Portal:Current events/March 2014

• 2014 Crimean crisis, 2014 Ukrainian revolution:
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin formally asks the Federation Council of the Russian Parliament for approval to use armed forces in Ukraine. He receives unanimous support. The Council also demands for President Putin to recall the Russian Federation ambassador to the United States. (RT) (CNN) (BBC News) (Associated Press)
  • US President Barack Obama warns Russia, saying that any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be "deeply destabilizing," and that "the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine." (CNN)
  • De facto Prime Minister of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov claims control of all military, police and other forces in Crimea and asks the President of Russia Vladimir Putin for assistance. (AP)
  • Russian Federation ambassador to the United Kingdom is summoned by the British Secretary of State William Hague. (BBC News)
  • The U.N. Security Council is to be summoned for the second time in just two days. (BBC News)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
  • A welcome home parade in Darwin marks the official end of Australia's active involvement in the Afghanistan War. (ABC News Australia via Yahoo! 7)
• War in North-West Pakistan
  • A bomb attack on a polio vaccination team in a village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province kills at least ten people. (BBC News)
  • The Pakistan Taliban announces a one-month ceasefire aimed at reviving peace talks. (Reuters)
• Kunming station massacre
  • A group of knife-wielding terrorist suspects attacks people at the Kunming Railway Station in the city of Kunming in Yunnan province, south-western China. At least 29 people are killed and 130 others injured. (xinhuanet.com)(BBC News)

• An entry on the documentary film Fuck causes offence after the Wikipedia website features it prominently on its home page. (The Houstonian)

• 2014 Venezuelan protests: Clashes continue between anti-government protesters and security forces after 41 people are arrested. (Al Jazeera)
• Proposals to change the automatic trade union affiliation with the UK Labour Party are passed at a special party conference vote by 86% to 14%. (BBC News)

• In association football, having headbutted a player on the opposing team, an unprecedented incident during a Premier League match, Alan Pardew faces the sack. (Metro) (BBC Sport) (Independent)
• In U.S. college basketball, Wichita State becomes the first NCAA Division I men's team to complete an undefeated regular season since Saint Joseph's in 2003–04. (AP via ESPN)

• 2014 Crimean crisis, 2014 Ukrainian revolution:
  • Ukraine's Navy commander-in-chief, Denis Berezovsky who was appointed only March 1, defects to the Russia-backed Crimea government. (Ria Novosty via inSerbia)
  • Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov says Ukraine's airspace has been closed to any non-civilian aircraft. (Reuters)
• War in North-West Pakistan:
  • Pakistani military bombs the hideout of a Taliban militant leader killing five insurgents. (Jerusalem Post)
• Islamist insurgency in Nigeria:
  • Over 100 people die in several bomb attacks in Nigeria. (Vanguard (Nigeria))

• Alabama's oldest hotel, the Mentone Springs Hotel - built in 1884 and listed on the register of historical places - burns to the ground. (Chattanoogan)

• Thai general election, 2014
  • Voters in Thailand go to the polls for a rerun of a general election hoped to end the current political crisis. (AAP via SBS)
• 2014 Russian anti-war protests
  • In Russia, police detained several hundred anti-war protesters in Moscow. (AFP/NewsAsia) (Wall Street Journal)
• Over 250,000 Haredim in Israel staged a protest against military conscription. (The Guardian)

• In association football, Newcastle United fine their manager Alan Pardew nearly £100,000 for headbutting David Meyler on the opposing Hull City during a Premier League match yesterday. (The Observer)

• In the second race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Kevin Harvick dominates the The Profit on CNBC 500, leading to his 2nd straight win at Phoenix International Raceway. (Nascar.com)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • The commander of the Ukrainian frigate Hetman Sahaydachniy reportedly confirms that the ship never defected to Russia as reported in Russian media. (Ministry of Defence of Ukraine)
  • Ireland's deputy leader Eamon Gilmore responds by summoning his Russian ambassador for talks. (The Irish Times)
  • The Lithuanian and Polish presidents call for NATO treaty Article 4 consultations on the basis that Russia is executing military maneuvers in Kaliningrad, close to the borders with Lithuania and Poland. (Lithuania Tribune)
  • Reuters reports that armed men have seized a ferry checkpoint between Crimea and Russia. (Fox News)
• Young men with guns open fire at a local court in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, resulting in at least 11 deaths and 22 injuries. (Associated Press of Pakistan)
• Violence across Nigeria, between Islamic terrorists and the Nigerian military, kills dozens of people. (CNN)

• 86th Academy Awards:
  • 12 Years a Slave wins three Oscars, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Los Angeles Times)
  • Italian film The Great Beauty wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. (Reuters)
  • Alfonso Cuarón wins the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Gravity, which earned the most Awards during the ceremony, a total of seven. (Euronews)
  • Matthew McConaughey wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Dallas Buyers Club. (Reuters)
  • Cate Blanchett wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Blue Jasmine. (Los Angeles Times)
  • Frozen wins two Oscars, including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. (Los Angeles Times)
• Frozen becomes the eighteenth film and second animated film to cross the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office grosses. (Variety)
• RTÉ, the Irish national broadcast service, is jammed inexplicably with strange and repetitive messages, provoking confusion and debate. (Independent)

• Google and Samsung have asked an agency of the government of the People's Republic of China to impose limiting conditions on a proposed merger of Microsoft and Nokia. (Bloomberg)
• Microsoft founder Bill Gates regains the top spot as the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of global billionaires. (BBC News)

• North Korea announces that it will release Australian Christian missionary John Short on account of his age. (Reuters via ABC Australia)

