Portal:Current events/2016 March 18

March 18, 2016 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
- Boko Haram and al-Qaeda kill four security force personnel in two separate attacks in Niger. (BBC)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff and a U.S. defense official report that North Korea fired two ballistic missiles from the South Pyongan Province. One flew 800 kilometers (497 miles) into the Sea of Japan. The other disappeared at an altitude of about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles). (Sky News) (CNN)
European migrant crisis
- European Union leaders offer Turkey a detailed package of cash and incentives to agree that all migrants attempting to cross the Aegean Sea by raft or boat would be sent back to Turkey which, in effect, becomes the region's migrant holding center. A number of stumbling blocks remain, such as raising the amount of aid from 3 billion euros to at least 6 billion euros; reducing the "72 arduous conditions" the Turks must meet to implement visa-free travel for Turkish citizens; Europe agrees to accelerate talks with Ankara on its EU bid; etc. Human Rights Watch protests the proposed fast-track collective expulsions that fail to take individual circumstances into account and breach peoples' right to seek asylum. (The Washington Post) (Journal of Turkish Weekly)
- European Union and Turkish officials agree on how to handle the flood of refugees. The deal, to return irregular migrants to Turkey, includes acceleration of the country's long-stalled bid for membership in the union; billions of euros in extra aid, 3 billion euros now, another 3 billion by 2018; and, visa-free travel for Turks once the country satisfies the EU criteria. Europe will be taking in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) strongly condemns the deal as "ugly and illegal." The agreement is set to go into effect Sunday, March 20, 2016. (CNN) (Middle East Eye) (Reuters)

Health and medicine

Swiss research, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found that paracetamol -- sold as Tylenol and as a generic, acetaminophen, in the United States -- was not effective at reducing pain or improving movement in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip. The analysis examined 74 randomly-selected trials published between 1980 and 2015 with 58,556 patients who had osteoarthritis. The study did find the prescription drug diclofenac, sold in the U.S. as Cataflam or Voltaren, is the most effective NSAID available. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the makers of Tylenol, disagree with the study's conclusions. (CBS News) (The Lancet)
2016 United States Elizabethkingia outbreak
- A rare bacterial infection from bacterium Elizabethkingia anophelis may have contributed to the deaths of 17 people since November 2015. (Patch) (Star Tribune)

Law and crime

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch far-right political party Party for Freedom, goes on trial again for making anti-Islam remarks. He is being accused of inciting hatred against the Moroccan-Dutch minority. (The Guardian)
2016 Brussels police raids
- Salah Abdeslam, the alleged suspect and primary perpetrator of the November 2015 Paris attacks is shot and arrested by Belgian authorities in a Brussels raid. (The Guardian)
Censorship in China
- Jia Jia, a columnist for China's Tencent media company is reported missing after not being heard from since Tuesday, when he was on his way to Hong Kong. He was last heard from when he tried to warn a friend about publishing an anonymous letter calling for China's paramount leader Xi Jinping's resignation. (BBC)
Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
- The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, United States Secret Service and New York City Police Department are investigating a letter containing a suspicious white powder and a threatening note which was sent to the home of Eric Trump, son of Donald Trump, in New York City. The handwritten note within the letter said: "If your father does not drop out of the race, the next envelope won't be a fake." It was signed "X". (ABC News)
Bollea v. Gawker
- A Florida jury awards Hulk Hogan $115m after the gossip news website Gawker published a sex tape of the retired professional wrestler. Mr Hogan's legal team argued that the New York City-based website violated his privacy and that the video wasn't newsworthy. (BBC)
Apple says it will bring two key personnel to a hearing next week, subjecting them to government cross-examination regarding the issues raised by its locked iPhone: its Chief Privacy Engineer and its Global Law Enforcement Officer. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Former President Pervez Musharraf travels to Dubai for medical treatment of his back and leg, before moving on to either the U.S. or U.K. for additional treatment, spokesperson Aasia Ishaque said. Musharraf, 72, will return to Pakistan to face all pending legal cases. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government implemented the Supreme Court ruling, and lifted the 2013 ban that barred Musharraf from international trips. (Bloomberg)
Iain Duncan Smith resigns his position as the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in opposition to cuts in disability benefit proposed by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (BBC)
2015–16 protests in Brazil, Operation Car Wash
- Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes rules Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should be stripped of a ministerial role in President Dilma Rousseff's Cabinet so he can be investigated in connection with the state oil company Petrobras's alleged kickback scheme. Earlier today, injunctions suspending Lula's appointment as chief of staff were overturned at Attorney General José Eduardo Cardozo's request for a Supreme Court ruling on the motions. (The Globe and Mail) (Toronto Star)
- Brazil's lower house of Congress, which yesterday overwhelmingly approved (433-1) a 65-member investigatory, presidential impeachment committee, was in session today -- unusual since lawmakers are generally away from the capital on Fridays. The charge alleges President Rousseff broke budget rules to boost public spending in the run-up to her re-election in 2014. The president has 10 lower house sessions to present her defense. Friday's session means that clock has started and she now has nine sessions. (Reuters) (Reuters via Swiss Broadcasting Corporation)
- Supporters of the governing Workers’ Party took to the streets, in a sense answering the massive anti-government gatherings since Sunday, in all of Brazil’s 26 states. Organizations from both sides of the protests have called for people opposed to the Workers’ Party to stay home Friday to avoid a repeat of Thursday's clashes. (The Washington Post) (Fox News Latino)

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