Top News Stories –
Panama Papers: Iceland PM Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson resigns –
Iceland’s prime minister has resigned – the first major casualty of the leaked Panama Papers that have shone a spotlight on offshore finance. The leaks, from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, showed Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson owned an offshore company with his wife but had not declared it when he entered parliament. He is accused of concealing millions of dollars’ worth of family assets. Mr Gunnlaugsson says he sold his shares to his wife, and denies any wrongdoing. He is one of dozens of high-profile global figures mentioned in the 11.5 million leaked financial and legal records, which were first published on Sunday. [BBC]
Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson
Doncaster Rovers fans angry at 1D star Louis Tomlinson’s competition win –
Doncaster Rovers fans have reacted angrily to One Direction star Louis Tomlinson and his grandfather winning a competition to design the football club’s new away kit. The club revealed the ‘Story Of My Life’ singer was behind the design on Monday after the poll had closed. In the wake of the announcement some fans have criticised the club and questioned the credibility of the vote. Doncaster Rovers say the voting process “was all was fair and above board”. Writing on Twitter one fan said: “I wonder if the vote was rigged or that shirt actually won??? #drfc.” [BBC]
Louis Tomlinson
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- Al-Nusra Front militants shoot down a Syrian Arab Air Force Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jet and capture its pilot in the northern Aleppo Governorate. (The Telegraph)
- PKK rebellion (2015–present)
- The Turkish military say it carried out air strikes in northern Iraq against targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, hitting weapon stores and shelters. (Al Jazeera)
- Business and economics
- In American football, Twitter wins the bidding contest over Amazon, Verizon, and others, for streaming rights to 10 of 16 National Football League (NFL) regular season Thursday Night Football Games, ones that will also be telecast by either CBS or NBC. The league streamed one game last year with Yahoo!. Verizon, meanwhile, already owns the mobile rights to all NFL games which are available to subscribers via a mobile app; the 10 NFL games on Twitter will be free. (Re/code) (ESPN) (NFL.com)
- Tax inversion
- Pfizer Inc. decides to terminate its $160 billion merger with Allergan, Plc as officials in Washington crack down on corporate inversions. Pfizer will need to pay a $400 million fee to Allergan for expenses relating to the deal. (Bloomberg)
- Health and medicine
- India’s health ministry orders government agencies to enforce a new rule for larger health warnings that cover 85 percent of a cigarette pack‘s surface, up from 20 percent now. India‘s biggest cigarette makerITC Ltd., part-owned by British American Tobacco, and Godfrey Phillips India Ltd., a partner of U.S.-based Philip Morris International, shut factories on Friday in protest. (Reuters)
- International relations
- China–North Korea relations
- China’s Ministry of Commerce says that it is restricting trade with North Korea, in line with the recent sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council last March. China will be banning the export of jet fuel and import of gold, some coal and “rare earth metals” used in high-tech goods. (BBC)
- North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- South Korea has determined North Korea is capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on its medium-range Rodong-1 ballistic missile, which could reach all of South Korea and most of Japan, according to a senior government official. (The New York Times)
- Panama Papers
- France places Panama back on its list of countries that do not cooperate in catching tax evaders. “France has decided to put Panama back on the list of uncooperative countries, with all the consequences that will have for those who have transactions” with the Central American state, Finance Minister Michel Sapin, told Parliament on Tuesday. (AFP via Al Jazeera)
- Mexico–United States relations
- Due to concerns about an increasingly anti-Mexican climate across the border, Mexico unexpectedly changes two of its top officials responsible for U.S. relations. Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieutold local media, “We have been warning that our citizens have begun to feel a more hostile climate. This (anti-Mexican) rhetoric has made it clear that we have to act in a different way so that this tendency being generated doesn’t damage the bilateral relationship.” (Reuters)
- Law and crime
- The International Criminal Court terminates the case against Kenya‘s Deputy President William Ruto and ends his trial, saying there is insufficient evidence he was involved in deadly violence that erupted after his country’s 2007 presidential election. (Al Jazeera)
- The Military junta of Thailand gives the Royal Thai Armed Forces broad police-like powers. The military is now allowed to prevent or suppress over 27 types of offenses. The move created an outcry from human rights organizations and prompted the United States to express its concern over the growing influence of the military in the country. (The Guardian)
- LGBT rights in the United States
- Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant approves a new law that allows religious groups and private businesses to deny services to gay and transgender people. (AP via The Washington Post)
- Politics and elections
- Panama Papers
- Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson temporarily steps down amid allegations his family attempted to hide millions in an offshore account. (The Guardian)
- The Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif sets an independent judicial commission to investigate allegations of graft against his family following documents leaked as part of the Panama papers showed his sons owned several offshore accounts. (AP via ABC News America)
- Philippine general election, 2016
- Imee Marcos (daughter of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and sister of vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos), her three sons, and JV Ejercito (son of Manila mayorial candidate Joseph Estrada) are among hundreds of Filipino celebrities and politicians implicated for laundering money in tax havens. (GMA News), (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- United States presidential election, 2016
- Voters in the U.S. state of Wisconsin go to the polls for a primary election with Ted Cruz winning the Republican Party contest and Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic Party primary. (ABC News America), (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- Queensland term length referendum, 2016
- The results of a referendum last month in the Australian state of Queensland with voters agreeing to plans for a four year fixed parliamentary term. (AAP via Yahoo! News)
- The South African Parliament debates a minority motion to impeach President Jacob Zuma following last week’s Constitutional Court judgment that Zuma had violated the constitution in a spending scandal involving the president’s private home. The African National Congress has a 249 – 151 majority, making this motion’s chance of gaining a two-thirds majority unlikely. (AP via The Washington Post)(Reuters)
- The motion failed by 243 votes to 133. (News24)
- 2015–16 protests in Brazil
- Marco Aurélio Mello, a Supreme Federal Court judge orders Brazil‘s Chamber of Deputies to start impeachment proceedings against Vice President Michel Temer over charges he helped doctor budget accounting as part of President Dilma Rousseff‘s administration. (Reuters)
- Peruvian general election, 2016
- Peruvians protest in five cities, including the capital Lima, against the presidential candidacy of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who exactly 24 years ago this day carried out a coup by shutting down Congress and taking over the courts with the support of the military. Keiko Fujimori is the front runner in Sunday’s April 10, 2016, election. Yesterday, Fujimori committed to respect democratic liberties and the rule of law, and to work against corruption, which some opponents have rejected. The Organization of American States says the election could lack credibility unless two recently-disqualified candidates are allowed to run. (NBC News) (AP via The Washington Post) (Prensa Latina)
- Sports
- 2016 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championship Game
- In women’s college basketball, the Connecticut Huskies top the Syracuse Orange to cap a perfect season (38-0) with the program’s fourth straight national championship, and in all four, UConn’s senior center Breanna Stewart wins the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. (CNN) (ESPN)
- 2015–16 Rangers F.C. season
- Rangers F.C., the association football club with the most domestic league titles in the world, earn promotion to the Scottish Premiership, returning to the nation’s top division for the first time since their triple relegation for financial reasons in 2012. (BBC Sport)
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