September 1, 2015

Top News Stories –

Kanye West tells MTV Video Music Awards he wants to ‘run for president’ –
Kanye West stole the show at the MTV Video Music Awards by declaring that he will run for US president in 2020. He was given the lifetime achievement award but during his speech said he’d “decided in 2020 to run for president”. Cheered on by his wife Kim Kardashian, Kanye got an extended standing ovation when he was picking up the Video Vanguard lifetime achievement award. He also appeared to confess to smoking weed before taking the stage. “I will die for the art, for what I believe in and I ain’t always gonna be polite. “I rolled up a little something. I got the answer. We’re the millennials bro.” [BBC Newsbeat]
Kanye West

Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger announce split –
Avril Lavigne has announced that she’s separating from Chad Kroeger after two years of marriage. The singer posted a statement on her Instagram account alongside a happy photo of the couple on their wedding day. “It is with a heavy heart that Chad and I announce our separation today,” she wrote. “Through not only the marriage, but the music as well, we’ve created many unforgettable moments.” The 30-year-old married the Nickelback frontman in July 2013.

Avril Lavigne

Video of the Day –

Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams

List of the Day –

MTV VMA Winners 2015 [Billboard Magazine]

Video of the Year:
Beyoncé – “7/11”
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” — WINNER
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”

Best Male Video:
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk” — WINNER
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
The Weeknd – “Earned It”
Nick Jonas – “Chains”

Best Female Video:
Beyoncé – “7/11”
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space” — WINNER
Nicki Minaj – “Anaconda”
Sia – “Elastic Heart”
Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do”

Best Hip Hop Video:
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen”
Nicki Minaj – “Anaconda” — WINNER
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again”
Big Sean ft. E-40 – “IDFWU”

Best Pop Video:
Beyoncé – “7/11”
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud”
Taylor Swift – “Blank Space” — WINNER
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Maroon 5 – “Sugar”

Best Rock Video:
Hozier – “Take Me To Church”
Fall Out Boy – “Uma Thurman” — WINNER
Florence + the Machine – “Ship To Wreck”
Walk the Moon – “Shut Up and Dance”
Arctic Monkeys – “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?”

Artist to Watch:
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen” — WINNER
Vance Joy – “Riptide”
George Ezra – “Budapest”
James Bay – “Hold Back The River”
FKA Twigs – “Pendulum”

Best Collaboration:
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” — WINNER
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk”
Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again”
Ariana Grande & The Weeknd – “Love Me Harder”
Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj – “Bang Bang”

Video With a Social Message:
Jennifer Hudson – “I Still Love You”
Colbie Caillat – “Try”
Big Sean ft. Kanye West and John Legend – “One Man Can Change the World” — WINNER
Rihanna – “American Oxygen”
Wale – “The White Shoes”

Song of the Summer:
David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj, Afrojack & Bebe Rexha – “Hey Mama”
Demi Lovato – “Cool For The Summer”
Fetty Wap ft. Monty – “My Way”
Fifth Harmony ft. Kid Ink – “Worth It”
Five Seconds of Summer – “She’s Kinda Hot” — WINNER
Major Lazer & DJ Snake ft. MØ – “Lean On”
OMI – “Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)”
Selena Gomez ft. A$AP Rocky – “Good For You”
Silento – “Watch Me”
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood”
The Weeknd – “Can’t Feel My Face”

Best Art Direction:
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Charles Infante)
Snoop Dogg – “So Many Pros” (Jason Fijal) — WINNER
Jack White – “Would You Fight For My Love” (Jeff Peterson)
The Chemical Brothers – “Go” (Michel Gondry)
Skrillex & Diplo – “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber (Brewer)

Best Choreography:
Beyoncé – “7/11” (Beyoncé, Chris Grant, Additional choreography: Gabriel Valenciano)
OK Go – “I Won’t Let You Down” (OK Go, air:man and Mori Harano) — WINNER
Chet Faker – “Gold” (Ryan Heffington)
Ed Sheeran – “Don’t” (Nappy Tabs)
Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Never Catch Me” (Keone and Mari Madrid)

Best Cinematography:
Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Never Catch Me” (Larkin Sieple) — WINNER
Ed Sheeran – “Thinking Out Loud” (Daniel Pearl)
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Christopher Probst)
FKA Twigs – “Two Weeks” (Justin Brown)
Alt-J – “Left Hand Free” (Mike Simpson)

Best Direction:
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Joseph Kahn)
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – “Uptown Funk” (Bruno Mars and Cameron Duddy)
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright” (Colin Tilley & The Little Homies) — WINNER
Hozier – “Take Me To Church” (Brendan Canty, Conal Thomson)
Childish Gambino – “Sober” (Hiro Murai)

Best Editing:
Beyoncé – “7/11” (Beyoncé, Ed Burke, Jonathan Wing) — WINNER
Ed Sheeran – “Don’t” (Jacquelyn London)
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Chancler Haynes at Cosmo Street)
A$AP Rocky – “L$D” (Dexter Navy)
Skrillex & Diplo – “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber (Brewer)

Best Visual Effects:
Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Bad Blood” (Ingenuity Studios)
FKA Twigs – “Two Weeks” (Gloria FX, Tomash Kuzmytskyi, and Max Chyzhevskyy)
Childish Gambino – “Telegraph Ave.” (Gloria FX)
Skrillex & Diplo – “Where Are U Now” with Justin Bieber (Brewer) — WINNER
Tyler, The Creator – “F****** Young/Death Camp” (Gloria FX)

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#BackToHogwarts	#DescribeMyJobToA5YearOld	Idris Elba
2	Idris Elba	#MyCountryIn3Words	#DeadlineDay
3	#YaEsSetiembreY	Idris Elba	#MyCountryIn3Words
4	#EnEsteMesTengoPensado	#BackToHogwarts	#BackToHogwarts
5	#ReDaPara	Kim Davis	#LabourC4
6	#ÖzgürMedyaSusturulamaz	Kermit	#Back2School
7	#قاطعوا_النساء…	#BeatLA	1st of September
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9	#EstreiaARegraDoJogo	#NewHorrorMovieRules	#FreeMyHomieCalum
10	#حمله_مقاطعه_ا�…	#IWillShhhhYouWhen	#IKNOWWHATYOUDIDONITUNES

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL
- The United Nations confirms the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has completely destroyed the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria, after earlier reports that the structure was mostly intact. (BBC) (Al Jazeera English Online)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- Al-Shabaab claims to have killed scores of African Union troops in a successful attack that captured a compound in Janaale, south of Mogadishu. (Al-Jazeera), (AP)
War in North-West Pakistan
- Six suspected militants are killed in a United States drone attack in the tribal area of North Waziristan. (IANS via Yahoo! News India)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis releases a letter granting priests the ability to grant absolution to women who have received an abortion. (Washington Post)
Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia
- Wikipedia concludes a large-scale operation blocking hundreds of users centered on networks of for-pay edits violating the encyclopedia’s guidelines. (BBC) (The Guardian) (Ars Technica)

Disaster and accidents

A chemical plant owned by the Shandong Binyuan Chemical Company explodes in the Chinese city of Dongying in the coastal Shandong province, killing at least one person with the extent of other injuries unknown. (AP via Asian Correspondent) (Voice of America) (Shanghaiist)
The death toll from a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at a Quincy, Illinois veterans home rises to at least seven with more than the current number of 32 sickened expected since the incubation period for illness can be up to two weeks. (Reuters)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Authorities in Hungary close the Budapest Keleti railway station to prevent hundreds of migrants from boarding trains to other European capitals. (ITV)
- Thousands of refugees arrive in Germany’s München Hauptbahnhof from Budapest. Police and firefighters on the scene provide them with food, water and medical aid even as more continue to arrive. (thelocal)
- More than 11,000 Icelanders offer to open their homes to Syrian refugees to help with the European crisis.(The Independent) (Time)
Eurostar services between Paris and London are delayed by hundreds of migrants trying to board the trains at Calais. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Lake County, Illinois authorities seek three suspects, believed to be two white men and a black man, who killed a police officer from the Fox Lake, Illinois Police Department, Lieutenant Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, a 30-year veteran of the force who had been a mentor to many youths in the area and one of the most decorated officers in his department. (Chicago Tribune)

Politics and elections

Guatemala’s Congress unanimously votes to strip President Otto Pérez of immunity from prosecution for his alleged role in a graft scandal that has engulfed his government. Nationwide elections are scheduled for Sunday, September 6th; Pérez is not eligible because of constitutional term limits. (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
New Zealand flag debate
- Four alternatives to the current New Zealand flag are chosen for a Spring referendum (20 November – 11 December 2015) in which New Zealanders will determine their favorite of the new designs. (TV New Zealand) (New Zealand Government)
A law affecting online personal computer data storage comes into force in Russia. (RT)
Faroese general election, 2015
- The centre-left opposition, led by Aksel V. Johannesen, wins the elections on the Faroe Islands; the new government is expected to pass legislation allowing same-sex unions. (The Local)]

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September 7, 2015

Top News Stories –

Italian chess player ‘cheats’ using Morse code and spy pendant –
An Italian chess player has been expelled from one of Italy’s most important tournaments after he allegedly used Morse code and a spy pendant containing a hidden camera to communicate with an accomplice. Arcangelo Ricciardi entered the International Chess Festival of Imperia ranked 51,366 in the world, but astonished rivals as he breezed through the early stages of the competition to reach the eighth and penultimate round. Jean Coqueraut, who refereed the tournament in Liguria, northern Italy, said he began to suspect something was wrong early on in the competition. “In chess, performances like that are impossible,” he told La Stampa newspaper. “I didn’t think he was a genius, I knew he had to be a cheat.” Tournament organisers then asked the 37-year old to pass through a metal detector and a sophisticated pendant was found hanging around his neck underneath a shirt. The pendant contained a tiny video camera as well as a mass of wires attached to his body and a 4cm box under his armpit. Mr Ricciardi claimed they were good luck charms. It is thought the camera was used to transmit the chess game in real time to an accomplice or sophisticated computer, which then suggested moves for Mr Ricciardi through a series of signals received in the box under his arm. [Daily Telegraph] In August two Israeli men were accused by their team mates of cheating in international Bridge competitions.

SeaWorld will no longer accept stolen whales after plea from One Direction star, Harry Styles –
The SeaWorld marine park has announced it will no longer accept whales stolen from the wild after a barrage of criticism, most recently from Harry Styles of One Direction. In a concert in San Diego, which hosts one of SeaWorld’s attractions, the pop star urged fans to boycott the company. SeaWorld was heavily criticised in Blackfish, a documentary released in 2013. The company had been waiting for US government approval for the import of 18 beluga whales which were captured in Russia. Several of the whales were due to be taken to SeaWorld’s own facilities. But earlier this week, SeaWorld said it was no longer willing to receive them.
Harry Styles

Sam Smith tweets Bond theme tease featuring mysterious ‘Spectre ring’ –
Sam Smith has all but confirmed that he will sing the theme tune for the new James Bond film, Spectre. The singer tweeted a picture of a finger with a ring featuring the movie’s logo. He had been tipped for the soundtrack several times but previously denied any involvement in the project.
Sam Smith/Twitter

‘Biggest’ Stonehenge site discovered –
Archaeologists have found around 100 huge standing stones buried near Stonehenge. Experts think the discovery could be the ‘biggest’ prehistoric monument ever built in Britain. Using special equipment to scan below the Earth’s surface experts were able to find evidence of seventeen previously unknown wooden or stone structures. The results suggest Stonehenge – which is 5,000 years old – did not stand alone. Scientists think the newly discovered sites were related to Stonehenge. One big surprise the research found was traces of up to 60 huge stones or pillars – part of an ancient “super henge”, about 1.5km wide.[BBC]

Video of the Day –

No-A [Short Film]

NO-A [Short Film] from Liam Murphy on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#terörelanetolsun	#MakeAChefMadIn3Words	#MondayMotivation
2	Jimmy Morales	Dex Osama	Radio X
3	Dom Pedro	#MondayMotivation	#MakeAChefMadIn3Words
4	#GanasDe	#LaborDay	Kameda
5	#NoEsMentiraSiTeDigo	#SarahPalinMovieNight	#Carmichael
6	#اجمل_اسم_بنت	#BigLiesYouTellYourself	#DontBombSyria
7	Ruiz Mateos	#TheOneLineYouHateMost	Stonehenge
8	#DragMeDownPower	#ImHereForThe	Tony Hall
9	#LaborDay	Trump Is Right	Ghanaian
10	San Lorenzo	Stonehenge	Trainspotting 2

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Turkey–PKK conflict
- Turkish jets strike PKK militant positions across south-east Turkey and northern Iraq and deploy special forces to the Iraqi border following a deadly PKK attack which left at least 16 Turkish soldiers dead. (Reuters)

Business and economy

The patent office in India rejects Pfizer’s petition for a patent on an arthritis drug, tofacitinib, re-affirming their rejection of the same drug in 2011. The drug is a chemical reformulation of the active compound in the medicine and thus the Indian Patent Office says that the company would have to establish that the compound for which it is seeking a patent is therapeutically more effective than the active compound. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Five people are killed as a small plane crashes in the western part of the American state of Colorado. (USA Today)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- The President of France François Hollande agrees to take 24,000 refugees out of the estimated 100,000 per month expected to arrive. (AP via ABC News)
- Hundreds of people, tired of waiting for promised transportation, broke out from Hungary’s first migrant holding center near the Serbian border, past police overwhelmed by their numbers, to start the march north toward Budapest. The asylum seekers / migrants, now accompanied by groups of police, advanced along the edge of the main highway to the capital. (AP via Global News)
The United Kingdom House of Commons passes a planned referendum in the United Kingdom‘s continued membership in the European Union. (Reuters via Daily Mail)

Politics and elections

Trinidad and Tobago general election, 2015
- Voters in Trinidad and Tobago go to the polls for a House of Representatives election with the result too close to call. (Reuters)
During U.S. Labor Day holiday activities in Boston, President Barack Obama announces a new executive order requiring federal government contractors to offer workers seven days of paid sick leave per year. On July 1st, Massachusetts became the third state, Connecticut and California being the others, with similar requirements. (Washington Post) (Huffington Post)
In an education scandal in Egypt, a top student, Mariam Malak, says she’s a victim of corruption and fraud with the school or the examination board swapping her final exam papers with another pupil, thus assigning her a “Zero”-grade for each of the seven subjects. 40,000 online rally for her via a Facebook support page while another top student reporting the same complaint. (BBC)
Hungary’s Defense Minister Csaba Hende resigns amid the refugee crisis. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán immediately replaced Hende with a member of his Fidesz party, Istvan Simicsko. (UPI)

Science and technology

A bolide or meteor fireball explodes over the Thai city of Bangkok. (The Telegraph)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

September 24, 2015

Top News Stories –

Hajj Stampede Near Mecca Leaves Over 700 Dead –
In streaming ribbons of white, great masses of Muslim pilgrims made their way between cities of air-conditioned tents toward the next stop on their holy tour of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Then something went disastrously wrong, trapping the crowds in narrow streets and touching off a mass panic and crushing stampede that left the asphalt covered with lost sandals, crumpled wheelchairs and piles of white-robed bodies. It was the deadliest accident during the hajj pilgrimage in a quarter-century, with at least 717 pilgrims from around the world killed and more than 850 injured. [NY Times]

Russian billionaire hands two ‘stolen’ Picassos to French authorities –
A Russian billionaire has handed in to French authorities two Picassos, valued at £20 million, that the artist’s stepdaughter claims were stolen from her. Dmitri Rybolovlev, who owns Monaco football club, insists he acquired the portraits of Picasso’s second wife, Jacqueline Picasso, in good faith from Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier. In a statement, Mr Rybolovlev’s family trust said it was handing over “Tête de femme. Profil” [Head of a Woman. Profile] and “Espagnole à l’éventail” [Spanish Woman with a Fan] as they “possess immeasurable aesthetic and sentimental value” for Catherine Hutin-Blay, Jacqueline’s daughter. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Lenny’s Garage from Peter Crosby on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#StealMyGirlVideoToday	#StealMyGirlVideoToday	Halloween
2	Lamela	#EbolaInNYC	Lamela
3	#OdioQue	Steve Nash	Christmas
4	#BenceMutluluk	Halloween	#StealMyGirlVideoToday
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6	#MessageToSelf	#MakeAMoviePG	#artRAVELondon
7	#NoQuieroEnamorartePero	Honey Boo Boo	London
8	#YoPorVos	#RTJ2	Harry Kane
9	#HappyKrystalDay	#MarysvilleShooting	#LifeStory
10	Here Comes Honey Boo Boo	Run The Jewels 2	#AskNigelFarage

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- At least 29 people are killed in a bombing of a mosque in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during prayers for Eid al-Adha. (CNN)
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
- The government of Armenia claims that Azerbaijani forces shelled Tavush Province resulting in three deaths. (AFP via France 24)
Arab–Israeli conflict
- Israel’s security cabinet issues a three-year temporary order that sets a four-year minimum sentence for adult stone- and firebomb-throwers. In addition, new rules of engagement allow police to open fire when the life of a third party is under threat. (NBC News), (Haaretz), (Newsweek)
2015 Burkinabé coup d’état
- The coup is reversed. Interim President Michel Kafando and interim Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida are reinstalled, and government soldiers are returned to their stations. Coup leader Gen. Gilbert Diendéré apologizes for the coup and the week-long unrest that killed at least 10 people. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) suggests that elections, originally scheduled for Oct. 11, be held Nov. 22, and that candidate eligibility rules be more inclusive. (AP via Washington Post),(Reuters), (Big News Network)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis’ visit to the United States
- Pope Francis becomes the first Pope ever to address a Joint Session of the United States Congress. Afterwards, he greets onlookers at the National Mall. He addresses many issues: abortion and the sanctity of life, the importance of the family and of marriage, climate change, immigration and the refugee crises caused by global unrest, proper business conduct, and worldwide abolition of capital punishment. (AP via MSN), (CNN), (Washington Post), (Time), (Vatican)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Hajj stampede
- At least 719 people are dead and 863 people injured in a stampede near Mecca during the Hajj pilgramage in Saudi Arabia. (BBC), (The New York Times), (Washington Post)
At least four people are killed and 12 critically injured after a charter bus, a Ride the Ducks tour vehicle, and two smaller vehicles crash on the Aurora Bridge in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington. (King 5)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Ten thousand migrants enter Hungary, mostly from Croatia, despite efforts by the Hungarian government and military to stop them. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
- Croatia and Serbia restrict cross-border traffic. (Reuters/AFP via ABC News Australia)
Luhansk People’s Republic officials in Donetsk told U.N. agencies and several other international NGOs to leave the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Despite the Minsk Protocol and Minsk II peace agreements low intensity fighting and shelling continued non-stop in the region for over a year. There are fears that full-scale war will start because the breakaway regions plan on holding local elecion without approval from the Ukrainian government. (AP via ABC News)

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September 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

Eight of Iran’s women’s football team ‘are men’ –
Eight of Iran’s women’s football team are actually men awaiting sex change operations, it has been claimed. The country’s football association was accused of being “unethical” for knowingly fielding eight men in its women’s team. Mojtabi Sharifi, an official close to the Iranian league, told an Iranian news website: “[Eight players] have been playing with Iran’s female team without completing sex change operations.” On Wednesday, authorities reportedly ordered gender testing of the entire national squad and leading league players. The names of the players thought to be male were not revealed. [Daily Telegraph]

Electricity from the air – Drayson’s big idea –
Free energy from the air. It sounds like a fantasy but that is what the entrepreneur and former science minister Lord Drayson has just unveiled at London’s Royal Institution. He claims that a technology called Freevolt can be the power source for the “internet of things”, allowing low energy devices from wearables to sensors to operate without being plugged in. The technology involves harvesting radio frequency energy from existing wireless and broadcast networks, from 4G to digital television. Lord Drayson says it’s a world first: “It doesn’t require any extra infrastructure, it doesn’t require us to transmit any extra energy, it’s recycling the energy which isn’t being used at the moment.” The technology was demonstrated in the lecture theatre at the Royal Institution, where Michael Faraday worked on electromagnetism in the 19th Century. Lord Drayson first showed how much radio frequency energy was in the room, and then used his Freevolt system to power a loudspeaker. [BBC]
Lord Drayson

Caitlyn Jenner will not be charged in fatal car crash: prosecutors –
Former Olympic champion and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner will not be charged in connection with a crash in Malibu earlier this year that killed a 69-year-old woman, Los Angeles prosecutors said on Wednesday. Based on the facts in the case, prosecutors lacked evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jenner’s conduct was unreasonable, according to documents provided by Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Jenner, 65, was driving a Cadillac Escalade along Pacific Coast Highway and towing a trailer carrying a dune buggy when she slammed into two other cars, according to authorities. During the crash, a white Lexus being driven by 69-year-old Kim Howe was shoved by Jenner’s sport-utility vehicle across a center divider and into oncoming traffic, where it was struck head-on by a Hummer. [Reuters]

Video of the Day –

Why Is There a Magnet Inside My Dog?

