US PresidentBarack Obama warnsRussia, saying that any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be "deeply destabilizing," and that "the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."(CNN)
Proposals to change the automatictrade union affiliation with theUK Labour Party are passed at a special party conference vote by 86% to 14%.(BBC News)
The Lithuanian and Polish presidents call forNATO treaty Article 4 consultations on the basis that Russia is executing military maneuvers in Kaliningrad, close to the borders with Lithuania and Poland.(Lithuania Tribune)
Microsoft founderBill Gates regains the top spot as the world's richest person, according toForbes magazine's annual ranking of global billionaires.(BBC News)
Russia's UN ambassador says to the UN Security Council that Ukraine's fugitive former PresidentViktor Yanukovych requested Russian soldiers in the strategic Crimea region "to establish legitimacy, peace, law and order," contradicting the president's own comments last week.(Times of India)
Vladimir Putin orders troops near the Ukraine border to return to their bases with Kremlin spokesmanDmitry Peskov calling the military exercises a "success".(Telegraph)
ANew Yorkgold and goldfutures trader files a lawsuit against the international banks involved in the twice-daily teleconferences that set the price of that metal.(Reuters)
Italy releases 2meuros to save the ancient city ofPompeii after flooding causes walls to collapse.(BBC News)
Law and crime
ANew Jersey judge has ruled that the parents of their 18-year-old daughter do not have to pay for her college education after the teen filed a lawsuit against them seeking support and alleging abuse.(CBS)
UN EnvoyRobert Serry is ordered to leave Crimea at gunpoint after being threatened by 10–15 armed men.(AP)
Saying she cannot be part of a network that "whitewashes the actions of Russian PresidentVladimir Putin", Washington-based anchor Liz Wahl resigns on-air from the Russian government-backed news channelRT.(The Guardian)(CNN)
An 1,800-year-old Egyptian papyrus discovered a century ago, whose inscription is nearly illegible to the naked eye, has been made more readable usinginfrared sensors, revealing the message to be a soldier's letter to his family.(Live Science)
The U.S.Supreme Court interprets thewhistle-blower provisions ofSarbanes-Oxley to protect the employees of privately owned companies that contract with public companies, in a case involving a group of mutual fund entities.(SCOTUSBlog)
Two members of the protest bandPussy Riot are left with chemical burns and head injuries after being attacked by a group of people in aMcDonald's.(AFP via Google News)
PresidentBarack Obama signs an executive order placing sanctions and visa bans on people that contributed to the current crisis inCrimea.(CNN)
Aspecial referendum date is moved again. Now it becomes March 16, 2014 instead of the previously announced March 30. Voters will be asked whether they wish to stay part of Ukraine or join theRussian Federation.(Fox News)
A statue ofIset, daughter of KingAmenhotep III who was the grandfather ofTutankhamun and ruler ofAncient Egypt around 3,350 years ago, has been unearthed by a team of Egyptian and European archaeologists. The statue, which depicts Iset alone without her father, is the first of its kind ever discovered.(GMA News)
Business and economy
Staples Inc. plans to close 225 store locations and cut $500 million from its budget, citing low sales and internet competition.(Boston Globe)
The Ministry of Transport ofVietnam orders local airports and airlines to tighten their security, after the Malaysian plane vanished, on the first level of a three-level security alert system.(Thanh Nien News)
Irish fruit firmFyffes and U.S. rivalChiquita agree to combine, creating the world's largestbanana company in an all-stock deal valued at about $1.07 billion.(BBC News)
A new electoral law that raises thethreshold of votes political parties need in elections to gain representation in theKnesset from 2 to 3.25% is passed unanimously as the entire opposition boycotts the vote.(Al Jazeera)
A crowdsourcing search effort after the vanished airliner finds a silhouette in the water of similar size and shape to the lost plane. Also, a Chinese satellite sights sizable pieces of debris.(CNN)(news.com.au)
Fiji's Health Department confirms that eleven people have died and over 10,000 people have been infected in an outbreak of the type three strain ofdengue fever.(ABC Online)
An executive board member of theEuropean Central Bank,Benoît Cœuré, says that the ECB is determined to secure the continued decline in real interest rates in the months ahead.(Reuters)
