Portal:Current events/2014 February 24
February 24, 2014 (Monday)
Armed conflict and attacks
- 2014 Ukrainian Revolution:
- The European Commission recognizes Oleksandr Turchynov as Ukraine‘s legitimate interim president. (DPA via Europe Online)
- Ukrainian economist and banker Stepan Kubiv, who worked as one of the commandants for the EuroMaidan demonstrations, is selected as governor of the National Bank of Ukraine. (Reuters)
- An arrest warrant is issued for the former President Viktor Yanukovych and other officials for their alleged role in killing protesters. (AP via Fox News)
- War in Afghanistan:
- Senior Taliban commander Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani is killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (The Hindu)
- South China Sea dispute:
- Chinese vessels reportedly harassed Filipino fishermen off the coast of the Philippines last January 27, according to the Philippine military. (BBC News)
- Post-civil war violence in Libya
- Libyan police found the bodies of seven Egyptian Christians shot dead execution-style on a beach near the city of Benghazi. (Reuters)
- Israeli Air Force planes reportedly bomb a weapons shipment of SS-21 missiles destined for Hezbollah near a Hezbollah stronghold on the Lebanon-Syria border. (The Times of Israel)
Business and economy
- CNN cancels Piers Morgan Live, starring British presenter Piers Morgan, due to low ratings. (The Guardian)
- Pope Francis, in the most significant reform of the Roman Curia in 25 years, creates a second Secretariat, for Economic Affairs, headed by a Cardinal (which will work with the Vatican Secretariat of State, the reformed Vatican bank, or IOR, and the other economic departments of the Roman Curia), which will have an office with the power to audit any Vatican agency at any time. (AP via MSN News)
- Mt Gox, an exchange of central importance in the history of the crypto currency bitcoin, closes down for an indefinite period under pressure from hackers. (Wired)
Disasters and accidents
- The death toll in the Papua province of Indonesia reaches 11 as torrential rain continues to cause floods and landslides, occurring since Saturday. (News Corp Australia)
- At least seven mourners are killed and 37 are injured as a bridge collapses as they are transporting a coffin in Vietnam's Lai Chau Province. (AP via Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Law and Crime
- Gary Melius, owner of Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York, the second largest private residence in the United States, is shot in the head in the castle parking lot. The gunman is still at large. (Los Angeles Times)
- Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signs a bill discriminating against the LGBT community. (Time)
Politics and elections
- 2013–14 Thai political crisis:
- Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she will not resign. (Straits Times)
- The government of Egypt resign en masse, allowing Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to run for President. (Reuters)
- The Pentagon announces plans to reduce the size of the United States Army to pre-World War II levels. (BBC News)
- In Russia, police arrested over 400 people in Manege Square hours after picking up some 200 people outside the court where the Bolotnaya square case defendants were being tried. (BBC News) (RFE/RL) (The Moscow Times)
Science and technology
- Public health officials in the U.S. state of California are preparing a report of a polio-like disease whose cause is unknown. (Los Angeles Times)
- Two species of goblin spider are discovered by the Queensland Museum in Australia's Darling Downs region. (ABC via Yahoo!7 News)
- Nokia unveils Nokia X, an Android-based smartphone, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. (NDTV)
- A 4.4-billion-year-old crystal from Western Australia has been confirmed as the oldest fragment of Earth's crust. (BBC News)