Top Twitter Trends –

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1	#ماذا_تقول_للش�…	#PodcastDay	Jamaica
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3	Stenio Garcia	Donna Shalala	#OddWaysToStartAEulogy
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10	iOS 9.0.2	Hump Day	Tom Watson

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
- The upper chamber of the Russian parliament approves a law allowing the use of the Russian Armed Forces outside its borders, following a request by Russian President Vladimir Putin. (The News Hub)
- Russia begins airstrikes against ISIL positions in Syria following a request from President Bashar al-Assad. A U.S. official said the air attack struck near the Syrian city of Homs, where the official said ISIS currently does not have a major presence.(NPR), (ABC News), (Washington Post)
- The Western-backed Syrian rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, says one of its ‘leading officers’ has been killed in a Russian airstrike in the central Homs Governorate. (AP)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present), Battle of Kunduz
- The U.S.-led coalition dispatches American troops to Kunduz to help Afghan forces combat Taliban militants. (The Washington Post)
2006 Mumbai train bombings
- An Indian court sentences five suspected Islamic militants to death and seven others to life imprisonment for bombing attacks nine years ago on seven Mumbai commuter trains that killed 188 people and wounded more than 800. (AP via ABC News),(Reuters), (BBC)
At least six people are killed and dozens injured in explosions at 15 locations in Liucheng County in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The explosives were reportedly concealed inside express delivery packages. Chinese officials have identified a suspect, but the motive is not yet known. (South China Morning Post), (UPI)
2015 Hajj stampede
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns Saudi Arabia of “harsh” measures if the Kingdom fails to promptly repatriate the bodies of more than 200 Iranian pilgrims killed in last week’s Hajj stampede. (AP via Denver Post), (Reuters)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- An Iranian fishing boat loaded with weapons, including rockets and anti-tank shells, is intercepted and seized in the Arabian Sea, 150 miles southeast of the Omani Port of Salalah, by Arab coalition forces. Saudi Arabia has previously accused Iran of supplying weapons to Houthi militants in Yemen. (BBC)

Arts and culture

The Dalai Lama, following his routine check-up at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, cancels his U.S. speaking engagements in October after doctors advised him to rest. The 80-year-old Tibetan Buddhist leader is scheduled to return home to Dharamsala, India, Saturday. (The Times of India), (Radio Free Asia)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Effects of global warming on oceans
- A hurricane warning is in place in The Bahamas as Tropical Storm Joaquin approaches the islands. Joaquin (max. winds 70 mph) will pass over ocean with temperatures near 86°F (30°C) – the warmest since record keeping began in 1880, and is forecast to become a hurricane today. Joaquin is expected to produce 5 to 10 inches of rain with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches possible over San Salvador and Rum Cay. The storm is predicted to accelerate and be several hundred miles off the North Carolina coast Sunday morning. (National Hurricane Center), (UPI), (Reuters)
- Tropical Storm Joaquin strengthens to a Category 1 hurricane (75 mph winds) as it nears The Bahamas. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says additional strengthening is expected over the next two days. (USA Today), (NHC)
- With maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, Joaquin is upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane. It is expected to pass The Bahamas Thursday, bringing tropical-storm-force winds, storm surges, coastal flooding and 5-10 inches of rain. While the European forecast model suggests Joaquin will avoid the U.S. East Coast, the American model predicts it will ram into Virginia, Maryland or North Carolina this weekend. (NBC News), (NHC)
- Governor Terry McAuliffe declares a state of emergency as Virginia prepares for potentially dangerous flooding from a separate Nor’easter storm system and the possible landfall of Hurricane Joaquin. (Virginia), (Inside Northern Va.)
- Hurricane Joaquin reaches maximum sustained winds of 115 mph and becomes a Category 3 hurricane. The storm, with additional strengthening expected, should linger over the The Bahamas through October 2 before heading toward the U.S. (ABC News), (NHC)
An earthquake strikes the Dutch province of Groningen, damaging some buildings. (NL Times)

International relations

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, states that Palestine will no longer abide by the Oslo accords and claims that Israel has not been complying with them. (CNN)
The black, white, red, and green flag of the State of Palestine is raised above the grounds of the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the first time. (Newsweek), (The Guardian)

Law and crime

The American state of Georgia executes Kelly Gissendaner for her role in the murder of her husband despite several appeals and a plea for clemency by Pope Francis. (AP via News 12), (Daily Mail)
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin issues a 37-day stay of Richard Glossip’s execution that was scheduled for today to allow the American state time to address questions about chemicals and protocol. Pope Francis, who spent last week in the U.S., askedArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, to intercede with the governor and request she commute Glossip’s sentence. (CNN), (Reuters)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

October 7, 2015

Top News Stories –

Blatter faces 90-day suspension from FIFA, confidant says –
FIFA president Sepp Blatter faces an imminent 90 day suspension from soccer if the governing body’s ethics judge backs a prosecutor’s recommendation, a close friend and former advisor to Blatter told Reuters on Wednesday. Blatter’s long-term confidant Klaus Stoehlker said the decision by judge Hans-Joachim Eckert on the provisional suspension was expected by Friday. “There is no final decision, this is a recommendation from the lower part of the Ethics Committee to the upper part,” said Stoehlker, who added that Blatter had been informed of the development. [Reuters] In July FIFA turned down a request for Blatter to attend a U.S. Senate Panel Hearing
Sepp Blatter

Twitter launches Moments feature for ‘the day’s biggest and best stories’ –
Twitter’s launched a new feature called Moments to make it easier to see the day’s biggest and best stories. It works by grouping together interesting and important tweets on single subjects – which you can then read, even if you don’t follow the people tweeting them. Moments will appear in a special tab rather than on your timeline. It’s hoped this will appeal to people who find Twitter too confusing to start with. The Moments tab will be divided into sections including news, sports and entertainment. For now, it’s only being rolled out in America but will be heading to Europe soon. [BBC Newsbeat]

The Great British Bake Off 2015: the final – Nadiya crowned winner –
So the smallest baker had the biggest smile. In the final of The Great British Bake-Off (BBC One), 4ft 11in Nadiya Hussain’s face lit up with victory. It would have taken a hard-hearted viewer not to grin at her win too. After 10 weeks of fiendish challenges – popping dough into proving drawers, peering anxiously into ovens and wincing as tough-to-please judges poked at their pastry – just three of the original 12 contenders remained, their eyes on the title of Britain’s best amateur baker. Nadiya became the third consecutive female winner of that glass cake-stand trophy. It was a victory for women, for multicultural Britain and for brilliant baking. [Daily Telegraph] See Top Twitter Trends and List of the Day

Retired wrestler Hiroshi Hase appointed to Japanese cabinet by PM Shinzo Abe –
Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, has appointed a former television announcer and a retired wrestler who went by the ring name Viet Cong Express #1 to his new cabinet. Mr Abe retained around half his ministers in the first reshuffle of portfolios since he won the general election in December, but also has one eye on elections for the upper house of the Japanese parliament next summer. Hiroshi Hase, 54, was appointed minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology and the challenge of “education rebuilding”.

Video of the Day –

Honest Trailers – Aladdin

List of the Day –

Great British Bake Off Innuendos 2015

“The wobble should be like me backside” – Sandy on her crème brûlée (2015, episode 4)

“Stand away from your hot baps!” – Mel and Sue

“One crack bad, two cracks better” – Mel Giedroyc to Ugne about her Madeira cake (2015, episode 1)

“You have got two hours to pop Mary’s cherry” – Sue (the second half of the quote was “in the oven”)

“The terror of a soggy bottom has been keeping me up all night” – Season four finalist Kimberley

“Go on Mary, give it a good slapping” – Paul Hollywood

“Time to stop fiddling with Charlotte now” – Sue Perkins

“Oh no, you have some irregular-shaped balls” – Mary Berry

“He loves his buns”- Mary Berry, on Paul Hollywood

“It’s all in the wrist action” – Mary Berry

“Get those lady’s fingers soggy!” – Sue Perkins

“Messy top, tidy bottom” – Sue on Tamal

“Right bakers, time to reveal your cracks” – Sue

“I’m pinching my bottom seam” – Flora

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#QueMeFalteTodoMenos	#WCW	#GBBOFinal
2	#felizmiercoles	Roy Hibbert	Brian Blessed
3	#كم_واحد_يتابع�…	#BadInventions	#CameronSpeech
4	#MTVFANWARSDirectioners	Matt Barnes	#artsdigital
5	Edgar Allan Poe	#NerdUpATVShow	#Leaders15
6	Vin Diesel	Moana	Caspian Sea
7	Aziz Sancar	Victor Cruz	#WeWantOurCountryBack
8	#احترمك_جدا_اذا	#WalkToSchoolDay	#panorama
9	#هل_يحق_للزوجه_…	Draft Biden	Leon Brittan
10	#لو_الجامعه_اخ�…	#MTVFANWARSDirectioners	#ChewingGum

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
- An FBI investigation has reportedly found that criminal networks specializing in nuclear smuggling in Eastern Europe, particularly in the nation of Moldova, have shipped radioactive material to ‘Middle Eastern extremists’, including the Islamic State (which in the recent past has threatened to unleash a nuclear holocaust to ‘wipe the West off the face of the Earth’). (AP via The Huffington Post)
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Russia launches an intense bombing campaign in the Syrian governorates of Idlib and Hama. The Syrian Army is conducting a ground offensive in the same area. (Jerusalem Post), (Reuters)
- Four Russian warships launch at least 26 cruise missiles at ISIS positions in Syria from the Caspian Sea. (RT)
- Russian airstrikes destroy the main weapons depots of a U.S.-trained rebel group, Liwa Suqour al-Jabal, in Syria’s Aleppo province. Last week, Russian raids hit Liwa sites in western and northern Syria, areas where the Islamic State group has no significant presence. (Reuters)
Boko Haram insurgency
- Boko Haram suicide bombers kill at least 15 people at a mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Damaturu. (AP)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) calls for activating the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission – for the first time since its 1991 creation under the Geneva Conventions – to investigate the deadly U.S. bombing of MSF’s hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. MSF says it does not trust internal military inquiries into the bombing that killed at least 22 people, which it considers a war crime. (Reuters) (BBC)
- United States President Barack Obama telephoned MSF International President Joanne Liu to apologize for the U.S. bombing of the hospital in Afghanistan, express his condolences for the 22 people killed, commit to provide a transparent, thorough, and objective accounting of the facts and circumstances of the incident, and implement any changes to make tragedies like this one less likely to occur in the future.(Reuters) (Washington Post)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Saudi-led airstrikes kill at least 15 civilians and wound 25 others in Yemen at a wedding hosted by a tribal leader known to support the Houthi rebels. (AP via ABC News) (The New York Times)

Health and medicine

The World Health Organization announces that, since the Ebola outbreak began in March 2014, last week marked the first week of no new cases worldwide. (Time)

Law and crime

The High Court of Australia rules that the breast cancer gene BRCA-1 cannot be patented and the patent claimed by Myriad Genetics is invalid. (ABC News Australia)
China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announces their investigation of Fujian governor Su Shulin, the former chairman of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, on suspicion of serious disciplinary violations, the “euphemism for corruption.” This follows the massive anti-corruption drive President Xi Jinping launched when he came to power more than three years ago. (Reuters via Daily Mail) (South China Morning Post)
Brazil’s Federal Accounts Court (TCU), in a unanimous 8-0 decision, rules that President Dilma Rousseff’s government manipulated its accounts in 2014 to disguise a widening fiscal deficit. The ruling, while not legally binding, is expected to be used by opposition lawmakers who are calling for impeachment proceedings. (Reuters) (AP)

Science

Tomas Lindahl, Paul L. Modrich and Aziz Sancar win the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in DNA repair. (BBC)

Sport

2015 FIFA corruption case
- Fédération Internationale de Football Association ethics committee recommends FIFA President Sepp Blatter be suspended, re: the Swiss attorney general’s ongoing criminal investigation. The final decision will be made by Chairman of the Ethics Committee’s adjudication chamber, Hans-Joachim Eckert. (BBC) (Daily Mail)
The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0 in the MLB National League Wild Card Game. (ESPN)

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November 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

New Zealand: Auckland aims to become trilingual city –
New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, has announced plans to encourage the entire population to speak English, Maori and a third language. The initiative, launched by the council-controlled educational organisation COMET, aims to get all of Auckland’s 1.4 million residents speaking the national language of Te Reo Maori, Radio New Zealand reports. Currently, only 2.3% of Aucklanders speak the language, the lowest rate in the country, while over 1m of the city’s residents are monolingual – usually English, the radio says. Some 377,000 residents already have two languages as a result of the city’s diverse ethnic mix, where 40% of Aucklanders were born overseas, but their languages tend to be overlooked in favour of English. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Domestic Appliances from Lewis Firth Bolton on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#CyberMonday	#CyberMonday	Sam Pepper
2	#FelizLunes	#mondaymotivation	#CyberMonday
3	Kobe	#PopeBars	#mondaymotivation
4	水木先生	Tomorrow is December	#StAndrewsDay
5	#SoulTrainAwards	#RejectedReindeer	Kobe Bryant
6	Balón de Oro	#COP21	#AuthorDay
7	水木しげる先生	Sam Pepper	75% of Labour
8	#TheWalkingDead	#ISurvivedHighSchoolBy	Overweight Haters Ltd
9	#الهلال_التعاون	Clay Helton	#PAKvENG
10	Sam Pepper	Anne of Green Gables	#TWDMidSeasonFinale

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Paris attack aftermath
- French intelligence services are reportedly operating under the theory that Paris-attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has escaped to Syria despite country-wide martial law in 3 different countries. (CNN)
Iraqi Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL, American-led intervention in Iraq
- With the support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraqi Armed Forces have launched operations to retake Ramadi from ISIL. (Military Times)
Syrian Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that at least 50 United States military instructors have deployed to northern Syria from Turkey and Iraq to train Kurdish forces ahead of an assault on ISIL‘s de-facto capital Al-Raqqah. (Deutsche Welle)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- At least three Saudi border guards are killed following clashes with Yemeni forces in the kingdom’s southern Jizan Region near the border with Yemen. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Responding to reports, the American Tribune Publishing Co. states it is not in talks to sell the company. (Chicago Tribune) (Wall Street Journal)
Canadian BlackBerry Limited announces plans to shut down operations in Pakistan at year’s end because it cannot comply with the Pakistani government’s monitoring orders which would result in a massive invasion of user privacy. (CNET)
The International Monetary Fund modifies its benchmark currency basket to include the yuan of the People’s Republic of China. The basket also includes the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, and the Japanese yen. (Reuters)
The United States Federal Reserve Board approves a rule prohibiting the government from extending emergency loans to “too big to fail” companies, a practice deemed essential during the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. (UPI)

Health and medicine

The capitals of the world’s two most populous nations, China and India, are blanketed in hazardous, choking smog. Beijing, on the second-highest pollution alert, is closing highways, halting or suspending construction while warning residents to stay indoors. The U.S. New Delhi embassy’s monitoring station recorded an air quality index of 372, putting air pollution levels into “hazardous” territory. No action by the New Delhi government. (Hindustan Times)
A UNICEF report finds AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African teenagers and the second most common killer for adolescents across the globe. While the Asia Pacific region has seen a 31 percent drop in new HIV infections, and 28 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths, the estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the region has more than doubled since 2005. Tomorrow is World Aids Day. (AP via Huffington Post) (Reuters)

International relations

Martyrs’ Day (United Arab Emirates) is being observed in United Arab Emirates as Commemoration Day this year on November 30, 2015, recognising the sacrifices and dedication of Emirati martyrs who have given their life in the UAE and abroad in the field of civil, military and humanitarian service. (GulfNews)
South Korea’s parliament approves a free trade pact with China after opposition lawmakers, concerned that deal that would hurt agriculture and fisheries, secured a $1.4 billion relief package for farmers. (AP via Fox News)
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Around 150 world leaders attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, aiming for a global deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (CNN)
Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis travels to a besieged Muslim neighborhood known as PK5 in the Central African Republic, a country wracked by sectarian violence. This visit is part of Francis’s message of peace and reconciliation. As a result of the violence over the last two years, most of the capital Bangui’s 100,000-plus Muslims have fled; now only 15,000 remain. (AP via Bastrop Daily Enterprise)
- Pope Francis tells a crowd in a mosque in Bangui that “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.” (BBC)
Israel will open a diplomatic mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), the headquarters of which are located near the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. Israel will be the first Irena member to open such a mission; other member nations work Irena relations from their missions to the UAE, which Israel does not have. (New York Times)
Arctic Joint Strategic Command (Russia)
- A Russian Airborne Troops spokesman says the VDV is planning to expand their military exercises into the North Pole area of the Arctic in 2016. (UPI)

Law and crime

The University of Chicago cancels classes for the day, and asks students, faculty, and non-essential staff to stay away from its main campus after being informed by the FBI of a threat of gun violence. (Reuters via The Jerusalem Post) (USA Today)
- One suspect, a student from the University of Illinois at Chicago is arrested. The University of Chicago announces classes remain canceled for the day. (Chicago Tribune)
Russian undesirable organizations law
- Russia bans two George Soros-run foundations, including the Open Society Foundations, for posing a threat to “Russian national security”. The Open Society Foundation and the Open Society Institute’s Assistance Foundation, both financed by business magnate Soros, are the latest additions to a list of “undesirable organizations”, a list the Russian government says is necessary to stop foreign governments from interfering in Russia’s internal affairs. (The Guardian)
Jury selection begins for the trial of William Porter, a Baltimore, Maryland police officer charged with manslaughter and other charges surrounding the April 19 death of Freddie Gray. Porter is the first of six officers to be tried. (CNN)

Politics and elections

Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2015
- Venezuela announces it will suspend the sale of alcoholic beverages, fireworks and weapons before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, starting Friday at 6 p.m. until next Monday at 6 p.m. Civilian permits for the possession and use of firearms and kniveswill be also be suspended for the same period. (UPI)
Burkinabé general election, 2015
- Former prime minister Roch Marc Kaboré appears on course for a commanding victory in Burkina Faso’s election, one large enough to eliminate the need for a run-off. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, with results from about 72 percent of the country counted, Kaboré has 54 percent of the vote with his closest challenger, former finance minister Zéphirin Diabré, getting 29 percent. (The Globe and Mail)
Saudi Arabia elections, 2015
- For the first time in the country’s history, Saudi Arabian women are allowed to vote and to stand for office in the December 12, 2015, elections. Candidacy filings opened yesterday. In two days, more than 900 women have signed up to run for various local government positions in the Arab nation. (UPI)

Science and technology

Researchers at North Carolina State University discover a new diamond-like, solid phase of carbon, called Q-carbon, that can be attained at room temperature. The result is a uniquely crystalline material, harder than a real diamond and likely boasting a variety of new properties, most unknown or unstudied. (UPI)

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December 11, 2015

Top News Stories –

Tokyo police are using drones with nets to catch other drones –
Tokyo’s police force has introduced an elite fleet of interceptor drones designed to chase and catch suspicious-looking drones in nets flying over sensitive locations amid concerns for the prime minister’s safety. Riot police will control the camera-equipped interceptor drones to chase after private drones they feel may be spying on buildings, including the Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s office, and ensnare them in large nets before returning to the ground. Those controlling the force drone will first warn the suspicious drone’s operator to cease the flight, before pursuing them. A four-propellor drone carrying trace amounts of radioactive caesium was intercepted on the top of the prime minister’s office in April, raising terror concerns in the capital. Police said radioactivity levels were only a maximum of 1 microsievert of gamma rays per hour, a level that is not harmful to humans. [Daily Telegraph]

Google Chrome extension replaces all mentions of Donald Trump with Voldemort –
When JK Rowling said Donald Trump was worse than Lord Voldemort, after the former’s proposal that all Muslims should be banned from entering the US, the Harry Potter author inspired one person to take the idea that little bit further. A Google Chrome user has released an extension for the web browser that turns all mentions of Trump into various aliases for Harry Potter’s nemesis. A series of Trump-related Chrome extensions have filled the web. The Trumpweb inserts quotes from the man himself in between “Donald” and “Trump”, and another removes any mentions of him from Facebook. You can also change any mentions of Trump to “your drunk uncle”. [Daily Telegraph] A petition started on December 6 to ban Trump from entering Britain has now reached over half a million signatures.
Donald Trump

Video of the Day –

TIMEDRIFT II from Martin Heck | Timestorm Films on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SextaCampuseirosClubSdv	#FlashbackFriday	Ian Bell
2	#ParaEl2016MeEncantariaQue	#ICantStopSmilingBecause	Arnold Peralta
3	#زد_رصيدك28	#CouldBeOniTunes	#FridayFeeling
4	#من_عيوب_تويتر	#WomenInMusic	#DanielHoltzclaw
5	#ALDUBMaiDenMoment	#WelcomeToCanada	#RuinAChristmasMovie
6	#PraNamorarComigoÉPreciso	#XMenApocalypse	#SNERVOUS
7	#BirŞeySöyleyeceğim	#ewaGlobal	#pantoday
8	#WatchBoomChaOnAnahiVEVO	#RuinAChristmasMovie	#InternationalMountainDay
9	#MiFraseDeBorracho	#YouAreInDenialIf	#bbcqt
10	#XMenApocalypse	#NewMusicFriday	#DiamondBall

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The Taliban claims responsibility for a car bomb attack near the Spanish embassy in Kabul. At least one Spanish security officer is killed. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015),
- Three Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces, two in Hebron, one of whom reportedly tried to ram his car into soldiers and the other during a violent demonstration in the West Bank city. A third Palestinian died in clashes with Israeli troops at the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel. (Today) (AP via Stars & Stripes)
2015 Burundian unrest
- Burundi’s army repels attacks on military barracks in the capital, Bujumbura, in the worst violence since this spring’s unrest that developed after President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to seek a third term in office. According to an army spokesman, at least 12 gunmen are killed and 20 captured. Reports that at least five soldiers have been killed are denied by the army, which says the soldiers were wounded. Two southern sites, a police station and an army camp, were also attacked, with no report on casualties. Kenya Airways and RwandAir cancels its flights to Bujumbura. (Al Jazeera) (Bloomberg)
Syrian Civil War, Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict (2013–present)
- A triple truck-bomb attack on the Kurdish YPG militia-controlled town of Tell Tamer in Syria‘s northeast Al-Hasakah Governorate leaves as many as 50 people dead and 80 others wounded. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attacks, saying in an online statement that three of its fighters driving three separate vehicles had detonated the suicide bombs targeting “bases” belonging to Kurdish fighters. (Reuters via NBC News)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant‘s branch in Libya (Libya Province) seizes control of the western Libyan town of Sabratha, after storming it in retaliation after two of their men were arrested in a house nearby; however they then set up checkpoints around the town, with little opposition from the local militias that were supposed to be in control of the area. There are now fears that the militant group could destroy the town’s Roman amphitheatre, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (The Telegraph)
Swiss police in Geneva, following yesterday’s CIA tip, arrest two Syrian nationals. Apparently, traces of explosives were found in their car. President Simonetta Sommaruga says, “There is currently no indication that there was a concrete attack planned.”(Sky News)

