March 11, 2011

March 11, 2016

Top News Stories –

Japan earthquake: Tsunami hits north-east –
Japan’s most powerful earthquake since records began has struck the north-east coast, triggering a massive tsunami. Cars, ships and buildings were swept away by a wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude tremor, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo. A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant, where pressure has exceeded normal levels. Officials say 350 people are dead and about 500 missing, but it is feared the final death toll will be much higher. In one ward alone in Sendai, a port city in Miyagi prefecture, 200 to 300 bodies were found. The quake was the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one which devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, said scientists. Thousands of people living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Japan Tsunami Footage

List of the Day –

List of ten most powerful earthquakes [Wikipedia]

Rank	Date	Location	Event	Magnitude
1	May 22, 1960	Valdivia, Chile	1960 Valdivia earthquake	9.5
2	March 27, 1964	Prince William Sound, Alaska, United States	1964 Alaska earthquake	9.2
3	December 26, 2004	Indian Ocean, Sumatra, Indonesia	2004 Indian Ocean earthquake	9.1
4	March 11, 2011	Pacific Ocean, Tōhoku region, Japan	2011 Tōhoku earthquake	9.0
5	November 4, 1952	Kamchatka, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union	1952 Kamchatka earthquakes	9.0
6	August 13, 1868	Arica, Chile (then Peru)	1868 Arica earthquake	9.0 (est.)
7	January 26, 1700	Pacific Ocean, USA and Canada (then part of the British Empire)	1700 Cascadia earthquake	8.7–9.2 (est.)
8	July 9, 869	Pacific Ocean, Tōhoku region, Japan	869 Sanriku earthquake	8.9 (est.)
9	December 2, 1611	Pacific Ocean, Hokkaido, Japan	1611 Sanriku earthquake	8.9 (est.)
10	April 2, 1762	Chittagong, Bangladesh (then Kingdom of Mrauk U)	1762 Arakan earthquake	8.8 (est.)

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2011 Libyan civil war:
- European Union leaders gather in Brussels for an urgent summit. (BBC)
- Clashes continue to take place between rebels and Gaddafi loyalists at Ra’s Lanuf. (Al Jazeera)
2011 Saudi Arabian protests:
- Protesters take to the streets of Hofuf and al-Ahsa in the east of the country. (Reuters) (Wall Street Journal)
2011 Kuwaiti protests:
- Riot police fire tear gas at a demonstration of stateless Arabs demanding more rights. (Reuters)
2011 Bahraini protests:
- Security is increased as a large march takes place towards the royal court. (Reuters)
India and Pakistan successfully conduct missile tests. (Sify India)

Arts and culture

American actor Mel Gibson is charged with misdemeanor battery for an alleged assault on his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in January 2010. (Access Hollywood)

Disasters

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
- A 9.0 magnitude earthquake hits offshore of Japan‘s Miyagi prefecture, producing tsunamis as high as 10 meters near the epicenter and reaching land throughout the Pacific ocean. (Japan Times)(Canadian Press via Google News), (AP via ABC News America)
- At least 1000 people have died in the earthquake and tsunami.(LA Times)
- The United States Geological Survey estimates that it is the fifth strongest earthquake since 1900. (USGS)
- Japanese television shows footage of flooding along Japan’s northeastern coast. (AP via New York Times)
- A tsunami warning is also issued for Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the United States. (Market Watch), (Oregon Live)
- The Government of Japan evacuates thousands of residents living near the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant following a radiation leak. (New York Times)
- The cooling system at the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant also experiences problems. (RT)
- The Governor of California Jerry Brown declares a state of emergency in Del Norte, Humboldt, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. (LA Times)
The Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, declares a state of emergency in all 77 counties due to wildfires burning out of control in that state and Colorado. (CNN)
A bus plunges into a ravine in the Xinjiang region in western China killing at least 16 people and with 24 people injured. (AP via MSNBC)
Mount Karangetang erupts in Sulawesi, Indonesia, forcing local evacuations. (The Hindu)

Law and crime

A U.S. federal magistrate rules that prosecutors can demand Twitter account information in relation to Wikileaks. (AP)
Two ex-Blackwater consultants are found guilty in the United States of the involuntary manslaughter of a civilian in the Afghan capital Kabul. (AP via NPR)

Politics

The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty enters into force, making the Union of South American Nations an international legal personality. (Telesur)(Télam)
Taiwan‘s opposition leader Tsai Ing-wen launches her presidential bid. (Focus Taiwan) (Straits Times)
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai calls for an end to the country’s unity government after one of his party members is arrested. (AllAfrica.com)

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December 1, 2014

Top News Stories –

Henry leaves NY Bulls –
Former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry leaves New York Red Bulls after four-and-a-half years with the MLS club. He is still Arsenal’s all-time top goal scorer with 228 in all competitions. He is to move into television, initially as a pundit on Sky TV in the UK. (See List of the Day and Video of the Day below)
Thierry Henry

Prince Harry confession for charity –
Prince Harry has revealed that he gets extremely nervous before making any public speech. He made the revelation as part of a campaign run by his Sentebale charity to help reduce the stigma associated with HIV on World Aids Day. The prince co-founded the charity in 2006 in Lesotho after travelling around the southern African country which has the third highest HIV/Aids prevalence in the world.
Prince Harry

Brand protest –
Russell Brand joins around 400 residents of Hackney’s New Era estate to protest against US property owner Westbrook, which is threatening 93 families with eviction before marching to 10 Downing street where a petition signed by 294,000 was handed in.
Russell Brand

Cyber Monday breaks records –
Today is Cyber Monday and in the US $2.5 billion (£1.6 billion) is expected to be spent. In the IMRG Experian predicts that UK consumers will spend £649.6 million today or £451,000 a minute showing a 26 per cent increase on last year.

Video of the Day –

Thierry Henry goals in UK and USA –

CLICK TO SEE MORE STUFF FROM THIS DAY…

April 14, 2015

Top News Stories –

When carp attack: Watch fish jump at rowers –
As the Washington University in St. Louis men’s rowing teams practiced Friday morning, a school of Asian carp showed their apparent displeasure with the activity by leaping frantically from the waters of Missouri’s Creve Coeur Lake. Junior Benjamin Rosenbaum, a captain of the varsity team, captured the aquatic onslaught on video. Rosenbaum says practices on the lake aren’t normally so eventful, but recent heavy rains and flooding may have brought more of the fish to this particular area. He had seen this activity once before, in 2013, when he was in a boat rather than on the banks. (See Video of the day) [USA Today]

Soul singer Percy Sledge dies aged 73 –
US soul singer Percy Sledge, famed for his song When a Man Loves a Woman, has died aged 73. Steve Green from talent agency Artists International Management Inc confirmed to the BBC that he died at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday. Sledge’s debut single When a Man Loves a Woman reached the top 10 twice in the UK and topped the US Billboard chart for two weeks in 1966, when it also got to number four in the UK chart (See List of the day). During an interview for the the 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals, he recalled his first recording of it. “When I came into the studio, I was shaking like a leaf. I was scared,” he said, adding that it was the “same melody that I sang when I was out in the fields. I just wailed out in the woods and let the echo come back to me”.

Video of the Day –

Rowers attacked by asian carp 2015 –

CLICK TO SEE MORE STUFF FROM THIS DAY…

June 13, 2015

Top News Stories –

Sweden royal wedding: Prince Carl Philip marries ex-reality star –
Sweden’s Prince Carl Philip has married a former reality-TV star and glamour model in a lavish ceremony in the chapel at Stockholm’s Royal Palace.
Sofia Hellqvist, 30, also worked as a topless model and a yoga instructor before helping to set up a charity. Her new husband, 36-year-old Carl Philip, is third in line to the throne. Thousands of well-wishers lined the streets for the event, despite polls suggesting the Swedish royal family’s popularity is waning. They cheered as Miss Hellqvist, a 30-year-old commoner, became a princess. [BBC]
Sofia Hellqvist

Gunman killed by police snipers after attack on Dallas police headquarters –
A police sniper has shot and killed an armed suspect in Texas hours after the gunman opened fire on Dallas police headquarters before fleeing in an armoured van. The getaway vehicle was pursued by police to a fast food restaurant parking lot in the nearby city of Hutchin, where officers disabled the vehicle, in the incident early on Saturday morning. Some hours later, police said the suspect was killed. Two explosive devices, including one described as a pipe bomb, were found earlier on outside the Dallas police building. They have both been cleared. One detonated when a bomb disposal robot attempted to move it, but nobody was injured. [Daily Telegraph]

Queen’s birthday honours list: knights outnumber dames five to one –
Men outnumber women by almost five to one in the highest honours announced for the Queen’s birthday, which sees knighthoods for comedian Lenny Henry, trade unionist Paul Kenny and singer-songwriter Van “the Man” Morrison. For only the second time in honours history, more women received awards – 51% of all recipients – but just seven are made dames, compared with 33 knighthoods for men, reflecting a gender imbalance at the highest levels of industry, business, politics and academia. [Guardian] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

BEAT DOWN from Camp 4 Collective on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2015 – [For full list click here from the Metro]

KNIGHTS BACHELOR

Henry Angest. National Treasurer Conservative Party. For political service. (London)

Professor Harshad Kumar Dharamshi Bhadeshia F. R.S., Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy, University of Cambridge. For services to Science and Technology. (Cambridgeshire)

The Rt Hon Simon Hugh McGuigan Burns. Member of Parliament for Chelmsford. For parliamentary and political service. (Essex)

Dr Philip Henry Montgomery Campbell. Editor in chief Nature. For services to Science. (London)

Dr Kevan Arthur Collins. Chief executive Education Endowment Foundation. For services to Education. (London)

Naim Eliahou Dangoor, CBE. Philanthropist. For charitable services. (London)

Michael Lawrence Davis. Chair Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission. For services to Holocaust Commemoration and Education.

Ciaran Gearoid Devane. Chief executive Macmillan Cancer Support. For services to Cancer Patients. (London)

Professor Charles Peter Downes, OBE, FRSE. Principal and vice-Chancellor, University of Dundee. For services to Higher Education and Life Sciences. (Newport-on-Tay, Fife)

Gareth Owen Edwards, CBE. For services to Sport and for charitable services. (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan)

Bernard Peter Gray. Chief of Defence Materiel Ministry of Defence. For public service, particularly to Defence. (Oxfordshire)

Patrick Head. Director Williams Hybrid Power Ltd. For services to Motorsport. (London)

Lenworth George Henry, CBE. Actor and Comedian. For services to Drama and Charity. (London)

The Rt Hon Simon Henry Ward Hughes. Member of Parliament for Bermondsey and Old Southwark. For public and political service. (London)

Thomas Baird Jeffery, CB. Director general, Department for Education, Children’s Services and Departmental Strategy Directorate. For services to the Department for Education. (Lewes, East Sussex)

Dr Karl William Pamp Jenkins, CBE. Composer. For services to Composing and Crossing Musical Genres. (London)

Paul Stephen Kenny. General secretary GMB Union. For services to Trade Unions. (London)

Dr James Loy Macmillan, CBE. Composer and conductor. For services to Music. (Glasgow)

Francis McLoughlin, CBE. Principal, City and Islington College and Chair, Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning. For services to Further Education. (London)

Iain Macleod McMillan, CBE. For services to the Scottish Economy. (Falkirk, Stirling and Falkirk)

George Ivan Morrison, OBE. For services to the Music Industry and to Tourism in Northern Ireland. (Down)

Professor Stephen John Nickell, CBE, FBA. Economist. For services to Economics. (Banbury, Oxfordshire)

Dr Nicholas Beaver Penny, FBA. Director general, National Gallery. For services to the Arts. (London)

Professor Hussein Munir Pirmohamed. David Weatherall Chair of Medicine University of Liverpool. For services to Medicine. (West Kirby, Merseyside)

Andreas Whittam Smith, CBE. For public service particularly to the Church of England. (London)

Gary Keith Verity. Chief executive Welcome to Yorkshire. For services to Tourism and the Tour De France Grand Depart 2014. (North Yorkshire)

Professor Ian Vincent Derrick Weller. Emeritus Professor of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Department of Infection and Population Health, University College, London.

For services to HIV Research. (Grantham, Lincolnshire)

Nicholas John Weller. Executive Principal Dixons Academies, Bradford. For services to Education. (Leeds, West Yorkshire)

Adrian Edwin White, CBE, DL. For services to International Trade and Investment. (Dorking, Surrey)

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#AskRachel	#DallasPDShooting	#BirthdayHonours
2	#ComoOdioAEsosQue	John Stamos	#NRocks
3	Dave Grohl	#FoodAnEightiesSong	#WorldGinDay
4	Jurassic World	#BecauseOfAriana	Dave Grohl
5	#AssistamTeuOlharFLY	Uncle Jesse	#SkypeREECEandCHARLIE
6	#ARGENTINARMY	#GETWELLSOONMICHAEL	Van Morrison
7	Bolivia	#NoControlMusicVideo	#TroopingTheColour
8	#USAvSWE	#Hillary2016	#IREvSCO
9	Barbie Velez	#UFC188	Wales
10	Fede Bal	#WhenIDiePeopleWillBeShock…	#QueensBirthdayHonours

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

The Taliban kill 20 police officers in attack in Helmand, Afghanistan. (WTVM)
Syrian Civil War
- Some 13,000 refugees have crossed into Turkey as Syrian Kurd People’s Protection Units encircle the ISIL-held town of Suluk. (AP via Yahoo!)

Arts and culture

The trooping the colour ceremony is held in London to celebrate the Queen’s Official Birthday while singer Van Morrison and American actorKevin Spacey are given knighthoods at the Birthday Honours. (CNN), (BBC)
The wedding of Prince Carl Philip, Duke of Värmland, and Sofia Hellqvist takes place in Stockholm. (BBC News)

Disasters and accidents

At least 22 Hindu pilgrims are killed after a van they are travelling in falls into a reservoir in the southern Indian town of Dhavaleswaram in Andhra Pradesh. (AAP via News Limited)

International relations

Immigration to Europe
- Austria stops processing asylum requests in an effort to pressure other European Union member states to do more to help absorb waves of refugees pouring into the continent. (Irish Times), (Telegraph)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Scheduled talks of 14th June, 2015 between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the exiled government which are brokered by the UN have been postponed with a new schedule set for Monday 15 June, 2015 (The Daily Star (Lebanon) via Reuters
P5+1
- Iran asks Austria to secure the talks over its nuclear program following reports of cybersecurity breaches. (AFP via Daily Star)
Egypt opens its border with the Gaza Strip temporarily for the first time in months. Egypt blames Hamas for the Sinai insurgency. (AP via Daily Star)
Dozens of migrants who refused entry to France go on hunger strike at the border crossing in the Italian town of Ventimiglia. (AFP via Daily Star)

Law and crime

A man opens fire at policemen outside the police headquarters in the Texan city of Dallas, while a bag containing a pipe bomb is also found. He was later shot dead by police snipers following a car chase and standoff. (AP), (CNN)

Politics and elections

Thousands of people protest in Skopje demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski. (AFP via Yahoo! News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

June 14, 2015

Top News Stories –

Philae comet lander wakes up, says European Space Agency –
The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth. Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November. It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat. The comet has since moved nearer to the Sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC’s science correspondent Jonathan Amos. An account linked to the probe tweeted the message, “Hello Earth! Can you hear me?” On its blog, Esa said Philae had contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds on Saturday in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.

Artist’s impression of the Philae lander

Jurassic World takes $511m in record opening weekend –
The fourth instalment in the Jurassic Park series has become the first film to take more than $500m at the box office on its opening weekend. Jurassic World was the most popular screening in all 66 countries where it was released. The film made $204.6m (£131.4m) in the US, according to the firm Exhibitor Relations. It took $100m in China and $29.6m (£19m) in the UK and Ireland as part of the record global total of $511.8m. The Universal Pictures release had the second-highest grossing opening weekend in the US. The record is held by Marvel’s The Avengers, which took $207.4m in 2012. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Jurassic World – Official Global Trailer

List of the Day –

Biggest Worldwide film openings since 2002 [from Wikipedia]

Rank	Film	Year	Opening (USD)^[1]
1	Jurassic World	2015	$511,800,000
2	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	2011	$483,189,427
3	Furious 7	2015	$397,627,459
4	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	2009	$394,022,354
5	Marvel’s The Avengers	2012	$392,538,708
6	Avengers: Age of Ultron	2015	$392,471,109
7	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	2011	$382,425,000
8	Spider-Man 3	2007	$381,660,892
9	Iron Man 3	2013	$372,553,677
10	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	2011	$350,653,677
11	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End	2007	$343,972,864
12	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2	2012	$340,667,634
13	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	2007	$332,715,157
14	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1	2010	$330,017,372
15	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	2005	$303,949,700
16	Transformers: Age of Extinction	2014	$302,138,390
17	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1	2011	$291,022,261
18	The Twilight Saga: New Moon	2009	$274,939,137
19	The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1	2014	$273,897,634
20	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	2008	$272,150,927
21	X-Men: Days of Future Past	2014	$262,866,321
22	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	$250,000,534
23	The Dark Knight Rises	2012	$248,887,295
24	Avatar	2009	$241,571,046
25	The Da Vinci Code	2006	$232,074,037
26	2012	2009	$230,470,474
27	The Twilight Saga: Eclipse	2010	$228,893,465
28	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	2012	$222,617,303
29	Iron Man 2	2010	$220,766,270
30	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	2009	$219,921,171
31	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	2009	$218,430,064
32	The Hunger Games	2012	$211,785,747
33	Alice in Wonderland	2010	$210,101,023
34	The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug	2013	$209,845,197
35	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004	$207,197,367
36	War of the Worlds	2005	$203,061,125
37	Man of Steel	2013	$201,981,486
38	The Matrix Revolutions	2003	$201,390,000
39	Iron Man	2008	$201,174,140

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#ARGENTINARMY	Roc Nation	Toke
2	#AskRachel	#zayniscomingback	#GETWELLSOONCALUM
3	#ComoOdioAEsosQue	#FlagDay	Rolf Harris
4	Bolivia	#ICouldUseALittleMore	Snowden
5	Fede Bal	#NWC2015	#zayniscomingback
6	Jurassic World	#RedFlags	#UFC188
7	Dave Grohl	#MITB	#SLOvENG
8	#GoodForYou	Tbilisi	Michael
9	#AssistamTeuOlharFLY	Good Sunday	#HappyBirthdayJesy
10	Vuoso	#GETWELLSOONCALUM	Townsend

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
- War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  - Fifteen Taliban militants, including the shadow governor for Kunar Province, are killed in a NATO airstrike. (IANS via Business Standard)
- Syrian Civil War
  - Thousands of Syrians flee into Turkey as Kurdish fighters come closer to capturing the border town of Tell Abyad from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. (AP)
Disasters and accidents
- 2015 Tbilisi flood
  - Flooding in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, destroys animal enclosures at a zoo resulting in the release of potentially dangerous animals and the death of three zookeepers and six other people. (AP), (USA Today), (Reuters, DPA via WA Today)
Health
- 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
  - A South Korean man is hospitalised in the Slovak capital Bratislava with symptoms of MERS as the death toll in Korea rises to 15. (Sky News Australia), (Al-Jazeera)
International relations
- Save The Children
  - Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan has suspended its order against the NGO Save the Children for closure of its working and allowed the international aid agency to resume its operation in Pakistan. (Express Tribune) (ARY Digital )
- A South Korean official claims that North Korea is placing land mines in the Korean Demilitarized Zone to stop soldiers from defecting. The Korean DMZ already contains an estimated 1 million mines. (Yonhap)
Law and crime
- International Criminal Court investigation in Darfur
  - The International Criminal Court asks South Africa to arrest the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes when he arrives at the African Union summit. (AFP via Straits-Times
  - The High Court in Pretoria grants an interim order preventing the President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir from leaving South Africa, and postpones the application for his arrest to Monday 15 June, 2015 to allow the government more time to prepare. (News24) (News24)
Politics and elections
- Thousands of people march in Hong Kong to demand the Legislative Council reject a China backed proposal for the naming of candidates forChief Executive be done by a nominating committee. (Bloomberg)
Science
- The European Space Agency‘s Philae spacecraft wakes up after six months in hibernation as comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko gets closer to the sun. (BBC)
Sport
- In motor sport, the Porsche 19 team of Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Nico Hulkenberg wins the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. (Fox Sports)

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June 20, 2015

Top News Stories –

Dylann Roof: The Charleston killer’s racist manifesto –
The white supremacist accused of massacring nine black people in a Charleston church is believed to have written a hate-filled manifesto shortly before the killings and posed with a gun as he spat on and burned the American flag. Describing himself as the “Last Rhodesian”, 21-year-old Dylann Roof gave a chilling account of the racist anger that allegedly led him to open fire on unarmed worshippers in the Mother Emanuel church. He posted it on a website called The Last Rhodesian along with dozens of bizarre photographs of himself, posing with a handgun and a Confederate flag and, in another, spitting on the American flag. [Daily Telegraph]

Shane Warne: Women don’t believe it’s me on Tinder –
He has been named one of the cricketers of the century and Elizabeth Hurley was his sometime fiancée, but Shane Warne still appears to be on a sticky wicket when it comes to romance.T he 45-year-old former Australian international has downloaded Tinder, a dating app popular among twentysomethings, but most women he messages do not believe he is really the famous cricketer. He said he was not “trying to find the love of his life” through the app, but spoke of his loneliness at being “very, very single”. He has now been on two dates organised through the app, one of which was “OK”. “One was horrific,” he said. “It was just bad. Bad.” [Daily Telegraph]
Shane Warne

The Simpsons say divorce rumours are ‘baseless’ –
They are one of TV’s longest married couples, but of late there have been rumours that it’s divorce-ville for Homer and Marge Simpson. Not true, says the animated couple. In a video posted online, called Together Forever, Marge says: “Homie and I are here to address baseless rumours that we are going to split up.” The rumour-mill kicked in after Al Jean, one of the original writers of the show, said that there could be a legal separation for the pair. He made the comments in an interview with Variety magazine, which discussed various future storylines. Marge and Homer have been married for 26 series of the cult TV show. See Video of the Day [BBC Newsbeat]

