Portal:Current events/2011 February 28

February 28, 2011 (Monday)

Armed conflicts and incidents

Arab Spring:
- Libya:
  - Al Jazeera reports that many African migrant workers in Libya have been victims of violence due to suspicions that they are mercenaries for Muammar Gaddafi's regime. (Al Jazeera)
  - France sends two planeloads of aid to opponents of the Libyan regime in Benghazi. (Reuters)
  - Forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi surround the town of Zawiya as part of a general counterattack. (Reuters), (New York Times)
  - David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom announces that he is working on a no-fly zone over Libya. (USA Today)
  - The United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces that the United States will be sending assistance teams to Libya's borders with Algeria and Egypt.
  - Muammar Gaddafi tells the BBC that all of his people love him and refuses to acknowledge that there are protests in Tripoli. (BBC)
  - The United States freezes $30 billion in Libyan assets. (Washington Post)
  - The Justice and Equality Movement in Darfur, western Sudan, asks the United Nations to rescue its leader in Libya, after accusations he was supporting mercenary activities in the country. (Reuters)
  - Opposition forces rescue seven rebels 'buried alive' under concrete in a government compound in Benghazi, while close to 100,000 migrant workers flee Libya. (Herald Sun) (Daily Mail)
- 2011 Omani protests:
  - Demonstrations calling for economic and political change continue for a third day, amid reports of looting. (Al Jazeera)
- 2011 Bahraini protests:
  - Bahraini protesters block access to the Parliament of Bahrain. (Times of India)
Ethiopia and Kenya may attack the al-Shabaab Islamist militant group in Somalia, following its threat to target Kenya. (Reuters)
A bomb explodes in Yangon, Burma, injuring eight people. (Straits Times)

Arts and culture

Frank Buckles, the last surviving veteran of World War I in the United States, passes away in Charles Town, West Virginia, aged 110. (AP via Fox News)
Television advertising in the United Kingdom
- The ban on product placement in television programmes is lifted, allowing advertisers to pay for their goods to be seen on British TV. The first product to be displayed in this regard is a Nescafe coffee machine, which appeared on This Morning. (BBC) (Daily Telegraph)
- A year-long trial also begins allowing commercial television channels to show up to 12 minutes of adverts per hour during films and dramas, bringing them into line with soap operas where this is already permitted. (Daily Telegraph)
Hollywood actress and former sex symbol Jane Russell dies at age 89 of respiratory failure in Santa Maria, California. (Fox Central Florida), (Reuters), (Hollywood Reporter)

Business and economy

Crude oil prices rise to their highest levels in two years as stock market indexes fall in Europe and the United States due to continued uncertainty in the Middle East. (Bloomberg)
The United Kingdom's largest bank HSBC doubles its profits to $19bn (£11.8bn) in 2010. (The Guardian)
The United States Government grants its first deepwater drilling license since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to Noble Energy. (BBC)

Disasters

At least 16 people in Bandeira do Sul are killed after a high-voltage electric powerline crashed onto a float participating in a parade ahead of Brazil's carnival celebrations. (Straits Times)
New Zealand earthquakes:
- New Zealand police evacuate 60 properties in Christchurch suburbs after cracks from the 2011 Canterbury earthquake appear in cliffs. (SBS)
- The Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key estimates that the total cost of the 2011 and 2010 earthquakes is up to NZ$20 billion. (News Talk ZB)
Eleven Chinese fishermen are missing after their fishing boat sinks in the East China Sea. (BNO via WR Berkley)^{[permanent dead link‍]}

International relations

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Belarus has "seriously violated" the arms embargo against the Ivory Coast, after a delivery of attack helicopters and material to the country. (BBC) (Times Live South Africa)
Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation, explains that the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant has been delayed in opening due to damage to the nuclear reactor's cooling pumps. (New York Times)

Law and crime

Former military leaders in Argentina go on trial on charges that they masterminded a plan to steal the children of dissidents. (Al Jazeera)
Wing Chau, a money manager, files a lawsuit against Michael Lewis, the author of The Big Short, a popular book about the financial crisis of 2007-08. Chau alleges the book makes "false and defamtory statements" in order to use Chau as a foil for his protagonist, Steve Eisman. (Reuters)
A court in the Seychelles sentences ten Somali pirates to 20 years in prison. (Reuters)
In the United Kingdom, three senior fire officers from the Warwickshire Fire Service are to face manslaughter by gross negligence charges over the deaths of four firefighters in a warehouse blaze in 2007. (BBC)
British Airways IT expert Rajib Karim is convicted on charges related to plotting to blow up a plane. (BBC)
British security guard Danny Fitzsimons is jailed for 20 years by an Iraqi court after being convicted of murdering two colleagues. (BBC)
Venezuelan union leader Ruben Gonzalez is sentenced to seven years in jail in connection with a strike at the state iron mining company. (Canadian Press via Google News)

Politics

The President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, accuses the opposition of provoking violence in the country in an attempt to remove the government. (Reuters)
Egypt's general prosecutor imposes a travel ban on former President Hosni Mubarak and his family. (Al Jazeera)
Iran confirms that it is holding two Opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi under house arrest. (Radio Zamaneh) Archived 2011-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
2011 Yemeni protests:
- President Ali Abdullah Saleh offers to form a unity government with the opposition. (Reuters)

Sport

Iran threatens to boycott the 2012 Summer Olympics ostensibly because its logo spells Zion. (The Guardian)
US tennis champion Serena Williams is hospitalised in Los Angeles, California with a pulmonary embolism. (People)