Business and economy

Chinese tycoon Guo Guangchang, founder and chairman of Fosun, is reported missing amid the Chinese anti-corruption campaign. (The Guardian)
Two of the U.S.’s oldest and largest companies, DuPont and Dow Chemical Company, will merge in an all-stock deal valued at $130 billion. The deal, which includes future plans for DowDuPont to split into three independent, public companies, is expected to face intense scrutiny from federal antitrust regulators, who will examine the impact on prices and the availability of vital seeds and herbicides.(Reuters) (The Washington Post)
China’s Alibaba Group Holding Limited acquires Hong Kong’s largest English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post, in a deal reported to be worth about $100 million. (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

2015 South Indian floods
- Major UK-based reinsurance broker Aon Benfield estimates India has suffered over US$3 billion (over Rs. 200 billion) worth of losses as a result of the flooding, and rates them as the costliest floods and the eighth-costliest natural disaster of 2015.(Business Standard)

International relations

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announces the world climate talks (COP 21) will be extended to at least Saturday. (AP)
Syrian Civil War
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he will not negotiate with armed groups, a day after the Syrian opposition’s multi-group, two-day meeting in Riyadh agreed on a framework for future negotiations to end the conflict. Assad’s statement also appears to put a damper on peace talks Russia and the United States are working to set up. (Reuters) (Syria Online)
War in Donbass
- The United States and Russia exchanged charges concerning U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović’s presentation at the U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine. While violence between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels has lessened since September’s agreement, Šimonović warned of the massive civilian toll if major hostilities re-erupt. OCHA’s John Ging said locals face unacceptable physical hardships and indignities, and that the suspension of humanitarian programs and expulsion of humanitarian workers in non-government controlled areas must end. (Reuters) (UN)

Law and crime

Hannibal Gaddafi, son of Libya’s late leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was kidnapped by militants, is released in Baalbek, Lebanon. Gaddafi’s abductors said they were seeking information on the fate of Shiite cleric Imam Moussa al-Sadr, who disappeared during a trip to Tripoli in 1978. (AP via ABC News) (Epoch Times) (AP via NBC News-update)

Politics and elections

Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- Martin Kobler, United Nations envoy to Libya, announces the country’s two rival parliaments agreement to set a target date of Dec. 16 to sign a U.N.-sponsored agreement on forming a national unity government. (AP via ABC News) (Reuters)

Science and technology

Washington State University researchers report in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that they have invented a new catalyst that promises to enable production of bio-based chemicals and plastics. In the future, products could be made from bio-based ethanol rather than superheated crude oil. Other uses for this new catalyst are being explored. (UPI) (Phys.org)

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December 15, 2015

Top News Stories –

Spacecraft carrying Russian, American, Briton docks with space station –
A Soyuz spacecraft successfully delivered a Russian, an American and a Briton to the International Space Station on Tuesday after blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The otherwise smooth journey ended with a slightly delayed docking at 1733 GMT as Russian commander Yuri Malenchenko aborted the automatic procedure and manually guided the spacecraft towards the station. Alongside Malenchenko, a veteran of long-duration space flights who is on his fourth space mission, were NASA astronaut Tim Kopra and Briton Tim Peake, both former Apache military helicopter pilots. Peake, 43, a former army major who is on a six-month mission for the European Space Agency (ESA), became the first astronaut representing the British government and wearing a Union Jack flag on his arm. The first Briton in space was Helen Sharman, who travelled on a Soviet spacecraft for eight days in 1991. [Reuters]
Timothy Peake

Star Wars: Force Awakens gets world premiere –
The hotly anticipated latest addition in the Star Wars franchise, The Force Awakens, has had its world premiere in Los Angeles. Stars from the original series including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher joined newcomers including John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. The plot of the film remains a closely-guarded secret and a media embargo on reviews is in place until Wednesday. Fans had been camping out for days outside the TCL Chinese Theatre, which along with other LA venues screened the seventh Star Wars instalment. Security was tight, with a giant tent shrouding the red carpet. The TCL Chinese Theatre – formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre – showed the first Star Wars movie in 1977. [BBC]

‘Late’ Madonna rebuffs fans over Manchester gig complaints –
Pop singer Madonna has told fans she is no “diva” after technical hitches meant she was late on stage for a gig in Manchester. The 57-year-old artist made the comments on Monday at the Manchester Arena during her Rebel Heart tour. “If you diva bitches want to keep complaining about it, then don’t come to my show,” she said. She added: “I’m not back there eating chocolate and filing my nails and getting my extensions done, all right?” However, the singer told fans: “Tonight, our video crashed, and we had no video, and our back-up file was – I don’t know – it was compromised, put it like that… So praise the Lord and thank you God but that is why we are late, all right? For no selfish diva bitch reason.” [BBC] In July 2015 Madonna compared herself to Pablo Picasso.
Madonna

World’s longest-surviving castaway sued for $1 million after being accused of ‘eating his colleague’ –
A fisherman who stunned the world by surviving 15 months lost at sea is being sued for $1 million (£650,000) by the family of his dead colleague, who accuse him of eating their relative to ensure his own survival. Salvador Alvarenga, 36, is the only man known to have survived for over a year at sea. And when he set sail from the coast of Mexico in November 2012, he thought he was setting out on a two-day fishing trip, having paid 22-year-old Ezequiel Cordoba $50 to accompany him. But a vicious storm with 10ft waves knocked out the 25ft boat’s communication systems, and washed their supplies overboard. The pair survived for several months by catching fish and birds, and drinking turtle blood and rainwater. He eventually died, extracting promises from Mr Alvarenga not to eat his corpse, and to find Cordoba’s mother and tell her what happened. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

The Physics of Car Crashes

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#15DiasProFinalDoAnoEeu	#ThisIsNotTheAlbumOnThursday	Paramore
2	#FantasticBeastsTrailer	#InternationalTeaDay	#internationalteaday
3	#شي_جميل_بحرف_ا…	Sieg Heil	South China Sea
4	#AnoQueVemPrometo	#edensunicornwish	#BackInTimeForChristmas
5	#زد_رصيدك32	#AskCNCO	#CharityTuesday
6	#FelizMartes	#TravelTuesday	#youtubefandomhonestyhour
7	#InternationalTeaDay	Cabin Fever 3	#TimPeake
8	#今年の漢字・2015	#GOPDebate	Mahrez
9	#ParaNavidadQuiero	#FantasticBeastsTrailer	#Moments
10	#ALDUBPagbangon	#BillofRightsDay	Mourinho

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that increased airstrikes by Russia have forced humanitarian assistance organizations to curtail their relief efforts, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in northern Syria. (The Washington Post)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- United States Pacific Fleet commander Scott H. Swift warns of a possible South China Sea arms race. (Reuters via MSN)
Islamist insurgency in Nigeria
- At least 30 people are killed after Boko Haram militants attack three villages in Nigeria‘s northeast Borno state. (AFP via Yahoo)
Military intervention against ISIL
- France‘s Air Force carries out their first cruise-missile strikes targeting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant installations in Iraq, including “a training center and logistical depot,” according to the French defence ministry. (AFP via Defense News)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Melor (Nona) causes widespread flooding and blackouts in the Philippines. More than 700,000 people had been evacuated ahead of the storm which hit late on Monday night. (New York Times)

Health and medicine

The United States Food and Drug Administration approves the Merck & Co. drug, Bridion, that reverses the effects of muscle relaxants used during surgery. (Reuters) (FDA)

International relations

Saudi Arabia announces the formation of a 34-member Islamic Military Alliance against terrorism including Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh. (SBS) (BNO News)
Nuclear program of Iran
- The United Nations finds Iran’s firing of a medium-range ballistic missile in October violated a June 2010 resolution banning the Islamic Republic from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The test was not technically a violation of the July nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. It’s not known if the Security Council will take any action. (AP via The Christian Science Monitor) (Reuters)
- The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors decides, by consensus unopposed, to close its investigation into whether Iran once had a secret nuclear weapons program. The IAEA will continue to police Tehran’s activities.(The News Telegraph) (Reuters)

Law and crime

A Baltimore, Maryland deadlocked jury was told by the trial judge to resume deliberations after closing arguments in the first trial of police officer William Porter, charged in the death of Freddie Gray. With demonstrations and unrest following the death, the city has cancelled leave for police officers and the mayor has called for calm when a verdict is announced. (CNN) (The Gazette)
Schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District close after receiving an unspecified “electronic” threat. Later, authorities conclude the threat was a hoax, and announce schools will reopen Wednesday. New York City schools‘ initial response to a similar threatening email was to treat it as a hoax. The NYC schools were open all day. (BBC News) (ITV) (LA School Report) (CNN)
American entertainer Bill Cosby, in response to dozens of accusations of sexual assault and misconduct spanning decades, has filed in U.S. federal court in Massachusetts a defamation suit against seven accusers. (The New York Times)
United Kingdom police arrest a 21-year-old man in Berkshire in the hacking of Hong Kong-based electronic toy maker VTech. Details of more than six million people from servers used to support VTech’s learning products app store were compromised.(BBC) (Digital Trends)

Politics and elections

New Zealand flag referendums, 2015–16
- New Zealand announces the flag design chosen by the public that will challenge the current flag in a March 2016 vote. Voters will choose between the current flag, which features the British Union Jack with a dark blue background, and the challenger, asilver fern and four red stars on a black and blue background. (CTV) (Stuff)

Science and technology

The Soyuz TMA-19M, consisting of Expedition 46 crew members Yuri Malenchenko (RSA), Timothy Kopra (NASA) and Tim Peake (ESA), launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the International Space Station (ISS) with Peake becoming the first Briton to represent the European Space Agency at the ISS. (Bay News 9) (The Daily Telegraph)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

December 20, 2015

Top News Stories –

Miss Universe: Miss Colombia mistakenly crowned as winner –
The host of the Miss Universe has apologised after mistakenly naming the wrong woman as winner, leaving Miss Colombia empty-handed. After the error, Ariadna Gutierrez was instead declared runner-up and surrendered her crown to Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach. #MissUniverse2015 became Twitter’s biggest trend of the night as social media users expressed their disbelief. The host Steve Harvey responded, saying it was “his mistake” and he would take responsibility for not reading the winning card correctly. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach

Star Wars smashes box office records on opening weekend –
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” shattered box office records with an estimated $517 million (£350 million) in worldwide ticket sales on its opening weekend, a staggering debut that re-established the celebrated space saga as a global phenomenon. The first “Star Wars” film in a decade recorded the biggest domestic opening in Hollywood’s history, collecting $238 million over the weekend in the United States and Canada. Global sales for “Force Awakens” finished second only to the dinosaur film “Jurassic World,” which in its June opening garnered $525 million worldwide, including China, where the “Star Wars” film will not open for weeks. “Jurassic World” took $208.8 million at domestic cinemas in its first weekend. “Force Awakens” is the seventh installment in the epic science-fiction franchise created by George Lucas in 1977. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

THE 64TH ANNUAL MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT | Can’t ‘Miss’ Moment: The Reveal

List of the Day –

Star Wars films in order of box office performance –

IMDb rating:8.7

IMDb rating:8.8

IMDb rating:8.4

IMDb rating:6.5

IMDb rating:7.7

IMDb rating:6.7

IMDb rating:5.8

Note that figures are for US box office and allow for the effects of inflation.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DomingoComOClubeSDV	Air France	#WeAreAllHarry
2	#زد_رصيدك37	#PeopleWhoMadeMy2015	#SoundOfMusicLive
3	#FelizDomingo	#EleccionesGenerales2015	#DemDebate
4	#50ShadesOfLouisAss	#INeverReallyTrusted	#TheBridge
5	#حزب_اللي_ياكل�…	#8DaysOfBlueNeighbourhood	#Strictly
6	#Garzoners	Chabelo	#LouisBeHappy
7	#WeAreAllHarry	#ThePerksOfBeingInTheFamily	#UFCOrlando
8	#もし女子高生にな�…	#WWELA	Air France
9	Chabelo	#1989WorldTourLIVE	#2015In5Words
10	#CiteFatosDePobre	#ATLvsJAX	#1989WorldTourLIVE

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Air France Flight 463 en-route to Paris from Mauritius makes an emergency landing in Mombasa, Kenya, after a package, suspected to be a bomb is found in the toilet. Later, Air France CEO Frédéric Gagey says it was a false alarm; the package contained a mixture of cardboard, sheets of paper, and a timer. (AP via News24) (CNN) (Reuters)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–Vietnam relations
- Vietnam is reported to be preparing for a possible military conflict with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  - A missile-strike attributed to the Israeli Air Force in Jaramana in southern Syria kills high-ranking Lebanese Hezbollah commander and murderer, Samir Kuntar, and eight National Defence Force (NDF) personnel. Kuntar was the longest serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel until his release in 2008. On April 22, 1979 Kuntar and his team broke into an apartment building and kidnapped a father, 31-year-old Danny Haran, and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, taking them to a nearby beach and killing them. (Reuters)
- Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  - Airstrikes, apparently from Russian jets, kill scores of people in the center of rebel-held Idlib in northwest Syria. The missiles hit a busy market place, several government buildings, and residential areas. At least 73 bodies, 30 unidentified, have been recovered. (Reuters)
A female driver runs over pedestrians at the Las Vegas Strip between Planet Hollywood and Paris Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring at least 26 more. (ABC)

Arts and culture

Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, is crowned Miss Universe 2015 in Las Vegas, moments after host Steve Harvey incorrectly announced 1st runner-up Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutiérrez, as the winner. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Thousands, including families, children, and miners from around the country, march from Knottingley to North Yorkshire to mark the end of deep coal mining in the United Kingdom. The last facility, Kellingley Colliery in Beal, North Yorkshire, closed for good, Friday, 18 December 2015. The march was organized by two miners’ wives to pay tribute to this industry. (The Independent) (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Shenzhen landslide
- Thirty-three buildings collapse after a landslide hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, China, leaving at least 91 people missing. (CNN)
An avalanche in Svalbard, a Norwegian Arctic archipelago, kills one and injures nine others as the snow smashes into 10 houses in Longyearbyen. The deluge from Sukkertoppen mountain follows Friday’s 60 mph storm that ripped off a school roof and temporarily closed the airport. Dozens of homes at the foot of the mountain were evacuated and all of the area’s residents have been located, according to Tone Hertzberg, a spokeswoman for Svalbard’s governor. Experts from Norges Geotekniske Instituttare examining nearby slopes. (AP via CBS News) (newsinenglish.no)
A ferry ran into trouble in rough seas off the coast of Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi, with at least three killed, including two children, 39 rescued, and 77 missing. The New Marina, a fiberglass boat, was reported to be carrying 109 passengers with a crew of 10. The National Search and Rescue Agency says the boat sank 22.5 km (24 miles) off the coast of the Wajo Regency in South Sulawesi. Rescue teams expect to resume their search for the missing, Monday. (BenarNews) (Muscat Daily)
Two pilots are killed after a South Korean-made KAI T-50 Golden Eagle crashes and bursts into flames at an air show in Yogyakarta on Indonesia‘s Java island. (The Telegraph)

Politics and elections

Spanish general election, 2015
- Today’s parliamentary election is forecast to end Spain’s two-party system as the traditional powers, the center-right People’s Party (PP) and the center-left Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), are facing real challenges from the anti-austerity Podemos Partyand the liberal Ciudadanos party (C’s). Analysts expect a high turnout. (Reuters via Huffington Post) (Newsweek)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaign fires national data director Josh Uretsky, and suspends two staffers following Friday’s announcement the campaign had improperly accessed and downloaded voter data belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. NBC News reports at least four individuals affiliated with the campaign were involved in the breach, which occurred Wednesday. (NBC News) (Bloomberg)
Elections in Iran
- Iranian legislative election, 2016
  - Iran starts registering candidates for the 290-seat parliamentary elections scheduled for 26 February 2016. Potential candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council. The elections will, effectively, be a vote on President Hassan Rouhani’smoderate policies that received a boost from the July 14 landmark nuclear deal. (AP via The Washington Post)
- Iranian Assembly of Experts election, 2016
  - Elections for the 88-seat Experts Assembly, a clerical body empowered to choose or dismiss Iran’s supreme leader and supervise his activities, are scheduled for Thursday 25 February 2016. Those elected may decide who replaces Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 76. (Deutsche Welle)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

December 29, 2015

Top News Stories –

Russia: Book of Putin quotes ‘given to officials’ –
Officials across Russia have been given a 400-page book of “prophetic” quotes by President Vladimir Putin as a new year gift, it’s reported. The collection, entitled Words That Change The World, was sent to as many as 1,000 people by one of Mr Putin’s top aides, Vyacheslav Volodin, according to the business newspaper RBK. Recipients include MPs, regional governors and civil society representatives. In an accompanying letter, Mr Volodin says the book should be seen as a guide to the Kremlin’s “values and guiding principles”. He’s also reported to have recommended it to a recent meeting of officials as “required reading for any politician”. [BBC]
Vladimir-Putin

Russia ‘unlikely’ to return by Rio Olympics –
Russia are unlikely to return to international competition in time for next year’s Rio Olympics, says European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen. Russia’s athletics federation was banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations for alleged involvement in widespread doping. An IAAF inspection committee is due to visit Russia in January. “For the moment they have to fulfil the conditions, but I cannot really see them competing in Rio,” Hansen said. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

VertiGo – A Wall-Climbing Robot Including Ground-Wall Transition

List of the Day –

Google Trends 2015 –
Top Searches – Global Sporting Events

1 Copa America

2 Wimbledon

3 Tour de France

4 Rugby World Cup

5 Super Bowl

6 Mayweather vs Pacquiao

7 Indian Premier League

8 US Open

9 ICC Cricket World Cup

10 Australian Open

Source: Google

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#زد_رصيدك46	#MessageForMyCrush	Dappy
2	#ConEsteCalorYo	#TWUG	#LHHNY
3	#FelizMartes	#1YearWithoutO2L	Lemmy
4	#TercaDetremuraSdv	#IdGiveYou	#MessageForMyCrush
5	#MessageForMyCrush	#TravelTuesday	Cellino
6	#ALDUBFLASHBack2015	#AndThenISaid	#IWantToBeSoRich
7	#MentirasMasUsadas	Ethan Couch	#MOTD
8	#YoTeDigo	#KidQuestionsForHillary	#TamirRice
9	#닉네임의_받침을_��…	#ARMYSelcaDay	#StormFrank
10	#НасосДляИспо�…	#TWDMarathon	#TravelTuesday

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- A suicide-bomb attack outside the regional office of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) in the northwestern Pakistani city of Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaves at least 26 people dead and 45 wounded. The militant Islamistgroup Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan splinter group, claims responsibility for the attack. (AP via New York Times)
Syrian Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL
- The United States military announces that a key Islamic State leader with ties to the Paris attack terrorists was killed in a coalition airstrike on December 24, 2015. Charaffe al Mouadan is the tenth ISIL leader killed by an airstrike since December 7. (The Washington Post) (International Business Times)
The French newspaper Le-monda claims that the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks were coordinated from Belgium by a single unidentified suspect.(Lemonde.fr)

Business and economics

American chemical giant DuPont announces that, in early 2016, it will cut 1,700 jobs in Delaware, about 28 percent of its home state workforce, and thousands more globally in connection as a result of the Dow Chemical Company merger. (The Washington Post) (AP via NBC news) (Delaware Online)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 UK and Ireland windstorm season
- 2015 Great Britain and Ireland floods
  - The 18th century Tadcaster Bridge, in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, partially collapses into the River Wharfe as a result of flooding. British Army soldiers evacuated people from nearby homes. (The Guardian)
2015 Flood in Missouri
- Missouri Governor Jay Nixon warns residents that the state faces historic flooding that likely will rival Great Flood of 1993 levels. Swollen rivers are still rising and won’t crest for days. The Mississippi River is expected to reach nearly 15 feet above flood stage on Thursday. Nixon pleaded with drivers to stay off inundated roadways. Twelve of the 13 people killed from these recent storms died after their vehicles were swept from flooded roadways. (NBC News) (UPI)

Health and medicine

For the first time since March 2014, Guinea is declared free from Ebola virus transmissions by the World Health Organization. (New York Times)

Law and crime

Ethan Couch, the so-called “affluenza” teen who violated probation for killing four people when driving while intoxicated when he disappeared from Tarrant County, Texas, is taken into custody in Mexico. Mexican officials will remand Couch and his mother, with whom he fled, to the U.S. Marshals Service. (Reuters)
Lebanese Customs seize five tonnes of Captagon amphetamine pills and Hashish, concealed in primary school desks that were to be shipped to Egypt, at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport. Meanwhile, security forces in northern Lebanon found two workshops producing Captagon and other drugs during a series of raids. The drug is infamous as being used by Islamist militants in the Syrian civil war. (Channel News Asia)
Chicago, Illinois police officer, Jason Van Dyke, enters a not guilty plea regarding the charges of the 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald. (New York Times)
El Salvador‘s murder rate surges by 70% in 2015, an increase that may lead to the Central American nation edging out Honduras as the world’s most murderous nation. (Reuters via Daily Mail)

Politics and elections

Eloy Inos, the Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands since 2013, dies in office.(Saipan Tribune)
- Lieutenant Governor Ralph Torres will be sworn in as Governor on December 29th. Victor Hocog will succeed Torres as Lieutenant Governor.(Marianas Variety)
United States presidential election, 2016, Republican Party presidential candidates, 2016
- Former Governor of New York, George Pataki, ends his campaign for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. (USA Today)
North Korea‘s state media says Kim Yang-gon, a top aide to supreme leader Kim Jong-un and secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), who was also in charge of ties with South Korea, dies in a car crash. (BBC)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 1, 2016

Top News Stories –

Rat on a plane: Air India flight returns to Mumbai after rodent spotted on board –
An Air India plane flying to London was forced to return to Mumbai after passengers spotted a rat on board, the airline said on Thursday. Though the rat was not found, the pilot returned to Mumbai on Wednesday keeping passenger safety in mind, Air India said in a statement. Passengers were later flown by a separate aircraft to London. The aircraft would be fumigated and checked before it is returned to service. Maintenance workers would have to make sure that the rat did not damage equipment or chew any wires and the plane is certified to be rodent-free, an airline official said. [Daily Telegraph]

China’s new two-child policy law takes effect –
Married couples in China will from Friday (Jan 1) be allowed to have two children, after concerns over an ageing population and shrinking workforce ushered in an end to the country’s controversial one-child policy. The change, which was announced in October by the ruling Communist Party, takes effect from Jan 1, 2016, Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency reported over the weekend. The “one-child policy”, instituted in the late 1970s, restricted most couples to only a single offspring through a system of fines for violators and even forced abortions. For years, authorities argued that it was a key contributor to China’s economic boom and had prevented 400 million births. [Channel News Asia]

Video of the Day –

Philips Presents: The Longest Night from T Brand Studio on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

100 Things we didn’t know last year – by the BBC (1-33)

1. It costs £300 to operate on a constipated goldfish.

Find out more

2. Traditionally, police horses in England’s Thames Valley force can be called Odin, Thor or Hercules, but not Brian.

Find out more

3. Barack Obama calls David Cameron “bro”.

Find out more (Time)

4. The first sports bra was made from two jockstraps.

Find out more

5. One in 10 of Britain’s train carriages still flush toilet waste straight on to the railway tracks.

Find out more

6. Jamaica, Colombia and Saint Lucia are the only countries in the world where a woman is more likely to be a boss than a man.

