Top Story –
Bootiful –
Researcher Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos, of Oxford University announces that carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs is good for your health, protecting against heart and metabolic problems but fat around the tummy is bad.

Top Video –

Toronto Lightning Storm from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.

Top List –
Top 100 films of the Noughties (2000-2009)
List from Daily Telegraph By David Gritten, Tim Robey and Sukhdev Sandhu
Part 4 – 70-61

• 70 Mulholland Drive

David Lynch, 2001: From the wreckage of an abandoned television pilot, Lynch crafted a seductive dreamscape of fractured identity in Tinseltown.

• 69 The Class

Laurent Cantet, 2008: A rare great Best Foreign Film, this pedagogical docudrama bristled with teacher-student brinkmanship.

• 68 Waltz with Bashir

Ari Folman, 2008: Few animation features were as bold as this graphic and surreal account from Israel about the (true) mass slaughter of Palestinian refugees.

• 67 Little Miss Sunshine

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, 2006: This light, offbeat, uplifting comedy about a dysfunctional family en route to a gruesome children’s beauty contest pointed the way for American independent cinema.

• 66 United 93

Paul Greengrass, 2006: Could the events of 9/11 be filmed? More to the point, should they? This extraordinarily powerful film answered only the first question.

• 65 The Departed

Martin Scorsese, 2006: An all-star cast – DiCaprio, Damon, Nicholson, Wahlberg – pulled together to make this twisty, underworld drama a total knockout.

• 64 Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki, 2001: The film that finally made Japan’s master of animation familiar in the West. A moving story, exquisitely drawn.

• 63 The Piano Teacher

Michael Haneke, 2001: Isabelle Huppert delivered the decade’s boldest performance in this portrait of the self-mutilating repression of the Austrian bourgeoisie.

• 62 The Devil Wears Prada

David Frankel, 2006: Spearheading Meryl Streep’s reascent to mega-stardom, this bitchy fashion face-off was a female-targeted blockbuster like no other.

• 61 In This World

Michael Winterbottom, 2002: This magnificent drama about two Pakistani asylum seekers confirmed migration as one of the key themes of cinema this decade.

Top News –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• A bomb blast damages the Mozdok – Makhachkala – Kazi Magomed pipeline in Russia‘s Republic of Dagestan, leaving eleven towns in the republic without gas supply. (ITAR-TASS)
• China‘s top search engine Baidu is allegedly attacked by Iranian hackers, sparking a retaliatory attack by Chinese hackers on Iranian sites. (The Guardian) (People’s Daily) (AFP)
• Masoud Alimohammadi, an Iranian nuclear physics professor, is killed in a bomb attack in the capital Tehran; Iran state media accuses Israel and the United States of involvement. (Press TV) (BBC) (Al Jazeera)
• Mexican Drug War:
  • Mexican authorities report the capture of Teodoro García Simental, one of the country’s most notorious drug lords, in a raid in La Paz, Baja California Sur. (New York Daily News)

Arts and culture

• U.S. talk show host Conan O’Brien announces his intention to quit The Tonight Show if NBC goes forward with their plan to move the show from its long standing 11:35pm timeslot to 12:05am in favor of The Jay Leno Show. (AP)
• The first map in Chinese to show the Americas, created by Matteo Ricci at the request of the Wanli Emperor, goes on public display. (ABC News) (IOL)

Business and economy

• Google says it may end its operations in China as it is no longer willing to continue censoring its search results.(Reuters) (BBC) (Google blog) (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• A severe 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes Haiti. Tsunami watches issued across the Caribbean. (CTV) (USGS)(BBC)

International relations

• A United Nations investigation clears Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom in the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, and rules that Rosenberg plotted his own murder. (BBC) (Al-Jazeera) (CNN)
• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is ‘encouraged’ by recent developments in Guinean politics, and states the UN will continue working with the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other partners. (UN News Centre)
• Chile becomes the first South American country to be admitted to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (Santiago Times) (Al Jazeera)

Law and crime

• The European Court of Human Rights rules that powers contained in the UK Terrorism Act 2000 violate the European Convention on Human Rights. (The Guardian) (BBC)
• The United Kingdom bans the Islamist organisation Al-Muhajiroun and an offshoot group, Islam4UK. (VOA)
• A gunman kills two people at a bar in Habikino, Japan, before turning the gun on himself. (Kyodo) (AFP) (BBC)(The Times of India)
• Five Thai policemen are charged with murder over the disappearance of a Saudi businessman 20 years ago that was linked to the theft of Saudi royal jewellery. (Bangkok Post) (AFP) (BBC)
• Four men feature in the first Crown Court criminal trial to be held without a jury in England and Wales for more than 350 years. (The Daily Telegraph) (BBC) (Ealing Times)
• Police in Kent, UK, admit the unlawful searching of two 11-year-old children who were left “crying and shaking” after being targeted at a demonstration near Hoo^{[disambiguation needed]}. (BBC) (The Guardian)
• The 1980s Welsh popstar Michael Barrett (Shakin’ Stevens) is convicted of assault and criminal damage at a court inBallymena, Northern Ireland. (BBC) (RTÉ) (The Belfast Telegraph)

Politics and elections

• Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa announces that Tamils will be given greater say in matters of governance, proposing power sharing agreements. (The Hindu) (AFP)
• Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua gives his first interview since going into hospital in Saudi Arabia to the BBC, saying he hopes to return home soon as protests in the capital Abuja demand an end to the political situation. (BBC)(Vanguard)

Science and technology

• The “bizarre behaviour” of a nocturnal raspy cricket pollinating a flower is caught on camera on the island of Réunion, contradicting the image of crickets destroying flowers. (BBC) (New Scientist)

Sport

• The Confederation of African Football officially “disqualifies” and plans to punish the Togo national football team for failing to take part in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, despite the fatal machine gun attack on their team bus. (The Times) (The Daily Telegraph)

Weather

• Australia experiences its hottest night since 1902, as a heat wave grips the country. (BBC) (Xinhua) (IBN Live)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource