April 8, 2012 (Sunday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- Syrian uprising:
- At least 40 people are reported killed across Syria ahead of the Tuesday deadline for Syrian armed forces to withdraw from cities, as part of a peace plan brokered by U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan. (CNN)
- In his annual Easter message from the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI calls particularly for "an end to the bloodshed" in Syria. (CNN)
- Afghanistan and the United States reach an agreement giving the Government of Afghanistan more control over night raids. (Wall Street Journal)
- A car bomb explodes in the Nigerian city of Kaduna killing dozens of people. (AP via Google News) (via Herald-Sun)
Arts and culture
- The Internal Affairs Minister of Israel declares German poet and former Waffen-SS soldier Günter Grass, recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, a persona non grata in a row over his poem "What Must Be Said". (Haaretz) (The Times of Israel) (The Jerusalem Post)
Disasters
- Rescuers search for possible survivors of the 2012 Siachen Glacier avalanche that hit a Pakistani Army base and has buried up to 135 people, near the disputed Siachen Glacier. (AAP via SBS)
International relations
- The President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari arrives in India on the first visit by a Pakistani President in seven years. (BBC)
Law and crime
- U.S. police arrest two men suspected in carrying out a shooting attack in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that happened the day before, leaving three people dead and two injured. The shootings are being investigated as a hate crime. (CNN)
Politics
- Voters in South Ossetia go to the polls for the second round of a presidential election with ex-KGB officer Leonid Tibilov elected. (AFP via Google News) (Reuters via Euronews)
- The President of Mali Amadou Toumani Toure resigns as part of a deal with coup leaders. (BBC)
Sport
- American golfer Bubba Watson wins the US Masters defeating Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa in a playoff. (The Age)