January 2, 2010

Top Story –
Two Belgian bankrobbers are named the Darwin Award winners of the year after killing themselves while trying to crack open a cash machine. The pair used so much dynamite that they managed to destroy the entire bank building – and themselves with it. Wendy Northcutt, the founder of the annual awards, declared them the 2009 winners of the Darwin Awards, given to those doing the most to improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it.

Top Video –
Red Rabbit

Red Rabbit from Egmont Mayer on Vimeo.
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January 7, 2010

Top Stories –
Not like clockwork –
A Swiss millionaire is given a record speeding fine of $290,000 (£180,000) after he caught driving a red Ferrari at 137km/h (85mph) through a village. The penalty based on the unnamed motorist’s wealth – assessed by the court as $22.7m (£14.1m) – and because he was a repeat offender.

New Brand for Perry –
It’s revealed that Russell Brand and Katy Perry got engaged when on holiday in India.
Katy Perry and Russell Brand

Top Video –
Making a designer font using a car

iQ font – When driving becomes writing / Full making of from Tom Galle on Vimeo.

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January 12, 2010

Top Story –
Bootiful –
Researcher Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos, of Oxford University announces that carrying extra weight on your hips, bum and thighs is good for your health, protecting against heart and metabolic problems but fat around the tummy is bad.

Top Video –

Toronto Lightning Storm from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.
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January 13, 2010

Top Stories –
First cyber attack of the decade –
Internet giant Google says it may end its operations in China following a “sophisticated and targeted” cyber attack originating from the country.

Billion dollar game –
Video game Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 has taken more than $1bn (£625m)in revenue. It went on sale in November and made an estimated $550m in its first five days. The sales put it alongside other $1bn titles such as Guitar Hero III and World of Warcraft.

Top Video –
Modern Warfare 2 Trailer

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February 6, 2010

Top News Stories –

UN to discuss Air Traffic Control for outer space –
An international air traffic control for outer space should be set up to prevent damage to satellites and spacecraft orbiting the Earth, according to proposal to be discussed at the United Nations next week. There are thought to be more than 19,000 pieces of debris larger than 4 inches across racing around the Earth at high speeds, while there are more than 500,000 bigger than a postage stamp. The number of particles smaller than this are thought to exceed tens of millions. Despite their relatively small size, most are travelling faster than 15,600mph and at these speeds a fleck of paint could do as much damage as a .22-calibre rifle bullet. [Daily Telegraph]

Treo the dog awarded animal VC –
A heroic military dog is to be honoured with the animal version of the Victoria Cross. Treo, an eight-year-old black Labrador, saved countless lives in Afghanistan last year by locating hidden roadside bombs. The search dog twice saved soldiers and civilians from catastrophe while out on patrol in Helmand province by sniffing out explosives which had been wired together in a daisy chain and hidden in the path. The medal was created by leading veterinary charity the PDSA and is recognised as the highest award an animal can receive for conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict. (See List of the Day for human honours) [Daily Telegraph]

Cat owners ‘more educated than dog owners’ –
Cats have long been thought to be cleverer than dogs – and now it seems the same is true of their owners. People with cats are more likely to have university degrees than those with dogs, according to a scientific survey of pet ownership. The study also revealed that the combined cat and dog population of Britain is more than 20.8 million – 50 per cent higher than previously thought. Researchers at the University of Bristol say that the superior intelligence of cat owners is unlikely to be caused by their exposure to the famously cunning and selfish pets. Rather, more educated people tend to work longer hours and choose a pet to fit their lifestyles. Unlike dogs, cats require no walking and can manage with little human company.[Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

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July 4, 2012

Top News Stories –

Higgs boson: scientists 99.999% sure ‘God Particle’ has been found –
The historic announcement came in a progress report from the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator. Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and technology Facilities Council, told reporters at a briefing in London: “They have discovered a particle consistent with the Higgs boson. “Discovery is the important word. That is confirmed. It’s a momentous day for science.” Scientists say it is a 5 sigma result which means they are 99.999% sure they have found a new particle. Finding the Higgs plugs a gaping hole in the Standard Model, the theory that describes all the particles, forces and interactions that make up the universe. [Daily Telegraph]
Prof Stephen Hawking said Prof Higgs deserved a Nobel Prize for his work, but admitted the discovery of the new particle had come at a cost. He said: “I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn’t be found. It seems I have just lost $100.” [Daily Telegraph]
The CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider

Tom Cruise to file rival divorce case against Katie Holmes –
Tom Cruise will file a rival divorce case against Katie Holmes, his lawyer has said, adding that they were letting the “other side play the media until they wear everyone out”. Bret Fields told BBC Radio 1 that for the moment Cruise’s camp is content to let Holmes have the spotlight. “We are letting ‘the other side’ (Katie and her team), play the media until they wear everyone out and then we’ll have something to say,” he said.
“Tactically we can’t say where Tom will file a divorce case and if he’ll be seeking joint custody of [daughter] Suri.”
Tom Cruise with Katie Holmes in 2009

Video of the Day –

Higgs Boson: The Inside Scoop

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian uprising (2011–present):
- Syrian President Bashar al Assad accuses neighboring Turkey of supporting “terrorists” and contributing to the bloodshed in Syria. (Voice of America)
A gunman, who was facing eviction from his apartment, is believed to have seized and killed four hostages in the German city of Karlsruhebefore turning the gun on himself. (BBC)
Eleven people are killed in further unrest in Iraq, including eight people in a bombing of a Baghdad marketplace. (The Times of India)

Arts and culture

China accuses the Vatican of obstructing the development of Catholicism after the latter threatens to excommunicate new bishops ordained without papal approval. (Washington Post)
British broadcaster George Entwistle is named as the next Director-General of the BBC, beginning in autumn 2012. (BBC)
Archaeologists in Israel discover a mosaic floor depicting the biblical figure of Samson and a Hebrew inscription in an ancient synagogue in theGalilee region. (CNN)

Business and economy

Libor inter-bank interest rate:
- Bob Diamond, former CEO of Barclays, gives evidence to the Parliament of the United Kingdom‘s Treasury Select Committee on the bank’s manipulation of Libor and Euribor interest rates. (RTÉ) (BBC)
- Chancellor George Osborne accuses ministers in Gordon Brown’s government of attempting to manipulate interest rates during therecession. (The Guardian)
Standard & Poor’s raises the credit rating of the Philippines to BB+. (Reuters)

International relations

Egyptian officials deny that newly elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi will visit Iran to attend a conference. (The Times of Israel)

Law and crime

Two Iranian suspects held by Kenyan police reportedly confess that they planned to detonate a series of 30 bombs simultaneously acrossKenya. (Kenya Standard Media)
The Qatari-owned satellite channel, Al Jazeera, reports that traces of radioactive polonium-210 have been found in some personal effects of former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004; the PLO and Arafat’s widow agree to his exhumation to investigate if he had beenpoisoned. (Huffington Post) (CNN) (YNet News)
Spain‘s national court opens a criminal investigation into last year’s listing of Bankia SA on the stock market, with former chairman Rodrigo Ratoand 32 others listed as suspects. (Wall Street Journal)

Politics and elections

Hundreds of protesters clash with police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and the parliament speaker offers to resign over moves to boost the status of the Russian language in the country. (Al Jazeera)
The Chinese city of Shifang cancels the planned development of a copper plant after thousands of people demonstrated. (CBC)
The European Parliament rejects the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in a session with more than 470 votes against the treaty. (CNet)
Mexican general election, 2012: Over half of the ballot boxes in the Presidential election will have to be recounted following the discovery of voting irregularities. (AP via Fox News)
Palestinians in Ramallah protest outside the offices of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against the 1993 Oslo Peace Accordsbetween Israel and the PLO. (The Media Line)

Science and technology

CERN scientists present recent results from CMS and ATLAS experiments consistent with the existence of a Higgs boson particle. (BBC)(CERN press release)

Sport

The Scottish Premier League refuses to admit Newco Rangers, the team that emerged from the ashes of Rangers F.C. following its disintegration. (BBC)

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January 7, 2015

Shootings at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris –
Gunmen have attacked the Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo killing 12 and wounding 4. Witnesses report the gunmen shouted “we have avenged the Prophet. Editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier is among the dead.
Stephane Charbonnier

Second shooting in Paris –
Possibly connected with the Charlie Hebdo attack, a gunmen has killed a policewoman and seriously injured a civilian in the south of Paris.

LA Galaxy get their man –
Los Angeles Galaxy have confirmed that Liverpool FC captain Steven Gerrard will the club in July 2015. The former England midfielder, 34, will play for the Major League Soccer club after his contract at Anfield expires. Gerrard, is the second England captain to join LA Galaxy, after David Beckham played for them between 2007 and 2012.

Fast charger –
A new kind of battery charger has been revealed by Israeli start-up Storedot CEO Doron Myersdorf at the CES exhibition in Las Vegas that can recharge a modern smartphone in less time than it takes to boil a kettle. However the phone needs to have a completely new type of battery, which contains specially synthesised organic molecules so existing phones cannot be used.

Video of the Day –

Charlie Hebdo Shootings

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March 17, 2015

Top News Stories –

Judges sacked for watching porn in office –
Three judges have been sacked for viewing pornographic material via their official IT accounts, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office has said.
The pornography was not illegal in content, a spokesman added. However the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice concluded it was an “inexcusable misuse” of their official accounts and “wholly unacceptable conduct for a judicial office holder”. District Judge Timothy Bowles, Immigration Judge Warren Grant and Deputy District Judge and Recorder Peter Bullock have been removed from office. [BBC]

Swiss plan for Europe’s tallest skyscraper… in ski-resort –
Plans are being drawn up to build the tallest skyscraper in Europe at a remote spa resort high in the Swiss Alps. The proposed 1,250-feet high building would tower over London’s Shard, which measures a mere 1,015 feet. Developers want to build it on the outskirts of Vals, a tiny spa town of just 1,000 people, nestled 4,000 feet up in the Swiss Alps. It is a proposed luxury hotel, aimed at guests from the Middle East and Asia. The proposed tower will reportedly contain around 100 suites, with the cheapest priced at around 1,000 Swiss francs (£675) a night, and the most expensive at an eye-watering 25,000 Swiss francs (£16,000). [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party has won a surprise victory in Israel’s election. Exit polls had forecast a dead heat but with almost all votes counted, results give Likud a clear lead over its main rival, the centre-left Zionist Union. The outcome gives Mr Netanyahu a strong chance of forming a right-wing coalition government. It puts the incumbent on course to clinch a fourth term and become Israel’s longest-serving prime minster. [BBC]
Benjamin Netanyahu

Never slip on ice again with glass shard shoes –
Slipping on ice need never happen again after scientists invented a new type of rubber sole for shoes which allows the wearer to walk easily, even up treacherous slopes. Canadian researchers have developed a new material which contains microscopic glass fibres which act as tiny spikes, gripping the ground in even the most nerve-jangling icy weather. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Leonard in Slow Motion from Peter Livolsi on Vimeo.

