Portal:Current events/2016 April 24

Current events of April 24, 2016 (2016-04-24) (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks Iraqi Civil War At least 14 people have been killed in suicide bombing attacks in Baghdad. (Daily Times) Yemeni Civil War Saudi-led air strikes kill at least ten al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in southern Yemen. (Reuters) Yemeni and United Arab Emirates troops capture the seaport of Mukalla from al Qaeda. The Saudi Arabia led coalition claims to have killed more than 800 militants(Reuters), (Reuters) Syrian Civil War Rockets fired by ISIL from northern Syria hit a poor neighborhood and a mosque in the Turkish city of Kilis, killing one person and injuring 26 others. Turkish security forces responded by returning fire into Syria. (Euronews) (Reuters) International relations North Korea–South Korea relations North Korea reportedly deploys 300 new multiple launch rocket systems along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. (Yonhap) Syrian Civil War U.S. President Barack Obama rules out deploying U.S. ground troops in Syria and says military efforts alone cannot solve the country's problems. He also said he did not think that ISIL would be defeated in his last nine months of office. (BBC) U.S. officials report President Obama will announce plans to send as many as 250 more U.S. troops to Syria to help fight ISIL militants. The troops are likely to include special operations forces and medical or intelligence support personnel, an official added. The decision is scheduled to be announced around noon tomorrow in Hanover, Germany, during the President's farewell tour of Europe. (CBS News) (Reuters) North Korea-United States relations President Barack Obama says the United States isn't taking North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong's proposal to halt nuclear activity seriously. Pyongyang would "have to do better than that," he added. (AP) Law and crime Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist of Turkish descent, is arrested in Kuşadası, Turkey, for tweets deemed critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This comes as a political storm erupted this week over reports that the Turkish consulate asked Turkish organizations in the Netherlands to forward emails and social media posts which insult Erdoğan or Turkey. (The Guardian) Israeli–Palestinian conflict Following an appeal, 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi is freed from an Israeli prison. She is believed to be the youngest female Palestinian ever imprisoned. Israeli civil law, which does not allow anyone under 14 to go to jail, did not affect her imprisonment. Palestinian residents in the occupied territories are subject to military law that can sentence suspects as young as 12 to prison. (AP via ABC News) Politics and elections Austrian presidential election, 2016 Austrians vote in the first round of electing the next president. Preliminary estimates indicate FPÖ's Norbert Hofer won the first round with 36 percent of the vote. Greens' Alexander Van der Bellen, who is supported by the Green Party, garnered 20%, and another independent, Irmgard Griss, took 18.5 percent. President Heinz Fischer was not eligible to be re-elected. Candidates representing the two leading parties, that have ruled for the past 70 years, were eliminated. Hofer and Van der Bellen will compete in the runoff election on May 22, 2016. (Bloomberg) (Election website) (Deutsche Welle), (Euro News) Equatorial Guinean presidential election, 2016 Equatorial Guinean voters go to the polls with incumbent Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo expected to win as the opposition boycotts the election. (Voice of America) (Al Jazeera) Japanese House of Representatives by-elections, 2016: By-elections were held for two seats controlled by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. (Japan Times) Hokkaido 5th district by-election, 2016: LDP candidate Yoshiaki Wada staved off the competition from independent candidate Maki Ikeda. Despite the LDP's winning margin decreasing from 14% (in 2014) to 2%, this win is seen as a boost for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the upcoming upper house election. Kyoto 3rd district by-election, 2016: The newly formed Democratic Party wrested back the seat from the LDP after their candidate and former MP for the district Kenta Izumi won by a landslide. Philippine presidential election, 2016. The final leg of the Philippine presidential debate series is held in Dagupan. (The Manila Bulletin) Serbian parliamentary election, 2016 Serbians elect a new parliament under the backdrop of its accession to the European Union. Preliminary results indicate the incumbent, pro-EU populists sweeping the election. (Bloomberg) (AP via The Washington Post) 2015–16 protests in Moldova Protests continue in Moldova as thousands of anti-government protesters demonstrate in the capital Chișinău despite concessions given to the protesters last month by the government. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) Around 1,000 people stage a rare public protest in the Kazakh city of Atyrau, rallying against the government's decision to sell land in auctions amid a heavy police presence, though they did not forcibly disperse the rally. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)