April 13, 2017 (Thursday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), April 2017 Nangarhar airstrike
- The United States Air Force drops the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, reportedly on an ISIL complex of tunnels and caves. This is the first use of the weapon on the battlefield. (Business Insider)
Disasters and accidents
- 2016–17 South Pacific cyclone season
- A state of emergency is declared and coastal areas are evacuated in the Coromandel Peninsula as Cyclone Cook sweeps across the North Island of New Zealand. (BBC)
- European migrant crisis
- A boat carrying migrants sinks off the coast of Libya, with 97 people reported missing. 23 others were rescued by the Libyan coast guard. (Al Jazeera)
International relations
- North Korea and weapons of mass destruction, North Korea–United States relations
- U.S.-based monitoring group 38 North says satellite imagery of North Korea's Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site indicates that preparation for a sixth nuclear weapons test is underway. (The Guardian)
- The Democratic Republic of the Congo suspends its military cooperation with Belgium. (Jeune Afrique)
Law and crime
- The European Court of Human Rights rules that Russia had failed to protect students and teachers during the 2004 Beslan school siege, which left 334 people dead, and orders the Russian Government to pay 2,955,000 euros to 409 relatives of the victims. The ruling was quickly denounced by Russia as "unacceptable". (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- One student is murdered and another injured in Mardan, Pakistan over alleged blasphemy. The student who died, Mashal Khan, was known on social media for his secular and liberal views. (BBC)
Politics and elections
- 2017 Venezuelan constitutional crisis
- Thousands of people take to the streets in Caracas as Venezuelan authorities acknowledge a fifth death in the protests. (AP)
Science and technology
- NASA announces Saturn's moon Enceladus has the conditions in its global subsurface ocean to support life. (The Guardian)