March 20, 2012

2012Lincoln Hall, Australian mountaineer and author (born 1955)^[†]

Lincoln Ross Hall OAM was a veteran Australian mountaineer, adventurer and author. Lincoln was part of the first Australian expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1984, which successfully forged a new route. He reached the summit of Mount Everest on his second attempt in 2006, miraculously surviving the night at 8,700 m (28,543 ft) on descent, after his family was told he had died.

2012Noboru Ishiguro, Japanese animator and director (born 1938)^[†]

Noboru Ishiguro was a Japanese anime director, anime producer, and animator. He was the founder and chairman of the animation studio Artland.

2012Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, Polish-Israeli rabbi and author (born 1910)^[†]

Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg was a Polish-born, American-raised, Israeli Haredi rabbi and rosh yeshiva who, from 1965, made his home in the Kiryat Mattersdorf neighborhood of Jerusalem. He was the rosh yeshiva of the Torah Ore yeshiva in Kiryat Mattersdorf and Yeshivas Derech Chaim in Brooklyn. He was a posek, Gadol HaDor, and one of the last living Torah scholars to have been educated in the yeshivas of prewar Europe. He was often consulted on a range of communal and personal halachic issues. He was one of the rabbinic leaders of Kiryat Mattersdorf, together with Rabbi Yisroel Gans and Rabbi Yitzchok Yechiel Ehrenfeld. He was also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Israel.

2012Jim Stynes, Irish-Australian footballer (born 1966)^[†]

James Peter Stynes OAM was an Irish footballer who converted from Gaelic football to Australian rules football and the first international player to be inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2003. Playing for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), he was one of the game's most prominent figures, setting the record for most consecutive games of VFL/AFL football with 244 and winning the sport's highest individual honour, the Brownlow Medal, in 1991. Off the field, he was a notable AFL administrator, philanthropist, charity worker and writer.

2012At least 52 people are killed and more than 250 injured in a wave of terror attacks across ten cities in Iraq.^[†]

The 20 March 2012 Iraq attacks were the sixth simultaneous wave of bombings to hit Iraq during the insurgency and the second such major assault since the US withdrawal at the end of 2011. At least 50 people were killed and around 250 wounded in highly coordinated attacks spread out in at least 10 cities. The deadliest attack of the day took place in Karbala where twin bombings left 13 dead and 50 injured. In the northern city of Kirkuk a car parked in the parking lot of a local security office exploded, killing 13 and leaving almost 60 wounded. Several explosions rocked the capital Baghdad, including mortar attacks close to the Green Zone and a suicide blast near an intelligence building opposite the Foreign Ministry – three people were killed and nine wounded in that attack. Numerous other bombings and shootings took place all across the country, including Fallujah, Samarra, Baiji, Hillah, Latifiya, Tuz Khormato and others. A car bomb in Ramadi killed two and injured 11, as unidentified gunmen shot and killed two police officers in a nearby village. Authorities in Baqubah discovered and successfully disarmed at least eight explosive devices.