A bus overturns on the
Qom–
Tehran Highway in
Iran, killing eight people (including the driver) and injuring more than thirty others. Officials claim the driver fell asleep.
(France 24)
The
Trump administration announced Friday it is revoking the visas of 49 Maduro-aligned officials and their families and sanctioning several top military and security officials, part of a major U.S. campaign to push contested Venezuelan
PresidentNicolás Maduro from power.
(Fox News)
Indian and Pakistani soldiers target each other’s posts and villages in Kashmir, killing at least six civilians and two Pakistani troops.
(Associated Press)
The
United States and
South Korea announce that their annual large-scale exercises, commonly known as
Foal Eagle and
Key Resolve, will end and will be re-configured into smaller exercises. The joint exercises will be done on a small unit level and may include virtual training similar to the 2018 exercises.
(CNN)
Tashonty Toney, son of a police officer, was arrested for vehicular homicide, vehicular negligent injury, hit-and-run and reckless operation of a motor vehicle after he veered into a bike line near a Mardi Gras parade route in New Orleans. He accidentally killed 2 and injured 7 cyclists while drunk and drugged.
(fox8live)(Advocate)
At least 23 people are confirmed dead, many are injured, and 10,000 customers are without electricity after several tornadoes strike
Lee County in southeast
Alabama.
(Fox News)(BBC News)
A 4.6 magnitude
earthquake is felt in central
Alberta just before 6 a.m. The epicentre was determined to be just south of
Red Deer, and is believed to be the result of tectonic activity east of the
Rocky Mountains. No structural damage or injuries are reported, and it is unlikely to cause aftershocks.
(Global News)
The Trump administration announces it will allow lawsuits by U.S. citizens against dozens of
Cuban companies and other entities concerning property confiscated by the Cuban government. A spokesperson says Cuba's support for
Venezuela's incumbent president,
Nicolás Maduro, was taken into consideration when the decision was made.
(Reuters)
The
United States Department of Justice announces that former acting Attorney General
Matthew Whitaker has resigned from the Department, with his final day in the department having been March 2. He had remained in the Department as a senior counselor to the Associate Attorney General after his stint as acting Attorney General.
(AP)
Celebrity chef
Mario Batali gives up his stake in his restaurants more than a year after being accused of sexual misconduct.
(The Guardian)
Alex Trebek, host of the American
syndicated game show Jeopardy! since 1984, announces that he has been diagnosed with terminal stage 4
pancreatic cancer. He plans to continue hosting during his treatment.
(CNN)
Former
Trump campaign manager
Paul Manafort is sentenced to 47 months in federal prison for eight counts including tax fraud and bank fraud.
(CBS News)
Pilot Andy Hill is acquitted of eleven counts of manslaughter arising from the 2015 accident, in which a jet flown by Hill struck a road in
Shoreham,
England.
(The Guardian)
Actor
Jussie Smollett is indicted on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false
hate crime police report in January in Chicago.
(Yahoo! News)
Rakhine insurgents of the
Arakan Army attack a police post in a village in
Rakhine State, killing nine policemen. All of the victims were local recruits from the village.
(Reuters)
With a fire causing new damage to a power plant in
Bolívar State, President
Nicolás Maduro states the power outages are "caused by U.S.-backed sabotage"; Guaidó says the outages are due to Maduro government "corruption and mismanagement".
(MSN)(SFGate)
A
Japanese high-speed
boat collides with a "marine creature" while carrying 121 passengers; 87 passengers are injured and 5 airlifted by helicopter to the hospital.
(CNN)
Tunisian health minister Abderraouf Cherif resigns following the deaths of 11 newborn babies since Thursday at a hospital in the capital
Tunis. Evidence suggests all 11 died from
septic shock. Tunisia's public healthcare had been considered one of the best in
North Africa, but it has operated less smoothly since the
2011 revolution.
(BBC News)
Shares of
Boeing lose roughly 9 percent after one of its best-selling planes, the
Boeing 737 MAX jet, saw its second deadly crash in less than five months.
(CNBC)
Partially-recognized
Venezuelan Acting President
Juan Guaidó says the country has "truly collapsed already", while accusing the
Nicolás Maduro-led government of murdering 17 people during the ongoing nationwide
power blackout.
(CNN)
In an annual report, the
Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service warns that Russia will "very likely" try to intervene in European parliamentary elections this May to undermine unity within the European Union "by sowing disorder and disbelief" within and between the 28
European Union member states.
