March 2009 - Portal:Current Events

• The Basque Nationalist Party wins a plurality of seats in Spain's Basque Country's parliamentary elections. (CNN)
• Canada's Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute discovers a new method to create embryonic-like stem cells that could cure spinal-cord injuries and Parkinson's disease. (CTV News)
• The United States Coast Guard searches Florida's west coast for a fishing vessel carrying National Football League players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith. (Fox News)
• China's first lunar probe, Chang'e 1, impacts the Moon. (Xinhua News)
• The United States, Israel, and Canada will boycott the Durban Review Conference. (Jewish News Weekly) (Haaretz) (Forbes)
• ASEAN concludes its annual summit in Hua Hin, Thailand, and calls for coordinated action against the current recession. (Reuters)

• United States President Barack Obama nominates Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services. (AP via MSNBC)
• Late 2000s recession:
  • Consumer spending in the U.S. rose in January after six successive monthly declines. (AP via MSNBC)
  • American International Group announces a loss of US$61.7 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008. (Dow Jones via CNNMoney)
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls below 7,000 for the first time since 1997. (MarketWatch)
  • Sweden's IF Metall trade union agrees to reductions in wages and working time by maximums of 20 percent. (IHT)
• A winter storm in the eastern United States cancels 1,000 flights and cuts hundreds of thousands of people's electricity. (Reuters via News Daily)
• President João Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau is assassinated in Bissau. (BBC)
• Palestinians accuse Israel of planning ethnic cleansing in Bustan, East Jerusalem. (Sky News)
• North Korea's and the United Nations' military commands meet in South Korea for the first time since 2002. (Reuters)
• Two thousand Tamil people have been killed and 5,000 injured in Vanni District during Sri Lanka's civil war. (AP) (BBC)

• National People's Assembly Speaker Raimundo Pereira becomes Guinea-Bissau's interim President following the assassination of João Bernardo Vieira. (Reuters)
• The European Court of Human Rights rules that Turkey's government violated the property rights of a Greek Orthodox foundation by seizing its land and fines it €105,000. (Reuters)
• The 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference's National Committee begins its annual session with a focus on the global financial crisis. (Xinhua News)
• Former Yukos businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky again stands trial for alleged financial crimes. (Moscow Times)
• Seven Sri Lankan cricket players are wounded and six policemen killed in shootings near Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan. (Sky News) (BBC)
• United States President Barack Obama and United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown meet at the White House. (BBC)
• Three people are believed trapped after Cologne's municipal archives building collapses. (Spiegel)
• German frigate Rheinland-Pfalz foils a Somali pirate attack on a German container ship in the Gulf of Aden. (Deutsche Welle)

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez orders the nationalization of United States-based food company Cargill. (CNN)
• A riot at a prison near Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, kills at least 20 inmates and injures seven others. (AP via IHT)
• Gordon Brown becomes the United Kingdom's fifth Prime Minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. (BBC)
• President Nicolas Sarkozy and eight other top French politicians receive death threats. (BBC)
• China plans to increase its military budget by 14.9% in 2009. (Xinhua News)
• U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meet in the West Bank. (BBC)
• President Asif Ali Zardari says Pakistan will not negotiate with the "extremist Taliban and terrorists." (BBC)
• The International Committee of the Red Cross warns of an impending humanitarian crisis in northeastern Sri Lanka as civil war continues. (BBC)
• Independent Television reports a loss of £2.7 billion for 2008 and will cut 600 jobs. (BBC)
• The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for a five-year campaign of violence in Darfur. (CNN)
• Ukraine's Security Service raids Naftogas's headquarters in Kiev. (Sky News)
• British-Norwegian cruise line Fred Olsen's cruise ship Balmoral escapes a Somali pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden. (USA Today)
• The Netherlands' Safety Board finds that Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 crash-landed near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport because of a faulty altimeter. (CNN)

