January 9, 2016

Top News Stories –

Cheryl Fernandez-Versini ‘to end stormy second marriage after 19 months’ –
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini is lodging divorce papers to end her stormy second marriage, it was reported on Sunday. The X Factor judge will cite her French husband Jean-Bernard’s “unreasonable behaviour” and formally end their marriage after 19 months, it is claimed. The Sun on Sunday reports former Girls Aloud star Cheryl, who was previously married to footballer Ashley Cole, has been unhappy that Jean-Bernard, 35, didn’t like her spending time with other men. [Daily Telegraph] In November 2015 Fernandez-Versini took legal action over ‘white powder’ bathroom picture after the 2015 British Fashion Awards.
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini

Video of the Day –

The Science Of Motivation – ASAP Science

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DetremuraNoPagodeDoSdv	#ResistCapitalism	Peach
2	#لو_انت_مو_سعود…	#KCvsHOU	#TOTP81
3	#زد_رصيدك57	#ICantGiveYouAnythingBut	#Its2016AndWeStillDont
4	#FelizSabado	#IfIWasntHashtagging	Winston
5	#KathNielGapGoVaChaoHoiVie…	#PowerballFever	#jesuismilo
6	#AyşeÖğretmenYalnızDe�…	#WDWHalf	Bogdan
7	#ALDUBToSeeYouAgain	#BuyMadeInTheAM	Eastleigh
8	#EsteAñoNecesito	#KempForum16	Danny Murphy
9	#AustinMoreRespectForHarry	#RoseHamid	El Chapo
10	#GeneracionBolivarChavez	#JeSuisMilo	#BursaryOrBust

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Terrorism in Egypt
- Two police officers are shot dead by gunmen near the Giza pyramids, on the outskirts of Cairo. (The Independent)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- A major power station in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi is shelled by militants. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War, Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Russian airstrikes on a Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda‘s branch in Syria)-run prison complex in the northern town of Maarrat al-Nu’man, Idlib, leaves nearly 60 people dead. Most of those killed were rebels imprisoned by Al-Nusra, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (The National), (AFP via Daily Mail)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 Australian bushfire season
- Two dead bodies have been found in Yarloop, Western Australia, and residents of four towns urged to evacuate in under threat as the Waroona bushfire continues to burn out of control. (West Australian via Yahoo! Online), (ABC News), (The Australian)
- A bushfire burning near the town of Esperance, Western Australia, is threatening lives and properties. (West Australian via Yahoo! Australia)

International relations

Brussels Agreement (2013), Kosovo–Serbia relations
- Anti-Serbian protesters set fire to the government’s headquarters in Kosovo‘s capital, Pristina, over an EU-brokered deal that will give Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority greater local powers. (RT)

Law and crime

Sian Blake‘s partner Arthur Simpson-Kent is arrested in Ghana in connection with the murder of Blake and her two children. (The Guardian)

Sport

2016 Dakar Rally
- A Bolivian spectator dies in the seventh stage between Bolivia and Argentina after being hit by a Mitsubishi driven by French driver Lionel Baud. (ABC News Australia)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 11, 2016

Top News Stories –

Lionel Messi wins Ballon d’Or over Ronaldo & Neymar –
Barcelona forward Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player for the fifth time. The 28-year-old Argentine had 41.33% of the vote, with Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo (27.76%) second and Barca’s Neymar (7.86%) third. Either Messi or Ronaldo, who became a three-time winner last year, have won the past eight awards. United States midfielder Carli Lloyd, who scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final, won the women’s award. England coach Mark Sampson was beaten to the women’s football coach of the year award by USA boss Jill Ellis. [BBC] See List of the Day
Lionel Messi

Video of the Day –

EHANG184, world’s first Autonomous Aerial Vehicle

List of the Day –

Past Ballon d’Or winners

2014: Cristiano Ronaldo	2008: Cristiano Ronaldo
2013: Cristiano Ronaldo	2007: Kaka
2012: Lionel Messi	2006: Fabio Cannavaro
2011: Lionel Messi	2005: Ronaldinho
2010: Lionel Messi	2004: Ronaldinho
2009: Lionel Messi	2003: Zinedine Zidane

Messi’s 2015 in numbers

61 games, 52 goals and 26 assists.
A goal every 101 minutes and an assist every 202 minutes.
Best minutes-per-goal rate – 80 – of anyone scoring a minimum of 10 goals across Europe’s top five leagues during 2015.
Directly involved in 49 goals in La Liga – 34 scored and 15 assists – which was the joint-most with Ronaldo in 2015 across the top five European leagues.
Scored in all six club tournaments in 2015, as Barcelona won five of them.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SegundaDetremuraSdv	David Bowie	#BallondOr
2	#زد_رصيدك59	#BallondOr	#MondayMotivation
3	#FelizLunes	#NationalChampionship	#GoldenGlobes
4	#BallondOr	Alice Paul	#TUBill
5	#LunesDeGanarSegidores	Hunky Dory	Young Americans
6	David Bowie	#NAIAS	#BringSnacksToAMovie
7	#من_علامات_الج�…	#alayma	David Bowie
8	#FracasasteSi	$1.4 BILLION	Rebel Rebel
9	DAIGO	#IWriteAboutItBecause	#FACupDraw
10	#VHMCensurado	#WorkTogether	Davey Cameron

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- At least 51 people are reportedly killed in an attack on a shopping centre in Iraq‘s capital, Baghdad, and a car bombing outside an illegal casino in Miqdadiyah, east of Baghdad, with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claiming responsibility for both attacks. (BBC), (AAP via SBS) (Reuters)
American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
- A U.S. airstrike destroys an ISIL money and payroll hub in central Mosul. (CNN)
Militia occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
- Armed militiamen, also known as the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, who are occupying the USFWS administered Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, tear down a part of a fence that they claim was erected by the federal government in order to allow privately owned cattle to graze on the adjacent public land. USFWS condemns the actions through a written statement which states that, “Removing fences, damaging any refuge property, or unauthorized use of equipment would be additional unlawful actions by the illegal occupiers. Any movement of cattle onto the refuge or other activities that are not specifically authorized by [the Fish and Wildlife Service] constitutes trespassing.” (The Guardian), (The Oregonian)

Business and economy

Arch Coal, the second largest coal-mining concern in the United States, files for chapter 11 protection because it has been hit hard by the collapsing market demand for that commodity. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade in the Australian city of Melbourne warn residents about haze from a large industrial fire burning in the suburb of Broadmeadows. (Melbourne Age)
2015–16 Great Britain and Ireland floods
- Philip Dilley, chairman of the UK‘s Environment Agency resigns after receiving heavy criticism for not returning from a family holiday in Barbados during the recent heavy floods in Northern England andScotland. (Belfast Telegraph)

Law and crime

New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Germany
- Thousands of protesters in Leipzig demonstrate against a record refugee influx they blame for mass sexual violence at New Year’s Eve events in Cologne and other German cities. Many chanted ‘We are the people’, ‘Resistance!’ and ‘Deport them!’. The rally was organized by a local chapter of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident). Six Pakistani men and one Syrian man were also attacked by so-called vigilantes in Cologne, following calls on social media for “revenge” in the wake of the New Year’s Eve assaults. (Daily Mail)

Sport

In association football, Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and Argentina wins the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or, his fifth such award. (AP via Sportsfan)
In Australian football, 34 current and former players with the Essendon Football Club are banned from playing in the Australian Football League during the 2016 AFL season after the Court of Arbitration for Sport finds that they took the banned substance thymosin-beta 4. (AAP and The Australian)
2016 College Football Playoff National Championship
- In American football, the Alabama Crimson Tide defeat the Clemson Tigers 46-40 to win the College Football Playoff National Championship. (NCAA)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Wikipedia Celebrates its 15th birthday –
If you want a modern wonder of the internet, look no further than Wikipedia, which turns 15 years old today. It’s gigantic (more than five million articles in English alone), and gigantically useful for those seeking a grounding in any topic. It has illustrated how the internet and the power of the crowd can disrupt established businesses: both the book-based Encyclopaedia Britannica and Microsoft’s CD-based Encarta fell before the onslaught of a simple collaborative document that anyone could edit and enhance. Even Google failed with its rival, launched in 2008 and killed amid indifference in 2012. It even has a creation myth; people think it was the effort of Jimmy Wales alone, but in fact he and Larry Sanger (an “internet project developer” – thanks, Wikipedia) were working on the idea of an online encyclopedia called Nupedia, which began in 1999. [Daily Telegraph] [This web site is a supporter of Wikipedia]
Jimmy Wales

Video of the Day –

22×22 rubik’s cube World Record

List of the Day

15 amazing things since the idea of Wikipedia was launched to the world on January 15, 2001. [Wikipedia]

Millions of people have gathered all this knowledge by working together from everywhere around the world.

Ward Cunningham designed the wiki, the first internet platform that allowed many people to work on a document at the same time. He named it ‘wiki,’ a Hawaiian word that means ‘quick.’ (There is even a wiki-wiki shuttle in Honolulu.)

You know the encyclopedia, but there’s so much more.

Did you also know there’s a free dictionary, free textbooks, quotes, learning tools, a travel guide, and more?

The first Wikipedia exhibition opened on March 17, 2006.

It was held at the Göttingen University Library in Germany.

Behind the scenes, bots do some of the repetitive jobs so that volunteers don’t have to.

There are almost 2,000 bots approved for use on the English Wikipedia alone, and they even have names. PhotoCatBot helps people find articles that need images.

Wikipedia became one of the top 10 websites in the world in 2007.

It’s the only non-profit anywhere near the top.

An angry elephant holding a glass of whiskey

People who work on Wikipedia are called “Wikipedians”.

Building the world’s largest database of information with people from all over can be challenging. Wikipedians write rules, guidelines and essays to help other people understand being a Wikipedian. “No angry mastodons” suggests that you shouldn’t edit when you’re hungry or intoxicated.

The first photo ever uploaded to Commons was a pair of quail.

…while this scan of the world’s first photograph uploaded to Wikimedia Commons is entirely inscrutable. Speaking of birds and photos, there is such a thing as pigeon photography: “A homing pigeon was fitted with an aluminium breast harness to which a lightweight time-delayed miniature camera could be attached.” (There was even a stamp for pigeon mail. It’s adorable and shaped like a triangle.)

One of the first articles ever written was for the standard poodle.

It simply said, “A dog by which all others are measured.” The English Wikipedia page for poodleis now more than 5,000 words, and includes the many names that people have invented for poodles crossed with other dog breeds: Labradoodle, Poochon, Cockapoo, Spoodle, Maltipoo, Goldendoodle, Schnoodle, Pekapoos, Cavapoo, and Bernedoodle.

A screenshot from the Wikipedia blackout

Wikipedia helps keep the Internet open and free.

In 2012, the Wikipedia communities blacked out the site to protest SOPA.

The second-most-edited English Wikipedia article of all time is about pro wrestling.

One of the competition entries for a new Wikivoyage logo was a snake on a magic towel.

British army officer Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart’s Wikipedia article has been retweeted more than 3,500 times.

“Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO (5 May 1880–5 June 1963) was a British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy” in various Commonwealth countries. He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War; was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear; survived two plane crashes; tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp; and bit off his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, ‘Frankly I had enjoyed the war.’”

Wikipedians keep lists of controversies and hoaxes on Wikipedia.

One hoax claimed that Lord Byron kept a crocodile and a honey badger as pets. It would not be easy to uncover this hoax—during his lifetime, in addition to numerous cats, dogs and horses, Byron kept a fox, monkeys, an eagle, a crow, a falcon, peacocks, guinea hens, an Egyptian crane,a badger, geese, a heron, and a goat. He took a bear to college when he found that dogs were not allowed.

Researchers can predict the spread of illness from data on Wikipedia.

“Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory were able to make extremely accurate forecasts about the spread of dengue fever in Brazil and flu in the U.S., Japan, Poland and Thailand by examining three years’ worth of Wikipedia search data.”

It would take 16 years to read all of English Wikipedia.

And that’s if you didn’t take any breaks, and never slept.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SextaFavQSdvDetremura	#FlashbackFriday	#9YearsOfKidrauhl
2	#9YearsOfKidrauhl	#9YearsOfKidrauhl	#spacewalk
3	バルス	Cloverfield	#FridayFeeling
4	#زد_رصيدك63	#NationalHatDay	#BadDoctorIn5Words
5	#ALDUBMyOneAndONLY	#AKA1908	#GOPDebate
6	#HoyTengoGanasDe	#NewYorkValues	#LGBTSTEMinar
7	#MensajeAlPueblo	#spacewalk	#FlashbackFriday
8	Cloverfield	#NWSLDraft	#TWGlobes
9	#GOPDebate	#NewMusicFriday	Cloverfield
10	#LloreCantando	#BuyGOLDoniTunes	Megan

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Ouagadougou attack
- Gunmen armed with heavy weapons attack a restaurant called Cappuccino and the Splendid Hotel, taking hostages, in the heart of Burkino Faso‘s capital, Ouagadougou. At least 20 people are reportedly killed. (BBC) (The Guardian)
- Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claims responsibility for the attack, which if confirmed would the first Islamic terrorist attack in the city. (AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)
2016 Jakarta attacks
- Three men are arrested in the outskirts of Jakarta in connection with the attacks. Police have identified the attackers killed in the raid with two of the men having been imprisoned for terrorism related offences. (AP via Newser)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- al Shabaab militants overrun an African Union base in southern Somalia with unconfirmed reports of dozens of soldiers dead. (Reuters) (BBC)
Syrian Civil War
- UNICEF confirms severe malnutrition in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya. Russia calls for humanitarian aid to be let into besieged towns like Madaya, Fua and Kafraya. (Reuters via Trust) (Reuters via Daily Mail)

Arts and culture

Wikipedia celebrates its 15th anniversary. (Wikipedia)

Business and economy

China‘s Haier Group buys General Electric‘s appliance unit for $5.4 billion. (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

A tour bus carrying skiers runs off the road in Japan‘s Nagano Prefecture with at least 14 people dead and injuring another 27. (Bloomberg) (Irish Independent)
2016 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Alex heads towards the Azores with hurricane warnings in place for several islands. (National Hurricane Center)
Twelve people are feared dead following a road accident in the Udhampur district of India‘s Jammu and Kashmir state. (Greater Kashmir)
The United States Coast Guard in Hawaii are searching for twelve American service personnel off the northern coast of Oahu following a crash between two United States Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallionhelicopters that were conducting an overnight training flight. (CNN) (Wall Street Journal)
The U.S. state of Michigan asks for assistance from the federal government to assist with a water crisis in the city of Flint. (Reuters)
2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- A tropical cyclone warning is issued for the northern Cook Islands as Tropical Cyclone Victor approaches. (Radio New Zealand)

Health

BIA 10-2474
- One person is brain dead and five people are critically ill in Rennes, France, from a clinical trial of an experimental drug made by Portuguese drug company Bial. The six men, aged 28 to 49, had been in good health prior to the start of this test. All trials on the drug are suspended. (The Guardian) (Reuters via New Zealand Stuff) (Reuters)
Brazil Zika virus outbreak (2015 – present)
- The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns pregnant women against visiting 14 countries and territories in South America, Central America and the Caribbean due to the Zika virusoutbreak. (CDC)

Law and crime

The Seoul Central District Court fines two Korean baseball players Seung-hwan Oh and Lim Chang-yong for illegal gambling in Macau. (Yonhap)
2013–14 Thai political crisis
- Former Prime Minister of Thailand Yingluck Shinawatra appears in court to face corruption charges. (Reuters via Trust)
A trial of the facts regarding allegations of child abuse against 12 former residents of children’s homes in Leicester by British lord Greville Janner ends due to his death. (BBC)
American rapper Mos Def is banned from South Africa for five years, having been living illegally in the country since 2013 on a tourist visa. (BBC)
Kosovo War
- A special court is set up at The Hague to try Kosovo Liberation Army suspects for alleged war crimes against ethnic minorities and political opponents. (BBC)

Politics and elections

PKK rebellion (2015–present)
- Twelve Turkish academics are detained for signing a declaration opposing military action against Kurdistan Workers Party forces in southeast Turkey. (AP via Washington Post)
Anti-corruption campaign in China
- Wei Hong, Governor of Sichuan province, is announced to be under investigation for “breaching discipline” by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. (BBC)
Azerbaijani National Police use tear gas and water cannons to forcibly disperse protesters in the Quba District who were protesting the country’s worsening economic situation, resulting in scores being arrested. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

