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- Arts and culture
- In the fictional CW network drama One Tree Hill, this date marks a school shooting which took the lives of two people and drastically changed the dynamic of the show. It has been called one of the most essential and touching episodes in high school drama history.
- Business and economy
- Disasters and accidents
- Politics and elections
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- The United States Senate voted 89–10 to renew the USA PATRIOT Act after two extensions. In its vote next week, the United States House of Representatives will likely also vote to renew the Act, analysts say. (MSNBC)
- President George W. Bush, on his first visit to India, issues a joint statement with Indian Prime Minister on their growing strategic partnership, emphasising their agreement on civil nuclear cooperation. An estimated crowd of 100,000 people protest against Bush in Delhi. (Times of India) (Khaleej Times) (Forbes) (Times of India) (CNN)
- A shipwreck from the 14th century was found buried in Riddarfjärden Bay in Stockholm, Sweden. If the ship is well preserved, there are plans to remove it from the waters. (ABC)
- Alaksandar Kazulin, the Social Democratic Party candidate for the office of President of Belarus, was detained by Minsk police after he was rejected entrance to a congress hosted by current leader Alexander Lukashenko. Kazulin also suffered injuries during the course of his detention, which is still being enforced, though the elections will commence in 17 days. (BBC)
- Traces of a prehistoric, 8,000-year-old civilization are found in Shahrud, Iran. The discoveries included ovens, craft workshops, and other evidence of settlements. (Payvand)
- Televangelist Pat Robertson loses his bid for re-election to the board of directors of the National Religious Broadcasters. (Associated Press)
- Dubai Ports World controversy: The United States urges the United Arab Emirates to end its boycott of Israel: "The Bush administration said yesterday it is pressing the United Arab Emirates to drop its economic boycott of Israel – a major sticking point in the proposed takeover of key U.S. ports by a UAE-owned firm." (The Washington Times)
- Sir Menzies Campbell has been elected the new leader of the Liberal Democrats. (BBC)
- The European Central Bank raises Euro base interest rates by 0.25% to 2.5%. The move affects the 12 members of the Eurozone. (FT)
- Kenya: Masked gunmen, since revealed to be Kenyan police, attack the offices of leading newspaper The Standard and its television station KTN, following their report that President Mwai Kibaki held secret meetings with key opposition figure Kalonzo Musyoka. (BBC) (Reuters)
- CIA flights: French newspaper Le Figaro reveals that the attorney general of Bobigny has opened up an investigation concerning the landing of a CIA flight in Le Bourget Airport following a complaint deposed at the end of December 2005 by NGOs International Federation of Human Rights Leagues and the French Ligue des droits de l'homme. (Le Figaro)
- Just two days before U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Pakistan, a car bomb exploded in the Marriott Hotel Karachi parking lot adjacent to a United States consulate in Karachi, killing at least four people including a US diplomat and his driver and injuring at least fifty others. (CNN)
- A prison riot involving close to 1,300 prisoners at Afghanistan's Pul-e-Charkhi prison ended after four days. (BBC)
- Italian judges in Milan to charge Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and David Mills (husband of Tessa Jowell, a British Minister) in connection with a bribery scandal. (Independent)
- Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, member of the moderate wing of the regime, describes the Holocaust as a "historical reality," contradicting the current leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an extremist who has described it as a "myth" the previous year. (BBC)
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- Research In Motion, a Waterloo, Ontario, Canadian based company, agrees to pay NTP Inc. $612.5 million to settle NTP's patent-infringement suit against RIM. NTP had argued RIM's BlackBerry wireless-communication devices use technology patented by NTP. (AP)
- The ruling African National Congress takes 66% of the votes in the 2006 South African municipal election. Voter turnout was 46%. No party in the City of Cape Town claims an outright majority. (BBC)
- Russian–Hamas talks, 2006: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in his talks with the Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, calls on Hamas to transform itself into a political organisation, recognise Israel's right to exist, and to keep previous peace accords. (BBC), (Reuters)
- Kenya and Sudan, completing trade talks that have gone on since 2001, announce plans to sign a landmark trade agreement. (AllAfrica) Kenya, which is currently in a drought, is in desperate need of food to feed 3.5 million Kenyans by the end of March, despite the presence of the U.N. food agency. Sudan has had a huge surplus this season. (Reuters)
- Three Israelis ignite firecrackers in an attempt to detonate gas canisters smuggled into the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth during prayer services, sparking riots and confrontation between thousands of protestors and Israeli police. (CBC) (YNet)
