Portal:Current events/February 2015

• The United Steelworkers union strikes against Royal Dutch Shell Plc at nine U.S. oil and chemical plants. Up until recently oil prices had undergone steep drops since June, but the union's action as part of the supply chain caused the market price to soar more than eight percent. (Reuters)
• Quintana Roo switches to the Southeastern Time Zone, which has the same effect as observing Eastern Standard Time year-round, to boost tourism. (UPI)

• Egypt deports Australian journalist Peter Greste after being jailed with two al-Jazeera colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed 400 days before. (BBC)
• Four-hundred African migrants charge past Moroccan border forces by throwing rocks, trying to storm border fences separating Spain's North African enclave Melilla, but Spanish guards repel them. (AP via Fox News)

• Pro-democracy protesters peacefully return to the streets of Hong Kong for the first time since the end of Occupy Central protests in December. (AFP France 24) (Reuters)

• 2015 Australian Open
  • In tennis, Novak Djokovic of Serbia beats Andy Murray of the United Kingdom in the Australian Open Men's Singles Final. Djokovic is the first man to win five Australian Open championships in the open era. (ABC News) (The Guardian)
• Super Bowl XLIX
  • In American football, the New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks 28–24 in the Super Bowl at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. (BBC) (NFL)
  • Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wins his third MVP award at a Super Bowl and becomes the third quarterback to win four Super Bowls after Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw. (Sports International)
• 2015 World Men's Handball Championship
  • In handball, France beats Qatar in the final to win a record fifth world championship. (Gulf Times)
  • Poland wins the bronze medal having beaten Spain by 29–28. (marca.com)

• Moro insurgency in the Philippines
  • Foreign investors withdraw "billions of pesos" from the Philippines after a deadly battle threatened to derail the March 2014 peace deal. (The Straits Times) (Agence France Presse via Yahoo! News)
• War in Donbass
  • Artillery shelling of Donetsk leaves at least one civilian dead while five Ukrainian Army soldiers are killed in heavy fighting. (Reuters via LBC)
• A shootout between Lesotho Defence Force soldiers and two former bodyguards of Prime Minister Tom Thabane leaves at least one bystander killed and three others wounded. (Reuters)
• Islamist insurgency in Nigeria
  • A female suicide bomber attacks minutes after the President of Nigeria leaves an election rally in the city of Gombe resulting in at least one death and eighteen people injured. (BBC)

• The four remaining original copies of the Magna Carta go on public display at the British Library in London to commemorate the 800th anniversary signing of the document in June 1215. (AFP via AsiaOne)^{[permanent dead link]}

• File sharing site Pirate Bay returns online after having been shut down by Swedish authorities in December 2014. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• 2014–15 North American winter
  • A winter storm causes the cancellation of school in the midwestern United States and the cancellation of 1,000 flights. (Daily Mail)

• Gaza–Israel conflict
  • Canadian academic William Schabas resigns as the head of a United Nations committee investigating alleged Israeli war crimes in an offensive in the Gaza Strip during 2014 due to Israel alleging bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organisation. (Reuters)

• Former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn goes on trial in France on pimping charges. (BBC)
• Police in Tupelo, Mississippi, US arrest Thomas Jesse Lee for killing his wife and four other members of his family in LaGrange, Georgia. (Fox News)

• Iran successfully puts the Fajr satellite in orbit using a Safir-B1 rocket. (Spaceflight Now)

• In the town of Chuddogram in eastern Bangladesh, anti-government protesters firebomb a bus full of sleeping passengers, leaving seven people dead. (AFP via ABC News)
• Egyptian Army soldiers fire warning shots at the Gaza Strip after an explosion occurs on the Gaza side of the border near a convoy. (Reuters)
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant posts pictures of Jordanian Air Force pilot Muath Al-Kasasbeh being burnt alive which Jordan believes are a month old. (BBC)

• American author Harper Lee announced plans to publish her second book, a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, that was completed in the 1950s but misplaced. July 14, 2015 will be the release date for Go Set a Watchman. (The Telegraph) (ABC News)

• 2014–15 Australian bushfire season
  • The Department of Fire and Emergency Services orders the evacuation of residents of the Western Australia town of Northcliffe as a bushfire approaches. (Perth Now)^{[permanent dead link]}
• An explosion at the Galleria 220 shopping center in the Perth suburb of Morley kills at least one person and injures nine others. (News Limited)
• 2014–15 North American winter
  • Ten people die in Cook County, Illinois while shoveling snow. (Chicago Tribune)
• A collision between a commuter train and a passenger vehicle kills six in Valhalla, New York. (AP via MSN) (CBS Local)

• The Iranian parliament passes a new bill that requires the Rouhani administration to cancel the Geneva interim agreement on the Iranian nuclear program in case of new US sanctions, as a response to a similar action by the Congress. (Icana)

• Standard & Poor's reaches settlements totaling $1.5 billion with the U.S. Justice Department and several U.S. states for inflating ratings on subprime mortgage bonds in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis. (Bloomberg)
• The investigator into the death of Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman states that Nisman had drafted a request that President Cristina Fernandez be arrested for allegedly attempting to derail his investigation of the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people. (Reuters)

• John Baird resigns as the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs. (Daily Mail)

• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • Jordan executes convicted Iraqi terrorists Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli in response to the execution by ISIL of Jordanian Air Force lieutenant Muath Al-Kasasbeh. (USA Today)
• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • Gunmen storm Libya's al-Mabrook oil field. (Reuters)
• War in Donbass
  • A shell hits a hospital in the rebel-held city of Donetsk killing at least three people with many injured. (BBC)
• Boko Haram
  • Boko Haram militants reportedly raid the Cameroonian town of Fotokol in Cameroon's Far North Region with scores of people killed. (Voice of America) (CNN)
  • The Chad Army claims to have killed 200 militants and lost nine soldiers in fighting in northern Nigeria. (BBC)
• Anthem discloses that criminal hackers have broken into its servers and potentially stolen over 80 million records that contain personally identifiable information from its servers. According to Anthem, the data breach extends into multiple brands Anthem uses to market its healthcare plans, including, Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Amerigroup, Caremore, Unicare, Healthlink, and DeCare. Anthem says the medical information and financial data was not compromised. (NBC News) (AP)

