World Bulletin / News Desk

-MARCH-

Mar. 1

- A UN report on Syria said air strikes by regime forces and Russia in eastern Aleppo from July-Dec. 2016 had killed hundreds of people and reduced hospitals, schools and markets to rubble.

Mar. 2

- French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's immunity from prosecution is lifted by European lawmakers after the far-right politician tweeted graphic images of Daesh violence.

Mar. 3

- American scientists successfully create functional blood vessels using 3D printing technology.

-Scientists create world’s first artificial embryo, which resembles a mouse, using stem cells.

Mar. 4

- Malaysia declares North Korean ambassador Kang Chol as “persona non grata” and gives him 48 hours to leave the country.

Mar. 6

- North Korea fires multiple unidentified projectiles, according to the U.S military and South Korea.

- U.S. President Donald Trump signs a new executive order to curtail migration from six Muslim-majority countries after a previous effort was derailed by legal defeats.

Mar. 7

- North Korea bans all Malaysians from leaving the country, drawing a tit-for-tat ban from Malaysia.

Mar. 8

- The Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approves a preliminary reading of a controversial bill that would ban the use of loudspeakers for the Muslim call to prayer (adhan).

Mar. 9

- Swiss Senate rules out bill purposing nationwide burqa ban by 26 votes to 9.

- International Court of Justice in the city of Hague rejects Bosnia and Herzegovina's appeal to review a 2007 genocide case that cleared Serbia, on the grounds that the "decision to reopen the case is not a joint decision of the council members”.

Mar. 10

- South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Friday upholds a parliamentary motion to impeach President Park Geun-hye, 92 days after lawmakers voted to oust her on power abuse charges. Park becomes the country’s first democratically elected leader to be expelled from office.

Mar. 11

- The Netherlands cancels Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's flight permit and authorities intercepted a vehicle carrying Family Minister Fatma Betul Kaya.

Mar. 12

- Dutch police detain several security guards of the Turkish family minister, according to Dutch broadcaster NOS TV.

- A landslide at a garbage dump in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa kills at least 46 people.

Mar. 13

- In the latest salvo over the Netherlands blocking Turkish government ministers from attending rallies in the country, Ankara sends diplomatic notes protesting the incidents.

Mar. 14

- The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rules that employers banning employees from wearing headscarf needs not be direct discrimination.

- Bilateral talks between Turkey, Russia, Iran, and UN delegations continue at the third round of peace talks, focusing on Syria, held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. The sides agree on Iran also becoming a guarantor to the ceasefire in addition to Turkey and Russia.

Mar. 15

- Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte's party wins the most seats in a general election.

- United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) adopts a resolution calling for "ensuring full accountability for perpetrators and justice for victims" in an effort to investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture as well as human rights violations committed by Myanmar security forces against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

- United Nations human rights office announce that 4,773 civilians have been killed and 8,272 injured in the two-year civil war in Yemen.

Mar. 16

-Turkey conveys the Dutch government’s mistreatment of Turkish Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya along with the mission officials in a diplomatic note to the United Nations, on the grounds that it constitutes a violation of the Vienna Convention.

- A federal judge of Hawaii immediately suspends U.S. President Trump’s new visa restrictions.

- The U.K. grants, for the first time, a license to a hospital for three-parent in-vitro (IVF) babies.

Mar. 19

- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears on state-run TV, claiming to usher in a new era of rocket technology, sending exactly the opposite message sought by the United States and its regional allies.

Mar. 20

- America's famous businessperson and philanthropist David Rockefeller dies at age 101.

Mar. 21

- The U.S. bans the carrying of electronic devices for flights from eight Muslim countries.

Mar. 22

- Norway accepts the asylum requests of five Turkish military officers suspected of links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

- A single unidentified attacker drives into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing at least three victims and injuring dozens before attacking and fatally injuring a police officer in the Old Palace Yard, the courtyard directly outside the parliament.

Mar. 21

- Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leaves a military hospital in southern Cairo, returning home for the first time since being forced to step down after a 2011 popular uprising.

Mar. 26

- Parliamentary elections are held in Bulgaria. Five political parties pass the four-percent election threshold and enter the parliament.

Mar. 27

- Scientists unveil a critical molecular link that prevents DNA from repairing in the aging cell, thus preventing degradation, which inhibits the cell's renewal and cancer struggle.

Mar. 28

- A visa-free travel deal is put in effect for Georgian citizens entering Europe’s Schengen zone.

- At least 22 million children across four conflict-ridden countries are at risk of death as a result of sickness and famine unless urgent action is taken to address the problem, UNICEF said, urging a 50-percent aid budget boost for those countries.

Mar. 29

- Turkish teacher Saadet Ozkan receives the International Women of Courage Award in Washington over her efforts to uncover a case of sexual abuse of children in Izmir province.

- The UN announces a deal reached between the conflicting sides in Syria’s besieged towns of al-Foua, Kefraya, Zabadani, and Madaya regarding the evacuation of civilians.

Mar. 30

- Scientists in Peru successfully harvest the first produce from a small potato plant grown in a laboratory with planet Mars-like conditions.

- UN says the number of civilians fleeing the Syrian civil war, which marks its sixth year, into neighboring countries has surpassed the five-million mark.

- Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye is arrested over a corruption scandal that ended her political career.

Mar. 31

-Venezuela’s Supreme Court takes over the functions of the opposition-controlled Congress over its defiance of previous court rulings.

-APRIL-

Apr. 1

- Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be “the second name” of the terrorist organization Daesh, is killed in an airstrike.

