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Queen’s pigeon rescued after fleeing royal loft –
Animal welfare officers who rescued a lost pigeon in East Lothian were surprised to discover it had a royal owner – the Queen. The Scottish SPCA was called when the exhausted bird was spotted at Traprain Terrace in Haddington on February 2. Staff traced it back to its owner and the racing pigeon has now been returned to the royal loft 407 miles away at Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The charity’s animal rescue officer Connie O’Neill said: “I’ve rescued many pigeons during my career with the Scottish SPCA but this was certainly a first for me. “We were able to identity where the pigeon had come from using the ring number on its leg and arrangements were made for it to be collected.” [Daily Telegraph]

Islamic State hackers take aim at Facebook’s Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Dorsey –
Islamic State has released a new video featuring photographs of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg riddled with digitally added bullet holes and mocking the social media websites’ attempts to block terrorist content from their platforms. Hackers known as the Sons Caliphate Army, the self-styled hacking division of Islamic State, uploaded a video on Tuesday entitled “Flames of the Supporters” in which the group challenges the efforts of Facebook and Twitter to shut down its digital operations. The video begins displays screen grabs of some of the 10,000 Facebook accounts, 150 Facebook groups and 5,000 Twitter profiles the terrorist group claims to control. It takes aim at the recent campaigns by the two social media websites to take down accounts controlled or connected to the terrorist group and used to spread their message. [Daily Telegraph]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Donbass
  • The Ukrainian military retakes control of the strategic village of Shyrokyne. (Ukraine Today)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • Two ISIL suicide bombers attack a Shiite mosque in Baghdad, killing at least 15 people. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • The Syrian Army, backed by Russian airstrikes, recaptures the town of Khanasir from ISIL militants in the Aleppo Governorate. (AP via ABC News)

Arts and culture

• Celebrations are held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines that led to the downfall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ 21-year reign, and the rise of PresidentCorazon Aquino. (The Philippine Star)

Business and economy

• Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian asset manager, agrees to buy the U.S. REIT Rouse Properties for about $2.8 billion. (Reuters)
• The Nikkei reports that Japan‘s Sharp Corporation has accepted a 700 billion Japanese yen ($6.2 billion) takeover bid from Taiwan‘s Foxconn Technology Group. (Bloomberg)
• Australian electronics retailer Dick Smith, placed in administration by creditors in January, will close 301 stores in Australia and 62 in New Zealand with nearly 3000 people to lose their jobs. (News Limited)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
  • Cyclone Winston
    • Fiji’s known casualties are 42 dead, one missing, and more than 100 injured. Authorities say five percent of the country (45,245 people) is staying in evacuation centers and about 80 schools have been damaged. UNICEF reports at least 120,000 of Fiji’s children have been affected. The current identified destruction is more than $1 billion. About 80 percent of the plantations were damaged, especiallysugar fields. However, tourism’s infrastructure has escaped serious damage. (La Prensa de San Antonio) (Daily Mail) (Fijivillage.com)

International relations

• 2016 North Korean nuclear test
  • The United States will present the draft resolution, resulting from yesterday’s meeting with China, to the United Nations Security Council expanding sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear program.(Jerusalem Post) (Reuters)
• China–United States relations
  • At an event hosted by Center for Strategic and International Studies, Foreign Minister Wang Yi expresses China‘s concerns that the planned deployment of the THAAD missile defense system and the X band radar for which the South Korea and the United States have started talks to secure its approval in order to counter the growing threat of North Korea’s weapons capabilities could jeopardize the country’s “legitimate national security interests.” At the Pentagon, Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said that if China wanted to prevent consideration of the THAAD system’s deployment, it should lean on Pyongyang saying, “If China wanted to exert a lot of influence on somebody to prevent THAAD from being considered going into Korea, then they should exert that influence on North Korea.” (Reuters) (Bloomberg)
• Foreign relations of Saudi Arabia, Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • The European Parliament adopts a resolution calling for the introduction of an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, saying the United Kingdom, France and other EU governments should no longer sell weapons to a country accused of targeting civilians in Yemen. (Reuters)
• Austria–Greece relations
  • Greece recalls its ambassador to Austria in response to Austria’s hosting of a meeting with Balkan states, to which Greece was not invited, about European migrant crisis policies that would make it harder for migrants to head north across Europe. Greece’s foreign ministry called the move an “unfriendly act.” More than 100,000 migrants have entered the EU illegally so far in 2016, nearly all of them arriving in Greece. (BBC) (Reuters)
• Morocco–European Union relations
  • Morocco suspends contact with the European Union over a European court ruling that invalidates the bloc’s farm trade deal with Rabat, and saying it should exclude the disputed Moroccan-controlled territory of Western Sahara. (Reuters)

Law and crime

• Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal
  • A report by Dame Janet Smith finds that management at the BBC staff knew of complaints against Jimmy Savile but did not advise senior management due to a “culture of fear“. (BBC)
• 2016 Hesston shooting
  • A series of shootings in and near the American town of Hesston, Kansas, results in at least four deaths, including the shooter, at an Excel Industries building, with up to 20 people injured. The shooter is Cedric Ford, a convicted felon. (KWCH) (USA Today), (KAKE)

Politics and elections

• Jamaican general election, 2016
  • Voters in Jamaica go to the polls for a general election, with the Jamaican Labour Party, led by Andrew Holness, winning a narrow victory. (Bloomberg) (Reuters)

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