Video of the Day –

THE SIMPSONS | Homer And Marge, Together Forever | ANIMATION on FOX

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#7YearsOfCampRock	#7YearsOfCampRock	#EndAusterityNow
2	#MeEnamorasCuando	#ROWYSOSydney	#WestEndLIVE
3	#NiallWeLoveYourVoice	#GoodBandNameBadFirstDate	Claude
4	#SabadoDeGanarSeguidores	Jack Hemmings	#7YearsOfCampRock
5	フォロワーA	Mitt Romney	#ROWYSOSydney
6	#EndAusterityNow	#thankyouNash	#NiallWeLoveYourVoice
7	Anitta Nós Te Amamos	#birdafilm	#birdafilm
8	#ExijoYAQue	#UFCBerlin	John Eustace
9	Boechat	Max Scherzer	Dolapo
10	#لو_بتالف_لنا_ك…	#AgeAMovie	James Salter

Other News Stories –

Attacks and armed conflicts
- Second Libyan Civil War
  - Dozens of ISIL militants are killed following a militia attack on the eastern city of Derna. ISIL has had a significant presence in Derna since the end of 2014. (Yahoo)
Law and crime
- In Slovakia, thousands of demonstrators rally against European Union plans to host asylum-seekers, and dozens are detained after they attacked spectators of a cycle race in the capital, Bratislava. (New York Times), (RT)
- Three people are killed and dozens more are injured as a man drives his car into a crowd in Graz, Austria. (AP via News24)
Politics
- Anti-austerity movement
  - Tens of thousands in London demonstrate anti-austerity protests outside the Parliament. (Reuters UK)
Sport
- In association football, the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup concludes in Auckland with Serbia defeating Brazil, 2–1, in the final. (AP via ESPN)
- In Major League Baseball, Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, one strike away from a perfect game, loses his bid when he hits thePittsburgh Pirates‘ José Tábata with a pitch. Scherzer retires the next batter to complete a 6–0 win and a no-hitter. (ESPN)

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June 21, 2015

Top News Stories –

India yoga: PM Narendra Modi leads thousands in celebration –
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led thousands in a mass yoga programme in the capital, Delhi, on the first ever International Yoga Day. Mr Modi did stretches, bends and breathing exercises with 35,000 school children, bureaucrats and soldiers. Security was tight in the city with thousands of police and paramilitary deployed for Sunday morning’s event. Millions of others are expected to do yoga at similar events planned in hundreds of Indian cities and towns. Mr Modi, a yoga enthusiast who says he practises the ancient Indian art daily, lobbied the United Nations to declare 21 June International Yoga Day. Authorities said 35,000 people attended the 35-minute yoga session on Rajpath, aimed at setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest yoga class at a single venue.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Taylor Swift pulls 1989 album from Apple Music –
Taylor Swift has pulled her hit album 1989 from Apple’s new streaming music service and criticised the company. In an open letter to Apple, Swift said she was withholding the record as she was unhappy with the three-month free trial offered to subscribers. “I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months,” she wrote. She said the plan was “unfair”, arguing Apple had the money to cover the cost. “I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company,” the 25-year-old said, describing Apple as one of her “best partners in selling music”. “These are not the complaints of a spoiled, petulant child. These are the echoed sentiments of every artist, writer and producer in my social circles who are afraid to speak up publicly because we admire and respect Apple so much,” she continued. “We know how astronomically successful Apple has been and we know that this incredible company has the money to pay artists, writers and producers for the 3 month trial period – even if it is free for the fans trying it out. “Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing.” She ended her letter by calling on Apple to change its policy, suggesting she would reinstate her album on the service if the company changed its mind. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Apple has yet to comment on the issue.
Taylor Swift

Video of the Day –

Remnants from Nate Atwater on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	FRASE DO MEU TÚMULO	#GoHomeDeray	Katie Hopkins
2	#FelizDiaDelPadre	#MyDadIn4Words	Broner
3	#HappyBirthdayLanaDelRey	Dads	#JamesBrokeTheDoor
4	#UnaVezEnPedo	Happy Fathers	Ramos
5	#NoEsTuPapaSi	#HappyBirthdayLanaDelRey	#FathersDay
6	레바 와카루	Chuck Todd	Daddy
7	파쿠리	#AndThenIWasAskedToLeave	#SummerSolstice
8	Dads	Father’s Day	#GetLoveMeSo
9	Jamaica	#FelizDiaDelPadre	#MyDadIn4Words
10	#BugünBabalarGünü	#SummerSolstice	#InternationalDayofYoga

Other News Stories –

Disasters and accidents

Ninety-four people die, and 45 others are hospitalized, after drinking moonshine in Mumbai (Bombay), India. (Reuters via News24)

Law and crime

Ten people are injured in a shooting at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania block party. (AFP via News24) (NBC Philadelphia)
One person dies and nine others are injured in a shooting at a block party on a basketball court in Detroit, Michigan. (AP via News24) (ABC News)
A Palestinian teenager is in police custody after he stabbed in the neck and critically injured a policeman in Jerusalem and then was shot by the same policeman. (YNet)

Politics

Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras makes a new offer for reforms which could signal a late deal in the country’s debt talks. (ITV News)

Sport

2015 U.S. Open (golf)
- In golf, American Jordan Spieth wins his second major championship of the year winning the U.S. Open by a stroke and becomes the first golfer since Gene Sarazen to win two majors before the age of 22. (The Guardian)

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June 30, 2015

June 30th 2015

Top News Stories –

1 second lie-in tonight –
At 11:59:59pm today, the clock struck 11:59:60pm a ‘leap second’ to compensate for the slowing of the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. The last time the world added a leap second, in 2012, major websites including Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp and LinkedIn were not being programmed to deal with an unexpected extra second and crashed. To avoid this Google have added fractions of a second to programmes over the last year, a technique known as a “leap smear”. Scientists at the the International Earth Rotation Service and Paris Observatory say this allows “Earth time” to catch up to “atomic time” and will be the 26th leap second since 1972. [BBC] See Top Twitter Trends

Hollywood couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner to divorce –
Hollywood couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner say they have made “the difficult decision to divorce”. The couple have been married since 2005 and have three children between the ages of three and nine. In a statement they said: “We go forward with love and friendship for one another and a commitment to co-parenting our children”. [BBC]
Ben Affleck

Apple Music Makes Debut With D.J. Carrying the Flag –
“Into the unknown we go,” the D. J. Zane Lowe said just after noon on Tuesday, as he began his first show on Beats 1, the Internet radio station that is a big feature of Apple’s new music service. As Apple Music opened on Tuesday — most listeners found it as part of an update of Apple’s mobile operating system — much of the attention turned to Beats 1, a live radio feed that in some ways functions as marketing for the entire service. Led by Mr. Lowe, who was born in New Zealand and became a top announcer on the BBC station Radio 1, Beats 1 is in some ways an old-fashioned radio station, with D. J.s, promotional recordings — “carts,” as they are in industry parlance, after the tape cartridges they used to fit on — and teases about new songs.
Zane Lowe tweet [@zanelowe]

Donna Karan Steps Down as Head of Iconic Brand –
In a major shift for American fashion, Donna Karan, the 66-year-old founder and chief designer of Donna Karan International, a brand that defined the way American working women dressed for decades, announced on Tuesday that she was leaving the helm of the house that bears her name. Ms. Karan will remain as an adviser to Donna Karan International, but devote more time to her Urban Zen line, which centers on wellness and artisanal goods, and its foundation. [NY Times]

Video of the Day –

Asking Siri 0 divided by 0 [See Top Twitter Trends – “Siri”]

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#CoolForTheSummerIn1Day	#HowToKeepYourGirlHappy	#leapsecond
2	#VentajasDeSerSoltero	#leapsecond	#HeatWave
3	#LeyMordaza	Siri	John Noakes
4	#TeenWolfSeason5	Apple Music	Siri
5	#FelizMartes	#AnnoyYourPartnerIn5Words	Congolese
6	Siri	#SummerACeleb	#AppleMusic
7	Apple Music	#SMDay	#mpconf15
8	#MeEnamoraQue	#AskBobby	#charitytuesday
9	#TeLaResumoEn3Palabras	Cookie Monster	#TeenWolfSeason5
10	新幹線	Misty Copeland	Kauto Star

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen
- Some 1,200 people escape from a Yemeni prison including al Qaeda members. (AP via TVNZ)

Business and economy

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
- Seven out of 57 countries defer joining the China-dominated bank. While most of them cite temporary procedural constraints at home, political reasons are involved with the case of the Philippines amid a territorial dispute with China in South China Sea. (The Wall Steet Journal), (The Philippine Star)
Greek government-debt crisis
- The Greek bailout program by the European Union ends today with Greece failing to make a payment to the International Monetary Fund.(AP), (AP) (AFP via The Australian)
British reinsurance broker the Willis Group announces a merger with American company Towers Watson to create an $18 billion company. (FT)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Indonesian military plane crash
- A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people onboard crashes in a residential area in the Indonesian city of Medan, resulting in at least 116 deaths. (AP), (BBC) (NBC News)
A man self-immolates aboard a Nozomi Shinkansen train running from Tokyo to Osaka; the man and another passenger die. Eleven others were reported injured. (NHK World)

Health

The Governor of California Jerry Brown signs a law making all children get vaccinations before being allowed to go to school or day care. (SFgate)

Law and crime

The Supreme Court of the Philippines asks the government to respond to a petition seeking to repeal a law banning same-sex marriage in the country. (Rappler)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016:
- New Jersey governor Chris Christie formally announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election. (CNN)

Science and technology

A leap second is added to the clock for the first time in 3 years. (BBC)

Sports

The United States defeats Germany 2-0 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to reach the Final of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. (CNN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

July 5, 2015

Top News Stories –

Greece votes ‘No’ and gambles its future –
Greek voters have delivered a defiant response to Europe. Political leaders and heads of government had lined up to warn the Greeks that a “No” vote would be a vote to leave the euro. It did not deter them. Indeed many voters seemed to revel in their resistance. The European Project is now facing its gravest crisis. [BBC]

USA beat Japan 5-2 in Women’s FIFA World Cup Final –
Carli Lloyd scored an incredible 13-minute hat-trick as the United States thrashed Japan to win their third Women’s World Cup title. In a repeat of the 2011 final, which Japan won on penalties, the Nadeshiko could not live with their stronger and quicker opponents, who went 4-0 up when Lloyd scored an astonishing third from the halfway line. The pulsating finale to an entertaining tournament was the highest-scoring final in the tournament’s history, and matched the highest scoring men’s final, when Brazil defeated Sweden by the same scoreline in 1958. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Carli Lloyd

Video of the Day –

List of the Day –

FIFA Women’s World Cup results [from Wikipedia]

Year	Host	Champions	Score	Runners-up	Third Place	Score	Fourth Place	Teams
1991	China	United States	2–1	Norway	Sweden	4–0	Germany	12
1995	Sweden	Norway	2–0	Germany	United States	2–0	China PR	12
1999	United States	United States	0–0 a.e.t. (5–4 pen)	China PR	Brazil	0–0 ^[A] (5–4 pen)	Norway	16
2003	United States	Germany	2–1 asdet	Sweden	United States	3–1	Canada	16
2007	China	Germany	2–0	Brazil	United States	4–1	Norway	16
2011	Germany	Japan	2–2 a.e.t. (3–1 pen)	United States	Sweden	2–1	France	16
2015	Canada	United States	5–2	Japan	England	1–0 a.e.t.	Germany	24

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#ToNoTwitterPq	Happy 5th of July	#greekreferendum
2	#QueLindoEstariaQue	#USAvJPN	Chile
3	デスノート	#dontjudgechallange	Messi
4	#Grefenderum	#ImThatGirlfriend	#UKBuyWorthIt
5	AGUANTE MESSI CARETAS	#YouMightBeARacist	#PutWalesinaFilm
6	Dragon Ball Super	#WeLoveYouHalsey	Argentina
7	#كم_رصيد_حسابك	#BadCharitiesToDonateTo	#YouMightBeARacist
8	#شي_مانستغني_عنه	#MakeAMovieMoreAmerican	Sanchez
9	Messi	Best 4th of July	#BritishGP
10	Vidal	Take Jackson Off the $20 Bill	#marr

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts

American-led intervention in Syria
- A United States bombing campaign against ISIL has killed at least 30 people in the Syrian city of Al-Raqqah. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Iraq War (2014–present)
- Iraqi government air strikes kill at least 73 people in the ISIL held cities of Ramadi and Fallujah. (Al-Jazeera)
War in North-West Pakistan
- A roadside bomb in North Waziristan kills at least three Pakistan Army soldiers and injures six others. (AFP via Daily Star)
Boko Haram
- A suicide bomber attacks a church in the Potiskum area of Nigeria‘s Yobe State, killing five and raising the toll of Boko Haram attacks for the past week to 200. (BBC) (DailyStar via AP)

Arts and culture

UNESCO adds more sites to the World Heritage List including the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park in the US city of San Antonio, Texasand Scotland‘s Forth Bridge. (My San Antonio), (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Over 1000 people in the Philippines are stranded temporarily by Severe Tropical Storm Linfa (Egay) as landslides occur in Palawan province.(GMA Network)
Canadian wildfires
- More than 60 wildfires start in the Canadian province of British Columbia over the weekend leading to several communities declaring a state of emergency. (CBC)
- Nearly 1,000 military personnel are sent to fight wildfires in Saskatchewan, (CTV)

Politics and elections

Greek bailout referendum, 2015
- Greek voters solidly rejected (61.3 percent) the latest austerity proposal of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and theEuropean Central Bank. (Sky News), (The Guardian) (Reuters)
- The Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and the President of France Francois Hollande call for an international summit of Eurozone leaders to discuss the next moves. (Bloomberg)
- The Greek opposition leader Antonis Samaras resigns as leader of his party, New Democracy; the new temporary leader is Evangelos Meimarakis. (To Vima)

Science and technology

A Russian space capsule reaches the International Space Station allowing resupply of provisions after the crash of the SpaceX space capsule last week. (CNN)

Sports

2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup
- The United States defeats defending champion Japan, 5-2, to win the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia,Canada. (BBC) (AP via Washington Post)
2015 British Grand Prix
- In motorsport, Lewis Hamilton wins the race for the second consecutive year with team mate Nico Rosberg finishing second. (News24)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 27, 2015

Top News Stories –

Facebook sets user record as more than 1bn people log on in single day –
Facebook has revealed that more than 1bn people used the site on Monday – the first time the social network has hit the milestone. Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the company in 2004 while studying at Harvard, said he felt “proud” that one-in-seven people on Earth logged on to the website during the day. The 31-year-old wrote in a post on Facebook:

Mark Zukerberg tweet
Although Mr Zuckerberg did not specify what had caused the rise in the number of users, the website has consistently attracted more followers. Last month Mr Zuckerberg revealed Facebook had 1.49bn monthly active users, up 13pc from a year earlier. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

LEVEL from joe pease on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The top ten most unexpected words added to the online Oxford dictionary [according to the Daily Telegraph]
1. manspreading (noun): the practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seat

2. awesomesauce (adjective): extremely good; excellent

3. bants (noun): playfully teasing or mocking remarks exchanged with another person or group; banter

4. fat-shame (verb): cause (someone judged to be fat or overweight) to feel humiliated by making mocking or critical comments about their size

5. Brexit (noun): a term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union

6. bruh (noun): a male friend (often used as a form of address)

7. cakeage (noun): a charge made by a restaurant for serving a cake they have not supplied themselves

8. fatberg (noun): a very large mass of solid waste in a sewerage system, consisting especially of congealed fat and personal hygiene products that have been flushed down toilets

9. Grexit (noun): a term for the potential withdrawal of Greece from the eurozone (the economic region formed by those countries in the European Union that use the euro as their national currency)

10. hangry (adjective): bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#1dfansaregorgeous	#NationalBurgerDay	#1dfansaregorgeous
2	Smelly Cat	#MakeSexAwkwardIn5Words	#MakeSexAwkwardIn5Words
3	#bieberisback	Smelly Cat	#NationalBurgerDay
4	#MeEncantaQue	#jetblackheart	#NameTheNextBoyBand
5	#1DayUntilWhatDoYouMean	#1dfansaregorgeous	#bieberisback
6	#jetblackheart	Darryl Dawkins	#jetblackheart
7	Derrick Rose	#BoringComicBookPlots	Smelly Cat
8	#D5ComingSoon	Usain Bolt	Spitman
9	#لو_قالوا_اختا�…	#NameTheNextBoyBand	#UCLdraw
10	コミュニケーショ��…	#ShesKindaHotEP	Kevin Nolan

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraq War (2014–present)
- Two generals of the Iraqi Army and 3 soldiers are killed and 10 wounded when an Islamic State suicide bomber detonates in northern Ramadi. (Los Angeles Times)
Gaza–Israel conflict
- In retaliation to a rocket attack on Southern Israel, Israel Defence Forces destroy a Hamas weapons manufacturing facility located within the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
The Government of India deploys the Army to the state of Gujarat after two days of caste-related violence results in seven deaths. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
War in Donbass
- Seven Ukraine servicemen have died and 13 were wounded in skirmishes with pro-Russian separatists in the past day. (Reuters)

Business and economy

Walmart will stop selling the AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles allegedly because of sluggish customer demand. (Reuters)
Panasonic will stop making lithium-ion batteries for phones and cameras in Beijing, China, with a cut of 1,300 jobs. The company will instead refocus on higher-margin products such as electric car batteries. (Reuters)
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ruling in the Browning-Ferris case uses an expanded definition of joint employer when determining if a parent company shares responsibility for workers hired by a subcontractor or franchisee. Democratic appointees on the panel split 3-2 with Republicans on this decision that upended the traditional arms-length relationship that had been in place since 1984. The Republican-controlled US Congress responded to arguments from businesses such as the International Franchise Association by adding another NLRB-related rider to the budget to block implementation of this latest ruling. Browning-Ferris can appeal the decision to a federal appeals court. The ruling could affect current unionization and pay efforts at McDonald’s franchises. (Wall Street Journal) (International Business Times), (Forbes) (Chicago Tribune) (Washington Post)
Oilfield services provider Schlumberger agrees to acquire construction company Cameron International in a $12.71 billion deal. (AP via Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- Two boats carrying migrants capsize off of the coast of Zuwarah, Libya, with hundreds feared dead. (BBC)
- Austrian police discover as many as 50 dead refugees in a truck. (Reuters)
A sinkhole in China swallows five people. (AP)
2015 Atlantic hurricane season
- Four people are killed on the Caribbean island of Dominica as a result of floods and landslides caused by Tropical Storm Erika. (WRAL)

Law and crime

David H. Murdock, the CEO and chairman of Dole Food Company, along with a fellow confidant, are ordered to pay $148 million for misleading directors and shareholders. (AP via Washington Post)

Politics and elections

Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou, the head of the Court of Cassation, is appointed as interim Prime Minister of Greece for the duration of the upcoming election. She is the first woman to hold the post. (AP via Roanoke)
Thousands of protesters joined a Guatemalan national strike Thursday demanding the resignation of President Otto Pérez Molina for corruption. Five of 13 cabinet ministers have resigned since Friday, and Tuesday, the Supreme Court unanimously approved a motion to impeach the president. (Bloomberg) (Bayou Buzz) (The Weather Space)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

September 7, 2015

Top News Stories –

Italian chess player ‘cheats’ using Morse code and spy pendant –
An Italian chess player has been expelled from one of Italy’s most important tournaments after he allegedly used Morse code and a spy pendant containing a hidden camera to communicate with an accomplice. Arcangelo Ricciardi entered the International Chess Festival of Imperia ranked 51,366 in the world, but astonished rivals as he breezed through the early stages of the competition to reach the eighth and penultimate round. Jean Coqueraut, who refereed the tournament in Liguria, northern Italy, said he began to suspect something was wrong early on in the competition. “In chess, performances like that are impossible,” he told La Stampa newspaper. “I didn’t think he was a genius, I knew he had to be a cheat.” Tournament organisers then asked the 37-year old to pass through a metal detector and a sophisticated pendant was found hanging around his neck underneath a shirt. The pendant contained a tiny video camera as well as a mass of wires attached to his body and a 4cm box under his armpit. Mr Ricciardi claimed they were good luck charms. It is thought the camera was used to transmit the chess game in real time to an accomplice or sophisticated computer, which then suggested moves for Mr Ricciardi through a series of signals received in the box under his arm. [Daily Telegraph] In August two Israeli men were accused by their team mates of cheating in international Bridge competitions.