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 24, 2016

Top News Stories –

Tokyo police roll out 3D mug shots –
Tokyo’s police force is to start taking 3D mug shots of suspects being held in custody, it’s reported. The images will form part of a database which officers hope will make it easier to analyse CCTV footage, the the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports. All of the Japanese capital’s 102 police stations will be fitted with a 3D camera as part of the new process, which will begin in April. “As we can identify the suspects more quickly and accurately, our arrest rate is expected to become greater,” one senior officer tells the paper. Unlike regular two-dimensional mug shots, the 3D images can be adjusted to match the angle of security camera footage, which is often shot from above, rather than at face height. At the moment police only photograph suspects’ faces from the front and diagonally, making it difficult to match mug shots to CCTV images. Tokyo’s police force says it is the first to roll out the cameras across all of its stations – until now they have only been installed at some regional police headquarters in Japan. [BBC]

Australia makes ‘captain’s call’ on best words of 2015 –
Captain’s call – a phrase “plucked” from the cricket pitch and politicised by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – has become the Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2015. Mr Abbott’s controversial choice to award Prince Philip a knighthood was one of his many “captain’s calls”. The noun is defined as “a decision made by a political or business leader without consultation with colleagues”. The dictionary said the word “perfectly encapsulates” Australia in 2015. [BBC] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

Liquid Ping Pong in Space – RED 4K

List of the Day –

Australian Word of the Year runners-up

lumbersexual: a portmanteau of lumberjack and metrosexual – referring to urban men who adopt the style of an outdoorsman as a fashion statement.

deso: Colloquially refers to a designated driver, who refrains from drinking alcohol in order to drive others safely home. Also, deso driver.

open kimono: A business policy of sharing information freely with an outside party.

keyboard warrior: a person who adopts an excessively aggressive style in online discussions which they would not normally adopt in person-to-person communication, often in support of a cause, theory, world view, etc.

ghost plate: a clear plastic numberplate cover which becomes opaque when viewed from certain angles, thereby obscuring the registration number; designed to circumvent identification by speed cameras.

athleisure: clothing, shoes, etc., designed for both exercise and general casual wear.

tri-tip: a cut of beef, taken from the bottom of the sirloin.

digital disruption: Commerce the impact of digital technology in making various established industries and products obsolete.

abandoned porn: a genre of photography which romanticises abandoned buildings and urban areas in a state of decay. Also, ruin porn.

wombat gate: a swing gate installed in a ditch going underneath a fence, so that wombats, who follow very predictable patterns at night, can come and go without destroying the fence.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#growingupwithmyname	#growingupwithmyname	#PillowTalk
2	#TengoAltoVicioPor	SNOWBOARDING WITH THE NYPD	#GrowingUpWithMyName
3	#زد_رصيدك72	#RoyalRumble	#DespiteBeingTaughtInWelsh
4	#DomingoDetremuraSdv	Djokovic	#AustraliaUpAMovieOrActor
5	#FelizDomingo	#NEvsDEN	#InspirationalQuoteILiveBy
6	#UğurMumcu	#SelenaOnSNL	Mahrez
7	#PillowTalk	#ToBeManagementMaterial	#ToniBraxtonMovie
8	#MeGustasPeroDeberias	Sydney Rain	Norwich
9	#HappyBirthdayCalumHood	#NationalPeanutButterDay	#CongratulationsLouis
10	#congratsarzaylea	#DCDigOut	#TheVoiceUK

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Army takes control of the strategic Turkmen town of Rabia in Syria‘s Latakia Governorate. The town had been under rebel control since 2012. (AFP via Global Post)

Disasters and accidents

Heavy snowfall in western and central Japan leaves at least two people dead and over a hundred injured. Snowfall was also recorded for the first time in 155 years on Amami Ōshima, a subtropical island in Japan’s southern Kagoshima Prefecture. (The Japan Times)
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake strikes southwestern Alaska, leaving 10,000 in the Anchorage area without power and forcing the evacuation of several homes on the Kenai Peninsula. The National Weather Service reported that there was no tsunami following the earthquake. (USGS) (ABC) (The Los Angeles Times)

Politics and elections

Portuguese presidential election, 2016
- Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is elected President of the Portuguese Republic. (ABC News)

Sports

In sumo, Kotoshōgiku Kazuhiro wins his first makuuchi (top division) championship to end a decade-long drought of a Japanese-born championship winner. (Kyodo via Nikkei Asia Review) (Reuters via Daily Mail)
2015–16 NFL playoffs
- The Denver Broncos beat the New England Patriots 20-18 to win the AFC Championship and qualify for Super Bowl 50. (Washington Post)
- The Carolina Panthers beat the Arizona Cardinals 49-15 to win the NFC Championship and qualify for Super Bowl 50. (The Guardian)

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

February 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

Salesmen warned not to knock on George Clooney’s door –
Doorstep traders have been ordered to stay away from the luxury country mansion home of Hollywood star George Clooney. Residents in the River Thames-side village of Sonning have decided to put a stop to unwanted door-to-door salesmen by becoming a No Cold Calling Zone. Sonning-on-Thames is the first village in Berkshire to be declared a designated No Cold Calling Zone after families living there joined forces with Wokingham and West Berkshire Trading Standards officers and Thames Valley Police. Clooney, 54, and his human rights lawyer wife Amal paid £10 million for the 17th Century Grade II-listed Georgian mansion 15 months ago and workmen have been busy adapting it to their specifications. [Daily Telegraph]
Clooney is set to run the London Marathon 2016 after losing bet with model Christy Turlington.
George Clooney

Samsung brings back water resistance and microSD with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge –
As expected (thanks to numerous leaks in the weeks leading up to Mobile World Congress), Samsung revealed the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge today in Barcelona. This time around, though, the standard and curved screen variants of Samsung’s flagships are two different sizes. The Galaxy S7, like last year’s GS6, has a 5.1-inch Quad HD screen. The Galaxy S7 edge, though, is at least as much of a sequel to the Galaxy S6 edge+ phablet as it is to the smaller Galaxy S6 edge. The S7 edge has a 5.5-inch QHD display – the same screen size as (but with sharper resolution than) Apple’s iPhone 6s Plus. The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge go up for pre-order on February 23, ahead of a March 11 US release date. Early orders will get a free Gear VR along with a six-game bundle, along with the phone purchase. [Gizmag]

Denny Hamlin beats Martin Truex Jr. in closest Daytona 500 finish ever –
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Denny Hamlin made a daring late-race pass, moving from fourth to first in the final two turns to beat Martin Truex Jr. to the checkered flag by 0.010 seconds (or about a foot) to win the Daytona 500. It’s the closest finish in the 58-year history of the historic race. The four Joe Gibbs Racing cars, plus the affiliate car of Truex, were the class of the field throughout Sunday’s race. Hamlin led the most laps, but had ceded the lead to teammate Matt Kenseth, who led the field for 40-straight laps. He paced the field down the backstretch on the final lap. That’s when Hamlin made his move. After sitting in line as the laps ticked off, Hamlin moved to the outside in front of Kevin Harvick. Hamlin passed teammate Kyle Busch for third as the field entered Turn 3. As Kenseth went up to block, Hamlin darted to the middle. Kenseth’s car started to slide but he saved it, leaving Hamlin and Truex to battle for the win. Truex looked to have the advantage as the two headed to the tri-oval but Hamlin inched ahead at the finish line. [Yahoo News]
Denny Hamlin

Video of the Day –

Samsung S7 and S7 Edge launch

Top Twitter Trends –

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1	#HorarioNovoDetremuraSdv	#WWEFastlane	#WOSAwards
2	#WeAreHereForYouNate	#DAYTONA500	#takemeout
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4	KATHNIEL in Aklan	#Disneyland60	Boris
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7	#SiçturmaMadenina	Pablo Sandoval	#ReadyForA3
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9	#ASAPOTWOLDay	#iHeart80s	#Casualty
10	#ТинвафлиФолл�…	#PrayForDerek	#OnceTurns100

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- February 2016 Homs bombings
  - Twin bomb blasts hit the Syrian city of Homs with at least 57 people reportedly killed and more than 100 injured. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility. (Reuters) (AFP viaDaily Mail) (BBC)
- February 2016 Sayyidah Zaynab bombings
  - At least 83 people are killed and 178 injured in a series of bombings in the Damascus suburb Sayyidah Zaynab, Rif Dimashq Governorate. ISIL again claims responsibility. (AFP via Yahoo! News)(CNN)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- The Libyan National Army says it has taken control of the town of Ajdabiya and several areas of Benghazi following heavy clashes with Islamist militant groups. (Reuters)
2016 Pampore stand-off
- A group of Islamic terrorists exchange fire with Indian Armed Forces troops for the second consecutive day in Pampore, Jammu and Kashmir, India. At least five soldiers and one civilian have been killed.(ABC News) (UPI)
A Hindu priest is hacked to death and two devotees, who tried to intercede, are wounded in a temple in the Panchagarh District in northern Bangladesh. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility. (BBC) (AP)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- Cyclone Winston
  - At least five people are reported dead and entire villages have been flattened after Cyclone Winston hits Fiji. (New Zealand Herald)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Greece claims that Macedonia has closed its borders to migrants from Afghanistan. (AP via New York Times)
Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
- Germany is considering sending troops to Tunisia to help train the Tunisian Army in the fight against Islamist militants, particularly ISIL who control territory in neighboring Libya. (FRANCE 24)
Syrian Civil War peace process
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says a tentative ceasefire agreement reached with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is now being presented to the opposing forces. (CBS News) (Reuters viaThe Australian Financial Review)
Japan–United States relations
- Thousands protest outside the Japanese parliament in Tokyo against the relocation of a U.S. military base on Okinawa Island. Residents cite noise, pollution, and crime as reasons for not wanting a new base built. (Reuters)

Law and crime

2016 Kalamazoo shootings
- Kalamazoo County, Michigan authorities say last evening’s shooting spree resulted in six deaths with two others seriously wounded. Each victim was shot multiple times. Police acknowledge that an earlier report that a 14-year-old girl died is incorrect; she is alive, but “severely, gravely” injured. The suspect, a 45-year-old man who is a Uber driver without a prior criminal record, was taken into custody without a struggle. (USA Today) (CNN)
Terrorism in Malaysia
- Australia issues a security alert, warning that terrorists may be planning attacks in and around the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. It also recommended that Australians avoid travel to the coastal region of eastern Sabah, where the beaches and islands are popular with foreign tourists. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
Pope Francis calls for a worldwide ban on the death penalty and urges Christian leaders to work to stop executions as part of the church’s Holy Year of Mercy. (UPI)

Politics and elections

Comorian presidential election, 2016
- Voters in Comoros go to the polls for a presidential election with 25 candidates standing. (Mail and Guardian)
Nigerien general election, 2016
- Voters in Niger go to the polls for a general election. (France 24)
North Korean state media confirms that Ri Myong-su is the new chief of the General Staff Department of the Korean People’s Army replacing Ri Yong-gil who was executed. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016
- In what is seen as a major boost for the “Vote Leave” campaign, Mayor of London Boris Johnson announces he will be campaigning for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union. (Sky News)
Ashraf Rifi resigns as the Minister for Justice for Lebanon in protest at Hezbollah domination of the government which he claims is harming relations with Arab nations. (AP)
Macedonian parliamentary election, 2016
- The European Union and the United States advise interim Macedonian Prime Minister Emil Dimitriev to postpone elections scheduled for April 24, 2016. (Balkan Insight)
Bolivian constitutional referendum, 2016
- According to exit polls, Bolivian voters reject a constitutional amendment that would have permitted President Evo Morales to stand for a fourth term in office. His current term expires in 2020. (BBC)
Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The debate series, PiliPinas Debates 2016, kicks off in Cagayan de Oro. (Nikkei Asian Review)

Sports

Denny Hamlin wins the 2016 Daytona 500 by 0.011 seconds, the closest margin in the history of the race, and the 13th-closest in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series history. (Yahoo! News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

February 24, 2016

Top News Stories –

Jeremy Clarkson apologises to Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon –
Jeremy Clarkson has apologised to the Top Gear producer he punched after settling a £100,000 racial discrimination and injury claim. Oisin Tymon launched the action against the presenter and the BBC after a “fracas” last March that left Mr Tymon with a bloody lip. “I would like to say sorry, once again, to Oisin Tymon for the incident and its regrettable aftermath,” Clarkson said. The presenter was dropped by the BBC following the assault. Clarkson, 55, added: “I want to reiterate that none of this was in any way his fault. Mr Tymon’s lawyers said the case had been settled but did not give details of the settlement. It is understood to be in excess of £100,000 ($140,000), an amount to which both Clarkson and the BBC contributed. [BBC]
In October 2015 Clarkson was threatened with three years in jail as Argentina reopened Falklands row probe.
Jeremy Clarkson

Brit Awards 2016: Adele dominates with four awards –
Adele has been crowned Queen of the Brits, winning four prizes including best British female and best album. “To come back after so long away and be so warmly received means so much,” she said. One Direction’s victory in the fan-voted best video category robbed Adele of the opportunity to become the most-garlanded artist in a single Brits ceremony. As it stands, her total of four awards is equalled only by Blur, who won the same number in 1995 for their album Parklife. Adele became more emotional as the ceremony continued, bursting into tears after accepting the global success prize – which recognises success overseas. “I got really lost for a while and I didn’t know if I’d ever come back,” she said, referencing the writer’s block that delayed her much-anticipated third album. [BBC] See List of the Day

Sepp Blatter & Michel Platini lose Fifa appeals but bans reduced –
Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter and suspended Uefa boss Michel Platini have had bans from all football-related activities upheld. But the suspensions have been reduced from eight to six years by Fifa’s appeals committee. Both were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) “disloyal payment” to Platini. They both deny any wrongdoing and have said they will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Blatter and Platini said the payment honoured a verbal or gentleman’s agreement made in 1998 for work carried out by the Frenchman when he was a technical advisor for Blatter. Blatter, 79, added in a statement that he was “very disappointed by the appeal committee of Fifa”. Platini, 60, said it was “insulting and shameful” and a “political decision”. The committee said “activities and services rendered to Fifa, Uefa and football” was a mitigating factor. [BBC]
In September 2015, the Swiss Police launched an investigation into Blatter over criminal mismanagement or misappropriation over a TV rights deal.
Michel Platini

Video of the Day –

70MM of Hateful from Andrew Walker on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The Brits Awards Winners

British male solo artist
James Bay
Aphex Twin
Calvin Harris
Jamie xx
Mark Ronson

British female solo artist
Adele
Amy Winehouse
Florence + the Machine
Jess Glynne
Laura Marling

British group
Coldplay
Blur
Foals
One Direction
Years & Years

British breakthrough act
Catfish and the Bottlemen
James Bay
Jess Glynne
Wolf Alice
Years & Years
Critics’ choice
Jack Garratt
Izzy Bizu
Frances

Brits global success award
Adele

British single
Adele – Hello
Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep Is Your Love
Ed Sheeran & Rudimental- Bloodstream
Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do
James Bay – Hold Back The River
Jess Glynne – Hold My Hand
Little Mix – Black Magic
Olly Murs ft Demi Lovato – Up
Philip George – Wish You Were Mine
Years & Years – King

British album of the year
Adele – 25
Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams
Florence + the Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
James Bay – Chaos and the Calm
Jamie xx – In Colour
British producer of the year
Charlie Andrew – winner
Mark Ronson
Mike Crossey
Tom Dalgety

British artist video of the year
One Direction – Drag Me Down
Calvin Harris & Disciples – How Deep Is Your Love
Ed Sheeran – Photograph
Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do
Jessie J – Flashlight
Little Mix – Black Magic
Naughty Boy ft Beyonce & Arrow Benjamin – Runnin’ (Lose It All)
Adele – Hello
Sam Smith – Writing’s On The Wall
Years & Years – King

International male solo artist
Justin Bieber
Father John Misty
Drake
Kendrick Lamar
The Weeknd

International female solo artist
Bjork
Ariana Grande
Courtney Barnett
Lana Del Rey
Meghan Trainor

International group
Tame Impala
Eagles of Death Metal
Major Lazer
Alabama Shakes
U2

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#QuartaDetremuraSdv	#WednesdayWisdom	#WednesdayWisdom
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9	#فتاه_تغتصب_شاب	#WRAD16	Boston Dynamics
10	#AcuerdoPSOECsARV	Librarian of Congress	#kfpharmacy

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Kurdish–Turkish conflict
- Turkish Air Force helicopters struck a group of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters in southeast Turkey, killing nine militants, according to security sources. (Yahoo! News)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- Senior Libyan military officials say French special forces are on the ground in Benghazi helping Libyan National Army troops fight ISIL militants. They said that the French forces, along with American andBritish teams, are setting up an operations room inside Benina International Airport in Benina. The French defense ministry declined to comment, citing a policy not to comment on special forces’ activities.(The New York Times)
Gunmen attack a Malian military checkpoint in the town of Léré, near the Mauritanian border with Mali, killing at least three soldiers and wounding two others. (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  - The United Arab Emirates pulls its troops out of Yemen amid mounting casualties among its forces battling Shia Houthi militants and rising tensions with local fighters in Aden, southern Yemen, which escalated yesterday when Aden International Airport was stormed by local pro-government gunmen. The airport has now been closed. (Fox News) (Middle East Eye)
Metrojet Flight 9268
- Two months after Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry ruled out terrorism in Flight 9268‘s crash, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi admits an ISIS bomb downed the Russian passenger jet. The terrorist group’s Sinai Peninsula Branch claimed responsibility shortly after the incident. (Forbes)

Arts and culture

2016 Brit Awards
- The 2016 Brit Awards are held at The O2 in London with James Bay, Adele, Tame Impala, Justin Bieber, Bjork, and Coldplay all winning their respective categories. Adele won four awards in total. (The Guardian), (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- Cyclone Winston
  - The death toll in Fiji rises to 42 and is expected to rise further as relief teams reach remote islands. (ABC Australia)
Tara Air Flight 193 crashes in western Nepal, killing all 23 people on board. (BBC) (AP via Yahoo! News)
The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service state that the three people missing since a decommissioned turbine hall partially collapsed at Didcot A power station in Oxfordshire, England, yesterday are unlikely to still be alive. If confirmed, this would raise the death toll to four. (BBC News)
Tornadoes of 2016
- Three people die after a tornado hits the town of Waverly, Virginia. (NBC 12)
Australian icebreaker, Aurora Australis, runs aground in Antarctica with 68 people on board. There are no reports of injuries. The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) said blizzard conditions are hampering attempts to assess damage. (BBC)

International relations

Foreign relations of Lebanon
- Qatar and Kuwait join Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in asking its citizens to leave or avoid travel to Lebanon. (Al Arabiya)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A report by two Israeli human rights groups, B’Tselem and HaMoked, states dozens of Palestinian detainees at the Shin Bet’s Shikma interrogation facility in Ashkelon have been subjected to mistreatment, and in some cases torture. The report examined affidavits and personal accounts from 116 Palestinians held for security reasons at the facility between August 2013 and March 2014. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle) (Jurist)
2016 North Korean nuclear test
- United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agree on a draft resolution that would expand United Nations Security Council sanctions following North Korea’slatest nuclear test. U.S. President Barack Obama participated in the meeting. The draft is now headed to the full 15-member council. (Reuters) (AFP via Bangkok Post)

Law and crime

2016 Phoenix murders
- A family of five falls victim to a murder-suicide in Phoenix, Arizona. 26-year-old Alex Buckner is identified by Phoenix police as the shooter, who was killed in a gunfight with police. (AZCentral)
Former California state senator Leland Yee is sentenced to five years imprisonment in a U.S. Federal prison after being convicted of corruption. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Politics and elections

European migrant crisis
- Hungary is to hold a referendum on whether to accept mandatory EU quotas for relocating migrants. (BBC)
South Korea’s opposition holds a parliamentary filibuster, the first in the National Assembly since 1969, to block the current anti-terrorism bill that would expand National Intelligence Service powers. The opposition plans to continue until March 11, when the session is scheduled to end. (Los Angeles Times) {Daily Mail)

Sport

2015 FIFA corruption case
- Former President of FIFA Sepp Blatter and suspended President of UEFA boss Michel Platini lose their appeals against being banned from all football related activities but the period of the ban is reduced from eight to six years. (BBC)
- FIFA’s Court of Arbitration for Sport denies presidential candidate Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan’s request to postpone Friday’s presidential election. Ali’s request for transparent booths was rejected last week. (Reuters)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

February 25, 2016

Top News Stories –

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]

Video of the Day –

How to Win an Election from The New York Times – Video on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

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9	#ميول_ابوك_في_ك…	#EddieWouldGo	Leicester Square
10	#RailBudget2016	David Duke	#MFW

Other News Stories –

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 President Corazon 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)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 11, 2016

Top News Stories –

Progressive rock legend Emerson dies –
Keith Emerson, the co-founder and keyboardist of progressive rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer, has died aged 71, according to his former band mates. “We regret to announce that Keith Emerson died last night at his home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles,” read a statement on the band’s Facebook page. Yorkshire-born Emerson was one of the top keyboardists of the prog rock era. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Santa Monica police confirmed to the BBC. His death was being investigated as a suicide, police added. [BBC]
Keith Emerson performs on his Hammond and Moog synthesizer during the Emerson & Lake Tour 2010.

Apple customer goes to the top for iPhone battery answer –
The head of Apple’s operating system iOS confirmed that open but unused apps do not affect iPhone battery life after a customer emailed boss Tim Cook. The customer from Ohio, known as Caleb, asked Mr Cook whether closing down “multitasking apps” improved battery life and whether it was something the chief executive did himself. Senior vice-president Craig Federighi replied “no and no”. However, other smartphone batteries can benefit from app closure. While many Apple users do shut down apps in the belief it extends the iPhone battery this is not advice explicitly given by the firm itself. It only recommends disabling apps from carrying out background refreshes in a list of tips about saving power. [BBC]

Rafael Benitez: Newcastle United appoint Spaniard as Steve McClaren’s successor –
Rafael Benitez has been named as Newcastle’s new manager, following the sacking of Steve McClaren. The former Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Valencia boss takes over with the Magpies a point from safety with 10 games left. The Spaniard, 55, has signed a three-year contract, which is understood to contain a break clause should Newcastle be relegated at the end of the season. “C’mon Toon Army. The club and I need your total involvement,” he said. [BBC]
Rafael Benitez

Video of the Day –

Drawcard from Antonio Oreña-Barlin on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Clubs Managed by Rafael Benitez [Wikipedia]

Teams managed
1993–1995	Real Madrid B
1995–1996	Valladolid
1996	Osasuna
1997–1999	Extremadura
2000–2001	Tenerife
2001–2004	Valencia
2004–2010	Liverpool
2010	Internazionale
2012–2013	Chelsea (interim)
2013–2015	Napoli
2015–2016	Real Madrid
2016–	Newcastle United

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SextaDetremuraSdv	#FridayFeeling	#MemeHistory
2	#OMundoSeriaMelhorSe	#FlashbackFriday	#IWillSmileTodayBecause
3	#BerkinElvan	#IWillSmileTodayBecause	Ben Carson
4	#MemeHistory	#SnapchatDay	#FridayFeeling
5	#ALDUBAngPagdalaw	#SSAC16	#FlashbackFriday
6	#MeDuele	#SXSW2016	#bbcqt
7	#IWillSmileTodayBecause	Joe’s Crab Shack	#newmusicfriday
8	#يوم_الجمعه	Dog Whisperer	#BuyDangerousWomanOniTunes
9	#GloboGolpista	#LIKEIWOULDTONUMBER1	Archbishop of Canterbury
10	#東日本大震災	#TLConf2016	LGBT FANS DESERVE BETTER

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
- The Algerian Army kills three suspected Islamist militants near the eastern city of El Oued and seizes a large quantity of weapons, including six anti-aircraft missiles. (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- More than 50 people have died in fighting in the Yemeni city of Taiz. (Al-Arabiya)

Business and economics

American veterans’ nonprofit charity The Wounded Warrior Project board of directors removes chief executive officer Steven Nardizzi and chief operation officer Al Giordano after an independent investigation confirms earlier news reports about lavish spending on employee perks, high overhead, and other perceived malfeasance. (The New York Times)
Bangladesh Bank money laundering case
- Bangladeshi bank officials say unknown hackers installed malware in the bank’s computer systems in last month’s attempt to steal nearly $1 billion from the central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Reuters via Business Insider)
General Motors acquires Cruise Automation, a three-year old software company that’s been testing self-driving cars on the streets of San Francisco. (AP via Business Insider)

Disasters and accidents

Japan’s emperor and prime minister attend a memorial service marking the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in which 15,894 people died and caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Many people remain displaced and recovery efforts are ongoing. (The New York Times)
At least 15 people are killed by flooding and mudslides in and around São Paulo, Brazil, following heavy rain. (Reuters via Channel News Asia)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea, orders the country to conduct more tests of nuclear weapons to improve its capacity. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
South Sudanese Civil War
- A new United Nations report on South Sudan describes one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world, in particular by Government forces, including use of rape as a widespread weapon of war and recommends the U.N. Security Council consider imposing a comprehensive arms embargo on South Sudan and referring the matter to the International Criminal Court. (Newsweek (AP viaThe Washington Post)
The Arab League declares the Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah a terrorist organization. (Reuters)
Syrian peace process
- The High Negotiations Committee, Syria’s main opposition group, will attend Monday’s U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, a day shy of the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict, and two-plus weeks into the ceasefire agreement. Although fighting continues, a significant drop in violence has been seen during the truce. The first round of Geneva talks collapsed on Feb. 3 during agovernment offensive against rebels in Aleppo. .(CBS News) (Reuters) (Deutsche Welle)
- UN envoy Staffan de Mistura says new elections should be held 18 months from the start of talks, i.e., in September 2017. (AFP via Firstpost)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016, Donald Trump presidential campaign endorsements, 2016
- Retired American neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate Ben Carson formally endorses Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago landmark estate in Palm Beach, Florida. (Fox News)
- Donald Trump postpones a rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago due to security issues amid fights between protestors and supporters. Five people are arrested, and two officers injured, according toChicago police. (AFP vis ABC News Australia) (CNN) (NBC News)
  - Rival Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio state Mr. Trump bears some responsibility for the disturbance. (Los Angeles Times)
  - Thirty-two people are arrested, all but one charged with general peace disturbance, at an earlier Trump event at the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri. (Chicago Tribune)
  - A Donald Trump supporter is charged with assault after social media videos show him sucker punching a protester at Wednesday’s campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. [(The Washington Post) (The Christian Science Monitor)
- Marco Rubio OK’s supporters voting for John Kasich in Ohio since the state’s former governor, “… is the only one who can beat Donald Trump in Ohio.” (The Washington Post) (Politico)

Science and technology

A report by a team of Japanese scientists, published in the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal Science, has identified bacteria — isolated from outside a bottle recycling facility — that can break down and metabolize plastic. The microbe appears to have evolved a pair of enzymes it uses to break down polyethylene terephthalate or PET, the most common thermoplastic polymer resin in consumer products. (LiveScience via CBS News) (The Washington Post) (Science)
Astronaut Scott Kelly announces his retirement from NASA effective April 1. Kelly holds the record for the American who has spent the most time in space. (NASA)
A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine states climate science progress makes it possible to accurately detect global warming’s fingerprints on certain extreme weatherevents. There is “high confidence” in studies looking for climate change connections between extreme hot and cold temperatures, while efforts trying to attribute droughts and extreme rainfall has medium confidence. (AP via Business Insider) (USA Today via WLTX) (National Academies)

Sport

Newcastle United F.C. (NUFC) appoint Rafael Benítez as manager on a three-year deal after sacking Steve McClaren. (The Telegraph)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 30, 2016

Top News Stories –

Europe’s largest floating solar farm to open –
The biggest floating solar farm in Europe is being constructed on a reservoir. More than 23,000 solar photovoltaic panels are being laid on the surface of the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. The farm, which will be the size of eight football pitches, is expected to generate 5.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity in a year. The energy will be used to part power a nearby water treatment works. Thames Water said construction of the solar farm, which is about eight miles (13 km) from Heathrow airport, will be completed by the end of March. The floating pontoon will be 57,500 sq m in size. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

The Largest Floating Solar Farm In Europe

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#MeHaceMuyFeliz	D’Angelo Russell	#WednesdayWisdom
2	#QuartaHumildeNoClubeSDV	#WednesdayWisdom	#AcademicHipster
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9	#WednesdayWisdom	#RightsCon	#ModernCollectiveNouns
10	#كل_مغرد_يوصف_ن…	#NationalDoctorsDay	#MurderedByMyFather

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- Blasts and gunfire are reported in Tripoli. (Reuters)
Naxalite–Maoist insurgency
- At least seven Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel are killed in an IED attack on their vehicle in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh‘s Dantewada district. Naxalite insurgents are suspected to have been behind the attack. (International Business Times)

Business and economy

Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn agrees to buy 60% of the Japanese Sharp Corporation for 389 billion yen ($3.5 billion). (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

Thailand and neighbouring countries suffer from the worst drought in decades as an El Niño-induced water shortage reduces reservoirs to critical levels. (Al Jazeera)
At least nine people are injured in severe storms that spawned multiple tornado touchdowns in northeastern Oklahoma and sections of the Southwestern United States. One patient is in critical condition; the others suffered serious injuries, according to the Emergency Medical Services Authority. Parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas are also impacted. A flash flood watch has been issued through Thursday evening. Two (2) to 4 inches of rain is expected, with perhaps 6 inches in some locations. (AP)

Health and medicine

A new study by researchers at McGill University and the University of California, Los Angeles, finds that each additional month a woman has paid maternity leave is associated with decreased infant mortalityby more than 10 percent. Researchers noted that paid maternity leave reduces stress because of the guarantee of income and job security, increases the chances for breastfeeding and other infant care, and allows a mother to seek more medical attention for herself. (UPI) (PLOS Medicine)
The United States Food and Drug Administration announces it has relaxed its official requirements regarding the use of the abortion drug Mifeprex (RU-486). The current guidelines were based on 1990s medical evidence. Changes include reducing the number of physician visits required by abortion-seeking women, reducing drug dosage, and allowing women to take the drug for three weeks longer — now a total of 70 days. (UPI)
Air pollution in Mexico City
- Mexico City, facing the capital’s worst air-quality crisis in over a decade, issues a temporary order that all cars remain idle one day a week. Today, authorities report a pollution index of 108 (bad) after low readings during Holy Week. Vehicles will also be forced from the roads one Saturday a month. The measure will begin next Tuesday, April 5, and run until Thursday, June 30, 2016. Starting July 1, improved technology will be in place at smog-check centers where all vehicles must be tested every six months. (AP via Fox News)

International relations

The Wallenberg family files an application to formally declare Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg (born in 1912) to be dead. Wallenberg saved the lives of thousands of Jews in World War II only to disappear at the hands of the Soviet forces. (Times of Israel)
Russia–Ukraine relations
- The Ukrainian parliament votes to ban all Russian films released after January 1, 2014, saying the move is aimed at improving “national security”; more than 430 Russian films and TV series fall under the new measures. Last month, the State Committee in Television and Radio-broadcasting in Ukraine removed 15 Russian TV channels from being broadcast in Ukraine. (RT)
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, at the upcoming Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., will announce a three-way deal with the United States and Euratom, the European Union nuclear agency, to turn nuclear waste into medical isotopes to help fight cancer. (Bloomberg)

Law and crime

A Bangladesh Court issues an arrest warrant, the second one so far, for former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and 27 opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party members over political violence, mostly petrol-bomb attacks, that occurred during anti-government protests last year that killed at least 120 people. (Al Jazeera)
EgyptAir Flight 181
- A Larnaca, Cyprus, court orders that 59-year-old Seif Eddin Mustafa, who was arrested by Cypriot police yesterday, remain in local police custody for eight days to assist Cyprus’s own investigation. Mustafa faces charges of hijacking, illegal possession of explosives, kidnapping, and threats to commit violence. It’s unclear if Mustafa had any explosives; the bomb belt he wore was fake, and officials are waiting for testing results on unidentified liquids found among his possessions. (AP via The Daily Courier)
- Egypt General Prosecutor Nabil Sadek formally requests Mustafa’s extradition from Cyprus. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016:
- The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which organizes some 16,500 border patrol agents, endorses Donald Trump for President of the United States, NBPC’s first-ever endorsement in a presidential election. (CNN)
Myanmar general election, 2015
- In Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, Htin Kyaw is sworn in by House Speaker Mahn Win Khaing Than as the first civilian president in 54 years. Htin Kyaw, a close aide to Aung San Suu Kyi, takes power from former general Thein Sein. (Daily Mail)
The government of Pakistan warns that it will push to clear the Islamist protests occurring in Islamabad. Protests have broken out in the capital and other cities ever since Mumtaz Qadri was executed last February for his role in killing Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in 2011 because he opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- The United Nations-backed Libyan Presidential Council arrives in Tripoli despite warnings by hardliners opposed to any unity government that they will attempt to keep them out of the city. (The Guardian)
The opposition controlled National Assembly of Venezuela passes an amnesty bill that could potentially free over 70 opposition leaders and activists jailed during protests last year, including prominent leaderLeopoldo López. (BBC)
- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro vows to veto this amnesty bill. The opposition can override the veto since it holds a supermajority in the National Assembly. Maduro can also send the bill to theSupreme Tribunal to determine its constitutionality. (UPI)
- The opposition plans to generate a recall referendum that would ask voters if President Maduro should be removed from office. The Constitution states a recall referendum can be held once the president has served half of his six-year term (Maduro became President on April 19, 2013) and at least 20 percent of registered voters sign the petition. (UPI²)

