Portal:Current events/2016 March 9

Current events of March 9, 2016 (2016-03-09) (Wednesday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • Taliban militants attack government offices in the southern Helmand Province of Afghanistan, with at least 10 killed, including seven of the attackers. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• War in Somalia (2009–present)
  • U.S. special forces, landing in two helicopters, stage an overnight raid on the al-Shabaab-controlled town of Awdhegele in Somalia's Lower Shebelle region. Al-Shabaab spokesman, Sheik Abduasiz Abu Musab, confirmed the raid saying "The helicopters landed outside town and the ground forces entered, there was heavy fighting and they were forced to flee"."They were masked and spoke foreign languages which our fighters could not understand," Abu Musab told Reuters. "We do not know who they were but we foiled them." (AFP via Yahoo! News) (Reuters)
• North Caucasus clashes
  • A group of nine human rights activists and journalists, heading to Grozny, Chechnya, in a small bus, are attacked on the Kavkaz federal highway near the Ordzhonikidzovskaya settlement at the Ingushetia border. About 20 masked men assaulted the group, confiscated some mobile phones, and set their vehicle on fire. Two of the journalists, the NGO lawyer, and the bus driver were hospitalized. A Committee to Prevent Torture representative said this is the first press tour that was not organized by the Chechen government. (AP via WSOC-TV) (AFP via Yahoo! News)(Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union)

Business and economics

• The man who served as Japan's deputy chief trade negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade deal, says that there is no room for the sort of renegotiation of a particular provision suggested by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (Reuters).

Disasters and accidents

• At least 30 people are killed after a five-story building still under construction collapses in Lagos, Nigeria. (Reuters)
• In Seattle, Washington, a Seattle Fire Department crew, responding to reports of a natural gas leak in the Greenwood neighborhood, are caught in an explosion that injures nine firefighters. The explosion blew out windows in businesses and storefronts in the surrounding blocks, destroying three businesses and heavily damaging a fourth. (The Washington Post) (KING-TV) (Seattle Fire Department)

Health

• The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends physicians ask about basic needs to screen for poverty-related health risk factors, participate in programs that help children develop resilience, assist families in identifying and maximizing protective factors, and advocate for safety net programs that assist children. (The Washington Post) (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) (2 Minute Medicine)
• Newark, New Jersey's 30 public schools shut off all water fountains after elevated levels of lead were found in nearly half of the schools during the state Department of Environmental Protection testing. The agency confirmed lead has not been found in the 280,000 residents' city water supply. (Reuters)

International relations

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • North Korea's state media reports Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, in comments released today, states the country has miniaturized nuclear warheads to be mounted on ballistic missiles, and has ordered improvements in the power and precision of its arsenal. (Reuters)
• European migrant crisis
  • Macedonia says it will no longer let any migrants through its southern border with Greece, effectively blocking the Balkan route for migrants. The decision came after Slovenia barred access to migrants transiting the country. There are around 13,000 migrants now stranded at the Macedonia-Greece border. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • A Saudi-led coalition spokesman announces they have exchanged prisoners with their Houthi opponents and "welcome a pause in the combat on the border." Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the lull was important to deliver aid and medical supplies to people in northern regions of Yemen. Yesterday, a Houthi delegation was in Saudi Arabia for talks to end the war. Al-Jubeir and his Yemeni counterpart noted formal negotiations to end the fighting can only take place under the auspices of the United Nations. (Reuters) (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Law and crime

• Shahbaz Taseer, the son of Pakistani Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer who was murdered in 2011 for criticizing the country's blasphemy laws, is reunited with his family four-and-a-half years after his kidnapping. Tuesday, Shahbaz was rescued by Pakistani secret service and counter-terrorism operatives in Kuchlak, Balochistan Province. He had been abducted in Lahore in August 2011, seven months after his father's murder by bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri. Qadri was executed on February 29, 2016. His death was claimed as the reason for the deadly Taliban suicide bombing in Shabqadar two days ago. (Reuters) (GEO TV Lahore) (The Express Tribune)
• Niqāb in Egypt
  • The Parliament of Egypt drafts a law which will ban women from wearing full-face veils such as the niqāb and burqa in public places and government institutions. The move comes after Cairo University recently banned nurses and doctors from wearing veils in medical schools and in teaching hospitals, arguing the ban would “protect patients’ rights and interests”. (The Independent)
• At least eight people have been shot and five killed in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania near the American city of Pittsburgh. '(Yahoo! 7 News), (Fox News)

Politics and elections

• Peruvian general election, 2016
  • Peru's electoral court bans two leading candidates - Julio Guzman and César Acuña Peralta - from participating in next month's election due to breaches of electoral law. (BBC)
• Former President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is charged with money laundering. (BBC)

Science and technology

• Solar eclipse of March 9, 2016
  • A total solar eclipse occurs in Indonesia, and later, east of the international date line, in the northern Pacific Ocean. A partial eclipse occurs in northern Australia, South-East Asia, and the Pacific. (ABC News)
• Google's DeepMind AlphaGo artificial intelligence program defeats South Korean grand master Lee Se-dol in the ancient game of Go. (The New York Times via Melbourne Age)

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