Portal Current events 2016 March 29

March 29, 2016 (Tuesday)

Armed attacks and conflicts

2016 Brussels bombings
- Belgium officials lower the official death toll from 35 to 32, with nearly 100 still hospitalized. (UPI)
- Brussels Zaventem International Airport CEO Arnaud Feist says the airport will reopen at less than a quarter capacity Wednesday, as ongoing tests determine which flights can resume. It could take months for the airport to return to full capacity, Feist added. (UPI)

Business and economics

The U.S. Supreme Court's even split among the current eight justices turns down a group of California teachers' challenge to agency fees public-sector unions representing government employees charge employees for collective bargaining costs, whether or not they choose to join the union. Twenty-four other states and the District of Columbia have a similar provision. The ninth circuit federal appellate court ruling in the union's favor stands. Employees challenging the law may bring the appeal again, once the vacancy on the nation's highest court is filled. (Boston Herald)
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board files an official complaint against a California warehouse after finding evidence it violated workers' rights to organize. The allegations of wrongdoing submitted by a worker group against California Cartage Company, LLC, which serves Amazon.com, Inc., Lowe's Companies. Inc., New Balance, and Sears Holdings Corp., will be heard by an NLRB administrative law judge in June 2016. None of the retailers were named in the NLRB complaint. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Alaska Airlines cancels additional flights, due to the ongoing eruption of Mount Pavlof on the Alaska Peninsula. (Alaska Dispatch News)
2016 Aero Teknic MU-2 crash
- Seven people die in a plane crash on the Magdalen Islands in the Canadian province of Quebec. Former minister Jean Lapierre was one of the people on board the plane. (CBC), (CTV News)
A United States Air Force F-16 crashes during takeoff from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The pilot ejected safely and was recovered by coalition forces, according to a U.S. military statement. (Reuters)

Health and medicine

Terminix, in the U.S. District Court in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, admits it "knowingly" applied fumigants including methyl bromide, which the EPA banned for residential use in 1984, at a resort in St. John that seriously sickened a family of four, and agrees to pay $10 million in fines and restitution. (NBC News) (NBC News²)
New research, published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, finds women who have endometriosis, the abnormal growth of uterine tissue outside the uterus, may face a 60 percent higher risk of developing heart disease than women without the disorder. The potential risk was especially high for women 40 or younger. At least 10 percent of women of reproductive age suffer from endometriosis (endo) says Dr. Stacey Missmer of Brigham and Women's Hospital, who co-authored the study. (UPI) (NBC News)

International relations

Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute
- A United Nations commission rules in favour of Argentina to expand its maritime territory in the South Atlantic Ocean by 35% to include the Falkland Islands and beyond despite Argentina and the United Kingdom still having an unresolved dispute over the islands. (The Guardian)
Turkey–United States relations
- The United States State Department and the Pentagon order families of U.S. diplomats and military personnel to leave posts in southern Turkey due to "increased threats from terrorist groups" in the country. This order comes two days before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's arrival in the U.S. for security meetings. (AP via New York Post)
Iran and weapons of mass destruction
- Reuters reports the United States and its European allies have notified the UN that Iran's launching of nuclear-capable missiles violated United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 which endorsed the Iran deal, i.e., the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), last year. (Reuters)

Law and crime

The Indonesian foreign ministry says 10 Indonesian nationals are being held hostage after their tug boat and coal barge was hijacked in Philippine waters. Islamist militant group, Abu Sayyaf is demanding a ransom. (AP)
EgyptAir Flight 181
- A hijacked EgyptAir flight lands in Cyprus. All hostages have been released, and the hijacker has no evident ties to any terrorist organizations. (The Guardian)
Corey Lewandowski, campaign manager for U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, is charged with battery for allegedly grabbing former Breitbart News journalist Michelle Fields on March 8. (New York Times) (The Palm Beach Post)
Transgender rights in the United States
- Dozens of chief executive officers of major U.S. technology, biotech, and financial companies urge North Carolina to repeal a new state law forcing transgender people to use rest-rooms and changing-rooms according to the gender on their birth-certificate. (AP via WBT)
- North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) says he will not defend the new state law in court. This year, Cooper is the state Democratic Party's candidate for governor. Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger says the attorney general should resign if he will not defend the law. (AP)
- The NC Values Coalition, which worked to get Charlotte's nondiscrimination ordinance overturned by the state legislature, says hundreds of North Carolina businesses support the new state law, though fear retaliation if they make that support public. The coalition did list 17 businesses willing to be identified as supporting the new law. (AP)
Obamacare constitutional challenges, Zubik v. Burwell
- In a move designed to head off a 4–4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court directs lawyers for the Obama administration, and for the religious groups who challenge it, to submit written briefs on a possible remedy to the case: whether coverage could be provided through the group's insurance companies without any actual notice to the government. A 4–4 decision would not set a national precedent, and would let stand the preceding decision in each case. In these seven cases, the appeals court in six upheld the government mandate. (NBC News)
Samuel Moreno Rojas, the former mayor of the Colombian capital Bogota, is jailed for 18 years for taking bribes to award ambulance contracts. (AP via Town Hall)
El Salvador declares a state of emergency in seven prisons and transfers 299 prisoners in a crackdown on gang violence. (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

2015–16 protests in Brazil
- A legal request has been filed to impeach Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff for obstructing justice and fiscal accounting tricks, the second impeachment request against her. In response to the request, Minister of Tourism Henrique Eduardo Alves turned in a resignation letter while the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party is expected to hold a party vote on whether or not to leave Rousseff's coalition government. (Al Jazeera)
- The Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, the country's largest party, decides unanimously to leave President Rousseff's governing coalition. While Rousseff will remain in office, it's likely she could be impeached in a matter of months, which would make Vice President Michel Temer president. (Reuters)
- Chief of staff Jaques Wagner says President Rousseff will announce a new governing coalition before the end of the week. The President has an opportunity to form a new coalition for her remaining two years and nine months in office, Wagner added. (Reuters²)
2015 Tanzanian general election
- The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a United States foreign aid agency, pulls $472m of funding for a Tanzanian electricity project after concluding that the election held in Zanzibar "was neither inclusive nor representative". Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, held a rerun of its election that was boycotted by the opposition after it was previously annulled because of supposed fraud. (BBC)
In the United States, the Tennessee state Senate will vote on a bill, which narrowly passed the House last year, to declare the Holy Bible the official book of Tennessee. Governor Bill Haslam (R) was among those who opposed the bill in 2015. (AP) (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
2016 United States presidential election, 2016 Republican Party presidential candidates
- Candidate Donald Trump says he will no longer honor his pledge to support the eventual Republican Party pick for president because, "I have been treated very unfairly." (AP) (Fox News)
- At the CNN Town Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich also back away from earlier pledges to support the eventual Republican nominee. (CNN) (UPI)
2014–16 Venezuelan protests
- Two police officers are killed and four others are wounded in the western Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal after they were run over by a bus driven by young men protesting a hike in public transport fares, according to government officials and Reuters witnesses. (Reuters)

Science and technology

U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly says, during a speech at the American Action Forum, that Netflix's admission last week that it has been intentionally slowing its video streaming transmission on some wireless mobile carriers for five years "deeply disturbing" which might warrant an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and/or Congress. (UPI)