Portal:Current events/2010 March 9

March 9, 2010 (Tuesday)

The United States Department of State issues an apology for Department spokesman P.J. Crowley's personal comments, which described Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi's comments on the minaret controversy in Switzerland as "lots of words, not necessarily a lot of sense". (BBC)
Roman Catholic child sexual abuse investigation: The Dutch Catholic Church apologises and the country's religious leaders request an independent inquiry. A monastery head in Salzburg admits abuse of a boy more than four decades ago. The brother of Pope Benedict XVI admits physically disciplining students at a school in Germany before corporal punishment was banned in 1980. (BBC)
Prince Ernst August of Hanover, husband of Caroline, Princess of Hanover, is fined €200,000 by a court in Hildesheim for assaulting a hotelier on Lamu Island in 2000. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (IOL) (ABC News)
The first witnesses appear before the Solomon Islands Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (RNZI) (Solomon Times)
A Uyghur man is sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for spying on a Uyghur community in Sweden and passing information to China. (Malaysia Star) (Press Trust of India) (BBC)
Seven people are arrested in Ireland — five in Waterford and two in Cork — over an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish artist Lars Vilks. (RTÉ) (BBC) (CNN)
186 members of the 245-seat Rajya Sabha of the Sansad in India vote in favour of a bill giving one third of available seats in the national parliament and state legislatures to women. One member votes against, several parties boycott the vote and seven MPs are suspended after expressing their disagreement. (BBC) (Times of India) (CNN)
The Northern Ireland Assembly votes — 88 votes in favour to 17 Ulster Unionist Party against — in favour of the devolution of justice. (BBC) (RTÉ)
Israel grants permission to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton to visit Gaza after denying permission to other international politicians. (RTÉ)
Israel approves the construction of 1,600 new houses, a central park and other facilities near the Orthodox Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem. (Ha'aretz) (BBC) (The Irish Times)
The Christian Association of Nigeria says the Nigerian Army ignored warnings before the recent massacre of civilians near Jos. (BBC) (Afrik.com)
Following several decades of "official denial", Japan confirms it permitted nuclear-armed United States vessels to pass through its ports using its Cold War "secret treaties". (BBC) (The New York Times) (The Washington Post) (People's Daily Online) (Japan Today)
A national strike by taxi drivers causes disruption across Ireland, stopping work at the country's three main airports, closing Dublin's O'Connell Street completely and blocking other streets as the High Court orders protesters to leave their sit-in at Commission for Taxi Regulation headquarters. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Ireland Online)
The first use of a biocontrol agent against a weed in the European Union is approved — the Japanese insect Aphalara itadori will be released at trial sites in England to combat invasive Japanese knotweed. (BBC)
Burma's military junta announces the first law relating to the 2010 general election, concerning the election commission. (Bangkok Post) (The Times) (Al Jazeera)
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrives in Canberra for his "symbolic" three-day visit to Australia. (ABC News) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Australian) (The Age)
First President of Rwanda Dominique Mbonyumutwa's son objects to the removal of his father's corpse from the Democracy Stadium in Gitarama, saying it defies a court ruling. (BBC)
Dublin's Tallaght Hospital blames "systemic and process failures" for more than 57,000 X-rays taken between 2005 and 2009 not being reviewed by medical professionals and admits at least two patients received incorrect treatment, one of whom has since died and the other who is receiving cancer treatment. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Ireland Online)
Sir Nicholas Winton and Denis Avey are presented with the new British Hero of the Holocaust medal by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. (Daily Telegraph)
Pink Floyd take legal action against EMI. (BBC) (Boston Globe) (ABC News)