Top News Stories –

Nasa’s super-slippery anti-insect coating could slash cost of flying –
Nasa has invented a super-slippery material which could allow planes to glide through the air with less resistance and cut could the price of travel. The new coating would reduce drag and improve fuel efficiency, it is predicted. Up to now even the tiniest pieces of debris in the air, such as insects, trigger swirling air turbulence which perturbs the airstream, making it harder for a plane to push through. The new substance is designed on the microscopic pits and ridges of the lotus leaf which naturally repels water. It will allow insects to simply slip off the side rather than stick, causing more resistance. Nasa forecasts that debugging aircraft combined with new designs to take advantage of the smoother airflow, could improve fuel efficiency by more than one percent. Although it does not seem like much, it could see costs for an airline like British Airways fall by £35 million a year. [Daily Telegraph]

Fukushima nuclear plant ‘will leak radioactive water for four more years’ –
Operators of Japan’s damaged nuclear power plant Fukushima have warned that it will take a further four years to fix the problem of contaminated water leaks. The admission was made as a sombre nation prepared to mark the fifth anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which triggering the world’s worst nuclear disaster in decades. The problem of dealing with contaminated water leaks – which now exceed 760,000 tonnes – has emerged as major challenge to the decommissioning of the Fukushima plant. Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), which operates Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, confirmed it will take four years to collect and treat all contaminated water pooled around the reactors. [Daily Telegraph]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War spillover in Lebanon
  • Clashes between the Lebanese Army and jihadist militants near the village of Ras Baalbek in northeast Lebanon, close to the Syrian border, leaves one soldier and eight militants dead. (AFP via Daily Mail)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • Dozens of militants are killed in fighting between rival Taliban factions in Afghanistan‘s western Herat Province. (The Guardian)

Disasters and accidents

• Two days of heavy rain in the American state of Louisiana has caused at least three deaths and caused more than a thousand people to evacuate their homes. (Fox News)

International relations

• United States–Venezuela relations
  • Venezuela recalls its chargé d’affaires from its embassy in Washington, D.C. after U.S. President Barack Obama renewed a decree imposing sanctions on several top Venezuelan officials. (Reuters)
• North Korea–South Korea relations
  • North Korea fires two missiles into the Sea of Japan and announces its intention to liquidate all remaining South Korean assets on its territory. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

Law and crime

• Former Russian Press Minister Mikhail Lesin was found by a American investigation to have died of blunt force injuries in Washington, D.C. in November last year. (Reuters)
• A jury in a U.S. federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania says that Cabot Oil must pay plaintiffs $4.2 million in damages that resulted from Cabot’s fracking operations in the northeast part of that state. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• Three candidates are put forward to become President of Myanmar: Htin Kyaw and Sai Nyunt Lwin from the National League for Democracy and Khin Aung Myint from the military. (ABC News Australia)
• The Irish Dáil Éireann (parliament) fails to elect a new taoiseach (Prime Minister) with incumbent Enda Kenny carrying on as a caretaker. (BBC)

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