Portal:Current events/2015 March 20

• Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
  • Islamic State releases a video showing the execution of three Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq with threats to execute dozens more. (Reuters)
  • An Islamic state attack on a Kurdish Nowruz festival (New Year's Day) kills 45 people. (AAP via SBS)
• Yemeni crisis
  • Islamic State claims responsibility for suicide bombings in Shiite mosques in Sanaa that kill 142 people. (AFP via Hindustan Times)
• An ambush on Mexican police in Ocotlan, Jalisco state kills ten with none of the gunmen apprehended. (Reuters)

• 2014–15 Australian region cyclone season
  • Severe Tropical Cyclone Nathan makes landfall on Cape York Peninsula in far North Queensland as a category 4 (Australian system). (ABC Australia)
• The Dehradun-Varanasi Janta Express derails near Bachhrawan Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh northern India resulting in at least 30 deaths and 150 people being injured. (AP via Yahoo! News) (Zee News)
• A Uruguayan Air Force Beechcraft King Air crashes shortly after take-off from Laguna del Sauce airport, killing ten people. (AP via News24)

• Biogen Idec Inc. reports that a drug in a phase II clinical research trial has achieved the first experimental demonstration of a statistically significant reduction in amyloid plaque as well as a slowing of clinical impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. The antibody drug, aducanumab, blocked beta amyloid formation, a protein that forms toxic brain-destroying plaques, and significantly slowed cognitive decline. (Reuters)

• To resolve claims they were misled about the company's subprime mortgage exposure, a U.S. District Court Judge, Laura Swain approves a settlement between shareholders and American multinational insurer AIG, providing for a payout of $970.5 million. (Reuters).

• Maurizio Lupi resigns as Italy's Minister for Infrastructure following the arrest of a key aide in a corruption probe. (AP via ABC News)

• A solar eclipse, a vernal (for those living in the northern hemisphere) and autumnal (for those in the southern hemisphere) equinox, and a Supermoon will all occur today. (The Independent)
• The United States Food and Drug Administration approves genetically modified potatoes and apples. (Mercury News)