Portal Current events 2017 April 19
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April 19, 2017 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- South Thailand insurgency
- Joint bomb and gun attacks kill at least two in Narathiwat, Pattani, and Songkhla Provinces of Thailand, the latest in a long string of such attacks. (Reuters)
- Kamwina Nsapu rebellion
- At least 17 new mass graves are discovered by United Nations investigators in Kasaï-Central, Democratic Republic of the Congo, mostly around the town of Tshimbulu. (Al Jazeera)
Business and economics
- 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News, announces the firing of Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly. (CNN) (BBC)
- Citing a drop in demand, the Dubai-based, United Arab Emirates-owned airline Emirates Air announces a cut in flights to five of its 12 U.S. destinations. The airline’s Dubai hub, third-busiest in the world, is a major stop for travelers in countries affected by President Donald Trump’s travel ban, and is also one of several Middle East airports affected by a U.S. ban on tablets, laptops, and similar devices in the passenger cabin. (Los Angeles Times)
Disasters and accidents
- At least 17 people are killed after an Andean landslide strikes the Colombian city of Manizales. (Reuters) (Reuters via The Telegraph)
- Four Hellenic Army officers are killed and one is injured when their Bell UH-1 Iroquois border patrol helicopter crashes near Elassona in northern Greece. (ABC News)
Law and crime
- Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez, acquitted last week of a 2012 double murder but serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder, is found hanged in his prison cell, and is pronounced dead an hour later. (Fox News)
- Pedro Hernandez, convicted in February 2017 for the May 25, 1979 death of Etan Patz in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, was sentenced yesterday to 25 years to life imprisonment. (The New York Times)
- Nigerian spy chief Ayo Oke has been suspended by President Muhammadu Buhari after anti-corruption agents uncovered more than $43 million in cash at his flat in Lagos. (BBC)
- Three senior figures in the Bharatiya Janata Party, L.K. Advani, Uma Bharati and Murli Manohar Joshi, will be tried for their alleged role in the destruction of the Babri Masjid Mosque in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. (CNN)
Politics and elections
- Jakarta gubernatorial election, 2017
- Indonesian voters in Jakarta return to the polls for the second round of a gubernatorial election between incumbent Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, whose alleged blasphemy sparked mass protests in November, and Anies Baswedan. Opinion polls give Baswedan a narrow lead. (ABC News)
- Jakarta's current governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, concedes to Muslim former government minister Anies Baswedan. (BBC)
- French presidential election, 2017
- The closely-watched CEVIPOF poll shows Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen clinging to a narrow lead heading into the first stage of the election, with Le Pen recently becoming embroiled in a spat with the European Commission after refusing to appear on TF1 while there remained a Flag of Europe in the background. (Reuters)
- German federal election, 2017
- Alternative for Germany chairwoman Frauke Petry announces that she will not lead the party in the September federal election, citing other party leaders' insistence on remaining a "fundamental opposition party", unwilling to join a coalition. (Reuters)
- A Forsa Institute poll shows the lowest level of support for the Greens in nearly 15 years, weakening the chances of a left-leaning coalition taking power from the CDU/CSU. (Reuters)
- United Kingdom general election, 2017
- The United Kingdom House of Commons approves by 522 votes to 13 a snap general election to be held on June 8. (BBC)
- 2014–17 Venezuelan protests
- Venezuelan security forces clash with opposition demonstrators in the so-called "Mother of All Marches" against President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas. Two students and a National Guard sergeant are shot dead. (Reuters) (Reuters²)
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2018
- Utah representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, announces that he will not run for re-election next year. (The Washington Post)
- Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, 2017
- Local Republican candidate Karen Handel says she wants Donald Trump to campaign for her in the district. (U.S. News and World Report)
Science and technology
- Washington State University professor Peter Engels and his team announce they have created a fluid that displays negative mass. (BBC)
- 2014 JO25, a near-Earth asteroid discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in May 2014, passes within 1.8 million kilometers of the planet, the largest such asteroid to transit close to Earth since 2004. (BBC)
Sports
- A spokeswoman for tennis star Serena Williams confirms rumors that Williams is pregnant. The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, who was apparently pregnant when she won this year's Australian Open, is expected to give birth in September, and will not play again until 2018. (ESPN)