Portal:Current events/2015 March 9

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Current events of March 9, 2015 (2015-03-09) (Monday)

A Carolinian Amtrak passenger train (running north from Charlotte, North Carolina to New York City) hits a tractor-trailer in Halifax, North Carolina. Two cars of the train derail with several people receiving minor injuries. (AP via MSN)
Two helicopters crash in a remote area of northwest Argentina leaving at least ten dead. (AP)

Celebrity British lawyer Amal Clooney files a case in the United Nations on behalf of former Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (Philippine Star)
U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat to the U.S. (the first step in possibly starting a sanctions regime). He ordered sanctions against 7 officials accused of committing human rights violations and violent acts, in the worst dispute with the country since President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013, after Hugo Chavez's death, though trade between the two countries (including Venezuela's oil shipments) will remain largely unaffected. (MSN, via Reuters) (White House text of the order)
The U.S.'s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, James Comey, announces an increased reward of $USD 5 million (up from $USD 1 million, issued in 2012) for information leading to the return of diabetic former FBI agent Robert Levinson (who retired from the FBI 17 years ago and turns 67 on March 10, 2015) on the 8th anniversary of his mysterious disappearance (March 9, 2007) in Iran; the Washington Post and Associated Press (AP) revealed in 2013 that he had been paid by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to gather information (and hopefully meet an informant) about Iran's nuclear program but the government denies that he was working for them when he disappeared; the National Security Council (NSC) is committed to his return. (MSN, via AFP)

A man kills five people in the Japanese city of Sumoto, Hyōgo in a prolonged stabbing attack. (ABC and AFP via ABC Australia)
American film director Randall Miller pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing and will spend two years in county jail and another eight on probation in regards to the February 20, 2014 death of camera assistant Sarah Jones by a freight train on a bridge over the Altamaha River in Wayne County, Georgia (six other crew members were also injured) during filming of a biopic about singer Gregg Allman called Midnight Rider. (BBC)

Solar powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 begins its circumnavigation of the earth. (BBC)
According to Eitan Klein of the Israel Antiquities Authority, cave exploring hikers in a stalactite cave in Israel's Galilee region have uncovered a small collection of 2,300-year-old silver coins and jewelry (including rings, bracelets, and earrings) believed hidden by refugees during an ancient war from the time of Alexander the Great of Macedonia—the first of its kind to be found in the area from that period. The discovery follows last month's scuba diving discovery of a larger find of 2,000 gold coins from 11th-century Muslim rule. (MSN, via Reuters)

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that U.S. President Barack Obama emailed with prospective 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, former Obama U.S. Secretary of State, former New York U.S. Senator, and former U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (to her recently-revealed private e-mail account she had during her tenure as the immediate past Secretary of State), and he supposedly did not know how Mrs. Clinton planned to comply with the Federal Records Act with regards to private e-mails about official State Department business. Mr. Earnest expressed confidence that Clinton and her team would turn over all relevant private emails, avoiding a rift with Obama (U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC, who chairs that chamber's 2012 Benghazi attack investigation panel, says there are gaps in the released emails). (MSN, via The Hill)