• Under investigation for corruption, Mao Xiaofeng resigns as the President of Minsheng Banking Corporation. China's Communist Party anti-graft agency links him and disgraced Chinese official Ling Jihua. (SCMP)

• TransAsia Airways Flight 235
  • A TransAsia Airways ATR 72 turboprop aircraft with 58 people on board en route from the Taiwanese capital Taipei to Kinmen, Taiwan crashes into the Keelung River near Taipei just after liftoff killing at least 31 people with several injures and missing. (Bloomberg) (Fox News) (BBC)
• 100 km/h winds spark a scrub fire near the Christchurch suburb of Hornby in New Zealand destroying two homes with several others damaged. (Stuff)

• A Manhattan federal court convicts Ross Ulbricht, aka "Dread Pirate Roberts", the owner of the Silk Road Deep Web illicit products website, on seven charges including trafficking and money laundering in the United States. (AP)

• 2015 Mamasapano clash
  • The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines says that it will not join growing calls for the impeachment and resignation of Philippines President Benigno Aquino III following the January 25 botched police operation. (UCA News)
• Fiji will adopt a replacement for its flag which it says is a symbol of colonialism. (BBC)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The United Arab Emirates suspends air strikes against the Islamic State after a video of a Jordanian air force pilot being burned alive is published online. The suspension involves concerns over a lack of coalition search and rescue capabilities in Syria to recover downed pilots. (NBC News)
  • State news agency SANA claims that insurgent group Jaysh al-Islam has conducted a rocket attack on Damascus with at least eight people injured. (Reuters Trust)

• A Paul Gauguin painting, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?), sells to a Qatari buyer for close to $300 million. (The New York Times)

• American pharmaceutical company Pfizer announces plans to acquire Hospira at a cost of $17 billion. (Street Insider)
• American electronics retailer RadioShack files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (Reuters via CNBC)

• A China shopping mall fire started by a nine-year-old boy at the city of Huizhou in Guangdong province kills at least 17 people. (BBC)

• Eddie Ray Routh goes on trial for the alleged murder of American Sniper Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield in the Texas town of Stephenville. (CBC)
• The jury at Southwark Crown Court convicts British 70s glam rock star Gary Glitter on child sexual abuse charges with the prospect of life imprisonment. (The Telegraph)

• Tunisia gets a unity government led by Habib Essid and consisting of ministers from the big-tent secular party Nidaa Tounes, the two liberal parties UPL and Afek Tounes, and the moderate Islamist Ennahda as well as independents; 166 of the 217 legislators in the Assembly of the Representatives of the People approves of it. (Deutsche Welle) (Al Jazeera)

• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • ISIL claims that the American female hostage Kayla Jean Mueller has been killed by Jordanian airstrikes at the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria. The White House says that they have no proof of her death. (AP) (AP via Twitter) (CNN) (BBC)
• Boko Haram
  • Boko Haram attacks two towns in Niger but is repulsed by the Niger Army with assistance from the Chad Air Force. (AP via St Louis Post Dispatch) (Nigerian Guardian)^{[permanent dead link]}

• German engineering firm Siemens announces plans to axe 7,800 jobs, 3000 of which are in Germany. (AFP via France 24)^{[permanent dead link]}

• Ecuador declares a state of emergency in the Galápagos Islands after a ship, The Floreana, carrying hazardous materials ran aground January 28. (Daily Mail)

• Mexican police find at least 61 bodies in an abandoned crematorium in Acapulco. (BBC)
• The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down a ban on assisted suicide meaning doctors can now assist mentally competent patients with severe and incurable conditions to die. (The Independent)

• The Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott faces a possible leadership vote when the Parliament of Australia resumes sitting after backbencher Luke Simpkins announces that he will move a motion calling for a leadership spill. (Reuters)
• Xanana Gusmão resigns as the Prime Minister of East Timor ahead of an expected government restructure next week. (AP)
• Houthi insurgency in Yemen
  • Houthi rebels take control in Yemen and dissolve the parliament. (Al Arabiyah)

• North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
  • North Korea test fires a new "ultra-precision" intelligent anti-ship missile which is to be deployed across its navy. (AFP via France 24)
• War in Donbass
  • The leaders of France, Germany and Russia agree to work on a peace plan to be put to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on Sunday. (BBC)
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • Bombings in Baghdad kill at least 37 people hours before the city's curfew was due to end. ISIL claims responsibility. (AP via Los Angeles Times) (AP via KSL)
• Islamist insurgency in Nigeria
  • Nigeria postpones its general election for six weeks to allow its armed forces to take control of the Boko Haram-controlled parts of the country. (Irish Times)

• NBC Nightly News anchorman Brian Williams begins a temporary hiatus from broadcasting after he was caught lying about having been on board an underfire helicopter which crashed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (AP)

• The management of Twentieth Century Fox considers granting permission to a group of investors, including some hedge funds, seeking to amend the company's charter and turn their type of voting shares of stock into non-voting shares, a conversion that might raise that type of shares' market price and that also would further concentrate control in the hands of Rupert Murdoch and his family. (Reuters)

• TransAsia cancels dozens of flights to retrain its pilots following the February 4 crash of TransAsia Airways Flight 235 which killed at least 43 people. (AFP via Daily Mail)

• A gunman shoots six people, killing four, including several children, in Douglasville, Georgia, ending with the gunman committing suicide. (AP via FOX News)
• A 17-year-old male opens fire on a man at the Monroeville Mall in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, striking his intended target as well as two bystanders hospitalizing three people. (AP via News24) (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