- After four years of legal efforts to get the names of about 490 Guantanamo Bay inmates released, the United States is forced by a federal judge's ruling to release transcripts of hearings of 317 of them. (ABC)
- Former U.S. Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California, a Republican, is sentenced to eight years and four months in federal prison after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes. It is the longest prison term that any former member of Congress has ever been sentenced to. (CNN)
- British Labour Party MPs close to Gordon Brown call for Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to resign over her husband, David Mills' alleged acceptance of money from Silvio Berlusconi. (Financial Times)
- The 2006 Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference opens in Beijing. (People's Daily)
- British rock star Gary Glitter is convicted of the molestation of one 11- and one 12-year-old girl in the town of Vung Tau in southern Vietnam. He is sentenced to three years in prison, but may be back in the United Kingdom by December. (BBC News)
- An Italian parliamentary commission accuses the former Soviet Union of orchestrating the 1981 attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II (Telegraph)
- Ukraine imposed new customs regulations on its border with Transnistria, leading to the Ukraine-Transnistria border customs conflict.
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- 78th Academy Awards: Crash wins Best Picture, Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) wins Best Director, Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) wins Best Actress, and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) wins Best Actor. (CNN)
- The 2006 National People's Congress opens in Beijing, beginning a 10-day session of China's parliament. Premier Wen Jiabao makes a Working Report and vows for support for the poor. (CNN) (People's Daily)
- Benin presidential election, 2006: Voters in Benin go to the polls to decide who will succeed Mathieu Kérékou as President. Results are expected to be announced by Wednesday. If no single candidate of the 26 wins an outright majority, a runoff election will take place in two weeks. (Scotsman), (VOA), (Reuters)
- Tens of thousands of protesters in Bangkok demand the resignation of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand. (BBC), (Reuters), (CNN)
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- The United Kingdom government is defeated in the House of Lords over a plan to make biometric ID cards compulsory for passport applicants. The government is to seek to overturn the defeat in the House of Commons, and has suggested that it might invoke the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949. (United Press International)
- Israeli aircraft fire rockets at a car in Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad members and three innocent bystanders as well as wounding seven other people, mostly children. Commander-in-Chief of the Israel Air Force, Maj.-Gen. Eliezer Shkedy said: "We are doing everything we can possibly think of to prevent innocent people from being harmed, but this is a war and nothing is certain." (JPost)
- Milan Babić, former leader of the breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina, commits suicide in prison while serving a sentence for war crimes. (BBC)
- M. Michael Rounds, governor of the U.S. State of South Dakota, signs an abortion ban that conflicts with the United States Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. (MSNBC)
- The sentencing hearing of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted in the US for a direct role in the 9/11 attacks, has opened in Virginia. (BBC)
- Avian flu outbreak: Poland confirms first outbreak of H5N1, the bird flu virus, in two wild swans. (News-Medical Net) (BBC)
- In South Africa, former Deputy President (1999–2005) Jacob Zuma pleads not guilty of rape as his trial starts. (Iafrica) (BBC)
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- Further evidence accrues to show that the polar ice caps are shrinking. (BBC)
- The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enters orbit around Mars. (BBC)
- More than 250 medical experts sign a letter in The Lancet urging the United States to stop force-feeding of Guantanamo Bay detainees and close down the prison. (BBC)
- The World Health Organization announces that the number of people killed by measles declined by 48% between 1999 and 2004, from 871,000 to 454,000. The greatest decline, 60%, was in sub-Saharan Africa. The improvement is attributed to increased vaccination. (BBC)
- John Profumo, the man at the centre of Britain's most famous political scandal of the 20th century, has died at the age of 91. (Channel four News)
- Italian prosecutors ask for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British lawyer David Mills to be indicted in the on-going alleged bribery case. (BBC)
- Twenty-six people are killed in Dera Bugti, southwest Pakistan, when their vehicle hits a landmine. The victims were primarily women and children. Both tribal rebels and security forces planted landmines in the area. (BBC)
- Terminal D at LaGuardia Airport in New York City was closed due to a security breach. (CNN)
- Gale Norton has announced her resignation as United States Secretary of the Interior, effective March 31, 2006. (CNN)
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- Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl raped and murdered together with her family in the Mahmudiyah killings.
