April 2010

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April 2010 was the fourth month of that common year. It began on a Thursday and ended after 30 days on a Friday.

International holidays

(See Holidays and observances, on sidebar at right, below)

Portal:Current events

This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from April 2010.

April 1, 2010 (Thursday)

The Indian government initiates The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act to provide free and compulsory education to all children aged between 6 and 14 years, making education a fundamental right for millions of children. (The Hindu) (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Times) (Press TV)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- After Palestinians fire a Qassam rocket that explodes in an open area of the city of Ashkelon, Israeli planes launch air strikes on several targets in the Gaza Strip, in locations which include Gaza City, Khan Yunis and Rafah. (The Jerusalem Post) (BBC) (Ynetnews)
- Palestinians and Lebanese protest the arrest of Abbas Zaki, former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative in Lebanon. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir asks that he be released immediately. (The Daily Star Lebanon)
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, speaking at Holy Thursday mass in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral, criticizes Catholics who believe the church should move on from recent child abuse scandals in Ireland. (RTÉ)
Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols says he "understands arguments for condoms", in apparent conflict with Roman Catholic Church teaching on contraception. (Reuters)
Southern Sudan's Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) announces its decision to withdraw its presidential candidate, Yasir Arman, from elections. Most other opposition parties join them. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Star)
Almost 25,000 homes remain powerless after part of Northern Ireland's electricity network is knocked out. (BBC) (RTÉ)
Guinea-Bissau's chief of staff and Prime Minister Carlos Domingos Gomes Júnior are "seized" as national radio broadcasts are replaced by military music. (BBC) (France24) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
India launches its new 2011 biometric census, the largest census in the world. (The Times of India) (BBC) (The Guardian) (France24) (Bangkok Post)
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev pays an unexpected visit to Dagestan, the day after the deaths of 12 people occur there in a double suicide attack. (BBC) (The Sydney Moning Herald) (France24)
Missing four-year-old Paulette Gebara Farah, whose disappearance from her home in Huixquilucan, Edomex, achieved major publicity in Mexico, is found dead under a mattress in her bedroom. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Melbourne Age)
Dozens of prisoners escape/are wounded after an explosion occurs at a prison in Daleh. (BBC) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (The Daily Telegraph) (Reuters)
A landmark ruling at the Court of Appeal allows science writer Simon Singh to rely on the defence of fair comment in a libel action taken by the British Chiropractic Association over a 2008 article in The Guardian newspaper. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Times)
Justice Victoria Sharp blocks a rail work stoppage by signallers over pay cuts and working conditions, which would have been Britain's first national rail strike in 16 years. (Reuters)
The Nigerian government asks that criminal charges against Nuhu Ribadu be withdrawn. (BBC)
12 people are wounded in a seven-vehicle pile-up on the M6 motorway near Rugby in Warwickshire, England. (BBC)
South Warwickshire Tourism Ltd (Shakespeare Country), which promoted Stratford-upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwick and Kenilworth, ceases to trade. (BBC)
Machu Picchu reopens with the help of actress Susan Sarandon. (BBC) (Channel 4 News) (The Guardian)
Academy Award winning actor Anna Paquin's unexpected public acknowledgement of her bisexuality in a video causes the anti-discrimination Give a Damn campaign website she is promoting to crash. (Reuters) (The Daily Telegraph) (The New Zealand Herald) (RTÉ) (The Vancouver Sun)
Aretha Franklin and Michael Jackson are inducted into the hall of fame at New York's Apollo Theater. (BBC)
Members of the Christian militia group Hutaree plead not guilty to a court in Michigan, United States, to claims of plotting to kill American police officers. (CNN)
Sarah Palin spoke to thousands of tea party activists gathered in the Nevada desert about Harry Reid. (Main line)

April 2, 2010 (Friday)

United States Department of Labor announces second solid growth in jobs since the recession. (Los Angeles Times) (Business Week)
Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor says at St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast in Northern Ireland that the "crimes and sins of abuse of children and minors by clergy and religious" are "faith-shaking". (RTÉ) (The Times) (The Australian)
Rescue teams attempting to reach 153 miners trapped in a flooded coal pit in Shanxi report "signs of life", including "tapping", "banging" and "shouts", as relatives allege an official cover-up of the incident. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Brazilian land reform activist Pedro Alcantara de Souza is fatally shot five times in the head by two men on motorcycles as he tries to ride his own bicycle in Pará. (BBC) (Miami Herald) (Arabnews)
Soyuz TMA-18 is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying three members of the Expedition 23 crew of the International Space Station. (CNN)
3 men are charged with murder in the fatal stabbings of two men on a New York City subway over the weekend. (AP) (CBS) (The New York Times) (CKOY)
Record rains cause flooding across New England, with Rhode Island hit the hardest. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials say as many as 200,000 people in Rhode Island could be affected. President Barack Obama talks to Governor Don Carcieri about the damage. (My Fox Boston) (Boston Channel) (Boston) (CNS)
Limerick pubs break with tradition by opening on Good Friday following the recent landmark court ruling. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Irish Examiner)
Another nation-wide blackout affects Malta due to a technical fault. (MaltaMediaOnline) (Times of Malta)

April 3, 2010 (Saturday)

Eugène Terre'Blanche, founder of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement, is killed in his hometown of Ventersdorp. (BBC) (RTÉ)
Three German soldiers are killed in north Afghanistan, five other Germans were wounded in fighting southwest of Kunduz. 22 German soldiers have been killed by fighting or attacks in Afghanistan since 2001 and another 138 wounded. (China Daily) (Newsday) (ABC) (Breitbart) (Wten)
German troops kill at least five Afghan soldiers in a friendly fire incident north of the capital Kabul. (Deutsche Welle) (The Daily Telegraph) (Taiwan News)
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appoints the country's first population minister, Tony Burke, as part of a strategy for managing population growth. (ABC News) (Angola Press) (Reuters India)
Rescuers enter a flooded mine in Shanxi, China to help over 153 workers trapped there for over a week. (China Daily) (CNN) (Press TV)
Eight people are missing and one dies as a fishing boat sinks while searching for the South Korean Cheonan warship that sank last week near the Northern Limit Line border with North Korea. (Yonhap) (BBC)
The controversial African Renaissance Monument, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, is inaugurated in the Senegalese capital Dakar. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (CNN) (The Guardian)
Thousands of "red shirt" anti-government protesters rally in the Thai capital Bangkok demanding new elections. (Thai News Agency) (CBC) (The Hindu)
Cambridge Boat Club defeats Oxford Boat Club to win the 156th University Boat Race in London, England. (BBC)
Apple released the iPad in the United States.

April 4, 2010 (Sunday)

114 miners trapped in a flooded mine for more than a week in Shanxi, China, are rescued. (AP) (Xinhua)
At least 10 Indian security personnel are killed and three injured when Maoist guerrillas blow up a police bus in Orissa's Koraput district. (Times of India)
President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade announces in a televised address marking 50 years of independence that his country is to resume control of all military bases held by former colonial power France. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (euronews)
The Chinese coal ship Shen Neng 1 is reported to be leaking oil after it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, Australia. (Al Jazeera)
Three car bombs hit the Egyptian, German and Iranian embassies in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in quick succession, killing at least 30 people. (BBC)
President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai threatens to join the Taliban if the Afghani Parliament refuses to approve his proposal to take control of the electoral apparatus from the United Nations. {Wall Street Journal Online)
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake hits Baja California, about 108 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, says the U.S. Geological Survey. (USGS Earthquake Hazards Program) (News Channel 10)
Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon witnesses one of the world's worst environmental disasters as he flies over the shrinking Aral Sea, the world's fourth largest lake, which has in recent decades shrunk in size by more than 70 percent. (UN)

April 5, 2010 (Monday)

A series of coordinated bombings at the U.S. consulate in Peshawar and at a ruling party rally in the Pakistani North-West Frontier Province kills fifty people and injures one hundred. (Reuters)
An explosion at a coal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia kills 25 miners and leaves several missing. This is the deadliest mining accident in the U.S. in at least 35 years. (BBC News) (Herald Sun)
The United States Supreme Court declines to take up a case by residents of Bikini Atoll and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands, who are seeking compensation for U.S. nuclear tests conducted on the islands. (Christian Science Monitor)
Wikileaks releases a video from 2007 showing the killing of civilians, including two Reuters news staff, by the U.S. military in Baghdad, Iraq. (BBC News)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently attempting to gauge the risk of the recently-discovered XMRV virus, linked to rare forms of prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, to the blood donation supply. (The Wall Street Journal)
Iran invites 60 countries to a two-day nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran on April 17–18, entitled "Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear arms for no one". China says it will attend the conference which invites "the world to disarm and prevent proliferation". (Al Jazeera)
A United Nations peacekeeper dies in Mbandaka, Équateur, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Al Jazeera)
The Duke Blue Devils defeat the Butler Bulldogs, 61-59, to win their fourth U.S. men's college basketball title. (AP at Yahoo)

April 6, 2010 (Tuesday)

Details of North Korea's own Red Star operating system emerge. (BBC) (IOL)
Announcement of first animals that spent their entire lives without oxygen were discovered in depths of Mediterranean Sea. They belong to three new species from phylum Loricifera. (BMC Biology) (Nature)
About 103 people are killed in flooding and mudslides in Rio de Janeiro state in Brazil. Of the total, thirty-three people died in the city of Rio de Janeiro, while 33 were killed in the neighbouring city of Niterói, 12 people dead in São Gonçalo, and one in Petrópolis. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Xinhua) (AP) (O Estado de S. Paulo)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Palestinians fire another Qassam rocket at southern Israel, causing no harm, despite Gaza groups agreement to stop rockets attacks. (The Jerusalem Post)
- Teenager from the Gaza Strip who was alleged to have been killed by IDF soldiers last week, released from an Egyptian prison, after infiltrating the Egyptian border through an underground tunnel and saying that he and several Palestinian teenagers who were with him were tortured by Egyptian soldiers while in prison. (The Jerusalem Post)
- The Israeli military criticises its own soldiers for killing four young Palestinian demonstrators near Nablus in the West Bank in March, with the Commander describing the killings as "an unnecessary operational occurrence with dire consequences". (BBC) (Arab News)
- Israel's Nahalat Shimon settler group presents an eviction warrant to two further Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, bringing the current total number of Palestinian houses facing eviction in that neighbourhood to eight. (Arab News)
- Israeli troops arrest for an unrevealed reason three Palestinian civilians in Beit Ommer village and later move them to a military detention centre, as the Israeli military also ransacks homes in Nablus and Hebron. (The Muslim News)
- Egypt allows a rare opening of the Rafah border to permit the first-known Palestinian conjoined twins, their family and a medical team to travel to the National Guard Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for separation surgery 10 days after their birth. Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is to pay for the surgery. (Ha'aretz)
- 23-year-old Israeli Arab Rawi Fuad Sultani is imprisoned for nearly six years for passing on sensitive information about Israeli Army Chief Gabi Ashkenaz. (BBC) (France24) (The Jerusalem Post) (Ha'aretz)
Turkey:
- Turkish police arrest at least 14 military officers, including four generals, accused of a 2003 coup plot. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Reuters)
- Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking about 100,000 Armenian illegal immigrants currently living in Turkey, says "I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don't have to keep them in my country". (Ethiopian Review)
At least 70 Indian soldiers are killed in an attack by Naxalites in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh. (Times of India) (AP)
At least eight explosions rock Baghdad and kill at least 35 people and wound over 140 others. (Al Jazeera)
Hundreds of protesters seize a government office in Bishkek to request the resignition of Kurmanbek Bakiyev after battling flashbangs and lachrymators. A local governor is taken hostage by protesters. Hundreds surround police HQ. Almazbek Atambayev is seized by police. There are riots in Talas. (BBC)
Baton-wielding Egyptian police disperse a pro-democracy demonstration in Cairo. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
South African police build a barricade from razor wire to curtail people scuffles outside Ventersdorp Magistrate's court where two farm workers, aged 15 and 28, are charged with Saturday's murder of white supremacist leader Eugène Terre'Blanche. (BBC) (IOL)
Campaigning ahead of Sri Lanka's parliamentary election comes to an end. (Al Jazeera)
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls a general election for 6 May. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (RTÉ)
Lord Saville is asked to hold back until after the UK general election the publication of the Bloody Sunday (1972) report into the killing of 14 unarmed civil rights protesters by British Army paratroopers in Bogside, Derry. (RTÉ) (The Guardian) (BBC)
Nigeria's acting President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurates a new Cabinet. (NEXT) (BBC)
Hackers based in China access classified Indian documents, emails of the Dalai Lama, offices of the United Nations and the Pakistani embassy in the United States. (BBC) (Times of India) (CBC)
President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh frees prisoners as part of its support for the cease-fire. (Arab News)
A South Korean warship catches up with an oil tanker that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean. (BBC) (Korea Times)
Vigils and a musical requiem are among a series of events held in L'Aquila to mark the first anniversary of one of Europe's largest post-war natural disasters. (BBC)
AOL announces it is to sell or shut down Bebo two years after purchasing it. (BBC) (The Wall Street Journal) (The New Zealand Herald)
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rules that the FCC cannot enforce net neutrality and that Comcast can limit its customers' access to BitTorrent. (The New York Times) (Wired News)

April 7, 2010 (Wednesday)

James Hansen wins the Sophie Prize. (350.org) (Reuters) (The Independent)
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) announces that the number of LGBT characters on scripted programs in the United States has doubled since 2005. (CNN)
2010 Kyrgyzstan riots:
- President Kurmanbek Bakiyev reportedly flees the country, as the government steps down and protestors overrun the parliament building. The opposition announces the formation of a new provisional government headed by Roza Otunbayeva. (Russia Today) (Al Jazeera)
- President Kurmanbek Bakiyev makes a last-ditch attempt to quell the riots by imposing a curfew as six people reportedly die. (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
- Protesters seize the state television channel building in the capital, Bishkek. Kyrgyz opposition representatives and human rights activists appear on the TV channel KTR which resumes broadcasting after one hour. (RIA Novosti) (Kyrgyz National Informational Agency)
- Interior Minister Moldomussa Kongantiyev is reported to have been killed after being taken hostage by opposition protesters inside an interior department building in the northern city of Talas. (Xinhua)
July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike WikiLeaks video controversy:
- Fox News alleges "many who have viewed the video" WikiLeaks released recently showing American forces killing civilians in a July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike have accused the website of "selectively editing" (by slowing down selected parts of it) after a report by The Pentagon was released claiming that several of those killed did have weapons. (Fox News)
- Families of the victims request that those responsible be taken to court as two young children who were injured ask why their dead father was targeted when he tried to bring an injured man to hospital. (Al Jazeera)
Conjoined twins:
- The conjoined twins recently born in Gaza less than two weeks ago are reported as being in a critical condition in Saudi Arabia where surgery is taking place to separate them. (Arab News)
- The conjoined twins from Cork, Ireland, born four months ago, undergo separation surgery in London. (RTÉ) (The Guardian) (Irish Independent) (The Daily Telegraph)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Campaigning organisations call for the lifting of an Israeli media ban on the "security case", the case of a 23-year-old former soldier who leaked details of extra-judicial killings of Palestinians. (BBC)
- Saudi cleric Sheik Mohammed al-Areefi cancels a visit to Jerusalem due to public anger at Israeli policy. (Saudi Gazette) (Arab News) (Ha'aetz)
- An 18-year-old dies and six others escape with their lives in Rafah, Gaza, after the collapse of two tunnels used to smuggle goods through Egypt and around Egypt's and Israel's blockade. (Arab News)
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fires the director of his bureau, Rafik Husseini, who was involved in ‘Fatahgate’ sex scandal. (The Jerusalem Post) (CNN)
- Human Rights Watch tells Hamas to stop executions in Gaza after Hamas courts sentence 16 people to death in 2009 and this year, including eight convicted of alleged “treason”. (The Jerusalem Post)
Human Rights Watch requests that the Government of Peru investigate the deaths of six civilians after police opened fire on a mining demonstration last Sunday. At least 30 others were injured. (BBC)
Brazil is hit by a second day of heavy rain. (Al Jazeera)
At least six people die and at least twelve others are injured after a boat sinks in Lake Kivu while carrying people to commemorations to mark the 16th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. (BBC)
A 7.7-magnitude earthquake strikes northern Sumatra, Indonesia. (CNN) (Al Jazeera)
Blacktown District Soccer Football Association's CEO says he will ignore a FIFA ruling to ban the hijab even if it is enforced by Football Federation Australia after the Iran girls' football team is disqualified from the Youth Olympic Games by FIFA for their view on the hijab. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva, declares a state of emergency after widespread anti-government protests and shortly after demonstrators stormed the country's parliament. (CNN)
Amnesty International’s Secretary-General sparks a furor by saying that “jihad in self-defense” is not “antithetical” to human rights. (The Jerusalem Post)
Sixteen countries attend a two-day conference organised by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo to discuss the retrieval of old items which were pillaged by other nations, such as the Rosetta Stone (held by the British Museum, London) and Queen Nefertitti's bust (held by the Neues Museum, Berlin). (BBC) (France24)
A starving Grey Seal claiming to be from London Zoo is found in Skerries, Ireland. The Irish Seal Sanctuary asks the UK and Europe for help identifying it. (RTÉ) (BBC)
Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, describes Israel as the "main threat to peace" in the Middle East. (BBC)
FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi is widely hailed as the best footballer in the world after scoring four goals for the first time in his career in one UEFA Champions League game, including his fourth hat-trick of 2010. (BBC) (The New York Times) (AFP) (BusinessWorld) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph)
Tennis player Martina Navratilova announces she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. (The Guardian) (The New York Times)
Shanghai mayor Han Zheng, leading a delegation with a presence from some 50 companies, visits Taiwan for investment talks. (Focus Taiwan)
Norway experiences its first Catholic child abuse scandal as it becomes known that a bishop, Georg Müller, was forced to resign in 2009 because of sexual abuse of an altar boy in the early 1990s. (The New York Times) (CNN)

April 8, 2010 (Thursday)

2010 Kyrgyzstan riots:
- 100 people die in anti-government protests in Kyrgyzstan, according to opposition activist Toktoim Umetalieva. (Arab News)
- The Kyrgyzstan government is ousted as the result of the popular revolt. (News.com.au)
- Opposition leader Roza Otunbayeva says she will lead a temporary government for six months. (Kyrgyz National Informational Agency) (The New York Times)
- President Kurmanbek Bakiyev escapes Bishkek, purportedly to a southern region of the country through Osh. He refuses to resign, but admits he's lost control of the Kyrgyz military. (BBC)
Sri Lankans vote in the country's 2010 parliamentary election. (The Guardian)
Pakistan adopts the 18th amendment to the Constitution, stripping President Asif Ali Zardari of key powers. (Dawn) (Hindustan Times) (Press TV) (CNN) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
5 people are killed and 11 others are injured in separate attacks in Diyala and Nineveh. (People's Daily Online)
United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sign a new arms reduction treaty that will cut both countries' arsenals by a third. (BBC) (AP) (TIME)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will send deputy prime-minister to a summit on nuclear weapons in the United States over concerns that Egypt and Turkey might shift the focus away from preventing militants from obtaining nuclear weapons by insisting that Israel sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). (BBC) (Reuters)
A Palestinian teen reported to have been killed returns home safely. (Ottawa Citizen)
Professor Lee R. Berger announces the discovery of a new hominid species, Australopithecus sediba, believed to be an ancestor of either Homo habilis or Homo erectus. (Time)
The Bangladeshi army distributes drinking water among more than 12 million people in Dhaka as fears grow over the city's water crisis. (Arab News)
More than 50 doctors in Edo State, Nigeria go on strike after a colleague is kidnapped by unidentified gunmen. (BBC)
29 paramilitary troops are convicted of mutiny and imprisoned for up to seven years at a Bangladeshi tribunal. (Arab News)
The death toll in the storm which caused severe damage to Brazil's Rio de Janeiro metro area reaches 200. (The Huffington Post) (Xinhua)
Separation surgery is declared successful in London on the conjoined twins from Cork, Ireland, born on 2 December. (RTÉ) (The Daily Telegraph) (Irish Examiner) (Sky News) (BBC) (CNN)
Scientists say Glacier National Park has lost two more of its glaciers to global warming. (Xinhua)
Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren, notorious for the banned "God Save the Queen" single, dies in New York. (The Independent) (BBC) (The Guardian) (Sky News)
14 people die of dengue fever in Dominican Republic. 2,000 cases of dengue fever have been registered. A total of 52 died of the disease last year. (Xinhua)
Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, which holds 1.5 million corpses, is reopened with a new museum after an €11 million redevelopment. (The Irish Times)

April 9, 2010 (Friday)

Rescue efforts continue in Brazil in an attempt to locate around 200 people believed to have been buried in their homes by a large landslide in Morro do Bumba near Rio de Janeiro city in the state of Rio de Janeiro. (BBC)
The death toll in Shanxi's flooded Wangjialing coal mine reaches 25. (Al Jazeera)
Thousands of Iraqis protest in the city of Najaf to mark the seventh anniversary of the occupation of Iraq by the USA. (People's Daily Online) (Al Jazeera)
Australia immediately suspends all new asylum claims by people from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. (The Times of India) (BBC) (The Guardian) (Reuters) (The Times) (France24) (Al Jazeera)
Union Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of India P. Chidambaram takes "full responsibility" for the killing of 76 paramilitary troops in Tuesday's Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh — history's deadliest attack on security forces by Maoist insurgents — and offers to resign. (BBC) (Reuters India)
The funeral of South Africa's white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche takes place in South Africa. (Sky News) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Anti-government protesters in Thailand storm and occupy an opposition television station. (BBC) (Thai News Agency)
Germany charges a former member of the Red Army Faction (RAF) in connection with the murder of Attorney General Siegfried Buback, who was shot alongside two other men in 1977. (Deutsche Welle) (BBC) (Die Welt)
Sri Lanka's governing coalition wins a majority in the country's 2010 parliamentary election. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (France24) (Reuters) (South China Morning Post)
Ahead of Sudan's first multi-party elections in 24 years, some opposition parties criticise lack of access to balanced media coverage and accuse the government of manipulation. (Al Jazeera)
Pope Benedict XVI encounters allegations he was responsible for obstructing the punishment of American paedophile priest Stephen Kiesle by signing a letter in 1985 - the first time he has been directly accused of involvement in the Catholic Church's ongoing international child sex abuse scandal. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Times) (LA Times) (The J Post)
The first black Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, is announced to have died at the age of 85. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Daily Nation) (Voice of America)
Two days of national mourning begin in Kyrgyzstan for the victims of police shootings as the dead are buried. (Deutsche Welle) (BBC) (ABC News)
The Islamic State of Iraq posts a statement on the internet claiming responsibility for Sunday's triple bombings in Baghdad which killed at least 40 people and affected some foreign embassies but denies involvement in Tuesday's six bombings which killed 35 people in Shia areas. (BBC) (France24) (Reuters) (People's Daily Online)
Shanghai Metro Line 2 opens service to Pudong International Airport. (Shanghai Daily)
U.S. helicopter - Air Force CV-22 Osprey - crashes in southern Afghanistan, killing three U.S. service members and one civilian employee. Zabiullah Mujahid says Taliban fighters shot down the chopper. (CNN)
Associate Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court announces his retirement after serving on the court for 34 years. (LA Times)
American and Russian physicists announce the creation of ununseptium, atomic element number 117. (CBC News) New York Times
4.1-magnitude earthquake jolts northern Chinese city of Tangshan. (Sina)
The World Bank approves a $3.75 billion loan for a coal-fired power plant in South Africa. (Democracy Now)

April 10, 2010 (Saturday)