• General Motors acknowledges in its annual report that its survival is in "substantial doubt". (New York Times)
• Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pardons the 10 remaining convicted murderers involved in the assassination of politician Benigno Aquino, Jr. (Inquirer)
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivers the annual government work report as the 11th National People's Congress's second session begins. (Xinhua News)
• China emphasizes domestic demand and targets 8% economic growth in 2009. (Xinhua News)
• The Israel Police kill a Palestinian militant after he rammed a bulldozer into a squad car and a bus in a suspected terror attack in Jerusalem. (Sky News)
• The Bank of England plans to create £75 billion for the United Kingdom's economy through quantitative easing. (BBC)
• Somali pirates release Egypt's MV Blue Star. (IHT)

• The European Union will transfer to Kenya suspected Somali pirates captured during Operation Atalanta. (AFP via Google News)
• Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is injured and his wife, Susan, killed in a car accident south of Harare. (BBC)
• A protestor from Plane Stupid throws custard at United Kingdom Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Peter Mandelson during a low-carbon summit in London. (BBC)
• Swedish writer Lotta Lotass succeeds the late Sten Rudholm at Seat 1 of the Swedish Academy. (Swedish Academy)
• A Swedish pediatrician at Karolinska University Hospital is remanded on suspicion of manslaughter for injecting a lethal overdose of morphine and sodium thiopental into an infant. (TT via The Local)
• North Korea threatens the safety of South Korean civilian aircraft flying near its territory, on the eve of annual military exercises involving the United States and the South. (Sky News)
• Australia's Transport Safety Bureau finds that the autopilot of Qantas Flight 72, which made an emergency landing at Learmonth Airport in October 2008, received inaccurate information, causing a rapid change in altitude. (WA Today)

• Morocco terminates diplomatic relations with Iran. (AP via Google News)
• The United Kingdom's government increases its ownership stake in Lloyds Banking Group from 43% to at least 60%. (BBC)
• NASA launches its Kepler spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (CNN)
• A car bomb in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least eight people. (BBC)
• Malaysia's Royal Police quell demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur against the use of the English language in schools. (BBC)
• More than 1,000 people participate in a pro-Tibet protest in London. (AFP)
• Anti-Israel protestors and Sweden's Police Service clash in Malmö, where the two countries were playing a Davis Cup tennis match. (AP)
• Palestinian National Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigns. (Telegraph)
• Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai flies to Botswana for medical treatment following a car accident in Harare in which his wife was killed. (BBC)
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai accepts the Electoral Commission's decision to hold a presidential election on August 20. (Al Jazeera)
• Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport holds a memorial ceremony for the nine victims of Turkish Airlines Flight 1951. (Radio Netherlands)

• Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav will be charged with rape and indecent assault. (Bloomberg)
• A gunman kills one person and injures two others at a Baptist church in Maryville, Illinois, United States. (CNN)
• A suicide attack kills at least 28 people and injures 57 others in Baghdad, Iraq. (BBC)
• U.S. President Barack Obama announces that Operation Enduring Freedom's forces are "not winning" the war in Afghanistan. (BBC)
• Two members of the British Army's 38 Engineer Regiment are killed in Antrim, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. (BBC)
• North Korea holds elections for its Supreme People's Assembly. (AP)

