Timeline 2013 January - March
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2013 Jan 1, The House of Representatives easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation. It hiked rates on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill face new limits. It also set up another “fiscal cliff" confrontation in a matter of weeks.
(AP, 1/1/13)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 1, California began its cap-and-trade scheme for emitters of greenhouse gases. In 2006 former Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB32, which called for a cut in greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.29)
2013 Jan 1, Ten states kicked off the new year with a minimum wage rise of between 10 and 35 cents. The rises went into effect in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
(Reuters, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gay marriage became legal in Maryland, the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Michael Cronan (b.1951), graphic designer, died in Berkeley, Ca. He was best know for christening TiVo, the digital TV recorder, and Kindle, Amazon’s portable reading device.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 1, Patti Page (85), a top singer of the 1950s, died in Encinitas, Ca. Her hits included “Tennessee Waltz" (1950) and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window." She also co-starred with Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry."
(SFC, 1/3/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 1, In Algeria seven insurgents were killed and arms, ammunition and medicine recovered in Boulzazene in the Boumerdes region. The operation killed Izza Rezki, the finance chief for Abdelmalek Droukdel, the head of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 1, In China the Southern Weekly of Guangdong province was forced to add a provided commentary glorifying the Chinese Communist Party with its annual new year editorial, which was intended to call for proper implementation of the country's constitution. The new year editorial with the title Dream of China, Dream of Constitutionalism, calling for the cementing of rights into a constitution, was replaced with praise of the Chinese Communist Party.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southern_Weekly_incident)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.26)
2013 Jan 1, Tallinn, Estonia, launched free public transport for all of its citizens.
(AP, 4/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, An Ethiopian court found 10 men guilty of plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said young revelers set afire 1,193 vehicles, lamenting that this has become a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have been released.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands of demonstrators in rival marches crowded the main shopping district to praise or condemn chief executive Leung Chun-ying. Critics accused him of misleading the public on a controversial real estate deal and of being a puppet installed by Beijing.
(SFC, 1/2/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 1, Ivory Coast at least 64 people, mostly children and teenagers, were killed early today in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan. Survivors blamedmakeshift barricades.
(AP, 1/1/13)(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, Myanmar rang in 2013 with its first public New Year's Eve countdown and a grand fireworks display, a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.
(AP, 12/31/12)
2013 Jan 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Clashes began in the northern West Bank after Israeli forces dressed as merchants arrested one man. Regular forces then entered the town of Tamoun, and men began hurling rocks at them to prevent other arrests. At least 10 Palestinians were wounded.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In the Philippines a “sin tax" on alcohol and tobacco came into effect. It had survived a 2012 Senate vote by a margin of one.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.86)
2013 Jan 1, Rwanda took a prestigious seat on the UN Security Council. Human Rights Watch has been calling on the Security Council for months to sanction the Rwandan officials the rights group believes is helping M23 rebels in eastern Congo.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 1, In South Africa three people died and 4,000 were displaced when fires swept through shacks in poor settlements in the Cape Town area on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes took part in bombing Daraya, a few miles (kms) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of Damascus.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 2, President Obama signed the "fiscal cliff" legislation into law via autopen from Hawaii, where he is vacationing with his family.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, Al Jazeera said it will buy Current TV, the struggling cable channel founded by Al Gore and partners, in a move that will boost the Qatar-based broadcaster's footprint in the United States.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, Avis Budget Group agreed to buy Zipcar Inc., a rent by the hour car agency, for $491 million.
(SFC, 1/3/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 2, Jon Fromer (b.1946), musician, activist and television producer, died at his home in Mill Valley, Ca. He was the founder of Freedom Song Network, a coalition of Bay Area musicians dedicated to promoting human rights.
(SFC, 1/9/13, p.E8)
2013 Jan 2, Algerian security forces killed two radical Islamist insurgents in the same locality east of the capital where seven were killed a day earlier.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said more than 1.1 million people in Britain have succumbed to the norovirus winter vomiting disease so far this season.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, Colombia's chief prosecutor's office opened a preliminary criminal investigation into former President Alvaro Uribe over allegations he sponsored a killer far-right militia as a regional governor in the 1990s.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 2, Ethiopian security forces announced the arrest of 15 people alleged to be members of a terror cell linked with al-Qaida. Authorities said the suspects were trained by al-Shabab militants in neighboring Somalia and Kenya.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, Iranian media reported that Iran has captured 2 US RQ11 Raven surveillance drones over the last 17 months and that much of the data has been decoded by the army.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 2, Myanmar's military acknowledged launching airstrikes against ethnic Kachin rebels in the north and said it captured a hilltop post on Dec 29 from where the insurgents had attacked government supply convoys.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, In Pakistan Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir was among nine people killed in a missile strike on a house in Angoor Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region. Nazir had a truce with the Pakistani military.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, In Switzerland a man armed with an old military rifle and a handgun shot and killed three women and wounded two men in the village of Daillon. Police shot and wounded the suspect after he threatened to also shoot officers.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, A Syrian warplane blasted a gas station near Damascus, killing and wounding dozens of people and igniting a huge fire in one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks during the 22-month civil war. Rebels attacked the sprawling Taftanaz air base. Rebels bombarded the Mannagh air base, which has been subjected to almost daily attacks since late last month.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, The UN said more than 60,000 people have killed in the 21-months of the Syrian conflict.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 3, The new 113th US Congress convened. It was set to take a fresh crack at a number of old, and highly contentious, issues, such as gun control, immigration, the record debt, tax reform and the farm bill.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Officials said a smuggling ring brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Arctic into Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold them to American buyers. In 2015 Andrew Zarauskas (61) was sentenced to nearly three years for buying more than 30 tusks over six years from two Canadians.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A6)(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A6)
2013 Jan 3, Hormel Foods said it has agreed to buy the Skippy peanut butter business from Unilever for about $700 million.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 3, The first report of genome editing was reported in separate papers by Feng Zhang, who began applying CRISPR-Cas9 in human cells in early 2011, and George Church.
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.22)
2013 Jan 3, Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernandez called on Britain to relinquish control of the Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Australian astronomers discovered a comet named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). Scientists said it will pass about 50km from Mars on October 19, 2014. On Oct 19 the comet’s closest approach to Mars was about 140,000 km.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.80)(Econ, 10/25/14, p.82)
2013 Jan 3, The Basque nationalist group known as Batasuna, legal in France but banned in Spain, announced that it is dissolving after 11 years.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, British police extradited terror suspect Abid Naseer (26) to the United States to face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaida plot to detonate explosives aboard the New York City subway system.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Coalition military officials in Afghanistan said an elite Danish soldier was killed overnight by an explosive device.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In India 5 men accused of raping a university student for hours on a bus as it drove through New Delhi were charged with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty. A sixth suspect, listed as a 17-year-old, was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility. Authorities said they will seek the death penalty against the 5 men.
(AP, 1/3/13)(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Iraqi authorities ordered the release of 11 women facing criminal charges and pledged to transfer other women prisoners to jails in their home provinces, in a move to address a main demand during a wave of protests by the country's Sunni minority against the Baghdad government. A car bomb struck a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the town of Musayyib, about 60 km south of Baghdad, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In northeast Nigeria at least 43 people were killed when gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram attacked the town of Song.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, In Northern Ireland 8 police officers were injured when protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall turned violent for the first time in more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Pakistan a US drone strike took place near Mir Ali, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region. One missile hit a vehicle near the town, followed by another missile when people rushed to the vehicle to help people in the car. Officials said four people were killed in the strike.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Palestinian officials said Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank house in a failed arrest raid near Jenin, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Russia announced that President Vladimir Putin has approved French actor Gerard Depardieu's application for citizenship.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Russia Denis Burakov (27), was killed when a transparent plastic ball, known as a zorb, veered off course and sailed over a rock ledge at the Dombai ski resort in the rugged Caucasus Mountains. His friend Vladimir Shcherbakov survived.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles around the Taftanaz air base in the country's north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month. Rebels reportedly killed the commander of the air base, a brigadier general. The Observatory and the LCC said 8 people were killed in Douma and nearby areas. Dozens of people were also killed or wounded in the town of Hayan in Aleppo province. A car bomb blew up in a Damascus gas station, killing at least 9 people.
(AP, 1/3/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian journalist Suheil al-Ali, who worked for a pro-government television station, died four days after a "terrorist" opened fire on him as he was returning home from work in the suburbs of Damascus.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 4, The US House overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by the storm. The Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A Beechcraft BE35 crashed on its way to the Flagler County Airport in Palm Coast, Florida, killing at least 3 people.
(SFC, 1/5/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 4, Afghan Police Maj. Jalal Uddin said that 80 prisoners, formerly held by the US, were freed from prisons across the country today, the latest batch of a total of 400 to be released this week. The released prisoners had been captured in operations against the Taliban and other groups.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, British police charged Nepali army colonel Kumar Lama (46) with two counts of torture committed in 2005 during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war, despite the Nepali government's demanding his immediate release.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, The Church of England confirmed that its House of Bishops, one of its most senior bodies, has ended an 18-month moratorium on the appointment of gays in civil partnerships as bishops. The decision was made in late December.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, In southern Chile Werner Luchsinger (75) and wife Vivian McKay, whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians, were killed in an arson attack while trying to defend their home. The attack began the previous evening as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. In 2014 Celestino Cordova Transito (27) was convicted for killing the couple.
(AP, 1/4/13)(SFC, 2/21/14, p.A2)
2013 Jan 4, Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007. Hamas condoned the demonstration.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, Six Russians were killed and two seriously injured when the snowmobile and sled they were riding veered off an Italian Alpine ski slope at night, slammed into a barrier and flew through the air into a ravine.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 4, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who moved to Somalia to wage jihad alongside al-Shabab militants, was given 15 days to surrender to militants or be killed. The FBI has named Hammami as one of its most-wanted terrorists.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 4, Syrian ground and air forces bombarded rebel strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country. Anti-government forces targeted a military post near the capital with a car bomb.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A small plane disappeared off the Venezuelan coast with six people aboard, including Vittorio Missoni (58), a top executive in Italy's Missoni fashion house. Wreckage of the plane was found in June.
(AP, 1/5/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Colorado a gun man in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, fired shots at police before he was gunned down. Inside the home SWAT officers found the bodies of 3 adults.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A7)
2013 Jan 5, In North Carolina Pat McCrory was sworn in as governor, becoming the first Republican to head the state in 20 years.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A7)
2013 Jan 5, In Canada aboriginal demonstrators disrupted passenger rail service on routes connecting Toronto with Ottawa and Montreal, a day after PM Harper agreed to meet with First Nations leaders to discuss grievances behind a growing native protest movement.
(Reuters, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In the Central African Republic the Seleka alliance rebels took Alindao town raising their control to 11 towns.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Egypt unidentified gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian policeman in northern Sinai's main city of el-Arish.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Hungary journalist Zsolt Bayer, a founding member of the governing Fidesz party, wrote a newspaper column in which he said: "a significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence. They are not fit to live among people. These Roma are animals and they behave like animals."
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 5, Indonesia anti-terror police shot and killed 5 suspected Islamist militants over the last 24 hours in raids on the island of Sumbawa.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 5, In Kenya a poaching gang used gunfire to kill an entire family of 11 elephants in Tsavo National Park for their ivory tusks.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 5, A Moroccan family of 5 returning home died when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Grenoble airport near the French Alps.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In northwest Nigeria suspected armed robbers raided three villages in Zamfara state, killing at least 7 people and wounding 7 more.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 5, Northern Ireland police used water cannons to fend off brick-hurling protesters in Belfast as demonstrations continued over flying the British flag.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 5, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels and government troops clashed in suburbs south of Damascus, including Harasta and Daraya. The Observatory, which relies on reports by activists on the ground, said government troops had arrested several residents in raids in the suburb of Qatana.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Venezuela allies of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez chose to retain Diosdado Cabello as the National Assembly president. He could be in line to step in as a caretaker leader in some circumstances.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Zimbabwe eight people died in a bus crash that brought the traffic accident death toll during the holiday period to the highest on record in the country. The central police traffic command said 209 people have died in accidents since Dec. 15.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, The White House said Pres. Obama has signed a $9.7 billion bill to pay flood insurance claims from Superstorm Sandy.
(SFC, 1/7/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 6, In San Francisco Dexter Oliver set his girlfriend, Starr Lamare, on fire in an apparent dispute over laundry. On Nov. 2, 2017, Oliver (27) pleaded guilty to attempted murder. On Jan 4, 2018, Oliver was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/3/17, p.D2)(SFC, 1/5/18, p.D1)
2013 Jan 6, Huell Howser (67), public TV figure, died. His “California Gold" TV series ran for 19 seasons and spawned 6 spin-off series.
(SFC, 1/8/13, p.C5)
2013 Jan 6, In Afghanistan 2 suicide bombers penetrated a government compound killing five people in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province. In Helmand province a bomb planted at a bus station killed one policeman and wounded another person.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Libya's interim president Mohammed al-Megarif survived an overnight assassination attempt in an oasis city in the country's southern deserts.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 6, Pakistan and India traded accusations of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad accusing Indian troops of a cross-border raid that killed one of its soldiers and India charging that Pakistani shelling destroyed a home on its side.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, In Pakistan suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, killing 9 Pakistani Taliban fighters.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas ordered his government to officially change the name of the Palestinian Authority to "State of Palestine."
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, In the Philippines gunmen riding in three black SUVs opened fire on more than 50 army and police troopers who flagged down the vehicles late today in the coastal town of Atimonan in Quezon province. At least three police personnel were among 13 suspected criminals who were gunned down in the shootout on Luzon island.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 6, Somalia’s Universal TV reported that armed men in police uniform had raped a young woman. The same day Al Jazeera published an article describing rape by security forces in camps for internally displaced people in Mogadishu. Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim then interviewed the woman but never published a story. He was arrested for conducting the interview.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 6, The South African presidency announced that is sending 400 army troops to Central African Republic to help the country's army as it faces a threat from a coalition of rebel groups. Neighboring countries Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo already have sent about 120 troops each to help stabilize the country confronted by the rebellion.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Spain’s “El Nino" lottery showered €840 million ($1.1 billion) on top ticket holders in five regions as the country endured a deep recession and high unemployment.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad offered a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution but demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels trying to overthrow him first. Syria's opposition swiftly rejected the proposal. Fighting between rebels and government forces raged across the country.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Yemen's state security court sentenced five alleged al-Qaida militants to up to 10 years in prison for carrying out attacks against security forces and supporting the group logistically in the southern province of Abyan in 2011. The court ordered the release of six others who had already spent about 18 months in detention.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 7, President Obama nominated former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for secretary of Defense and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Bank of America said it will spend more than $10 billion to settle mortgage claims resulting from the housing meltdown.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, The 752-foot Overseas Reymar rammed a SF Bay Bridge tower as it headed out to sea. The bridge sustained minor damage but remained opened immediately after the accident.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, The Oakland Museum of California was robbed of a gold-and-quartz jewelry box. It dated to 1869-1878 and was valued at $805,000. The museum had just lost a pistol and gold nuggets in a robbery on Nov 12. Parolee Andre Taray Franklin (45) was arrested on March 3. Police recovered the jewelry box but not the other items. On Jan 3, 2014, Franklin was sentenced to four years in prison.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A6)(SFC, 6/5/14, p.D2)
2013 Jan 7, In Chicago Cedric Chatman (17) was fatally shot by police after running from police following a suspected car-jacking. In 2016 the city’s law department recommended a $3 million settlement with Chatman’s family.
(http://tinyurl.com/jkcqqq6)(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A8)
2013 Jan 7, Richard Ben Cramer (b.1950), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, died in Baltimore. His narrative non-fiction spanned presidential politics and baseball.
(SFC, 1/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 7, In New York City Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial killer from southern California, was sentenced to an additional 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover in NYC in the 1970s.
(SFC, 1/8/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 7, In Oklahoma 4 young women were found shot to death in a Tulsa apartment.
(SFC, 1/8/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 7, Fred Turner (80), former CEO and chairman of McDonald’s Corp., died. He introduced the first Drive-Thru in 1975.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.82)
2013 Jan 7, An Afghan soldier turned his weapon against foreign and Afghan troops in a southern province, killing one British soldier. 6 British soldiers were also reported wounded.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Australia officials searched for bodies among the charred ruins of more than 100 homes and other buildings destroyed by wildfires in the island state of Tasmania. Around 100 residents remained unaccounted for, three days after the fires broke out.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, A Cameroon court overturned the conviction of two men who were sentenced for five years in prison for "looking gay" and ordering Bailey's Irish Cream. The two men had already spent more than a year in jail where they were subjected to abuse from guards and other prisoners.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, An island doctor said Cuba is eliminating longstanding restrictions on health care professionals' overseas travel as part of a broader migration reform that takes effect next week.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, John Dramani Mahama became president of Ghana, sworn in as the opposition continues to dispute election results in one of West African's most stable democracies.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Italy former Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced a deal with the Northern League, his fractious coalition partner in three governments, to jointly run in Italy's election next month.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Kuwait's pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported that Ayyad al-Harbi, a journalist at news website Sabr, was charged with posting Twitter messages considered offensive to the nation's Western-allied emir and that he was sentenced to two years in prison for the posts.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Mexican authorities said wild dogs mauled and killed four people whose bodies were found over the past two weeks in a park on the edge of Mexico City.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, The Dutch military shipped Patriot missiles to Turkey, a fellow NATO member, after the alliance agreed in December to deploy the anti-missile systems along Turkey's southern border with Syria. Fighting in Syria continued unabated.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Northern Ireland police came under attack for a fifth straight night as the province's police chief urged politicians and parents to act to halt the riots on Belfast streets.
(Reuters, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Senegal a man in front of the gates to the palace in Dakar doused in flammable liquid and then lit the fire. He was later taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In South Africa a Johannesburg hotel manager discovered the body of American movie director David R. Ellis (60). Police said Ellis, who directed the movie "Snakes on a Plane," was last seen Jan 5 in a restaurant by a friend.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Tunisia Ali Harzi (26), a man linked by officials to the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, was conditionally released by a Tunisian judge due to lack of evidence.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In northern Turkey a gas leak inside a coal mine killed five workers and injured one. Two other miners are missing and feared dead in Zonguldak province.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 8, In northern Afghanistan gunmen killed two local government officials in separate attacks in Kunduz province.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A court in Algiers convicted Amar Gharbia (39) of taking part in the 2003 kidnapping of 15 European tourists, mainly German, in the Sahara Desert and sentenced him to life in prison. Youcef Ben Mohamed (25) of Mali was also convicted and imprisoned for seven years. Both belonged to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat which later transformed into al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In London 2 former employees of HBOS were charged by UK prosecutors over business loans made through a high street bank for about 35 million pounds.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 8, Pro-British protesters pelted police with petrol bombs and fireworks in a sixth successive night of rioting in Northern Ireland's capital of Belfast.
(Reuters, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A Canadian federal court ruled that 200,000 Metis and 400,000 First nations’ people living outside reserves should also be considered to be Indians under the constitution.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 8, In China free-speech protesters in masks squared off against flag-waving communist loyalists in Guangzhou as a dispute over censorship at a newspaper spilled into the broader population, with authorities shutting microblog accounts of supporters of the paper.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A European court ruled that Italy's woefully overcrowded prisons violate the basic rights of inmates, fined the government €100,000 ($131,000) and ordered it to make changes within a year. The finding came three years after Italy's government recognized the problem itself but failed to pass legislation designed to correct it.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A Paris court convicted nine people for links to a militant group that the UN Security Council has described as an al-Qaida affiliate. Suspected ringleader, Irfan Demirtas (53), a Turkish-Dutch national, was given an eight-year sentence, €20,000 ($26,170) fine and barred from French territory after his sentence is up.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A lawyer for former detainees of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said 71 former detainees received a portion of a $5.28 million settlement involving US defense contractor Engility Holdings. The company’s L-3 Services subsidiary was accused of conspiring to torture the detainees.
(SFC, 1/9/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Jordan Syrian refugees in a refugee camp attacked aid workers with sticks and stones, frustrated after cold, howling winds swept away their tents and torrential rains flooded muddy streets overnight.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Kenya’s The National Police Service Commission suspended three senior police officers from the Rift Valley province where Joshua Waiganjo (34) operated as a fake officer extorting money from civilians. Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi said Waiganjo's case has prompted a detailed audit of all police to weed out "ghost" officers.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 8, An Indian army official said Pakistani soldiers crossed the cease-fire line in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and attacked an army patrol, killing two Indian soldiers before retreating back into Pakistani-controlled territory.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Nigeria a massive fire tore through a waterfront slum in Lagos, burning down dozens of shack workshops and homes. There were no firefighters, trucks or emergency equipment seen in the neighborhood.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Students at North Korea's premier university showed Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt how they look for information online: they Google it. Kim Su Hyang, a librarian, said students at Kim Il Sung University have had Internet access since the laboratory opened in April 2010.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Pakistan several missiles fired from American drones slammed into a compound near the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing eight suspected militants.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Palestinian factions in Syria called for a cease-fire after fighting flared at a refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. 5 people were killed on Yarmouk Street, four of them when a shell exploded and the fifth in sniper fire.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Slovenia’s official anti-corruption commission said PM Janez Jansa and opposition leader Zoran Jankovic had questions to answer.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.55)
2013 Jan 8, The UN World Food Program said it is unable to help 1 million Syrians who are going hungry.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 9, Google said it is putting $200 million into a Texas Panhandle wind farm.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.C6)
2013 Jan 9, Argentina’s ARA Libertad naval ship returned home from Ghana after being held there on a claim by a Cayman Islands-based hedge fund.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 9, In Australia Richard Ammar Chichakli, a Syrian-born American, was arrested on charges that he conspired with Viktor Bout and others to try to buy aircraft from two companies in the United States.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, British health officials said a new strain of the winter vomiting disease norovirus has spread to France, New Zealand and Japan from Australia and is overtaking all others to become the dominant local strain.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Talks on the crisis in Central African Republic began in Gabon with representatives of the government, rebels and other groups.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, In France 3 Kurdish women, including Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris. Protesters blamed Turkey. A Turkish lawmaker claimed the women were slain in a dispute between PKK factions. Omer Guney (34) was later charged with murder in the killings of Cansiz, Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan. On Dec 17, 2016, Guney died from brain disease.
(AP, 1/10/13)(AP, 12/18/16)
2013 Jan 9, In Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers made a symbolic attempt to impeach Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. The 27 pro-democracy legislators were outnumbered by pro-Beijing representatives in the 70-seat Legislative Council.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Legislators in Kenya voted themselves a hefty pay package in a late-evening vote on the last day of session before national elections. The bill also would give Kenya's president, vice president and prime minister hefty retirement packages, in a move that could tempt President Mwai Kibaki not to veto the legislation.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, In eastern Kenya 7 people were killed in tribal violence near the Tana River after more than 100 people launched an attack on a local village.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Mexico’s government enacted a new law that require authorities to assist victims of drug-related violence and establish as fund for possible reparations.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 9, The Mali army attacked Islamist rebels with heavy weapons in the center of the country which divides the insurgent-held north and the government-controlled south.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, In northwest Pakistan truckers who carry supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan went on strike to protest lower pay, inadequate security and corrupt officials who demand bribes from the truckers.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Saudi authorities beheaded a Sri Lankan domestic worker for killing a Saudi baby in her care in 2005. Rizana Nafeek, 17 at the time of the killing, had denied strangling the 4-month-old boy.
(AP, 1/9/13)(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 9, A fuel shortage has hit Sierra Leone, causing rationing and long lines at gas stations and hampering the movement of vehicles and goods in the West African nation.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, South African police fired rubber bullets at striking farm workers who set up barricades and threw stones at motorists and security forces in Western Cape province whose vineyards are vital to the wine industry. At least 50 demonstrators were arrested.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, The Sudanese army said its soldiers have killed at least 30 rebels in clashes in the troubled North Darfur region. The rebel forces were said to belong to the Justice and Equality Movement.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Syrian rebels freed 48 Iranians held captive since August in exchange for the release of more than 2,000 detainees in the first major prisoner swap of the country's civil war.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, The NATO alliance detected the launch of an unguided, short-range ballistic missile in Syria.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, A Vietnamese court found 14 democracy activists guilty of subversion and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from 3-13 years.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 10, President Barack Obama signed into a law a measure giving him, George W. Bush and future former presidents and their spouses lifetime Secret Service protection. This rolled back a mid-1990s law that imposed a 10-year limit on Secret Service protection for former presidents.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 10, Pres, Obama signed a bill making California’s Pinnacles National Monument the nation’s 59th national park.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 10, The US Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable Oracle Corp's Java software, amplifying security experts' prior warnings to hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses that use it to surf the Web.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 10, California's Governor Jerry Brown said the state budget deficit is gone after years of financial troubles as he proposed a state budget plan that would raise spending on education and healthcare, boosting total expenditures by 5 percent with a surplus remaining.
(Reuters, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In California a student (16) armed with a shotgun opened fire at Taft Union High School in Kern County, critically wounding a fellow student before two adult staff members talked the boy into giving up his weapon, and he was arrested.
(Reuters, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Evan Connell Jr. (b.1924), historian and novelist, was found dead at his home in Santa Fe, NM. His books included "Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn" (1984) and “the Alchemyst’s Journal" (1991).
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.C12)
2013 Jan 10, Belgium PM Elio Di Rupo chastised Queen Fabiola over her inheritance plans, which have widely seen as a tax dodge on a fortune amassed with taxpayer money.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 10, In Brazil Chilean artist Jorge Selaron (b.1947), a symbol of his adopted city of Rio de Janeiro, was found dead in front of his house. In 1990 he began a staircase project in the Lapa neighborhood tiling steps and collecting old porcelain bathtubs to use as planters along the sides.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, British Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn (53) was found guilty of one count of misconduct for trying to sell information to one of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 10, Journalist Paul Salopek (50) departed a small Ethiopian village and took the first steps of a planned 21,000-mile (34,000-km) walk that will cross some 30 borders, where he will encounter dozens of languages and scores of ethnic groups. The walk from Ethiopia to Chile, which took human ancestors some 50,000 years to make, is called Out of Eden and is sponsored by National Geographic, the Knight Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Georgia opposition groups and NGOs announced that more than 1 million of Georgia's 4.6 million citizens have signed a petition calling for the resignation of Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 10, Honduras’ El Heraldo newspaper reported that police overnight had captured Kevin Samraid Carranza Padilla (28), a leader of the 18th Street gang along with his girlfriend, Cindy Yadira Garcia (19). Carranza was suspected in the shooting death of a police officer months earlier. Carranza and Yadira were later reported disappeared.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A16)
2013 Jan 10, In Iraq a series of attacks on a bus stop, police patrol and a convoy carrying the head of a university killed eight people and wounded 20 others.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Indian troops fired across the disputed Kashmir border and killed a Pakistani soldier, the third deadly incident in the disputed Himalayan region in recent days.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In Israel an explosion went off in a car near a bus in Tel Aviv in what police said was a criminally motivated assassination attempt. Four people were slightly injured.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, A Kenyan community retaliated with their own tribal assault, killing 10 people and furthering a tribal feud that threatens to explode as March elections approach.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Islamists, who rule northern Mali, clashed with government forces for the first time in nearly a year, seizing the strategic city of Konna as the al-Qaida-linked militants pushed toward the government line of control in the center of the troubled country.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In southwest Pakistan a bomb targeting paramilitary soldiers killed 12 people in Quetta. Another 86 people, mostly Shiite Muslims, were killed in twin bombings at a billiards hall in Quetta. 5 suspected militants died in a US drone strike in Mir Ali, North Waziristan. A gas cylinder explosion ripped through a crowded mosque in the northwest city of Mingora, killing 21 people and injuring more than 70 others.
(AP, 1/10/13)(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 10, Russia said that an adoption deal with the US will remain valid until 2014 despite a new Russian law banning the practice, but no new adoptions will be permitted and only those already cleared by Russian courts before the ban will be allowed to complete.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Somali journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, a freelance journalist, was arrested by police after interviewing a woman who said she was raped by government security forces. She was also briefly arrested and questioned by police before being released.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 10, In northern Switzerland two passenger trains collided near a station, injuring 17 people in Schaffhausen canton.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime battled army troops inside an air base in the north as government forces fought opposition strongholds near the seat of his government in Damascus.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In Venezuela thousands of chanting supporters of President Hugo Chavez rallied outside his presidential palace in an exuberant alternative inauguration for a leader too ill to return home for the real thing.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In Yemen Ali Abdul-Salam, a prominent tribal chief, was killed in an ambush, an apparent revenge attack by al-Qaida for his security links.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 11, Pres. Barack Obama and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai met in Washington to discuss bringing down the curtain in the long Afghan war.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 11, A US federal judge barred California from enforcing a voter-approved law that requires 73,000 registered sex offenders to disclose their internet identities to police.
(SFC, 1/12/13, p.C1)
2013 Jan 11, Aaron Schwartz (26), computer programmer, was found dead in his NY apartment. At age 14 he helped create RSS (RDF Site Summary), a web feed format used to publish frequently updated works. He also co-founded Reddit, a social news website which was sold in 2006 to Conde Nast.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/13, p.A5)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.94)
2013 Jan 11, In Argentina the Buenos Aires federal court ratified charges previously filed against former transportation secretaries Juan Pablo Schiavi and Ricardo Jaime in connection with a crash that killed 51 people on Feb 22, 2012.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Bahrain a fire killed 13 people in a migrant labor camp in Manama.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 11, Bolivia became the first country to negotiate a partial opt out from the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.59)
2013 Jan 11, British police released a report saying the late entertainer Jimmy Savile committed more than 200 sex crimes from 1955-2009, with most victims children and teens assaulted the length and breadth of Britain, from TV studios to hospitals and even a hospice.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Central African Republic President Francois Bozize and the rebels who sought to overthrow him reached a deal that will allow him to stay in office until his term ends in 2016.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In China a landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village, Yunnan province. At least 46 people were killed.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 11, In Egypt Islamist militants attacked a police patrol along a pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula that transports natural gas to Jordan, wounding seven policemen.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Iraq a dozen prisoners, including al-Qaida-linked death row inmates, escaped from the Taji prison near Baghdad. Thousands of mostly Sunni protesters rallied in the capital and other parts of the country, keeping pressure on the government for the release of detainees and changes to a tough counterterrorism law that Sunnis believe unfairly targets their sect.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Mali radical Islamists held on to the central city of Konna after sending the Malian military reeling in retreat. French President Francois Hollande ordered air strikes to stop the Islamist extremists. This was the start of Operation Serval. French airstrikes began over Konna leaving civilian casualties.
(AP, 1/11/13)(AP, 1/26/13)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.53)
2013 Jan 11, Police in Northern Ireland fired plastic bullets and water cannon at rioters who wounded four officers with missiles and petrol bombs in the latest outbreak of anger at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In the Philippines a fire swept through the Dryden Hotel, a small two-story tourist hotel in Olongapo city, killing 7 people, including 3 Americans, 3 Filipinos and a South Korean.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah issued two royal decrees granting women 30 seats on the Shura Council, which has 150 members plus a president. The council reviews laws and questions ministers, but doesn't have legislative powers.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Slovenia some 10,000 protesters urged PM Janez Jansa and opposition leader Zoran Jankovic to resign after an official report accused them of graft.
(SFC, 1/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 11, Spanish police said they have arrested two people and seized equipment they say was due to be shipped to Iran for use in Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Sri Lanka's Parliament voted 155-49 to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, deepening a standoff between the judiciary and the government, which is controlled by the country's most powerful family. Last month a parliamentary committee ruled that she had unexplained wealth and had misused her power.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Syria Islamic militants seeking to topple Pres. Bashar Assad took full control of the strategic Taftanaz air base in a significant blow to government forces, seizing helicopters, tanks and multiple rocket launchers. Government warplanes bombed the air base after the rebel takeover.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Zimbabwe's largest platinum mining company, Ziomplats, said it has signed a deal to sell off its majority shareholding to the government as part of the country's black empowerment laws.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Zimbabwe Professor Gordon Chavunduka (82), the leader of the organization of tribal healers, died. The eminent academic, author, sociologist and politician, a former head of the main Zimbabwe University, was widely known for his research and writing that did much to bridge the gap between Western medical practices and Africa's traditional, tribal and herbalist healers.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Florida nearely 800 people began month-long "Python Challenge" to deal with an infestation of Burmese pythons that were eating their way through a fragile ecosystem. Roughly 2,050 pythons have been harvested in Florida since 2000.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Las Vegas Mallory Hagan, a 23-year-old blonde from Brooklyn, N.Y., won the Miss America crown after deftly dealing with a question about armed guards in schools and raising the issue of child sexual abuse in her contestant platform.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 12, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a public health emergency, giving pharmacists permission to administer flu vaccinations to more people as officials seek to stem the worst flu outbreak in that state in several years.
(Reuters, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Three men from Utah died when their plane went down near Paris, Texas.
(SFC, 1/14/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 12, Four Chinese workers were abducted in Sudan's North Darfur region by unidentified gunmen. They were released on Jan 16. Eleven Sudanese workers who were abducted together with the Chinese remained hostages.
(AP, 1/14/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 12, The Czech Republic held presidential elections in a direct popular vote for the first time, choosing from nine candidates to replace euroskeptic President Vaclav Klaus. Some 61.3% of Czech voters cast their ballots. Former leftist PM Milos Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg appeared to be the front runners. With no candidate achieving a majority, the top two finishers would face each other in a runoff in two weeks.
(AP, 1/12/13)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.55)
2013 Jan 12, An Egyptian court ordered a religious TV program hosted by a fiery preacher off the air on charges of libeling and defaming a well-known actress. It was one of three legal reverses suffered by Islamists today in cases dealing with the media.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Egypt a dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late today at protesters who have camped outside the presidential palace in Cairo for the past month, wounding several along with security forces standing watch nearby.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In India police arrested six suspects in another gang rape of a bus passenger in Punjab state. Police also arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly raping and killing a 9-year-old girl two weeks ago in Ahmednagar district in western India.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Iraq Shiite demonstrators took to the streets of Baghdad to show support for PM Nouri al-Maliki's government, which has faced angry protests in Sunni provinces in a sign of growing sectarian tensions.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki vetoed legislation in which members of parliament gave themselves a hefty send-off package in a late-evening vote on the last day of session before national elections. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission said it was unconstitutional for legislators to set their own pay under the constitution the country adopted in 2010.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, The Kenya Red Cross said at least 200 people have been killed in violence in the southeast since August in fighting that could be related to political tensions ahead of March elections.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Mali French airstrikes overnight drove back Islamist rebels from Konna and destroyed a militant command center, as West African nations authorized the immediate deployment of troops to the country. At least 11 civilians were killed in Konna. A French pilot was killed after the Islamists downed his combat helicopter.
(AP, 1/12/13)(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 12, In west Nepal a bus veered off a mountain road leaving at least 30 people dead and several more injured near Chatiwan village.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Northern Ireland police fought day-and-night street battles with Protestant militants as a protest march to Belfast City Hall degenerated into riots when many marchers returned home to the Protestant east side. 29 officers were injured.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Somalia a French commando raid to free a captive intelligence agent, code-name Denis Allex, ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists and a French soldier. France said the hostage also died in the failed rescue, but the man's captors denied he had been killed and claimed to have seized a 2nd soldier. Allex was captured in Somalia on July 14, 2009.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Somalia three Syrian hostages held by pirates were released after more than two years in captivity. They were the last to be freed of the 21 surviving crew of the ship MV Orna, hijacked in Dec, 2010.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Syrian troops captured most of Daraya, a strategic Damascus suburb used by rebels as a base to threaten key regime facilities in the capital.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 13, In the Golden Globe awards winners included “Argo" as the best movie; Ben Affleck won as best director for “Argo." Daniel Day Lewis won as best movie actor for his role in “Lincoln," and Jessica Chastain won as best actress for her role in “Zero Dark Thirty."
(SFC, 1/14/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 13, Hollywood actress Jodie Foster confirmed long-running speculation that she is gay by coming out at the Golden Globes awards, but joked she wouldn't be holding a news conference to discuss her private life.
(Reuters, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Detroit General Motors unveiled its latest model of the Corvette Stingray on the eve of the Detroit motor show. The next day GM’s Cadillac ATS sedan took the show’s top prize.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.63)
2013 Jan 13, In Afghanistan an explosion killed 7 villagers as they tried to pull bodies of dead insurgents from the rubble of a village mosque after a night raid by NATO and Afghan troops. Four insurgents and an Afghan soldier were also reported killed in the operation.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Argentina said that a monthly basket for an indigent family of four cost 719 pesos in December, or about 5.99 pesos per day, per person. On the streets of Buenos Aires, 6 pesos doesn't stretch beyond a pack of chewing gum, or a cup of yoghurt, or a single "alfajor" cookie.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 13, In China people refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing's murky skyline as the air quality in the notoriously polluted capital went off the index.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Egypt an appeals court overturned Hosni Mubarak's life sentence and ordered a retrial of the ousted president for failing to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In France some 300,000 people marched toward the Eiffel Tower from three different points in the city to protest against President Francois Hollande’s plan to legalize gay marriage.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Georgia 190 people considered political prisoners by the new parliament walked free under an amnesty strongly opposed by Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili. More than 3,000 other prisoners who had their sentences reduced under the amnesty will be freed in the next two months.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Gen. Ali Moayedi, head of Iran's anti-narcotics police, was quoted by newspapers as saying that some 30 drug smugglers and addicts are identified and arrested every hour in Iran. Moayedi said that over 1,286 kg (2,835 pounds) are confiscated each day.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Iraq insurgent attacks in separate parts of the country killed four people including a 7-year-old boy and wounded five others. Attackers detonated a bomb next to a convoy carrying the Iraqi finance minister Rafia al-Issawi. He was not hurt in the bombing.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Pakistan a roadside bomb hit an army convoy in North Waziristan, killing 14 soldiers. Thousands of Shiites protested in Quetta for a third day, pressing their demands for greater security. PM Raja Pervez Ashraf bowed to protester demands and sacked the provincial governor of Balochistan for failing to safeguard the security of Shias.
(AP, 1/13/13)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.42)
2013 Jan 13, Palestinian protesters who pitched tents at a strategic West Bank site to protest plans to build a Jewish housing project there were evicted early today. PM Netanyahu pledged to move ahead with construction of a new Jewish settlement in the area.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Russia thousands marched through Moscow to protest a new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Serbia adopted a set of guidelines for reconciliation talks with the leaders of Kosovo, in a strong first signal it is loosening its claim to its former province in hopes of getting closer to EU membership.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In South Africa Christopher "Norm" Bates (41), an American Embassy employee, was allegedly stabbed to death around 3 a.m. at a Johannesburg apartment. A 29-year-old woman was arrested.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Geneva delegates from more than 130 nations began a final round of negotiations on the creation of the first legally binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions.
(SFC, 1/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 13, Syrian fighter jets Damascus suburbs in a government offensive to dislodge rebels from strategic areas around the capital. At least 45 people were killed in the government barrage. Troops battled rebels in the suburb of Daraya a day after government officials claimed the army had taken much of the strategic area. Heavy fighting was reported in the northern province of Deir el-Zour, involving attacks by warplanes.
(AP, 1/13/13)(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 13, Four women went topless in St. Peter's Square to protest the Vatican's opposition to gay marriage. Police quickly took the women away.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Thousands of supporters of Venezuela's cancer-stricken president held rallies across the nation, hours before the government announced that Hugo Chavez is responding favorably to treatment for a respiratory infection.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 14, USA Today and other media said that Lance Armstrong confessed to the doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey to be aired later this week.
(Reuters, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 14, Conrad Bain (89), stage and TV sitcom actor, died. He starred in the TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes," which debuted in 1978 and ran for 6 seasons.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D6)
2013 Jan 14, In Afghanistan a soldier from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment was wounded by enemy action. He died of his wounds in Birmingham on Jan 16.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 14, Britain’s coalition government unveiled sweeping reforms to the state pension system, scheduled to take place in 2017.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.58)
2013 Jan 14, A British court approved the extradition of former Credit Suisse trader Kareem Serageldin (39) to the United States, where he is accused of inflating the prices of subprime mortgage-backed bonds to the tune of $540 million in 2007-2008.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Cuba long lines formed outside travel agencies, migration offices and the US Interests Section in Havana on the first day of a new law easing travel restrictions on Cubans.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, Cuba reportedly began using the ALBA-1 cable to Venezuela, but only for incoming traffic. Outgoing data still travelled via satellite, according to an Internet analysis firm.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 14, German police said robbers dug a 30-meter (100-foot) tunnel into the safe deposit room of a Berlin bank and escaped with their haul, setting a fire as they left to cover their tracks.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Guatemala gunmen killed Jutiapa Mayor Carlos Castillo. His brother, former congressman Manuel de Jesus Castillo, was serving a prison sentence in the slaying of 3 El Salvador representatives to the Central American Parliament.
(SFC, 1/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 14, In India millions of devout Hindus led by naked ascetics with ash smeared on their bodies plunged into the frigid waters of the Ganges River in a ritual they believe can wash away their sins. The ceremony in the northern city of Allahabad took place at the start of the 55-day Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival. An estimated 100 million people were expected to participate in the gathering, which is held every 12 years.
(AP, 1/14/13)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 14, In Mali despite intensive aerial bombardments by French warplanes, Islamist insurgents grabbed more territory and got much closer to the capital.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, Mexico's best-known anti-violence activist and a prominent intellectual presented a petition, signed by more than 54,000 Mexicans, to the US embassy calling on the United States to take further steps to combat weapons trafficking.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Pakistan thousands of supporters of a fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who has been calling for election reforms, descended onto Islamabad as security officials girded for mass rallies by a movement that has virtually overnight become a powerful but still mysterious force on the political scene. Pakistani leaders dismissed the government of southwest Baluchistan province in response to the demands of protesters angry about an attack on minority Shiite Muslims there that killed 86 people.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, A Syrian airstrike slammed into a house in a rebellious suburb of Damascus, killing at least 13 people including eight children. Fighter jets also carried out fresh airstrikes on the suburb of Daraya. Regime warplanes also bombed targets in the north.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in a cross-border raid in northern Iraq, even as Turkey prepared to start peace talks with the rebels' imprisoned leader.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government has begun borrowing from the federal employee pension fund to keep operating without surpassing its debt limit.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Galt, California, police officer Kevin Tonn (35) was killed while crossing paths with an armed man in an area where Tonn was responding to a burglary. The gunman shot and killed himself after firing at another officer.
(SFC, 1/16/13, p.A5)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 15, In Kentucky Dalton Stidham (21), enraged by a domestic dispute, bought a gun and fatally shot Caitlin Cornett, his former girlfriend, and her uncle, Jackie Cornett, in the parking lot of a community college. Her cousin Taylor Jade Cornett (12) was also shot and died the next day.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 15, A part-time student strode into the office of a longtime administrator at a downtown St. Louis business school and shot the man in the chest, creating panic in the school before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the NY Safe Act, the nation’s toughest gun restrictions and the first since the recent Connecticut school shooting. It included an expanded assault weapon ban and mandatory background checks for buying ammunition.
(SFC, 1/16/13, p.A6)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 15, Daniel Edelman (92), American public relations pioneer, died. His life is described in a new biography “Edelman and the Rise of Public Relations" by Franz Wisner.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.65)
2013 Jan 15, British music retailer HMV announced that it was putting itself into administration.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.59)
2013 Jan 15, Rebels from Central African Republic and the country's political opposition said that they have agreed to choose Nicolas Tiangaye as a candidate for prime minister. Under the deal Pres. Bozize will remain in office until his term ends in 2016.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Cuba's Public Health Ministry acknowledged 51 new cases of cholera in Havana amid growing concerns about the illness' spread and disappointment in the diplomatic community over the government's lack of transparency.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Egypt a train wreck killed 19 soldiers and injured over 100 others. The last carriage of the train disconnected, jumped the tracks and crashed into another train 20 km (12 miles) south of Cairo. Three workers were later sentenced to two years of hard labor for the crash.
(AP, 1/15/13)(SSFC, 5/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 15, Human Rights Watch said in a report that workers in Eritrea were forced to construct the Bisha mine operated by Canadian company Nevsun Resources.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Ethiopia sentenced 10 men to jail terms of between three to 20 years for plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia. Kenyan national, Hassan Jarso, who pleaded guilty when first charged in May, was sentenced with nine Ethiopians.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Europe's top court said religious freedom is a right but not an absolute one, ruling that British Airways discriminated against a devoutly Christian employee by making her remove her crucifix, but backing a UK charity that fired a marriage counselor who refused to give sex therapy to gay couples.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, French Pres. Francois Hollande opened talks with top leaders in Abu Dhabi in hopes of pushing ahead efforts to sell up to 60 Rafale fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates and strengthen French ties in Gulf energy and defense industries.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, French forces led an all-night aerial bombing campaign to wrest control of Diabaly, a small Malian town, from armed Islamist extremists, as more French troops arrived in preparation for a possible land assault. France announced it tripling the number of troops deployed to Mali from 800 to 2,500.
(AP, 1/15/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Honduras British tourist Kaya Omer (33) was shot dead in the dangerous city of San Pedro Sula, after being assaulted by two gunmen who stole his camera.
(Reuters, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, A Hong Kong company controlled by controlled by Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, said that it's buying New Zealand's second biggest waste disposal company, EnviroWaste Services Ltd., from Australian private equity firm Ironbridge Capital.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In western Iraq a suicide bomber in Fallujah assassinated Ifan Saadoun, a Sunni lawmaker, raising tensions in a part of the country that has been roiled by weeks of demonstrations.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, The Israeli military shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian near the West Bank separation barrier. The Israeli military said he had breached the barrier, which separated soldiers from protesters.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Jamaica’s top mining official said his country may be able to benefit from newly found deposits of rare-earth elements that are key ingredients for smartphones, computers and numerous other high-tech goods.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (b.1932) died at a hospital near Tokyo. His films included “A Town of Love and Hope" (1959), “Cruel Story of Youth" (1960), “Violence At Noon" (1966), “Death by Hanging" (1968), “Three Resurrected Drunkards" (1968), “In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983) and “Taboo" (1999).
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D7)
2013 Jan 15, Kenyan custom officials in Mombasa seized 638 pieces of illegal elephant ivory estimated to be worth $1.2 million. The ivory was in a container destined for Indonesia. The tusks were said to be from Tanzania.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, Pakistan's top court ordered the arrest of PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a corruption case involving private power stations set up to provide electricity to the energy-starved country. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered the arrest of 16 people involved in the case, including Ashraf, who previously served as minister for water and power.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Pakistan thousands of anti-government protesters, heeding the call of firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, rallied in the streets of Islamabad for a 2nd day despite early morning clashes with police who launched tear gas and fired shots into the air to push back stone-throwing demonstrators.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Qatar Gloria Huang (8), the adopted African-born daughter of Americans Matthew and Grace Huang, died unexpectedly. Qatari police charged the couple the next day of murder with intent by forced starvation. The couple argued that Gloria had been suffering from malnutrition-related diseases since they adopted her from Ghana at the age of four.
(Reuters, 11/30/14)
2013 Jan 15, Russian authorities charged Yelena Kotova, a former Russia director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with conspiracy to take a $1.4 million bribe.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Russia Aslan Usoyan (75), aka Grandpa Khasan, was gunned down in Moscow. He headed one of the region's most powerful criminal groups, which trafficked in drugs and weapons and controlled underground casinos and legal businesses. Since 2006 Usoyan had been at war with a criminal group headed by another Georgian, Tariel Oniani.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, A Saudi court convicted an Egyptian human rights lawyer for smuggling drugs into the kingdom. He was sentenced to five years in prison and 300 lashes. The case of Ahmed el-Gezawi caused an outcry in Egypt where rights groups claimed he was initially detained in April 2012 for criticizing the kingdom's monarch. They claimed he confessed to the smuggling charges under duress.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Saudi Arabia dozens of conservative clerics picketed the royal court to condemn the recent appointment of 30 women to the 150-member Shura Council.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.52)
2013 Jan 15, In Somalia African Union troops mistakenly opened fire on a religious school while pursuing militants at Leggo village, killing five children and two adults.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Syria 2 explosions struck the main university in Aleppo, killing 87 people. Activists reported clashes in suburbs south of Damascus. In other regions government air raids and shelling killed dozens of people. Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad swept through Haswiyeh, a small farming village near Homs, torching houses and shooting and stabbing residents in an attack that killed up to 106 people. All of the dead appeared to be Sunni Muslims.
(AP, 1/15/13)(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 15, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro took the place of ailing President Hugo Chavez by delivering a short speech and turning in a state-of-the-nation report amid legal debate about his legitimacy.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 16, Pres. Obama signed 23 gun-related executive orders. One nominated acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones to lead the agency permanently.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A12)
2013 Jan 16, The US federal government grounded Boeing’s new 787s until the risk of battery fires is addressed. The FAA emergency order affected only United Airlines, the lone US carrier to operate the 787 Dreamliners.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A7)
2013 Jan 16, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court ruled that Russia should pay a $50,000 fine until it complies with his 2010 order to return thousands of religious books and manuscripts stolen from Jews during the Russian revolution and World War II to the Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch group. Following Lamberth's 2010 ruling, Russia completely halted the loan of its art treasures for exhibit in the US, for fear that they would be seized and held hostage in the court battle.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Afghanistan Taliban suicide bombers in Kabul attacked the gates of the Afghan intelligence agency, killing one person and wounding dozens. 6 suicide bombers died in the attack.
(AP, 1/16/13)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 16, In Algeria gunmen attacked the gas complex at Ain Amenas in retaliation for France's military intervention against al-Qaida-linked rebels in neighboring Mali. The attack was carried out by militants from across northern Africa and two from Canada. Gas processing was stopped because of the terrorist attack. The attack left 37 hostages and 29 militants dead. Moktar Belmoktar (41), aka MBM, orchestrated the attack.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)(SFC, 2/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 16, British PM David Cameron condemned horse meat found in beef burgers sold by Tesco and said this was likely to prove both embarrassing and costly for the firm.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, A helicopter crashed into a crane and fell on a crowded street in central London, sending flames and black plumes of smoke into the air. The pilot and one person on the ground were killed and 13 others injured.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, An Egyptian prosecutor said ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his family paid back 18 million Egyptian pounds ($3 million) for gifts they received from a state newspaper while he was still in office.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Egypt an 8-story apartment building collapsed, killing 26 people in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria — the second tragic accident in the country as many days.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 16, French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied by radical Islamists. The start of the land assault put soldiers in direct combat.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, Andre Cassagnes, inventor and renowned kite maker, died in France. He was the inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch toy (1959), which he sold to Ohio Art for $25,000.
(Econ, 2/16/13, p.90)
2013 Jan 16, A Germany court in Regensburg fined British bishop Richard Williamson $2,400 for denying the Holocaust in a television interview some 4 years ago.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 16, India and Pakistan agreed to ease tensions in disputed Kashmir after recent clashes there.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In northern Iraq a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in Kirkuk killing at least 19 people. A 3rd bomb at a nearby facility used by Kurdish security forces killed 4 more. Morning attacks across the country killed at least 33 people.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 16, Armed men hijacked the ITRI, a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying 5,000 tons of oil, from the Ivory Coast port at Abidjan. Officials later located the vessel off neighboring Ghana.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 16, Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Jordan a civil defense spokesman said a fire in a center for Syrian refugees has killed seven members of a family.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Kenya hundreds of demonstrators angered at the conduct of outgoing Kenyan legislators doused 221 coffins with gasoline and set them on fire, causing an inferno outside parliament's main entrance.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, A Kenyan official said gunmen suspected to belong to Somalia's al-Qaida-linked rebels have shot dead five people and seriously wounded three others at a restaurant in Garissa town.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In the Netherlands Alexander Dolmatov (36), a rocket engineer who feared arrest in Russia after an opposition protest turned violent in May, was taken to the prison-like deportation center in Rotterdam. The next morning he was found dead in his cell. Dutch authorities had denied his asylum request on Dec 14.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Pakistan several thousand people rallied in Peshawar, denouncing the killing of 18 local villagers in an overnight raid in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which they blamed on security forces.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, Somalia's most dangerous militant group reportedly killed French hostage Denis Allex, whom French military forces tried to rescue last weekend during a botched raid. French officials have said they believe Allex was killed the night of the raid and that claims by al-Shabab of an execution were simply propaganda.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 16, In northern Syria suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives blew themselves up near security targets, killing at least 22 people in Idlib.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, Senior UN investigators opened a new round of talks with Iranian officials in Tehran in the hopes of restarting a probe into allegations that the Islamic Republic carried out atomic bomb trigger tests and other suspected weapons-related studies.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Yemen gunmen on a motorcycle killed Col. Abdullah al-Mushki, the deputy police chief of Damar, in a drive-by shooting south of the capital city of Sanaa.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, All 79 officers and crew of the USS Guardian were taken off the ship for safety reasons after it struck the Tubataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with its bow at 2 a.m. in the Philippines. The Navy said inaccurate data and may have been a factor in the Guardian's grounding. The last major part of the ship was removed on March 30. The US faced paying environmental damages of more than $2 million.
(AP, 1/19/13)(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A4)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 17, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison for providing material support to overseas terrorism.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jan 17, Alvin Williams Jr. (34), a former senator in the US Virgin Islands, pleaded guilty in a public corruption case.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jan 17, Pauline Phillips (b.1918), advice columnist known as “Dear Abby" (Abigail Van Buren), died in Minneapolis. Her first column appeared in San Francisco Chronicle on Jan 9, 1956. Her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, began co-writing the column in 1987 and took over full-time in 2002.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A1)
2013 Jan 17, In eastern Algeria Algerian helicopters strafed the remote Sahara gas plant in the outpost of Ain Amenas. At least 20 foreign hostages reportedly escaped from Islamist militants who had taken over the natural gas complex. Casualty figures varied widely.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, British, Norwegian and Spanish oil companies evacuated workers from Algerian energy facilities following the hostage-taking by Islamic militants in the Sahara desert and Algeria's attempt to free them.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, A British judge sentenced Achilleas Kallakis (44), a fake property tycoon, to seven years in jail for defrauding two banks out of over 700 million pounds ($1.1 billion), but said Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Scotland deserved some blame for poor risk controls. Co-defendant Alexander Williams (44), convicted of the same counts for his role in producing forged documents to back up Kallakis's applications for loans, was sentenced to 5 years. In May the jail terms for both men were extended, 4 more for Kallakis and 3 more for Williams.
(AP, 1/18/13)(Reuters, 5/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, Ethiopian Airlines grounded its four Boeing 787 Dreamliners following a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to take the planes out of service in the United States because of a risk of fire from its lithium batteries.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, EU foreign ministers approved sending a military training mission to Mali, to shore up the Malian army and enable the country's government to regain control of all its territory.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, Authorities in Ghana arrested Charles Ble Goude, the former leader of an ultranationalist youth movement in Ivory Coast. He was wanted in connection with violence linked Ivory Coast’s disputed 2010 presidential elections. Ble Goude was soon charged with war crimes over his alleged role in violence linked to the and extradicted to Ivory Coast.
(AP, 1/17/13)(AP, 1/21/13)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.51)
2013 Jan 17, Greek lawmakers voted to investigate former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou over his handling of data on Greeks with Swiss bank accounts.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 17, Indonesia's army deployed rubber boats in the capital's business district to rescue people trapped in floods that inundated much of the city of 14 million people. At least 20 people died and some 40,000 were displaced.
(AP, 1/17/13)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 17, In Iraq insurgents unleashed a string of bomb attacks, mainly targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims across the country, killing at least 26 people.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, Jordan's PM Abdullah Ensour said Jordan will prevent a mass exodus of Syrian refugees from entering its territory if President Bashar Assad's regime collapses, and will instead create a safe haven inside Syria to protect them.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Mali fighting raged in Konna, airstrikes hit Diably and army troops raced to protect Banamba, on the seventh day of the French-led military intervention to wrest back Mali's north from al Qaida-linked groups.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, The Pakistani government and Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri struck a deal to end four days of protests by thousands in the capital.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, Pakistan's anti-corruption chief refused a Supreme Court order to arrest PM Raja Pervaiz, citing a lack of evidence in a graft case that sparked the latest clash between the government and the country's top court.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Moscow, Russia, a masked assailant, later identified as Yuri Zarutsky (35), threw acid on the face of Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Filin suffered 3rd degree burns and underwent eye surgery to save his sight. On March 6 police said that star dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko (29) had confessed to masterminding the attack, and two other men, Zarutsky and Andrei Lipatov, confessed to being accomplices.
(SFC, 1/19/13, p.A3)(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Jan 17, South Sudan said it is withdrawing its troops from a disputed border region with Sudan so that a demilitarized zone can be established.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, The United Nation-African Union Mission in Darfur said in a report that over 100 deaths and the displacement of 70,000 people resulted from clashes between the Abbala and Beni Hussein tribes in Jabel Amir, the site of gold mines in North Darfur state in western Sudan.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Syria an air raid killed at least 15 people in the town of Kfar Nabouedeh in the central province of Hama. Violence continued in different parts of the country. Clashes in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn least eight rebels and one Kurdish PYD fighter.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, French journalist, Yves Debay was shot and killed in Aleppo by a regime sniper while covering clashes between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Thailand Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to work together to solve bilateral and regional problems.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Jan 17, Zimbabwe’s Vice President John Nkomo (79) died in Harare. He was one of the country’s two vice presidents.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 18, Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on charges that he used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the city was struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, US federal prosecutors filed a fraud charge against Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway in a scandal involving the sale of a Detroit-area home and suspicious steps to conceal property in Florida.
(SSFC, 1/20/13, p.A9)
2013 Jan 18, McDonald's and Finley's Management Co. agreed to pay $700,000 to members of a Muslim community to settle allegations a Detroit-area restaurant falsely advertised its food as being prepared according to Islamic dietary law.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 18, Algeria's state news service reported that nearly 100 of the 132 foreign workers kidnapped by Islamic militants had been freed. A "provisional toll" showed 12 hostages have been killed since the start of the military operation to free kidnapped workers.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 18, The British defence ministry said Britain and Australia will increase ties on defence issues including cyber security and equipment programs such as the BAE Systems-built Type 26 frigate.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In the Central African Republic a rebel commander known only as Binani, the chief bodyguard of LRA leader Joseph Kony, was killed in a firefight 280 km (175 miles) north of Djema, where Uganda-led African Union troops are being advised by US special forces.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 18, In northern Colombia leftist ELN rebels kidnapped five gold prospectors doing exploratory drilling for Braeval Mining Corp., a Canadian company.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Egyptian police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslim protesters outside a church in Qena province. 4 shops owned by Coptic Christians were torched overnight after Marashda villagers accused one of the store owners of molesting a 6-year-old girl.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In western and central Iraq thousands of Sunnis rallied against the Shiite-led government's policies they see as sidelining their minority group.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Some 1300 Jordanian Islamists, youth activists and other opposition groups rallied in the capital, Amman, calling for a boycott of next week's parliament elections.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In Lebanon protesters demanding the release of Islamist prisoners in the city of Tripoli threw a grenade at the convoy of Sports and Youth Minister Faisal Karameh that set fire to one of the vehicles. 4 people were wounded.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, A Nicaraguan judge sentenced 18 Mexicans who posed last August as members of a televison crew to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.
(SFC, 1/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 18, Pakistani prosecutor Kamran Faisal, investigating a corruption case against PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, was found dead in Islamabad. Some colleagues suspected foul play and on Jan 23 a judge ordered a judicial investigation.
(AP, 1/18/13)(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 18, In Somalia unknown gunmen shot dead Shabelle radio producer Abdihared Osman Aden, the first journalist to be killed this year. 18 journalists were killed in Somalia last year.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, A South African government official said two prisoners were killed and 65 injured when a fight broke out between two gangs at St. Albans prison Port Elizabeth.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Spain's central bank said the level of bad debt in the country's banks rose to a new record 11.38 percent in November, up from 11.23 percent in October. It was the 17th monthly increase in a row.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In Syria 2 car bombs exploded in Daraa and a rocket slammed into a building in Aleppo. Fighting between rebels and Assad's loyalists flared in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20 others. Syrian fighter jets pounded villages in rebel-held areas in Latakia province, dropping makeshift bombs made from hundreds of pounds (kg) of explosives stuffed into barrels.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Ukrainian authorities formally notified jailed former PM Yulia Tymoshenko that she is a suspect in the murder of Yvhen Scherban, a businessman and lawmaker, his wife and two other people in 1996.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 18, Zimbabwe's political leaders said they have reached agreement on a new constitution after more than two years of delays and bickering over changes to reduce the sweeping powers of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 19, Rick Champagne, an Arizona man with a special fondness for caped crusader Batman and his sidekick Robin, bought the original Batmobile driven in the iconic television series with a bid of $4.2 million at an auction.
(Reuters, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In New Mexico 5 people, including three young children, were shot and killed in a rural area southwest of Albuquerque. Nehemiah Griego (15) was arrested on murder and other charges in connection with the shootings of his family.
(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 19, Algeria's special forces stormed the Amenas natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert in a final assault, killing 11 militants, but not before they in turn killed seven hostages. The standoff with Islamist extremists, begun on Jan 16, left at least 37 foreign workers and 27 militants dead.
(AP, 1/19/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Azerbaijan market traders blocked a highway 50 km (30 miles) outside Baku and clashed with riot police in a spontaneous protest over increased rent for their stalls.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Bulgaria Oktay Enimehmedov (25) tried to shoot a gas pistol at Ahmed Dogan (58), the leader of his country's ethnic Turkish political party, at a conference in Sofia. The gun failed to fire and Enimehmedov was wrestled to the ground and beaten.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 19, Egyptian riot police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators throwing stones outside an Alexandria courtroom where the city's ex-security director and other officers are on trial for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. A criminal court invoked a presidential amnesty and dismissed charges against 379 people accused of taking part in deadly clashes with police.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, Officials in Ethiopia said South Sudan and Sudan have failed to reach an agreement on security arrangements and oil exports after several days of talks in Addis Ababa.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Greece several thousand people marched through central Athens to protest a spate of anti-immigrant attacks, including the fatal stabbing by suspected right-wing extremists of Shehzad Luqman (27), a Pakistani immigrant who died Jan 17. Two men have been charged in the murder.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Iraq gunmen shot and killed the two policemen in a drive-by-shooting near the northern city of Mosul. In Kirkuk a civilian driver was killed when his truck hit a roadside bomb. A roadside bomb exploded just south of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding three others while they were on patrol.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, The Malian military announced that the government was now controlling Diabaly.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 19, Ethnic Kachin rebels in Myanmar said clashes in the country's north continued despite a government promise to cease fire, casting doubt over hopes that the bloody conflict there could end soon.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, A Nicaraguan judge sentenced 18 Mexicans who posed last August as members of a televison crew to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.
(SFC, 1/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 19, In northwest Nigeria gunmen attacked the convoy of a religious leader in Kano, killing at least 3 guards.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Scotland an avalanche killed four climbers at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Geneva more than 140 nations adopted the first legally-binding international treaty aimed at reducing mercury emissions, capping four years of negotiations on how to set limits on the use of a highly toxic metal. 50 nations must ratify it before it comes into force, which officials said they would expect to happen within about three to four years.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, Syrian troops fought intense battles against rebels who are trying to capture two military bases in the northwest. Dozens of people were killed and wounded as Syria's air force targeted a mosque and a school building that apparently was sheltering displaced Syrians in the town of Salqin in Idlib province.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 20, President Barack Obama took the oath of office in an intimate swearing-in ceremony at the White House.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant, where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage, found 25 new bodies as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants. Nearly two dozen foreign workers remained unaccounted.
(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 20, Austria held a referendum on the future of its army. Austrians voted overwhelmingly to retain their conscript army, with preliminary results showing around 60% rejecting the proposed shift to a professional force.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, London's Heathrow Airport cancelled a fifth of flights and airlines scrapped 40 percent of flights to Paris's main airports as snow continued to blanket parts of Europe, with more forecast.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Egypt overnight clashes between police and residents of a district just north of Cairo left four people dead and 12 wounded. The clashes began when a bystander in Shubra al-Kheima was hit by a stray bullet fired by police chasing a suspected drug dealer. Gunmen raided a post office in the Nile Delta town of Kafr el-Dawar, killing a police guard before making away with 2 million pounds (around $300,000). A courthouse went up in flames in Alexandria during a 2nd straight day of clashes between protesters and riot police.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Georgia more than 1,000 people protested outside of the president's residence in Tbilisi to demand that he immediately resign and hand over executive power to the speaker of parliament.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Greece a bomb exploded at a shopping mall in Athens, slightly wounding two security guards and forcing the evacuation of about 200 people.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, Iran hanged 2 men (24) publicly after a video posted on YouTube showing them robbing and assaulting a man with a machete on a Tehran street.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Iraq a man, identified by police as Talal Ali Abbas, ignited himself in a central square in Mosul where protesters have been rallying for weeks. They say other protesters quickly put the blaze out by smothering the flames with their coats.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Mali French forces extended their deployment northward up from the central town of Markala, reinforcing their presence in the towns of Niono and Mopti. Some 400 troops from Nigeria, Togo and Benin arrived in Bamako to help train an African force for Mali.
(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 20, In New Zealand indicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom launched “Mega," a new file-sharing website that promised users greater privacy and defied the US prosecutors who accuse him of facilitating massive online piracy.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, Syrian government troops battled rebels in several areas outside Damascus. Regime warplanes bombed opposition-held areas around the capital, including an airstrike on the village of al-Barika that killed at least seven people.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, The United Nations said that Afghan authorities were still torturing prisoners, such as hanging them by their wrists and beating them with cables, a year after the UN first documented the abuse and the Afghan government promised detention reform.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Yemen an explosion in the province of Bayda killed at least 13 suspected al-Qaida militants. It went off in a house owned by a known al-Qaida operative, Ahmed Abdullah Deif-Allah Al-Zahab, and appeared to be an accident.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 21, President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term before a crowd of hundreds of thousands, urging the nation to set an unwavering course toward prosperity and freedom for all its citizens. Obama's inaugural address marked the first time a president used the occasion to praise progress on gay rights.
(AP, 1/21/13)(Reuters, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, The new SFJazz Center opened at 201 Franklin St.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A1)
2013 Jan 21, In Oakland, Ca., undercover Officer Eric Karsseboom (37) was shot and wounded while investigating members of the Sem City street gang. In 2017 gang member Damien Edward McDaniel was sentenced to 33 years in prison. Two other defendants pleaded guilty in August, 2017. A fourth has pleaded not guilty.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7o9swsf)(SFC, 9/22/17 p.D2)
2013 Jan 21, In northern California the body of Leola Shreves (94) was found in her home in Yuba City. She had died 2-3 days earlier from a massive head wound. Her jaw, neck, back and 17 of 24 ribs were broken. Police soon arrested next door neighbor Michael Alexander (20), who spent 3.5 years in jail before being released for lack of evidence. In 2019 DNA evidence led to the arrest of Armando Aria Cuadras (29). On Nov. 4, 2020, Cuadras was convicted of first-degree murder, torture, aggravated mayhem and burglary.
(SSFC, 1/12/20, p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/20, p.B1)
2013 Jan 21, In Texas Max Shatto (3), an adopted boy born in Russia as Maxim Kuzmin, died in Gardendale. Russian authorities alleged “inhuman tratement" as the cause of death. Laura Shatto told authorities that Max and his half-brother were playing outside the family's home. Shatto said she came out and found the boy unconscious on the ground. A medical examiner later determined that the boy’s death was not intentional.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A4)(AP, 2/22/13)(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 21, In Afghanistan 2 Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Kabul traffic police headquarters before another group of militants stormed the compound, battling security forces for nine hours in an attack that left 3 policemen and all 5 attackers dead.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, Algeria's prime minister said 37 foreign hostages were killed during the four-day-long standoff at a natural gas plant. At least one Canadian was among the Islamist militants who took hundreds hostage. 3 kidnappers were reported captured.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, Arctic Council members set up the first permanent secretariat at Tromso, Norway.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.49)
2013 Jan 21, A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal sentenced Abul Kalam Azad to death in absentia for genocide and murder committed during its 9-month war in 1971. Azad was believed to be in Pakistan.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 21, London's Heathrow airport cancelled 10 percent of flights, a day after it cut its capacity by a fifth, and said services could face further delays with more snowfall expected.
(Reuters, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Egypt a speeding truck collided with a minibus on a highway in the country's south, killing 14 people and injuring 13 others.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Eritrea more than 100 dissident soldiers stormed the Ministry of Information in Asmara and read a statement on state TV saying the country's 1997 constitution would be put into force. Government soldiers surrounded the ministry, an indication the action by the dissident soldiers had failed.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Germany passengers suffered delays and flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third busiest, after freezing rain had forced the airport to shut late on Jan 20.
(Reuters, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, German customs officials at Duesseldorf airport found a check in Venezuelan currency worth $70 million in the luggage of Tahmasb Mazaheri, Iran's former central bank chief, upon his arrival from Turkey. Mazaheri told authorities the money was to be used for the construction of 10,000 apartments funded by the Venezuelan government. The newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported the story in its Sunday Feb 3 edition.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Indonesia police said flooding in Jakarta has killed at least 26 people and sent more than 100,000 fleeing from their homes.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 21, Malian and French troops took control of the town of Diabaly, patrolling the streets in armored personnel carriers. American planes began transporting French troops and equipment to Mali. French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza to find that the Islamists already had retreated from the town.
(AP, 1/21/13)(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Nigeria 18 people were killed in an attack on a local market in Dambao, Borno state. The violence started after the local market banned a group of hunters from selling "bush meat" from slaughtered monkeys and other creatures.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 21, The Syrian government blamed a rebel attack on a key power line for a blackout that hit Damascus and much of the country's south overnight. By midday power returned to more than half of the capital. At least 42 people were reported killed in a car bombing at a headquarters of a pro-government militia in Salamiya, Hama province. A week later Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked group fighting, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 1/21/13)(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 21, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has charged 9 lawyers, including prominent human rights defenders, with membership in an outlawed leftist militant group and ordered them arrested pending trial.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Turkey Sarai Sierra (33) went missing, when she was supposed to return to New York City but was not on her flight back home. She had arrived in Istanbul on Jan 7. Her body was discovered Feb 2 evening near the remnants of ancient city walls. She had suffered a fatal blow to the head. On March 17 a suspect, identified only as Ziya T, was caught in Syria in a joint operation by Syrian rebels and Turkish officials.
(AP, 1/29/13)(AP, 2/3/13)(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Yemen a US drone airstrike on a car in Marib killed 3 suspected al-Qaida militants and wounded 2 others.
(AP, 1/21/13)(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 21, In Zimbabwe a massive explosion at a tribal sorcerer's house killed 5 people outside the capital, Harare. The explosion damaged 12 nearby houses in the Chitungwiza township. A 6th person died later.
(AP, 1/22/13)(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 22, US officials said the Pentagon has found that Gen. John Allen did not engage in inappropriate communications with Jill Kelley, a civilian woman linked to the sex scandal that led retired Gen. David Petraeus to resign as CIA director.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 22, In Connecticut Kevin Wallin (61), a Catolic priest, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of selling crystal meth to an undercover police officer. On April 2 Wallin pleaded guilty to a federal drug charge. He was accused of making over $300,000 in methamphetamine sales while running an adult video and sex toy shop.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A10)(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 22, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved a revised route for the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 22, Ryan Walker Grant, a co-owner of a now closed Texas strip club, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a failed plot to hire hit men to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and a Dallas lawyer.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 22, An Algerian official said the search is on for the five foreigners unaccounted for from the terrorist attack on the remote natural gas site, who may be lost in the vast Sahara desert.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, Eleven EU countries received the green light to plan a financial transaction tax that could generate billions of dollars in revenue for cash-strapped governments.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 22, French and German Cabinets held a joint meeting before both countries' Parliaments met in the landmark Reichstag building to mark the anniversary of the signing of the 1963 Elysee Treaty, a milestone for two countries that had fought three wars in 70 years.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, A foul-smelling cloud of gas escaped from a factory in northern France, making life unpleasant from the outskirts of Paris to Britain's shores and prompting scores of emergency calls. The mercaptan gas from the Rouen chemical factory was said to be harmless.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, An Indonesian court sentenced British grandmother Lindsay June Sandiford (56), to death for smuggling 8.4 pounds of cocaine worth $2.5 million in her suitcase onto the resort island of Bali — even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence. Indonesia has not carried out an execution since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, A magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocked parts of western Indonesia, killing a 9-year-old girl, panicking residents and ruining homes.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, In Iraq a string of car bomb attacks, most of them in and around Baghdad, killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, Israelis voted in an election likely to keep hardline PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm of government for a third term despite a turbulent record. The parliamentary election left the two main blocs deadlocked with 60 seats each, based on nearly complete official vote counts. Yesh Atid (There is a Future), led by Yair Lapid (49), emerged as the second-largest party in parliament.
(AP, 1/22/13)(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 22, The Philippines took a desperate legal step against China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, formally notifying the Asian superpower that Manila is seeking international arbitration to declare Beijing's moves in the potentially oil-rich waters "unlawful."
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, In South Africa police fired rubber bullets at protesters during a third day of violent clashes. Residents of Sasolburg were angry over a proposed change in municipal boundaries, which they say could affect the delivery of services.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, Syrian government forces and rebels battled in the suburbs of Damascus and elsewhere. Four buses carrying Russian citizens escaping the civil war crossed into Lebanon, in the first evacuation organized by Moscow since the start of the conflict nearly two years ago.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, UN agencies and international aid groups said Yemen's government and international donors must allocate over $700 million to help ease a deepening humanitarian crisis that includes widespread malnutrition in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2087, the third of its kind since 2006, condemning a North Korean rocket launch as violating a ban on missile activity.
(AP, 1/23/13)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.34)
2013 Jan 22, Venezuela’s government said President Hugo Chavez is in good spirits and recovering six weeks after he underwent cancer surgery in Cuba.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Senior defense officials said Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Two former members of the Church of Scientology claimed in a lawsuit filed inm Tampa. Florida, that the church and its affiliates deceived members into donating millions of dollars to misrepresented causes.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Pebble Technology, an American maker of smart watches, began shipping it’s $150 digital wrist watches that can show e-mail, text and Facebook messages. Eric Migicovsky's company launched a Kickstarter campaign on April 11, 2012, with an initial fundraising target of $100,000. On May 18, 2012, funding closed with $10,266,844 pledged by 68,928 people.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.58)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_%28watch%29)
2013 Jan 23, A small plane crashed in an Antarctic mountain range while carrying 3 Canadians between scientific research stations on the continent.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 23, Argentina’s defense minister, Arturo Puricelli, expressed shame after the Navy destroyer ARA Trinidad sank at its moorings. Congressman Julio Martinez said of a total of 70 navy ships only 16 are in sailing condition.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 23, British PM David Cameron promised to give Britons a referendum choice on whether to stay in the European Union or leave if he wins an election in 2015.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, A new report said irresponsible lending and intimidating debt collectors are pushing thousands of people in Britain into depression and suicide. Separate data showed more people are taking their own lives.
(Reuters, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, A France-based human rights group charged that Malian forces had committed about 33 killings since new fighting erupted Jan 10.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, In northern Iraq a suicide bomber blew himself up among Turkmen mourners at a Shiite funeral, killing at least 35 people in Tuz Khormato. Another 117 were wounded.
(AP, 1/23/13)(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 23, Jordanians voted in a first electoral test for their king's political reforms. A boycott from his Islamist-led opponents cast doubt over whether the vote would quell two years of simmering dissent in the streets. Islamists and other government critics won 37 seats of 150 up for grabs in the newly empowered parliament.
(AP, 1/23/13)(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Mexico 6 victims were found dismembered in Tuluca. Prosecutors said the dismemberment killings over the past 10 days of 16 people, allegedly lookouts or informants for rival gangs, was the work of a drug cartel.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 23, Morocco’s government announced plans to change the penal code to outlaw the traditional practice of allowing those convicted of "corruption" or "kidnapping" of a minor to go free if they marry their victim.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, In southwest Nigeria a gasoline pipeline was attacked in Arepo, bursting into flames and starting a fire that continued to burn hours later. Officials blamed oil thieves. In the northeast suspected fighters from the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect beheaded three people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Cardinal Jozef Glemp (83), the longtime head of Poland's influential Roman Catholic church, died. He helped lead the nation peacefully through martial law and the fight against communism.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Russia Lyudmila Garifulina (63), a member of the legislature in the town of Staraya Kupavna, was attacked outside her apartment building. She was stabbed four times with a knife. She opposed a construction project that would destroy a forest just outside Moscow.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Slovenia a massive austerity strike began as the the main coalition partner walked out of the government over corruption allegations against PM Janez Jansa.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 23, Rights groups called for the Somali government to release a journalist arrested by police for interviewing a woman who said she was raped by government security forces. Freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim and three others accused in the case have been held for more than a week without charge. Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur was later charged with insulting a government body and inducing the woman to give false evidence. On March 17 Somalia's Supreme Court overturned Ibrahim’s widely criticized conviction.
(AP, 1/23/13)(AP, 1/31/13)(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Syria a rocket fired by regime forces slammed into Abu Taltal, a northern rebel-held village, killing six members of a single family. Violence was reported elsewhere with air raids around the capital Damascus and clashes and shelling in the southern province of Daraa and the central region of Homs.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Thailand Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, a prominent activist and magazine editor, was sentenced to a decade in prison for defaming the country’s monarchy.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Vietnam announced the arrest of Pham Thanh Tan,former head of the state-owned Agribank, for irresponsibility causing serious consequences. This was the 5th arrest of a senior Agribank executive in as many months. The previous four faced charges of embezzlement and theft totalling some $7 million.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.64)
2013 Jan 23, In Yemen a US drone strike on a car outside the capital of Sanaa killed at least seven suspected al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 24, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced legislation to reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons. The "Assault Weapons Ban of 2013" centered on banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, David Headley (52) was sentenced in a US federal court in Chicago to 35 years in prison for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attack, that killed 166 people in India’s financial capital.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 24, Toymaker Mattel Inc. scored a partial victory when a federal appeals court overturned a 2011 jury verdict and $170 million in damages for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the maker of Bratz dolls. The court upheld a judge’s award of $137.2 million to Bratz’s manufacturer, MGA Entertainment, for its defense against Mattel’s trade secrets claim.
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.D5)
2013 Jan 24, US health officials said the new Sydney strain of norovirus, a stomach bug, has been sweeping the globe is taking over in the US. Since September more than 140 outbreaks in the US have been caused by the new strain.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Azerbaijan hundreds of angry demonstrators in Ismayilli, some 175 km (110 miles) from the capital, Baku, surrounded a regional government building demanding the governor's resignation after a night of rioting in which a hotel and several cars were torched.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Bahrain riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades at several hundred anti-government protesters whose chants included calls to reject proposed talks aimed at easing nearly two years of unrest in the Gulf nation.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Britain’s and Ireland’s energy ministers signed a memorandum of understanding in Dublin, agreeing to assess the costs and benefits of trading renewable energy, to look at potential projects and to consider sharing renewable energy statistics.
(Reuters, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Canada Theresa Spence, a chief from a remote Ontario reserve, agreed to end her hunger strike after talks with other native groups and opposition political parties. Spence traveled to Ottawa in December and set up camp on a small island in the Ottawa River to raise awareness about living conditions for natives across Canada.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and clashed with dozens of protesters who were trying to tear down a cement wall built to prevent demonstrators from reaching parliament and the Cabinet building. A video was posted online showing youths dressed in black marching in lines in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. "We are the Black Bloc ... seeking people's liberation, the fall of corruption and the toppling of the tyrant," proclaimed the video.
(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 24, Frenchwoman Florence Cassez (38), who spent seven years in prison in Mexico on kidnapping charges, returned to a hero's welcome in Paris. She was ordered freed a day earlier because of flaws in her trial. She was arrested in 2005 and convicted of helping her Mexican then-boyfriend run a kidnapping gang.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Greece strikers protesting pay cuts refused to return to work, leaving Athens' subway system closed for an eighth day, despite a court decision declaring their protest illegal.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Guyana signed an agreement with NY conservation group Panthera, which is trying to establish a jaguar corridor from northern Argentina to Mexico..
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 24, Jordan’s election commission said 1.3 million Jordanians, or 56.7 percent of nearly 2.3 million people who were registered to vote, had cast their ballots.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Mali's rebel movement showed new signs of discord in the wake of punishing French air strikes, with one wing of the Ansar Dine group now pledging to negotiate an end to the country's crisis and possibly even fight against its former comrades-in-arms. Islamic extremists based in the town of Ansongo destroyed a bridge near the Niger border, marking the first use of explosives by the insurgents since the start of the French-led military intervention exactly two weeks ago.
(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 24, North Korea's top governing body warned that the regime will conduct its third nuclear test in defiance of UN punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Pakistan’s attorney general Irfan Qadir said Pakistan is holding 700 suspected militants without charges under a controversial law that has been criticized by human rights organizations.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, More than 3,000 Palestinian teenagers graduated from the ruling Hamas militant group's first high school military training program in the Gaza Strip, displaying mock weapons, crawling commando-style on the ground and taking up fighting positions for thousands of cheering supporters.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, South Africa reported that some 15 thousand crocodiles escaped the Rakwena Crocodile Farm on the Limpopo River border with Botswana when the farm gates were opened earlier this week to alleviate pressure from rising flood waters.
(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/adlfxrl)
2013 Jan 24, Syrian warplanes bombed rebel-held areas near Damascus as President Bashar Assad's troops battled opposition fighters for control of a strategic road that links the capital with the main airport. Twin car bombs in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights killed eight people in Quneitra, as thegovernment called on those who fled the country during the civil war to return, including regime opponents.
(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 24, The UN Security Council approved the use of surveillance drones over eastern Congo to monitor roving militias.
