Timeline 2015 January- March
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2015 Jan 1, Donna Douglass (b.1932), TV actress, died in Baton Rouge, La. She played Elly May Clampett in the “The Beverly Hillbillies" sitcom which aired from 1962-1971.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 1, Mario Cuomo (b.1932), former three-term governor of New York state (1983-1994), died of heart failure at home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A5)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 1, In West Virginia Eric Campbell (21) and Edward Campbell (54) of Texas were arrested following a shooting that left two officers wounded. The bodies of Jerome Faulkner (63) and his wife Dora (62) of North Carolina, killed earlier in the day, were found in the bed of a pickup truck driven by Edward Campbell.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In the Bahamas a new 7.5 percent tax value-added went into effect only for businesses whose profits exceed $100,000 a year.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 1, Fritz-Joly Joachin (19) was arrested while trying to cross from Bulgaria to Turkey. He was later associated with the Kouachi brothers who killed 12 people in Paris on Jan 7. On Jan 29 he was extradited to France.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Dominican Rep. said it will not recognize a same-sex marriage performed for the first time there two days earlier.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi addressed Muslim clerics in a televised speech at an Al-Azhar conference center in Cairo and called on them to promote a reading of Islamic text in an enlightened manner and to reconsider concepts that have been made sacred over hundreds of years.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A3)(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jan 1, Defense lawyers said Egypt's highest court has ordered a retrial of three jailed journalists working for Al Jazeera television, citing procedural flaws in last year's trial.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, France's Interior Ministry said 940 cars were set alight by revelers ringing in the New Year, 12 percent fewer than the 1,067 set aflame last year.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Gambia military source said four officers suspected of participating in a failed military coup against strongman President Yahya Jammeh have taken refuge in Guinea-Bissau. Dozens of military personnel and civilians were arrested and a large cache of weapons and explosives were found after the alleged coup attempt.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the Airbus A320-200, which crashed Dec 28 en route to Singapore.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, India scrapped its 65-year-old Planning Commission and replacing it today with new National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), which PM Narendra Modi said would do more to involve the regions.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Iran 2 people were killed in what is being labeled a terrorist attack in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In southern Iraq gunmen killed 3 Sunni clerics near the mostly Shiite city of Basra. A roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad, killing 4 civilians and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Iraqi government figures showed violence in the country killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Former Lebanese PM Omar Karami (b.1934) died after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Karami served two terms, 1990-1992 and 2004-2005.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Lithuania welcomed a New Year and a new currency, becoming the 19th member and last Baltic nation to adopt the euro in a bid to boost stability despite fears of inflation and eurozone debt woes.
(AFP, 1/1/15)(http://tinyurl.com/obb2hfm)(Econ, 12/6/14, p.85)
2015 Jan 1, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in the northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Pakistani fishing boat laden with explosives bound for India blew up, killing all four people on board, after the Indian coast guard tried to stop and search it.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In the Philippines a huge blaze, believed to have been ignited by firecrackers, razed nearly a thousand shanties and killed 3 people in a creekside slum in Manila. At least 17 fires across the country were linked to raucous New Year's celebrations leaving a total of 7 people dead.
(AP, 1/1/15)(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In Poland a so-called "oncology package" was introduced requiring family doctors to diagnose and fast-track cancer patients. Doctors said this will leave less time and attention for all other patients, threatening their health. Hundreds of doctors refused to sign the new plan and kept their surgeries closed.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 1, Saudi security forces arrested Montadhar Ali Saleh Alsbaitiin, a man believed to belong to a Shi'ite Muslim group blamed for instigating protests and unrest in the country's Eastern Province.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it will release smart televisions equipped with its new platform built around the Tizen operating system this year, as it seeks to lower its reliance on Google.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said flash floods and mudslides have killed at least 39 people and more than 1 million have had to flee their homes in the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Swedish police hunted for at least one suspect following what is believed to be the third arson attack on a mosque in a week.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, recorded 76,021 deaths for 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Tanzania six lions were killed overnight by angry Maasai herders following an attack on livestock.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Turkey a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul after he threw a grenade at police. The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C soon claimed responsibility for the grenade attack.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Ukrainian separatists carried out sporadic attacks on government forces as the New Year began, wounding three soldiers. Rebel mortar fire reportedly killed one civilian. Alexander Bednov, head of a battalion called "Batman," was killed when separatist security forces tried to arrest him in the Luhansk region.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Yemen 49 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a religious celebration by Huthi supporters in the mainly Sunni city of Ibb.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 2, The United States imposed new sanctions on North Korea in retaliation for a cyber attack on Hollywood studio Sony Pictures.
(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, Andrew Marshall (93), head of the US Office of Net Assessment (ONA), known as the Pentagon’s internal think tank, retired. He had led the office since its inception in 1973.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.28)
2015 Jan 2, In California hundreds of people lined up in early morning cold as the state began taking driver's license applications from the largest population of immigrants living in the US illegally.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, A judge in Alameda, Ca., approved a $9.87 million settlement against Safeway Inc. for improperly disposing of hazardous material and customers’ medical records.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.C4)
2015 Jan 2, In Kentucky Sailor Gutzler, a seven-year-old girl, walked free from the wreckage of a private plane that crashed in a wooded area killing her parents, a sister (9) and a cousin (14). She walked three-quarters of a mile in near freezing temperatures before finding a residence and directing emergency workers to the crash.
(AP, 1/3/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 2, Little Jimmy Dickens (b.1920), former singer with the Grand Ole Opry, died in Nashville. His hit songs included "Take an Old Cold Tater" (1949), “Out Behind the Barn" (1954) and “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" (1965).
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 2, In Afghanistan a civilian man was killed after a rocket fired from an army checkpoint struck a house in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, Egyptian troops opened fire on six Gazans who had illegally crossed into the Egyptian Sinai, where the army has created a buffer zone to prevent the movement of militants. Ashraf al-Qudra (17) was killed.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, The Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc of former Soviet states, expanded to four nations when Armenia formally joined, a day after the union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan began.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Greece a couple and their 12-year-old son were stabbed to death in their apartment in Thessaloniki. The alleged attacker (60) was arrested after being injured by falling from a balcony of the building.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Hungary some 5000 thousand people protested at what they see as the country's move towards Russia in the latest demonstration against the government of controversial PM Viktor Orban.
(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, The Icelandic Coast Guard ship Tyr towed a cargo vessel to Italy with about 450 migrants after Italian rescue teams managed to secure the wave-tossed Ezadeen for towing toward the southern Calabrian region. The migrants were abandoned by smugglers, leaving the vessel in rough seas without a crew.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, Rescue teams battling monsoon rains recovered 21 more bodies from Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed on Dec 28. To date 30 of 162 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In northern Iraq militants linked to the Islamic State group rounded up dozens of men from the villages of al-Shajara and al-Ghariba following a quarrel that led to the burning of the extremist group's flag.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, Kenya's High Court suspended key parts of a controversial new national security law that the opposition had warned risked turning the east African nation into a dictatorship.
(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Libya armed militants shot and killed 17 soldiers and one civilian at a checkpoint in the central district of Jufra.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Mexico armed men seized Moises Sanchez Cerezo (49), a journalist and activist, from his home in the eastern state of Veracruz. His decapitated body was found on January 24.
(AP, 1/3/15)(SSFC, 5/21/17, p.E7)
2015 Jan 2, Nigerian Islamist militants overran an army base in the remote northeastern town of Baga. Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed, while others drowned in Lake Chad. The death toll was later said to have killed as many as 2,000 civilians. Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A4)(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A4)(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Pakistan Moeen Yasin, a six-year-old boy, was found strangled and dumped in a mosque after being sexually abused. Police soon apprehended up to seven people including local cleric Qari Saqib, a prime suspect in the case.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Sweden hundreds of demonstrators marched in three cities to condemn recent arson attacks against mosques.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 2, in northeastern Syria US-led coalition warplanes carried out at least 13 airstrikes overnight in and around Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital. At least 19 people were killed overnight by Syrian rebel fire on government-controlled parts of the northern city of Aleppo.
(AP, 1/2/15)(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Turkey the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group opened a three-day meeting to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria's civil war.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, Ukraine reported its first military death of 2015 in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists, saying a soldier had been killed and five others wounded in attacks by the rebels.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, The World Health Organization said deaths last year from Ebola had reached 7,989 with 2,827 from Sierra Leone, 3,423 from Liberia and 1,739 from Guinea.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, In southern California a shooting in Long Beach left a mother and two brothers wounded. Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian and Anthony Ray McCall abducted 3-week old Eliza Delacruz, whose body was found the next day in a dumpster.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 3, In Kentucky teenagers Dalton Hayes (18) and Cheyenne Phillips (13) disappeared from Leitchfield and went on a crime spree stealing vehicles in South Carolina and Georgia. On Jan 18 the teens were arrested in Panama City, Fla.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 3, Edward Brooke (b.1919), former Massachusetts senator (1966-1978) died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida. Brooke was the first black person to be elected as senator in any state since Reconstruction.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.C9)
2015 Jan 3, In Afghanistan insurgents kidnapped 4 policemen from Wardak province. Their bodies were found near the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam hours later.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Armenia the defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said two of its soldiers were killed while repelling Azerbaijani infiltrators.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Australia thousands of people fled their homes as wildfires raged across the nation's south, with firefighters struggling to contain the blazes fanned by strong winds.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Bangladesh police banned all protests in Dhaka and locked main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office in Dhaka as clashes broke out before the first anniversary of an election her party boycotted.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, Greek police arrested convicted terrorist Christodoulos Xiros, who had failed to return to prison while on a furlough almost a year ago.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Guyana said it is issuing new passports with improved safety features after seizing fraudulent ones in recent months.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Search teams hunting for the wreck of Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed with 162 people on board reported four large parts of the plane on the sea bed.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Israel said it will withhold critical tax revenue and seek ways to bring war crimes prosecutions against Palestinian leaders in retaliation for Palestinian moves to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In central Libya masked gunmen kidnapped 13 Coptic Christians in Sirte after seven were abducted days earlier. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government staged air strikes on the commercial port of Misrata, a western city allied to a group that holds the capital Tripoli.
(AP, 1/3/15)(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Mexico Hipolito Mora, the founder of a vigilante group in the western state of Michoacan, was arrested along with 26 followers for their alleged role in 10 deaths during a shootout with a rival group last month.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A Norwegian ship owner said one if its cargo vessels, the "Bulk Jupiter," has sunk off Vietnam. Bergen-based Gearbulk said only one of the 19 Filipino crew members was known to have survived.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani airstrikes killed 31 militants and a suspected US drone strike killed another seven. The airstrikes in the Tirah valley of the Khyber region destroyed four militant hideouts and a suicide bomber training center.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani and Indian border guards traded artillery fire overnight along the disputed border region of Kashmir, killing 4 people and wounding eight.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A cargo ship carrying cement overturned off the coast of Scotland. The Cypriot-registered Cemfjord sank the next day. The crew of seven Poles and one Filipino were missing.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Tunisia suspected Islamist militants captured and killed a police officer south of Tunis, stabbing him and slashing his throat as he traveled home. Nine suspected militants were arrested. In late December four men were convicted of cutting the throat of the 23-year-old policeman in El Fahs. Three men were sentenced to death. A fourth man, who is on the run, was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Jan 3, Uganda officials said outspoken General David Sejusa, who recently returned to the country after 18 months in self-imposed exile, has been placed under house arrest.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Yemeni authorities reported the arrest of a Belgian, a Bulgarian and a Somali suspected of having links with al-Qaida after a search found one of them carrying documents and materials with the group's logos on them. Unknown gunmen killed two fighters from the Shiite Houthi rebel group in central Ibb province.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 4, Thousands of police officers in NYC defied calls not to stage a protest at the funeral of a slain comrade, pointedly turning their backs as Mayor Bill de Blasio paid tribute to the murdered patrolman.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 4, In Afghanistan insurgents killed 5 policemen, including their commander, in the volatile eastern province of Logar.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Australian PM Tony Abbott made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, meeting with top officials to discuss ways his country can aid Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following five days of non-stop military operations. Five gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into a bar and shot dead 3 ruling party activists before torching the local party office in the eastern Gisuru region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, A city in central India elected the country's first transgender mayor, nine months after a court ruled that transgender be recognized as a legal third gender. Madhu Kinnar (35) won the mayoral election in Raigarh in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In India a 16-year-old victim was attacked and gang-raped after arriving in eastern Bihar state late today where the gang, including a local administrator's driver, approached her and offered her a lift to a relative's home. Police soon arrested one of five suspects.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, In eastern India 14 langur monkeys died after snatching and then eating biscuits laced with rat poison being sold by a hawker in West Bengal state. The hawker who fled in the aftermath of the deaths.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya Fidel Odinga (41), the son of main opposition leader Raila Odinga, was found dead in his home near Nairobi, prompting a major police investigation and minor unrest in the capital.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya at least 2 people were killed and several others were injured when a six-storey residential building collapsed in Nairobi.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government launched air strikes on the country's biggest steel plant at Misrata. A warplane from forces loyal to the internationally recognized government bombed a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored offshore, killing 2 crewmen. The Liberian-flagged ARAEVO was carrying 12,600 tons of crude oil when it was struck off the eastern port of Derna. No oil was spilled.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northeastern Mali six Nigerian soldiers of the UN's MINUSMA mission were injured, with gunmen also burning four UN trucks.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a US drone strike killed at least six suspected militants in North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Saudi Arabia a general and two soldiers were killed in a rare attack and suicide bombing by "terrorists" on the border with Iraq. 4 attackers were also killed in the clash, 2 in suicide blasts.
(AFP, 1/5/15)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.43)
2015 Jan 4, In Somalia a car bomb targeting security officials exploded in Mogadishu, and was followed by shooting. An al Shabaab car bomb killed four people in Mogadishu.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 4, Sudan's parliament passed constitutional amendments allowing President Omar al-Bashir (71) to appoint state governors directly and expanding the mandate of its powerful security agency.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Syria Islamist fighters seized a suburb east of Damascus after driving out a smaller rival insurgent group in deadly clashes.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Syria's western-backed opposition group elected Khalid Khoja as its new leader during a three-day meeting in Istanbul of the National Coalition. Khalid Khoja announced the next day that his group is not yet willing to go to peace talks in Moscow.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, At the Vatican Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals from 14 countries, including many from Latin America and Africa.
(AP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Jan 4, In Yemen a bomb explosion in Dhamar, a mainly Shiite city, killed at least 4 people including a reporter and wounded 25 others. The bombing targeted a gathering of Shiite Huthi militiamen, also known as Ansarullah.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 5, The US Justice Department said it has charged two men, Cherno Njie (57) and Papa Faal (46), for their involvement in the failed Dec. 30 attempt to overthrow the government of Gambia.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, The California Dept. of Motor Vehicles wrote an advisory saying any passenger vehicle used or maintained for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation of profit is a commercial vehicle.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A1)
2015 Jan 5, In NYC Thomas Gilbert Jr., founder of hedge fund Wainscott Capital Partners, was shot and killed by his son Tommy Gilbert, who was soon arrested.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 5, In Miami lesbian and gay couples were wed hours before Florida’s coming out party as the nation’s 36th state to legalize same-sex marriages.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A12)
2015 Jan 5, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber struck near the headquarters of the European police training mission in Kabul, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding 16 people.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Southern Australia. State Premier Jay Weatherill said that hundreds of fire fighters have taken advantage of milder conditions in recent days to attempt to contain the fire which has razed 12,500 hectares (31,000 acres) of countryside in hills northwest of Adelaide.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Bangladesh two men on a motorbike opened fire on a group of anti-government activists in the northwest, killing two amid heightened tensions on the anniversary of a general election boycotted by a major opposition alliance last year. Two more activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party were killed during clashes with supporters of the governing party and security forces.
(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 5, In CongoDRC UN and Democratic Republic of Congo forces seized several rebel bases in an offensive launched against a Burundi rebel group.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Germany thousands of protesters in several cities rallied against Muslim immigration. Rallies organized by a new grassroots movement called PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, have become a weekly event in the eastern city of Dresden.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 5, Grenada's PM Keith Mitchell said the eastern Caribbean island will only have to pay half of a $22 million debt it owes Taiwan with a payment plan for loans it awarded over a 10-year period.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 5, Indonesia’s transportation ministry announced harsh measures against everyone who allowed AirAsia Flight 8501 to take off without proper permits, including the suspension of the airport's operator and officials in the control tower.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, The Islamic State jihadist group posted a series of pictures online indicating the execution of 8 people, four of them policemen, in Iraq's Salaheddin province.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, The US-led coalition launched 20 more air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours, targeting fighters for the militant group and hitting its crude oil operations.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Ireland said the United States will permit imports of beef from the country, the first European Union state allowed to resume sales since the mad cow disease scare over 15 years ago.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Lebanon began imposing unprecedented restrictions on the entry of Syrians, as it struggled to cope with well over a million refugees feeling the civil war next door.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Libya's official government banned Palestinians, Syrians and Sudanese from entry because their countries are undermining the oil producing nation's security. The government of PM Abdullah al-Thinni runs only a rump state in eastern Libya and would therefore only be able to enforce the ban at the eastern airports of Tobruk and Labraq and the land crossing with Egypt.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Mali at least 5 people were killed in a gun attack on an army base close to the Mauritanian frontier.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Pakistan a US drone strike in North Waziristan killed Ubaidullah (aka Qari Imran), in charge of al-Qaida's Indian branch of Afghan affairs, as well as 5 other fighters. In the 3rd week of this month another strike killed deputy chief Raja Suleman (aka Ustad Ahmed Farouq).
(AP, 4/12/15)(http://tinyurl.com/poa2hjd)(Reuters, 4/23/15)
2015 Jan 5, Pakistani troops fired gunshots and mortar shells that killed an Indian soldier in northern Kashmir.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said he would no longer comply with the terms of his house arrest and had cut off his monitoring tag.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Bitstamp, a Slovenia-based bitcoin exchange bitcoin, halted operations and reported that 19,000 of the currency units had vanished. Bitstamp resumed operation on Jan 9.
(http://tinyurl.com/ne46mkd)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.58)
2015 Jan 5, In South Africa 2 suspected rhino poachers were shot dead after they opened fire on rangers in South Africa's Kruger National Park.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Taiwan’s justice ministry granted former president Chen Shui-bian (2000-2006) medical parole as he served a 20-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.35)
2015 Jan 5, Police in Turkey detained 20 more police officers suspected of conducting illegal wiretaps in a new wave of raids in twelve cities.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In eastern Ukraine 12 servicemen were killed and 21 injured when their bus collided with two heavy trucks on a snowy road.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In San Diego US Navy commander Jose Luis Sanchez (42) pleaded guilty in a massive bribery scheme involving a longtime military contractor in Asia who allegedly offered luxury travel, prostitutes and other bribes to Navy officers in exchange for confidential information.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, The Kepler space telescope team in Mountain View, Ca., reported that 8 new planets have been detected in the constellation Lyra and that at least three orbited stars in zones that allowed for the existence of liquid water.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.D2)
2015 Jan 6, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts displayed a time capsule dating to 1795 believed to have been placed by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. The box was unearthed last month at the state Capitol building.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 6, The Intl’. Consumer Electronics Show opened in Las Vegas.
(Econ, 1/3/15, p.48)
2015 Jan 6, In west Texas a gunman opened fire at the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System’s clinic killing one person. The gunman was also killed.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 6, Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell was sentenced to two years in federal prison and two years of probation for taking a bribe from a businessman seeking to promote a dietary supplement.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, Shareholders of medical device maker Medtronic, based in Minneapolis, Minn., approved the acquisition of Ireland-based surgical supplier Covidien PLC in a corporate deal valued at about $48 billion. The acquisition moves the legal headquarters of the combined company to Ireland.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Algeria protests in the remote and sparsely populated south over efforts to exploit the country's vast shale gas reserves spread to the regional capital Tamanrasset. Algeria has the third-largest estimated shale gas reserves in the world, after China and Argentina.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, A Danish court sentenced seven men to prison for dealing hashish at Copenhagen's famed hippie enclave of Christiania, where the drug is openly smoked.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Egypt gunmen opened fire and killed two policemen guarding a Coptic church south of Cairo.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Search teams scouring the ocean for the wreckage of an AirAsia jet found two new metal objects. Indonesian officials believe they may have located the tail and parts of the fuselage of Flight QZ8501 30 meters below the surface, but have been unable to properly investigate the debris so far. Two more bodies were recovered from the sea, bringing the total found so far to 39.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In western Iraq a suicide blast targeting security forces and subsequent clashes with Islamic State extremists killed at least 23 troops and pro-government Sunni fighters in Anbar province.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, An Israeli military court handed three life sentences to Palestinian militant Hossam Qawasme, convicted of organizing the June 12, 2014, kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers. Qawasme was also ordered to pay 250,000 shekels ($63,000/53,000 euros) in compensation to each of the three families at a hearing near Ramallah.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Japan-based Toyota said it will give away thousands of patents for its fuel-cell cars, in an effort to encourage other automakers into the new industry. The cost-free licenses will be allowed "through the initial market introduction period" of fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Mexican authorities ordered the closure of the private "Dolores Sanz" clinic in Mexico City where a woman died over the weekend on the sidewalk after being denied care.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Mexico state prosecutors detained 36 members of the Medellin de Bravo police force in Veracruz state following the disappearance of journalist Moises Sanchez Cerero. Three officers were detained a day earlier. Cerero had directed criticism at Medellin Mayor Omar Cruz.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 6, In southern Mexico at least 10 decapitated bodies and 11 heads were reported discovered in unmarked graves in Guerrero state.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, Mozambique police arrested Antonio Muchanga, a senior official of Renamo, the country's largest opposition party, on charges of inciting violence amid renewed political tension between the former rebel group and government.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Myanmar’s defense ministry said its army has arrested more than 100 foreigners and 20 Myanmar nationals for illegal logging near the Chinese border.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Pakistan's parliament approved the setting up of military courts to hear terrorism-related cases, after a Taliban massacre at a military-run school in the northwest shocked the nation.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, It was reported that Pakistan has approved the use of grid-connected solar energy, rooftop solar installations and mortgage financing for home solar panels to boost uptake of clean energy in the country.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Paraguay Albino Jara and Rocio Moraez of the Armed Peasant Association died in a firefight near the town of Cuero Fresco.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Somalia a car bomb critically injured a university lecturer in Mogadishu. Shebab militants executed 4 people accused of spying for the US, Ethiopia and the country's internationally-backed government.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korean military's "cyber army" has boosted its numbers to 6,000 troops.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaker, said it plans to spend 81 trillion won ($73.7 billion) over the next four years on factories, research and a new headquarters.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Spain’s El Nino a lottery spread 560 million euros ($666 million) among jubilant ticket holders throughout the country.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a top figure in Islamic State's self-declared police force, which has carried out beheadings, was himself found decapitated in eastern Syria.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, The US-led coalition conducted 10 air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, mostly targeting the contested city of Kobani, and two strikes in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Thai police said that they have arrested Gurmeet Singh (37), a fugitive convicted in India for his involvement in a 1995 bomb attack that killed a chief minister of a northern Indian state and 15 other people.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Turkey a female suicide bomber entered a police station and blew herself up in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, killing one officer and wounding another. The leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, said it carried out the attack.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, Turkish Airlines, the last foreign airline still flying to Libya, suspended flights to Libya.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.23)
2015 Jan 6, UN Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon said the Palestinians will join the Int’l. Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1.
(SFC, 1/8/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 6, The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said an estimated 670,000 children in Syria are being deprived of education after Islamic State forces ordered schools closed while the curriculum is made to conform with religious rules.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6 – 2015 Jan 13, A New Zealand navy patrol boat sneaked up on three suspected poaching ships, then took photos and video of the fishermen hauling in prized fish in banned nets from the ocean near Antarctica. New Zealand sent an alert to 190 countries through Interpol, a move it hopes will make it difficult for the three crews to unload their catches.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 7, In California US District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that the state prohibition on the sale of foie gras illegally encroached upon the regulatory domain of the federal government. The state ban was passed in 2004 and went into effect in 2012.
(SFC, 1/8/15, p.A1)
2015 Jan 7, In North Dakota a leak from a saltwater collection line owned by Summit Midstream Partners LP was reported to state officials. Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater, a byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing process, and an unknown quantity of crude oil had leaked from a pipeline into a creek that feeds the Missouri River approximately 15 miles north of Williston.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Pennsylvania a 2 people died in an 18-vehicle crash on I-80 after a snow squall left drivers with little visibility.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a bomb blast killed Judge Mohammad-ul Hassan and wounded two of his daughters in Jalalabad. Insurgents killed 6 people working on a road project, including the head of a construction company, in northern Baghlan province.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Bangladesh 2 people were shot dead when police and armed protesters began firing in the southern district of Noakhali. An auto-rickshaw passenger was attacked and killed by anti-government protesters in the central district of Sirajganj.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, Cuba freed three detainees, as Havana began to release 53 people the United States considers political prisoners.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, French writer’s Michel Houellebecq “Soumission" was published. It depicted a near future (2022) in which Islamists win France’s presidency and compromise its freedoms.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.7)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 7, In France heavily armed gunmen shouting Islamist slogans stormed a Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and shot dead 10 staff and 2 police officers in the deadliest attack in France in four decades. The masked attackers reportedly hijacked a car and sped off. Al Qaeda in Yemen later claimed responsibility for the attack. Cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier (47) was among those killed.
(AFP, 1/7/15)(AP, 1/7/15)(Reuters, 1/14/15)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.45)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.90)
2015 Jan 7, In India around half a million coal workers vowed to continue their strike after inconclusive talks with the government, possibly jeopardizing power supplies.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In southeastern India a passenger bus veered off a road and fell into a gorge, killing at least 11 people in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said the tail of the Dec 28 crashed AirAsia jet Flight QZ8501 has been found on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane's last known location. Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Iran's official IRNA news agency said the judiciary has ordered that LINE, WhatsApp and Tango, three popular apps providing free phone and messaging services, be shut down. Social websites including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have already been blocked by censors.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Mexico Julio Scherer Garcia (88), founder of the newsmagazine Proceso and one of the most influential Mexican journalists of the past half century, died.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Nepal said it will issue passports to sexual minorities, adding a third gender category in a sign of the conservative Hindu-majority country becoming more liberal since the end of a decade-long civil war.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, It was announced that Royal Dutch Shell will pay more than $80 million to people in Bodo, a Nigerian fishing community "devastated" by two serious oil spills in 2008. The clean-up could take years.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Pakistan the bullet-riddled body of Abid Mehmood (52), a Muslim man arrested for blasphemy, was found in Taxila, a town about 40 km from Islamabad, after being released from jail.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, Tadeusz Konwicki (b.1926), a prominent Polish writer and filmmaker, died in Warsaw. His works during the communist era lampooned the authoritarian Soviet-imposed system. He was best known for his novels "A Minor Apocalypse," a satire of life in a totalitarian state, and "The Polish Complex," a polemic on a national historical condition tragically defined by military defeats and foreign occupation.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, Puntland area regional President Abdiweli Mohamed said 20 al Shabaab rebels and five soldiers have been killed in fighting in the past week in the Galgala hills. Al Shabaab's military spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said the group had killed 23 soldiers in three days of clashes and that fighting was continuing.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said top LRA commander Dominic Ongwen, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity and war crimes, has given himself up in Central African Republic. He was initially abducted by the LRA when he was a 10-year-old and forced to fight as a child soldier.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Vietnamese police detained lawmaker Chau Thi Thu Nga (49) for alleged fraud involving a housing project.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Yemen a car bomb blast tore through dozens of new students lined up at a police academy in Sanaa, killing at least 35 people.
(AP, 1/7/15)(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 8, The Pentagon said the US military will close a major air base in Britain and withdraw from more than a dozen installations across Europe as part of a reorganization of forces.
(AFP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has fined Honda $70 million for failing to submit reports of fatal accidents and injuries to the government.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.C3)
2015 Jan 8, Schools in Chicago, Boston and other large cities closed as sub-zero temperatures and bitter winds gripped central and eastern United States for a third day.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Florida John Janchuck (25) tossed his daughter Phoebe (5) off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and into Tampa Bay. Police said he had been acting strangely.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 8, Vermont lawmakers voted 110-69 to elect Gov. Peter Shumlin to a 3rd two-year term after he failed to win the popular vote last November.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 8, In central Afghanistan one policeman was killed and three were wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Costa Rica a catamaran carrying dozens of foreign tourists to Totuga Island capsized leaving 3 people dead.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 8, Cuba freed two more detainees, as Havana continued to release 53 people the US considers political prisoners, as part of an agreement between the two nations aimed at ending decades of hostility.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, Egypt’s military said the army is doubling the size of a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip, an operation that will involve the destruction of 1,220 more homes and the eviction of residents.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, The European Union offered to lend Ukraine a further 1.8 billion euros ($2.12 billion) on the condition that Kiev respects the terms of an international bailout and continues its reform program.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In France Amedy Coulibaly killed a policewoman on the southern edge of Paris, killing her and injuring a nearby street sweeper before fleeing. He later claimed to have coordinated with the two gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine on Jan 7.
(AP, 1/8/15)(AFP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 8, In northern France police and counter-terrorism officers searched for the two armed suspects, Said and Chérif Kouachi, who are brothers, the chief suspects in the deadly Jan 7 attack in Paris on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. A third suspect, Hamyd Mourad, turned himself in at a police station in a small town northeast of Paris after learning his name was linked to the attack.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Iraq a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in Youssifiyah killing 3 police and 4 civilians. A suicide bomber driving a pickup loaded with explosives struck a checkpoint near Samarra, killing 8 people and wounding 23 others. A suicide bomber set off his explosives belt among Shiite worshippers who were leaving a mosque in western Baghdad, killing 8 worshippers and wounding 16.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Nepal hundreds of single mothers and rights activists demonstrated outside the parliament building, urging members of a special assembly drafting a new constitution not to weaken the citizenship rights of young Nepalis. A law being considered would give citizenship only to children of two Nepali parents.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, Sri Lanka held presidential elections. Mahinda Rajapakse, South Asia's longest-serving leader, was beaten by Maithripala Sirisena, who won 51.3% of the votes on a record turnout of 81.5%.
(AFP, 1/11/15)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.37)
2015 Jan 8, In southern Syria al-Qaida Nusra Front militants blew up the 13th century tomb of a revered Islamic scholar.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 9, In San Francisco 4 men were shot dead inside a double-parked stolen Honda in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. On July 29, 2016, police pulled Lee Farley (27) from his cell in at a federal lockup in Atwater and booked him in SF for the four murders. Farley was serving time for possession of a stolen gun.
(Reuters, 1/10/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A1)(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A1)(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A8)
2015 Jan 9, In Florida George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted in a fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in 2013, was arrested for aggravated assault in connection with a domestic disturbance earlier in the week. His ex-girlfriend soon recanted her story and the case was dropped.
(Reuters, 1/10/15)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 9, In Michigan blinding snow caused 193 vehicles to pile up in I-94 near Kalamazoo. At least one person was killed.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 9, In France a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli left four hostages and the gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, killed.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 9, In Saudi Arabia blogger Raif Badawi was flogged 50 times, the first set of 1000 lashes over 20 weeks. He was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison plus the lashes for criticizing clerics.
(SFC, 1/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 9, Ukrainian officials said 6 soldiers have been killed in two days of fighting as separatists intensified shelling of government positions.
(SFC, 1/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 10, The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reached orbit with a cargo for the Int’l. Space Station. An attempt to land the rocket’s first stage on a floating platform failed following launch at Cape Canaveral.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 10, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was closed to traffic for the first time in its 77-year history to allow for the installation of a movable median barrier. Re-opening was set for Jan 12.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.C1)
2015 Jan 10, Robert Stone (b.1937), author of “Dog Soldiers" (1974), died at his home in Key West, Fla.
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 10, In Idaho a gunman killed 3 people and wounded another during a shooting spree at three locations in Moscow. Suspect John Lee (29), was captured in the afternoon following a high-speed chase in nearby Washington State.
(AP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, A male camel in rut trampled two people to death at the Camel Kisses farm in north Texas.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, In Germany tens of thousands protested in Dresden against racism and for an open society. This came in reaction to weekly anti-Islamic rallies organized by PEGIDA.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 10, In northern Iraq Islamic State group fighters attempting to retake Gwer, a town held by Kurdish peshmerga forces, killed at least 30 Kurds.
(AP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, In Lebanon a double suicide bomb attack in the Jabal Mohsen district of the northern city of Tripoli killed 9 people. Al-Qaida’s Nusra Front soon claimed responsibility. On Jan 20 Lebanon charged 28 people for involvement in a double suicide bomb attack.
(AFP, 1/12/15)(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A4)(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 10, In northeastern Nigeria two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria, including one at a crowded market in Maiduguri, by a girl suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old. 19 people were killed.
(AFP, 1/10/15) (Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, In Spain thousands marched in several cities to press for easier access to latest-generation medicines to counter hepatitis C.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 11, The Golden Globes inched closer to legitimacy in its 72nd show, giving awards not just to A-List celebrities, but to the edgier productions that unequivocally deserved recognition, including "Boyhood," ''The Grand Budapest Hotel," and "Birdman."
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 11, The US military said American-led forces launched 19 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 11, In Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic won 50.54% of the vote to become the country’s first female president.
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 11, In Egypt a police captain was snatched from a taxi by gunmen as he headed to work at the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. On Jan 13 the officer was found shot dead near the village of el-Muqatta, near the Gaza border. The military said it killed 10 militants in clashes during the search for the kidnapped captain.
(AP, 1/13/15)(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 11, In France at least 3.7 million people took part in marches of support for Charlie Hebdo and freedom of expression. World leaders linked arms to lead more than one million people through Paris in an unprecedented homage to the victims. 17 people were killed in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 11, In Germany the Hamburger Morgenpost was firebombed overnight. The tabloid had paid tribute to those killed at Charlie Hebdo by reprinting cartoons from the French satirical paper mocking the Prophet Mohammed. Two people were soon detained
(AFP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, Indonesian divers found the crucial black box flight recorders of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard. The data recorder was retrieved on Jan 12 and the cockpit voice recorder on Jan 13.
(AFP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, Anita Ekberg (b.1931), Swedish-born actress, died in Rome. Her films included “La Dolce Vita" (1960), “Clowns" (1971) and “Intervista."
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 11, In Mexico 5 members of a vigilante-style community were killed in an ambush in Aquila, Michoacan state.
(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, In Mozambique a contaminated traditional beer called Pombe killed numerous people in Tete province. The death toll soon reached 69 with 196 others admitted to hospital.
(AP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A3)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, In Myanmar North Korean Ambassador Kim Sok Chol met with Myint Swe, the chief minister of the Rangoon division. Myanmar police soon began seizing pirated copies of the film "The Interview", a comedy about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with media saying the move followed pressure from the North Korean embassy in Yangon.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 11, A new video showed a group of Pakistani and Afghan militants beheading a Pakistani soldier after pledging allegiance to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 11, In southern Pakistan at least 57 people including women and children were killed when their bus collided with an oil tanker.
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, Thailand police said dozens of children were among 98 suspected Rohingya trafficking victims from Myanmar discovered in pickup trucks in Hua Sai district in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 11, In eastern Ukraine intense fighting erupted around Donetsk wrecking a power station and briefly trapping more than 300 coal miners in one of Europe's largest pits.
(AFP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 12, Pres. Obama launched a new drive to improve data security and privacy.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.63)
2015 Jan 12, US officials said Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Hacker group CyberCaliphate took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts of US Central Command. The Pentagon called it an annoying prank that did not breach military networks.
(AP, 1/13/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 12, California state regulators ordered Mercury Insurance to pay nearly $27.6 million for improperly collecting unapproved broker fees from its auto customers. Mercury disagreed with the decision and planned to contest the ruling.
(SFC, 1/13/15, p.C2)
2015 Jan 12, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner declared that business as usual is over in his inaugural address.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.22)
2015 Jan 12, A US federal judge declared South Dakota’s ban on same-sex marriage to be illegal, but stayed the decision pending appeal.
(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 12, In Washington DC a woman died and dozens of people were injured after thick smoke filled a subway tunnel during the evening rush hour.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Darrell Winfield, the “real" Marlboro man (1968-1989) of the Philip Morris Tobacco Co., died in Riverton, Wyoming. The company began using Marlboro men in its advertising in 1954.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlboro_Man)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.82)
2015 Jan 12, The Afghan government, after months of delay, unveiled its full list of Cabinet nominees. An Afghan policeman opened fire, killing two colleagues, including a district chief and a police unit commander in Helmand province. The attacker was shot and soon died.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Armenia a family of six was killed by machine gun at their home in the city of Gyumri. Suspect Valery Permyakov, a Russian soldier who deserted his unit at a Russian military base, was detained the next day while trying to cross from Armenia into Turkey. On Jan 19 a six-month-old boy became the 7th member the Avetisyan family to die. On August 23, 2016, a Russian military court sentenced Permyakov to life in prison.
(AP, 1/13/15)(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 12, British author John Bayley (89) died of a heart ailment. His "Elegy for Iris" (1999) chronicled his wife's descent into Alzheimer's disease and was turned into an Oscar-winning movie starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 12, Cameroonian soldiers killed at least 143 Boko Haram fighters when the Islamist militant group attacked a military base along the Nigerian border.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Cambodia's biggest hydropower dam began operating as PM Hun Sen inaugurated the Chinese-built project to help supply electricity for underserved villages and factories.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In the Central African Republic nearly 100 people were feared dead after the New Jerusalem barge caught fire and sank on the Oubangui River near the village of Modale.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 12, Chinese police shot and killed six would-be bombers in the latest violence to strike the restive far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In China taxi drivers began protesting against high cab rental fees and emerging competitors such as Uber in several provincial cities.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Interpol said it has put ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on the international wanted list on Ukrainian charges of embezzlement and financial wrong-doing.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, An Egyptian court acquitted 26 men accused of "debauchery" after their night-time arrest last September from a Cairo bathhouse for suspected homosexual activity.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Germany a record 25,000 anti-Islamist protesters marched through Dresden, many holding banners with anti-immigrant slogans.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Iranian police confiscated seven tons of opium from drug smugglers. It was concealed in a cement truck heading toward Tehran. Iran was the main route for drug smugglers to ship narcotics from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to Europe.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Iraq suicide car bomb killed 12 Shiite militiamen and soldiers in Abasiyat, a town north of Baghdad, sparking a battle between security forces and fighters with the extremist Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Lebanese security forces raided the notorious Roumieh prison after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Nigeria fighters from the Islamist group Boko Haram launched an attack on a military base in the northwest Cameroonian city of Kolofata.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Saudi Arabia said it has beheaded a Myanmar female child-killer, bringing to 7 the number of death sentences it has carried out this year. Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim is later seen screaming her innocence in a video posted on the Internet on Jan 17.
(AFP, 1/12/15)(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 12, Hundreds of Tanzanian schoolgirls returned home after spending three months hiding in safe houses to escape genital mutilation.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France scrapped plans to hold a summit in Kazakhstan later this week because of the failure to implement a four-month-old ceasefire agreement fully and there was no sign of when it might be rescheduled.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Andrew Howard Brannan (66), a US Vietnam veteran, was executed in Georgia for the 1998 killing of sheriff’s deputy Kyle Dinkheller (22), who had stopped him for speeding.
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 13, Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, shot and killed a suspect dressed in body armor who pulled a gun on them following a foot chase. The suspect had fired on officers in an eastside neighborhood.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 13, In Afghanistan one person died and three were wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the capital, Kabul.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, A Bahraini court sentenced a former lawmaker from the island kingdom's main Shiite opposition group to six months in jail over a social media posting. Jamil Kadhim was convicted of spreading false information over a tweet alleging that authorities were offering money to encourage candidates to enter parliamentary elections in November.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Britain launched a trade mission to Egypt with more than 40 companies received in Cairo, the largest such effort in over a decade by the top foreign investor in the Arab world's most populous country.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Chinese officials said Bai Enpei, formerly the party boss of Yunnan province, has been fired from his position at China's parliament after investigators found he accepted bribes in huge amounts.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, An Egyptian appeals court overturned a three-year prison sentence against ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak on corruption charges and ordered a retrial in the sole case pending against him.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Ethiopia reported that the city of Mekele has banned smoking in public places with fines more than an average monthly wage, the first city in the country to do so.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, The European Parliament lifted the EU-wide ban on genetically modified (GM) crops allowing national governments to impose their own restrictions.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.52)
2015 Jan 13, In Dresden, Germany, an Eritrean asylum seeker (20) was found stabbed to death in a killing that came amid tensions over immigration in the region. An Eritrean man (26) was later arrested over the fatal stabbing of his compatriot.
(AP, 1/15/15)(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 13, In India 15 more people died and about 90 remained in hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after drinking batch of bootleg liquor on Jan 11, taking the total death toll to 28.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, In India villagers in Uttar Predesh state began noticing bodies floating in an offshoot of the Ganges. Some 102 bodies, many of them children, were found near the village of Pariyar. They were believed to be the result of water burials.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 13, Indonesia's anti-graft agency named three-star general Budi Gunawan, President Joko Widodo's sole nomination for police chief, a bribery suspect. Widodo told reporters a day earlier he had chosen Gunawan on recommendation from the National Police Commission.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, The Islamic State jihadist group released a video purporting to show a young boy executing two men accused of working for Russian intelligence services in Syria.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Malawi’s government reported that 48 people have been killed and nearly 23,000 displaced due to flooding.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, In Nepal a general strike called by opposition parties crippled life in the Kathmandu region by shutting down schools, market and transportation.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Pakistan executed 7 prisoners by hanging at four prisons. This was on the 2nd day of a visit by US Sec. of State John Kerry for talks on counter-terrorism cooperation, economic aid and other issues.
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.A3)
2015 Jan 13, In Sierra Leone a Red Cross male nurse who worked at an Ebola treatment center in Kenema, died and was confirmed to have been suffering from the disease. He was the first Red Cross worker or volunteer to succumb to the disease there.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 13, Pope Francis arrived in Sri Lanka, where Christians made up only 7.4% of the population.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.38)
2015 Jan 13, Taiwan slaughtered nearly 6,000 geese after 14 more farms were confirmed to have been infected in the latest outbreak of avian influenza that has led to the culling of more than 140,000 birds.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Tanzania banned witchdoctors to try and stem a surge in murders of albinos, whose body parts are sold for witchcraft. The ban does not cover traditional healers who use herbs to help the sick.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, The cash-strapped Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), which is owned by the governments of the two countries and has been struggling for more than a decade, shut down all train operations after workers downed tools to demand five months unpaid salaries.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, In eastern Ukraine a long-range Grad rocket hit a passenger bus, killing at least 12 people. Fighting intensified around the international airport in the city of Donetsk as separatists tried to oust government forces.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, The UN said that the latest wave of Boko Haram's "vicious, ruthless attacks" in northeastern Nigeria has sent 11,320 people fleeing into Chad in a matter of days.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Governors in three Venezuelan states banned nighttime queuing as huge lines continued to snake around shops across the scarcity-plagued OPEC nation.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, Zimbabwe ruling party officials, ousted in a purge against allies of President Robert Mugabe's former deputy Joice Mujuru, vowed to launch a legal fight to regain control of the party.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 14, The US Pentagon said five men from Yemen have been released from the US navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba, after more than a dozen years in captivity. One man was sent to Estonia and four to Oman. 122 men continued to be held at Guantanamo.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 14, In California Tommy Caldwell (36) and Kevin Jorgenson (30) reached the top of El Capitan completing a 3,000-foot free climb up the Dawn Wall begun 19 days earlier.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A1)
2015 Jan 14, Ohio police arrested Christopher Lee Cornell (20) of Cincinnati outside a gun shop after he bought two semi-automatic rifles and some 600 rounds of ammunition. He was soon charged with plotting a jihadist attack on Washington, DC, with pipe bombs and shooting government officials and employees. On August 1, 2016, Cornell pleaded guilty to three federal charges and faced up to 30 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A7)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A8)(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A4)
2015 Jan 14, In Argentina federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman filed a 300-page court document in which he claimed that Pres. Cristina Fernandez, the foreign minister, Hector Timerman (1953-2018), and others had opened secret negotiations with Iran to absolve Iranian suspects in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.29)(SFC, 1/2/19, p.C3)
2015 Jan 14, In Bangladesh 5 people were killed when demonstrators firebombed a passenger bus and 2 political activists were assassinated as violence claimed at least 22 lives this month. Authorities blamed supporters of opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, Bulgaria said it would extend a barbed wire fence along its border with Turkey by a further 130 km (80 miles) in an attempt to prevent a growing number of refugees, mainly from Syria, entering the EU member state.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, Chile's Senate voted to end a dictatorship-era electoral system that has squeezed out independent candidates and guaranteed an outsized presence in Congress for the center-right coalition.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In France the first edition of Charlie Hebdo after the Jan 7 attack by Islamist gunmen sold out within minutes.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and those glorifying terrorism. Authorities said 54 people have been arrested since the terror attacks in Paris last week.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, In France a 28-year-old attacker forced the front door of his neighbors' house in the picturesque village of Beaucet near Avignon just after midnight shouting "I am your god, I am your Islam" before repeatedly stabbing to death Mohamed El Makouli. The man was soon charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of drugs, before being committed to a psychiatric hospital in nearby Montfavet.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 14, Notorious French comedian Dieudonne was arrested for condoning terrorism over a comment suggesting he sympathized with one of the Paris attacks gunmen, in a move that sparked a debate about free speech.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In India authorities in Uttar Pradesh state suspended 23 officials in a crackdown on illegal liquor sales, as the death toll among villagers who drank from a bad batch of cheap alcohol climbed to 38.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In India wildlife rangers shot 3 suspected poachers dead in a gunbattle in remote northeastern Kaziranga National Park, Assam state.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, Indian troops killed a suspected rebel in a gunbattle in the northern Kashmir town of Sopore.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Israel some half a million high school students stayed home in a strike against a decision to cancel annual field trips. Officials agreed to reinstate the activities.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, In Kenya one soldier and five suspected Islamists insurgents loyal to Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab fighters were killed in a battle in the coastal Lamu district.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, The Mozambique government disaster management office said heavy flooding has killed 10 people and displaced nearly 20,000 more.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, Nigerian security forces repelled an attack by Islamist rebels on the northeastern town of Biu, killing several of the insurgents.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Puntland, a region of northern Somalia, Islamist fighters killed at least two officers at a police post in Basasso port town, as the militants, driven out of areas further south, make more frequent attacks in the semi-autonomous north.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 14, Saudi Arabia beheaded a convicted Pakistani drug trafficker and one of its own citizens who killed a soldier.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Singapore Navy ship located the fuselage of Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, the passenger jet that crashed more than two weeks ago off the coast of Indonesia, raising hopes that more bodies will be found.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, South Korean prosecutors arrested leftist activist Hwang Sun in Seoul for allegedly praising archrival North Korea.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, A judicial official said Spain's Supreme Court has agreed to examine a paternity suit against former king Juan Carlos by a woman who claims to be his daughter.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Sri Lanka a million worshippers packed the Colombo seafront to greet Pope Francis as he canonized Sri Lanka's first saint, Joseph Vaz, a 17th century missionary. Sri Lanka released nearly 600 prisoners and reduced jail terms for others to mark Pope Francis' visit.
(AFP, 1/14/15)(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in total 14 people had been executed for alleged adultery or homosexuality in the war-torn country since July, half of them women. A new video showed fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, tying up a woman and shooting her in a square for alleged adultery.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to ban access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's front cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Turkey, a child (12) was allegedly shot and killed by security forces in the old southeastern Kurdish settlement of Cizre. 17 locals have been reportedly killed in fighting jihadists across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 14, In Wales Zack Davies struck Sarandev Bhambra (24), a Sikh trainee dentist, with a foot-long blade in a supermarket in Mold. Bhambra suffered “life-changing" injuries. On June 25 Davies was convicted of attempted murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/oc5besx)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 15, The United States said it will ease travel and trade restrictions with Cuba on Jan 16, implementing last month's agreement to begin normalizing ties with the Cold War-era foe.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law requiring students to pass a US citizenship test in order to get a high school diploma. This was the nation’s first such requirement.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, A US federal judge in Louisiana ruled that more oil than BP estimated spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following a rig explosion in 2010.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, A US federal judge ruled that Michigan must validate nearly 300 same-sex marriages as of next month. His decision could be appealed.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, Oklahoma executed Charles Frederick Warner for raping and killing an 11-month-old girl. An autopsy later revealed that the wrong drug was used to stop the inmate’s heart. Corrections officials used potassium acetate, not potassium chloride, as required under state protocol.
(http://tinyurl.com/p9lhow9)(SFC, 10/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, George Abbott (b.1957), former Texas Attorney General, was sworn in as the 48th governor of Texas. Abbott was wheelchair bound and became a paraplegic when an oak tree fell on him while he was running following a storm in 1984.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Abbott)
2015 Jan 15, American discount retailer Target announced its exit from Canada, after a highly-anticipated but ultimately disastrous launch only two years earlier.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed two policemen in the northern Faryab province. A drone strike killed three Taliban insurgents in the Nazyan district of Nangarhar province.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 15, In Belgium two men believed to have fought in Syria were shot dead after opening fire on police with assault weapons in Verviers. Fifteen suspects were soon arrested after a dozen raids around Brussels and in Verviers. Two of those under arrest were seized in France.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 15, US Secretary of State John Kerry pledged to support Bulgaria's efforts to wean itself off dependence on Russian energy at the launch of an annual strategic dialogue between the two NATO allies.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Canadian manufacturer Bombardier suspended its business jets program due to "weak market demand," resulting in layoffs of 1,000 employees in Mexico and the United States.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China pollution levels soared in Beijing to readings more than 20 times WHO recommended limits, as an annual bout of intense smog returned to haunt the capital despite government vows to address the plague.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China 4 Singaporeans, an Indonesian, a Malaysian, an Indian, 14 Chinese and a Japanese were among 22 people dead following the overturning of the tugboat during a test voyage in the river's Fubei Channel in the eastern province of Jiangsu. 3 people survived.
(AP, 1/16/15)(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 15, The Danish government said it is allocating 12.5 million kroner ($2 million) to help the victims of the Boko Haram extremist group in Nigeria.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Dubai launched a project to build a solar plant to produce 200 megawatt of electricity, as part of plans to generate five percent of the emirate's power from renewables by 2030.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, The EU parliament condemned Russia as a "potential threat to the European Union itself" even as the EU foreign policy chief sought to resume dialogue with Moscow to help end the conflict in Ukraine.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Indian soldiers and police killed five suspected rebels during a fierce gunbattle in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Iran announced plans to combat what it says are "immoral" online dating websites by launching an official site for young people seeking marriage.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Israel’s Genesis Prize Foundation said that PM Benjamin Netanyahu will present its $1 million Genesis Prize at a Jerusalem ceremony this summer to actor, producer and peace activist Michael Douglas for his passion for his Jewish heritage and the Jewish state.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko agreed that the delayed talks on the Ukraine conflict with leaders of Russia, France and Germany will take place at the end of the month in Astana.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Malawi deployed military helicopters and boats in a bid to rescue desperate flood victims stranded on patches of high ground after raging waters killed at least 48 people and left 100,000 homeless.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Mozambique's new President Filipe Nyusi was sworn into office in a ceremony boycotted by the main opposition party.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, The Pakistani parliament passed a resolution that condemned the French “I am Charlie" cartoon as hate speech and called on the int’l. community to take a decisive step to stop such practice.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 15, In northwest Pakistan a US drone strike killed at least five suspected militants in the Tehsil Ladha area of South Waziristan.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In Qatar the world's newest jetliner, the Airbus A350, took to the skies carrying its first paying passengers from the Gulf Arab nation.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Switzerland ditched an increasingly expensive policy to limit the export-sapping rise of the Swiss franc — a decision that propelled the currency a whopping 30 percent higher against the euro within minutes.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Syrian rebels and government forces began observing a 10-day truce in the last rebel-held area of the central city of Homs, marking another setback for opposition fighters.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Brazil protesters in Sao Paulo clashed with police who used tear gas and sound bombs to disperse crowds, as thousands rallied against the latest round of bus fare hikes.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, French police arrested 12 people suspected of helping militant Islamist gunmen in last week's killings in Paris. An armed man who took several hostages at a post office northwest of Paris surrendered with no one hurt.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Germany police in Berlin arrested two men on suspicion of recruiting fighters for the Islamic State group in Syria. Prosecutors said 250 police officers raided 11 residences at dawn, part of a months-old investigation into Turkish extremists.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Haiti Evans Paul, formerly in the moderate opposition to Pres. Martelly before becoming his No. 2 official, was formally installed as prime minister.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Feb 16, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said he had postponed the nomination of three-star general Budi Gunawan as police chief, but not cancelled it. Gunawan had been named as a bribery suspect on Jan 13.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.35)
2015 Jan 16, In Iraq a series of bombings and mortar attacks killed nine people in the capital, Baghdad.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Italian aid workers Greta Ramelli (20) and Vanessa Marzullo (21), abducted in northern Syria on the night of July 31-August 1, 2014, flew home straight into a row over whether Al-Qaeda's Syrian arm was paid $12 million to release them.
(AFP, 1/16/15)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 16, In Libya the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia alliance said it has agreed to a ceasefire on the condition rival factions respected the truce.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 16, Malawi VP Saulos Chilima said the death toll from flooding has risen to 176 and others are still missing.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Montenegro hundreds of Serb nationalists demonstrated against a visit by Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, chanting "Kill! Kill!" as he met with his counterpart Igor Luiksic. Serb nationalists accuse Thaci, a former ethnic Albanian rebel leader, of war crimes against Kosovo Serbs during the 1998-99 war for independence.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Myanmar hundreds of protesters led by Buddhist monks rallied to denounce a visit by a human rights envoy of the UN, which has urged the government to grant citizenship to persecuted Rohingya Muslims.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Niger 4 people were reported killed and dozens injured at a protest over a French satirical weekly's latest caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 11 near a marketplace in Gombe.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, A Norwegian appeals court upheld the maximum sentence for Rwandan Sadi Bugingo found complicit in the death of 2,000 people during his country's genocide in 1994.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Pakistan police fired tear gas and water cannon at about 200 protesters outside the French consulate in the southern port city of Karachi when a demonstration against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo turned violent. The clashes left four people with gunshot wounds.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 16, In the Philippines Pope Francis issued his strongest defense yet of church teaching opposing artificial contraception, using a rally in Asia's largest Catholic nation to urge families to be "sanctuaries of respect for life." The Philippines is the only country in the world — aside from the Vatican — where divorce is forbidden.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was questioned by Russian investigators and his offices were raided by police in what his colleagues called an attack on his anti-corruption campaigning activities.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, A senior Russian diplomat said far more than 800 Russians are fighting alongside the Islamic State group. Those who have joined the group include people from Chechnya and some other regions in the volatile North Caucasus.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Saudi Arabia postponed the 2nd round of flogging for blogger Raef Badawi, sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, because his wounds from last week's 50 lashings have not yet healed.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens for shooting dead a compatriot with a machine gun, bringing to 10 the number of executions in just over two weeks.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State has beheaded or shot 17 men in Syria in the past two days as it faces increasing attacks from unidentified gunmen in areas it controls.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Ukraine officials said 6 soldiers have been killed in attacks by separatists in the past 24 hours, as fighting raged at the international airport in the big eastern city of Donetsk.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Zimbabwe's government says it must export elephants to raise funds for wildlife management. About 60 elephants will be sold for between $40,000 and $60,000 each to China, France and the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 17, The US released Ali al-Marri, arrested as an enemy non-combatant in December 2011, and returned him to Qatar. He was arrested while attending graduate school in Illinois and held for nearly six years in a US Navy brig before pleading to conspiring to support a terrorist organization and receiving a sentence of just over eight years.
(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 17, In Montana some 50,000 gallons of oil spilled from a pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Glendive.
(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 17, An Afghan official said that 9 insurgents have been killed during a raid by security forces backed by local citizens in Kunduz province.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the latest Muhammad caricature on the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo issue, and called it an insult to Islam and the Muslim world. Hundreds of people in Paktika province protested against the continued publishing of cartoons depicting Mohammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, Afghan officials said security services have arrested five men in recent weeks in connection with the Dec 16 massacre at a Pakistan military school last month that killed 150 people, most of them children.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Central African Republic the widely feared anti-Balaka commander Rodrigue Ngaibona, alias Andilo, was arrested.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 17, Chad sent troops, about 400 military vehicles including tanks and armored vehicles, and several attack helicopters to Cameroon and Nigeria to aid in the fight against the Islamist militants. It was reported that Cameroon, Chad and Niger have launched a regional bid to combat the Boko Haram Islamists. In Chad tens of thousands marched in the capital to show support for the fight against Boko Haram chanting in French and Arabic: "Kick the forces of evil out of our territory."
(AFP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Egypt actress Faten Hamama (b.1931), a pillar of Middle Eastern cinema, died after a career that spanned seven decades and graced the golden age of Egyptian filmmaking. Her 1975 film "I Want a Solution" gave a scathing critique of divorce and marriage laws in Egypt, while 1965's "The Sin" focused on the oppression of struggling peasants.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, In El Salvador leaders of the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs agreed from their jail cells to halt killing without any mediation.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.29)
2015 Jan 17, Indonesia executed 6 drug traffickers, five of them foreign nationals. The next day Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta and expressed fury following the executions of two of their citizens.
(AP, 1/18/15)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.36)
2015 Jan 17, In Ingushetia some 15,000 people rallied against Western publications that insult the Prophet Mohammed, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in France.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, The United States and its allies conducted 29 airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq over the last 24-hours.
(Reuters, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Iraq a series of bombings targeting busy markets killed 18 people in and around Baghdad.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, The Islamic State group released about 200 Yazidis held for five months in Iraq, mostly elderly, infirm captives who likely slowed the extremists down.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe pledged $2.5 billion in humanitarian and development aid for the Middle East as he launched a regional tour that includes visits to Jordan and Israel.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, It was reported that Lithuania's defense ministry will issue next week a 98-page booklet, entitled "How to act in extreme situations or instances of war, reflecting jitters over neighboring Russia's intervention in Ukraine and a recent increase of reported airspace violations in the Baltic region.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Media organizations condemned the imprisonment of Macedonian investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski after an appeals court in Skopje upheld charges against him, albeit with a reduction in sentence.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Madagascar at least 46 people perished as tropical storm Chedza battered the country over the last 48 hours, affecting almost 80,000 residents.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 17, In northern Mali a UN peacekeeper from Chad was killed and another wounded near Kidal.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Morocco said it has dismantled an Islamist militant cell sending fighters to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State and mount attacks on returning home. A security source said the government thinks nearly 2,000 Moroccans have fought in Syria's civil war and in Iraq with Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Niger rioters burned at least seven churches in Niamey over the publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon on the cover of France's Charlie Hebdo weekly. The weekend violence left 10 people dead and 45 churches set on fire.
(AFP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Russia 3 iron ore miners were missing and two others were been hospitalized after an explosion deep underground in the town of Kushva in the Ural Mountains.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, At least 35 Syrian soldiers were killed when an army cargo plane crashed in bad night weather in the northwest of the country. Al-Nusra Front claimed on Twitter that it had shot down the aircraft.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes broke out in the northeastern city of Hassakeh after members of a Kurdish militia detained 10 Syrian soldiers and pro-government gunmen after they deployed in areas controlled by the Kurds.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, A Turkish intelligence report said around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Ukraine officials said fighting in the east has killed 3 soldiers, as an upsurge in clashes in recent days between the army and pro-Russian rebels centered around control of the battered Donetsk airport.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Yemen's Houthi militia seized Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's chief of staff, and threatened unspecified further steps to derail a proposed new constitution in a wrangle for power that threatens to bring down the government. National security service chief General Mohammed al-Ahmadi said there are around 1,000 Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen from 11 Arab and non-Arab countries.
(Reuters, 1/17/15)(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber attacked a police supply convoy, killing four people and wounding 12 in Helmand province. Hundreds of university students in Nangarhar province protested against the continued publishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Argentina special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the South American country's worst terrorist attack, was found shot dead. Nisman was set to testify on Jan 19 in a Congressional hearing about the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center. In 2016 former spy chief Antonio Stiuso said Nisman was murdered by people linked to the government of Pres. Cristina Fernandez.
(AP, 1/19/15)(SSFC, 3/6/16, p.A4)
2015 Jan 18, In northern Cameroon Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria kidnapped at least 60 people during an attack on Mabass village. A number of people were killed. Some of the hostages escaped and 30 were freed following a gun fight between Boko Haram and the Cameroon military.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 18, In eastern India at least 4 Muslim villagers were killed, 3 of them burned to death, when their thatched huts were set on fire during a clash in Bihar state. Hindu fishermen blamed Muslims for killing a boy who was friendly with a Muslim girl from the village. 14 people were arrested the next day on charges of arson and murder.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 18, Iran and major powers made "limited" progress in narrowing differences over its nuclear program, but agreed to step up efforts as the Obama administration lobbied to stave off fresh sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Ireland’s Health Minister Leo Varadkar said he's gay on his 36th birthday, becoming the first openly homosexual government figure in the history of the traditionally conservative Catholic country.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Israel laid charges against seven Arab Israelis over allegations they set up a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Israel Sami al-Zayadna (47) died of a heart attack during clashes in which police fired tear gas. This was during the funeral of Sami al-Jaar (220, who died of a gunshot wound last week during a police drug raid on the Negev Bedouin town of Rahat.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 18, An Israel air strike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights killed Hezbollah military commander Mohammed Issa, responsible for Hezbollah's operations in Syria and Iraq, and Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of an assassinated commander from the group. 4 other members of Hezbollah were also killed. General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was among 6 Iranians killed in the attack.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe flew into Tel Aviv at the start of a three-day official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Libya's army announced a ceasefire, joining an Islamist-backed militia alliance in declaring a truce that the UN hailed as a "significant" step towards ending months of violence.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed 4 people and wounded dozens in an attack on a bus station in Potiskum.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Different Pakistani political and religious groups protested for a fourth day against what they call blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Dozens of Palestinian protesters hurled eggs and shoes at the convoy of the visiting Canadian foreign minister in a show of defiance toward Canada's perceived pro-Israel stance.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In the Philippines Pope Francis concluded his trip to Asia with an open-air Mass for a rain-drenched crowd in Manila that the Vatican and the government said drew up to seven million people.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Syria at least 18 people were killed in unprecedented fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hasakeh over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Ukrainian troops recaptured almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine they had lost to separatists in recent weeks. Residents reported a sharp intensification of fighting. Thousands gathered in Kiev for a state-sponsored peace march.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Zimbabwe at least 25 people were killed when two buses collided along a highway outside Harare.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 19, A young woman was sexually assaulted after a party at Stanford’s Kappa Alpha fraternity. In 2016 Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail for digitally penetrating an unconscious and intoxicated victim.
(SFC, 6/7/16, p.A6)(SFC, 6/14/16, p.C2)
2015 Jan 19, In Maryland a fire at a riverfront mansion killed an Annapolis couple and 4 of their young grandchildren.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 19, In Ohio a construction worker was killed and a tractor-trailer driver injured when an I-75 overpass undergoing demolition collapsed in Cincinnati.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 19, In eastern Afghanistan the Taliban attacked government troops in Laghman province, triggering a gunbattle that killed 2 soldiers and wounded a third.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Austrian police said they have arrested a suspected gang leader over the weekend who Russian authorities suspect was involved in the killing of at least six people. Among the victims allegedly killed by the gang was Kazbek Pagiyev, a former mayor of Vladikavkaz, the provincial capital of Russia's republic of North Ossetia. He was shot dead in 2008. Aslan Gagiyev fled Russia last year and was sought on an Interpol warrant.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Bahrain prosecutors charged Sheikh Ali Salman, the Shiite opposition chief in custody since Dec 28, with attempting to overthrow the regime and sent him to trial despite international calls for his release.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Bangladeshi police arrested four suspected members of Islamic State in Dhaka, including a regional coordinator for the militant group who told police they had been trained in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Chechnya several hundred thousand people protested in the Chechnya region against what its Kremlin-backed leader called the "vulgar and immoral" cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Chinese shares plunged about 8 percent after the country's securities regulator imposed margin trading curbs on several major brokerages.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In the Dominican Rep. a man killed 4 people, injured three others and committed suicide in Santo Domingo. Police said Aneury Heredia (26) apparently was trying to avenge a friend's death.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Germany more than 17,000 anti-racism demonstrators took to the streets in several cities to voice opposition to the PEGIDA anti-Islamic movement, whose own weekly rally was cancelled over a terrorism threat.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, More than 2,000 Iranians protested outside the French embassy in Tehran, chanting "Death to France" and urging the ambassador be expelled because of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Kenyan police fired tear gas at children as young as eight protesting against the seizure of their school playground by a property developer.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Malaysian authorities raided a site where trafficked Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis were held in cages, but destroyed it a day later, diminishing evidence that could have aided in an investigation. This was only made public in 2019.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2015 Jan 19, In Pakistan a suspected US drone strike killed 4 militants in North Waziristan. 3 security troops and 7 militants were killed in a clash in the Banda area of the Bajur tribal region.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In the Philippines a concrete wall at a warehouse being built collapsed, killing at least 10 workers in Guiguinto town, Bulacan province.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Romanian inventor Justin Capra (81) died. He claimed to have beaten the Americans to make the world's first jetpack and went on to design and build dozens of vehicles, calling the modern-day car a disgrace.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Sweden Peter Wallenberg (b.1926), the former head of a Swedish financial dynasty, died at his home on the island of Varmdo.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Oxfam International said in a report released as the World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland, that the richest 1 percent of the population will own more than half the world's wealth by 2016.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Syria Kurdish fighters captured a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobani after intense clashes with the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Thailand villagers living near the country’s largest gold mine asked the government to quickly prove the source of arsenic and manganese contamination that has led to a suspension in operations at the mine. Testing conducted in November by a government team on 700 villagers living near the mine found that more than 300 people, including children, tested positive for arsenic and manganese.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russian separatists renewed attacks on Ukrainian forces at the Donetsk airport complex. Ukrainian officials said 3 soldiers have been killed and 66 wounded over the past 24 hours. Ukraine's military claimed that some 700 Russian troops crossed into the country to aid rebels fighting for control of the country's east.
(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Yemen's Houthi movement fought artillery battles with the army near the presidential palace in Sanaa, throwing the fragile Arab state deeper into turmoil. At least 9 people were killed, including fighters from both sides. A cease-fire halted intense clashes near the presidential palace in Sanaa after Shiite rebels seized control of state-run media.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Pres. Obama delivered his 6th State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. His proposals included making two years of community college free.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A13)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.28)
2015 Jan 20, Court papers were filed indicating that the US Justice Dept. has reached a $134,000 settlement with a New York woman after federal agents used information from her cellphone to set up a fake Facebook page in her identity to trick friends and associates into revealing drug secrets.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 20, Animal rescuers said some 100 birds have been found dead and more than 300 others coated with an unidentified glue-like compound mostly along the eastern shoreline of SF Bay.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A1)(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 20, In Texas Greg Abbott (57) took the oath of office as the state’s 48th governor.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 20, Schlumberger Ltd. said it will spend about $1.7 billion for a minority stake in a big Russian energy company at a time when that country's relations with the West are under strain and as energy prices hit multiyear lows.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Melvin Gordon (95), longtime chairman of Tootsie Roll Industries, died in Boston. Gordon ran the Chicago confectioner for 53 years.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.E3)
2015 Jan 20, The Armenian defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said one of its soldiers has been killed while repelling an Azerbaijani incursion over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, A Bahrain court sentenced prominent Shiite activist Nabeel Rajab to six months in prison after it found him guilty of insulting public institutions in his tweets. The ruling was subject to appeal.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Belgian police arrested a fourth man (b.1993) as part of their investigation into Islamist militants suspected of plotting attacks on police. A fifth suspect was apprehended in Brussels.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 20, A senior Canadian officer said Canadian special forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic State fighters in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and IS.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Central African Republic's anti-Balaka Christian militia abducted a Kurdish UN staffer in Bangui. A day earlier two workers for a Catholic medical organization, a local and a French woman (67), were kidnapped.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In CongoDRC hundreds of youths confronted police in the capital after deadly protests over a draft law that would enable President Joseph Kabila to extend his stay in power.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, The Dominican Republic issued $2.5 billion in bonds, the largest amount in the country's history. Some $1 billion in bonds were issued at 5.5 percent interest while $1.5 billion in bonds were issued at 6.85 percent interest.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 20, In southern France a local mayor said five Russians from Chechnya have been arrested, including one with a cache of explosives in Beziers. Four other men appeared at a court in Paris, the first to face charges in the Paris terror attacks.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Iraq two bombings targeting Shiite neighborhoods killed 8 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, The US-led coalition conducted nearly 20 more air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, The militant group Islamic State released an online video purporting to show two Japanese captives and threatening to kill them unless it received $200 million in ransom. The footage named the men as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Leaders of Israel's 1.7 million Arabs declared a general strike throughout the country in protest at the recent deaths of two Bedouin men in confrontations with police.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Israel a knife-wielding Palestinian stabbed 11 morning commuters on and near a bus, striking in the heart of Tel Aviv and reigniting fears of continued violence ahead of Israeli elections in March. Police identified the attacker as Hamza Mohammed Matrouk (23) from the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 20, Italian police seized more than 600 kg (1,320 pounds) of cocaine and hashish in Rome and fanned out to arrest 31 suspected mobsters in what they say further indicates the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate is making the capital a strategic base for its global operations.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In southern Kazakhstan a light passenger plane belonging to Kazakh copper miner Kazakhmys crashed, killing 6 of 7 people on board.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Kuwaiti officials revoked the operating license of newspaper Al-Watan and ordered it shut down. Editor-in-chief Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al Sabah said he believes the latest closure order is related to a decision to report on an alleged coup plot.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Myanmar a Chinese embassy spokesman in Yangon said more than 100 Chinese citizens trapped by fighting between government troops and insurgents in the north, have been arrested and are being held by the Myanmar government.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Nepal opposition politicians threw chairs and attacked the parliamentary speaker during a violent general strike aimed at blocking the government from pushing through a draft of a new constitution.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu signed a military cooperation deal with Iran that his Iranian counterpart touted as a joint response to US interference.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Syrian government air strikes killed at least 12 civilians in two towns in Idlib province. An airstrike in the village of Khansaa, in far eastern Syria near the Iraq border reportedly killed dozens.
(AFP, 1/20/15)(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In eastern Ukraine shelling in the Donetsk region killed at least 6 civilians, as fighting intensified between government and rebel forces.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Yemen Shiite militiamen seized the presidential palace in Sanaa in what a minister said was a bid to overthrow President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and his US-backed government.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Zambia held presidential elections. The winner of the election will serve out the remainder of late President Michael Sata’s term until elections next year. Patriotic Front candidate Edgar Lungu (58) received 48.3 percent of the vote, while Hakainde Hichilema (52) of the United Party for National Development came in second with 46.7 percent after votes were tallied from all 150 constituencies.
(AP, 1/20/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 21, The highest-level US delegation to Cuba in 35 years began talks on immigration. Americans vowed to continue to grant safe haven to Cubans with special protections denied to other nationalities. Cuba complained the US law promotes dangerous illegal immigration and protested against a separate U.S. program that encourages Cuban doctors to defect,
(Reuters, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Federal authorities said Standard and Poor’s credit rating agency, owned by McGraw Hill, has agreed to pay about $80 million to settle an array of government investigations on inflated subprime mortgages. S&P agreed to pay $58 million to the SEC and $19 million to Massachusetts and New York.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.C6)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.66)
2015 Jan 21, It was reported that an Alabama man was cited by police in Georgia for eating a cheeseburger while driving issued under the state’s distracted driving law.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 21, In St. Louis, Missouri, Isaac Holmes (19) was killed by police officers as he emerged from a wrecked stolen with a machine gun. In 2016 a special prosecutor ruled that the officers acted in self-defense.
(http://tinyurl.com/hjpmuq8)(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2015 Jan 21, In Ohio Doyle Chumney (88) and his wife Lillian were reported missing in Strasburg. Their bodies were found the next day in a badly burned car. Jeffrey Stewart (21) a suspect in the slaying was arrested on Jan 31. Suspect Robert Clark (29) was arrested on Feb 5, along with two companions, in Arizona. They were suspected of armed robberies in three states that followed the Ohio murders.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 21, Microsoft unveiled its Windows 10 operating system. MS also showed a new wearable 3-D gadget called the HoloLens.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.C3)
2015 Jan 21, British technology firm Satellite Applications Catapult launched a new satellite tracking system aiming to crack down on the industrial-scale theft known as "pirate fishing." Experts will be able to watch satellite feeds of the waters around Easter Island, a Chilean territory in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, and the western Pacific island nation of Palau.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, British politician Leon Brittan (75), a trusted minister under Margaret Thatcher and former European commissioner, died. Brittan was recently caught up in accusations that, while interior minister, he covered up a report into an alleged pedophile ring involving MPs and prominent public figures.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Cameroon said Nitsch Eberhard Robert, a German kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamist militants in northern Nigeria's Adamawa State last July 16, has been released following an operation by the Cameroon military and its allies.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Canada's central bank lowered its key lending rate to 0.75 percent to bolster an economy facing a major slowdown over the recent plunge in oil prices. The rate cut pushed the Loonie down to around 80 American cents from 94 cents a year ago.
(AFP, 1/21/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.62)
2015 Jan 21, In Estonia Mart Laar, ex-PM and current supervisory board chairman of Estonian central bank, proposed his own ideas of what kind of reforms Estonia needs.
(http://tinyurl.com/pzcg5ag)
2015 Jan 21, France announced sweeping new measures to counter homegrown terrorism, including giving security forces better weapons and protection, going on an intelligence agent hiring spree and creating a better database of anyone suspected of extremist links.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and eight ministers decided to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia because of instability in the region.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Germany Lutz Bachmann, a co-founder of PEGIDA, resigned after media published Facebook messages in which he called refugees “dirty" and posed as Adolph Hitler.
(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 21, In four-way talks in Berlin involving Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France foreign ministers agreed a "demarcation line" between pro-Russian fighters and Kiev's forces from which withdrawal of heavy weapons could start. There were no details.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Iran's country's official news agency said the supreme court has sentenced Mohammad Reza Rahimi, a former vice president, to five years in prison and ordered him to pay a 10 billion rial ($300,000) fine. A local court had initially sentenced him to 15 years prison, but the supreme court reduced the term to five years and three months. Details of the conviction were not provided.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Italian authorities unveiled what they said was a record haul of rare antiquities illegally looted from Italy and discovered during raids on Swiss warehouses belonging to accused Sicilian art dealer Gianfranco Becchina.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Kosovo over 400 employees went on strike inside the Trepca mine demanding the government takes over the administration of the Yugoslav-era giant complex to stop it from liquidation. A day earlier Kosovo's assembly amended a law on public enterprises which enabled it to delayed resolving the issue for another 18 months.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Kurdish security forces launched an offensive on the Islamic State (IS) group in northern Iraq, backed by US-led air strikes, and retook villages the jihadists used to launch attacks. The US and its partners launched 23 air strikes in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Doctors Without Borders announced that it has returned to Myanmar's troubled state of Rakhine nine months after it was ordered out by the government for hiring members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Nigeria confirmed that five states have been hit with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed an agreement to unite the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned and reinstated the rank of ex-army commander Sarath Fonseka, who was imprisoned four years ago after challenging President Mahinda Rajapaksa in an election.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Switzerland the annual 3-day World Economic Forum (WEF) opened in Davos. The theme this year was “the new global context".
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.66)
2015 Jan 21, In Switzerland Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko courted European support World Economic Forum in Davos against what he says are 9,000 Russian troops occupying 7 percent of his nation's territory.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Syria a car bomb on a shopping street in the government-controlled third city of Homs killed 7 people and wounded 30.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, A Turkish court sentenced two police officers to 10 years in prison each for their involvement in the beating death of student Ali Ismail Korkmaz (19) during anti-government protests in 2013. Four other civilian defendants were sentenced to up to six years. The victim's supporters said the verdict was too lenient and staged immediate protests outside and inside the courthouse.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was expected to yield to demands for constitutional change and power sharing with Houthi rebels who took up positions outside his home after defeating his guards in two days of battle. The Houthi rebels from the north draw from a large Shi'ite minority that ruled a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen until 1962.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 22, The United States and Cuba began historic discussions on restoring diplomatic relations, aiming to reach agreement on the opening of embassies in each other's countries.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, The Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences moved its famous “Doomsday Clock" ahead two minutes placing it three minutes from a catastrophic midnight due to global warming and nuclear weaponry.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 22, In New York Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, was arrested on federal corruption charges for using his office to secure millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A7)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.23)
2015 Jan 22, Benin’s parliament approved a new law that removes custodial sentences for offences deemed offensive against the head of state, and regulates access to news sources.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Bolivia Evo Morales (55) was sworn in for a third term as president at a ceremony in the country's national assembly as thousands of supporters cheered outside.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Britain a topless model appeared on the Sun’s third page, after an absence of several days sparked reports that the controversial feature had been dropped.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In CongoDRC government spokesman Lambert Mende said that 12 people have died in three days of unrest and pillaging that began on Jan 19. A coalition of human rights groups said 42 people were killed by security forces firing on protesters. In the east 4 more people died during protests over a proposed law the opposition fears will prolong the president's time in power. On Feb 5 the government raised the death toll in Goma and Kinshasa to 27.
(AP, 1/22/15)(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Jan 22, An Egyptian court ordered the release of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's two sons pending their retrial on corruption charges.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, The European Central Bank began 2015 with a QE (quantitative easing) stimulus, revealing plans for a massive trillion-euro bond purchase program to ward off deflation and end stagnation in the eurozone economy.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, A European Union high court annulled sanctions that the 28-nation bloc imposed on an Iranian bank and a shipping line and companies linked to it, over Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In India a court ordered the release of frail activist Irom Sharmila (42), who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 15 years to protest alleged military brutality in the remote northeast. She has been protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and in northeastern areas like Manipur that are wracked by separatist insurgencies.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Iraq a suicide car bomb at a military base in Taji and an explosive device hidden in a booby-trapped house near Samarra killed 14 soldiers and Shiite militiamen.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Kurdish officials claimed they had cut a key road linking the IS stronghold of Mosul with Tal Afar to the west as US and coalition bombers, fighter jets and drones carried out a total of 31 air raids over the last 24 hours, including ten in Syria and 21 in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Libya fighters for one of the factions battling for control of the country seized the Benghazi branch of the country’s central bank.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 22, Nepal's opposition parties protested both inside parliament and on the streets against governing coalition plans to push through a draft of a new constitution.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency arrested 38 Indian fishermen for violating its waters in the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Pakistan announced that Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was banned. Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the bloody attacks on Mumbai in 2008.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.33)
2015 Jan 22, Romanian prosecutors arrested Cristian David, a senator and former minister, on suspicion of taking a bribe of 500,000 euros ($580,000) in a 2008 land ownership case. In a separate case Constitutional Court Judge Toni Grebla was indicted on suspicion of trying to violate Russia's embargo on the EU by exporting food there via Turkey.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Saudi Arabia postponed the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi, whose case has sparked international criticism, for a second week on medical grounds.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah (b.1924) died after a short illness. He was immediately succeeded by Crown Prince Salman (79).
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Somalia at least 5 people were killed in a suicide car bombing against a hotel in Mogadishu, where Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan was due to arrive a day later.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In South Africa Jackie Selebi (64), a former police chief and member of parliament, died. He was convicted of corruption in 2010, accused of accepting bribes from a drug smuggler in exchange for tipoffs into police investigations.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 22, In eastern Ukraine an artillery shell or mortar struck a public transport stop in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, killing at least 13 civilians in an incident both sides blamed on the other. 10 Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed overnight, six at the airport complex.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, The UN General Assembly held its first-ever meeting devoted to countering anti-Semitism.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 22, Yemen's Houthi rebels welcomed proposed concessions by the government on power-sharing but their gunmen still held positions outside the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A government spokesman said the cabinet has submitted its resignation to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi amid a standoff with Shiite rebels.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 23, US officials said the United States has halted some counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda militants in Yemen following a takeover of the country by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, A US federal court ruled that the Alabama ban on gay marriage is illegal.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 23, In southern California 2 US Marines were killed in a helicopter crash at Twentynine Palms.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A12)
2015 Jan 23, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said about 10 brown pelicans have died, and another four injured after a culprit apparently used a knife to slit the large gullets beneath their beaks. Officials issued an alert last week about the deaths.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Shares of Box Inc., an online data storage firm, opened on the NYSE at $14 and closed at $23.23 in an IPO that gave it a market value of $2.7 billion.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.D1)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported that China is blocking VPN services that let users skirt online censorship of popular websites such as Google and Facebook amid a wider crackdown on online information.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Chinese police said they've arrested five people in connection with a phony bank that used bogus offices and tellers to bilk depositors out of $32 million.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The Democratic Republic of Congo's Senate backed down on a hotly-contested electoral bill enabling President Joseph Kabila to extend his hold on power following days of deadly protests.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, An Egyptian student was killed during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood protesters and local residents in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The European Union said it is withholding $37 million in aid slated for Guyana because the government of the South American country is operating without a Parliament.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, Government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse Muslim protesters angry at the publication of a caricature of Prophet Muhammad in the latest issue of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Indonesia’s police arrested Bambang Widjojanto, the deputy head of the top anti-corruption body, days after it accused a senior police officer of graft, sparking accusations of police retaliation and demands that the president defend the agency.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Iraq Kurds fired 20 Grad missiles into Mosul after receiving information that Islamic State militants were gathering to meet near the city's Zuhour neighborhood. This was their first attack since Islamic State militants overran the northern Iraqi city last summer
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, The United States and its coalition partners launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State, conducting 25 strikes in Iraq and Syria in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Lebanese army helicopter gunships and artillery pounded positions of Syria-based militants after they attacked troops on the outskirts of the northeastern village of Ras Baalbek. A daylong battle killed 8 soldiers.
(AP, 1/23/15)(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Libya Mohamed al-Zahawi, the leader of Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, was reported to have died of wounds suffered when fighting pro-government troops last September.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, A Malawi official said the recent lethal floods killed at least 176 people and caused extensive damage to tobacco crops, which account for 60% of the country’s exports.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Mali 7 fighters of the separatist Tuareg movement were killed in a clash with UN peacekeeping forces near Tabancort.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 23, In Nigeria Boko Haram fighters killed 15 people in Kambari village and set the hamlet to blaze. Kambari is near Maiduguri, the epicenter of the Islamist group's six-year insurgency.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Pakistan thousands of people rallied in cities across the country against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, although the demonstrations remained peaceful.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Peru 2 police officers were killed at the Ciemsa-owned Aguilas mine in the southern Andean highlands as they tried to dislodge protesters at the mine’s entrance.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 23, In the southern Philippines a powerful explosion killed at least 2 people and wounded 54 others in Zamboanga that has been hit by similar blasts blamed on Muslim militants.
(AP, 1/23/15)(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 23, A Russian court convicted journalist Yelena Klimova (26) under a controversial law banning "gay propaganda" aimed at minors. She had set up the “children 404" website to support gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers. "The verdict was a fine of 50,000 rubles ($783).
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Saudi King Salman pledged to maintain existing energy and foreign policies and settled the succession by appointing his youngest half-brother Muqrin (69) as Crown Prince and nephew Mohammed bin Nayef (55) as Deputy Crown Prince.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Sierra Leone lifted quarantine measures imposed at the height of the Ebola epidemic, as the World Health Organization warned the crisis was still "extremely alarming" despite a drop in new cases.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, South Africa police said days of violence and looting of foreign-owned shops have left at least 2 people dead and 153 arrested in the Johannesburg area. Police blamed youths addicted to drugs.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Davos, Switzerland, political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum began campaigning in earnest for twin global accords aimed at cooling the planet and easing the suffering of multitudes.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a government air strike killed at least 32 people including 6 children in a rebel-held area near Damascus.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Thailand embattled former PM Yingluck Shinawatra decried the "death of democracy" in Thailand after the junta-stacked parliament impeached her and prosecutors announced corruption charges that could see her jailed.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported that robbers and looters were targeting trucks carrying food across Venezuela in another sign of worsening shortages that have turned basics like flour and chicken into coveted booty.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The World Health Organization (WHO) said Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have recorded falling numbers of new Ebola cases for four successive weeks.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 23, In Yemen thousands of protesters demonstrated across the country, some supporting the Shiite rebels who seized the capital and others demanding the country's south secede after the nation's president and Cabinet resigned.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 24, The United States and its coalition partners launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, conducting 26 strikes in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In San Francisco thousands of people filled Civic Center Plaza calling for an end to abortion in the annual West Coast march for Life.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.C1)
2015 Jan 24, In NYC security guard Jonathon Walker (34) killed his daughter (7), his girlfriend (31) and her mother (62) at a house in Queens before killing himself a few miles away.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A15)
2015 Jan 24, Egyptian judicial sources said a court has ordered a retrial for 37 Muslim Brotherhood members sentenced to death and 115 others sentenced to life in a mass trial last March. Female protester Shaimaa el-Sabagh was fatally shot by police in Cairo. Officer Yassin Hatem Salah Eddin (25) was later convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2016 Egypt's highest appeals court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial for Eddin.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8) (AP, 2/14/16)
2015 Jan 24, UN Security Council members arrived in Haiti for a three-day visit to urge the government to hold long-delayed elections in order to stem a mounting political crisis.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, India's communist parties held a protest march and burned an effigy of President Barack Obama on the eve of his New Delhi visit, voicing fears of a US domination in economic, nuclear and defense ties with India.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Iraq two bombings killed at least 13 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/24/15)(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 24, Japan strongly criticized a recording purporting to announce the execution of a Japanese citizen held by Islamic State militants and demanded the immediate release of another captive depicted as appearing on the image. The recording appeared to show captive Haruna Yukawa being killed.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, The United Nations said Liberia was dealing with just five remaining cases of Ebola, in the clearest sign yet that the country is nearing the end of the outbreak.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Bayda, Libya, gunmen kidnapped Hassan al-Saghir, the deputy foreign minister of the internationally recognized government.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 24, Police in Puerto Rico seized $23 million worth of cocaine near a tiny island off the US territory's south coast. Three people from the Dominican Republic were arrested.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, Spanish police arrested four suspected Islamist extremists who it said were prepared to launch attacks in Spain.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Syria a rebel mortar attack on Damascus killed at least 3 people and wounded 11.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In southeast Turkey some 70,000 Kurds staged a protest in Diyarbakir against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In eastern Ukraine at least 30 people were killed by shelling in the port city of Mariupol. A rebel leader said separatists were launching an offensive on the city.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)(AP, 1/24/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Yemen tens of thousands marched in protest against Shiite rebels who hold the capital, amid a power vacuum in a country that is home to what Washington describes as al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoot.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Zambia opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema held a briefing in which he described the Jan 20 election as a sham.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Afghanistan a Taliban truck bomb exploded in the capital, wounding two people in the first attack targeting Kabul in almost 3 weeks.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, Central African Republic's minister for youth and sport was kidnapped by gunmen in the capital, Bangui, as he returned from church.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Egypt clashes between police and Islamist protesters in an eastern Cairo district left 9 demonstrators dead. Another protester was killed in clashes in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. 2 suspected Islamists were killed in the Nile Delta province of Beheira when an explosive device they were planting under a high-voltage tower exploded. Police arrested 516 supporters of the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood during violence that erupted as the country marked the fourth anniversary of its January 25 uprising. Shaimaa Sabbagh (32) was shot. A photograph of her bleeding to death went viral and caused an international outcry. On March 17 a police officer was charged over her shooting.
(AP, 1/25/15)(AFP, 1/26/15)(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Jan 25, In France rescue workers found the bodies of six skiers who went missing a day earlier after being carried away by an avalanche.
(AFP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, Greece held general elections. The left-wing Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipras won 149 seats in the 300-seat parliament, leaving it just two seats short of an outright majority and in need of a coalition partner. The Independent Greeks won 13 seats.
(AFP, 1/25/15)(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 25, In India US President Barack Obama and Indian PM Narendra Modi unveiled a deal aimed at unlocking billions of dollars in nuclear trade, a step that both sides hope will help establish an enduring strategic partnership. America and India issued a joint strategic vision for the Asia-pacific and Indian Ocean region.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.34)
2015 Jan 25, In Iraq two bombings ripped through commercial areas in Baghdad, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding dozens.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In northern Iraq armed groups of Yazidis raided four Arab villages in Sinjar, killing at least 21 people in reprisals against Sunni villagers they believe collaborated in atrocities inflicted by Islamic State on their community. A further 17 went missing.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Jan 25, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe branded the murder of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa by Islamic State militants as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid a tide of global revulsion.
(AFP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Libya 6 people were killed when rockets hit residential houses in the city of Benghazi.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In northern Mali at least two soldiers were killed in an ambush 30 miles (45 km) west of Timbuktu.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 25, Nigeria's military repelled an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on Borno state capital Maiduguri. The assault killed over 200 combatants, mostly insurgents. In Adamawa state insurgents continued scorched-earth attacks on six villages.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 25, A massive blackout struck Pakistan early today, leaving as much as 80 percent of the country without electricity at its height as officials rushed to restore power.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, Pakistan’s army said airstrikes have killed 35 militants in North Waziristan.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In the southern Philippines 44 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents. 17 rebels and 4 civilians also died in the deadly clash. Mayor Tahirudin Benzar Ampatuan of Mamasapano town said dozens of commandos had entered the village of Tukanalipao at dawn looking for a top terror suspect, but had a "misencounter" with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. On Feb 4 the US FBI said DNA testing indicated that Zulkfli bin Hir (Zulkifli Abdhir, aka Marwan), a Malaysian member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant group, likely killed in the raid. Six Americans were later confirmed present at the command center of the Special Action Force hours before the raid.
(AP, 1/26/15)(Reuters, 2/4/15)(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A6)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.34)(Reuters, 5/3/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Spain thousands of protesters marched in cities to express their opposition to a proposed law that would set hefty fines for offenses like demonstrating outside parliament buildings or strategic installations.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Syria Islamist fighters struck Damascus with at least 38 rockets, killing 7 people. The Saudi-backed Islam Army, based in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, had warned earlier that it would hit back against an air strike last week in Ghouta in which more than 40 people were killed.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In eastern Ukraine Pro-Russian rebels launched new attacks against government positions. Western countries threatened more sanctions against Moscow for backing a new separatist offensive. President Petro Poroshenko said intercepted radio and telephone conversations prove that Russian-backed separatists were responsible for firing the rockets that pounded Mariupol and killed at least 30 people.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Zambia Edgar Lungu was inaugurated as the country’s new president after being declared the winner of Zambia's Jan 20 presidential election late on Jan 24.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 26, The US charged three Russian citizens with trying to recruit NYC residents as intelligence sources for potential US sanctions against Russian banks and US efforts to develop alternative energy sources. Yevgeny Buryakov, an employee in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank, was arrested. Two other low level diplomats were believed to have returned to Russia.
(SFC, 1/27/15, p.A4)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.23)
2015 Jan 26, The House Freedom Caucus, a congressional caucus consisting of conservative and libertarian Republican members of the US House of Representatives, was formed.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Caucus)
2015 Jan 26, Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling (47) was convicted of leaking classified details of an operation to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions to NY Times reporter James Risen, who authored “State of War" (2006). On May 11 sterling was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
(SFC, 1/27/15, p.A5)(SFC, 5/12/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 26, Eileen Kaufman (93), former wife of SF Beat poet Bob Kaufman (d.1986), died at a senior home in Richmond, Ca. It was her efforts got Bob Kaufman’s collection: “Solitudes Crowded With Loneliness" published in 1965.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.D2)
2015 Jan 26, In Colorado police in Denver shot and killed Jessica Hernandez (17) after she reportedly struck an officer with a stolen car.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 26, Australia’s PM Tony Abbott conferred an Australian knighthood on Prince Philip, the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.34)
2015 Jan 26, President Cristina Kirchner said that she will disband Argentina's intelligence service. She planned to dissolve the Intelligence Secretariat and create a Federal Intelligence Agency after prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead on Jan 18 just hours before he was to make explosive allegations against her.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 26, The Church of England ended centuries of male-only leadership as Libby Lane became its first female bishop in a ceremony briefly disrupted by a traditionalist priest's protest.
(AFP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, An Egyptian appeals court convicted a doctor of manslaughter and performing female genital mutilation that led to the death of a 13-year-old girl, sentencing him to two years and three months in prison in the country's first case that came to trial over the widespread practice. Dr. Raslan Fadl was initially acquitted of the 2013 death of Sohair el-Batea.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, The European Union blacklisted Sri Lanka for failing to combat illegal fishing, officially banning imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka-flagged vessels into the EU.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Greek left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as the prime minister of a new hardline, anti-bailout government determined to face down international lenders and end nearly five years of tough economic measures.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Greek singer Demis Roussos (b.1946) died in Athens. His often high-pitched pop serenades won him household recognition in the 1970s and 1980s across Europe and beyond and who sold more than 60 million records.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban overcame unease within his government to acknowledge the country’s role in the Holocaust, saying many people in the central European country acted "shamefully" in World War II.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, In India US President Barack Obama ended a landmark day with a pledge of $4 billion in investments and loans.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Acclaimed Indian cartoonist R. K. Laxman (94) died. He was the creator of the innocuous character the Common Man, who held up a mirror to the absurdity and silliness of Indian politicians.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Iraq bombings in and around Baghdad killed 8 people. Shiite militias reportedly massacred 77 Sunni villagers during an operation against jihadists in Diyala province.
