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Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi writes choral music for Birmingham Cathedral –
Black Sabbath founder Tony Iommi has swapped his heavy metal roots for an ecclesiastical project by writing and producing a piece of choral music. The five-minute acoustic arrangement for Birmingham Cathedral was a huge departure for the musician once accused of being a Satanist. The 68-year-old said the song, How Good It Is, was to give something back to the city he hails from. He said the track was “just a little bit different to Sabbath”. The project was born out of his friendship with the Dean of Birmingham, the Very Reverend Catherine Ogle, which developed when he was battling cancer in 2012. The lyrics for the piece were inspired by Psalm 133 which talks about people living together in unity which “is what Birmingham is all about”, Dean Ogle said. [BBC]
Tony Iommi

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• 2017 Ivory Coast mutiny
  • Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara reaches a deal with soldiers who seized the town of Bouake in a pay protest. The soldiers are seeking bonuses, pay rises and faster promotion. (AFP via News24)

Disasters and accidents

• Flash flooding in southern Thailand kills at least 18 people. (Al Jazeera)
• A cold spell with the temperature reaching −30 °C in Moscow and other parts of Eastern Europe hits Europe. Nearly 20 people die in recent days; 10 in Poland. (The Independent)

International relations

• Israel, Palestine, and the United Nations
  • Israel announces it will withhold $6 million from its annual United Nations dues in protest of the December 23, 2016, Security Council settlement resolution. (UPI)

Law and crime

• Mexican police search for a gunman who shot and wounded a U.S. Consular official in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The victim is in stable condition. (CBS News)

Politics and elections

• Former President and Prime Minister of Portugal Mário Soares dies at the age of 92. (France 24)
• Nana Akufo-Addo is sworn in as the fifth President of Ghana. (BBC)
• Presidential transition of Donald Trump
  • United States President-elect Donald Trump indicates that he will nominate former Indiana senator Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence. (BBC)

Science and technology

• Free University of Berlin chemists confirm that carbon can bond with more than four atoms, previously seen as its limit because carbon has only four shareable electrons. The researchers used X-rays to, for the first time, map the molecule — a carbon atom bonded to six other carbon atoms. (Science News), (ZME Science)

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