Portal:Current events/2015 February 24

February 24, 2015 (Tuesday)

Armed conflict and attacks

Military intervention against ISIL
- John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, announces plans to deploy up to 143 New Zealand Defence Force personnel to Iraq on a training mission to last no more than two years. (New Zealand Herald)
- A wave of bombings in Baghdad kills at least 37 people. (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that ISIL kidnapped at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in Syria in a series of February 23 raids. (Reuters)
The Congolese Army launches an offensive against FDLR rebels in South Kivu. (AP via ABC News)
War in Donbass
- Up to 75 British Armed Forces personnel will be sent as military advisors to the Ukrainian Army. (PA via Wandwsorth Guardian)
Boko Haram
- Chadian soldiers kill over 200 Boko Haram fighters in a clash near the town of Garambu, close to Nigeria's border with Cameroon. One Chad Army soldier is killed and nine wounded. (Reuters)
- Suicide bombers target two crowded bus stations in Potiskum and Kano in northern Nigeria, killing at least 27 people in nearly daily violence in the embattled region. There is no claim of responsibility for either blast, but both bore the hallmarks of militant group Boko Haram. (Voice of America)

Business and economy

Greece submits a list of eleven reforms it will proceed with to secure a loan extension. (BBC)
Barack Obama, the President of the United States, vetoes a bill approving the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline between Canadian oil sands and refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. (Los Angeles Times)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Oxnard train derailment
- A Metrolink train derails in Oxnard, California, following a collision with a truck, leaves more than 30 injured with four in critical condition. (Los Angeles Times) (MSN)

International relations

Law and crime

The President of Indonesia Joko Widodo says the execution of 11 convicts from overseas, most on drug charges, will not be delayed. A court has rejected the appeals of Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, two Australians on death row. (Reuters), (Voice of America)
Former Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Nazif and former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly are cleared of graft charges in a retrial. (Al Jazeera)
A Czech gunman opens fire at a restaurant in Uherský Brod, killing at least eight people. (AP)
The British Parliament's House of Lords gives final approval to a bill that earlier in February had been approved in the House of Commons, refusing to block the plan by a majority of 232, that would allow, through a modified form of in vitro fertilization (IVF), the creation of three-person babies, to treat certain mitochondrial disorders (mitochondria are parts of cells that convert nutrients into useful cellular energy to fuel vital processes), by using a very small segment of mitochondrial DNA from another woman to replace the mother's defective DNA; the U.K. is the first to authorize the still ethically controversial procedure. (MSN)
Eddie Ray Routh is found guilty of the 2013 murder of United States Navy SEALs' sniper Chris Kyle and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield in Texas. Routh is automatically sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. (BBC) (AP)

Politics and elections

Chicago aldermanic elections, 2015
- Voters in the American city of Chicago, Illinois, go to the polls to elect a Mayor and 50 aldermen. In the mayoral election, there will be a runoff between incumbent Rahm Emanuel and Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia. (Chicago Tribune), (AP)
Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi withdraws his resignation as President of Yemen after escaping from the custody of the Houthis. (Al Arabiyah)
Former U.K. Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind steps down as chair of a parliamentary intelligence committee and said he won’t run for re-election as a Conservative member of parliament after becoming embroiled in an embarrassing cash-for-access sting. (Guardian)
U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald admits that he lied when he claimed that he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces. (AP)

Sports

In rugby league, the Australian-based National Rugby League takes over control of the Gold Coast Titans following five current players being charged with supplying cocaine. (ABC News Australia)

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