• A government in the United Kingdom is criticised by churches, politicians and Rowan Atkinson for its proposal to outlaw homophobic hatred. (The Daily Telegraph)
• Palau officially recognizes Kosovo. (New Kosova Report)
• A Police Service officer is killed in Craigavon, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. (CNN)
• The United States government claims five Chinese ships "harass" the USNS Impeccable in the South China Sea. (BBC)
• U.S. President Barack Obama lifts George W. Bush's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. (Reuters)
• Argentina and Chile reject the United Kingdom's claims on Antarctic territory. (Sky News)
• North Korea says an interception of its upcoming "satellite" launch would "mean a war." (CNN)
• National Islamic Front founder Hassan al-Turabi is released after seven weeks of incarceration for suggesting that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should surrender to the International Criminal Court. (AP)
• Sri Lanka's Armed Forces claim to have killed 180 counterattacking Tamil Tigers. (Reuters)
• Japan's economy posts a record deficit of 172.8 billion yen. (Press Association)
• China deploys the People's Armed Police to Tibet to quell possible protests related to Tibetan Uprising Day. (Bloomberg) (Xinhua)
• Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai rules out foul play in a car accident in Harare that killed his wife. (Guardian)
• Madagascar's government announces it will employ "military measures" against Army soldiers mutinying near Antananarivo. (Reuters)
• An Ilyushin Il-76 crashes into Lake Victoria after taking off from Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, likely killing all eleven passengers. (UGpulse)
• At least 13 people are missing or dead after the cargo ship MV Ibn al-Battuta sinks near Port Safaga, Egypt. (AFP) (CNN) (Xinhua)
• Standing Committee Chairman Wu Bangguo tells the National People's Congress that China will not adopt Western democracy. (New York Times)

• The United States Senate passes a US$410-billion omnibus spending bill. (CNN)
• At least ten people are killed during a shooting spree in Geneva County, Alabama, United States. (CNN)
• The Eurovision Song Contest disallows Georgian pop group Stephane & 3G's "We Don't Wanna Put In." (BBC)
• A suicide attack kills 33 people in Baghdad, Iraq. (AFP via News Limited)
• Northern Ireland's Police Service arrests two men in Craigavon for murdering an officer. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• Tibet's Central Administration claims that China's accusations of the Dalai Lama's "genocide" are "fabricated." (Xinhua)
• China disputes that its ships illegally harassed USNS Impeccable in the South China Sea. (Xinhua)
• North Korea readmits South Koreans into the Kaesong Industrial Region. (Reuters)
• At least ten people are killed and 25 injured during a suicide attack in Matara, Sri Lanka. (Sky News) (ABC News Australia)
• The Employee Free Choice Act is introduced into the U.S. Congress. (New York Times)

• The United Nations Children's Fund claims that a meningitis epidemic in Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali has killed 931 people since January 2009. (AFP via Google News)
• The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration delays the Space Shuttle Discovery's mission to the International Space Station due to a hydrogen gas leak. (AP via Google News)
• China's exports contract 25.7%, the worst decline since 1993. (Xinhua) (China Daily)
• The Liberal Democrats claim that more than 1,000 police officers in the United Kingdom have criminal records. (BBC)
• At least 15 people are killed in a school shooting in Winnenden, Germany. (DW)
• Former Iraqi Intelligence Service Director Ali Hassan al-Majid and former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz are sentenced to 15 years in jail for crimes against humanity. (Sky News)
• President Nicolas Sarkozy announces that France will rejoin NATO's military command. (Reuters)

• China's retail sales have increased 15.2% in 2009. (Xinhua News)
• Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi is sentenced to three years in prison for throwing shoes at then-United States President George W. Bush. (AP)
• National Semiconductor will cut 1,725 jobs. (ZDNet)
• Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges mistakes in rescinding Bishop Richard Williamson's excommunication for Holocaust denial. (Washington Post)
• Zimbabwe releases Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Roy Bennett from government custody. (BBC)
• American businessman Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to 11 charges surrounding his US$65-billion Ponzi scheme. (BBC)
• Astronauts aboard the International Space Station briefly evacuate to a Russian escape pod as space debris passes. (Sky News) (National Geographic)
• One person is killed and 16 are missing after Cougar Helicopters Flight 491 ditches into the Atlantic Ocean near St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. (CBC)
• An American drone aircraft's missiles kill at least 12 people in Pakistan's Kurram Valley. (BBC)

