Top News Stories –

Taylor Swift donates $250,000 to Kesha after her failed lawsuit against Dr Luke and Sony –
Taylor Swift has donated $250,000 (£176,099.74) to Kesha after her failed lawsuit. Kesha on Friday lost her bid to end her contract with Sony. A New York judge denied Kesha a court injunction that would have allowed her to record new music outside of her record label. The ‘Tik Tok’ singer has been unable to record any new music for two years, as she refuses to work with her producer, Dr Luke, who she claims sexually assaulted her. According to the New York Daily News, Kesha will have to record six more albums under Kemosabe Records, Dr. Luke’s Sony imprint. In October 2014, Kesha sued Dr. Luke, accusing him of drugging, raping and abusing her a decade ago; Dr. Luke has denied all charges. [Daily Telegraph]
Kesha

Jeb Bush drops out of presidential race –
A crestfallen Jeb Bush bowed to the inevitable on Saturday night and pulled out of the fight to win the Republican nomination. With the latest projections showing that Mr Bush was locked in a battle to win a distant fourth place in the South Carolina primary, the announcement was hardly a surprise. Fighting back tears he said: “Tonight, I am suspending my campaign, “I’m proud of the campaign that we have run to unify our country.” [Daily Telegraph]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
  • 2016 Pampore stand-off
    • Loud explosions and gunfire are heard in a building where Kashmiri forces are fighting Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front militants in a standoff that has claimed the lives of five soldiers and one civilian.(AP via Washington Post)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • A suicide bomber kills at least 13 people and injures 19 in Afghanistan‘s Parwan province. The Taliban claims responsibility. (Reuters)

Business and economics

• Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe assigns all diamond mining operations to the newly formed, government-run Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company, and orders eight foreign diamond mining companies from the country. (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
  • Cyclone Winston
    • The death toll in Fiji rises to at least 17 as authorities continue to assess the damage. All schools in the country are closed for the week. A nationwide curfew remains in effect. (Weatherzone) (CNN)

International relations

• Russia–United States relations
  • Russia has announced that it will ask permission to fly unarmed surveillance planes over the United States citing the Open Skies Treaty. (CBS)
• European migrant crisis, Austria–Germany relations
  • German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière strongly criticizes Austria‘s decision to put a daily cap on the number of refugees the country can accept. Austria has set a limit of dealing with 80 asylum applications a day, while letting thousands of others transit to Germany. Maiziere said this sends “the wrong signal” and is “unacceptable”. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Iran–Russia relations
  • Iran holds talks with Russia over buying an upgraded version of the S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • The United States and Russia broker a truce which is due to come into effect on midnight 27 February. (BBC)

Law and crime

• 2016 Kalamazoo shootings
  • Jason Dalton is charged with six counts of murder in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. (CNN)
• The Maryland Court of Appeals rules the state’s Public Information Act does not apply to abortion clinic license applicants’ names, denying the Maryland Coalition for Life’s appeal which had noted that courts in Illinois, Kansas and Minnesota have ordered these names released. The ruling can not be appealed to federal courts. (AP via ABC News)

Politics and elections

• Philippine Senate election, 2016
  • Walden Bello, a socialist candidate for the Philippine Senate, files a petition that may disqualify boxer Manny Pacquiao for violating election rules regarding publicity. Based on the commission’s rules, Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee Pacquiao, may substitute. (Rappler), (The New York Times), (Fox Sports)
• Ugandan general election, 2016
  • Opposition leader Kizza Besigye is arrested while trying to obtain copies of the official election results. (AAP via News Limited)
• Jat reservation agitation
  • Jat protesters reach an agreement with the Indian government on increased reservations similar to those authorized for economically disadvantaged lower castes. Authorities say at least 19 people have been killed in the three-day demonstrations. Protest leaders call for reopening blockaded roads in the northern state of Haryana. Water restrictions, implemented after protesters damaged the water station’s New Dehli feed, remain in effect while engineers repair the equipment. (The Indian Express)
• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Republican candidate Ted Cruz fires campaign spokesman Rick Tyler who posted incorrect information on Twitter about candidate Marco Rubio. (Fox News) (The Washington Post)
• Comorian presidential election, 2016
  • Comoros authorities are counting ballots from Sunday’s incident-free, presidential primary on Grande Comore island. The presidency rotates between the nation’s three semi-autonomous islands, which also held gubernatorial elections. Provisional results are due Wednesday. Then, on April 10, 2016, the three leading candidates will vie in a runoff. (Bloomberg)

Science and technology

• A new study by scientists from 14 research institutions, that is published in the March 2016 Global Change Biology Journal, finds all U.S. forests are threatened by drought and climate change. (Global Change Biology) (Eureka Alert) (Nature World News)

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