March 2010

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March 2010 is the third month of the current year. It began on a Monday and will end after 31 days on a Wednesday. It is the current month.

International holidays

(See Holidays and observances, on sidebar at right, below)

Portal:Current events

1 March 2010 (Monday)

Sony blames recent malfunctions of older PS3 "fat" models on an internal clock glitch. (BBC)
An aeroplane carrying aid materials for the 2010 Chile earthquake crashes killing at least six people. (ABC)
In response to the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Dubai's police chief states that travelers suspected of being Israeli will not be allowed into the United Arab Emirates even if they arrive with passports issued by other countries. (AP), (The Jerusalem Post)
Xynthia:
- President of France Nicolas Sarkozy gives €3 million to areas devastated by France's worst storm for over a decade, calling the storm a "national disaster". (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (RTÉ)
- Current death tolls: France (50), Germany (5), Spain (3), Portugal (1), Belgium (1) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Floodwaters in Les Cayes and surrounding areas responsible for the deaths of 8 Haitians recede. (Al Jazeera)
Georgia and Russia re-open their only usable land border crossing, located on the Caucasus Mountains, for traffic and trade for the first time in four years. (Al Jazeera) (Press TV) (Toronto Sun) (Xinhua)
Spain requests an explanation from Venezuela concerning allegations that it helped terrorist groups Euskadi Ta Askatasuna and FARC plot to kill Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and other Colombian personalities in Spanish soil. (BBC) (Houston Chronicle) (Sky News)
Goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilalé, shot in the Togo national football team attack prior to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, is to return to France after emergency surgery in Johannesburg. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (Reuters South Africa)
63-year-old former President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ejup Ganić is detained at London Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the UK to escape charges of war crimes. (BBC) (RTÉ) (Radio Srbija) (Al Jazeera) (The New York Times)
The Palestinian cabinet moves its weekly meeting from Ramallah to Hebron in a symbolic protest at the decision by Israel to add Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem to its list of national heritage sites. (Voice of America)
The trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić resumes in The Hague. (CNN) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The New Zealand Herald) (RTÉ)
17 Nigerian police officers are arrested in connection with the deaths of Boko Haram members in 2009. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
Convicted member of ETA Iñaki de Juana Chaos is to be extradited from Northern Ireland to Spain where he is scheduled to face further charges. (RTÉ) (BBC)
Toyota president Akio Toyoda apologies to his Chinese customers in Earth's largest auto mart. (BBC) (Financial Times)
Two of three Sikhs kidnapped in Khyber Agency on the Afghan border in January are recovered by Pakistan's security forces. The decapitated corpse of the other was found last week. (Reuters India)
Robert Mugabe's indiginisation law begins, with 51 per cent of each company being given to black Zimbabweans. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (Voice of America)
A petition featuring 450,000 international names in opposition of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill is given to the speaker of parliament, Edward Ssekandi, by an Anglican priest and an HIV/AIDS activist. (BBC) (Voice of America)
Over 5,000 people, including a pregnant woman and TV weatherman Grant Denyer, strip naked and are photographed at the Sydney Opera House during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, double the number which had been expected. (BBC) (news.com.au) (CBC) (Reuters)

2 March 2010 (Tuesday)

Assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh:
- Police in Dubai order an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Mossad in connection with the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Carrickmacross town council in Ireland votes to remove a guestbook page which had been signed by Israeli ambassador to Ireland Zion Evrony in protest at the alleged use of Irish passports in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. (Al Jazeera) (France24) (Press TV)
Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of former Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, accused of helping plan the 1994 genocide, is arrested in France. (BBC) (France 24)
More than a dozen Chinese newspapers publish a rare joint editorial calling for the end of the hukou system of household registration. (AP) (China Daily) (BBC)
The government of the People's Republic of China announces a 10-year program under which clean energy will account for 15 percent of the total consumption mix by 2020. (China Daily)
In the United Kingdom, BBC Director General Mark Thompson confirms plans to close BBC 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network as part of a cost-cutting drive. The proposals will also see BBC Radio 7 rebranded as BBC Radio 4 Extra and cutbacks to the BBC website. (Guardian) (Telegraph) (The Times) (BBC)
A landslide in the Bududa District of Uganda results in at least 100 deaths. (BBC News) (New Vision)
Murder of James Bulger: Jon Venables, one of Britain's most notorious child murderers, is returned to prison after breaching the conditions of his release. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The New Zealand Herald) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (CNN)
Irish Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen is hospitalised after the escalation of a recent chronic back complaint, disrupting some of his work, including a visit to the United States. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Irish Examiner) (Newstalk)

3 March 2010 (Wednesday)

Gay people may now receive communion across the diocese of 's-Hertogenbosch after nationwide protests following an incident last Sunday. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)
An Israeli raid on the West Bank is aborted after a soldier posts the following secret details on Facebook: "On Wednesday we are cleaning Qatanna, and on Thursday, God willing, going home". (RTÉ) (RIA Novosti) (USA Today) (Ha'aretz) (Reuters)
Aftermath of the 2010 Chile earthquake:
- The Chilean Navy admits failure to prevent deaths in the tsunami triggered by the recent earthquake. (Al Jazeera)
- Residents in Concepción are critical of the government's response, with one saying: "I did not support General Augusto Pinochet, but right now we could use a Pinochet". (The Independent)
- President Michelle Bachelet says Chile is not short of food and fuel as the official death toll now stands at 799. (BBC)
Leonid Tyagachyov, head of Russia's Olympic Committee, resigns after the nation's worst performance in the history of the Winter Olympic Games at the 2010 event in Vancouver. (BBC) (The Washington Post) (Bangkok Post) (The New York Times)
A fake Swedish pilot is detained in an Amsterdam cockpit in the process of taking off for Turkey in a jet with 101 passengers. (BBC) (The News International) (Reuters) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Age)
One German and one Italian man are killed and at least 6 are injured near Marseille in a collision between a 26-foot wave and the Greek-Cypriot cruise ship Louise Majesty which was travelling with 2,000 passengers from Barcelona to Genoa. (Al Jazeera) (USA Today) (Herald Sun) (Irish Independent)
President of Nigeria Umaru Yar'Adua does not attend a cabinet meeting in Abuja after his arrival home from medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan chairs instead. (Al Jazeera)
Spain says Venezuela has said it will assist an investigation into allegations of support for ETA. (BBC)
5 police officials in Chiniot, Punjab, are detained after footage of them whipping people in their custody are broadcast across national television channels. (BBC) (The News International)
7 suspected weapons traffickers to Iran (2 Iranians, 5 Italians) are detained in Italy with the help of Swiss police. (Al Jazeera) (BBC) (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph) (France24)
Multiple suicide bombings, including one at a hospital, kill at least 33 and wound more than 50 people in Baqouba, Iraq. (CNN) (The Hindu) (Al Jazeera)
Three are killed in Indian Navy air show crash in Hyderabad, India. (The Hindu) (BBC) (CNN)
In the elections in the Netherlands, voters choose new municipal councils for 394 municipalities. (Nederland Kiest) (NOS)
A BBC investigation claims millions of dollars in Western aid donated to the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia was stolen by rebels who used it to purchase weapons. (BBC)
The Hurt Locker:
- Nicolas Chartier, producer of The Hurt Locker, is banned from the 82nd Academy Awards after an e-mail is found to be a violation of rules. (BBC) (The Guardian) (CNN)
- An American army bomb disposal expert sues for multi-millions the makers of The Hurt Locker. (ABC News)
14 killed, 39 wounded in a gunbattle in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital city. (Stuff) (Hurriyet)