2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash:
- A Tu-154 from the 36th Special Aviation Regiment crashes while landing at military airport Severny in Smolensk Oblast, Russia; 96 persons onboard are reported dead. Pilot error is seen as a possible cause of the crash. (MSNBC) (Вести; Russian) (lenta.ru; Russian)
- The plane was flying from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre. (CBC)
- The plane carried President of Poland Lech Kaczyński, his economist wife, army chief, central bank governor, MPs, leading historians, and many top Polish government officials to their deaths. (BBC) (The Hindu) (The New York Times)
- There are no survivors. (Passenger list via Reuters India) (CNN) (Los Angeles Times)
- Polish parliamentary speaker Bronisław Komorowski legally becomes Acting President of Poland. (Xinhua)
- Lech Wałęsa calls it "the second disaster after Katyn ... They wanted to cut off our head there, and here the flower of our nation has also perished". (The New York Times)
- Poland's Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski says "Nothing like this has ever happened in Poland". (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Prime Minister Donald Tusk declares it the "most tragic event in Poland's postwar history". (RTÉ) Tusk announces he is to fly to the crash site. (The Star Malaysia)
- Flags fly at half mast across Poland as Poles mourn their loss. (The Irish Times) (BBC)
- Leaders from around the world give their response to the tragedy. (Voice of America) (CNN) (The Jakarta Post)
- Russia and Lithuania prepare for an official day of mourning for the death of Poland's President Kaczyński and other persons on board. (RIAN; Russian) (Delfi)
Nineteen people die after violence breaks out between government forces and protesters in Thailand. (India Blooms News Service)
The Pakistani military kills 100 Taliban in the northwest of the country. (Al Jazeera) (Time)
A blast injures at least 19 people outside a prison in Ilam. (Al Jazeera)
A spokesman for Pope Benedict XVI claims allegations that he deliberately delayed the punishment of a paedophile priest have been "taken out of context". (BBC) (RTÉ)
Thousands of people attend funeral events in Kyrgyzstan for people killed during recent events. (BBC) (Financial Times) (UPI) (CNEWS)
The death toll in Wangjialing coal mine's flood in Shanxi rises to 28 after the recovery of another corpse. (Shanghai Daily)
Thousands of people protest against public sector cuts in London. (BBC)
The Shroud of Turin is displayed in public for the first time in 10 years. (BBC) (Sky News) (Miami Herald) (The Age)
Don't Push It, ridden by jockey Tony McCoy, wins the 2010 Grand National at Aintree on McCoy's 15th attempt. (BBC News) (The Daily Telegraph)

April 11, 2010 (Sunday)

Aftermath of 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash:
- The body of President Lech Kaczyński, who was killed in yesterday's plane crash just north of Smolensk, Russia, is flown back to Poland. (Reuters news coverage) (The Economist) (Toronto Star)
- Concerts and football matches are cancelled, while cinemas, theatres, restaurants and shopping malls close their doors. (The Guardian)
- The President is processed through the streets and lies in state in the Presidential Palace, Warsaw. (Al Jazeera) (The New Zealand Herald)
- Tens of thousands of Poles line the streets of Warsaw to witness the event. (Los Angeles Times) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- A two minute silence is observed across Poland in memory of the victims. (RTÉ)
- 10 million Polish Americans mourn their loss in several cities across the country. (Wall Street Journal)
- Polish British mourn one of their priests, Monsignor Bronislaw Gostomski, who died in the crash. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
- 1 million Polish Canadians begin a week of mourning. (CBC) (CBC)
- Women's U-17 UEFA Championship elite qualifying phase game Poland versus Republic of Ireland in Ukraine is postponed due to the tragedy. (RTÉ)
Pakistan:
- Airstrikes kill 10 militants in northwestern Pakistan as part of a military operation that has eliminated more than 300 fighters in the last three weeks. (The New Zealand Herald)
- Pakistani troops with helicopters bomb 13 militants to death and wound several others. (Press TV)
Iran:
- President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to relocate millions of Tehranians as the city is threatened by earthquakes. (Press TV)
- Iran announces it will take part in the International Atomic Energy Agency's conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in New York, United States in May. (Press TV)
- Iran announces its decision to file a formal complaint with the United Nations against the United States, citing Barack Obama's threat to use a "nuclear attack" against it as a "threat to global peace and security". (Al Jazeera)
Iraq's election seeks a recount in five provinces after up to 750,000 votes are "tainted by fraud". (Reuters)
Sudan hosts its first general elections in 24 years. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Press TV) (Arab News)
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes the southern Solomon Islands, 97 km southwest of Kirakira on Makira Island. (The Australian) (TVNZ)
Israel is set to impose a military order, which ten human rights groups fear could see thousands of Palestinians deported from the West Bank if they do not have a residency permit. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (The Guardian) (The Times) (The Jordan Times)
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) asks China to pressure Israel to have its nuclear sites inspected during the forthcoming international nuclear conference, saying "world silence on the issue of the Israeli nuclear capabilities is creating tension in the region, especially with the relentless international focus on Iran and North Korea". (Brunei News)
Kyrgyzstan's interim government considers arresting and charging President Kurmanbek Bakiyev for the deaths of 81 people in riots earlier this week. (Al Jazeera) (AFP) (Xinhua)
South African police investigate a possible link between homosexual sex and the murder of Eugène Terre'Blanche. (IOL) (The New York Times) (The Times)
Centre-right Fidesz wins majority of parliamentary seats in the first round of the Hungarian general elections. (Reuters) (AP/Yahoo!)
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Vietnamese President Nguyễn Minh Triết discuss bilateral ties in oil, food and manpower and sign three major agreements — a treaty avoiding double taxation, a protocol to promote ties in the oil and gas sectors and an agreement to promote agricultural cooperation. (Arab News) (Reuters) (Daily Star Lebanon) (Radio Australia) (Saudi Gazette)
Nine people, including three Italian medical workers, are detained over accusations of plotting to kill Governor of Helmand Gulab Mangal. (Al Jazeera)
The death toll in clashes between anti-government protesters and Thai troops in the capital Bangkok rises to at least 20 people. (BBC) (Thai News Agency)
Two Chinese singers become the country's first to be punished for lip-synching nearly two years after the Beijing Olympiad. (Reuters South Africa)
The Belfast Wheel ceases to function. (BBC) (RTÉ)
Texas Stadium, the former home of the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys, is demolished by implosion. (ESPN Dallas)
Analysts predict the 2011 bankruptcy of one of the world's largest economies, Japan, with a public debt figure larger than any other industrialised nation. (Press TV) (AFP) (The Economist)

April 12, 2010 (Monday)

Sudan's landmark elections are extended by two days after delays delivering ballot papers. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Hungarian parliamentary election, 2010
- The centre-right Hungarian Civic Union (Fidesz) wins all 119 individual seats in the first round of Hungary's parliamentary elections. Their total of 206 seats gives them an outright majority in the National Assembly, with 121 seats still in play in the second round on April 25.
- The left-wing Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) wins 28 regional seats, while the far-right Jobbik (Movement for a Better Hungary) wins 26 regional seats. The remaining five seats went to the green party Politics Can Be Different (LMP). (BBC)
2010 Holywood car bombing:
- A car bomb explodes shortly after midnight near Northern Ireland's MI5 headquarters in Holywood, County Down, blowing an elderly man off his feet and sending him to hospital. (Times Online) (Xinhua)
- The Real IRA issues a telephone call to the BBC to claim responsibility. (BBC) (RTÉ)
Northern Ireland appoints its first justice minister in 38 years. (BBC)
Aftermath of 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash:
- Polish President Lech Kaczyński lies in state in Warsaw as Russia marks a day of mourning and Poland appoints an acting head of the central bank to replace the one killed in Saturday's air disaster near Smolensk. (BBC) (RTÉ)
- His funeral and burial and that of his wife who died with him are to take place on Saturday. (CNN)
- The search for body parts continues at the crash site, with only 14 corpses easily identified by relatives and 20 others by forensic experts, with DNA testing necessary to identify the rest of the corpses. (RIA Novosti)
- Poland's acting President is to review travel rules for military officials after the late President and all his army generals die in one plane crash. (BBC)
- Western experts mull the causes of the plane crash. (RIA Novosti)
Nine people are thought to have been killed and 30 others are injured, some seriously, after a landslide caused a train to derail in Merano, near the Austrian border with Italy. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
The United States opens fire on a bus in Afghanistan, knocking the driver unconscious, killing as many as five civilians, including a woman, and wounding at least 18 other passengers.(The New York Times) (Al Jazeera)
Nuclear Security Summit
- U.S. President Barack Obama opens the summit of 47 countries, the purpose of which is to discuss nuclear security, in particular how to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of potential terrorists. (CCTV)
- Ukraine announces it will dispose of its enriched uranium supply. (CNN)
- A proposed nuclear fuel bank is discussed at the summit. http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=233969]
The UK General Election countdown:
- The Labour party launches its manifesto, which states that it will halve the budget deficit within four years through a mixture of spending restraint and tax increases, mainly for the higher paid, that failing police forces will be taken over by successful ones, that every primary-school child who needs it will get one-to-one tuition and that there will be no switch to the euro without a referendum. ^[1]
- SNP leader Alex Salmond urges the Scots to vote for an "alternative vision of the future" as he launched the party's election campaign. The Scottish first minister attacks Labour and the Tories for cuts which he said posed a danger to public services. ^[2]
- Welsh Assembly Government ministers are accused of "abuse of position" by announcing £17.5 miles in tourism grants during the general election campaign. Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne says Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones and Environment Minster Jane Davidson must "face questions". ^[3]
The Washington Post wins four awards at the 2010 Pulitzer Prizes. (The New York Times)
Pope Benedict XVI and the child sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Homosexuality is to blame for paedophilia, according to Vatican Secretary of State and the Pope's Deputy, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, speaking today at a news conference in Chile. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
- The Vatican has handled damaging child abuse cases in an “exemplary” manner, according to the editor-in-chief of Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano Giovanni Maria Vian, who also hails Benedict as a “great communicator”. (National Post)
- Children were allegedly "sadistically tormented and also sexually abused" at a Catholic monastery in Ettal, Bavaria. (Reuters)
- Benedict's security is increased for his visit to Malta after the island's population of sexually abused announce plans to protest at his handling of the scandal. (The Daily Telegraph)
- British campaigners threaten to arrest Benedict for crimes against humanity when he visits the UK. (Deutsche Welle) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Guardian) (New York Daily News) (Ynetnews)
- The Vatican publishes its guidelines for dealing with cases of sexual abuse of children in an effort to quell critics. (Reuters via The New York Times)
- The Vatican says it is overhauling its rules on handling sexual abuse accusations. (CNN)
- Ten Maltese men, who have taken three priests to court on charges of child abuse, request a private meeting with Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Malta this weekend. (Reuters India) (Boston Herald)
An Iranian and a Tajik are jailed for 25 years in Dubai over the 2009 killing of a Chechen militant commander. (BBC) (The Washington Post) (Miami Herald) (Reuters) (People's Daily Online) (The Star)
Leading Russian federal judge Eduard Chuvashov is shot dead at his apartment building in central Moscow. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Three former Labour Party MPs – David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine – face criminal charges over their expenses win the right to have their legal fees paid for by the taxpayer. (BBC)
The World Trade Organization overturns Australia's ban on importing New Zealand apples, which had been in place since 1919. (The Age)
The world's deepest undersea volcanic vents are discovered in the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. (BBC)
The Copenhagen Conference was destroyed from the start by the leak of the "Danish draft" negotiating text to The Guardian, the Indian environment minister said this weekend in a warning that the breakdown of international trust would continue to undermine climate talks this year. (The Guardian)
A 6.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Spain, one of the first large earthquakes to strike the Iberian region in half a century.
Microsoft launches two new mobile phones marketed to young people. The phones, the Kin One and Kin Two, are built around their social networking features. (New York Times)
SS Columbia, feared lost at sea after the 8.8-magnitude Chile earthquake, arrives in a Chilean port, more than a month after it was scheduled to dock. (Times Online)
Manchester City and Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor announces his retirement from international football at the age of 26, saying he is "still haunted" by the Togo national football team attack which killed three of his colleagues in Angola ahead of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations three months ago. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Thierry Henry, the footballer involved in a notorious handball controversy in the France vs Republic of Ireland 2010 FIFA World Cup play-off in November 2009, is not assured of playing for his team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, according to his manager Raymond Domenech on French television show Canal Football Club. (ESPN) (Metro) (RTÉ)
Tiger Woods announces he will take more time off from golf after finishing fourth in the 2010 Masters Tournament. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)