Sports

Two Russian cyclists, former world champion Anastasia Chulkova and Pavel Yakushevskiy, test positive for meldonium. (AP)
Three-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Calvin Borel announces his retirement. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

April 3, 2016

April 3, 2015

Top News Stories –

World Twenty20: West Indies beat England to claim second title –
Carlos Brathwaite hit the first four balls of the final over for six as West Indies stunned England to win the World Twenty20. West Indies, who were 11-3 in pursuit of England’s 155-9, needed 19 off the final over to win and did it in style. Marlon Samuels’ 85 not out kept them in contention before Brathwaite’s match-winning blitz off Ben Stokes. Joe Root scored 54 for England but nothing could stop the Windies joining their women as World T20 champions. In the process, the West Indies also became the first two-time winners of the men’s World Twenty20. [BBC]

Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca leak reveals elite’s tax havens –
A huge leak of confidential documents has revealed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth. Eleven million documents were leaked from one of the world’s most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing. The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries. Gerard Ryle, director of the ICIJ, said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years. “I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents,” he said. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

How to hide a billion dollars | The Panama Papers

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DomingoDeSDVDetremura	#TWDFinale	#WT20Final
2	#FelizDomingo	#WT20Final	#OlivierAwards
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4	#لو_مخنوق_بتعم�…	#panamapapers	#JPTFinal
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9	HOJE TEM TWD	#BernieTakesNevada	Ronaldo
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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
- 2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes
  - Azerbaijan calls a unilateral ceasefire in its fight with ethnic Armenians one day after 30 soldiers died. The Associated Press reports rebel forces reject Azerbaijan’s claims, saying they see no sign the government has stopped fighting. (AP), (BBC) (NPR)
Syrian Civil War
- Battle of al-Qaryatayn (March–April 2016)
  - The Syrian Army retakes control of al-Qaryatayn, Homs Governorate, after driving out ISIL militants. (Reuters)
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports the al-Nusra Front‘s spokesperson Abu Firas al-Suri was among 20 militants killed in a suspected Russian airstrike on a village near the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. (Reuters)
Moro attacks on Sabah, Moro Conflict
- Four Sarawakian Malaysians are kidnapped off the coast of Sabah by suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (The New York Times)
Military intervention against ISIL, Iraq Civil War
- The United States military reports a drone attack killed ISIL rocket expert Jasim Khadijah. The unmanned airstrike also killed other IS militants and destroyed at least one makeshift drone. Khadijah, a former Iraqi officer, is believed responsible for the March attack that killed a U.S. Marine in northern Iraq. (UPI) (Daily Mail)
- Iraqi forces capture the northern part of the ISIL held town of Hīt, west of Baghdad. (AP)
An attacker throws a grenade and fires shots outside a sports hall in the small town of Zubin Potok in northern Kosovo, just hours before Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić was due to hold an election rally there. “A hand grenade exploded outside the sports hall but there are no injuries,” Besim Hoti, a Kosovo police commander in the area, told Reuters. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Aftermath of the 2016 Brussels bombings
- Two weeks after the deadly suicide bombings, Brussels Zaventem International Airport will reopen today with three symbolic flights to Faro, Athens, and Turin. On Thursday, the airport had said it was “technically ready” to resume partial services, but the opening was held up because police unions threatened to strike unless additional security checks were introduced. (AsiaOne) (The Jewish Press)
Panama Papers
- A leak of 11.5 million documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca reveals details of shell companies used by 12 current or former world leaders including President of Russia Vladimir Putin whose aides allegedly shuffled billions of dollars. (ABC News via 9MSN)
- The documents, 2.6 terabytes of information, were obtained more than a year ago from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Journalists from more than 80 countries have been working with this data. The documents expose holdings of 12 current and former world leaders, and 128 more politicians and public officials worldwide. The national leaders named includePakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif; Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, and Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. (The Guardian)(USA Today)
The Health Information Trust Alliance, a nonprofit industry group, warns that hospitals in the United States must prepare for more ransomware attacks. A review late last year of some 30 mid-sized U.S. hospitals found 52 percent were infected with malicious software. This week, an attack on MedStar Health forced the largest healthcare provider in the Washington, D.C. area, to shut down much of its computer network. (Reuters).

Disasters and accidents

2016 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa flood
- At least 45 people are killed and another 34 hospitalized following heavy rains and flash floods in the northwestern Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (Dawn) (AP)
A 6.9 magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Vanuatu with a tsunami warning issued. (USGS)
2016 Chester, Pennsylvania train derailment
- Two people are killed and 35 injured when a United States Amtrak passenger train on the Palmetto route traveling from New York City to Savannah, Georgia, with 341 passengers and seven crew on board, derails in Chester, Pennsylvania, after striking a backhoe that was on the track. Local media reports the deceased are veteran Amtrak workers. Area hospitals are treating the injured; none in life-threatening condition. (CNN) (NBC Philadelphia) (BBC) (Reuters)
At least 18 people are injured following a collision between two trains at Plymouth railway station in the city of Plymouth, Devon. The crash has caused significant disruption to rail services in South West England. (Sky News)

International relations

India–Saudi Arabia relations
- In Riyadh, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman sign five agreements, including plans to increase investments, and to cooperate in intelligence sharing. (AP)
European migrant crisis
- Czech Minister of the Interior Milan Chovanec says that authorities in Prague will send a group of 25 Iraqi Christians back to Iraq after they tried to move to Germany rather than staying in the Czech Republic. The refugees were on their way to Germany via bus before being stopped at the border. Czech authorities agreed to a request by the German police to take the people back. Chovanec said the 25 Iraqis abused Czech generosity and should go back to Iraq within seven days. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- Last month’s agreement between the European Union and Turkey will be implemented Monday as migrants currently on Greek islands will be returned to the Turkish mainland. (AP)
Japan–Philippines relations
- A Japanese Navy submarine makes a port call in the Philippines, the first in fifteen years, in a show of growing military cooperation amid tension triggered by China‘s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. It was escorted into the former U.S. Naval Base at Subic Bay by two Japanese destroyers on a tour of Southeast Asia. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Guillaume Pepy, France’s national railway company president, announces armed train marshals, in civilian dress, will be patrolling some passenger trains. (AP)

Politics and elections

The Parliament of South Africa announces it will debate a motion to impeach President Jacob Zuma this coming Tuesday. This comes after Zuma is facing mounting pressure when the Constitutional Courtruled that Zuma violated the constitution by using state funds to renovate his mansion. Yesterday, anti-apartheid veteran Ahmed Kathrada joined opposition leaders in calling for Zuma’s resignation. (Al Jazeera)
Police forcibly break up a protest in Malé, Maldives, with tear gas and pepper spray and detain multiple journalists. The demonstration was against government moves to introduce a new law to criminalize defamation. (BBC)
Abortion in Poland
- Thousands of people attended a pro-choice rally outside Parliament of Poland in Warsaw after Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, backed a call by Polish Catholic bishops for a full ban on abortion. (Euronews via Reuters)
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi sacks Prime Minister and Vice President of Yemen Khaled Mahfoudh Bahah. Hadi named top general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar as his new Vice President and appointed Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, a former official in Saleh‘s General People’s Congress as the new Prime Minister. (Reuters)

Science and technology

The Associated Press reports a government-sponsored committee of 27 companies/trade associations, set up by the U.S. FAA in February, on Friday submitted recommendations that could clear the way forcommercial drone flights over populated areas, and help speed the introduction of package delivery drones. (AP)

Sport

ICC Women’s World Twenty20, 2016 ICC Women’s World Twenty20
- West Indies women’s national cricket team beat defending champions Australia women’s national cricket team by 8 wickets the final in Kolkata. (ICC)
2016 ICC World Twenty20
- Defending champions The West Indies beat England by 4 wickets in the final in Kolkata. (BBC)
2016 NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament
- The 2016 United States women’s college basketball national championship will be decided when two former Big East Conference foes meet at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis at 8:30 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, April 5, 2016. Connecticut topped Oregon State 80–51, and Syracuse claimed an 80–59 win over Washington in Sunday’s semifinals. Syracuse (30–7, 13–3 ACC) will be making its first appearance in the NCAA title game. UConn (37–0, 18–0 American), a 10-time national champion and defending champion for the fourth straight season, has won every title game it has played in.(ESPN) (ESPN²)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

April 8, 2016

Top News Stories –

Springsteen cancels North Carolina concert over bathroom bill –
Rock star Bruce Springsteen on Friday canceled a concert scheduled for this weekend in North Carolina to protest a new state law restricting bathroom use by transgender individuals, as country music stars decried similar legislation proposed in Tennessee. Springsteen said in an online statement that the North Carolina law was “an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress.” Tickets for the concert that was to be presented on Sunday in Greensboro, North Carolina, would be refunded, according to Springsteen’s website. PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) cited the discriminatory nature of the law when it canceled on Tuesday a new operations center that was to employ 400 workers in Charlotte. [Reuters] In March Springsteen signed a late note for a schoolboy who came to one of his concerts
Bruce Springsteen

SpaceX reusable rocket lands on ocean platform –
The US aerospace company SpaceX has successfully landed a resusable rocket on an ocean platform, after four previous attempts failed. Mission controllers cheered as the Falcon 9 rocket remained upright on the platform off Florida. It was returning from delivering an inflatable habitat into space for Nasa. The inflatable room will attach to the International Space Station (ISS) for a two-year test and become the first such habitat to for humans in orbit. It is due to reach the ISS around 09:00 GMT on Sunday along with other freight aboard the Dragon capsule. Built by Nevada company Bigelow Aerospace, the habitat is intended to pave the way towards the use of such rooms for long space trips, including to Mars. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

SpaceX lands rocket at sea, makes history –

	Worldwide	USA	UK (London)
1	#SextaDetremuraSdv	#FlashbackFriday	#FridayFeeling
2	#سعادتي_هي	Josh Pastner	#AskZac
3	#resigncameron	#NewMusicFriday	#resigncameron
4	#8AnosAtrás	#resigncameron	#FlashbackFriday
5	#BuenViernes	#ColorofSurveillance	#dontstreamanddrive
6	#EsDePobres	#OpeningDayDET	#NewMusicFriday
7	#AmaneciConGanasDe	Sanders Over the Edge	#SLFLLondon2
8	#ALDUBProblemaNiLola	Vatican	Danny DeVito
9	#FridayFeeling	#FridayFeeling	#LadiesDay
10	#جسر_الملك_سلمان	#lovesick7days	#IAMW16

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sinai insurgency
- At least seven people are killed, including five Egyptian Army soldiers, a military officer and a civilian woman in two separate blasts in Egypt‘s Sinai Peninsula. ISIL’s Sinai branch claimed responsibility for the attacks on several websites. (Reuters)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Hīt offensive (2016)
  - The Iraqi Army recaptures the western town of Hīt, Al Anbar Governorate, after driving out hundreds of ISIL militants. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Damascus offensive (April 2016)
  - ISIL militants reportedly execute 175 workers who were captured earlier this week at a cement factory situated to the east of Damascus. (RT) (Daily Mail)
2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes
- An ethnic Armenian soldier dies in overnight clashes. (News Armenia)

Arts and culture

Pope Francis issues Amoris Laetitia or the Joy of Love, a document on the Roman Catholic approach to love, sex, marriage and family life. (AP)
- In the 256-page document, the Pope encourages the clergy to embrace sinners as well as saints, opens the door a bit for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and stresses that Catholics, with their own informed consciences guided by the light of the Gospel, address tricky moral questions in their life, and not only be guided by dogmatic rules from above. Francis also asserts the right to a natural deathwithout aggressive treatment; firmly rejects the death penalty; and reiterates the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. (AP²) (The Washington Post) (Vatican)
North Carolina bathroom bill
- Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band cancels their Sunday night concert in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest the state’s controversial “bathroom bill.” (Rolling Stone)

Business and economics

Both Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and Marriott International shareholders approve Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood, which will create the world’s largest hotelier. The deal has cleared the pre-merger antitrust reviews in the United States and Canada; approvals from the European Union and China is pending. Last week, Anbang Insurance Group topped Marriott’s bid, then withdrew their offer three days later. (Reuters) (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

At least 50 people are reportedly injured following a head-on collision between two commuter trains in San José, Costa Rica. (WRAL)
Three people are killed, and there was one survivor, following the crash of a small plane headed to Angoon in Southeast Alaska, United States. (KTUU-TV)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations, North Korean defectors
- A group of 13 North Koreans working at a restaurant in an unidentified country defect en masse to South Korea, according to Seoul‘s Ministry of Unification. (USA Today)
Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations
- King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announces, during his trip to Cairo, that a bridge crossing the Red Sea will be built, linking Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi says the bridge will be named after the Saudi monarch. A Saudi–Egypt Causeway project has been in the works for years. (BBC)
Syria–United States relations
- Syria releases American freelance photographer Kevin Patrick Dawes who was kidnapped in 2012. (Washington Post)
NATO–Russia relations
- NATO announces it will hold a meeting of the NATO–Russia Council at the ambassadorial level at NATO headquarters in Brussels in the next two weeks after a two-year break since NATO cut all practical cooperation with Russia in 2014. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Egypt–Italy relations, Murder of Giulio Regeni
- Italy recalls its ambassador to Egypt for consultations in protest over the lack of progress in a probe into the fate of murdered Cambridge University student Giulio Regeni. “We want only one thing, the truth about what happened to Giulio,” Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Friday. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
China-Russia relations
- Russia postpones a transfer of missile engines to China. There is concern the technology could be passed on to a third country, such as North Korea. China is not a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime, a voluntary, informal partnership between 34 countries to prevent proliferation of missile delivery systems that could carry weapons of mass destruction. (UPI)
Bangladesh–United States relations
- U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner condemns Wednesday’s “barbaric murder” of Nazimuddin Samad, and says federal officials are considering granting refuge to a select number ofBangladeshi writers who are under “imminent danger” because of their critical views of radical Islamists. (UPI)

Law and crime

At least two people are reported dead following a shooting at Lackland Air Force Base, in the U.S. state of Texas. (CNBC)
Aftermath of the November 2015 Paris attacks
- Mohamed Abrini, wanted in connection with the 2015 Paris attacks, is arrested in Belgium. (Reuters via Ynet)
Panama Papers
- El Salvador officials seize documents and equipment during a raid of the local offices of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. Attorney General Douglas Melendez says authorities interviewed seven employees, and confiscated 20 computers and some documents. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

The French occupy movement known as Nuit debout enters its ninth day, “March 40,” spreading across dozens of French cities and to Belgium, Germany, and Spain. (The Guardian)
Djiboutian presidential election, 2016
- Voters in Djibouti go to the polls for the first round of voting in a presidential election with current President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh winning a fourth term in office. (BBC), (AFP via Daily Mail)
A Myanmar court releases 69 jailed student activists in the first wave of amnesty for the country’s political prisoners, with more releases expected. This comes after State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi vowed to push for the release of all the political prisoners in Myanmar. (Al Jazeera)
The Prime Minister of Madagascar Jean Ravelonarivo and his cabinet resign from office with no explanation given. (The Guardian)
Macedonian opposition leader Zoran Zaev pledges to boycott the early Macedonian parliamentary elections, saying it is due to a lack of government reforms. (Business Insider)
LGBT rights in the United States
- A group of United States mayors forms “Mayors Against Discrimination” in the wake of recent discriminatory laws enacted in North Carolina and Mississippi against LBGT individuals. The founding members are city leaders from Honolulu, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco, Sante Fe, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. (AP) (Huffington Post) (Mayor Edward Murray)
United States presidential election, 2016
- The Colorado Republican Party continues choosing its delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Ted Cruz has swept all of the delegates available so far. The process which began last Saturday (April 2, 2016) will conclude tomorrow. (Washington Post)

Science and technology

SpaceX CRS-8
- SpaceX launches a NASA cargo run to the International Space Station, and in a spaceflight first, successfully lands its reusable main-stage booster on an autonomous spaceport drone ship. (The Verge)(Reuters)

Sport

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says they will not open up a formal investigation into the doping scandals that were reported by the World Anti-Doping Agency last November, where it documented Russian athletes systematically taking banned performance-enhancing drugs with state support. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

April 9, 2016

Top News Stories –

Grand National: Rule The World wins under David Mullins –
The 33-1 shot Rule The World, ridden by 19-year-old David Mullins and trained by Mouse Morris, has won the 2016 Grand National at Aintree. Mullins, in his first ride in the race, came storming through to overhaul The Last Samuri (8-1 joint favourite) and Vics Canvas (100-1) late on. It gave Morris a double after Rogue Angel’s Irish National win last month.
Last year’s winner Many Clouds challenged but was beaten a long way out and finished 16th and last. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Snowboarder Girl Chased By Bear – I Was Singing Rihanna Work And Didn’t Know It Was Behind Me!

