indonesian island of Java and leaves more than two dozen people missing. (DPA via News Limited)
• 2017 Putumayo landslide
  • A landslide in Colombia's southwestern border department of Putumayo sends mud and debris crashing onto houses killing over 250 people and injuring at least 400 others. In addition, 200 people are missing. (Hindustan Times) (Reuters)
• An explosion occurs at a carnival in Villepinte, Seine-Saint-Denis, France, injuring at least 18 people. (The Independent) (BBC)
• Authorities cannot contact the South Korean cargo freighter Stellar Daisy. It is believed that the ship sunk off the coast of Uruguay. (SBS Australia)

• 2017 dissolution of Venezuelan National Assembly
  • Venezuela's Supreme Court reverses their controversial ruling. The court restores legislative power to the National Assembly. However, the court's decision still allows President Nicolás Maduro to enter joint-venture deals. (BBC) (The Washington Post)
• After two weeks of social unrest in French Guiana, the French government promises €1 billion for education, healthcare, security, and justice. (France 24) (Reuters)

• 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
  • Men's basketball Gonzaga defeats South Carolina 77–73 to advance to the title game on April 3. (AP via ESPN)
  • In the other semifinal, North Carolina defeats Oregon 77–76. (AP via ESPN)

• India inaugurates the 9.2-kilometer Chenani-Nashri Tunnel, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. (The Times of India)
• Ciudad Juárez-based newspaper Norte closes its print edition, citing a lack of security in Mexico. (AP via ABC) (Guardian)

• Cyclone Debbie
  • The death toll from Cyclone Debbie and the associated flooding in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland rises to five people. (News Limited)
• A bus carrying around 50 school children rolls over on a highway south of Sveg in the northern region of Härjedalen, Sweden, killing three people. (Reuters)

• An attack occurs at a Sufi shrine near Sargodha, Pakistan, killing more than 20 people. Authorities arrest a main suspect and several others. (BBC)

• Armenian parliamentary election, 2017
  • Voters in Armenia go to the polls for an election, the first since constitutional changes were approved in a referendum in 2015, which changed the country's governance from a semi-presidential system to a parliamentary republic. Opinion polls predict a tight race between the nationalist Republican Party, led by President Serzh Sargsyan, and the centre-right Prosperous Armenia, led by Gagik Tsarukyan. With votes from 64% of the polling stations counted, the Republican Party leads with 49.7% of votes. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) (TASS)
• Serbian presidential election, 2017
  • Voters in Serbia go to the polls for an election, which Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić of the conservative Serbian Progressive Party is expected to win. In projections, Vučić gets around 55% of the votes, avoiding a second round. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) (CNBC)
• Ecuadorian general election, 2017
  • Voters in Ecuador return to the polls for the second round of a presidential election, which Lenín Moreno of the socialist PAIS Alliance is predicted to narrowly win over the center-right Creating Opportunities's Guillermo Lasso. With 94.18% of the votes counted, Moreno leads with 51.07%. According to the national election commission, it was a transparent and successful election. (SBS News) (TeleSUR)

• 2017 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship Game
  • South Carolina defeats fellow Southeastern Conference team Mississippi State 67–55 for the Gamecocks' first national title. (AP via ESPN)

• 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing
  • An attack on a Saint Petersburg Metro train at Sennaya Ploshchad station kills at least 11 people and injures more than 50 others. Authorities disarm another bomb, found at nearby Vosstaniya Square station. (The Independent) (The New York Times)
• Piracy off the coast of Somalia
  • Somali pirates hijack an Indian cargo ship off the coast of Puntland. (BBC)

• An Egyptian excavation team discovers the remains of a pyramid dating back 3,700 years to the thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt at the Dahshur necropolis 40km south of Cairo. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)

• Cyclone Debbie
  • A mother and two children drown after their car plunges into the flooded Tweed River, raising the death toll to eight people. A ten-year-old girl escapes and alerts authorities. (News.com.au)
• A boiler explosion at a Missouri box company in St. Louis's historic Soulard neighborhood kills three people and injures four others. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) (St. Louis Public Radio)

• LGBT rights in Russia
  • Russian authorities arrest more than 100 gay men in Chechnya, including television personalities and religious figures, for "nontraditional sexual orientation." The Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported that three of the arrested men have been killed, while others reportedly were released for family honor killing. Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov's spokesperson said this report contains “absolute lies and disinformation” since there are no homosexuals in Chechnya. (The Guardian) (The New York Times)
• Trump Tower wiretapping allegations
  • Media reports indicate that former National Security Advisor Susan Rice improperly requested the unmasking of some American names, including those of Donald Trump's campaign staff, that had been incidentally collected during national security investigations. A National Security Adviser may request unmasking if specific criteria are met. A Rice associate denies that the unmasking was improper. (Fox News) (Business Insider) (The Blaze)

• Armenian parliamentary election, 2017
  • Authorities declare that the Republican Party, led by President Serzh Sargsyan, wins the Armenia election amid accusations by opposition parties and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe of voting irregularities. (Al Jazeera)

• In ice hockey
  • The NHL announces that it will not release its players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. (ESPN)
• In basketball
  • 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Game
    • North Carolina defeats Gonzaga, 71-65, for the 2017 men's basketball national title. (ESPN) (The New York Times)
  • The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announces its 2017 induction class, which will formally enter the Hall on September 8: (Hall of Fame press release)
    • To be inducted as players are Zack Clayton, Nikos Galis, George McGinnis, and Tracy McGrady.
    • To be inducted as coaches are Robert Hughes, Muffet McGraw, and Bill Self.
    • To be inducted as contributors are Mannie Jackson, Tom Jernstedt, Jerry Krause, and Rebecca Lobo.

• Syrian Civil War
  • A toxic gas attack, allegedly by Syrian warplanes, kills at least 83 and injures many more in rebel-held Khan Shaykhun, Idlib. (The Globe and Mail) (NBC News)
• Battle of Mosul
  • The United Nations announces expansion of civilian camps for people fleeing Mosul, following resumption of airstrikes on ISIL-held portions of the Iraqi city. (Reuters) (Arab News)

• Tornadoes of 2017
  • Robert J. Bentley, the Governor of Alabama, declares a state of emergency due to forecasts of storms with the threat of tornadoes during the day. The neighboring state of Georgia also faces the threat of severe weather. (Fox News)
• 2017 Batangas earthquakes
  • A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hits Batangas, causing damage to buildings and are felts as far as Metro Manila and Bulacan. (The Philippine Star) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

• LGBTQ rights in the United States
  • The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago rules (8–3) that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ employees from workplace discrimination. (AP) (USA Today)

• Bertha, once the world's largest tunnel boring machine, completes its 9,270-foot-long (2,830 m) tunnel under Seattle, Washington, after four years of digging and a lengthy delay near the beginning of the project. (Wired)
• The National Assembly of Hungary passes a bill that undermines the functioning of the Central European University (CEU). Academics and academic institutions worldwide have expressed support for CEU. (BBC)
• English computer scientist Sir Timothy Berners-Lee is awarded the 2016 A.M. Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the protocols and algorithms that allow the Web to scale. (Association for Computing Machinery)

• War in North-West Pakistan
  • A suicide bomber kills at least six people and injures 18 near a Pakistan Army vehicle taking part in the census in the city of Lahore. (Reuters)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
  • According to security sources, dozens of people are killed in an overnight attack in Tikrit by suspected ISIL militants. 31 bodies were taken to a hospital, according to a local doctor, while more continued to be found by morning. (Al Jazeera)

• A USAF F-16 crashes shortly after takeoff from Joint Base Andrews in Prince George's County, Maryland. The pilot inside ejected safely and was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. (Fox News)
• A 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck northeast Iran near the city of Mashhad, kills 1 person and at that least four were injured. (Reuters)

