Portal:Current events/2018 April 9

April 9, 2018 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2018 Gaza border protests
- Israel launches an investigation into a video appearing to show soldiers cheering as a Palestinian man is shot by an Israeli sniper through the Gazan border fence. (The Washington Post)
- The Palestinian Authority pays salaries to its West Bank staff but not to staff in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, amid growing disputes between the two groups. (The Sun Daily)
Terrorism in Thailand
- Three bombs explode in Sungai Kolok, Narathiwat, Thailand, injuring four people. (The Bangkok Post)
A motorcycle bomb kills at least eight and injures at least seven at a market in Shindand, Afghanistan. (Voice of America)
Syrian Civil War
- 2018 Douma chemical attack
  - Human Rights Watch calls the attack a war crime and says both Russia and Syria may bear criminal responsibility. (Reuters)
- An explosion in Idlib kills more than a dozen, including civilians and children. (euronews)
A prosecutor asks the International Criminal Court to decide if it has jurisdiction over Rohingya deportations from Myanmar to Bangladesh, saying they may constitute a crime against humanity. (Reuters)
The Metropolitan Police in London launches a war crimes investigation into five men wanted in Rwanda for alleged massacres in 1994. A United Kingdom court previously refused to extradite the men over concerns they may not receive a fair trial. (The London Evening Standard)
Three US Navy SEALs go on trial in San Diego accused of war crimes. Prosecutors allege the trio tortured unidentified detainees in Village Stability Platform Kalach in Chora, Uruzgan, Afghanistan. (The San Diego Union Tribune)

Arts and culture

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour"
- In a new apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis mentions Satan or the Devil twelve times. Warning against Catholic media transgressing the eighth commandment, he calls to "see how the unguarded tongue, set on fire by hell, sets all things ablaze." (Reuters)

Business and economy

The New Zealand Overseas Investment Office approves the sale of clothing company Icebreaker to U.S. retail conglomerate VF Corporation, revealing the sale price as NZ$288 million. (Stuff)

Disasters and accidents

List of shipwrecks in 2018
- A fire breaks out on South Korean fishing vessel FV Dong Won 701 in the Port of Timaru, New Zealand. Ten fire crews and a tug are in attendance. At least three are hospitalised and the ship is evacuated. (Stuff) (Radio New Zealand)
A school bus plunges into a gorge in the foothills of the Himalayas, in Himachal Pradesh, India, killing three adults and at least 27 children. (CBS News)
A wall collapses onto playing children in Doornfontein, South Africa, killing three. (Times Live)
A school charter bus traveling illegally on a parkway on Long Island, New York, collides with a bridge. Dozens of students are injured. (ABC News)
The Norfolk Southern Railway sues two staff members involved in a train collision last month in Georgetown, Kentucky, that derailed 13 cars and injured four. (Cincinnati)
A double decker tourist bus collides with low-lying tree branches in Żurrieq, Malta, killing two adults with six others being critically injured. (The Times of Malta)
A Piper PA-24 Comanche crashes after takeoff in Scottsdale, Arizona, killing all six people aboard. (USA Today)
Investigators say Trump Tower, where a man died in a fire yesterday, had no working smoke alarms. (CNN)
A Gol Transportes Aereos Boeing 737-800 passenger jet takes off over the top of an Air Force Embraer C-95 Bandeirante that was blocking the runway at Brasilia International Airport. (The Aviation Herald)

Health and environment

The International Maritime Organisation commences meetings in London aimed at reducing emissions in the shipping industry, which are presently unregulated. The 1997 Kyoto Protocol made the IMO responsible for controlling ship emissions. (BBC)
Prince Albert II of Monaco arrives in Edinburgh to launch an international conference of oceanographers and environmental experts to discuss the global marine environment, including oceanic acidification and plastic pollution, as well as the local creation of Marine Protected Areas in Scotland. (BBC)

International relations

North Korea–United States relations
- The United States says North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has indicated willingness to discuss denuclearisation. (Voice of America)
Somalia seizes US$9.6 million from three bags arriving on a Royal Jet flight from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in the midst of diplomatic tensions between the nations. (al-Jazeera)

Law and crime

Bill Cosby sexual assault allegations
- U.S. entertainer Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial begins. As he enters the court a topless woman with the words Women's Lives Matter written on her body charges him and is arrested. (AP via Fredericksburg)
Terrorism in Finland
- Abderrahman Bouanane goes on trial in a courtroom set up within a prison in Turku, Finland, accused of two murders and eight attempted murders in an alleged terror attack. The charges, the first terrorism crimes ever charged in Finland, relate to a stabbing in Turku's main market square. Bouanane is charged with two counts of terror-related murder and eight counts of attempted murder with a terror-related motive. (ABC)
Terrorism in the United States, Orlando nightclub shooting
- Sixteen survivors use anti-terror legislation to sue Google, Twitter and Facebook, alleging the firms "provided support and resources" to the Islamic State. (WSB-TV)
Terrorism in France
- French police arrest three men and three women accused of involvement in the 2016 Magnanville stabbing by an ISIL supporter. Local media reports the detainees include police major Maryline Bereaud and her daughter. (The Guardian)
Terrorism in Indonesia
- Extremist Muslim preacher Kiki Muhammad Iqbal is sentenced to nine years for inciting terrorism for a sermon he gave last year at a mosque in Bandung. The sermon is alleged to have caused two suicide bombers to launch a May 2017 attack that killed three policemen in East Jakarta. (The Straits Times)
Stormy Daniels–Donald Trump scandal
- The FBI raid the office, hotel room and home of U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyer and spokesperson Michael Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to pornographic-film actress Stormy Daniels. (The New York Times)
Around 2,500 police armed with tear gas launch a raid in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France, in a bid to force the removal of 250 activists who have occupied the site of the proposed Aéroport du Grand Ouest for ten years to prevent its construction. The proposed airport is abandoned but the activists refuse to leave their community. (The Guardian)
A day after a woman and her family tried to burn themselves in protest alleging she was raped by a local official and her husband murdered whilst in custody, six policemen are arrested in Unnao, India. (The Quint)
Berlin Half Marathon, terrorism in Germany
- Police in Germany release six men suspected of plotting a terror attack at yesterday's Berlin Half Marathon, one of whom was linked to Anis Amri, after failing to find evidence to substantiate their suspicions. (The Local)
Terrorism in the United Kingdom
- The British Transport Police reject claims by entertainer Olly Murs of a cover-up of a possible terror incident in London in November. Murs reported hearing gunfire but investigations found no evidence of weapons use. (Sky)
- Six alleged members of banned neo-Nazi group National Action appear before the Central Criminal Court. Two, including the group's alleged leader, are charged with plotting the terrorist murder of MP Rosie Cooper. (The Warrington Guardian) (The St. Helens Star)

Politics and elections

2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
- The Speaker of the Parliament of Catalonia, Roger Torrent, announces the investiture session of Jordi Sànchez i Picanyol for Friday, April 13. Sànchez, who has been imprisoned since October 2017 accused of sedition, was nominated again for President de la Generalitat on April 7. (La Razón)

Science and technology

MV Symphony of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship at 206,912 tonnes, begins its first voyage with paying passengers. (Stuff)

Sports

2018 Green Bay Packers season
- Green Bay Packers wide receiver Trevor Davis is arrested after making a bomb joke at Los Angeles International Airport. (Bleacher Report)