Find out more (Washington Post)

7. You don’t have to speak French to become French-language Scrabble world champion.

Find out more

8. Kolo Toure, the Ivory Coast and Liverpool defender, hasn’t touched his own dog for seven years.

Find out more (Metro)

9. An egg can be unboiled.

Find out more (Metro)

10. There are four different ways to pronounce diplodocus, and the way children say it is probably more technically correct than the academics’ preferred option.

Find out more

11. A 51-year-old software engineer named Bryan Henderson has edited Wikipedia 47,000 times to remove the ungrammatical term “comprised of”.

Find out more (Backchannel)

12. Buzz Aldrin claimed $33.31 in travel expenses connected to his trip to the moon.

Find out more (Daily Telegraph)

13. Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond once played a ghost in a Bollywood soap opera.

Find out more (Buzzfeed)

14. “Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialised!” is an official slogan of North Korea.

Find out more

15. Roughly 56% of average monthly earnings in Malawi are spent on mobile phone charges, compared with about 0.11% in Macau, China.

Find out more

16. Quentin Tarantino still records films from TV on VHS cassettes.

Find out more (Independent)

17. Lollipop men and ladies who “high five” pedestrians may be breaching official protocol.

Find out more

18. Squid can fly – but they tend to do it under cover of darkness.

Find out more

19. It’s possible to trick the brain into thinking it can hear Mariah Carey sing All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Find out more (New Scientist)

20. King Arthur may have been Glaswegian.

Find out more (The National)

21. A man-sized lobster lived 480 million years ago.

Find out more

22. At Hotel Football, run by ex-Manchester United players, Gary Neville is represented in the bathroom by blackcurrant-extract shampoo while brother Phil is a bar of soap.

Find out more (Financial Times)

23. Vicars and priests have the highest job satisfaction of all UK workers.

Find out more

24. Narwhals’ long tusks – an exaggerated front tooth used for courtship – are super-sensitive.

Find out more

25. There is only one concert grand piano in Gaza.

Find out more

26. Boston in Lincolnshire is one of the most neurotic places in Great Britain while Orkney is one of the least.

Find out more

27. Michael Jackson made a series of prank calls to Russell Crowe.

Find out more (Guardian)

28. Breaking Bad is the show people most often lie about having watched.

Find out more (Radio Times)

29. The UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency does not permit the wearing of colanders on heads in driving licence photos, even for religious reasons.

Find out more (Daily Mirror)

30. People who swear have larger vocabularies.

Find out more (Toronto Sun)

31. The Queen likes to have her pre-lunch gin and Dubonnet in front of BBC Two’s The Daily Politics.

Find out more (Daily Mail

32. In September 1944 the New York Times explained pizza to its readers and included a rare use of its plural “pizze” – there was an earlier article but it only mentioned pizza in passing.

Find out more (New York Times)

33. There is little international trade in onions – about 90% are consumed in their country of origin.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#NesseAnoEuVou	#HowToBeSingle	#MoveToBoys2016
2	Comecei 2016	Starting 2016	Page 1 of 365
3	#زد_رصيدك49	Welcome to 2016	Starting 2016
4	#Feliz16ComDetremuraSdv	#HowWeLivinMusicVideo	#wcoc2016
5	#Em2016EuAindaNao	#MummersParade	#LondonNYE
6	#الهلال_الشباب	#FiestaBowl	#2016IsZaynsYear
7	Página 1 de 366	#NewYearsDay	#Hello2016
8	#НОЧЬШЕРЛОКА	#outbackbowl	#Hootenanny
9	#1şeydiyeceğim	#2015TweepAwards	#ResolutionsFor2016
10	#2016IsZaynsYear	Tel Aviv	Entered 2016

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A shooting takes place at a pub in Tel Aviv, Israel, leaving two dead and eight injured. The police claim to know the identity of the shooter and have launched a nationwide manhunt. (Haaretz)

Arts and culture

A new 28-foot tall statue of Jesus, dubbed “Jesus de Greatest,” is unveiled on New Year’s Day outside St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Abajah village, Nigeria’s Imo state, which is described as the tallest Jesus statue in Africa. (USA Today)

Disasters and accidents

About one thousand houses in Manila’s Tondo district in the Philippines are set ablaze following New Year’s Eve firecracker festivities that left one dead and 380 others injured. (AP via CTV News)

International relations

The EU-Ukraine Free Trade deal officially comes into force, coinciding with a Russian food embargo on Ukraine. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Law and crime

The two-child policy takes effect in China, allowing couples in the country to have at most two children, replacing the controversial one-child policy. The change in law was announced by the ruling Communist Party on October 29 and passed the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on December 27, five days prior to its effect. (AFP via Channel NewsAsia)

Politics and elections

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has been the President of Iceland for 20 years, announces in his new-year speech that he will not seek relection for a sixth term when presidential elections will be held in June. (Visir)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Obama issues order lifting nuclear-related sanctions on Iran –
U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Saturday lifting sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear program after Tehran fulfilled requirements under a nuclear agreement with world powers, the White House said. Obama determined that Iran’s implementation of the pact “marks a fundamental shift in circumstances with respect to Iran’s nuclear program,” he wrote in the order, released by the White House. [Daily Mail]

Video of the Day –

Sia | Draw My Life

List of the Day –

100 jokes by 100 comedians

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	Burkina Faso	Tony Stewart	#MakeMeThinkIn5Words
2	#زد_رصيدك64	#ChangeAConsonantSpoilAMovie	Lord Bramall
3	#FelizSabado	#StartupIndia	Burkina Faso
4	I LOVE ZAYN	#IranDeal	#fab16
5	#StartupIndia	#ImplementationDay	#PutNamesInSongs
6	#MakeMeThinkIn5Words	Aaliyah	Alan Rickman
7	#ALDUB6thMonthsary	I LOVE ZAYN	#StartUp2016
8	#SabadoDetremuraSdv	#MakeMeThinkIn5Words	#NationalHatDay
9	#MeEnfermaEsoDe	Hagelin	Nancy
10	ちんぽ10連ガチャ	#DoYourJob	#ZoellaTo10MillionMeetUp

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Ouagadougou attack
- Burkina Faso security forces storm the Hotel Splendid which had been under attack by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb militants. Over 126 people have been freed and at least 29 people have died. (AP via the Daily Mail), (BBC), (CNN), (AFP via Daily Star)
- At least 10 bodies have also been found in the Cappucino cafe which was also attacked by the militants. (AP via Miami Herald)
- Two Australians, a doctor and his wife, have been abducted in northern Burkina Faso. The Al Qaeda-linked, Mali-based “Emirate of the Sahara” is responsible, according to SITE. (AP) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
2016 Jakarta attacks
- Indonesia blocks access to radical Islamist websites and social media sites after the recent terror attacks in Jakarta. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- At least 75 Syrian Army soldiers and pro-Assad militiamen are killed following a multi-front attack on the eastern Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports ISIL fighters had advanced into the northern tip of Deir ez-Zor city, and captured the suburb of Al-Baghaliyeh. The pro-government Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports that government forces had repelled an attack on the city leaving dozens of militants dead. (AFP via the Daily Mail)
- Hundreds of civilians are reportedly killed by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants throughout the city of Deir ez-Zor. Syria‘s state news agency SANA, quoting residents, said “around 300 civilians” were killed. If confirmed it would be one of the deadliest days in Syria’s nearly five-year war. (AFP via Yahoo)
Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen, Drone strikes in Yemen
- A U.S. drone strike on a vehicle in Yemen‘s Shabwah Governorate kills three suspected Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

A suspected gas explosion in the Italian town of Arnasco kills at least five people. (Business Insider)
U.S. President Barack Obama declares the city of Flint, Michigan, to be in a federal public health state of emergency due to an ongoing crisis that involves lead contamination (and possibly Legionella which has caused 87 cases of Legionnaires’ disease which lead to 10 deaths) in its local water supply. (The Flint Journal on MLive)

International relations

Iran–United States relations
- Iran releases four Iranian-American prisoners including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. The United States is to release seven Iranian-Americans held in the United States for violating sanctions against Iran. (New York Times), (IRNA) (Reuters) (Washington Post)
Nuclear program of Iran
- The International Atomic Energy Agency states that Iran has complied with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, paving the way for international sanctions to be lifted by theUnited States and European Union. (IEAE), (New York Times), ” (BBC)
European migrant crisis
- Austria is to deploy its army on its borders with Germany and Slovenia in the wake of surging numbers of migrants entering the Central European country. (Local Austria)

Politics and elections

Taiwanese general election, 2016
- Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is elected the first female President of Taiwan. Eric Chu, the ruling Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) candidate concedes defeat and announced his resignation as party leader. Ms. Tsai vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China. The DPP supports independence for the island. (BBC) (CNN)
- Current ruling party Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) lost its majority in the Legislative Yuan, a first since the country’s founding in 1911 (The Guardian)
Argentinian left wing lawmaker Milagro Sala is detained at her home for allegedly instigating public disturbances. (Telesur TV)

Sports

In motor sport, The 2016 Dakar Rally finishes with Stephane Peterhansel of France winning his 12th victory in the cars and Toby Price of Australia winning his first victory in the motorcycles. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 26, 2016

Top News Stories –

Australians choose alternative flag which removes the Union flag in new survey –
Australians have chosen a favourite alternative national flag amid calls to remove the Union flag from the current “outdated” design which has been flown since 1901. The preferred design, labelled the Southern Horizon, was the most popular of six options and captured 31 per cent of the vote in a survey conducted by the University of Western Sydney. The second most popular option, the Reconciliation Flag, received 28 per cent of the vote. The competition was prompted by the New Zealand government’s decision to hold a referendum on changing the flag – a process which is due to be completed in March. [Daily Telegraph]
Southern Horizon flag

Video of the Day –

What If You Only Drank Soda?

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#GossipGirlDay	#LetsMakeTodayBetterBy	#AustraliaDay
2	#TercaNoClubeSDV	#TravelTuesday	#RepublicDay
3	#FelizMartes	#NationalSpousesDay	#LetsMakeTodayBetterBy
4	#شخصيه_عامه_مص�…	#WordsThatDontDescribeHillary	#TravelTuesday
5	#زواج_للشواذ_ب�…	Blake Griffin	#CharityTuesday
6	#زد_رصيدك74	Doomsday Clock	Kristen Stewart
7	#ALDUBLihimNgKahapon	#MyAwkwardSuperpower	#Sepsis
8	#LetsMakeTodayBetterBy	#RearrangeAWordChangeAFilm	#StateOfEmergencyIn5Words
9	#멘션온_첫경험이나…	Detective Pikachu	Beatrix Potter
10	#5MillonesAlGallinero	#1DHistoryVideo	#Benidorm

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- A suicide bomb attack on a Syrian Army (SAA) checkpoint in the city of Homs kills at least 22 people, including around a dozen soldiers. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attack. (AFP via Daily Mail) (Reuters Canada)
- Second Battle of Al-Shaykh Maskin
  - The Syrian Army, backed by Hezbollah militiamen and Russian airstrikes, retakes full control of the strategic town of Al-Shaykh Maskin in Syria‘s southern Daraa Governorate, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A U.S. drone strike kills at least 6 ISIL militants in Afghanistan‘s Nangarhar Province, according to the Afghan defense ministry. (The New Indian Express)
- An Afghan police officer, allegedly tied to Taliban, poisons and kills ten of his colleagues in Urozgan province. (AL Jazeera)

Business and economy

French taxidrivers, air traffic controllers and school teachers go on strike over working conditions and competition from non-traditional services such as Uber. (AP via ABC News America)

Disasters and accidents

January 2016 United States blizzard
- The death toll from the blizzard rises to 38. (AP via ABC News America)
Malaysian authorities find 13 bodies washed up on Johor beach believed to be Indonesian migrants. (Reuters via Channel News Asia)

Health

Zika virus outbreak in the Americas (2015–present)
- Virologists find the Zika virus in Australian tourists returning from South America. (ABC News Australia)

International relations

Moldova–Romania relations
- Romania offers neighboring Moldova a $65 million (60 million euros) loan to help stave off economic collapse and keep the former Soviet Republic on a pro-European course, provided the Moldovan government implements major reforms. Government funds were needed to cover more than $1 billion that “disappeared” from three Moldovan banks in November 2014. In the frigid capital Chișinău, 15,000 people from both the pro-European and pro-Russian sides of the political divide, protested on Sunday against the current government and demanded new elections. Prime Minister Pavel Filip, who took office last week, is the country’s sixth PM in a year. (AP) (Reuters) (The New York Times)

Law and crime

The Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak is cleared of corruption by the Attorney-General of Malaysia Apandi Ali after returning US$607 million worth of donations to his personal account from the Saudi Royal Family. (Channel News Asia)
Authorities in the People’s Republic of China say that Wang Baoan is under suspicion for “serious violation of discipline” (a phrase usually associated with corruption charges) as the head of that country’s powerful National Bureau of Statistics. (BBC)
Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
- U.S. federal authorities arrest militia leader Ammon Bundy and several of his followers following an exchange of gunfire at a traffic stop on U.S. Route 395 in Harney County, Oregon. One person, LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona and spokesman for the militia, was killed in the shootout. (CNN), (Oregon Live)
Homelessness in Seattle
- Two people are killed and three others are hospitalized, two with life-threatening injuries, following a shooting in the “The Jungle” homeless encampment in the U.S. city of Seattle, Washington. Police are searching for two suspects. (NBC News) (seattlepi.com)
Terrorism in the United States
- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, man who is alleged to have been planning a machine gun mass shooting at a local Masonic Temple. (The Washington Post)(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) (FBI)

Politics and elections

Marshall Islands President Casten Nemra is defeated in a vote of no confidence. Nemra had just been elected President in early January 2016. A successor is expected to be selected soon. (Radio New Zealand International)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 28, 2016

Top News Stories –

Peta’s NSFW Super Bowl 50 advert banned by TV execs –
An advert produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, intended to air during the Super Bowl next month, has been barred from viewers’ screens by TV executives. The advert, depicting two couples having sex, is intended to encourage people to adopt veganism. “Vegans last longer. See the side by side proof here,” reads the supporting text, as the vegan and meat-eating couples are shown going at it hammer-and-tongs. The meat-eaters’ love-making is over within moments of the advert beginning – while the vegans keep going until the end. PETA says it planned for the clip to be aired during the Super Bowl, where advertisers pay millions of dollars to target US TV’s largest, most receptive audience of the year. “We did try to submit the ad last fall but we didn’t get a response from the executives at CBS,” a spokesman for the animal rights organisation said. However, since news broke that the advert was banned it’s received a huge amount of attention, winning 1.1 million YouTube views in just three days. [Daily Telegraph] See Video of the Day
PETA Tweet

Video of the Day –

Last Longer | Vegan Sex Drive Shown in Steamy Scene

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#زد_رصيدك76	#IllNeverBeTooOldTo	#BaeIn3Words
2	#QuintaDetremuraSdv	#Barbie	#GirlsinSTEM
3	#TeDedicoEsaQueDice	#pottermore	#StormGertrude
4	#SeTerminaEneroYYo	Goodnight Gotham	Kiss It Better
5	#FelizJueves	#Challenger	Gillian
6	#BrazilianFansAreTheBest	#ThereMayBeFootageOf	#MyLast4Words
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8	#コピースロット	#MakeAMovieAmish	#monkigras
9	#ALDUB28thWeeksary	#TroyeOnEllen	#TrollHunters
10	#NoEntiendoPorque	Dennis Wideman	#TheBeautifulGamers

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- At least seven people are killed in a suicide bomb attack near the presidential palace in Aden, Yemen. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims it was behind the attack. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- A boat carrying Iraqi Kurd migrants sinks off the Greek island of Samos in the Aegean Sea off Turkey’s Anatolian coast, killing at least 24 people, including several children, with 11 others missing. (The New York Times) (NBC News)

Health

Zika virus outbreak in the Americas (2015–present)
- The World Health Organization forms an emergency committee to tackle the spread of the Zika virus in the Americas. (The Washington Post)

International relations

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The President of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou visits Taiping Island, Taiwan‘s largest island in the South China Sea, despite the United States warning it could provoke diplomatic tensions with the People’s Republic of China and other nations in the area. (AP via US News and World Report)
European migrant crisis
- Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman tells financial newspaper Dagens Industri that Sweden is disallowing about 45 percent of asylum applications which means around 60,000-80,000 asylum-seekerscould be deported in coming years. (AP via CBS News)
Russo-Georgian War
- Georgia welcomes the ICC‘s investigation into alleged war crimes committed during the 2008 South Ossetia war, which will be the first inquiry by the ICC into possible abuses by Moscow and/or Georgia.(Radio Free Europe)

Law and crime

The trial of former President of the Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo for crimes against humanity begins at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. (BBC)
Six people, including the gunman, are dead in a murder-suicide in Chesapeake, Virginia, U.S. (Yahoo! News)

Politics and elections

Republican Party presidential debates, 2016
- The seventh Republican Party presidential debate, the second hosted by Fox News, and the final debate before voting begins with the Iowa caucuses on February 1, is held in Des Moines, Iowa. The seven candidates featuring in the primetime debate were Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Donald Trump, the current front-runner in the polls, was also invited to the primetime debate but opted to boycott the debate and instead hosted a town hall with charitable proceeds going to veterans groups. (Fox News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

February 14, 2016

Top News Stories –

Baftas 2016: The Revenant rules at Baftas –
Wilderness drama The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has dominated this year’s Baftas. It was named best film while DiCaprio won best actor and Alejandro G Inarritu best director. Apocalyptic action movie Mad Max: Fury Road took four awards: for make-up and hair, editing, costumes and production design. Brie Larson won the best leading actress award for her role as a kidnapped mother in Room. Director Lenny Abrahamson, who picked up the award on her behalf, called her “one of the best actors of her generation.” [BBC]
Leonardo_DiCaprio

Kanye West REALLY wants $1 billion from Mark Zuckerberg –
Kanye West has publicly asked Mark Zuckerberg to invest $1bn (£700m) into Kanye West ideas. He take his money, when he’s a need. Yeah, he’s a trifling friend indeed. In a series of tweets Kanye begs the co-founder of Facebook for help because he doesn’t have “enough resources” to create what he “really can”. It comes after he claimed to have a personal debt of $53m (£36m). Yes, that’s FIFTY THREE MILLION DOLLARS. It’s all because Kanye thinks he can make the world a better place. He also thinks tech companies in San Francisco should donate money to him rather than African school children. [BBC Newsbeat]

