Portal:Current events/2011 March 24

March 24, 2011 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Arab Spring
- Protest in Jordan sees 500 March in Jordan's capital Amman demanding the removal of prime minister Marouf al-Bakhit and other reforms. (AP)
- 2011 Syrian protests:
  - Witnesses and rights activists say Syrian government security forces killed at least 15 anti-government protesters in Daraa, bringing the death toll for the week to 21. (The Australian) (BBC)
  - The Syrian government pledges a series of reforms in response to the unrest, including lifting the state of emergency law and allowing other political parties. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
- 2011 Libyan civil war:
  - Representatives of Muammar Gaddafi and his opponents in the Libyan rebel movement have been invited to attend a Friday African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (VoA) (Globe and Mail)
  - Coalition air strikes on targets in Tripoli, Libya, continue for a sixth day in an effort to destabilize Gaddafi's government. (CNN) (The Australian)
  - French jet destroys a Libyan plane that breached the no-fly zone. (BBC)
The Israeli air force launches early morning airstrikes on smuggling tunnels along Gaza-Egypt border as well as a Hamas training camp in Gaza following Palestinian militants' rocket attacks against Beersheba and Ashkelon, Israel. (AP via The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Jerusalem Post)
South Korea issues a report into the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan criticising the readiness of the Navy. (BBC)
Two British soldiers from the 1st Battalion Irish Guards are killed fighting in Afghanistan's Helmand province. (BBC)
The European Commission is hit by a cyberattack. (Computerworld) (Europolitics)
Army forces in Colombia kill 10 FARC rebels in western Chocó department. (Press TV)

Arts and culture

The United States Census Bureau confirms that New York City is the largest city in the US with 8,175,133 residents at the time of the 2010 United States Census on April 1. (CNN Money)

Business and economy

A U.S. federal district court in Delaware rules in favor of Cephalon, a phamaceutical company, in a patent infringement lawsuit it had brought against a manufacturer of generic drugs. (Reuters)
The Africa Carbon Exchange, Africa's first carbon exchange which will trade in carbon credits a form of carbon pricing, opens in Kenya. (Reuters) (UPI)

Disasters

Two large earthquakes are recorded in northeastern Burma near the borders with Laos and Thailand, killing at least two people. (BBC) (New York Times) (AFP via Yahoo News)
Thousands of people are stranded by flash flooding in Tasmania, amid record falls of rain. Roads are closed, blackouts occur and people are flown away in helicopters. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incidents
- Several governments in the Asia-Pacific region including Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore ban the import of food from areas near the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant following the recent incidents. (BBC)
- The Japanese National Police Agency states that the official death toll of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami is 9,700 with 16,500 missing. (Yahoo News)
- Parents in Tokyo and the Greater Tokyo Area scramble for bottled water following warnings about elevated levels of radioactive iodine in drinking water. (Los Angeles Times)
- Water in a purification plant in the city of Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture is found to be unsafe for infants to drink. (Kyodo)
- Three workers at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant are exposed to high levels of radiation with two being hospitalized. (AFP via Channel News Asia)
- Radiation levels in Tokyo tap water have dropped by half, well below the country's maximum for infants. (NY Times)
The United Nations claims that six million North Koreans need international food assistance. (AP via Star Tribune)

Law and crime

Lian Yang, a US citizen, pleads guilty to conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act by trying to sell radiation-hardened" military and aerospace technology to the People's Republic of China. (Seattle Times)
Serial rapist Delroy Grant is convicted of 18 sexual assaults and rapes in London, England, with fears that he may have committed hundreds of offences. (PA via Sydney Morning Herald)
British Police find the body of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan in Oxfordshire, five days after she went missing in Swindon, Wiltshire. A 47-year-old man is arrested on suspicion of murder and police are also searching for the body of an unnamed missing woman who is feared to have been murdered. (BBC)
Two girls (11 and 8 years old) were brutally murdered in their home in Krailling, Bavaria (Germany). (The Local)

Politics and elections

European Council Summit on 24-25 March 2011 (Invitation letter by President Van Rompuy to the European Council -PDF-), focusing on 1) its economic policy (Washington Post), 2) On the finalisation of the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) and the adoption of the Euro Plus Pact, 3) On the developments on its southern neighbourhood under the light of the 2011 Libyan civil war and the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 and 4) On possible assistance to Japan, and the necessary steps to review the safety of both European and neighbouring nuclear facilities. (Summit Conclusions -PDF-)
Moriarty Tribunal in Ireland:
- Former government minister Michael Lowry refuses to resign the seat he recently claimed back in Dáil Éireann in the aftermath of the Moriarty Tribunal's findings that he assisted billionaire businessman Denis O'Brien "beyond doubt" in gaining a mobile phone license for Esat Digifone, in actions judged "disgraceful and insidious" by the tribunal. Taoiseach Enda Kenny admits Fine Gael accepted a donation worth thousands of dollars from Esat at the time. (Irish Examiner) (The Daily Telegraph)
- Libertas founder and chairman Declan Ganley urges Michael Lowry to resign, calling it "embarrassing for Ireland to have someone like that in Dáil Éireann". (The Irish Times)
- Journalist Sarah Carey uses her column in The Irish Times to call her lies to the tribunal a "black spot on my record" amid calls for her to be immediately dismissed by the newspaper. (The Irish Times) (Irish Central)
- Mr Justice Moriarty judges that Michael Lowry and his associates "went to great lengths" to cover up payments of thousands and then to mislead the tribunal. (The Irish Times)
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is among the MPs to have been revealed in the latest MPs' interests register to have received gifts, including iPods and concert tickets, from Bono. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The Governor of the US state of California Jerry Brown signs off on billions of savings to the budget but acknowledges that billions more in savings or revenue increases need to be found to resolve the ongoing budget crisis. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Science and technology

Mathematician John Milnor wins the 2011 Abel Prize for his contributions to topology, geometry and algebra. (The Hindu)
The first battery-swapping station in Israel for electric cars is inaugurated by Better Place; over 1,000 charging stations for the cars are already in place. (The Jerusalem Post)