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French sports stars die in reality TV accident –
Prosecutors in France have opened a manslaughter investigation after two helicopters crashed in Argentina, killing eight French nationals. Three well-known French sports personalities were among those killed in the collision, which also claimed the lives of the two Argentine pilots. French President Francois Hollande said it was “a cause of immense sadness”. Both helicopters were involved in the filming of TV survival show Dropped, which airs on French channel TF1. On the show, celebrities are flown into rough terrain and filmed while they attempt to find food and shelter. Yachtswoman Florence Arthaud, Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat and Olympic boxer Alexis Vastine were the show’s celebrities on board at the time of the crash. They all died. [BBC]
Camille Muffat

Solar powered plane still on target –
Solar Impulse is back in the air on the second leg of its historic attempt to fly around the world. After the briefest of lay-overs, the prop-driven plane took off from Muscat in Oman at 06.35 (02:35 GMT). It is heading across the Arabian Sea to Ahmedabad in India. Project chairman, Bertrand Piccard, is now at the controls, having taken over from Andre Borschberg, who flew the first leg on Monday from Abu Dhabi to Muscat. The second leg will cover about 1,465km (791 nautical miles), and should take about 16 hours.

Video of the Day –

[BBC]

ALBAN ENDLOS – UMDA (A journey through India in 4 Minutes, colorgraded on a used VHS) from David Aufdembrinke on Vimeo.

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Disasters and accidents

• A Carolinian Amtrak passenger train (running north from Charlotte, North Carolina to New York City) hits a tractor-trailer in Halifax, North Carolina resulting in two cars of the train derailing with several people receiving minor injuries. (AP via MSN)
• Villa Castelli helicopter crash
  • Two helicopters collide in mid-air in a remote area of northwestern Argentina leaving at least ten dead. Among the dead are a group of French sports stars participating in a reality-television show called Dropped:(AP), (The Telegraph), (BBC)
    • Camille Muffat – a 24-year-old 2012 Summer Olympics gold medal swimmer
    • Florence Arthaud – a yachtswoman
    • Alexis Vastine – a 2008 Summer Olympics bronze medal boxer

International relations

• 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.(Reuters via MSN)(White House text of the order)
• The U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director, James Comey, announces an increased reward of $5 million (up from $1 million, issued in 2012) for information leading to the return of a former FBI agent Robert Levinson (who disappeared March 9, 2007 in Iran and who was paid by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to gather information about Iran’s nuclear program). (AFP via MSN)

Law and crime

• A man kills five people in the Japanese city of Sumoto 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 assistantSarah 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)
• In a five-day national dragnet last week, Operation Cross Check, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rounds up 2,059 people who had been convicted of crimes and had been living in the country illegally. Most were not violent criminals (none were implicated in terrorism; almost all the 912 misdemeanors were for driving under the influence, DWI; 476 of the felons were charged with an immigration violation, though some were convicted ofmanslaughter, robbery, rape, and child pornography). (Tribune Washington Bureau via MSN)

Science and technology

• Solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 begins its circumnavigation of the earth. (BBC)
• Explorers of a stalactite cave in Israel‘s Galilee region uncover a small collection of 2,300-year-old silver coins and jewelry believed to have been hidden from the time of Alexander the Great of Macedonia. The discovery could be the first of its kind to be found from that period in this area. (Reuters via MSN)

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