April 16, 2012 (Monday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- 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)
Arts and culture
- The Sex Pistols' song "God Save the Queen", which 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 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners are announced. (Pulitzer.org) (The New York Times) (Associated Press)
Business and economics
- Jim Yong Kim is selected as President of the World Bank. (Al Jazeera)
- Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner submits a bill that would nationalise 51% of YPF to Congress. (The Guardian)
Disasters
- A 6.7-magnitude earthquake, at a depth of 23 mi (37 km), rocks Valparaíso, Chile. (CNN) (United States Geological Survey)
International relations
- 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, with his gun after protesters attack and injure the soldier; the Danish ambassador to Israel demands an explanation from Israel. (Al Jazeera) (Los Angeles Times) (Toronto Star) (Ynet)
Law and crime
- The trial of confessed perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, Anders Behring Breivik, starts in Oslo, Norway. (CNN)
- The murderer of two girls in Krailling, Bavaria (Germany) is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
- The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia violated the rights of ten relatives of victims of the 1940 Katyn Massacre, and describes the massacre as a war crime. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- 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)
Sport
- Fabrice Muamba is discharged from hospital after his cardiac arrest during an FA Cup match. (BBC) (East African Standard)