Portal:Current events/2017 March 16

March 16, 2017 (Thursday)

Armed conflicts and attacks

Piracy off the coast of Somalia
- The Somali pirates that hijacked the Aris 13, a United Arab Emirates-owned oil tanker, release it without condition. (BBC)
Syrian Civil War
- 2017 al-Jina mosque airstrike
  - An unknown perpetrator carries out an airstrike on a mosque in the rebel-held village of al-Jineh near Aleppo, killing at least 42 people. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

An eruption at Mount Etna on the Italian island of Sicily injures at least ten people, including several in a BBC News crew. (The Independent) (Reuters)
A fire in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, damages 10 buildings. (WNCN)

Law and crime

A shooting at a school in Grasse, France, injures at least eight people. Authorities arrest a 17-year-old student. (The Telegraph)
A letter bomb explodes at the office of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Paris, injuring one person. (BBC)
Kidnapping of Elizabeth Thomas
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation becomes involved in the search for Elizabeth Thomas and the manhunt for her suspected kidnapper, Tad Cummins. (FOX 17 Nashville)
- An all-points bulletin is issued for Cummins. (FOX 17 Nashville)

Politics and elections

United States immigration ban
- A second U.S. federal judge, Theodore D. Chuang of Maryland, grants that state's motion for a temporary restraining order on President Trump's revised travel ban. (The Washington Post)

Science and technology

List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches
- SpaceX successfully launches the EchoStar 23 satellite, a Direct-to-home television broadcast services for Brazil, into a geosynchronous transfer orbit, using the fully expendable version of their Falcon 9 launch vehicle. (NASA Spaceflight)