Kanye West begging tweets

Video of the Day –

Simon’s Cat Logic – Love

List of the Day –

Winners of the BAFTA Film Awards 2016

Best film

Winner: The Revenant

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

Carol

Spotlight

Outstanding British film

Winner: Brooklyn

45 Years

Amy

The Danish Girl

Ex Machina

The Lobster

Actor

Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant

Bryan Cranston – Trumbo

Matt Damon – The Martian

Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl

Actress

Winner: Brie Larson – Room

Cate Blanchett – Carol

Saoirse Ronan – Brooklyn

Maggie Smith – The Lady in the Van

Alicia Vikander – The Danish Girl

Supporting actor

Winner: Mark Rylance – Bridge of Spies

Christian Bale – The Big Short

Benicio del Toro – Sicario

Idris Elba – Beasts of No Nation

Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight

Supporting actress

Winner: Kate Winslet – Steve Jobs

Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight

Rooney Mara – Carol

Alicia Vikander – Ex Machina

Julie Walters – Brooklyn

Director

Winner: Alejandro G Inarritu – The Revenant

Todd Haynes – Carol

Adam McKay – The Big Short

Ridley Scott – The Martian

Steven Spielberg – Bridge of Spies

Adapted screenplay

Winner: The Big Short

Brooklyn

Carol

Room

Steve Jobs

Original screenplay

Winner: Spotlight

Bridge of Spies

Ex Machina

The Hateful Eight

Inside Out

Animated film

Winner: Inside Out

Minions

Shaun the Sheep Movie

Documentary

Winner: Amy

Cartel Land

He Named Me Malala

Listen to Me Marlon

Sherpa

Foreign film

Winner: Wild Tales

The Assassin

Force Majeure

Theeb

Timbuktu

Cinematography

Winner: The Revenant

Bridge of Spies

Carol

Mad Max: Fury Road

Sicario

Costume design

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road

Brooklyn

Carol

Cinderella

The Danish Girl

Editing

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road

The Big Short

Bridge of Spies

The Martian

The Revenant

Make-up and hair

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road

Brooklyn

Carol

The Danish Girl

The Revenant

Music

Winner: The Hateful Eight

Bridge of Spies

The Revenant

Sicario

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Production design

Winner: Mad Max: Fury Road

Bridge of Spies

Carol

The Martian

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Sound

Winner: The Revenant

Bridge of Spies

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Special effects

Winner: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Ant-Man

Ex Machina

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

British short animation

Winner: Edmond

Manoman

Prologue

British short film

Winner: Operator

Elephant

Mining Poems or Odes

Over

Samuel-613

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

Winner: Naji Abu Nowar (writer/director) & Rupert Lloyd (producer) – Theeb

Alex Garland (director) – Ex Machina

Debbie Tucker Green (writer/director) – Second Coming

Sean McAllister (director/producer) & Elhum Shakerifar (producer) – A Syrian Love Story

Stephen Fingleton (writer/director) – The Survivalist

Rising Star award

Winner: John Boyega

Taron Egerton

Dakota Johnson

Brie Larson

Bel Powley

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#كلمه_للي_هيحت�…	#MyFirstLoveIn4Words	Viola Beach
2	#سلمان_بن_عبد_ا…	#IHeartTWD	Christchurch
3	#HappyValentinesDay	#Valentines	#ITAvENG
4	#EstarEnamoradoEs	Viola Beach	#takemeout
5	#チョコ俳句スロット	The Day Beyoncé Turned Black	#MOTD
6	#FormasFrikisDeDecirTeQuiero	#LAMarathon	ONE DIRECTION TO HELL
7	#للسعاده_عنوان…	#RockOfLove	#GRAMMYsAskConnor
8	#EuTeSigoTuMeSegue	#ScaliaDeath	#Trapped
9	#CampeãsRJ	#ThinkBIGSundayWithMarsha	#TheVoiceUK
10	#هل_تتزوج_فتاه_…	#HowMobstersShowLove	Sunderland

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The United Nations reports that civilian casualties reached a record level in 2015; at least 3,545 non-combatants were killed and 7,457 injured. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Rojava conflict
  - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that Turkey has shelled areas held by the Kurdish YPG militia group in Syria‘s Aleppo Governorate for the second successive day with two YPG fighters reportedly killed. (Reuters)
  - Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu says Turkey will continue to target Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria near its border, despite mounting pressure to stop the attacks. (Voice of America)
  - Syria condemns Turkish military action against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, and demands, in letters to the United Nations Secretary General and the Security Council Chairman, UN action on these violations of Syrian sovereignty. (BBC) (Syrian Arab News Agency)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Saudi air defenses intercept a Scud missile fired from Yemen as it headed towards the city of Khamis Mushait, in the southwestern ‘Asir Region. (The Washington Post)
- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) says one of its soldiers was recently killed while fighting the Houthis in Yemen. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
- Israel claims its forces shot dead five Palestinian attackers in three separate incidents. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

The 69th British Academy Film Awards are held at the Royal Opera House in London. (AP via Yahoo! News)
- The Revenant wins best film with lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. (Deadline)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Christchurch earthquake
- The U.S. Geological Survey reports a magnitude 5.8 earthquake strikes Christchurch in New Zealand. The St. John ambulance service says that several people suffered minor injuries from falls as they ran from the quake but there were no immediate reports of serious damage. (The Washington Post)
The cold snap continues in the northeastern United States with record lows forecast in major cities like New York City and Philadelphia. (CNN)
All four members of the British indie band Viola Beach and their manager die in a road accident in Stockholm, Sweden. (BBC)
2016 Taiwan earthquake
- The earthquake death toll rises to 116. Tainan’s disaster response office says search and rescue operations have ended. The last body was found yesterday. Ninety-six, of the 289 people rescued, remain in hospital. (Taipei Times)(CNN)
Crews rescue 48 people from two Cannon Mountain tram cars stuck this afternoon about 40 feet off the ground in New Hampshire sub-zero temperatures in the White Mountains. (AP via seattlepi.com)(WMUR)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Slovenia announces that it will be clamping down on the number of migrants that it will allow to enter the country. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

Politics and elections

Central African general election, 2015–16
- Voters in the Central African Republic go to the polls for the second round of voting in the presidential election, a runoff between former prime ministers Anicet-Georges Dologuélé (1999–2001) andFaustin-Archange Touadéra (2008–13). (BBC)
Jocelerme Privert is elected as the interim President of Haiti pending elections later this year. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

February 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Taylor Swift disses Kanye West at the Grammy Awards during her acceptance speech –
Taylor Swift’s 1989 has won the coveted album of the year award at this year’s Grammys in Los Angeles. The singer – who is the first woman to win the award twice – also won best pop vocal album and best music video for her track Bad Blood. Swift dissed Kanye [West] during her acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards. She’s the first woman to win album of the year twice and said it was for “all the young women out there”. She said: “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” Her speech appears to be in response to Kanye West’s lyric from his new album where he claims to have made Taylor Swift famous. [BBC]

In January 2016 Swift won the Peoples Choice Award for best female artist. In November 2015 she was sued for allegedly stealing the lyrics for her song “Shake it off”. Also see List of the Day.
Taylor Swift

Stephen Fry quits Twitter, saying ‘fun is over’ after Bafta spat –
Bafta show host Stephen Fry has confirmed he has left Twitter declaring “the fun is over”. He faced criticism online after comparing costume designer Jenny Beavan to a “bag lady” when she picked up her Bafta for Mad Max: Fury Road. The presenter later insisted Beavan was a “dear friend” and had “got” the joke. Fry said he has not “slammed the door” on Twitter but said the site had become a “stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous”. Writing on his official website, he said people needed to “grieve” for what Twitter had become, writing: “I like to believe I haven’t slammed the door, much less stalked off in a huff throwing my toys out of the pram as I go or however one should phrase it. “It’s quite simple really: the room had started to smell. Really quite bad.” [BBC]

In January 2015 Fry married his 27 year old partner Elliot Spencer
Stephen Fry

Hollywood hospital held to ransom by hackers –
Ransomware is a growing menace for computer users – but when a hospital is targeted, it makes the disruption far more serious. Computer systems at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center have been offline for more than a week following a ransomware attack. According to local news sources, hackers were said to have demanded $3.4m (£2.4m) to provide the codes to unlock the stolen data. The hospital has confirmed the attack took place, but has not commented on the ransom. A voicemail message at the hospital reassures patients that medical records had not been accessed by the hackers. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Indoor Snowstorm Prank!!

List of the Day –

Grammy Award winners 2016

Album of the year
Winner: 1989 – Taylor Swift
Sound & Color – Alabama Shakes
To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
Traveller – Chris Stapleton
Beauty Behind The Madness – The Weeknd

Best new artist
Winner: Meghan Trainor
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly

Best rock album
Winner: Drones – Muse
Chaos And The Calm – James Bay
Kintsugi – Death Cab For Cutie
Mister Asylum – Highly Suspect
.5: The Gray Chapter – Slipknot

Best rock performance
Winner: Don’t Wanna Fight – Alabama Shakes
What Kind Of Man – Florence & The Machine
Something From Nothing – Foo Fighters
Ex’s & Oh’s – Elle King
Moaning Lisa Smile – Wolf Alice

Record of the year
Winner: Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars
Really Love – D’Angelo and the Vanguard
Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Blank Space – Taylor Swift
Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd

Song of the year
Winner: Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge
Alright – Kendrick Duckworth, Kawan Prather, Mark Anthony Spears & Pharrell Williams (Kendrick Lamar)
Blank Space – Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Girl Crush – Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose (Little Big Town)
See You Again – Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz (Wiz Khalifa)

Best pop vocal album
Winner: 1989 – Taylor Swift
Piece By Piece – Kelly Clarkson
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence & The Machine
Uptown Special – Mark Ronson
Before This World – James Taylor

Best pop solo performance
Winner: Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Heartbeat Song – Kelly Clarkson
Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding
Blank Space – Taylor Swift
Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd

Best traditional pop vocal album
Winner: The Silver Lining: The Songs Of Jerome Kern – Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap
Shadows In The Night – Bob Dylan
Stages – Josh Groban
No One Ever Tells You – Seth MacFarlane
My Dream Duets – Barry Manilow

Best music video
Winner: Bad Blood – Taylor Swift Featuring Kendrick Lamar
LSD – ASAP Rocky
I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) – The Dead Weather
Alright – Kendrick Lamar
Freedom – Pharrell Williams

Best dance recording
Winner: Where Are U Now – Skrillex and Diplo with Justin Bieber
We’re All We Need – Above & Beyond Featuring Zoe Johnston
Go – The Chemical Brothers Featuring Q-Tip
Never Catch Me – Flying Lotus featuring Kendrick Lamar
Runaway (U & I) – Galantis

Best R&B performance
Winner: Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) – The Weeknd
If I Don’t Have You – Tamar Braxton
Rise Up – Andra Day
Breathing Underwater – Hiatus Kaiyote
Planes – Jeremih Featuring J. Cole

Best R&B album
Winner: Black Messiah – D’Angelo And The Vanguard
Coming Home – Leon Bridges
Cheers To The Fall – Andra Day
Reality Show – Jazmine Sullivan
Forever Charlie – Charlie Wilson

Best urban contemporary album
Winner: Beauty Behind The Madness – The Weeknd
Ego Death – The Internet
You Should Be Here – Kehlani
Blood – Lianne La Havas
Wildheart – Miguel

Best country album
Winner: Traveller – Chris Stapleton
Montevallo – Sam Hunt
Pain Killer – Little Big Town
The Blade – Ashley Monroe
Pageant Material – Kacey Musgraves

Best country song
Winner: Girl Crush – Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose (Little Big Town)
Chances Are – Hayes Carll (Lee Ann Womack)
Diamond Rings And Old Barstools – Barry Dean, Luke Laird & Jonathan Singleton (Tim McGraw)
Hold My Hand – Brandy Clark & Mark Stephen Jones
Traveller – Chris Stapleton

Best metal performance
Winner: Cirice – Ghost
Identity – August Burns Red
512 – Lamb Of God
Thank You – Sevendust
Custer – Slipknot

Best rap album
Winner: To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
2014 Forest Hills Drive – J. Cole
Compton – Dr. Dre
If You’re Reading This Its Too Late – Drake
The Pinkprint – Nicki Minaj

Best music film
Winner: Amy – Amy Winehouse
Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown – James Brown
Sonic Highways – Foo Fighters
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Nina Simone
The Wall – Roger Waters

Best song written for visual media
Winner: Glory – Lonnie Lynn, Che Smith & John Stephens (Common and John Legend)
Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) – Ahmad Balshe, Stephan Moccio, Jason Quenneville & Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd)
Love Me Like You Do – Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Tove Nilsson, Ali Payami & Ilya Salmanzadeh (Ellie Goulding)
See You Again – Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz (Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth)
Til It Happens To You – Lady Gaga & Diane Warren

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#VoltaAsAulasNoClubeSDV	#MondayMotivation	#HSBC
2	#SintoSaudadeDe	Mark Zuckerberg	#MentalHealthTaskforce
3	#علشان_الناس_ت�…	#GRAMMYs	#IThinkItWouldBeGreatIf
4	#FelizLunes	#PresidentsDay	#mondaymotivation
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6	#DolceAmoreSweetBeginning	Stephen Fry	#TheWalkingDead
7	#PresidentsDay	#IThinkItWouldBeGreatIf	#MyFirstLoveIn4Words
8	#ALDUBSigawNgPuso	How America Was Lost	Joel Matip
9	#ŞudaBirGerçekKi	#IConstantlyStruggleWith	#Deutschland83
10	#ايقاف_حساب_دا�…	#Daredevil	#AddINGtoAMovie

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- A Turkish soldier is killed following a clash on the Syria–Turkey border with an armed group trying to enter Turkey illegally. The Turkish military says the clash occurred in the Yayladağı district of the Hatay Province. (Reuters)
- Médecins Sans Frontières reports that an air strike has destroyed a hospital in the Idlib Governorate of northwest Syria, with seven people killed and at least eight people missing, presumed to be dead.(AFP via Yahoo News), (MSF)
- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu accuses Russia of acting as a “terrorist organization” in Syria, saying “If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organization and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response”. (Israel National News)
- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces take control of Tell Rifaat in the Aleppo Governorate after pushing back mostly Islamist rebel fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.(AFP via Yahoo! News)
Kashmir conflict
- India imposes a curfew in some parts of Kashmir following a general strike being called by separatists to protest the death of two protesters. (The New York Times)
Insurgency in the North Caucasus
- A car bomb kills two policemen at a checkpoint in Russia‘s republic of Dagestan. (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- Cross-border shelling from Yemen kills a Saudi border guard in the Jizan Region. (AP via ABC News)

Arts and culture

The 58th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. (Entertainment Weekly)
- Ed Sheeran wins the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “Thinking Out Loud“. (ABC News Australia)
- 1989 by Taylor Swift wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Swift is the first female artist to win the award twice. (Huffington Post), (Courier Mail)
- Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars wins the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. (Huffington Post)

Disasters and accidents

The bodies of nine Indian Army soldiers killed in an avalanche on the Siachen Glacier will be transported to Delhi. (IBN Live)
Authorities in the Chinese city of Tianjin after an inquiry into the explosions last year found that the chemical plants were too close to residential areas. (AP)
Three South Korean Army soldiers die after a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter crashes in the city of Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. (Town Hall)

International relations

Russia–Ukraine relations
- Ukraine bans Russian cargo trucks from transiting its territory after Russia’s Ministry of Transport barred Ukrainian cargo trucks because armed groups had been blocking some Russian trucks from entering Ukraine. (Reuters)
Enlargement of the European Union
- Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applies to join the European Union. (BBC)

Law and crime

Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert starts a 19-month prison sentence for bribery and obstructing justice. In the last decade, he was found or admitted guilty in four different corruption investigations.(AP via Yahoo! News)
Two German intelligence officers are suspected of having given money to Al Qaeda in 2010. (Sputniknews) (Berliner Morgenpost)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 3, 2016

March 2, 2016

Top News Stories –

Kanye West appears to have torrent site Pirate Bay open in a photo he’s tweeted –
Kanye West is in trouble over his tweets – again – after the background to a photo he posted made it look like he was illegally downloading files. He sent out a picture on Twitter showing him listening to a Sufjan Stevens track on YouTube, but fans quickly spotted other tabs he had open. One of them says “Xfer Records Serum”, but is next to others saying “Pirate Bay Torrent Xfe” and “MediaDownloader”. Deadmau5 hit out at Kanye, saying: “@kanyewest – can’t afford Serum?” Kanye’s original tweet simply said “Day 3” alongside the photo. [BBC Newsbeat]
In September 2015 West announced he will be running for US President in 2020.
Kanye West

Emirates A380 makes longest non-stop flight as airlines launch long-haul battle –
An Emirates superjumbo touched down in Auckland, New Zealand, on Wednesday, after spending more than 17 hours in the air from Dubai – making it the world’s longest commercial scheduled flight. The Emirates A380 covered a route of about 8825 miles, before turning around and doing it all again on the way home. It beat the previous record – Qantas’s Dallas to Sydney route – by about 250 miles. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

STREET SWEEPER from Rupert Walker on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#QuartaFeiraNoClubeSDV	#TwoWordTrump	High School Musical 4
2	#FelizMiercoles	#WCH2016	#WednesdayWisdom
3	#HaydiSURaAblukayıKaldır…	#TexasIndependenceDay	#HappyValley
4	#QuienMeConoceSabe	Sports Authority	#BackInTimeForTheWeekend
5	#ALDUBMysteryBox	#WednesdayWisdom	#DolanTwinsNewVideo
6	#PrendeOCunhaSTF	#TroyeOnHits1	#MorningsWouldBeBetterIf
7	#WednesdayWisdom	#StopTheSham	European Super League
8	#كفايات_المعلم…	#1linewed	#borntobedifferent
9	#حلوه_الحياه_لما	#ICON16	#digifest16
10	High School Musical 4	#ReadAcrossAmerica	#ExOnTheBeach

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

One Chinese national is killed and three others injured in a possible militant attack on a Chinese-invested company in Laos, the official Xinhua News Agency reports. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Two Palestinian teenagers, from the nearby village of Qaryout, got into a Jewish settlement and stabbed an Israeli settler at his home in the Eli settlement near Nablus in the occupied West Bank. They were stopped and killed by the army. The injured settler was taken to a hospital. (Reuters)(AFP via i24news)
Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- Jordan says an overnight raid on an ISIL cell in the city of Irbid has left seven militants and one security officer dead, with five others injured. Those killed were planning to blow up civilian and military targets in the country, according to the General Intelligence Directorate (GID). (BBC)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- Nine people are killed in an attack on the Indian consulate In Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (NDTV)
Libyan Crisis (2011–present)
- The Tunisian Army kills five suspected ISIL militants near the town of Ben Gardane after they infiltrated across the border from neighboring Libya. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Mining company Samarco agrees to pay $4.4bn reais (£804m) in compensation to victims of the Bento Rodrigues dam disaster in Brazil. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Iraqi engineers warn that the Mosul Dam could collapse at anytime, resulting in a catastrophic flash flood that could kill up to one million people along the Tigris, with the major Iraqi cites of Mosul, Tikrit,Samarra and Baghdad all at risk. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad has urged American citizens to leave the area. (The Guardian)
2016 Sumatra earthquake
- The Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency of Indonesia (BMKG) and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issue tsunami warnings, after an undersea 7.9 magnitude earthquakestrikes southwest of Sumatra, in the Indian Ocean. (RT) (BOM)

International relations

South China Sea disputes
- Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario says Chinese coast guard ships that were sighted two weeks ago near the disputed Jackson Atoll in the northeast Dangerous Ground are no longer there today. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said ships were dispatched to the area in late 2015 to salvage a fishing vessel that posed a risk to navigation. Chinese ships, “… persuaded fishing boats to leave the waters in an effort to ensure safety conditions for normal navigation,” Hong said. In addition to China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei also lay claim to theSpratly Islands waters. (AP via The Washington Post)
European migrant crisis
- The European Union launches a new aid program worth an initial 700 million euros (US$760 million) to address the growing refugee crisis in Greece. EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides says the so-called Emergency Assistance Instrument will be used to help migrants trapped in Greece and, if needed, in other countries on the migration route front lines. Approval by a majority of EU members is required. The next EU meeting is scheduled for Monday. (The New York Times) (Reuters) (Kathimerini)
The Gulf Cooperation Council formally designates Lebanon‘s Hezbollah militia a terrorist organization. The GCC member states are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.(The Washington Post)
The United Nations Security Council adopts the toughest sanctions on North Korea in twenty years due to continued efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program. (Fox News)

Politics and elections

Spanish general election, 2015
- The conservative People’s Party (PP) and the left-wing Podemos party, which together hold 192 seats in Spain’s 350-seat parliament following December’s election, confirm they will vote against Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez’s candidacy to form a new government. (AP via The Washington Post)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 14, 2016

March 13, 2016

Top News Stories –

Paris St-Germain score 9 as they win French title –
Paris St-Germain were crowned French champions with two months to spare as Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored four in a 9-0 demolition of bottom side Troyes. Edinson Cavani, Javier Pastore and Adrien Rabiot put them 3-0 up inside 19 minutes before Ibrahimovic struck three within 10 minutes in the second half. Matthieu Saunier scored an own goal and Cavani made it 8-0 before Ibrahimovic added his fourth. [BBC]

Paris St-Germain won the league with 62 days and eight games to spare, a record for any of Europe’s ‘big five’ domestic leagues.
In 115 appearances in Ligue 1, Zlatan Ibrahimovic now has 102 goals and 35 assists.
This win was the sixth time this season that PSG have scored four goals or more in a Ligue 1 game.
This title is PSG’s sixth overall and their fourth in a row

Zlatan_Ibrahimovic

Video of the Day –

Jailbreak from HouseSpecial on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

