Clashes break out and tear gas is fired by security forces in northern Azerbaijan after protesters torch the home of a local governor. (Daily Times of Pakistan)
Heavy flooding is also reported in the region of the capital city Canberra with the Old Cotter River dam going under for the first time in a hundred years. (Sydney Morning Herald)
The stricken
Costa Allegra arrives at the Seychelles after losing power three days ago due to an engine room fire. (BBC)
Red Cross is denied access to the Baba Amr district of Homs following its capture by the Syrian Army despite having been granted permission earlier to provide relief to 4,000 residents. (Sky News)(The New York Times)
Nestlé and Danone are said to be bidding for the infant nutrition business that Pfizer is about to put up for sale. (Reuters)
Moody's Investor Services cuts Greece's credit rating to C claiming that there is a still a significant risk of default despite the Eurozone bailout. (BBC)
2012 Brazzaville arms dump blasts: A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead. (Reuters), (BBC)
Tens of thousands of people in Bahrain join an anti-government protest outside the capital Manama. (BBC)
31 people are killed in anti-government clashes with security forces in Syria. (Reuters)
Secretary-general of the
Zohair al-Qaisi, a senior PRC member and two additional Palestinian militants are assassinated during a targeted killing carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza. (Reuters)(BBC)
A Thai worker in the
Ashkelon Coast Regional Council in Israel is injured by shrapnel of a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. The Iron Dome mobile air defence system intercepts various rockets fired from the Gaza Strip at Ashdod. (Ynetnews)
ItalianPresidentGiorgio Napolitano calls on the British government to explain why it did not inform Italy about an attempt to rescue hostages Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara until after the operation had been carried out. (BBC)
March 2012 Gaza-Israel clashes: At least 130 rockets are fired into Israel from Gaza, and 12 Palestinians militants are killed as part of the latest escalation in violence in the region. (Ynetnews)(AP)
The loose-knit group of hackers known as Anonymous launch a second attack on the Vatican website. The vice director of the Holy See's Press Office, Father Ciro Benedettini, says the initial March 7 attack was not successful, failing in its attempt to bring the site down. (Catholic News Agency)
Politics
Sri Lanka orders media outlets to get prior approval before sending mobile phone alerts about the military or police. (Straits Times)
Tens of thousands of people demonstrate in Dhaka, Bangladesh, demanding the government step down and hold elections. (Al Jazeera)
Syrian uprising: The Syrian army attacks rebels in northern Syria; dozens of people in the city of Idlib are reported killed with heavy shelling in areas around Idlib and around Homs; rebels kill at least 10 troops in an ambush in the same area (New York Times)(CBS)(Jerusalem Post)
19 people are shot dead in an attack on a bus in southwest Ethiopia. (News 24)
According to the Nigerian military, the group Boko Haram has killed 1200 people since the end of 2009. (La Repubblica)
Turkish intelligence reports claim that approximately 20,000 Syrian soldiers have deserted from the government forces in less than a month. (Bloomberg)
Turkey threatens to launch a military incursion into northern Syria to protect fleeing refugees. (The Telegraph)
LGBT rights group files a lawsuit against U.S. minister Scott Lively in connection with his alleged involvement in a campaign to persecute gay people in Uganda. (BBC)
2011–2012 Syrian uprising: Protests referred to by activists as "The Friday for International Military Intervention" spread from the northern city of Aleppo to the central regions of Hama and Homs, and southern province of Daraa. (Al Jazeera)
U.S. sportswear company Nike, Inc. controversially gives its new Saint Patrick's Day runner the name "The Black and Tan", prompting comparisons from concerned netizens with the controversial British paramilitary unit, which was known as the Black and Tans. (The Irish Times)
Pope Benedict XVI launches an internal investigation into leaks of confidential documents alleging corruption, financial mismanagement and power struggles among senior church officials. (AP)
Coptic Christian community, dies of cancer at the age of 88. (BBC)
Chinese leaders urge officials and residents in Chongqing to support the change of leadership in the city, after former chief Bo Xilai was removed. (Taipei Times)
Leaders of the African Union meet in Benin to discuss a resolution of the leadership crisis after deadlocked elections in January. (IOL)
Fabrice Muamba collapses on live television in the 41st minute of the FA Cup quarter-final between Tottenham Hotspur and Bolton Wanderers. The match is abandoned, and Muamba is rushed to a London hospital in critical condition after being resuscitated for several minutes on the pitch. (The Guardian)(BBC)(Sky)
Juventus dedicates his team's Serie A win to Muamba. (IBN)
British journalists Gareth Montgomery-Johnson and Nicholas Davies-Jones, detained last month in Libya after being accused of entering the country illegally, have been released the country's Interior Ministry confirms. (BBC)
Two hospitalnurses are arrested in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo in connection with the suspicious death of dozens of patients over several years at two hospitals. (MSNBC)
At least 30 people are reported killed in fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces in the Damascus neighborhood of al-Mazzeh. (CNN)
Russian anti-terror troops reportedly enter Syria. (Fox News)
Confidential documents that surfaced provide a look into the regime's strategy to suppress the anti-government protests. (Al Jazeera)(The Guardian)
Bahraini uprising: Bahraini opposition groups prepare to talk to the ruling monarchy as the government continues to crackdown on protests across the nation. (Al Jazeera)
Indonesian police kill five men suspected of planning robberies in order to fund terrorism. (BBC)
A rabbi and his two children, along with the daughter of the school principal,
Jamie Waylett is convicted of participating in violent disorder and handling stolen goods, but cleared of intent to destroy or damage property during last year's riots throughout England. Waylett is jailed for two years. (BBC)
Business and Economy
India's official poverty rate falls to an all-time record low of 29.8% for the 2009-2010 survey. (BBC)
The U.S.
