Top News Stories –

Whitney Houston’s daughter accident –
Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of late American singer Whitney Houston is found unconscious in a bath in a house in Roswell, Georgia. She was taken to a hospital in Roswell where she was said to be breathing. Her mother was found dead in a bath on February 11th 2012 of accidental drowning due to the effects of cocaine use and heart disease.

Bobbi Kristina Brown and Whitney Houston in 2009

Cumberbatch and Fry sign petition to pardon gays –
Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephen Fry sign an open letter requesting the government to pardon 49,000 men who were prosecuted for being gay. Family members of the World War Two codebreaker Alan Turing who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 (and later committed suicide in 1954) also signed the petition. Cumberbatch played Turing in the film “The Imitation Game”.

Benedict Cumberbatch

Balloon flight record broken –
Balloon pilots American Troy Bradley and Russian Leonid Tiukhtyaev complete their crossing of the Pacific in a helium filled balloon with a sea landing off Mexico after 6 days flying from Japan. They claim to have beaten the world distance and duration records by flying for more than 137 hours and travelling more than 5,209 miles (8,383km).

Serena Williams wins 19th grand slam title –
Serena Williams beats fellow American Maria Sharapova to win the Australian Open tennis title. Williams’ 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory gives here a 19th grand slam crown out of 23 finals – the best percentage performance in either the men’s or women’s game.

Serena Williams

Video of the Day –

The Imitation Game trailer

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2014–15 Russian military intervention in Ukraine
  • Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists conduct peace talks as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo launches a campaign against Hutu rebels. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
  • A monitoring group claims that ISIL has reportedly released a video showing the execution of Japanese hostageKenji Goto. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

• Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501
  • France orders an official investigation into the crash of AirAsia Flight 8501 which had a French copilot flying the aircraft at the time of its crash. (AFP via France 24)

Politics and elections

• Italian presidential election, 2015
  • Voters elect Sergio Mattarella President of Italy. (Corriere della Sera)
• Richard von Weizsäcker, who was president of West Germany from 1984 to 1990 and became the first president ofreunified Germany from 1990 to 1994, dies at the age of 94. (Deutsche Welle)
• Queensland state election, 2015
  • The Liberal National Party of Queensland loses its parliamentary majority, with outgoing Premier Campbell Newmanlosing his own seat of Ashgrove. It is unclear whether the Australian Labor Party, led by Annastacia Palaszczuk, has won an outright majority or if the result is a hung parliament.(ABC News Australia)

Sports

• 2015 Australian Open
  • In tennis, American Serena Williams defeats Maria Sharapova of Russia in straight sets in the Women’s Singles final. It is the sixth Australian Open crown and 19th Grand Slam singles title for the current world #1. (AAP via MSN)(The Guardian)
• 2015 AFC Asian Cup
  • In football, host nation Australia defeats South Korea 2–1 in the final of the Asian Cup. (ABC News Australia),(ABC News)
• In golf, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, who does not turn 18 until 24 April, becomes the youngest golfer of either sex to be ranked number 1 in the world, surpassing the previous record of Tiger Woods by nearly four years. (New Zealand Herald)
• In American football, The Board of Selectors for Pro Football Hall of Fame announces the induction of eight individuals as the 2015 induction class which will formally enter the Hall in August. The inductees are Junior Seau, Jerome Bettis,Charles Haley, Will Shields, Tim Brown, and Mick Tingelhoff as players, and Bill Polian and Ron Wolf as contributors.(NBC Sports)

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