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • North Korea fires a medium-range ballistic missile about 60 kilometers (37 miles) into its eastern waters, in the direction of Japan according to United States and South Korean officials. (CNN) (AP)
  • United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issues a statement saying "The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment." (CNN)
• China–Finland relations
  • Chinese president Xi Jinping visits Finland on his way to the United States. (Reuters)

• Mexican Beltrán Leyva Cartel drug lord Alfredo Beltrán Leyva is sentenced to life in prison and ordered to forfeit $US529,200,000. (U.S. Department of Justice)

• LGBT history
  • Two openly gay candidates are elected to the Anchorage Assembly, becoming the first openly LGBT elected officials in Alaska. Approximately 20 percent of the city's population voted, a notably low turnout. (LGBT Weekly) (Alaska Commons)

• 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing
  • Russian authorities discover and deactivate an explosive device in a Saint Petersburg flat, during ongoing raids occurring in response to the bombing. (BBC)
• Battle of Mosul
  • Two Iraqi Army pilots are killed when their Mi-24 helicopter is shot down by ISIS over the city of Mosul. (Reuters)
• An Israeli soldier is killed during a car ramming attack near Ofra, in the West Bank. Another Israeli soldier was injured. A Palestinian suspected of committing the attack is taken into custody. (Haaretz)

• Seven & I Holdings Co., the parent company of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, agrees to acquire the retail operations of Sunoco for $3.3 billion. (Reuters)

• Severe flooding caused by Cyclone Debbie forces the evacuation of Edgecumbe, New Zealand, and nearby areas. (BBC)

• The Alabama Ethics Commission finds there is probable cause that Governor Robert J. Bentley violated the state's ethics and campaign finance laws, and refers the case to Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey. (USA Today)

• Thai King Vajiralongkorn signed into law a new Constitution of Thailand that paves the way for democratic reforms while allowing the Royal Thai Army to retain its influential role in Thai politics. (BBC)
• United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes recuses himself from the committee’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election; Rep. Mike Conaway will take the lead in this investigation. (BBC) (The Washington Post)
• Gambian parliamentary election, 2017
  • Voters in the Gambia go to the polls for an election, the country's first legislative election since longtime President Yahya Jammeh resigned and left the country. (Al Jazeera)

• In athletics, Jemima Sumgong, a Kenyan gold medallist in the women's marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics, tests positive for the banned substance EPO. (Reuters via ABC Australia)

• Syrian Civil War
  • 2017 Shayrat missile strike
    • The United States launches 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles aimed at the Ash Sha'irat air base in Homs Governorate in response to the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons in its attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun. The Government of Syria claims the attack killed six soldiers and nine civilians, including four children. (NBC News) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
    • Russia suspends a pact with the United States to coordinate operations in Syrian airspace. (The New York Times)
• 2017 Westminster attack
  • The death toll rises to five after a woman who fell into the River Thames dies in hospital. (News.com.au)
• 2017 Stockholm truck attack
  • A vehicle is driven into a group of people on a street in Stockholm, Sweden, killing four people. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • Mortar rounds are fired in a neighborhood in Wadajir District, Somalia, killing three civilians. Al-Shabaab is suspected of being behind the attack. (Reuters)
• South Thailand insurgency
  • A wave of small-scale terrorist attacks, including tire burning and the bombing of the electric grid, hits the Thai provinces of Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, and Songkhla in response to the new Constitution of Thailand. (Reuters)

• Electric Light Orchestra, Joan Baez, Journey, Pearl Jam, Tupac Shakur, and Yes are the six acts inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (New York Post)

• Hyundai (Sonata and Santa Fe) and Kia (Optima, Sorento, and Sportage) are recalling 1.5 million cars, over 1.3 million in United States and 170,000 in South Korea, over an engine defect. (Reuters)

• Six people are killed and two are missing after the Jhelum River in Kashmir overflows following heavy rain and snowfall. (Reuters)
• Twenty people have died and more than a dozen missing after a ferry capsizes in Myanmar's Irrawaddy River delta. (AP via The Telegraph)

• The U.S. Department of Homeland Security withdraws its order that Twitter unmask a user whose tweets are critical of President Donald Trump following the company's court filing to block the order on constitutional grounds. (The Washington Post) (CBS News)

• China–Norway relations
  • Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg meets with Premier of the People's Republic of China Li Keqiang in Beijing to announce the end of a diplomatic freeze between the countries and the resumption of free trade negotiations between China and Norway. (Reuters)

• The Maldives Police Service arrests the country's opposition leader, Qasim Ibrahim, after his party's failed bid to impeach the Speaker of the People's Majlis. (Reuters)
• Neil Gorsuch is confirmed as the 113th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by a 54–45 vote in the United States Senate after invocation of the "nuclear option". (The New York Times)
• The governor of the State of Alabama, Robert Bentley, wins a court victory halting impeachment proceedings that were set to begin Monday to determine whether he should remain in office after it was discovered that he had a romantic relationship with a staffer. (AP)
• President Joseph Kabila appoints Bruno Tshibala of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress as the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kabila's earlier announcement of his decision to appoint a new prime minister prompted Samy Badibanga to resign from the role after less than five months in office. (Al Jazeera)
• Over 50,000 people participate in the ongoing Democratic Alliance protests in South Africa against President Jacob Zuma. (Sowetan Live) (NewsTalk)

• Artifacts from Triquet Island, south-west of Hunter Island in British Columbia, are found to date back 14,000 years, marking the discovery of the oldest village in North America. (CTV News)

• In basketball, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder ensures that he will average a triple-double for the 2016–17 NBA season in the Thunder's game against the Phoenix Suns. He becomes only the second NBA player to average a triple-double over a season, after Oscar Robertson with the Cincinnati Royals (now known as the Sacramento Kings) in 1961–62. (ESPN)
• NCAA Division I conference realignment
  • Wichita State University will leave the Missouri Valley Conference after the 2016–17 school year to join the American Athletic Conference. The Shockers will become the first full but non-football member of The American since the 2013 split of its predecessor, the original Big East Conference. (ESPN)

• War in Afghanistan
  • A U.S. special forces service member is killed while taking part in an operation against ISIL militants in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar Province. (Sky News)

• A freight train derails in Hunedoara County, Romania, killing both crew members on board. (The New York Times)
• In Świebodzice, Poland, an old tenement house collapses killing at least six people, including two children, and injuring six. The exploration teams are looking for 4 missing people. (Gazeta.pl)
• Cyclone Debbie
  • Another body has been found after flooding in eastern Queensland, raising the death toll to twelve. (ABC News)
• At least 20 people are killed when a boat carrying wedding guests collides with a river barge in western Myanmar. (AFP via News24)
• 2017 Batangas earthquakes
  • Two earthquakes, with magnitudes of 5.6 and 6.0 and related to the April 4 magnitude 5.5 earthquake, hits Batangas, and are felt as far as Metro Manila. (Rappler)

• ETA ceasefire negotiations
  • The militant Basque separatist group ETA begins handing over its remaining weapons during a ceremony in Bayonne, France, in which the group turned over to authorities an inventory of weapons and their locations. (BBC)
• Four inmates are killed at Kirkland Correctional Institution in South Carolina. Authorities have charged two inmates with the murders of the four men. (NBC News)

• 2017 Palm Sunday church bombings
  • At least 45 people have been killed and 50 injured in explosions near two Coptic Christian churches packed with worshippers on Palm Sunday in the Egyptian cities of Tanta and Alexandria. (Al Jazeera) (ABC Australia)
  • The Government of Egypt imposes a three-month state of emergency in response to the bombings. (ABC)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • A car bomb explodes outside the Ministry of Defence in Mogadishu, killing at least 15 people. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack. (Al Jazeera)
• Srinagar (Lok Sabha constituency) by-election, 2017
  • Six people are killed in clashes between protesters and police near Srinagar in the disputed region of Kashmir Valley, during a by-election for a vacant seat in the Indian Lok Sabha. (BBC)

