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Bryan Adams cancels Mississippi concert over new religious law –
Bryan Adams has cancelled a concert in Mississippi over the US state’s new controversial religious liberty law. The law, which allows some private businesses and religious groups to refuse service to gay people, was passed last week. The singer issued a statement saying he could not “in good conscience” perform in the state. He added he found it “incomprehensible that LGBT citizens are being discriminated against”. He was due to play the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi on Thursday. Adams’s cancellation comes after Bruce Springsteen cancelled a show in North Carolina last week because of a new law in that state. [BBC]
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Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2016 Stavropol bombings
  • At least three suicide bombers attack a police station in Stavropol, Russia. (Sputnik News)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • Clashes and air strikes are reported in Yemen despite a fragile truce between the government and Houthis taking effect. However, the truce appears to be largely holding as members from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are granted unhindered access to give humanitarian aid and personnel across the country. (BBC)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • A suicide bomber kills 12 new police recruits in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. The Taliban claims responsibility for the attack. (BBC)
• War in Somalia (2009–present)
  • At least five people are killed and seven are wounded following a car bomb attack near a government building in Somalia‘s capital, Mogadishu. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for the attack. (BBC)

Business and economics

• 2008 financial crisis
  • Goldman Sachs agrees to pay $5.06 billion to settle allegations that it sold packages of shoddy mortgages prior to the global financial crisis.. The U.S. Justice Department settlement includes a $2.385 billion civil penalty, and $1.8 billion for distressed borrowers and communities affected by the housing crisis. (The Washington Post) (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

• 2014–16 El Niño event
  • A severe heat wave grips Malaysia as much of Southeast Asia struggles with unusually hot and dry weather created by the El Niño season. Temperatures in Malaysia soared above 37°C, prompting more than 250 schools to close. (Al Jazeera)

International relations

• G7 foreign ministers meeting
  • John Kerry, along with the other Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers, laid wreaths at Japan’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to the victims of the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack. Kerry is the firstSecretary of State to visit the memorial. Then-U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi was previously the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the memorial, in 2008. The Hiroshimaforeign ministers meeting is part of the preparations for the 42nd G7 summit the end of next month at Japan’s Kashiko Island, Shima, Mie Prefecture. (Reuters) (Channel NewsAsia)
• Houthi insurgency in Yemen, Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, says he welcomes the tentative truce that started at midnight Yemen time. The truce opens unhindered access for relief aid to all of Yemen. Peace talks are set to start later this month. (Reuters)
• North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korean defectors
  • South Korea announces that a colonel from North Korea‘s military spy agency defected to the south last year. Senior-level defections are rare, most being low level operatives. (AP)
• European migrant crisis
  • The Italian Coast Guard rescues 1,850 in the Strait of Sicily. (AFP via Daily Star)

Law and crime

• CIA Director John Brennan, in an exclusive interview to air on NBC News tonight, says the United States intelligence agency will not use harsh, enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, even if ordered by a future president. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have discussed using waterboarding if elected. (The Hill via MSN.com) (NBC News)
• Kollam temple fire
  • Five workers from the company that supplied fireworks to the Puttingal Temple have been detained by Indian police with the death toll rising to 106. (CNN)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
  • Israeli security forces arrest 18 Palestinians on the West Bank for alleged terrorism related offences. (Jerusalem Post)

Politics and elections

• Hundreds of arrests are reported in the U.S. capitol in response to the Democracy Spring protests. (CNN) (Democracy Spring)

• The Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Temir Sariyev announces he will resign from his post. This comes after several Parliament members accused Sariyev and his cabinet of corruption. The Kyrgyz presidential press service said President Almazbek Atambayev accepted his resignation. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Darfurian status referendum, 2016
  • Voting for a referendum begins in Darfur, Sudan. Voters will be asked during the three-day referendum to decide on the permanent administrative status of the region. The choices are for the creation of a Darfur Region composed of the States of Darfur, or the retention of the status quo states system. Darfur is currently divided into five states. Voters will decide this week whether the area should go back to being one region, as it was until 1994. However, there are fears of voter apathy and if the referendum will be credible. (Al Jazeera)
• The President of the Georgian breakaway state of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov announces his plan to hold a referendum on whether to become part of Russia or to keep its de facto independence before August of this year. This comes after South Ossetia signed various agreements further integrating the region with Russia. (TASS)
• 2015–16 protests in Brazil
  • A committee of Brazil‘s Chamber of Deputies votes 38-27 to recommend the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, who faces charges of breaking budget laws to support her re-election in 2014.(Reuters)

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