SeaWorld will no longer accept stolen whales after plea from One Direction star, Harry Styles –
The SeaWorld marine park has announced it will no longer accept whales stolen from the wild after a barrage of criticism, most recently from Harry Styles of One Direction. In a concert in San Diego, which hosts one of SeaWorld’s attractions, the pop star urged fans to boycott the company. SeaWorld was heavily criticised in Blackfish, a documentary released in 2013. The company had been waiting for US government approval for the import of 18 beluga whales which were captured in Russia. Several of the whales were due to be taken to SeaWorld’s own facilities. But earlier this week, SeaWorld said it was no longer willing to receive them.
Harry Styles

Sam Smith tweets Bond theme tease featuring mysterious ‘Spectre ring’ –
Sam Smith has all but confirmed that he will sing the theme tune for the new James Bond film, Spectre. The singer tweeted a picture of a finger with a ring featuring the movie’s logo. He had been tipped for the soundtrack several times but previously denied any involvement in the project.
Sam Smith/Twitter

‘Biggest’ Stonehenge site discovered –
Archaeologists have found around 100 huge standing stones buried near Stonehenge. Experts think the discovery could be the ‘biggest’ prehistoric monument ever built in Britain. Using special equipment to scan below the Earth’s surface experts were able to find evidence of seventeen previously unknown wooden or stone structures. The results suggest Stonehenge – which is 5,000 years old – did not stand alone. Scientists think the newly discovered sites were related to Stonehenge. One big surprise the research found was traces of up to 60 huge stones or pillars – part of an ancient “super henge”, about 1.5km wide.[BBC]

Video of the Day –

No-A [Short Film]

NO-A [Short Film] from Liam Murphy on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#terörelanetolsun	#MakeAChefMadIn3Words	#MondayMotivation
2	Jimmy Morales	Dex Osama	Radio X
3	Dom Pedro	#MondayMotivation	#MakeAChefMadIn3Words
4	#GanasDe	#LaborDay	Kameda
5	#NoEsMentiraSiTeDigo	#SarahPalinMovieNight	#Carmichael
6	#اجمل_اسم_بنت	#BigLiesYouTellYourself	#DontBombSyria
7	Ruiz Mateos	#TheOneLineYouHateMost	Stonehenge
8	#DragMeDownPower	#ImHereForThe	Tony Hall
9	#LaborDay	Trump Is Right	Ghanaian
10	San Lorenzo	Stonehenge	Trainspotting 2

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Turkey–PKK conflict
- Turkish jets strike PKK militant positions across south-east Turkey and northern Iraq and deploy special forces to the Iraqi border following a deadly PKK attack which left at least 16 Turkish soldiers dead. (Reuters)

Business and economy

The patent office in India rejects Pfizer’s petition for a patent on an arthritis drug, tofacitinib, re-affirming their rejection of the same drug in 2011. The drug is a chemical reformulation of the active compound in the medicine and thus the Indian Patent Office says that the company would have to establish that the compound for which it is seeking a patent is therapeutically more effective than the active compound. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Five people are killed as a small plane crashes in the western part of the American state of Colorado. (USA Today)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- The President of France François Hollande agrees to take 24,000 refugees out of the estimated 100,000 per month expected to arrive. (AP via ABC News)
- Hundreds of people, tired of waiting for promised transportation, broke out from Hungary’s first migrant holding center near the Serbian border, past police overwhelmed by their numbers, to start the march north toward Budapest. The asylum seekers / migrants, now accompanied by groups of police, advanced along the edge of the main highway to the capital. (AP via Global News)
The United Kingdom House of Commons passes a planned referendum in the United Kingdom‘s continued membership in the European Union. (Reuters via Daily Mail)

Politics and elections

Trinidad and Tobago general election, 2015
- Voters in Trinidad and Tobago go to the polls for a House of Representatives election with the result too close to call. (Reuters)
During U.S. Labor Day holiday activities in Boston, President Barack Obama announces a new executive order requiring federal government contractors to offer workers seven days of paid sick leave per year. On July 1st, Massachusetts became the third state, Connecticut and California being the others, with similar requirements. (Washington Post) (Huffington Post)
In an education scandal in Egypt, a top student, Mariam Malak, says she’s a victim of corruption and fraud with the school or the examination board swapping her final exam papers with another pupil, thus assigning her a “Zero”-grade for each of the seven subjects. 40,000 online rally for her via a Facebook support page while another top student reporting the same complaint. (BBC)
Hungary’s Defense Minister Csaba Hende resigns amid the refugee crisis. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán immediately replaced Hende with a member of his Fidesz party, Istvan Simicsko. (UPI)

Science and technology

A bolide or meteor fireball explodes over the Thai city of Bangkok. (The Telegraph)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

October 6, 2015

Top News Stories –

Kentucky pet store worker nearly crushed to death by python –
A man working at a Kentucky pet store has been seriously hurt after a massive python he was feeding nearly crushed him to death. Police said they were called to Captive Born Reptiles and found the snake wrapped around the man. Terry Wilkens was not breathing when the officers pried the snake off him but he resumed breathing shortly afterwards, officers said. The python weighed about 125lb (56kg) and measured 20ft (6m) long. “It was only by the grace of God that one of the officers knew how to deal with snakes,” Newport Kentucky Police Chief Tom Collins told the Cincinnati Enquirer. Officer Gregory Ripberger grabbed the snake by its head and uncurled the python from Mr Wilkens. [BBC]
Jungle Carpet python

Instagram says @music is just the start for music on the app –
The boss of Instagram has said “it’s just a matter of time before music becomes even more dominant” on the app. Kevin Systrom’s social media site has just turned five. But he told Newsbeat: “We never knew music would take off in the way it did but now 25% of our top [most followed] accounts are music related”. In April, Instagram launched @music, which Kevin explained set out to “feature off-the-beaten path, hard-to-find accounts.” [BBC Newsbeat]

Author jailed for flashing after prostitute disputes small penis claims –
A serial flasher has been jailed after a woman appeared in court and gave a detailed description of his penis. Hinton Sheryn, 68, had denied he would get his penis out in public – because he was embarrassed it was “unusually small”. But officers managed to find a prostitute he used who came to court at the last minute and contested his claims. The female sex worker described his manhood and told Plymouth Crown Court it was a “normal” size. Her late intervention helped convict the successful author, who has now been jailed for 17 years after being convicted of 18 crimes. The former pop promoter was so notorious for exposing himself in the village near Plymouth, Devon, where he lived in the 1970s and 1980s he was known as “the flasher”. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

The New Microsoft Band: Live Healthier and Achieve More

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#NiallsNewGirlfriend	Rachel Dolezal	Theresa May
2	#EnTwitterSiempreEsta	#AllDayBreakfast	#NationalBadgerDay
3	Twilight	#SeeTheMomentWhen	#charitytuesday
4	Theresa May	#NiallsNewGirlfriend	#RAW
5	#MTVFanWars5SOSFam	#NewSpaceFacts	#IoDAC
6	Lolla	Twilight	#MTVFanWars5SOSFam
7	Lions	Victor Cruz	Busted
8	#شي_جميل_بحرف_ا…	#WildCard	#IsBritainRacist
9	#البنات_ايش_يا�…	Chantal Akerman	#IDSMurder
10	#HoyEstaPara	Chris Archer	#TravelTuesday

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- A hotel where Vice President of Yemen and Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was staying in Aden which was also being used as a de-facto military base by Arab coalition forces is hit by multiple explosions killing at least 15 coalition soldiers. Although theHouthis were first suspected and accused of being behind the attack, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has since claimed responsibility, marking the first attack on Arab coalition forces in Yemen by the extremist group. (CNN) (Al-Arabiyah News)
- In the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa, at least seven people are killed following a suicide-bomb attack on the al-Nour mosque. (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War, Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Russia’s pair of violations of Turkish airspace over the weekend do not look like accidents. Russia, which said it’s looking into claims of a second violation, reported the first violation lasted a few seconds and was due to poor weather. (BBC)
- Russian warplanes bomb Islamic State positions in the central Syrian city of Palmyra and in the northern Aleppo province, releasing videos that show them destroying 20 vehicles and 3 weapons depots. (Reuters)
- Turkey says its jets patrolling the Turkish-Syrian border were directly threatened by a Russian MiG-29 and later by an an anti-aircraft missile system which locked-radar on the Turkish jets. (Independent)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Russia says it would consider extending its air-strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria to Iraq if it receives such a request from the Iraqi government. Iraqi President, Fuad Masum has recently said he would welcome this assistance. (Reuters)
Boko Haram insurgency
- A Boko Haram attack near Lake Chad kills at least 11 Chadian troops while 17 Boko Haram militants are also reportedly killed in the fighting following the pre-dawn strike on Chadian army positions. (AFP via Yahoo)

Business and economy

The European Court of Justice decides an international agreement, generally known as a Safe Harbor rule, used by thousands of companies for moving people’s digital data between the European Union and the United States is invalid, effective immediately. The decision throws into doubt how global technology giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google can collect, manage, and analyze online information from their millions of users in the 28-member bloc. Decisions by this court, the highest legal authority in the EU, cannot be appealed. (The New York Times) (USA Today) (BBC) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Typhoon Mujigae (2015)
- Sixteen campers are missing in south China‘s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region following a flash flood in a camping reserve. (Xinhua)
October 2015 nor’easter, Hurricane Joaquin
- Thirteen people are reported to have died during this storm, 11 in South Carolina and two in North Carolina. At least 18 dams have breached or failed since Saturday. Communities downstream face a mass of water working its way toward the low-lying coast. (CNN)
- Hurricane Joaquin missed the East Coast but brought tropical moisture aimed directly at South Carolina. (ABC News)
2015 El Cambray Dos landslide
- The death toll from Thursday’s landslide in the Guatemalan village of El Cambray Dos increased to 152 with more than 300 people missing. No survivors have been found at the site. Search crews have found entire families who died huddled together and buried alive. The Guatemala’s National Disaster Reduction Commission, known as the Conred, declared the area uninhabitable. (BBC) (Reuters) (Press TV)

International relations

Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Israel destroys the homes of three Palestinian terrorists. Rassen and Udai abu-Jamal who committed the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack and Moatez Hijazi who committed the excavator rampage in Jerusalem during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.(Jerusalem Post)

Law and crime

2015 Burkinabe coup d’état
- Associated Press reports that coup leader General Gilbert Diendéré has been formally charged. (AP via ABC News America)
Former President of the United Nations General Assembly John William Ashe is charged with taking US$1.3 million in bribes from Chinese businessmen. (AFP via Channel News Asia)

Science and technology

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B. McDonald win the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of neutrino oscillations. (AP via Yahoo! News)

Sport

2015 FIFA corruption case
- South Korean FIFA presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon admits that he is facing charges before FIFA’s ethics committee but denies wrongdoing. (Reuters via Daily Nail)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

October 10, 2015

October 11, 2015

Top News Stories –

Shia LaBeouf Arrested For Public Intoxication –
Transformers star Shia LaBeouf has been arrested in Austin, Texas for public intoxication. A video on the TMZ website appears to show the actor in handcuffs as police put him in the back of a patrol car. Witnesses told the site the actor was acting bizarrely, running down the street, jaywalking and ignoring police warnings. The Austin City Limits music festival is currently taking place in the city. Records show the 29-year-old was booked into Travis County Jail on Friday night and later released. [Sky News]
Shia Labeouf

Japan: Citizens clamour for Tokyo disaster manual –
A manual to help people in Tokyo prepare for disasters has proved so popular that local officials have complained that they are being sold on the internet for profit. The 340-page Tokyo Bousai (“Disaster Preparedness Tokyo”) appears in a startling yellow cover, and 7.5m copies are being distributed free of charge to Tokyo residents. It’s currently available to download in Japanese and English from the city government’s website, but for those who still crave a physical copy of the manual, the Tokyo government is considering selling it at cost price. [BBC]
Tokyo Disaster Manual

Video of the Day –

Living Rivers – Surf from Epic Montana on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#WorldMentalHealthDay	#WorldMentalHealthDay	#WorldMentalHealthDay
2	#EsViernesY	#WhatIWantOnMyTombstone	#nonleagueday
3	#Ankaradayız	#JusticeOrElse	#25Millionaires
4	과자전	Ankara	#ZaynTaughtUs
5	#ZaynTaughtUs	Shia LaBeouf	Geoffrey Howe
6	タイバニ	#HamOrCheeseMovies	Jim Diamond
7	#TengoGanasDe	#ZaynTaughtUs	#AUSvWAL
8	게살버거	As Told By Ginger	#BBC4
9	#EBDabarkadsPaMore	#IHaveToRemindMyself	#5sosonchattyman
10	#Felices24Lali	#MillionManMarch	#grahamnorton

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Palestinian militants fire 3 rockets into Israel during the night after several violent riots throughout Israel and the West Bank. (BBC)
- Israeli security forces shoot dead two Palestinians aged 12 and 15 in protests along Gaza’s border fence. (Reuters)
- The death toll from Friday’s violence at the Gaza Strip border is now seven Palestinians. Of the 60 wounded, 10 were seriously injured. Massive riots managed to breach the border fence and enter Israeli territory and were dispersed by live fire. (Ynet News)
2015 Ankara bombings
- Twin bomb blasts in the Turkish capital Ankara near the main train station leave at least 97 people dead and over 400 wounded. The bombing occurred during a peace rally protesting the conflict between Turkey and the militant Kurdish PKK. (BBC),(CNN), (Sky News Australia)
Boko Haram insurgency
- Five suicide bombers target a village in Chad that is home to thousands of Nigerian refugees who have fled Boko Haram, killing at least 36 people. (AP)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The U.S. Department of Defense will make payments to families of victims of last week’s U.S. airstrike that struck a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz. At least 22 people were killed including 12 staff members and 10 patients, including three children. MSF says 33 people are still missing and presumed to have died in the fire. (Reuters) (NBC News) (AFP via ABC News)
Mali conflict
- Suspected jihadists attack Dioungani, a village in central Mali, killing a local official in front of his family. (AP)

Disasters and accidents

At least eight people have died in a major fire at a halting site for Irish travellers in the south of Dublin. (Irish Times)

International relations

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- China completes the construction of two lighthouses on the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea according to Chinese state media. The U.S. and the Philippines have opposed the construction efforts. (The Guardian)
North Korea holds a massive military parade in its capital, Pyongyang, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Workers’ Party of Korea rule in the country. (BBC)
Egypt–France relations
- During a state visit to Cairo by French prime minister Manuel Valls, Egypt officially signs a deal with France to purchase the two Mistral-class helicopter carriers that were originally destined for Russia but France refused to deliver due to the Ukrainian crisis. Russia will sell Egypt the helicopters originally intended for the ships. (Times of India)

Politics and elections

Over 100,000 people protest in Berlin against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership accord between the European Union and the United States. (RT), (DW), (CNBC), (France24)

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October 29, 2015

Top News Stories –

Jeremy Clarkson threatened with three years in jail as Argentina reopens Falklands row probe –
Jeremy Clarkson’s hopes of putting the infamous Top Gear Falklands row behind him were dashed last night after a court probe was reopened in Argentina. A judge in the southern city of Ushuaia had thwarted attempts to have the former BBC presenter charged with falsification in April after the controversial number-plate on the Porsche he drove was swapped ahead of a riot. But state prosecutors appealed Maria Cristina Barrionuevo’s decision not to press ahead with a full-scale criminal investigation against Clarkson and his ex-Top Gear team. Last night the probe was back on – and Clarkson and programme chiefs facing a worst case scenario of three years in prison – after three appeal judges sided with prosecutors and ordered Barrionuevo to reactivate the case. [Daily Telegraph] In March 2015 Russia’s army TV channel issued an offer to Jeremy Clarkson to present a motoring show, noting his interest in tanks, aircraft carriers and other hardware.
Jeremy Clarkson

Video of the Day –

Balmain x H&M

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#NationalCatDay	#NationalCatDay	Kids Company
2	#FelizJueves	#FocusTonight	#NationalCatDay
3	#GOPDebate	#24HoursTilFocus	#GOPDebate
4	#FocusTonight	Bob Ross	#24HoursTilFocus
5	Kobe	Ricky Rubio	#LDNPoppyDay
6	#DemiOnAMAs	#IdWinTheWorldSeriesOf	#FocusTonight
7	#ALDUB15thWeeksary	Andy Green	#Chilcot
8	#29EkimiBizYasatacağız	#TOPdebate	#NolanLive
9	#Promise	Kobe	#ReleaseTheHounds
10	#24HoursTilFocus	Deutsche Bank	British Gas

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- The death toll from a rocket attack on a camp containing members of an Iranian opposition group next to Baghdad International Airport rises to 23. (Jerusalem Post)

Art and culture

Adele‘s “Hello” beats Miley Cyrus‘s “Wrecking Ball” as the fastest video on Vevo to reach 100 million views and is also certified as the official Vevo Record holder. (The Daily Mail)
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, who has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for insulting Islam and for cyber crime, wins the European Union’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The Sakharov award ceremony will be held in Strasbourg, France on December 16, 2015 while the laureate remains imprisoned. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera) (EU)

Business and economics

The largest lender in Europe’s most robust economy, Deutsche Bank AG, will cut 35k jobs in an effort to counter falling profits. (WSJ)
Sony announces $278.2 million in net profits for the quarter ending Sept. 30, beating market expectations. (WSJ)
Google announces that Project Loon – to provide wireless access to four billion unconnected people around the globe in rural and remote areas via Internet-beaming helium balloons in the stratosphere – will be tested in Indonesia in 2016. Currently, one in three Indonesians are connected to the web, mostly via slow connections, in this 17,508-island archipelago of over 250 million people (and about 319 million mobile phones). The company, which also tested Loon-delivered internet in Chile, New Mexico(U.S.), and Sri Lanka, hopes to deliver LTE-speed to more than 100 million unconnected Indonesians in five years. (ZDNET) (AFP via Khmer Times) (AP via Chicago Tribune) (Google)

Disasters and accidents

European migrant crisis
- An extensive search is underway in the northeastern Aegean Sea off the Greek island of Lesbos for at least 34 people missing from a boat that sank yesterday. Some 242 people were rescued but eight died, five children, two men and a woman.(Reuters) (AP via Kathimerini)
- Britain’s Ministry of Defence says the Royal Navy has rescued 541 people this week as they scoured the Mediterranean Sea in operations to counter refugee smugglers. The HMS Enterprise, a survey vessel, rescued 439 migrants, and HMS Richmond, aType 23 frigate, rescued 102 migrants. The asylum-seekers were transferred to the Norwegian support ship Fiem Pilote. (AP via Houston Chronicle)
An engine burst into flames on a Dynamic International Airways Boeing 767 passenger jet bound for Caracas, Venezuela, while taxiing for takeoff at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (Florida, U.S.). A Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman said 15 people were taken to the hospital after the fire. There were 110 people, including crew, on board. (Reuters) (AP via Lompoc Record)

International Relations

Amnesty International accuses Australian border protection officials of illegally paying people smugglers and endangering lives in a bid to prevent boats of asylum seekers from reaching the country via Operation Sovereign Borders. Australia’s governmentrejects Amnesty’s report and denies any wrongdoing.(Sky News via Fox News) (International Business Times)(AI)
Saudi Arabia–United Kingdom relations
- British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says 74-year old Karl Andree, who was facing 350 lashes in Saudi Arabia after being caught with homemade wine in his car, will be released within a week. (Sky News) (The Telegraph)
South Sudanese Civil War
- A long-awaited report released by an African Union investigative team led by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo describes atrocities and the discovery of mass graves in South Sudan, citing government forces and their allies as responsible parties. (Al Jazeera America)
The European Union narrowly votes (285–281) to recommend that its 28 member nations drop criminal charges against Edward Snowden and protect him from U.S. extradition and to recognize him as a defender of human rights because of his revelations regarding U.S. and British spying. (UPI) (Foreign Policy)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations
- As a result of talks between U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and Chinese Commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy Admiral Wu Shengli about a U.S. warship’s transit with 12 nautical miles of China’s man-made islandsin the South China Sea, the United States and China agree to maintain dialogue and follow Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea protocols, according to a U.S. official. (Reuters) (The International News)
Lockheed Martin vice president of air and missile defense Mike Trotsky tells the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that the United States and South Korea are holding both formal and informal discussions on THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System deployment. South Korea’s Defense Ministry and the U.S. Department of Defense deny the report. (UPI) (Yonhap News)
The carrier USS Ronald Reagan, during a military exercise with South Korea in the Sea of Japan’s international waters, scrambled four fighter jets to intercept approaching Russian warplanes, according to the U.S. Navy. IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly said encounters such as these were common during the Cold War, subsided with its end but picked up again under current Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters) (CNN)

Law and crime

One-child policy
- China has decided to end its controversial one-child policy after 36 years. It is to be replaced by a new two-child policy. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera English)
The Oklahoma Department of Corrections says a drone carrying mobile phones, drugs, and hacksaw blades crashed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester before inmates could grab the contraband. This is fourth reported drone-attempt in theUnited States; the others were at prisons in Ohio, Maryland, and South Carolina. (Sky News) (UPI)

Politics and elections

The U.S. House of Representatives passes, by a vote of 266 to 167, a two-year federal budget that is both amenable to the White House and expected to pass in the Senate. (Defense News)
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election, October 2015
- The U.S. House of Representatives elects Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as the 62nd Speaker of the House replacing John Boehner of Ohio. (New York Times)
The Parliament of Moldova passes a no-confidence vote against pro-EU incumbent prime-minister Valeriu Streleț‘s cabinet amidst growing political turmoil in the country. (Seenews)

Science and technology

Astronaut Scott Kelly sets another record; this time for the single-longest spaceflight (216 days) by an American. His ISS year long mission is a scientific research project to study the health effects of long term spaceflight. Astronaut Michael López-Alegríaspent 215 consecutive days as Expedition 14 commander in 2006. Both are nowhere close to Valeri Polyakovs 437 days record. (NBC News) (NASA)
The United Nations‘ World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announces that, earlier this month, the Antarctic ozone hole widened to one of its largest sizes on record. A colder than usual stratosphere widened the hole to a peak of 28.2 million square km (10.9 million square miles). (USA Today via WTSP) (Reuters)

Sports

In artistic gymnastics, Simone Biles of the United States becomes the first female gymnast to win three successive all-around championships at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships held in Glasgow. (Reuters) (NBC News)

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November 3, 2015

Top News Stories –

Tin Man injured in Halloween fight with Scarecrow as Cowardly Lion runs off –
A man dressed as the Scarecrow managed to escape the police after allegedly punching his friend Tin Man in a Halloween bust-up. Police officers in Canadian state of Ontario responded to a call about a fight between revellers dressed as the characters from this Wizard of Oz this Halloween weekend. A lady dressed as Dorothy and two other women dressed as witches told the officers what had happened but the Tin Man decided not to press charges, police say. “Sometimes, our officers see things that are hard to believe,” South Simcoe Police said in a statement. “When they arrived on scene, they saw a man in costume as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, being treated by paramedics. “Three ladies, dressed as Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch, and the Wicked Witch of the East, told the officer that the Tin Man had been punched by his friend the Scarecrow. It added: “The Scarecrow didn’t have the brains to stick around, and ran away with the Cowardly Lion. “Turns out the Tin Man didn’t have the heart to lay charges against his friend, and refused to tell the officers anything. He was treated for minor injuries.” [Daily Telegraph]
The Wizard of Oz