• The trial of Oscar Pistorius begins in Pretoria. (New York Daily News)

• Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta announces the composition of his new government after days of complicated negotiations with main ethnic Hungarian party of Romania. (Reuters)

• Scientists announce the discovery of pithovirus, the largest giant virus yet known, from a 30,000-year-old sample of frozen tundra. (Nature)

• Graeme Smith, the captain of the South Africa cricket team, announces his retirement from international cricket at the end of the current series against Australia. (BBC Sport)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a press conference, saying that “force isn’t needed right now” after deploying roughly 16,000 troops to Crimea. (Reuters)
  • Swedish foreign secretary Carl Bildt compares the ousted Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych to Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling after Yanukovych asked Russia to intervene to restore "law and order" in the country. (Dagens Næringsliv)
  • Russia's UN ambassador says to the UN Security Council that Ukraine's fugitive former President Viktor Yanukovych requested Russian soldiers in the strategic Crimea region "to establish legitimacy, peace, law and order," contradicting the president's own comments last week. (Times of India)
  • Vladimir Putin orders troops near the Ukraine border to return to their bases with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the military exercises a "success". (Telegraph)
• Islamist unrest in Egypt (2013–present):
  • An Egyptian court bans the Palestinian group Hamas and orders its offices in the country to be shut down and all dealings with the group suspended. The court also brands it as a terrorist organization. (DW) (International Business Times)

• A New York gold and gold futures trader files a lawsuit against the international banks involved in the twice-daily teleconferences that set the price of that metal. (Reuters)

• Smog caused by haze from forest fires on Indonesia's Sumatra island leaves 30,000 people ill. (AFP via News Limited)
• Italy releases 2m euros to save the ancient city of Pompeii after flooding causes walls to collapse. (BBC News)

• A New Jersey judge has ruled that the parents of their 18-year-old daughter do not have to pay for her college education after the teen filed a lawsuit against them seeking support and alleging abuse. (CBS)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • UN Envoy Robert Serry is ordered to leave Crimea at gunpoint after being threatened by 10–15 armed men. (AP)
  • Saying she cannot be part of a network that "whitewashes the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin", Washington-based anchor Liz Wahl resigns on-air from the Russian government-backed news channel RT. (The Guardian) (CNN)
• The Israel Defense Forces captures an Iranian ship carrying long-range artillery rockets to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip (CNN)

• An 1,800-year-old Egyptian papyrus discovered a century ago, whose inscription is nearly illegible to the naked eye, has been made more readable using infrared sensors, revealing the message to be a soldier's letter to his family. (Live Science)

• Radio Shack announces the closure of up to 1,100 stores. (USA Today)

• Raging forest fires break out and sweep through Hoàng Liên National Park fueled by dry weather and strong winds, in Lào Cai, Vietnam. (VOV)

• The U.S. Supreme Court interprets the whistle-blower provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley to protect the employees of privately owned companies that contract with public companies, in a case involving a group of mutual fund entities. (SCOTUSBlog)

• Andrus Ansip resigns after nine years as prime minister of Estonia. (BBC News)

• Pope Francis acknowledges that civil unions for LGBT people is a governmental move for economic and health management. (Time)
• Getty Images allows the free use of 35 million photos. (BBC News)
• Two members of the protest band Pussy Riot are left with chemical burns and head injuries after being attacked by a group of people in a McDonald's. (AFP via Google News)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • A NATO airstrike mistakenly hits an Afghan military outpost in Logar Province killing 5 Afghan soldiers. (The Washington Post)
• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • The European Union freezes the assets of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, two of his sons, and dozens of his advisers. (Los Angeles Times)
  • The European Union and UN Security Council both hold emergency meetings to talk about the current crisis in Ukraine. (AFP via Times of India)
  • President Barack Obama signs an executive order placing sanctions and visa bans on people that contributed to the current crisis in Crimea. (CNN)
  • A special referendum date is moved again. Now it becomes March 16, 2014 instead of the previously announced March 30. Voters will be asked whether they wish to stay part of Ukraine or join the Russian Federation. (Fox News)

• The Government of Venezuela cuts diplomatic ties with Panama calling it a "lackey of the United States". (CNN)
• Niger deports Saadi al-Gaddafi, son of Muammar al-Gaddafi, to Libya. (BBC News)

• The brother of the current President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, Qayum Karzai, drops out of the Afghan presidential election and endorses Zalmai Rassoul. (Hindustan Times)
• President of Tunisia Moncef Marzouki lifts a state of emergency that was put in place after the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. (BBC News)

• The 14th Dalai Lama delivers the Opening Prayer at the US Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Time)

• Prince Harry launches the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style sporting championship for wounded soldiers. (BBC News)
• Vietnamese defender Tran Dinh Dong given 28-match ban in March 2014 after breaking an opponent's leg. (BBC News) (Yahoo!)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • Armed men – thought to be Russian – attempt to seize a Ukrainian military base in Sevastopol, withdrawing soon afterwards. (BBC News)
  • Turkey scrambles fighter jets after a Russian surveillance plane flew along its Black Sea coast. (Reuters via Today's Zaman)

• A statue of Iset, daughter of King Amenhotep III who was the grandfather of Tutankhamun and ruler of Ancient Egypt around 3,350 years ago, has been unearthed by a team of Egyptian and European archaeologists. The statue, which depicts Iset alone without her father, is the first of its kind ever discovered. (GMA News)