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April 15, 2015

Top News Stories –

Gisele Bundchen Shares Throwback Photo in Honor of Last Runway Show –
The 34-year-old model will hang up her catwalking shoes after she struts her stuff during São Paulo Fashion Week tonight, walking for Brazilian street label Colcci, a brand she has represented since 2005. Before she takes the runway for the last time, Bündchen shared a sweet throwback photo to her Instagram account from her very first show. [Celebuzz.com]
Gisele Bunchen (Instagram – giseleofficial)

Unpaid spaceport workers appeal to Vladimir Putin with giant graffiti –
Construction workers at a £9 billion cosmodrome in eastern Russian have resorted to extreme measures to appeal to Vladimir Putin after going four months without pay. Employees of TMK at the Vostochny spaceport were so exasperated at failing to receive their money that they painted a message to the Russian president in huge white letters on top of their construction huts. The giant letters read, “Dear Putin, V.V.”, “Save the workers”, “Four months without pay” and “We want to work”. [Daily Telegraph]

Record dive rescues $50m wartime silver from ocean floor –
A British-led team has recovered a $50m (£34m; €47m) trove of silver coins that has lain on the seabed since the steamship carrying them from Bombay to England was sunk in 1942. The SS City of Cairo was torpedoed 772km (480 miles) south of St Helena by a German U-boat and sank to 5,150m. The 100 tonnes of coins, recovered in the deepest salvage operation in history, belonged to HM Treasury. The coins have now been melted down in the UK and sold, with the undisclosed sum divided between the treasury – which technically owns the coins – and the salvagers, who take a percentage of the sale. The salvage was completed in September 2013, but DOS has only now been given permission by the Ministry of Transport to announce it. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

HDD and Floppy Music: Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit –

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May 23, 2015

Top News Stories –

Sweden wins Eurovision Song Contest –
Unabashed commercial dance music triumphed over kitsch and politics, as Sweden swept to its sixth victory in Eurovision, making it the most successful country in Eurovision history behind Ireland. Måns Zelmerlöw, a leather trousered hunk, with his pop anthem Heroes, beat off stiff competition from Russian (bolstered by some neighbourly votes from Eastern European nations) and Italy. Sweden won 365 points, while Russia, in second, got 303. [Daily Telegraph] Unfortunately after Eurovision went off air it was revealed that two countries had been disqualified. Montengro and Macedonia’s voting results have been disqualified after it was discovered the two countries used votes from the televoting to account for 100% of the country’s votes, rather than 50% with 50% coming from a jury, as is required. [Daily Mirror] See Video of the Day and List of the Day
Måns_Zelmerlöw from Sweden

Ireland becomes first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote –
Ireland has voted by a huge majority to legalise same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in the world to do so by popular vote in a move hailed as a social revolution and welcomed around the world. Some 62% of the Irish Republic’s electorate voted in favour of gay marriage. The result means that a republic once dominated by the Catholic church ignored the instructions of its cardinals and bishops. The huge Yes vote marks another milestone in Ireland’s journey towards a more liberal, secular society. Out of an electorate of more than 3 million, 1,201,607 backed gay marriage, while 734,300 voters said No. The result prompted a massive street party around the gay district of central Dublin close to the national count centre. [The Guardian]

Spanish La Liga ends with Barcelona on top but Cristiano Ronaldo with 61 goals –
Cristiano Ronaldo finished with a season’s best goals tally of 61 as his first-half hat-trick helped Real Madrid end their season by hammering Getafe 7-1. The Portuguese forward’s haul is one more than the 60 he scored in 2011-12. Barcelona had already won the title and said adios to their captain Xavi Hernández who has won eight La Liga titles with the side after joing the club aged 11 in 1991. See List of the Day 2
Xavi Hernández

Banned number plates revealed: VA61ANA banned but PEN15 allowed –
The DVLA has revealed its entire catalogue of forbidden car number plates – including some amusing selections as well as surprising omissions. It seems motorists can drive a PEN15, but not a VA61ANA, and while BL03 JOB is forbidden ORG45M is fine. The list of personalised plates the DVLA believes to be in poor taste runs to 46 pages and includes religious or homophobic words. [Daily Telegraph]
Banned number plates – how they might look

Video of the Day –

Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (Sweden) – LIVE at Eurovision 2015 Grand Final

List of the day 1 –

Eurovision Song Contest 2015 results

Sweden – 365 points
Russia – 303 points
Italy – 292 points
Belgium – 217 points
Australia – 196 points
Latvia – 186 points
Estonia – 106 points
Norway – 102 points
Israel – 97 points
Serbia – 53 points
Georgia – 51 points
Azerbaijan – 49 points
Montenegro – 44 points
Slovenia – 39 points
Romania – 35 points
Armenia – 34 points
Albania – 34 points
Lithuania – 30 points
Greece – 23 points
Hungary – 19 points
Spain – 15 points
Cyprus – 11 points
Poland – 10 points
United Kingdom – 5 points
France – 4 points
Germany – 0 points
Austria – 0 points

List of the day 2 –

2014-2015 Spanish La Liga final table

#	Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS

1	Barcelona	38	30	4	4	110	21	89	94

2	Real Madrid	38	30	2	6	118	38	80	92

3	Atlético Madrid	38	23	9	6	67	29	38	78

4	Valencia	38	22	11	5	70	32	38	77

5	Sevilla	38	23	7	8	71	45	26	76

6	Villarreal	38	16	12	10	48	37	11	60

7	Athletic	38	15	10	13	42	41	1	55

8	Celta Vigo	38	13	12	13	47	44	3	51

9	Málaga	38	14	8	16	42	48	-6	50

10	Espanyol	38	13	10	15	47	51	-4	49

11	Rayo	38	15	4	19	46	68	-22	49

12	Real Sociedad	38	11	13	14	44	51	-7	46

13	Elche	38	11	8	19	35	62	-27	41

14	Levante	38	9	10	19	34	67	-33	37

15	Getafe CF	38	10	7	21	33	64	-31	37

16	Deportivo	38	7	14	17	35	60	-25	35

17	Granada	38	7	14	17	29	64	-35	35

18	Eibar	38	9	8	21	34	55	-21	35

19	Almería	38	8	8	22	35	64	-29	32

20	Córdoba	38	3	11	24	22	68	-46	20

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	キスの日	#BreloVerdict	#BigWeekend
2	#PreguntasPelotudas	Ireland	#EqualityForAll
3	#JornadaDeReflexion	#SharedWordMovies	#furnishamovie
4	Dream Concert	Jeezy	Grange Hill
5	#جمال_الشخص_في	#BigWeekend	Adjoa
6	#اكتب_اسمك_وان�…	#NashsNewVideo	Southend
7	#EsteFindeLargoRePintaPara	#NewTLCShows	Fat Elvis
8	Dursun Özbek	Xavi	#askDinahYane
9	노건호	Bundesliga	Eric Pickles
10	#6raciesXavi	#UFC187	#CarShare

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- A roadside bomb kills two, including the district chief, in the Charcheno District of Afghanistan. (AP via ABC News America)
War in Somalia (2009–present)
- Islamic extremists kill at least 18 people in an attack on two rural towns Awdhegie and Mubarak, (AP)
War in Donbass
- Pro-Russian separatist military leader colonel Alexei Mozgovoi is confirmed killed in an ambush on his car. (BBC News)

Arts and culture

The Venerable Servant of God Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the assassinated former Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Salvador in San Salvador, El Salvador (d. March 24, 1980, while saying Mass, at the start of the Salvadoran Civil War) is beatified, in Pope Francis‘s name, by Angelo Cardinal Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, in San Salvador. (White House) (CNN)(Vatican)
The final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 is held in Vienna, Austria with Måns Zelmerlöw of Sweden winning for the song Heroes. (Sydney Morning Herald), (BBC)
A memorial service is held in the Scottish capital Edinburgh for the Quintinshill rail disaster which occurred 100 years ago and claimed over 200 lives. (BBC)

Disasters

The death toll from China‘s latest round of flooding rises to at least 48. (AP via Washington Post)
An Indian heat wave claims over 200 lives with the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana worst affected. (The Hindu)
Record breaking rain causes flooding in the American states of Oklahoma and Texas with Oklahoma City recording record rainfall levels for the month of May. (CNN)

International relations

South East Asia people smuggling
- Julie Bishop, the Foreign Minister of Australia, says that Indonesia has advised that most of the people who have traveled to South East Asiaby boat are from Bangladesh, not Rohingya from Myanmar. (Straits Times)
- Myanmar announces plans to deport recently rescued migrants to Bangladesh. (Sky News Asia)

Law and crime

Cleveland Police Department officer Michael Brelo is acquitted of manslaughter in relation to the 2012 deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams following a a police chase. There are multiple arrests in protests afterwards (Los Angeles Times via WA Today), (Newsnet)
- The U.S. Justice Department announced it will review the decision to determine if further action is required. (The Guardian)
Nigerian drug agents arrest senator-elect Buruji Kashamu for extradition to the United States for his alleged involvement in a drug deal 20 years ago that is claimed to be the basis for the television show Orange is the New Black. (AP)
The President of Myanmar, Thein Sein, signs the Population Control Health Care Bill requiring some parents to space each child three years apart. (AP via Daily Mail)