List of the Day –

Grand National Trivia

Fastest winning time: Mr. Frisk (1990); 8 minutes 47.8 seconds
Oldest winning horse: Peter Simple (1853); aged 15
Youngest winning horse: Alcibiade (1865), Regal (1876), Austerlitz (1877), Empress (1880), Lutteur III (1909); all aged five
Oldest winning jockey: Dick Saunders (1982); aged 48
Youngest winning jockey: Bruce Hobbs (1938); aged 17
Longest odds winner: Tipperary Tim (1928), Gregalach (1929), Caughoo (1947), Foinavon (1967), Mon Mome (2009); all 100/1
Shortest odds winner: Poethlyn (1919); 11/4
Largest field: 66 runners (1929)
Smallest field: 10 runners (1883)
Most horses to finish: 23 (1984)
Fewest horses to finish: 2 (1928)
Most rides in the race: 20 (A. P. McCoy, 1995–2015), (Richard Johnson, 1997-2016)
Most rides without winning: 20 (Richard Johnson, 1997-2016)

Top Twitter Trends –

Worldwide	USA	Australia (Sydney)
#FelizSabado	#GrandNational	#triplejONS
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#JuntosNoClubeSDV	Kirstie Alley	#resigncameron
#YeriGelmişkenSöyleyeyim	#ResignDavidCameron	Bruce Springsteen

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Moro Conflict
- 2016 Battle of Basilan
  - At least 18 soldiers are killed and 52 injured in clashes with Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen in Basilan island, Philippines. (FOX News)
Military intervention against ISIL
- The United States Air Force deploys B-52 bombers to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar to join operations against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. This is the first time they have been stationed in the Middle East since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. (Reuters)
Internal conflict in Peru
- At least two people are killed in a remote part of Peru in an attack by Shining Path guerillas. (Daily Mail)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- Five migrants drown off the island of Samos close to Turkey. (AP)
At least 23 people are killed and 32 others injured after a bus plunges into a river in southeastern Peru. (AFP via ABC News)

International relations

Egypt–Saudi Arabia relations
- Egypt and Saudi Arabia reach an agreement on the disputed islands of Tiran Island and Sanafir Island, placing the formerly Egyptian-administered islands officially under Saudi Arabian sovereignty. (Daily Mail)
North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- North Korea claims to have successfully tested the engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile. (BBC)

Law and crime

2016 Brussels bombings
- Mohamed Abrini has reportedly admitted to being the “man in the hat” sought after the Brussels bombings. He is also being charged with involvement in the November 2015 Paris attacks. (BNO News)
Former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith is shot dead in a road rage incident. (CNN)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Registered Democratic voters in the U.S. state of Wyoming gather, by county, for the Wyoming Democratic caucuses. Bernie Sanders is projected to win. (Wyoming Tribune), (The Hill)
Panama Papers
- Thousands of people protest in Whitehall calling on British Prime Minister David Cameron to resign over his financial affairs and his handling of them in relation to revelations made by the leak of the Panama Papers. (Independent)
Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro García Padilla announces he declared a state of emergency at the Commonwealth’s Government Development Bank yesterday, which allows withdrawals only to fund necessary costs for health, public safety, and education services. Without this measure and debt restructuring, the United States territory would be forced to default as it faces nearly $2.5 billion in bond payments from May through July. (AP via The Washington Post)

Sport

British horse Rule The World wins the 2016 Grand National. (BBC)
In boxing, Anthony Joshua wins the International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship defeating Charles Martin the defending champion. (The Guardian)

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April 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Ecuador earthquake of 7.8 magnitude kills dozens –
A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Ecuador has killed at least 77 people and injured more than 500, Vice-President Jorge Glas says. The quake, Ecuador’s largest since 1979, hit at 18:58 on Saturday (23:58 GMT) near the northern town of Muisne. Widespread severe damage is reported, with a bridge destroyed as far south as Guayaquil about 300km (190 miles) away. President Rafael Correa, who is flying back from a trip to Italy, has decreed a state of emergency. He said: “This is a very painful test. I ask the country to be calm and united… Let’s be strong; we will overcome this.” He added: “Roads and hospitals can be rebuilt; you cannot recover lost lives. That’s what hurts the most.” [BBC]

Army approves 22 women as infantry, armor officers –
The Army approved requests from 22 women to become the first female infantry and armor unit officers, opening leadership and ground combat positions previously only available to men. The Army said throughout the coming weeks 13 women will enter the armor branch and nine others will enter infantry as second lieutenants. They will be the first females to serve in the traditionally all-male front-line combat branches since the U.S. Department of Defense opened all combat roles in the U.S. Armed Forces to women. [UPI]

Prince rushed to hospital after emergency plane landing –
Prince has been rushed to hospital after his plane made an emergency landing.According to TMZ, the singer’s private jet was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Illinois.It happened just hours after he’d performed on stage in Atlanta. Prince was immediately taken from the plane in an ambulance and treated at a nearby hospital.He was released after a few hours. [BBC]
Prince in 2008

Video of the Day –

Stephen Hawking’s Starshot, explained

Top Twitter Trends –

Worldwide	USA
#IrritateMeIn4Words	#IrritateMeIn4Words
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#4Demands	#CaratSelcaDay
#اكثر_شي_معقدن�…	#DevRelCon

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- According to a police chief, at least 40 Taliban fighters are killed after launching an offensive against Afghan security forces to seize the strategic northern city of Kunduz while four security force personnel are also killed. (Al Jazeera)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- AMISOM soldiers kill four Somali civilians in the town of Bulla Marer, southwest of Mogadishu. The AU Mission said scared soldiers opened fire when the car the civilians were driving failed to stop at a roadblock. (BBC)
Moro conflict
- Philippine officials report four Indonesian sailors were kidnapped last night off the Philippines’ southernmost town of Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi, near Malaysia’s Sabah state. Seven gunmen in a blue speedboatattacked two Indonesian-flagged tugboats. Six other sailors, including one who was shot, were not taken by ISIL-linked Abu Sayyaf militants. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Syrian government airstrikes, and rockets from Islamist insurgents, hit many neighborhoods in Aleppo. Fatalities are reported on both sides of the city. This continued fighting threatens the truce and peace talks being held in Geneva, Switzerland. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura says he will meet the government delegation Monday, and will sit down with the main opposition High Negotiations Committee later in the week. (Reuters) (AFP via Thanh Niên)
Ethiopia claims that members of South Sudan‘s Murle people have killed 140 people and abducted 39 children. (BBC)
German police report an apparent deliberate explosion at a Sikh temple in Essen while a wedding was being celebrated, has injured three people, one in serious condition. Police say there is no indication this was a terrorist incident. (AP)

Arts and culture

The United States Army approves 22 soldiers requests to become the service’s first female infantry and armor unit officers. Thirteen women will enter the armor branch, and nine others will enter infantry assecond lieutenants. (UPI)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Kumamoto earthquakes
- A second earthquake hits southern Japan with a magnitude of 7.1 killing at least 32 people with the death toll from both earthquakes rising to 42. The new quake traps even more people. In Kumamoto a landslide occurs as well as a bridge collapse. (AFP via Yahoo! News) (AP) (AP via Yahoo! News)
- A new aftershock with a magnitude of 5.4 hits southern Kyushu island. A Japanese spokesman says 1,500 people have been injured, 80 seriously, since Thursday. (AP) (USA Today)
- Japan‘s Mount Aso in the Kumamoto Prefecture erupts sending ash about 100 meters (300 feet) into the air. The Japan Meteorological Agency kept its alert level at 2 on a scale of 5 for Aso following the eruption. It is unclear if the eruption is related to Saturday’s Kumamoto quake. (The Japan Times)
- Saturday’s earthquake forces Sony to close its plant in the Kumamoto Prefecture. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan also stop work at several plants in the region. (UPI)
A helicopter crashes near Baltimore–Washington International Airport in Baltimore, Maryland. However, no fatalities are reported. (Reuters via Euronews)
Five people are dead and five are in hospital after taking ecstasy at an Argentine version of the Time Warp Festival featuring electronic music acts. (Reuters via Yahoo!)
The death toll rises to seven from Thursday’s building collapse in the Canary Islands’ southern coastal town of Los Cristianos on the island of Tenerife. (AP)
2016 Ecuador earthquake
- A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes off the coast of Ecuador, near the town of Muisne. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issues a tsunami alert for coastal areas of Ecuador and Colombia. At least 42 people are reported dead with deaths reported in the cities of Manta, Guayaquil and Portoviejo. (BNO News), (USGS) (Reuters via NBC News), (AP via Fox News)
- A state of emergency is declared in six provinces. (BBC)
- Later, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center announces the threat has largely passed. The United States Geological Survey reports the 7.8 magnitude quake was preceded, 11 minutes earlier, by a 4.8 earthquake. Production at the 110,000 barrel-per-day Esmeraldas refinery is suspended as a precautionary measure. (The Straits Times)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Pope Francis arrives on the Greek island of Lesbos. Francis is expected to visit the Moria detention facility, where he will have lunch with some of the 3,060 men, women, and children there. (The Washington Post)
- Pope Francis offers refuge to a dozen Syrian Muslims, three families with six children, who faced deportation from Lesbos. The refugees accompanied the Pope on his return trip to Rome. (The Guardian)
Iran–European Union relations
- EU Foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini holds the highest-level talks between the EU and Iran in decades to mark a new phase in relations between the two. Both sides are keen to focus on trade, energy and the environment as possible areas of cooperation. (BBC)
The United States announces that it will transfer nine Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to Saudi Arabia. (CNN) (AP)
Russia–United States relations, Cold War II
- A United States Air Force Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted and threatened by a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Thursday (April 14), according to the United States European Command (EUCOM). (Fox News)

Law and crime

General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, Mexico‘s Secretary of National Defence, apologises for an incident in which two soldiers and a policewoman torture a woman. (AFP via France 24)

Politics and elections

Iraq’s Parliament cancels its third session in a week to discuss political reforms as some MPs dispute the legitimacy of speaker Salim al-Jabouri to chair the meeting. Also, protesters gathered in the streets ofBaghdad to protest the growing political deadlock in the country. (Al Jazeera)
Macedonian parliamentary election, 2016
- As protesters continue to take to the streets of Skopje, Macedonia, lawmakers confirmed that a snap election will take place on June 5 despite the protesters being angry at President Gjorge Ivanov’sdecision to halt investigations into more than 50 public figures, including top politicians embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal. Zoran Zaev, the main opposition leader, vowed to boycott the election. (The Guardian)
Veteran President of the Republic of the Congo Denis Sassou Nguesso is sworn in for another term after a contentious election. (AFP via Daily Mail)

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April 19, 2016

Top News Stories –

Liking mornings linked to being stupid –
People who are upbeat in the morning have extremely low intelligence, it has been confirmed. Researchers at the Institute for Studies found that self-styled ‘morning people’ have IQ levels below that of most people and even some animals. Professor Henry Brubaker said: “People who jump eagerly out of bed to begin their ‘morning rituals’ have the simplistic upbeat mentality that comes from a general lack of awareness. Labradors are also like that. “Their only evolutionary purpose is to clatter around in the kitchen making smoothies, annoying the more intelligent humans so much that they are forced to crawl grudgingly out of bed and start doing the things that are truly necessary to society. “‘Morning people’ love poor quality cheerful art like ‘beach grooves’ compilation CDs and films about street dancers succeeding against the odds. They’re nice. They just aren’t very bright.” [Daily Mash]

Video of the Day –

Giant Pictionary Team Battle | Dude Perfect

Top Twitter Trends –

Worldwide	USA
#DanielPadillaBenteUno	#DanielPadillaBenteUno
#TerçaComOClubeSDV	#TerçaComOClubeSDV
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#PrimaryDay	#PrimaryDay
#WhenIWas	#WhenIWas
#LaPatriaNoSeRinde	#LaPatriaNoSeRinde
#AklımdaykenSöyleyeyim	#AklımdaykenSöyleyeyim
#ForaInternetLimitada	#ForaInternetLimitada
#이글을_본사람_모��…	#이글을_본사람_모��…
#RecuerdoQue	#RecuerdoQue

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Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan
- April 2016 Kabul attack
  - A large explosion is reported in the Afghan capital Kabul a week after the Taliban declared the start of their annual spring offensive. The target was an Afghan government security compound with at least 28 people reported killed and more than 200 others injured. (Times of India), (AP via Fox News)
  - The United Nations Security Council condemns today’s attack in Kabul by the Taliban. (AP via The Washington Post)
War in North-West Pakistan
- A suicide bomber explodes his vest next to a government building in Mardan, Pakistan, killing one person and critically wounding three more. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Iraqi Civil War
- Iraqi officials, following arrested IS militants’ directions, uncover two mass graves with bodies of about 40 people in Ramadi. (AP via Fox News)
Syrian Civil War
- Airstrikes that were likely carried out by Syrian government forces kill around 40 people in a crowded market in rebel territory in Syria‘s Idlib Governorate. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Ecuador earthquake
- The death toll from Saturday’s earthquake has risen to at least 480 with 1,700 missing. Another 2,500 have been injured. President Rafael Correa states it is the worst disaster in Ecuador in seven decades, and the reconstruction will have a “huge economic impact” on the country. (BBC) (CBS News)

International relations

Sweden–United States relations
- Swedish deputy prime minister Åsa Romson is criticized after referring to the September 11 attacks in New York as mere “accidents”. Romson made the comments on public television while discussing the resignation of housing minister Mehmet Kaplan who had compared Israel’s treatment of Arabs to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. (Daily Mail) (The Local)
Cross-Strait relations
- Under pressure from the Chinese delegation, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters ejects the Taiwanese delegation from a symposium of the OECD Steel Committee; it was the first such incident since Taiwan joined the OECD Steel Committee in 2005. (Focus Taiwan) (AP via Daily Mail) (AFP via The Daily Star)
The European Union offers to help the fledgling new UN-backed Libyan unity government with assistance in its security sector, managing migration, border management and police capacity building. This comes after Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj appealed to foreign governments for help in fighting ISIL and aid to rebuild the country. (The Guardian)
India–United Kingdom relations
- In response to an ongoing Supreme Court case regarding the ownership of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, the government of India said it should not try to reclaim it from the United Kingdom. The government argues that the diamond was given to the British as a gift and was not stolen. However, the Supreme Court says it will continue with the case. (BBC)