(Sky News)
A college admission scheme across the
United States results in the indictment of over 50 people including athletic coaches, CEOs, and two Hollywood actresses, accused of using bribery and fraud in order to cheat their children into universities such as
Yale and
Stanford.
(CNN)(Reuters)
CardinalGeorge Pell, the most senior official of the
Catholic Church to be convicted of sexual abuse to date, is sentenced to six years in prison for the sexual assault of two children in the late 1990s.
(CNN)
It is reported that
CaliforniaGovernorGavin Newsom will sign an executive order placing a
moratorium on the death penalty for all 737 inmates on California's death row, ensuring that no executions will take place while he is governor.
(Los Angeles Daily News)
Prominent Venezuelan journalist
Luis Carlos Díaz is released after being taken by
SEBIN, the national intelligence service, on Monday; he has been ordered not to speak of his time in detention or publish anything.
(The Guardian)
The
UK's parliament rejects Prime Minister Theresa May's
Brexit deal by 149 votes. A vote for leaving the European Union without a deal is scheduled for the thirteenth of March. If Parliament rejects the decision to leave with no deal, the UK could request its withdrawal from the EU be postponed with the unanimous consent of the other 27 member states.
(The New York Times)
The
SOHR reports that Syrian government shelling and Russian air strikes occur in several areas in
Idlib province, in the first such raids since a September truce deal, killing at least 15 civilians including eight children and wounding around 60.
(TRT World)(Al Jazeera)
Canada and the
United States ground all
Boeing 737 Max 8 and Max 9 aircraft and ban the jet from their airspace until further notice. It is now effectively grounded worldwide, with no operators remaining unaffected by grounding orders.
(CBC)(BBC News)(CNN)
An avalanche on
Ben Nevis kills two
French nationals and a
Swiss national. A fourth climber is injured and is receiving treatment at a hospital in
Glasgow.
(BBC News)
Health and environment
At least 111 schools in
Malaysia are shut down following the treatment of 200 children, staff, and others being poisoned. Authorities suspect that a chemical dump in the southern state of
Johor is responsible for the sudden illnesses.
(Reuters)(CNBC)
Ali Bashar confesses in court in
Germany to killing teenager Susanna Feldmann. Bashar is a failed asylum seeker from
Iraq. The case prompted national debate and a pledge by
Angela Merkel to call for improvements to the deportation system in Germany. Counterterror police traveled to
Iraq in order to return him to Germany, as he had already been deported when he was identified in connection to the murder; Iraq has
no extradition treaty with Germany.
(BBC News)
Two former military police officers are arrested in
Brazil for the murders of
Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes. One of the suspects was arrested at home, in a Rio de Janeiro
gated community where
PresidentJair Bolsonaro also resides. Franco was born in a
Riofavela and became a politician and activist against violence in the slums, which are often controlled by paramilitary groups. Her assassination prompted widespread protests.
(The Guardian)
Two men, aged 17 and 25 years, attack a school in the
Brazilian city of
Suzano,
São Paulo, with a revolver and a knife, killing eight and wounding 23 people, among students and staff. The two
shooters committed
suicideafter the attack. Police have found a crossbow, Molotov cocktails and a "suitcase with wires" at the scene.
(G1)
Minutes after Manafort is sentenced in federal court,
New York state prosecutors announce 16 criminal charges against him related to mortgage fraud, conspiracy and falsifying business records.
(CNBC)
Mexican authorities announce a national search operation is underway after revealing masked gunmen with a list of names stormed a bus on March 7 as it was traveling along a highway that connects the town of
San Fernando with the city of
Reynosa. The perpetrators kidnapped 19 people and they have not been seen since.
(KTLA)
The
UK's parliament votes against a no-deal
Brexit. This greatly increases the chance of a delayed Brexit, to be voted on Thursday, as well as opening the door to the possibility of a second referendum.
(CBC)
Prosecutors in
Northern Ireland charge a former
British Army soldier with murdering two people during the
mass shooting in
Derry during
the Troubles in 1972, following a contemporary police investigation. The man, known only as Soldier F, is also charged with three attempted murders. It is also announced that no other charges against either soldiers or civilians will be brought due to insufficient evidence. Soldiers shot 28 unarmed protestors, killing 13.
(BBC News)
A
CNN reporter alleges an unnamed source has provided new video details about the August 2018 drone explosion in Caracas, claiming that it was part of a plot to kill
Nicolás Maduro.
(CNN)
Four people—three men and one woman—are arrested in connection to the shootings, according to
New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush. It is later learned that one of them was an armed citizen trying to help police and was released.
(Sky News)
A gunman involved in the shootings of at least one of the two mosques is identified as Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old
Australian man.
