Portal:Current events/2016 April 17
April 17, 2016 (Sunday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- Heavy fighting continues in the north of Afghanistan as Taliban fighters intensify their attacks in several districts around Kunduz in their bid to retake the city. According to a police chief, militants overnight attacked several police checkpoints in the southwest outskirts of the city while government forces repelled a major attack to the east of Kunduz. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Disasters and accidents
- 2016 Ecuador earthquake
- The death toll from Saturday night's earthquake in Ecuador rises to 262 with more than 2,500 people injured. (AP via Fox News) (BBC) (AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia) (AP² via Miami Herald)
- A bus carrying members of the Bharati Gananatya opera troupe crashes into a gorge in India's Odisha state resulting in 25 people killed and 11 injured. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
- A drone collides at London's Heathrow Airport with an Airbus A320 carrying 132 passengers and five crew, with no injuries reported. (Sydney Morning Herald)
International relations
- Members of OPEC meet in Doha, Qatar, amid uncertainty in the markets and the outcome of the meeting. Since 2014, the price of oil has dropped dramatically. Analysts hope that an agreement to freeze output will reassure global energy markets that the recent recovery in prices is sustainable. (Al Jazeera)
- Israel–Syria relations
- The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu vows that the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, recognized as part of Syria, will forever stay in the country's hands and called on the international community to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area. (BBC)
- The Syrian Foreign Ministry condemns the Israeli cabinet meeting held on occupied Syrian-territory and, in letters to both the Security Council and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, calls on the U.N. to condemn Israel's action. (The Daily Star)
- Russia–United States relations
- A Russian Su-27 jet intercepts a United States Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane while in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says, "We condemn this kind of behavior. It is reckless. It is provocative. It is dangerous." (AFP via The Straits Times)
Law and crime
- Human rights in Myanmar
- The President of Myanmar Htin Kyaw pardons 83 political prisoners. A total of 282 people accused of political crimes have been released or had charges dropped since the new National League for Democracy government gained power on April 1. (Reuters) (Deutsche Welle)
Politics and elections
- Philippine presidential election, 2016
- Presidential frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte jokes about an Australian woman being raped and murdered in Davao City. (Rappler) (ABC News Australia) (Sydney Morning Herald) (BBC News)
- Italian oil drilling referendum, 2016
- The Italian referendum proposes repealing the law that allows oil drilling concessions extracting Hydrocarbon within 12 nautical miles of the Italian coast to be prolonged until the exhaustion of the useful life of the fields. (Euronews)
- Aftermath of the 2016 Brussels bombings
- Protests continue in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, against President Gjorge Ivanov's decision to suspend an investigation into the alleged corruption of a number of politicians. (The Sofia Globe)
- Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
- Brazil's Chamber of Deputies votes overwhelmingly (367-137) in favor of impeachment procedures against President Dilma Rousseff. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- United States presidential election in California, 2016
- The Los Angeles Times reports that close to 500,000 California voters, who wanted to register as an Independent but checked the American Independent Party box instead, may be ineligible to vote in the state's Democratic and Republican primaries. (Los Angeles Times) (Newsweek)