• Queensland Liberal National Party voters elect Lawrence Springborg as their leader with John-Paul Langbroek as deputy leader. (ABC News Australia)
• Slovak same-sex marriage referendum
  • Although greater than 90% vote in favor of the referendum, Slovak election officials deem the result invalid due to a low 21% voter turnout, far short of the 50% or greater turnout required for the results to be legally binding. (The Slovak Spectator)

• In Cairo, Egypt, clashes between police and fans of Zamalek SC kill 22 people. Egyptian authorities indefinitely suspend football league matches. (BBC) (AP)

• 57th Annual Grammy Awards
  • The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences members present the Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. (News Limited)
    • "Stay with Me (Darkchild Version)" wins Song of the Year and Record of the Year. (AP) (AP)
    • Morning Phase performed by Beck wins Album of the Year. (Reuters via Yahoo!)
• 68th British Academy Film Awards
  • The British Academy of Film and Television Arts members present the British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House in London. (BBC)
  • Boyhood wins Best Film with Richard Linklater winning the Best Director award. (The Guardian)

• The Ivory Coast wins the Africa Cup of Nations, beating Ghana 9–8 on penalties after a 0–0 draw. (CAF)

• War in Donbass
  • Fighting in the past 24 hours kills at least nine Ukrainian soldiers. (Reuters)
  • An artillery shell causes a massive explosion at a chemical plant in Donetsk. (ABC News)
• Boko Haram
  • Boko Haram launch a raid on a prison in the town of Diffa in Niger. Authorities repel the attack. (AP)
• Hooded gunmen attack French police in the city of Marseille, which Prime Minister Manuel Valls is due to visit. (The Telegraph)
• Several attacks, including a suicide bombing, kill at least 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, in a predominantly Shiite part of the capital. (AP)
• Members of Ireland's police force Garda Síochána raid the Dublin home of former MEP Paul Murphy TD, taking Murphy into custody along with three other activists and politicians opposing the water-tax-rate change, stirring nationwide speculation of "political policing." The police later release all four without charges. (Independent.IE) (The Irish Times) (The Irish Times²)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • Islamists from al-Shabab kill a member of the parliament Abdullahi Qayad Barre in the capital city of Mogadishu, Somalia. (BBC)

• A Canadian gold mining company, Tahoe Resources, agrees to buy Rio Alto Mining for more than CAN$1 billion, part of an ongoing consolidation in the precious metals mining industry. (Reuters)

• Mountaineers claim to have found in the Andes the wreckage of LAN Chile Flight 210 that disappeared in August 1961 killing 24 people on board including eight members and two coaches of the Club de Deportes Green Cross football team. (The Independent)
• The U.S. city of Boston, Massachusetts, sets all-time records for amount of snow on the ground and amount of snow over 30-day and 40-day periods in 17 days. (WCVB) (NBC News)
• Two buses crash head-on in Bình Thuận’s Hàm Thuận Nam District, Viet Nam, killing 10 people and injuring 9 others. (Thanh Nien News)

• Samsung reveals potential for next generation smart TVs to eavesdrop. (AP)

• Bahrain suspends the newly launched Alarab News Channel. On February 1, 2015, Alarab's first day of operations, Bahrain's Information Affairs Authority had ordered the channel to cease broadcasting since it had not done enough to combat “extremism and terrorism.” Alarab had debuted with a Shia opposition politician interview. (Al Jazeera) (The Nation)

• War in Donbass
  • Fighting kills fifteen people and leaves 60 injured as missiles hit Ukraine's military headquarters in the city of Kramatorsk. (Radio Free Europe)
• The Obama Administration announces the creation of the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, a new United States federal government agency that will be a fusion center between existing agencies and the private sector for real-time use against cyber attacks. (Reuters)
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • The United States confirms the death of ISIL hostage Kayla Mueller. (Fox News)

• NBC Nightly News suspends American newsreader Brian Williams from broadcasting for six months for exaggerating a story about his personal experiences on a helicopter during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. (AP)
• American comedian and satirist Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, announces his departure from the show, which is due to take place at the end of the year. (Reuters)
• The European Broadcasting Union announces that Australia will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in Vienna 2015; it will be the first country ever outside of the European Broadcasting Area, as well as the first associated member of the EBU, to participate. (Eurovision.tv) (ESC Today)

• Apple, Inc. becomes the first company in the world to close with a market capitalization over $700 billion. (AP)

• Wang Yu-chi resigns as Taiwan's Minister of the Mainland Affairs Council responsible for maintaining relations with the People's Republic of China. (Reuters)

• The Federal Court of Malaysia rejects opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against sodomy charges meaning he will start serving a five-year sentence. (Reuters)
• Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. states that a 50-person bribery case involves New York City inspectors, landlords, and contractors with payoffs to get safety violations dismissed and procure phony eviction orders. (AP)

• The February 7 Delhi Legislative Assembly election results in the Aam Aadmi Party leading in 63 out of 70 seats. (BBC)

• Iraqi clashes and attacks kill at least 31 people. (AP)

• Rite Aid, one of the largest chains of pharmacies in the United States, announces that it is purchasing EnvisionRx, a pharmacy benefits manager, from TPG Capital, for $2 billion. (Reuters)

• The Greek Coast Guard rescues all 22 crewmen from a Cyprus-flagged vessel Good Faith that ran aground on the Greek island of Andros during a storm in the Aegean Sea. (AP)
• A 106-car pileup occurs on Yeongjong Bridge in Incheon, South Korea, leaving two men dead and more than 65 people injured. (BBC)
• Costa Concordia disaster
  • A court in the city of Grosseto convicts the former captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, of manslaughter for his part in the ship's January 2012 sinking, and sentences him to 16 years in jail. (BBC)

• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • The United States, United Kingdom, and France close their Yemeni embassies and evacuate their staff due to terrorist activities and continued unrest. (USA Today)
• General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping will make his first state visit to the United States next September. (AP)
• War in Donbass
  • Leaders from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine meet in the Belarusian capital Minsk for peace talks. (CNN)

