Portal:Current events/2012 April 9

• Arab Spring:
  • 2011–2012 Syrian uprising:
    • Turkey claims that the Syrian Army has opened fire on a refugee camp on Turkish soil injuring three people. (AP via Washington Post)
    • A cameraman from Al Jadeed television station is shot dead by the Syrian army at the Syria-Lebanon border. (Daily Star Lebanon)
  • 2011–2012 Bahraini uprising: Authorities in Bahrain refuse to transfer jailed Shia political activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has been performing a hunger strike for two months, to Denmark. (Daily Times of Pakistan) (Al Jazeera)
  • Tunisian Revolution: Police fire tear gas at demonstrators who defy a government ban on protesting in Tunis. (Al Jazeera)
  • 2011–2012 Yemeni revolution: At least 21 people die in clashes between al-Qaeda militants and Yemeni Army soldiers in southern Yemen. (CNN)
• At least 11 people are killed and over 30 others are seriously injured by a bombing in Baidoa, Somalia. (BBC)

• German Health Minister Daniel Bahr tells Die Welt that the Israeli government's declaration of Günter Grass as persona non grata in reaction to his poem "What Must Be Said" is "exaggerated". Meanwhile, a sculpture celebrating freedom of speech in Göttingen is daubed in red paint telling the recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature to "shut your mouth". (Haaretz)
• The Lion King becomes the all-time highest grossing show on Broadway, overtaking The Phantom of the Opera. (Wall Street Journal)

• China establishes a rare-earth association in order to streamline the sector's development. (BBC)
• Facebook buys photo sharing application Instagram for $1 billion. (USA Today)

• North Korea positions a rocket for a launch later in the week, drawing protests from the Western world, South Korea and Japan, all of which suspect the rocket may be a ballistic missile test. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

• Charges are dropped against Larisa Litvinova in the case of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose controversial death in a Russian jail led to claims of torture and neglect. (BBC)

• Voters go to the polls in Aceh, Indonesia, to elect a new governor. (Al Jazeera)
• Malawian President Joyce Banda sacks the national police chief, Peter Mukhito. (Newstime Africa)
• The French presidential election campaign officially starts. (BBC)