Portal:Current events/April 2011

• Arab Spring:
  • 2011 Libyan civil war
    :
    • An envoy of Muammar Gaddafi is reported to have been seen gossiping with officials on a visit to London, England. (BBC)
    • More people leave the inner circle of Gaddafi, including Ali Treki, his choice for the United Nations ambassador. (Al Jazeera)
    • Forces loyal to Gaddafi continues the attack on the city of Misrata. (Al Arabiya)
    • Forces loyal to Gaddafi capture the wife of former
      Minister of Foreign Affairs Moussa Koussa after a firefight. (The Daily Telegraph)
  • 2011 Bahraini protests: Authorities release a prominent blogger, Mahmood Al-Yousif, but detain several others in a series of arrests. (Alert Net)
  • 2011 Syrian protests
    :
    • Anti-regime protests break out in cities across the country after Friday prayers. (Alert Net) (BBC)
    • Several people die in the protests. (Al Jazeera)
  • Sana'a, amid fears of a confrontation between the two sides. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011 Jordanian protests: Police attempt to separate pro and anti-government rallies held in the capital Amman. (CNN)
  • 2011 Omani protests: Police shoot dead a protester in the city of Sohar during a large demonstration. (Reuters)
  • 2011 Saudi Arabian protests: Demonstrations occur in the east of the country in support of anti-government rallies in Bahrain and calling for political freedoms in Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
• President of the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo and internationally-recognised claimant Alassane Ouattara. (BBC)
• The
  PKK rebels who crossed the border from Syria. (Hindustan Times) (Today's Zaman)
• At least twelve people have been killed at a protest against
  Koran burning in Mazar-i-Sharif with at least eight of them being United Nations personnel. (Fox News) (Reuters)
• More than 1.5 million
  web sites around the world have been infected by the LizaMoon SQL injection attack spread by scareware since Tuesday. (USA Today) (Reuters)

• Knut's brain swelled significantly before his recent death. (BBC)
• Penélope Cruz becomes the first Spanish actress to receive a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame

• Ireland's government agrees to bank bailout number five, valued at €24 billion, and does not force senior bondholders into burden-sharing. (The Irish Times)
• It is revealed that chief executive of nationalised Anglo Irish Bank Mike Aynsley received €1 million, including a "housing allowance" for his second home in Australia, while the bank admits billions were squandered last year in the biggest corporate loss in the country's history. (Irish Independent)
• antitrust complaint against Google with the European Commission. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Unemployment in the United States falls to 8.8 per cent on the back of 216,000 jobs being added. (MSNBC)
• Deutsche Borse. (Reuters)

• 10 people are swept away in an avalanche in the southwestern Swiss Alps; with three reported deaths. (IOL) (Swissinfo)
• Japan Self-Defense Forces and the members of the United States Armed Forces search for people still missing after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (Kyodo)
• Radioactivity levels surge in Japan. (Los Angeles Times)
• Efforts to refloat a stranded German-Danish consortium-owned steel vessel which flies the flag of Antigua and Barbuda get underway off the coast of Connemara in the west of Ireland. (Irish Independent)
• A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hits the island of Crete. (AP via MSNBC)
• A 6 foot hole appears at 36,000 feet aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 812, a Boeing 737 en route from Phoenix, Arizona to Sacramento, California; the plane lands safely in Yuma, Arizona. (Associated Press) (King5)

• The
  South African Development Community demands an end to the political violence in Zimbabwe, amid tensions in the unity government. (IOL)

• The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that the number of traffic deaths has fallen to 32,788 in 2010, the lowest level since 1949. (New York Times)
• Former chief executive of nationalised Anglo Irish Bank David Drumm is questioned about the bank's debts and his declaration of bankruptcy in Massachusetts. Drumm bans the press from attending. (The Irish Times)
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague dismisses by 10-6 Georgia's accusation that Russia and separatist rebels engaged in ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. (BBC)
• A female
  exchange student to Sweden studying in Örebro is found murdered in daylight. (Stockholm News)

• vote of no confidence led by opposition leader Oscar Temaru. Temaru once again becomes President of French Polynesia for the fifth time. (RNZI)
• Senator Steve Fielding launches his campaign to outlaw lies on April 1 in his battle against those who engage in the "ever-growing annual tradition of playing practical jokes on less intelligent Australians". (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Mohammad-Ali Najafi is elected leader of Iranian Executives of Construction Party to replace with Gholamhossein Karbaschi. (Kalame)
• parliament, potentially allowing for early elections. (Al Jazeera)

• Scientists use a geoid model to illustrate the force of gravity on Earth from data from the Goce satellite. (BBC)

• FIFA suspends Bosnia and Herzegovina from international football after its failure to drop a rotating presidential system between a Muslim, a Serb and a Croat, which is similar to the country's complex political system. (BBC Sport)

• At least 800 people are killed in a massacre in
  Côte d'Ivoire, during the Second Ivorian Civil War. (CBC News)
• Libyan Civil War
  :
  • Friendly fire from coalition forces reportedly kills 13 rebels in Libya. (MSNBC)
  • Rebel forces in Misrata estimate that 28 people have died in fighting over the past three days. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Security forces in
    pro-reform protests. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Yemeni protests
  :
  • Anti-government protesters clash with riot police in Aden, southern Yemen. (AP via Google News)
• Gaza War
  :
  • 2008–2009 Gaza War. (BBC) (The New York Times) (Ynet) (The Washington Post)
  • Goldstone continues to defend portions of the report, including those that accused Hamas of violations and demands that the Palestinians investigate their violations in Gaza, as Israel has investigated its actions, while Hamas has not held any investigations. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Camp Phoenix in Kabul. (BNO)
• A bomb explodes in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killing one, hours after around 2,000 participants in a half marathon pass by. The incident evokes memories of the 1998 Omagh bombing, while taoiseach Enda Kenny (Republic of Ireland) accuses the perpetrators of "acting in defiance of the Irish people". (BBC) (The Guardian) (CBC News)

• Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan visits the areas of the country worst affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (Reuters via WAMC)
• Tepco confirms radioactive water has been (and still is) leaking into the sea from a crack at the malfunctioning Fukushima nuclear plant. (BBC)
• A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hits northern Chile. (IOL)

• Andimuthu Raja, several executives and three firms in a telecoms scandal. (The Times of India) (Reuters)
• The North Korean government cracks down on IT gadgets such as computers and phones amid fears that news about the Arab Spring could influence its citizens. (The Straits Times)
• Almost half of
  China's dairies are to close after failing to obtain new licenses following a safety audit. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• Gunmen attack a bar in Ciudad Juárez in northern Mexico, killing five people. (AP via The Ledger)

• A
  parliamentary election is to take place in Nigeria, but is postponed to 4 April as voting materials did not arrive on time. (Pana Press) (AFP via Google News) (CNN)
• Thousands of people attend
  pro- and anti-carbon tax (part of a phase-in of an emissions trading program) rallies in Sydney, Australia. (AAP via Sydney Morning Herald)(ABC News online)
• The Prime Minister of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero announces that he will not be seeking a third term in the next election. (Al Jazeera)
• Police make 12 arrests following protest marches by the English Defence League and opposing groups in Blackburn, Lancashire. (BBC)

• The
  Sri Lanka by six wickets. (Daily Mail)
• Manager José Mourinho loses his first home game since 23 February 2002. (Marca)

• 2011 Bahraini protests
  :
  • Authorities ban the publication of the main opposition paper
    Al Wasat. (Times Live South Africa) (Al Jazeera) (Malaysia Star)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to shell the western city of Misrata. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Syria tightens security to crack down on anti-government protests. (FoxNews)
  • Prime Minister to form a new government. (newser)
  • The
    United States Government offers free flights out of Syria to its employees. (Reuters)
• 2011 Yemeni protests
  :
  • Anti-government opposition coalition unveils plan to end month-long unrest. (Haaretz)
• At least 40 people are dead and 100 injured following a
  suicide bomb on a Sufi Muslim shrine in Pakistan. (The Scotsman)

• The
  People's Republic of China detains Ai Weiwei, a leading artist and dissident, as part of a crackdown on dissenting views. (Wall Street Journal)
• Taylor Swift wins the Entertainer of the Year award at the Academy of Country Music Awards 2010 with Miranda Lambert winning four awards including Female Vocalist of the year. (AP)

• The bodies of two dead workers are found at the afflicted
  Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. (New York Times)
• The efforts to plug the
  leaks at the Fukushima I plant appear not to be working. (New York Times)
• The official death toll from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami passes 12,000 with over 15,000 people missing. (National Police Agency of Japan)
• The wreckage of Air France Flight 447, which crashed in June 2009, killing 228 people, is found in the Atlantic Ocean. (BBC), (AP via MSNBC)

• A
  presidential election takes place in Kazakhstan, with President Nursultan Nazarbayev winning 95% of the vote. (BBC) (RIA Novosti)
• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev orders Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to remove his deputies on the boards of state companies by 1 July. (Reuters) (RIA Novosti), (BBC)
• Foreign Minister of Germany, resigns as leader of the Free Democrats following recent poor electoral performances. (Financial Times)

• Among the rising concerns about the water quality in Hanoi's Hoàn Kiếm Lake, its giant sacred turtle is captured for study and (possibly) medical treatment. Time magazine; Reuters

• 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis:
  • French military helicopters fire on a pro-Laurent Gbagbo military camp. (Reuters), (AP)
• At least 5 people are killed during a bomb explosion at a bus station in
  Lower Dir, Pakistan. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Police baton and tear gas people protesting on a highway in Dhaka, arresting dozens. (BBC)
• 2011 Yemeni protests
  :
  • protesters in the city of Taiz killing one person and injuring over 400. (Reuters) (BBC)
  • Police injure hundreds of people in
    Hudaida by firing tear gas and live rounds at them as they approach one of the presidential palaces. (BBC)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Syrian president Assad appoints a new governor for Daraa as he struggles to please the people demonstrating in unprecedented protests against his regime. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • A humanitarian ship from Turkey rescues more than 250 injured people from Misrata and safely delivers them to the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. (BBC)
  • Libya's acting foreign minister is sent to
    Lockerbie bombing. (The Independent)
  • Kuwait becomes the second Arab country to recognise the opposition National Transitional Council in Benghazi, after Qatar. (AGI)
  • Italy recognizes Libyan rebel government (Christian Science Monitor)
• 2011 Jordanian protests
  :
  • Police arrest a man with a fake explosive belt attempting to enter the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Amman. (Al Arabiya)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Israeli war planes roam at low attitudes across the skies of Gaza. (WAFA)
  • Israeli actor and peace activist Juliano Mer-Khamis is gunned down in the West Bank by masked militants. (J Post), (BBC)
  • Palestinian engineer from Gaza, is indicted at Beersheba's District Court, accused of developing missiles and upgrading rockets for attacks on Israel; he claims that the Mossad kidnapped him. (The Jerusalem Post) (BBC)(Ynetnews)
• War on Terror
  :
  • 5 people, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are to be put on trial by the United States military at the U.S.-operated Guantanamo Bay detention camp, it is announced. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• British civilian airliner as it makes an emergency landing in Athens after a bomb threat; no one is hurt. (BBC)