(AP, 1/26/15)(AFP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Kenya at least seven people were injured in clashes between police and protesters from the Maasai ethnic group who accuse a local governor of corrupt handling of tourism funds from the Maasai Mara game reserve.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Kuwait projected a $24-billion deficit in its new fiscal year budget despite a massive spending cut to cope with plunging oil prices.
(AFP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Liberia said that there are currently only five confirmed cases of Ebola in the entire country — a dramatic turnaround in the West African nation where the virus has taken its deadliest toll.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Hackers defaced the website of Malaysia Airlines and threatened to dump stolen information online after posting a glimpse of customer data obtained in the attack.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Nigerian troops backed by air strikes fought to recapture the northeastern town of Monguno from Boko Haram insurgents who had seized it a day earlier. At least 15 soldiers were killed along with more than over 25 civilians.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Poland led EU criticism of bilateral farm deals with Moscow following a French accord with Russia to lift its ban on live pig and pork imports.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Russian security forces raided independent Crimean television station ATR, seizing equipment and telling employees they were looking for archival footage of an anti-Russia protest last year.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Senegal reopened its land border with Guinea, pointing to the "significant efforts" of its neighbor in fighting an Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives.
(AFP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, In southeastern Spain a Greek F-16 fighter jet crashed into a hangar at the Los Llanos military base while it was participating in NATO maneuvers. Two pilots aboard the Greek F-16 were killed along with 8 French air force members on the ground. Another French airman died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 1/26/15)(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Syria Kurdish forces took full control of Kobani, driving out remaining Islamic State fighters to end a four-month battle. Half the city was completely destroyed and much of the rest had suffered damage. Turkish locals said 17 fighters had been killed in fighting jihadists in Kobane.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 26, US and partner nations launched 21 air strikes in Syria and 13 in Iraq over the last 24-hours.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, In eastern Yemen a suspected US drone strike on a car killed 3 men believed to be al Qaeda militants. A sixth grade student aged about 12 was reported killed the US drone strike. Al Qaeda militants attacked a military checkpoint in southern Yemen, killing a soldier and wounding two others on the outskirts of Mahfad in Yemen province.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, A federal judge in Chicago sentenced twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores (35) to 14 years in prison each for running a nearly $2 billion North American drug ring. Their sentences were reduced as a reward for their cooperation against Joaquin Guzman and other cartel leaders.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 27, Charles H. Townes, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1964), died in Berkeley, Ca. He and physicist Arthur Schalwow had conceived the laser in 1958. The first working laser was built by Theodore Manman in 1960.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.D4)
2015 Jan 27, Treasure hunter Tommy Thompson was arrested in Florida under a federal civil arrest warrant for failing to show up a court hearing. 161 Investors had paid Thompson $12.7 million to find the steamer Central America and never saw returns from the sales. Gold from the ship was sold for about $50 million in 2000.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 27, The US state of Georgia executed Warren Lee Hill (54) for killing a fellow inmate while serving a life sentence for the 1986 killing of his girlfriend (18). Lawyers had argued that the execution was prohibited by the Constitution because Williams was intellectually disabled.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 27, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced earnings of $18 billion in its latest fiscal quarter. The company’s cash was reported to stand at $178 billion.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.53)
2015 Jan 27, Police in Belgium and France arrested suspected militant Islamists in dawn raids; 5 in France and 3 in Belgium.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Denmark said it has earmarked 60.9 million kroner ($9.2 million) over the next three years for programs to de-radicalize Islamic extremists, including those who have fought with jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Egypt's highest appeal court upheld convictions and three-year prison sentences prominent activists Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohammed Adel, for violating the country's draconian law on protests.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, EU finance ministers agreed to loan Ukraine 1.8 billion euros ($2.0 billion) to help save it from bankruptcy, leaving open the option of increasing aid at a later stage.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Greece named radical left-wing economist Yanis Varoufakis its new finance minister, giving him the mammoth task of leading negotiations with international creditors over the country's bailout.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Indonesia’s armed forces officially halted the search for victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed Dec 28. Teams had recovered 70 of 162 people aboard.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 27, In Iraq a bullet hit the fuselage of a Flydubai airliner on its descent into Baghdad, lightly wounding a young girl and prompting many carriers to suspend their flights.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In Kashmir a brief gunbattle between Indian government forces and suspected rebels killed two rebels and two troops.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Kosovo police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse thousands of stone-throwing anti-government protesters demanding the resignation of Serbian minister Aleksandar Jablanovic, who has denied that war crimes were committed against ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 war with Serbia.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In Libya gunmen stormed the Corinthia hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and officials, killing 10 people including an American and 4 Europeans before blowing themselves up. The "Islamic State in Tripoli Province," soon said it launched the attack to avenge the death of Abu Anas al-Libi, who was snatched in Tripoli by US special forces in 2013 and died in US custody earlier this month due to complications from liver surgery.
(AFP, 1/27/15)(AP, 1/28/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.42)
2015 Jan 27, In northern Mali 3 people were killed after a 2nd day of demonstrations against the UN military mission. The crowd was protesting against an agreement concluded at the weekend to create a "temporary security zone" in the Tabankort district of the Gao region. On April 2 the UN said its police peacekeepers had used unauthorized and excessive force and that members of the responsible unit would be repatriated to face justice.
(AFP, 1/27/15)(Reuters, 4/2/15)
2015 Jan 27, A Netherlands judge approved the extradition of Vladimir Drinkman to the US. He was one of four Russians and a Ukrainian charged in a data breach that netted at least 160 million credit and debit card numbers resulting in losses of hundreds of millions over seven years.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 27, Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice handed Former Economy Minister Codrut Seres a sentence of four years and eight months for treason and transmitting state secrets; and Zsolt Nagy, former communications minister, a four-year sentence for being part of a criminal group.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Romania’s chief of Intelligence Service, George Maior, resigned after criticizing the country's top court for rejecting security laws which allowed the government to collect data on people without court approval.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In Somalia Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, a former top commander from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels, called on his former comrades to follow his lead and surrender to the country's internationally-backed government.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In South Africa Martin van Breda (55), a successful businessman, his wife, Teresa (54) and Rudi (22), the couple’s eldest son, were found dead in their De Zalze estate house. Daughter Marli (16) was hospitalized with an ax wound to the head. Henri van Breda (20), who was slightly injured in the attack, later faced three counts of murder for the ax killings of his parents and older brother.
(AP, 2/3/15)(AP, 6/14/16)
2015 Jan 27, South Sudanese rebels released 280 child soldiers, the first batch of some 3,000 to be freed but with thousands more still fighting.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, At least two rockets from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Israel returned fire.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Ukraine said 9 servicemen have been killed in fighting Russian-backed separatists in the past 24 hours, as rebels fought to encircle Debaltseve, a key town straddling transport routes between their two strongholds.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Ukraine's parliament approved a statement defining Russia as an "aggressor state", which deputies said could pave the way for consequences under international law, and called for more international aid and stronger sanctions on Russia. The Russian-backed separatist republics in the east were declared terrorist organizations formally eliminating the possibility of holding peace talks with their representatives.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 27, Yemen's Shiite rebels released presidential aide Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. His abduction 10 days ago set in motion a violent escalation that led to the resignation of the president and the government in the face of a widening rebel power grab.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 28, In San Francisco chopped up body parts were found in a suitcase outside a Goodwill store on 11th St. between Mission and Market. The victim’s head, lower arms and hands were missing. The victim was later identified as Omar Shahwan. On Jan 31 police arrested Jeffrey Andrus (54) on suspicion of murder. Andrus was released on Feb 3 for lack of evidence and died at a city hospital on Feb 8.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A1)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/1/15, p.A1)(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A1)(SFC, 2/9/15, p.A1)(SFC, 8/12/15, p.D1)
2015 Jan 28, American poet Steve Sanfield (b.1937), founder of the Sierra Storytelling Festival, died at his home on the San Juan Ridge in Nevada Ct., Ca. His work included 30 books.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.D3)
2015 Jan 28, Millions in the Northeast started digging out from a powerful blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow and led to coastal flooding around parts the region, while largely bypassing New York City. Massachusetts had a record-breaking 34.5 inches (88 cm) of snow in Worcester, and 24.4 inches (62 cm) at Boston's Logan International Airport.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, McDonald’s, the world’s biggest fast food chain, announced that CEO Don Thompson will leave on March 1 and be replaced by Steve Easterbrook, the company’s chief brand officer. On Jan 23 the company had announced a significant drop operating profit.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.58)
2015 Jan 28, A new study said an estimated 550 women who have traveled to Iraq and Syria are expected to marry, keep house and bear children.
(AFP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Afghanistan's parliament approved eight out of 25 Cabinet nominees. Two alleged militants from a Taliban splinter group were reported arrested last week. The Feday-e-Mahaz group had claimed responsibility for the 2014 killing of Swedish journalist Nils Horner in Kabul. In Herat province a bomb blast killed a female police officer and wounded a policeman at a checkpoint. Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint operated by a group of armed villagers late today, killing 11 people. 7 militants were killed.
(AP, 1/28/15)(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 28, A new report said Canada's electronic spy agency has been intercepting and analyzing data on up to 15 million file downloads a day as part of a global surveillance program. The spying initiative was revealed in 2012 documents obtained by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Canada is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network along with the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Denmark commuters in Copenhagen faced widespread disruptions on the train network caused by the third theft in a week of copper cables from the tracks.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, France unveiled a video and web site designed to dissuade potential jihadists from joining Islamist fighting groups in Syria and Iraq.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, France's highest court ruled that a gay French-Moroccan couple are allowed to marry despite the North African kingdom's refusal to recognize marriages between two men.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Leftwing Greek PM Alexis Tsipras threw down an open challenge to international creditors by halting privatization plans agreed under the country's bailout deal, prompting a third day of heavy losses on financial markets.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, A Guam attorney agreed to drop his legal challenge to a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. Howard Trapp had filed a federal lawsuit against the Guam Election Commission in late October to prevent it from certifying the results of the November medical marijuana vote.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Israel missiles fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy, killing 2 soldiers in an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed 6 Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month. Israeli warplanes struck Syrian army targets on the Golan Heights hours after rockets hit the Israeli-held sector. Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, a Spanish UN peacekeeper, was accidentally killed by Israeli artillery. On April 8 Israel publicly admitted responsibility.
(AP, 1/28/15)(AFP, 1/28/15)(AP, 4/7/15)
2015 Jan 28, Italian police conducted a huge dragnet against a Calabrian mafia clan operating in the north, arresting 110 people and seizing more than 100 million euros ($114 million).
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Jordan offered to hand over Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman on death row for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack, if Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh captured by Islamic State was released.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Madagascar's government appealed for international aid after a tropical storm earlier this month killed 68 people and devastated large swathes of the Indian Ocean island, with damages at around $40 million.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In northern Mali an attack overnight by pro-government GATIA fighters, including suicide bombers, killed a dozen people near Tabankort. GATIA is the commonly-used name for the pro-government Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defence Group.
(AFP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Myanmar opened trial operations of a deep sea port off its western coast, part of a $2.45 billion port and pipeline project that will carry crude oil from the Middle East to China.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 28, Dozens of Palestinians attacked a UN compound in Gaza City following the world body's suspension of an aid program for victims of last year's war due to lack of funds.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena reinstated Shirani Bandaranayake, the country's chief justice, who was impeached two years ago after she refused to back a law granting wider powers to the former president's brother. Bandaranayake reassumed her duties but would retire after attending a farewell ceremony on Jan 29. That would allow the government to appoint a new chief justice.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Tanzania Ibrahim Lipumba, chairman of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), was charged with holding political rallies without a permit, prompting fellow lawmakers to storm out of parliament in protest. Lipumba pleaded not guilty in a court in Dar es Salaam, a day after he and some 30 supporters were arrested.
(AFP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Thailand Jatuporn Prompan, a top leader of the "Red Shirt" political movement, was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting a former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in 2009.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Turkey informed US officials that it was revoking the passport of Fethullah Gulen because it was issued based on a "false statement". Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Jan 28, Ukraine said 3 soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in fighting in the east.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Vietnam a UH-1 "Huey" chopper crashed in farmland on soon after taking off from Ho Chi Minh City on a training flight killing 4 crew members.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 28, Yemen's Shiite rebels took over a key military base south of Sanaa where US advisers had previously trained counter-terrorism forces.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, The US Justice Dept. said four Puerto Rico police officers have been sentenced after pleading guilty to robbery, selling drugs and manipulating court records. Three of the officers were sentenced to more than five years in prison and a fourth to seven years.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Two pilots soaring over the Pacific traveled farther than the 5,209-mile official world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon. The Two Eagles balloon passed a record set by the Double Eagle in 1981. Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia began their flight from Saga, Japan, on Jan 25. On Jan 30 they surpassed the 1978 duration record by spending over 138 hours in the air.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A8)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 29, In southern California the Boys Scouts of America settled a sex-abuse case involving a 20-year old man who was molested by a Scout volunteer in 2007. The decision kept internal documents detailing sex abuse allegations from 1971-2007 secret from the public.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A12)
2015 Jan 29, Rod McKuen (b.1933), poet and song-writer, died in Beverly Hills. His work included some 200 albums and over 30 collections of poetry. Some of his best-known songs, including “If You Go Away" and “Seasons in the Sun" were written with Belgian composer Jacques Brell.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 29, Texas executed Robert Ladd (57) for killing a woman (38) nearly 20 years ago while on parole for a triple slaying years earlier.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 29, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomb attack on a funeral killed 16 people and injured another 39 in Laghman province. 3 American civilian contractors and an Afghan national were killed in a shooting incident at a military base attached to Kabul’s int’l. airport. The gunman wore an Afghan uniform.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)(AP, 1/29/15)(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 29, In southern Afghanistan at least 23 people died and 31 were injured when a bus crashed into a fuel truck on a narrow road in Zabul province.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Australian best-selling author Colleen McCullough (b.1937) died on Norfolk Island after a long illness. Her 25 novels included "The Thorn Birds" (1977), which sold 30 million copies worldwide.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Azerbaijan sentenced opposition journalist Seymur Hazi to five years in prison. He was originally jailed last August after being convicted on charges of hooliganism.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, A fishing boat carrying migrants to Malaysia capsized off the southern coast of Bangladesh and about 20 people were missing. The passengers were reportedly being taken by traffickers to Malaysia for unconfirmed jobs.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Bosnian arms exporter threatened to sue government officials who are blocking a 5 million-euro deal his company has with Ukraine because of objections from Russia, which called on Bosnia not to supply Ukraine with weapons.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Chad sent a warplane dropping bombs and ground troops to drive Islamic extremists from a Nigerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists. Boko Haram fighters made a second attack in a week on Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Chinese coast guard ship allegedly rammed and damaged three Philippine fishing boats at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. On Feb 4 the Philippines protested to Beijing.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Jan 29, Denmark's central bank said id will cut its interest rate on certificates of deposit by 0.15 percentage points to -0.5 percent, effective Jan 30, to keep the krone currency stable against the euro.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Egypt a group of women protested in Cairo against the death of Shaimaa Sabbagh (22) and around 25 other activists allegedly killed by security forces at recent rallies marking the 4th anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.40)
2015 Jan 29, In Egypt at least 30 soldiers and police officers were killed in four separate attacks in the Sinai Peninsula. Most of the casualties occurred in the bombing of a military hotel and base in al-Arish. Two children, one of them 6 months old, died a day later from wounds suffered.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, The EU extended by six months an existing set of sanctions against Russia and pro-Russian separatist officials because of continued fighting in the Ukraine.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 29, In Germany dozens of flights were canceled at Duesseldorf and Cologne-Bonn airports after private security workers walked off the job in a dispute over wages.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Iraq bombings and a shooting killed at least 16 people around Baghdad, including soldiers and Shiite militiamen.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Jordan demanded proof from Islamic State militants that a Jordanian pilot they are holding is still alive, despite purported threats by the group to kill the airman at sunset unless an al-Qaida prisoner is freed from death row in Jordan.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Mexico a nurse and 2 babies, were killed when a gas truck exploded and destroyed a large part of a maternity hospital in the west of Mexico City. A 2nd nurse died of her injuries on Feb 3 and an orderly died of wounds on Feb 6.
(AP, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Jan 29, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar met in Ethiopia for the latest round of peace talks mediated by East African leaders aimed at ending their 13-month-old civil.
(AFP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Sudan two Russian pilots were kidnapped in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 2/3/15)
2015 Jan 29, The Syrian arm of al Qaeda attacked a Western-backed rebel group near Aleppo. The Nusra Front seized positions from the Hazzm movement west of Aleppo. Government airstrikes killed at least 8 people in the northern town of al-Bab held by the Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition wrapped up four days of consultations in Russia with a general statement avoiding any sharp issues.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Ugandan Muslim sheikh and 17 others were charged with killing two fellow clerics in a case that police linked to Islamist rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo. Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga, the leader of Uganda's Muslim Tabliq group, and 17 others were charged for the murders of two clerics last December, and the attempted murder of a third earlier this month.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, UN experts said over 38,000 Somali children are at "high risk" from dying from starvation despite hunger levels improving by almost a third across the war-torn nation.
(AFP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In eastern Ukraine 5 government soldiers and 3 civilians were killed as a result of fighting in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Yemen reported that 2 soldiers were killed and two wounded when they were ambushed while on patrol by suspected al Qaeda militants in the central province of Marib.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 30, It was reported that Clarke Howatt, the public finance director of the Association of Bay Area Governments, is under scrutiny for orchestrating the theft of $1.3 million in bond money meant for public parks and street improvements in San Francisco’s south of Market area. A routine audit uncovered the missing cash last month.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 30, In southern California Marion “Suge" Knight, founder of Death Row Records, was booked on suspicion of murder after hitting and killing Terry Carter (55) with his pickup truck and fleeing the scene a day earlier. On Feb 2 Knight was charged with murder.
(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A10)(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 30, Carl Djerassi (b.1923), Stanford chemist, died of complications of cancer at his home in San Francisco. He was a key contributor to the invention of the birth control pill.
(SSFC, 2/1/15, p.D1)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 30, Shares of Shake Shack, a hamburger chain, rose to $45.90 on the NYSE in an IPO with 5 million shares sold at $21.
(SFC, 1/31/15, p.D2)
2015 Jan 30, African Union leaders opened a two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The 54-member bloc called for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Austrian police arrested 54 people after violence broke out as thousands protested against a ball organized by far-right groups and politicians in Vienna.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, Zhelyu Zhelev (b.1935), Bulgaria’s first non-communist president (1990-1997), died. He was hailed as a hero of freedom and democracy.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Jan 30, In northern Cameroon 3 soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants were killed when the Islamist group attacked a Chadian army contingent over the last 24 hours near the border town of Fotokol.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, Canada's spy agency was granted new powers to thwart terror plots in a security overhaul precipitated by recent jihadist attacks.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cut short a visit to Ethiopia for an African Union summit after the Islamic State's Egyptian wing claimed the killing of at least 30 soldiers and police officers in the Sinai Peninsula. An interior ministry employee was killed in North Sinai.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, France pledged tanks and armored vehicles to bolster NATO forces in Poland, where leaders are increasingly uneasy about Russia.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said the government will not cooperate with the EU and IMF mission bankrolling the country and will not seek an extension to the bailout program. PM Alexis Tsipras' government sacked the heads of the state privatization agency after halting a series of state asset sales
(Reuters, 1/30/15)(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, Iraqi Kurdish forces repelled a major attack by the Islamic State group in Kirkuk province. Brigadier General Shirko Rauf and 5 other members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded. Violence elsewhere left at least 19 dead. Kurdish Brig. Gen. Hussein Mansour was killed by a sniper shot near Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/30/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, The US-led coalition said it launched six air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Israel published bids for the building of 450 new housing units in West Bank settlements.
(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 30, At least 8 people died when a boat carrying illegal migrants sank amid gales off Morocco, near the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, NATO said it will deploy small units in six Eastern European nations to help coordinate a spearhead force set up in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. The units in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania will be the first of their kind there.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In southern Pakistan a powerful bomb tore through a busy Shiite mosque, killing at least 61 people in Shikarpur, Sindh province.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Qatar Airways said it has bought nearly 10 percent of the parent company of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, deepening its business ties to Europe.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Russia's top general said a strong nuclear arsenal will ensure military superiority over the West as Moscow forges ahead with a multi-billion dollar plan to modernize its forces by 2020. Gen. Valery Gerasimov said the Russian military would receive more than 50 new intercontinental nuclear missiles this year.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In a decree published online Russia’s government said that a company owned by Arkady Rotenberg, a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, would be given the commission to build a bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Russia the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences, one of the country’s largest public libraries, went up in flames in south-west Moscow. The main storage which contained rare medieval Slavic texts didn't seem to be affected.
(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Saudi Arabia two US citizens came under gunfire, and one of them was wounded but in stable condition.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Saudi Arabia postponed for a third week in a row the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, The South African government granted parole to Eugene de Kock, the head of a covert unit for the apartheid state responsible for dozens of deaths, saying it is in the interest of national reconciliation.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front fought Western-backed rebels as the jihadists pressed to take control of a northern area. Syrian opposition fighters detonated a cache of explosives in a tunnel under an army post in the northwestern province of Idlib, inflicting heavy casualties among government troops. The government denied the casualties and said the targeted post was empty.
(AFP, 1/30/15)(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In eastern Ukraine at least 24 people, mostly, civilians were reported killed on both sides in heavy fighting. An attempt to reopen peace talks in neighboring Belarus was aborted before it began. Kiev's military said 5 of its servicemen had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Ethiopia Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (90) took over the post of African Union chairman, replacing Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 31, Two Eagle balloonists Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia landed 4 miles offshore in Baha California. Their record voyage covered 6,646 miles over six days, 16 hours and 38 minutes.
(SSFC, 2/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 31, An unmanned Delta 2 rocket lifted off from California carrying a NASA satellite to measure how much water is in Earth’s soil, information that will help weather forecasting and tracking of global climate change.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Georgia (USA) 5 relatives and a friend were found slain inside a home in LaGrange. Investigators suspected the victims had been dead for three days. On Feb 2 authorities said suspect Thomas J. Lee (26) has been arrested at a bus station in Tupelo, Mississippi.
(SFC, 2/2/15, p.A5)(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Afghanistan Muslim protesters against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo clashed with security leaving two dead.
(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Bangladesh at least 13 people including two women were killed when a fire swept through a plastics factory in Dhaka.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Sunni-ruled Bahrain said it has revoked the citizenship of 72 people convicted of "harming the interests of the kingdom" in unrest by the Shiite majority since 2011. The official BNA news agency published a list of the 72 people affected by the measure. 22 were alleged members of the Islamic State.
(AFP, 1/31/15)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.44)
2015 Jan 31, Chadian aircraft bombed the Nigerian town of Gambaru in a raid targeting extremist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, DR Congo's foreign minister said government troops have started their long-awaited offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, An Egyptian court banned the armed wing of Palestinian group Hamas and listed it as a terrorist organization, a ruling in keeping with a systematic crackdown on Islamists by Pres. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Richard von Weizsaecker (b.1920), former German President (1984-1994), died overnight in Berlin. He had declared Germany's World War II surrender a "day of liberation" for his country as he urged it to confront the Nazi past, and promoted reconciliation during a tenure spanning the reunification of west and east. He was the first German president to visit Israel.
(AP, 1/31/15)(Econ., 2/14/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 31, India succeeded for the first time in using a mobile launcher to test-fire the Agni V missile, a long-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead deep inside rival China. This was the first time the weapon had been fired from a so-called canister mounted on a truck rather than from a concrete launch pad used in previous trials.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Iraqi Kurdish forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive. A series of bombings in and around Baghdad killed 9 people.
(AFP, 1/31/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, prompting PM Shinzo Abe to vow to step up humanitarian aid to the group's opponents in the Middle East and help bring his killers to justice.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Jan 31, Italian lawmakers elected Sergio Mattarella, a constitutional court judge and veteran center-left politician, as president.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Macedonia's chief opposition leader was charged by police with conspiring with a foreign intelligence service to topple the government. Zoran Zaev, leader of the Social Democrats, denied the charges, saying authorities were trying in vain to prevent the publication of what he says is incendiary evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the conservative government of PM Nikola Gruevski.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Mexican investigators said 150 green sea turtles have been found dead in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, on the Pacific side of Baja California Sur state. The federal environmental protection agency suspected that that lowered temperatures in the region may have caused the deaths. Earlier this month the bodies of 14 gray whales were found in the lagoon.
(AP, 2/1/15)(SFC, 2/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 31, Panama expelled a former Colombian intelligence chief, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, to face charges at home of illegally intercepting phone calls from opposition Colombian lawmakers.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, A Philippine air force Italian-made light plane crashed at sea on a training mission, killing the two pilots.
(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Somalia a missile hit the Islamist-held stronghold of Dinsoor, 270 km (170 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu. Several Shebab militants were reported killed.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Spain some 150,000 people marched through Madrid in a show of strength by Podemos (We Can), a fledgling radical leftist party, which hopes to emulate the success of Greece's Syriza party in general elections later this year.
(AP, 1/31/15)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.51)
2015 Jan 31, In Syria a pro-government faction known as the National Resistance Movement shot dead an army defector in Daraa province after accusing him of spying for Israel.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Jan 31, Ukrainian former president Leonid Kuchma, a Russian diplomat and an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) official met at a state residence in the Belarussian capital Minsk for a new round of peace talks.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In eastern Ukraine 12 civilians were killed by separatist artillery shelling of the town, which lies to the north-east of Donetsk. Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said 15 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 30 wounded in clashes across the east.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Yemen Harith al-Nadhari and 3 other militants were killed in an American drone strike against their car in the southern Shabwa province. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) later named the others as Said Bafaraj, Abdelsamie al-Haddaa and Azzam al-Hadrami.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Jan, A US drone operation this month killed American doctor Warren Weinstein, abducted in 2011, and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, abducted in 2012. This same operation in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan resulted in the death of American al Qaeda leader, Ahmed Farouq. The White House acknowledged this on April 23 and said American al Qaeda member, Adam Gadahn, was also killed, likely in a separate operation. US government officials said the CIA carried out the drone strikes on Jan. 14 and Jan. 19 in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 4/23/15)(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 Jan, Minnesota showed a $1 billion budget surplus. Gov. Mark Dayton during his first four years in office (2011-2015) raised the state income tax from 7.85 to 9.85 percent on individuals earning over $150,000, and on couples earning over $250,000 when filing jointly. He also agreed to raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2018, and passed a state law guaranteeing equal pay for women.
(http://tinyurl.com/ohk54c4)
2015 Jan, Twitter acquired Periscope, a live video streaming app for iOS and Android developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periscope_%28app%29)
2015 Jan, At least 12 people were reported killed and 18 wounded this month in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Jan, Germany introduce a new minimum wage set at 62% of the average wage in east German states.
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.61)
2015 Jan, Israel's internal security service caught 11 alleged Hamas fighters in the occupied West Bank who planned attacks against Israelis. The group, from the city of Hebron, was arrested by Shin Bet agents and troops.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Jan, Italian police raided and closed a chain of more than 20 pizzerias allegedly belonging to the Camorra, a mafia of the southern city of Naples and its surrounding area, Campania.
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.58)
2015 Jan, In Madagascar at least 57 people died of plague in the wake of cyclones Chedza and Bansi.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.D18)
2015 Jan, Panama’s Supreme Court voted to launch an investigation into former Pres. Ricardo Martinelli’s role in a corruption case involving a $45 million program to deliver dried food to the poor.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.33)
2015 Jan, In the Philippines Noi-sung Hong (74) of South Korea was abducted by at least five gunmen disguised as policemen from his house in Roseller Lim town in southern Zamboanga Sibugay province. The kidnappers tried to kidnap his son, who fought back and managed to escape. Hong’s body was found in a sack on Oct 31 on a roadside in Indanan town in Sulu province.
(AP, 11/1/15)
2015 Jan, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment introduced daily monitoring of Lake Baikal levels in an effort to reverse the drying of the lake due to a combination of climate change and growing use of hydropower. In the past four months the lake’s water level has dropped so low that experts are calling it a crisis.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Jan, In Sudan members of the Rapid Support Forces raped at least 60 women in the western Darfur region after taking over the town of Golo.
(SFC, 9/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan, The UN Security Council authorized a 3,000 strong multinational intervention force against the FDLR, a militia in eastern Congo formed two decades ago by Rwandan Hutu rebels after they lost power.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.43)
2015 Jan, Vietnam’s PM Nguyen Tan Dung's approved in principle a new casino at Phu Quoc, a resort island in the Gulf of Thailand. The Finance Ministry proposed that the new decree allow Vietnamese who are over 21 years of age, financially secure and without any criminal record to play in selected casinos.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan - 2015 May, Indian forces killed 20 Bangladeshis trying to cross the border illegally.
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 1, The New England Patriots ended a decade drought without an NFL title by beating the defending champion Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in a taut Super Bowl XLIX classic played in Glendale, Arizona.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 1, Some 3,800 steelworkers began a strike at oil refineries from California to Kentucky after negotiations with Shell Oil Co. broke down. Shell was negotiating a national contract for other oil companies.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A9)
2015 Feb 1, After a two-day summit held in the African Union's Chinese-built headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, heads of state proposed new taxes on airline tickets, hotel stays and text messages.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Chadian aircraft struck Boko Haram positions in the Nigerian border town of Gambaru for a second straight day.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Egypt deported Al-Jazeera reporter Peter Greste to his native Australia after holding him for more than 400 days despite global condemnation. Colleagues, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and an Egyptian producer, Baher Mohamed, remained in prison.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Egypt three men were killed by police in separate incidents under circumstances indicating abuse of police authority.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 1, In Hong Kong some 8-13 thousand pro-democracy demonstrators marched through the streets in the first major rally since mass protests last year.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Hungary some three thousand protesters in Budapest demanded the ouster of PM Viktor Orban's government.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In northwest Iraq Kurdish forces found the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State jihadist group in a mass grave.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 1, The United States and its allies have carried out 26 air strikes in Iraq and eight in Syria over the last 24 hours in continued attacks on Islamic State targets.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, The Islamic State group beheaded an Iraqi police officer and two soldiers, the latest in a long series of atrocities committed by the jihadists, according to pictures posted online today.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Nigeria’s military repelled a Boko Haram assault on Maiduguri. Two blasts rocked Gombe city, killing 5 people, with one of the attacks targeting a military checkpoint. A suicide bomb attack targeting a political meeting killed 7 people in Potiskum city.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Pakistan an advance party arrived in a C-130 transport plane for Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz to visit the southwestern desert region to hunt the Houbara bustard, a bird supposedly protected by law. He led a hunting party to Baluchistan last year that officials said killed more than 2,000 bustards.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 1, Outspoken billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal launched a pan-Arab satellite news channel aimed at challenging established networks in the region. The Bahrain-based Alarab News Channel took to the air, leading with a story about Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Saudi Arabia the daughter of Suad al-Shammari, co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group with blogging activist Raef Badawi, said her mother has been freed after about three months in prison.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Serbian officials said they have granted citizenship to former Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan, a key political rival of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after he pledged millions of dollars in investments from the Emirates, where he has lived in exile.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Spain said 400 African migrants tried to storm border fences separating its North African enclave Melilla from Morocco and warned of a buildup in numbers across the frontier.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Swiss police said 11 people have died in off-piste skiing accidents in the Swiss Alps despite repeated avalanche warnings over the past four days.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Syria a bomb tore apart a bus thought to be carrying Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Damascus, killing at least 7 people and wounding 19. A Nusra Front Twitter feed said one of the group's members blew himself up inside a bus at the market.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Tunisian party leaders said the moderate Islamist party Ennahda has agreed to join its main rival secular party Nidaa Tounes as part of a coalition government.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In eastern Ukraine 13 government soldiers and at least as many civilians were killed in the past 24 hours in the separatist conflict after the collapse of peace talks in Belarus.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, The UN reported that fighting and other violence in Iraq killed at least 1,375 people including 790 civilians in January.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 2, President Barack Obama proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal year 2016 that sets up a battle with Republicans over programs to boost the middle class that are funded by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Oakland, Ca., rapper Dominic Newton (37), aka the Jacka, was shot and killed by unknow assailants.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.D1)0
2015 Feb 2, A winter storm led to flight cancellations in the Northeast US. The same storm had dumped a foot and a half of snow on Chicago, Detroit and other areas of the Plains and Midwest.
(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 2, Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced that a grand jury had returned an indictment last month against 16 people, mostly in the NYC area, in a wire fraud and identity theft ring. Prosecutors said they caused the IRS to pay over $10 million in fraudulent tax refunds for tax years 2010-2013.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 2, In Bahrain the new Alarab television news channel backed by a billionaire Saudi prince was suspended from broadcasting, just hours after it went on air and carried an interview with prominent opposition activist Khalil al-Marzooq.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection named the country’s ten most polluted cities of 2014. Seven were located in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.41)
2015 Feb 2, A Chinese court said a father and daughter have been executed for attacking and killing a woman who had refused to join their outlawed "All-powerful Spirit" group during an altercation last May 28 at a McDonald's outlet in Shandong province.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, Croatia’s government said citizens whose debts do not exceed some 4,500 euros ($5,000) and whose bank accounts have been frozen for more than a year, can apply to have their debts written off in a scheme dubbed "Fresh Start".
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, An Egyptian court sentenced 183 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death. The men were convicted of playing a role in the killings of 16 policemen in the town of Kardasa in August, 2013. In 2016 an appeals court ordered a retrial for the defendants over the attack.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)(AFP, 2/3/16)
2015 Feb 2, In central India rebels ambushed a paramilitary police team in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh state, killing the two policemen instantly.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In northern Iran a private plane carrying a Saudi national and an Iranian pilot went missing.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 2, Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (78) was granted a request to end his community service sentence for tax fraud 45 days early for good behavior.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Liberia large-scale human testing of two potential Ebola vaccines got under way in Monrovia, part of a global effort to prevent a repeat of the epidemic that has now claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Libya a car bomb exploded near the Tripoli headquarters of a Libya militia which controls the capital, killing one person and wounding two others.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, Nigerian warplanes started bombing runs in the Sambisa Forest, where Boko Haram extremists have camps and kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls last April.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 2, In northeastern Nigerian a car bomb went off near a stadium in Gombe, a few minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan left a party rally there. A female suicide bomber was the only fatality.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 2, In the Philippines Macau-based Melco Crown Entertainment formally opened its $1 billion casino and entertainment resort in Manila, hoping to cash in on a fast growing Philippine economy and increased tourism.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In South Korea former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir: "President's Time" was published. Lee wrote that late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large shipments of food and fertilizer as a condition of the talks.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, South Sudan's warring factions signed another peace deal in the latest effort to end hostilities that have raged for more than a year.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, Syrian government warplanes carried out several air raids on a rebel-held village in the country's south, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens in Daraa province.
(AP, 2/2/15)(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Turkey at least 8 people were killed and many more rescued from high winds and flooding caused by a huge storm, a southwesterly known locally as a Lodos.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 2, In eastern Ukraine rebels pounded the positions of Ukrainian government troops holding Debaltseve, a strategic rail town, while both sides pressed ahead with mobilizing more forces for combat. Kiev's military said 5 more Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes. Municipal authorities in the big rebel-controlled city of Donetsk said 15 civilians were killed at the weekend by shelling.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 3, A SF Bay Area judge dismissed a lawsuit filed on April 24, 2014, by the Marshall Islands that charged the US and other countries of violating the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 3, In New York 6 people killed when a packed commuter train crashed into an SUV outside NYC in the worst accident in the history of Metro North.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Bangladesh attackers threw crude fire bombs at a packed bus, setting it alight as it moved along a highway and leaving at least 7 people dead during a nationwide strike called by the opposition.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, British lawmakers in the House of Commons voted to allow scientists to create babies from the DNA of three people, a move that could prevent some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Martin Gilbert (78), Winston Churchill's official biographer and a leading historian of the Holocaust, died following a lengthy illness. His 80 books included eight on the Holocaust as well as a three-volume "History of the 20th Century."
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Burundi some 150 journalists and civil rights activists demonstrated to demand the release of a radio station boss accused of complicity in the murder of three Italian nuns last September.
(AFP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Toronto’s National Post reported that Canada’s drug-price regulator has accused Alexion Pharmaceutical of exceeding the permissible price cap for its drug Solaris. Alexion charged $700,000 per patient in Canada for the potentially life-saving treatment for two rare blood diseases.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 3, Chadian troops clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the northeastern Nigerian towns of Gambaru and Ngala in a bid to break the Islamist insurgents' grip on the town bordering Cameroon. More than 200 extremists and 9 Chadian troops were reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 3, In eastern CongoDRC 23 people were hacked to death in the city of Beni in the restive North Kivu province. Ugandan ADF-NALU rebels were suspected.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Egypt a roadside bomb near Alexandria killed a bystander and injured two others. Authorities defused two more explosives at Cairo International Airport.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Fiji said it will replace its national flag this year to remove symbols of British colonialism.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 3, Iraq's cabinet approved a draft law creating a national guard, which Sunni political figures have described as a necessary step to achieving national reconciliation.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, US and allied forces staged airstrikes on 14 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria in the last 24-hour period.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Supporters of the Islamic State insurgent group circulated photos on social media purporting to show captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh being burnt alive.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, In southern Israel a crash involving a bus and a truck carrying two tractors killed 8 people and wounded at least 20.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Italy's new Pres. Sergio Mattarella (73) assumed office with a ringing call to the nation to root out organized crime and corruption devouring public resources and solve a protracted economic crisis depriving young people of their future.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Teachers in northern Kenya bordering Somalia have refused to return to work, fearing attacks by Islamic extremists. Some 700 teachers demonstrated outside parliament in Nairobi demanding that the government transfer them to schools in safer regions.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Libya new clashes erupted between rival factions fighting for control of the country's biggest oil port Es Sider, killing several people. Gunmen attacked a partly French-owned al-Mabrouk oil field and shot to death 3 guards.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, Mexico’s Pres. Enrique Pena announced that he and his wife will become the first subjects of a conflict-of-interest investigation, as part of a package of anti-corruption measures.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.33)
2015 Feb 3, In Mexico gun battles between government forces and gunmen on roads between the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros killed 8 suspected criminals.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Pakistan two roadside bombings targeted police in the country's restive northwest, killing six officers.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Russian investigators agreed to free from detention a woman accused of high treason after calling Kiev's embassy in Moscow to say Russian troops might be heading to east Ukraine. Svetlana Davydova would, however, have restrictions placed on her movements and she still faced the charge of treason.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Thai police said they have arrested six people accused of being part of a conspiracy to slander the country's monarchy on the Internet.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Ukraine said 5 more soldiers have been killed and 27 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in the eastern regions in the past 24 hours. Fighting was particularly intense around the town of Debaltseve, a major rail and road junction northeast of the city of Donetsk.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, The United Nations' top court ruled that Serbia and Croatia did not commit genocide against each other's people during the bloody 1990s wars sparked by the breakup of Yugoslavia.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) declared itself "extremely concerned" by photographs showing its food parcels being handed out in Syria with Islamic State logos on them.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Pope Francis approved a decree declaring slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero a martyr for the church. The cleric, a defender of the poor and vocal critic of the military, was shot dead in 1980 while celebrating mass. Pope Francis said Romero was killed out of hatred for his Catholic faith.
(AFP, 2/3/15)(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 4, In NYC Ross William Ulbricht (30) of San Francisco was convicted of creating and operating the underground Silk Road website that enabled drug dealers around the world to reach customers.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.C1)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.33)
2015 Feb 4, In Pennsylvania Ryan Mangan (16) of Jeanette was found sitting in a chair with a single gunshot wound to his face. Police soon arrested Maxwell Morton (16) after the mother of a third boy called to say that her son had received a selfie that showed the victim shot in the face.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 4, Texas executed Donald Newbury (52), for killing Dallas police officer Aubrey Hawkins (29), who interrupted a gang robbery on Christmas Eve 2000. He had helped engineer the biggest prison break in state history 11 days earlier. Newbury was the 3rd gang member to be executed.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 4, In Texas Samantha Dean (29) was found shot to death behind a vacant building. An autopsy indicated she was seven months pregnant. Boyfriend and suspect VonTrey Jamal Clark fled to Indonesia and was arrested there on July 30. On Sep 2 Clark, a former Austin police officer, (32) was extradited to the US.
(AP, 9/2/15)
2015 Feb 4, Nine non-profit organizations were named for the MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Eight were US-based and one in Mexico.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.D4)
2015 Feb 4, Anthem, one the largest US health insurers, said a hacker cyberattack had breached a database contained some 80 million records of tens of millions of its customers and employees going back to 2004.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A6)(SFC, 2/12/15, p.C1)
2015 Feb 4, Staples, the largest US office supply chain, announced that it is spending about $6 billion to acquire Office Depot.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.C1)
2015 Feb 4, In Bosnia the mayor of Trnovo said a Dubai-based construction company plans to build a luxury resort worth 2.3 billion euro ($2.6 billion) on a mountain near Sarajevo, a ski resort where three decades ago the Winter Olympics were held.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Embattled Brazilian oil giant Petrobras said that Maria das Gracas Foster, the company's chief executive officer, and five other top figures stepped down amid a long-running and massive kickback scandal at the firm.
(AP, 2/4/15)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.60)
2015 Feb 4, Cameroon's army killed at least 50 Boko Haram insurgents and lost six of its own soldiers in clashes with the Nigerian Islamist group in the border town of Fotokol. Boko Haram fighters went on a rampage in Fotokol, massacring civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, China announced that users of blogs and chat rooms will be required to register their names with operators and promise in writing to avoid challenging the Communist political system, further tightening control over Internet use.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Chinese and Argentine leaders signed a batch of agreements in Beijing, including collaboration on two new nuclear power plants.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Doctors Without Borders says that human testing of brincidofovir, a potential Ebola drug, is being stopped because there aren't enough patients because of a decline in Ebola cases.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, An Egyptian court sentenced 230 people, including one of the leading activists behind the country's 2011 uprising, to life in prison after finding them guilty of taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces later that year. All were tried in absentia except Ahmed Douma, a secular activist who is already serving a three-year-sentence for breaking a draconian law regulating protests. Thirty other people, all minors, were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Gabon lifted its ban on the main opposition party National Union (UN), which was outlawed after its leader declared himself president of the oil-rich west African nation in 2011.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The German cabinet approved a draft law aimed at preventing radical German Muslims from travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight for or train with groups like Islamic State.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Jordan executed a pair of Iraqi prisoners after a declaration of "punishment and revenge" against the jihadist group. Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziyad Karboli had been sentenced to death in Jordan years ago, the former for an attempted suicide bombing as part of a deadly attack on Amman hotels in 2005, the latter for killing a Jordanian national and working closely with former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, In Mexico a video captured two soldiers helping a federal police officer torture a female suspect in Ajuchitan, Guerrero state. News of the video was only made public on April 14, 2016.
(SFC, 4/15/16, p.A2)
2015 Feb 4, Saudi Arabia beheaded two convicted rapists and a murderer, bringing to 21 the number of people it has executed so far this year.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The Somali government said a US missile strike last week killed Islamist group al Shabaab's mastermind behind attacks at home and abroad. A day earlier the US said it had launched the drone strike to kill Yusef Dheeq, Shabaab's chief of external operations.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The United States and its allies staged 11 airstrikes near the Syrian city of Kobani, and also targeted the insurgent group with six strikes in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, TransAsia Airways Flight GE235, a turboprop ATR 72-600 with 58 passengers and crew, careered into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport. 35 people were confirmed dead with 8 missing and 15 rescued. 31 of those on board were tourists from China’s southeastern city of Xiamen.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 4, In eastern Ukraine shelling at a hospital killed at least 5 people ahead of a visit to Kiev by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Rebel and government officials said 8 other civilians were killed in clashes around the region over the past 24 hours.
(AFP, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The US ambassador to NATO said that Russian soldiers were present in eastern Ukraine in a command role and to operate advanced military equipment.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Venezuela formally charged two top executives of Farmatado, its largest drugstore chain, as part of an investigation into what authorities say are illegal practices contributing to the country's chronic shortages.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 4, A Vietnamese police officer said authorities have buried thousands of cats, many apparently still alive, that were seized last week after being smuggled in a truck from China for restaurants. The truck driver to whom the cargo belonged, was fined 7.5 million dong ($360).
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 5, President Barack Obama hailed the Dalai Lama as a "good friend" during a symbolic first public encounter between the two men at a high-profile Washington prayer breakfast.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, First Lady Michell Obama announced a $500 million donation from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund the fight against childhood obesity.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 5, In Ohio three people were killed and three others wounded at the Chalk Linez barbershop shooting in Warrensville Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. In 2016 Douglas Shrine Jr. (21) was convicted of the shootings and his role in killing an eyewitness.
(SSFC, 11/20/16, p.A10)
2015 Feb 5, At the Univ. of South Carolina Sunghee Kwon (46) shot and killed her ex-husband Raja Fayad (45), an anatomy professor, and then committed suicide with a gunshot to her stomach.
(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 5, Texas-based Radio Shack, founded in Boston in 1921, said it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The NYSE stopped trading its shares on Feb 2.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.C2)
2015 Feb 5, Police in Brazil issued 62 arrest, search and other legal orders in the investigation into a massive kickback scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras. This included a warrant compelling the treasurer of Brazil's ruling Workers' Party to testify.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, British glam rocker Gary Glitter (70), aka Paul Gadd, was convicted of one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In Cameroon Boko Haram fighters continued their attack on Fotokol, leaving nearly 100 people dead and some 500 wounded. Cameroonian soldiers assisted by Chadian forces chased hundreds of Boko Haram fighters out of Fotokol.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China authorities in Shanghai said police have seized 2.4 tons of methamphetamine and arrested 28 people in one of the country's largest drug busts.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China a fire at a wholesale market killed at least 17 people and injured nine others on the fourth floor of the market in southern Guangdong province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, It was reported that protection rackets in Colombia have ballooned into an estimated $1 billion-a-year industry.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 5, Denmark's central bank cut a key interest rate for the 4th time in a month as it tried to keep the krone currency stable against the euro.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, The leaders of Germany and France announced a new peace plan for Ukraine, planning to fly together to Kiev and Moscow with a proposal to resolve the conflict.
(Reuters, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, An India official said police over the last ten days have rescued hundreds of children working in hazardous industries in in Hyderabad despite laws that ban child labor.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Iraq's PM Haider al-Abadi lifted a decade-old, midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew in Baghdad, ordered that long-blocked streets in the capital be opened up and declared some neighborhoods of the city weapons-free zones effective Feb 7.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Jordanian fighter jets pounded Islamic State hideouts in Syria and then roared over the hometown of a pilot killed by the militants while King Abdullah consoled the victim's family below.
(Reuters, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Libya's only commercial flight link to mainland Europe was severed when the state carrier said its foreign partner had pulled out of the country after a deadly attack last week on a Tripoli hotel. Georgia-based Afriqiyah had only just restarted the route to Duesseldorf last month.
(Reuters, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In Libya pro-Haftar forces reportedly expelled Islamist militias from Benghazi port.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, In Mexico 61 rotting bodies were found at the crematorium of an abandoned funeral home near Acapulco after neighbors complained to authorities about a foul smell coming from the building. The facility had been shuttered for about one year.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, Myanmar's government accused students who are protesting against state educational policies of being manipulated by groups seeking to destabilize the country.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, The Russian film "Leviathan," a harrowing portrayal of small-town corruption, opened in about 450 theaters across Moscow and other cities. The Oscar-nominated film was directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Syrian government forces and rebel forces traded salvos of rockets and mortar shells around Damascus, killing at least 21 people. Syrian army helicopters dropped two barrel bombs on a crowded square in a rebel-held neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo.
(AP, 2/5/15)(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, Tunisia's parliament approved a coalition government led by the secular Nidaa Tounes party and including moderate Islamist rivals Ennahda, following landmark elections in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Ukraine raised a key interest rate by a whopping 5.5 percentage points following a massive drop in its currency that has stoked concerns of runaway inflation.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 6, A US federal judge ruled that a Puerto Rico debt-restructuring law that aims to protect the government from bankruptcy and make public corporations self-sufficient is unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan donated $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 6, The American military said US-led forces have launched 10 air strikes in Syria and eight in Iraq against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hrs. A purported statement by the Islamic State group claimed that an American female hostage was killed in a Jordanian airstrike on the outskirts of Raqqa, the militant group's main stronghold. Kayla Jean Mueller (26), an aid worker, was captured in 2013. On May 14 it was reported that Mueller had been raped repeatedly by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the IS.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)(AP, 2/6/15)(AP, 8/15/15)
2015 Feb 6, In NYC Adel Abdul Bary, an Egyptian lawyer who pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Americans, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Bary would face about eight more years in prison because he has been incarcerated since 1999.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Wisconsin Sureshbhai Patel (57) from India was slammed to the ground by a police officer after a caller said a "skinny black guy" with a toboggan hat was walking in the neighborhood and peering into garages. One of the officers restrained Patel by pulling his arms behind his back and then slammed him face-first into the ground less than 90 seconds after the confrontation began. Officer Eric Parker was arrested and is being fired.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 6, In western Afghanistan a bus crash in Hirat province killed 7 people and wounded 12 others. A roadside bomb killed 2 people and wounded three others in Helmand province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Bangladesh attackers threw crude fire bombs at a packed bus and a moving truck in two separate incidents, killing at least 9 people and injuring 30 others.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Brazil police surprised a group of suspects trying to blow up an automatic teller machine in the eastern city of Salvador, sparking a shootout that killed at least 13 of the would-be robbers.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Britain’s Investigative Powers Tribunal ruled that British spies acted illegally when they scooped up data about Briton’s electronic communications gathered by the US National Security Agency.
(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 6, British jihadi Imran Khawaja (27), who joined a terrorist training camp in Syria then faked his death in an attempt to sneak back to England, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Canada's highest court unanimously struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent patients with terminal illnesses.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Forces from Chad and Niger repelled Islamic extremists from Nigeria as they attacked Bosso town inside Niger, marking the second foreign country attacked by Boko Haram this week.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao resigned as prime minister, stepping down ahead of an expected restructuring of the government next week.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Egyptian military air strikes killed 27 Islamic militants in the Northern Sinai in one of the biggest security operations in the region in months.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Europe floods forced hundreds of people from their homes in Albania and Macedonia. Heavy snow and winds caused traffic havoc in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.
(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 6, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine crisis.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Munich-based industrial machinery maker Siemens AG said it will cut 7,800 administrative jobs worldwide as part of an effort to streamline the sprawling company and its many businesses.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In northern Iraq the remains of 23 men from the Yazidi religious minority were found when a mass grave was excavated.
(AFP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, Italian judicial sources said Dino Maglio (35), a policeman who posed as an amiable host on the Couchsurfing website, has been charged with drugging and raping a 16-year-old Australian and may have sexually assaulted up to 15 other women. He will go on trial in Padua near Venice from March 17.
(AFP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Thousands of Jordanians packed the streets of the capital Amman, urging their monarch to step up air strikes on Islamic State to avenge its killing of pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Libya a suicide car bomber, attempting to strike an army post in the battleground second city of Benghazi, was intercepted and blew up his car short of the target killing a father and son.
(AFP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Niger 109 Boko Haram fighters were killed by soldiers responding to attacks in fighting in the towns of Bosso and Diffa near the border with Nigeria. 4 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated outside Egypt's diplomatic mission in Gaza City, to protest a Cairo court ruling designating Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist group.
(AFP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Filipino Muslims called for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law at a rally following prayers at the Golden Mosque in Manila, Philippines. The law would implement a peace accord granting minority Muslims autonomy in the southern Philippines.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Poland’s lawmakers voted 254-175 with eight abstentions to empower Pres. Komorowski to sign into law the 2011 Council of Europe's convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, South African author, Andre Brink (b.1935), died aboard a KLM flight travelling from the Netherlands to Cape Town. He used his work to question the policies of South Africa's apartheid regime. His 1975 book, "Looking on Darkness," the first of Brink's books distributed to the United States, was banned by the South African government until 1982.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government air force conducted 60 strikes on the Eastern Ghouta district outside Damascus leaving 82 dead over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In eastern Ukraine convoys of buses carrying many local residents to safety left the besieged town of Debaltseve as government forces kept up artillery fire to defend their positions against pro-Russian separatists.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Yemen's powerful Shiite rebels announced that they have taken over the country and dissolved parliament. Houthi rebels said they are forming a five-member presidential council that will replace President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi for an interim two-year period.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Georgia, USA, Cedric Prather (33) shot and killed 4 people, including his ex-wife and several children, and wounded two others at a home in Douglasville before fatally shooting himself.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A9)(SFC, 2/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 7, Workers at refineries in Indiana and Ohio went on strike against two BP plants in an extension of strikes that began Feb 1.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A9)
2015 Feb 7, Residents in Montana began finding dead horses. Somebody had shot up to two dozen horses and dumped their bodies in a hay field about a mile west of Lodge Grass on the Crow Indian Reservation.
(http://tinyurl.com/ors58py)(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 7, An alleged audiotape aired on a Brotherhood-allied TV station in which Egypt’s Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and a top aide purportedly banter about how rich Persian Gulf Arabs are and add up the billions they intend to seek. Financial help, estimated at some $32 billion, has helped keep Egypt afloat after years of instability. On Feb 9 el-Sissi called leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, praising their wisdom and saying relations won’t be undermined by “nefarious attempts" to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/lyprfja)(SFC, 2/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 7, In Egypt 3 policemen were shot dead and two others injured when they came under fire while conducting a raid against a group of criminals near the southern city of Minya.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Germany's Angela Merkel warned that sending arms to help Ukraine fight pro-Russian separatists would not solve the crisis there, drawing a sharp rebuke from a leading US senator who accused Berlin of turning its back on an ally in distress.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Haiti at least 6,000 protesters marched through the capital to demand lower gas prices and the ouster of President Michel Martelly.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Air pollution in Delhi, India, was reported to be the worst in the world with levels of smaller particulates routinely 15 times above levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.38)
2015 Feb 7, In Iraq at least 40 people were killed in three bombings around Baghdad. Baghdad's decade-old nightly curfew was set to end at midnight.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Kenji Ekuan (85), Japanese industrial designer, died in Tokyo. His works ranged from a bullet train to the red-capped Kikkoman soy sauce dispenser as familiar as the classic Coca-Cola bottle. A former monk, Ekuan crafted a tabletop bottle for Kikkoman Corp. in 1961, winning international popularity both for the handy, flask-shaped dispenser.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 7, Jordan carried out a third straight day of air strikes on Islamic State targets.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Kenya a masked gunman shot and killed a Kenyan lawmaker on a street in Nairobi. George Muchai, was killed alongside his two bodyguards and a driver after they stopped to buy a newspaper.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Libya's eastern oil export port Hariga shut down due to a strike of security guards, closing the country's last functioning export port apart from two offshore fields. Only Brega port was still open, but it is used to supply the 120,000 bpd-Zawiya refinery with crude.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, A Mexican federal judge threw out a five-year, money-laundering sentence for Sandra Avila Beltran, ordering the immediate release of the "Queen of the Pacific" for her alleged role as a liaison between Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. The judge ruled that Avila already had been tried for the same crime in Mexico and the United States.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, NATO and Russia failed to narrow their differences over the Ukraine crisis in talks but agreed they would keep talking to each other.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, US-led forces launched 15 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and 11 in Syria over the last 24 hours. Nine targets in Syria centered around the border city of Kobani.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Nigeria’s election body chairman Attahiru Jega announced that the presidential and parliamentary polls would be postponed from February 14 to March 28, while gubernatorial and state assembly elections would be held on April 11.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Puntland at least 2 people were killed when Somali militants al Shabaab attacked the house of a senior police official in the semi-autonomous region.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Slovaks voted in a nationwide a referendum that would bar gay marriages and adoptions, and allow parents to decide whether their children attend sex education classes. The votes won't count unless at least half of the eligible voters turn out. Voters overwhelmingly voted "yes" — 95, 92 and 90 percent, respectively — to the three questions. But turnout reached only 21.4 percent, far less than the 50 percent needed.
(AP, 2/7/15)(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, South African police discovered the frozen corpses of four newborn babies in two freezers at a house in the southern city of Mthatha.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Tunisian authorities said they have arrested 32 extremists over the last several days and thwarted an ambitious plot to attack civilian and military sites around the country, including the Interior Ministry. Some 3,000 Tunisians were estimated to have left for jihad, mainly with the Islamic State group, in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko brandished in front of world leaders several passports taken from Russian soldiers in what he said was proof of Moscow's "presence" in his country.
(AFP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, The United Arab Emirates said it has ordered a squadron of F-16 fighters to Jordan, which would participate in airstrikes on the Islamic State group after the UAE earlier suspended its involvement.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 8, The United States delivered more than $25 million worth of military aid including heavy artillery to the Lebanese army to help it fight jihadist groups which have repeatedly battled with security forces near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In the Comoros Islands Mohamed Said Abdallah Mchangama, a former finance minister, was arrested on charges of inciting hatred. Mchangama had called for a general strike in protest at the government's energy plans.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Egypt 22 soccer fans died of suffocation from tear gas and a stampede outside a Cairo stadium in a melee with security forces. Authorities said it was sparked when hard-core Zamalek fans known as Ultras White Knights tried to force their way into the stadium without tickets. The violence prompted the Cabinet to suspend the national football league indefinitely. Police arrested 21 soccer fans in the wake of the stampede.
(AP, 2/9/15)(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, French police detained six people suspected of recruiting potential jihadists, just days after another operation saw five charged on similar grounds.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In India a Japanese student (20) was raped while touring Jaipur. Three men (20-24), who offered to be her tour guides, took her to a farming village outside the city, raped her on a roadside and fled. Villagers heard the woman crying and helped her contact police. On Sep 4 a court sentenced the three men to 20 years in prison. Three other defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for helping the three main accused commit the crime.
(AP, 9/4/15)
2015 Feb 8, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to demolish nine homes in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ofra, which were built on private Palestinian land. Authorities have until 2017 to carry out the demolitions.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 8, Two Italian patrol boats picked up 105 migrants late today from the boat drifting in extreme sea conditions. At least 29 migrants died of hypothermia aboard Italian coast guard vessels. Survivors later confirmed the existence of a fourth rubber boat that left Libya with as many as 300 people unaccounted-for.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A2)(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 8, Jordan said it has launched 56 airstrikes against Islamic State group weapons depots, training centers and military barracks since militants released a video on Feb 3 of them burning a Jordanian pilot to death.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Libya heavy fighting flared up in Benghazi as forces loyal to the internationally recognized elected government tried to retake areas controlled by extremist militias.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists abducted about 30 people including eight Cameroonian girls and killed 7 hostages in two bus hijackings in Cameroon and Nigeria.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Niger Boko Haram fighters waged a new attack on Diffa, a southeastern border town, where a blast killed at least 5 people and injured at least 10. Aid workers said the assailants had come from Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/8/15)(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigerian authorities came in for heavy criticism over the decision to postpone national elections in the face of relentless Boko Haram violence.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Sudan 3 staff of the Sudanese Red Crescent were killed in an attack in Blue Nile state, where Khartoum is battling rebels.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 8, A Turkish court ordered the arrest of 21 police officers as part of an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of politicians, civil servants and businessmen.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In eastern Ukraine intense fighting continued around the rail junction town of Debaltseve, with rebel fighters making repeated attempts to storm lines defended by government troops. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France agreed to meet in Belarus on Feb 11 to try to broker a peace deal.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 9, The US federal government pledged $3.2 million to help save the monarch butterfly.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 9, Alabama became the 37th state where gays can legally wed. State chief justice Roy Moore told judges not to let gays marry. At least seven of 67 counties issued gay marriage licenses. 47 of the state’s 67 counties were issuing licenses by Feb 13.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 9, New evidence published in the journal Nature Geoscience that human activity can disrupt the climate suggested that air pollution tied to industrialization in the northern hemisphere almost certainly reduced rainfall over Central America.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Afghanistan Abdul Rauf, the top recruiter for the Islamic State group's affiliate, was killed by a drone strike along with 7 other militants. Afghan forces fired the missile. Rauf was released from Guantanamo in 2007 and sent home to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/9/15)(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Australia a Japanese citizen died after a shark tore off his legs while he was surfing off the coast of New South Wales.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 9, Bahrain said it suspended a new pan-Arab news channel backed by a billionaire Saudi prince within hours of its first broadcast because it failed to obtain a proper license and did not meet anti-terrorist standards. The Alarab network disappeared from TV screens early on Feb 2, a day after its launch.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Police in India said that they had arrested eight people suspected in the rape and murder of a Nepalese woman in the northwest state of Haryana. The 28-year-old woman had been staying with her sister when she went missing Feb 1. Her mutilated body was discovered three days later. In northern India police searched for a man who raped a Japanese student sightseeing in Jaipur a day earlier. The accused tour guide turned himself in on Feb 13.
(AP, 2/9/15)(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Iraq attacks in Baghdad killed 22 people with dozens left wounded.
(AFP, 2/9/15)(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Macedonia's chief opposition figure accused PM Nikola Gruevski of wire-tapping journalists, religious and opposition leaders, deepening a scandal that has engulfed the European Union candidate country in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Myanmar troops fought Kokang ethnic rebels in clashes near the Chinese border that the government says the guerrillas provoked. Warlord Phone Kyar Shin, aka Peng Jiasheng, launched attacks on the government army around Laukkai.
(AP, 2/10/15)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 9, In northeast Nigeria scores of militants armed with guns and explosives stormed a police station in the town of Kanamma in Yobe state. Several police officers were reported killed.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 9, Islamist fighters from Nigeria's Boko Haram sect attacked a prison in neighboring Niger overnight.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Senegal the four-day African Land Forces Summit opened in Dakar. It brought together top American military brass and the heads of 35 African armies.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Somali lawmakers approved a new cabinet, hours after Shebab insurgents assassinated a colleague as he made his way to parliament.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Former South Korean spy chief Won Sei-hoon was sent to prison for three years after being found guilty of ordering an illicit online campaign to support then-ruling party candidate and current President Park Geun-hye ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Syria at least 15 people were reported killed and dozens wounded on in government air strikes on an area outside Damascus. Barrel bombs over the next 48 hours left at least 18 people dead in Douma, a rebel-held area of Damascus.
(AFP, 2/9/15)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.45)
2015 Jan 9, In Turkey security forces detained 13 foreigners and a Turkish citizen attempting to cross into Syria from a village in the southeastern province of Gaziantep to join the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Turkey G20 finance ministers met in Istanbul. Britain and the United States called on leading world powers to overhaul their economies and keep budgets in line to encourage growth.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, The Ukraine military said At least 1,500 Russian troops and convoys of military hardware entered Ukraine over the weekend.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, The UN said over 2.5 million South Sudanese are on the brink of famine, with the civil war likely to intensify as it launched a $1.8 billion aid appeal.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 10, The US government announced the new Cyber Threats Intelligence Integration Center to coordinate cyberthreat intelligence spread across the federal government.
(SFC, 2/11/15, p.C1)
2015 Feb 10, The self-styled CyberCaliphate sent telephone death threats to five US military wives. In 2018 it was reported that the women were not targeted by jihadists, but rather by the same Russian hacking group that intervened in the 2016 American election and exposed the emails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager.
(SFC, 5/9/18, p.A7)
2015 Feb 10, NBC announced that it is suspending Brian Williams as “Nightly News" anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq war.
(SFC, 2/11/15, p.A12)7
2015 Feb 10, In eastern Massachusetts schools and most public transit systems remained closed around Boston as residents dug out from a third major winter storm in two weeks.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In North Carolina 3 Muslim students: Deah Shaddy Bakarat (23) his wife of two months Yusor Mohammad (21) and Ms. Mohammad’s sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (19), were shot and killed near the campus of the Univ. of NC. Craig Stephen Hicks (46) turned himself in to the nearby Chatham County Sheriff’s Office and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. A long-running dispute over parking was said to be a potential motive. Police found at least a dozen firearms and a large stash of ammunition at the home of Hicks.
(http://tinyurl.com/lomuzs7)(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A12)(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 10, John Dehlin (45), a Mormon who gained notoriety over the past decade for running a website that offers doubting Latter-day Saints a forum to chat, announced that Utah church leaders have kicked him out of the faith for apostasy.
(SFC, 2/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 10, In Washington state three officers arrived at a grocery store parking lot in Pasco where Antonio Zambrano-Montes (35) reportedly threw rocks at them. Police said they first used a stun gun to try to incapacitate the suspect after he would not obey commands to surrender, then opened fire and killed him. In a 22-second video filmed by a motorist, Zambrano-Montes is seen running away from the officers before he was killed. Three officers fired 17 shots at Zambrano-Montes. An independent autopsy said he was hit seven times with at least two entrance wounds on the back of his body.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A6)(AP, 2/26/15)(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 10, In Afghanistan Taliban suicide attackers assaulted a police station, killing one officer in Kunduz province. A roadside bomb in Jalalabad exploded as Angeza Shinwari, a Nangarhar province councilwoman, drove past. The blast killed her driver and severely wounded Shinwari and another person.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Albania two bombs exploded in Tirana early today in what PM Edi Rama described as terror attacks apparently intended to hit back at a government anti-crime drive.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Australia two men were arrested for planning to launch an imminent terrorist attack. Police seized a homemade flag associated with the Islamic State, a machete and a hunting knife in a counterterrorism raid.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, China promised to help build a hydroelectric power plant in a violent Afghan border region, as well as road and rail links to Pakistan, in the latest sign it is taking a more active role in Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Egypt's Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Egypt and Russia have agreed to build a nuclear power plant together. El-Sissi also said the two nations signed agreements to improve natural gas business and investment. They also agreed to create a Russian industrial zone along the Suez Canal. This came during a joint press conference in Cairo with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Egypt five bombs exploded outside police stations in Egypt's second city of Alexandria, wounding 10 civilians.
(AFP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, The European Union said it is providing 100 million euros ($113 million) in loans to Jordan to help it deal with the fallout from crises like the conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In France a three-day trial began for Pierre Le Guennec and his wife, Danielle. They claimed that the artist, or his wife, gave them 180 lithographs, collages and paintings and 91 sketchbook drawings around 1970 when Le Guennec began working as a general handyman for Picasso.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, A Hong Kong woman was convicted of assaulting her Indonesian maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, in a case that sparked outrage for the scale of its brutality. A judge found Law Wan-tung guilty of 18 charges including grievous bodily harm.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, India's PM Narendra Modi suffered his first major election setback since becoming prime minister last May, as anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal won a landslide victory in Delhi state polls.
(AFP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Iraq three bombing attacks killed at least 8 people and wounded 25.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Japan and Mongolia signed a free trade agreement.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim began a 5-year prison sentence after a court rejected his final appeal against a sodomy conviction.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Malaysia arrested cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque, aka Zunar, for sedition over a Twitter post that criticized the judiciary for upholding a five-year jail term for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who accused the courts of "bowing to the dictates of the political masters".
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, In the Netherlands a "distributed denial of service" attack was responsible for taking down several of government websites for hours.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, Scotland’s Royal and Ancient Golf Club announced its first seven female members, including Swedish great Annika Sorenstam and Britain's Princess Anne.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Syria's army gained ground from rebels in the south in what a monitoring group described as a large-scale offensive in the region backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters against insurgents including al Qaeda's Syrian wing. The operation began two days earlier.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In eastern Ukraine rockets killed 7 civilians in Kramatorsk and rebels pushed on with an assault to cut off an army-held rail junction, setbacks that showed Kiev's position worsening on the eve of peace talks. 7 Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed and 23 wounded in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, The United Arab Emirates launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group from an air base in Jordan.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Venezuela Judge Ali Fabricio Paredes sentenced drug kingpin Walid Makled to 14 years in prison, drawing immediate objections from prosecutors, who said they will appeal.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, In southeastern Yemen 4 suspected Al-Qaeda fighters were killed in a suspected US drone strike in Hadramawt province.
(AFP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 11, US President Barack Obama sent Congress his text for an authorization to use military force in the campaign against Islamic State, limiting operations against the militants to three years and barring use of US troops in "enduring offensive ground combat."
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, The Obama administration introduced an aggressive plan to stem illegal wildlife trafficking.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A9)
2015 Feb 11, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved 550 default deals. These included the sale of Presidio Terrace, after residents failed to pay $994 in back taxes, to Michael Cheng and Tina Lam for $90,000. The tax bills had been sent to an accountant who had not worked for the neighborhood association in years. On Nov. 28, 2017, city supervisors reversed the tax sale.
(SFC, 11/29/17, p.A7)
2015 Feb 11, The San Francisco medical examiner’s office said a dismembered body found in a suitcase on Jan 28 was that of Omar Shahwan (58), a longtime friend of Jeffrey Andrus, the prime suspect in the case, who died on Feb 8.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 11, A former San Francisco police officer and four others were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Jose on charges that they hacked into computers to gain an advantage over adversaries in civil lawsuits.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.D6)
2015 Feb 11, In NYC Bob Simon (b.1941), a CBS correspondent, was killed in a car crash in Manhattan.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A11)
2015 Feb 11, An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket from Elong Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a research satellite. Rough seas forced abandonment of a plan to recover the booster aboard a ship.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.C4)
2015 Feb 11, Australia faced increased pressure to reform its immigration system after a new report showed more than a third of refugee children detained under those policies had developed a mental illness requiring psychiatric care.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, A Belgian court sentenced Fouad Belkacem, the leader of Sharia4Belgium, to twelve years in prison and gave dozens of other members lower sentences. The group had recruited youngsters to fight in Syria and was declared a terrorist organization.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 11, Bosnia's parliament approved Denis Zvizdic as prime minister after he promised to unblock the Balkan country's stalled bid to join the EU and push through reforms sought by the bloc.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Brazil an explosion on an oil ship off the coast of Espirito Santo state killed at least 5 people. Four workers remained missing.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 11, Chadian soldiers killed 13 fighters from Islamist militant group Boko Haram in a battle in the Nigerian town of Gambaru. One Chadian soldier was reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, East Timor announced that President Taur Matan Ruak has chosen opposition party member Rui Maria de Araujo (50), a former health minister, as the new prime minister.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Egypt's highest appeals court overturned death sentences for 36 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the government has labelled a terrorist group, and ordered a retrial. The case stemmed from an August 2013 attack on a police station in the southern town of el-Adwa when a police officer and a civilian were killed.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Iraq clashes between government forces and militants outside Tikrit along with attacks in Baghdad killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Italy Francesco Schettino, former captain of the capsized Costa Concordia, was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter, causing the Jan 13, 2012, shipwreck that claimed 32 lives. Schettino lost his final appeal in 2017 and began serving his 16-year sentence.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A2)(SFC, 5/13/17, p.A2)
2015 Feb 11, Liberia's Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf vowed that the country would get to zero Ebola cases soon as the US military announced it will be withdrawing most of its troops who have spent the last several months helping to battle the disease.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Libya UN negotiators restarted talks in Ghadames with delegates from Libya's warring factions, meeting separately with rival parties in an attempt to end the political crisis and reach a ceasefire.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Mali officials said motorcycle-riding poachers have killed at least 19 elephants over the past month, marking a significant blow to a rare grouping that lives in central Mali. It is believed there are only 350 to 700 elephants left in Mali.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, The Mozambique government said a cholera epidemic has killed 19 people in the north following flooding that devastated the region.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Myanmar's government reached an agreement with student protesters who have been marching to Yangon to seek education reforms, but the deal announced by the two sides still needs parliamentary approval.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Myanmar's president declared that a system of temporary identification cards for people seeking citizenship will become invalid at the end of March, negating an earlier decision that would have allowed card holders to vote in an upcoming constitutional referendum. The temporary identification cards, popularly called "white cards," were created by the former military regime for the 2010 elections in which it relinquished power to a nominally civilian government.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Niger two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the frontier town of Diffa, following days of cross-border attacks by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Poland hundreds of angry farmers drove their tractors toward Warsaw, where their leaders were seeking government compensation for crops destroyed by wild boar, profits undercut by Russia's import ban and new market regulations.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Serbian security forces stepped up patrols and deployed an elite unit on its border with Hungary, trying to halt a torrent of migrants that has triggered alarm in many European Union countries.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government air force raids have killed at least 183 people in insurgent strongholds east of the capital in the past 10 days.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Ukrainian forces battled pro-Russian rebels for territory on one of the bloodiest days in the 10-month war ahead of a pivotal peace summit on the conflict.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Venezuelan authorities arrested Judge Ali Fabricio Paredes less than 24 hours after he issued a sentence in a high-profile drug trafficking case that prosecutors said is too lenient.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Yemen the US embassy staff destroyed weapons, computers and documents before closing and evacuating diplomats. Britain and France also moved to close their embassies.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 12, The US multi-state $564.1 Powerball lottery was won by ticket holders in North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 12, Sam Andrew (b.1941), a founding member of rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, died in San Rafael, Ca. In the mid 1960s the band shot Janis Joplin to fame.
(SFC, 2/17/15, p.C3)
2015 Feb 12, NY Times media columnist David Carr (58) collapsed at the newspaper’s headquarters. He died of complications from metastatic lung cancer.
(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.A14)
2015 Feb 12, In Las Vegas Tammy Meyers (44) was shot in the head outside her home in a Las Vegas cul-de-sac shortly before midnight after confrontations that began when she was giving her daughter (15) an after-hours driving lesson and the girl honked at a driver she felt was speeding. The mother's life-support was disconnected on Valentine's Day. On Feb 19 police arrested Erich Nowsch (19) on suspicion of murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/odzz2sf)(SFC, 2/20/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 12, In Afghanistan Sheirin Agha, a member of the country's High Peace Council, was assassinated during prayers at a Kandahar mosque.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, Oliver Rackham (75), British plant pathologist and woodland archeologist, died. His last book, “The Ash Tree," was written in response to the outbreak of the Chalara fungus.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.94)
2015 Feb 12, Human Rights Watch said Burundian troops executed at least 47 surrendered rebels last month, part of a "broader pattern" of violence coming ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, China offered to mediate in stalled efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban in peace negotiations.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In western CongoDRC dozens of people were missing after a collision between two boats on the Congo River. 3 bodies were recovered out of an estimated 100 on board one of the vessels. Some 42 survivors made it to shore.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 12, An Egyptian judge ordered the release on bail of Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed, a pair of Al-Jazeera English journalists being retried on terror-related charges. Also being freed on bail are 11 other defendants in the case, mostly students charged with involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, England and Wales passed a new law banning "revenge porn" -- sexually explicit images shared online by a former partner without their ex's consent. The devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have responsibility for justice matters, are also looking at introducing similar laws.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Steve Strange (55), a singer with the British band Visage and one of the founders of the 1980s' New Romantic style, died in a hospital in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed a deal on that offers a "glimmer of hope" for an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine after marathon overnight talks in Belarus. The deal envisages a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists starting on Feb 15, followed by the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, France and Egypt agreed a deal worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) for the sale of Dassault Aviation-built Rafale fighter jets, a naval frigate and missiles.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Greece reported that tax revenues slumped 23 percent below target in January as citizens held off on paying taxes before a snap election, marking a setback for the new left-wing government as it seeks a deal with European partners to avert a financial crisis.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In Iraq Islamic State militants seized parts of the town of Al-Baghdadi, five miles from the Ayn al-Asad airbase where some 320 US troops were training Iraqi troops.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 12, US-led forces hit Islamic State targets in Iraq with 12 air strikes and three air strikes in Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In Libya gunmen from an al-Qaida inspired militia took over radio and television stations in Sirte.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 12, A Niger spokesman said security forces in Niger have killed 260 Boko Haram militants since the group began cross-border attacks on its southeastern Diffa region on Feb 6.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In northeastern Nigeria at least 21 people were killed in two separate Boko Haram attacks on Akida and Mbuta villages near Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, A Pakistani army spokesman says 12 local Taliban militants involved in a deadly school attack late last year have been arrested. Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa told a media briefing that another 9 members, of what is believed to be a 27-member cell, have already been killed.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In South Africa Pres. Zuma’s State of the Nation address was interrupted with questions about longstanding allegations of corruption in a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his rural home in Nkandla. Speaker Baleka Mbete told the EFF and its firebrand leader Julius Malema to stop asking questions. When they refused, she ordered them to be removed, prompting a brawl in which several people were injured.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, In South Korea an onboard tantrum dubbed "nut rage" culminated in a one-year prison sentence for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air's chairman.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In Taiwan 6 inmates led by a mob boss committed suicide at a prison after a failed breakout attempt in which they seized weapons and held a warden and guards hostage in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, A Ukrainian military spokesman said around 50 tanks, 40 missile systems and 40 armored vehicles had crossed overnight into eastern Ukraine from Russia.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at choking off earnings from oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking and ransom payments to the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Air strikes by the United Arab Emirates against the Islamic State group hit oil refineries run by the jihadists.
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 12, Venezuelan officials said a retired air force general has been arrested and 13 other people are implicated in a plot to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, In southern Yemen al Qaeda-linked fighters seized a large army base in a dawn attack. 12 soldiers and 15 militants were killed as Al-Qaeda seized the brigade's camp at Baihan in Shabwa province and captured armor and heavy weaponry
(Reuters, 2/12/15)(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Pres. Obama issued an executive order urging businesses and government to cooperate better on quickly sharing information about online threats. Obama spoke at Stanford Univ. before a gathering of business leaders and federal officials dubbed the Summit on CyberSecurity and Consumer Protection.
(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 13, In Louisiana John Hicks (19) was arrested after he shot dead two people near an all-female Mardi Gras parade.
(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 13, In Virginia Andrus Nomm of Estonia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement in federal court in Alexandria. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Nomm, one of seven men indicted in a massive copyright-piracy scheme run through the now-defunct website Megaupload three years ago, was the first to be brought to the US to face charges.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Argentine state investigator Gerardo Pollicita formally reiterated accusations leveled against Pres. Fernandez a month ago by his colleague Alberto Nisman, found dead on Jan 18.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern Bangladesh a trawler carrying up to 200 passengers sank in the River Payra. Most people were rescued or swam ashore. At least five people died and two were missing.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Canada, a major exporter of beef, said it has found a case of mad cow disease in a beef cow in the province of Alberta, the first in the country since 2011.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Suspected Boko Haram militants staged their first attack in Chad, hitting the third country outside Nigeria base in recent days.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Croatia Milan Bandic, the powerful mayor of Zagreb, was indicted for abuse of power as a wider investigation continues against him over millions in suspected fraud. The national anti-graft bureau USKOK charged Bandic and two aides with illegally using some 40,000 euros in city money to finance a citizens' signature gathering campaign.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Egypt a roadside bomb in Cairo killed a police captain and wounded eight other people. Egyptian warplanes killed 8 suspected Islamist militants in Rafah, Sinai.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Germany condemned a cartoon published Feb 8 in a Greek leftist newspaper close to the new ruling party in Athens that depicts Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in a Nazi uniform making comments that invoke the Holocaust.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Greece began tough negotiations with its creditors as hopes grew of a deal to replace its detested bailout after new PM Alexis Tsipras pushed his case at a European summit.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern India a train derailed after hitting a boulder that had fallen on the track, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens near Bangalore, Karnataka state.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Iraq unidentified gunmen attacked a two-car convoy carrying Sheikh Qassem Sweidan al-Janabi and his nephew, lawmaker Zeid al-Janabi. The lawmaker was later released but the tribal leader, seen as a moderate Sunni, as well as his son and at least six other people, mostly bodyguards, were killed.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, The Iraqi army said it has killed 8 assailants near the Ain al-Asad air base, about 85 km (50 miles) northwest of Ramadi following an attack that began a day earlier. The US military said coalition partners conducted seven air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq over the last 24 hours, including five strikes about 15 km east of Ain al-Asad base.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, An Italian court sentenced Somali trafficker Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin (34) to 30 years in prison. He had raped and attacked migrants he had led through the desert to Libya to make the perilous crossing to Italy in October 2013.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, In northern Mexico a passenger bus and a freight train collided at a grade crossing in Anahuac, Tamaulipas state, killing 20 people and injuring 22.
(AP, 2/14/15)(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, Myanmar state media said heavy fighting between the army and rebels has killed 47 soldiers, sending a flood of people across the border with China and overshadowing hopes for a national ceasefire as a crucial election looms. The army used airstrikes to repel the attacks.
(AFP, 2/13/15)(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, The Netherlands extradited Vladimir Drinkman to the US. The Russian was suspected of involvement in a huge data breach that racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over seven years for US companies. Drinkman was arrested in the Netherlands in June 2012.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In New Zealand 198 pilot whales stranded themselves on South Island. Hordes of rescuers rushed to the remote area in a bid to guide them back to sea. Some 140 died as rescuers refloated about 60.
(AP, 2/13/15)(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, Nigeria’s human rights commission (NHRC) said political violence in the 50-day run-up to elections has killed 58 people, with rising "hate speech" between rival camps threatening to spark further unrest.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Pakistan at least 19 people were killed in Peshawar in a gun and bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque. The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting against the state to set up a hardline Sunni theocracy, claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Italy became the latest countries to withdraw embassy staff from Yemen as an exodus of foreign diplomats gathered pace due to growing insecurity.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Sierra Leone placed some 700 hundred homes in a fishing district of the capital under quarantine following the death of a fisherman who was later diagnosed Ebola positive. At least five new cases were confirmed in the area.
(AFP, 2/13/15)(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 13, South Sudan's cabinet postponed elections and extended President Salva Kiir's powers for two years. That goes against a deal struck between Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar earlier this month, in which they agreed to set up a transitional unity government in the bitterly divided nation to run for 30 months from July 9.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Meeting in Geneva almost 200 countries agreed a draft text for a deal to fight climate change, but put off hard choices about narrowing down a vast range of options for limiting a damaging rise in temperatures.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Turkish police used water cannon in the western coastal city of Izmir to disperse scores of protesters boycotting schools over the growing influence of religion in the classroom.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In eastern Ukraine fierce fighting surged as Russian-backed separatists mounted a major, sustained offensive to capture a strategic railway hub ahead of a weekend cease-fire deadline. At least 25 people were killed across the region.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern Yemen suspect al-Qaida gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at air force Colonel Mahmoud al-Naqib, killing him instantly in Lahij province.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Maryland Jason Hendrix (16) was killed in a shootout with police as they tried to pull him over for a speeding violation. This prompted a search at his home in Corbin, Ky., where police found the bodies of his parents and a younger sister. Hendrix was said to be angry at his parents for taking away his computer privileges.
(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 14, Algerian soldiers shot dead a heavily armed Islamist in the Tebessa region on the northeastern border with Tunisia.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Argentina top government officials rallied behind President Cristina Fernandez after a state prosecutor said he would keep investigating accusations that she tried to cover up Iran's alleged involvement in a 1994 bombing.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Bahrain protesters took to the streets in predominantly Shiite areas and set tires alight along a major highway to mark the fourth anniversary of widespread protests calling for reform.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Denmark some 30 shots were fired at the Krudttoenden cafe in Copenhagen, where Swedish artist Lars Vilks was organized a freedom of speech event. Filmmaker Finn Noergaard (55) was killed.
(AP, 2/14/15)(AFP, 2/14/15)(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 14, In Hong Kong Lai Sai-ming, the captain of a commuter ferry that collided with another boat on Oct 1, 2012, killing 39 people, was found guilty of manslaughter.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, Michael Ferrero (89), Italy’s chocolate king, died. He took over the family’s hazelnut-chocolate business after his father died in 1949 and soon added vegetable oil to make it spreadable. In 1964 he invented the name Nutella and in 1983 took it to America.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.90)
2015 Feb 14, In Libya a bomb exploded at an oil pipeline from the El Sarir field, halting flows to Hariga port as the country struggles to restore crude exports battered by factional fighting.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, Niger said it has arrested several dozen people suspected of having links to Nigeria's Boko Haram, since the start of cross-border attacks by the Islamist group on Feb 6.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 14, Nigeria's military repelled an attack on the northeastern town of Gombe by Boko Haram Islamic extremists who, as they retreated, warned residents not to participate in the country's elections in March.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Pakistan gunmen killed a driver and wounded a polio worker in the Khyber tribal region as another vaccination team went missing ahead of a nationwide vaccination drive.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Thailand dozens of anti-coup activists held a demonstration in central Bangkok, handing out roses and copies of George Orwell's "1984" -- a rare expression of public dissent in a nation still under strict martial law.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In eastern Ukraine fighting intensified ahead of a midnight ceasefire. Constant artillery bombardments were razing the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve, where Ukrainian forces were clinging on. Shelling killed at least one person in the rebel-held city of Donetsk. 7 Ukrainian service personnel were killed and 23 wounded in fighting in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In southern Yemen heavy fighting overnight between Shiite rebels and Sunni tribesmen left 26 dead. Tens of thousands marched in protest against the Houthis in the cities of Ibb, Taiz, Hodeida, Dhamar and the capital, Sanaa. The Netherlands, Spain and the United Arab Emirates became the latest countries to shut down embassy operations in Sanaa.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 15, Bahrain said it will send troops to support regional ally Jordan.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Musical Miss Saigon swept the board at the What's on Stage theatre awards in London's West End, where it won nine awards.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 15, HSBC, Britain's largest bank, issued a public apology, describing the media firestorm that followed allegations it helped rich clients dodge taxes as painful and insisting it has changed the way it does business.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Canada over 3,000 Teamster members went on strike at Canadian Pacific Railway after contract talks failed to reach an agreement. The strike ended on Feb 16 as both sides agreed to resume discussions.
(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A2)(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 15, A Canadian National train loaded with crude oil derailed in northern Ontario. At least seven cars burst into flames.
(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 15, Congo's Pres. Joseph Kabila condemned a decision by the United Nations to withdraw its support from a joint military offensive against a rebel group because the military decided it should be directed by two generals who have links to human rights violations.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Croatia's first female president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (46), was sworn in and pledged to help kickstart the EU member's ailing economy.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Denmark security guard Dan Uzan (27) was shot in the head and killed near Copenhagen's main synagogue. Two policemen were also wounded in the shooting at around 1:00 am this morning. Police said they believe a man shot dead by officers at Noerrebro station was the sole perpetrator of the two fatal attacks in the last 24 hours in the capital. Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein (22) was later identified as the gunman.
(AFP, 2/15/15)(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)(AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Egypt gunmen opened fire on a traffic police patrol in the Nile Delta town of Benha, killing one policeman and wounding three others.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In France some 250 graves were found vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union. Five teens were later arrested and admitted to the destruction in the Alsace region.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 15, In Greece some 18 thousand people rallied in Athens ahead of talks in Brussels on the new leftist government's bid to revise its massive bailout. Some 8,000 people also thronged the streets in Thessaloniki.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In northern India a newly built house collapsed early today killing 13 residents as they slept in Dulhaipur village, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Iran’s former first vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, was taken to jail to serve his 5-year 3-month prison term.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its coalition partners conducted 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants, three in Syria and eight in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Italy closed its embassy in Libya due to the worsening conflict there and stepped up its call for a UN mission to help calm the situation.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Italy's coast guard went to the rescue of at least 1,000 migrants in difficulty in the sea between Europe and North Africa, the third operation of its kind in as many days.
(Yahoo News, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, A Jordanian court sentenced Zaki Bani Rsheid (57), a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, to 18 months in prison for criticizing a decision by the United Arab Emirates to blacklist his organization.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Islamic State militants in Libya released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. The 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, who had gone to Libya in search of work, were marched to a beach, forced to kneel and then beheaded on video. On October 6, 2017, the remains of 21 Coptic Christians were unearthed from a mass grave south of the one-time jihadist bastion of Sirte.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)(AFP, 10/7/17)
2015 Feb 15, Myanmar state media said troops fighting ethnic rebels near the Chinese border have recovered the bodies of 13 insurgents and captured eight others following heavy government losses this week.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In northeastern Nigeria a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded bus station in Damaturu, Yobe state, killing at least 16 people and wounding 30.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 15, In Pakistan a government paramilitary force shot and killed Usman Saifullah Kurd, a regional commander for an al-Qaida linked militant cell, and one of his aides on the outskirts of Quetta.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In the southern Philippines 2 members of an Al Qaeda-linked group were killed in clashes with troops in the jungles of Basilan island.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Russian police in Moscow detained Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and leading opposition figure, as he and supporters were handing out leaflets urging people to take part in an "anti-crisis" march on March 1.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Ukraine's rebels disavowed a new truce hours after it took effect, saying it did not apply to the town of Debaltseve, where most fighting has taken place in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, The UN Security council adopted a resolution demanding that Houthi rebels in Yemen immediately relinquish control and withdraw from government institutions.
(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 16, A judge in Texas granted a temporary injunction on an Obama order that would have protected about four million undocumented foreigners from deportation and was due to come into effect from Feb 18.0
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 16, In West Virginia a CSX train carrying crude oil derailed east of Charleston. At least 12-15 cars derailed and at least one tank car fell into the Kanahwa River.
(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 16, Leslie Gore (68), singer and songwriter, died of lung cancer in NYC. Her hits included “It’s My Party" (1963) and “You Don’t Own Me" (1963).
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.D4)
2015 Feb 16, The Armenian president asked the country's parliament speaker to withdraw his signature from a groundbreaking 2009 agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties between the two nations due to "preconditions" that Turkey put in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Bahrain said it has deployed fighter planes to help support Jordan, a day after it announced plans to send troops to the kingdom.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In China a party watchdog said Su Rong, a former provincial party leader and former vice chairman of China's top political advisory body, has been expelled from the ruling Communist party and stripped of all government positions. Su Rong was accused of taking bribes in return for government positions and will likely face criminal charges.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, A Danish court jailed two suspected accomplices of the slain gunman behind the recent deadly attacks in Copenhagen while PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt said there were no signs of links to a wider terror network.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In East Timor opposition party member Rui Maria de Araujo was sworn in as prime minister, leading a smaller 38-member Cabinet for the half-island nation.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. 40 to 50 militants were reported killed along with 7 civilians.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.44)
2015 Feb 16, The European Union published a new sanctions list of individuals and entities. It added 9 more entities and 19 more individuals, including a Russian deputy minister of defense, for their actions linked to the fighting in eastern Ukraine. There was a week's lapse in the publishing of the list because of the negotiations which led to an agreement between Ukraine and Russia on Feb 12.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, The leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine said that observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) must have "free access" for their work in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, A German court said a 93-year-old man has been charged with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as an SS guard at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Greece offered to accept conditions on an extension to its loan agreements with the euro zone, and even an inspection by the European Commission, at a fraught meeting in Brussels.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 16, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its coalition partners launched air strikes against Islamic State targets; two in Syria and 13 in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigeria said its troops backed by air strikes have recaptured the northeastern towns of Monguno and Marte from Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents attacked a Cameroon military camp near the town of Waza in the north of the country, wounding several soldiers.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Kaspersky Labs, founded in 1997 in Moscow, released a report on how a gang it calls Carbanak had hacked the computer systems of banks around the world. The company also said it had discovered “the “Equation /Group," apparently a part of the NSA, which it said was able to embed spyware in computers.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.63)
2015 Feb 16, Sierra Leone's government promised a full investigation after an internal audit found that nearly one-third of the money received to fight Ebola was spent without saving the necessary receipts and invoices to justify the spending.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, South Korea's ruling party-controlled legislature approved President Park Geun-hye's appointment of Lee Wan Koo in a 148-128 vote.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In South Sudan an unidentified armed group abducted at least 89 boys, some as young as 13, from their homes in the northern town of Wau Shilluk.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 16, In Spain court papers showed that a Granada court has dropped charges against 11 out of 12 suspects in the country's biggest ever clerical sex abuse scandal because the statute of limitations had expired.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Sudanese security officers seized the print runs of 13 newspapers in one of the most sweeping crackdowns on the press in recent years. There was no immediate word from the authorities on why the newspapers had been seized.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Syrian state news said 9 people, including three children, were killed today in rebel fire on a government-held neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Turkey said it was temporarily closing its embassy in Yemen, the latest foreign mission to do so following the takeover of power by Shiite Huthi militiamen.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russian rebels said they would open a safe corridor for as many as 7,000 Ukrainian troops out of the encircled town of Debaltseve on condition they surrender the territory, an offer the Kiev military promptly rejected.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In Yemen supporters of former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi seized radio and television buildings in the southern city of Aden after they accused security forces of working for Shiite rebels who control the capital. One soldier and two Hadi supporters were reported killed in clashes.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 17, The United States military said it will provide communications equipment and intelligence to help African nations in the fight against Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Chicago a civil suit was filed against Mohammad Abdullah Saleem (75), founder of the Institute of Islamic Education, accusing him of abusing an employee and three teenage students. The suit accused Saleem of abusing female students as far back as the 1980s.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 17, Seaports in the US West Coast, all but shut over the weekend because of a contract dispute, were reopening as the nation's top labor official tried to solve a stalemate between dockworkers and their employers that already has disrupted billions of dollars in international trade.
(AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Heavy snowfall and glacial temperatures shut down much of the central and eastern United States. Winter storm warnings a day earlier had touched 17 states.
(AFP, 2/17/15)(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 17, In eastern Afghanistan four suicide attackers dressed as policemen stormed a provincial police headquarters in Pul-i-Alam, Logar province, killing 22 police in an attack claimed by the Taliban. A bomb attached to a vehicle killed one person in Kabul.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, In Brazil Rio de Janeiro's world-famous samba school parades held their grand finale as the five-day-long Carnival celebration came to an end. At least 3 people were electrocuted while standing atop a Carnival float that hit a power line in the city of Nova Iguacu.
