Portal:Current events/2011 April 7

April 7, 2011 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

A Mexican Drug War-related march inspired by the killing of seven people, one of whom was the son of prominent poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, occur in more than 20 Mexican cities, with marchers chanting "No more blood!". (BBC)(LA Times)
1.5 million people participate in nationwide street demonstrations against the policies of President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, with police using tear gas on protesters. (BBC)
Bahrain:
- Médecins Sans Frontières releases a report accusing Bahrain's military of deliberately targeting doctors and hospitals, "paralyzing" them, and turning them into "places to be feared". (Al Jazeera)
Libya:
- NATO kills at least 13 Libyan rebels and injures many more in an air raid near Ajdabiya after rebels reportedly fired on NATO planes, though there is speculation that the air-strike may have come from Gaddafi's fighter jets evading the no fly zone. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- The United States considers putting troops on the ground. (CBS)
Syria:
- The Assad regime grants nationality to thousands of Kurds in al-Hasaka in a bid to appease protesters. (Al Jazeera)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Hamas militants fire an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus, critically injuring a teenage boy and the driver, and then fire 45 mortars and 3 rockets at towns in southern Israel; the Israeli army launches a counterattack in Gaza, killing five people and injuring a number of others (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)(Al Jazeera)(CNN)
- The Iron Dome mobile air defense system successfully intercepted a Grad rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at the Israeli city Ashkelon, marking the first time in history a short-range rocket was ever intercepted.(Haaretz)
- The United States and Britain condemn the attack in southern Israel after Hamas claims responsibility for firing an anti-tank missile at a school bus. (AFP) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Following a day of missile attacks on southern Israeli communities, Hamas declares a deal for militant groups in Gaza to ceasefire, a truce it says is intended to halt an escalation of Israeli "aggression". (BBC) (Ynet)
A man bursts into a school with a gun and kills 12 people in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before he commits suicide. (Folha de S.Paulo) (Al Jazeera)
An Iranian asylum seeker self-immolates to death in central Amsterdam. (BBC)
25 people are killed in a bomb assault in the Nigerian town Suleja. (THEWILL)

Arts and culture

China's foreign ministry confirms police are investigating artist and government critic Ai Weiwei, who disappeared over the weekend, for suspected economic crimes amid reports that he has been force-fed milk powder while on hunger strike in prison in reference to his campaigns against the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. (BBC) (AFP via Jakarta Globe) (Al Jazeera)
Politicians in Montreal call for French rock star Bertrand Cantat to be denied entry after Théâtre du Nouveau Monde hires him for some plays by Sophocles. (BBC)

Business and economy

Eurozone interest rates are raised to 1.25 per cent from the record low of 1 per cent by the European Central Bank (ECB) amid concerns this could cause problems for countries such as Portugal and the Republic of Ireland. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
The Australian dollar reaches a 28-year high against the United States dollar due to strong employment figures for March. (The Australian)
General Electric Co. announces that it is investing $600 million to construct a facility for the manufacture of thin-film solar panels, and says it hopes and expects to drive the price of solar energy down. (Reuters)

Disasters

Officials give no hope for the missing migrants of yesterday's fatal boat disaster off Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. (BBC)
A 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of northern Honshu resulting in two deaths and 100 injuries. (USGS), (Sydney Morning Herald)
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Mexican state of Veracruz. (USGS)
Injections of nitrogen into one of the reactors at Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant begins in an effort to stop further hydrogen blasts. (BBC)
Blackouts hit most Venezuelan states including the capital Caracas. (Reuters via MSNBC)

International relations

A British government diplomat calls the United States Department of State to draw "attention to our concerns over Bradley Manning", the Welsh-born U.S. serviceman imprisoned by the U.S. military in solitary confinement and forced to sleep naked, conditions condemned by Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union and British MPs among others. (AFP via Google News)
UK prime minister David Cameron admits to students in Pakistan that Britain and its empire is to blame for many of the world's problems. (The Daily Telegraph)

Law and crime

Police sexual abuse scandal:
- Calls increase for an independent international investigation into the recently released tape recording of police in the Republic of Ireland discussing the rape of two female protesters, one of whom is from North America. One of the women discusses her experience in public after police leak the identities of the women. (Irish Examiner) (TV3)
- A second tape is released. (The Belfast Telegraph) (The Irish Times)
- Ireland's police chief is forced to issue an apology following the rape tape revelations. (UK Press Association) (The Irish Times) (RTÉ)
The case of a group of elderly Kenyans - 3 men and 1 woman in their 70s and 80s - reaches London's High Court, with the group seeking compensation and apology for their torture by British officers during the 1950s Mau Mau Uprising, including castration, sexual abuse, forced labour and beatings. (Al Jazeera)
The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals dismisses an appeal from a man wanting to see the President of the United States Barack Obama's birth certificate. (Honolulu Star Advertiser)
Former British Labour Party minister Elliot Morley pleads guilty to dishonestly claiming more than £30,000 in parliamentary expenses. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Nicola Roxon, the Australian Minister for Health, announces plans to introduce legislation requiring tobacco products to be sold in plain packaging. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Seventeen people are arrested at a protest organised by the Service Employees International Union trying to storm the Governor of the US state of Washington's office in Olympia. (The Olympian)^{[permanent dead link]}

Sport

League football is to resume in Tunisia on 17 April for the first time since December when the Tunisian revolution, which toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from decades-long rule, began. (BBC Sport)