• Disappearance of Ai Weiwei:
  • Concern grows as Ai Weiwei, who has criticised his country's human rights record, fails to reappear more than 24 hours after his disappearance by guards at Beijing Airport. Police issue no comment, though they have since raided his studio. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Radio Television Hong Kong)
  • The French and German foreign ministries call on
    China to release Ai Weiwei from prison, while Amnesty International is also critical of his detention. (BBC)
• A three-panel Zhang Xiaogang oil painting sells for a record HK$79 million. (BBC) (The Hindu)
• Roman Catholicism. (The Straits Times)

• The
  Quarterly Tankan survey of business sentiment confirming that the recent 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami has had a negative effect on business confidence. (Kyodo News)
• It is reported that China has succeeded in genetically modifying cows to produce "human" milk. (IBN Live)

• Indonesian earthquake and tsunami:
  • A 6.7 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Java in Indonesia. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
  • A
    tsunami alert is issued after the earthquake in Indonesia. (Xinhua)
• A magnitude 5.4 earthquake strikes western Nepal near the Indian border, and is felt in Delhi. (Times of India) (NDTV)
• At least 10 people are killed and at least 16 others are injured as a United Nations plane breaks in two and ignites at Kinshasa Airport in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC) (Indian Express)
• The M11 motorway is closed after a nine car pile up in Essex, England. (BBC)
• A two-year-old dog is reunited with her owner in tsunami-ravished Japan. (BBC)
• U.S. tornado outbreak:
  • A possible
    Nashville, injuring seven people. (LEX18)
  • Storms kill eight people in Northern
    Georgia, one in Mississippi and another in Tennessee. (Reuters) (11 Alive)^{[permanent dead link}
    ]
  • Two tornadoes pass through
    Nashville, Tennessee. (The Tennessean) (Huffington Post)
  • Some damage is reported in Louisiana, near New Orleans. (WDSU)
  • A record number of American storm reports in a 24-hour period is set, likely in part due to increased reporting. (The Weather Space)
• A
  Democratic Republic of Congo killing 32 of 33 people on board. (BBC)
• Severe thunderstorms kill 13 people in Bangladesh. (San Francisco Chronicle) (AccuWeather)

• The
  Gulf Co-operation Council denounces Iranian "interference" in its internal affairs. (Al Arabiya)
• The Indonesian government appeals after Saudi Arabia acquits a woman accused of torturing her Indonesian maid. (Jakarta Post)
• Princess Grace. They are to dine at a state banquet hosted by President Mary McAleese and her husband at Áras an Uachtaráin. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Irish Independent)
• South Korea approves additional humanitarian aid worth 176 million won to North Korea. (Xinhua)
• The
  Japanese Foreign Ministry issues a statement that 19 foreign nationals died in the earthquake and tsunami, with dozens more still missing, mostly from China and South Korea. (UPI)

• North Korea executes former railways minister Kim Yong Sam in connection with the Ryongchon disaster in 2004. (Straits Times)
• Three more human remains are found in the Gilgo area of Long Island New York bringing the total number of bodies to eight with a serial killer believed to be responsible. (Newsday)
• Three people die in a shootout between Mexican security forces and gunmen in the resort of Acapulco. (BBC)

• Former First Lady of Austria Edith Klestil dies of cancer aged 78. (Austrian Independent)
• A court in Vietnam jails prominent government critic Cù Huy Hà Vũ for seven years for spreading "anti-state propaganda". (BBC) (VOV News Vietnam)
• Burma's State Peace and Development Council, retires as the head of the Myanmar military. (AFP via Channel News Asia)
• Controversial Irish senator Ivor Callely, who last year was embroiled in an expenses scandal, is fined €60 by a court for breaching the law. (TV3) (The Irish Times) (RTÉ)
• Barack Obama is to run for a second term as President of the United States next year, his campaign announces. (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera) (BBC), (CNN)
• Musician
  Haitian general election, 2010–2011. (AP via Yahoo! News)
• As part of the British government's package of welfare reforms, from today the one-and-a-half million people in the
  incapacity benefit will begin to receive letters asking them to attend a work capability assessment. The tests are part of government plans to reduce the number of long-term claimants and will take until 2014 to complete. (BBC)

• The candidates for
  Mohammed Bin Hammam to be Sepp Blatter's only challenger. (BBC Sport) (Sky Sports)
• 2014 World Cup. (AFP)
• The
  Chris Mullin, Tex Winter, Herb Magee, Tara VanDerveer, Artis Gilmore, Arvydas Sabonis, Teresa Edwards, Reece "Goose" Tatum and Tom "Satch" Sanders. (ESPN)
• The
  2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament in the US defeating the Butler Bulldogs 53–41. (WRAL)

• 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis:
  • Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara claim to have captured Laurent Gbagbo's Presidential Palace in Abidjan. (BBC)
  • Alcide Djédjé, the Foreign Minister claims that Gbagbo's forces have laid down their arms and he is negotiating with Ouattara over the terms of surrender. (CNN)
• 1,000 students protest at
  Terry Jones' church in the U.S. state of Florida. (CNN)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Amid ongoing protests, Syria opposition says Assad wants talks (Haaretz)

• The whereabouts of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei remain undetermined 48 hours after his disappearance as the U.S., France, Germany, Britain and Amnesty International ask that he be released immediately. (Al Jazeera)
• A public civil partnership between a same-sex couple takes place in Dublin, the first time this has happened in Ireland. (The Irish Times)
• Sathya Sai Baba is reported to be in a critical condition as thousands of followers gather outside the hospital. (BBC) (The Times of India) (AFP via The Asian Age) (news.com.au)
• Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb cancels performances in Brazil due to abdominal pains. (BBC)

• Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus loses his final appeal in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh against his dismissal from his own Grameen micro-finance bank; the bank thought him too old for the job. (BBC)
• Rebels against the Gaddafi regime in Libya have begun to export oil. (BBC)
• The
  antitrust action against Google. (Bloomberg)
• Singapore Stock Exchange. (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• analog chips. (The Guardian)
• Cuba and its partners announce plans to drill for oil in Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP via Boston Globe)

• Fukushima I nuclear accidents
  • radioactive iodine from the nuclear accidents. (AP)
  • Japan defends dumping of water with low level radiation from the accidents in the Pacific Ocean following criticism from South Korea and Russia. (Kyodo)
• For over 50 days, the Libyan city of Misrata has been shelled by artillery, tanks, and snipers, and for over 20 days has had its water intentionally shut off by Muammar Gaddafi's forces. As supplies run short, hundreds of thousands are at risk of death. (Euronews)
• At least nine people die in the southern United States in heavy storms. (AP via Yahoo! News)

• Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, calls on UN agencies basing themselves in Kenya for safety reasons to move to Mogadishu within three months, citing the presence of UN agencies in "more dangerous" cities such as Kabul and Baghdad. (BBC) (Mareeg)

• Police investigating the murder of Sian O'Callaghan have identified human remains found at a second site as those of Swindon woman Becky Godden-Edwards, who had been missing for eight years. (BBC)

• Amid growing concern and criticism of its planned reforms to the NHS in England, the UK government says it is willing to make major changes to the policy. (BBC)
• The Idaho House of Representatives passes a bill banning abortion once a fetus is more than 20 weeks old. (AP via Idaho Statesman)^{[permanent dead link]}
• More than a million voters go to the polls in the US state of
  David Prosser, Jr.. (Reuters)
• Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is appointed as the Chairwoman of the US Democratic National Committee. (Boston Globe)

• The
  damaged to its worst extent ever in the Arctic. (The Independent)

• In cricket, Kumar Sangakkara quits as captain of Sri Lanka's one-day and Twenty20 sides so that "a new leader can be properly groomed for the 2015 World Cup". (BBC Sport)

• 2011 Yemeni protests: six people are killed and hundreds injured in Yemen violence. (CNN)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • NATO pledges to protect the besieged town of Misrata amid criticism from rebel fighters. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Syria reverses a ban on teachers wearing veils and closes the country's only casino ahead of anti-regime protests. (The Guardian)
• 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis:
  • Forces loyal to internationally-recognised Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara storm the bunker of Laurent Gbagbo in a "final assault". (France 24)
  • Negotiations to end the political deadlock fail. (Al Jazeera)
  • The International Criminal Court could investigate crimes against humanity committed in the country. (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation)

• Civil partnerships for same-sex couples come into effect on the Isle of Man. (BBC)
• program from later in the year. (The Wrap)

• The New Zealand Press Association closes down after over 130 years in operation with 42 job losses. (3 News)
• José Sócrates, the caretaker Prime Minister of Portugal asks the European Union for financial assistance. (BBC)

• Workers at the
  radiation leaks. (AP)
• At least 200 African migrants are missing after a boat capsizes off Italy. 20 bodies recovered. (BBC), (New York Times)
• A
  F/A-18 crashes near Naval Air Station Lemoore in California. (CBS 47)^{[permanent dead link}
  ]

• Wikileaks diplomatic cables alleging corruption within the Ecuadorian police force. (BBC)

• The
  trial of Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi for having sex with an underage prostitute begins. (Reuters)
• A tape recording is released of police in the Republic of Ireland allegedly threatening to rape two female protesters, one of whom is from North America, after arresting them, causing an outcry among women's groups and anti-rape organizations. (Irish Examiner) (The Belfast Telegraph) (The Guardian) (The Irish Times) (TV3)
• Jeff Skilling, former CEO of Enron, loses his appeal against his conviction for fraud in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (Wall Street Journal)
• More than forty bodies are found in a mass grave in Mexico's Tamaulipas state. (AP via Star Tribune)
• The
  oil refineries, attempts to address climate change mitigation. (Reuters) (New York Times)Washington Times(Bloomberg)