Law and crime

Authorities in China sentence Huang Yu, a computer technician from Sichuan who worked for a government department which handled state secrets, to death for leaking more than 150,000 classified documents to an unidentified foreign power. The documents in question covered secrets ranging from the ruling Communist Party to military and financial issues. (The Guardian)
Lutz Bachmann, the leader of the German far-right and anti-Islam Pegida movement, goes on trial in Dresden on charges of hate speech. (BBC)
Transgender rights in the United States
- An American federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, rules a transgender high school student who was banned from the boy’s bathroom can proceed with the lawsuit against the school board.(Richmond Times-Dispatch)
- Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a statement that North Carolina House Bill 2, a so-called bathroom bill, “…jeopardizes not only the dignity, but also the actual physical safety, of transgender people.” (The Washington Post)
Kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir
- A Jerusalem district court rejects an insanity plea and convicts Yosef Chaim Ben-David as the ringleader of the terrorist kidnapping and murder of the 16-year-old Palestinian. In November, the court convicted Ben-David’s two accomplices, both minors, of murder. (Haaretz) (Al Bawaba)
While South Korea prepares for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Associated Press reports the country has covered up widespread human rights violations, including rapes and murders, when it swept so-called vagrants off the streets in the years prior to the 1988 Games in Seoul. Thousands of victims have received no compensation, nor public recognition nor an apology. The AP says two early attempts to investigate were suppressed by senior officials and the current government refuses to revisit the case and is blocking a push by an opposition lawmaker. (AP)
Flint water crisis
- According to government officials, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette tomorrow will announce criminal charges against two state regulators and a Flint employee in connection with the city’s lead-tainted water crisis. (AP via Fox News)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016, Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016
  - Voters in the U.S. state of New York go to the polls for a primary election with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump expected to win the respective contests for their parties in that state. (Reuters via The Star)
  - Donald Trump wins by a large margin in the Republican Party primary. (AP via OregonLive)
  - Hillary Clinton gains a decisive win (57.6 percent to 42.4 percent) over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primary. (New York Times) (Five Thirty Eight) (The Washington Post)
Philippine presidential election, 2016
- Rodrigo Duterte apologizes for making remarks about rape. (Rappler)
The government of the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island announces it is going to take its governance issue to the United Nations. Former and final Chief Minister of the island Lisle Snell said he seeks to have Norfolk Island added on the UN’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories and be given the rights that are accorded under the terms and conditions of being on the list. In 2015, the Australian government terminated Norfolk Island’s self-governing status in response to serious financial issues but without the islanders’ or government’s consent. (Radio New Zealand)
Princess Sofia of Sweden and Prince Carl Philip announce birth of first son. (Daily Mail)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

April 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

William Shakespeare 400: Prince Charles takes to stage to speak Bard’s most famous line –
Prince Charles bravely went up against Britain’s finest actors to make his acting debut with what is possibly Shakespeare’s most famous line. The Prince of Wales became the Prince of Denmark as he joined acting royalty on stage to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, uttering: “To be or not to be. That is the question.” Charles made a shock appearance as Hamlet alongside Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant in a star-studded televised gala performance in the Bard’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. Charles, who had been watching Shakespeare Live! at the town’s riverside Royal Shakespeare Theatre show with the Duchess of Cornwall, was heard to speak from the wings, asking: “Might I have a word … ” Then followed the opening lines to what is one of Shakespeare’s best-known soliloquies: “To be or not to be, that is the question.” [Daily Mirror]

Manager at exotic pet shop paid a prostitute with a MONKEY worth $2,500 that he swiped from the store owned by his wife –
An Oregon man was arrested after he allegedly tipped a prostitute with an exotic monkey, valued at $2,500, that he took from his own pet store. Nathan Allen McClain, 36, is accused of tipping a prostitute with an exotic primate and paying her with money from the Zany Zoo Pet Store fund, which included a donation jar with money, in exchange for a sexual encounter, according to Eugene detectives. The unidentified woman, who police tracked down at a local hotel, had the Galago primate in her possession and told authorities she received it as a tip from a client, whom she identified as McClain. The woman was cooperative, and provided a statement to detectives, along with the animal. [Daily Mail]

Video of the Day –

BALANCE from Tim Sessler on Vimeo.

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	Worldwide	USA
1	#ProjectHome	#Shakespeare400
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8	#SoyFelizCuando	#EnglishStereotypeAMovie
9	#23NisanUlusalEgemenlikBay…	#ThunderOverLouisville
10	#GetItDoneDLSU	Stone Mountain

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- The Pakistani Taliban claims the killing of a Sikh lawmaker, Soran Singh. (The New York Times)
Syrian Civil War
- ISIL claims to have shot down a Syrian Arab Air Force MiG-23, southeast of Damascus, and captured its pilot. Amaq News Agency, which supports ISIL, gave the pilot’s name as Azzam Eid, from Hama. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it was not clear whether the plane had been shot down or crashed because of mechanical failure. (Daily Mail) (Times of Israel)
- Syrian government airstrikes kill 25 people, mostly civilians, in attacks on rebel-held areas near the capital Damascus. (NY Times)
Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
- Yemeni government forces along with Popular Resistance militia kill dozens of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in clashes in southern Yemen. A drone strike kills two others further north, nearMa’rib. (Reuters)
Iraqi Civil War
- Two separate car bombs kill at least 12 people in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the blast at the security checkpoint in a northern district that killed nine and injured 28 others. Three people are killed and 11 injured at the second bombing in southern Baghdad that targeted an army convoy; no group has claimed responsibility. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

The continuing influence of English dramatist William Shakespeare is celebrated on the 400th anniversary of his death in Stratford-upon-Avon. (Time)
Spain commemorates the 400th anniversary of the death of its most famous author Miguel de Cervantes. (AFP via France 24)

Disasters and accidents

2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- Samoan authorities prepared for Severe Tropical Cyclone Amos which is forecast to make landfall later tonight. (Weather Zone)
A Russian oil tanker catches fire in the Caspian Sea, killing at least one crew member. A total of 10 crew members were evacuated from the ship, which was in the territorial waters of Turkmenistan when the fire broke out. It was unclear what caused the blaze. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
2016 Ecuador earthquake
- The death toll from the earthquake passes 650 with over 50 people missing. It is now the deadliest earthquake in South America this century. (AP via ABC News)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- North Korea is reported to have launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile for the first time. (Reuters)
Russia–United States relations
- President of Russia Vladimir Putin accuses the United States of reneging on a 16-year-old deal that called for reducing Russia’s and the United States’ stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium. He accusedWashington of trying to preserve its ability to turn some of its plutonium stockpile back into a form usable for nuclear weapons. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Syrian peace process
- Reuters reports the Friday afternoon truce between Kurdish Asayish forces and pro-Syrian government forces, declared following a three-day outbreak of violence that killed at least 26 people, is holding.(Reuters)
European migrant crisis
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans meet with Syrian refugees at a camp in the southeasternTurkish town of Nizip prior to talks with a delegation led by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Davutoğlu stresses the importance of implementation of European Union visa liberalization for Turkish citizens in assuring the success of Europe’s migrant readmission agreement with his country. Tusk announces that the EU will spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) this summer on projects to improve the lives of Syrian migrants. (Hürriyet Daily News) (Reuters) (Journal of Turkish Weekly)
North Korea-United States relations
- Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong says North Korea is ready to halt nuclear tests if the United States suspends its annual military exercises with South Korea. (AP via Time)

Law and crime

Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
- Professor Rezaul Karim Siddique is killed in the Bangladeshi city of Rajshahi in an ISIL attack. (Hindustan Times) (AFP via Yahoo!)
Böhmermann affair
- During a rally in support of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, outside the Turkish embassy in Berlin, Bruno Kramm, head of the Berlin branch of Germany’s Pirate Party, is arrested for “insulting a representative of a foreign state” by quoting a line from the comic’s satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (RT)
Panama Papers
- Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif bows to opposition demands that he ask Pakistan’s chief justice to set up an independent commission to investigate offshore accounts linked to his family. Sharif said he would accept the commission’s findings and even resign if called upon. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- European Union finance ministers approve a series of measures to tackle tax-evading methods that were exposed by the Panama Papers. (The Guardian)
United States Federal agents are combing three states for 32 cases of commercial grade explosives, about 500 pounds of 2½ to 5 inch aerial shells, stolen from a CSX train traveling from Chicago, Illinois, through Ohio that arrived in Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday. (CBS News) (Detroit Free Press)

Politics and elections

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- Human rights activists, lawyers, labor rights groups and other advocates endorse Leni Robredo for vice president. (Rappler)
South Sudanese Civil War
- Rebel leader Riek Machar misses an international deadline to return to the capital Juba to take the post of Vice President. Machar was offered the position by President Salva Kiir Mayardit in the hopes of putting an end to the civil war but has repeatedly delayed his return. (Al Jazeera)
Thousands of people protest in the German city of Hanover against the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal. They say the deal would drive down wages, and weaken environmental protection and labour rights. (BBC)
Darfurian status referendum, 2016
- According to the Sudanese electoral commission, more than 97% of voters in Darfur choose to remain as five states rather than form a single region. However, The vote was held amid ongoing insecurity and many of Sudan’s 2.5 million displaced people were not registered to vote, with the U.S. State Department warning that the referendum could not be considered credible “under current rules and conditions”. (BBC)
Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso names former opposition leader Clément Mouamba as prime minister. (Reuters)

Science and Technology

Solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 lands in Mountain View, California after a 62-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii. (NBC News) (BBC)

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April 27, 2016

Top News Stories –

Facebook profits up almost 200% to $1.51 billion –
Facebook has revealed stronger-than-expected results for its first quarter, helped by a growing number of users and higher advertising revenue. The social network reported earnings of $1.51 billion, or 52 cents per share, up from $512 million, or 18 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier, and over 1.65 billion users now use the social network, with the average users visiting for 15 minutes a day. The results are in stark contrast to Apple and Twitter, who posted poor results yesterday, with Apple shares falling 7% today. Separately, Facebook also announced that it will create a new class of non-voting stock, known as ‘Class C capital stock,’ designated to let CEO Mark Zuckerberg keep tight reins on the company even as it issues more shares to compensate employees and investors. [Daily Mail]
Mark Zuckerberg

Video of the Day –

Reebok 25,915 Days

Top Twitter Trends –

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Moro conflict
- Philippine president Benigno Aquino III says that the Abu Sayyaf militants plan to kidnap his sister actress Kris Aquino and boxer Manny Pacquiao. (CBS)
2016 Bursa bombing
- A suicide bomber blows herself up in the Turkish city of Bursa, injuring at least seven people. (AP via The Washington Post)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Israeli forces kill two Palestinian assailants at a checkpoint in the West Bank. (Reuters)
2016 Cape Verde army mutiny
- Cape Verdean police capture a suspect in the murder of 11 soldiers. (AFP)
2016 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes
- According to officials from the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, one of their soldiers was killed overnight by Azerbaijani troops. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
War in Donbass
- Representatives of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine say at least five civilians are killed by artillery fire at a checkpoint in the town of Olenivka, with another 10 injured.Kiev denies the accusation. A local border-guard spokesman says there was an explosion at the checkpoint but he saw no artillery fired from either side, suggesting the blast could have been a bomb.(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
War in Afghanistan
- The U.S. military warns that the Kabul Attack Network, comprised of fighters from various jihadist groups such as the Taliban and Haqqani networks, is planning attacks on people in the Parwan, Khost,Kabul, and Logar Provinces, Afghanistan, and asks for information from the Afghan public. (The Long War Journal)

Arts and culture

Archaeologists in Taiwan discover 48 sets of remains unearthed in graves in Taichung. The most striking discovery among them is the 4,800-year-old skeleton of a mother looking down at a child cradled in her arms. (The Guardian)
The German cities of Augsburg and Cologne are testing a scheme of traffic lights embedded in the ground to reduce cell phone-texting pedestrian accidents with vehicles that happen when so-called “smombies” step out into the street against the signal. (The Christian Science Monitor) (Autoblog)

Business and economy

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Philippine peso sinks to become the “worst performing currency in Asia” as a result of a volatile and unpredictable presidential election. (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

Heavy rain pelts earthquake-hit Ecuador causing floods, mostly in the town of Alluriquin in the Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas Province, killing at least four people and injuring several more. About 300 people have been affected by the floods after a local river burst its banks, engulfing the town with water. (Al Jazeera)

Health and medicine

In the United Kingdom, the Royal College of Physicians reports e-cigarettes are “much safer” than tobacco smoking, and should be widely promoted as an option for smoking cessation. (BBC) (Daily Mail)

International relations

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O’Neill states that the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre will be closed following the ruling of the Supreme Court and that he will ask the Australian Government to make alternative arrangements for the asylum seekers detained there. (ABC News)
Libyan Civil War
- The unrecognized House of Representatives, one of the rival governments based in eastern Libya, ships its first cargo of crude oil in defiance of the U.N.-backed authorities in the capital Tripoli in a move that could deepen divisions within the country. The Tripoli-based government asked the United Nations Security Council yesterday to blacklist the tanker. (The Guardian)
European migrant crisis
- The government of Austria passes a new law that restricts the right of asylum in the country and allows claimants to be rejected directly at the border, a move criticized by rights groups. Officials say they are also considering building a fence at the main border crossing with Italy at the Brenner Pass. (BBC)
Taliban insurgency
- The Taliban’s Qatar office confirms its leaders are in Pakistan to talk about Afghan refugees and the release of prisoners. The representative did not say if the delegation will discuss the peace process.(The Nation PK) (Pakistan Today)
United Nations Security Council members are considering a draft resolution that would restore the UN mission in Western Sahara to full functionality. Last month, Morocco expelled 75 UN staffers. (AFP via GlobalPost)
Iraqi Civil War
- Senior Kurdish and Shi’ite Muslim leaders agree to withdraw from Tuz Khurmato, Iraq, where recent violence has killed more than 10 people. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Two days before the one-year anniversary of the execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the ringleaders of the Bali Nine, member Michael Czugaj is discovered to be in possession of drugs in prison. (SBS)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- Belgian prosecutors hand over Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the November 2015 Paris attacks, to French authorities. (Washington Post)
Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Dennis Hastert is sentenced to 15 months in prison for breaking banking laws in order to make payments to cover sexual misconduct from past decades. (Wall Street Journal)
Iraqi authorities ban Qatar-based satellite television network Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the country and closes its offices in Baghdad, accusing it of violating government guidelines issued in 2014 to regulate media “during the war on terror”. (Reuters)
Censorship in Iran
- Iran sentences four reformist newspaper journalists to long prison terms for so-called national security crimes. Analysts say this case indicates that President Hassan Rouhani’s calls for press freedoms will likey face an unsympathetic hearing from Iran’s conservative judiciary. (UPI)

Politics and elections

An Iranian asylum seeker self-immolates himself in Nauru to protest Australia’s treatment of refugees. The protest coincides with a visit by representatives from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the island. Instead of admitting refugees into the country, Australia has been sending them to Nauru or Papua New Guinea. (Radio New Zealand)
The government of North Korea announces its ruling Workers’ Party of Korea will hold a party congress on May 6, the first in nearly 40 years. (BBC)
United States presidential election, 2016, Ted Cruz presidential campaign, 2016
- Texas Senator Ted Cruz names former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina as his vice-presidential running mate. (CNN)
Bradford West MP Naz Shah is suspended from the opposition Labour Party over comments she made on Facebook about Israel. (BBC)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office confirms German Federal Intelligence Service President Gerhard Schindler will be replaced by Bruno Kahl. Schindler has been widely criticized following the disclosure his agency spied for the U.S. National Security Agency. (BBC)

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April 30, 2016

Top News Stories –

Russia challenges US after Baltic jet face-off –
Russia says it was right to confront a US Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea on Friday. The Pentagon said a Russian jet fighter acted in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner”, and performed a barrel roll over its plane. Russia said that the American jet had turned off its transponder signal, which helps others identify it. It is the second incident in the Baltic this month in which the US has accused Russian planes of flying aggressively. US jets “regularly” try to approach Russia’s borders with transponders switched off, the statement said. Over the past 18 months, Russia has been repeatedly accused of the same practice over the Baltic and near UK waters. It is not clear how close to Russia’s waters Friday’s incident occurred. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life | Danielle Feinberg

Top Twitter Trends –

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- April 2016 Baghdad bombing
  - A car bombing in southeastern Baghdad kills at least 19 and injures nearly 50 Shi’ite pilgrims. ISIL has claimed responsibility. (AP) (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that twenty air strikes have hit the northern areas of Aleppo. Bombardments by both sides have killed nearly 250 people since April 22. (Reuters)
Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
- A Hindu man is hacked to death in Tangail district. He is alleged to have made comments against Prophet Muhammad. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attack. (Washington Post) (Reuters)

Arts and culture

Sweden celebrates the 70th birthday of their King Carl XVI Gustaf, whose celebration was attended by fellow European royals, including Denmark’s Margrethe II, former King of Spain Juan Carlos I and formerQueen of the Netherlands Beatrix. (Euronews)

Disasters and accidents

A heatwave in India has claimed 300 lives in April with daytime cooking banned in some parts of the country to prevent fires which have claimed an additional 80 lives. (AP)
2016 Kenya floods
- Search and rescue efforts continue in Nairobi after the collapse of a building yesterday. Kenyan police have confirmed seven deaths so far. (AP via Daily Mail)
- The death toll from the Kenya floods including the Nairobi building collapse rises to fourteen. (Capital FM)
A three-storey building collapses in the Indian city of Mumbai, resulting in six deaths and trapping many others. (Times of India)
At least five people are killed by floods in the U.S. state of Texas. (FOX News)
A mosque under refurbishment in Mogadishu, Somalia, collapses, killing at least 15 people and injuring around 40. Hundreds more are thought to be buried under the rubble. (BBC)
European migrant crisis
- According to survivors, at least 70 migrants are missing after their dinghy sank off the coast of Libya. 26 people were rescued by the Italian coast guard. (BBC)
Five people are killed in a military plane crash in Sudan. (Reuters)