Melbourne Cup 2015: Prince of Penzance the first 100-1 winner since World War II –
It was a historic Melbourne Cup in numerous respects. Not least was the price of the winner – Prince of Penzance – who saluted with Michelle Payne in the saddle at 100-1, making it the equal fourth biggest outsider to win Australia’s most famous horse race. No horse had won at triple-figure odds since World War II. Old Rowley in 1940 was the winner at $101, with Wotan in 1936 and The Pearl in 1871 the only other horses to have provided such value. Michelle Payne became the first ever woman jockey to win the Melbourne Cup. It has taken 155 years, but Payne, one of the youngest of the famous Payne racing family, has galloped into history with a stunning performance aboard the Darren Weir trained gelding. [Melbourne Age]
Michelle Payne

Google ‘smart reply’ will suggest answers for your emails –
Clearing your inbox is about to get a little faster, if you are using Google’s Inbox app. A new feature called Smart Reply will suggest short responses, based on the contents of an email. Google described how the app uses machine learning to “recognise emails that need responses” and suggest some options in natural language. The company also claims the feature will improve over time, learning from a user’s choices of response. Google made its experimental Inbox app available to all users in May 2015. It includes several features designed to make the process of using email more streamlined. [BBC Newsbeat]

Google Project Wing to introduce drone deliveries by 2017 –
Project Wing, the drone delivery service from Google’s parent company Alphabet, will launch commercially in 2017, the executive in charge of the project has announced. David Vos, the leader for Alphabet’s Project Wing, said on Monday that the company is in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the US about setting up an air traffic control system for unmanned aerial vehicles. The system will use mobile and internet technology to coordinate the drones at altitudes of up to 500ft (152m), with the aim of having a commercial business up and running in 2017, he told an air traffic control convention near Washington. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Italian Road Trip Honeymoon from Mike Matas on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#ThingsToLeakInsteadOfTheA…	#My3WordHappiness	#RedCups
2	Andrew Luck	#NationalSandwichDay	Peter Donaldson
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8	#الهلال_القادس…	The Warriors	Candy Crush
9	#CelebrityRestaurants	#ThingsToLeakInsteadOfTheA…	#My3WordHappiness
10	#انسحاب_المنتخ…	Jon Stewart	#sexontrial

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2014–15 India–Pakistan border skirmishes
- At least two Indian soldiers are killed after Pakistani forces opened fire along the de-facto border that divides Kashmir between the two countries. (BBC)
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports Russia conducted multiple airstrikes on ISIS-held Palmyra. (Air Force Times)
- Russia‘s Defence Ministry says the Russian Air Force has bombed 2,804 “militant targets” in Syria so far since beginning its military intervention in September. (The Daily Star)
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- ISIS claims responsibility for the deaths of two Syrian refugee activists who fled to Sanliurfa, Turkey, raising concerns about the group’s reach in countries outside of Syria and Iraq. Ibrahim Abdel Qader, a founder of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, and Fares Hammadi are said to have been killed by an acquaintance posing as a defector from ISIS. (New York Times)
- At least four people are killed and 15 injured in an ISIL attack in the Kurdish section of northern Iraq. (Al-Arabiyah)

Business and economics

British bank Standard Chartered announces that it will axe 15,000 jobs around the world as part of a restructure. (AFP via Manila Bulletin)
Takata Defective airbag recalls (2013-present)
- The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Japanese manufacturer of airbags Takata Corp. agree to a five-year consent decree where the company agrees to pay a civil penalty of $70 million dollars and faces as much as $130 million more in fines if it violates the settlement. Twelve automakers are ordered to speed up recalls that so far have only reached about a quarter of the affected cars. (Bloomberg) (USA Today)
- Honda, Takata’s biggest customer, announces it will not use airbag inflaters made by Takata Corp. for the driver or front passenger side in new Honda and Acura vehicles for any market, world-wide. (USA Today) (NASDAQ)
Volkswagen emissions scandal
- Volkswagen says it found faulty emissions readings for the first time in gasoline-powered vehicles, widening a scandal that so far had centered on diesel engines. (Bloomberg) (BizNews)

Disasters and accidents

At least seven people are dead and 35 others are injured as a bus overturns near Tula, Russia. (RT)
At least 30 people are killed and 35 injured after an overcrowded bus carrying passengers inside and on its roof veered off a mountain road in northwest Nepal. (USA Today)
2015 Southeast Asian haze
- Scientists report fires raging in Indonesia have hit Borneo’s orangutans particularly hard. Borneo is home to about 30 percent of the world’s wild orangutans, an endangered species. Smoke has already displaced many orangutans and caused health problems related to smoke inhalation, according to the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF). (Live Science)
2015 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
- Cyclone Chapala
  - “Ravaged by months of war, Yemen now gets battered by the first tropical storm on record to make landfall.” Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Chapala slams into Yemen’s central coast, with maximum sustained winds of around 140 kph (85 mph) — the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane. The storm floods coastal areas, brings down electricity lines and destroys houses, with severe threat of mudslides. Chapala is expected to pour over two or three years worth of rain, up to 300 millimeters (12 inches), in a single day. (CNN) (Abu Dhabi Media)

International Relations

China–United States relations
- In a Peking University speech in Beijing, US Pacific Command commander, Admiral Harry Harris, says the U.S. Navy’s freedom-of-navigation patrols in the South China Sea are routine operations intended to demonstrate respect for international law principles. Harris reiterated they should not be construed as a threat to any country while emphasizing America’s common ground with China. (South China Morning Post) (Bloomberg)
Libyan Crisis (2011–present)
- The New General National Congress (Libya Dawn) which controls the capital Tripoli, and much of western Libya, threatens to send ‘hundreds of thousands’ of refugees to Europe unless the European Union recognizes the Islamist-led government. (Daily Mail)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Japan–Vietnam relations
- Japan has delivered two more ships to Vietnam that will be refurbished into patrol boats. The ships, which arrived in the port city of Da Nang, are the second delivery of a 2014 deal in which Tokyo is to provide Vietnam with six used fishing vessels that will be converted into patrol boats for Vietnam’s coast guard in the South China Sea. (Voice of America)
European migrant crisis
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel announces a plan to register and distribute incoming refugees evenly throughout the European Union. Refugees would be stopped at EU borders, have their application processed, and then, if accepted, sent to one of the Union’s 28 member states. (UPI)

Law and crime

Pakistani journalist Zaman Mehsud is shot dead by two motorcycle-riding gunmen in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the country’s northwestern tribal region. According to a 2014 report, at least 56 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992. (UPI) (Xinhua)

Politics and elections

U.S. elections:
- Gubernatorial
  - In Kentucky, Republican Matt Bevin defeats Democrat Jack Conway and independent Drew Curtis with 52 percent of the vote to succeed term-limited Democrat Steve Beshear. (Fox News) (AP)
  - In Mississippi, incumbent Republican Phil Bryant easily wins re-election over Democratic, truck driver Robert Gray. according to the Associated Press. (AP via Huffington Post)
- State, city
  - Former five-term Bridgeport mayor Joe Ganim wins election to a sixth term as mayor of Connecticut’s largest city, topping the six other candidates in the poll. Ganim is, in American parlance, an “ex-con;” i.e., a Conviction on corruption charges|convicted felon. In 2003, He was convicted by a federal jury on 16 felony counts for racketeering, bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud, and tax evasion in an operation that also led to convictions of 10 of his associates. Ganim served seven years in federal prison; he was released from a Hartford halfway house in 2010. (Hartford Courant) (AP via CBSLocal.com)
  - Newcomer, businesswoman, and clinical psychologist Karen Weaver tops incumbent Dayne Walling in the non-partisan, Flint, Michigan, Mayor’s election. Flint, which is dealing with lead in drinking water, has been under State financial managementfor close to four full years, and is in the final stage where control will be returned to city officials. (AP) (Detroit News) (MLive Media)
- Ballot initiatives, referendums
  - In Ohio, a ballot initiative that would have established a legal oligopoly for the sale of recreational and medicinal marijuana is resoundingly defeated by voters, according to AP. (Los Angeles Times)
  - In Texas, the Equal Rights Ordinance that would have established nondiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people in Houston fails to win approval from voters. (AP via Washington Post) (Texas Tribune)
  - Voters in Denver’s suburban Jefferson County recall, by 64 to 36 percent, three conservative school board members who worked to weaken the local teachers union while boosting funding for charter schools and pushing through other market-driven policy changes. In Fall 2014, the conservative-led majority drew national attention when they wanted the AP U.S. history course to focus on citizenship and patriotism, while condemning civil disobedience and strike actions. (Washington Post) (AP via Huffington Post)
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issues a two-year investigative report finding the Palatine, Illinois, school district unfairly denied a transgender teenager — who was undergoing hormone therapy but had not undergonegender reassignment surgery — access to school facilities in violation of Title IX, that bars discrimination in federally funded education programs, causing her “isolation,” “ostracism” and at least one “tearful breakdown.” The school district has 30 days to reach an agreement with authorities or risk losing up to $6 million in federal funding and case-referral to the Department of Justice. The Washington Post report called this “The Palatine standoff”. (The Washington Post) (Chicago Tribune) (DOE report)

Sport

In Australian horse racing, Prince of Penzance wins the 2015 Melbourne Cup becoming the first 100-1 winner since World War II; Michelle Payne becomes the first female jockey to ride the winning horse. (Melbourne Age) (Huffington Post)

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November 4, 2015

Top News Stories –

Brazilian prison inmates using a mouse to courier drugs –
As prison guards in one of Brazil’s notoriously overcrowded and chaotic jails, the officers in Barra da Grota prison probably thought they had seen it all. But last week they saw something that shocked even their hardened heads: a mouse, they noticed, was being used by inmates to courier drugs. The animal was seen scurrying along the corridor with tiny bags of drugs tied to its tail, running between the cells. Gean Carlos Gomes, director of the central Brazil prison, 1,100 miles inland from Recife, said the mouse was being used as a “bridge” between cells. “They attached a hook to the mouse’s tail and then used it to carry the drugs and other goods from one cell to another,” he said. “When the animal arrived at its destination, the prisoner took the mouse and removed the hook from its tail.” [Daily Telegraph]

Vladimir Putin is Forbes magazine’s most powerful person in the world –
Vladimir Putin has been named the world’s most powerful person for the second year running by Forbes magazine. Of the 73 listed, 28 are billionaires. Thirty of the individuals are Americans. And only nine are women – the same number as last year. The 63-year-old Russian president has, unsurprisingly, retained his position at the top of the Forbes ranking of the world’s most powerful people. Forbes says the decision is made on the amount of money they control; the number of people they impact; their total spheres of influence; and how actively they wield their power. And in all areas Mr Putin has triumphed; he dominates one of the world’s largest countries, and his actions in Ukraine and Syria are changing the course of history. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day
Vladimir Putin

WARNING: Do Not Post Your Winning Ticket On Social Media –
Chantelle from Perth won $900 [Australian] by betting on 100-to-1 shot Prince Of Penzance in the Melbourne Cup yesterday… Like many punters around the country Chantelle celebrated the win by posting a selfie with her victorious ticket on Facebook. Little did Chantelle know, the photo of the barcode could be used at an automated machine to claim the cash – which is exactly what someone did. “To the low life who is obviously my friend on Facebook and used my photo to claim our winnings. You’re a massive dick. You ruined my day,” Chantelle wrote on Facebook. Chantelle told Triple M that police were able to track where the money was claimed and are confident of finding the person responsible. [Triple M]
Chantelle winning ticket Facebook post

Video of the Day –

Emirates: #HelloJetman
Armed with unguarded ambition and the vision to push boundaries beyond the unthinkable, Jetman Dubai and Emirates A380 take to the skies of Dubai for an exceptional formation flight.

List of the Day –

Forbes Most Powerful People Top Ten 2015 [Forbes]

Rank	Name	Organization	Age
#1	Vladimir Putin	Russia	63
#2	Angela Merkel	Germany	61
#3	Barack Obama	United States	54
#4	Pope Francis	Roman Catholic Church	78
#5	Xi Jinping	China	62
#6	Bill Gates	Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	60
#7	Janet Yellen	Washington, United States	69
#8	David Cameron	United Kingdom	49
#9	Narendra Modi	India	65
#10	Larry Page	Google	42

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	告白の日	#YouHadMeAt	#NationalStressAwarenessDay
2	#9DaysUntilMITAM	#NationalStressAwarenessDay	#GrantsNotDebt
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4	#احتجاج_الهلال…	#NerdyCountryMusic	Gerrard
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6	#NationalStressAwarenessDay	UC Merced	Dapper Laughs
7	Benzema	Hump Day	#IPBill
8	#MasterChefBR	McDavid	Ashley Young
9	#felizmiercoles	#MyStonerConfession	#TwitterHeart
10	Valbuena	Bayern	Chris Powell

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Kogalymavia Flight 9268
- Flights between the United Kingdom and the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh are suspended due to concerns of the British government that the crash was caused by an “explosive device”. (ITV)
- CNN reports that intelligence sources suggest that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant or an affiliate organisation planted explosives on the plane. (CNN)
- Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh airport chief Abdel-Wahab Ali is replaced; he is now an assistant to Adel Mahgoub, chairman of the country’s air transport service. (AP)
Kunduz hospital airstrike, Afghanistan War
- The United States says that last month’s airstrikes in Kunduz hit three locations, mistakenly including the Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) (MSF) hospital where at least 30 were killed. Afghan commanders, whose forces were actively engaged with the Taliban, requested the attacks. The Washington Post reports a warehouse and a mansion in two densely populated residential areas were “pulverized” without loss of civilian lives. According to residents, earlier their neighborhoods had been conflict zones, but no militants were there the time of the attacks. “Together, the three attacks raise questions about the quality and reliability of the intelligence that Afghan security forces are providing to their American partners, as well as U.S. decisions to act on that intelligence,” writes the Post. (Washington Post)
- Médecins Sans Frontières held memorials around the globe Tuesday, the one month anniversary of the bombing, to reaffirm their request for an independent investigation. U.S. officials resist an independent probe, pledging that the three investigations underway, by the Pentagon, NATO, and Afghan officials, will be thorough and transparent. Thomas Nierle, head of MSF Switzerland, told AFP that he had little hope the inquiries would ultimately see any wrongdoers punished. (The Hill) (DW Akademie) (AFP via Yahoo News)

Business and economics

Keystone XL Pipeline
- The United States State Department formally denies Calgary-based TransCanada Corporation’s request, made Monday, to pause the review of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. Reuters states this is expected to lead to the project’s rejection by theObama administration. (Reuters) (AP via Chicago Tribune)
Whole Foods, the Texas based food retailer, announces that it will buy back $1 billion of its shares, and increases its dividend. [1]

Disasters and accidents

Ash from Indonesia’s Mount Rinjani volcano closes Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport, the country’s third busiest. Nearly 700 flights are cancelled. Officials will re-evaluate the situation tomorrow. Mount Rinjani started spewing ash last weekend.(Reuters) (International Business Times)
2015 Juba plane crash
- A cargo plane crashes shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in Juba, South Sudan. 41 people have reportedly died. The five Armenian crew members were killed. (Reuters Africa) (RT) (Al Jazeera English) (AFP via Rappler) (Daily Mail)
2015 Lahore factory disaster
- A building collapses in the Pakistani city of Lahore resulting in at least 18 deaths, at least 75 injured and around 150 people still trapped. (AFP via France24) (Al Jazeera English) (BBC Online)

International relations

Cross-Strait relations, 2015 Ma–Xi Meeting
- The presidents of China and Taiwan are scheduled to meet in Singapore on November 7th, the first such meeting since the Chinese Communist Revolution. (New York Times) (BBC)
An Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Malaysia fails to agree on a joint communique following disagreement between China and other nations over the South China Sea. (AP)
South Korea and China agree to establish an emergency navy and military hotline. (UPI)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–United States relations, Malaysia–United States relations
- U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and his counterpart from Malaysia will visit the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) as it cruises in the South China Sea, this in the wake of China’s dismay over a U.S. Navy ship’s sailing in the vicinity of artificial islands constructed by China in the Spratly Islands. (Stars and Stripes)
European migrant crisis
- European Union president Donald Tusk and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfvén, in a joint news conference, announce Sweden will ask to transfer some migrants to other European countries under an EU relocation plan. Sweden has taken the highest number of asylum-seekers per capita in the 28-member bloc. (AP) (The Local)

Law and crime

UC Merced stabbing spree
- Police, at the University of California, Merced campus, shoot and kill a male student who went on a stabbing rampage that wounded four people. The University closed its campus, except for housing, and cancelled classes for Wednesday and Thursday. The school reported all of the wounded are expected to recover. (KGO) (UC Merced) (Los Angeles Times) (AP via Houston Chronicle)
Police have the gunman in custody and San Diego International Airport flights resume. The airport closed after police encountered a man with a high-powered gun shooting in a Bankers Hill apartment complex, east of the approach path to the airport. Also known as Lindbergh Field, the airport is frequently cited as one of the scariest because of its downtown location. (AP update) (Reuters) (Airfare Watchdog)
The Mexican Supreme Court, in a 4-1 decision, rules that people have the right to grow and distribute marijuana for their personal use. The decision challenges the country’s current substance abuse laws. Fox News Latino and The New York Times point out the ruling only covers the plaintiffs in one case, a group that wants to form a “Pot Club.” A precedent will be established if the court approves five similar petitions. (Fox News Latino) (Reuters)
James Tran of Sacramento County is arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide in the October 8 stabbing of Airman Spencer Stone near a bar in Sacramento California. Stone had helped foil the 2015 Thalys train attack but officials believe it was just a drunken bar fight. (MSN)

Politics and elections

Colectiv nightclub fire
- Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and his government resigns after tens of thousands took to the streets to protest over the Colectiv nightclub fire that killed 32 people. Mircea Dușa has been proposed to be installed as Acting Prime Minister.(Euronews) (BBC News) (The Guardian)
Canadian government
- Justin Trudeau is sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Canada along with his ministry. (Toronto Star)
- Trudeau announces an ethnically diverse cabinet which for the first time is equally balanced between men and women (15 each). (The Guardian)
Belizean general election, 2015
- Voters in Belize go to the polls with the United Democratic Party led by Dean Barrow hoping for a third consecutive term. (Voice of America)

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November 20, 2015

Top News Stories –

Indian Railways holds disabled recruitment drive on top floor – with no lifts –
A bid to recruit more disabled employees to work on India’s railways has ended in farce after test centres were set up on the top floors of buildings with no lifts or ramps. Many candidates who arrived at recruitment offices across India on Thursday either had to be carried or drag themselves up the stairs to their designated computers. Some were forced to abandon their applications entirely. [Daily Telegraph]

Vengeful surfer vows to eat the shark that bit him –
Don’t get on the wrong side of Allen Engelman – he has exacted the ultimate revenge on a shark that bit him. The Florida surfer was bitten by a shark, so the next day went out on a vengeful hunt. He killed a shark which he believes to be the same one that bit him. Not only did he kill it, but he now vows to eat it in order to punish the animal for the bite inflicted upon him. The surfer received 15 stitches, and from then on he was hell-bent on revenge. Him and his five-year-old son went back to the beach the following day and caught a shark with the same markings as the one which bit him. [Daily Telegraph]

New York follows UK in banning ‘hoverboards’ in public places –
New York has become the latest city to ban self-balancing scooters, known as “hoverboards”, warning that anyone caught riding them in public places could face a fine of up to $500. The two-wheeled electric vehicles, which use gyroscope technology to keep the rider upright, have exploded in popularity over the last few months – with celebrities including Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Lily Allen and Jamie Foxx all spotted riding them. However, according to the the New York City Police Department, hoverboards are prohibited by New York state law since they are considered “motor vehicles that cannot be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles”. [Daily Telegraph] October 21 2015 was the Back to the Future Day that featured real hoverboards

Video of the Day –

Blue Hue
Blue Hue

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#LatinGrammys2015	#Adele25	#HappyBirthdayMichael
2	#BuenViernes	Mali	#FridayFeeling
3	#HTGAWM	Phuc Dat Bich	#Adele25
4	Corinthians	#PerfectMomentIn4Words	#Mali
5	基本給	#ThanksgivingIn5Words	Blac Chyna
6	1 in the UK	#JessicaJones	#bbcqt
7	#HappyBirthdayJaxonBieber	Woodrow Wilson	1 in the UK
8	#Mali	#HappyBirthdayMichael	Eddie Jones
9	Hayırlı Cumalar	#TDOR	Katie Hopkins
10	#DosPalabras	Tyga	Baker Street

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Military intervention against ISIL
- Cyprus offers France the use of its airbase facilities to bomb the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. Cypriot airbases are being used by British and Canadian air forces. (The Guardian)
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
- Russian warships launch cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant positions in Syria‘s eastern Deir ez-Zor. Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoigu, reported over 600 terrorists were killed in the strikes. Video footage also emerged of Russian ground crew servicemen writing the words “For Paris” on bombs to be dropped on ISIL targets in a show of solidarity with France in the wake of the November 13 terror attacks that left 130 people dead in Paris. (RT)(Sky News)
2015 Bamako hotel attack
- Ten gunmen storm the five-star Radisson Blu Hotel in the Malian capital Bamako, taking 170 hostages with at least 27 people killed. The grenade-toting assailants free captives who are able to recite the Quran. The hotel is “often used” by Air Francestaff. (France 24), (NBC News), (The New York Daily News), (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
- Mali security forces launch an assault on the gunmen and all surviving hostages are freed. (UPI) (BBC)
- Mali declares a 10-day state of emergency following the attack. (i24 News)
- African militant jihadist organization Al-Murabitoun and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claim responsibility. (CNN) (Reuters).
Xinjiang conflict
- Chinese security forces have killed 28 members of a supposed terrorist group in the mainly ethnic Uyghur Xinjiang region. (BBC)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- Officials report three people died in the Saint-Denis raid. The body of a second woman is found at the apartment where a woman and Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud were killed. (Sky News)
- The French Senate approves President François Hollande’s request to extend the state of emergency until the end of February 2016. The National Assembly passed the three-month extension yesterday. (AP) (Radio France Internationale)
- Fugitive ISIS gunman Salah Abdeslam called three friends saying he is hiding in the Brussels area and is desperately trying to get to ISIS territory in Syria. He said local ISIS members are unhappy with him since he failed to detonate his suicide vest. His brother Mohamed Abdeslam has publicly pleaded with Salah to turn himself in. (ABC News)
A newly released ISIS video threatens attacks on the White House in the U.S., monuments in France, U.S. President Obama, French President François Hollande, and targets in Italy. (Reuters) (CNN)
Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Two attacks on security checkpoints by ISIS militants in Yemen‘s historic Shibam town and Al Qatn District in the central Hadhramaut Governorate leave at least 15 pro-Hadi government soldiers dead. (The National)