• The United States abandons the term "enemy combatant" for detainees at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base's detention camp. (New York Times)
• Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that three Doctors Without Borders volunteers kidnapped in Darfur, Sudan, have been freed. (AP via Google News)
• United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay accuses Sri Lanka's Armed Forces and the Tamil Tigers of possible war crimes. (Voice of America)
• Police are mobilized in Pakistan as thousands of protestors march toward Islamabad. (ABC News Australia)
• An American demonstrator from the International Solidarity Movement is critically wounded by Israel's Defense Forces at the West Bank barrier. (Jerusalem Post)
• Japan announces it will intercept North Korea's upcoming satellite launch if the boosters threaten its territory. (The Guardian)
• Premier Wen Jiabao says China may introduce a new stimulus package if the current financial crisis intensifies and expresses concern for U.S. Treasury Department securities. (Xinhua)(New York Times)
• Seven people arrested for threatening to destroy several buildings in Amsterdam are released. (Sky News)
• A gas explosion in Dublin, Ireland, injures five people. (RTÉ)
• A fire at Bashundhara City in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kills seven people and injures at least 30 others. (Reuters)

• The G20 meets in Horsham, West Sussex, England, to discuss the global financial crisis. (BBC)
• Former Antananarivo Mayor Andry Rajoelina demands that Malagasy President Marc Ravalomanana resign. (France 24)
• The 17th annual Pasifika Festival opens in Auckland City, New Zealand. (TVNZ)
• A Vietnamese cargo ship sinks in the South China Sea, killing three people. (Reuters)
• Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers Sazanami and Samidare depart Japan to combat piracy in Somalia. (AP)
• Russia's Air Force says the country may base strategic bombers in Cuba or on a Venezuelan island. (MSNBC)

• Space Shuttle Discovery successfully launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (CNN)
• More than 500 Zenit St. Petersburg fans are arrested in Moscow after a riot during a Russian Premier League match with Spartak Moscow. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
• Bombs kill 12 people in Nangarhar Province, Kabul, and Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Voice of America)
• A bomb kills four people and injures three others in Shibam, Yemen. (CNN)
• Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front wins El Salvador's presidential election. (VoA) (AP via Google News) (Xinhua)
• Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is placed under house arrest to prevent the Pakistani Muslim League's proposed demonstration in Islamabad on March 16. (BBC)
• An Iraqi footballer is shot and killed during a game in Al Hillah. (BBC)
• Two hundred protestors are arrested after a riot against police brutality in Montreal, Canada. (CTV)

• Former Antananarivo Mayor Andry Rajoelina demands that Madagascar's military arrest President Marc Ravalomanana, as Army soldiers seize a presidential palace in the capital. (AP via Google News)
• Josef Fritzl of Austria pleads guilty to charges of rape, incest, sequestration, and grievous bodily harm. (AP via The Melbourne Age)
• Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cancels the Pakistan Muslim League's proposed demonstration, following the impending reinstatement of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as Chief Justice. (Sky News)

• The New Jersey Devils' Martin Brodeur passes Patrick Roy to becomes the National Hockey League's winningest goaltender. (ESPN)
• Luxembourg becomes the European Union's third country to legalize euthanasia. (AFP via Google News)
• Madagascar's military installs former Antananarivo Mayor Andry Rajoelina as the country's new President, replacing Marc Ravalomanana. (BBC)
• Nokia will cut 1,700 jobs. (Forbes)
• The Seattle Post-Intelligencer publishes its final print edition and becomes an online newspaper. (Seattle PI)
• North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il begins a five-day goodwill tour of China in Jinan, Shandong. (Reuters)
• The European Space Agency's Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer launches from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. (AP)
• At least 11 people are killed and four injured in an bus accident outside Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. (CTV)
• Saint Patrick's Day:
  • United States President Barack Obama meets Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at the White House. (BBC)
  • Twelve people are arrested during a disturbance in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (BBC)

