American actor Charlie Sheen loses custody of his two sons Bob and Max following claims by their mother Brooke Mueller that he made threats of domestic violence. (TMZ)
Business and economy
Ally Financial, the company formerly known as General Motors Acceptance Corporation, announced in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the U.S. Treasury Department will be selling some of Ally's preferred securities. This is part of the unwinding of the Treasury's investment in the auto industry as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. (Bloomberg).
An internet campaign calls for protests demanding that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe step down, leading to an increased security presence. (Reuters)
Colonel Gaddafi claims that Libya's oil fields are "safe" and "under control" and warns against foreign intervention. (Associated Press)
A spokesman for the "interim national government council" in Benghazi calls for the international community to carry out air strikes against mercenaries fighting for Colonel Gaddafi. (New York Times)
Private and independent newspapers in Ivory Coast cease publication to protest violence and harassment by supporters of incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. Radio broadcasts by the BBC and RFI are taken off air. (Bloomberg)
Xinhua reports that 35,860 Chinese nationals have been evacuated from Libya in one of the largest overseas operations in Chinese military history. (Xinhua)
President Obama calls on Colonel Gaddafi to stand down and advises that the United States is looking at "full range" of military options. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
The suspect in a deadly attack on US airmen at Frankfurt Airport allegedly targeted US servicemen and had portrayed himself as an Islamist on the Internet according to German sources. (Stars and Stripes)
The Gaddafi regime blocks foreign journalists in a Tripoli hotel to stop them from reporting on the conflict supposedly for their safety. (AGI)
Shots are fired by government forces during an anti-government protest in Tripoli. (Reuters)
Interpol issues an international alert for Gaddafi and 15 of his family members and close associates to help enforce the UN sanctions against his regime. (AP via Forbes)
The marketing chief at Research in Motion, the Canadian company best known for the BlackBerry smart phone, is leaving. This surprise announcement concerning Keith Pardy may have an impact on the launch of a new product, the PlayBook tablet. (Reuters)
Thousands of people demonstrate outside the Al-Qudaibiya Palace, where the government meets in Manama, calling for the prime minister to resign and voicing their discontent with the king. (Al Jazeera)
The Washington Post reports that the military forces imprisoned alleged whistleblowerBradley Manning to strip each night and sleep naked, having confiscated his boxers earlier this week following Manning's protest that restrictions imposed on him were "absurd". A spokesperson for the facility denies "any sort of humiliation or embarrassment" is intended. (The Washington Post)
Al Jazeera claims to have video that shows a Libyan Army officer being executed for refusing to fire on opposition positions west of the capital Tripoli. (Al Jazeera)
Pro-Gaddafi forces launch an offensive on the rebel held town of Zawiya. (BBC)
Activists in London calling themselves Topple the Tyrants occupy the mansion of Gaddafi's son, saying they would stay "until this property can be returned to the Libyan people." (BBC)(Huffington Post)
Egypt has been secretly aiding Libyan rebels, apparently has sent around 100 Special Forces troops, while Cairo has made no official comment on the report.(UPI)(Daily Mirror)
A government-sponsored study in Canada concludes that heavy metals and polycyclicaromatic compounds found in the Athabasca River downstream of oil sands plants, are not a natural occurrence but pollution resulting from those plants. (Reuters)
Thousands of people in Bahrain protest over the country's naturalisation policy, which they say favours foreigners at their expense. (Al Jazeera)(The National)
King Mohammed VI of Morocco pledges democratic reforms to the country's constitution, after demonstrations last month. (Al Jazeera)
The Saudi Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, says dialogue is the best way to bring about reform, rather than protest. (Al Arabiya)
The Senate in the US state of Michigan approves a proposal to allow state-appointed emergency managers authority to break labor deals to turn around failing schools and cities most notably in Detroit. (Reuters via Yahoo News)
King Mohammed VI of Morocco promises ""comprehensive constitutional reform" to expand individual and collective liberties in a televised address to the nation. (BBC)
The three Royal Netherlands Navy personnel captured 12 days ago by armed men loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are released after negotiations after Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Dollis secured their release and oversaw their evacuation to Athens, Greece. The crew was trying to rescue a Dutch citizen from Libya when armed men captured them. (NPR)[permanent dead link]