Politics and elections

Peru declares a 60 day state of emergency in the Tambo Valley following violent protests against a mine project which has seen four deaths. (AP via ABC News)
The United States Senate adjourns without agreeing either to reform the National Security Agency or extend the Patriot Act which is due to expire at the end of this month. (The Hill)
Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015
- The counting of votes for yesterday’s referendum occurs with the Republic of Ireland becoming the first country to adopt same sex marriageby popular vote. (AP), (Independent Ireland), (The Guardian)

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June 6, 2015

Top News Stories –

Xavi departs from Barcelona by winning the Champions League again –
After playing his last game at the Nu Camp last month Xavi Hernandez played his 397th and final game for Barcelona in the Champions League Final. Barcelona beat Juventus 3-0 to secure a treble of victories following the La Liga and Copa del Rey successes. It is the fourth time Xavi has one the Champions League Title and was celebrated by his club in a tweet. See List of the Day

Xavi Hernández

Frankie Dettori wins Epsom Derby on favourite Golden Horn –
Frankie Dettori capped his renaissance with a thrilling victory on favourite Golden Horn to win the 236th running of the Derby at Epsom. Dettori produced an ice-cool ride on the 13-8 favourite to beat his John Gosden-trained stablemate Jack Hobbs by three-and-a-half lengths, with Storm The Stars third. The 44-year-old jockey punched the air as he passed the line and did a trademark flying dismount in the winner’s enclosure. “It was unbelievable. The horse was brilliant,” said Dettori, riding for the first time in the race since returning from a six-month drugs ban two years ago. [BBC]
Frakie Dettori

Video of the Day –

IKE INTERVIEWS GOD from Eli Shapiro on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Xavi Hernandez honours

Barcelona

La Liga (8): 1998–99, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2014–15
Copa del Rey (3): 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15
Supercopa de España (6): 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013
UEFA Champions League (4): 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2014–15
UEFA Super Cup (2): 2009, 2011
FIFA Club World Cup (2): 2009, 2011

International

Individual

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#5HatCapitalSTB	#UCLfinal	#CapitalSTB
2	#Appreciate5YearsOfZayn	SATs	#AddACharacterChangeAFilmT…
3	#EstaIndirectaEsParaVos	#EdibleBands	#fabsummer
4	ジブリ悪役診断	#DDay	#UCLfinal
5	#NiallTheBadBoy	#Appreciate5YearsOfZayn	#EdibleBands
6	#FrasesDeBorracho	#AddACharacterChangeAFilmT…	Murray
7	総選挙速報	#TripleCrown	#ROWYSOBirmingham
8	#UCLfinal	Cheetah Girls	Juve
9	5 Seconds Of Summer	#IfIWereGodICould	#TorySongs
10	カノ嘘	Pirlo	Dark Souls 3

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- Saudi Arabia shoots down a Scud missile fired by Houthi rebels in Yemen according to Saudi State media. (Reuters)
- At least four Saudi Arabian Army soldiers and dozens of rebels are killed in fighting near the border, according to Saudi government. They^[who?] capture the District and kill ten police officers. (AFP via France 24), (Al-Hazeera via Yahoo! Maktoob)
War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
- The Taliban launches a major offensive in the Yamgan District of Badakhshan Province with hundreds of militants involved. (AP)
War in Donbass
- The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko claims that his forces have repelled an attack on the town of Marinka and captured 12 rebels including one Russian. (BBC)
Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel
- For the second time this week, a rocket fired from Gaza lands in Israel. There were no immediate reports of injuries, or claims of responsibility.(Times of Israel)

Disasters and accidents

Sinking of the Dong Fang Zhi Xing
- The death toll from the sinking of the Dong Fang Zhi Xing rises to 396 with 46 unaccounted for. (CCTV via Twitter)
Eleven bodies have been recovered from Mount Kinabalu and 8 people remain missing following yesterday’s Sabah earthquake. (Straits Times)
Lightning strikes at the Rock am Ring rock festival held at the Mendig Air Base in Germany, injuring 33 people. (AP via News24)
Ships from the British and German navies are dispatched to rescue thousands of migrants stranded in the Mediterranean Sea. (CNN)

Health

2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak in South Korea
- The number of confirmed MERS cases in South Korea rises by 9 to 50. (AFP via Straits Times)

International relations

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi travels to Bangladesh for the signing of an agreement that dissolves all 162 enclaves in the border region between the two nations and allows thousands of people living in the territories to choose their nationality. (Al-Jazeera)
Reuters reports that an Egyptian court has overturned a ruling that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Five police are injured following violent protests at a gay pride march in Kiev. (BBC)

Politics and elections

The President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir swears in a new Cabinet after having been sworn in for a five-year term earlier in the week. (al-Arabiya)

Sports

Association football
- Italian side Juventus FC and Spanish side FC Barcelona play in the final of the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin with Barcelona winning their fifth European championship 3-1. (ESPN), (The Guardian)
- The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup gets underway in Canada with the Canadians beating China 1-0 in the first match. (BBC)
Horse racing
- The 236th running of the Epsom Derby is held at Epsom Downs Racecourse in England with Golden Horn ridden by Frankie Dettori winning and stablemate “Jack Hobbs” coming second. (BBC), (The Telegraph)]
- The 2015 Belmont Stakes is held at Belmont Park with American Pharoah becoming the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown.(Bloomberg)
2015 French Open – Women’s Singles
- In tennis, number one seed Serena Williams of the US meets number 13 seed Lucie Šafářová of Czech Republic in the women’s singles final of the 2015 French Open. Williams wins her 20th Grand Slam title winning 6-3, 6-7, 6-2. (The Guardian)

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June 12, 2015

June 11, 2015

Top News Stories –

Sir Christopher Lee death announced –
In one of his final interviews, Sir Christopher Lee declared his intention never to retire. “When I die, I want to die with my boots on,” he said.
The actor remained true to his word. He was preparing for his latest film role – a drama called The 11th, co-starring Uma Thurman – when he died on Sunday morning [June 7, 2015] at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Sir Christopher was one of the greats of the 20th century, but his career hit new heights in the last 15 years of his life. He will be best remembered by those of a certain age for playing Count Dracula in his Hammer Horror days, but to younger film fans he was a star of two of the biggest franchises ever made: Saruman in Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku in Star Wars. [Daily Telegraph] He appeared in over 200 films (See List of the Day)
Sir Christopher Lee (1922-2015)

Female scientists post ‘distractingly sexy’ photos –
Female scientists have been sharing “distractingly sexy” photos of themselves after a feminist website encouraged them to respond to comments by a Nobel laureate. Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt was roundly criticised when he detailed his thoughts about the “trouble with girls” at a conference of science journalists. “Three things happen when they are in the lab,” he said, “you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry.” He said his comments were meant to be “light-hearted, ironic comment”, but whatever the intention, it went over like a heavy metallic dirigible in a field with some widely acknowledged gender issues. Hunt has now resigned from his position at University College London. On Thursday the hashtag #DistractinglySexy began taking off, with more than 10,000 tweets in a matter of hours. [BBC Trending] See Top Twitter Trends (UK)

Video of the Day –

Saruman the White – from Lord of the Rings [from Youtube]

List of the Day –

Sir Christopher Lee film appearances (including voiceovers) [List from Wikipedia]

