Top News Stories –

Facebook unveils solar-powered drone that can beam the internet down to earth –
Facebook has unveiled a full-scale prototype of its Aquila drone – the high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft that the Californian tech giant wants to use to beam internet to people in parts of the world that are not yet connected. Aquila, which is solar-powered and named after the eagle in Greek mythology that carried Jupiter’s thunderbolts, is based on technology developed by Somerset-based company Ascenta, which Facebook bought in March 2014 for an estimated £12.5m. “Aquila has the wingspan of a 737 but weighs hundreds of times less, thanks to its unique design and carbon-fiber frame,” said Jay Parikh, vice president of global engineering and infrastructure at Facebook, in a blog post. [Daily Telegraph] See Video of the Day

Naomi Campbell guilty of assault on Sicilian paparazzo –
Naomi Campbell was convicted of assault by a Sicilian court on Friday after she scratched the eye of a paparazzo photographer who took pictures of her and her former boyfriend. The incident occurred in August 2009 when the British supermodel and her then partner Russian billionaire Vladimir Doronin moored their yacht off the Sicilian island of Lipari to visit the local town. They had just arrived from St Tropez. A photographer, Gaetano Di Giovanni, took several photos of Campbell as she walked through the narrow streets. Campbell then hit photographer with her handbag, scratching one of his eyes. [Daily Telegraph]
Naomi Campbell

Beijing to host 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics –
Beijing has been chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, beating the bid of Kazakhstan’s Almaty. Having hosted the 2008 Olympics, the Chinese capital will be the first city to host both a summer and winter Games. Beijing and Almaty were considered outsiders when the 2022 bid race opened two years ago. But after a host of European cities withdrew for political or financial reasons, the Chinese bid beat Almaty by 44 votes to 40 with one abstention. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Inside Facebook’s Connectivity Lab

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
  • Jalaluddin Haqqani, the founder of the Haqqani Network, is reported as having died in 2014. (BBC)
• Turkey–PKK conflict
  • Two Turkish police officers and two PKK militants are killed following a PKK raid on a police station in the south-eastern town of Pozantı. Also, in the eastern province of Kars, PKK militants bombed a railway line and then fired at repair workers, leaving one dead. (BBC)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • Houthi shelling kills four Saudi Arabian soldiers and wounds eight others in the Saudi town of Aseer near the volatile Yemeni border. Jazeera)

Business and economy

• Swiss National Bank reports a first half loss of 50 billion CHF as a result of the franc to euro peg removal earlier this year. (BBC)
• Russian financial crisis (2014–present)
  • The Central Bank lowers interest rate to 11%, while the ruble falls 1.5% on the day to close at 60.60 against the dollar. (Reuters UK)

Disasters and accidents

• Four people including members of the Bin Laden family are killed in a business jet crash close to Blackbushe Airport in the United Kingdom.(BBC), (BBC)
• More than 21 people are killed in Myanmar Flood and up to 150,000 people are displaced.

Law and crime

• 2015 West Bank Arson attack
  • Suspected Jewish settlers set fire to a West Bank home and burned a sleeping Palestinian toddler to death in an attack that drew Palestinian rage and widespread Israeli condemnation. (KLTV)(NY Times)

International relations

• India and Bangladesh have swapped control of some 160 small pockets of land on each other’s territory. Residents were asked to choose where they wanted to live and which nationality they would prefer. Most of them decided to change nationality and stay where they live. (BBC)
• France agrees to pay Russia €1.16bn in refund and compensation after the cancellation of the sale of two warships following the military intervention in Ukraine. (BBC)

Politics and elections

• Philippine presidential election, 2016:
  • President Benigno Aquino III endorses the presidential candidacy of Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas in 2016. (Rappler),(AP via Yahoo! News)
  • Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas announces his presidential candidacy in 2016. (Rappler)

Sports

• The International Olympic Committee selects Beijing as the host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Lausanne in Switzerland is chosen as the host city for the 2020 Youth Olympic Winter Games. (The Guardian). (USA Today)

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