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 24, Vietnam’s Laborer newspaper quoted Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang as saying Vietnam will produce its own drug for executing prisoners. Factories in the EU have stopped shipments because of objections there to the death penalty.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 25, A US federal appeals court ruled that President Barack Obama violated the US Constitution when he used recess appointments to fill a labor board, a decision that could curtail the president's options in filling vacancies. The panel said the Senate was not truly in recess when Obama made his appointments.
(Reuters, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Washington and Beijing agreed that any North Korean nuclear test will lead to North Korea's further isolation and set back efforts to restart regional talks.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, CIA veteran John Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison for leaking a covert officer’s identity to a reporter.
(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 25, Twitter suspended the account used by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group two days after al-Shabab used the platform to announce a death threat against Kenyan hostages unless Kenya's government meets its demands.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber killed five civilians and wounded another 25 in a botched attempt to hit a convoy of NATO supply trucks in kapisa province.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In Bahrain hundreds of anti-government protesters clashed with riot police in Manama after authorities denied a request for a major opposition rally.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, The British government published a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, and said lawmakers will get their first vote on it in Parliament next month.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A Canadian police report said a son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi allegedly received 120 million euros ($162 million) in bribes for giving major contracts in Libya to SNC-Lavalin Inc, Canada's biggest engineering and construction company. The report did not make clear when the alleged bribes occurred.
(Reuters, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Calgary-based Griffiths Energy International will pay a C$10.35 million ($10.26 million) fine after a Canadian court accepted a settlement between the company and prosecutors. The company had admitted to bribing the wife of a Chadian diplomat.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 25, In China a scandal involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by developers who secretly videotaped the trysts to extort construction deals broadened with state media announcing that 10 more officials have been fired.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A Colombia judge convicted Jaime Blanco, a former contractor for US-based Drummond Coal, of murder for being the mastermind of the killing of two union leaders on March 12, 2001. Blanco was sentenced to nearly 38 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/d6szsex)
2013 Jan 25, A senior Japanese envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Egypt’s schism was on display as the mainly liberal and secular opposition held rallies saying the goals of the pro-democracy uprising have not been met and denouncing Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. At least 11 people were killed as tens of thousands took to the streets to deliver an angry backlash against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 1/25/13)(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 25, Greek riot police stormed the Athens subway train depot before dawn to enforce a government emergency order forcing striking staff back to work in an escalating standoff over new austerity measures.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In Haiti up to 20 people were killed after their truck plunged into a canal.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 25, The Honduras Congress went on recess. Lawmakers had only partially passed a budget to pay some of state employees and contractors. That left undecided the budgets of autonomous institutions such as utilities and the port authority. The country has been on the brink of bankruptcy for months, as lawmakers put off passing a budget.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Iraqi troops killed five protesters when they opened fire at demonstrators angry at the troops for preventing them from attending an anti-government rally in Fallujah. Gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in Fallujah, killing two soldiers and prompting local authorities to impose a curfew in the city.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Mali's military and French forces pushed toward the Islamic extremist stronghold in the city of Gao, in their farthest push east since launching an operation two weeks ago to retake land controlled by the rebels.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In Mexico 16 members of Kombo Kolombia and their crew were reported missing early today after playing a private show in a bar late last night in the town, Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon state.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 25, Northern Irish police were pelted by petrol bombs for the first time in almost two weeks on Friday after more protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened UN sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Norwegian energy company Statoil ASA said two Norwegian employees missing after a terror attack on a gas plant in Algeria have been confirmed dead.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Russian police detained 20 gay rights campaigners and militant Orthodox Christian activists near the country's parliament as it overwhelmingly backed a bill that would ban "homosexual propaganda."
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Syrian troops shelled the city of Homs and soldiers battled rebels around the central province with the same name. An amateur video posted online by activists showed rockets slamming into buildings in the rebel-held town of Rastan. Activist groups said at least 140 people were in fighting nationwide.
(AP, 1/25/13)(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 25, In Venezuela violence erupted at Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection. The death toll reached 58 with some 120 wounded.
(AP, 1/27/13)(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 25, Regional civic campaign group AfriForum said it is taking legal action to stop Zimbabwe from taking delivery of helicopter gunships from neighboring South Africa.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 26, The film “Fruitvale" won top prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It depicted the last 24 hours in the life of Oscar Grant (22), a black man shot dead by police in San Francisco on New Year’s Day in 2009. The film was renamed “Fruitvale Station" for its public release.
(Econ, 7/20/13, p.75)
2013 Jan 26, Louisiana police arrested Wilbert Thibodeaux (48). He was suspected of shooting a police officer and wounding 2 sheriff’s deputies after setting a deadly fire at a mobile home in St. Mary’s Parish.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 26, Pennsylvania police said Stephen Baker (62), a Franciscan brother, was found dead of a self-inflicted knife wound at the St. Bernardine monastery. Baker was named in recent settlements involving 11 men who alleged that he sexually abused them 3 decades ago in Ohio. More people soon came forward with abuse claims in Pennsylvania, where Baker had taught and coached.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A6)(SFC, 2/25/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 26, In Afghanistan 10 policemen died when a suicide bomber driving a motorcycle blew himself up in northern Kunduz province. A remote-controlled bomb planted on a bicycle exploded, killing one police officer and one civilian in the eastern city of Ghazni. A police truck packed with officers and detainees struck a roadside bomb in Kandahar city, killing 10 of those aboard. It was one of four blasts that left at least 24 people dead across the country.
(AP, 1/26/13)(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Bangladesh a fire at the Smart Export Garment Ltd. factory killed seven female workers. An investigation was ordered the next day under allegations that the emergency exit was locked.
(AP, 1/27/13)(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 26, Ontario's Liberals chose Kathleen Wynne (59), a former Cabinet minister, to become the province's first female premier and first openly gay leader of a Canadian province.
(Reuters, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In the Czech Rep. former left-leaning PM Milos Zeman (68) staged a big return to power by winning 54.8 percent of the vote in the country’s first directly elected presidential vote. The president has little executive power and the country is run by the government chosen and led by the prime minister.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Egypt violence left 37 people dead in Port Said after a judge sentenced 21 people to death in connection with a Feb. 1 soccer melee that killed 74 fans of the Cairo-based Al-Ahly team.
(AP, 1/26/13)(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Iraq 170 lawmakers voted in favor of a law limiting the terms on the prime minister and other top officials. Lawmakers from al-Maliki's State of Law bloc boycotted the session. Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers and abducted three others in Fallujah as hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral of protesters killed during a shooting by army troops a day earlier.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Mali French forces took control of the airport and a key bridge in the radical Islamist stronghold of Gao under the cover of darkness early today, marking a significant inroad into the heart of territory held by the al-Qaida-linked extremists.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, Mexico City authorities removed a much-disputed statue of Geidar Aliyev, the late leader of Azerbaijan.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 26, Myanmar government forces, after several days of fighting, took a hilltop stronghold of the Kachin rebels 5km from Laiza, the administrative headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 26, In Pakistan two Islamic militant groups clashed over control of a prized valley in the northwest, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens more in the Tirah valley of the Khyber tribal region. Dozens of armed men attacked a post manned by pro-government tribal militia members in a remote area in southwestern Baluchistan, killing two tribesmen and abducting seven more.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Russia a fire ripped through a new Moscow building's underground parking lot, killing 10 Tajikistan migrant workers and injuring 13 others who had been working and living there.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, Somalia's education minister said 3 officials have been arrested for mismanaging a scholarship scheme that sends Somali students to Turkey. Somalia is ranked as the world's most corrupt country by Transparency International.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Switzerland 3 women from Ukrainian feminist activist group Femen, angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy, ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in Davos.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, Syria’s Sana state news said government troops raided an opposition stronghold in Daraya, killing rebels and uncovering tunnels they used to move around and smuggle weapons. An air raid on the northern town of Al-Bab, which killed at least four people and wounded others. Activist groups reported heavy clashes in Homs and Qusair.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 27, The US State Department condemned an Iranian court for sentencing Saeed Abedini (32), an Iranian-American Christian pastor, to eight years in prison for reportedly threatening Iran's national security through his leadership in Christian house churches.
(Reuters, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a measure into law giving illegal immigrants permission to drive. Opponents have pointed to hundreds of fraudulent cases in New Mexico, Washington and Utah after those states began giving illegal immigrants permission to drive.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In Chicago 7 people were killed and 6 wounded in gun violence around the city.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 27, A barge laden with 80,000 gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., spilling light crude into the Mississippi River and closing the waterway for miles each way. A second barge was damaged.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, Stanley Karnow, award- winning author and journalist, died at his home in Potomac, Md. His work included “Vietnam: A History" (1983), and “In Our Image," a companion to a PBS documentary on the Philippines, which won the Pulitzer in 1990.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.C4)
2013 Jan 27, Afghan authorities accused NATO of killing three civilian men in a nighttime ambush in the eastern Logar province. The coalition disputed the account, saying it had no operations in Logar's Baraki Barak district the previous evening. NATO said there were three dead, but they were insurgents killed by Afghan forces.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, African Union leaders met in the Ethiopian capital for talks dominated by the conflict in Mali as well as lingering territorial issues between the two Sudans. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the two-day summit in Addis Ababa, where Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn took over from President Yayi Boni of Benin as chairperson of the African Union.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, In southern Brazil a fire swept through the crowded Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria early today. The fire broke out after band members lit flares. There was no alarm, no extinguishers, no sprinklers and almost no escape from the nightclub. 3 people were detained the next day in connection with the blaze that left 237 dead. In April the nightclub's two owners and two band members were charged with murder. 4 others were also charged in connection to the fire.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)(AP, 1/29/13)(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.28)(AP, 4/2/13)
2013 Jan 27, In Egypt clashes broke out in Cairo for a 4th straight day, with protesters and police near central Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Police fired tear gas as protesters pelted them with rocks. Pres. Morsi declared a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by the wave of violence that has left more than 50 dead in three days.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, In France thousands of supporters of a government-sponsored bill, that would legalize marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, marched in Paris.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, Iran’s government arrested 14 journalists accused of cooperation with foreign-based, Persian-language media organizations.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In northern Mexico at least eight bodies were pulled from a well in Mina, Nuevo Leon state, near the site where 20 people went missing late last week, including members of a Colombian-style band.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In the Philippines gunmen hiding in a sugarcane field ambushed a truckload of policemen and village guards killing 9 and wounding 9 others in Negros Occidental province.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 27, In South Sudan a showdown in the middle of the market town of Pibor between rebels and South Sudan's military led to the deaths of four civilians and some 2,000 people seeking refuge with the UN.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In northern Syria at least 10 rebels were killed in fighting that erupted after the opposition fighters attacked a government checkpoint.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, Zimbabwe's prominent political analyst Professor John Makumbe (63), an albino who also campaigned against prejudice toward the skin pigmentation condition, died after a heart attack.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In New Hampshire Catherine Houghton (70) of Novato, Ca., was stabbed to death in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Littleton. Rodney Hill (37) was later charged with 2nd degree murder. He said he attacked her because he thought she was the devil.
(SFC, 5/30/13, p.D3)
2013 Jan 28, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez announced 15.8% raise in public pension payments effective in March. Retirees dismissed the move as too little and too late.
(Econ, 2/16/13, p.39)
2013 Jan 28, Australia reported 4 deaths as torrential rain over the weekend flooded the Queensland towns of Gladstone, Gympie and Ipswich.
(AP, 1/28/13)(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 28, Britain received an initial 340 million pounds from the Swiss government as part of a deal to tackle tax evasion that the government expects will net it some 5 billion pounds over the next six years.
(Reuters, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Egypt riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo, and one protester died of gunshot wounds. Egypt's main opposition coalition rejected the Islamist president's call for dialogue unless their conditions are met.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, Nikolaos Dertilis (94), the last jailed member of the Greek military dictatorship (1967-1974), died of a stroke at Athens' Erythros Stavros Hospital. He had spent the last 38 years in prison.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 28, In eastern Indonesia a mob of wild monkeys has gone on a rampage in a village in South Sulawesi province, entering houses and attacking residents. Seven people were injured.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 28, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight. In 2017 Iran’s space organization cancelled a project to explore sending humans into space.
(AP, 1/28/13)(SFC, 6/1/17, p.A2)
2013 Jan 28, Malian ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of Timbuktu's airport and the roads leading to the town in an overnight operation. Timbuktu’s mayor said Islamist extremists torched a library containing historic manuscripts as they fled late last week. The jihadists left a manual behind on how to use the SA-7 surface-to-air missile as well as other instructional material, including a spiral-bound pamphlet showing how to use the KPV-14.5 anti-aircraft machine gun and another on how to make a bomb out of ammonium nitrate.
(AP, 1/28/13)(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Jan 28, The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix announced that she is ending her reign after 33 years and passing the crown to her eldest son, Willem-Alexander (45), who has long been groomed to be king.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Nigeria John Yakubu Yusufu, a man who formerly helped oversee the country’s police pension program, pleaded guilty to stealing $145 million, but walked out of court a free man after agreeing to a plea bargain that saw him pay only a fraction of it back.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, The Philippine Congress ratified a bill awarding $246 million to victims of martial law compensation and recognition for detentions, beatings, harassment and killings from 1972-1986. The bill will be sent to Pres. Benigno Aquino III for signing into law.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, Syrian activists said troops battled rebels in several towns and villages around Damascus, including in Daraya, Arbeen and Zabadani.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Yemen a car bomb exploded next to a military checkpoint in Radda, where Yemeni government forces waged their first offensive targeting al-Qaida militants in the area. 11 soldiers were killed. The military launched a wide offensive against al-Qaida in surrounding Bayda province. The first day of shelling left 6 dead, 4 from al-Qaida and 2 from the army.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Mayflower, Arkansas, an ExxonMobil pipeline sprang a leak. Crews soon recovered some 12,000 barrels of oil and water. The Pegasus pipeline, capable of carrying more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak. In June the US Justice Dept. and the state of Arkansas filed suit against ExxonMobil for the 210,000 gallons spilled. In 2016 the US Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration upheld its $2.6 million fine against ExxonMobil.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A8)(Reuters, 4/1/13)(SFC, 6/15/13, p.A6)(SSFC, 4/3/16, p.A6)
2013 Jan 29, In Chicago Hadiya Pendleton (15) was gunned down in a park. The majorette had recently performed with her King Prep High School band in Washington for Pres. Obama’s inauguration. On Feb 11 gang members Michael Ward (18) and Kenneth Williams (20) were charged with her murder.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A8)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 29, Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway pleaded guilty to bank fraud for concealing assets, including a Florida home, and urging a bank to short sale a Detroit-area home claiming financial hardship. On May 28 she was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
(SFC, 1/30/13, p.A4)(SFC, 5/29/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 29, African and Western nations pledged more than $450 million to fund an African-led military force to fight Islamist extremists in Mali.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Bulgaria Zlatomir Ivanov (44), a convicted underworld boss, was shot and seriously wounded outside a courthouse in Sofia. His bodyguard managed to return fire but was wounded in the leg.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, An Indonesian court sentenced British citizen Julian Anthony Ponder (43) to six years in prison for his role in a cocaine-smuggling case that led to a death sentence last week for a British grandmother.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Iran followers of the minority Zoroastrian religion gathered after sunset to mark Sadeh — an ancient mid-winter feast dating to Iran's pre-Islamic past that is also drawing new interest from Muslims.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Jordan a wave of 21,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the past week, moving into northern Jordan at about five times the usual daily rate. The crowded Zatari camp, already struggling with flooding, short supplies and tent fires, was overwhelmed.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Kazakhstan a SCAT passenger jet carrying at least 20 people crashed in heavy fog near Almaty, killing all on board.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Malaysian wildlife officials said 10 endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve under mysterious circumstances. Officials said that they probably were poisoned over the past 3 weeks. The remains of 3 more were found the next day bringing the total to 13.
(AP, 1/29/13)(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, The website of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the Tuaregs' name for northern Mali, claimed control of the strategic city of Kidal and seven other northern towns from Islamist extremists.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Mexican immigration authorities said they have broken up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the US border. The "Defensores de Cristo" or "Defenders of Christ" allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, The UN said more than 150,000 have been displaced by flooding in Mozambique over the last several days as the overall death toll stood at 38.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Myanmar’s state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported that Order No 2/88, a ban on public gatherings of more than five people that was ordered in 1988, was abolished.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Pakistan gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a UN-backed vaccination campaign in Gullu Dheri village, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Gunmen driving in a car opened fire and killed two police constables in Quetta.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Somalia a suicide bomber in Mogadishu detonated explosives in the presidential palace compound outside the home of PM Abdi Farah Shirdon, killing himself and two people.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, The Somali government charged a woman who has said she was raped by security forces. Human Rights Watch later said three other people including the woman's husband were also charged with assisting the alleged rape victim to evade investigators.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 29, South Korea’s outgoing Pres. Lee Myung-bak granted special pardons 55 people including political allies, a longtime friend and dozens of others convicted of corruption and other crimes.
(SFC, 1/30/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.32)
2013 Jan 29, At its meeting in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council waited for Israel to appear for its once-every-four-years rights review, then determined it had not. Israel said last year it would stop cooperating with the council because of an international fact-finding mission into Israeli settlements.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Syrian rebels stormed a government intelligence complex in the east of the country, freeing at least 11 people held in a prison at the facility in Deir el-Zour. Regime warplanes carried several airstrikes on rebel positions in towns and villages around Damascus, including eastern Ghouta and Yalda, and hit other suburbs with artillery. The bodies of some 80 people, some with hands tied behind their backs, were pulled from a river near Aleppo as the government and rebels trying to overthrow it blamed each other for the latest mass killing. The Observatory said a total of at least 160 people were killed today in Syria, while the LCC put the figure at 162.
(AP, 1/29/13)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 29, In Syria Musa Maragha (86), a hard-line Palestinian military commander who rebelled against leader Yasser Arafat to form his own rival party, died in Damascus. Maragha was better known by his nom de guerre, "Abu Musa."
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Attacks by Yemen's air force killed at least 16 al-Qaida militants and wounded dozens of others. Yemen’s military freed 13 soldiers captured by al-Qaida the previous evening. State news Yemeni authorities have seized a ship in the nation's territorial waters carrying explosives and weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. The US said the ship, intercepted last week, came from Iran.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 30, In Alabama Jimmy Lee Dykes (65) holed up in a bunker with a 5-year-old hostage kept law officers at bay in an all-night, all-day standoff that began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away. Bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. (66) was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect 21 students.
(AP, 1/30/13)(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 30, A massive storm in the southeast US left at least 2 people dead in Georgia.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 30, Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (78) was released from federal prison. He will remain under house arrest until his 6½-year sentence officially ends in July.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A9)
2013 Jan 30, In Afghanistan a bomb exploded in an open-air market in Khost province, killing two small children.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, In Argentina an attempt by Chevron Corp. to unfreeze its assets was dismissed by an appeals court. Winners of a $19 billion environmental judgment in Ecuador have filed suits in Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, In north-central Chile a magnitude-6.8 earthquake shook offices, toppled supermarket shelves and broke windows.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, China’s Beijing government put into place emergency measures to try to combat thick smog which has encased the city.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 30, In Egypt two protesters were killed in clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square and its surroundings. Mohamed ElBaradei, Egypt's liberal opposition leader, called for a broad national dialogue with the Islamist government, all political factions and the powerful military.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, Egypt's Islamist Pres. Morsi, on a one-day visit to Berlin to seek support to rebuild a crumbling Egyptian economy, turned aside repeated criticism of his past comments referring to Jews as "the descendants of apes and pigs," insisting that the remarks were taken out of context and were aimed at criticizing Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
(AP, 1/3o/13)
2013 Jan 30, At a conference in Kuwait Gulf nations answered UN calls to boost humanitarian aid for Syria with $900 million in pledges even as more refugees poured into neighboring Jordan and its leader warned resources were strained to the limit.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, Israel said it is transferring some $100 million in last month’s tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority that were frozen last year.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, Israeli jets bombed a convoy near Syria's border with Lebanon, apparently targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah in what some called a warning to Damascus not to arm Israel's Lebanese enemy.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, The Lebanese military said that Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity over Lebanon in the past week, including at least 12 sorties in less than 24 hours in the country's south.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, In Mali French forces took control the airport in Kidal, seizing a key position in the last remaining urban stronghold of Islamist extremists, whose fighters escaped with their weapons into a desert region the size of Texas. 4 Malian soldiers died and 5 others were wounded when their vehicle hit a land mine in the town of Gossi.
(AP, 1/30/13)(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 30, Russia pulled out of an anti-crime accord with the United States in a move the US called "self-defeating," the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time. The satellite is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauges distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 31, The US Congress sent Pres. Obama legislation raising the debt ceiling, averting a government default until later this year.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A9)
2013 Jan 31, The US Navy said it has decided to scrap the $277 million mine-sweeper Guardian stuck since Jan 17 on the sensitive Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 31, A US government report showed that California's Hispanic population will equal that of whites this year before becoming the state's largest demographic group in 2014.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 31, The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles published 12,000 pages of personnel documents on 122 priests accused of sexual abuse dating back to the 1940s.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.31)
2013 Jan 31, Genelle Conway-Allen (13) of Suisun City, Ca., was last seen alive. Her body was found the next day 4 miles away in Allan Witt Park, Fairfield. On Feb 8 police arrested Anthony Lamar Jones (32), a local Fairfield barber.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A9)(SFC, 2/9/13, p.C1)
2013 Jan 31, The NY Times said Chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated its computer systems over the past four months, stealing reporters' passwords and hunting for files on an investigation into the wealth amassed by the family of a top Chinese leader.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse (57) was shot and killed in the parking lot behind the Kaufman County Courthouse.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A7)(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A12)
2013 Jan 31, Armenian Paruir Airikian (63), one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 presidential race, was shot and wounded by an unidentified assailant outside his home in Yerevan, just before midnight. two suspects were arrested on Feb 7.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Jan 31, Australia’s government received confirmation that the Shonan Maru No. 2, a support vessel for the Japanese whaling fleet, had entered Australia's exclusive economic zone near Macquarie Island in the Antarctic Ocean. The Australian embassy in Tokyo protested to the Japanese government.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 31, Chinese courts convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly known, showing Beijing's resolve to stamp out the protests by criminalizing both the protesters and their supporters.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jan 31, Chinese police detained Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, on fraud charges in what the family said is the latest act of official retaliation. In March he was formally charged over a real estate dispute.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Jan 31, Egypt’s opposition National Salvation Front held a meeting with Pres. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood under the aegis of Egypt's premier Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, in their first ever meeting. They and other politicians signed a joint statement denouncing violence.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 31, Germany's Parliament voted to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan by 13 months.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Ghana former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched a commission to tackle drug trafficking in West Africa. Annan blamed the international community for ignoring the threat posed by corrupted states like Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Greek doctors, port workers and public transport staff in the country's capital walked off the job in strikes against deeply unpopular austerity measures that have seen incomes slashed as the country struggles to emerge from a deep financial crisis. Farmers in central Greece parked their tractors along the country's main highway for a second day, under the watchful eye of riot police, threatening to shut the road to protest spending cuts and high fuel taxes.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Iceland a 15-year-old Icelandic girl was granted the right to legally use the name "Blaer," which means "light breeze," given to her by her mother, despite the opposition of authorities and a strict law on names.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Iran announced plans to install and operate advanced uranium enrichment machines, in what would be a technological leap allowing it to significantly speed up activity the West fears could be put to developing a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, An Iraqi official said security forces arrested French journalist Nadir Dendoune several days ago while he was taking photos of a security location in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, The book “They Promised Me Paradise" by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and wounded Pope John Paul in 1981, was released in Italy. In the book Agca writes that Iran’s late leader Ayhatollah Ruhollah Khomeini told him to kill John Paul in the name of God.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 31, In Mexico City an office building blast killed 37 people and injured 121 at the headquarters of Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company. On Feb 4 authorities said the basement explosion in an administrative building next to the 51-story Pemex tower was caused by a gas buildup ignited by an electrical spark or other heat source.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Jan 31, In southern Mexico vigilantes who have taken up arms against drug cartel violence and common crime announced they will bring charges ranging from organized crime to kidnapping and extortion against 50 men and three women who they have been holding prisoner at improvised jails in Ayutla, Guerrero state.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed two polio workers on their way to vaccinate children in the northwestern Kurraml region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Volgograd, the southern Russian city where the Red Army decisively turned back Nazi forces in a key World War II battle, passed a measure to use the name Stalingrad in city statements on the commemoration day, on Russia's May 9 Victory Day and on four other days connected with the battle.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, South African officials said that 57 rhinos have been killed by poachers across the country so far this year. A record 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2012, an increase of nearly 50 percent over the previous year.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Syria threatened to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike and its ally Iran said there will be repercussions for the Jewish state over the attack.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, The United Nations demanded that Egyptian authorities act to bring perpetrators of sexual assaults to justice, saying it had reports of 25 sexual assaults on women in Tahrir rallies over the past week.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Yemen two days of clashes in the south between al-Qaida militants and pro-government fighters killed 14 on both sides.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan, California researchers published findings of a brain tumor in raccoons associated with a newly discovered virus called RacPyV, or raccoon polyomavirus.
(SFC, 1/15/13, p.C2)
2013 Jan, In the SF Bay Area the digging of a 5-mile tunnel was completed between Newark and Menlo Park. The $286 million public utilities tunnel will carry water from the Hetch Hetchey Reservoir when it is completed in the fall.
(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.C5)
2013 Jan, Ping Fu, China-born head of North Carolina-based Geomagic, agreed to sell her company to 3D Systems, one of the biggest producers of 3D printers. Her book “Bend Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds" was published last December.
(Econ, 1/12/13, p.72)
2013 Jan, Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a speech in Washington, D.C. that in the western US alone the volume of oil shale is estimated at 800 billion barrels — three times the proven crude reserves of Saudi Arabia. At current prices this much shale oil would be worth a staggering $65 trillion.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 Jan, Australia’s heat wave set a new reocrd of 40.3° C for the highest national average temperature.
(Econ, 1/12/13, p.34)
2013 Jan, Belarus police began going after gays, raiding their clubs and locking up clubbers overnight, and summoning gay activists for questioning in response to a decision by gay activists across the country to try to legally register their rights organization, GayBelarus.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Jan, In China out promoting his latest book, “Everybody in the World Knows," former sports writer Li Chengpeng was told by authorities that he could take “no questions from readers, no talking at all… not even ‘happy new year’ or ‘thank you"’.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2013 Jan, Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized 3 tons of cocaine this month off the country's southern coast. Last year 9 tons were seized for a third consecutive record.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Jan, Paul Salopek (b.1962), American journalist, began a 7-year trek from Ethiopia to Chile aiming to reproduce man’s global migration.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Salopek)(SSFC, 11/24/13, p.A19)
2013 Jan, In Germany Ulrich Hoeness, former soccer star, turned himself in for hiding a Swiss bank account from German tax authorities. He payed more than €3 million ($3.9m) in back taxes.
(Econ, 4/27/13, p.52)
2013 Jan, It was reported that that air pollution in Delhi, India, kills an estimated 10,500 people each year.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.34)
2013 Jan, Iran arrested Slovak national Matej Valuch (26) and accused him of spying for the US CIA. On Feb 8 Valuch was released and returned home.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced a ¥10.3 trillion fiscal stimulus.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.24)
2013 Jan, Spanish papers reported that slush money had flowed liberally for at least two decades through the headquarters of the Popular Party, led by PM Mariano Rajoy. Much of the money came from construction magnates who received public contracts and helped inflate Spain’s disastrous real-estate bubble.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.51)
2013 Jan, Nordea Bank AB, the largest bank in Sweden, said its 250 customers were robbed of eight million Swedish krona (about 1.66 billion won). It was online theft; they stole and withdrew money from the victims’ accounts. The Swedish police only found out what had been happening 15 months after the scheme was started, and the theft was still at large. The theft traced to a Russian hacker who goes by the sobriquet “the Corpse."
(www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/technology/25hack.html?_r=0)
2013 Feb 1, Hillary Rodham Clinton formally resigned as America's 67th secretary of state, capping a four-year tenure that saw her shatter records for the number of countries visited.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist frequently the target of Republican criticism, announced that he was stepping down in the latest shake-up of Pres. Barack Obama's Cabinet.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 1, The American TV series “House of Cards" premiered on Netflix.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.52)
2013 Feb 1, In San Francisco a ban on public nudity took effect.
(SSFC, 2/2/14, p.C1)
2013 Feb 1, Detroit’s Mayor Bing said the city will close 50 of its 107 parks, but keep Belle Isle running. Services at 38 other parks will be reduced. The city council voted not to accept state assistance for Bell Isle.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 1, Edward Koch (b.1924), NYC’s 105th mayor (1978-1989), died from congestive heart failure.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 1, The IMF gave the government of Argentina until Sep 29 to comply with the fund’s rules on the reporting of inflation statistics. On Dec 9 the IMF deferred action until March.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.38)(Econ, 12/21/13, p.56)
2013 Feb 1, Bolivia’s mining town of Oruro formally dedicated its Virgin of Socavon, a new statue of the Virgin Mary that's a little taller than Rio's famed Christ the Redeemer, as it kicked off its Carnival celebrations.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Senior British counterterrorism Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn (53) was sentenced to 15 months in prison for trying to sell information to Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Chinese car maker Geely said it has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's black taxis since 1948, for 11 million pounds, safeguarding jobs and production of the vehicles in Britain.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In central China an elevated portion of highway collapsed after a truck loaded with illegal fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least 10 people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters to the ground.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 1, Thousands of Egyptians marched across the country, chanting against the rule of the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, in a fresh wave of protests. Protesters denouncing Pres. Morsi hurled stones and firebombs through the gates of his palace gates, clashing with security forces who fired tear gas and water cannons. Video footage showed at least seven black-clad riot police beating Hamada Saber (48), whose pants are down around his ankles, with sticks before dragging him along the muddy pavement and tossing him into a police van.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 1, In western Iraq tens of thousands of Sunni protesters blocked a major highway, as an al-Qaida-affiliated group called on Sunnis to take up arms against the Shiite-led government.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Italy a Milan appeals court vacated acquittals for a former CIA station chief and two other Americans, and instead convicted them in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The court sentenced former CIA Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli to seven years, and handed sentences of six years each to Americans Betnie Medero and Ralph Russomando. All three were tried in absentia at both levels.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Lebanon at least three people were killed and 10 others wounded in clashes between the army and gunmen in the northeastern town of Arsal near the border with Syria. Residents of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town, are known to be sympathetic to the Syrian opposition, and arms smuggling into Syria is widespread in the area.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Mali 3 suspected jihadists, arrested in the days since the liberation of the town of Timbuktu. said that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, The Netherlands nationalized SNS Reaal bank and expropriated its bonds in a $14 billion rescue. Investors in the subordinated bonds were wiped out.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/bllbeqf)
2013 Feb 1, A Nigerian military official said 18 militants and one soldier have been killed during days of fighting in Sambisa Game Reserve, Borno state, pitting soldiers against suspected rebels with the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/1/13)(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 1, Nigerian lawmaker Rep. Farouk Lawan, who led a probe into the nation's fuel subsidy program that saw billions of dollars lost through fraud, was charged, along with his aide Emenalo Boniface, with allegedly soliciting a $3 million bribe from someone targeted by the inquiry. The allegations stem from their investigation of Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd. and a powerful ally of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque as worshippers were leaving prayers, killing 23 people and wounding over 50 in Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, A court in northern Sweden ordered retrials in 2 remaining two cases against Sture Bergwall (62), an alleged serial killer who had confessed to more than 30 murders over three decades, and was convicted of eight of them. Bergwall later said his ghastly tales of slaughter, rape and even cannibalism were all lies, spawned by loneliness, a desire for attention and heavy medication. On July 31, 2013, prosecutors dropped the last remaining charges against Bergwall.
(AP, 2/2/13)(AP, 7/31/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Turkey a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the US Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a guard.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 2, The US and Mexico reached a tentative agreement on cross-border trade in tomatoes.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 2, In San Diego the 165-foot South Bay Power Plant was demolished to make room for a city park.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 2, In California deputies in Calaveras County found the bodies of 3 people. Phillip Marshall (54) had shot and killed his two teenage sons before killing himself.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 2, Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy resigned abruptly in a scandal involving thousands of calls to four women on his state-issued cellphone, including one woman who said she had a romantic relationship with the politician.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, In central Texas a shooting at a gun range at the Rough Creek Lodge, west of Glen Rose, killed former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle and his friend. Eddie Ray Routh (25) of Lancaster was arraigned on two counts of capital murder. On Feb 24, 2015, Routh was convicted for the two slayings and received an automatic life sentence without parole.
(AP, 2/3/13)(SFC, 2/24/15, p.A9)
2013 Feb 2, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a family of five in Helmand province.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 2, China’s Xinhua News reported that 13 people died after an overloaded bus tumbled down a slope. Over 50 people were killed in the last 24 hours in 4 major accidents.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 2, An Egyptian court sentenced Habib al-Adly, the country's former interior minister, to three years in prison after finding him guilty of abusing his position in power by forcing police conscripts to work on his mansion and land outside Cairo. The Giza court also convicted former riot police chief Hassan Abdel-Hamid of authorizing the illegal labor and sentenced him to three years in prison. Several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched again on the presidential palace denouncing the police and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Over 50 people have been killed in violence over the last 10 days.
(AP, 2/2/13)(AP, 2/3/13)(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 2, In Greece more than 5,000 supporters of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party marched past the US Embassy in Athens, chanting anti-Turkish, anti-US and anti-immigrant slogans to commemorate a 1996 border incident that caused a crisis between Greece and Turkey.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Iran unveiled its newest combat jet, the the Qaher F-313, or Dominant F-313. Military officials claimed the domestically manufactured fighter-bomber can evade radar.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu took on the job of forming a new government and said its most important task would be to ensure that Iran does not gain nuclear arms.
(Reuters, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Israeli troops fired tear gas and stun grenades at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters as soldiers tried to dismantle an encampment near Burin that activists set up in the West Bank to protest Israeli building restrictions.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, In Mali French President Francois Hollande, bathed in the cheers and accolades of the thousands of people of Timbuktu, made a triumphant stop six days after French forces parachuted into the city.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, In Mali secular rebels from Mali's Tuareg group (NMLA) arrested Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed of Ansar Dine and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed of the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad, or MUJAO, near Mali's border with Algeria.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 2, In northwestern Pakistan Taliban militants wearing suicide vests fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at an army post in a pre-dawn raid, killing 23 people, including 10 civilians in Serai Naurang town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 12 attackers also were killed in the assault.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Paraguayan presidential candidate Lino Cesar Oviedo (69) was killed in a helicopter crash, ending a dramatic political career that included coups and repeated attempts to lead his impoverished country. His bodyguard and pilot also died in the crash.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 2, A Senegal town leader said that at least five people have been killed after rebels in the restive south raided a village in the Casamance region and targeted a bank.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, South Africa teenager Anene Booysen (17) was gang-raped, mutilated and left for dead on a building construction site in the Western Cape. She lived long enough to identify one of her attackers. Police on Feb 7 said they have arrested a second suspect for the gang-rape. On May 21 a magistrate said there was not enough evidence to try suspect Jonathan Davids (22), her rejected boyfriend. On Nov 1 Johannes Kana (21), a man convicted of raping and murdering the girl, was sentenced to life in jail.
(AP, 2/7/13)(AP, 5/21/13)(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Feb 2, Syrian rebels captured a strategic neighborhood near Aleppo's international airport. Elsewhere fighting continued unabated, killing more than 60 people nationwide.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, The Yemeni military said it has wrested control of al-Maraksha in Abyan province from al-Qaida fighters after three days of clashes that killed 17 people.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 3, President Barack Obama encouraged the Boy Scouts of America to end its ban on gay members and leaders, days before the group is expected to vote on the controversial and long-standing rule.
(Reuters, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Orange County, Ca., Monica Quan (28) and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence (27), were found shot to death in their car at a parking structure in Irvine. Former Los Angeles police officer officer Christopher Jordan Dorner was a suspect in the killings. Dorner was with the LAPD from 2005-2008, when he was fired for making false statements.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 3, In California a tour bus crash with two other vehicles left 7 people dead on Hwy. 38 in San Bernadino County.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A16)(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 3, In New Orleans the Baltimore Ravens defeated the SF 49ers 43-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. The game was delayed for 34 minutes in the 3rd quarter when lights went out in the stadium. Some 109 million people watched the game.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A1)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.67)
2013 Feb 3, Afghan police arrested six men and seized suicide vests, assault rifles and more than 50 hand grenades during a raid on a residential building in central Kabul.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, British PM David Cameron met in London with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan for 2 days of talks to discuss prospects for peace with the Taliban.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In China Gong Aiai (49), a former bank official from Shaanxi province, was arrested on suspicion of acquiring 41 houses in Beijing.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)( www.wiki86.com/view/9976143.htm)
2013 Feb 3, In Egypt street vendor Omar Salah (12) was killed during clashes near Tahrir Square. Activists soon accused the government of trying to cover up the death. On Feb 14 the government made a rare admission and apology for mistakenly shooting and killing the boy.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 3, A French-owned oil tanker, the M/T Gascogne, was reported missing off Ivory Coast with 17 sailors on board. On Feb 6 Sea Tankers said the ship has been released and that 2 workers suffered injuries in the hijacking.
(AP, 2/4/13)(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 3, Iranian lawmakers impeached the country's labor minister over his controversial appointment of an official implicated in the deaths of prisoners.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Iraq a suicide car bomber joined by other suicide attackers on foot assaulted a provincial police headquarters in Kirkuk, killing at least 16 people and wounding 90 others.
(AP, 2/3/13)(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Mali French troops launched overnight airstrikes on Islamic militant sites around Kidal and Tessalit in Mali's far north.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Myanmar Rangoon’s first int’l. literary festival ended after drawing together some 80 Burmese authors.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 3, In Nigeria 11 people were killed in fighting between nomadic cattle herders and farmers around the village of Ngandum, Adamawa state.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In the Philippines Moro rebels battled the Abu Sayyaf with guns and knives at close range. Rebels lost eight men, including one who was beheaded and a few others who were hacked to death. Up to 14 Abu Sayyaf men were killed.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Syria Ibrahim Azzouz, a former parliament member, and three members of his family were killed in a rebel-held area near the northern city of Aleppo. Government troops bombarded a building in in Aleppo's rebel-held neighborhood of Eastern Ansari. The Aleppo Media Center, a network of anti-regime activists in the city, said 15 people were killed in the shelling of Eastern Ansari.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 4, Pres. Obama singed legislation raising the government’s borrowing limit.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 4, News emerged that Los Angeles had charged Standard & Poor’s (S&P) with fraud in evaluating mortgage-backed securities. The shares of McGraw-Hill, the parent of S&P dropped 16% on the news.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.71)
2013 Feb 4, In Alabama police officers stormed the underground bunker where Jimmy Lee Dykes held a 5-year-old boy hostage. The boy, taken hostage on Jan 30, was rescued and Dykes was left dead.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 4, Donald Byrd, US jazz trumpeter, died in Delaware. He had joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1955 after moving to NYC from Detroit. He and Pepper Adams made their Blue Note label debut with their “Off to the Races" album in 1959.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.C4)
2013 Feb 4, Argentina announced a two-month price freeze on supermarket products in an effort to stop spiraling inflation.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said that London's Metropolitan Police Service had stolen the identities of dozens of dead children to use as aliases for undercover officers, mining those children's personal histories to build covers and even issuing fake passports in their names.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Former British energy secretary Chris Huhne (58) faced time behind bars after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice by asking his then wife in 2003 to accept a penalty for a speeding offence he had committed.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Reg Presley (71), the lead singer of 1960s British rock band The Troggs, died at his home after a battle with cancer. He had scored a hit with the love anthem "Wild Thing" (1966).
(Reuters, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, The Royal Canadian Mint officially ended its distribution of pennies to financial institutions.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 4, An Egyptian opposition party claimed police tortured one of its members to death, electrocuting him and beating him repeatedly on the head. Activist Mohammed el-Gindy (28) died of his wounds early today at a Cairo hospital. He had disappeared after a protest and turned up in a hospital in a coma with bruises and internal bleeding. Security officials denied responsibility.
(AP, 2/4/13)(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 4, The EU police organization Europol said a wide-ranging match-fixing investigation has uncovered more than 380 suspicious matches, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and two Champions League games, and found evidence that a Singapore-based crime group is closely involved in match-fixing.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, A senior Iranian government official, Saeed Mortazavi, was arrested two years after a parliamentary probe found him responsible for deaths by torture of at least three jailed anti-government protesters. Mortazavi was released on Feb 6, a day after Pres. Ahmadinejad denounced the arrest and pledged to pursue the case.
(AP, 2/5/13)(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Iraq a suicide bomber struck a group of anti-al-Qaida fighters in Taji, killing 21 people and wounding 44.
(AP, 2/4/13)(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 4, Israeli forces arrested 20 members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, including three lawmakers, in a raid in the West Bank.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, A Lebanese judge issued arrest warrants for a top Syrian intelligence official and his aide for their alleged involvement in a bombing plot in Lebanon. Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk was accused of being involved with Lebanon's former information minister, Michel Samaha, who allegedly plotted a wave of attacks in Lebanon at the behest of Syria.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Lithuania it was reported that the retail cost of natural gas pumped from Siberia has spiked 450 percent in the past seven years, from $169 to $769 per 1,000 cubic meters.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In northern Mali French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and desert hideouts of Islamic extremists. French forces planned to hand control of Timbuktu to the Malian army this week.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Mexico a gang of armed, masked men raped six Spanish tourists in the Mexican resort of Acapulco. On Feb 13 officials said they had arrested 6 men on suspicion of the rapes.
(AP, 2/6/13)(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 4, Pirates attacked an oil tanker anchored off Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, shooting one of the crew members. The Nigerian navy shot back at the attackers, driving them away. The wounded sailor died in transit to a hospital.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Somalia a roadside bomb killed an African Union soldier from Burundi.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, South Africa’s Minister Mildred Oliphant said in a prepared speech that a new daily wage for manual laborers on the nation's farms would be 105 rand (about $12) up from 69 rand ($7.80).
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Tanzania the appeals chamber of the Arusha-based tribunal overturned 30-year sentences handed down to Justin Mugenzi and Prosper Mugiraneza, who were both Cabinet ministers at the time of Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The duo had been convicted to 30 years in September 2011 after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide and inciting the public to commit genocide.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Dell and Menlo Park’s Silver Lake Management, the nation’s largest technology-focused private-equity firm, announced that they had agreed to pay $13.65 a share to take Dell private.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.D1)
2013 Feb 5, California charged Standard & Poor’s with fraudulent practices that resulted in close to $1 billion in losses state institutional investors. 15 other states and the US Justice Dept. were also suing S&P for approving mortgage backed securities that turned out to be bad risks.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A1)
2013 Feb 5, In California 3 men were found dead on a wooded property in rural west Sonoma County.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 5, A Bangladeshi tribunal prosecuting cases stemming from the 1971 independence war sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, a leader of an Islamic opposition party, to life in prison, sparking street clashes with police that killed two people and injured dozens more.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Bulgaria linked Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah to the bomb attack on a bus last July that killed five Israeli tourists. Two of the suspects linked to the bombing had entered the country with an Australian and a Canadian passport.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In China a court in Beijing sentenced 10 people to prison terms for running a black jail. “Custody and repatriation" centers, which held petitioners along with beggars and vagrants, were scrapped in 2003.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.45)
2013 Feb 5, Chinese phone maker Huawei and Microsoft launched a new smartphone in Africa, which they say is the world's fastest growing mobile phone market. The Huawei 4Afrika phone runs Windows Phone 8 and comes pre-loaded with applications designed for the African market.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, European Union regulators gave approval for Britain's 600 million pounds of public support for the "Green Deal" energy-efficiency scheme. Britain's Green Deal permits loans to homeowners to help them pay for efficiency measures such as loft insulation, modern boilers, draught proofing and other materials.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Germany's education minister Annette Schavan (57) was stripped of her doctorate after a committee of academics concluded that she plagiarized substantial parts of her 1980 thesis, which dealt with the formation of conscience. Schavan resigned on Feb 9.
(AP, 2/5/13)(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 5, Iran’s Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a three-day visit to Egypt, centered around an Islamic summit. He said his country is ready to provide a "big credit line" to help revive the distressed economy of Egypt.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 5, Iran's official news agency reported that authorities have arrested another group of local journalists accused of links with the BBC.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Iraq a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into an army checkpoint in Taji, killing at least four people — two soldiers and two civilians.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Ireland an official report, that ran to almost 1,000 pages, said that more than a quarter of the women and girls subjected to harsh discipline and unpaid work at 10 laundries, run by Catholic nuns, were sent there by the Irish state.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 5, Kuwait said three former opposition lawmakers have been charged with insulting the country's ruler in the latest crackdown on perceived political dissent in the Gulf nation.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Mali troops from France and Chad moved into Kidal in an effort to secure the strategic northern city.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Nigeria two soldiers were killed in a shootout in the oil-rich southern delta involving a vessel operated by an Indian company.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Serbian ultranationalists held a rally to accuse their country's president of treason for agreeing to hold talks with the president of Kosovo.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Somalia a Mogadishu court handed down one-year prison sentences to a woman who said she was raped by security forces and a reporter who interviewed her. The judges decided the woman falsely claimed she was raped and had insulted the government. On March 3 an appeals court dropped charges against the woman. A journalist who interviewed the rape victim and was tried alongside her had his sentence reduced from one year to six months.
(AP, 2/5/13)(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Feb 5, South African police arrested 19 suspected members of a Congolese rebel group, accusing them of plotting to overthrow their nation's government after it recently came under attack by militants said to be backed by neighboring Rwanda.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Syrian rebels and Jordanian security officials said intense fighting has broken out near Syrian government installations and border posts near Jordan, leaving 17 civilians wounded.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 6, Pres. Obama choses business executive Sally Jewell, the CEO of REI, to succeed Ken Salazar as Sec. of the Interior.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 6, The US blacklisted Iran’s state broadcasting authirity, Internet-policing agencies and a major electronics producer in widened sanctions to pressure the government over its disputed nuclear program and stifling of domestic dissent.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 6, The financially struggling US Postal Service said it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays, beginnin g in August, but continue to disburse packages six days a week.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Faced with intense pressure from two flanks, the Boy Scouts of America said it needed more time for consultations before deciding whether to move away from its policy of excluding gays as scouts or adult leaders.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Boston a rare 1865 photograph of the Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team, discovered at a Maine yard sale and considered one of the first baseball cards ever, sold for $92,000 at an auction.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, US wildlife conservation group Int’l. Fund for Animal Welfare said Japan has been propping up its whaling industry with nearly $400 million in tax money in recent years.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 6, In Bahrain thousands of protesters demonstrated against the Gulf nation's monarchy, less than a week before planned talks aimed at easing a two-year political crisis.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, The Royal Bank of Scotland announced a settlement in which it agreed to pay American regulators $475 million and another $137 million to Britain’s Financial Services Authority for rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.71)
2013 Feb 6, British researchers have unveiled the Halley VI Research Station, a futuristic Antarctic research base that can move, sliding across the frozen surface to beat the shifting ice and pounding snow that doomed its predecessors.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, A new British report said between 400 and 1,200 patients are estimated to have died needlessly at Stafford Hospital in central England between January 2005 and March 2009 in one of the worst scandals to hit the NHS since it was founded in 1948.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Chris Foster of the UK Border Agency said a significant smuggling operation has been disrupted by one of the biggest raids in UK history. Police said 26 people were arrested for human trafficking and immigration violations after raids that took place in London and other parts of England and Scotland.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, A top Bulgarian security official said the two living suspects behind a bus attack that killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year have been identified and both are now living in Lebanon.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Egypt more than 25 prime ministers and presidents began a two-day summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo. Leaders of Muslim countries offered conflicting approaches to the crises in Mali and Syria, exposing some of the deep divisions that run through the Islamic world.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, France's defense minister said French forces clashed with extremists firing rocket launchers near the northern Malian city of Gao.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Researchers in Iceland blamed low oxygen levels in a shallow fjord for the deaths of tens of thousands of tons of herring.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, In central and northern Iraq assailants opened automatic fire on police checkpoints, killing four officers and wounding five.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, From Kashmir it was reported that the all-girl rock band Pragaash (First Light) has decided to disband following but one concert last December. The teenage members had received threats on social media and a top Muslim cleric.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 6, In Papua New Guinea a mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman (20) accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses in Mount Hagen. Kepari Leniata had been accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in a hospital a day earlier. On Feb 17 Janet Ware and Andrew Watea were charged with murder over the slaying.
(AP, 2/8/13)(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 6, A powerful 8.0 earthquake off the Solomon Islands generated a tsunami of up to 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) that damaged dozens of homes and left at least 9 people dead in the South Pacific island chain.
(AP, 2/6/13)(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, Syria's opposition chief demanded that Bashar Assad's regime release all female political prisoners or he would scrap his offer of talks with the government.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Syria heavy fighting broke out between rebels and President Bashar Assad's forces in parts of Damascus, as twin car bombs detonated in the central province of Homs, killing at least 12 people. A bombing at a bus stop near a military factory in central Syria killed 54 people, all civilian workers at the plant in the village of al-Buraq, near the central city of Hama.
(AP, 2/6/13)(AP, 2/7/13)(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 6, Taiwan banks began offering deposit accounts in Chinese currency following a clearing agreement between China central bank and Taipei signed last August.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.69)
2013 Feb 6, In Tunisia opposition leader Chokri Belaid (47), critical of the Islamist-led government, was gunned down as he left home in the first assassination in post-revolutionary Tunisia, setting off anti-government riots that left downtown Tunis choked with tear gas and patrolled by a tank and armored cars. PM Hamadi Jebali announced he would dissolve the government and form a new one of nonpartisan technocrats to manage the country until elections.
(AP, 2/6/13)(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Uganda representatives of the Congolese government and the M23 rebels signed a preliminary agreement in which both parties accepted responsibility for the failure of an earlier 2009 peace deal.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 7, The US IRS said that the government took action in January against 389 people suspected of committing tax fraud through identity theft. This included 109 arrests and 189 indictments.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.C2)
2013 Feb 7, In southern California Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, were delivering papers around 5 a.m. when LAPD officers guarding the Torrance home of a target named in an online Dorner manifesto blasted at least 100 rounds at their pickup. Hernandez was shot in the back and Carranza had minor injuries. In April the city of Los Angeles reached a $4.2 million settlement with a mother and daughter.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Feb 7, In eastern Afghanistan a NATO helicopter crashed in Kapisa province, but no crew members were seriously injured.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, An Australian government report said doping was widespread among professional and amateur athletes and demanded investigators name offenders to protect clean athletes' reputations.
(Reuters, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 7, UK authorities said beef lasagna products recalled from British supermarkets by frozen food company Findus had tested positive for more than 60% horsemeat.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 7, In Ottowa, Canada, police said Marc Leduc (56) has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the killing of two local sex workers. Pamela Kosmac, 39, was found murdered in 2008 near a bicycle path, while Leanne Lawson, 23, was found in a parking lot in a central part of the city. Leduc was already in custody facing 11 charges related to an alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old Ottawa woman last November.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Colombia over 5,000 workers at the Cerrejon coal mine went on strike. Negotiations began on Feb 26.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.38)
2013 Feb 7, Egypt's PM Hesham Kandil condemned religious edicts by hardline Muslim clerics calling for the killing of opposition leaders and said the government is considering legal action against them. Kandil faced uproar, derision and even lawsuits after he blamed health problems of babies in impoverished villages on nursing mothers who "out of ignorance" don't clean their breasts and talked of village women getting raped in the fields.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Egypt an Islamic summit urged Syrian opposition forces and members of Pres. Bashar Assad's regime, whose hands are not tainted by violence, to hold talks to try to resolve the nation's civil war.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, Ireland dissolved one of its "bad banks", the Irish Bank Resolution Corp (IBRC), in an emergency measure designed to pave the way for a new debt-repayment deal with the European Central Bank.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Mali French troops began to withdraw from Timbuktu after securing the fabled city as they ramped up their mission in Gao, searching for Islamic extremists who may be mixing among the local population.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, Pirates attacked the MV Esther C some 80 miles (130 km) off Nigeria's coast. On March 11 Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. of the United Kingdom said 3 captured sailors have been freed.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 7, Syrian troops and rebels clashed again in the capital Damascus, a day after what activists described as the heaviest fighting in months in President Bashar Assad's seat of power.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Tunisia the Islamist Ennahda party, dominating the ruling coalition, rejected PM Hamadi Jebali’s decision to replace the government to try to appease critics, signaling that the political crisis brought on by the assassination of a prominent leftist politician is far from over.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, A Yemeni military official said an explosion at a military weapons depot in northern Yemen has killed 10 civilians and 5 soldiers.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Zambia a bus operated by the postal service, carrying passengers toward its capital Lusaka, smashed into a semi-truck and another car killing at least 53 people in one of the worst traffic crashes in the nation in recent history.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 8, The big storm heading for the Northeast US disrupted air travel, with over 2,100 flights cancelled.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, A federal judge overturned an Arizona law that sought to block funding through the state for Planned Parenthood's healthcare clinics because the group also performs abortions.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 8, in Ohio Samuel Mullet Sr. (67), the ringleader of hair- and beard-cutting attacks on fellow members of his faith, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Family members convicted of carrying out his orders got sentences ranging from one to seven years.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 8, In central Bangladesh at least two people died and dozens were rescued after the ML Sarash passenger ferry collided with another ship and capsized on the River Meghna, dumping as many as 100 people into the water.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Britain two drug-addicted hit men who went to the wrong address and stabbed a teenager to death in 2010 were sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail. Prosecutors said Ben Hope (39) and Jason Richards (38) were paid 1,000 pounds ($1,600) each to kill a man who owed money to a businessman. But the pair killed Aamir Siddiqi (17) on his doorstep instead.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Canadian police arrested Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau (38) for alleged domestic violence. PM Stephen Harper, who appointed Brazeau to the Senate in 2008, kicked Brazeau out of the Conservative caucus after he heard about the incident.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Halifax, Canada, naval officer Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle (41), who handed over secrets to Russia for more than four years, damaging Canada's relations with the United States and other key allies, was jailed for 20 years.
(Reuters, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison for goading a monk to self-immolate. The sentence by a court in Qinghai province followed a news report that the government has detained 70 people in the province's ethnic Tibetan areas.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Thousands of Egyptians staged rallies in cities across the country to denounce the rule of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, EU leaders agreed to a significantly reduced 7-year budget worth €960 billion ($1.28 trillion) — the first cut in spending in the 27-country group's history.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Finnish customs officers confiscated a container on a Finnish freighter, en route to Syria from Russia, because it did not have a transit license and found 9.6 tons of tank spare parts.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Iraq car bombs struck two outdoor markets and a group of taxi vans in Shiite areas across the country, killing at least 36 people and wounding nearly 100. Tens of thousands of Sunni protesters rallied in five major cities against PM Nouri al-Maliki.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Israel the offices of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, long-linked to PM Netanyahu’s Likud Party, were set on fire. In January the team had recruited, for the first time in its 75-year history, two Muslim players.
(SFC, 2/9/13, p.A4)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.52)
2013 Feb 8, In northern Mali French forces wrested Tessalit from control of Islamic insurgents. In Gao the conflict's first suicide bombing increased fears of terror attacks.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine women who were taking part in a polio vaccination drive in Kano. Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris immediately ordered the arrest of three radio journalists for allegedly being responsible for the killings. Police claimed on-air comments about a vaccination campaign in the area sparked the attacks.
(AP, 2/8/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 8, In northwestern Pakistan a bomb planted near a market killed 16 people and wounded 17 others in Kalaya, the main town in the Orakzai tribal area.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Pakistan 6 militants were killed and 3 wounded in a US drone strike on a militant compound. The 3 wounded died overnight. Two were members of al-Qaida and the others belonged to the Pakistani Taliban movement in the Bobar Ghar area of South Waziristan.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 8, A Moscow city court sentenced Vladimir Kvachkov (64), a retired military intelligence colonel, to 13 years in prison for attempting to organize an armed uprising. Retired police captain, Alexey Kiselev (62), was sentenced to 11 years as a co-conspirator. Prosecutors said they had organized a group who planned to seize power by training crossbow-wielding men to seize military depots and then descend upon Moscow with tanks.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Senegal officially launched its tribunal investigating former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre for alleged crimes against humanity, a move rights groups called a decisive turning point in the campaign to bring him to justice.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Slovenia thousands of people rallied for and against the center-right government, adding to the tensions in the small European Union country where authorities have turned to austerity measures to revive the economy.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Police in South Africa arrested the "ringleader" of a group of 19 Congolese rebels who now face charges of allegedly plotting a war to unseat Congolese President Joseph Kabila. Prosecutors last week identified Etienne Kabila as being in charge of the group.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 8, In South Sudan 103 people were killed in Akobo County when one tribe attacked members of the Lou Nuer ethnic group while cattle were being moved across land. The attackers were believed to be members of the rebel group led by David Yau Yau of the Murle ethnic group.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 8, From Syria the Observatory reported clashes and regime shelling in the southern and eastern sectors of Damascus, including in the restive suburb of Moadamiyeh, where six people were killed by government shelling overnight.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Tens of thousands of Tunisians chanting anti-government slogans converged on a cemetery for the funeral of an assassinated leftist opposition politician, as military helicopters hovered overhead and tensions threatened to boil over into further violence.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, The UN refugee agency said there has been a huge increase in the number of people fleeing Syria, with 5,000 refugees crossing the borders daily into neighboring countries.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Venezuela's government announced that it will devalue the country's currency, a long-anticipated change expected to push up prices in the heavily import-reliant economy.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 9, A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds hammered the northeastern United States, cutting power to 700,000 homes and businesses, shutting down travel and leaving at least five people dead. The storm centered its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. 38 inches fell in Milford, Connecticut. 29.3 inches fell on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record.
(Reuters, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In southern California three women walking in Anaheim died after they were hit by a suspected drunk driver.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 9, In southern Afghanistan two women and four men were killed in the blast in the Nad Ali district, Helmand province.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Belgium a small private plane crashed south of Brussels, killing five members of a family including three small children.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Chile a bus carrying fans of a soccer team plunged into a ravine killing 16 people and injuring 21 others.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 9, A Cairo court ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world. The ruling can be appealed and based on precedent may not be enforced.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, The French and British governments promised to punish those found responsible for selling horsemeat in beef products. French consumer safety authorities said companies from Romania, Cyprus and the Netherlands were part of a supply chain that resulted in horsemeat being disguised as beef in frozen lasagna sold around the continent.
(Reuters, 2/9/13)(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, In India Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted in Dec 13, 2001, attack on India's Parliament that left 14 people dead, was hanged after a final mercy plea was rejected. Guru had confessed in TV interviews that he helped plot the attack, but later denied any involvement and said he was tortured into confessing. Protests broke out in at least four parts of Indian Kashmir, including the northwestern town of Sopore, which was Guru's home.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Iraq rockets and mortar rounds struck a refugee camp for Iranian exiles, members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, next to Baghdad's international airport before dawn, killing six people and wounding about 40. One of the injured died on Feb 12. The UN urged the Iraqi government to ensure the safety of the about 3,100 camp residents and move quickly to find the still-unidentified attackers. Another of the injured died on March 13.
(AP, 2/9/13)(AP, 2/12/13)(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Ireland trade unionists marched in Dublin and other cities to protest the continuing high cost of the country’s bank bailout program.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 9, Israeli troops drove some 100 Palestinian activists out of an illegal tent camp they had set up near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. The operation marked the fifth time in the past month Israeli forces broke up a Palestinian encampment.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, Members of a Muslim royal clan from the southern Philippines landed in Malaysia’s coastal village of Lahad Datu, Sabah state to claim the territory as their own, citing ownership documents from the late 1800s.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 9, In northern Mali a suicide bomber wearing military fatigues blew himself up near a checkpoint at the entrance to Gao, wounding one soldier in the second attack to hit the same location in 36 hours.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, Assailants in northeastern Nigeria killed 3 North Korean doctors, beheading one of the physicians in Potiskum. They had lived in the state since 2005 as part of a medical program between Nigeria and the North Korean government.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Russia Sergei Udaltsov, a top opposition figure, was placed under house arrest for two months. The move also banned him from using most forms of communication, including the Internet, telephone and mail. He faced charges in connection with a protest in May that ended in clashes with police and for allegedly plotting to conduct mass disorder aimed at overthrowing the government.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Senegal a woman and her son were killed by a landmine in the southern Casamance region near the Gambian border.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Syria fighting in Damascus and its suburbs raged for a fourth consecutive day. Pres. Assad reshuffled his Cabinet, appointing 7 new ministers in a move that appeared aimed at trying to shore up an economy that has been ravaged by the country's 2-year-old revolt.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, Several thousand supporters of Tunisia's ruling moderate Islamist party rallied in the capital in a pro-government demonstration. Protesters hurled insults at France, accusing the former colonial ruler of interfering in the North African country's politics.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, At the Vatican the Knights of Malta marked its 900th birthday with a colorful procession through St. Peter's Square, a Mass in the basilica and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, himself a member of the onetime chivalrous order drawn from Europe's nobility. The Knights are at once a Roman Catholic religious order, an aid group that runs soup kitchens, hospitals and ambulance services around the globe, and a sovereign entity that prints its own passports and enjoys diplomatic relations with 104 countries — yet has no country to call its own.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 10, In California 3 people died in a helicopter crash in a rural area of northern Los Angeles. The helicopter was being used for a reality TV show.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 10, The Carnival Triumph began floating aimlessly about 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula after a fire erupted in the aft engine room, knocking out the ship's propulsion system. Passengers had limited access to bathrooms, food and hot coffee as they waited for two tugboats to arrive to tow them to port. The ship arrived into Mobile Bay, Alabama, on Feb 14.
(AP, 2/11/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A11)
2013 Feb 10, In Afghanistan US Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford took over as the new and probably last commander of all US and international forces in the country.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, Opposing factions in Bahrain began talks to ease an Arab Spring conflict that has run longer than Syria's rebellion and is playing out on the doorstep of the US military's main naval base in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, In the Canary Islands a lifeboat with occupants fell overboard during a safety drill from a cruise ship docked at the pier of Santa Cruz port in La Palma. 5 crew members were killed and three injured.
(AP, 2/10/13)(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 10, The Chinese New Year, celebrated as the beginning of the year of the Snake, officially began.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A10)
2013 Feb 10, Rabbi David Hartman (81), one of the world's leading Jewish philosophers and a promoter of both Jewish pluralism and interfaith dialogue, died in Israel.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, In Allahabad, India, a stampede killed 37 people following the Kumbh Mela religious gathering. Tens of thousands of people were in the station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 10, In Iraq gunmen killed four people in three attacks in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, The Israeli government gave final approval for construction of 90 new homes in a West Bank settlement, a move that could cause tensions with the US ahead of President Obama's visit to the region.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 10, One person was killed as protests broke out in at least two parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir despite a strict curfew to prevent violence after the execution of a Kashmiri man convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, Malian soldiers with rocket propelled grenades traded fire in Gao with combatants believed to be from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO. Islamic fighters invaded through Gao’s Niger River harbor and fought a protracted downtown battle for hours.
(AP, 2/10/13)(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 10, Acclaimed Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina said he will accept the prestigious Jerusalem Prize, an Israeli award given to authors, despite calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, Syrian troops and opposition forces battled for control of a key highway outside Damascus for the fifth straight day as the rebels continued their campaign to push into the capital, the seat of President Bashar Assad's power.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, In southern Thailand suspected militants killed 5 soldiers and wounded 5 others in two roadside attacks.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 10, Tunisia’s state news agency reported that the Congress for the Republic party, led by President Moncef Marzouki, is quitting the coalition government, which is led by Islamist party Ennahda.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 11, US Defense Sec. Leon Panetta extended additional military benefits to gay and lesbian couples.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 11, The US began its withdrawal from Afghanistan in earnest, sending the first of what will be tens of thousands of containers home through a once-blocked land route through Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Delaware a gunman battling over child custody opened fire in a courtroom in Wilmington leaving two women dead before fatally shooting himself.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A50)
2013 Feb 11, In Florida former state Republican Party chairman Jim Greer (50) pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering just before jury selection was to begin in his criminal trial.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 11, An Afghan government panel acknowledged widespread torture of detainees after a 2-week investigation of a UN report citing rampant abuses.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 11, Angola received a boost to its free speech from the Portuguese courts, which refused to allow Angolan generals to stop the publication of the book “"Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola" by Rafael Marques. It exposed corruption and human rights abuses in the country's lucrative diamond mines.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 11, British health officials said a new virus from the same family as SARS, that sparked a global alert last September, has been found in a patient in Manchester who had traveled to the Middle East and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Egypt’s Senior Scholars Authority elected Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim, a professor in Islamic jurisprudence, as Grand Mufti. Previously, the Grand Mufti was appointed by the president. Security forces sprayed protesters with water hoses and tear gas outside the presidential palace as Egyptians marked the 2nd anniversary of the fall of Hosni Mubarak's with demonstrations against his elected successor.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, French and Malian government forces regained control of Gao.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Indian-controlled Kashmir 3 young people were left dead in violence despite a curfew that continued for a third day following the Feb 9 execution of a Kashmiri man convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Iraq suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden truck late at night at the gate of a military base inside the city of Mosul. 7 people were killed and 15 wounded. Elsewhere in Mosul assailants broke into a house, stabbing to death two men and two women, including a provincial officer's bodyguard.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, Millions of Kenyans watched and listened to the nation's first-ever presidential debate. The two front-running candidates, Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and PM Raila Odinga. traded barbs over the looming trial of Kenyatta in the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Liberia a plane carrying senior officials from Guinea crashed near Liberia's largest airport, killing 11 people including Guinea's army chief of staff Gen. Souleymane Kelefa Diallo.
(AP, 2/11/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, Hundreds of Rwandans marched to the offices of the United Nations tribunal set up to try key cases related to Rwanda's 1994 genocide to protest the court's decision to acquit two former cabinet ministers accused of masterminding killings.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Somali police said a suicide car bomb attack targeting a senior Puntland police commander in Galkayo killed only the bomber.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Syrian rebels captured the Furat dam, the country's largest dam, after days of intense clashes, giving them control over water and electricity supplies for much of the country in a major blow to President Assad's regime. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said the number of people killed in Syria is probably now approaching 70,000.
(AP, 2/11/13)(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Turkey a car bomb exploded at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post along Syria's border, killing 14 people. A Syrian opposition faction later accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group. On March 11 Turkey’s police said five suspects have been detained.
(AP, 2/11/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Uganda deported, David Cecil (35), a British theatre producer charged with staging a play about homosexuality. A court threw out a case against Cecil last month.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, Pope Benedict XVI (85) announced that he would resign Feb. 28 — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Zimbabwe police raided the offices of a member organization of Crisis in Zimbabwe, an alliance of rights groups, and seized files on political violence, funding details, DVD display materials, mobile phones and other equipment. Officials of the widely respected Zimbabwe Peace Project were accused of illegal importation of goods and "possessing articles for criminal use."
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, President Obama made his State of the Union address. He announced plans with the EU to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal. Obama also said that the first 34,000 troops will leave Afghanistan within a year and more in 2014, when all foreign combat forces are to leave the country.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 12, Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-Los Angeles cop sought in three killings, exchanged gunfire with authorities in the San Bernardino Mountains. It's believed Dorner committed a residential burglary of a cabin where a couple was tied up, stole a pickup and escaped to another cabin. One sheriff’s deputy died in the exchange of gunfire. The ID of Dorner’s body was soon confirmed with dental records. Only after calls for surrender and use of milder tear gas did deputies launch pyrotechnic gas canisters into the cabin, and the subsequent fire was not intentional, the Sheriff's Department said.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A8)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A6)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 12, IOC leaders meeting in Switzerland dropped wrestling from the Olympic program, a surprise decision that removes one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Bangladesh thousands of protesters demonstrated again over the lenient Feb 5 ruling against Abdul Quader Mollah, leader of the Jamaat party, for his role in the 1971 independence war.
(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 12, In Brazil a fire on a Carnival float killed four people and injured five in the port city of Santos. The float reportedly caught fire after striking a power line.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, British authorities raided a slaughterhouse in Yorkshire and a meat processing company suspected of selling horsemeat labeled as beef for kebabs and burgers.
(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, Barclays' new chief executive pledged a fresh course for Britain's third biggest bank, axing at least 3,700 jobs and pruning its investment bank as he seeks to rebuild its reputation and boost profitability after a series of scandals.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, G4S settled a months-long dispute with the organizers of the London Olympics, having failed to supply enough security guards for the 2012 Games, and said it will take a 70 million pound loss on the contract.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Egypt hundreds of low-ranking policemen held protests demanding they not be used as a tool for political oppression in the country's ongoing turmoil.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, Two French aid workers were convicted of fraud and sentenced to 2 years in prison for trying to bring 103 children from central Africa to France for adoption, claiming they were orphans from Darfur. Four other Zoe's Ark members were convicted of trying to bring foreign minors into France, but given suspended sentences ranging from 6 months to a year. The six workers were arrested in Chad in 2007 as they sought to put the children on a plane.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, French workers fired flares and paint bombs and riot police answered with tear gas in a standoff over layoffs at a plant for US tire maker Goodyear, amid tensions over a slump in Europe's car industry. Another demonstration targeted the headquarters of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, which is laying off thousands of people.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Guam a man drove a Toyota Yaris onto a sidewalk striking seven tourists at an upscale shopping area fronting the Outrigger Guam Resort in Tumon Bay. Chad Ryan DeSoto (21) of Tamuning was charged with two counts of murder, 13 counts of attempted murder and 13 counts of aggravated assault. One of the wounded died the next day.
(AP, 2/12/13)(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 12, A Milan appeals court convicted two former Italian spy chiefs for their role in the kidnapping of a terror suspect as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The court sentenced Nicolo Pollari, the former head of Italian military intelligence, to 10 years, and Marco Mancini, a former deputy and head of counterintelligence, to nine. Three other Italian agents also were convicted and handed six-year sentences. All the convictions can be appealed.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Libya 4 foreigners were arrested in Benghazi on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing. Spreading Christianity is a crime in Libya. Police said they found 45,000 books in their possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 12, North Korea said it tested a “miniaturized" nuclear device in the remote, snowy northeast. China summoned the North's ambassador for a dressing-down. Experts assumed it was nuclear partly from the shape of its seismic signal.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has submitted a bill that would ban Russian Cabinet members and other senior officials from having foreign bank accounts and owning foreign stock.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In northern Syria rebels captured the Jarrah military air base in Aleppo province, their second major strategic victory in as many days.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, Thailand marines fending off a militant assault on their base in Narathiwat province killed 16 insurgents in a shootout.
(AP, 2/13/13)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.44)
2013 Feb 12, In Ukraine a 600-square-meter (6,500-square-foot) section of the roof over the turbine hall at the fourth power block at Chernobyl collapsed due to heavy snowfall. A new giant arch-shaped confinement is currently being constructed over the old sarcophagus. The construction of the new shelter was not affected by the accident.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 12, Scientists in Zimbabwe said a fresh water crayfish brought from Australia is breeding out of control in the northern Lake Kariba, devouring the food sources of other fish and putting the nation's entire aquatic ecosystem at risk. The red claw crayfish was introduced a decade ago for a fish farming project.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Washington DC celebrities and activists were arrested after tying themselves to the White House gate to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. Sierra Club Director Michael Brune was also arrested, the first time in the group’s history that club leader was arrested in an act of civil disobedience.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 13, The boards of American Airlines and US Airways approved their merger. This will create the world’s biggest airline.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.C2)
2013 Feb 13, In Afghanistan a NATO airstrike struck two houses, killing 10 Afghan civilians and four insurgents in Kunar province near the Pakistani border. President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. Mahmood, an Afghan soldier-turned-insurgent, who was feted by the Taliban for killing an American soldier during an insider attack on May 11, 2012, was killed along with an accomplice in a raid in Ghaziabad district. Kunar province.
(AP, 2/13/13)(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 13, British police investigating the hacking of mobile phones to generate stories at Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid made six more arrests of journalists or former journalists.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, British fashion retailer Republic became the latest casualty of the economic downturn, seeking protection from creditors and putting around 2,500 jobs at risk.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, British couple Peter Root (34) and Mary Thompson (34), who had been chronicling their round-the-world cycling odyssey in a blog, died when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 13, The EU and the US announced that they have agreed to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Dresden, Germany, over 10,000 anti-fascist activists massed to block a neo-Nazi march on the anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Dresden.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 13, Iran's nuclear chief said his country has begun installing a new generation of uranium enrichment centrifuges at its main facility making nuclear fuel. IRNA news quoted Fereidoun Abbasi as saying that Iran began installing the new centrifuges at Natanz site about a month ago. Senior UN investigators began a new round of talks with government officials over allegations that Tehran may have carried out tests on triggers for atomic weapons.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Gen. Hassan Shateri, a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed on the road linking Damascus with Beirut.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 13, The Iraqi panel tasked with purging government ranks of former members of Saddam Hussein's party removed Chief judge Medhat al-Mahmoud (80), the country's top judge, from his post because of alleged ties to the now-dissolved Baath party. On Feb 19 a judicial panel rejected the decision to remove al-Mahmoud from his post.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Kenya the families of seven people shot dead in 2007 and eight wounded survivors filed a lawsuit to sue the government claiming the shots were fired by police during a dispute over who won Kenya's 2007 presidential election.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 13, Lebanon's state-run news agency said protesters have closed two major roads in northern Lebanon to prevent fuel tankers from crossing into Syria.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In the Maldives former Pres. Mohamed Nasheed took refuge at the Indian Embassy after a court ordered his arrest for not attending a hearing on charges that he illegally ordered the detention of a senior judge, a move that led to his ouster last year.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, In Mali French soldiers recovered some 800 kg of explosives that authorities believe radical Islamic fighters were using to make bombs for attacks on Gao.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Nepal a Tibetan protester doused himself with gasoline, set himself ablaze and chanted anti-China slogans as he ran down a street in Kathmandu. Police and residents were able to put out the flames and rush the man to a hospital. He died the next day.
(AP, 2/13/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, South African authorities said at least 96 rhinoceros have been killed so far this year, as rampant poaching for their horns to sell to buyers in Asia continues. From the 1990s to 2007, rhino killings in South Africa by poachers averaged about 15 a year.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Syrian rebels fought pitched battles against regime forces at the Brigade 80 military base in Aleppo that protects a major airport in the area. The fighting has left more than 40 government troops dead. Activists reported clashes outside Damascus with regime warplanes hitting several of the restive suburbs.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Ukrainian officials sought to reassure the public that radiation levels were unaffected at Chernobyl and there was no safety threat after a partial roof collapse at the exploded nuclear power plant.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Ukraine reached a tentative agreement with Turkmenistan to resume imports of natural gas from the energy-rich Central Asian nation. Completion of the deal would require the consent of Kazakhstan and Russia as transit nations.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Ukraine a small Soviet-designed AN-24 plane carrying soccer fans headed for a match skidded past the landing strip and overturned in the eastern city of Donetsk, killing five people.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Venezuela's government devalued the country's currency amid questions about how the government can get a grip on 22% inflation and satisfy growing demand for dollars to pay for imported goods. The fifth devaluation in a decade established a new government-set rate of 6.30 bolivars to the dollar, replacing the previous rate of 4.30 bolivars.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 14, The US Treasury Department said that Switzerland and the United States have signed a pact to make Swiss banks disclose information about US account-holders.
(Reuters, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, The Chicago Crime Commission name Joaquin “El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, as the city’s new Public Enemy No. 1, for supplying most of the narcotics sold in the city.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 14, H.J. Heinz said it has agreed to be acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, a Brazilian private-equity firm, in a $23.3 billion deal. 3G later bought Kraft and merged it with Heinz in 2015.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.C4)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.63)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.54)
2013 Feb 14, Dozens of Afghan activists and supporters marked Valentine's Day by marching in Kabul to denounce violence against women amid reports that domestic abuse is on the rise.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, Security forces in Bahrain clashed with anti-government protesters in street battles that left at least one boy dead amid high tensions on the second anniversary of the uprising in the Gulf nation. A 16-year-old male and a policeman were killed on the second anniversary of the Shiite-led uprising.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 14, Ronald Dworkin (81), an American philosopher and constitutional law expert, died in London. He was best known for articulating the principle that the most important virtue the law can display is integrity. He was a professor of law at New York University and emeritus professor at University College London. His books included “A Matter of Principle" (1985).
(AP, 2/14/13)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.C3)
2013 Feb 14, Egypt's aviation minister said the hiring of President Mohammed Morsi's son to a highly-paid government job was justified, dismissing accusations of nepotism. On Feb 16 the head of Egypt's holding company for airports and aviation said Morsi's son has applied for a job that pays $133 a month starting salary.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 14, Indian troops shot and killed a Pakistani soldier who crossed the makeshift border separating Indian and Pakistani held Kashmir.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 14, Mali's military detained eight Arab men in Timbuktu, throwing them into a pickup truck and covering it with a tarp in a sweep that has raised fears of further reprisals against the region's Arab minority. Hundreds of others have fled to the neighboring nations of Algeria and Mauritania, where they are living in refugee camps. In December the Associated press found the body of Kabbad, a 70-year-old grandfather known as Vieux Ali, and five others buried in the desert.
(AP, 2/17/13)(AP, 12/9/13)
2013 Feb 14, In Pakistan a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying members of an anti-Taliban militia in Stanzai village in the Orakzai tribal region, killing 7 militiamen. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives next to a police post in Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing 11 policemen and wounding 23 others.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, In South Africa Reeva Steenkamp (b.1983), the girlfriend of double-amputee Olympian runner Oscar Pistorius, was shot dead. Police arrested Pistorius on a charge of murder.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, Syrian rebels took control of the town of Shadadah along the Euphrates River seized most of the nearby Jbeysa oil field. Regime warplanes pounded rebel positions near Aleppo's international airport. Rebels reportedly shot down two warplanes. Rebels stormed a small military base near the town of al-Sahwa in the southern province of Daraa. At least four fighters were killed in clashes at the base. 42 Shiites, mainly women and children, were snatched from a bus that was traveling from the Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya to the capital Damascus.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/15/13)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 14, In Turkey authorities arrested eight more retired officers over the last 48 hours over their alleged involvement in the ousting of an Islamic-led government in the late 1990s.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 14, Senior officials of the UN atomic agency returned from Tehran without a hoped-for deal that would have led to the resumption of a probe into allegations that Iran worked secretly on nuclear arms.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, Zimbabwe police fired tear gas and baton charged to disperse Valentine's Day marchers, herding 195 people demonstrators into a police precinct. Later 25 were treated for injuries including broken teeth.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Pres. Obama bestowed the Presidential Citizens Medal on the 6 adults killed in the Dec 14, 2012, Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 15, Former US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged with scheming to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. His wife was charged with filing false income tax forms. Jackson entered Congress in 1995 and resigned last November. Sandi, as she's known, was a Chicago alderman, but resigned last month.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Xoom, a San Francisco-based company that specialized in sending small amounts of money across borders, debuted on Nasdaq at $16 per share. It closed at $25.490. It was cofounded in 2001 by CEO John Kunze and Kevin Hartz, who's now cofounder of Eventbrite, a ticketing startup.
(Econ, 8/3/13, p.59)(http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/15/xoom-ipo/)
2013 Feb 15, NYC officials said its schoolteacher’s pension fund has sold its stock in companies that manufacture guns and ammunition in response to the Dec 14, 2012, school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 15, The 150-foot Asteroid 2012 DA14 came within an incredible 17,150 miles to Earth, closer than many communication and weather satellites orbiting 22,300 miles up.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Bahrain thousands of anti-government marchers jammed a major highway as clashes broke out for a second day between security forces and protesters marking the anniversary of their uprising.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Bangladesh Ahmed Rajib Haider, an atheist blogger, was hacked to death. He had campaigned for banning the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971. In 2017 Bangladesh's High Court confirmed the death penalty for Faisal bin Nayeem, who the court said hacked Haider with meat cleavers in front of his house in Dhaka. A 2nd student, who was sentenced to death in absentia, was accused of planning the attack. He was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Rajib_Haider)(AP, 4/2/17)
2013 Feb 15, Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it had found 29 positive tests for horsemeat after demanding samples from UK retailers engulfed in a contamination scandal that is spreading across Europe.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, British health officials said a fourth person in Britain has contracted a potentially fatal SARS-like virus which was unknown in humans until a few months ago, but said the risk to the population remained very low.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Egyptian security officials seized two tons of explosives headed to the Sinai Peninsula. Some 5,000 mostly hard-line Islamists rallied against a recent wave of anti-government protests that have killed around 70 people.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, The EU agreed to begin random DNA checks on meat products in a bid to put a lid on a spreading scandal over horsemeat.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 15, Iran ordered a six-month ban on pistachio exports to try to control the price of the nut, which doubled in the past month. Iran was long the world's largest pistachio exporter, with over 200,000 tons a year, but was surpassed last year by the United States.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Iraq tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims rallied in several cities to protest what they describe as unfair treatment by the country's Shiite-led government, extending concerns over rising sectarian tension in the country.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli soldiers at a West Bank rally held in support of Samer Issawi (35), who has been on an on-again, off-again hunger strike for several months as he serves time for alleged terror activity.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Russia a meteor, estimated to be about 10 tons, streaked through the sky and exploded over Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb. Its sonic blasts shattered countless windows and injured some 1200 people.