International relations

China denies a Hong Kong port call by the U.S. Carrier Strike Group 3, which includes the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) and accompanying vessels. (CNN) (AP via USA Today)
Destruction of ivory
- Kenya burns 105 tonnes of elephant ivory and 1.05 tonnes of rhinoceros horn in order to call for a total ban on the ivory trade. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
According to the United States Department of Defense, an airstrike that hit a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last October did not amount to a war crime because the airstrike was “unintentional” and that those involved would face suspension but not criminal charges. In response to the briefing, a president of the organization which operated the hospital described it as “an admission of an uncontrolled military operation in a densely populated urban area, during which US forces failed to follow the basic laws of war.” (BBC)
Russia-United States relations
- Russia says it intercepted a U.S. Air Force plane approaching its border over the Baltic Sea on Friday because the aircraft had turned off its transponder which is needed for identification. The Pentagon says the U.S. RC-135 was flying a routine route in international airspace when the Russian SU-27 fighter intercepted it in an “unsafe and unprofessional” way. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Police in Stuttgart, Germany, arrest at least 400 left-wing demonstrators after they attempted to stop a conference by the Alternative for Germany from being held. The protest grew violent when they began to throw stones and use fireworks against the police. (The Guardian)
Egypt tries 237 activists, who face jail terms of up to three years, arrested for protesting without permits against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Thousands demonstrated this month following the Sisi government’s decision to hand over two uninhabited islands in the Straits of Tiran to Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch says at least 382 had been arrested. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The influential Christian sect Iglesia ni Cristo endorses Grace Poe for president and Bongbong Marcos for vice president. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Serbian parliamentary election, 2016
- Roughly 2,000 people protest in Belgrade against alleged fraud in the country’s recent election. The protesters accuse Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić of manipulating the results in order to prevent the far-right Dveri party from reaching the 5-percent threshold and gaining seats in the National Assembly. A repeat vote is expected on May 4 in locations where voting irregularities have been found. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
2015–16 Iraqi protests
- Iraqi officials declare a state of emergency for all of Baghdad after protesters loyal to popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed into Iraq’s parliament in the Green Zone. (The News Hub) (NBC News) (Washington Post)

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May 1, 2016

Top News Stories –

Malia Obama: US president’s daughter to go to Harvard –
US President Barack Obama’s eldest daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in 2017, after taking a year off following her high school graduation, the White House says. “Malia will take a gap year before beginning school,” a White House statement said. The 17-year-old will be following in the footsteps of her parents, both of whom went to Harvard Law School. Her choice of university has been a subject of much speculation. Malia is the eldest of the Obamas’ two daughters. She and her sister Sasha, 15, attend the Sidwell Friends, a prestigious local private school. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Homemade Hoverbike

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Turkey–ISIL conflict, Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- 2016 Gaziantep bombing
  - A blast hits a police station in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep leaving one officer dead and 13 injured. (BBC) (CNN)
  - Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is suspected to be behind attack. (Reuters)
Kurdish–Turkish conflict
- Three Turkish soldiers are killed and 14 others wounded in an armed attack by Kurdish militants during a military operation in the town of Nusaybin, Turkey. (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War
- Houthi rebels capture the Umaliqa military base in ‘Amran Governorate, endangering a shaky ceasefire. (Reuters)
Iraqi Civil War
- Two car bombs kill at least 32 people and wounded 75 others in Samawa, Iraq. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for the attack. (Reuters)
Moro conflict
- Abu Sayyaf militants release 10 Indonesians the group had kidnapped from their tugboat and barge on March 28. (Jakarta Globe)

Business and economics

Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc., the second- and third-largest oilfield service firms, announce the cancellation of their $28 billion merger which has faced opposition from U.S. and European antitrust regulators. Halliburton will reportedly have to pay Baker Hughes a $3.5 billion termination fee if the deal is called off. (Bloomberg) (Reuters), (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

Disasters and accidents

The historic Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava in New York City is almost completely destroyed in a massive four-alarm fire. (ABC)
In the United States, 14 of 175 cars of a CSX freight train derail in northeastern Washington, D.C., near a city subway station. There were three leaks; one, sodium hydroxide, is a hazardous material. All leaks, and a nearby gas line that was ruptured, are contained. Officials are unable to say when cleanup will be completed nor when train service will be restored. There were no injuries reported, and there was no residential evacuation. Amtrak and a Baltimore-Washington commuter rail service also use the line. (WRC-TV) (Daily Mail) (The Washington Post)
Kenya flooding
- Kenyan authorities say the death toll from Friday’s collapsed eight-story residential building in Nairobi has risen to 20, with 73 people missing. Rescuers continue searching for survivors. The building had been declared unfit for human habitation by the country’s National Construction Authority, but remained standing. Note: the building was originally reported as six stories; flooding had sunk the ground and first floors. (AP)
In Punjab, Pakistan, the death toll has risen from 13 to 33 for people who has eaten sweets, accidentally tainted with insecticide. The mass poisoning occurred in April. (Daily Times)

International relations

Libyan Civil War
- An oil tanker, sent from Eastern Libya by a rival to the internationally recognized Government of National Accord, returns with its cargo to the refinery at Zawiya in western Libya. The United Nations blacklisted the shipment on Wednesday. (Bloomberg)
Cuba-United States relations, United States–Cuban thaw
- The first cruise ship in more than a half-century bound for Havana from the United States leaves Miami, Florida, at about 4:24 p.m. EDT. Carnival Cruise Line’s 704-passenger Adonia was able to set sail for the northern Caribbean country after Cuba, on April 22, loosened its policy banning Cuban-born people from traveling to the country by sea. (AP)

Politics and elections

Philippine general election, 2016 CPP–NPA–NDF rebellion
- Jose Maria Sison, who is the leader of the guerrilla Communist Party of the Philippines, says that the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte is “good for national unity.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Thousands are set for May Day demonstrations across the United States for immigrant and worker rights, and for civility in presidential campaign rhetoric. Organizers and authorities in California are urging participants to remain calm, given the violence this week connected with Presidential campaign protests. (AP via The Washington Post) (KPCC)
2015–16 Iraqi protests
- Protesters demanding political reform leave Baghdad’s Green Zone after camping for 24 hours in the heavily fortified government district. These activists, followers of Shi’ite Muslim cleric Muqtadā al-Ṣadr, support Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s anti-corruption proposals to replace party-affiliated ministers with technocrats. A grid-locked parliament has been unable to act on these changes. (Reuters)
Puerto Rican government-debt crisis
- Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla says the Commonwealth will default on a $422 million bond payment due Monday. García Padilla says debt payments have been suspended in order to pay for essential services for the 3.5 million American citizens. Congress has been unable to pass a debt restructuring bill for Puerto Rico. (AP via CBS News) (Bloomberg)
Freedom of the press
- Egyptian police raid the headquarters of the journalists’ association in Cairo, and arrest two journalists with the opposition website Bawabet Yanayer, editor Amr Badr and reporter Mahmud el-Sakka, for alleged incitement to protest in violation of the law. (Daily Mail) (Reuters)

Sports

2015–16 A-League
- Adelaide United win their first A-League championship beating the Western Sydney Wanderers 3–1 in the Grand Final at the Adelaide Oval. (Daily Telegraph)

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May 4, 2016

Top News Stories –

Instagram hacked by 10-year-old boy –
A 10-year-old Finnish boy named Jani has been given $10,000 (£7,000) after he found a security flaw in image-sharing social network Instagram. The boy, who technically is not allowed to even join the site for another three years, discovered a bug that allowed him to delete comments made by other users. The issue was “quickly” fixed after being discovered, said Facebook, which owns Instagram. Jani was paid soon after – making him the youngest ever recipient of the firm’s “bug bounty” prize. After discovering the flaw in February, he emailed Facebook. Security engineers at the company set up a test account for Jani to prove his theory – which he did. The boy, from Helsinki, told Finnish newspaper Iltalehti he planned to use the money to buy a new bike, football equipment and computers for his brothers. Facebook told the BBC it had paid $4.3m to bug bounty recipients since 2011. [BBC]

Apple loses trademark fight over ‘iPhone’ name in China –
Apple has lost a trademark fight in China, meaning a firm which sells handbags and other leather goods can continue to use the name “IPHONE”. The Beijing Municipal High People’s Court ruled in favour of Xintong Tiandi Technology, said the official Legal Daily newspaper. Xintong Tiandi trademarked “IPHONE” for leather products in China in 2010. Apple filed a trademark bid for the name for electronic goods in 2002, but it was not approved until 2013. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

7 Tips To Wake Up Without Coffee – ASAP Science

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Moro conflict
- The Abu Sayyaf militant group threatens to behead a Canadian hostage, a Filipina hostage, and a Norwegian hostage. (The Guardian)
Syrian Civil War
- Dozens of people have died in heavy fighting between Syrian government and opposition forces in the western Aleppo Governorate. (Reuters)
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- Suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants launch a car bomb attack on a military installation in Turkey, killing one soldier; Turkey’s army destroyes PKK targets in air strikes and kills more than 20. (Reuters)
Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
- Assailants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed with machetes hacked at least 16 civilians to death in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. (FOX News) (Leadership)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Hamas says it has reached a truce with the Israeli military following hostilities today along the Gaza–Israel border. There were no casualties. (The Jerusalem Post) (Reuters)

Business and economy

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Philippine stock market continues to fall for the fifth straight day due to fears about the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte. He continues to lead in opinion polls. (The Philippine Star), (Rappler)
British publisher Trinity Mirror announces that its daily newspaper, The New Day, will close after just two months since its launch, after sales fell to around 30,000 copies per day. The last edition will be printed on May 6. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Fort McMurray wildfire
- Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the wildfire has destroyed about 1,600 structures in Fort McMurray, which is in Canada’s oil sands region. No major oil sands facilities are in the fire’s path, though twoRoyal Dutch Shell mines are closing, and a Suncor Energy facility is reducing crude production. The fire is threatening the Alberta Highway 63 bridge across the Athabasca River, the sole route south. TheCanadian Red Cross is encouraging people to donate funds rather than clothing. (Reuters) (USA Today) (Métro)
At least 13 people are killed and 53 injured after a bus skids off a bridge while travelling between India‘s Jharkhand state to Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh state. (AFP via Daily Mail)

International relations

European migrant crisis, EU-Turkey relations
- The European Union proposes visa-free travel for Turkish citizens within Europe’s Schengen Area and invites member states and EU lawmakers to endorse the move by June 30. The EU says Turkey has met all but five of the 72 criteria included in the agreement in exchange for its efforts to stop asylum seekers from reaching Europe. This visa deal also needs approval from the European Parliament.(AP) (UPI)

Law and crime

North Carolina Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act
- The U.S. Justice Department notifies North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory that the state’s new law which limits restroom access for transgender people violates the U.S. Civil Rights Act, and asks for a response by May 9 whether the state will correct “these violations of Title VII.” The Governor’s statement in response does not specifically say what the state will do. (Reuters) (CNN)

Politics and elections

The Nepalese Maoist Party says that they will withdraw support from Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli and form a new government. (Reuters)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Ohio Governor John Kasich suspends his campaign. He was the last Republican Party challenger to Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination. (VICE)(CNN)

Science and technology

IBM allows the public to access a five-qubit quantum computer its researchers have developed in Yorktown Heights, New York. (Wired)

Sport

2015–16 UEFA Champions League
- Real Madrid beat Manchester City 1–0 to set-up a UEFA Champions League Final against city rivals Atlético Madrid on May 28, in Milan, Italy. It will be a repeat of the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final.(UEFA Champions League)

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May 5, 2016

Top News Stories –

Tunisian mobile gamers win a cow –
A couple in Tunisia have walked away with an unusual prize – a cow – after they recorded the top score in a locally developed mobile phone game, it’s reported.
Pamela the cow spent two weeks at the game developer’s headquarters in Tunis before being awarded to the unnamed couple at the beginning of May, the Tuniscope news website says.
The pair triumphed in a strategy game called Bagra – literally “cow” – which consists of keeping a herd of cows and preventing other players from stealing them, while trying to pinch as many as possible from other herds. [BBC]

Canadian wildfire edges south, leaves thousands stranded –
The 88,000 residents who fled a wildfire that has ravaged the Canadian oil town of Fort McMurray in Alberta will not be able to return home anytime soon, officials warned on Thursday, even as the inferno edged slowly south. The out-of-control blaze has consumed entire neighborhoods of Fort McMurray in Canada’s energy heartland and officials warn its spread now threatens two oil sands sites south of the city. The wildfire has already forced precautionary production cuts or shutdowns at about a dozen major facilities, eating into a global crude surplus and supporting oil prices this week. [Reuters] See Video of the Day

Facebook Live tab is now on the Android app –
It’s taken a month, but the Live tab on Facebook has now started appearing for Android app users. Back in April, the social network announced that video was going to be even more of priority for the company, with users being offered a dedicated page to find live streams. Android users are starting to see the Live tab in the centre of the screen, pushing out Messenger from its spot. Clicking on the Live option brings up a scrolling stream of video.Anyone watching the feed can then react and comment in real time. [BBC Newsbeat]

Video of the Day –

Fire ‘rains’ down in Fort McMurray neighbourhood during escape

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and atttacks

Syrian Civil War
- At least 12 people are killed and many are wounded in twin blasts in central Syria. (USA Today)
- Airstrikes on a camp for war refugees in Syria near the Syria–Turkey border kills 28 people, including women and children. (Reuters) (BBC)
Terrorism in Saudi Arabia
- Saudi security forces shoot dead two alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants while two others blew themselves up near Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
Gaza–Israel conflict
- A Palestinian woman is killed and another person is injured in the Gaza Strip by tank fire from Israel. Israel said it responded to mortar rounds and the discovery of another tunnel by Hamas. (BBC) (The Times of Israel)

Business and economy

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Philippine peso fell 0.3% continuing its drop three weeks in a row. (Bloomberg)
- The stock exchange in Manila slid 1.2%, set for its lowest close in two months, before Monday’s presidential elections. (Bloomberg) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2016 Fort McMurray wildfire
- The western Canadian province of Alberta declares a state of emergency as devastating wildfires, fed by unseasonably hot temperatures and dry conditions, grow to five times their initial size. The mandatory evacuation order expands to include the communities of Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation, forcing thousands who had just resettled to move again. (CTV) (USA Today) (Reuters)
- Since the fire has intermittently blocked the only route south toward Alberta’s major cities, evacuees have had to go north toward oil camps and a few small settlements. The province has airlifted 4,000 people to Edmonton and Calgary as of late Thursday. Roughly 20 percent of Canada’s crude oil production, around 680,000 barrels per day, is offline and is expected to increase. There are no known casualties from the fire, which today has grown to 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares), but fatalities are reported in at least one vehicle crash along the evacuation route. (Daily Mail)
- Reuters reports that Alberta Province, which projects a C$10 billion deficit this fiscal year as the prolonged slump in oil prices has reduced tax revenue, last month cut funding for wildfire prevention, including millions for programs created in response to the province’s Slave Lake wildfire in 2011, which destroyed more than 300 homes. (Reuters via Voice of America)
At least 12 people are killed and 30 others injured after a bus plunges into a ravine in Bolivia‘s eastern Santa Cruz province. (Agencia EFE)

International relations

Spain–United Kingdom relations, Disputed status of Gibraltar
- The Royal Navy‘s HMS Sabre fires warning shots at a Spanish Guardia Civil vessel after it twice attempted to cut across the path of United States Navy submarine USS Florida during an incursion intoGibraltar‘s territorial waters. Gibraltar officials say Spanish vessels regularly stray deep into its territorial waters and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has attacked the incursions as provocative. (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

Operation Car Wash, Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
- Acting on a request from Brazil’s top prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki suspends President of the Deputies Chamber Eduardo Cunha for obstructing the Petrobras corruption investigation. The full court confirms this action, Cunha is eliminated from the line of succession to President Dilma Rousseff, who may be suspended from office next week. (Reuters) (Globo)
Colorado Springs, Colorado, agrees to pay people who were sent to jail because they couldn’t afford to pay fines for minor offenses like panhandling and jaywalking. The city will pay $125 for each day the person spent behind bars, an estimated total of $103,000 for the 66 people identified. In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people cannot be jailed if they do not have the money to pay. (AP via The Washington Post) (The Colorado Independent)
California court finds “Grim Sleeper” serial killer guilty. (The Los Angeles Times)
Hackers attack millions of users of Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail, forcing users to make password changes. (Forbes)