• Police arrest a suspected shooter Craig Stephen Hicks for killing a Muslim family of three in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Police state that the shooting was motivated by a long-standing neighbor dispute over parking. (The Independent) (AP)
• A shooting at a wedding in Newtownbutler, Northern Ireland kills one and injuries one while another victim was injured by a knife. (BBC)

• SpaceX launches a weather observation satellite, Deep Space Climate Observatory, at 6:03 p.m. EST from Cape Canaveral, Florida (for the US Air Force/NASA/NOAA), but postpones making of a second attempt to land a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket on a floating platform called the autonomous spaceport drone ship, following the January 10 failure during the SpaceX CRS-5 mission. SpaceX instead, attempts a "mock" soft-landing into the Atlantic ocean (AP) (AP²)

• Little League Baseball strips Chicago's Little League championship team Jackie Robinson West of their 2014 Little League World Series US title after an investigation revealed the team had falsified boundaries to field ineligible players. The league names Mountain Ridge Little League of Las Vegas, Nevada, the US champion due to the vacating of Jackie Robinson West's wins. (AP) (Little League.org)

• War in Donbass
  • The President of Russia Vladimir Putin announces the third peace agreement. (AP) (Euronews)
• Yemeni Civil War
  • Fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansar al-Sharia take control of an army base in southern Yemen. (Reuters via Daily Times)

• Reporters without Borders's annual review finds "(t)here was a drastic decline in freedom of information in 2014" because of information wars and action by non-state groups. (Reporters without Borders) (The Daily Star (Lebanon))

• The National Retail Federation worries as products languish on ships and docks at western U.S. ports as negotiations continue between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. (AP)
• Online travel and leisure booking website Expedia announces plans to buy rival Orbitz for $1.3 billion. (Christian Science Monitor)

• Six Taiwanese prisoners commit suicide after releasing hostages captured yesterday in Kaohsiung. The prisoners were protesting their sentences and alleged poor conditions of the Taiwanese prison system. (BBC)
• The FBI launches a hate crime investigation into the February 11 killing of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (News Observer)

• The US Senate confirms Ashton Carter as the 25th Secretary of Defense. (USA Today)
• Julius Malema and members of the Economic Freedom Fighters are forcibly removed from the National Assembly of South Africa during President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address. (Times Live) (SABC)

• A large meteorite falls in northern New Zealand. (kelownanow) (stuff)

• Internal conflict in Burma
  • Several days of clashes with Kokang rebels in the north of the country kills forty-seven Myanmar Army soldiers with dozens wounded. (CNN)
• Assam conflict
  • A grenade attack by the United Liberation Front of Assam on a family in the town of Sepon in India's Assam state kills two people. (NDTV)
• War in Donbass
  • Ahead of the upcoming February 15 start of the agreed ceasefire, fighting in the past 24 hours kills eight Armed Forces of Ukraine service personnel. (Reuters)
• War in North-West Pakistan
  • Pakistan announces the arrest of twelve Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan in relation to their alleged involvement in last year's school massacre. (Al Jazeera)
  • Police and gunmen exchange gunfire in Peshawar after an explosion is reported at a nearby Shia mosque. (BBC)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Boko Haram militants attack Chad for the first time after 30 fighters crossed Lake Chad in four motorboats and attacked the village of Ngouboua. Chad recently joined Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon in a military coalition against Boko Haram. (BBC)

• Fitch Ratings downgrades Ukraine's credit rating to junk bond status predicting it is likely to default on its debts. (AFP via France 24)^{[permanent dead link]}

• A bus crashes with a freight train in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, killing at least sixteen people and injuring 30. (Reuters)

• Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa
  • Sierra Leone quarantines 700 homes in the Aberdeen district of Freetown following the death of a fisherman. (AFP via West Australian)

• United Nations negotiators produce an early draft on an agreement to be put to a conference on climate change in Paris in December. (AP)

• An Egyptian court orders the release from prison of Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy in Cairo. (CP via CP24)

• The Queensland Labor Party led by Annastacia Palaszczuk will be in a position to form a minority government after the polls are declared in the Queensland state election. (ABC Australia)
• Voters elect Wang Rong Chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference of Guangdong province, in China, replacing Zhu Mingguo, who was dismissed for corruption. (SCMP)
• The Governor of Oregon John Kitzhaber resigns amid allegations his fiancee used taxpayer resources to aid her green-energy consulting business. Kate Brown moves up to Governor from being the Secretary of State. (AP) (AP²) (The New York Times)

• War in Donbass
  • Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warns of a threat to a planned ceasefire tonight from heavy fighting today and accuses Russia of "significantly increasing" its offensive. In a live interview he ordered all Ukrainian forces to cease fire after midnight. (BBC)
• Internal conflict in Burma
  • Myanmar launches air strikes against rebels in the Kokang area as dozens of soldiers have been killed and dozens more wounded in fightings in recent weeks. (AFP via France 24)
• 2015 Copenhagen shootings
  • Danish Police seek a gunman who fired an automatic weapon at a free speech seminar in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing documentary maker Finn Nørgaard and injuring Swedish artist Lars Vilks known for controversial drawings of the prophet Mohammed. Among the injured are also three police officers who had been guarding the seminar. (BBC News) (The Guardian) (CBC)

• Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is sworn in at Government House in Brisbane after officially winning minority government in the Queensland state election, 2015.

