Portal:Current events/2012 March 31

• 2012 insurgency in northern Mali: Tuareg rebels attack the northern Malian town of Gao, a day after taking the provincial capital Kidal. (Al Jazeera)
• Peter O'Neill, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, orders troops to the resource rich Hela Province following ongoing disruption by illegal miners. (AAP via NineMSN)
• At least eight people are killed after three explosions in Thailand's Yala Province. (BBC)
• Around 30 people are killed in clashes between the army and suspected Al-Qaeda militants in southern Yemen. (The Himalayan Times)

• The spire of the Shard London Bridge is put in place making the completion of the United Kingdom's and European Union's tallest building a step closer. (BBC)
• The United States' two acting unions, the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, agree to merge forming the SAG-AFTRA. (AP via Google)

• In the Republic of Ireland government figures indicate less than half of the country's households have paid the household charge by today's deadline as thousands of people march on the governing Fine Gael party's annual conference at the Convention Centre Dublin. (CBS News) (The Journal) (The Irish Times) (BBC)
• Turkey reduces its purchases of Iranian oil by 20%. (Financial Times)

• Floods in Fiji cause at least two deaths and the evacuation of thousands of residents. (AAP via News Limited)

• Chinese police arrest six people and shut down 16 websites for allegedly spreading rumours that military vehicles were on the streets of Beijing. (BBC)

• The Indonesian People's Representative Council vetoes plans to increase the price of fuel by thirty per cent this weekend. (AP via Google News)
• Former broadcast journalist Mike Nesbitt is elected leader of Northern Ireland's Ulster Unionist Party. (BBC)

• In horseracing, Monterosso wins the Dubai World Cup. (BBC)