(Yahoo News, 2/17/15) (AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Three British girls (Kadiza Sultana (16) and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase) flew from London to Turkey in a suspected bid to join the Islamic State group. On March 12 Turkey announced the arrest of an agent who helped the girls cross into Syria. The agent also worked as a courier to transfer money to jihadists.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/15/15)
2015 Feb 17, Canada imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct in Ukraine, a move Moscow said would fuel further tension in Ukraine and prevent the implementation of the ceasefire.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 17, Canadian officials said the cost of Canada's six-month bombing mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq was estimated at more than $100 million.
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Two Chadian soldiers and several Boko Haram fighters were killed in violent clashes around Dikwa, some 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Gambaru. Chad's army seized control of Dikwa. Abu Ashshe, a Boko Haram commander notorious for seizing cattle in the area, was among those killed.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 17, The French government passed the Macron law by decree for fear of not winning a majority. It allowed intercity coaches to compete with railways, relaxed Sunday trading restrictions and lifted barriers to becoming a notary.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.51)
2015 Feb 17, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras nominated Prokopis Pavlopoulos (64), a conservative lawmaker and former interior minister, to be the country's next president. If elected, he will replace Karolos Papoulias (85), whose five-year term ends next month.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Haiti a high-voltage cable fell on a float during a Carnival parade in Port-au-Prince early today, killing at least 15 people.
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Hungary PM Viktor Orban hosted Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin and reached a political agreement on a new gas deal.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, In India police arrested three men for allegedly stealing classified documents from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and selling them to energy companies. Four other men, including two energy consultants, were arrested soon after.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its allies staged six airstrikes around the Syrian town of Kobani and eight strikes on Islamic State in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Kenya eight international organizations launched a global campaign to stem the spread of AIDS among adolescents. They said AIDS has become the leading cause of death for adolescents in Africa and the second leading cause of death among adolescents globally.
(AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Mexico’s state oil company said it will no longer ship finished, usable gasoline or diesel through its network of ducts due to increasing illegal pipeline taps.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, Myanmar President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the Kokang region in the east and imposed a three-month period of martial law there.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Niger PM Brigi Rafini and other government officials led a march of some 35,000 people in Niamey to support the country's military following a series of attacks along the border with Nigeria carried out by Boko Haram militants.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Niger 36 civilians at a funeral ceremony were killed when an unidentified plane bombarded a village near the Nigerian border.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(CSM, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 17, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Potiskum, killing two people and wounding 12. Near the town of Biu 11 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack by 3 men on a motorized tricycle at a checkpoint.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Pakistan a Taliban suicide attack on a provincial police headquarters killed at least 6 other people in the eastern city of Lahore, in what militants called a revenge strike for the hangings of their comrades.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In South Sudan a British worker for the US-based Carter Center was killed in Juba, bringing to 14 the number of aid workers killed over the course of the country's 14-month conflict.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 17, In St. Kitts and Nevis an alliance of three opposition parties won parliamentary elections. Timothy Harris led the Team Unity coalition. Outgoing PM Denzil Douglas conceded defeat.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese militant Hezbollah fighters captured several villages near the northern city of Aleppo in lightning advances. Regime forces executed six families of rebel fighters. Ten children, 5 women and 13 rebels from the six families were among at least 48 people killed in the village of Rityan.
(AP, 2/17/15)(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 17, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russian rebels and government forces fought street-to-street in Debaltseve and refused to pull back their heavy guns, all but scuppering hopes that a European-brokered peace deal will end months of conflict. Rebels barred OSCE observers from entering Debaltseve.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Obama administration and Canada agreed on financing construction of a plaza for a new $2.1 billion bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor. A public-private partnership will reimburse the plaza construction with bridge tolls.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 18, The Univ. of California in San Francisco (UCSF) announced a $100 million gift from philanthropist Charles Feeney (83).
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 18, Dimitry Jean-Noel of Massachusetts pleaded guilty to his role in the creation of a fictitious uniform manufacturing company that did business in Afghanistan and defrauded the US government of as much as $200,000.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Kate Brown (54), former Oregon secretary of state, was sworn in as the state’s new governor, becoming the country’s first openly bisexual governor.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A10)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.30)
2015 Feb 18, In Virginia two Colombians were sentenced to prison for the 2013 kidnapping and murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent James Watson in Bogota. Edwin Gerardo Figueroa Sepulveda (39) and Wilson Daniel Peralta-Bocachica (31) were among seven Colombians in a robbery-and-kidnapping ring extradited to the United States in July 2014 to face charges stemming from Watson's killing.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Scientists led by Michael Farzan, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, said a new drug tested on monkeys provided an astonishingly effective shield against an animal version of the AIDS virus, a major gain in the quest for an HIV vaccine.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Citigroup Inc said it would set aside $100 billion to fund environmental projects over the next decade, doubling the amount it had earmarked for such projects in 2007.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Argentina some 400,000 people marched in silence to the presidential palace in Buenos Aires to protest the Jan 18 death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.35)
2015 Feb 18, Bosnian authorities arrested six men suspected of supporting the Islamic State group, including two who allegedly were preparing to go to Syria to fight and were arrested at Sarajevo airport.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Brazil 9 people burned to death when the bus they were riding on hit a light post and burst into flames in the Rio de Janeiro district of Sao Goncalo.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Chinese New Year holiday began today due to the insertion of a lunar leap month last year.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 18, In Germany the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne published financial accounts indicating assets of 3.35 billion euros (($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 18, In Iraq a suicide car bomber killed 6 troops and Shiite militiamen at a checkpoint jointly manned by the Shiite militia and Iraqi army near Samarra.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Israel's Supreme Court has overturned last week's decision by the country's election committee that disqualified Arab lawmaker Hanin Zoabi and Baruch Marzel allowing them to run in next month's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Israel unveiled some 2000 silver and gold coins, the largest collection ever found in the country. Amateur divers had found the coins, dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries, a few weeks earlier near the port city of Caesarea.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 18, In southern Mexico ten people injured following an attack on the offices of the Coca-Cola company in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Myanmar's government accused three more ethnic rebel groups: the Kachin Independence Army, the Shan State Army (South) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, of being involved in armed clashes in northeastern Shan state, where a week of fighting against Kokang rebels has left dozens of soldiers dead and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring China.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Dutch Safety Board said Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp and the Dutch government ignored the danger of earthquakes caused by gas extraction at the massive Groningen gas field for decades.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Nigeria claimed to have killed more than 300 Boko Haram militants in a counter-offensive, as Chad pushed into rebel-held areas. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the Tamsu-Shehuri village on where they killed more than 12 people.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Pakistan at least 2 people were killed in an attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi belonging to the Shiite Muslim community. Fahad Marwat, a spokesman for the Taliban splinter group Jundullah, claimed responsibility, saying it was revenge for an ongoing army operation aimed at driving militants out of their North Waziristan stronghold.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, News leaked that two NCOs in Peru’s naval intelligence agency were being tried in a military court for selling information to Chile.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.31)
2015 Feb 18, In Saudi Arabia military chiefs from 26 nations involved in the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group began a two-day meeting aimed at giving military leaders an opportunity to exchange views about the fight against the extremist group.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, South Sudan's army and rebels fought heavy battles for a third day with scores of casualties, a day ahead of a planned restart of peace talks.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Swiss authorities raided the offices of British banking giant HSBC's Swiss unit as part of a money laundering probe into the bank that has been accused of helping clients to dodge millions of dollars in taxes.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Syrian rebels regained much of the territory north of the city of Aleppo lost to government troops in fierce fighting the previous day in clashes that left more than 100 dead on both sides. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said he received a government commitment to suspend airstrikes on the city of Aleppo for six weeks. Rebels captured 32 soldiers and pro-government gunmen near Aleppo, where fighting raged as the two sides tried to grab new territory ahead of a possible truce.
(AP, 2/18/15)(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Tanzanian police said they have found the mutilated body of a one-year-old albino boy An armed gang had snatched Yohana Bahati from his mother at their home in northwestern Tanzania's Geita region on Feb 15. His abduction renewed calls for tougher action to stop the killing of albinos for their body parts, prized in black magic.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Four Tunisian police were killed in a pre-dawn attack by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants near the Algerian border.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Turkish parliament descended into chaos when a furious brawl erupted as the country's ruling party sought to push through a controversial bill boosting the powers of police in protests.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Turkey a snowstorm in Istanbul grounded planes, halted traffic and forced the closure of the Bosphorus Strait shipping channel.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Ukraine government forces pulled out of Debaltseve after a fierce assault by Russian-backed separatists which Kiev and Europe said violated a crumbling ceasefire. Kiev reported that 22 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and more than 150 wounded in fighting with Russian-backed separatists in the railway junction of Debaltseve in the last few days.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 19, Pres. Obama designated the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago, where African American railroad workers won a historic agreement, as the Pullman National Monument.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 19, The website Intercept posted documents saying the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s GCHQ had hacked into the networks of Gemalto, a SIM card maker, to steal codes allowing them to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 19, In the SF Bay Area dockworkers shut down the Port of Oakland as they took a day off for a monthly union meeting, historicall held at night. This intensified the bitter contract dispute at 29 West Coast ports.
(SFC, 2/20/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 19, A US federal judge ruled that American Express violated antitrust laws by barring merchants from asking customers to use one credit card over another. Visa and Mastercard ended similar practices after settling with the Justice Dept. in 2010.
(SFC, 2/20/15, p.C3)
2015 Feb 19, Bone-chilling cold in the US Midwest shattered records in Chicago, closing schools and starting its trudge eastward to an already frozen Boston and New York.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 19, British teenager Brusthom Ziamani (19) was found guilty of plotting to behead a soldier in London after being influenced by the murder of an Afghan war veteran who was hacked to death by two Islamists in the capital a year earlier. Ziamani was arrested last August carrying a 12-inch (30-cm) knife and a hammer, wrapped in a black Islamic flag.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Burundi thousands marched through the capital in one of the largest demonstrations in recent years after the release of Bob Rugurika, a popular journalist and government critic from jail, months ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Canadian federal police charged Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin and its subsidiaries with corruption for allegedly bribing officials in Libya during former strongman Moamer Kadhafi's reign.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Cinemas in China began showing “Wolf Totem," based on a Chinese novel critiquing man’s impulse to tame nature. Author Lu Jiamin, jailed for over a year for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had published the novel under the name Jiang Rong. The film was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, a French director who China had banned for making the 1997 film “Seven Years in Tibet."
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 19, Chinese were seeing in the Year of the Sheep as fireworks and firecrackers ushered in the Lunar New Year across Asia.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In China Luo Renchu (64) attacked elderly residents and staff at the privately run home in Hunan province. He killed 3 elderly residents with a brick and injured 15 other people after arguing with his boss over unpaid wages. On April 1, 2016, Renchu was sentenced to death for killing 9 people.
(AP, 2/21/15)(AP, 4/2/16)
2015 Feb 19, It was reported that the Czech humanitarian organization, People in Need, is setting up an international center to support activists in former Soviet Union countries who face pressure from their governments. It is being co-financed by the US Agency for International Development, the Swedish and Czech governments, and two private US foundations.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, The French victim of a racist incident, involving Chelsea soccer fans in the Paris metro on Feb 17, lodged an official complaint with police. He had not initially know the incident had been filmed and widely broadcast.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 19, Georgia condemned the signing of a border agreement between its breakaway region of South Ossetia and Russia, accusing Moscow of moving closer to annexing a territory it supported in a five-day conflict in 2008.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, A German government spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in a conference call with the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine to use his influence on separatists to start an agreed prisoner swap with Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Greece said the EU had two choices, to accept or reject its request for a six-month extension to its EU loan program, as a row over the bailout crisis escalated.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Iraq and Syria the US-led coalition staged 15 air strikes on Islamic State forces over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Moldova sought to stabilize the country's currency, which plummeted 25 percent this week amid concerns over the financial and political system.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, This marked the start of Mongolia’s Lunar new year: “Year of the Blue Ewe," according to a 60-year calendar cycle paring five colors or elements with 12 animals in male and female forms.
(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.L2)
2015 Feb 19, In Mozambique at least one person was killed and 12 wounded when a cargo train laden with coal derailed near Magude.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Myanmar about 4,000 workers were striking at clothing factories outside Yangon, demanding that their overtime pay of 17 cents an hour be doubled. Workers vowed to camp outside their factories unless employers meet their demand, claiming they cannot live on pay amounting to 80,000 kyats ($80) a month as the cost of living rises.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Niger 36 civilians at a funeral ceremony were killed when an unidentified plane bombarded a village near the Nigerian border.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(CSM, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Nigerian warplanes bombarded training camps and caches of weapons and vehicles belonging to the Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeasterly Sambisa forest. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen hit the village of Ladi-Shehuri, where they killed and burned a man in his car. Soldiers from Konduga responded and killed about a dozen of the attackers.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants fleeing an army offensive killed at least 30 people in attacks near the village of Chibok, close to where the rebels abducted more than 200 schoolgirls last year. The rebels were fleeing a land and air offensive to clear them out of the Sambisa forest when they raided the smaller villages of Gatamarwa, Makalama and Layhawul.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Puerto Rico a federal grand jury indicted 25 suspects on charges of running a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking ring. The group allegedly began operating in 2010 and generated at least $6 million in sales.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Slovakia thousands of court officials went on a one-day warning strike, complaining of low pay and underfunding of the legal system.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Syria rebels recaptured the village of Hardatnein, two days after it was taken by government forces. The Observatory said 90 troops and pro-government gunmen, in addition to 81 rebels, have been killed since the fighting began near Aleppo on Feb 17.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Former Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra was formally indicted over a bungled rice subsidy scheme in the latest legal move against her polarizing family that could see her jailed for up to a decade.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Thailand passed a law banning foreign couples from using Thai women as surrogates after a series of high-profile scandals tainting the image of the hitherto unregulated industry.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish media quoted the national intelligence agency (MIT) as saying that Islamic State militants have entered Turkey and are plotting to attack diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish legislators scuffled for a second day in parliament over a new security bill which critics say aims to crush dissent.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine despite European efforts to resurrect a still-born ceasefire, a day after pro-Russian separatists who spurned the truce forced thousands of government troops out Debaltseve. Ukraine said more than 90 troops were captured and 82 were still missing after pro-Russian rebels seized Debaltseve.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Venezuela agents of the security police (Sebin) broke into the Caracas office of Mayor Antonio Ledezma (59) and carted off the longtime critic of the socialist government, adding to tensions on the anniversary of the outbreak of protests that paralyzed the nation a year ago.
(AP, 2/19/15)(SFC, 2/20/15, p.A4)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.29)
2015 Feb 20, The US government said it will fine Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate in a long-running investigation of faulty and potentially dangerous air bag inflators.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, California reached a settlement with a consortium of investors called California First LP and agreed to pay $24 million after halting the sale of 11 buildings to the group during the height of its fiscal crises in 2010.
(SFC, 2/23/15, p.C4)
2015 Feb 20, Dockworkers and shipping companies reached a tentative agreement that would set cargo ships sailing again up and down the West Coast out of 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 20, Western Pennsylvania recorded record temperatures in New Castle (-18), in Butler (-15) and in Pittsburgh (-6).
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 20, Duke Energy Corp. said it has agreed to pay a fine of about $102 million for environmental violations related to a power plant's coal ash spill into a North Carolina river last year and the company's management of coal ash basins in the state.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Texas inmates at the Willacy County Correctional Center refused work duty and breakfast. A lockdown was ordered after inmates broke out of Kevlar tent housing units and entered a recreation yard. Tear gas was deployed and 2 officers and 3 inmates sustained minor injuries.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A12)
2015 Feb 20, In Virginia former state first lady Maureen McDonnell was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for her role in a bribery scheme that destroyed her usband’s political career.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 20, In Abu Dhabi a fire gutted a building on the outskirts of the Emirati capital, killing 10 laborers who had been illegally living in a storage area inside.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Australia two powerful cyclones pounded the Northern Territory and Queensland, leaving a trail of destruction with houses ripped apart, trees uprooted and electricity cut to thousands of people. Authorities said there were no fatalities.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Brazil some 5,200 workers at an assembly line at one of three General Motors plants ground to a halt as workers went on strike to protest the planned layoffs of nearly 800 employees.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, A British court overturned a previous ruling that prison overcrowding in Italy could breach his human rights allowing convicted Sicilian mafioso Domenico Rancadore (65) to be extradited. He had spent two decades living incognito in Britain.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Greece and its creditors in the 19-nation eurozone reached an agreement to extend the country's rescue loans for four months.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, Health authorities in India said a flu outbreak has killed over 700 people in the last ten weeks.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 20, In Indonesia a crowded bus overturned on a toll road on the main island of Java, killing 16 people near Semarang.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Italy’s left-right coalition, headed by Matteo Renzi, approved two decrees enacting the core of an employment reform that parliament broadly endorsed last year.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.47)
2015 Feb 20, Kazakhstan soccer federation Pres. Erlan Kozhagapanov said he wants to crack down on match-fixing and corruption in football as the country prepares to bid for the 2026 World Cup.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Liberia's Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the end of a midnight to 6 am curfew that was imposed to help stem the spread of the Ebola epidemic.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Libya three car bombs ripped through the eastern city of Qubbah, killing at least 45 people and wounding 70. Islamic State militants said it was a revenge attack for Egyptian air strikes on IS targets.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AP, 2/20/15)(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 20, In western Mauritania a road accident killed 14 soldiers and injured some 20 near the town of Atar.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Somalia Islamist rebels detonated a car bomb at the entrance of a hotel in Mogadishu and then stormed inside where politicians had gathered, killing at least 25 people including a lawmaker and lightly wounding two ministers. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility. Somali intelligence sources the next day identified the bombers as Dutch nationals Ismail Muse and Lula Ahmed Dahir.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Switzerland two trains slammed into each other near the city of Zurich, tipping over carriages and injuring at least six people.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb that wounded 13 people. A Thai air force F-16A fighter jet crashed during a drill in central Thailand, killing the pilot.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Ukraine accused Russia of sending more tanks and troops into eastern Ukraine and said they were heading towards the rebel-held town of Novoazovsk on the southern coast, expanding their presence on what could be the next key battlefront. Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoly Stelmach listed 49 attacks in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Ukrainian Pres. Petro Poroshenko said that police evidence showed that a top Russian presidential aide, Vladislav Surkov, had directed "foreign sniper groups" who shot and killed protesters in Kiev a year ago.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, UN war crimes investigators announced a radical change of strategy, saying they would publish names of suspects involved in Syria's four-year war and push for new routes towards international justice.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, The UN envoy to Yemen said rival factions have agreed on a new legislative body to serve during the country’s transition period.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 20, Zambia and Zimbabwe signed $294 million in deals with international investors allowing urgent repairs to avert the collapse of the gigantic, power-generating Kariba Dam, the world's largest man-made dam, to begin this year.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 21, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and its allies are discussing imposing more sanctions against Russia for undermining a European-brokered truce in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In New York retired White Plains police officer Glen Hochman (52) shot and killed his daughters, Alissa (17) and Deanna (13), and himself. His wife and a third, older, daughter were not at home. Three dogs were also shot to death. And on the day before the killings, his wife had gone to police to report an argument over an $80 cellphone bill.
(AP, 2/23/15)(SFC, 2/23/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 21, Ohio arrested Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud (23) for violating state law. By providing support to persons engaged in terrorism in the Middle East. Mohamud had trained with a terrorist group in Syria. On April 16 a federal indictment charged him with planning to carry out attacks in the US.
(SFC, 4/17/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 21, In Afghanistan Fazel Ahmad Azimi, the central bank director for the southern region, said that at least bank three employees were involved in the robbery of around 76 million afghanis (more than $ 1 million) in a bank branch in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. The suspected employees were believed to have fled to neighboring Pakistan.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Bosnia a landslide at the Dubrave open pit coal mine near the northern town of Tuzla killed at least four people.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, Brazil's environmental agency detained Ezequiel Antonio Castanha in Para state. The land land-grabber was thought to be the Amazon's single biggest deforester. Castanha's group was estimated to have clear-cut some 58 square miles (15,000 hectares).
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 21, In eastern Croatia a boy (7) and his mother were killed and three other children were injured when a hand grenade exploded at their home. Local media reported that it happened when the children found the grenade at a nearby playground and brought it into the house.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Cuba released Cy Tokmakjian (71), a Canadian automobile executive, who had been held for more than 3 years on corruption charges. His family held that his prosecution was an excuse to seize his company’s $100 million assets in Cuba.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 21, An Egyptian court acquitted former oil minister Sameh Fahmi, as well as five other officials, in a retrial after a 2012 conviction for selling Israel natural gas at below market price. They had served under ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrived in Chad as part of a 48-hour trip to countries affected by Boko Haram's insurgency. He will travel to Cameroon and Niger next.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Indian government forces killed two suspected rebels in a gunbattle in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, A new report said India's filthy air is cutting 660 million lives short by about three years.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Iraq Zekra Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the ministry of higher education, became the first female mayor of Baghdad, and the first woman to be given such a post in the whole country.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Iraq and Syria the US-led coalition said it has staged six air strikes against Islamic State targets over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Libya militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State executed a rocket strike on the eastern Labraq airport.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, Niger said Boko Haram militants have attacked an island on Niger's side of Lake Chad but the army repelled them after heavy fighting.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Nigerian forces backed by air strikes seized the northeastern border town of Baga from Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Russia as many as 40,000 ultranationalist bikers, pensioners, war veterans, members of student organizations and activists from other pro-Kremlin groups gathered in Moscow to protest US involvement in Ukraine. Critics said many were paid to attend or bussed in.
(AP, 2/21/15)(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Saudi media reported that morality police have detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday party and referred them to prosecutors.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said two more people have died after contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS, pushing the total number of deaths from the virus in the kingdom to 385.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, In the Swiss Alps an avalanche swept away a group of Italian skiers leaving 4 dead.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Syria 8 people, including 2 women and 2 children, were killed when a barrel bomb hit a building in an opposition-held area of Aleppo. 5 more people were reported killed in rebel shelling of regime-held areas of the city. Syria’s air force also killed at least 7 people in rebel areas east of Damascus. A car bomb attack in the parking of Qardaha hospital killed four citizens and wounded several others.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Thailand Juan Francisco Guillermo (47), a Chilean cyclist, was hit by a pickup truck and immediately killed on a highway in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Guillermo was attempting to set a Guinness World Record by cycling 250,000 km (155,350 miles) on five continents in five years. His journey started in November 2010 and was scheduled to end in November this year.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Ukraine government forces and rebels exchanged 139 government and 52 rebel prisoners, one of the first moves to implement the peace deal reached on Feb. 12 in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 21, In Yemen Houthis tried to storm a special forces base outside the capital, exchanging fire with troops there who are mostly loyal to Hadi's predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The fighting killed 3 people. Former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi left the capital after Shiite rebels who had been holding him under house arrest released him under international and local pressure. Thousands marched in support of Hadi in southern Ibb province, where they urged the Houthis to leave the region and halt their interference in local affairs.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 22, The 87th Academy Awards Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. The Best Picture Oscar went to “Birdman"; Eddie Redmayne won the best actor award for “The Theory of Everything" and Julianne Moore won the best actress award for “Still Alice." Musicians Common and John Legend collected the Academy Award for best original song for "Glory", their politically aware theme from "Selma." Birdman, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Mexico, won four Oscars.
(AP, 2/23/15)(AFP, 2/23/15)(SFC, 2/23/15, p.E1)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.77)
2015 Feb 22, In the 87th Academy Awards Poland won its first ever foreign language movie Oscar for "Ida."
(SFC, 2/23/15, p.E1)
2015 Feb 22, Bangladesh officials said special forces have raided a training camp in the southeastern Chittagong district operated by an Islamist militant network that was planning to carry out attacks in the country.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Bangladesh a river ferry carrying up to 140 passengers capsized after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing at least 70 people.
(AP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Hungary's ruling right-wing alliance lost its two-thirds majority in parliament after the opposition won a by-election, hampering PM Viktor Orban's chances of changing the constitution and passing major legislation.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq multiple bombings, including a suicide truck bomb attack on Shiite militiamen, killed 12 people, as police found four bodies with gunshots wounds in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq The Islamic State jihadist group released a new video purporting to show captured Kurdish peshmerga fighters paraded through Iraqi streets in cages. Kurdish sources said it was filmed a week earlier in the main market of Hawija, an IS-held town some 50 km from Kirkuk.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is seeking to open a "third front" against Israel using Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian Golan Heights.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Israel said it will purchase 14 additional next-generation F-35 fighter jets for approximately $3 billion.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea. The firm said it has shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Kuwait an appeals court sentenced Musallam al-Barrack, a leading former opposition lawmaker, to two years in prison instead of five after he was found guilty of insulting the country's ruler during a rally in 2012.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya's internationally recognized government said it will end all contracts with companies from Turkey, a country it has accused of supporting a rival administration.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya resumed oil exports from the eastern port of Zueitina after an almost year-long suspension and is also testing a pipeline to restart exports from Hariga port. Zueitina is under the control of troops loyal to the internationally recognized Libyan government.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Libya militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State executed twin bomb attacks on the residence of the Iranian ambassador in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Maldives’ police arrested former president Mohamed Nasheed after a court said he might flee the country to avoid hearings on terrorism charges, leading to clashes between his supporters and authorities.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In northeastern Nigeria a girl suicide bomber, who appeared no more than 10 years old, blew herself up and killed 4 others in an attack on a market in Potiskum.
(AFP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, South Africa's Harmony Gold said about 200 miners had not been located after an underground fire started at its Kusasalethu mine during maintenance.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, A Syrian man was shown beheaded in a video posted to Facebook. Malaysian authorities later Mohd Faris Anuar (20) and Muhamad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi (25) of Malaysia as the men involved in the beheading by the Islamic State.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Feb 22, Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by Islamic State jihadists. They brought back the tomb containing the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire's founder, Osman I.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In eastern Ukraine pro-Moscow rebels said they would start to withdraw heavy weapons from the front line. The Kiev government said armored columns had crossed the border from Russia to reinforce the separatists. In Kharkiv 2 people were killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device was thrown from a car into a crowd attending a peace rally.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Yemen's president sought to resume his duties as head of state as he convened governors of several southern provinces and military commanders at the presidential retreat in the economic hub of Aden.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Nebraska officer Lugod shot Danny Elrod (39) in the back in a confrontation minutes after Elrod allegedly robbed a Family Dollar store in Omaha. In early March a grand jury cleared Lugod. On March 24 the Omaha Police Dept. announced that Lugod has resigned.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Feb 23, An ice storm hit wide parts of Texas and neighboring states knocking out power to thousands of people and leading to hundreds of traffic accidents and caused more than 1,300 flight cancellations nationwide. In Tennessee at least 22 people have been killed in the past few days due to icy, winter conditions. Officials said 11 people have died in Kentucky due to the snow and ice that began pummeling the state on Feb. 16.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In southern Afghanistan unidentified gunmen in Zabul province stopped two buses traveling to Kabul, and seized 31 men and boys belonging to the ethnic Hazara minority. Islamic State militants were later blamed for the kidnapping.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)(SSFC, 4/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 23, Bahrain said seven people suspected of involvement in deadly bombings targeting security forces have been apprehended.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Bosnia's parliament adopted an economic and social reform plan that could unblock the country's path toward EU membership.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Two British former foreign ministers, Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind, were suspended from their parties after claims that they offered to use their positions to help a private company for cash in an undercover investigation.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, An Egyptian court sentenced prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to five years in jail for violating limits on demonstrations, part of one of the toughest crackdowns on dissent in Egypt's history.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, A French aircraft carrier launched operations in the Gulf against the Islamic State group as the new Pentagon chief summoned top generals and diplomats to Kuwait to review war efforts.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its allies staged 25 air strikes on Islamic State fighters over the last 24 hours. About 800 Iraqi forces backed by US warplanes waged a battle to retake the western town of Al-Baghdadi from Islamic State jihadists.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Kenya's Constitutional Court threw out parts of a new anti-terrorism law, including restrictions on the media, but left most of it intact, including a provision allowing police to hold terrorism suspects for a year without charge.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Kenyan police arrested 101 Ethiopian nationals suspected of traveling illegally through Kenya on their way to South Africa.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 23, Libya's internationally recognized parliament suspended its participation in UN-brokered talks on the future of the war-wracked North African state. A parliamentarian, on condition of anonymity, said the decision to pull out of talks was taken over fears that the international community would exert pressure to include Islamists in a future unity government.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In central Nigeria masked gunmen kidnapped Rev. Phyllis Sortor, an American woman doing missionary work for the Free Methodist Church, with ransom the suspected motive for the attack. Sorter was released on March 6.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Feb 23, The Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said it has suspended since Feb 20 all imports of cheese from Poland due to irregularities in "normative requirements".
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Singapore announced income tax rises for the top five percent of the population to fund rising social spending targeted at the poor and elderly in the rapidly ageing city-state.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Syria a rocket struck a prison in a suburb of Damascus, killing at least 4 people.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In northeast Syria jihadists from the Islamic State group kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians, after overrunning two villages in Hassakeh province. The abducted number rose to 220 over the next few days as militants rounded up more hostages from a chain of villages along the strategic Khabur River. In 2016 the int’l. Assyrian Christian community raised millions in ransom and freed 226 kidnapped members.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(Reuters, 2/25/15)(AP, 2/26/15)(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A2)
2015 Feb 23, Thailand sentenced two students, Patiwat Saraiyaem (23) and Porntip Mankong (2), to jail for 2-1/2 years for insulting the monarchy in a university play.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Ukraine's military said it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the east as required under a tenuous ceasefire because pro-Russian separatists who advanced last week were still attacking its positions. Ukraine's military said two of its soldiers had been killed and 10 wounded in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Yemen thousands took to the streets of Sanaa, to denounce the Houthi rebels and show support for the country's embattled president. Shiite rebels (Houthis) threatened to arrest and try for treason the prime minister and all Cabinet members if they fail to return to work.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 24, Alaska became the first red state to legalize the smoking, growing, and owning of small amounts of marijuana, bringing the decriminalization movement to a conservative stronghold.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In northeastern Afghanistan avalanches caused by a heavy winter snow killed at least 165 people, as rescuers clawed through debris with their hands to save those buried beneath. By week’s end nationwide the death toll from avalanches and flooding rose to at least 247 people.
(AP, 2/25/15)(AP, 2/26/15)(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 24, Argentine spy Antonio Stiuso, at the center of a scandal over last month's death of a state prosecutor, was accused of importing tons of contraband merchandise during his final years as head of the country's counterintelligence office.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Austria Rakhat Aliyev (b.1962), the Kazakh president's former son-in-law, was found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial on charges of murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhat_Aliyev)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.38)
2015 Feb 24, Brazilian union officials said truck drivers are blocking roads in six states to protest hikes in fuel prices and tolls.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Brazil inspectors conducting routine water testing in Rio’s sewage filled Guanabara Bay found thousands of carcasses of twaite shad fish. This was the site for sailing events in next year’s Olympics.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 24, In Britain Conservative Party lawmaker Malcolm Rifkind quit as head of the parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence services and announced his retirement after being caught in a hidden-camera sting operation appearing to discuss swapping political influence for money.
(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In China 22 people were killed and 38 injured in a bus accident in Bachu County, Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo launched an assault against FDLR Rwandan Hutu rebels in South Kivu province.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In the Czech Rep. 8 people were reported shot dead in the Druzba restaurant in then eastern town of Uhersky Brod. The attacker (60) killed himself after the shooting spree.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, It was reportd that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has issued a law that broadens the state's definition of terrorism to include anyone who threatens public order "by any means," and gives authorities powers to draw up lists of alleged terrorists with little judicial recourse. The legislation was signed in the form of a decree last week and was distributed to reporters today.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Egypt a court in Cairo cleared Habib el-Adly, the former interior minister of former Pres. Hosni Mubarak, of the last of several criminal charges that have kept him behind bars.
(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, Eurozone finance ministers announced they have approved a list of reforms submitted by Greece in exchange for a four-month extension to its international bailout.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, French president Francois Hollande and Italian PM Matteo Renzi signed an agreement for a long-standing rail project to ease transport of freight across the Alps. The line would not open before 2028.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Germany the Emnid polling institute for Berlin's Free University said in a new survey that nearly a third of Germans believe that capitalism is the cause of poverty and hunger and a majority think true democracy is not possible under that economic system.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Indian police said they had made the single biggest seizure of gold smuggled into the country after arresting six people leaving an airport with 60 kg of the precious metal flown in from Dubai. The arrest was likely to strengthen pressure on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to cut the gold import duty from a record-high 10 percent in his budget on Feb 28.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Iranian officials and Western intelligence and diplomatic sources said at least $1 billion in cash has been smuggled into Iran in recent months as it seeks to avoid Western sanctions, a bigger figure than previously reported.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Iraq a series of bombings killed at least 40 people. Islamic State fighters detained 42 Sunni tribesmen in the village of Rubaidha ahead of a widely expected army offensive. Last week insurgents detained 56 men accused of belonging to a government-backed Sunni militia.
(AP, 2/24/15)(Reuters, 2/25/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In Israel Bethlehem Governor Jebren al-Bakri said Jihad al-Jafari (19) was shot and killed on the roof of his house in the Deheisha refugee camp as he was watching an Israeli raid below.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Finmeccanica, Italy’s state-controlled aerospace and defense groups said Japan’s Hitachi will buy its rail businesses.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.58)
2015 Feb 24, Jamaica's parliament cleared the way for decriminalizing marijuana by approving amendments to its Dangerous Drugs Act. The act decriminalized small amounts of pot and established a licensing agency to regulate a lawful medical marijuana industry.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, Libya's internationally recognized parliament created a new army chief post, with a lawmaker and state media saying the job will go to once retired General Khalifa Haftar, fighting to eradicate Islamist forces.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Lithuania said it will restore compulsory military service for young men as tensions in Ukraine continue to worry the small Baltic nation.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Niger a mine planted by Boko Haram insurgents killed two soldiers and injured four others in the Diffa region bordering Yobe.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In northern Nigeria two blasts rocked bus stations outside Potiskum and in Kano, killing at least 34 people.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 24, Saudi newspapers said a court has jailed at least 13 men on counts including the recruitment of al Qaeda militants for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US and sheltering Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Spain's Constitutional Court unanimously declared a vote on secession by the powerful northeastern region of Catalonia last November as unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, Spain said it has broken up an online network accused of recruiting young women to join Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria and arrested four suspects.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russia separatists said they had begun pulling heavy weapons from the front line under a ceasefire deal, but Ukraine said the rebels were using the cover of the truce to reinforce for another advance.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Ukraine's president said his country has signed an agreement to cooperate with the United Arab Emirates on military and technical issues as he kicked off a visit to the Western-allied Gulf nation.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, UN-appointed investigators said Yemeni ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh is suspected of corruptly amassing as much as $60 billion, equivalent to Yemen's annual GDP, during his 1978-2012 rule, and colluding in a militia takeover last year.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Yemen gunmen kidnapped Isabelle Prime, a Frenchwoman (30) working for the World Bank, and her Yemeni driver as she was on her way to work in Sanaa. The Houthis said that Pres. Hadi had lost his legitimacy as head of state and was being sought as a fugitive from justice. Prime and her translator arrived in France on August 7.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)(Reuters, 2/25/15)(SFC, 8/8/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In Venezuela a teenager was fatally shot at an anti-government protest in the western city of San Cristobal.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to throw overboard a Florida fisherman’s conviction under an evidence-tampering provision of a federal white collar crime law for disposing of undersized red grouper fish while he was under investigation. Fisherman John Yates was convicted in 2011 on two of three charges, including one under the so-called anti-shredding provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley law. The case began in August 2007 when federal and state officials measured fish on Yates's commercial fishing boat, named the Miss Katie, that they suspected were undersized.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court ruled that the North Carolina state regulatory board, made up mostly of dentists, violated federal law against unfair competition when it tried to prevent lower-cost competitors in other fields from offering teeth-whitening procedures.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A12)
2015 Feb 25, A US federal appeals court said Almaz Nezirovic, a former Bosnian prison guard living in Virginia, is eligible for extradition to face war-crimes charges.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 25, Former Guatemala President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) was released from a US minimum security facility in Colorado and returned to his home county. In 2014 he pleaded guilty in federal court to a conspiracy charge saying he had accepted $2.5 million in bribes to continue to recognize Taiwan diplomatically during his presidency.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 25, The US-based TJX Cos., owners of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other chains said it would hike worker hourly pay to at least $9 beginning in June.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.C3)
2015 Feb 25, The Austrian parliament singled out Islam as a faith by passing a law that restricts its adherents' religious activities. The new “Law on Islam" bars outside funding of Islamic religious communities, forces small mosques to close within a year, and requires imams to preach in German.
(CSM, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 25, A Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant for Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader whose political feud with PM Sheikh Hasina has dominated the country's politics for more than a decade.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, In Bosnia appeals judge Azra Miletic was arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe. Two other people, whose sentences for organized crime and drug-dealing had been greatly reduced on appeal, were arrested on the same grounds. One was a former police officer.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 25, Cyprus signed a deal with Russia allowing its navy ships to make regular port calls on the island.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, The EU unveiled a vast plan to boost coordination between its 28 national energy markets to wean Europe off unstable Russian gas supplies and provide cheaper energy for consumers.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, France outlined plans for a broader dialogue with its Muslim minority after the faith's official council proved unable to deal with the challenges presented by Islamist radicalization.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, French police arrested three Al Jazeera journalists for illegally flying drones in Paris.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 25, In Iraq and Syria the US and its partner nations launched 15 air strikes against the Islamic State with six in Iraq and nine in Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, New Zealand reported that it will be sending 143 troops to Iraq tasked with protecting 16 Kiwi soldiers training Iraqi forces.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 25, Philippine President Benigno Aquino called for autonomy for a Muslim region to end an insurgency there despite widespread misgivings after Muslim rebels killed 44 policemen.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, Philippine troops, backed by artillery fire and assault helicopters, battled about 300 Abu Sayyaf rebels in fighting that left 2 soldiers and 5 militants dead.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, Somali pirates released four Thai sailors who were held hostage for nearly five years. They were sailors of the FV Prantalay 12 vessel, seized by Somali pirates on April 18, 2010.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 25, The South African government raised taxes and scaled back spending plans in its annual budget as it wrestled with stalling growth, rising debt, power blackouts and rampant unemployment.
(AFP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, In eastern Ukraine a long-awaited truce took hold at last with the army reporting no combat fatalities for the first time in weeks, but the news did nothing to halt a currency collapse that forced the central bank to ban most trading.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, In Yemen armed men from the newly dominant Houthi group took over a special forces army base in Sanaa in clashes that left at least 10 people killed.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 26, The US Federal Communications Commission voted to enforce "net neutrality" rules for the broadband industry.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, The US Navy said the United States has begun flying its most advanced surveillance aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, out of the Philippines for patrols over the South China Sea, acknowledging the flights for the first time. The P-8A was deployed in the Philippines for three weeks until Feb. 21, making more than 180 flight hours over the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, US government sources investigators believe that the "Jihadi John" masked fighter who fronted Islamic State beheading videos is a British man named Mohammed Emwazi.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In San Francisco two police detectives shot and killed Amilcar Perez-Lopez (21) a Guatemalan immigrant armed with a knife. An autopsy showed Perez-Lopez was shot five times from behind and a sixth time in the side by both officers, who ended up standing side-by-side as Perez-Lopez ran toward Detective Craig Tiffe.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2015 Feb 26, In Berkeley, Ca., Flow Kana, a startup for delivering medical marijuana to your door, held a launch party.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.D1)
2015 Feb 26, In Indiana Theodore Hesburgh (b.1917), former president of Notre Dame Univ. (1952-1987), died. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2000.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, In NYC Khaled al-Fawwaz (52) of Saudi Arabia, a reported confidant of Osama bin Laden, was convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, In NYC three men were arrested and charged with providing support to the Islamic State militants.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, More than 220,000 homes and businesses remained without power in North Carolina and South Carolina today due to a winter storm with high winds.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Washington DC a new law went into effect legalyzing possession of marijuana for recreational purposes, following a voter approved initiative last November.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A10)
2015 Feb 26, SolarCity Corp. said it created a $750 million fund to finance about 25,000 residential solar projects, with Google Inc investing nearly half the funding.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosive-packed Toyota Corolla into a Turkish diplomatic vehicle in Kabul, killing at least 2 people and wounding one.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, An Argentine judge dismissed accusations that President Cristina Fernandez conspired to cover up Iran's alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies passed a bill dissolving the Intelligence Secretariat and replacing it with a body called the Federal Intelligence Agency.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, A Bahraini court sentenced three Shiites to death and jailed seven others for life after convicting them of killing 3 policemen in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state last year. The supreme criminal court also stripped eight of the defendants of their Bahraini citizenship over the March 3, 2014, bombing in a Shiite village.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, Prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy, known for speaking out against religious extremism, was hacked to death as he walked through Dhaka with his wife, Rafida Ahmed, who was seriously injured. A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility. Asim Umar, purported leader of al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS), later claimed credit for the killing.
(AP, 2/27/15)(AP, 2/28/15)(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, “Jihadi John," a member of the Islamic State and the beheader of at least 5 Western hostages, was identified as a British Islamist named Mohammed Emwazi. He first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley.
(www.bbc.com/news/uk-31637090)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.59)
2015 Feb 26, China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports with immediate effect amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fueled poaching that threatens the existence of African elephants.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In the Czech Rep. a court convicted Roman Catholic priest Erik Tvrdon of rape and sexual abuse and sentenced him to five years in prison. He was found guilty of raping four women and sexually abusing a minor.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Egypt six small bombs exploded in the Giza district across the Nile from Cairo killing one person and wounding ten others.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 26, Egyptian police arrested three men suspected of torturing and killing a chained dog with knives, after horrific footage of the incident sparked outrage in the country. On March 11 a court convicted four men over the grisly killing and sentenced them to three years in prison.
(AFP, 2/26/15)(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Feb 26, A new Iranian political party, Nedaye Iranian (Call of Iranians), with social democratic leanings opened its first congress, aiming to lead reformists to victory in the Islamic republic's legislative elections next year.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Iran a helicopter belonging to the country's air force crashed north of Tehran, killing all three crew members on board.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, The Islamic State group released a video showing militants using sledgehammers to smash ancient artifacts in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, describing the relics as idols that must be removed.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Israel suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a Greek Orthodox seminary building in Jerusalem, 24 hours after a mosque was torched in the West Bank.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Liberia the United States staged a military ceremony to end its five-month Ebola mission, with the west African nation in recovery from the worst-ever outbreak of the virus.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, Libya's internationally recognized PM Abdullah al-Thinni said his government would stop dealing with Turkey as it was sending weapons to a rival group in Tripoli so "the Libyan people kill each other", ramping up his rhetoric against Ankara.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus station in Biu, while a second bomber was shot dead before he could detonate his explosives. At least 18 people, including 3 women, were reported killed. Two blasts targeting a bus park in the central city of Jos killed at least 17 people.
(AFP, 2/26/15)(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, In the Philippines communist rebels killed five army soldiers and wounded six others in an ambush in Quirino township, Ilocos Sur province.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, South Korea’s Constitutional court struck down a 62-year-old law that made adultery an offense punishable by up to two years in prison.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 26, In northeastern Syria the US-led coalition carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group, where the jihadists have launched a new offensive and kidnapped 220 Assyrian Christians.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, A Taiwanese fishing boat went missing off southeastern Argentina with 49 crew members.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Feb 26, Ukrainian troops towed artillery away from the front line in the east, a move that amounted to recognizing that a ceasefire meant to take effect on Feb. 15 was holding at last.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, Zimbabwean nanny Violet Moyo (22) was jailed for 22 years for the murder of a 10-month-old baby she stuffed into a drawer "for crying too much" before she settled down to watch TV.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, US and Cuban officials met in Washington DC for a second round of talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations amid friction over Cuba's place on a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Feuding US lawmakers narrowly avoided a Department of Homeland Security shutdown at the 11th hour, but funded the agency only until March 6, forcing Congress to revisit the issue next week.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, US sgents at the San Diego border crossing seized nearly 16 tons of marijuana in a truck supposedly hauling matresses. The estimated street value of the pot was $19 million.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 27, Leonard Nimoy (83), who played the half-Vulcan character of Dr. Spock on the TV series “Star Trek" (1966-1968), died in Los Angeles. His 1975 autobiography was titled “I Am Not Spock." His revisionist sequel titled “I Am Spock" was published in 1995.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Spock)(SFC, 2/28/15, p.C6)
2015 Feb 27, In Missouri Joseph Jess Aldridge (36) went on a house-to-house shooting rampage in Tyrone killing 7 people before taking his own life. Authorities said he may have become unhinged by the death of ailing mother.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 27, New research indicated that that annual deaths from the bacterium Clostridium difficile have risen to 29,000, more than double the number since 2007. Most of some half million infected patients fell ill following prescriptions of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 27, Afghan forces routed the Taliban from the Sangin district in Helmand province in their first major solo operation since international combat forces pulled out of the country. The operation on the long time insurgent stronghold began Feb 10.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Brazilian authorities arrested Victor Arden Barnard (53), a self-professed minister put on a US most-wanted list for allegedly molesting two girls in a "Maidens Group" at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, Britain and France dismissed any suggestion of restoring relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying this would likely end all hope of a political transition and push moderates into the arms of radical Islamist groups.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Former British pop star Gary Glitter (70), aka Paul Gadd, received a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing three young girls in the 1970s.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Colombia's Supreme Court convicted the country's former intelligence chief Maria del Pilar Hurtado and a presidential chief of staff Bernardo Moreno of spying on judges, journalists and politicians during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, Scandinavian Airlines canceled some 60 flights out of Copenhagen after members of a Danish cabin crew union walked out to protest the carrier's plan to move 147 employees to a domestic airline that SAS acquired last year. 30 more flights were canceled the next day.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, An Egyptian senior army officer was killed and another was injured when a cross-border smuggling tunnel with the Gaza Strip collapsed after troops in Rafah went into it to investigate.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, In Hong Kong Law Wan-tung (44) was jailed for six years for beating and starving her Indonesian maid, Sulistyaningsih, and keeping her prisoner, as the judge called for action over laws which leave domestic workers exposed to abuse.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Hungarian PM Victor Orban denounced multiculturalism and liberalism and vowed to fight a wave of migration that he says is threatening to turn his country into a refugee camp.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, In Iraq at least 8 people were killed by bombs and rocket fire in Baghdad.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Italian lawmakers backed a non-binding resolution that encourages the government to recognize Palestine as a state.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Mexican federal police in Morelia captured Knights Templar drug cartel leader Servando Gomez (49), taking down one of the country's most wanted fugitives whose gang tormented the state of Michoacan.
(AFP, 2/27/15)(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 27, In northern Pakistan four prisoners believed to be involved in the 2013 slaying of 10 foreign climbers at the base of one of the world's tallest mountains escaped from jail in Gilgit before dawn. One was killed and another re-arrested, while two escaped.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov (55) was shot four times in the back by assailants in a white car as he walked across the bridge over the Moskva River in central Moscow just before midnight with a Ukrainian woman, who was unhurt. Opposition figure Ksenia Sobchak said Nemtsov had been preparing a report on the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.94)
2015 Feb 27, Saudi Arabia said ten more people have died from MERS over the past week, after an international mission urged extra measures to combat the virus.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Spain arrested eight citizens who recently returned from fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, the first such arrest in the European Union of foreign citizens involved in the conflict.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Switzerland became the first country to submit a pledge to the UN for a new global climate deal, vowing to cut its greenhouse gas emission in half by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 27, In northeast Syria Kurdish forces dealt a blow to Islamic State by capturing Tel Hamis in the latest stage of a powerful offensive. Kurdish forces killed at least 175 members and commanders of the ultra-hardline Islamist militants in an offensive which began last weekend. Nusra Front commander Samir Hijazi was among three fellow leaders killed in an apparent airstrike.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 27, Ukraine continued to withdraw its weapons and announced the deaths of 3 servicemen in the past 24 hours, following two full days without fatalities.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, The United Arab Emirates said it will reopen its Yemeni embassy in the southern port city of Aden, where Pres. Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has set up a seat of power since being driven from the capital.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Afghanistan Raees Khudaidad, charged with a string of armed robberies, kidnappings and killings of Afghans and foreigners across the country, was hanged at Kabul's main prison.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Bangladeshi special forces raided a militant hideout in the southeast town of Chittagong, arrested four suspects and seized explosives and weapons.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Cameroon thousands of youths marched through the capital Yaounde to show support for the military's battle against attacks by neighboring Nigeria's Islamic extremists.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in three months, adding to signs that the country's leaders are worried the economic slowdown is deepening too sharply. The People's Bank of China announced a rate cut on one-year loans by commercial banks by 0.25 percentage point to 5.35 percent. The interest rate paid on a one-year deposit was lowered by 0.25 point to 2.50 percent.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China former vice governor Ni Fake, known for his appetite for jade and arts, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges. Fake, former vice governor of the eastern province of Anhui, was found guilty of taking more than $2 million in bribes.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China the online video documentary “Under the Dome" was released. It pointed out the role of large state-owned enterprises in creating the semi-permanent smog that cloaked many cities in the country. It was viewed by some 200 million people before it was blocked by authorities.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.44)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.77)
2015 Feb 28, An Egyptian court listed the Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organization. Another court sentenced the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's top leader Mohamed Badie and 13 others to life in prison while four members received the death penalty. Two of those sentenced to death and three sentenced to life were tried in absentia.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Iraq's national museum officially reopened after 12 years of painstaking efforts during which close to a third of 15,000 pieces looted during the US-led invasion were recovered.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Iraq car bombs targeting a crowded market and Shiite militia checkpoints in and north of Baghdad killed 37 people.
(AP, 2/28/15)(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 28, In Italy thousands of Northern League protesters poured into Rome from their political base in the north to demand the Italian government keep out immigrants.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Lesotho held an early election aimed at overcoming tension among political factions that has led to violence among security forces since last year.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Myanmar police arrested a photojournalist who posted a satirical message on Facebook that mocked a historic battle and the country's leader. Police detained Aung Nay Myo, a freelancer, on a charge of violating the 1950 Emergency Provision Act.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Palestinian Naji Khaled Abu Sabla (21) was killed and his brother, Akram (18), seriously wounded in an explosion of an unidentified device near the Gaza Strip's abandoned airport.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma reinstated restrictions as 18 new cases of Ebola were recorded this week.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, Spanish police said they have broken up a gang that allegedly created and then sold fake works of art purporting to be by renowned artists including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Joan Miro. The alleged counterfeiters were three brothers and a couple, who had all been faking art for seven years.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Syria Al-Qaeda's affiliate drove US-backed rebels out of Base 46, a northern military base west of Aleppo. At least 29 fighters from the Western-armed Hazm movement were killed along with 6 Al-Nusra Front jihadists.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, urged separatists to hold a congress on disarmament in the coming months.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Yasar Kemal (91), one of the country’s best-known novelists with worldwide readership, died. His books included of "Memed, My Hawk" (1955) a story about feudal relations in Turkey's traditional southern regions. Nine of his novels were made into films. Kemal never promoted his Kurdish background. In the mid-1990s he was convicted for an article denouncing racism against minorities in Turkey, especially Kurds.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Ukrainian photographer Serhiy Nikolayev died after artillery fire struck near the village of Pesky, northwest of the rebel-held city of Donetsk. Pres. Poroshenko informed US Vice President Joe Biden in a call of continued shelling around Donetsk and Mariupol by Russian-backed separatists.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Ukraine former deputy Mykhaylo Chechetov, a prominent lawmaker in Yanukovych's time, was found dead near his house in Kiev.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Venezuela marchers took to the streets of Caracas in dueling protests, with one group calling attention to a crackdown on opponents of the government and another showing support for the embattled socialist administration.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Yemen the separatist Southern Movement said it has suspended its participation in UN-sponsored talks raising fresh tensions, as nine soldiers were wounded in a clash with separatist fighters. A US drone strike hit a car in Bihan town in Shabwa province, killing 3 men believed to be al-Qaida militants.
(AFP, 2/28/15)(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb, A US jury awarded Sony Sulekha and four others $14 million in damages against Signal Int’l. Shipyard in Mississippi. He and some 500 other Indians had paid at least $10,000 in 2005 to work for Signal expecting jobs and a green card. Instead they labored in inhumane conditions with highly restricted work permits. This was the largest human trafficking ever brought in America.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.61)
2015 Feb, Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s “Guantanamo Diary," written in 2005, made the NY Times nonfiction bestseller list. It was edited by Larry Siems. Slahi had left Afghanistan in 1992 after fighting for al-Qaida against a communist government. In 2000 Slahi was arrested in Senegal while on his way back to Mauritania. As of 2015 Slahi (44) remained in jail in Guantanamo as Detainee No. 760.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.75)(SFC, 4/30/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb, Detroit’s Mayor Mike Duggan, in his first state-of-the-city address, announced that the city will balance its budget this year for the first time since 2002. The population of the city had shrunk from 1.8 million in the 1950s to a current 680,000.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.22)
2015 Feb, In Texas Matthew Cisneros (13) was found dead with a fatal gunshot wound at his family's home in Garland, with a pistol near the body. On March 23 a 12-year-old boy was taken into police custody for the homicide.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Feb, An anonymous buyer paid $300 million for Paul Gauguin’s painting “When will you marry?" (1892), the highest price ever paid for a work of art.
(http://tinyurl.com/kkd8eel)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.6)
2015 Feb, Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, a former Taliban comander who had been detained at Guantanamo and released in 2007, was killed by a drone strike. He had begun recruiting fighters in the name of the Islamic State in Helmand province.
(Econ, 5/30/15, p.39)
2015 Feb, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping unveiled his “Four Comprehensives," a list of political goals for the country: Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society; Comprehensively deepen reform; Comprehensively govern the nation according to law; Comprehensively strictly govern the Party.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Comprehensives)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.45)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Feb, Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-hailing service, was formed by the merger between taxi-hailing firms Didi Dache (backed by Tencent Holdings Limited) and Kuaidi Dache, backed by Alibaba Group. In 2016 Didi acquired the local unit of US-based Uber.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didi_Chuxing)(Econ, 1/30/15, p.57)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.7)
2015 Feb, Kyrgyzstan arrested Imam Rashot Kamalov, a popular Uzbek preacher, for talking of an Islamic State caliphate.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.35)
2015 Feb, Lebanon’s national debt stood at 211% of GDP and was rising
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.41)
2015 Feb, In Peru one person was killed and 32 injured when police opened fire on a mob opposed to natural gas exploration by Pluspetrol, an Argentine group.
(Econ, 2/6/15, p.31)
2015 Feb, In Romania former tourism minister Elena Udrea was indicted on two counts of influence peddling and one count of money laundering.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Udrea)
2015 Feb, In Spain a medical team in Barcelona performed the world’s most complex "face transplant" to a patient (45) who got a deformity due to a severe disease. The 27-hour long operation was successfully completed the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.
(AP, 4/5/15)(http://tinyurl.com/qg7fu3l)
2015 Mar 1, It was reported that US immigration officials are moving to deport at least 150 Bosnians suspected of taking part in war crimes and ethnic cleansing during the 1992-1995 war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 1, Police in Los Angeles shot and killed a homeless man who reportedly had reached for an officer’s gun during a struggle. Charly Keundeu Keunang (43) was later identified as a native of Cameroon. In the 1990s French officials had gave him a passport under what turned out to be a stolen name, Charley Saturin Robinet. In 2016 prosecutors said three police officers will not face criminal charges. In 2018 the Keunang family settled a civil suit for $1.9 million.
(AP, 3/6/15)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A6)(SFC, 5/12/18, p.A5)
2015 Mar 1, Orrin Keepnews, celebrated jazz record producer, died at his home in El Cerrito, Ca.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.C5)
2015 Mar 1, In North Carolina three armed robbers stole $4.8 million in gold bars from an armored truck on I-95 in Wilson County. On March 2, 2016, the FBI arrested Adalberto Perez (46) at his home in South Florida for his role in the robbery.
(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A6)(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/3/16, p.A4)
2015 Mar 1, The Seattle, Wa., transit system began pricing tickets based on passengers’ income.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Mar 1, Egypt's army said at least 172 militants were killed in February in joint police and military operations in the restive Sinai.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Estonians voted for a new parliament in an election dominated by economic issues and security concerns due to Russia's actions in Ukraine. PM Taavi Roivas’ pro-Western Reform party won the election, but lost seven seats giving it 45 seats in the 101-seat parliament. Roivas quickly ruled out cooperating with the pro-Russian Center Party and planned to form a coalition with his current partner, the Social Democrats.
(AP, 3/1/15)(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A2)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.52)
2015 Mar 1, In France 15 pieces of art were stolen from the Chinese Museum at Fontainebleau Castle.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 1, Guyana's foreign affairs ministry said that Caracas objects to plans for an exploratory well to be drilled in an area it contends is within Guyana's territorial waters.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Hong Kong police arrested 33 people after scuffles broke out at a protest in a border town, in the latest example of heightened tensions over the growing influx of mainland Chinese shoppers in the city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, India's ruling Hindu nationalist party formed a coalition government in Kashmir, marking the first time it will hold a leadership position in the disputed Muslim-majority region.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, A first Iranian flight landed in the Yemeni capital, a day after officials from the Shiite militia-controlled city signed an aviation agreement with Tehran. The plane delivered medical and other supplies to Sanaa.
(AFP, 3/1/15)(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 1, In Iraq and Syria a US-led coalition launched 9 air strikes including seven in Iraq and two in Syria against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, The Malian government signed a peace agreement with some northern armed groups in Algiers but the main Tuareg rebel alliance asked for more time to consult its grassroots.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria a crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze. A second suspect, also a teenage girl, was arrested at Muda Lawal, the biggest market in Bauchi city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Tens of thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow, carrying banners declaring "I am not afraid" and chanting "Russia without Putin" in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.
(Reuters, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, The Islamic State released at least 19 Christians, who were among over 220 people taken captive last week in northeastern Syria.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 1, In Uruguay Tabare Vazquez (75) was sworn in as president, returning to office a decade after first leading the left to power and drawing a curtain on folksy farmer Jose Mujica's colorful rule.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his government had detained US citizens, including a pilot, on suspicion of espionage, in a move likely to strain already tense relations between Washington and Caracas.
(Reuters, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, In Yemen a late night drone strike killed three suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the Markha district of the southern province of Shabwa.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, The NY Times revealed that when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state she used a personal e-mail account rather than a government one for all her official business.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.32)
2015 Mar 2, A new study was published saying a wave of migrants from the eastern fringes of Europe some 4,500 years ago left their trace in the DNA — and possibly the languages — of modern Europeans. They found that DNA associated with the Yamnaya people appeared strongly in what is now northern Germany. The Yamnaya were herders who lived in the steppe north of the Black and Aral Seas.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 2, Bangladeshi security officials arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman as a suspect in the killing of blogger Avijit Roy, a prominent critic of extremist Islam who was hacked to death on Feb 26.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, British police said they had charged 10 men with sexual offences against children and adults, part of a wider investigation into child sexual exploitation in the northern English town of Rochdale.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Motorists in England and Wales faced tougher penalties for driving under the influence of drugs as new laws took effect. Drivers will be prosecuted if they are caught exceeding new legal limits for eight illegal drugs and eight prescription drugs.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Chinese military prosecutors released a list of 14 generals convicted of graft or placed under investigation in an accelerating nationwide anti-corruption drive.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Scandinavian Airlines said some 50 flights have been canceled to and from Denmark after members of a Danish cabin crew union walked out to protest the carrier's plan to transfer employees to a domestic airline acquired by SAS.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Egypt an explosion in Cairo near the High Court killed 2 people.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 2, The EU approved new rules that clamp down on the use of flimsy plastic bags hazardous to the environment.
(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 2, In India a law banning the possession and sale of beef went into effect in the state of Maharashtra. The ban on the slaughter of cattle put thousands out of work and created problems for struggling farmers.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 2, Iran’s The Center for Investigation of Organized Crime, a branch of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), accused Facebook of spreading immoral content and said it had arrested several users. State television reported Iran has monitored 8 million Facebook accounts with new software and will watch other social media sites for content that contravenes the Islamic Republic's moral codes.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Iraq's armed forces, backed by Shi'ite militia, attacked Islamic State strongholds north of Baghdad as they launched an offensive to retake the city of Tikrit and the surrounding Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Israel said it has busted an Israeli-Palestinian smuggling ring that funneled iron, electronic equipment and other prohibited materials to Gaza, bypassing Israel's stringent border security to help Hamas rebuild its militant infrastructure following last year's war.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Libya’s internationally recognized parliament appointed Major General Khalifa Belgacem Haftar for the post of commander-in-chief of the army after promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, The principality of Monaco signed an accord with Italy aimed at ending banking secrecy, days after Switzerland and Liechtenstein inked similar pledges to exchange financial information with Rome.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Myanmar truckloads of police prevented hundreds of students from continuing their march to Yangon to protest a new law that they say curbs academic freedom.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Namibia's outgoing Pres. Hifikepunye Pohamba (79) was named winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for "good governance" in Africa, the world's richest award that has seen a dearth of worthy candidates.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Norway flights by a subsidiary of low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle — Norwegian Air Norway — were partly disrupted after pilots continued a walkout begun Feb 28, causing the company's share price to crash 5 percent in Oslo.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Pakistani officials said hundreds of parents in the northwest were arrested and jailed over the weekend on charges of endangering public security after refusing to give their children polio vaccinations.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Switzerland the large family car Volkswagen Passat was voted car of the year by European automotive editors at the Geneva International Motor Show.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Syrian regime forces and Kurdish militia fought separate battles with the Islamic State group in a strategic area near the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Konstandinos Erik Scurfield (25), a former Royal Marine, died in a battle with IS militants, becoming the first Briton to be killed while fighting with Kurdish forces battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 2, Tunisia canceled a new tax imposed on travelers crossing Libya’s border after the measure triggered rioting.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Ukraine's military said one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and four wounded in separatist eastern territories in the past 24 hours. But it warned that rebels were using the truce to regroup for new attacks on government positions.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Venezuela gave the US two weeks to reduce its diplomatic mission in Caracas to 17 diplomats, from an estimated 100, to match the 17 Venezuelan diplomats serving in the US.
(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 3, Israeli PM Netanyahu said in a speech in the US Congress that Washington was negotiating a bad deal with Iran that could spark a "nuclear nightmare," drawing a rebuke from President Barack Obama and exposing a deepening US-Israeli rift.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 3, The Alabama Supreme Court ordered the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 3, Federal agents searched more than a dozen homes in southern California in a crackdown on “maternity tourism." Authorities said Chinese tourists over the the past two years have delivered more than 400 babies at orange County hospitals.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A14)
2015 Mar 3, Regulators said California officials have ordered oil companies to shut down 12 more wells that injected oil-field wastewater into drinkable aquifers in the Central Valley.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 3, In Florida $5 million class-action lawsuit was filed accusing hardwood and laminate flooring giant Lumber Liquidators, Inc of selling products laden with cancer-causing chemicals.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Massachusetts Reverend Shaun Harrison, dean of The English High School, shot Luis Rodriguez (17) in the back of the head on a Boston street after a disagreement. Harrison was arrested at his home the next day. He had hired the student and others to sell marijuana. The wounded student was expected to survive.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)(SFC, 6/2/18, p.A5)
2015 Mar 3, Federal court documents in North Carolina indicated that retired general and former CIA director David Petraeus has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge for mishandling classified materials. He had given notebooks with sensitive national security information to Paula Broadwell, his mistress and biographer.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A9)
2015 Mar 3, Computer researchers In the US, Spain and France reported finding a serious flaw in cryptography designed to guard private data. It was dubbed FREAK (Factoring RSA Export Keys).
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.83)
2015 Mar 3, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 9 soldiers in Helmand province.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.39)
2015 Mar 3, Australia and Switzerland signed an accord in Canberra aimed at cracking down on tax evaders.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Belgium hundreds of taxis jammed central Brussels in a protest against the city's planned reform of the industry that could lead to the legalization of online ride-sharing services such as Uber.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In southern Chile the Villarrica volcano erupted, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Egypt five improvised bombs exploded in Cairo's Matariya district in an apparent targeting of Vodafone and Mobinil mobile-phone stores.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/n2vdh5r)
2015 Mar 3, A French court fined a British journalist 1,000 euros ($1,100) for flying a drone over central Paris and confiscated the machine.
(AFP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Italian police said they have arrested Palermo Chamber of Commerce president Roberto Helg, an anti-corruption crusader, for allegedly pocketing 100,000 euros ($110,000) he demanded to allow a pastry shop to operate at Palermo's airport.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, An Italian coast guard ship rescued 121 people after their boat capsized some 50 miles north of Libya. Ten bodies were recovered. Tunisian naval forces rescued all 81 migrants onboard another boat that had started taking on water off near the Tunisian island of Djerba. Several merchant ships assisted in migrant rescues from seven separate boats in a 24-hour period, bringing to safety almost 1,000 migrants, including 30 children and 50 women, one of them pregnant.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 3, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to 15 tons of elephant tusks during World Wildlife Day to discourage poaching.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and Shi'ite militiamen sought to seal off Islamic State fighters in Tikrit and nearby towns, the second day of Iraq's biggest offensive yet against a stronghold of the radical Sunni Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Rival Libyan forces carried out tit-for-tat air strikes on oil terminals and an airport, escalating their battle for control of the oil-producing country days before UN peace talks are to resume in Morocco.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Mozambique a gunman shot dead Gilles Cistac (54), a prominent lawyer, who was viewed as sympathetic to opposition calls for decentralization of power. Former rebel group Renamo said Cistac had been killed because of his views on decentralization. On April 13 police said Manuel Lucio and Arsenio Nhaposse have been arrested in connection with the murder.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)(Reuters, 4/13/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Nigeria at least 68 men and boys were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants at dawn in Njaba, a remote village of northeast Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 3, Portuguese PM Pedro Passos Coelho admitted he is "not perfect" after it was revealed over the weekend that he failed to pay his social security contributions during five years, before he came to office.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Saudi Arabia three beheadings today, one for rape and two for murder, took the total so far this year to 38.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 3, South Korea passed the "Anti-corruption and Conflicts of Interest Act," also known as the Kim Young-ran act after the then-chairperson of the 2012 Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
(http://tinyurl.com/gr5kdv7)
2015 Mar 3, In Tanzania flash floods killed at least 38 people in the north-west after strong winds and hail battered villages.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 3, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pay 10,000 Turkish Lira (US$ 4,000) in compensation to artist Mehmet Aksoy for calling his sculpture — meant to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia — a "monstrosity." Erdogan expressed his dislike in 2011 of the giant "Monument to Humanity," which was being erected in the eastern city of Kars.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Ukraine's central bank sharply hiked its benchmark rate to 30 percent, from 19.5 percent, effective March 4 as financial authorities seek to reverse the rapid devaluation of the national currency.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, The UN Security Council established a sanctions regime for South Sudan but stopped short of imposing worldwide travel bans and asset freezes on officials in the conflict-torn country or an arms embargo.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Venezuela began requiring US travelers to seek visas before visiting the South American nation amid an escalation of diplomatic tensions between Washington and the administration of President Nicolas Maduro.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 4, In California a reporter for the Sacramento Bee found a bag of headless chickens along railroad tracks near 19th and W streets. Over the last three months batches of headless animals have been found on 11 occasions around the city in apparent ritualistic killings.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.D6)
2015 Mar 4, In central Florida Derek Cruice (26) died after being shot in the face early today by a sheriff’s deputy attempting to serve a search warrant in a narcotics investigation.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, The US Justice Dept. released a report concluding that Missouri’s Ferguson Police Dept. was routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents. The DOJ said police in Ferguson engaged in something like extortion to plug a hole in the city’s finances with traffic fines and court fees.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A6)(Econ, 8/8/15, p.25)
2015 Mar 4, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the the city’s pulbic schools will observe the Muslim holdy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 4, A US federal court in Brooklyn convicted Abid Naseer (28) of Pakistan of a failed al-Qaida subway bomb plot.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 4, In Texas Ahmed Al-Jumaili (36), an Iraqi man, was shot in Dallas as he took photos of his first ever snowstorm. He died the next day. Police on March 13 announced an arrest in the shooting of Al-Jumaili.
(AP, 3/10/15)(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 4, Afghan security forces said they have killed dozens of militants in a military operation aimed at freeing some 30 civilian hostages kidnapped last week in Zabul province.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Bolivia a judge ordered jail for retired police Gen. Oscar Nina, who reorganized Bolivia's counter-narcotics force after President Evo Morales expelled US drug agents. He and a former personal assistant and his son were ordered held at Palmasola prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Bosnia a blizzard began and dumped 2.5 meters (8 feet) of snow on mountains around Sarajevo, isolating dozens of mountain villages and leaving them without electricity.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, The BBC aired the documentary “India’s Daughter," about a fatal New Delhi gang rape in which one attacker blamed the victim. A court order in India had halted a March 1 screening.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 4, The British government said it has agreed to sell its stake in Eurostar, the high-speed rail service that connects London with Paris and Brussels through a tunnel under the English Channel, for 757 million pounds ($1.1 billion) to a group of international investors, Canada's Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and U.K.-based Hermes Infrastructure.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, British counter-terrorism police arrested two men over an alleged "cash-for-jihad" fraud that saw elderly residents conned of money by fake police officers.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, The government of Burkina Faso ordered former president Thomas Sankara's corpse to be exhumed, potentially rekindling controversy over the 1987 assassination of one of Africa's most idolized leaders.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, Congo DRC police in Kinshasa said they have arrested a Belgian man (74) on allegations he raped two girls ages 11 and 13.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Thousands of passengers were stranded in Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a strike by pilots of Norwegian Air Shuttle continued for a fifth day.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, France's highest appeals court paved the way for the extradition to either Russia or Ukraine of jailed Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank BTA.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, France, Portugal and Spain sealed the agreement on boosting energy cooperation in Madrid as a major step toward breaking Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Iraq and Syria the US and its allies staged 12 air strikes on Islamic State targets over the last 24-hours.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Israel said it will double the amount of water provided to the Gaza Strip to relieve excessive use of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 4, A court in Kenya charged 12 businessmen and former officials including an ex-minister in connection with a multi-million dollar corruption scam involving bogus state contracts. The case relates to the "Anglo-Leasing scandal," which came to light in 2004 when it emerged the government had set up a vast network of phantom companies and inflated invoices to embezzle money meant for security services.
(AFP, 3/4/15)(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Lesotho final results in the Feb 28 snap elections showed the opposition outdistancing PM Thomas Thabane's party, reversing early indications that the ruling party was in the lead.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Libya two unidentified warplanes bombed the airport of the western town of Zintan, allied with the country's internationally recognized government, damaging electricity systems but not the runway.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Libya's National Oil Co declared force majeure at 11 oil fields after attacks by Islamists, a legal step protecting it from liability if it cannot fulfill contracts for reasons beyond its control.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Mexican police and soldiers arrested Omar Trevino Morales, aka Z-42, in a pre-dawn raid in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a wealthy suburb of the northern city of Monterrey. He was widely considered to be the most important leader of the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Nepal a Turkish Airlines jet skidded off the wet surface at Kathmandu's Tribhuwan International Airport. Thousands of passengers were left stranded as the plane partially blocked the only runway.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Niger a bomb planted and remotely detonated by Boko Haram militants near the southeastern town of Diffa killed two soldiers and wounded a third.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Poland's central bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to a historic low of 1.5 percent amid concerns over deflation, a sustained drop in consumer prices that can hurt the economy.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Romania began transporting natural gas to Moldova, as the former Soviet republic moves toward the European Union and becomes less dependent on Russia.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In South Africa about 500 people fled their homes in Cape Town as a wildfire defied rain and firefighters with smoke and flames rising for a fourth day.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In eastern Ukraine 33 miners were killed after an early morning explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A4)(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, American forces arrived in Ukraine to train government soldiers on use of overseas military equipment. As many as 300 US soldiers were expected to serve a seven-month training mission.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 5, In California protesters shut down the campus of UC at Santa Cruz, on the fourth day of demonstrations that organizers said were over planned tuition hikes as well as police brutality.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, A US jury in Arizona failed again to agree on whether to sentence Jodi Arias (34) to death for the grisly killing of her boyfriend in 2008, effectively sparing her the death penalty. On April 14 Arias was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.
(AFP, 3/5/15)(SFC, 4/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 5, Albert Maysles (88), emmy-award winning documentarian, died in NYC. His work included “Gimme Shelter" (1970), based on the 1969 Rolling Stones US road tour.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.C9)
2015 Mar 5, In Philadelphia, Pa., Officer Robert Wilson III (30) was gunned down during a robbery at a video game store where he had gone to buy a present for his 9-year-old son. The next day two brothers, Ramone Williams (24) and Carlton Hipps (29) were charged with murder, attempted murder, robbery and other offenses.
(AP, 3/6/15)(AP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 5, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, owned by Florida-based Feld Entertainment, announced that it will remove its traveling cadre of elephants from the Big Top over the next three years.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 5, Algeria's parliament passed a law criminalizing violence against women, in a move criticized by both Islamist lawmakers as well as Amnesty Int’l. Amnesty International called for an amendment dropping a clause which allows the survivor of domestic violence to pardon the perpetrator, warning it was "a dangerous precedent".
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Bangladeshi customs authorities seized nearly 27 kg of gold, worth about $1.67 million, from North Korean diplomat Son Young Nam after he tried to smuggle in the bullion using diplomatic immunity.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, In the Cayman Islands Norman Lee, a popular Marvel and DC Comics artist from the Boston region, disappeared while snorkeling with his wife near the southeast coast of Grand Cayman.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 5, China’s Pm Li Keqiang called for about 7% growth this year at the opening of the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 5, In northeastern India several men mobilized thousands of people who broke into the jail in Dimapur city, Nagaland state, and seized the rape suspect, whom they also accused of being an illegal migrant from Bangladesh. They pelted him with stones and beat him to death. One person was killed and several others were injured when police fired to disperse the mob.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 5, Iran said that a team of special operatives has freed Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an Iranian diplomat abducted more than 19 months ago in Yemen.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Iraq insurgents unleashed a series of attacks mostly targeting civilian areas in and around Baghdad, killing at least 16.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Iraq the Islamic State "bulldozed" the ruins of Nimrud near Mosul. Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and was considered the jewel of the Assyrian era.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, Officials said Israel will start buying some fruit and vegetables from the Gaza Strip next week, a partial resumption of imports halted when the Islamist group Hamas took over the Palestinian territory in 2007.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Energy-rich Kazakhstan suspended Russian fuel and gas imports to protect its domestic market from a surplus due to a weakened ruble which has sent ripples of economic uncertainty through Central Asia.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Liberia discharged its last confirmed Ebola patient, as it reported for the first time in nine months it had gone a full week without any new infections.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Warplanes from Libya's internationally recognized government carried out air strikes on a Tripoli airport just hours before United Nations-backed peace talks were due to start in Morocco.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto ended his three-day state visit to Britain by overseeing the signing of deals that boost ties between the two countries in energy, including a $1 billion oil agreement.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Myanmar police cracked down on students and other activists opposing a new education law, charging protesters with batons and dragging them into trucks at a well-known pagoda in the heart of Yangon. Police arrested five students from among a crowd of about 200 protesters.
(AP, 3/5/15)(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, The Gaza Strip's sole power plant has halted production overnight, following a dispute with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority over fuel tax. Even with the plant running, Gaza suffers 12 hours of power outages each day, and that is expected to increase to 18 hours after the plant's shutdown.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Suspected Jewish extremists torched two cars and scrawled graffiti on a nearby wall in a West Bank village before dawn.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Puerto Rico thousands of students, education officials and community leaders protested a proposed 16 percent value-added tax that officials say would strengthen the island's economy. Puerto Rico was struggling to reduce $73 billion in public debt and generate more revenue amid concerns that some of its public corporations might go bankrupt.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, The Moscow City Court found Roman Ushakov guilty of treason for handing over classified information to the United States and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Russian officials sharply criticized US fast-food giants Coca-Cola and McDonald's for their "unhealthy" products, comparing aggressive advertising campaigns to a war on citizens.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In South Korea a knife attack by Kim Ki-jong (55), an anti-US protester screaming demands for uniting North and South Korea, injured US ambassador Mark Lippert. The slashing left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves. In September Kim Ki-jong was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)(SFC, 9/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 5, Syrian government helicopter gunships bombed the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Syria Abu Hammam al-Shami, the military chief of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra, reportedly died of injuries believed to have suffered from an air strike on Feb 27.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, A court in Tanzania sentenced four people to death for the murder of an albino woman who was killed so her hacked-off limbs could be used in magic. The killers included Charles Nassoro, the husband of the murdered woman.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, A Thai court sentenced 15 members of the "Red Shirt" political movement to four years in prison for inciting rioting that disrupted an important regional conference in 2009.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Tunisian troops captured a large arms cache near the border with Libya, including Kalashnikov rifles, rockets and landmines.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, Ukraine said one government serviceman was killed and another wounded in fighting over the last 24 hours with pro-Russian separatists in the east. A military spokesman said rebels had attacked Ukrainian troops' positions or civilian targets 40 times within the previous 24 hours, including 17 artillery attacks. For their part, the rebels accuse Ukrainian forces almost daily of shelling and firing.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 6, US Border patrol officer Armando Gonzalez was taken into custody in San Diego County for allegedly installing a camera into a women’s restroom.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A9)
2015 Mar 6, The S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Apple will replace AT&T in the Dow Jones industrial average on March 19.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 6, NASA confirmed that its Dawn spacecraft has arrived to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres for a 16-month exploration.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 6, US regulators gave a green light to sales of the country's first copied version of a biotechnology drug, or "biosimilar," with approval of Novartis' white blood cell-boosting Zarxio.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Aurora, Colorado, police Officer Paul Jerothe shot and killed Naeschylus Carter Vinzant, an unarmed black man. Vinzant was on parole and had fled after beating his wife and taking their 2-month-old son. In 2016 the city of Aurora agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a lawsuit by Vinzant’s relatives.
(http://tinyurl.com/ngwempn)(SFC, 11/8/16, p.A6)
2015 Mar 6, Wisconsin police fatally shot as Anthony "Tony" Robinson (19), an apparently unarmed African-American, prompting dozens of people to protest at the site of the killing. Robinson, tripping on mushrooms, had already attacked several people. Authorities said Robinson had assaulted Officer Mat Kenny (45) in an apartment. In 2017 a federal civil rights lawsuit awarded Robinson’s family $3.35 million.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A9)(SFC, 5/14/15, p.A7)(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A6)
2015 Mar 6, Scientists said a tiny, brown bird long thought to be extinct has been rediscovered in Myanmar's grasslands, but its fragmented habitat is threatened by human encroachment. The Jerdon's babbler was first discovered in the 1860s but had not been reported in 74 years.
(AP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, The African Union endorsed the creation of a regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the fight against Boko Haram, believed to have not more than 6,000 fighters.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.44)
2015 Mar 6, Brazil’s Supreme Court approved an investigation of dozens of top politicians including a former president and leaders of congress.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 6, A leaked document said the Greek government plans to hire an army of amateur tax sleuths, including tourists, in a bid to fill the gaping hole in the country's finances.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Guinea-Bissau dismantled a criminal operation trafficking 54 children to Senegal, where it is believed they would have been forced by Islamic schools to beg on the streets.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 6, In northeastern India Nagaland state authorities suspended the district magistrate of Dimapur, the city's police superintendent and the jail's warden after a mob lynched a jailed suspect a day earlier.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 6, Millions across India welcomed spring with their annual "festival of colors", celebrating by covering each other in water and dazzling paint.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Iraq and Syria coalition forces led by the US military targeted Islamic State militants with 16 air strikes over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Iraqi government forces and Iran-backed militiamen entered a town on the southern outskirts of Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit, pressing on with the biggest offensive yet against Islamic State militants that seized the north last year.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Israel a Palestinian assailant rammed his car into a group of Israeli pedestrians near a police station in east Jerusalem, injuring four officers and a bystander. He lunged at security guards with a knife before being shot and wounded.
(AP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Libya's oil security forces said they had retaken control of the Al-Ghani oilfield after militants attacked the facility. An employee watched the beheadings of the 8 oil guards and subsequently died of a heart attack. Nine foreign workers, including a Czech, an Austrian, four Filipinos, two Bangladeshis and a Ghanaian, were missing after gunmen attacked the oilfield. In 2017 Austria said it had evidence that all nine workers were killed the same year.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A3)(AP, 3/9/15)(Reuters, 9/20/17)
2015 Mar 6, Paraguayan radio journalist Gerardo Servian was reported shot to death in the Brazilian city of Ponta Pora, bordering a crime-ridden area that is a hotbed for drugs and arms smuggling.
(AP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Russia’s Pres. Putin announced a 10% pay cut for himself and those working for him, including PM Medvedev and his entire Cabinet.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 6, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny walked out of a Moscow detention center and promised that Russia's opposition will continue to challenge President Vladimir Putin.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, South Sudan's warring leaders failed to reach a deal to end more than a year of civil war, with the latest collapse in peace talks paving the way for possible sanctions.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Sierra Leone Vice Pres. Sam-Sumana was kicked out of the ruling party, the All Peoples Congress, after a meeting of the party's National Advisory Council. A statement said he was expelled for several reasons including allegations that he presented a fake Master's degree certificate and that he was involved in the formation of a new political party.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In San Francisco the Chinese New Year Parade ushered in the Year of the Ram.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A12)
2015 Mar 7, In Brazil recent rains led to increased mosquitoes transmitting dengue fever. Since January 224,000 cases were reported to date.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.42)
2015 Mar 7, In Burkina Faso the 24th pan-African FESPACO wrapped up in Ouagadougou. It featured the screening of "Captaine Thomas Sankara", a flattering 90-minute portrait of the iconoclastic Marxist soldier by Swiss director Christophe Cupelin.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Chechnya a man killed in a standoff with police was wanted by police in connection with Nemtsov's killing. When police arrived at an apartment block in Grozny, the man threw one grenade at officers and then blew himself up with a second.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, Colombia's government and Marxist FARC rebels announced in Cuba that they had reached a deal on demining, a stride forward on a key issue to negotiate peace after decades of conflict. Over 11,000 Colombians have been killed or wounded by mines in the last quarter-century.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.40)
2015 Mar 7, Egypt Interior Ministry said that Mahmoud Ramadan was executed after being convicted of murder. He was said to be behind the deaths of a young man and a child who were thrown off a roof on July 5, 2013, two days following the ouster of Pres. Morsi.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Iraq gunmen dressed all in black abducted 31 Shiite men from their homes in eastern Baghdad. Officials said they suspect the kidnapped men were involved in prostitution and criminal activities. Separate attacks in the capital killed 6 people.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, Iraqi officials in the northern city of Mosul said that militants with the Islamic State group have begun demolishing the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in a push to rid its territory of symbols it says promote idolatry. In April a video was released showing extremists smashing walls and shooting assault rifles at priceless statues.
(AP, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 4/5/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 7, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 17 air strikes against Islamic State fighters over the past 24 hours with 6 in Syria and 11 in Iraq.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, The Israeli navy opened fire on boats off the coast of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian fisherman after four vessels had strayed from a six nautical-mile fishing zone. The Israeli army opened fire after the boats did not heed calls to halt.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Mali militants killed 5 people in a gun attack on a restaurant in Bamako, including 3 Malians, a French citizen and a Belgian security officer with the EU delegation in and around La Terrasse restaurant. The Sahara-based Islamist group al-Mourabitoun, run by leading Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Mali two Arab teenagers were lynched and their bodies burned on in Gao by an angry mob that believed they had planted bombs in the area. They came from a family that supports Bamako against a predominantly Tuareg rebellion in the restive north.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Mozambique hundreds of human rights activists and students marched in Maputo demanding justice for the March 3 murder of lawyer Gilles Cistac.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.52)
2015 Mar 7, Nigeria-based Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, after repeated indications that it was seeking a formal tie-up and a series of Nigerian military successes against the rebels.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Nigeria three bombings in Maiduguri killed 58 people and wounded 139 others.
(AFP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Russia the Investigative Committee, a state body leading the investigation in the Feb 27 murder of Boris Nemtsov, named two men, Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev. as suspects.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, Swedish police began investigating what could be a triple homicide after 3 people were found dead in the country's southwest.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Syria Islamic State militants attacked a string of predominantly Christian villages. At least 8 militants were killed in the fighting and an unknown number of Kurds. At least 9 members of Islamic State were killed during infighting near the town of al-Bab after some of them tried to flee over the Turkish border.
(AP, 3/7/15)(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 7, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian army has killed Deeb Hedijan al-Otaibi, an Islamic State commander, in an air strike. 26 Islamic State militants were reported killed in the air strike near the town of Hamadi Omar.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 8, In the SF Bay Area Randhir Kaur (37), a woman from India attending the UCSF School of Dentistry, was raped and shot in her apartment in Albany. In 2018 Keith Kenard Asberry Jr. (33) was charged with her rape and murder. A rape kit that implicated him in a 2008 attack in Berkeley had gone untested for years.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9n3cpye)(SFC, 3/15/18, p.A1)
2015 Mar 8, In northern Afghanistan Inmates killed 2 police officers they had taken hostage during a prison riot in which an inmate was shot dead.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, The armies of Chad and Niger launched a major ground and air strike against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov drew criticism from Russian government opponents after praising Zaur Dadayev, a Chechen suspect in the murder of Kremlin foe Boris Nemtsov.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 8, China-based Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) launched its new Phantom 3 range of drones with prices starting at $1,000.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 8, In Egypt two bombs exploded in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, one outside a popular supermarket chain and another near a police station, killing one person and wounding at least 9.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, The European Union said it has imposed sanctions on Syrian businessman George Haswani, who it says bought oil for the Syrian government from Islamic State militants who have seized wide areas of the country including its oil-producing regions.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In India Vinod Mehta (73), founding editor of India's Outlook magazine and a fearless commentator on Indian politics, died.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Iran’s state media reported that young woman, accused of marrying and divorcing 10 men in less than two years under an elaborate con trick, has been charged with fraud.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militia fighting the Islamic State took control of the center of al-Dour town on the southern outskirts of Tikrit. A series of bombings targeting public places and police have killed 11 people around Baghdad.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In Iraq a Canadian special forces soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident after he and others ignored an order to stay in their car and showed up to the front line unannounced.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 12 air strikes against Islamic State fighters over the past 24 hours. Coalition warplanes bombed a refinery near the Syrian town of Tel Abyad on the Turkish border late today. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes killed some 30 people.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 8, Islamic State supporters, facing regular bans and blockages on Facebook and other social networks launched 5elafabook.com, their own CaliphateBook, to spread their militant message over the Internet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 8, The first comprehensive report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 revealed that the battery of the locator beacon for the plane's data recorder had expired more than a year before the jet vanished on March 8, 2014.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In northern Mali unknown attackers fired dozens of rockets towards a UN base on the outskirts of Kidal, killing a peacekeeper and two children.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, An Omani court jailed Said Jadad, a prominent activist, for three years for a range of offences including undermining the state, a charge a newspaper said was related to an open letter to US President Barack Obama about human rights in the country.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Russian authorities said they were holding five men over the Feb 27 killing of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, one of whom served in a police unit in the Russian region of Chechnya.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In South Africa a helicopter pilot died in a crash while fighting wildfires in the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In northern Syria at least 40 Kurdish fighters and Islamic State group jihadists were killed in clashes over the last 24 hours for control of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province. 11 civilians were killed in a government air raid on the rebel-held town of Irbin northeast of Damascus. Clashes continued around the Aleppo province villages of Handarat and Bashkoy between regime forces and fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Nusra Front. Unidentified gunmen attacked Islamic State militants in the eastern town of al-Mayadin overnight, killing more than 12.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Ukraine said one serviceman was killed by sniper fire and three wounded as a result of fighting in separatist eastern territories in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, United Arab Emirates airlines Emirates, flydubai and Etihad Airways said they have suspended flights to Erbil, citing security concerns as Islamic State razes ancient cities in Iraq's north.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 9, President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring a “national emergency" because of the “extraordinary threat to the national security" posed by Venezuela. He levied new sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials who the US says have violated human rights and engaged in acts of public corruption.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.31)(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, A letter signed by 47 Republican senators warned Iran that any nuclear deal made with US President Barack Obama, a Democrat, could last only as long as he remained in office.
(http://tinyurl.com/kkk97ph)
2015 Mar 9, The United States delivered more than 100 pieces of military equipment to vulnerable NATO-allied Baltic states in a move designed to provide them with the ability to deter potential Russian threats.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, It was reported that Ronald Linde and his wife Maxine have pledged $50 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for promising initiatives and research at the Pasadena campus.
(SFC, 3/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 9, Paul Kalanithi, Indian-American neurosurgeon at Stanford (b.1977) died of lung cancer. His book “When Breath Becomes Air" was published in 2016.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kalanithi)(Econ, 2/6/15, p.77)
2015 Mar 9, In Oakland, Ca., Cheymil Pierce (30), a mother of three, was killed by a stray bullet on the 2800 block of Chestnut St. Police the next day arrested Anthony Sims (19) at Highland Hospital after he was wounded in the gunfight that left Pierce dead. On March 13 police also arrested Shelton McDaniels (29) and Jerry Harbin Jr. (29) in connection with the slaying. Others later arrested included Alex Davis (25), Michael Stills (21) and Jerry Harbin Jr. (29). On April 14 Julian Ambrose (16) was also arrested after he was cleared for released from Highland Hospital.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 9, In San Francisco Kenyatta Butler Jr. (18) of San Leandro and Donzel Gaines of SF were gunned down as they sat in a car near the Crocker Amazon Playground. On March 26 Davante Robinson (21) and Gregory Morton III were booked on suspicion of murder.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.D3)
2015 Mar 9, Apple Corp. CEO Tim Cook presented the company’s new smartwatch at a show in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. Prices for the watch started at $349.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 9, In Georgia, police Officer Robert Olsen shot and killed Anthony Hill, a naked and unarmed black man, at an apartment complex in Chamblee. In October a grand jury recommended further investigation in the case. On Jan 21, 2016, a grand jury indicted Olsen on charges including felony murder.
(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A6)(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/22/16, p.A7)
2015 Mar 9, Univ. of Oklahoma Pres. David Boren severed the school’s ties with national fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon and ordered its on campus house to be shuttered after several members took part in a racist chant caught in an online video. Two students were expelled the following day.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A6)(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 9, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a measure that prohibits requiring a worker to pay union dues.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 9, The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft set off from Abu Dhabi on a bid to make the first round-the-world tour. Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg (63) will trade flying the Si2 with Bertrand Piccard. The epic journey was scheduled to spread over five months, with a total flight time of around 25 days.
(AFP, 3/9/15)(SFC, 3/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 9, In northwest Argentina two helicopters carrying passengers filming a popular European reality show crashed in a remote area, killing 8 French citizens and two Argentine pilots.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 9, Bangladesh said it has ordered North Korean diplomat Son Young Nam to leave the country after he tried to smuggle in gold bullion using diplomatic immunity. North Korea apologized to Bangladesh over the incident.
(AFP, 3/9/15)(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 9, Britain said it has sold another 1.0 percent in state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group for £500 million ($754 million, 694 million euros), matching last month's sale.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 10 Chadian soldiers died in fighting to free two towns in northern Nigeria previously held by Boko Haram. A Niger military source said about 300 Boko Haram militants had been killed. About 30 Nigerien and Chadian soldiers were wounded in clashes over Malam Fatouri and Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Beijing police said five women activists have been criminally detained for planning to put up anti-sexual harassment posters in three Chinese cities.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 9, The European Central Bank confirmed a 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) stimulus program by starting to buy government bonds.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Egypt temporarily opened a crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing students, patients seeking medical care and dual nationals to leave the territory for the first time in nearly two months.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In Egypt a roadside bomb killed 3 soldiers in the Sinai peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, French police detained five Greenpeace activists after they dangled from a bridge in Paris and unfurled banners on the Seine River that call for cuts in nuclear power.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In Greece a panel of judges decided that 64 Greek and German nationals should stand trial for bribery or money laundering over an alleged bribery scandal 17 years ago, involving a telecom contract for German industrial giant Siemens AG.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces drove Islamic State militants back from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, in an attack which was backed by heavy air strikes from a US-led coalition.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank arrested dozens of members of the Islamist movement Hamas.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 9, The Philippine military said its forces have killed 73 hard-line Muslim rebels and a suspected foreign militant in a three-week offensive in the restive south. 6 soldiers were reported killed and 29 others wounded in the assaults that started Feb 25.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed the state Order of Honor on Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a state honor to Andrei Lugovoy, a man suspected by Britain of using radioactive polonium to poison Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem accused Saudi Arabia of blocking her speech at an Arab League meeting due to her stance on human rights in the region.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 95 captives, including Kurdish fighters, escaped from an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria but most were recaptured.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 9, Saudi Arabia beheaded a Filipino convicted of murdering his boss, bringing to 40 the number of executions this year. Joven Esteva was found guilty of stabbing the Saudi in the chest in 2007.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In southern Yemen Al-Qaida militants overran and held the city of Mahfad for hours before an army counterattack pushed them out. Saudi Arabia agreed to host a peace talks with the Houthis requested by Pres. Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In Zimbabwe Itai Dzamara was forcibly taken by five unidentified men and bundled into an unmarked truck near his home in the capital Harare. The journalist-turned activist had been staging sit-ins in the capital demanding that President Robert Mugabe resign.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sued the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Justice Dept., challenging the government’s practice of collecting personal information.
(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 10, A Los Angeles jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children $7.3 million after determining that singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell and Williams copied their father’s music to create “Blurred Lines," the biggest hit song of 2013.