• China's Ministry of Commerce rejects Coca-Cola's bid to acquire the Huiyuan Juice Group. (Xinhua News)
• Josef Fritzl of Austria changes his plea to guilty on all charges. (BBC)
• The Office for National Statistics reports that 2.04 million people in the United Kingdom are unemployed. (Sky News)
• Pope Benedict XVI denounces the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS during a tour of Africa. (RTÉ)
• Twelve people are discovered dead in police custody in Nampula Province, Mozambique. (BBC)
• Madagascar's constitutional court supports the installation of Andry Rajoelina as President. (BBC)
• Governor Bill Richardson signs House Bill 285, repealing capital punishment in New Mexico. (ABQ Journal)
• Federal Reserve System Chairman Ben Bernanke caps United States Treasury Department yields. (Bloomberg)
• Somali pirates hijack an Iranian fishing vessel in the Gulf of Aden. (Horseed)

• A 7.9-magnitude earthquake occurs and the Hunga Tonga submarine volcano erupts in the Pacific Ocean near Tongatapu, Tonga. (MSNBC) (Sky News)
• North Korea detains two American Current TV journalists near its border with China. (Guardian) (BBC)
• The United States House of Representatives votes to levy a 90% tax on executive compensation from companies aided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (New York Times)
• Josef Fritzl of Austria is sentenced to life imprisonment on all charges. (CNN)
• Malagasy political crisis:
  • President Andry Rajoelina dissolves Parliament. (AFP)
  • The Southern African Development Community meets in Mbabane, Swaziland, to discuss suspending the country's government. (VOA)
• Pope Benedict XVI leads a Roman Catholic Mass in Yaoundé, Cameroon. (BBC)
• Namibia declares a state of emergency after floods kill 92 people and render 25,000 homeless. (BBC)
• The Civil and Public Services Union protests against Ireland's government. (RTÉ)

• The United States Navy's USS Hartford and USS New Orleans collide in the Strait of Hormuz. (CNN) (US Navy)
• Somali pirates hijack the Greek cargo ship MV Titan. (CNN)
• A bomb severely damages a government building in Athens, Greece. (Reuters)
• The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory discovers Y(4140), a new subatomic particle. (National Geographic)

• At least 21 people are killed during combat in Russia's Dagestan Republic. (Reuters India)
• Five thousand people are temporarily evacuated from Wind Gap, Pennsylvania, after a tank truck carrying hydrofluoric acid overturns. (AP via ABC News)
• Ireland defeats Wales in rugby union's Six Nations Championship. (BBC)
• Anna Bligh of the Labor Party is reelected Premier of Queensland, Australia. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Two people are killed and eight injured during a stampede to see Pope Benedict XVI in Luanda, Angola. (RTÉ)
• Venezuela's military seizes key airports and sea ports throughout the country. (BBC)
• Emirates Airline Flight EK407 makes an emergency landing in Australia after enduring a tailstrike during takeoff from Melbourne Airport. (BBC)
• Andry Rajoelina is inaugurated as President of Madagascar. (BBC)
• One hundred thousand people protest against the Sicilian Mafia and Camorra in Naples, Italy. (BBC)
• Somali pirates hijack the Indian cargo ship Al Rafiquei. (Reuters)

• Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupts. (CNN)
• A Pilatus PC-12 crashes near Butte, Montana, killing at least 17 people. (CNN)
• Four police officers are killed in Oakland, California, United States. (CNN) (CNN)
• India's Board of Control for Cricket will relocate the 2009 Premier League outside the country. (Hindustan Times)
• India and Pakistan exchange gunfire at the Line of Control. (IHT)
• England defeats New Zealand to win the Women's Cricket World Cup. (BBC)
• An Australian motorcycle gang assaults and kills a man at Sydney Airport. (BBC)
• Ninety-three Tibetan monks are arrested after attacking a police station in Qinghai, China. (AP)
• Thousands of people assemble for Pope Benedict XVI's Catholic Mass in Luanda, Angola. (BBC) (AP)
• Somali pirates release the Indian cargo ship Al Rafiquei one day after hijacking it. (Times of India)