4 March 2010 (Thursday)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak says he does not mind the nomination of the former Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei in the next presidential election as long as it is under the framework of existing constitution. (Gulf NEWS)
Forty-one scientists publish a paper in Science affirming that the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, the large-scale mass extinction of dinosaurs and other lifeforms on Earth ~65.5 million years ago, was caused by an asteroid impact. (Science), (Science)
A Mexico City law allowing same-sex marriages takes effect. (CNN)
The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States House of Representatives accepts a resolution describing the Armenian Genocide as "genocide", prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador and threatening Turkey – United States relations. (BBC)
Thousands of passengers are stuck in ice in the Baltic Sea. (BBC) (The Age) (CNN)
Dozens of tourists are airlifted to safety following flash floods at the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya. (BBC)
2010 Uganda landslide:
- Uganda buries its dead from Monday night's mudslide which destroyed three villages near Bududa. (BBC)
- More than 50 schoolchildren are missing after elders instructed them to seek shelter in a hospital hit by mud. (The Scotsman)
Four German Islamists are imprisoned after being convicted of planning "a second 11 September 2001". (BBC)
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hits Taiwan, injuring 12 and disrupting communications and rail services. (AP) (China Daily) (Taiwan News) (Focus Taiwan)
At least 63 people die after a stampede at a Hindu temple in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India. (YahooNews) (Xinhua) (Hurriyet)
At least 14 people are killed in Baghdad on the first day of voting in Iraq's parliamentary elections. (BBC)
A Cairo court orders the retrial of Hisham Talaat Moustafa and Muhsin Sukkari who were sentenced to death for killing Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai in 2008. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian) (The Los Angels Limes) (Houston Chronicle)
The Party for Freedom (PVV) of Geert Wilders becomes the largest political party in Almere and the second largest in The Hague. (BBC)
The brother of Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams, detained under a European arrest warrant, is released on bail after surrendering to the Garda Síochána in Ireland. (BBC) (RTÉ)
The family of kidnapped boy Sahil Saeed ask that he be returned home safely. (BBC) (Bangkok Post) (Sky News)
Footballer Thierry Henry is booed by his own fans each time he touches the ball in his first game for France since his handball controversy against Ireland last November, with his own manager expressing doubt about his recent performances for the first time. (RTÉ) (The Guardian) (CNN) (The Daily Telegraph)
Burt Reynolds undergoes quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery. (BBC) (Ireland Online) (CNN) (CBC)

5 March 2010 (Friday)

Baidu shares have risen 34% since rival Google said on Jan 12 it may shut down its business in China. Baidu has risen 34 percent and Google has lost 8.5 percent. (China Daily)
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin, writing in the International Herald Tribune, says Israel's blockade of Gaza is "inhumane and unacceptable" and calls on the European Union and other countries to request that it be ended following his visit there last week. (Ha'aretz) (RTÉ)
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake occurs in the ocean off Sumatra with the possibility of a tsunami. (CNN)
HIH Princess Toshi of Japan is excused from school due to excessive bullying from classmates. (BBC) (Japan Today) (Miami Herald) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
Joe Glenton, a British soldier who went AWOL in 2007 and became a figurehead of the anti-war movement, is demoted and sent to jail in Colchester. (BBC) (CNN) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown gives evidence to the Iraq Inquiry. (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
Fiji imprisons eight men for an assassination attempt on Commodore Frank Bainimarama in 2007. (BBC) (The Washington Post) (Bangkok Post) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
15 Israeli police are "lightly hurt" and several dozen Palestinians are injured and three are arrested after Friday prayers on the Temple Mount and a recent Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites.(Ha'aretz)
At least 16 people are wounded in two grenade attacks in Kigali, one near the city's genocide memorial. A third explosion elsewhere kills at least one person. (BBC) (Reuters)
Pakistan army kills 30 Taliban militants near Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province. (Global Security)
A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Shi'ite Muslims in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 12 people. (Global Security)

6 March 2010 (Saturday)

Micheál Martin briefs his fellow EU Foreign Ministers on his visit to Gaza at a meeting in Córdoba, Spain. (RTÉ)
Washington, D.C. is to become the first American city to hand out free female condoms in the battle against HIV/AIDS. (The Washington Post) (BBC) (Boston Globe)
There are riots in Brussels. (Sky News)
Nigeria's and Al-Merreikh's Endurance Idahor dies during a football match in Sudan with the referee ending the match as a result. (BBC) (The Times of India) (The New York Times)
Ingushetian President Yunus-bek Yevkurov confirms the death of Alexander Tikhomirov/Said Buryatsky. (BBC) (Reuters) (The Star)
Taliban commander Faqir Mohammed is reportedly killed in a drone strike in Pakistan. (BBC)
Iraqi parliamentary election, 2010:
- Iraqis living in Iran vote. (Al Jazeera)
- A car bomb which explodes in Najaf results in the deaths of at least three people one day before elections. (Al Jazeera)
The Chilean Navy removes Commander Mariano Rojas, head of the oceanography service, from his post following his failure to warn of the tsunami which followed the 2010 Chile earthquake. (The Daily Telegraph) (The New Zealand Herald) (RTÉ) (The Times)
Hosni Mubarak:
- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak temporarily hands over power, due to surgery on his gallbladder. (AFP) (Washington Post)
- Gallbladder surgery on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is said to have been successful at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany. (Al Jazeera)
At least 11 Philippine soldiers are killed in an ambush by communist rebels in Mansalay, Mindoro. (Philippine Inquirer) (Al Jazeera)
Iceland holds a referendum about compensating the United Kingdom and the Netherlands after the collapse of the Icesave bank, with a 95% "no" vote recorded. (BBC)(CNN) (IceNews)
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates reviews allegations of misconduct in Afghanistan by the private military company formerly known as Blackwater, Xe Services LLC. (BBC)