(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 10, Richard Glatzer, co-director of the Oscar-winning film “Still Alice" (2014) died in Los Angeles following a 4-year battle with ALS.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.D5)
2015 Mar 10, A series of bombings across Afghanistan, including one targeting a police checkpoint in the country's south, killed at least 13 people. These included suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint killed 8 people and wounded 23 on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, Helmand province.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Algerian soldiers killed 3 Islamist militants and seized guns and explosives 150 km southwest of Algiers.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Bahraini security forces tear-gassed and beat inmates at a prison while trying to quell clashes that erupted during family visits, causing some injuries among the detainees.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II christened P&O Cruises' 141,000-ton liner Britannia, a 473 million pound ($714 million) mega ship that's longer than four superjumbo jets.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, The top Communist official in China's Xinjiang said that extremists from the mainly Muslim region have been apprehended after returning from fighting in Syria with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said air raids on Marxist FARC rebels will stop for a month. Santos also announced the creation of a peace commission made up of politicians from the right and left, former guerrillas, religious figures, business people and indigenous leaders.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Cuba offered its "unconditional support" to Venezuela after US President Barack Obama authorized new sanctions against senior officials of the turbulent South American oil producer.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Dubai several hundred South Asian migrant workers held a rare protest in the heart of downtown, temporarily blocking traffic and demanding higher wages. The Dubai police said that they resolved the issue in less than an hour after talking with the workers.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Egypt a suicide bomber and roadside explosives targeting police and military in the northeastern Sinai Peninsula killed 2 and wounded 46. In a city south of Cairo, 2 suspected militants died when a bomb they were carrying on a motorbike exploded.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, The radical left-led Greek government insisted that the debt-ridden country has never been fully compensated by Germany for its brutal World War II Nazi occupation, linking the issue with Greece's fraught bailout negotiations.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Indian police detained about a hundred Tibetans who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Iraqi troops and militias drove Islamic State militants out of the town of al-Alam, clearing the way for an offensive to retake the nearby city of Tikrit from the ultra-radical group.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Photos shared by sympathizers on social media said the Islamic State group has publicly beheaded three men in northern Iraq, two of them for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 12 air strikes against Islamic State fighters over the last 24 hours including eight in Iraq and four in Syria.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, An Islamic State propaganda video showed the killing of a Palestinian. A man introduces a child shown shooting the captive in the head. The man in the video speaks with a southern French accent and looks like the step-brother of Mohammed Merah, who killed seven people in attacks on a Jewish school and paratroopers in the south of France beginning on March 11, 2012.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Israeli authorities demolished an EU-funded shelter in Arab east Jerusalem. The process was initiated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority because the structures were in a national park within the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Italy's highest court confirmed former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's acquittal on charges he paid an underage Moroccan prostitute for sex and then used his influence to cover it up.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, An Ivory Coast court sentenced former first lady Simone Gbagbo to 20 years in prison for her role in a 2011 post-election crisis in which around 3,000 people were killed.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Mali hundreds of people rallied in the northern town of Kidal to protest against a preliminary, UN-brokered peace deal signed by the government and not yet accepted by Tuareg rebel groups in the north.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Mexico the body of Aide Nava Gonzalez, candidate for mayor of the town of Ahuacuotzingo, was found late today. Nava, a leftist of the Democratic Revolution Party, had been kidnapped a day earlier from a political event.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Myanmar police beat students, monks and journalists with batons as they dispersed a protest against a proposed new education law after a standoff that lasted more than a week.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Nigeria a suspected female suicide bomber killed at least 34 people at a crowded market in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 10, In Pakistan the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, which previously provided for a month-long prison sentence and a fine of Rs 1,000 [about 100 rupees to a dollar] for parents of children but spared clerics solemnizing the marriage contract, increased penalties to a six-month prison term and a fine of Rs 50,000 for the parents and the cleric.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Philippine troops killed at least 23 Muslim rebels in new clashes in the restive south which raised the insurgents' death toll in a three-week government offensive to nearly 100.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, A South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) crew were reporting outside a Johannesburg hospital when they were accosted by muggers who robbed them of mobile phones, laptops and other equipment. The incident that occurred in a badly lit street was caught on camera, and later aired on television.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Spanish police neutralized a jihadi terror cell with the arrests of two people in its North African enclave of Ceuta. They were part of a larger group allegedly planning to carry out attacks in Spain and other European countries and connected to the Jan 24 detention of four other suspected members of the same cell.
(AP, 3/10/15)(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Sweden scrapped a long-standing military deal with the Saudis after accusing the country of blocking Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem from speaking at an Arab League meeting. Saudi Arabia in response recalled its Stockholm ambassador.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Ukraine former lawmaker Stanislav Melnyk, a member of deposed Pres. Yanukovych's Party of Regions, was found by his wife dead in his bathroom. He left a suicide note asking for forgiveness.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 11, The US Board of Immigration Appeals in Washington, DC, found that Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, a former defense minister of El Salvador, can be deported for his role in the abuse and killing of civilians during El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 11, The US placed sanctions on eight Ukrainian separatists and a Russian bank, warning that recent attacks by rebels armed by Russia violated a European-brokered ceasefire in the war-torn country.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, It was reported that the United States has asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use a former US base to refuel nuclear-capable bombers engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region, exposing strains in Washington's steadily warming relations with Hanoi.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, A US Army helicopter crashed near Eglin air Force Base in Florida. 7 Marines and 4 aircrew were feared dead after the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a night training exercise.
(AFP, 3/11/15)(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 11, In Texas Manuel Vasquez, a Mexican mafia hitman, was executed at the Huntsville state prison for strangling a woman in San Antonio because she didn’t pay a gang’s 10% tax on her illegal drug sales.
(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A8)
2015 Mar 11, Oceangate of Washington state unveiled Cyclops, a five seat submarine capable of diving 500 meters with a battery allowing it to maneuver for up to 8 hours. Potential cruises in the vessel were estimated to cost “as little as" $1,000 per person.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.71)
2015 Mar 11, Scientists reported that evidence from the Cassini spacecraft has indicated there might be hot springs under the ice of Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn.
(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 11, In Angola heavy storms hit Lobito late today, sending torrents of water rushing from surrounding hillsides into the town that sits on the coast of the south Atlantic ocean. The death toll in Lobito soon rose to 69, including 36 children.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 11, Britain’s 2015 Templeton Prize went to Canadian Jean Vanier, who founded the pioneering global network of "L'Arche" residential communities for people with and without mental disabilities. The prize, established in 1972, honors "entrepreneurs of the spirit".
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, The euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar since April 2003, at $1.0557. The main reason is the European Central Bank has not only cut interest rates but also started creating more euros to put into the financial system.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In France a group of armed thieves attacked two secure vans carrying jewels at a motorway toll overnight, making off with a haul worth some nine million euros ($11 million).
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In northern India a crude bomb exploded in a crowded market in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, killing at least 3 people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Iraqi soldiers and Shiite militiamen entered the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit, breaching one of the biggest strongholds of the extremists in a key test for Iraqi forces.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 13 air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Iraq Australian suicide bomber Jake Bilardi (18), also known as Jihadi Jake, died in a suicide bomb attack west of Baghdad.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Bilardi)(AP, 10/31/17)
2015 Mar 11, Latvia's Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said the country’s security is at risk from Russian-funded advocacy groups waging "information war" that suggests the Baltic state is persecuting its Russian minority.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 11, Lithuania marked the 25th anniversary of its declaration of independence.
(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 11, Macedonian police say they have filed criminal bribery charges against the country's opposition leader Zoran Zaev, who is embroiled in a clash with the conservative government over allegations of massive wire-tapping.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Mexico bodies of two field workers of the National Statistics Institute, missing since March 2, were found dead in Chihuahua state.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 11, In the Netherlands a court ruled that the Dutch government must pay compensation to nine widows and children of Indonesian men summarily executed in their country's war for independence, a ruling that could open the door to many more claims.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Nigeria said that 36 towns had been retaken from Boko Haram since the start of a four-nation military offensive, voicing hope that the operation could lead to the group's total defeat.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Pakistani troops raided the Karachi headquarters of the Muttahida Quami Movement's (MQM) offices, arresting about 20 suspects and seizing weapons. Party leader Faisal Subzwari accused the Rangers of killing one MQM worker and said the weapons were licensed and necessary to guard the offices against Taliban threats.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Russia a blaze broke out in a first-storey cafe at a shopping center Kazan, Tatarstan province. 5 people were killed and 25 were thought to be trapped under the rubble.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 11, Slovenian police searched the home of former PM Alenka Bratusek, who is being investigated on suspicion of abuse of power after her government unsuccessfully nominated her for the European Commission last year. Police also searched four other locations linked to Bratusek's political party.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Sweden said it has offered Ukraine a bilateral loan of $100 million to help shore up its finances.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Syria the Islamic State jihadist group launched a major offensive to try to capture the strategic town of Ras al-Ain on the Syrian-Turkish border, leaving dozens dead in clashes. At least 12 fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which control Ras al-Ain and the surrounding villages, were killed in the IS onslaught.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In central Tanzania at least 41 people were killed and 23 seriously injured in a collision between a bus and a truck near Changarawe.
(AFP, 3/11/15)(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 11, Turkish authorities said they have detained 16 Indonesians from three families who were trying to cross into Syria, a route frequently used by sympathizers of Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 12, US government investigator Timothy Camus said fake tax agents have targeted more than 366,000 people with harassing phone calls demanding payments and threatening jail time as part of a huge nationwide scam that partly involves call centers in India.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Obama administration gave final approval to a giant expansion of the Gulf of the Farallones and the Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries off the coast of northern California.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 12, In southern California Keshawn Brooks (15) was stabbed to death for his backpack in Long Beach. Police soon arrested Giovanny Montelongo (18) on suspicion of murder.
(SFC, 3/14/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 12, In Missouri two police officers shot overnight in Ferguson after the city's embattled police chief resigned. Wednesday was the 215th night of demonstrations in Ferguson.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Indian biologists at MIT said the swine flu outbreak in India, which has claimed over 1,500 lives, may have mutated into a more dangerous strain.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 12, Bahraini authorities arrested three suspects after a firefight in the capital Manama broke out in the city's busy Juffair district.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Bangladesh the roof of a five-story cement factory under construction collapsed, killing 7 workers in the port town of Mongla. Nearly 50 survivors were pulled from the rubble.
(AP, 3/12/15)(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, British science fiction and fantasy author Terry Pratchett (66) died. His 40 Discworld novels made him Britain’s bestselling author in the 1990s. By 2015 he sold some 85 million books in 37 languages.
(AFP, 3/12/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.94)
2015 Mar 12, In Colombia five police and two civilians were injured after a bomb exploded in Bogota. Leftist ELN guerrillas were suspected.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash up to 3,280 feet (1 km) into the air in its most powerful eruption in two decades.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, It was reported that Cuba is allowing free, public Internet service for the first time at a Havana cultural center. It quietly began offering open Wi-Fi in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The European Parliament called on Venezuela to release students and opposition figures "arbitrarily detained" during protests against left-wing President Nicolas Maduro.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, France’s competition authority hit eleven companies with $203 million in fines for fixing prices on many yogurt-related goods.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 12, Iceland announced that it was suspending its application to join the 28-nation EU.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Iraq US and coalition partners conducted 13 air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said that a pledge by Nigeria-based Boko Haram has been accepted and that now “no one can stand in its path." The agreement mirrors the steps taken by other Sunni jihadist groups in Libya and Egypt.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, Jamaican firefighters worked to put out the wind-fanned blaze as it billowed acrid smoke across Kingston and parts of neighboring St. Catherine parish.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Kenya three Danish women pleaded guilty to breaking customs laws by attempting to smuggle suitcases stuffed with a narcotic herb out of the country.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Libya airport guards stopped PM Abdullah al-Thinni from getting on a plane to Tunis in protest against his choice of interior minister. The guards were unhappy with Thinni's appointment of economy minister Munir Ali Asr as caretaker interior minister, demanding the job go to a southerner.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Malawi police said they have arrested a man for trying to strangle to death a 16-year-old albino boy in February. A rights group reporting the murder of six albinos in the last three months.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Mexico Bruce Beresford-Redman (43), a former TV show producer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge Víctor Manuel Echeverria Tun, Quintana Roo state, for murdering his wife during a 2010 Cancun beach vacation.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, Palestinian farmers in Gaza exported produce to Israel for the first time since the Jewish state imposed its blockade on the territory in 2006.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Saudi Arabia a gang leader was beheaded raising the number of executions carried out this year to 44.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Moinina Fofana, convicted in 2007 by a special UN-backed court of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, cruel treatment, pillage and collective punishment, was transferred from a Rwanda prison back to Sierra Leone and granted provisional release to serve out the remainder of his term in his community.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Somalia 6 policemen were killed when al Shabaab Islamist militants detonated a car bomb outside a regional government headquarters in Baidoa. Five Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants opened fire at the gate of the high-security zone in Baidoa but were held off by Ethiopian and Somali government troops. An Ethiopian soldier was killed, three of the attackers blew themselves up, another was shot dead and the fifth was shot and wounded, ending the attack.
(AP, 3/12/15)(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Somalia Adan Garar, a senior Al-Shabaab commander who masterminded the Westgate terrorist attack, was killed in a US drone attack along with two of his aides.
(http://tinyurl.com/mlj5t4z)(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 12, South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom suspended its chief executive and three other top officials as its board launched an inquiry into the troubled utility.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Tanzania police said they had arrested 225 unlicensed traditional healers and soothsayers as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Turkish coastguard opened fire to stop a cargo vessel carrying 337 mainly Syrian migrants heading towards European Union waters and arrested the suspected traffickers.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Ukraine Oleksandr Peklushenko, a former ally of deposed Pres. Yanukovych targeted in a probe into the violent dispersal of the pro-Western rally in the city of Zaporizhia where he was governor last year, was found dead from a gunshot to the neck. Three recent deaths followed four suicides earlier this year of regional officials who were working under the old regime.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it is to roughly double the size of its observer mission in eastern Ukraine to up to 1,000 personnel.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The World Bank suspended its operations in Yemen as Shiite rebels fired tear gas and started shooting in the air to disperse a demonstration against them Bayda, killing 2 people and wounding seven.
(AP, 3/12/15)(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the Ebola outbreak has killed over 10,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 13, Pres. Obama, in his first visit to the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital whose practices sparked a health care scandal, acknowledged lingering weaknesses the the federal government’s response to the chronic delays and false waiting lists in the VA health system.
(BG, 3/13/16, p.B6)
2015 Mar 13, Police in southern California arested 8 of 14 students under investigation for a series of sexual assaults on and off the campus of Venice High School in Los Angeles.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 13, In Mississippi two people were killed and 3 left injured in Brookhaven early today. Jimmy Lyons (32) reportedly opened fire on a family he lived with leaving Jermaine Sims (31) and a daughter (9) dead.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 13, In Andorra Joan Pau Miquel Prats of Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) was arrested on suspicion of money laundering following US allegations that funds were laundered for groups from China, Russia and Venezuela.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, Cameroonian troops began attacking Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists near the Nigerian village of Ndaba, killing several of the militants over the next 24 hours and destroying some of their equipment.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 13, Egypt opened an int’l. conference to promote an ambitious recovery plan. Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia all promised investments and aid of $4 billion each.
(SFC, 3/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 13, Egypt's government announced plans to build a new capital adjacent to Cairo, in a massive new project that in its first phase would cost $45 billion and take up to seven years to complete.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, Germany’s top court ruled that Muslim women teachers can wear headscarves as long as it does not cause disruption in school overturning its own 2003 ban.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Guatemala journalist Guido Villatoro (20) was gunned down as he entered the office where he worked in the southwestern department of Suchitepequez. A wiretap soon led to the capture of suspect Antonio Televario Navichoc, one of two leaders of a Mara 18 street gang cell that runs extortion rackets in the region.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 13, Japan and France signed an arms transfer agreement, paving the way to develop drones and other unmanned equipment together as Japan seeks to play a greater international military role.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Iraq a bombing in Baghdad and an explosion in a nearby town killed 7 people. Iraqi police claimed around 50 percent of Tikrit was now back in government hands. 6 soldiers were reported killed and 11 wounded in a suicide car bomb Tikrit’s in Al-Dyum neighborhood.
(AP, 3/13/15)(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Iraq and Syria the US and its coalition partners staged 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, The International Criminal Court formally halted proceedings against Kenya's Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta, three months after prosecutors dropped charges implicating him in fomenting postelection violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2007 and 2008.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In northern Kenya Islamic militants attacked the convoy of a governor, killing 3 people in the second attack on Governor Ali Roba's convoy in five months. Al-Shabab militants from Somalia claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In the Maldives a three-judge panel ruled that Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president, had issued an illegal order to detain a senior judge in 2012 while in office. Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
(AP, 3/14/15)(SFC, 3/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 13, Malian special forces killed a suspect in the March 7 deadly jihadist attack on a nightclub in the capital.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, A bomb from a Myanmar aircraft fell in Chinese territory and killed four Chinese people. Myanmar denied that any bomb from its forces had fallen in China and said the rebels might have fired into China to create misunderstanding.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, In northwestern Myanmar a crowded double-decker passenger ferry capsized late today after being slammed by huge waves. At least 61 people were killed with 169 known survivors.
(AP, 3/14/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 13, Nigeria's military said that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In central Nigeria gunmen abducted three Chinese workers after a shootout that left a police officer dead at a quarry outside Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state. The workers were freed the next day through a joint operation by the police and other security agents.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, A Pakistani court ordered the release of Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the main suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, because a three-month detention period has expired. He was unlikely to be freed because he still faced charges in a separate kidnapping case.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, Pakistani warplanes pounded militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 suspected militants.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, A Serbian military helicopter crashed near Belgrade in foggy weather late today while evacuating a sick baby from the south of the country, killing all 7 people on board.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Spain eight suspected Islamist militants accused of planning attacks and recruiting fighters to send to Syria and Iraq were arrested in dawn raids across the country.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Turkey three male British teenagers planning to join Islamic State militants in Syria were detained in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 13, Pope Francis declared an extraordinary jubilee, or holy year, to last from December 8, 2015, to November 20, 2016. Ordinary jubilees are proclaimed every 25 years.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.48)
2015 Mar 13, In Venezuela Rodolfo Gonzalez (64) died sometime during the night while being held at the headquarters of the intelligence police in an apparent suicide that his family said was the result of harsh prison conditions and unjust punishment.. Gonzalez was arrested last year during demonstrations against the socialist government.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Yemen hundreds rallied in the militia-controlled capital of Sanaa to call for presidential elections and demanding the son of ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh to run as a candidate.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Zimbabwe one prisoner in one of the country’s most notorious jails died in a stampede after hundreds of inmates rioted over the poor quality of their food.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, US officials said the Obama administration is abandoning plans to cut the number of US forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year's end, bowing to military leaders who want to keep more troops, including many into the 2016 fighting season.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Robert Durst (71), the scion of a wealthy New York real estate family, was taken into custody at a New Orleans hotel at the request of Los Angeles police investigating the 2000 killing of his friend Susan Berman. The next day the HBO television network broadcast the final episode in a six-part documentary series about Durst called "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst." In it Durst is heard muttering to himself, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." On April 23 Louisiana dismissed weapons charges against Durst.
(AP, 3/16/15)(SFC, 4/24/15, p.A9)
2015 Mar 14, Missouri police arrested at least two people as nightly protests in the racially troubled US suburb of Ferguson over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown shifted into the heart of St Louis.
(AFP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 14, The tugboat Sea Bear sank off New York’s Fire Island. Capt. Donald Maloney died after jumping into icy water without putting on his immersion suit. 3 crew members survived after donning protective gear.
(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 14, In London a statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled at Parliament Square, the symbolic heart of the British establishment that once loathed him for his campaign against imperial rule.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In southern Brazil a bus accident killing 54 people near Joinville, Santa Catarina state.
(AP, 3/15/15)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 14, In Canada thousands protested against Bill C-51, a new anti-terrorism legislation proposed by the Conservative government of PM Stephen Harper.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.30)
2015 Mar 14, Troops from Chad and Niger seized Damasak in northeastern Nigeria in the latest defeat for the militants. Soldiers from Niger and Chad soon discovered the bodies of at least 70 people, many of them beheaded, dumped near a bridge outside Damasak. It was later reported that Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 400 women and children from Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 14, In China an earthquake in the eastern city of Fuyang killed two people and damaged thousands of homes.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, An Egyptian disciplinary court ordered 41 judges into compulsory retirement for supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Egypt a garbage collector and his donkey were killed in a bomb explosion in a Cairo district.
(AP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 14, Indian PM Narendra Modi visited the former war zone of northern Sri Lanka in a show of solidarity with ethnic Tamils.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In eastern India a nun in her 70s was gang-raped by a group of bandits when she tried to prevent them from robbing a Christian missionary school in West Bengal state.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said it has evidence Islamic State used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against Kurdish peshmerga forces in a January 23 suicide car bombing.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In central Libya clashes erupted between Islamic State fighters and a force loyal to a Tripoli-based faction.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northern Mexico 5 people were killed when their small plane crashed in Chihuahua state.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Nigerian soldiers detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in Maiduguri. Two men suspected of planting the explosives were arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northwestern Pakistan shepherds found 13 bullet-riddled bodies in South Waziristan. Officials said the bodies were Taliban fighters.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Romania Bucharest district mayor Marian Vanghelie, an influential figure in the ruling Social Democracy Party until recently, was arrested and charged with taking a 20 percent cut of contracts worth 2 billion lei ( 450 million euros or $475 million ) from 2007 until 2015.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Sierra Leone's vice president Samuel Sam-Sumana sought asylum from the United States, saying he no longer felt safe in the country after soldiers disarmed the security team at his residence.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Sierra Leone 10 American aid workers were evacuated following contact with a colleague who was evacuated a day earlier after showing signs of illness.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A10)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 14, Sweden-based Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer, said it is halting its online magazine in Russia out of fears it violates the country's law banning promotion of same-sex gay values to minors.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northeast Syria US-led coalition jets struck Islamic State positions for the second day in a row, in an area where the militants are battling Kurdish forces. The US and its coalition partners staged 10 air strikes on Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 3/14/15)(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Residents in Vanuatu hunkered in emergency shelters for a second straight night after venturing out to find their homes damaged or blown away by Cyclone Pam. 24 people were later confirmed killed with 3,300 left homeless. The cyclone had already caused damage to other Pacific islands, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
(AP, 3/14/15)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A2)(Reuters, 3/17/15) (CSM, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Yemen opponents of the Houthi militia announced the formation of a national alliance to restore the authority of the state, in a major shakeup of Yemen's political landscape.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Afghanistan gunmen kidnapped eight ethnic Hazara people from two cars but later released all but one of the hostages.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In Brazil an estimated 1.5-2.2 million people took to the streets across the country in protest over corruption, with many calling for Pres. Dilma Rousseff's impeachment.
(AFP, 3/16/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.29)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou (71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Islamic State fighters traded sniper fire and mortar rounds with Iraqi troops and allied Shi'ite militia forces in the city of Tikrit but no major advances were made by either side.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In northern Kenya Somali Shebab militants killed one man and wounded three others in a shooting in the town of Mandera.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly addressed his fighters and told them to return to Gwoza and kill the women they had taken as wives.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in Lahore as worshippers prayed inside killing 17 people.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Philippine security forces arrested Mohammad Ali Tambako, the head of a small Islamic militant group, along with five accomplices. Tambako was involved in protecting Abdul Basit Usman, one of the United States' "most wanted terrorists," who had escaped a Jan 25 raid.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Syrian government warplanes pounded a Damascus suburb, killing at least 18 people and scattering shattered concrete blocks and mangled cars in the streets.
(AP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Afghan army killed a militant commander who had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group. Hafiz Wahidi and 9 of his men were killed in an operation in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Andorra imposed withdrawal limits for clients of Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA), a bank accused of money laundering. Spain's central bank said that Banco de Madrid SA, a unit of the Andorran bank, needs bankruptcy protection granted by a judge following a "sharp deterioration" of its finances with large withdrawals of clients' funds.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Bahrain authorities arrested a young man who was trying to smuggle in bomb-making materials from Iraq. He told authorities a relative who lives in Iraq, and wanted on terrorism-related charges, gave him the suitcase to take to Bahrain.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Belgian authorities made several arrests and were analyzing goods that could be linked to the Feb 18, 2013, $42 million diamond theft at the Brussels airport.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Brazilian police launched a new round of arrests in the corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras, a day after massive nationwide demonstrations against leftist President Dilma Rousseff.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The European Union gave the green light to a long-awaited pact with Bosnia, a first step toward possible membership of the bloc after years of political and economic stagnation.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, In Latvia about a thousand people marched to pay tribute to Latvians who fought in German Waffen SS units against the Soviet Union during World War II, despite jeering from protesters who say the parade glorifies fascism.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, In Libya families fled the coastal city of Sirte in their dozens after two days of clashes between Islamic State militants and fighters loyal to a government based in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Islamic State group reported the death of one of its top field commanders in Libya. Ahmed al-Rouissi, one of the most wanted militants in Tunisia, was killed recently in clashes around the city of Sirte.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 16, Malaysian police arrested the eldest daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for alleged sedition, a move slammed by critics as a clampdown on dissent.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, In Mexico Carmen Aristegui, the crusading host of a top-rated national news radio program, was reported fired in a case that many fear is a blow to freedom of expression. MVS Radio said Aristegui was fired for challenging the firing of reporters who had misused the company's name by linking it to a website meant to collect leaks of government information. In November, 2014, her team broke the story of that Pres. Pena Nieto’s wife was buying a $7 million mansion mortgaged to her by a government preferred contractor.
(AP, 3/16/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.30)
2015 Mar 16, In northwestern Nepal at least 17 people were killed when a bus slipped off a rain-drenched mountain road near Rararihi village.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Pakistani police fired tear gas after Christian protesters clashed with police in the eastern city of Lahore, a day after Taliban suicide bombers killed 17 people in suicide attacks on two churches in the city.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Romanian prosecutors questioned and detained Horia Georgescu on suspicion that in 2008-2009 he overvalued property being restituted to former owners who lost it when the communists nationalized real estate. He denied wrongdoing. Georgescu stepped down as head of the National Integrity Agency the next day.
(AP, 3/16/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 16, Russia’s Pres. Putin made his first public appearance since March 5 meeting Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev at the Constantine Palace outside Russia's second city of St. Petersburg. More than 45,000 Russian troops as well as war planes and submarines started military exercises across much of the country.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Stockholm Int’l. Peace Research Institute reported that China has overtaken Germany as the world’s third largest arms exporter with a 5% share, behind the US at 31% and Russia at 27%.
(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 16, A Swedish man (20) was ordered to pay damages of 76,000 kronor ($8,750, 8,300 euros) to his ex-girlfriend for posting a video online of them having sex. The case sparked outrage in Sweden in 2013 when an appeals court slashed the damages imposed by the district court of Joenkoeping in eastern Sweden, from 136,000 down to 31,000 kronor.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, One Ukrainian serviceman was reported killed in fighting in the separatist-minded east of the country in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire deal. Residents in the eastern town of Kostyantynivka angrily confronted government police after an armored military vehicle struck and killed an 8-year-old girl.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock (33) resigned after weeks of mounting media reports about questionable expenditures and personal finances.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 17, In North Carolina 3 Burmese children — ages 1, 5, and 12 — were stabbed to death and two other people were hurt in an attack at a home in New Bern. Police identified the suspect as Eh Lar Doh Htoo (18).
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Britain announced a three percent rise in the minimum wage, the largest real terms increase since 2008.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, British officials said three judges who looked at pornography on their work accounts have been fired. A fourth judge who was also found to have viewed similar material at work resigned before the inquiry had concluded.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Greek officials said police raids across the country last week smashed an international people trafficking ring that made $8 million in profit from smuggling Syrian migrants into Europe. 16 suspects were arrested.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Iraq's offensive to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group was stalled because of streets and buildings rigged with booby trap bombs and by the several hundred jihadists still holding out there. Separate attacks in and outside Baghdad killed at least 9 people.
(AFP, 3/17/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Israel held elections. PM Benjamin Netanyahu (65) faced an uphill battle to defeat a strong campaign by the center-left opposition to deny him a fourth term in office. Netanyahu's Likud had won 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Kenya 4 people were shot dead in a shop Wajir town by unknown gunmen who wounded three others. Al-Shabab Islamic extremists soon claimed responsibility, bringing the total number of those killed by the militants since March 13 to 12.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Myanmar Philip Blackwood, a New Zealand bar manager, and his two Myanmar colleagues were jailed for two and a half years with hard labor by a Yangon court for using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Pakistan hanged 12 convicts. This was the largest number of people executed on the same day since an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Pakistan Samiullah Khan Afridi, a former lawyer for a doctor who helped the US find Osama bin Laden, was killed by a gunman in Peshawar.
(SFC, 3/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, In Poland rioting by some 300 young people in Sosnowiec follows two nights of disturbances near Warsaw over the death of another young man apprehended by the police. Two officers were hurt as police detained 14 people. They blamed the police for the death last week of a 23-year-old man, apprehended in the street and taken to a sobering center, where he lost consciousness.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Puerto Rico Police Chief Jose Caldero said that officers found 2,535 pounds (1,150 kg) of cocaine, worth an estimated $32 million, aboard a boat and detained 14 people from the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Swiss officials said they are returning to Nigeria some $380 million linked to the country's former dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The money, confiscated on the basis that the Abacha family was a criminal organization, will now be returned to Nigeria under World Bank supervision.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, A Syrian army statement said dozens of militants were killed in other areas of Idlib province overnight in clashes and attacks. A monitoring group said government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest. Medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, The Syrian army shot down a US drone over Latakia province, part of the western region where Damascus has been consolidating state control.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Tunisia said it had dismantled 4 recruiting cells sending jihadis to fight in Libya and arrested dozens in part of tighter security and border controls to counter Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Ukraine said 3 government servicemen were killed in fighting in the east in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire agreement with Russian-backed rebels.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Arizona a gunman killed one person and wounded five others in rampage in Mesa. Police soon arrested ex-con Ryan Giroux (41), who has already served three stints in state prison since 1994.
(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A12)
2015 Mar 18, San Francisco police officer Michael Robison (46), a 23-year veteran, resigned after being identified as one of four officers involved in sending racist and homophobic text messages. Robison had come out as gay before being hired in 1992.
(SFC, 3/20/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 18, GM said Opel will leave the Russian market by December in the face of plummeting sales in the economically troubled country. Chevrolet production will be cut back significantly to focus on top-end products such as the Corvette sports car and Tahoe SUV, which are imported into Russia from the US.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Evolution Marketplace, a website for illegal drugs, was taken down in an apparent “exit scam" by its anonymous administrators who made off with up to $15 million in Bitcoin payments they were holding in escrow.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.59)
2015 Mar 18, In Afghanistan Mattiullah Khan, the police chief of Uruzgan province, was killed while visiting Kabul by a suicide bomber disguised as a woman. A bomb exploded in Helmand province near the governor’s offices in Lashkar Gah killing 7 people and wounding over 45.
(AP, 3/19/15)(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 18, A Bangladesh court indicted Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, a leader of the hard-line Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, and seven students in the hacking death of atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider two years ago.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In eastern Congo DRC violent clashes have erupted between the army and a militia, forcing many civilians to flee their homes. Rebels killed at least four civilians as they fled the Congolese army operation.
(AFP, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 18, A French court handed controversial comedian Dieudonne a two-month suspended jail sentence for condoning terrorism after a comment suggesting he sympathized with one of the jihadists who attacked Paris.
(AFP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Germany anti-capitalist protesters clashed with riot police near the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. Police counted 3,500; rally organizers said 7,000.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, A German court banned Uber from offering its ridesharing service nationwide, adding to the company's troubles in Europe.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Germany hundreds of flights were canceled in a strike by Lufthansa pilots at the airline's short- and medium-haul operations.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, The Greek parliament overwhelmingly adopted a "humanitarian crisis" bill aimed at helping its poorest people, ignoring apparent pressure from the European Union to halt the legislation.
(AFP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Libya fighting, between Islamic State militants and forces loyal to the government based in Tripoli, killed 12 troops near Nofaliya.
(AP, 3/18/15)(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 18, In Moldova airport authorities banned a Russian television crew from entering Moldova and sent them back to Moscow. They were traveling to cover elections this weekend in the semi-autonomous region of Gagauzia, a region where most voters disapprove of Moldova's European aspirations and want closer links to Russia.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 18, In northeast Nigeria Islamists returned to the border town of Gamboru, killing 8 people. 3 more were killed there the next day.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 18, Pakistani air strikes reportedly killed 34 militants in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber region. Residents put the toll at 20. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing in Peshawar of a district president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Poland's foreign minister says his government will reciprocate if Russia continues to bill for Poland's diplomatic buildings after the Arbitration Court in St. Petersburg allowed bailiffs to evict Poland's consulate there, saying Poland owes some $1 million in rent.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin signed a new treaty with the leader of South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, that called for nearly full integration.
(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 18, Serbian prosecutors arrested seven suspects, accused of taking part in killing more than 1,000 Bosnian Muslims in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in pre-dawn raids at different locations in Serbia. An eighth suspect was caught after an hours-long manhunt.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma sacked Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana for seeking asylum in a foreign embassy.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Sweden gunmen with automatic weapons stormed into a restaurant in in suburban Goteborg, killing two people and wounding about a dozen in a shooting that police said was likely gang-related.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 18, Thai authorities said they had issued emergency measures across at least nine provinces as thick smoke caused by farmers burning vegetation to clear their fields chokes the north of the country.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Tunisia gunmen opened fire at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis. Overall 22 people were killed, including 21 foreign tourists. Yassine al-Abidi and a fellow gunman were killed by police. Security forces arrested nine people the next day in connection with the attack.
(AP, 3/18/15)(AP, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 18, In eastern Ukraine a civilian was killed and one injured after tripping a bomb in Vuglegirsk, a separatist-controlled town 35 km (21 miles) north-east of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Yemen Abdel-Karim al-Khewani, a prominent politician and supporter of the country's Shiite rebels, was assassinated by gunmen in front of the family's home in Sanaa.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 19, Officials from the United States, Italy and Saudi Arabia led 2-days talks in Rome among a group of countries seeking to combat the financial activities of Islamic State militants. The Counter-ISIL Finance Group (CIFG) includes Australia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Qatar, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The EU also participates.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Mississippi Otis Byrd, a convicted killer, was found hanging by a sheet from a tree about 200 yards behind his house in Claiborne County. His family had reported him, missing over two weeks ago.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 19, In Afghanistan a woman, later identified as Farkhunda Malikzada (28), was lynched in central Kabul. Her body was then set on fire and thrown onto the banks of Kabul's main river. A mob was filmed stamping on the woman and smashing a brick on her head after she was accused of burning a Koran. Thirteen police officers were soon suspended and 13 suspects arrested.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A3)(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Mar 19, Australia said it would introduce legislation next week to scrap the parliament of Norfolk Island, which was effectively bankrupt, and temporarily replace it by an advisory council before local government elections in 2016.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, Officials said around 30 British military personnel have arrived in Ukraine to provide medical and tactical training to the country's troops.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Cameroon 30 heavily armed fighters seized a bus in Babio, just miles (km) from the border, which was carrying people returning from a burial. The assailants drove the bus back into Central African Republic. At least 15 people, including a mayor and local government officials, were kidnapped.
(AP, 3/21/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 19, In China Sandy Phan-Gillis of Texas was detained while attempting to cross from the southern city of Zhuhai to Macau. She was arrested the next day on suspicion of spying and stealing state secrets from 1996-1998. Her husband later said she is a hard working businesswoman who spends huge amounts of time on non-profit activities that benefit Houston-China relations. On July 11, 2016, the Nanning Intermediate People's Court accepted the case against Phan "Sandy" Phan-Gillis.
(Reuters, 9/22/15)(AP, 8/30/16)
2015 Mar 19, An Egyptian court acquitted Habib al-Adly, the former interior minister of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, in the last corruption case he was facing.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, European Union heads of state and government gathered in Brussels for a two day meeting to talk about economic and energy policies, and the crises in Ukraine and Libya.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In France employees at Radio France went on strike to protest a cut in public subsidy and an attempt to control Radio /France’s deficit.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.50)
2015 Mar 19, The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization, reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it said is convincing evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. The glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup has been a mainstay of industrial agriculture. This raised more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the US-backed war on drugs.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 19, Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, had to cancel 84 of 153 of its long-haul flights, affecting 18,000 passengers as a strike by pilots was extended to long-haul flights.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In eastern India Sashimani Devi (92), the last consort of the god Jagannath, died in Puri. She had married the god around 1930 as part of the devadasi system, which was banned in 1988.
(Econ., 4/4/15, p.86)
2015 Mar 19, In Iraq 13 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave near the city of Tikrit. A new UN report said Islamic State militants may have committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during their rampage across the country.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, Mali said special agents were holding three people suspected of helping armed jihadists launch the March 7 attack on a nightclub in Bamako in which 5 people died.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Mexico an ambush by the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel killed 5 federal gendarmerie officers, three gang suspects and three bystanders in Ocotlan, Jalisco state. The New Generation cartel was led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho.
(AFP, 4/17/15)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.32)
2015 Mar 19, Moldova authorities said two Russian journalists planning to travel to Moldova to present a documentary on Crimea have been banned from the country for five years.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Nigeria multiple witnesses said dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their "husbands" before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama. Witnesses said the killing of women began 10 days before Bama was liberated.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, A senior Saudi official said that the kingdom will no longer issue business visas to Swedes or renew the current visas of Swedish nationals living in the country in response to Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom's recent criticism of human rights and women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 19, Switzerland signed a preliminary agreement with the European Union that will make it much harder for the 28-nation bloc's citizens to evade taxes by hiding money in Swiss vaults.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, Thailand police today arrested Boon Ching Teo (51) of Malaysia, and Sirichai Sridanont (50) of Thailand, after seizing 51 pieces of African ivory Dec. 31 in the northeastern province of Surin.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In eastern Uruguay 10 people were killed when their plane plummeted into Laguna del Sauce in Maldonado province. Of the eight passengers and two crew members aboard the flight, nine were Argentines and one was Portuguese.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Vietnam Hanoi leader Nguyen The Thao put the cutting of old trees to a stop a few days after some 20,000 people gathered to object to the uprooting of some 500 old trees as part of a plan to replace some 6,700 mature trees.
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.34)
2015 Mar 19, In Yemen an unidentified warplane attacked the presidential palace in Aden. Rival forces fought the worst clashes in years. 13 people were killed when forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fought their way into Aden's international airport and wrested an adjacent military base from a renegade officer.
(Reuters, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 20, The Obama administration issued the first federal mandates governing hydraulic fracturing on public land.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 20, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the US must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, The US FDA approved genetically engineered foods as safe.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 20, In New Orleans, La., police shot Richard White (63) three times at the Louis Armstrong International Airport after he attacked border agents with a machete and wasp spray. White was shot and died the next day at a local hospital.
(AFP, 3/21/15)(SSFC, 3/22/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 20, Bulgaria's authorities said they had discovered the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus in two dead pelicans in a nature reserve in northeastern part of the Balkan country, close to neighboring Romania.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Canada Raed Jaser (37), a longtime resident of Palestinian descent, and Tunisian-born Chiheb Esseghaier (32), accused of plotting to attack a passenger train travelling from New York to Toronto, were found guilty of several terror-related charges. They will be sentenced April 10. On Sep 23 both men were sentenced to life in prison. Each would have to serve at least ten years before becoming eligible for parole.
(AP, 3/21/15)(SFC, 9/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Cuban media reported that a local court last week condemned several government officials to prison terms of between five and 15 years for stealing and selling millions of eggs on the black market.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Denmark two men suspected of helping the gunman who killed two people in attacks in Copenhagen last Feb 15 were jailed.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Europol, the European Union's policy agency, said that raids earlier this week in Austria, Cyprus, Slovenia and Switzerland led to 26 arrests and the identification of 14 possible victims of the smugglers. The raids of brothels and restaurants targeted Chinese criminal networks that reportedly smuggled people to the continent.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, The EU and Balkan countries launched a campaign aimed at stemming the flow of fighters from southeastern Europe to join jihadists in the Middle East. The Balkans are generally considered to include Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, about half of Croatia, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, most of Serbia, and the European part of Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans)
2015 Mar 20, The EU committed 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) to help Athens deal with what even EU leaders now call the "humanitarian crisis" hitting Greeks in the wake of the financial crisis that left the nation on the brink of bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders agreed to increase cooperation with Tunisia following an Islamist attack on tourists in the capital this week, saying they would also offer more economic assistance to the new Arab democracy.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders, concerned about migrants using Libya as a jumping-off point to reach the continent, pledged to help the conflict-torn country regain stability but ruled out deploying any security operation.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ethiopian officials set fire to 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewelry on a wooden pyre in Addis Ababa to discourage poaching and the ivory trade.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Germany-based Lufthansa canceled hundreds more flights as pilots went on strike for the third consecutive day and announced they would continue the walk-out over the weekend.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern India education authorities said about 600 high school students in Bihar state have been expelled for cheating on pressure-packed 10th grade examinations this week.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In northern India three coaches of a passenger train derailed, killing at least 32 people near Bachhrawan village in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Iraq and Syria the US and its coalition allies staged eight air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, Italy unveiled the newly restored ancient city of Pompeii. It had been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Kashmir suspected rebels wearing army uniforms stormed an Indian police station, killing a policeman. A four-hour gun battle then left 2 paramilitary soldiers, 2 militants and a civilian dead.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Kenya launched Africa's first water fund, a public-private partnership aimed at raising $15 million to provide clean water to 9.3 million people by protecting the basin of the country's longest river.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Liberian officials said a patient has tested positive for Ebola in Monrovia, deflating hopes that the nation had beaten the disease.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Mexico about 40 buses blocked one of the main highways leading north out of Mexico City in a protest over the latest killing aboard a bus by thieves.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a single currency with the Kremlin's closest ex-Soviet allies at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177 others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Taiwan authorities introduced emergency water rationing as the country faced its worst drought in over a decade and the lowest rainfall in nearly 70 years. The government last imposed water rationing and anti-drought measures in 2001 in parts of Taiwan, including Taipei.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern Ukraine one civilian was killed in an attack by pro-Russian separatist rebels in the government-controlled town of Avdiyivka despite a ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, A new UN report warned that the world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen bombings targeted two mosques in Sanaa and another in the Huthis' Saada stronghold, where an assailant detonated his explosives belt outside a mosque after failing to get in. At least 137 people were killed at the mosques attended by Shiite militiamen. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.51)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen unidentified aircraft dropped bombs over an area that includes the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden but he was unharmed. In southern Yemen Al Qaeda fighters captured al-Houta, capital of the southern Lahj province, killing about 20 soldiers, before they were driven out by the army late today.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Alaska a nearly yearlong search for a missing came to a grim end with the discovery of four bodies - Rebecca Adams (23), her boyfriend, Brandon Jividen (38), and her children, Michelle Hundley (6) and Jaracca Hundley (3) - a dead dog and a handgun just off a trail in a rural area near the family's home on the outskirts of Kenai.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jose Lantigua (62), a Jacksonville businessman reported dead two years ago in Venezuela, was arrested in North Carolina on alleged fraud charges after his life insurance companies filed a lawsuit alleging he was alive and they shouldn't be making payments.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Washington, DC, a new museum complex opened on the campus of George Washington Univ. It joined the Textile Museum with the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.L2)
2015 Mar 21, In NYC 7 children from the same family died when their home was engulfed in flames after a portable cooker malfunctioned in Brooklyn.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In northern Afghanistan a roadside bomb targeting a district police chief killed 3 civilians when it blew up their vehicle in Kunduz province. Afghan security forces foiled a would-be suicide attack on the vice president during a traditional horse-riding event in Zawzjan province. A suicide car bomber targeted a patrol of intelligence service troops in eastern Nangarhar province. Five people were wounded.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In southern Chile Rev. Juan Barros (58) was ordained on Osorno amid riot police and shouting protesters, who accuse him of covering up crimes of a mentor the Vatican has sanctioned for abusing young boys.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Dagestan six suspected insurgents were killed in a raid in the capital Makhachkala. Russian authorities said those killed were suspected in an array of terrorist actions, including attacks on police.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Egypt at least 12 workers were killed when their bus plunged into a canal west of Cairo.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, The mayor of Paris, France, said the number of cars on the road will be cut in half beginning March 23. Public transit will be made free to combat a spike in pollution that has obscured even the Eiffel Tower under a smoggy haze.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Indian soldiers killed two suspected Kashmiri rebels after they tried to sneak into the army's main infantry headquarters in the Indian portion of the disputed Himalayan territory.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Libyan army troops battled militias west of Tripoli. The Libyan army said it's carrying out airstrikes on multiple targets.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In northeast Nigeria Chadian troops returned to the border town of Gamboru, after Boko Haram took advantage of a lack of military presence to kill 11 people on March 18-19.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma ordered the country's entire population to stay in their homes for three days in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly Ebola epidemic.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, A South Sudanese rebel group freed 250 child soldiers -- including a girl as young as nine. The UN children's agency warned the next day that thousands were still being forced to fight.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, Swiss artist Hans Erni (b.1909) died. His prolific work ranged from tiny postage stamps to enormous frescoes.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, In eastern Ukraine 2 government servicemen were reported killed in attacks by Russian-backed separatist rebels in the last 24 hours despite an agreed ceasefire.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Yemen's Shiite rebels issued a call to arms to battle forces loyal to the country's embattled president, as US troops evacuated the al-Annad air base near the southern city of al-Houta, seized temporarily a day earlier by al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In southern Yemen Houthi forces fired on hundreds of people in Taiz, a mainly Sunni city, protesting against their advance across the country. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 22, The US Marine Corps urged "vigilance" after a group claiming to be Islamic State hackers published what they said were the names and addresses of 100 military personnel and urged supporters to kill them.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, US Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a 16-year-old Arizona girl and two women in their 20s who were with her when she allegedly tried to smuggle 185 pounds of marijuana into the United States from Mexico through a checkpoint at the Port of Lukeville.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 22, Bahrain jailed 11 people for 15 years each over an attack on a police station in a Shiite village that left four policemen wounded. A 12th defendant was jailed for seven years The 12 were accused of taking part in an attack in October in the village of Aaly.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Central African Republic villagers said a group of heavily armed Muslims attacked several villages over the weekend, killing at least 11 people.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Two Chadian army helicopters bombed Nigerian Boko Haram positions killing several dozen militants near a village on the border with Niger.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 May 22, It was announced that China National Chemical Corp. (CNCC), a state-owned conglomerate, would buy Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, for $7.7 billion.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.70)
2015 Mar 22, France held the first round of council elections. Victory will determine which candidates can contest a second vote March 29.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said it has arrested six members of a Hamas cell with explosive materials they planned to use in attacks inside the Jewish state.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Moroccan authorities announced the dismantling of a militant network linked to the Islamic State group across nine cities that had been planning attacks.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Dozens of Palestinians and foreign supporters protested in east Jerusalem's walled Old City against the threatened eviction of a Palestinian family to make way for Jewish settlers.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Spain's two new political newcomers faced their first real test in elections in Andalusia, famous for its olive groves and sunny beaches. More than one in three were unemployed here, above the national average of one in four.
(Reuters, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Sudanese rebels said they had launched a "lightning" assault on a government garrison in the conflict-hit Blue Nile region, with the army saying the attack was repulsed.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, In Syria Islamist rebels captured four crew members when a regime helicopter crashed in the northwest province of Idlib. Another airman survived the crash, but was reported killed by his captors.
(AFP, 3/22/15)(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 22, A Turkish opposition lawmaker said he is helping the families of nine British medical students and doctors of Sudanese origin believed to have crossed into Syria from Turkey.
(AP, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, In central Venezuela at least 11 people were killed when a bus drove into a ravine on Venezuela’s Central.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 22, In Yemen Houthi fighters opposed to the president took over the central city of Taiz. Huthis and their allies also seized the airport in Taez.
(Reuters, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 23, A late night brawl in an Arizona Wal-Mart parking lot left one person dead and two others wounded, including a police officer who was shot in the leg. Seven suspects were eventually arrested.
(AP, 3/23/15)(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Arizona Debra Milke (51), who spent more than two decades on death row in her 4-year-old son's killing saw her murder charge dismissed. James Styers and Roger Scott, the two men who led her son to his death, have been on death row and have refused to testify against Milke. Her conviction had been based entirely on a confession she gave to now-discredited detective, Armando Saldate.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Los Angeles Vianna Roman (39), the daughter of an imprisoned Mexican Mafia kingpin, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She had pleaded guilty last year to racketeering, narcotics and weapons charges.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 23, In North Carolina 3 men were killed in Raleigh a piece of scaffolding on a high-rise construction project fell to the ground as it was being dismantled.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 23, Gary Ross Dahl (b.1936), creator of the 1975 pet rock fad, died at his home in southern Oregon.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.D3)
2015 Mar 23, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert gave his stamp of approval to a law that brings back the firing squad in the only state that has used it in the past 40 years.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 23, Australian-born former tennis Grand Slam champion Bob Hewitt was found guilty in South Africa of raping and assaulting young girls whom he was coaching in the early 1980s.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, Beijing banned imports of whole salmon from three Norwegian regions amid concerns they carry infectious salmon anemia (ISA). That ban represents one-fifth of Norway's salmon exports to China.
(AFP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, In central China a flood in a shale mine left at least five miners dead and one missing.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Japan the governor of Okinawa ordered the suspension of work on a new US airfield at Camp Schwab.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 23, The Mexican Navy captured Ramiro Perez Moreno (34), a suspected leader of the violent Zetas drug cartel, early today in Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border. He was on Mexico's list of 122 priority targets for arrest.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Senegal Karim Wade, the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to six years in prison with a fine of nearly $230 million.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 23, Singapore plunged into mourning after the death of Lee Kuan Yew (b.1923), the iron-fisted politician who forged a prosperous city-state out of unpromising beginnings.
(AFP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 24, Pres. Obama met with Afghan Pres. Ashraf Ghani and in a joint news conference announced that the US will maintain its current 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through the end of this year.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 24, In California police officer Michael Johnson was shot and killed in San Jose while responding to a call about a suicidal man, identified as Scott Dunham (57), armed with a gun.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 24, In Indiana 4 people were found fatally shot this morning at a ransacked home in Indianapolis.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, In Pennsylvania Hummelstown police Officer Lisa J. Mearkle (36) was charged with criminal homicide after investigators concluded she shot an unarmed motorist in the back as he lay facedown after a traffic stop over an expired inspection sticker.
(AP, 3/24/15)(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Mar 24, In Wisconsin police officer Trevor Casper began pursuing a vehicle matching the description of the car of a suspect who was wanted in a bank robbery in Fond du Lac Fond du Lac. A gun battle ensued leaving both the trooper and the suspect dead.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, Google announced that it would be bringing Google Fiber to Salt Lake City, which actually will make it the second city in Utah to have access to the service. Google first announced it was bringing Fiber to Provo, Utah back in 2013.
(BGR News, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, It was reported that H.J. Heinz Co. is buying Kraft Foods, creating one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world with annual revenue of about $28 billion. The deal was engineered by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital. The two will invest another $10 billion in the new company.
(AP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, Merck & Co Inc. said that it would stop a large study of its Keytruda melanoma treatment early because an independent monitoring committee determined the drug succeeded in its goal of prolonging survival in previously untreated patients at advanced stage of the disease. In 2016 Keytruda became the 2nd checkpoint inhibitor to be approved in America.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)(Econ, 9/16/17, TQ p.9)
2015 Mar 24, Brent crude oil fell towards $55 a barrel in choppy trading after the dollar firmed, adding pressure to a market grappling with signs of slowing Chinese growth and Saudi Arabian oil production close to an all-time high.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a meeting of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping approved three free-trade zones in the southern province of Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a provincial court in Kunming, Yunnan province, announced that authorities have executed three Uighur men for carrying out a knife attack last year at a train station where 31 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 24, The leaders of Egypt and Ethiopia promised to boost cooperation on the Nile River and turn a page on a long-running row over Addis Ababa's controversial dam project.
(AFP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, An Airbus A320 Germanwings airplane, operated by Lufthansa, crashed in the French Alps as it flew from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. 150 people were killed. On March 26 investigators said Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz of the doomed Germanwings jet barricaded himself in the cockpit and "intentionally" sent the plane full speed into a mountain in the French Alps.
(AP, 3/24/15)(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 24, Greece's former finance minister, George Papaconstantinou (53), was acquitted on criminal charges over his handling of data on Greeks holding Swiss bank accounts. He was found guilty of a misdemeanor for doctoring a document and was not expected to spend time in jail.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 24, In Iraq Islamic State militants publicly stoned a man and a woman to death on charges of adultery.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 24, Jordan signed a $10 billion deal with Russia to build the kingdom's first nuclear power plant, with two 1,000-megawatt reactors in the country's north.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, Syrian rebels launched an offensive against a major government-held city in northwestern Syria, shelling the outskirts and warning residents to remain indoors in the coming days.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, The UN General Assembly’s budget committee approved a plan to give benefits to all spouses of gay UN staffers who are legally married regardless of same-sex marriage laws in their home countries.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 24, Venezuela said it is launching a probe into large offshore bank deposits amid a spate of reports that at least $2 billion was siphoned off by corrupt, top-level officials at state-run oil company PDVSA.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, In southern Yemen the Shiite rebels known as Houthis fired bullets and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters demanding that the rebels withdraw from Taiz province. At least 6 demonstrators were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 25, The US government and major business leaders renewed their call on the Thai government to crack down on slavery in its fishing fleets, and to punish people who force migrant workers to catch seafood that can end up in the United States.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 25, The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision threw out a lower court ruling that upheld a state legislature redistricting plan in Alabama that packed black voters into certain districts in a way critics say diminished their clout at the polls.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, The US Army charged Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for leaving his post in Afghanistan in June, 2009.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 25, The United States and its allies staged 19 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, California announced legal action to suppress a "reprehensible" ballot initiative to outlaw homosexuality -- on pain of execution. The proposal was submitted by lawyer Matthew McLaughlin to the California Attorney General's office late last month.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, In southern California Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian (47) was arrested for plotting to kidnap two babies, including one found dead on January 4 in a dumpster, and attacking their mothers in a bizarre scheme to fool her boyfriend into thinking she birthed their twins.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 25, Facebook announced that it has started to turn its Messenger service into a platform on top of which other firms can develop content and apps.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.68)
2015 Mar 25, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives in downtown Kabul killing at least 7 people.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, In Chile communities in a northern desert region struggled to cope with rain-provoked flooding. At least 24 people were killed as power was knocked out and roadways cut off. The interior ministry declared a state of emergency.
(AP, 3/26/15)(AFP, 3/27/15)(AP, 4/2/15)
2015 Mar 25, A number of pilots at Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Germanwings refused to fly following the deadly crash a day earlier in the French Alps, saying they were mourning the victims of the doomed aircraft.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, It was reported that workers in Mexico’s state of Baja California have led a week of violent protests over low pay, abuses and poor conditions at large-export-oriented farms.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, Pakistani military jets killed 30 militants in the Tirah Valley of the Khyber tribal region. The army said 80 militants were killed in the area over the weekend with 7 government soldiers also killed.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, A Polish court sentenced former priest Wojciech Gill to seven years in prison for abusing six minors in the Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2013, as well as two in Poland in 2001-2002.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the governor of a far-flung region who has been arrested on charges of corruption. Alexander Khoroshavin, governor of the island of Sakhalin just north of Japan, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of receiving a bribe for building a power station.
(AP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, The Saudi ambassador to the United States announced that his country had initiated airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi operation was called “Decisive Storm." King Salman gathered a 10-country coalition of Sunni states to bomb the Houthis.
(AFP, 3/25/15)(SSFC, 4/5/15, p.A4)(Econ, 5/23/15, p.18)
2015 Mar 25, Syrian rebels seized an ancient town near the Jordan border that is a key government stronghold, ousting Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen from the region after four days of intense battles. 11 soldiers and allied militia as well as 17 insurgents were killed as an alliance of Islamist rebels including al Qaeda's Nusra Front overran 17 defense posts around Idlib in an offensive to take the city from the army and allied militia.
(AP, 3/25/15) (Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 25, Thailand security forces killed 4 people when they raided a village in Pattani, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia, as part of an operation to arrest rebels. On April 8 an investigating team said the four Muslim men were not members of any extremist group and called for legal action against those responsible.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Mar 25, A Uganda health official said an outbreak of typhoid has infected hundreds of people in the capital, Kampala.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko forced Igor Kolomoisky to step down as head of the key industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk, after a dispute over control of the main state oil and gas company ended up with armed men storming two office blocks in Kiev.
(AFP, 3/25/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.55)
2015 Mar 25, Ukraine arrested two top officials on graft charges at a televised cabinet meeting hours after the president sacked a powerful oligarch as regional governor. Police detained Sergiy Bochkovsky, director of Ukraine's state emergencies service, and his deputy Vasyl Stoyetsky, accusing them of "high-level" corruption.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 25, In Vietnam least 14 people were killed and 30 injured late today when a huge scaffolding collapsed at an industrial complex owned by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics group in the Vung Ang economic zone of Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province. In December a court sentenced two South Koreans and two Vietnamese to prison for committing safety violations in the collapse that killed 13 people and injured 29 others.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Mar 25, Yemen Pres. Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi fled the country by sea as Shiite rebels and their allies moved on his last refuge in the south.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 26, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law a religious objections bill that some convention organizers and business leaders have opposed amid concern it could allow discrimination against gay people.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Airlines rushed to change their rules so as to require a second crew member in the cockpit at all times, hours after French prosecutors suggested co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (27) had barricaded himself alone at the controls of a German jetliner and crashed it on purpose.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Albanian lawmakers voted to lift the immunity of two of their colleagues accused of false testimony claiming that the parliament speaker was behind an alleged assassination plot to kill two deputies. Doshi was expelled from the governing Socialists three weeks ago after claiming Parliament speaker Ilir Meta, a former prime minister, had paid 600,000 euros ($656,000) to have him and an opposition Democratic Party lawmaker killed. Doshi had claimed that Frroku had first told him about the alleged plot.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Argentina announced a new 100-peso note honoring the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Today 100 pesos buys $11 at the official exchange rate.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.68)
2015 Mar 26, Brazil’s federal police said they had uncovered "criminal organizations" suspected of causing a shortfall of at least 6 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in unpaid taxes. More than 50 companies in the industrial, financial and agricultural sectors were being investigated for allegedly bribing officials at the Finance Ministry's tax appeals court to reduce annual fines on unpaid taxes.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Britain buried King Richard III with pomp 530 years after his violent death. His remains had been found under a parking lot in 2012.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 26, Troops from Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border area, driving them out of a village they held there and causing some to flee into Niger.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Jaber, an Iranian fishing vessel believed to have up to 19 crew, was captured by Somali pirates, along with another Iranian fishing vessel, Siraj. Jaber and its crew escaped on August 27.
(Reuters, 8/28/15)
2015 Mar 26, Iraqi forces buoyed by the first US-led coalition air strikes on Tikrit made a final push to flush diehard jihadists out of Saddam Hussein's hometown. US-led warplanes carried out 17 air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Tikrit overnight in the first wave of coalition bombing raids in support of an Iraqi government offensive to recapture the town. The Iran-backed Shiite militias pulled out of the offensive in Tikrit in protest over US airstrikes there.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Italian police and Europol said eight people have been arrested in a half-dozen European countries for allegedly operating a diesel import scam that avoided taxes by disguising the fuel as it transited across the continent.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, In Mexico an attempt to take gasoline from a crashed tanker truck led to deaths and injuries when the vehicle exploded. The death toll rose to 17 as more victims died of burn injuries at hospitals.
(AP, 3/28/15)(AP, 4/3/15)
2015 Mar 26, North Korea said it had arrested two South Koreans based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, accusing them of spying for South Korea.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Pakistani Taliban killed 5 police officers in a rocket attack in country's southwest.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines' top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects, including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Warplanes from a Saudi-led Arab coalition bombed Huthi Shiite rebels in support of Yemen's embattled president, as regional rival Iran warned the intervention was a "dangerous" move. Egypt participated in the Saudi-led campaign against Shi'ite Houthis militias in Yemen with its naval and air forces. The US military rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their jet off Yemen's coast.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(Reuters, 3/26/15)(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Sudan said it is providing ground troops as well as warplanes for a Saudi-led military intervention against Shiite rebels in Yemen.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council boosted the number of peacekeepers in Central African Republic by more than 1,000 after the mission was overburdened by a need to protect infrastructure and senior officials in the capital Bangui.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council voted to cut 2,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite calls from Kinshasa for a bigger drawdown.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 27, The White House announced a five-year plan to fight the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 27, Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton said she had permanently deleted all e-mails from the private server she used to conduct officials business.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 27, In Boston police Officer John Moynihan (34) was shot in the face by suspect Angelo West (41) following a traffic stop. West was killed as he tried to run away. Moynihan was hospitalized and put into an induced coma.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 27, In NYC Moises Lucon (26) and Nicholas Figueroa (23) were killed after an explosion brought down three buildings and damaged a fourth property in the East Village, injuring 22 people.
(AP, 3/27/15)(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A12)(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 27, In Bangladesh at least 10 people were killed and dozens more injured in a stampede during a Hindu religious gathering in Langalbandh.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Dominica a police sergeant and four officers were charged with murder. They were accused in last year's death of a prisoner found unresponsive in his cell. Police have said that Joshua Etienne had fractured ribs and a punctured lung.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian warships deployed to the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen to secure the strategic sea passage.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 27, In eastern Indonesia an estimated 4,000 foreign fishermen were reported stranded on a number of remote islands, including men reported to have been enslaved. Some migrant workers from Myanmar said they had been brought to Indonesia from Thailand and forced to work on trawlers with Thai captains.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Iraqi troops pressed their push in Tikrit as fighter planes pounded IS targets from above. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for unity among the country's forces battling the IS group.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Israel said it will transfer Palestinian tax revenues that were being withheld as punishment for a Palestinian application to join the Int’l. Criminal Court.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 27, Italy’s highest criminal court acquitted Ms. Knox, an American, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in 2007.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, Kyrgyzstan’s secret police, the GKNB, raided the office and home of lawyer Khusanbay Saliev, who represented arrested Uzbek Imam Rashot Kamalov.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.35)
2015 Mar 27, In Liberia woman, who last week became the country's first Ebola patient in more than a month, died. Two new suspected cases were also reported identified.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, In The Netherlands trains, trams and planes ground to a temporary halt in and around Amsterdam as a huge power outage hit the Dutch capital and surrounding towns. Power was soon restored.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Nigeria's military announced that troops had retaken the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram, from which the group declared their caliphate last year. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen beheaded 23 people and set fire to homes in Buratai, on the eve of general elections. Elsewhere in the restive northeast, suspected Islamist militants killed at least 7 people in separate attacks in the Gombe state.
(AFP, 3/27/15)(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Pakistan a roadside bomb on a motorcycle hit a police bus in Karachi and left 10 people wounded. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Sierra Leone's 6 million people were told to stay home for three days, except for religious services, beginning today as the West African nation attempted a final push to rid itself of Ebola.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Somalia suspected Islamist fighters stormed the popular Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel in Mogadishu, trapping government officials inside. The attack killed at least 24 people, including six attackers.
(Reuters, 3/27/15)(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, South Africa's state power company Eskom said more than 1,000 workers building a much-needed new power plant had been sacked for staging an illegal strike two days earlier, as the country grapples with rolling electricity cuts.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Syria Islamist rebels made fresh advances on the edges of Idlib city, after fierce clashes that have left dozens of dead.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, The Turkish parliament passed a stripped down version of its controversial homeland security bill that has enraged the opposition, after a 16-hour debate that lasted all night.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Yemen at least 21 Shiite rebels were killed when residents in a tribal southern region opened fire at their vehicles. Warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Sanaa and their northern heartland and, in a boost for Riyadh, fellow monarchy Morocco said it would join the rapidly-assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Shi'ite Muslim group.
(AFP, 3/27/15)(Reuters, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Separatists in eastern Ukraine handed over the bodies of 22 government soldiers killed during the fierce, months-long battle over the airport near the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that LRA fighters kidnapped 16 people last weekend who had been working in their fields in Congo, just over the border from Central African Republic. The rebels released 13 of them but were still holding three refugee boys.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 28, Many lights were turned off around the world for Earth Hour, an initiative began in Sydney in 2007, from 8:30pm.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, NASA said a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board successfully docked with the International Space Station after blasting off from Kazakhstan. An American and two Russians floated into the International Space Station, beginning what is to be a year away from Earth for two of them.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, It was reported that the California Public Utilities Commission had accumulated legal fees of $5.1 million relating to an ongoing state and federal corruption probe of the agency. In 2014 the agency had signed a $49,000 attorney representation contract with the Sheppard Mullin law firm.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 28, Albania received 266 million euros from the World Bank for its public finances and road maintenance.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 28, Brazil said it has accepted China's invitation to join a Beijing-backed international infrastructure bank.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Residents of eastern Cameroon killed several suspected fighters from a Central African Republic rebel group who were trying to carry out a large-scale kidnapping near the border town of Garoua-Boulai.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping opened a major regional economic conference at the Boao Forum on Hainan Island and argued for strong Chinese-led efforts to promote Asian economic and political cooperation. Mr. Xi described his “One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) vision for regional and global cooperation.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.41)
2015 Mar 28, In Egypt a bomb wounded four civilians and four policemen outside Cairo University.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, In northeastern India 3 policemen were killed and six others injured when militants of the Hmar People's Convention attacked a convoy of lawmakers in Mizoram state with automatic weapons.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Japan opened what organizers billed as the world's first "Otaku" (geeks) summit, drawing visitors from around the world as the country looks to boost the international fan base for Japanese comic books and anime.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Kenya's president suspended four cabinet secretaries and 17 other senior officials to facilitate investigations into allegations of corruption.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Nigeria held elections. Polling in the country's presidential and parliamentary election was suspended in some places because of glitches with new voter ID card readers. Boko Haram extremists killed at least 41 people, including a legislator, and scared hundreds of people from polling stations in three states in the northeast.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, Pakistan's military said its soldiers killed at least 15 militants in the Tirah valley of the Khyber region.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Saudi Arabia's navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from Yemen and the United Nations pulled out international staff after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.
(Reuters, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, In Sri Lanka Priyantha Sirisena (42) the youngest brother of President Maithripala Sirisena, died two days after he was attacked with an ax in what authorities said was a personal dispute.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, In Syria Islamist groups including al Qaeda's Nusra Front seized the city of Idlib for the first time since the conflict in the country began. The bodies of least 15 detainees were found, apparently executed by government forces, after Idlib was taken.
(Reuters, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/29/15)(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, In Tunisia Khaled Ben Hamadi Chaieb, the operational chief in the March 18 deadly museum attack on foreign tourists, was among 9 people killed in anti-terrorist operations. Tens of thousands of Tunisians marched through the capital to denounce extremist violence.
(Reuters, 3/29/15)(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 28, In Yemen a series of explosions rocked an arms depot in Aden, killing at least 14 people as looters swarmed the facility. At least 61 people were reported killed in three days of fighting between Shiite rebels and loyalist militia in Aden.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 29, In the San Francisco Bay Area Denise Huskins (29) disappeared from the Mare Island home of her boyfriend Anthony Quinn (30). She showed up two days later at her parent’s home in Huntington Beach, Orange County. Vallejo police later said the kidnapping was fabricated. On July 13 federal agents said the kidnapping was for real and said Matthew Muller (38) of Sacramento county has been arrested as a suspect. On Sept. 29, 2016, Muller pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping. In 2017 Muller was sentenced to 40 years in prison including five years of probation.
(SFC, 7/14/15, p.A1)(SFC, 9/30/16, p.D1)(SFC, 3/17/17, p.A1)
2015 Mar 29, In Afghanistan at least one civilian was killed by a suicide bomb attack in eastern part of the capital Kabul. Seven civilians were wounded.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Arab leaders meeting in Egypt agreed to form a joint military force after a summit dominated by a Saudi-led offensive on Shiite rebels in Yemen and the threat from Islamist extremism.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Australia announced that it would join negotiations to establish a Chinese-led Asian regional bank that has emerged as a potential challenge to US influence.
(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 29, An Air Canada flight crash landed and slid off the runway in the east coast city of Halifax, with the airline confirming 23 passengers and crew suffered non-life threatening injuries.
(Reuters, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Egypt's top prosecutor named 18 Muslim Brotherhood members, including the group's leader and his deputy, as terrorists in the first implementation of an anti-terror law passed earlier this year.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, In Egypt 14 people were killed and seven injured in a car crash involving three vehicles in the southern province of Sohag.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, France held elections for local councils. Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party and its allies won 46 percent of the vote. The left captured 32 percent of the vote and the National Front won 22 percent with 62 of 4,108 available seats.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked polling stations and destroyed election material in in Kirfi and Alkaleri towns.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, In the Philippines 4 soldiers and 16 insurgents were killed. A month-long offensive against hardline Muslim rebels ended with 139 insurgents killed, 12 others captured and bomb-making strongholds seized by troops.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Sierra Leone announced the end of a three-day nationwide lockdown aimed at preventing a resurgence of the deadly Ebola virus.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, In Spain Peter David Tarsey (b.1937) who competed for Britain at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, was found shot dead along with his wife (77) at their home in Xalo near Benidorm on the Costa Blanca. On Sep 10 police in the province of Alicante detained a man who they suspect murdered the couple.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tarsey)(AP, 9/11/15)
2015 Mar 29, A video posted by the Islamic State group showed its fighters beheading 8 men, said to be Shiite Muslims, in Syria’s Hama province.
(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 29, A Turkish court charged former policemen Sedat Zavar and Ilker Usta with illegally eavesdropping on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following their extradition from Romania.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, In Yemen at least 38 people were killed in clashes between rebel forces and tribes near a southern oil region. Saudi-led warplanes bombed the main international airport and struck a renegade troop base in Sanaa.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Uzbeks voted massively in a presidential election with turnout topping 70 percent halfway through the poll expected to deliver another landslide victory for strongman Islam Karimov (77). Karimov garnered 90.4 percent of the vote as nearly 91 percent of the vote was counted the next day.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In San Francisco an indictment, filed on March 25, was unsealed and charged Carl Force (46), a special agent with the DEA, and Shaun Bridges (32), a special agent with the US Secret Service, with stealing digital currency during the investigation of the Silk Road online marketplace and its founder Ross William Ulbricht. On Oct 19 Force was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison and ordered to pay $340,000 in restitution to the government.
(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A8)(SFC, 10/20/15, p.C2)
2015 Mar 30, In Florida a church van ran through a stop sign, crossed all four lanes of a rural highway and crashed into in a canal, killing 8 people and injuring ten.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Maryland one cross-dressing man was killed and another injured as they mistakenly crashed a stolen Ford Escape into a police cruiser at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade.
(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 30, In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bombing in Ghazni province killed 7 people, all members of the same family.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Bangladesh blogger Oyasiqur Rhaman (27) was hacked to death by three men in Dhaka. Two of the attackers, students at madrassas, were caught near the scene.
(AP, 3/30/15)(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, In Belgium thousands of demonstrators and trade union activists protested against austerity measures for a second day.
(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, China’s government said nearly 70 "illegal" courses have been closed, seemingly enforcing a decade-old ban for the first time.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 30, Gambia sentenced three soldiers to death after a secret trial in which they were convicted of participating in a December 30 attempted coup. Three other soldiers received life sentences.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, Germany said that the euro zone would give Athens no further financial aid until it has a more detailed list of reforms and some are enacted into law, adding to skepticism over plans presented last week.
(Reuters, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Gibraltar a family of four, including a six-week-old baby girl and her four-year-old sister, were found dead in a flat in the tiny British territory.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In eastern India a bus driver lost control of his vehicle on a sharp curve on a mountain road and plunged into a gorge, killing at least 11 people in Garhwa district of Jharkhand state.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said a US drone strike killed two of its advisers near the Iraqi city of Tikrit on March 23, where a major offensive is underway against the Islamic State group. The US said its coalition conducted no airstrikes in the area during the time of the incident.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Iraq a pair of car bombings in a Baghdad suburb killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens, hours after the arrival of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, for talks with the Iraqi officials.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Israel a Jerusalem court found Ehud Olmert (69), former premier (2006-2008), guilty of corruption in a retrial of allegations he received envelopes of cash from US businessman Morris Talansky while trade and industry minister in the early 2000s.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, An Israeli committee approved controversial plans for eventual construction of 2,200 Palestinian homes in occupied east Jerusalem, in the largest such project since 1967.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Malaysia three editors of the Malaysia Insider news website were arrested on suspicion of violating the country’s Sedition Act and Communications and Multimedia Act. The next day two executives of the Malaysia Insider were arrested.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 30, The Maldives' Parliament passed a law that strips people serving prison sentences of their political party memberships, a rule critics say is designed to oust jailed former President Mohamed Nasheed from politics.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In northern Mali an international Red Cross worker was killed and a local colleague wounded when the aid truck they were driving came under fire, in an attack claimed by the MUJAO jihadist group.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Mexico Jose Guadalupe Reyes Rivera was arrested in a machine shop in Ciudad Victoria in connection with the Aug 24, 2010, massacre of 72 migrants.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 30, Myanmar peace negotiators agreed the draft text of a historic nationwide ceasefire agreement, as the country edged closer to ending decades of conflict between ethnic minority groups and the government.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In southern Nepal a wild rhino charged into the outskirts of Hetauda city, killing a woman (61), injuring several others and chasing panicked people through the main market and a hospital.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Niger militants tried to attack the town of Bosso, just over the border with Nigeria. Troops from Niger and Chad intervened, killing 47 militants and destroying several of their vehicles and mortars.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Nigeria some 2,000 women protesting against the conduct of elections in Rivers state were teargassed as they tried to register their complaints with electoral officials.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In northeastern Nigeria 8 suspected Boko Haram fighters were killed during fighting in Gombe and Bauchi states.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, Peru's Congress sacked PM Ana Jara over alleged spying against lawmakers, reporters, business leaders and other citizens.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, In South Sudan 3 staff members of the UN World Food Program disappeared while traveling in a convoy from Malakal to distribute food to Melut, Upper Nile state. UN food operation in some parts of the country were soon suspended.
(SFC, 4/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, Spanish police arrested 12 people suspected of belonging to an anarchist group called Coordinated Anarchists Groups, and were suspected of sabotage offenses and planting explosive devices.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Uganda Joan Kagezi, a prosecutor in the trial of about a dozen men facing terrorism charges, was shot and killed in Kampala.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, In Yemen warships, believed to be from Egypt, shelled a column of Houthi fighters and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh as they tried to advance on the southern port city of Aden. In the north an air strike killed 45 people at the Al-Mazrak camp in Hajja province. Warplanes carried out a fifth night of air strikes around Sanaa.
(Reuters, 3/30/15)(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 31, Pres. Obama removed his holds on the delivery of F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles and M1A1 tanks kits to Egypt and assured Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that he would continue to support $1.3 billion in annual military assistance.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 31, The US Treasury Dept. imposed new sanctions on Syria's government aimed at blunting its weapons programs and pushing it into negotiations with rebels. The action targeted Batoul Rida, a Syrian central bank official, and three "front companies" that help fund Syria's development of ballistic missiles and nonconventional weapons.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, The US Supreme Court barred doctors, dentists and druggists from going to court to fight cutbacks in Medicaid payments.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 31, A US federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of assets of RadioShack to hedge fund Standard General that will keep more than 1,700 stores open. Some 2,000 stores were already closed or in the process of closing.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.C3)
2015 Mar 31, In southern California Andrew Getty (47), heir to the Getty family oil fortune, was found dead at his home in the Hollywood Hills.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 31, In Connecticut John Zelepos (48), the owner of Mystic Pizza restaurant, pleaded guilty to federal tax charges. Prosecutors said that between 2006 and 2010 he diverted just over $567,000 from gross receipts into his personal bank accounts. The restaurant was featured in the 1988 film “Mystic Pizza" with Julia Roberts.
(SFC, 4/3/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 31, In Buffalo, NY, a reclining statue of a homeless and blanket shrouded Jesus by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, was unveiled outside St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral. People soon began to leave money, food and other items for the homeless at the statue.
(http://tinyurl.com/q3hnpuz)
2015 Mar 31, In Argentina transportation unions brought the country to a standstill with a one-day nationwide strike to protest income tax rates and high inflation.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Australia 55 dead greyhounds were found dumped and spent rifle cartridges seen nearby in near Bundaberg, Queensland state. The grisly discovery came on the heels of a live baiting scandal rocking the dog racing industry.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Chile a Bell 206 helicopter went missing while flying with drinking water for residents of a desert region recently hit by flash-floods. It was found on April 2 and the pilot and 3 other people aboard were dead. Pilot Pedro Pablo Aldunate was married to one of Pres. Bachelet's second cousins.
(AP, 4/2/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Colombia a truck lost its brakes and smashed into at least four cars, killing 10 people and injuring 14 more on the highway linking Bogota with Villavicencio.
(AP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, Crimea's independent television station ATR went off air at midnight after Russian authorities repeatedly refused to give it a broadcasting license.
(AP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Germany windstorm Niklas, which entailed wind speeds of up to 192 kilometers (119 miles) per hour, was one of the five most costly storms to hit the country in the last 15 years. German insurers later said they were likely to face damage claims of around 750 million euros ($808 million).
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Mar 31, In India fierce rain and lightning toppled houses and trees in Bihar state, killing 20 people.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, Iran and six world powers ramped up the pace in negotiations in Switzerland over a preliminary deal on Tehran's nuclear program. Officials cautioned that any agreement would likely be fragile and incomplete.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi said government troops aided by Shi'ite paramilitaries have driven Islamic State out of central Tikrit, but the fight to retake all of Saddam Hussein's home town continued. A suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims north of Baghdad, killing 6 people, including 4 Iranians.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)(AP, 3/31/15)(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 31, In Japan a landmark vote by the assembly of Tokyo's Shibuya ward, the district famous as a mecca for trendy youngsters became the first locale in Japan to recognize same sex partnerships as the "equivalent of a marriage," guaranteeing the identical rights of married couples, including hospital visitations and apartment rentals.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Kashmir rescuers recovered 16 bodies from two houses hit by rain-triggered landslides, following its second major floods in six months.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Libya lawmakers in the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) voted to sack prime minister Omar al-Hassi, accusing him of failing to tackle corruption.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Nigeria the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared victory for its candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in the March 28 presidential election.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, Saudi-led airstrikes pounded Yemen's Shiite rebels for the sixth day, destroying missiles and weapons depots controlled by the rebels. The UN human rights office in Geneva said that in the past five days, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 wounded in five Yemeni cities. Airstrikes hit a dairy factory near Hodeida killing 23.
(AP, 3/31/15)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.44)
2015 Mar 31, In central Syria the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 46 civilians, including two children, in a raid on a regime-held village in Hama province. Jihadist fighters from the IS group took hostage at least 50 civilians, almost half of them women, seized in a raid on Mabujeh village, Hama province.
(AFP, 3/31/15)(AP, 4/10/15)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 31, A Thai military court sentenced Bangkok businessman Thiensutham Suthijitseranee to 25 years in prison on charges of defaming the country's monarchy in what appears to be the longest sentence handed down in recent years for the crime of lese majeste.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey an Istanbul court acquitted 236 military officers of charges of plotting a 2003 coup to overthrow the government of then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey a massive power cut caused chaos and shut down public transport across the country, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey two members of a banned left-wing group, DHKP-C, held prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in an Istanbul courthouse for six hours. All three died in a shootout between the hostage-takers and police.
(AP, 4/1/15)(SFC, 4/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 31, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said donors meeting in Kuwait have pledged $3.8 billion in humanitarian aid for the people of war-wracked Syria.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar, FinCEN, an arm of the US Treasury, labelled Banca Privada d’Andorra a primary money laundering concern. This effectively shut the bank out of America’s financial system.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.57)
2015 Mar, Indiana state health officials reported 81 HIV-positive tests in one week with most of them coming from the small town of Austin.
(SFC, 4/6/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar, A judge in Las Vegas ruled that Panama-based Mossack Fonseca and MF Nevada were one and the same. Under American law this allowed any investigator anywhere in the world to subpoena Mossack through the Nevada subsidiary for information relevant to cases in any country.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.61)
2015 Mar, Nvidea unveiled new hardware and software to bring speed, ease and power to deep learning research. The dedicated dee-learning computer “DIGITS" was priced at $15,000.
(http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/03/17/digits-devbox/)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.16)
2015 Mar, The British government set aside 834,000 square km (322,000 square miles) of ocean for the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve, the largest single marine protected area anywhere.
(Econ, 2/13/15, p.84)
2015 Mar, Beijing police arrested an environmental reporter and his associates in an apparent extortion scandal. The group's ringleader, surnamed Chen, was accused of blackmailing businesses into paying hundreds of thousands of yuan to delete embarrassing online reports about their activities on a website for environmental news.
(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Mar, El Salvador recorded 481 homicides this month, more than any other single month in a decade.
(AP, 4/9/15)
2015 Mar, Ford Motor Co. opened a 400-acre car factory in Gujarat, India.
(Econ, 8/8/15, p.57)
2015 Mar, In Iran Mehdi Hashemi (45), son of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was handed prison sentences totaling 25 years after being convicted on three charges in separate cases involving national security, fraud and embezzlement. He was sentenced to two terms of 10 years in prison and one of five years, and in line with Iranian law will serve the longest of the three sentences.
(AFP, 8/9/15)
2015 Mar, Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) named dozens of top politicians and civil servants in a report that gave a damning indictment of the scale of corruption in the country. A total of 175 people were named in the report, including five cabinet ministers, 13 governors and a host of civil servants, MPs and members of the judiciary.
(AFP, 4/23/15)
2015 Mar, In Macedonia opposition leader Zoran Zaev leaked tapes of alleged conversations gathered for PM Nikola Gruevska and his spy chief cousin.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.54)
2015 Mar 14, Pakistani authorities arrested top model Ayaan Ali (21) after finding $506,800 tucked into her luggage while trying to fly to Dubai. A court granted her bail on July 14 and she was freed on July 16.
(AP, 7/14/15)(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Mar, In Pakistan Baloch separatists attacked tankers carrying fuel to a Chinese company working on a mining project.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.31)
2015 Mar, Russian television anchor Pavel Lobkov was targeted by the hacking group known as Fancy Bear, nine months before his messages were leaked. He was one of at least 200 journalists, publishers and bloggers targeted by the group as early as mid-2014 and as recently as a few months ago.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2015 Mar, In South Africa a wave of attacks against the country's colonial heritage began when young protestors at the University of Cape Town threw excrement at a statue of Cecil Rhodes, eventually forcing the university to remove the statue of the British imperialist.
(AFP, 4/6/15)
2015 Mar – 2016 May, US-based cybersecurity company Secureworks, collected data over this period identifying the US defense and security targets of Russian hackers, known as Fancy Bear, from about 19,000 lines of email phishing data created by the hackers. The hackers went after at least 87 people working on militarized drones, missiles, rockets, stealth fighter jets, cloud-computing platforms or other sensitive activities. This was only made public in 2018.
(AP, 2/7/18)
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Return to home
2015 Jan 1, Donna Douglass (b.1932), TV actress, died in Baton Rouge, La. She played Elly May Clampett in the “The Beverly Hillbillies" sitcom which aired from 1962-1971.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 1, Mario Cuomo (b.1932), former three-term governor of New York state (1983-1994), died of heart failure at home in Manhattan.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A5)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 1, In West Virginia Eric Campbell (21) and Edward Campbell (54) of Texas were arrested following a shooting that left two officers wounded. The bodies of Jerome Faulkner (63) and his wife Dora (62) of North Carolina, killed earlier in the day, were found in the bed of a pickup truck driven by Edward Campbell.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In the Bahamas a new 7.5 percent tax value-added went into effect only for businesses whose profits exceed $100,000 a year.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 1, Fritz-Joly Joachin (19) was arrested while trying to cross from Bulgaria to Turkey. He was later associated with the Kouachi brothers who killed 12 people in Paris on Jan 7. On Jan 29 he was extradited to France.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, In Burundi a group of unidentified rebels crossed into the country overnight from DRCongo's eastern Kivu region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Dominican Rep. said it will not recognize a same-sex marriage performed for the first time there two days earlier.
(SFC, 1/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 1, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi addressed Muslim clerics in a televised speech at an Al-Azhar conference center in Cairo and called on them to promote a reading of Islamic text in an enlightened manner and to reconsider concepts that have been made sacred over hundreds of years.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A3)(Reuters, 5/31/15)
2015 Jan 1, Defense lawyers said Egypt's highest court has ordered a retrial of three jailed journalists working for Al Jazeera television, citing procedural flaws in last year's trial.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, France's Interior Ministry said 940 cars were set alight by revelers ringing in the New Year, 12 percent fewer than the 1,067 set aflame last year.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Gambia military source said four officers suspected of participating in a failed military coup against strongman President Yahya Jammeh have taken refuge in Guinea-Bissau. Dozens of military personnel and civilians were arrested and a large cache of weapons and explosives were found after the alleged coup attempt.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the Airbus A320-200, which crashed Dec 28 en route to Singapore.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, India scrapped its 65-year-old Planning Commission and replacing it today with new National Institution for Transforming India (NITI), which PM Narendra Modi said would do more to involve the regions.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Iran 2 people were killed in what is being labeled a terrorist attack in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In southern Iraq gunmen killed 3 Sunni clerics near the mostly Shiite city of Basra. A roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad, killing 4 civilians and wounding 12.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Iraqi government figures showed violence in the country killed more than 15,000 civilians and security personnel in 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Former Lebanese PM Omar Karami (b.1934) died after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Karami served two terms, 1990-1992 and 2004-2005.
(AP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Lithuania welcomed a New Year and a new currency, becoming the 19th member and last Baltic nation to adopt the euro in a bid to boost stability despite fears of inflation and eurozone debt woes.
(AFP, 1/1/15)(http://tinyurl.com/obb2hfm)(Econ, 12/6/14, p.85)
2015 Jan 1, In Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in the northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, A Pakistani fishing boat laden with explosives bound for India blew up, killing all four people on board, after the Indian coast guard tried to stop and search it.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, In the Philippines a huge blaze, believed to have been ignited by firecrackers, razed nearly a thousand shanties and killed 3 people in a creekside slum in Manila. At least 17 fires across the country were linked to raucous New Year's celebrations leaving a total of 7 people dead.
(AP, 1/1/15)(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 1, In Poland a so-called "oncology package" was introduced requiring family doctors to diagnose and fast-track cancer patients. Doctors said this will leave less time and attention for all other patients, threatening their health. Hundreds of doctors refused to sign the new plan and kept their surgeries closed.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 1, Saudi security forces arrested Montadhar Ali Saleh Alsbaitiin, a man believed to belong to a Shi'ite Muslim group blamed for instigating protests and unrest in the country's Eastern Province.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics said it will release smart televisions equipped with its new platform built around the Tizen operating system this year, as it seeks to lower its reliance on Google.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Sri Lanka said flash floods and mudslides have killed at least 39 people and more than 1 million have had to flee their homes in the past two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, Swedish police hunted for at least one suspect following what is believed to be the third arson attack on a mosque in a week.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, recorded 76,021 deaths for 2014.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Tanzania six lions were killed overnight by angry Maasai herders following an attack on livestock.
(AFP, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Turkey a man carrying an automatic weapon was detained near the historic Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul after he threw a grenade at police. The Turkish far-left group DHKP-C soon claimed responsibility for the grenade attack.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 1, Ukrainian separatists carried out sporadic attacks on government forces as the New Year began, wounding three soldiers. Rebel mortar fire reportedly killed one civilian. Alexander Bednov, head of a battalion called "Batman," was killed when separatist security forces tried to arrest him in the Luhansk region.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 1, In Yemen 49 people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted a religious celebration by Huthi supporters in the mainly Sunni city of Ibb.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 2, The United States imposed new sanctions on North Korea in retaliation for a cyber attack on Hollywood studio Sony Pictures.
(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, Andrew Marshall (93), head of the US Office of Net Assessment (ONA), known as the Pentagon’s internal think tank, retired. He had led the office since its inception in 1973.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.28)
2015 Jan 2, In California hundreds of people lined up in early morning cold as the state began taking driver's license applications from the largest population of immigrants living in the US illegally.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, A judge in Alameda, Ca., approved a $9.87 million settlement against Safeway Inc. for improperly disposing of hazardous material and customers’ medical records.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.C4)
2015 Jan 2, In Kentucky Sailor Gutzler, a seven-year-old girl, walked free from the wreckage of a private plane that crashed in a wooded area killing her parents, a sister (9) and a cousin (14). She walked three-quarters of a mile in near freezing temperatures before finding a residence and directing emergency workers to the crash.
(AP, 1/3/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 2, Little Jimmy Dickens (b.1920), former singer with the Grand Ole Opry, died in Nashville. His hit songs included "Take an Old Cold Tater" (1949), “Out Behind the Barn" (1954) and “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose" (1965).
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 2, In Afghanistan a civilian man was killed after a rocket fired from an army checkpoint struck a house in southern Helmand province.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, Egyptian troops opened fire on six Gazans who had illegally crossed into the Egyptian Sinai, where the army has created a buffer zone to prevent the movement of militants. Ashraf al-Qudra (17) was killed.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, The Eurasian Economic Union, a trade bloc of former Soviet states, expanded to four nations when Armenia formally joined, a day after the union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan began.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Greece a couple and their 12-year-old son were stabbed to death in their apartment in Thessaloniki. The alleged attacker (60) was arrested after being injured by falling from a balcony of the building.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Hungary some 5000 thousand people protested at what they see as the country's move towards Russia in the latest demonstration against the government of controversial PM Viktor Orban.
(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, The Icelandic Coast Guard ship Tyr towed a cargo vessel to Italy with about 450 migrants after Italian rescue teams managed to secure the wave-tossed Ezadeen for towing toward the southern Calabrian region. The migrants were abandoned by smugglers, leaving the vessel in rough seas without a crew.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, Rescue teams battling monsoon rains recovered 21 more bodies from Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed on Dec 28. To date 30 of 162 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In northern Iraq militants linked to the Islamic State group rounded up dozens of men from the villages of al-Shajara and al-Ghariba following a quarrel that led to the burning of the extremist group's flag.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, Kenya's High Court suspended key parts of a controversial new national security law that the opposition had warned risked turning the east African nation into a dictatorship.
(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Libya armed militants shot and killed 17 soldiers and one civilian at a checkpoint in the central district of Jufra.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Mexico armed men seized Moises Sanchez Cerezo (49), a journalist and activist, from his home in the eastern state of Veracruz. His decapitated body was found on January 24.
(AP, 1/3/15)(SSFC, 5/21/17, p.E7)
2015 Jan 2, Nigerian Islamist militants overran an army base in the remote northeastern town of Baga. Scores of soldiers and civilians were killed, while others drowned in Lake Chad. The death toll was later said to have killed as many as 2,000 civilians. Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A4)(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A4)(AP, 10/17/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Pakistan Moeen Yasin, a six-year-old boy, was found strangled and dumped in a mosque after being sexually abused. Police soon apprehended up to seven people including local cleric Qari Saqib, a prime suspect in the case.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Sweden hundreds of demonstrators marched in three cities to condemn recent arson attacks against mosques.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 2, in northeastern Syria US-led coalition warplanes carried out at least 13 airstrikes overnight in and around Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital. At least 19 people were killed overnight by Syrian rebel fire on government-controlled parts of the northern city of Aleppo.
(AP, 1/2/15)(AFP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, In Turkey the main Western-backed Syrian opposition group opened a three-day meeting to discuss a range of issues, including a Russian initiative to hold peace talks in Moscow to broker a resolution to Syria's civil war.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, Ukraine reported its first military death of 2015 in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists, saying a soldier had been killed and five others wounded in attacks by the rebels.
(Reuters, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 2, The World Health Organization said deaths last year from Ebola had reached 7,989 with 2,827 from Sierra Leone, 3,423 from Liberia and 1,739 from Guinea.
(SFC, 1/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, In southern California a shooting in Long Beach left a mother and two brothers wounded. Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian and Anthony Ray McCall abducted 3-week old Eliza Delacruz, whose body was found the next day in a dumpster.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 3, In Kentucky teenagers Dalton Hayes (18) and Cheyenne Phillips (13) disappeared from Leitchfield and went on a crime spree stealing vehicles in South Carolina and Georgia. On Jan 18 the teens were arrested in Panama City, Fla.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 3, Edward Brooke (b.1919), former Massachusetts senator (1966-1978) died at his home in Coral Gables, Florida. Brooke was the first black person to be elected as senator in any state since Reconstruction.
(SSFC, 1/4/15, p.C9)
2015 Jan 3, In Afghanistan insurgents kidnapped 4 policemen from Wardak province. Their bodies were found near the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam hours later.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Armenia the defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said two of its soldiers were killed while repelling Azerbaijani infiltrators.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Australia thousands of people fled their homes as wildfires raged across the nation's south, with firefighters struggling to contain the blazes fanned by strong winds.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Bangladesh police banned all protests in Dhaka and locked main opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office in Dhaka as clashes broke out before the first anniversary of an election her party boycotted.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 3, Greek police arrested convicted terrorist Christodoulos Xiros, who had failed to return to prison while on a furlough almost a year ago.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Guyana said it is issuing new passports with improved safety features after seizing fraudulent ones in recent months.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Search teams hunting for the wreck of Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed with 162 people on board reported four large parts of the plane on the sea bed.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Israel said it will withhold critical tax revenue and seek ways to bring war crimes prosecutions against Palestinian leaders in retaliation for Palestinian moves to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In central Libya masked gunmen kidnapped 13 Coptic Christians in Sirte after seven were abducted days earlier. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government staged air strikes on the commercial port of Misrata, a western city allied to a group that holds the capital Tripoli.
