Thursday, May 31, 2012

World Current Affairs, March 2012(Part-2)


This time I am loading the current affairs of the world for the month of March 2012. I hope viewers may like it and express their feelings. This is the second set of World Current Affairs, March 2012.
  • At least ten people, including a woman and two children, are killed after a Turkish NATO helicopter crashes into a house on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul.(16th March)
  • Belgium holds a day of national mourning in memory of the victims of the Sierre bus collision in Switzerland earlier this week.(16th March)
  • David Petraeus, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is honored with the Grand Cross with swords in the Order of Orange-Nassau in The Hague for his service as a four-star general in Iraq and Afghanistan.(16th March)
  • Nicolae Timofti becomes the fourth President of Moldova, after nearly 3 years without an elected head of state and political stalemate in the country.(16th March)
  • North Korea announces plans to launch a new satellite in honour of regime founder Kim Il-Sung's birthday in April.(16th March)
  • A Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in southwest China, in the latest in a series of similar incidents where nearly 30 monks have now self-immolated.(17th March)
  • Pope Benedict XVI launches an internal investigation into leaks of confidential documents alleging corruption, financial mismanagement and power struggles among senior church officials.(17th March)
  • Burma signs an agreement with the International Labour Organization to end forced labour by 2015.(17th March)
  • China expresses concern at North Korea's intention to launch a satellite next month to mark the centenary of founder Kim Il-sung's birth.(17th March)
  • Julian Assange announces plans to run for the Senate of Australia despite being under house arrest in the United Kingdom.(17th March)
  • Personal documents released from the papers of Margaret Thatcher show the former British Prime Minister held a private meeting with Rupert Murdoch at Chequers weeks before his purchase of Times Newspapers in 1981.(17th March)
  • Pakistani villagers find 13 bodies with bullet wounds in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas near Afghanistan as security forces step up an offensive.(18th March)
  • A Superleague Greece match between Athens football clubs Olympiacos and Panathinaikos is abandoned after fans set fire to parts of the Athens Olympic Stadium.(18th March)
  • Joachim Gauck is elected President of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal Assembly.(18th March)
  • Dinesh Trivedi resigns as India's Minister for Railways following a negative response to fare increases.(18th March)
  • Ali Daei, Iran's football legend and the world's all-time leading goalscorer, is rushed to hospital following a serious car accident.(18th March)
  • In motor sports, British driver Jenson Button of McLaren wins the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the 2012 Formula One season.(18th March)
  • The Somali National Theatre reopens in Mogadishu more than two decades after it was closed amid civil war.(19th March)
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency receives an invitation from North Korea to visit.(19th March)
  • The European Union threatens trade sanctions against Iceland and the Faroe Isles over a disagreement about fishing rights.(19th March)
  • Fans and police clash and damage the Olympic Stadium in Athens two hours ahead of a match between Panathenians and Piraeus.(19th March)
  • Human Rights Watch raises claims of serious human rights abuses in a clash between Myanmar Armed Forces and the Kachin Independence Army in a dispute in Kachin State that has displaced approximately 75,000 people.(20th March)
  • John Carter records one of the biggest losses in cinema history, forcing Disney to take a $200 million writedown.(20th March)
  • India's official poverty rate falls to an all-time record low of 29.8% for the 2009-2010 survey.(20th March)
  • A Pakistani parliamentary committee calls for an end to NATO drone strikes and an apology for an air strike in November 2011 that killed 24 Pakistani Army soldiers.(20th March)
  • United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warns the Syrian government and President Bashar al-Assad to follow the United Nations peace plan "or face increasing pressure and isolation".(21st March)
  • Burma invites observers from ASEAN, the European Union and the United States to monitor next week's series of by-elections.(21st March)
  • Syrian armed forces continue to shell the city of Hama and at least 59 civilians are reported killed across Syria, in Idlib, Homs, Hama, Daraa, Lattakia, Aleppo and Damascus.(22nd March)
  • The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office says that Whitney Houston's official cause of death was drowning as a result of cocaine use.(22nd March)
  • Ireland officially falls back into recession.(22nd March)
  • In the United States, about 350,000 people filed for unemployment benefits, hitting a four-year low, according to the United States Labor Department.(22nd March)
  • A large fire sweeps through Hatibagan market, one of the oldest in the Indian city of Calcutta, destroying most of the buildings.(22nd March)
  • In a statement by Pope Benedict XVI he says that Communism does not work for Cuba and that he is ready to help the island find new ways to move forward in a peaceful manner.(23rd March)