• The
  Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper dismisses international criticism over the arrest of artist Ai Weiwei. (Angola Press) (Straits Times) (Global Times)

• Basketball star LeBron James buys a minority interest in Premier League team Liverpool Football Club. (Wall Street Journal)

• 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
    al-Hasaka in a bid to appease protesters. (Al Jazeera)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Israeli army launches a counterattack in Gaza, killing five people and injuring a number of others (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)(Al Jazeera)(CNN)
  • The
    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)

• 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)

• 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)
• thin-film solar panels, and says it hopes and expects to drive the price of solar energy down. (Reuters)

• 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)

• A British government diplomat calls the
  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)

• 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
  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
  dishonestly claiming more than £30,000 in parliamentary expenses. (BBC)

• 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
  Governor of the US state of Washington's office in Olympia. (The Olympian)^{[permanent dead link}
  ]

• League football is to resume in
  Tunisian revolution, which toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from decades-long rule, began. (BBC Sport)

• At least 12 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, are killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza in response to numerous mortar and rocket attacks. (BBC)
• Prominent religious leader Maulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah is killed when explosives attached to a bicycle are detonated outside a mosque in Srinagar, Kashmir, thought to be the first attack of its kind in about two years. The capital's shops shut down and traffic is suspended. (BBC)
• At least 25 people are killed and at least 320 others are wounded at Camp Ashraf. (Al Jazeera)
• Arab Spring
  • Today's Friday protests take place in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen among other places. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011 Syrian protests
    :
    • At least 27 people are killed at rally in
      continuing protests against the al-Assad regime. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
  • 2011 Yemeni protests
    :
    • At least two people are killed and hundreds more are injured, including 30 critically, as security forces open fire on people in
      Ta'izz during protests against the Saleh regime. (Al Jazeera)
    • A newly released cable indicates the Saleh government encouraged Saudi Arabia to bomb a rival's headquarters by declaring it a rebel base. (The Guardian)
  • 2011 Egyptian revolution:
    • Thousands of people gather in Tahrir Square in Cairo for a "Day of Trial and Cleansing", calling for ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his regime to be prosecuted. (Al Jazeera)
• A crew member shoots two of his crew mates on board the nuclear submarine HMS Astute at Southampton in Hampshire, England, killing one and sending the other into a life-threatening condition; police dismiss any link to terrorism. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

• The
  a new government is elected in June, with the previous government having fallen at the loss of a parliamentary vote on imposing similar austerity measures. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The New York Times)
• The United States Department of Justice defends its probing of WikiLeaks-related Twitter accounts and dismisses as "absurd" any privacy and freedom of speech concerns. (CNET)
• Australian Stock Exchange following advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board. (Bloomberg via Business Week)
• Virtual economies in online games have become a billion dollar industry. (BBC)
• The
  The News of the World newspaper for alleged phone hacking, and issues an "unreserved apology". (BBC)
• biotech firm, acquires Bergamo, a privately held Brazilian medical supplier. (Reuters)

• The death toll from yesterday's aftershock from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami rises to three and 140 wounded. (CNN)
• Eight people are killed and 130 injured in a massive car pile-up caused by a sandstorm on the German autobahn A 19 near Rostock. The pile-up involves about 80 vehicles and causes at least 30 of them to catch fire, making it the worst accident in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. (BBC) (TheLocal)
• Three children die after drinking suspected
  China; 35 others are hospitalized. (BBC) (China.org.cn)

• Nursultan Nazarbayev is sworn in as President of Kazakhstan for another five year term, in a vote criticized as flawed. (Al Jazeera)
• Three officials from Kenya, including the deputy prime minister, go on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). (Al Jazeera)
• President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe to court in 2007 over his programme of land seizures dies. (BBC)
• The United States Congress reaches a deal on the 2011 United States federal budget an hour before the deadline to avoid a government shutdown. (BBC)

• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • Fighting continues between government and rebels in Brega and Ajdabiya in Libya. (Al Jazeera)
• 2010-2011 Ivorian crisis/Second Ivorian Civil War
  :
  • Forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo regain ground in Abidjan. (Reuters)
• The Egyptian Army initiates a fatal crackdown in Tahrir Square, Cairo, on people protesting that ousted president Hosni Mubarak be prosecuted for corruption. (BBC)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Over 120 rockets are fired into southern Israel this weekend, wounding 5 people. The Iron Dome missile system intercepts 10 rockets. (Jerusalem Post)
  • Israeli air strikes kill 12 in Gaza, according to doctors. (BBC)
  • Israel promises to carry out more air strikes on the Gaza Strip in response to the recent mortar and rocket attacks. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Basque conflict:
  • Despite a ceasefire,
    Valliere, Limousin. Two more shooting incidents follow the first one. (Typically Spanish)

• U.S. movie director Sidney Lumet dies in Manhattan.(Reuters via TV New Zealand)

• A tornado hits in Iowa's Monona County in the midwestern United States. (Omaha World-Herald)

• Aboriginal boy found weighted with rocks in a waterhole as anything other than an accident in Borroloola, Northern Territory. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• A shooting spree in a shopping mall in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands leaves seven dead, including the perpetrator. (NOS)
• Women's groups protest outside the Oireachtas after police are filmed discussing raping women after their arrest. (The Guardian)
• The Police Service of Northern Ireland says that a "sophisticated and substantial" 500lb bomb left in a van under the main Belfast to Dublin road near Newry had the potential to cause huge loss of life and devastation, and may have been destined for a town centre. (BBC)
• Australian army sex scandal:
  • Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, describes a broadcast of a young cadet engaging in sexual intercourse at the Australian Defence Force Academy as an "abhorrent" but "isolated" incident. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • More army members speak out about other incidents of sexual abuse. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

• re-elected as President of Djibouti. (Manilla Bulletin)
• referendum on a renegotiated compensation deal with Britain and the Netherlands over the collapsed Icesave bank. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• parliamentary elections. (BBC)
• 72-year-old Indian social activist Anna Hazare is to end a four-day hunger strike after the government agrees to his wishes for tougher anti-corruption laws which have gained widespread public support. (BBC)

• Côte d'Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo in response to recent attacks. (AP via Times Union)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  • Eyewitnesses claim that Syrian security forces killed four protesters in the coastal city of Banias. (AP via Forbes)
  • Eyewitnesses report that Daraa where dozens of protesters were shot on Friday is 80 per cent paralysed. (Al-Jazeera)
• An
  2011 Libyan civil war between Muammar Gaddafi and his opponents. (BBC)

• U2's 360° Tour becomes the highest grossing music tour of all time following a show in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (NME via Bigpond Music)

• The
  trade deficit in six years with rising commodity prices blamed. (AP via CBS Moneywatch)^{[permanent dead link}
  ]

• Wildfires in the US state of Texas destroy more than 230,000 acres of land, including about 20 homes in the small town of Fort Davis. (Reuters)

• police arrest at least a dozen members of a Christian house church for attempting to hold a church service in public after they are evicted from their usual place of worship. (AP via Star Tribune)
• A British Royal Navy sailor is charged with murdering an officer and attempted murder of three crew members aboard a nuclear submarine HMS Astute on Friday night in Southampton. (AP via Yahoo News), (AFP via ABC News)

• presidential elections with the most likely result a runoff between Ollanta Humala and either Pedro Pablo Kuczynski or Keiko Fujimori. (BBC), (AP via Newsday), (New York Times), (BBC)
• The governing
  Fukushima I nuclear accidents. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

• Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing wins the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix. (News Limited)
• South African golfer Charl Schwartzel wins the United States 2011 Masters Tournament. (NineMSN), (CBS Sports)

• 2011 Syrian protests
  • Students take part in a demonstration at Damascus University to express solidarity with protesters killed in the unrest. (Al Jazeera) (Al Bawaba)^{[permanent dead link]} (Press TV)
  • Student killed after Syria forces attack protest in Damascus University. (Haaretz)
• 2011 Egyptian revolution:
  • Demonstrators remain in Tahrir Square calling for the acceleration of reforms. (Reuters)
  • The Prime Minister of Egypt Essam Sharaf apologises for violence against the protesters in Tahrir Square and calls for a judicial investigation. (Al-Jazeera)
• 2011 Minsk Metro bombing
  • At least 11 people are killed and dozens are injured in a bomb explosion at Kastrychnitskaya metro station in Minsk. (RT) (Reuters via Yahoo News)^{[dead link]}
• 2010-2011 Ivorian crisis/Second Ivorian Civil War
  :
  • French special forces. (Washington Post) (France 24) (AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
• 2011 Libyan civil war: Libyan rebels reject an African Union peace plan because it does not include the removal of Gaddafi from Libya. (Reuters)
• Fighting between rebels and government forces kill 27 people in the Central African Republic. (AFP via Google News)

• The
  niqab comes into effect. (AFP via News Limited) (BBC)

• Forbes list of billionaires. (BBC)
• Intel announces (former codename "Oak Trail") Atom processor will be in devices beginning in May, especially designed for netbook and tablet devices. (Intel Release).
• UBS AG for third-party inferenece with a contract between Highland and Lyondell. (BusinessWeek)

• Over 14,000 people are still missing in Japan, a month after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (Kyodo News)
• The President of the
  Fukushima I nuclear accidents to apologise. (Kyodo) (CNN)
• The
  Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant as the crisis continues. (CNN)
• Japan is hit by a magnitude 6.6 aftershock one month after the main earthquake, knocking out power to Fukushima I for nearly an hour. (Washington Post)

• India repatriates 39 Pakistani prisoners in a goodwill gesture. (Times of India) (Dawn)

• Authorities in
  text message. (CP)
• Maikel Nabil is sentenced to three years in prison by a military court for criticising the army. (BBC) (AP via Google News)
• Farooque Ahmed is sentenced to 23 years in jail in the US for plotting attacks on the Washington Metro system. (Washington post)
• Katmandu. (AP via Silicon Valley Mercury)^{[permanent dead link}
  ]