Art and culture

A New York City businesswoman, who wanted to bring a “grander scale” to her yearly charitable giving, bought a toy store’s entire inventory to donate to homeless kids. (UPI)
The world’s second-largest diamond of gem quality, Karowe AK6, is found in the Karowe mine located north of the Botswanan capital Gaborone by the Lucara Diamond Corp. The 1,111-carat diamond is second only to the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond (Star of Africa) found in South Africa in 1905. (Forbes)

Business and economy

Britain’s National Union of Journalists announces a strike against the Financial Times, protesting the changes in pension arrangements since the acquisition of the FT by a Japanese media group, Nikkei. (BBC)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia shut their borders to so-called economic migrants, those not coming from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq, leaving thousands stranded at Balkan border crossings. Around 500 migrants fromIran, Morocco, and Algeria gather on the border between Greece and Macedonia to protest the closure. (The Irish Independent)
- European Union ministers, in light of the attacks in Paris last week, gather in Brussels for an emergency security summit on the need to strengthen border checks on travelers. (AFP via NDTV)
- French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said some of the Paris attackers exploited Europe’s refugee crisis to “slip in” to France unnoticed. Valls warns the passport-free Schengen zone is at risk if Europe fails to “take responsibility” over border controls. (Sky News)
North Korea–South Korea relations
- North Korea and South Korea agree to hold talks next week. (Yonhap)

Law and crime

Sweden‘s national security service Säpo are questioning terrorist suspect Moder Mothama Magid, a 22-year-old Iraqi, who is accused of planning to launch a terror attack on the Swedish capital Stockholm. (Local)
The family of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust only to languish in a Russian prison, have asked authorities to officially declare him dead. (Times of Israel)
The United States releases on parole convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, who served 30 years in federal prison. His parole, approved on July 28, 2015, is for five years during which time he has to remain in the United States. A supporter said Pollard will have a curfew and will wear a GPS unit. (The Globe and Mail) (The Globe and Mail-2)
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pollard’s lawyers, two Democratic members of Congress from New York, Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler, and others have requested Pollard be able to travel immediately to Israel so he can live with his family. The White House has said it has no intention of altering the conditions of Pollard’s parole. (The Globe and Mail)
The U.S. Justice Department files criminal charges against three individuals and three companies–Black Elk, Grand Isle Shipyard and oil field services company Wood Group–in connection with a 2012 oil platform incident in the Gulf of Mexico that left three workers dead. The charges range from manslaughter to violations of the federal Clean Water Act. (UPI)
USPlabs and S.K. Laboratory are indicted following a U.S. Department of Justice investigation finds synthetic ingredients manufactured in China were added to workout boosters and weight-loss products the firms claimed to be natural. Supplements from these companies were previously implicated in consumer illnesses and death. Several other defendants from the companies face additional charges. (Military Times)

Politics and elections

New Zealand flag referendum
- The first stage of the voting process to potentially select a new flag of New Zealand starts. (BBC)

Science and technology

NASA orders its first commercial crew mission from private company SpaceX. (The Verge)
A jury in a Texas federal court finds for Apple Inc., in a lawsuit brought against Apple by a subsidiary of Pendrell Corporation. Pendrell has charged that Apple infringed patents on techniques that help restrict the use of web content to authorized persons, i.e.anti-piracy software. (Reuters)

Sport

Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who has two Olympic gold medals and 30 world records, told Sky News she is going to fight for what she believes to be her right to compete at the 2016 Olympics. She calls on the IAAF, at the world governing track and field organization’s annual meeting on 26 November, to rescind their ban on clean Russian athletes. (Sky News)
In association football, Corinthians win their sixth Campeonato Brasileiro Série A title with four games remaining of the season. (Yahoo! via AFP)

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November 22, 2015

Top News Stories –

Yahoo stops some users accessing emails in ad-blockers row –
Yahoo has confirmed that it is preventing some people from accessing their email if they are using ad-blocking software in their browser. Some users in the US reported that Yahoo Mail was displaying a message asking them to disable their ad-blocker before they could access their inbox. Yahoo said it was testing a “new product experience” in the US. Members of one ad-blocking forum said they had already managed to circumvent the restriction. [BBC]

Moroccan solar plant to bring energy to a million people –
A giant plant using energy from the Sun to power a Moroccan city at night will open next month. The solar thermal plant at Ouarzazate will harness the Sun’s warmth to melt salt, which will hold its heat to power a steam turbine in the evening. The first phase will generate for three hours after dark; the last stage aims to supply power 20 hours a day. It is part of Morocco’s pledge to get 42% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. The UN has praised Morocco for the level of its ambition. The UK, a much richer country, is aiming for 30% by the same date. The Saudi-built Ouarzazate solar thermal plant will be one of the world’s biggest when it is complete. The mirrors will cover the same area as the country’s capital, Rabat. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Action Cam | Tony Hawk Skates First-Ever Horizontal Loop | Sony

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#Elecciones2015	#AMAs	Lord’s Prayer
2	Celal Şengör	#ThatsWhyHeGotWhacked	#marr
3	夫婦の日	#SurvivorSeries	#UFCMonterrey
4	Ohio State	Canelo	Jonathan Ross
5	R.I.Paramore	Turkish Airlines	#CottoCanelo
6	#زد_رصيدك9	#AskRicky	Liverpool
7	#الاتحاد_الاهلي	#UFCMonterrey	#MOTD
8	#FelizDiaDeLaMusica	#ICouldGoForSome	Will Hutton
9	#جني_يراسل_راق�…	Ariana	#COYS
10	#SeTermina2015YYo	Eagles	#XFactor

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2015 Nepal fuel crisis
- Nepalese police open fire on groups, who were protesting the new constitution proposals by blockading a highway. Two protesters were killed and at least 28 were hurt, including 15 police officers. A third protester was killed in Rajbiraj, the headquarters of the Saptari District. (AP via WTOP) (Singapore Today Online)
Insurgency in the North Caucasus
- Russian special forces kill 10 ISIS-linked militants in a counter-terrorist operation in a mountainous region near the city of Nalchik in Russia’s North Caucasus. (RT)
2015 Brussels lockdown
- Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel announces Brussels remains on the highest state of alert; concern a new, Paris-style mass attack may be imminent. (EuroNews)
- Belgian authorities announce 16 more arrests in anti-terror raids. Neither weapons nor explosives were discovered during the raids. Tomorrow, a judge will decide whether these people will continue to be detained. (Fox News) (Reuters via Yahoo News)
- The Canadian government announces its embassy in Brussels will be closed “until further notice” and will only be providing emergency consular services. (CBC)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Salahuddin campaign
  - Daesh (Islamic State) militants counter-attack in Iraq’s Saladin province and seize locations west, north and south of Baiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery. In addition, the militants attack oilfields west of Tikrit, capture parts of the town of Seiniyah, portions of Mak’houl Mountain, and an abandoned fertilizer plant. (UPI)

Business and economy

United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- The UK may not face a credit rating downgrade if it votes to leave the EU in a referendum due by the end of 2017, according to the lead UK analyst at Moody’s. (Irish Examiner)

Disasters and accidents

Hpakant jade mine disaster
- The death toll in a landslide near a jade mine in northern Myanmar rises to about 100 people, with up to 200 others missing. Most of the victims were villagers digging for jade in a mountain of displaced earth. (Reuters) (AP via Boston Globe)
A Turkish Airlines plane flying from New York City (U.S.) to Istanbul, Turkey, is diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, after authorities received information of a bomb threat. All 256 passengers and crew are safe. The flight (Turkish Airlines TYH2/TK2) leftJFK International Airport at 9 p.m. Saturday and landed just before 1 a.m. Sunday at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating. (NBC News) (International Business Times)
- No explosives were found. The plane is cleared to continue its journey. (Reuters)
Sixteen (16) people are wounded in a gunfight between two groups that erupted in a New Orleans park’s Bunny Friend playground where hundreds of people gathered for a block party and filming of a music video. No fatalities were reported. The fighters ran from the park immediately after the shooting. (Reuters) (NOLA.com)

International relations

The ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agree to set up an economic community to commence on January 1, 2016. (AP)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin says the United States was making political provocations with its patrols in the disputed South China Sea. He also says China is building military facilities on islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of its national defense policy. Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama said, for the sake of regional stability, countries should stop building artificial islands and militarizing their claims in this sea. (The Nation Multimedia) (Reuters) (Oracle Herald)

Law and crime

Bangladesh executes two former members of parliament, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, who were convicted in 2013 of war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence. (BBC) (Washington Post)
Iranian Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei says an Iranian court sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian to a prison term, length unspecified, for espionage. Mohseni Eje said, “I cannot give details.” Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl said this might move the case closer to a final resolution in the judiciary, so it can then go to Iranian leaders who can make things right. (Reuters) (Washington Post)

Politics and elections

Argentine general election, 2015
- Voters in Argentina go to the polls for a presidential runoff between Daniel Scioli of the ruling Justicialist Party and Mauricio Macri of the opposition PRO. Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, was elected with 53% of the vote. (AP via theWashington Post) (BBC). (BBC)
Former President Kim Young-sam, who formally ended decades of military rule in South Korea, dies in a Seoul hospital from a severe blood infection. He was 87. (AP via NBC News)
Egyptian parliamentary election, 2015
- Voters in many parts of Egypt including Cairo go to the polls for a parliamentary election. (AP)

Science and technology

Nola, a 41-year-old female northern white rhino, dies at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. She was euthanized after her health took a turn for the worse. Nola was rescued from violent poaching in the southern savanna woodlands of Sudan and came to the park in 1989. Only three animals of this endangered species are known left in the world. (ABC News) (San Diego Union Tribune) (F&F Photography-2014)

Sports

In motorsport, Kyle Busch wins the 2015 Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to become the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. He missed the first 11 races of the season with a broken leg and foot, becoming the first champion not to start the complete season since 1971. 4-time champion Jeff Gordon, who has scored the third-most NASCAR Cup wins of all-time, finishes in 6th position in his final race before retirement. (USA TODAY)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

November 24, 2015

Top News Stories –

Angry Cheryl Fernandez-Versini takes legal action over ‘white powder’ bathroom picture –
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini has taken legal action to prevent the publication of a photograph in which she is seen next to a white powdery substance in a public lavatory. The X Factor judge was photographed by a fashion journalist who posted the picture on Instagram after the 2015 British Fashion Awards at the London Coliseum on Monday night. The image was later deleted, but lawyers for the Girls Aloud singer have sent a warning letter to media companies not to use the picture. Taken in the reflection of a mirror, the picture shows Mrs Fernandez-Versini washing her hands with other women either side of her, with three lines of a white powder on a glass shelf in front and slightly to the side of her. [Daily Telegraph]
Cheryl Fernandez-Versini

Jeff Bezos’ space company does world first in landing reusable rocket –
[As promised in September 2015] Jeff Bezos’ privately-funded space company Blue Origin announced a historic first today – it successfully landed a fired rocket back on Earth after an unmanned flight to space. Bezos announced the compelling test flight video on Twitter – the first time he has ever tweeted – calling the achievement the “rarest of beasts.” In this test flight, the rocket separated itself from the New Shepard vehicle, which flew to an altitude of 93km on Monday, at almost 4 times the speed of sound. Usually, the rocket would have fallen back to Earth and been unable to complete any more flights. “Rockets have always been expendable,” Bezos wrote in blog post about the landing. “Not anymore.” In this case, it was guided towards a launchpad on Earth where it slowed down and landed, intact. This means the rocket can be re-used for subsequent flights, which companies like Blue Origin claim will make spaceflight far less expensive. [Daily Telegraph] See Video of the Day
Jeff Bezos

Video of the Day –

Historic Rocket Landing

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#MentirasMasUsadas	#ThanksgivingWithBlackFami…	#CharityTuesday
2	#ThanksgivingWithBlackFami…	#RuinAnOldSaying	World War III
3	#NadaMejorQue	Johnny Manziel	Alan Johnson
4	#GRAMMYs	#4thPrecinctShutDown	#1in5Muslims
5	#شي_جميل_يبداا_…	#LaquanMcDonald	Christmas Eve
6	Zayn e Gigi	#GRAMMYs	#6YearsOfOneTime
7	Turquía	David Canary	#Trident
8	#24KasımÖğretmenlerGünü	#6YearsOfOneTime	Rusev
9	Su-24	#ThanksgivingClapBack	#TravelTuesday
10	#VideoMTV2015	Russian	#GRAMMYs

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Sinai insurgency
- November 2015 Sinai attack
  - A day after the second round of parliamentary elections closes, militants attack a hotel housing election judges in the provincial capital of al-Arish in Egypt’s North Sinai. At least seven people are killed and 12 others injured, including two judges. The Islamic State’s Wilayat Sinai branch claims responsibility. (Reuters) (Eyewitness News)
Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, 2015 Russian Sukhoi Su-24 shootdown
- Turkish F-16 fighter jets shoot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft that had allegedly infringed its airspace near the Syrian border. Russia’s Ministry of Defence denies the Su-24 entered Turkish airspace and initially said it was shot down by ground fire over Syria’s Latakia Governorate. A video emerged of one pilot killed as local rebel Turkmen fighters shot at him while he was parachuting and a video of his body, while the fate of the other pilot is unknown but is presumed dead. A combat search and rescue mission by Russian forces failed to reach them. It is the first time a NATO member has shot down a Russian plane since the 1950s. (Irish Independent) (BBC) (The Telegraph)
- A Russian military helicopter is destroyed on the ground by a U.S. TOW missile used by Syrian rebels after it was forced to make an emergency landing in northern Latakia. (Reuters)
- A Russian marine is killed by rebel gunfire while on a mission to rescue the crew of the downed Su-24 near the Syrian-Turkish border, Russia’s Defence Ministry confirms. (BBC)
- Russian President Vladimir Putin says there will be “serious consequences” for Russia–Turkey relations following Turkey‘s actions, and describes the incident as a “stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists”. Russian government agencies began limiting Russian tourists from traveling to Turkey. (Independent)
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns everyone to “respect the right of Turkey to defend its borders,” says that the reason why worse incidents have not taken place in the past regarding Syria is because of the “cool-headedness of Turkey” and stresses that Turkey’s actions are fully in line with the new rules of engagement that the country adopted after Syria shot down a Turkish jet in 2012. (BBC)
- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu defends the action saying Turkey has the right “to take all kinds of measures” against border violations as a “national duty,” but that it did not amount to an aggression against any foreign territory and the country called for NATO to hold an extraordinary meeting later in the day.(AFP via The Express Tribune)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- A car-bomb kills five guards at a checkpoint east of the Libyan capital, Tripoli. (Channel News Asia)
Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
- An explosion on a bus carrying Tunisian Presidential Guard personnel in Tunisia‘s capital Tunis leaves at least 15 people dead, as the country’s government declares a state of emergency. (Independent)

Arts and culture

Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 people including Willie Mays, Barbra Streisand, Itzhak Perlman, James Taylor, Gloria Estefan and Emilio Estefan, Stephen Sondheim and Steven Spielberg. (New York Times)

International relations

United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- According to an opinion poll, a majority of British citizens now want the United Kingdom to leave the European Union as voter anxiety rises over the bloc’s handling of a crisis provoked by an influx of migrants into Europe. A referendum on the United Kingdom’s EU membership is scheduled to take place before the end of 2017. (Reuters)
European migrant crisis
- Sweden will introduce tighter border controls and asylum rules in a bid to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering the country. Sweden expects up to 190,000 asylum seekers to reach its borders this year and says its reception system cannot cope. “The situation is untenable”, according to Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven who told reporters, “to put it bluntly, more people will have to seek asylum and get protection in other European countries”. (Reuters)
- Germany starts deporting unsuccessful asylum seekers to the Balkans. (Reuters via Thomson Reuters Foundation)

Law and crime

A military court in Bangkok charges two men Adem Karadag and Yusufu Miefaili with offences related to the 2015 Bangkok bombing. (Al-Jazeera)
A bomb blast at the Hellenic Business Federation offices in central Athens, Greece, damages the Cypriot Embassy across the street. While there is yet no claim for responsibility the authorities suspect a domestic guerrilla group set off the blast. (Reuters)
Shooting of Laquan McDonald
- Chicago, Illinois police officer Jason Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder for the October shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a black teenager. The charge comes one day before the release of the police video showing the shooting. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel meets with community leaders to discuss the video’s release and the potential ramifications for the city. (CNN)
2015 Roubaix shootings
- At least one person is killed after a group of armed men took people hostage in the northern French town of Roubaix near the Belgian border. The hostages are thought to be a bank director and his family. French police say the incident may be related to a robbery and not to the November 2015 attacks in Paris. (Irish Independent)

Politics and elections

U.S. reactions to November 2015 Paris attacks
- The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sues Indiana Governor Mike Pence over his decision to block Syrian refugees from resettling in the state. The ACLU, on behalf of Indianapolis-based nonprofit Exodus Refugee Immigration, accuses Pence of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution by accepting refugees from other countries but not those from Syria. The decision also caused some financial harm to Exodus when a family of Syrian refugees, scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on December 10 after a three-year wait, had to be diverted to Connecticut. (AP via Miami Herald) (Indianapolis Star) (USA Today)
Antonio Costa, the leader of the Socialist Party, is named as the Prime Minister of Portugal. (Reuters)
Echoing criticisms of the U.S. intelligence community in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Derek Harvey, a former U.S. intelligence official, says that the U.S. intelligence community is failing in its assessments of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Another unnamed source says the U.S. intelligence community is “playing catch up“ regarding efforts to monitor ISIL activities in the U.S. These, following reports that U.S. Central Command intelligence analysts were instructed to give favorable spin on anti-ISIL efforts. (The Telegraph) (Fox News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

December 28, 2015

Top News Stories –

Man dies after blowing up condom machine, says German police –
A man died on Christmas Day in Germany after he was hit in the head by a flying piece of metal from a condom machine that he and two accomplices blew up in an apparent robbery attempt, police said on Monday. The 29-year-old man was taken to hospital in the western town of Schoeppingen, near the Dutch border, by the two other men who fled the scene of the explosion in a car, leaving behind condoms and money scattered around the gutted vending machine. The two men told hospital officials that their friend had fallen down the stairs, injuring his head. Suspicious of their story, the officials called the police. During questioning, police said, one of them admitted that the three had blown up the condom machine. Police said the three men apparently got into a car after triggering the explosion, but the 29-year-old did not close his door and was hit by debris when the machine exploded. [Daily Telegraph]

Lemmy, Motorhead frontman, dies aged 70 after cancer diagnosis –
Motorhead frontman Lemmy has died aged 70, two days after learning he had cancer, the British band has announced. Lemmy formed the rock group in 1975 and recorded 22 albums, including Ace of Spades, as he became one of music’s most recognisable voices and faces. The band said on its Facebook page: “Our mighty, noble friend Lemmy has passed away after a short battle with an extremely aggressive cancer.” Lemmy was born Ian Fraser Kilmister in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1945. He lived in Anglesey, Wales, as a child and acquired the nickname Lemmy while at school, although he claimed to have had no idea where it came from. [BBC]
Lemmy in 2005

Game of Thrones tops list of 2015’s most pirated shows –
For the fourth year running, fantasy series Game of Thrones has topped a list of the most pirated TV shows. According to Torrentfreak, the season five finale was illegally downloaded 14.4m times. More than half of those came in the week after its US premiere. The Walking Dead and The Big Bang Theory rounded up the top three, with 6.6m and 4.4m downloads respectively. Earlier this year, Game of Thrones broke a record when more than 258,000 users shared the show simultaneously. The HBO drama was mainly downloaded on BitTorrent. [BBC] Last year Game of Thrones was only downloaded 8.1 million times.
Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones)

Video of the Day –

FINAL from Carmel Joy on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Google Trends 2015 –
Top Searches – People

1 Lamar Odom

4 Adele

6 Ruby Rose

8 Sia

10 Jeremy Clarkson

Source: Google

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SegundaComOClubeSDV	#HappyBirthdayNash	#AndThenThereWereNone
2	#زد_رصيدك45	#DiaDeLosInocentes	#ontopictalkshow
3	#DiaDeLosInocentes	#mondaymotivation	#MissYouNash
4	#PSYMadamIsBack	Meadowlark Lemon	#OLIC2
5	#FelizLunes	#MusicMonday	Ellsworth Kelly
6	#من_اسباب_سعادتي	#OhNoHarrysHair	#mondaymotivation
7	#OhNoHarrysHair	#SOOMPIAWARDS2015	#HarryPriceGhostHunter
8	#DinahIsOurQueen	#MilitaryBowl	#ProductPlacementFilms
9	#ALDUBBestOf2015	#UAALLAMERICA	#dragonsden
10	#НасосДляИнст�…	#DoctorStrange	#Homeland

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- At least 32 people are killed and 90 injured following a car bomb and suicide-bomb attack in the al-Zahra district of the Syrian city of Homs. (Reuters)
- Under a United Nations agreement, vehicles are set to ferry scores of insurgents from rebel-held Al-Zabadani to Turkey. Families from two besieged Shi’ite towns in the mainly rebel-held Idlib province are also headed to the border and will eventually fly on to Beirut. (Reuters) (Raidió Teilifís Éireann)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A car bomb near Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, that was targeting a NATO convoy passing through the area, kills one civilian and injures 33 others. The Taliban claim responsibility. (AFP via Yahoo News) (Reuters via NBC News)

Business and economics

Whole Foods agrees to pay $500,000 to resolve a New York City Department of Consumer Affairs investigation that the supermarket chain charged too much for some prepackaged foods at its New York City stores. (NBC News) (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

