Top News Stories –
‘Pastafarian’ wins right to wear colander on head in driving licence photo –
A woman in the US has won the right to wear a colander on her head in her driving licence photo. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles had previously forbidden Lindsay Miller from sporting the unconventional headgear, worn by followers of the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or ‘Pastafarians’. However, the decision was overturned after Miller launched an appeal with the assistance of the Secular Legal Society. Lawyer Patty DeJuneas told the Boston Globe: “I’m not a Pastafarian. But my understanding, and my view of it, is that it’s a secular religion that uses parody to make certain points about a belief system.” The Pastafarian ‘religion’ was founded a decade ago after the Kansas school board came under pressure to teach the theory of intelligent design in biology class as an alternative to evolution. [Daily Telegraph]
Town pays people to cycle to work –
An Italian town will pay people hundreds of euros per year if they cycle to work instead of using their cars. The council in Massarosa, just north of Pisa, says the pilot scheme will see cyclists paid 25 cents per kilometre travelled, up to a monthly cap of 50 euros (£35), the regional Il Tirreno news website reports. That means commuters who switch to two wheels could pocket up to 600 euros (£424) in a year. It’s said to be the first such scheme in Italy. Fifty workers will be included in the 12-month pilot, which will use a smartphone app to record the distance travelled each day. The scheme is being funded from fines collected from traffic tickets in the town, which by law has to be reinvested in road safety, the site points out. [BBC]
Budget private jet firm launched by French rugby legend –
Philippe Saint-André, the coach who took France to the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup, aims to democratise private jet travel. He and ex-player Christophe Ducluzeau have founded Le Jet, offering London to Paris flights for £363 one-way. The 45-minute service will launch on November 23 and will initially run on Mondays and Fridays, ferrying passengers between the private jet terminal of Stansted Airport and Le Bourget airport near Paris. Further London-Paris services and routes to other European destinations are also being planned. [Daily Telegraph]
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Moto Experiment: Truth or Drop: How far will people go to protect their phones
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- November 2015 Paris attacks
- Authorities search for Belgium-born French national Salah Abdeslam, one of three brothers suspected of involvement in the attacks. Raids are reported to have taken place in Grenoble, Toulouse, Jeumont and the Paris suburb of Bobigny. This contradicts previously published official information that all the perpetrators of the attacks were dead. (CNN) (The Guardian)
- Mohamed Abdeslam, brother of suspect fugitive Salah Abdeslam, and Ibrahim Abdeslam, a suicide bomber in the attacks, is released by authorities after questioning this weekend. His attorney told reporters, her client “hadn’t made the same life choices.”(The Independent) (Fox News)
- Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a leading Belgian jihadist who is one of the most active ISIS operators in Syria, is the suspected head organizer behind the Paris massacre. He is also linked to thwarted attacks on a Paris-bound high-speed train and a church near the French capital, earlier this year. (NBC News)
- Hactivist group Anonymous declares war on ISIS taking down 2,000 related Twitter accounts as well as some donation groups for the terrorists on the Dark Web. The group also criticized the lack of similar actions by Western governments. (MSN)
- A U.S. official states that intelligence sources detect increased chatter encouraging terrorist attacks on the U.S. but lacks credible or actionable information. This, following reports that Iraqi intelligence sources warned anti-ISIS coalition members of attacks one day before the attacks. The information from Iraq also lacked specific information. (Associated Press via Military.com) (Associate Press via Military Times)
- The governors of the U.S. states of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin say they will not accept Syrian refugees in response to the Islamic terror attacks in Paris. Twenty-three of the 24 governors are Republican with the other being Democrat (New Hampshire). (USA Today)
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Yemeni security officials, who are neutral in the conflict, say Saudi-led airstrikes and clashes have killed over 40 Houthi militants and 4 civilians over the past 24 hours, with most of the airstrikes taking place in the southwestern Ibb Governorate. (The Washington Post)
- Sinai insurgency
- Egypt‘s security forces shoot dead at least 24 ISIS militants as they hid inside a cave in a mountainous area in central Sinai, not far from the crash site of Metrojet Flight 9268, a Russian airliner the group says it brought down. (Reuters) (Independent)
- Business and economy
- Economy of Japan
- The Japanese economy goes into recession for the second time since the election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (Sky News Australia)
- Marriott International announces it has agreed to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts in a $12.2 billion deal that would create the world’s largest hotel company. (Washington Post)
- In the United States, federal and state authorities announce Education Management Corp., a company that enrolls more than 100,000 students at North American for-profit trade schools and colleges, agrees to pay $95.5 million to settle claims it illegally paidrecruiters and exaggerated the career-placement abilities of its schools. EDMC also agreed to forgive $102.8 million in loans made to more than 80,000 former students. (AP Via Washington Post) (Los Angeles Times)
- American, British-based telecommunications and television company Liberty Global announces a £3.5bn (US$5.3bn) deal to buy British multinational telecommunications company Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC). (The Telegraph)
- Disasters and accidents
- The death toll from a landslide in a village in China‘s Zhejiang province rises to 25 with 12 people still missing. (AP)
- 2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- Floods in Sri Lanka and the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu cause over 70 deaths with the city of Chennai worst affected. (Thomson Reuters)
- 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Joaquin
- The United States National Transportation Safety Board announces it has completed its search of the sunken El Faro, but did not find the voyage data recorder, i.e., the black box. (Time)
- International relations
- Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations
- The USS Stethem visits Shanghai, signaling that relations between the two countries continue despite tensions over the recent USS Lassen cruise near artificial islands constructed by China. The navies of the two nations plan combined maritime exercise as well. (Associated Press via ABC News)
- Nicaragua deploys its military to help close its southern border in a dispute with Costa Rica over the passage of Cuban migrants on their way to the United States. Nicaragua’s government said Costa Rica’s decision to grant seven-day transit visas to 1,200 Cuban migrants who entered the country through Panama, “violated national sovereignty”. Nicaraguan troops and riot police fired tear gas at people attempting to enter in what Costa Rica called a “humanitarian crisis”. (Bloomberg)
- Law and crime
- Six people, including a child, have been found dead on private property in Anderson County, southeast of Dallas, Texas, USA. The victims are members of two different families. One person, unrelated to the victims, is charged with one count of murder. More charges are expected. (CBS DFW)
- Politics and elections
- United States President Barack Obama, in Antalya, Turkey, says America will continue to accept refugees from Syria and elsewhere, though, “Only after subjecting them to rigorous screening and security checks.” Responding to calls to admit Christians but not Muslims into the country, he said, “We don’t have religious tests to our compassion.” (The Washington Post)
- Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy delays his return home from South Korea as tension comes to a head between his supporters and those of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Friday, a Cambodian court issued an arrest warrant related to an old defamationcase for which Sam had already received a royal pardon. Today, Parliament stripped him of immunity protection. (Reuters)
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