Portal:Current events/2017 February 15

February 15, 2017 (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- Two separate bombings take place in Pakistan, killing at least seven people. A suicide bomber kills five people at the administrative headquarters in the Mohmand Agency tribal district while the other kills two people at a hospital in Peshawar. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claims responsibility for the first attack. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
- A suicide bomber detonates a pick-up truck full of explosives at a busy street in northern Baghdad, killing at least nine people. (Al Jazeera)

Arts and culture

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
- Twenty-one organizers for the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine, resign en masse after claiming they were completely blocked from making decisions about the show. Despite the setback, the European Broadcasting Union insists that the event must go on. (BBC)
At the Indigenous Peoples Forum in Rome, Italy, Pope Francis says that developmental needs have to be reconciled with the protection of the particular characteristics of indigenous peoples and their territories. This is taken by some as a reference to the Standing Rock Sioux and other groups opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

At least eight homes are destroyed as a wildfire rages out of control in the Port Hills, in the southern outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand. A pilot died when his helicopter crashed while fighting the fire. (Stuff) (The New Zealand Herald)

Law and crime

Censorship in Venezuela
- Venezuela bans CNN en Español, CNN's 24-hour Spanish language television channel, after accusing it of spreading propaganda. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Formation of Donald Trump's cabinet
- Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, withdraws from consideration to be Secretary of Labor in President Donald Trump's cabinet. (NBC News)

Science and technology