- Title: Highlights of main world events for March and April 2017
- Date: 22nd November 2017
- Summary: ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (FILE - APRIL 9, 2017) (REUTERS) CROWDS CHANTING IN (Arabic): 'With our souls and our blood, we will redeem the cross.'/ CROWDS MARCHING DOWN STREET CARRYING MAN HOLDING CRUCIFIX MAN HOLDING CRUCIFIX
- Embargoed: 6th December 2017 19:01
- Keywords: Year ender 2017 March April world highlights news top stories
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- Reuters ID: LVA01K79EQTZB
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- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
*U.S. President Donald Trump on March 4 accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him in October 2016 during the late stages of the 2016 presidential election campaign, but offered no evidence to support the allegation.
"How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!," Trump said in a series of Tweets on his Twitter account.
The then-FBI Director James Comey on March 20 said that neither the Department of Justice nor his own agency had evidence to support Trump's claim that his Trump Tower headquarters had been wiretapped during the election campaign. (See shots 1-5)
*The head of the United Nations Antonio Gutteres said on March 7 that rich countries needed to do more to stop drought-stricken Somalia from sinking into famine, warning 'terrorism would increase without aid'. The U.N.'s World Food Programme said that close to three million people were unable to meet their daily food requirements and required urgent humanitarian assistance while another 3.3 million Somalis needed livelihood support to keep them from sliding into crisis. Somalia declared the drought a national disaster. (See shots 6-11)
*Pope Francis on March 12 prayed for the victims of a fire at a home for abused children in Guatemala, in which at least 40 people died, and urged the faithful to keep young victims of violence, abuse and wars in their prayers. The young girls died in a fire at a children's shelter in Guatemala on March 8, with several others critically injured. The case was a scandal in the country, especially after it emerged that the girls had been locked in a classroom after an escape attempt at the government-run Virgen de la Asuncion home near San Jose Pinula, 25 km. (15 miles) southwest of Guatemala City. The girls set mattresses on fire to try to call someone's attention. (See shots 12-17)
*Thousands of supporters of South Korean President Park Geun-hye scuffled with police outside the Constitutional Court on March 10 moments after the decision was announced to uphold the leader's impeachment. They pushed their way through police barricades, some even jumping on top of police buses. Park was forced from office over a graft scandal, involving big business, which gripped the country for months after parliament voted to impeach her at the end of 2016. She has been held in detention since late March and is standing trial accused of bribery, abuse of power and coercion. (See shots 18-28)
*Dutch centre-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte scored a resounding victory over anti-Islam and anti-EU Geert Wilders in an election on March 15, offering huge relief to other governments across Europe facing a wave of nationalism. (See shots 29-32)
*A sudden and abnormal warming of Pacific waters off Peru unleashed the deadliest downpours in decades, with landslides and raging rivers sweeping away people, clogging highways and destroying crops, killing more than 100 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless since the start of the year. (See shots 33-40)
*A man was shot dead by French soldiers at Paris Orly airport on March 18 as he tried to seize a soldier's assault rifle, shouting he was there to "die for Allah." The attacker, named as Ziyed Ben Belgacem, arrived at Orly airport in the morning, threw down a bag containing a can of petrol and seized hold of a woman air force member who was part of a military patrol at the airport. Using the servicewoman as a shield, he put his air pistol to her head and shouted at other soldiers: "Put down your guns. Put your hands on your head. I am here to die for Allah. In any case, there will be deaths." The other soldiers then shot and killed Belgacem. (See shots 41-44)
*A man drove a car into pedestrians on London's Westminster Bridge on March 22, killing four people, and then stabbed a policeman to death in the grounds of parliament. The attacker was shot dead at the scene. The attacker, British-born man Kahlid Masood, was once investigated by MI5 intelligence officers over concerns about violent extremism. Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement issued by its Amaq news agency, but did not name Masood and gave no details. It was not clear whether the attacker was directly connected to the jihadist group. Hundreds of people including family members of some of the victims and police force gathered on Westminster Bridge to remember those killed in the attack. (See shots 45-59)
*Thousands protested in Moscow's Pushkinskaya Square on March 26, after the opposition urged people to take to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained on Moscow's Tverskaya Street shortly after he arrived for the rally. The opposition leader was put in a police truck.
The Kremlin said that plans to hold a protest in the centre of Moscow were an illegal provocation. President Vladimir Putin said on March 30 that protesters in Russia should not violate the law and use fight against corruption in political campaigns. Speaking at an Arctic forum in northern Russia, Putin said Russians were required to protest within the country's legal framework. (See shots 60-66)
* Remain campaigners on March 29 staged a protest outside parliament which featured a giant-headed British Prime Minister Theresa May wearing a t-shirt with the words "Brexit - Shut Up and Let Me Carry On" as she led gagged lawmakers around on leashes.
European Council President Donald Tusk told a news conference he had received formal notification of Brexit as he held up a copy of the letter.