French Ligue 1 title winners

Year	Winner^[2]^[21]^[22]	Runner-up	Third place
2015–16	Paris Saint-Germain
2014–15	Paris Saint-Germain	Lyon	AS Monaco
2013–14	Paris Saint-Germain	AS Monaco	Lille
2012–13	Paris Saint-Germain	Marseille	Lyon
2011–12	Montpellier	Paris Saint-Germain	Lille
2010–11	Lille	Marseille	Lyon
2009–10	Marseille	Lyon	Auxerre
2008–09	Bordeaux	Marseille	Lyon
2007–08	Lyon	Bordeaux	Marseille
2006–07	Lyon	Marseille	Toulouse
2005–06	Lyon	Bordeaux	Lille
2004–05	Lyon	Lille	AS Monaco
2003–04	Lyon	Paris Saint-Germain	AS Monaco
2002–03	Lyon	AS Monaco	Marseille
2001–02	Lyon	Lens	Auxerre
2000–01	Nantes	Lyon	Lille
1999–2000	AS Monaco	Paris Saint-Germain	Lyon
1998–99	Bordeaux	Marseille	Lyon
1997–98	Lens	Metz	AS Monaco
1996–97	AS Monaco	Paris Saint-Germain	Nantes
1995–96	Auxerre	Paris Saint-Germain	AS Monaco
1994–95	Nantes	Lyon	Paris Saint-Germain
1993–94	Paris Saint-Germain	Marseille	Auxerre
1992–93	— ^{[nb 3]}	Paris Saint-Germain	AS Monaco
1991–92	Marseille	AS Monaco	Paris Saint-Germain
1990–91	Marseille	AS Monaco	Auxerre
1989–90	Marseille	Bordeaux	AS Monaco
1988–89	Marseille	Paris Saint-Germain	AS Monaco
1987–88	AS Monaco	Bordeaux	Montpellier
1986–87	Bordeaux	Marseille	Toulouse
1985–86	Paris Saint-Germain	Nantes	Bordeaux
1984–85	Bordeaux	Nantes	AS Monaco
1983–84	Bordeaux	AS Monaco	Auxerre
1982–83	Nantes	Bordeaux	Paris Saint-Germain
1981–82	AS Monaco	Saint-Étienne	Sochaux
1980–81	Saint-Étienne	Nantes	Bordeaux
1979–80	Nantes	Sochaux	Saint-Étienne
1978–79	Strasbourg	Nantes	Saint-Étienne
1977–78	AS Monaco	Nantes	Strasbourg
1976–77	Nantes	Lens	Bastia
1975–76	Saint-Étienne	Nice	Sochaux
1974–75	Saint-Étienne	Marseille	Lyon
1973–74	Saint-Étienne	Nantes	Lyon
1972–73	Nantes	Nice	Marseille
1971–72	Marseille	Nîmes	Sochaux
1970–71	Marseille	Saint-Étienne	Nantes
1969–70	Saint-Étienne	Marseille	Sedan
1968–69	Saint-Étienne	Bordeaux	Metz
1967–68	Saint-Étienne	Nice	Sochaux
1966–67	Saint-Étienne	Nantes	Angers
1965–66	Nantes	Bordeaux	Valenciennes
1964–65	Nantes	Bordeaux	Valenciennes
1963–64	Saint-Étienne	AS Monaco	Lens
1962–63	AS Monaco	Stade Reims	Sedan
1961–62	Stade Reims	RCF Paris	Nîmes
1960–61	AS Monaco	RCF Paris	Stade Reims
1959–60	Stade Reims	Nîmes	RCF Paris
1958–59	Nice	Nîmes	RCF Paris
1957–58	Stade Reims	Nîmes	AS Monaco
1956–57	Saint-Étienne	Lens	Stade Reims
1955–56	Nice	Lens	AS Monaco
1954–55	Stade Reims	Toulouse	Lens
1953–54	Lille	Stade Reims	Bordeaux
1952–53	Stade Reims	Sochaux	Bordeaux
1951–52	Nice	Bordeaux	Lille
1950–51	Nice	Lille	Le Havre
1949–50	Bordeaux	Lille	Stade Reims
1948–49	Stade Reims	Lille	Marseille
1947–48	Marseille	Lille	Stade Reims
1946–47	Roubaix–Tourcoing	Stade Reims	Strasbourg
1945–46	Lille	Saint-Étienne	RC Roubaix
1939–45	Suspended due to World War II
1938–39	Sète	Marseille	RCF Paris
1937–38	Sochaux	Marseille	Sète
1936–37	Marseille	Sochaux	RCF Paris
1935–36	RCF Paris	Lille	Strasbourg
1934–35	Sochaux	Strasbourg	RCF Paris
1933–34	Sète	Fives	Marseille
1932–33	Olympique Lillois	Cannes	—

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#FelizDomingo	#WeNeedMusicBecause	Bonkaz
2	#13MValencia	#DaylightSavingTime	#WeNeedMusicBecause
3	#GetWeirdTourCardiff	Proud of Obama’s Presidency	#GetWeirdTourCardiff
4	#احب_اشوف_سناب�…	#GetWeirdTourCardiff	#ldconf
5	#VemPraRuaBrasil	#SelectionSunday	#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven
6	#나한테_평소에_못��…	Someone Will Die	#ArianaOnSNL
7	#DaylightSavingTime	#GoodSam500	#WWERoadblock
8	#هل_تتزوجين_ولد	#NASPA16	#TheVoiceUK
9	#DomingoDetremuraSdv	#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven	#bathhalf
10	#لا_تتزوج_معلمه	#ArianaOnSNL	Lukaku

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

March 2016 Ankara bombing
- An explosion occurs in central Ankara, Turkey, with at least 34 people killed and 125 wounded. (The Independent) (The Telegraph)
Turkey–PKK conflict (2015–present)
- Turkey declares a curfew in the town of Yüksekova on the border with Iran as Turkish forces prepare an offensive against the PKK. (AP)
2016 Grand-Bassam shootings
- Gunmen attack two hotels in the Ivory Coast town of Grand-Bassam. At least 15 people are reportedly killed. Witnesses claim the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is [the] greatest”) during the gunfire. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claim responsibility for the attack. (CNN) (The Telegraph) (Daily Nation)
Syrian Civil War
- The al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate, assaults the Free Syrian Army’s 13th Division in Maarrat al-Nu’man, killing seven FSA fighters with 40 captured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Nusra seized anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles, a tank, and other arms from the U.S.-backed division. (AP via ABC News)

Disasters and accidents

Five people are dead after a building collapses in the Indian city of Meerut caused by heavy rain. (India Today)
Heavy rain in Pakistan has led to fifteen deaths in two days including at least eight deaths in a coal mine collapse in the Orakzai Tribal Area. (AP via Fox News)
Six people have been killed in Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma, with two Mississippi fishermen missing, in this week’s flooding in the America’s Deep South. More than 24 inches of rain has fallen in some of the hardest-hit areas with more rain today that is expected to lead to additional flooding later this week. (Fox News) (UPI)
A Pacific Northwest windstorm strikes Western Washington, killing at least one person, leaving 300,000 residents without power, and closing several bridges. (KING-TV)
A six-seat Cessna 206 crashes into a market in the Beni Department of northeastern Bolivia, killing all four aboard the plane and injuring three others. (Another report states seven were killed with 15 injured). The plane was flying from Santa Ana del Yacuma to Trinidad, Bolivia. (AP via ABC News) (Reuters via Hindustan Times)

International relations

Malaysia bans the recruitment of foreign workers after protests over plans to recruit 1.5 million people from Bangladesh. (Economic Times)
China–Pakistan relations
- China‘s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will be deployed in Pakistan to protect the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor that connects the Chinese-operated Gwadar Port in Balochistan, Pakistan to China’sXinjiang region. Neighboring India has voiced concern about the planned move. (NDTV)
United States officials say North Korea has apparently lost contact with one of its submarines. The U.S. was watching the sub off North Korea’s eastern coast when it vanished earlier this week. Officials are unsure whether the missing vessel is adrift or has sunk. (STV) (The Guardian)
Israel–Palestine relations
- The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Israel prevented Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi from entering the West Bank to meet with Palestinian officials. The Israeli spokesman would not comment. Israel and Indonesia do not have formal diplomatic relations. (AP via The Washington Post) (AFP via Business Standard)

Law and crime

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

- Israeli Defence Forces arrest 15 Palestinian suspects overnight. (Jerusalem Post)
Authorities in Belarus detain prominent businessman Yury Chyzh, once a close adviser to Alexander Lukashenko and included in the EU’s sanctions list, on suspicion of large-scale tax evasion. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Politics and elections

Elections in Germany
- Regional elections take place in the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt with the governing Christian Democratic Union performing poorly, the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Germany winning in Rhineland-Palatinate, and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany performing well in all three states. (BBC), (AP via International Business Times)
Hundreds of thousands in Brazil’s major cities, some estimates say more than 3 million people, protest the weak economy and political corruption, and call for President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment.(Reuters) (Bloomberg) (Bloomberg Business)

Sports

2016 Six Nations Championship
- Scotland’s win over France gives England the title. (The Guardian)
2015–16 Ligue 1
- Paris Saint-Germain win the title with eight games to spare, after a 9–0 win at Troyes. (BBC Sport)
2015–16 NCAA Division I men’s basketball season
- The field of 68 teams for the NCAA Tournament is announced. Kansas is the top overall seed, with North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia rounding out the #1 seeds. In a minor controversy, the brackets for the South and West regions are leaked several minutes before being officially announced. (ESPN, overall field) (ESPN, bracket leak)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Chinese city brings in penalty points for dog owners –
A city in eastern China is tackling negligent dog owners with a new driving licence-style system. The pilot scheme, which started this month, gives pooches in the city of Shaoxing a licence pre-loaded with 12 points which are then gradually docked for breaking the rules, Qianjiang Evening News reports. Taking a dog into a public place such as a school or restaurant will cost an owner three points, while “failing to take effective measures” to stop a badly behaving dog results in six points being docked. A microchip under the dog’s skin will hold data on the penalties incurred. The biggest penalties are reserved for owners who use their pets to cause deliberate wounding, and those who abandon or abuse their animals – they’ll lose all 12 points and be banned from reapplying for an ownership licence. “Like drink-driving and other bad behaviour, dog owners will be blacklisted, and won’t be able to raise dogs again,” says city official Zhang Zhuoming. The paper says Shaoxing has experienced problems with both stray and domestic dogs, with more than 7,000 dog biting incidents registered last year. [BBC]

Pigeons track air pollution in London with tiny backpacks –
A small flock of pigeons have been given tiny backpacks to monitor air pollution in London. The project was dreamt up by Plume Labs, a company focused on the environmental problem, and the marketing agency DigitasLBi. The rucksacks are fitted to the birds using small fabric vests, and the sensors inside are able to measure nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels. Only 10 birds are in flight at any one time, so the amount of data being collected is pretty small. However, it’s still a creative way of analysing the air that millions breathe in every day in the capital. [Endgadget]

Video of the Day –

X-Men: Apocalypse | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#FelizMiercoles	#Since66	#Budget2016
2	#اول_كلمه_بليل�…	#WednesdayWisdom	#CancelPlansIn5words
3	#EuAmoOTwitterPq	Jared Fogle	#newsrw
4	#FrasesQueMeDanMiedo	#StillSanders	#AddAWomanImproveAMovie
5	#Budget2016	#Budget2016	#FirstDates
6	#PAKvBAN	#1linewed	PlayStation VR
7	#ALDUB8thMonthsary	Otto Warmbier	#GeordieShore
8	#SrDasTagsDaMafiaNoSDV	#MetroShutdown	#PringlesAskOlly
9	#DanGanasDe	#MyElectionFear	#WednesdayWisdom
10	#BirdenŞöyleDedim	#smileforjoe	Trump and Clinton

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- 2016 Peshawar bus bombing
  - A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 54. (AP via CBS)
Boko Haram insurgency
- 2016 Maiduguri suicide bombings
  - Two female suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 22 and injuring 18. (AP via New York Times) (Newsweek)

Disasters and accidents

The Washington Metro, a commuter rail system which transports nearly 1 million passengers across the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area per day, shuts down to allow for an emergency inspection of 600 electrical cables, following two fires occurring over the past 14 months. Officials say the system is scheduled to resume service by the following morning, though individual Metro lines or stations could remain closed indefinitely if problems are identified. (The Washington Post) (The Washington Times) (CBS News)

Health and medicine

Zika virus outbreak
- Cuban officials announce they have detected the first case of the Zika virus transmitted inside the country: a 21-year-old Havana woman who had not traveled abroad. Cuba has reported a handful of travel-associated Zika cases, all believed imported from Venezuela. (Medical Xpress) (Outbreak News Today)

International relations

North Korea–United States relations
- North Korea sentences American Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, studying at the University of Virginia, to 15 years hard labor for removing a political poster from a hotel. (The Guardian) (The Washington Post)
- President Barack Obama orders new sanctions against North Korea in response to ‘illicit’ nuclear, missile tests. (AP)
Syrian Civil War, Syrian peace process
- The delegation of the government of Syria rules out starting any direct talks with the opposition delegation as U.N. sponsored peace talks enter a third day in Geneva. (BBC)
- Kurdish officials say they plan to declare a federal region in northern Syria after being excluded from peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending the 5-year-old conflict. The move will combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas into a federal system in what is set to alarm neighboring Turkey. (USA Today)
Turkey–United Kingdom relations
- Turkey deports British academic Chris Stephenson, a computer science lecturer at Bilgi University in Istanbul, who is charged with making terrorism propaganda. The UK Foreign Office said it was providing assistance; there has been no comment from Turkish officials. (AP)

Law and crime

The travel ban for former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is lifted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Musharraf is currently facing treason charges in Pakistan. (Reuters)
PKK rebellion (2015–present)
- Authorities in Turkey arrest three academics on charges of “terrorist propaganda” after they called for an end to security operations in the country’s Kurdish-majority southeast. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Attacks on humanitarian workers
- The U.S. military disciplines more than a dozen personnel for mistakes that led to the bombing of a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) hospital that killed 42 people in Afghanistan last October. No criminal charges are pending. The partially redacted investigation report is expected to be made public shortly. (AP)

Politics and elections

Republican Party presidential debates and forums, 2016
- Donald Trump announces he will skip the Fox News GOP presidential debate between the three remaining candidates on March 21, saying he thinks “we had enough of debates.” (Newsmax)
- Ohio Governor John Kasich says he will also skip the debate if Donald Trump follows through on his vow not to attend. (The Hill)
- Fox News cancels the Republican debate scheduled for Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Utah Republican Party has received more than 50,000 ticket requests. Utah Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox is upset Trump, “…is snubbing the state of Utah.” According to Deseret News, Trump is in fourth place in Utah polls. (The Salt Lake Tribune) (Deseret News)
2016 Republican Party presidential primaries:
- Senior GOP rules committee member Curly Haugland says that “We (RCN committee members) choose the nominee, not the voters”. (Washington Post)
United States presidential election, 2016
- In the Missouri Primary, media outlets have held off calling yesterday’s races due to the extremely close results. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton lead in their party’s vote, but by just two-tenths of 1 percent ahead of Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, respectively. Missouri law states a recount may be requested if the margin is less than half a percentage point. Either Cruz or Sanders or both can request a recount. These results are unofficial, until they’re certified by the Missouri Secretary of State, which reportedly could take up to four weeks. Trump leads by about 1,700 votes and Clinton’s edge is about 1,500. The state also needs to count the remaining absentee and provisional ballots; the deadline for overseas ballots is noon Friday. (The Hill) (CNN)
Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates
- President Barack Obama nominates Merrick Garland to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States. (BBC) (CNN)
Brazil‘s ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva takes Cabinet post as chief of staff to Brazil’s current president, Dilma Rousseff, thereby gaining legal shield. Only the Brazilian Supreme Court can try presidential Cabinet members for crimes. (New York Times) (UPI)
- Protests erupt outside the presidential palace in Brasília, and on São Paulo’s main Avenue Paulista. on news of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s appointment as President Rousseff’s chief of staff. Federal Judge Sérgio Moro says taped conversations between the two show Lula and Rousseff, apparently, trying to influence the investigation. (Reuters)

Science and technology

Scientists release a small flock of pigeons, dubbed “The Pigeon Air Patrol”, carrying tiny backpacks to monitor London‘s air quality during a period of moderate to high pollution. The backpacks contain sensors used to measure nitrogen dioxide and ozone levels. (Engadget) (The Guardian)

Sport

The PGA of America announces it is discontinuing the PGA Grand Slam of Golf, a special postseason event among the year’s winners of the four major championships of regular men’s golf. This year, it was set to be held at Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, California. The 2015 event was cancelled after the PGA decided to move the exhibition contest from the same Trump Club, and they couldn’t find a replacement course golf course with suitable dates. (AP) (PGA) (ESPN)

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March 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

Twitter celebrates 10 years of tweets and hashtags –
Since the first tweet was sent in 2006, Twitter has become the go-to social network for finding out about everything from global events to celebrity gossip. On its tenth birthday, Twitter has 320 million users including celebrities such as Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Adele, all of whom have tens of millions of followers.Over the decade, the social network has changed its logo and name – from Twttr to Twitter – as well as notching up 250 billion likes. Users create 500 million tweets per day and 200 billion tweets every year, with users sharing hashtags to discuss global moments, such as the terrible terrorist attacks in Paris, using #JeSuisParis. [Daily Mail] See Video of the Day and List of the Day

Hatton Garden ‘Guv’nor’ Brian Reader jailed for six years –
The mastermind of the £14 million Hatton Garden jewellery raid has been jailed for six years and three months. Brian Reader, 77- the oldest member of the gang – suffered a stroke in Belmarsh Prison following what was the biggest burglary in English history. Appearing via video link at Woolwich Crown Court, Reader, who the court was told now uses a walking frame, was sentenced to six years and three months by Judge Christopher Kinch QC. James Scobie QC, Reader’s defence barrister, previously said: “He has a history of prostate cancer, which may return. He has a mass in his face being tested for possible cancer. He has had a stroke and is blind in one eye.” [Daily Telegraph]

This real life cat burglar keeps stealing men’s underwear –
A cat-owner from New Zealand has posted an apologetic note online after her pet cat went on a months-long crime spree, pinching various items of men’s clothing from around her neighbourhood. Brigit, a six-year-old tonkinese cat, has been going out at night on the streets of Hamilton and entering into strangers’ homes, where she’ll pick up some socks or underwear and take it away with her. Brigit then brings the clothes home, often leaving them on her owner Sarah Nathan’s bed. In the past couple of months Brigit has pinched around than a dozen pairs of men’s pants and around 60 single socks. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

INCREDIBLE Facts You Never Knew About Twitter!-Facts in 5

List of the Day –

Twitter in numbers – the top 10 most popular tweets, likes and hashtags [Metro]
1) Most retweeted tweet – Oscars selfie

2) Most followed person – Katy Perry
3) Most mentioned person – Justin Bieber
4) Most tweeted emoji – Face with tears of joy emoji

mg_emoji02_comp — (Picture: Myles Goode/Metro)

5) Most geo-tagged city – São Paulo
6) Most tweeted hashtag tradition – #FF
7) Total number of likes – 250 billion
8) Tweets per minute event record – FA World Cup Final – 618,725 tweets per minute
9) Fastest tor reach one million followers – Caitlyn Jenner – 4 hours and 3 minutes.
10) Number of times ‘love’ was shared on Twitter [tweets with the word “love” in them] – 34.8 billion mentions

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DiaMundialDeLaPoesia	#AppleEvent	#LoveTwitter
2	#WorldPoetryDay	#WorldPoetryDay	#WorldPoetryDay
3	#SegundaSantaClubeSDV	#mondaymotivation	#NationalFragranceDay
4	#جلد_العم_معيض	#LoveTwitter	#mondaymotivation
5	#DiaInternacionalDeCasiAng…	#SaferThanATrumpRally	Novak Djokovic
6	#شخص_تتمني_تعي�…	#DiaMundialDeLaPoesia	#AppleEvent
7	#يوم_الام	#BadMottosForStates	#HumanRightsDay
8	#EstouComLula	#musicmonday	#asktroye
9	#LoveTwitter	Boaty McBoatface	#IntlForestDay
10	#LuanSantanaCacauShowDia21	#WeNeedToRemindOurselves	#Ottawa2016

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

A man detonates a grenade inside a bakery in Belgrade, Serbia, killing himself. No other casualties were reported. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Gunmen attack a European Union military training operation housed in a converted hotel in the Mali capital, Bamako. There are no casualties among the mission personnel. One suspect is killed and two are arrested. No group has claimed responsibility. (Reuters)

Business and economics

The competition regulators of the European Union have halted their investigation into a prospective acquisition of Baker Hughes by Halliburton, effectively freezing any such combination between two giant providers of oilfield services. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Erasmus bus crash
- A Catalan official says the 13 exchange students killed in Sunday’s accident were 19-to-25-year-old women, seven from Italy, two Germans, an Austrian, a woman from France, a Romanian and an Uzbek. Twenty-four people are being treated in hospital with one student in critical condition, and six people, including the driver, in serious condition. Reports from officials indicate the driver lost control of the coach and crashed to the other side before running into an oncoming car. The bus driver, who passed alcohol and drug tests, is being investigated for possible negligent homicide as police seek to determine the cause of the crash. (AP via the Washington Post) (AFP via Yahoo! News)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official reports North Korea launched five short-range missiles from the eastern city of Hamhung into the Sea of Japan. (AFP via msn.com)
United States–Cuban Thaw
- At a 55-minute joint press conference, following their two-hour closed door meeting, United States President Barrack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro agreed this “new day” of openness between the two countries benefits the entire hemisphere as well. Each acknowledged more needs to be done. Obama said he spoke frankly about human rights, free expression, and democracy; Castro said the U.S. needs to remove the military base at Guantanamo Bay, and completely end the U.S. embargo. Obama’s experience gave him an advantage when journalists delved into sensitive areas. (The Washington Post) (The New York Times)

Law and crime

Tea tape scandal
- New Zealand Prime Minister John Key settles a defamation case with freelance cameraman Bradley Ambrose, acknowledging comments he made about the man caused him professional and personal harm. (AP)
The International Criminal Court finds ex-Vice President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of war crimes. Bemba is accused of not taking steps to stop his militia from committing mass murder, rape and pillage in neighbouring Central African Republic. (The Guardian)
The United States Supreme Court, in a 6-2 ruling, essentially upholds the state of Colorado’s legalization of marijuana, turning down complaints by the neighboring states of Nebraska and Oklahoma that, byfederal and their state law, Colorado’s statutes allow “illegal marijuana” to pour into their states. Last year, the justices asked the federal government to weigh in; in December, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. urged the court to turn away the lawsuit. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. (San Francisco Chronicle (NBC News) (USA Today)

Politics and elections

Myanmar‘s new parliament, in its first legislative act, votes (611-3) to eliminate 15 government ministries. President-elect Htin Kyaw says by eliminating the ministers’ salaries, the nation will save $4 million over five years. No civil servants will lose their jobs. (AP)