• Pope Francis appoints twenty new cardinals resulting in a majority of members of the College of Cardinals being from outside Europe for the first time ever. (BBC)
• At the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, the film Taxi by Iranian director Jafar Panahi wins the Golden Bear. (BBC)
• French film and television actor Louis Jourdan (Gigi) dies at the age of 93. (People)

• A blizzard warning is in place for eastern Massachusetts in the northeastern United States. (Boston.com)

• Twelve people die of swine flu in the Indian state of Gujarat taking the death toll to 136 since January with 130 new cases reported. (IBN live)

• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • The United Arab Emirates suspends its embassy operations in Yemen due to security concerns surrounding the recent Shiite Houthi rebel take over of the country. (AFP via France 24)

• The Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott issues a last-minute plea for Bali Nine drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran facing the death penalty in Indonesia. (The Australian)^{[permanent dead link]}
• Former President of Chad Hissène Habré will stand trial in Senegal for alleged war crimes, torture and crimes against humanity. (BBC)
• A motorcycle gunman shoots and kills a journalist in the Philippines who had been critical of local officials' alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade. The murder of the journalist is the 34th since the regime of Benigno Aquino III began in 2010. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
• Canadian Police foil a planned Valentines Day massacre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Reuters via News24) (CBC)

• The 2015 Cricket World Cup begins with New Zealand playing Sri Lanka at Christchurch's Hagley Oval and Australia playing England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. (The Guardian) (ABC News Australia)
• The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announces the first five members of its 2015 induction class. Louie Dampier and John Isaacs will be inducted as players, Lindsay Gaze and Tom Heinsohn as coaches, and George Raveling as a contributor. Heinsohn, already a member as a player, will become the fourth person enshrined as both a player and a coach. Other members of the induction class will be announced on April 6. (ESPN)

• 2015 Copenhagen shootings
  • Danish Police seek a gunman who fired on three people near a Copenhagen synagogue a day after the shootings at the Free Speech Gathering. One person dies. (PA via The Independent) (The Australian)
  • Danish police kill a man at the Nørrebro train station after an exchange of gunfire. The police believe he was the man responsible for the two previous attacks. (Reuters/AFP via ABC News Australia) (BBC)
• Internal conflict in Burma
  • The Myanmar Army kills around a dozen Kokang rebels and capture another eight in Kokang offensive. (AFP via Bangkok Post)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • A suicide bomber kills seven and wounds 30 in Nigerian city of Damaturu. (BBC)
• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • The Islamic State releases a video purportedly showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who had been previously kidnapped in Sirte. (BBC) (Press TV)
  • Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announces a seven-day mourning period and calls for a security meeting with the country's top security body. (Reuters) (AFP via Yahoo! News)

• A house under construction collapses in the Indian city of Mughalsarai in the state of Uttar Pradesh killing twelve people and injuring two. (NDTV)

• A Turkish court remands seventeen police officers into custody for allegedly being part of an illegal wiretapping program targeting politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen. (LBC)

• Hamburg state election, 2015
  • Voters in the German city state of Hamburg go to the polls with the governing Social Democratic Party of Germany led by Olaf Scholz retaining power. (Guardian Liberty Voice)

• In ski jumping, Anders Fannemel of Norway sets a new world record with a leap of 251.5 m (825 ft) at Vikersund. (BBC)

• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • Egypt bombs Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant targets in the city of Derna in Libya following the execution of 21 Coptic Christians recently. (BBC)
• War in Donbass
  • During the ceasefire, fighting kills at least five Ukrainian Army soldiers with 22 injured. (CNN)
  • The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin claims that pro-Russian forces have fired on Ukrainian forces over 100 times in the past day. Separatists accuse Ukrainian troops of having violated the ceasefire. Fighting continues in the encirclement of the Battle of Debaltseve with separatist forces entering the city. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Nigeria regains the key town of Monguno from Boko Haram. (BBC)

• Hyundai and affiliate Kia announce plans to recall more than 60,000 vehicles in South Korea. (Yonhap)

• 2014–15 North American winter
  • A winter storm warning is in place for Washington, D.C., and the American states of Virginia and Maryland with schools closed and transport advisories in place. (NBC Washington)
  • The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency declares a storm-related state of emergency causing disruptions to public transportation and power transmission. (WSMV)
• A heavy snow storm hits Turkey causing disruption to travel for several days. (Accuweather)
• A bus carrying at least 60 passengers plunges into a gorge in India's Madhya Pradesh resulting in at least ten deaths and 33 people injured. (Times of India)
• A CSX train crashes in Mount Carbon, West Virginia resulting in large fires. (BBC)

• EBioMedicine publishes research by University of Leuven scientists describing their findings of a so-called Cuban variant of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (the virus that causes AIDS) which is an aggressive strain that can rapidly progress to AIDS. (FOX News)

• A Federal District Court judge in Brownsville, Texas, temporarily halts President Barack Obama's November 2014 executive orders on immigration, allowing Texas and 25 other states to file a lawsuit opposing the orders. The Department of Justice indicated it will appeal. (The New York Times) (Reuters) (WhiteHouse.gov)

• 2015 Saint Kitts and Nevis general election
  • Voters in Saint Kitts and Nevis go to the polls for a national election with the governing Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Denzil Douglas. seeking a fifth term.
  • The opposition Team Unity, an alliance of three opposition parties led by former foreign minister Timothy Harris, wins the election, with Douglas conceding defeat on February 17. (St Kitts and Nevis Observer) (Latin American Herald Tribune) (Stabroek News)

• War in Donbass
  • The office of the President of Ukraine calls on the European Union and NATO to condemn the Russian-backed rebels for military action in Debaltseve. The self-proclaimed rebel government officials claim the town was not part of the recently established ceasefire. (AP) (New York Times)
• Dissident Irish Republican campaign
  • Police Service of Northern Ireland received a phone call in the early hours allegedly from a dissident republican group claiming to have planted an explosive in a Curryneirin neighborhood outside Derry, Northern Ireland. Police evacuated 12 homes before finding a device, describing it as "'It's a bomb and designed to kill".(Belfast Telegraph)
• Around 20 Okba Ibn Nafaa Islamist militants attack a checkpoint in Tunisia's central Kasserine region, killing four police officers and stealing their weapons. (Reuters)

• South Korean company Samsung Electronics says that they have $56 billion in cash and plan to use some of it for mergers and acquisitions. (Reuters)

• Carnival festivities are cancelled after at least twenty people are killed in a float accident in Port-au-Prince. (Miami Herald)