(AP, 1/3/15)(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Mexico Hipolito Mora, the founder of a vigilante group in the western state of Michoacan, was arrested along with 26 followers for their alleged role in 10 deaths during a shootout with a rival group last month.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A Norwegian ship owner said one if its cargo vessels, the "Bulk Jupiter," has sunk off Vietnam. Bergen-based Gearbulk said only one of the 19 Filipino crew members was known to have survived.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani airstrikes killed 31 militants and a suspected US drone strike killed another seven. The airstrikes in the Tirah valley of the Khyber region destroyed four militant hideouts and a suicide bomber training center.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, Pakistani and Indian border guards traded artillery fire overnight along the disputed border region of Kashmir, killing 4 people and wounding eight.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, A cargo ship carrying cement overturned off the coast of Scotland. The Cypriot-registered Cemfjord sank the next day. The crew of seven Poles and one Filipino were missing.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 3, In Tunisia suspected Islamist militants captured and killed a police officer south of Tunis, stabbing him and slashing his throat as he traveled home. Nine suspected militants were arrested. In late December four men were convicted of cutting the throat of the 23-year-old policeman in El Fahs. Three men were sentenced to death. A fourth man, who is on the run, was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(AFP, 12/30/15)
2015 Jan 3, Uganda officials said outspoken General David Sejusa, who recently returned to the country after 18 months in self-imposed exile, has been placed under house arrest.
(AFP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 3, Yemeni authorities reported the arrest of a Belgian, a Bulgarian and a Somali suspected of having links with al-Qaida after a search found one of them carrying documents and materials with the group's logos on them. Unknown gunmen killed two fighters from the Shiite Houthi rebel group in central Ibb province.
(AP, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 4, Thousands of police officers in NYC defied calls not to stage a protest at the funeral of a slain comrade, pointedly turning their backs as Mayor Bill de Blasio paid tribute to the murdered patrolman.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 4, In Afghanistan insurgents killed 5 policemen, including their commander, in the volatile eastern province of Logar.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Australian PM Tony Abbott made an unannounced visit to Baghdad, meeting with top officials to discuss ways his country can aid Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, A Burundi military official said at least 105 rebels have been killed after a cross-border attack from the Democratic Republic of Congo following five days of non-stop military operations. Five gunmen dressed in military fatigues burst into a bar and shot dead 3 ruling party activists before torching the local party office in the eastern Gisuru region.
(AFP, 1/4/15)(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, China’s corruption watchdog said it is investigating Yang Weize, the Communist Party chief of Nanjing, as the country's corruption crackdown drags in a growing number of top officials.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, A city in central India elected the country's first transgender mayor, nine months after a court ruled that transgender be recognized as a legal third gender. Madhu Kinnar (35) won the mayoral election in Raigarh in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In India a 16-year-old victim was attacked and gang-raped after arriving in eastern Bihar state late today where the gang, including a local administrator's driver, approached her and offered her a lift to a relative's home. Police soon arrested one of five suspects.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 4, In eastern India 14 langur monkeys died after snatching and then eating biscuits laced with rat poison being sold by a hawker in West Bengal state. The hawker who fled in the aftermath of the deaths.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya Fidel Odinga (41), the son of main opposition leader Raila Odinga, was found dead in his home near Nairobi, prompting a major police investigation and minor unrest in the capital.
(AP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Kenya at least 2 people were killed and several others were injured when a six-storey residential building collapsed in Nairobi.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognized government launched air strikes on the country's biggest steel plant at Misrata. A warplane from forces loyal to the internationally recognized government bombed a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored offshore, killing 2 crewmen. The Liberian-flagged ARAEVO was carrying 12,600 tons of crude oil when it was struck off the eastern port of Derna. No oil was spilled.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northeastern Mali six Nigerian soldiers of the UN's MINUSMA mission were injured, with gunmen also burning four UN trucks.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan a US drone strike killed at least six suspected militants in North Waziristan.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Saudi Arabia a general and two soldiers were killed in a rare attack and suicide bombing by "terrorists" on the border with Iraq. 4 attackers were also killed in the clash, 2 in suicide blasts.
(AFP, 1/5/15)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.43)
2015 Jan 4, In Somalia a car bomb targeting security officials exploded in Mogadishu, and was followed by shooting. An al Shabaab car bomb killed four people in Mogadishu.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 4, Sudan's parliament passed constitutional amendments allowing President Omar al-Bashir (71) to appoint state governors directly and expanding the mandate of its powerful security agency.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, In Syria Islamist fighters seized a suburb east of Damascus after driving out a smaller rival insurgent group in deadly clashes.
(Reuters, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 4, Syria's western-backed opposition group elected Khalid Khoja as its new leader during a three-day meeting in Istanbul of the National Coalition. Khalid Khoja announced the next day that his group is not yet willing to go to peace talks in Moscow.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 4, At the Vatican Pope Francis named 15 new cardinals from 14 countries, including many from Latin America and Africa.
(AP, 1/4/15)(SFC, 1/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Jan 4, In Yemen a bomb explosion in Dhamar, a mainly Shiite city, killed at least 4 people including a reporter and wounded 25 others. The bombing targeted a gathering of Shiite Huthi militiamen, also known as Ansarullah.
(AFP, 1/4/15)
2015 Jan 5, The US Justice Department said it has charged two men, Cherno Njie (57) and Papa Faal (46), for their involvement in the failed Dec. 30 attempt to overthrow the government of Gambia.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, The California Dept. of Motor Vehicles wrote an advisory saying any passenger vehicle used or maintained for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation of profit is a commercial vehicle.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A1)
2015 Jan 5, In NYC Thomas Gilbert Jr., founder of hedge fund Wainscott Capital Partners, was shot and killed by his son Tommy Gilbert, who was soon arrested.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 5, In Miami lesbian and gay couples were wed hours before Florida’s coming out party as the nation’s 36th state to legalize same-sex marriages.
(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A12)
2015 Jan 5, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber struck near the headquarters of the European police training mission in Kabul, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding 16 people.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Southern Australia. State Premier Jay Weatherill said that hundreds of fire fighters have taken advantage of milder conditions in recent days to attempt to contain the fire which has razed 12,500 hectares (31,000 acres) of countryside in hills northwest of Adelaide.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Bangladesh two men on a motorbike opened fire on a group of anti-government activists in the northwest, killing two amid heightened tensions on the anniversary of a general election boycotted by a major opposition alliance last year. Two more activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party were killed during clashes with supporters of the governing party and security forces.
(AP, 1/5/15)(SFC, 1/6/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 5, In CongoDRC UN and Democratic Republic of Congo forces seized several rebel bases in an offensive launched against a Burundi rebel group.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Germany thousands of protesters in several cities rallied against Muslim immigration. Rallies organized by a new grassroots movement called PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, have become a weekly event in the eastern city of Dresden.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 5, Grenada's PM Keith Mitchell said the eastern Caribbean island will only have to pay half of a $22 million debt it owes Taiwan with a payment plan for loans it awarded over a 10-year period.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 5, Indonesia’s transportation ministry announced harsh measures against everyone who allowed AirAsia Flight 8501 to take off without proper permits, including the suspension of the airport's operator and officials in the control tower.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, The Islamic State jihadist group posted a series of pictures online indicating the execution of 8 people, four of them policemen, in Iraq's Salaheddin province.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, The US-led coalition launched 20 more air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours, targeting fighters for the militant group and hitting its crude oil operations.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Ireland said the United States will permit imports of beef from the country, the first European Union state allowed to resume sales since the mad cow disease scare over 15 years ago.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Lebanon began imposing unprecedented restrictions on the entry of Syrians, as it struggled to cope with well over a million refugees feeling the civil war next door.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Libya's official government banned Palestinians, Syrians and Sudanese from entry because their countries are undermining the oil producing nation's security. The government of PM Abdullah al-Thinni runs only a rump state in eastern Libya and would therefore only be able to enforce the ban at the eastern airports of Tobruk and Labraq and the land crossing with Egypt.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Mali at least 5 people were killed in a gun attack on an army base close to the Mauritanian frontier.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In Pakistan a US drone strike in North Waziristan killed Ubaidullah (aka Qari Imran), in charge of al-Qaida's Indian branch of Afghan affairs, as well as 5 other fighters. In the 3rd week of this month another strike killed deputy chief Raja Suleman (aka Ustad Ahmed Farouq).
(AP, 4/12/15)(http://tinyurl.com/poa2hjd)(Reuters, 4/23/15)
2015 Jan 5, Pakistani troops fired gunshots and mortar shells that killed an Indian soldier in northern Kashmir.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said he would no longer comply with the terms of his house arrest and had cut off his monitoring tag.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Bitstamp, a Slovenia-based bitcoin exchange bitcoin, halted operations and reported that 19,000 of the currency units had vanished. Bitstamp resumed operation on Jan 9.
(http://tinyurl.com/ne46mkd)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.58)
2015 Jan 5, In South Africa 2 suspected rhino poachers were shot dead after they opened fire on rangers in South Africa's Kruger National Park.
(Reuters, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, South Korean media reported that a young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China's northeastern city of Helong.
(AFP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, Taiwan’s justice ministry granted former president Chen Shui-bian (2000-2006) medical parole as he served a 20-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.35)
2015 Jan 5, Police in Turkey detained 20 more police officers suspected of conducting illegal wiretaps in a new wave of raids in twelve cities.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 5, In eastern Ukraine 12 servicemen were killed and 21 injured when their bus collided with two heavy trucks on a snowy road.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In San Diego US Navy commander Jose Luis Sanchez (42) pleaded guilty in a massive bribery scheme involving a longtime military contractor in Asia who allegedly offered luxury travel, prostitutes and other bribes to Navy officers in exchange for confidential information.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, The Kepler space telescope team in Mountain View, Ca., reported that 8 new planets have been detected in the constellation Lyra and that at least three orbited stars in zones that allowed for the existence of liquid water.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.D2)
2015 Jan 6, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts displayed a time capsule dating to 1795 believed to have been placed by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. The box was unearthed last month at the state Capitol building.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 6, The Intl’. Consumer Electronics Show opened in Las Vegas.
(Econ, 1/3/15, p.48)
2015 Jan 6, In west Texas a gunman opened fire at the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System’s clinic killing one person. The gunman was also killed.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 6, Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell was sentenced to two years in federal prison and two years of probation for taking a bribe from a businessman seeking to promote a dietary supplement.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, Shareholders of medical device maker Medtronic, based in Minneapolis, Minn., approved the acquisition of Ireland-based surgical supplier Covidien PLC in a corporate deal valued at about $48 billion. The acquisition moves the legal headquarters of the combined company to Ireland.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Algeria protests in the remote and sparsely populated south over efforts to exploit the country's vast shale gas reserves spread to the regional capital Tamanrasset. Algeria has the third-largest estimated shale gas reserves in the world, after China and Argentina.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, A Danish court sentenced seven men to prison for dealing hashish at Copenhagen's famed hippie enclave of Christiania, where the drug is openly smoked.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Egypt gunmen opened fire and killed two policemen guarding a Coptic church south of Cairo.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Search teams scouring the ocean for the wreckage of an AirAsia jet found two new metal objects. Indonesian officials believe they may have located the tail and parts of the fuselage of Flight QZ8501 30 meters below the surface, but have been unable to properly investigate the debris so far. Two more bodies were recovered from the sea, bringing the total found so far to 39.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In western Iraq a suicide blast targeting security forces and subsequent clashes with Islamic State extremists killed at least 23 troops and pro-government Sunni fighters in Anbar province.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, An Israeli military court handed three life sentences to Palestinian militant Hossam Qawasme, convicted of organizing the June 12, 2014, kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers. Qawasme was also ordered to pay 250,000 shekels ($63,000/53,000 euros) in compensation to each of the three families at a hearing near Ramallah.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Japan-based Toyota said it will give away thousands of patents for its fuel-cell cars, in an effort to encourage other automakers into the new industry. The cost-free licenses will be allowed "through the initial market introduction period" of fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Mexican authorities ordered the closure of the private "Dolores Sanz" clinic in Mexico City where a woman died over the weekend on the sidewalk after being denied care.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Mexico state prosecutors detained 36 members of the Medellin de Bravo police force in Veracruz state following the disappearance of journalist Moises Sanchez Cerero. Three officers were detained a day earlier. Cerero had directed criticism at Medellin Mayor Omar Cruz.
(SFC, 1/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 6, In southern Mexico at least 10 decapitated bodies and 11 heads were reported discovered in unmarked graves in Guerrero state.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, Mozambique police arrested Antonio Muchanga, a senior official of Renamo, the country's largest opposition party, on charges of inciting violence amid renewed political tension between the former rebel group and government.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Myanmar’s defense ministry said its army has arrested more than 100 foreigners and 20 Myanmar nationals for illegal logging near the Chinese border.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Pakistan's parliament approved the setting up of military courts to hear terrorism-related cases, after a Taliban massacre at a military-run school in the northwest shocked the nation.
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, It was reported that Pakistan has approved the use of grid-connected solar energy, rooftop solar installations and mortgage financing for home solar panels to boost uptake of clean energy in the country.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Paraguay Albino Jara and Rocio Moraez of the Armed Peasant Association died in a firefight near the town of Cuero Fresco.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Somalia a car bomb critically injured a university lecturer in Mogadishu. Shebab militants executed 4 people accused of spying for the US, Ethiopia and the country's internationally-backed government.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korean military's "cyber army" has boosted its numbers to 6,000 troops.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest automaker, said it plans to spend 81 trillion won ($73.7 billion) over the next four years on factories, research and a new headquarters.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Spain’s El Nino a lottery spread 560 million euros ($666 million) among jubilant ticket holders throughout the country.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a top figure in Islamic State's self-declared police force, which has carried out beheadings, was himself found decapitated in eastern Syria.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, The US-led coalition conducted 10 air strikes against Islamic State in Syria, mostly targeting the contested city of Kobani, and two strikes in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, Thai police said that they have arrested Gurmeet Singh (37), a fugitive convicted in India for his involvement in a 1995 bomb attack that killed a chief minister of a northern Indian state and 15 other people.
(AP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6, In Turkey a female suicide bomber entered a police station and blew herself up in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet district, killing one officer and wounding another. The leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, said it carried out the attack.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 6, Turkish Airlines, the last foreign airline still flying to Libya, suspended flights to Libya.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.23)
2015 Jan 6, UN Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon said the Palestinians will join the Int’l. Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1.
(SFC, 1/8/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 6, The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said an estimated 670,000 children in Syria are being deprived of education after Islamic State forces ordered schools closed while the curriculum is made to conform with religious rules.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 6 – 2015 Jan 13, A New Zealand navy patrol boat sneaked up on three suspected poaching ships, then took photos and video of the fishermen hauling in prized fish in banned nets from the ocean near Antarctica. New Zealand sent an alert to 190 countries through Interpol, a move it hopes will make it difficult for the three crews to unload their catches.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 7, In California US District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that the state prohibition on the sale of foie gras illegally encroached upon the regulatory domain of the federal government. The state ban was passed in 2004 and went into effect in 2012.
(SFC, 1/8/15, p.A1)
2015 Jan 7, In North Dakota a leak from a saltwater collection line owned by Summit Midstream Partners LP was reported to state officials. Nearly 3 million gallons of saltwater, a byproduct of the hydraulic fracturing process, and an unknown quantity of crude oil had leaked from a pipeline into a creek that feeds the Missouri River approximately 15 miles north of Williston.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Pennsylvania a 2 people died in an 18-vehicle crash on I-80 after a snow squall left drivers with little visibility.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 7, In Afghanistan a bomb blast killed Judge Mohammad-ul Hassan and wounded two of his daughters in Jalalabad. Insurgents killed 6 people working on a road project, including the head of a construction company, in northern Baghlan province.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Bangladesh 2 people were shot dead when police and armed protesters began firing in the southern district of Noakhali. An auto-rickshaw passenger was attacked and killed by anti-government protesters in the central district of Sirajganj.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, Cuba freed three detainees, as Havana began to release 53 people the United States considers political prisoners.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, French writer’s Michel Houellebecq “Soumission" was published. It depicted a near future (2022) in which Islamists win France’s presidency and compromise its freedoms.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.7)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 7, In France heavily armed gunmen shouting Islamist slogans stormed a Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and shot dead 10 staff and 2 police officers in the deadliest attack in France in four decades. The masked attackers reportedly hijacked a car and sped off. Al Qaeda in Yemen later claimed responsibility for the attack. Cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier (47) was among those killed.
(AFP, 1/7/15)(AP, 1/7/15)(Reuters, 1/14/15)(Econ, 1/10/15, p.45)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.90)
2015 Jan 7, In India around half a million coal workers vowed to continue their strike after inconclusive talks with the government, possibly jeopardizing power supplies.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In southeastern India a passenger bus veered off a road and fell into a gorge, killing at least 11 people in Andhra Pradesh state.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said the tail of the Dec 28 crashed AirAsia jet Flight QZ8501 has been found on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane's last known location. Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Iran's official IRNA news agency said the judiciary has ordered that LINE, WhatsApp and Tango, three popular apps providing free phone and messaging services, be shut down. Social websites including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have already been blocked by censors.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Mexico Julio Scherer Garcia (88), founder of the newsmagazine Proceso and one of the most influential Mexican journalists of the past half century, died.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Nepal said it will issue passports to sexual minorities, adding a third gender category in a sign of the conservative Hindu-majority country becoming more liberal since the end of a decade-long civil war.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, It was announced that Royal Dutch Shell will pay more than $80 million to people in Bodo, a Nigerian fishing community "devastated" by two serious oil spills in 2008. The clean-up could take years.
(AFP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Pakistan the bullet-riddled body of Abid Mehmood (52), a Muslim man arrested for blasphemy, was found in Taxila, a town about 40 km from Islamabad, after being released from jail.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, Tadeusz Konwicki (b.1926), a prominent Polish writer and filmmaker, died in Warsaw. His works during the communist era lampooned the authoritarian Soviet-imposed system. He was best known for his novels "A Minor Apocalypse," a satire of life in a totalitarian state, and "The Polish Complex," a polemic on a national historical condition tragically defined by military defeats and foreign occupation.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, Puntland area regional President Abdiweli Mohamed said 20 al Shabaab rebels and five soldiers have been killed in fighting in the past week in the Galgala hills. Al Shabaab's military spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said the group had killed 23 soldiers in three days of clashes and that fighting was continuing.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda said top LRA commander Dominic Ongwen, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity and war crimes, has given himself up in Central African Republic. He was initially abducted by the LRA when he was a 10-year-old and forced to fight as a child soldier.
(AP, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 7, Vietnamese police detained lawmaker Chau Thi Thu Nga (49) for alleged fraud involving a housing project.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 7, In Yemen a car bomb blast tore through dozens of new students lined up at a police academy in Sanaa, killing at least 35 people.
(AP, 1/7/15)(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 8, The Pentagon said the US military will close a major air base in Britain and withdraw from more than a dozen installations across Europe as part of a reorganization of forces.
(AFP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has fined Honda $70 million for failing to submit reports of fatal accidents and injuries to the government.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.C3)
2015 Jan 8, Schools in Chicago, Boston and other large cities closed as sub-zero temperatures and bitter winds gripped central and eastern United States for a third day.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Florida John Janchuck (25) tossed his daughter Phoebe (5) off the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and into Tampa Bay. Police said he had been acting strangely.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 8, Vermont lawmakers voted 110-69 to elect Gov. Peter Shumlin to a 3rd two-year term after he failed to win the popular vote last November.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 8, In central Afghanistan one policeman was killed and three were wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Uruzgan province.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Costa Rica a catamaran carrying dozens of foreign tourists to Totuga Island capsized leaving 3 people dead.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 8, Cuba freed two more detainees, as Havana continued to release 53 people the US considers political prisoners, as part of an agreement between the two nations aimed at ending decades of hostility.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, Egypt’s military said the army is doubling the size of a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip, an operation that will involve the destruction of 1,220 more homes and the eviction of residents.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, The European Union offered to lend Ukraine a further 1.8 billion euros ($2.12 billion) on the condition that Kiev respects the terms of an international bailout and continues its reform program.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In France Amedy Coulibaly killed a policewoman on the southern edge of Paris, killing her and injuring a nearby street sweeper before fleeing. He later claimed to have coordinated with the two gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine on Jan 7.
(AP, 1/8/15)(AFP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 8, In northern France police and counter-terrorism officers searched for the two armed suspects, Said and Chérif Kouachi, who are brothers, the chief suspects in the deadly Jan 7 attack in Paris on the offices of Charlie Hebdo. A third suspect, Hamyd Mourad, turned himself in at a police station in a small town northeast of Paris after learning his name was linked to the attack.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Iraq a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint in Youssifiyah killing 3 police and 4 civilians. A suicide bomber driving a pickup loaded with explosives struck a checkpoint near Samarra, killing 8 people and wounding 23 others. A suicide bomber set off his explosives belt among Shiite worshippers who were leaving a mosque in western Baghdad, killing 8 worshippers and wounding 16.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, In Nepal hundreds of single mothers and rights activists demonstrated outside the parliament building, urging members of a special assembly drafting a new constitution not to weaken the citizenship rights of young Nepalis. A law being considered would give citizenship only to children of two Nepali parents.
(AP, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 8, Sri Lanka held presidential elections. Mahinda Rajapakse, South Asia's longest-serving leader, was beaten by Maithripala Sirisena, who won 51.3% of the votes on a record turnout of 81.5%.
(AFP, 1/11/15)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.37)
2015 Jan 8, In southern Syria al-Qaida Nusra Front militants blew up the 13th century tomb of a revered Islamic scholar.
(Reuters, 1/8/15)
2015 Jan 9, In San Francisco 4 men were shot dead inside a double-parked stolen Honda in the Hayes Valley neighborhood. On July 29, 2016, police pulled Lee Farley (27) from his cell in at a federal lockup in Atwater and booked him in SF for the four murders. Farley was serving time for possession of a stolen gun.
(Reuters, 1/10/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A1)(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A1)(SFC, 7/30/16, p.A8)
2015 Jan 9, In Florida George Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer acquitted in a fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in 2013, was arrested for aggravated assault in connection with a domestic disturbance earlier in the week. His ex-girlfriend soon recanted her story and the case was dropped.
(Reuters, 1/10/15)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 9, In Michigan blinding snow caused 193 vehicles to pile up in I-94 near Kalamazoo. At least one person was killed.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 9, In France a hostage-taking at a Jewish deli left four hostages and the gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, killed.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 9, In Saudi Arabia blogger Raif Badawi was flogged 50 times, the first set of 1000 lashes over 20 weeks. He was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison plus the lashes for criticizing clerics.
(SFC, 1/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 9, Ukrainian officials said 6 soldiers have been killed in two days of fighting as separatists intensified shelling of government positions.
(SFC, 1/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 10, The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reached orbit with a cargo for the Int’l. Space Station. An attempt to land the rocket’s first stage on a floating platform failed following launch at Cape Canaveral.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 10, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was closed to traffic for the first time in its 77-year history to allow for the installation of a movable median barrier. Re-opening was set for Jan 12.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.C1)
2015 Jan 10, Robert Stone (b.1937), author of “Dog Soldiers" (1974), died at his home in Key West, Fla.
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 10, In Idaho a gunman killed 3 people and wounded another during a shooting spree at three locations in Moscow. Suspect John Lee (29), was captured in the afternoon following a high-speed chase in nearby Washington State.
(AP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, A male camel in rut trampled two people to death at the Camel Kisses farm in north Texas.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, In Germany tens of thousands protested in Dresden against racism and for an open society. This came in reaction to weekly anti-Islamic rallies organized by PEGIDA.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 10, In northern Iraq Islamic State group fighters attempting to retake Gwer, a town held by Kurdish peshmerga forces, killed at least 30 Kurds.
(AP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, In Lebanon a double suicide bomb attack in the Jabal Mohsen district of the northern city of Tripoli killed 9 people. Al-Qaida’s Nusra Front soon claimed responsibility. On Jan 20 Lebanon charged 28 people for involvement in a double suicide bomb attack.
(AFP, 1/12/15)(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A4)(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 10, In northeastern Nigeria two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria, including one at a crowded market in Maiduguri, by a girl suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old. 19 people were killed.
(AFP, 1/10/15) (Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 10, In Spain thousands marched in several cities to press for easier access to latest-generation medicines to counter hepatitis C.
(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 11, The Golden Globes inched closer to legitimacy in its 72nd show, giving awards not just to A-List celebrities, but to the edgier productions that unequivocally deserved recognition, including "Boyhood," ''The Grand Budapest Hotel," and "Birdman."
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 11, The US military said American-led forces launched 19 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 11, In Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic won 50.54% of the vote to become the country’s first female president.
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 11, In Egypt a police captain was snatched from a taxi by gunmen as he headed to work at the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. On Jan 13 the officer was found shot dead near the village of el-Muqatta, near the Gaza border. The military said it killed 10 militants in clashes during the search for the kidnapped captain.
(AP, 1/13/15)(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 11, In France at least 3.7 million people took part in marches of support for Charlie Hebdo and freedom of expression. World leaders linked arms to lead more than one million people through Paris in an unprecedented homage to the victims. 17 people were killed in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 11, In Germany the Hamburger Morgenpost was firebombed overnight. The tabloid had paid tribute to those killed at Charlie Hebdo by reprinting cartoons from the French satirical paper mocking the Prophet Mohammed. Two people were soon detained
(AFP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, Indonesian divers found the crucial black box flight recorders of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard. The data recorder was retrieved on Jan 12 and the cockpit voice recorder on Jan 13.
(AFP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, Anita Ekberg (b.1931), Swedish-born actress, died in Rome. Her films included “La Dolce Vita" (1960), “Clowns" (1971) and “Intervista."
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 11, In Mexico 5 members of a vigilante-style community were killed in an ambush in Aquila, Michoacan state.
(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, In Mozambique a contaminated traditional beer called Pombe killed numerous people in Tete province. The death toll soon reached 69 with 196 others admitted to hospital.
(AP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A3)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, In Myanmar North Korean Ambassador Kim Sok Chol met with Myint Swe, the chief minister of the Rangoon division. Myanmar police soon began seizing pirated copies of the film "The Interview", a comedy about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with media saying the move followed pressure from the North Korean embassy in Yangon.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 11, A new video showed a group of Pakistani and Afghan militants beheading a Pakistani soldier after pledging allegiance to Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 11, In southern Pakistan at least 57 people including women and children were killed when their bus collided with an oil tanker.
(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 11, Thailand police said dozens of children were among 98 suspected Rohingya trafficking victims from Myanmar discovered in pickup trucks in Hua Sai district in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 11, In eastern Ukraine intense fighting erupted around Donetsk wrecking a power station and briefly trapping more than 300 coal miners in one of Europe's largest pits.
(AFP, 1/11/15)
2015 Jan 12, Pres. Obama launched a new drive to improve data security and privacy.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.63)
2015 Jan 12, US officials said Cuba has released all 53 prisoners it had promised to free.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Hacker group CyberCaliphate took over the Twitter and YouTube accounts of US Central Command. The Pentagon called it an annoying prank that did not breach military networks.
(AP, 1/13/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 12, California state regulators ordered Mercury Insurance to pay nearly $27.6 million for improperly collecting unapproved broker fees from its auto customers. Mercury disagreed with the decision and planned to contest the ruling.
(SFC, 1/13/15, p.C2)
2015 Jan 12, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner declared that business as usual is over in his inaugural address.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.22)
2015 Jan 12, A US federal judge declared South Dakota’s ban on same-sex marriage to be illegal, but stayed the decision pending appeal.
(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 12, In Washington DC a woman died and dozens of people were injured after thick smoke filled a subway tunnel during the evening rush hour.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Darrell Winfield, the “real" Marlboro man (1968-1989) of the Philip Morris Tobacco Co., died in Riverton, Wyoming. The company began using Marlboro men in its advertising in 1954.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlboro_Man)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.82)
2015 Jan 12, The Afghan government, after months of delay, unveiled its full list of Cabinet nominees. An Afghan policeman opened fire, killing two colleagues, including a district chief and a police unit commander in Helmand province. The attacker was shot and soon died.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Armenia a family of six was killed by machine gun at their home in the city of Gyumri. Suspect Valery Permyakov, a Russian soldier who deserted his unit at a Russian military base, was detained the next day while trying to cross from Armenia into Turkey. On Jan 19 a six-month-old boy became the 7th member the Avetisyan family to die. On August 23, 2016, a Russian military court sentenced Permyakov to life in prison.
(AP, 1/13/15)(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 12, British author John Bayley (89) died of a heart ailment. His "Elegy for Iris" (1999) chronicled his wife's descent into Alzheimer's disease and was turned into an Oscar-winning movie starring Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 12, Cameroonian soldiers killed at least 143 Boko Haram fighters when the Islamist militant group attacked a military base along the Nigerian border.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Cambodia's biggest hydropower dam began operating as PM Hun Sen inaugurated the Chinese-built project to help supply electricity for underserved villages and factories.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In the Central African Republic nearly 100 people were feared dead after the New Jerusalem barge caught fire and sank on the Oubangui River near the village of Modale.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 12, Chinese police shot and killed six would-be bombers in the latest violence to strike the restive far northwestern region of Xinjiang.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In China taxi drivers began protesting against high cab rental fees and emerging competitors such as Uber in several provincial cities.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Interpol said it has put ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on the international wanted list on Ukrainian charges of embezzlement and financial wrong-doing.
(Reuters, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, An Egyptian court acquitted 26 men accused of "debauchery" after their night-time arrest last September from a Cairo bathhouse for suspected homosexual activity.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Germany a record 25,000 anti-Islamist protesters marched through Dresden, many holding banners with anti-immigrant slogans.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, Iranian police confiscated seven tons of opium from drug smugglers. It was concealed in a cement truck heading toward Tehran. Iran was the main route for drug smugglers to ship narcotics from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to Europe.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Iraq suicide car bomb killed 12 Shiite militiamen and soldiers in Abasiyat, a town north of Baghdad, sparking a battle between security forces and fighters with the extremist Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Lebanese security forces raided the notorious Roumieh prison after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, In Nigeria fighters from the Islamist group Boko Haram launched an attack on a military base in the northwest Cameroonian city of Kolofata.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Saudi Arabia said it has beheaded a Myanmar female child-killer, bringing to 7 the number of death sentences it has carried out this year. Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim is later seen screaming her innocence in a video posted on the Internet on Jan 17.
(AFP, 1/12/15)(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 12, Hundreds of Tanzanian schoolgirls returned home after spending three months hiding in safe houses to escape genital mutilation.
(AFP, 1/12/15)
2015 Jan 12, Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France scrapped plans to hold a summit in Kazakhstan later this week because of the failure to implement a four-month-old ceasefire agreement fully and there was no sign of when it might be rescheduled.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Andrew Howard Brannan (66), a US Vietnam veteran, was executed in Georgia for the 1998 killing of sheriff’s deputy Kyle Dinkheller (22), who had stopped him for speeding.
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 13, Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, shot and killed a suspect dressed in body armor who pulled a gun on them following a foot chase. The suspect had fired on officers in an eastside neighborhood.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 13, In Afghanistan one person died and three were wounded when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the capital, Kabul.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, A Bahraini court sentenced a former lawmaker from the island kingdom's main Shiite opposition group to six months in jail over a social media posting. Jamil Kadhim was convicted of spreading false information over a tweet alleging that authorities were offering money to encourage candidates to enter parliamentary elections in November.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Britain launched a trade mission to Egypt with more than 40 companies received in Cairo, the largest such effort in over a decade by the top foreign investor in the Arab world's most populous country.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Chinese officials said Bai Enpei, formerly the party boss of Yunnan province, has been fired from his position at China's parliament after investigators found he accepted bribes in huge amounts.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, An Egyptian appeals court overturned a three-year prison sentence against ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak on corruption charges and ordered a retrial in the sole case pending against him.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Ethiopia reported that the city of Mekele has banned smoking in public places with fines more than an average monthly wage, the first city in the country to do so.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, The European Parliament lifted the EU-wide ban on genetically modified (GM) crops allowing national governments to impose their own restrictions.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.52)
2015 Jan 13, In Dresden, Germany, an Eritrean asylum seeker (20) was found stabbed to death in a killing that came amid tensions over immigration in the region. An Eritrean man (26) was later arrested over the fatal stabbing of his compatriot.
(AP, 1/15/15)(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 13, In India 15 more people died and about 90 remained in hospital in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after drinking batch of bootleg liquor on Jan 11, taking the total death toll to 28.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, In India villagers in Uttar Predesh state began noticing bodies floating in an offshoot of the Ganges. Some 102 bodies, many of them children, were found near the village of Pariyar. They were believed to be the result of water burials.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 13, Indonesia's anti-graft agency named three-star general Budi Gunawan, President Joko Widodo's sole nomination for police chief, a bribery suspect. Widodo told reporters a day earlier he had chosen Gunawan on recommendation from the National Police Commission.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, The Islamic State jihadist group released a video purporting to show a young boy executing two men accused of working for Russian intelligence services in Syria.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Malawi’s government reported that 48 people have been killed and nearly 23,000 displaced due to flooding.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, In Nepal a general strike called by opposition parties crippled life in the Kathmandu region by shutting down schools, market and transportation.
(AP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Pakistan executed 7 prisoners by hanging at four prisons. This was on the 2nd day of a visit by US Sec. of State John Kerry for talks on counter-terrorism cooperation, economic aid and other issues.
(SFC, 1/14/15, p.A3)
2015 Jan 13, In Sierra Leone a Red Cross male nurse who worked at an Ebola treatment center in Kenema, died and was confirmed to have been suffering from the disease. He was the first Red Cross worker or volunteer to succumb to the disease there.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 13, Pope Francis arrived in Sri Lanka, where Christians made up only 7.4% of the population.
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.38)
2015 Jan 13, Taiwan slaughtered nearly 6,000 geese after 14 more farms were confirmed to have been infected in the latest outbreak of avian influenza that has led to the culling of more than 140,000 birds.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Tanzania banned witchdoctors to try and stem a surge in murders of albinos, whose body parts are sold for witchcraft. The ban does not cover traditional healers who use herbs to help the sick.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, The cash-strapped Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), which is owned by the governments of the two countries and has been struggling for more than a decade, shut down all train operations after workers downed tools to demand five months unpaid salaries.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, In eastern Ukraine a long-range Grad rocket hit a passenger bus, killing at least 12 people. Fighting intensified around the international airport in the city of Donetsk as separatists tried to oust government forces.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, The UN said that the latest wave of Boko Haram's "vicious, ruthless attacks" in northeastern Nigeria has sent 11,320 people fleeing into Chad in a matter of days.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 13, Governors in three Venezuelan states banned nighttime queuing as huge lines continued to snake around shops across the scarcity-plagued OPEC nation.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 13, Zimbabwe ruling party officials, ousted in a purge against allies of President Robert Mugabe's former deputy Joice Mujuru, vowed to launch a legal fight to regain control of the party.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 14, The US Pentagon said five men from Yemen have been released from the US navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba, after more than a dozen years in captivity. One man was sent to Estonia and four to Oman. 122 men continued to be held at Guantanamo.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 14, In California Tommy Caldwell (36) and Kevin Jorgenson (30) reached the top of El Capitan completing a 3,000-foot free climb up the Dawn Wall begun 19 days earlier.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A1)
2015 Jan 14, Ohio police arrested Christopher Lee Cornell (20) of Cincinnati outside a gun shop after he bought two semi-automatic rifles and some 600 rounds of ammunition. He was soon charged with plotting a jihadist attack on Washington, DC, with pipe bombs and shooting government officials and employees. On August 1, 2016, Cornell pleaded guilty to three federal charges and faced up to 30 years in prison.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A7)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A8)(SFC, 8/2/16, p.A4)
2015 Jan 14, In Argentina federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman filed a 300-page court document in which he claimed that Pres. Cristina Fernandez, the foreign minister, Hector Timerman (1953-2018), and others had opened secret negotiations with Iran to absolve Iranian suspects in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.29)(SFC, 1/2/19, p.C3)
2015 Jan 14, In Bangladesh 5 people were killed when demonstrators firebombed a passenger bus and 2 political activists were assassinated as violence claimed at least 22 lives this month. Authorities blamed supporters of opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, Bulgaria said it would extend a barbed wire fence along its border with Turkey by a further 130 km (80 miles) in an attempt to prevent a growing number of refugees, mainly from Syria, entering the EU member state.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, Chile's Senate voted to end a dictatorship-era electoral system that has squeezed out independent candidates and guaranteed an outsized presence in Congress for the center-right coalition.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In France the first edition of Charlie Hebdo after the Jan 7 attack by Islamist gunmen sold out within minutes.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and those glorifying terrorism. Authorities said 54 people have been arrested since the terror attacks in Paris last week.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, In France a 28-year-old attacker forced the front door of his neighbors' house in the picturesque village of Beaucet near Avignon just after midnight shouting "I am your god, I am your Islam" before repeatedly stabbing to death Mohamed El Makouli. The man was soon charged with murder, attempted murder and possession of drugs, before being committed to a psychiatric hospital in nearby Montfavet.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 14, Notorious French comedian Dieudonne was arrested for condoning terrorism over a comment suggesting he sympathized with one of the Paris attacks gunmen, in a move that sparked a debate about free speech.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In India authorities in Uttar Pradesh state suspended 23 officials in a crackdown on illegal liquor sales, as the death toll among villagers who drank from a bad batch of cheap alcohol climbed to 38.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In India wildlife rangers shot 3 suspected poachers dead in a gunbattle in remote northeastern Kaziranga National Park, Assam state.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, Indian troops killed a suspected rebel in a gunbattle in the northern Kashmir town of Sopore.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Israel some half a million high school students stayed home in a strike against a decision to cancel annual field trips. Officials agreed to reinstate the activities.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, In Kenya one soldier and five suspected Islamists insurgents loyal to Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab fighters were killed in a battle in the coastal Lamu district.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, The Mozambique government disaster management office said heavy flooding has killed 10 people and displaced nearly 20,000 more.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, Nigerian security forces repelled an attack by Islamist rebels on the northeastern town of Biu, killing several of the insurgents.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Puntland, a region of northern Somalia, Islamist fighters killed at least two officers at a police post in Basasso port town, as the militants, driven out of areas further south, make more frequent attacks in the semi-autonomous north.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 14, Saudi Arabia beheaded a convicted Pakistani drug trafficker and one of its own citizens who killed a soldier.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Singapore Navy ship located the fuselage of Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, the passenger jet that crashed more than two weeks ago off the coast of Indonesia, raising hopes that more bodies will be found.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, South Korean prosecutors arrested leftist activist Hwang Sun in Seoul for allegedly praising archrival North Korea.
(SFC, 1/15/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 14, A judicial official said Spain's Supreme Court has agreed to examine a paternity suit against former king Juan Carlos by a woman who claims to be his daughter.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Sri Lanka a million worshippers packed the Colombo seafront to greet Pope Francis as he canonized Sri Lanka's first saint, Joseph Vaz, a 17th century missionary. Sri Lanka released nearly 600 prisoners and reduced jail terms for others to mark Pope Francis' visit.
(AFP, 1/14/15)(Reuters, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in total 14 people had been executed for alleged adultery or homosexuality in the war-torn country since July, half of them women. A new video showed fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, tying up a woman and shooting her in a square for alleged adultery.
(AFP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Turkish court ordered the telecommunications authority to ban access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's front cover with the image of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 14, In Turkey, a child (12) was allegedly shot and killed by security forces in the old southeastern Kurdish settlement of Cizre. 17 locals have been reportedly killed in fighting jihadists across the border in the Syrian town of Kobane.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 14, In Wales Zack Davies struck Sarandev Bhambra (24), a Sikh trainee dentist, with a foot-long blade in a supermarket in Mold. Bhambra suffered “life-changing" injuries. On June 25 Davies was convicted of attempted murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/oc5besx)(SFC, 6/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 15, The United States said it will ease travel and trade restrictions with Cuba on Jan 16, implementing last month's agreement to begin normalizing ties with the Cold War-era foe.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a law requiring students to pass a US citizenship test in order to get a high school diploma. This was the nation’s first such requirement.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, A US federal judge in Louisiana ruled that more oil than BP estimated spilled into the Gulf of Mexico following a rig explosion in 2010.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, A US federal judge ruled that Michigan must validate nearly 300 same-sex marriages as of next month. His decision could be appealed.
(SFC, 1/16/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, Oklahoma executed Charles Frederick Warner for raping and killing an 11-month-old girl. An autopsy later revealed that the wrong drug was used to stop the inmate’s heart. Corrections officials used potassium acetate, not potassium chloride, as required under state protocol.
(http://tinyurl.com/p9lhow9)(SFC, 10/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 15, George Abbott (b.1957), former Texas Attorney General, was sworn in as the 48th governor of Texas. Abbott was wheelchair bound and became a paraplegic when an oak tree fell on him while he was running following a storm in 1984.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.26)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Abbott)
2015 Jan 15, American discount retailer Target announced its exit from Canada, after a highly-anticipated but ultimately disastrous launch only two years earlier.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban killed two policemen in the northern Faryab province. A drone strike killed three Taliban insurgents in the Nazyan district of Nangarhar province.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 15, In Belgium two men believed to have fought in Syria were shot dead after opening fire on police with assault weapons in Verviers. Fifteen suspects were soon arrested after a dozen raids around Brussels and in Verviers. Two of those under arrest were seized in France.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 15, US Secretary of State John Kerry pledged to support Bulgaria's efforts to wean itself off dependence on Russian energy at the launch of an annual strategic dialogue between the two NATO allies.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Canadian manufacturer Bombardier suspended its business jets program due to "weak market demand," resulting in layoffs of 1,000 employees in Mexico and the United States.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China pollution levels soared in Beijing to readings more than 20 times WHO recommended limits, as an annual bout of intense smog returned to haunt the capital despite government vows to address the plague.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In China 4 Singaporeans, an Indonesian, a Malaysian, an Indian, 14 Chinese and a Japanese were among 22 people dead following the overturning of the tugboat during a test voyage in the river's Fubei Channel in the eastern province of Jiangsu. 3 people survived.
(AP, 1/16/15)(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 15, The Danish government said it is allocating 12.5 million kroner ($2 million) to help the victims of the Boko Haram extremist group in Nigeria.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Dubai launched a project to build a solar plant to produce 200 megawatt of electricity, as part of plans to generate five percent of the emirate's power from renewables by 2030.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, The EU parliament condemned Russia as a "potential threat to the European Union itself" even as the EU foreign policy chief sought to resume dialogue with Moscow to help end the conflict in Ukraine.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Indian soldiers and police killed five suspected rebels during a fierce gunbattle in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Iran announced plans to combat what it says are "immoral" online dating websites by launching an official site for young people seeking marriage.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Israel’s Genesis Prize Foundation said that PM Benjamin Netanyahu will present its $1 million Genesis Prize at a Jerusalem ceremony this summer to actor, producer and peace activist Michael Douglas for his passion for his Jewish heritage and the Jewish state.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko agreed that the delayed talks on the Ukraine conflict with leaders of Russia, France and Germany will take place at the end of the month in Astana.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Malawi deployed military helicopters and boats in a bid to rescue desperate flood victims stranded on patches of high ground after raging waters killed at least 48 people and left 100,000 homeless.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Mozambique's new President Filipe Nyusi was sworn into office in a ceremony boycotted by the main opposition party.
(AFP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, The Pakistani parliament passed a resolution that condemned the French “I am Charlie" cartoon as hate speech and called on the int’l. community to take a decisive step to stop such practice.
(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 15, In northwest Pakistan a US drone strike killed at least five suspected militants in the Tehsil Ladha area of South Waziristan.
(Reuters, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, In Qatar the world's newest jetliner, the Airbus A350, took to the skies carrying its first paying passengers from the Gulf Arab nation.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Switzerland ditched an increasingly expensive policy to limit the export-sapping rise of the Swiss franc — a decision that propelled the currency a whopping 30 percent higher against the euro within minutes.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 15, Syrian rebels and government forces began observing a 10-day truce in the last rebel-held area of the central city of Homs, marking another setback for opposition fighters.
(AP, 1/15/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Brazil protesters in Sao Paulo clashed with police who used tear gas and sound bombs to disperse crowds, as thousands rallied against the latest round of bus fare hikes.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, French police arrested 12 people suspected of helping militant Islamist gunmen in last week's killings in Paris. An armed man who took several hostages at a post office northwest of Paris surrendered with no one hurt.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Germany police in Berlin arrested two men on suspicion of recruiting fighters for the Islamic State group in Syria. Prosecutors said 250 police officers raided 11 residences at dawn, part of a months-old investigation into Turkish extremists.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Haiti Evans Paul, formerly in the moderate opposition to Pres. Martelly before becoming his No. 2 official, was formally installed as prime minister.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Feb 16, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said he had postponed the nomination of three-star general Budi Gunawan as police chief, but not cancelled it. Gunawan had been named as a bribery suspect on Jan 13.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.35)
2015 Jan 16, In Iraq a series of bombings and mortar attacks killed nine people in the capital, Baghdad.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Italian aid workers Greta Ramelli (20) and Vanessa Marzullo (21), abducted in northern Syria on the night of July 31-August 1, 2014, flew home straight into a row over whether Al-Qaeda's Syrian arm was paid $12 million to release them.
(AFP, 1/16/15)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 16, In Libya the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militia alliance said it has agreed to a ceasefire on the condition rival factions respected the truce.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 16, Malawi VP Saulos Chilima said the death toll from flooding has risen to 176 and others are still missing.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Montenegro hundreds of Serb nationalists demonstrated against a visit by Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, chanting "Kill! Kill!" as he met with his counterpart Igor Luiksic. Serb nationalists accuse Thaci, a former ethnic Albanian rebel leader, of war crimes against Kosovo Serbs during the 1998-99 war for independence.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Myanmar hundreds of protesters led by Buddhist monks rallied to denounce a visit by a human rights envoy of the UN, which has urged the government to grant citizenship to persecuted Rohingya Muslims.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In Niger 4 people were reported killed and dozens injured at a protest over a French satirical weekly's latest caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded 11 near a marketplace in Gombe.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, A Norwegian appeals court upheld the maximum sentence for Rwandan Sadi Bugingo found complicit in the death of 2,000 people during his country's genocide in 1994.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Pakistan police fired tear gas and water cannon at about 200 protesters outside the French consulate in the southern port city of Karachi when a demonstration against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo turned violent. The clashes left four people with gunshot wounds.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)(SFC, 1/17/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 16, In the Philippines Pope Francis issued his strongest defense yet of church teaching opposing artificial contraception, using a rally in Asia's largest Catholic nation to urge families to be "sanctuaries of respect for life." The Philippines is the only country in the world — aside from the Vatican — where divorce is forbidden.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was questioned by Russian investigators and his offices were raided by police in what his colleagues called an attack on his anti-corruption campaigning activities.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, A senior Russian diplomat said far more than 800 Russians are fighting alongside the Islamic State group. Those who have joined the group include people from Chechnya and some other regions in the volatile North Caucasus.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Saudi Arabia postponed the 2nd round of flogging for blogger Raef Badawi, sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, because his wounds from last week's 50 lashings have not yet healed.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens for shooting dead a compatriot with a machine gun, bringing to 10 the number of executions in just over two weeks.
(AFP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamic State has beheaded or shot 17 men in Syria in the past two days as it faces increasing attacks from unidentified gunmen in areas it controls.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Ukraine officials said 6 soldiers have been killed in attacks by separatists in the past 24 hours, as fighting raged at the international airport in the big eastern city of Donetsk.
(Reuters, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 16, Zimbabwe's government says it must export elephants to raise funds for wildlife management. About 60 elephants will be sold for between $40,000 and $60,000 each to China, France and the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 1/16/15)
2015 Jan 17, The US released Ali al-Marri, arrested as an enemy non-combatant in December 2011, and returned him to Qatar. He was arrested while attending graduate school in Illinois and held for nearly six years in a US Navy brig before pleading to conspiring to support a terrorist organization and receiving a sentence of just over eight years.
(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 17, In Montana some 50,000 gallons of oil spilled from a pipeline into the Yellowstone River near Glendive.
(SFC, 1/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 17, An Afghan official said that 9 insurgents have been killed during a raid by security forces backed by local citizens in Kunduz province.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani strongly condemned the latest Muhammad caricature on the cover of the new Charlie Hebdo issue, and called it an insult to Islam and the Muslim world. Hundreds of people in Paktika province protested against the continued publishing of cartoons depicting Mohammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, Afghan officials said security services have arrested five men in recent weeks in connection with the Dec 16 massacre at a Pakistan military school last month that killed 150 people, most of them children.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Central African Republic the widely feared anti-Balaka commander Rodrigue Ngaibona, alias Andilo, was arrested.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 17, Chad sent troops, about 400 military vehicles including tanks and armored vehicles, and several attack helicopters to Cameroon and Nigeria to aid in the fight against the Islamist militants. It was reported that Cameroon, Chad and Niger have launched a regional bid to combat the Boko Haram Islamists. In Chad tens of thousands marched in the capital to show support for the fight against Boko Haram chanting in French and Arabic: "Kick the forces of evil out of our territory."
(AFP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Egypt actress Faten Hamama (b.1931), a pillar of Middle Eastern cinema, died after a career that spanned seven decades and graced the golden age of Egyptian filmmaking. Her 1975 film "I Want a Solution" gave a scathing critique of divorce and marriage laws in Egypt, while 1965's "The Sin" focused on the oppression of struggling peasants.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, In El Salvador leaders of the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs agreed from their jail cells to halt killing without any mediation.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.29)
2015 Jan 17, Indonesia executed 6 drug traffickers, five of them foreign nationals. The next day Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta and expressed fury following the executions of two of their citizens.
(AP, 1/18/15)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.36)
2015 Jan 17, In Ingushetia some 15,000 people rallied against Western publications that insult the Prophet Mohammed, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in France.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, The United States and its allies conducted 29 airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq over the last 24-hours.
(Reuters, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Iraq a series of bombings targeting busy markets killed 18 people in and around Baghdad.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, The Islamic State group released about 200 Yazidis held for five months in Iraq, mostly elderly, infirm captives who likely slowed the extremists down.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe pledged $2.5 billion in humanitarian and development aid for the Middle East as he launched a regional tour that includes visits to Jordan and Israel.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, It was reported that Lithuania's defense ministry will issue next week a 98-page booklet, entitled "How to act in extreme situations or instances of war, reflecting jitters over neighboring Russia's intervention in Ukraine and a recent increase of reported airspace violations in the Baltic region.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Media organizations condemned the imprisonment of Macedonian investigative journalist Tomislav Kezarovski after an appeals court in Skopje upheld charges against him, albeit with a reduction in sentence.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Madagascar at least 46 people perished as tropical storm Chedza battered the country over the last 48 hours, affecting almost 80,000 residents.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 17, In northern Mali a UN peacekeeper from Chad was killed and another wounded near Kidal.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Morocco said it has dismantled an Islamist militant cell sending fighters to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State and mount attacks on returning home. A security source said the government thinks nearly 2,000 Moroccans have fought in Syria's civil war and in Iraq with Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Niger rioters burned at least seven churches in Niamey over the publication of a Prophet Mohammed cartoon on the cover of France's Charlie Hebdo weekly. The weekend violence left 10 people dead and 45 churches set on fire.
(AFP, 1/17/15)(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 17, In Russia 3 iron ore miners were missing and two others were been hospitalized after an explosion deep underground in the town of Kushva in the Ural Mountains.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, At least 35 Syrian soldiers were killed when an army cargo plane crashed in bad night weather in the northwest of the country. Al-Nusra Front claimed on Twitter that it had shot down the aircraft.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 17, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes broke out in the northeastern city of Hassakeh after members of a Kurdish militia detained 10 Syrian soldiers and pro-government gunmen after they deployed in areas controlled by the Kurds.
(AP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, A Turkish intelligence report said around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Ukraine officials said fighting in the east has killed 3 soldiers, as an upsurge in clashes in recent days between the army and pro-Russian rebels centered around control of the battered Donetsk airport.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 17, Yemen's Houthi militia seized Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's chief of staff, and threatened unspecified further steps to derail a proposed new constitution in a wrangle for power that threatens to bring down the government. National security service chief General Mohammed al-Ahmadi said there are around 1,000 Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen from 11 Arab and non-Arab countries.
(Reuters, 1/17/15)(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Afghanistan a suicide car bomber attacked a police supply convoy, killing four people and wounding 12 in Helmand province. Hundreds of university students in Nangarhar province protested against the continued publishing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Argentina special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the South American country's worst terrorist attack, was found shot dead. Nisman was set to testify on Jan 19 in a Congressional hearing about the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center. In 2016 former spy chief Antonio Stiuso said Nisman was murdered by people linked to the government of Pres. Cristina Fernandez.
(AP, 1/19/15)(SSFC, 3/6/16, p.A4)
2015 Jan 18, In northern Cameroon Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria kidnapped at least 60 people during an attack on Mabass village. A number of people were killed. Some of the hostages escaped and 30 were freed following a gun fight between Boko Haram and the Cameroon military.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 18, In eastern India at least 4 Muslim villagers were killed, 3 of them burned to death, when their thatched huts were set on fire during a clash in Bihar state. Hindu fishermen blamed Muslims for killing a boy who was friendly with a Muslim girl from the village. 14 people were arrested the next day on charges of arson and murder.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 18, Iran and major powers made "limited" progress in narrowing differences over its nuclear program, but agreed to step up efforts as the Obama administration lobbied to stave off fresh sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Ireland’s Health Minister Leo Varadkar said he's gay on his 36th birthday, becoming the first openly homosexual government figure in the history of the traditionally conservative Catholic country.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Israel laid charges against seven Arab Israelis over allegations they set up a militant cell linked to the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Israel Sami al-Zayadna (47) died of a heart attack during clashes in which police fired tear gas. This was during the funeral of Sami al-Jaar (220, who died of a gunshot wound last week during a police drug raid on the Negev Bedouin town of Rahat.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 18, An Israel air strike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights killed Hezbollah military commander Mohammed Issa, responsible for Hezbollah's operations in Syria and Iraq, and Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of an assassinated commander from the group. 4 other members of Hezbollah were also killed. General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was among 6 Iranians killed in the attack.
(AFP, 1/18/15)(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe flew into Tel Aviv at the start of a three-day official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Libya's army announced a ceasefire, joining an Islamist-backed militia alliance in declaring a truce that the UN hailed as a "significant" step towards ending months of violence.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber killed 4 people and wounded dozens in an attack on a bus station in Potiskum.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Different Pakistani political and religious groups protested for a fourth day against what they call blasphemous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Dozens of Palestinian protesters hurled eggs and shoes at the convoy of the visiting Canadian foreign minister in a show of defiance toward Canada's perceived pro-Israel stance.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In the Philippines Pope Francis concluded his trip to Asia with an open-air Mass for a rain-drenched crowd in Manila that the Vatican and the government said drew up to seven million people.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Syria at least 18 people were killed in unprecedented fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hasakeh over the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, Ukrainian troops recaptured almost all the territory of Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine they had lost to separatists in recent weeks. Residents reported a sharp intensification of fighting. Thousands gathered in Kiev for a state-sponsored peace march.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 18, In Zimbabwe at least 25 people were killed when two buses collided along a highway outside Harare.
(Reuters, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 19, A young woman was sexually assaulted after a party at Stanford’s Kappa Alpha fraternity. In 2016 Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail for digitally penetrating an unconscious and intoxicated victim.
(SFC, 6/7/16, p.A6)(SFC, 6/14/16, p.C2)
2015 Jan 19, In Maryland a fire at a riverfront mansion killed an Annapolis couple and 4 of their young grandchildren.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 19, In Ohio a construction worker was killed and a tractor-trailer driver injured when an I-75 overpass undergoing demolition collapsed in Cincinnati.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 19, In eastern Afghanistan the Taliban attacked government troops in Laghman province, triggering a gunbattle that killed 2 soldiers and wounded a third.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Austrian police said they have arrested a suspected gang leader over the weekend who Russian authorities suspect was involved in the killing of at least six people. Among the victims allegedly killed by the gang was Kazbek Pagiyev, a former mayor of Vladikavkaz, the provincial capital of Russia's republic of North Ossetia. He was shot dead in 2008. Aslan Gagiyev fled Russia last year and was sought on an Interpol warrant.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Bahrain prosecutors charged Sheikh Ali Salman, the Shiite opposition chief in custody since Dec 28, with attempting to overthrow the regime and sent him to trial despite international calls for his release.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Bangladeshi police arrested four suspected members of Islamic State in Dhaka, including a regional coordinator for the militant group who told police they had been trained in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Chechnya several hundred thousand people protested in the Chechnya region against what its Kremlin-backed leader called the "vulgar and immoral" cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Chinese shares plunged about 8 percent after the country's securities regulator imposed margin trading curbs on several major brokerages.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In the Dominican Rep. a man killed 4 people, injured three others and committed suicide in Santo Domingo. Police said Aneury Heredia (26) apparently was trying to avenge a friend's death.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Germany more than 17,000 anti-racism demonstrators took to the streets in several cities to voice opposition to the PEGIDA anti-Islamic movement, whose own weekly rally was cancelled over a terrorism threat.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, More than 2,000 Iranians protested outside the French embassy in Tehran, chanting "Death to France" and urging the ambassador be expelled because of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Kenyan police fired tear gas at children as young as eight protesting against the seizure of their school playground by a property developer.
(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Malaysian authorities raided a site where trafficked Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis were held in cages, but destroyed it a day later, diminishing evidence that could have aided in an investigation. This was only made public in 2019.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2015 Jan 19, In Pakistan a suspected US drone strike killed 4 militants in North Waziristan. 3 security troops and 7 militants were killed in a clash in the Banda area of the Bajur tribal region.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In the Philippines a concrete wall at a warehouse being built collapsed, killing at least 10 workers in Guiguinto town, Bulacan province.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Romanian inventor Justin Capra (81) died. He claimed to have beaten the Americans to make the world's first jetpack and went on to design and build dozens of vehicles, calling the modern-day car a disgrace.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Sweden Peter Wallenberg (b.1926), the former head of a Swedish financial dynasty, died at his home on the island of Varmdo.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Oxfam International said in a report released as the World Economic Forum begins in Davos, Switzerland, that the richest 1 percent of the population will own more than half the world's wealth by 2016.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Syria Kurdish fighters captured a strategic hill overlooking the town of Kobani after intense clashes with the Islamic State group.
(AP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In Thailand villagers living near the country’s largest gold mine asked the government to quickly prove the source of arsenic and manganese contamination that has led to a suspension in operations at the mine. Testing conducted in November by a government team on 700 villagers living near the mine found that more than 300 people, including children, tested positive for arsenic and manganese.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russian separatists renewed attacks on Ukrainian forces at the Donetsk airport complex. Ukrainian officials said 3 soldiers have been killed and 66 wounded over the past 24 hours. Ukraine's military claimed that some 700 Russian troops crossed into the country to aid rebels fighting for control of the country's east.
(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/19/15)
2015 Jan 19, Yemen's Houthi movement fought artillery battles with the army near the presidential palace in Sanaa, throwing the fragile Arab state deeper into turmoil. At least 9 people were killed, including fighters from both sides. A cease-fire halted intense clashes near the presidential palace in Sanaa after Shiite rebels seized control of state-run media.
(Reuters, 1/19/15)(AP, 1/19/15)(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Pres. Obama delivered his 6th State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. His proposals included making two years of community college free.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A13)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.28)
2015 Jan 20, Court papers were filed indicating that the US Justice Dept. has reached a $134,000 settlement with a New York woman after federal agents used information from her cellphone to set up a fake Facebook page in her identity to trick friends and associates into revealing drug secrets.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 20, Animal rescuers said some 100 birds have been found dead and more than 300 others coated with an unidentified glue-like compound mostly along the eastern shoreline of SF Bay.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A1)(SFC, 1/22/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 20, In Texas Greg Abbott (57) took the oath of office as the state’s 48th governor.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 20, Schlumberger Ltd. said it will spend about $1.7 billion for a minority stake in a big Russian energy company at a time when that country's relations with the West are under strain and as energy prices hit multiyear lows.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Melvin Gordon (95), longtime chairman of Tootsie Roll Industries, died in Boston. Gordon ran the Chicago confectioner for 53 years.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.E3)
2015 Jan 20, The Armenian defense ministry of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region said one of its soldiers has been killed while repelling an Azerbaijani incursion over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, A Bahrain court sentenced prominent Shiite activist Nabeel Rajab to six months in prison after it found him guilty of insulting public institutions in his tweets. The ruling was subject to appeal.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Belgian police arrested a fourth man (b.1993) as part of their investigation into Islamist militants suspected of plotting attacks on police. A fifth suspect was apprehended in Brussels.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 20, A senior Canadian officer said Canadian special forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic State fighters in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and IS.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Central African Republic's anti-Balaka Christian militia abducted a Kurdish UN staffer in Bangui. A day earlier two workers for a Catholic medical organization, a local and a French woman (67), were kidnapped.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In CongoDRC hundreds of youths confronted police in the capital after deadly protests over a draft law that would enable President Joseph Kabila to extend his stay in power.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, The Dominican Republic issued $2.5 billion in bonds, the largest amount in the country's history. Some $1 billion in bonds were issued at 5.5 percent interest while $1.5 billion in bonds were issued at 6.85 percent interest.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 20, In southern France a local mayor said five Russians from Chechnya have been arrested, including one with a cache of explosives in Beziers. Four other men appeared at a court in Paris, the first to face charges in the Paris terror attacks.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Iraq two bombings targeting Shiite neighborhoods killed 8 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, The US-led coalition conducted nearly 20 more air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, The militant group Islamic State released an online video purporting to show two Japanese captives and threatening to kill them unless it received $200 million in ransom. The footage named the men as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Leaders of Israel's 1.7 million Arabs declared a general strike throughout the country in protest at the recent deaths of two Bedouin men in confrontations with police.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Israel a knife-wielding Palestinian stabbed 11 morning commuters on and near a bus, striking in the heart of Tel Aviv and reigniting fears of continued violence ahead of Israeli elections in March. Police identified the attacker as Hamza Mohammed Matrouk (23) from the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 20, Italian police seized more than 600 kg (1,320 pounds) of cocaine and hashish in Rome and fanned out to arrest 31 suspected mobsters in what they say further indicates the 'ndrangheta crime syndicate is making the capital a strategic base for its global operations.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In southern Kazakhstan a light passenger plane belonging to Kazakh copper miner Kazakhmys crashed, killing 6 of 7 people on board.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Kuwaiti officials revoked the operating license of newspaper Al-Watan and ordered it shut down. Editor-in-chief Sheikh Khalifa Ali Al Sabah said he believes the latest closure order is related to a decision to report on an alleged coup plot.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Myanmar a Chinese embassy spokesman in Yangon said more than 100 Chinese citizens trapped by fighting between government troops and insurgents in the north, have been arrested and are being held by the Myanmar government.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Nepal opposition politicians threw chairs and attacked the parliamentary speaker during a violent general strike aimed at blocking the government from pushing through a draft of a new constitution.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu signed a military cooperation deal with Iran that his Iranian counterpart touted as a joint response to US interference.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Syrian government air strikes killed at least 12 civilians in two towns in Idlib province. An airstrike in the village of Khansaa, in far eastern Syria near the Iraq border reportedly killed dozens.
(AFP, 1/20/15)(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In eastern Ukraine shelling in the Donetsk region killed at least 6 civilians, as fighting intensified between government and rebel forces.
(AP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, In Yemen Shiite militiamen seized the presidential palace in Sanaa in what a minister said was a bid to overthrow President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and his US-backed government.
(AFP, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 20, Zambia held presidential elections. The winner of the election will serve out the remainder of late President Michael Sata’s term until elections next year. Patriotic Front candidate Edgar Lungu (58) received 48.3 percent of the vote, while Hakainde Hichilema (52) of the United Party for National Development came in second with 46.7 percent after votes were tallied from all 150 constituencies.
(AP, 1/20/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 21, The highest-level US delegation to Cuba in 35 years began talks on immigration. Americans vowed to continue to grant safe haven to Cubans with special protections denied to other nationalities. Cuba complained the US law promotes dangerous illegal immigration and protested against a separate U.S. program that encourages Cuban doctors to defect,
(Reuters, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Federal authorities said Standard and Poor’s credit rating agency, owned by McGraw Hill, has agreed to pay about $80 million to settle an array of government investigations on inflated subprime mortgages. S&P agreed to pay $58 million to the SEC and $19 million to Massachusetts and New York.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.C6)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.66)
2015 Jan 21, It was reported that an Alabama man was cited by police in Georgia for eating a cheeseburger while driving issued under the state’s distracted driving law.
(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 21, In St. Louis, Missouri, Isaac Holmes (19) was killed by police officers as he emerged from a wrecked stolen with a machine gun. In 2016 a special prosecutor ruled that the officers acted in self-defense.
(http://tinyurl.com/hjpmuq8)(SFC, 7/20/16, p.A6)
2015 Jan 21, In Ohio Doyle Chumney (88) and his wife Lillian were reported missing in Strasburg. Their bodies were found the next day in a badly burned car. Jeffrey Stewart (21) a suspect in the slaying was arrested on Jan 31. Suspect Robert Clark (29) was arrested on Feb 5, along with two companions, in Arizona. They were suspected of armed robberies in three states that followed the Ohio murders.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 21, Microsoft unveiled its Windows 10 operating system. MS also showed a new wearable 3-D gadget called the HoloLens.
(SFC, 1/22/15, p.C3)
2015 Jan 21, British technology firm Satellite Applications Catapult launched a new satellite tracking system aiming to crack down on the industrial-scale theft known as "pirate fishing." Experts will be able to watch satellite feeds of the waters around Easter Island, a Chilean territory in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, and the western Pacific island nation of Palau.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, British politician Leon Brittan (75), a trusted minister under Margaret Thatcher and former European commissioner, died. Brittan was recently caught up in accusations that, while interior minister, he covered up a report into an alleged pedophile ring involving MPs and prominent public figures.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Cameroon said Nitsch Eberhard Robert, a German kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamist militants in northern Nigeria's Adamawa State last July 16, has been released following an operation by the Cameroon military and its allies.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Canada's central bank lowered its key lending rate to 0.75 percent to bolster an economy facing a major slowdown over the recent plunge in oil prices. The rate cut pushed the Loonie down to around 80 American cents from 94 cents a year ago.
(AFP, 1/21/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.62)
2015 Jan 21, In Estonia Mart Laar, ex-PM and current supervisory board chairman of Estonian central bank, proposed his own ideas of what kind of reforms Estonia needs.
(http://tinyurl.com/pzcg5ag)
2015 Jan 21, France announced sweeping new measures to counter homegrown terrorism, including giving security forces better weapons and protection, going on an intelligence agent hiring spree and creating a better database of anyone suspected of extremist links.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and eight ministers decided to halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia because of instability in the region.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Germany Lutz Bachmann, a co-founder of PEGIDA, resigned after media published Facebook messages in which he called refugees “dirty" and posed as Adolph Hitler.
(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 21, In four-way talks in Berlin involving Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France foreign ministers agreed a "demarcation line" between pro-Russian fighters and Kiev's forces from which withdrawal of heavy weapons could start. There were no details.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Iran's country's official news agency said the supreme court has sentenced Mohammad Reza Rahimi, a former vice president, to five years in prison and ordered him to pay a 10 billion rial ($300,000) fine. A local court had initially sentenced him to 15 years prison, but the supreme court reduced the term to five years and three months. Details of the conviction were not provided.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Italian authorities unveiled what they said was a record haul of rare antiquities illegally looted from Italy and discovered during raids on Swiss warehouses belonging to accused Sicilian art dealer Gianfranco Becchina.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Kosovo over 400 employees went on strike inside the Trepca mine demanding the government takes over the administration of the Yugoslav-era giant complex to stop it from liquidation. A day earlier Kosovo's assembly amended a law on public enterprises which enabled it to delayed resolving the issue for another 18 months.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Kurdish security forces launched an offensive on the Islamic State (IS) group in northern Iraq, backed by US-led air strikes, and retook villages the jihadists used to launch attacks. The US and its partners launched 23 air strikes in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State in the last 24 hours.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Doctors Without Borders announced that it has returned to Myanmar's troubled state of Rakhine nine months after it was ordered out by the government for hiring members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Nigeria confirmed that five states have been hit with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed an agreement to unite the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the Tanzanian town of Arusha.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 21, Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned and reinstated the rank of ex-army commander Sarath Fonseka, who was imprisoned four years ago after challenging President Mahinda Rajapaksa in an election.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Switzerland the annual 3-day World Economic Forum (WEF) opened in Davos. The theme this year was “the new global context".
(Econ, 1/17/15, p.66)
2015 Jan 21, In Switzerland Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko courted European support World Economic Forum in Davos against what he says are 9,000 Russian troops occupying 7 percent of his nation's territory.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, In Syria a car bomb on a shopping street in the government-controlled third city of Homs killed 7 people and wounded 30.
(AFP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, A Turkish court sentenced two police officers to 10 years in prison each for their involvement in the beating death of student Ali Ismail Korkmaz (19) during anti-government protests in 2013. Four other civilian defendants were sentenced to up to six years. The victim's supporters said the verdict was too lenient and staged immediate protests outside and inside the courthouse.
(AP, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 21, Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was expected to yield to demands for constitutional change and power sharing with Houthi rebels who took up positions outside his home after defeating his guards in two days of battle. The Houthi rebels from the north draw from a large Shi'ite minority that ruled a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen until 1962.
(Reuters, 1/21/15)
2015 Jan 22, The United States and Cuba began historic discussions on restoring diplomatic relations, aiming to reach agreement on the opening of embassies in each other's countries.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, The Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences moved its famous “Doomsday Clock" ahead two minutes placing it three minutes from a catastrophic midnight due to global warming and nuclear weaponry.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 22, In New York Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly, was arrested on federal corruption charges for using his office to secure millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A7)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.23)
2015 Jan 22, Benin’s parliament approved a new law that removes custodial sentences for offences deemed offensive against the head of state, and regulates access to news sources.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Bolivia Evo Morales (55) was sworn in for a third term as president at a ceremony in the country's national assembly as thousands of supporters cheered outside.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Britain a topless model appeared on the Sun’s third page, after an absence of several days sparked reports that the controversial feature had been dropped.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In CongoDRC government spokesman Lambert Mende said that 12 people have died in three days of unrest and pillaging that began on Jan 19. A coalition of human rights groups said 42 people were killed by security forces firing on protesters. In the east 4 more people died during protests over a proposed law the opposition fears will prolong the president's time in power. On Feb 5 the government raised the death toll in Goma and Kinshasa to 27.
(AP, 1/22/15)(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Jan 22, An Egyptian court ordered the release of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's two sons pending their retrial on corruption charges.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, The European Central Bank began 2015 with a QE (quantitative easing) stimulus, revealing plans for a massive trillion-euro bond purchase program to ward off deflation and end stagnation in the eurozone economy.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, A European Union high court annulled sanctions that the 28-nation bloc imposed on an Iranian bank and a shipping line and companies linked to it, over Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In India a court ordered the release of frail activist Irom Sharmila (42), who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 15 years to protest alleged military brutality in the remote northeast. She has been protesting against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which is in effect in Indian-ruled Kashmir and in northeastern areas like Manipur that are wracked by separatist insurgencies.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Iraq a suicide car bomb at a military base in Taji and an explosive device hidden in a booby-trapped house near Samarra killed 14 soldiers and Shiite militiamen.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Kurdish officials claimed they had cut a key road linking the IS stronghold of Mosul with Tal Afar to the west as US and coalition bombers, fighter jets and drones carried out a total of 31 air raids over the last 24 hours, including ten in Syria and 21 in Iraq.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Libya fighters for one of the factions battling for control of the country seized the Benghazi branch of the country’s central bank.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 22, Nepal's opposition parties protested both inside parliament and on the streets against governing coalition plans to push through a draft of a new constitution.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency arrested 38 Indian fishermen for violating its waters in the Arabian Sea.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Pakistan announced that Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was banned. Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for the bloody attacks on Mumbai in 2008.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.33)
2015 Jan 22, Romanian prosecutors arrested Cristian David, a senator and former minister, on suspicion of taking a bribe of 500,000 euros ($580,000) in a 2008 land ownership case. In a separate case Constitutional Court Judge Toni Grebla was indicted on suspicion of trying to violate Russia's embargo on the EU by exporting food there via Turkey.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Saudi Arabia postponed the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi, whose case has sparked international criticism, for a second week on medical grounds.
(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah (b.1924) died after a short illness. He was immediately succeeded by Crown Prince Salman (79).
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 22, In Somalia at least 5 people were killed in a suicide car bombing against a hotel in Mogadishu, where Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan was due to arrive a day later.
(AFP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, In South Africa Jackie Selebi (64), a former police chief and member of parliament, died. He was convicted of corruption in 2010, accused of accepting bribes from a drug smuggler in exchange for tipoffs into police investigations.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 22, In eastern Ukraine an artillery shell or mortar struck a public transport stop in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, killing at least 13 civilians in an incident both sides blamed on the other. 10 Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed overnight, six at the airport complex.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 22, The UN General Assembly held its first-ever meeting devoted to countering anti-Semitism.
(SFC, 1/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Jan 22, Yemen's Houthi rebels welcomed proposed concessions by the government on power-sharing but their gunmen still held positions outside the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A government spokesman said the cabinet has submitted its resignation to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi amid a standoff with Shiite rebels.
(Reuters, 1/22/15)(AP, 1/22/15)
2015 Jan 23, US officials said the United States has halted some counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda militants in Yemen following a takeover of the country by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, A US federal court ruled that the Alabama ban on gay marriage is illegal.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 23, In southern California 2 US Marines were killed in a helicopter crash at Twentynine Palms.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A12)
2015 Jan 23, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said about 10 brown pelicans have died, and another four injured after a culprit apparently used a knife to slit the large gullets beneath their beaks. Officials issued an alert last week about the deaths.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Shares of Box Inc., an online data storage firm, opened on the NYSE at $14 and closed at $23.23 in an IPO that gave it a market value of $2.7 billion.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.D1)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported that China is blocking VPN services that let users skirt online censorship of popular websites such as Google and Facebook amid a wider crackdown on online information.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Chinese police said they've arrested five people in connection with a phony bank that used bogus offices and tellers to bilk depositors out of $32 million.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The Democratic Republic of Congo's Senate backed down on a hotly-contested electoral bill enabling President Joseph Kabila to extend his hold on power following days of deadly protests.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, An Egyptian student was killed during clashes between Muslim Brotherhood protesters and local residents in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The European Union said it is withholding $37 million in aid slated for Guyana because the government of the South American country is operating without a Parliament.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, Government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse Muslim protesters angry at the publication of a caricature of Prophet Muhammad in the latest issue of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Indonesia’s police arrested Bambang Widjojanto, the deputy head of the top anti-corruption body, days after it accused a senior police officer of graft, sparking accusations of police retaliation and demands that the president defend the agency.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Iraq Kurds fired 20 Grad missiles into Mosul after receiving information that Islamic State militants were gathering to meet near the city's Zuhour neighborhood. This was their first attack since Islamic State militants overran the northern Iraqi city last summer
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, The United States and its coalition partners launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State, conducting 25 strikes in Iraq and Syria in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Lebanese army helicopter gunships and artillery pounded positions of Syria-based militants after they attacked troops on the outskirts of the northeastern village of Ras Baalbek. A daylong battle killed 8 soldiers.
(AP, 1/23/15)(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Libya Mohamed al-Zahawi, the leader of Libyan Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, was reported to have died of wounds suffered when fighting pro-government troops last September.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, A Malawi official said the recent lethal floods killed at least 176 people and caused extensive damage to tobacco crops, which account for 60% of the country’s exports.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Mali 7 fighters of the separatist Tuareg movement were killed in a clash with UN peacekeeping forces near Tabancort.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 23, In Nigeria Boko Haram fighters killed 15 people in Kambari village and set the hamlet to blaze. Kambari is near Maiduguri, the epicenter of the Islamist group's six-year insurgency.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Pakistan thousands of people rallied in cities across the country against the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, although the demonstrations remained peaceful.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Peru 2 police officers were killed at the Ciemsa-owned Aguilas mine in the southern Andean highlands as they tried to dislodge protesters at the mine’s entrance.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 23, In the southern Philippines a powerful explosion killed at least 2 people and wounded 54 others in Zamboanga that has been hit by similar blasts blamed on Muslim militants.
(AP, 1/23/15)(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 23, A Russian court convicted journalist Yelena Klimova (26) under a controversial law banning "gay propaganda" aimed at minors. She had set up the “children 404" website to support gay, lesbian and transgender teenagers. "The verdict was a fine of 50,000 rubles ($783).
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Saudi King Salman pledged to maintain existing energy and foreign policies and settled the succession by appointing his youngest half-brother Muqrin (69) as Crown Prince and nephew Mohammed bin Nayef (55) as Deputy Crown Prince.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, Sierra Leone lifted quarantine measures imposed at the height of the Ebola epidemic, as the World Health Organization warned the crisis was still "extremely alarming" despite a drop in new cases.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, South Africa police said days of violence and looting of foreign-owned shops have left at least 2 people dead and 153 arrested in the Johannesburg area. Police blamed youths addicted to drugs.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Davos, Switzerland, political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum began campaigning in earnest for twin global accords aimed at cooling the planet and easing the suffering of multitudes.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a government air strike killed at least 32 people including 6 children in a rebel-held area near Damascus.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, In Thailand embattled former PM Yingluck Shinawatra decried the "death of democracy" in Thailand after the junta-stacked parliament impeached her and prosecutors announced corruption charges that could see her jailed.
(AFP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, It was reported that robbers and looters were targeting trucks carrying food across Venezuela in another sign of worsening shortages that have turned basics like flour and chicken into coveted booty.
(Reuters, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 23, The World Health Organization (WHO) said Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone have recorded falling numbers of new Ebola cases for four successive weeks.
(SFC, 1/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 23, In Yemen thousands of protesters demonstrated across the country, some supporting the Shiite rebels who seized the capital and others demanding the country's south secede after the nation's president and Cabinet resigned.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 24, The United States and its coalition partners launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, conducting 26 strikes in the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In San Francisco thousands of people filled Civic Center Plaza calling for an end to abortion in the annual West Coast march for Life.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.C1)
2015 Jan 24, In NYC security guard Jonathon Walker (34) killed his daughter (7), his girlfriend (31) and her mother (62) at a house in Queens before killing himself a few miles away.
(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A15)
2015 Jan 24, Egyptian judicial sources said a court has ordered a retrial for 37 Muslim Brotherhood members sentenced to death and 115 others sentenced to life in a mass trial last March. Female protester Shaimaa el-Sabagh was fatally shot by police in Cairo. Officer Yassin Hatem Salah Eddin (25) was later convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2016 Egypt's highest appeals court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial for Eddin.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8) (AP, 2/14/16)
2015 Jan 24, UN Security Council members arrived in Haiti for a three-day visit to urge the government to hold long-delayed elections in order to stem a mounting political crisis.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, India's communist parties held a protest march and burned an effigy of President Barack Obama on the eve of his New Delhi visit, voicing fears of a US domination in economic, nuclear and defense ties with India.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Iraq two bombings killed at least 13 people in Baghdad.
(AP, 1/24/15)(SSFC, 1/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 24, Japan strongly criticized a recording purporting to announce the execution of a Japanese citizen held by Islamic State militants and demanded the immediate release of another captive depicted as appearing on the image. The recording appeared to show captive Haruna Yukawa being killed.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, The United Nations said Liberia was dealing with just five remaining cases of Ebola, in the clearest sign yet that the country is nearing the end of the outbreak.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Bayda, Libya, gunmen kidnapped Hassan al-Saghir, the deputy foreign minister of the internationally recognized government.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 24, Police in Puerto Rico seized $23 million worth of cocaine near a tiny island off the US territory's south coast. Three people from the Dominican Republic were arrested.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, Spanish police arrested four suspected Islamist extremists who it said were prepared to launch attacks in Spain.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Syria a rebel mortar attack on Damascus killed at least 3 people and wounded 11.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In southeast Turkey some 70,000 Kurds staged a protest in Diyarbakir against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoon portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.
(AFP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In eastern Ukraine at least 30 people were killed by shelling in the port city of Mariupol. A rebel leader said separatists were launching an offensive on the city.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)(AP, 1/24/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Yemen tens of thousands marched in protest against Shiite rebels who hold the capital, amid a power vacuum in a country that is home to what Washington describes as al-Qaida's most dangerous offshoot.
(AP, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Zambia opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema held a briefing in which he described the Jan 20 election as a sham.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Afghanistan a Taliban truck bomb exploded in the capital, wounding two people in the first attack targeting Kabul in almost 3 weeks.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, Central African Republic's minister for youth and sport was kidnapped by gunmen in the capital, Bangui, as he returned from church.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Egypt clashes between police and Islamist protesters in an eastern Cairo district left 9 demonstrators dead. Another protester was killed in clashes in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. 2 suspected Islamists were killed in the Nile Delta province of Beheira when an explosive device they were planting under a high-voltage tower exploded. Police arrested 516 supporters of the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood during violence that erupted as the country marked the fourth anniversary of its January 25 uprising. Shaimaa Sabbagh (32) was shot. A photograph of her bleeding to death went viral and caused an international outcry. On March 17 a police officer was charged over her shooting.
(AP, 1/25/15)(AFP, 1/26/15)(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Jan 25, In France rescue workers found the bodies of six skiers who went missing a day earlier after being carried away by an avalanche.
(AFP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, Greece held general elections. The left-wing Syriza party led by Alexis Tsipras won 149 seats in the 300-seat parliament, leaving it just two seats short of an outright majority and in need of a coalition partner. The Independent Greeks won 13 seats.
(AFP, 1/25/15)(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 25, In India US President Barack Obama and Indian PM Narendra Modi unveiled a deal aimed at unlocking billions of dollars in nuclear trade, a step that both sides hope will help establish an enduring strategic partnership. America and India issued a joint strategic vision for the Asia-pacific and Indian Ocean region.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.34)
2015 Jan 25, In Iraq two bombings ripped through commercial areas in Baghdad, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding dozens.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In northern Iraq armed groups of Yazidis raided four Arab villages in Sinjar, killing at least 21 people in reprisals against Sunni villagers they believe collaborated in atrocities inflicted by Islamic State on their community. A further 17 went missing.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Jan 25, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe branded the murder of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa by Islamic State militants as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid a tide of global revulsion.
(AFP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Libya 6 people were killed when rockets hit residential houses in the city of Benghazi.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In northern Mali at least two soldiers were killed in an ambush 30 miles (45 km) west of Timbuktu.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 25, Nigeria's military repelled an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants on Borno state capital Maiduguri. The assault killed over 200 combatants, mostly insurgents. In Adamawa state insurgents continued scorched-earth attacks on six villages.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(SFC, 1/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Jan 25, A massive blackout struck Pakistan early today, leaving as much as 80 percent of the country without electricity at its height as officials rushed to restore power.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, Pakistan’s army said airstrikes have killed 35 militants in North Waziristan.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In the southern Philippines 44 police commandos were killed in a clash with Muslim insurgents. 17 rebels and 4 civilians also died in the deadly clash. Mayor Tahirudin Benzar Ampatuan of Mamasapano town said dozens of commandos had entered the village of Tukanalipao at dawn looking for a top terror suspect, but had a "misencounter" with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. On Feb 4 the US FBI said DNA testing indicated that Zulkfli bin Hir (Zulkifli Abdhir, aka Marwan), a Malaysian member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah militant group, likely killed in the raid. Six Americans were later confirmed present at the command center of the Special Action Force hours before the raid.
(AP, 1/26/15)(Reuters, 2/4/15)(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A6)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.34)(Reuters, 5/3/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Spain thousands of protesters marched in cities to express their opposition to a proposed law that would set hefty fines for offenses like demonstrating outside parliament buildings or strategic installations.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Syria Islamist fighters struck Damascus with at least 38 rockets, killing 7 people. The Saudi-backed Islam Army, based in the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, had warned earlier that it would hit back against an air strike last week in Ghouta in which more than 40 people were killed.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In eastern Ukraine Pro-Russian rebels launched new attacks against government positions. Western countries threatened more sanctions against Moscow for backing a new separatist offensive. President Petro Poroshenko said intercepted radio and telephone conversations prove that Russian-backed separatists were responsible for firing the rockets that pounded Mariupol and killed at least 30 people.
(Reuters, 1/25/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Zambia Edgar Lungu was inaugurated as the country’s new president after being declared the winner of Zambia's Jan 20 presidential election late on Jan 24.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 26, The US charged three Russian citizens with trying to recruit NYC residents as intelligence sources for potential US sanctions against Russian banks and US efforts to develop alternative energy sources. Yevgeny Buryakov, an employee in the Manhattan office of a Russian bank, was arrested. Two other low level diplomats were believed to have returned to Russia.
(SFC, 1/27/15, p.A4)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.23)
2015 Jan 26, The House Freedom Caucus, a congressional caucus consisting of conservative and libertarian Republican members of the US House of Representatives, was formed.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Caucus)
2015 Jan 26, Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling (47) was convicted of leaking classified details of an operation to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions to NY Times reporter James Risen, who authored “State of War" (2006). On May 11 sterling was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
(SFC, 1/27/15, p.A5)(SFC, 5/12/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 26, Eileen Kaufman (93), former wife of SF Beat poet Bob Kaufman (d.1986), died at a senior home in Richmond, Ca. It was her efforts got Bob Kaufman’s collection: “Solitudes Crowded With Loneliness" published in 1965.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.D2)
2015 Jan 26, In Colorado police in Denver shot and killed Jessica Hernandez (17) after she reportedly struck an officer with a stolen car.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 26, Australia’s PM Tony Abbott conferred an Australian knighthood on Prince Philip, the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.34)
2015 Jan 26, President Cristina Kirchner said that she will disband Argentina's intelligence service. She planned to dissolve the Intelligence Secretariat and create a Federal Intelligence Agency after prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead on Jan 18 just hours before he was to make explosive allegations against her.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 26, The Church of England ended centuries of male-only leadership as Libby Lane became its first female bishop in a ceremony briefly disrupted by a traditionalist priest's protest.
(AFP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, An Egyptian appeals court convicted a doctor of manslaughter and performing female genital mutilation that led to the death of a 13-year-old girl, sentencing him to two years and three months in prison in the country's first case that came to trial over the widespread practice. Dr. Raslan Fadl was initially acquitted of the 2013 death of Sohair el-Batea.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, The European Union blacklisted Sri Lanka for failing to combat illegal fishing, officially banning imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka-flagged vessels into the EU.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Greek left-wing leader Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as the prime minister of a new hardline, anti-bailout government determined to face down international lenders and end nearly five years of tough economic measures.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Greek singer Demis Roussos (b.1946) died in Athens. His often high-pitched pop serenades won him household recognition in the 1970s and 1980s across Europe and beyond and who sold more than 60 million records.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban overcame unease within his government to acknowledge the country’s role in the Holocaust, saying many people in the central European country acted "shamefully" in World War II.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, In India US President Barack Obama ended a landmark day with a pledge of $4 billion in investments and loans.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Acclaimed Indian cartoonist R. K. Laxman (94) died. He was the creator of the innocuous character the Common Man, who held up a mirror to the absurdity and silliness of Indian politicians.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Iraq bombings in and around Baghdad killed 8 people. Shiite militias reportedly massacred 77 Sunni villagers during an operation against jihadists in Diyala province.
(AP, 1/26/15)(AFP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Kenya at least seven people were injured in clashes between police and protesters from the Maasai ethnic group who accuse a local governor of corrupt handling of tourism funds from the Maasai Mara game reserve.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Kuwait projected a $24-billion deficit in its new fiscal year budget despite a massive spending cut to cope with plunging oil prices.
(AFP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Liberia said that there are currently only five confirmed cases of Ebola in the entire country — a dramatic turnaround in the West African nation where the virus has taken its deadliest toll.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Hackers defaced the website of Malaysia Airlines and threatened to dump stolen information online after posting a glimpse of customer data obtained in the attack.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Nigerian troops backed by air strikes fought to recapture the northeastern town of Monguno from Boko Haram insurgents who had seized it a day earlier. At least 15 soldiers were killed along with more than over 25 civilians.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Poland led EU criticism of bilateral farm deals with Moscow following a French accord with Russia to lift its ban on live pig and pork imports.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Russian security forces raided independent Crimean television station ATR, seizing equipment and telling employees they were looking for archival footage of an anti-Russia protest last year.
(AP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, Senegal reopened its land border with Guinea, pointing to the "significant efforts" of its neighbor in fighting an Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives.
(AFP, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, In southeastern Spain a Greek F-16 fighter jet crashed into a hangar at the Los Llanos military base while it was participating in NATO maneuvers. Two pilots aboard the Greek F-16 were killed along with 8 French air force members on the ground. Another French airman died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 1/26/15)(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 26, In Syria Kurdish forces took full control of Kobani, driving out remaining Islamic State fighters to end a four-month battle. Half the city was completely destroyed and much of the rest had suffered damage. Turkish locals said 17 fighters had been killed in fighting jihadists in Kobane.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.46)
2015 Jan 26, US and partner nations launched 21 air strikes in Syria and 13 in Iraq over the last 24-hours.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)
2015 Jan 26, In eastern Yemen a suspected US drone strike on a car killed 3 men believed to be al Qaeda militants. A sixth grade student aged about 12 was reported killed the US drone strike. Al Qaeda militants attacked a military checkpoint in southern Yemen, killing a soldier and wounding two others on the outskirts of Mahfad in Yemen province.
(Reuters, 1/26/15)(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, A federal judge in Chicago sentenced twin brothers Pedro and Margarito Flores (35) to 14 years in prison each for running a nearly $2 billion North American drug ring. Their sentences were reduced as a reward for their cooperation against Joaquin Guzman and other cartel leaders.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 27, Charles H. Townes, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1964), died in Berkeley, Ca. He and physicist Arthur Schalwow had conceived the laser in 1958. The first working laser was built by Theodore Manman in 1960.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.D4)
2015 Jan 27, Treasure hunter Tommy Thompson was arrested in Florida under a federal civil arrest warrant for failing to show up a court hearing. 161 Investors had paid Thompson $12.7 million to find the steamer Central America and never saw returns from the sales. Gold from the ship was sold for about $50 million in 2000.
(SFC, 1/29/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 27, The US state of Georgia executed Warren Lee Hill (54) for killing a fellow inmate while serving a life sentence for the 1986 killing of his girlfriend (18). Lawyers had argued that the execution was prohibited by the Constitution because Williams was intellectually disabled.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 27, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced earnings of $18 billion in its latest fiscal quarter. The company’s cash was reported to stand at $178 billion.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.53)
2015 Jan 27, Police in Belgium and France arrested suspected militant Islamists in dawn raids; 5 in France and 3 in Belgium.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Denmark said it has earmarked 60.9 million kroner ($9.2 million) over the next three years for programs to de-radicalize Islamic extremists, including those who have fought with jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Egypt's highest appeal court upheld convictions and three-year prison sentences prominent activists Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma and Mohammed Adel, for violating the country's draconian law on protests.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, EU finance ministers agreed to loan Ukraine 1.8 billion euros ($2.0 billion) to help save it from bankruptcy, leaving open the option of increasing aid at a later stage.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Greece named radical left-wing economist Yanis Varoufakis its new finance minister, giving him the mammoth task of leading negotiations with international creditors over the country's bailout.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Indonesia’s armed forces officially halted the search for victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed Dec 28. Teams had recovered 70 of 162 people aboard.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 27, In Iraq a bullet hit the fuselage of a Flydubai airliner on its descent into Baghdad, lightly wounding a young girl and prompting many carriers to suspend their flights.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In Kashmir a brief gunbattle between Indian government forces and suspected rebels killed two rebels and two troops.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Kosovo police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse thousands of stone-throwing anti-government protesters demanding the resignation of Serbian minister Aleksandar Jablanovic, who has denied that war crimes were committed against ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 war with Serbia.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In Libya gunmen stormed the Corinthia hotel in Tripoli popular with diplomats and officials, killing 10 people including an American and 4 Europeans before blowing themselves up. The "Islamic State in Tripoli Province," soon said it launched the attack to avenge the death of Abu Anas al-Libi, who was snatched in Tripoli by US special forces in 2013 and died in US custody earlier this month due to complications from liver surgery.
(AFP, 1/27/15)(AP, 1/28/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.42)
2015 Jan 27, In northern Mali 3 people were killed after a 2nd day of demonstrations against the UN military mission. The crowd was protesting against an agreement concluded at the weekend to create a "temporary security zone" in the Tabankort district of the Gao region. On April 2 the UN said its police peacekeepers had used unauthorized and excessive force and that members of the responsible unit would be repatriated to face justice.
(AFP, 1/27/15)(Reuters, 4/2/15)
2015 Jan 27, A Netherlands judge approved the extradition of Vladimir Drinkman to the US. He was one of four Russians and a Ukrainian charged in a data breach that netted at least 160 million credit and debit card numbers resulting in losses of hundreds of millions over seven years.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 27, Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice handed Former Economy Minister Codrut Seres a sentence of four years and eight months for treason and transmitting state secrets; and Zsolt Nagy, former communications minister, a four-year sentence for being part of a criminal group.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Romania’s chief of Intelligence Service, George Maior, resigned after criticizing the country's top court for rejecting security laws which allowed the government to collect data on people without court approval.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In Somalia Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi, a former top commander from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels, called on his former comrades to follow his lead and surrender to the country's internationally-backed government.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, In South Africa Martin van Breda (55), a successful businessman, his wife, Teresa (54) and Rudi (22), the couple’s eldest son, were found dead in their De Zalze estate house. Daughter Marli (16) was hospitalized with an ax wound to the head. Henri van Breda (20), who was slightly injured in the attack, later faced three counts of murder for the ax killings of his parents and older brother.