April 13, 2010 (Tuesday)

Nuclear Security Summit:
- President of the United States Barack Obama opening the biggest international meeting hosted by the US since 1945, greets leaders from nearly 50 countries. World leaders at the summit hear dire warnings of the danger of nuclear material falling into the wrong hands. (BBC News)
- The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, says that his government thwarted an attempt to sell highly-enriched uranium on the black market last month. (The Guardian)
- Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China, meets with President Barack Obama to discuss Iran's nuclear program. (CNN)
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes southeastern Qinghai, China, near the Yangtze River. There were no immediate reports of casulties. (The Associated Press)(Vancouver Sun)
A bar of radioactive Cobalt-60 found in a New Dehli market causes life-threatening radiation sickness in one person and contingency measures from the authorities. ("The Faster Times")
Kyrgyzstan's ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev says he will resign if the interim government guarantees his family's safety. (The Telegraph) (Al Jazeera)
A huge glacier breaks off and plunges into a lake in Peru sparking a 23-metre high tsunami wave that destroyed a nearby town. The massive chunk of ice - around the size of four football pitches - tumbled into the '513 lake' in the Andes near Carhuaz, around 200 miles north of Lima. (Sky News) (The Peruvian Times)
Israel tells all of its citizens visiting the Sinai Peninsula to leave immediately after Israeli intelligence warns that a terror cell may be planning to kidnap an Israeli national and bring him to Gaza. (Yahoo! News) (The Telegraph)
Israeli soldiers kill four heavily-armed Islamic Jihad gunmen sent to attack Israeli forces and believed to be planting explosives along the security fence with Gaza. (JTA)
A group of Lebanese politicians play a match of association football to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Lebanese Civil War. AFP
The body of Poland's First Lady, Maria Kaczyńska, is flown to Warsaw to lie in state alongside that of her husband, President Lech Kaczyński. Poland has seen an outpouring of grief since the couple and scores of other senior Polish officials died in a plane crash in western Russia on Saturday. (BBC News) (Xinhua)
The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, makes an unannounced visit to Haiti. It is her first official trip overseas without US President Barack Obama since he took office last year. (BBC News)
11 people are killed in Isabela City, Philippines, after 25 suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group clash with security forces. (CNN)
At least 73 civilians were killed when an army jet bombed a remote village in Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, a local official has told the BBC. (BBC News)
UK General Election countdown
- Conservative leader David Cameron launches his party's election manifesto, which he says is a "plan to change Britain for the better". He said the "optimistic" plan would bring a "new kind of government" with less state and more "people power". (BBC News)
- The UK Independence Party says they will not campaign against election candidates from other parties who are "committed" Eurosceptics, and Plaid Cymru have also launched their manifesto in Cardiff with a pledge to protect the vulnerable and front-line services. (BBC News)
All 103 passengers and crew escape alive after a Boeing 737-300 overruns the runway at Rendani Airport, Manokwari, Indonesia. (JACDEC), (Aviation Herald)
An American Boeing 767 passenger jet makes an emergency landing in Iceland after reports of chemical fumes in the cabin. A spokesman for Keflavik airport outside Reykjavík says several crew members on the American Airlines flight had complained of dizziness. (BBC News)
Japanese car maker Toyota faces further safety concerns after Consumer Reports issues a recommendation not to buy the Lexus GX 460 four-wheel drive because of fears that the car could roll over. (BBC News)
The Australian authorities say a Chinese bulk carrier which ran aground off Queensland has caused widespread damage to the famed Great Barrier Reef. The cleanup is likely to be the biggest operation ever undertaken there. (BBC News)
A mentally ill man goes on a stabbing rampage outside a primary school in southern China, killing two and wounding five. (The Telegraph)
Former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, cross-examines the first prosecution witness at the resumption of his war crimes trial at The Hague. (BBC News)
Twitter sells advertising on its site for the first time. Advertisers will be able to buy "Promoted Tweets" that will appear on Twitter's search results pages. (BBC News)
Spanish police say they have seized more than 800kg (1,760lbs) of cocaine from a lorry disguised as an official backup vehicle for the Dakar rally. (BBC News)

April 14, 2010 (Wednesday)

2010 Yushu earthquake
- Chinese media say 589 people have died after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits China's Qinghai province. Reports suggest there were six quakes in total, and over ten thousand people were injured in the disaster.(China Daily) (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Rescue efforts are difficult due to the isolated location of the earthquake. (LA Times)
At least 100 people are killed in India after a powerful storm demolished thousands of homes in West Bengal. (BBC News)
Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva says that President Kurmanbek Bakiyev must stand trial over riots last week. (Times of India) (Al Jazeera)
Eruption in glacier volcano Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland, enters a new phase, causing local evacuations. (Morgungblaðið)
- Air traffic is closed over Northern Norway as ash cloud from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano drifts towards Europe. (Iceland Review)
It is reported that U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday will unveil a "bold and daring" new space mission to send astronauts to Mars months after he controversially scrapped a project to return to the Moon. (The Telegraph)
- Neil Armstrong and other former astronauts release harsh criticism of the president's recent cuts to NASA.(Fox News)
Controversy arises over the decision to bury Polish President Lech Kaczyński in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków—a place reserved for Poland's kings and heroes. Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in protest, and thousands have joined an internet campaign objecting to the plan. (BBC News)
Tokelau outlaws whaling within its territorial waters. (RNZI)
The Liberal Democrats send out a "four step" manifesto plan to "hardwire fairness into British society". Leader Nick Clegg says his policies, including raising the state pension and a tax cut for low and middle earners, combined "hope and credibility". (BBC News)
The Vatican seeks to "clarify" remarks made by a senior cardinal, who linked homosexuality with paedophilia in the abuse scandal facing the Church. (BBC News)
For the first time in decades, researchers report a significant drop worldwide in the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980. (The New York Times)
A cargo aircraft crashes on take-off from General Mariano Escobedo International Airport, Monterrey, Mexico, killing five crew members and one person in a car on the ground. (Aviation Safety Network)
Australia arrests the captain and chief officer of a Chinese ship that ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef, damaging three kilometres of coral reef and leaking tonnes of oil. (New Straits Times) (BBC) (Economic Times)
Apple delays the international launch of its iPad computer for a month, blaming "surprisingly strong US demand" that has outstripped its ability to produce them. (The Guardian)

April 15, 2010 (Thursday)

2010 Yushu earthquake:
- President Hu Jintao, attending a BRIC summit in Brasilia, announces postponement of his state visits to Peru and Venezuela. (Xinhua)
- Premier Wen Jiabao arrives in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and postpones his trip to southeast Asia. (ABC)
- The death toll rises to 617. (Xinhua) (The Hindu) (Bernama)
Sudanese general election, 2010:
- Sudanese newspapers report the death of 9 members of the National Congress during general elections in the country; the Sudan People's Liberation Army denies the incident. (Global Times) (Al Jazeera)
- Polls close after five days of voting. (France24)
Due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Belgian, British, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Norwegian, Polish, Russian and Swedish airspaces are affected by the eruption. (BBC) (euronews) (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a prime suspect in a large corruption scandal, law enforcement sources have told the BBC. (BBC)
The leaders of the United Kingdom's three main political parties take part in the first of three televised debates ahead of the 2010 General Election. (BBC) (The Guardian)
The maiden flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk.II, India's first launch with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, ends in failure, resulting in the loss of the GSAT-4 satellite. (The Hindu)
Three explosions occur in the former Burmese capital of Yangon during the city's Water Festival, killing at least 9 people and injuring 178. (Xinhua) (BBC) (Radio Australia News)
Gunfire disrupts a rally in support of former President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev in the southern city of Osh. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)
At least three security officers are killed after riots in north Jakarta, Indonesia, over plans to bulldoze a cemetery containing a memorial to a revered Muslim scholar. (Antara) (Ninemsn) (Jakarta Post)
The 2010 IBSA summit comes to a close in Brasilia.
Oxfam International says the number of sexual assaults in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has increased "dramatically". (Al Jazeera)
Israel's Communications Ministry imposes a blanket ban on the iPad and will confiscate them from anyone carrying them into the country. (Ha'aretz) (PC World)

April 16, 2010 (Friday)

Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano:
- Travel chaos spreads across Europe as planes are grounded in the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia as a result of the giant cloud of ash coming across from Iceland. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
- The UK's National Air Traffic Service (NATS) confirms flight restrictions will now remain in place until at least 07:00 tomorrow. (Sky News)
- Ireland opens its air space and transatlantic flights resume from Dublin Airport. A small section off the south coast remains closed. (RTÉ)
- Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost carrier, cancels all flights to and from Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, northern France, northern Germany, Poland and the Baltic states until 12:00 GMT on Monday: CEO Michael O'Leary calls the situation "unprecedented". (Reuters) (Barcelona Reporter) (Irish Independent)
- The BBC reports that share prices have fallen in many European airlines as a result of the grounding of many jets. (BBC)
- The World Health Organisation does not know what effects the ash could have on human beings, but they have advised Europeans to stay indoors, if possible. (BBC)
- Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway, is stuck in New York City due to the eruption. (New York Daily News) (CNN) (Los Angeles Times)
2010 Yushu earthquake:
- The death toll from the earthquake in China which occurred on Wednesday has risen to 1144, officials have announced. Another 417 people are reported to be unaccounted for. (BBC)
- Premier Wen Jiabao travels to the earthquake zone, having postponed a scheduled visit to Brunei, Indonesia and Myanmar. President Hu Jintao calls the Presidents of Chile and Venezuela to postpone trips to those countries. (CNN)
Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Benedict prepares for a trip to Malta, his first trip abroad in 2010, where abuse survivors demand to meet him. (euronews) (Voice of America)
- The Government of Ireland announces a statutory fund of €110 million for former residents of institutions who were abused as children. (RTÉ) (Irish Independent) (The Irish Times)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- The dismembered corpse of a Palestinian fighter killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip is recovered. (Al Jazeera) (The Washington Post)
- The Arab League expresses "great" concern over Israeli "aggression" in the Gaza Strip, stating that human rights are being breached. (Yemen News Agency - SABA)
- Two Palestinian vehicles in a West Bank village are torched by settlers protesting against Israel's temporary construction freeze in the West Bank. (Ha'aretz)
President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad writes a letter to President of the United States Barack Obama urging cooperation between the two countries. (CNN) (One India) (The Washington Post)
Victims of the recent severe storm in India angered by slow government response attack officials and raid an aid storage facility. (AFP)
Gary Jackson, former president of the US private security firm, Blackwater Worldwide (Xe Services LLC), and four other former workers are indicted on federal weapons charges. (BBC)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges Goldman Sachs with defrauding investors. (The Wall Street Journal)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is named as the key suspect in "one of the biggest corruption scandals in Israel's history". (Voice of America) (The Times) (Ha'aretz)
The United Nations commission investigating the events and circumstances surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto submits its report which states that the murder was "avoidable" and the inquiry was bungled. (Dawn) (BBC)
At least ten people die and another 35 are wounded in a suicide attack on a hospital in Quetta. (BBC) (The Times of India) (Al Jazeera) (Sky News)
The seven candidates running in Sunday's Northern Cyprus presidential election, 2010 take part in a live televised election debate on Turkish Cypriot TV. (Famagusta Gazette) (Hürriyet) (Today's Zaman)
UK general election countdown:
- Gordon Brown and David Cameron admitted that Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, put forward a very good case for his party at last night's election debate. (BBC)
- Public polls suggest that Clegg won the election debate. (The Guardian)
As a result of popular protests in the north and capital of the country President Kurmanbek Bakiyev officially resigns after he leaves Kyrgyzstan for Kazakhstan. (The Hindu)
Vote counting begins in Sudan after the five-day landmark multi-party election. (BBC)
Al-Qaeda reportedly free an Italian couple that they had been holding since December 2009. (BBC)
It is reported that Mohammad Khatami, an ex-president of Iran, has been barred from leaving the country. (BBC)
The 2010 BRIC summit opens in Brasília amidst growing cooperation and calls for a bigger role. (The Hindu)
Senior red-shirt leader Arisman Pongruangrong climbs down a rope to escape an arrest attempt by Thai security forces laying siege to Thaksin Shinawatra's SC Park Hotel in Bangkok. He urges protesters to leave Ratchaprasong "to avoid being used as human shields". (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls again on Israel and the Palestinians to make a better effort to pursue peace. (BBC)
Lady Gaga breaks a YouTube most viewed record, becoming "Queen of YouTube" with more than one billion views. (NBC Philadelphia) (Digital Spy)
General Motors runs a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze into a pole at 12 MPH as part of a development crash test on FMVSS 214 standards.

