April 20, 2016 (Wednesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- April 2016 Kabul attack
- The death toll from yesterday's Taliban attack on the National Directorate of Security in Kabul rises to 64, with 347 others wounded, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry. (Reuters)
- April 2016 Kabul attack
- War in Donbass
- A Ukrainian military spokesman says three of its soldiers were killed by a mortar attack in the country's east, the heaviest toll reported in the region in nearly two months. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- War in North-West Pakistan
- Pakistani Taliban militants, in two attacks, kill seven police officers who were guarding medical workers administering polio vaccinations in Karachi. (The Guardian)
Business and economics
- The Kuwait Oil Workers Union ends their three-day strike that had cut Kuwait's crude production by nearly half. (Gulf News)[permanent dead link] (CNBC)
- Mitsubishi admits that its fuel efficiency tests broke Japanese rules for about 625,000 "ultrasmall" vehicles sold in Japan. (BBC) (UPI)
- The European Union accuses Google of abusing the dominance of its Android by preloading its own apps. (Irish Times)
- Volkswagen emissions scandal
- Volkswagen and United States officials agree in principle on a deal where the automaker could buy back up to 500,000 diesel cars. (Reuters)
- Former slave Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the United States twenty-dollar bill while Alexander Hamilton keeps his place on the ten after the public consultation process. (The New York Times) (Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
- 2016 Ecuador earthquake
- A magnitude-6.1 aftershock has struck off the coast of Ecuador at 3:33 a.m. local time, the US Geological Survey says, in the same area as the massive earthquake on Saturday. (USGS) (Reuters via Asia-Pacific News)
- People in Ecuador start burying their dead as the death toll from the earthquake passes 500. (AP)
- President Rafael Correa announces a sales tax increase, and a one-time levy on millionaires as the country deals with the enormous damage from this disaster. (AP)
- The death toll rises to 570 with 163 people listed as missing. Those made homeless climbs to over 23,500. (AP)
- European migrant crisis
- Up to 500 people are feared to have drowned off the coast of Libya in the Mediterranean last week, in what would be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in months. (The Guardian)
- A small-plane crashes near Chugiak, Anchorage in Alaska, killing at least four people, according to the Anchorage Fire Department. (Alaska Dispatch News)
- Hundreds of people are evacuated following a large explosion at an oil facility in Coatzacoalcos in southern Mexico. (BBC)
International relations
- Yemeni Crisis
- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the United States agree to carry out joint naval patrols to prevent Iranian arms shipments reaching Yemen, the Gulf bloc's secretary general Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said on Wednesday, following a meeting with United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. Iran denies it supplies weapons to the Houthis in Yemen. (Reuters)
- Ukraine–European Union relations
- The European Union proposes offering Ukraine visa-free travel to its members. However, it is still unclear how fast the liberalization process will be dealt with in the European Parliament and European Council, where some EU member states might want to slow down the process. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- NATO–Russia relations
- NATO reopens informal talks with Russia for the first time in nearly two years. According to the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg "NATO and Russia have profound and persistent disagreements, today’s meeting did not change that." (Euronews)
- United Kingdom–United States relations
- The United Kingdom's Foreign Office issues a travel advisory for gay people concerning travel to parts of the United States due to new legislation in North Carolina and Mississippi. (The Independent)
Law and crime
- A women's rights group files a lawsuit in the Philippine Commission on Human Rights against Rodrigo Duterte for his rape remarks. (The New York Times)
- Australian media reports that a deal has been reached on an alleged kidnapping case against Tara Brown and the Australian 60 Minutes crew. (9 News)
- The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rules that an anti-terrorism law is unconstitutional and violates right to privacy. (DPA)
- The U.S. state of Utah declares pornography a "public health risk" in a move Governor of Utah Gary Herbert says is to "protect our families and our young people". The bill, signed by the governor, does not ban pornography in the state but does call for greater "efforts to prevent pornography exposure and addiction". (BBC)
- Anders Behring Breivik, a convicted mass murderer in the 2011 Norway attacks, wins a human rights case against the government of Norway. (BBC)
- Flint water crisis
- The first criminal charges are laid against three people, two state officials and a municipal official, involved in the Flint water crisis. (New York Times)
- Panama Papers
- In a letter to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the United States Department of Justice announces it is opening a criminal investigation into tax avoidance schemes exposed by the Panama Papers with U.S. attorney Preet Bharara asking the ICIJ for help. (BBC)
- Two people are burned alive amid xenophobic riots in Lusaka, Zambia. The riots started after rumours spread that Rwandans were behind recent ritual killings in the city. More than 250 people have been arrested after more than 60 Rwandan-owned shops were looted in two days of violence. (BBC)
- Drug policy of Canada
- Canada's Minister of Health Jane Philpott says federal legislation to legalize marijuana will be introduced in spring of 2017. (CBC)
- The United States Supreme Court rules that almost $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in attacks blamed on Iran, including the 1983 bombing of a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. (Reuters)
Politics and elections
- Yasri Khan, a senior member of Swedish Green Party (part of the ruling coalition), who was refusing to shake hands with a female reporter on grounds that it violated his Muslim faith, announces that he is quitting politics. (The Local)
- Philippine presidential election, 2016
- Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte reneges on his apology and denies a statement by his party, PDP-Laban, which said he was sorry for his rape comments. (The Manila Bulletin)
- 2016 Macedonian protests
- Protests continue against President Gjorge Ivanov in Skopje, Macedonia. Opposition leader Zoran Zaev said he will only take part in EU-brokered negotiations with the government if certain conditions are met. (The Irish Times)