(AP, 2/15/13)(AP, 2/16/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.78)
2013 Feb 15, In Somalia Al-Qaeda-linked militants claimed that they have executed a Kenyan soldier after the Nairobi government failed to meet their demands. A car bomb detonated by remote control killed one person and wounded two others in Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/15/13)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 15, Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a Nov 20 picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Syrian activists said heavy fighting for control of the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo and a major military air base nearby has killed some 150 rebels and government soldiers over the past two days.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, The UN said an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 16, Italian sailor Giovanni Soldini led an 8-member team of the Maserati to a record 47-day trip from NYC around Cape Horn to San Francisco, beating a 1998 monohull record.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A12)
2013 Feb 16, A San Francisco Bay ferry was struck by a 22-foot motorboat in Richardson Bay. Motorboat pilot Harry Holzhauer (68) was killed. In 2018 a federal appeals court upheld $4.2 million in damages against the Golden Gate Bridge District for the collision. A jury found the ferry captain 30% responsible and Holzhauer 70% responsible.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycyfhny6)(SFC, 8/13/18, p.C1)
2013 Feb 16, Alberto Morales (42), the Florida prisoner who escaped in Texas after stabbing a detective with his eyeglasses was fatally shot after refusing to cooperate with officers and lunging at them. Morales had escaped on Feb 11 from a Wal-Mart parking lot after attacking the Miami-Dade, Fla., detective.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, Afghan Pres. Karzai issued a decree that orders the prosecution of Afghan security forces involved in torturing prisoners and requires all future interrogations be videotaped.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Bangladesh an estimated 100,000 people demonstrated in Dhaka demanding move severe punishment for war criminals from the country’s 1971 liberation war.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, Bulgaria’s PM Boiko Borisov fired Simeon Djankov, his finance minister and deputy prime minister. Djankov was unpopular for his austerity policies.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.52)0
2013 Feb 16, Egypt’s interior ministry announced a move to purchase 100,000 new 9mm pistols for police officers. This ended 5 days of strikes by police demanding greater firepower under increasing lawlessness.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, A court in Egypt ordered a TV channel that airs belly dancing clips off the air for showing "sexually explicit" content and operating without a broadcast license.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, In India the bodies of three sisters — aged 7, 9 and 11 — were found in a village well in Bhandara district in Maharashtra after they had gone missing from school two days earlier. Police eventually registered a case of rape and murder after a post-mortem of the girls found that they had been sexually abused and brutally killed.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Iraq a suicide bomber, pretending to ask for help, assassinated Brig. Gen. Ali Aouni, the head of the Iraq Defense Ministry's intelligence academy, and three bodyguards at his home in the Tal Afar.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, A court in L'Aquila, Italy, convicted four people in the collapse of a university dormitory during the 2009 earthquake in that Apennine mountain town. Eight students died in the collapse during the powerful quake, which struck in the pre-dawn hours of April 6, 2009.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Kenya a suspected militant died while planting an improvised explosive device in Garissa at a venue where one of the country's presidential contenders was going to hold a campaign rally.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 16, In rural northern Nigeria an Islamist group calling itself Ansaru attacked a camp for a construction company in Bauchi state, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. Ansaru is a acronym for “Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa."
(AP, 2/17/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 16, In Pakistan bomb went off in a Shiite Muslim-dominated residential suburb of the city of Quetta killing at least 81 people and wounding some 160. Most of the dead and wounded were Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago. 8 more people soon died of their wounds bringing the death toll to 89.
(AP, 2/16/13)(AP, 2/17/13)(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 16, G20 leaders meeting in Moscow said there would be no currency war and deferred plans to set new debt-cutting targets, underlining broad concern about the fragile state of the world economy.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, A Syrian activist group said pro-government gunmen have kidnapped more than 300 people Idlib province in retaliation for the abduction of 42 Shiite Muslims this week. At least one person was killed in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk by sniper fire. In the southern region of Quneitra rebels briefly controlled a military checkpoint in the town of Khan Arnaba and captured five officers before they withdrew.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, Syrian peace activist Omar Aziz (64), detained last November, died of health complications at a military hospital.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Tunisia thousands of supporters of the ruling Islamist party marched in Tunis in response to rising criticism of the country’s direction.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, In Zimbabwe a pastor and three activists were arrested for holding a voter education meeting a day after President Robert Mugabe announced March 16 as the date for a referendum on a new constitution.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Thousands of protesters gathered on Washington's National Mall calling on Pres. Obama to reject the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline proposal and honor his inaugural pledge to act on climate change.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 17, The NY Times reported that a 60-page analysis by Mandiant, a US computer security firm, has traced one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking groups to Shanghai and the gates of Unit 61398 of the Chinese military.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D1)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.12)
2013 Feb 17, Bahrain's interior ministry said police have arrested eight members of an alleged terrorist cell linked to Iran and other countries following widespread clashes in the Gulf nation during protests marking the second anniversary of an Arab Spring-inspired uprising.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, British actor Richard Briers (79), best known for the 1970s TV sit-com "The Good Life" but also for his Shakespearean roles, died at his London home. His film credits included "A Chorus Of Disapproval" (1989) and "Watership Down" (1978) in which he was the voice of Fiver.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 17, Ecuadoreans cast ballots with President Rafael Correa (48), a dynamic, polemical economist, highly favored to win a 2nd re-election. His leftist government has won broad backing from the lower classes as it leads Latin America in social spending as a portion of the economy. Correa won 56.9% of the vote against 23.8% for his closest challenger, longtime banker Guillermo Lasso.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, In Egypt thousands of soccer fans enforced a work stoppage in the city of Port Said to protest "injustices" by the government, disrupting rail services and forcefully evicting workers from their factories and the provincial government's offices.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, In Greece some 40 masked attackers raided the facilities of a prospective gold mine in the north overnight, setting machinery and offices alight. Some residents objected to what they say will be the destruction of the environment and of pristine forest at Skouries in the Halkidiki peninsula.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Iran’s independent Arman daily reported that authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in Tehran, to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, In Iraq multiple car bombs exploded within minutes of each other as Iraqis were out shopping in and around Baghdad, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100 in mainly Shiite areas.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Hundreds of French and Malian soldiers retook the jihadist stronghold of Bourem, a town where many radical Islamic fighters were believed to have fled.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, A Moroccan military court convicted 24 Western Saharan activists for their roles in the killing of 11 soldiers at a protest camp in 2010, and gave nine of the defendants life sentences.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Gunmen attacked an oil vessel off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping six foreigners. Three Ukrainians, two Indians and a Russian were taken from a vessel run by energy company Century Group.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 17, The Harita Bauxite, a bulk carrier, sank near the Philippines. 10 of 24 crewmen, mostly from Myanmar, were rescued. One later died and the rest remianed missing. The vessel was thought to be carrying nickel ore from Indonesia.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 17, A top Syrian government official said electricity has been restored in most parts of Damascus and power will gradually reach the south. The power outage plunged Damascus into darkness late the previous evening and affected much of southern Syria. Fighting raged in at least three provinces between rebels and troops loyal to Pres. Assad.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 18, US Attorney General Eric Holder discussed regional crime with Caribbean leaders during a summit in Haiti.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, The owner of the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship was hit by a lawsuit seeking class action status for stranding more than 3,000 passengers for 5 days on a ship without electricity or adequate sanitation.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Maryland Dr. Nikita A. Levy (54) was found dead. The gynecologist’s employment at Johns Hopkins was terminated on Feb 8 following reports of his surreptitiously photographing and videotaping his patients. In 2014 the John Hopkins Health System agreed to pay $190 million to some 8,000 women to settle the case.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A7)(SFC, 7/22/14, p.A4)
2013 Feb 18, Afghan President Hamid Karzai officially banned Afghan security forces from requesting international airstrikes during operations in residential areas.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Armenia held elections. President Serge Sarkisian (58) easily won a second term with nearly 59% of the vote, but international observers said the vote "lacked competition." The closest of his six rivals, American-born Raffi Hovanessian, got 37% of the vote.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Belgium 8 masked gunmen forced their way through the security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched some $50 million worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Brazil protesters backing the Cuban government blocked the screening of a documentary featuring Cuba's best-known dissident, the blogger Yoani Sanchez, who was in attendance after being allowed to leave the communist island for the first time in nearly a decade. This was the first stop on her 80-day tour of about a dozen nations.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, British PM David Cameron flew into India promising to try to revive Indian interest in the Eurofighter even though New Delhi has chosen a French-made rival.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Britain's Royal Mint said it has started to manufacture gold sovereign coins in India for the first time since 1918.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, The European Union officially launched a training mission with the goal of making the disparaged Malian army good enough to patrol the whole country.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, EU finance ministers, condemning the Feb. 12 nuclear test by North Korea, imposed more trade and economic sanctions on the Asian nation.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, EU foreign ministers announced that they are keeping current sanctions against Syria in place for three months, rejecting any attempt to ease the arms embargo so military aid could be funneled to rebel forces.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, The European Union said it has removed 21 loyalists of Zimbabwe's president from a sanctions list of people facing travel and banking bans. It said the decision to remove those restrictions was a result of a "step forward" in finalizing a draft constitution which is set to go voted on in a national referendum on March 16.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Guinea supporters of President Alpha Conde looted and burned the Kankan offices of opposition politician Lansana Kouyate, 700 km (435 miles) north of Conakry.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Pakistan at least 15,000 Shiite Muslims took to the streets in Quetta in a 2nd day of protests following a bombing that left 89 people dead. Gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in Karachi, killing two people. Militants wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of Khyber Political Agent Mutahir Zeb in Peshawar, killing 5 police officers. In Lahore gunmen on a motorcycle shot to death a Shiite doctor and his son (12).
(AP, 2/18/13)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 18, Palestinians blocked roads and held marches across the West Bank to protest the fate of thousands of their countrymen held in Israeli jails and demand the release of four detainees on hunger strike. Israel is holding some 4,500 Palestinians for charges ranging from throwing stones to undertaking deadly militant attacks.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Russia the body of Lipetsk city councilman Mikhail Pakhomov (37), kidnapped last week, was found in a cement barrel. Investigators have arrested eight people in the case. Evgeny Kharitonov, a former deputy minister in Moscow's provincial government, was charged with organizing the kidnapping over what police called an $80 million debt.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In South Africa Mamphela Ramphele, an academic and co-founder of the nation’s Black Conscious Movement, announced the creation of Agang, a new political party "to build the South Africa of our dreams," lambasting the 101-year-old African National Congress of Nelson Mandela for corruption and power abuse.
(AP, 2/18/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.47)
2013 Feb 18, In South Africa 9 miners and 4 guards were injured when a machete-wielding mob attacked union stewards and security guards opened fire with rubber bullets amid ongoing labor rivalry at an Anglo American Platinum mine. Some miners accuse the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is allied with the governing ANC, of becoming elitist, cozying up to business and putting those interests before that of mine workers.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Syrian rebels captured a government checkpoint on the main road to the country's second-largest airport as opposition fighters pressed their campaign to capture the strategic facility in Aleppo. A new report from a UN-appointed panel said Syria's civil war is becoming increasingly sectarian and the behavior of both sides is growing more and more radicalized. A regime missile strike leveled a stretch of buildings and killed at least 19 people in Aleppo, leaving residents combing through the rubble to find those trapped beneath it.
(AP, 2/18/13)(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, President Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela after more than two months of treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 19, In southern California Ali Syed (20) shot and killed woman in her home and two commuters in Orange County. Syed committed suicide as police closed in on him.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 19, In Los Angeles a body was found in a water tank on the roof of the historic Cecil Hotel. It was soon identified as that of a Canadian woman who went missing in late January. Elisa Lam (21), a college student from Vancouver, British Columbia, was last seen by staff at the hotel on January 31.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 19, NATO and Afghan forces killed at least 25 insurgents and three of their commanders in separate operations around the country.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 19, Afghan security said intelligence officers have arrested a senior Pakistan Taliban commander. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was arrested over the weekend in eastern Nangarhar province.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Brazil’s Pres. Dilma Rousseff announced increased welfare payments to 2.5m poor people.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.35)
2013 Feb 19, In Cameroon a vacationing French family of seven was kidnapped and whisked toward Nigeria. The family was freed after two months in captivity, returning on April 19 to safety in Douala.
(AP, 2/20/13)(AP, 4/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Egypt hundreds of protesters in Port Said pressured government employees to leave work early as they enforced the third day of a general strike.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Germany’s highest court ruled that one member of a civil partnership should be able to adopt the partner’s stepchild or adopted child.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 19, Greek journalists walked off the job for 24 hours to protest austerity measures and income cuts, pulling radio and television news broadcasts off the air and leaving news websites without updates.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Guinea anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters who barricaded streets and threw stones at vehicles in the capital, Conakry.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Ireland’s PM Enda Kenny apologized on behalf of the government for decades of abuses in the Magdalene Laundries.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 19, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu added his first coalition partner as he works to build a new government. Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will serve as justice minister in the next Israeli government, in charge of peace efforts with the Palestinians.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, An Ivory Coast military spokesman says that Guinean soldiers have occupied Kpeaba, a border village in western Ivorian territory, since early this month.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Malawi public workers on strike demanding a 67 percent pay hike threatened to close the country's airports. The government said it doesn't have the money to meet the demands.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Mali a French soldier was shot to death in a clash with jihadists in a mountainous region of the far north. 20 extremists were reported killed on this second day of the ongoing operation, code named Panthere, aimed at locating jihadists and dismantling their sanctuaries.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Pakistan thousands of minority Shiite Muslims (Hazaras) ended three days of protests Quetta after the government launched a paramilitary operation against militants responsible for a weekend bombing targeting the minority sect that killed 89 people. Four members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, including a senior commander, were killed in a shootout, and over 170 other suspected militants were arrested.
(AP, 2/19/13)(SFC, 2/20/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 19, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers at a rally in support of four imprisoned Palestinians on hunger strike, as hundreds of inmates said they were refusing food for the day in solidarity with the fasting inmates.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Gaza Strip's Hamas government and local smugglers accused Egypt of flooding cross-border tunnels with sewage water in order to halt a thriving smuggling trade. Egyptian engineers began flooding the tunnels in late January.
(AP, 2/19/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.41)
2013 Feb 19, In the Philippines over 100 communist guerrillas stormed a vast Del Monte plantation in Bukidnon province, killing one guard, burning farm equipment and blocking traffic in 3 towns.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 19, Russia said it had sent two jets carrying humanitarian aid to Syria and are inviting Russians who want to leave the country to take the flights back.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, The Sudanese army said clashes in the country's south near the border with South Sudan have killed at least 60 rebels.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, A Syrian missile strike leveled a block of buildings in an impoverished district of Aleppo, killing at least 33 people, almost half of them children. Two mortars exploded near one of President Bashar Assad's palaces in Damascus, but no casualties were reported.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Tunisia's PM Hamadi Jebali announced his resignation following a failed effort to form a technocratic government to see the country out of its political crisis. His own party, Ennahda, rejected his initiative, insisting that the country still needed a government of politicians.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, A Yemeni military plane crashed into a neighborhood in the country's capital, Sanaa, killing at least nine people and injuring 18.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Zimbabwe police raided the suburban Harare offices of the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network searching for alleged subversive materials.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 20, The US announced a strengthening of its efforts to prevent the theft of trade secrets. China was mentioned prominently.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.44)
2013 Feb 20, It was reported that the US National Institutes of Health is in the planning stages of a massive effort called the Brain Activity Map (BAM) to understand how neurons actually process information. On March 7 protagonists published a manifesto for BAM in Science.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D3)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.79)
2013 Feb 20, In San Francisco tech and investment luminaries announced the new $3 million Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize and named the effort’s first 11 winners.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.C1)
2013 Feb 20, An anti-whaling activist group accused a Japanese whaling vessel of intentionally ramming two of its ships in waters near Antarctica. Japan's Fisheries Agency, however, insisted the protesters were responsible for the collisions.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Scottish singer Emeli Sande won the coveted best album honour at the BRIT Awards for "Our Version of Events", confirming her status as favourite going into British pop's big night of the year.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Bulgaria's center-right government of PM Boiko Borisov resigned after days of violent protests fueled by outrage over rising energy costs, corruption and a general economic decline in what is already the EU's poorest nation. In early March Pres. Rosen Plevneliev announced a caretaker cabinet led by Marin Raykov.
(AP, 2/20/13)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Feb 20, The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority said DNA tests showed two batches of frozen Nowaco Lasagne Bolognese in a branch of the Tesco supermarket chain in the western city of Pilsen contained horsemeat. Luxembourg was listed as the country of origin.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, In Greece a 24-hour protest by unions representing private and public sector workers disrupted flights, halted ferries and crippled public services, in a renewed confrontation between labor groups and the conservative-led government over policies aimed at curbing Greece's overspending.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, A Lebanese judge indicted three people, including a former Cabinet minister and a top Syrian intelligence general, in a bombing plot in Lebanon, a move that could raise tension in Lebanon over the civil war in neighboring Syria. Judge Riad Abu Ghaida demanded the death penalty for former information minister, Michel Samaha, Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk and a Syrian colonel, identified only by his first name, Adnan.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, In Mali Islamic extremists clashed with military in the northern city of Gao. A French Tigre attack helicopter fired on a pickup truck containing jihadist fighters during clashes in northern Mali, killing about 10 insurgents. The military pushed fighters out of Gao. 16 jihadists were reported killed in the fighting in Gao.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 20, Human Rights Watch called Mexico's anti-drug offensive "disastrous" in a report that cited 249 cases of disappearances that the group says mostly show evidence of having been carried out by the military or law enforcement.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Nigeria's secret police said they have broken up a terrorist group backed by "Iranian handlers" who wanted to assassinate a former military ruler and gather intelligence about locations frequented by Americans and Israelis. A suicide bombing in Maiduguri killed three civilians and injured soldiers.
(AP, 2/20/13)(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 20, In Syria 2 mortars exploded next to a soccer stadium in central Damascus, killing one player and injuring several. The pro-government Al-Watan daily said the airport in Aleppo is still under military control and "safe" from rebels fighting to capture it.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 21, Detroit, with its violent crimes, high unemployment, dwindling population and financial crisis, was named by Forbes as the most miserable city in the United States.
(Reuters, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed legislation legalizing online gambling.
SFC, 2/22/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 21, In Las Vegas a Maserati ran a red light at one of the Strip's busiest intersections and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames, killing taxi driver Michael Boldon (62) and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund (48), of Maple Valley, Wash. Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr., the driver of the Maserati, was killed. Bullets had flown from a black Range Rover at the Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Strip. The black SUV was found on Feb 23 as police named Ammar Harris (26) in connection with the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage. Ammar Harris was arrested in Los Angeles on Feb 28.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/24/13)(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 21, Suspended Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin along with her aide and sister, Janine Orie, were convicted on campaign corruption charges. They could join a third sister — former state Sen. Jane Orie — in state prison.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, Google unveiled its touch-screen Chromebook Pixel, a high-end laptop starting at $1,299.
(SFC, 2/22/13, p.A1)
2013 Feb 21, Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs published the names of what it described as "tax cheats" for the first time, part of efforts to address public anger over tax evasion at a time of economic austerity.
(Reuters, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, A London jury found Irfan Naseer (31), Irfan Khalid (27) and Ashik Ali (27), arrested in September 2011, guilty of being central figures in a foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Ray Cusick (84), BBC designer, died. He created the Daleks, mutant monsters in sinister shells, for the “Doctor Who" TV series.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.90)
2013 Feb 21, In Guatemalan residents of Peten province reported a gunbattle between drug gangs and said one of the dead resembled Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Soldiers and police scanning the area found no sign of any confrontation.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, A Haitian judge summoned Jean-Claude Duvalier (61) to appear in court after the former dictator defied an order to attend a hearing to determine whether he should again face charges for human rights abuses committed during the nearly 15 years of his brutal regime.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, In India 16 people were killed and 117 injured in a pair of bomb explosions in a crowded area of the southern city of Hyderabad.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.41)
2013 Feb 21, In Indonesia some 20 assailants killed eight soldiers killed in two attacks in Papua province. The assailants were identified as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, An Iranian semi-official news agency said Iran is planning to build a $4 billion oil refinery in Gwadar, Baluchistan province. Iran will reportedly sell products from the refinery to Pakistan in return of food, especially wheat, meat and rice.
(AP, 2/21/13)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 21, In Iraq gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in Duluiayah, 75 km north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding four others.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Japan’s government unexpectedly announced that it had hanged 3 men for murder.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.40)
2013 Feb 21, In eastern Kenya gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles opened fire at a mosque, killing 7 people in the remote and tiny village of Maayleey.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, The Malawi government agreed to raise public workers' salaries by 60%, ending a two-week old strike.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, In Kidal, Mali, a town further north where control by French and Chad forces has been tentative, a car explosion in a mechanics garage killed two, including the driver and a security guard. Jihadist fighters fired two rockets at military points in the city of Gao as a suicide bomber attacked secular rebels near Algeria's border.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, Mexico said it will work with the Int’l. Red Cross on the search of thousands of people who have disappeared during the country’s 6-year war on drugs.
(SFC, 2/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 21, In Nigeria a suicide bombing hit a crowded market in the heart of Maiduguri and engulfed stalls in flames.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, In Pakistan a bomb blast inside a shopping mall in Peshawar killed at least one person and wounded 12 people. The bombing targeted shops selling mobile phones.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, A Pakistani intelligence official said at least half the Afghan Taliban recently freed from Pakistani prisons have rejoined the insurgency throwing into question the value of such goodwill gestures that the Afghan government requested to restart a flagging peace process.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security forces, hurling rocks and burning tires at a West Bank demonstration to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Spain’s Ferrovial, a construction and services company, announced that it would buy Enterprise, a British provider of municipal services, for £385 mil ($608m).
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.68)
2013 Feb 21, Syrian state TV said at least 53 people were killed in a car bomb attack in Damascus near the headquarters of the ruling Baath party and the Russian Embassy. Anti-regime activists put the death toll at 59. At least 13 other people were killed on two other car bombings in Damascus. An opposition group said 18 people were killed in a government airstrike on a rebel field hospital in Daraa.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)SFC, 2/22/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 21, In Yemen a celebration marking the first anniversary of the country's presidential election was interrupted by a shootout between government forces and disgruntled members of a southern independence movement. 4 southerners demonstrating for secession in Aden were killed by security forces.
(AP, 2/21/13)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.51)
2013 Feb 22, Pres. Obama said that about 100 US troops have been sent to Niger to help set up a new base for Predator aircraft surveillance.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, US federal and Washington state officials said six underground tanks at Hanford, that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, are leaking.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, A major winter storm headed northeast into the US Great Lakes and threatened New England after blanketing states from Minnesota to Ohio with blinding snow, sleet and freezing rain. At least 4 deaths were linked to the storm.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, In Oklahoma City a medical helicopter crashed outside a nursing home killing 2 people onboard and injuring a third.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, American scientists prepared to drop dead mice laced with painkillers on Guam's jungle canopy as a prescription for the brown tree snake, a headache that has caused Guam misery for more than 60 years.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Bahrain a protester (20) died from a head injury sustained Feb. 14 when he was hit with a tear gas canister fired by security forces.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Police across Bangladesh clashed with protesters from Islamic political parties denouncing war crimes trials linked to the country's 1971 independence war, killing two demonstrators and injuring dozens.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Benin businessman Johannes Dagnon and army commander Pamphile Zomahoun were arrested. Preliminary investigations showed the two had tried to stop President Boni Yayi from returning to Cotonou so they could institute a military state.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Feb 22, Britain suffered its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency when Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A rating, dealing a major blow to Chancellor George Osborne.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, BP tanker drivers have begun a 3-day strike at Petroineos's Grangemouth refinery in Scotland over a plan to transfer some of them to another employer, which would affect their pensions and pay.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Frozen food maker Birds Eye said it would withdraw some products in Britain and Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals sold in Belgium.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Czech PM Petr Necas signed deals with representatives of 16 religious groups to pay them $3.1 billion in compensation for property that the country's former Communist regime seized from them. The left-wing opposition has asked the country's highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court, to stop it.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Voters in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti cast ballots in the nation's parliamentary elections. Opposition political parties were eligible to win seats for the first time.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, French catering and vouchers group Sodexo said it was withdrawing all frozen beef products from the market in Britain after finding horse meat in some of its products.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, German authorities returned 7 artifacts dating as far back as 4,000 BC to Kosovo after police stumbled on them in an unrelated raid in 2005. The artifacts date to the Neolithic period and are believed to belong to the Vinca, a prehistoric culture that traces back to 5,500 BC in southern Europe.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Greece heavy rainfall caused two rivers to break their banks flooding the streets of Athens.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, In Iraq gunmen wearing military uniforms killed seven anti-al-Qaida militiamen in an attack in Tuz Khormato north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Ireland’s government said B&F Meats in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, has been caught labeling horse meat as beef and shipping it to a company in the Czech Rep.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, In northern Mali Chadian army troops killed 65 Islamic extremist rebels and destroyed five vehicles in fierce fighting. 13 Chadian soldiers were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 22, Pakistani authorities arrested Malik Ishaq, a founder of a banned Sunni extremist group in Rahim Yar Khan, less than a week after the organization claimed responsibility for a market bombing that killed 89 Shiites. Ishaq was imprisoned for 14 years on charges, never proven, of killing Shiite Muslims. He was released in July 2011.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Hundreds of Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere in the West Bank threw rocks at Israeli soldiers who responded with tear gas. Palestinian emergency services said dozens were treated for tear gas inhalation and rubber bullet wounds. Mohammed Asfour (22) was struck in the head by a rubber-coated bullet in the West Bank and died of his wounds on March 7.
(AP, 2/22/13)(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Romania gangster Ian Balint was arrested with dozens of others on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, blackmail and possession of illegal weapons.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, Syrian warplanes and artillery hit targets near Damascus International Airport. Regime forces fired three missiles into a rebel-held area in eastern Aleppo, hitting several buildings. A newly released detainee reported witnessing the death of imprisoned rights activist Ayham Ghazzoul (26). Activists said gunmen from rival Sunni and Shiite Muslim villages in northern Syria have freed more than 200 people snatched in tit-for-tat kidnappings this month, easing tensions that threatened to touch off more sectarian violence. On Feb 26 Human Rights Watch said at least 141 people, half of them children, were killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into eastern Aleppo.
(AP, 2/22/13)(AP, 2/23/13)(AP, 2/24/13)(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 22, Tunisia's ruling Islamist party named Ali Larayedh, the interior minister seen as a conservative loyalist, to form a new government.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Pope Benedict XVI, who steps down Feb. 28, named Monsignor Ettore Balestrero ambassador, or nunzio, to Colombia. Balestrero was head of the Holy See's delegation to the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee, which evaluated the Vatican's anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing measures.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Zimbabwe media freedom campaigners said police are breaking the law by seizing and banning small radio receivers that can tune in to stations not linked to the state broadcasting monopoly controlled by President Robert Mugabe's party.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 23, An Algerian army patrol reportedly killed 8 extremists in Boumerdes, about 50 km (30 miles) outside Algiers. Four fighters were killed reported in the northern Boukadir forest.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, China reported a 2nd fatality from the H5N1 bird flu in the city of Guiyang.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 23, Iran said it has selected 16 locations as suitable for new nuclear power plants it intends to build to boost its energy production over the next 15 years. State TV said the country has discovered new uranium resources.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Mexico a Belgian citizen, Jan Sarens (59), was shot to death in the Pacific resort of Acapulco near the site of the Mexican Open tennis tournament. He was a resident businessman working for a transnational firm.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, In in northeastern Nigeria at least six people were killed in an attack in Ngalba, Yobe state. Local residents suspected the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Nigeria concrete and other structures in "a densely populated area" of Lagos were razed to the ground. On Aug 12 Amnesty International published satellite images and said 9,000 people have lost homes and livelihoods and thousands more were threatened in the slum destroyed by armed police and bulldozers.
(AP, 8/12/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Pakistan a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into a canal in Peshawar, killing 17 people.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Feb 23, Some 150 Palestinian villagers and 25 Jewish settlers clashed in the northern West Bank village of Kusra, wounding one demonstrator who protesters say was shot in the stomach. The clashes began when a group of Jewish settlers chased a Palestinian farmer and his family off land in the village.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, Palestinian Arafat Jaradat (30) died while under Israeli custody at Megiddo Prison. His family alleged Jaradat was mistreated by the Shin Bet, saying he was healthy at the time of his arrest last week. Israeli officials said Jaradat died of an apparent heart attack and denied he was beaten or subjected to any treatment that could have led to his death. A Palestinian doctor present at the autopsy said marks on Jaradat’s body indicated torture.
(AP, 2/24/13)(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 23, In Sudan renewed fighting between two Arab tribes over mining rights left 60 people dead in the northern Darfur region.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, The battle for Syria's second-largest airport intensified on as government troops tried to reverse recent strategic gains the rebels have made in the northeast in their quest to topple President Bashar Assad. The army launched an offensive on opposition strongholds outside Damascus in an effort to dislodge rebels from areas around the capital that they have been trying to storm for weeks.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, In eastern Zimbabwe an arson attack on the home of an election candidate killed the politician's 12-year-old son.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 24, In the 85th Annual Academy Awards Jennifer Lawrence wins the Best Actress award for "Silver Linings Playbook"; Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for "Lincoln"; Best Picture went to "Argo." A Best Picture/Best Director split occurred since Ben Affleck was curiously not nominated for the award.
(http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/2013-oscars/oscar-live-blog-013911081.html)
2013 Feb 24, Afghanistan's president said all US special forces must leave eastern Wardak province within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans. Suicide bombers targeted Afghanistan's intelligence agency and other security forces in four coordinated attacks in Kabul and outlying areas, leaving at least 7 dead, including the 4 bombers.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Cuba's parliament reconvened with new membership. Raul Castro announced that he will step down in 2018 following a final five-year term, for the first time putting a date on the end of the Castro era. He tapped rising star Miguel Diaz-Canel (52) as his top lieutenant and first in the line of succession.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Greek Cypriots voted for a new president. Conservative opposition party leader Nicos Anastasiades garnered 45.46% of the vote in the first round of voting, some 18 points over communist-backed Stavros Malas. With nearly all the votes counted, Anastasiades had 57.48% of the ballots, far ahead of Malas' 42.52%.
(AP, 2/24/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.50)
2013 Feb 24, In Egypt thousands of brick workers blocked railroad tracks from a southern city to Cairo for a second day to protest rising industrial oil prices, causing the cancellation of some services. Residents of Port Said pressed their general strike which entered its second week.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, In Ethiopia 11 African countries signed a UN-drafted peace deal to stabilize Congo, where rebels allegedly backed by neighboring countries last year threatened to oust the government.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, In Greece a helicopter swooped down on the Trikala prison courtyard as armed men on board fired on guards and lowered a rope to help convicted killer Panagiotis Vlastos make his fourth attempt to escape from a Greek prison. Vlastos was wounded the helicopter was grounded in the failed escape.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Gen. Hamid Tabatabaei, a commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, has been killed in the country's Kurdish northwest.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Italy began 2 days of parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Palestinians called for an international investigation of Israel's treatment of detained Palestinians, after a 30-year-old Palestinian died in custody and a hunger strike by four other inmates sparked a week of West Bank protests.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Syrian rebels used captured tanks to launch a fresh offensive on a government complex housing a police academy in Aleppo as they continued to log a string of strategic victories against President Bashar Assad's troops who countered with airstrikes.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Syrian comedian Yassin Bakoush (75) was killed by a mortar round that landed on his car in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus. SANA state news said he was killed by a rebel mortar round. The anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was a rocket-propelled grenade launched by government troops.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Zimbabwe's broke coalition government said it has raised enough money privately to pay for a referendum on a new constitution scheduled March 16.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 25, C. Everett Koop (96), former US Surgeon General (1981-1989), died at his home in Hanover, NH.
(SFC, 2/26/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 25, In Pennsylvania an inmate assaulted and killed a guard with a homemade weapon at the Canaan federal penitentiary.
(SFC, 2/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 25, Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien (74), resigned following allegations he behaved in an inappropriate way with priests, and said he would not take part in the election of Pope Benedict's replacement. O'Brien said he had tendered his resignation some months ago.
(Reuters, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, In China a Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest against Chinese rule near dozens of pilgrims who had gathered for prayers to mark the end of the Tibetan New Year festival in Gansu province. Another had set himself ablaze a day earlier at a monastery in Qinghai province. Both died. A third monk was taken to a hospital after setting himself alight in a separate incident.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 25, In Colombia thousands of coffee workers began blocking roads in 10 provinces over falling incomes from leaf rust and falling coffee prices.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.38)
2013 Feb 25, A judge in the Dominican Republic ruled that Martha Heredia (22), the winner of a TV talent show, can be held in jail for up to a year while authorities investigate her alleged involvement in drug smuggling. She was arrested at a Dominican airport on Feb 20 as she was about to board a flight to New York. Police allege she had 2.9 pounds (1.3 kg) of heroin stuffed in the heels of three pairs of platform shoes.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 25, Israel and the US carried out a successful test of the next-generation Arrow 3 missile defense system, for the first time sending an interceptor into outer space, where it could destroy missiles fired from Iran.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Italians voted for a second day in a national election. Italy faced political paralysis as near-complete results in crucial national elections showed no clear winner and raised the possibility of a hung parliament. Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S) won no less than 163 of 945 elected members.
(AP, 2/25/13)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.50)
2013 Feb 25, Jordan said it has no official word from Saudi Arabia about one of its citizens, youth activist Khaled Natour, apprehended by authorities there 50 days ago.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Mexico's central bank said that Mexican corporations invested about $25.6 billion last year in buying up foreign plants and companies, more than twice the $12.6 foreigners invested directly in Mexican firms. An official confirmed that was the first time in recent memory that outflows exceeded inflows.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Park Geun-hye began serving as South Korea's first female president and returned to the presidential mansion where she grew up with her dictator father.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, In southern Pakistan a blast at a Sufi shrine killed two people in Shikarpur.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Swedish furniture giant Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries across the continent.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moallem said his country ready to hold talks with the armed opposition trying to topple President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, In Turkey German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Turkish leaders amid growing frustration in Turkey over its slow-moving EU membership and a perceived reluctance by European nations to crackdown on Turkish militants operating in their nations.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 26, A deeply divided Senate voted on to confirm Republican Chuck Hagel (66) to be the next US defense secretary, handing President Barack Obama's pick the top Pentagon job just days before billions of dollars in automatic, across-the-board budget cuts hit the military. 4 Republicans joined the Democrats in backing the contentious choice.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, A major winter storm hit the US midsection for the 2nd time in a week.
(SFC, 2/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 26, In Santa Cruz, Ca., police detectives Loran Baker (51) and Elizabeth Butler (38) were shot in a gunbattle with Jeremy Peter Goulet (35). Goulet was killed as police converged on the scene.
(SFC, 2/27/13, p.A7)(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A12)
2013 Feb 26, In Mississippi the body of Marco McMillian (34), a mayoral candidate in Clarksdale, was found beaten and burned. Lawrence Reed (22) was later charged with the murder.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/bacbhaw)
2013 Feb 26, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents reportedly poisoned, then shot and killed 17 people as they slept at a local police post in Ghazni province.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Dubai the 72-storey Marriott Marquis Dubai hotel officially opened setting a world record of tallest hotel at 1,009 feet.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 26, In Egypt a hot air balloon flying over the ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field, killing at least 19 foreign tourists. The pilot, who sustained severe burns, and a British tourist were the only survivors.
(AP, 2/26/13)(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Feb 26, Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Office (Nebih) horse meat labeled as beef has been sold in the country.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Mali a suicide car bombing killed six government allies in the northern city of Kidal. The French confirmed that they are engaged in heavy fighting in northern Mali.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Mexico Elba Esther Gordillo (68), leader of the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, was arrested afternoon as she landed at the Toluca airport near Mexico City on a private flight from San Diego. She was accused of embezzling millions in funds from her teachers' union to pay for property, private planes, plastic surgery and her Neiman Marcus bill.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, The Hague Appeals Court ruled that a 2005 law, which makes it mandatory for all people older than 14 to carry ID cards and show them to police upon request, does not have a religious exemption.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style to the isolated Communist country with possibly the world's drabbest dress code: North Korea. Rodman was joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team for a Vice Media production to air on HBO in early April.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In northwestern Pakistan gunmen shot and killed a police officer who was protecting a team of polio workers during a UN-backed vaccination campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel for the first time in three months. It landed south of Ashkelon with some damage to a road.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, Puerto Rico's Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla approved turning over the operations of the country’s largest airport to a private company as part of an estimated $2.6 billion deal that began under his predecessor and has been fiercely protested.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, A South African study was released showing that donkey, water buffalo and other unconventional ingredients have been found in almost two thirds of hamburgers and sausages tested in South Africa.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In South Africa Mido Macia (27), a taxi driver from Mozambique, was bound and dragged behind a police vehicle in the Daveyton township east of Johannesburg. The scene was captured on video. He was found dead in a cell hours later by another policeman. On Feb 28 eight police officers were charged with murder. On July, 2014, the eight officers, on bail on charges of murder, were sacked. In November, 2015, the eight former officers were each sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 2/28/13)(AP, 3/1/13)(AFP, 7/4/14)(AP, 11/11/15)
2013 Feb 26, Human Rights Watch said Sri Lankan security forces continue to use torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against suspected members of the Tamil Tiger rebels and their supporters, nearly four years after the end of the country's civil war. The military denied the allegations.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Syria combat raged near the historic Ummayad Mosque in Aleppo while anti-government activists reported fresh clashes near a police academy west of the city. The Observatory said the dead in the last two days of fighting in the area included 26 rebel fighters, 40 soldiers and five pro-government militiamen.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, The party of Zimbabwe's PM Morgan Tsvangirai said that violence against its supporters is increasing as political tensions rise before upcoming elections.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 27, The US Senate confirmed Jacob J. Lew (57) as treasury secretary.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 27, In California former Contra Costa fire captain Jon Wilmot (51) of Alamo was charged with receiving stolen property, embezzlement, possession of an assault weapon and commercial burglary.
(SFC, 3/1/13, p.D3)
2013 Feb 27, Pianist Van Cliburn (b.1934) died at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He won the 1958 Tchaikovsky Intl. Competition in Moscow and became an overnight sensation.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.D5)
2013 Feb 27, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber slid under a bus full of Afghan soldiers and blew himself up in Kabul, wounding 10.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Australia's highest court narrowly rejected the case of two Muslim activists who argued they had a constitutional free-speech right to send offensive letters to families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Brazilian police said Father Emilson Soares Correa, a Roman Catholic priest, is being investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of three young girls in his parish in Niteroi, a city across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, British health officials said gonorrhea cases have soared by 25 percent in the past year in England as superbug or drug-resistant strains of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) take hold worldwide.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, China’s state news announced the arrests of 5 Tibetans accused of inciting a series of self-immolations late last year.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 27, In CongoDRC the M23 divided into two groups over disagreements on negotiations with the Congolese government. The splinter group is lead by the M23 president Jean-Marie Runiga and Gen. Baudoin Ngaruye. The new group is reported to be aligned with warlord Bosco Ntaganda.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 27, Egyptian authorities confiscated two pick-up trucks carrying 60 anti-tank missiles smuggled across the border from Libya.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Greece Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, the former mayor of Thessaloniki, was sentenced to life i8n prison along with 12 top aides after being found guilty of embezzling almost $23.5 million in state funds.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 27, Guinean security forces fired tear gas at protests that turned violent after opposition marchers started throwing stones in Conakry. The opposition said that it has withdrawn from the upcoming legislative election set for May 12 because the opposition is unhappy with preparations for the election.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In India a fire broke out at an illegal six-story plastics market in Kolkata, killing at least 19 people.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top official at diplomatic talks, said negotiations in Kazakhstan with world powers over how to curb Iran's nuclear program have reached a "turning point" for the better at the close of two days of discussions aimed at preventing Tehran from building an atomic arsenal.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, An Iraqi plane landed in Kuwait for the first time since Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of the tiny emirate.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Ireland Ali Charaf Damache (47) was arrested while leaving a courthouse in Waterford. He had just walked free from the court, after three years in prison when detectives acting on an American extradition warrant rearrested and escorted him, handcuffed, to an unmarked police car. The FBI and US Justice Department accuse Damache of being the ringleader behind an unrealized 2009 conspiracy to target artist Lars Vilks in Sweden over his series of drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, A Jordanian official said there is a new surge in Syrians fleeing across the border to Jordan as fighting intensifies in southern Syria.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Kenya police said 32 people have died after the bus they were travelling in rolled in the Tulimani area.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In New Zealand Adam Strange, a 46-year-old television and short film director, was killed by a shark off Muriwai Beach near Auckland.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Nigeria foreigners working for a construction company escaped a kidnapping attempt that killed 2 police officers in Taraba state.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 27, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited Tehran where he worked to finalize a gas pipeline deal with Iran that is being opposed by the United States.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Pakistan gunmen shot and killed a news reporter in Miran Shah, North Waziristan.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In the Philippines Pres. Benigno Aquino III warned Jamalul Kiram III, the Sultan of Sulu, that he would face the full force of the law unless he withdrew his armed followers from Sabah, Malaysia.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 27, Slovenia’s Parliament ousted PM Janez Jansa and his conservative government. The 55-33 no-confidence vote named Alenka Bratusek (42) as prime minister designate.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 27, In Switzerland a longtime employee (42) opened fire at a wood-processing company in Menznau, leaving 3 people dead, including the assailant.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Syrian rebels clashed with government forces on two sides of Aleppo as well as near its historic mosque. At least six rebels were killed in fighting near a police academy west of the city
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 28, US Army Pvt. Bradley Manning (25), accused of providing secret documents to the WikiLeaks website, pleaded guilty to misusing classified material he felt "should become public," but denied the top charge of aiding the enemy.
(Reuters, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, International Rivers, a Berkeley-based nonprofit, won a MacArthur Foundation prize worth $750,000 for its work opposing dams and helping countries and corporations around the world find alternative energy sources.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.C1)
2013 Feb 28, Donald A. Glaser (b.1926), UC Berkeley physicist and inventor of the bubble chamber, died in Berkeley. In 1960 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A1)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.C6)
2013 Feb 28, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded control of clandestine Afghan armed groups that are linked to US-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units. A roadside bomb in Kunar province killed nine people, mostly border policemen. Two brothers, 11 and 12, were killed with their 2 donkeys when a coalition helicopter fired at what they thought were insurgent forces in the Shahid-e Hasas district of Uruzgan province.
(AP, 2/28/13)(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 28, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced Delwar Hossain Sayedee (73), a leader of an Islamic political party, to death for crimes during the nation's 1971 war for independence. The decision sparked violent protests that left at least 67 people dead across the nation. Jamaat-e-Islami enforced a nationwide general strike to denounce the trial and demand that Sayedee be freed from detention. On Sep 17, 2014, the sentence was commuted to life in prison.
(AP, 2/28/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.49)(AP, 9/17/14)
2013 Feb 28, Bruce Reynolds (81), the mastermind of the 1963 "Great Train Robbery" in Britain that brought its perpetrators cash, incarceration and pop-culture fame, died.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, China's military said that overseas computer hackers targeted two of its websites an average of 144,000 times per month last year, with almost two-thirds of the attacks originating in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In CongoDRC a spokesperson of the M23 said General Sultani Makenga has dismissed Jean-Marie Runiga, the president of the M23 rebel group, over accusations that he is supporting Bosco Ntaganda, a wanted war criminal.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Egypt dozens of Muslim residents threw firebombs and rocks at police as they tried to storm a church in southern Egypt in search of a woman suspected of converting to Christianity in the town of Kom Ombo. Tensions rose after a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who has been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside the church with a female Christian friend. The woman was reported found on Feb 2 and police said that "family and social reasons," not religion, were behind her disappearance, and that she had not converted.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Guinea a protester was killed in Conakry as the capital was rocked by a 2nd day of anti-government demonstrations in which more than 100 people were injured.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Iraq a car bomb tore a crowded livestock market in the town of Aziziyah, killing three and wounding eight people.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Iraq a one-story boat moored to the shore of the Tigris River as part of the popular Lebanese Club restaurant complex, sank leaving 8 people dead in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was captured by the FBI in Jordan as he was being deported to Kuwait from Turkey. On March 9 he pleaded not guilty in federal court in NY to conspiring to kill Americans.
(SFC, 2/9/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 28, In Nigeria several bombs exploded in Maiduguri, which is hosting a meeting of opposition political parties.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong Un on the third day of his improbable journey to Pyongyang, telling the leader "You have a friend for life."
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, Syrian rebels clashed with government forces around the historic 12th century Umayyad Mosque inside Aleppo. The US pledged an additional $60 million in assistance and — in a significant policy shift — will for the first time provide nonlethal aid like food and medical supplies.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, Thailand's government signed a breakthrough deal with Muslim insurgents for the first time ever, agreeing to hold talks to ease nearly a decade of violence in the country's southern provinces that has killed more than 5,000 people. The agreement was announced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between Thai authorities and the militant National Revolution Front.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, A Turkish news agency said police have detained 11 people suspected of al-Qaida links and seized 25 kg (55 pounds) of plastic explosives. Police reportedly found charts and photographs of the US Consulate, a synagogue and a church in Istanbul.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, UN appeals judges at The Hague, Netherlands, acquitted Gen. Momcilo Perisic of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebel Serbs, including the Srebrenica massacre, by providing them with military aid during the Balkan wars (1992-1995). He had been sentenced to 27 years in 2011, after being convicted of crimes including murder, inhumane acts and persecution.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life while he continues to undergo treatment more than two months after his latest cancer surgery.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Yemen tens of thousands held mass rallies in Sanaa and across the country calling for the prosecution of ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is under pressure to leave the country for allegedly hindering democratic transition.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb, A couple in northern California discovered 1427 US gold coins, dating from 1847-1894, in rusty cans on their property. The Saddle Ridge Horde was later valued at $10 million. State and federal taxes would apply to their find. Face value of the coins was $27,980. On May 27, 2014, an exhibit and auction of some coins was held at the Old Mint of SF with proceeds going to a city and money museum at the mint.
(SFC, 2/26/14, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/14, p.C1)(SFC, 5/27/14, p.A9)
2013 Feb, China launched a crackdown aimed at cleaning up tits thriving, but dirty, recycling industry.
(SFC, 10/4/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb, Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament voted to scrap its existing contract with Canada’s Centerra Gold, operator of the Kumtor mine. This mine accounts for as much as 12% of the country’s GDP and half of its exports, while contributing nearly a tenth of the national budget.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.42)
2013 Feb, The Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court voted to keep secret the salaries of MPs.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.42)
2013 Feb, Malaysian restaurant manager Riduan Masmud (40) was charged with committing statutory rape with a girl (13) in a parked car in Borneo. He later defended his actions by saying he has married the girl.
(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 Mar 1, Pres. Obama signed an order that started putting mandatory spending cuts (the sequester) into effect. The sequester was originally designed to slice $1.2 trillion from spending over a decade.
(Reuters, 3/2/13)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.27)
2013 Mar 1, The SpaceX commercial craft ran into thruster trouble shortly after liftoff. The Dragon capsule bound at the Int’l. Space Station arrived on March 3 delivering a ton of supplies.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A4)(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 1, In Santa Clara County, Ca., supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. (51) said he was resigning after prosecutors filed felony charges alleging he stole public money and nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions to finance a gambling habit.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.C1)
2013 Mar 1, In Seffner, Florida, a massive sinkhole swallowed Jeffrey Bush (37) as the hole opened under his bedroom. His body was never recovered Five others in the house were unharmed. In 2015 another sinkhole opened in the same location.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A4)(SFC, 8/20/15, p.A5)
2013 Mar 1, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez authorized a compromise offer of a new debt swap to comply with a $1.3 billion cash judgment to resolve debts unpaid for over a decade. A NY court ordered Argentina to explain how it would issue new bonds rather than comply with the order for cash payment.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 1, A senior Bahrain prosecutor said an appeals court has overturned the acquittal and sentenced the daughter of a jailed opposition leader to three months in prison. Zainab al-Khawaja was convicted of insulting a public employee.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Bangladesh protesters clashed for a 2nd day as the death toll rose to 44 in violence triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a top leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 1, Britain’s Food Standards Agency said traces of horse meat has been found in ground beef sold by Taco Bell, which has only three British outlets. Horse DNA also was found in Birds Eye spaghetti Bolognese and beef lasagna and spicy minced beef skewers from catering supplier Brakes.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Andrey Borodin (45), former head of Russia's fifth largest bank, told a Russian newspaper his application for asylum has been granted in Britain after an application by his lawyers on the grounds that he faced political persecution in Russia. Borodin fled Russia in March, 2011.
(Reuters, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Chadian President Idriss Deby announced that government troops fighting to dislodge an al-Qaida affiliate in northern Mali killed one of the group's leading commanders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid. On March 23 France confirmed Zeid’s death and said he was killed in operations in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali in late February.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 1, China’s State Council spelled out fresh curbs on property speculation, sending the housing market into a tizzy.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 1, China executed four foreigners for killing 13 Chinese sailors in an attack on the Mekong River on Oct 5, 2011, following a live nationwide broadcast showing them being led to their deaths.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Fighting erupted in eastern Congo between two factions of the M23 rebel group. An estimated 23 people died in the fighting, according to an officer with the main part of M23. The Congolese army entered Kiwanja, a town that was run by M23 rebels for more than six months. Doctors Without Borders said that more than 55 civilians have been killed in fighting in another town in Congo's east, Kitchanga, where 135 people have been wounded.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Egypt dozens of Muslim residents threw firebombs and rocks at police as they tried to storm a church in southern Egypt in search of a woman suspected of converting to Christianity in the town of Kom Ombo. Tensions rose after a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who has been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside the church with a female Christian friend a day earlier.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Iraq's Sunni Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi announced during a protest in the western city of Ramadi that he will resign from the government, heightening the country's political crisis. 2 car bombs struck a livestock market south of Baghdad, killing five and wounding dozens in Diawaniyah.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Israel Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Japan US Seaman Christopher Browning (24), of Athens, Texas, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker (23), of Muskogee, Oklahoma, were found guilty by the Naha District Court of raping and robbing a woman in her 20s in a parking lot in October. Both admitted committing the crime. Browning was sentenced to 10 years and Dozierwalker received nine years.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Ethnic Macedonians kicked off the protests in Skopje, angry at the appointment of an ethnic Albanian defense minister, a former rebel commander during the 2001 conflict that pitted the country's two main ethnic groups against each other.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 1, In eastern Malaysia 14 people were killed in a shootout as authorities tried to end a three-week standoff with about 200 members of a Filipino clan occupying a village in Sabah state.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, A Dutch court convicted Yvonne Basebya (66), a Rwandan-born Dutch woman, of inciting genocide in Rwanda's 1994 mass murders of ethnic Tutsis by members of the Hutu tribe — the first conviction of a Dutch citizen for the crime. She was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for her role.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Ending his unexpected round of basketball diplomacy in North Korea, ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman called leader Kim Jong Un an "awesome guy" and said his father and grandfather were "great leaders."
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In southwest Pakistan gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed reporter Mahmood Ahmed Afridi as he walked to a press club in the town of Kalat.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops during rallies across the West Bank in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners and against Israel's security barrier.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Ayman Abu-Sufian (40) a Palestinian man, died in Palestinian custody in the West Bank two days after being detained on assault charges. Authorities there launched an investigation.
(AP, 3/2/13)(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 1, In Poland Lech Walesa said in a television interview that he believes gays have no right to sit on the front benches in Parliament and, if represented at all, should sit in the back, "and even behind a wall."
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Somalia a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a seaside restaurant in Mogadishu, killing himself and one diner. A car bomb was also remotely detonated at the restaurant's gates.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, The Spanish government said it will challenge a recent declaration by lawmakers in Catalonia that the region is a sovereign entity.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, The chief of Syrian rebel forces said that his fighters are in "desperate" need of weapons and ammunition rather than the food supplies and bandages that the US now plans to provide. Government forces fought fierce clashes with rebels attacking a police academy near Aleppo, while the bodies of 10 men — most of them shot in the head — were found dumped along the side of a road outside Damascus. State news said that government troops defending the school had killed dozens of opposition fighters and destroyed five rebel vehicles.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 2, President Barack Obama pressed Congress to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis he said was starting to "inflict pain" on communities across the United States.
(Reuters, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Wyoming Ildiko Freitas (40) and her parents were killed by two intruders at her home in Cody. Stephen Hammer (19) and Tanner Vanpelt (18) were soon arrested and charged with murder and robbery.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, Bangladesh security forces killed two people and injured dozens as they clashed with demonstrators for a 3rd day in violence triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, Chad's military chief announced that his troops deployed in northern Mali had killed Moktar Belmoktar, the terrorist who orchestrated the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that left 36 foreigners dead.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that a massive sulfuric acid leak at a warehouse in Liaoning province has killed at least 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, In Egypt Hossam Eldin Abdullah Abdelazim, was killed when an armored police vehicle crushed him to death during clashes between protesters and police in Mansoura. A police car in Port Said hit five protesters along a main road and sped off. The violence came as US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Cairo talking with opposition figures ahead of his meeting with the president and defense minister on March 3.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, German property developer Maik Uwe Hinkel rejected calls to halt work to remove one of the last remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall, despite angry protests against the plan.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, A Libyan security official said 50 Egyptians, who were arrested in Benghazi last week for allegedly spreading Christianity, are being charged with illegally entering and working in the country and will be deported.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, Violent ethnic riots rattled Macedonia's capital, culminating with hundreds raging through the city center, clashing with police, overturning cars and attacking a bus station. At least 22 people were injured, 13 of them police officers.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Malaysia gunmen ambushed and killed six policemen as fears mounted that armed intruders from the southern Philippines had slipped into at least three coastal districts on Borneo island. 6 gunmen were also killed in the fighting.
(AP, 3/3/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.51)
2013 Mar 2, In Mali a French soldier died in an assault on jihadists in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains along the Algerian border. About 15 jihadists were reported killed in the fighting in the Ametettai Valley.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Nigeria Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, denied in a newly released video any peace talks with the government.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 2, The Syrian Army's General Command said its troops have carried out special operations in towns and villages along a road between Hama and Aleppo’s airport, restoring stability there and at the airport.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Afghan insurgents attacked a supply convoy and killed one soldier in Badakhshan province. 23 other soldiers were captured. 6 of the soldiers were released following negotiations, but 16 others were executed.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 3, Bangladesh authorities deployed soldiers in a northern district after Islamic party activists clashed with police, leaving five people dead during a nationwide general strike called to denounce war crimes trials.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, The Congolese military said it has given control of two key eastern towns back to the M23 rebel group to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing peace process.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Cairo, Egypt, US Secretary of State John Kerry rewarded Egypt for President Mohammed Morsi's pledges of political and economic reforms by releasing $250 million in American aid to support the country's "future as a democracy."
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Port Said, Egypt, fighting throughout the day killed two policemen and three civilians as protesters pelted police forces with rocks and fire bombs and the force responded with tear gas, and birdshots.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 3, Iran's nuclear chief said his country has produced more than 3,000 advanced centrifuges which are used to enrich uranium.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In central Iraq 3 separate attacks in Shiite-dominated areas killed at least four people and wounded 14.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Japan heavy snow over the weekend killed eight people on Hokkaido island, including a family whose car became buried.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 3, Mexico's ruling party changed its platform to allow for private investment in the oil industry, paving the way for a possible overhaul of a state-owned company that is seen as a pillar of the nation.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Mexico gunmen killed journalist Jaime Gonzalez (38) in Ojinaga, a border town across from Texas. He was founder and director of Ojinaga Noticias, a website mostly dedicated to community news.
(SFC, 3/5/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/a7n6qgf)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Nigeria fighters linked to the radical Islamic terrorist network Boko Haram attacked a military base, killing at least 20 people in Monguno. A military spokesman said that 20 "Boko Haram terrorists" were killed, without acknowledging that at least one civilian had been killed.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Pakistan a bomb blast killed 48 people, including many women and children outside a Shiite mosque in Karachi.
(AP, 3/3/13)(AP, 3/4/13)(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 3, The West Bank Palestinian finance minister Nabil Qassis announced his resignation in a show of frustration over the government's widening budget deficit. Qassis told reporters that the Palestinian Authority's 2013 budget deficit is expected to reach $1.4 billion.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, Russian authorities said six teenagers are trapped in an avalanche in the region of Tuva in southern Siberia.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior, apologized for his actions a d recused himself from the conclave to select a new pope.
(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 3, In Senegal 9 children, aged 7-12, died in a fire in a Quranic school.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 3, Syrian activists said more than 200 Syrian soldiers and opposition fighters have died in the eight-day battle for a police academy near Aleppo. Rebels stormed a central prison in the northern city of Raqqa and captured a border crossing in the east along Syria's border with Iraq. Opposition fighters killed 115 police and wounded another 50 in a battle over the police academy.
(AP, 3/3/13)(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 3, Swiss citizens voted on a plan, the “Rip-Off Initiative," to boost shareholders’ authority over executive pay. 68% voted in favor. The plan became effective in 2015.
(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.64)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.65)
2013 Mar 3, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra vowed for the first time to work toward ending her country's trade in ivory, but gave no timeline for implementing a ban. Conservationists warned that the unprecedented slaughter of elephants in Africa would continue until she does.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Venezuela hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Caracas demanding the government provide details about the health of Pres. Hugo Chavez.
(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 3, In Venezuela Sabino Romero, a leader of the Yukpa tribe, was fatally shot along a highway in the western state of Zulia.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Florida a jury in Miami convicted Muslim cleric Hafiz Khan (77) of funneling thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban.
(SFC, 3/5/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 4, Cambodian translators angry that they have gone without pay for three months stopped working at the UN-backed genocide trial of former Khmer Rogue leaders, a new setback for an international justice effort that has been hobbled by conflicts with the Cambodian government.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In CongoDRC a plane crash in the center of the eastern city of Goma killed seven people and injured three.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, Lawmakers at the Czech parliament's upper house decided to press high treason charges against outgoing president Vaclav Klaus over his controversial amnesty, which halted court proceedings in several high-profile fraud cases and financial scams.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Germany Berlin’s mayor said that he would try to ensure that one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall is preserved. After facing protests, a real estate developer put on hold until at least mid-March plans to remove a section of the wall.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Greece former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos was sentenced to 8 years in prison for concealing assets.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 4, In India Irom Sharmila (40) was charged with attempted suicide. She has been on a 12-year hunger strike — and force fed through a tube by authorities — to protest an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Iraq a suicide attacker drove a car laden with explosives into a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing five policemen and wounding 12 other people.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Israel launched a pair of "Palestinian-only" bus lines in the West Bank. It was presented by the government as a goodwill gesture, assailed by critics as racism and welcomed by Palestinian riders.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Israel's Agriculture Ministry set up an emergency hotline as swarms of the destructive locusts descended on neighboring Egypt and asked Israelis to be vigilant in reporting sightings to prevent an outbreak.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Kenyans waited in long lines to vote in the nation's presidential election. A secessionist group in Mombasa launched multiple attacks which killed 19 people.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Mexico's Economy Department said that an agreement over trade in fresh tomatoes, proposed in early February, has been signed with US Department of Commerce officials.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Nigeria an attack by the radical Islamic extremist network Boko Haram killed eight people in Gwoza, Borno state.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said its Nigerian subsidiary lost some 150,000 barrels of oil a day over several days in late February after safety systems shut down its Nembe Creek Trunkline. Shell said the shutdowns came after thieves cut into the line.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Pakistan gunmen shot and killed two people returning from a funeral for Shiite Muslim victims of a massive bombing in Karachi.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, South Sudan troops killed 28 fighters led by the rebel leader David Yau Yau in the restive state of Jonglei. Ten soldiers were wounded in the fights.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 4, Syrian rebels pushed government troops from most of the northern city of Raqqa. Rebels launched an offensive to seize the military air base of Mannagh near the Turkish border and clashed with government forces at a historic mosque in Aleppo. Gunmen killed 48 Syrian soldiers who had crossed into Iraq for refuge. 9 Iraqi soldiers were also killed. Iraqi officials blamed the attack on al-Qaida's Iraq arm. On March 11 Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/4/13)(AP, 3/5/13)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Yemen a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled vehicle at a pro-government militia headquarters, killing 12 people and wounding 17 in Lawder, Abyan province.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 5, The Pan-STARRS comet passed within 100 million miles of Earth, its closest approach in its first-ever cruise through the inner solar system.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The United States and China reached a deal that "significantly expands" UN sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed threat by Pyongyang to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The DJIA passed its previous all-time high of 14,164.53 and closed at 14,253.77.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 5, In Las Vegas Xiao Ye Bai (26), convicted of being an enforcer for a Taiwan-based criminal gang, was sentenced to life in a Nevada prison without parole for murder in a bloody stabbing and slashing that left Wen Jun Li dead and two people wounded in a Las Vegas karaoke bar in July 2009.
(AP, 3/5/13)(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 5, The San Francisco Bay Bridge lit up with 25,000 LED lights in the debut of Leo Villareal’s $8 million “Bay Lights" installation. The 1.8 mile light show will continue for 2 years.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A1)(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 5, An Afghan tribunal sentenced two top executives of Kabul Bank, Sherkhan Farnood and Khalilullah Ferozi, to 5 years in prison for misappropriating a combined $808 million. They were among 21 Kabul Bank and government employees found guilty of wrongdoing.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 5, Frozen food maker Birds Eye said horse meat DNA found in two of its products came from an Irish meat processor that is part of one of Ireland's largest agricultural businesses. The company said investigations had found its Belgian supplier Frigilunch NV had unknowingly sourced meat with horse DNA from Irish meat processor QK Meats.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Britain stood isolated against a broad majority of European Union countries in refusing to back legislation that would strictly limit bankers' bonuses.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Stealth action game "Dishonored," featuring a masked bodyguard-turned-assassin, was named best video game of the year at an award ceremony in London.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In China the National People’s Congress opened for a 12-day session. Premier Wen Jiabao and Pres. Hu Jintao will stand down at the end for incoming Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping. China's government pledged to repair the country's ravaged environment and boost public services under its new leadership, an acknowledgment that quality of life was sidelined during the outgoing administration's decade of breakneck economic growth.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In Ecuador a Huaorani couple, including village leader Ompure, died in a spearing attack. A revenge attack by a Huaorani war party later killed a number of people at the settlement of Taromenane.
(SFC, 4/4/13, p.A2)(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 5, In Egypt a Cairo court convicted a police sniper for attacks on anti-government protesters and sentenced him to three years in prison. Police officer Mahmoud el-Shenawi became known as the "eye sniper" after he was shown in footage on social networking sites allegedly firing at protesters in the Egyptian capital and aiming for their eyes.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, EU finance ministers decided that European bankers’ bonuses should be capped at a meximum of one times their base salary, rising to two times if shareholders explicitly agree.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.72)
2013 Mar 5, In Iraq a local leader of anti-al-Qaida militiamen was shot dead in western Baghdad, one of four people killed in violence in the city.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In Kenya the electronic transmission system meant to collate voting results broke down a day after the elections.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.44)
2013 Mar 5, Madagascar police said two protesters were killed in a riot at a prison in Mandritsara holding the alleged killers of French nun Sister Marie Emmanuelle Helesbeux. Her body was found in the Mandritsara marketplace on March 2.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Malaysia unleashed airstrikes and mortar attacks on nearly 200 Filipinos occupying a Borneo coastal village but could not declare an immediate end to a three-week siege that has turned into a security nightmare for both Malaysia and the Philippines.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Syrian rebels battled pockets of regime loyalists in the northern city of Raqqa after capturing Hassan Jalili, the governor of Raqqa province in fierce clashes overnight. Syrian jets bombed opposition-held buildings in Raqqa. Activists said 16 people were killed in Raqqa, including 10 fighters who died in clashes with troops.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, A UN aid agency canceled the Gaza marathon after the Palestinian territory's militant Hamas rulers banned women from participating in the annual sporting event.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Venezuela’s government announced the death of President Hugo Chavez (b.1954), the larger-than-life firebrand socialist who led the nation for 14 years. Vice President Nicolas Maduro stood as interim president in the wake of Chavez's death and will run as the governing party candidate in elections to be called within 30 days.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In Zimbabwe a man escaped from a lion attack on the shores of Lake Kariba, but the woman with him was savaged to death. An arm and remains of a second corpse were found by rangers hunting for the lions.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, Arkansas adopted the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion, at 12 weeks of pregnancy. Democrat Gov. Mike Beebe called it “blatantly unconstitutional."
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 6, In California a lion attacked and killed Dianna Hanson (24), a sanctuary worker at Project Survival’s Cat Haven in Dunlap.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A1)(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 6, Ohio executed Frederick Treesh for the fatal shooting of a bookstore security guard in 1994. He was pronounced dead after a single powerful dose of pentobarbital.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 6, Britain said it will provide armored vehicles, body armor and search-and-rescue equipment to Syria's opposition, but was still stopping short of arming the country's rebels.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, British travel firm Thomas Cook said it would cut 2,500 UK jobs and close 195 stores in Britain as the euro crisis, high fuel costs and unrest in key destinations like Egypt and Greece take their toll on the holiday business.
(Reuters, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, An Egyptian administrative court ordered the suspension of parliamentary elections scheduled to begin next month, throwing the country's politics deeper into confusion. In Port Said military police deployed around a government complex where demonstrators have been camped out for weeks.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, An Egyptian court convicted Ahmed Ezz, a Mubarak-era steel magnate, of profiteering and squandering public funds. He was sentenced to 37 years in prison and fined $296 million. Ezz was already serving a 17-year sentence for graft and money laundering.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 6, Iranian authorities blocked many foreign-based virtual private networks, or VPNs, severely restricting access to many websites.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 6, Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church enthroned a new patriarch during a ceremonial mass that was held amid tight security in Baghdad. Louis Sako (64) replaced Emmanuel III Delly, who has retired.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, Malaysian security forces battled a group of Filipino intruders in the rugged terrain of Borneo after they escaped a military assault with fighter jets and mortar fire on their hideout. One Filipino was shot and believed killed.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, In eastern Mali French and Malian forces clashed with jihadists leaving a French soldier and some 10 insurgents dead. Boukary Daou, the editor-in-chief of Mali’s The Republican newspaper was arrested. His arrest came soon after his newspaper published a letter from an army officer denouncing coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo's recently-decreed salary of $8,000 per month, a very high salary in the impoverished country.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 6, In South Africa Dirk Coetzee (57), a former commander of the Vlakplaas covert police unit in apartheid-era South Africa, died of kidney failure. Coetzee had fled South Africa in 1989. He pledged allegiance to the ANC, returned in 1993 and was a witness at the trial of former police Col. Eugene de Kock. In testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Coetzee confessed to plotting the 1981 murder of attorney Griffiths Mxenge.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 6, In Spain Alvin Lee (b.1944), British virtuoso rock guitarist, died following complications from routine surgery. He as a member of the band Ten Years After, which burst onto the US music scene following their 1969 Woodstock performance.
(SFC, 3/8/13, p.D5)
2013 Mar 6, Syrian rebels detained 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers in the area in another destabilizing twist to the country's two-year-old conflict. The number of Syrian refugees topped 1 million, half of them children. Gunmen raided a Christian village near Homs, robbing houses and shops, saying they were looking for weapons.
(AP, 3/6/13)(AP, 3/7/13)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 7, A US federal judge ruled unconstitutional a 2011 Idaho law that prohibited abortions after 20 weeks.
(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 7, In Bangladesh over 100 people were reported killed over the last 3 days by law enforcement agencies under the pretext of controlling violence.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.49)
2013 Mar 7, British stock market trader Paul Milsom was sentenced to two years in jail, the first sentence to come out of the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) biggest investigation into insider dealing. Milsom, who was a senior equities trader at the investment arm of life insurer Legal & General, was also ordered to pay 245,000 pounds, the total profit he made from insider trading.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Gogglebox, a British reality show, began airing on Channel 4. The show featured recurring couples, families and friends from around Britain sitting in their homes watching weekly British television shows.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogglebox)
2013 Mar 7, Coalfield Resources said Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire, Britain's largest coal mine, will close permanently with the loss of at least 550 jobs due to a fire that has burned ferociously for two weeks.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Chinese officials castigated the Tibetan Kirti monastery, at the center of a wave of self-immolations, saying it has been inciting the fiery protests. They also indicated that authorities will not relax controls over the region.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Egyptian policemen protested for a 4th day in several cities across the country, refusing orders to work and accusing officials of trying to politicize the force.
(AP, 3/7/13)(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 7, Iraq's parliament approved a $118.6 billion national budget after months of wrangling over how much should be allocated to foreign oil companies working in the country's self-ruled northern Kurdish region. Police and health officials said six people were killed and 10 others were wounded in attacks across Iraq.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, A Milan court convicted former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of breach of confidentiality for the illegal publication of wiretapped conversations related to a failed bank takeover in a newspaper owned by his media empire. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, was convicted of the same charge and sentenced to two years and three months.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Kuwait government-affiliated newspapers reported that activists Sager al-Hashash and Naser al-Daihani were sentenced to two years and one year for Twitter posts offensive to the country's ruler.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Dozens of Libyan militiamen stormed the headquarters of a private TV network in Tripoli, looting and smashing equipment before abducting staffers. News editor Sulieman Abu-Azza suspected the attack could have been carried out in retaliation to the network's heavy criticism of the unruly militia and its coverage of assaults against the country's National General Congress.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Malaysian security forces gunned down 31 Filipino intruders in Borneo, the highest number of casualties in a single day since nearly 200 members of a Philippine Muslim clan took over an entire village last month. At least 60 people, including 8 Malaysian police officers, have been killed in the conflict.
(AP, 3/7/13)(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 7, A South African police officer allegedly dragged a man from a police vehicle in the second such incident in recent weeks. The officer was later arrested.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 7, Clashes flared between Syrian troops and rebels close to Israeli-controlled territory in the Golan Heights.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, The UN Security Council voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test. North Korea’s Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told a crowd of tens of thousands that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Venezuela's acting head of state, VP Nicolas Maduro, said that Hugo Chavez's body would be forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 7, Zimbabwe wildlife rangers caught put down three lions that killed two people near a suburb in the northern resort town of Kariba. A lioness and two "sub-adult" cubs between two and three years old were baited into traps and given lethal injections using darts.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, A commercial Beechcraft 1900 cargo plane crashed in southwestern Alaska. The bodies of the pilot Jeff Day (38) and co-pilot Neil Jensen (20) were found the next day.
(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 8, In southern California a gunmen killed 2 people, opened fire on police and holed himself up in a home in the Watts neighborhood of Las Angeles before killing himself in what began as a domestic dispute.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 8, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a bill that will allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 8, In eastern Afghanistan 3 men wearing Afghan army uniforms and driving an Afghan army vehicle forced their way onto a US base midday and opened fire, killing a civilian contractor and wounding other US troops in Kapisa province. Afghan police said 5 officers were killed by homemade bombs while carrying out a poppy eradicating campaign in Farah province. 4 Taliban were killed in the ensuing firefight.
(AP, 3/8/13)(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 8, In Argentina former Pres. Carlos Menem (82) and 11 others were found guilty by an appeals court of smuggling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia in violations of int’l. embargoes in the 1990s. Menem had been acquitted in 2011.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 8, British police in London arrested Muslim cleric Abu Qatada (52), who has been described as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe, following a series of raids by counterterrorism police, three days before the government's latest court bid to extradite him to Jordan.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 8, Egypt's police forces withdrew from the streets of Port Said on the Suez Canal, handing over security to the military after nearly a week of deadly clashes that have killed 8 people, including 2 security officials.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Germany Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist (b.1922), the last surviving member of a group of officers who tried and failed to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, died in Munich.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 8, Iraqi Agricultural Minister Izzeddin al-Dolah announced his resignation after police opened fire on Sunni demonstrators in Mosul, killing one protester and wounding 5 others.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 8, Israeli police entered a hilltop site in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, to disperse hundreds of Palestinians who were throwing rocks.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Kenya the latest vote tally by the election commission showed Uhuru Kenyatta with 50.5 percent of the vote. The Kenyatta family reportedly owned half a million acres, according to the Kenya Land Alliance pressure group, along with interests in banking, property, hotels, an airline and a TV network.
(AP, 3/8/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.50)
2013 Mar 8, In Northern Ireland 5 police officers were injured in the worst rioting for weeks in Belfast in a dispute over the flying of Irish flags near a predominantly pro-British area.
(Reuters, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Senegal two members of the construction crew were killed when an apartment complex collapsed in Dakar. The four-story building was only permitted to be half as tall.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 8, In South Africa statistics say someone gets raped every four minutes. A woman is also killed by an intimate partner every eight hours, a probable underestimate because no perpetrator is identified in 20 percent of killings.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, Tunisia's ruling party nominated several respected figures not aligned with political parties for key Cabinet posts, concessions to the opposition it hopes will defuse the country's political crisis.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Venezuela a state funeral was held for Hugo Chavez followed by a swearing in ceremony for Vice President Nicolas Maduro as interim president.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 9, An asteroid as big as a city block shot relatively close by the Earth. Discovered just six days ago, the 460-foot long (140m) Asteroid 2013 ET passed about 600,000 miles from Earth.
(Reuters, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, In Kentucky 2 adults and 5 children were killed in a house fire in Gray, Knox County.
(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 9, In Renton, Washington, Robert Taylor (82) and his wife Norma (80) were killed in an overnight attack. Michael Boysen (26), their grandson recently released from prison, was suspected of their murder. Boysen was captured with a self-inflicted cut in a hotel room on March 12.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 9, In Afghanistan militants staged two suicide attacks that killed at least 19 people in Kabul an d Khost city on the first full day of US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, An Egyptian court confirmed the death sentences against 21 people for taking part in a Feb, 2012, deadly soccer riot but acquitted 7 police officials for their alleged role in the violence. Suspected fans enraged by the verdict torched the soccer federation headquarters and a police club in Cairo in protest. In unrelated violence, at least 2 protesters were killed in clashes between riot police and demonstrators throwing stones on a Nile-side street in central Cairo.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, Max Jakobson (89), a former Finnish diplomat, died. He helped shape his country's policy of neutrality during the Cold War.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 9, In Japan thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, Jordan's parliament voted for the monarchy's caretaker prime minister to form a new Cabinet, the first time in the country's history that the legislature rather than the king has decided who will be head of government. Abdullah Ensour, a former liberal lawmaker, was elected.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, Kenya's election commission named Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the country's presidential election with 50.07%. Opponent, PM Raila Odinga, refused defeat and alleged multiple failures in the vote saying Kenya's democracy was on trial.
(AP, 3/9/13)(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 9, Malaysia police said they have detained 79 suspects linked to the Filipino intruders in Borneo.
(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 9, In Myanmar the opposition National League for Democracy, founded in 1988, began its first ever national congress.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.41)
2013 Mar 9, Ansaru, a breakaway Islamic extremist group in Nigeria, said it killed 7 foreigners who its members kidnapped from northern Nigeria on Feb 16. Those kidnapped included three Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece, Italy and the Philippines — all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, North Korea formally rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands an end to its nuclear arms program, as China called for calm, saying sanctions were not the "fundamental" way to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, In eastern Pakistan hundreds of people in Lahore ransacked a Christian neighborhood and torched dozens of homes after hearing reports that a Christian man had committed blasphemy against Islam's prophet. In 2017 a court acquitted 155 people who were accused of torching homes in the Christian neighborhood. A bomb exploded in a Sunni mosque in the northwest, killing at least four people and wounding more than 25 others in Peshawar.
(AP, 3/9/13)(AP, 1/29/17)
2013 Mar 9, Syrian rebels released 21 UN Filipino peacekeepers, captured on March 6, and handed them to Jordanian authorities. Government airstrikes killed at least 14 people in the northern province of Raqqa. Gunmen kidnapped and killed a mediator's son, Kifah Bitar, and another man, Rony Elias, in a Christian village near Homs.
(AP, 3/9/13)(AP, 3/10/13)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, In Middlefield, Ohio, James Gilkerson (42) exited his parked car and then fired 37 AK-47 shots at the officers and their patrol car. Officers Erin Thomas and Brandon Savage returned fire, killing Gilkerson.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8koHqEEPo)(http://tinyurl.com/cztx3kd)
2013 Mar 10, In Warren, Ohio, a stolen SUV with 8 teenagers flipped over into a pond, killing six of them.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, Virginia authorities reported a string of arson fires in Accomack county that have torched 64 unoccupied structures since Nov 12, with 7 burned in the past week.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 10, Bahamas’ environmental minister said offshore oil exploration will be allowed.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, China announced plans to streamline government ministries, doing away with the powerful Railways Ministry and creating a super-agency to regulate the media and realigning other bureaucracies in a bid to boost efficiency. Plans included the merger of the family planning bureaucracy with the health ministry to form a new Health and Family Planning Commission.
(AP, 3/10/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 10, Egypt's top prosecutor encouraged citizens to arrest anyone breaking the law or committing a crime. This stoked fears of vigilante groups taking over police duties at a time of growing tension and lawlessness.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said a man suspected of trying to spread Christianity in Libya has died in prison there. The diplomat said Ezzat Atallah, who suffered from diabetes and heart ailments, likely died of natural causes.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, Falkland Islanders began voting in a 2-day referendum on their political status as the government mobilized a major effort to get as many of its 1,650 registered voters as possible.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, In Germany an early-morning fire at an apartment building left 8 people dead, 7 of them children in Backnang, a town near Stuttgart.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, In Iraq gunmen shot and killed Bunyan Sabar al-Obeidi, a spokesman for the Sunni protesters in Kirkuk, as he was driving his car in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, Malta’s PM Lawrence Gonzi of the Nationalist Party conceded defeat as ballots were still being counted in the island nation and eurozone member. Labor leader Joseph Muscat will be sworn in as the new prime minister on March 11. Muscat swept to office with an implausible pledge to cut the island’s sky-high energy tariffs by 25%.
(AP, 3/11/13)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.55)
2013 Mar 10, In Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi was selected to continue as head of the main opposition party, keeping her leadership post even as the party undergoes a makeover to adjust to the country's new democratic framework.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, In eastern and southern Pakistan hundreds of Christians protesting the burning of their homes by a Muslim mob over alleged blasphemous remarks made against the Islam's Prophet Muhammad clashed with police. A suspected US missile strike killed a foreign militant who was riding on horseback in Datta Khel in North Waziristan.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, Welsh-born Princess Lilian (b.1915) died in her Stockholm home. Lilian Davies met Sweden's Prince Bertil (d.1997) in 1943, but his obligations to the throne and her status as a divorced commoner prevented them from making their love public. In 1976 the new king finally gave them approval to marry.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles announced that he will run in elections to replace Hugo Chavez, launching what many consider a doomed candidacy with a no-holds-barred attack against a government he said had coldly betrayed Venezuelans' trust.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Clinton Foundation announced that grants for over $700,000 will go toward efforts in Haiti to plant trees, build a coffee farm and train farmers. Heineken NV announced that it would invest $40 million to expand a brewery and help farmers who supply it with sorghum.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 11, Detroit jurors convicted former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (42) on corruption charges, capping a five-month trial that exposed a brazen pay-to-play culture during his years in office while the distressed city lost jobs and people and veered toward insolvency.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg vowed to appeal a judge's ruling that struck down his pioneering ban on large sugary drinks sold by the city's restaurants, movie theaters and other food service businesses just a day before it was to take effect.
(Reuters, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, A US Naval A-6B Prowler crashed into a farm filed some miles outside of Spokane, Washington. All 3 crew members were killed.
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 11, In eastern Afghanistan a police officer opened fire on US and Afghan forces at a police headquarters, sparking a firefight that killed two US troops and two other Afghan policemen in Wardak province. The attacker was also killed in the shootout. In a second incident, outside Kabul, US troops fired on a truck approaching their military convoy, killing two Afghan men inside. A helicopter crash outside Kandahar city killed five American service members.
(AP, 3/11/13)(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 11, In Bahrain Yousef al-Muhafedha, acting president of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, was found not guilty of posting inaccurate news on Twitter about some anti-government protests.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The British government launched a campaign to promote London as a center for Islamic finance, seeking to counter growing competition from rising centers such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Sally Davies, Britain's top health official, said antibiotic resistance poses a catastrophic threat to medicine and could mean patients having minor surgery risk dying from infections that can no longer be treated.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, CAR rebels who signed a peace deal with the government two months ago, seized control of two towns in the southeast of Central African Republic, threatening to undo the country's fragile peace.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 11, In China Shanghai officials said the number of dumped adult and piglet carcasses retrieved had reached 2,813. The city government, citing monitoring authorities, said the drinking water quality has not been affected. Authorities have been pulling out swollen and rotting pigs since March 8. By March 21 the dead pig count reached over 16,000.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum. The official count showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favor of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day poll.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 11, Hungary’s parliament voted to amend the constitution, despite pleas from the European Commission that the amendments conflict with EU law.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.53)
2013 Mar 11, In India Ram Singh, who was accused of driving the bus during a December rape attack, was in a cell with three other inmates at Tihar Jail in New Delhi when he hanged himself either with his own clothes or a bed sheet.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, In northern Iraq a suicide attacker drove his explosives-laden car into a police station, killing five people in Dibis near Kirkuk. Attacks elsewhere in the country killed six more Iraqis.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Int’l. Criminal Court (ICC) dropped charges of crimes against humanity against Francis Muthaura, Kenya’s former public service chief, after a key witness recanted..
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, At least 10 former senior Malawian government officials, including Cabinet ministers, were arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to prevent then-Vice President Joyce Banda from assuming power following the death of the former president in April last year.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto moved to overhaul and strengthen the weak and chaotic regulations that have allowed Carlos slim, the world's richest man, and its largest Spanish-language media empire to exert near-total control of Mexico's lucrative telephone and television markets.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Zocalo newspaper in Mexico’s Coahuila state said it will no longer cover information related to drug cartels due to safety concerns for its workers and families.