• Uganda's opposition leader Kizza Besigye is arrested after calling for a protest against recent fuel price increases. (AFP via Google News) (BBC)
• Stephen Smith, the Australian Minister for Defence, orders an investigation into the way women are treated at the Australian Defence Force Academy following recent sexual abuse allegations. (ABC News Australia)
• The President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh welcomes a proposal by the Gulf Cooperation Council that would see him stand aside for his Vice-President. (Reuters via Ynet)
• British Prime Minister
  black student was enrolled there in 2009. During a question and answer session on the effect of higher tuition fees on poorer students, Cameron had called the figures "disgraceful". The University says that at least 26 black students started there that year. (BBC)
• In a confidential letter to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, the party's former leader of Liverpool City Council, Warren Bradley, urges Clegg to pull out of the coalition government before the Lib Dems "disappears into the annals of history". (BBC)
• Former
  Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. (The Guardian)
• Vincent C. Gray, the Mayor of Washington DC is arrested while protesting about a US budget deal. (CNN)^{[permanent dead link]}

• American businessman Stan Kroenke acquires 62.89% of Premier League club Arsenal. (BBC)
• Australian cricket player Shane Watson breaks the world record for number of sixes in a One Day International in the second match in the series against Bangladesh. (Super Sport)
• The
  U.S. Attorney's office for San Diego announces that 10 individuals have been indicted on charges relating to an alleged point shaving scheme involving college basketball games. The accused include two former players and a former assistant coach for the University of San Diego men's team. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

• 2011 Libyan civil war: Muammar Gaddafi's forces attack the eastern front line and shell the city of Misrata. (MSNBC)

• Almost all of 169
  Chinese Christians detained on Sunday, after they tried to hold an outdoor prayer session, are released; the unofficial Chinese church vows to hold more services. (MSN Malaysia News) (BBC)

• Fukushima I nuclear accidents
  • The Government of Japan raises the crisis level of the accidents to level 7, the highest level on the international scale and equivalent to the Chernobyl disaster. (NHK), (Reuters)
  • Workers at the
    Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant fight a fire following another aftershock. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
• The
  2011 Canterbury earthquake is extended for another week. (TV New Zealand)

• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mulls withdrawing IDF forces from parts of the West Bank and handing over full security control to the Palestinian Authority to demonstrate an Israeli diplomatic initiative that would block a possible "diplomatic tsunami" that could follow international recognition of a Palestinian state. (Haaretz)
• Pakistan seeks CIA reduction in the country by 25%-40% (BBC)

• Los Angeles County prosecuters lodge four felony charges against a man suspected of bombing a Chabad house in the US suburb of Santa Monica, California. (LA Fox)

• Police in
  Swaziland arrest any person in a group ahead of planned pro-democracy protests in the country. (BBC) (News24 South Africa)
• Former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak is taken to hospital after suffering heart problems while being interrogated about alleged corruption and violence against protestors. (BBC), (AP via Fox News)
• Former
  2012 Republican nomination for President of the United States. (CNN)
• Leaders of
  Canadian federal election. (BBC)
• The Senate of the US state of North Carolina pardons former Governor William Woods Holden who was impeached in 1871 because of his suspension of habeas corpus in the process of battling the Ku Klux Klan terror campaign. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

• Australian rugby league coach Wayne Bennett agrees to coach the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League in the next four seasons starting in 2012. (NRL)

• 2011 Libyan civil war
  • Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continue to attack the city of Misrata. (Al Arabiya)
• The Malaysiakini Malaysian news website is attacked ahead of elections in Sarawak. (AFP via Channel News Asia)
• The
  2011 Syrian protests spread to Aleppo. (Gulf News)

• Toyota closes several plants in Europe for part of April and May due to parts shortages caused by the power outages associated with the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (AP via Forbes)
• Royal Dutch Shell announces that it will close the Clyde oil refinery in Sydney, Australia, resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• The U.S.
  tar sands development. (Denver Post)

• Japan's Sendai Airport partially reopens for the first time since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (Kyodo News)

• The United States requests the release of one of its citizens detained in North Korea. (AFP via Google News)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  • The government in the
    Palestinian state, a United Nations report claims. (BBC) (Washington Post) (Al Jazeera)

• Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara says former leader Laurent Gbagbo will face charges at the national and international level. (Al Jazeera)
• Egyptian authorities detain former president Hosni Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal for 15 days as part of an investigation related to possible charges of corruption and abuse of power. (Al-Arabiya) (BBC) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• bouncer in a pub in Liverpool. (BBC)
• US baseball star Barry Bonds is convicted of obstruction of justice charges with a hung jury on other charges. (AP via Fox News)
• Lee Bradley Brown, 39, a British tourist is allegedly beaten to death in the Bur Dubai police station in Dubai after being arrested for swearing. (Daily Mail)

• Chinese authorities continue a crackdown on dissent, with some activists placed on labour camps according to rights groups. (Taipei Times) (Radio Television Hong Kong) (The Daily Telegraph)
• Former US Senator Rick Santorum announces that he has formed a committee to explore a bid for the Republican Party nomination in the presidential election. (USA Today)
• The
  Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the United States Senate releases a report on the financial crisis of 2008, focusing largely on the role played by Goldman Sachs in "creating and selling structured finance products" that had their customers betting in one direction while Goldman itself bet the other way. (Subcommittee Release)

• oil prices in the capital Kampala; tear gas is also fired by police to disperse protesters. (BBC) (Capital FM Kenya)
• A pro-
  Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni is kidnapped in the Gaza Strip by an Islamic Salafite group with threats to execute him within hours. (BBC) (Israel National News), (Antara)
• 2011 Libyan civil war. (New York Times)
• Shots are fired in the compound of the
  President of Burkina Faso Blaise Compaoré. (AFP via France24)

• Encyclopedia Dramatica shuts down and is replaced by "oh internet", provoking protests by 4chan members and former readers of the site. (Geekosystem)

• Broadmeadows due to falling demand for larger vehicles. (The Australian)

• Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant for the first time due to declining radiation levels. (AP)
• Two people are killed, one missing and four people critically injured after a tornado hits Atoka County in the US state of Oklahoma. (KTUL), (AP via MSNBC)

• North Korea confirms that it has detained a United States citizen Jun Young Su and is preparing to charge him with "committing a crime" against the country. (BBC)
• Leaders of
  Hainan Province. (Xinhua)
• Libya. (AP via Yahoo! News)

• Réjean Hinse, a Quebec man wrongly convicted of a crime in the 1960s before being acquitted by the Supreme Court of Canada 30 years later receives a record $13.1 million in compensation. (CBC)
• Anshan City. (Xinhua via CRI)

• Five months after his expulsion from the
  Whole Nation party, and announces plans to run for the 19th Knesset on a secular-religious unity platform. (Ynetnews)
• Prime Minister, and orders the release of protesters detained over past couple of weeks.(Al Jazeera)
• British Business Secretary
  immigration in which he spoke of reducing the number of immigrants into the UK from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands. He said the comments "risked inflaming extremism", although Cameron dismissed these concerns. (BBC)

• India and Pakistan resume sporting relations, frozen since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (Al Jazeera)

• cluster bombs in Misrata. (Reuters)
• 2011 Syrian protests: Police use tear gas to disperse tens of thousands of protesters in the capital Damascus. (BBC)
• 2011 Jordanian protests: Islamists clash with monarchists in the town of Zarqa. (Al Jazeera)
• 2010-2011 Algerian protests: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika addresses the nation and pledges reforms amid weeks of protests. (Al Jazeera)
• Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza City. (AP via Yahoo! News)
• A bomb explodes in a mosque in the Indonesian city of Cirebon in West Java with at least one person dead and seventeen injured. (Jakarta Globe)
• Blaise Compaore, President of Burkina Faso, who took power in a coup 24 years ago, reportedly flees a mutiny of his military bodyguards. (Al Jazeera)

• Australian artist Ben Quilty wins the Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist Margaret Olley. (The Canberra Times)^{[permanent dead link]} (AAP via ABC News)

• The
  Chinese economy grew by 9.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2011 while inflation was 5.4%, the highest level in nearly three years. (Reuters)
• Two
  antitrust violations. (Bernama)
• junk bond status. (Dow Jones via Wall Street Journal)
• antitrust issues, according to an unnamed source cited by Reuters. (Reuters)

• The
  Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. (Kyodo)
• Two people in Oklahoma and seven in Arkansas are killed by a strong tornado outbreak. (CNN) (UPI) (NewsOK)(BBC)
• Wildfires in Texas, United States destroy dozens of homes and kill a firefighter. (Dallas Morning News) (AP)

• Former Australian water polo player Keli Lane is jailed for 18 years for murdering her baby daughter Tegan Lane in 1996. (AFP via Channel News Asia)
• Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption arrests 11 Deutsche Bank staff, including two senior officials, for alleged involvement in a fraudulent trading case. (AFP via France24)
• Croatian military leaders Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač were convicted of war crimes (BBC)
• The U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan announces indictments in the case of United_States_v._Scheinberg, indicting the owners of the three largest online poker sites accepting U.S. players—PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker—on charges of bank fraud, gambling offenses, and money laundering. (ESPN)
• Karl Rodney, the organiser of controversial trips to the Caribbean by United States House of Representatives member Charles Rangel, is charged with lying to investigators about them. (New York Post)
• US actor Nicolas Cage is arrested in New Orleans for alleged domestic abuse battery, disturbing the peace and public drunkenness. (UPI)
• A Chinese student from Beijing studying at York University in Toronto is found dead after a male stalker entered her room to use a cell phone while she was chatting online via webcam to a friend in China; she was found undressed and her computer is missing. (AFP) (Montreal Gazette) (Global Post)

• The Australian Council of Trade Unions and Australian Workers' Union threatens to withdraw support for the Julia Gillard minority government's plans to introduce a carbon tax unless it can be guaranteed that no jobs will be lost. (Reuters)
• At a fundraiser, Barack Obama is caught on an open mic confronting Paul Ryan's record of creating the debt which he is now claiming to be trying to fix, among numerous other things. (ABC)

• Researchers in
  quantum information from one point to another in a Schrödinger's cat experiment. (ABC News Australia)

• US health officials report that 21 players on 13 National Basketball Association teams were sickened with the norovirus stomach virus last fall including Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic. (ESPN)

