Portal:Current events/2010 March 8

March 8, 2010 (Monday)

The corpse of former President of Cyprus Tassos Papadopoulos, which had been stolen in December 2009, is found at a cemetery in Nicosia. (BBC) (The Daily Telegraph) (Miami Herald)^{[permanent dead link]}
Irish Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen resigns from politics after seeking medical advice. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times)
New York politician Eric Massa resigns after admitting to sexual harassment. (The Times)
A strong earthquake in Turkey kills dozens. (BBC)
Female poet Simin Behbahani says the government of Iran has issued her with a "travel ban" after confiscating her passport at Tehran International Airport as she was about to travel to France. (BBC)
Interpol issues "red notices" for 16 more individuals in connection with the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, bringing to 27 the number of people wanted for the assassination. (Ha'aretz) (Ynetnews) (RTÉ) (Reuters India)
The French Navy, supported by European Union aircraft and vessels, seizes 35 suspected pirates in 4 mother ships and 6 little boats off the coast of Somalia in the EU's most successful mission. (BBC)
German Federal Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger says the Vatican has built a "wall of silence" in response to the country's child sexual abuse controversy of recent months. (BBC)
Nine people go on trial charged with terrorism and links to al-Qaeda in Belgium. (The New York Times) (euronews) (Al Jazeera) (France24)
Middle East:
- Israel announces the construction of 112 new Jewish homes for the occupied West Bank territory despite the freeze on new settlements initiated in November 2009. (RTÉ)
- Quartet on the Middle East representative Tony Blair meets leader of the Arab League Amr Moussa and concludes there is "no hope" for Palestinians without an independent state. (Arabnews)
A Pakistani Taliban car bomb attack on a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) building in Lahore kills at least 11, wounds 60. (BBC)
12 people — 10 civilian passengers and 2 policemen — die in two separate roadside bombs in Badghis Province, Afghanistan. (BBC) (Reuters)
Parliament approves President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's budget for 2010/11. (Reuters)
Togolese police fire tear gas at street protesters who dispute Faure Gnassingbé's presidential election triumph. (BBC)
French police shoot tear gas at protesters at oil company Total S.A.'s headquarters in Paris. (Al Jazeera)
Members of Parliament from Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan refuse a body scan in the USA, and return home. (Dawn)
President of East Timor José Ramos-Horta begins his two-day first official state visit to Ireland by meeting Taoiseach Brian Cowen, urging the country to continue providing economic support as a priority nation and receiving an honorary doctorate from University College Dublin. (RTÉ) (The Irish Times) (Philippines News)
Chilean looters return £1.3 million ($2million) of stolen goods, according to the government. (The Daily Telegraph)
New research based on a previous study indicates climate may be responsible for Scotland having more and Africa having fewer people with red hair. (The Daily Telegraph)
Tibet Governor Padma Choling announces to the National People's Congress that China will decide Tenzin Gyatso's reincarnation as Dalai Lama. (The Daily Telegraph)
Plans by the Scottish Maritime Museum (SMM) to scrap City of Adelaide/HMS Carrick, one of the world's oldest clippers built in Sunderland in 1864, are postponed in the hope that enough money can be raised to send her to Australia. (BBC)