7 March 2010 (Sunday)

Hundreds of Christian villagers are hacked to death with machetes by Muslim herders in Dogo-Nahawa, Nigeria. (Reuters) (BBC) (The Washington Post)
Tens of thousands demonstrate against an abortion bill in several Spanish cities. (BBC) (The Mercury)
Melbourne, Australia experiences flooding after a once-in-a-century thunderstorm of marble-sized hailstones which tears the roof from a railway station and leads to the postponement of sports fixtures. A state of emergency is declared in Queensland.(Sky News) (The Times)
Voters in Iraq take part in parliamentary elections and a referendum on the Status of Forces Agreement. (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
Voters in Switzerland take part in a referendum on whether to provide lawyers for non-human animals and other issues. (Swissinfo) (Deutsche Welle)
Five Pakistani police officials are suspended due to their negligence in the kidnapping of British Pakistani boy Sahil Saeed. (Sky News)
Three people are killed falling from high-rise flats in Glasgow. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Sky News) (The Times)

8 March 2010 (Monday)

The corpse of former President of Cyprus Tassos Papadopoulos, which had been stolen in December 2009, is found at a cemetery in Nicosia. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Miami Herald)
Irish Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen resigns from politics after seeking medical advice. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
New York politician Eric Massa resigns after admitting to sexual harassment. (The Times)
A strong earthquake in Turkey kills dozens. (BBC)
Female poet Simin Behbahani says the government of Iran has issued her with a "travel ban" after confiscating her passport at Tehran International Airport as she was about to travel to France. (BBC)
Interpol issues "red notices" for 16 more individuals in connection with the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, bringing to 27 the number of people wanted for the assassination. (Ha'aretz) (Ynetnews) (RTÉ) (Reuters India)
The French Navy, supported by European Union aircraft and vessels, seizes 35 suspected pirates in 4 mother ships and 6 little boats off the coast of Somalia in the EU's most successful mission. (BBC)
German Federal Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger says the Vatican has built a "wall of silence" in response to the country's child sexual abuse controversy of recent months. (BBC)
Nine people go on trial charged with terrorism and links to al-Qaeda in Belgium. (The New York Times) (euronews) (Al Jazeera) (France24)
Middle East:
- Israel announces the construction of 112 new Jewish homes for the occupied West Bank territory despite the freeze on new settlements initiated in November 2009. (RTÉ)
- Quartet on the Middle East representative Tony Blair meets leader of the Arab League Amr Moussa and concludes there is "no hope" for Palestinians without an independent state. (Arabnews)
A Pakistani Taliban car bomb attack on a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in Lahore kills at least 11, wounds 60. (BBC)
12 people — 10 civilian passengers and 2 policemen — die in two separate roadside bombs in Badghis Province, Afghanistan. (BBC) (Reuters)
Parliament approves President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's budget for 2010/11. (Reuters)
Togolese police fire tear gas at street protesters who dispute Faure Gnassingbé's presidential election triumph. (BBC)
French police shoot tear gas at protesters at oil company Total S.A.'s headquarters in Paris. (Al Jazeera)
Members of Parliament from Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan refuse a body scan in the USA, and return home. (Dawn)
President of East Timor José Ramos-Horta begins his two-day first official state visit to Ireland by meeting Taoiseach Brian Cowen, urging the country to continue providing economic support as a priority nation and receiving an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Philippines News)
Chilean looters return £1.3 million ($2million) of stolen goods, according to the government. (The Daily Telegraph)
New research based on a previous study indicates climate may be responsible for Scotland having more and Africa having fewer people with red hair. (The Daily Telegraph)
Tibet Governor Padma Choling announces to the National People's Congress that China will decide Tenzin Gyatso's reincarnation as Dalai Lama. (The Daily Telegraph)
Plans by the Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM) to scrap City of Adelaide/HMS Carrick, one of the world's oldest clippers built in Sunderland in 1864, are postponed in the hope that enough money can be raised to send her to Australia. (BBC)

9 March 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)

10 March 2010 (Wednesday)

Interreligious riots in Jos, Nigeria:
- Nigerian soldiers open fire on a crowd after curfew in Jos, killing two people, days after Muslim-Christian riots in the area left more than 200 dead including dozens of children (The Hindu)
- Nigeria charges with murder 49 of the 200 people it has arrested so far following the recent massacre of civilians near Jos. (BBC)
Britain, France and the EU support U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's condemnation of Israeli expansion of settlements in occupied territory. (BBC)
Burma's newly announced second law relating to the 2010 general election bars anyone with a criminal conviction from participating in a political party, effectively barring Aung San Suu Kyi. (Al Jazeera) (Straits Times) (CNN)
Three men are detained in relation to the theft of the corpse of former Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos. (BBC)
Australia and Indonesia sign an agreement to combat people smuggling. (news.com.au)
Dulmatin, the alleged mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings, is confirmed dead in a police raid in Pamulang, Jakarta, by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a state visit in Australia. (ANTARA News) (CNN) (BBC)
Aid worker Alicia Gamez, captured in Mauritania in 2009 by a group affiliated with Al Qaeda and taken to Mali, is released. (BBC) (IOL) (Houston Chronicle) (CNN)
Boris Berezovsky is awarded £150,000 in England's High Court and wins his libel case in relation to the 2006 poisoning to death of Alexander Litvinenko. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Sky News)
A man wrongly accused of being child murderer Jon Venables goes into hiding after becoming the target of a hate campaign on the internet. (The Daily Telegraph)
The birth of a live elephant at Taronga Zoo is hailed as a "miracle" that will "completely rewrite the elephant birth textbooks" after he was thought to have died inside his mother's womb. (BBC)
Forbes magazine publishes its 2010 list of of billionaires, replacing Bill Gates with Carlos Slim as the world's wealthiest person. (Forbes)