• Burkina Faso unrest
  • Hundreds of traders in Burkina Faso set fire to the ruling Congress for Democracy and Progress headquarters and ransack other government buildings, after mutinous soldiers looted their shops. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
  • The capital Ouagadougou is placed under curfew. (BBC)
• President Laurent Gbagbo, calls upon its supporters to end the unrest in the country after his arrest. (AFP via Google News)
• Arab Spring
  • 2011 Syrian protests
    • President Bashar al-Assad announces that the 48-year-old state of emergency law will be lifted next week. (Al Jazeera)
    • Pro-democracy protests continue in Syria. (Syrian Arab News Agency) (The Guardian)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war
    • Fighting intensifies in the western city of Misrata. (BBC)
    • Rebel forces advance towards the oil town of Brega. (Times of India)
  • 2011 Iranian protests
    • One person is killed in a second day of clashes between protesters and security forces in Ahvaz, western Iran. (Al Arabiya)
  • 2011 Jordanian protests
    • 70 Islamists are arrested after clashes with pro-monarchy groups in Zarqa and Rassifeh, Jordan. (Al Arabiya)
• Al-Barka, Basilan. (AP via The Guardian)
• The United Nations calls for an investigation after an Iraqi raid into an Iranian opposition Camp Ashraf which left 34 people dead. (AFP via Google News)
• Insurgency in Laos: A human rights group accuses Laos and Vietnam of killing four Hmong Christians. (Straits Times)

• Tornadoes kill several people in the US states of North Carolina and South Carolina with storms killing at least 20 people in the southern United States over the past few days. (CBS News), (Reuters)

• A
  LTTE in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. (PTI/The Hindu) (AFP/France 24)
• Los Zetas Cartel leader Martin Omar Estrada "El Kilo" Luna. (CNN)

• A 50,000-strong anti-government demonstration calling for snap elections takes place in Belgrade, Serbia, with leader of the opposition Serbian Progressive Party Tomislav Nikolić announcing he is to begin a hunger strike until new elections. (Deutsche Welle)
• Pro and anti-government rallies against corruption take place in Moscow, Russia. (RIA Novosti)
• Cuban President Raúl Castro proposes term limits for public office. (CNN)
• The ruling
  National Front coalition in Malaysia win an election in the country's largest state Sarawak. (Al Jazeera) (Bernama)
• An Egyptian court orders the dissolution of the former ruling National Democratic Party of Hosni Mubarak. (Reuters)
• A
  presidential election takes place in Nigeria. (iAfrica) (BBC)

• At least four people are shot dead by security forces during
  anti-government protests in Syria. (CBC) (AFP via Channel News Asia)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  • Rebel forces in Libya regain the town of Ajdabiya. (Al Jazeera)
  • Heavy fighting continues in Misrata with reports of seventeen people dying. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• Afghanistan. (AP via Atlanta Journal Constitution) (AP via Fox News)
• Fourteen people claimed to be responsible for shooting 52
  Sana’a in March are referred to the state prosecutor. (Al-Arabiya)

• China raises its bank reserves requirements as an anti-inflation move, an increase of 50 basis points (half of a percent) effective April 21. (Financial Times)
• Oman is to spend 1 billion rials in an attempt to prevent further anti-government protests. (IOL)

• The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Japan to announce US assistance for the recovery effort following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (BBC)
• More than forty people die in the tornado outbreak of April 14–16, 2011, with North Carolina being the worst affected state. (CNN)
• At least twelve people are killed in a severe storm in
  Guangdong Province. (The Telegraph)

• Police in
  Protestant church followers in Beijing. (AFP via Google News) (Hong Kong Standard)
• The
  True Finns, third-place finishers, emerging as a new major political party (39 seats). Biggest losers are the Centre Party (36 seats); coalition talks will probably be held between the Coalition, the True Finns and the Social Democrats (42 seats).(YLE)
• presidential election. (The Guardian)
• The
  Heyder Moslehi. (AFP via Google)

• The
  African Youth Championship begins in South Africa. (BBC)
• Lewis Hamilton of McLaren wins the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix. (Super Sport)
• Emmanuel Mutai wins the London Marathon, setting a new course record. (BBC)

• A 16-year-old
  Palestinian missile attack on his school bus on April 7 dies. (BBC) (Wikinews)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • Gaddafi's forces kill over 100 civilians in
    grad rocket attacks in the Nafusa Mountains of Libya. (Al Jazeera)
  • Gaddafi's forces commit
    mass rape of women in battle of Misrata. (The First Post) (Ottawa Citizen)
• Suspected
  Muslim insurgents detonate a bomb in southern Thailand, killing one and injuring 23 people. (Straits Times)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Eight killed in Syrian Protests. (BBC)
  • Syrian city of Homs "boiling" after deaths of 25 protesters. (Haaretz)
  • A Syrian officer is reportedly killed for his unwillingness to open fire at protesters. (Haaretz)
• Suicide bombing in Iraq kills 9 and wounds 25. (BBC)

• Storms in
  China, kill at least 18 people and leave 150 injured. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• A landslide kills 10 people in Indonesia's East Java province. (Jakarta Post) (The Hindu)
• 14 people killed in mudslide in Colombia. (BBC)

• An anti-piracy conference opens in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Al Jazeera)

• Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye is arrested during a protest against high food and fuel prices in the capital Kampala. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)

• 2011 Boston Marathon
  • Geoffrey Matai of Kenya sets a new record for the fastest time to run the Boston Marathon, completing its 26-mile course with a time of 2:03:02. (New York Times)

• Hamas fatally shoots two of the suspects in last week's murder of Italian pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • NATO and the civilian council of Misrata request ground troops to protect the city of Misrata from Gaddafi's forces, after NATO admits it is unable to stop the artillery shelling of Misrata. (Hotair)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Thousands of anti-government protesters occupy and start a sit-in at Al-Saa Square in Homs, the third largest city in Syria. (BBC)
  • President
    Assad lifts the 48-year controversial state of emergency following demands by protests. (AlJazeera) (BBC)
• 2011 Yemeni protests
  :
  • The United Nations Security Council meets to discuss as the Yemen government killing of the people protesting continues. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Egyptian revolution:
  • Long-time intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is questioned about the Hosni Mubarak regime's attacks on the people of Egypt. (Al Jazeera)
• U.S. serviceman
  Bradley Manning is moved by officials to a military prison in Kansas amid increased international concerns about the U.S. military's policy of forcing him to strip naked in his cell and taking away his clothes. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Three kindergarteners are wounded after a gun goes off in a school cafeteria in the U.S. state of Texas. The gun was brought to the school by a six-year-old child. (BBC) (The Guardian) (South Africa Star) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (AP via Los Angeles Times) (Houston ABC 13)

• Seagate Technology, a California based manufacturer of hard disk drives (HDDs), buys the HDD division of Samsung, to create an entity with a combined HDD market share of 40 percent. (Reuters).

• Devastating fire in
  Makati City squatter community. (Inquirer) (Mindanao Examiner) (AP via Greenfield Daily Reporter)
• A donation campaign raises less money than expected towards a newer containment shell at Chernobyl. (Al Jazeera)

• British prime minister David Cameron sets out to block his predecessor Gordon Brown's attempt to take the £270,000 per year role of head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). (The Guardian)
• Georgia annuls a military transit treaty with Russia, which allowed the latter access to its military base in Armenia.(Civil Georgia)

• 14th General Election which is to be held on 7 May 2011. (Channel News Asia) (Channel News Asia)
• Fidel Castro resigns from the Cuban Communist Party's central committee, formalising his gradual retreat from the spotlight that started in 2006. (Euronews.net)
• An error by an American air traffic controller leads to the plane carrying Michelle Obama of the United States to come two miles too close to another plane near Washington, D.C. (BBC)

• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • Renowned photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros are killed and four others injured in Misrata. (CBC)
  • France and Italy are to send military officers to Libya to train rebels. (IBN Live)
• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • Protests continue in Syria despite the lifting of the state of emergency law. (Al Jazeera)
  • Opposition figure Mahmud Issa is arrested after giving a television interview. (Times of India)
• 2011 Yemeni protests
  :
  • The United Nations Security Council fails to come up with an agreed public statement at its first meeting to discuss the crisis in Yemen as violence continues. (BBC)
• Second Ivorian Civil War
  • Pro-Ouattara forces attempt to remove remaining militia loyal to deposed President Laurent Gbagbo. (AFP via Google News)

• Two prominent
  Chinese human rights lawyers Jiang Tianyong and Liu Xiaoyuan are released. (BBC) (Angola Press) (Al Jazeera)

• presidential election held on 16 April. (This Day Live)

• 2011 Libyan civil war
  :
  • Muammar Gaddafi's forces continue to use artillery shelling against civilians and rebels in Misrata. Rebels from the Nafusa Mountains region capture Libya's west border, where over 100 loyalist soldiers surrender to Tunisian authorities after being chased out by rebels. (Al Jazeera)
  • United States Secretary of Defense
    predator drones to combat Muammar Gaddafi's forces. (The New York Times)
• Sri Lanka asks the United Nations not to publish a report on alleged war crimes. (Straits Times) (Hindustan Times)
• Apple / Google smartphone tracking:
  • U.S. Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sends Apple chief executive Steve Jobs a letter asking him to explain the purpose of a file embedded on iPhones and iPads that keeps a detailed log of the devices' location. (Los Angeles Times)
  • The controversy escalates as some governments announce an intent to investigate any violation of privacy laws. (The New York Times)

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fines Brian Hunter $30 million for trades in which he engaged on behalf of Amaranth Advisors in the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2006 that manipulated the value of natural gas futures. (Bloomberg)

• Prominent
  Cu Huy Ha Vu appeals his sentence for "anti-state propaganda". (Straits Times)
• Protests take place in Uganda after the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye during a demonstration. (Al Jazeera) (Reuters) (Daily Monitor)
• Chinese truck drivers stage a second day of protests in Shanghai at rising inflation. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
• Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's name is to be removed from all public places including schools and streets by order of an Egyptian court. (Al Jazeera)
• U.S. Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, announces his resignation from his Senate seat effective May 3, due to allegations he had an affair with the wife of a member of his staff. (Bloomberg)