April 17, 2010 (Saturday)

Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, 2010:
- The "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One" disarmament conference opens in response to President of the United States Barack Obama's conference in Washington, D.C. (Al Jazeera) (ABC News)
- China and Russia are represented, as are 60 countries, including several foreign ministers. (Malaysia Star)
- The United States is not invited to Tehran as was the case of Iran at the Washington, D.C. conference. (The Washington Post)
- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for the establishment of an independent body to oversee nuclear disarmament. (Al Jazeera)
- Iran proposes a five-point plan to "democratise the global security architecture". (The Hindu)
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, describes the United States as an "atomic criminal", saying that religion prohibits the use of nuclear weapons (haram) and calls for the US to be expelled from the international nuclear system. (The Daily Telegraph) (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Myanmar News) (AFP) (The Times of India)
- France accuses Iran of shunning nuclear dialogue, while the EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton branded Iran the number one challenge today for world security. (AFP)
Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull:
- The volcanic ash cloud above Europe causes a third day of disruption to air travel, leaving millions of passengers stranded unable to reach their destinations. Officials warn that airspace could remain shut for several more days. (BBC)
- Irish airspace shuts down again, having reopened yesterday. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Reuters) (The Wall Street Journal)
- Reports indicate that the disruption caused by the ash cloud is costing airlines up to £130m every day. (The Guardian)
- Health authorities warn people to stay inside if they smell a sulphurous smell, as it could pose a risk to people with breathing difficulties. (The Guardian)
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel is re-routed to Rome via Portugal on her return flight home from the United States, and is now stuck in Bolzano, Italy. (Reuters)
Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Former Vatican Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos says his 2001 praise of a French bishop for hiding a paedophile priest was endorsed by Pope John Paul II. (RTÉ) (The Times of India) (Reuters)
- Benedict flies to Malta to commemorate the 1,950th anniversary of the shipwreck of Saint Paul on the island, his first overseas visit since the latest round of child sex abuse claims. (The Observer) (The New York Times)
- President of Malta George Abela mentions an abuse trial involving three Catholic clergy in his speech to mark Benedict's coming, saying "justice had both to be done and seen to be done". Benedict makes no direct reference. (BBC)
April 2010 Kohat bombings:
- Twin bombings on a centre for the displaced in the town of Kohat, Pakistan, kill at least 42 people and injues dozens of others. (TVNZ) (Xinhua) (Reuters) (The New Yorjk Times)
- The United Nations condemns the twin attacks. (Dawn)
Twin bombs injure eight people outside M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore ahead of an IPL-3 league game between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians. A third device is located outside. (Indian Express) (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
Over 100,000 mourners attend a memorial service to honour the death of the Polish president Lech Kaczyński, and 95 others who were killed in a plane crash the previous week. (The Guardian)
Snowfall in central Tokyo matches a record set in April 1967. (The Japan Times) (MSN Malaysia)
Two oil tankers collide and burst into flames, killing at least five people and wounding several more, in southwest Nigeria. Three large freight trucks along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway also ignite. (AFP)
Internal e-mails reveal Porter Goss, a former head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), agreed with a decision to destroy hundreds of tapes purportedly showing agents waterboarding two al-Qaeda suspects being held in Thailand in 2002 over fears that public release of the tapes would be "devastating". (Al Jazeera)
An earthquake strikes Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and is felt 50 kilometres away. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
An investigation is launched after a plane crashes into a field and bursts into flames in Weyhill, Andover, Hampshire, United Kingdom, killing at least two people. (The Daily Telegraph) (RTÉ) (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian)
Toyota is to recall 600,000 Sienna minivans in the US over fears of corrosion. "In the worst case, the carrier cable may fail and the spare tyre could become separated from the vehicle" a statement from the company read. (BBC)
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia buys 202 double decker buses from China's Zhengzhou Yutong Group for €35 million in the first cooperation between the two countries. (The Sydney Morning Herald)

April 18, 2010 (Sunday)

The Dow Live Earth Run for Water started on April 18th. The host cities are: Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chicago, Hong Kong, Jimbaran, London, Los Angeles, Manchester, Melbourne, Mexico City, Milan, Minneapolis, New York, Lisboa, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Singapore City, Stockholm, Toronto and Washington, D.C.. (The Independent) (Live Earth)
The Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, 2010 concludes.
- President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran wants "peace, progress and security for all", asks "supporters and creators" of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to "allow the regional nations and the Palestinians to settle things" themselves and calls on "alien troops" to leave the region. (Al Jazeera) (Xinhua)
- United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says in a secret memo to the White House that the United States would be unable to cope with a nuclear threat from Iran. (The Guardian) (CBS News) (Daily Star - Lebanon) (The Times)
Air travel disruption after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull:
- Thousands of European flights do not occur for a fourth straight day. (BBC)
- The volcano disrupts the state funeral of Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland, and his wife Maria, killed in a plane crash with 94 others near Smolensk. (BBC) (CBC) (RTÉ) (The Times)
- Dutch airline KLM announces it has carried out a test flight of 20 crew members and no passengers with "no problems" over closed down airspace. (CNN)
- British airspace extends it own closure to flights until at least 06:00 GMT on Monday. (Reuters)
- The Irish Aviation Authority extends its closure of Irish airspace until at least 13:00 GMT on Monday. (RTÉ)
- Israeli airlines estimate losses of millions of shekels in revenue. (Globes)
Benedict and child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Pope Benedict XVI concludes his visit to Malta. Reports suggest he is trying to avoid discussing the recent child sex abuse scandal, on his first trip since the scandal broke. (BBC)
- However, he does meet with some of those who survived abuse and expresses "shame and sorrow" for their suffering. (The New York Times) (CNN) (The Daily Telegraph) (Al Jazeera)
Independence Day in Zimbabwe:
- Zimbabwe marks 30 years of independence from British-backed minority white rule. (Al Jazeera)
- Residents celebrate with all-night parties, though civil rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) claim four of its members were denied bail after being accused of staging an illegal protest against power cuts and high electricity tariffs, an act they deny they did. (BBC) (Zimbabwe Telegraph)
- President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, in a speech at Harare's stadium, promises to continue his land seizure policy and transfer of control of foreign firms to locals as part of a black empowerment drive. (The Washington Post)
- Mugabe also asks that politically and racially driven violence in the country cease to be, the first time he has ever done this. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Al Jazeera)
President of China Hu Jintao visits survivors in the earthquake zone as the death toll climbs to more than 1,700 people. (BBC)
The semi-finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament are moved from Bangalore to Mumbai following the discovery of further explosive devices after yesterday's bombing. (Al Jazeera)
Seven people are killed and twenty others are injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police station in Kohat, one day after twin bomb attacks kill more than 40 people and wound at least 60 others at a camp for the displaced in the city. All the dead are civilians. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (CNN)
Nigerian gunmen take two German men, from Port Harcourt and Lagos, in Abia State. (BBC) (France24) (IOL) (ABC News)
Three Italian aid workers, Matteo Dell'Aria, Marco Garatti and Matteo Pagani, accused of being involved in a plot to to assassinate Governor of Helmand Gulab Mangal, are released after being found "not guilty". (Al Jazeera)
Increasing numbers of women from Saudi Arabia are running away from home, studies by the International Muslim Organization for Women and Family (IMOWF) in Jeddah say. (Arab News)
Bahrain gives Abdullah of Saudi Arabia the Ajrab sword of Imam Turki bin Abdullah kept by Bahrain for 140 years and confers on him the Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifah Medal during a ceremony at Al-Sakhir Palace. (Arab News) (Bahrain News Agency) (Gulf Daily News)
King Oyo, Rukidi IV of Toro, one of Uganda's last remaining kings and the world's youngest monarch, reaches the age of 18 at the end of a four-day ceremony and takes full control of his kingdom. (CNN) (Xinhua)
Former President of the United States George Washington owes $300,000 for overdue library books he borrowed from New York Society Library five months into his presidency and which he failed to return. (The Guardian) (New York Daily News)
69-year-old Spanish tenor opera star Plácido Domingo returns to the stage at Milan's Teatro alla Scala weeks after colorectal cancer surgery. (BBC)
A recently unearthed track by The Rolling Stones is released as a limited edition 7" single for Record Store Day. The first song recorded by Blur's original line-up since guitarist Graham Coxon quit in 2002 is also released for the same purpose. (BBC)

April 19, 2010 (Monday)

Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot of Kenya wins the 2010 Boston Marathon, setting a new course record. ESPN
Kyrgyzstan unrest:
- Several hundred people armed with sticks and stones clashed with ethnic Russians and Meskhetian Turk landowners in the village of Maevka, before moving toward the capital Bishkek and demanding talks with officials. Alertnet
- Jalal-Abad: Approximately 1,000 people gather in the southwestern town's main square, denouncing the interim government and chanting pro-Bakiev slogans. Rallies also take place in neighboring Osh and Batken provinces. RFE-RL
Middle East
- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay calls for Saudi Arabia and Gulf states to lift restrictions on women and to improve the position of millions of foreign workers in the region. (AFP) (BBC) (Reuters India)
- Former United States presidential candidate and US Senator, John McCain, calls for sanctions against Iran designed to prevent the country from producing a nuclear weapon. (UPI) (The Washington Post)
- Derviş Eroğlu, head of a party opposed to reunification of Cyprus, wins leadership elections in the Turkish Cypriot north but pledges talks with Greek Cypriots. (Al Jazeera)
Iraq:
- Iraqi election officials order a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad after complaints are raised. (BBC) (Financial Times) (Reuters)
- Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki and officials from the United States say two of the country's al-Qaeda leaders are killed. (BBC)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Hamas executions by firing squad of Palestinians accused of aiding Israel is condemned as murder by France, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urges Hamas to halt plans for further killings. (The National) (The New York Times)
- Israeli police raid the Tel Aviv apartment of Anat Kamm, a journalist who had been put under house arrest after leaking classified documents, claiming she was visited by a family member who had not been approved by the courts. (Ha'aretz)
- Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak says that Israel will allow a separate Palestinian state "whether you like it or not". (BBC) (CTV) (The News International)
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not accept demands that Israel stop building in East Jerusalem. (BBC)
Air travel disruption after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull:
- The International Air Transport Association (IATA) criticises European governments, questions their leadership and asks them to reevaluate their decision-making process in the wake of the disaster. (RTT News)
- Thousands of Kenyan farm workers are temporarily laid off as harvesting of flowers and vegetables is stopped due to flight disruptions; the Kenya Flower Council says 3,000 tonnes of flowers meant for export have been scrapped. (BBC) (Business Day) (Reuters Africa)
- Gordon Brown and COBRA deploy the Royal Navy to rescue stranded Britons around the world. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Independent) (The Times)
A report by the Fédération Internationale de Luge de Course (FIL) concludes the track on which Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died at the 2010 Winter Olympics was faster than it should have been. (BBC)
Aftershocks of the Yushu earthquake continue. Quake death toll rises to 1,944. (Xinhua) (People) (QNA) (CCTV)
Seven are killed and 30 are injured in a magnitude 5.3 earthquake in the mountains north of Kabul, Afghanistan. (The Washington Post)
Hundreds of Indonesian protesters in Jakarta demand the riot police be disbanded after three are killed and at least 156 wounded in bloody clashes between Indonesian National Police and demonstrators. (The Times)
North Korea denies it sank a South Korean naval patrol boat in disputed waters between the two Koreas. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The Thai army moves into the Bangkok CBD to block the path of protesters. (BBC) (Japan Today) (Melbourne Age) (The Washington Post)
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd shows a two-hour presentation on his health reform plan at a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting in Canberra. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
UN Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie appeals for safety in Somalia for thousands of Somalis trapped in the country’s capital of Mogadishu. (UN)
Franck Ribéry and other footballers from the French national football team are investigated by police in connection with an underage prostitution ring. (The Times) (AFP) (RTÉ) (Ennahar)
Drug trafficker Carl Williams of Melbourne gangland killings fame is murdered in prison. Yahoo