Science and technology

Two possibly-twin near-Earth objects, 252P/LINEAR and P/2016 BA14, will safely pass by Earth at relatively close distances today and Tuesday. (Christian Science Monitor) (Science Alert) (NASA)(Virtual Telescope Project)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

May 11, 2016

Top News Stories –

Queen filmed calling Chinese officials ‘very rude’ –
The Queen has been filmed saying Chinese officials were “very rude” during last year’s state visit by President Xi Jinping. She was discussing their treatment of Britain’s ambassador to China with a senior police officer at a Buckingham Palace garden party on Tuesday. It came after David Cameron was overheard saying Afghanistan and Nigeria were “fantastically corrupt“. The Queen’s remarks were filmed as she was introduced to Metropolitan Police Commander Lucy D’Orsi, who the monarch is told had overseen security during President Xi’s visit to the UK in October. [BBC]
The Queen

Video of the Day –

Nightlife from Wriggles & Robins on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- 11 May 2016 Baghdad bombings
  - At least 64 people are killed and 87 injured in a bomb attack on a market in Sadr City, Baghdad. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) claims responsibility. (CNN) (NY Times)
- ISIS bury alive 45 of their own fighters in Qayyarah for fleeing a battle. (Mirror) (Armen Press)
Dissident Irish Republican campaign
- MI5 raises the threat level for dissident Northern Ireland militants from “moderate” to “substantial”, meaning there is a strong possibility of an attack on the British mainland. (NY Times) (Reuters) (BBC)

Arts and culture

A fragment of the world’s oldest ground-edge axe dated at between 45,000 and 49,000 years old is found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. (ABC News Australia)

International relations

Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015–present)
- Israel seals off the West Bank and Gaza Strip for two days while Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s remembrance day and independence day) is celebrated. (Haaretz)

Law and crime

The head of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Motiur Rahman Nizami, is executed for his alleged role in acts of genocide and war crimes 45 years ago during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971. Nizami is the fifth senior opposition leader to be executed in connection with the war; a total of 17 people have received the death penalty. Authorities prepare for possibly violent protests. (AP via The Washington Post) (Vice News) (The New York Times)
Amnesty International reports that this year at least 149 have died, including children, in a military detention center, Giwa barracks, in Maiduguri, Nigeria. (VOA News) (Amnesty)
West Fertilizer Company explosion
- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives finds that a 2013 fire at a fertilizer plant in the American town of West, Texas, that killed 15 people was arson and begins the search for suspects.(Fox News)
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas says he will propose legislation to annul homosexuality convictions, and create a “right to compensation.” A 19th-century law outlawed sexual relations between men. Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969, but the law itself was not rescinded until 1994. (AP via The Washington Post) (Deutsche Welle)

Politics and elections

Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
- The Federal Senate of Brazil debates whether to suspend and impeach President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly breaching budget rules. The President’s allies are not optimistic about the Senate vote. (New York Times) (India.Com)
Recognition of same-sex unions in Italy
- The Italian Parliament gives final approval to legislation recognizing civil unions of same-sex couples. (The New York Times)
Ugandan general election, 2016
- Uganda arrests opposition leader Kizza Besigye as he addressed a crowd of supporters in the capital Kampala, and shuts down access to social media within the country prior to President Yoweri Museveni’s inauguration tomorrow. (The New York Times) (Global Voices)

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May 11, 2016

May 12, 2016

Top News Stories –

High heels row: Firm accused of sexism changes policy –
A firm that sent home a temp without pay for refusing to wear high heels has changed its policy. London receptionist Nicola Thorp, 27, says she was told to wear shoes with a “2in to 4in heel” when she arrived at finance company PwC in December. When she refused and was sent home she set up a petition calling for the law on dress code to be changed. Outsourcing firm Portico said “with immediate effect all our female colleagues can wear plain flat shoes”. The company initially said Ms Thorp, from Hackney, had signed its “appearance guidelines” but said it would review them. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Nightmare in the Morning from Yonatan Tal on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
- Al Qaeda militants kill at least 13 Yemeni government troops near the city of Mukalla. (AFP via Daily Mail)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- A twin suicide bombing attack at a police station in Baghdad kills five people. Yesterday 93 people had been killed and 165 injured in the deadliest day of attacks in Iraq this year. (AP via Fox News)

Business and economy

Nissan announces that it will buy 34% of fellow Japanese car manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors for 237.4 billion yen ($2.2 billion). (The Independent)
The Bank of England issues an unusually sharp warning about the possible economic consequences of an “Out” vote in the upcoming Brexit referendum. (Reuters)

Disasters

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
- The Government of Malaysia confirms that two more pieces of debris found in South Africa and Rodrigues Island off the coast of Mauritius are “almost certainly” from Malaysia Airlines 370 that disappeared two years ago. (AP via New York Times)

International relations

Syrian Civil War
- Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatens unilateral action against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria inside Syria. (Hurriyet Daily) (WSJ)

Law and crime

A criminal investigation is launched by the New Hampshire attorney general against law enforcement officials after news footage showed Massachusetts/New Hampshire police appear to beat a man who was surrendering at the end of a bi-state car chase. (Washington Post via MSN)

Politics and elections

Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
- The Brazilian Senate votes (55-22) to begin the impeachment process against the President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff and suspend her from office while the trial takes place. (BBC)
Baltimore, Maryland, primary election, 2016
- Maryland state elections officials decertify the results of Baltimore’s April 26, 2016, primary election because, for example, the number of ballots cast was hundreds more than the number of voters who checked in at polling places. (The Washington Post)

Science

Longevity claims
- A 120-year old woman is found living in the Astrakhan Oblast of Russia, which would make her the world’s oldest living person. However, her birth year remains internationally unverified. Thus, 116-year old Italian Emma Morano is still listed as the oldest verified living person. (TASS)
- The world’s oldest person, American Susannah Mushatt Jones, dies at the age of 116. (Wave 3)
Researchers from Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary, reveal that (225088) 2007 OR10 is the third largest dwarf planet in the solar system. (Gizmodo)

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May 20, 2016

Top News Stories –

Mum in Chewbacca mask shatters Facebook Live record –
A braying Chewbacca mask found “on clearance” has shot a Texas mother to internet stardom. Candace Payne was not expecting to purchase the mask when she went to her local Kohls department store, just outside of Dallas, Texas. She doesn’t even consider herself a huge Star Wars fan. On Thursday, the 37-year-old mother of two was returning some items and was going to spend her birthday money on some exercise clothes or something “for the kids”. The Facebook Live video she broadcast from the store’s car park – immediately after purchasing the Chewbacca mask – has broken the record as the most-watched Facebook Live video – ever. “That’s just crazy,” Mrs Payne told the BBC. “I’m just laughing – in all honesty, that is ridiculous. I’ve looked at the number of views and it just seems like someone is just playing with a calculator.” It’s a big number: So far, more than 48 million people have watched Payne laugh hysterically as she shows Facebook her new purchase. [BBC] See Video of the Day [Also see 24 May – Video of the Day]
Candace Payne – Chewbacca

India records its hottest day ever –
A city in India’s Rajasthan state has broken the country’s temperature records after registering 51C, the highest since records began, the weather office says. The new record in Phalodi in the desert state comes amid a heatwave across India. The previous record for the hottest temperature stood at 50.6C in 1956. The heatwave has hit much of northern India, where temperatures have exceeded 40C for weeks. The run-up to the Indian monsoon season is always characterised by weeks of strong sunshine and increasing heat but life-threatening temperature levels topping 50C are unusual. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Candace Payne Chewbacca video

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi civil war (2014–present)
- Ar-Rutbah offensive (2016)
  - Iraqi Army forces helped by U.S. airstrikes recapture the southwestern city of Ar-Rutbah from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group. The victory will allow for the re-opening of the Baghdad–Amman highway. (Al Jazeera)
Abkhaz–Georgian conflict
- Georgia‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses “shock and deep concern” after a Georgian citizen, 31-year-old Giga Otkhozoria, was shot dead by Russian Armed Forces troops patrolling areas near the administrative boundary with Abkhazia. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Business and economy

Shortages in Venezuela
- Coca-Cola FEMSA suspends all production in Venezuela due to a sugar shortage. (Fortune) (Sputnik)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Sri Lankan floods
- Two hundred thousand people flee the Sri Lankan capital Colombo as floods caused by several days of heavy rain worsen. (AFP via Yahoo)
EgyptAir Flight 804
- Egyptian Armed Forces claim that passenger luggage and part of the aircraft have been found in the Mediterranean Sea 290 kilometers north of Alexandria. (CNN)
Temperatures soar to a record 51 °C (124 °F) in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The heatwave has claimed 300 lives since April 2016. (BBC)
At least four National Gendarmerie officers are killed in a helicopter crash in Hautes-Pyrénées, in southwestern France. (THE LOCAL)
List of earthquakes in Australia
- The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports a magnitude 5.9 earthquake strikes the southern part of the Northern Territory in central Australia. It is the strongest earthquake in the Northern Territory region since the Tennant Creek earthquakes on 22 January 1988. No damage or injuries are reported. (The Sydney Morning Herald) (RT)

Health

Zika virus outbreak (2015 – present)
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports at that least 270 pregnant women in the United States are infected with the Zika virus. (NBC News) (NPR)

International relations

Accession of Montenegro to NATO
- The Kremlin condemns NATO’s membership invitation to Montenegro, warning the step risks fueling geopolitical tensions in Europe. (Reuters)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- NATO foreign ministers, meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, agree to extend the alliance’s Resolute Support Mission, that trains, advises and assists Afghanistan‘s military beyond 2016.(AP via Daily Mail) (NATO)

Law and crime

Efforts to impeach Barack Obama
- The Oklahoma Legislature files a measure asking for Congress to impeach Barack Obama over his decision to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity.(KOCO)
The Mexican government approves the extradition of drug boss Joaquín Guzmán to the United States following assurances that he will not face the death penalty. (Reuters)
A United States Secret Service officer shoots an armed man on a street near the White House after the man allegedly approached the officer and refused to drop his weapon. The White House is locked down.(AP via Yahoo! News) (CNN)

Politics and elections

Tsai Ing-wen is sworn in as the first female President of Taiwan. (BBC)
Israeli Defense minister Moshe Ya’alon announces his resignation. (NY Times) (BBC) (FOX News)
The Oklahoma legislature passes a bill that would make it a felony for doctors to perform abortions and revokes the medical license of assisting physicians. The governor then vetoes the bill. (NY Times)(Washington Post)(CNN)
2015–16 Iraqi protests
- Iraqi security forces fire tear gas and water cannon on protesters attempting to storm the Green Zone in Baghdad, injuring at least 33. (Bloomberg) (WSJ)
- The Iraqi government imposes a curfew in Baghdad. (Reuters)

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May 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

Barack Obama eats $6 dinner in Vietnam with chef Anthony Bourdain –
Barack Obama didn’t want to miss out Monday night in Hanoi, so he hit the town with renowned chef-turned-television host Anthony Bourdain. The pair dined together at Huong Lien, a bún chả restaurant that serves the grilled pork and noodle dish thought to originate in Vietnam’s capital city. The US reporters in the White House press pool that was accompanying Obama in the presidential motorcade were not allowed to follow the pair inside the restaurant, which was crowded with local patrons. But social media lit up with photos from those who were present for the surprise visit, which was not listed on the president’s public schedule. [The Independent]
Anthony Bourdain tweet

Video of the Day –

If Meat Eaters Acted Like Vegans – Ultra Spiritual Life episode 35

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian civil war
- Reuters reports nearly 150 people are killed and at least 200 wounded in a series of car bomb and suicide attacks in the Syrian cities of Jableh and Tartus in government-controlled territory that hostsRussian military bases. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group claims responsibility. (Al Jazeera) (USA Today) (Reuters)
Yemeni civil war (2015–present)
- At least 41 army recruits are killed and 60 others injured in a suicide car bomb attack in Aden, Yemen. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group claims responsibility. (Reuters)
- At least 13 suspected Al-Qaeda militants and two soldiers are killed in a raid in Aden, Yemen. (VOA News) (National Yemen)
Iraqi civil war (2014–present)
- The Iraqi government begins Operation Breaking Terrorism, aimed at retaking the city of Fallujah, which has been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group since early 2014. (Al Jazeera)
Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
- Three policemen are killed in Srinagar, India. Hizbul Mujahideen claims responsibility. (News 18) (The New York Times)
War in Afghanistan
- The Taliban leadership council reportedly meets to determine a successor to Mullah Akhtar Mansour, killed this weekend during an American drone strike in Pakistan. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Germany‘s Bayer AG makes an unsolicited bid valued at $62 billion cash to takeover American company Monsanto to create the world’s largest agricultural chemical company. (Bloomberg) (The Wall Street Journal)

Disasters and accidents

An overnight fire at Pitakiatwittaya Christian elementary school’s dormitory in the northern Chiang Rai Province in Thailand kills 18 girls between the ages of 5 and 12. The other 20 girls sleeping in the dorm are rescued, though five are injured. (CNN) (Facebook)
Cyclone Roanu
- Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre reports 92 people are confirmed dead with 109 people still missing from landslides and floods resulting from Roanu. More than 500,000 have been driven from their homes. (EconomyNext)
- Bangladesh reports at least 26 deaths caused by drowning or homes collapsing with 500,000 evacuated during the storm. Maheshkhali Island officials are monitoring a badly damaged 17-mile stretch of mud embankment in danger of collapsing, allowing seawater to flood the communities. (The Weather Channel) (The Navhind Times)
At least five people are killed after a Cessna 182 light-aircraft crashes near Port Allen Airport on Hawaii‘s Kauai island. (CBS News)

Health and medicine

2015–16 Zika virus epidemic
- Health officials are concerned about the spread of the Zika virus in Haiti, which suffered the worst epidemic of cholera in recent history following the deadly 2010 Haiti earthquake. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports there are 2,214 suspected cases as of April 23. But new research indicates the virus has been present since 2014. The actual infection rate remains unknown since the poor, densely populated nation lacks routine data systems that can track and document disease outbreaks. (AP)

International relations

United States–Vietnam relations
- United States President Barack Obama ends the American arms embargo with Vietnam during his visit in the country. (Washington Post) (USA Today)
World Humanitarian Summit
- The first-ever United Nations humanitarian summit opens in Istanbul, Turkey, to address the 125-million people crisis, the worst since World War II. (AP via Deseret News) (Reuters)
Pope Francis meets with the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed el-Tayeb in the Vatican. (Al Jazeera) (ABC News) (US News)

Law and crime

Death of Freddie Gray
- Judge Barry Williams finds Baltimore, Maryland, Police Officer Edward Nero not guilty of all charges. Nero was accused of second-degree intentional assault, two counts of misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment. Community leaders and elected officials appeal for calm. (CNN)
- The Baltimore Police Department says Nero remains on administrative duty while an internal investigation continues. (AP via Daily Mail)
- Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says the city is prepared to respond to any disturbance after today’s acquittal. (AP via Salon)
Threatening robocalls lead to mass evacuation of students in the United States and United Kingdom. None of the threats were found to be credible but disrupted General Certificate of Secondary Educationtests in the UK. (NBC News)
Democratic Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe is being investigated by federal prosecutors over campaign contributions, including a foreign contribution from a Chinese businessman, and what they consider to be “suspicious personal finances”, as part of a public integrity probe that has lasted for more than a year, according to officials. The United States Department of Justice would not confirm or deny the investigation. (The Washington Post)

Politics and elections

Tajikistani constitutional referendum, 2016
- The Tajikistani constitutional referendum results in the removal of term limits of incumbent President Emomali Rahmon. (TASS), (ABC News)
Binali Yıldırım is appointed Prime Minister of Turkey after the resignation of Ahmet Davutoğlu amid disagreements with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (ABC New), (BBC), (VOA)
Austrian presidential election, 2016
- Independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, a member of The Greens, is elected President of Austria in a tight contest that was decided by mail-in votes. (CNN) (USA Today)
Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines presumptive president-elect, says he will allow the immediate burial of former kleptocratic dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes’ Cemetery in metropolitan Manila. (AP)
Cypriot legislative election, 2016
- The Democratic Rally wins the legislative election. (Daily Sabah) (TASS) (EU Observer)

Science

ISRO successfully launched India‘s Reusable Launch Vehicle demonstrator mission (RLV-TD).(NASA Spaceflight)

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May 24, 2016

Top News Stories –

Facebook to update Trending Topics –
Facebook has announced changes to the way it runs its Trending Topics feed, following an internal investigation. There will be more training for staff and the feed will no longer rely on a list of news organisations, including the BBC, Washington Post and Buzzfeed News, to validate subjects. The feed, which lists popular headlines along with a brief description, has been accused of political bias. However, Facebook’s report found no evidence of this. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said the investigation analysed 3,000 reviewer decisions following allegations that conservative issues were being suppressed. [BBC]

Google’s Paris HQ raided in tax probe –
French finance officials have raided the Paris offices of US internet giant Google as part of a tax fraud investigation. Reports say about 100 tax officials entered Google’s offices in central Paris early in the morning. Police sources confirmed the raid. Google said: “We comply with French law and are co-operating fully with the authorities to answer their questions.” Google is accused of owing €1.6bn ($1.8bn; £1.3bn) in unpaid taxes. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Chewbacca Mom Takes James Corden to Work

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
- Jaish-e-Mohammed operations chief is killed in a gun battle with police. (ABC News)
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- At least six Turkish soldiers are killed and four others are wounded in a PKK attack in Turkey‘s eastern Van Province. (Daily Sabah)
Syrian civil war
- New satellite imagery from Stratfor appears to reveal the destruction of four Russian attack helicopters and 20 lorries at the Tiyas military airbase after a reported attack which was conducted last week by the ISIL. (BBC)
- U.S. backed Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish forces, launch an operation to capture Al-Raqqah, the de-facto capital of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The force is reported to be more than 50,000 strong. (Reuters)
War in Donbass
- Seven Ukrainian servicemen are killed in suspected attacks by pro-Russian rebels. (Reuters)

Business and economy

American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto rejects an unsolicited $62 billion takeover bid by German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, saying the price was too low but adding that it remained “open to further talks.” (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Eleven people are dead and many are missing after a jade mine collapses in the Myanmar town of Hpakant. (AFP via New Straits Times)
EgyptAir Flight 804
- Reports claim that an Egyptian forensic official says that body parts recovered from EgyptAir flight 804 indicate that the crash was caused by an explosion. (Daily Mail)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Greek authorities begin operations to clear the Idomeni refugee camp on the border with Macedonia. (AP via ABC News)

Law and crime

A court in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania finds that there is enough evidence to hold entertainer Bill Cosby on felony indecent assault charges in relation to the case of Andrea Constand v. William H. Cosby, Jr.. (CNN)
Google‘s offices in central Paris are raided by French finance officials as part of a tax fraud investigation. Google is accused of owing €1.6bn ($1.8bn; £1.3bn) in unpaid taxes. (BBC)
Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General of the United States, advises that the US government will seek the death penalty against Dylann Roof accused of conducting the 2015 Charleston massacre. (Post and Courier)

Politics and elections

Iran‘s Assembly of Experts new session is opened which elects Ahmad Jannati as its chairman. (Mehr)
The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan formally approves his ally Binali Yıldırım as the Prime Minister. (AP via ABC News America)

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May 30, 2016

Top News Stories –

Masked Gary Barlow stuns Bristol shoppers with surprise concert –
Take That star Gary Barlow surprised shoppers in Bristol with an impromptu concert – which started with him wearing a disguise… as himself. The star wore a Gary Barlow mask as he began playing Could It Be Magic on a piano at Cabot Circus shopping centre. Shoppers watching the mystery performer were astonished when he revealed his true identity and sang the hit song. [BBC]
Gary Barlow in Bristol (Tweet by Marjolein Nap)

Cheese-rolling spectators gather for Cooper’s Hill tradition –
Thousands of people lined a steep hill in Gloucestershire to watch crowds of thrill-seekers fling themselves down in pursuit of a wheel of cheese.The 8lb (3.6kg) Double Gloucester is chased 200 yards down the 1:2 gradient Cooper’s Hill at Brockworth every year. Chris Anderson, 28, won the first two downhill races – his 16th and 17th Cheese Rolling victories in total. “It’s brilliant, I’m really happy,” said the soldier from Brockworth who serves with 1 Rifles. Competitors travelled from across the world to take part in the races with TV crews from across Europe also in attendance. Warning signs are put up around the site warning spectators and competitors that they are attending entirely at their own risk. In 2010 the official event was cancelled over safety fears when more than 15,000 people turned up the previous year to watch the competition. Since then it has been held unofficially with roads closed up to 2.5 miles (4km) around the slope. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling 2016 – The Tumbles

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi civil war (2014–present)
- At least 24 people are killed in a series of attacks in and around Baghdad. ISIL has claimed responsibility. (ABC News), (AP)
- Operation Breaking Terrorism
  - Iraqi forces reportedly enter the city of Fallujah. Tens of thousands of civilians are trapped in the city. (USA Today), (The Guardian)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- At least 11 Afghani policemen are killed in a suspected Taliban attack on security checkpoints in Helmand province. (The States Man)
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- Two Turkish police officers are killed in a suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) bomb attack in the eastern province of Van. (Hurriyet Daily)
War in Donbass
- Three Ukrainian Army soldiers are killed and eight more are injured around separatist-controlled Donetsk and government-controlled Mariupol by Russian-backed separatists. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Disasters and accidents

Floods in Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany following heavy rain that started Sunday night kill at least four people. (Sky News)

Law and crime

Hissene Habre, ex president of Chad, is sentenced to life in prison for ordering rape, sexual slavery and killings during his rule from 1982 to 1990. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Congress of the Philippines proclaims Rodrigo Duterte and Leni Robredo as President-elect and Vice President-elect of the Philippines, respectively. (CNN Philippines), (AP via The Olympian)
Syrian peace process
- Chief Syrian opposition negotiator of the High Negotiations Committee Mohammed Allush resigns over the failure of the UN-backed peace talks. Allush said that without any of the opposition demands met, peace talks were a “waste of time”. In April, the HNC suspended talks with the Syrian government’s delegation in Vienna. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff
- Fabiano Silveira, Minister for Transparency, Supervision and Control, resigns after leaked recordings suggested he tried to derail the Petrobras corruption investigation. This anti-corruption ministry was created on May 12, 2016, when Vice President Michel Temer was sworn in as acting president. The same tapes led to the resignation of Planning Minister Romero Jucá last week. (BBC) (Reuters)
Haitian presidential election, 2015–16
- A special verification panel recommends throwing out the results of the Haiti presidential election on October 25 2015 because it appeared to be tainted by significant voter fraud. (AP via US News and World Report)

Science and technology

A new study by University of Colorado Boulder researchers, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds opioid medicines can paradoxically cause an increase in chronic pain inlab rats. (EurekAlert!)