#	Year	Film	Role	Notes
1	1948	Corridor of Mirrors	Charles
2	1948	One Night with You	Pirelli’s Assistant
3	1948	Hamlet	Spear Carrier	Uncredited
4	1948	Penny and the Pownall Case	Jonathan Blair
5	1948	A Song for Tomorrow	Auguste
6	1948	My Brother’s Keeper	Second Constable	Deleted scenes
7	1948	Saraband for Dead Lovers	Bit Part	Uncredited
8	1948	Scott of the Antarctic	Bernard Day
9	1949	Trottie True	Bongo
10	1950	They Were Not Divided	Chris Lewis
11	1950	Prelude to Fame	Newsman
12	1951	Valley of Eagles	Det. Holt
13	1951	Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.	Spanish Captain
14	1951	Quo Vadis	Chariot Driver	Uncredited^[1]
15	1952	The Crimson Pirate	Joseph (attache)
16	1952	Top Secret	Russian Agent	Uncredited
17	1952	Paul Temple Returns	Sir Felix Raybourne
18	1952	Babes in Bagdad	Slave Dealer
19	1952	Moulin Rouge	Georges Seurat
20	1953	Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot	Voice	Uncredited
21	1953	Innocents in Paris	Lieutenant Whitlock	Uncredited
22	1954	Destination Milan	Svenson
23	1955	Man in Demand
24	1955	Crossroads	Harry Cooper
25	1955	Final Column
26	1955	That Lady	Captain
27	1955	Police Dog	Johnny, a constable
28	1955	The Dark Avenger	French Patrol Captain at Tavern	Uncredited
29	1955	The Cockleshell Heroes	Submarine Commander
30	1955	Storm Over the Nile	Karaga Pasha
31	1956	Alias John Preston	John Preston
32	1956	Private’s Progress	Gen. von Linbeck’s aide	Uncredited
33	1956	Port Afrique	Franz Vermes
34	1956	Beyond Mombasa	Gil Rossi
35	1956	The Battle of the River Plate	Manolo
36	1957	Ill Met by Moonlight	German Officer at Dentists
37	1957	Fortune Is a Woman	Charles Highbury
38	1957	The Traitor	Dr. Neumann
39	1957	The Curse of Frankenstein	The Creature
40	1957	Manuela	Voice	Uncredited
41	1957	Bitter Victory	Sgt. Barney
42	1957	The Truth About Women	François
43	1958	A Tale of Two Cities	Marquis St. Evremonde
44	1958	Dracula	Count Dracula	Alternative title: Horror of Dracula
45	1958	Battle of the V-1	Labor Camp Captain, Men’s Section
46	1958	Corridors of Blood	Resurrection Joe
47	1959	The Hound of the Baskervilles	Sir Henry Baskerville
48	1959	The Man Who Could Cheat Death	Dr. Pierre Gerard
49	1959	The Treasure of San Teresa	Jaeger
50	1959	The Mummy	Kharis, the Mummy
51	1959	Uncle Was a Vampire	Baron Roderico da Frankurten
52	1960	Too Hot to Handle	Novak
53	1960	Beat Girl	Kenny
54	1960	The City of the Dead	Prof. Alan Driscoll	Alternative title: Horror Hotel
55	1960	The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll	Paul Allen
56	1960	The Hands of Orlac	Nero the magician
57	1961	The Terror of the Tongs	Chung King
58	1961	Taste of Fear	Doctor Pierre Gerrard
59	1961	The Devil’s Daffodil	Ling Chu
60	1961	Ercole al centro della terra	King Lico (Licos)	Alternative title: Hercules in the Haunted World
61	1962	Stranglehold
62	1962	The Puzzle of the Red Orchid	Captain Allerman
63	1962	The Pirates of Blood River	Captain LaRoche
64	1962	The Devil’s Agent	Baron von Staub
65	1962	Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace	Sherlock Holmes
66	1963	Katarsis	Mephistoles
67	1963	La vergine di Norimberga	Erich	Aka Castle of Terror and Virgin of Nuremberg
68	1963	La frusta e il corpo	Kurt Menliff	Aka The Whip and the Body and Night Is the Phantom
69	1964	Il castello dei morti vivi	Count Drago	Alternative title: Castle of the Living Dead
70	1964	La cripta e l’incubo	Count Ludwig Karnstein	Aka Crypt of the Vampire and Crypt of Horror
71	1964	The Devil-Ship Pirates	Captain Robeles
72	1964	The Gorgon	Prof. Karl Meister
73	1965	Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors	Franklyn Marsh
74	1965	She	Billali
75	1965	The Skull	Sir Matthew Phillips
76	1965	Ten Little Indians	Voice of “Mr. Owen”	Uncredited
77	1965	The Face of Fu Manchu	Dr. Fu Manchu / Lee Tao
78	1966	Theatre of Death	Philippe Darvas
79	1966	Dracula: Prince of Darkness	Count Dracula
80	1966	Rasputin, the Mad Monk	Grigori Rasputin
81	1966	Circus of Fear	Gregor	Alternative title: Psycho Circus
82	1966	The Brides of Fu Manchu	Fu Manchu
83	1967	The Vengeance of Fu Manchu	Dr. Fu Manchu
84	1967	Night of the Big Heat	Godfrey Hanson
85	1967	Five Golden Dragons	Dragon #4
86	1967	The Blood Demon	Count Frederic Regula, Graf von Andomai	Aka The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism and Castle of the Walking Dead
87	1968	Curse of the Crimson Altar	Morley
88	1968	The Devil Rides Out	Duc de Richleau
89	1968	Eve	Colonel Stuart	Alternative title: The Face of Eve
90	1968	The Blood of Fu Manchu	Fu Manchu
91	1968	Dracula Has Risen from the Grave	Count Dracula
92	1969	The Castle of Fu Manchu	Fu Manchu
93	1969	The Oblong Box	Dr. J. Neuhart
94	1969	The Magic Christian	Ship’s vampire
95	1970	Scream and Scream Again	Fremont
96	1970	Umbracle	The Man
97	1970	The Bloody Judge (es)	Lord George Jeffreys	Alternative title: Night of the Blood Monster
98	1970	Count Dracula	Count Dracula
99	1970	Taste the Blood of Dracula	Count Dracula
100	1970	One More Time	Count Dracula
101	1970	Julius Caesar	Artemidorus
102	1970	Eugenie	Dolmance	Aka Eugenie – The Story of Her Journey into Perversion
103	1970	The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes	Mycroft Holmes
104	1970	Scars of Dracula	Count Dracula
105	1971	The House That Dripped Blood	John Reid	Segment: “Sweets to the Sweet”
105	1971	Cuadecuc, vampir	Count Dracula/Himself
106	1971	I, Monster	Dr. Charles Marlowe/Edward Blake
107	1971	Hannie Caulder	Bailey
108	1972	Death Line	Stratton-Villiers, MI5	Alternative title: Raw Meat
109	1972	Nothing But the Night	Col. Charles Bingham
110	1972	Dracula A.D. 1972	Count Dracula
111	1973	Dark Places	Dr. Mandeville
112	1973	The Creeping Flesh	James Hildern
113	1973	The Satanic Rites of Dracula	Count Dracula
114	1973	Horror Express	Sir Alexander Saxton
115	1973	The Three Musketeers	Rochefort
116	1973	The Wicker Man	Lord Summerisle
117	1974	The Four Musketeers	Rochefort
118	1974	The Man with the Golden Gun	Francisco Scaramanga
119	1975	Diagnosis: Murder	Dr. Stephen Hayward
120	1975	Le boucher, la star et l’orpheline	Van Krig/Himself
121	1976	The Keeper	The Keeper
122	1976	Killer Force	Major Chilton	Alternative title: The Diamond Mercenaries
123	1976	To the Devil, A Daughter	Father Michael Rayner
124	1976	Dracula père et fils	Prince of Darkness	Alternative title: Dracula and Son
125	1976	Albino	Bill	Aka Whispering Death and Death in the Sun
126	1977	Airport ’77	Martin Wallace
127	1977	Meatcleaver Massacre	On-screen narrator	Aka Evil Force and Revenge of the Dead
128	1977	End of the World	Father Pergado / Zindar
129	1977	Starship Invasions	Captain Rameses
130	1978	Return from Witch Mountain	Dr. Victor Gannon
131	1978	Caravans	Sardar Khan
132	1978	Circle of Iron	Zetan	Alternative title: The Silent Flute
133	1979	The Passage	Gypsy
134	1979	Arabian Adventure	Alquazar
135	1979	Nutcracker Fantasy	Uncle Drosselmeyer / Street Singer / Watchmaker	Voice
136	1979	Jaguar Lives!	Adam Caine
137	1979	Bear Island	Lechinski
138	1979	1941	Capt. Wolfgang von Kleinschmidt
139	1979	Captain America II: Death Too Soon	Miguel
140	1980	Serial	Luckman Skull
141	1981	The Salamander	Prince Baldasar, the Director of Counterintelligence
142	1981	Desperate Moves	Dr. Carl Boxer
143	1981	An Eye for an Eye	Morgan Canfield
144	1982	Safari 3000	Count Borgia
145	1982	The Last Unicorn	King Haggard	Voice; also in German language version
146	1983	New Magic	Mr. Kellar
147	1983	The Return of Captain Invincible	Mr. Midnight
148	1983	House of the Long Shadows	Corrigan
149	1984	The Rosebud Beach Hotel	Mr. Clifford King
150	1985	Mask of Murder	Chief Supt. Jonathan Rich
151	1985	Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf	Stefan Crosscoe
152	1986	The Girl	Peter Storm
153	1987	Jocks	President White
154	1987	Mio min Mio	Kato
155	1988	Dark Mission	Luis Morel
156	1989	Murder Story	Willard Hope
157	1989	La chute des aigles	Walter Strauss
158	1989	The Return of the Musketeers	Rochefort
159	1990	The Rainbow Thief	Uncle Rudolf
160	1990	L’avaro	Cardinale Spinosi
161	1990	Honeymoon Academy	Lazos
162	1990	Panga	–
163	1990	Gremlins 2: The New Batch	Doctor Catheter
164	1991	Curse III: Blood Sacrifice	Doctor Pearson
165	1992	Jackpot	Cedric
166	1992	Kabuto	King Philip
167	1994	Police Academy: Mission to Moscow	Cmndt. Alexandrei Nikolaivich Rakov
168	1994	Funny Man	Callum Chance
169	1994	Flesh and Blood	Narrator/Self	Last collaboration with Peter Cushing
170	1995	A Feast at Midnight	V. E. Longfellow, a.k.a. Raptor
171	1996	Welcome to the Discworld	Death
172	1996	The Stupids	Evil Sender
173	1998	Tale of the Mummy	Sir Richard Turkel
174	1998	Jinnah	Mohammed Ali Jinnah	Lee considers this to be his favourite role/most significant^[2]
175	1999	Sleepy Hollow	Burgomaster
176	2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Saruman
177	2002	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones	Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus
178	2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Saruman
179	2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Saruman	Extended Edition only
180	2004	Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse	Heinrich von Garten
181	2005	The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby	The Lord Provost
182	2005	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus
183	2005	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Dr. Wilbur Wonka
184	2005	Corpse Bride	Pastor Galswells	Voice
185	2007	The Golden Compass	First High Councillor
186	2008	Star Wars: The Clone Wars	Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus	Voice
187	2009	Boogie Woogie	Alfred Rhinegold
188	2009	Triage	Joaquín Morales
189	2009	Glorious 39	Walter
190	2010	Alice in Wonderland	Jabberwocky	Voice
191	2010	Burke & Hare	Joseph
192	2010	The Heavy	Mr. Mason
193	2011	Season of the Witch	Cardinal D’Ambroise
194	2011	The Resident	August
195	2011	The Wicker Tree	Old Gentleman
196	2011	Grave Tales	Himself	Original version only
197	2011	Hugo	Monsieur Labisse
198	2012	The Hunting of the Snark	Narrator	Voice
199	2012	Dark Shadows	Silas Clarney
200	2012	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	Saruman
201	2013	Night Train to Lisbon	Father Bartolomeu
202	2013	Necessary Evil	Narrator	Voice
203	2013	The Girl from Nagasaki	Old Officer Pinkerton
204	2014	The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies	Saruman
205	2014	Extraordinary Tales		Voice
206	2015	Angels in Notting Hill	The Boss, Mr. President

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#LiamDay	NOT AVAILABLE	#MakeAMovieLessRomantic
2	#QueSeriaMiVidaSin	NOT AVAILABLE	#LiamDay
3	Marge y Homero	NOT AVAILABLE	Christopher Lee
4	Christopher Lee	NOT AVAILABLE	Ornette Coleman
5	#ConfiesoQue	NOT AVAILABLE	#SAScon
6	Perrie Malik	NOT AVAILABLE	#MyDadWouldAlwaysSay
7	#WorstChildhoodRumors	NOT AVAILABLE	#TimeToDeactivate
8	#RetoTelehit	NOT AVAILABLE	#distractinglysexy
9	Dusty Rhodes	NOT AVAILABLE	#VFintelligence
10	#BuenJueves	NOT AVAILABLE	#ROWYSOLiverpool

