Portal:Current events/2008 March 16
March 16, 2008 (Sunday)
- 2008 unrest in Tibet:
- The Central Tibetan Administration government in exile reports 80 confirmed deaths. (BBC News)
- The Dalai Lama calls for a change in Chinese policies towards Tibet and claims that the death toll could be as high as 100. (BBC News)
- Protests spread to Aba, Sichuan province, where a police station and cars are attacked. Several unconfirmed deaths are reported. (BBC News)
- Subprime mortgage crisis:
- JPMorgan Chase announces plans to buy investment bank Bear Stearns for $2 a share following liquidity problems caused by the crisis. (AP via Charlotte.com)
- The U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes a lender to twenty large investment banks, backs JPMorgan Chase in purchasing failed Bear Stearns, and lowers direct lending rate. (The New York Times)
- The Australian Government announces that the wreck of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran has been found off the coast of Western Australia. The ship sank after a battle in 1941. (Sydney Morning Herald)
- Data from the United Nations Environment Programme shows the 2006 global glacial shrinkage rate is more than double that of 2005. (BBC News)
- The Conservative Alliance wins the Iranian legislative election. (BBC News)
- At least 68 people have been killed this month in clashes between Bundu dia Kongo and police in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (BBC News)
- The United Nations World Food Programme warns that it has become "very difficult" to provide food aid to the Darfur region of Sudan because of repeated truck hijacks. (BBC News)
- Hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese participate in rival political rallies ahead of the 2008 presidential election. (BBC News)
- The United National Liberation Front attacks an Indian Army camp in Minou, in the Chandel district of Manipur, killing at least six soldiers. (BBC News)
- A missile strike on a building near Wana in South Waziristan, Pakistan kills at least 16 people. A local tribesman accuses the United States Army of being behind the attack. (BBC News)
- Scientists from Harvard Medical School announce a breakthrough technique that could stop cancer cells' growth by inhibiting the enzyme pyruvate kinase. (BBC News)
- French voters go to the polls in the second round of the 2008 municipal elections, with President Nicolas Sarkozy's party Union for a Popular Movement likely to lose. (BBC News)
- United States Senator and Republican candidate to the 2008 presidential election John McCain makes a surprise visit to Iraq. (BBC News)
- Italian airline Alitalia is purchased by a consortium of Air France and KLM for €138 million. (BBC News)
- At the 2008 National People's Congress, Wen Jiabao is elected as Premier for another five years term. (Xinhua)