Portal:Current events/2016 April 6
< Portal:Current events
April 6, 2016 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- Aleppo offensive (April 2016)
- The Syrian Army and its allies launch an offensive south of Aleppo. (Jerusalem Post)
- Aleppo offensive (April 2016)
Business and Economics
- Hedge fund impresario Bill Ackman faces skeptical questioning from investors after his Pershing Square fund loses big on both Herbalife and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- 2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- Cyclone Zena, now a category 3 storm, heads for Fiji, where a tropical depression already dumped up to 12 inches of rain on the western and northern parts of Fiji's largest and most populous island, Viti Levu, triggering major flash flooding that's killed at least two people. The archipelago is still recovering from category 5 Cyclone Winston that killed 44 people in February. (Weather.com) (Television New Zealand)
- 2016 Ethiopia flood
- Deadly floods hit Ethiopia, leaving at least 28 people dead as seasonal rains come early to the country. The majority of these deaths occurred in the city of Jijiga while elsewhere, heavy downpours of rain were reported with more floods expected in the next few days. (Al Jazeera)
Law and crime
- The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, in a majority vote, ordered an "indefinite" halt in the war crimes trial of Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadžić, who is terminally ill with brain cancer and declared "unfit to stand trial." Hadžić was charged with 14 war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the 1991–95 war in Croatia. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- The President of Russia Vladimir Putin announces the creation of a new National Guard, which he said would fight terrorism and organized crime. However, some critics claim the creation of the National Guard is linked to the upcoming legislative election this September with them saying that Putin fears unrest, something Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov denies. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- Dutch Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement referendum, 2016
- Voters in the Netherlands go to the polls for a non-binding referendum on approval of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. (EU Observer)
- The results, while not official yet, show voters solidly rejecting the approval of the Association Agreement with 61.1 percent and turnout reaching over the 30 percent threshold for the referendum to be valid. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- Voters in the Netherlands go to the polls for a non-binding referendum on approval of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. (EU Observer)
- Second Libyan Civil War
- The self-declared National Salvation government, one of the rival governments of Libya, resigns and gives up power to the UN-backed Libyan Presidential Council in Tripoli. (The Guardian)
- Beninese businessman Patrice Talon is sworn in as the new President of Benin. (Euronews via Reuters)