Portal:Current events/2012 March 3

Current events of March 3, 2012 (2012-03-03) (Saturday)

Armed conflicts and attacks Syria: The United Nations demands that Syria allow in humanitarian aid after a Red Cross relief mission was denied access to Homs yesterday. (AFP via The Australian) A suicide bomber kills at least two people and injures several others in the town of Deraa. (Reuters) At least three people are killed in a bombing that targeted a Republican Guard building in Badya, Yemen. (Al Jazeera) Disasters Australians living in the north-western Sydney suburbs of Richmond, Pitt Town and Grono Point are evacuated as the Nepean-Hawkesbury River system floods after Warragamba Dam overflows. (News Limited) The death toll from a tornado outbreak in the US reaches at least 36, with casualties reported in Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia and Ohio. (BBC) (Reuters) (CNN) Two trains crash in the small Polish town of Szczekociny near Zawiercie, with 13 people killed and up to 50 people injured. (BBC) (AP via Google) (Reuters via MSNBC) 50 people are killed and 27 injured in eastern Guinea after a lorry they were travelling in crashed. (AFP via Google) Law and crime Egypt appoints new judges for the trial of 43 non-government organisation workers including six Americans who left earlier in the week. (Washington Post) The criminal case associated with the wreck of the Costa Concordia starts in Italy. (New York Times) Politics and elections Residents of Wukan in southern China that staged a revolt against officials hold council elections. (BBC) (China Daily) Early returns in the Iranian legislative election show the conservative opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad doing well. (The Guardian) Authorities in Tajikistan close access to Facebook and sites with material critical of President Emomali Rakhmon. (RIA Novosti) Republican voters in the US state of Washington go to the polls for caucuses, with Mitt Romney winning. (MSNBC) (AP via Houston Chronicle)