Portal:Current events/2016 March 7

• Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002-present)
  • At least 50 people are killed, including 33 militants, seven civilians and ten soldiers, in armed clashes between the Tunisian Army and Islamist militants in the town of Ben Gardane, near the border with Libya. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera) (AFP via Daily Mail)
• War in North-West Pakistan
  • A Taliban suicide bomber hits a court complex in the town of Shabqadar killing at least 13 people and injuring 36. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Pakistani Taliban faction, says the attack is retaliation for Mumtaz Qadri's execution last week. (Voice of America) (UPI)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • According to the Pentagon, more than 150 al-Shabaab fighters are reportedly killed Saturday by U.S. manned and unmanned aircraft strikes targeting a training camp near the central Somali town of Buloburde. (FOX News) (The New York Times)
  • The Royal Australian Navy seizes a large cache of weapons from a fishing vessel near Oman's coast, that was bound for Somalia. The Australian Navy, which patrols waters around the Indian Ocean as part of an international maritime force, said it has seized nearly 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 49 PKM machine guns, 39 PKM spare barrels and 20 mortar tubes from the stateless vessel. 20 tonnes of weaponry in total. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • A Syrian Arab Air Force or Russian airstrike reportedly kills a dozen people at a market selling diesel fuel in the rebel-held Idlib Governorate. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the death toll is likely to rise. (Reuters)

• Germany's BASF SE, the largest chemical producer in the world, is pursuing a counterbid for DuPont that could short circuit the Delaware-based company's announced merger with fellow American firm, Dow Chemical Company. (Bloomberg) (Fortune)
• Apple Inc. must pay the $450 million July 2014 settlement in a price fixing case since the U.S. Supreme Court will not hear its appeal of the June 2015 Court of Appeals ruling that it played a "central role" in a conspiracy with publishers to eliminate retail price competition and raise e-book prices. (Reuters) (Bloomberg) (AppleInsider)

• In the United States, an Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) San Francisco Bay Area commuter train bound for Stockton, California, derails and falls into a creek, injuring 14 people, four in serious condition. The crash shuts down service along the ACE system through Tuesday. (Los Angeles Times) (CNN)

• South Korea–United States relations
  • South Korea and the United States start a joint military exercise as North Korea repeats threats of "indiscriminate" nuclear strikes. (AFP via Rappler)
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
  • Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo calls on Muslim leaders at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit meeting in Jakarta to unite and be part of the solution on Palestine, noting the entire world is concerned about its deteriorating situation. Jokowi also criticizes what he calls Israel's "unilateral and illegal policies." (The Jakarta Post) (AP via Appeal-Democrat)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
• European migrant crisis
  • Today's European Union summit with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Brussels, Belgium, will discuss ways to stanch the flow of European-bound migrants. (CNN) (Voice of America) (Summit website)
    • The EU plans to boost aid to Greece and declare the route north through the Balkans closed. Presently, about 13,000 people are stranded at the Greece-Macedonia border. (BBC) (Kathimerini)
    • The leaders plan to give Turkey €3bn to take back thousands who don't qualify for asylum. (Kathimerini) (Business Day)
  • Amnesty International takes on the EU for using Turkey as a buffer to police Europe’s borders. Deputy Director Gauri van Gulik says Europe has an absolute duty to protect refugees and must fast-track significant, unconditional resettlement. (AP via The Washington Post)
  • Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) opens a humanitarian camp for migrants in the Grande-Synthe suburb of Dunkerque, France. (AP via ABC News)
• Enlargement of the European Union
  • The Turkish deputy ambassador to Britain says Turkey should be allowed to join the European Union in order to help solve the Syrian refugee crisis. (The Independent)
• Israel-United States relations
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancels a trip to the United States for an American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference that was to include a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. (Reuters) (Haaretz) (The New York Times)
  • Israeli reports indicate Mr. Netanyahu cancelled because he had not been offered a meeting with Mr. Obama. The White House, which states it had not been directly informed of this change of plans, insists Mr. Netanyahu had turned down a chance to meet with the president. (The New York Times)

• A gunman, who killed one man, injured two others, and was holding three people hostage, is found dead when an armed tactical response police team storms a building in the Ingleburn industrial area in suburban Sydney, Australia. All hostages were unharmed. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (Stuff.co.nz) (Sky News via KLFM)^{[permanent dead link‍]}
• Venezuelan security forces search for 30 gold miners reportedly killed last week in the state of Bolívar in the country's southeast. Survivor reports state the miners were shot last Friday in a fight for control of a gold deposit by criminals who then hid the bodies. Bolívar Governor Francisco Rangel Gómez denies any such massacre occurred. (EFE via Fox New Latino) (Reuters via The Times of India)
• Pitcairn sexual assault trial of 2004
  • Former mayor of the Pitcairn Islands Mike Warren is found guilty of downloading more than 1000 images and videos of child abuse and child pornography while working in child protection and is sentenced to 20 months in prison. (The Guardian)
• American sportscaster Erin Andrews is awarded $55 million damages after a stranger, in 2008, secretly recorded her in the nude through a hotel door peephole, and posted the video on the Internet. (New York Daily News)

• 2016 United States presidential election
  • Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg announces he will not run for president in 2016 because of the impact his candidacy might have on the outcome in November. (CBS News)

• Research, published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Geoscience, confirms that Mercury's darker than expected crusty exterior is from carbon, likely the remains of the planet's ancient surface crust of graphite, rather than carbon dust from comet impacts as previously postulated. (Christian Science Monitor) (The Washington Post) (Nature Geoscience)

• Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova tests positive for meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open tennis championship. She has taken the drug since 2006 on prescription for health issues. World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie says an athlete found guilty of using meldonium would normally face a one-year suspension. (BBC) (AP via The Times-Picayune)
  • Nike suspends ties with Sharapova after the positive test is revealed. (Reuters) (Fox Sports)
• American football quarterback Peyton Manning retires after eighteen seasons in the National Football League with two Super Bowl championships, five MVP awards, and single-season and career league records for most passing yards and touchdown passes. (NFL)