Portal:Current events/2015 March 27

March 27, 2015 (Friday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

2015 military intervention in Yemen
- A Middle Eastern coalition led by the Saudi Arabian army and Egyptian navy attacks positions in Yemen for the second successive day, resulting in at least ten deaths in Saada Governorate. Saudi Arabia declares that it will enforce a "no-fly zone". (CNN)
War in Somalia
- Militants believed to be from al-Shabab attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least nine people dead. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

A stampede at a Hindu festival in Langalbandh, Bangladesh, kills at least ten people with dozens more injured. (Bangla News) (AP)
Power returns to Amsterdam after a 5-hour blackout that caused the closure of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and disrupted public transport networks throughout the Netherlands. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
Germanwings Flight 9525
- Investigators, searching one of the two residences of the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, find a torn doctor's note granting Lubitz medical leave—deeming him unfit for work—for a period including the day of the crash. (CNN)
- In imitation of current U.S. policy, Lufthansa, together with other German airlines announce plans to mandate that two people (either two pilots or a pilot and a flight attendant) must be inside the cockpit at all times. (CNN)

Law and crime

Politics and elections

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announces he will not seek re-election to the United States Senate and intends to retire at the end of his term in January 2017. (CNN)

Science and technology

Soyuz TMA-16M
- Soyuz TMA-16M launches carrying three crew members to the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko and American astronaut Scott Kelly begin a special year-long mission to test the effects of long-term habitation on the human body under conditions of micro gravity and radiation. (AFP via Yahoo! News)