(AP, 2/3/15)(AP, 6/14/16)
2015 Jan 27, South Sudanese rebels released 280 child soldiers, the first batch of some 3,000 to be freed but with thousands more still fighting.
(AFP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, At least two rockets from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Israel returned fire.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Ukraine said 9 servicemen have been killed in fighting Russian-backed separatists in the past 24 hours, as rebels fought to encircle Debaltseve, a key town straddling transport routes between their two strongholds.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 27, Ukraine's parliament approved a statement defining Russia as an "aggressor state", which deputies said could pave the way for consequences under international law, and called for more international aid and stronger sanctions on Russia. The Russian-backed separatist republics in the east were declared terrorist organizations formally eliminating the possibility of holding peace talks with their representatives.
(Reuters, 1/27/15)(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 27, Yemen's Shiite rebels released presidential aide Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak. His abduction 10 days ago set in motion a violent escalation that led to the resignation of the president and the government in the face of a widening rebel power grab.
(AP, 1/27/15)
2015 Jan 28, In San Francisco chopped up body parts were found in a suitcase outside a Goodwill store on 11th St. between Mission and Market. The victim’s head, lower arms and hands were missing. The victim was later identified as Omar Shahwan. On Jan 31 police arrested Jeffrey Andrus (54) on suspicion of murder. Andrus was released on Feb 3 for lack of evidence and died at a city hospital on Feb 8.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A1)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/1/15, p.A1)(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A1)(SFC, 2/9/15, p.A1)(SFC, 8/12/15, p.D1)
2015 Jan 28, American poet Steve Sanfield (b.1937), founder of the Sierra Storytelling Festival, died at his home on the San Juan Ridge in Nevada Ct., Ca. His work included 30 books.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.D3)
2015 Jan 28, Millions in the Northeast started digging out from a powerful blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow and led to coastal flooding around parts the region, while largely bypassing New York City. Massachusetts had a record-breaking 34.5 inches (88 cm) of snow in Worcester, and 24.4 inches (62 cm) at Boston's Logan International Airport.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, McDonald’s, the world’s biggest fast food chain, announced that CEO Don Thompson will leave on March 1 and be replaced by Steve Easterbrook, the company’s chief brand officer. On Jan 23 the company had announced a significant drop operating profit.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.58)
2015 Jan 28, A new study said an estimated 550 women who have traveled to Iraq and Syria are expected to marry, keep house and bear children.
(AFP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Afghanistan's parliament approved eight out of 25 Cabinet nominees. Two alleged militants from a Taliban splinter group were reported arrested last week. The Feday-e-Mahaz group had claimed responsibility for the 2014 killing of Swedish journalist Nils Horner in Kabul. In Herat province a bomb blast killed a female police officer and wounded a policeman at a checkpoint. Taliban militants attacked a checkpoint operated by a group of armed villagers late today, killing 11 people. 7 militants were killed.
(AP, 1/28/15)(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 28, A new report said Canada's electronic spy agency has been intercepting and analyzing data on up to 15 million file downloads a day as part of a global surveillance program. The spying initiative was revealed in 2012 documents obtained by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. Canada is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network along with the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Denmark commuters in Copenhagen faced widespread disruptions on the train network caused by the third theft in a week of copper cables from the tracks.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, France unveiled a video and web site designed to dissuade potential jihadists from joining Islamist fighting groups in Syria and Iraq.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, France's highest court ruled that a gay French-Moroccan couple are allowed to marry despite the North African kingdom's refusal to recognize marriages between two men.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Leftwing Greek PM Alexis Tsipras threw down an open challenge to international creditors by halting privatization plans agreed under the country's bailout deal, prompting a third day of heavy losses on financial markets.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, A Guam attorney agreed to drop his legal challenge to a voter-approved medical marijuana initiative. Howard Trapp had filed a federal lawsuit against the Guam Election Commission in late October to prevent it from certifying the results of the November medical marijuana vote.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Israel missiles fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy, killing 2 soldiers in an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed 6 Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month. Israeli warplanes struck Syrian army targets on the Golan Heights hours after rockets hit the Israeli-held sector. Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, a Spanish UN peacekeeper, was accidentally killed by Israeli artillery. On April 8 Israel publicly admitted responsibility.
(AP, 1/28/15)(AFP, 1/28/15)(AP, 4/7/15)
2015 Jan 28, Italian police conducted a huge dragnet against a Calabrian mafia clan operating in the north, arresting 110 people and seizing more than 100 million euros ($114 million).
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Jordan offered to hand over Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman on death row for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack, if Lieutenant Muath al-Kasaesbeh captured by Islamic State was released.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Madagascar's government appealed for international aid after a tropical storm earlier this month killed 68 people and devastated large swathes of the Indian Ocean island, with damages at around $40 million.
(Reuters, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In northern Mali an attack overnight by pro-government GATIA fighters, including suicide bombers, killed a dozen people near Tabankort. GATIA is the commonly-used name for the pro-government Imghad and Allies Tuareg Self-Defence Group.
(AFP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Myanmar opened trial operations of a deep sea port off its western coast, part of a $2.45 billion port and pipeline project that will carry crude oil from the Middle East to China.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 28, Dozens of Palestinians attacked a UN compound in Gaza City following the world body's suspension of an aid program for victims of last year's war due to lack of funds.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena reinstated Shirani Bandaranayake, the country's chief justice, who was impeached two years ago after she refused to back a law granting wider powers to the former president's brother. Bandaranayake reassumed her duties but would retire after attending a farewell ceremony on Jan 29. That would allow the government to appoint a new chief justice.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Tanzania Ibrahim Lipumba, chairman of the opposition Civic United Front (CUF), was charged with holding political rallies without a permit, prompting fellow lawmakers to storm out of parliament in protest. Lipumba pleaded not guilty in a court in Dar es Salaam, a day after he and some 30 supporters were arrested.
(AFP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Thailand Jatuporn Prompan, a top leader of the "Red Shirt" political movement, was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting a former PM Abhisit Vejjajiva in 2009.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, Turkey informed US officials that it was revoking the passport of Fethullah Gulen because it was issued based on a "false statement". Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Jan 28, Ukraine said 3 soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in fighting in the east.
(AP, 1/28/15)
2015 Jan 28, In Vietnam a UH-1 "Huey" chopper crashed in farmland on soon after taking off from Ho Chi Minh City on a training flight killing 4 crew members.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 28, Yemen's Shiite rebels took over a key military base south of Sanaa where US advisers had previously trained counter-terrorism forces.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, The US Justice Dept. said four Puerto Rico police officers have been sentenced after pleading guilty to robbery, selling drugs and manipulating court records. Three of the officers were sentenced to more than five years in prison and a fourth to seven years.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Two pilots soaring over the Pacific traveled farther than the 5,209-mile official world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon. The Two Eagles balloon passed a record set by the Double Eagle in 1981. Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia began their flight from Saga, Japan, on Jan 25. On Jan 30 they surpassed the 1978 duration record by spending over 138 hours in the air.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A8)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 29, In southern California the Boys Scouts of America settled a sex-abuse case involving a 20-year old man who was molested by a Scout volunteer in 2007. The decision kept internal documents detailing sex abuse allegations from 1971-2007 secret from the public.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A12)
2015 Jan 29, Rod McKuen (b.1933), poet and song-writer, died in Beverly Hills. His work included some 200 albums and over 30 collections of poetry. Some of his best-known songs, including “If You Go Away" and “Seasons in the Sun" were written with Belgian composer Jacques Brell.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 29, Texas executed Robert Ladd (57) for killing a woman (38) nearly 20 years ago while on parole for a triple slaying years earlier.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 29, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide bomb attack on a funeral killed 16 people and injured another 39 in Laghman province. 3 American civilian contractors and an Afghan national were killed in a shooting incident at a military base attached to Kabul’s int’l. airport. The gunman wore an Afghan uniform.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)(AP, 1/29/15)(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 29, In southern Afghanistan at least 23 people died and 31 were injured when a bus crashed into a fuel truck on a narrow road in Zabul province.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Australian best-selling author Colleen McCullough (b.1937) died on Norfolk Island after a long illness. Her 25 novels included "The Thorn Birds" (1977), which sold 30 million copies worldwide.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Azerbaijan sentenced opposition journalist Seymur Hazi to five years in prison. He was originally jailed last August after being convicted on charges of hooliganism.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, A fishing boat carrying migrants to Malaysia capsized off the southern coast of Bangladesh and about 20 people were missing. The passengers were reportedly being taken by traffickers to Malaysia for unconfirmed jobs.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Bosnian arms exporter threatened to sue government officials who are blocking a 5 million-euro deal his company has with Ukraine because of objections from Russia, which called on Bosnia not to supply Ukraine with weapons.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Chad sent a warplane dropping bombs and ground troops to drive Islamic extremists from a Nigerian border town, leaving it strewn with the bodies of the Islamic extremists. Boko Haram fighters made a second attack in a week on Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Chinese coast guard ship allegedly rammed and damaged three Philippine fishing boats at a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. On Feb 4 the Philippines protested to Beijing.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Jan 29, Denmark's central bank said id will cut its interest rate on certificates of deposit by 0.15 percentage points to -0.5 percent, effective Jan 30, to keep the krone currency stable against the euro.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Egypt a group of women protested in Cairo against the death of Shaimaa Sabbagh (22) and around 25 other activists allegedly killed by security forces at recent rallies marking the 4th anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)(Econ, 1/31/15, p.40)
2015 Jan 29, In Egypt at least 30 soldiers and police officers were killed in four separate attacks in the Sinai Peninsula. Most of the casualties occurred in the bombing of a military hotel and base in al-Arish. Two children, one of them 6 months old, died a day later from wounds suffered.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, The EU extended by six months an existing set of sanctions against Russia and pro-Russian separatist officials because of continued fighting in the Ukraine.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A7)
2015 Jan 29, In Germany dozens of flights were canceled at Duesseldorf and Cologne-Bonn airports after private security workers walked off the job in a dispute over wages.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Iraq bombings and a shooting killed at least 16 people around Baghdad, including soldiers and Shiite militiamen.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Jordan demanded proof from Islamic State militants that a Jordanian pilot they are holding is still alive, despite purported threats by the group to kill the airman at sunset unless an al-Qaida prisoner is freed from death row in Jordan.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Mexico a nurse and 2 babies, were killed when a gas truck exploded and destroyed a large part of a maternity hospital in the west of Mexico City. A 2nd nurse died of her injuries on Feb 3 and an orderly died of wounds on Feb 6.
(AP, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Jan 29, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar met in Ethiopia for the latest round of peace talks mediated by East African leaders aimed at ending their 13-month-old civil.
(AFP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In Sudan two Russian pilots were kidnapped in the Darfur region.
(AFP, 2/3/15)
2015 Jan 29, The Syrian arm of al Qaeda attacked a Western-backed rebel group near Aleppo. The Nusra Front seized positions from the Hazzm movement west of Aleppo. Government airstrikes killed at least 8 people in the northern town of al-Bab held by the Islamic State.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Representatives of the Syrian government and the opposition wrapped up four days of consultations in Russia with a general statement avoiding any sharp issues.
(AP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, A Ugandan Muslim sheikh and 17 others were charged with killing two fellow clerics in a case that police linked to Islamist rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo. Sheikh Muhammad Yunus Kamoga, the leader of Uganda's Muslim Tabliq group, and 17 others were charged for the murders of two clerics last December, and the attempted murder of a third earlier this month.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 29, UN experts said over 38,000 Somali children are at "high risk" from dying from starvation despite hunger levels improving by almost a third across the war-torn nation.
(AFP, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, In eastern Ukraine 5 government soldiers and 3 civilians were killed as a result of fighting in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 29, Yemen reported that 2 soldiers were killed and two wounded when they were ambushed while on patrol by suspected al Qaeda militants in the central province of Marib.
(Reuters, 1/29/15)
2015 Jan 30, It was reported that Clarke Howatt, the public finance director of the Association of Bay Area Governments, is under scrutiny for orchestrating the theft of $1.3 million in bond money meant for public parks and street improvements in San Francisco’s south of Market area. A routine audit uncovered the missing cash last month.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A14)
2015 Jan 30, In southern California Marion “Suge" Knight, founder of Death Row Records, was booked on suspicion of murder after hitting and killing Terry Carter (55) with his pickup truck and fleeing the scene a day earlier. On Feb 2 Knight was charged with murder.
(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A10)(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan 30, Carl Djerassi (b.1923), Stanford chemist, died of complications of cancer at his home in San Francisco. He was a key contributor to the invention of the birth control pill.
(SSFC, 2/1/15, p.D1)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 30, Shares of Shake Shack, a hamburger chain, rose to $45.90 on the NYSE in an IPO with 5 million shares sold at $21.
(SFC, 1/31/15, p.D2)
2015 Jan 30, African Union leaders opened a two-day annual summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The 54-member bloc called for a regional five-nation force of 7,500 troops to defeat the "horrendous" rise of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Austrian police arrested 54 people after violence broke out as thousands protested against a ball organized by far-right groups and politicians in Vienna.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, Zhelyu Zhelev (b.1935), Bulgaria’s first non-communist president (1990-1997), died. He was hailed as a hero of freedom and democracy.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Jan 30, In northern Cameroon 3 soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants were killed when the Islamist group attacked a Chadian army contingent over the last 24 hours near the border town of Fotokol.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, Canada's spy agency was granted new powers to thwart terror plots in a security overhaul precipitated by recent jihadist attacks.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cut short a visit to Ethiopia for an African Union summit after the Islamic State's Egyptian wing claimed the killing of at least 30 soldiers and police officers in the Sinai Peninsula. An interior ministry employee was killed in North Sinai.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, France pledged tanks and armored vehicles to bolster NATO forces in Poland, where leaders are increasingly uneasy about Russia.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Greece's finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said the government will not cooperate with the EU and IMF mission bankrolling the country and will not seek an extension to the bailout program. PM Alexis Tsipras' government sacked the heads of the state privatization agency after halting a series of state asset sales
(Reuters, 1/30/15)(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, Iraqi Kurdish forces repelled a major attack by the Islamic State group in Kirkuk province. Brigadier General Shirko Rauf and 5 other members of the Kurdish peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded. Violence elsewhere left at least 19 dead. Kurdish Brig. Gen. Hussein Mansour was killed by a sniper shot near Kirkuk.
(AFP, 1/30/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, The US-led coalition said it launched six air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Israel published bids for the building of 450 new housing units in West Bank settlements.
(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 30, At least 8 people died when a boat carrying illegal migrants sank amid gales off Morocco, near the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, NATO said it will deploy small units in six Eastern European nations to help coordinate a spearhead force set up in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine. The units in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania will be the first of their kind there.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In southern Pakistan a powerful bomb tore through a busy Shiite mosque, killing at least 61 people in Shikarpur, Sindh province.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Qatar Airways said it has bought nearly 10 percent of the parent company of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, deepening its business ties to Europe.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Russia's top general said a strong nuclear arsenal will ensure military superiority over the West as Moscow forges ahead with a multi-billion dollar plan to modernize its forces by 2020. Gen. Valery Gerasimov said the Russian military would receive more than 50 new intercontinental nuclear missiles this year.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In a decree published online Russia’s government said that a company owned by Arkady Rotenberg, a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin, would be given the commission to build a bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Russia the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences, one of the country’s largest public libraries, went up in flames in south-west Moscow. The main storage which contained rare medieval Slavic texts didn't seem to be affected.
(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Saudi Arabia two US citizens came under gunfire, and one of them was wounded but in stable condition.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Saudi Arabia postponed for a third week in a row the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, The South African government granted parole to Eugene de Kock, the head of a covert unit for the apartheid state responsible for dozens of deaths, saying it is in the interest of national reconciliation.
(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front fought Western-backed rebels as the jihadists pressed to take control of a northern area. Syrian opposition fighters detonated a cache of explosives in a tunnel under an army post in the northwestern province of Idlib, inflicting heavy casualties among government troops. The government denied the casualties and said the targeted post was empty.
(AFP, 1/30/15)(AP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In eastern Ukraine at least 24 people, mostly, civilians were reported killed on both sides in heavy fighting. An attempt to reopen peace talks in neighboring Belarus was aborted before it began. Kiev's military said 5 of its servicemen had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 1/30/15)(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 30, In Ethiopia Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (90) took over the post of African Union chairman, replacing Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
(AFP, 1/30/15)
2015 Jan 31, Two Eagle balloonists Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia landed 4 miles offshore in Baha California. Their record voyage covered 6,646 miles over six days, 16 hours and 38 minutes.
(SSFC, 2/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Jan 31, An unmanned Delta 2 rocket lifted off from California carrying a NASA satellite to measure how much water is in Earth’s soil, information that will help weather forecasting and tracking of global climate change.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Georgia (USA) 5 relatives and a friend were found slain inside a home in LaGrange. Investigators suspected the victims had been dead for three days. On Feb 2 authorities said suspect Thomas J. Lee (26) has been arrested at a bus station in Tupelo, Mississippi.
(SFC, 2/2/15, p.A5)(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Afghanistan Muslim protesters against cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo clashed with security leaving two dead.
(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Bangladesh at least 13 people including two women were killed when a fire swept through a plastics factory in Dhaka.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Sunni-ruled Bahrain said it has revoked the citizenship of 72 people convicted of "harming the interests of the kingdom" in unrest by the Shiite majority since 2011. The official BNA news agency published a list of the 72 people affected by the measure. 22 were alleged members of the Islamic State.
(AFP, 1/31/15)(Econ, 11/26/16, p.44)
2015 Jan 31, Chadian aircraft bombed the Nigerian town of Gambaru in a raid targeting extremist group Boko Haram.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, DR Congo's foreign minister said government troops have started their long-awaited offensive against Rwandan Hutu rebels in the east of the country.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, An Egyptian court banned the armed wing of Palestinian group Hamas and listed it as a terrorist organization, a ruling in keeping with a systematic crackdown on Islamists by Pres. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Richard von Weizsaecker (b.1920), former German President (1984-1994), died overnight in Berlin. He had declared Germany's World War II surrender a "day of liberation" for his country as he urged it to confront the Nazi past, and promoted reconciliation during a tenure spanning the reunification of west and east. He was the first German president to visit Israel.
(AP, 1/31/15)(Econ., 2/14/15, p.86)
2015 Jan 31, India succeeded for the first time in using a mobile launcher to test-fire the Agni V missile, a long-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead deep inside rival China. This was the first time the weapon had been fired from a so-called canister mounted on a truck rather than from a concrete launch pad used in previous trials.
(AFP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Iraqi Kurdish forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive. A series of bombings in and around Baghdad killed 9 people.
(AFP, 1/31/15)(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, prompting PM Shinzo Abe to vow to step up humanitarian aid to the group's opponents in the Middle East and help bring his killers to justice.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Jan 31, Italian lawmakers elected Sergio Mattarella, a constitutional court judge and veteran center-left politician, as president.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Macedonia's chief opposition leader was charged by police with conspiring with a foreign intelligence service to topple the government. Zoran Zaev, leader of the Social Democrats, denied the charges, saying authorities were trying in vain to prevent the publication of what he says is incendiary evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the conservative government of PM Nikola Gruevski.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, Mexican investigators said 150 green sea turtles have been found dead in the Ojo de Liebre lagoon, on the Pacific side of Baja California Sur state. The federal environmental protection agency suspected that that lowered temperatures in the region may have caused the deaths. Earlier this month the bodies of 14 gray whales were found in the lagoon.
(AP, 2/1/15)(SFC, 2/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 31, Panama expelled a former Colombian intelligence chief, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, to face charges at home of illegally intercepting phone calls from opposition Colombian lawmakers.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, A Philippine air force Italian-made light plane crashed at sea on a training mission, killing the two pilots.
(AP, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Somalia a missile hit the Islamist-held stronghold of Dinsoor, 270 km (170 miles) west of the capital Mogadishu. Several Shebab militants were reported killed.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Spain some 150,000 people marched through Madrid in a show of strength by Podemos (We Can), a fledgling radical leftist party, which hopes to emulate the success of Greece's Syriza party in general elections later this year.
(AP, 1/31/15)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.51)
2015 Jan 31, In Syria a pro-government faction known as the National Resistance Movement shot dead an army defector in Daraa province after accusing him of spying for Israel.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Jan 31, Ukrainian former president Leonid Kuchma, a Russian diplomat and an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) official met at a state residence in the Belarussian capital Minsk for a new round of peace talks.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In eastern Ukraine 12 civilians were killed by separatist artillery shelling of the town, which lies to the north-east of Donetsk. Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said 15 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 30 wounded in clashes across the east.
(Reuters, 1/31/15)
2015 Jan 31, In Yemen Harith al-Nadhari and 3 other militants were killed in an American drone strike against their car in the southern Shabwa province. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) later named the others as Said Bafaraj, Abdelsamie al-Haddaa and Azzam al-Hadrami.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Jan, A US drone operation this month killed American doctor Warren Weinstein, abducted in 2011, and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, abducted in 2012. This same operation in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan resulted in the death of American al Qaeda leader, Ahmed Farouq. The White House acknowledged this on April 23 and said American al Qaeda member, Adam Gadahn, was also killed, likely in a separate operation. US government officials said the CIA carried out the drone strikes on Jan. 14 and Jan. 19 in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 4/23/15)(AP, 4/23/15)
2015 Jan, Minnesota showed a $1 billion budget surplus. Gov. Mark Dayton during his first four years in office (2011-2015) raised the state income tax from 7.85 to 9.85 percent on individuals earning over $150,000, and on couples earning over $250,000 when filing jointly. He also agreed to raise the state’s minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2018, and passed a state law guaranteeing equal pay for women.
(http://tinyurl.com/ohk54c4)
2015 Jan, Twitter acquired Periscope, a live video streaming app for iOS and Android developed by Kayvon Beykpour and Joe Bernstein.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periscope_%28app%29)
2015 Jan, At least 12 people were reported killed and 18 wounded this month in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Jan, Germany introduce a new minimum wage set at 62% of the average wage in east German states.
(Econ, 7/25/15, p.61)
2015 Jan, Israel's internal security service caught 11 alleged Hamas fighters in the occupied West Bank who planned attacks against Israelis. The group, from the city of Hebron, was arrested by Shin Bet agents and troops.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Jan, Italian police raided and closed a chain of more than 20 pizzerias allegedly belonging to the Camorra, a mafia of the southern city of Naples and its surrounding area, Campania.
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.58)
2015 Jan, In Madagascar at least 57 people died of plague in the wake of cyclones Chedza and Bansi.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.D18)
2015 Jan, Panama’s Supreme Court voted to launch an investigation into former Pres. Ricardo Martinelli’s role in a corruption case involving a $45 million program to deliver dried food to the poor.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.33)
2015 Jan, In the Philippines Noi-sung Hong (74) of South Korea was abducted by at least five gunmen disguised as policemen from his house in Roseller Lim town in southern Zamboanga Sibugay province. The kidnappers tried to kidnap his son, who fought back and managed to escape. Hong’s body was found in a sack on Oct 31 on a roadside in Indanan town in Sulu province.
(AP, 11/1/15)
2015 Jan, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment introduced daily monitoring of Lake Baikal levels in an effort to reverse the drying of the lake due to a combination of climate change and growing use of hydropower. In the past four months the lake’s water level has dropped so low that experts are calling it a crisis.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Jan, In Sudan members of the Rapid Support Forces raped at least 60 women in the western Darfur region after taking over the town of Golo.
(SFC, 9/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Jan, The UN Security Council authorized a 3,000 strong multinational intervention force against the FDLR, a militia in eastern Congo formed two decades ago by Rwandan Hutu rebels after they lost power.
(Econ, 1/24/15, p.43)
2015 Jan, Vietnam’s PM Nguyen Tan Dung's approved in principle a new casino at Phu Quoc, a resort island in the Gulf of Thailand. The Finance Ministry proposed that the new decree allow Vietnamese who are over 21 years of age, financially secure and without any criminal record to play in selected casinos.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan - 2015 May, Indian forces killed 20 Bangladeshis trying to cross the border illegally.
(Econ, 6/13/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 1, The New England Patriots ended a decade drought without an NFL title by beating the defending champion Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in a taut Super Bowl XLIX classic played in Glendale, Arizona.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 1, Some 3,800 steelworkers began a strike at oil refineries from California to Kentucky after negotiations with Shell Oil Co. broke down. Shell was negotiating a national contract for other oil companies.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A9)
2015 Feb 1, After a two-day summit held in the African Union's Chinese-built headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, heads of state proposed new taxes on airline tickets, hotel stays and text messages.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Chadian aircraft struck Boko Haram positions in the Nigerian border town of Gambaru for a second straight day.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Egypt deported Al-Jazeera reporter Peter Greste to his native Australia after holding him for more than 400 days despite global condemnation. Colleagues, Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and an Egyptian producer, Baher Mohamed, remained in prison.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Egypt three men were killed by police in separate incidents under circumstances indicating abuse of police authority.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 1, In Hong Kong some 8-13 thousand pro-democracy demonstrators marched through the streets in the first major rally since mass protests last year.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Hungary some three thousand protesters in Budapest demanded the ouster of PM Viktor Orban's government.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In northwest Iraq Kurdish forces found the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State jihadist group in a mass grave.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 1, The United States and its allies have carried out 26 air strikes in Iraq and eight in Syria over the last 24 hours in continued attacks on Islamic State targets.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, The Islamic State group beheaded an Iraqi police officer and two soldiers, the latest in a long series of atrocities committed by the jihadists, according to pictures posted online today.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Nigeria’s military repelled a Boko Haram assault on Maiduguri. Two blasts rocked Gombe city, killing 5 people, with one of the attacks targeting a military checkpoint. A suicide bomb attack targeting a political meeting killed 7 people in Potiskum city.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Pakistan an advance party arrived in a C-130 transport plane for Saudi Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz to visit the southwestern desert region to hunt the Houbara bustard, a bird supposedly protected by law. He led a hunting party to Baluchistan last year that officials said killed more than 2,000 bustards.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 1, Outspoken billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal launched a pan-Arab satellite news channel aimed at challenging established networks in the region. The Bahrain-based Alarab News Channel took to the air, leading with a story about Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Saudi Arabia the daughter of Suad al-Shammari, co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network Internet discussion group with blogging activist Raef Badawi, said her mother has been freed after about three months in prison.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Serbian officials said they have granted citizenship to former Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan, a key political rival of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after he pledged millions of dollars in investments from the Emirates, where he has lived in exile.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Spain said 400 African migrants tried to storm border fences separating its North African enclave Melilla from Morocco and warned of a buildup in numbers across the frontier.
(AP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Swiss police said 11 people have died in off-piste skiing accidents in the Swiss Alps despite repeated avalanche warnings over the past four days.
(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In Syria a bomb tore apart a bus thought to be carrying Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Damascus, killing at least 7 people and wounding 19. A Nusra Front Twitter feed said one of the group's members blew himself up inside a bus at the market.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)(AFP, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, Tunisian party leaders said the moderate Islamist party Ennahda has agreed to join its main rival secular party Nidaa Tounes as part of a coalition government.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, In eastern Ukraine 13 government soldiers and at least as many civilians were killed in the past 24 hours in the separatist conflict after the collapse of peace talks in Belarus.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 1, The UN reported that fighting and other violence in Iraq killed at least 1,375 people including 790 civilians in January.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 2, President Barack Obama proposed a $3.99 trillion budget for fiscal year 2016 that sets up a battle with Republicans over programs to boost the middle class that are funded by higher taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Oakland, Ca., rapper Dominic Newton (37), aka the Jacka, was shot and killed by unknow assailants.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.D1)0
2015 Feb 2, A winter storm led to flight cancellations in the Northeast US. The same storm had dumped a foot and a half of snow on Chicago, Detroit and other areas of the Plains and Midwest.
(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 2, Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced that a grand jury had returned an indictment last month against 16 people, mostly in the NYC area, in a wire fraud and identity theft ring. Prosecutors said they caused the IRS to pay over $10 million in fraudulent tax refunds for tax years 2010-2013.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 2, In Bahrain the new Alarab television news channel backed by a billionaire Saudi prince was suspended from broadcasting, just hours after it went on air and carried an interview with prominent opposition activist Khalil al-Marzooq.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection named the country’s ten most polluted cities of 2014. Seven were located in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.41)
2015 Feb 2, A Chinese court said a father and daughter have been executed for attacking and killing a woman who had refused to join their outlawed "All-powerful Spirit" group during an altercation last May 28 at a McDonald's outlet in Shandong province.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, Croatia’s government said citizens whose debts do not exceed some 4,500 euros ($5,000) and whose bank accounts have been frozen for more than a year, can apply to have their debts written off in a scheme dubbed "Fresh Start".
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, An Egyptian court sentenced 183 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death. The men were convicted of playing a role in the killings of 16 policemen in the town of Kardasa in August, 2013. In 2016 an appeals court ordered a retrial for the defendants over the attack.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)(AFP, 2/3/16)
2015 Feb 2, In central India rebels ambushed a paramilitary police team in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh state, killing the two policemen instantly.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In northern Iran a private plane carrying a Saudi national and an Iranian pilot went missing.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 2, Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi (78) was granted a request to end his community service sentence for tax fraud 45 days early for good behavior.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Liberia large-scale human testing of two potential Ebola vaccines got under way in Monrovia, part of a global effort to prevent a repeat of the epidemic that has now claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Libya a car bomb exploded near the Tripoli headquarters of a Libya militia which controls the capital, killing one person and wounding two others.
(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, Nigerian warplanes started bombing runs in the Sambisa Forest, where Boko Haram extremists have camps and kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls last April.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 2, In northeastern Nigerian a car bomb went off near a stadium in Gombe, a few minutes after President Goodluck Jonathan left a party rally there. A female suicide bomber was the only fatality.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)(SFC, 2/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 2, In the Philippines Macau-based Melco Crown Entertainment formally opened its $1 billion casino and entertainment resort in Manila, hoping to cash in on a fast growing Philippine economy and increased tourism.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In South Korea former President Lee Myung-bak’s memoir: "President's Time" was published. Lee wrote that late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeatedly pushed for summit talks with South Korea before his 2011 death but the plans failed because Pyongyang demanded $10 billion and large shipments of food and fertilizer as a condition of the talks.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, South Sudan's warring factions signed another peace deal in the latest effort to end hostilities that have raged for more than a year.
(AP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, Syrian government warplanes carried out several air raids on a rebel-held village in the country's south, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens in Daraa province.
(AP, 2/2/15)(AFP, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 2, In Turkey at least 8 people were killed and many more rescued from high winds and flooding caused by a huge storm, a southwesterly known locally as a Lodos.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 2, In eastern Ukraine rebels pounded the positions of Ukrainian government troops holding Debaltseve, a strategic rail town, while both sides pressed ahead with mobilizing more forces for combat. Kiev's military said 5 more Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes. Municipal authorities in the big rebel-controlled city of Donetsk said 15 civilians were killed at the weekend by shelling.
(Reuters, 2/2/15)
2015 Feb 3, A SF Bay Area judge dismissed a lawsuit filed on April 24, 2014, by the Marshall Islands that charged the US and other countries of violating the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 3, In New York 6 people killed when a packed commuter train crashed into an SUV outside NYC in the worst accident in the history of Metro North.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Bangladesh attackers threw crude fire bombs at a packed bus, setting it alight as it moved along a highway and leaving at least 7 people dead during a nationwide strike called by the opposition.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, British lawmakers in the House of Commons voted to allow scientists to create babies from the DNA of three people, a move that could prevent some children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases from their mothers.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Martin Gilbert (78), Winston Churchill's official biographer and a leading historian of the Holocaust, died following a lengthy illness. His 80 books included eight on the Holocaust as well as a three-volume "History of the 20th Century."
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Burundi some 150 journalists and civil rights activists demonstrated to demand the release of a radio station boss accused of complicity in the murder of three Italian nuns last September.
(AFP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Toronto’s National Post reported that Canada’s drug-price regulator has accused Alexion Pharmaceutical of exceeding the permissible price cap for its drug Solaris. Alexion charged $700,000 per patient in Canada for the potentially life-saving treatment for two rare blood diseases.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 3, Chadian troops clashed with Boko Haram fighters in the northeastern Nigerian towns of Gambaru and Ngala in a bid to break the Islamist insurgents' grip on the town bordering Cameroon. More than 200 extremists and 9 Chadian troops were reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 3, In eastern CongoDRC 23 people were hacked to death in the city of Beni in the restive North Kivu province. Ugandan ADF-NALU rebels were suspected.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Egypt a roadside bomb near Alexandria killed a bystander and injured two others. Authorities defused two more explosives at Cairo International Airport.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Fiji said it will replace its national flag this year to remove symbols of British colonialism.
(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 3, Iraq's cabinet approved a draft law creating a national guard, which Sunni political figures have described as a necessary step to achieving national reconciliation.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, US and allied forces staged airstrikes on 14 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria in the last 24-hour period.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Supporters of the Islamic State insurgent group circulated photos on social media purporting to show captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh being burnt alive.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, In southern Israel a crash involving a bus and a truck carrying two tractors killed 8 people and wounded at least 20.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Italy's new Pres. Sergio Mattarella (73) assumed office with a ringing call to the nation to root out organized crime and corruption devouring public resources and solve a protracted economic crisis depriving young people of their future.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Teachers in northern Kenya bordering Somalia have refused to return to work, fearing attacks by Islamic extremists. Some 700 teachers demonstrated outside parliament in Nairobi demanding that the government transfer them to schools in safer regions.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Libya new clashes erupted between rival factions fighting for control of the country's biggest oil port Es Sider, killing several people. Gunmen attacked a partly French-owned al-Mabrouk oil field and shot to death 3 guards.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, Mexico’s Pres. Enrique Pena announced that he and his wife will become the first subjects of a conflict-of-interest investigation, as part of a package of anti-corruption measures.
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.33)
2015 Feb 3, In Mexico gun battles between government forces and gunmen on roads between the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros killed 8 suspected criminals.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 3, In Pakistan two roadside bombings targeted police in the country's restive northwest, killing six officers.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Russian investigators agreed to free from detention a woman accused of high treason after calling Kiev's embassy in Moscow to say Russian troops might be heading to east Ukraine. Svetlana Davydova would, however, have restrictions placed on her movements and she still faced the charge of treason.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Thai police said they have arrested six people accused of being part of a conspiracy to slander the country's monarchy on the Internet.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Ukraine said 5 more soldiers have been killed and 27 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in the eastern regions in the past 24 hours. Fighting was particularly intense around the town of Debaltseve, a major rail and road junction northeast of the city of Donetsk.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, The United Nations' top court ruled that Serbia and Croatia did not commit genocide against each other's people during the bloody 1990s wars sparked by the breakup of Yugoslavia.
(AP, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) declared itself "extremely concerned" by photographs showing its food parcels being handed out in Syria with Islamic State logos on them.
(Reuters, 2/3/15)
2015 Feb 3, Pope Francis approved a decree declaring slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero a martyr for the church. The cleric, a defender of the poor and vocal critic of the military, was shot dead in 1980 while celebrating mass. Pope Francis said Romero was killed out of hatred for his Catholic faith.
(AFP, 2/3/15)(SFC, 2/4/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 4, In NYC Ross William Ulbricht (30) of San Francisco was convicted of creating and operating the underground Silk Road website that enabled drug dealers around the world to reach customers.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.C1)(Econ, 1/17/15, p.33)
2015 Feb 4, In Pennsylvania Ryan Mangan (16) of Jeanette was found sitting in a chair with a single gunshot wound to his face. Police soon arrested Maxwell Morton (16) after the mother of a third boy called to say that her son had received a selfie that showed the victim shot in the face.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 4, Texas executed Donald Newbury (52), for killing Dallas police officer Aubrey Hawkins (29), who interrupted a gang robbery on Christmas Eve 2000. He had helped engineer the biggest prison break in state history 11 days earlier. Newbury was the 3rd gang member to be executed.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 4, In Texas Samantha Dean (29) was found shot to death behind a vacant building. An autopsy indicated she was seven months pregnant. Boyfriend and suspect VonTrey Jamal Clark fled to Indonesia and was arrested there on July 30. On Sep 2 Clark, a former Austin police officer, (32) was extradited to the US.
(AP, 9/2/15)
2015 Feb 4, Nine non-profit organizations were named for the MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Eight were US-based and one in Mexico.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.D4)
2015 Feb 4, Anthem, one the largest US health insurers, said a hacker cyberattack had breached a database contained some 80 million records of tens of millions of its customers and employees going back to 2004.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A6)(SFC, 2/12/15, p.C1)
2015 Feb 4, Staples, the largest US office supply chain, announced that it is spending about $6 billion to acquire Office Depot.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.C1)
2015 Feb 4, In Bosnia the mayor of Trnovo said a Dubai-based construction company plans to build a luxury resort worth 2.3 billion euro ($2.6 billion) on a mountain near Sarajevo, a ski resort where three decades ago the Winter Olympics were held.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Embattled Brazilian oil giant Petrobras said that Maria das Gracas Foster, the company's chief executive officer, and five other top figures stepped down amid a long-running and massive kickback scandal at the firm.
(AP, 2/4/15)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.60)
2015 Feb 4, Cameroon's army killed at least 50 Boko Haram insurgents and lost six of its own soldiers in clashes with the Nigerian Islamist group in the border town of Fotokol. Boko Haram fighters went on a rampage in Fotokol, massacring civilians and torching a mosque before being repelled by regional forces.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, China announced that users of blogs and chat rooms will be required to register their names with operators and promise in writing to avoid challenging the Communist political system, further tightening control over Internet use.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Chinese and Argentine leaders signed a batch of agreements in Beijing, including collaboration on two new nuclear power plants.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Doctors Without Borders says that human testing of brincidofovir, a potential Ebola drug, is being stopped because there aren't enough patients because of a decline in Ebola cases.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, An Egyptian court sentenced 230 people, including one of the leading activists behind the country's 2011 uprising, to life in prison after finding them guilty of taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces later that year. All were tried in absentia except Ahmed Douma, a secular activist who is already serving a three-year-sentence for breaking a draconian law regulating protests. Thirty other people, all minors, were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Gabon lifted its ban on the main opposition party National Union (UN), which was outlawed after its leader declared himself president of the oil-rich west African nation in 2011.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The German cabinet approved a draft law aimed at preventing radical German Muslims from travelling to Iraq and Syria to fight for or train with groups like Islamic State.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Jordan executed a pair of Iraqi prisoners after a declaration of "punishment and revenge" against the jihadist group. Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziyad Karboli had been sentenced to death in Jordan years ago, the former for an attempted suicide bombing as part of a deadly attack on Amman hotels in 2005, the latter for killing a Jordanian national and working closely with former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, In Mexico a video captured two soldiers helping a federal police officer torture a female suspect in Ajuchitan, Guerrero state. News of the video was only made public on April 14, 2016.
(SFC, 4/15/16, p.A2)
2015 Feb 4, Saudi Arabia beheaded two convicted rapists and a murderer, bringing to 21 the number of people it has executed so far this year.
(AFP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The Somali government said a US missile strike last week killed Islamist group al Shabaab's mastermind behind attacks at home and abroad. A day earlier the US said it had launched the drone strike to kill Yusef Dheeq, Shabaab's chief of external operations.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The United States and its allies staged 11 airstrikes near the Syrian city of Kobani, and also targeted the insurgent group with six strikes in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, TransAsia Airways Flight GE235, a turboprop ATR 72-600 with 58 passengers and crew, careered into a river shortly after taking off from a downtown Taipei airport. 35 people were confirmed dead with 8 missing and 15 rescued. 31 of those on board were tourists from China’s southeastern city of Xiamen.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 4, In eastern Ukraine shelling at a hospital killed at least 5 people ahead of a visit to Kiev by US Secretary of State John Kerry. Rebel and government officials said 8 other civilians were killed in clashes around the region over the past 24 hours.
(AFP, 2/4/15)(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, The US ambassador to NATO said that Russian soldiers were present in eastern Ukraine in a command role and to operate advanced military equipment.
(Reuters, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 4, Venezuela formally charged two top executives of Farmatado, its largest drugstore chain, as part of an investigation into what authorities say are illegal practices contributing to the country's chronic shortages.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 4, A Vietnamese police officer said authorities have buried thousands of cats, many apparently still alive, that were seized last week after being smuggled in a truck from China for restaurants. The truck driver to whom the cargo belonged, was fined 7.5 million dong ($360).
(AP, 2/4/15)
2015 Feb 5, President Barack Obama hailed the Dalai Lama as a "good friend" during a symbolic first public encounter between the two men at a high-profile Washington prayer breakfast.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, First Lady Michell Obama announced a $500 million donation from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund the fight against childhood obesity.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 5, In Ohio three people were killed and three others wounded at the Chalk Linez barbershop shooting in Warrensville Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. In 2016 Douglas Shrine Jr. (21) was convicted of the shootings and his role in killing an eyewitness.
(SSFC, 11/20/16, p.A10)
2015 Feb 5, At the Univ. of South Carolina Sunghee Kwon (46) shot and killed her ex-husband Raja Fayad (45), an anatomy professor, and then committed suicide with a gunshot to her stomach.
(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 5, Texas-based Radio Shack, founded in Boston in 1921, said it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The NYSE stopped trading its shares on Feb 2.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.C2)
2015 Feb 5, Police in Brazil issued 62 arrest, search and other legal orders in the investigation into a massive kickback scheme at the state-run oil company Petrobras. This included a warrant compelling the treasurer of Brazil's ruling Workers' Party to testify.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, British glam rocker Gary Glitter (70), aka Paul Gadd, was convicted of one count of attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In Cameroon Boko Haram fighters continued their attack on Fotokol, leaving nearly 100 people dead and some 500 wounded. Cameroonian soldiers assisted by Chadian forces chased hundreds of Boko Haram fighters out of Fotokol.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China authorities in Shanghai said police have seized 2.4 tons of methamphetamine and arrested 28 people in one of the country's largest drug busts.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In China a fire at a wholesale market killed at least 17 people and injured nine others on the fourth floor of the market in southern Guangdong province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, It was reported that protection rackets in Colombia have ballooned into an estimated $1 billion-a-year industry.
(SFC, 2/5/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 5, Denmark's central bank cut a key interest rate for the 4th time in a month as it tried to keep the krone currency stable against the euro.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, The leaders of Germany and France announced a new peace plan for Ukraine, planning to fly together to Kiev and Moscow with a proposal to resolve the conflict.
(Reuters, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, An India official said police over the last ten days have rescued hundreds of children working in hazardous industries in in Hyderabad despite laws that ban child labor.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Iraq's PM Haider al-Abadi lifted a decade-old, midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew in Baghdad, ordered that long-blocked streets in the capital be opened up and declared some neighborhoods of the city weapons-free zones effective Feb 7.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Jordanian fighter jets pounded Islamic State hideouts in Syria and then roared over the hometown of a pilot killed by the militants while King Abdullah consoled the victim's family below.
(Reuters, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Libya's only commercial flight link to mainland Europe was severed when the state carrier said its foreign partner had pulled out of the country after a deadly attack last week on a Tripoli hotel. Georgia-based Afriqiyah had only just restarted the route to Duesseldorf last month.
(Reuters, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, In Libya pro-Haftar forces reportedly expelled Islamist militias from Benghazi port.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, In Mexico 61 rotting bodies were found at the crematorium of an abandoned funeral home near Acapulco after neighbors complained to authorities about a foul smell coming from the building. The facility had been shuttered for about one year.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, Myanmar's government accused students who are protesting against state educational policies of being manipulated by groups seeking to destabilize the country.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, The Russian film "Leviathan," a harrowing portrayal of small-town corruption, opened in about 450 theaters across Moscow and other cities. The Oscar-nominated film was directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Syrian government forces and rebel forces traded salvos of rockets and mortar shells around Damascus, killing at least 21 people. Syrian army helicopters dropped two barrel bombs on a crowded square in a rebel-held neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo.
(AP, 2/5/15)(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 5, Tunisia's parliament approved a coalition government led by the secular Nidaa Tounes party and including moderate Islamist rivals Ennahda, following landmark elections in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
(AFP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 5, Ukraine raised a key interest rate by a whopping 5.5 percentage points following a massive drop in its currency that has stoked concerns of runaway inflation.
(AP, 2/5/15)
2015 Feb 6, A US federal judge ruled that a Puerto Rico debt-restructuring law that aims to protect the government from bankruptcy and make public corporations self-sufficient is unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan donated $75 million to San Francisco General Hospital.
(SFC, 2/6/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 6, The American military said US-led forces have launched 10 air strikes in Syria and eight in Iraq against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hrs. A purported statement by the Islamic State group claimed that an American female hostage was killed in a Jordanian airstrike on the outskirts of Raqqa, the militant group's main stronghold. Kayla Jean Mueller (26), an aid worker, was captured in 2013. On May 14 it was reported that Mueller had been raped repeatedly by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the IS.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)(AP, 2/6/15)(AP, 8/15/15)
2015 Feb 6, In NYC Adel Abdul Bary, an Egyptian lawyer who pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Americans, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Bary would face about eight more years in prison because he has been incarcerated since 1999.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Wisconsin Sureshbhai Patel (57) from India was slammed to the ground by a police officer after a caller said a "skinny black guy" with a toboggan hat was walking in the neighborhood and peering into garages. One of the officers restrained Patel by pulling his arms behind his back and then slammed him face-first into the ground less than 90 seconds after the confrontation began. Officer Eric Parker was arrested and is being fired.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 6, In western Afghanistan a bus crash in Hirat province killed 7 people and wounded 12 others. A roadside bomb killed 2 people and wounded three others in Helmand province.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Bangladesh attackers threw crude fire bombs at a packed bus and a moving truck in two separate incidents, killing at least 9 people and injuring 30 others.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Brazil police surprised a group of suspects trying to blow up an automatic teller machine in the eastern city of Salvador, sparking a shootout that killed at least 13 of the would-be robbers.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Britain’s Investigative Powers Tribunal ruled that British spies acted illegally when they scooped up data about Briton’s electronic communications gathered by the US National Security Agency.
(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 6, British jihadi Imran Khawaja (27), who joined a terrorist training camp in Syria then faked his death in an attempt to sneak back to England, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Canada's highest court unanimously struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent patients with terminal illnesses.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Forces from Chad and Niger repelled Islamic extremists from Nigeria as they attacked Bosso town inside Niger, marking the second foreign country attacked by Boko Haram this week.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao resigned as prime minister, stepping down ahead of an expected restructuring of the government next week.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Egyptian military air strikes killed 27 Islamic militants in the Northern Sinai in one of the biggest security operations in the region in months.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Europe floods forced hundreds of people from their homes in Albania and Macedonia. Heavy snow and winds caused traffic havoc in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.
(SFC, 2/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 6, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande arrived in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine crisis.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Munich-based industrial machinery maker Siemens AG said it will cut 7,800 administrative jobs worldwide as part of an effort to streamline the sprawling company and its many businesses.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In northern Iraq the remains of 23 men from the Yazidi religious minority were found when a mass grave was excavated.
(AFP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, Italian judicial sources said Dino Maglio (35), a policeman who posed as an amiable host on the Couchsurfing website, has been charged with drugging and raping a 16-year-old Australian and may have sexually assaulted up to 15 other women. He will go on trial in Padua near Venice from March 17.
(AFP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Thousands of Jordanians packed the streets of the capital Amman, urging their monarch to step up air strikes on Islamic State to avenge its killing of pilot Mouath al-Kasaesbeh.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Libya a suicide car bomber, attempting to strike an army post in the battleground second city of Benghazi, was intercepted and blew up his car short of the target killing a father and son.
(AFP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In Niger 109 Boko Haram fighters were killed by soldiers responding to attacks in fighting in the towns of Bosso and Diffa near the border with Nigeria. 4 soldiers were killed and 17 wounded.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated outside Egypt's diplomatic mission in Gaza City, to protest a Cairo court ruling designating Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist group.
(AFP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Filipino Muslims called for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law at a rally following prayers at the Golden Mosque in Manila, Philippines. The law would implement a peace accord granting minority Muslims autonomy in the southern Philippines.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Poland’s lawmakers voted 254-175 with eight abstentions to empower Pres. Komorowski to sign into law the 2011 Council of Europe's convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, South African author, Andre Brink (b.1935), died aboard a KLM flight travelling from the Netherlands to Cape Town. He used his work to question the policies of South Africa's apartheid regime. His 1975 book, "Looking on Darkness," the first of Brink's books distributed to the United States, was banned by the South African government until 1982.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 6, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government air force conducted 60 strikes on the Eastern Ghouta district outside Damascus leaving 82 dead over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, In eastern Ukraine convoys of buses carrying many local residents to safety left the besieged town of Debaltseve as government forces kept up artillery fire to defend their positions against pro-Russian separatists.
(Reuters, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 6, Yemen's powerful Shiite rebels announced that they have taken over the country and dissolved parliament. Houthi rebels said they are forming a five-member presidential council that will replace President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi for an interim two-year period.
(AP, 2/6/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Georgia, USA, Cedric Prather (33) shot and killed 4 people, including his ex-wife and several children, and wounded two others at a home in Douglasville before fatally shooting himself.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A9)(SFC, 2/9/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 7, Workers at refineries in Indiana and Ohio went on strike against two BP plants in an extension of strikes that began Feb 1.
(SSFC, 2/8/15, p.A9)
2015 Feb 7, Residents in Montana began finding dead horses. Somebody had shot up to two dozen horses and dumped their bodies in a hay field about a mile west of Lodge Grass on the Crow Indian Reservation.
(http://tinyurl.com/ors58py)(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 7, An alleged audiotape aired on a Brotherhood-allied TV station in which Egypt’s Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and a top aide purportedly banter about how rich Persian Gulf Arabs are and add up the billions they intend to seek. Financial help, estimated at some $32 billion, has helped keep Egypt afloat after years of instability. On Feb 9 el-Sissi called leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, praising their wisdom and saying relations won’t be undermined by “nefarious attempts" to do so.
(http://tinyurl.com/lyprfja)(SFC, 2/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 7, In Egypt 3 policemen were shot dead and two others injured when they came under fire while conducting a raid against a group of criminals near the southern city of Minya.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Germany's Angela Merkel warned that sending arms to help Ukraine fight pro-Russian separatists would not solve the crisis there, drawing a sharp rebuke from a leading US senator who accused Berlin of turning its back on an ally in distress.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Haiti at least 6,000 protesters marched through the capital to demand lower gas prices and the ouster of President Michel Martelly.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Air pollution in Delhi, India, was reported to be the worst in the world with levels of smaller particulates routinely 15 times above levels deemed safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).
(Econ, 2/7/15, p.38)
2015 Feb 7, In Iraq at least 40 people were killed in three bombings around Baghdad. Baghdad's decade-old nightly curfew was set to end at midnight.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Kenji Ekuan (85), Japanese industrial designer, died in Tokyo. His works ranged from a bullet train to the red-capped Kikkoman soy sauce dispenser as familiar as the classic Coca-Cola bottle. A former monk, Ekuan crafted a tabletop bottle for Kikkoman Corp. in 1961, winning international popularity both for the handy, flask-shaped dispenser.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 7, Jordan carried out a third straight day of air strikes on Islamic State targets.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Kenya a masked gunman shot and killed a Kenyan lawmaker on a street in Nairobi. George Muchai, was killed alongside his two bodyguards and a driver after they stopped to buy a newspaper.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Libya's eastern oil export port Hariga shut down due to a strike of security guards, closing the country's last functioning export port apart from two offshore fields. Only Brega port was still open, but it is used to supply the 120,000 bpd-Zawiya refinery with crude.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, A Mexican federal judge threw out a five-year, money-laundering sentence for Sandra Avila Beltran, ordering the immediate release of the "Queen of the Pacific" for her alleged role as a liaison between Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. The judge ruled that Avila already had been tried for the same crime in Mexico and the United States.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, NATO and Russia failed to narrow their differences over the Ukraine crisis in talks but agreed they would keep talking to each other.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, US-led forces launched 15 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and 11 in Syria over the last 24 hours. Nine targets in Syria centered around the border city of Kobani.
(Reuters, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, Nigeria’s election body chairman Attahiru Jega announced that the presidential and parliamentary polls would be postponed from February 14 to March 28, while gubernatorial and state assembly elections would be held on April 11.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, In Puntland at least 2 people were killed when Somali militants al Shabaab attacked the house of a senior police official in the semi-autonomous region.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Slovaks voted in a nationwide a referendum that would bar gay marriages and adoptions, and allow parents to decide whether their children attend sex education classes. The votes won't count unless at least half of the eligible voters turn out. Voters overwhelmingly voted "yes" — 95, 92 and 90 percent, respectively — to the three questions. But turnout reached only 21.4 percent, far less than the 50 percent needed.
(AP, 2/7/15)(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, South African police discovered the frozen corpses of four newborn babies in two freezers at a house in the southern city of Mthatha.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Tunisian authorities said they have arrested 32 extremists over the last several days and thwarted an ambitious plot to attack civilian and military sites around the country, including the Interior Ministry. Some 3,000 Tunisians were estimated to have left for jihad, mainly with the Islamic State group, in Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 7, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko brandished in front of world leaders several passports taken from Russian soldiers in what he said was proof of Moscow's "presence" in his country.
(AFP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 7, The United Arab Emirates said it has ordered a squadron of F-16 fighters to Jordan, which would participate in airstrikes on the Islamic State group after the UAE earlier suspended its involvement.
(AP, 2/7/15)
2015 Feb 8, The United States delivered more than $25 million worth of military aid including heavy artillery to the Lebanese army to help it fight jihadist groups which have repeatedly battled with security forces near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In the Comoros Islands Mohamed Said Abdallah Mchangama, a former finance minister, was arrested on charges of inciting hatred. Mchangama had called for a general strike in protest at the government's energy plans.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Egypt 22 soccer fans died of suffocation from tear gas and a stampede outside a Cairo stadium in a melee with security forces. Authorities said it was sparked when hard-core Zamalek fans known as Ultras White Knights tried to force their way into the stadium without tickets. The violence prompted the Cabinet to suspend the national football league indefinitely. Police arrested 21 soccer fans in the wake of the stampede.
(AP, 2/9/15)(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, French police detained six people suspected of recruiting potential jihadists, just days after another operation saw five charged on similar grounds.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In India a Japanese student (20) was raped while touring Jaipur. Three men (20-24), who offered to be her tour guides, took her to a farming village outside the city, raped her on a roadside and fled. Villagers heard the woman crying and helped her contact police. On Sep 4 a court sentenced the three men to 20 years in prison. Three other defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for helping the three main accused commit the crime.
(AP, 9/4/15)
2015 Feb 8, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to demolish nine homes in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ofra, which were built on private Palestinian land. Authorities have until 2017 to carry out the demolitions.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 8, Two Italian patrol boats picked up 105 migrants late today from the boat drifting in extreme sea conditions. At least 29 migrants died of hypothermia aboard Italian coast guard vessels. Survivors later confirmed the existence of a fourth rubber boat that left Libya with as many as 300 people unaccounted-for.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A2)(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 8, Jordan said it has launched 56 airstrikes against Islamic State group weapons depots, training centers and military barracks since militants released a video on Feb 3 of them burning a Jordanian pilot to death.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Libya heavy fighting flared up in Benghazi as forces loyal to the internationally recognized elected government tried to retake areas controlled by extremist militias.
(AP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists abducted about 30 people including eight Cameroonian girls and killed 7 hostages in two bus hijackings in Cameroon and Nigeria.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Niger Boko Haram fighters waged a new attack on Diffa, a southeastern border town, where a blast killed at least 5 people and injured at least 10. Aid workers said the assailants had come from Nigeria.
(AFP, 2/8/15)(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, Nigerian authorities came in for heavy criticism over the decision to postpone national elections in the face of relentless Boko Haram violence.
(AFP, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In Sudan 3 staff of the Sudanese Red Crescent were killed in an attack in Blue Nile state, where Khartoum is battling rebels.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 8, A Turkish court ordered the arrest of 21 police officers as part of an investigation into the illegal wiretapping of politicians, civil servants and businessmen.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 8, In eastern Ukraine intense fighting continued around the rail junction town of Debaltseve, with rebel fighters making repeated attempts to storm lines defended by government troops. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France agreed to meet in Belarus on Feb 11 to try to broker a peace deal.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 9, The US federal government pledged $3.2 million to help save the monarch butterfly.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 9, Alabama became the 37th state where gays can legally wed. State chief justice Roy Moore told judges not to let gays marry. At least seven of 67 counties issued gay marriage licenses. 47 of the state’s 67 counties were issuing licenses by Feb 13.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A4)(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 9, New evidence published in the journal Nature Geoscience that human activity can disrupt the climate suggested that air pollution tied to industrialization in the northern hemisphere almost certainly reduced rainfall over Central America.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Afghanistan Abdul Rauf, the top recruiter for the Islamic State group's affiliate, was killed by a drone strike along with 7 other militants. Afghan forces fired the missile. Rauf was released from Guantanamo in 2007 and sent home to Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/9/15)(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Australia a Japanese citizen died after a shark tore off his legs while he was surfing off the coast of New South Wales.
(SFC, 2/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 9, Bahrain said it suspended a new pan-Arab news channel backed by a billionaire Saudi prince within hours of its first broadcast because it failed to obtain a proper license and did not meet anti-terrorist standards. The Alarab network disappeared from TV screens early on Feb 2, a day after its launch.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Police in India said that they had arrested eight people suspected in the rape and murder of a Nepalese woman in the northwest state of Haryana. The 28-year-old woman had been staying with her sister when she went missing Feb 1. Her mutilated body was discovered three days later. In northern India police searched for a man who raped a Japanese student sightseeing in Jaipur a day earlier. The accused tour guide turned himself in on Feb 13.
(AP, 2/9/15)(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Iraq attacks in Baghdad killed 22 people with dozens left wounded.
(AFP, 2/9/15)(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Macedonia's chief opposition figure accused PM Nikola Gruevski of wire-tapping journalists, religious and opposition leaders, deepening a scandal that has engulfed the European Union candidate country in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Myanmar troops fought Kokang ethnic rebels in clashes near the Chinese border that the government says the guerrillas provoked. Warlord Phone Kyar Shin, aka Peng Jiasheng, launched attacks on the government army around Laukkai.
(AP, 2/10/15)(Econ., 3/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 9, In northeast Nigeria scores of militants armed with guns and explosives stormed a police station in the town of Kanamma in Yobe state. Several police officers were reported killed.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 9, Islamist fighters from Nigeria's Boko Haram sect attacked a prison in neighboring Niger overnight.
(Reuters, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Senegal the four-day African Land Forces Summit opened in Dakar. It brought together top American military brass and the heads of 35 African armies.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Somali lawmakers approved a new cabinet, hours after Shebab insurgents assassinated a colleague as he made his way to parliament.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, Former South Korean spy chief Won Sei-hoon was sent to prison for three years after being found guilty of ordering an illicit online campaign to support then-ruling party candidate and current President Park Geun-hye ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Syria at least 15 people were reported killed and dozens wounded on in government air strikes on an area outside Damascus. Barrel bombs over the next 48 hours left at least 18 people dead in Douma, a rebel-held area of Damascus.
(AFP, 2/9/15)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.45)
2015 Jan 9, In Turkey security forces detained 13 foreigners and a Turkish citizen attempting to cross into Syria from a village in the southeastern province of Gaziantep to join the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 9, In Turkey G20 finance ministers met in Istanbul. Britain and the United States called on leading world powers to overhaul their economies and keep budgets in line to encourage growth.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, The Ukraine military said At least 1,500 Russian troops and convoys of military hardware entered Ukraine over the weekend.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 9, The UN said over 2.5 million South Sudanese are on the brink of famine, with the civil war likely to intensify as it launched a $1.8 billion aid appeal.
(AFP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 10, The US government announced the new Cyber Threats Intelligence Integration Center to coordinate cyberthreat intelligence spread across the federal government.
(SFC, 2/11/15, p.C1)
2015 Feb 10, The self-styled CyberCaliphate sent telephone death threats to five US military wives. In 2018 it was reported that the women were not targeted by jihadists, but rather by the same Russian hacking group that intervened in the 2016 American election and exposed the emails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager.
(SFC, 5/9/18, p.A7)
2015 Feb 10, NBC announced that it is suspending Brian Williams as “Nightly News" anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq war.
(SFC, 2/11/15, p.A12)7
2015 Feb 10, In eastern Massachusetts schools and most public transit systems remained closed around Boston as residents dug out from a third major winter storm in two weeks.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In North Carolina 3 Muslim students: Deah Shaddy Bakarat (23) his wife of two months Yusor Mohammad (21) and Ms. Mohammad’s sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha (19), were shot and killed near the campus of the Univ. of NC. Craig Stephen Hicks (46) turned himself in to the nearby Chatham County Sheriff’s Office and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. A long-running dispute over parking was said to be a potential motive. Police found at least a dozen firearms and a large stash of ammunition at the home of Hicks.
(http://tinyurl.com/lomuzs7)(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A12)(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 10, John Dehlin (45), a Mormon who gained notoriety over the past decade for running a website that offers doubting Latter-day Saints a forum to chat, announced that Utah church leaders have kicked him out of the faith for apostasy.
(SFC, 2/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 10, In Washington state three officers arrived at a grocery store parking lot in Pasco where Antonio Zambrano-Montes (35) reportedly threw rocks at them. Police said they first used a stun gun to try to incapacitate the suspect after he would not obey commands to surrender, then opened fire and killed him. In a 22-second video filmed by a motorist, Zambrano-Montes is seen running away from the officers before he was killed. Three officers fired 17 shots at Zambrano-Montes. An independent autopsy said he was hit seven times with at least two entrance wounds on the back of his body.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A6)(AP, 2/26/15)(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 10, In Afghanistan Taliban suicide attackers assaulted a police station, killing one officer in Kunduz province. A roadside bomb in Jalalabad exploded as Angeza Shinwari, a Nangarhar province councilwoman, drove past. The blast killed her driver and severely wounded Shinwari and another person.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Albania two bombs exploded in Tirana early today in what PM Edi Rama described as terror attacks apparently intended to hit back at a government anti-crime drive.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Australia two men were arrested for planning to launch an imminent terrorist attack. Police seized a homemade flag associated with the Islamic State, a machete and a hunting knife in a counterterrorism raid.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, China promised to help build a hydroelectric power plant in a violent Afghan border region, as well as road and rail links to Pakistan, in the latest sign it is taking a more active role in Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Egypt's Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Egypt and Russia have agreed to build a nuclear power plant together. El-Sissi also said the two nations signed agreements to improve natural gas business and investment. They also agreed to create a Russian industrial zone along the Suez Canal. This came during a joint press conference in Cairo with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Egypt five bombs exploded outside police stations in Egypt's second city of Alexandria, wounding 10 civilians.
(AFP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, The European Union said it is providing 100 million euros ($113 million) in loans to Jordan to help it deal with the fallout from crises like the conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In France a three-day trial began for Pierre Le Guennec and his wife, Danielle. They claimed that the artist, or his wife, gave them 180 lithographs, collages and paintings and 91 sketchbook drawings around 1970 when Le Guennec began working as a general handyman for Picasso.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, A Hong Kong woman was convicted of assaulting her Indonesian maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, in a case that sparked outrage for the scale of its brutality. A judge found Law Wan-tung guilty of 18 charges including grievous bodily harm.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, India's PM Narendra Modi suffered his first major election setback since becoming prime minister last May, as anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal won a landslide victory in Delhi state polls.
(AFP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Iraq three bombing attacks killed at least 8 people and wounded 25.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Japan and Mongolia signed a free trade agreement.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim began a 5-year prison sentence after a court rejected his final appeal against a sodomy conviction.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Malaysia arrested cartoonist Zulkifli Anwar Ulhaque, aka Zunar, for sedition over a Twitter post that criticized the judiciary for upholding a five-year jail term for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who accused the courts of "bowing to the dictates of the political masters".
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, In the Netherlands a "distributed denial of service" attack was responsible for taking down several of government websites for hours.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, Scotland’s Royal and Ancient Golf Club announced its first seven female members, including Swedish great Annika Sorenstam and Britain's Princess Anne.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, Syria's army gained ground from rebels in the south in what a monitoring group described as a large-scale offensive in the region backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters against insurgents including al Qaeda's Syrian wing. The operation began two days earlier.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In eastern Ukraine rockets killed 7 civilians in Kramatorsk and rebels pushed on with an assault to cut off an army-held rail junction, setbacks that showed Kiev's position worsening on the eve of peace talks. 7 Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed and 23 wounded in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, The United Arab Emirates launched airstrikes against the Islamic State group from an air base in Jordan.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 10, In Venezuela Judge Ali Fabricio Paredes sentenced drug kingpin Walid Makled to 14 years in prison, drawing immediate objections from prosecutors, who said they will appeal.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 10, In southeastern Yemen 4 suspected Al-Qaeda fighters were killed in a suspected US drone strike in Hadramawt province.
(AFP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 11, US President Barack Obama sent Congress his text for an authorization to use military force in the campaign against Islamic State, limiting operations against the militants to three years and barring use of US troops in "enduring offensive ground combat."
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, The Obama administration introduced an aggressive plan to stem illegal wildlife trafficking.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A9)
2015 Feb 11, The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved 550 default deals. These included the sale of Presidio Terrace, after residents failed to pay $994 in back taxes, to Michael Cheng and Tina Lam for $90,000. The tax bills had been sent to an accountant who had not worked for the neighborhood association in years. On Nov. 28, 2017, city supervisors reversed the tax sale.
(SFC, 11/29/17, p.A7)
2015 Feb 11, The San Francisco medical examiner’s office said a dismembered body found in a suitcase on Jan 28 was that of Omar Shahwan (58), a longtime friend of Jeffrey Andrus, the prime suspect in the case, who died on Feb 8.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 11, A former San Francisco police officer and four others were indicted by a federal grand jury in San Jose on charges that they hacked into computers to gain an advantage over adversaries in civil lawsuits.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.D6)
2015 Feb 11, In NYC Bob Simon (b.1941), a CBS correspondent, was killed in a car crash in Manhattan.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A11)
2015 Feb 11, An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket from Elong Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a research satellite. Rough seas forced abandonment of a plan to recover the booster aboard a ship.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.C4)
2015 Feb 11, Australia faced increased pressure to reform its immigration system after a new report showed more than a third of refugee children detained under those policies had developed a mental illness requiring psychiatric care.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, A Belgian court sentenced Fouad Belkacem, the leader of Sharia4Belgium, to twelve years in prison and gave dozens of other members lower sentences. The group had recruited youngsters to fight in Syria and was declared a terrorist organization.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 11, Bosnia's parliament approved Denis Zvizdic as prime minister after he promised to unblock the Balkan country's stalled bid to join the EU and push through reforms sought by the bloc.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Brazil an explosion on an oil ship off the coast of Espirito Santo state killed at least 5 people. Four workers remained missing.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 11, Chadian soldiers killed 13 fighters from Islamist militant group Boko Haram in a battle in the Nigerian town of Gambaru. One Chadian soldier was reported killed.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, East Timor announced that President Taur Matan Ruak has chosen opposition party member Rui Maria de Araujo (50), a former health minister, as the new prime minister.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Egypt's highest appeals court overturned death sentences for 36 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the government has labelled a terrorist group, and ordered a retrial. The case stemmed from an August 2013 attack on a police station in the southern town of el-Adwa when a police officer and a civilian were killed.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Iraq clashes between government forces and militants outside Tikrit along with attacks in Baghdad killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Italy Francesco Schettino, former captain of the capsized Costa Concordia, was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter, causing the Jan 13, 2012, shipwreck that claimed 32 lives. Schettino lost his final appeal in 2017 and began serving his 16-year sentence.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A2)(SFC, 5/13/17, p.A2)
2015 Feb 11, Liberia's Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf vowed that the country would get to zero Ebola cases soon as the US military announced it will be withdrawing most of its troops who have spent the last several months helping to battle the disease.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Libya UN negotiators restarted talks in Ghadames with delegates from Libya's warring factions, meeting separately with rival parties in an attempt to end the political crisis and reach a ceasefire.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Mali officials said motorcycle-riding poachers have killed at least 19 elephants over the past month, marking a significant blow to a rare grouping that lives in central Mali. It is believed there are only 350 to 700 elephants left in Mali.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, The Mozambique government said a cholera epidemic has killed 19 people in the north following flooding that devastated the region.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Myanmar's government reached an agreement with student protesters who have been marching to Yangon to seek education reforms, but the deal announced by the two sides still needs parliamentary approval.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Myanmar's president declared that a system of temporary identification cards for people seeking citizenship will become invalid at the end of March, negating an earlier decision that would have allowed card holders to vote in an upcoming constitutional referendum. The temporary identification cards, popularly called "white cards," were created by the former military regime for the 2010 elections in which it relinquished power to a nominally civilian government.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Niger two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in the frontier town of Diffa, following days of cross-border attacks by Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Poland hundreds of angry farmers drove their tractors toward Warsaw, where their leaders were seeking government compensation for crops destroyed by wild boar, profits undercut by Russia's import ban and new market regulations.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Serbian security forces stepped up patrols and deployed an elite unit on its border with Hungary, trying to halt a torrent of migrants that has triggered alarm in many European Union countries.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government air force raids have killed at least 183 people in insurgent strongholds east of the capital in the past 10 days.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Ukrainian forces battled pro-Russian rebels for territory on one of the bloodiest days in the 10-month war ahead of a pivotal peace summit on the conflict.
(AFP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, Venezuelan authorities arrested Judge Ali Fabricio Paredes less than 24 hours after he issued a sentence in a high-profile drug trafficking case that prosecutors said is too lenient.
(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 11, In Yemen the US embassy staff destroyed weapons, computers and documents before closing and evacuating diplomats. Britain and France also moved to close their embassies.
(Reuters, 2/11/15)(AP, 2/11/15)
2015 Feb 12, The US multi-state $564.1 Powerball lottery was won by ticket holders in North Carolina, Texas and Puerto Rico.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 12, Sam Andrew (b.1941), a founding member of rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company, died in San Rafael, Ca. In the mid 1960s the band shot Janis Joplin to fame.
(SFC, 2/17/15, p.C3)
2015 Feb 12, NY Times media columnist David Carr (58) collapsed at the newspaper’s headquarters. He died of complications from metastatic lung cancer.
(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.A14)
2015 Feb 12, In Las Vegas Tammy Meyers (44) was shot in the head outside her home in a Las Vegas cul-de-sac shortly before midnight after confrontations that began when she was giving her daughter (15) an after-hours driving lesson and the girl honked at a driver she felt was speeding. The mother's life-support was disconnected on Valentine's Day. On Feb 19 police arrested Erich Nowsch (19) on suspicion of murder.
(http://tinyurl.com/odzz2sf)(SFC, 2/20/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 12, In Afghanistan Sheirin Agha, a member of the country's High Peace Council, was assassinated during prayers at a Kandahar mosque.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, Oliver Rackham (75), British plant pathologist and woodland archeologist, died. His last book, “The Ash Tree," was written in response to the outbreak of the Chalara fungus.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.94)
2015 Feb 12, Human Rights Watch said Burundian troops executed at least 47 surrendered rebels last month, part of a "broader pattern" of violence coming ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, China offered to mediate in stalled efforts to engage the Afghan Taliban in peace negotiations.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In western CongoDRC dozens of people were missing after a collision between two boats on the Congo River. 3 bodies were recovered out of an estimated 100 on board one of the vessels. Some 42 survivors made it to shore.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 12, An Egyptian judge ordered the release on bail of Mohammed Fahmy and Baher Mohammed, a pair of Al-Jazeera English journalists being retried on terror-related charges. Also being freed on bail are 11 other defendants in the case, mostly students charged with involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, England and Wales passed a new law banning "revenge porn" -- sexually explicit images shared online by a former partner without their ex's consent. The devolved governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have responsibility for justice matters, are also looking at introducing similar laws.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Steve Strange (55), a singer with the British band Visage and one of the founders of the 1980s' New Romantic style, died in a hospital in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed a deal on that offers a "glimmer of hope" for an end to fighting in eastern Ukraine after marathon overnight talks in Belarus. The deal envisages a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists starting on Feb 15, followed by the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, France and Egypt agreed a deal worth more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) for the sale of Dassault Aviation-built Rafale fighter jets, a naval frigate and missiles.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Greece reported that tax revenues slumped 23 percent below target in January as citizens held off on paying taxes before a snap election, marking a setback for the new left-wing government as it seeks a deal with European partners to avert a financial crisis.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In Iraq Islamic State militants seized parts of the town of Al-Baghdadi, five miles from the Ayn al-Asad airbase where some 320 US troops were training Iraqi troops.
(SFC, 2/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 12, US-led forces hit Islamic State targets in Iraq with 12 air strikes and three air strikes in Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In Libya gunmen from an al-Qaida inspired militia took over radio and television stations in Sirte.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 12, A Niger spokesman said security forces in Niger have killed 260 Boko Haram militants since the group began cross-border attacks on its southeastern Diffa region on Feb 6.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In northeastern Nigeria at least 21 people were killed in two separate Boko Haram attacks on Akida and Mbuta villages near Maiduguri.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, A Pakistani army spokesman says 12 local Taliban militants involved in a deadly school attack late last year have been arrested. Maj. Gen. Asim Saleem Bajwa told a media briefing that another 9 members, of what is believed to be a 27-member cell, have already been killed.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In South Africa Pres. Zuma’s State of the Nation address was interrupted with questions about longstanding allegations of corruption in a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his rural home in Nkandla. Speaker Baleka Mbete told the EFF and its firebrand leader Julius Malema to stop asking questions. When they refused, she ordered them to be removed, prompting a brawl in which several people were injured.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, In South Korea an onboard tantrum dubbed "nut rage" culminated in a one-year prison sentence for Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah, the daughter of Korean Air's chairman.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, In Taiwan 6 inmates led by a mob boss committed suicide at a prison after a failed breakout attempt in which they seized weapons and held a warden and guards hostage in the southern port city of Kaohsiung.
(AP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, A Ukrainian military spokesman said around 50 tanks, 40 missile systems and 40 armored vehicles had crossed overnight into eastern Ukraine from Russia.
(Reuters, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at choking off earnings from oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking and ransom payments to the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 2/12/15)
2015 Feb 12, Air strikes by the United Arab Emirates against the Islamic State group hit oil refineries run by the jihadists.
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 12, Venezuelan officials said a retired air force general has been arrested and 13 other people are implicated in a plot to overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 12, In southern Yemen al Qaeda-linked fighters seized a large army base in a dawn attack. 12 soldiers and 15 militants were killed as Al-Qaeda seized the brigade's camp at Baihan in Shabwa province and captured armor and heavy weaponry
(Reuters, 2/12/15)(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Pres. Obama issued an executive order urging businesses and government to cooperate better on quickly sharing information about online threats. Obama spoke at Stanford Univ. before a gathering of business leaders and federal officials dubbed the Summit on CyberSecurity and Consumer Protection.
(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 13, In Louisiana John Hicks (19) was arrested after he shot dead two people near an all-female Mardi Gras parade.
(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 13, In Virginia Andrus Nomm of Estonia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement in federal court in Alexandria. He was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Nomm, one of seven men indicted in a massive copyright-piracy scheme run through the now-defunct website Megaupload three years ago, was the first to be brought to the US to face charges.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Argentine state investigator Gerardo Pollicita formally reiterated accusations leveled against Pres. Fernandez a month ago by his colleague Alberto Nisman, found dead on Jan 18.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern Bangladesh a trawler carrying up to 200 passengers sank in the River Payra. Most people were rescued or swam ashore. At least five people died and two were missing.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Canada, a major exporter of beef, said it has found a case of mad cow disease in a beef cow in the province of Alberta, the first in the country since 2011.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Suspected Boko Haram militants staged their first attack in Chad, hitting the third country outside Nigeria base in recent days.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Croatia Milan Bandic, the powerful mayor of Zagreb, was indicted for abuse of power as a wider investigation continues against him over millions in suspected fraud. The national anti-graft bureau USKOK charged Bandic and two aides with illegally using some 40,000 euros in city money to finance a citizens' signature gathering campaign.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Egypt a roadside bomb in Cairo killed a police captain and wounded eight other people. Egyptian warplanes killed 8 suspected Islamist militants in Rafah, Sinai.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Germany condemned a cartoon published Feb 8 in a Greek leftist newspaper close to the new ruling party in Athens that depicts Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in a Nazi uniform making comments that invoke the Holocaust.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Greece began tough negotiations with its creditors as hopes grew of a deal to replace its detested bailout after new PM Alexis Tsipras pushed his case at a European summit.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern India a train derailed after hitting a boulder that had fallen on the track, killing at least 11 people and injuring dozens near Bangalore, Karnataka state.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Iraq unidentified gunmen attacked a two-car convoy carrying Sheikh Qassem Sweidan al-Janabi and his nephew, lawmaker Zeid al-Janabi. The lawmaker was later released but the tribal leader, seen as a moderate Sunni, as well as his son and at least six other people, mostly bodyguards, were killed.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, The Iraqi army said it has killed 8 assailants near the Ain al-Asad air base, about 85 km (50 miles) northwest of Ramadi following an attack that began a day earlier. The US military said coalition partners conducted seven air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq over the last 24 hours, including five strikes about 15 km east of Ain al-Asad base.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, An Italian court sentenced Somali trafficker Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin (34) to 30 years in prison. He had raped and attacked migrants he had led through the desert to Libya to make the perilous crossing to Italy in October 2013.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, In northern Mexico a passenger bus and a freight train collided at a grade crossing in Anahuac, Tamaulipas state, killing 20 people and injuring 22.
(AP, 2/14/15)(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, Myanmar state media said heavy fighting between the army and rebels has killed 47 soldiers, sending a flood of people across the border with China and overshadowing hopes for a national ceasefire as a crucial election looms. The army used airstrikes to repel the attacks.
(AFP, 2/13/15)(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, The Netherlands extradited Vladimir Drinkman to the US. The Russian was suspected of involvement in a huge data breach that racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in losses over seven years for US companies. Drinkman was arrested in the Netherlands in June 2012.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In New Zealand 198 pilot whales stranded themselves on South Island. Hordes of rescuers rushed to the remote area in a bid to guide them back to sea. Some 140 died as rescuers refloated about 60.
(AP, 2/13/15)(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 13, Nigeria’s human rights commission (NHRC) said political violence in the 50-day run-up to elections has killed 58 people, with rising "hate speech" between rival camps threatening to spark further unrest.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In Pakistan at least 19 people were killed in Peshawar in a gun and bomb attack on a Shi'ite mosque. The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting against the state to set up a hardline Sunni theocracy, claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Saudi Arabia, Germany and Italy became the latest countries to withdraw embassy staff from Yemen as an exodus of foreign diplomats gathered pace due to growing insecurity.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Sierra Leone placed some 700 hundred homes in a fishing district of the capital under quarantine following the death of a fisherman who was later diagnosed Ebola positive. At least five new cases were confirmed in the area.
(AFP, 2/13/15)(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 13, South Sudan's cabinet postponed elections and extended President Salva Kiir's powers for two years. That goes against a deal struck between Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar earlier this month, in which they agreed to set up a transitional unity government in the bitterly divided nation to run for 30 months from July 9.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Meeting in Geneva almost 200 countries agreed a draft text for a deal to fight climate change, but put off hard choices about narrowing down a vast range of options for limiting a damaging rise in temperatures.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, Turkish police used water cannon in the western coastal city of Izmir to disperse scores of protesters boycotting schools over the growing influence of religion in the classroom.
(Reuters, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In eastern Ukraine fierce fighting surged as Russian-backed separatists mounted a major, sustained offensive to capture a strategic railway hub ahead of a weekend cease-fire deadline. At least 25 people were killed across the region.
(AP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 13, In southern Yemen suspect al-Qaida gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at air force Colonel Mahmoud al-Naqib, killing him instantly in Lahij province.
(AFP, 2/13/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Maryland Jason Hendrix (16) was killed in a shootout with police as they tried to pull him over for a speeding violation. This prompted a search at his home in Corbin, Ky., where police found the bodies of his parents and a younger sister. Hendrix was said to be angry at his parents for taking away his computer privileges.
(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 14, Algerian soldiers shot dead a heavily armed Islamist in the Tebessa region on the northeastern border with Tunisia.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Argentina top government officials rallied behind President Cristina Fernandez after a state prosecutor said he would keep investigating accusations that she tried to cover up Iran's alleged involvement in a 1994 bombing.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Bahrain protesters took to the streets in predominantly Shiite areas and set tires alight along a major highway to mark the fourth anniversary of widespread protests calling for reform.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Denmark some 30 shots were fired at the Krudttoenden cafe in Copenhagen, where Swedish artist Lars Vilks was organized a freedom of speech event. Filmmaker Finn Noergaard (55) was killed.
(AP, 2/14/15)(AFP, 2/14/15)(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 14, In Hong Kong Lai Sai-ming, the captain of a commuter ferry that collided with another boat on Oct 1, 2012, killing 39 people, was found guilty of manslaughter.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, Michael Ferrero (89), Italy’s chocolate king, died. He took over the family’s hazelnut-chocolate business after his father died in 1949 and soon added vegetable oil to make it spreadable. In 1964 he invented the name Nutella and in 1983 took it to America.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.90)
2015 Feb 14, In Libya a bomb exploded at an oil pipeline from the El Sarir field, halting flows to Hariga port as the country struggles to restore crude exports battered by factional fighting.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, Niger said it has arrested several dozen people suspected of having links to Nigeria's Boko Haram, since the start of cross-border attacks by the Islamist group on Feb 6.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 14, Nigeria's military repelled an attack on the northeastern town of Gombe by Boko Haram Islamic extremists who, as they retreated, warned residents not to participate in the country's elections in March.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Pakistan gunmen killed a driver and wounded a polio worker in the Khyber tribal region as another vaccination team went missing ahead of a nationwide vaccination drive.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In Thailand dozens of anti-coup activists held a demonstration in central Bangkok, handing out roses and copies of George Orwell's "1984" -- a rare expression of public dissent in a nation still under strict martial law.
(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In eastern Ukraine fighting intensified ahead of a midnight ceasefire. Constant artillery bombardments were razing the strategic railway hub of Debaltseve, where Ukrainian forces were clinging on. Shelling killed at least one person in the rebel-held city of Donetsk. 7 Ukrainian service personnel were killed and 23 wounded in fighting in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/14/15)(AFP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 14, In southern Yemen heavy fighting overnight between Shiite rebels and Sunni tribesmen left 26 dead. Tens of thousands marched in protest against the Houthis in the cities of Ibb, Taiz, Hodeida, Dhamar and the capital, Sanaa. The Netherlands, Spain and the United Arab Emirates became the latest countries to shut down embassy operations in Sanaa.
(AP, 2/14/15)
2015 Feb 15, Bahrain said it will send troops to support regional ally Jordan.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Musical Miss Saigon swept the board at the What's on Stage theatre awards in London's West End, where it won nine awards.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 15, HSBC, Britain's largest bank, issued a public apology, describing the media firestorm that followed allegations it helped rich clients dodge taxes as painful and insisting it has changed the way it does business.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Canada over 3,000 Teamster members went on strike at Canadian Pacific Railway after contract talks failed to reach an agreement. The strike ended on Feb 16 as both sides agreed to resume discussions.
(SFC, 2/14/15, p.A2)(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 15, A Canadian National train loaded with crude oil derailed in northern Ontario. At least seven cars burst into flames.
(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 15, Congo's Pres. Joseph Kabila condemned a decision by the United Nations to withdraw its support from a joint military offensive against a rebel group because the military decided it should be directed by two generals who have links to human rights violations.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Croatia's first female president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic (46), was sworn in and pledged to help kickstart the EU member's ailing economy.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Denmark security guard Dan Uzan (27) was shot in the head and killed near Copenhagen's main synagogue. Two policemen were also wounded in the shooting at around 1:00 am this morning. Police said they believe a man shot dead by officers at Noerrebro station was the sole perpetrator of the two fatal attacks in the last 24 hours in the capital. Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein (22) was later identified as the gunman.
(AFP, 2/15/15)(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)(AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Egypt gunmen opened fire on a traffic police patrol in the Nile Delta town of Benha, killing one policeman and wounding three others.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In France some 250 graves were found vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union. Five teens were later arrested and admitted to the destruction in the Alsace region.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 15, In Greece some 18 thousand people rallied in Athens ahead of talks in Brussels on the new leftist government's bid to revise its massive bailout. Some 8,000 people also thronged the streets in Thessaloniki.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In northern India a newly built house collapsed early today killing 13 residents as they slept in Dulhaipur village, Uttar Pradesh state.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Iran’s former first vice president, Mohammad Reza Rahimi, was taken to jail to serve his 5-year 3-month prison term.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its coalition partners conducted 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants, three in Syria and eight in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Italy closed its embassy in Libya due to the worsening conflict there and stepped up its call for a UN mission to help calm the situation.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Italy's coast guard went to the rescue of at least 1,000 migrants in difficulty in the sea between Europe and North Africa, the third operation of its kind in as many days.
(Yahoo News, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, A Jordanian court sentenced Zaki Bani Rsheid (57), a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, to 18 months in prison for criticizing a decision by the United Arab Emirates to blacklist his organization.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Islamic State militants in Libya released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. The 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, who had gone to Libya in search of work, were marched to a beach, forced to kneel and then beheaded on video. On October 6, 2017, the remains of 21 Coptic Christians were unearthed from a mass grave south of the one-time jihadist bastion of Sirte.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)(AFP, 10/7/17)
2015 Feb 15, Myanmar state media said troops fighting ethnic rebels near the Chinese border have recovered the bodies of 13 insurgents and captured eight others following heavy government losses this week.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In northeastern Nigeria a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded bus station in Damaturu, Yobe state, killing at least 16 people and wounding 30.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 15, In Pakistan a government paramilitary force shot and killed Usman Saifullah Kurd, a regional commander for an al-Qaida linked militant cell, and one of his aides on the outskirts of Quetta.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, In the southern Philippines 2 members of an Al Qaeda-linked group were killed in clashes with troops in the jungles of Basilan island.
(AFP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Russian police in Moscow detained Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and leading opposition figure, as he and supporters were handing out leaflets urging people to take part in an "anti-crisis" march on March 1.
(AP, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, Ukraine's rebels disavowed a new truce hours after it took effect, saying it did not apply to the town of Debaltseve, where most fighting has taken place in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 2/15/15)
2015 Feb 15, The UN Security council adopted a resolution demanding that Houthi rebels in Yemen immediately relinquish control and withdraw from government institutions.
(SFC, 2/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 16, A judge in Texas granted a temporary injunction on an Obama order that would have protected about four million undocumented foreigners from deportation and was due to come into effect from Feb 18.0
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 16, In West Virginia a CSX train carrying crude oil derailed east of Charleston. At least 12-15 cars derailed and at least one tank car fell into the Kanahwa River.
(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 16, Leslie Gore (68), singer and songwriter, died of lung cancer in NYC. Her hits included “It’s My Party" (1963) and “You Don’t Own Me" (1963).
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.D4)
2015 Feb 16, The Armenian president asked the country's parliament speaker to withdraw his signature from a groundbreaking 2009 agreement with Turkey meant to restore ties between the two nations due to "preconditions" that Turkey put in place before it ratifies its part of the deal.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Bahrain said it has deployed fighter planes to help support Jordan, a day after it announced plans to send troops to the kingdom.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In China a party watchdog said Su Rong, a former provincial party leader and former vice chairman of China's top political advisory body, has been expelled from the ruling Communist party and stripped of all government positions. Su Rong was accused of taking bribes in return for government positions and will likely face criminal charges.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, A Danish court jailed two suspected accomplices of the slain gunman behind the recent deadly attacks in Copenhagen while PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt said there were no signs of links to a wider terror network.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In East Timor opposition party member Rui Maria de Araujo was sworn in as prime minister, leading a smaller 38-member Cabinet for the half-island nation.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. 40 to 50 militants were reported killed along with 7 civilians.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.44)
2015 Feb 16, The European Union published a new sanctions list of individuals and entities. It added 9 more entities and 19 more individuals, including a Russian deputy minister of defense, for their actions linked to the fighting in eastern Ukraine. There was a week's lapse in the publishing of the list because of the negotiations which led to an agreement between Ukraine and Russia on Feb 12.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, The leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine said that observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) must have "free access" for their work in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, A German court said a 93-year-old man has been charged with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as an SS guard at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Greece offered to accept conditions on an extension to its loan agreements with the euro zone, and even an inspection by the European Commission, at a fraught meeting in Brussels.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 16, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its coalition partners launched air strikes against Islamic State targets; two in Syria and 13 in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigeria said its troops backed by air strikes have recaptured the northeastern towns of Monguno and Marte from Islamist Boko Haram insurgents.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Nigerian Boko Haram insurgents attacked a Cameroon military camp near the town of Waza in the north of the country, wounding several soldiers.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Kaspersky Labs, founded in 1997 in Moscow, released a report on how a gang it calls Carbanak had hacked the computer systems of banks around the world. The company also said it had discovered “the “Equation /Group," apparently a part of the NSA, which it said was able to embed spyware in computers.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.63)
2015 Feb 16, Sierra Leone's government promised a full investigation after an internal audit found that nearly one-third of the money received to fight Ebola was spent without saving the necessary receipts and invoices to justify the spending.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, South Korea's ruling party-controlled legislature approved President Park Geun-hye's appointment of Lee Wan Koo in a 148-128 vote.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In South Sudan an unidentified armed group abducted at least 89 boys, some as young as 13, from their homes in the northern town of Wau Shilluk.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 16, In Spain court papers showed that a Granada court has dropped charges against 11 out of 12 suspects in the country's biggest ever clerical sex abuse scandal because the statute of limitations had expired.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Sudanese security officers seized the print runs of 13 newspapers in one of the most sweeping crackdowns on the press in recent years. There was no immediate word from the authorities on why the newspapers had been seized.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Syrian state news said 9 people, including three children, were killed today in rebel fire on a government-held neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, Turkey said it was temporarily closing its embassy in Yemen, the latest foreign mission to do so following the takeover of power by Shiite Huthi militiamen.
(AFP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russian rebels said they would open a safe corridor for as many as 7,000 Ukrainian troops out of the encircled town of Debaltseve on condition they surrender the territory, an offer the Kiev military promptly rejected.
(Reuters, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 16, In Yemen supporters of former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi seized radio and television buildings in the southern city of Aden after they accused security forces of working for Shiite rebels who control the capital. One soldier and two Hadi supporters were reported killed in clashes.
(AP, 2/16/15)
2015 Feb 17, The United States military said it will provide communications equipment and intelligence to help African nations in the fight against Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Chicago a civil suit was filed against Mohammad Abdullah Saleem (75), founder of the Institute of Islamic Education, accusing him of abusing an employee and three teenage students. The suit accused Saleem of abusing female students as far back as the 1980s.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 17, Seaports in the US West Coast, all but shut over the weekend because of a contract dispute, were reopening as the nation's top labor official tried to solve a stalemate between dockworkers and their employers that already has disrupted billions of dollars in international trade.
(AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Heavy snowfall and glacial temperatures shut down much of the central and eastern United States. Winter storm warnings a day earlier had touched 17 states.
(AFP, 2/17/15)(SFC, 2/17/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 17, In eastern Afghanistan four suicide attackers dressed as policemen stormed a provincial police headquarters in Pul-i-Alam, Logar province, killing 22 police in an attack claimed by the Taliban. A bomb attached to a vehicle killed one person in Kabul.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, In Brazil Rio de Janeiro's world-famous samba school parades held their grand finale as the five-day-long Carnival celebration came to an end. At least 3 people were electrocuted while standing atop a Carnival float that hit a power line in the city of Nova Iguacu.
(Yahoo News, 2/17/15) (AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Three British girls (Kadiza Sultana (16) and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase) flew from London to Turkey in a suspected bid to join the Islamic State group. On March 12 Turkey announced the arrest of an agent who helped the girls cross into Syria. The agent also worked as a courier to transfer money to jihadists.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/15/15)
2015 Feb 17, Canada imposed sanctions on Russia over its conduct in Ukraine, a move Moscow said would fuel further tension in Ukraine and prevent the implementation of the ceasefire.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 17, Canadian officials said the cost of Canada's six-month bombing mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq was estimated at more than $100 million.
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Two Chadian soldiers and several Boko Haram fighters were killed in violent clashes around Dikwa, some 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Gambaru. Chad's army seized control of Dikwa. Abu Ashshe, a Boko Haram commander notorious for seizing cattle in the area, was among those killed.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 17, The French government passed the Macron law by decree for fear of not winning a majority. It allowed intercity coaches to compete with railways, relaxed Sunday trading restrictions and lifted barriers to becoming a notary.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.51)
2015 Feb 17, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras nominated Prokopis Pavlopoulos (64), a conservative lawmaker and former interior minister, to be the country's next president. If elected, he will replace Karolos Papoulias (85), whose five-year term ends next month.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Haiti a high-voltage cable fell on a float during a Carnival parade in Port-au-Prince early today, killing at least 15 people.
(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Hungary PM Viktor Orban hosted Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin and reached a political agreement on a new gas deal.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, In India police arrested three men for allegedly stealing classified documents from the ministry of petroleum and natural gas and selling them to energy companies. Four other men, including two energy consultants, were arrested soon after.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its allies staged six airstrikes around the Syrian town of Kobani and eight strikes on Islamic State in Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Kenya eight international organizations launched a global campaign to stem the spread of AIDS among adolescents. They said AIDS has become the leading cause of death for adolescents in Africa and the second leading cause of death among adolescents globally.