• Staples Inc. plans to close 225 store locations and cut $500 million from its budget, citing low sales and internet competition. (Boston Globe)
• The United States economy added 175,000 jobs for the month of February. (AP via Houston Chronicle)

• A study released by the University of California, San Diego shows that vitamin D increases the chances of survival in patients suffering from breast cancer. (Science Recorder)

• Rwanda and South Africa each expel the other's diplomats after armed men broke into an exiled Rwandan critic's home in Johannesburg. (Reuters)

• The former leader of the Front for Patriotic Resistance in Ituri, Germain Katanga, is found guilty in the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. (Bloomberg)
• Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is sentenced to 5 years in prison for sodomy after his 2012 acquittal is overturned. (Bloomberg via SFGate)
• The Saudi Arabian government designates the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda among others as terrorist groups and warns that people joining them could face 30 years in prison. (AP via Washington Post)

• 2014 Winter Paralympics:
  • The Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia officially opens. (CBC)

• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
  • Malaysia Airlines loses contact with a Boeing 777-200ER passenger plane carrying 239 people from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China. (BBC News)

• United States Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul wins the annual CPAC presidential straw poll with 31% of the vote. (Real Clear Politics)

• A suicide car bomber kills 42 people at a police checkpoint in Hillah, Iraq. (Voice of America)
• Mexican authorities confirm that Nazario Moreno González, the top leader of the Knights Templar Cartel, was killed in the state of Michoacán. (CNN)

• At least 42 migrants from the Horn of Africa drown when their boat overturns off the coast of Shabwah Governorate, Yemen. (Al Jazeera)
• A Boeing 787 controlled by Japan Airlines makes an emergency landing at Honolulu Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, after oil pressure in their right engine dropped. (AP via CBS)

• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370:
  • The Ministry of Transport of Vietnam orders local airports and airlines to tighten their security, after the Malaysian plane vanished, on the first level of a three-level security alert system. (Thanh Nien News)

• Swedish charismatic pastor Ulf Ekman, who established the Livets Ord ministry, breaks with his megachurch and converts to Roman Catholicism. (Charisma News)

• Vice President of Afghanistan Mohammed Fahim dies at the age of 57 due to natural causes. (Reuters)
• Colombian parliamentary election, 2014
  • President Juan Manuel Santos' coalition wins a reduced majority, while former President Alvaro Uribe is elected to the Senate. (Reuters)

• In U.S. college basketball, Wichita State defeats Indiana State 83–69 to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, becoming the first Division I men's team to enter the NCAA Tournament unbeaten since UNLV in 1991. (Sports Illustrated)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • A pro-Russian military force of just about a dozen men take control of the Ukrainian naval base near the town of Bakhchysarai. (Reuters)
• A Jordanian judge is fatally shot by Israeli Border Police after he allegedly attempted to grab one of their rifles. (AP via Time)

• Irish fruit firm Fyffes and U.S. rival Chiquita agree to combine, creating the world's largest banana company in an all-stock deal valued at about $1.07 billion. (BBC News)
• Pizza chain Sbarro files for chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in 3 years. (Reuters)

• Troy Buswell resigns as the Treasurer of Western Australia following a mental breakdown and a car accident. (Perth Now)
• New Zealand general election, 2014:
  • John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, announces that the 2014 New Zealand election will be held on 20 September 2014. (New Zealand Herald)
• The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O'Neill sacks the Treasurer Don Polye and the Minister for Industrial Relations Mark Maipakai. (AAP via News Limited)

• Dr. David J. Skorton, current President of Cornell University, is chosen to be the new head of the Smithsonian Institution. (AP via ABC)

• Gunmen in Kabul, Afghanistan kill Swedish Radio foreign correspondent Nils Horner. (Washington Post)
• Maoist rebels ambush an Indian paramilitary force in Chhattisgarh, India, killing 18 soldiers. (AP via Time)
• In response to mortar fire, an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip kills three suspected militants. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
• Protesters clash with police in Turkey after a 15-year-old boy died from a head injury sustained during anti-government protests. (The Guardian) (Reuters)

• New Zealand says it plans to hold a referendum regarding the change of its national flag. (The Guardian)
• Bronze weapons found near China's Terracotta Army are determined to have once belonged to the soldiers. (Live Science)

• Colorado says it has collected $2 million in taxes from marijuana sales in the month of January. (The Washington Post)
• Men's Wearhouse buys rival JoS. A. Bank Clothiers for $1.8 billion. (Reuters)

• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea:
  • Two Philippine ships are expelled by the Chinese Coast Guard from Ayungin Shoal in the Spratly group of islands. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

• The search of one of Congress's stand-alone computers is referred to the Justice Department for investigation. (AP via USA Today)
• Fourteen Caribbean nations file a lawsuit against the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands for damages caused during the Atlantic slave trade. (Time)
• Joran van der Sloot faces an extradition case in the United States. (People)

• The Libyan Parliament sacks Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and appoints former defense secretary Abdullah al-Thani as acting prime minister. (Reuters)
• Politics of Israel
  • Shas endorses Isaac Herzog from the Israeli Labor Party as the country's next prime minister. (Times of Israel)
  • A new electoral law that raises the threshold of votes political parties need in elections to gain representation in the Knesset from 2 to 3.25% is passed unanimously as the entire opposition boycotts the vote. (Al Jazeera)

• Three Taliban insurgents are killed by a team of Afghan police and private commandos after attacking a former National Directorate of Security headquarters in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The Taliban claims they killed four commandos and five policemen, which police deny. (AP via ABC)

• Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, orders Fabrice "Fabulous Fab" Tourre to pay more than $825,000 for defrauding investors while a trader at Goldman Sachs. (Reuters)

• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370:
  • China requests activation of the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters meaning international space agencies join an "unprecedented" search for the Malaysian airliner which disappeared over an ocean Saturday. (Al Jazeera)
  • A crowdsourcing search effort after the vanished airliner finds a silhouette in the water of similar size and shape to the lost plane. Also, a Chinese satellite sights sizable pieces of debris. (CNN) (news.com.au)
• An explosion in the New York City neighbourhood of East Harlem kills 8 and injures over 70. (Pix 11) (WABC-TV)
• At least 350 apartments are evacuated due to a fire in San Francisco's Mission Bay neighborhood. (KNTV)

• Fiji's Health Department confirms that eleven people have died and over 10,000 people have been infected in an outbreak of the type three strain of dengue fever. (ABC Online)

• 2014 Crimean crisis
  • Russia says planned U.S. financial aid to Ukraine is illegal. (Reuters)

• A new law levying criminal penalties on yeshiva students who dodge military service in the Israeli Defence Forces passes the Knesset with near unanimous support as the entire opposition boycotts the vote; Yoni Chetboun from Jewish Home is the lone no-voter. (Times of Israel)

• Sir Tim Berners-Lee calls for a World Wide Web equivalent of the Magna Carta, on the 25th anniversary of his proposal for the World Wide Web. (BBC News)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • Leaders in the Ukrainian Kherson Oblast threaten to shut off all power and water to Crimea if the referendum goes forward. (Fox)
  • Russia masses its military near the Ukrainian border again as new military operations are announced. (BBC News)
• At least 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel over the last 3 days, with the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine claiming responsibility. The IDF responded by shelling two alleged PIJ targets. (The Jerusalem Post)
• Post-coup unrest in Egypt:
  • Masked gunmen attack a bus carrying Egyptian Army soldiers in Cairo, killing one. (AP via The Hindu)

• An executive board member of the European Central Bank, Benoît Cœuré, says that the ECB is determined to secure the continued decline in real interest rates in the months ahead. (Reuters)

• An intoxicated hit-and-run driver in Austin, Texas, United States, drives into a nighttime crowd at the South by Southwest festival, killing two and injuring 23. (USA Today) (CNN)
• A U.S. newspaper report claims Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 flew for hours after vanishing from radars Saturday. (Al Jazeera) (Wall Street Journal)
• Rescue crew continue to search for victims in the explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem, which killed 8 and injured more than 70. (NBC)
• A magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurs near Japan's Kyushu Island. (Chicago Tribune)
• A helicopter crash in Norfolk, United Kingdom, kills Edward Haughey, Baron Ballyedmond. (Eastern Counties Newspapers)

• Murderer and Sex Offender Brett Peter Cowan is sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 years after being found guilty of murder, improperly interfering with a corpse and indecently dealing with a child under the age of 16 following the murder of Daniel Morcombe on the Sunshine Coast in December 2003. (Brisbane Times)

• David Willetts, the UK science minister, announces £11m of funding for data processing linked to the Square Kilometre Array. (The Register)

• Attacks all across Pakistan leave dozens dead, with the most violence centered in Peshawar and Quetta. (Reuters)
• Islamic militants attack a Nigerian Army barracks in Maiduguri, Borno State. (Voice of America)

• American sandwich shop chain Quiznos files for bankruptcy. (Businessweek)

• A 7-story building in Mumbai, India, collapses, killing 7 people and injuring 4. (The Hindu)
• Rescue crew continue to search for victims in the explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem, which killed 8 and injured more than 70. (BBC News)

• A French court sentences former Rwandan army captain Pascal Simbikangwa to 25 years for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. (BBC News)

• The United States announces plans to relinquish remaining controls of the Internet following revelations of National Security Agency surveillance last year. (Washington Post)

• Joko Widodo is chosen as the nominee for the Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle for the upcoming presidential election. (The Jakarta Globe)

• United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov meet in London, United Kingdom, to discuss the current Crimean crisis. (The Guardian)

• The Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak states that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was deliberately steered off course for reasons unknown and then flew for almost seven hours more. (AsiaOne)

• Jack Lew, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, speaks to Wang Yang, vice premier of the People's Republic of China, and expresses U.S. approval of China's new, wider, daily trading band for its renminbi. (Reuters)

• Voters in the Australian states of Tasmania and South Australia go to the polls for state elections. The Liberal Party led by Will Hodgman have won government in the Tasmanian election while the South Australian election is too close to call. (Radio Australia) (ABC) (AAP via Yahoo!7)
• Slovak presidential election, 2014
  • Voters go to the polls in Slovakia with partial results showing that Prime Minister Robert Fico and businessman-turned philanthropist Andrej Kiska are likely to be the two contenders in the second round. (AP)
• 2014 Crimean crisis and 2014 Russian anti-war protests
  • The March of Peace took place in Russia a day before the Crimean referendum. 30,000 people participated in anti-war protests in Moscow. (The Moscow Times) (Reuters) (RFE/RL)

• In motorsports, the Chip Ganassi Racing #01 Riley-Ford Ecoboost Daytona Prototype, driven by Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti, wins the 2014 12 Hours of Sebring. (RACER.com)

• Crimean referendum, 2014
  • Voters in Crimea vote overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and rejoin Russia. Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States condemn the referendum, which did not give voters the option of the status quo. (BBC News) (Associated Press)
• Serbian parliamentary election, 2014
  • Voters in Serbia go to the polls for an early parliamentary election. The centre right SNS is reported to be receiving around 50% of the popular vote. (AP via Houston Chronicle) (Straits Times)

