Portal:Current events/2012 April 16

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Current events of April 16, 2012 (2012-04-16) (Monday)

Syrian uprising:
- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urges "maximum restraint" from the Syrian regime as the first UN military observers arrive in Damascus to monitor a fragile ceasefire. (The Daily Telegraph) (Fox News) (Los Angeles Times)
- At least 55 people are reported killed, including 26 in the city of Idlib, as violence increases again despite the arrival of U.N. observers to monitor a cease-fire. (CNN)
Military leaders and a group of political parties in Guinea-Bissau announce the formation of a Transitional National Council after the recent coup; the acting president and prime minister remain in detention. (CNN)
A six-year-old boy is killed and two other children are wounded after a militant throws a hand grenade into a co-educational school near Peshawar, northwest Pakistan. (CNN)

Ted Hughes's older brother, Gerald, is to publish a memoir about his early years with the poet. (BBC)
The Sex Pistols' song "God Save the Queen", which featured a defaced image of Elizabeth II on its cover, called the British government “a facist regime” and was banned by the BBC, is to be re-released 35 years after its debut, in time for June's Diamond Jubilee. (BBC) (The New York Times)

The first ever challenge to the U.S. nominee for World Bank president is unsuccessful; the selection of Dartmouth College president Jim Yong Kim draws criticism, such as the historical U.S. dominance of the post and the fact that Kim, a former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/AIDS department, is not an economist. (Al Jazeera)
Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner submits a bill that would nationalise 51% of YPF to Congress. (The Guardian)

A 6.7-magnitude earthquake rocks Valparaíso, Chile, with a depth of 23 mi (37 km). (CNN)(United States Geological Survey)

Australia relaxes sanctions on Myanmar, following political reforms in Myanmar, including by-elections earlier this month in which opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party won dozens of seats. (CNN)
The U.S. military's top officer Martin Dempsey speaks of being "embarrassed" and tells a Pentagon news conference "we let the boss down" in relation to allegations that United States Secret Service agents habitually associated with prostitutes in Colombia. Pentagon spokesman George E. Little tells reporters that the number of military staff involved could be more than the five originally reported. (BBC)
An Israeli soldier hits a foreign pro-Palestinian activist, believed to be a Danish national, in the face with his gun during a bicycle rally in the West Bank; the Danish ambassador to Israel demands an explanation from Israel.(Al Jazeera) (Los Angeles Times) (Toronto Star) (Ynet)

The trial of confessed perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, starts in Oslo. (CNN)
The European Court of Human Rights rules that the Soviet Union violated the rights of relatives of the victims in the 1940 Katyn Massacre, and describes the massacre as a war crime. (Reuters)

Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, the heir to the Dutch throne, buys a villa for €4.5 million beside the Greek town of Kranidi near a home owned by Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin. (BBC)

The club of Piermario Morosini, who died on the pitch on Saturday, is to take care of his disabled sister who relied on him for financial and emotional support following the deaths of their parents. (BBC)
Fabrice Muamba is discharged from hospital after his cardiac arrest. (BBC) (East African Standard)