Queensland, Australia, authorities say the estimated amount of sulphuric acid leaked from Sunday’s 26-carriage Aurizon freight train derailment near Julia Creek to 31,500 liters. The train was carrying 819,000 liters, not 200,000 liters as originally thought.Flinders Highway remains closed in both directions. (Sky News) (ABC Australia)
2015 Shenzhen landslide
- A Chinese official who sanctioned a dump of construction debris that led to a deadly landslide in the southern city of Shenzhen that killed at least 7 people and has left over 70 missing, kills himself by jumping from a building in the city’s Nanshan district, according to the South China Morning Post. (TIME)

International relations

Japan–South Korea relations
- Japan and South Korea agree to ‘irreversibly’ resolve a long-running dispute over Korean women the Japanese military used as sex slaves during World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe will issue a formal apology to the so-called “comfort women.” Tokyo will set up an aid fund of about 1 billion yen ($8.3 million). (USA Today) (Reuters)
European migrant crisis
- Germany recruits 8,500 teachers to provide special German language lessons for 196,000 Syrian child refugees. (The Independent) (CNN)
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
- Eleven tons of enriched uranium are on a ship heading from Iran to Russia, per the July 14th international agreement. Iran delivers 200 tons of Russian yellowcake in return. The International Atomic Energy Agency will decide when Tehran has complied with its obligations which would make dismantling of economic sanctions possible. (AP) (BBC) (Mehr)

Law and crime

A police officer storms the police headquarters in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, and shoots dead three fellow officers, including a commanding officer. Authorities say Guarionex Candelario, 50, was arrested for the killings shortly afterwards and taken to hospital for minor injuries. (NY Daily News)
A U.S. grand jury decides not to bring charges against a Cleveland policeman over the killing of 12 year old Tamir Rice. (BBC)
Guatemalan Gustavo Alejos Cambara, once private secretary to former President Álvaro Colom, turns himself in to authorities on charges related to government medicine procurement corruption. (AP)

Politics and elections

Polish constitutional crisis, 2015
- The leader of Poland‘s Democracy Defence Committee, Mateusz Kijowski, says the government has “broken the country” after Polish President, Andrzej Duda, enacted a measure curbing the powers of the country’s highest legislative court, theConstitutional Tribunal, despite protests and warnings from the European Union. Kijowski further called for foreign intervention in the country from “Europe and the United States” to topple the Law and Justice (PiS) government, saying “they must help us, otherwise Poland will leave the community of democracies”. After news broke that Duda had signed into law the constitutional tribunal bill, he made a speech on television defending his move. Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza quoted U.S. sources saying Barack Obama had objections and had let it be known he would delay meeting Duda. The newspaper also suggested Poland’s hosting of the next NATO summit, planned for July 2016, was in the balance. (The Guardian)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

January 5, 2016

Top News Stories –

German carpenter invents on-off contraception switch for sperm –
A German carpenter has invented a valve which he claims will revolutionise contraception, by allowing a man to turn the flow of sperm from his testicles on and off at the flick of a switch. Clemens Bimek told Spiegel magazine the idea first came to him some 20 years ago, when he was watching a television documentary about contraception, and wondered whether it would be possible to control the flow of sperm with a simple valve. When he discovered that no one had ever filed a patent for such a device, he decided to develop his own. “Many of the doctors I consulted didn’t take me seriously. But there were some who encouraged me to go on tinkering and helped me with their expertise,” Mr Bimek said. Now the valve he has developed is to be implanted in 25 men in trials – starting this year. [Daily Telegraph]

Cricket record: Pranav Dhanawade hits 1,009 in school match –
An Indian teenager scored more than 1,000 runs in a single innings to set a new world record in school cricket. Fifteen-year-old Pranav Dhanawade broke the previous record of 628 set by Arthur Collins in 1899 on Monday. But he continued his innings in the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament and reached 1,009 runs. He smashed 59 sixes and 127 fours in 395 minutes before his KC Gandhi School declared the innings at 1,465 against Arya Gurukul School on Tuesday. [BBC]
Sachin Tendulkar tweet

‘Anti-IS group’ claims BBC website attack –
A group that says it targets online activity linked to so-called Islamic State (IS) has claimed it was behind an attack on the BBC’s website. All the BBC’s websites were unavailable for several hours on New Year’s Eve after what a BBC source described as a “distributed denial of service” attack. The group, calling itself New World Hacking, said it had carried out the attack as a “test of its capabilities”. In a tweet to BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, the group said: “We are based in the US, but we strive to take down Isis [IS] affiliated websites, also Isis members. “The reason we really targeted [the] BBC is because we wanted to see our actual server power.” Earlier, New World Hacking had said: “It was only a test, we didn’t exactly plan to take it down for multiple hours. Our servers are quite strong.” [BBC]

Video of the Day –

The Wire from Elliot Lim on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#TEENWOLF5BTODAY	#NationalBirdDay	#NTA2016
2	#TercaDetremuraSdv	#ElCambioComienzaHoy	Coachella
3	#زد_رصيدك53	#TooColdTuesday	Tyga
4	#ElCambioComienzaHoy	#TEENWOLF5BTODAY	#HousingBill
5	#PSYBringBackAngYna	#BillyManziel	LCD Soundsystem
6	#NocheDeReyes	#StopGunViolence	#SilentWitness
7	#FelizMartes	#BadStarWars8Names	Troy Deeney
8	Página 5 de 366	#LArain	#WheresRey
9	#ご利益のある人ラ�…	Brian Urlacher	#pointswestlive
10	#ALosReyesLesPido	#TWUG	#FatCatTuesday

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A United States Army soldier is killed and two others wounded in a joint operation with Afghan National Security Forces in Afghanistan‘s southern Helmand Province. (Washington Post)
2016 Kaliachak riots
- Violent riots break out in Kaliachak, West Bengal, India, after political activist Kamlesh Tiwari allegedly insulted the Muslim prophet Muhammad. (Times of India)
Nimr al-Nimr
- One Shia protester is killed and a child is injured by Saudi police in Al-Awamiyah, Eastern Province. (FT)
Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
- Islamic State militants continue to besiege the Libyan oil port of Sidra, attacking checkpoints on the road to the port, leaving seven guards dead. The National Oil Corporation (NOC) said an oil storage tank in the port was set on fire by a long-range rocket, and that the oil tank fire started just as firefighters were close to bringing under control another blaze at an oil tank that was hit during fighting in the nearby Ra’s Lanuf Refinery on Monday. (Reuters)
The Islamic State, following Saudi Arabia’s execution of 47 people on Saturday, threatens to destroy the Saudi’s Tarfiya and al-Ha’ir Prisons holding Al-Qaeda and ISIL supporters. (Reuters) (Daily Mail)

Disasters and accidents

A bus catches fire in the Chinese city of Yinchuan resulting in at least 14 deaths and over 30 injured. (AP via Fox News)

Environment

2015–16 North American winter
- Droughts in the United States
  - California’s state climatologist Michael Anderson mentions that the recent El Niño-fueled storms will put a dent in the ongoing drought, but not end the conditions citing larger reservoirs that are still below normal. (USA Today)
- 2014–16 El Niño event
  - Back-to-back-to-back storms from the current El Niño, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says ties the strongest on record (1997–98), are likely to produce dangerous flooding and mudslides in the Western United States with as much as 15 inches (30cm) of rain, and about 2 feet (60cm) of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains over the next two weeks. (UPI) (NBC News)

International relations

Syrian Civil War
- Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir says the country’s recent tensions with Iran will not interfere with Syrian peace talks scheduled to begin in Geneva, Switzerland, later this month. (Reuters) (The Washington Post)
China-Taiwan Relations
- China says flights from the Chinese cities of Nanchang, Kunming, and Chongqing, will be allowed to stop at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport before flying to a third destination. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou applauded this step toward normalizing relations between the two states. Taiwan’s opposition party expressed concern that Beijing is trying to interfere with the country’s January 16, 2016, presidential and legislative elections. (Reuters) (The Straits Times) (Central News Agency)

Politics and elections

Reform of the People’s Liberation Army in China:
- The Second Artillery Corps is re-organized into the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force.
- The People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force is founded, with Gao Jin as its inaugural commander and Liu Fulian as Political Commissar.
- The Ground Force is re-organized under the People’s Liberation Army Ground Force Command, under commander Li Zuocheng. (SCMP)
Former Beijing Deputy Communist Party Secretary Lu Xiwen is expelled from the Communist Party of China for “interfering with the market economy and law enforcement” and “living a luxurious lifestyle”, among other offenses. (SCMP)
United States presidential election, 2016
- On January 18, 2016, the British Parliament will debate a petition, signed by more than 560,000 people, calling for the Home Secretary to ban United States Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump from entering the United Kingdom because of ‘hate speech‘ that is unacceptable behavior, non-conducive to the public good. The conclusion reached by the lawmakers will not be binding on the UK government. (The Washington Post) (AP via The Washington Post)
United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- The United Kingdom‘s Prime Minister David Cameron announces he will suspend collective responsibility ahead of the referendum on the country’s EU membership, allowing ministers to campaign for the UK to leave the European Union. A member of his cabinet was reportedly due to resign over the issue within 24 hours. (The Telegraph)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

February 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Taylor Swift disses Kanye West at the Grammy Awards during her acceptance speech –
Taylor Swift’s 1989 has won the coveted album of the year award at this year’s Grammys in Los Angeles. The singer – who is the first woman to win the award twice – also won best pop vocal album and best music video for her track Bad Blood. Swift dissed Kanye [West] during her acceptance speech at the Grammy Awards. She’s the first woman to win album of the year twice and said it was for “all the young women out there”. She said: “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.” Her speech appears to be in response to Kanye West’s lyric from his new album where he claims to have made Taylor Swift famous. [BBC]

In January 2016 Swift won the Peoples Choice Award for best female artist. In November 2015 she was sued for allegedly stealing the lyrics for her song “Shake it off”. Also see List of the Day.
Taylor Swift

Stephen Fry quits Twitter, saying ‘fun is over’ after Bafta spat –
Bafta show host Stephen Fry has confirmed he has left Twitter declaring “the fun is over”. He faced criticism online after comparing costume designer Jenny Beavan to a “bag lady” when she picked up her Bafta for Mad Max: Fury Road. The presenter later insisted Beavan was a “dear friend” and had “got” the joke. Fry said he has not “slammed the door” on Twitter but said the site had become a “stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous”. Writing on his official website, he said people needed to “grieve” for what Twitter had become, writing: “I like to believe I haven’t slammed the door, much less stalked off in a huff throwing my toys out of the pram as I go or however one should phrase it. “It’s quite simple really: the room had started to smell. Really quite bad.” [BBC]

In January 2015 Fry married his 27 year old partner Elliot Spencer
Stephen Fry

Hollywood hospital held to ransom by hackers –
Ransomware is a growing menace for computer users – but when a hospital is targeted, it makes the disruption far more serious. Computer systems at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center have been offline for more than a week following a ransomware attack. According to local news sources, hackers were said to have demanded $3.4m (£2.4m) to provide the codes to unlock the stolen data. The hospital has confirmed the attack took place, but has not commented on the ransom. A voicemail message at the hospital reassures patients that medical records had not been accessed by the hackers. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Indoor Snowstorm Prank!!

List of the Day –

Grammy Award winners 2016

Album of the year
Winner: 1989 – Taylor Swift
Sound & Color – Alabama Shakes
To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
Traveller – Chris Stapleton
Beauty Behind The Madness – The Weeknd

Best new artist
Winner: Meghan Trainor
Courtney Barnett
James Bay
Sam Hunt
Tori Kelly

Best rock album
Winner: Drones – Muse
Chaos And The Calm – James Bay
Kintsugi – Death Cab For Cutie
Mister Asylum – Highly Suspect
.5: The Gray Chapter – Slipknot

Best rock performance
Winner: Don’t Wanna Fight – Alabama Shakes
What Kind Of Man – Florence & The Machine
Something From Nothing – Foo Fighters
Ex’s & Oh’s – Elle King
Moaning Lisa Smile – Wolf Alice

Record of the year
Winner: Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars
Really Love – D’Angelo and the Vanguard
Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Blank Space – Taylor Swift
Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd

Song of the year
Winner: Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran & Amy Wadge
Alright – Kendrick Duckworth, Kawan Prather, Mark Anthony Spears & Pharrell Williams (Kendrick Lamar)
Blank Space – Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift
Girl Crush – Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose (Little Big Town)
See You Again – Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz (Wiz Khalifa)

Best pop vocal album
Winner: 1989 – Taylor Swift
Piece By Piece – Kelly Clarkson
How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence & The Machine
Uptown Special – Mark Ronson
Before This World – James Taylor

Best pop solo performance
Winner: Thinking Out Loud – Ed Sheeran
Heartbeat Song – Kelly Clarkson
Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding
Blank Space – Taylor Swift
Can’t Feel My Face – The Weeknd

Best traditional pop vocal album
Winner: The Silver Lining: The Songs Of Jerome Kern – Tony Bennett & Bill Charlap
Shadows In The Night – Bob Dylan
Stages – Josh Groban
No One Ever Tells You – Seth MacFarlane
My Dream Duets – Barry Manilow

Best music video
Winner: Bad Blood – Taylor Swift Featuring Kendrick Lamar
LSD – ASAP Rocky
I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) – The Dead Weather
Alright – Kendrick Lamar
Freedom – Pharrell Williams

Best dance recording
Winner: Where Are U Now – Skrillex and Diplo with Justin Bieber
We’re All We Need – Above & Beyond Featuring Zoe Johnston
Go – The Chemical Brothers Featuring Q-Tip
Never Catch Me – Flying Lotus featuring Kendrick Lamar
Runaway (U & I) – Galantis

Best R&B performance
Winner: Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) – The Weeknd
If I Don’t Have You – Tamar Braxton
Rise Up – Andra Day
Breathing Underwater – Hiatus Kaiyote
Planes – Jeremih Featuring J. Cole

Best R&B album
Winner: Black Messiah – D’Angelo And The Vanguard
Coming Home – Leon Bridges
Cheers To The Fall – Andra Day
Reality Show – Jazmine Sullivan
Forever Charlie – Charlie Wilson

Best urban contemporary album
Winner: Beauty Behind The Madness – The Weeknd
Ego Death – The Internet
You Should Be Here – Kehlani
Blood – Lianne La Havas
Wildheart – Miguel

Best country album
Winner: Traveller – Chris Stapleton
Montevallo – Sam Hunt
Pain Killer – Little Big Town
The Blade – Ashley Monroe
Pageant Material – Kacey Musgraves

Best country song
Winner: Girl Crush – Hillary Lindsey, Lori McKenna & Liz Rose (Little Big Town)
Chances Are – Hayes Carll (Lee Ann Womack)
Diamond Rings And Old Barstools – Barry Dean, Luke Laird & Jonathan Singleton (Tim McGraw)
Hold My Hand – Brandy Clark & Mark Stephen Jones
Traveller – Chris Stapleton

Best metal performance
Winner: Cirice – Ghost
Identity – August Burns Red
512 – Lamb Of God
Thank You – Sevendust
Custer – Slipknot

Best rap album
Winner: To Pimp A Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
2014 Forest Hills Drive – J. Cole
Compton – Dr. Dre
If You’re Reading This Its Too Late – Drake
The Pinkprint – Nicki Minaj

Best music film
Winner: Amy – Amy Winehouse
Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown – James Brown
Sonic Highways – Foo Fighters
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Nina Simone
The Wall – Roger Waters

Best song written for visual media
Winner: Glory – Lonnie Lynn, Che Smith & John Stephens (Common and John Legend)
Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey) – Ahmad Balshe, Stephan Moccio, Jason Quenneville & Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd)
Love Me Like You Do – Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Tove Nilsson, Ali Payami & Ilya Salmanzadeh (Ellie Goulding)
See You Again – Andrew Cedar, Justin Franks, Charles Puth & Cameron Thomaz (Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth)
Til It Happens To You – Lady Gaga & Diane Warren

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#VoltaAsAulasNoClubeSDV	#MondayMotivation	#HSBC
2	#SintoSaudadeDe	Mark Zuckerberg	#MentalHealthTaskforce
3	#علشان_الناس_ت�…	#GRAMMYs	#IThinkItWouldBeGreatIf
4	#FelizLunes	#PresidentsDay	#mondaymotivation
5	#النصر_الاهلي	Louis and Danielle	Mark Zuckerberg
6	#DolceAmoreSweetBeginning	Stephen Fry	#TheWalkingDead
7	#PresidentsDay	#IThinkItWouldBeGreatIf	#MyFirstLoveIn4Words
8	#ALDUBSigawNgPuso	How America Was Lost	Joel Matip
9	#ŞudaBirGerçekKi	#IConstantlyStruggleWith	#Deutschland83
10	#ايقاف_حساب_دا�…	#Daredevil	#AddINGtoAMovie

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War, Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- A Turkish soldier is killed following a clash on the Syria–Turkey border with an armed group trying to enter Turkey illegally. The Turkish military says the clash occurred in the Yayladağı district of the Hatay Province. (Reuters)
- Médecins Sans Frontières reports that an air strike has destroyed a hospital in the Idlib Governorate of northwest Syria, with seven people killed and at least eight people missing, presumed to be dead.(AFP via Yahoo News), (MSF)
- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu accuses Russia of acting as a “terrorist organization” in Syria, saying “If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organization and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response”. (Israel National News)
- The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces take control of Tell Rifaat in the Aleppo Governorate after pushing back mostly Islamist rebel fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.(AFP via Yahoo! News)
Kashmir conflict
- India imposes a curfew in some parts of Kashmir following a general strike being called by separatists to protest the death of two protesters. (The New York Times)
Insurgency in the North Caucasus
- A car bomb kills two policemen at a checkpoint in Russia‘s republic of Dagestan. (Reuters)
Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
- Cross-border shelling from Yemen kills a Saudi border guard in the Jizan Region. (AP via ABC News)

Arts and culture

The 58th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. (Entertainment Weekly)
- Ed Sheeran wins the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “Thinking Out Loud“. (ABC News Australia)
- 1989 by Taylor Swift wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Swift is the first female artist to win the award twice. (Huffington Post), (Courier Mail)
- Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars wins the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. (Huffington Post)

Disasters and accidents

The bodies of nine Indian Army soldiers killed in an avalanche on the Siachen Glacier will be transported to Delhi. (IBN Live)
Authorities in the Chinese city of Tianjin after an inquiry into the explosions last year found that the chemical plants were too close to residential areas. (AP)
Three South Korean Army soldiers die after a Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter crashes in the city of Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. (Town Hall)

International relations

Russia–Ukraine relations
- Ukraine bans Russian cargo trucks from transiting its territory after Russia’s Ministry of Transport barred Ukrainian cargo trucks because armed groups had been blocking some Russian trucks from entering Ukraine. (Reuters)
Enlargement of the European Union
- Bosnia and Herzegovina formally applies to join the European Union. (BBC)

Law and crime

Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert starts a 19-month prison sentence for bribery and obstructing justice. In the last decade, he was found or admitted guilty in four different corruption investigations.(AP via Yahoo! News)
Two German intelligence officers are suspected of having given money to Al Qaeda in 2010. (Sputniknews) (Berliner Morgenpost)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

March 8, 2016

Top News Stories –

‘Fifth Beatle’ Sir George Martin dies, aged 90 –
Record producer Sir George Martin, known as the “fifth Beatle”, has died, aged 90. His family thanked “everyone for their thoughts, prayers and messages of support” after his death at home on Tuesday, his manager said. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr broke the news on Twitter and led tributes, saying Sir George “will be missed”. Sir George signed the Beatles and produced more than 700 records. He also worked with artists including Gerry and the Pacemakers, Shirley Bassey and Cilla Black. [BBC]
George Martin in 2006

‘Le burger’ now top selling dish in French restaurants, new study reveals –
For the guardians of French gastronomy, the prospect of being served something as unsophisticated as a slab of mincemeat with a bap and slice of cheese would long have been considered sacrilegious. Today, however, the tables have turned. In a culinary revolution, three quarters of French restaurants now sell hamburgers and 80 per cent of these say it has become their top-selling dish, according to a new study. “Le burger” – as the French dub the quintessentially American invention to the despair of linguistic purists of the Académie Française – has become a feature of even the most illustrious eateries. Indeed, such is its success that sales are set to overtake those of the classic “jambon beurre” (ham and butter baguette), the nation’s staple lunchtime sandwich. Last year, the French chomped their way through 1.19 billion burgers, an 11 per cent rise on the previous year, while “le jambon beurre” fell to 1.23 billion. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

A History of Rock in 15 minutes.
348 rockstars, 84 guitarists, 64 songs, 44 drummers, 1 mashup.