• 2014 Winter Paralympics:
  • The Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia officially concludes. (CBC) (BBC Sport)
• In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Carl Edwards wins the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway after rain causes the race to be delayed more than 5 hours, and the final laps of the event to be run under caution. (NASCAR.com)
• In U.S. men's college basketball, the field for the NCAA Division I Tournament is set. Florida is the #1 overall seed, with the other top seeds being Arizona, Virginia, and unbeaten Wichita State. (AP via ESPN)

• United States Navy SEALs take over a disavowed oil tanker in international waters previously seized by Libyan rebels. (AP via New Zealand Herald)

• President of the United States Barack Obama announces that the United States will sanction Russian officials that contributed to the current Crimean crisis. (Voice of America)

• A 6.7 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Chile with officials issuing precautionary tsunami warnings for the nation's coast. (CNN)

• 2014 Crimean status referendum
  • The Republic of Crimea is declared. (AP)

• Evidence of cosmic inflation from the BICEP2 experiment is announced by the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. (BBC News) (Space)

• A Ukrainian military serviceman is killed in an attack on a base in Crimea's main city, Simferopol. (Reuters via Trust)
• A suicide rickshaw bomber detonates in a marketplace in Maymana, Afghanistan, killing 15 people. (Los Angeles Times)

• President of the United States Barack Obama presents the Medal of Honor to 24 veterans, all of whom served in the Vietnam War, World War II and the Korean War. (AP via ABC)
• The Rolling Stones postpone their tours of Australia and New Zealand following the death of Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott. (BBC News)

• At least two people are dead and one is in critical condition after a KOMO-TV news helicopter crashes near the Seattle Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. (AP via Washington Times)

• 2014 Crimean crisis - Simferopol Incident
  • Japan announces it will fall in line with American sanctions against Russia for its role in promoting the secession of Crimea from Ukraine. (AP via Fox News)
  • The parliaments of Russia and Crimea sign an accession treaty. (Washington Post)
  • Transnistria formally requests to join the Russian Federation. (Vestnik Kavkaza) (BBC News)
• United States-Syria relations:
  • The United States expels all Syrian diplomats and closes the Syrian embassy in Washington D.C. (Reuters)

• Occupy Taiwan Legislature
  • Protesters storm and occupy the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan due to a unilateral move by the Kuomintang that forces the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement to the legislative floor without giving it an item-by-item review. (Focus Taiwan)

• 2014 Crimean crisis
  • Russian forces overrun the Ukrainian Navy headquarters in Sevastopol and another naval base. (AFP via Google) (AP) (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
• Syrian Civil War:
  • The Israeli Air Force launches several air strikes on Syrian military sites, killing one Syrian soldier and wounding seven others, in retaliation for a bombing that wounded four of its troops in the Golan Heights. (BBC News)
• Two Egyptian army officers and five militants are killed during a warehouse raid in Qalyubiya province north of Cairo. (NPR) (BBC News)

• Toyota is ordered to pay $1.2 billion to settle charges that it lied to United States safety investigators and the public about deadly accelerator defects. (AFP via Google News)

• South Africa's Public Protector finds that President Jacob Zuma has "benefitted unduly" from government funded upgrades of his rural residence. (BBC News)
• Canadian Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty resigns, planning a return to the private sector. Joe Oliver is named to replace him. (National Post)

• War in Afghanistan (2001–2021):
  • 2014 Kabul Serena Hotel attack: Four suspected Taliban members attack the luxurious Kabul Serena Hotel, killing at least nine people, including four foreigners. (Yahoo! News)
  • Suicide bombers attack a police station in the city of Jalalabad resulting in at least 11 deaths and 22 people being injured. (Reuters)
• A suicide bomber attacks a cafe in Baghdad, Iraq, killing 12 people and injuring another 38. (AP via Fox News)
• Syrian Civil War:
  • Syrian troops capture the 1,000-year-old Krak des Chevaliers crusader castle from rebels after laying siege to the fortress since January. (Reuters)

• European Union member states and European Parliament negotiators reach a deal on a new regulatory system for banks. (AFP via Google News)

• The Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, advises the Parliament that two objects possibly related to the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 have been located in the southern Indian Ocean. (Sky News) (Reuters)
• A passenger train collides with a minibus near the Turkish city of Mersin resulting in at least nine deaths. (BBC News)

• United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid orders an investigation into the breach by the CIA into the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's computer systems. (Reuters)

• 2014 Crimean crisis
  • The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, announces the possibility of further sanctions from the European Union against Russia for the invasion and annexation of Crimea. (BBC News)
  • The President of the United States, Barack Obama, announces further sanctions against Russia in response to the annexation of Crimea. (Reuters)

• Kotoōshū Katsunori, the first Bulgarian sumo wrestler to win the makuuchi (top division) championship in history, announces his retirement. (The Japan Times)

• Iraqi insurgency (post-U.S. withdrawal):
  • Gunmen attack a police headquarters north of Baghdad and suicide bombers strike across Iraq killing 25 people and injuring dozens. (AP via Washington Post)
• Clashes erupt in Tripoli, Lebanon, between Syrian regime supporters and detractors, leaving three dead. (Time)

• Turkey restricts access to Twitter hours after the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatens to "root out" the social network where politically sensitive documents had been published. (AP)

• 2014 Crimean Crisis:
  • The Russian Federation Council, the upper house of the Federal Assembly, approves the annexation of Crimea. (AP via Yahoo! News)
  • The President of Russia Vladimir Putin signs the legislation completing the annexation of Crimea. (Reuters)
• Ukraine signs an association accord with the European Union in defiance of Russia. (AFP via Google News)

