Portal:Current events/2016 April 28

Current events of April 28, 2016 (2016-04-28) (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Moro conflict
  • Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines agree on joint naval patrols after an increase of kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf militants. (Jakarta Post)
• Syrian Civil War
  • A wave of airstrikes on Aleppo, Syria, kill at least 61 people, including children. (FOX News) (CNN)
    • Médecins Sans Frontières claims that victims of a strike on a hospital include 14 patients and doctors. (Washington Post)
  • According to sources from the Turkish military, they returned fire into Syria, killing 11 ISIL militants, after its artillery near the border town of Karkamış was hit by mortars. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• The Armenian-American community responds with outrage after the The Wall Street Journal publishes an ad denying the Armenian Genocide. (Newsweek)

Business and economy

• The Japanese government announces that it will start testing mileage figures of Mitsubishi Motors vehicles following recent revelations that testing data had been manipulated over a 25-year period. (Reuters)
• Comcast's NBCUniversal acquires Dreamworks Animation for $3.8 billion. (CNN)
• American billionaire Carl Icahn, in an interview on the cable network CNBC says he has closed his position in Apple. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

• Belgium is to provide iodine pills to all its citizens, around 11 million people, to protect against radioactivity in the event of a nuclear accident at either of Belgium's ageing nuclear power plants, the Tihange Nuclear Power Station and Doel Nuclear Power Station, according to Health Minister Maggie De Block. Germany has recently called for the Belgian government to close the nuclear power plants over safety fears. (AFP via Yahoo News!)

International relations

• Refugee rights, Australia–Papua New Guinea relations
  • Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says Australia and Papua New Guinea will hold emergency talks next week about asylum seekers Australia has been holding on PNG's Los Negros Island in Manus Province. Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea ruled this detention is illegal, and ordered the PNG and Australian governments to immediately take steps to end it. An Iranian refugee detainee remains in critical condition after setting himself on fire yesterday to protest Australia's treatment of refugees while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was visiting the island. (BBC) (Radio New Zealand)
• Syrian peace process
  • United Nations envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura appeals to the United States and Russia to intervene to help revive the failing Syrian peace talks. He stressed fighting needs to decrease for the talks to work, and that won't happen "without some sort of political solution on the horizon." (AP)
• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and President of China, assures that China will prevent war breaking out between North Korea and South Korea. (Time)
  • North Korea tries and fails to launch the medium range BM25 Musudan missile. (AFP via Malay Mail)
• France–Russia relations, International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis
  • France's National Assembly votes to adopt a non-binding resolution to lift European Union sanctions against Russia, applied after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy's Republicans, as well as center-right and far-left groups voted in favor of lifting the sanctions, while the ruling Socialist Party and The Greens voted against the resolution. (Reuters)
• War in Donbass
  • The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe warns that the situation in Eastern Ukraine is worsening. Chief monitor for Ukraine Ertuğrul Apakan says that "during the past weeks, the OSCE has registered the highest number of cease-fire violations in months" and warned that artillery and mortars banned under Minsk II "are being used again in increased numbers." (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• South Sudan–United States relations, South Sudanese Civil War
  • U.S. Special Envoy to South Sudan Donald E. Booth said that the United States would consider imposing sanctions or an arms embargo on South Sudan's leaders if they fail to form and cooperate in a proposed unity government to end the country's civil war. (Al Jazeera)
• Israeli–Palestinian peace process
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects a French-sponsored international conference to continue peace negotiations that have stalled since 2014 in settling the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, saying that direct talks were the only way to resolve the decades-long conflict. France wants to immediately recognize a Palestinian state without discussion over its borders or security issues. (The Guardian) (The Times of Israel)
• Libyan Civil War
  • In response to the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord's plea, the United Nations Security Council blacklists the tanker shipping crude oil by the unrecognized rival House of Representatives government in eastern Libya. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

• Filipino domestic helper Mary Jane Veloso commemorates the first anniversary of her being spared from the death penalty in Indonesia for allegedly smuggling controlled substances. A trial to determine her innocence is ongoing. (The Guardian)
• LGBT rights in Colombia
  • Colombia becomes the fourth state in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• The new government of Kyrgyzstan is sworn in with Prime Minister Sooronbay Jeenbekov taking the oath of office. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone is suspended by the Labour Party for claiming that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist. (The Daily Telegraph)
• The Parliament of Finland holds a debate on whether or not to abandon the Euro as its currency following a petition that garnered enough signatures to force the issue into parliament. This comes as Finland as dealing with a weakening economy but the petition is unlikely to lead to the country leaving the Eurozone. (Reuters)
• Elections in Equatorial Guinea
  • Africa's longest serving leader Teodoro Obiang, the President of Equatorial Guinea is declared the winner of the recent election with 93.7 per cent of the vote. His government has been heavily criticised by human rights group. (AP via Tulsa World)

Science and technology

• India launches IRNSS-1G, the seventh and final series of satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC) (Business Standard)

Sport

• 2016 NFL draft
  • In American football, the National Football League starts its draft for the 2016 NFL season with the Los Angeles Rams choosing Jared Goff with the first pick. (USA Today)