History of Rock from Ithaca Audio on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#InternationalWomensDay	#InternationalWomensDay	#2DaysTilDangerousWoman
2	#FelizDiaDeLaMujer	#SheInspiresMe	#BadSexIn3Words
3	#8MartKadınlarGünüMesajım	#2DaysTilDangerousWoman	#InternationalWomensDay
4	#اسم_ولد_جميل	#SJR39	#CharityTuesday
5	#يوم_المراه_اا�…	#FelizDiaDeLaMujer	#traveltuesday
6	秒速5センチメートル	#WeirdThingsICantUnderstand	#YMS16
7	#ALDUBTheProposition	#cameheretoforget	#WeirdThingsICantUnderstand
8	#HAPPYSUGADAY	#BadSexIn3Words	#SaySomethingGoodAboutTwitter
9	#JourneeDesDroitsDesFemmes	#ACCTourney	#CASPARLEEBOOK
10	#FelizDiaDasMulheresClubeSDV	#Rainmaker16	Justice for Johnson

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- Mortar shells fired from Syria kill at least one person and injure another in the Turkish border town of Kilis. (Reuters)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Three terror attacks are reported that result in the deaths of four Palestinians and an American tourist with 12 Israelis wounded, including two Israeli policemen, as United States Vice President Joe Bidenarrives in Israel for a two-day visit that includes meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. (AP via WWTV) (AP via ABC News) (CNN)
- The deceased American is Taylor Force, a West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer from Lubbock, Texas, who was in the first year of a MBA program at Vanderbilt University. Force was part of a 33-person Vanderbilt group that was in Israel to study global entrepreneurship. (CNN) (Houston Chronicle)
Spillover of the Libyan Civil War
- Tunisia‘s army and security forces kill another five suspected terrorists in an operation near the Libyan border. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Military intervention against ISIL
- The United States military says ISIL’s so-called minister-of-war, Abu Omar al-Shishani, né Tarkhan Tayumurazovich Batirashvili, appears to have been killed in a U.S. air strike near the town of Al-Shaddadi in Syria. (Reuters via msn.com)

Arts and culture

International Women’s Day is celebrated. The International Women’s Day theme for 2016 is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. (The Washington Post)

Health and medicine

Zika virus outbreak (2015–present)
- The World Health Organization cautions pregnant women against traveling to areas where there is ongoing transmission of Zika virus, echoing earlier alerts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other health agencies in areas where virus infection has been prevalent. Director General Margaret Chan says evidence strongly suggests sexual transmission is more common than previously assumed. (The Washington Post)

International relations

Export restrictions placed by the commerce department of the United States against China‘s state-owned ZTE for alleged violations of U.S.-imposed export controls on Iran takes effect. (Reuters), (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
European migrant crisis, Enlargement of the European Union
- The European Union and Turkey agree on broad principles for a plan to ease the migration crisis which includes returning thousands of migrants to Turkey. For this, the EU will swiftly ease visa requirements for Turks and speed up Ankara’s EU accession talks. A final agreement is to be ready for next week’s two-day EU summit in Brussels, Belgium. (Voice of America) (BBC) (March 17-18, 2016, EU agenda)
- The United Nations and human rights groups warn the tentative EU deal with Turkey that would return irregular migrants in exchange for political and financial rewards could be illegal. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says it’s unclear whether migrants, set to be returned, would be afforded the refugee protection as stated in international law. Amnesty International’s Gauri van Gulik says this is outsourcing Europe’s refugee responsibility. “The EU is treating Turkey as the only solution it has to the refugee crisis,” van Gulik added.(Reuters) (Los Angeles Times)
North Korea–South Korea relations
- South Korea imposes direct sanctions against North Korea that blacklists dozens of Northern companies and people for the first time, and bans ships that have visited North Korean ports in the previous 180 days from its waters. (The Washington Post) (AP via USA Today)
Israel–Palestine relations
- A Pew Research Center survey of Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis, via face-to-face interviews from October 2014 through May 2015, finds deep divisions in Israeli society – not only between Israeli Jewsand the country’s Arab citizen minority, but also among the religious subgroups that make up Israeli Jewry. An overwhelming majority (98%) of Israeli Jews agree all Jews should have the right to move to Israel and receive immediate citizenship. Close to half (48 percent) support the expulsion or transfer of Arabs from Israel, yet most secular Jews disagree (58%) with this, as do 54 percent of those in the center politically (more so from the left). Meanwhile, Israeli Arabs, currently about one-in-five of the country’s adults, generally do not think Israel can be a Jewish state and a democracy at the same time. Fewer Arabs (down 24 points) think a peaceful, two-state solution is possible, from 74% in 2013 to 50% now. Both groups are skeptical of the peace process: Israeli Arabs question the sincerity of the Israeli government in seeking a peace agreement, while Israeli Jews are equally skeptical about the sincerity of Palestinian leaders. (Pew is a non-partisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C.)(Pew Research Center)
- Israeli President Reuven Rivlin says the Pew study brings up troubling challenges that need to be dealt with immediately. The finding that 48 percent of Jewish Israelis believe Arabs should be transferred out of Israel is particularly troubling to Rivlin. MK Yousef Jabareen, chair of the Knesset Lobby for Jewish-Arab Coexistence, said, “The transfer of citizens, for whatever reason, is a crime against humanity, and I am frightened to see that half of those polled support such a step.” Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International Israel and the Anne Lindh Foundation’s Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel, denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the results of the study. (The Jerusalem Post)
Australia–United States relations, Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- The U.S. military is in discussions with Australian officials about the possibility of basing long-range bombers, whose striking distance would include the South China Sea, in Australia. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Media freedom in Turkey
- An Istanbul court places the Cihan News Agency under state control. The seizure of the Fethullah Gülen-linked news agency comes just days after the Turkish government seized control of the oppositionZaman newspaper. (Reuters)
Acting on requests from neighboring Italy, Swiss authorities arrest 15 people sought as suspected members of the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate, a Mafia-type organization centered in Calabria, Italy.(AP)]

Politics and elections

Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016, Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016
- Voters in the U.S. states of Mississippi, Michigan, Hawaii and Idaho vote in primary elections and caucuses. (Presidential Election News)
- Hillary Clinton wins the Mississippi Democratic primary. (New York Times)
- Bernie Sanders wins the Michigan Democratic primary. (NBC News), (Washington Post)
- Donald Trump wins both the Michigan and Mississippi Republican primaries and the Hawaii caucus. (The Independent)
- Ted Cruz wins the Idaho Republican primary. (CNN), (Washington Post)
The United States Federal Communications Commission announces an expansion of the federal Lifeline program, which currently offers monthly subsidies for phone and basic cell service, to include broadband Internet service, pending approval at the Commissioners’ March 31 meeting. (The Hill) (Reuters) (Multichannel News)
Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Supreme Court of the Philippines, in a 9-6 ruling, reverses the Commission on Elections order that had disqualified Senator Grace Poe from running in the May 9, 2016, presidential election. The petitioners plan to file a motion for reconsideration. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Science and technology

U.S. carrier Alaska Airlines reschedules Flight 870 from Anchorage, Alaska, to Honolulu, Hawaii, to depart at 2:00 p.m. local time (23:00 UTC) so passengers can view 2016’s only total solar eclipse for 1 minute and 59 seconds, 695 miles north of Honolulu at 37,000 feet. (KING-TV) (Alaska Airlines) (The Verge) (NASA TV stream)
Boston College (U.S.) researchers, in findings published in the eLife scientific journal, have uncovered the global spread of an ancient group of retroviruses that affected about 28 of 50 modern mammals’ ancestors back as far as 30 million years ago. (Headlines & Global News) (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

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March 18, 2016

Top News Stories –

Hulk Hogan awarded $115m in Gawker sex tape case –
A Florida jury has awarded Hulk Hogan $115m (£79m) after the gossip news website Gawker published a sex tape of the retired professional wrestler. Mr Hogan’s legal team argued the New York-based website violated his privacy and the video was not newsworthy. The case, which pitted freedom of the press against a celebrity’s right to privacy, has been closely watched. The video was posted in 2012 after Mr Hogan was secretly recorded having sex with his friend’s wife. Mr Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, said the release of the sex tape hurt his career. He was one of the most popular professional wrestlers of the 1980s and 1990s and later starred in his own reality television show with his family. [BBC]
Hulk Hogan

Sport Relief raises ‘a record’ £55m –
More than £55m has been raised so far for charity on Sport Relief’s live TV show, ahead of a weekend of fundraising. David Walliams, Alesha Dixon, Gary Lineker and Greg James were among those who hosted the BBC show, broadcast from London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Highlights included a Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em sketch featuring tennis siblings Andy and Jamie Murray. The total of £55,444,906 breaks the previous on-the-night record of £51m. [BBC] See List of the Day

Iain Duncan Smith quits over planned disability benefit changes –
Iain Duncan Smith has dramatically resigned from the [UK] Government in protest at George Osborne’s proposed cuts to benefits for the disabled. The former Conservative leader said that plans to cut the benefits paid to the disabled by more than £1 billion were a “compromise too far” and said that welfare for pensioners should be cut instead. He added that they are “not defensible” when announced alongside a budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers. Mr Duncan Smith [a former Conservative Leader] also accused the Chancellor of forcing through cuts to welfare for “political” rather than national economic reasons. [Daily Telegraph]
Iain Duncan Smith

Australia Senate passes reforms after farcical all-nighter –
Monty Python references, a colonoscopy analogy and a pyjama-clad senator featured during an all-night sitting of Australia’s upper house. The Senate has finally passed changes to how its members are elected after 28 hours of debate. The changes will disadvantage so-called micro parties that have gained increasing power in the Senate. The ruling conservative Coalition formed an unlikely partnership with the Greens party to pass the reforms. But the opposition Labor Party and micro party senators, who opposed the laws, dragged out the debate with filibuster tactics and amendments. During the all-night debate, Labor senators consistently spoke off-topic to delay votes to the legislation giving voters greater control over where their preferences were allocated. The laws eventually passed by a margin of 36-24. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Proof of evolution that you can find on your body

List of the Day –

Total charity donations “on the night” by BBC Sport Relief

2004	£11,078,359
2006	c. £18,000,000
2008	£19,640,321
2010	£31,633,091
2012	£50,447,197
2014	£51,242,186
2016	£55,444,906

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#SextaTopNoClubeSdv	#FlashbackFriday	#FridayFeeling
2	#BuenViernes	Tray Walker	#SportRelief
3	#VemPraDemocracia	#WorldSleepDay	#WriteAPoemAboutTories
4	#18Mart1915	#Daredevil	#WorldSleepDay
5	#LasGordasNoMerecenAmor	#DoYourJobFriday	#CSEDay16
6	Día Mundial del Sueño	#ULTRALIVE	#AddOneLetterRuinAMovie
7	#SportRelief	#NewMusicFriday	#NUSScot16
8	#يوم_الجمعه	Salah Abdeslam	#SYP2020
9	Salah Abdeslam	#SpringBreakIn4Words	#TechNorthTalent
10	#LaMujerPerfecta	#GetWellSoonDylan	#SkyF1

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Insurgency in the Maghreb (2002–present)
- Boko Haram and al-Qaeda kill four security force personnel in two separate attacks in Niger. (BBC)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff and a U.S. defense official report that North Korea fired two ballistic missiles from the South Pyongan Province. One flew 800 kilometers (497 miles) into the Sea of Japan. The other disappeared at an altitude of about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles). (Sky News) (CNN)
European migrant crisis
- European Union leaders offer Turkey a detailed package of cash and incentives to agree that all migrants attempting to cross the Aegean Sea by raft or boat would be sent back to Turkey which, in effect, becomes the region’s migrant holding center. A number of stumbling blocks remain, such as raising the amount of aid from 3 billion euros to at least 6 billion euros; reducing the “72 arduous conditions” the Turks must meet to implement visa-free travel for Turkish citizens; Europe agrees to accelerate talks with Ankara on its EU bid; etc. Human Rights Watch protests the proposed fast-track collective expulsions that fail to take individual circumstances into account and breach peoples’ right to seek asylum. (The Washington Post) (Journal of Turkish Weekly)
- European Union and Turkish officials agree on how to handle the flood of refugees. The deal, to return irregular migrants to Turkey, includes acceleration of the country’s long-stalled bid for membership in the union; billions of euros in extra aid, 3 billion euros now, another 3 billion by 2018; and, visa-free travel for Turks once the country satisfies the EU criteria. Europe will be taking in thousands of Syrianrefugees directly from Turkey. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) strongly condemns the deal as “ugly and illegal.” The agreement is set to go into effect Sunday, March 20, 2016.(CNN) (Middle East Eye) (Reuters)

Health and medicine

Swiss research, published in the medical journal The Lancet, found that paracetamol — sold as Tylenol and as a generic, acetaminophen, in the United States — was not effective at reducing pain or improving movement in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip. The analysis examined 74 randomly-selected trials published between 1980 and 2015 with 58,556 patients who had osteoarthritis. The study did find the prescription drug diclofenac, sold in the U.S. as Cataflam or Voltaren, is the most effective NSAID available. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the makers of Tylenol, disagree with the study’s conclusions.(CBS News) (The Lancet)
2016 United States Elizabethkingia outbreak
- A rare bacterial infection from bacterium Elizabethkingia anophelis may have contributed to the deaths of 17 people since November 2015. (Patch) (Star Tribune)

Law and crime

Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch far-right political party Party for Freedom, goes on trial again for making anti-Islam remarks. He is being accused of inciting hatred against the Moroccan-Dutch minority.(The Guardian)
2016 Brussels police raids
- Salah Abdeslam, the alleged suspect and primary perpetrator of the November 2015 Paris attacks is shot and arrested by Belgian authorities in a Brussels raid. (The Guardian)
Censorship in China
- Jia Jia, a columnist for China’s Tencent media company is reported missing after not being heard from since Tuesday, when he was on his way to Hong Kong. He was last heard from when he tried to warn a friend about publishing an anonymous letter calling for President Xi Jinping’s resignation. (BBC)
Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
- The FBI‘s Joint Terrorism Task Force, United States Secret Service and New York City Police Department are investigating a letter containing a suspicious white powder and a threatening note which was sent to the home of Eric Trump, son of Donald Trump, in New York City. The handwritten note within the letter said: “If your father does not drop out of the race, the next envelope won’t be a fake.” It was signed “X”. (ABC News)
Bollea v. Gawker
- A Florida jury awards Hulk Hogan $115m after the gossip news website Gawker published a sex tape of the retired professional wrestler. Mr Hogan’s legal team argued that the New York City-based website violated his privacy and that the video wasn’t newsworthy. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Former President Pervez Musharraf travels to Dubai for medical treatment of his back and leg, before moving on to either the U.S. or U.K. for additional treatment, spokesperson Aasia Ishaque said. Musharraf, 72, will return to Pakistan to face all pending legal cases. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government implemented the Supreme Court ruling, and lifted the 2013 ban that barred Musharraf from international trips. (Bloomberg)
Iain Duncan Smith resigns his position as the United Kingdom‘s Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in opposition to cuts in disability benefit proposed by George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (BBC)
2015–16 protests in Brazil, Operation Car Wash
- Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes rules Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should be stripped of a ministerial role in President Dilma Rousseff’s Cabinet so he can be investigated in connection with the state oil company Petrobras’s alleged kickback scheme. Earlier today, injunctions suspending Lula’s appointment as chief of staff were overturned at Attorney General José Eduardo Cardozo’s request for a Supreme Court ruling on the motions. (The Globe and Mail) {Toronto Star)
- Brazil’s lower house of Congress, which yesterday overwhelmingly approved (433-1) a 65-member investigatory, presidential impeachment committee, was in session today — unusual since lawmakers are generally away from the capital on Fridays. The charge alleges President Rousseff broke budget rules to boost public spending in the run-up to her re-election in 2014. The president has 10 lower house sessions to present her defense. Friday’s session means that clock has started and she now has nine sessions. (Reuters) (Reuters via Swiss Broadcasting Corporation)
- Supporters of the governing Workers’ Party took to the streets, in a sense answering the massive anti-government gatherings since Sunday, in all of Brazil’s 26 states. Organizations from both sides of the protests have called for people opposed to the Workers’ Party to stay home Friday to avoid a repeat of Thursday’s clashes. (The Washington Post) (Fox News Latino)

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March 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

Twitter celebrates 10 years of tweets and hashtags –
Since the first tweet was sent in 2006, Twitter has become the go-to social network for finding out about everything from global events to celebrity gossip. On its tenth birthday, Twitter has 320 million users including celebrities such as Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Adele, all of whom have tens of millions of followers.Over the decade, the social network has changed its logo and name – from Twttr to Twitter – as well as notching up 250 billion likes. Users create 500 million tweets per day and 200 billion tweets every year, with users sharing hashtags to discuss global moments, such as the terrible terrorist attacks in Paris, using #JeSuisParis. [Daily Mail] See Video of the Day and List of the Day

Hatton Garden ‘Guv’nor’ Brian Reader jailed for six years –
The mastermind of the £14 million Hatton Garden jewellery raid has been jailed for six years and three months. Brian Reader, 77- the oldest member of the gang – suffered a stroke in Belmarsh Prison following what was the biggest burglary in English history. Appearing via video link at Woolwich Crown Court, Reader, who the court was told now uses a walking frame, was sentenced to six years and three months by Judge Christopher Kinch QC. James Scobie QC, Reader’s defence barrister, previously said: “He has a history of prostate cancer, which may return. He has a mass in his face being tested for possible cancer. He has had a stroke and is blind in one eye.” [Daily Telegraph]

This real life cat burglar keeps stealing men’s underwear –
A cat-owner from New Zealand has posted an apologetic note online after her pet cat went on a months-long crime spree, pinching various items of men’s clothing from around her neighbourhood. Brigit, a six-year-old tonkinese cat, has been going out at night on the streets of Hamilton and entering into strangers’ homes, where she’ll pick up some socks or underwear and take it away with her. Brigit then brings the clothes home, often leaving them on her owner Sarah Nathan’s bed. In the past couple of months Brigit has pinched around than a dozen pairs of men’s pants and around 60 single socks. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

INCREDIBLE Facts You Never Knew About Twitter!-Facts in 5

List of the Day –

Twitter in numbers – the top 10 most popular tweets, likes and hashtags [Metro]
1) Most retweeted tweet – Oscars selfie

2) Most followed person – Katy Perry
3) Most mentioned person – Justin Bieber
4) Most tweeted emoji – Face with tears of joy emoji

mg_emoji02_comp — (Picture: Myles Goode/Metro)

5) Most geo-tagged city – São Paulo
6) Most tweeted hashtag tradition – #FF
7) Total number of likes – 250 billion
8) Tweets per minute event record – FA World Cup Final – 618,725 tweets per minute
9) Fastest tor reach one million followers – Caitlyn Jenner – 4 hours and 3 minutes.
10) Number of times ‘love’ was shared on Twitter [tweets with the word “love” in them] – 34.8 billion mentions

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#DiaMundialDeLaPoesia	#AppleEvent	#LoveTwitter
2	#WorldPoetryDay	#WorldPoetryDay	#WorldPoetryDay
3	#SegundaSantaClubeSDV	#mondaymotivation	#NationalFragranceDay
4	#جلد_العم_معيض	#LoveTwitter	#mondaymotivation
5	#DiaInternacionalDeCasiAng…	#SaferThanATrumpRally	Novak Djokovic
6	#شخص_تتمني_تعي�…	#DiaMundialDeLaPoesia	#AppleEvent
7	#يوم_الام	#BadMottosForStates	#HumanRightsDay
8	#EstouComLula	#musicmonday	#asktroye
9	#LoveTwitter	Boaty McBoatface	#IntlForestDay
10	#LuanSantanaCacauShowDia21	#WeNeedToRemindOurselves	#Ottawa2016

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

A man detonates a grenade inside a bakery in Belgrade, Serbia, killing himself. No other casualties were reported. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Gunmen attack a European Union military training operation housed in a converted hotel in the Mali capital, Bamako. There are no casualties among the mission personnel. One suspect is killed and two are arrested. No group has claimed responsibility. (Reuters)

Business and economics

The competition regulators of the European Union have halted their investigation into a prospective acquisition of Baker Hughes by Halliburton, effectively freezing any such combination between two giant providers of oilfield services. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

Erasmus bus crash
- A Catalan official says the 13 exchange students killed in Sunday’s accident were 19-to-25-year-old women, seven from Italy, two Germans, an Austrian, a woman from France, a Romanian and an Uzbek. Twenty-four people are being treated in hospital with one student in critical condition, and six people, including the driver, in serious condition. Reports from officials indicate the driver lost control of the coach and crashed to the other side before running into an oncoming car. The bus driver, who passed alcohol and drug tests, is being investigated for possible negligent homicide as police seek to determine the cause of the crash. (AP via the Washington Post) (AFP via Yahoo! News)

International relations

North Korea and weapons of mass destruction
- A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official reports North Korea launched five short-range missiles from the eastern city of Hamhung into the Sea of Japan. (AFP via msn.com)
United States–Cuban Thaw
- At a 55-minute joint press conference, following their two-hour closed door meeting, United States President Barrack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro agreed this “new day” of openness between the two countries benefits the entire hemisphere as well. Each acknowledged more needs to be done. Obama said he spoke frankly about human rights, free expression, and democracy; Castro said the U.S. needs to remove the military base at Guantanamo Bay, and completely end the U.S. embargo. Obama’s experience gave him an advantage when journalists delved into sensitive areas. (The Washington Post) (The New York Times)

Law and crime

Tea tape scandal
- New Zealand Prime Minister John Key settles a defamation case with freelance cameraman Bradley Ambrose, acknowledging comments he made about the man caused him professional and personal harm. (AP)
The International Criminal Court finds ex-Vice President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba guilty of war crimes. Bemba is accused of not taking steps to stop his militia from committing mass murder, rape and pillage in neighbouring Central African Republic. (The Guardian)
The United States Supreme Court, in a 6-2 ruling, essentially upholds the state of Colorado’s legalization of marijuana, turning down complaints by the neighboring states of Nebraska and Oklahoma that, byfederal and their state law, Colorado’s statutes allow “illegal marijuana” to pour into their states. Last year, the justices asked the federal government to weigh in; in December, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. urged the court to turn away the lawsuit. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. (San Francisco Chronicle (NBC News) (USA Today)

Politics and elections

Myanmar‘s new parliament, in its first legislative act, votes (611-3) to eliminate 15 government ministries. President-elect Htin Kyaw says by eliminating the ministers’ salaries, the nation will save $4 million over five years. No civil servants will lose their jobs. (AP)

Science and technology

Two possibly-twin near-Earth objects, 252P/LINEAR and P/2016 BA14, will safely pass by Earth at relatively close distances today and Tuesday. (Christian Science Monitor) (Science Alert) (NASA)(Virtual Telescope Project)

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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
3	#شيي_جميل_بحرف_…	#1lineWed	Jean Charles de Menezes
4	D’Angelo Russell	#Every66Seconds	#architecturemw
5	#FelizMiercoles	#WorldBipolarDay	5SOS DAY
6	#architectureMW	#ModernCollectiveNouns	#GBBOCreme
7	#MalecKiss	#JamarClark	#ENGHOL
8	#あなたが失ってし�…	#Empire	#newsnight
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)

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April 22, 2016

Top News Stories –

Finland’s postal workers to mow lawns –
Finland’s postal service will be doing more than just delivering letters and parcels this summer – its workers will be mowing lawns, too. The state-owned Posti company is offering a weekly grass cutting service, with customers able to choose either 30 minutes or 60 minutes of lawn-mowing time, the national broadcaster Yle reports. It will only be available on Tuesdays, though, as the volume of post tends to be lighter than on other days, and customers will have to provide their own lawnmower. They’ll also have to be willing to pay 65 euro (£51; $73) a month for the half-hour sessions. [BBC]