• 2016–17 South Pacific cyclone season
  • Dozens of people in Vanuatu are in shelters as Cyclone Cook hits the island. It is due to pass through New Caledonia tomorrow. (Radio New Zealand)

• North Korea–United States relations
  • The United States Pacific Command deploys warships, including the USS Carl Vinson, to move towards the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent tests with weapons of mass destruction and opposition to the Sharyat missile strike. North Korea is also reclassified as a state sponsor of terrorism. (BBC News)

• United Express Flight 3411 incident
  • A United Airlines passenger is dragged off a flight at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The airline company is under fire because of the mistreatment of the passenger. (ABC)

• South Ossetian presidential election, Name change referendum, 2017
  • Voters in the breakaway state of South Ossetia go to the polls for an election and a referendum. The referendum will ask voters if the country's official name should be changed to "Republic of South Ossetia–the State of Alania". (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Finnish municipal elections, 2017
  • Voters go to the polls for municipal elections in Finland. (Finnish Ministry of Justice) (Yle News)

• 2017 Masters Tournament
  • In golf, Sergio García of Spain wins the 2017 U.S. Masters defeating Justin Rose of England in a sudden-death playoff. It is García's first major victory. (The Guardian)
• In rugby union, SANZAAR announces that three teams will be eliminated from Super Rugby after the current season. One team from Australia and two from South Africa will be axed, reducing the competition to 15 teams. (ABC Australia)
• In basketball, Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder sets a new record for most triple-doubles in an NBA season, collecting his 42nd of the 2016–17 season in the Thunder's 106–105 win over the Denver Nuggets. Westbrook surpassed Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson, who had 41 in the 1961–62 season. (AP via ESPN)

• South Sudanese Civil War
  • Government-aligned militias kill 16 people during a raid in Wau, South Sudan. (Reuters)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • A suicide bomber attacks a military training camp in Mogadishu, killing at least nine soldiers. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack. (Al Jazeera)

• 2017 Pulitzer Prize
  • The New York Daily News and ProPublica win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting on nuisance abatement by police targeting minorities. (The New York Times)
  • The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and Sweat by Lynn Nottage win the Pultizer Prizes for Fiction and Drama respectively. (The Guardian)

• Aspen Skiing Company and KSL Capital Partners agree to acquire Intrawest for $1.5 billion. (Reuters)
• The United Kingdom-based Jaeger fashion chain collapses into administration after failing to find a buyer. (BBC)

• 2016–17 South Pacific cyclone season
  • Category 3 Cyclone Cook hits Grand Terre, the main island of New Caledonia. (ABC) (Stuff.co.nz)

• Cross-Strait relations
  • People's Republic of China detains Taiwanese political activist Lee Ming-che on suspicion of endangering national security and revokes his wife's travel permit. (Voice of America)

• 2017 North Park Elementary School shooting
  • An elementary school teacher and an 8-year-old student were shot and killed by the teacher's estranged husband, who then killed himself, at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, California. Another student, a 9-year-old boy who was also behind the teacher, was wounded. (CNN) (NBC News) (Fox News)
• Voter ID laws in the United States
  • A federal district court for southern Texas rules that the state's voter ID law was passed in 2011 with the intent to discriminate against minority voters. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals previously found that the law had the effect of discriminating against minority voters, and remanded the case to the district court for further action. (Reuters) (Talking Points Memo)
• Pakistan sentences former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Yadav to death for espionage and sabotage. (Dawn) (NDTV)

• Neil Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination
  • President Donald Trump's pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, is sworn in at the White House. (Reuters)
• Alabama Governor Robert J. Bentley resigns as the Alabama House Judiciary Committee began impeachment proceedings against him over a relationship with a former aide. In addition, Bentley pleads guilty to two "failure to disclose" misdemeanors. Kay Ivey is sworn in as Alabama Governor. Under terms of the plea bargain, Bentley is forbidden from ever running for elected office in Alabama again. (NBC News) (Business Insider) (WHNT)
• Starting this spring, the state of New York will offer free four-year public college tuition for residents whose families make less than $100,000, the first state in the country to do so. (NBC News)

• The Australian Research Council reports that two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef have suffered from severe coral bleaching, denoting a second consecutive year of severe bleaching. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

• Syrian Civil War, Russian military intervention in Syria
  • According to the Russian Defence Ministry, two of its soldiers have been killed by a mortar attack in Syria while another was wounded. The ministry did not specify when or where the attack occurred. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
  • A US-led airstrike intended to kill ISIS soldiers mistakenly kills 18 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces. (The New York Times)
• Borussia Dortmund team bus bombing
  • Three explosions occur near the Borussia Dortmund football team bus as it slowed down to turn a corner. Spanish player Marc Bartra was injured and has been taken to hospital. Dortmund's UEFA Champions League fixture against AS Monaco FC is subsequently postponed. (The Daily Telegraph) (The Independent)

• United Express Flight 3411 incident
  • United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz issues an apology for the removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight on April 9, which has since gone viral. United Airlines stock drops more than 4%, a loss of £800 million to the company's value. (BBC)

• North Korea–United States relations
  • North Korea announces its readiness to declare war on the United States after the country previously stated that they felt threatened as U.S. military forces approach the Korean Peninsula. (News.com.au)

• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • The five-day registration process of candidates begins for the elections to be held on 19 May. (Mehr News)

• Support for Windows Vista officially ends. (TheVerge)

• Pope Francis expands the Secretariat for Communications and appoints 13 new consultants in addition to the 16 members added on July 13, 2016. The secretariat was established in June 2015. (America Magazine)

• Ten people are killed in Inabanga, Bohol, in the Philippines' Central Visayas, after the country's National Police and Armed Forces clash with suspected members of Abu Sayyaf. (CNN Philippines)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • A suicide bomber kills at least five people and injures ten more near government offices in Kabul. ISIL claims responsibility for the attack. (Al Jazeera)

• History of the United States dollar
  • In an interview, U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. dollar is "getting too strong" and wants to keep interest rates low, causing the U.S. Dollar Index to fall. (Reuters)

• Sheila Abdus-Salaam, an incumbent associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals and the first African-American woman to serve on the Court of Appeals is found dead in the Hudson River. (NY1 News)

• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registers to run in next month's election for a non-consecutive third term, according to state media. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Protests in South Africa
  • Julius Malema addresses a large, multi-racial crowd in Pretoria before their march on the Union buildings. (Weekly Xpose South Africa)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), April 2017 Nangarhar airstrike
  • The United States Air Force drops the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, reportedly on an ISIL complex of tunnels and caves. This is the first use of the weapon on the battlefield. (Business Insider)

• 2016–17 South Pacific cyclone season
  • A state of emergency is declared and coastal areas are evacuated in the Coromandel Peninsula as Cyclone Cook sweeps across the North Island of New Zealand. (BBC)
• European migrant crisis
  • A boat carrying migrants sinks off the coast of Libya, with 97 people reported missing. 23 others were rescued by the Libyan coast guard. (Al Jazeera)

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction, North Korea–United States relations
  • U.S.-based monitoring group 38 North says satellite imagery of North Korea's Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site indicates that preparation for a sixth nuclear weapons test is underway. (The Guardian)
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo suspends its military cooperation with Belgium. (Jeune Afrique)

• The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia had failed to protect students and teachers during the 2004 Beslan school siege, which left 334 people dead, and orders the Russian Government to pay 2,955,000 euros to 409 relatives of the victims. The ruling was quickly denounced by Russia as "unacceptable". (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• One student is murdered and another injured in Mardan, Pakistan over alleged blasphemy. The student who died, Mashal Khan, was known on social media for his secular and liberal views. (BBC)