11 March 2010 (Thursday)

The Kyzyl-Agash dam in Kazakhstan bursts, killing at least 35.(AFP)
Two children are prevented by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver from enrolling in a Catholic school in Boulder, Colorado, United States because their parents are lesbians. (The Straits Times)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) intervenes after a school in Mississippi bans same-sex relationships and cancels its prom (leavers' dinner) due to the desire of a female student to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo, while one of her teachers tells her "she had to remember where she was". (BBC) (CNN)
Israeli authorities plan thousands more homes in settlements in East Jerusalem since Palestinian leaders terminated talks earlier this week due to this issue. (The Guardian)
Israel apologises for the timing of the announcement during a visit by the Vice President of the United States, calling it a "grave error", a "mistake" and a "failure" and promising it would not happen again. (Gulfnews)
British freelance journalist Paul Martin, the first Western journalist to be arrested by Hamas, is released but deported after no evidence is found to convict him of a crime in court. (The Times) (CBC)
More than 30,000 Greek workers stage their third general strike against the government. (BBC) (Al Jazeera) (RTÉ)
Hundreds of angry women dressed in black march though the streets of Abuja and Jos following the recent massacre in Nigeria. (BBC)
More than 20 civilians die during the second day of conflict between Somali government troops and opposition forces in Mogadishu. (Al Jazeera)
The Gambia arrests people, including former fisheries minister Antouman Saho, without telling them why. (BBC)
Former President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ejup Ganić is released on bail on "stringent" conditions by the British High Court. (Al Jazeera)
As Sebastián Piñera is inaugurated as the new President of Chile, new aftershocks of the February earthquake—6.9 and 6.7 magnitude—strike 140 kilometres (87 mi) south of Valparaíso. (BBC) (MercoPress)
Afghanistan: Five civilians, including four children, die in an explosion, while two construction contractors, including one from South Africa, are shot dead. (Reuters)
Turkey recalls its ambassador to Sweden and cancels the Turkey - Sweden summit planned for March 17 after the Riksdag votes in favour of calling the Armenian Genocide a genocide. (Armenian Weekly) (Deutsche Welle) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (RTÉ) (Reuters)
Sahil Saeed is "found" in Pakistan. (The Daily Telegraph)
Ivory Coast and Chelsea F.C. striker Didier Drogba is named African Footballer of the Year. (BBC)
The Duke of Edinburgh, on a trip to Exeter, Devon with Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, asks a female sea cadet if she works at a strip club before concluding that it is "probably too cold for that anyway". (The Daily Telegraph) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Pink Floyd win their court battle with EMI, paving the way for individual tracks of their music to be removed from online music services. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian)

12 March 2010 (Friday)

The 2010 Indian Premier League starts under "heavy security" in DY Patil Stadium Navi Mumbai. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Madagascar's disaster officials say at least 14 people have died and 32,000 have been affected by Tropical Storm Hubert. (Miami Herald) (AJC)
Nine suicide bombing attacks on the Pakistani military kill more than 350 people in Lahore. (ABC News)
Middle East:
- Israel fires its first missiles into Gaza this month injuring several civilians, following a rocket attack on a kibbutz in southern Israel which causes damage but no injuries.(The Jerusalem Post) (The Australian) (Ynetnews)
- Israeli courts charge two Israeli soldiers for allegedly using a 9-year-old Palestinian as a human shield (considered a war crime) in Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza in January 2009 after the United Nations intervenes. (The Jerusalem Post) (Ha'aretz) (BBC) (France24) (The New Zealand Herald)
- The United Nations tells Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, with Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes saying it is inappropriate for Israel to link this act to the imprisonment of a soldier. (The Hindu) (BBC)
- Israel seals off the West Bank until midnight on Saturday, fearing repeats of riots which injured dozens of young Palestinians due to Israel preventing Palestinians under the age of 50 and without Israeli identity cards from attending their Jumu'ah (Friday prayers) at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. (The Daily Telegraph)
- The Palestinian worshipers prevented from attending Al-Aqsa Mosque are fired on by police tear gas and bullets after they pray in the streets of the old city of East Jerusalem. (Xinhua)
- In the villages of Deir Nizam, Bel'ien and Ne'lien near Ramallah in the West Bank and Gaza Strip hundreds of Palestinians and Israeli peace activists protest against Israel's decision to build a wall and expand Jewish settlements, while several of them are injured by Israeli tear gas and bullets. (Xinhua)
Pope Benedict XVI is "distraught" by news alleged of child sexual abuse in Catholic dioceses in Germany, according to Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, as the church also faces paedophilia scandals in Ireland, Austria, and the Netherlands, while Pope Benedict defends clerical celibacy, calling it a symbol of "full devotion" and of "giving oneself to God and to others." (BBC) (AFP) (The New York Times) (RAINews24) (CNN)
Karl Rove appears on British television to promote waterboarding and speaks of his pride that "we used techniques that broke the will of these terrorists", saying these techniques were "appropriate". (BBC) (The Hindu) (RTÉ) (The Guardian)
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) alleges the Egyptian interior ministry manipulated the legal system to target blogger Wael Abbas who posted videos of police corruption and abuse online and has been jailed for six months for "providing a telecommunications service to the public without permission". (BBC)
Irish authorities release three of the seven Muslims they detained over an alleged plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. Vilks says he has not been put off the idea of visiting Ireland by the threat. (BBC) (RTÉ) (Irish Independent)
Mayor Abdurisaq Mohamed Nor instructs residents to leave the war zones of Mogadishu after at least 50 of them are killed in three days of violence. (BBC)
Security is increased in Bangkok, Thailand, ahead of anti-government protesters by the "red shirts" over the coming days. (Thai News Agency) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
The United Nations Special Rapporteur to Burma Tomas Quintana calls for investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Burmese civilians. (AFP) (DailyIndia.com)
Darfur peace talks are threatened by new violence as Sudanese army steps up military operations against a major Darfur rebel faction. (Voice of America)
Russia signs a nuclear reactor deal with India which will see it build 16 nuclear reactors in India. (BBC)
Taoiseach Brian Cowen departs for the United States ahead of his Saint Patrick's Day engagements with President Barack Obama. (RTÉ) (ABC News) (The Washington Post) (The Irish Times)
Eleven rare Siberian tigers—of which only an estimated 300 remain in the wild—die of malnutrition after living in little cages and eating chicken bones at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning. (BBC) (The Guardian) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
American photographer Jill Sonsteby from Jacksonville, Florida captures a zebra putting its head inside the mouth of a hippopotamus and surviving at Zürich Zoologischer Garten. (BBC)
Margaret Thatcher, in a rare moment of publicity since her withdrawal from public life, puts her weight and "heavy heart" behind a campaign by Combat Stress for the mental health of ex-servicemen in Afghanistan and Iraq. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Sahil Saeed's father returns to the United Kingdom from Pakistan to work with police there on his son's case. (Sky News)
The award-winning hardcore porn director Anna Arrowsmith is selected as a Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham in Kent to fight the 2010 general election. (Sky News) (Mirror) (BBC) (The Times) (The Guardian) (Mail Online) (Belfast Telegraph) (Argus) (New Kerala)