- Algerian "national reconciliation". Abdelhak Layada, one of the founder of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), is released from prison due to the February 28, 2006, national reconciliation charter decree of application RFI.
- Venezuela introduces its new national flag with eight, instead of seven, stars and a slightly altered coat of arms. (The Washington Post)
- Reports claim that a post-mortem examination has found that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević died from heart failure. (Channel 4 News)
- Six car bombs explode in Sadr City, a neighborhood in Baghdad, killing at least forty-six people. (CNN)
- In Malta, the Malta Labour Party makes a big victory in the Local Council Elections (Times of Malta)
- Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh began their Visit to Australia which she will open the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
- U.S. Senator Russ Feingold announces that he will introduce a motion of censure against President George W. Bush. (RawStory)
- Schering, a Berlin, Germany, based pharmaceutical firm, announces that it has received a hostile merger bid from Frankfurt-based rival Merck. (MSNBC) (Reuters)
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- A cash-for-honours scandal has erupted around UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. A millionaire donor has revealed that Labour fundraisers had arranged secret loans from businessmen who were then nominated for peerages. (Daily Mail)
- A major tornado outbreak finally ends in the central United States. In all, more than 100 tornadoes were reported and 11 people were killed. Two tornadoes hit Springfield, Illinois, late on the 12th, causing major damage to the city.
- U.S. climate scientists working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level. (BBC)
- A major oil slick, which could contain some 40 tonnes of fuel, has been detected off the coast of Estonia, one week after the Runner-4 cargo vessel sank in the Baltic Sea. Heavy sea ice prevents an accurate estimate of the content of the oil slick that may have killed 35,000 sea birds. (Yahoo News)
- The judge in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is considering throwing out the death penalty as an option after lawyers from the Federal Aviation Administration coached four government witnesses. (CNN)
- German drug and chemical manufacturer Merck KGaA announces plans to buy Schering in a merger of €14.6 billion. Merck and Schering would become Germany's largest pharmaceutical company. – (Telegraph)
- London Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair admits secretly recording conversations with the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, an act that could lead to a civil legal proceedings if the other party has not granted permission for conversations to be taped. (BBC)
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- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Business and economy
- Disasters and accidents
- At least seven people have died in wildfires in the U.S. state of Texas which have burned 1,000 mi2 (2500 km2), forcing 1,900 people to evacuate. (AP)
- Health
- International relations
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- Two gunmen attacked the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) compound in Yei, Sudan, killing a local guard and leaving two others in critical condition. (Angola Press)
- The U.S. online magazine salon.com publishes the most extensive documentation of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. (salon.com)
- United Kingdom: The House of Commons votes to approve an education reform bill. The Prime minister, Tony Blair's authority is called into question for his relying on the opposition Conservative party to secure the vote, due to revolt within his own Labour party. (Bloomberg)
- War in Iraq: A raid by the United States military kills eleven Iraqis, mostly civilians. (Channel 4 News)
- The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council, a new human rights organization to replace the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, with only the United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau opposing. (United Press International) (Reuters.uk)
- Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth opens the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. (BBC)
- Five arrests are made over the UK Islamist demonstration outside the Danish Embassy in London against the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. (Guardian)
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- Tens of thousands of Thai anti-government protesters continue their rally against the country's current Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra today. They also demand his resignation from the post. The opposition leader, Sondhi Limthongkul, declared he and his party would not stop protesting all day and night until the PM resigns. (Reuters)
