Portal:Current events/2020 April 29
April 29, 2020 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan
- A suicide bombing in Char Asiab, Kabul Province, kills three civilians and injures 15. No group has claimed responsibility yet. (Reuters)
- Internal conflict in Myanmar
- Northern Rakhine State clashes
- Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special rapporteur, accuses the Myanmar Armed Forces of intensifying their attacks on civilians in Rakhine and Chin states. The Myanmar government blames Rohingya insurgents and the separatist Arakan Army for the violence. (Reuters)
- Northern Rakhine State clashes
- Terrorism in Russia
- The Federal Security Service carries out an anti-terrorist raid near Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, to thwart planned attacks in the city. Three suspects, reportedly linked to ISIL, are killed in an exchange of gunfire. (Meduza)
Disasters and accidents
- 2020 Icheon fire
- A fire at a four-story warehouse under construction in Icheon, South Korea, kills 38 construction workers and injures 10 others. An additional 40 people remain unaccounted for. The fire is the most deadly in the country since 2003. (BBC News) (The Guardian)
- A Canadian CH-148 Cyclone helicopter vanishes while flying over the Ionian Sea during a NATO mission. One body is recovered, while the five other persons on board remain missing. (BBC News) (The Straits Times)
Health and environment
Law and crime
- COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia, Venezuela–Colombia migrant crisis
- Over 500 Venezuelan migrants block a major toll road in northern Bogotá, Colombia, demanding they be allowed to return home after the coronavirus pandemic caused economic opportunities to dry up. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- U.S. Congressman Justin Amash joins the Libertarian Party and announces his bid for the presidency. This also makes him the first Libertarian in Congress in the party's 48-year history. (Reason)
- Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, incumbent Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta dies from cancer at the age of 75. Ruy Gonçalo do Valle Peixoto de Villas Boas succees him as Lieutenant ad interim of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. (ABC News)
Science and technology
- (52768) 1998 OR2, a near-Earth asteroid that is 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) wide, makes a close approach of 0.042 AU (6.3 million km; 16 LD) to Earth. It will not approach closer than this until 2079. (Sky News)