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, North Korea’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported that the 60-year-old armistice that ended the Korean War was nullified today as Pyongyang had earlier announced it would.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The presidents of Iran and Pakistan marked the start of construction in Pakistan on a pipeline to bring Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.43)
2013 Mar 11, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed three Pakistani soldiers in in Dogar village in the Kurram tribal area near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Russian scientists said a new form of microbial life has been found in water samples taken from Lake Vostok, a giant freshwater lake hidden under kilometers of Antarctic ice.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Syrian forces fired heavy machine guns and launched at least one airstrike on a neighborhood in the central city of Homs. The UN Human Rights Council released a report that said neither government forces nor rebels were doing enough to protect civilians. Mortar shells struck a soccer stadium in a predominantly Christian neighborhood of Damascus killing 6 civilians.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, CITES conservationists in Bangkok voted to regulate the trade of shark species threatened because their fins are used for expensive delicacies in Asia.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, In Venezuela owners of Globovision, the last remaining television station critical of the government, announced that it is being sold to an insurance company owner who is apparently friendly with the ruling socialists, following an unrelenting official campaign to financially strangle the broadcaster through regulatory pressure.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, The US Food and Drug Administration warned that the popular antibiotic azithromycin, sold as Zithromax, can cause a potentially fatal irregular heart rhythm in some patients.
(Reuters, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, The Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a $10 million settlement with 4 men who said they were abused by former priest Michael Baker.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 12, NYC police officer Gilberto Valle (28) was convicted of conspiracy that opened a window on the Internet world of cannibalism fetishists.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 12, Afghan officials said counternarcotics teams have seized some 23 tons of heroin, morphine and other chemicals in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 12, Argentina’s last dictator and former president, Reynaldo Benito Bignone (85), received another life sentence in prison for human rights violations involving detainees at the Campo de Mayo military prison during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 12, In Azerbaijan a court Baku found Avaz Zeynalli, editor of the Khural newspaper, guilty of bribery, extortion, contempt of court and tax evasion. Supporters and rights group dismissed the trial as politically motivated. Charges against the editor were brought following complaints by a deputy in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. That deputy is now under arrest and suspected of extorting $1 million from a university rector.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Bangladesh police clashed with protesters as opposition leaders enforced a daylong, nation-wide strike to protest alleged police intimidation.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 12, Israeli troops shot to death Mahmoud Titi (25), a Palestinian man, after he and others hurled rocks and firebombs at them near Hebron in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, An Israeli Bell AH-1 Cobra military helicopter crashed during training, killing two pilots.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Libya’s top security official in Tripoli said 79 people have died over the past four days from drinking homemade alcohol, suspected of containing poisonous methanol.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, In Myanmar opponents of a nearly $1 billion copper mine in the northwest expressed outrage over a government-ordered report that said the project should continue and that refrained from demanding punishment for police involved in a violent crackdown on protesters.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Nigeria pardoned former Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former political benefactor of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan. He was convicted of stealing millions of dollars while serving as Bayelsa state governor (1999-2005).
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 12, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van, killing at least two people in the district of Bannu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A bomb disposal expert died while defusing a roadside bomb in Peshawar. Gunmen shot and killed a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the southwestern city of Quetta.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Tribesmen tied a Pakistani soldier to the hood of a car and stoned him to death in the country's restive northwest for allegedly having a romantic relationship with a local woman.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 12, Pakistani police in Baluchistan province arrested 11 children and teenagers between the ages of 11 and 18 for allegedly having planted bombs for a violent separatist group.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 12, In South Africa forensic scientists exhumed bodies believed to belong to two young activists last seen 24 years ago at the home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the late 1990s found that Madikizela-Mandela was responsible for the disappearances of Lolo Sono (21) and his friend Sibuniso Tshabalala (19).
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, In Syria new clashes erupted in an intensifying battle for control over Aleppo's international airport and nearby military bases. Fighting also raged for a second day in Homs as rebels tried to take back the poor neighborhood of Baba Amr.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 13, Ken Salazar, US Interior Sec., announced plans for two large federal solar projects in the California desert.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.30)
2013 Mar 13, Shares of Silver Spring Networks (SSNI) of Redwood City, Ca., closed at $22 in an IPO of 4.75 million shares on the NYSE. The maker of smart meter technology jumped nearly 30% from the $17 offer.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.C1)
2013 Mar 13, The 2012 A.M Turing Award for computer scientists was awarded to Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali of MIT.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.84)
2013 Mar 13, In New York Kurt Myers (64) started a fire in his apartment in Mohawk and then killed two customers in a nearby barbershop. He then drove to nearby Herkimer and killed two more people before holing up in an abandoned building. Myers was killed the next day in an exchange of gunfire with police.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A7)(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 13, Afghan intelligence agents killed five suspected suicide bombers and arrested two others, all members of the militant Haqqani network, during a raid in which a truck was seized with 7,200 pounds of explosive on the outskirts of Kabul.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Afghanistan several people were killed and injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of sports fans watching a buzkashi game in Kunduz province.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Bahrain’s public prosecutor's office said six people have been detained over the last couple of days for allegedly defaming the country's ruler on Twitter.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Chile officially opened the $1.3 billion Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world’s most powerful radio telescope. It consisted of 66 dishes.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.81)
2013 Mar 13, Croatia's parliament approved the withdrawal of some 100 peacekeeping troops from the Golan Heights amid fears they could be targeted by Syrian government troops fighting the rebels.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Egypt a leaked report concluded that police were behind the killing of nearly 900 protesters in Tahrir Square during the 18-day uprising that began on Jan 25, 2011.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 13, German authorities banned three ultraconservative Islamic groups, including one whose Internet propaganda videos helped inspire the extremist who killed two American airmen at Frankfurt airport in 2011.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Aleqa Hammond looked set to be Greenland's first female prime minister after winning 42 percent of votes in elections on a platform of greater control and heavier taxation of foreign mining.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Scientists said that the number of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 59% this year, falling to its lowest level since record keeping began 20 years ago.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 13, New Zealand lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill allowing same-sex marriage, all but assuring that it will soon become law.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Nigeria a strike at Aero Contractors Co. of Nigeria Ltd., halted flights "temporarily."
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Karachi, Pakistan, gunmen shot and killed pioneering activist Perween Rahman (54), the director of the Orangi Pilot Project, who helped bring services like sewer and water to the city's poorest neighborhoods.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 13, In southwest Pakistan gunmen abducted two female Czech tourists and their police guard as they were traveling on a bus through troubled Baluchistan province. On March 28, 2015, Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka returned to the Czech Rep. Their release was negotiated by Turkish non-governmental humanitarian organization IHH.
(AP, 3/14/13)(AP, 3/28/15)
2013 Mar 13, In Saudi Arabia 7 men convicted of theft, looting and armed robbery were beheaded, more than a week after their families and a rights group appealed to the king for clemency. One of the men told The Associated Press in early March that he was only 15 when he was arrested as part of a ring that stole jewelry in 2004 and 2005. Nasser al-Qahtani said he was tortured to confess and had no access to lawyers.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Syrian government troops fought fierce battles with rebels for control of key neighborhoods in the north of Damascus. A European Union staff member was killed in a rocket attack in an opposition stronghold south of the capital. Fighting also raged in other cities, including in Homs, where the regime pounded rebel positions with artillery and carried out several airstrikes on the Baba Amr district.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Tunisian vendor Adel Khedhri (27) died of full-body burns a day after setting himself ablaze. He was from a poor town in northwestern Tunisia and had struggled to find a steady job to support his mother and siblings.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76), known for his work with the poor in Buenos Aires' slums, was elected as the 266th Pope. He became the first Jesuit pope and first non-European since the Middle Ages and decided to call himself Francis after St. Francis of Assisi.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 13, Zimbabwe's official election body said it will not back down on its ban preventing a leading human rights group from monitoring a referendum o0n a new constitution on March 16.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 14, A US federal judge ruled unconstitutional national security provisions that permit federal investigators to access customer information from some companies without court approval.
(Reuters, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 14, Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Kevyn Orr, a Cleveland attorney who represented Chrysler during its restructure, to steer Detroit back from the brink of doom.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 14, In Algeria some 10,000 people — an enormous number for the lightly populated region —demonstrated for jobs in the southern oil city of Ouargla. Thousands more protested later in the southern oil town, Laghouat. PM Abdelmalek Sellal acknowledged on March 16 that the demonstrators' demands are legitimate and the government hurriedly announced a string of measures to address the perceived geographical bias in oil jobs.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Australia Adam Giles was sworn as government head of the Northern Territory becoming the first Aboriginal leader of a provincial government.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Bahrain thousands of anti-government protesters threw firebombs and stones at riot police and burned tires on the 2nd anniversary of the intervention by a Saudi-led force in the island's crisis.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Bulgaria's Christian Orthodox Church leader, Patriarch Neophyte, decried a recent wave of self-immolations and suicides after four people set themselves ablaze in the past month.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/b65z6h8)
2013 Mar 14, In Cambodia Ieng Sary (87), brother-in-law of late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, died. He co-founded the communist Khmer Rouge regime responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s, and decades later became one of its few leaders to be put on trial, but died before his case could be finished.
(AP, 3/14/13)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.106)
2013 Mar 14, In China Xi Jinping was elevated to the presidency by the rubber-stamp national legislature, giving him the last of the three titles held by his predecessor, Hu Jintao.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Egyptian prosecutors charged 38 members of the Ultras, a die-hard soccer fan club, with belonging to an illegal group and other offenses.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 14, In Iraq attackers unleashed a carefully planned assault with car bombs and gunmen disguised as police on the Justice Ministry. The attack left at least 24 people dead and dozens wounded. The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-linked group, soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/14/13)(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 14, The newfound particle discovered at the world's largest atom smasher last year is, indeed, the Higgs boson, the particle thought to give other matter its mass, scientists reported today at the annual Rencontres de Moriond conference in Italy.
(LiveScience.com, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reached an agreement to form a new coalition government with the centrist Yesh Atid party, the Jewish Home, a party aligned with West Bank settlers and the Lapid party. The new coalition will be the first in a decade to exclude ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Jamaican officials said that they are hopeful new legislation will finally result in a stream of convictions and lengthy sentences for fraudsters behind a multimillion-dollar lottery scam that has swindled mostly elderly Americans out of their retirement savings for years.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Malawi 11 top government officials and former Cabinet ministers, who were charged with treason for an alleged coup plot, were released on bail. Prosecutors believe the suspects conspired after the death of Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika to undermine his deputy, Joyce Banda.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Nepal's Supreme Court Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi was named head of an interim government in an attempt by the country's main political parties to cure the paralysis and infighting that have blocked elections for months.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Puerto Rico's government urged legislators to move quickly and approve financial austerity measures following a report from a Wall Street ratings agency that downgraded the island's general obligation bonds to near-junk status.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Thailand the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ended its meeting in Bangkok with final decisions to expand protection to for dozens of animal and plant species including 5 types of sharks.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 14, A UN aid official said the number of registered Syrian refugees jumped 10% in just one week to more than 1.1 million. France pushed for quickly lifting an EU ban on arming Syrian rebels.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 15, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran. Hagel also said the US would shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/almlalu)
2013 Mar 15, SAC Capital agreed to pay the SEC a record $616 million to settle a long-standing probe into insider trading.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.78)
2013 Mar 15, In Florida a small plane crashed near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport killing all three men aboard.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 15, In Brazil a new oil law that gives a greater share of royalty revenues from the country’s oil fields to non-producing states went into effect and producing states filed appeals against it with the Supreme Court.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, Three British Muslims, including a convert who was featured in a documentary about radical Islam, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in London. Richard Dart (29), Imran Mahmood (21), and Jahangir Alom (26), were arrested last July and accused of traveling to Pakistan between 2010 and 2012 with the intention of committing terrorist acts.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Britain Dr. Davinderjit Bains, arrested last year, admitted 39 charges against 30 victims, including sexual assault, voyeurism and sexual activity with a child. He had used a Tieex 4GB Waterproof HD Spy Watch DVR, which has a camera on its face, to record assaults on patients at his practice in Royal Wootton Bassett in western England.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A Canadian joint venture operating one of the world's largest gold mines and the government of the Dominican Republic reached an agreement to inspect the company's exports, ending a standoff that halted a shipment valued at nearly $12 million.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southwestern Chad over the last 24 hours at least 86 elephants, including 33 pregnant females, were killed by poachers for the ivory of their tusks.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A snowstorm in Hungary brought drifts 10 feet (3m) high and violent gusts of wind, forcing thousands of people to spend the night in their cars or emergency shelters after being stranded on a major highway.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In India a Swiss woman (39) on a cycling trip in Madhya Pradesh state with her husband was gang-raped by eight men. On March 17 police arrested 5 men, who admitted to the attack. At least 2 others remained at large.
(AP, 3/16/13)(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Iraq protesters clashed with police trying to prevent them from reaching the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most venerated Sunni mosque in Baghdad, as sect members again massed for anti-government rallies in several Iraqi cities. Several people were reported injured.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu signed a coalition deal with rival parties to form the next government.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Lebanon at least eight Syrians were killed and 29 were injured when the bus they were traveling in from Syria overturned in the mountains.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Mexico a truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in the rural village of Jesus Tepactepec, killing at least 13 people and injuring 154.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southern Pakistan a bomb blast just after midnight killed three people and wounded four others outside a cable TV office in Karachi.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal lawyer El Hadj Amadou Sall said that his client, the son of Senegal's ex-president, is being unjustly accused. A special prosecutor charged with investigating the embezzlement of state funds has asked Karim Wade to justify a fortune that he estimates is worth up to 694 billion West African francs, equal to more than $1.3 billion.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal 3 students set themselves on fire on the campus of the country’s largest university to protest changes in the way credits are being counted in the college's geography department. All 3 survived.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In South Africa 24 people died when a bus veered off a road and rolled over near Cape Town.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Gen. Salim Idris, the chief of Syria's main, Western-backed rebel group, marked the second anniversary of the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad by pledging to fight until the "criminal" regime is gone. Leaders at a European Union summit failed to agree if they should send arms to the rebels.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, The head of a UN team investigating casualties from US drone strikes in Pakistan declared after a secret research trip to the country that the attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Marysville, Ca., a boy (14) and a man (68) were killed when a sprint car ran off a track and into pit row during warm-up laps on the opening day of the California Sprint Car Civil War Series.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Mar 16, In Pennsylvania a tour bus carrying a women’s lacrosse team from Seton Hill Univ. crashed killing a pregnant coach and the driver.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A9)
2013 Mar 16, In Texas Air Force Staff Sgt. Eddy Soto was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and 4 years in prison for raping a female trainee. Over 30 Lackland instructors have been investigated in the military sex scandal. Soto was the 9th trainer convicted and sentenced.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 16, In Afghanistan several hundred demonstrators chanting "US special operations forces out!" marched to the parliament building in Kabul, protesting the continued presence of US commandos in troubled Wardak province. A helicopter crashed killing one member of the US-led coalition and injuring another in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In China Lobsang Thokmey (28) became the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in the last 4 years in protests against Chinese rule and religious restrictions. He set himself on fire in Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 16, In CongoDRC a faction of the M23 rebel group under Gen. Sultani Makenga said it has regained control of all of the group's territory in eastern Congo, as Jean-Marie Runiga, the leader of its rival faction, was arrested in Rwanda.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Cyprus anxious depositors drained cash from ATMs after European officials ruled that part of a new 10-billion-euro bailout must be paid for directly from the bank accounts of ordinary savers. An emergency deal in Brussels set a one-time levy of 9.9% on Cypriot bank deposits of more than 100,000 euros. Deposits under that would be taxed at 6.75%.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 16, An Egyptian court cleared two former ministers of charges that they sold state lands for cut-rate prices in the country's prized Red Sea resort areas. Zuhair Garana was sentenced to up to eight years in prison and Ahmed Maghrabi received a five-year sentence for guilty verdicts in previous corruption trials.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Egyptian police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of supporters and opponents of President Morsi during clashes that erupted as he launched development projects in Sohag province, where residents have long complained of being neglected by the central government.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Jordan a bus carrying Palestinian pilgrims overturned and crashed into a trailer on a highway near the Israeli border, killing 15 people. 32 pilgrims were injured.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American and 2 Russians landed in Kazakhstan. The men had spent 144 days on the Int’l. Space Station. 3 astronauts remained on the ISS.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 16, Police in Kenya lobbed tear gas on crowds supporting the PM Raila Odinga as he filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to void the presidential election, a vote Odinga says was neither free nor fair.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Over a thousand Latvians commemorated Nazi-allied World War II soldiers while police used force to prevent violence from erupting between participants and ethnic Russians, who are a minority in the country.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Nigeria's aviation ministry asked Dana Air to suspend all flights. A Dana Air crash on June 3 left more than 160 people dead, leading the carrier to lose its license. It resumed its operations two months ago. The suspension came days after another major airline halted its operations over a strike. The general suspension on Dana was lifted March 18, but one plane remained grounded.
(AP, 3/17/13)(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 16, Pakistan's government passed a major milestone, with the parliament becoming the first democratically chosen body to finish its five-year term.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Pakistan a bus carrying soldiers slid off a mountainous road and fell into a deep ravine in the country's northwest, killing 24 and injuring five others.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Somalia al-Shabab fighters stoned to death a man for allegedly forcing a 13-year-old boy to have sex with him.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 16, Syrian Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ezz al-Din Khalouf announced his defection from Assad's regime in a video aired on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel. Human Rights Watch said Assad’s regime is expanding its use of widely banned cluster bombs, as the deadlocked conflict entered its third year. Rebels detonated a powerful car bomb outside a high-rise building in Deir el-Zour, setting off clashes with regime troops.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Zimbabwe citizens cast their votes in a one-day referendum on a new constitution that all main political parties have backed, urging supporters to accept the draft document that will curb presidential powers.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Indiana a small plane crashed in South Bend killing 2 men including Steve Davis (60), former Oklahoma quarterback.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 17, In Ohio 2 members of the Steubenville high school football team were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl after a drinking party last August 11. On Nov 25 a superintendent and two coaches were charged with lying or failure to report possible child abuse.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A5)(SFC, 11/26/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 17, It was reported that Lake Erie is sick and that a dead zone covers a large portion of the lake bottom due to a poisonous blue-green algae called Microcystis enhanced by high levels of phosphorous from fertilizer runoff. The problem was compounded by the zebra mussel, a foreign invader discovered in 1988, which excretes phosphorous providing Microcystis a ready-made meal.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A15)
2013 Mar 17, A boulder slammed into the Moon, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen there since they started monitoring it.
(Reuters, 5/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Bahrain 17 suspected anti-government protesters were sentenced to 15-year prison sentences for links to a bombing last year that injured four policemen. 8 of the defendants were in custody, and the others were tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Britain's Treasury chief said the government will compensate UK troops who lose money to Cyprus's bailout tax, a levy of 6.75 to 9.9 percent on all bank balances as part of a deal with creditors for €10 billion ($13 billion) in rescue money. British residents of Cyprus not working for the UK military or government could be out of pocket.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 17, Cyprus Pres. Nicos Anastasiades urged lawmakers to approve a tax on bank deposits to save the country from bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 17, In Egypt dozens of journalists protested in Cairo against alleged assaults the previous evening on their colleagues by members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood from which President Mohammed Morsi hails.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw, stripped them half-naked and hung them by their feet in a crowded bus station in the Nile Delta. Both men died.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Greece police lobbed chemicals inside a central prison, trying to smoke out Albanian Alket Rizaj, a convicted murderer who was holding five hostages. After a 24-hour standoff Rizaj surrendered to police at Malandrino prison.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Iraq 2 car bombs went off in Basra, killing 9 and wounding 24 in a rare attack in the Shiite-dominated south of the country.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Moshe Yaalon, a hard-line former military chief (2002-2005), as the country's new defense minister.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Japanese architect Toyo Ito (71) won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 17, Libya's health minister said the death toll from drinking homemade alcohol that contained poisonous methanol has risen to 87. The deaths were first reported a week ago.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Pakistani paramilitary Ranges arrested Qari Abdul Hayee, a leader of the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He was accused of involvement in the 2002 slaying of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, Ayman Sharawneh (53), a freed Palestinian prisoner, was given a hero's welcome in the Gaza Strip after ending his hunger strike in an Israeli jail and agreeing to a plea bargain that will confine him to the Hamas-run territory for the next 10 years.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Palestinian lawmaker Mariam Farhat (64), aka “the mother of martyrs," died in a Gaza hospital of health complications including lung ailments and kidney failure. She had lost three sons in militant activities against Israelis.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Zimbabwe police arrested rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, the country's most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials of PM Tsvangirai’s party and held them at the capital's main police station. Mtetwa was accused of "obstructing or defeating the course of justice." Police also raided and searched a suburban office of Tsvangirai's media and communications department. On March 18 police ignored a judge’s order to release Mtetwa.
(AP, 3/17/13)(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 18, Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her support for gay marriage, putting her in line with other potential Democratic presidential candidates on a social issue that is rapidly gaining public approval.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, A US military official said a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison has grown and now involves at least 21 of 166 men held there.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, A new academic study said an estimated 2.2% of all US gun sales are made to smuggling rings that take the firearms to Mexico.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 18, The US attorney in San Francisco filed criminal charges against Fred Buenrostro, former CEO of CALPERS, and former board member Alfred Villalobos for extensive malfeasance in the nation’s largest public employee pension fund.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.D1)
2013 Mar 18, In Florida college student James Oliver Seevakumaran (30) put a bullet in his head as police closed in. He had two guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a backpack filled with explosives. He had pulled a dorm fire alarm in an apparent attempt to force other students out into the open so that he could slaughter them.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Nevada 7 Marines were killed when a mortar round exploded during a live-fire training exercise at the Hawthorne Army Depot.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 18, In New Jersey computer hacker Andrew Auernheimer (27) was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for stealing the personal data of about 120,000 Apple Inc iPad users, including big-city mayors, a TV network news anchor and a Hollywood movie mogul.
(Reuters, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Utah Willard Bay State Park officials closed down the facility on the northeastern edge of the Great Salt Lake and evacuated two campers and the park manager’s family after around 4,200 to 6,300 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from the pipeline just north of the park.
(www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56030315-78/bay-lake-spill-salt.html.csp)
2013 Mar 18, Afghan opposition parties, frustrated with the government's lack of progress in making peace with the Taliban, confirmed that they have been talking since the beginning of the year to the Taliban as well as the militant group headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez asked Pope Francis to intervene in the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 18, Argentina's government accused the British banking giant HSBC of facilitating money laundering and tax evasion.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Australia visiting Myanmar President Thein Sein welcomed closer ties with Australia as he asked for continued support through his country's transition to "peace, democracy and prosperity," a mission that he said "has no parallel in modern times."
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, The British government said it will join industrial partners to create a 2 billion pound aerospace center, part of efforts to bolster manufacturers as it struggles to revive a flagging economy.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Britain's three main political parties agreed to create a new system to regulate the country's scandal-hungry newspapers, after a public inquiry exposed a culture of industrial-scale phone hacking and other unethical behavior.
(Reuters, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was awarded to Marc Andreessen, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn and Louis Pouzin, for their efforts in the development of the Internet.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.84)
2013 Mar 18, Chinese police arrested the husband of a Tibetan woman who died last week after setting herself alight in protest.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 18, India's Supreme Court indefinitely extended its order barring the Italian ambassador from leaving the country and rejected his explanation of his country's refusal to return two Italian marines charged with killing two Indian fishermen.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Lebanon several hundred demonstrators angry over attacks against Sunni Muslim clerics blocked roads with garbage bins and burning tires in Beirut and other Lebanese cities.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Nigeria at least 41 people died in a suicide car bombing that struck a bus station in Kano. The explosion came hours after another attack blamed on Boko Haram killed a teacher and injured three students in Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, The Pakistani Taliban withdrew their offer of holding peace talks with the government, saying that the authorities were not serious about following through with negotiations.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up in a courtroom in Peshawar, killing four people and wounding more than 40 others.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Palestinian attackers shot and wounded an Israeli man in a drive-by shooting at a West Bank bus stop.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, US officials visiting Warsaw tried to reassure Poland that the cancellation of the final stage of a European missile defense system will not sideline the country and was not made to appease Russia.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Rwanda Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda (39), nicknamed "The Terminator," showed up at the gates of the US Embassy in Kigali. Ntaganda asked to be handed over to the International Criminal Court, which issued its first arrest warrant for him in 2006.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Somalia an explosives-laden car, apparently targeting a truck full of government officials, hit a civilian car and exploded, setting a nearby mini-bus on fire and killing at least 7 people in Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, The International Committee of the Red Cross said more than 60 people have been wounded in fighting between South Sudan's army and a rebel group over the last two weeks.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, said China has bypassed Britain as the world's fifth largest arms exporter.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Syria's main opposition coalition began a push to form an interim government to provide services to people living in parts of the country now controlled by rebel forces.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 19, The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that publishers and manufacturers can’t block imports of copyrighted items made and sold abroad.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C1)
2013 Mar 19, Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements (58) was shot and killed at his home in Monument.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Ohio T.J. Lane (18) cursed and gestured obscenely as he was given three life sentences for shooting to death three students at the Chardon High School cafeteria in Feb, 2012.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, Harry Reems (65), former porn star born as Herbert Streicher, died in Salt Lake City. He co-starred in the 1972 movie “Deep Throat."
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 19, PM David Cameron's spokesman said Britain will trim the budgets of most government departments by 1 percent a year over the next two years to raise money for capital spending. The government also said up to 400,000 more Britons will qualify for a new higher flat-rate state pension and introduce the reform a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, An English judge said oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has been in hiding since he was sentenced to jail for contempt of court last year, organised a complex fraud to embezzle billions of dollars from Kazakh bank BTA.
(Reuters, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, A British court ruled that two Saudi princes involved in litigation in London over a business dispute did not have immunity from being sued, a new blow to the royal pair after they failed in an attempt to have the case heard in secret. The litigation, which has been going through British courts since December 2011, stems from sales in 2010 and 2011 of shares in Fi Call Ltd, a company jointly owned by Prince Abdulaziz and Jordanian businessman Faisal Almhairat.
(Reuters, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Cyprus lawmakers unanimously rejected a proposed rescue package that included taxes on bank depositor accounts.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.75)
2013 Mar 19, Egyptian security forces arrested Ahmed Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, a former Libyan intelligence official and a cousin of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, following an hours-long siege of his home in Cairo.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, In southern Egypt hundreds of Muslim villagers attacked Christian-owned stores in search of a girl whose family claims was abducted in Bani Suef province. The college-aged girl disappeared around one month ago.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, ensnared in a ballooning scandal over suspected tax fraud and money laundering, became the first resignation in President Francois Hollande's 10-month-old Socialist government. On April 2 Cahuzac admitted to holding a foreign bank account for 20 years.
(AP, 3/19/13)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.59)
2013 Mar 19, German researchers said that they have completed the first high-quality sequencing of a Neanderthal genome.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 19, Hungary's Minister of Human Resources asked journalist Ferenc Szaniszlo to return a state award he received onmarch 16 after Israel and the United States complained about disparaging remarks Szaniszlo had made earlier about Gypsies and Jews.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In western India a bus packed with passengers crashed through a guard rail and fell off a bridge, killing at least 37 people and injuring another 15 in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Iraq a wave of bombings tore through the Baghdad area, killing 65 people on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion and more than a year after the withdrawal of American troops. The next day the Islamic State of Iraq said the car bombs and other explosions came to avenge the executions and "massacres" of convicted Sunni inmates held in Iraqi prisons.
(AP, 3/19/13)(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Japan power was restored to two fuel storage pools at the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, but two others have been without fresh cooling water for more than a day, raising concerns about the fragility of a facility that still runs on makeshift equipment.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak reported economic growth of 5.6% for 2012. He also announced that a scheme to give cash handouts to poorer households will become an annual event.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 19, The Philippine Supreme Court temporarily halted the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproduction Health Act of 2012, a law that provides state funding for contraceptives. The legislation was opposed by the dominant Roman Catholic Church but supported by reproductive health activists.
(AP, 3/19/13)(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 19, Romania's defense minister said US plans to deploy anti-missile interceptors in his country are going ahead and that Romania has an "exceptional" partnership with the United States. US officials have stressed they will deploy shorter-range missiles to Poland and Romania.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, In South Africa two robbers stealing a safe shot and killed five Pakistani men and wounded a sixth in a ghetto outside the tourist resort of Cape Town. Police soon arrested a 28-year-old South African who had a gun and the safe.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, Syria's opposition coalition meeting in Istanbul elected Ghassan Hitto, a little-known American-educated IT manager and Islamic activist, to head an interim government to administer areas seized by rebel forces from President Bashar Assad's troops.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said 31 people were killed in an alleged rebel chemical attack in Aleppo province. Rebels denied the government claim and blamed regime forces for today’s missile attack on Khan al-Assad village.
(AP, 3/19/13)(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey assailants fired a rocket at PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party headquarters and hurled two hand-grenades at the Justice Ministry's parking lot, wounding one person. The outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, soon said it carried out the attacks in retaliation for a recent police crackdown on its members.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey Mohamed Mahmoud (27), an Islamic extremist wanted by Germany for allegedly calling for terrorist attacks, was arrested in Hatay province. Berlin soon began negotiating his extradition.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Vatican City Pope Francis laid out the priorities of his pontificate during his installation Mass, urging the princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people attending to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Zimbabwe's electoral body said that 94.5 percent of voters cast a ballot in favor of a new constitution that calls for a strengthening of human rights and a curb on presidential powers after a decade of political and economic turmoil in the southern African nation.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US Congress foiled the financially beleaguered Postal Service's plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail when it passed legislation requiring six-day delivery.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US military and the Afghan government reached a deal on the pullout of American special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from Wardak province after complaints that they were involved in human rights abuses.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of American jihadi Omar Hammami and another $5 million reward for a 2nd American fighting in Somalia, Jehad Mostafa.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, It was reported that Starbucks has purchased a 593-acre farm in Costa Rica.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C4)
2013 Mar 20, Bangladesh’s figurehead Pres. Zillur Rahman (84) died at a hospital in Singapore.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, Chancellor George Osborne said Britain will raise the personal tax allowance to 10,000 pounds in 2014-15, a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, James Herbert (69), best-selling British horror writer, died at his home in Sussex. His 23 novels included "The Rats" (1974).
(Reuters, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Bulgarian man, Plamen Goranov (36), set himself on fire to protest poverty in his country, becoming the 6th to do so in a month.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided not to attempt a ban of the country's biggest far-right party but said it would support a bid brought by the country's states — a resolution slammed by the Germany's main Jewish group as the wrong signal to neo-Nazis.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, US President Barack Obama arrived on his first visit and assured Israel of his personal commitment to its security. He delivered a blunt warning to its foes that the US has the Jewish state's back.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Iraq a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded four on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that a jihadist state could emerge on his northern border in Syria with Islamic extremists trying to establish a foothold in the neighboring country.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Malaysian prosecutors charged 8 Filipinos with terrorism-related offenses following an armed siege in Borneo that killed 71 people.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, In Mali a suicide car bomber killed a Malian soldier near Timbuktu's airport. A vehicle containing two jihadists exploded as it attempted to infiltrate the airport.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Mexico has sent a diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in heading off an auction of 51 pre-Columbian Mexican artifacts scheduled in Paris for March 22-23, arguing they are protected national historical pieces. Mexico has had laws prohibiting the export of such artifacts since at least 1827.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Myanmar's parliament agreed to set up a commission to review the pro-military 2008 constitution, a process that could eventually change the political landscape and allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to contest the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Myanmar unrest between local Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted in Meikhtila. The troubles began after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Over 30 people were killed and some 70 others injured.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.39)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian official said at least two people have survived after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Slovenian lawmakers approved the new-left-leaning Cabinet of PM Alenka Bratusek, the first female to lead the government since secession from Yugoslavia in 1991.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, South African trade unions said they are shocked at the disappearance of 24.8 billion rand ($2.75 billion) from provincial governments. The auditor general reported last week that the money had "disappeared" in "irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending."
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected. Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, Syria's main opposition group demanded a full international investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in the country's north, calling for a team to be sent to the village where it reportedly occurred.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Venezuela's government halted lines of communication established by a top U.S. diplomat to protest what it says has been US interference in the country's internal affairs ahead of an election set next month to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 21, The California state Commission on Judicial Performance said Judge Paul Seeman (58), an Alameda County Superior Court Judge, has resigned following charges that he swindled a 97-year-old neighbor out of her life savings. On Oct 21 Seeman was sentenced to 5 years probation.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.D1)(SFC, 10/22/12, p.C1)
2013 Mar 21, In San Francisco commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations filed suit against federal regulators for not banning the use of two pesticides they say harm honeybees.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.E5)
2013 Mar 21, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill recognizing same-sex civil unions. The law takes effect May 1.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 21, In Brunswick, Georgia, a teenager shot and killed the 13-month old son of Sherry West. Police the next day arrested De-Marquise Elkins (17) and a 14-year-old accomplice.
(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A13)
2013 Mar 21, Chicago said it will close 54 schools and 61 school buildings by the beginning of the next academic year in the country's third-largest public school district. Education experts called this the largest mass closing in the nation.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Chicago 7 people were shot and wounded early today at a party at a nightclub in an incident that police said may have been gang related.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Paroled Colorado inmate Evan Spencer Ebel (28), who may be linked to the slaying of the state's prison chief, led Texas deputies on a 100 mph car chase that ended after he crashed into a semi and then opened fire before being shot down by his pursuers.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In northern Virginia a Marine at the Quantico marine Corps Base shot 2 of his colleagues, a man and a woman, to death and then killed himself. Sgt. Eusebio Lopez (25) gunned down Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata (19) and Cpl. Jacob Wooley (23). Lopez and Castromata had a brief relationship that broke up about four months earlier. In 2018 a federal appeals court refused to reinstate a suit by the victim’s family based on a 1950 Supreme Court ruling.
(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A5)(AP, 3/23/13)(SFC, 2/7/18, p.D4)
2013 Mar 21, In northern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a district administrator and two of his bodyguards in Takhar province. A member of Afghanistan's government-backed militia program shot and killed five of his colleagues in Badghis province.
(AP, 3/21/13)(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Australian PM Julia Gillard delivered a historic national apology in Parliament to the thousands of unwed mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their babies for adoption over several decades.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury was formally enthroned after using a radio interview to back Church of England positions on homosexuality, which include opposition to same-sex marriage.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Human Rights Watch and three local organizations released a report saying suspected homosexuals in Cameroon have been tortured and raped in prison.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, A Cyprus criminal court found Hossam Taleb Yaacoub (24), a Swedish-Lebanese citizen and Hezbollah member, guilty of helping to plan attacks on Israelis in Cyprus.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 21, Villagers in Egypt's Nile Delta killed a man suspected of trying to steal a car in the country's latest incident of vigilante violence, dragging him half-naked and bloody as they kicked and hit him with sticks and fists before tying him to a tree to bleed to death.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In France the Union of Jewish French Students sued Twitter for some $50 million for failing to honor a court ruling to identify users who post Holocaust jokes and calls to kill Jews.
(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 21, In Germany 2 helicopters clipped each other and crashed as they landed in a snowstorm near Berlin's Olympic Stadium during a federal police exercise, leaving one person dead and several injured.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, India passed anti-rape legislation that included a controversial provision setting the age of sexual consent at 18.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 21, Jamaica’s Senate passed a bill calling for tougher prosecution of those involved in multimillion-dollar lottery scams that mostly have targeted elderly Americans. It was soon passed by the House of Representatives and the governor general was expected soon to sign it.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 21, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (82) died in Boston. His novels included “Things Fall Apart" (1958). “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Achebe's corpse arrived May 22 in his native Anambra state.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.90)(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, In northwestern Pakistan a car packed with explosives blew up inside the Jalozai refugee camp as hundreds of people lined up to get food, killing 13 and wounding 25.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Palestinian militants in Gaza launched at least two rockets into southern Israel as US President Barack Obama met with Palestinian officials in the West Bank on the second day of his Mideast tour. The Israeli military closed a Gaza border crossing and restricted Palestinian fishermen in the territory in response to the rocket attacks.
(AP, 3/21/13)(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Russian prosecutors searched the offices of Memorial, one of the country's oldest and most respected human rights groups, as part of a new, wide-ranging campaign targeting hundreds of nongovernmental organizations.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Syrian state-run TV in Damascus said authorities have handed over to Beirut Hassane Serourto, a Lebanese fighter captured inside Syria in an ambush by government troops on Nov 30.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, For the second time in as many years, the UN's top human rights body approved a US-backed resolution calling on Sri Lanka to more thoroughly investigate alleged war crimes committed by both sides during the country's quarter-century civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Syria an explosion ripped through a mosque in the heart of Damascus, killing 42 people including Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, a top Sunni preacher. 7 more died overnight and Pres. Assad the next day vowed to rid the country of Muslim extremists whom he blamed for the suicide blast.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, The UN’s top human rights body unanimously approved a formal probe into North Korea for possible crimes against humanity.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Venezuela supporters of late Pres. Hugo Chavez attacked student protesters as they marched against perceived bias by Venezuela’s electoral council.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 21, In Yemen clashes in the south between al-Qaida and pro-government fighters killed four on both sides.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Zimbabwean police arrested two more members of PM Morgan Tsvangirai's office staff, raising the number detained to six.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 22, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will close 149 air traffic control towers at small airports across the country beginning on April 7 as it copes with automatic federal spending cuts.
(Reuters, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Alabama Luke Bresette (10) was killed at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Int’l. Airport when a flight information panel fell on a family from Kansas.
(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 22, The owners of San Francisco's Palace Hotel removed the famous 1909 Maxfield Parish Pied Piper painting that has graced the hotel's main bar for over a century and plan to sell it at auction.
(http://tinyurl.com/cnkh4ed)
2013 Mar 22, North Dakota lawmakers took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House's approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state's constitution in November 2014.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Belgium Kim De Gelder (24) was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, despite concerns about his mental condition, for four murders, including the slashing deaths of two babies at a day care center in 2009.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Brazilian police surrounded an old Indian museum complex next to Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracana football stadium in a bid to expel a group of indigenous people and their supporters to make way for works related to the World Cup.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, A British judge upheld a decision to ban a Christian group from placing adverts on London buses that suggested people could be cured of homosexuality.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, US officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement of new UN sanctions against North Korea said that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and security.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, Cyprus lawmakers approved 3 key bills aiming to secure a broader bailout package and stave off imminent bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 22, Thousands of Egyptian protesters clashed with riot police and backers of the president's Muslim Brotherhood, ransacking several offices nationwide as anger over allegations of beatings and power-grabbing boiled over into the largest and most violent demonstrations yet on the doorstep of the powerful group.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Egypt a Bedouin taxi driver said he was driving two tourists, an Israeli-Arab tourist and a Norwegian female, to the popular Red Sea diving site of Dahab when gunmen ambushed his vehicle and captured them. Ingvild Selvik Ask (31) and Amir Hassan were released on March 26.
(AP, 3/22/13)(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Greece at least 11 Albanian inmates escaped from a prison near Trikala after gunmen brazenly attacked the site with grenades and automatic weapons, kicking off a nightlong standoff between police and prisoners. Two were soon captured.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Iraq a police officer gunmen fatally shot Hussein Muslah, local leader of a militia opposed to al-Qaida, and his sons as they left their house in a village near Dujail.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Ireland Patrick McCabe (77), a former Catholic priest who had worked in California, was sentenced to 18 month in prison for assaulting two boys decades ago in Ireland. McCabe was soon released based on his age and statements of contrition and the fact that he had already served 21 months of a maximum 2-year sentence.
(SFC, 3/23/13, p.C2)(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 22, Israel and Turkey agreed to restore full diplomatic relations after PM Benjamin Netanyahu apologized in a phone call for a deadly naval raid against a Gaza-bound international flotilla in a dramatic turnaround partly brokered by President Barack Obama.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, President Barack Obama wrapped up a 3-day visit to Israel paying respects to the nation's heroes and to victims of the Holocaust and solemnly reaffirming the Jewish state's right to exist.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Italy's Pres. Giorgio Napolitano tapped center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to form a new government following national elections that produced no clear winner.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Italy returned Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone to India to face murder charges in the shooting deaths of two fishermen, reversing a decision that escalated diplomatic tensions.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Lebanon’s PM Najib Mikati submitted his resignation.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 22, In Lebanon gunmen who support and oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad clashed in the northern city of Tripoli, leaving six people dead and more than 20 wounded.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, Myanmar's president declared a state of emergency in the central city of Meikhtila shaken by sectarian bloodshed that killed 44 people. Thousands of minority Muslims fled and overwhelmed riot police crisscrossed the still-burning town seizing machetes and hammers from enraged Buddhist mobs.
(AP, 3/22/13)(SSFC, 7/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 22, In Nigeria gunmen attacked the remote town of Ganye in the northeast freeing 120 inmates. The assailants also attacked a bank and a drinking spot killing 25 people.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 22, Oman sate news said Sultan Qaboos bin Said has pardoned all activists jailed for offending the nation's ruler or joining protests.
(Reuters, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In southwestern Pakistan a bomb hidden in a rickshaw exploded outside a bus terminal near a busy bazar in Jafarabad, killing at least nine people and wounding 40. The explosion came hours after a US drone targeted a vehicle in Datta Khel village, North Waziristan, killing three suspected militants.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Rwandan-born warlord Bosco Ntaganda was taken into custody by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was flown to The Hague to stand trial on charges of overseeing atrocities in eastern Congo a decade ago.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Spain’s restructuring fund, the FROB, imposed haircuts of up to 61% as it turned junior debt and preference shares in 4 nationalized banks (Bankia, Catalunya Banc, Banco Gallego, and NCG Banco) into equity.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.72)
2013 Mar 23, The US Pentagon said it has reached an agreement to transfer the Parwan Detention Facility to Afghan control.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 23, Boris Berezovsky (67), fervent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in unclear circumstances at his home in Ascot, 25 miles (40 km) west of London. A Home Office pathologist soon found the cause of death to be consistent with hanging.
(Reuters, 3/24/13)(Reuters, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Central African Republic Seleka rebels took control of the town of Bossembele, pushing closer to the capital, Bangui.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In CongoDRC at least 35 people were killed after hundreds of militia fighters attacked the southeast mining center of Lubumbashi. 245 Mai Mai fighters surrendered to UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Indonesia 8 members of the Kopassus special forces forced their way into Cebongan prison in southern Java. Sgt. Ucok Tigor Simbolon shot dead 4 men, who had been detained on suspicion of killing a soldier. In Sep Sgt Simbolon was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two accomplices were sentenced to 6 and 8 years.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.53)
2013 Mar 23, In Ivory Coast Oulai Tako, known as "Tarzan of the West," was among three assailants killed by soldiers responding to an attack. Two civilians and a traditional hunter were also killed in the attack on Petit Guiglo village 15 miles (25km) outside Blolequin.
(AP, 3/24/13)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 23, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman formally accepted the resignation of PM Najib Mikati, who stepped down blaming government infighting during a time of rising sectarian tensions.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Mali Islamic extremists infiltrated and attacked the northern city of Gao. Malian forces engaged the fighters and they retreated.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Nigeria a British businessman was kidnapped in Victoria Island, a part of Lagos. Initial reports said the victim was an American. The British national was released on March 27.
(SFC, 3/25/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/26/13)(Reuters, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 23, Northern Irish police defused a bomb in a car in Enniskillen, close to where G8 leaders will meet at a summit in June, and said that the device was likely to have been intended for a police station nearby.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, Pakistani cricket legend-turned politician Imran Khan (60) rallied around 100,000 flag-waving supporters in the eastern city of Lahore ahead of a historic national election later this spring.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Pakistan a car packed with explosives exploded next to a pair of fuel tankers at an army check post, killing 17 soldiers and wounding dozens in North Waziristan.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In eastern Pakistan a bus has overturned on a highway after hitting a roadside electricity pole, killing at least 32 passengers.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, Spanish, Portuguese and British police boarded a ship loaded with nearly two tons of cocaine destined for sale in Europe and arrested nine people. The ship was in the Atlantic Ocean, some 700 miles southwest of Portugal's Cape Verde islands.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 23, Syrian rebels seized control of the air defense base used by the regime’s 38th Division after a 16-day siege. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 35 opposition fighters died in the fighting. It lost contact with more than 20 others believed to have died in the fighting.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Ukraine the city of Kiev declared a state of emergency after it was paralyzed by an unprecedented snowstorm that has stalled car, railway and air traffic.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 24, Central African Republic's President Francois Bozize fled the capital, hours after hundreds of armed rebels threatening to overthrow him invaded Bangui.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr Kamel said that the Syrian opposition can now send an envoy to the two-day Arab League summit beginning March 26 in Doha..
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, Israel's army fired a guided missile into Syria, destroying a military post after gunfire flew across the border and struck an Israeli vehicle.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Libya about 200 militiamen and protesters demanding the resignation of Libya's PM Ali Zidan have ended their day-long siege of his office. The protest in Tripoli ended after the prime minister sneaked out of the building through the back door late today.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Macedonia the coalition "For a better Macedonia," led by PM Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party, won 43 of the country's 81 communities in the first round of elections. Social Democrat leader Branko Crvenkovski, head of the left-wing opposition and a former president, said the elections "were not free and fair.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Mali Islamic 9 people were left dead after extremists belonging to the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa infiltrated Gao a day earlier. The dead include 4 extremists, a soldier and 4 civilians.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, Pakistan's election commission chose Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, a former high court chief justice nominated by the country's outgoing ruling party, to serve as caretaker prime minister in the run up to a historic national election this spring.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Pakistan militants launched a suicide car bomb attack against a military check post in the country's northwest tribal region, killing 17 soldiers. Former President Pervez Musharraf returned home after more than four years in exile, seeking a possible political comeback in defiance of judicial probes and death threats from Taliban militants. Security forces whisked him away in the southern port city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, A senior Palestinian official rejected the idea of a partial Israeli settlement freeze as a way of restarting peace talks.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, Peru’s military chief Adm. Jose Cueto announced over the weekend that a draft would be held in May. It applies to all 18- to 25-year-old males chosen by lottery. Parents and university students are exempt. So is anyone who can afford the $700 fine.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Somalia 2 gunmen in Mogadishu shot and killed Rahmo Abdulqadir Farah, a female Somali journalist.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, In South Africa 6 of 19 stranded pilot whales on a beach in Cape Town died and authorities said they planned to euthanize some of the surviving whales.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, The leader of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned, citing what he called the lack of international support for those seeking to topple President Bashar Assad. Rebel military leader Col. Riad al-Asaad, who was among the first to call openly for armed insurrection against President Bashar Assad, was wounded by a bomb planted in his car. He had his right foot amputated following a blast in the town of Mayadeen.
(AP, 3/24/13)(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, Dozens of people from Syrian President Bashar Assad's own minority sect met in Cairo to send an unusual message to their fellow Alawites back home: Join the opposition before it is too late.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 25, Pres. Obama signed a proclamation using the Antiquities Act to preserve some 1,000 acres of the San Juan Islands, Washington state, as a national monument.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.P6)
2013 Mar 25, Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo detainee who allegedly revealed valuable information about 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, sued Poland. Lawyers said he was held in a CIA black site in Poland (2002-2003), which they say has withheld critical information needed to investigate his case.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 25, In California people celebrated the opening of the new Devil’s Slide Tunnel. It opened to public traffic on March 26.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 25, In San Francisco executives of the Palace Hotel changed their minds, amid ringing outcry, and planned to return the Pied Piper painting by Maxfield Parrish to the hotel following restoration work.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 25, New Jersey lottery officials said Pedro Quezada (44), an immigrant from the Dominican Rep., has won the $338.3 million Powerball jackpot.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 25, Yahoo acquired Summly, a British startup, for some $30 million. Summly founder Nick d’Aloisio (17) had created an iPhone app to summarize articles in 300-400 characters.
(SFC, 4/18/13, p.66)
2013 Mar 25, In Afghanistan the US military gave control of its last local detention facility to Kabul, a year after the two sides initially agreed on the transfer.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, A fishing boat carrying nearly 100 asylum seekers capsized off Australia's west coast. 2 people died and another 93 were rescued after the boat overturned north of Christmas Island.
(Reuters, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, In Canada waste water from Suncor's oil sands operation north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, escaped when a pipe broke after freezing. An estimated 350 cubic meters of contaminated water was released into the river over a 10-hour period, the company said, adding that it did not contain tar-like bitumen.
(Reuters, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 25, Central African Republic's President Francois Bozize fled to neighboring Cameroon. Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, said that he plans to stay in power until 2016, the length of time left in the term of Bozize.
(AP, 3/25/13)(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 25, Cyprus clinched a last-minute solution to avert imminent financial meltdown early today after it agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on wealthy depositors in troubled banks to secure a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout. Under the terms of the bailout deal, the country' second largest bank, Laiki — which sustained the most damaged from bad Greek debt and loans — is to be split up, with its nonperforming loans and toxic assets going into a "bad bank." The healthy side will be absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus.
(AP, 3/25/13)(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 25, A Dubai court convicted American businessman Zack Shahin for fraud and sentenced him to 15 years' imprisonment after a nearly five-year legal battle that included a hunger strike and a failed attempt to flee.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Egypt’s top prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 5 rights activists on suspicion of inciting violence against members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 25, Israel's government said it will resume transferring tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Kenya’s Supreme Court ordered the election commission to recount votes in 22 of the country's 291 constituencies to see if any of the tallies exceed the number of registered voters.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Libya's foreign minister said the widow of the late ruler Moammar Gadhafi and other family members have been granted asylum in Oman.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak announced the creation of the Eastern Sabah Safety Zone. Authorities said they will resettle people out of the area of Borneo where fighting in Sabah has left 74 people dead.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A4)(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 25, Myanmar's government warned that religious violence could threaten democratic reforms after anti-Muslim mobs rampaged through three more towns in the country's predominantly Buddhist heartland.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, TNT Express NV, a Dutch-based package delivery company, said it will restructure operations, taking €150 million ($195 million) in charges and cutting 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, by the end of 2015. A takeover by UPS was blocked by European regulators in January.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Peru's government declared an environmental state of emergency in a remote Amazon jungle region it says has been affected by years of contamination at the country's most productive oil fields, which are currently operated by Argentina-based Pluspetrol.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Russian prosecutors and tax police searched the Moscow headquarters of Amnesty International and several other rights groups, continuing a wave of pressure that activists say is part of President Vladimir Putin's attempt to stifle dissent.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, South Africa's president said 13 South African soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in weekend fighting in the Central African Republic.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, In Syria a series of mortar strikes near a downtown traffic circle in Damascus killed two people and wounded several others.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Zimbabwe's High Court ordered the immediate release of prominent rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, detained for eight days for obstructing the course of justice. A free Mtetwa said her arrest was a ploy to intimidate human rights activists and pro-democracy groups ahead of upcoming elections expected in July.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Zambia's former president, Rupiah Banda (76), was arrested by police for alleged abuse of authority and corruption. He was released on bail of Kwacha 500,000 ($100,000) and ordered to turn in his passport.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, President Barack Obama chose veteran agent Julia Pierson as Secret Service director, the first woman to lead the male-dominated agency.
(Reuters, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court ruled that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect's property to look for evidence without first getting a warrant for a search.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Environmental Protection Agency issued a survey that said 55% of the nation’s rivers and streams are in poor biological health.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, In San Francisco Henry Doelger’s Art Deco/Streamline Modern real estate office at 320 Judah St. was voted in as the city’s 265th historical landmark by the Board of Supervisors.
(http://tinyurl.com/bswp2to)
2013 Mar 26, The Delaware state Senate approved a bill repealing the state’s death penalty in a 11-10 vote.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed legislation that that would make North Dakota the nation's most restrictive state on abortion rights, banning the procedure if a fetal heartbeat can be detected — something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan 8 suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, killing at least five officers in Jalalabad. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. A roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded another in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 20 insurgents in a 2-day joint operation in Logar province.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Bahrain 13 pro-democracy activists were sentenced to 10 years in prison over allegations that they attacked police officers.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, The British government published its long-term Nuclear Industrial Strategy but fell short of announcing a guaranteed power price which operators want spelled out before investing billions in new power stations.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In the CAR Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, announced over radio that he has dissolved the country's constitution as well as the parliament and the government. French forces protecting Bangui's main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint. Two Indian citizens were killed, and wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care. Pillaging continued in Bangui.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah handed himself in to authorities, a day after the country's prosecutor general ordered his arrest over his alleged role in instigating violence during clashes between supporters and opponents of the Islamist president. blogger, Abdel-Fattah was freed following his demand that an investigative judge take over his case.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Egyptian authorities extradited two Libyan officials from the regime of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi back to their home country. Former ambassador to Cairo Ali Maria (71) and ex-official Mohammed Ibrahim Gadhafi (44) were handcuffed after resisting the transfer.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Ghana and US officials broke ground for the National Marine Police Training Academy in the city of Anyinase. The US was investing over $1.2 million to construct the training center.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Iraq shootings and blasts killed five people, including two local politicians in a town north of Baghdad who died when a bomb attached to their car exploded.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's foreign minister Giulio Terzi resigned to protest his government's decision to send two marines back to India to face trial in the deaths of two fishermen.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's highest criminal court overturned the murder acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in the slaying of British roommate Meredith Kercher and ordered a new trial.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, UN officials in Liberia said they've temporarily halted the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees from Ivory Coast because of continued unrest near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya 3 British female activists of Pakistani origin were kidnapped and raped in the eastern city of Benghazi. Pro-government militiamen were suspected. The women were part of an overland aid convoy bound for Gaza.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya nearly 50 inmates fled a prison in an oasis city in the country's southern desert. Authorities shot one dead during the escape.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Earthquakes shook a broad swath of southern Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Rwanda a grenade blast in Kigali killed one person and wounded eight.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, Saudi Arabia said investigations have shown that members of a spy ring arrested last week were working for Iranian intelligence.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The Scottish government approved an offshore wind farm near Aberdeen. American tycoon Donald Trump vowed to bring a lawsuit to stop the $349 million development. He feared it would spoil the views at his nearby luxury golf course.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, In South Sudan 143 rebels led by David Yau Yau died in a battle between soldiers and rebels backed by Sudan. 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 26, Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat for the first time at an Arab League summit in Qatar. The Arab League in 2011 suspended the Syrian government's membership in the organization in response to the regime's crackdown on opponents.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Syria mortars pounded at least two areas of Damascus, killing a girl and at least 2 other people. Anti-regime activists said government troops seized control of Baba Amr, a neighborhood in the central city of Homs, considered a symbol of opposition to Pres. Assad's regime. The Observatory said that at least 13 charred bodies, including those of four children and five women, were found on the outskirts of the village of Abil, southwest of Homs city.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 27, Eric Harroun of Phoenix, Az., was arrested at Dulles Int’l. Airport upon returning to the US from Turkey, where he had described to FBI agents his journey to the front lines of Syria's civil war with fighters from the al-Nusra Front, a designated terrorist organization also referred to as al Qaeda in Iraq. Harroun served in the US Army from 2000 to 2003.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 27, The California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control said a toxic waste dump site near Kettleman city has agreed to pay $311,000 in fines for failing to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last 4 years.
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.D7)
2013 Mar 27, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he would not expand Medicaid in his state joining 18 other Republican governors who have rejected expansion for now.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A9)
2013 Mar 27, A team of int’l. scientists reported the discovery of dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal a person’s risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A10)
2013 Mar 27, An Afghan teenager killed US soldier Sgt. Michael Cable (26) in Nangarhar province by stabbing him in the neck while he played with a group of local children. The young man escaped to nearby Pakistan.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 27, The Bank of England said that its recommendations for Britain's banks to plug a 25 billion-pound capital shortfall by December won't call on further taxpayer funds.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric, thwarted another effort by Britain to have him deported to Jordan after a court accepted arguments that he would face testimony obtained by torture.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, It was reported the Ecuador planned to auction off 7.4 million acres of Amazon rain forest to Chinese oil companies. 7 indigenous groups said they had not consented to the projects.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 27, Egypt's naval forces captured three scuba divers who were trying to cut an undersea Internet cable in the Mediterranean. Telecom executives meanwhile blamed a weeklong Internet slowdown on damage caused to another cable by a ship.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, An Egyptian appeals court annulled a November presidential decree dismissing the country's top prosecutor and ordered him reinstated.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Germany work crews backed by about 250 police removed parts of the Berlin Wall known as the East Side Gallery before dawn to make way for an upscale building project, despite demands by protesters that the site be preserved.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Iraq a parked car bomb ripped through a residential area in the town of Musayyib, killing three civilians and wounding 14. Another bomb targeted a restaurant in the town of Madain, killing two people and wounding 11.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Japan Takafumi Horie, the former chief executive of Internet portal Livedoor, was released from prison. He was jailed in 2011 for fraud. While in prison he gathered almost one million Twitter followers.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 27, In northern Mali the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, announced that Mohamed Aly Ag Al Bessati would serve as the civil administrator for Kidal.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Mexico hundreds of armed vigilantes took control of Tierra Colorado, a town on a major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting local police officers and searching homes in response to the March 25 killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal (28). Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach for Easter week.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In central Nigeria an assault on a village in the Riyom local government area killed 28 people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 27, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul, a link that has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In South Africa leaders of the five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) agreed to create a development bank to help fund their $4.5 trillion infrastructure programs — a direct challenge to the World Bank that they accuse of Western bias.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, A Sri Lanka judge announced that more than 150 human skulls and bones recovered from a mass grave Lanka were buried there about 25 years ago, strengthening suspicion that they belonged to suspected Marxist rebels killed at the time. The skeletal remains were found inside the premises of a government hospital dated to between 1987 and 1990.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, Syria's Pres. Assad appealed o the leaders of a five-nation economic forum meeting in South Africa to help end his country's two-year conflict. Assad sent a letter urging the leaders of the five nation BRICS forum — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to "work for an immediate cessation of violence. The Observatory said rebels overran three army posts near Bir Ajam.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck central Taiwan, killing at one person and injuring 19 as it damaged buildings on the island.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague convicted two senior Bosnian Serbs of war crimes in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin were each sentenced to 22 years in prison. In 2016 appeals were rejected.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A3)(SFC, 7/1/16, p.A2)
2013 Mar 27, Zimbabwe's High Court freed on bail four senior officials from PM Morgan Tsvangirai's party accused of illegally collecting information on high level corruption.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 28, The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index hit an all-time high of 1569.19, surpassing the Oct 9,2007 high of 1565.15.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.D1)
2013 Mar 28, Nevada’s Legislature expelled an assemblyman for the first time in its history. Steven Brooks, representing North Las Vegas, has been arrested twice and hospitalized for mental health evaluation.
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 28, Bahrain cleared 21 medical personnel of charges linked to anti-government protests, but cases remain open against two others who failed to appear in court.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Britain's domestic spy agency (MI5) chose Andrew Parker (50) as its new director. Parker was an ornithologist with counter-terrorism experience in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, In Britain Giovanni Di Stefano, a flamboyant but unqualified lawyer, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for fraud. His clients included deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He had no legal qualifications and was not registered to practice in Britain or Italy, where he had offices.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd reopened a rail line in western Minnesota, a day after a mile-long train hauling crude oil from Alberta, Canada, derailed in the area, spilling up to 30,000 gallons of oil.
(Reuters, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Ousted Central African Republic President Francois Bozize requested exile in Benin days after rebels invaded and overthrew his government of a decade.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 28, China’s State Council, the country’s highest executive organ of state power, released a code of conduct for officials in hopes for a more pransparent government.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 28, The UN Security Council authorized a new intervention brigade for CongoDRC with a mandate to take military action alone or with Congolese troops against rebel groups to help bring peace in the conflict-racked east.
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 28, Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country's banks reopened, albeit with strict restrictions on transactions.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Israel fully reopened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip that were closed following militant rocket fire during President Barack Obama's visit to the region last week.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, A Kosovo court found three ethnic Serbs guilty of storming a UN-run court and inciting riots that led to the death of a Ukrainian peacekeeper in 2008. Marijan Ilincic and Dragan Milojevic were sentenced to 22 and 18 months in prison, respectively. Zoran Cavic was convicted of similar charges and given a 9-month sentence that was suspended for one year. Three other defendants were cleared of all charges.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 28, In central Nigeria an attack in the Bokkos local government area killed 18 civilians. The military killed six while trying to repel attackers in the assault.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 28, A West Bank appeals court upheld a one-year prison term for Mamdouh Hamamreh, a Palestinian journalist who had a photo on his Facebook page that authorities claimed portrayed President Mahmoud Abbas as a traitor.
(AP, 3/28/13)(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 28, Fitch, a ratings agency, awarded the Philippines its first ever investment-grade credit rating.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.86)
2013 Mar 28, In northwest Russia a bus crash killed six people and injured at least 18 others, including orphans returning from a field trip.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, In Syria mortar shells slammed into a cafeteria at Damascus University, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20 in what was the deadliest in a string of such attacks on President Assad's seat of power. Officials denied opposition claims that an Iranian cargo plane, allegedly carrying weapons to Assad's regime, was hit as it landed at Damascus Int’l. Airport. This day of fierce clashes killed at least 38 people.
(AP, 3/28/13)(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 28, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at Rome’s Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center, a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, A Thai court jailed a man for three years and four months on for selling video CDs showing sections of an Australian news series that contained content deemed offensive to Thailand's royal family. Akachai Hongkawan (37) was also fined 66,666 baht ($2,300).
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Mayflower, Arkansas, an ExxonMobil pipeline sprang a leak. Crews soon recovered some 12,000 barrels of oil and water. The Pegasus pipeline, capable of carrying more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A8)(Reuters, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 29, In San Francisco Buster Posey, catcher for the SF Giants, signed a 9-year, $167 million contract, the largest in the club’s history.
(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 29, Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors announced that a grand jury had indicted the Atlanta Public Schools' ex-superintendent and nearly three dozen other former administrators, teachers, principals and other educators of charges arising from a standardized test cheating scandal on one of the nation’s largest test cheating scandals.
(AP, 3/30/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts docked with the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after traveling just 6 hours from launch in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 29, Argentina proposed a creative way out of its debt showdown, describing a mix of cash and bonds that it suggested would amount to a huge profit, but not a gargantuan one, for the investors it calls "vulture funds." The payment plan could take many more years to cancel $1.44 billion in defaulted bonds, interest and penalties left unpaid since the country's world-record 2001 default.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, A court in Bosnia convicted a Montenegrin man of multiple counts of murder, torture, rape and looting during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, and sentenced him to 45 years in prison. A judge said Veselin Vlahovic (43) killed 31 people, raped a number of Bosniak and Croat women and tortured and robbed non-Serb residents of a Sarajevo suburb while fighting for the Bosnian Serbs.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In China a large landslide trapped 83 workers, believed to have been asleep, at the state-owned Jiama (Gyama) copper and gold mining company in Tibet. Chances for survivors were slim. The mine, which formally opened in 2010, was owned by China Gold Int’l. Resources.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.54)
2013 Mar 29, In northern Egypt clashes erupted in Alexandria and Zagazig, and protesters rallied in Cairo in the latest demonstrations against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who claims the recent wave of anti-government unrest is the work of conspirators.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Moussawi said Iraq would conduct more random searches to check for weapons heading for the forces of Syrian Pres. Assad or rebels seeking to topple his regime.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Iraq a string of bombings targeting Shiite mosques killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens. 19 of the deaths were in Baghdad and 4 in Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In central Nigeria attackers in the Barkin Ladi area raided a village called Bokkos and killed nine people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 29, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned that his rocket forces were ready "to settle accounts with the US," unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after US nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a convoy carrying paramilitary police commander Abdul Majeed Marwat, killing at least 10 people, including two women in Peshawar.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 29, In Sri Lanka Buddhists attacked a warehouse of the Fashion Bug chain near the Colombo as police stood by. The attack was filmed by a local television station whose cameraman was attacked by the mob in the most recent public outburst in a growing anti-Muslim campaign by Buddhist nationalist groups in the island nation.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIlmeQWicEM)(AP, 4/7/13)
2013 Mar 29, Syrian rebels captured a strategic town near the border with Jordan. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 rebels were among the dead in the fighting in and around Dael.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Tanzania at least 18 people died after a 12-story building under construction collapsed in Dar es Salaam. By April 1 the death toll was raised to at least 30.
(AP, 3/30/13)(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 29, A top UNICEF official said as many as 240,000 children have missed UN-backed vaccinations against polio because of security concerns in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, Vietnam unveiled its new, 1,864-foot-long steel Dragon Bridge in Da Nang shaped like a dragon that literally shoots fire from its mouth. It cost about $85 million to construct and was built by the Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey-based construction and architecture firm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_River_Bridge)
2013 Mar 30, In Mississippi nearly 50 people were arrested at a dogfight in Benton County following a months-long investigation.
(SFC, 4/2/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 30, In Nevada a freeway crash on I-15 killed five Southern California family members and injured two others. On April 10 Jean Ervin Soriano (18), a juvenile detention escapee, was charged with seven felony charges of driving under the influence. He had a blood-alcohol percentage of 0.12, well above the Nevada legal limit of 0.08 percent.
(AP, 4/10/13)
2013 Mar 30, Phil Ramone (1934), Grammy-award winning producer, died. He was a pioneer of digital recording and produced what is regarded as the first major commercial release on compact disc, “52nd Street," which came out in 1982.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A12)
2013 Mar 30, In Afghanistan US special operations forces handed over their base in Nirkh district, Wardak province, to local Afghan special forces.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Officials said big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Egyptian state prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Bassem Youssef, a popular TV satirist for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's president.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Egyptian police detained 13 people including five lawyers, accusing them of assaulting police in the city of Alexandria.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, In northern France five young siblings, aged 2-10, died after a fire erupted in a home in the town of Saint Quentin.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 30, Xabier Lopez Pena (alias Thierry), a former leader of armed Basque separatist group ETA, died from a stroke in a French hospital.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Italy’s Pres. Giorgio Napolitano named 10 outside experts to try to help end political gridlock that has prevented the formation of a government more than a month after inconclusive national elections.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 30, Kenya's Supreme Court upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president. Protests led to clashes leaving 5 people dead.
(AP, 3/30/13)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 30, In Lebanon shells from inside Syria exploded in 4 villages late today near the northern border. Residents reported an unpleasant smell after the strikes.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 30, In northern Mali fighting Islamic extremists linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, attacked Timbuktu late today. Fighting continued in to the next day.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 30, In Mauritius rivers of water rose swiftly in a pedestrian underpass leading to the waterfront and an underground car park in Port Louis. At least 11 people were killed in the flash flooding. The next day PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam blamed climate change for the floods.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 30, In Mexico a bus collided with a truck in Veracruz state and plunged over a cliff killing 12 people.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 30, North Korea warned Seoul that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, In southern Pakistan a man armed with a gun and grenades attacked a school in Karachi during a prize distribution ceremony, killing its principal and wounding six children before fleeing.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Five South African air force members died in the crash of a helicopter that was patrolling in an anti-rhino poaching operation in Kruger National Park.
(AP, 3/31/13)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 30, Syrian rebels pushed into a strategic neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy clashes, seizing control of at least part of the hilltop district and killing Hassan Seifeddine, a pro-government Sunni Muslim cleric captured in the fighting. Activists reported violence in areas the southern province of Daraa, the suburbs of Damascus and the northern regions of Idlib and Raqqa.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 31, An Alaska State Trooper helicopter crashed overnight during a mission to rescue a stranded snowmobiler. All three onboard were believed killed.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 31, Tesla reported that it had scored the first quarterly profit in its history after selling more luxury electric cars than forecast.
(SFC, 4/2/13, p.D1)
2013 Mar 31, Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai met with the emir of Qatar in Doha to discuss the possible opening of a Taliban office in Qatar.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 31, In Brazil a French man and US woman studying Portuguese were held for hours while the woman was sexually assaulted aboard a public transport van they boarded in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach neighborhood. Three men, ages 20 to 22, were soon taken into custody and a third was being sought in connection with the attack. Police later detained a 14-year-old suspected of participating in the attack. On Aug 14 three men were convicted of grand theft, rape and extortion.
(AP, 4/2/13)(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A3)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)(Reuters, 8/15/13)
2013 Mar 31, Chinese officials confirmed that three recent cases of influenza were due to a new strain called H7N9.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.83)
2013 Mar 31, A study by the New Delhi-based Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the number of foreigners traveling to India has dropped by 25 percent due to sex attacks. The number of women tourists has dropped by 35 percent.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 31, Israel began receiving natural gas from the Tamar reservoir in the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Ashdod.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 31, In Kuwait a lower court sentenced online activist Hamed al-Khaledi to two years in jail for insulting the country's emir.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 31, In Morocco several thousand members of the country’s two largest labor unions marched through Rabat to protest the Islamist-led governments planned economic and labor reforms and its failure to stem unemployment and inflation.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 31, Nigeria's military said soldiers have attacked a home in Kano believed to harbor Islamic extremists. The assault killed 14 people. At least 19 people were reported killed after gunmen, believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders, raided Ataka village in Kaduna state.
(AP, 3/31/13)(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 31, In Pakistan Taliban militants attacked with a roadside bomb the election motorcade of Malik Adnan Wazir, a secularist-backed politician, wounding him and killing two of his supporters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 31, Syria's state news said rebels have set fire to 3 oil wells. SANA said that the fires would cause a daily loss of 4,670 barrels of oil and 52 cubic meters of natural gas. SANA said rebels have set fire to a total of nine wells in recent months.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 31, Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message to the world.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar, The Nielsen Co. started labeling people who have stopped using traditional TV service in their homes as "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. These people were watching shows and movies on the Internet. There were now 5 million of these residences in the US, up from 2 million in 2007.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Mar, The average wage in America was reported to be $22 per hour.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.76)
2013 Mar, Chile became the 14th Latin American country to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.38)
2013 Mar, Bogota, the capital of Colombia, began compensating its 15,000 waste pickers for their services, paying 82,860 pesos ($44) per ton of garbage collected.
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.65)
2013 Mar, Lord's Resistance Army fighters in Congo released 28 abductees, women and children, suggesting the group is undergoing turmoil amid a manhunt, supported by US military advisers, for its leaders.
(AP, 4/5/13)
2013 Mar, The UN Development Program named CongoDRC the least developed country in the world. It was tied with Niger.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.74)
2013 Mar, Dominican Republic authorities in Punta Cana arrested 4 French men as they were preparing to leave on a privately hired mid-size Dassault Falcon 50 jet with 26 suitcases containing 680 kg (1,500 pounds) of cocaine. All four men denied they knew that the drugs were on board the plane. In 2015 pilot Pascal Fauret and co-pilot Bruno Odos escaped to France.
(AFP, 11/2/15)
2013 Mar, France’s highest legal authority said no individual tax should exceed 66.6%.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.60)
2013 Mar, French entrepreneurs decided to launch a new 3-year school for software developers. The school, named “42," soon received 50 thousand applications for 1,000 student positions.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.47)
2013 Mar, The German fictional 3-part, TV drama “Unsere Mutter, Unsere Vater" (Our Mothers, Our Fathers) tracked the lives of five young friends from 1941-1945. Itaveraged 7.6 million viewers per night.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.50)
2013 Mar, The government of Grenada defaulted on its dollar bonds.
(Econ, 11/9/13, p.78)
2013 Mar, Deaths from Haiti’s cholera epidemic, which began in 2010, reached 8,205.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.38)
2013 Mar, In Honduras two mothers discovered the bodies of their sons after the men had called in a panic to say they were surrounded by armed, masked police. The two members of the 18th Street gang had been shot in the head, their hands bound so tightly the cords cut to the bone.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 Mar, The US suspended funding for the cleanup effort of the Honduras police force. In June the US Embassy made public confirmation of the suspension. 142 officers failed out of 373 who took a polygraph test between May 2012, when the program started, and November, when a Honduran law authorizing the tests expired, but apparently none were fired.
(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Mar, In Mexico 7 young members of the National Ballet of Cuba defected while on a performing tour.
(SFC, 4/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar, Norway expelled the leadership of the Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA) separatists.
(http://tinyurl.com/qd8kbqg)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.46)
2013 Mar, Hamas' military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam bulldozed part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor, a site designated of historic value by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in order to make room for the group's terrorist training.
(http://tinyurl.com/cjyqtrt)
2013 Mar, Members of the Nusra Front extremist group executed 36 members of the Syrian security forces at a garbage site in the Syrian city of Tabqa. In 2017 four asylum seekers in Germany were accused of the executions and faced charges of war crimes, murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2013 Mar, Chinese-led criminal gangs conspired with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, some of which was loaded in diplomatic bags on Pres. Xi's plane during a presidential visit.
(AP, 11/6/14)
Go to April 2013
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Return to home
2013 Jan 1, The House of Representatives easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation. It hiked rates on income above $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for households, while exemptions and deductions the wealthiest Americans use to reduce their tax bill face new limits. It also set up another “fiscal cliff" confrontation in a matter of weeks.
(AP, 1/1/13)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 1, California began its cap-and-trade scheme for emitters of greenhouse gases. In 2006 former Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB32, which called for a cut in greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.29)
2013 Jan 1, Ten states kicked off the new year with a minimum wage rise of between 10 and 35 cents. The rises went into effect in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
(Reuters, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gay marriage became legal in Maryland, the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Michael Cronan (b.1951), graphic designer, died in Berkeley, Ca. He was best know for christening TiVo, the digital TV recorder, and Kindle, Amazon’s portable reading device.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 1, Patti Page (85), a top singer of the 1950s, died in Encinitas, Ca. Her hits included “Tennessee Waltz" (1950) and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window." She also co-starred with Burt Lancaster in “Elmer Gantry."
(SFC, 1/3/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 1, In Algeria seven insurgents were killed and arms, ammunition and medicine recovered in Boulzazene in the Boumerdes region. The operation killed Izza Rezki, the finance chief for Abdelmalek Droukdel, the head of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 1, In China the Southern Weekly of Guangdong province was forced to add a provided commentary glorifying the Chinese Communist Party with its annual new year editorial, which was intended to call for proper implementation of the country's constitution. The new year editorial with the title Dream of China, Dream of Constitutionalism, calling for the cementing of rights into a constitution, was replaced with praise of the Chinese Communist Party.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Southern_Weekly_incident)(Econ, 1/16/16, p.26)
2013 Jan 1, Tallinn, Estonia, launched free public transport for all of its citizens.
(AP, 4/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, An Ethiopian court found 10 men guilty of plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said young revelers set afire 1,193 vehicles, lamenting that this has become a way to mark the arrival of the New Year. His announcement was the first time in three years that such figures have been released.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In Hong Kong thousands of demonstrators in rival marches crowded the main shopping district to praise or condemn chief executive Leung Chun-ying. Critics accused him of misleading the public on a controversial real estate deal and of being a puppet installed by Beijing.
(SFC, 1/2/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 1, Ivory Coast at least 64 people, mostly children and teenagers, were killed early today in a stampede following a New Year's fireworks display in Abidjan. Survivors blamedmakeshift barricades.
(AP, 1/1/13)(AP, 1/2/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 1, Myanmar rang in 2013 with its first public New Year's Eve countdown and a grand fireworks display, a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.
(AP, 12/31/12)
2013 Jan 1, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center in Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Clashes began in the northern West Bank after Israeli forces dressed as merchants arrested one man. Regular forces then entered the town of Tamoun, and men began hurling rocks at them to prevent other arrests. At least 10 Palestinians were wounded.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, In the Philippines a “sin tax" on alcohol and tobacco came into effect. It had survived a 2012 Senate vote by a margin of one.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.86)
2013 Jan 1, Rwanda took a prestigious seat on the UN Security Council. Human Rights Watch has been calling on the Security Council for months to sanction the Rwandan officials the rights group believes is helping M23 rebels in eastern Congo.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 1, In South Africa three people died and 4,000 were displaced when fires swept through shacks in poor settlements in the Cape Town area on New Year's Day.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes took part in bombing Daraya, a few miles (kms) from the strategic military air base of Mazzeh, a western neighborhood of Damascus.
(AP, 1/1/13)
2013 Jan 2, President Obama signed the "fiscal cliff" legislation into law via autopen from Hawaii, where he is vacationing with his family.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, Al Jazeera said it will buy Current TV, the struggling cable channel founded by Al Gore and partners, in a move that will boost the Qatar-based broadcaster's footprint in the United States.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, Avis Budget Group agreed to buy Zipcar Inc., a rent by the hour car agency, for $491 million.
(SFC, 1/3/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 2, Jon Fromer (b.1946), musician, activist and television producer, died at his home in Mill Valley, Ca. He was the founder of Freedom Song Network, a coalition of Bay Area musicians dedicated to promoting human rights.
(SFC, 1/9/13, p.E8)
2013 Jan 2, Algerian security forces killed two radical Islamist insurgents in the same locality east of the capital where seven were killed a day earlier.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said more than 1.1 million people in Britain have succumbed to the norovirus winter vomiting disease so far this season.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, Colombia's chief prosecutor's office opened a preliminary criminal investigation into former President Alvaro Uribe over allegations he sponsored a killer far-right militia as a regional governor in the 1990s.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 2, Ethiopian security forces announced the arrest of 15 people alleged to be members of a terror cell linked with al-Qaida. Authorities said the suspects were trained by al-Shabab militants in neighboring Somalia and Kenya.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, Iranian media reported that Iran has captured 2 US RQ11 Raven surveillance drones over the last 17 months and that much of the data has been decoded by the army.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 2, Myanmar's military acknowledged launching airstrikes against ethnic Kachin rebels in the north and said it captured a hilltop post on Dec 29 from where the insurgents had attacked government supply convoys.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, In Pakistan Taliban commander Maulvi Nazir was among nine people killed in a missile strike on a house in Angoor Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region. Nazir had a truce with the Pakistani military.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, In Switzerland a man armed with an old military rifle and a handgun shot and killed three women and wounded two men in the village of Daillon. Police shot and wounded the suspect after he threatened to also shoot officers.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 2, A Syrian warplane blasted a gas station near Damascus, killing and wounding dozens of people and igniting a huge fire in one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks during the 22-month civil war. Rebels attacked the sprawling Taftanaz air base. Rebels bombarded the Mannagh air base, which has been subjected to almost daily attacks since late last month.
(AP, 1/2/13)
2013 Jan 2, The UN said more than 60,000 people have killed in the 21-months of the Syrian conflict.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 3, The new 113th US Congress convened. It was set to take a fresh crack at a number of old, and highly contentious, issues, such as gun control, immigration, the record debt, tax reform and the farm bill.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Officials said a smuggling ring brought narwhal tusks from the Canadian Arctic into Maine in a trailer with a secret compartment and then illegally sold them to American buyers. In 2015 Andrew Zarauskas (61) was sentenced to nearly three years for buying more than 30 tusks over six years from two Canadians.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A6)(SFC, 1/12/15, p.A6)
2013 Jan 3, Hormel Foods said it has agreed to buy the Skippy peanut butter business from Unilever for about $700 million.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.C3)
2013 Jan 3, The first report of genome editing was reported in separate papers by Feng Zhang, who began applying CRISPR-Cas9 in human cells in early 2011, and George Church.
(Econ, 9/5/15, p.22)
2013 Jan 3, Argentine Pres. Cristina Fernandez called on Britain to relinquish control of the Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Australian astronomers discovered a comet named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring). Scientists said it will pass about 50km from Mars on October 19, 2014. On Oct 19 the comet’s closest approach to Mars was about 140,000 km.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.80)(Econ, 10/25/14, p.82)
2013 Jan 3, The Basque nationalist group known as Batasuna, legal in France but banned in Spain, announced that it is dissolving after 11 years.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, British police extradited terror suspect Abid Naseer (26) to the United States to face charges that he took part in an alleged al-Qaida plot to detonate explosives aboard the New York City subway system.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Coalition military officials in Afghanistan said an elite Danish soldier was killed overnight by an explosive device.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In India 5 men accused of raping a university student for hours on a bus as it drove through New Delhi were charged with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty. A sixth suspect, listed as a 17-year-old, was expected to be tried in a juvenile court, where the maximum sentence would be three years in a reform facility. Authorities said they will seek the death penalty against the 5 men.
(AP, 1/3/13)(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, Iraqi authorities ordered the release of 11 women facing criminal charges and pledged to transfer other women prisoners to jails in their home provinces, in a move to address a main demand during a wave of protests by the country's Sunni minority against the Baghdad government. A car bomb struck a procession of Shiite pilgrims in the town of Musayyib, about 60 km south of Baghdad, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In northeast Nigeria at least 43 people were killed when gunmen suspected of belonging to Boko Haram attacked the town of Song.
(SFC, 1/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 3, In Northern Ireland 8 police officers were injured when protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall turned violent for the first time in more than two weeks.
(Reuters, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Pakistan a US drone strike took place near Mir Ali, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region. One missile hit a vehicle near the town, followed by another missile when people rushed to the vehicle to help people in the car. Officials said four people were killed in the strike.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Palestinian officials said Israeli undercover troops broke into a West Bank house in a failed arrest raid near Jenin, igniting a violent protest and signaling that Israeli-Palestinian security coordination may be in trouble.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, Russia announced that President Vladimir Putin has approved French actor Gerard Depardieu's application for citizenship.
(AP, 1/3/13)
2013 Jan 3, In Russia Denis Burakov (27), was killed when a transparent plastic ball, known as a zorb, veered off course and sailed over a rock ledge at the Dombai ski resort in the rugged Caucasus Mountains. His friend Vladimir Shcherbakov survived.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian troops and rebels fought intense battles around the Taftanaz air base in the country's north and a suburb of the capital that government forces have been trying to capture since last month. Rebels reportedly killed the commander of the air base, a brigadier general. The Observatory and the LCC said 8 people were killed in Douma and nearby areas. Dozens of people were also killed or wounded in the town of Hayan in Aleppo province. A car bomb blew up in a Damascus gas station, killing at least 9 people.
(AP, 1/3/13)(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 3, Syrian journalist Suheil al-Ali, who worked for a pro-government television station, died four days after a "terrorist" opened fire on him as he was returning home from work in the suburbs of Damascus.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 4, The US House overwhelmingly approved $9.7 billion to pay flood insurance claims for the many home and business owners flooded out by the storm. The Senate was expected to pass the bill later in the day.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A Beechcraft BE35 crashed on its way to the Flagler County Airport in Palm Coast, Florida, killing at least 3 people.