• Cambodia and Thailand exchange fire across their mutual border; with casualties on both sides. (The Hindu) (Bangkok Post) (BBC)
• 3 people are killed and 3 others are wounded as a result of a blast in a factory in the Gaza Strip. (AFP via Google News) (PNN)
• Arab Spring
  • 2011 Syrian protests: At least 88 people are killed as a result of police firing at massive "Great Friday" anti-government protests across the country, the deadliest day of protest there yet. (Al Jazeera) (Press TV)
  • Sana'a. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Press TV)
  • 2011 Omani protests: Thousands of protesters demonstrate in pro-reform protests in Oman. (The National) (Al Jazeera) (Press TV)
  • 2011 Bahraini protests: Non-governmental organisations call upon Bahrain to end a crackdown on doctors and patients who joined anti-government protests. (Reuters) (BBC) (Press TV)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war: The head of America's military says the war is moving towards stalemate, even after its air strikes destroy 30-40 per cent of Libya's ground forces. American senator John McCain visits Benghazi. (BBC)
  • 2011 Egyptian revolution: The detention of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is extended by a further 15 days. (The Times of India) (Al Jazeera)
• Amid a protest against the construction of a new Tesco superstore in the Stokes Croft area of the English city of Bristol, 9 people are arrested and 8 police officers are injured. (BBC)
• A farmer in
  Los Pozos, Veracruz, Mexico opens fire outside a local church after its Good Friday sermon, killing a woman and two children. (WLOS)

• Good Friday celebrations occur internationally. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Times of India) (Malaysia Star) (BBC)
• 24 Filipinos are nailed to crosses in to
  ongoing incidents there. (Daily Mail)
• Pope Benedict XVI becomes the first pontiff to take part in a televised question-and-answer session, a pre-recorded programme for Italian television. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• The Weakest Link, prompting the BBC to end the quiz show. (The Guardian)

• Dozens of people are feared dead in a landslide in the southern Philippines. (Xinhua) (BBC)
• The United Nations says children in drought-infected Somalia are suffering some of the highest malnutrition rates in the world. (BBC)
• yen emergency budget to deal with the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country last month. (BBC)

• France calls for changes to the Schengen Agreement after Italy allows people from Tunisia and Libya into the passport-free Schengen Area. (BBC)
• New research reveals Apple and Google are running their iPhone and Android software to build gigantic databases from owners' movements as governments move to investigate. (The Guardian) (Xinhua) (The New York Times)

• Canadian federal election, 2011 coincides with Easter. (CBC News) (CBC News)

• Cambodia and Thailand clash on their border. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Arab Spring
  • 2011 Syrian protests
    :
    • At least twelve people are killed by security forces during funerals. (Reuters)
    • The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemns the killing by the government of at least 300 people since mid-March. (RIA Novosti)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war: The United States Air Force confirms an air strike by a predator drone in Misrata. (BBC) (CBC)
  • 2011 Yemeni protests
    • President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen agrees to step down under a 30-day transition plan to end increasingly violent unrest over his rule. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

• The guest list for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton is announced. (CNN) (BBC)

• Police in
  China raid a Tibetan monastery in Sichuan, killing two people according to a rights group. (BBC) (Radio Television Hong Kong)

• More than 500 people are killed in Nigeria. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Military clashes kill 57 people in Sudan. (CNN) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• NATO fires on Iranian fishermen, wounding them and killing some civilians. (Press TV)
• At least 4 people are wounded at the entrance of a Catholic church after Easter Mass in Baghdad. (BBC)
• A group of 15
  Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat was killed.(The Jerusalem Post) (Ynet)
• After the shooting, Ynet reports "
  Palestinian sources reported local Palestinian youths gathered around the Joseph Tomb's compound shortly after the incident and set it on fire." (Ynet) (The Jerusalem Post)
• Arab Spring:
  • Beji Caid el Sebsi, a link with the old guard brought down in January's popular revolution, and the prosecution of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia after being ousted, on charges such as murder and drug-trafficking. (Press TV)
  • 2011 Syrian protests: Police and soldiers open fire from rooftops in Jabla, killing and injuring nearby people; no protest was taking place at the time. An independent investigation is urged into Friday's massacre of close to 100 people as well as Saturday's killings of mourners at the funerals. (BBC) (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011 Moroccan protests: Thousands of people participate in massive peaceful demonstrations against the government on streets across Morocco, calling for an end to corruption and torture. (Press TV) (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011 Saudi Arabian protests: Amid demonstrations by the unemployed, women protesters gather to demand a vote but are defeated and rounded up by authorities. (Press TV)
  • 2011 Yemeni protests: Mass protests continue nationwide in defiance of the Saleh regime's claims the country's leader is to soon resign from his 32-year rule; protesters demand his immediate removal from power. (BBC) (CNN) (Al Jazeera) (Press TV)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war: Deaths continue to climb in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata, while Spanish photojournalist Manu Brabo telephones his parents from the military prison in which he is being held in Tripoli. (CNN) (BBC)
  • 2011 Egyptian revolution: Hosni Mubarak, ousted from the presidency by popular revolution in February, is to be moved to a military hospital in Cairo amid pressure to have him stand trial over corruption and the killing of protesters. (BBC) (Press TV) (Al Jazeera)

• ongoing events in Libya to a peaceful conclusion. (BBC)
• a popular uprising among his own people against his father's long-running rule. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

• At least 10 people are killed due to floods and landslides brought on by torrential rain in Rio Grande do Sul. (BBC)
• A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits southeastern Sulawesi in Indonesia. (Reuters Africa) (NPR)^{[permanent dead link]}
• Flooding on the Red River of the North forces the evacuation of the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation community in Manitoba. (Winnipeg Sun)

• vote of no confidence. Serge Vohor becomes the new Prime Minister of Vanuatu. ^[1]
• In the
  vote on the issue. (BBC)

• Scottish football:
  • UK police express relief after an Old Firm match between Celtic and Rangers plays out without descending into expected violence related to parcel bombs sent amid increasing sectarian tensions. (The New York Times) (The Irish Times) (The Guardian)
  • Celtic manager Neil Lennon is reported to the Strathclyde Police after making a gesture, but police announce they will not pursue the matter. (The Guardian)

• Guantanamo Files: (The Guardian) (WikiLeaks) (Al Jazeera)
  • Afghans and Pakistanis, children, elderly and mentally ill, before later being released without charge. (The Guardian) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • The cables show the United States relied on the internationally widely available
    Casio F91W digital watch as "the sign of al-Qaida" and as "evidence" to imprison its captives in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (The Guardian)
  • Staff at Guantánamo Bay were instructed that any Muslim traveling to Afghanistan after 11 September 2001 was likely to have gone there "to support Osama bin Laden through direct hostilities against the US forces", with any other reasons being dismissed as "total fabrications", making it difficult for the interrogated to plead their innocence. (The Guardian)
  • Details of U.S. collaboration with at least 10 foreign
    Uighurs or Uzbeks. (The Guardian)
  • A British resident, an organiser of hunger strikes imprisoned for nine years without trial and whose release has been repeatedly requested by William Hague, remains locked up in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. (The Guardian)
  • Details of how an al-Qaeda-linked militant duped Canadian intelligence agents also emerge. (The Globe and Mail)
  • It is disclosed that an Al Jazeera journalist imprisoned by the United States at Guantánamo for six years was interrogated about the news network. He claims to have been beaten and sexually assaulted. (The Guardian)
  • The controversial detention in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp of anti-extremist author Abdul Badr Mannan emerges. (The Guardian)
  • It emerges that the
    Libyan Civil War fought for the Taliban against the Soviet Union and served as Osama bin Laden's driver in Sudan. (The Straits Times)
  • The U.S. government "strongly condemns" international media outlets, specifically The New York Times, for publishing the files it had wanted to keep secret. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Arab Spring
  • 2011
    Libyan Civil War
    :
    • off-the-air. (BBC)
    • At least 45 people are wounded, with others missing, following a strike by warplanes on Muammar Gaddafi's Tripoli compound as NATO conducted the raid. (Press TV) (Reuters)
    • Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov calls for an immediate ceasefire. (Press TV)
  • 2011 Syrian protests:
    • An operation by security and military forces takes place in the city of Daraa. (BBC) (CNN)
    • Protestors claim that at least 25 people have been killed in the Daraa crackdown with the Jordanian border closed. (USA Today)
• Violence in Nigeria:
  • A Nigerian
    presidential election. (NgEX)
  • Three bombs explode in the northeastern city of Maiduguri killing three people, in an attack blamed on the Islamist sect Boko Haram. (BBC)
• Cambodian and Thai troops exchange fire for a fourth consecutive day. (Al Jazeera)
• cyberattack (Stuxnet previously) has been attempted via Stars, a computer worm. (UPI) (Al Jazeera)

• Poly Styrene, founding Punk vocalist, dies in England of breast cancer at age 53. (New York Times)
• Australia and New Zealand mark Anzac Day. Events occur in Afghanistan, France, Turkey and Vietnam, while Julia Gillard heads to South Korea. (BBC)
• The death occurs of Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas, one of Latin America's greatest modern writers. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (AFP via Google News) (Fox News)

• Disneyland Paris closes its Thunder Mountain ride after a piece of scenery falls on one of the carriages. (Reuters)
• Nintendo's annual profits slump. (BBC)

• At least 17 people are killed and at least 24 others are injured as a four-storey building goes up in flames in
  Daxing, a suburb of Beijing. (BBC) (Xinhua)
• A human cannonball performer is killed in public in Kent, England, UK. (BBC)
• The
  Governor of Arkansas Mike Beebe declares a state of emergency following heavy storms including tornadoes hit the US state of Arkansas with at least two people dead and 100,000 without power. (Arkansas Online), (Reuters)
• The Governor of Kentucky Steve Beshear declares a state of emergency due to rising flood waters from the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

• A Kazakh UNESCO official attempts to hijack a plane and divert it to Tripoli, Libya. (RIA Novosti)
• A court in Bangladesh clears Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus of misappropriating Norwegian aid money at a micro-finance bank he founded. (The Times of India)
• King & Spalding, a prominent Atlanta-based law firm, withdraws from litigation on behalf of the Defense of Marriage Act, and partner Paul Clement resigns in protest. (Reuters)
• Nearly 500 prisoners, many of them
  Sarposa prison. (The Globe and Mail) (AP via Yahoo! News)
• The
  war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War. (UN News Centre) (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Australian)

• About 700 anti-nuclear activists hold a
  Fukushima I nuclear accidents in Japan. (The Telegraph)
• Haiti's election results are delayed "out of concern for transparency". (BBC)

• Nintendo announces its intention to launch the Wii 2 in a bid to increase its profits as sales of the Wii decline. (BBC) (Reuters via IOL)