April 20, 2010 (Tuesday)

Air travel disruption after the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull:
- Another plume threatens to cause further disruptions. (Los Angeles Times)
- Half of all scheduled European flights are expected to go ahead, though airspace remains closed in many countries, including Ireland, Norway and Poland. Denmark accepts no landings. (BBC)
- Planes return to the air in France, Germany and Italy. (CNN) (ABC News)
- Ryanair cancels all of its flights between Ireland and the United Kingdom until 13:00 on Friday 23 April and all Northern European flights — Ireland, UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Baltic States and North Italy — until 13:00 on Thursday 22 April. (Irish Examiner)
- The Irish Aviation Authority closes Cork Airport and Dublin Airport until at least 22:00, opens Shannon Airport for limited services. (Irish Independent) (The Wall Street Journal)
- All United Kingdom airports reopen at 10:00pm BST, with the first planes landing at London Heathrow (BBC)
Iraq:
- Two inspection teams from Iraq's ministry of human rights enter a "secret prison" in Baghdad where "serious legal violations" are said to have occurred. (Al Jazeera)
- The United States and Iraq kill an al-Qaeda leader, Ahmed al-Obeidi, in Nineveh. (BBC) (CBC) (The News International)
The Transocean-owned oil rig Deepwater Horizon explodes, leaking about 4,900,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. At least seven people were injured and over a dozen were missing at sea. (MSNBC)
Bishop of Augsburg Walter Mixa apologises and asks for forgiveness for his physical abuse of children in the 1970s and 1980s. (BBC)
82-year-old General Reynaldo Bignone, former military ruler of Argentina, is imprisoned for 25 years for abductions and tortures committed between 1978 and 1979. (BBC) (Houston Chronicle) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
A New York businessman, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari is sentenced to 10 years in prison for funneling money to a terrorism training camp in Afghanistan. (London Evening Standard)
Dozens of people gather in central Cairo in a rare protest against the use of force on pro-democracy demonstrations which "pose a threat to the national security". (Al Jazeera)
Omar al-Bashir's ruling party agrees to accept the results of the recent general election in Sudan. (Al Jazeera)
Palestinian officials say they will oppose new Israeli orders on deporting Palestinians from the West Bank. (BBC)
The Yushu earthquake death toll rises to 2,046. (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera)
Lorena Ochoa, the world's number one golfer for the past three years, announces her retirement from the sport at the age of 28. (Brisbane Times) (The Globe and Mail) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (The New York Times)
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announces the ousted President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who is wanted by his successors in connection with the recent unrest, is in Minsk. (BBC) (VOA) (Al Jazeera)
The United Kingdom is accused of complicity in torture in Afghanistan as peace campaigner Maya Evans seeks a judicial review of the government's role in the extraordinary rendition of suspects. (The Independent)
Deputy Mayor of Kandahar Azizollah Yarmal, Afghanistan is shot dead while praying at a mosque. (BBC)
Repeat polls for Sri Lanka's April parliamentary election are held in Nawalapitiya and Trincomalee where ballots were annulled due to violence. (BBC) (People's Daily Online) (The Washington Post)
President of the United States Barack Obama speaks of the "unbreakable bonds" and "special relationship" between his country and Israel on the 62nd anniversary of Israel's birth. (Sky News) (The Jerusalem Post)
The United States Supreme Court, in ruling on United States v. Stevens, strikes down a law outlawing videos that depict animal cruelty. (Washington Post)
Two Canadian men are accused of committing an act of "flag desecration" in La Quinta, California, United States for allegedly replacing an American flag with a Canadian flag following Canada's ice hockey victory at the 2010 Winter Olympics. (CBC)
Two prisoners are killed and several others are injured during an attempted jail break in Kaduna, Nigeria. (BBC)
Two high-ranking officers are suspended from Rwanda's military and arrested; Maj-Gen Charles Muhire is accused of corruption and misuse of office, whilst Lt-Gen Karenzi Karake is accused of immoral conduct. (BBC)
An Indonesian court upholds a 1965 blasphemy law which permits punishment for people or organisations that "distort" the orthodoxies of six officially recognised religions — Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Confucianism — and is criticized as a blow to permitting religious freedom. (AFP) (New York Times) (Al Jazeera)
Speaking in Tehran, Iranian Islamic cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi blames promiscuous women for causing earthquakes. (BBC) (news.com.au) (Fox News) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The International Court of Justice in The Hague rules that Uruguay should have informed Argentina about its plans to build two paper mills on the banks of the River Uruguay, although it allows the one mill which was built to continue operating. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Production of the 23rd James Bond film is put on indefinite hiatus due to uncertainty surrounding the future of MGM. (businessweek)
The shortlist for the Orange Prize for Fiction is announced. (BBC)
Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa are named as being involved in the France national football team's sex scandal. Franck Ribéry admits sexual relations with an underage prostitute. (The Guardian)
Former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president (1980 - 2001) and honorary life president Juan Antonio Samaranch is in a "very critical" condition in Quiron Hospital, Barcelona, after suffering a heart attack. (BBC) (CNN) (The Daily Telegraph) (Herald Sun) (RTÉ)

April 21, 2010 (Wednesday)

Juan Antonio Samaranch, the 7th president of the International Olympic Committee (1980 - 2001), dies at the age of 89. (BBC) (CNN) (ESPN)
52 civilians are killed and 55 others are wounded in renewed tribal clashes in Sudan's South Darfur state. (Kazinform) (China Dialy) (China.org)
A Rovos Rail luxury tourist train derails near Pretoria, South Africa, killing at least two people – a pregnant woman and her baby whose birth occurred during the derailment – and injuring at least 25 others. (BBC) (Mail & Guardian) (News24)
Poland announces the date of its presidential election — June 20 — to elect plane crash victim Lech Kaczyński's successor. (Al Jazeera)
Pope Benedict XVI makes an explicit promise that the Roman Catholic Church will take action against child sexual abuse by priests. (BBC) (News24) (Reuters) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
GetEQUAL activists shout at President of the United States Barack Obama while he is speaking, expressing their annoyance over the slow progress of repealing the ban on open homosexuality in the country's armed forces. (The Daily Telegraph)
The Nigerian military exhumes seven fresh corpses from shallow graves near Jos in the latest round of apparent revenge killings. (BBC)
Bosnian police fired tear gas and water at war veterans in Sarajevo, during a protest against proposed state benefit cuts. (Al Jazeera)
The Asadho human rights group says the Democratic Republic of the Congo's army killed at least 11 civilians at the airport in Mbandaka this month. (BBC)
500 Greenpeace environmentalists protest against the awarding of a tender for the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric project by dumping tonnes of manure at the National Electric Energy Agency's (Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica, ANEEL) offices in Brasilia. (Al Jazeera)
More than a dozen suspects are indicted in the Philippines in connection with last year's Maguindanao massacre. (Taiwan News) (Al Jazeera)
South Korea claims it has uncovered a North Korean plot to assassinate the most senior official to defect from the North to the South, Hwang Jang-yop. (BBC) (Korea Times) (Al Jazeera)
Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is arrested on charges such as collaboration with a terrorist organisation and genocide denial. (BBC)
Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev agree to extend the lease between Kiev and Moscow that allows Russia's Black Sea Fleet to be stationed in Ukraine in return for cheaper gas until 2042. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)
2010 Yushu earthquake: China holds a national day of mourning for the victims. Public entertainment activities are cancelled, all Chinese flags around the world flew at half-staff. (AP via Google News)
Nicolas Sarkozy speaks out against the niqāb, telling a cabinet meeting it "hurts the dignity of women and is not acceptable in French society", as his government moves to outlaw the garment. (Al Jazeera)
The U.S. Obama administration charges that Sudan’s recent election was plagued by "serious irregularities" and says the United States is committed to ensuring that a 2011 Sudanese referendum on southern independence would be conducted fairly. (The New York Times)
Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger launch a joint command centre in Tamanrasset to counter al-Qaeda, according to the Algerian defence ministry. (Al Jazeera)
The British government announces that British airports will reopen and passenger flights will resume, but officials caution that it will take time for flight schedules to return to normal after the six-day shutdown caused by volcanic ash from the 2010 eruptions of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. (USA Today) (Chicago Tribune)
Police in Himachal Pradesh arrest Paramhamsa Nityananda, a Hindu holy man who faces charges of obscenity after he fondles two women in bed on television. (BBC) (iAfrica) (Indian Express) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Syria becomes the first Arab state to implement a ban on smoking in public places. (BBC) (The Miami Herald)
U.S. pop singer Kelly Clarkson is criticised by anti-smoking groups in Indonesia and the United States for promoting cigarettes at an upcoming concert in Jakarta. (BBC)
Five men accused of conspiring to extort £4.25 million for the safe return of Madonna of the Yarnwinder, an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, are cleared. (BBC) (The Times)
Cirque du Soleil announces it will stage a live tour featuring the works of Michael Jackson. (BBC) (Financial Times) (The Guardian) (Los Angeles Times) (Xinhua)
The man who attacked Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher on stage at the 2008 Virgin Festival in Toronto is put under house arrest for 12 months. (BBC) (Billboard) (CBC) (Digital Spy) (The Globe and Mail) (Toronto Star)

April 22, 2010 (Thursday)

2010 Explosion on Deepwater Horizon drilling rig:
- Transocean oil platform Deepwater Horizon sinks into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana after an explosion two days earlier that injured 7, with 11 still missing. (Fox News)
- The wreck is estimated to be leaking 8,000 barrels of crude oil per day, and may leak up to 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel depending on how much burned in the explosion and ensuing fire. (CNN)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Ahmad Sabah, a Palestinian with a Gaza ID card, claims the new Israeli military order on deportations is behind his release to Gaza instead of the West Bank where he lived before his detainment in 2001. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Two rockets are fired into Jordanian territory: one explodes near Aqaba and damages a warehouse, the other falls into the Red Sea. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (France24) (RTÉ)
Pope Benedict XVI and the child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- The Pope accepts the resignation of Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin James Moriarty. (RTÉ) (BBC) (Irish Independent) (New York Daily News) (The New Zealand Herald)
- Bishop of Augsburg Walter Mixa offers his resignation after admitting his abuse of children to "avert further damage to the Church and allow a new start". (Al Jazeera) (The Irish Times) (Times Online)
- A man who says he was abused by American paedophile priest Father Lawrence Murphy sues the Pope and the Vatican in a federal court in the United States. (BBC)
Pro-Daniel Ortega protesters in Nicaragua injure three opposition politicians while blockading parliament to prevent the overturning of a presidential decree. (Al Jazeera)
The Flemish Liberals and Democrats leave the Government of Belgium following a dispute over the dissolution of the electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. (VRT)
Several grenades explode in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, killing at least one person and injuring at least 75 others. (Bangkok Post) (BBC News)
NATO foreign ministers agree to launch a Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Bosnia and Herzegovina. (BBC) (Reuters)
Acting President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan signs the country's 4.6 trillion naira budget for 2010 into law. (Reuters)
Minas Gerais, one of Brazil's biggest states, bans the sale of the Toyota Corolla over safety fears. (BBC)
Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka requests his freedom from "illegal detention" in his first speech in parliament. (Al Jazeera)
President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Zimbabwe; Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai objects, labelling Mr Ahmadinejad a "war-monger, a trampler of human rights [and] an executioner". (BBC) (Reuters)
A Utrecht court acquits the Dutch arm of the Arab European League of hate crime charges relating to the publication of a cartoon questioning the Holocaust. The publication was intended to highlight double standards after MP Geert Wilders was not put on trial for distributing cartoons of Muhammad. (BBC)
Rwanda president Paul Kagame's rival Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza is released one day after her arrest on charges of terrorism and genocide denial but banned from leaving Kigali and ordered to report to authorities twice a month. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
Huang Guangyu, founder of GOME Electrical Appliances and formerly China's richest man, goes on trial for bribery in Beijing. (Al Jazeera)
A court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo overturns death sentences granted to Norwegians Joshua French and Tjostolv Moland. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Independent) (News24) (Reuters Africa)
The Euro falls to near year-low levels amid concerns about Greece's debt crisis. (Bloomberg)
Indian police investigate potential attacks on shopping centres in New Delhi. (Al Jazeera)
President of the United States Barack Obama calls on Wall Street to join him in his efforts to reform the financial sector in a visit to Manhattan. (CNN)
The Melbourne Storm are stripped of their 2007 and 2009 National Rugby League titles after being found to have cheated the salary cap. (BBC)
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honours The Killers for "their impact in shaping American music". (BBC) (Contact Music) (CBC)
An episode of the American television series South Park is censored after a threat of fatwā from a New York-based group over the depiction of Muhammad in a bear costume. (The Guardian) (CBS News) (BBC)
The St. Louis Rams select Sam Bradford with the first pick of the 2010 NFL Draft (Sporting News)