(SFC, 1/5/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 4, Afghan Police Maj. Jalal Uddin said that 80 prisoners, formerly held by the US, were freed from prisons across the country today, the latest batch of a total of 400 to be released this week. The released prisoners had been captured in operations against the Taliban and other groups.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, British police charged Nepali army colonel Kumar Lama (46) with two counts of torture committed in 2005 during the Himalayan nation's decade-long civil war, despite the Nepali government's demanding his immediate release.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, The Church of England confirmed that its House of Bishops, one of its most senior bodies, has ended an 18-month moratorium on the appointment of gays in civil partnerships as bishops. The decision was made in late December.
(Reuters, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, In southern Chile Werner Luchsinger (75) and wife Vivian McKay, whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians, were killed in an arson attack while trying to defend their home. The attack began the previous evening as one of many political protests around Chile commemorating the death five years ago of Mapuche activist Matias Catrileo, who was shot in the back by an officer who served a minor sentence and then rejoined the police. In 2014 Celestino Cordova Transito (27) was convicted for killing the couple.
(AP, 1/4/13)(SFC, 2/21/14, p.A2)
2013 Jan 4, Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007. Hamas condoned the demonstration.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, Six Russians were killed and two seriously injured when the snowmobile and sled they were riding veered off an Italian Alpine ski slope at night, slammed into a barrier and flew through the air into a ravine.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 4, Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who moved to Somalia to wage jihad alongside al-Shabab militants, was given 15 days to surrender to militants or be killed. The FBI has named Hammami as one of its most-wanted terrorists.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 4, Syrian ground and air forces bombarded rebel strongholds on the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country. Anti-government forces targeted a military post near the capital with a car bomb.
(AP, 1/4/13)
2013 Jan 4, A small plane disappeared off the Venezuelan coast with six people aboard, including Vittorio Missoni (58), a top executive in Italy's Missoni fashion house. Wreckage of the plane was found in June.
(AP, 1/5/13)(AP, 6/27/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Colorado a gun man in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, fired shots at police before he was gunned down. Inside the home SWAT officers found the bodies of 3 adults.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A7)
2013 Jan 5, In North Carolina Pat McCrory was sworn in as governor, becoming the first Republican to head the state in 20 years.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A7)
2013 Jan 5, In Canada aboriginal demonstrators disrupted passenger rail service on routes connecting Toronto with Ottawa and Montreal, a day after PM Harper agreed to meet with First Nations leaders to discuss grievances behind a growing native protest movement.
(Reuters, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In the Central African Republic the Seleka alliance rebels took Alindao town raising their control to 11 towns.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Egypt unidentified gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian policeman in northern Sinai's main city of el-Arish.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Hungary journalist Zsolt Bayer, a founding member of the governing Fidesz party, wrote a newspaper column in which he said: "a significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence. They are not fit to live among people. These Roma are animals and they behave like animals."
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 5, Indonesia anti-terror police shot and killed 5 suspected Islamist militants over the last 24 hours in raids on the island of Sumbawa.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 5, In Kenya a poaching gang used gunfire to kill an entire family of 11 elephants in Tsavo National Park for their ivory tusks.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 5, A Moroccan family of 5 returning home died when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Grenoble airport near the French Alps.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In northwest Nigeria suspected armed robbers raided three villages in Zamfara state, killing at least 7 people and wounding 7 more.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 5, Northern Ireland police used water cannons to fend off brick-hurling protesters in Belfast as demonstrations continued over flying the British flag.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 5, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels and government troops clashed in suburbs south of Damascus, including Harasta and Daraya. The Observatory, which relies on reports by activists on the ground, said government troops had arrested several residents in raids in the suburb of Qatana.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Venezuela allies of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez chose to retain Diosdado Cabello as the National Assembly president. He could be in line to step in as a caretaker leader in some circumstances.
(AP, 1/5/13)
2013 Jan 5, In Zimbabwe eight people died in a bus crash that brought the traffic accident death toll during the holiday period to the highest on record in the country. The central police traffic command said 209 people have died in accidents since Dec. 15.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, The White House said Pres. Obama has signed a $9.7 billion bill to pay flood insurance claims from Superstorm Sandy.
(SFC, 1/7/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 6, In San Francisco Dexter Oliver set his girlfriend, Starr Lamare, on fire in an apparent dispute over laundry. On Nov. 2, 2017, Oliver (27) pleaded guilty to attempted murder. On Jan 4, 2018, Oliver was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
(SFC, 11/3/17, p.D2)(SFC, 1/5/18, p.D1)
2013 Jan 6, Huell Howser (67), public TV figure, died. His “California Gold" TV series ran for 19 seasons and spawned 6 spin-off series.
(SFC, 1/8/13, p.C5)
2013 Jan 6, In Afghanistan 2 suicide bombers penetrated a government compound killing five people in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province. In Helmand province a bomb planted at a bus station killed one policeman and wounded another person.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Libya's interim president Mohammed al-Megarif survived an overnight assassination attempt in an oasis city in the country's southern deserts.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 6, Pakistan and India traded accusations of violating the cease-fire in the disputed northern region of Kashmir, with Islamabad accusing Indian troops of a cross-border raid that killed one of its soldiers and India charging that Pakistani shelling destroyed a home on its side.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, In Pakistan suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, killing 9 Pakistani Taliban fighters.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas ordered his government to officially change the name of the Palestinian Authority to "State of Palestine."
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, In the Philippines gunmen riding in three black SUVs opened fire on more than 50 army and police troopers who flagged down the vehicles late today in the coastal town of Atimonan in Quezon province. At least three police personnel were among 13 suspected criminals who were gunned down in the shootout on Luzon island.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 6, Somalia’s Universal TV reported that armed men in police uniform had raped a young woman. The same day Al Jazeera published an article describing rape by security forces in camps for internally displaced people in Mogadishu. Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim then interviewed the woman but never published a story. He was arrested for conducting the interview.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 6, The South African presidency announced that is sending 400 army troops to Central African Republic to help the country's army as it faces a threat from a coalition of rebel groups. Neighboring countries Cameroon, Gabon and Republic of Congo already have sent about 120 troops each to help stabilize the country confronted by the rebellion.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Spain’s “El Nino" lottery showered €840 million ($1.1 billion) on top ticket holders in five regions as the country endured a deep recession and high unemployment.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Syria’s Pres. Bashar Assad offered a national reconciliation conference, elections and a new constitution but demanded regional and Western countries stop funding and arming rebels trying to overthrow him first. Syria's opposition swiftly rejected the proposal. Fighting between rebels and government forces raged across the country.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 6, Yemen's state security court sentenced five alleged al-Qaida militants to up to 10 years in prison for carrying out attacks against security forces and supporting the group logistically in the southern province of Abyan in 2011. The court ordered the release of six others who had already spent about 18 months in detention.
(AP, 1/6/13)
2013 Jan 7, President Obama nominated former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for secretary of Defense and counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Bank of America said it will spend more than $10 billion to settle mortgage claims resulting from the housing meltdown.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, The 752-foot Overseas Reymar rammed a SF Bay Bridge tower as it headed out to sea. The bridge sustained minor damage but remained opened immediately after the accident.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, The Oakland Museum of California was robbed of a gold-and-quartz jewelry box. It dated to 1869-1878 and was valued at $805,000. The museum had just lost a pistol and gold nuggets in a robbery on Nov 12. Parolee Andre Taray Franklin (45) was arrested on March 3. Police recovered the jewelry box but not the other items. On Jan 3, 2014, Franklin was sentenced to four years in prison.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A6)(SFC, 6/5/14, p.D2)
2013 Jan 7, In Chicago Cedric Chatman (17) was fatally shot by police after running from police following a suspected car-jacking. In 2016 the city’s law department recommended a $3 million settlement with Chatman’s family.
(http://tinyurl.com/jkcqqq6)(SFC, 12/10/16, p.A8)
2013 Jan 7, Richard Ben Cramer (b.1950), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, died in Baltimore. His narrative non-fiction spanned presidential politics and baseball.
(SFC, 1/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 7, In New York City Rodney Alcala, a convicted serial killer from southern California, was sentenced to an additional 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover in NYC in the 1970s.
(SFC, 1/8/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 7, In Oklahoma 4 young women were found shot to death in a Tulsa apartment.
(SFC, 1/8/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 7, Fred Turner (80), former CEO and chairman of McDonald’s Corp., died. He introduced the first Drive-Thru in 1975.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.82)
2013 Jan 7, An Afghan soldier turned his weapon against foreign and Afghan troops in a southern province, killing one British soldier. 6 British soldiers were also reported wounded.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Australia officials searched for bodies among the charred ruins of more than 100 homes and other buildings destroyed by wildfires in the island state of Tasmania. Around 100 residents remained unaccounted for, three days after the fires broke out.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, A Cameroon court overturned the conviction of two men who were sentenced for five years in prison for "looking gay" and ordering Bailey's Irish Cream. The two men had already spent more than a year in jail where they were subjected to abuse from guards and other prisoners.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, An island doctor said Cuba is eliminating longstanding restrictions on health care professionals' overseas travel as part of a broader migration reform that takes effect next week.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, John Dramani Mahama became president of Ghana, sworn in as the opposition continues to dispute election results in one of West African's most stable democracies.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Italy former Premier Silvio Berlusconi announced a deal with the Northern League, his fractious coalition partner in three governments, to jointly run in Italy's election next month.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Kuwait's pro-government Al Watan newspaper reported that Ayyad al-Harbi, a journalist at news website Sabr, was charged with posting Twitter messages considered offensive to the nation's Western-allied emir and that he was sentenced to two years in prison for the posts.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Mexican authorities said wild dogs mauled and killed four people whose bodies were found over the past two weeks in a park on the edge of Mexico City.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, The Dutch military shipped Patriot missiles to Turkey, a fellow NATO member, after the alliance agreed in December to deploy the anti-missile systems along Turkey's southern border with Syria. Fighting in Syria continued unabated.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 7, Northern Ireland police came under attack for a fifth straight night as the province's police chief urged politicians and parents to act to halt the riots on Belfast streets.
(Reuters, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Senegal a man in front of the gates to the palace in Dakar doused in flammable liquid and then lit the fire. He was later taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In South Africa a Johannesburg hotel manager discovered the body of American movie director David R. Ellis (60). Police said Ellis, who directed the movie "Snakes on a Plane," was last seen Jan 5 in a restaurant by a friend.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In Tunisia Ali Harzi (26), a man linked by officials to the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, was conditionally released by a Tunisian judge due to lack of evidence.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 7, In northern Turkey a gas leak inside a coal mine killed five workers and injured one. Two other miners are missing and feared dead in Zonguldak province.
(AP, 1/7/13)
2013 Jan 8, In northern Afghanistan gunmen killed two local government officials in separate attacks in Kunduz province.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A court in Algiers convicted Amar Gharbia (39) of taking part in the 2003 kidnapping of 15 European tourists, mainly German, in the Sahara Desert and sentenced him to life in prison. Youcef Ben Mohamed (25) of Mali was also convicted and imprisoned for seven years. Both belonged to the Salafist Group for Call and Combat which later transformed into al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In London 2 former employees of HBOS were charged by UK prosecutors over business loans made through a high street bank for about 35 million pounds.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 8, Pro-British protesters pelted police with petrol bombs and fireworks in a sixth successive night of rioting in Northern Ireland's capital of Belfast.
(Reuters, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A Canadian federal court ruled that 200,000 Metis and 400,000 First nations’ people living outside reserves should also be considered to be Indians under the constitution.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 8, In China free-speech protesters in masks squared off against flag-waving communist loyalists in Guangzhou as a dispute over censorship at a newspaper spilled into the broader population, with authorities shutting microblog accounts of supporters of the paper.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A European court ruled that Italy's woefully overcrowded prisons violate the basic rights of inmates, fined the government €100,000 ($131,000) and ordered it to make changes within a year. The finding came three years after Italy's government recognized the problem itself but failed to pass legislation designed to correct it.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A Paris court convicted nine people for links to a militant group that the UN Security Council has described as an al-Qaida affiliate. Suspected ringleader, Irfan Demirtas (53), a Turkish-Dutch national, was given an eight-year sentence, €20,000 ($26,170) fine and barred from French territory after his sentence is up.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, A lawyer for former detainees of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said 71 former detainees received a portion of a $5.28 million settlement involving US defense contractor Engility Holdings. The company’s L-3 Services subsidiary was accused of conspiring to torture the detainees.
(SFC, 1/9/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Jordan Syrian refugees in a refugee camp attacked aid workers with sticks and stones, frustrated after cold, howling winds swept away their tents and torrential rains flooded muddy streets overnight.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Kenya’s The National Police Service Commission suspended three senior police officers from the Rift Valley province where Joshua Waiganjo (34) operated as a fake officer extorting money from civilians. Commission Chairman Johnston Kavuludi said Waiganjo's case has prompted a detailed audit of all police to weed out "ghost" officers.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 8, An Indian army official said Pakistani soldiers crossed the cease-fire line in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and attacked an army patrol, killing two Indian soldiers before retreating back into Pakistani-controlled territory.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Nigeria a massive fire tore through a waterfront slum in Lagos, burning down dozens of shack workshops and homes. There were no firefighters, trucks or emergency equipment seen in the neighborhood.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Students at North Korea's premier university showed Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt how they look for information online: they Google it. Kim Su Hyang, a librarian, said students at Kim Il Sung University have had Internet access since the laboratory opened in April 2010.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, In Pakistan several missiles fired from American drones slammed into a compound near the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing eight suspected militants.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Palestinian factions in Syria called for a cease-fire after fighting flared at a refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. 5 people were killed on Yarmouk Street, four of them when a shell exploded and the fifth in sniper fire.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 8, Slovenia’s official anti-corruption commission said PM Janez Jansa and opposition leader Zoran Jankovic had questions to answer.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.55)
2013 Jan 8, The UN World Food Program said it is unable to help 1 million Syrians who are going hungry.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 9, Google said it is putting $200 million into a Texas Panhandle wind farm.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.C6)
2013 Jan 9, Argentina’s ARA Libertad naval ship returned home from Ghana after being held there on a claim by a Cayman Islands-based hedge fund.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 9, In Australia Richard Ammar Chichakli, a Syrian-born American, was arrested on charges that he conspired with Viktor Bout and others to try to buy aircraft from two companies in the United States.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, British health officials said a new strain of the winter vomiting disease norovirus has spread to France, New Zealand and Japan from Australia and is overtaking all others to become the dominant local strain.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Talks on the crisis in Central African Republic began in Gabon with representatives of the government, rebels and other groups.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, In France 3 Kurdish women, including Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of a militant group battling Turkish troops since 1984, were "executed" at the Kurdish Information Center in Paris. Protesters blamed Turkey. A Turkish lawmaker claimed the women were slain in a dispute between PKK factions. Omer Guney (34) was later charged with murder in the killings of Cansiz, Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan. On Dec 17, 2016, Guney died from brain disease.
(AP, 1/10/13)(AP, 12/18/16)
2013 Jan 9, In Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers made a symbolic attempt to impeach Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. The 27 pro-democracy legislators were outnumbered by pro-Beijing representatives in the 70-seat Legislative Council.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Legislators in Kenya voted themselves a hefty pay package in a late-evening vote on the last day of session before national elections. The bill also would give Kenya's president, vice president and prime minister hefty retirement packages, in a move that could tempt President Mwai Kibaki not to veto the legislation.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, In eastern Kenya 7 people were killed in tribal violence near the Tana River after more than 100 people launched an attack on a local village.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Mexico’s government enacted a new law that require authorities to assist victims of drug-related violence and establish as fund for possible reparations.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 9, The Mali army attacked Islamist rebels with heavy weapons in the center of the country which divides the insurgent-held north and the government-controlled south.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, In northwest Pakistan truckers who carry supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan went on strike to protest lower pay, inadequate security and corrupt officials who demand bribes from the truckers.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Saudi authorities beheaded a Sri Lankan domestic worker for killing a Saudi baby in her care in 2005. Rizana Nafeek, 17 at the time of the killing, had denied strangling the 4-month-old boy.
(AP, 1/9/13)(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 9, A fuel shortage has hit Sierra Leone, causing rationing and long lines at gas stations and hampering the movement of vehicles and goods in the West African nation.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, South African police fired rubber bullets at striking farm workers who set up barricades and threw stones at motorists and security forces in Western Cape province whose vineyards are vital to the wine industry. At least 50 demonstrators were arrested.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, The Sudanese army said its soldiers have killed at least 30 rebels in clashes in the troubled North Darfur region. The rebel forces were said to belong to the Justice and Equality Movement.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, Syrian rebels freed 48 Iranians held captive since August in exchange for the release of more than 2,000 detainees in the first major prisoner swap of the country's civil war.
(AP, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 9, The NATO alliance detected the launch of an unguided, short-range ballistic missile in Syria.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 9, A Vietnamese court found 14 democracy activists guilty of subversion and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from 3-13 years.
(SFC, 1/10/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 10, President Barack Obama signed into a law a measure giving him, George W. Bush and future former presidents and their spouses lifetime Secret Service protection. This rolled back a mid-1990s law that imposed a 10-year limit on Secret Service protection for former presidents.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 10, Pres, Obama signed a bill making California’s Pinnacles National Monument the nation’s 59th national park.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 10, The US Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable Oracle Corp's Java software, amplifying security experts' prior warnings to hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses that use it to surf the Web.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 10, California's Governor Jerry Brown said the state budget deficit is gone after years of financial troubles as he proposed a state budget plan that would raise spending on education and healthcare, boosting total expenditures by 5 percent with a surplus remaining.
(Reuters, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In California a student (16) armed with a shotgun opened fire at Taft Union High School in Kern County, critically wounding a fellow student before two adult staff members talked the boy into giving up his weapon, and he was arrested.
(Reuters, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Evan Connell Jr. (b.1924), historian and novelist, was found dead at his home in Santa Fe, NM. His books included "Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn" (1984) and “the Alchemyst’s Journal" (1991).
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.C12)
2013 Jan 10, Belgium PM Elio Di Rupo chastised Queen Fabiola over her inheritance plans, which have widely seen as a tax dodge on a fortune amassed with taxpayer money.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 10, In Brazil Chilean artist Jorge Selaron (b.1947), a symbol of his adopted city of Rio de Janeiro, was found dead in front of his house. In 1990 he began a staircase project in the Lapa neighborhood tiling steps and collecting old porcelain bathtubs to use as planters along the sides.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, British Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn (53) was found guilty of one count of misconduct for trying to sell information to one of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids.
(SFC, 1/11/13, p.A3)
2013 Jan 10, Journalist Paul Salopek (50) departed a small Ethiopian village and took the first steps of a planned 21,000-mile (34,000-km) walk that will cross some 30 borders, where he will encounter dozens of languages and scores of ethnic groups. The walk from Ethiopia to Chile, which took human ancestors some 50,000 years to make, is called Out of Eden and is sponsored by National Geographic, the Knight Foundation and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Georgia opposition groups and NGOs announced that more than 1 million of Georgia's 4.6 million citizens have signed a petition calling for the resignation of Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 10, Honduras’ El Heraldo newspaper reported that police overnight had captured Kevin Samraid Carranza Padilla (28), a leader of the 18th Street gang along with his girlfriend, Cindy Yadira Garcia (19). Carranza was suspected in the shooting death of a police officer months earlier. Carranza and Yadira were later reported disappeared.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A16)
2013 Jan 10, In Iraq a series of attacks on a bus stop, police patrol and a convoy carrying the head of a university killed eight people and wounded 20 others.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Indian troops fired across the disputed Kashmir border and killed a Pakistani soldier, the third deadly incident in the disputed Himalayan region in recent days.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In Israel an explosion went off in a car near a bus in Tel Aviv in what police said was a criminally motivated assassination attempt. Four people were slightly injured.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, A Kenyan community retaliated with their own tribal assault, killing 10 people and furthering a tribal feud that threatens to explode as March elections approach.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Islamists, who rule northern Mali, clashed with government forces for the first time in nearly a year, seizing the strategic city of Konna as the al-Qaida-linked militants pushed toward the government line of control in the center of the troubled country.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In southwest Pakistan a bomb targeting paramilitary soldiers killed 12 people in Quetta. Another 86 people, mostly Shiite Muslims, were killed in twin bombings at a billiards hall in Quetta. 5 suspected militants died in a US drone strike in Mir Ali, North Waziristan. A gas cylinder explosion ripped through a crowded mosque in the northwest city of Mingora, killing 21 people and injuring more than 70 others.
(AP, 1/10/13)(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 10, Russia said that an adoption deal with the US will remain valid until 2014 despite a new Russian law banning the practice, but no new adoptions will be permitted and only those already cleared by Russian courts before the ban will be allowed to complete.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Somali journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim, a freelance journalist, was arrested by police after interviewing a woman who said she was raped by government security forces. She was also briefly arrested and questioned by police before being released.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 10, In northern Switzerland two passenger trains collided near a station, injuring 17 people in Schaffhausen canton.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, Rebels trying to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime battled army troops inside an air base in the north as government forces fought opposition strongholds near the seat of his government in Damascus.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In Venezuela thousands of chanting supporters of President Hugo Chavez rallied outside his presidential palace in an exuberant alternative inauguration for a leader too ill to return home for the real thing.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 10, In Yemen Ali Abdul-Salam, a prominent tribal chief, was killed in an ambush, an apparent revenge attack by al-Qaida for his security links.
(AP, 1/10/13)
2013 Jan 11, Pres. Barack Obama and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai met in Washington to discuss bringing down the curtain in the long Afghan war.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 11, A US federal judge barred California from enforcing a voter-approved law that requires 73,000 registered sex offenders to disclose their internet identities to police.
(SFC, 1/12/13, p.C1)
2013 Jan 11, Aaron Schwartz (26), computer programmer, was found dead in his NY apartment. At age 14 he helped create RSS (RDF Site Summary), a web feed format used to publish frequently updated works. He also co-founded Reddit, a social news website which was sold in 2006 to Conde Nast.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A6)(SFC, 1/14/13, p.A5)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.94)
2013 Jan 11, In Argentina the Buenos Aires federal court ratified charges previously filed against former transportation secretaries Juan Pablo Schiavi and Ricardo Jaime in connection with a crash that killed 51 people on Feb 22, 2012.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Bahrain a fire killed 13 people in a migrant labor camp in Manama.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 11, Bolivia became the first country to negotiate a partial opt out from the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.59)
2013 Jan 11, British police released a report saying the late entertainer Jimmy Savile committed more than 200 sex crimes from 1955-2009, with most victims children and teens assaulted the length and breadth of Britain, from TV studios to hospitals and even a hospice.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Central African Republic President Francois Bozize and the rebels who sought to overthrow him reached a deal that will allow him to stay in office until his term ends in 2016.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In China a landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village, Yunnan province. At least 46 people were killed.
(SSFC, 1/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 11, In Egypt Islamist militants attacked a police patrol along a pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula that transports natural gas to Jordan, wounding seven policemen.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Iraq a dozen prisoners, including al-Qaida-linked death row inmates, escaped from the Taji prison near Baghdad. Thousands of mostly Sunni protesters rallied in the capital and other parts of the country, keeping pressure on the government for the release of detainees and changes to a tough counterterrorism law that Sunnis believe unfairly targets their sect.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Mali radical Islamists held on to the central city of Konna after sending the Malian military reeling in retreat. French President Francois Hollande ordered air strikes to stop the Islamist extremists. This was the start of Operation Serval. French airstrikes began over Konna leaving civilian casualties.
(AP, 1/11/13)(AP, 1/26/13)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.53)
2013 Jan 11, Police in Northern Ireland fired plastic bullets and water cannon at rioters who wounded four officers with missiles and petrol bombs in the latest outbreak of anger at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In the Philippines a fire swept through the Dryden Hotel, a small two-story tourist hotel in Olongapo city, killing 7 people, including 3 Americans, 3 Filipinos and a South Korean.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah issued two royal decrees granting women 30 seats on the Shura Council, which has 150 members plus a president. The council reviews laws and questions ministers, but doesn't have legislative powers.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Slovenia some 10,000 protesters urged PM Janez Jansa and opposition leader Zoran Jankovic to resign after an official report accused them of graft.
(SFC, 1/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 11, Spanish police said they have arrested two people and seized equipment they say was due to be shipped to Iran for use in Tehran's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Sri Lanka's Parliament voted 155-49 to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, deepening a standoff between the judiciary and the government, which is controlled by the country's most powerful family. Last month a parliamentary committee ruled that she had unexplained wealth and had misused her power.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Syria Islamic militants seeking to topple Pres. Bashar Assad took full control of the strategic Taftanaz air base in a significant blow to government forces, seizing helicopters, tanks and multiple rocket launchers. Government warplanes bombed the air base after the rebel takeover.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, Zimbabwe's largest platinum mining company, Ziomplats, said it has signed a deal to sell off its majority shareholding to the government as part of the country's black empowerment laws.
(AP, 1/11/13)
2013 Jan 11, In Zimbabwe Professor Gordon Chavunduka (82), the leader of the organization of tribal healers, died. The eminent academic, author, sociologist and politician, a former head of the main Zimbabwe University, was widely known for his research and writing that did much to bridge the gap between Western medical practices and Africa's traditional, tribal and herbalist healers.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Florida nearely 800 people began month-long "Python Challenge" to deal with an infestation of Burmese pythons that were eating their way through a fragile ecosystem. Roughly 2,050 pythons have been harvested in Florida since 2000.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Las Vegas Mallory Hagan, a 23-year-old blonde from Brooklyn, N.Y., won the Miss America crown after deftly dealing with a question about armed guards in schools and raising the issue of child sexual abuse in her contestant platform.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 12, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a public health emergency, giving pharmacists permission to administer flu vaccinations to more people as officials seek to stem the worst flu outbreak in that state in several years.
(Reuters, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Three men from Utah died when their plane went down near Paris, Texas.
(SFC, 1/14/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 12, Four Chinese workers were abducted in Sudan's North Darfur region by unidentified gunmen. They were released on Jan 16. Eleven Sudanese workers who were abducted together with the Chinese remained hostages.
(AP, 1/14/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 12, The Czech Republic held presidential elections in a direct popular vote for the first time, choosing from nine candidates to replace euroskeptic President Vaclav Klaus. Some 61.3% of Czech voters cast their ballots. Former leftist PM Milos Zeman and Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg appeared to be the front runners. With no candidate achieving a majority, the top two finishers would face each other in a runoff in two weeks.
(AP, 1/12/13)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.55)
2013 Jan 12, An Egyptian court ordered a religious TV program hosted by a fiery preacher off the air on charges of libeling and defaming a well-known actress. It was one of three legal reverses suffered by Islamists today in cases dealing with the media.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Egypt a dozen masked attackers fired birdshot late today at protesters who have camped outside the presidential palace in Cairo for the past month, wounding several along with security forces standing watch nearby.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In India police arrested six suspects in another gang rape of a bus passenger in Punjab state. Police also arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly raping and killing a 9-year-old girl two weeks ago in Ahmednagar district in western India.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Iraq Shiite demonstrators took to the streets of Baghdad to show support for PM Nouri al-Maliki's government, which has faced angry protests in Sunni provinces in a sign of growing sectarian tensions.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki vetoed legislation in which members of parliament gave themselves a hefty send-off package in a late-evening vote on the last day of session before national elections. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission said it was unconstitutional for legislators to set their own pay under the constitution the country adopted in 2010.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, The Kenya Red Cross said at least 200 people have been killed in violence in the southeast since August in fighting that could be related to political tensions ahead of March elections.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Mali French airstrikes overnight drove back Islamist rebels from Konna and destroyed a militant command center, as West African nations authorized the immediate deployment of troops to the country. At least 11 civilians were killed in Konna. A French pilot was killed after the Islamists downed his combat helicopter.
(AP, 1/12/13)(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 12, In west Nepal a bus veered off a mountain road leaving at least 30 people dead and several more injured near Chatiwan village.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Northern Ireland police fought day-and-night street battles with Protestant militants as a protest march to Belfast City Hall degenerated into riots when many marchers returned home to the Protestant east side. 29 officers were injured.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Somalia a French commando raid to free a captive intelligence agent, code-name Denis Allex, ended in the deaths of 17 Islamists and a French soldier. France said the hostage also died in the failed rescue, but the man's captors denied he had been killed and claimed to have seized a 2nd soldier. Allex was captured in Somalia on July 14, 2009.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, In Somalia three Syrian hostages held by pirates were released after more than two years in captivity. They were the last to be freed of the 21 surviving crew of the ship MV Orna, hijacked in Dec, 2010.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 12, Syrian troops captured most of Daraya, a strategic Damascus suburb used by rebels as a base to threaten key regime facilities in the capital.
(AP, 1/12/13)
2013 Jan 13, In the Golden Globe awards winners included “Argo" as the best movie; Ben Affleck won as best director for “Argo." Daniel Day Lewis won as best movie actor for his role in “Lincoln," and Jessica Chastain won as best actress for her role in “Zero Dark Thirty."
(SFC, 1/14/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 13, Hollywood actress Jodie Foster confirmed long-running speculation that she is gay by coming out at the Golden Globes awards, but joked she wouldn't be holding a news conference to discuss her private life.
(Reuters, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Detroit General Motors unveiled its latest model of the Corvette Stingray on the eve of the Detroit motor show. The next day GM’s Cadillac ATS sedan took the show’s top prize.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.63)
2013 Jan 13, In Afghanistan an explosion killed 7 villagers as they tried to pull bodies of dead insurgents from the rubble of a village mosque after a night raid by NATO and Afghan troops. Four insurgents and an Afghan soldier were also reported killed in the operation.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Argentina said that a monthly basket for an indigent family of four cost 719 pesos in December, or about 5.99 pesos per day, per person. On the streets of Buenos Aires, 6 pesos doesn't stretch beyond a pack of chewing gum, or a cup of yoghurt, or a single "alfajor" cookie.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 13, In China people refused to venture outdoors and buildings disappeared into Beijing's murky skyline as the air quality in the notoriously polluted capital went off the index.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Egypt an appeals court overturned Hosni Mubarak's life sentence and ordered a retrial of the ousted president for failing to prevent the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that toppled his regime.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In France some 300,000 people marched toward the Eiffel Tower from three different points in the city to protest against President Francois Hollande’s plan to legalize gay marriage.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Georgia 190 people considered political prisoners by the new parliament walked free under an amnesty strongly opposed by Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili. More than 3,000 other prisoners who had their sentences reduced under the amnesty will be freed in the next two months.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Gen. Ali Moayedi, head of Iran's anti-narcotics police, was quoted by newspapers as saying that some 30 drug smugglers and addicts are identified and arrested every hour in Iran. Moayedi said that over 1,286 kg (2,835 pounds) are confiscated each day.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Iraq insurgent attacks in separate parts of the country killed four people including a 7-year-old boy and wounded five others. Attackers detonated a bomb next to a convoy carrying the Iraqi finance minister Rafia al-Issawi. He was not hurt in the bombing.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Pakistan a roadside bomb hit an army convoy in North Waziristan, killing 14 soldiers. Thousands of Shiites protested in Quetta for a third day, pressing their demands for greater security. PM Raja Pervez Ashraf bowed to protester demands and sacked the provincial governor of Balochistan for failing to safeguard the security of Shias.
(AP, 1/13/13)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.42)
2013 Jan 13, Palestinian protesters who pitched tents at a strategic West Bank site to protest plans to build a Jewish housing project there were evicted early today. PM Netanyahu pledged to move ahead with construction of a new Jewish settlement in the area.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Russia thousands marched through Moscow to protest a new law banning Americans from adopting Russian children.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Serbia adopted a set of guidelines for reconciliation talks with the leaders of Kosovo, in a strong first signal it is loosening its claim to its former province in hopes of getting closer to EU membership.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, In South Africa Christopher "Norm" Bates (41), an American Embassy employee, was allegedly stabbed to death around 3 a.m. at a Johannesburg apartment. A 29-year-old woman was arrested.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 13, In Geneva delegates from more than 130 nations began a final round of negotiations on the creation of the first legally binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions.
(SFC, 1/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 13, Syrian fighter jets Damascus suburbs in a government offensive to dislodge rebels from strategic areas around the capital. At least 45 people were killed in the government barrage. Troops battled rebels in the suburb of Daraya a day after government officials claimed the army had taken much of the strategic area. Heavy fighting was reported in the northern province of Deir el-Zour, involving attacks by warplanes.
(AP, 1/13/13)(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 13, Four women went topless in St. Peter's Square to protest the Vatican's opposition to gay marriage. Police quickly took the women away.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 13, Thousands of supporters of Venezuela's cancer-stricken president held rallies across the nation, hours before the government announced that Hugo Chavez is responding favorably to treatment for a respiratory infection.
(AP, 1/13/13)
2013 Jan 14, USA Today and other media said that Lance Armstrong confessed to the doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey to be aired later this week.
(Reuters, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 14, Conrad Bain (89), stage and TV sitcom actor, died. He starred in the TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes," which debuted in 1978 and ran for 6 seasons.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D6)
2013 Jan 14, In Afghanistan a soldier from 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment was wounded by enemy action. He died of his wounds in Birmingham on Jan 16.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 14, Britain’s coalition government unveiled sweeping reforms to the state pension system, scheduled to take place in 2017.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.58)
2013 Jan 14, A British court approved the extradition of former Credit Suisse trader Kareem Serageldin (39) to the United States, where he is accused of inflating the prices of subprime mortgage-backed bonds to the tune of $540 million in 2007-2008.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Cuba long lines formed outside travel agencies, migration offices and the US Interests Section in Havana on the first day of a new law easing travel restrictions on Cubans.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, Cuba reportedly began using the ALBA-1 cable to Venezuela, but only for incoming traffic. Outgoing data still travelled via satellite, according to an Internet analysis firm.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 14, German police said robbers dug a 30-meter (100-foot) tunnel into the safe deposit room of a Berlin bank and escaped with their haul, setting a fire as they left to cover their tracks.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Guatemala gunmen killed Jutiapa Mayor Carlos Castillo. His brother, former congressman Manuel de Jesus Castillo, was serving a prison sentence in the slaying of 3 El Salvador representatives to the Central American Parliament.
(SFC, 1/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 14, In India millions of devout Hindus led by naked ascetics with ash smeared on their bodies plunged into the frigid waters of the Ganges River in a ritual they believe can wash away their sins. The ceremony in the northern city of Allahabad took place at the start of the 55-day Kumbh Mela, or Pitcher Festival. An estimated 100 million people were expected to participate in the gathering, which is held every 12 years.
(AP, 1/14/13)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 14, In Mali despite intensive aerial bombardments by French warplanes, Islamist insurgents grabbed more territory and got much closer to the capital.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, Mexico's best-known anti-violence activist and a prominent intellectual presented a petition, signed by more than 54,000 Mexicans, to the US embassy calling on the United States to take further steps to combat weapons trafficking.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 14, In Pakistan thousands of supporters of a fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, who has been calling for election reforms, descended onto Islamabad as security officials girded for mass rallies by a movement that has virtually overnight become a powerful but still mysterious force on the political scene. Pakistani leaders dismissed the government of southwest Baluchistan province in response to the demands of protesters angry about an attack on minority Shiite Muslims there that killed 86 people.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, A Syrian airstrike slammed into a house in a rebellious suburb of Damascus, killing at least 13 people including eight children. Fighter jets also carried out fresh airstrikes on the suburb of Daraya. Regime warplanes also bombed targets in the north.
(AP, 1/14/13)
2013 Jan 14, Turkish jets struck suspected Kurdish rebel targets in a cross-border raid in northern Iraq, even as Turkey prepared to start peace talks with the rebels' imprisoned leader.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government has begun borrowing from the federal employee pension fund to keep operating without surpassing its debt limit.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Galt, California, police officer Kevin Tonn (35) was killed while crossing paths with an armed man in an area where Tonn was responding to a burglary. The gunman shot and killed himself after firing at another officer.
(SFC, 1/16/13, p.A5)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D2)
2013 Jan 15, In Kentucky Dalton Stidham (21), enraged by a domestic dispute, bought a gun and fatally shot Caitlin Cornett, his former girlfriend, and her uncle, Jackie Cornett, in the parking lot of a community college. Her cousin Taylor Jade Cornett (12) was also shot and died the next day.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 15, A part-time student strode into the office of a longtime administrator at a downtown St. Louis business school and shot the man in the chest, creating panic in the school before turning the gun on himself.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the NY Safe Act, the nation’s toughest gun restrictions and the first since the recent Connecticut school shooting. It included an expanded assault weapon ban and mandatory background checks for buying ammunition.
(SFC, 1/16/13, p.A6)(Econ, 1/19/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 15, Daniel Edelman (92), American public relations pioneer, died. His life is described in a new biography “Edelman and the Rise of Public Relations" by Franz Wisner.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.65)
2013 Jan 15, British music retailer HMV announced that it was putting itself into administration.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.59)
2013 Jan 15, Rebels from Central African Republic and the country's political opposition said that they have agreed to choose Nicolas Tiangaye as a candidate for prime minister. Under the deal Pres. Bozize will remain in office until his term ends in 2016.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Cuba's Public Health Ministry acknowledged 51 new cases of cholera in Havana amid growing concerns about the illness' spread and disappointment in the diplomatic community over the government's lack of transparency.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Egypt a train wreck killed 19 soldiers and injured over 100 others. The last carriage of the train disconnected, jumped the tracks and crashed into another train 20 km (12 miles) south of Cairo. Three workers were later sentenced to two years of hard labor for the crash.
(AP, 1/15/13)(SSFC, 5/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 15, Human Rights Watch said in a report that workers in Eritrea were forced to construct the Bisha mine operated by Canadian company Nevsun Resources.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Ethiopia sentenced 10 men to jail terms of between three to 20 years for plotting terror attacks with Islamist extremist rebels from neighboring Somalia. Kenyan national, Hassan Jarso, who pleaded guilty when first charged in May, was sentenced with nine Ethiopians.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Europe's top court said religious freedom is a right but not an absolute one, ruling that British Airways discriminated against a devoutly Christian employee by making her remove her crucifix, but backing a UK charity that fired a marriage counselor who refused to give sex therapy to gay couples.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, French Pres. Francois Hollande opened talks with top leaders in Abu Dhabi in hopes of pushing ahead efforts to sell up to 60 Rafale fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates and strengthen French ties in Gulf energy and defense industries.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, French forces led an all-night aerial bombing campaign to wrest control of Diabaly, a small Malian town, from armed Islamist extremists, as more French troops arrived in preparation for a possible land assault. France announced it tripling the number of troops deployed to Mali from 800 to 2,500.
(AP, 1/15/13)(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Honduras British tourist Kaya Omer (33) was shot dead in the dangerous city of San Pedro Sula, after being assaulted by two gunmen who stole his camera.
(Reuters, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, A Hong Kong company controlled by controlled by Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man, said that it's buying New Zealand's second biggest waste disposal company, EnviroWaste Services Ltd., from Australian private equity firm Ironbridge Capital.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In western Iraq a suicide bomber in Fallujah assassinated Ifan Saadoun, a Sunni lawmaker, raising tensions in a part of the country that has been roiled by weeks of demonstrations.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, The Israeli military shot dead a 17-year-old Palestinian near the West Bank separation barrier. The Israeli military said he had breached the barrier, which separated soldiers from protesters.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, Jamaica’s top mining official said his country may be able to benefit from newly found deposits of rare-earth elements that are key ingredients for smartphones, computers and numerous other high-tech goods.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (b.1932) died at a hospital near Tokyo. His films included “A Town of Love and Hope" (1959), “Cruel Story of Youth" (1960), “Violence At Noon" (1966), “Death by Hanging" (1968), “Three Resurrected Drunkards" (1968), “In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983) and “Taboo" (1999).
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D7)
2013 Jan 15, Kenyan custom officials in Mombasa seized 638 pieces of illegal elephant ivory estimated to be worth $1.2 million. The ivory was in a container destined for Indonesia. The tusks were said to be from Tanzania.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, Pakistan's top court ordered the arrest of PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in a corruption case involving private power stations set up to provide electricity to the energy-starved country. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ordered the arrest of 16 people involved in the case, including Ashraf, who previously served as minister for water and power.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Pakistan thousands of anti-government protesters, heeding the call of firebrand cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri, rallied in the streets of Islamabad for a 2nd day despite early morning clashes with police who launched tear gas and fired shots into the air to push back stone-throwing demonstrators.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Qatar Gloria Huang (8), the adopted African-born daughter of Americans Matthew and Grace Huang, died unexpectedly. Qatari police charged the couple the next day of murder with intent by forced starvation. The couple argued that Gloria had been suffering from malnutrition-related diseases since they adopted her from Ghana at the age of four.
(Reuters, 11/30/14)
2013 Jan 15, Russian authorities charged Yelena Kotova, a former Russia director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, with conspiracy to take a $1.4 million bribe.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Russia Aslan Usoyan (75), aka Grandpa Khasan, was gunned down in Moscow. He headed one of the region's most powerful criminal groups, which trafficked in drugs and weapons and controlled underground casinos and legal businesses. Since 2006 Usoyan had been at war with a criminal group headed by another Georgian, Tariel Oniani.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 15, A Saudi court convicted an Egyptian human rights lawyer for smuggling drugs into the kingdom. He was sentenced to five years in prison and 300 lashes. The case of Ahmed el-Gezawi caused an outcry in Egypt where rights groups claimed he was initially detained in April 2012 for criticizing the kingdom's monarch. They claimed he confessed to the smuggling charges under duress.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Saudi Arabia dozens of conservative clerics picketed the royal court to condemn the recent appointment of 30 women to the 150-member Shura Council.
(Econ, 1/19/13, p.52)
2013 Jan 15, In Somalia African Union troops mistakenly opened fire on a religious school while pursuing militants at Leggo village, killing five children and two adults.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 15, In Syria 2 explosions struck the main university in Aleppo, killing 87 people. Activists reported clashes in suburbs south of Damascus. In other regions government air raids and shelling killed dozens of people. Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad swept through Haswiyeh, a small farming village near Homs, torching houses and shooting and stabbing residents in an attack that killed up to 106 people. All of the dead appeared to be Sunni Muslims.
(AP, 1/15/13)(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 15, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro took the place of ailing President Hugo Chavez by delivering a short speech and turning in a state-of-the-nation report amid legal debate about his legitimacy.
(AP, 1/15/13)
2013 Jan 16, Pres. Obama signed 23 gun-related executive orders. One nominated acting ATF Director B. Todd Jones to lead the agency permanently.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A12)
2013 Jan 16, The US federal government grounded Boeing’s new 787s until the risk of battery fires is addressed. The FAA emergency order affected only United Airlines, the lone US carrier to operate the 787 Dreamliners.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A7)
2013 Jan 16, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court ruled that Russia should pay a $50,000 fine until it complies with his 2010 order to return thousands of religious books and manuscripts stolen from Jews during the Russian revolution and World War II to the Brooklyn-based Chabad-Lubavitch group. Following Lamberth's 2010 ruling, Russia completely halted the loan of its art treasures for exhibit in the US, for fear that they would be seized and held hostage in the court battle.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Afghanistan Taliban suicide bombers in Kabul attacked the gates of the Afghan intelligence agency, killing one person and wounding dozens. 6 suicide bombers died in the attack.
(AP, 1/16/13)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 16, In Algeria gunmen attacked the gas complex at Ain Amenas in retaliation for France's military intervention against al-Qaida-linked rebels in neighboring Mali. The attack was carried out by militants from across northern Africa and two from Canada. Gas processing was stopped because of the terrorist attack. The attack left 37 hostages and 29 militants dead. Moktar Belmoktar (41), aka MBM, orchestrated the attack.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)(SFC, 2/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 16, British PM David Cameron condemned horse meat found in beef burgers sold by Tesco and said this was likely to prove both embarrassing and costly for the firm.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, A helicopter crashed into a crane and fell on a crowded street in central London, sending flames and black plumes of smoke into the air. The pilot and one person on the ground were killed and 13 others injured.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, An Egyptian prosecutor said ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his family paid back 18 million Egyptian pounds ($3 million) for gifts they received from a state newspaper while he was still in office.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Egypt an 8-story apartment building collapsed, killing 26 people in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria — the second tragic accident in the country as many days.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 16, French troops pressed northward in Mali toward territory occupied by radical Islamists. The start of the land assault put soldiers in direct combat.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, Andre Cassagnes, inventor and renowned kite maker, died in France. He was the inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch toy (1959), which he sold to Ohio Art for $25,000.
(Econ, 2/16/13, p.90)
2013 Jan 16, A Germany court in Regensburg fined British bishop Richard Williamson $2,400 for denying the Holocaust in a television interview some 4 years ago.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 16, India and Pakistan agreed to ease tensions in disputed Kashmir after recent clashes there.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In northern Iraq a suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in Kirkuk killing at least 19 people. A 3rd bomb at a nearby facility used by Kurdish security forces killed 4 more. Morning attacks across the country killed at least 33 people.
(AP, 1/16/13)(AP, 1/17/13)(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 16, Armed men hijacked the ITRI, a Panamanian-flagged tanker carrying 5,000 tons of oil, from the Ivory Coast port at Abidjan. Officials later located the vessel off neighboring Ghana.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 16, Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Jordan a civil defense spokesman said a fire in a center for Syrian refugees has killed seven members of a family.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Kenya hundreds of demonstrators angered at the conduct of outgoing Kenyan legislators doused 221 coffins with gasoline and set them on fire, causing an inferno outside parliament's main entrance.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, A Kenyan official said gunmen suspected to belong to Somalia's al-Qaida-linked rebels have shot dead five people and seriously wounded three others at a restaurant in Garissa town.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In the Netherlands Alexander Dolmatov (36), a rocket engineer who feared arrest in Russia after an opposition protest turned violent in May, was taken to the prison-like deportation center in Rotterdam. The next morning he was found dead in his cell. Dutch authorities had denied his asylum request on Dec 14.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Pakistan several thousand people rallied in Peshawar, denouncing the killing of 18 local villagers in an overnight raid in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which they blamed on security forces.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, Somalia's most dangerous militant group reportedly killed French hostage Denis Allex, whom French military forces tried to rescue last weekend during a botched raid. French officials have said they believe Allex was killed the night of the raid and that claims by al-Shabab of an execution were simply propaganda.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 16, In northern Syria suicide bombers driving vehicles packed with explosives blew themselves up near security targets, killing at least 22 people in Idlib.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, Senior UN investigators opened a new round of talks with Iranian officials in Tehran in the hopes of restarting a probe into allegations that the Islamic Republic carried out atomic bomb trigger tests and other suspected weapons-related studies.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 16, In Yemen gunmen on a motorcycle killed Col. Abdullah al-Mushki, the deputy police chief of Damar, in a drive-by shooting south of the capital city of Sanaa.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, All 79 officers and crew of the USS Guardian were taken off the ship for safety reasons after it struck the Tubataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage site, with its bow at 2 a.m. in the Philippines. The Navy said inaccurate data and may have been a factor in the Guardian's grounding. The last major part of the ship was removed on March 30. The US faced paying environmental damages of more than $2 million.
(AP, 1/19/13)(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A4)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 17, Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison for providing material support to overseas terrorism.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jan 17, Alvin Williams Jr. (34), a former senator in the US Virgin Islands, pleaded guilty in a public corruption case.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Jan 17, Pauline Phillips (b.1918), advice columnist known as “Dear Abby" (Abigail Van Buren), died in Minneapolis. Her first column appeared in San Francisco Chronicle on Jan 9, 1956. Her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, began co-writing the column in 1987 and took over full-time in 2002.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A1)
2013 Jan 17, In eastern Algeria Algerian helicopters strafed the remote Sahara gas plant in the outpost of Ain Amenas. At least 20 foreign hostages reportedly escaped from Islamist militants who had taken over the natural gas complex. Casualty figures varied widely.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, British, Norwegian and Spanish oil companies evacuated workers from Algerian energy facilities following the hostage-taking by Islamic militants in the Sahara desert and Algeria's attempt to free them.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, A British judge sentenced Achilleas Kallakis (44), a fake property tycoon, to seven years in jail for defrauding two banks out of over 700 million pounds ($1.1 billion), but said Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Scotland deserved some blame for poor risk controls. Co-defendant Alexander Williams (44), convicted of the same counts for his role in producing forged documents to back up Kallakis's applications for loans, was sentenced to 5 years. In May the jail terms for both men were extended, 4 more for Kallakis and 3 more for Williams.
(AP, 1/18/13)(Reuters, 5/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, Ethiopian Airlines grounded its four Boeing 787 Dreamliners following a decision by the Federal Aviation Administration to take the planes out of service in the United States because of a risk of fire from its lithium batteries.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, EU foreign ministers approved sending a military training mission to Mali, to shore up the Malian army and enable the country's government to regain control of all its territory.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, Authorities in Ghana arrested Charles Ble Goude, the former leader of an ultranationalist youth movement in Ivory Coast. He was wanted in connection with violence linked Ivory Coast’s disputed 2010 presidential elections. Ble Goude was soon charged with war crimes over his alleged role in violence linked to the and extradicted to Ivory Coast.
(AP, 1/17/13)(AP, 1/21/13)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.51)
2013 Jan 17, Greek lawmakers voted to investigate former Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou over his handling of data on Greeks with Swiss bank accounts.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 17, Indonesia's army deployed rubber boats in the capital's business district to rescue people trapped in floods that inundated much of the city of 14 million people. At least 20 people died and some 40,000 were displaced.
(AP, 1/17/13)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 17, In Iraq insurgents unleashed a string of bomb attacks, mainly targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims across the country, killing at least 26 people.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, Jordan's PM Abdullah Ensour said Jordan will prevent a mass exodus of Syrian refugees from entering its territory if President Bashar Assad's regime collapses, and will instead create a safe haven inside Syria to protect them.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Mali fighting raged in Konna, airstrikes hit Diably and army troops raced to protect Banamba, on the seventh day of the French-led military intervention to wrest back Mali's north from al Qaida-linked groups.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, The Pakistani government and Muslim cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri struck a deal to end four days of protests by thousands in the capital.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, Pakistan's anti-corruption chief refused a Supreme Court order to arrest PM Raja Pervaiz, citing a lack of evidence in a graft case that sparked the latest clash between the government and the country's top court.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Moscow, Russia, a masked assailant, later identified as Yuri Zarutsky (35), threw acid on the face of Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Filin suffered 3rd degree burns and underwent eye surgery to save his sight. On March 6 police said that star dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko (29) had confessed to masterminding the attack, and two other men, Zarutsky and Andrei Lipatov, confessed to being accomplices.
(SFC, 1/19/13, p.A3)(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Jan 17, South Sudan said it is withdrawing its troops from a disputed border region with Sudan so that a demilitarized zone can be established.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, The United Nation-African Union Mission in Darfur said in a report that over 100 deaths and the displacement of 70,000 people resulted from clashes between the Abbala and Beni Hussein tribes in Jabel Amir, the site of gold mines in North Darfur state in western Sudan.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Syria an air raid killed at least 15 people in the town of Kfar Nabouedeh in the central province of Hama. Violence continued in different parts of the country. Clashes in the northern town of Ras al-Ayn least eight rebels and one Kurdish PYD fighter.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 17, French journalist, Yves Debay was shot and killed in Aleppo by a regime sniper while covering clashes between rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Thailand Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to work together to solve bilateral and regional problems.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Jan 17, Zimbabwe’s Vice President John Nkomo (79) died in Harare. He was one of the country’s two vice presidents.
(AP, 1/17/13)
2013 Jan 18, Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on charges that he used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the city was struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, US federal prosecutors filed a fraud charge against Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway in a scandal involving the sale of a Detroit-area home and suspicious steps to conceal property in Florida.
(SSFC, 1/20/13, p.A9)
2013 Jan 18, McDonald's and Finley's Management Co. agreed to pay $700,000 to members of a Muslim community to settle allegations a Detroit-area restaurant falsely advertised its food as being prepared according to Islamic dietary law.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 18, Algeria's state news service reported that nearly 100 of the 132 foreign workers kidnapped by Islamic militants had been freed. A "provisional toll" showed 12 hostages have been killed since the start of the military operation to free kidnapped workers.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 18, The British defence ministry said Britain and Australia will increase ties on defence issues including cyber security and equipment programs such as the BAE Systems-built Type 26 frigate.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In the Central African Republic a rebel commander known only as Binani, the chief bodyguard of LRA leader Joseph Kony, was killed in a firefight 280 km (175 miles) north of Djema, where Uganda-led African Union troops are being advised by US special forces.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 18, In northern Colombia leftist ELN rebels kidnapped five gold prospectors doing exploratory drilling for Braeval Mining Corp., a Canadian company.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Egyptian police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Muslim protesters outside a church in Qena province. 4 shops owned by Coptic Christians were torched overnight after Marashda villagers accused one of the store owners of molesting a 6-year-old girl.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In western and central Iraq thousands of Sunnis rallied against the Shiite-led government's policies they see as sidelining their minority group.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Some 1300 Jordanian Islamists, youth activists and other opposition groups rallied in the capital, Amman, calling for a boycott of next week's parliament elections.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In Lebanon protesters demanding the release of Islamist prisoners in the city of Tripoli threw a grenade at the convoy of Sports and Youth Minister Faisal Karameh that set fire to one of the vehicles. 4 people were wounded.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, A Nicaraguan judge sentenced 18 Mexicans who posed last August as members of a televison crew to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.
(SFC, 1/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 18, Pakistani prosecutor Kamran Faisal, investigating a corruption case against PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, was found dead in Islamabad. Some colleagues suspected foul play and on Jan 23 a judge ordered a judicial investigation.
(AP, 1/18/13)(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 18, In Somalia unknown gunmen shot dead Shabelle radio producer Abdihared Osman Aden, the first journalist to be killed this year. 18 journalists were killed in Somalia last year.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, A South African government official said two prisoners were killed and 65 injured when a fight broke out between two gangs at St. Albans prison Port Elizabeth.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Spain's central bank said the level of bad debt in the country's banks rose to a new record 11.38 percent in November, up from 11.23 percent in October. It was the 17th monthly increase in a row.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, In Syria 2 car bombs exploded in Daraa and a rocket slammed into a building in Aleppo. Fighting between rebels and Assad's loyalists flared in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20 others. Syrian fighter jets pounded villages in rebel-held areas in Latakia province, dropping makeshift bombs made from hundreds of pounds (kg) of explosives stuffed into barrels.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 18, Ukrainian authorities formally notified jailed former PM Yulia Tymoshenko that she is a suspect in the murder of Yvhen Scherban, a businessman and lawmaker, his wife and two other people in 1996.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 18, Zimbabwe's political leaders said they have reached agreement on a new constitution after more than two years of delays and bickering over changes to reduce the sweeping powers of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party.
(AP, 1/18/13)
2013 Jan 19, Rick Champagne, an Arizona man with a special fondness for caped crusader Batman and his sidekick Robin, bought the original Batmobile driven in the iconic television series with a bid of $4.2 million at an auction.
(Reuters, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In New Mexico 5 people, including three young children, were shot and killed in a rural area southwest of Albuquerque. Nehemiah Griego (15) was arrested on murder and other charges in connection with the shootings of his family.
(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 19, Algeria's special forces stormed the Amenas natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert in a final assault, killing 11 militants, but not before they in turn killed seven hostages. The standoff with Islamist extremists, begun on Jan 16, left at least 37 foreign workers and 27 militants dead.
(AP, 1/19/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Azerbaijan market traders blocked a highway 50 km (30 miles) outside Baku and clashed with riot police in a spontaneous protest over increased rent for their stalls.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Bulgaria Oktay Enimehmedov (25) tried to shoot a gas pistol at Ahmed Dogan (58), the leader of his country's ethnic Turkish political party, at a conference in Sofia. The gun failed to fire and Enimehmedov was wrestled to the ground and beaten.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 19, Egyptian riot police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators throwing stones outside an Alexandria courtroom where the city's ex-security director and other officers are on trial for the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. A criminal court invoked a presidential amnesty and dismissed charges against 379 people accused of taking part in deadly clashes with police.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, Officials in Ethiopia said South Sudan and Sudan have failed to reach an agreement on security arrangements and oil exports after several days of talks in Addis Ababa.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Greece several thousand people marched through central Athens to protest a spate of anti-immigrant attacks, including the fatal stabbing by suspected right-wing extremists of Shehzad Luqman (27), a Pakistani immigrant who died Jan 17. Two men have been charged in the murder.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Iraq gunmen shot and killed the two policemen in a drive-by-shooting near the northern city of Mosul. In Kirkuk a civilian driver was killed when his truck hit a roadside bomb. A roadside bomb exploded just south of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding three others while they were on patrol.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, The Malian military announced that the government was now controlling Diabaly.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 19, Ethnic Kachin rebels in Myanmar said clashes in the country's north continued despite a government promise to cease fire, casting doubt over hopes that the bloody conflict there could end soon.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, A Nicaraguan judge sentenced 18 Mexicans who posed last August as members of a televison crew to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering.
(SFC, 1/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 19, In northwest Nigeria gunmen attacked the convoy of a religious leader in Kano, killing at least 3 guards.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Scotland an avalanche killed four climbers at Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, In Geneva more than 140 nations adopted the first legally-binding international treaty aimed at reducing mercury emissions, capping four years of negotiations on how to set limits on the use of a highly toxic metal. 50 nations must ratify it before it comes into force, which officials said they would expect to happen within about three to four years.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 19, Syrian troops fought intense battles against rebels who are trying to capture two military bases in the northwest. Dozens of people were killed and wounded as Syria's air force targeted a mosque and a school building that apparently was sheltering displaced Syrians in the town of Salqin in Idlib province.
(AP, 1/19/13)
2013 Jan 20, President Barack Obama took the oath of office in an intimate swearing-in ceremony at the White House.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant, where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage, found 25 new bodies as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32 Islamist militants. Nearly two dozen foreign workers remained unaccounted.
(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 20, Austria held a referendum on the future of its army. Austrians voted overwhelmingly to retain their conscript army, with preliminary results showing around 60% rejecting the proposed shift to a professional force.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, London's Heathrow Airport cancelled a fifth of flights and airlines scrapped 40 percent of flights to Paris's main airports as snow continued to blanket parts of Europe, with more forecast.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Egypt overnight clashes between police and residents of a district just north of Cairo left four people dead and 12 wounded. The clashes began when a bystander in Shubra al-Kheima was hit by a stray bullet fired by police chasing a suspected drug dealer. Gunmen raided a post office in the Nile Delta town of Kafr el-Dawar, killing a police guard before making away with 2 million pounds (around $300,000). A courthouse went up in flames in Alexandria during a 2nd straight day of clashes between protesters and riot police.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Georgia more than 1,000 people protested outside of the president's residence in Tbilisi to demand that he immediately resign and hand over executive power to the speaker of parliament.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Greece a bomb exploded at a shopping mall in Athens, slightly wounding two security guards and forcing the evacuation of about 200 people.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, Iran hanged 2 men (24) publicly after a video posted on YouTube showing them robbing and assaulting a man with a machete on a Tehran street.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Iraq a man, identified by police as Talal Ali Abbas, ignited himself in a central square in Mosul where protesters have been rallying for weeks. They say other protesters quickly put the blaze out by smothering the flames with their coats.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Mali French forces extended their deployment northward up from the central town of Markala, reinforcing their presence in the towns of Niono and Mopti. Some 400 troops from Nigeria, Togo and Benin arrived in Bamako to help train an African force for Mali.
(AP, 1/20/13)(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 20, In New Zealand indicted Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom launched “Mega," a new file-sharing website that promised users greater privacy and defied the US prosecutors who accuse him of facilitating massive online piracy.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, Syrian government troops battled rebels in several areas outside Damascus. Regime warplanes bombed opposition-held areas around the capital, including an airstrike on the village of al-Barika that killed at least seven people.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, The United Nations said that Afghan authorities were still torturing prisoners, such as hanging them by their wrists and beating them with cables, a year after the UN first documented the abuse and the Afghan government promised detention reform.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 20, In Yemen an explosion in the province of Bayda killed at least 13 suspected al-Qaida militants. It went off in a house owned by a known al-Qaida operative, Ahmed Abdullah Deif-Allah Al-Zahab, and appeared to be an accident.
(AP, 1/20/13)
2013 Jan 21, President Barack Obama took the oath of office for his second term before a crowd of hundreds of thousands, urging the nation to set an unwavering course toward prosperity and freedom for all its citizens. Obama's inaugural address marked the first time a president used the occasion to praise progress on gay rights.
(AP, 1/21/13)(Reuters, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, The new SFJazz Center opened at 201 Franklin St.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A1)
2013 Jan 21, In Oakland, Ca., undercover Officer Eric Karsseboom (37) was shot and wounded while investigating members of the Sem City street gang. In 2017 gang member Damien Edward McDaniel was sentenced to 33 years in prison. Two other defendants pleaded guilty in August, 2017. A fourth has pleaded not guilty.
(http://tinyurl.com/y7o9swsf)(SFC, 9/22/17 p.D2)
2013 Jan 21, In northern California the body of Leola Shreves (94) was found in her home in Yuba City. She had died 2-3 days earlier from a massive head wound. Her jaw, neck, back and 17 of 24 ribs were broken. Police soon arrested next door neighbor Michael Alexander (20), who spent 3.5 years in jail before being released for lack of evidence. In 2019 DNA evidence led to the arrest of Armando Aria Cuadras (29). On Nov. 4, 2020, Cuadras was convicted of first-degree murder, torture, aggravated mayhem and burglary.
(SSFC, 1/12/20, p.A1)(SFC, 11/5/20, p.B1)
2013 Jan 21, In Texas Max Shatto (3), an adopted boy born in Russia as Maxim Kuzmin, died in Gardendale. Russian authorities alleged “inhuman tratement" as the cause of death. Laura Shatto told authorities that Max and his half-brother were playing outside the family's home. Shatto said she came out and found the boy unconscious on the ground. A medical examiner later determined that the boy’s death was not intentional.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A4)(AP, 2/22/13)(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 21, In Afghanistan 2 Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Kabul traffic police headquarters before another group of militants stormed the compound, battling security forces for nine hours in an attack that left 3 policemen and all 5 attackers dead.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, Algeria's prime minister said 37 foreign hostages were killed during the four-day-long standoff at a natural gas plant. At least one Canadian was among the Islamist militants who took hundreds hostage. 3 kidnappers were reported captured.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, Arctic Council members set up the first permanent secretariat at Tromso, Norway.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.49)
2013 Jan 21, A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal sentenced Abul Kalam Azad to death in absentia for genocide and murder committed during its 9-month war in 1971. Azad was believed to be in Pakistan.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 21, London's Heathrow airport cancelled 10 percent of flights, a day after it cut its capacity by a fifth, and said services could face further delays with more snowfall expected.
(Reuters, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Egypt a speeding truck collided with a minibus on a highway in the country's south, killing 14 people and injuring 13 others.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Eritrea more than 100 dissident soldiers stormed the Ministry of Information in Asmara and read a statement on state TV saying the country's 1997 constitution would be put into force. Government soldiers surrounded the ministry, an indication the action by the dissident soldiers had failed.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Germany passengers suffered delays and flight cancellations at Frankfurt airport, Europe's third busiest, after freezing rain had forced the airport to shut late on Jan 20.
(Reuters, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, German customs officials at Duesseldorf airport found a check in Venezuelan currency worth $70 million in the luggage of Tahmasb Mazaheri, Iran's former central bank chief, upon his arrival from Turkey. Mazaheri told authorities the money was to be used for the construction of 10,000 apartments funded by the Venezuelan government. The newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported the story in its Sunday Feb 3 edition.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Indonesia police said flooding in Jakarta has killed at least 26 people and sent more than 100,000 fleeing from their homes.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 21, Malian and French troops took control of the town of Diabaly, patrolling the streets in armored personnel carriers. American planes began transporting French troops and equipment to Mali. French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza to find that the Islamists already had retreated from the town.
(AP, 1/21/13)(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Nigeria 18 people were killed in an attack on a local market in Dambao, Borno state. The violence started after the local market banned a group of hunters from selling "bush meat" from slaughtered monkeys and other creatures.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 21, The Syrian government blamed a rebel attack on a key power line for a blackout that hit Damascus and much of the country's south overnight. By midday power returned to more than half of the capital. At least 42 people were reported killed in a car bombing at a headquarters of a pro-government militia in Salamiya, Hama province. A week later Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-linked group fighting, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 1/21/13)(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 21, Turkey's state-run news agency said a court has charged 9 lawyers, including prominent human rights defenders, with membership in an outlawed leftist militant group and ordered them arrested pending trial.
(AP, 1/21/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Turkey Sarai Sierra (33) went missing, when she was supposed to return to New York City but was not on her flight back home. She had arrived in Istanbul on Jan 7. Her body was discovered Feb 2 evening near the remnants of ancient city walls. She had suffered a fatal blow to the head. On March 17 a suspect, identified only as Ziya T, was caught in Syria in a joint operation by Syrian rebels and Turkish officials.
(AP, 1/29/13)(AP, 2/3/13)(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Jan 21, In Yemen a US drone airstrike on a car in Marib killed 3 suspected al-Qaida militants and wounded 2 others.
(AP, 1/21/13)(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 21, In Zimbabwe a massive explosion at a tribal sorcerer's house killed 5 people outside the capital, Harare. The explosion damaged 12 nearby houses in the Chitungwiza township. A 6th person died later.
(AP, 1/22/13)(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 22, US officials said the Pentagon has found that Gen. John Allen did not engage in inappropriate communications with Jill Kelley, a civilian woman linked to the sex scandal that led retired Gen. David Petraeus to resign as CIA director.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 22, In Connecticut Kevin Wallin (61), a Catolic priest, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of selling crystal meth to an undercover police officer. On April 2 Wallin pleaded guilty to a federal drug charge. He was accused of making over $300,000 in methamphetamine sales while running an adult video and sex toy shop.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A10)(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 22, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved a revised route for the Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 22, Ryan Walker Grant, a co-owner of a now closed Texas strip club, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a failed plot to hire hit men to kill Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck and a Dallas lawyer.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 22, An Algerian official said the search is on for the five foreigners unaccounted for from the terrorist attack on the remote natural gas site, who may be lost in the vast Sahara desert.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, Eleven EU countries received the green light to plan a financial transaction tax that could generate billions of dollars in revenue for cash-strapped governments.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 22, French and German Cabinets held a joint meeting before both countries' Parliaments met in the landmark Reichstag building to mark the anniversary of the signing of the 1963 Elysee Treaty, a milestone for two countries that had fought three wars in 70 years.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, A foul-smelling cloud of gas escaped from a factory in northern France, making life unpleasant from the outskirts of Paris to Britain's shores and prompting scores of emergency calls. The mercaptan gas from the Rouen chemical factory was said to be harmless.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, An Indonesian court sentenced British grandmother Lindsay June Sandiford (56), to death for smuggling 8.4 pounds of cocaine worth $2.5 million in her suitcase onto the resort island of Bali — even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence. Indonesia has not carried out an execution since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, A magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocked parts of western Indonesia, killing a 9-year-old girl, panicking residents and ruining homes.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, In Iraq a string of car bomb attacks, most of them in and around Baghdad, killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 1/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, Israelis voted in an election likely to keep hardline PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm of government for a third term despite a turbulent record. The parliamentary election left the two main blocs deadlocked with 60 seats each, based on nearly complete official vote counts. Yesh Atid (There is a Future), led by Yair Lapid (49), emerged as the second-largest party in parliament.
(AP, 1/22/13)(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 22, The Philippines took a desperate legal step against China's claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, formally notifying the Asian superpower that Manila is seeking international arbitration to declare Beijing's moves in the potentially oil-rich waters "unlawful."
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, In South Africa police fired rubber bullets at protesters during a third day of violent clashes. Residents of Sasolburg were angry over a proposed change in municipal boundaries, which they say could affect the delivery of services.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, Syrian government forces and rebels battled in the suburbs of Damascus and elsewhere. Four buses carrying Russian citizens escaping the civil war crossed into Lebanon, in the first evacuation organized by Moscow since the start of the conflict nearly two years ago.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, UN agencies and international aid groups said Yemen's government and international donors must allocate over $700 million to help ease a deepening humanitarian crisis that includes widespread malnutrition in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 22, The UN Security Council voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 2087, the third of its kind since 2006, condemning a North Korean rocket launch as violating a ban on missile activity.
(AP, 1/23/13)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.34)
2013 Jan 22, Venezuela’s government said President Hugo Chavez is in good spirits and recovering six weeks after he underwent cancer surgery in Cuba.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Senior defense officials said Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military's ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Two former members of the Church of Scientology claimed in a lawsuit filed inm Tampa. Florida, that the church and its affiliates deceived members into donating millions of dollars to misrepresented causes.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Pebble Technology, an American maker of smart watches, began shipping it’s $150 digital wrist watches that can show e-mail, text and Facebook messages. Eric Migicovsky's company launched a Kickstarter campaign on April 11, 2012, with an initial fundraising target of $100,000. On May 18, 2012, funding closed with $10,266,844 pledged by 68,928 people.
(Econ, 1/26/13, p.58)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_%28watch%29)
2013 Jan 23, A small plane crashed in an Antarctic mountain range while carrying 3 Canadians between scientific research stations on the continent.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 23, Argentina’s defense minister, Arturo Puricelli, expressed shame after the Navy destroyer ARA Trinidad sank at its moorings. Congressman Julio Martinez said of a total of 70 navy ships only 16 are in sailing condition.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 23, British PM David Cameron promised to give Britons a referendum choice on whether to stay in the European Union or leave if he wins an election in 2015.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, A new report said irresponsible lending and intimidating debt collectors are pushing thousands of people in Britain into depression and suicide. Separate data showed more people are taking their own lives.
(Reuters, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, A France-based human rights group charged that Malian forces had committed about 33 killings since new fighting erupted Jan 10.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, In northern Iraq a suicide bomber blew himself up among Turkmen mourners at a Shiite funeral, killing at least 35 people in Tuz Khormato. Another 117 were wounded.
(AP, 1/23/13)(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 23, Jordanians voted in a first electoral test for their king's political reforms. A boycott from his Islamist-led opponents cast doubt over whether the vote would quell two years of simmering dissent in the streets. Islamists and other government critics won 37 seats of 150 up for grabs in the newly empowered parliament.
(AP, 1/23/13)(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Mexico 6 victims were found dismembered in Tuluca. Prosecutors said the dismemberment killings over the past 10 days of 16 people, allegedly lookouts or informants for rival gangs, was the work of a drug cartel.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 23, Morocco’s government announced plans to change the penal code to outlaw the traditional practice of allowing those convicted of "corruption" or "kidnapping" of a minor to go free if they marry their victim.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, In southwest Nigeria a gasoline pipeline was attacked in Arepo, bursting into flames and starting a fire that continued to burn hours later. Officials blamed oil thieves. In the northeast suspected fighters from the Boko Haram radical Islamist sect beheaded three people in Maiduguri.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Cardinal Jozef Glemp (83), the longtime head of Poland's influential Roman Catholic church, died. He helped lead the nation peacefully through martial law and the fight against communism.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Russia Lyudmila Garifulina (63), a member of the legislature in the town of Staraya Kupavna, was attacked outside her apartment building. She was stabbed four times with a knife. She opposed a construction project that would destroy a forest just outside Moscow.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Slovenia a massive austerity strike began as the the main coalition partner walked out of the government over corruption allegations against PM Janez Jansa.
(SFC, 1/24/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 23, Rights groups called for the Somali government to release a journalist arrested by police for interviewing a woman who said she was raped by government security forces. Freelance journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur Ibrahim and three others accused in the case have been held for more than a week without charge. Journalist Abdiaziz Abdinur was later charged with insulting a government body and inducing the woman to give false evidence. On March 17 Somalia's Supreme Court overturned Ibrahim’s widely criticized conviction.
(AP, 1/23/13)(AP, 1/31/13)(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Syria a rocket fired by regime forces slammed into Abu Taltal, a northern rebel-held village, killing six members of a single family. Violence was reported elsewhere with air raids around the capital Damascus and clashes and shelling in the southern province of Daraa and the central region of Homs.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, In Thailand Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, a prominent activist and magazine editor, was sentenced to a decade in prison for defaming the country’s monarchy.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 23, Vietnam announced the arrest of Pham Thanh Tan,former head of the state-owned Agribank, for irresponsibility causing serious consequences. This was the 5th arrest of a senior Agribank executive in as many months. The previous four faced charges of embezzlement and theft totalling some $7 million.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.64)
2013 Jan 23, In Yemen a US drone strike on a car outside the capital of Sanaa killed at least seven suspected al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 1/23/13)
2013 Jan 24, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced legislation to reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons. The "Assault Weapons Ban of 2013" centered on banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, David Headley (52) was sentenced in a US federal court in Chicago to 35 years in prison for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attack, that killed 166 people in India’s financial capital.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 24, Toymaker Mattel Inc. scored a partial victory when a federal appeals court overturned a 2011 jury verdict and $170 million in damages for allegedly stealing trade secrets from the maker of Bratz dolls. The court upheld a judge’s award of $137.2 million to Bratz’s manufacturer, MGA Entertainment, for its defense against Mattel’s trade secrets claim.
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.D5)
2013 Jan 24, US health officials said the new Sydney strain of norovirus, a stomach bug, has been sweeping the globe is taking over in the US. Since September more than 140 outbreaks in the US have been caused by the new strain.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Azerbaijan hundreds of angry demonstrators in Ismayilli, some 175 km (110 miles) from the capital, Baku, surrounded a regional government building demanding the governor's resignation after a night of rioting in which a hotel and several cars were torched.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Bahrain riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades at several hundred anti-government protesters whose chants included calls to reject proposed talks aimed at easing nearly two years of unrest in the Gulf nation.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Britain’s and Ireland’s energy ministers signed a memorandum of understanding in Dublin, agreeing to assess the costs and benefits of trading renewable energy, to look at potential projects and to consider sharing renewable energy statistics.
(Reuters, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Canada Theresa Spence, a chief from a remote Ontario reserve, agreed to end her hunger strike after talks with other native groups and opposition political parties. Spence traveled to Ottawa in December and set up camp on a small island in the Ottawa River to raise awareness about living conditions for natives across Canada.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and clashed with dozens of protesters who were trying to tear down a cement wall built to prevent demonstrators from reaching parliament and the Cabinet building. A video was posted online showing youths dressed in black marching in lines in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. "We are the Black Bloc ... seeking people's liberation, the fall of corruption and the toppling of the tyrant," proclaimed the video.
(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 24, Frenchwoman Florence Cassez (38), who spent seven years in prison in Mexico on kidnapping charges, returned to a hero's welcome in Paris. She was ordered freed a day earlier because of flaws in her trial. She was arrested in 2005 and convicted of helping her Mexican then-boyfriend run a kidnapping gang.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, In Greece strikers protesting pay cuts refused to return to work, leaving Athens' subway system closed for an eighth day, despite a court decision declaring their protest illegal.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Guyana signed an agreement with NY conservation group Panthera, which is trying to establish a jaguar corridor from northern Argentina to Mexico..
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 24, Jordan’s election commission said 1.3 million Jordanians, or 56.7 percent of nearly 2.3 million people who were registered to vote, had cast their ballots.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Mali's rebel movement showed new signs of discord in the wake of punishing French air strikes, with one wing of the Ansar Dine group now pledging to negotiate an end to the country's crisis and possibly even fight against its former comrades-in-arms. Islamic extremists based in the town of Ansongo destroyed a bridge near the Niger border, marking the first use of explosives by the insurgents since the start of the French-led military intervention exactly two weeks ago.
(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 24, North Korea's top governing body warned that the regime will conduct its third nuclear test in defiance of UN punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, Pakistan’s attorney general Irfan Qadir said Pakistan is holding 700 suspected militants without charges under a controversial law that has been criticized by human rights organizations.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, More than 3,000 Palestinian teenagers graduated from the ruling Hamas militant group's first high school military training program in the Gaza Strip, displaying mock weapons, crawling commando-style on the ground and taking up fighting positions for thousands of cheering supporters.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 24, South Africa reported that some 15 thousand crocodiles escaped the Rakwena Crocodile Farm on the Limpopo River border with Botswana when the farm gates were opened earlier this week to alleviate pressure from rising flood waters.
(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/adlfxrl)
2013 Jan 24, Syrian warplanes bombed rebel-held areas near Damascus as President Bashar Assad's troops battled opposition fighters for control of a strategic road that links the capital with the main airport. Twin car bombs in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights killed eight people in Quneitra, as thegovernment called on those who fled the country during the civil war to return, including regime opponents.
(AP, 1/24/13)(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 24, The UN Security Council approved the use of surveillance drones over eastern Congo to monitor roving militias.
(SFC, 1/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 24, Vietnam’s Laborer newspaper quoted Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang as saying Vietnam will produce its own drug for executing prisoners. Factories in the EU have stopped shipments because of objections there to the death penalty.
(AP, 1/24/13)
2013 Jan 25, A US federal appeals court ruled that President Barack Obama violated the US Constitution when he used recess appointments to fill a labor board, a decision that could curtail the president's options in filling vacancies. The panel said the Senate was not truly in recess when Obama made his appointments.
(Reuters, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Washington and Beijing agreed that any North Korean nuclear test will lead to North Korea's further isolation and set back efforts to restart regional talks.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, CIA veteran John Kiriakou was sentenced to 30 months in prison for leaking a covert officer’s identity to a reporter.
(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 25, Twitter suspended the account used by Somalia's al-Qaida-linked militant group two days after al-Shabab used the platform to announce a death threat against Kenyan hostages unless Kenya's government meets its demands.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In eastern Afghanistan a suicide car bomber killed five civilians and wounded another 25 in a botched attempt to hit a convoy of NATO supply trucks in kapisa province.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In Bahrain hundreds of anti-government protesters clashed with riot police in Manama after authorities denied a request for a major opposition rally.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, The British government published a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, and said lawmakers will get their first vote on it in Parliament next month.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A Canadian police report said a son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi allegedly received 120 million euros ($162 million) in bribes for giving major contracts in Libya to SNC-Lavalin Inc, Canada's biggest engineering and construction company. The report did not make clear when the alleged bribes occurred.
(Reuters, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Calgary-based Griffiths Energy International will pay a C$10.35 million ($10.26 million) fine after a Canadian court accepted a settlement between the company and prosecutors. The company had admitted to bribing the wife of a Chadian diplomat.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 25, In China a scandal involving Chinese city officials having sex with women hired by developers who secretly videotaped the trysts to extort construction deals broadened with state media announcing that 10 more officials have been fired.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, A Colombia judge convicted Jaime Blanco, a former contractor for US-based Drummond Coal, of murder for being the mastermind of the killing of two union leaders on March 12, 2001. Blanco was sentenced to nearly 38 years in prison.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/d6szsex)
2013 Jan 25, A senior Japanese envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Egypt’s schism was on display as the mainly liberal and secular opposition held rallies saying the goals of the pro-democracy uprising have not been met and denouncing Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. At least 11 people were killed as tens of thousands took to the streets to deliver an angry backlash against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 1/25/13)(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 25, Greek riot police stormed the Athens subway train depot before dawn to enforce a government emergency order forcing striking staff back to work in an escalating standoff over new austerity measures.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In Haiti up to 20 people were killed after their truck plunged into a canal.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 25, The Honduras Congress went on recess. Lawmakers had only partially passed a budget to pay some of state employees and contractors. That left undecided the budgets of autonomous institutions such as utilities and the port authority. The country has been on the brink of bankruptcy for months, as lawmakers put off passing a budget.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Iraqi troops killed five protesters when they opened fire at demonstrators angry at the troops for preventing them from attending an anti-government rally in Fallujah. Gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in Fallujah, killing two soldiers and prompting local authorities to impose a curfew in the city.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Mali's military and French forces pushed toward the Islamic extremist stronghold in the city of Gao, in their farthest push east since launching an operation two weeks ago to retake land controlled by the rebels.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, In Mexico 16 members of Kombo Kolombia and their crew were reported missing early today after playing a private show in a bar late last night in the town, Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon state.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 25, Northern Irish police were pelted by petrol bombs for the first time in almost two weeks on Friday after more protests at the removal of the British flag from Belfast City Hall.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, North Korea threatened to attack rival South Korea if Seoul joined a new round of tightened UN sanctions, as Washington unveiled more of its own economic restrictions following Pyongyang's rocket launch last month.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Norwegian energy company Statoil ASA said two Norwegian employees missing after a terror attack on a gas plant in Algeria have been confirmed dead.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Russian police detained 20 gay rights campaigners and militant Orthodox Christian activists near the country's parliament as it overwhelmingly backed a bill that would ban "homosexual propaganda."
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 25, Syrian troops shelled the city of Homs and soldiers battled rebels around the central province with the same name. An amateur video posted online by activists showed rockets slamming into buildings in the rebel-held town of Rastan. Activist groups said at least 140 people were in fighting nationwide.
(AP, 1/25/13)(SFC, 1/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 25, In Venezuela violence erupted at Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection. The death toll reached 58 with some 120 wounded.
(AP, 1/27/13)(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 25, Regional civic campaign group AfriForum said it is taking legal action to stop Zimbabwe from taking delivery of helicopter gunships from neighboring South Africa.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 26, The film “Fruitvale" won top prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It depicted the last 24 hours in the life of Oscar Grant (22), a black man shot dead by police in San Francisco on New Year’s Day in 2009. The film was renamed “Fruitvale Station" for its public release.
(Econ, 7/20/13, p.75)
2013 Jan 26, Louisiana police arrested Wilbert Thibodeaux (48). He was suspected of shooting a police officer and wounding 2 sheriff’s deputies after setting a deadly fire at a mobile home in St. Mary’s Parish.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 26, Pennsylvania police said Stephen Baker (62), a Franciscan brother, was found dead of a self-inflicted knife wound at the St. Bernardine monastery. Baker was named in recent settlements involving 11 men who alleged that he sexually abused them 3 decades ago in Ohio. More people soon came forward with abuse claims in Pennsylvania, where Baker had taught and coached.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A6)(SFC, 2/25/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 26, In Afghanistan 10 policemen died when a suicide bomber driving a motorcycle blew himself up in northern Kunduz province. A remote-controlled bomb planted on a bicycle exploded, killing one police officer and one civilian in the eastern city of Ghazni. A police truck packed with officers and detainees struck a roadside bomb in Kandahar city, killing 10 of those aboard. It was one of four blasts that left at least 24 people dead across the country.