An explosion is heard at the site of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant with four workers injured and residents warned of radiation leaks. (BBC), (AP via MSNBC), (Kyodo), (Sky News)
Donald Elmer, the Chief Executive of a small U.S.–based pharmaceutical company, Koronis, said that he is looking to raise money through London's Alternative Investment Market, thus enabling the next stage of clinical tests for his company's anti-HIV product, KP-1461. (Reuters)
Bob Parker, the mayor of the New Zealand city of Christchurch, estimates that the city centre is still "very, very dangerous" with up to a third of the buildings needing to be demolished. (TV New Zealand)
Two Chinese dissidents Xu Wei, a former reporter, and Jin Haike, a writer, are released from prison after serving a ten–year sentence. (Washington Post)
3,001 people are arrested by Chinese authorities on charges of product piracy. (Straits Times)
The Tokyo Stock Exchange falls more than five per cent in opening trade in the first day of trading since the 2011 Sendai earthquake. (The Australian)
China adopts a new 5-year plan which aims to boost spending on public services, decrease economic inequality, and increase employment and wages. (Xinhua)
The Libyan opposition arrests four men as suspects in the murder of an Al Jazeera journalist and claim that Muammar Gaddafi's regime is sending undercover squads to assassinate people. (The Independent)
Hundreds of people stage a rare protest in the Syrian capital Damascus calling for greater freedoms and the release of political prisoners. (BBC)(AFP via Google News)
The Israeli Navy intercepts the cargo ship Victoria which was carrying a long list of advanced weapons that were smuggled from Iran and were allegedly bound for the militant organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. (Ynetnews)
Business and economy
Nasdaq OMX Group is preparing a bid for NYSE Euronext. Such a bid would, at the least, complicate the planned merger between NYSE and Deutsche Boerse. Reuters reported the planned counter-bid citing "a source familiar with the situation." (Reuters)
Dozens of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex (also called Fukushima I) have stayed behind to end the radiation leaks, known as the Fukushima 50, risking fatal radiation exposure. (Guardian)
Chief Cabinet SecretaryYukio Edano reports that as of 10.22 a.m. local time, radiation levels of 30 millisieverts per hour were measured between the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, while at the No. 3 reactor 400 millisieverts per hour were detected, a harmful level to humans. (Bloomberg)
A senior adviser to the Prime Minister of JapanNaoto Kan says that a fire has broken out in a fourth reactor at the Fukushima I power plant but it is later extinguished, with the radiation reading at 0831 local time (2331 GMT) climbing to 8,217 microsieverts an hour. (CNN)(AP)(news.com.au)(BBC)
Prime Minister Kan warns people living within a 30 kilometre radius of the plant to stay indoors and a 30-km no-fly zone is established around the plant. (AP via The Guardian)(IAEA)
Demonstrators defy a government ban in the Syrian capital Damascus and protest for a second day, demanding the release of political prisoners. (BBC)(Ahram Online)
The Japanese yen reaches a postwar high against the United States dollar on the basis that Japanese insurers will redeem overseas assets to pay for the cost of the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. (Business Week)
Police in Cambodia ask prosecutors to charge recruitment firm T&P with illegally detaining its staff. (BBC)
Raymond Davis, an official with the United States embassy in Pakistan, is acquitted of charges of two counts of murder and released from jail after compensation is paid to the victims' families, the result of intense diplomatic talks between the United States and Pakistan.(CNN)(Times of Pakistan)
Indian Railways driver Surekha Yadav loco pilot mail drives the Deccan Queen from Pune to Mumbai CST, for Central Railways division, and becomes the first woman from this country to do so.
At least 40 people, most believed to be civilians, are killed near Miranshah after United States drones bomb Pakistan in the deadliest such attack by the United States since 2006. Tribesmen describe a "massacre" as tribal people, elders, local traders and members of the tribal police are killed. (BBC)(The Nation)
The United Nations Security Council after the failure of Libyan authorities to comply with its "1970 resolution" of 26 February 2011, adopts "Resolution 1973" (UN Security Council resolutions 1970 & 1973) that imposes a No-fly zone over Libya (The Guardian), (CNN), enforcing the arms embargo, freezing Libya's assets, and banning travel of Libyan officials involved in recruiting mercenaries, by "All means necessary" an addition that bypasses the UNSCR 1970's military intervention prevention and imposes a "no-fly zone", initially rejected on UNSCR 1970.
