Top News Stories –

Sydney hostage situation –
A gunman takes hostages in the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Sydney’s Martin Place. The hostage taker is identified as a 50-year-old cleric from Iran, Man Haron Monis who gained asylum in Australia. Passers by are criticised for taking “selfies” in front of the cafe.
Crowds outside the sieged building

Ultimate fare-dodger –
A commuter in London who avoided paying for his train fares has been banned for life from working in any regulated financial industries. Jonathan Paul Burrows has paid back the £42,550 he is estimated to have avoided paying, plus £450 in legal costs. He was a director with financial services company BlackRock.

Denmark claims north pole –
Denmark makes a claim to the UN that the area surrounding the North Pole is connected to the continental shelf of Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory. Foreign Minister Martin Lidegaard says it is a “historic and important milestone” for Denmark. In 2008, a US Geological Survey report estimated that as much as 22% of the world’s undiscovered and recoverable resources lay north of the Arctic Circle, but the North Pole itself is unlikely to have much oil or gas beneath its deep waters. Canada and Russia have already tried to assert their sovereignty over Arctic territory.
Nuclear icebreaker Arktika

Video of the Day –

Brain Lapse from Jake Fried on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Disasters and accidents

• A fire at a karaoke bar in China‘s Henan province kills at least 11 people. (IANS via The Hindu)
• An emergency rescue SMURD helicopter crashes into Lake Siutghiol, Constanţa County, Romania with four people killed. (ABC)
• The death toll of the 2014 Indonesia landslide rises to 56. (AP via Fox News)

International relations

• Philippine prosecutors charge a United States Marine with murder over the death of Jennifer Laude, a Filipinotransgender woman. (The Washington Post)
• Authorized by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Denmark becomes the first country to officially submit a claim on the North Pole. (UPI)
• About ten thousand people, including those of Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA), protest in Germany against the presence of Muslims. (The Telegram)

Law and crime

• 2014 Sydney hostage crisis
  • A gunman, Man Haron Monis, takes 17 people hostage at Lindt Chocolate Café in Martin Place, Sydney. (BBC)(ABC) (Melbourne Herald-Sun)
• Montgomery County, Pennsylvania shootings
  • A shooting spree kills six people throughout Montgomery County in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburbs. The suspect, Bradley William Stone, remains at large. (WPVI-TV) (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• The Supreme Court of the United States rules by an 8–1 vote that evidence collected based on a reasonable misinterpretation of the law can be used at trial and is not deemed an unreasonable search or seizure. (Wall Street Journal)(Washington Post)
• An appellate court in Vietnam upholds a 30-year prison sentence and convictions for Nguyen Duc Kien, a former businessman. (Tuoi Tre)

Politics and elections

• 2014 Hong Kong protests
  • Authorities remove the last remaining protest camp, the one at Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. (Wall Street Journal)(BBC)
• The United States Senate approves Vivek Murthy‘s nomination as Surgeon General by a 51–43 vote. (CBS)

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