As May addressed Members of Parliament inside the House of Commons about the triggering of Article 50, protesters gathered outside using a variety of visual props to highlight their view that leaving the European Union was the same as the sinking of the Titanic. (See shots 67-77)
*Venezuelan opposition leaders on March 30 clashed with national guardsmen outside the Supreme Court and accused President Nicolas Maduro of being a "dictator" and perpetrating a "coup" after the pro-government Court took over the functions of Congress.
Dozens of Caracas residents blocked the main expressway on March 31 as they protested against the Supreme Court's decision to strip the National Assembly of its powers. (See shots 78-81)
*Angry protesters in Paraguay confronted police outside Congress on March 30 after a group of senators voted behind closed doors for a bill that would allow President Horacio Cartes to run for re-election. Dramatic images showed violent clashes and the country's Congress stormed and set alight. Protester Rodrigo Quintana, 25, was killed by a rubber bullet fired by police who entered the headquarters of the Liberal Party, the country's second-largest, opposition politicians and a federal prosecutor said. (See shots 82-96)
* Flooding rivers swamped towns along Australia's east coast on Friday (March 31) forcing tens of thousands of people to be evacuated as fast-flowing waters cut roads and destroyed bridges after the remnants of a powerful cyclone swept through the region.
The disaster zone from ex-Cyclone Debbie stretched 1,000 kms. (612 miles) from Queensland state's tropical resort islands and Gold Coast tourist strip to the farmlands of New South Wales state, with more than 100,000 homes reportedly without power.
Stranded residents climbed onto roofs of flooded homes to await rescuing, but fast-moving water and high winds hindered emergency crews reaching some people. (See shots 97-106)
*Fourteen people were killed and dozens were injured when an explosion tore through a train carriage in a St Petersburg metro tunnel on April 3 in a suicide attack. Russian investigators named the suspected suicide bomber as Kyrgyzstan national Akbarzhon Jalilov. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. (See shots 107-115)
*A chemical attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun killed dozens of people, including children on April 4. The U.S. government said the chemical agent sarin was used in the attack. A U.S. government source said it was "almost certainly" carried out by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A report sent to the U.N. Security Council last October said that the Syrian government was to blame for the attack.
U.S. President Donald Trump on April 5 said he believed the attack was by Assad and that it would not be tolerated.
The United States fired cruise missiles on April 7 at a Syrian air base from which Trump said the deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched, the first direct U.S. assault on the government of Bashar al-Assad in six years of civil war. (See shots 116- 119)
*A truck ploughed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on April 7, killing four people. An Uzbekistan man Rakhmat Akilov, a failed asylum seeker, accused of the attack confessed to committing the crime. Police say they believe the 39-year-old hijacked a beer truck and drove it into a busy pedestrian street in the Swedish capital before crashing into a department store. (See shots 120-130)
*At least 45 people were killed in bomb attacks on the symbolic cathedral seat of the Coptic Pope and another church on Palm Sunday (April 9) in Egypt. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which also injured more than 100 people and occurred a week before Coptic Easter, with Pope Francis scheduled to visit Egypt later that month.
The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city about 100 km. (60 miles) north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St. George Church during its Palm Sunday service, the Ministry of Health said. The second, just a few hours later in Alexandria, hit Saint Mark's Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, the ministry added. (See shots 131-139)
*North Korea's state television on April 18 aired footage of a musical show marking the birthday of founding father Kim Il Sung, which ended with a mock-up video of missiles shooting into sky, passing over the Pacific and hitting several targets in the United States in giant balls of flames.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence looked across the demilitarized border between North and South Korea on April 17, a day after North Korea's failed missile launch, reiterating that the U.S. "era of strategic patience" with Pyongyang was over. Pence was on the first stop of a four-nation Asia tour intended to show America's allies - and remind its adversaries - that the Trump administration was not turning its back on the increasingly volatile region.
In a show of force, the United States sent the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it was due to join the USS Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea on Tuesday. (See shots 140-151)
* Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in a referendum on April 16 to grant him sweeping powers in the biggest overhaul of modern Turkish politics, but opponents said the vote was marred by irregularities. Erdogan said 25 million people had supported the proposal, which would replace Turkey's parliamentary system with an all-powerful presidency and abolish the office of prime minister, giving the "Yes" camp 51.5 percent of the vote. (See shots 152-156)
*A French policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in central Paris on the evening of April 22 in an attack carried out days before presidential elections and quickly claimed by the Islamic State militant group. The gunman, identified as Karim Cheurfi, opened fire on a police vehicle on the Champs Elysees, killing policeman Xavier Jugele before being shot dead. (See shots 157-163)
*Protesters stormed into Macedonia's parliament and assaulted the leader of the Social Democrats on April 27 after his party and ethnic Albanian allies voted to elect an Albanian as parliament speaker, witnesses said. Police said eight people including an ethnic Albanian lawmaker were injured in the violence. (See shots 164-165)
*Pope Francis began at two-day visit to Cairo on April 29 where he called on leaders of all faiths to reject religious violence and denounce intolerance. The pope shared the stage at a peace conference in Cairo with the leader of Egypt's highest Islamic authority, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, with both underlining violence as a negation of religious expression. His visit came three weeks after Islamic State militants killed at least 45 people in attacks on two Egyptian churches. (See shots 166-175) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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