Portal:Current events/2017 March 12

March 12, 2017 (Sunday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Tahrir al-Sham, al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, claims responsibility for yesterday's twin bomb attacks in Damascus which left dozens dead. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

A landslide at a rubbish dump on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, kills at least 48 people. (BBC)
A bus driver in the Haitian city of Gonaïves ploughs into crowds of people celebrating Rara while speeding away from an earlier accident which left one person dead, killing at least 38 people, including a group of street musicians, and injures 17 others. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Ahmad Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who shot seven Israeli schoolchildren on March 13, 1997, is released from prison in Jordan. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Abkhazian parliamentary election, 2017
- People in the breakaway state of Abkhazia go to the polls for an election. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama dismisses four cabinet ministers, including Minister of Internal Affairs Saimir Tahiri and Minister of Health Ilir Beqaj, in a bid to make the government more technocratic following opposition Democratic Party protests. (Reuters)
Former President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Artur Mas, is banned from holding public office for two years after organising an unofficial, unconstitutional independence referendum in 2014. (The Guardian)

Sports