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Military intervention against ISIL
- A US citizen fighting alongside Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) against ISIL is killed in action near Kobani. (Today’s Zaman via AP)
Syrian Civil War
- Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, shoots dead at least 20 Druze villagers in Idlib in what is being described as a “massacre”.(The Telegraph)
Boko Haram
- Residents of northeast Nigeria claim that Boko Haram has killed at least 43 people and burnt down three villages in recent attacks. (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel
- A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip towards the Ashkelon region fell short and did not land in Israel with Palestinian sources indicating it may have hit a house. There were no immediate reports of injuries, or claims of responsibility. (Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

Spain gives the late writer Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, a formal burial at a Madrid convent nearly 400 years after his death in 1616. (AP)

Business and economics

After a poor 1st quarter earnings report, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo steps down with co-founder Jack Dorsey taking over as interim CEO effective July 1. (USA Today)
Rupert Murdoch will step aside as CEO of 21st Century Fox to be replaced by his son James Murdoch. (AFP via ABC Online)

Disasters and accidents

At least 41 people have been killed, 8 injured, and scores are missing in landslides in Nepal‘s Taplejung District caused by heavy rain. (The Hindu)

Health

Health officials in the United States are advising doctors to be on the lookout for MERS following an outbreak in South Korea. (AP via Washington Post)

International relations

NGO Save the Children
- Federal Interior Ministry of Pakistan has sealed the offices of the NGO Save the Children in Pakistan and issued order for its foreign staff to leave the country within 15 days on account of the NGO’s anti-Pakistan activities. (Express Tribune).
Nuclear program of Iran:
- A new version of the Israeli-linked malware Duqu is found at hotels hosting Iran nuclear talks by Kaspersky; Israel denies involvement. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

China‘s former security chief Zhou Yongkang is given a life sentence for bribery, leaking state secrets and abuse of power. (ABC News Australia)
Shooting of Tamir Rice
- A court in the American city of Cleveland, Ohio, finds probable cause that Cleveland Police Department officer Timothy Loehmann should face murder charges in relation to the shooting of Tamar Rice. (Cleveland.com)
King Felipe VI of Spain strips his sister Cristina of her titles after she is charged with tax evasion. (AFP via Yahoo!)
Authorities from the Marshal’s Service, the FBI, Customs, state and local police, and the Forest Police searching for 6 days in northeastern New York (about 25 miles south of the Canadian border, near Lake Champlain and Vermont, in the Adirondack Forest area, in Dannemora, New Yorkand Plattsburgh, New York) for two high-risk murderers who staged an elaborate escape from the high-security Clinton Correctional Facility– the first there- the night of Friday, June 5, 2015 (it was discovered the next morning), using bloodhounds, find a scent and leftover evidence that could be from the two, Richard Matt and David Sweat. (CNN)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 25, 2015

Top News Stories –

Italian woman, 46, arrested for locking ‘toy boy’ in basement over sex demands –
An Italian woman has been arrested after allegedly locking up her “toy boy” boyfriend for refusing to have sex with her, in a story that has evoked comparisons with the classic film The Graduate. The woman, 46, who was divorced, met the 25-year-old during a holiday romance in Campania in southern Italy. Initially they got on well but the young man reportedly became increasingly vexed by the amount of sex that the older woman was demanding. He declined her advances on several occasions but she then took revenge by locking him up, against his will, in the basement of her house at Arzano, near Naples. The young man managed to raise the alarm, calling for help from passers-by. [Daily Telegraph]

George Clooney photobombs Cindy Crawford as she takes romantic selfie with husband –
Does anyone enjoy looking at “romantic selfies” of couples kissing on Instagram? It’s worse than a public display of affection (PDA), as it is done purely to show off how in love you are with the person you’re smooching. Cindy Crawford and her husband Rande Gerber were taking a tender selfie together, when George Clooney decided to ruin it by pulling a strange face in the background. [Daily Telegraph]
Cindy Crawford Instagram with Rande Gerber and George Clooney

International bridge champions accuse teammates of cheating –
Two Israeli men, Lotan Fisher and Ron Schwartz, have been accused by their team mates of cheating in three matches including the Spingold tournament – one of the most famous of all.
A triumphant team of bridge players has been ripped apart by accusations that would, in the words of the whistleblower, “even make a Hollywood movie surreal.” Two Israeli men, Lotan Fisher and Ron Schwartz, have been accused by their team mates of cheating. Quite how they cheated is unclear, but Norwegian bridge professional Boye Brogeland, one of the world’s highest-rated bridge players, said the other four members of the team were handing back three titles they had won together. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Dismaland [See August 23, 2015]

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#5monthswithoutzayn	#SolveMyProblemsIn4Words	#ask5sos
2	#RelationshipGoalsIn3Words	#RelationshipGoalsIn3Words	#RelationshipGoalsIn3Words
3	#Tucumanazo	Vick	#charitytuesday
4	#فتاه_تغتصب_شاب	#5monthswithoutzayn	House of Fools
5	#NuncaMePasoEsoDe	Curt Schilling	#1YearOfMyEverything
6	BeliebersVoteHottest	Aaliyah	#5monthswithoutzayn
7	#SolveMyProblemsIn4Words	#ask5sos	#TravelTuesday
8	LANA EU TE AMO	#BornToRun	Colin Fry
9	#FelizMartes	You Oughta Know	Harvey Proctor
10	NCAE	Jorge Ramos	Greg Rutherford

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Boko Haram
- A teenage girl suicide bomber kills five people and injures fourteen in the Damaturu area in northeast Nigeria. (AP via Fox News)
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
- Fourteen people are arrested in Spain and Morocco for allegedly trying to recruit people to ISIL. (Times of Israel)
North Korea and South Korea agree to stop airing propaganda at the border and stand down preparations for war. (NPR)

Business and economics

The People’s Bank of China cuts interest rates and lowers minimum requirements for bank reserves for the second time in two months. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Goni makes landfall in southwestern Japan with at least 26 people injured but no people killed. The death toll in the Philippines rises to 21 while South Korea is on alert. (AP), (Yonhap)
A gas explosion in the Afghanistan city of Herat kills eleven people and injures 18. (AP via Ahram Online)

International relations

A record number of migrants crossing the Balkans results in a record number of people in Hungary despite the government building a wall on the border with Serbia. (AP via The Columbian)

Law and crime

A Federal Security Service court in Russia sentences Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in prison for plotting terrorist acts in Crimea, amid allegations of torture and US claims that he is being held hostage in Russia after having been abducted from Ukraine by Russian-backed separatists. (BBC)
4 people are killed and 3 others are severely injured in a shooting at a camp in Roye, Somme, France. (L’Express)
Protests by the Patidar community in Ahmedabad turn violent, sparking violence across the state of Gujarat, India.(DNA)

Politics and elections

The Parliament of Singapore is dissolved with a general election to be held on September 11. (AFP/Reuters via ABC Australia)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resourceAugust 23, 2015

October 1, 2015

Top News Stories –

Gunman kills nine at Oregon college, dies in shootout with police –
A gunman stalked onto a college campus in southwestern Oregon on Thursday and opened fire, killing nine people and wounding seven before police shot him to death, authorities said, in yet another burst of U.S. gun violence that ranked as the deadliest this year. The suspect, who witnesses say fired dozens of shots into a classroom full of screaming students, was slain in an exchange of gunfire with two police officers in Snyder Hall at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg following the morning rampage. He was not publicly identified by local authorities – the county sheriff vowed never to utter his name. But CBS, CNN, NBC and the New York Times named him as 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer, citing anonymous law enforcement sources. [Reuters]

Native American tribe to open first marijuana resort in US –
A Native American tribe in the US state of South Dakota has said it plans to open what would be the first marijuana resort in the US. The 400-member Santee Sioux tribe already runs a casino, hotel and ranch and hopes the resort will be a new revenue generator. Marijuana is not legal in South Dakota but the tribe has been permitted to grow and sell pot since June. It will open on New Year’s Eve and only be sold on the reservation. Sioux leaders would grow the marijuana to be offered in a smoking lounge. [BBC]

Peeple app for rating human beings causes uproar –
A new app that promises to let users review individuals has caused controversy before it has even launched. Peeple will allow members to give star ratings to people they know via the app, much as restaurants and hotels are rated on sites such as Yelp. The app has caused uproar online, with web users descrying it as “creepy” and “terrifying”. Peeple’s founders say they will pre-screen for negative abuse. However, users will not be able to delete comments made about them. Nor will they be able to remove themselves from the site once on it. [BBC] See Video of the Day

Study supports cancer link with height –
A Swedish study of five million people appears to support the theory that height and cancer risk are linked. The study found that taller people had a higher risk of breast cancer and skin cancer, among other cancers.
Its results suggested that for every 10cm (4in) of height, when fully grown, the risk of developing cancer increased by 18% in women and 11% in men. But experts said the study did not take into account many risk factors – and that tall people should not be worried. Previous studies have shown a link, although why it exists is not known. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Rate Me

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	Ahmet Hakan	#Peeple	#Peeple
2	#FelizJueves	ITS OCTOBER	1st of October
3	#GHFinal	#WorldVegetarianDay	#WorldVegetarianDay
4	samfreeさん	#BreastCancerAwarenessMonth	Happy Independence
5	#RetoTelehit	#UCCShooting	#olderpeoplesday
6	FRAUDE EN GRAN HERMANO	Julie Andrews	St Albans
7	Bienvenido Octubre	#BadTrampStamps	#WALvFJI
8	#Empire	Sandy Hook	#WentworthPrison
9	Lucifer	Rick Owens	Nigerians
10	#ALDUB11thWeeksary	#MarsSurvivalTips	Dele Alli