Politics and elections

Justice and Development Party leadership election, 2016
- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announces his resignation effective 22 May amid conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Davutoğlu said he would step down following an extraordinary meeting of AKP party leaders scheduled for May 22. (The New York Times) (The Guardian)
Philippine general election, 2016
- Philippine candidate Grace Poe denies she will give way in favor of administration bet Mar Roxas (Rappler)
- Philippine senator and former coup plotter Antonio Trillanes warns that a coup d’etat may occur if Rodrigo Duterte wins the presidential elections. (ABC Online), (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- The sect Iglesia ni Cristo conducts a “silent war” against the senatorial candidacy of justice secretary Leila de Lima. (Rappler)
- Philippine presidential candidate Grace Poe releases her full statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth. (GMA News)
United Kingdom local elections, 2016
- Members of the British public head to local polling stations to cast their vote for various governmental positions, including the Mayor of London. (The Daily Telegraph)
United States presidential election, 2016
- Former Governor of Texas and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry endorses Donald Trump for president and says he is open to being Trump’s vice-presidential running mate. (CNN)

Sport

Zika virus outbreak
- Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says the decision whether the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates two-game series scheduled for later this month will be moved from Puerto Ricobecause of concerns about the Zika virus, will be announced Monday “at the latest.” (AP)

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May 9, 2016

Top News Stories –

Michel Platini: Uefa president to resign after ban appeal fails –
Uefa president Michel Platini will resign from European football’s governing body after failing to have a six-year ban from football overturned. A Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) panel reduced the ban to four years on Monday. Following the judgement, the 60-year-old said he would be stepping down. Platini and former Fifa counterpart Sepp Blatter, were last year found guilty of ethics breaches over a 2m Swiss Franc (£1.3m) “disloyal payment”. The pair, who deny wrongdoing, had their original bans reduced from eight to six years by the Fifa appeals committee. Platini had taken his case to Cas seeking to get the ban overturned, but a three-man panel said it “was not convinced by the legitimacy of the payment”. [BBC]
Michel Platini

Japan vagina artist cleared over kayak model but fined for data distribution –
A Japanese court has found an artist not guilty for displaying a kayak based on the shape of her vagina. The judge ruled that Megumi Igarashi‘s brightly-coloured kayak sculpture did not immediately suggest female anatomy. However, she was fined 400,000 yen ($3,700) after a judge ruled that she broke the law by sharing data from 3D scans of her genitalia, which could be used to recreate the shape of a vagina. Japan’s strict obscenity laws prohibit public displays of genitalia. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

TRIAL by The Brothers Lynch from The Brothers Lynch on Vimeo.

How the “Through the mirror shot” was done

ANATOMY OF A MIRROR SHOT – TRIAL short film from The Brothers Lynch on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Somalia (2009–present)
- A suicide car bomb targeting Mogadishu’s traffic police headquarters kills at least four. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility. (NY Times) (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  - Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition kill at least 10 in Yemen. (NY Times)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- The Pentagon announces the death of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL) leader Abu Waheeb and three other militants in an airstrike near the town of Rutba, Iraq. (FOX News) (Reuters)
- An ISIL car bomb kills at least 50 and injures 54 people in the eastern Iraq city of Baquba. (AAP via News Limited)

Business and economy

Panama Papers
- The Panama Papers go online at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists website. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

At least seven people are killed and 30 injured in a bus accident in Ranchi, the capital of the Indian state of Jharkand. (NDTV)
The death toll from yesterday’s landslide in Taining County in China’s Fujian province rises to 14 with 25 still missing, (AP via Daily Mail)

International relations

North Korea–United Kingdom relations
- Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, the BBC‘s Tokyo correspondent, was detained in North Korea before being expelled by the government for “speaking very ill of the system”. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Philippine general election, 2016
- Filipino voters head to the polls for a presidential election with unofficial counts showing Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte with a commanding lead. (CNN), (AP)
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann resigns after seven and a half years in office; says he lost the backing of his Social Democrats party. (USA Today)
Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
- Waldir Maranhão, the acting President of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, says that the impeachment vote in that chamber should be annulled due to procedural irregularities and the voting process be held again. The Federal Senate is due to start voting on whether to impeach President Rousseff later this week. (Al-Jazeera)

Science

A transit of Mercury occurs, visible from Africa, the Americas, Europe and most of Asia. (BBC), (Daily Mail), (New York Times)

Sport

2015 FIFA corruption case
- UEFA President Michel Platini, who had been suspended by the FIFA Ethics Committee last fall, announces his resignation following the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision that let stand his ban, shortened to four years which corresponds to the duration of his remaining time in office. The court ruled that Platini was guilty of conflict of interest for taking a $2 million payment from FIFA approved bySepp Blatter in 2011. (USA Today)

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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 13, 2016

Top News Stories –

Fifa appoints Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura as its first woman secretary general –
Fifa appointed its first female and non-European secretary general on Friday night after announcing that United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura would replace the disgraced Jérôme Valcke. New president Gianni Infantino confirmed that the Senegalese, a 21-year veteran of UN programmes, would become the most powerful official in world football during Fifa’s annual congress in Mexico City. Infantino had previously promised to consider both a woman and an African for the role – and he delivered on both counts. [Daily Telegraph]
Fatma Samoura (R) in 2008 with George Clooney (L) and Marie-Sophie Reck (C)

Video of the Day –

EYES WIDE OPEN from Vitùc on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- An Australian security contractor is killed outside the Australian embassy in Baghdad. There are unconfirmed reports that he was shot. (ABC News Australia)
- Three gunmen open fire on a Real Madrid supporters club meeting in a cafe in Samarra northern Iraq, killing at least 14 and wounding 25. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria claims responsibility for attack.(ABC News) (Reuters) (Irish Independent)
Syrian Civil War
- Hezbollah says Mustafa Badreddine, one of Hezbollah’s highest ranking officials believed responsible for military operations in Syria, has been killed by artillery fire from the Syrian rebels. (Al-Jazeera)
Kurdish-Turkish conflict (2015–present)
- Eight Turkish soldiers and 21 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants are killed in clashes and in a subsequent helicopter crash near Turkey’s border with Iraq. (VOA News) (Reuters) (Washington Post)

Disasters

A massive fire breaks out at a tire dump in Seseña, near Madrid in Spain. The illegal dump contains 100,000 tons of used vehicle tires. The smoke from the fire is visible for at least 30km. (ABC News)
At least one person is dead as a shopping mall being built in the Nigerian city of Abeokuta collapses. Unconfirmed reports indicate that ten people may have died. (BBC)

International relations

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to “neutralize” a new ballistic missile defense system which the United States has activated in Europe. (Reuters) (US News) (BBC)

Law and crime

Former President of Argentina Cristina Fernández is indicted on fraud charges in relation to alleged irregularities in the sale of United States dollars by the Central Bank during her term in office. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

The United States Education and Justice Departments advise U.S. public school districts across the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity, rather than their gender at birth. The new guidance comes as Justice and North Carolina battle in federal court over the state’s new so-called bathroom bill. (AP) (Reuters)
Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff
- Vice President of Brazil, Michel Temer, assumes the presidential powers and duties as Acting President of Brazil. (Huffington Post) (NBC News)
2016 state of emergency in Venezuela
- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declares a sixty-day state of emergency. (BBC), (Guardian), (Reuters)

Sport

Association football
- Fatma Samoura, a Senegalese United Nations official, is appointed as the Secretary General of FIFA. She is the first woman and first person from outside Europe to be appointed to the position. (AP viDaily Mail)
- Kosovo and Gibraltar are elected as new members of FIFA. (BBC)

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May 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Max Verstappen becomes youngest F1 winner in history at Spanish Grand Prix –
The delivery of the prodigy Max Verstappen, who became the youngest winner of a Formula One race when he triumphed in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, brought an iridescence to a sport that for too long has laboured in the single colour of the silver Mercedes. When Verstappen made his F1 debut for Toro Rosso as a 17-year-old last year he was so young that the concerned people at the FIA changed the rules; now you have to be 18. Verstappen was actually only 16 in 2014, when it was first announced that he would be driving in F1. Many sagacious voices said he was too young but there can be no doubts now. He crossed the winning line aged 18 years and 228 days, beating Sebastian Vettel’s previous record by two and a half years – Vettel was 21 and 73 days when he won in Italy in 2008. [Guardian]
Max Verstappen

Magnetic Hyperloop pod unveiled at MIT –
A people-carrying pod designed to levitate and travel at extremely high speeds has been unveiled in Boston. A 30-strong team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of several groups and companies working on making the Hyperloop concept a reality. The idea, first envisioned by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, is to create a transport system that propels pods through airtight tubes. The MIT team said its pod design paved the way for “a mode of transportation that could change how we think about travel”. Critics of Hyperloop say it is unlikely to succeed because of prohibitive costs. A white paper by Mr Musk published in 2013 proposed a Hyperloop tube connection from San Francisco to Los Angeles. At speeds of around 700mph (1,127km/h), Mr Musk predicted the journey time would be around 30 minutes. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

MIT Hyperloop Intro

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi civil war (2014–present)
- Suicide bomb attacks in a state owned cooking gas plant in Taji, north of Baghdad, kill at least 18 people, while 11 others die in attacks across the country. (Al-Jazeera) (Reuters via Daily Mail)
Yemeni civil war (2015–present)
- A suicide bombing kills at least 30 and injures 70 others in the southern city of Mukalla, Yemen. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility for attack. (Xinhua) (Reuters) (Canadian Press via Chronicle-Herald)

Disasters and accidents

A truck collides with a motorised rickshaw in the Adilabad district of India‘s Telangana state resulting in 16 deaths. (AP via Washington Post)

Law and crime

Capital punishment in the Philippines
- President-elect of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, vows to reintroduce capital punishment and give security forces permission to shoot to kill for organized crime figures and people resisting arrest. Duterte is due to take office on June 30, 2016. (BBC)
A released report from an interview with former U.S. diplomat Donald Rickard reveals that he provided intelligence that led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela. (The Telegraph)

Politics and elections

Dominican Republic general election, 2016
- Voters in the Dominican Republic go to the polls for a general election. (AP)

Sports

2016 Formula One season
- 18-year old Max Verstappen becomes the youngest ever driver and the first Dutchman to win a Formula One race by winning the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. (The Guardian)
2015–16 Premier League, 2015–16 Manchester United F.C. season
- Tens of thousands of people are evacuated from Old Trafford shortly before kick-off between Manchester United F.C. and A.F.C. Bournemouth after a suspect package was found. A controlled explosion was then carried out within the stadium. The package is discovered to be an explosives training device left behind earlier in the week by a private company following a training exercise involving explosive search dogs. (BBC)

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May 18, 2016

Top News Stories –

Sevilla beat Liverpool 3-1 to win the Europa League for fifth time –
Liverpool suffered a dramatic second-half collapse as Sevilla claimed the Europa League for the third season in succession with a superb comeback. Jurgen Klopp’s side looked on course to secure the prize of Champions League football – on offer to the winners of the competition – when Daniel Sturridge’s magnificent strike with the outside of his left foot gave them the interval lead. The good work was wrecked in the first 17 seconds of the second half when Kevin Gameiro turned in Mariano Ferreira’s cross to put Sevilla level. Coke’s fine 64th-minute finish confirmed Sevilla’s superiority and he added a contentious third from close range, which was initially disallowed but was then given as Liverpool slumped to their second final defeat this season after losing to Manchester City in the Capital One Cup. [BBC]
Coke

Google’s conversation-based Assistant takes on Amazon –
Google has announced a conversation-based tool to control smartphones, smartwatches and other devices. Google Assistant can be used to find information, play media and carry out tasks – such as booking cinema tickets – via a back-and-forth chat between the user and the software. The firm also announced a voice-activated device with a built-in speaker called Google Home to deliver the tech to living rooms. It will compete with Amazon’s Echo. Amazon launched its own dialogue-based smart home device in 2014, which is powered by the firm’s proprietary virtual assistant Alexa. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Google App: Ok, Google…

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in North-West Pakistan
- Twin bombings kill a police officer and wound nine people in Peshawar, Pakistan. (FOX News)
Use of chemical weapons in the Iraqi civil war
- Iraqi police claim ISIL militants fired chemical weapons, suspected to be mustard gas or chlorine, in the May 8 attacks on Bashir near Kirkuk, Iraq. (Time)
Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping
- One of the girls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram in Nigeria is found and reunited with her family. (BBC) (CNN)

Business and economy

Suzuki says it used improper fuel economy tests for Japan in a widening of a scandal that hit Mitsubishi Motors. (Reuters)

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, met with a group of prominent U.S. conservatives, over allegations that the company censors conservative content. (Reuters).

Disasters and accidents

More than 150 people are feared dead by two landslides triggered by more than three days of heavy rain in central Sri Lanka. (Reuters) (The New York Times)
A powerful 6.7 magnitude earthquake hits Ecuador near the town of Muisne, one person is killed. (Reuters) (AP)
A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress crashes at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. All seven aircrew members escaped. No injuries have been reported. (Pacific Daily News)

International relations

Cross-Strait relations
- China stages joint war games featuring mock beach landing, helicopter assaults and tank battles along its east coast, just days before the inauguration of Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen. (AP via Daily Mail)

Law and crime

Michelle Lodzinski is convicted of murdering her five-year-old son Timothy Wiltsey 25 years ago in New Jersey. (AP via Chicago Tribune), (USA Today), (The New York Times)

Politics and elections

2014–16 Venezuelan protests
- Amid a state of emergency, Venezuelan police clash and fire tear gas at protesters calling for the downfall of socialist president Nicolás Maduro in central Caracas. The protests come a day after Maduro warned that the opposition-controlled National Assembly may soon “disappear”. (The Guardian)

Sport

2016 UEFA Europa League Final
- Spanish side Sevilla FC beats English opponent Liverpool F.C., 3-1, at St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland, to win the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League. It is their third straight UEFA Europa League title win. (Radio New Zealand)

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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]

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Chewbacca Mom Takes James Corden to Work

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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 29, 2016

Top News Stories –

Indy 500: Rookie Alexander Rossi wins 100th running –
Running on fumes on the final laps of the race, rookie Alexander Rossi ran out of fuel coming out of Turn 4 — and still managed to win the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. Rossi, a 24-year-old native of California, coasted to the line ahead of Carlos Munoz, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan as late-race fuel strategy led to a wild and tense finish. It was perhaps one of the more unlikely Indy 500 victories, as Rossi has almost no experience in racing on oval tracks after spending several years pursuing a career in Formula One. Rossi couldn’t quite believe it himself. “I have no idea how we pulled that off,” he said, in a television interview immediately after the race. [USA Today]
Alexander Rossi

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Armed conflicts and attacks

Northern Mali conflict
- Five United Nations peacekeepers are killed in an attack in central Mali. (NY Times) (Reuters)
Boko Haram insurgency
- Niger security forces kill 12 Boko Haram militants in Bosso. (Reuters)
- An improvised explosive device kills four civilians and one soldier in Biu, Nigeria. (U.S. News)
Yemeni civil war (2015–present)
- At least 69 people are killed and 25 injured in fighting between the Houthis and government forces loyal to Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. (ABC News) (FOX News) (Daily Mail)

Disasters and accidents

At least three people are missing after heavy rains caused flooding in the U.S. states of Texas and Kansas. So far, four people have died in the flooding. (AP)
A fire at a home for elderly people near the Ukrainian capital Kiev kills at least 16 people. (BBC)
European migrant crisis
- The United Nations fears that approximately 700 migrants have drowned in three Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks over the past few days. (AP)
Tropical Storm Bonnie makes landfall on the East Coast of the United States, affecting mainly the city of Charleston, South Carolina. (AccuWeather)

International relations

Foreign relations of North Korea
- In compliance with recent UN Security Council resolutons, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda announces an end to security and military cooperation with North Korea. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Mexican international football player Alan Pulido, who plays for Olympiacos F.C., is kidnapped by masked men near his home in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas. He is later rescued. (BBC), (AP via Sun MV)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016, Gary Johnson presidential campaign, 2016
- Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, secures the nomination for the Libertarian Party in the U.S. presidential election. Johnson picks former Massachusetts governor, and former Republican,William Weld as his running mate. (Washington Post)

Sports

2016 Indianapolis 500
- In motor sport, rookie Alexander Rossi wins the 100th Indianapolis 500. (USA Today)

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