Human Race

Died

Country music giant Merle Haggard, whose twang and genuine lyrics led to 38 No. 1 Billboard country hits, died April 6. He was 79. Haggard grew up in a converted railway boxcar in Bakersfield, Calif., turning to petty crime in the years after his father died. Yet he returned to Bakersfield from prison in 1960 inspired by Johnny Cash. Sad songs and hardheaded songs of outlaws and underdogs brought him national fame. He’s perhaps best known for “Okie From Muskogee,” an anti-hippie anthem from the height of the Vietnam War.

Resigned

Iceland Prime Minister David Gunnlaugsson, “stepped aside” on April 5 as thousands of Icelanders protested news he pooled his wealth in overseas banks. Gunnlaugsson was among hundreds of the world’s wealthy implicated in the “Panama Papers,” 11.5 million leaked documents that a worldwide coalition of journalists has studied for more than a year. Tax evasion in offshore banking isn’t illegal per se, but it’s bad public relations and often hides money laundering. The names of at least 12 current or former heads of state have surfaced in the now infamous legal records from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Transferred

The Pentagon confirmed April 4 that two more Guantánamo Bay prisoners have been transferred, this time to the African country of Senegal. Critics pointed to the history of detainees returning to terror. But the White House insisted that Salem Abdu Salam Ghereby, 55, and Omar Khalif Mohammed Abu Baker Mahjour, 44, were no threat. Both men were captured in Pakistan about 14 years ago.

Arrested

Police in India’s Kerala state detained 13 suspects in connection with an enormous fireworks explosion on April 10 that killed at least 116 persons and injured hundreds more. Revelers had been celebrating the Hindu new year at the Puttingal temple in southern India at around 3 a.m. when a stray rocket or sparks landed in a building housing a stockpile of fireworks. The resulting blast leveled buildings and launched into the air chunks of concrete that landed more than a mile away. Authorities said the fireworks display had not been authorized: Seven temple officials were among those arrested.

Raided

California agents raided the home of Center for Medical Progress (CMP) director David Daleiden on April 5, confiscating video footage from CMP’s investigation into Planned Parenthood. Daleiden said some of the footage taken by officials working for California Attorney General Kamala Harris had not yet been released to the public. Harris receives thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood toward her political campaigns and pledged to investigate CMP in July. Daleiden and CMP currently face two lawsuits as well as controversial charges from a Texas grand jury originally convened to investigate Planned Parenthood.