Portal:Current events/2017 January 18

January 18, 2017 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Northern Mali conflict
- A suicide bomber detonates a vehicle full of explosives at a military camp in Gao, Mali, killing at least 76 people and wounding scores more in Mali's deadliest terrorist attack in history. (The Guardian)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
- Battle of Mosul (2016–2017)
  - The Iraqi Army announces the liberation of the eastern part of Mosul following the collapse of ISIL defenses. (The Telegraph)

Disasters and accidents

January 2017 Central Italy earthquakes
- Four earthquakes of magnitude 5.1 or higher strike near Amatrice, Italy, forcing evacuation of some schools and the Rome Metro. No deaths are reported from the quakes. (CNN) (Weather Channel)
Rigopiano avalanche
- On the afternoon of 18 January 2017, a major avalanche occurred on Gran Sasso d'Italia, a mountain in Rigopiano, a tourist destination in the province of Pescara, in Southern Italy's Abruzzo region. The avalanche struck the luxury resort Hotel Rigopiano, killing twenty-nine people and injuring eleven others. The avalanche is the deadliest in Italy since the White Friday avalanches in 1916, and the deadliest avalanche in Europe since the Galtür avalanche in 1999.

Health

Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush is hospitalized in intensive care at Houston Methodist Hospital for treatment of pneumonia. His wife, Barbara is also hospitalized. (Los Angeles Times)
London Mayor Sadiq Khan declares a public health emergency for at least the next three days because of high levels of air pollution in the London area. The Department for Environment says this pollution episode could last until at least Sunday. (Courier Mail) (London Evening Standard)

Law and crime

At least four people are killed in a shootout between Mexican Police and unknown gunmen after the latter opened fire on the Quintana Roo state attorneys' office in Cancún. (BBC)
Colegio Americano del Noreste 2017 shootings
- A student wounds four people in a school shooting and then kills himself in Monterrey, Mexico. (BBC)

Politics and elections

2016–17 Gambian constitutional crisis
- The National Assembly of the Gambia approves extending Yahya Jammeh's term as President of the country for 90 more days. (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
- Thousands of British tourists are evacuated from the Gambia as West African states prepare to take military action to remove President Yahya Jammeh from power as his term ends. (BBC)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Two Israeli Bedouins and one Israeli police officer are killed in a clash during a home-demolition operation in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran. Israeli police claim to have found evidence that the Bedouins were supporters of the Islamic State. (Al Jazeera)
- The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority agrees to form a unity government with Hamas following a three-day delegation in Moscow. (Al Jazeera)

Science

Global temperatures rose to the hottest level on record for 2016 for a third successive record according to NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Financial Times)