(Associated Press)
A U.S. appeals court denies
TransCanada's request to lift an injunction preventing pre-construction work on the Keystone XL expansion from beginning. The company claims this will delay the project by a year.
(CBC)
North Korea has reportedly threatened to suspend negotiations with the
United States regarding nuclear weaponry, as well as resume related missile testing.
(The New York Times)
The 2019 Algerian protests, the largest protests since the
Algerian Civil War, have led the government to cancel the Presidential elections, to replace the Prime Minister, and to promise
Abdelaziz Bouteflika would not run for re-election.
(The Washington Post)
Lawmakers in
Mexico's
lower chamber of Congress approve a constitutional reform that would allow for
recall referendums to cut short the six-year presidential term limit; the measure still needs the approval of the
Senate and the state legislatures.
(Reuters)
A fire at a refugee camp in
Nigeria kills eight and leaves 15,000 homeless. The residents are people displaced by ongoing conflict with
Boko Haram.
(Reuters)
Flooding over large portions of
Nebraska leave one dead and two missing with over 900 people using emergency shelters. Many roads and highways in the state are also closed.
(USA Today)
Thousands of demonstrators protest in
Madrid against the trial of Catalan independence leaders and the ongoing detention of some of them. Local police say around 18,000 protestors were involved; organisers claim almost 120,000.
(BBC News)
NASA reports that it has detected a huge
meteor explosion in
Earth's atmosphere on December 18, 2018, above
Russia's
Kamchatka Peninsula. The explosion went largely unnoticed due to its location. The explosion, which was ten times more powerful than the
atomic bomb dropped on
Hiroshima, was the second largest of its kind in 30 years.
(BBC News)
A judge issues an arrest warrant against presidential candidate
Thelma Aldana; however, as the
Supreme Electoral Tribunal registered Aldana as a presidential candidate, she enjoys immunity and can not be arrested.
(Arab News)
Cesar Sayoc pleads guilty to 65 felony counts, including using weapons of mass destruction, in last year's attempted mail bomb domestic terrorist attacks.
(CNN)
Korean pop star
Jung Joon-young is arrested over allegations that he shared sexually explicit videos of women filmed without their knowledge or consent.
(CNN)
The
European Union confirms that
UK Prime MinisterTheresa May's requested short extension date of 30 June is too late due to pending EU elections. After lengthy discussions, EU leaders agree that if the Prime Minister's deal is passed next week a short extension until 22 May is available to pass the necessary legislation. If that deal is not passed, the UK is given until 12 April to define whether it will participate in EU elections.
(The Guardian)(The Guardian2)
Global investment management company
BlackRock says that it is buying
eFront, the leading provider of management software for alternative investments, for $1.3 billion in cash.
(MarketWatch)
Disasters and accidents
Two buses collide head-on in a village near
Kintampo, Ghana, killing at least 50 people. Almost all casualties are a result of a fire on one of the buses.
(BBC News)(GhanaWeb)
Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes as two potentially devastating cyclones are expected to hit the country this weekend.
Cyclone Trevor will make landfall in the north near
Numbulwar and
Borroloola, while
Cyclone Veronica, a Category 4 storm, will strike
Pilbara on Australia's west coast.
(BBC News)
Officials report the death toll is now 62 from Thursday's chemical plant explosion in Chenjiagang Industrial Park in northeastern
Jiangsu Province, with 94 others seriously injured and 28 people still missing.
(BBC News)(The Straits Times)
U.S. President
Donald Trump removes sanctions targeting North Korea that were imposed Thursday by the Treasury Department on two Chinese companies.
(Fox News)
The
Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America’s largest development lender, cancels its scheduled annual 48-country meeting next week following China's refusal to allow a representative of
Venezuelan opposition leader
Juan Guaidó to attend what would have been the first IADB meeting held in China.
(Reuters)
A man is shot dead in the city of
Zaoyang,
China, after ramming his vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians, killing at least six and injuring seven others.
(MSN)
Hundreds of thousands of
Algerians again rally, this week in heavy rain and cold weather, against
PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika demanding his immediate resignation. Bouteflika is fighting for his political survival in the face of unrelenting protests and the desertion of long-time allies.
(Reuters)
Sports
The
English Football League is to deduct
Birmingham City F.C. nine points for breaching profitability and sustainability rules. Birmingham City are the first club to be deducted points since the EFL introduced its new profitability and sustainability regulations in 2016.