• American judge Bernard A. Friedman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan overturns Michigan's ban on same-sex marriages. (AP via Washington Post)
• A kindergarten lunch in Qiubei County, China, is poisoned, leaving two children dead and another thirty sick. (AP via CTV)

• Thai general election, 2014:
  • The Constitutional Court of Thailand invalidates the general election held on February 2, on the grounds that voting was not held on the same day throughout the country. (AFP via Malaysia Today)

• Post-civil war violence in Libya
  • The Libyan National Army fights with rebels occupying oil ports near Benghazi. (Reuters)
• 2014 Crimean crisis
  • Russian troops capture Novofedorivka, an airbase of the Ukrainian Navy in the western region of the Crimean Peninsula. (BBC News)

• A member of the governing council of the European Central Bank says that the ECB may yet cut interest rates still further, into negative territory. (Reuters)

• Five people die after a light plane catches fire on take-off at Caboolture Airport in Queensland, Australia. (The Guardian)
• At least 35 people die in Balochistan, Pakistan, in a collision between a petrol tanker and two buses. (PTI via Business Standard)
• 2014 Oso mudslide:
  • A landslide kills two people, and injures six in Oso, Washington, United States. (CNN)
• 2014 Galveston Bay fuel oil spill:
  • A barge carrying nearly a million gallons of oil collides with a ship in Galveston Bay on the coast of the US state of Texas causing an oil spill. (AP)

• The Veneto region votes to secede from Italy in an informal online referendum. (The Daily Mail)

• Major League Baseball starts its 2014 season at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 3–1. (AP via ESPN)

• Turkish F-16s shoot down a Syrian military aircraft for purportedly violating Turkish airspace. A Syrian Arab Republic spokesman denies this claim and says the aircraft was in Syrian airspace when it was shot down. (AP) (Al Arabiya)
• Two gunmen storm a Christian church in Kenya during a Sunday service, killing at least six people and wounding more than a dozen others. (Reuters) (ABC News Australia)

• 2014 Oso mudslide:
  • Eighteen people are still missing after a landslide Saturday in Oso, Snohomish County, in America's Washington state that has claimed at least three lives. (Yahoo! News)

• The United Nations Children's Fund reports that an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus that has so far claimed the lives of 59 victims has spread from southern Guinea to the capital Conakry. (AAP via News Limited)

• Shrien Dewani has his extradition date to South Africa set for 7 April to face court for the murder of Anni Dewani. (Sky News)

• Elections in France:
  • Voters in France go to the polls for municipal elections with candidates from the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement performing well. (AFP via NineMSN) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan:
  • Protesters opposed to the vote of the Cross-Strait Trade Agreement without a clause-by-clause review continue to occupy the Taiwanese parliament. Protesters attempt to occupy the nearby Executive Yuan as well. (FocusTaiwan)

• Twenty soldiers are killed in an attack on a military checkpoint in eastern Yemen. (BBC News)

• Malaysia Airlines Flight 370:
  • Chinese aircrew report seeing "suspicious objects" in the southern Indian Ocean while searching for the missing Malaysian Airlines plane. (Courier Mail)
  • Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, announces that with information from the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch, flight MH370 went down over the southern Indian Ocean with "all lives lost." (CNN)
• The death toll from the Oso mudslide in the US state of Washington rises to fourteen with dozens of people unaccounted for. (AP via Yahoo! News)
• The death toll from the Lake Albert boat disaster on March 22 rises to 107. (CNN)
• A train overruns the buffers at Chicago O'Hare Airport station, injuring 33 people.(Chicago Tribune)

• An outbreak of Ebola virus which has killed at least 59 people in Guinea continues its spread, entering Liberia and threatens to spread to Sierra Leone. (Bloomberg)

• The 2014 Nuclear Security Summit commences in The Hague, Netherlands. (Al Jazeera)
• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • The interim President of Ukraine Olexander Turchynov orders Ukrainian forces to withdraw from Crimea. (BBC News)
  • UK Prime Minister David Cameron says the planned 40th G8 summit scheduled to be held in the Russian city of Sochi will not take place because of Russia's actions in Crimea. (BBC News)

• Post-coup unrest in Egypt:
  • A court in Minya, Egypt, sentences 528 supporters of former President Mohammed Morsi to death for a range of offenses including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property. It is the largest mass death sentence handed down in recent history anywhere in the world. (BBC) (The Independent)
• A Chinese court jails a man for 18 months after he applied for permission to protest on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. (Al Jazeera)

• Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott restores Knights and Dames to the Australian Honours System through the Order of Australia. (ABC)

• The U.S. District Court in Manhattan finds that the trustee of MF Global may proceed with a lawsuit against former executives thereof, including former CEO Jon Corzine. (Reuters)

• A bus in Tak Province, Thailand, plunges into a ravine, killing 30 people and injuring 22. (BBC News)
• 2014 Oso mudslide:
  • The death toll has risen to 16 with an additional 8 bodies located and scores missing. (AP via Washington Post)

• The World Health Organisation estimates that air pollution contributed to seven million deaths in 2012. (The Telegraph)