• 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis
  • Thousands of people take to the streets in Caracas as Venezuelan authorities acknowledge a fifth death in the protests. (AP)

• NASA announces Saturn's moon Enceladus has the conditions in its global subsurface ocean to support life. (The Guardian)

• War in Afghanistan
  • The Afghan Ministry of Defense reports as many as 36 suspected ISIL militants were killed while no civilians were harmed in yesterday's bombing in Nangarhar Province using the so-called "mother of all bombs" (GBU-43). The ministry spokesman added these deaths have not been independently verified. (Reuters)
• 2017 Jerusalem Light Rail stabbing
  • A British student is stabbed and killed during an attack on a light-rail train in Jerusalem, Israel. Two other passengers are injured. A Palestinian man with a history of mental problems and other issues is taken into custody by Israeli authorities. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon linked the attack to terrorism. (Haaretz)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • The United States is to deploy troops to Somalia for the first time since 1994 to help train the Somali Armed Forces in their conflict with al-Shabaab insurgents. (BBC)

• A landfill slide in Colombo, Sri Lanka, kills at least 16 people. (RTÉ)

• Amtrak Police taser a man at New York's Penn Station after the man allegedly became agitated due to a delayed train. Bystanders, falsely believing a shooting had occurred, caused a stampede, injuring more than a dozen people. (New York Daily News) (Newsday)

• China–North Korea relations
  • Air China suspends all flights to North Korea's capital Pyongyang amid rising tensions between North Korea and the United States. (CNN)
• European migrant crisis
  • More than 2,000 migrants are rescued from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya. (Reuters)
• Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)
  • The Shadow Brokers group releases files allegedly from the National Security Agency which indicate efforts to monitor financial transactions made through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. (Reuters)
  • The release also includes programs targeting Microsoft Windows operating systems. Microsoft announces that it had already fixed most (but not all) of these exploits. (Engadget) (Motherboard)

• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • President Hassan Rouhani seeks for a second term while one of his main rivals Ebrahim Raisi also registers with just one day remaining for the submission. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)

• Syrian Civil War, 2017 Aleppo suicide car bombing
  • A car bomb strikes a convoy of buses near Aleppo which were carrying evacuees from the pro-government towns of Al-Fu'ah and Kafriya. Over 100 people are killed. (BBC) (AP via Yahoo! News)
• South Sudanese Civil War
  • At least 16 people are killed amid fresh fighting in Raga, according to a SPLM-IO spokesperson. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that over 60 humanitarian aid workers were forced to flee. (Al Jazeera)
• 2017 Nangarhar airstrike
  • The death toll according to a Nangarhar official source now stands at 94 militants, including 4 commanders. Former president Hamid Karzai says the strike was in violation of national sovereignty. (TOLOnews)
• The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul launches an investigation into 17 United States citizens in connection with the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt. (The Independent)

• Emma Morano, the last person living who was born before 1900, dies at the age of 117. (Reuters)

• 2017 Northwest Iran floods
  • Flash flooding caused by torrential rain leaves at least 17 people dead and 20 others missing in northwestern Iran, according to state television. (Al Jazeera)

• Personal and business legal affairs of Donald Trump
  • U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers tell a federal court, in a case alleging negligence and incitement to riot during a 2016 campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky, that he is "immune from suit because he is President of the United States." A lawyer for the plaintiffs responds that, in Clinton v. Jones, the Supreme Court found the president could be sued for events that occurred before he took office. (The Washington Post)

• Presidency of Donald Trump
  • Protests against Donald Trump, Tax Day March
    • Tens of thousands of people march in dozens of U.S. cities and at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to demand that Trump release his tax returns and to show the public cares about the issue. There were clashes between Trump supporters and protesters at some locations, with 11 people injured and 21 arrested at a riot in Berkeley, California. (The New York Times) (Reuters) (Los Angeles Times)
  • United States Vice President Mike Pence visits Alaska, where he meets with Governor Bill Walker and discusses stationing F-35 squadrons in the state. Pence is beginning a 10-day trip to South Korea, Australia, Indonesia and Japan. (US News & World Report)
• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri submit their candidacies as registration closes. The final list of approved candidates will be announced on April 27. (Mehr News)

• Nine people are injured in a shooting at the J&R Party Hall after-hours club in Columbus, Ohio. Two are in critical condition. (CNN) (Daily Mail)
• Fatah–Hamas conflict
  • The Gaza Strip's sole power plant is shut down due to running out of fuel, amid unpaid bills and a dispute over tax bills on fuel imports to the blockaded Palestinian territory. (Deutsche Welle)

• Archbishop Georg Gänswein who is Pope Benedict XVI's personal secretary since 2003 interviews with EWTN's German television branch on the occasion of the emeritus pope's 90th birthday. (Catholic News Agency)

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • The U.S. Pacific Command and South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff report that a North Korean missile, tested near the city of Sinpo on the country's east coast, blew up almost immediately after the launch, just hours before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was due in South Korea for talks about the North's arms program. (ABC News) (Reuters)

• Shooting of Robert Godwin
  • Cleveland police search for a suspect identified in a Facebook video showing one man shooting an elderly man. (NPR)

• Turkish constitutional referendum, 2017
  • Voters in Turkey go to the polls for a referendum that seeks to replace the country's parliamentary system with an executive presidency, thereby giving President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sweeping new powers. Erdoğan's AK Party has claimed victory while the opposition CHP has said that it will challenge the result. (The Washington Post) (AP via Yahoo!)

• In ice hockey, SKA St. Petersburg wins the Gagarin Cup, the championship of the Kontinental Hockey League, with a 5–3 win over Metallurg Magnitogorsk in Game 5 to win the championship series 4–1. (ESPN)
• in rugby union, RGC 1404 win the Welsh SWALEC National Cup for the first time in their short history. (BBC News)

• American pipeline operator Williams Partners has agreed to sell an olefins plant in Louisiana to Canadian chemical company Nova Chemicals for $2.1 billion. (Reuters)

• The death toll from flooding in the Philippine province of Cebu rises to nine with ten missing. (GMA Network)
• Ten people have died, five are injured and four missing after a bus plunges into a river in China's Guizhou province. (AP via Ynetnews)
• A small Swiss-owned plane crashes in the Portuguese village of Tires, west of Lisbon, killing at least five people. (BBC)
• Five people drowned while eleven are still missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Rumphi District on Lake Malawi. (BBC)
• A United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashes on a golf course in Leonardtown, Maryland. At least one crew member is injured and taken to hospital. (Fox News)
• A 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. No immediate report of damages or injuries; no tsunami warning has been issued. (The New Daily) (USGS)
• A BP Alaskan North Slope oil well near Deadhorse Airport, that was leaking oil and natural gas since it was discovered on Friday, is successfully plugged, according to private and government reports. (AP via ABC News)

• China–Nepal relations
  • In a move likely to cause concern in India, China and Nepal commenced last Sunday the first ever combined military exercises, focusing on counter-terror operations. (South China Morning Post)
• North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Han Song-ryol threatens to test missiles on a "weekly" basis, as United States Vice President Mike Pence warns the DPRK that the United States' "era of strategic patience" with the country was over. (BBC)

• Shooting of Robert Godwin
  • The search for the suspect in the killing of an elderly man in Cleveland, whose murder was posted to Facebook, expands beyond Ohio, with the FBI urging residents in Indiana, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania to be on alert for the suspect. (Fox News)
• A Brazilian federal judge orders Petrobras to suspend the sale to Norway's Statoil of its stake in an offshore prospect, in response to the National Federation of Oil Workers petition there should have been an open bidding process for this transaction. (Reuters)

• Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes says he will not be a candidate in next year's presidential election regardless of Congress's action on a constitutional amendment that would allow second terms. Cartes adds his decision was informed by Pope Francis's call for peace and dialogue in Paraguay following protests against this change that turned violent two weeks ago. (Reuters) (Vatican Radio)
• Yes California
  • The bid for California independence ends. (Business Insider)
• Palestinian prisoners of Israel
  • Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails — activists say up to 1,500 are participating — begin an open-ended hunger strike to protest poor conditions and the Israeli policy of detention without trial. (Reuters)
• Philippine presidential election, 2016
  • Bongbong Marcos pays ₱36 million, half of the required amount to hold a recount against Philippine vice president Leni Robredo. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

• The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announces the discovery of eight mummies, 10 colorful sarcophagi, and numerous figurines in a 3,500-year-old tomb near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. (CNN) (Radio New Zealand)

• American consumer goods company Post Holdings agrees to acquire British cereal maker Weetabix Limited from China's Bright Food for $1.8 billion. (Reuters)

• At least 24 people are dead after a Leomarick Trans bus falls into a ravine in the Philippines province of Nueva Ecija. (Rappler)
• Twelve Saudi Arabian military officers die after their Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk crashes in Yemen's Ma'rib Governorate. (Reuters)
• A police Sikorsky S-70 helicopter crashes in Tunceli Province, Turkey, killing 12 people. (Daily Star)
• Libyan fisherman discover the bodies of 28 migrants in a broken-down boat off the coast of Sabratha. (Reuters)

• The Supreme Court of the United States refuses to vacate a stay of execution issued by the Arkansas Supreme Court. Arkansas's highest court has also put on hold the execution of another inmate, Bruce Ward. The state had planned to execute eight inmates in eleven days. That schedule, as well as the use of the drug midazolam, sparked a broad range of legal challenges and humanitarian concerns about the executions. Today's planned execution of Don W. Davis would have been the state's first since 2005. (CNN) (The New York Times)
• Shooting of Robert Godwin
  • Steve Stephens, the suspected "Facebook killer" accused of killing 74-year-old Robert Godwin, kills himself after a brief pursuit with the Pennsylvania State Police. (CNN)
• French Interior Minister Matthias Fekl announces that police have foiled an "imminent and violent" attack in Marseille, arresting two suspects and confiscating weapons and bomb material. (The Guardian)
• 2017 Fresno shootings
  • Three people die in a shooting spree in downtown Fresno, California. The suspected gunman, who was already wanted for another murder four days earlier, and who expressed hatred of whites and the government, is arrested. (Los Angeles Times)

• French presidential election, 2017
  • With polls showing a close race with Emmanuel Macron and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen of the National Front pledges to temporarily suspend all immigration, "legal and illegal", to France. (BBC) (CNN)
• United Kingdom general election, 2017
  • British Prime Minister Theresa May proposes that a snap election for the House of Commons will be held on the 8th of June. A two-thirds majority of the House of Commons is needed to approve this, eventually tomorrow. The Labour and Liberal Democrats party leaders have expressed their support. (BBC) (The New York Times)
• Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, 2017
  • Democratic candidates face off with Republican candidates in a primary for a U.S. House seat vacated by Tom Price, now Health and Human Services Secretary, in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. (Atlanta Journal Constitution) (The New York Times)
  • No candidate reaches a majority vote, so the first- and second-place finishers, Jon Ossoff (48.1%) and Karen Handel (19.8%), will face off in a runoff election on June 20, 2017. (CNN) (NBC News)
• Zambian opposition leader and presidential election runner-up Hakainde Hichilema is charged with treason and "trying to overthrow the government". (Reuters)
• President Trump's Executive Orders
  • As expected, during a visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring U.S. federal agencies to take measures aimed at protecting U.S. workers, boost protections for some U.S. products, and examine the H-1B visa program which affords foreign workers opportunities for employment in U.S. specialty fields. (CNN)
• Turkish constitutional referendum, 2017
  • The European Commission, based on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe report, calls on Turkey to launch an investigation into allegations of referendum voting irregularities. (UPI)

• Scientists announce, through the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, that live specimens of the rare Kuphus polythalamia (giant shipworm) have been discovered for the first time in the Philippines. (BBC)

• South Thailand insurgency
  • Joint bomb and gun attacks kill at least two in Narathiwat, Pattani, and Songkhla Provinces of Thailand, the latest in a long string of such attacks. (Reuters)
• Kamwina Nsapu rebellion
  • At least 17 new mass graves are discovered by United Nations investigators in Kasaï-Central, Democratic Republic of the Congo, mostly around the town of Tshimbulu. (Al Jazeera)

• 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, announces the firing of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. (CNN) (BBC)
• Citing a drop in demand, the Dubai-based, United Arab Emirates-owned airline Emirates Air announces a cut in flights to five of its 12 U.S. destinations. The airline’s Dubai hub, third-busiest in the world, is a major stop for travelers in countries affected by President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and is also one of several Middle East airports affected by a U.S. ban on tablets, laptops, and similar devices in the passenger cabin. (Los Angeles Times)

• At least 17 people are killed after an Andean landslide strikes the Colombian city of Manizales. (Reuters) (Reuters via The Telegraph)
• Four Hellenic Army officers are killed and one is injured when their Bell UH-1 Iroquois border patrol helicopter crashes near Elassona in northern Greece. (ABC News)

• Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, acquitted last week of a 2012 double murder but serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, is found hanged in his prison cell, and is pronounced dead an hour later. (Fox News)
• Pedro Hernandez, convicted in February 2017 for the May 25, 1979 death of Etan Patz in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, was sentenced yesterday to 25 years to life imprisonment. (The New York Times)
• Nigerian spy chief Ayo Oke has been suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari after anti-corruption agents uncovered more than $43 million in cash at his flat in Lagos. (BBC)
• Three senior figures in the Bharatiya Janata Party, L.K. Advani, Uma Bharati and Murli Manohar Joshi, will be tried for their alleged role in the destruction of the Babri Masjid Mosque in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. (CNN)

• Jakarta gubernatorial election, 2017
  • Indonesian voters in Jakarta return to the polls for the second round of a gubernatorial election between incumbent Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, whose alleged blasphemy sparked mass protests in November, and Anies Baswedan. Opinion polls give Baswedan a narrow lead. (ABC News)
  • Jakarta's current governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, concedes to Muslim former government minister Anies Baswedan. (BBC)
• French presidential election, 2017
  • The closely-watched CEVIPOF poll shows Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clinging to a narrow lead heading into the first stage of the election, with Le Pen recently becoming embroiled in a spat with the European Commission after refusing to appear on TF1 while there remained a Flag of Europe in the background. (Reuters)
• German federal election, 2017
  • Alternative for Germany chairwoman Frauke Petry announces that she will not lead the party in the September federal election, citing other party leaders' insistence on remaining a "fundamental opposition party", unwilling to join a coalition. (Reuters)
  • A Forsa Institute poll shows the lowest level of support for the Greens in nearly 15 years, weakening the chances of a left-leaning coalition taking power from the CDU/CSU. (Reuters)
• United Kingdom general election, 2017
  • The United Kingdom House of Commons approves by 522 votes to 13 a snap general election to be held on June 8. (BBC)
• 2014–17 Venezuelan protests
  • Venezuelan security forces clash with opposition demonstrators in the so-called "Mother of All Marches" against President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. Two students and a National Guard sergeant are shot dead. (Reuters) (Reuters²)
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2018
  • Utah representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announces that he will not run for re-election next year. (The Washington Post)
• Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, 2017
  • Local Republican candidate Karen Handel says she wants Donald Trump to campaign for her in the district. (U.S. News and World Report)

• Washington State University professor Peter Engels and his team announce they have created a fluid that displays negative mass. (BBC)
• 2014 JO25, a near-Earth asteroid discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in May 2014, passes within 1.8 million kilometers of the planet, the largest such asteroid to transit close to Earth since 2004. (BBC)