• Arab Spring:
  • 2011 Syrian protests
    :
    • The Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah claims that the Government of Syria has arrested 500 protesters since the crackdown began. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
    • UK, French and Italian officials call for sanctions against Syria. (BBC)
    • Syria sends more troops into suburbs of
      Deraa. (Reuters)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war: At least three people are killed by missiles at a port as Misrata is attacked by Muammar Gaddafi's forces. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011 Mauritanian protests: Hundreds of people demonstrating during a "day of rage" against the regime of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz are tear gassed by police, while others are arrested and opposition MPs deterred from joining the protests. (BBC)
  • 2011 Bahraini protests
    :
    • Hundreds of students gather outside the United Nations building in Tehran, Iran, to protest against government suppression of students in Bahrain. (Press TV)
    • Activists allege that medical workers have been arrested for treating anti-government protesters. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011 Egyptian revolution: Former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly goes on trial charged with ordering the killing of unarmed protesters shot in the head and chest during the popular revolution against Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Guantanamo Bay files leak:
  • Newly released cables document an alleged
    Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) while suspected of bombing Christian churches and a hotel in Pakistan. (BBC) (PA via The Independent)
  • A study, carried out by a retired army brigadier general and a Physicians for Human Rights expert, finds United States Department of Defense physicians and psychologists concealed evidence of deliberate harm and torture at the prison camp; the Department of Defense does not respond. (AFP via Montreal Gazette)
  • The
    Al Qaeda. (AFP via Google News)
  • An international poll finds that a majority of people believe that
    criminal. (Reuters)

• U.S. television personality Katie Couric announces that she will no longer host the CBS Evening News at the end of June. (USA Today)
• superinjunction after Private Eye launches a challenge, though Marr states he "did not come into journalism to go around gagging journalists". (The Guardian)
• The
  gay pride rally in May. (AFP via Google News)

• Management and unions confirm
  another France Télécom worker has committed suicide. (BBC)
• Groupe Lactalis launches a 3.4 billion euro bid for Italian dairy group Parmalat. (BBC)
• budget deficit for 2010 is 10.5% of gross domestic product, significantly higher than expected. (Wall Street Journal)

• Ukraine commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. (AP via Houston Chronicle) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos calls for national unity after floods kill 91 people. (CNN)
• Thousands of residents in the US town of
  Black River overflows its banks. (AP)
• Authorities in Ecuador evacuate nearby residents as the Tungurahua erupts. (CNN)

• In
  Kars, Turkey, near the Armenian border, a statue devoted to reconciliation with Armenia is demolished. (BBC)
• President of France Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi meet to discuss what to do about migrants from North Africa who want to join relatives, with reports that the Schengen Agreement is to be amended so the two can deal with the issue. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Iranian first vice president
  Mohammad-Reza Rahimi meets with Japanese ambassador to Iran Kinichi Kumano, with Rahimi expressing sympathy in relation to the recent earthquake and tsunami and asking for stronger ties between the countries. (Press TV)
• Officials from
  dialogue over their respective economies. (BBC)
• Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Martti Ahtisaari and Gro Harlem Brundtland head to North Korea. (BBC) (RTÉ) (Al Jazeera)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Preparations for a 15-boat, 1,500-person flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip take place. (AP via Google News)
  • Ahmet Davutoğlu of Turkey warns Israel not to repeat its "flotilla mistake". (Ynetnews)
  • Foreign minister Uri Rosenthal writes a letter to the Dutch parliament, urging Dutch NGOs not to join the flotilla. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

• U.S. president
  Bradley Manning for interfering in any future trial after Obama is caught on camera accusing Manning of breaking the law. (AFP via Google News) (MSNBC)
• An Indian court orders Suresh Kalmadi, the chief organiser of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to remain in custody while corruption charges against him are investigated. (Straits Times)

• TEPCO head office in Tokyo. (AFP via Google News)
• Belgium reaches one year without a government. (BBC) (China Daily) (News24)
• Germany's plagiarism scandal widens, engulfing the European Parliament's vice president Silvana Koch-Mehrin accused of plagiarizing 25 per cent of her doctoral thesis; she refuses to comment. (The Independent)
• American politics:
  • Republican nomination for President of the United States. (National Journal)
  • New Jersey's Secretary of State rejects former Olympic medallist Carl Lewis's bid to run for the state Senate due to eligibility requirements. (BBC)
• Voters in Nigeria go to the polls for state governor elections. (CNN)
• Counting begins in elections for the 24th Seanad in Ireland. (The Irish Times) (RTÉ) (Irish Independent)

• The deadline to buy tickets for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England is extended due to a last-minute computer crash. (The Telegraph)

• Sony's PlayStation Network remains offline after a worldwide security breach obtains millions of users' personal information. (PlayStation Blog)

• Arab Spring:
  • Sana'a and elsewhere as protests against the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime continue. (The Daily Telegraph) (BBC) (Reuters via France24)
  • 2011 Bahraini protests: Students rally across Iran to protest against the silent response of the United Nations to the crackdown on peaceful demonstrations by the Bahraini government (with the assistance of Saudi Arabia). (Press TV)
  • 2011 Syrian protests: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom summon Syrian ambassadors to condemn the government's recent violent crackdown on people protesting against the Bashar al-Assad regime. (BBC)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war: A team from the United Nations (UN) arrives in Tripoli to investigate the Libyan government's crackdown on people protesting. (BBC)
• North Sinai near Egypt's border with Israel with an armed group believed responsible. (BBC) (AP via AM1150) (Haaretz)
• Troops from Thailand and Cambodia exchange gunfire for the sixth straight day as the death toll from the conflict during the period reaches fourteen. (BBC)
• BP discovers a German naval mine from World War II near pipelines in the North Sea near Peterhead, Scotland with removal of the bomb likely to lead to the temporary closure of 16 oil fields and a consequent rise in the price of oil. (The Guardian)
• President Alassane Ouattara. (BBC)

• Nearly half a million people gather in the Indian town of Puttaparthi for the funeral of religious leader Sathya Sai Baba. (BBC)
• Alejandro Chaskielberg is announced as the Sony world photographer of the year (L'Iris D'Or) after spending two years capturing islanders living on the Paraná Delta in Argentina. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Der Spiegel)

• Julian Assange confirms the presence of Indian names in the Swiss bank data list about to be made public and that the names come from "the U.S., Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia — from all over" including "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates — from both sides of the Atlantic". (The Hindu)
• In an unprecedented question and answer meeting with reporters, the U.S.
  chairman Ben Bernanke expects less economic growth for 2011 as the economy has been weaker in recent months than he had thought it would be. (BBC)
• Standard & Poor's cuts Japan's debt outlook to negative. (Bloomberg)
• The
  interest rates. (ABC News)
• US company Johnson & Johnson agrees to buy Synthes for $21.3 billion in cash and stock. (Bloomberg)
• President of France Nicolas Sarkozy endorses Mario Draghi to become next President of the European Central Bank, to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet. (Business Week)

• Emperor of Japan Akihito and Empress Michiko visit areas worst-affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (AFP via News Limited)
• A train overturns on the Alishan Forest Railway near the town of Alishan in Taiwan resulting in at least five deaths and forty injuries. (CBC News)
• Southeast US storms
  • Two
    wedge tornado crossing over the state of Alabama and affecting the Gadsden Metropolitan Area. (Birmingham News)
  • Extreme storms in Alabama cause the temporary closure of three Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear reactors and knocking out eleven high-voltage power lines. (Reuters)
  • The Downtown Tuscaloosa tornado passes over the
    Bryant-Denny Stadium.(Times Daily) (The State)^{[permanent dead link]} (WAFF)
  • At least 54 people have died in the storms of Tuesday and Wednesday with 40 people dead in Alabama, five in Mississippi and one in Arkansas. (Montgomery News) (BBC) (Reuters via Yahoo News) (CNN) (AFP via Google News) (Fox News)
  • Storms cause numerous power outages in Alabama; more than 176,000 in Birmingham, Alabama are left without electricity. (CBS42)
  • At least 9 people are killed in Mississippi by the outbreak. (Clarion Ledger)^{[permanent dead link]}
  • Tornado watches affect areas from Northern
    Georgia to Upstate New York. (ABC 40)^{[permanent dead link]} (News Channel 7)^{[permanent dead link}
    ]
  • A local National Weather Service building is evacuated as a tornado passes over its radar site and it temporarily switches operations to Mobile in the same state of Alabama.
  • Reports of gas leaks from Birmingham, Alabama. (Al.com)

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
  • Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructs his inner cabinet to continue diplomatic efforts to thwart an upcoming aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
  • Rival
    Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah sign a unity deal, calling for the foundation of a single government in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of the West Bank, presidential and legislative elections in a year, and the release of prisoners. (Ynetnews), (Palestine News Network)
• The
  South East Asia to discuss economic issues. (Bloomberg)

• Bradley Manning after Obama is caught on camera accusing Manning of breaking the law. (Huffington Post)

• Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration, replacing the 5th Samdhong Rinpoche. (AP)
• The
  election. (Channel News Asia)
• In response to
  Republican primary candidate Donald Trump and others, President of the United States Barack Obama releases his long-form birth certificate, certifying his birth in the state of Hawaii. (Fox News)
• Governor Brian Sandoval of Nevada appoints US Congressman Dean Heller to replace Senator John Ensign. (BBC)

• Duncan Fletcher is appointed as the coach of the India national cricket team. (ESPN)

• offline after a worldwide security breach obtains 77 million of users' personal information, making this the largest breach of personal information in history. (PlayStation.com)