April 23, 2010 (Friday)

80 people die after drinking illegal home-made banana gin (waragi) laced with methanol in Kabale, Uganda (BBC) (News24) (TMC)
Dozens of people are killed and more than 100 others are wounded by a series of bomb explosions in Baghdad, mostly near Shia mosques around the time of Jumu'ah (BBC) (The Guardian) (Reuters)
Seven people, including six police officers and a civilian, are killed and two other officers are injured in a shoot-out with suspected gang hitmen in Ciudad Juárez. (BBC) (CNN) (The New York Times)
Two supporters of defeated independent state candidate Angelina Teny are killed by police and four others are injured during post-election protests in Bentiu. (BBC) (Reuters)
In a major transfer of power in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, Zhang Chunxian replaces Wang Lequan as the region's Party Committee Secretary; Wang has served in the post since 1994. (AP) (Xinhua)
Red Shirt leader Veera Musikapong agrees to end the protests in Bangkok if the government agrees to dissolve parliament and hold elections within 90 days. (The Guardian)
Greece activates the €45 billion aid package it was offered by Europe earlier in the month to combat the country's debt crisis. (Washington Post)
A Spanish hospital claims to have performed the world's "first full-face transplant". (AP)
Response to child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Bishop of Bruges since 1984 Roger Joseph Vangheluwe admits sexually abusing a boy and resigns with immediate effect. (BBC) (news.com.au) (Al Jazeera)
- A guest visit by Colombian Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos to a prominent Catholic church in Washington, D.C. is canceled after the decision to invite the controversial Cardinal was criticized by survivors of child abuse. (The Irish Times)
The Boy Scouts of America are ordered to pay $18.5 million in damages following the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy. (The New York Times) (ABC News) (Miami Herald) (CNN)
Keflavík International Airport, Iceland's largest airport, is shut down due to volcanic ash. (news.com.au) (Reuters India) (IceNews) (Al Jazeera)
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu resists calls from the United States to stop construction in Jerusalem; the United Nations claims Israel's blockade of Gaza prevents it from educating thousands of Palestinian children. (BBC) (MSNBC)
A car bomb explodes outside a police station in Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. (BBC) (CNN) (The Guardian) (People's Daily Online)
North Korea seizes five properties owned by South Korea in Kŭmgangsan. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (Al Jazeera)
President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opens a trade fair in Bulawayo on his tour of Zimbabwe as the country's President Robert Mugabe back's Iran's "just cause" for developing nuclear energy. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Times of India) (Al Jazeera)
Police issue a French Muslim woman with a fine of €22 for wearing a burqa while driving in Nantes, causing controversy and threatening her husband's status. (BBC) (Expatica France) (news.com.au) (iAfrica)
A Frenchman and his Algerian driver are kidnapped by armed men in Niger. (BBC) (France24) (Arab News) (News24)
China requests that Tibetan monks leave Qinghai where an earthquake struck on 14 April. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
A total of 2.89 million new jobs were created in China's urban areas during the first three months this year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) (China.org)
Arizona governor Jan Brewer signs the state's controversial immigrant detention bill into law. Supporters say it will take 'the handcuffs' off police; opponents say it will violate people's civil rights. (The Washington Post)
The 2009 ascent of Kangchenjunga by Korean climber Oh Eun-sun, aiming to be the first woman to climb the 14 highest peaks on Earth, is declared "disputed" by Himalayan climbing records arbiter, Elizabeth Hawle. (BBC)

April 24, 2010 (Saturday)

In separate events, 29 people are killed in a suicide attack on a prison van, six NATO oil tankers are torched, and the Pakistan Army attacked Taliban fighters. (Arab News)
Paraguay passes a bill, requested by President, Fernando Lugo, that suspends constitutional rights for 30 days in parts of the country after the Paraguayan People's Army (PPA) kills four people. (BBC)
A tornado in Mississippi kills at least 10 people. (USA Today)
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand rejects protester demands to dissolve the Parliament within 30 days. (Sky News)
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 strikes in the Maluku Islands north of Ambon Island. (Arab News)
al-Shabaab seizes three towns from Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a in central Galguduud, Somalia. (Al Jazeera)
Iraq holds funerals for those killed in yesterday's series of bombings in Baghdad. (Al Jazeera)
Russia's Proton-M rocket sends a United States SES-1 telecommunications satellite into space. (Xinhua)
An unmanned American aircraft kills seven militants in Pakistan. (Washington Post)
Child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church:
- In Chile, Catholic Church leaders and President Sebastián Piñera meet for more than an hour to discuss the child sexual abuse scandal and agree to send a letter to all the country's parishes. (BBC)
- A retired priest says he was ignored when he spoke out about Belgium's longest-serving bishop having sexually abused a boy years before his admission and immediate resignation yesterday. (CBC)
Tens of thousands of people rally and lay flowers at a monument in Yerevan to the victims on the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. (Al Jazeera)
Marchers march in a dozen Spanish cities, including thousands in Madrid, to support Judge Baltasar Garzón who has been told he may face a trial for launching an inquiry into the acts of General Francisco Franco. Falange arranges a smaller protest in Madrid in opposition to Garzón. (BBC) (CBC)
Former Nazi corporal and founder of Villa Baviera in Chile Paul Schäfer dies in prison at the age of 88. (BBC) (Deutsche Welle) (France24) (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Wang Lequan, Communist Party secretary since 1994, is replaced by Zhang Chunxian as the most powerful official in Xinjiang. (BBC) (Arab News) (The Hindu) (South China Morning Post)
Two German men held in Abia State are released six days after being seized on a swim. (BBC)
The Cheonan, which was destroyed in the Baengnyeong incident, is recovered. (Sky News)
Mumbai's Oberoi Hotel reopens 18 months after sustaining damage in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. (BBC)
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh injures his ankle in a carriage driving accident on the Queen's Windsor estate. (Arab News)

April 25, 2010 (Sunday)

The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague orders the British government to pay £400 million to Iran for an arms deal cancelled following the Iranian Revolution. (Ha'aretz) (Press TV) (ABC News)
55 people are killed and 85 injured after clashes between Arab nomads from the Darfur region of Sudan and the Southern Sudan army. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (AFP)
An inquiry is launched as at least 80 schoolgirls in different Kunduz schools are poisoned this week; the Taliban, opposed to female education, denies any knowledge. (BBC) (Japan Today) (Reuters)
Zhou Qiang succeeds Zhang Chunxian as the provincial party secretary of Hunan Province in China. (China Daily)
At least five people are killed and 20 others are injured by a bomb blast at a cafe in the Ethiopian town of Adi Haro. (Al Jazeera)
Israeli police clash with Palestinian protesters objecting to an "extremely provocative" march by settlers in Silwan in East Jerusalem, calling for the removal of Palestinians who live in the area. (Al Jazeera)
Mexican Labour Party leader in Guerrero Rey Hernández dies after being shot at least seven times outside his home in Tlacoachistlahuaca. (The Times of India) (People's Daily Online)
Hungary's Fidesz – Hungarian Civic Union wins a historic two-thirds general election victory, according to second round results. (BBC) (CBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
Heinz Fischer wins the Austrian presidential election, 2010. (Al Jazeera) (CBC) (The Irish Times)
Nearly 100,000 people rally in Okinawa, Japan, demanding the removal of an American base from the island. (Kyoto) (Washington Post) (China Daily)
Thousands of people rally in Beirut to ask for the separation of religion and state in Lebanon. (Al Jazeera)
A huge fire destroys hundreds of homes and leaves thousands homeless in Quezon City, Philippines. (ABS-CBN News) (BBC)
The Spanish Navy captures eight suspected pirates off the Somalia coast. (Press TV) (The Washington Post)
The Ladies in White are stopped from marching in Havana but stand silently instead. (BBC) (The Miami Herald)
Cuba's Speaker of the Parliament Ricardo Alarcón challenges the United States to lift its 48-year embargo on the island if it believes Cuba benefits from the embargo, as Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested. (euronews) (Press TV) (Channel News Asia)
Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki meets the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and says Iran remains interested in a nuclear fuel swap drafted by the United Nations. (Al Jazeera) (Press TV) (Xinhua)
London Marathon:
- Tsegaye Kebede wins the men's marathon with a time of 2:05:19; Liliya Shobukhova wins the women's marathon with a time of 2:22:00. (USA Today)
- Princess Beatrice of York becomes the first royal to complete the London Marathon. (The Daily Telegraph)
Chennai Super Kings defeat Mumbai Indians to win the third Indian Premier League cricket tournament. CNN, Al Jazeera, Sydney Morning Herald
Pope Benedict XVI and his upcoming visit to Britain:
- The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office apologises after The Sunday Telegraph obtains a "foolish" document calling for the upcoming September visit of Pope Benedict XVI to be marked by the launch of "Benedict-branded" condoms, the opening of an abortion clinic and the blessing of a same-sex marriage. (BBC) (The Guardian) (RTÉ)
- The Vatican downplays the incident and says it will continue to visit despite the diplomatic gaffe. (National Post)
South African President Jacob Zuma announces that he is HIV-negative in an effort to promote AIDS awareness. (BBC) (China Post) (France24) (News24)
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan reveals he has cirrhosis of the liver. (BBC) (CBC) (The Straits Times) (The Times)
Professor Stephen Hawking warns humans about the dangers of contacting extraterrestrials. (BBC) (Fox News) (The Hindu) (Sky News) (The Sunday Times)
The United Kingdom Professional Footballers' Association votes Wayne Rooney as "player of the year". (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
The first passenger flight between Iraq and the United Kingdom in two decades touches down at London Gatwick Airport, nine days overdue because of volcanic ash problems. (BBC)

April 26, 2010 (Monday)

Belgium's King Albert accepts the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, ending his government's term and leading to early elections in June 2010. (BBC)
In elections marred by boycotts and fraud allegations, Omar al-Bashir is re-elected president of Sudan despite facing war crimes charges and an international arrest warrant. (USA Today)
2010 Thai political protests:
- Several grenade attacks occur at the homes of former Thai Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa and in Chiang Mai. (Bangkok Post)
- Red shirt protesters set up roadblocks to prevent police reinforcements from reaching the capital Bangkok. (BBC) (Thai News Agency)
- Yellow shirt protesters say they will take action against the red shirts if the authorities do not deal with the protests. (Al Jazeera)
Robotic submarines attempt to stop leaking oil in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion. (The Globe and Mail)
The British ambassador to Yemen, Timothy Torlot, survives an attempted suicide bombing. (Washington Post)
Former dictator of Panama, Manuel Noriega is extradited from the United States to France. (CNN)
Noma, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, is named as the "world's best restaurant" in Restaurant magazine's annual survey. (The Guardian)
A 6.5~6.9 earthquake strikes near Taitung, south east of Taiwan. (Focus Taiwan) (Xinhua)
By a 6-5 margin, a United States federal appeals court rules that a sex-discrimination lawsuit, the largest employment discrimination case in history, against Wal-Mart can continue. (NY Times)
The United States Supreme Court agrees to hear a case challenging laws that forbid the selling of violent video games to minors. (LA Times)
A Hamas militant is killed in Hebron after a shootout with the Israeli Defense Forces. (Jerusalem Post) (Sydney Morning Herald) (BBC)
South Koreans pay tribute to the victims of the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan in March. (Yonhap) (Xinhua) (Al Jazeera)
The Government of South Korea announces the completion of the world’s longest seawall in a reclaimed tidal flat in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province. (Korea Herald)