• A spokeswoman for tennis star Serena Williams confirms rumors that Williams is pregnant. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, who was apparently pregnant when she won this year's Australian Open, is expected to give birth in September, and will not play again until 2018. (ESPN)

• 2017 shooting of Paris police officers
  • One policeman has been killed and another has been critically injured after a man opened fire at police officers at the Champs-Élysées in central Paris. The gunman was killed while attempting to escape, and a bystander has been injured. ISIL claims responsibility for the attack although the claim is doubted. The President of France Francois Hollande says that all leads indicate that the attack was of a "terrorist nature". (ABC News America via Yahoo!) (BBC) (The New York Times) (Le Parisien)

• General Motors halts production in Venezuela after the government seizes its plants. (CNN)
• American high-speed electronic trading company Virtu Financial agrees to buy its rival KCG Holdings for $1.4 billion. (Reuters)
• The United Kingdom government agrees to sell the UK Green Investment Bank to a group led chiefly by Australian financial firm Macquarie Group for $3 billion, in a deal criticized as not securing the future of the bank. (Reuters)
• Tesla Motors announces the recall of 50,000 Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X cars for a "brake issue". (Reuters)

• Capital punishment in the United States
  • Arkansas executes Ledell Lee, the first inmate executed in the state since 2005. (Fox News)
• Australian nationality law
  • Australia adds stricter requirements to its citizenship application process, including harder tests on English language skills and the requirement that a migrant be able to demonstrate "Australian values". (BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Russia labels Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremists", effectively banning the religion. (The Independent)
• The Government of India revokes the Public Health Foundation of India's registration, allegedly for foreign-funded lobbying practices. (Times of India)
• A ten-year-old boy from Florida with autism is arrested at school, and spends the night in a juvenile facility. Unknown to the family, the boy had an outstanding warrant for his arrest after kicking and scratching one of his educators. The Autism Society of America is looking into legal options. (The Washington Post)
• Terrorism in the United States
  • ISIL supporter, Terrence J. McNeil, of Akron, Ohio, pleads guilty to five counts of soliciting to commit criminal violence and communicating interstate threats in calls to kill U.S. military personnel. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August and faces up to 20 years in prison. (The Washington Post)

• French presidential election, 2017
  • New polls show François Fillon and Jean-Luc Mélenchon neck and neck behind the frontrunners Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen ahead of the upcoming first round of the election. (Reuters)
  • Former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announces he is backing Emmanuel Macron in the election. (Reuters)
• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • Guardian Council announces names of six final candidates. Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, chairman of Astan Quds Razavi Ebrahim Raisi and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is among the list. More than 1,600 nominees were disqualified, including all 137 female candidates and former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (The Guardian) (Reuters)
• United Kingdom general election, 2017
  • Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, positions himself as an "anti-establishment" candidate as he vows to end the "rigged" system. (BBC)
• Philippine presidential election, 2016
  • Bongbong Marcos asks the Philippine Supreme Court to dismiss a counter-protest by current vice president Leni Robredo regarding her narrow victory in last year's national elections. (Rappler)
• Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, 2017
  • Both Paul Ryan and Tom Perez plan to campaign for the local candidates Karen Handel and Jon Ossoff respectively. (The Hill) (CNN)
• 2014–17 Venezuelan protests
  • Venezuelans continue their march against President Nicolás Maduro with thousands flocking into the streets of Caracas for a second day. (The Miami Herald) (The Guardian)

• China launches its first cargo spacecraft, the Tianzhou 1, carried by a Long March 7 rocket. (Xinhuanet)

• War in Afghanistan
  • 2017 Camp Shaheen attack
    • Taliban insurgents attack an Afghan military base in Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh Province, killing more than 140 soldiers. It is said to be the deadliest attack of its kind (BBC) (AP) (Reuters)
• Two people are killed in an attack in a Federal Security Service office in the Russian city of Khabarovsk. The gunman is also killed. The US-Israeli SITE Intelligence Group says Amaq News Agency claims the attack for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Russian Federal Security Service says the native 18-year-old perpetrator was a known member of a neo-nazi group. (Reuters) (Siberian Times)

• Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 91st birthday. (BBC)

• British sports retailer Sports Direct agreed to acquire the American retail chains Bob's Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports for $101 million out of bankruptcy. (Reuters)

• At least 20 schoolchildren are killed after their minibus collides with a truck in Mpumalanga, South Africa. (Sky News)
• A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet crashes in the Celebes Sea off the Philippines during an attempted landing on the USS Carl Vinson. The pilot ejected and was recovered safely. (Navy Times)

• Borussia Dortmund team bus bombing
  • Germany arrests and charges a suspected perpetrator, 28-year-old Sergej W. The federal prosecutor says the suspect held put options on Borussia Dortmund shares. (BBC)
• Arms trader Jacques Monsieur is to defend himself again at a Brussels court against accusations of arms trafficking to Libya, Chad, Guinea-Bissau, Pakistan and Iran between 2006 and 2009. (RTL Info) (Het Nieuwsblad)

• French presidential election, 2017
  • Yesterday's terrorist attack in Paris disrupts campaigning for the elections. (CNN), (The Telegraph)
  • The first polls since April 20's attack indicate a slight bump for Marine Le Pen over Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Fillon, though they still show her losing to Emmanuel Macron in the first and second rounds of the election. (Reuters)
• 2014–17 Venezuelan protests
  • Venezuelan authorities report 12 people were killed overnight in the capital Caracas, mostly in the El Valle working class neighborhood where 54 people, including newborn babies, were forced to evacuate a maternity hospital. Others have fled to Colombia. This death toll during the three weeks of anti-government protests is 20. (AP via The Washington Post) (Yahoo! News) (The Telegraph)
• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • The six approved candidates, including the incumbent Hassan Rouhani, begin campaigning. (Reuters)
• Presidency of Donald Trump
  • The White House dismisses U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in its continuing transition from the prior presidential administration. The current Deputy Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams, will serve as the acting SG. (USA Today via MSN)
• Pakistan's opposition interrupts Parliament's scheduled session demanding Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign during the investigation of his finances, per Thursday's Supreme Court ruling. (Reuters)

• A second parchment manuscript of the United States Declaration of Independence is discovered by Harvard University researchers, in a record office in Chichester, United Kingdom. (The Boston Globe)

• Pope Francis, while honoring Christians killed under Nazism, communism, dictatorships, and terrorism at Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew, adds to those named the wife of a Muslim he met in Lesbos, Greece, who was killed by terrorists because she wouldn't throw down her crucifix. Francis referred to the Lesbos camp as a 'concentration camp' noting, despite the good will of local communities, many refugee camps are overcrowded and little more than prisons. (Reuters) (Catholic News Service)

• American Airlines announces it is investigating a viral video of an incident on a San Francisco to Dallas flight which shows a male flight attendant upsetting a female passenger, who he had allegedly forcefully taken a baby buggy from, and threatening to fight a male passenger. The American Airlines employee has been suspended. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabia's King Salman issues a number of royal decrees, one which restores financial allowances for civil servants and military personnel that had been cut seven months ago in response to the drop in oil prices. (Reuters) (Yahoo! Finance)

• Dutch businessman Guus Kouwenhoven is found guilty of war crimes and arms trafficking for using his lumber business to sell weapons to Liberia's former president Charles Taylor during the country's civil war between 2000 and 2003 and is sentenced to 19 years in prison. (The Guardian)

