Portal:Current events/2018 April 3

• 2018 Gaza border protests
  • Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman says the nation will maintain its tactics at the Gazan border of shooting anybody who approaches the fence, and calls on Hamas to cease hostilities in exchange for aid. (The Times of Israel)
  • Human Rights Watch claims there was no evidence of any threat to Israeli soldiers and calls the killings 'unlawful' and 'calculated'. (Al Jazeera)
  • The death toll rises to eighteen. (The Washington Post)
  • Hamas claims Israeli forces fatally shoot a 25-year-old man at the border fence near Bureij. (The Times of Israel)
• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • The Saudi-led Arab Coalition says the Saudi Arabian Navy repelled an attack by Iran and Houthis against a Saudi-flagged oil tanker in the Red Sea. (Arab News)
• Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
  • Military scientists at Porton Down state they are uncertain of the source of the nerve agent used, but are "completely confident" it was a Novichok agent. (ITV)
  • Russia requests for the United Kingdom to release "every possible element of evidence" proving Russian involvement and requests the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to call a special session tomorrow. (The Independent)
• Eyewitnesses and officials say an Afghan airstrike targeted a madrasa being used as a meeting place by the Taliban in Kunduz during a graduation ceremony, with casualties including civilians. (Al Jazeera)
• Terrorism in Pakistan
  • The United States designates the Milli Muslim League and Tehreek-e-Azaadi Jammu and Kashmir, both Pakistani groups, as terrorist organisations. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
  • Pakistani Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal says the government will contest a court ruling allowing MML's participation in upcoming elections this year. (Bloomberg)
  • ISIL claims responsibility for the deaths of four Christians in Quetta, Pakistan on April 2nd. (UCA News)
• Terrorism in the United Kingdom
  • Police raid two homes in West Yorkshire and detain two men suspected of "being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism". (The Independent)
  • The Police Service of Northern Ireland says it was firebombed at a march in Londonderry to commemorate a Troubles attack, calling the assaults an "attempt to kill or maim" officers. (News Letter)
  • Police launch an investigation after Robert McClenaghan, a convicted ex-Irish Republican Army bomber, claims online to have planted a large number of bombs during the Troubles. (News Letter)
• Terrorism in Indonesia
  • Failed suicide bomber Kurnia Widodo tells a court in Jakarta he believes imprisoned cleric Aman Abdurrahman is ISIL's Indonesian leader. (The Australian)
• Terrorism in Italy
  • Italian authorities say a major terror alert in Rome last week was for an innocent man whose fiancé had made false, anonymous accusations to the Italian embassy in Tunisia. (Al Arabiya)

• Censorship in the United Kingdom, Legal status of pornography
  • The British Board of Film Classification issues draft guidelines outlining how it plans to enforce planned blocks on online pornography unless it comes with age verification systems. The blocks were initially planned to come into force this month. (Wired)

• Following the bankruptcy of UK engineering outsourcing firm Carillion, the Official Receiver reveals more than half of the roughly 20,000 employees have found new jobs. (Sky News)
• UK retailer Conviviality, owner of Bargain Booze, says it intends to appoint administrators within ten days. (Citywire)

• A bus crashes in rain and poor visibility at the Mporokoso-Luwingu junction in Zambia, killing four and injuring 41. (Zambia Daily Mail)
• A double-decker sightseeing bus collides with a car in Hamburg, Germany, leaving eleven injured. (The Local)
• The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman launches an investigation after a burglar dies from burns suffered in a fire in his cell at HMP Risley in England. (Manchester Evening News)
• A report into the partial collapse of an Edinburgh school reveals similar construction errors in nineteen other public buildings in the city. (Construction Enquirer)
• An air traffic control system failure in Europe delays up to 15,000 flights, according to the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. (BBC)
• Four people, all British nationals, are killed in a head-on collision with a pick-up truck in the U.S. state of Florida, according to Titusville Police Department. (BBC)
• Two underground trains collide in Duisburg, Germany, injuring at least 35. (Euronews)
• At a United Nations donor conference nations pledge US$2 billion in aid for Yemen, with almost half coming from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. (The Guardian)
• A CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter carrying US Marines crashes near El Centro, California killing four people. (Military Times)
• A bus carrying US tourists crashes near Los Ramones, Mexico. One person dies and at least 20 are injured. (WFAA)
• A 13-year-old boy is rescued after falling into a sewer and becoming trapped for 12 hours in Los Angeles. (Isle of Wight Radio)
• A military pilot is killed when his F-7 fighter jet crashes into a paddy field in Kyunkone, central Myanmar. (The Straits Times)
• A fire in a Bangkok apartment building kills three and injures 60. (The Bangkok Post)

• The WWF describes Germany's rivers as being in a state "bordering on critical" after it emerges more than 90% do not meet European Union standards for cleanliness and ecological quality. (The Local)

• Latvia–Russia relations
  • Russian MPs call for sanctions against Latvia in response to plans to make Latvian mandatory for all students in secondary schools in the country, which is a quarter ethnic Russians. (BBC)
• Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations
  • Saudi Arabia lifts a ban on imports of frozen guava from Egypt. (Egypt Today)
• Member states of the Nile Basin Initiative hold their annual meeting in Khartoum after a two-year hiatus. (Anadolu Agency)
• The United Nations places sanctions on a North Korean ship for conducting fuel transfers in breach of UN sanctions. (P.M. News)
• Gulf Cooperation Council, Qatar–United States relations
  • Reuters reports the United States' planned meeting this spring with Gulf Arab leaders is postponed because of the ongoing dispute between Qatar and other U.S. allies in the Middle East. (Reuters)

• 2017 Saint Petersburg Metro bombing
  • On the first anniversary of the attack Russia's Investigative Committee releases a statement saying they have identified all participants, have eleven suspects in custody, and have almost concluded their investigation. (The Moscow Times)
• Police say a firebombing of a bus in Driekop, South Africa, killed six people. (Independent Online)
• A court in Kuwait sentences a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife to death in absentia for the murder of their Filipino maid. The case sparked an Interpol manhunt and diplomatic tensions. (CNN) (News.co.au)
• Three men plead not guilty to arson and manslaughter in connection to the deaths of five people in an explosion at a shop in Leicester, England. (BBC)
• YouTube headquarters shooting
  • A shooting at YouTube headquarters wounds four. The gunwoman takes her own life. (The Guardian)
• German police defuse a parcel bomb in Berlin. It is thought to be the fourth device sent by a blackmailer targetting DHL. (The Local)
• The editor of Citylife Chiang Mai apologises to Chiang Mai's governor after being threatened with criminal charges for sharing on Facebook a painting by a student that depicted historic kings in anti-pollution masks. (The Bangkok Post)

• 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • German prosecutor requests permission to extradite Carles Puigdemont to Spain. Puigdemont is in preventive detention in Germany since his March 25 arrest under a European Arrest Warrant on the grounds of risk of absconcion. (The Guardian)