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Gaza–Israel conflict
- In retaliation for the rocket fired on the Israeli city of Ashdod, the Israeli Air Force carries out airstrikes on suspected Hamas positions in Gaza. No casualties are reported. (The News Hub)
Afghan War, Battle of Kunduz
- The government of Afghanistan claims to have recaptured the city of Kunduz. (AFP via ABC News Australia)
- Taliban forces take over the Warduj District of the Badakhshan Province as government forces retreat. (WVTM)
- A C-130J transport aircraft crashes in eastern Afghanistan as it approaches the airport in Jalalabad killing at least 11 people on board. A U.S. military spokesman says there were no reports of enemy fire at the time. (Al Jazeera), (ABC News),(Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- Russian intervention in the Syrian Civil War
  - Russian air-strikes reportedly kill U.S.-backed Syrian rebels as Russian jets bomb rebel positions in rural areas of northern Syria, including the town of Jisr al-Shughour, which is currently held by Islamist militant groups including Al-Qaeda‘s branch in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front. (The Telegraph)
  - Hezbollah fighters and newly arriving Iranian troops are reportedly preparing for a ‘major ground offensive’ in northern Syria, backed by Russian air-strikes. (Reuters)
  - Iraq‘s prime minister Haider al-Abadi endorses Russian air-strikes against ISIS forces in Iraq while expressing ‘disappointment’ with the U.S.-led coalition. (Times Live)
Turkey–PKK conflict
- 2015 PKK rebellion
  - Four Turkish soldiers are killed in PKK attacks across southeastern Turkey. Turkish authorities impose a curfew in the city of Mardin due to escalating violence. (Today’s Zaman)
Chinese authorities arrest a suspect in yesterday’s 17 Liucheng County mail bomb explosions that killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50. The suspect is identified as 33-year-old quarry-worker, Wei Yinyong, from Dapu township also inGuangxi Province. There is another explosion this morning. While it’s not clear if it is connected, authorities reportedly located 60 packages yesterday which were being examined by a bomb squad. (The New York Times), (Asia One), (Voice of America), (Al Arabiya)
Umpqua Community College shooting
- A mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon kills ten people and leaves seven wounded. in The shooter kills nine people before police shot him to death. The man’s motives are unknown. (Reuters), (CNN), (BBC News),(Reuters)
- The shooter is 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer. (CBS News), (Palm Beach Post)
Palestinian militants kill an Israeli couple in a shooting attack on their car in the northern West Bank; four of the couple’s children are in the vehicle at the time but are not hit by the gunfire. Hamas praises the “heroic attack” and calls for “more high-quality attacks.” (The Times of Israel) (Israel National News) (Breaking Israel News)
Yemeni Civil War
- Government forces and the Southern Resistance backed by coalition forces wrest control of the strategic strait of Bab Al Mandab and a small Mayoun Island in the Red Sea from Al Houthi militants. (AP via Fox News) (Gulf News) (Al Jazeera‎)

Business and economy

The UAW at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reject a four-year contract, setting the stage for at least localized strikes against the automaker.(Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Joaquin
  - Hurricane Joaquin becomes a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. Some additional strengthening is possible tomorrow. The storm, moving at just 6 mph, is predicted to drop 10 to 15 inches of rain in the central Bahamaswith up to five inches expected for the rest of the archipelago. (Nassau Tribune), (NHC)
  - Joaquin, expected to pick up forward speed when it turns north tomorrow, could hit the East Coast this weekend. While forecasts of the storm’s trajectory are still uncertain, nearly every state from North Carolina to Connecticut is in the so-called “cone of uncertainty.” North Carolina and New Jersey join Virginia in declaring states of emergency. (UPI), (Reuters)

Health and medicine

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends everyone diagnosed with HIV immediately receive antiretroviral therapy and recommends preventative treatment for all at “substantial risk” of infection. Previously, the UN health agency had recommended to physicians that the threshold for patient intervention was the presentation of symptoms. (The Verge), (Time), (WHO)

International relations

Bahrain recalls its ambassador to Iran and asks the Iranian acting chargé d’affaires to leave the kingdom within 72 hours after the Iranian is declared persona non-grata, a day after Bahraini security forces discovered a large bomb-making factory inNuwaidrat and arrested a number of suspects linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Bahrain’s decision to recall its ambassador comes “in light of continued Iranian meddling in the affairs of the kingdom of Bahrain in order to create sectarian strife and impose hegemony and control.” (The Daily Star), (Gulf News)

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October 16, 2015

Top News Stories –

Santa Claus is elected to North Pole City Council in Alaska –
Mr Claus, who is 68 years old, has a white beard and is often seen in his hometown wearing red. Admittedly this North Pole is actually in Alaska, not the one every associates with Christmas. And Mr Claus actually changed his name from Thomas Patrick O’Connor about 10 years ago. “I’m fairly well known. I think people are pleased with it. We’ll see. Time will tell,” he said. “I have three years to make a positive impression so hopefully I will get off on the right foot later this month.” North Pole, Alaska, is home to about 2,200 people. Their new city councillor will take his seat later this month. Mr Claus, who was living in Nevada when he changed his name, says he tries to help at-risk children and improve the lives of young people. [BBC Newsbeat]

China home to more billionaires than the US –
China has eclipsed the United States as home to the world’s highest number of billionaires, according to a new report. Despite China’s economy cooling in recent months, the number of billionaires within its borders rose this year by 242, bringing the total to 596. The US, in contrast, is currently home to 537 billionaires, according to The Hurun Report, which monitors the wealthy in China. The list reflects a power shift in China’s economy, with the surge in the number of super rich fuelled by the growth of the nation’s IT and manufacturing industries. [Daily Telegraph]

Yahoo Mail does away with passwords –
One of the biggest pains of the digital age is having to memorise multiple lengthy and appropriately unguessable passwords. Now, Yahoo has done away with the password altogether in its new Yahoo Mail app, instead asking users to sign in via push notification. The new app uses new sign-in method Yahoo Account Key, which sends a notification to the smartphone you’ve chosen to link to the account asking ‘Are you trying to sign in?’ and the option to select yes or no. Yahoo claims the feature is more secure than a traditional password due to the second step of phone verification, but without the need to input a code. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

Tesla’s Autopilot System Is Creepy And Wonderful

Top Twitter Trends –

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1	#ItsPerfectDay	#PreOrderPURPOSE	#FridayFeeling
2	#PreOrderPURPOSE	#ItsPerfectDay	#WorldFoodDay
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4	Hayırlı Cumalar	Malia Obama	#HeyEverybodyMusicVideo
5	Oscar Wilde	#RememberWhenPeopleActually	#MercuryPrize
6	Falcons	Ann Coulter	#ItsPerfectDay
7	Irene Lozano	#NationalBossDay	Cook
8	BuyPurposeOnITunes	#WorldFoodDay	#bbcqt
9	#BuenViernes	Joseph’s Tomb	Falcons
10	#ادخل_وكتب_دعو�…	#CrapperBooks	Joe Cole

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian political violence
- Palestinian rioters set fire to the building containing Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank city of Nablus causing heavy damage to the structure before the fire is put out. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the attack. (Times of Israel) (Jerusalem Post)
- An Israeli soldier is stabbed shortly after the fire by a Palestinian posing as a journalist with a camera and a “PRESS” vest; the attacker is shot dead. (Reuters)
Battle of Aleppo (2012–present), Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War
- Syrian Army forces supported by Russian planes attack insurgents south of the city of Aleppo. (Reuters)
Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- Turkey says it has shot down a drone near the Syrian border after it failed to leave Turkish airspace. (Today’s Zaman)

Arts and culture

A United States appeals court rules the Google Books Library Project, the scanning of millions of books with snippets searchable online, is legal under copyright law, affirming a 2013 district court decision. (USA Today) (The Register)

Disasters and accidents

2015 Pacific typhoon season
- Koppu strengthens to a typhoon ahead of threatening lives and properties in the Philippines island of Luzon over the weekend. (AccuWeather)
2015 California drought
- Many residents of Los Angeles and Kern Counties in southern drought-stricken California are trapped by flash floods after receiving four to six inches of rain in a short period of time. (CNN)
- Mudslides, with head-high mounds of mud, from yesterday’s flash floods cover major highways in the mountains and desert north of Los Angeles. Interstate 5, one of the state’s major north-south arteries, is closed. The National Weather Service issues aflash flood watch today. (AP via KPHO TV) (Los Angeles Times)
Six construction workers, injured when scaffolding at an unfinished building collapsed in Houston, Texas (US), are rushed to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries. Firefighters continue to sift through the debris for other potential victims. (Houston Chronicle)

International relations

European migrant crisis
- The European Union and Turkey reach an agreement for Turkey to stem the flow of migrants into Europe in return for a £3bn aid package, easier visa conditions and re-energised talks to join the bloc. (ITV)
- Hungary announces it will close its southern border with Croatia at midnight. (Reuters)
Russia and other ex-Soviet states meeting in Kazakhstan agree to set up a joint task force to tackle instability on their borders, most notably from Afghanistan. (Reuters)
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is in Washington, D.C. and met with President Barack Obama at The White House. (New York Times)
China hosts the ministers of defense from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During the meeting a Chinese defense official suggests joint maritime drills between the host and ASEAN. At the same time, it is widely expected that U.S. Navyvessels may soon sail within 12 nautical miles of islands China is constructing upon reefs and atolls in the South China Sea. (New York Times) (BBC)
The United States confirms Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in “clear violation” of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests. (Reuters) (BBC)

Law and crime

Rafe Esquith, a notable teacher in the Los Angeles, California, public school system files a $1 billion class action lawsuit against the LA Unified School District. Esquith, recently removed from teaching and subsequently fired, alleges on behalf of almost 2,000 individuals, certain age-discrimination tactics by the school system against older teachers. (CNN)
A U.S. federal judge declines plaintiffs request for an emergency order requiring Texas issue birth certificates to U.S.-born children of immigrant families who entered the country illegally. The judge said Matrícula Consular cards issued by Mexican consulates to their citizens in the U.S. aren’t secure. The U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees the right of citizenship to children born in the United States. (Miami Herald) (Washington Times)

Politics and elections

Hawaii Governor David Ige declares a state of emergency to address homelessness as the state has seen an alarming increase in unsheltered individuals and families over the past two years, particularly on O’ahu. Hawaii has the highest per capita rate ofhomelessness among the 50 states at about 465 people per 100,000 citizens. This act “frees up” money for this problem. (UPI) (Reuters) (Hawaii)

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November 19, 2015

Top News Stories –

World’s second-largest diamond ‘found in Botswana’ –
The world’s second-largest gem quality diamond has been discovered in Botswana, the Lucara Diamond firm says. The 1,111-carat stone was recovered from its Karowe mine, about 500km (300 miles) north of the capital, Gaborone. It is the biggest diamond to be discovered in Botswana and the largest find in more than a century. The 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond was found in South Africa in 1905 and cut into nine separate stones, many of which are in the British Crown Jewels. [BBC]
copyright Lucara Diamond Corp.