• 2017 French presidential election
  • The campaign period officially ends. French citizens living overseas begin voting a day ahead of when the polls open in France. Final opinion polling gives Emmanuel Macron a slight lead over Marine Le Pen. François Fillon and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are close behind. (Deutsche Welle) (UPI)
  • French voters are protected from a barrage of last minute campaign pushes, including those via tweets and/or other social media, by rules that prohibit such communications for 44 hours during elections, from Friday midnight until Sunday 8:00 p.m. CEST. (AP)
• Thousands of German riot police are deployed to control protesters opposing the Alternative for Germany at the party's conference in Cologne. (BBC)
• Venezuelan protests
  • Dressed in white, the Venezuela opposition march, in silence, to the headquarters of the country's Catholic archdiocese to honor the more than a dozen people killed in three weeks of protests. For the first time, protesters were able to cross from the east to the western side of Caracas without being confronted by state security. (AP via U.S. News & World Report) (AFP via The Straits Times)

• March for Science
  • People around the world gather during Earth Day to bring awareness to science. (The Guardian)
• The United Kingdom, on Friday, did not derive energy from any coal-fired source, the first continuous 24-hour, coal-free period for the UK since use of the fossil fuel began. Coal accounted for just 9 percent of the electricity generated last year. (Sky News)

• War in Donbass
  • A U.S. member of the OSCE monitoring mission is killed and two others injured after their vehicle drives over a land mine near Luhansk. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

• North Korea–United States relations
  • Yonhap reports that North Korea has detained a U.S. citizen as he sought to leave the country. (BBC)

• Prominent Italian-born conservationist Kuki Gallmann is shot and injured in an ambush in northern Kenya. (BBC)
• European migrant crisis
  • An Italian prosecutor says there are "telephone calls" between people smugglers in Libya and some non-governmental organizations. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, says the practices amount to a "taxi service". One NGO says "more would die" if they were not there. (Deutsche Welle) (BBC)

• 2017 French presidential election
  • Voters in France go to the polls to elect a new president; Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron qualify for the second round. (The Wire) (The Washington Post)

• 2017 Camp Shaheen attack
  • The Afghan Minister of Defense, Abdullah Habibi and the Chief of Staff of the Afghan National Army, Qadam Shah Shahim, resign after a Taliban attack on Camp Shaheen near Mazar-i-Sharif that claimed over 140 lives. (CNN) (UPI)
• 2017 Sukma attack
  • Suspected Maoist insurgents kill at least 24 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers in the Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, India. (BBC)

• Syria–United States relations
  • The United States imposes sanctions on 271 employees of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center for their alleged role in developing weapons used in the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. (Deutsche Welle)

• In Paraguay, around 50 armed men, allegedly belonging to the Brazil-based Primeiro Comando da Capital criminal gang, storm a security vault and police headquarters in Ciudad del Este, escaping with around $6 million in a daring cross-border raid. (The Guardian)
• Philippine Drug War
  • A Filipino lawyer files a complaint of "mass murder and crimes against humanity" against Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte and eleven other officials at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. (The New York Times)
    • The accused include PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa, Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, Edilberto Leonardo, Royina Garma, House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, former Interior secretary Ismael Sueno, Sonny Buenaventura, Solicitor General Jose Calida, Dante Gierran, Senator Richard J. Gordon, and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• List of offenders executed in the United States in 2017
  • Arkansas becomes the first U.S. state since Texas in 2000 to hold two executions on the same day as executes convicted murderers Jack Jones, Jr. and Marcel Williams. (BBC) (AP via Yahoo! News)

• 2017 French presidential election
  • Presidential candidate Marine Le Pen announces she is stepping down as leader of the National Front. (BBC)
• Muhammad V is formally installed as the 15th King of Malaysia. (Berita Harian)
• United Kingdom general election, 2017
  • The Communist Party of Britain announces it will not field any candidates in the upcoming general election for the first time since its formation in 1920, and endorses Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, saying victory for Mr Corbyn at the general election in June would be “the first step towards a formation of left-led government at Westminster”. (The Independent)

• Peggy Whitson, commander of the International Space Station (ISS), breaks the record for most total days spent in space by any NASA astronaut, at more than 534 days. (Mirror)

• April 2017 Turkish airstrikes in Syria and Iraq
  • Turkish air strikes kill 18 Kurdish YPG fighters and media officials in northeastern Syria. Also five Peshmerga fighters are killed during a Turkish attack on Sinjar in Iraq. Turkey also claims to have destroyed "terror hubs". Iraq denounces the strike as a violation of its sovereignty. (Reuters) (Hurriet Daily News)

• Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announces plans for a crowdfunded news website, Wikitribune, that will publish stories by journalists, with contributions, including fact checking, by volunteers to, among other goals, counter the recent spread of so-called "fake news". (NBC News) (Nieman Foundation for Journalism)

• United States Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke says that Donald Trump plans to review U.S. national monuments. (The Washington Post)

• Twenty-seven people are killed in Kenya's Makueni County when a bus and a truck collide on the Nairobi–Mombasa Road. (The Standard)

• Saudi Arabia is among twelve countries newly elected to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, despite the nation's conflicts with women's rights. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
• North Korea–United States relations
  • The USS Michigan docks at Busan, South Korea, amid growing concerns over North Korean weapons development. (BBC)
• Germany–Israel relations
  • Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu cancels a visit with the foreign minister of Germany Sigmar Gabriel after the latter's refusal to cancel a meeting with the Israel Defense Forces veterans NGO Breaking the Silence saying the group "slanders IDF soldiers as war criminals"(New York Daily News)

• India is to provide every cow with a biometric dog tag, in an effort to prevent cattle smuggling. (Times of India)
• The United States announced it will end a six-year Central-African hunt for Joseph Kony the following day. (AFP via Pulse.ng)
• Gun politics in the United States
  • An affiliate of the NRA sues California for alleged discrimination. (Fox News)
• Immigration policy of Donald Trump
  • U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick rules that President Donald Trump's executive order withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities is unconstitutional. (The Washington Post)

• In auto racing, longtime NASCAR Cup Series star Dale Earnhardt Jr. announces that he will retire at the end of the 2017 season. (ESPN)

• Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
  • The pro-government Popular Mobilization Forces militia takes control of the mostly destroyed ancient city of Hatra in Iraq's Nineveh Governorate, following clashes with ISIL, who seized the ruins in 2014. (BBC)
• Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency
  • At least ten Iranian border guards are killed in an ambush in the southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province on the border with Pakistan. Sunni militant group Jaish ul-Adl claims responsibility. (The Guardian)
• Kamwina Nsapu rebellion
  • The United Nations MONUSCO reports that 20 Chowe-Pende community members have been killed in clashes with the Lulua-Luba community in Kasaï-Central, Democratic Republic of Congo. (AP by KoamTV)(Al Jazeera)

• American film director Jonathan Demme, winner of the Academy Award for Best Director for The Silence of the Lambs, dies of complications from esophageal cancer. (CNN)

• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • The United States deploys parts of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense in South Korea amidst high tension caused by North Korea's escalation of its missile and nuclear weapons programs. (The Guardian)
  • China's foreign minister Wang Yi calls for restraint and urges all sides to take part in the resumption of negotiations. (Reuters)
• United States' policy of deterrence
  • The United States test launch a Minuteman III missile from California to the Marshall Islands. (Los Angeles Times)
• Venezuela says it will withdraw from the Organization of American States after the organization decided to call a meeting without Venezuela. (Al Jazeera) (The Telegraph)

• The United States ended a six-year Central-African hunt for Joseph Kony. (AFP via Pulse.ng)
• Police in Anchorage, Alaska, confirm that James Dale Ritchie, killed by an Anchorage police officer whom Ritchie had tried to kill in the fall of 2016, was a serial killer who had used the same gun to kill 5 people, apparently at random. Two of the murders were double homicides, with some of the deaths occurring along Anchorage's expansive Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. (U.S. News & World Report) (Alaska Public Radio Network)
• David Hittner, U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of Texas, rules ExxonMobil Corporation should pay a $19.95 million penalty for pollution from its Baytown, Texas, refining and chemical plant complex for 16,386 days of violations and 10 million pounds (4.5 Gg) of pollutants that were released in violation of operating permits between 2005 and 2013. (Reuters)