• Garda phone tapping scandal:
  • Martin Callinan resigns as Commissioner of Ireland's Garda Síochána (national police) over his "disgusting" comment about whistleblowers made to a parliamentary committee. Callinan had also been involved in controversy over the recent surveillance/bugging of GSOC. (BBC) (The Journal)
  • As Callinan goes, details emerge that the national police have been involved in phone tapping since the 1980s: the Irish Government establishes an inquiry into the matter. (BBC)
  • A former Garda is found to have perverted the course of justice on two occasions and admits having cocaine for sale or supply. (RTÉ News)
  • A letter titled "Recordings of Telephone Conversations made and retained in Garda Stations" is leaked revealing that Callinan mentioned the telephone tapping to the Department of Justice more than two weeks ago and that the Attorney General knew on 11 November 2013. (The Journal)
• Post-coup unrest in Egypt:
  • Mohammed Badie, the guide of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, will appear in court with 680 others to face charges of incitement to kill. (BBC News)
• Four men are arrested after BASE jumping from the top of the World Trade Center in New York City. (CNN)

• 2014 Ukrainian revolution:
  • Oleksandr Muzychko, a prominent member of Ukraine's Right Sector nationalistic party, is killed under unclear circumstances. (Moscow Times) (AP via CBC)
  • Ihor Tenyukh is discharged as Minister for Defence, to be replaced by Gen. Mykhaylo Koval following the loss of Crimea. (Washington Post)

• A police officer critically injures a 10-year-old child after hitting him with a tear gas canister at close range at a Peace and Democracy Party event in Diyarbakır, Turkey. (BBC News)

• Nissan announces the recall of over one million vehicles, citing faulty airbags. (KNTV)
• Social games developer King completes its initial public offering, valuing the company at US$7 billion. (Forbes)

• A massive fire breaks out in Back Bay, Boston killing 2 firefighters and injuring at least 16 people. (New York Daily News)

• Three U.S. Secret Service agents are sent home due to a "drunken incident" ahead of U.S. president Barack Obama's arrival in the Netherlands. (The Guardian)
• North Korea fires two mid-range ballistic missiles as the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea meet to discuss the security threat it poses to the region. (Al Jazeera)

• The Guardian deputy editor Paul Johnson confirms that British law enforcement agencies have threatened to close the newspaper over its role in publishing global surveillance information obtained from U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden. (The Irish Times)
• Garda phone tapping scandal in the Republic of Ireland:
  • Alan Shatter fights for his political survival in front of the Republic's parliament when he faces questions about yesterday's revelations of decades-long nationwide bugging. (The Guardian)
  • It emerges that the Taoiseach Enda Kenny dispatched a senior civil servant to the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan before his abrupt departure yesterday; Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin accuses Kenny of having effectively "sacked" the Commissioner. (RTÉ News)
  • Justice minister Alan Shatter corrects the parliamentary record, admitting he was wrong to insult whistleblowers. (The Journal)
  • The trial of two men suspected of IRA membership collapses, the first court case to be averted by this week's events in the Republic. (Irish Independent)
  • Transport minister Leo Varadkar, whose remarks against his colleague Shatter directly preceded this week's events, speaks out, confirming he has "difficulty getting [his] head around it at the moment". (The Journal)
• A Turkish court lifts the ban on Twitter imposed by the government after a user spread allegations of corruption. (BBC News)
• Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, is convicted in New York City of conspiring to kill Americans in his role as spokesman for al-Qaida. (Associated Press)
• California State Senator Leland Yee is arrested in a raid involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Highway Patrol for alleged firearms trafficking, bribery, and corruption. (KRON)

• Egyptian Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi resigns from his position as Minister of Defense and announces his bid for the upcoming presidential election. (Reuters)
• Taavi Rõivas is sworn in as Prime Minister of Estonia, succeeding Andrus Ansip and becoming the youngest government leader in the European Union at 34 years. (Eesti Rahvusringhääling)

• The first-known ringed centaur, 10199 Chariklo, is discovered. (ESO)

• In sumo, Mongolian wrestler Kakuryū Rikisaburō is promoted to yokozuna, becoming the 71st person to earn the title. (Kyodo via Mainichi Daily News)
• Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel, swimmer Missy Franklin and the Bayern Munich football team are big winners at the Laureus World Sports Awards held in Kuala Lumpur. (AAP via the Roar)

• Six people are stabbed to death in a family property dispute in Beijing, China. (Reuters via Euronews)
• The United Nations Human Rights Council authorises an international investigation into alleged war crimes during the Sri Lankan Civil War. (Al Jazeera) (Washington Post) (BBC News)

• 2014 Ukrainian revolution:
  • The interim government of Ukraine agrees to increase natural gas prices for domestic consumers by 50% in order to secure an aid package from the IMF. (BBC News)
  • The IMF pledges US$18 billion in loans to help steady Ukraine's economy. (CBS News)
• Pharmaceutical company Baxter International announces will split into two by mid 2015. (Businessweek)
• England's High Court decides that Rusal, the huge Moscow-based aluminum producer, is right in its objections to new rules proposed by London Metal Exchange concerning the use of LME controlled warehouses. (Bloomberg)

• Canada's Atlantic seaboard provinces brace for a spring blizzard that is predicted to be the worst storm in a decade. (AAP via SBS)

• Holy See–United States relations:
  • President of the United States Barack Obama meets Pope Francis for the first time since Francis' inauguration. (Los Angeles Times)
• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • The General Assembly of the United Nations passes a motion condemning the Russian annexation of Crimea. (BBC News)

