April 18, 2013 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Boston Marathon bombing:
- U.S. President Barack Obama visits the city of Boston in the wake of the recent marathon attack. (Los Angeles Times)
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation posts photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. (BBC) (Reuters) (FBI)
- A campus police officer is shot dead in his vehicle at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S. city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. (ABC News Australia) (Reuters)
- Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal):
Arts and culture
- Prominent Hillsborough disaster justice campaigner Anne Williams dies from cancer, having made her last public appearance at Anfield's recent 24th anniversary memorial. (The Independent)
Business and economy
- The United States reclaims its spot as the top export market for Japan as China slips due to economic slowdown. Japan's overall annual trade deficit meanwhile reaches 8.2 trillion yen, the highest on record. (AP via The Globe and Mail)
- Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson says free trade talks between Australia and China are deadlocked over differences of opinion on the removal of investment limits for state-owned enterprises. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia)
- YouTube successfully defends itself in a billion dollar copyright infringement suit by Viacom. (Los Angeles Times)
Disasters and accidents
- West Fertilizer Company explosion:
- 15 people are confirmed dead after the Texas fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, United States. (CNN) (BBC) (The Washington Post)
International relations
- 2013 Korean crisis:
- North Korea demands an end to United Nations sanctions on the country as a condition for dialogue with the United States. (Reuters)
Law and crime
- A Pakistani court issues an arrest warrant for former President Pervez Musharraf in connection with the house arrest of judges in 2007. (BBC) (AP via Houston Chronicle)
- Authorities in the United Arab Emirates say they have arrested seven suspected members of an al-Qaeda-linked "terrorist cell" seeking to carry out operations in the country and the region. (AP via Fox News)
- Around 30 migrant workers, mainly from Bangladesh, are injured in a shooting by at least one farm supervisor on a strawberry farm in Greece after requesting salaries that had yet to be paid to them. The farm's owner, and at least one of the supervisors, are arrested. (BBC)
Science and technology
- Two Earth-like planets, Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, are discovered cirulating around the star Kepler-62 in the habitable zone. (Sky News Australia)
Sport
- Scottish cyclist Sir Chris Hoy announces his retirement from track cycling. (BBC)