• Two political parties with federal representation in Australia merge as the Australian Conservatives absorbs the Family First Party. (News.com.au)
• The Moroccan Assembly of Representatives votes 208 to 91 in favor of approving of a coalition cabinet led by Saadeddine Othmani. (AP via Fox News)

• A speculative study hypothesizes that a species of Homo may have lived in California 130,000 years ago. (National Geographic) (Ars Technica)
• Results, published in The Lancet medical journal, of the WOMAN (World Maternal Antifibrinolytic) international study that began in 2010, finds use of a cheap and widely available drug, tranexamic acid (Lysteda in the U.S. and Australia), could save the lives of thousands of women who die in childbirth from excessive bleeding. The medication is already in use for blood loss from major trauma, surgery, tooth removal, nose bleeds, and heavy menstruation. (The New York Times) (The Guardian) (The Lancet)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports a large explosion near Damascus International Airport followed by a fire. The Syrian government says Israel struck the military site with several missiles. Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz states that the strike "corresponds completely with Israel's policy". (BBC) (Wires via Sydney Morning Herald)
  • The Israeli Air Defense Command shoots down a Syrian Air Force drone using a MIM-104 Patriot missile. (Times of Israel)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
  • Two U.S. service members are killed and a third is injured during a raid against ISIL militants in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. (ABC News)

• A congress of female Islamic clerics in Cirebon, Indonesia, issues several fatwas, one of which opposes child marriage. (Channel NewsAsia)

• U.S. President Donald Trump announces that he intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, softening earlier claims that he would terminate the trade bloc. (Reuters)

• A Russian Navy spy ship sinks off the coast of Turkey after colliding with a Togo-flagged freighter. All 78 crew aboard the ship were safely evacuated, according to Turkish officials. (BBC)

• South Korea–United States relations
  • A South Korean adviser says it is "impossible" for South Korea to purchase the THAAD missile complex since control of its operation would remain with the United States. The remarks come after United States president Donald Trump suggested that South Korea pay for the $1 billion system. (Reuters)

• Terrorism in the United Kingdom
  • A 27-year-old man carrying several knives in a backpack is arrested at Parliament Square, London, near the site of last month's Westminster attack. (Sky News)
• Kenneth Williams is executed at the Cummins Unit, Arkansas, by injection of midazolam, marking the state's fourth execution within eight days before the drug passes its expiration date. (NBC News)
• The Extraordinary African Chambers tribunal in Dakar, Senegal, upholds its conviction of former Chadian president Hissène Habré for crimes against humanity, but acquits him of rape. (The Guardian)

• 2017 storming of Macedonian Parliament
  • The Macedonian Parliament is stormed by protesters opposing the election of Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian, as Speaker of the Assembly. (RT)
• The Bundestag approves a ban on burqas being worn by members of the German civil service. (Deutsche Welle)

• In American football, the Cleveland Browns select Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett first in the 2017 NFL Draft. (ESPN)

• A 6.8 earthquake strikes off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines triggering tsunami warnings. (The Telegraph)

• Western Sahara conflict
  • The United Nations Security Council extends the MINURSO mission for another year and attempts to restart Western Sahara peace process negotiations after both sides retracted their military from a standoff position in Guerguerat, near the border with Mauritania. (Reuters)

• 2011 Helmand Province incident
  • Sergeant Alexander Blackman, also known as Marine A, a Royal Marine who shot dead a wounded Taliban insurgent in 2011 during Operation Herrick, is released from HM Prison Erlestoke after serving more than three years of a seven-year sentence. (BBC)
• Richard Vallières, convicted of stealing 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup from a Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers warehouse in 2012, is sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $9.4 million, adjustable to fourteen years on non-payment of the fine. (CBC)

• Albanian presidential election, 2017
  • Ilir Meta is elected the new President of Albania, winning 87 votes out of 140 members of the Assembly. (Top Channel) (ABC News)
• Accession of Montenegro to NATO
  • The Parliament of Montenegro votes 46–0 to ratify Montenegro's membership of NATO, while opposition politicians boycott the vote and hold protests. (AP via ABC News)
• Iranian presidential election, 2017
  • The first six-man televised debate is held, which focused mostly on social issues. (PressTV) (Radio Free Europe)
• French presidential election, 2017
  • Jean-François Jalkh, who replaced current presidential finalist Marine Le Pen as leader of the National Front, steps down from this role after three days following the reemergence of his comments questioning the logistics of Holocaust extermination camps, and is replaced by Steeve Briois. (Bloomberg)
• A general strike is held in Brazil, the first one in twenty years. (Los Angeles Times)
• Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, 2017
  • In a meeting for the NRA, U.S. president Donald Trump criticizes Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff. (Politico)

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • The U.S. Pacific Command and South Korean defense officials report that a North Korean missile was fired in the early morning, but quickly failed and did not travel beyond North Korea, echoing a similar failed attempt by North Korea thirteen days ago. (The Washington Post)

• At least 24 people are killed by a landslide in the small village of Ayu in southern Kyrgyzstan. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• 2017 Aerogaviota Antonov An-26 crash
  • An Aerogaviota-operated Antonov An-26 plane crashes in western Artemisa Province, Cuba, killing eight troops on board. (Daily Mail) (AP via Miami Herald)
• April 2017 North American storm complex
  • At least 7 people are killed in the US states of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas due to tornadoes and floods. (CNN)

• 2017 block of Wikipedia in Turkey
  • Monitoring group Turkey Blocks reports that a provisional administrative order blocks access to all language editions of Wikipedia in Turkey. (AFP via SBS)

• People's Climate March
  • Tens of thousands of people protest in Washington, D.C. to bring awareness to climate change. (The Guardian)
• University of Puerto Rico strikes, 2017
  • Strikes continue in the University of Puerto Rico because of university budget cuts from the Puerto Rico Oversight Board (PROMESA). (Pasquines)
• Brexit
  • European Union leaders approve negotiating guidelines that seek to secure "sufficient progress" on the rights of European Union expatriates living in the United Kingdom, on the financial terms of the separation and on a "soft border" between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, before committing to talk about a new free trade deal. (Reuters)
• White House Correspondents' Association
  • The 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner is held while Donald Trump decides not to attend, becoming the first incumbent president to do so since Ronald Reagan, who did not attend the dinner while recovering from a 1981 assassination attempt. (The Washington Post)

• One person is killed and seven are injured in a shooting at a pool party in San Diego, California. The suspect is killed by police. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

• Swiss mountain climber Ueli Steck dies in a mountaineering accident near Mount Everest. (AP)
• Tornado outbreak and floods of April 28–30, 2017
  • The death tolls from tornadoes and floods in the midwestern and southern United States rises to ten with two people missing. (Fox News)

• Saeed Karimian, the founder and director of GEM TV, a Persian language network based in Dubai, is shot dead in Istanbul, Turkey, along with his Kuwaiti business partner. Karimian had previously been tried in absentia by a Tehran court and sentenced to six years in prison for spreading propaganda against Iran. (BBC)

• Democratic Party (Italy) leadership election, 2017
  • Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi regains the role of Secretary of the Democratic Party, after his resignation in February, in an open primary election. (The Telegraph)
• 2017 United States federal budget
  • U.S. Congressional negotiators reach a bipartisan agreement on the FY 2017 federal government budget that, once approved by both Houses, will fund the entire fiscal year through September 30. The current spending authorization expires Friday, May 5. (Bloomberg) (The New York Times)

• Zoologists led by the University of Papua announce the first sighting of a pack of New Guinea highland wild dogs in the wild of New Guinea, near the Grasberg mine, in over four decades. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
• Sodimejo, an Indonesian man who made an unverified claim to have been born in 1870, which would have made him 146 years old, has died. (The Guardian)