13 March 2010 (Saturday)

The shortest living person, He Pingping, dies in Rome due to unknown complications at the age of 21. (BBC)
Catholic sex abuse cases:
- Archbishop of Armagh and Primacy of Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady admits for the first time that he represented the Church when two teenagers abused by Father Brendan Smyth were forced to sign an oath of silence. (RTÉ)
- Pope Benedict XVI's former archdiocese of Munich-Freising (1977–1982) reveals he transferred a suspected paedophile priest to a job that allowed him to continue abusing children. (The New Zealand Herald) (Wall Street Journal)
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu launches an inquiry into how plans for hundreds of new homes in East Jerusalem were announced.(Al Jazeera)
The Georgian television station Imedi sparks panic throughout Georgia by broadcasting a fake news item about a supposed invasion of Russian troops and the murder of President Mikheil Saakashvili. (RIA Novosti)
New Zealander Peter Bethune, a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society who captained the Ady Gil when it crashed with the MV Shonan Maru 2 and sank, encounters coastguards, police and protesters as he arrives on the Japanese mainland. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu has killed 60 people since March 10. (Reuters)
Afghanistan:
- A remotely operated bomb killed 6 people traveling in southern Afghanistan in Tirin Kot, the capital of Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. (CNN) (CBS) (AP)
- At least 30 people have been killed in a series of suspected suicide bombings in the Afghan city of Kandahar, officials say. (BBC)
At least 6 people, including three security personnel, die and more than 16 others are wounded after a suicide bomber tries to enter a government building, is stopped by police and detonates himself in Swat, Pakistan. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Reuters)
Association Mutual Aid and Solidarity AF447 seeks equal compensation for Air France Flight 447's French familes after Brazilian judge Mauro Nicolau Junior awards NZ$1.6 million for dead state prosecutor Marcelle Valpacos Fonseca; French insurer Axa will appeal. (The New Zealand Herald) (Reuters)
Peruvian President Alan García orders funding for a tsunami-warning system. (The New Zealand Herald)
Taoiseach Brian Cowen begins his state visit to the United States in Chicago, announcing to the world his scheme that will allow senior citizen tourists aged 66 and above to travel free on Iarnród Éireann in the Republic of Ireland. (RTÉ) (Chicago Sun-Times) (The Times of India)
Sport:
- Michael Schumacher makes his return to Formula One at the age of 41. (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph) (CNN) (The Hindu) (Miami Herald)
- Australia beat Germany 2-1 to win the 2010 Men's Hockey World Cup for field hockey in New Delhi. (Indian Express)
450,000 are left without power in the Northeastern United States as high winds topple power lines and trees. A crane collapses at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, injuring one. (New York Times) (Press of Atlantic City)
U.S. President Barack Obama proposes sweeping changes to education law which would rework the No Child Left Behind program. (New York Times)

14 March 2010 (Sunday)

A massive power outage occurs in parts of Chile, including Santiago, with ONEMI working to restore service. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Santiago Times)
David Beckham tears his Achilles tendon in a match for A.C. Milan. He is ruled out for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (The Times) (The New York Times) (Houston Chronicle) (CNN)
National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship protesters in red march through Bangkok, Thailand, demonstrating against the government. (The Times) (Sky News) (The Washington Post) (CBC) (Xinhua)
Archbishop of Armagh and Primacy of Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady refuses calls by sex abuse victims such as Colm O'Gorman to resign and defends representing the Church when two teenagers abused by Father Brendan Smyth were forced to sign an oath of silence. (RTÉ) (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Sunday Times)
Israeli military forces seize a senior Hamas official after raiding Ramallah. (Reuters) (Hindustan Times) (ABC News)
Two French Triangle workers who were kidnapped in Birao, Central African Republic last November are released in Darfur. (BBC)
Two people are killed and 30 injured when an avalanche hits a snowmobile competition in British Columbia, Western Canada. (Vancouver Sun) (Globe and Mail) (CBC)
Drug-related violence kills 24 people in Mexico in 24 hours, 13 of them in the city of Acapulco. (Times) (BBC) (CNEWS) (MSNBC) (Jakarta Post) (Reuters)
Spaniard Fernando Alonso wins the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix Formula One race; Brazilian Felipe Massa comes in second. (The New York Times')
Colombian legislative election, 2010: Over 2500 candidates can be chosen for 102 Senate seats and 166 Chamber of Representatives seats, as well as 5 Colombian representatives to the Andean Parliament (organ of the Andean Community of Nations) and a people's initiative in the Caribbean Region. (BBC) (Reuters)
- Primaries elections for the presidential candidate (for the upcoming presidential election) from Green Party (3 candidates) and Conservative Party (5 candidates) also take place. (Direct Democracy)
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva lands in Israel at the start of his Middle East tour of Palestine and Jordan before his visit to Iran. (BBC)
Earthquakes:
- A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits central Japan with no reports of damage or casualties. (MSNBC.com)
- A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits the eastern islands of Indonesia; no immediate reports of casualties. (AP) (Reuters)

15 March 2010 (Monday)

Israeli–Palestinian conflict:
- Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, claims that relations between the two countries face their worst crisis in 35 years. (BBC News)
- After hundreds of photographs and movies are declassified by the Israel Defense Forces, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center publishes a report stating the images depict Hamas militants using children as human shields and operating out of mosques and hospitals during the 2009 Gaza War. (The Jerusalem Post)
David Beckham flies to Finland to have surgery for a torn Achilles tendon, after the injury thwarts his attempt to become the first English footballer to play at four editions of the FIFA World Cup. (The Scotsman)
United States Senator Christopher Dodd submits a draft of a bill that would reform financial regulation, mostly in accord with the proposals of President Barack Obama's administration. (Reuters)

16 March 2010 (Tuesday)

Ancient tombs of Uganda's Bugandan kings, a World Heritage Site, are burnt down by unknown causes. (New Vision) (Xinhua)
Nauru President Marcus Stephen dissolves Parliament, paving the way for an early general election, originally scheduled for 2011. (Radio New Zealand International)
Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady is accused of using the "Nuremberg defence" and is told to resign by politicians, including Martin McGuinness, over his representation of the Church when two teenagers abused by Father Brendan Smyth were forced to sign an oath of silence. (Ireland Online) (CNN) (The Times)
A man who used to teach at a Roman Catholic religious order's schools in Spain is arrested in Chile on suspicion of sexually abusing children. (CNN)
The military trial of Sri Lanka's former army chief Sarath Fonseka, charged with participating in politics while in uniform, is adjourned at the end of day one. (BBC) (The Guardian) (CBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
Thai redshirts spill blood at the gates of the government in their third day of protests. (BBC) (The Times) (The Guardian)
France sends military aid to Wallis and Futuna, which suffered extensive damage from Cyclone Tomas. (Ocean Flash)
French national railway SNCF, as part of a rapid response training, causes a media scare by mistakenly placing a statement on its website stating that more than 100 people died in a train explosion in Mâcon, Burgundy. (BBC) (San Francisco Chronicle) (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph)
NASA researchers in Antarctica discover cold-water Lysianassidae, shrimp-like amphipods, living in the water beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. (The Christian Science Monitor)
Michael Jackson's estate signs history's largest recording deal with Sony Music. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian) (The Times)
Sahil Saeed is located alive and well in a field in Pakistan after being deposited at a school. (BBC) (Sky News) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
The Pakistan Olympic Association postpones its national games in Peshawar due to security concerns. (BBC) (Reuters)
A French gendarme is killed by ETA terrorist members near Paris, in the first murder of a French police officer by ETA. (BBC)