Rescue crew continue to search for victims in theexplosion in theNew York City neighborhood ofEast Harlem, which killed 8 and injured more than 70.(NBC)
Voters go to the polls inSlovakia with partial results showing thatPrime MinisterRobert Fico and businessman-turned philanthropistAndrej Kiska are likely to be the two contenders in the second round.(AP)
TheIsraeli Air Force launches several air strikes on Syrian military sites, killing one Syrian soldier and wounding seven others, in retaliation for a bombing that wounded four of its troops in theGolan Heights.(BBC News)
Toyota is ordered to pay $1.2 billion to settle charges that it lied toUnited States safety investigators and the public about deadly accelerator defects.(AFP via Google News)
Gunmen attack a police headquarters north ofBaghdad and suicide bombers strike across Iraq killing 25 people and injuring dozens.(AP viaWashington Post)
Clashes erupt inTripoli, Lebanon, between Syrian regime supporters and detractors, leaving three dead.(Time)
Eighteen people are still missing after a landslide Saturday inOso, Snohomish County, in America'sWashington state that has claimed at least three lives.(Yahoo! News)
A court inMinya, Egypt, sentences 528 supporters of formerPresidentMohammed Morsi to death for a range of offenses including murdering a policeman and attacks on people and property. It is the largest mass death sentence handed down in recent history anywhere in the world.(BBC)(The Independent)
The U.S. District Court inManhattan finds that the trustee ofMF Global may proceed with a lawsuit against former executives thereof, including former CEOJon Corzine.(Reuters)
As Callinan goes, details emerge that the national police have been involved in phone tapping since the 1980s: theIrish Government establishes an inquiry into the matter.(BBC)
A former Garda is found to have perverted the course of justice on two occasions and admits having cocaine for sale or supply.(RTÉ News)
A letter titled "Recordings of Telephone Conversations made and retained in Garda Stations" is leaked revealing that Callinan mentioned the telephone tapping to the Department of Justice more than two weeks ago and that theAttorney General knew on 11 November 2013.(The Journal)
The Guardian deputy editor Paul Johnson confirms that British law enforcement agencies have threatened to close the newspaper over its role in publishingglobal surveillance information obtained from U.S. whistleblowerEdward Snowden.(The Irish Times)
Alan Shatter fights for his political survival in front of the Republic's parliament when he faces questions about yesterday's revelations of decades-long nationwide bugging.(The Guardian)
Justice minister Alan Shatter corrects the parliamentary record, admitting he was wrong to insult whistleblowers.(The Journal)
The trial of two men suspected of IRA membership collapses, the first court case to be averted by this week's events in the Republic.(Irish Independent)
Transport ministerLeo Varadkar, whose remarks against his colleague Shatter directly preceded this week's events, speaks out, confirming he has "difficulty getting [his] head around it at the moment".(The Journal)
ATurkish court lifts the ban onTwitter imposed by the government after a user spread allegations of corruption.(BBC News)
As the scandal rages on, it emergesMartin Callinan, who resigned as Garda Commissioner this week, wished to withdraw his use of the word "disgusting" to describe the behaviour ofwhistleblowers but was prevented from doing so by officials in the Department of Justice.(RTÉ News)
It is announced publicly that, three months ago, doctors at theUniversity Medical Center Utrecht, inUtrecht, Netherlands, successfully implanted a 3-D printed skull (most of it), from Australian companyAnatomics, in a medical first, into an unnamed female patient.(NBC)
The journalScience publishes that an international team of scientists have for the first time successfully replaced one of the sixteenchromosomes of thegenome of ayeast cell with asynthetic DNA chromosome.(BBC News)
A study finds thatCuvier's beaked whale is capable of diving to a depth of 3.2km and staying under water for 137 minutes, both records for a mammal.(News.com.au)
South Korea sends the remains of 437Chinese soldiers that fought during theKorean War back to be buried in China as a gesture of friendship and healing between the two countries.(Yonhap News Agency)
Buddhist mobs in westernMyanmar reportedly target foreign aid groups and workers in reaction to supposedly disrespectful treatment of a Buddhist flag.(CNN)
The firstsame-sex marriages take place in the United Kingdom after they were given the legal authority to proceed in England and Wales from midnightUTC.(BBC News)