• North Korea says that it will respond "very strongly" to a conference held in Washington, D.C. about human rights abuses. (AP)

• Chinese prosecutors say that they are investigating former top Communist Party official Su Rong for alleged corruption. (AP)
• Chinese authorities also announce the indictment of former Guangdong official Zhu Mingguo, former Jinan CPC party chief Wang Min, and former Taiyuan party chief Chen Chuanping, all on charges of corruption. (SCMP)

• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that at least 70 Syrian Army soldiers and more than 80 insurgents have died in recent fighting around the city of Aleppo. (Reuters via Trust)
• A bomb in a Shi'ite mosque in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi kills at least two people and injures six. (Reuters)
• Boko Haram
  • The Nigerian Army claims to have killed 300 militants in northeastern Nigeria. (BBC)
  • A warplane bombs a funeral ceremony in Niger killing 30 civilians. (BBC)

• Japan Post acquires Australian transport company Toll Holdings at a cost of A$6.5 billion. (The Australian)

• 2014–15 Australian region cyclone season
  • The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is predicting that a low pressure system in the Coral Sea will develop into tropical cyclone Marcia within 24 hours and bring heavy rain to South East Queensland with the potential to cause flooding. (The Age)
  • Tropical Cyclone Lam intensifies to Category 3 as it moves towards the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land. (Weatherzone)
• A snowstorm in the Turkish city of Istanbul leads to the closure of Istanbul Atatürk Airport, causes the cancellation of 300 Turkish Airlines flights and closes the Bosphorus Strait to shipping. (Al Arabiyah)

• Islamic State
  • The United Nations Security Council meets to discuss the recent beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya. (AFP via Newvision)

• Australian David Hicks wins an appeal in the U.S. Court of Military Commission Review against his conviction for providing material support to terrorism in 2007 in a U.S. Navy court in Guantanamo Bay. (AP via Sky News Australia)
• Swede Alex Yucel pleads guilty in the United States to distributing Blackshades software that was used to hack into 500,000 computers worldwide. (CNBC)
• Robert van Winkle aka Vanilla Ice is arrested for burglary and grand theft in Florida. (NBC Miami)

• The President of Indonesia Joko Widodo drops his nomination of Budi Gunawan as national police chief following allegations that Gunawan was involved in a bribery scandal. (Straits Times)
• The Government of India approves the construction of seven stealth frigates and six nuclear submarines for the Indian Navy. (Times of India)
• The Hellenic Parliament elects Prokopis Pavlopoulos as the new President of Greece. (Greek Reporter)
• The Moldovan Parliament appoints a new government with Chiril Gaburici as Prime Minister and a legislative support formed by the PLDM, PDM and PCRM. (RomaniaJournal)

• Greece requests its partners in the eurozone for a six month loan program extension in an apparent compromise attempt; Germany has rejected the request. (BBC News)

• 2014–15 Australian region cyclone season
  • Cyclone Marcia is expected to strengthen to category 5 before making landfall in Central Queensland. (Brisbane Times), (ABC Australia)
  • Residents of Goulburn Island off the coast of the Northern Territory are evacuated ahead of Cyclone Lam. (News Limited)
• Israel is hit by the heaviest snow storm in a century causing the closure of schools and highways in high places throughout the country. (Jerusalem Post)

• Members of the P5+1 powers meet with representatives of Iran in Geneva to discuss Iran's nuclear program. (Reuters)
• Qatar withdraws its ambassador from Egypt following disagreement over Egyptian Air Force strikes against Islamic State targets in Libya after the execution of 21 Coptic Christian hostages by Islamic State. (Reuters)

• Two people are dead and seven others infected at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles County, California, after contracting a super-resistant bacterial infection of Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). 179 other people may have been exposed to the bacteria as well. (CNN)

• Former Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra will be indicted over a controversial rice subsidy scheme. (Channel NewsAsia)
• Venezuelan police arrest the Opposition Mayor of Caracas Antonio Ledezma without a warrant on the anniversary of the arrest of another opposition leader Leopoldo López. The President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro accused him of organizing a coup d'etat with the support of the United States but the US has denied this. (Bloomberg) (Reuters) (teleSUR)
• Several hundred hooligans supporting the Dutch football club Feyenoord clash with police in Rome, before the club's Europa League contest with local side Roma. In the clashes several people are injured and a large fragment of the 17th century Barcaccia fountain by Gianlorenzo Bernini is smashed. (AP via ABC (U.S.))

• Research published in the journal Nature claims that a large portion of the lithium in the universe was produced by novae. (ABC News Australia)

• Al Qubbah bombings
  • Multiple car bombs kill at least 45 and wound 30 in the eastern Libyan town of Al Qubbah. (BBC) (AP)
• Somali Civil War (2009–present)
  • At least 20 people are killed, including senior officials, in an attack on the Central Hotel in Mogadishu. (BBC)

• The government of Greece and the authorities of the Eurozone reach a tentative agreement about the extension of the bailout terms. (Yahoo! Finance)

• The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association negotiate a tentative contract and will open docks at western U.S. ports beginning on February 21. (AP)

• 2014–15 Australian region cyclone season
  • Cyclone Marcia makes landfall near Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland as a Category 5 tropical cyclone with wind gusts of up to 285 kilometres per hour. (ABC News Australia)
  • Cyclone Lam makes landfall in Arnhem Land between Millingimbi and Elcho Island. The communities of Ramingining and Galiwinku have also been badly damaged. (ABC News Australia)
• Two trains collide in the Swiss town of Rafz resulting in as many as 49 people injured and Swiss Federal Railways cancelling some services. (Reuters)
• High tides cause the River Thames to flood in parts of southwest London. (Evening Standard)
• A fire rips through The Marina Torch apartment complex in Dubai, one of the tallest residential apartment buildings in the world. (BBC)
• At least 23 people die this week in the United States due to cold weather, with 18 dead in the state of Tennessee. (CNN)

• Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa
  • Liberia lifts curfews and reopens borders from Sunday as the epidemic starts to end. (Daily Star)

• Australian rugby star Karmichael Hunt is arrested on charges of supplying cocaine following a Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission operation. (NZ Newswire via Yahoo! 7)
• Thailand passes a law banning foreigners from hiring Thai women as commercial surrogate mothers. (BBC)
• Zambia's top prosecutor Mutembo Nchito refuses to prosecute himself for alleged abuse of office. (AFP via France 24)^{[permanent dead link]}

• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • The Houthis come to a preliminary agreement to form a new government in Yemen. (CNN)

• In motor sport, NASCAR indefinitely suspends former Cup Series champion Kurt Busch following a conviction for domestic violence against his girlfriend. (CNN)

• Boko Haram
  • The Nigerian Army recaptures the town of Baga where Boko Haram killed scores of people last month. (BBC)
• Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
  • The Turkish media reports that the Turkish Army has sent troops into Syria to evacuate troops and artefacts from the Tomb of Suleyman Shah in the Aleppo Governorate which has been under threat from Islamic State for several months. One soldier has reportedly been killed. (New York Times) (Hurriyet Daily News)

• The United Steelworkers union notifies the owner of the largest refinery in the United States that its members are on strike. The notification to Motiva constitutes a major escalation of ongoing labor-management confrontation in that industry. (Reuters)
• More than 5,000 workers at a General Motors plant in Brazil joins in a strike against the dismissal of proposal for another 800 factory employees. (GloboNews) (The Peninsula)

• Three Italian cross-country skiers are killed and two are injured in an avalanche near the Great St Bernard Pass in the Swiss Alps. (AFP via ABC News Australia)

• Indonesia recalls its envoy to Brazil due to ongoing tension caused by Indonesia's recent execution of a Brazilian drug smuggler. (Reuters)
• War in Donbass
  • The United States and United Kingdom discuss imposing additional sanctions on Russia over the breach of the ceasefire. (CNN via WLWT)
  • The Ukrainian Army and rebel separatists complete a prisoner exchange. (AAP via SBS)
• The President of Peru Ollanta Humala recalls the ambassador to Chile over spying allegations. (Reuters)

• The Willacy County Correctional Center in Willacy County, Texas is emptied of thousands of inmates the day after a riot makes it uninhabitable. (NBC News)

• NASA astronauts perform one of three ISS spacewalks to reroute cables needed in preparation for the 2017 arrival of the first commercial spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts. (AP)

• Floyd Mayweather announces that Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is set for 2 May 2015 at Las Vegas's MGM Grand Garden Arena. (USA Today)
• During the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway, driver Kyle Busch suffers a compound right leg fracture and left mid-foot fracture in a crash, and is successfully operated upon at a local hospital. He will not race in the Daytona 500 on Sunday, and will be temporarily replaced by defending Camping World Truck Series champion Matt Crafton. (NASCAR.com)

• War in Donbass
  • Pro-Russian rebels start a two-week process of removing heavy weapons from the front lines in eastern Ukraine in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. (Reuters via Haaretz)
  • An explosion at a pro-Ukraine march kills three and injures more than 10 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (AFP via Yahoo! News UK)
• Jeh Johnson, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, warns Americans to take a threat by Somalia-based al-Shabab to attack shopping malls in the US, United Kingdom, and Canada seriously. (BBC)
• Second Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • Islamic State militants claim responsibility for bombing the Iranian ambassador's residence in Tripoli and a rocket attack on Al Abraq International Airport. (Reuters via Islamic State)
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • ISIS burns more than 8,000 rare books and manuscripts in Mosul, Iraq. (FOX News)

• 87th Academy Awards
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu becomes the second Mexican director to win Academy Award for Best Director for Birdman. Birdman then wins the Academy Award for Best Picture. (The Globe and Mail) (The Telegraph)
  • British actor Eddie Redmayne wins the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. (The Guardian)
  • American actress Julianne Moore wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Still Alice. (Hollywood Reporter)
  • Ida by Paweł Pawlikowski wins the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and becomes the first Polish film to win the award. (The Guardian)

• A rescue operation is underway in Bangladesh as a ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River after colliding with a trawler. The death toll has reached 41. (AP) (Reuters) (CNN) (AAP via SBS)
• All 486 trapped by an underground fire at the Harmony Gold Kusasalethu mine near Carletonville, South Africa have been rescued. (News24) (Globe and Mail)

• Six current and former Gold Coast Titans players are charged with supplying cocaine including Greg Bird, Dave Taylor, Beau Falloon, Jamie Dowling and Kalifa Faifai Loa with all players stood down for the coming Australian National Rugby League season. (Gold Coast Bulletin) (AAP via Sportsfan)
• Thai police arrest at least three people for holding an unauthorised demonstration. (Channel NewsAsia)
• Former President of the Maldives and current Opposition Leader Mohamed Nasheed is arrested. (V News)

• Two former British foreign secretaries, Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind become embroiled in a "cash for access" scandal. The two deny any wrongdoing and refer themselves to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Hudson. (The Telegraph) (BBC)
• Hungary's ruling Fidesz Party loses its two-thirds supermajority in the National Assembly after a left-wing independent candidate wins a by-election in a district based on the city of Veszprem. (AP via Star Tribune)^{[permanent dead link]}

• In motorsports, Joey Logano wins the 57th annual Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, the first race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Polesitter, three-time Daytona 500 winner, and four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon finishes 33rd after a last-lap crash in what is planned to be his final Daytona 500 start. (AP via ESPN)

• War in Donbass
  • The Ukrainian Army says it cannot withdraw its heavy weapons from the front, as it is still under attack from rebel forces despite the ceasefire. (Reuters)
  • The President of Russia Vladimir Putin says a war with Ukraine is unlikely but refuses to hold more meetings with France, Germany and Ukraine over the ceasefire. (Daily Mail)
• Second Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • The internationally recognized Tobruk-based Parliament of Libya suspends participation in United Nations brokered talks. (AFP via Daily Mail)