17 March 2010 (Wednesday)

Protests in Thailand by the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship continue, with supporters throwing their own blood outside the house of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. (Thai News Agency) (Al Jazeera)
A French police officer dies in a shootout with Basque nationalist group ETA in Paris, the first French officer to do so. (CNN)
30 members of the "Ladies in White" opposition movement in Cuba are arrested at an illegal demonstration in the capital Havana. The 30 protesters were countered by a spontaneous gathering of several hundred Cubans cheering "The street belongs to Fidel","Long live Fidel" and "Go Home Worms". (AFP) (Al Jazeera) (BBC)
Seven Chinese fisherman kidnapped off Cameroon's disputed Bakassi peninsula are released. (CCTV) (BBC)
Nigeria's acting president Goodluck Jonathan dissolves the country's cabinet. (The Punch) (BBC) (Xinhua)
Saint Patrick's Day
- President of the United States Barack Obama meets Taoiseach Brian Cowen at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States. (BBC) (RTÉ) (Irish Independent) (The Daily Telegraph)
- Vice President of the United States Joe Biden makes an error when he suggests that Cowen's mother is dead. (The Daily Telegraph) (Evening Herald) (Fox News) (The Times)
- More than half a million people fill the streets of Dublin for the parade there. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (RTÉ)
President of the United States Barack Obama announces that the United States will pursue aggressive sanctions to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon that could potentially spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (Reuters)
An investigation is launched into how a Wal-Mart shop in New Jersey, United States announced "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now". (The Daily Telegraph)
American television officials issue an apology following the broadcast of two hours of pornography on two children's channels. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (The Times of India)

18 March 2010 (Thursday)

The Sudanese government signs a ceasefire deal with a small Darfur rebel group, Liberation and Justice Movement. (Al Jazeera)
Nigeria recalls its ambassador to Libya after Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi suggests the country be partitioned into two separate Christian and Muslim nations. (BBC) (Modern Ghana) (Al Jazeera)
Proposed international trade bans on polar bears and bluefin tuna are rejected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. (Reuters) (Global Times) (BBC)
Former Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank Sean FitzPatrick is arrested and has his home searched under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984 at his home in Greystones, County Wicklow. (RTÉ) (The Times) (Sky News) (France24) (The New York Times)
Current Bishop of Derry Séamus Hegarty is named as one of those involved in a "secret deal" in the case of a woman who says she was sexually abused for ten years from the age of eight. (The Belfast Telegraph) (RTÉ) (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Times)
An official report released after five years of research by the Dresden Historians' Commission states a reduced figure of as many as 25,000 people died in the 1945 bombing of Dresden. (BBC) (USA Today) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo is to be extradited to the U.S. following a ruling by a Guatemalan criminal court. (BBC)
A Thai farm worker in Israel is killed by a rocket fired from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory of Gaza, according to the Israeli military. (The New York Times) (Al Jazeera)
Turkey arrests around 20 people as it investigates an alleged attempted coup d'état. (The Guardian)
Charges occur in The Gambia's attempted coup d'état to overthrow President Yahya Jammeh. (BBC)
Released kidnapped child Sahil Saeed returns home to Manchester in England. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
French photographer Sophie Ristelhueber wins the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize. (BBC)

19 March 2010 (Friday)

Former Iranian Vice-President Hossein Marashi is jailed after being accused of spreading propaganda. (BBC) (TIME) (FOX News) (MSNBC)
NASA announces that "It is nearly certain that a new record 12-month global temperature will be set in 2010", in a new draft paper based on GISS temperature analysis. (Climate Progress)
Dutch officials object to "ridiculous" and "out of the realm of fiction" claims by retired American general John J. Sheehan, a former NATO commander, that the use of gay soldiers in 1995 meant Dutch forces were "under-strength" and "poorly led" when attempting to protect Bosnian civilians in Srebrenica. (Al Jazeera) (CBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
A hoax stating that at least 200 people have died in an mining accident in Bo, Sierra Leone, makes headlines around the world. (The Washington Post) (Reuters)
At least 13 people die during clashes in Sudan. (Al Jazeera)
President of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh declares an end to his country's six-year war against the Houthis. (Al Jazeera)
Catholic sex abuse cases:
- Pope Benedict XVI signs his letter to Irish Catholics, sent as his first official documented response to the issue of child sex abuse and due to be published by the Vatican on Saturday and read at Sunday Mass. (The Irish Times) (CBC) (Deutsche Welle) (Christian Science Monitor) (CNN)
- Catholic child sex abuse cases reach "tsunami" levels in Germany. (CBC)
- An 82-year-old Brazilian Catholic priest from Arapiraca is defrocked after being filmed on camera engaging in sexual activity with a male teenage altar attendant. The activity was filmed by an alleged abuse survivor and broadcast on a news channel this week. (AHN) (CNN) (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
China's State Commission of Disaster Relief says severe drought has affected 51 million Chinese and left more than 16 million people and 11 million livestock with drinking-water shortages. (Xinhua)
Middle East:
- Israel launches airstrikes against a smuggling tunnel and metal foundry in Gaza, in response to a rocket attack which killed a Thai worker in Israel. Palestinians in Hebron protest by throwing rocks at Israeli Security Forces, who respond by firing tear gas. (Russia Today)
- At least 12 people are wounded after Israel fires at least five missiles onto an airport near Rafah in Gaza. Three Palestinians are seriously injured. (Al Jazeera) (Ha'aretz)
- The Israeli Air Force bombs another target in Gaza during the night, though declines to mention where this is. (Xinhua)
- The Quartet on the Middle East issues a "strongly worded statement" from Moscow which condemns Israel for announcing plans for hundreds of new homes in East Jerusalem and calls on Israel to "freeze all settlements in Palestinian territories". (BBC) (The Hindu)
- Thousands of people protest outside a United Nations building in Beirut against Israeli practices in Jerusalem. (Press TV) (The Daily Star)
- Israel sends a letter of complaint to Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and the United Nations Security Council. (The Daily Telegraph)
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says radio station the Voice of America (VOA) is promoting "destabilising propaganda" that is inciting genocide in his country. (BBC) (News24.com) (TheStar.com.my)
Egyptian mosques pray for President Hosni Mubarak—who is ill and whose health is taboo—as images of his recovery in Germany are broadcast on television screens, boosting stock markets. (BBC)
Switzerland ceases to deport asylum seekers in response to the death of a Nigerian man at Zürich Airport as he was being forcefully deported. Nigeria condemns the occurrence. (BBC) (THISDAY) (The Scotsman) (Taiwan News) (The New Zealand Herald)
South African police fire water cannon at 2,000 students protesting at the release of hip-hop performer Molemo "Jub Jub" Maarohanye, accused of killing four school pupils. (BBC)
President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak names Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb as head of Al-Azhar University. (Al Jazeera)
A judge in the United States rejects a $657.5 million deal for 10,000 people involved in the aftermath of 9/11. (BBC) (Miami Herald) (The New York Times)
FIFA dismisses the bid of Indonesia for the 2022 FIFA World Cup after the country failed to provide "guarantees". (BBC) (San Francisco Chronicle) (CBC)
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) breaks its own record. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph)
Amnesty International asks Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to intervene in the case of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery". (CNN)
An investigation is urged into the assassination of Colombian human rights activist Johnny Hurtado. (BBC)
Colombian journalist, radio reporter and El Pulso magazine editor Clodomiro Castilla is shot to death while reading a book at his Montería home. (The Washington Post) (Press Trust of India) (Latin American Herald Tribune)

