Portal:Current events/2018 March 25

March 25, 2018 (2018-03-25) (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • A car bomb claimed by Al-Shabab kills five people including the driver and wounds around ten others outside Somalia's Parliament, Interior Ministry, and Presidential Palace buildings in Mogadishu. (ABC)
• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
  • Two suicide bombers strike a Shi'ite mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, killing one person and wounding seven others. Security forces kill one bomber while the device kills the other. ISIL claims responsibility. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • ISIL releases a statement claiming responsibility for killing or wounding 103 Iraqi soldiers within one month. The group also claims to have abducted 13 more soldiers, and destroyed 12 armoured vehicles. (Iraqi News)
• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • Houthi forces fire several Burkan-2 ballistic missiles at targets in Saudi Arabia with at least one person, an Egyptian national, being killed in Riyadh. The Royal Saudi Air Defense says it intercepted seven missiles, three of them targeting Riyadh, two targeting Jizan and one apiece targeting Najran and Khamis Mushait. (The Washington Post)

Disasters and accidents

• 2018 Kemerovo fire
  • A fire in the Winter Cherry complex, a shopping centre in Kemerovo, Russia, kills at least 64 people, the majority of which are children. (BBC)
• South Korean ferry disasters
  • A passenger ferry grounds off the coast of South Korea, injuring at least six people. The South Korean Coastguard evacuates all 163 on board. (Channel News Asia)
• A bus and a lorry collide head-on near Kitonga, Tanzania, killing 26 people and wounding nine others. (The Nation)

International relations

• Trump tariffs, South Korea–United States relations
  • South Korea and the United States reach agreements on trade and steel tariffs. (Bloomberg)
• Russia–European Union relations, Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
  • EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini holds crisis talks with Markus Ederer, the bloc's recalled ambassador to Russia. (France24)
• Qatar–Russia relations, List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
  • Sheikh Tamim of Qatar visits Russia to discuss the situation in Syria, Yemen and Palestine. (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• A suspected drunk driver loses control while fleeing police in Maputo, Mozambique, strikes a crowd, and kills 21 people, injuring 30 more. (The Nation)

Politics and elections

• 2017–18 Spanish constitutional crisis
  • Catalonia's ex-President Carles Puigdemont is detained in Germany. (The Daily Telegraph)
  • Fugitive ex-minister Clara Ponsatí i Obiols says she will hand herself over to Police Scotland, who have received a copy of the European Arrest Warrant for her. (BBC)
  • Protests erupt across Spain, especially in Barcelona, against Puigdemont's detention. (BBC)
• Aftermath of the Carcassonne and Trèbes attack
  • A left wing former French Parliamentarian candidate is arrested for tweeting that the death of Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame was "great" and "one less vote for Emmanuel Macron." (BBC)

Science and technology

• List of novae in the Milky Way galaxy
  • Researchers publish observations of a possible nova (ASASSN-18fv) in the constellation Carina. (AAVSO), (APOD)
• Kangaroo Route, History of Qantas
  • Qantas Airways Flight QF9 becomes the first ever regularly scheduled non-stop flight between Australia and Europe after making the 17-hour journey from Perth to London. (The Evening Standard)
• A rare anomalous weather event caused due to dust from a sandstorm in the Sahara, leads to an orange snow blanketing several Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and Russia. A similar event occured in Siberia in 2007. (The Guardian)

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March 2018

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