Scientists have trained pigeons to diagnose breast cancer –
Doctors train for years in order to be able to correctly diagnose cancer – but could they soon be replaced by pigeons? Well, no. Obviously not. However, scientists have now discovered that pigeons are surprisingly adept when it comes to spotting cancerous cells. In a study led by Professor Richard Levenson of the University of California, pigeons were shown microscope images of breast tissue, and then rewarded with food if if they correctly pecked a coloured button that corresponded to either cancerous or healthy tissue. [Daily Telegraph]

Bangladesh: Government ‘mistakenly’ cuts off internet –
An internet shutdown in Bangladesh which lasted for more than an hour was a “mistake”, according to the authorities. Officials announced on Wednesday that access to Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp had all been blocked in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling upholding death sentences for two men convicted of war crimes. But the country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission says it accidentally cut off access to the internet across the whole country. The web blackout started at around 13:00 local time and lasted at least 75 minutes, according to the Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star. “We restored the internet as soon as we realised the mistake,” says Shahjahan Mahmood, the commission’s chairman. The messaging services were blocked as originally planned in order to maintain security, he says. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Zoolander 2 Trailer – Paramount Pictures

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#TemporaryFixProject	#InternationalMensDay	#InternationalMensDay
2	#InternationalMensDay	#JaredFogle	#WorldToiletDay
3	치인트	#WhatINeedToHearRightNow	#IWouldSleepMoreBut
4	#Empire	#SexyHolidays	Richie McCaw
5	#PrayForMegaFilmes	#WorldToiletDay	#ChampagneCampaign
6	#ALDUB18thWeeksary	Blac Chyna	#IStillFacebookBecause
7	Marta Domínguez	#TemporaryFixProject	#SixWordSciFi
8	Luis Miguel	#LatinGRAMMY	#juniordoctors
9	#CosasQueTerminanMal	Abdelhamid Abaaoud	Peter Robinson
10	#DiaInternacionalDelHombre	Jimmy Butler	Birms

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Killing of captives by ISIL
- China vows to “bring to justice” those responsible for executing one of its citizens after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it had killed a Chinese hostage. China’s Foreign Ministry also confirms the hostage’s identity for the first time, naming him as Fan Jinghui. (Channel News Asia)
Metrojet Flight 9268
- According to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant‘s official propaganda magazine, a “Schweppes bomb” was used to destroy the Russian airliner. (Reuters)
November 2015 Paris attacks
- The French National Assembly approves President François Hollande‘s request to extend the current state of emergency for three months. The Senate must still approve the measure. (NPR)
- U.S. officials say at least four of the Paris attackers were listed in a central counter-terrorism database maintained by the United States Intelligence Community. (Reuters) (UPI)
- United States authorities report dozens of suspected radicals in the U.S. are under “tight surveillance” to preclude a Paris copycat. Federal officials are aware of a possible second ISIL video threatening Washington, D.C. Again, no credible plot has been identified. The U.S. beieves this is a part of a propaganda campaign to scare the American public. (ABC News)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict (2015)
- A Palestinian kills three people, including an American student and another Palestinian, and injures four others, after opening fire at Israeli cars and then ramming his vehicle into a group of pedestrians, injuring several more near Alon Shvut in the West Bank. (The Times of Israel)
- A Palestinian kills two men and wounds another outside an office building synagogue in southern Tel Aviv. (Ynet), (The Times of Israel)
A gunman shoots dead two Saudi Arabian policemen while they are on patrol in their vehicle in Saihat, located in Saudi Arabia’s restive Eastern Province, which is predominantly Shia. (BBC)
U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehend five Pakistani nationals and one Afghan national trying to sneak into Arizona through the Mexico-U.S. border. (Fox 10 Phoenix)

Arts and culture

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports more than 500,000 people – a quarter of them children – were homeless this year amid scarce affordable housing across much of the nation. Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Oregon, andHawaii all recently declared emergencies over the rise of homelessness. (Reuters)
16th Annual Latin Grammy Awards
- The Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences members present the Latin Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. (newser)
  - “Hasta la Raíz” wins Song of the Year and Record of the Year. (ABC News)
  - Todo Tiene Su Hora performed by Juan Luis Guerra wins Album of the Year. (Miami Herald)

Business and economy

The World Economic Forum in its annual Global Gender Gap Report says that it would take 118 years before women and men have equal pay for similar occupations, such as white collar jobs. (BBC), (The Huffington Post), (The Guardian)
The New York State Department of Financial Services fines Barclays $150m (£98.2m) for the way it treated its foreign exchange customers. (The Guardian)

Health and medicine

In connection with World Toilet Day, the United Nations reports that 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation, and nearly one billion have no toilet facilities and are forced to relieve themselves in areas without facilities. (AP)
The U.S. clears genetically-modified salmon for human consumption. (Reuters)
The American Medical Association urges Congress and/or the FDA to ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and medical devices. The AMA says that the ads increase demand for inappropriate, expensive treatments even if cheaper ones have the same potentials. (The Washington Post), (The Science Times)

International relations

APEC Philippines 2015
- Asia-Pacific leaders, in the Philippines for the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, which has been overshadowed by the concurrent Paris attacks, call on governments to urgently increase cooperation in the fight against terrorism.(AP)
- Local labor and farmer groups protest in Manila over talks on inclusive growth during the APEC meeting. (The Economic Times)
A Pew Research Center report finds, from 2009 to 2014, more Mexicans, including unauthorized immigrants, are leaving the United States than entering it. An increasing share of Mexicans says life north of the border is neither better nor worse than life in Mexico. (Reuters)
The United Nations General Assembly humanitarian committee adopts, by a 112-19 vote with 50 abstentions, a resolution that condemns North Korea for gross violations of human rights and supports referring the country and its leaders to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The resolution will be sent to the full General Assembly, where it is expected to pass, given the committee vote. (Reuters via CBS News) (UPI)
The United States State Department expresses deep frustration over the lack of democratic progress in Thailand after last year’s military coup, saying a new constitution there won’t pass the “smell test” unless civil society helps to draft it. (AP) (US Dept of State)

Law and crime

A court sentences former restaurant spokesperson Jared Fogle to over 15 years imprisonment for sex with minors and the possession of child pornography. (NPR)
Convictions for sex offenses against minors accounts for the largest group of military inmates in U.S. military prisons. (AP via The Star Tribune)
Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. intelligence analyst convicted to a life sentence for providing top secret classified information to Israel, will be released on parole Friday after serving 30 years in U.S. federal prison. He will be given an ankle monitor while he completes five years of parole in America. (CNN) (AP) (Jerusalem Post)

Politics and elections

2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- A mass rally due to be held on November 29, 2015 in Paris on the eve of climate change talks is called off due to the threat of terrorism. (ABC News)
Peter Robinson announces he will step down as Northern Ireland‘s First Minister and as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, corresponding with recent tensions in the area and a murder linked with the Irish Republican Army. (ITV News)
The U.S. House of Representatives, defying a veto-threat by President Barack Obama, overwhelmingly passes legislation to suspend the Obama administration’s program to admit 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country. The bill will now face a vote in the U.S. Senate. (Reuters)

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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 –

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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 30, 2015

Top News Stories –

New Zealand: Auckland aims to become trilingual city –
New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, has announced plans to encourage the entire population to speak English, Maori and a third language. The initiative, launched by the council-controlled educational organisation COMET, aims to get all of Auckland’s 1.4 million residents speaking the national language of Te Reo Maori, Radio New Zealand reports. Currently, only 2.3% of Aucklanders speak the language, the lowest rate in the country, while over 1m of the city’s residents are monolingual – usually English, the radio says. Some 377,000 residents already have two languages as a result of the city’s diverse ethnic mix, where 40% of Aucklanders were born overseas, but their languages tend to be overlooked in favour of English. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Domestic Appliances from Lewis Firth Bolton on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

	Worldwide	USA	UK
1	#CyberMonday	#CyberMonday	Sam Pepper
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9	#الهلال_التعاون	Clay Helton	#PAKvENG
10	Sam Pepper	Anne of Green Gables	#TWDMidSeasonFinale

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Paris attack aftermath
- French intelligence services are reportedly operating under the theory that Paris-attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has escaped to Syria despite country-wide martial law in 3 different countries. (CNN)
Iraqi Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL, American-led intervention in Iraq
- With the support of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, Iraqi Armed Forces have launched operations to retake Ramadi from ISIL. (Military Times)
Syrian Civil War, Military intervention against ISIL
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that at least 50 United States military instructors have deployed to northern Syria from Turkey and Iraq to train Kurdish forces ahead of an assault on ISIL‘s de-facto capital Al-Raqqah. (Deutsche Welle)
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
- At least three Saudi border guards are killed following clashes with Yemeni forces in the kingdom’s southern Jizan Region near the border with Yemen. (Reuters)

Business and economics

Responding to reports, the American Tribune Publishing Co. states it is not in talks to sell the company. (Chicago Tribune) (Wall Street Journal)
Canadian BlackBerry Limited announces plans to shut down operations in Pakistan at year’s end because it cannot comply with the Pakistani government’s monitoring orders which would result in a massive invasion of user privacy. (CNET)
The International Monetary Fund modifies its benchmark currency basket to include the yuan of the People’s Republic of China. The basket also includes the U.S. dollar, the euro, the pound sterling, and the Japanese yen. (Reuters)
The United States Federal Reserve Board approves a rule prohibiting the government from extending emergency loans to “too big to fail” companies, a practice deemed essential during the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. (UPI)