(AP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, Mexico’s state oil company said it will no longer ship finished, usable gasoline or diesel through its network of ducts due to increasing illegal pipeline taps.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, Myanmar President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the Kokang region in the east and imposed a three-month period of martial law there.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Niger PM Brigi Rafini and other government officials led a march of some 35,000 people in Niamey to support the country's military following a series of attacks along the border with Nigeria carried out by Boko Haram militants.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Niger 36 civilians at a funeral ceremony were killed when an unidentified plane bombarded a village near the Nigerian border.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(CSM, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 17, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant in Potiskum, killing two people and wounding 12. Near the town of Biu 11 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack by 3 men on a motorized tricycle at a checkpoint.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)(AFP, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Pakistan a Taliban suicide attack on a provincial police headquarters killed at least 6 other people in the eastern city of Lahore, in what militants called a revenge strike for the hangings of their comrades.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 17, In South Sudan a British worker for the US-based Carter Center was killed in Juba, bringing to 14 the number of aid workers killed over the course of the country's 14-month conflict.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 17, In St. Kitts and Nevis an alliance of three opposition parties won parliamentary elections. Timothy Harris led the Team Unity coalition. Outgoing PM Denzil Douglas conceded defeat.
(SFC, 2/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 17, Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese militant Hezbollah fighters captured several villages near the northern city of Aleppo in lightning advances. Regime forces executed six families of rebel fighters. Ten children, 5 women and 13 rebels from the six families were among at least 48 people killed in the village of Rityan.
(AP, 2/17/15)(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 17, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russian rebels and government forces fought street-to-street in Debaltseve and refused to pull back their heavy guns, all but scuppering hopes that a European-brokered peace deal will end months of conflict. Rebels barred OSCE observers from entering Debaltseve.
(Reuters, 2/17/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Obama administration and Canada agreed on financing construction of a plaza for a new $2.1 billion bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor. A public-private partnership will reimburse the plaza construction with bridge tolls.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 18, The Univ. of California in San Francisco (UCSF) announced a $100 million gift from philanthropist Charles Feeney (83).
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 18, Dimitry Jean-Noel of Massachusetts pleaded guilty to his role in the creation of a fictitious uniform manufacturing company that did business in Afghanistan and defrauded the US government of as much as $200,000.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Kate Brown (54), former Oregon secretary of state, was sworn in as the state’s new governor, becoming the country’s first openly bisexual governor.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A10)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.30)
2015 Feb 18, In Virginia two Colombians were sentenced to prison for the 2013 kidnapping and murder of US Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent James Watson in Bogota. Edwin Gerardo Figueroa Sepulveda (39) and Wilson Daniel Peralta-Bocachica (31) were among seven Colombians in a robbery-and-kidnapping ring extradited to the United States in July 2014 to face charges stemming from Watson's killing.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Scientists led by Michael Farzan, a professor at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, said a new drug tested on monkeys provided an astonishingly effective shield against an animal version of the AIDS virus, a major gain in the quest for an HIV vaccine.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Citigroup Inc said it would set aside $100 billion to fund environmental projects over the next decade, doubling the amount it had earmarked for such projects in 2007.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Argentina some 400,000 people marched in silence to the presidential palace in Buenos Aires to protest the Jan 18 death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.35)
2015 Feb 18, Bosnian authorities arrested six men suspected of supporting the Islamic State group, including two who allegedly were preparing to go to Syria to fight and were arrested at Sarajevo airport.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Brazil 9 people burned to death when the bus they were riding on hit a light post and burst into flames in the Rio de Janeiro district of Sao Goncalo.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Chinese New Year holiday began today due to the insertion of a lunar leap month last year.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 18, In Germany the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cologne published financial accounts indicating assets of 3.35 billion euros (($3.82 billion) at the end of 2013.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 18, In Iraq a suicide car bomber killed 6 troops and Shiite militiamen at a checkpoint jointly manned by the Shiite militia and Iraqi army near Samarra.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Israel's Supreme Court has overturned last week's decision by the country's election committee that disqualified Arab lawmaker Hanin Zoabi and Baruch Marzel allowing them to run in next month's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Israel unveiled some 2000 silver and gold coins, the largest collection ever found in the country. Amateur divers had found the coins, dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries, a few weeks earlier near the port city of Caesarea.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 18, In southern Mexico ten people injured following an attack on the offices of the Coca-Cola company in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Myanmar's government accused three more ethnic rebel groups: the Kachin Independence Army, the Shan State Army (South) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, of being involved in armed clashes in northeastern Shan state, where a week of fighting against Kokang rebels has left dozens of soldiers dead and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighboring China.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Dutch Safety Board said Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp and the Dutch government ignored the danger of earthquakes caused by gas extraction at the massive Groningen gas field for decades.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Nigeria claimed to have killed more than 300 Boko Haram militants in a counter-offensive, as Chad pushed into rebel-held areas. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked the Tamsu-Shehuri village on where they killed more than 12 people.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Pakistan at least 2 people were killed in an attack on a mosque in Rawalpindi belonging to the Shiite Muslim community. Fahad Marwat, a spokesman for the Taliban splinter group Jundullah, claimed responsibility, saying it was revenge for an ongoing army operation aimed at driving militants out of their North Waziristan stronghold.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, News leaked that two NCOs in Peru’s naval intelligence agency were being tried in a military court for selling information to Chile.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.31)
2015 Feb 18, In Saudi Arabia military chiefs from 26 nations involved in the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group began a two-day meeting aimed at giving military leaders an opportunity to exchange views about the fight against the extremist group.
(AP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, South Sudan's army and rebels fought heavy battles for a third day with scores of casualties, a day ahead of a planned restart of peace talks.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Swiss authorities raided the offices of British banking giant HSBC's Swiss unit as part of a money laundering probe into the bank that has been accused of helping clients to dodge millions of dollars in taxes.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Syrian rebels regained much of the territory north of the city of Aleppo lost to government troops in fierce fighting the previous day in clashes that left more than 100 dead on both sides. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said he received a government commitment to suspend airstrikes on the city of Aleppo for six weeks. Rebels captured 32 soldiers and pro-government gunmen near Aleppo, where fighting raged as the two sides tried to grab new territory ahead of a possible truce.
(AP, 2/18/15)(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 18, Tanzanian police said they have found the mutilated body of a one-year-old albino boy An armed gang had snatched Yohana Bahati from his mother at their home in northwestern Tanzania's Geita region on Feb 15. His abduction renewed calls for tougher action to stop the killing of albinos for their body parts, prized in black magic.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Four Tunisian police were killed in a pre-dawn attack by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants near the Algerian border.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, The Turkish parliament descended into chaos when a furious brawl erupted as the country's ruling party sought to push through a controversial bill boosting the powers of police in protests.
(AFP, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, In Turkey a snowstorm in Istanbul grounded planes, halted traffic and forced the closure of the Bosphorus Strait shipping channel.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 18, Ukraine government forces pulled out of Debaltseve after a fierce assault by Russian-backed separatists which Kiev and Europe said violated a crumbling ceasefire. Kiev reported that 22 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and more than 150 wounded in fighting with Russian-backed separatists in the railway junction of Debaltseve in the last few days.
(Reuters, 2/18/15)
2015 Feb 19, Pres. Obama designated the Pullman neighborhood of Chicago, where African American railroad workers won a historic agreement, as the Pullman National Monument.
(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 19, The website Intercept posted documents saying the US National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s GCHQ had hacked into the networks of Gemalto, a SIM card maker, to steal codes allowing them to seamlessly eavesdrop on mobile phones worldwide.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 19, In the SF Bay Area dockworkers shut down the Port of Oakland as they took a day off for a monthly union meeting, historicall held at night. This intensified the bitter contract dispute at 29 West Coast ports.
(SFC, 2/20/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 19, A US federal judge ruled that American Express violated antitrust laws by barring merchants from asking customers to use one credit card over another. Visa and Mastercard ended similar practices after settling with the Justice Dept. in 2010.
(SFC, 2/20/15, p.C3)
2015 Feb 19, Bone-chilling cold in the US Midwest shattered records in Chicago, closing schools and starting its trudge eastward to an already frozen Boston and New York.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 19, British teenager Brusthom Ziamani (19) was found guilty of plotting to behead a soldier in London after being influenced by the murder of an Afghan war veteran who was hacked to death by two Islamists in the capital a year earlier. Ziamani was arrested last August carrying a 12-inch (30-cm) knife and a hammer, wrapped in a black Islamic flag.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Burundi thousands marched through the capital in one of the largest demonstrations in recent years after the release of Bob Rugurika, a popular journalist and government critic from jail, months ahead of key elections.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Canadian federal police charged Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin and its subsidiaries with corruption for allegedly bribing officials in Libya during former strongman Moamer Kadhafi's reign.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Cinemas in China began showing “Wolf Totem," based on a Chinese novel critiquing man’s impulse to tame nature. Author Lu Jiamin, jailed for over a year for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had published the novel under the name Jiang Rong. The film was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, a French director who China had banned for making the 1997 film “Seven Years in Tibet."
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.40)
2015 Feb 19, Chinese were seeing in the Year of the Sheep as fireworks and firecrackers ushered in the Lunar New Year across Asia.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In China Luo Renchu (64) attacked elderly residents and staff at the privately run home in Hunan province. He killed 3 elderly residents with a brick and injured 15 other people after arguing with his boss over unpaid wages. On April 1, 2016, Renchu was sentenced to death for killing 9 people.
(AP, 2/21/15)(AP, 4/2/16)
2015 Feb 19, It was reported that the Czech humanitarian organization, People in Need, is setting up an international center to support activists in former Soviet Union countries who face pressure from their governments. It is being co-financed by the US Agency for International Development, the Swedish and Czech governments, and two private US foundations.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, The French victim of a racist incident, involving Chelsea soccer fans in the Paris metro on Feb 17, lodged an official complaint with police. He had not initially know the incident had been filmed and widely broadcast.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(SFC, 2/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 19, Georgia condemned the signing of a border agreement between its breakaway region of South Ossetia and Russia, accusing Moscow of moving closer to annexing a territory it supported in a five-day conflict in 2008.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, A German government spokesman said Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in a conference call with the leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine to use his influence on separatists to start an agreed prisoner swap with Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Greece said the EU had two choices, to accept or reject its request for a six-month extension to its EU loan program, as a row over the bailout crisis escalated.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Iraq and Syria the US-led coalition staged 15 air strikes on Islamic State forces over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Moldova sought to stabilize the country's currency, which plummeted 25 percent this week amid concerns over the financial and political system.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, This marked the start of Mongolia’s Lunar new year: “Year of the Blue Ewe," according to a 60-year calendar cycle paring five colors or elements with 12 animals in male and female forms.
(SSFC, 2/15/15, p.L2)
2015 Feb 19, In Mozambique at least one person was killed and 12 wounded when a cargo train laden with coal derailed near Magude.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Myanmar about 4,000 workers were striking at clothing factories outside Yangon, demanding that their overtime pay of 17 cents an hour be doubled. Workers vowed to camp outside their factories unless employers meet their demand, claiming they cannot live on pay amounting to 80,000 kyats ($80) a month as the cost of living rises.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 17, In Niger 36 civilians at a funeral ceremony were killed when an unidentified plane bombarded a village near the Nigerian border.
(AFP, 2/18/15)(CSM, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Nigerian warplanes bombarded training camps and caches of weapons and vehicles belonging to the Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeasterly Sambisa forest. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen hit the village of Ladi-Shehuri, where they killed and burned a man in his car. Soldiers from Konduga responded and killed about a dozen of the attackers.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Nigeria Boko Haram militants fleeing an army offensive killed at least 30 people in attacks near the village of Chibok, close to where the rebels abducted more than 200 schoolgirls last year. The rebels were fleeing a land and air offensive to clear them out of the Sambisa forest when they raided the smaller villages of Gatamarwa, Makalama and Layhawul.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Puerto Rico a federal grand jury indicted 25 suspects on charges of running a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking ring. The group allegedly began operating in 2010 and generated at least $6 million in sales.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Slovakia thousands of court officials went on a one-day warning strike, complaining of low pay and underfunding of the legal system.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Syria rebels recaptured the village of Hardatnein, two days after it was taken by government forces. The Observatory said 90 troops and pro-government gunmen, in addition to 81 rebels, have been killed since the fighting began near Aleppo on Feb 17.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Former Thai premier Yingluck Shinawatra was formally indicted over a bungled rice subsidy scheme in the latest legal move against her polarizing family that could see her jailed for up to a decade.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Thailand passed a law banning foreign couples from using Thai women as surrogates after a series of high-profile scandals tainting the image of the hitherto unregulated industry.
(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish media quoted the national intelligence agency (MIT) as saying that Islamic State militants have entered Turkey and are plotting to attack diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Turkish legislators scuffled for a second day in parliament over a new security bill which critics say aims to crush dissent.
(AP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine despite European efforts to resurrect a still-born ceasefire, a day after pro-Russian separatists who spurned the truce forced thousands of government troops out Debaltseve. Ukraine said more than 90 troops were captured and 82 were still missing after pro-Russian rebels seized Debaltseve.
(Reuters, 2/19/15)(AFP, 2/19/15)
2015 Feb 19, In Venezuela agents of the security police (Sebin) broke into the Caracas office of Mayor Antonio Ledezma (59) and carted off the longtime critic of the socialist government, adding to tensions on the anniversary of the outbreak of protests that paralyzed the nation a year ago.
(AP, 2/19/15)(SFC, 2/20/15, p.A4)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.29)
2015 Feb 20, The US government said it will fine Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate in a long-running investigation of faulty and potentially dangerous air bag inflators.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, California reached a settlement with a consortium of investors called California First LP and agreed to pay $24 million after halting the sale of 11 buildings to the group during the height of its fiscal crises in 2010.
(SFC, 2/23/15, p.C4)
2015 Feb 20, Dockworkers and shipping companies reached a tentative agreement that would set cargo ships sailing again up and down the West Coast out of 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A1)
2015 Feb 20, Western Pennsylvania recorded record temperatures in New Castle (-18), in Butler (-15) and in Pittsburgh (-6).
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 20, Duke Energy Corp. said it has agreed to pay a fine of about $102 million for environmental violations related to a power plant's coal ash spill into a North Carolina river last year and the company's management of coal ash basins in the state.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Texas inmates at the Willacy County Correctional Center refused work duty and breakfast. A lockdown was ordered after inmates broke out of Kevlar tent housing units and entered a recreation yard. Tear gas was deployed and 2 officers and 3 inmates sustained minor injuries.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A12)
2015 Feb 20, In Virginia former state first lady Maureen McDonnell was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for her role in a bribery scheme that destroyed her usband’s political career.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 20, In Abu Dhabi a fire gutted a building on the outskirts of the Emirati capital, killing 10 laborers who had been illegally living in a storage area inside.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Australia two powerful cyclones pounded the Northern Territory and Queensland, leaving a trail of destruction with houses ripped apart, trees uprooted and electricity cut to thousands of people. Authorities said there were no fatalities.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Brazil some 5,200 workers at an assembly line at one of three General Motors plants ground to a halt as workers went on strike to protest the planned layoffs of nearly 800 employees.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, A British court overturned a previous ruling that prison overcrowding in Italy could breach his human rights allowing convicted Sicilian mafioso Domenico Rancadore (65) to be extradited. He had spent two decades living incognito in Britain.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Greece and its creditors in the 19-nation eurozone reached an agreement to extend the country's rescue loans for four months.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, Health authorities in India said a flu outbreak has killed over 700 people in the last ten weeks.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 20, In Indonesia a crowded bus overturned on a toll road on the main island of Java, killing 16 people near Semarang.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Italy’s left-right coalition, headed by Matteo Renzi, approved two decrees enacting the core of an employment reform that parliament broadly endorsed last year.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.47)
2015 Feb 20, Kazakhstan soccer federation Pres. Erlan Kozhagapanov said he wants to crack down on match-fixing and corruption in football as the country prepares to bid for the 2026 World Cup.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Liberia's Pres. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced the end of a midnight to 6 am curfew that was imposed to help stem the spread of the Ebola epidemic.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Libya three car bombs ripped through the eastern city of Qubbah, killing at least 45 people and wounding 70. Islamic State militants said it was a revenge attack for Egyptian air strikes on IS targets.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AP, 2/20/15)(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 20, In western Mauritania a road accident killed 14 soldiers and injured some 20 near the town of Atar.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Somalia Islamist rebels detonated a car bomb at the entrance of a hotel in Mogadishu and then stormed inside where politicians had gathered, killing at least 25 people including a lawmaker and lightly wounding two ministers. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility. Somali intelligence sources the next day identified the bombers as Dutch nationals Ismail Muse and Lula Ahmed Dahir.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 20, In Switzerland two trains slammed into each other near the city of Zurich, tipping over carriages and injuring at least six people.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, In southern Thailand suspected Muslim insurgents detonated a car bomb that wounded 13 people. A Thai air force F-16A fighter jet crashed during a drill in central Thailand, killing the pilot.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Ukraine accused Russia of sending more tanks and troops into eastern Ukraine and said they were heading towards the rebel-held town of Novoazovsk on the southern coast, expanding their presence on what could be the next key battlefront. Ukrainian military spokesman Anatoly Stelmach listed 49 attacks in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, Ukrainian Pres. Petro Poroshenko said that police evidence showed that a top Russian presidential aide, Vladislav Surkov, had directed "foreign sniper groups" who shot and killed protesters in Kiev a year ago.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, UN war crimes investigators announced a radical change of strategy, saying they would publish names of suspects involved in Syria's four-year war and push for new routes towards international justice.
(Reuters, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 20, The UN envoy to Yemen said rival factions have agreed on a new legislative body to serve during the country’s transition period.
(SFC, 2/21/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 20, Zambia and Zimbabwe signed $294 million in deals with international investors allowing urgent repairs to avert the collapse of the gigantic, power-generating Kariba Dam, the world's largest man-made dam, to begin this year.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 21, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States and its allies are discussing imposing more sanctions against Russia for undermining a European-brokered truce in eastern Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In New York retired White Plains police officer Glen Hochman (52) shot and killed his daughters, Alissa (17) and Deanna (13), and himself. His wife and a third, older, daughter were not at home. Three dogs were also shot to death. And on the day before the killings, his wife had gone to police to report an argument over an $80 cellphone bill.
(AP, 2/23/15)(SFC, 2/23/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 21, Ohio arrested Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud (23) for violating state law. By providing support to persons engaged in terrorism in the Middle East. Mohamud had trained with a terrorist group in Syria. On April 16 a federal indictment charged him with planning to carry out attacks in the US.
(SFC, 4/17/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 21, In Afghanistan Fazel Ahmad Azimi, the central bank director for the southern region, said that at least bank three employees were involved in the robbery of around 76 million afghanis (more than $ 1 million) in a bank branch in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province. The suspected employees were believed to have fled to neighboring Pakistan.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Bosnia a landslide at the Dubrave open pit coal mine near the northern town of Tuzla killed at least four people.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, Brazil's environmental agency detained Ezequiel Antonio Castanha in Para state. The land land-grabber was thought to be the Amazon's single biggest deforester. Castanha's group was estimated to have clear-cut some 58 square miles (15,000 hectares).
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 21, In eastern Croatia a boy (7) and his mother were killed and three other children were injured when a hand grenade exploded at their home. Local media reported that it happened when the children found the grenade at a nearby playground and brought it into the house.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Cuba released Cy Tokmakjian (71), a Canadian automobile executive, who had been held for more than 3 years on corruption charges. His family held that his prosecution was an excuse to seize his company’s $100 million assets in Cuba.
(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 21, An Egyptian court acquitted former oil minister Sameh Fahmi, as well as five other officials, in a retrial after a 2012 conviction for selling Israel natural gas at below market price. They had served under ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrived in Chad as part of a 48-hour trip to countries affected by Boko Haram's insurgency. He will travel to Cameroon and Niger next.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Indian government forces killed two suspected rebels in a gunbattle in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, A new report said India's filthy air is cutting 660 million lives short by about three years.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Iraq Zekra Alwach, a civil engineer and director general of the ministry of higher education, became the first female mayor of Baghdad, and the first woman to be given such a post in the whole country.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Iraq and Syria the US-led coalition said it has staged six air strikes against Islamic State targets over the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Libya militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State executed a rocket strike on the eastern Labraq airport.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, Niger said Boko Haram militants have attacked an island on Niger's side of Lake Chad but the army repelled them after heavy fighting.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Nigerian forces backed by air strikes seized the northeastern border town of Baga from Islamist group Boko Haram.
(Reuters, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Russia as many as 40,000 ultranationalist bikers, pensioners, war veterans, members of student organizations and activists from other pro-Kremlin groups gathered in Moscow to protest US involvement in Ukraine. Critics said many were paid to attend or bussed in.
(AP, 2/21/15)(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Saudi media reported that morality police have detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday party and referred them to prosecutors.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said two more people have died after contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS, pushing the total number of deaths from the virus in the kingdom to 385.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, In the Swiss Alps an avalanche swept away a group of Italian skiers leaving 4 dead.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Syria 8 people, including 2 women and 2 children, were killed when a barrel bomb hit a building in an opposition-held area of Aleppo. 5 more people were reported killed in rebel shelling of regime-held areas of the city. Syria’s air force also killed at least 7 people in rebel areas east of Damascus. A car bomb attack in the parking of Qardaha hospital killed four citizens and wounded several others.
(AFP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, In Thailand Juan Francisco Guillermo (47), a Chilean cyclist, was hit by a pickup truck and immediately killed on a highway in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Guillermo was attempting to set a Guinness World Record by cycling 250,000 km (155,350 miles) on five continents in five years. His journey started in November 2010 and was scheduled to end in November this year.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 21, Ukraine government forces and rebels exchanged 139 government and 52 rebel prisoners, one of the first moves to implement the peace deal reached on Feb. 12 in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)(SSFC, 2/22/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 21, In Yemen Houthis tried to storm a special forces base outside the capital, exchanging fire with troops there who are mostly loyal to Hadi's predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The fighting killed 3 people. Former president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi left the capital after Shiite rebels who had been holding him under house arrest released him under international and local pressure. Thousands marched in support of Hadi in southern Ibb province, where they urged the Houthis to leave the region and halt their interference in local affairs.
(AP, 2/21/15)
2015 Feb 22, The 87th Academy Awards Ceremony was held in Los Angeles. The Best Picture Oscar went to “Birdman"; Eddie Redmayne won the best actor award for “The Theory of Everything" and Julianne Moore won the best actress award for “Still Alice." Musicians Common and John Legend collected the Academy Award for best original song for "Glory", their politically aware theme from "Selma." Birdman, directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Mexico, won four Oscars.
(AP, 2/23/15)(AFP, 2/23/15)(SFC, 2/23/15, p.E1)(Econ., 2/28/15, p.77)
2015 Feb 22, In the 87th Academy Awards Poland won its first ever foreign language movie Oscar for "Ida."
(SFC, 2/23/15, p.E1)
2015 Feb 22, Bangladesh officials said special forces have raided a training camp in the southeastern Chittagong district operated by an Islamist militant network that was planning to carry out attacks in the country.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Bangladesh a river ferry carrying up to 140 passengers capsized after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing at least 70 people.
(AP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Hungary's ruling right-wing alliance lost its two-thirds majority in parliament after the opposition won a by-election, hampering PM Viktor Orban's chances of changing the constitution and passing major legislation.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq multiple bombings, including a suicide truck bomb attack on Shiite militiamen, killed 12 people, as police found four bodies with gunshots wounds in Baghdad.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Iraq The Islamic State jihadist group released a new video purporting to show captured Kurdish peshmerga fighters paraded through Iraqi streets in cages. Kurdish sources said it was filmed a week earlier in the main market of Hawija, an IS-held town some 50 km from Kirkuk.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is seeking to open a "third front" against Israel using Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian Golan Heights.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Israel said it will purchase 14 additional next-generation F-35 fighter jets for approximately $3 billion.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea. The firm said it has shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Kuwait an appeals court sentenced Musallam al-Barrack, a leading former opposition lawmaker, to two years in prison instead of five after he was found guilty of insulting the country's ruler during a rally in 2012.
(AP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya's internationally recognized government said it will end all contracts with companies from Turkey, a country it has accused of supporting a rival administration.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Libya resumed oil exports from the eastern port of Zueitina after an almost year-long suspension and is also testing a pipeline to restart exports from Hariga port. Zueitina is under the control of troops loyal to the internationally recognized Libyan government.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In Libya militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State executed twin bomb attacks on the residence of the Iranian ambassador in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, Maldives’ police arrested former president Mohamed Nasheed after a court said he might flee the country to avoid hearings on terrorism charges, leading to clashes between his supporters and authorities.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In northeastern Nigeria a girl suicide bomber, who appeared no more than 10 years old, blew herself up and killed 4 others in an attack on a market in Potiskum.
(AFP, 2/22/15)(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, South Africa's Harmony Gold said about 200 miners had not been located after an underground fire started at its Kusasalethu mine during maintenance.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, A Syrian man was shown beheaded in a video posted to Facebook. Malaysian authorities later Mohd Faris Anuar (20) and Muhamad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi (25) of Malaysia as the men involved in the beheading by the Islamic State.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Feb 22, Almost 600 Turkish troops pushed deep into Syria evacuating Turkish soldiers guarding a historic tomb who had been stranded in territory controlled by Islamic State jihadists. They brought back the tomb containing the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire's founder, Osman I.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 22, In eastern Ukraine pro-Moscow rebels said they would start to withdraw heavy weapons from the front line. The Kiev government said armored columns had crossed the border from Russia to reinforce the separatists. In Kharkiv 2 people were killed and 10 wounded when an explosive device was thrown from a car into a crowd attending a peace rally.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 22, Yemen's president sought to resume his duties as head of state as he convened governors of several southern provinces and military commanders at the presidential retreat in the economic hub of Aden.
(Reuters, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Nebraska officer Lugod shot Danny Elrod (39) in the back in a confrontation minutes after Elrod allegedly robbed a Family Dollar store in Omaha. In early March a grand jury cleared Lugod. On March 24 the Omaha Police Dept. announced that Lugod has resigned.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Feb 23, An ice storm hit wide parts of Texas and neighboring states knocking out power to thousands of people and leading to hundreds of traffic accidents and caused more than 1,300 flight cancellations nationwide. In Tennessee at least 22 people have been killed in the past few days due to icy, winter conditions. Officials said 11 people have died in Kentucky due to the snow and ice that began pummeling the state on Feb. 16.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In southern Afghanistan unidentified gunmen in Zabul province stopped two buses traveling to Kabul, and seized 31 men and boys belonging to the ethnic Hazara minority. Islamic State militants were later blamed for the kidnapping.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)(SSFC, 4/5/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 23, Bahrain said seven people suspected of involvement in deadly bombings targeting security forces have been apprehended.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Bosnia's parliament adopted an economic and social reform plan that could unblock the country's path toward EU membership.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Two British former foreign ministers, Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind, were suspended from their parties after claims that they offered to use their positions to help a private company for cash in an undercover investigation.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, An Egyptian court sentenced prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to five years in jail for violating limits on demonstrations, part of one of the toughest crackdowns on dissent in Egypt's history.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, A French aircraft carrier launched operations in the Gulf against the Islamic State group as the new Pentagon chief summoned top generals and diplomats to Kuwait to review war efforts.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Iraq and Syria the United States and its allies staged 25 air strikes on Islamic State fighters over the last 24 hours. About 800 Iraqi forces backed by US warplanes waged a battle to retake the western town of Al-Baghdadi from Islamic State jihadists.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Kenya's Constitutional Court threw out parts of a new anti-terrorism law, including restrictions on the media, but left most of it intact, including a provision allowing police to hold terrorism suspects for a year without charge.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Kenyan police arrested 101 Ethiopian nationals suspected of traveling illegally through Kenya on their way to South Africa.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 23, Libya's internationally recognized parliament suspended its participation in UN-brokered talks on the future of the war-wracked North African state. A parliamentarian, on condition of anonymity, said the decision to pull out of talks was taken over fears that the international community would exert pressure to include Islamists in a future unity government.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In central Nigeria masked gunmen kidnapped Rev. Phyllis Sortor, an American woman doing missionary work for the Free Methodist Church, with ransom the suspected motive for the attack. Sorter was released on March 6.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Feb 23, The Russian consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said it has suspended since Feb 20 all imports of cheese from Poland due to irregularities in "normative requirements".
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Singapore announced income tax rises for the top five percent of the population to fund rising social spending targeted at the poor and elderly in the rapidly ageing city-state.
(AFP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Syria a rocket struck a prison in a suburb of Damascus, killing at least 4 people.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In northeast Syria jihadists from the Islamic State group kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians, after overrunning two villages in Hassakeh province. The abducted number rose to 220 over the next few days as militants rounded up more hostages from a chain of villages along the strategic Khabur River. In 2016 the int’l. Assyrian Christian community raised millions in ransom and freed 226 kidnapped members.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(Reuters, 2/25/15)(AP, 2/26/15)(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A2)
2015 Feb 23, Thailand sentenced two students, Patiwat Saraiyaem (23) and Porntip Mankong (2), to jail for 2-1/2 years for insulting the monarchy in a university play.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, Ukraine's military said it could not start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line in the east as required under a tenuous ceasefire because pro-Russian separatists who advanced last week were still attacking its positions. Ukraine's military said two of its soldiers had been killed and 10 wounded in the past 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 23, In Yemen thousands took to the streets of Sanaa, to denounce the Houthi rebels and show support for the country's embattled president. Shiite rebels (Houthis) threatened to arrest and try for treason the prime minister and all Cabinet members if they fail to return to work.
(AP, 2/23/15)
2015 Feb 24, Alaska became the first red state to legalize the smoking, growing, and owning of small amounts of marijuana, bringing the decriminalization movement to a conservative stronghold.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In northeastern Afghanistan avalanches caused by a heavy winter snow killed at least 165 people, as rescuers clawed through debris with their hands to save those buried beneath. By week’s end nationwide the death toll from avalanches and flooding rose to at least 247 people.
(AP, 2/25/15)(AP, 2/26/15)(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 24, Argentine spy Antonio Stiuso, at the center of a scandal over last month's death of a state prosecutor, was accused of importing tons of contraband merchandise during his final years as head of the country's counterintelligence office.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Austria Rakhat Aliyev (b.1962), the Kazakh president's former son-in-law, was found dead in his prison cell while awaiting trial on charges of murder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakhat_Aliyev)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.38)
2015 Feb 24, Brazilian union officials said truck drivers are blocking roads in six states to protest hikes in fuel prices and tolls.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Brazil inspectors conducting routine water testing in Rio’s sewage filled Guanabara Bay found thousands of carcasses of twaite shad fish. This was the site for sailing events in next year’s Olympics.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A6)
2015 Feb 24, In Britain Conservative Party lawmaker Malcolm Rifkind quit as head of the parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence services and announced his retirement after being caught in a hidden-camera sting operation appearing to discuss swapping political influence for money.
(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In China 22 people were killed and 38 injured in a bus accident in Bachu County, Xinjiang region.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo launched an assault against FDLR Rwandan Hutu rebels in South Kivu province.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In the Czech Rep. 8 people were reported shot dead in the Druzba restaurant in then eastern town of Uhersky Brod. The attacker (60) killed himself after the shooting spree.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, It was reportd that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has issued a law that broadens the state's definition of terrorism to include anyone who threatens public order "by any means," and gives authorities powers to draw up lists of alleged terrorists with little judicial recourse. The legislation was signed in the form of a decree last week and was distributed to reporters today.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Egypt a court in Cairo cleared Habib el-Adly, the former interior minister of former Pres. Hosni Mubarak, of the last of several criminal charges that have kept him behind bars.
(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, Eurozone finance ministers announced they have approved a list of reforms submitted by Greece in exchange for a four-month extension to its international bailout.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, French president Francois Hollande and Italian PM Matteo Renzi signed an agreement for a long-standing rail project to ease transport of freight across the Alps. The line would not open before 2028.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Germany the Emnid polling institute for Berlin's Free University said in a new survey that nearly a third of Germans believe that capitalism is the cause of poverty and hunger and a majority think true democracy is not possible under that economic system.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Indian police said they had made the single biggest seizure of gold smuggled into the country after arresting six people leaving an airport with 60 kg of the precious metal flown in from Dubai. The arrest was likely to strengthen pressure on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to cut the gold import duty from a record-high 10 percent in his budget on Feb 28.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Iranian officials and Western intelligence and diplomatic sources said at least $1 billion in cash has been smuggled into Iran in recent months as it seeks to avoid Western sanctions, a bigger figure than previously reported.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Iraq a series of bombings killed at least 40 people. Islamic State fighters detained 42 Sunni tribesmen in the village of Rubaidha ahead of a widely expected army offensive. Last week insurgents detained 56 men accused of belonging to a government-backed Sunni militia.
(AP, 2/24/15)(Reuters, 2/25/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In Israel Bethlehem Governor Jebren al-Bakri said Jihad al-Jafari (19) was shot and killed on the roof of his house in the Deheisha refugee camp as he was watching an Israeli raid below.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Finmeccanica, Italy’s state-controlled aerospace and defense groups said Japan’s Hitachi will buy its rail businesses.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.58)
2015 Feb 24, Jamaica's parliament cleared the way for decriminalizing marijuana by approving amendments to its Dangerous Drugs Act. The act decriminalized small amounts of pot and established a licensing agency to regulate a lawful medical marijuana industry.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)(SFC, 2/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, Libya's internationally recognized parliament created a new army chief post, with a lawmaker and state media saying the job will go to once retired General Khalifa Haftar, fighting to eradicate Islamist forces.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Lithuania said it will restore compulsory military service for young men as tensions in Ukraine continue to worry the small Baltic nation.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Niger a mine planted by Boko Haram insurgents killed two soldiers and injured four others in the Diffa region bordering Yobe.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In northern Nigeria two blasts rocked bus stations outside Potiskum and in Kano, killing at least 34 people.
(AFP, 2/24/15)(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 24, Saudi newspapers said a court has jailed at least 13 men on counts including the recruitment of al Qaeda militants for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US and sheltering Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Spain's Constitutional Court unanimously declared a vote on secession by the powerful northeastern region of Catalonia last November as unconstitutional.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, Spain said it has broken up an online network accused of recruiting young women to join Islamic State militants fighting in Iraq and Syria and arrested four suspects.
(AFP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, In eastern Ukraine pro-Russia separatists said they had begun pulling heavy weapons from the front line under a ceasefire deal, but Ukraine said the rebels were using the cover of the truce to reinforce for another advance.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, Ukraine's president said his country has signed an agreement to cooperate with the United Arab Emirates on military and technical issues as he kicked off a visit to the Western-allied Gulf nation.
(AP, 2/24/15)
2015 Feb 24, UN-appointed investigators said Yemeni ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh is suspected of corruptly amassing as much as $60 billion, equivalent to Yemen's annual GDP, during his 1978-2012 rule, and colluding in a militia takeover last year.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 24, In Yemen gunmen kidnapped Isabelle Prime, a Frenchwoman (30) working for the World Bank, and her Yemeni driver as she was on her way to work in Sanaa. The Houthis said that Pres. Hadi had lost his legitimacy as head of state and was being sought as a fugitive from justice. Prime and her translator arrived in France on August 7.
(Reuters, 2/24/15)(Reuters, 2/25/15)(SFC, 8/8/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 24, In Venezuela a teenager was fatally shot at an anti-government protest in the western city of San Cristobal.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to throw overboard a Florida fisherman’s conviction under an evidence-tampering provision of a federal white collar crime law for disposing of undersized red grouper fish while he was under investigation. Fisherman John Yates was convicted in 2011 on two of three charges, including one under the so-called anti-shredding provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley law. The case began in August 2007 when federal and state officials measured fish on Yates's commercial fishing boat, named the Miss Katie, that they suspected were undersized.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, The US Supreme Court ruled that the North Carolina state regulatory board, made up mostly of dentists, violated federal law against unfair competition when it tried to prevent lower-cost competitors in other fields from offering teeth-whitening procedures.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A12)
2015 Feb 25, A US federal appeals court said Almaz Nezirovic, a former Bosnian prison guard living in Virginia, is eligible for extradition to face war-crimes charges.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 25, Former Guatemala President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) was released from a US minimum security facility in Colorado and returned to his home county. In 2014 he pleaded guilty in federal court to a conspiracy charge saying he had accepted $2.5 million in bribes to continue to recognize Taiwan diplomatically during his presidency.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A7)
2015 Feb 25, The US-based TJX Cos., owners of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other chains said it would hike worker hourly pay to at least $9 beginning in June.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.C3)
2015 Feb 25, The Austrian parliament singled out Islam as a faith by passing a law that restricts its adherents' religious activities. The new “Law on Islam" bars outside funding of Islamic religious communities, forces small mosques to close within a year, and requires imams to preach in German.
(CSM, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 25, A Bangladesh court issued an arrest warrant for Khaleda Zia, the opposition leader whose political feud with PM Sheikh Hasina has dominated the country's politics for more than a decade.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, In Bosnia appeals judge Azra Miletic was arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe. Two other people, whose sentences for organized crime and drug-dealing had been greatly reduced on appeal, were arrested on the same grounds. One was a former police officer.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 25, Cyprus signed a deal with Russia allowing its navy ships to make regular port calls on the island.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, The EU unveiled a vast plan to boost coordination between its 28 national energy markets to wean Europe off unstable Russian gas supplies and provide cheaper energy for consumers.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, France outlined plans for a broader dialogue with its Muslim minority after the faith's official council proved unable to deal with the challenges presented by Islamist radicalization.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, French police arrested three Al Jazeera journalists for illegally flying drones in Paris.
(SFC, 2/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 25, In Iraq and Syria the US and its partner nations launched 15 air strikes against the Islamic State with six in Iraq and nine in Syria over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, New Zealand reported that it will be sending 143 troops to Iraq tasked with protecting 16 Kiwi soldiers training Iraqi forces.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 25, Philippine President Benigno Aquino called for autonomy for a Muslim region to end an insurgency there despite widespread misgivings after Muslim rebels killed 44 policemen.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, Philippine troops, backed by artillery fire and assault helicopters, battled about 300 Abu Sayyaf rebels in fighting that left 2 soldiers and 5 militants dead.
(AP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, Somali pirates released four Thai sailors who were held hostage for nearly five years. They were sailors of the FV Prantalay 12 vessel, seized by Somali pirates on April 18, 2010.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 25, The South African government raised taxes and scaled back spending plans in its annual budget as it wrestled with stalling growth, rising debt, power blackouts and rampant unemployment.
(AFP, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, In eastern Ukraine a long-awaited truce took hold at last with the army reporting no combat fatalities for the first time in weeks, but the news did nothing to halt a currency collapse that forced the central bank to ban most trading.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 25, In Yemen armed men from the newly dominant Houthi group took over a special forces army base in Sanaa in clashes that left at least 10 people killed.
(Reuters, 2/25/15)
2015 Feb 26, The US Federal Communications Commission voted to enforce "net neutrality" rules for the broadband industry.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, The US Navy said the United States has begun flying its most advanced surveillance aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, out of the Philippines for patrols over the South China Sea, acknowledging the flights for the first time. The P-8A was deployed in the Philippines for three weeks until Feb. 21, making more than 180 flight hours over the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, US government sources investigators believe that the "Jihadi John" masked fighter who fronted Islamic State beheading videos is a British man named Mohammed Emwazi.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In San Francisco two police detectives shot and killed Amilcar Perez-Lopez (21) a Guatemalan immigrant armed with a knife. An autopsy showed Perez-Lopez was shot five times from behind and a sixth time in the side by both officers, who ended up standing side-by-side as Perez-Lopez ran toward Detective Craig Tiffe.
(AP, 4/13/17)
2015 Feb 26, In Berkeley, Ca., Flow Kana, a startup for delivering medical marijuana to your door, held a launch party.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.D1)
2015 Feb 26, In Indiana Theodore Hesburgh (b.1917), former president of Notre Dame Univ. (1952-1987), died. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2000.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, In NYC Khaled al-Fawwaz (52) of Saudi Arabia, a reported confidant of Osama bin Laden, was convicted of conspiracy in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, In NYC three men were arrested and charged with providing support to the Islamic State militants.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, More than 220,000 homes and businesses remained without power in North Carolina and South Carolina today due to a winter storm with high winds.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Washington DC a new law went into effect legalyzing possession of marijuana for recreational purposes, following a voter approved initiative last November.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A10)
2015 Feb 26, SolarCity Corp. said it created a $750 million fund to finance about 25,000 residential solar projects, with Google Inc investing nearly half the funding.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Afghanistan a Taliban suicide bomber rammed an explosive-packed Toyota Corolla into a Turkish diplomatic vehicle in Kabul, killing at least 2 people and wounding one.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, An Argentine judge dismissed accusations that President Cristina Fernandez conspired to cover up Iran's alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center. Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies passed a bill dissolving the Intelligence Secretariat and replacing it with a body called the Federal Intelligence Agency.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, A Bahraini court sentenced three Shiites to death and jailed seven others for life after convicting them of killing 3 policemen in the Sunni-ruled Gulf state last year. The supreme criminal court also stripped eight of the defendants of their Bahraini citizenship over the March 3, 2014, bombing in a Shiite village.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, Prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger Avijit Roy, known for speaking out against religious extremism, was hacked to death as he walked through Dhaka with his wife, Rafida Ahmed, who was seriously injured. A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility. Asim Umar, purported leader of al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent (AQIS), later claimed credit for the killing.
(AP, 2/27/15)(AP, 2/28/15)(SFC, 5/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 26, “Jihadi John," a member of the Islamic State and the beheader of at least 5 Western hostages, was identified as a British Islamist named Mohammed Emwazi. He first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently killed the US journalist James Foley.
(www.bbc.com/news/uk-31637090)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.59)
2015 Feb 26, China imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports with immediate effect amid criticism that its citizens' huge appetite for ivory has fueled poaching that threatens the existence of African elephants.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In the Czech Rep. a court convicted Roman Catholic priest Erik Tvrdon of rape and sexual abuse and sentenced him to five years in prison. He was found guilty of raping four women and sexually abusing a minor.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Egypt six small bombs exploded in the Giza district across the Nile from Cairo killing one person and wounding ten others.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 26, Egyptian police arrested three men suspected of torturing and killing a chained dog with knives, after horrific footage of the incident sparked outrage in the country. On March 11 a court convicted four men over the grisly killing and sentenced them to three years in prison.
(AFP, 2/26/15)(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Feb 26, A new Iranian political party, Nedaye Iranian (Call of Iranians), with social democratic leanings opened its first congress, aiming to lead reformists to victory in the Islamic republic's legislative elections next year.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Iran a helicopter belonging to the country's air force crashed north of Tehran, killing all three crew members on board.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, The Islamic State group released a video showing militants using sledgehammers to smash ancient artifacts in Iraq's northern city of Mosul, describing the relics as idols that must be removed.
(AP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Israel suspected Jewish extremists set fire to a Greek Orthodox seminary building in Jerusalem, 24 hours after a mosque was torched in the West Bank.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, In Liberia the United States staged a military ceremony to end its five-month Ebola mission, with the west African nation in recovery from the worst-ever outbreak of the virus.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, Libya's internationally recognized PM Abdullah al-Thinni said his government would stop dealing with Turkey as it was sending weapons to a rival group in Tripoli so "the Libyan people kill each other", ramping up his rhetoric against Ankara.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, In northeastern Nigeria a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus station in Biu, while a second bomber was shot dead before he could detonate his explosives. At least 18 people, including 3 women, were reported killed. Two blasts targeting a bus park in the central city of Jos killed at least 17 people.
(AFP, 2/26/15)(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, In the Philippines communist rebels killed five army soldiers and wounded six others in an ambush in Quirino township, Ilocos Sur province.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 26, South Korea’s Constitutional court struck down a 62-year-old law that made adultery an offense punishable by up to two years in prison.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 26, In northeastern Syria the US-led coalition carried out air strikes against the Islamic State group, where the jihadists have launched a new offensive and kidnapped 220 Assyrian Christians.
(AFP, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, A Taiwanese fishing boat went missing off southeastern Argentina with 49 crew members.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Feb 26, Ukrainian troops towed artillery away from the front line in the east, a move that amounted to recognizing that a ceasefire meant to take effect on Feb. 15 was holding at last.
(Reuters, 2/26/15)
2015 Feb 26, Zimbabwean nanny Violet Moyo (22) was jailed for 22 years for the murder of a 10-month-old baby she stuffed into a drawer "for crying too much" before she settled down to watch TV.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, US and Cuban officials met in Washington DC for a second round of talks aimed at restoring diplomatic relations amid friction over Cuba's place on a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Feuding US lawmakers narrowly avoided a Department of Homeland Security shutdown at the 11th hour, but funded the agency only until March 6, forcing Congress to revisit the issue next week.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, US sgents at the San Diego border crossing seized nearly 16 tons of marijuana in a truck supposedly hauling matresses. The estimated street value of the pot was $19 million.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Feb 27, Leonard Nimoy (83), who played the half-Vulcan character of Dr. Spock on the TV series “Star Trek" (1966-1968), died in Los Angeles. His 1975 autobiography was titled “I Am Not Spock." His revisionist sequel titled “I Am Spock" was published in 1995.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Spock)(SFC, 2/28/15, p.C6)
2015 Feb 27, In Missouri Joseph Jess Aldridge (36) went on a house-to-house shooting rampage in Tyrone killing 7 people before taking his own life. Authorities said he may have become unhinged by the death of ailing mother.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb 27, New research indicated that that annual deaths from the bacterium Clostridium difficile have risen to 29,000, more than double the number since 2007. Most of some half million infected patients fell ill following prescriptions of broad-spectrum antibiotics.
(SFC, 2/27/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 27, Afghan forces routed the Taliban from the Sangin district in Helmand province in their first major solo operation since international combat forces pulled out of the country. The operation on the long time insurgent stronghold began Feb 10.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Brazilian authorities arrested Victor Arden Barnard (53), a self-professed minister put on a US most-wanted list for allegedly molesting two girls in a "Maidens Group" at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, Britain and France dismissed any suggestion of restoring relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying this would likely end all hope of a political transition and push moderates into the arms of radical Islamist groups.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Former British pop star Gary Glitter (70), aka Paul Gadd, received a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing three young girls in the 1970s.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Colombia's Supreme Court convicted the country's former intelligence chief Maria del Pilar Hurtado and a presidential chief of staff Bernardo Moreno of spying on judges, journalists and politicians during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, Scandinavian Airlines canceled some 60 flights out of Copenhagen after members of a Danish cabin crew union walked out to protest the carrier's plan to move 147 employees to a domestic airline that SAS acquired last year. 30 more flights were canceled the next day.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 27, An Egyptian senior army officer was killed and another was injured when a cross-border smuggling tunnel with the Gaza Strip collapsed after troops in Rafah went into it to investigate.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, In Hong Kong Law Wan-tung (44) was jailed for six years for beating and starving her Indonesian maid, Sulistyaningsih, and keeping her prisoner, as the judge called for action over laws which leave domestic workers exposed to abuse.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Hungarian PM Victor Orban denounced multiculturalism and liberalism and vowed to fight a wave of migration that he says is threatening to turn his country into a refugee camp.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, In Iraq at least 8 people were killed by bombs and rocket fire in Baghdad.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Italian lawmakers backed a non-binding resolution that encourages the government to recognize Palestine as a state.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Mexican federal police in Morelia captured Knights Templar drug cartel leader Servando Gomez (49), taking down one of the country's most wanted fugitives whose gang tormented the state of Michoacan.
(AFP, 2/27/15)(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A3)
2015 Feb 27, In northern Pakistan four prisoners believed to be involved in the 2013 slaying of 10 foreign climbers at the base of one of the world's tallest mountains escaped from jail in Gilgit before dawn. One was killed and another re-arrested, while two escaped.
(AP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov (55) was shot four times in the back by assailants in a white car as he walked across the bridge over the Moskva River in central Moscow just before midnight with a Ukrainian woman, who was unhurt. Opposition figure Ksenia Sobchak said Nemtsov had been preparing a report on the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.94)
2015 Feb 27, Saudi Arabia said ten more people have died from MERS over the past week, after an international mission urged extra measures to combat the virus.
(AFP, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Spain arrested eight citizens who recently returned from fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, the first such arrest in the European Union of foreign citizens involved in the conflict.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, Switzerland became the first country to submit a pledge to the UN for a new global climate deal, vowing to cut its greenhouse gas emission in half by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.
(SFC, 2/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 27, In northeast Syria Kurdish forces dealt a blow to Islamic State by capturing Tel Hamis in the latest stage of a powerful offensive. Kurdish forces killed at least 175 members and commanders of the ultra-hardline Islamist militants in an offensive which began last weekend. Nusra Front commander Samir Hijazi was among three fellow leaders killed in an apparent airstrike.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 27, Ukraine continued to withdraw its weapons and announced the deaths of 3 servicemen in the past 24 hours, following two full days without fatalities.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 27, The United Arab Emirates said it will reopen its Yemeni embassy in the southern port city of Aden, where Pres. Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has set up a seat of power since being driven from the capital.
(Reuters, 2/27/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Afghanistan Raees Khudaidad, charged with a string of armed robberies, kidnappings and killings of Afghans and foreigners across the country, was hanged at Kabul's main prison.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Bangladeshi special forces raided a militant hideout in the southeast town of Chittagong, arrested four suspects and seized explosives and weapons.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Cameroon thousands of youths marched through the capital Yaounde to show support for the military's battle against attacks by neighboring Nigeria's Islamic extremists.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, China's central bank cut interest rates for the second time in three months, adding to signs that the country's leaders are worried the economic slowdown is deepening too sharply. The People's Bank of China announced a rate cut on one-year loans by commercial banks by 0.25 percentage point to 5.35 percent. The interest rate paid on a one-year deposit was lowered by 0.25 point to 2.50 percent.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China former vice governor Ni Fake, known for his appetite for jade and arts, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on corruption charges. Fake, former vice governor of the eastern province of Anhui, was found guilty of taking more than $2 million in bribes.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In China the online video documentary “Under the Dome" was released. It pointed out the role of large state-owned enterprises in creating the semi-permanent smog that cloaked many cities in the country. It was viewed by some 200 million people before it was blocked by authorities.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.44)(Econ., 4/25/15, p.77)
2015 Feb 28, An Egyptian court listed the Palestinian group Hamas as a terrorist organization. Another court sentenced the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's top leader Mohamed Badie and 13 others to life in prison while four members received the death penalty. Two of those sentenced to death and three sentenced to life were tried in absentia.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Iraq's national museum officially reopened after 12 years of painstaking efforts during which close to a third of 15,000 pieces looted during the US-led invasion were recovered.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Iraq car bombs targeting a crowded market and Shiite militia checkpoints in and north of Baghdad killed 37 people.
(AP, 2/28/15)(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A5)
2015 Feb 28, In Italy thousands of Northern League protesters poured into Rome from their political base in the north to demand the Italian government keep out immigrants.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Lesotho held an early election aimed at overcoming tension among political factions that has led to violence among security forces since last year.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Myanmar police arrested a photojournalist who posted a satirical message on Facebook that mocked a historic battle and the country's leader. Police detained Aung Nay Myo, a freelancer, on a charge of violating the 1950 Emergency Provision Act.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Palestinian Naji Khaled Abu Sabla (21) was killed and his brother, Akram (18), seriously wounded in an explosion of an unidentified device near the Gaza Strip's abandoned airport.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma reinstated restrictions as 18 new cases of Ebola were recorded this week.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, Spanish police said they have broken up a gang that allegedly created and then sold fake works of art purporting to be by renowned artists including Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol and Joan Miro. The alleged counterfeiters were three brothers and a couple, who had all been faking art for seven years.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Syria Al-Qaeda's affiliate drove US-backed rebels out of Base 46, a northern military base west of Aleppo. At least 29 fighters from the Western-armed Hazm movement were killed along with 6 Al-Nusra Front jihadists.
(AFP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned on an island near Istanbul, urged separatists to hold a congress on disarmament in the coming months.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Turkey Yasar Kemal (91), one of the country’s best-known novelists with worldwide readership, died. His books included of "Memed, My Hawk" (1955) a story about feudal relations in Turkey's traditional southern regions. Nine of his novels were made into films. Kemal never promoted his Kurdish background. In the mid-1990s he was convicted for an article denouncing racism against minorities in Turkey, especially Kurds.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, Ukrainian photographer Serhiy Nikolayev died after artillery fire struck near the village of Pesky, northwest of the rebel-held city of Donetsk. Pres. Poroshenko informed US Vice President Joe Biden in a call of continued shelling around Donetsk and Mariupol by Russian-backed separatists.
(Reuters, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Ukraine former deputy Mykhaylo Chechetov, a prominent lawmaker in Yanukovych's time, was found dead near his house in Kiev.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Venezuela marchers took to the streets of Caracas in dueling protests, with one group calling attention to a crackdown on opponents of the government and another showing support for the embattled socialist administration.
(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb 28, In Yemen the separatist Southern Movement said it has suspended its participation in UN-sponsored talks raising fresh tensions, as nine soldiers were wounded in a clash with separatist fighters. A US drone strike hit a car in Bihan town in Shabwa province, killing 3 men believed to be al-Qaida militants.
(AFP, 2/28/15)(AP, 2/28/15)
2015 Feb, A US jury awarded Sony Sulekha and four others $14 million in damages against Signal Int’l. Shipyard in Mississippi. He and some 500 other Indians had paid at least $10,000 in 2005 to work for Signal expecting jobs and a green card. Instead they labored in inhumane conditions with highly restricted work permits. This was the largest human trafficking ever brought in America.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.61)
2015 Feb, Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s “Guantanamo Diary," written in 2005, made the NY Times nonfiction bestseller list. It was edited by Larry Siems. Slahi had left Afghanistan in 1992 after fighting for al-Qaida against a communist government. In 2000 Slahi was arrested in Senegal while on his way back to Mauritania. As of 2015 Slahi (44) remained in jail in Guantanamo as Detainee No. 760.
(Econ, 1/31/15, p.75)(SFC, 4/30/15, p.A4)
2015 Feb, Detroit’s Mayor Mike Duggan, in his first state-of-the-city address, announced that the city will balance its budget this year for the first time since 2002. The population of the city had shrunk from 1.8 million in the 1950s to a current 680,000.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.22)
2015 Feb, In Texas Matthew Cisneros (13) was found dead with a fatal gunshot wound at his family's home in Garland, with a pistol near the body. On March 23 a 12-year-old boy was taken into police custody for the homicide.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Feb, An anonymous buyer paid $300 million for Paul Gauguin’s painting “When will you marry?" (1892), the highest price ever paid for a work of art.
(http://tinyurl.com/kkd8eel)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.6)
2015 Feb, Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, a former Taliban comander who had been detained at Guantanamo and released in 2007, was killed by a drone strike. He had begun recruiting fighters in the name of the Islamic State in Helmand province.
(Econ, 5/30/15, p.39)
2015 Feb, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping unveiled his “Four Comprehensives," a list of political goals for the country: Comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society; Comprehensively deepen reform; Comprehensively govern the nation according to law; Comprehensively strictly govern the Party.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Comprehensives)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.45)
2015 Feb, China and South Korea reached agreement on a free-trade deal.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.36)
2015 Feb, Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-hailing service, was formed by the merger between taxi-hailing firms Didi Dache (backed by Tencent Holdings Limited) and Kuaidi Dache, backed by Alibaba Group. In 2016 Didi acquired the local unit of US-based Uber.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didi_Chuxing)(Econ, 1/30/15, p.57)(Econ, 8/6/16, p.7)
2015 Feb, Kyrgyzstan arrested Imam Rashot Kamalov, a popular Uzbek preacher, for talking of an Islamic State caliphate.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.35)
2015 Feb, Lebanon’s national debt stood at 211% of GDP and was rising
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.41)
2015 Feb, In Peru one person was killed and 32 injured when police opened fire on a mob opposed to natural gas exploration by Pluspetrol, an Argentine group.
(Econ, 2/6/15, p.31)
2015 Feb, In Romania former tourism minister Elena Udrea was indicted on two counts of influence peddling and one count of money laundering.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Udrea)
2015 Feb, In Spain a medical team in Barcelona performed the world’s most complex "face transplant" to a patient (45) who got a deformity due to a severe disease. The 27-hour long operation was successfully completed the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.
(AP, 4/5/15)(http://tinyurl.com/qg7fu3l)
2015 Mar 1, It was reported that US immigration officials are moving to deport at least 150 Bosnians suspected of taking part in war crimes and ethnic cleansing during the 1992-1995 war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 1, Police in Los Angeles shot and killed a homeless man who reportedly had reached for an officer’s gun during a struggle. Charly Keundeu Keunang (43) was later identified as a native of Cameroon. In the 1990s French officials had gave him a passport under what turned out to be a stolen name, Charley Saturin Robinet. In 2016 prosecutors said three police officers will not face criminal charges. In 2018 the Keunang family settled a civil suit for $1.9 million.
(AP, 3/6/15)(SFC, 12/2/16, p.A6)(SFC, 5/12/18, p.A5)
2015 Mar 1, Orrin Keepnews, celebrated jazz record producer, died at his home in El Cerrito, Ca.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.C5)
2015 Mar 1, In North Carolina three armed robbers stole $4.8 million in gold bars from an armored truck on I-95 in Wilson County. On March 2, 2016, the FBI arrested Adalberto Perez (46) at his home in South Florida for his role in the robbery.
(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A6)(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/3/16, p.A4)
2015 Mar 1, The Seattle, Wa., transit system began pricing tickets based on passengers’ income.
(SSFC, 3/1/15, p.A8)
2015 Mar 1, Egypt's army said at least 172 militants were killed in February in joint police and military operations in the restive Sinai.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Estonians voted for a new parliament in an election dominated by economic issues and security concerns due to Russia's actions in Ukraine. PM Taavi Roivas’ pro-Western Reform party won the election, but lost seven seats giving it 45 seats in the 101-seat parliament. Roivas quickly ruled out cooperating with the pro-Russian Center Party and planned to form a coalition with his current partner, the Social Democrats.
(AP, 3/1/15)(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A2)(Econ., 3/7/15, p.52)
2015 Mar 1, In France 15 pieces of art were stolen from the Chinese Museum at Fontainebleau Castle.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 1, Guyana's foreign affairs ministry said that Caracas objects to plans for an exploratory well to be drilled in an area it contends is within Guyana's territorial waters.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Hong Kong police arrested 33 people after scuffles broke out at a protest in a border town, in the latest example of heightened tensions over the growing influx of mainland Chinese shoppers in the city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, India's ruling Hindu nationalist party formed a coalition government in Kashmir, marking the first time it will hold a leadership position in the disputed Muslim-majority region.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, A first Iranian flight landed in the Yemeni capital, a day after officials from the Shiite militia-controlled city signed an aviation agreement with Tehran. The plane delivered medical and other supplies to Sanaa.
(AFP, 3/1/15)(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 1, In Iraq and Syria a US-led coalition launched 9 air strikes including seven in Iraq and two in Syria against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, The Malian government signed a peace agreement with some northern armed groups in Algiers but the main Tuareg rebel alliance asked for more time to consult its grassroots.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, In northeastern Nigeria a crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze. A second suspect, also a teenage girl, was arrested at Muda Lawal, the biggest market in Bauchi city.
(AP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Tens of thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow, carrying banners declaring "I am not afraid" and chanting "Russia without Putin" in memory of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.
(Reuters, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, The Islamic State released at least 19 Christians, who were among over 220 people taken captive last week in northeastern Syria.
(SFC, 3/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 1, In Uruguay Tabare Vazquez (75) was sworn in as president, returning to office a decade after first leading the left to power and drawing a curtain on folksy farmer Jose Mujica's colorful rule.
(AFP, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said his government had detained US citizens, including a pilot, on suspicion of espionage, in a move likely to strain already tense relations between Washington and Caracas.
(Reuters, 3/1/15)
2015 Mar 1, In Yemen a late night drone strike killed three suspected Al-Qaeda militants in the Markha district of the southern province of Shabwa.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, The NY Times revealed that when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state she used a personal e-mail account rather than a government one for all her official business.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.32)
2015 Mar 2, A new study was published saying a wave of migrants from the eastern fringes of Europe some 4,500 years ago left their trace in the DNA — and possibly the languages — of modern Europeans. They found that DNA associated with the Yamnaya people appeared strongly in what is now northern Germany. The Yamnaya were herders who lived in the steppe north of the Black and Aral Seas.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 2, Bangladeshi security officials arrested Farabi Shafiur Rahman as a suspect in the killing of blogger Avijit Roy, a prominent critic of extremist Islam who was hacked to death on Feb 26.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, British police said they had charged 10 men with sexual offences against children and adults, part of a wider investigation into child sexual exploitation in the northern English town of Rochdale.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Motorists in England and Wales faced tougher penalties for driving under the influence of drugs as new laws took effect. Drivers will be prosecuted if they are caught exceeding new legal limits for eight illegal drugs and eight prescription drugs.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Chinese military prosecutors released a list of 14 generals convicted of graft or placed under investigation in an accelerating nationwide anti-corruption drive.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Scandinavian Airlines said some 50 flights have been canceled to and from Denmark after members of a Danish cabin crew union walked out to protest the carrier's plan to transfer employees to a domestic airline acquired by SAS.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Egypt an explosion in Cairo near the High Court killed 2 people.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 2, The EU approved new rules that clamp down on the use of flimsy plastic bags hazardous to the environment.
(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 2, In India a law banning the possession and sale of beef went into effect in the state of Maharashtra. The ban on the slaughter of cattle put thousands out of work and created problems for struggling farmers.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A5)(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 2, Iran’s The Center for Investigation of Organized Crime, a branch of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), accused Facebook of spreading immoral content and said it had arrested several users. State television reported Iran has monitored 8 million Facebook accounts with new software and will watch other social media sites for content that contravenes the Islamic Republic's moral codes.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Iraq's armed forces, backed by Shi'ite militia, attacked Islamic State strongholds north of Baghdad as they launched an offensive to retake the city of Tikrit and the surrounding Sunni Muslim province of Salahuddin.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Israel said it has busted an Israeli-Palestinian smuggling ring that funneled iron, electronic equipment and other prohibited materials to Gaza, bypassing Israel's stringent border security to help Hamas rebuild its militant infrastructure following last year's war.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Libya’s internationally recognized parliament appointed Major General Khalifa Belgacem Haftar for the post of commander-in-chief of the army after promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, The principality of Monaco signed an accord with Italy aimed at ending banking secrecy, days after Switzerland and Liechtenstein inked similar pledges to exchange financial information with Rome.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Myanmar truckloads of police prevented hundreds of students from continuing their march to Yangon to protest a new law that they say curbs academic freedom.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Namibia's outgoing Pres. Hifikepunye Pohamba (79) was named winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for "good governance" in Africa, the world's richest award that has seen a dearth of worthy candidates.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Norway flights by a subsidiary of low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle — Norwegian Air Norway — were partly disrupted after pilots continued a walkout begun Feb 28, causing the company's share price to crash 5 percent in Oslo.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Pakistani officials said hundreds of parents in the northwest were arrested and jailed over the weekend on charges of endangering public security after refusing to give their children polio vaccinations.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, In Switzerland the large family car Volkswagen Passat was voted car of the year by European automotive editors at the Geneva International Motor Show.
(AP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Syrian regime forces and Kurdish militia fought separate battles with the Islamic State group in a strategic area near the Iraqi and Turkish borders.
(AFP, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Konstandinos Erik Scurfield (25), a former Royal Marine, died in a battle with IS militants, becoming the first Briton to be killed while fighting with Kurdish forces battling Islamic State jihadists in Syria.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 2, Tunisia canceled a new tax imposed on travelers crossing Libya’s border after the measure triggered rioting.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Ukraine's military said one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and four wounded in separatist eastern territories in the past 24 hours. But it warned that rebels were using the truce to regroup for new attacks on government positions.
(Reuters, 3/2/15)
2015 Mar 2, Venezuela gave the US two weeks to reduce its diplomatic mission in Caracas to 17 diplomats, from an estimated 100, to match the 17 Venezuelan diplomats serving in the US.
(SFC, 3/3/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 3, Israeli PM Netanyahu said in a speech in the US Congress that Washington was negotiating a bad deal with Iran that could spark a "nuclear nightmare," drawing a rebuke from President Barack Obama and exposing a deepening US-Israeli rift.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 3, The Alabama Supreme Court ordered the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 3, Federal agents searched more than a dozen homes in southern California in a crackdown on “maternity tourism." Authorities said Chinese tourists over the the past two years have delivered more than 400 babies at orange County hospitals.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A14)
2015 Mar 3, Regulators said California officials have ordered oil companies to shut down 12 more wells that injected oil-field wastewater into drinkable aquifers in the Central Valley.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 3, In Florida $5 million class-action lawsuit was filed accusing hardwood and laminate flooring giant Lumber Liquidators, Inc of selling products laden with cancer-causing chemicals.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Massachusetts Reverend Shaun Harrison, dean of The English High School, shot Luis Rodriguez (17) in the back of the head on a Boston street after a disagreement. Harrison was arrested at his home the next day. He had hired the student and others to sell marijuana. The wounded student was expected to survive.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)(SFC, 6/2/18, p.A5)
2015 Mar 3, Federal court documents in North Carolina indicated that retired general and former CIA director David Petraeus has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge for mishandling classified materials. He had given notebooks with sensitive national security information to Paula Broadwell, his mistress and biographer.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A9)
2015 Mar 3, Computer researchers In the US, Spain and France reported finding a serious flaw in cryptography designed to guard private data. It was dubbed FREAK (Factoring RSA Export Keys).
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.83)
2015 Mar 3, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber killed 9 soldiers in Helmand province.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.39)
2015 Mar 3, Australia and Switzerland signed an accord in Canberra aimed at cracking down on tax evaders.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Belgium hundreds of taxis jammed central Brussels in a protest against the city's planned reform of the industry that could lead to the legalization of online ride-sharing services such as Uber.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In southern Chile the Villarrica volcano erupted, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Egypt five improvised bombs exploded in Cairo's Matariya district in an apparent targeting of Vodafone and Mobinil mobile-phone stores.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/n2vdh5r)
2015 Mar 3, A French court fined a British journalist 1,000 euros ($1,100) for flying a drone over central Paris and confiscated the machine.
(AFP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Italian police said they have arrested Palermo Chamber of Commerce president Roberto Helg, an anti-corruption crusader, for allegedly pocketing 100,000 euros ($110,000) he demanded to allow a pastry shop to operate at Palermo's airport.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, An Italian coast guard ship rescued 121 people after their boat capsized some 50 miles north of Libya. Ten bodies were recovered. Tunisian naval forces rescued all 81 migrants onboard another boat that had started taking on water off near the Tunisian island of Djerba. Several merchant ships assisted in migrant rescues from seven separate boats in a 24-hour period, bringing to safety almost 1,000 migrants, including 30 children and 50 women, one of them pregnant.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 3, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to 15 tons of elephant tusks during World Wildlife Day to discourage poaching.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and Shi'ite militiamen sought to seal off Islamic State fighters in Tikrit and nearby towns, the second day of Iraq's biggest offensive yet against a stronghold of the radical Sunni Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Rival Libyan forces carried out tit-for-tat air strikes on oil terminals and an airport, escalating their battle for control of the oil-producing country days before UN peace talks are to resume in Morocco.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Mozambique a gunman shot dead Gilles Cistac (54), a prominent lawyer, who was viewed as sympathetic to opposition calls for decentralization of power. Former rebel group Renamo said Cistac had been killed because of his views on decentralization. On April 13 police said Manuel Lucio and Arsenio Nhaposse have been arrested in connection with the murder.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)(Reuters, 4/13/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Nigeria at least 68 men and boys were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants at dawn in Njaba, a remote village of northeast Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 3, Portuguese PM Pedro Passos Coelho admitted he is "not perfect" after it was revealed over the weekend that he failed to pay his social security contributions during five years, before he came to office.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, In Saudi Arabia three beheadings today, one for rape and two for murder, took the total so far this year to 38.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 3, South Korea passed the "Anti-corruption and Conflicts of Interest Act," also known as the Kim Young-ran act after the then-chairperson of the 2012 Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission.
(http://tinyurl.com/gr5kdv7)
2015 Mar 3, In Tanzania flash floods killed at least 38 people in the north-west after strong winds and hail battered villages.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 3, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pay 10,000 Turkish Lira (US$ 4,000) in compensation to artist Mehmet Aksoy for calling his sculpture — meant to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia — a "monstrosity." Erdogan expressed his dislike in 2011 of the giant "Monument to Humanity," which was being erected in the eastern city of Kars.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Ukraine's central bank sharply hiked its benchmark rate to 30 percent, from 19.5 percent, effective March 4 as financial authorities seek to reverse the rapid devaluation of the national currency.
(AP, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, The UN Security Council established a sanctions regime for South Sudan but stopped short of imposing worldwide travel bans and asset freezes on officials in the conflict-torn country or an arms embargo.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 3, Venezuela began requiring US travelers to seek visas before visiting the South American nation amid an escalation of diplomatic tensions between Washington and the administration of President Nicolas Maduro.
(Reuters, 3/3/15)
2015 Mar 4, In California a reporter for the Sacramento Bee found a bag of headless chickens along railroad tracks near 19th and W streets. Over the last three months batches of headless animals have been found on 11 occasions around the city in apparent ritualistic killings.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.D6)
2015 Mar 4, In central Florida Derek Cruice (26) died after being shot in the face early today by a sheriff’s deputy attempting to serve a search warrant in a narcotics investigation.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, The US Justice Dept. released a report concluding that Missouri’s Ferguson Police Dept. was routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents. The DOJ said police in Ferguson engaged in something like extortion to plug a hole in the city’s finances with traffic fines and court fees.
(SFC, 3/4/15, p.A6)(Econ, 8/8/15, p.25)
2015 Mar 4, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the the city’s pulbic schools will observe the Muslim holdy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 4, A US federal court in Brooklyn convicted Abid Naseer (28) of Pakistan of a failed al-Qaida subway bomb plot.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 4, In Texas Ahmed Al-Jumaili (36), an Iraqi man, was shot in Dallas as he took photos of his first ever snowstorm. He died the next day. Police on March 13 announced an arrest in the shooting of Al-Jumaili.
(AP, 3/10/15)(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 4, Afghan security forces said they have killed dozens of militants in a military operation aimed at freeing some 30 civilian hostages kidnapped last week in Zabul province.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Bolivia a judge ordered jail for retired police Gen. Oscar Nina, who reorganized Bolivia's counter-narcotics force after President Evo Morales expelled US drug agents. He and a former personal assistant and his son were ordered held at Palmasola prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Bosnia a blizzard began and dumped 2.5 meters (8 feet) of snow on mountains around Sarajevo, isolating dozens of mountain villages and leaving them without electricity.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, The BBC aired the documentary “India’s Daughter," about a fatal New Delhi gang rape in which one attacker blamed the victim. A court order in India had halted a March 1 screening.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 4, The British government said it has agreed to sell its stake in Eurostar, the high-speed rail service that connects London with Paris and Brussels through a tunnel under the English Channel, for 757 million pounds ($1.1 billion) to a group of international investors, Canada's Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and U.K.-based Hermes Infrastructure.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, British counter-terrorism police arrested two men over an alleged "cash-for-jihad" fraud that saw elderly residents conned of money by fake police officers.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, The government of Burkina Faso ordered former president Thomas Sankara's corpse to be exhumed, potentially rekindling controversy over the 1987 assassination of one of Africa's most idolized leaders.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, Congo DRC police in Kinshasa said they have arrested a Belgian man (74) on allegations he raped two girls ages 11 and 13.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Thousands of passengers were stranded in Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a strike by pilots of Norwegian Air Shuttle continued for a fifth day.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, France's highest appeals court paved the way for the extradition to either Russia or Ukraine of jailed Kazakh tycoon Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling up to $6 billion from his former bank BTA.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, France, Portugal and Spain sealed the agreement on boosting energy cooperation in Madrid as a major step toward breaking Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Iraq and Syria the US and its allies staged 12 air strikes on Islamic State targets over the last 24-hours.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Israel said it will double the amount of water provided to the Gaza Strip to relieve excessive use of groundwater.
(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 4, A court in Kenya charged 12 businessmen and former officials including an ex-minister in connection with a multi-million dollar corruption scam involving bogus state contracts. The case relates to the "Anglo-Leasing scandal," which came to light in 2004 when it emerged the government had set up a vast network of phantom companies and inflated invoices to embezzle money meant for security services.
(AFP, 3/4/15)(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Lesotho final results in the Feb 28 snap elections showed the opposition outdistancing PM Thomas Thabane's party, reversing early indications that the ruling party was in the lead.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Libya two unidentified warplanes bombed the airport of the western town of Zintan, allied with the country's internationally recognized government, damaging electricity systems but not the runway.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Libya's National Oil Co declared force majeure at 11 oil fields after attacks by Islamists, a legal step protecting it from liability if it cannot fulfill contracts for reasons beyond its control.
(AFP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Mexican police and soldiers arrested Omar Trevino Morales, aka Z-42, in a pre-dawn raid in San Pedro Garza Garcia, a wealthy suburb of the northern city of Monterrey. He was widely considered to be the most important leader of the Zetas drug cartel.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Nepal a Turkish Airlines jet skidded off the wet surface at Kathmandu's Tribhuwan International Airport. Thousands of passengers were left stranded as the plane partially blocked the only runway.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 4, In Niger a bomb planted and remotely detonated by Boko Haram militants near the southeastern town of Diffa killed two soldiers and wounded a third.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Poland's central bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to a historic low of 1.5 percent amid concerns over deflation, a sustained drop in consumer prices that can hurt the economy.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, Romania began transporting natural gas to Moldova, as the former Soviet republic moves toward the European Union and becomes less dependent on Russia.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In South Africa about 500 people fled their homes in Cape Town as a wildfire defied rain and firefighters with smoke and flames rising for a fourth day.
(AP, 3/4/15)
2015 Mar 4, In eastern Ukraine 33 miners were killed after an early morning explosion at the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk.
(Reuters, 3/4/15)(SFC, 3/5/15, p.A4)(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, American forces arrived in Ukraine to train government soldiers on use of overseas military equipment. As many as 300 US soldiers were expected to serve a seven-month training mission.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 5, In California protesters shut down the campus of UC at Santa Cruz, on the fourth day of demonstrations that organizers said were over planned tuition hikes as well as police brutality.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, A US jury in Arizona failed again to agree on whether to sentence Jodi Arias (34) to death for the grisly killing of her boyfriend in 2008, effectively sparing her the death penalty. On April 14 Arias was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.
(AFP, 3/5/15)(SFC, 4/14/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 5, Albert Maysles (88), emmy-award winning documentarian, died in NYC. His work included “Gimme Shelter" (1970), based on the 1969 Rolling Stones US road tour.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.C9)
2015 Mar 5, In Philadelphia, Pa., Officer Robert Wilson III (30) was gunned down during a robbery at a video game store where he had gone to buy a present for his 9-year-old son. The next day two brothers, Ramone Williams (24) and Carlton Hipps (29) were charged with murder, attempted murder, robbery and other offenses.
(AP, 3/6/15)(AP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 5, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, owned by Florida-based Feld Entertainment, announced that it will remove its traveling cadre of elephants from the Big Top over the next three years.
(SFC, 3/6/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 5, Algeria's parliament passed a law criminalizing violence against women, in a move criticized by both Islamist lawmakers as well as Amnesty Int’l. Amnesty International called for an amendment dropping a clause which allows the survivor of domestic violence to pardon the perpetrator, warning it was "a dangerous precedent".
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Bangladeshi customs authorities seized nearly 27 kg of gold, worth about $1.67 million, from North Korean diplomat Son Young Nam after he tried to smuggle in the bullion using diplomatic immunity.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, In the Cayman Islands Norman Lee, a popular Marvel and DC Comics artist from the Boston region, disappeared while snorkeling with his wife near the southeast coast of Grand Cayman.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 5, China’s Pm Li Keqiang called for about 7% growth this year at the opening of the opening of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 5, In northeastern India several men mobilized thousands of people who broke into the jail in Dimapur city, Nagaland state, and seized the rape suspect, whom they also accused of being an illegal migrant from Bangladesh. They pelted him with stones and beat him to death. One person was killed and several others were injured when police fired to disperse the mob.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 5, Iran said that a team of special operatives has freed Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an Iranian diplomat abducted more than 19 months ago in Yemen.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Iraq insurgents unleashed a series of attacks mostly targeting civilian areas in and around Baghdad, killing at least 16.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Iraq the Islamic State "bulldozed" the ruins of Nimrud near Mosul. Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and was considered the jewel of the Assyrian era.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, Officials said Israel will start buying some fruit and vegetables from the Gaza Strip next week, a partial resumption of imports halted when the Islamist group Hamas took over the Palestinian territory in 2007.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Energy-rich Kazakhstan suspended Russian fuel and gas imports to protect its domestic market from a surplus due to a weakened ruble which has sent ripples of economic uncertainty through Central Asia.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Liberia discharged its last confirmed Ebola patient, as it reported for the first time in nine months it had gone a full week without any new infections.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Warplanes from Libya's internationally recognized government carried out air strikes on a Tripoli airport just hours before United Nations-backed peace talks were due to start in Morocco.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto ended his three-day state visit to Britain by overseeing the signing of deals that boost ties between the two countries in energy, including a $1 billion oil agreement.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Myanmar police cracked down on students and other activists opposing a new education law, charging protesters with batons and dragging them into trucks at a well-known pagoda in the heart of Yangon. Police arrested five students from among a crowd of about 200 protesters.
(AP, 3/5/15)(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, The Gaza Strip's sole power plant has halted production overnight, following a dispute with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority over fuel tax. Even with the plant running, Gaza suffers 12 hours of power outages each day, and that is expected to increase to 18 hours after the plant's shutdown.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Suspected Jewish extremists torched two cars and scrawled graffiti on a nearby wall in a West Bank village before dawn.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Puerto Rico thousands of students, education officials and community leaders protested a proposed 16 percent value-added tax that officials say would strengthen the island's economy. Puerto Rico was struggling to reduce $73 billion in public debt and generate more revenue amid concerns that some of its public corporations might go bankrupt.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, The Moscow City Court found Roman Ushakov guilty of treason for handing over classified information to the United States and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Russian officials sharply criticized US fast-food giants Coca-Cola and McDonald's for their "unhealthy" products, comparing aggressive advertising campaigns to a war on citizens.
(AFP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In South Korea a knife attack by Kim Ki-jong (55), an anti-US protester screaming demands for uniting North and South Korea, injured US ambassador Mark Lippert. The slashing left deep gashes and damaged tendons and nerves. In September Kim Ki-jong was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
(AP, 3/5/15)(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)(SFC, 9/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 5, Syrian government helicopter gunships bombed the northern city of Aleppo, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, In Syria Abu Hammam al-Shami, the military chief of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra, reportedly died of injuries believed to have suffered from an air strike on Feb 27.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, A court in Tanzania sentenced four people to death for the murder of an albino woman who was killed so her hacked-off limbs could be used in magic. The killers included Charles Nassoro, the husband of the murdered woman.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, A Thai court sentenced 15 members of the "Red Shirt" political movement to four years in prison for inciting rioting that disrupted an important regional conference in 2009.
(AP, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 5, Tunisian troops captured a large arms cache near the border with Libya, including Kalashnikov rifles, rockets and landmines.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 5, Ukraine said one government serviceman was killed and another wounded in fighting over the last 24 hours with pro-Russian separatists in the east. A military spokesman said rebels had attacked Ukrainian troops' positions or civilian targets 40 times within the previous 24 hours, including 17 artillery attacks. For their part, the rebels accuse Ukrainian forces almost daily of shelling and firing.
(Reuters, 3/5/15)
2015 Mar 6, US Border patrol officer Armando Gonzalez was taken into custody in San Diego County for allegedly installing a camera into a women’s restroom.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A9)
2015 Mar 6, The S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Apple will replace AT&T in the Dow Jones industrial average on March 19.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 6, NASA confirmed that its Dawn spacecraft has arrived to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres for a 16-month exploration.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 6, US regulators gave a green light to sales of the country's first copied version of a biotechnology drug, or "biosimilar," with approval of Novartis' white blood cell-boosting Zarxio.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Aurora, Colorado, police Officer Paul Jerothe shot and killed Naeschylus Carter Vinzant, an unarmed black man. Vinzant was on parole and had fled after beating his wife and taking their 2-month-old son. In 2016 the city of Aurora agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle a lawsuit by Vinzant’s relatives.
(http://tinyurl.com/ngwempn)(SFC, 11/8/16, p.A6)
2015 Mar 6, Wisconsin police fatally shot as Anthony "Tony" Robinson (19), an apparently unarmed African-American, prompting dozens of people to protest at the site of the killing. Robinson, tripping on mushrooms, had already attacked several people. Authorities said Robinson had assaulted Officer Mat Kenny (45) in an apartment. In 2017 a federal civil rights lawsuit awarded Robinson’s family $3.35 million.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A9)(SFC, 5/14/15, p.A7)(SFC, 2/24/17, p.A6)
2015 Mar 6, Scientists said a tiny, brown bird long thought to be extinct has been rediscovered in Myanmar's grasslands, but its fragmented habitat is threatened by human encroachment. The Jerdon's babbler was first discovered in the 1860s but had not been reported in 74 years.
(AP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, The African Union endorsed the creation of a regional force of up to 10,000 men to join the fight against Boko Haram, believed to have not more than 6,000 fighters.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Econ, 2/14/15, p.44)
2015 Mar 6, Brazil’s Supreme Court approved an investigation of dozens of top politicians including a former president and leaders of congress.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 6, A leaked document said the Greek government plans to hire an army of amateur tax sleuths, including tourists, in a bid to fill the gaping hole in the country's finances.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Guinea-Bissau dismantled a criminal operation trafficking 54 children to Senegal, where it is believed they would have been forced by Islamic schools to beg on the streets.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 6, In northeastern India Nagaland state authorities suspended the district magistrate of Dimapur, the city's police superintendent and the jail's warden after a mob lynched a jailed suspect a day earlier.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 6, Millions across India welcomed spring with their annual "festival of colors", celebrating by covering each other in water and dazzling paint.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Iraq and Syria coalition forces led by the US military targeted Islamic State militants with 16 air strikes over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Iraqi government forces and Iran-backed militiamen entered a town on the southern outskirts of Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit, pressing on with the biggest offensive yet against Islamic State militants that seized the north last year.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Israel a Palestinian assailant rammed his car into a group of Israeli pedestrians near a police station in east Jerusalem, injuring four officers and a bystander. He lunged at security guards with a knife before being shot and wounded.
(AP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Libya's oil security forces said they had retaken control of the Al-Ghani oilfield after militants attacked the facility. An employee watched the beheadings of the 8 oil guards and subsequently died of a heart attack. Nine foreign workers, including a Czech, an Austrian, four Filipinos, two Bangladeshis and a Ghanaian, were missing after gunmen attacked the oilfield. In 2017 Austria said it had evidence that all nine workers were killed the same year.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A3)(AP, 3/9/15)(Reuters, 9/20/17)
2015 Mar 6, Paraguayan radio journalist Gerardo Servian was reported shot to death in the Brazilian city of Ponta Pora, bordering a crime-ridden area that is a hotbed for drugs and arms smuggling.
(AP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, Russia’s Pres. Putin announced a 10% pay cut for himself and those working for him, including PM Medvedev and his entire Cabinet.
(SFC, 3/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 6, Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny walked out of a Moscow detention center and promised that Russia's opposition will continue to challenge President Vladimir Putin.
(Reuters, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, South Sudan's warring leaders failed to reach a deal to end more than a year of civil war, with the latest collapse in peace talks paving the way for possible sanctions.
(AFP, 3/6/15)
2015 Mar 6, In Sierra Leone Vice Pres. Sam-Sumana was kicked out of the ruling party, the All Peoples Congress, after a meeting of the party's National Advisory Council. A statement said he was expelled for several reasons including allegations that he presented a fake Master's degree certificate and that he was involved in the formation of a new political party.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In San Francisco the Chinese New Year Parade ushered in the Year of the Ram.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.A12)
2015 Mar 7, In Brazil recent rains led to increased mosquitoes transmitting dengue fever. Since January 224,000 cases were reported to date.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.42)
2015 Mar 7, In Burkina Faso the 24th pan-African FESPACO wrapped up in Ouagadougou. It featured the screening of "Captaine Thomas Sankara", a flattering 90-minute portrait of the iconoclastic Marxist soldier by Swiss director Christophe Cupelin.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Chechnya a man killed in a standoff with police was wanted by police in connection with Nemtsov's killing. When police arrived at an apartment block in Grozny, the man threw one grenade at officers and then blew himself up with a second.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, Colombia's government and Marxist FARC rebels announced in Cuba that they had reached a deal on demining, a stride forward on a key issue to negotiate peace after decades of conflict. Over 11,000 Colombians have been killed or wounded by mines in the last quarter-century.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.40)
2015 Mar 7, Egypt Interior Ministry said that Mahmoud Ramadan was executed after being convicted of murder. He was said to be behind the deaths of a young man and a child who were thrown off a roof on July 5, 2013, two days following the ouster of Pres. Morsi.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Iraq gunmen dressed all in black abducted 31 Shiite men from their homes in eastern Baghdad. Officials said they suspect the kidnapped men were involved in prostitution and criminal activities. Separate attacks in the capital killed 6 people.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, Iraqi officials in the northern city of Mosul said that militants with the Islamic State group have begun demolishing the ancient archaeological site of Hatra in a push to rid its territory of symbols it says promote idolatry. In April a video was released showing extremists smashing walls and shooting assault rifles at priceless statues.
(AP, 3/7/15)(SSFC, 4/5/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 7, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 17 air strikes against Islamic State fighters over the past 24 hours with 6 in Syria and 11 in Iraq.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, The Israeli navy opened fire on boats off the coast of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian fisherman after four vessels had strayed from a six nautical-mile fishing zone. The Israeli army opened fire after the boats did not heed calls to halt.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Mali militants killed 5 people in a gun attack on a restaurant in Bamako, including 3 Malians, a French citizen and a Belgian security officer with the EU delegation in and around La Terrasse restaurant. The Sahara-based Islamist group al-Mourabitoun, run by leading Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Mali two Arab teenagers were lynched and their bodies burned on in Gao by an angry mob that believed they had planted bombs in the area. They came from a family that supports Bamako against a predominantly Tuareg rebellion in the restive north.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Mozambique hundreds of human rights activists and students marched in Maputo demanding justice for the March 3 murder of lawyer Gilles Cistac.
(Econ., 3/14/15, p.52)
2015 Mar 7, Nigeria-based Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, after repeated indications that it was seeking a formal tie-up and a series of Nigerian military successes against the rebels.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Nigeria three bombings in Maiduguri killed 58 people and wounded 139 others.
(AFP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In Russia the Investigative Committee, a state body leading the investigation in the Feb 27 murder of Boris Nemtsov, named two men, Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev. as suspects.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, Swedish police began investigating what could be a triple homicide after 3 people were found dead in the country's southwest.
(AP, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 7, In northeastern Syria Islamic State militants attacked a string of predominantly Christian villages. At least 8 militants were killed in the fighting and an unknown number of Kurds. At least 9 members of Islamic State were killed during infighting near the town of al-Bab after some of them tried to flee over the Turkish border.
(AP, 3/7/15)(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 7, The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian army has killed Deeb Hedijan al-Otaibi, an Islamic State commander, in an air strike. 26 Islamic State militants were reported killed in the air strike near the town of Hamadi Omar.
(Reuters, 3/7/15)
2015 Mar 8, In the SF Bay Area Randhir Kaur (37), a woman from India attending the UCSF School of Dentistry, was raped and shot in her apartment in Albany. In 2018 Keith Kenard Asberry Jr. (33) was charged with her rape and murder. A rape kit that implicated him in a 2008 attack in Berkeley had gone untested for years.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9n3cpye)(SFC, 3/15/18, p.A1)
2015 Mar 8, In northern Afghanistan Inmates killed 2 police officers they had taken hostage during a prison riot in which an inmate was shot dead.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, The armies of Chad and Niger launched a major ground and air strike against Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov drew criticism from Russian government opponents after praising Zaur Dadayev, a Chechen suspect in the murder of Kremlin foe Boris Nemtsov.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 8, China-based Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI) launched its new Phantom 3 range of drones with prices starting at $1,000.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 8, In Egypt two bombs exploded in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, one outside a popular supermarket chain and another near a police station, killing one person and wounding at least 9.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, The European Union said it has imposed sanctions on Syrian businessman George Haswani, who it says bought oil for the Syrian government from Islamic State militants who have seized wide areas of the country including its oil-producing regions.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In India Vinod Mehta (73), founding editor of India's Outlook magazine and a fearless commentator on Indian politics, died.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Iran’s state media reported that young woman, accused of marrying and divorcing 10 men in less than two years under an elaborate con trick, has been charged with fraud.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Iraqi security forces and Shi’ite militia fighting the Islamic State took control of the center of al-Dour town on the southern outskirts of Tikrit. A series of bombings targeting public places and police have killed 11 people around Baghdad.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In Iraq a Canadian special forces soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident after he and others ignored an order to stay in their car and showed up to the front line unannounced.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 12 air strikes against Islamic State fighters over the past 24 hours. Coalition warplanes bombed a refinery near the Syrian town of Tel Abyad on the Turkish border late today. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes killed some 30 people.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 8, Islamic State supporters, facing regular bans and blockages on Facebook and other social networks launched 5elafabook.com, their own CaliphateBook, to spread their militant message over the Internet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 8, The first comprehensive report into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 revealed that the battery of the locator beacon for the plane's data recorder had expired more than a year before the jet vanished on March 8, 2014.
(AP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In northern Mali unknown attackers fired dozens of rockets towards a UN base on the outskirts of Kidal, killing a peacekeeper and two children.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, An Omani court jailed Said Jadad, a prominent activist, for three years for a range of offences including undermining the state, a charge a newspaper said was related to an open letter to US President Barack Obama about human rights in the country.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Russian authorities said they were holding five men over the Feb 27 killing of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, one of whom served in a police unit in the Russian region of Chechnya.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In South Africa a helicopter pilot died in a crash while fighting wildfires in the Cape of Good Hope section of Table Mountain National Park.
(AFP, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, In northern Syria at least 40 Kurdish fighters and Islamic State group jihadists were killed in clashes over the last 24 hours for control of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province. 11 civilians were killed in a government air raid on the rebel-held town of Irbin northeast of Damascus. Clashes continued around the Aleppo province villages of Handarat and Bashkoy between regime forces and fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliate, Al-Nusra Front. Unidentified gunmen attacked Islamic State militants in the eastern town of al-Mayadin overnight, killing more than 12.
(AFP, 3/8/15)(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, Ukraine said one serviceman was killed by sniper fire and three wounded as a result of fighting in separatist eastern territories in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 8, United Arab Emirates airlines Emirates, flydubai and Etihad Airways said they have suspended flights to Erbil, citing security concerns as Islamic State razes ancient cities in Iraq's north.
(Reuters, 3/8/15)
2015 Mar 9, President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring a “national emergency" because of the “extraordinary threat to the national security" posed by Venezuela. He levied new sanctions on seven Venezuelan officials who the US says have violated human rights and engaged in acts of public corruption.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.31)(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, A letter signed by 47 Republican senators warned Iran that any nuclear deal made with US President Barack Obama, a Democrat, could last only as long as he remained in office.
(http://tinyurl.com/kkk97ph)
2015 Mar 9, The United States delivered more than 100 pieces of military equipment to vulnerable NATO-allied Baltic states in a move designed to provide them with the ability to deter potential Russian threats.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, It was reported that Ronald Linde and his wife Maxine have pledged $50 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for promising initiatives and research at the Pasadena campus.
(SFC, 3/9/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 9, Paul Kalanithi, Indian-American neurosurgeon at Stanford (b.1977) died of lung cancer. His book “When Breath Becomes Air" was published in 2016.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kalanithi)(Econ, 2/6/15, p.77)
2015 Mar 9, In Oakland, Ca., Cheymil Pierce (30), a mother of three, was killed by a stray bullet on the 2800 block of Chestnut St. Police the next day arrested Anthony Sims (19) at Highland Hospital after he was wounded in the gunfight that left Pierce dead. On March 13 police also arrested Shelton McDaniels (29) and Jerry Harbin Jr. (29) in connection with the slaying. Others later arrested included Alex Davis (25), Michael Stills (21) and Jerry Harbin Jr. (29). On April 14 Julian Ambrose (16) was also arrested after he was cleared for released from Highland Hospital.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A1)(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 9, In San Francisco Kenyatta Butler Jr. (18) of San Leandro and Donzel Gaines of SF were gunned down as they sat in a car near the Crocker Amazon Playground. On March 26 Davante Robinson (21) and Gregory Morton III were booked on suspicion of murder.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.D3)
2015 Mar 9, Apple Corp. CEO Tim Cook presented the company’s new smartwatch at a show in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. Prices for the watch started at $349.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 9, In Georgia, police Officer Robert Olsen shot and killed Anthony Hill, a naked and unarmed black man, at an apartment complex in Chamblee. In October a grand jury recommended further investigation in the case. On Jan 21, 2016, a grand jury indicted Olsen on charges including felony murder.
(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A6)(SFC, 10/30/15, p.A6)(SFC, 1/22/16, p.A7)
2015 Mar 9, Univ. of Oklahoma Pres. David Boren severed the school’s ties with national fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon and ordered its on campus house to be shuttered after several members took part in a racist chant caught in an online video. Two students were expelled the following day.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A6)(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 9, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a measure that prohibits requiring a worker to pay union dues.
