Portal:Current events/2012 March 6
March 6, 2012 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- A South Korean panel identifies the 95 Koreans who died in the US bombing of Tokyo during World War II. (Yonhap)
- At least 39 people are killed across Syria, while the Red Cross states that it is still unable to deliver aid to the besieged Bab Amr neighborhood of Homs. (CNN)
- A gunman kills the headmaster of the Episcopal School of Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, and then kills himself. (CNN)
Arts and culture
- Robert B. Sherman, half of the American songwriting duo the Sherman Brothers, dies at the age of 86. (The Daily Telegraph)
Business and economy
- Lehman Brothers emerges from bankruptcy protection. (BBC)
- Turkish Airlines begins a service to Somalia, the first regular service to the capital Mogadishu except regional East African flights to operate in twenty years. (The Guardian)
Disasters
- Approximately 9,000 residents of the Australian town of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, are evacuated as the Murrumbidgee River nears record levels threatening the town's levee. (Herald Sun) (SBS)
- A 5.2 magnitude earthquake occurs in the Philippines near Masbate City on the island of Masbate causing some injuries. (AP via Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
- Human Rights Watch claims that the Government of Japan has been too slow in providing health care to survivors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (Alertnet)[permanent dead link]
International relations
- A Saudi Arabian diplomat is killed in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. (Times of India)
- Iran states that it will allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to its Parchin military complex. (Reuters via ABC News Australia)
- French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces his plan to cut immigration to France by half. (BBC)
- The European Commission is involved in controversy over a video promoting EU enlargement that is perceived as racist. (BBC)
Law and crime
- Businessman Allen Stanford is convicted of running a US$7 billion Ponzi scheme. (New York Times)
- Retired British businessman Christopher Tappin is denied bail in the US state of Texas as he faces arms dealing charges. (The Guardian)
- Japan's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission says that it will lodge criminal charges against Olympus Corporation as well as former advisers and executives over an accounting fraud. (Reuters)
- Law enforcement agencies in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland arrest alleged senior members of the computer hacking group Lulz Sec, including a member of the FBI. (Fox News) (The Guardian)
Politics and elections
- Cyrenaican bid for semi-autonomy:
- Cyrenaica, the eastern Libyan region, announces a bid for semi-autonomy. (Al Jazeera)
- Ahmed al-Senussi, a relative of Libya's former king Idris, is announced as the leader of the Cyrenaica Transitional Council. (Reuters)
- Super Tuesday:
- Voters in 10 US states go to the polls for Super Tuesday. (Washington Times)
- Newt Gingrich is projected as the winner of the Georgia primary. (Los Angeles Times)
- Mitt Romney is projected as the winner of primaries in Virginia, Massachusetts, Ohio and Vermont as well as the Idaho and Alaska caucuses. (Chicago Tribune) (Los Angeles Times) (Washington Post) (Chicago Tribune) (AP via Washington Post)
- Rick Santorum is projected as the winner of the Oklahoma and Tennessee primaries and North Dakota caucuses. (Reuters via Fox Business News) (Washington Post) (CNN)
- Veteran Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is defeated in a Democrat primary in the 9th district by incumbent Marcia C. Kaptur after he was affected by redistricting - Samuel Wurzelbacher aka Joe the Plumber wins the Republican Party primary. (Politico) (AP via Google)
- Incumbent Ohio Congresswoman Jean Schmidt is defeated in the Republican primary in the 2nd district by Brad Wenstrup. (Washington Post)
- Indian elections:
- Counting begins in state elections in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa. (Wall Street Journal)
- The regional Samajwadi Party leads in the count in Uttar Pradesh. (BBC)
- Hakimullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistan Taliban, removes his deputy commander Maulvi Faqir Mohammed in a sign of a growing power struggle. (BBC)
- The United States Congress votes to restore higher tariffs against the People's Republic of China and other nations that allegedly subsidize exports to the United States. (AP)
- The Parliament of New South Wales officially appoints Bob Carr as a member of the Australian Senate filling a casual vacancy left by the resignation of Mark Arbib. (ABC News Australia)
Sport
- Chris Cairns, former New Zealand cricket team captain, begins a UK High Court action for libel damages over an accusation on Twitter that he was involved in match-fixing. (BBC)