Top News Stories –

Top Gear Clarkson out for the count –
Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC after what it called a “fracas” with a producer. Sources said he was accused of hitting the producer in an incident last week, and the remaining three episodes of the current series might not be broadcast. The BBC confirmed one episode – due for broadcast on Sunday – would not be shown, but gave few further details. Clarkson, 54, has not commented, but has been joking on social media about films that could replace Sunday’s show. [BBC] Jeremy Clarkson

Berlusconi cleared of under-age sex –
Italy’s top court has confirmed the acquittal of Silvio Berlusconi on charges that he paid for sex with an under-age dancer and then abused his position as prime minister to cover it up. After nine hours of deliberations, the judges at the Court of Cassation delivered a ruling that brings to an end a lengthy legal saga centred on the billionaire media tycoon’s infamous “bunga bunga” sex parties. It also leaves the 78-year-old free to resume a central role in Italian politics. Berlusconi has just finished serving a community service order for tax fraud and remains embroiled in several other legal cases. [Daily Telegraph]Silvio Berlusconi

“Blurred Lines” was plagiarised from Marvin Gaye track –
Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams plagiarised their monster hit Blurred Lines from Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song Got to Give It Up and have been ordered by a court to pay $7.4 million to the late Motown singer’s children for infringement of copyright. The ruling followed a two week case at the The US District Court in Los Angeles and some experts said the outcome could have a detrimental effect on an industry in which many artists are heavily influenced by those who went before. Thicke, who performed the song, and its producer Williams, made Blurred Lines into the biggest song of 2013 in the US, where it stayed at number one for 12 weeks, and a familiar tune across the world. A jury of five women and three men decided unanimously that they had infringed copyright and must pay damages to Gaye’s children Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III, who were in court. [Daily Telegraph]
Pharrell Williams

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Sinai insurgency
  • A suicide bomber kills one person and injures 24 in an attack on a police station in Egypt‘s Sinai Peninsula. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

Arts and culture

• The family of soul music singer Marvin Gaye wins a $7.3 million lawsuit for copyright infringement against Robin Thicke,Pharrell Williams, and T.I. holding that Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines” resembled Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up“. (Rolling Stone)

Law and crime

• Police in New Zealand announce they are investigating threats to contaminate infant formula, after letters were sent to dairy cooperative Fonterra and farming lobby group Federated Farmers containing packages of infant formula laced with1080 poison. (ABC News)
• The Wikimedia Foundation, owner of Wikipedia, and eight other organisations file a lawsuit in the state of Maryland, US against the National Security Agency and the United States Department of Justice regarding the NSA’s mass surveillance program. (NBC News)
• The University of Oklahoma expels two students identified as ringleaders in the singing of a racist chant by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. (NBC News)
• Pakistan lifts a moratorium on the death penalty, months after reinstating it for terrorism. (RTT)

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