- U.S. President George W. Bush nominates Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as United States Secretary of the Interior. (CNN)
- Near the third anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, U.S. and Iraqi forces on Thursday launch an air assault known as Operation Swarmer into Salahuddin province in what was termed the largest air assault since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. (ABC News), (BBC), (USDoD)
- The Iraqi National Assembly meets for the first time since it was elected in December 2005. (Reuters)
- An international child pornography network is discovered using information from an Internet chat room, leading to the worldwide arrests of 4 Australians, 13 Americans, 10 Canadians, and 2 Britons. (National Nine News)
- The 2006 NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Tournament begins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Salt Lake City, Utah; Jacksonville, Florida; and San Diego, California
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- Beijing's wealthiest millionaire, Yuan Baojing, and two alleged accomplices are sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection for murder by a Liaoyang court, making Yuan the wealthiest person to be executed in PRC history. (Xinhuanet) (Washington Post)
- The European Parliament demands that Senegal turn over Hissène Habré to Belgium to be tried for his actions while he was President of Chad. Senegal is not expected to comply, as it already refused extradition demands from the African Union. The ATDPH has expressed its approval of the decision. (AllAfrica)
- Six people have been charged in connection with Kenya's biggest fraud, which cost the government about $600 million. (BBC)
- Following an outbreak of bird flu in Israel, Europe bans imports of Israeli chicken; Ministry of Agriculture halts exports of unprocessed birds; Kibbutzim in the south, heart of Israel put under closure; four people hospitalized in the south are found not to be infected with the disease. (Ynetnews)
- Thomas Lubanga, former leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots militia in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, becomes the first person arrested on behalf of, and then referred to the International Criminal Court for war crimes. (ICC)
- The fourth global World Water Forum meets in Mexico City to address problems of water shortages and conflicts. Protesters claim the forum is a platform for further privatization of water supplies. (AP via Forbes)
- The International Crisis Group warns that continued neglect of the Darfur conflict may lead to thousands more deaths and spill over into neighboring countries, further destabilizing the region. (Reuters)
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- Hamas announces the formation of its new cabinet to govern the territory under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, however, in a last-ditch effort to include the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the government, postponed by one day the submission of the new cabinet to the approval of PNA President Mahmoud Abbas. (IOL) (Al-Jazeera)
- 2006 labor protests in France: In Paris, and other major French cities, hundreds of thousands of people march in protest of the Contrat de première embauche (First Employment Contract), a labor law set to take effect in April that gives employers the right to fire workers under the age of 26 in the first two years of their employment without justification.(BBC)
- US Navy warships engage pirates off the coast of Somalia, killing one, capturing 12, after the U.N. Security Council on March 15, encouraged any naval forces near Somalia to take action against suspected piracy. This occurred after an attack on a UN World Food Program-chartered ship bringing drought-relief food supplies on March 13. (AP)(UPI)
- The Labor government of South Australia, led by Mike Rann, has been returned with a ten percent swing. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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- The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, says it has been ordered to leave Uzbekistan within one month. (BBC)
- Belarusian presidential election, 2006: Alexander Lukashenko has been re-elected president of Belarus with 82.6 percent of all votes, in an election which is considered by many to have been rigged.
- At 0730 AEST, Tropical Cyclone Larry makes landfall near Innisfail, Queensland, Australia, with wind gusts of 290 km/h (180 mph) recorded, which would make it a Category 5 storm on the Australian scale for severity of cyclones. (AAP)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Beijing on energy talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao. (Forbes)
- Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, begin official visit to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India.
