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Russia challenges US after Baltic jet face-off –
Russia says it was right to confront a US Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea on Friday. The Pentagon said a Russian jet fighter acted in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner”, and performed a barrel roll over its plane. Russia said that the American jet had turned off its transponder signal, which helps others identify it. It is the second incident in the Baltic this month in which the US has accused Russian planes of flying aggressively. US jets “regularly” try to approach Russia’s borders with transponders switched off, the statement said. Over the past 18 months, Russia has been repeatedly accused of the same practice over the Baltic and near UK waters. It is not clear how close to Russia’s waters Friday’s incident occurred. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • April 2016 Baghdad bombing
    • A car bombing in southeastern Baghdad kills at least 19 and injures nearly 50 Shi’ite pilgrims. ISIL has claimed responsibility. (AP) (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that twenty air strikes have hit the northern areas of Aleppo. Bombardments by both sides have killed nearly 250 people since April 22. (Reuters)
• Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
  • A Hindu man is hacked to death in Tangail district. He is alleged to have made comments against Prophet Muhammad. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attack. (Washington Post) (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• Sweden celebrates the 70th birthday of their King Carl XVI Gustaf, whose celebration was attended by fellow European royals, including Denmark’s Margrethe II, former King of Spain Juan Carlos I and formerQueen of the Netherlands Beatrix. (Euronews)

Disasters and accidents

• A heatwave in India has claimed 300 lives in April with daytime cooking banned in some parts of the country to prevent fires which have claimed an additional 80 lives. (AP)
• 2016 Kenya floods
  • Search and rescue efforts continue in Nairobi after the collapse of a building yesterday. Kenyan police have confirmed seven deaths so far. (AP via Daily Mail)
  • The death toll from the Kenya floods including the Nairobi building collapse rises to fourteen. (Capital FM)
• A three-storey building collapses in the Indian city of Mumbai, resulting in six deaths and trapping many others. (Times of India)
• At least five people are killed by floods in the U.S. state of Texas. (FOX News)
• A mosque under refurbishment in Mogadishu, Somalia, collapses, killing at least 15 people and injuring around 40. Hundreds more are thought to be buried under the rubble. (BBC)
• European migrant crisis
  • According to survivors, at least 70 migrants are missing after their dinghy sank off the coast of Libya. 26 people were rescued by the Italian coast guard. (BBC)
• Five people are killed in a military plane crash in Sudan. (Reuters)

International relations

• China denies a Hong Kong port call by the U.S. Carrier Strike Group 3, which includes the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) and accompanying vessels. (CNN) (AP via USA Today)
• Destruction of ivory
  • Kenya burns 105 tonnes of elephant ivory and 1.05 tonnes of rhinoceros horn in order to call for a total ban on the ivory trade. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• According to the United States Department of Defense, an airstrike that hit a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last October did not amount to a war crime because the airstrike was “unintentional” and that those involved would face suspension but not criminal charges. In response to the briefing, a president of the organization which operated the hospital described it as “an admission of an uncontrolled military operation in a densely populated urban area, during which US forces failed to follow the basic laws of war.” (BBC)
• Russia-United States relations
  • Russia says it intercepted a U.S. Air Force plane approaching its border over the Baltic Sea on Friday because the aircraft had turned off its transponder which is needed for identification. The Pentagon says the U.S. RC-135 was flying a routine route in international airspace when the Russian SU-27 fighter intercepted it in an “unsafe and unprofessional” way. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Police in Stuttgart, Germany, arrest at least 400 left-wing demonstrators after they attempted to stop a conference by the Alternative for Germany from being held. The protest grew violent when they began to throw stones and use fireworks against the police. (The Guardian)
• Egypt tries 237 activists, who face jail terms of up to three years, arrested for protesting without permits against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Thousands demonstrated this month following the Sisi government’s decision to hand over two uninhabited islands in the Straits of Tiran to Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch says at least 382 had been arrested. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• Philippine presidential election, 2016
  • The influential Christian sect Iglesia ni Cristo endorses Grace Poe for president and Bongbong Marcos for vice president. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Serbian parliamentary election, 2016
  • Roughly 2,000 people protest in Belgrade against alleged fraud in the country’s recent election. The protesters accuse Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić of manipulating the results in order to prevent the far-right Dveri party from reaching the 5-percent threshold and gaining seats in the National Assembly. A repeat vote is expected on May 4 in locations where voting irregularities have been found. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• 2015–16 Iraqi protests
  • Iraqi officials declare a state of emergency for all of Baghdad after protesters loyal to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed into Iraq’s parliament in the Green Zone. (The News Hub) (NBC News) (Washington Post)

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