• A car bomb is located and defused near a shopping mall in Haifa, Israel. (BBC)
• Two suicide attacks in Iraq kill at least 22 people and injure more than 50 others. (Bloomberg)
• Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupts four more times. (Physorg)
• The United States Treasury Department announces that it will purchase high-yield debts from banks. (Reuters)
• Gjorge Ivanov of the VMRO–DPMNE leads the first round of Macedonia's presidential election. (Reuters via The Boston Globe)
• FedEx Express Flight 80 crashes at Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, killing both pilots. (CNN) (MSNBC)
• A suicide attack kills one person and injures three others in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Sky News)
• A Japanese cargo ship escapes Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. (Reuters)

• The Lady Mary, a fishing vessel, sinks off the coast of Cape May
• Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek resigns after losing a confidence motion in the Chamber of Deputies. (IHT)
• France will compensate victims of nuclear testing in Algeria and French Polynesia. (Reuters)
• Japan defeats South Korea to win the World Baseball Classic. (ESPN)
• Michael Misick resigns as Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands, due to alleged corruption. (BBC)
• South Africa denies Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso a visa to attend a peace conference in Johannesburg. (BBC)
• The United Kingdom's Retail Prices Index reaches zero percent for the first time since 1960. (BBC)
• Sixteen militants and eight Indian Army soldiers are killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara District. (BBC)
• Italy jails Tuninter Flight 1153's two pilots for ten years for praying before ditching into the Mediterranean Sea. (Telegraph)
• China's government blocks access to the YouTube video-sharing website. (New York Times)
• The United States' federal government announces a plan to increase security along its border with Mexico. (Reuters)
• Immaculata University discovers the mass grave of 57 Irish immigrants in East Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, United States. (Delaware County Daily Times)

• Sweden's Parliament will abolish the 50-öre coin on September 30, 2010. (Riksbanken)
• A United States Air Force F-22 Raptor crashes near Edwards AF Base in California, killing its pilot. (AP via Star-Telegram) (BBC)
• India's Board of Control for Cricket will relocate the 2009 Premier League to South Africa. (BBC)
• North Korea prepares a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile for a launch between April 4 and 8. (Sky News)

• United States President Barack Obama announces a new military strategy for the War in North-West Pakistan and the War in Afghanistan. (CNN)
• Franco-Russian mathematician Mikhail Gromov receives the 2009 Abel Prize. (MAA)
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy will renounce his title of Co-Prince of Andorra if the country does not change its banking laws. (Reuters via IHT)
• Germany admits that the unidentified Phantom of Heilbronn serial killer never existed. (BBC)
• Sudan alleges that an aircraft attacked an arms trafficking convoy near Port Sudan in January 2009. (YNET)
• Forty-seven fragments of the meteoroid 2008 TC₃ are discovered in Sudan's Nubian Desert. (New Scientist)
• A car bomb kills at least 16 people and injures 35 others in Baghdad, Iraq. (AFP)
• International Space Station Expedition 19 launches aboard the Soyuz TMA-14 from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome. (NASA)
• A Taliban suicide attack kills at least 11 people and injures 20 others in Jandola, Pakistan. (VOA)
• Two tornadoes injure 24 people and damage 108 homes in Mississippi, United States. (CNN)
• Somali pirates hijack ships from the Isle of Man, Greece, and the Seychelles, while three other ships escape. (Marine Log)
• A bus–truck collision kills 14 people and injures four others in Petushki, Russia. (RTÉ)
• Debris from an Arrow Air McDonnell Douglas DC-10 airplane strikes Manaus, Brazil. (BBC)