The United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay condemns the "shocking" use of force against protesters. (BBC). While UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon spoke by telephone with Bahrain’s King Hamad ibn Isa al Khalifa, expressing his deepest concern over reports of excessive and indiscriminate use of force by the country’s police and security forces against unarmed civilians, including medical personnel. (UN News Centre)
Gennady Yanin, the director of the Russian Bolshoi ballet troupe, resigns and is replaced by Yan Godovsky. Russian media wonders if erotic photos which appeared on the internet, allegedly of him, were part of a smear campaign. (BBC)
President Hugo Chávez backtracks on plans to develop nuclear power in Venezuela saying he has noted the ongoing crisis in Japan and that the use of nuclear energy is "something extremely risky and dangerous for the whole world". (BBC)
Chancellor Angela Merkel announces a "measured exit" from nuclear power for Germany as it can no longer be "business as usual" following events in Japan. (BBC)
China suspends new nuclear plans due to events in Japan. (BBC)
Officials suggest Haiti's first democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is to return there tomorrow after seven years exile in South Africa. The U.S. expresses concern at this development, fearing Aristide could "destabalise" Haiti. (BBC)
Tribal leaders in Pakistan issue a statement vowing action against the United States after yesterday's botched U.S. drone attack which killed more than 40 civilians, mainly elders and police at an open-air meeting, the deadliest such attack by the United States on Pakistan since 2006. (BBC)
Police use guns to kill between at least two and four people for protesting against the corruption of the Bashar al-Assad regime and lack of freedom in the southern city of Daraa. (BBC)
More than 50 mortar rounds are fired from the Gaza Strip at an area in the Western Negev, Israel, injuring two Israeli civilians in response to Israeli airstrikes earlier in the week, which was itself a response to a previous Palestinian mortar attack from Gaza. Israel counterresponds with artillery and airstrikes killing two Palestinian militants. (Ynetnews)(Haaretz)
Police in the Gaza Strip break up a student rally calling for unity between Fatah and Hamas and raid offices of foreign media covering the event. (UPI)
Robert Cooper, special adviser to Baroness Catherine Ashton (High Representative of the European Union for political, foreign affairs and security), meets with Bahraini Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Sheikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa (Saudi News Today) to discuss the security situation of the Country and measures taken towards resolution under the light of the recent protests.
A Libyan army spokesman says Libyan armed forces have been issued a command to observe an immediate ceasefire following air bombardment from American, French and British forces aiming to implement a UN resolution authorising the use of force to protect Libyan civilians from government troops. (The Jerusalem Post)
The Opposition claim that more than 8,000 people have been killed. (Al-Jazeera)
The Arab League speaks out against the military airstrikes on Libya as civilians are killed. (Press TV)
Germany's foreign minister Guido Westerwelle defends his country's refusal to participate in the invasion of Libya, speaking of "the risks of a lengthy mission". (Press TV)
Thousands of people demonstrate for a third consecutive day in Daraa, Syria, with crowds setting fire to the headquarters of the ruling Baath Party while one protester is killed by security forces. (The Jerusalem Post)(BBC)
The Syrian government announces its intention to release children it locked up for their pro-democracy actions. (Al Jazeera)
Saudi forces arrest and take away around 15 people as they gather outside the interior ministry building to request details of the whereabouts of their friends or family members who have been imprisoned without trial. Such expressions of opinion are outlawed in Saudi Arabia. (Al Jazeera)
The bodies of two 17-year-old Palestinians, shot dead by the Israeli military near the Gaza-Israel border yesterday, are retrieved; the military says the army opened fire on two men who were spotted moving suspiciously toward a frontier "no-go" zone, after fierce cross-border exchanges in which militants fired dozens of shells into Israel. (AFP via Google News)(BBC)
Israel shuts down every crossing with the Gaza Strip, citing "security reasons", ahead of the PurimJewish holiday. (Press TV)
Police are growing concerned for the safety of Sian O'Callaghan, a 22-year-old woman who went missing while walking home from a nightclub in the English city of Swindon in the early hours of Saturday 19 March. (BBC)
The U.S. Supreme Court declines to take an appeal from an appellate court ruling that ordered the disclosure of information about the Federal Reserve's emergency lending to banks during the 2008 financial crisis. The Supreme Court's refusal means the ruling of the court below stands. (Reuters)
Robert Cooper, special advisor to Baroness Catherine Ashton (High Representative of the European Union for political, foreign affairs and security), despite serious concerns over excessive and indiscriminate use of force expressed by UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon(UN News Centre), speaking to MEPs in the foreign affairs committee in Brussels after visiting Bahrain (Saudi News Today), defended Bahrain's protests crackdown: "It's not easy dealing with large demonstrations in which there may be violence. It's a difficult task for policemen. It's not something that we always get right in the best Western countries and accidents happen" (Guardian). Cooper's endorsement disturbed one MEP at the debate. "'Accidents happen?' ... I'm sorry this is a funny picture as you describe it," German Green deputy Franziska Brantner said. "What are you talking about? I find this very scary."