• Garda phone tapping scandal:
  • As the scandal rages on, it emerges Martin Callinan, who resigned as Garda Commissioner this week, wished to withdraw his use of the word "disgusting" to describe the behaviour of whistleblowers but was prevented from doing so by officials in the Department of Justice. (RTÉ News)
• Philippines signs a peace accord with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending decades of conflict. The Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro will pave way for autonomous Bangsamoro. (Al Jazeera)
• Iwao Hakamada, the world's longest serving death row inmate, is freed from a Japanese prison and granted a retrial after serving 48 years. (Washington Post)

• Turkey blocks access to YouTube after a high-level intelligence leak. (Business Insider) (BBC News)
• Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is confirmed as second-in-line to the Saudi Arabian throne. (Bloomberg)
• Sir Peter Cosgrove is sworn into office as Governor General of Australia. (ABC)

• It is announced publicly that, three months ago, doctors at the University Medical Center Utrecht, in Utrecht, Netherlands, successfully implanted a 3-D printed skull (most of it), from Australian company Anatomics, in a medical first, into an unnamed female patient. (NBC)
• The journal Science publishes that an international team of scientists have for the first time successfully replaced one of the sixteen chromosomes of the genome of a yeast cell with a synthetic DNA chromosome. (BBC News)
• A study finds that Cuvier's beaked whale is capable of diving to a depth of 3.2km and staying under water for 137 minutes, both records for a mammal. (News.com.au)

• Russia announces that it will raise the price Ukraine pays for Russian natural gas by 80%. (Reuters)
• General Motors recalls 172,000 Chevrolet Cruzes, citing faulty front axle shafts. (CNN)
  • Also recalled are Chevrolet Cobalts, Chevrolet HHRs, Saturn Ions, Saturn Skys, Pontiac G5s, and Pontiac Solstices from 2003 to 2011 due to faulty ignition switches. (Reuters)

• An Indian Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules plane crashes near Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, killing all five onboard. (NDTV)

• South Korea sends the remains of 437 Chinese soldiers that fought during the Korean War back to be buried in China as a gesture of friendship and healing between the two countries. (Yonhap News Agency)
• South Korea captures a North Korean fishing boat that had crossed into their waters amid rising tensions between the two neighboring countries. (CNN)
• Former Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg is appointed to succeed Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next Secretary General of NATO. (BBC News)

• Buddhist mobs in western Myanmar reportedly target foreign aid groups and workers in reaction to supposedly disrespectful treatment of a Buddhist flag. (CNN)
• A shooting occurs at a courthouse in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, with one shooter dead and a police officer injured. (Associated Press)

• The US Geological Survey records a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in the Los Angeles area of California. (RTÉ News)

• Italian architect Pier Carlo Bontempi wins the Driehaus Prize. (ArchDaily) (PRweb)

• Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon:
  • A suicide bomber kills three soldiers at a Lebanese army checkpoint in the border town of Arsal close to the Syrian border. (Time), (Reuters)

• 2014 Crimean crisis:
  • Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, says that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine. (Reuters)

• The first same-sex marriages take place in the United Kingdom after they were given the legal authority to proceed in England and Wales from midnight UTC. (BBC News)

• Voters in Slovakia go to the polls for the second round of voting in the presidential election with former businessman Andrej Kiska elected in a landslide. (Deutsche Welle) (The Telegraph)

• In chess, Vishwanathan Anand, the loser of the World Chess Championship 2013, earns the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship 2014 by winning the Candidates Tournament with one round to spare. (The Hindu)
• In horseracing, African Story wins the Dubai World Cup, (BBC News)

• Garda phone recordings scandal:
  • Court documents seen by RTÉ Radio 1's This Week indicate that Gardaí recorded phone conversations with two main witnesses during the 1996 Sophie Toscan du Plantier murder investigation. (RTÉ News)

• 2014 Turkish local elections:
  • Voters in Turkey go to the polls for municipal elections with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party claiming victory. (AP via ABC) (Haaretz) (Sky News Australia)
• Electoral authorities in Egypt set the first round of the presidential election for 26–27 May. (BBC News)
• Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan:
  • Between 116,000 and 500,000 protesters march to the Presidential Office, in opposition to recent governmental push for Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement vote and other related issues. (LeMonde) (LibertyTimes)
• 2014 French municipal elections:
  • Voters in France go to the polls for a second round of voting in municipal elections. The ruling Socialist Party generally performs badly, but their candidate in the Paris mayoral election Anne Hidalgo is set to become the first female mayor of that city. (AP via Washington Post)

• Korean maritime border incidents:
  • North and South Korea exchange artillery fire across sea boundaries. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Explosions kill at least five people and injure several more in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. (BBC News)
• Mexican Drug War
  • The Mexican Navy kills Knights Templar Cartel high-ranking leader Enrique Plancarte Solís. (Milenio)

• The Japanese TV series Waratte Iitomo!, whose presenter Tamori holds the Guinness World Record for appearing on the show for 32 consecutive years, comes to an end as its 8054th and final episode airs. (The Japan News) (The Japan Times)

• The United Nations International Court of Justice rules that Japan's Antarctic whaling program is not scientific but commercial and forbids grants of further permits. (BBC News) (ABC News Australia)
• Tuvalu withdraws its recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia after re-establishing diplomatic relations with Georgia. (World Bulletin)

• A Pakistani court charges former President Pervez Musharraf with high treason in relation to the imposition of the emergency rule in 2007. (BBC News)

• French politics
  • French government and Socialist Party admit major defeat following the French municipal elections, 2014
  • The President of France François Hollande appoints Manuel Valls, previously Minister of the Interior, as the new Prime Minister. He replaces Jean-Marc Ayrault. (Time)

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases a new report outlining the impact of climate change on the world at the end of a week of meetings in Yokohama, Japan. (BBC News)