• Serial Shooter Dale Hausner receives six death sentences for six murders committed between 2005 and 2006. (AP via KSWO)
• All six people in a recent helicopter accident are discovered dead in Turkey. (AP via Fox News)
• A flash flood and the Situ Gintung dam's failure kill at least 58 people in Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia. (BBC)
• A suicide attack kills at least 50 people and injures 100 others in Jamrud, Pakistan. (Al Jazeera)
• A radioactive lead ball containing Caesium-137 is missing from a deconstructed factory in Tongchaun, Shaanxi, China. (RTÉ)
• Russia will establish a military force to protect its territorial claims in the Arctic. (BBC)
• The Lancet accuses Pope Benedict XVI of "distorting...science" in his argument against the use of condoms. (BBC)
• The United Kingdom's economy contracted by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2008. (Sky News)
• Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna is imprisoned for life for murdering Corse-du-Sud Prefect Claude Érignac in 1998. (France 24)

• Millions of people worldwide recognize Earth Hour by deactivating unnecessary lighting. (RTÉ) (BBC)
• Demonstrators in London, England, demand that the G20 combat poverty, climate change, and unemployment. (BBC)
• Police and fans of Northern Ireland and Poland battle after a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Belfast. (BBC)
• Space Shuttle Discovery lands at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, United States. (CNN)
• Well Armed wins the Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. (AP via Google News)
• Taliban militants destroy 12 NATO trucks in Peshawar, Pakistan. (AFP via Google News)
• The Red River rises above 40 feet, causing emergency evacuations in Fargo, North Dakota, United States. (BBC)
• The Dunfermline Building Society in Scotland will be sold. (BBC)
• The Munk Centre for International Studies discovers China's GhostNet electronic surveillance operation. (New York Times)
• Spain's Central Court of Instruction will investigate whether former United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five other American officials violated international law by justifying torture. (New York Times)

• General Motors Chairman/CEO Rick Wagoner resigns. (CNN)
• PSA Peugeot Citroën's Board of Directors dismisses CEO Christian Streiff. (New York Times)
• The Coalition for a European Montenegro wins 48 of 81 seats in Montenegro's Parliament. (Earth Times)
• Mayotte's referendum on becoming an overseas department of France is approved. (AP)
• Jenson Button of Brawn GP wins Formula One's 2009 Australian Grand Prix. (The Times)
• A gunman kills at least eight people and injures three others at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, United States. (CNN)
• Oxford Boat Club defeats Cambridge Boat Club to win the 155th University Boat Race in London, England. (BBC)
• Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will recompense the United Kingdom's government for her husband's purchase of pornographic films through her expense account. (BBC)
• A stampede kills 22 people and injures at least 130 during a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. (BBC)

• A Europe-bound fishing vessel sinks in the Mediterranean Sea with 350 people aboard. (Reuters)
• At least 18 people are killed and 95 injured in a Taliban attack on a police academy in Lahore, Pakistan. (BBC)
• At least 15 people are killed as two trains collide in Dodoma, Tanzania. (BBC)
• China will reopen Tibet to tourists on April 5. (Xinhua) (Bangkok Post)
• Former Khmer Rouge member Kang Kek Iew's trial begins in Cambodia. (Times Online)

• Likud Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is inaugurated as Prime Minister of Israel. (Xinhua via Reuters)
• Floods on New South Wales' Mid North Coast in Australia cause an emergency evacuation of Coffs Harbour. (AAP via News Limited)
• The Taliban's Students' Movement claims responsibility for an attack on a police academy in Lahore, Pakistan. (Sky News)
• Seven Somali pirates are captured after mistakenly attacking the German Navy's FGS Spessart in the Gulf of Aden. (Sky News)

• Automotive industry crisis
• Diplomatic response to Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence
• International recognition of Kosovo
• Global financial crisis
• French Caribbean general strikes
• Icelandic financial crisis
• Irish banking crisis
• Malagasy protests
• Nord-Kivu campaign
• Piracy in Somalia
• Russian financial crisis
• Treaty of Lisbon ratification
• World food price crisis
• Zimbabwean cholera outbreak

Read more about this topic:  March 2009