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June 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Duke of Cambridge: Attitude magazine features first royal cover star –
The Duke of Cambridge has become the first member of the Royal Family to appear on the cover of a gay magazine. He spoke to Attitude about the issue of homophobic bullying, saying: “No-one should be bullied for their sexuality or any other reason.” The duke invited the magazine to bring members of the LGBT community to Kensington Palace to discuss bullying and its mental health repercussions. Kensington Palace said William had been “moved” by the stories he heard. The nine people who attended the meeting last month spoke of low self-esteem, suicide attempts, drug addiction and depression. William said that “no-one should have to put up with the kind of hate that these young people have endured in their lives”. [BBC]
Prince William Attitude cover [Image copyright ATTITUDE/LEIGH KEILY/PA]

Video of the Day –

American Ninja Warrior – T. Rex on American Ninja Warrior

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Syrian government airstrikes hit rebel-held areas in Aleppo, killing at least 34 people. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

A scaffolding on a bridge under construction near Werneck, Germany, collapses, killing at least one worker and injuring six more. (BBC)
EgyptAir Flight 804
- A deep sea search vessel discovers the wreckage of the lost aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea. (CNN) (BBC)

International relations

European Union-Turkey relations
- Turkey fails to meet the criteria set forth by the European Union in order to obtain visa-free travel to its member states. The EU promised to grant Turkey visa-free travel only if it met specific conditions on border security and human rights. (The Guardian)
Ukraine–NATO relations
- NATO’s defense ministers agree to boost support for Ukraine with a “comprehensive package of assistance”, which will help it strengthen defense and to modernize its armed forces. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Israel–Palestine relations
- Israel announces plans for construction of a three-story residential building for Jews in the Silwan neighborhood near the City of David in east Jerusalem. (Reuters)

Law and crime

2014–16 Venezuelan protests
- Venezuelan police arrest at least 400 people in the city of Cumaná after food riots and looting broke out yesterday. (Reuters)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- The father of Cal State Long Beach student Nohemi Gonzalez, the only American killed in the November 13, 2015, Paris massacre, files suit in San Francisco, California, federal court against Twitter,Facebook, and Google, alleging the companies provided “material support” to the Islamic State and other extremist groups. While generally free of liability under U.S. law which provides a legal safe harborfor content posted, this case targets the behavior social media companies enable. The suit is very similar to a case brought against Twitter in January by the widow of a contractor killed in the November 9, 2015, attack in Jordan. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle) (Daily Mail) (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

Yōichi Masuzoe resigns as the Governor of the Japanese capital Tokyo over a political funding scandal. He was due to face a no-confidence motion in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly later today. (AP via ABC News America)
Senator Murphy gun control filibuster
- United States Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn) launches a filibuster on the Senate floor in an effort to pass gun control legislation in the wake of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. (Politico)
The Canadian House of Commons approves a bill to make the lyrics in the country’s national anthem gender neutral. The bill would change the words in O Canada from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.” (Reuters)
The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Council approves a a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened and diet beverages, effective January 1, 2017. This the first so-called sugary drinks tax in a major U.S.city. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Science and technology

Scientists confirm a second detection of gravitational waves by LIGO. (The Guardian) (BBC)

Sport

Violence at UEFA Euro 2016
- Renewed clashes take place between English and Russian football fans in the French city of Lille following Russia’s 2-1 defeat against Slovakia. Riot police fired tear gas at England supporters outsideGare de Lille Europe. (The Guardian) (BBC)
- Police arrest at least 36 people in Lille following clashes between French police and football fans at the tournament. French authorities report 16 people were taken to hospital. (BBC)
In baseball, Ichiro Suzuki reaches a combined total of career hits of 4,257 spanning Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball. It passes Pete Rose‘s career total encompassing Major League Baseball only of 4,256 but the MLB is considered to be a higher quality competition. (ESPN)

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June 25, 2016

Top News Stories –

Los Angeles glass slide opens 1,000ft up skyscraper –
A glass slide fixed 1,000ft (305m) along the outside of a skyscraper in Los Angeles opens to the public on Saturday. The Skyslide spans 45 ft from the 70th to the 69th floor of the US Bank Tower in the city. Despite being made of glass just one inch thick, it is built to withstand hurricane-force winds and earthquakes. Tickets cost $25 (£18) each. It is part of the Skyspace renovation that also includes an observation deck. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Greenpeace holds a historic performance with pianist Ludovico Einaudi on the Arctic Ocean

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Moro conflict
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant urges its supporters in Indonesia and Malaysia to go to the Philippines and fight against newly-elected president Rodrigo Duterte. (Rappler)
Syrian Civil War
- At least three people are killed and three more injured as hundreds of Syrian Kurds flee Aleppo Province villages controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which continues to abduct and enslave Kurds. Yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported ISIL militants have kidnapped about 900 civilians over the past three weeks. (The New York Times) (Fox News)
Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
- Five Indian paramilitary soldiers are killed and another 20 injured when suspected rebels ambush their convoy in the outskirts of Srinagar in the Indian portion of Kashmir. Two of the attackers are killed by return fire; the others escape. (AP via ABC News)
War in Somalia
- A suspected Al-Shabab suicide bomber blows open the gate of Mogadishu’s Nasa-Hablod hotel in Somalia, before militant fighters storm the building. Officials said at least 15 were killed, 25 injured, and an unknown number of guests were taken hostage. (AP via NBC News) (AP), (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

2016 West Virginia flood
- The Kanawha County sheriff’s office reports the death toll is now 26—three more victims were found overnight. It is the third-deadliest flood in West Virginia history. (USA Today)
Two women and seven men of the Extra Young Ohangla band die and eight other band members survive after their boat sinks in Lake Victoria at Kenya’s Lihunda beach. The 15-member band was headed to Ndeda Island. (Kenya Star) (The Standard)
Erskine Fire, 2016 California wildfires
- A massive wildfire destroys at least 150 homes and leaves two people dead in Kern County, California. The Governor of California Jerry Brown declares a state of emergency for Kern County as more homes are threatened by the fire. (Reuters)

International relations

Cross-Strait relations
- The People’s Republic of China cuts communication mechanism with Taiwan after the new government refuses to acknowledge the One China policy. (Reuters)
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- Diplomats from Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg meet in Berlin to discuss the consequences of the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union. (AP via Daily Mail)
- Lord Hill resigns as European Commissioner after the United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union. (BBC)
- Germany and France call for Britain to negotiate a quick divorce from the European Union. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

2014–16 Venezuelan protests
- Venezuelan opposition leaders say they have now secured enough signatures on a petition to move to the next stage in a recall referendum of President Nicolás Maduro. The process must now be validated by electoral officials. (BBC)
Icelandic presidential election, 2016
- Voters in Iceland head to the polls to elect a new president with a historic low voter turnout expected. Independent candidate Guðni Th. Jóhannesson claims victory. (DPA) (Iceland Review)
United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016
- A petition calling for a second EU referendum has topped two million signatures – more than doubling the highest signed in UK parliamentary history. (Daily Mirror)
- Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Opposition, sacks Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn after Benn’s support for a “no-confidence motion” after Corbyn’s perceived poor campaign for Remain. (BBC)

Science and technology

Five new species of orchid are discovered in the Philippines. (Times of India)

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June 30, 2016

Top News Stories –

Boris Johnson rules himself out of Conservative leader race –
Ex-London mayor Boris Johnson has ruled himself out of the race to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister. In a speech in London – billed as his campaign launch – Mr Johnson said he did not believe he could provide the leadership or unity needed. It comes after Justice Secretary and fellow Brexit campaigner Michael Gove’s surprise announcement on Thursday morning that he would run for leader. Home Secretary Theresa May is among the candidates. Nominations closed at noon. Also in the running are Energy minister Andrea Leadsom and former Defence Secretary Liam Fox – who campaigned to leave the EU – and Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, who backed Remain. The contest was sparked after David Cameron announced he would resign following the EU referendum result, which saw the UK vote by 52% to 48% to leave the EU. Mr Johnson’s unexpected – and dramatic – announcement that he would not stand for Tory leader or prime minister, positions he is long thought to have harboured ambitions for, has dramatically altered the race. Mr Gove and his team of advisors clearly did not believe Boris Johnson had the spine to fully divorce Britain from the EU. Nor did a number of Tory Mps trust Mr Johnson to deliver the promises he was making in terms of personnel and jobs. When Mr Gove made his move, hardened Brexit believers instantly went with him, sinking Boris Johnson. The irony of course is that Boris Johnson, who did so much to take Britain out of the EU, has seen his own ambitious crushed in the aftermath. It could be that the big winner from this vicious Tory drama is the woman in charge of law and order – Theresa May. [BBC]
Boris Johnson

Video of the Day –

CLIMBING THE EIFFEL TOWER + DRONE

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- An Afghan National Security Forces convoy outside Kabul was attacked in a coordinated ambush including suicide bombers and heavy machine guns resulting in over 40 deaths. (BBC)
Boko Haram insurgency
- At least 15 people are killed and 50 are wounded following two suicide bombings in Cameroon‘s Far North Region. (AP via The New York Times)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Battle of Fallujah (2016)
  - According to reports, at least 250 ISIL militants were killed during fighting in the city of Fallujah while fighting Iraqi Army forces with assistance from U.S. airstrikes. (Reuters via Euronews)
2016 Istanbul airport attack
- A Turkish official reports the three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers who killed 44 people and wounded 238 others, were Russian, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz nationals. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A 17-year-old Palestinian stabs and kills a sleeping 13-year-old Israeli girl in her bedroom. The assailant is fatally shot by security guards. (AP via Post-Bulletin) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- At least 10 people drown off the coast of Libya when their dinghy sinks. The Italian Navy managed to rescue over 100 more people. (BBC)

International relations

Armenia–Russia relations
- Armenia’s parliament, by a 102-8 vote, ratifies an agreement to create an Armenia-Russia joint Air Defense system. (Reuters) (Armenpress)
The United Nations agrees to appoint an observer to investigate violence against LGBT people, despite opposition from various countries. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Law and crime

Colombian, Italian, and U.S. police seize 11 tonnes of cocaine smuggled to various countries and arrest 33 people across Colombia and Italy after the discovery of seven laboratories in the Colombian jungle run by local organized criminal groups and ‘Ndrangheta. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- British home secretary Theresa May enters into the Tory leadership contest, saying that Article 50 of the EU Treaty should not be invoked before the end of this year, implying that formal Brexit negotiations with the EU institutions be put on hold until 2017 at the earliest. (Wall Street Journal)
- Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson rules himself out of running in the Tory leadership contest, a move believed to be influenced by Michael Gove‘s announcement earlier in the day to run for the leadership. (BBC)
Presidential transition of Rodrigo Duterte
- Rodrigo Duterte is inaugurated as President of the Philippines and Leni Robredo as Vice President. (The Manila Bulletin), (The Wall Street Journal)
Political reshuffle in the Communist Party of China
- Luo Huining leaves his position as party chief of Qinghai and becomes party chief of Shanxi province, replacing Wang Rulin. (SCMP)
- Qiang Wei leaves his post as party chief of Jiangxi; Governor Lu Xinshe becomes the new party chief of Jiangxi. (SCMP)
- Hubei governor Wang Guosheng becomes party chief of Qinghai province. (SCMP)
- Lu Wei is replaced as head of the Cyberspace Administration of China by Xu Lin. (SCMP)
Bosnia and Herzegovina officially releases its first census report since the end of the Bosnian War after multiple delays, showing that the country had lost one fifth of its population from 4.4 million to 3.5 million between then and 2013. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu dismisses 50 high-ranking Navy officers, including Baltic Fleet Commander Viktor Kravchuk and Chief of Staff Sergei Popov, following a month-long inspection that found incompetence, deficiencies in training, and misinformation regarding the state of the fleet. (UPI) (Reuters)

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August 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

Rio Olympics 2016: Team GB beat China to finish second in medal table –
Great Britain have finished second in the medal table at the 2016 Olympics – above sporting powerhouse China. One of the event’s dominant nations, China have won more than 200 golds since returning to the Games in 1984. Britain ended the Rio Games with 27 golds from 15 sports, one ahead of China, as they finished with a total of 67 from 19 sports, beating the 65 at London 2012. Since the modern Olympic era began in 1896, no country has increased its medal tally at the summer Games immediately following one it hosted. GB have also smashed their pre-Games target of at least 48 medals, which was set by UK Sport. That means Rio 2016 is the nation’s most successful ‘away’ Games in history. China, with a population of 1.357bn to Britain’s 64.1m, have amassed more medals (70) than Team GB in Brazil, achieving notable success in table tennis, diving and weightlifting. However, GB are ahead on golds, which is what the rankings are based on. [BBC] See List of the day

List of the Day –

2016 Summer Olympics Medals Table [Wikipedia]

2016 Summer Olympics medal table
Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	46	37	38	121
2	Great Britain (GBR)	27	23	17	67
3	China (CHN)	26	18	26	70
4	Russia (RUS)	19	18	19	56
5	Germany (GER)	17	10	15	42
6	Japan (JPN)	12	8	21	41
7	France (FRA)	10	18	14	42
8	South Korea (KOR)	9	3	9	21
9	Italy (ITA)	8	12	8	28
10	Australia (AUS)	8	11	10	29
11	Netherlands (NED)	8	7	4	19
12	Hungary (HUN)	8	3	4	15
13	Brazil (BRA)	7	6	6	19
14	Spain (ESP)	7	4	6	17
15	Kenya (KEN)	6	6	1	13
16	Jamaica (JAM)	6	3	2	11
17	Croatia (CRO)	5	3	2	10
18	Cuba (CUB)	5	2	4	11
19	New Zealand (NZL)	4	9	5	18
20	Canada (CAN)	4	3	15	22
21	Uzbekistan (UZB)	4	2	7	13
22	Kazakhstan (KAZ)	3	5	9	17
23	Colombia (COL)	3	2	3	8
24	Switzerland (SUI)	3	2	2	7
25	Iran (IRI)	3	1	4	8
26	Greece (GRE)	3	1	2	6
27	Argentina (ARG)	3	1	0	4
28	Denmark (DEN)	2	6	7	15
29	Sweden (SWE)	2	6	3	11
30	South Africa (RSA)	2	6	2	10
31	Ukraine (UKR)	2	5	4	11
32	Serbia (SRB)	2	4	2	8
33	Poland (POL)	2	3	6	11
34	North Korea (PRK)	2	3	2	7
35	Belgium (BEL)	2	2	2	6
35	Thailand (THA)	2	2	2	6
37	Slovakia (SVK)	2	2	0	4
38	Georgia (GEO)	2	1	4	7
39	Azerbaijan (AZE)	1	7	10	18
40	Belarus (BLR)	1	4	4	9
41	Turkey (TUR)	1	3	4	8
42	Armenia (ARM)	1	3	0	4
43	Czech Republic (CZE)	1	2	7	10
44	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	2	5	8
45	Slovenia (SLO)	1	2	1	4
46	Indonesia (INA)	1	2	0	3
47	Romania (ROU)	1	1	3	5
48	Bahrain (BRN)	1	1	0	2
48	Vietnam (VIE)	1	1	0	2
50	Chinese Taipei (TPE)	1	0	2	3
51	Bahamas (BAH)	1	0	1	2
	Ivory Coast (CIV)	1	0	1	2
	Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA)	1	0	1	2
54	Fiji (FIJ)	1	0	0	1
	Jordan (JOR)	1	0	0	1
	Kosovo (KOS)	1	0	0	1
	Puerto Rico (PUR)	1	0	0	1
	Singapore (SIN)	1	0	0	1
	Tajikistan (TJK)	1	0	0	1
60	Malaysia (MAS)	0	4	1	5
61	Mexico (MEX)	0	3	2	5
62	Algeria (ALG)	0	2	0	2
62	Ireland (IRL)	0	2	0	2
64	Lithuania (LTU)	0	1	3	4
65	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	1	2	3
65	Venezuela (VEN)	0	1	2	3
67	India (IND)	0	1	1	2
67	Mongolia (MGL)	0	1	1	2
69	Burundi (BDI)	0	1	0	1
	Grenada (GRN)	0	1	0	1
	Niger (NIG)	0	1	0	1
	Philippines (PHI)	0	1	0	1
	Qatar (QAT)	0	1	0	1
74	Norway (NOR)	0	0	4	4
75	Egypt (EGY)	0	0	3	3
75	Tunisia (TUN)	0	0	3	3
77	Israel (ISR)	0	0	2	2
78	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	0	1	1
	Estonia (EST)	0	0	1	1
	Finland (FIN)	0	0	1	1
	Morocco (MAR)	0	0	1	1
	Moldova (MDA)	0	0	1	1
	Nigeria (NGR)	0	0	1	1
	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	0	0	1	1
	United Arab Emirates (UAE)	0	0	1	1
Total (87 NOCs)		307	307	360	974

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- An al-Shabaab suicide car bomb kills at least 20 people in the town of Galkayo in Somalia‘s semi-autonomous Puntland region. (Reuters)
Gaziantep bombing
- The death toll from the Turkish wedding bombing rises to 50 with up to 94 people injured. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is suspected of conducting the attack. (Daily Sabah)

International relations

Philippine Drug War
- Rodrigo Duterte threatens to withdraw the Philippines from its founding membership of the United Nations after the international body criticized him over alleged human rights violations. (BBC)

Law and crime

Iraqi Civil War
- Iraq hangs 36 men convicted of taking part in the Islamic State group’s massacre of hundreds of soldiers in 2014. (AP)
A shooter wounds at least 13 people at a house party in Bridgeport, Connecticut. (AP via Fox News)

Politics and elections

Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016
- London Mayor Sadiq Khan calls on fellow Labour Party members to remove Jeremy Corbyn in the upcoming party leadership election. (Reuters) (The Observer via The Guardian)

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November 9, 2016

Top News Stories –

US election 2016 result: Trump beats Clinton to take White House –
Donald Trump will become the 45th US president after a stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. The Republican nominee’s victory came down to a handful of key swing states, despite months of polling that favoured Mrs Clinton. The battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and North Carolina cleared the way for his Brexit-style upset. Global markets plummeted, with the US dollar diving and gold prices surging. Mr Trump’s shock victory in Wisconsin put him over the 270 out of 538 electoral college votes needed to win the White House, after a gruelling and rancorous campaign. The US president-elect took to the stage with his family at his victory rally in a New York hotel ballroom and said: “I just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us on our victory.” [BBC]
President elect Donald Trump

Video of the Day –

Donald Trumps acceptance speech

List of the Day –

Popular vote results in US election

Trump

58,212,712 votes

47.8%

Clinton

57,755,468 votes

47.4%

Others

5,837,383 votes

4.8%

After 94.0% of voting districts

Senate

100 seats, 34 up for election

Republicans

51 seats

Democrats

45 seats

Independents

2 seats

House of Representatives

435 seats, all up for election

Republicans

236 seats

Democrats

192 seats

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Operation Inherent Resolve
- The United States military states that it has inadvertently killed 64 civilians in air strikes on targets in Syria and Iraq over the past year. (AP via Fox News)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Croydon tram derailment
- At least seven people have been killed and 51 hospitalised after a Tramlink light rail vehicle derailed and overturned close to Sandilands tram stop in the London Borough of Croydon early on Wednesday. It is believed to be the first tram accident involving fatalities on the tram in the United Kingdom since 1959. (BBC News)

International relations

The immigration website of Canada crashes due to overflow, coinciding with the election in the United States. (CNN)

Law and crime

The Supreme Court of the United States hears arguments on a case regarding whether the citizenship claim of a child is different if there is an unmarried father versus an unmarried mother who is a U.S. citizen. (Scotus blog)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election and general elections, 2016
- Although he narrowly lost the popular vote, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election, becomes the president-elect of the United States after defeating Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. It is the fifth time in United States history where the winning candidate lost the popular vote, the last such defeat occurring in 2000.
- The Republican Party retains control of the House and Senate. (The New York Times)
- Notable propositions are passed in several states including legal recreational marijuana in California, Massachusetts, and Nevada; medical marijuana in Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota; tougher firearms restrictions in California and Washington state; physician assisted suicide in Colorado, and the reimposition of capital punishment in Nebraska. (BBC), (The Chicago Tribune)
- Tens of thousands of Hillary Clinton supporters protest in Chicago; Los Angeles; Oakland, California; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon, New York City; Seattle and other major cities, reflecting a deep political divide in the United States. (CNN), (ABC)
- Residents including business leaders of the state of California, which voted with majority support for Hillary Clinton, propose launching a secession movement from the United States after Donald Trump is elected president. (Time), (BBC)

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1. Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) – $1,486m

2. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) – $818m

3. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) – $784m

4. Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) – $707m

5. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) – $495m

6. Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) – $446m

7. The Clone Wars (2008) – $41m

Trump

Clinton

Others

Senate

Republicans

Democrats

Independents

House of Representatives

Republicans

Democrats