Top News Stories –

Friends Reunited website to close down –
Friends Reunited – one of the UK’s first social networks – has announced it will soon close. One of its founders Steve Pankhurst explained in an email that the platform was still used by “a handful of members” but that it was “no longer used for the purpose it was built for”. Friends Reunited launched in the year 2000 and was bought by broadcaster ITV for £175m ($250m) in 2005. However, it failed to keep pace with other social networks. It was sold to comic publisher DC Thompson for only £25m in 2009 and Mr Pankhurst wrote in a blog post that the company had offered it back to him a couple of years ago. [BBC]

Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey, 67, dies –
Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey has died at the age of 67, the band has announced. He died in New York City on Monday from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia. “Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us,” his family and fellow band members said. The Eagles were one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, with multiple hit singles, including Hotel California in 1976. Frey co-founded the Eagles in 1971 with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. [BBC]
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Video of the Day –

Branded Dreams – The Future Of Advertising from STUDIO SMACK on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The full list of winners for the 36th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards:
FILM OF THE YEAR: Mad Max: Fury Road
BRITISH/IRISH FILM OF THE YEAR: 45 Years
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR: The Look of Silence
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR: Am
ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Tom Courtenay — 45 Years
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Charlotte Rampling — 45 Years
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Mark Rylance — Bridge of Spies
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Kate Winslet — Steve Jobs
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR: George Miller — Mad Max: Fury Road
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR: Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy — Spotlight
BRITISH/IRISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Tom Hardy — Legend, London Road, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant
BRITISH/IRISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Saoirse Ronan — Brooklyn, Lost River
YOUNG BRITISH/IRISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR: Maisie Williams — The Falling
PHILIP FRENCH AWARD FOR BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH/IRISH FILMMAKER: John Maclean — Slow West
BRITISH/IRISH SHORT FILM OF THE YEAR: Stutterer — Benjamin Cleary
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Ed Lachman, cinematography — Caro
DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM: Kenneth Branagh

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2014–16 Russian military intervention in Ukraine
  • Ukraine says that a cyberattack on Boryspil International Airport near Kiev came from Russian computers. (Sky News)
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
  • A Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a police building in Yemen‘s capital, Sana’a, kills at least 26 people and injures 15 others. (RT)
• Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
  • A rocket fired from ISIL-controlled territory in Syria‘s Aleppo Governorate, kills at least one person and injures another in the Turkish city of Kilis, close to the Syria–Turkey border. The Turkish militaryresponded with artillery fire on ISIL positions. (AFP via Daily Mail)

Arts and culture

• Glenn Frey, a founding member of The Eagles, dies of complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia. (BBC)

Business and economy

• Reuters reports that Xiao Gang, the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, has offered to resign after a sharp sell-off in two of China’s stock exchanges. (Reuters)
• Tata Steel is to cut 1,050 jobs in the United Kingdom, with the majority going in South Wales. The Indian multinational steel-making company announced there will be 750 job losses at its Port Talbot Steelworks in Port Talbot, Wales while another 300 jobs will go at its plants in Corby and Hartlepool in England. (Bloomberg)

Disasters and accidents

• At least five French Foreign Legion soldiers are killed and six injured in an avalanche while on a training exercise in the Alps, close to the Italian border. The soldiers were members of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment. (BBC)

Law and crime

• November 2015 Paris attacks
  • A man linked to the Paris attacks is arrested in Mohammedia, Morocco. (Sky News)
• MASSOB
  • Biafran separatists claim that police killed 8 protesters calling for independence. (AP via WTOP)

Politics and elections

• The Russian Duma rejects a Communist Party bill banning homosexual expression. (Radio Free Europe)

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