April 27, 2010 (Tuesday)

Standard & Poor's downgrades Greece's sovereign credit rating to junk, four days after the country's government requests the activation of a €45-billion EU–IMF bailout. (Business Week)
Norway and Russia settle a 40-year old conflict over their maritime border in the Barents Sea, announced during President Medvedev's state visit in Norway. (Earthtimes) (Reuters)
India arrests a woman working at its embassy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad on charges of espionage. (Times of India) (Xinhua)
A mortar attack on joint Iraqi army-police office kills 2 Iraqi soldiers and injures 14 in Baghdad. (USA Today)
About 20 senior military leaders in Burma, including Prime Minister Thein Sein, retire from their posts in the State Peace and Development Council to participate in the general election later this year. (BBC) (Reuters) (Sify)
A smoke bomb is thrown in the Ukrainian parliament during protests after Ukraine's extension of the lease on a Russian naval base in Sevastopol. (BBC) (RIA Novosti)
A United States Senate investigation finds that Goldman Sachs made billions of dollars at the expense of its clients during the collapse of the housing market. (BBC)
Oh Eun-Sun becomes the first woman to successfully scale all of the world's 14 highest peaks. (Korea Times) (CTV)
Former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is charged with mass killings for his role in an uprising earlier this month. (Washington Post) (RIA Novosti)
Kenya's foreign minister Moses Wetangula arrives in the United Arab Emirates to resolve a diplomatic row after Kenya interrogated and deported members of the UAE's ruling family on terrorism charges. (Kenyan Standard) (BBC)
Haiti drops kidnapping charges against U.S. missionaries detained for trying to take children out of the country after the January earthquake. (USA Today)
The Metropolitan Police in London publish a long suppressed report on the 1979 death of Blair Peach which concludes that a police officer was probably responsible for his killing. (BBC) (Report)
The Israeli military disciplines four officers involved in two clashes with West Bank protesters in which four Palestinian civilians were killed. (BBC)
A massive landslide hits a north Taiwan highway close to Keelung. (People)
Sierra Leone introduces free healthcare for pregnant and breast-feeding women and children under five. (BBC)
The evangelical group Noah's Ark Ministries International claims to have found a 4800 year old wood structure that they are "99.9 percent" certain is the remains of Noah's Ark. (Fox News)

April 28, 2010 (Wednesday)

Niger faces total crop failure worse than that of 2005, according to United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes. (BBC) (Reuters)
A Thai soldier dies in a flareup of tensions in the ongoing conflict between pro- and anti-government factions in Thailand. (Wall Street Journal)
The United States Coast Guard plans a controlled burn to remove spilled oil in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. (MarketWatch)
Russia posts once classified documents relating to the Katyn massacre online. (The Guardian)
President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has applied for a visa to visit the United States next week for the Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, and State Department spokesman Philip Crowley has said they will likely be approved, although "a face-to-face meeting between a US diplomat and an Iranian diplomat is highly unlikely" (BBC) (AFP) (AP) (The Star)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Israeli soldiers open fire on protesters who approached the Israeli border from Gaza, killing a 20-year-old Palestinian man. The Israeli military says the demonstrators were throwing stones at soldiers and setting fires. (Haaretz) (New York Times) (Al Jazeera) (Press TV)
- Four Palestinians die in a tunnel beneath the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, possibly after the tunnel was filled with gas or blown up. (BBC) (Ynetnews)
A report blames pilot error for the 2007 crash of Kenya Airways Flight 507 in Cameroon. (BBC) (CBC) (Reuters Africa)
United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approves Cape Wind, the nation's first off-shore wind farm. (BBC News)
Team China is stripped of a 2000 Olympics bronze medal in women's gymnastics after it is revealed that one member of the team was underage. (NY Times)
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is described as "mortified" after an open-mic incident during general election campaigning recorded him describing a Rochdale voter as a "bigoted woman". (BBC News)

April 29, 2010 (Thursday)

Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico
- The United States Coast Guard begins a controlled burn to remove oil spilled in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. (BBC News)
- As economic losses begin to mount, shrimp fishermen in Louisiana and Alabama file class action lawsuits against the oil company BP and owners of the drilling rig (Reuters)
A U.S. government panel, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, names Saudi Arabia and China among 13 countries as the most serious violators of religious freedom. (VOA) (AP) (USA Today)
Millions of mostly Asian women who work in countries like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates remain at risk of human trafficking, forced labor, confinement and sexual violence, the New York-based Human Rights Watch group reports. (The Jakarta Globe)
India and Pakistan agree to reopen discussion on "all issues of mutual concern." (LA Times) (Times of India)
Twenty-eight children and three adults are stabbed at a nursery school in China. (BBC News) (China Daily)
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves Provenge (sipuleucel-T), the first "vaccine" approved to treat cancer, for men with advanced prostate cancer. (USA Today)
Belgium's parliament votes to ban the wearing of burqas and other face coverings in public. (The Telegraph)
The United States tells Israel that it must remove 23 West Bank outposts, as previously promised. (Jerusalem Post)
The third round of leaders' debates takes place in the United Kingdom. (NY Times)
Human rights workers Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Jyri Antero Jaakkola were killed by paramilitaries in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. (The Washington Post)
Pakistani security forces announce that Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is likely still alive, contrasting early reports that stated a January 2010 drone attack had killed him. (LA Times)

April 30, 2010 (Friday)

Expo 2010:
- Hailed as the largest World's Fair in history, Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai, China. (Financial Times)(Xinhua) (China.org) (Sina) (People) (China.com) (Shanghai Daily)
- Maltese President George Abela is hospitalised after sustaining an injury in his China hotel and has to cancel his appearance at the official inauguration. (The Times of Malta)
At least eight villagers die following a landslide in Kenya, with others hospitalised or missing and homes destroyed. (BBC)
At least eight people die in an attack on an army base in South Sudan. (BBC)
French senator Charles Pasqua is convicted and sentenced on charges of corruption which occurred whilst he was interior minister in the 1990s. (France24) (BBC) (China Post)
Tonga's Attorney-General suddenly resigns amidst allegations the government is trying to take over his judiciary. (TVNZ)
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion aftermath:
- The oil spill resulting from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico reaches the Louisiana coast. (CBS News)
- Landfall of the giant oil spill will result in widespread environmental harm to animals, birds and coastline areas. (The Washington Post) (CNN)
- Weather threatens to impede cleanup efforts. (Houston Chronicle)
Former Pakistani spy Khalid Khawaja is murdered; a previously unknown militant group - Asian Tigers - claims responsibility. (The Wall Street Journal)
Protesters in Thailand storm a hospital amid rising tension between pro- and anti-government factions. (NY Times)
The United States Justice Department opens a criminal investigation into alleged fraud by Goldman Sachs. (Washington Post)
The Nigerian House of Representatives announces the creation of ten new states, five in the north and five in the south, by 2011. (AllAfrica.com)
China and South Korea discuss the potential security threat presented by North Korean aggression. (Washington Post)
The United States announces it will begin mediating indirect peace talks between Israel and Palestine. (NY Times)
Iran threatens to "cut off Israel's feet" if Israel attacks Syria. (Jerusalem Post)
China moves to increase classroom security after a series of unrelated attacks on schools injure dozens of children and kill ten. (LA Times)
One of Ireland's most recognisable broadcasters, Gerry Ryan, who co-presented Eurovision Song Contest 1994 sixteen years ago today, is discovered dead at his Dublin home after failing to present this morning's edition of The Gerry Ryan Show on national radio station RTÉ 2fm. (The Guardian) (BBC) (esctoday.com) (Vancouver Sun) (Sky News)
Russian businessman Vasily Bukhtienko, who established a Joseph Stalin museum in Volgograd, is beat to death by electric shocks. (BBC)

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Ongoing events
Economics Automotive industry crisis Financial crisis European sovereign debt crisis Greek economic crisis Worldwide recession Medical West African meningitis outbreak HIV/AIDS in Africa Political Irish Catholic sexual abuse scandal Nigerian presidential power crisis Philippine presidential elections Protests and political crisis in Kyrgyzstan Thai political protests United Kingdom general election Scientific 2010 China drought and dust storms Expedition 23 Humanitarian Haiti earthquake response

Recent deaths
April 30: Paul Mayer 30: Gerry Ryan 28: Stefania Grodzieńska 28: Furio Scarpelli 25: Alan Sillitoe 24: Paul Schäfer 24: Dudley Strasburg 23: Natalia Lavrova 23: Peter Porter 21: Juan Antonio Samaranch 19: Guru 19: Carl Williams 17: Dede Allen 17: Alexandru Neagu 16: Rasim Delić 15: Benjamin Hooks 10: Lech Kaczynski 08: Jake Wheeler

Ongoing conflicts
Africa / Middle East Darfur conflict Fourth Chadian Civil War Iraq War Israeli–Palestinian conflict Maghreb insurgency Niger Delta conflict South Yemen insurgency Somali Civil War Turkey–PKK conflict War in Afghanistan Asia Balochistan conflict Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir Insurgency in the Philippines Ethnic conflict in Nagaland Naxalite-Maoist insurgency South Thailand insurgency War in North-West Pakistan Americas Colombian Civil War Mexican Drug War Internal conflict in Peru

Elections
Recent: April 4: Bolivia, Regional 8: Sri Lanka, Parliament 11: Hungary, Parliament (1^st round) 11–15: Sudan, General 18: Northern Cyprus, President 24: Nauru, Parliament 25: Austria, President 25: Hungary, Parliament (2^nd round) Upcoming: May 5: Mauritius, General 6: United Kingdom, General 10: Philippines, General 16: Central African Republic, General 16: Dominican Republic, Parliament

Trials
Recently concluded Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi Italy: Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito Peru: Alberto Fujimori United Arab Emirates: Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan United States: William J. Jefferson, Sheila Dixon United Kingdom: Peter Chapman Ongoing Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Tribunal China: Organized crime in Chongqing France: Church of Scientology, Air France Flight 4590 Germany: Heinrich Boere, John Demjanjuk Iraq: Supreme Criminal Tribunal Malaysia: Anwar Ibrahim Netherlands: Thomas Lubanga (ICC), Radovan Karadžić (ICTY), Geert Wilders Palau: Tommy Remengesau Russia: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev Sierra Leone: Charles Taylor (SCFSL) Singapore: Tak Boleh Tahan Thailand: Thaksin Shinawatra United States: Jena Six, Joseph Bruno, David Headley Upcoming Sudan: Lubna al-Hussein United States: Viktor Bout, Noshir Gowadia, Allen Stanford

Holidays and observances
Ongoing March 30 evening - May 18: Sefirat Ha'omer (Judaism) April 4-11: Easter (both Western and Eastern Christianity) April 20 evening - May 2: Riḍván (Bahá'í) 30 evening - May 1: Walpurgis Night (Neopaganism, Satanism) April 2010 Current 30: Queen's Birthday (Kingdom of the Netherlands) 30: Admission Day (Louisiana) 30: Children's Day (Mexico) 30: King's Birthday (Sweden) 30: Arbor Day (United States) 30: Honesty Day (United States) 30: Reunification Day (Vietnam) Upcoming May 2010 1: International Workers' Day

References

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April 2010

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April 2010

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