- The Northern Hemisphere Vernal Equinox and the Southern Hemisphere Autumnal Equinox occurred at 18:26 UTC.
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- A bankruptcy court judge in New York has authorized the creation of an equity holders' committee in connection with the reorganization of auto parts maker Delphi Corporation, (Reuters)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists believe they may have discovered a reason why the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus cannot yet jump easily between humans. (BBC)
- The MV Queen of the North, a 125 metre ferry operated by BC Ferries, strikes a rock in British Columbia's Inside Passage shortly after midnight, and sinks. All passengers and crew are thought to have safely abandoned ship, but two passengers are later declared missing and presumed dead. (CBC)
- Basque separatist group ETA announce a permanent ceasefire to their 38-year campaign for independence from Spain, which has cost over 800 lives. (BBC)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin pays a visit to the Shaolin Temple, the symbol of Chinese Martial arts on his state visit to China. (SINA)
- Tracy Williams from Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, is ordered to pay £10,000 damages, plus £7,200 legal costs for libelling former parliamentary candidate Michael Keith Smith in a Yahoo chat room and in her blog, making history in respect of legal actions involving the Internet. She had accused Smith of being a sex offender and a racist bigot. Williams did not file a defence to the libel writ. (Manchester Evening News), (Times), (BBC)
- Ethiopia: Government prosecutors withdrew charges against 18 out of 129 opposition figures and journalists facing charges following last year's violent skirmishes in the country. However, none of the party leaders of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) were included in this action.
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- A revolutionary scramjet jet engine designed to fly at seven times sonic speed is successfully tested in Australia. (BBC)
- Canada's annual seal hunt has begun, amid international appeals for an end to the controversial cull of up to 325,000 young harp seal pups. The Canadian government says the cull, which reportedly earns C$16.5 million (£8.3 million) in meat and pelt sales, is also necessary to control seal numbers. (BBC)
- An explosion at a French university chemical research facility kills one professor. The cause is unknown. (National Nine News)
- Protests against the US immigration reform bill H.R. 4437 are held in several US cities. 500,000 people march in Los Angeles, California, 50,000 in Denver, Colorado, and 20,000 in Phoenix, Arizona, protesting proposed legislation that includes construction of a security wall along the United States-Mexico border. (CNN) (BBC) (CBS4Denver) (East Valley Tribune)
- A gunman killed six people at a party and then himself in the Capitol Hill massacre in Seattle, Washington. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
- Reading Football Club are promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their 135-year history. They are also the first post-war Football Club to be promoted to the Premier League in March.
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- In Ukraine, after days of vote tallying, Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions wins a plurality in the 2006 parliamentary election. Central Election Commission of Ukraine
- Chadian senior army commander Abakar Itno is assassinated by a joint force of Janjaweed, Rally for Democracy and Liberty, and Sudanese military forces. (Reuters)
- Jack Abramoff scandals: Lobbyist Tony C. Rudy, former chief of staff for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), pleads guilty to conspiracy and agrees to cooperate with the ongoing investigation into the Jack Abramoff Indian lobbying scandal. (Washington Post)
- MINOS (the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search) observes neutrino oscillation, implying that neutrinos have mass, which would require a substantial revision to the Standard Model of particle physics. (BBC) (PhysOrg.com) (MINOS)
- A The Nation Group's newspaper critical of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agrees to stop publishing for five days amid protests about the way it referred to the King of Thailand. (Bangkok Post)
- In Brussels, Microsoft claims a breakthrough, as an independent monitor of its hearings with European Union regulators in Brussels has outlined what it can do to avoid paying fines of 2 million euros a day. (IHT)
- 2006 Borujerd earthquake: An early-morning earthquake south of Borujerd, Iran causes 66 deaths and significant damage in the Luristan province in the west of the country.
- An intruder enters a church in Malta during mass and smashes a 200-year-old Jerusalem mother-of-pearl crucifix creating commotion. (Times of Malta)
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