  • A small piece of Kosmos 2251 satellite debris from the 2009 satellite collision safely passes by the International Space Station, allowing the six Expedition 30 crew members onboard the orbiting complex to exit their Soyuz spacecraft and resume normal activities.(24th March)
  • China announces phase-out practice of taking and selling organs from executed prisoners.(24th March)
  • The Sunday Times releases a video showing British Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas allegedly offering undercover reporters access to UK Prime Minister David Cameron for £250,000.(24th March)
  • A roadside bomb in southern Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, detonates on a joint Afghan-NATO convoy killing six Afghan police, one U.S. soldier, and one translator.(25th March)
  • Kofi Annan and a special UN peace envoy meet with President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev to discuss adopting a harder stance on Syria and Bashar al-Assad.(25th March)
  • New Zealand changes two road rules regarding priority at intersections, including reversing the drive-on-the-left nation's unique rule that gave right-turning traffic priority over left-turning traffic.(25th March)
  • In golf, Tiger Woods wins the Arnold Palmer Invitational tournament in Orlando, his first US PGA Tour victory since 2009.(25th March)
  • A Tibetan protester self-immolates during a protest in the Indian capital New Delhi, ahead of a visit by the Chinese president Hu Jintao.(26th March)
  • Somali pirates hijack an Iranian-owned cargo ship with 23 crew in waters off the Maldives - the first hijacking in such territory.(26th March)
  • Oil is discovered in Kenya by London based Tullow Oil.(26th March)
  • Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, is placed under formal investigation in France over alleged involvement in a prostitution ring.(26th March)
  • Canadian filmmaker and adventurer James Cameron becomes the first person in fifty years to visit the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on earth in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger.(26th March)
  • Six South African rugby players from the Motherwell Rugby Club are feared dead after being swept out to sea from Port Elizabeth.(26th March)
  • A landmine explosion in Maharashtra, India, allegedly by Maoist insurgents, kills 15 policemen and injures 13 others.(27th March)
  • Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook arrives in China for talks with government officials to clear up problems in the firm's biggest growth market, including the contested iPad trademark and treatment of local labor.(27th March)
  • World leaders meet at a summit in Seoul, South Korea, to discuss nuclear security.(27th March)
  • Syrian forces attack the central town of Qalaat al-Madiq as Arab League ministers meet in Baghdad.(28th March)
  • Pope Benedict XVI calls for greater openess in Cuba during a speech in Revolution Square, Havana.(28th March)
  • The Government of Fiji seizes a controlling interest in subsidiary Air Pacific from the Australian airline Qantas. Qantas remains in control of its equity in the airline.(28th March)
  • The United States suspends planned food aid to North Korea, after the latter plans to launch a rocket next month.(28th March)
  • Detained Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is allowed a visit from family, for the first time in two years.(28th March)
  • Along with posting a net loss, smart phone pioneer Research in Motion announces major shake-ups in executive ranks and a strategic review, which does not rule out a sale of the company, known for its BlackBerry.(29th March)
  • Hana Shalabi, the Palestinian woman imprisoned without charge by Israel, ends her 43-day hunger strike and is exiled to the Gaza Strip.(29th March)
  • News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch says he will "hit back hard" after the BBC's Panorama alleged one of News Corp's subsidiary companies encouraged viewers to access pay-TV rival ITV Digital content for free.(29th March)
  • The UK government says that viaspan, a solution used to preserve some donor organs, could be contaminated with bacteria after routine tests detected Bacillus cereus in the solution used to test the sterility of viaspan.(29th March)
  • A United States drone attack kills two alleged militants in the Pakistani town of Miran Shah in North Waziristan.(30th March)
  • Australian artist Tim Storrier wins the 2012 Archibald Prize for a self-portait The "historic wayfarer" (after Bosch).(30th March)
  • VISA and MasterCard warn banks across the United States about a "massive" breach of security with more than ten million credit card numbers potentially compromised.(30th March)
  • Huanglongbing or citrus greening, a disease which has killed millions of citrus trees in Brazil and Florida, is discovered in a residential section of Los Angeles County, California, in the United States.(30th March)
  • Malaysia expels 173 Indonesian workers for various legal violations.(30th March)
  • Naoki Tanaka, Japan's Minister of Defense, issues orders to shoot down a North Korean rocket if it falls towards Japanese territory.(30th March)
  • The United States' two acting unions, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, agree to merge forming the SAG-AFTRA.(31st March)
  • Turkey reduces its purchases of Iranian oil by 20%.(31st March)
  • Chinese police arrest six people and shut down 16 websites for allegedly spreading rumours that military vehicles were on the streets of Beijing.(31st March)
  • The Indonesian People's Representative Council vetoes plans to increase the price of fuel by thirty per cent this weekend.(31st March)