(AP, 1/26/13)(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Bangladesh a fire at the Smart Export Garment Ltd. factory killed seven female workers. An investigation was ordered the next day under allegations that the emergency exit was locked.
(AP, 1/27/13)(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 26, Ontario's Liberals chose Kathleen Wynne (59), a former Cabinet minister, to become the province's first female premier and first openly gay leader of a Canadian province.
(Reuters, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In the Czech Rep. former left-leaning PM Milos Zeman (68) staged a big return to power by winning 54.8 percent of the vote in the country’s first directly elected presidential vote. The president has little executive power and the country is run by the government chosen and led by the prime minister.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Egypt violence left 37 people dead in Port Said after a judge sentenced 21 people to death in connection with a Feb. 1 soccer melee that killed 74 fans of the Cairo-based Al-Ahly team.
(AP, 1/26/13)(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Iraq 170 lawmakers voted in favor of a law limiting the terms on the prime minister and other top officials. Lawmakers from al-Maliki's State of Law bloc boycotted the session. Gunmen killed two Iraqi soldiers and abducted three others in Fallujah as hundreds of mourners gathered for the funeral of protesters killed during a shooting by army troops a day earlier.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Mali French forces took control of the airport and a key bridge in the radical Islamist stronghold of Gao under the cover of darkness early today, marking a significant inroad into the heart of territory held by the al-Qaida-linked extremists.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, Mexico City authorities removed a much-disputed statue of Geidar Aliyev, the late leader of Azerbaijan.
(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 26, Myanmar government forces, after several days of fighting, took a hilltop stronghold of the Kachin rebels 5km from Laiza, the administrative headquarters of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.30)
2013 Jan 26, In Pakistan two Islamic militant groups clashed over control of a prized valley in the northwest, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens more in the Tirah valley of the Khyber tribal region. Dozens of armed men attacked a post manned by pro-government tribal militia members in a remote area in southwestern Baluchistan, killing two tribesmen and abducting seven more.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Russia a fire ripped through a new Moscow building's underground parking lot, killing 10 Tajikistan migrant workers and injuring 13 others who had been working and living there.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, Somalia's education minister said 3 officials have been arrested for mismanaging a scholarship scheme that sends Somali students to Turkey. Somalia is ranked as the world's most corrupt country by Transparency International.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, In Switzerland 3 women from Ukrainian feminist activist group Femen, angry over sexism and male domination of the world economy, ripped off their shirts and tried to force their way into a gathering of corporate elites in Davos.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 26, Syria’s Sana state news said government troops raided an opposition stronghold in Daraya, killing rebels and uncovering tunnels they used to move around and smuggle weapons. An air raid on the northern town of Al-Bab, which killed at least four people and wounded others. Activist groups reported heavy clashes in Homs and Qusair.
(AP, 1/26/13)
2013 Jan 27, The US State Department condemned an Iranian court for sentencing Saeed Abedini (32), an Iranian-American Christian pastor, to eight years in prison for reportedly threatening Iran's national security through his leadership in Christian house churches.
(Reuters, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed a measure into law giving illegal immigrants permission to drive. Opponents have pointed to hundreds of fraudulent cases in New Mexico, Washington and Utah after those states began giving illegal immigrants permission to drive.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In Chicago 7 people were killed and 6 wounded in gun violence around the city.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 27, A barge laden with 80,000 gallons of oil struck a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., spilling light crude into the Mississippi River and closing the waterway for miles each way. A second barge was damaged.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, Stanley Karnow, award- winning author and journalist, died at his home in Potomac, Md. His work included “Vietnam: A History" (1983), and “In Our Image," a companion to a PBS documentary on the Philippines, which won the Pulitzer in 1990.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.C4)
2013 Jan 27, Afghan authorities accused NATO of killing three civilian men in a nighttime ambush in the eastern Logar province. The coalition disputed the account, saying it had no operations in Logar's Baraki Barak district the previous evening. NATO said there were three dead, but they were insurgents killed by Afghan forces.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, African Union leaders met in the Ethiopian capital for talks dominated by the conflict in Mali as well as lingering territorial issues between the two Sudans. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon attended the two-day summit in Addis Ababa, where Ethiopian PM Hailemariam Desalegn took over from President Yayi Boni of Benin as chairperson of the African Union.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, In southern Brazil a fire swept through the crowded Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria early today. The fire broke out after band members lit flares. There was no alarm, no extinguishers, no sprinklers and almost no escape from the nightclub. 3 people were detained the next day in connection with the blaze that left 237 dead. In April the nightclub's two owners and two band members were charged with murder. 4 others were also charged in connection to the fire.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)(AP, 1/29/13)(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.28)(AP, 4/2/13)
2013 Jan 27, In Egypt clashes broke out in Cairo for a 4th straight day, with protesters and police near central Tahrir Square, birthplace of the 2011 uprising. Police fired tear gas as protesters pelted them with rocks. Pres. Morsi declared a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by the wave of violence that has left more than 50 dead in three days.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, In France thousands of supporters of a government-sponsored bill, that would legalize marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, marched in Paris.
(AP, 1/27/13)
2013 Jan 27, Iran’s government arrested 14 journalists accused of cooperation with foreign-based, Persian-language media organizations.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In northern Mexico at least eight bodies were pulled from a well in Mina, Nuevo Leon state, near the site where 20 people went missing late last week, including members of a Colombian-style band.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In the Philippines gunmen hiding in a sugarcane field ambushed a truckload of policemen and village guards killing 9 and wounding 9 others in Negros Occidental province.
(SFC, 1/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 27, In South Sudan a showdown in the middle of the market town of Pibor between rebels and South Sudan's military led to the deaths of four civilians and some 2,000 people seeking refuge with the UN.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, In northern Syria at least 10 rebels were killed in fighting that erupted after the opposition fighters attacked a government checkpoint.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 27, Zimbabwe's prominent political analyst Professor John Makumbe (63), an albino who also campaigned against prejudice toward the skin pigmentation condition, died after a heart attack.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In New Hampshire Catherine Houghton (70) of Novato, Ca., was stabbed to death in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Littleton. Rodney Hill (37) was later charged with 2nd degree murder. He said he attacked her because he thought she was the devil.
(SFC, 5/30/13, p.D3)
2013 Jan 28, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez announced 15.8% raise in public pension payments effective in March. Retirees dismissed the move as too little and too late.
(Econ, 2/16/13, p.39)
2013 Jan 28, Australia reported 4 deaths as torrential rain over the weekend flooded the Queensland towns of Gladstone, Gympie and Ipswich.
(AP, 1/28/13)(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 28, Britain received an initial 340 million pounds from the Swiss government as part of a deal to tackle tax evasion that the government expects will net it some 5 billion pounds over the next six years.
(Reuters, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Egypt riot police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo, and one protester died of gunshot wounds. Egypt's main opposition coalition rejected the Islamist president's call for dialogue unless their conditions are met.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, Nikolaos Dertilis (94), the last jailed member of the Greek military dictatorship (1967-1974), died of a stroke at Athens' Erythros Stavros Hospital. He had spent the last 38 years in prison.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 28, In eastern Indonesia a mob of wild monkeys has gone on a rampage in a village in South Sulawesi province, entering houses and attacking residents. Seven people were injured.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 28, Iran said it has successfully sent a monkey into space, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight. In 2017 Iran’s space organization cancelled a project to explore sending humans into space.
(AP, 1/28/13)(SFC, 6/1/17, p.A2)
2013 Jan 28, Malian ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of Timbuktu's airport and the roads leading to the town in an overnight operation. Timbuktu’s mayor said Islamist extremists torched a library containing historic manuscripts as they fled late last week. The jihadists left a manual behind on how to use the SA-7 surface-to-air missile as well as other instructional material, including a spiral-bound pamphlet showing how to use the KPV-14.5 anti-aircraft machine gun and another on how to make a bomb out of ammonium nitrate.
(AP, 1/28/13)(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Jan 28, The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix announced that she is ending her reign after 33 years and passing the crown to her eldest son, Willem-Alexander (45), who has long been groomed to be king.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Nigeria John Yakubu Yusufu, a man who formerly helped oversee the country’s police pension program, pleaded guilty to stealing $145 million, but walked out of court a free man after agreeing to a plea bargain that saw him pay only a fraction of it back.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, The Philippine Congress ratified a bill awarding $246 million to victims of martial law compensation and recognition for detentions, beatings, harassment and killings from 1972-1986. The bill will be sent to Pres. Benigno Aquino III for signing into law.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, Syrian activists said troops battled rebels in several towns and villages around Damascus, including in Daraya, Arbeen and Zabadani.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In Yemen a car bomb exploded next to a military checkpoint in Radda, where Yemeni government forces waged their first offensive targeting al-Qaida militants in the area. 11 soldiers were killed. The military launched a wide offensive against al-Qaida in surrounding Bayda province. The first day of shelling left 6 dead, 4 from al-Qaida and 2 from the army.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Mayflower, Arkansas, an ExxonMobil pipeline sprang a leak. Crews soon recovered some 12,000 barrels of oil and water. The Pegasus pipeline, capable of carrying more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak. In June the US Justice Dept. and the state of Arkansas filed suit against ExxonMobil for the 210,000 gallons spilled. In 2016 the US Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration upheld its $2.6 million fine against ExxonMobil.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A8)(Reuters, 4/1/13)(SFC, 6/15/13, p.A6)(SSFC, 4/3/16, p.A6)
2013 Jan 29, In Chicago Hadiya Pendleton (15) was gunned down in a park. The majorette had recently performed with her King Prep High School band in Washington for Pres. Obama’s inauguration. On Feb 11 gang members Michael Ward (18) and Kenneth Williams (20) were charged with her murder.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A8)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 29, Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway pleaded guilty to bank fraud for concealing assets, including a Florida home, and urging a bank to short sale a Detroit-area home claiming financial hardship. On May 28 she was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
(SFC, 1/30/13, p.A4)(SFC, 5/29/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 29, African and Western nations pledged more than $450 million to fund an African-led military force to fight Islamist extremists in Mali.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Bulgaria Zlatomir Ivanov (44), a convicted underworld boss, was shot and seriously wounded outside a courthouse in Sofia. His bodyguard managed to return fire but was wounded in the leg.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Thick, off-the-scale smog shrouded eastern China for the second time in about two weeks, forcing airlines to cancel flights because of poor visibility and prompting Beijing to temporarily shut factories and curtail fleets of government cars.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, An Indonesian court sentenced British citizen Julian Anthony Ponder (43) to six years in prison for his role in a cocaine-smuggling case that led to a death sentence last week for a British grandmother.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Iran followers of the minority Zoroastrian religion gathered after sunset to mark Sadeh — an ancient mid-winter feast dating to Iran's pre-Islamic past that is also drawing new interest from Muslims.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Jordan a wave of 21,000 Syrian refugees arrived in the past week, moving into northern Jordan at about five times the usual daily rate. The crowded Zatari camp, already struggling with flooding, short supplies and tent fires, was overwhelmed.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Kazakhstan a SCAT passenger jet carrying at least 20 people crashed in heavy fog near Almaty, killing all on board.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Malaysian wildlife officials said 10 endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve under mysterious circumstances. Officials said that they probably were poisoned over the past 3 weeks. The remains of 3 more were found the next day bringing the total to 13.
(AP, 1/29/13)(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, The website of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, the Tuaregs' name for northern Mali, claimed control of the strategic city of Kidal and seven other northern towns from Islamist extremists.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Mexican immigration authorities said they have broken up a bizarre cult that allegedly ran a sex-slavery ring among its followers on the US border. The "Defensores de Cristo" or "Defenders of Christ" allegedly recruited women to have sex with a Spanish man who claimed he was the reincarnation of Christ.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, The UN said more than 150,000 have been displaced by flooding in Mozambique over the last several days as the overall death toll stood at 38.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Myanmar’s state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported that Order No 2/88, a ban on public gatherings of more than five people that was ordered in 1988, was abolished.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Pakistan gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a UN-backed vaccination campaign in Gullu Dheri village, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Gunmen driving in a car opened fire and killed two police constables in Quetta.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, In Somalia a suicide bomber in Mogadishu detonated explosives in the presidential palace compound outside the home of PM Abdi Farah Shirdon, killing himself and two people.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, The Somali government charged a woman who has said she was raped by security forces. Human Rights Watch later said three other people including the woman's husband were also charged with assisting the alleged rape victim to evade investigators.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 29, South Korea’s outgoing Pres. Lee Myung-bak granted special pardons 55 people including political allies, a longtime friend and dozens of others convicted of corruption and other crimes.
(SFC, 1/30/13, p.A2)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.32)
2013 Jan 29, At its meeting in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council waited for Israel to appear for its once-every-four-years rights review, then determined it had not. Israel said last year it would stop cooperating with the council because of an international fact-finding mission into Israeli settlements.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Syrian rebels stormed a government intelligence complex in the east of the country, freeing at least 11 people held in a prison at the facility in Deir el-Zour. Regime warplanes carried several airstrikes on rebel positions in towns and villages around Damascus, including eastern Ghouta and Yalda, and hit other suburbs with artillery. The bodies of some 80 people, some with hands tied behind their backs, were pulled from a river near Aleppo as the government and rebels trying to overthrow it blamed each other for the latest mass killing. The Observatory said a total of at least 160 people were killed today in Syria, while the LCC put the figure at 162.
(AP, 1/29/13)(Econ, 2/2/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 29, In Syria Musa Maragha (86), a hard-line Palestinian military commander who rebelled against leader Yasser Arafat to form his own rival party, died in Damascus. Maragha was better known by his nom de guerre, "Abu Musa."
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 29, Attacks by Yemen's air force killed at least 16 al-Qaida militants and wounded dozens of others. Yemen’s military freed 13 soldiers captured by al-Qaida the previous evening. State news Yemeni authorities have seized a ship in the nation's territorial waters carrying explosives and weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. The US said the ship, intercepted last week, came from Iran.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Jan 30, In Alabama Jimmy Lee Dykes (65) holed up in a bunker with a 5-year-old hostage kept law officers at bay in an all-night, all-day standoff that began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away. Bus driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. (66) was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect 21 students.
(AP, 1/30/13)(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 30, A massive storm in the southeast US left at least 2 people dead in Georgia.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A5)
2013 Jan 30, Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (78) was released from federal prison. He will remain under house arrest until his 6½-year sentence officially ends in July.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A9)
2013 Jan 30, In Afghanistan a bomb exploded in an open-air market in Khost province, killing two small children.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, In Argentina an attempt by Chevron Corp. to unfreeze its assets was dismissed by an appeals court. Winners of a $19 billion environmental judgment in Ecuador have filed suits in Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, In north-central Chile a magnitude-6.8 earthquake shook offices, toppled supermarket shelves and broke windows.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, China’s Beijing government put into place emergency measures to try to combat thick smog which has encased the city.
(SFC, 1/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 30, In Egypt two protesters were killed in clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square and its surroundings. Mohamed ElBaradei, Egypt's liberal opposition leader, called for a broad national dialogue with the Islamist government, all political factions and the powerful military.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, Egypt's Islamist Pres. Morsi, on a one-day visit to Berlin to seek support to rebuild a crumbling Egyptian economy, turned aside repeated criticism of his past comments referring to Jews as "the descendants of apes and pigs," insisting that the remarks were taken out of context and were aimed at criticizing Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
(AP, 1/3o/13)
2013 Jan 30, At a conference in Kuwait Gulf nations answered UN calls to boost humanitarian aid for Syria with $900 million in pledges even as more refugees poured into neighboring Jordan and its leader warned resources were strained to the limit.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, Israel said it is transferring some $100 million in last month’s tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority that were frozen last year.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, Israeli jets bombed a convoy near Syria's border with Lebanon, apparently targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah in what some called a warning to Damascus not to arm Israel's Lebanese enemy.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, The Lebanese military said that Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity over Lebanon in the past week, including at least 12 sorties in less than 24 hours in the country's south.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, In Mali French forces took control the airport in Kidal, seizing a key position in the last remaining urban stronghold of Islamist extremists, whose fighters escaped with their weapons into a desert region the size of Texas. 4 Malian soldiers died and 5 others were wounded when their vehicle hit a land mine in the town of Gossi.
(AP, 1/30/13)(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 30, Russia pulled out of an anti-crime accord with the United States in a move the US called "self-defeating," the latest sign of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 30, South Korea launched a satellite into space from its own soil for the first time. The satellite is designed to analyze weather data, measure radiation in space, gauges distances on earth and test how effectively South Korean-made devices installed on the satellite operate in space.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 31, The US Congress sent Pres. Obama legislation raising the debt ceiling, averting a government default until later this year.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A9)
2013 Jan 31, The US Navy said it has decided to scrap the $277 million mine-sweeper Guardian stuck since Jan 17 on the sensitive Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A6)
2013 Jan 31, A US government report showed that California's Hispanic population will equal that of whites this year before becoming the state's largest demographic group in 2014.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 31, The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles published 12,000 pages of personnel documents on 122 priests accused of sexual abuse dating back to the 1940s.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.31)
2013 Jan 31, Genelle Conway-Allen (13) of Suisun City, Ca., was last seen alive. Her body was found the next day 4 miles away in Allan Witt Park, Fairfield. On Feb 8 police arrested Anthony Lamar Jones (32), a local Fairfield barber.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A9)(SFC, 2/9/13, p.C1)
2013 Jan 31, The NY Times said Chinese hackers repeatedly penetrated its computer systems over the past four months, stealing reporters' passwords and hunting for files on an investigation into the wealth amassed by the family of a top Chinese leader.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse (57) was shot and killed in the parking lot behind the Kaufman County Courthouse.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A7)(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A12)
2013 Jan 31, Armenian Paruir Airikian (63), one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 presidential race, was shot and wounded by an unidentified assailant outside his home in Yerevan, just before midnight. two suspects were arrested on Feb 7.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Jan 31, Australia’s government received confirmation that the Shonan Maru No. 2, a support vessel for the Japanese whaling fleet, had entered Australia's exclusive economic zone near Macquarie Island in the Antarctic Ocean. The Australian embassy in Tokyo protested to the Japanese government.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 31, Chinese courts convicted eight Tibetans over accusations they incited others to self-immolate in the first such prosecutions to become publicly known, showing Beijing's resolve to stamp out the protests by criminalizing both the protesters and their supporters.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2012 Jan 31, Chinese police detained Liu Hui, the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, on fraud charges in what the family said is the latest act of official retaliation. In March he was formally charged over a real estate dispute.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Jan 31, Egypt’s opposition National Salvation Front held a meeting with Pres. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood under the aegis of Egypt's premier Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, in their first ever meeting. They and other politicians signed a joint statement denouncing violence.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan 31, Germany's Parliament voted to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan by 13 months.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Ghana former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched a commission to tackle drug trafficking in West Africa. Annan blamed the international community for ignoring the threat posed by corrupted states like Guinea-Bissau.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Greek doctors, port workers and public transport staff in the country's capital walked off the job in strikes against deeply unpopular austerity measures that have seen incomes slashed as the country struggles to emerge from a deep financial crisis. Farmers in central Greece parked their tractors along the country's main highway for a second day, under the watchful eye of riot police, threatening to shut the road to protest spending cuts and high fuel taxes.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Iceland a 15-year-old Icelandic girl was granted the right to legally use the name "Blaer," which means "light breeze," given to her by her mother, despite the opposition of authorities and a strict law on names.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Iran announced plans to install and operate advanced uranium enrichment machines, in what would be a technological leap allowing it to significantly speed up activity the West fears could be put to developing a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, An Iraqi official said security forces arrested French journalist Nadir Dendoune several days ago while he was taking photos of a security location in Baghdad's southern Dora neighborhood.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, The book “They Promised Me Paradise" by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot and wounded Pope John Paul in 1981, was released in Italy. In the book Agca writes that Iran’s late leader Ayhatollah Ruhollah Khomeini told him to kill John Paul in the name of God.
(SFC, 2/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 31, In Mexico City an office building blast killed 37 people and injured 121 at the headquarters of Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company. On Feb 4 authorities said the basement explosion in an administrative building next to the 51-story Pemex tower was caused by a gas buildup ignited by an electrical spark or other heat source.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Jan 31, In southern Mexico vigilantes who have taken up arms against drug cartel violence and common crime announced they will bring charges ranging from organized crime to kidnapping and extortion against 50 men and three women who they have been holding prisoner at improvised jails in Ayutla, Guerrero state.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed two polio workers on their way to vaccinate children in the northwestern Kurraml region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Volgograd, the southern Russian city where the Red Army decisively turned back Nazi forces in a key World War II battle, passed a measure to use the name Stalingrad in city statements on the commemoration day, on Russia's May 9 Victory Day and on four other days connected with the battle.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, South African officials said that 57 rhinos have been killed by poachers across the country so far this year. A record 668 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2012, an increase of nearly 50 percent over the previous year.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, Syria threatened to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike and its ally Iran said there will be repercussions for the Jewish state over the attack.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan 31, The United Nations demanded that Egyptian authorities act to bring perpetrators of sexual assaults to justice, saying it had reports of 25 sexual assaults on women in Tahrir rallies over the past week.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Jan 31, In Yemen two days of clashes in the south between al-Qaida militants and pro-government fighters killed 14 on both sides.
(AP, 1/31/13)
2013 Jan, California researchers published findings of a brain tumor in raccoons associated with a newly discovered virus called RacPyV, or raccoon polyomavirus.
(SFC, 1/15/13, p.C2)
2013 Jan, In the SF Bay Area the digging of a 5-mile tunnel was completed between Newark and Menlo Park. The $286 million public utilities tunnel will carry water from the Hetch Hetchey Reservoir when it is completed in the fall.
(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.C5)
2013 Jan, Ping Fu, China-born head of North Carolina-based Geomagic, agreed to sell her company to 3D Systems, one of the biggest producers of 3D printers. Her book “Bend Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds" was published last December.
(Econ, 1/12/13, p.72)
2013 Jan, Jack Gerard, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a speech in Washington, D.C. that in the western US alone the volume of oil shale is estimated at 800 billion barrels — three times the proven crude reserves of Saudi Arabia. At current prices this much shale oil would be worth a staggering $65 trillion.
(AP, 5/30/13)
2013 Jan, Australia’s heat wave set a new reocrd of 40.3° C for the highest national average temperature.
(Econ, 1/12/13, p.34)
2013 Jan, Belarus police began going after gays, raiding their clubs and locking up clubbers overnight, and summoning gay activists for questioning in response to a decision by gay activists across the country to try to legally register their rights organization, GayBelarus.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Jan, In China out promoting his latest book, “Everybody in the World Knows," former sports writer Li Chengpeng was told by authorities that he could take “no questions from readers, no talking at all… not even ‘happy new year’ or ‘thank you"’.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.35)
2013 Jan, Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized 3 tons of cocaine this month off the country's southern coast. Last year 9 tons were seized for a third consecutive record.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Jan, Paul Salopek (b.1962), American journalist, began a 7-year trek from Ethiopia to Chile aiming to reproduce man’s global migration.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Salopek)(SSFC, 11/24/13, p.A19)
2013 Jan, In Germany Ulrich Hoeness, former soccer star, turned himself in for hiding a Swiss bank account from German tax authorities. He payed more than €3 million ($3.9m) in back taxes.
(Econ, 4/27/13, p.52)
2013 Jan, It was reported that that air pollution in Delhi, India, kills an estimated 10,500 people each year.
(SFC, 1/23/13, p.34)
2013 Jan, Iran arrested Slovak national Matej Valuch (26) and accused him of spying for the US CIA. On Feb 8 Valuch was released and returned home.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced a ¥10.3 trillion fiscal stimulus.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.24)
2013 Jan, Spanish papers reported that slush money had flowed liberally for at least two decades through the headquarters of the Popular Party, led by PM Mariano Rajoy. Much of the money came from construction magnates who received public contracts and helped inflate Spain’s disastrous real-estate bubble.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.51)
2013 Jan, Nordea Bank AB, the largest bank in Sweden, said its 250 customers were robbed of eight million Swedish krona (about 1.66 billion won). It was online theft; they stole and withdrew money from the victims’ accounts. The Swedish police only found out what had been happening 15 months after the scheme was started, and the theft was still at large. The theft traced to a Russian hacker who goes by the sobriquet “the Corpse."
(www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/technology/25hack.html?_r=0)
2013 Feb 1, Hillary Rodham Clinton formally resigned as America's 67th secretary of state, capping a four-year tenure that saw her shatter records for the number of countries visited.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist frequently the target of Republican criticism, announced that he was stepping down in the latest shake-up of Pres. Barack Obama's Cabinet.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 1, The American TV series “House of Cards" premiered on Netflix.
(Econ, 2/2/13, p.52)
2013 Feb 1, In San Francisco a ban on public nudity took effect.
(SSFC, 2/2/14, p.C1)
2013 Feb 1, Detroit’s Mayor Bing said the city will close 50 of its 107 parks, but keep Belle Isle running. Services at 38 other parks will be reduced. The city council voted not to accept state assistance for Bell Isle.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 1, Edward Koch (b.1924), NYC’s 105th mayor (1978-1989), died from congestive heart failure.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 1, The IMF gave the government of Argentina until Sep 29 to comply with the fund’s rules on the reporting of inflation statistics. On Dec 9 the IMF deferred action until March.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.38)(Econ, 12/21/13, p.56)
2013 Feb 1, Bolivia’s mining town of Oruro formally dedicated its Virgin of Socavon, a new statue of the Virgin Mary that's a little taller than Rio's famed Christ the Redeemer, as it kicked off its Carnival celebrations.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Senior British counterterrorism Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn (53) was sentenced to 15 months in prison for trying to sell information to Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, Chinese car maker Geely said it has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's black taxis since 1948, for 11 million pounds, safeguarding jobs and production of the vehicles in Britain.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In central China an elevated portion of highway collapsed after a truck loaded with illegal fireworks for Lunar New Year celebrations exploded, killing at least 10 people and sending vehicles plummeting 30 meters to the ground.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 1, Thousands of Egyptians marched across the country, chanting against the rule of the Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, in a fresh wave of protests. Protesters denouncing Pres. Morsi hurled stones and firebombs through the gates of his palace gates, clashing with security forces who fired tear gas and water cannons. Video footage showed at least seven black-clad riot police beating Hamada Saber (48), whose pants are down around his ankles, with sticks before dragging him along the muddy pavement and tossing him into a police van.
(AP, 2/1/13)(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 1, In western Iraq tens of thousands of Sunni protesters blocked a major highway, as an al-Qaida-affiliated group called on Sunnis to take up arms against the Shiite-led government.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Italy a Milan appeals court vacated acquittals for a former CIA station chief and two other Americans, and instead convicted them in the 2003 abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The court sentenced former CIA Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli to seven years, and handed sentences of six years each to Americans Betnie Medero and Ralph Russomando. All three were tried in absentia at both levels.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Lebanon at least three people were killed and 10 others wounded in clashes between the army and gunmen in the northeastern town of Arsal near the border with Syria. Residents of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town, are known to be sympathetic to the Syrian opposition, and arms smuggling into Syria is widespread in the area.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Mali 3 suspected jihadists, arrested in the days since the liberation of the town of Timbuktu. said that Malian soldiers were torturing them with a method similar to waterboarding.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, The Netherlands nationalized SNS Reaal bank and expropriated its bonds in a $14 billion rescue. Investors in the subordinated bonds were wiped out.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.72)(http://tinyurl.com/bllbeqf)
2013 Feb 1, A Nigerian military official said 18 militants and one soldier have been killed during days of fighting in Sambisa Game Reserve, Borno state, pitting soldiers against suspected rebels with the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/1/13)(SFC, 2/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 1, Nigerian lawmaker Rep. Farouk Lawan, who led a probe into the nation's fuel subsidy program that saw billions of dollars lost through fraud, was charged, along with his aide Emenalo Boniface, with allegedly soliciting a $3 million bribe from someone targeted by the inquiry. The allegations stem from their investigation of Femi Otedola, the chairman of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd. and a powerful ally of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque as worshippers were leaving prayers, killing 23 people and wounding over 50 in Hangu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 1, A court in northern Sweden ordered retrials in 2 remaining two cases against Sture Bergwall (62), an alleged serial killer who had confessed to more than 30 murders over three decades, and was convicted of eight of them. Bergwall later said his ghastly tales of slaughter, rape and even cannibalism were all lies, spawned by loneliness, a desire for attention and heavy medication. On July 31, 2013, prosecutors dropped the last remaining charges against Bergwall.
(AP, 2/2/13)(AP, 7/31/13)
2013 Feb 1, In Turkey a suspected suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the US Embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a guard.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Feb 2, The US and Mexico reached a tentative agreement on cross-border trade in tomatoes.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 2, In San Diego the 165-foot South Bay Power Plant was demolished to make room for a city park.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 2, In California deputies in Calaveras County found the bodies of 3 people. Phillip Marshall (54) had shot and killed his two teenage sons before killing himself.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 2, Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy resigned abruptly in a scandal involving thousands of calls to four women on his state-issued cellphone, including one woman who said she had a romantic relationship with the politician.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, In central Texas a shooting at a gun range at the Rough Creek Lodge, west of Glen Rose, killed former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle and his friend. Eddie Ray Routh (25) of Lancaster was arraigned on two counts of capital murder. On Feb 24, 2015, Routh was convicted for the two slayings and received an automatic life sentence without parole.
(AP, 2/3/13)(SFC, 2/24/15, p.A9)
2013 Feb 2, In Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a family of five in Helmand province.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 2, China’s Xinhua News reported that 13 people died after an overloaded bus tumbled down a slope. Over 50 people were killed in the last 24 hours in 4 major accidents.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 2, An Egyptian court sentenced Habib al-Adly, the country's former interior minister, to three years in prison after finding him guilty of abusing his position in power by forcing police conscripts to work on his mansion and land outside Cairo. The Giza court also convicted former riot police chief Hassan Abdel-Hamid of authorizing the illegal labor and sentenced him to three years in prison. Several thousand anti-government demonstrators marched again on the presidential palace denouncing the police and Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Over 50 people have been killed in violence over the last 10 days.
(AP, 2/2/13)(AP, 2/3/13)(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 2, In Greece more than 5,000 supporters of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party marched past the US Embassy in Athens, chanting anti-Turkish, anti-US and anti-immigrant slogans to commemorate a 1996 border incident that caused a crisis between Greece and Turkey.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Iran unveiled its newest combat jet, the the Qaher F-313, or Dominant F-313. Military officials claimed the domestically manufactured fighter-bomber can evade radar.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu took on the job of forming a new government and said its most important task would be to ensure that Iran does not gain nuclear arms.
(Reuters, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Israeli troops fired tear gas and stun grenades at rock-throwing Palestinian protesters as soldiers tried to dismantle an encampment near Burin that activists set up in the West Bank to protest Israeli building restrictions.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, In Mali French President Francois Hollande, bathed in the cheers and accolades of the thousands of people of Timbuktu, made a triumphant stop six days after French forces parachuted into the city.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, In Mali secular rebels from Mali's Tuareg group (NMLA) arrested Mohamed Moussa Ag Mohamed of Ansar Dine and Oumeini Ould Baba Akhmed of the Movement for Unity and Oneness of the Jihad, or MUJAO, near Mali's border with Algeria.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 2, In northwestern Pakistan Taliban militants wearing suicide vests fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at an army post in a pre-dawn raid, killing 23 people, including 10 civilians in Serai Naurang town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 12 attackers also were killed in the assault.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, Paraguayan presidential candidate Lino Cesar Oviedo (69) was killed in a helicopter crash, ending a dramatic political career that included coups and repeated attempts to lead his impoverished country. His bodyguard and pilot also died in the crash.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 2, A Senegal town leader said that at least five people have been killed after rebels in the restive south raided a village in the Casamance region and targeted a bank.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, South Africa teenager Anene Booysen (17) was gang-raped, mutilated and left for dead on a building construction site in the Western Cape. She lived long enough to identify one of her attackers. Police on Feb 7 said they have arrested a second suspect for the gang-rape. On May 21 a magistrate said there was not enough evidence to try suspect Jonathan Davids (22), her rejected boyfriend. On Nov 1 Johannes Kana (21), a man convicted of raping and murdering the girl, was sentenced to life in jail.
(AP, 2/7/13)(AP, 5/21/13)(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Feb 2, Syrian rebels captured a strategic neighborhood near Aleppo's international airport. Elsewhere fighting continued unabated, killing more than 60 people nationwide.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 2, The Yemeni military said it has wrested control of al-Maraksha in Abyan province from al-Qaida fighters after three days of clashes that killed 17 people.
(AP, 2/2/13)
2013 Feb 3, President Barack Obama encouraged the Boy Scouts of America to end its ban on gay members and leaders, days before the group is expected to vote on the controversial and long-standing rule.
(Reuters, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Orange County, Ca., Monica Quan (28) and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence (27), were found shot to death in their car at a parking structure in Irvine. Former Los Angeles police officer officer Christopher Jordan Dorner was a suspect in the killings. Dorner was with the LAPD from 2005-2008, when he was fired for making false statements.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 3, In California a tour bus crash with two other vehicles left 7 people dead on Hwy. 38 in San Bernadino County.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A16)(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 3, In New Orleans the Baltimore Ravens defeated the SF 49ers 43-31 in Super Bowl XLVII. The game was delayed for 34 minutes in the 3rd quarter when lights went out in the stadium. Some 109 million people watched the game.
(SFC, 2/4/13, p.A1)(Econ, 2/9/13, p.67)
2013 Feb 3, Afghan police arrested six men and seized suicide vests, assault rifles and more than 50 hand grenades during a raid on a residential building in central Kabul.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, British PM David Cameron met in London with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan for 2 days of talks to discuss prospects for peace with the Taliban.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In China Gong Aiai (49), a former bank official from Shaanxi province, was arrested on suspicion of acquiring 41 houses in Beijing.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.46)( www.wiki86.com/view/9976143.htm)
2013 Feb 3, In Egypt street vendor Omar Salah (12) was killed during clashes near Tahrir Square. Activists soon accused the government of trying to cover up the death. On Feb 14 the government made a rare admission and apology for mistakenly shooting and killing the boy.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 3, A French-owned oil tanker, the M/T Gascogne, was reported missing off Ivory Coast with 17 sailors on board. On Feb 6 Sea Tankers said the ship has been released and that 2 workers suffered injuries in the hijacking.
(AP, 2/4/13)(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 3, Iranian lawmakers impeached the country's labor minister over his controversial appointment of an official implicated in the deaths of prisoners.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Iraq a suicide car bomber joined by other suicide attackers on foot assaulted a provincial police headquarters in Kirkuk, killing at least 16 people and wounding 90 others.
(AP, 2/3/13)(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Mali French troops launched overnight airstrikes on Islamic militant sites around Kidal and Tessalit in Mali's far north.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Myanmar Rangoon’s first int’l. literary festival ended after drawing together some 80 Burmese authors.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 3, In Nigeria 11 people were killed in fighting between nomadic cattle herders and farmers around the village of Ngandum, Adamawa state.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In the Philippines Moro rebels battled the Abu Sayyaf with guns and knives at close range. Rebels lost eight men, including one who was beheaded and a few others who were hacked to death. Up to 14 Abu Sayyaf men were killed.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 3, In Syria Ibrahim Azzouz, a former parliament member, and three members of his family were killed in a rebel-held area near the northern city of Aleppo. Government troops bombarded a building in in Aleppo's rebel-held neighborhood of Eastern Ansari. The Aleppo Media Center, a network of anti-regime activists in the city, said 15 people were killed in the shelling of Eastern Ansari.
(AP, 2/3/13)
2013 Feb 4, Pres. Obama singed legislation raising the government’s borrowing limit.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 4, News emerged that Los Angeles had charged Standard & Poor’s (S&P) with fraud in evaluating mortgage-backed securities. The shares of McGraw-Hill, the parent of S&P dropped 16% on the news.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.71)
2013 Feb 4, In Alabama police officers stormed the underground bunker where Jimmy Lee Dykes held a 5-year-old boy hostage. The boy, taken hostage on Jan 30, was rescued and Dykes was left dead.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 4, Donald Byrd, US jazz trumpeter, died in Delaware. He had joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1955 after moving to NYC from Detroit. He and Pepper Adams made their Blue Note label debut with their “Off to the Races" album in 1959.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.C4)
2013 Feb 4, Argentina announced a two-month price freeze on supermarket products in an effort to stop spiraling inflation.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said that London's Metropolitan Police Service had stolen the identities of dozens of dead children to use as aliases for undercover officers, mining those children's personal histories to build covers and even issuing fake passports in their names.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Former British energy secretary Chris Huhne (58) faced time behind bars after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice by asking his then wife in 2003 to accept a penalty for a speeding offence he had committed.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, Reg Presley (71), the lead singer of 1960s British rock band The Troggs, died at his home after a battle with cancer. He had scored a hit with the love anthem "Wild Thing" (1966).
(Reuters, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, The Royal Canadian Mint officially ended its distribution of pennies to financial institutions.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 4, An Egyptian opposition party claimed police tortured one of its members to death, electrocuting him and beating him repeatedly on the head. Activist Mohammed el-Gindy (28) died of his wounds early today at a Cairo hospital. He had disappeared after a protest and turned up in a hospital in a coma with bruises and internal bleeding. Security officials denied responsibility.
(AP, 2/4/13)(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 4, The EU police organization Europol said a wide-ranging match-fixing investigation has uncovered more than 380 suspicious matches, including World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and two Champions League games, and found evidence that a Singapore-based crime group is closely involved in match-fixing.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, A senior Iranian government official, Saeed Mortazavi, was arrested two years after a parliamentary probe found him responsible for deaths by torture of at least three jailed anti-government protesters. Mortazavi was released on Feb 6, a day after Pres. Ahmadinejad denounced the arrest and pledged to pursue the case.
(AP, 2/5/13)(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Iraq a suicide bomber struck a group of anti-al-Qaida fighters in Taji, killing 21 people and wounding 44.
(AP, 2/4/13)(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 4, Israeli forces arrested 20 members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, including three lawmakers, in a raid in the West Bank.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, A Lebanese judge issued arrest warrants for a top Syrian intelligence official and his aide for their alleged involvement in a bombing plot in Lebanon. Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk was accused of being involved with Lebanon's former information minister, Michel Samaha, who allegedly plotted a wave of attacks in Lebanon at the behest of Syria.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Lithuania it was reported that the retail cost of natural gas pumped from Siberia has spiked 450 percent in the past seven years, from $169 to $769 per 1,000 cubic meters.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In northern Mali French airstrikes targeted the fuel depots and desert hideouts of Islamic extremists. French forces planned to hand control of Timbuktu to the Malian army this week.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Mexico a gang of armed, masked men raped six Spanish tourists in the Mexican resort of Acapulco. On Feb 13 officials said they had arrested 6 men on suspicion of the rapes.
(AP, 2/6/13)(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 4, Pirates attacked an oil tanker anchored off Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, shooting one of the crew members. The Nigerian navy shot back at the attackers, driving them away. The wounded sailor died in transit to a hospital.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Somalia a roadside bomb killed an African Union soldier from Burundi.
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, South Africa’s Minister Mildred Oliphant said in a prepared speech that a new daily wage for manual laborers on the nation's farms would be 105 rand (about $12) up from 69 rand ($7.80).
(AP, 2/4/13)
2013 Feb 4, In Tanzania the appeals chamber of the Arusha-based tribunal overturned 30-year sentences handed down to Justin Mugenzi and Prosper Mugiraneza, who were both Cabinet ministers at the time of Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The duo had been convicted to 30 years in September 2011 after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide and inciting the public to commit genocide.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Dell and Menlo Park’s Silver Lake Management, the nation’s largest technology-focused private-equity firm, announced that they had agreed to pay $13.65 a share to take Dell private.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.D1)
2013 Feb 5, California charged Standard & Poor’s with fraudulent practices that resulted in close to $1 billion in losses state institutional investors. 15 other states and the US Justice Dept. were also suing S&P for approving mortgage backed securities that turned out to be bad risks.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A1)
2013 Feb 5, In California 3 men were found dead on a wooded property in rural west Sonoma County.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 5, A Bangladeshi tribunal prosecuting cases stemming from the 1971 independence war sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, a leader of an Islamic opposition party, to life in prison, sparking street clashes with police that killed two people and injured dozens more.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Bulgaria linked Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah to the bomb attack on a bus last July that killed five Israeli tourists. Two of the suspects linked to the bombing had entered the country with an Australian and a Canadian passport.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In China a court in Beijing sentenced 10 people to prison terms for running a black jail. “Custody and repatriation" centers, which held petitioners along with beggars and vagrants, were scrapped in 2003.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.45)
2013 Feb 5, Chinese phone maker Huawei and Microsoft launched a new smartphone in Africa, which they say is the world's fastest growing mobile phone market. The Huawei 4Afrika phone runs Windows Phone 8 and comes pre-loaded with applications designed for the African market.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, European Union regulators gave approval for Britain's 600 million pounds of public support for the "Green Deal" energy-efficiency scheme. Britain's Green Deal permits loans to homeowners to help them pay for efficiency measures such as loft insulation, modern boilers, draught proofing and other materials.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Germany's education minister Annette Schavan (57) was stripped of her doctorate after a committee of academics concluded that she plagiarized substantial parts of her 1980 thesis, which dealt with the formation of conscience. Schavan resigned on Feb 9.
(AP, 2/5/13)(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 5, Iran’s Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a three-day visit to Egypt, centered around an Islamic summit. He said his country is ready to provide a "big credit line" to help revive the distressed economy of Egypt.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 5, Iran's official news agency reported that authorities have arrested another group of local journalists accused of links with the BBC.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Iraq a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into an army checkpoint in Taji, killing at least four people — two soldiers and two civilians.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Ireland an official report, that ran to almost 1,000 pages, said that more than a quarter of the women and girls subjected to harsh discipline and unpaid work at 10 laundries, run by Catholic nuns, were sent there by the Irish state.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 5, Kuwait said three former opposition lawmakers have been charged with insulting the country's ruler in the latest crackdown on perceived political dissent in the Gulf nation.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Mali troops from France and Chad moved into Kidal in an effort to secure the strategic northern city.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Nigeria two soldiers were killed in a shootout in the oil-rich southern delta involving a vessel operated by an Indian company.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Serbian ultranationalists held a rally to accuse their country's president of treason for agreeing to hold talks with the president of Kosovo.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, In Somalia a Mogadishu court handed down one-year prison sentences to a woman who said she was raped by security forces and a reporter who interviewed her. The judges decided the woman falsely claimed she was raped and had insulted the government. On March 3 an appeals court dropped charges against the woman. A journalist who interviewed the rape victim and was tried alongside her had his sentence reduced from one year to six months.
(AP, 2/5/13)(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Feb 5, South African police arrested 19 suspected members of a Congolese rebel group, accusing them of plotting to overthrow their nation's government after it recently came under attack by militants said to be backed by neighboring Rwanda.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 5, Syrian rebels and Jordanian security officials said intense fighting has broken out near Syrian government installations and border posts near Jordan, leaving 17 civilians wounded.
(AP, 2/5/13)
2013 Feb 6, Pres. Obama choses business executive Sally Jewell, the CEO of REI, to succeed Ken Salazar as Sec. of the Interior.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 6, The US blacklisted Iran’s state broadcasting authirity, Internet-policing agencies and a major electronics producer in widened sanctions to pressure the government over its disputed nuclear program and stifling of domestic dissent.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 6, The financially struggling US Postal Service said it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays, beginnin g in August, but continue to disburse packages six days a week.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Faced with intense pressure from two flanks, the Boy Scouts of America said it needed more time for consultations before deciding whether to move away from its policy of excluding gays as scouts or adult leaders.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Boston a rare 1865 photograph of the Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team, discovered at a Maine yard sale and considered one of the first baseball cards ever, sold for $92,000 at an auction.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, US wildlife conservation group Int’l. Fund for Animal Welfare said Japan has been propping up its whaling industry with nearly $400 million in tax money in recent years.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 6, In Bahrain thousands of protesters demonstrated against the Gulf nation's monarchy, less than a week before planned talks aimed at easing a two-year political crisis.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, The Royal Bank of Scotland announced a settlement in which it agreed to pay American regulators $475 million and another $137 million to Britain’s Financial Services Authority for rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.71)
2013 Feb 6, British researchers have unveiled the Halley VI Research Station, a futuristic Antarctic research base that can move, sliding across the frozen surface to beat the shifting ice and pounding snow that doomed its predecessors.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, A new British report said between 400 and 1,200 patients are estimated to have died needlessly at Stafford Hospital in central England between January 2005 and March 2009 in one of the worst scandals to hit the NHS since it was founded in 1948.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Chris Foster of the UK Border Agency said a significant smuggling operation has been disrupted by one of the biggest raids in UK history. Police said 26 people were arrested for human trafficking and immigration violations after raids that took place in London and other parts of England and Scotland.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, A top Bulgarian security official said the two living suspects behind a bus attack that killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year have been identified and both are now living in Lebanon.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Egypt more than 25 prime ministers and presidents began a two-day summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo. Leaders of Muslim countries offered conflicting approaches to the crises in Mali and Syria, exposing some of the deep divisions that run through the Islamic world.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, France's defense minister said French forces clashed with extremists firing rocket launchers near the northern Malian city of Gao.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, Researchers in Iceland blamed low oxygen levels in a shallow fjord for the deaths of tens of thousands of tons of herring.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, In central and northern Iraq assailants opened automatic fire on police checkpoints, killing four officers and wounding five.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 6, From Kashmir it was reported that the all-girl rock band Pragaash (First Light) has decided to disband following but one concert last December. The teenage members had received threats on social media and a top Muslim cleric.
(SFC, 2/6/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 6, In Papua New Guinea a mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman (20) accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses in Mount Hagen. Kepari Leniata had been accused of sorcery by relatives of a 6-year-old boy who died in a hospital a day earlier. On Feb 17 Janet Ware and Andrew Watea were charged with murder over the slaying.
(AP, 2/8/13)(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 6, A powerful 8.0 earthquake off the Solomon Islands generated a tsunami of up to 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) that damaged dozens of homes and left at least 9 people dead in the South Pacific island chain.
(AP, 2/6/13)(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, Syria's opposition chief demanded that Bashar Assad's regime release all female political prisoners or he would scrap his offer of talks with the government.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Syria heavy fighting broke out between rebels and President Bashar Assad's forces in parts of Damascus, as twin car bombs detonated in the central province of Homs, killing at least 12 people. A bombing at a bus stop near a military factory in central Syria killed 54 people, all civilian workers at the plant in the village of al-Buraq, near the central city of Hama.
(AP, 2/6/13)(AP, 2/7/13)(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 6, Taiwan banks began offering deposit accounts in Chinese currency following a clearing agreement between China central bank and Taipei signed last August.
(Econ, 2/9/13, p.69)
2013 Feb 6, In Tunisia opposition leader Chokri Belaid (47), critical of the Islamist-led government, was gunned down as he left home in the first assassination in post-revolutionary Tunisia, setting off anti-government riots that left downtown Tunis choked with tear gas and patrolled by a tank and armored cars. PM Hamadi Jebali announced he would dissolve the government and form a new one of nonpartisan technocrats to manage the country until elections.
(AP, 2/6/13)(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 6, In Uganda representatives of the Congolese government and the M23 rebels signed a preliminary agreement in which both parties accepted responsibility for the failure of an earlier 2009 peace deal.
(AP, 2/6/13)
2013 Feb 7, The US IRS said that the government took action in January against 389 people suspected of committing tax fraud through identity theft. This included 109 arrests and 189 indictments.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.C2)
2013 Feb 7, In southern California Margie Carranza and her 71-year-old mother, Emma Hernandez, were delivering papers around 5 a.m. when LAPD officers guarding the Torrance home of a target named in an online Dorner manifesto blasted at least 100 rounds at their pickup. Hernandez was shot in the back and Carranza had minor injuries. In April the city of Los Angeles reached a $4.2 million settlement with a mother and daughter.
(AP, 4/23/13)
2013 Feb 7, In eastern Afghanistan a NATO helicopter crashed in Kapisa province, but no crew members were seriously injured.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, An Australian government report said doping was widespread among professional and amateur athletes and demanded investigators name offenders to protect clean athletes' reputations.
(Reuters, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 7, UK authorities said beef lasagna products recalled from British supermarkets by frozen food company Findus had tested positive for more than 60% horsemeat.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 7, In Ottowa, Canada, police said Marc Leduc (56) has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the killing of two local sex workers. Pamela Kosmac, 39, was found murdered in 2008 near a bicycle path, while Leanne Lawson, 23, was found in a parking lot in a central part of the city. Leduc was already in custody facing 11 charges related to an alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old Ottawa woman last November.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Colombia over 5,000 workers at the Cerrejon coal mine went on strike. Negotiations began on Feb 26.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.38)
2013 Feb 7, Egypt's PM Hesham Kandil condemned religious edicts by hardline Muslim clerics calling for the killing of opposition leaders and said the government is considering legal action against them. Kandil faced uproar, derision and even lawsuits after he blamed health problems of babies in impoverished villages on nursing mothers who "out of ignorance" don't clean their breasts and talked of village women getting raped in the fields.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Egypt an Islamic summit urged Syrian opposition forces and members of Pres. Bashar Assad's regime, whose hands are not tainted by violence, to hold talks to try to resolve the nation's civil war.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, Ireland dissolved one of its "bad banks", the Irish Bank Resolution Corp (IBRC), in an emergency measure designed to pave the way for a new debt-repayment deal with the European Central Bank.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Mali French troops began to withdraw from Timbuktu after securing the fabled city as they ramped up their mission in Gao, searching for Islamic extremists who may be mixing among the local population.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, Pirates attacked the MV Esther C some 80 miles (130 km) off Nigeria's coast. On March 11 Carisbrooke Shipping Ltd. of the United Kingdom said 3 captured sailors have been freed.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 7, Syrian troops and rebels clashed again in the capital Damascus, a day after what activists described as the heaviest fighting in months in President Bashar Assad's seat of power.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Tunisia the Islamist Ennahda party, dominating the ruling coalition, rejected PM Hamadi Jebali’s decision to replace the government to try to appease critics, signaling that the political crisis brought on by the assassination of a prominent leftist politician is far from over.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, A Yemeni military official said an explosion at a military weapons depot in northern Yemen has killed 10 civilians and 5 soldiers.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 7, In Zambia a bus operated by the postal service, carrying passengers toward its capital Lusaka, smashed into a semi-truck and another car killing at least 53 people in one of the worst traffic crashes in the nation in recent history.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 8, The big storm heading for the Northeast US disrupted air travel, with over 2,100 flights cancelled.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, A federal judge overturned an Arizona law that sought to block funding through the state for Planned Parenthood's healthcare clinics because the group also performs abortions.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 8, in Ohio Samuel Mullet Sr. (67), the ringleader of hair- and beard-cutting attacks on fellow members of his faith, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Family members convicted of carrying out his orders got sentences ranging from one to seven years.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Feb 8, In central Bangladesh at least two people died and dozens were rescued after the ML Sarash passenger ferry collided with another ship and capsized on the River Meghna, dumping as many as 100 people into the water.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Britain two drug-addicted hit men who went to the wrong address and stabbed a teenager to death in 2010 were sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail. Prosecutors said Ben Hope (39) and Jason Richards (38) were paid 1,000 pounds ($1,600) each to kill a man who owed money to a businessman. But the pair killed Aamir Siddiqi (17) on his doorstep instead.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Canadian police arrested Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau (38) for alleged domestic violence. PM Stephen Harper, who appointed Brazeau to the Senate in 2008, kicked Brazeau out of the Conservative caucus after he heard about the incident.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Halifax, Canada, naval officer Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle (41), who handed over secrets to Russia for more than four years, damaging Canada's relations with the United States and other key allies, was jailed for 20 years.
(Reuters, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, A Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison for goading a monk to self-immolate. The sentence by a court in Qinghai province followed a news report that the government has detained 70 people in the province's ethnic Tibetan areas.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Thousands of Egyptians staged rallies in cities across the country to denounce the rule of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, EU leaders agreed to a significantly reduced 7-year budget worth €960 billion ($1.28 trillion) — the first cut in spending in the 27-country group's history.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Finnish customs officers confiscated a container on a Finnish freighter, en route to Syria from Russia, because it did not have a transit license and found 9.6 tons of tank spare parts.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Iraq car bombs struck two outdoor markets and a group of taxi vans in Shiite areas across the country, killing at least 36 people and wounding nearly 100. Tens of thousands of Sunni protesters rallied in five major cities against PM Nouri al-Maliki.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Israel the offices of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, long-linked to PM Netanyahu’s Likud Party, were set on fire. In January the team had recruited, for the first time in its 75-year history, two Muslim players.
(SFC, 2/9/13, p.A4)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.52)
2013 Feb 8, In northern Mali French forces wrested Tessalit from control of Islamic insurgents. In Gao the conflict's first suicide bombing increased fears of terror attacks.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In northern Nigeria gunmen suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic sect shot and killed at least nine women who were taking part in a polio vaccination drive in Kano. Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris immediately ordered the arrest of three radio journalists for allegedly being responsible for the killings. Police claimed on-air comments about a vaccination campaign in the area sparked the attacks.
(AP, 2/8/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 8, In northwestern Pakistan a bomb planted near a market killed 16 people and wounded 17 others in Kalaya, the main town in the Orakzai tribal area.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Pakistan 6 militants were killed and 3 wounded in a US drone strike on a militant compound. The 3 wounded died overnight. Two were members of al-Qaida and the others belonged to the Pakistani Taliban movement in the Bobar Ghar area of South Waziristan.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 8, A Moscow city court sentenced Vladimir Kvachkov (64), a retired military intelligence colonel, to 13 years in prison for attempting to organize an armed uprising. Retired police captain, Alexey Kiselev (62), was sentenced to 11 years as a co-conspirator. Prosecutors said they had organized a group who planned to seize power by training crossbow-wielding men to seize military depots and then descend upon Moscow with tanks.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Senegal officially launched its tribunal investigating former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre for alleged crimes against humanity, a move rights groups called a decisive turning point in the campaign to bring him to justice.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, In Slovenia thousands of people rallied for and against the center-right government, adding to the tensions in the small European Union country where authorities have turned to austerity measures to revive the economy.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Police in South Africa arrested the "ringleader" of a group of 19 Congolese rebels who now face charges of allegedly plotting a war to unseat Congolese President Joseph Kabila. Prosecutors last week identified Etienne Kabila as being in charge of the group.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 8, In South Sudan 103 people were killed in Akobo County when one tribe attacked members of the Lou Nuer ethnic group while cattle were being moved across land. The attackers were believed to be members of the rebel group led by David Yau Yau of the Murle ethnic group.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 8, From Syria the Observatory reported clashes and regime shelling in the southern and eastern sectors of Damascus, including in the restive suburb of Moadamiyeh, where six people were killed by government shelling overnight.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Tens of thousands of Tunisians chanting anti-government slogans converged on a cemetery for the funeral of an assassinated leftist opposition politician, as military helicopters hovered overhead and tensions threatened to boil over into further violence.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, The UN refugee agency said there has been a huge increase in the number of people fleeing Syria, with 5,000 refugees crossing the borders daily into neighboring countries.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 8, Venezuela's government announced that it will devalue the country's currency, a long-anticipated change expected to push up prices in the heavily import-reliant economy.
(AP, 2/8/13)
2013 Feb 9, A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds hammered the northeastern United States, cutting power to 700,000 homes and businesses, shutting down travel and leaving at least five people dead. The storm centered its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. 38 inches fell in Milford, Connecticut. 29.3 inches fell on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record.
(Reuters, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In southern California three women walking in Anaheim died after they were hit by a suspected drunk driver.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 9, In southern Afghanistan two women and four men were killed in the blast in the Nad Ali district, Helmand province.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Belgium a small private plane crashed south of Brussels, killing five members of a family including three small children.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Chile a bus carrying fans of a soccer team plunged into a ravine killing 16 people and injuring 21 others.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 9, A Cairo court ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world. The ruling can be appealed and based on precedent may not be enforced.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, The French and British governments promised to punish those found responsible for selling horsemeat in beef products. French consumer safety authorities said companies from Romania, Cyprus and the Netherlands were part of a supply chain that resulted in horsemeat being disguised as beef in frozen lasagna sold around the continent.
(Reuters, 2/9/13)(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, In India Mohammed Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man convicted in Dec 13, 2001, attack on India's Parliament that left 14 people dead, was hanged after a final mercy plea was rejected. Guru had confessed in TV interviews that he helped plot the attack, but later denied any involvement and said he was tortured into confessing. Protests broke out in at least four parts of Indian Kashmir, including the northwestern town of Sopore, which was Guru's home.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Iraq rockets and mortar rounds struck a refugee camp for Iranian exiles, members of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, next to Baghdad's international airport before dawn, killing six people and wounding about 40. One of the injured died on Feb 12. The UN urged the Iraqi government to ensure the safety of the about 3,100 camp residents and move quickly to find the still-unidentified attackers. Another of the injured died on March 13.
(AP, 2/9/13)(AP, 2/12/13)(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Ireland trade unionists marched in Dublin and other cities to protest the continuing high cost of the country’s bank bailout program.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 9, Israeli troops drove some 100 Palestinian activists out of an illegal tent camp they had set up near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. The operation marked the fifth time in the past month Israeli forces broke up a Palestinian encampment.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, Members of a Muslim royal clan from the southern Philippines landed in Malaysia’s coastal village of Lahad Datu, Sabah state to claim the territory as their own, citing ownership documents from the late 1800s.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 9, In northern Mali a suicide bomber wearing military fatigues blew himself up near a checkpoint at the entrance to Gao, wounding one soldier in the second attack to hit the same location in 36 hours.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, Assailants in northeastern Nigeria killed 3 North Korean doctors, beheading one of the physicians in Potiskum. They had lived in the state since 2005 as part of a medical program between Nigeria and the North Korean government.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Russia Sergei Udaltsov, a top opposition figure, was placed under house arrest for two months. The move also banned him from using most forms of communication, including the Internet, telephone and mail. He faced charges in connection with a protest in May that ended in clashes with police and for allegedly plotting to conduct mass disorder aimed at overthrowing the government.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Senegal a woman and her son were killed by a landmine in the southern Casamance region near the Gambian border.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 9, In Syria fighting in Damascus and its suburbs raged for a fourth consecutive day. Pres. Assad reshuffled his Cabinet, appointing 7 new ministers in a move that appeared aimed at trying to shore up an economy that has been ravaged by the country's 2-year-old revolt.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, Several thousand supporters of Tunisia's ruling moderate Islamist party rallied in the capital in a pro-government demonstration. Protesters hurled insults at France, accusing the former colonial ruler of interfering in the North African country's politics.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 9, At the Vatican the Knights of Malta marked its 900th birthday with a colorful procession through St. Peter's Square, a Mass in the basilica and an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, himself a member of the onetime chivalrous order drawn from Europe's nobility. The Knights are at once a Roman Catholic religious order, an aid group that runs soup kitchens, hospitals and ambulance services around the globe, and a sovereign entity that prints its own passports and enjoys diplomatic relations with 104 countries — yet has no country to call its own.
(AP, 2/9/13)
2013 Feb 10, In California 3 people died in a helicopter crash in a rural area of northern Los Angeles. The helicopter was being used for a reality TV show.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 10, The Carnival Triumph began floating aimlessly about 150 miles off the Yucatan Peninsula after a fire erupted in the aft engine room, knocking out the ship's propulsion system. Passengers had limited access to bathrooms, food and hot coffee as they waited for two tugboats to arrive to tow them to port. The ship arrived into Mobile Bay, Alabama, on Feb 14.
(AP, 2/11/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A11)
2013 Feb 10, In Afghanistan US Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford took over as the new and probably last commander of all US and international forces in the country.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, Opposing factions in Bahrain began talks to ease an Arab Spring conflict that has run longer than Syria's rebellion and is playing out on the doorstep of the US military's main naval base in the Persian Gulf.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, In the Canary Islands a lifeboat with occupants fell overboard during a safety drill from a cruise ship docked at the pier of Santa Cruz port in La Palma. 5 crew members were killed and three injured.
(AP, 2/10/13)(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 10, The Chinese New Year, celebrated as the beginning of the year of the Snake, officially began.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A10)
2013 Feb 10, Rabbi David Hartman (81), one of the world's leading Jewish philosophers and a promoter of both Jewish pluralism and interfaith dialogue, died in Israel.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, In Allahabad, India, a stampede killed 37 people following the Kumbh Mela religious gathering. Tens of thousands of people were in the station waiting to board a train when railway officials announced a last-minute change in the platform.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 10, In Iraq gunmen killed four people in three attacks in the northern city of Mosul.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, The Israeli government gave final approval for construction of 90 new homes in a West Bank settlement, a move that could cause tensions with the US ahead of President Obama's visit to the region.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 10, One person was killed as protests broke out in at least two parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir despite a strict curfew to prevent violence after the execution of a Kashmiri man convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, Malian soldiers with rocket propelled grenades traded fire in Gao with combatants believed to be from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO. Islamic fighters invaded through Gao’s Niger River harbor and fought a protracted downtown battle for hours.
(AP, 2/10/13)(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 10, Acclaimed Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina said he will accept the prestigious Jerusalem Prize, an Israeli award given to authors, despite calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, Syrian troops and opposition forces battled for control of a key highway outside Damascus for the fifth straight day as the rebels continued their campaign to push into the capital, the seat of President Bashar Assad's power.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 10, In southern Thailand suspected militants killed 5 soldiers and wounded 5 others in two roadside attacks.
(SFC, 2/11/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 10, Tunisia’s state news agency reported that the Congress for the Republic party, led by President Moncef Marzouki, is quitting the coalition government, which is led by Islamist party Ennahda.
(AP, 2/10/13)
2013 Feb 11, US Defense Sec. Leon Panetta extended additional military benefits to gay and lesbian couples.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 11, The US began its withdrawal from Afghanistan in earnest, sending the first of what will be tens of thousands of containers home through a once-blocked land route through Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Delaware a gunman battling over child custody opened fire in a courtroom in Wilmington leaving two women dead before fatally shooting himself.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A50)
2013 Feb 11, In Florida former state Republican Party chairman Jim Greer (50) pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering just before jury selection was to begin in his criminal trial.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 11, An Afghan government panel acknowledged widespread torture of detainees after a 2-week investigation of a UN report citing rampant abuses.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 11, Angola received a boost to its free speech from the Portuguese courts, which refused to allow Angolan generals to stop the publication of the book “"Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola" by Rafael Marques. It exposed corruption and human rights abuses in the country's lucrative diamond mines.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 11, British health officials said a new virus from the same family as SARS, that sparked a global alert last September, has been found in a patient in Manchester who had traveled to the Middle East and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Egypt’s Senior Scholars Authority elected Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim, a professor in Islamic jurisprudence, as Grand Mufti. Previously, the Grand Mufti was appointed by the president. Security forces sprayed protesters with water hoses and tear gas outside the presidential palace as Egyptians marked the 2nd anniversary of the fall of Hosni Mubarak's with demonstrations against his elected successor.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, French and Malian government forces regained control of Gao.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Indian-controlled Kashmir 3 young people were left dead in violence despite a curfew that continued for a third day following the Feb 9 execution of a Kashmiri man convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Iraq suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden truck late at night at the gate of a military base inside the city of Mosul. 7 people were killed and 15 wounded. Elsewhere in Mosul assailants broke into a house, stabbing to death two men and two women, including a provincial officer's bodyguard.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, Millions of Kenyans watched and listened to the nation's first-ever presidential debate. The two front-running candidates, Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and PM Raila Odinga. traded barbs over the looming trial of Kenyatta in the International Criminal Court.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Liberia a plane carrying senior officials from Guinea crashed near Liberia's largest airport, killing 11 people including Guinea's army chief of staff Gen. Souleymane Kelefa Diallo.
(AP, 2/11/13)(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, Hundreds of Rwandans marched to the offices of the United Nations tribunal set up to try key cases related to Rwanda's 1994 genocide to protest the court's decision to acquit two former cabinet ministers accused of masterminding killings.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Somali police said a suicide car bomb attack targeting a senior Puntland police commander in Galkayo killed only the bomber.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Syrian rebels captured the Furat dam, the country's largest dam, after days of intense clashes, giving them control over water and electricity supplies for much of the country in a major blow to President Assad's regime. UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said the number of people killed in Syria is probably now approaching 70,000.
(AP, 2/11/13)(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 11, In Turkey a car bomb exploded at the Bab al-Hawa frontier post along Syria's border, killing 14 people. A Syrian opposition faction later accused the Syrian government of the bombing, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group. On March 11 Turkey’s police said five suspects have been detained.
(AP, 2/11/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Uganda deported, David Cecil (35), a British theatre producer charged with staging a play about homosexuality. A court threw out a case against Cecil last month.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 11, Pope Benedict XVI (85) announced that he would resign Feb. 28 — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.
(AP, 2/11/13)
2013 Feb 11, Zimbabwe police raided the offices of a member organization of Crisis in Zimbabwe, an alliance of rights groups, and seized files on political violence, funding details, DVD display materials, mobile phones and other equipment. Officials of the widely respected Zimbabwe Peace Project were accused of illegal importation of goods and "possessing articles for criminal use."
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, President Obama made his State of the Union address. He announced plans with the EU to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal. Obama also said that the first 34,000 troops will leave Afghanistan within a year and more in 2014, when all foreign combat forces are to leave the country.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 12, Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-Los Angeles cop sought in three killings, exchanged gunfire with authorities in the San Bernardino Mountains. It's believed Dorner committed a residential burglary of a cabin where a couple was tied up, stole a pickup and escaped to another cabin. One sheriff’s deputy died in the exchange of gunfire. The ID of Dorner’s body was soon confirmed with dental records. Only after calls for surrender and use of milder tear gas did deputies launch pyrotechnic gas canisters into the cabin, and the subsequent fire was not intentional, the Sheriff's Department said.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A8)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A6)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 12, IOC leaders meeting in Switzerland dropped wrestling from the Olympic program, a surprise decision that removes one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Bangladesh thousands of protesters demonstrated again over the lenient Feb 5 ruling against Abdul Quader Mollah, leader of the Jamaat party, for his role in the 1971 independence war.
(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 12, In Brazil a fire on a Carnival float killed four people and injured five in the port city of Santos. The float reportedly caught fire after striking a power line.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, British authorities raided a slaughterhouse in Yorkshire and a meat processing company suspected of selling horsemeat labeled as beef for kebabs and burgers.
(SFC, 2/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, Barclays' new chief executive pledged a fresh course for Britain's third biggest bank, axing at least 3,700 jobs and pruning its investment bank as he seeks to rebuild its reputation and boost profitability after a series of scandals.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, G4S settled a months-long dispute with the organizers of the London Olympics, having failed to supply enough security guards for the 2012 Games, and said it will take a 70 million pound loss on the contract.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Egypt hundreds of low-ranking policemen held protests demanding they not be used as a tool for political oppression in the country's ongoing turmoil.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, Two French aid workers were convicted of fraud and sentenced to 2 years in prison for trying to bring 103 children from central Africa to France for adoption, claiming they were orphans from Darfur. Four other Zoe's Ark members were convicted of trying to bring foreign minors into France, but given suspended sentences ranging from 6 months to a year. The six workers were arrested in Chad in 2007 as they sought to put the children on a plane.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, French workers fired flares and paint bombs and riot police answered with tear gas in a standoff over layoffs at a plant for US tire maker Goodyear, amid tensions over a slump in Europe's car industry. Another demonstration targeted the headquarters of carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen, which is laying off thousands of people.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Guam a man drove a Toyota Yaris onto a sidewalk striking seven tourists at an upscale shopping area fronting the Outrigger Guam Resort in Tumon Bay. Chad Ryan DeSoto (21) of Tamuning was charged with two counts of murder, 13 counts of attempted murder and 13 counts of aggravated assault. One of the wounded died the next day.
(AP, 2/12/13)(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 12, A Milan appeals court convicted two former Italian spy chiefs for their role in the kidnapping of a terror suspect as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. The court sentenced Nicolo Pollari, the former head of Italian military intelligence, to 10 years, and Marco Mancini, a former deputy and head of counterintelligence, to nine. Three other Italian agents also were convicted and handed six-year sentences. All the convictions can be appealed.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In Libya 4 foreigners were arrested in Benghazi on suspicion of distributing books about Christianity and proselytizing. Spreading Christianity is a crime in Libya. Police said they found 45,000 books in their possession and that another 25,000 have already been distributed.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 12, North Korea said it tested a “miniaturized" nuclear device in the remote, snowy northeast. China summoned the North's ambassador for a dressing-down. Experts assumed it was nuclear partly from the shape of its seismic signal.
(AP, 2/12/13)(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 12, The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin has submitted a bill that would ban Russian Cabinet members and other senior officials from having foreign bank accounts and owning foreign stock.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, In northern Syria rebels captured the Jarrah military air base in Aleppo province, their second major strategic victory in as many days.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 12, Thailand marines fending off a militant assault on their base in Narathiwat province killed 16 insurgents in a shootout.
(AP, 2/13/13)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.44)
2013 Feb 12, In Ukraine a 600-square-meter (6,500-square-foot) section of the roof over the turbine hall at the fourth power block at Chernobyl collapsed due to heavy snowfall. A new giant arch-shaped confinement is currently being constructed over the old sarcophagus. The construction of the new shelter was not affected by the accident.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 12, Scientists in Zimbabwe said a fresh water crayfish brought from Australia is breeding out of control in the northern Lake Kariba, devouring the food sources of other fish and putting the nation's entire aquatic ecosystem at risk. The red claw crayfish was introduced a decade ago for a fish farming project.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Washington DC celebrities and activists were arrested after tying themselves to the White House gate to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. Sierra Club Director Michael Brune was also arrested, the first time in the group’s history that club leader was arrested in an act of civil disobedience.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A8)
2013 Feb 13, The boards of American Airlines and US Airways approved their merger. This will create the world’s biggest airline.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.C2)
2013 Feb 13, In Afghanistan a NATO airstrike struck two houses, killing 10 Afghan civilians and four insurgents in Kunar province near the Pakistani border. President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack. Mahmood, an Afghan soldier-turned-insurgent, who was feted by the Taliban for killing an American soldier during an insider attack on May 11, 2012, was killed along with an accomplice in a raid in Ghaziabad district. Kunar province.
(AP, 2/13/13)(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 13, British police investigating the hacking of mobile phones to generate stories at Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid made six more arrests of journalists or former journalists.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, British fashion retailer Republic became the latest casualty of the economic downturn, seeking protection from creditors and putting around 2,500 jobs at risk.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, British couple Peter Root (34) and Mary Thompson (34), who had been chronicling their round-the-world cycling odyssey in a blog, died when they were hit by a pickup truck in a province east of Bangkok.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 13, The EU and the US announced that they have agreed to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Dresden, Germany, over 10,000 anti-fascist activists massed to block a neo-Nazi march on the anniversary of the 1945 bombing of Dresden.
(SFC, 2/14/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 13, Iran's nuclear chief said his country has begun installing a new generation of uranium enrichment centrifuges at its main facility making nuclear fuel. IRNA news quoted Fereidoun Abbasi as saying that Iran began installing the new centrifuges at Natanz site about a month ago. Senior UN investigators began a new round of talks with government officials over allegations that Tehran may have carried out tests on triggers for atomic weapons.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Gen. Hassan Shateri, a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was killed on the road linking Damascus with Beirut.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 13, The Iraqi panel tasked with purging government ranks of former members of Saddam Hussein's party removed Chief judge Medhat al-Mahmoud (80), the country's top judge, from his post because of alleged ties to the now-dissolved Baath party. On Feb 19 a judicial panel rejected the decision to remove al-Mahmoud from his post.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Kenya the families of seven people shot dead in 2007 and eight wounded survivors filed a lawsuit to sue the government claiming the shots were fired by police during a dispute over who won Kenya's 2007 presidential election.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 13, Lebanon's state-run news agency said protesters have closed two major roads in northern Lebanon to prevent fuel tankers from crossing into Syria.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In the Maldives former Pres. Mohamed Nasheed took refuge at the Indian Embassy after a court ordered his arrest for not attending a hearing on charges that he illegally ordered the detention of a senior judge, a move that led to his ouster last year.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, In Mali French soldiers recovered some 800 kg of explosives that authorities believe radical Islamic fighters were using to make bombs for attacks on Gao.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Nepal a Tibetan protester doused himself with gasoline, set himself ablaze and chanted anti-China slogans as he ran down a street in Kathmandu. Police and residents were able to put out the flames and rush the man to a hospital. He died the next day.
(AP, 2/13/13)(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 13, South African authorities said at least 96 rhinoceros have been killed so far this year, as rampant poaching for their horns to sell to buyers in Asia continues. From the 1990s to 2007, rhino killings in South Africa by poachers averaged about 15 a year.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Syrian rebels fought pitched battles against regime forces at the Brigade 80 military base in Aleppo that protects a major airport in the area. The fighting has left more than 40 government troops dead. Activists reported clashes outside Damascus with regime warplanes hitting several of the restive suburbs.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Ukrainian officials sought to reassure the public that radiation levels were unaffected at Chernobyl and there was no safety threat after a partial roof collapse at the exploded nuclear power plant.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Ukraine reached a tentative agreement with Turkmenistan to resume imports of natural gas from the energy-rich Central Asian nation. Completion of the deal would require the consent of Kazakhstan and Russia as transit nations.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, In Ukraine a small Soviet-designed AN-24 plane carrying soccer fans headed for a match skidded past the landing strip and overturned in the eastern city of Donetsk, killing five people.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 13, Venezuela's government devalued the country's currency amid questions about how the government can get a grip on 22% inflation and satisfy growing demand for dollars to pay for imported goods. The fifth devaluation in a decade established a new government-set rate of 6.30 bolivars to the dollar, replacing the previous rate of 4.30 bolivars.
(AP, 2/13/13)
2013 Feb 14, The US Treasury Department said that Switzerland and the United States have signed a pact to make Swiss banks disclose information about US account-holders.
(Reuters, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, The Chicago Crime Commission name Joaquin “El Chapo" Guzman, leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, as the city’s new Public Enemy No. 1, for supplying most of the narcotics sold in the city.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 14, H.J. Heinz said it has agreed to be acquired by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, a Brazilian private-equity firm, in a $23.3 billion deal. 3G later bought Kraft and merged it with Heinz in 2015.
(SFC, 2/15/13, p.C4)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.63)(Econ, 7/9/16, p.54)
2013 Feb 14, Dozens of Afghan activists and supporters marked Valentine's Day by marching in Kabul to denounce violence against women amid reports that domestic abuse is on the rise.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, Security forces in Bahrain clashed with anti-government protesters in street battles that left at least one boy dead amid high tensions on the second anniversary of the uprising in the Gulf nation. A 16-year-old male and a policeman were killed on the second anniversary of the Shiite-led uprising.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 14, Ronald Dworkin (81), an American philosopher and constitutional law expert, died in London. He was best known for articulating the principle that the most important virtue the law can display is integrity. He was a professor of law at New York University and emeritus professor at University College London. His books included “A Matter of Principle" (1985).
(AP, 2/14/13)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.C3)
2013 Feb 14, Egypt's aviation minister said the hiring of President Mohammed Morsi's son to a highly-paid government job was justified, dismissing accusations of nepotism. On Feb 16 the head of Egypt's holding company for airports and aviation said Morsi's son has applied for a job that pays $133 a month starting salary.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 14, Indian troops shot and killed a Pakistani soldier who crossed the makeshift border separating Indian and Pakistani held Kashmir.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 14, Mali's military detained eight Arab men in Timbuktu, throwing them into a pickup truck and covering it with a tarp in a sweep that has raised fears of further reprisals against the region's Arab minority. Hundreds of others have fled to the neighboring nations of Algeria and Mauritania, where they are living in refugee camps. In December the Associated press found the body of Kabbad, a 70-year-old grandfather known as Vieux Ali, and five others buried in the desert.
(AP, 2/17/13)(AP, 12/9/13)
2013 Feb 14, In Pakistan a roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying members of an anti-Taliban militia in Stanzai village in the Orakzai tribal region, killing 7 militiamen. A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives next to a police post in Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing 11 policemen and wounding 23 others.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, In South Africa Reeva Steenkamp (b.1983), the girlfriend of double-amputee Olympian runner Oscar Pistorius, was shot dead. Police arrested Pistorius on a charge of murder.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, Syrian rebels took control of the town of Shadadah along the Euphrates River seized most of the nearby Jbeysa oil field. Regime warplanes pounded rebel positions near Aleppo's international airport. Rebels reportedly shot down two warplanes. Rebels stormed a small military base near the town of al-Sahwa in the southern province of Daraa. At least four fighters were killed in clashes at the base. 42 Shiites, mainly women and children, were snatched from a bus that was traveling from the Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya to the capital Damascus.
(AP, 2/14/13)(AP, 2/15/13)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 14, In Turkey authorities arrested eight more retired officers over the last 48 hours over their alleged involvement in the ousting of an Islamic-led government in the late 1990s.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 14, Senior officials of the UN atomic agency returned from Tehran without a hoped-for deal that would have led to the resumption of a probe into allegations that Iran worked secretly on nuclear arms.
(AP, 2/14/13)
2013 Feb 14, Zimbabwe police fired tear gas and baton charged to disperse Valentine's Day marchers, herding 195 people demonstrators into a police precinct. Later 25 were treated for injuries including broken teeth.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Pres. Obama bestowed the Presidential Citizens Medal on the 6 adults killed in the Dec 14, 2012, Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 15, Former US Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was charged with scheming to spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses. His wife was charged with filing false income tax forms. Jackson entered Congress in 1995 and resigned last November. Sandi, as she's known, was a Chicago alderman, but resigned last month.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Xoom, a San Francisco-based company that specialized in sending small amounts of money across borders, debuted on Nasdaq at $16 per share. It closed at $25.490. It was cofounded in 2001 by CEO John Kunze and Kevin Hartz, who's now cofounder of Eventbrite, a ticketing startup.
(Econ, 8/3/13, p.59)(http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/15/xoom-ipo/)
2013 Feb 15, NYC officials said its schoolteacher’s pension fund has sold its stock in companies that manufacture guns and ammunition in response to the Dec 14, 2012, school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 15, The 150-foot Asteroid 2012 DA14 came within an incredible 17,150 miles to Earth, closer than many communication and weather satellites orbiting 22,300 miles up.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Bahrain thousands of anti-government marchers jammed a major highway as clashes broke out for a second day between security forces and protesters marking the anniversary of their uprising.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Bangladesh Ahmed Rajib Haider, an atheist blogger, was hacked to death. He had campaigned for banning the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971. In 2017 Bangladesh's High Court confirmed the death penalty for Faisal bin Nayeem, who the court said hacked Haider with meat cleavers in front of his house in Dhaka. A 2nd student, who was sentenced to death in absentia, was accused of planning the attack. He was a member of Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Rajib_Haider)(AP, 4/2/17)
2013 Feb 15, Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it had found 29 positive tests for horsemeat after demanding samples from UK retailers engulfed in a contamination scandal that is spreading across Europe.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, British health officials said a fourth person in Britain has contracted a potentially fatal SARS-like virus which was unknown in humans until a few months ago, but said the risk to the population remained very low.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Egyptian security officials seized two tons of explosives headed to the Sinai Peninsula. Some 5,000 mostly hard-line Islamists rallied against a recent wave of anti-government protests that have killed around 70 people.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, The EU agreed to begin random DNA checks on meat products in a bid to put a lid on a spreading scandal over horsemeat.
(SFC, 2/16/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 15, Iran ordered a six-month ban on pistachio exports to try to control the price of the nut, which doubled in the past month. Iran was long the world's largest pistachio exporter, with over 200,000 tons a year, but was surpassed last year by the United States.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Iraq tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims rallied in several cities to protest what they describe as unfair treatment by the country's Shiite-led government, extending concerns over rising sectarian tension in the country.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli soldiers at a West Bank rally held in support of Samer Issawi (35), who has been on an on-again, off-again hunger strike for several months as he serves time for alleged terror activity.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, In Russia a meteor, estimated to be about 10 tons, streaked through the sky and exploded over Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb. Its sonic blasts shattered countless windows and injured some 1200 people.
(AP, 2/15/13)(AP, 2/16/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.78)
2013 Feb 15, In Somalia Al-Qaeda-linked militants claimed that they have executed a Kenyan soldier after the Nairobi government failed to meet their demands. A car bomb detonated by remote control killed one person and wounded two others in Mogadishu.
(AP, 2/15/13)(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 15, Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a Nov 20 picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, Syrian activists said heavy fighting for control of the international airport in the northern city of Aleppo and a major military air base nearby has killed some 150 rebels and government soldiers over the past two days.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 15, The UN said an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.