20 March 2010 (Saturday)

A series of Severe sandstorms hit north China, affecting the regions of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia and the provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Hebei. (China Dialy)
Death of Girija Prasad Koirala:
- Former Prime Minister and Acting Head of State of Nepal Girija Prasad Koirala, "the elder statesman of South Asia" who brought down the King, dies in Kathmandu at the age of 86. (Press TV) (The Times of India) (Xinhua) (Arab News) (ABC) (BBC)
- The government declares a national day of mourning for his funeral. (The Washington Post)
Child sex abuse in the Catholic Church:
- The Pope's special pastoral letter to Irish Catholics on the issue of child sex abuse within the Church is published by the Vatican but fails to impress some survivors organisations. (RTÉ) (BBC) (CBC) (CNN)
- The Swiss Catholic Church investigates its own sex allegations, including some said to have occurred since 2001. (Reuters)
Middle East:
- A Palestinian teenager is killed, and another wounded by Israeli Security Forces. According to Israeli authorities, a mob of Palestinians were holding a "violent, illegal riot", and were approaching an Israeli settlement in a "threatening matter", and were dispersed by tear gas and rubber bullets. Israel promises an investigation into the incident. (Yahoo! News)
- Muslims in Malmö, Sweden protest about the Gaza situation. (The Los Angeles Times)
- Thousands of people in Indonesia gather for a a rally to express their solidarity with Palestine. (ANTARA News)
- Major politicians in the United States urge in a letter addressed to United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to resolve the situation "quietly, in trust and confidence, as befits longstanding strategic allies". (The Jerusalem Post)
- Four people are charged with spying for Israel in Lebanon and admit being recruited by Mossad; two of them flee to Israel; Israel does not comment. (Ynetnews) (The Jerusalem Post) (Press Trust of India)
- At least 16 Palestinians are wounded, two seriously, by the Israeli Air Force. (Ha'aretz)
Unidentified gunmen assassinate Sheikh Daud Ali Hasan, a senior commander of the Al-Shabab militant group in the southern city of Kismayo, Somalia. (Reuters) (African Press Agency)
Thousands of Russians demonstrate across the country against the policies of the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. (Al Jazeera) (RIA Novosti) (BBC)
A severe sandstorm affecting northern parts of China hits the capital Beijing, with health authorities urging people to stay inside. (China Daily) (BBC) (Bernama)
Cabin crew at British Airways begin a three-day strike. (BBC) (The Times) (The Guardian)
67 people are arrested and several people are injured during a clash between members of the English Defence League and Unite Against Fascism in the town centre of Bolton, UK. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (The Times)
A Western Saharan human rights campaigner alleges abuse by Moroccan police after being interviewed by the BBC for their Tropic of Cancer programme. (BBC)
Hundreds of thousands of people attend a rally in support of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome ahead of this month's elections. (France24) (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Al Jazeera) (Reuters)
A teenager is arrested in New Jersey, United States in connection with the recent Wal-Mart announcement telling "all blacks" to leave the shop. (CNN) (CBS News) (The New York Times)
David Bowie and Sir Elton John are among those to publicly mourn the death of Lesley Duncan, who also appeared on albums by Pink Floyd and Dusty Springfield. (BBC) (The Scotsman)
In international rugby union, France achieve the Grand Slam—their first since 2004—to win the 2010 Six Nations Championship. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Times) (The Globe and Mail)

21 March 2010 (Sunday)

French President Sarkozy's UMP party is heavily defeated in regional elections. (BBC)
Tens of thousands of people gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States to support their President Barack Obama in his bid to overhaul the country's immigration laws. (CNN)
A new Haiti earthquake kills two in Cap-Haïtien. (Ynet)
Middle East:
- Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon enters Gaza with the message "we (the United Nations) stand with you (Palestine)", criticises Israel's actions and speaks of his distress at the "unacceptable, unsustainable conditions" endured by Palestinians and the lack of reconstruction of damaged buildings. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Times) (UN)
- A friendly football match to take place in the Faisal al-Husseini Stadium in al-Ram, near Jerusalem between the Egyptian Olympic football team and the Palestine national football team is postponed due to an issue with the Egyptian team obtaining Israeli visas. (The Observer)
- Muslims in Pakistan protest against the claimed "demolition" of their sacred sites by Israel. (The Palestine Telegraph)
- Two Palestinian youths are killed by Israeli forces in Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank, one shot through the heart and killed instantly while the other is shot through the abdomen and bleeds to death later; Israeli and Palestinian sources disagree on circumstances of the shooting (Reuters) (CNN)
- Two more Palestinians are shot dead; Palestinian authority officials accuse Israeli forces of shooting the two "in cold blood" after being captured by Israeli troops also in Nablus; the soldiers are unhurt. (Ha'aretz)
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to bow to international calls to concede defeat in his efforts to build the houses, saying "As far as we are concerned, building in Jerusalem is like building in Tel Aviv". (BBC)
- Mauritania formally severs diplomatic ties with Israel, saying the relationship has "completely and definitely" run its course over the Gaza situation. (Ha'aretz)
Afghanistan:
- At least ten people die and seven are injured in a suicide bomb attack in Geresh, Helmand Province. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Hindu) (The Washington Post)
- A roadside bomb kills two others in Khost Province. (Reuters)
Child sex abuse in the Catholic Church:
- It is alleged that the Pope (then a German archbishop) ignored advice from a psychiatrist in 1979 stating Father Peter "Hulli" Hullermann was "untreatable" and "must never be allowed to work with children again". (The Sunday Times)
- The Pope is asked why he hasn't apologised to those affected by sex abuse in Australia after yesterday's publication of his 13-page apology to Irish Catholics. (ABC News)
- Musician and prominent abuse campaigner Sinéad O'Connor dismisses the Pope's letter as a "a study in the art of lying". (Sunday Independent)
- The Pope's letter is read to Massgoers and Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady is applauded following the revelation of his representation of the Church when two teenagers abused by Father Brendan Smyth were forced to sign an oath of silence. (The Irish Times)
- A man confronts Bishop of Kerry Dr Bill Murphy on the pulpit in the middle of the Gospel at St Mary's Cathedral, Killarney before the Pope's letter can be read and is seized by members of the congregation, while protesters walkout during Mass at St Mary's Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. (The Irish Times)
The corpses of two archbishops are stolen from a cemetery in Nicosia. (BBC) (Reuters) (Philippine Daily Inquirer) (ABC News)
Soham murderer Ian Huntley is hospitalised after his throat is slashed in his County Durham prison. (Sky News) (The Guardian) (The Daily Telegraph) (RTÉ) (Irish Independent)
A volcano erupts at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. (RUV, Iceland) (BBC) (Herald Sun) (RTÉ)
South Africans mark the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. (BBC) (The Washington Post) (The Guardian)
Plastiki, a boat constructed from 12,000 plastic bottles, sets sail on a three-month voyage from San Francisco through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to Sydney. (BBC)
Pune and Kochi are announced as the two new franchises in the Indian Premier League, having spent the equivalent of US$700 million between them. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Press Trust of India) (The Hindu)

