Top News Stories –

China blocks pollution documentary –
The authorities in China have a removed from websites a popular documentary which highlights the country’s severe pollution problem. Under the Dome explains the social and health costs of pollution, and was watched by more than 100 million people online, sparking debates. It was removed just two days after Premier Li Keqiang called pollution a blight on people’s lives. [BBC]

NASA probe reaches Ceres –
The US space agency’s Dawn probe has gone into orbit around Ceres, the largest object in the Solar System between Mars and Jupiter. A signal from the satellite confirming its status was received by ground stations at 13:36 GMT. Ceres is the first of the dwarf planets to be visited by a spacecraft. Scientists hope to glean information from the object that can tell them about the Solar System’s beginnings, four and a half billion years ago. Dawn has taken 7.5 years to reach its destination. Its arrival has seen it pass behind the dwarf to its “dark side”. [BBC]
The Dawn probe (by NASA)

“25 0” licence plate sells for £518,000 –
When the auctioneer’s hammer came down, classic car dealer John Collins was looking at a bill of £518,000. But it was not a rare Ferrari that he had bought. It was a number plate. The registration plate “25 O” is the most expensive ever bought at a Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) auction. Even so, Mr Collins, who owns classic Ferrari dealer Talacrest, says he would have bid more at the auction for the plate which matches the 250 model. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Furious 7 trailer –

List of the day –

Most expensive number plates in the UK –

“25 O” – £518,000 in November 2014

“1 D” – £352,000 in March 2009

“51 NGH” – £254,000 in April 2006

“1 RH” – £247,000 in November 2008

“K1 NGS” – £231,000 in December 1993

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• At least two knife-wielding attackers injure nine people at a train station in southern China; the police fatally shoot one of the suspects. (AP)
• The United Kingdom‘s National Crime Agency arrests a man as a suspected hacker in western England in connection with a June 2014 cyber attack on the messaging service used by employees at the U.S. Department of Defense. (AP)

Business and Economy

• S&P Dow Jones Indices announces it will add Apple Inc. to its Dow Jones Industrial Average on March 19, replacingAT&T. (The New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

• A road accident along the highway between Ismaïlia and Cairo in Egypt, east of Cairo, involving a bus that collided with a microbus kills fifteen people. (AP)
• Two massive snowy traffic jams in Kentucky strand motorists for 24 hours or longer. One stretched for about 26 miles along Interstate 65 from just north of Elizabethtown past Shepherdsville, and the other stretched the entire length ofInterstate 24 in Kentucky, more than 90 miles. (AP, I-65) (WSMV-TV, I-24)

International relations

• Writing in the FIFA Weekly magazine, FIFA president Sepp Blatter calls Iran to end its “intolerable” ban on women attending soccer matches, describing the situation as one that “cannot continue.” (CNN)

Law and crime

• 2014 Taipei Metro attack
  • The New Taipei City district court sentences Cheng Chieh to death for the May 2014 knife attack on a Taipei Metrotrain that left four dead and 22 passengers injured. (AP)
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan announces plans for a major restructuring and reorganization, including a focus on digital espionage (through the creation of the CIA Directorate of Digital Innovation). The plan will end some longstanding divisions, and create ten new centers that team analysts with operators, fostering collaboration and focus on a range of new security issues and threats, and replacing geographic division offices with hybrid mission centers modeled on the CIA Counterterrorism Center. (The Washington Post via MSN)
• Customs officers at the Shahjalal International Airport catch Son Young Nam, a North Korean diplomat trying to smuggle an estimated $1.4 million worth of gold into Bangladesh. Bangladesh authorities release him but will still seek to press charges. (Reuters)

Science and technology

• NASA‘s Dawn spacecraft enters orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres. (AP)(JPL)(AP)
• India‘s Universal Primer Technology disputes the credit for inventing DNA barcoding with the University of Guelph inCanada. (Nature India), (IBN7)

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