Portal:Current events/2009 March 12
March 12, 2009 (Thursday)
- China's retail sales have increased 15.2% in 2009. (Xinhua News)
- Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi is sentenced to three years in prison for throwing shoes at then-United States President George W. Bush. (AP)
- National Semiconductor will cut 1,725 jobs. (ZDNet)
- Pope Benedict XVI acknowledges mistakes in rescinding Bishop Richard Williamson's excommunication for Holocaust denial. (Washington Post)
- Zimbabwe releases Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Roy Bennett from government custody. (BBC)
- American businessman Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to 11 charges surrounding his US$65-billion Ponzi scheme. (BBC)
- Astronauts aboard the International Space Station briefly evacuate to a Russian escape pod as space debris passes. (Sky News) (National Geographic)
- One person is killed and 16 are missing after Cougar Helicopters Flight 491 ditches into the Atlantic Ocean near St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. (CBC)
- An American drone aircraft's missiles kill at least 12 people in Pakistan's Kurram Valley. (BBC)