(BBC Sport)
The 2019
Global Teacher Prize and its $1 million (£760,000) purse is awarded to Brother Peter Tabichi, a
Franciscan science teacher from rural
Kenya. Tabichi gives away 80 percent of his salary to support poorer pupils at the Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School in Pwani Village,
Nakuru.
(BBC News)
More than 60 school, county, city, child services and law enforcement officials, as well as mental health specialists, teachers and parents, hold an emergency meeting after the suicide of a second Stoneman Douglas survivor. Florida's emergency chief is requesting the state Legislature provide more mental health resources for the community.
Coral Springs, Florida, police reported that, Saturday night, a current sophomore killed himself. Last week, Sydney Aiello, a 19-year-old graduate who had recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, took her own life.
(The Guardian)(Miami Herald)
Flash flooding in the southern provinces of
Iran kills at least 19 people and injures more than 100. The majority of the deaths occurred in the city of
Shiraz.
(BBC News)
Health and environment
Bayer and
Johnson & Johnson announce that they have reached a $775 million agreement to settle approximately 25,000 outstanding litigation cases, which claim that their drug
Xarelto caused severe and sometimes fatal bleeding episodes. Bayer and Johnson & Johnson had successfully defended the safety of the drug in all six prior cases that went to trial.
(The New York Times)
An
airstrike carried out in north-west
Yemen kills seven and injures eight others at a hospital. The airstrike occurred early when patients and staff members were arriving.
(BBC News)(The Washington Post)
Arts and culture
The all-female board of Women Church World, a monthly supplement in the L'Osservatore Romano (the
Vatican City daily newspaper), resign citing a campaign to discredit them and put them "under the direct control of men".
(BBC News)
Business and economy
U.S.-owned company
Uber buys
Dubai-based
ride-sharing company
Careem for $3.1 billion in order to further solidify its Middle Eastern presence.
(CNBC)(CNN)
The U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission tells a judge in New York that she has the power to decide whether the CEO of
Tesla,
Elon Musk, violated the terms of his settlement with the SEC without holding a hearing, because there are no open issues of material fact.
(SEC)
Health officials in
Rockland County, New York, declare a state of emergency due to an ongoing
measles outbreak. The county is prohibiting unvaccinated children under the age of 18 from public areas for 30 days.
(Ars Technica)
International relations
The
Lima Group condemns the presence of
Russian military planes in
Venezuela as a "provocation threatening peace and security in the region."
(France24)
The
European Parliament approves two revisions to the controversial
Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. One resolution includes new requirements aimed at making companies pay licensing fees to publications such as newspapers whose work gets aggregated by online services. The second revision makes online platforms such as
Google,
Facebook and
YouTube liable for the content posted on their services, meaning that all content providers must get permission from rights holders before uploading copyrighted material of any kind.
(The Guardian)
All charges against American actor
Jussie Smollett for allegedly filing a false police report are dropped.
(CNN)
U.S. Secretary of EducationBetsy DeVos testifies before a House appropriations subcommittee about this year's DoED budget request. The committee heavily criticized Secretary DeVos for the proposed budget cuts.
(Yahoo! News)
Sports
Mixed martial artistConor McGregor announces his retirement from the sport on Twitter. The New York Times reports that McGregor was arrested in January for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in
Ireland. According to the New York Times, he was released and is under investigation by authorities.
(MMA Fighting)(New York Post)
The
European Union says it is suspending
Operation Sophia ship patrols. Instead, the operation will rely on air missions and close coordination with
Libya. The EU also announces the mandate for Operation Sophia, which was scheduled to expire March 31, 2019, will be extended for six months.
(AFP via Yahoo! News)
More than 100 migrants hijack a
merchant vessel that rescued them off
Libya's coast, ordering the crew to head towards
Malta. Malta's military said the ship would not be allowed into its waters.
(BBC News)
James Alex Fields, who drove his car into a crowd of protestors at the
Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, killing one person and injuring 28 others, pleads guilty to 29 federal hate crimes. He will be sentenced on July 3, 2019.
(NBC)
Former
Argentine PresidentCarlos Menem is sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison for the sale of a government ground. His government's
Minister of EconomyDomingo Cavallo was also sentenced to 3 years and 6 months. In addition, both were disqualified from holding public office for life. As Menem is currently a National Senator and has immunity, he will not comply with his sentence yet.
(CNN in Spanish)
The UK parliament holds "
indicative votes" on eight options regarding
Brexit in an attempt to find an approach which can command a majority. None of the options are passed at this stage; however, a further round of voting is planned for Monday.