• The death toll from the weekend ferry disaster in Bangladesh rises to 70. (AP)

• Entertainer Rolf Harris is stripped of his Order of Australia honours following recent convictions in the United Kingdom for indecent assault. (ABC News Australia)
• Egyptian political activist Alaa Abdel Fatah is sentenced to five years in jail for violating a rule against organising political protests without permission. (Al Arabiyah)
• The High Court of Kenya throws out key aspects of an anti-terrorism law following a legal challenge from the Opposition. (BBC)
• Two young Thai playwrights, Patiwat Saraiyaem and Porntip Mankong, are sentenced to two years in prison for alleged lese majeste for a play set in a fictional kingdom. (AFP via Google News)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• Dr Rajendra Pachauri resigns as head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change due to involvement in a sexting scandal. (The Times via The Australian)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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)

• 2015 Brit Awards
  • American entertainer Madonna falls off stage while performing "Living for Love" at the 2015 Brit Awards. (PA via WA Today)
  • Mark Ronson wins Best British single for "Uptown Funk" featuring American singer Bruno Mars. (The Guardian)
  • Ed Sheeran wins Best British album for x. (The Guardian)

• At least 187 people are killed in avalanches in northeastern Afghanistan (BBC News)

• The Atlanta-based U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were so concerned about a study released today in The New England Journal of Medicine, that they are launching another new study about why so many people are becoming infected by or exposed to the potentially deadly Clostridium difficile ("C. diff.") bacterium after going to the doctor's or dentist's office. (CNN) (CDC) (NEJM)

• An arrest warrant is issued for Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, after she fails to show up to face graft charges. (BD News)
• Film director Roman Polanski testifies at a closed to the media court hearing in Kraków, Poland, regarding a US request for his extradition over a 1977 child sex crime conviction. The hearing is later postponed until April. (The Guardian) (CNN)
• Morgan Stanley agrees to pay $2.6 billion to settle with the United States Department of Justice over its sale of residential mortgage backed securities. (Bloomberg)
• The Austrian Parliament passes a bill, partly aimed at tackling Islamist radicalism, that gives Muslims more legal security but bans foreign funding for mosques and imams. (BBC)
• A United States district court judge orders documents turned over to hedge fund NML Capital with regard to the flow of funds in a February 9 issuance of Argentina dollar denominated sovereign bonds. (Reuters)

• The Argentine National Congress approves installation of a Chinese satellite tracking station in Patagonia. (AP)

• Faure Gnassingbé, the President of Togo, announces his candidacy for the forthcoming election in April. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

• War in Afghanistan
  • A Taliban suicide bomb attack on a Turkish government vehicle in Kabul kills at least one person. (BBC) (NBC News)
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • "Jihadi John", an ISIL terrorist featured in many beheading videos, is identified as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born man who lived in the United Kingdom and was on a terrorism watch list. (The Washington Post) (The New York Times) (CBS News)
  • ISIS posts a video showing the destruction of Mosul Museum, the second largest in Iraq and rich in artifacts from thousands of years of Iraqi history. (National Post)

• French actresses Marion Cotillard and Mélanie Laurent, and French President François Hollande begin their two-day state visit to the Philippines, where they are to discuss climate change. (GMA News)

• Norwegian police raid the offices of the Catholic Church’s diocese in Oslo, charging the church administration with serious fraud under the suspicion of wrongfully claiming as much as NOK 50 million in state support by presenting fraudulent membership statistics. (NewsInEnglish)
• The Guardian publishes articles alleging that the Chicago Police Department have been running a black site at Homan Square for detained Americans; former justice officials call for investigation. The CPD denies the allegations. (The Guardian) (The Guardian²) (Chicago Sun-Times)
• A United Nations report claims that a North Korean shipping company has been renaming and reflagging its vessels to avoid an arms embargo. (BBC)
• Effective midnight, Washington, D.C. joins Alaska, Colorado, and Washington state as the only places in the United States that locally purport to override federal law and allow the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. (HuffPost)

• The US Federal Communications Commission votes to classify internet service providers as public utilities, creating net neutrality rules. The FCC also votes to preempt state laws in North Carolina and Tennessee that effectively prevent municipal broadband providers from expanding outside their existing service areas. (AP)

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Somali pirates release four Thai hostages after nearly five years of captivity. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Avijit Roy, an American writer and blogger from Bangladesh, is hacked to death by unknown attackers in Dhaka. (The Telegraph)
• A gunman kills seven people then himself in a spree shooting in Tyrone, Missouri. (NBC News)
• Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
  • In Moscow, an unidentified attacker assassinates leading Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the former Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation and current member of regional parliament of Yaroslavl Oblast. (euronews) (BBC)
• An elderly man shoots and kills three people and then himself in the South Korean city of Hwaseong. (The Korea Herald) (Los Angeles Times)
• Mexican security forces arrest drug lord Servando Gómez Martínez in Morelia, Michoacán. (AP)

• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • A series of car bombs kill 19 people in Balad Ruz, east-central Iraq. (AP via News 24)

• Lithuania–United States relations:
  • Lithuania signs a trade agreement to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States in a move aimed at reducing the EU Baltic state's heavy dependence on Russian gas deliveries. (Reuters)
• United States–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuela president Nicolás Maduro has announced new sanctions on the United States, including visa restrictions. He stated that Americans would have to obtain visas in order to enter Venezuela. Furthermore, Maduro announced that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bob Menendez, and Marco Rubio would be banned from entering the country. (Reuters) (Breitbart)

• The municipal intermediate people’s court for the eastern city of Dongying convicts Ni Fake, former Vice-Governor of Anhui province in China, on charges of bribery and "amassing wealth of unclear origin", and sentences him to seventeen years in prison. (The Guardian)
• The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference removes disgraced senior official Ling Jihua from the office of Vice-Chairman and also strips him of his ordinary delegate status. (Straits Times)