Portal:Current events/2012 February 27

• 2012 Afghanistan Quran burning protests: A suicide car bomber explodes at Jalalabad Airport in Afghanistan, killing nine. (The Guardian)
• An alleged plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin after this year's Russian presidential election is foiled by Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services. (New York Times)(BBC) (Daily Mail) (Russia Today) (1TV.ru)
• 2011-2012 Syrian uprising:
  • 125 civilians are killed nationwide by the Syrian army, included 64 people reportedly summarily executed after being caught trying to flee the city of Homs. (CNN)
  • The Syrian military launches a new offensive against towns in the Idlib Governorate. (BBC)

• Jailed U.S. serviceman Bradley Manning, U.S. political scientist Gene Sharp and news network Al Jazeera are among those known to have been nominated for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. (AFP via The National Post)

• The German Bundestag votes overwhelmingly in support for a Greek bailout. (AP via Washington Post) (ABC News)
• Internet portal company Yahoo warns social network company Facebook that it believes Facebook has infringed on several Yahoo patents, between 10 and 20. (Dealbook)

• A section of a nine-story apartment building in the city of Astrakhan, Russia, collapses in a natural gas explosion, injuring at least 12 people with 11 people missing (Huffington Post)
• East Africa's high-speed internet access is severely damaged by a ship dropping its anchor onto the fibre-optic cables of the TEAMS and EASSy cable systems off the coast of Mombasa, Kenya. (BBC)
• A farming alert is issued in Wales as an outbreak of Schmallenberg virus affects livestock in at least 74 farms in England. (Wales Online)
• The Costa Allegra cruise ship is left adrift in the Indian Ocean near the Seychelles following an engine room fire. (AFP via Herald Sun)
• The Transportation Safety Board of Canada begins its investigation into the Burlington train derailment. (National Post)
• A report by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation claims that the Japanese government considered the evacuation of Tokyo during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. (New York Times)

• Argentina turns away two cruise ships from the port of Ushuaia – P&O Cruises Adonia and Princess Cruises' Star Princess – because the ships had earlier visited the Falkland Islands. (MSNBC)

• WikiLeaks begins disclosing 5 million e-mails from the private intelligence company Stratfor. (ABC) (CNN)
• News International phone hacking scandal: Singer Charlotte Church and her parents agree damages and costs of £600,000 (US$950,000) with Rupert Murdoch's News Group, publishers of the defunct News of the World. (BBC)
• Three students are killed and two injured in a shooting at Chardon High School in the US state of Ohio. (Los Angeles Times) (BBC)

• The Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard wins a leadership ballot in the Australian Labor Party, defeating former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. (The Australian)
• Former Ukrainian interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko is sentenced to fours year in jail for embezzlement and abuse of office. (Reuters via Kyiv Post)

• In motor sport, the 2012 Daytona 500 is postponed to be run at 7pm Monday due to heavy rain in Daytona. (USA Today)