Nestlé S.A., continuing a trend in recent years toward a narrowing of the grounds of patentability. (Reuters)
Syrian security forces continued to bombard a neighborhood in a neighborhood of Homs and at least 79 people were reported killed across Syria, including 42 in Homs. (CNN)
Nick Smith resigns as New Zealand's Minister for the Environment, Minister for Climate Change Issues and Minister for Local Government due to improper conduct. (AP via Washington Post)
Midi-Pyrénées shootings suspected perpetrator Mohammed Merah dies and three French policemen are injured as a siege ends outside Merah's Toulouse flat. (BBC)
Russian officials will meet with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to discuss his efforts to mediate a cease-fire in Syria and with a Syrian opposition delegation in the next few days. (The Washington Post)
12 people are killed in an operation against PKK rebels in southeastern Turkey. (AFP)
A court hears that two British men shot dead in the U.S. state of Florida last April were found with their shirts off and trousers round their thighs. (BBC)
A draft report by government auditors estimates India lost $210 billion by selling coalfields too cheaply. Opposition politicians denounce the government for "looting the country". (BBC)(The Times of India)(Al Jazeera)
In Montreal the biggest protest in Quebec's history sets out against the government's tuition hikes and for free access to post-secondary education, with more than 200 000 people marching in the streets ("Huffington Post")
In a statement by Pope Benedict XVI he says that Communism does not work for Cuba and that he is ready to help the island find new ways to move forward in a peaceful manner. (Reuters)
A roadside bomb in southern Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, detonates on a joint Afghan-NATO convoy killing six Afghan police, one U.S. soldier, and one translator. (CNN)
French prosecutors charge the brother of the gunman Mohammed Merah with complicity in the murders and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism with regards to the
killings of three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three children in Toulouse. (CNN)
FARC rebels in the latest government offensive. (Al Jazeera)
Somali pirates hijack an Iranian-owned cargo ship with 23 crew in waters off the Maldives - the first hijacking in such territory. (AFP via Google News)
Syria responds to a peace plan proposed by envoy Kofi Annan to end the violence in the country. (IOL)
One person is killed, three people declared missing, and three people rescued after a sailboat sinks off the southwestern coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. (CBC)
Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook arrives in China for talks with government officials to clear up problems in the firm's biggest growth market, including the contested iPad trademark and treatment of local labor. (Reuters)
Issa Abdel Majid Mansur, the head of the Tubu tribe in Libya, announces the possibility of separatist activities. (Al Arabiya)
2012 South Sudan–Sudan border conflict: South Sudan's troops pull out of Sudan's oil-producing Heglig area, easing tensions after two days of clashes between the neighbours threatened to escalate a simmering conflict. (Reuters)
Government of Fiji seizes a controlling interest in subsidiary Air Pacific from the Australian airline Qantas. Qantas remains in control of its equity in the airline. (Channel News Asia)
The Mega Millions jackpot in the United States hits a record $500 million dollars, a world record in lottery history. (CNN)
The death is announced of award-winning poet, essayist and public intellectual Adrienne Rich, credited with bringing the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse. (The Guardian)
petrol stations across the United Kingdom after government ministers urged motorists to top up their fuel tanks ahead of a possible strike by fuel tanker drivers. (BBC)(The Guardian)
Research in Motion announces major shake-ups in executive ranks and a strategic review in its earnings report. (Reuters)
donor organs, could be contaminated with bacteria after routine tests detected Bacillus cereus in the solution used to test the sterility of viaspan. (BBC)
The Syrian government says that the revolt against the regime of PresidentBashar al-Assad has ended, but it will still keep soldiers inside cities, "for security". (Fox News)(Reuters)
A 20-year-old Palestinian is killed and 13 others are wounded by IDF gunfire as they try to breach the Gaza border fence in order to infiltrate into Israel near the
The Spanish government cuts 27 billion euros from the country's budget as part of one of the toughest austerity drives in its history. (BBC)(Al Jazeera)
London's Metropolitan Police is embroiled in a racism scandal after a black man used his mobile phone to record police officers subjecting him to a tirade of abuse in which he was told: "The problem with you is you will always be a nigger". (The Guardian)
Leonid Shebarshin, the former head of the KGB's foreign intelligence branch, apparently shoots himself dead. (BBC)
Nine top officials are jailed for their role in the near-bankruptcy of one of Vietnam's largest state-owned companies. (BBC)
Politics and elections
Ousted Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai is reportedly confined to his house in Beijing as he undergoes investigations from Chinese authorities. (The New York Times)
Chinese police arrest six people and shut down 16 websites for allegedly spreading rumours that military vehicles were on the streets of Beijing. (BBC)
Politics and elections
The
People's Representative Council vetoes plans to increase the price of fuel by thirty per cent this weekend. (AP via Google News)