A U.S. federal court judge dismisses part of a lawsuit brought by Lions Gate Entertainment against its shareholder, Carl Icahn, holding that Icahn had met certain statutory disclosure requirements. (Reuters)
Former Denis O'Brien employee and journalist Sarah Carey's "significant leaking" of tribunal information is judged by the tribunal to have been "irresponsible" and "not remotely justified". (The Irish Times)
Witnesses and rights activists say Syrian government security forces killed at least 15 anti-government protesters in Daraa, bringing the death toll for the week to 21. (The Australian)(BBC)
The Syrian government pledges a series of reforms in response to the unrest, including lifting the state of emergency law and allowing other political parties. (Al Jazeera)(BBC)
Thousands of people are stranded by flash flooding in Tasmania, amid record falls of rain. Roads are closed, blackouts occur and people are flown away in helicopters. (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear incidents
British Police find the body of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan in Oxfordshire, five days after she went missing in Swindon, Wiltshire. A 47-year-old man is arrested on suspicion of murder and police are also searching for the body of an unnamed missing woman who is feared to have been murdered. (BBC)
Libertas founder and chairman Declan Ganley urges Michael Lowry to resign, calling it "embarrassing for Ireland to have someone like that in Dáil Éireann". (The Irish Times)
Journalist Sarah Carey uses her column in The Irish Times to call her lies to the tribunal a "black spot on my record" amid calls for her to be immediately dismissed by the newspaper. (The Irish Times)(Irish Central)
Mr Justice Moriarty judges that Michael Lowry and his associates "went to great lengths" to cover up payments of thousands and then to mislead the tribunal. (The Irish Times)
The death toll from the 2011 Burma earthquake near the Thailand border reaches at least 75 with the potential for "many more casualties" as dozens of buildings are destroyed. (BBC)(Xinhua)
Delroy Grant, a 53-year-old London taxi driver who was found guilty on a total of 29 charges including indecent assault, burglary and rape committed against 10 elderly people between 1992 and 2009, is sentenced to life imprisonment at WoolwichCrown Court with a recommendation that he should serve at least 27 years in prison before parole can even be considered. (BBC)
Libyan authorities detain and forcibly drive Iman al-Obeidi to an unknown location, declaring her "possibly mentally challenged", after she publicly accuses Muammar Gaddafi's troops of gang-raping her. (Associated Press)
Al Wefaq, the leading Shi'ite opposition party, claims that 250 people have been detained and 47 held in detention since the declaration of martial law. (Reuters)
Fighters backing internationally recognised president Alassane Ouattara launch a "general offensive" in the west, centre-west and east of Ivory Coast. (France 24)
45,000 Inca artefacts taken by Yale University from Machu Picchu almost a century ago, and described by the president as "the dignity and pride of Peru", arrive in Lima after a long campaign by Peruvians to have them returned. (BBC)
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. says that it will scrap at least four units at the Fukushima I Power Plant and warns that fixing the problem will be a drawn out process. (Kyodo)
19 people are trapped after a tunnel under construction collapses in southwest China. (The Straits Times)
International relations
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter ends a three-day visit to Cuba, saying that the American trade embargo and travel ban has damaged the people and disrupted progress. (BBC)
Kuwait recalls its ambassador to Iran after it convicted three people on charges of spying for Iran. (Al Arabiya)
The World Cup semi-final in Mohali between India and Pakistan is watched by over 1 billion people as both countries come to a standstill and both prime ministers attend. (BBC News)
Philippine authorities are to seek long jail terms for six Chinese poachers as part of a crackdown on foreigners stealing marine wildlife. (Sin Chew Jit Poh)
Keith Brown, the former manager and father of The 5 Browns classical music group is sentenced for ten years for sexual abuse of his daughters. (People)