(CBC)(The Guardian)(The Guardian)
The
Supreme Electoral Tribunal dismisses six nullity proceedings against the presidential candidacy of
Thelma Aldana. However, it accepts two processes and requests the
Supreme Court of Justice, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Comptroller General of Accounts to present a report on their legal situation. It was also reported that after resolving these processes this week, it will proceed to issue the credential that grants immunity to the candidate.
(Prensa Libre)
The Supreme Electoral Tribunal acts legally before the
Constitutional Court to appeal the permission granted to the presidential candidate
Zury Ríos to participate in the elections despite having constitutional impediment.
(Prensa Libre)
The
Maltese Navy seizes control of commercial tanker Elhiblu 1, which was hijacked by migrants off the coast of
Libya yesterday. The tanker is now docked in the Maltese capital,
Valletta.
(BBC News)
At least 18 people have died after a truck struck a crowd gathered at a
road accident in western
Guatemala. The group had apparently gathered on the road to inspect a person who had been killed in a separate crash when the vehicle ploughed into them. The estimates of those dead were later revised by officials.
(Sky News)(Reuters)(BBC News)
A fire breaks out in
Dhaka,
Bangladesh, at a 22-story tower, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 70 others.
(BBC News)
Law and crime
The
Supreme Court of the United States rejects a request by gun rights activists to grant a temporary stay on the Trump administration's ban on
bump stock attachments that allow semi-automatic firearms to be fired rapidly. The policy took effect Tuesday after a similar bid to delay implementation was rejected.
(Reuters)
Brunei defends its decision, despite global criticism, to implement laws that can punish
homosexuality, adultery and rape with the death penalty, including by stoning, and theft with amputation, as of Wednesday, April 3, 2019.
(Reuters)
Pope Francis says the plight of
migrants was "a wound that cries out to heaven". He added, "The issue of migration will never be resolved by raising barriers, fomenting fear of others or denying assistance to those who legitimately aspire to a better life for themselves and their families".
(Reuters)
Disasters and accidents
Flash floods kill at least 32 people in western
Afghanistan, destroying homes and sweeping through makeshift shelters that housed displaced families.
(Reuters)
This month, at least 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of U.S. farmland were flooded from the early March blizzard storm that affected nine major
grain-producing states, according to
Israel Cleantech Ventures' Gro Intelligence.
(Reuters)
Tunisian authorities acknowledge they are detaining Tunisian national Moncef Kartas, a
UNLibyan arms embargo monitor who has
diplomatic immunity. Tunisia says Mr. Kartas had traveled in a private capacity on his Tunisian passport. The United Nations has called for his release and for Tunisia to clarify the reason for his arrest.
(Reuters)(Al Jazeera)
Thirty men are sentenced in
Egypt for planning an attack on a church in
Alexandria, with eighteen men receiving life sentences and twelve men receiving between ten to fifteen years in prison.
(The New York Times)
On the one year anniversary of the Gaza border protests, tens of thousands of
Palestinians gather on the border to commemorate the weekly gatherings. Four Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 300 injured according to Palestinian health officials.
(BBC News)(Sky News)
Algerian Army Chief of Staff
Ahmed Gaid Salah renews his call for
PresidentAbdelaziz Bouteflika, who has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013, be declared unfit for office. He also told opponents not to seek to undermine the military.
(Reuters)
Fourteen suspected communist rebels are killed in the
Philippines. However, human rights groups dispute the claims by police forces stating those killed were farmers.
(The Bangkok Post)(Channel NewsAsia)
American rapper
Nipsey Hussle is shot and killed outside a
Los Angeles clothing store. Two other people with him were also shot and wounded.
(Global News)
Voters in Ukraine go to the polls today in the first round of the presidential election.
PresidentPetro Poroshenko is seeking re-election, with comedian
Volodymyr Zelensky and former
Prime MinisterYulia Tymoshenko the primary challengers. All three have expressed largely pro-European views. Former Vice Prime Minister
Yuriy Boyko is the front-runner among the pro-Russian candidates. A total of 39 candidates are on the ballot, increasing the probability no candidate will win more than 50 percent of the votes. If so, the top two will meet in a second round on 21 April.
(BBC News)
Anti-corruption candidate
Zuzana Čaputová of the
Progressive Slovakia party wins the second round of Slovakia's presidential election, defeating the governing party candidate
Maroš Šefčovič, 58 percent versus 42%. She will be the country's first female head of state.
(BBC News)
Voters head to the polls in
Turkey to vote on metropolitan and district municipal mayors along with provincial and municipal councillors. The election is believed to be contested on challenging the current
PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan.
(BBC News)(Al Jazeera)