22 March 2010 (Monday)

The BHP Billiton Ltd bribery trial opens in China. (BBC)
Moments after the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010 is passed, protesters outside the United States Capitol shout racial and sexual obscenities at John Lewis, a United States Congressman and civil rights icon who was once almost beaten to death in Alabama, and at openly gay Massachussetts House Representative Barney Frank. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Child sex abuse in the Catholic Church:
- Polls in Germany, particularly Bavaria, indicate the church's credibility has decreased and government data indicates people are leaving the church. (The Wall Street Journal)
- The Pope's letter to Irish Catholics is met with a negative response, with further calls for him to force controversial Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady out if he maintains his refusal to resign. (The New York Times) (The Sunday Business Post) (The Independent)
- The Pope is criticised again after failing to mention his apology to Irish Catholics during his weekly Vatican address. (The Daily Telegraph) (The Globe and Mail)
Middle East:
- Israeli warplanes bomb a smuggling tunnel east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip in an early morning raid close to the Egyptian border in response to a Palestininian rocket attack which landed in an open area south of the city of Ashkelon, causing no damage or casualties. (Xinhua)
Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, wife of East Timor's Prime Minister, backed by head of East Timor's child protection agency Carmen da Cruz, demands Australian woman Lala Noronha return to Dili 15 Timorese teenagers she has in Malaysia. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
The United States House of Representatives passes the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. (CNN) (Sky News) (BBC)

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News about Wikipedia • About this page Adding a new date • Suggest a headline Purge

Ongoing events
Economic Automotive industry crisis Financial crisis Greek economic crisis European sovereign debt crisis Worldwide recession Medical West African meningitis outbreak HIV/AIDS in Africa Political Canadian anti-prorogation protests Colombian legislative elections Irish Catholic sexual abuse scandal Nigerian presidential power crisis Philippine presidential elections U.S. health care reform debate Scientific Expedition 23 Sport 2010 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament 2010 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament Humanitarian Haiti earthquake response

Recent deaths
March 21: Wolfgang Wagner 20: Girija Prasad Koirala 20: Stewart Udall 18: Fess Parker 17: Alex Chilton 17: Charlie Gillett 15: Ashok Kumar 14: Pat Fanning 14: Peter Graves 12: Miguel Delibes 11: Merlin Olsen 11: Hans van Mierlo 10: Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy 10: Corey Haim 9: Dulmatin 9: Doris Haddock 7: Kenneth Dover 6: Mark Linkous 5: Philip Langridge 4: Vladislav Ardzinba

Ongoing conflicts
Africa / Middle East Darfur conflict Fourth Chadian Civil War Iraq War Israeli–Palestinian conflict Maghreb insurgency Niger Delta conflict South Yemen insurgency Somali Civil War Turkey–PKK conflict War in Afghanistan Asia Balochistan conflict Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir Insurgency in the Philippines Ethnic conflict in Nagaland Naxalite-Maoist insurgency South Thailand insurgency War in North-West Pakistan Americas Colombian Civil War Mexican Drug War Internal conflict in Peru

Elections
Recent: March 4: Togo, President 6: Iceland, Debt repayment referendum 7: Iraq, Parliament 7: Switzerland, Referendum 14: Colombia, Parliament Upcoming: April 8: Sri Lanka, Parliament 11: Hungary, Parliament (1^st Round) 11–13: Sudan, General 18: Northern Cyprus, President 25: Austria, President 25: Central African Republic, General 25: Hungary, Parliament (2^nd Round)

Trials
Recently concluded Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi Italy: Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito Peru: Alberto Fujimori United Arab Emirates: Issa bin Zayed Al Nahyan United States: William J. Jefferson, Sheila Dixon United Kingdom: Peter Chapman Ongoing Cambodia: Khmer Rouge Tribunal China: Organized crime in Chongqing France: Church of Scientology, Air France Flight 4590 Germany: Heinrich Boere, John Demjanjuk Iraq: Supreme Criminal Tribunal Malaysia: Anwar Ibrahim Netherlands: Thomas Lubanga (ICC), Radovan Karadžić (ICTY), Geert Wilders Palau: Tommy Remengesau Russia: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Platon Lebedev Sierra Leone: Charles Taylor (SCFSL) Singapore: Tak Boleh Tahan Thailand: Thaksin Shinawatra United States: Jena Six, Joseph Bruno, David Headley Upcoming Sudan: Lubna al-Hussein United States: Viktor Bout, Noshir Gowadia, Allen Stanford, Ehren Watada

Holidays and observances
Ongoing February 15 - April 3: Great Lent (Eastern Christianity) February 17 - April 3: Lent (Western Christianity) March 2010 Current 22: World Day for Water 22: Labour Day (Christmas Island) 22: People's Party Day (Laos) 22: Emancipation Day (Puerto Rico) Upcoming

References

Events by month

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March 2010

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March 2010

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