(AP, 2/15/13)
2013 Feb 16, Italian sailor Giovanni Soldini led an 8-member team of the Maserati to a record 47-day trip from NYC around Cape Horn to San Francisco, beating a 1998 monohull record.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A12)
2013 Feb 16, A San Francisco Bay ferry was struck by a 22-foot motorboat in Richardson Bay. Motorboat pilot Harry Holzhauer (68) was killed. In 2018 a federal appeals court upheld $4.2 million in damages against the Golden Gate Bridge District for the collision. A jury found the ferry captain 30% responsible and Holzhauer 70% responsible.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycyfhny6)(SFC, 8/13/18, p.C1)
2013 Feb 16, Alberto Morales (42), the Florida prisoner who escaped in Texas after stabbing a detective with his eyeglasses was fatally shot after refusing to cooperate with officers and lunging at them. Morales had escaped on Feb 11 from a Wal-Mart parking lot after attacking the Miami-Dade, Fla., detective.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, Afghan Pres. Karzai issued a decree that orders the prosecution of Afghan security forces involved in torturing prisoners and requires all future interrogations be videotaped.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Bangladesh an estimated 100,000 people demonstrated in Dhaka demanding move severe punishment for war criminals from the country’s 1971 liberation war.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, Bulgaria’s PM Boiko Borisov fired Simeon Djankov, his finance minister and deputy prime minister. Djankov was unpopular for his austerity policies.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.52)0
2013 Feb 16, Egypt’s interior ministry announced a move to purchase 100,000 new 9mm pistols for police officers. This ended 5 days of strikes by police demanding greater firepower under increasing lawlessness.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, A court in Egypt ordered a TV channel that airs belly dancing clips off the air for showing "sexually explicit" content and operating without a broadcast license.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, In India the bodies of three sisters — aged 7, 9 and 11 — were found in a village well in Bhandara district in Maharashtra after they had gone missing from school two days earlier. Police eventually registered a case of rape and murder after a post-mortem of the girls found that they had been sexually abused and brutally killed.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Iraq a suicide bomber, pretending to ask for help, assassinated Brig. Gen. Ali Aouni, the head of the Iraq Defense Ministry's intelligence academy, and three bodyguards at his home in the Tal Afar.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, A court in L'Aquila, Italy, convicted four people in the collapse of a university dormitory during the 2009 earthquake in that Apennine mountain town. Eight students died in the collapse during the powerful quake, which struck in the pre-dawn hours of April 6, 2009.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Kenya a suspected militant died while planting an improvised explosive device in Garissa at a venue where one of the country's presidential contenders was going to hold a campaign rally.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 16, In rural northern Nigeria an Islamist group calling itself Ansaru attacked a camp for a construction company in Bauchi state, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. Ansaru is a acronym for “Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Africa."
(AP, 2/17/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 16, In Pakistan bomb went off in a Shiite Muslim-dominated residential suburb of the city of Quetta killing at least 81 people and wounding some 160. Most of the dead and wounded were Hazaras, an ethnic group that migrated from Afghanistan over a century ago. 8 more people soon died of their wounds bringing the death toll to 89.
(AP, 2/16/13)(AP, 2/17/13)(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 16, G20 leaders meeting in Moscow said there would be no currency war and deferred plans to set new debt-cutting targets, underlining broad concern about the fragile state of the world economy.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, A Syrian activist group said pro-government gunmen have kidnapped more than 300 people Idlib province in retaliation for the abduction of 42 Shiite Muslims this week. At least one person was killed in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk by sniper fire. In the southern region of Quneitra rebels briefly controlled a military checkpoint in the town of Khan Arnaba and captured five officers before they withdrew.
(AP, 2/16/13)
2013 Feb 16, Syrian peace activist Omar Aziz (64), detained last November, died of health complications at a military hospital.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 16, In Tunisia thousands of supporters of the ruling Islamist party marched in Tunis in response to rising criticism of the country’s direction.
(SSFC, 2/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 16, In Zimbabwe a pastor and three activists were arrested for holding a voter education meeting a day after President Robert Mugabe announced March 16 as the date for a referendum on a new constitution.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Thousands of protesters gathered on Washington's National Mall calling on Pres. Obama to reject the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline proposal and honor his inaugural pledge to act on climate change.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 17, The NY Times reported that a 60-page analysis by Mandiant, a US computer security firm, has traced one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking groups to Shanghai and the gates of Unit 61398 of the Chinese military.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D1)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.12)
2013 Feb 17, Bahrain's interior ministry said police have arrested eight members of an alleged terrorist cell linked to Iran and other countries following widespread clashes in the Gulf nation during protests marking the second anniversary of an Arab Spring-inspired uprising.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, British actor Richard Briers (79), best known for the 1970s TV sit-com "The Good Life" but also for his Shakespearean roles, died at his London home. His film credits included "A Chorus Of Disapproval" (1989) and "Watership Down" (1978) in which he was the voice of Fiver.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 17, Ecuadoreans cast ballots with President Rafael Correa (48), a dynamic, polemical economist, highly favored to win a 2nd re-election. His leftist government has won broad backing from the lower classes as it leads Latin America in social spending as a portion of the economy. Correa won 56.9% of the vote against 23.8% for his closest challenger, longtime banker Guillermo Lasso.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, In Egypt thousands of soccer fans enforced a work stoppage in the city of Port Said to protest "injustices" by the government, disrupting rail services and forcefully evicting workers from their factories and the provincial government's offices.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, In Greece some 40 masked attackers raided the facilities of a prospective gold mine in the north overnight, setting machinery and offices alight. Some residents objected to what they say will be the destruction of the environment and of pristine forest at Skouries in the Halkidiki peninsula.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Iran’s independent Arman daily reported that authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in Tehran, to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, In Iraq multiple car bombs exploded within minutes of each other as Iraqis were out shopping in and around Baghdad, killing at least 37 people and wounding more than 100 in mainly Shiite areas.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Hundreds of French and Malian soldiers retook the jihadist stronghold of Bourem, a town where many radical Islamic fighters were believed to have fled.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, A Moroccan military court convicted 24 Western Saharan activists for their roles in the killing of 11 soldiers at a protest camp in 2010, and gave nine of the defendants life sentences.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 17, Gunmen attacked an oil vessel off the coast of Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, kidnapping six foreigners. Three Ukrainians, two Indians and a Russian were taken from a vessel run by energy company Century Group.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 17, The Harita Bauxite, a bulk carrier, sank near the Philippines. 10 of 24 crewmen, mostly from Myanmar, were rescued. One later died and the rest remianed missing. The vessel was thought to be carrying nickel ore from Indonesia.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 17, A top Syrian government official said electricity has been restored in most parts of Damascus and power will gradually reach the south. The power outage plunged Damascus into darkness late the previous evening and affected much of southern Syria. Fighting raged in at least three provinces between rebels and troops loyal to Pres. Assad.
(AP, 2/17/13)
2013 Feb 18, US Attorney General Eric Holder discussed regional crime with Caribbean leaders during a summit in Haiti.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, The owner of the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship was hit by a lawsuit seeking class action status for stranding more than 3,000 passengers for 5 days on a ship without electricity or adequate sanitation.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Maryland Dr. Nikita A. Levy (54) was found dead. The gynecologist’s employment at Johns Hopkins was terminated on Feb 8 following reports of his surreptitiously photographing and videotaping his patients. In 2014 the John Hopkins Health System agreed to pay $190 million to some 8,000 women to settle the case.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A7)(SFC, 7/22/14, p.A4)
2013 Feb 18, Afghan President Hamid Karzai officially banned Afghan security forces from requesting international airstrikes during operations in residential areas.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Armenia held elections. President Serge Sarkisian (58) easily won a second term with nearly 59% of the vote, but international observers said the vote "lacked competition." The closest of his six rivals, American-born Raffi Hovanessian, got 37% of the vote.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Belgium 8 masked gunmen forced their way through the security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched some $50 million worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Brazil protesters backing the Cuban government blocked the screening of a documentary featuring Cuba's best-known dissident, the blogger Yoani Sanchez, who was in attendance after being allowed to leave the communist island for the first time in nearly a decade. This was the first stop on her 80-day tour of about a dozen nations.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, British PM David Cameron flew into India promising to try to revive Indian interest in the Eurofighter even though New Delhi has chosen a French-made rival.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Britain's Royal Mint said it has started to manufacture gold sovereign coins in India for the first time since 1918.
(Reuters, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, The European Union officially launched a training mission with the goal of making the disparaged Malian army good enough to patrol the whole country.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, EU finance ministers, condemning the Feb. 12 nuclear test by North Korea, imposed more trade and economic sanctions on the Asian nation.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, EU foreign ministers announced that they are keeping current sanctions against Syria in place for three months, rejecting any attempt to ease the arms embargo so military aid could be funneled to rebel forces.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, The European Union said it has removed 21 loyalists of Zimbabwe's president from a sanctions list of people facing travel and banking bans. It said the decision to remove those restrictions was a result of a "step forward" in finalizing a draft constitution which is set to go voted on in a national referendum on March 16.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Guinea supporters of President Alpha Conde looted and burned the Kankan offices of opposition politician Lansana Kouyate, 700 km (435 miles) north of Conakry.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Pakistan at least 15,000 Shiite Muslims took to the streets in Quetta in a 2nd day of protests following a bombing that left 89 people dead. Gunmen opened fire on a restaurant in Karachi, killing two people. Militants wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of Khyber Political Agent Mutahir Zeb in Peshawar, killing 5 police officers. In Lahore gunmen on a motorcycle shot to death a Shiite doctor and his son (12).
(AP, 2/18/13)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 18, Palestinians blocked roads and held marches across the West Bank to protest the fate of thousands of their countrymen held in Israeli jails and demand the release of four detainees on hunger strike. Israel is holding some 4,500 Palestinians for charges ranging from throwing stones to undertaking deadly militant attacks.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, In Russia the body of Lipetsk city councilman Mikhail Pakhomov (37), kidnapped last week, was found in a cement barrel. Investigators have arrested eight people in the case. Evgeny Kharitonov, a former deputy minister in Moscow's provincial government, was charged with organizing the kidnapping over what police called an $80 million debt.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, In South Africa Mamphela Ramphele, an academic and co-founder of the nation’s Black Conscious Movement, announced the creation of Agang, a new political party "to build the South Africa of our dreams," lambasting the 101-year-old African National Congress of Nelson Mandela for corruption and power abuse.
(AP, 2/18/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.47)
2013 Feb 18, In South Africa 9 miners and 4 guards were injured when a machete-wielding mob attacked union stewards and security guards opened fire with rubber bullets amid ongoing labor rivalry at an Anglo American Platinum mine. Some miners accuse the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is allied with the governing ANC, of becoming elitist, cozying up to business and putting those interests before that of mine workers.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 18, Syrian rebels captured a government checkpoint on the main road to the country's second-largest airport as opposition fighters pressed their campaign to capture the strategic facility in Aleppo. A new report from a UN-appointed panel said Syria's civil war is becoming increasingly sectarian and the behavior of both sides is growing more and more radicalized. A regime missile strike leveled a stretch of buildings and killed at least 19 people in Aleppo, leaving residents combing through the rubble to find those trapped beneath it.
(AP, 2/18/13)(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 18, President Hugo Chavez returned to Venezuela after more than two months of treatment in Cuba following cancer surgery.
(AP, 2/18/13)
2013 Feb 19, In southern California Ali Syed (20) shot and killed woman in her home and two commuters in Orange County. Syed committed suicide as police closed in on him.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 19, In Los Angeles a body was found in a water tank on the roof of the historic Cecil Hotel. It was soon identified as that of a Canadian woman who went missing in late January. Elisa Lam (21), a college student from Vancouver, British Columbia, was last seen by staff at the hotel on January 31.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 19, NATO and Afghan forces killed at least 25 insurgents and three of their commanders in separate operations around the country.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 19, Afghan security said intelligence officers have arrested a senior Pakistan Taliban commander. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed was arrested over the weekend in eastern Nangarhar province.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Brazil’s Pres. Dilma Rousseff announced increased welfare payments to 2.5m poor people.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.35)
2013 Feb 19, In Cameroon a vacationing French family of seven was kidnapped and whisked toward Nigeria. The family was freed after two months in captivity, returning on April 19 to safety in Douala.
(AP, 2/20/13)(AP, 4/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Egypt hundreds of protesters in Port Said pressured government employees to leave work early as they enforced the third day of a general strike.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Germany’s highest court ruled that one member of a civil partnership should be able to adopt the partner’s stepchild or adopted child.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 19, Greek journalists walked off the job for 24 hours to protest austerity measures and income cuts, pulling radio and television news broadcasts off the air and leaving news websites without updates.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Guinea anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters who barricaded streets and threw stones at vehicles in the capital, Conakry.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Ireland’s PM Enda Kenny apologized on behalf of the government for decades of abuses in the Magdalene Laundries.
(SFC, 2/19/13, p.A6)
2013 Feb 19, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu added his first coalition partner as he works to build a new government. Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will serve as justice minister in the next Israeli government, in charge of peace efforts with the Palestinians.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, An Ivory Coast military spokesman says that Guinean soldiers have occupied Kpeaba, a border village in western Ivorian territory, since early this month.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Malawi public workers on strike demanding a 67 percent pay hike threatened to close the country's airports. The government said it doesn't have the money to meet the demands.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Mali a French soldier was shot to death in a clash with jihadists in a mountainous region of the far north. 20 extremists were reported killed on this second day of the ongoing operation, code named Panthere, aimed at locating jihadists and dismantling their sanctuaries.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, In Pakistan thousands of minority Shiite Muslims (Hazaras) ended three days of protests Quetta after the government launched a paramilitary operation against militants responsible for a weekend bombing targeting the minority sect that killed 89 people. Four members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, including a senior commander, were killed in a shootout, and over 170 other suspected militants were arrested.
(AP, 2/19/13)(SFC, 2/20/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 19, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli soldiers at a rally in support of four imprisoned Palestinians on hunger strike, as hundreds of inmates said they were refusing food for the day in solidarity with the fasting inmates.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Gaza Strip's Hamas government and local smugglers accused Egypt of flooding cross-border tunnels with sewage water in order to halt a thriving smuggling trade. Egyptian engineers began flooding the tunnels in late January.
(AP, 2/19/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.41)
2013 Feb 19, In the Philippines over 100 communist guerrillas stormed a vast Del Monte plantation in Bukidnon province, killing one guard, burning farm equipment and blocking traffic in 3 towns.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 19, Russia said it had sent two jets carrying humanitarian aid to Syria and are inviting Russians who want to leave the country to take the flights back.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, The Sudanese army said clashes in the country's south near the border with South Sudan have killed at least 60 rebels.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, A Syrian missile strike leveled a block of buildings in an impoverished district of Aleppo, killing at least 33 people, almost half of them children. Two mortars exploded near one of President Bashar Assad's palaces in Damascus, but no casualties were reported.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Tunisia's PM Hamadi Jebali announced his resignation following a failed effort to form a technocratic government to see the country out of its political crisis. His own party, Ennahda, rejected his initiative, insisting that the country still needed a government of politicians.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, A Yemeni military plane crashed into a neighborhood in the country's capital, Sanaa, killing at least nine people and injuring 18.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 19, Zimbabwe police raided the suburban Harare offices of the independent Zimbabwe Election Support Network searching for alleged subversive materials.
(AP, 2/19/13)
2013 Feb 20, The US announced a strengthening of its efforts to prevent the theft of trade secrets. China was mentioned prominently.
(SFC, 2/8/13, p.44)
2013 Feb 20, It was reported that the US National Institutes of Health is in the planning stages of a massive effort called the Brain Activity Map (BAM) to understand how neurons actually process information. On March 7 protagonists published a manifesto for BAM in Science.
(SFC, 2/20/13, p.D3)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.79)
2013 Feb 20, In San Francisco tech and investment luminaries announced the new $3 million Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize and named the effort’s first 11 winners.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.C1)
2013 Feb 20, An anti-whaling activist group accused a Japanese whaling vessel of intentionally ramming two of its ships in waters near Antarctica. Japan's Fisheries Agency, however, insisted the protesters were responsible for the collisions.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Scottish singer Emeli Sande won the coveted best album honour at the BRIT Awards for "Our Version of Events", confirming her status as favourite going into British pop's big night of the year.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Bulgaria's center-right government of PM Boiko Borisov resigned after days of violent protests fueled by outrage over rising energy costs, corruption and a general economic decline in what is already the EU's poorest nation. In early March Pres. Rosen Plevneliev announced a caretaker cabinet led by Marin Raykov.
(AP, 2/20/13)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Feb 20, The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority said DNA tests showed two batches of frozen Nowaco Lasagne Bolognese in a branch of the Tesco supermarket chain in the western city of Pilsen contained horsemeat. Luxembourg was listed as the country of origin.
(Reuters, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, In Greece a 24-hour protest by unions representing private and public sector workers disrupted flights, halted ferries and crippled public services, in a renewed confrontation between labor groups and the conservative-led government over policies aimed at curbing Greece's overspending.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, A Lebanese judge indicted three people, including a former Cabinet minister and a top Syrian intelligence general, in a bombing plot in Lebanon, a move that could raise tension in Lebanon over the civil war in neighboring Syria. Judge Riad Abu Ghaida demanded the death penalty for former information minister, Michel Samaha, Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk and a Syrian colonel, identified only by his first name, Adnan.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, In Mali Islamic extremists clashed with military in the northern city of Gao. A French Tigre attack helicopter fired on a pickup truck containing jihadist fighters during clashes in northern Mali, killing about 10 insurgents. The military pushed fighters out of Gao. 16 jihadists were reported killed in the fighting in Gao.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 20, Human Rights Watch called Mexico's anti-drug offensive "disastrous" in a report that cited 249 cases of disappearances that the group says mostly show evidence of having been carried out by the military or law enforcement.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 20, Nigeria's secret police said they have broken up a terrorist group backed by "Iranian handlers" who wanted to assassinate a former military ruler and gather intelligence about locations frequented by Americans and Israelis. A suicide bombing in Maiduguri killed three civilians and injured soldiers.
(AP, 2/20/13)(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 20, In Syria 2 mortars exploded next to a soccer stadium in central Damascus, killing one player and injuring several. The pro-government Al-Watan daily said the airport in Aleppo is still under military control and "safe" from rebels fighting to capture it.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 21, Detroit, with its violent crimes, high unemployment, dwindling population and financial crisis, was named by Forbes as the most miserable city in the United States.
(Reuters, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed legislation legalizing online gambling.
SFC, 2/22/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 21, In Las Vegas a Maserati ran a red light at one of the Strip's busiest intersections and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames, killing taxi driver Michael Boldon (62) and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund (48), of Maple Valley, Wash. Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr., the driver of the Maserati, was killed. Bullets had flown from a black Range Rover at the Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Strip. The black SUV was found on Feb 23 as police named Ammar Harris (26) in connection with the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage. Ammar Harris was arrested in Los Angeles on Feb 28.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/24/13)(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 21, Suspended Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin along with her aide and sister, Janine Orie, were convicted on campaign corruption charges. They could join a third sister — former state Sen. Jane Orie — in state prison.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, Google unveiled its touch-screen Chromebook Pixel, a high-end laptop starting at $1,299.
(SFC, 2/22/13, p.A1)
2013 Feb 21, Britain’s HM Revenue and Customs published the names of what it described as "tax cheats" for the first time, part of efforts to address public anger over tax evasion at a time of economic austerity.
(Reuters, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, A London jury found Irfan Naseer (31), Irfan Khalid (27) and Ashik Ali (27), arrested in September 2011, guilty of being central figures in a foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Ray Cusick (84), BBC designer, died. He created the Daleks, mutant monsters in sinister shells, for the “Doctor Who" TV series.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.90)
2013 Feb 21, In Guatemalan residents of Peten province reported a gunbattle between drug gangs and said one of the dead resembled Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Soldiers and police scanning the area found no sign of any confrontation.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, A Haitian judge summoned Jean-Claude Duvalier (61) to appear in court after the former dictator defied an order to attend a hearing to determine whether he should again face charges for human rights abuses committed during the nearly 15 years of his brutal regime.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, In India 16 people were killed and 117 injured in a pair of bomb explosions in a crowded area of the southern city of Hyderabad.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.41)
2013 Feb 21, In Indonesia some 20 assailants killed eight soldiers killed in two attacks in Papua province. The assailants were identified as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, An Iranian semi-official news agency said Iran is planning to build a $4 billion oil refinery in Gwadar, Baluchistan province. Iran will reportedly sell products from the refinery to Pakistan in return of food, especially wheat, meat and rice.
(AP, 2/21/13)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 21, In Iraq gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in Duluiayah, 75 km north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding four others.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Japan’s government unexpectedly announced that it had hanged 3 men for murder.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.40)
2013 Feb 21, In eastern Kenya gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles opened fire at a mosque, killing 7 people in the remote and tiny village of Maayleey.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, The Malawi government agreed to raise public workers' salaries by 60%, ending a two-week old strike.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, In Kidal, Mali, a town further north where control by French and Chad forces has been tentative, a car explosion in a mechanics garage killed two, including the driver and a security guard. Jihadist fighters fired two rockets at military points in the city of Gao as a suicide bomber attacked secular rebels near Algeria's border.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 21, Mexico said it will work with the Int’l. Red Cross on the search of thousands of people who have disappeared during the country’s 6-year war on drugs.
(SFC, 2/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 21, In Nigeria a suicide bombing hit a crowded market in the heart of Maiduguri and engulfed stalls in flames.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, In Pakistan a bomb blast inside a shopping mall in Peshawar killed at least one person and wounded 12 people. The bombing targeted shops selling mobile phones.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, A Pakistani intelligence official said at least half the Afghan Taliban recently freed from Pakistani prisons have rejoined the insurgency throwing into question the value of such goodwill gestures that the Afghan government requested to restart a flagging peace process.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security forces, hurling rocks and burning tires at a West Bank demonstration to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Feb 21, Spain’s Ferrovial, a construction and services company, announced that it would buy Enterprise, a British provider of municipal services, for £385 mil ($608m).
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.68)
2013 Feb 21, Syrian state TV said at least 53 people were killed in a car bomb attack in Damascus near the headquarters of the ruling Baath party and the Russian Embassy. Anti-regime activists put the death toll at 59. At least 13 other people were killed on two other car bombings in Damascus. An opposition group said 18 people were killed in a government airstrike on a rebel field hospital in Daraa.
(AP, 2/21/13)(AP, 2/22/13)SFC, 2/22/13, p.A3)
2013 Feb 21, In Yemen a celebration marking the first anniversary of the country's presidential election was interrupted by a shootout between government forces and disgruntled members of a southern independence movement. 4 southerners demonstrating for secession in Aden were killed by security forces.
(AP, 2/21/13)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.51)
2013 Feb 22, Pres. Obama said that about 100 US troops have been sent to Niger to help set up a new base for Predator aircraft surveillance.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, US federal and Washington state officials said six underground tanks at Hanford, that hold a brew of radioactive and toxic waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, are leaking.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, A major winter storm headed northeast into the US Great Lakes and threatened New England after blanketing states from Minnesota to Ohio with blinding snow, sleet and freezing rain. At least 4 deaths were linked to the storm.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, In Oklahoma City a medical helicopter crashed outside a nursing home killing 2 people onboard and injuring a third.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 22, American scientists prepared to drop dead mice laced with painkillers on Guam's jungle canopy as a prescription for the brown tree snake, a headache that has caused Guam misery for more than 60 years.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Bahrain a protester (20) died from a head injury sustained Feb. 14 when he was hit with a tear gas canister fired by security forces.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Police across Bangladesh clashed with protesters from Islamic political parties denouncing war crimes trials linked to the country's 1971 independence war, killing two demonstrators and injuring dozens.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Benin businessman Johannes Dagnon and army commander Pamphile Zomahoun were arrested. Preliminary investigations showed the two had tried to stop President Boni Yayi from returning to Cotonou so they could institute a military state.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Feb 22, Britain suffered its first ever sovereign ratings downgrade from a major agency when Moody's stripped the country of its coveted top-notch triple-A rating, dealing a major blow to Chancellor George Osborne.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, BP tanker drivers have begun a 3-day strike at Petroineos's Grangemouth refinery in Scotland over a plan to transfer some of them to another employer, which would affect their pensions and pay.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Frozen food maker Birds Eye said it would withdraw some products in Britain and Ireland after it found traces of horse DNA in one of its ready meals sold in Belgium.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Czech PM Petr Necas signed deals with representatives of 16 religious groups to pay them $3.1 billion in compensation for property that the country's former Communist regime seized from them. The left-wing opposition has asked the country's highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court, to stop it.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Voters in the tiny East African nation of Djibouti cast ballots in the nation's parliamentary elections. Opposition political parties were eligible to win seats for the first time.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, French catering and vouchers group Sodexo said it was withdrawing all frozen beef products from the market in Britain after finding horse meat in some of its products.
(Reuters, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, German authorities returned 7 artifacts dating as far back as 4,000 BC to Kosovo after police stumbled on them in an unrelated raid in 2005. The artifacts date to the Neolithic period and are believed to belong to the Vinca, a prehistoric culture that traces back to 5,500 BC in southern Europe.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Greece heavy rainfall caused two rivers to break their banks flooding the streets of Athens.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, In Iraq gunmen wearing military uniforms killed seven anti-al-Qaida militiamen in an attack in Tuz Khormato north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Ireland’s government said B&F Meats in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, has been caught labeling horse meat as beef and shipping it to a company in the Czech Rep.
(SFC, 2/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, In northern Mali Chadian army troops killed 65 Islamic extremist rebels and destroyed five vehicles in fierce fighting. 13 Chadian soldiers were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 22, Pakistani authorities arrested Malik Ishaq, a founder of a banned Sunni extremist group in Rahim Yar Khan, less than a week after the organization claimed responsibility for a market bombing that killed 89 Shiites. Ishaq was imprisoned for 14 years on charges, never proven, of killing Shiite Muslims. He was released in July 2011.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Hundreds of Palestinians in Hebron and elsewhere in the West Bank threw rocks at Israeli soldiers who responded with tear gas. Palestinian emergency services said dozens were treated for tear gas inhalation and rubber bullet wounds. Mohammed Asfour (22) was struck in the head by a rubber-coated bullet in the West Bank and died of his wounds on March 7.
(AP, 2/22/13)(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Feb 22, In Romania gangster Ian Balint was arrested with dozens of others on charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, blackmail and possession of illegal weapons.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 22, Syrian warplanes and artillery hit targets near Damascus International Airport. Regime forces fired three missiles into a rebel-held area in eastern Aleppo, hitting several buildings. A newly released detainee reported witnessing the death of imprisoned rights activist Ayham Ghazzoul (26). Activists said gunmen from rival Sunni and Shiite Muslim villages in northern Syria have freed more than 200 people snatched in tit-for-tat kidnappings this month, easing tensions that threatened to touch off more sectarian violence. On Feb 26 Human Rights Watch said at least 141 people, half of them children, were killed when the Syrian military fired at least four missiles into eastern Aleppo.
(AP, 2/22/13)(AP, 2/23/13)(AP, 2/24/13)(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 22, Tunisia's ruling Islamist party named Ali Larayedh, the interior minister seen as a conservative loyalist, to form a new government.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Pope Benedict XVI, who steps down Feb. 28, named Monsignor Ettore Balestrero ambassador, or nunzio, to Colombia. Balestrero was head of the Holy See's delegation to the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee, which evaluated the Vatican's anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing measures.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 22, Zimbabwe media freedom campaigners said police are breaking the law by seizing and banning small radio receivers that can tune in to stations not linked to the state broadcasting monopoly controlled by President Robert Mugabe's party.
(AP, 2/22/13)
2013 Feb 23, An Algerian army patrol reportedly killed 8 extremists in Boumerdes, about 50 km (30 miles) outside Algiers. Four fighters were killed reported in the northern Boukadir forest.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, China reported a 2nd fatality from the H5N1 bird flu in the city of Guiyang.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 23, Iran said it has selected 16 locations as suitable for new nuclear power plants it intends to build to boost its energy production over the next 15 years. State TV said the country has discovered new uranium resources.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Mexico a Belgian citizen, Jan Sarens (59), was shot to death in the Pacific resort of Acapulco near the site of the Mexican Open tennis tournament. He was a resident businessman working for a transnational firm.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, In in northeastern Nigeria at least six people were killed in an attack in Ngalba, Yobe state. Local residents suspected the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Nigeria concrete and other structures in "a densely populated area" of Lagos were razed to the ground. On Aug 12 Amnesty International published satellite images and said 9,000 people have lost homes and livelihoods and thousands more were threatened in the slum destroyed by armed police and bulldozers.
(AP, 8/12/13)
2013 Feb 23, In Pakistan a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into a canal in Peshawar, killing 17 people.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Feb 23, Some 150 Palestinian villagers and 25 Jewish settlers clashed in the northern West Bank village of Kusra, wounding one demonstrator who protesters say was shot in the stomach. The clashes began when a group of Jewish settlers chased a Palestinian farmer and his family off land in the village.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, Palestinian Arafat Jaradat (30) died while under Israeli custody at Megiddo Prison. His family alleged Jaradat was mistreated by the Shin Bet, saying he was healthy at the time of his arrest last week. Israeli officials said Jaradat died of an apparent heart attack and denied he was beaten or subjected to any treatment that could have led to his death. A Palestinian doctor present at the autopsy said marks on Jaradat’s body indicated torture.
(AP, 2/24/13)(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 23, In Sudan renewed fighting between two Arab tribes over mining rights left 60 people dead in the northern Darfur region.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 23, The battle for Syria's second-largest airport intensified on as government troops tried to reverse recent strategic gains the rebels have made in the northeast in their quest to topple President Bashar Assad. The army launched an offensive on opposition strongholds outside Damascus in an effort to dislodge rebels from areas around the capital that they have been trying to storm for weeks.
(AP, 2/23/13)
2013 Feb 23, In eastern Zimbabwe an arson attack on the home of an election candidate killed the politician's 12-year-old son.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 24, In the 85th Annual Academy Awards Jennifer Lawrence wins the Best Actress award for "Silver Linings Playbook"; Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for "Lincoln"; Best Picture went to "Argo." A Best Picture/Best Director split occurred since Ben Affleck was curiously not nominated for the award.
(http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/2013-oscars/oscar-live-blog-013911081.html)
2013 Feb 24, Afghanistan's president said all US special forces must leave eastern Wardak province within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans. Suicide bombers targeted Afghanistan's intelligence agency and other security forces in four coordinated attacks in Kabul and outlying areas, leaving at least 7 dead, including the 4 bombers.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Cuba's parliament reconvened with new membership. Raul Castro announced that he will step down in 2018 following a final five-year term, for the first time putting a date on the end of the Castro era. He tapped rising star Miguel Diaz-Canel (52) as his top lieutenant and first in the line of succession.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Greek Cypriots voted for a new president. Conservative opposition party leader Nicos Anastasiades garnered 45.46% of the vote in the first round of voting, some 18 points over communist-backed Stavros Malas. With nearly all the votes counted, Anastasiades had 57.48% of the ballots, far ahead of Malas' 42.52%.
(AP, 2/24/13)(Econ, 2/23/13, p.50)
2013 Feb 24, In Egypt thousands of brick workers blocked railroad tracks from a southern city to Cairo for a second day to protest rising industrial oil prices, causing the cancellation of some services. Residents of Port Said pressed their general strike which entered its second week.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, In Ethiopia 11 African countries signed a UN-drafted peace deal to stabilize Congo, where rebels allegedly backed by neighboring countries last year threatened to oust the government.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, In Greece a helicopter swooped down on the Trikala prison courtyard as armed men on board fired on guards and lowered a rope to help convicted killer Panagiotis Vlastos make his fourth attempt to escape from a Greek prison. Vlastos was wounded the helicopter was grounded in the failed escape.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Gen. Hamid Tabatabaei, a commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, has been killed in the country's Kurdish northwest.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Italy began 2 days of parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Palestinians called for an international investigation of Israel's treatment of detained Palestinians, after a 30-year-old Palestinian died in custody and a hunger strike by four other inmates sparked a week of West Bank protests.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Syrian rebels used captured tanks to launch a fresh offensive on a government complex housing a police academy in Aleppo as they continued to log a string of strategic victories against President Bashar Assad's troops who countered with airstrikes.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Syrian comedian Yassin Bakoush (75) was killed by a mortar round that landed on his car in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus. SANA state news said he was killed by a rebel mortar round. The anti-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was a rocket-propelled grenade launched by government troops.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 24, Zimbabwe's broke coalition government said it has raised enough money privately to pay for a referendum on a new constitution scheduled March 16.
(AP, 2/24/13)
2013 Feb 25, C. Everett Koop (96), former US Surgeon General (1981-1989), died at his home in Hanover, NH.
(SFC, 2/26/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 25, In Pennsylvania an inmate assaulted and killed a guard with a homemade weapon at the Canaan federal penitentiary.
(SFC, 2/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 25, Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien (74), resigned following allegations he behaved in an inappropriate way with priests, and said he would not take part in the election of Pope Benedict's replacement. O'Brien said he had tendered his resignation some months ago.
(Reuters, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, In China a Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest against Chinese rule near dozens of pilgrims who had gathered for prayers to mark the end of the Tibetan New Year festival in Gansu province. Another had set himself ablaze a day earlier at a monastery in Qinghai province. Both died. A third monk was taken to a hospital after setting himself alight in a separate incident.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 25, In Colombia thousands of coffee workers began blocking roads in 10 provinces over falling incomes from leaf rust and falling coffee prices.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.38)
2013 Feb 25, A judge in the Dominican Republic ruled that Martha Heredia (22), the winner of a TV talent show, can be held in jail for up to a year while authorities investigate her alleged involvement in drug smuggling. She was arrested at a Dominican airport on Feb 20 as she was about to board a flight to New York. Police allege she had 2.9 pounds (1.3 kg) of heroin stuffed in the heels of three pairs of platform shoes.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 25, Israel and the US carried out a successful test of the next-generation Arrow 3 missile defense system, for the first time sending an interceptor into outer space, where it could destroy missiles fired from Iran.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Italians voted for a second day in a national election. Italy faced political paralysis as near-complete results in crucial national elections showed no clear winner and raised the possibility of a hung parliament. Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement (M5S) won no less than 163 of 945 elected members.
(AP, 2/25/13)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.50)
2013 Feb 25, Jordan said it has no official word from Saudi Arabia about one of its citizens, youth activist Khaled Natour, apprehended by authorities there 50 days ago.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Mexico's central bank said that Mexican corporations invested about $25.6 billion last year in buying up foreign plants and companies, more than twice the $12.6 foreigners invested directly in Mexican firms. An official confirmed that was the first time in recent memory that outflows exceeded inflows.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Park Geun-hye began serving as South Korea's first female president and returned to the presidential mansion where she grew up with her dictator father.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, In southern Pakistan a blast at a Sufi shrine killed two people in Shikarpur.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Swedish furniture giant Ikea was drawn into Europe's widening food labeling scandal as authorities said they had detected horse meat in frozen meatballs labeled as beef and pork and sold in 13 countries across the continent.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, Syria’s foreign minister Walid al-Moallem said his country ready to hold talks with the armed opposition trying to topple President Bashar Assad.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 25, In Turkey German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Turkish leaders amid growing frustration in Turkey over its slow-moving EU membership and a perceived reluctance by European nations to crackdown on Turkish militants operating in their nations.
(AP, 2/25/13)
2013 Feb 26, A deeply divided Senate voted on to confirm Republican Chuck Hagel (66) to be the next US defense secretary, handing President Barack Obama's pick the top Pentagon job just days before billions of dollars in automatic, across-the-board budget cuts hit the military. 4 Republicans joined the Democrats in backing the contentious choice.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, A major winter storm hit the US midsection for the 2nd time in a week.
(SFC, 2/27/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 26, In Santa Cruz, Ca., police detectives Loran Baker (51) and Elizabeth Butler (38) were shot in a gunbattle with Jeremy Peter Goulet (35). Goulet was killed as police converged on the scene.
(SFC, 2/27/13, p.A7)(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A12)
2013 Feb 26, In Mississippi the body of Marco McMillian (34), a mayoral candidate in Clarksdale, was found beaten and burned. Lawrence Reed (22) was later charged with the murder.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A4)(http://tinyurl.com/bacbhaw)
2013 Feb 26, In Afghanistan Taliban insurgents reportedly poisoned, then shot and killed 17 people as they slept at a local police post in Ghazni province.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Dubai the 72-storey Marriott Marquis Dubai hotel officially opened setting a world record of tallest hotel at 1,009 feet.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 26, In Egypt a hot air balloon flying over the ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field, killing at least 19 foreign tourists. The pilot, who sustained severe burns, and a British tourist were the only survivors.
(AP, 2/26/13)(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Feb 26, Hungary’s National Food Chain Safety Office (Nebih) horse meat labeled as beef has been sold in the country.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Mali a suicide car bombing killed six government allies in the northern city of Kidal. The French confirmed that they are engaged in heavy fighting in northern Mali.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Mexico Elba Esther Gordillo (68), leader of the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, was arrested afternoon as she landed at the Toluca airport near Mexico City on a private flight from San Diego. She was accused of embezzling millions in funds from her teachers' union to pay for property, private planes, plastic surgery and her Neiman Marcus bill.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, The Hague Appeals Court ruled that a 2005 law, which makes it mandatory for all people older than 14 to carry ID cards and show them to police upon request, does not have a religious exemption.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style to the isolated Communist country with possibly the world's drabbest dress code: North Korea. Rodman was joining three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team for a Vice Media production to air on HBO in early April.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In northwestern Pakistan gunmen shot and killed a police officer who was protecting a team of polio workers during a UN-backed vaccination campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel for the first time in three months. It landed south of Ashkelon with some damage to a road.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, Puerto Rico's Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla approved turning over the operations of the country’s largest airport to a private company as part of an estimated $2.6 billion deal that began under his predecessor and has been fiercely protested.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 26, A South African study was released showing that donkey, water buffalo and other unconventional ingredients have been found in almost two thirds of hamburgers and sausages tested in South Africa.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In South Africa Mido Macia (27), a taxi driver from Mozambique, was bound and dragged behind a police vehicle in the Daveyton township east of Johannesburg. The scene was captured on video. He was found dead in a cell hours later by another policeman. On Feb 28 eight police officers were charged with murder. On July, 2014, the eight officers, on bail on charges of murder, were sacked. In November, 2015, the eight former officers were each sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 2/28/13)(AP, 3/1/13)(AFP, 7/4/14)(AP, 11/11/15)
2013 Feb 26, Human Rights Watch said Sri Lankan security forces continue to use torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against suspected members of the Tamil Tiger rebels and their supporters, nearly four years after the end of the country's civil war. The military denied the allegations.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, In Syria combat raged near the historic Ummayad Mosque in Aleppo while anti-government activists reported fresh clashes near a police academy west of the city. The Observatory said the dead in the last two days of fighting in the area included 26 rebel fighters, 40 soldiers and five pro-government militiamen.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 26, The party of Zimbabwe's PM Morgan Tsvangirai said that violence against its supporters is increasing as political tensions rise before upcoming elections.
(AP, 2/26/13)
2013 Feb 27, The US Senate confirmed Jacob J. Lew (57) as treasury secretary.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 27, In California former Contra Costa fire captain Jon Wilmot (51) of Alamo was charged with receiving stolen property, embezzlement, possession of an assault weapon and commercial burglary.
(SFC, 3/1/13, p.D3)
2013 Feb 27, Pianist Van Cliburn (b.1934) died at his home in Fort Worth, Texas. He won the 1958 Tchaikovsky Intl. Competition in Moscow and became an overnight sensation.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.D5)
2013 Feb 27, In Afghanistan a suicide bomber slid under a bus full of Afghan soldiers and blew himself up in Kabul, wounding 10.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Australia's highest court narrowly rejected the case of two Muslim activists who argued they had a constitutional free-speech right to send offensive letters to families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Brazilian police said Father Emilson Soares Correa, a Roman Catholic priest, is being investigated for allegations of sexual abuse of three young girls in his parish in Niteroi, a city across Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, British health officials said gonorrhea cases have soared by 25 percent in the past year in England as superbug or drug-resistant strains of the sexually transmitted infection (STI) take hold worldwide.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, China’s state news announced the arrests of 5 Tibetans accused of inciting a series of self-immolations late last year.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 27, In CongoDRC the M23 divided into two groups over disagreements on negotiations with the Congolese government. The splinter group is lead by the M23 president Jean-Marie Runiga and Gen. Baudoin Ngaruye. The new group is reported to be aligned with warlord Bosco Ntaganda.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 27, Egyptian authorities confiscated two pick-up trucks carrying 60 anti-tank missiles smuggled across the border from Libya.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Greece Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, the former mayor of Thessaloniki, was sentenced to life i8n prison along with 12 top aides after being found guilty of embezzling almost $23.5 million in state funds.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 27, Guinean security forces fired tear gas at protests that turned violent after opposition marchers started throwing stones in Conakry. The opposition said that it has withdrawn from the upcoming legislative election set for May 12 because the opposition is unhappy with preparations for the election.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In India a fire broke out at an illegal six-story plastics market in Kolkata, killing at least 19 people.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top official at diplomatic talks, said negotiations in Kazakhstan with world powers over how to curb Iran's nuclear program have reached a "turning point" for the better at the close of two days of discussions aimed at preventing Tehran from building an atomic arsenal.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, An Iraqi plane landed in Kuwait for the first time since Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of the tiny emirate.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Ireland Ali Charaf Damache (47) was arrested while leaving a courthouse in Waterford. He had just walked free from the court, after three years in prison when detectives acting on an American extradition warrant rearrested and escorted him, handcuffed, to an unmarked police car. The FBI and US Justice Department accuse Damache of being the ringleader behind an unrealized 2009 conspiracy to target artist Lars Vilks in Sweden over his series of drawings depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, A Jordanian official said there is a new surge in Syrians fleeing across the border to Jordan as fighting intensifies in southern Syria.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Kenya police said 32 people have died after the bus they were travelling in rolled in the Tulimani area.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In New Zealand Adam Strange, a 46-year-old television and short film director, was killed by a shark off Muriwai Beach near Auckland.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Nigeria foreigners working for a construction company escaped a kidnapping attempt that killed 2 police officers in Taraba state.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 27, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visited Tehran where he worked to finalize a gas pipeline deal with Iran that is being opposed by the United States.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In Pakistan gunmen shot and killed a news reporter in Miran Shah, North Waziristan.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, In the Philippines Pres. Benigno Aquino III warned Jamalul Kiram III, the Sultan of Sulu, that he would face the full force of the law unless he withdrew his armed followers from Sabah, Malaysia.
(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb 27, Slovenia’s Parliament ousted PM Janez Jansa and his conservative government. The 55-33 no-confidence vote named Alenka Bratusek (42) as prime minister designate.
(SFC, 2/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 27, In Switzerland a longtime employee (42) opened fire at a wood-processing company in Menznau, leaving 3 people dead, including the assailant.
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 27, Syrian rebels clashed with government forces on two sides of Aleppo as well as near its historic mosque. At least six rebels were killed in fighting near a police academy west of the city
(AP, 2/27/13)
2013 Feb 28, US Army Pvt. Bradley Manning (25), accused of providing secret documents to the WikiLeaks website, pleaded guilty to misusing classified material he felt "should become public," but denied the top charge of aiding the enemy.
(Reuters, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, International Rivers, a Berkeley-based nonprofit, won a MacArthur Foundation prize worth $750,000 for its work opposing dams and helping countries and corporations around the world find alternative energy sources.
(SFC, 2/2/13, p.C1)
2013 Feb 28, Donald A. Glaser (b.1926), UC Berkeley physicist and inventor of the bubble chamber, died in Berkeley. In 1960 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A1)(SFC, 2/19/13, p.C6)
2013 Feb 28, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded control of clandestine Afghan armed groups that are linked to US-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units. A roadside bomb in Kunar province killed nine people, mostly border policemen. Two brothers, 11 and 12, were killed with their 2 donkeys when a coalition helicopter fired at what they thought were insurgent forces in the Shahid-e Hasas district of Uruzgan province.
(AP, 2/28/13)(SSFC, 2/3/13, p.A7)
2013 Feb 28, In Bangladesh a special tribunal sentenced Delwar Hossain Sayedee (73), a leader of an Islamic political party, to death for crimes during the nation's 1971 war for independence. The decision sparked violent protests that left at least 67 people dead across the nation. Jamaat-e-Islami enforced a nationwide general strike to denounce the trial and demand that Sayedee be freed from detention. On Sep 17, 2014, the sentence was commuted to life in prison.
(AP, 2/28/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.49)(AP, 9/17/14)
2013 Feb 28, Bruce Reynolds (81), the mastermind of the 1963 "Great Train Robbery" in Britain that brought its perpetrators cash, incarceration and pop-culture fame, died.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, China's military said that overseas computer hackers targeted two of its websites an average of 144,000 times per month last year, with almost two-thirds of the attacks originating in the United States.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In CongoDRC a spokesperson of the M23 said General Sultani Makenga has dismissed Jean-Marie Runiga, the president of the M23 rebel group, over accusations that he is supporting Bosco Ntaganda, a wanted war criminal.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Egypt dozens of Muslim residents threw firebombs and rocks at police as they tried to storm a church in southern Egypt in search of a woman suspected of converting to Christianity in the town of Kom Ombo. Tensions rose after a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who has been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside the church with a female Christian friend. The woman was reported found on Feb 2 and police said that "family and social reasons," not religion, were behind her disappearance, and that she had not converted.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Guinea a protester was killed in Conakry as the capital was rocked by a 2nd day of anti-government demonstrations in which more than 100 people were injured.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Iraq a car bomb tore a crowded livestock market in the town of Aziziyah, killing three and wounding eight people.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Iraq a one-story boat moored to the shore of the Tigris River as part of the popular Lebanese Club restaurant complex, sank leaving 8 people dead in Baghdad.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, the son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was captured by the FBI in Jordan as he was being deported to Kuwait from Turkey. On March 9 he pleaded not guilty in federal court in NY to conspiring to kill Americans.
(SFC, 2/9/13, p.A5)
2013 Feb 28, In Nigeria several bombs exploded in Maiduguri, which is hosting a meeting of opposition political parties.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, Ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman met North Korea's Kim Jong Un on the third day of his improbable journey to Pyongyang, telling the leader "You have a friend for life."
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, Syrian rebels clashed with government forces around the historic 12th century Umayyad Mosque inside Aleppo. The US pledged an additional $60 million in assistance and — in a significant policy shift — will for the first time provide nonlethal aid like food and medical supplies.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, Thailand's government signed a breakthrough deal with Muslim insurgents for the first time ever, agreeing to hold talks to ease nearly a decade of violence in the country's southern provinces that has killed more than 5,000 people. The agreement was announced in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, between Thai authorities and the militant National Revolution Front.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, A Turkish news agency said police have detained 11 people suspected of al-Qaida links and seized 25 kg (55 pounds) of plastic explosives. Police reportedly found charts and photographs of the US Consulate, a synagogue and a church in Istanbul.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb 28, UN appeals judges at The Hague, Netherlands, acquitted Gen. Momcilo Perisic of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebel Serbs, including the Srebrenica massacre, by providing them with military aid during the Balkan wars (1992-1995). He had been sentenced to 27 years in 2011, after being convicted of crimes including murder, inhumane acts and persecution.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life while he continues to undergo treatment more than two months after his latest cancer surgery.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Feb 28, In Yemen tens of thousands held mass rallies in Sanaa and across the country calling for the prosecution of ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is under pressure to leave the country for allegedly hindering democratic transition.
(AP, 2/28/13)
2013 Feb, A couple in northern California discovered 1427 US gold coins, dating from 1847-1894, in rusty cans on their property. The Saddle Ridge Horde was later valued at $10 million. State and federal taxes would apply to their find. Face value of the coins was $27,980. On May 27, 2014, an exhibit and auction of some coins was held at the Old Mint of SF with proceeds going to a city and money museum at the mint.
(SFC, 2/26/14, p.A1)(SFC, 2/27/14, p.C1)(SFC, 5/27/14, p.A9)
2013 Feb, China launched a crackdown aimed at cleaning up tits thriving, but dirty, recycling industry.
(SFC, 10/4/13, p.A4)
2013 Feb, Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament voted to scrap its existing contract with Canada’s Centerra Gold, operator of the Kumtor mine. This mine accounts for as much as 12% of the country’s GDP and half of its exports, while contributing nearly a tenth of the national budget.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.42)
2013 Feb, The Kyrgyzstan Supreme Court voted to keep secret the salaries of MPs.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.42)
2013 Feb, Malaysian restaurant manager Riduan Masmud (40) was charged with committing statutory rape with a girl (13) in a parked car in Borneo. He later defended his actions by saying he has married the girl.
(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 Mar 1, Pres. Obama signed an order that started putting mandatory spending cuts (the sequester) into effect. The sequester was originally designed to slice $1.2 trillion from spending over a decade.
(Reuters, 3/2/13)(Econ, 3/2/13, p.27)
2013 Mar 1, The SpaceX commercial craft ran into thruster trouble shortly after liftoff. The Dragon capsule bound at the Int’l. Space Station arrived on March 3 delivering a ton of supplies.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A4)(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 1, In Santa Clara County, Ca., supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. (51) said he was resigning after prosecutors filed felony charges alleging he stole public money and nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions to finance a gambling habit.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.C1)
2013 Mar 1, In Seffner, Florida, a massive sinkhole swallowed Jeffrey Bush (37) as the hole opened under his bedroom. His body was never recovered Five others in the house were unharmed. In 2015 another sinkhole opened in the same location.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A4)(SFC, 8/20/15, p.A5)
2013 Mar 1, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez authorized a compromise offer of a new debt swap to comply with a $1.3 billion cash judgment to resolve debts unpaid for over a decade. A NY court ordered Argentina to explain how it would issue new bonds rather than comply with the order for cash payment.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 1, A senior Bahrain prosecutor said an appeals court has overturned the acquittal and sentenced the daughter of a jailed opposition leader to three months in prison. Zainab al-Khawaja was convicted of insulting a public employee.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Bangladesh protesters clashed for a 2nd day as the death toll rose to 44 in violence triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a top leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
(SFC, 3/2/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 1, Britain’s Food Standards Agency said traces of horse meat has been found in ground beef sold by Taco Bell, which has only three British outlets. Horse DNA also was found in Birds Eye spaghetti Bolognese and beef lasagna and spicy minced beef skewers from catering supplier Brakes.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Andrey Borodin (45), former head of Russia's fifth largest bank, told a Russian newspaper his application for asylum has been granted in Britain after an application by his lawyers on the grounds that he faced political persecution in Russia. Borodin fled Russia in March, 2011.
(Reuters, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Chadian President Idriss Deby announced that government troops fighting to dislodge an al-Qaida affiliate in northern Mali killed one of the group's leading commanders, Abdelhamid Abou Zeid. On March 23 France confirmed Zeid’s death and said he was killed in operations in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains in northern Mali in late February.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 1, China’s State Council spelled out fresh curbs on property speculation, sending the housing market into a tizzy.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 1, China executed four foreigners for killing 13 Chinese sailors in an attack on the Mekong River on Oct 5, 2011, following a live nationwide broadcast showing them being led to their deaths.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Fighting erupted in eastern Congo between two factions of the M23 rebel group. An estimated 23 people died in the fighting, according to an officer with the main part of M23. The Congolese army entered Kiwanja, a town that was run by M23 rebels for more than six months. Doctors Without Borders said that more than 55 civilians have been killed in fighting in another town in Congo's east, Kitchanga, where 135 people have been wounded.
(AP, 3/1/13)(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Egypt dozens of Muslim residents threw firebombs and rocks at police as they tried to storm a church in southern Egypt in search of a woman suspected of converting to Christianity in the town of Kom Ombo. Tensions rose after a 36 year-old Muslim woman, who has been missing for five days, was allegedly seen outside the church with a female Christian friend a day earlier.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Iraq's Sunni Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi announced during a protest in the western city of Ramadi that he will resign from the government, heightening the country's political crisis. 2 car bombs struck a livestock market south of Baghdad, killing five and wounding dozens in Diawaniyah.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Israel Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Japan US Seaman Christopher Browning (24), of Athens, Texas, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker (23), of Muskogee, Oklahoma, were found guilty by the Naha District Court of raping and robbing a woman in her 20s in a parking lot in October. Both admitted committing the crime. Browning was sentenced to 10 years and Dozierwalker received nine years.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Ethnic Macedonians kicked off the protests in Skopje, angry at the appointment of an ethnic Albanian defense minister, a former rebel commander during the 2001 conflict that pitted the country's two main ethnic groups against each other.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 1, In eastern Malaysia 14 people were killed in a shootout as authorities tried to end a three-week standoff with about 200 members of a Filipino clan occupying a village in Sabah state.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, A Dutch court convicted Yvonne Basebya (66), a Rwandan-born Dutch woman, of inciting genocide in Rwanda's 1994 mass murders of ethnic Tutsis by members of the Hutu tribe — the first conviction of a Dutch citizen for the crime. She was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for her role.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Ending his unexpected round of basketball diplomacy in North Korea, ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman called leader Kim Jong Un an "awesome guy" and said his father and grandfather were "great leaders."
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, In southwest Pakistan gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed reporter Mahmood Ahmed Afridi as he walked to a press club in the town of Kalat.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops during rallies across the West Bank in support of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners and against Israel's security barrier.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, Ayman Abu-Sufian (40) a Palestinian man, died in Palestinian custody in the West Bank two days after being detained on assault charges. Authorities there launched an investigation.
(AP, 3/2/13)(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 1, In Poland Lech Walesa said in a television interview that he believes gays have no right to sit on the front benches in Parliament and, if represented at all, should sit in the back, "and even behind a wall."
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 1, In Somalia a suicide bomber detonated explosives inside a seaside restaurant in Mogadishu, killing himself and one diner. A car bomb was also remotely detonated at the restaurant's gates.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, The Spanish government said it will challenge a recent declaration by lawmakers in Catalonia that the region is a sovereign entity.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 1, The chief of Syrian rebel forces said that his fighters are in "desperate" need of weapons and ammunition rather than the food supplies and bandages that the US now plans to provide. Government forces fought fierce clashes with rebels attacking a police academy near Aleppo, while the bodies of 10 men — most of them shot in the head — were found dumped along the side of a road outside Damascus. State news said that government troops defending the school had killed dozens of opposition fighters and destroyed five rebel vehicles.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 2, President Barack Obama pressed Congress to work with him on a compromise to halt a fiscal crisis he said was starting to "inflict pain" on communities across the United States.
(Reuters, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Wyoming Ildiko Freitas (40) and her parents were killed by two intruders at her home in Cody. Stephen Hammer (19) and Tanner Vanpelt (18) were soon arrested and charged with murder and robbery.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, Bangladesh security forces killed two people and injured dozens as they clashed with demonstrators for a 3rd day in violence triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, Chad's military chief announced that his troops deployed in northern Mali had killed Moktar Belmoktar, the terrorist who orchestrated the attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria that left 36 foreigners dead.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported that a massive sulfuric acid leak at a warehouse in Liaoning province has killed at least 3 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 2, In Egypt Hossam Eldin Abdullah Abdelazim, was killed when an armored police vehicle crushed him to death during clashes between protesters and police in Mansoura. A police car in Port Said hit five protesters along a main road and sped off. The violence came as US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Cairo talking with opposition figures ahead of his meeting with the president and defense minister on March 3.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, German property developer Maik Uwe Hinkel rejected calls to halt work to remove one of the last remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall, despite angry protests against the plan.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, A Libyan security official said 50 Egyptians, who were arrested in Benghazi last week for allegedly spreading Christianity, are being charged with illegally entering and working in the country and will be deported.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, Violent ethnic riots rattled Macedonia's capital, culminating with hundreds raging through the city center, clashing with police, overturning cars and attacking a bus station. At least 22 people were injured, 13 of them police officers.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Malaysia gunmen ambushed and killed six policemen as fears mounted that armed intruders from the southern Philippines had slipped into at least three coastal districts on Borneo island. 6 gunmen were also killed in the fighting.
(AP, 3/3/13)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.51)
2013 Mar 2, In Mali a French soldier died in an assault on jihadists in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains along the Algerian border. About 15 jihadists were reported killed in the fighting in the Ametettai Valley.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 2, In Nigeria Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, denied in a newly released video any peace talks with the government.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 2, The Syrian Army's General Command said its troops have carried out special operations in towns and villages along a road between Hama and Aleppo’s airport, restoring stability there and at the airport.
(AP, 3/2/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Afghan insurgents attacked a supply convoy and killed one soldier in Badakhshan province. 23 other soldiers were captured. 6 of the soldiers were released following negotiations, but 16 others were executed.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 3, Bangladesh authorities deployed soldiers in a northern district after Islamic party activists clashed with police, leaving five people dead during a nationwide general strike called to denounce war crimes trials.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, The Congolese military said it has given control of two key eastern towns back to the M23 rebel group to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing peace process.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Cairo, Egypt, US Secretary of State John Kerry rewarded Egypt for President Mohammed Morsi's pledges of political and economic reforms by releasing $250 million in American aid to support the country's "future as a democracy."
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Port Said, Egypt, fighting throughout the day killed two policemen and three civilians as protesters pelted police forces with rocks and fire bombs and the force responded with tear gas, and birdshots.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 3, Iran's nuclear chief said his country has produced more than 3,000 advanced centrifuges which are used to enrich uranium.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In central Iraq 3 separate attacks in Shiite-dominated areas killed at least four people and wounded 14.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Japan heavy snow over the weekend killed eight people on Hokkaido island, including a family whose car became buried.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 3, Mexico's ruling party changed its platform to allow for private investment in the oil industry, paving the way for a possible overhaul of a state-owned company that is seen as a pillar of the nation.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Mexico gunmen killed journalist Jaime Gonzalez (38) in Ojinaga, a border town across from Texas. He was founder and director of Ojinaga Noticias, a website mostly dedicated to community news.
(SFC, 3/5/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/a7n6qgf)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Nigeria fighters linked to the radical Islamic terrorist network Boko Haram attacked a military base, killing at least 20 people in Monguno. A military spokesman said that 20 "Boko Haram terrorists" were killed, without acknowledging that at least one civilian had been killed.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Pakistan a bomb blast killed 48 people, including many women and children outside a Shiite mosque in Karachi.
(AP, 3/3/13)(AP, 3/4/13)(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 3, The West Bank Palestinian finance minister Nabil Qassis announced his resignation in a show of frustration over the government's widening budget deficit. Qassis told reporters that the Palestinian Authority's 2013 budget deficit is expected to reach $1.4 billion.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, Russian authorities said six teenagers are trapped in an avalanche in the region of Tuva in southern Siberia.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien acknowledged having engaged in unspecified sexual misbehavior, apologized for his actions a d recused himself from the conclave to select a new pope.
(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 3, In Senegal 9 children, aged 7-12, died in a fire in a Quranic school.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 3, Syrian activists said more than 200 Syrian soldiers and opposition fighters have died in the eight-day battle for a police academy near Aleppo. Rebels stormed a central prison in the northern city of Raqqa and captured a border crossing in the east along Syria's border with Iraq. Opposition fighters killed 115 police and wounded another 50 in a battle over the police academy.
(AP, 3/3/13)(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 3, Swiss citizens voted on a plan, the “Rip-Off Initiative," to boost shareholders’ authority over executive pay. 68% voted in favor. The plan became effective in 2015.
(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.64)(Econ., 2/21/15, p.65)
2013 Mar 3, Thailand's PM Yingluck Shinawatra vowed for the first time to work toward ending her country's trade in ivory, but gave no timeline for implementing a ban. Conservationists warned that the unprecedented slaughter of elephants in Africa would continue until she does.
(AP, 3/3/13)
2013 Mar 3, In Venezuela hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Caracas demanding the government provide details about the health of Pres. Hugo Chavez.
(SFC, 3/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 3, In Venezuela Sabino Romero, a leader of the Yukpa tribe, was fatally shot along a highway in the western state of Zulia.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Florida a jury in Miami convicted Muslim cleric Hafiz Khan (77) of funneling thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban.
(SFC, 3/5/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 4, Cambodian translators angry that they have gone without pay for three months stopped working at the UN-backed genocide trial of former Khmer Rogue leaders, a new setback for an international justice effort that has been hobbled by conflicts with the Cambodian government.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In CongoDRC a plane crash in the center of the eastern city of Goma killed seven people and injured three.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, Lawmakers at the Czech parliament's upper house decided to press high treason charges against outgoing president Vaclav Klaus over his controversial amnesty, which halted court proceedings in several high-profile fraud cases and financial scams.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Germany Berlin’s mayor said that he would try to ensure that one of the last remaining sections of the Berlin Wall is preserved. After facing protests, a real estate developer put on hold until at least mid-March plans to remove a section of the wall.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Greece former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos was sentenced to 8 years in prison for concealing assets.
(SFC, 2/5/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 4, In India Irom Sharmila (40) was charged with attempted suicide. She has been on a 12-year hunger strike — and force fed through a tube by authorities — to protest an Indian law that suspends many human rights protections in areas of conflict.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Iraq a suicide attacker drove a car laden with explosives into a police checkpoint in Mosul, killing five policemen and wounding 12 other people.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Israel launched a pair of "Palestinian-only" bus lines in the West Bank. It was presented by the government as a goodwill gesture, assailed by critics as racism and welcomed by Palestinian riders.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Israel's Agriculture Ministry set up an emergency hotline as swarms of the destructive locusts descended on neighboring Egypt and asked Israelis to be vigilant in reporting sightings to prevent an outbreak.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Kenyans waited in long lines to vote in the nation's presidential election. A secessionist group in Mombasa launched multiple attacks which killed 19 people.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, Mexico's Economy Department said that an agreement over trade in fresh tomatoes, proposed in early February, has been signed with US Department of Commerce officials.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Nigeria an attack by the radical Islamic extremist network Boko Haram killed eight people in Gwoza, Borno state.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 4, Royal Dutch Shell PLC said its Nigerian subsidiary lost some 150,000 barrels of oil a day over several days in late February after safety systems shut down its Nembe Creek Trunkline. Shell said the shutdowns came after thieves cut into the line.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Pakistan gunmen shot and killed two people returning from a funeral for Shiite Muslim victims of a massive bombing in Karachi.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 4, South Sudan troops killed 28 fighters led by the rebel leader David Yau Yau in the restive state of Jonglei. Ten soldiers were wounded in the fights.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 4, Syrian rebels pushed government troops from most of the northern city of Raqqa. Rebels launched an offensive to seize the military air base of Mannagh near the Turkish border and clashed with government forces at a historic mosque in Aleppo. Gunmen killed 48 Syrian soldiers who had crossed into Iraq for refuge. 9 Iraqi soldiers were also killed. Iraqi officials blamed the attack on al-Qaida's Iraq arm. On March 11 Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/4/13)(AP, 3/5/13)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 4, In Yemen a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled vehicle at a pro-government militia headquarters, killing 12 people and wounding 17 in Lawder, Abyan province.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 5, The Pan-STARRS comet passed within 100 million miles of Earth, its closest approach in its first-ever cruise through the inner solar system.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The United States and China reached a deal that "significantly expands" UN sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear test, eliciting a renewed threat by Pyongyang to scrap an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, The DJIA passed its previous all-time high of 14,164.53 and closed at 14,253.77.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 5, In Las Vegas Xiao Ye Bai (26), convicted of being an enforcer for a Taiwan-based criminal gang, was sentenced to life in a Nevada prison without parole for murder in a bloody stabbing and slashing that left Wen Jun Li dead and two people wounded in a Las Vegas karaoke bar in July 2009.
(AP, 3/5/13)(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 5, The San Francisco Bay Bridge lit up with 25,000 LED lights in the debut of Leo Villareal’s $8 million “Bay Lights" installation. The 1.8 mile light show will continue for 2 years.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A1)(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 5, An Afghan tribunal sentenced two top executives of Kabul Bank, Sherkhan Farnood and Khalilullah Ferozi, to 5 years in prison for misappropriating a combined $808 million. They were among 21 Kabul Bank and government employees found guilty of wrongdoing.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 5, Frozen food maker Birds Eye said horse meat DNA found in two of its products came from an Irish meat processor that is part of one of Ireland's largest agricultural businesses. The company said investigations had found its Belgian supplier Frigilunch NV had unknowingly sourced meat with horse DNA from Irish meat processor QK Meats.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Britain stood isolated against a broad majority of European Union countries in refusing to back legislation that would strictly limit bankers' bonuses.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Stealth action game "Dishonored," featuring a masked bodyguard-turned-assassin, was named best video game of the year at an award ceremony in London.
(Reuters, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In China the National People’s Congress opened for a 12-day session. Premier Wen Jiabao and Pres. Hu Jintao will stand down at the end for incoming Premier Li Keqiang and Pres. Xi Jinping. China's government pledged to repair the country's ravaged environment and boost public services under its new leadership, an acknowledgment that quality of life was sidelined during the outgoing administration's decade of breakneck economic growth.
(SFC, 3/6/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In Ecuador a Huaorani couple, including village leader Ompure, died in a spearing attack. A revenge attack by a Huaorani war party later killed a number of people at the settlement of Taromenane.
(SFC, 4/4/13, p.A2)(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 5, In Egypt a Cairo court convicted a police sniper for attacks on anti-government protesters and sentenced him to three years in prison. Police officer Mahmoud el-Shenawi became known as the "eye sniper" after he was shown in footage on social networking sites allegedly firing at protesters in the Egyptian capital and aiming for their eyes.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, EU finance ministers decided that European bankers’ bonuses should be capped at a meximum of one times their base salary, rising to two times if shareholders explicitly agree.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.72)
2013 Mar 5, In Iraq a local leader of anti-al-Qaida militiamen was shot dead in western Baghdad, one of four people killed in violence in the city.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In Kenya the electronic transmission system meant to collate voting results broke down a day after the elections.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.44)
2013 Mar 5, Madagascar police said two protesters were killed in a riot at a prison in Mandritsara holding the alleged killers of French nun Sister Marie Emmanuelle Helesbeux. Her body was found in the Mandritsara marketplace on March 2.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Malaysia unleashed airstrikes and mortar attacks on nearly 200 Filipinos occupying a Borneo coastal village but could not declare an immediate end to a three-week siege that has turned into a security nightmare for both Malaysia and the Philippines.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Syrian rebels battled pockets of regime loyalists in the northern city of Raqqa after capturing Hassan Jalili, the governor of Raqqa province in fierce clashes overnight. Syrian jets bombed opposition-held buildings in Raqqa. Activists said 16 people were killed in Raqqa, including 10 fighters who died in clashes with troops.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, A UN aid agency canceled the Gaza marathon after the Palestinian territory's militant Hamas rulers banned women from participating in the annual sporting event.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, Venezuela’s government announced the death of President Hugo Chavez (b.1954), the larger-than-life firebrand socialist who led the nation for 14 years. Vice President Nicolas Maduro stood as interim president in the wake of Chavez's death and will run as the governing party candidate in elections to be called within 30 days.
(AP, 3/5/13)
2013 Mar 5, In Zimbabwe a man escaped from a lion attack on the shores of Lake Kariba, but the woman with him was savaged to death. An arm and remains of a second corpse were found by rangers hunting for the lions.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, Arkansas adopted the country’s most restrictive ban on abortion, at 12 weeks of pregnancy. Democrat Gov. Mike Beebe called it “blatantly unconstitutional."
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 6, In California a lion attacked and killed Dianna Hanson (24), a sanctuary worker at Project Survival’s Cat Haven in Dunlap.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A1)(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 6, Ohio executed Frederick Treesh for the fatal shooting of a bookstore security guard in 1994. He was pronounced dead after a single powerful dose of pentobarbital.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 6, Britain said it will provide armored vehicles, body armor and search-and-rescue equipment to Syria's opposition, but was still stopping short of arming the country's rebels.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, British travel firm Thomas Cook said it would cut 2,500 UK jobs and close 195 stores in Britain as the euro crisis, high fuel costs and unrest in key destinations like Egypt and Greece take their toll on the holiday business.
(Reuters, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, An Egyptian administrative court ordered the suspension of parliamentary elections scheduled to begin next month, throwing the country's politics deeper into confusion. In Port Said military police deployed around a government complex where demonstrators have been camped out for weeks.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, An Egyptian court convicted Ahmed Ezz, a Mubarak-era steel magnate, of profiteering and squandering public funds. He was sentenced to 37 years in prison and fined $296 million. Ezz was already serving a 17-year sentence for graft and money laundering.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 6, Iranian authorities blocked many foreign-based virtual private networks, or VPNs, severely restricting access to many websites.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 6, Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church enthroned a new patriarch during a ceremonial mass that was held amid tight security in Baghdad. Louis Sako (64) replaced Emmanuel III Delly, who has retired.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, Malaysian security forces battled a group of Filipino intruders in the rugged terrain of Borneo after they escaped a military assault with fighter jets and mortar fire on their hideout. One Filipino was shot and believed killed.
(AP, 3/6/13)
2013 Mar 6, In eastern Mali French and Malian forces clashed with jihadists leaving a French soldier and some 10 insurgents dead. Boukary Daou, the editor-in-chief of Mali’s The Republican newspaper was arrested. His arrest came soon after his newspaper published a letter from an army officer denouncing coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo's recently-decreed salary of $8,000 per month, a very high salary in the impoverished country.
(SFC, 3/7/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 6, In South Africa Dirk Coetzee (57), a former commander of the Vlakplaas covert police unit in apartheid-era South Africa, died of kidney failure. Coetzee had fled South Africa in 1989. He pledged allegiance to the ANC, returned in 1993 and was a witness at the trial of former police Col. Eugene de Kock. In testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Coetzee confessed to plotting the 1981 murder of attorney Griffiths Mxenge.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 6, In Spain Alvin Lee (b.1944), British virtuoso rock guitarist, died following complications from routine surgery. He as a member of the band Ten Years After, which burst onto the US music scene following their 1969 Woodstock performance.
(SFC, 3/8/13, p.D5)
2013 Mar 6, Syrian rebels detained 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers in the area in another destabilizing twist to the country's two-year-old conflict. The number of Syrian refugees topped 1 million, half of them children. Gunmen raided a Christian village near Homs, robbing houses and shops, saying they were looking for weapons.
(AP, 3/6/13)(AP, 3/7/13)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 7, A US federal judge ruled unconstitutional a 2011 Idaho law that prohibited abortions after 20 weeks.
(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 7, In Bangladesh over 100 people were reported killed over the last 3 days by law enforcement agencies under the pretext of controlling violence.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.49)
2013 Mar 7, British stock market trader Paul Milsom was sentenced to two years in jail, the first sentence to come out of the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) biggest investigation into insider dealing. Milsom, who was a senior equities trader at the investment arm of life insurer Legal & General, was also ordered to pay 245,000 pounds, the total profit he made from insider trading.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Gogglebox, a British reality show, began airing on Channel 4. The show featured recurring couples, families and friends from around Britain sitting in their homes watching weekly British television shows.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogglebox)
2013 Mar 7, Coalfield Resources said Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire, Britain's largest coal mine, will close permanently with the loss of at least 550 jobs due to a fire that has burned ferociously for two weeks.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Chinese officials castigated the Tibetan Kirti monastery, at the center of a wave of self-immolations, saying it has been inciting the fiery protests. They also indicated that authorities will not relax controls over the region.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Egyptian policemen protested for a 4th day in several cities across the country, refusing orders to work and accusing officials of trying to politicize the force.
(AP, 3/7/13)(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 7, Iraq's parliament approved a $118.6 billion national budget after months of wrangling over how much should be allocated to foreign oil companies working in the country's self-ruled northern Kurdish region. Police and health officials said six people were killed and 10 others were wounded in attacks across Iraq.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, A Milan court convicted former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi of breach of confidentiality for the illegal publication of wiretapped conversations related to a failed bank takeover in a newspaper owned by his media empire. His brother, Paolo Berlusconi, was convicted of the same charge and sentenced to two years and three months.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Kuwait government-affiliated newspapers reported that activists Sager al-Hashash and Naser al-Daihani were sentenced to two years and one year for Twitter posts offensive to the country's ruler.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Dozens of Libyan militiamen stormed the headquarters of a private TV network in Tripoli, looting and smashing equipment before abducting staffers. News editor Sulieman Abu-Azza suspected the attack could have been carried out in retaliation to the network's heavy criticism of the unruly militia and its coverage of assaults against the country's National General Congress.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Malaysian security forces gunned down 31 Filipino intruders in Borneo, the highest number of casualties in a single day since nearly 200 members of a Philippine Muslim clan took over an entire village last month. At least 60 people, including 8 Malaysian police officers, have been killed in the conflict.
(AP, 3/7/13)(SFC, 3/8/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 7, A South African police officer allegedly dragged a man from a police vehicle in the second such incident in recent weeks. The officer was later arrested.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 7, Clashes flared between Syrian troops and rebels close to Israeli-controlled territory in the Golan Heights.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, The UN Security Council voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test. North Korea’s Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told a crowd of tens of thousands that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.
(AP, 3/7/13)
2013 Mar 7, Venezuela's acting head of state, VP Nicolas Maduro, said that Hugo Chavez's body would be forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 7, Zimbabwe wildlife rangers caught put down three lions that killed two people near a suburb in the northern resort town of Kariba. A lioness and two "sub-adult" cubs between two and three years old were baited into traps and given lethal injections using darts.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, A commercial Beechcraft 1900 cargo plane crashed in southwestern Alaska. The bodies of the pilot Jeff Day (38) and co-pilot Neil Jensen (20) were found the next day.
(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 8, In southern California a gunmen killed 2 people, opened fire on police and holed himself up in a home in the Watts neighborhood of Las Angeles before killing himself in what began as a domestic dispute.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 8, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a bill that will allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 8, In eastern Afghanistan 3 men wearing Afghan army uniforms and driving an Afghan army vehicle forced their way onto a US base midday and opened fire, killing a civilian contractor and wounding other US troops in Kapisa province. Afghan police said 5 officers were killed by homemade bombs while carrying out a poppy eradicating campaign in Farah province. 4 Taliban were killed in the ensuing firefight.
(AP, 3/8/13)(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 8, In Argentina former Pres. Carlos Menem (82) and 11 others were found guilty by an appeals court of smuggling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia in violations of int’l. embargoes in the 1990s. Menem had been acquitted in 2011.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 8, British police in London arrested Muslim cleric Abu Qatada (52), who has been described as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe, following a series of raids by counterterrorism police, three days before the government's latest court bid to extradite him to Jordan.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 8, Egypt's police forces withdrew from the streets of Port Said on the Suez Canal, handing over security to the military after nearly a week of deadly clashes that have killed 8 people, including 2 security officials.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Germany Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist (b.1922), the last surviving member of a group of officers who tried and failed to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, died in Munich.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 8, Iraqi Agricultural Minister Izzeddin al-Dolah announced his resignation after police opened fire on Sunni demonstrators in Mosul, killing one protester and wounding 5 others.
(SFC, 3/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 8, Israeli police entered a hilltop site in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands, to disperse hundreds of Palestinians who were throwing rocks.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Kenya the latest vote tally by the election commission showed Uhuru Kenyatta with 50.5 percent of the vote. The Kenyatta family reportedly owned half a million acres, according to the Kenya Land Alliance pressure group, along with interests in banking, property, hotels, an airline and a TV network.
(AP, 3/8/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.50)
2013 Mar 8, In Northern Ireland 5 police officers were injured in the worst rioting for weeks in Belfast in a dispute over the flying of Irish flags near a predominantly pro-British area.
(Reuters, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Senegal two members of the construction crew were killed when an apartment complex collapsed in Dakar. The four-story building was only permitted to be half as tall.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 8, In South Africa statistics say someone gets raped every four minutes. A woman is also killed by an intimate partner every eight hours, a probable underestimate because no perpetrator is identified in 20 percent of killings.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, Tunisia's ruling party nominated several respected figures not aligned with political parties for key Cabinet posts, concessions to the opposition it hopes will defuse the country's political crisis.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 8, In Venezuela a state funeral was held for Hugo Chavez followed by a swearing in ceremony for Vice President Nicolas Maduro as interim president.
(AP, 3/8/13)
2013 Mar 9, An asteroid as big as a city block shot relatively close by the Earth. Discovered just six days ago, the 460-foot long (140m) Asteroid 2013 ET passed about 600,000 miles from Earth.
(Reuters, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, In Kentucky 2 adults and 5 children were killed in a house fire in Gray, Knox County.
(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 9, In Renton, Washington, Robert Taylor (82) and his wife Norma (80) were killed in an overnight attack. Michael Boysen (26), their grandson recently released from prison, was suspected of their murder. Boysen was captured with a self-inflicted cut in a hotel room on March 12.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A4)(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 9, In Afghanistan militants staged two suicide attacks that killed at least 19 people in Kabul an d Khost city on the first full day of US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's visit.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, An Egyptian court confirmed the death sentences against 21 people for taking part in a Feb, 2012, deadly soccer riot but acquitted 7 police officials for their alleged role in the violence. Suspected fans enraged by the verdict torched the soccer federation headquarters and a police club in Cairo in protest. In unrelated violence, at least 2 protesters were killed in clashes between riot police and demonstrators throwing stones on a Nile-side street in central Cairo.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, Max Jakobson (89), a former Finnish diplomat, died. He helped shape his country's policy of neutrality during the Cold War.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 9, In Japan thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, Jordan's parliament voted for the monarchy's caretaker prime minister to form a new Cabinet, the first time in the country's history that the legislature rather than the king has decided who will be head of government. Abdullah Ensour, a former liberal lawmaker, was elected.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, Kenya's election commission named Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the country's presidential election with 50.07%. Opponent, PM Raila Odinga, refused defeat and alleged multiple failures in the vote saying Kenya's democracy was on trial.
(AP, 3/9/13)(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 9, Malaysia police said they have detained 79 suspects linked to the Filipino intruders in Borneo.
(SSFC, 3/10/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 9, In Myanmar the opposition National League for Democracy, founded in 1988, began its first ever national congress.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.41)
2013 Mar 9, Ansaru, a breakaway Islamic extremist group in Nigeria, said it killed 7 foreigners who its members kidnapped from northern Nigeria on Feb 16. Those kidnapped included three Lebanese citizens and one each from Britain, Greece, Italy and the Philippines — all employees of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company with an operation in Bauchi state.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, North Korea formally rejected a UN Security Council resolution that demands an end to its nuclear arms program, as China called for calm, saying sanctions were not the "fundamental" way to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 9, In eastern Pakistan hundreds of people in Lahore ransacked a Christian neighborhood and torched dozens of homes after hearing reports that a Christian man had committed blasphemy against Islam's prophet. In 2017 a court acquitted 155 people who were accused of torching homes in the Christian neighborhood. A bomb exploded in a Sunni mosque in the northwest, killing at least four people and wounding more than 25 others in Peshawar.
(AP, 3/9/13)(AP, 1/29/17)
2013 Mar 9, Syrian rebels released 21 UN Filipino peacekeepers, captured on March 6, and handed them to Jordanian authorities. Government airstrikes killed at least 14 people in the northern province of Raqqa. Gunmen kidnapped and killed a mediator's son, Kifah Bitar, and another man, Rony Elias, in a Christian village near Homs.
(AP, 3/9/13)(AP, 3/10/13)(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, In Middlefield, Ohio, James Gilkerson (42) exited his parked car and then fired 37 AK-47 shots at the officers and their patrol car. Officers Erin Thomas and Brandon Savage returned fire, killing Gilkerson.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8koHqEEPo)(http://tinyurl.com/cztx3kd)
2013 Mar 10, In Warren, Ohio, a stolen SUV with 8 teenagers flipped over into a pond, killing six of them.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, Virginia authorities reported a string of arson fires in Accomack county that have torched 64 unoccupied structures since Nov 12, with 7 burned in the past week.
(SSFC, 2/10/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 10, Bahamas’ environmental minister said offshore oil exploration will be allowed.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, China announced plans to streamline government ministries, doing away with the powerful Railways Ministry and creating a super-agency to regulate the media and realigning other bureaucracies in a bid to boost efficiency. Plans included the merger of the family planning bureaucracy with the health ministry to form a new Health and Family Planning Commission.
(AP, 3/10/13)(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 10, Egypt's top prosecutor encouraged citizens to arrest anyone breaking the law or committing a crime. This stoked fears of vigilante groups taking over police duties at a time of growing tension and lawlessness.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official said a man suspected of trying to spread Christianity in Libya has died in prison there. The diplomat said Ezzat Atallah, who suffered from diabetes and heart ailments, likely died of natural causes.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, Falkland Islanders began voting in a 2-day referendum on their political status as the government mobilized a major effort to get as many of its 1,650 registered voters as possible.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, In Germany an early-morning fire at an apartment building left 8 people dead, 7 of them children in Backnang, a town near Stuttgart.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, In Iraq gunmen shot and killed Bunyan Sabar al-Obeidi, a spokesman for the Sunni protesters in Kirkuk, as he was driving his car in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, Malta’s PM Lawrence Gonzi of the Nationalist Party conceded defeat as ballots were still being counted in the island nation and eurozone member. Labor leader Joseph Muscat will be sworn in as the new prime minister on March 11. Muscat swept to office with an implausible pledge to cut the island’s sky-high energy tariffs by 25%.
(AP, 3/11/13)(Econ, 11/14/15, p.55)
2013 Mar 10, In Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi was selected to continue as head of the main opposition party, keeping her leadership post even as the party undergoes a makeover to adjust to the country's new democratic framework.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, In eastern and southern Pakistan hundreds of Christians protesting the burning of their homes by a Muslim mob over alleged blasphemous remarks made against the Islam's Prophet Muhammad clashed with police. A suspected US missile strike killed a foreign militant who was riding on horseback in Datta Khel in North Waziristan.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 10, Welsh-born Princess Lilian (b.1915) died in her Stockholm home. Lilian Davies met Sweden's Prince Bertil (d.1997) in 1943, but his obligations to the throne and her status as a divorced commoner prevented them from making their love public. In 1976 the new king finally gave them approval to marry.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 10, Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles announced that he will run in elections to replace Hugo Chavez, launching what many consider a doomed candidacy with a no-holds-barred attack against a government he said had coldly betrayed Venezuelans' trust.
(AP, 3/10/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Clinton Foundation announced that grants for over $700,000 will go toward efforts in Haiti to plant trees, build a coffee farm and train farmers. Heineken NV announced that it would invest $40 million to expand a brewery and help farmers who supply it with sorghum.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 11, Detroit jurors convicted former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (42) on corruption charges, capping a five-month trial that exposed a brazen pay-to-play culture during his years in office while the distressed city lost jobs and people and veered toward insolvency.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg vowed to appeal a judge's ruling that struck down his pioneering ban on large sugary drinks sold by the city's restaurants, movie theaters and other food service businesses just a day before it was to take effect.
