Top News Stories –

Picasso’s Women of Algiers smashes auction record –
Picasso’s Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $179.3m (£115m) at Christie’s in New York. Eleven minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers preceded the final sale – for much more than its pre-sale estimate of $140m. The evening sale also featured Alberto Giacometti’s life-size sculpture Pointing Man, which set a record as the most expensive sculpture, at $141.3m. The buyers chose to remain anonymous. The Picasso oil painting is a vibrant, cubist depiction of nude courtesans, and is part of a 15-work series the Spanish artist created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A to O. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Picasso’s Women of Algiers

Ukip rejects Nigel Farage’s resignation as party leader –
Nigel Farage is to stay on as leader of the UK Independence Party after the party’s ruling board rejected his resignation. Mr Farage quit as Ukip leader last Friday, delivering on a pledge to resign if he failed to be elected as leader of South Thanet. The news risks making Ukip into a laughing stock because Mr Farage had raised the stakes about his future by insisting he would resign. Mr Farage’s decision to stay on also raises questions over whether Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s only MP, will quit the party to become an independent MP after he suggested Mr Farage should not lead Ukip again. Mr Carswell later repeatedly refused to endorse Mr Farage’s return to the Ukip leadership after speaking at an event in central London. [Daily Telegraph]
Nigel Farage

James Corden can’t believe the Late Late Show is still on the air –
James Corden’s appearance at the Bafta TV awards was just a flying visit. In fact, his time on home soil (19 hours) was less than the time he spent in the sky travelling to and from Los Angeles for it (23 hours). “I’ve genuinely had some of the best nights of my life at this event,” he told us on the red carpet. Since he took over the Late Late Show in March, America’s latest chat show host has been grabbing headlines with his big name guests and viral videos. But he admitted to Newsbeat that it’s “mostly mystifying” as to why the show is still on the air. “No-one could have predicted the show would be received in such a manner. It’s beyond all of our wildest dreams.” [BBC]
James-Corden

David Cameron unveils ‘blue collar’ Cabinet –
David Cameron has unveiled his “blue collar Cabinet” as he promoted the son of a milkman, the daughter of a garage-owner and the Tory Party’s “champion of the people” to senior Government roles. In a bid to put making the Conservatives “the real party for working people” at the centre of the next five years of Government, Mr Cameron promoted Robert Halfon, Sajid Javid, Greg Clark and Priti Patel to senior ministerial roles. It means that 43 per cent of Cabinet ministers were educated in comprehensive schools – a rise from 21 per cent in Mr Cameron’s first Coalition Cabinet in 2010. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day for the complete Conservative cabinet.

Video of the Day –

The bidding for the most expensive painting in the world –

List of the day –

The United Kingdom Cabinet in full (as of 11 May 2015) – [List from Wikipedia]

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Han Min-goo, the South Korean Minister for National Defense states that South Korea will “mercilessly counterattack” any North Korean“provocations” following the North’s successful trial of a ballistic missile system. (Yonhap)
• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • A Turkish-owned ship is attacked near Tobruk in Libya resulting in the loss of a crew member and several others being injured. (Reuters via ABC Online)

Arts and culture

• Pablo Picasso‘s Women of Algiers (Version O) becomes the most expensive artwork ever to sell at an auction at Christie’s auction house selling for $179,365,000. (AP via Business Insider) (BBC)
• Alberto Giacometti‘s lifesized statue “Pointing Man” sells for a record $141.3 million making it the most expensive sculpture sold at auction of all time. (Yahoo! News)

Business and economy

• The Obama administration gives provisional approval for Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Arctic Ocean during the summer. (New York Times)

Disasters and accidents

• At least 15 people are dead and 20 others injured after a bus falls into a gorge in the Udhampur district in India‘s Jammu and Kashmir state.(Times of India)
• Typhoon Noul (2015)
  • Two people are dead after Typhoon Noul hits the Phillippines. The storm is now headed for Japan. (USA Today), (Time)
• May 5–10, 2015 tornado outbreak sequence
  • The death toll from a tornado outbreak in the United States rises to five with dozens injured and eight people missing. (CNN)

Health

• A new strain of bird flu caused by the H5N8 virus is identified in a backyard poultry flock in Whitley County, Indiana in the United States. (AP viaJournal Gazette)

International relations

• Malaysia detains over a thousand Bangladeshi and Rohingya people asylum seekers who arrived by boat on Monday. The Indonesian Navyconfirms that it had turned the boats away. (Reuters), (AP via Washington Post)

Law and crime

• The Swedish Supreme Court rejects a bid from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to revoke the warrant for his detention in 2010. (Deutsche Welle)
• George Zimmerman is involved in a shooting incident in Lake Mary, Florida and suffers a minor gunshot wound. (WESH)
• Investigators find the remains of at least seven people buried beneath a shopping centre in New Britain, Connecticut with the suspected killer serving time for unrelated charges. (NBC Connecticut)

Politics and elections

• Guyanese general election
  • Voters in Guyana go to the polls for a general election. (Telesurtv)
• The President of Chile Michelle Bachelet approves a new cabinet following a fall in popularity caused by a corruption scandal. (BBC)
• The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron announces a new Cabinet consisting of members of the Conservative Party cabinet.(BBC)

Sports

• In American football, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is suspended without pay for four games. The team is also fined $1 million dollars (USD) and forced to forfeit their first-round pick in the 2016 NFL draft and their fourth-round selection in the 2017 draft for their role inDeflategate.(NBC)(CNBC)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource