Top News Stories –
Lebanon returns Israeli vulture cleared of spying –
A huge vulture detained in Lebanon on suspicion of spying for Israel has been returned home after UN peacekeepers intervened, Israeli officials said. The bird, which has a 1.9m (6ft 5in) wing span, flew over the border from an Israeli game reserve and was caught by Lebanese villagers on Tuesday. They became suspicious as the griffon vulture had a tracking device attached to its tail. It is part of a conservation project to reintroduce raptors to the Middle East. Wildlife officials say the vulture was brought from Spain last year and set free about a month ago in the Gamla Nature Reserve in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Tel Aviv University is involved in tracking the bird, and as well as a GPS transmitter, it had tags on its wings and an engraved metal ring on its leg saying: “Tel Aviv Univ Israel”. [BBC]
People are freaking out over their results on the JK Rowling approved Harry Potter Sorting Hat test –
There have been Harry Potter Sorting Hat quizzes online for years, but this one has actually been approved by the author. JK Rowling has made, or approved, a quiz to go on her Pottermore website, which purports to accurately tell you what house you should be in. The quiz asks a series of personality questions, and sorts you in to your true house.
It tells you whether you are Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. You can take the Pottermore quiz here. {Daily Telegraph]
In October 2015 JK Rowling dismissed Harry Potter fan theories about time travel and werewolves
J. K. Rowling
Video of the Day –
If Google Was A Guy (Part 5)
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Other News Stories –
- Business and economics
- Social networking service Facebook, and its photo-sharing subsidiary Instagram, ban private, person-to-person sales of guns via their services. (CNBC) (The Christian Science Monitor)
- Disasters and accidents
- 2015–16 Australian region cyclone season
- Western Australia‘s Pilbara region braces for the impact of Cyclone Stan, which is expected to make landfall as a Category Three storm. (ABC News Australia)
- A helicopter fighting forest fires in South Korea‘s North Jeolla Province crashes near the Geumsansa Temple in Gimje. The 61-year-old pilot dies in the crash. (Yonhap News)
- European migrant crisis
- Health
- Zika virus outbreak in the Americas (2015–present)
- Jamaican health officials confirm the country’s first case of the Zika virus in a 4-year-old child who recently returned from a trip to Texas. (USA TODAY)
- More than 2,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. (Reuters)
- International relations
- Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present), Edward Snowden
- Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- A United States Navy guided missile destroyer, USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54), sails within 12 nautical miles of the disputed Triton Island. The Pentagon said that the mission aimed at countering the “excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Islands”, while China’s Ministry of Defense said the U.S. action “severely violated the law.” (BBC), (The Washington Post)
- Law and crime
- 2015 FIFA corruption case
- Reuters reports that a million dollars in FIFA funding is missing from the accounts of the National Football Federation of Guatemala. (Reuters)
- Orange County Men’s Central Jail escape
- Two of the inmates who escaped from a jail in Santa Ana, California, were arrested in San Francisco. (San Francisco Chronicle)
- National Western Complex shooting
- At least one person is killed and multiple others injured in a fight between two outlaw motorcycle gangs in the American city of Denver, Colorado. (9 News)
- Politics
- An estimated half-million Italians protest in Rome’s Circus Maximus against pending legislation that would legalize same-sex unions. The legislation would extend to civil unions the same rights they would have under marriage, including adoption of children. (AP via The New York Times) (Reuters) (NBC News) (The Local)
- Sports
- 2016 Australian Open
- In tennis, Angelique Kerber of Germany tops (2–1) defending champion Serena Williams of the United States, 6-4, 3–6, 6–4, to win the Women’s Singles. This is Kerber’s first Grand Slam title. (ABC News Australia), (The Guardian)
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