(Reuters, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, A US Naval A-6B Prowler crashed into a farm filed some miles outside of Spokane, Washington. All 3 crew members were killed.
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 11, In eastern Afghanistan a police officer opened fire on US and Afghan forces at a police headquarters, sparking a firefight that killed two US troops and two other Afghan policemen in Wardak province. The attacker was also killed in the shootout. In a second incident, outside Kabul, US troops fired on a truck approaching their military convoy, killing two Afghan men inside. A helicopter crash outside Kandahar city killed five American service members.
(AP, 3/11/13)(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 11, In Bahrain Yousef al-Muhafedha, acting president of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, was found not guilty of posting inaccurate news on Twitter about some anti-government protests.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The British government launched a campaign to promote London as a center for Islamic finance, seeking to counter growing competition from rising centers such as Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Sally Davies, Britain's top health official, said antibiotic resistance poses a catastrophic threat to medicine and could mean patients having minor surgery risk dying from infections that can no longer be treated.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, CAR rebels who signed a peace deal with the government two months ago, seized control of two towns in the southeast of Central African Republic, threatening to undo the country's fragile peace.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 11, In China Shanghai officials said the number of dumped adult and piglet carcasses retrieved had reached 2,813. The city government, citing monitoring authorities, said the drinking water quality has not been affected. Authorities have been pulling out swollen and rotting pigs since March 8. By March 21 the dead pig count reached over 16,000.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, Residents of the Falkland Islands voted almost unanimously to stay under British rule in a referendum. The official count showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favor of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day poll.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 11, Hungary’s parliament voted to amend the constitution, despite pleas from the European Commission that the amendments conflict with EU law.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.53)
2013 Mar 11, In India Ram Singh, who was accused of driving the bus during a December rape attack, was in a cell with three other inmates at Tihar Jail in New Delhi when he hanged himself either with his own clothes or a bed sheet.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, In northern Iraq a suicide attacker drove his explosives-laden car into a police station, killing five people in Dibis near Kirkuk. Attacks elsewhere in the country killed six more Iraqis.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Int’l. Criminal Court (ICC) dropped charges of crimes against humanity against Francis Muthaura, Kenya’s former public service chief, after a key witness recanted..
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, At least 10 former senior Malawian government officials, including Cabinet ministers, were arrested for allegedly plotting a coup to prevent then-Vice President Joyce Banda from assuming power following the death of the former president in April last year.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto moved to overhaul and strengthen the weak and chaotic regulations that have allowed Carlos slim, the world's richest man, and its largest Spanish-language media empire to exert near-total control of Mexico's lucrative telephone and television markets.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The Zocalo newspaper in Mexico’s Coahuila state said it will no longer cover information related to drug cartels due to safety concerns for its workers and families.
(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, North Korea’s main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported that the 60-year-old armistice that ended the Korean War was nullified today as Pyongyang had earlier announced it would.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, The presidents of Iran and Pakistan marked the start of construction in Pakistan on a pipeline to bring Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.43)
2013 Mar 11, In Pakistan a roadside bomb killed three Pakistani soldiers in in Dogar village in the Kurram tribal area near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Russian scientists said a new form of microbial life has been found in water samples taken from Lake Vostok, a giant freshwater lake hidden under kilometers of Antarctic ice.
(AP, 3/11/13)
2013 Mar 11, Syrian forces fired heavy machine guns and launched at least one airstrike on a neighborhood in the central city of Homs. The UN Human Rights Council released a report that said neither government forces nor rebels were doing enough to protect civilians. Mortar shells struck a soccer stadium in a predominantly Christian neighborhood of Damascus killing 6 civilians.
(AP, 3/11/13)(SFC, 3/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, CITES conservationists in Bangkok voted to regulate the trade of shark species threatened because their fins are used for expensive delicacies in Asia.
(SFC, 2/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 11, In Venezuela owners of Globovision, the last remaining television station critical of the government, announced that it is being sold to an insurance company owner who is apparently friendly with the ruling socialists, following an unrelenting official campaign to financially strangle the broadcaster through regulatory pressure.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, The US Food and Drug Administration warned that the popular antibiotic azithromycin, sold as Zithromax, can cause a potentially fatal irregular heart rhythm in some patients.
(Reuters, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, The Archdiocese of Los Angeles reached a $10 million settlement with 4 men who said they were abused by former priest Michael Baker.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 12, NYC police officer Gilberto Valle (28) was convicted of conspiracy that opened a window on the Internet world of cannibalism fetishists.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 12, Afghan officials said counternarcotics teams have seized some 23 tons of heroin, morphine and other chemicals in the Sherzad district of Nangarhar province.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 12, Argentina’s last dictator and former president, Reynaldo Benito Bignone (85), received another life sentence in prison for human rights violations involving detainees at the Campo de Mayo military prison during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 12, In Azerbaijan a court Baku found Avaz Zeynalli, editor of the Khural newspaper, guilty of bribery, extortion, contempt of court and tax evasion. Supporters and rights group dismissed the trial as politically motivated. Charges against the editor were brought following complaints by a deputy in the ruling New Azerbaijan Party. That deputy is now under arrest and suspected of extorting $1 million from a university rector.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Bangladesh police clashed with protesters as opposition leaders enforced a daylong, nation-wide strike to protest alleged police intimidation.
(SFC, 3/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 12, Israeli troops shot to death Mahmoud Titi (25), a Palestinian man, after he and others hurled rocks and firebombs at them near Hebron in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, An Israeli Bell AH-1 Cobra military helicopter crashed during training, killing two pilots.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Libya’s top security official in Tripoli said 79 people have died over the past four days from drinking homemade alcohol, suspected of containing poisonous methanol.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, In Myanmar opponents of a nearly $1 billion copper mine in the northwest expressed outrage over a government-ordered report that said the project should continue and that refrained from demanding punishment for police involved in a violent crackdown on protesters.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Nigeria pardoned former Gov. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the former political benefactor of Pres. Goodluck Jonathan. He was convicted of stealing millions of dollars while serving as Bayelsa state governor (1999-2005).
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 12, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up near a police van, killing at least two people in the district of Bannu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A bomb disposal expert died while defusing a roadside bomb in Peshawar. Gunmen shot and killed a senior official of the Election Commission of Pakistan in the southwestern city of Quetta.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, Tribesmen tied a Pakistani soldier to the hood of a car and stoned him to death in the country's restive northwest for allegedly having a romantic relationship with a local woman.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 12, Pakistani police in Baluchistan province arrested 11 children and teenagers between the ages of 11 and 18 for allegedly having planted bombs for a violent separatist group.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 12, In South Africa forensic scientists exhumed bodies believed to belong to two young activists last seen 24 years ago at the home of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the late 1990s found that Madikizela-Mandela was responsible for the disappearances of Lolo Sono (21) and his friend Sibuniso Tshabalala (19).
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 12, In Syria new clashes erupted in an intensifying battle for control over Aleppo's international airport and nearby military bases. Fighting also raged for a second day in Homs as rebels tried to take back the poor neighborhood of Baba Amr.
(AP, 3/12/13)
2013 Mar 13, Ken Salazar, US Interior Sec., announced plans for two large federal solar projects in the California desert.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.30)
2013 Mar 13, Shares of Silver Spring Networks (SSNI) of Redwood City, Ca., closed at $22 in an IPO of 4.75 million shares on the NYSE. The maker of smart meter technology jumped nearly 30% from the $17 offer.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.C1)
2013 Mar 13, The 2012 A.M Turing Award for computer scientists was awarded to Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali of MIT.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.84)
2013 Mar 13, In New York Kurt Myers (64) started a fire in his apartment in Mohawk and then killed two customers in a nearby barbershop. He then drove to nearby Herkimer and killed two more people before holing up in an abandoned building. Myers was killed the next day in an exchange of gunfire with police.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A7)(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 13, Afghan intelligence agents killed five suspected suicide bombers and arrested two others, all members of the militant Haqqani network, during a raid in which a truck was seized with 7,200 pounds of explosive on the outskirts of Kabul.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Afghanistan several people were killed and injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of sports fans watching a buzkashi game in Kunduz province.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Bahrain’s public prosecutor's office said six people have been detained over the last couple of days for allegedly defaming the country's ruler on Twitter.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Chile officially opened the $1.3 billion Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the world’s most powerful radio telescope. It consisted of 66 dishes.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.81)
2013 Mar 13, Croatia's parliament approved the withdrawal of some 100 peacekeeping troops from the Golan Heights amid fears they could be targeted by Syrian government troops fighting the rebels.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Egypt a leaked report concluded that police were behind the killing of nearly 900 protesters in Tahrir Square during the 18-day uprising that began on Jan 25, 2011.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 13, German authorities banned three ultraconservative Islamic groups, including one whose Internet propaganda videos helped inspire the extremist who killed two American airmen at Frankfurt airport in 2011.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Aleqa Hammond looked set to be Greenland's first female prime minister after winning 42 percent of votes in elections on a platform of greater control and heavier taxation of foreign mining.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured Turkish soldiers and officials as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Scientists said that the number of Monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 59% this year, falling to its lowest level since record keeping began 20 years ago.
(SFC, 3/14/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 13, New Zealand lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill allowing same-sex marriage, all but assuring that it will soon become law.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Nigeria a strike at Aero Contractors Co. of Nigeria Ltd., halted flights "temporarily."
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 13, In Karachi, Pakistan, gunmen shot and killed pioneering activist Perween Rahman (54), the director of the Orangi Pilot Project, who helped bring services like sewer and water to the city's poorest neighborhoods.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 13, In southwest Pakistan gunmen abducted two female Czech tourists and their police guard as they were traveling on a bus through troubled Baluchistan province. On March 28, 2015, Hana Humpalova and Antonie Chrastecka returned to the Czech Rep. Their release was negotiated by Turkish non-governmental humanitarian organization IHH.
(AP, 3/14/13)(AP, 3/28/15)
2013 Mar 13, In Saudi Arabia 7 men convicted of theft, looting and armed robbery were beheaded, more than a week after their families and a rights group appealed to the king for clemency. One of the men told The Associated Press in early March that he was only 15 when he was arrested as part of a ring that stole jewelry in 2004 and 2005. Nasser al-Qahtani said he was tortured to confess and had no access to lawyers.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Syrian government troops fought fierce battles with rebels for control of key neighborhoods in the north of Damascus. A European Union staff member was killed in a rocket attack in an opposition stronghold south of the capital. Fighting also raged in other cities, including in Homs, where the regime pounded rebel positions with artillery and carried out several airstrikes on the Baba Amr district.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Tunisian vendor Adel Khedhri (27) died of full-body burns a day after setting himself ablaze. He was from a poor town in northwestern Tunisia and had struggled to find a steady job to support his mother and siblings.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 13, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (76), known for his work with the poor in Buenos Aires' slums, was elected as the 266th Pope. He became the first Jesuit pope and first non-European since the Middle Ages and decided to call himself Francis after St. Francis of Assisi.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 13, Zimbabwe's official election body said it will not back down on its ban preventing a leading human rights group from monitoring a referendum o0n a new constitution on March 16.
(AP, 3/13/13)
2013 Mar 14, A US federal judge ruled unconstitutional national security provisions that permit federal investigators to access customer information from some companies without court approval.
(Reuters, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 14, Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Kevyn Orr, a Cleveland attorney who represented Chrysler during its restructure, to steer Detroit back from the brink of doom.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 14, In Algeria some 10,000 people — an enormous number for the lightly populated region —demonstrated for jobs in the southern oil city of Ouargla. Thousands more protested later in the southern oil town, Laghouat. PM Abdelmalek Sellal acknowledged on March 16 that the demonstrators' demands are legitimate and the government hurriedly announced a string of measures to address the perceived geographical bias in oil jobs.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Australia Adam Giles was sworn as government head of the Northern Territory becoming the first Aboriginal leader of a provincial government.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Bahrain thousands of anti-government protesters threw firebombs and stones at riot police and burned tires on the 2nd anniversary of the intervention by a Saudi-led force in the island's crisis.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Bulgaria's Christian Orthodox Church leader, Patriarch Neophyte, decried a recent wave of self-immolations and suicides after four people set themselves ablaze in the past month.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/b65z6h8)
2013 Mar 14, In Cambodia Ieng Sary (87), brother-in-law of late Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, died. He co-founded the communist Khmer Rouge regime responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians in the 1970s, and decades later became one of its few leaders to be put on trial, but died before his case could be finished.
(AP, 3/14/13)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.106)
2013 Mar 14, In China Xi Jinping was elevated to the presidency by the rubber-stamp national legislature, giving him the last of the three titles held by his predecessor, Hu Jintao.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Egyptian prosecutors charged 38 members of the Ultras, a die-hard soccer fan club, with belonging to an illegal group and other offenses.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 14, In Iraq attackers unleashed a carefully planned assault with car bombs and gunmen disguised as police on the Justice Ministry. The attack left at least 24 people dead and dozens wounded. The Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-linked group, soon claimed responsibility.
(AP, 3/14/13)(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 14, The newfound particle discovered at the world's largest atom smasher last year is, indeed, the Higgs boson, the particle thought to give other matter its mass, scientists reported today at the annual Rencontres de Moriond conference in Italy.
(LiveScience.com, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reached an agreement to form a new coalition government with the centrist Yesh Atid party, the Jewish Home, a party aligned with West Bank settlers and the Lapid party. The new coalition will be the first in a decade to exclude ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Jamaican officials said that they are hopeful new legislation will finally result in a stream of convictions and lengthy sentences for fraudsters behind a multimillion-dollar lottery scam that has swindled mostly elderly Americans out of their retirement savings for years.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Malawi 11 top government officials and former Cabinet ministers, who were charged with treason for an alleged coup plot, were released on bail. Prosecutors believe the suspects conspired after the death of Pres. Bingu wa Mutharika to undermine his deputy, Joyce Banda.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Nepal's Supreme Court Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi was named head of an interim government in an attempt by the country's main political parties to cure the paralysis and infighting that have blocked elections for months.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, Puerto Rico's government urged legislators to move quickly and approve financial austerity measures following a report from a Wall Street ratings agency that downgraded the island's general obligation bonds to near-junk status.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 14, In Thailand the Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ended its meeting in Bangkok with final decisions to expand protection to for dozens of animal and plant species including 5 types of sharks.
(SFC, 3/15/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 14, A UN aid official said the number of registered Syrian refugees jumped 10% in just one week to more than 1.1 million. France pushed for quickly lifting an EU ban on arming Syrian rebels.
(AP, 3/14/13)
2013 Mar 15, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the US is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran. Hagel also said the US would shift some "resources," which he didn't specify, from the delayed Aegis anti-missile program in Europe.
(http://tinyurl.com/almlalu)
2013 Mar 15, SAC Capital agreed to pay the SEC a record $616 million to settle a long-standing probe into insider trading.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.78)
2013 Mar 15, In Florida a small plane crashed near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport killing all three men aboard.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 15, In Brazil a new oil law that gives a greater share of royalty revenues from the country’s oil fields to non-producing states went into effect and producing states filed appeals against it with the Supreme Court.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, Three British Muslims, including a convert who was featured in a documentary about radical Islam, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in London. Richard Dart (29), Imran Mahmood (21), and Jahangir Alom (26), were arrested last July and accused of traveling to Pakistan between 2010 and 2012 with the intention of committing terrorist acts.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Britain Dr. Davinderjit Bains, arrested last year, admitted 39 charges against 30 victims, including sexual assault, voyeurism and sexual activity with a child. He had used a Tieex 4GB Waterproof HD Spy Watch DVR, which has a camera on its face, to record assaults on patients at his practice in Royal Wootton Bassett in western England.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A Canadian joint venture operating one of the world's largest gold mines and the government of the Dominican Republic reached an agreement to inspect the company's exports, ending a standoff that halted a shipment valued at nearly $12 million.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southwestern Chad over the last 24 hours at least 86 elephants, including 33 pregnant females, were killed by poachers for the ivory of their tusks.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 15, In China Li Keqiang was confirmed as premier.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, A snowstorm in Hungary brought drifts 10 feet (3m) high and violent gusts of wind, forcing thousands of people to spend the night in their cars or emergency shelters after being stranded on a major highway.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In India a Swiss woman (39) on a cycling trip in Madhya Pradesh state with her husband was gang-raped by eight men. On March 17 police arrested 5 men, who admitted to the attack. At least 2 others remained at large.
(AP, 3/16/13)(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Iraq protesters clashed with police trying to prevent them from reaching the Abu Hanifa mosque, the most venerated Sunni mosque in Baghdad, as sect members again massed for anti-government rallies in several Iraqi cities. Several people were reported injured.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu signed a coalition deal with rival parties to form the next government.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Lebanon at least eight Syrians were killed and 29 were injured when the bus they were traveling in from Syria overturned in the mountains.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In central Mexico a truck loaded with fireworks exploded during a religious procession in the rural village of Jesus Tepactepec, killing at least 13 people and injuring 154.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 15, North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyber-attacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In southern Pakistan a bomb blast just after midnight killed three people and wounded four others outside a cable TV office in Karachi.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal lawyer El Hadj Amadou Sall said that his client, the son of Senegal's ex-president, is being unjustly accused. A special prosecutor charged with investigating the embezzlement of state funds has asked Karim Wade to justify a fortune that he estimates is worth up to 694 billion West African francs, equal to more than $1.3 billion.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In Senegal 3 students set themselves on fire on the campus of the country’s largest university to protest changes in the way credits are being counted in the college's geography department. All 3 survived.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, In South Africa 24 people died when a bus veered off a road and rolled over near Cape Town.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, Gen. Salim Idris, the chief of Syria's main, Western-backed rebel group, marked the second anniversary of the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad by pledging to fight until the "criminal" regime is gone. Leaders at a European Union summit failed to agree if they should send arms to the rebels.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 15, The head of a UN team investigating casualties from US drone strikes in Pakistan declared after a secret research trip to the country that the attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty.
(AP, 3/15/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Marysville, Ca., a boy (14) and a man (68) were killed when a sprint car ran off a track and into pit row during warm-up laps on the opening day of the California Sprint Car Civil War Series.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A10)
2013 Mar 16, In Pennsylvania a tour bus carrying a women’s lacrosse team from Seton Hill Univ. crashed killing a pregnant coach and the driver.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A9)
2013 Mar 16, In Texas Air Force Staff Sgt. Eddy Soto was sentenced to a dishonorable discharge and 4 years in prison for raping a female trainee. Over 30 Lackland instructors have been investigated in the military sex scandal. Soto was the 9th trainer convicted and sentenced.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 16, In Afghanistan several hundred demonstrators chanting "US special operations forces out!" marched to the parliament building in Kabul, protesting the continued presence of US commandos in troubled Wardak province. A helicopter crashed killing one member of the US-led coalition and injuring another in Kandahar province.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In China Lobsang Thokmey (28) became the 108th Tibetan to self-immolate in the last 4 years in protests against Chinese rule and religious restrictions. He set himself on fire in Kirti monastery, Sichuan province.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 16, In CongoDRC a faction of the M23 rebel group under Gen. Sultani Makenga said it has regained control of all of the group's territory in eastern Congo, as Jean-Marie Runiga, the leader of its rival faction, was arrested in Rwanda.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Cyprus anxious depositors drained cash from ATMs after European officials ruled that part of a new 10-billion-euro bailout must be paid for directly from the bank accounts of ordinary savers. An emergency deal in Brussels set a one-time levy of 9.9% on Cypriot bank deposits of more than 100,000 euros. Deposits under that would be taxed at 6.75%.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 16, An Egyptian court cleared two former ministers of charges that they sold state lands for cut-rate prices in the country's prized Red Sea resort areas. Zuhair Garana was sentenced to up to eight years in prison and Ahmed Maghrabi received a five-year sentence for guilty verdicts in previous corruption trials.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Egyptian police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of supporters and opponents of President Morsi during clashes that erupted as he launched development projects in Sohag province, where residents have long complained of being neglected by the central government.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Jordan a bus carrying Palestinian pilgrims overturned and crashed into a trailer on a highway near the Israeli border, killing 15 people. 32 pilgrims were injured.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American and 2 Russians landed in Kazakhstan. The men had spent 144 days on the Int’l. Space Station. 3 astronauts remained on the ISS.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 16, Police in Kenya lobbed tear gas on crowds supporting the PM Raila Odinga as he filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to void the presidential election, a vote Odinga says was neither free nor fair.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Over a thousand Latvians commemorated Nazi-allied World War II soldiers while police used force to prevent violence from erupting between participants and ethnic Russians, who are a minority in the country.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Nigeria's aviation ministry asked Dana Air to suspend all flights. A Dana Air crash on June 3 left more than 160 people dead, leading the carrier to lose its license. It resumed its operations two months ago. The suspension came days after another major airline halted its operations over a strike. The general suspension on Dana was lifted March 18, but one plane remained grounded.
(AP, 3/17/13)(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 16, Pakistan's government passed a major milestone, with the parliament becoming the first democratically chosen body to finish its five-year term.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Pakistan a bus carrying soldiers slid off a mountainous road and fell into a deep ravine in the country's northwest, killing 24 and injuring five others.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, In Somalia al-Shabab fighters stoned to death a man for allegedly forcing a 13-year-old boy to have sex with him.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 16, Syrian Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ezz al-Din Khalouf announced his defection from Assad's regime in a video aired on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel. Human Rights Watch said Assad’s regime is expanding its use of widely banned cluster bombs, as the deadlocked conflict entered its third year. Rebels detonated a powerful car bomb outside a high-rise building in Deir el-Zour, setting off clashes with regime troops.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 16, Zimbabwe citizens cast their votes in a one-day referendum on a new constitution that all main political parties have backed, urging supporters to accept the draft document that will curb presidential powers.
(AP, 3/16/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Indiana a small plane crashed in South Bend killing 2 men including Steve Davis (60), former Oklahoma quarterback.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 17, In Ohio 2 members of the Steubenville high school football team were found guilty of raping a drunken 16-year-old girl after a drinking party last August 11. On Nov 25 a superintendent and two coaches were charged with lying or failure to report possible child abuse.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A5)(SFC, 11/26/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 17, It was reported that Lake Erie is sick and that a dead zone covers a large portion of the lake bottom due to a poisonous blue-green algae called Microcystis enhanced by high levels of phosphorous from fertilizer runoff. The problem was compounded by the zebra mussel, a foreign invader discovered in 1988, which excretes phosphorous providing Microcystis a ready-made meal.
(SSFC, 3/17/13, p.A15)
2013 Mar 17, A boulder slammed into the Moon, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen there since they started monitoring it.
(Reuters, 5/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Bahrain 17 suspected anti-government protesters were sentenced to 15-year prison sentences for links to a bombing last year that injured four policemen. 8 of the defendants were in custody, and the others were tried in absentia.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Britain's Treasury chief said the government will compensate UK troops who lose money to Cyprus's bailout tax, a levy of 6.75 to 9.9 percent on all bank balances as part of a deal with creditors for €10 billion ($13 billion) in rescue money. British residents of Cyprus not working for the UK military or government could be out of pocket.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, China’s National People’s Congress came to a close.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 17, Cyprus Pres. Nicos Anastasiades urged lawmakers to approve a tax on bank deposits to save the country from bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 17, In Egypt dozens of journalists protested in Cairo against alleged assaults the previous evening on their colleagues by members of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood from which President Mohammed Morsi hails.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Egyptian vigilantes beat two men accused of stealing a motorized rickshaw, stripped them half-naked and hung them by their feet in a crowded bus station in the Nile Delta. Both men died.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Greece police lobbed chemicals inside a central prison, trying to smoke out Albanian Alket Rizaj, a convicted murderer who was holding five hostages. After a 24-hour standoff Rizaj surrendered to police at Malandrino prison.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, In Iraq 2 car bombs went off in Basra, killing 9 and wounding 24 in a rare attack in the Shiite-dominated south of the country.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Moshe Yaalon, a hard-line former military chief (2002-2005), as the country's new defense minister.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Japanese architect Toyo Ito (71) won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 17, Libya's health minister said the death toll from drinking homemade alcohol that contained poisonous methanol has risen to 87. The deaths were first reported a week ago.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Pakistani paramilitary Ranges arrested Qari Abdul Hayee, a leader of the Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He was accused of involvement in the 2002 slaying of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 17, Ayman Sharawneh (53), a freed Palestinian prisoner, was given a hero's welcome in the Gaza Strip after ending his hunger strike in an Israeli jail and agreeing to a plea bargain that will confine him to the Hamas-run territory for the next 10 years.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Palestinian lawmaker Mariam Farhat (64), aka “the mother of martyrs," died in a Gaza hospital of health complications including lung ailments and kidney failure. She had lost three sons in militant activities against Israelis.
(AP, 3/17/13)
2013 Mar 17, Zimbabwe police arrested rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, the country's most prominent rights lawyer and four senior officials of PM Tsvangirai’s party and held them at the capital's main police station. Mtetwa was accused of "obstructing or defeating the course of justice." Police also raided and searched a suburban office of Tsvangirai's media and communications department. On March 18 police ignored a judge’s order to release Mtetwa.
(AP, 3/17/13)(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 18, Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced her support for gay marriage, putting her in line with other potential Democratic presidential candidates on a social issue that is rapidly gaining public approval.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, A US military official said a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison has grown and now involves at least 21 of 166 men held there.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, A new academic study said an estimated 2.2% of all US gun sales are made to smuggling rings that take the firearms to Mexico.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 18, The US attorney in San Francisco filed criminal charges against Fred Buenrostro, former CEO of CALPERS, and former board member Alfred Villalobos for extensive malfeasance in the nation’s largest public employee pension fund.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.D1)
2013 Mar 18, In Florida college student James Oliver Seevakumaran (30) put a bullet in his head as police closed in. He had two guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and a backpack filled with explosives. He had pulled a dorm fire alarm in an apparent attempt to force other students out into the open so that he could slaughter them.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Nevada 7 Marines were killed when a mortar round exploded during a live-fire training exercise at the Hawthorne Army Depot.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 18, In New Jersey computer hacker Andrew Auernheimer (27) was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for stealing the personal data of about 120,000 Apple Inc iPad users, including big-city mayors, a TV network news anchor and a Hollywood movie mogul.
(Reuters, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Utah Willard Bay State Park officials closed down the facility on the northeastern edge of the Great Salt Lake and evacuated two campers and the park manager’s family after around 4,200 to 6,300 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from the pipeline just north of the park.
(www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56030315-78/bay-lake-spill-salt.html.csp)
2013 Mar 18, Afghan opposition parties, frustrated with the government's lack of progress in making peace with the Taliban, confirmed that they have been talking since the beginning of the year to the Taliban as well as the militant group headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Argentina’s Pres. Cristina Fernandez asked Pope Francis to intervene in the dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 18, Argentina's government accused the British banking giant HSBC of facilitating money laundering and tax evasion.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Australia visiting Myanmar President Thein Sein welcomed closer ties with Australia as he asked for continued support through his country's transition to "peace, democracy and prosperity," a mission that he said "has no parallel in modern times."
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, The British government said it will join industrial partners to create a 2 billion pound aerospace center, part of efforts to bolster manufacturers as it struggles to revive a flagging economy.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Britain's three main political parties agreed to create a new system to regulate the country's scandal-hungry newspapers, after a public inquiry exposed a culture of industrial-scale phone hacking and other unethical behavior.
(Reuters, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was awarded to Marc Andreessen, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn and Louis Pouzin, for their efforts in the development of the Internet.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.84)
2013 Mar 18, Chinese police arrested the husband of a Tibetan woman who died last week after setting herself alight in protest.
(SFC, 3/19/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 18, India's Supreme Court indefinitely extended its order barring the Italian ambassador from leaving the country and rejected his explanation of his country's refusal to return two Italian marines charged with killing two Indian fishermen.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Lebanon several hundred demonstrators angry over attacks against Sunni Muslim clerics blocked roads with garbage bins and burning tires in Beirut and other Lebanese cities.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Nigeria at least 41 people died in a suicide car bombing that struck a bus station in Kano. The explosion came hours after another attack blamed on Boko Haram killed a teacher and injured three students in Maiduguri.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, The Pakistani Taliban withdrew their offer of holding peace talks with the government, saying that the authorities were not serious about following through with negotiations.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up in a courtroom in Peshawar, killing four people and wounding more than 40 others.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Palestinian attackers shot and wounded an Israeli man in a drive-by shooting at a West Bank bus stop.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, US officials visiting Warsaw tried to reassure Poland that the cancellation of the final stage of a European missile defense system will not sideline the country and was not made to appease Russia.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Rwanda Congolese warlord Bosco Ntaganda (39), nicknamed "The Terminator," showed up at the gates of the US Embassy in Kigali. Ntaganda asked to be handed over to the International Criminal Court, which issued its first arrest warrant for him in 2006.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, In Somalia an explosives-laden car, apparently targeting a truck full of government officials, hit a civilian car and exploded, setting a nearby mini-bus on fire and killing at least 7 people in Mogadishu.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, The International Committee of the Red Cross said more than 60 people have been wounded in fighting between South Sudan's army and a rebel group over the last two weeks.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 18, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, said China has bypassed Britain as the world's fifth largest arms exporter.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 18, Syria's main opposition coalition began a push to form an interim government to provide services to people living in parts of the country now controlled by rebel forces.
(AP, 3/18/13)
2013 Mar 19, The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that publishers and manufacturers can’t block imports of copyrighted items made and sold abroad.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C1)
2013 Mar 19, Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements (58) was shot and killed at his home in Monument.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Ohio T.J. Lane (18) cursed and gestured obscenely as he was given three life sentences for shooting to death three students at the Chardon High School cafeteria in Feb, 2012.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, Harry Reems (65), former porn star born as Herbert Streicher, died in Salt Lake City. He co-starred in the 1972 movie “Deep Throat."
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 19, PM David Cameron's spokesman said Britain will trim the budgets of most government departments by 1 percent a year over the next two years to raise money for capital spending. The government also said up to 400,000 more Britons will qualify for a new higher flat-rate state pension and introduce the reform a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, An English judge said oligarch Mukhtar Ablyazov, who has been in hiding since he was sentenced to jail for contempt of court last year, organised a complex fraud to embezzle billions of dollars from Kazakh bank BTA.
(Reuters, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, A British court ruled that two Saudi princes involved in litigation in London over a business dispute did not have immunity from being sued, a new blow to the royal pair after they failed in an attempt to have the case heard in secret. The litigation, which has been going through British courts since December 2011, stems from sales in 2010 and 2011 of shares in Fi Call Ltd, a company jointly owned by Prince Abdulaziz and Jordanian businessman Faisal Almhairat.
(Reuters, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Cyprus lawmakers unanimously rejected a proposed rescue package that included taxes on bank depositor accounts.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.75)
2013 Mar 19, Egyptian security forces arrested Ahmed Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, a former Libyan intelligence official and a cousin of former dictator Moammar Gadhafi, following an hours-long siege of his home in Cairo.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, In southern Egypt hundreds of Muslim villagers attacked Christian-owned stores in search of a girl whose family claims was abducted in Bani Suef province. The college-aged girl disappeared around one month ago.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, ensnared in a ballooning scandal over suspected tax fraud and money laundering, became the first resignation in President Francois Hollande's 10-month-old Socialist government. On April 2 Cahuzac admitted to holding a foreign bank account for 20 years.
(AP, 3/19/13)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.59)
2013 Mar 19, German researchers said that they have completed the first high-quality sequencing of a Neanderthal genome.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 19, Hungary's Minister of Human Resources asked journalist Ferenc Szaniszlo to return a state award he received onmarch 16 after Israel and the United States complained about disparaging remarks Szaniszlo had made earlier about Gypsies and Jews.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In western India a bus packed with passengers crashed through a guard rail and fell off a bridge, killing at least 37 people and injuring another 15 in Maharashtra state.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Iraq a wave of bombings tore through the Baghdad area, killing 65 people on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion and more than a year after the withdrawal of American troops. The next day the Islamic State of Iraq said the car bombs and other explosions came to avenge the executions and "massacres" of convicted Sunni inmates held in Iraqi prisons.
(AP, 3/19/13)(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Japan power was restored to two fuel storage pools at the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, but two others have been without fresh cooling water for more than a day, raising concerns about the fragility of a facility that still runs on makeshift equipment.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak reported economic growth of 5.6% for 2012. He also announced that a scheme to give cash handouts to poorer households will become an annual event.
(Econ, 3/23/13, p.45)
2013 Mar 19, The Philippine Supreme Court temporarily halted the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproduction Health Act of 2012, a law that provides state funding for contraceptives. The legislation was opposed by the dominant Roman Catholic Church but supported by reproductive health activists.
(AP, 3/19/13)(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 19, Romania's defense minister said US plans to deploy anti-missile interceptors in his country are going ahead and that Romania has an "exceptional" partnership with the United States. US officials have stressed they will deploy shorter-range missiles to Poland and Romania.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, In South Africa two robbers stealing a safe shot and killed five Pakistani men and wounded a sixth in a ghetto outside the tourist resort of Cape Town. Police soon arrested a 28-year-old South African who had a gun and the safe.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, Syria's opposition coalition meeting in Istanbul elected Ghassan Hitto, a little-known American-educated IT manager and Islamic activist, to head an interim government to administer areas seized by rebel forces from President Bashar Assad's troops.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad said 31 people were killed in an alleged rebel chemical attack in Aleppo province. Rebels denied the government claim and blamed regime forces for today’s missile attack on Khan al-Assad village.
(AP, 3/19/13)(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey assailants fired a rocket at PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party headquarters and hurled two hand-grenades at the Justice Ministry's parking lot, wounding one person. The outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, soon said it carried out the attacks in retaliation for a recent police crackdown on its members.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Turkey Mohamed Mahmoud (27), an Islamic extremist wanted by Germany for allegedly calling for terrorist attacks, was arrested in Hatay province. Berlin soon began negotiating his extradition.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 19, In Vatican City Pope Francis laid out the priorities of his pontificate during his installation Mass, urging the princes, presidents, sheiks and thousands of ordinary people attending to protect the environment, the weakest and the poorest.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 19, Zimbabwe's electoral body said that 94.5 percent of voters cast a ballot in favor of a new constitution that calls for a strengthening of human rights and a curb on presidential powers after a decade of political and economic turmoil in the southern African nation.
(AP, 3/19/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US Congress foiled the financially beleaguered Postal Service's plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail when it passed legislation requiring six-day delivery.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US military and the Afghan government reached a deal on the pullout of American special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from Wardak province after complaints that they were involved in human rights abuses.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, The US announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of American jihadi Omar Hammami and another $5 million reward for a 2nd American fighting in Somalia, Jehad Mostafa.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, It was reported that Starbucks has purchased a 593-acre farm in Costa Rica.
(SFC, 3/20/13, p.C4)
2013 Mar 20, Bangladesh’s figurehead Pres. Zillur Rahman (84) died at a hospital in Singapore.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, Chancellor George Osborne said Britain will raise the personal tax allowance to 10,000 pounds in 2014-15, a year earlier than expected.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, James Herbert (69), best-selling British horror writer, died at his home in Sussex. His 23 novels included "The Rats" (1974).
(Reuters, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, A Bulgarian man, Plamen Goranov (36), set himself on fire to protest poverty in his country, becoming the 6th to do so in a month.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)(Econ, 3/23/13, p.60)
2013 Mar 20, China’s Suntech Power Holdings Ltd., one of the world's biggest solar panel manufacturers, was forced into bankruptcy court, becoming the latest casualty of a painful slump in the global solar industry.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet decided not to attempt a ban of the country's biggest far-right party but said it would support a bid brought by the country's states — a resolution slammed by the Germany's main Jewish group as the wrong signal to neo-Nazis.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, US President Barack Obama arrived on his first visit and assured Israel of his personal commitment to its security. He delivered a blunt warning to its foes that the US has the Jewish state's back.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Iraq a car bomb in eastern Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded four on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Jordan’s King Abdullah II warned that a jihadist state could emerge on his northern border in Syria with Islamic extremists trying to establish a foothold in the neighboring country.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Malaysian prosecutors charged 8 Filipinos with terrorism-related offenses following an armed siege in Borneo that killed 71 people.
(SFC, 2/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, In Mali a suicide car bomber killed a Malian soldier near Timbuktu's airport. A vehicle containing two jihadists exploded as it attempted to infiltrate the airport.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said Mexico has sent a diplomatic note to the French government seeking assistance in heading off an auction of 51 pre-Columbian Mexican artifacts scheduled in Paris for March 22-23, arguing they are protected national historical pieces. Mexico has had laws prohibiting the export of such artifacts since at least 1827.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 20, Myanmar's parliament agreed to set up a commission to review the pro-military 2008 constitution, a process that could eventually change the political landscape and allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to contest the presidency.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In Myanmar unrest between local Buddhist and Muslim residents erupted in Meikhtila. The troubles began after an argument broke out between a Muslim gold shop owner and his Buddhist customers. Over 30 people were killed and some 70 others injured.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.39)
2013 Mar 20, A Nigerian official said at least two people have survived after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized over the weekend off Calabar.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Slovenian lawmakers approved the new-left-leaning Cabinet of PM Alenka Bratusek, the first female to lead the government since secession from Yugoslavia in 1991.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 20, South African trade unions said they are shocked at the disappearance of 24.8 billion rand ($2.75 billion) from provincial governments. The auditor general reported last week that the money had "disappeared" in "irregular, fruitless and wasteful spending."
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, In South Korea a cyberattack caused computer networks at major banks and top TV broadcasters to crash simultaneously. North Korea was suspected. Initial findings said a Chinese Internet address was the source of the attacks.
(SFC, 3/21/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 20, Syria's main opposition group demanded a full international investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in the country's north, calling for a team to be sent to the village where it reportedly occurred.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 20, Venezuela's government halted lines of communication established by a top U.S. diplomat to protest what it says has been US interference in the country's internal affairs ahead of an election set next month to replace the late President Hugo Chavez.
(AP, 3/20/13)
2013 Mar 21, The California state Commission on Judicial Performance said Judge Paul Seeman (58), an Alameda County Superior Court Judge, has resigned following charges that he swindled a 97-year-old neighbor out of her life savings. On Oct 21 Seeman was sentenced to 5 years probation.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.D1)(SFC, 10/22/12, p.C1)
2013 Mar 21, In San Francisco commercial beekeepers and environmental organizations filed suit against federal regulators for not banning the use of two pesticides they say harm honeybees.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.E5)
2013 Mar 21, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill recognizing same-sex civil unions. The law takes effect May 1.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 21, In Brunswick, Georgia, a teenager shot and killed the 13-month old son of Sherry West. Police the next day arrested De-Marquise Elkins (17) and a 14-year-old accomplice.
(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A13)
2013 Mar 21, Chicago said it will close 54 schools and 61 school buildings by the beginning of the next academic year in the country's third-largest public school district. Education experts called this the largest mass closing in the nation.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Chicago 7 people were shot and wounded early today at a party at a nightclub in an incident that police said may have been gang related.
(Reuters, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Paroled Colorado inmate Evan Spencer Ebel (28), who may be linked to the slaying of the state's prison chief, led Texas deputies on a 100 mph car chase that ended after he crashed into a semi and then opened fire before being shot down by his pursuers.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In northern Virginia a Marine at the Quantico marine Corps Base shot 2 of his colleagues, a man and a woman, to death and then killed himself. Sgt. Eusebio Lopez (25) gunned down Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata (19) and Cpl. Jacob Wooley (23). Lopez and Castromata had a brief relationship that broke up about four months earlier. In 2018 a federal appeals court refused to reinstate a suit by the victim’s family based on a 1950 Supreme Court ruling.
(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A5)(AP, 3/23/13)(SFC, 2/7/18, p.D4)
2013 Mar 21, In northern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed a district administrator and two of his bodyguards in Takhar province. A member of Afghanistan's government-backed militia program shot and killed five of his colleagues in Badghis province.
(AP, 3/21/13)(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Australian PM Julia Gillard delivered a historic national apology in Parliament to the thousands of unwed mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their babies for adoption over several decades.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury was formally enthroned after using a radio interview to back Church of England positions on homosexuality, which include opposition to same-sex marriage.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Human Rights Watch and three local organizations released a report saying suspected homosexuals in Cameroon have been tortured and raped in prison.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, A Cyprus criminal court found Hossam Taleb Yaacoub (24), a Swedish-Lebanese citizen and Hezbollah member, guilty of helping to plan attacks on Israelis in Cyprus.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 21, Villagers in Egypt's Nile Delta killed a man suspected of trying to steal a car in the country's latest incident of vigilante violence, dragging him half-naked and bloody as they kicked and hit him with sticks and fists before tying him to a tree to bleed to death.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In France the Union of Jewish French Students sued Twitter for some $50 million for failing to honor a court ruling to identify users who post Holocaust jokes and calls to kill Jews.
(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 21, In Germany 2 helicopters clipped each other and crashed as they landed in a snowstorm near Berlin's Olympic Stadium during a federal police exercise, leaving one person dead and several injured.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, India passed anti-rape legislation that included a controversial provision setting the age of sexual consent at 18.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 21, Jamaica’s Senate passed a bill calling for tougher prosecution of those involved in multimillion-dollar lottery scams that mostly have targeted elderly Americans. It was soon passed by the House of Representatives and the governor general was expected soon to sign it.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 21, Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (82) died in Boston. His novels included “Things Fall Apart" (1958). “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." Achebe's corpse arrived May 22 in his native Anambra state.
(AP, 3/22/13)(Econ, 3/30/13, p.90)(AP, 5/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, In northwestern Pakistan a car packed with explosives blew up inside the Jalozai refugee camp as hundreds of people lined up to get food, killing 13 and wounding 25.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Palestinian militants in Gaza launched at least two rockets into southern Israel as US President Barack Obama met with Palestinian officials in the West Bank on the second day of his Mideast tour. The Israeli military closed a Gaza border crossing and restricted Palestinian fishermen in the territory in response to the rocket attacks.
(AP, 3/21/13)(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Russian prosecutors searched the offices of Memorial, one of the country's oldest and most respected human rights groups, as part of a new, wide-ranging campaign targeting hundreds of nongovernmental organizations.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Syrian state-run TV in Damascus said authorities have handed over to Beirut Hassane Serourto, a Lebanese fighter captured inside Syria in an ambush by government troops on Nov 30.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan called for an immediate cease-fire and for thousands of his fighters to withdraw from Turkish territory, a major step toward ending one of the world's bloodiest insurgencies.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, For the second time in as many years, the UN's top human rights body approved a US-backed resolution calling on Sri Lanka to more thoroughly investigate alleged war crimes committed by both sides during the country's quarter-century civil war with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Syria an explosion ripped through a mosque in the heart of Damascus, killing 42 people including Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, a top Sunni preacher. 7 more died overnight and Pres. Assad the next day vowed to rid the country of Muslim extremists whom he blamed for the suicide blast.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, The UN’s top human rights body unanimously approved a formal probe into North Korea for possible crimes against humanity.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 21, In Venezuela supporters of late Pres. Hugo Chavez attacked student protesters as they marched against perceived bias by Venezuela’s electoral council.
(SFC, 3/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 21, In Yemen clashes in the south between al-Qaida and pro-government fighters killed four on both sides.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 21, Zimbabwean police arrested two more members of PM Morgan Tsvangirai's office staff, raising the number detained to six.
(AP, 3/21/13)
2013 Mar 22, The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it will close 149 air traffic control towers at small airports across the country beginning on April 7 as it copes with automatic federal spending cuts.
(Reuters, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Alabama Luke Bresette (10) was killed at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Int’l. Airport when a flight information panel fell on a family from Kansas.
(SSFC, 3/24/13, p.A8)
2013 Mar 22, The owners of San Francisco's Palace Hotel removed the famous 1909 Maxfield Parish Pied Piper painting that has graced the hotel's main bar for over a century and plan to sell it at auction.
(http://tinyurl.com/cnkh4ed)
2013 Mar 22, North Dakota lawmakers took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House's approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state's constitution in November 2014.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Belgium Kim De Gelder (24) was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, despite concerns about his mental condition, for four murders, including the slashing deaths of two babies at a day care center in 2009.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Brazilian police surrounded an old Indian museum complex next to Rio de Janeiro's legendary Maracana football stadium in a bid to expel a group of indigenous people and their supporters to make way for works related to the World Cup.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, A British judge upheld a decision to ban a Christian group from placing adverts on London buses that suggested people could be cured of homosexuality.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, US officials in Beijing for two days of talks to lobby China on enforcement of new UN sanctions against North Korea said that they were heartened by Chinese expressions of resolve. Spurring Beijing to cooperate, the US officials said, is a concern that North Korean behavior had begun threatening China's interests in a region vital to its economic and security.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, Cyprus lawmakers approved 3 key bills aiming to secure a broader bailout package and stave off imminent bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/23/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 22, Thousands of Egyptian protesters clashed with riot police and backers of the president's Muslim Brotherhood, ransacking several offices nationwide as anger over allegations of beatings and power-grabbing boiled over into the largest and most violent demonstrations yet on the doorstep of the powerful group.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Egypt a Bedouin taxi driver said he was driving two tourists, an Israeli-Arab tourist and a Norwegian female, to the popular Red Sea diving site of Dahab when gunmen ambushed his vehicle and captured them. Ingvild Selvik Ask (31) and Amir Hassan were released on March 26.
(AP, 3/22/13)(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Greece at least 11 Albanian inmates escaped from a prison near Trikala after gunmen brazenly attacked the site with grenades and automatic weapons, kicking off a nightlong standoff between police and prisoners. Two were soon captured.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Iraq a police officer gunmen fatally shot Hussein Muslah, local leader of a militia opposed to al-Qaida, and his sons as they left their house in a village near Dujail.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In Ireland Patrick McCabe (77), a former Catholic priest who had worked in California, was sentenced to 18 month in prison for assaulting two boys decades ago in Ireland. McCabe was soon released based on his age and statements of contrition and the fact that he had already served 21 months of a maximum 2-year sentence.
(SFC, 3/23/13, p.C2)(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 22, Israel and Turkey agreed to restore full diplomatic relations after PM Benjamin Netanyahu apologized in a phone call for a deadly naval raid against a Gaza-bound international flotilla in a dramatic turnaround partly brokered by President Barack Obama.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, President Barack Obama wrapped up a 3-day visit to Israel paying respects to the nation's heroes and to victims of the Holocaust and solemnly reaffirming the Jewish state's right to exist.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Italy's Pres. Giorgio Napolitano tapped center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to form a new government following national elections that produced no clear winner.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Italy returned Marines Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone to India to face murder charges in the shooting deaths of two fishermen, reversing a decision that escalated diplomatic tensions.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Lebanon’s PM Najib Mikati submitted his resignation.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 22, In Lebanon gunmen who support and oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad clashed in the northern city of Tripoli, leaving six people dead and more than 20 wounded.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 22, Myanmar's president declared a state of emergency in the central city of Meikhtila shaken by sectarian bloodshed that killed 44 people. Thousands of minority Muslims fled and overwhelmed riot police crisscrossed the still-burning town seizing machetes and hammers from enraged Buddhist mobs.
(AP, 3/22/13)(SSFC, 7/21/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 22, In Nigeria gunmen attacked the remote town of Ganye in the northeast freeing 120 inmates. The assailants also attacked a bank and a drinking spot killing 25 people.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 22, Oman sate news said Sultan Qaboos bin Said has pardoned all activists jailed for offending the nation's ruler or joining protests.
(Reuters, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, In southwestern Pakistan a bomb hidden in a rickshaw exploded outside a bus terminal near a busy bazar in Jafarabad, killing at least nine people and wounding 40. The explosion came hours after a US drone targeted a vehicle in Datta Khel village, North Waziristan, killing three suspected militants.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Rwandan-born warlord Bosco Ntaganda was taken into custody by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and was flown to The Hague to stand trial on charges of overseeing atrocities in eastern Congo a decade ago.
(AP, 3/22/13)
2013 Mar 22, Spain’s restructuring fund, the FROB, imposed haircuts of up to 61% as it turned junior debt and preference shares in 4 nationalized banks (Bankia, Catalunya Banc, Banco Gallego, and NCG Banco) into equity.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.72)
2013 Mar 23, The US Pentagon said it has reached an agreement to transfer the Parwan Detention Facility to Afghan control.
(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 23, Boris Berezovsky (67), fervent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in unclear circumstances at his home in Ascot, 25 miles (40 km) west of London. A Home Office pathologist soon found the cause of death to be consistent with hanging.
(Reuters, 3/24/13)(Reuters, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Central African Republic Seleka rebels took control of the town of Bossembele, pushing closer to the capital, Bangui.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In CongoDRC at least 35 people were killed after hundreds of militia fighters attacked the southeast mining center of Lubumbashi. 245 Mai Mai fighters surrendered to UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Indonesia 8 members of the Kopassus special forces forced their way into Cebongan prison in southern Java. Sgt. Ucok Tigor Simbolon shot dead 4 men, who had been detained on suspicion of killing a soldier. In Sep Sgt Simbolon was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two accomplices were sentenced to 6 and 8 years.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.53)
2013 Mar 23, In Ivory Coast Oulai Tako, known as "Tarzan of the West," was among three assailants killed by soldiers responding to an attack. Two civilians and a traditional hunter were also killed in the attack on Petit Guiglo village 15 miles (25km) outside Blolequin.
(AP, 3/24/13)(SSFC, 2/24/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 23, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman formally accepted the resignation of PM Najib Mikati, who stepped down blaming government infighting during a time of rising sectarian tensions.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Mali Islamic extremists infiltrated and attacked the northern city of Gao. Malian forces engaged the fighters and they retreated.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Nigeria a British businessman was kidnapped in Victoria Island, a part of Lagos. Initial reports said the victim was an American. The British national was released on March 27.
(SFC, 3/25/13, p.A2)(AP, 3/26/13)(Reuters, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 23, Northern Irish police defused a bomb in a car in Enniskillen, close to where G8 leaders will meet at a summit in June, and said that the device was likely to have been intended for a police station nearby.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, Pakistani cricket legend-turned politician Imran Khan (60) rallied around 100,000 flag-waving supporters in the eastern city of Lahore ahead of a historic national election later this spring.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Pakistan a car packed with explosives exploded next to a pair of fuel tankers at an army check post, killing 17 soldiers and wounding dozens in North Waziristan.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In eastern Pakistan a bus has overturned on a highway after hitting a roadside electricity pole, killing at least 32 passengers.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, Spanish, Portuguese and British police boarded a ship loaded with nearly two tons of cocaine destined for sale in Europe and arrested nine people. The ship was in the Atlantic Ocean, some 700 miles southwest of Portugal's Cape Verde islands.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 23, Syrian rebels seized control of the air defense base used by the regime’s 38th Division after a 16-day siege. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 35 opposition fighters died in the fighting. It lost contact with more than 20 others believed to have died in the fighting.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Ukraine the city of Kiev declared a state of emergency after it was paralyzed by an unprecedented snowstorm that has stalled car, railway and air traffic.
(AP, 3/23/13)
2013 Mar 24, Central African Republic's President Francois Bozize fled the capital, hours after hundreds of armed rebels threatening to overthrow him invaded Bangui.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr Kamel said that the Syrian opposition can now send an envoy to the two-day Arab League summit beginning March 26 in Doha..
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, Israel's army fired a guided missile into Syria, destroying a military post after gunfire flew across the border and struck an Israeli vehicle.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Libya about 200 militiamen and protesters demanding the resignation of Libya's PM Ali Zidan have ended their day-long siege of his office. The protest in Tripoli ended after the prime minister sneaked out of the building through the back door late today.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Macedonia the coalition "For a better Macedonia," led by PM Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party, won 43 of the country's 81 communities in the first round of elections. Social Democrat leader Branko Crvenkovski, head of the left-wing opposition and a former president, said the elections "were not free and fair.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Mali Islamic 9 people were left dead after extremists belonging to the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa infiltrated Gao a day earlier. The dead include 4 extremists, a soldier and 4 civilians.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, Pakistan's election commission chose Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, a former high court chief justice nominated by the country's outgoing ruling party, to serve as caretaker prime minister in the run up to a historic national election this spring.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Pakistan militants launched a suicide car bomb attack against a military check post in the country's northwest tribal region, killing 17 soldiers. Former President Pervez Musharraf returned home after more than four years in exile, seeking a possible political comeback in defiance of judicial probes and death threats from Taliban militants. Security forces whisked him away in the southern port city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, A senior Palestinian official rejected the idea of a partial Israeli settlement freeze as a way of restarting peace talks.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, Peru’s military chief Adm. Jose Cueto announced over the weekend that a draft would be held in May. It applies to all 18- to 25-year-old males chosen by lottery. Parents and university students are exempt. So is anyone who can afford the $700 fine.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 24, In Somalia 2 gunmen in Mogadishu shot and killed Rahmo Abdulqadir Farah, a female Somali journalist.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, In South Africa 6 of 19 stranded pilot whales on a beach in Cape Town died and authorities said they planned to euthanize some of the surviving whales.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 24, The leader of the Western-backed Syrian opposition coalition, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned, citing what he called the lack of international support for those seeking to topple President Bashar Assad. Rebel military leader Col. Riad al-Asaad, who was among the first to call openly for armed insurrection against President Bashar Assad, was wounded by a bomb planted in his car. He had his right foot amputated following a blast in the town of Mayadeen.
(AP, 3/24/13)(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 24, Dozens of people from Syrian President Bashar Assad's own minority sect met in Cairo to send an unusual message to their fellow Alawites back home: Join the opposition before it is too late.
(AP, 3/24/13)
2013 Mar 25, Pres. Obama signed a proclamation using the Antiquities Act to preserve some 1,000 acres of the San Juan Islands, Washington state, as a national monument.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.P6)
2013 Mar 25, Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo detainee who allegedly revealed valuable information about 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, sued Poland. Lawyers said he was held in a CIA black site in Poland (2002-2003), which they say has withheld critical information needed to investigate his case.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 25, In California people celebrated the opening of the new Devil’s Slide Tunnel. It opened to public traffic on March 26.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 25, In San Francisco executives of the Palace Hotel changed their minds, amid ringing outcry, and planned to return the Pied Piper painting by Maxfield Parrish to the hotel following restoration work.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 25, New Jersey lottery officials said Pedro Quezada (44), an immigrant from the Dominican Rep., has won the $338.3 million Powerball jackpot.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A7)
2013 Mar 25, Yahoo acquired Summly, a British startup, for some $30 million. Summly founder Nick d’Aloisio (17) had created an iPhone app to summarize articles in 300-400 characters.
(SFC, 4/18/13, p.66)
2013 Mar 25, In Afghanistan the US military gave control of its last local detention facility to Kabul, a year after the two sides initially agreed on the transfer.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, A fishing boat carrying nearly 100 asylum seekers capsized off Australia's west coast. 2 people died and another 93 were rescued after the boat overturned north of Christmas Island.
(Reuters, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, In Canada waste water from Suncor's oil sands operation north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, escaped when a pipe broke after freezing. An estimated 350 cubic meters of contaminated water was released into the river over a 10-hour period, the company said, adding that it did not contain tar-like bitumen.
(Reuters, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 25, Central African Republic's President Francois Bozize fled to neighboring Cameroon. Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, said that he plans to stay in power until 2016, the length of time left in the term of Bozize.
(AP, 3/25/13)(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 25, Cyprus clinched a last-minute solution to avert imminent financial meltdown early today after it agreed to slash its oversized banking sector and inflict hefty losses on wealthy depositors in troubled banks to secure a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout. Under the terms of the bailout deal, the country' second largest bank, Laiki — which sustained the most damaged from bad Greek debt and loans — is to be split up, with its nonperforming loans and toxic assets going into a "bad bank." The healthy side will be absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus.
(AP, 3/25/13)(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 25, A Dubai court convicted American businessman Zack Shahin for fraud and sentenced him to 15 years' imprisonment after a nearly five-year legal battle that included a hunger strike and a failed attempt to flee.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Egypt’s top prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 5 rights activists on suspicion of inciting violence against members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 25, Israel's government said it will resume transferring tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Kenya’s Supreme Court ordered the election commission to recount votes in 22 of the country's 291 constituencies to see if any of the tallies exceed the number of registered voters.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Libya's foreign minister said the widow of the late ruler Moammar Gadhafi and other family members have been granted asylum in Oman.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak announced the creation of the Eastern Sabah Safety Zone. Authorities said they will resettle people out of the area of Borneo where fighting in Sabah has left 74 people dead.
(SFC, 3/26/13, p.A4)(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 25, Myanmar's government warned that religious violence could threaten democratic reforms after anti-Muslim mobs rampaged through three more towns in the country's predominantly Buddhist heartland.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, TNT Express NV, a Dutch-based package delivery company, said it will restructure operations, taking €150 million ($195 million) in charges and cutting 4,000 jobs, or 6 percent of its work force, by the end of 2015. A takeover by UPS was blocked by European regulators in January.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Peru's government declared an environmental state of emergency in a remote Amazon jungle region it says has been affected by years of contamination at the country's most productive oil fields, which are currently operated by Argentina-based Pluspetrol.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Russian prosecutors and tax police searched the Moscow headquarters of Amnesty International and several other rights groups, continuing a wave of pressure that activists say is part of President Vladimir Putin's attempt to stifle dissent.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, South Africa's president said 13 South African soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in weekend fighting in the Central African Republic.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, In Syria a series of mortar strikes near a downtown traffic circle in Damascus killed two people and wounded several others.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Zimbabwe's High Court ordered the immediate release of prominent rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, detained for eight days for obstructing the course of justice. A free Mtetwa said her arrest was a ploy to intimidate human rights activists and pro-democracy groups ahead of upcoming elections expected in July.
(AP, 3/25/13)
2013 Mar 25, Zambia's former president, Rupiah Banda (76), was arrested by police for alleged abuse of authority and corruption. He was released on bail of Kwacha 500,000 ($100,000) and ordered to turn in his passport.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, President Barack Obama chose veteran agent Julia Pierson as Secret Service director, the first woman to lead the male-dominated agency.
(Reuters, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Supreme Court ruled that police cannot bring drug-sniffing police dogs onto a suspect's property to look for evidence without first getting a warrant for a search.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The US Environmental Protection Agency issued a survey that said 55% of the nation’s rivers and streams are in poor biological health.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, In San Francisco Henry Doelger’s Art Deco/Streamline Modern real estate office at 320 Judah St. was voted in as the city’s 265th historical landmark by the Board of Supervisors.
(http://tinyurl.com/bswp2to)
2013 Mar 26, The Delaware state Senate approved a bill repealing the state’s death penalty in a 11-10 vote.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A6)
2013 Mar 26, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed legislation that that would make North Dakota the nation's most restrictive state on abortion rights, banning the procedure if a fetal heartbeat can be detected — something that can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In eastern Afghanistan 8 suicide bombers struck a police headquarters, killing at least five officers in Jalalabad. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. A roadside bomb killed two police officers and wounded another in the Nad Ali district of southern Helmand province.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 20 insurgents in a 2-day joint operation in Logar province.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Bahrain 13 pro-democracy activists were sentenced to 10 years in prison over allegations that they attacked police officers.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, The British government published its long-term Nuclear Industrial Strategy but fell short of announcing a guaranteed power price which operators want spelled out before investing billions in new power stations.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In the CAR Michel Djotodia, one of the leaders of the Seleka rebel coalition, announced over radio that he has dissolved the country's constitution as well as the parliament and the government. French forces protecting Bangui's main airport opened fire on three cars that were speeding toward a security checkpoint. Two Indian citizens were killed, and wounded Indian and Chadian passengers were taken for medical care. Pillaging continued in Bangui.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, China and Brazil signed a deal to do up to $30 billion of trade in their local currencies, as the five-nation BRICS forum of emerging market powers worked to lessen dependence on the US dollar and euro.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Prominent Egyptian blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah handed himself in to authorities, a day after the country's prosecutor general ordered his arrest over his alleged role in instigating violence during clashes between supporters and opponents of the Islamist president. blogger, Abdel-Fattah was freed following his demand that an investigative judge take over his case.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Egyptian authorities extradited two Libyan officials from the regime of deposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi back to their home country. Former ambassador to Cairo Ali Maria (71) and ex-official Mohammed Ibrahim Gadhafi (44) were handcuffed after resisting the transfer.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Ghana and US officials broke ground for the National Marine Police Training Academy in the city of Anyinase. The US was investing over $1.2 million to construct the training center.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Iraq shootings and blasts killed five people, including two local politicians in a town north of Baghdad who died when a bomb attached to their car exploded.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's foreign minister Giulio Terzi resigned to protest his government's decision to send two marines back to India to face trial in the deaths of two fishermen.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Italy's highest criminal court overturned the murder acquittal of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in the slaying of British roommate Meredith Kercher and ordered a new trial.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, UN officials in Liberia said they've temporarily halted the repatriation of tens of thousands of refugees from Ivory Coast because of continued unrest near the border between the two countries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya 3 British female activists of Pakistani origin were kidnapped and raped in the eastern city of Benghazi. Pro-government militiamen were suspected. The women were part of an overland aid convoy bound for Gaza.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Libya nearly 50 inmates fled a prison in an oasis city in the country's southern desert. Authorities shot one dead during the escape.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, Earthquakes shook a broad swath of southern Mexico, causing buildings to sway in the capital and sending thousands fleeing into the streets. There were no immediate reports of damages or injuries.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Rwanda a grenade blast in Kigali killed one person and wounded eight.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 26, Saudi Arabia said investigations have shown that members of a spy ring arrested last week were working for Iranian intelligence.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, The Scottish government approved an offshore wind farm near Aberdeen. American tycoon Donald Trump vowed to bring a lawsuit to stop the $349 million development. He feared it would spoil the views at his nearby luxury golf course.
(SFC, 3/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 26, In South Sudan 143 rebels led by David Yau Yau died in a battle between soldiers and rebels backed by Sudan. 20 soldiers were killed and 70 wounded.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 26, Syrian opposition representatives took the country's seat for the first time at an Arab League summit in Qatar. The Arab League in 2011 suspended the Syrian government's membership in the organization in response to the regime's crackdown on opponents.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 26, In Syria mortars pounded at least two areas of Damascus, killing a girl and at least 2 other people. Anti-regime activists said government troops seized control of Baba Amr, a neighborhood in the central city of Homs, considered a symbol of opposition to Pres. Assad's regime. The Observatory said that at least 13 charred bodies, including those of four children and five women, were found on the outskirts of the village of Abil, southwest of Homs city.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Mar 27, Eric Harroun of Phoenix, Az., was arrested at Dulles Int’l. Airport upon returning to the US from Turkey, where he had described to FBI agents his journey to the front lines of Syria's civil war with fighters from the al-Nusra Front, a designated terrorist organization also referred to as al Qaeda in Iraq. Harroun served in the US Army from 2000 to 2003.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 27, The California Dept. of Toxic Substances Control said a toxic waste dump site near Kettleman city has agreed to pay $311,000 in fines for failing to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last 4 years.
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.D7)
2013 Mar 27, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he would not expand Medicaid in his state joining 18 other Republican governors who have rejected expansion for now.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A9)
2013 Mar 27, A team of int’l. scientists reported the discovery of dozens of signposts in DNA that can help reveal a person’s risk for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A10)
2013 Mar 27, An Afghan teenager killed US soldier Sgt. Michael Cable (26) in Nangarhar province by stabbing him in the neck while he played with a group of local children. The young man escaped to nearby Pakistan.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 27, The Bank of England said that its recommendations for Britain's banks to plug a 25 billion-pound capital shortfall by December won't call on further taxpayer funds.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric, thwarted another effort by Britain to have him deported to Jordan after a court accepted arguments that he would face testimony obtained by torture.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, It was reported the Ecuador planned to auction off 7.4 million acres of Amazon rain forest to Chinese oil companies. 7 indigenous groups said they had not consented to the projects.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 27, Egypt's naval forces captured three scuba divers who were trying to cut an undersea Internet cable in the Mediterranean. Telecom executives meanwhile blamed a weeklong Internet slowdown on damage caused to another cable by a ship.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, An Egyptian appeals court annulled a November presidential decree dismissing the country's top prosecutor and ordered him reinstated.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Germany work crews backed by about 250 police removed parts of the Berlin Wall known as the East Side Gallery before dawn to make way for an upscale building project, despite demands by protesters that the site be preserved.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Iraq a parked car bomb ripped through a residential area in the town of Musayyib, killing three civilians and wounding 14. Another bomb targeted a restaurant in the town of Madain, killing two people and wounding 11.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Japan Takafumi Horie, the former chief executive of Internet portal Livedoor, was released from prison. He was jailed in 2011 for fraud. While in prison he gathered almost one million Twitter followers.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.74)
2013 Mar 27, In northern Mali the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad, or NMLA, announced that Mohamed Aly Ag Al Bessati would serve as the civil administrator for Kidal.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 27, In Mexico hundreds of armed vigilantes took control of Tierra Colorado, a town on a major highway in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, arresting local police officers and searching homes in response to the March 25 killing of vigilante leader Guadalupe Quinones Carbajal (28). Several opened fire on a car of Mexican tourists headed to the beach for Easter week.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In central Nigeria an assault on a village in the Riyom local government area killed 28 people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 27, North Korea cut its last military hotline with Seoul, a link that has been essential in operating the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation: an industrial complex in the North that employs hundreds of workers from the South.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, In South Africa leaders of the five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) agreed to create a development bank to help fund their $4.5 trillion infrastructure programs — a direct challenge to the World Bank that they accuse of Western bias.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, A Sri Lanka judge announced that more than 150 human skulls and bones recovered from a mass grave Lanka were buried there about 25 years ago, strengthening suspicion that they belonged to suspected Marxist rebels killed at the time. The skeletal remains were found inside the premises of a government hospital dated to between 1987 and 1990.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, Syria's Pres. Assad appealed o the leaders of a five-nation economic forum meeting in South Africa to help end his country's two-year conflict. Assad sent a letter urging the leaders of the five nation BRICS forum — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to "work for an immediate cessation of violence. The Observatory said rebels overran three army posts near Bir Ajam.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck central Taiwan, killing at one person and injuring 19 as it damaged buildings on the island.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 27, The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague convicted two senior Bosnian Serbs of war crimes in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin were each sentenced to 22 years in prison. In 2016 appeals were rejected.
(SFC, 3/28/13, p.A3)(SFC, 7/1/16, p.A2)
2013 Mar 27, Zimbabwe's High Court freed on bail four senior officials from PM Morgan Tsvangirai's party accused of illegally collecting information on high level corruption.
(AP, 3/27/13)
2013 Mar 28, The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index hit an all-time high of 1569.19, surpassing the Oct 9,2007 high of 1565.15.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.D1)
2013 Mar 28, Nevada’s Legislature expelled an assemblyman for the first time in its history. Steven Brooks, representing North Las Vegas, has been arrested twice and hospitalized for mental health evaluation.
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 28, Bahrain cleared 21 medical personnel of charges linked to anti-government protests, but cases remain open against two others who failed to appear in court.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Britain's domestic spy agency (MI5) chose Andrew Parker (50) as its new director. Parker was an ornithologist with counter-terrorism experience in the Middle East and Northern Ireland.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, In Britain Giovanni Di Stefano, a flamboyant but unqualified lawyer, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for fraud. His clients included deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He had no legal qualifications and was not registered to practice in Britain or Italy, where he had offices.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd reopened a rail line in western Minnesota, a day after a mile-long train hauling crude oil from Alberta, Canada, derailed in the area, spilling up to 30,000 gallons of oil.
(Reuters, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Ousted Central African Republic President Francois Bozize requested exile in Benin days after rebels invaded and overthrew his government of a decade.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 28, China’s State Council, the country’s highest executive organ of state power, released a code of conduct for officials in hopes for a more pransparent government.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 28, The UN Security Council authorized a new intervention brigade for CongoDRC with a mandate to take military action alone or with Congolese troops against rebel groups to help bring peace in the conflict-racked east.
(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 28, Cypriots get their first chance to access their savings in almost two weeks when the country's banks reopened, albeit with strict restrictions on transactions.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, Israel fully reopened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip that were closed following militant rocket fire during President Barack Obama's visit to the region last week.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, A Kosovo court found three ethnic Serbs guilty of storming a UN-run court and inciting riots that led to the death of a Ukrainian peacekeeper in 2008. Marijan Ilincic and Dragan Milojevic were sentenced to 22 and 18 months in prison, respectively. Zoran Cavic was convicted of similar charges and given a 9-month sentence that was suspended for one year. Three other defendants were cleared of all charges.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 28, In central Nigeria an attack in the Bokkos local government area killed 18 civilians. The military killed six while trying to repel attackers in the assault.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 28, A West Bank appeals court upheld a one-year prison term for Mamdouh Hamamreh, a Palestinian journalist who had a photo on his Facebook page that authorities claimed portrayed President Mahmoud Abbas as a traitor.
(AP, 3/28/13)(SFC, 3/29/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 28, Fitch, a ratings agency, awarded the Philippines its first ever investment-grade credit rating.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.86)
2013 Mar 28, In northwest Russia a bus crash killed six people and injured at least 18 others, including orphans returning from a field trip.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, In Syria mortar shells slammed into a cafeteria at Damascus University, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20 in what was the deadliest in a string of such attacks on President Assad's seat of power. Officials denied opposition claims that an Iranian cargo plane, allegedly carrying weapons to Assad's regime, was hit as it landed at Damascus Int’l. Airport. This day of fierce clashes killed at least 38 people.
(AP, 3/28/13)(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 28, Pope Francis washed and kissed the feet of two young women at Rome’s Casal del Marmo juvenile detention center, a surprising departure from church rules that restrict the Holy Thursday ritual to men.
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 28, A Thai court jailed a man for three years and four months on for selling video CDs showing sections of an Australian news series that contained content deemed offensive to Thailand's royal family. Akachai Hongkawan (37) was also fined 66,666 baht ($2,300).
(AP, 3/28/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Mayflower, Arkansas, an ExxonMobil pipeline sprang a leak. Crews soon recovered some 12,000 barrels of oil and water. The Pegasus pipeline, capable of carrying more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A8)(Reuters, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 29, In San Francisco Buster Posey, catcher for the SF Giants, signed a 9-year, $167 million contract, the largest in the club’s history.
(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A1)
2013 Mar 29, Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors announced that a grand jury had indicted the Atlanta Public Schools' ex-superintendent and nearly three dozen other former administrators, teachers, principals and other educators of charges arising from a standardized test cheating scandal on one of the nation’s largest test cheating scandals.
(AP, 3/30/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 29, A Soyuz capsule carrying 3 astronauts docked with the Int’l. Space Station (ISS) after traveling just 6 hours from launch in Kazakhstan.
(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A3)
2013 Mar 29, Argentina proposed a creative way out of its debt showdown, describing a mix of cash and bonds that it suggested would amount to a huge profit, but not a gargantuan one, for the investors it calls "vulture funds." The payment plan could take many more years to cancel $1.44 billion in defaulted bonds, interest and penalties left unpaid since the country's world-record 2001 default.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, A court in Bosnia convicted a Montenegrin man of multiple counts of murder, torture, rape and looting during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, and sentenced him to 45 years in prison. A judge said Veselin Vlahovic (43) killed 31 people, raped a number of Bosniak and Croat women and tortured and robbed non-Serb residents of a Sarajevo suburb while fighting for the Bosnian Serbs.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In China a large landslide trapped 83 workers, believed to have been asleep, at the state-owned Jiama (Gyama) copper and gold mining company in Tibet. Chances for survivors were slim. The mine, which formally opened in 2010, was owned by China Gold Int’l. Resources.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)(Econ, 4/6/13, p.54)
2013 Mar 29, In northern Egypt clashes erupted in Alexandria and Zagazig, and protesters rallied in Cairo in the latest demonstrations against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who claims the recent wave of anti-government unrest is the work of conspirators.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Moussawi said Iraq would conduct more random searches to check for weapons heading for the forces of Syrian Pres. Assad or rebels seeking to topple his regime.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Iraq a string of bombings targeting Shiite mosques killed at least 23 people and wounded dozens. 19 of the deaths were in Baghdad and 4 in Kirkuk.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In central Nigeria attackers in the Barkin Ladi area raided a village called Bokkos and killed nine people.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 29, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned that his rocket forces were ready "to settle accounts with the US," unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after US nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked a convoy carrying paramilitary police commander Abdul Majeed Marwat, killing at least 10 people, including two women in Peshawar.
(AP, 3/29/13)(SFC, 3/30/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 29, In Sri Lanka Buddhists attacked a warehouse of the Fashion Bug chain near the Colombo as police stood by. The attack was filmed by a local television station whose cameraman was attacked by the mob in the most recent public outburst in a growing anti-Muslim campaign by Buddhist nationalist groups in the island nation.
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIlmeQWicEM)(AP, 4/7/13)
2013 Mar 29, Syrian rebels captured a strategic town near the border with Jordan. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 rebels were among the dead in the fighting in and around Dael.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, In Tanzania at least 18 people died after a 12-story building under construction collapsed in Dar es Salaam. By April 1 the death toll was raised to at least 30.
(AP, 3/30/13)(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 29, A top UNICEF official said as many as 240,000 children have missed UN-backed vaccinations against polio because of security concerns in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/29/13)
2013 Mar 29, Vietnam unveiled its new, 1,864-foot-long steel Dragon Bridge in Da Nang shaped like a dragon that literally shoots fire from its mouth. It cost about $85 million to construct and was built by the Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey-based construction and architecture firm.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_River_Bridge)
2013 Mar 30, In Mississippi nearly 50 people were arrested at a dogfight in Benton County following a months-long investigation.
(SFC, 4/2/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 30, In Nevada a freeway crash on I-15 killed five Southern California family members and injured two others. On April 10 Jean Ervin Soriano (18), a juvenile detention escapee, was charged with seven felony charges of driving under the influence. He had a blood-alcohol percentage of 0.12, well above the Nevada legal limit of 0.08 percent.
(AP, 4/10/13)
2013 Mar 30, Phil Ramone (1934), Grammy-award winning producer, died. He was a pioneer of digital recording and produced what is regarded as the first major commercial release on compact disc, “52nd Street," which came out in 1982.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A12)
2013 Mar 30, In Afghanistan US special operations forces handed over their base in Nirkh district, Wardak province, to local Afghan special forces.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Officials said big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Egyptian state prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Bassem Youssef, a popular TV satirist for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's president.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Egyptian police detained 13 people including five lawyers, accusing them of assaulting police in the city of Alexandria.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, In northern France five young siblings, aged 2-10, died after a fire erupted in a home in the town of Saint Quentin.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 30, Xabier Lopez Pena (alias Thierry), a former leader of armed Basque separatist group ETA, died from a stroke in a French hospital.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Italy’s Pres. Giorgio Napolitano named 10 outside experts to try to help end political gridlock that has prevented the formation of a government more than a month after inconclusive national elections.
(SSFC, 3/31/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 30, Kenya's Supreme Court upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president. Protests led to clashes leaving 5 people dead.
(AP, 3/30/13)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 30, In Lebanon shells from inside Syria exploded in 4 villages late today near the northern border. Residents reported an unpleasant smell after the strikes.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 30, In northern Mali fighting Islamic extremists linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, attacked Timbuktu late today. Fighting continued in to the next day.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 30, In Mauritius rivers of water rose swiftly in a pedestrian underpass leading to the waterfront and an underground car park in Port Louis. At least 11 people were killed in the flash flooding. The next day PM Navinchandra Ramgoolam blamed climate change for the floods.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 30, In Mexico a bus collided with a truck in Veracruz state and plunged over a cliff killing 12 people.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 30, North Korea warned Seoul that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, In southern Pakistan a man armed with a gun and grenades attacked a school in Karachi during a prize distribution ceremony, killing its principal and wounding six children before fleeing.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 30, Five South African air force members died in the crash of a helicopter that was patrolling in an anti-rhino poaching operation in Kruger National Park.
(AP, 3/31/13)(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 30, Syrian rebels pushed into a strategic neighborhood in the northern city of Aleppo after days of heavy clashes, seizing control of at least part of the hilltop district and killing Hassan Seifeddine, a pro-government Sunni Muslim cleric captured in the fighting. Activists reported violence in areas the southern province of Daraa, the suburbs of Damascus and the northern regions of Idlib and Raqqa.
(AP, 3/30/13)
2013 Mar 31, An Alaska State Trooper helicopter crashed overnight during a mission to rescue a stranded snowmobiler. All three onboard were believed killed.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A5)
2013 Mar 31, Tesla reported that it had scored the first quarterly profit in its history after selling more luxury electric cars than forecast.
(SFC, 4/2/13, p.D1)
2013 Mar 31, Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai met with the emir of Qatar in Doha to discuss the possible opening of a Taliban office in Qatar.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 31, In Brazil a French man and US woman studying Portuguese were held for hours while the woman was sexually assaulted aboard a public transport van they boarded in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach neighborhood. Three men, ages 20 to 22, were soon taken into custody and a third was being sought in connection with the attack. Police later detained a 14-year-old suspected of participating in the attack. On Aug 14 three men were convicted of grand theft, rape and extortion.
(AP, 4/2/13)(SFC, 4/3/13, p.A3)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)(Reuters, 8/15/13)
2013 Mar 31, Chinese officials confirmed that three recent cases of influenza were due to a new strain called H7N9.
(Econ, 4/20/13, p.83)
2013 Mar 31, A study by the New Delhi-based Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the number of foreigners traveling to India has dropped by 25 percent due to sex attacks. The number of women tourists has dropped by 35 percent.
(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 31, Israel began receiving natural gas from the Tamar reservoir in the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Ashdod.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 31, In Kuwait a lower court sentenced online activist Hamed al-Khaledi to two years in jail for insulting the country's emir.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 31, In Morocco several thousand members of the country’s two largest labor unions marched through Rabat to protest the Islamist-led governments planned economic and labor reforms and its failure to stem unemployment and inflation.
(SFC, 4/1/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar 31, Nigeria's military said soldiers have attacked a home in Kano believed to harbor Islamic extremists. The assault killed 14 people. At least 19 people were reported killed after gunmen, believed to be nomadic Muslim cattle herders, raided Ataka village in Kaduna state.
(AP, 3/31/13)(AP, 4/1/13)
2013 Mar 31, In Pakistan Taliban militants attacked with a roadside bomb the election motorcade of Malik Adnan Wazir, a secularist-backed politician, wounding him and killing two of his supporters in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 31, Syria's state news said rebels have set fire to 3 oil wells. SANA said that the fires would cause a daily loss of 4,670 barrels of oil and 52 cubic meters of natural gas. SANA said rebels have set fire to a total of nine wells in recent months.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar 31, Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message to the world.
(AP, 3/31/13)
2013 Mar, The Nielsen Co. started labeling people who have stopped using traditional TV service in their homes as "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. These people were watching shows and movies on the Internet. There were now 5 million of these residences in the US, up from 2 million in 2007.
(AP, 4/8/13)
2013 Mar, The average wage in America was reported to be $22 per hour.
(Econ, 3/9/13, p.76)
2013 Mar, Chile became the 14th Latin American country to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.38)
2013 Mar, Bogota, the capital of Colombia, began compensating its 15,000 waste pickers for their services, paying 82,860 pesos ($44) per ton of garbage collected.
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.65)
2013 Mar, Lord's Resistance Army fighters in Congo released 28 abductees, women and children, suggesting the group is undergoing turmoil amid a manhunt, supported by US military advisers, for its leaders.
(AP, 4/5/13)
2013 Mar, The UN Development Program named CongoDRC the least developed country in the world. It was tied with Niger.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.74)
2013 Mar, Dominican Republic authorities in Punta Cana arrested 4 French men as they were preparing to leave on a privately hired mid-size Dassault Falcon 50 jet with 26 suitcases containing 680 kg (1,500 pounds) of cocaine. All four men denied they knew that the drugs were on board the plane. In 2015 pilot Pascal Fauret and co-pilot Bruno Odos escaped to France.
(AFP, 11/2/15)
2013 Mar, France’s highest legal authority said no individual tax should exceed 66.6%.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.60)
2013 Mar, French entrepreneurs decided to launch a new 3-year school for software developers. The school, named “42," soon received 50 thousand applications for 1,000 student positions.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.47)
2013 Mar, The German fictional 3-part, TV drama “Unsere Mutter, Unsere Vater" (Our Mothers, Our Fathers) tracked the lives of five young friends from 1941-1945. Itaveraged 7.6 million viewers per night.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.50)
2013 Mar, The government of Grenada defaulted on its dollar bonds.
(Econ, 11/9/13, p.78)
2013 Mar, Deaths from Haiti’s cholera epidemic, which began in 2010, reached 8,205.
(Econ, 3/2/13, p.38)
2013 Mar, In Honduras two mothers discovered the bodies of their sons after the men had called in a panic to say they were surrounded by armed, masked police. The two members of the 18th Street gang had been shot in the head, their hands bound so tightly the cords cut to the bone.
(AP, 5/13/13)
2013 Mar, The US suspended funding for the cleanup effort of the Honduras police force. In June the US Embassy made public confirmation of the suspension. 142 officers failed out of 373 who took a polygraph test between May 2012, when the program started, and November, when a Honduran law authorizing the tests expired, but apparently none were fired.
(AP, 6/11/13)
2013 Mar, In Mexico 7 young members of the National Ballet of Cuba defected while on a performing tour.
(SFC, 4/4/13, p.A2)
2013 Mar, Norway expelled the leadership of the Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA) separatists.
(http://tinyurl.com/qd8kbqg)(Econ, 8/17/13, p.46)
2013 Mar, Hamas' military wing Izz ad-Din al-Qassam bulldozed part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor, a site designated of historic value by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in order to make room for the group's terrorist training.
(http://tinyurl.com/cjyqtrt)
2013 Mar, Members of the Nusra Front extremist group executed 36 members of the Syrian security forces at a garbage site in the Syrian city of Tabqa. In 2017 four asylum seekers in Germany were accused of the executions and faced charges of war crimes, murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2013 Mar, Chinese-led criminal gangs conspired with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, some of which was loaded in diplomatic bags on Pres. Xi's plane during a presidential visit.
(AP, 11/6/14)
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