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA
1	#DiaDeLaTierra	Happy Passover
2	#SextaDetremuraSdv	#FlashbackFriday
3	#EarthDay	#FridayFeeling
4	#شي_مات_في_مجتم…	#RUDigitalBlackness
5	#ALDUBAkingMahal	#SpotifyGameOfThrones
6	#TirusDay2016	#DiaDeLaTierra
7	#ComoPretextoDiré	Pike County
8	#TomorrowlandNoMultishow	#PrinceGoneTooSoon
9	#صلو_علي_النبي	#EarthDay
10	#StopCoupInBrazil	#PuertoRicoPuertoRicans

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Moro conflict
- The U.K. Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department issue travel advisories regarding the Philippine island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago after a recent kidnapping near Davao City. (Sun Star Cebu),(Rappler)
Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that airstrikes have killed at least seven people in Aleppo. (AP)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- A suicide bomber kills at least nine people at a Shi’ite mosque in southwestern Baghdad. A second attacker was shot dead by security forces before he could detonate his explosives. (Reuters)
The United States admits it has killed 20 civilians and wounded 11 others in airstrikes in Syria and Iraq between September 10, 2015, and February 2, 2016. (UPI)

Arts and culture

Eurovision Song Contest 2016, Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016
- Romania is expelled from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden, after its national broadcaster, Romanian Television (TVR) failed to pay outstanding debts dating back to 2007. Ovidiu Anton was due to perform the song “Moment of Silence” at the contest. (Sky News)
The Carver County, Minnesota Sheriff’s office conducts an autopsy on Prince to determine cause of death. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Creditors, including 800 sacked workers, vote to place Queensland Nickel into liquidation allowing creditors to pursue its owner, Australian politician Clive Palmer, for costs. (Australia)
Fiat Chrysler announces plans to withdraw 1.1 million vehicles worldwide due to problems with the gearshift confusing drivers. (BBC)
Valeant, a Canada based pharmaceutical company, says it has received new notices of default from its bondholders. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

A passenger train derails near the South Korean city of Yeosu resulting in the death of a railroad engineer and eight people being injured. (Reuters)
A warehouse storing chemicals and fuel catches fire in the Chinese city of Jingjiang resulting in an unknown number of casualties. (AFP via Channel News Asia)
At least 15 people have been killed in a landslide in the Tawang District in India‘s Arunachal Pradesh state. (Times of India)
2015–16 South Pacific cyclone season
- The Samoan Islands and Wallis and Futuna brace for the impact of Cyclone Amos as the Fiji Meteorological Service upgrades the cyclone to a category three storm, with sustained winds as high as 140 km/h at its centre. (Radio New Zealand)
State oil company Petroleos Mexicanos reports the death toll has risen to 28 from Wednesday’s explosion at Petroquimica Mexicana de Vinilo’s Clorados 3 petrochemical plant in the Gulf port city ofCoatzacoalcos, Veracruz. Some workers are still missing while 18 others remain hospitalized. Officials say the explosion came from an unspecified leak. The plant produces the hazardous industrial chemicalvinyl chloride. (AP)

International relations

United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
- Mayor of London and cabinet member Boris Johnson says that U.S. President Barack Obama is “inconsistent and hypocritical” in persuading the British people to remain in the European Union. (The Sun)
Taiwan–United States relations
- The U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs unanimously passes a resolution reaffirming the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances. (Taipei Times) (Focus Taiwan)
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- A record 175 states sign the United Nations climate agreement in New York on opening day. The agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions formally join it. (ABC News Australia) (AP)
NATO–Russia relations, Cold War II
- U.S. General Curtis Scaparrotti, the incoming head of the United States military forces in Europe, says he supports a permanent brigade-sized presence of U.S. combat troops in Eastern Europe to deterRussia’s expanded and assertive actions. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Belizean–Guatemalan territorial dispute
- Belize accuses Guatemala of “amassing” troops on the disputed Belize–Guatemala border following the death of a teenage Guatemalan boy in a shooting incident apparently involving Belize Defence Force soldiers. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales called the shooting a “cowardly and excessive attack” that merits the “total condemnation of the Guatemalan state”. (AP via ABC News)

Law and crime

Former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra K. Pachauri is to face a court in Delhi, India on charges of sexual harassment. Pachauri is accused of stalking, intimidation and sexual assault of a former employee. (The Guardian)
2016 Pike County, Ohio, shootings
- Eight family members are murdered in four different locations in Pike County, Ohio. Three children, including a four-day-old baby, survived the killings. (Fox News), (AP) (AP²)
Five people have been killed in two separate shootings in the American town of Appling, Georgia. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Felony disenfranchisement
- In the United States, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signs an executive order restoring the rights of an estimated 200,000 convicted felons to vote and run for office. (AP)

Politics and elections

2016 Macedonian protests
- The European Union announces it is considering imposing sanctions on Macedonia’s leaders for reneging on an agreement last year to investigate corruption in the ruling class and issuing an amnesty instead to those involved. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Thousands of Sudanese students take to the streets around the University of Kordofan in Khartoum and other parts of the country to protest the recent killing of students last Monday. Security forces opened fire on a peaceful protest, killing many students after they attempted to nominate pro-opposition candidates for their campus elections. (The Guardian)
Mexican Drug War, War on Drugs
- Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto proposes legalizing marijuana for medical purposes and easing limits for personal use of the drug. He said he would be sending a bill to the Congress to increase the amount users can legally carry from the current five grams to 28 (0.18-1oz). The news comes just two days after he addressed the United Nations General Assembly at a special session on drug policy and is seen as a chance to re-think the current strategy of fighting drug-trafficking, especially in Mexico where the fighting has killed tens of thousands of people. (BBC)
Philippine general election, 2016
- The Commission on Election announced that the May 9 elections shall push through despite a massive breach on its database by hackers which puts 55 million registered Filipino voters at risk.

Science and technology

Amazon Reef
- Oceanographers discover an extensive reef system near the Amazon River, estimated to span an area of 3,600 square miles (9,300 km²). (The Atlantic), (The Guardian), (Los Angeles Times),(Phys.org), (CNN)
China’s National Space Administration says it is working on a program to land a rover on Mars by 2020. (AP)
Energy development
- The Alaska SeaLife Center (Seward, Alaska) announces that 98 percent of the center’s heating and cooling now comes from low-cost, alternative energy derived from seawater. (Tech Times)
Scientists discover the quantum tunneling of water molecules. (Phys. Rev. Letters), (Phys.org), (Tech Times)

Sport

2022 FIFA World Cup
- President of FIFA Gianni Infantino says a new independent committee will be set up to monitor working conditions at Qatar’s 2022 World Cup venues. The move is an attempt by the world football’s governing body to ease fears of human rights abuses in the state, where organizations like Amnesty International documented multiple cases of poor working conditions and abuses against migrant workers. (BBC)

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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.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA
1	#ProjectHome	#Shakespeare400
2	#شي_ودكم_ينقرض_…	#ProjectHome
3	#FelizSabado	#ReasonsToAppreciateCamila
4	#SábadoTopClubeSDV	#DiaDelLibro
5	#DiaDelLibro	#StGeorgesDay
6	#フォロワーさんと�…	#saturdaymorning
7	#TranscendAllOddsAteneo	#WorldBookDay
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 24, 2016

Top News Stories –

Astronaut Tim Peake smashes the Guinness World Record for a space marathon –
British astronaut Tim Peake ran the London Marathon while aboard the International Space Station in a world record time. The spaceman is the second person to complete the 26.2 mile distance while on the ISS. However, Peake’s time of three hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds was far faster than US astronaut Sunita Williams of four hours, 23 minutes and ten seconds. Williams ran her race in 2007 at the same time as the Boston Marathon. [Daily Mail]

Video of the Day –

Hello Tokyo from Christoph Gelep on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

Worldwide	USA
#NiallDay	#NiallDay
#الهلال_الاهلي	Rachel Roy
#DomingoDetremuraSdv	#GameofThrones
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#UFC197	#HappyBirthdayKehlani
#توقع_واربح_كا�…	#LondonMarathon
#MiPrimerAcoso	#ClassicWrestlerFilms
#KathNielAtHimigHandog2016	#CanAnyoneExplainToMe
#ماذا_تعرف_عن_ع…	#TwitterWouldBeGreatIf
#LondonMarathon	#WhatTwitterTaughtMe

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War
- At least 14 people have been killed in suicide bombing attacks in Baghdad. (Daily Times)
Yemeni Civil War
- Saudi-led air strikes kill at least ten al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters in southern Yemen. (Reuters)
- Yemeni and United Arab Emirates troops capture the seaport of Mukalla from al Qaeda. The Saudi Arabia led coalition claims to have killed more than 800 militants(Reuters), (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Rockets fired by ISIL from northern Syria hit a poor neighborhood and a mosque in the Turkish city of Kilis, killing one person and injuring 26 others. Turkish security forces responded by returning fire into Syria. (Euronews) (Reuters)

International relations

North Korea–South Korea relations
- North Korea reportedly deploys 300 new multiple launch rocket systems along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. (Yonhap)
Syrian Civil War
- U.S. President Barack Obama rules out deploying U.S. ground troops in Syria and says military efforts alone cannot solve the country’s problems. He also said he did not think that ISIL would be defeated in his last nine months of office. (BBC)
- U.S. officials report President Obama will announce plans to send as many as 250 more U.S. troops to Syria to help fight ISIL militants. The troops are likely to include special operations forces and medical or intelligence support personnel, an official added. The decision is scheduled to be announced around noon tomorrow in Hanover, Germany, during the President’s farewell tour of Europe. (CBS News) (Reuters)
North Korea-United States relations
- President Barack Obama says the United States isn’t taking North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su-yong’s proposal to halt nuclear activity seriously. Pyongyang would “have to do better than that,” he added.(AP)

Law and crime

Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist of Turkish descent, is arrested in Kuşadası, Turkey, for tweets deemed critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This comes as a political storm erupted this week over reports that the Turkish consulate asked Turkish organizations in the Netherlands to forward emails and social media posts which insult Erdoğan or Turkey. (The Guardian)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Following an appeal, 12-year-old Dima al-Wawi is freed from an Israeli prison. She is believed to be the youngest female Palestinian ever imprisoned. Israeli civil law, which does not allow anyone under 14 to go to jail, did not affect her imprisonment. Palestinian residents in the occupied territories are subject to military law that can sentence suspects as young as 12 to prison. (AP via ABC News)

Politics and elections

Austrian presidential election, 2016
- Austrians vote in the first round of electing the next president. Preliminary estimates indicate FPÖ‘s Norbert Hofer won the first round with 36 percent of the vote. Greens‘ Alexander Van der Bellen, who is supported by the Green Party, garnered 20%, and another independent, Irmgard Griss, took 18.5 percent. President Heinz Fischer was not eligible to be re-elected. Candidates representing the two leading parties, that have ruled for the past 70 years, were eliminated. Hofer and Van der Bellen will compete in the runoff election on May 22, 2016. (Bloomberg) (Election website) (Deutsche Welle), (Euro News)
Equatorial Guinean presidential election, 2016
- Equatorial Guinean voters go to the polls with incumbent Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo expected to win as the opposition boycotts the election. (Voice of America) (Al Jazeera)
Japanese House of Representatives by-elections, 2016: By-elections were held for two seats controlled by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. (Japan Times)
- Hokkaido 5th district by-election, 2016: LDP candidate Yoshiaki Wada staved off the competition from independent candidate Maki Ikeda. Despite the LDP’s winning margin decreasing from 14% (in 2014) to 2%, this win is seen as a boost for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the upcoming upper house election.
- Kyoto 3rd district by-election, 2016: The newly formed Democratic Party wrested back the seat from the LDP after their candidate and former MP for the district Kenta Izumi won by a landslide.
Philippine presidential election, 2016.
- The final leg of the Philippine presidential debate series is held in Dagupan. (The Manila Bulletin)
Serbian parliamentary election, 2016
- Serbians elect a new parliament under the backdrop of its accession to the European Union. Preliminary results indicate the incumbent, pro-EU populists sweeping the election. (Bloomberg) (AP via The Washington Post)
2015–16 protests in Moldova
- Protests continue in Moldova as thousands of anti-government protesters demonstrate in the capital Chișinău despite concessions given to the protesters last month by the government. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Around 1,000 people stage a rare public protest in the Kazakh city of Atyrau, rallying against the government’s decision to sell land in auctions amid a heavy police presence, though they did not forcibly disperse the rally. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

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May 2, 2016

Top News Stories –

Leicester City confirmed as 2015/16 Premier League champions –
Leicester City have completed one of the most remarkable triumphs in sporting history by winning the 2015/16 Premier League title. The club’s first top-flight championship in their 132-year history was sealed following Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea on Monday night, meaning they have an unassailable seven-point lead at the top of the table with two games left to play. At the start of the season, Leicester were 5000/1 outsiders to become champions after flirting with relegation for most of last season and they were playing in League One as recently as 2009. [Sky News]
See Video of the Day

Craig Wright revealed as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto –
Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright has publicly identified himself as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. His admission follows years of speculation about who came up with the original ideas underlying the digital cash system. Mr Wright has provided technical proof to back up his claim using coins known to be owned by Bitcoin’s creator. Prominent members of the Bitcoin community and its core development team say they have confirmed his claims. By going public, Mr Wright hopes to put an end to press speculation about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. The New Yorker, Fast Company, Newsweek and many other media organisations have all conducted long investigations seeking Bitcoin’s creator and named many different people as candidates. “I have not done this because it is what I wanted. It’s not because of my choice,” he said, adding that he had no plans to become the figurehead for bitcoins. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Leicester City players celebrate winning Barclays Premier League

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Three bombings in and around Baghdad kill at least 14, including Shiite pilgrims, and injure more than 30. (Reuters via Trust) (Washington Post) (Reuters)
War in Somalia, War on Terror
- The first of seventy British military personnel arrive in Somalia to help combat the threat of Islamist militants. The remaining troops will join the United Nations peacekeepers and AMISOM soldiers in countering Al-Shabaab later on this year. This deployment is part of a greater effort by the United Kingdom to target terrorism. (The Guardian)
Syrian Civil War
- Syrian Army troops surround the central prison in Hama after inmates revolted, seizing several guards. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says inmates were protesting against a planned transfer of prisoners from Hama to Sednaya Prison near Damascus. (Reuters)
- American-led intervention in Syria, Military intervention against ISIL
  - Artillery shelling and drone attacks by the U.S.-led coalition strike Islamic State positions in Syria, according to Turkish authorities, killing 63 militants and destroying multiple rocket launcher and gun positions. (AP)

Business and economy

The Philippines stock market suffers the biggest drop since February amid uncertainty about the upcoming elections. (Bloomberg)
Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Steven Wright claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the Bitcoin currency. There are about 15.5 million bitcoins in circulation. However, questions have been raised as to authenticity of his assertion. (The Economist) (BBC) (The Economist²) (AP via The Charlotte Observer)
Puerto Rican government-debt crisis
- Puerto Rico defaults on a $422 million debt payment. The Governor of Puerto Rico Alejandro García Padilla calls the situation a “humanitarian crisis”. This is the third time Puerto Rico has defaulted on bond payments. (CNN)

Disasters and accidents

The bodies of mountaineer Alex Lowe and photographer David Bridges are found on the Himalayan mountain Shishapangma after being buried in an avalanche in 1999. (The Guardian)

International relations

Moldova–United States relations
- About 200 U.S. troops arrive in Moldova from Romania for planned military exercises with the Moldovan military which will last until May 20. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Russia-United States relations
- United States Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John M. Richardson says Russian jets in the Baltics buzzing a U.S. military ship and planes are escalating tension between the two nations. Richardson added he doesn’t think the Russians are trying to provoke an incident but these actions increase the chance of a “tactical miscalculation.” (AP via CBS News)
European migrant crisis, EU-Turkey relations
- On Wednesday, the European Union will propose relaxing visa requirements for Turks as a reward for having reduced the flood of refugees and migrants into Europe. (Reuters) (BBC)

Law and crime

Papua conflict
- Police in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua arrest scores of protesters as planned demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the incorporation of the region with Indonesia were to take place today. (Radio New Zealand)

Honduran authorities arrest four men in the March 3 home invasion killing of Goldman Environmental Prize-winning environmental activist Berta Cáceres. One of the suspects was an active duty army officerwhile the others worked for Desarrollos Energeticos SA, whose hydroelectric project Cáceres had opposed since 2006. The four also face charges on the attempted murder of Mexican environmental activist Gustavo Castro Soto, who was injured in the attack. (AP) (The Guardian)
A United Nations arbitration court rules India must allow an Italian marine, facing charges of murdering two fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012, to return home pending the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision over jurisdiction. The suspect, who will remain under the authority of the Supreme Court of India, has been staying in the Italian embassy in New Delhi; his co-defendant returned to Italy with health problems in 2014. (Reuters) (The Times of India) (Firstpost)

Politics and elections

Philippine presidential election, 2016
- The Catholic Church in the Philippines urges voters to reject Rodrigo Duterte. (Manila Standard)
A Somali asylum seeker sets herself alight in Nauru to protest her detention on the island by Australia, one week after an Iranian asylum seeker did the same thing. (BBC)
President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro orders clocks in the country to move forward by a half hour from UTC−04:30 to UTC−04:00 in order to save electricity as Venezuela faces an increasing electricity shortage. While gaining a half hour of sunlight, this means Venezuelans will now lose a half hour of sleep. (The Guardian)
Spanish general election, 2016
- Spanish politicians fail to meet a deadline to form a government after last year’s election so Felipe VI of Spain must dissolve the parliament and call a new election for June 26. (AP via ABC News America)

Science and technology

Researchers report in the journal Nature the discovery of three potentially habitable, Earth-like exoplanets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, an ultracool dwarf star 40 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius.(CNN) (The Atlantic) (Nature)

Sport

2015–16 Premier League
- Following a 2-2 draw between Chelsea F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. at Stamford Bridge, Leicester City F.C. are confirmed as champions of the Premier League for the first time in their history. Leicester City were 5000-1 outsiders at the beginning of the season. (Sky Sports), (BBC)
2016 World Snooker Championship
- Mark Selby wins the 2016 World Snooker Championship. (BBC)

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June 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

Duke of Cambridge: Attitude magazine features first royal cover star –
The Duke of Cambridge has become the first member of the Royal Family to appear on the cover of a gay magazine. He spoke to Attitude about the issue of homophobic bullying, saying: “No-one should be bullied for their sexuality or any other reason.” The duke invited the magazine to bring members of the LGBT community to Kensington Palace to discuss bullying and its mental health repercussions. Kensington Palace said William had been “moved” by the stories he heard. The nine people who attended the meeting last month spoke of low self-esteem, suicide attempts, drug addiction and depression. William said that “no-one should have to put up with the kind of hate that these young people have endured in their lives”. [BBC]
Prince William Attitude cover [Image copyright ATTITUDE/LEIGH KEILY/PA]

Video of the Day –

American Ninja Warrior – T. Rex on American Ninja Warrior

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- Syrian government airstrikes hit rebel-held areas in Aleppo, killing at least 34 people. (Al Jazeera)

Disasters and accidents

A scaffolding on a bridge under construction near Werneck, Germany, collapses, killing at least one worker and injuring six more. (BBC)
EgyptAir Flight 804
- A deep sea search vessel discovers the wreckage of the lost aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea. (CNN) (BBC)

International relations

European Union-Turkey relations
- Turkey fails to meet the criteria set forth by the European Union in order to obtain visa-free travel to its member states. The EU promised to grant Turkey visa-free travel only if it met specific conditions on border security and human rights. (The Guardian)
Ukraine–NATO relations
- NATO’s defense ministers agree to boost support for Ukraine with a “comprehensive package of assistance”, which will help it strengthen defense and to modernize its armed forces. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Israel–Palestine relations
- Israel announces plans for construction of a three-story residential building for Jews in the Silwan neighborhood near the City of David in east Jerusalem. (Reuters)

Law and crime

2014–16 Venezuelan protests
- Venezuelan police arrest at least 400 people in the city of Cumaná after food riots and looting broke out yesterday. (Reuters)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- The father of Cal State Long Beach student Nohemi Gonzalez, the only American killed in the November 13, 2015, Paris massacre, files suit in San Francisco, California, federal court against Twitter,Facebook, and Google, alleging the companies provided “material support” to the Islamic State and other extremist groups. While generally free of liability under U.S. law which provides a legal safe harborfor content posted, this case targets the behavior social media companies enable. The suit is very similar to a case brought against Twitter in January by the widow of a contractor killed in the November 9, 2015, attack in Jordan. (AP via San Francisco Chronicle) (Daily Mail) (The Guardian)

Politics and elections

Yōichi Masuzoe resigns as the Governor of the Japanese capital Tokyo over a political funding scandal. He was due to face a no-confidence motion in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly later today. (AP via ABC News America)
Senator Murphy gun control filibuster
- United States Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn) launches a filibuster on the Senate floor in an effort to pass gun control legislation in the wake of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. (Politico)
The Canadian House of Commons approves a bill to make the lyrics in the country’s national anthem gender neutral. The bill would change the words in O Canada from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.” (Reuters)
The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, City Council approves a a 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened and diet beverages, effective January 1, 2017. This the first so-called sugary drinks tax in a major U.S.city. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Science and technology

Scientists confirm a second detection of gravitational waves by LIGO. (The Guardian) (BBC)

Sport

Violence at UEFA Euro 2016
- Renewed clashes take place between English and Russian football fans in the French city of Lille following Russia’s 2-1 defeat against Slovakia. Riot police fired tear gas at England supporters outsideGare de Lille Europe. (The Guardian) (BBC)
- Police arrest at least 36 people in Lille following clashes between French police and football fans at the tournament. French authorities report 16 people were taken to hospital. (BBC)
In baseball, Ichiro Suzuki reaches a combined total of career hits of 4,257 spanning Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball. It passes Pete Rose‘s career total encompassing Major League Baseball only of 4,256 but the MLB is considered to be a higher quality competition. (ESPN)

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