- At least 286 people lose their lives after three rivers in southern Colombia burst their banks, creating an avalanche of mud and rocks that devastated the city of Mocoa.

Apr. 2

- Parliamentary elections are held in Armenia.

- The ruling Republican Party of Armenia, led by President Serzh Sargsyan, wins the election by securing 49.21 percent of the votes.

- Lenin Moreno, the candidate of the ruling left-wing Alianza PAIS, becomes Ecuador’s new president by receiving 51 percent of the votes.

- Serbia's conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic declares victory in the presidential elections.

Apr. 3

- At least 14 people are killed and 49 others injured in an explosion at a metro station in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

April 4

- The Kirkuk Provincial Council announces that it will hold a referendum for uniting the city with northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, during a session boycotted by the Arab and Turkmen members.

- The world’s largest diamond known as the "Pink Star" sold for $71.2 million at an auction in Hong Kong, becoming the most expensive jewel ever.

- At least 100 people are killed during a chlorine gas attack carried out by Assad regime’s warplanes in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

Apr. 5

- North Korea fires a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.

- Israel’s parliament Knesset approves the second and third readings of a bill that will -- if ratified -- facilitate the demolition of Palestinian homes.

Apr. 6

- People in Gambia cast their votes, after a 22-year break, to elect the members of the parliament. Four of the seven political parties backing Gambia’s new President Adama Barrow win 42 out of the 53 seats in the parliamentary election.

Apr. 7

- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 322 million people in the world live with depression. In Turkey, this figure reaches 3 million.

- The Greek Cypriot parliament overturns a bill on the celebration of the 1950 “Enosis” (Greek for “union”) referendum --seeking unification with Greece -- at public schools. After a two-month break because of a Feb.10 vote by Greek-Cypriot administration lawmakers, negotiations over Cyprus resumed on April 11.

- In Venezuela, opposition leader Henrique Capriles is banned from holding political office for 15 years. The move sparks major protests in the country.

- Four people are killed in Sweden when a truck plows into a large store in the capital Stockholm.

- The U.S. fires as many as 60 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian military air base the U.S. officials believe was used to carry out a deadly chemical attack. The missiles fired from U.S. warships hit the Shayrat Airbase at approximately 8:45 p.m. Eastern Time (1245GMT). Planes, a runway, radars, hardened aircraft shelters, and fuel points were among the targets.

Apr. 9

- At least 43 people are killed and scores injured in two church bombings claimed by the Daesh terrorist group in Egypt as worshippers were celebrating Palm Sunday.

Apr. 11

- Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel peace prize winner, is appointed the youngest ever UN Messenger of Peace on account of her focus on girls' education.

Apr. 12

- Russia shoots down a UN Security Council draft resolution that would have condemned a chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed scores earlier in April.

Apr. 13

- The U.S. military drops the GBU-43, dubbed the “Mother of All Bombs”, the largest non-nuclear bomb in its arsenal, on a complex system of caves used by Daesh in Afghanistan.

April 15

- Emma Morano, officially the world's oldest person, dies at 117 in Italy.

- At least 100 people are killed during a blast in southern Aleppo.

Apr. 16

- Palestine's longest-serving female prisoner Lina al-Jarbouni, detained in 2002, is released from Israeli custody.

Apr. 17

- Long-term Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti launches a mass hunger strike against Israel's detention policies, with more than 1,000 other prisoners joining him.

Apr. 18

- Nearly 300 people are killed during Songkran, a fatally dangerous water festival, held every year to celebrate the advent of the Thai New Year.

- The U.K. will hold a snap general election on June 8, Prime Minister Theresa May announces.

Apr. 19

- A deputy of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and six other senior figures of the terrorist group are killed by airstrikes in the west of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

- French artist Abraham Poincheval succeeds in hatching his first chick after spending three weeks sitting on 10 eggs.

Apr. 20

- Scientists observe a negative mass that accelerates in the opposite direction of the force applied.

Apr. 21

- 140 soldiers are killed and 150 others wounded in a Taliban attack on the Afghan army’s 209-Shaheen Corps in the northern Balkh province.

- The U.S. carries out a land raid in Syria that led to the death of a Daesh operative linked to the deadly New Year's Eve attack on Istanbul's Reina nightclub, the Central Command confirms.

Apr. 23

- Saudi King Salman dismisses cabinet ministers, including the minister of information, as well as the country’s ambassador to Washington and the head of the army.

-The first round of the French presidential elections is held. With no candidate garnering over 50 percent of the votes, Emmanuel Macron, who received 24.01 percent of the votes, and Marine Le Pen with 21.30 percent, qualify for the second round.

Apr. 24

-The 57-year-old American astronaut Peggy Whitson breaks a record for longest time spent in space for any astronaut in the United States.

Apr. 25

- The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) vote to put Turkey under a political monitoring process.

- Israel's Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Housing approve a 10,000-home Jewish settlement plan in Atarot in the north of East Jerusalem.

- The Greek Court of Appeals rules against the extradition of three Turkish ex-soldiers who were involved in the July 2016 defeated coup.

Apr. 26

-The U.S. military starts to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea.

Apr. 27

- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announces that his country will withdraw from the Organization of American States (OAS).

- Syrian refugee and Olympic athlete Yusra Mardini, who swam to Greece for hours in 2015 and took up saving refugees from drowning, is appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador of the UNHCR.

Apr. 28

- Ilır Meta, Albania’s parliament speaker and the chairperson of the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI), is elected as the new Albanian president in the fourth round of the presidential elections.

April 29

- Scientists attach the head of a smaller rat onto a larger one in a successful operation, making it the first ever head transplant on a rat.