• Arab Spring:
  • 2011 Bahraini protests
    :
    • Bahraini forces fire live rounds at civilians in
      poison gas against civilians. (Press TV)
    • A Bahraini military court passes its first verdicts on Bahrain's uprising, sentencing four protesters to death and three to life imprisonment for their part in a pro-democracy rally last month. (The Hindu) (The Globe and Mail) (Al Jazeera) (The Daily Telegraph) (Newsday) (Los Angeles Times) (BBC)
    • The King of Saudi Arabia cancels his trip to Bahrain over fears that the people of Bahrain may become irritated by his presence after he assisted in the regime's violent crackdown. (Tehran Times)
    • Protests get underway outside Buckingham Palace in London against Bahrain's "torture service" official Sheikh Khalifa Bin Ali al-Khalifa's presence for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. (The Guardian)
    • The UK's
      Oxford Aviation Academy suspends 7 trainee airline pilots after the Bahraini regime orders that they be sent home immediately for participating in a peaceful demonstration in London against their government's attacks on civilians. (The Guardian)
    • The dispute over the 2011 Bahrain Grand Prix, postponed in February as it coincided with the protests, takes another twist when Bernie Ecclestone proposes an extension to the 1 May deadline for a final decision concerning its happening. (The Daily Telegraph) (The Globe and Mail)
  • 2011 Syrian uprising
    :
    • More than 200 members of
      President Bashar al-Assad's repression of protesters. (The Telegraph)
    • Syrian ambassador to the United Kingdom Dr Sami Khiyami's invitation to tomorrow's wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton is withdrawn after British officials deem it "inappropriate" for him to attend as a crackdown on dissent continues. Khiyami describes it as all "a bit embarrassing". (BBC)
  • 2011 Libyan civil war: A NATO airstrike kills at least 11 people rising up against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the besieged Libyan port of Misrata. (BBC)
  • Sanaa. (Al Jazeera)
• Former U.S. president
  Kim Jong-il is willing to hold unconditional talks with South Korea, though current U.S. officials dismiss the visit of their former president to North Korea as "strictly private". (BBC)
• Djemaa el-Fna square. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• At least 6 people are killed and at least 15 others are injured in a suicide attack in Baladruz, Iraq. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• At least 2 people are killed when a bomb explodes on a Pakistan Navy bus taking employees to work in Karachi. (AP via MSNBC)
• Protesters riot in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, after the arrest of the opposition leader, Kizza Besigye for the fourth time in two weeks. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Thailand announces that it will send more troops to its border with Cambodia after a seventh day of fighting near the disputed Preah Vihear Temple that has killed 15 people. (Reuters) (AP via Yahoo News)
• U.S. president
  war on Afghanistan, as his new CIA chief, and names outgoing CIA chief Leon Panetta as head of The Pentagon. (BBC)
• U.S. retail giant
  Wal-Mart vows increased sales of weapons, including rifles and shotguns. (BBC) (CNN)

• Timothy J. Roemer saying he is "deeply disappointed". Roemer resigns from his post. (BBC)
• Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir vows not to recognise South Sudan if it tries to claim oil-producing Abyei. (BBC)
• Japan's industrial output declined by a record level of 15.3% in March due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (BBC News)
• Panasonic Corporation will announce cuts to 40,000 jobs according to reports. (Reuters)
• Banks in
  Côte d'Ivoire reopen after ten weeks, leading to thousands of people queuing. (BBC)
• Exelon Corp., the top nuclear power concern in the United States
  , announces a deal to buy

Constellation Energy Group in a stock swap valued at $7.9 billion. (Reuters)

• Renowned Swiss climber Erhard Loretan is killed after falling off a mountain in the Swiss Alps on his 52nd birthday. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• 2011 Super Outbreak:
  • Seven US states declare a state of emergency following heavy storms including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma. (AFP via News Limited) (New York Daily News)
  • The death toll from the storms reaches 290 with 194 dead in Alabama. (New York Times) (ABC News)

• Israeli officials say they will refuse to deal with the Palestinian unity government composed of Fatah and Hamas because Hamas has carried out bombings and rocket attacks against Israel for years and does not recognise its right to exist.(The Jerusalem Post) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)

• The
  heart disease, cancer and diabetes are the leading cause of death in the world causing more than 36 million deaths in 2008. (BBC News)
• The skeleton of a girl thought to have been stabbed to death by Roman soldiers is discovered in Kent, England, UK. (BBC)

• Foxtel and the Seven Network agree to pay $1.253 billion over five years to broadcast Australian Football League matches. (AAP via News Limited)
• The US
  2011 draft starts in Radio City Music Hall in New York City. (Sports Illustrated)

• 2011 Syrian uprising
  :
  • A "Day of Rage" is set to get underway in Syria as the popular uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime continues. (BBC)
  • Security forces shut off Daraa's water supply and electricity, and begin confiscating food, in an effort to starve the people of the city. (News24) (Al Jazeera)
  • At least 62 people are killed as scores of people die in the "Day of Rage". (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
  • The
    Human Rights Council condemns Syria for using deadly force against peaceful protesters and calls for an investigation into the killing of civilians and other alleged crimes; China, Russia and Pakistan vote against measures as "meddling in Syria's internal affairs".(The Jerusalem Post)
• 2011 Yemeni protests
  :
  • 100,000 people march through central
    Sanaa in one of the largest protests yet to have taken place against the Saleh regime, with protesters demanding that he resign immediately rather than wait for the phased handover of power he has orchestrated. (Al Jazeera)
• Protests in Bahrain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia
  :
  • Thousands march across Bahrain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in defiance of yesterday's death sentences handed down to anti-government protesters by the ruling Bahraini regime, with people in Lahore (Pakistan) carrying symbolic coffins in solidarity. (Al Jazeera)
• 2011 Libyan civil war in Tunisia
  :
  • 2011 Libyan civil war over the border into Tunisia, prompting complaints from the Tunisian foreign ministry. (BBC) (PA via Google News)
  • NATO reports it has intercepted Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the act of laying mines in Misrata as Tunisia successfully captures some of the troops who have brought the Libyan civil war onto its territory. (BBC)
• 2011 Moroccan protests
  :
  • People gather to demonstrate against terrorism in Marrakesh. (Al Jazeera)
• Riots take place in the Ugandan capital Kampala after opposition leader Kizza Besigye is attacked, leaving two people dead and dozens injured. (AFP via Google News) (Reuters)

• The
  Tribeca Film Festival. (BBC)
• The Vatican brings Pope John Paul II's coffin out from below St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in preparation for his beatification. (BBC)
• Catherine Middleton takes place in Westminster Abbey; Middleton becomes HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. Police make at least 18 arrests along the wedding route in London. (The New York Times) (Al Jazeera) (Daily Mirror) (BBC) (Sky News)

• Air India pilots continue a strike for a third successive day with 120 flights cancelled. (Hindustan Times)
• Unemployment figures in Spain increase to a 14-year high; nearly 5,000,000 people are unemployed. (BBC)
• Demand for Samsung Electronics products plummets again, with the company only managing net profits of $2.6 billion for the first three months of 2011. (BBC)

• At least 43 people are killed and others are missing after a minibus of mourners falls from a ferry on the
  River Nile. (BBC)
• The death toll for the 2011 Super Outbreak in the United States reaches 300. (Fox Alabama)

• PLO to withdraw its recognition of Israel’s right to exist in response to Israel’s opposition to the reconciliation deal between his movement and Fatah. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Egypt's interim foreign minister
  Nabil al-Arabi vows to permanently open the country's Rafah Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip, branding the Mubarak regime's support for the previous blockade and assisting of Israel in implementing it as "disgraceful". (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• 22,000 residents of the
  United States Airforce base at night and demand compensation from the Government of Japan. (Japan Times)

• Police report violence in an
  early morning protest against controversial retailer Tesco. (BBC) (Jack FM) (Avon and Somerset Constabulary)
• Veteran former French right-wing interior minister
  Arkady Gaydamak and French magnate Pierre Falcone are cut. (BBC)
• Australian Defence Force Academy sex scandal: 2 cadets are charged with misusing an electronic communications service and an indecent act after the secret filming of a woman engaging in sexual intercourse is broadcast on the internet. (BBC)
• Ombudsman of the Philippines Merceditas Gutierrez resigns. Politicians previously voted to impeach her. (BBC)
• Three people are shot dead and another three injured following a siege in the South Australian city of Adelaide in the suburb of Hectorville. (ABC News Australia)
• A ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court in the United States could lead to 30 prisoners serving life sentences for murder being freed early, if a parole board considers them to be capable of rehabilitation. (Oregon Live)

• Take-off of the Space Shuttle Endeavour for its final mission is postponed due to technical problems. (BBC)

• The French Football Federation (FFF) announces an internal inquiry over allegations of a secret racial quota targeting blacks and Arabs and supported by its own officials. (BBC News)

• Disney Junior's Royal Wedding Week: A Modern Fairytale with Imagination Movers, Enchanted, Aladdin and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

• 2011 Syrian protests
  :
  • The Syrian army continues its assault on the city of
    Deraa using tanks and snipers. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Libyan Civil War
  :
  • Libyan Civil War but it must apply to both sides. Muammar Gaddafi has made such claims before but each time he failed to uphold one. (Al Jazeera)
  • Gaddafi's government attempts to block deliveries to
    naval mines, which are in the process of being removed by NATO. (BBC)
  • Gaddafi's youngest son, Saif al-Arab Gaddafi, is killed in a NATO airstrike, according to the Libyan government, along with three of the leaders' grandchildren. (Al Jazeera), (BBC), (New York Times)
  • Gaddafi has supplied
    United States Ambassador to the United Nations, has alleged. (The Hindu)
• Oddar Meanchey Province marking the ninth straight day of border clashes. (Xinhua) (AFP via Google News)
• Marrakech was set off remotely. (Angola Press)

• A study carried out by the Danish Booksellers Association reveals almost one third of Danes over the age of 14 read at least one book annually written in the English language. (The Copenhagen Post)
• The official wedding photos for the
  Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine Middleton by Hugo Bernand are published online. (Official Royal Wedding)

• The recent US tornado outbreak becomes the second deadliest single day tornado event in US history with at least 340 people dead. (CNN)

• Yeonpyeong Island near North Korea. (The Australian)

• Army intelligence analyst
  Bradley Manning, imprisoned by the United States on charges of disclosing government information to the general public, is found competent to stand trial by a "panel of experts", despite having earlier been thought of as a "suicide risk" and having his clothes removed. (The Hindu)
• 6 major U.S. tobacco companies, accused of delivering an "unreasonably dangerous" product, defeat a lawsuit taken by 37 hospitals in the U.S. state of Missouri. The hospitals were looking for financial assistance with the treatment of illnesses caused by smoking. (BBC) (Bloomberg / The Irish Times)

• Ministers in Uganda disagree over the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. (Daily Nation)
• Current U.S. officials and former president Jimmy Carter disagree over allegations that the U.S. is deliberately keeping food aid from North Korea despite severe food shortages among people there. (BBC)

• The French Football Federation's national technical director Francois Blaquart is suspended in the wake of the trainee racial quota scandal targeting blacks and Arabs. (BBC News)