(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 9, The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft set off from Abu Dhabi on a bid to make the first round-the-world tour. Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg (63) will trade flying the Si2 with Bertrand Piccard. The epic journey was scheduled to spread over five months, with a total flight time of around 25 days.
(AFP, 3/9/15)(SFC, 3/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 9, In northwest Argentina two helicopters carrying passengers filming a popular European reality show crashed in a remote area, killing 8 French citizens and two Argentine pilots.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 9, Bangladesh said it has ordered North Korean diplomat Son Young Nam to leave the country after he tried to smuggle in gold bullion using diplomatic immunity. North Korea apologized to Bangladesh over the incident.
(AFP, 3/9/15)(SFC, 3/10/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 9, Britain said it has sold another 1.0 percent in state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group for £500 million ($754 million, 694 million euros), matching last month's sale.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 10 Chadian soldiers died in fighting to free two towns in northern Nigeria previously held by Boko Haram. A Niger military source said about 300 Boko Haram militants had been killed. About 30 Nigerien and Chadian soldiers were wounded in clashes over Malam Fatouri and Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Beijing police said five women activists have been criminally detained for planning to put up anti-sexual harassment posters in three Chinese cities.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 9, The European Central Bank confirmed a 1.1 trillion euro ($1.2 trillion) stimulus program by starting to buy government bonds.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Egypt temporarily opened a crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing students, patients seeking medical care and dual nationals to leave the territory for the first time in nearly two months.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In Egypt a roadside bomb killed 3 soldiers in the Sinai peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, French police detained five Greenpeace activists after they dangled from a bridge in Paris and unfurled banners on the Seine River that call for cuts in nuclear power.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In Greece a panel of judges decided that 64 Greek and German nationals should stand trial for bribery or money laundering over an alleged bribery scandal 17 years ago, involving a telecom contract for German industrial giant Siemens AG.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In northern Iraq Kurdish forces drove Islamic State militants back from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, in an attack which was backed by heavy air strikes from a US-led coalition.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank arrested dozens of members of the Islamist movement Hamas.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 9, The Philippine military said its forces have killed 73 hard-line Muslim rebels and a suspected foreign militant in a three-week offensive in the restive south. 6 soldiers were reported killed and 29 others wounded in the assaults that started Feb 25.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowed the state Order of Honor on Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded a state honor to Andrei Lugovoy, a man suspected by Britain of using radioactive polonium to poison Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
(Reuters, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem accused Saudi Arabia of blocking her speech at an Arab League meeting due to her stance on human rights in the region.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, About 95 captives, including Kurdish fighters, escaped from an Islamic State-run prison in northern Syria but most were recaptured.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 9, Saudi Arabia beheaded a Filipino convicted of murdering his boss, bringing to 40 the number of executions this year. Joven Esteva was found guilty of stabbing the Saudi in the chest in 2007.
(AFP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In southern Yemen Al-Qaida militants overran and held the city of Mahfad for hours before an army counterattack pushed them out. Saudi Arabia agreed to host a peace talks with the Houthis requested by Pres. Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
(AP, 3/9/15)
2015 Mar 9, In Zimbabwe Itai Dzamara was forcibly taken by five unidentified men and bundled into an unmarked truck near his home in the capital Harare. The journalist-turned activist had been staging sit-ins in the capital demanding that President Robert Mugabe resign.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups sued the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Justice Dept., challenging the government’s practice of collecting personal information.
(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 10, A Los Angeles jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children $7.3 million after determining that singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell and Williams copied their father’s music to create “Blurred Lines," the biggest hit song of 2013.
(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 10, Richard Glatzer, co-director of the Oscar-winning film “Still Alice" (2014) died in Los Angeles following a 4-year battle with ALS.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.D5)
2015 Mar 10, A series of bombings across Afghanistan, including one targeting a police checkpoint in the country's south, killed at least 13 people. These included suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint killed 8 people and wounded 23 on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, Helmand province.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Algerian soldiers killed 3 Islamist militants and seized guns and explosives 150 km southwest of Algiers.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Bahraini security forces tear-gassed and beat inmates at a prison while trying to quell clashes that erupted during family visits, causing some injuries among the detainees.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II christened P&O Cruises' 141,000-ton liner Britannia, a 473 million pound ($714 million) mega ship that's longer than four superjumbo jets.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, The top Communist official in China's Xinjiang said that extremists from the mainly Muslim region have been apprehended after returning from fighting in Syria with the Islamic State group.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos said air raids on Marxist FARC rebels will stop for a month. Santos also announced the creation of a peace commission made up of politicians from the right and left, former guerrillas, religious figures, business people and indigenous leaders.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Cuba offered its "unconditional support" to Venezuela after US President Barack Obama authorized new sanctions against senior officials of the turbulent South American oil producer.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Dubai several hundred South Asian migrant workers held a rare protest in the heart of downtown, temporarily blocking traffic and demanding higher wages. The Dubai police said that they resolved the issue in less than an hour after talking with the workers.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Egypt a suicide bomber and roadside explosives targeting police and military in the northeastern Sinai Peninsula killed 2 and wounded 46. In a city south of Cairo, 2 suspected militants died when a bomb they were carrying on a motorbike exploded.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, The radical left-led Greek government insisted that the debt-ridden country has never been fully compensated by Germany for its brutal World War II Nazi occupation, linking the issue with Greece's fraught bailout negotiations.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Indian police detained about a hundred Tibetans who were protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Iraqi troops and militias drove Islamic State militants out of the town of al-Alam, clearing the way for an offensive to retake the nearby city of Tikrit from the ultra-radical group.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Photos shared by sympathizers on social media said the Islamic State group has publicly beheaded three men in northern Iraq, two of them for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 12 air strikes against Islamic State fighters over the last 24 hours including eight in Iraq and four in Syria.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, An Islamic State propaganda video showed the killing of a Palestinian. A man introduces a child shown shooting the captive in the head. The man in the video speaks with a southern French accent and looks like the step-brother of Mohammed Merah, who killed seven people in attacks on a Jewish school and paratroopers in the south of France beginning on March 11, 2012.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Israeli authorities demolished an EU-funded shelter in Arab east Jerusalem. The process was initiated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority because the structures were in a national park within the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality.
(AFP, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Italy's highest court confirmed former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's acquittal on charges he paid an underage Moroccan prostitute for sex and then used his influence to cover it up.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, An Ivory Coast court sentenced former first lady Simone Gbagbo to 20 years in prison for her role in a 2011 post-election crisis in which around 3,000 people were killed.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Mali hundreds of people rallied in the northern town of Kidal to protest against a preliminary, UN-brokered peace deal signed by the government and not yet accepted by Tuareg rebel groups in the north.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Mexico the body of Aide Nava Gonzalez, candidate for mayor of the town of Ahuacuotzingo, was found late today. Nava, a leftist of the Democratic Revolution Party, had been kidnapped a day earlier from a political event.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Myanmar police beat students, monks and journalists with batons as they dispersed a protest against a proposed new education law after a standoff that lasted more than a week.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Nigeria a suspected female suicide bomber killed at least 34 people at a crowded market in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)(SFC, 3/11/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 10, In Pakistan the Punjab Child Marriage Restraint Act, which previously provided for a month-long prison sentence and a fine of Rs 1,000 [about 100 rupees to a dollar] for parents of children but spared clerics solemnizing the marriage contract, increased penalties to a six-month prison term and a fine of Rs 50,000 for the parents and the cleric.
(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Philippine troops killed at least 23 Muslim rebels in new clashes in the restive south which raised the insurgents' death toll in a three-week government offensive to nearly 100.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, A South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) crew were reporting outside a Johannesburg hospital when they were accosted by muggers who robbed them of mobile phones, laptops and other equipment. The incident that occurred in a badly lit street was caught on camera, and later aired on television.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, Spanish police neutralized a jihadi terror cell with the arrests of two people in its North African enclave of Ceuta. They were part of a larger group allegedly planning to carry out attacks in Spain and other European countries and connected to the Jan 24 detention of four other suspected members of the same cell.
(AP, 3/10/15)(Reuters, 3/10/15)
2015 Mar 10, Sweden scrapped a long-standing military deal with the Saudis after accusing the country of blocking Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem from speaking at an Arab League meeting. Saudi Arabia in response recalled its Stockholm ambassador.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 10, In Ukraine former lawmaker Stanislav Melnyk, a member of deposed Pres. Yanukovych's Party of Regions, was found by his wife dead in his bathroom. He left a suicide note asking for forgiveness.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 11, The US Board of Immigration Appeals in Washington, DC, found that Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, a former defense minister of El Salvador, can be deported for his role in the abuse and killing of civilians during El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 11, The US placed sanctions on eight Ukrainian separatists and a Russian bank, warning that recent attacks by rebels armed by Russia violated a European-brokered ceasefire in the war-torn country.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, It was reported that the United States has asked Vietnam to stop letting Russia use a former US base to refuel nuclear-capable bombers engaged in shows of strength over the Asia-Pacific region, exposing strains in Washington's steadily warming relations with Hanoi.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, A US Army helicopter crashed near Eglin air Force Base in Florida. 7 Marines and 4 aircrew were feared dead after the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a night training exercise.
(AFP, 3/11/15)(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 11, In Texas Manuel Vasquez, a Mexican mafia hitman, was executed at the Huntsville state prison for strangling a woman in San Antonio because she didn’t pay a gang’s 10% tax on her illegal drug sales.
(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A8)
2015 Mar 11, Oceangate of Washington state unveiled Cyclops, a five seat submarine capable of diving 500 meters with a battery allowing it to maneuver for up to 8 hours. Potential cruises in the vessel were estimated to cost “as little as" $1,000 per person.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.71)
2015 Mar 11, Scientists reported that evidence from the Cassini spacecraft has indicated there might be hot springs under the ice of Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn.
(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 11, In Angola heavy storms hit Lobito late today, sending torrents of water rushing from surrounding hillsides into the town that sits on the coast of the south Atlantic ocean. The death toll in Lobito soon rose to 69, including 36 children.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 11, Britain’s 2015 Templeton Prize went to Canadian Jean Vanier, who founded the pioneering global network of "L'Arche" residential communities for people with and without mental disabilities. The prize, established in 1972, honors "entrepreneurs of the spirit".
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, The euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar since April 2003, at $1.0557. The main reason is the European Central Bank has not only cut interest rates but also started creating more euros to put into the financial system.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In France a group of armed thieves attacked two secure vans carrying jewels at a motorway toll overnight, making off with a haul worth some nine million euros ($11 million).
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In northern India a crude bomb exploded in a crowded market in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, killing at least 3 people and injuring 15 others.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Iraqi soldiers and Shiite militiamen entered the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit, breaching one of the biggest strongholds of the extremists in a key test for Iraqi forces.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Iraq and Syria US and coalition forces conducted 13 air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Iraq Australian suicide bomber Jake Bilardi (18), also known as Jihadi Jake, died in a suicide bomb attack west of Baghdad.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Bilardi)(AP, 10/31/17)
2015 Mar 11, Latvia's Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis said the country’s security is at risk from Russian-funded advocacy groups waging "information war" that suggests the Baltic state is persecuting its Russian minority.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 11, Lithuania marked the 25th anniversary of its declaration of independence.
(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 11, Macedonian police say they have filed criminal bribery charges against the country's opposition leader Zoran Zaev, who is embroiled in a clash with the conservative government over allegations of massive wire-tapping.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Mexico bodies of two field workers of the National Statistics Institute, missing since March 2, were found dead in Chihuahua state.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 11, In the Netherlands a court ruled that the Dutch government must pay compensation to nine widows and children of Indonesian men summarily executed in their country's war for independence, a ruling that could open the door to many more claims.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Nigeria said that 36 towns had been retaken from Boko Haram since the start of a four-nation military offensive, voicing hope that the operation could lead to the group's total defeat.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Pakistani troops raided the Karachi headquarters of the Muttahida Quami Movement's (MQM) offices, arresting about 20 suspects and seizing weapons. Party leader Faisal Subzwari accused the Rangers of killing one MQM worker and said the weapons were licensed and necessary to guard the offices against Taliban threats.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Russia a blaze broke out in a first-storey cafe at a shopping center Kazan, Tatarstan province. 5 people were killed and 25 were thought to be trapped under the rubble.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 11, Slovenian police searched the home of former PM Alenka Bratusek, who is being investigated on suspicion of abuse of power after her government unsuccessfully nominated her for the European Commission last year. Police also searched four other locations linked to Bratusek's political party.
(AP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, Sweden said it has offered Ukraine a bilateral loan of $100 million to help shore up its finances.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In Syria the Islamic State jihadist group launched a major offensive to try to capture the strategic town of Ras al-Ain on the Syrian-Turkish border, leaving dozens dead in clashes. At least 12 fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which control Ras al-Ain and the surrounding villages, were killed in the IS onslaught.
(AFP, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 11, In central Tanzania at least 41 people were killed and 23 seriously injured in a collision between a bus and a truck near Changarawe.
(AFP, 3/11/15)(SFC, 3/12/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 11, Turkish authorities said they have detained 16 Indonesians from three families who were trying to cross into Syria, a route frequently used by sympathizers of Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 3/11/15)
2015 Mar 12, US government investigator Timothy Camus said fake tax agents have targeted more than 366,000 people with harassing phone calls demanding payments and threatening jail time as part of a huge nationwide scam that partly involves call centers in India.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Obama administration gave final approval to a giant expansion of the Gulf of the Farallones and the Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries off the coast of northern California.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A1)
2015 Mar 12, In southern California Keshawn Brooks (15) was stabbed to death for his backpack in Long Beach. Police soon arrested Giovanny Montelongo (18) on suspicion of murder.
(SFC, 3/14/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 12, In Missouri two police officers shot overnight in Ferguson after the city's embattled police chief resigned. Wednesday was the 215th night of demonstrations in Ferguson.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Indian biologists at MIT said the swine flu outbreak in India, which has claimed over 1,500 lives, may have mutated into a more dangerous strain.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 12, Bahraini authorities arrested three suspects after a firefight in the capital Manama broke out in the city's busy Juffair district.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Bangladesh the roof of a five-story cement factory under construction collapsed, killing 7 workers in the port town of Mongla. Nearly 50 survivors were pulled from the rubble.
(AP, 3/12/15)(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, British science fiction and fantasy author Terry Pratchett (66) died. His 40 Discworld novels made him Britain’s bestselling author in the 1990s. By 2015 he sold some 85 million books in 37 languages.
(AFP, 3/12/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.94)
2015 Mar 12, In Colombia five police and two civilians were injured after a bomb exploded in Bogota. Leftist ELN guerrillas were suspected.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano belched a column of gas and ash up to 3,280 feet (1 km) into the air in its most powerful eruption in two decades.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, It was reported that Cuba is allowing free, public Internet service for the first time at a Havana cultural center. It quietly began offering open Wi-Fi in recent weeks.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The European Parliament called on Venezuela to release students and opposition figures "arbitrarily detained" during protests against left-wing President Nicolas Maduro.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, France’s competition authority hit eleven companies with $203 million in fines for fixing prices on many yogurt-related goods.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 12, Iceland announced that it was suspending its application to join the 28-nation EU.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Iraq US and coalition partners conducted 13 air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said that a pledge by Nigeria-based Boko Haram has been accepted and that now “no one can stand in its path." The agreement mirrors the steps taken by other Sunni jihadist groups in Libya and Egypt.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, Jamaican firefighters worked to put out the wind-fanned blaze as it billowed acrid smoke across Kingston and parts of neighboring St. Catherine parish.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Kenya three Danish women pleaded guilty to breaking customs laws by attempting to smuggle suitcases stuffed with a narcotic herb out of the country.
(AP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Libya airport guards stopped PM Abdullah al-Thinni from getting on a plane to Tunis in protest against his choice of interior minister. The guards were unhappy with Thinni's appointment of economy minister Munir Ali Asr as caretaker interior minister, demanding the job go to a southerner.
(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Malawi police said they have arrested a man for trying to strangle to death a 16-year-old albino boy in February. A rights group reporting the murder of six albinos in the last three months.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Mexico Bruce Beresford-Redman (43), a former TV show producer, was sentenced to 12 years in prison by Judge Víctor Manuel Echeverria Tun, Quintana Roo state, for murdering his wife during a 2010 Cancun beach vacation.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, Palestinian farmers in Gaza exported produce to Israel for the first time since the Jewish state imposed its blockade on the territory in 2006.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Saudi Arabia a gang leader was beheaded raising the number of executions carried out this year to 44.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Moinina Fofana, convicted in 2007 by a special UN-backed court of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, cruel treatment, pillage and collective punishment, was transferred from a Rwanda prison back to Sierra Leone and granted provisional release to serve out the remainder of his term in his community.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Somalia 6 policemen were killed when al Shabaab Islamist militants detonated a car bomb outside a regional government headquarters in Baidoa. Five Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants opened fire at the gate of the high-security zone in Baidoa but were held off by Ethiopian and Somali government troops. An Ethiopian soldier was killed, three of the attackers blew themselves up, another was shot dead and the fifth was shot and wounded, ending the attack.
(AP, 3/12/15)(Reuters, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Somalia Adan Garar, a senior Al-Shabaab commander who masterminded the Westgate terrorist attack, was killed in a US drone attack along with two of his aides.
(http://tinyurl.com/mlj5t4z)(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 12, South Africa's state-owned power company Eskom suspended its chief executive and three other top officials as its board launched an inquiry into the troubled utility.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, Tanzania police said they had arrested 225 unlicensed traditional healers and soothsayers as part of a nationwide crackdown on witchdoctors linked to a wave of albino attacks and murders.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Turkish coastguard opened fire to stop a cargo vessel carrying 337 mainly Syrian migrants heading towards European Union waters and arrested the suspected traffickers.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, In Ukraine Oleksandr Peklushenko, a former ally of deposed Pres. Yanukovych targeted in a probe into the violent dispersal of the pro-Western rally in the city of Zaporizhia where he was governor last year, was found dead from a gunshot to the neck. Three recent deaths followed four suicides earlier this year of regional officials who were working under the old regime.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 12, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it is to roughly double the size of its observer mission in eastern Ukraine to up to 1,000 personnel.
(AFP, 3/12/15)
2015 Mar 12, The World Bank suspended its operations in Yemen as Shiite rebels fired tear gas and started shooting in the air to disperse a demonstration against them Bayda, killing 2 people and wounding seven.
(AP, 3/12/15)(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 12, The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the Ebola outbreak has killed over 10,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
(SFC, 3/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 13, Pres. Obama, in his first visit to the Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital whose practices sparked a health care scandal, acknowledged lingering weaknesses the the federal government’s response to the chronic delays and false waiting lists in the VA health system.
(BG, 3/13/16, p.B6)
2015 Mar 13, Police in southern California arested 8 of 14 students under investigation for a series of sexual assaults on and off the campus of Venice High School in Los Angeles.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 13, In Mississippi two people were killed and 3 left injured in Brookhaven early today. Jimmy Lyons (32) reportedly opened fire on a family he lived with leaving Jermaine Sims (31) and a daughter (9) dead.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 13, In Andorra Joan Pau Miquel Prats of Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA) was arrested on suspicion of money laundering following US allegations that funds were laundered for groups from China, Russia and Venezuela.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, Cameroonian troops began attacking Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamic extremists near the Nigerian village of Ndaba, killing several of the militants over the next 24 hours and destroying some of their equipment.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 13, Egypt opened an int’l. conference to promote an ambitious recovery plan. Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia all promised investments and aid of $4 billion each.
(SFC, 3/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 13, Egypt's government announced plans to build a new capital adjacent to Cairo, in a massive new project that in its first phase would cost $45 billion and take up to seven years to complete.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, Germany’s top court ruled that Muslim women teachers can wear headscarves as long as it does not cause disruption in school overturning its own 2003 ban.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Guatemala journalist Guido Villatoro (20) was gunned down as he entered the office where he worked in the southwestern department of Suchitepequez. A wiretap soon led to the capture of suspect Antonio Televario Navichoc, one of two leaders of a Mara 18 street gang cell that runs extortion rackets in the region.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 13, Japan and France signed an arms transfer agreement, paving the way to develop drones and other unmanned equipment together as Japan seeks to play a greater international military role.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Iraq a bombing in Baghdad and an explosion in a nearby town killed 7 people. Iraqi police claimed around 50 percent of Tikrit was now back in government hands. 6 soldiers were reported killed and 11 wounded in a suicide car bomb Tikrit’s in Al-Dyum neighborhood.
(AP, 3/13/15)(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Iraq and Syria the US and its coalition partners staged 11 air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, The International Criminal Court formally halted proceedings against Kenya's Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta, three months after prosecutors dropped charges implicating him in fomenting postelection violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2007 and 2008.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In northern Kenya Islamic militants attacked the convoy of a governor, killing 3 people in the second attack on Governor Ali Roba's convoy in five months. Al-Shabab militants from Somalia claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In the Maldives a three-judge panel ruled that Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically elected president, had issued an illegal order to detain a senior judge in 2012 while in office. Nasheed was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
(AP, 3/14/15)(SFC, 3/14/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 13, Malian special forces killed a suspect in the March 7 deadly jihadist attack on a nightclub in the capital.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, A bomb from a Myanmar aircraft fell in Chinese territory and killed four Chinese people. Myanmar denied that any bomb from its forces had fallen in China and said the rebels might have fired into China to create misunderstanding.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, In northwestern Myanmar a crowded double-decker passenger ferry capsized late today after being slammed by huge waves. At least 61 people were killed with 169 known survivors.
(AP, 3/14/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 13, Nigeria's military said that it had uncovered a Boko Haram bomb-making factory in the northeastern town of Buni Yadi after soldiers retook the town from the insurgents.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In central Nigeria gunmen abducted three Chinese workers after a shootout that left a police officer dead at a quarry outside Lokoja, the capital of Kogi state. The workers were freed the next day through a joint operation by the police and other security agents.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, A Pakistani court ordered the release of Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the main suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, because a three-month detention period has expired. He was unlikely to be freed because he still faced charges in a separate kidnapping case.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, Pakistani warplanes pounded militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 suspected militants.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, A Serbian military helicopter crashed near Belgrade in foggy weather late today while evacuating a sick baby from the south of the country, killing all 7 people on board.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Spain eight suspected Islamist militants accused of planning attacks and recruiting fighters to send to Syria and Iraq were arrested in dawn raids across the country.
(Reuters, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Turkey three male British teenagers planning to join Islamic State militants in Syria were detained in Istanbul.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 13, Pope Francis declared an extraordinary jubilee, or holy year, to last from December 8, 2015, to November 20, 2016. Ordinary jubilees are proclaimed every 25 years.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.48)
2015 Mar 13, In Venezuela Rodolfo Gonzalez (64) died sometime during the night while being held at the headquarters of the intelligence police in an apparent suicide that his family said was the result of harsh prison conditions and unjust punishment.. Gonzalez was arrested last year during demonstrations against the socialist government.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Yemen hundreds rallied in the militia-controlled capital of Sanaa to call for presidential elections and demanding the son of ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh to run as a candidate.
(AFP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 13, In Zimbabwe one prisoner in one of the country’s most notorious jails died in a stampede after hundreds of inmates rioted over the poor quality of their food.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, US officials said the Obama administration is abandoning plans to cut the number of US forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 by year's end, bowing to military leaders who want to keep more troops, including many into the 2016 fighting season.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Robert Durst (71), the scion of a wealthy New York real estate family, was taken into custody at a New Orleans hotel at the request of Los Angeles police investigating the 2000 killing of his friend Susan Berman. The next day the HBO television network broadcast the final episode in a six-part documentary series about Durst called "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst." In it Durst is heard muttering to himself, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." On April 23 Louisiana dismissed weapons charges against Durst.
(AP, 3/16/15)(SFC, 4/24/15, p.A9)
2015 Mar 14, Missouri police arrested at least two people as nightly protests in the racially troubled US suburb of Ferguson over the police killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown shifted into the heart of St Louis.
(AFP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 14, The tugboat Sea Bear sank off New York’s Fire Island. Capt. Donald Maloney died after jumping into icy water without putting on his immersion suit. 3 crew members survived after donning protective gear.
(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 14, In London a statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled at Parliament Square, the symbolic heart of the British establishment that once loathed him for his campaign against imperial rule.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In southern Brazil a bus accident killing 54 people near Joinville, Santa Catarina state.
(AP, 3/15/15)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 14, In Canada thousands protested against Bill C-51, a new anti-terrorism legislation proposed by the Conservative government of PM Stephen Harper.
(Econ., 3/21/15, p.30)
2015 Mar 14, Troops from Chad and Niger seized Damasak in northeastern Nigeria in the latest defeat for the militants. Soldiers from Niger and Chad soon discovered the bodies of at least 70 people, many of them beheaded, dumped near a bridge outside Damasak. It was later reported that Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 400 women and children from Damasak.
(Reuters, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 14, In China an earthquake in the eastern city of Fuyang killed two people and damaged thousands of homes.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, An Egyptian disciplinary court ordered 41 judges into compulsory retirement for supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Egypt a garbage collector and his donkey were killed in a bomb explosion in a Cairo district.
(AP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 14, Indian PM Narendra Modi visited the former war zone of northern Sri Lanka in a show of solidarity with ethnic Tamils.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In eastern India a nun in her 70s was gang-raped by a group of bandits when she tried to prevent them from robbing a Christian missionary school in West Bengal state.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said it has evidence Islamic State used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against Kurdish peshmerga forces in a January 23 suicide car bombing.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In central Libya clashes erupted between Islamic State fighters and a force loyal to a Tripoli-based faction.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northern Mexico 5 people were killed when their small plane crashed in Chihuahua state.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Nigerian soldiers detonated two homemade bombs found in a camp housing people displaced by Boko Haram violence in Maiduguri. Two men suspected of planting the explosives were arrested.
(AFP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northwestern Pakistan shepherds found 13 bullet-riddled bodies in South Waziristan. Officials said the bodies were Taliban fighters.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Romania Bucharest district mayor Marian Vanghelie, an influential figure in the ruling Social Democracy Party until recently, was arrested and charged with taking a 20 percent cut of contracts worth 2 billion lei ( 450 million euros or $475 million ) from 2007 until 2015.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Sierra Leone's vice president Samuel Sam-Sumana sought asylum from the United States, saying he no longer felt safe in the country after soldiers disarmed the security team at his residence.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Sierra Leone 10 American aid workers were evacuated following contact with a colleague who was evacuated a day earlier after showing signs of illness.
(SSFC, 3/15/15, p.A10)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 14, Sweden-based Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer, said it is halting its online magazine in Russia out of fears it violates the country's law banning promotion of same-sex gay values to minors.
(AP, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, In northeast Syria US-led coalition jets struck Islamic State positions for the second day in a row, in an area where the militants are battling Kurdish forces. The US and its coalition partners staged 10 air strikes on Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 3/14/15)(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 14, Residents in Vanuatu hunkered in emergency shelters for a second straight night after venturing out to find their homes damaged or blown away by Cyclone Pam. 24 people were later confirmed killed with 3,300 left homeless. The cyclone had already caused damage to other Pacific islands, including Kiribati and the Solomon Islands.
(AP, 3/14/15)(SFC, 3/16/15, p.A2)(Reuters, 3/17/15) (CSM, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 14, In Yemen opponents of the Houthi militia announced the formation of a national alliance to restore the authority of the state, in a major shakeup of Yemen's political landscape.
(Reuters, 3/14/15)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Afghanistan gunmen kidnapped eight ethnic Hazara people from two cars but later released all but one of the hostages.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In Brazil an estimated 1.5-2.2 million people took to the streets across the country in protest over corruption, with many calling for Pres. Dilma Rousseff's impeachment.
(AFP, 3/16/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.29)
2015 Mar 15, In China Xu Caihou (71), the highest-ranking military officer to fall victim to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, died of cancer.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Islamic State fighters traded sniper fire and mortar rounds with Iraqi troops and allied Shi'ite militia forces in the city of Tikrit but no major advances were made by either side.
(Reuters, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 15, In northern Kenya Somali Shebab militants killed one man and wounded three others in a shooting in the town of Mandera.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Nigerian Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau reportedly addressed his fighters and told them to return to Gwoza and kill the women they had taken as wives.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 15, In eastern Pakistan a pair of suicide bombers attacked two churches in Lahore as worshippers prayed inside killing 17 people.
(AP, 3/15/15)(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Philippine security forces arrested Mohammad Ali Tambako, the head of a small Islamic militant group, along with five accomplices. Tambako was involved in protecting Abdul Basit Usman, one of the United States' "most wanted terrorists," who had escaped a Jan 25 raid.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 15, Syrian government warplanes pounded a Damascus suburb, killing at least 18 people and scattering shattered concrete blocks and mangled cars in the streets.
(AP, 3/15/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Afghan army killed a militant commander who had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group. Hafiz Wahidi and 9 of his men were killed in an operation in Helmand province.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Andorra imposed withdrawal limits for clients of Banca Privada d'Andorra (BPA), a bank accused of money laundering. Spain's central bank said that Banco de Madrid SA, a unit of the Andorran bank, needs bankruptcy protection granted by a judge following a "sharp deterioration" of its finances with large withdrawals of clients' funds.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Bahrain authorities arrested a young man who was trying to smuggle in bomb-making materials from Iraq. He told authorities a relative who lives in Iraq, and wanted on terrorism-related charges, gave him the suitcase to take to Bahrain.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Belgian authorities made several arrests and were analyzing goods that could be linked to the Feb 18, 2013, $42 million diamond theft at the Brussels airport.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Brazilian police launched a new round of arrests in the corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras, a day after massive nationwide demonstrations against leftist President Dilma Rousseff.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The European Union gave the green light to a long-awaited pact with Bosnia, a first step toward possible membership of the bloc after years of political and economic stagnation.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, In Latvia about a thousand people marched to pay tribute to Latvians who fought in German Waffen SS units against the Soviet Union during World War II, despite jeering from protesters who say the parade glorifies fascism.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, In Libya families fled the coastal city of Sirte in their dozens after two days of clashes between Islamic State militants and fighters loyal to a government based in Tripoli.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Islamic State group reported the death of one of its top field commanders in Libya. Ahmed al-Rouissi, one of the most wanted militants in Tunisia, was killed recently in clashes around the city of Sirte.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 16, Malaysian police arrested the eldest daughter of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for alleged sedition, a move slammed by critics as a clampdown on dissent.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, In Mexico Carmen Aristegui, the crusading host of a top-rated national news radio program, was reported fired in a case that many fear is a blow to freedom of expression. MVS Radio said Aristegui was fired for challenging the firing of reporters who had misused the company's name by linking it to a website meant to collect leaks of government information. In November, 2014, her team broke the story of that Pres. Pena Nieto’s wife was buying a $7 million mansion mortgaged to her by a government preferred contractor.
(AP, 3/16/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.30)
2015 Mar 16, In northwestern Nepal at least 17 people were killed when a bus slipped off a rain-drenched mountain road near Rararihi village.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Pakistani police fired tear gas after Christian protesters clashed with police in the eastern city of Lahore, a day after Taliban suicide bombers killed 17 people in suicide attacks on two churches in the city.
(AP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, Romanian prosecutors questioned and detained Horia Georgescu on suspicion that in 2008-2009 he overvalued property being restituted to former owners who lost it when the communists nationalized real estate. He denied wrongdoing. Georgescu stepped down as head of the National Integrity Agency the next day.
(AP, 3/16/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 16, Russia’s Pres. Putin made his first public appearance since March 5 meeting Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev at the Constantine Palace outside Russia's second city of St. Petersburg. More than 45,000 Russian troops as well as war planes and submarines started military exercises across much of the country.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, The Stockholm Int’l. Peace Research Institute reported that China has overtaken Germany as the world’s third largest arms exporter with a 5% share, behind the US at 31% and Russia at 27%.
(SFC, 3/17/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 16, A Swedish man (20) was ordered to pay damages of 76,000 kronor ($8,750, 8,300 euros) to his ex-girlfriend for posting a video online of them having sex. The case sparked outrage in Sweden in 2013 when an appeals court slashed the damages imposed by the district court of Joenkoeping in eastern Sweden, from 136,000 down to 31,000 kronor.
(AFP, 3/16/15)
2015 Mar 16, One Ukrainian serviceman was reported killed in fighting in the separatist-minded east of the country in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire deal. Residents in the eastern town of Kostyantynivka angrily confronted government police after an armored military vehicle struck and killed an 8-year-old girl.
(Reuters, 3/16/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock (33) resigned after weeks of mounting media reports about questionable expenditures and personal finances.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 17, In North Carolina 3 Burmese children — ages 1, 5, and 12 — were stabbed to death and two other people were hurt in an attack at a home in New Bern. Police identified the suspect as Eh Lar Doh Htoo (18).
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Britain announced a three percent rise in the minimum wage, the largest real terms increase since 2008.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, British officials said three judges who looked at pornography on their work accounts have been fired. A fourth judge who was also found to have viewed similar material at work resigned before the inquiry had concluded.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Germany, France and Italy followed Britain in announcing that they plan to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a proposed Chinese-led Asian regional bank, swinging Europe's biggest economic powers behind a project that is viewed with concern in Washington.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Greek officials said police raids across the country last week smashed an international people trafficking ring that made $8 million in profit from smuggling Syrian migrants into Europe. 16 suspects were arrested.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Iraq's offensive to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group was stalled because of streets and buildings rigged with booby trap bombs and by the several hundred jihadists still holding out there. Separate attacks in and outside Baghdad killed at least 9 people.
(AFP, 3/17/15)(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Israel held elections. PM Benjamin Netanyahu (65) faced an uphill battle to defeat a strong campaign by the center-left opposition to deny him a fourth term in office. Netanyahu's Likud had won 30 seats in the 120-member Knesset, comfortably defeating the center-left Zionist Union opposition on 24 seats.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Kenya 4 people were shot dead in a shop Wajir town by unknown gunmen who wounded three others. Al-Shabab Islamic extremists soon claimed responsibility, bringing the total number of those killed by the militants since March 13 to 12.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Myanmar Philip Blackwood, a New Zealand bar manager, and his two Myanmar colleagues were jailed for two and a half years with hard labor by a Yangon court for using a Buddha image to promote a cheap drinks night.
(AFP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Pakistan hanged 12 convicts. This was the largest number of people executed on the same day since an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, In Pakistan Samiullah Khan Afridi, a former lawyer for a doctor who helped the US find Osama bin Laden, was killed by a gunman in Peshawar.
(SFC, 3/18/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 17, In Poland rioting by some 300 young people in Sosnowiec follows two nights of disturbances near Warsaw over the death of another young man apprehended by the police. Two officers were hurt as police detained 14 people. They blamed the police for the death last week of a 23-year-old man, apprehended in the street and taken to a sobering center, where he lost consciousness.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Puerto Rico Police Chief Jose Caldero said that officers found 2,535 pounds (1,150 kg) of cocaine, worth an estimated $32 million, aboard a boat and detained 14 people from the Dominican Republic.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Swiss officials said they are returning to Nigeria some $380 million linked to the country's former dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha. The money, confiscated on the basis that the Abacha family was a criminal organization, will now be returned to Nigeria under World Bank supervision.
(AP, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, A Syrian army statement said dozens of militants were killed in other areas of Idlib province overnight in clashes and attacks. A monitoring group said government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest. Medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, The Syrian army shot down a US drone over Latakia province, part of the western region where Damascus has been consolidating state control.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 17, Tunisia said it had dismantled 4 recruiting cells sending jihadis to fight in Libya and arrested dozens in part of tighter security and border controls to counter Islamist militants.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 17, Ukraine said 3 government servicemen were killed in fighting in the east in the past 24 hours despite a ceasefire agreement with Russian-backed rebels.
(Reuters, 3/17/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Arizona a gunman killed one person and wounded five others in rampage in Mesa. Police soon arrested ex-con Ryan Giroux (41), who has already served three stints in state prison since 1994.
(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A12)
2015 Mar 18, San Francisco police officer Michael Robison (46), a 23-year veteran, resigned after being identified as one of four officers involved in sending racist and homophobic text messages. Robison had come out as gay before being hired in 1992.
(SFC, 3/20/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 18, GM said Opel will leave the Russian market by December in the face of plummeting sales in the economically troubled country. Chevrolet production will be cut back significantly to focus on top-end products such as the Corvette sports car and Tahoe SUV, which are imported into Russia from the US.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Evolution Marketplace, a website for illegal drugs, was taken down in an apparent “exit scam" by its anonymous administrators who made off with up to $15 million in Bitcoin payments they were holding in escrow.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.59)
2015 Mar 18, In Afghanistan Mattiullah Khan, the police chief of Uruzgan province, was killed while visiting Kabul by a suicide bomber disguised as a woman. A bomb exploded in Helmand province near the governor’s offices in Lashkar Gah killing 7 people and wounding over 45.
(AP, 3/19/15)(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 18, A Bangladesh court indicted Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, a leader of the hard-line Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, and seven students in the hacking death of atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider two years ago.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In eastern Congo DRC violent clashes have erupted between the army and a militia, forcing many civilians to flee their homes. Rebels killed at least four civilians as they fled the Congolese army operation.
(AFP, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 18, A French court handed controversial comedian Dieudonne a two-month suspended jail sentence for condoning terrorism after a comment suggesting he sympathized with one of the jihadists who attacked Paris.
(AFP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Germany anti-capitalist protesters clashed with riot police near the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt. Police counted 3,500; rally organizers said 7,000.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, A German court banned Uber from offering its ridesharing service nationwide, adding to the company's troubles in Europe.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Germany hundreds of flights were canceled in a strike by Lufthansa pilots at the airline's short- and medium-haul operations.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, The Greek parliament overwhelmingly adopted a "humanitarian crisis" bill aimed at helping its poorest people, ignoring apparent pressure from the European Union to halt the legislation.
(AFP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Libya fighting, between Islamic State militants and forces loyal to the government based in Tripoli, killed 12 troops near Nofaliya.
(AP, 3/18/15)(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 18, In Moldova airport authorities banned a Russian television crew from entering Moldova and sent them back to Moscow. They were traveling to cover elections this weekend in the semi-autonomous region of Gagauzia, a region where most voters disapprove of Moldova's European aspirations and want closer links to Russia.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 18, In northeast Nigeria Islamists returned to the border town of Gamboru, killing 8 people. 3 more were killed there the next day.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 18, Pakistani air strikes reportedly killed 34 militants in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber region. Residents put the toll at 20. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing in Peshawar of a district president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Poland's foreign minister says his government will reciprocate if Russia continues to bill for Poland's diplomatic buildings after the Arbitration Court in St. Petersburg allowed bailiffs to evict Poland's consulate there, saying Poland owes some $1 million in rent.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Russia’s Pres. Vladimir Putin signed a new treaty with the leader of South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia, that called for nearly full integration.
(SFC, 3/19/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 18, Serbian prosecutors arrested seven suspects, accused of taking part in killing more than 1,000 Bosnian Muslims in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in pre-dawn raids at different locations in Serbia. An eighth suspect was caught after an hours-long manhunt.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma sacked Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana for seeking asylum in a foreign embassy.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Sweden gunmen with automatic weapons stormed into a restaurant in in suburban Goteborg, killing two people and wounding about a dozen in a shooting that police said was likely gang-related.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 18, Thai authorities said they had issued emergency measures across at least nine provinces as thick smoke caused by farmers burning vegetation to clear their fields chokes the north of the country.
(Reuters, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Tunisia gunmen opened fire at the Bardo National Museum in Tunis. Overall 22 people were killed, including 21 foreign tourists. Yassine al-Abidi and a fellow gunman were killed by police. Security forces arrested nine people the next day in connection with the attack.
(AP, 3/18/15)(AP, 3/19/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 18, In eastern Ukraine a civilian was killed and one injured after tripping a bomb in Vuglegirsk, a separatist-controlled town 35 km (21 miles) north-east of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 18, In Yemen Abdel-Karim al-Khewani, a prominent politician and supporter of the country's Shiite rebels, was assassinated by gunmen in front of the family's home in Sanaa.
(AP, 3/18/15)
2015 Mar 19, Officials from the United States, Italy and Saudi Arabia led 2-days talks in Rome among a group of countries seeking to combat the financial activities of Islamic State militants. The Counter-ISIL Finance Group (CIFG) includes Australia, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Qatar, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The EU also participates.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Mississippi Otis Byrd, a convicted killer, was found hanging by a sheet from a tree about 200 yards behind his house in Claiborne County. His family had reported him, missing over two weeks ago.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 19, In Afghanistan a woman, later identified as Farkhunda Malikzada (28), was lynched in central Kabul. Her body was then set on fire and thrown onto the banks of Kabul's main river. A mob was filmed stamping on the woman and smashing a brick on her head after she was accused of burning a Koran. Thirteen police officers were soon suspended and 13 suspects arrested.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A3)(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Mar 19, Australia said it would introduce legislation next week to scrap the parliament of Norfolk Island, which was effectively bankrupt, and temporarily replace it by an advisory council before local government elections in 2016.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, Officials said around 30 British military personnel have arrived in Ukraine to provide medical and tactical training to the country's troops.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Cameroon 30 heavily armed fighters seized a bus in Babio, just miles (km) from the border, which was carrying people returning from a burial. The assailants drove the bus back into Central African Republic. At least 15 people, including a mayor and local government officials, were kidnapped.
(AP, 3/21/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 19, In China Sandy Phan-Gillis of Texas was detained while attempting to cross from the southern city of Zhuhai to Macau. She was arrested the next day on suspicion of spying and stealing state secrets from 1996-1998. Her husband later said she is a hard working businesswoman who spends huge amounts of time on non-profit activities that benefit Houston-China relations. On July 11, 2016, the Nanning Intermediate People's Court accepted the case against Phan "Sandy" Phan-Gillis.
(Reuters, 9/22/15)(AP, 8/30/16)
2015 Mar 19, An Egyptian court acquitted Habib al-Adly, the former interior minister of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, in the last corruption case he was facing.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, European Union heads of state and government gathered in Brussels for a two day meeting to talk about economic and energy policies, and the crises in Ukraine and Libya.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In France employees at Radio France went on strike to protest a cut in public subsidy and an attempt to control Radio /France’s deficit.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.50)
2015 Mar 19, The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a French-based research arm of the World Health Organization, reclassified the herbicide glyphosate as a result of what it said is convincing evidence the chemical produces cancer in lab animals and more limited findings it causes non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in humans. The glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup has been a mainstay of industrial agriculture. This raised more questions for an aerial spraying program in Colombia that is the cornerstone of the US-backed war on drugs.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 19, Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, had to cancel 84 of 153 of its long-haul flights, affecting 18,000 passengers as a strike by pilots was extended to long-haul flights.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In eastern India Sashimani Devi (92), the last consort of the god Jagannath, died in Puri. She had married the god around 1930 as part of the devadasi system, which was banned in 1988.
(Econ., 4/4/15, p.86)
2015 Mar 19, In Iraq 13 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave near the city of Tikrit. A new UN report said Islamic State militants may have committed genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during their rampage across the country.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, Mali said special agents were holding three people suspected of helping armed jihadists launch the March 7 attack on a nightclub in Bamako in which 5 people died.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Mexico an ambush by the Jalisco New Generation Drug Cartel killed 5 federal gendarmerie officers, three gang suspects and three bystanders in Ocotlan, Jalisco state. The New Generation cartel was led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho.
(AFP, 4/17/15)(Econ, 5/9/15, p.32)
2015 Mar 19, Moldova authorities said two Russian journalists planning to travel to Moldova to present a documentary on Crimea have been banned from the country for five years.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Nigeria multiple witnesses said dozens of Nigerian women who were forced to marry Boko Haram fighters were reportedly slaughtered by their "husbands" before a battle with troops in the northeast town of Bama. Witnesses said the killing of women began 10 days before Bama was liberated.
(AFP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, A senior Saudi official said that the kingdom will no longer issue business visas to Swedes or renew the current visas of Swedish nationals living in the country in response to Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom's recent criticism of human rights and women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 19, Switzerland signed a preliminary agreement with the European Union that will make it much harder for the 28-nation bloc's citizens to evade taxes by hiding money in Swiss vaults.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, Thailand police today arrested Boon Ching Teo (51) of Malaysia, and Sirichai Sridanont (50) of Thailand, after seizing 51 pieces of African ivory Dec. 31 in the northeastern province of Surin.
(AP, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 19, In eastern Uruguay 10 people were killed when their plane plummeted into Laguna del Sauce in Maldonado province. Of the eight passengers and two crew members aboard the flight, nine were Argentines and one was Portuguese.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 19, In Vietnam Hanoi leader Nguyen The Thao put the cutting of old trees to a stop a few days after some 20,000 people gathered to object to the uprooting of some 500 old trees as part of a plan to replace some 6,700 mature trees.
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.34)
2015 Mar 19, In Yemen an unidentified warplane attacked the presidential palace in Aden. Rival forces fought the worst clashes in years. 13 people were killed when forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi fought their way into Aden's international airport and wrested an adjacent military base from a renegade officer.
(Reuters, 3/19/15)
2015 Mar 20, The Obama administration issued the first federal mandates governing hydraulic fracturing on public land.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 20, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that the US must release photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a long-running clash over letting the world see potentially disturbing images of how the military treated prisoners.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, The US FDA approved genetically engineered foods as safe.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 20, In New Orleans, La., police shot Richard White (63) three times at the Louis Armstrong International Airport after he attacked border agents with a machete and wasp spray. White was shot and died the next day at a local hospital.
(AFP, 3/21/15)(SSFC, 3/22/15, p.A11)
2015 Mar 20, Bulgaria's authorities said they had discovered the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus in two dead pelicans in a nature reserve in northeastern part of the Balkan country, close to neighboring Romania.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Canada Raed Jaser (37), a longtime resident of Palestinian descent, and Tunisian-born Chiheb Esseghaier (32), accused of plotting to attack a passenger train travelling from New York to Toronto, were found guilty of several terror-related charges. They will be sentenced April 10. On Sep 23 both men were sentenced to life in prison. Each would have to serve at least ten years before becoming eligible for parole.
(AP, 3/21/15)(SFC, 9/24/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, Beijing shut down the third of its four coal-fired power plants as part of its campaign to cut pollution, with the final one scheduled to close next year.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Cuban media reported that a local court last week condemned several government officials to prison terms of between five and 15 years for stealing and selling millions of eggs on the black market.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Denmark two men suspected of helping the gunman who killed two people in attacks in Copenhagen last Feb 15 were jailed.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Europol, the European Union's policy agency, said that raids earlier this week in Austria, Cyprus, Slovenia and Switzerland led to 26 arrests and the identification of 14 possible victims of the smugglers. The raids of brothels and restaurants targeted Chinese criminal networks that reportedly smuggled people to the continent.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, The EU and Balkan countries launched a campaign aimed at stemming the flow of fighters from southeastern Europe to join jihadists in the Middle East. The Balkans are generally considered to include Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, about half of Croatia, Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, most of Serbia, and the European part of Turkey.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkans)
2015 Mar 20, The EU committed 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) to help Athens deal with what even EU leaders now call the "humanitarian crisis" hitting Greeks in the wake of the financial crisis that left the nation on the brink of bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders agreed to increase cooperation with Tunisia following an Islamist attack on tourists in the capital this week, saying they would also offer more economic assistance to the new Arab democracy.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, EU leaders, concerned about migrants using Libya as a jumping-off point to reach the continent, pledged to help the conflict-torn country regain stability but ruled out deploying any security operation.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ethiopian officials set fire to 6.1 tons of illegal elephant tusks, ivory trinkets, carvings and various forms of jewelry on a wooden pyre in Addis Ababa to discourage poaching and the ivory trade.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Germany-based Lufthansa canceled hundreds more flights as pilots went on strike for the third consecutive day and announced they would continue the walk-out over the weekend.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern India education authorities said about 600 high school students in Bihar state have been expelled for cheating on pressure-packed 10th grade examinations this week.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In northern India three coaches of a passenger train derailed, killing at least 32 people near Bachhrawan village in Uttar Pradesh state.
(AP, 3/20/15)(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Iraq and Syria the US and its coalition allies staged eight air strikes against Islamic State militants over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Islamic State published a video purporting to show the beheading of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq by militants who threatened to kill "dozens" more of those being held captive. The population under Islamic State control was about eight million people.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/21/15, p.17)
2015 Mar 20, Italy unveiled the newly restored ancient city of Pompeii. It had been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Kashmir suspected rebels wearing army uniforms stormed an Indian police station, killing a policeman. A four-hour gun battle then left 2 paramilitary soldiers, 2 militants and a civilian dead.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Kenya launched Africa's first water fund, a public-private partnership aimed at raising $15 million to provide clean water to 9.3 million people by protecting the basin of the country's longest river.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Liberian officials said a patient has tested positive for Ebola in Monrovia, deflating hopes that the nation had beaten the disease.
(SFC, 3/21/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 20, In Mexico about 40 buses blocked one of the main highways leading north out of Mexico City in a protest over the latest killing aboard a bus by thieves.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a single currency with the Kremlin's closest ex-Soviet allies at a meeting with his Kazakh and Belarusian counterparts in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Syria a twin bombing targeting Kurds celebrating their new year in the northeastern city of Hassakeh killed 49 people and wounded 177 others.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 20, Taiwan authorities introduced emergency water rationing as the country faced its worst drought in over a decade and the lowest rainfall in nearly 70 years. The government last imposed water rationing and anti-drought measures in 2001 in parts of Taiwan, including Taipei.
(AFP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Turkey has offered a $50 million loan to Ukraine to help cover its budget deficit in a joint press conference in Kiev with Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey also offered Ukraine $10 million in humanitarian assistance.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In eastern Ukraine one civilian was killed in an attack by pro-Russian separatist rebels in the government-controlled town of Avdiyivka despite a ceasefire deal.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, A new UN report warned that the world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water in just 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource.
(AP, 3/20/15)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen bombings targeted two mosques in Sanaa and another in the Huthis' Saada stronghold, where an assailant detonated his explosives belt outside a mosque after failing to get in. At least 137 people were killed at the mosques attended by Shiite militiamen. The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility.
(AFP, 3/20/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.51)
2015 Mar 20, In Yemen unidentified aircraft dropped bombs over an area that includes the residence of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden but he was unharmed. In southern Yemen Al Qaeda fighters captured al-Houta, capital of the southern Lahj province, killing about 20 soldiers, before they were driven out by the army late today.
(Reuters, 3/20/15)(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Alaska a nearly yearlong search for a missing came to a grim end with the discovery of four bodies - Rebecca Adams (23), her boyfriend, Brandon Jividen (38), and her children, Michelle Hundley (6) and Jaracca Hundley (3) - a dead dog and a handgun just off a trail in a rural area near the family's home on the outskirts of Kenai.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jose Lantigua (62), a Jacksonville businessman reported dead two years ago in Venezuela, was arrested in North Carolina on alleged fraud charges after his life insurance companies filed a lawsuit alleging he was alive and they shouldn't be making payments.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Washington, DC, a new museum complex opened on the campus of George Washington Univ. It joined the Textile Museum with the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection.
(SSFC, 3/8/15, p.L2)
2015 Mar 21, In NYC 7 children from the same family died when their home was engulfed in flames after a portable cooker malfunctioned in Brooklyn.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In northern Afghanistan a roadside bomb targeting a district police chief killed 3 civilians when it blew up their vehicle in Kunduz province. Afghan security forces foiled a would-be suicide attack on the vice president during a traditional horse-riding event in Zawzjan province. A suicide car bomber targeted a patrol of intelligence service troops in eastern Nangarhar province. Five people were wounded.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In southern Chile Rev. Juan Barros (58) was ordained on Osorno amid riot police and shouting protesters, who accuse him of covering up crimes of a mentor the Vatican has sanctioned for abusing young boys.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Dagestan six suspected insurgents were killed in a raid in the capital Makhachkala. Russian authorities said those killed were suspected in an array of terrorist actions, including attacks on police.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In Egypt at least 12 workers were killed when their bus plunged into a canal west of Cairo.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, The mayor of Paris, France, said the number of cars on the road will be cut in half beginning March 23. Public transit will be made free to combat a spike in pollution that has obscured even the Eiffel Tower under a smoggy haze.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Indian soldiers killed two suspected Kashmiri rebels after they tried to sneak into the army's main infantry headquarters in the Indian portion of the disputed Himalayan territory.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Libyan army troops battled militias west of Tripoli. The Libyan army said it's carrying out airstrikes on multiple targets.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In northeast Nigeria Chadian troops returned to the border town of Gamboru, after Boko Haram took advantage of a lack of military presence to kill 11 people on March 18-19.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma ordered the country's entire population to stay in their homes for three days in a bid to stem the spread of the deadly Ebola epidemic.
(AFP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, A South Sudanese rebel group freed 250 child soldiers -- including a girl as young as nine. The UN children's agency warned the next day that thousands were still being forced to fight.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, Swiss artist Hans Erni (b.1909) died. His prolific work ranged from tiny postage stamps to enormous frescoes.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 21, In eastern Ukraine 2 government servicemen were reported killed in attacks by Russian-backed separatist rebels in the last 24 hours despite an agreed ceasefire.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, Yemen's Shiite rebels issued a call to arms to battle forces loyal to the country's embattled president, as US troops evacuated the al-Annad air base near the southern city of al-Houta, seized temporarily a day earlier by al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 21, In southern Yemen Houthi forces fired on hundreds of people in Taiz, a mainly Sunni city, protesting against their advance across the country. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
(AP, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 22, The US Marine Corps urged "vigilance" after a group claiming to be Islamic State hackers published what they said were the names and addresses of 100 military personnel and urged supporters to kill them.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, US Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a 16-year-old Arizona girl and two women in their 20s who were with her when she allegedly tried to smuggle 185 pounds of marijuana into the United States from Mexico through a checkpoint at the Port of Lukeville.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 22, Bahrain jailed 11 people for 15 years each over an attack on a police station in a Shiite village that left four policemen wounded. A 12th defendant was jailed for seven years The 12 were accused of taking part in an attack in October in the village of Aaly.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Central African Republic villagers said a group of heavily armed Muslims attacked several villages over the weekend, killing at least 11 people.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Two Chadian army helicopters bombed Nigerian Boko Haram positions killing several dozen militants near a village on the border with Niger.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 May 22, It was announced that China National Chemical Corp. (CNCC), a state-owned conglomerate, would buy Pirelli, an Italian tire maker, for $7.7 billion.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.70)
2015 Mar 22, France held the first round of council elections. Victory will determine which candidates can contest a second vote March 29.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said it has arrested six members of a Hamas cell with explosive materials they planned to use in attacks inside the Jewish state.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Moroccan authorities announced the dismantling of a militant network linked to the Islamic State group across nine cities that had been planning attacks.
(AP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Dozens of Palestinians and foreign supporters protested in east Jerusalem's walled Old City against the threatened eviction of a Palestinian family to make way for Jewish settlers.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Spain's two new political newcomers faced their first real test in elections in Andalusia, famous for its olive groves and sunny beaches. More than one in three were unemployed here, above the national average of one in four.
(Reuters, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, Sudanese rebels said they had launched a "lightning" assault on a government garrison in the conflict-hit Blue Nile region, with the army saying the attack was repulsed.
(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, In Syria Islamist rebels captured four crew members when a regime helicopter crashed in the northwest province of Idlib. Another airman survived the crash, but was reported killed by his captors.
(AFP, 3/22/15)(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 22, A Turkish opposition lawmaker said he is helping the families of nine British medical students and doctors of Sudanese origin believed to have crossed into Syria from Turkey.
(AP, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 22, In central Venezuela at least 11 people were killed when a bus drove into a ravine on Venezuela’s Central.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 22, In Yemen Houthi fighters opposed to the president took over the central city of Taiz. Huthis and their allies also seized the airport in Taez.
(Reuters, 3/22/15)(AFP, 3/22/15)
2015 Mar 23, A late night brawl in an Arizona Wal-Mart parking lot left one person dead and two others wounded, including a police officer who was shot in the leg. Seven suspects were eventually arrested.
(AP, 3/23/15)(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Arizona Debra Milke (51), who spent more than two decades on death row in her 4-year-old son's killing saw her murder charge dismissed. James Styers and Roger Scott, the two men who led her son to his death, have been on death row and have refused to testify against Milke. Her conviction had been based entirely on a confession she gave to now-discredited detective, Armando Saldate.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Los Angeles Vianna Roman (39), the daughter of an imprisoned Mexican Mafia kingpin, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She had pleaded guilty last year to racketeering, narcotics and weapons charges.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 23, In North Carolina 3 men were killed in Raleigh a piece of scaffolding on a high-rise construction project fell to the ground as it was being dismantled.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 23, Gary Ross Dahl (b.1936), creator of the 1975 pet rock fad, died at his home in southern Oregon.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.D3)
2015 Mar 23, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert gave his stamp of approval to a law that brings back the firing squad in the only state that has used it in the past 40 years.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 23, Australian-born former tennis Grand Slam champion Bob Hewitt was found guilty in South Africa of raping and assaulting young girls whom he was coaching in the early 1980s.
(Reuters, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, Beijing banned imports of whole salmon from three Norwegian regions amid concerns they carry infectious salmon anemia (ISA). That ban represents one-fifth of Norway's salmon exports to China.
(AFP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, In central China a flood in a shale mine left at least five miners dead and one missing.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Japan the governor of Okinawa ordered the suspension of work on a new US airfield at Camp Schwab.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 23, The Mexican Navy captured Ramiro Perez Moreno (34), a suspected leader of the violent Zetas drug cartel, early today in Nuevo Laredo on the Texas border. He was on Mexico's list of 122 priority targets for arrest.
(AP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Senegal Karim Wade, the son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, was convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to six years in prison with a fine of nearly $230 million.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 23, Singapore plunged into mourning after the death of Lee Kuan Yew (b.1923), the iron-fisted politician who forged a prosperous city-state out of unpromising beginnings.
(AFP, 3/23/15)
2015 Mar 24, Pres. Obama met with Afghan Pres. Ashraf Ghani and in a joint news conference announced that the US will maintain its current 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through the end of this year.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 24, In California police officer Michael Johnson was shot and killed in San Jose while responding to a call about a suicidal man, identified as Scott Dunham (57), armed with a gun.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 24, In Indiana 4 people were found fatally shot this morning at a ransacked home in Indianapolis.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, In Pennsylvania Hummelstown police Officer Lisa J. Mearkle (36) was charged with criminal homicide after investigators concluded she shot an unarmed motorist in the back as he lay facedown after a traffic stop over an expired inspection sticker.
(AP, 3/24/15)(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A8)
2015 Mar 24, In Wisconsin police officer Trevor Casper began pursuing a vehicle matching the description of the car of a suspect who was wanted in a bank robbery in Fond du Lac Fond du Lac. A gun battle ensued leaving both the trooper and the suspect dead.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, Google announced that it would be bringing Google Fiber to Salt Lake City, which actually will make it the second city in Utah to have access to the service. Google first announced it was bringing Fiber to Provo, Utah back in 2013.
(BGR News, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, It was reported that H.J. Heinz Co. is buying Kraft Foods, creating one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world with annual revenue of about $28 billion. The deal was engineered by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital. The two will invest another $10 billion in the new company.
(AP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, Merck & Co Inc. said that it would stop a large study of its Keytruda melanoma treatment early because an independent monitoring committee determined the drug succeeded in its goal of prolonging survival in previously untreated patients at advanced stage of the disease. In 2016 Keytruda became the 2nd checkpoint inhibitor to be approved in America.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)(Econ, 9/16/17, TQ p.9)
2015 Mar 24, Brent crude oil fell towards $55 a barrel in choppy trading after the dollar firmed, adding pressure to a market grappling with signs of slowing Chinese growth and Saudi Arabian oil production close to an all-time high.
(Reuters, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a meeting of the Communist Party's politburo hosted by President Xi Jinping approved three free-trade zones in the southern province of Guangdong, eastern province of Fujian and northern city of Tianjin.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 24, In China a provincial court in Kunming, Yunnan province, announced that authorities have executed three Uighur men for carrying out a knife attack last year at a train station where 31 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 24, The leaders of Egypt and Ethiopia promised to boost cooperation on the Nile River and turn a page on a long-running row over Addis Ababa's controversial dam project.
(AFP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, An Airbus A320 Germanwings airplane, operated by Lufthansa, crashed in the French Alps as it flew from Barcelona to Duesseldorf. 150 people were killed. On March 26 investigators said Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz of the doomed Germanwings jet barricaded himself in the cockpit and "intentionally" sent the plane full speed into a mountain in the French Alps.
(AP, 3/24/15)(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 24, Greece's former finance minister, George Papaconstantinou (53), was acquitted on criminal charges over his handling of data on Greeks holding Swiss bank accounts. He was found guilty of a misdemeanor for doctoring a document and was not expected to spend time in jail.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 24, In Iraq Islamic State militants publicly stoned a man and a woman to death on charges of adultery.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 24, Jordan signed a $10 billion deal with Russia to build the kingdom's first nuclear power plant, with two 1,000-megawatt reactors in the country's north.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, Syrian rebels launched an offensive against a major government-held city in northwestern Syria, shelling the outskirts and warning residents to remain indoors in the coming days.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, The UN General Assembly’s budget committee approved a plan to give benefits to all spouses of gay UN staffers who are legally married regardless of same-sex marriage laws in their home countries.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 24, Venezuela said it is launching a probe into large offshore bank deposits amid a spate of reports that at least $2 billion was siphoned off by corrupt, top-level officials at state-run oil company PDVSA.
(AP, 3/24/15)
2015 Mar 24, In southern Yemen the Shiite rebels known as Houthis fired bullets and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters demanding that the rebels withdraw from Taiz province. At least 6 demonstrators were killed.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 25, The US government and major business leaders renewed their call on the Thai government to crack down on slavery in its fishing fleets, and to punish people who force migrant workers to catch seafood that can end up in the United States.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 25, The US Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision threw out a lower court ruling that upheld a state legislature redistricting plan in Alabama that packed black voters into certain districts in a way critics say diminished their clout at the polls.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, The US Army charged Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy for leaving his post in Afghanistan in June, 2009.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 25, The United States and its allies staged 19 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq over the last 24 hours.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, California announced legal action to suppress a "reprehensible" ballot initiative to outlaw homosexuality -- on pain of execution. The proposal was submitted by lawyer Matthew McLaughlin to the California Attorney General's office late last month.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, In southern California Giseleangelique Rene D'Milian (47) was arrested for plotting to kidnap two babies, including one found dead on January 4 in a dumpster, and attacking their mothers in a bizarre scheme to fool her boyfriend into thinking she birthed their twins.
(Reuters, 3/25/15)(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 25, Facebook announced that it has started to turn its Messenger service into a platform on top of which other firms can develop content and apps.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.68)
2015 Mar 25, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber detonated a car full of explosives in downtown Kabul killing at least 7 people.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, In Chile communities in a northern desert region struggled to cope with rain-provoked flooding. At least 24 people were killed as power was knocked out and roadways cut off. The interior ministry declared a state of emergency.
(AP, 3/26/15)(AFP, 3/27/15)(AP, 4/2/15)
2015 Mar 25, A number of pilots at Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Germanwings refused to fly following the deadly crash a day earlier in the French Alps, saying they were mourning the victims of the doomed aircraft.
(AFP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, It was reported that workers in Mexico’s state of Baja California have led a week of violent protests over low pay, abuses and poor conditions at large-export-oriented farms.
(SFC, 3/25/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, Pakistani military jets killed 30 militants in the Tirah Valley of the Khyber tribal region. The army said 80 militants were killed in the area over the weekend with 7 government soldiers also killed.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, A Polish court sentenced former priest Wojciech Gill to seven years in prison for abusing six minors in the Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2013, as well as two in Poland in 2001-2002.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the governor of a far-flung region who has been arrested on charges of corruption. Alexander Khoroshavin, governor of the island of Sakhalin just north of Japan, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of receiving a bribe for building a power station.
(AP, 3/25/15)
2015 Mar 25, The Saudi ambassador to the United States announced that his country had initiated airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi operation was called “Decisive Storm." King Salman gathered a 10-country coalition of Sunni states to bomb the Houthis.
(AFP, 3/25/15)(SSFC, 4/5/15, p.A4)(Econ, 5/23/15, p.18)
2015 Mar 25, Syrian rebels seized an ancient town near the Jordan border that is a key government stronghold, ousting Syrian soldiers and allied militiamen from the region after four days of intense battles. 11 soldiers and allied militia as well as 17 insurgents were killed as an alliance of Islamist rebels including al Qaeda's Nusra Front overran 17 defense posts around Idlib in an offensive to take the city from the army and allied militia.
(AP, 3/25/15) (Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 25, Thailand security forces killed 4 people when they raided a village in Pattani, one of three Muslim-dominated provinces bordering Malaysia, as part of an operation to arrest rebels. On April 8 an investigating team said the four Muslim men were not members of any extremist group and called for legal action against those responsible.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Mar 25, A Uganda health official said an outbreak of typhoid has infected hundreds of people in the capital, Kampala.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 25, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko forced Igor Kolomoisky to step down as head of the key industrial region of Dnipropetrovsk, after a dispute over control of the main state oil and gas company ended up with armed men storming two office blocks in Kiev.
(AFP, 3/25/15)(Econ., 3/28/15, p.55)
2015 Mar 25, Ukraine arrested two top officials on graft charges at a televised cabinet meeting hours after the president sacked a powerful oligarch as regional governor. Police detained Sergiy Bochkovsky, director of Ukraine's state emergencies service, and his deputy Vasyl Stoyetsky, accusing them of "high-level" corruption.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 25, In Vietnam least 14 people were killed and 30 injured late today when a huge scaffolding collapsed at an industrial complex owned by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics group in the Vung Ang economic zone of Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province. In December a court sentenced two South Koreans and two Vietnamese to prison for committing safety violations in the collapse that killed 13 people and injured 29 others.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Mar 25, Yemen Pres. Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi fled the country by sea as Shiite rebels and their allies moved on his last refuge in the south.
(SFC, 3/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 26, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed into law a religious objections bill that some convention organizers and business leaders have opposed amid concern it could allow discrimination against gay people.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Airlines rushed to change their rules so as to require a second crew member in the cockpit at all times, hours after French prosecutors suggested co-pilot Andreas Lubitz (27) had barricaded himself alone at the controls of a German jetliner and crashed it on purpose.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Albanian lawmakers voted to lift the immunity of two of their colleagues accused of false testimony claiming that the parliament speaker was behind an alleged assassination plot to kill two deputies. Doshi was expelled from the governing Socialists three weeks ago after claiming Parliament speaker Ilir Meta, a former prime minister, had paid 600,000 euros ($656,000) to have him and an opposition Democratic Party lawmaker killed. Doshi had claimed that Frroku had first told him about the alleged plot.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Argentina announced a new 100-peso note honoring the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Today 100 pesos buys $11 at the official exchange rate.
(Econ., 4/11/15, p.68)
2015 Mar 26, Brazil’s federal police said they had uncovered "criminal organizations" suspected of causing a shortfall of at least 6 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in unpaid taxes. More than 50 companies in the industrial, financial and agricultural sectors were being investigated for allegedly bribing officials at the Finance Ministry's tax appeals court to reduce annual fines on unpaid taxes.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Britain buried King Richard III with pomp 530 years after his violent death. His remains had been found under a parking lot in 2012.
(SFC, 3/27/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 26, Troops from Chad and Niger pursued Boko Haram fighters across a northern Nigeria border area, driving them out of a village they held there and causing some to flee into Niger.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Jaber, an Iranian fishing vessel believed to have up to 19 crew, was captured by Somali pirates, along with another Iranian fishing vessel, Siraj. Jaber and its crew escaped on August 27.
(Reuters, 8/28/15)
2015 Mar 26, Iraqi forces buoyed by the first US-led coalition air strikes on Tikrit made a final push to flush diehard jihadists out of Saddam Hussein's hometown. US-led warplanes carried out 17 air strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Tikrit overnight in the first wave of coalition bombing raids in support of an Iraqi government offensive to recapture the town. The Iran-backed Shiite militias pulled out of the offensive in Tikrit in protest over US airstrikes there.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Italian police and Europol said eight people have been arrested in a half-dozen European countries for allegedly operating a diesel import scam that avoided taxes by disguising the fuel as it transited across the continent.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, In Mexico an attempt to take gasoline from a crashed tanker truck led to deaths and injuries when the vehicle exploded. The death toll rose to 17 as more victims died of burn injuries at hospitals.
(AP, 3/28/15)(AP, 4/3/15)
2015 Mar 26, North Korea said it had arrested two South Koreans based in the Chinese border city of Dandong, accusing them of spying for South Korea.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Pakistani Taliban killed 5 police officers in a rocket attack in country's southwest.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, The Philippines' top diplomat said that China has been rushing construction projects, including massive land reclamation, in the disputed South China Sea in hopes of forestalling any legal moves against its vast territorial claims.
(AP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, Warplanes from a Saudi-led Arab coalition bombed Huthi Shiite rebels in support of Yemen's embattled president, as regional rival Iran warned the intervention was a "dangerous" move. Egypt participated in the Saudi-led campaign against Shi'ite Houthis militias in Yemen with its naval and air forces. The US military rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their jet off Yemen's coast.
(AFP, 3/26/15)(Reuters, 3/26/15)(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 26, Sudan said it is providing ground troops as well as warplanes for a Saudi-led military intervention against Shiite rebels in Yemen.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council boosted the number of peacekeepers in Central African Republic by more than 1,000 after the mission was overburdened by a need to protect infrastructure and senior officials in the capital Bangui.
(Reuters, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 26, The UN Security Council voted to cut 2,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo despite calls from Kinshasa for a bigger drawdown.
(AFP, 3/26/15)
2015 Mar 27, The White House announced a five-year plan to fight the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 27, Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton said she had permanently deleted all e-mails from the private server she used to conduct officials business.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 27, In Boston police Officer John Moynihan (34) was shot in the face by suspect Angelo West (41) following a traffic stop. West was killed as he tried to run away. Moynihan was hospitalized and put into an induced coma.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A10)
2015 Mar 27, In NYC Moises Lucon (26) and Nicholas Figueroa (23) were killed after an explosion brought down three buildings and damaged a fourth property in the East Village, injuring 22 people.
(AP, 3/27/15)(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A12)(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 27, In Bangladesh at least 10 people were killed and dozens more injured in a stampede during a Hindu religious gathering in Langalbandh.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Dominica a police sergeant and four officers were charged with murder. They were accused in last year's death of a prisoner found unresponsive in his cell. Police have said that Joshua Etienne had fractured ribs and a punctured lung.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian warships deployed to the Bab al-Mandab strait off Yemen to secure the strategic sea passage.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A3)
2015 Mar 27, In eastern Indonesia an estimated 4,000 foreign fishermen were reported stranded on a number of remote islands, including men reported to have been enslaved. Some migrant workers from Myanmar said they had been brought to Indonesia from Thailand and forced to work on trawlers with Thai captains.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Iraqi troops pressed their push in Tikrit as fighter planes pounded IS targets from above. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for unity among the country's forces battling the IS group.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Israel said it will transfer Palestinian tax revenues that were being withheld as punishment for a Palestinian application to join the Int’l. Criminal Court.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 27, Italy’s highest criminal court acquitted Ms. Knox, an American, and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito of murdering British student Meredith Kercher in 2007.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, Kyrgyzstan’s secret police, the GKNB, raided the office and home of lawyer Khusanbay Saliev, who represented arrested Uzbek Imam Rashot Kamalov.
(Econ., 5/2/15, p.35)
2015 Mar 27, In Liberia woman, who last week became the country's first Ebola patient in more than a month, died. Two new suspected cases were also reported identified.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, In The Netherlands trains, trams and planes ground to a temporary halt in and around Amsterdam as a huge power outage hit the Dutch capital and surrounding towns. Power was soon restored.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Nigeria's military announced that troops had retaken the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram, from which the group declared their caliphate last year. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen beheaded 23 people and set fire to homes in Buratai, on the eve of general elections. Elsewhere in the restive northeast, suspected Islamist militants killed at least 7 people in separate attacks in the Gombe state.
(AFP, 3/27/15)(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Pakistan a roadside bomb on a motorcycle hit a police bus in Karachi and left 10 people wounded. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Sierra Leone's 6 million people were told to stay home for three days, except for religious services, beginning today as the West African nation attempted a final push to rid itself of Ebola.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Somalia suspected Islamist fighters stormed the popular Maka Al-Mukarramah Hotel in Mogadishu, trapping government officials inside. The attack killed at least 24 people, including six attackers.
(Reuters, 3/27/15)(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 27, South Africa's state power company Eskom said more than 1,000 workers building a much-needed new power plant had been sacked for staging an illegal strike two days earlier, as the country grapples with rolling electricity cuts.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Syria Islamist rebels made fresh advances on the edges of Idlib city, after fierce clashes that have left dozens of dead.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, The Turkish parliament passed a stripped down version of its controversial homeland security bill that has enraged the opposition, after a 16-hour debate that lasted all night.
(AFP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, In Yemen at least 21 Shiite rebels were killed when residents in a tribal southern region opened fire at their vehicles. Warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Sanaa and their northern heartland and, in a boost for Riyadh, fellow monarchy Morocco said it would join the rapidly-assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Shi'ite Muslim group.
(AFP, 3/27/15)(Reuters, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, Separatists in eastern Ukraine handed over the bodies of 22 government soldiers killed during the fierce, months-long battle over the airport near the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 27, The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that LRA fighters kidnapped 16 people last weekend who had been working in their fields in Congo, just over the border from Central African Republic. The rebels released 13 of them but were still holding three refugee boys.
(AP, 3/27/15)
2015 Mar 28, Many lights were turned off around the world for Earth Hour, an initiative began in Sydney in 2007, from 8:30pm.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, NASA said a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three crew on board successfully docked with the International Space Station after blasting off from Kazakhstan. An American and two Russians floated into the International Space Station, beginning what is to be a year away from Earth for two of them.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, It was reported that the California Public Utilities Commission had accumulated legal fees of $5.1 million relating to an ongoing state and federal corruption probe of the agency. In 2014 the agency had signed a $49,000 attorney representation contract with the Sheppard Mullin law firm.
(SFC, 3/28/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 28, Albania received 266 million euros from the World Bank for its public finances and road maintenance.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 28, Brazil said it has accepted China's invitation to join a Beijing-backed international infrastructure bank.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Residents of eastern Cameroon killed several suspected fighters from a Central African Republic rebel group who were trying to carry out a large-scale kidnapping near the border town of Garoua-Boulai.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, China’s Pres. Xi Jinping opened a major regional economic conference at the Boao Forum on Hainan Island and argued for strong Chinese-led efforts to promote Asian economic and political cooperation. Mr. Xi described his “One Belt, One Road" (OBOR) vision for regional and global cooperation.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.41)
2015 Mar 28, In Egypt a bomb wounded four civilians and four policemen outside Cairo University.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, In northeastern India 3 policemen were killed and six others injured when militants of the Hmar People's Convention attacked a convoy of lawmakers in Mizoram state with automatic weapons.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Japan opened what organizers billed as the world's first "Otaku" (geeks) summit, drawing visitors from around the world as the country looks to boost the international fan base for Japanese comic books and anime.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Kenya's president suspended four cabinet secretaries and 17 other senior officials to facilitate investigations into allegations of corruption.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Nigeria held elections. Polling in the country's presidential and parliamentary election was suspended in some places because of glitches with new voter ID card readers. Boko Haram extremists killed at least 41 people, including a legislator, and scared hundreds of people from polling stations in three states in the northeast.
(AFP, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, Pakistan's military said its soldiers killed at least 15 militants in the Tirah valley of the Khyber region.
(AP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, Saudi Arabia's navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from Yemen and the United Nations pulled out international staff after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.
(Reuters, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 28, In Sri Lanka Priyantha Sirisena (42) the youngest brother of President Maithripala Sirisena, died two days after he was attacked with an ax in what authorities said was a personal dispute.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, In Syria Islamist groups including al Qaeda's Nusra Front seized the city of Idlib for the first time since the conflict in the country began. The bodies of least 15 detainees were found, apparently executed by government forces, after Idlib was taken.
(Reuters, 3/28/15)(AP, 3/29/15)(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 28, In Tunisia Khaled Ben Hamadi Chaieb, the operational chief in the March 18 deadly museum attack on foreign tourists, was among 9 people killed in anti-terrorist operations. Tens of thousands of Tunisians marched through the capital to denounce extremist violence.
(Reuters, 3/29/15)(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 28, In Yemen a series of explosions rocked an arms depot in Aden, killing at least 14 people as looters swarmed the facility. At least 61 people were reported killed in three days of fighting between Shiite rebels and loyalist militia in Aden.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 29, In the San Francisco Bay Area Denise Huskins (29) disappeared from the Mare Island home of her boyfriend Anthony Quinn (30). She showed up two days later at her parent’s home in Huntington Beach, Orange County. Vallejo police later said the kidnapping was fabricated. On July 13 federal agents said the kidnapping was for real and said Matthew Muller (38) of Sacramento county has been arrested as a suspect. On Sept. 29, 2016, Muller pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping. In 2017 Muller was sentenced to 40 years in prison including five years of probation.
(SFC, 7/14/15, p.A1)(SFC, 9/30/16, p.D1)(SFC, 3/17/17, p.A1)
2015 Mar 29, In Afghanistan at least one civilian was killed by a suicide bomb attack in eastern part of the capital Kabul. Seven civilians were wounded.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Arab leaders meeting in Egypt agreed to form a joint military force after a summit dominated by a Saudi-led offensive on Shiite rebels in Yemen and the threat from Islamist extremism.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Australia announced that it would join negotiations to establish a Chinese-led Asian regional bank that has emerged as a potential challenge to US influence.
(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 29, An Air Canada flight crash landed and slid off the runway in the east coast city of Halifax, with the airline confirming 23 passengers and crew suffered non-life threatening injuries.
(Reuters, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Egypt's top prosecutor named 18 Muslim Brotherhood members, including the group's leader and his deputy, as terrorists in the first implementation of an anti-terror law passed earlier this year.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, In Egypt 14 people were killed and seven injured in a car crash involving three vehicles in the southern province of Sohag.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, France held elections for local councils. Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party and its allies won 46 percent of the vote. The left captured 32 percent of the vote and the National Front won 22 percent with 62 of 4,108 available seats.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, In northeastern Nigeria suspected Boko Haram extremists attacked polling stations and destroyed election material in in Kirfi and Alkaleri towns.
(AP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, In the Philippines 4 soldiers and 16 insurgents were killed. A month-long offensive against hardline Muslim rebels ended with 139 insurgents killed, 12 others captured and bomb-making strongholds seized by troops.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Sierra Leone announced the end of a three-day nationwide lockdown aimed at preventing a resurgence of the deadly Ebola virus.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 29, In Spain Peter David Tarsey (b.1937) who competed for Britain at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, was found shot dead along with his wife (77) at their home in Xalo near Benidorm on the Costa Blanca. On Sep 10 police in the province of Alicante detained a man who they suspect murdered the couple.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tarsey)(AP, 9/11/15)
2015 Mar 29, A video posted by the Islamic State group showed its fighters beheading 8 men, said to be Shiite Muslims, in Syria’s Hama province.
(SFC, 3/30/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 29, A Turkish court charged former policemen Sedat Zavar and Ilker Usta with illegally eavesdropping on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following their extradition from Romania.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, In Yemen at least 38 people were killed in clashes between rebel forces and tribes near a southern oil region. Saudi-led warplanes bombed the main international airport and struck a renegade troop base in Sanaa.
(AFP, 3/29/15)
2015 Mar 29, Uzbeks voted massively in a presidential election with turnout topping 70 percent halfway through the poll expected to deliver another landslide victory for strongman Islam Karimov (77). Karimov garnered 90.4 percent of the vote as nearly 91 percent of the vote was counted the next day.
(SSFC, 3/29/15, p.A6)(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In San Francisco an indictment, filed on March 25, was unsealed and charged Carl Force (46), a special agent with the DEA, and Shaun Bridges (32), a special agent with the US Secret Service, with stealing digital currency during the investigation of the Silk Road online marketplace and its founder Ross William Ulbricht. On Oct 19 Force was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison and ordered to pay $340,000 in restitution to the government.
(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A8)(SFC, 10/20/15, p.C2)
2015 Mar 30, In Florida a church van ran through a stop sign, crossed all four lanes of a rural highway and crashed into in a canal, killing 8 people and injuring ten.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Maryland one cross-dressing man was killed and another injured as they mistakenly crashed a stolen Ford Escape into a police cruiser at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade.
(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 30, In eastern Afghanistan a roadside bombing in Ghazni province killed 7 people, all members of the same family.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Bangladesh blogger Oyasiqur Rhaman (27) was hacked to death by three men in Dhaka. Two of the attackers, students at madrassas, were caught near the scene.
(AP, 3/30/15)(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, In Belgium thousands of demonstrators and trade union activists protested against austerity measures for a second day.
(SFC, 3/31/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, China’s government said nearly 70 "illegal" courses have been closed, seemingly enforcing a decade-old ban for the first time.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 30, Gambia sentenced three soldiers to death after a secret trial in which they were convicted of participating in a December 30 attempted coup. Three other soldiers received life sentences.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, Germany said that the euro zone would give Athens no further financial aid until it has a more detailed list of reforms and some are enacted into law, adding to skepticism over plans presented last week.
(Reuters, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Gibraltar a family of four, including a six-week-old baby girl and her four-year-old sister, were found dead in a flat in the tiny British territory.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In eastern India a bus driver lost control of his vehicle on a sharp curve on a mountain road and plunged into a gorge, killing at least 11 people in Garhwa district of Jharkhand state.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said a US drone strike killed two of its advisers near the Iraqi city of Tikrit on March 23, where a major offensive is underway against the Islamic State group. The US said its coalition conducted no airstrikes in the area during the time of the incident.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Iraq a pair of car bombings in a Baghdad suburb killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens, hours after the arrival of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, for talks with the Iraqi officials.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Israel a Jerusalem court found Ehud Olmert (69), former premier (2006-2008), guilty of corruption in a retrial of allegations he received envelopes of cash from US businessman Morris Talansky while trade and industry minister in the early 2000s.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, An Israeli committee approved controversial plans for eventual construction of 2,200 Palestinian homes in occupied east Jerusalem, in the largest such project since 1967.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Malaysia three editors of the Malaysia Insider news website were arrested on suspicion of violating the country’s Sedition Act and Communications and Multimedia Act. The next day two executives of the Malaysia Insider were arrested.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A6)
2015 Mar 30, The Maldives' Parliament passed a law that strips people serving prison sentences of their political party memberships, a rule critics say is designed to oust jailed former President Mohamed Nasheed from politics.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In northern Mali an international Red Cross worker was killed and a local colleague wounded when the aid truck they were driving came under fire, in an attack claimed by the MUJAO jihadist group.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Mexico Jose Guadalupe Reyes Rivera was arrested in a machine shop in Ciudad Victoria in connection with the Aug 24, 2010, massacre of 72 migrants.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 30, Myanmar peace negotiators agreed the draft text of a historic nationwide ceasefire agreement, as the country edged closer to ending decades of conflict between ethnic minority groups and the government.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In southern Nepal a wild rhino charged into the outskirts of Hetauda city, killing a woman (61), injuring several others and chasing panicked people through the main market and a hospital.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Niger militants tried to attack the town of Bosso, just over the border with Nigeria. Troops from Niger and Chad intervened, killing 47 militants and destroying several of their vehicles and mortars.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Nigeria some 2,000 women protesting against the conduct of elections in Rivers state were teargassed as they tried to register their complaints with electoral officials.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In northeastern Nigeria 8 suspected Boko Haram fighters were killed during fighting in Gombe and Bauchi states.
(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, Peru's Congress sacked PM Ana Jara over alleged spying against lawmakers, reporters, business leaders and other citizens.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, In South Sudan 3 staff members of the UN World Food Program disappeared while traveling in a convoy from Malakal to distribute food to Melut, Upper Nile state. UN food operation in some parts of the country were soon suspended.
(SFC, 4/23/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, Spanish police arrested 12 people suspected of belonging to an anarchist group called Coordinated Anarchists Groups, and were suspected of sabotage offenses and planting explosive devices.
(AP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 30, In Uganda Joan Kagezi, a prosecutor in the trial of about a dozen men facing terrorism charges, was shot and killed in Kampala.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 30, In Yemen warships, believed to be from Egypt, shelled a column of Houthi fighters and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh as they tried to advance on the southern port city of Aden. In the north an air strike killed 45 people at the Al-Mazrak camp in Hajja province. Warplanes carried out a fifth night of air strikes around Sanaa.
(Reuters, 3/30/15)(AFP, 3/30/15)
2015 Mar 31, Pres. Obama removed his holds on the delivery of F-16 aircraft, Harpoon missiles and M1A1 tanks kits to Egypt and assured Pres. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi that he would continue to support $1.3 billion in annual military assistance.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 31, The US Treasury Dept. imposed new sanctions on Syria's government aimed at blunting its weapons programs and pushing it into negotiations with rebels. The action targeted Batoul Rida, a Syrian central bank official, and three "front companies" that help fund Syria's development of ballistic missiles and nonconventional weapons.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, The US Supreme Court barred doctors, dentists and druggists from going to court to fight cutbacks in Medicaid payments.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar 31, A US federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of assets of RadioShack to hedge fund Standard General that will keep more than 1,700 stores open. Some 2,000 stores were already closed or in the process of closing.
(SFC, 4/1/15, p.C3)
2015 Mar 31, In southern California Andrew Getty (47), heir to the Getty family oil fortune, was found dead at his home in the Hollywood Hills.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.D1)
2015 Mar 31, In Connecticut John Zelepos (48), the owner of Mystic Pizza restaurant, pleaded guilty to federal tax charges. Prosecutors said that between 2006 and 2010 he diverted just over $567,000 from gross receipts into his personal bank accounts. The restaurant was featured in the 1988 film “Mystic Pizza" with Julia Roberts.
(SFC, 4/3/15, p.A5)
2015 Mar 31, In Buffalo, NY, a reclining statue of a homeless and blanket shrouded Jesus by Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz, was unveiled outside St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral. People soon began to leave money, food and other items for the homeless at the statue.
(http://tinyurl.com/q3hnpuz)
2015 Mar 31, In Argentina transportation unions brought the country to a standstill with a one-day nationwide strike to protest income tax rates and high inflation.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Australia 55 dead greyhounds were found dumped and spent rifle cartridges seen nearby in near Bundaberg, Queensland state. The grisly discovery came on the heels of a live baiting scandal rocking the dog racing industry.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Chile a Bell 206 helicopter went missing while flying with drinking water for residents of a desert region recently hit by flash-floods. It was found on April 2 and the pilot and 3 other people aboard were dead. Pilot Pedro Pablo Aldunate was married to one of Pres. Bachelet's second cousins.
(AP, 4/2/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Colombia a truck lost its brakes and smashed into at least four cars, killing 10 people and injuring 14 more on the highway linking Bogota with Villavicencio.
(AP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, Crimea's independent television station ATR went off air at midnight after Russian authorities repeatedly refused to give it a broadcasting license.
(AP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Germany windstorm Niklas, which entailed wind speeds of up to 192 kilometers (119 miles) per hour, was one of the five most costly storms to hit the country in the last 15 years. German insurers later said they were likely to face damage claims of around 750 million euros ($808 million).
(Reuters, 4/20/15)
2015 Mar 31, In India fierce rain and lightning toppled houses and trees in Bihar state, killing 20 people.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, Iran and six world powers ramped up the pace in negotiations in Switzerland over a preliminary deal on Tehran's nuclear program. Officials cautioned that any agreement would likely be fragile and incomplete.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, Iraqi PM Haidar al-Abadi said government troops aided by Shi'ite paramilitaries have driven Islamic State out of central Tikrit, but the fight to retake all of Saddam Hussein's home town continued. A suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims north of Baghdad, killing 6 people, including 4 Iranians.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)(AP, 3/31/15)(SFC, 4/1/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 31, In Japan a landmark vote by the assembly of Tokyo's Shibuya ward, the district famous as a mecca for trendy youngsters became the first locale in Japan to recognize same sex partnerships as the "equivalent of a marriage," guaranteeing the identical rights of married couples, including hospital visitations and apartment rentals.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Kashmir rescuers recovered 16 bodies from two houses hit by rain-triggered landslides, following its second major floods in six months.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Libya lawmakers in the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) voted to sack prime minister Omar al-Hassi, accusing him of failing to tackle corruption.
(AFP, 4/1/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Nigeria the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) declared victory for its candidate, former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, in the March 28 presidential election.
(Reuters, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, Saudi-led airstrikes pounded Yemen's Shiite rebels for the sixth day, destroying missiles and weapons depots controlled by the rebels. The UN human rights office in Geneva said that in the past five days, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 wounded in five Yemeni cities. Airstrikes hit a dairy factory near Hodeida killing 23.
(AP, 3/31/15)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.44)
2015 Mar 31, In central Syria the Islamic State jihadist group killed at least 46 civilians, including two children, in a raid on a regime-held village in Hama province. Jihadist fighters from the IS group took hostage at least 50 civilians, almost half of them women, seized in a raid on Mabujeh village, Hama province.
(AFP, 3/31/15)(AP, 4/10/15)(Econ., 4/11/15, p.43)
2015 Mar 31, A Thai military court sentenced Bangkok businessman Thiensutham Suthijitseranee to 25 years in prison on charges of defaming the country's monarchy in what appears to be the longest sentence handed down in recent years for the crime of lese majeste.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey an Istanbul court acquitted 236 military officers of charges of plotting a 2003 coup to overthrow the government of then-PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey a massive power cut caused chaos and shut down public transport across the country, with the government refusing to rule out that the electricity system had been the victim of an attack.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Turkey two members of a banned left-wing group, DHKP-C, held prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage in an Istanbul courthouse for six hours. All three died in a shootout between the hostage-takers and police.
(AP, 4/1/15)(SFC, 4/7/15, p.A2)
2015 Mar 31, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said donors meeting in Kuwait have pledged $3.8 billion in humanitarian aid for the people of war-wracked Syria.
(AFP, 3/31/15)
2015 Mar, FinCEN, an arm of the US Treasury, labelled Banca Privada d’Andorra a primary money laundering concern. This effectively shut the bank out of America’s financial system.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.57)
2015 Mar, Indiana state health officials reported 81 HIV-positive tests in one week with most of them coming from the small town of Austin.
(SFC, 4/6/15, p.A7)
2015 Mar, A judge in Las Vegas ruled that Panama-based Mossack Fonseca and MF Nevada were one and the same. Under American law this allowed any investigator anywhere in the world to subpoena Mossack through the Nevada subsidiary for information relevant to cases in any country.
(Econ, 4/16/15, p.61)
2015 Mar, Nvidea unveiled new hardware and software to bring speed, ease and power to deep learning research. The dedicated dee-learning computer “DIGITS" was priced at $15,000.
(http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/03/17/digits-devbox/)(Econ., 4/4/15, p.16)
2015 Mar, The British government set aside 834,000 square km (322,000 square miles) of ocean for the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve, the largest single marine protected area anywhere.
(Econ, 2/13/15, p.84)
2015 Mar, Beijing police arrested an environmental reporter and his associates in an apparent extortion scandal. The group's ringleader, surnamed Chen, was accused of blackmailing businesses into paying hundreds of thousands of yuan to delete embarrassing online reports about their activities on a website for environmental news.
(Reuters, 4/4/15)
2015 Mar, El Salvador recorded 481 homicides this month, more than any other single month in a decade.
(AP, 4/9/15)
2015 Mar, Ford Motor Co. opened a 400-acre car factory in Gujarat, India.
(Econ, 8/8/15, p.57)
2015 Mar, In Iran Mehdi Hashemi (45), son of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was handed prison sentences totaling 25 years after being convicted on three charges in separate cases involving national security, fraud and embezzlement. He was sentenced to two terms of 10 years in prison and one of five years, and in line with Iranian law will serve the longest of the three sentences.
(AFP, 8/9/15)
2015 Mar, Kenya's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) named dozens of top politicians and civil servants in a report that gave a damning indictment of the scale of corruption in the country. A total of 175 people were named in the report, including five cabinet ministers, 13 governors and a host of civil servants, MPs and members of the judiciary.
(AFP, 4/23/15)
2015 Mar, In Macedonia opposition leader Zoran Zaev leaked tapes of alleged conversations gathered for PM Nikola Gruevska and his spy chief cousin.
(Econ., 3/7/15, p.54)
2015 Mar 14, Pakistani authorities arrested top model Ayaan Ali (21) after finding $506,800 tucked into her luggage while trying to fly to Dubai. A court granted her bail on July 14 and she was freed on July 16.
(AP, 7/14/15)(AP, 7/16/15)
2015 Mar, In Pakistan Baloch separatists attacked tankers carrying fuel to a Chinese company working on a mining project.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.31)
2015 Mar, Russian television anchor Pavel Lobkov was targeted by the hacking group known as Fancy Bear, nine months before his messages were leaked. He was one of at least 200 journalists, publishers and bloggers targeted by the group as early as mid-2014 and as recently as a few months ago.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2015 Mar, In South Africa a wave of attacks against the country's colonial heritage began when young protestors at the University of Cape Town threw excrement at a statue of Cecil Rhodes, eventually forcing the university to remove the statue of the British imperialist.
(AFP, 4/6/15)
2015 Mar – 2016 May, US-based cybersecurity company Secureworks, collected data over this period identifying the US defense and security targets of Russian hackers, known as Fancy Bear, from about 19,000 lines of email phishing data created by the hackers. The hackers went after at least 87 people working on militarized drones, missiles, rockets, stealth fighter jets, cloud-computing platforms or other sensitive activities. This was only made public in 2018.
(AP, 2/7/18)
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