March 15, 2011 (Tuesday)
Armed conflicts and attacks
- Arab Spring:
- The King of Bahrain Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa declares a three month state of emergency following the 2011 Bahraini protests. (Al Jazeera)
- G8 leaders fail to agree on military intervention in Libya following the 2011 Libyan civil war, and pass the issue onto the United Nations Security Council. (Al Arabiya)
- The Libyan opposition arrests four men as suspects in the murder of an Al Jazeera journalist and claim that Muammar Gaddafi's regime is sending undercover squads to assassinate people. (The Independent)
- Hundreds of people stage a rare protest in the Syrian capital Damascus calling for greater freedoms and the release of political prisoners. (BBC) (AFP via Google News)
- Yemeni tribesmen hold an anti-government protest after an attack on an oil pipeline in the east of the country. (Sify India)
- Jobless protestors riot in the headquarters of Morocco's Office Chérifien des Phosphates in the city of Khouribga. (Reuters via Alertnet)[permanent dead link]
- 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis: Gunmen shoot four people dead at a roadblock run by supporters of disputed Côte d'Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo. (Reuters)
- A small bomb explodes in the offices of a moderate Islamic group in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, injuring four people. (Straits Times) (Jakarta Globe)
- The Israeli Navy intercepts the cargo ship Victoria which was carrying a long list of advanced weapons that were smuggled from Iran and were allegedly bound for the militant organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. (Ynetnews)
Business and economy
- Nasdaq OMX Group is preparing a bid for NYSE Euronext. Such a bid would, at the least, complicate the planned merger between NYSE and Deutsche Boerse. Reuters reported the planned counter-bid citing "a source familiar with the situation." (Reuters)
Disasters
- 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami:
- Dozens of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex (also called Fukushima I) have stayed behind to end the radiation leaks, known as the Fukushima 50, risking fatal radiation exposure. (Guardian)
- There is a third explosion in four days at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami causing damage to its steel containment structure, the withdrawal of emergency workers and expected increases in radiation. (AP) (New York Times) (New York Times) (Daily Telegraph)
- Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano reports that as of 10.22 a.m. local time, radiation levels of 30 millisieverts per hour were measured between the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors, while at the No. 3 reactor 400 millisieverts per hour were detected, a harmful level to humans. (Bloomberg)
- A senior adviser to the Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan says that a fire has broken out in a fourth reactor at the Fukushima I power plant but it is later extinguished, with the radiation reading at 0831 local time (2331 GMT) climbing to 8,217 microsieverts an hour. (CNN) (AP)(news.com.au)(BBC)
- Prime Minister Kan warns people living within a 30 kilometre radius of the plant to stay indoors and a 30-km no-fly zone is established around the plant. (AP via The Guardian) (IAEA)
- A rise in radiation levels in Tokyo leads to panic buying and some residents leaving the capital. (Reuters)
- The United States Geological Survey revises the strength of the earthquake to 9.0. (USGS)
- The National Police Agency advises that the official death toll from the quake is 2,414 dead with 3,118 injured. (AFP via News Limited)
- Share prices on the Tokyo Stock Exchange decline by 12 per cent with the TOPIX index recording its largest fall since 1987. (Market Watch) (Reuters)
- A magnitude 6.2 aftershock hits Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture southwest of Tokyo. (USGS) (Kyodo) (Sky News Australia) (Adelaide Now)
History
- The passing of the United States generation that fought in World War I is marked by the funeral of Frank Buckles, who died on 27 February 2011, aged 110, and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. (The Sydney Morning Herald), (The Los Angeles Times), (The Washington Post}, (The Daily Mail)
International relations
- The European Union holds talks with Aung San Suu Kyi and other Burmese opposition figures over the lifting of international sanctions. (Bangkok Post)[permanent dead link]
Law and crime
- Egypt dissolves State Security Investigations Service, its former internal security and spying agency. (Reuters)
- The Metropolitan Police in London, England launch an investigation into the death of reggae musician Smiley Culture in a police raid in Surrey. (The Guardian)
- Former US mafia leader Joey Merlino of the Scarfo crime family is released from prison in Indiana and is sent to a halfway house in Florida. (NBC Philaedelphia)
- German national Christian Gerhartsreiter is charged with the murder of a San Marino, California man in the 1980s. (Los Angeles Times)
- The United States Drug Enforcement Administration seizes the state of Georgia's supply of a lethal injection drug due to questions over how it was imported to the US. (Associated Press)
- United States nurse William Francis Melchert-Dinkel is convicted of aiding the suicides of an English man and Canadian woman. (BBC)
Politics
- At a British Medical Association conference, delegates call for the coalition government to halt its plans to overhaul the National Health Service in England. However, they stop short of complete opposition to the proposals. (BBC)
- Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, announces that Germany will shut down all of its pre-1980 nuclear reactors following the problems in Japan. (Reuters via Yahoo)
- The Mayor of Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida, Carlos Alvarez, and County commissioner Natacha Seijas are defeated in recall elections. (Miami Herald)[permanent dead link]
Sport
- Tickets go on sale for the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London. (BBC News)