Portal:Current events/2021 March 12

March 12, 2021 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Kaduna kidnapping
- Thirty students and several staff members are kidnapped from a school in Kaduna State, Nigeria, by a group of gunmen. (AP)

Health and environment

COVID-19 pandemic
- COVID-19 pandemic in Europe
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria
    - COVID-19 vaccination in Bulgaria
      - Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announces the suspension of the use of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine following the death of a 57-year-old woman from Plovdiv after she received her dose. (Euractiv)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in France
    - The French Haute Autorité de Santé approves the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (U.S. News & World Report)
    - France surpasses four million cases and 90,000 deaths of COVID-19. (Business Standard)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Italy
    - A lockdown will start on March 15 and last until April 6 for the Italian regions of Lombardy, Apulia, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Piedmont, Lazio, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, and Marche, thereby bringing the total number of regions under lockdown in the country to 11. The Autonomous Province of Trento is also placed under a lockdown, while strict measures are imposed for eight more regions. Between April 3–5, the entire country will be placed under a lockdown. (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata)
    - The Italian Medicines Agency approves the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (Reuters)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus
    - Belarus reports 1,186 cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 300,146 cases. (Belarusian Telegraph Agency)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey
    - Turkey reports 14,941 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, which is the highest single-day total this year, and brings the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 2,850,930. (CNA)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Asia
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan
    - Azerbaijan approves general use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. (Yahoo! Finance)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, Variants of SARS-CoV-2
    - Japanese health authorities reports its first case of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in a traveler aged 60s from the Philippines. The variant is different from the Brazil, South African, and UK variants. (Kyodo News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Mongolia
    - Mongolia receives 14,400 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX initiative. (World Health Organization)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan
    - Pakistan surpasses 600,000 cases of COVID-19. (Geo News)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka, 501.V2 variant
    - Sri Lanka reports its first case of the 501.V2 variant, which originated in South Africa, in a person who travelled from Tanzania and is currently staying at a quarantine centre. (Ada Derana)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand
    - Thailand postpones the public vaccination of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and his cabinet using the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine following reports of side-effects in some vaccinated people. (Financial Times)
- COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
  - COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona, Lineage P.1
    - Arizona reports its first three case of the Lineage P.1 variant, which originated in Brazil. (The Arizona Republic)
  - COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)
    - New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul receives a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at Catholic Health in Buffalo. (USA Today)
  - COVID-19 vaccination in the United States
    - The United States surpasses 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses that have been administered. (CNBC)
- COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil
  - Brazil reports 85,663 new confirmed cases and 2,216 more deaths from COVID-19, surpassing India as the country with the second-highest number of cases in the world, and also bringing Brazil's total cases to 11,363,380. (Bloomberg News)
- COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
  - Auckland returns to alert level 1 and lifts all COVID-19-related restrictions aside from their face mask requirement on public transport after no community cases were found. (The New Zealand Herald)
- The World Health Organization grants emergency use approval for the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, becoming the third vaccine to be approved after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. (Forbes)

International relations

Greece–United Kingdom relations
- In an interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain is the legitimate and legal owner of the historic 2,500-year-old Elgin Marbles amid growing calls to return the marbles to Greece. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Hong Kong national security law, 2021 arrests of Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries participants
- An upper court in Hong Kong denies bail for a second time to 11 of the 47 defendants in the case, citing national security risks. Among those who were again denied bail are prominent activists and politicians such as Leung Kwok-hung, Claudia Mo, Jimmy Sham, Lester Shum, and Fergus Leung. The remaining defendants either withdrew their bail application or remain in custody under other circumstances. (South China Morning Post)
Aftermath of the killing of George Floyd
- The family of George Floyd, the man killed while in police custody last May, settles their lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis for $27 million. (Star Tribune)
Death of Sarah Everard
- A Metropolitan Police officer is charged with kidnapping and murder. (BBC News)
2019 Bolivian political crisis
- The Bolivian office of the Prosecutor General issues an arrest order for former interim President Jeanine Áñez, five former members of the national cabinet and the former leadership of the Armed Forces, accusing them of the crimes of sedition and terrorism. (The Guardian)