Portal:Current events/2017 January 13

January 13, 2017 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says, for the first time, that they suspect Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials of the Syrian government are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the conflict. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

January 2017 European cold wave
- A winter storm hits Europe with 330,000 people in France losing power, thousands of people in Great Britain evacuated and travel disrupted. (Newsinfo)
Mid-January 2017 North American ice storm
- A winter storm pours ice rain on the Great Plains and American Midwest, causes power outages, school closures, and a traffic fatality in Missouri. (Reuters)

International relations

Sudan–United States relations
- President of the United States Barack Obama signs an order to ease sanctions against Sudan, citing the country's efforts to "reduce internal conflict, improve humanitarian access to people requiring aid and curtail terrorism". (BBC)

Law and crime

Six more people have been charged in relation to the armed robbery of American celebrity Kim Kardashian in Paris last year. (9 News)

Politics and elections

Cyprus dispute
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vows that the Turkish Armed Forces will stay on Cyprus "in perpetuity" and that the proposal of a rotating presidency for a unified island is unacceptable, casting doubts on an eventual solution to the dispute. The remarks come as the latest round of unity talks end, with them to restart on January 18. (The Guardian)
The United States House of Representatives votes in favor of legislation that approves preliminary budgetary measures for the United States Congress to begin repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare. (The Guardian)
Aftermath of the Gambian presidential election, 2016
- The African Union says it will cease to recognize Yahya Jammeh as President of The Gambia on January 19, the date he is to hand power over to his opponent Adama Barrow, who won last year's election. (Al Jazeera)

Science and technology

A UCLA research team, analyzing lunar minerals brought back during the Apollo program, reports that the moon is at least 4.51 billion years old, up to 150 million years older than previous estimates.(Sci Tech Daily) (Independent)