Portal:Current events/2012 March 15

• Ethiopian forces launch attacks on three militant camps inside Eritrea. (BBC)
• 2011-2012 Syrian uprising:
  • Turkish intelligence reports claim that approximately 20,000 Syrian soldiers have deserted from the government forces in less than a month. (Bloomberg)
  • Turkey threatens to launch a military incursion into northern Syria to protect fleeing refugees. (The Telegraph)
  • The United Nations will send experts on a government-led humanitarian mission. (Al Jazeera)
  • Thousands of Syrians take part in a pro-government rally in the capital Damascus. (The New York Times)
• Two French soldiers are killed and one injured in a drive-by shooting in southern France. (CBC)
• 2012 insurgency in northern Mali: 195,000 people flee their homes amid violence in northern Mali between government troops and Tuareg rebels. (IOL)

• The death toll from the sinking of a ferry in Bangladesh on Tuesday rises to 116 with more people missing. (AP via Yahoo News)
• Five Norwegian soldiers are presumed dead in an aircraft accident in northern Sweden. (The Local)
• One New Zealand tourist is dead and another missing after a family of six is swept away in a flash flood of the Vaisigano River in the Samoan capital Apia. (New Zealand Herald)
• Government documents reveal then-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher was told a senior Merseyside police officer blamed "drunken Liverpool fans" for causing the Hillsborough disaster. Police have since been found to blame. (BBC)

• A Ugandan LGBT rights group files a lawsuit against U.S. minister Scott Lively in connection with his alleged involvement in a campaign to persecute gay people in Uganda. (BBC)
• A free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea comes into effect. (Yonhap)
• The Government of Papua New Guinea reacts angrily after the new Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Bob Carr threatens the imposition of sanctions if elections are delayed. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• Morocco is to amend a law allowing rapists to marry their victims. (Reuters)
• Former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich arrives at a US federal prison in Colorado to begin a 14 year sentence on corruption charges. (Reuters)

• The Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key announces a cut of 2000 positions in the public service. (TV New Zealand)
• Bo Xilai is replaced as the Communist Party boss in the city of Chongqing by 3rd Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang as a result of an ideological dispute. (Wall Street Journal)
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says the Dalai Lama is responsible for ongoing self-immolations by Tibetan monks. (Times of India)
• The Welsh political party Plaid Cymru elects Leanne Wood as its new leader. (BBC)
• Chilean police use water cannon and tear gas to break up a march by thousands of students in the capital Santiago. (AP via Atlanta Journal Constitution)
• More than 100 students are arrested at a protest in the Canadian city of Montreal, Quebec. (Vancouver Sun)
• The President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez returns home after three weeks in Cuba for cancer surgery. (AP via Washington Post)

• In association football, Esteghlal wins the Hazfi Cup, beating Shahin Bushehr in the final. (PressTV)