Health and medicine

The capitals of the world’s two most populous nations, China and India, are blanketed in hazardous, choking smog. Beijing, on the second-highest pollution alert, is closing highways, halting or suspending construction while warning residents to stay indoors. The U.S. New Delhi embassy’s monitoring station recorded an air quality index of 372, putting air pollution levels into “hazardous” territory. No action by the New Delhi government. (Hindustan Times)
A UNICEF report finds AIDS is now the leading cause of death for African teenagers and the second most common killer for adolescents across the globe. While the Asia Pacific region has seen a 31 percent drop in new HIV infections, and 28 percent decline in AIDS-related deaths, the estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the region has more than doubled since 2005. Tomorrow is World Aids Day. (AP via Huffington Post) (Reuters)

International relations

Martyrs’ Day (United Arab Emirates) is being observed in United Arab Emirates as Commemoration Day this year on November 30, 2015, recognising the sacrifices and dedication of Emirati martyrs who have given their life in the UAE and abroad in the field of civil, military and humanitarian service. (GulfNews)
South Korea’s parliament approves a free trade pact with China after opposition lawmakers, concerned that deal that would hurt agriculture and fisheries, secured a $1.4 billion relief package for farmers. (AP via Fox News)
2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- Around 150 world leaders attend the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, aiming for a global deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions. (CNN)
Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to Africa
- Pope Francis travels to a besieged Muslim neighborhood known as PK5 in the Central African Republic, a country wracked by sectarian violence. This visit is part of Francis’s message of peace and reconciliation. As a result of the violence over the last two years, most of the capital Bangui’s 100,000-plus Muslims have fled; now only 15,000 remain. (AP via Bastrop Daily Enterprise)
- Pope Francis tells a crowd in a mosque in Bangui that “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.” (BBC)
Israel will open a diplomatic mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena), the headquarters of which are located near the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. Israel will be the first Irena member to open such a mission; other member nations work Irena relations from their missions to the UAE, which Israel does not have. (New York Times)
Arctic Joint Strategic Command (Russia)
- A Russian Airborne Troops spokesman says the VDV is planning to expand their military exercises into the North Pole area of the Arctic in 2016. (UPI)

Law and crime

The University of Chicago cancels classes for the day, and asks students, faculty, and non-essential staff to stay away from its main campus after being informed by the FBI of a threat of gun violence. (Reuters via The Jerusalem Post) (USA Today)
- One suspect, a student from the University of Illinois at Chicago is arrested. The University of Chicago announces classes remain canceled for the day. (Chicago Tribune)
Russian undesirable organizations law
- Russia bans two George Soros-run foundations, including the Open Society Foundations, for posing a threat to “Russian national security”. The Open Society Foundation and the Open Society Institute’s Assistance Foundation, both financed by business magnate Soros, are the latest additions to a list of “undesirable organizations”, a list the Russian government says is necessary to stop foreign governments from interfering in Russia’s internal affairs. (The Guardian)
Jury selection begins for the trial of William Porter, a Baltimore, Maryland police officer charged with manslaughter and other charges surrounding the April 19 death of Freddie Gray. Porter is the first of six officers to be tried. (CNN)

Politics and elections

Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2015
- Venezuela announces it will suspend the sale of alcoholic beverages, fireworks and weapons before Sunday’s parliamentary elections, starting Friday at 6 p.m. until next Monday at 6 p.m. Civilian permits for the possession and use of firearms and kniveswill be also be suspended for the same period. (UPI)
Burkinabé general election, 2015
- Former prime minister Roch Marc Kaboré appears on course for a commanding victory in Burkina Faso’s election, one large enough to eliminate the need for a run-off. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, with results from about 72 percent of the country counted, Kaboré has 54 percent of the vote with his closest challenger, former finance minister Zéphirin Diabré, getting 29 percent. (The Globe and Mail)
Saudi Arabia elections, 2015
- For the first time in the country’s history, Saudi Arabian women are allowed to vote and to stand for office in the December 12, 2015, elections. Candidacy filings opened yesterday. In two days, more than 900 women have signed up to run for various local government positions in the Arab nation. (UPI)

Science and technology

Researchers at North Carolina State University discover a new diamond-like, solid phase of carbon, called Q-carbon, that can be attained at room temperature. The result is a uniquely crystalline material, harder than a real diamond and likely boasting a variety of new properties, most unknown or unstudied. (UPI)

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December 19, 2015

December 18, 2015

Top News Stories –

Star Wars film breaks opening night box office record –
The new Star Wars film has set a new opening night box office record in the US and Canada, industry experts said. Star Wars: The Force Awakens made $57m (£38m) on Thursday night, beating the previous record of $43.5m held by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011. Analysts say the space saga could become the biggest selling movie of all time. The film also set a new opening day box office record in the UK and Ireland. The £9.64m tally beat the previous best of £9.48m set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Midnight screenings on Thursday morning accounted for £2.4m of ticket sales. Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian, one of Hollywood’s best-known box office analysts, said the film’s opening night performance in the US and Canada “portends a massive and potentially record-breaking opening day and weekend for the film”. [BBC]

The $70m cost of Uber Force One: Price of private flights for Obama and family –
Barack Obama’s eighth consecutive Christmas vacation to Hawaii starts Friday just as a new report shows the total cost of his vacations has now exceeded $70 million to U.S. taxpayers. The costs are being savaged by a critical conservative group, which says Obama is treating Air Force One, which costs $206,000/hour to run, ‘like an Uber ride’ ahead of his next jaunt to his home state,’ says Tom Fitton, president of the Judicial Watch pressure group. Fly-time alone will set taxpayers back somewhere in the region of $3.5 million as Obama, the First Lady, Sasha and Malia and their two dogs jet off for around two weeks. The total cost of Obama’s vacations since taking office in January 2009 has now hit $70.5 million, according to a new report. Yet he still has not taken anywhere near the total number of vacations or days off as his predecessor, George W. Bush, the report shows. [Daily Mail]
Barack Obama on Air Force One

Iceland grapples with volcano-naming responsibility –
Authorities in Iceland have decided on a name for a volcano a year after it started erupting. Council members in the rural district of Skutustadahreppur, which boasts a population of 371, took on the hefty responsibility to officially name the lava field known conversationally to locals as Holuhraun, the Iceland Review news website reports. After considering four names for the volcano – Flaedahraun, Holuhraun, Nornahraun and Urdarbruni – the vote was carried to officially use the name Holuhraun, despite only getting the backing of two of the five council members, Icelandic newspaper Visir said. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

This Is Not A Pine Tree

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9	#ALDUBTheSearch	#ListenToThisIsNotTheAlbum	Arlene Foster
10	#CiteMusicasQEuSdv	Sanders	#AskZandJ

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Yemeni Civil War (2015)
- Two ballistic missiles are fired from Yemen at Saudi Arabia, one of which is intercepted by the kingdom’s air defences, while the other missile lands near the city of Najran, according to a coalition statement on Saudi state media. No casualties have been reported. (AFP via AhramOnline)
Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- A U.S. B-52 long-range bomber on a routine mission over the South China Sea mistakenly flew within two nautical miles of an artificial island built by China near the Cuarteron Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands archipelago, according to a senior U.S. defense official. The Chinese Defense Ministry issues a statement accusing the U.S. of deliberately raising tensions in the disputed region. (The Guardian)
American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present)
- An airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition hit Iraqi forces as the army engaged militants in poor weather conditions south of the city of Fallujah. Official reports state one soldier was killed, and nine were injured, but casualties may be significantly higher. Amilitary medic says he’s treated at least 20 for injuries. (The Washington Post)
2015 Burundian unrest
- The African Union’s Peace and Security Council approves the plan to send 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi to protect civilians caught up in the growing crisis; approval by the U.N. Security Council is required. Burundi’s Philippe Nzobonariba says the force would not be allowed in without government permission. (AP via Houston Chronicle) (Reuters)
Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says suspected Russian airstrikes kill 32 civilians, half of them women and children, in three areas in northern Syria. No suspected militants were killed in the attacks. (The Times of Israel) (Sky News)

Arts and culture

The Vatican announces Mother Teresa‘s eligibility for canonization after a Vatican spokesman confirmed Pope Francis‘ recognition of a second miracle attributed to her involving the healing of a Brazilian man with multiple brain tumors. The Vatican has yet to confirm a canonization date for Teresa. (Agence France-Presse via The Guardian) (Reuters via The Hindu)

Business and economics

In the United States, JPMorgan Chase agrees to pay $307 million to settle federal cases where the bank failed to disclose certain conflicts of interest to some of its wealth management clients. (Reuters) (Huffington Post)

Disasters and accidents

Pollution in China
- The Chinese government warns residents in Northern China to prepare for a wave of choking smog arriving over the weekend and lasting through Tuesday, with Beijing affected hardest. The capital city issues its second-ever “red alert” — the first was announced on December 7, 2015. This alert triggers the odd-even license plate system to halve cars on the road, and recommends schools close. China’s National Meteorological Center reports the pollution will stretch from Xi’an, across part of Central China, through Beijing and up into Shenyang and Harbin in China’s frigid northeast. (Reuters) (South China Morning Post)

International relations

Australia–Japan relations
- In Tokyo, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says his country is “very disappointed” with Japan’s decision to resume whaling, but this dispute should not be allowed to hurt the two countries’ special strategic ties. Malcolm Turnbull, who replacedTony Abbott in September, is on his first visit to Japan which will include talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. (Reuters) (AP via The Washington Post)
Romania–NATO relations
- NATO‘s Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense System becomes partly operational at Romania‘s Deveselu airbase, as U.S. Navy personnel takes control of the site after years of construction. Aegis Ashore facilities in Romania form part of NATO’s European missile defence system, with another site under construction in Poland expected to become operational by 2018. The United States Ambassador to Romania Hans G. Klemm says that they have explained to the Russians on numerous occasions that the missile system is, “not directed at Russia, nor does it have the capability to threaten Russia.” The head of Russia‘s Strategic Missile Troops, Colonel General Sergei Karakayev, has dismissed the purported effectiveness of the missile defense system, saying Moscow develops “brand new and effective means and techniques to penetrate any missile defense system”. (AP via Yahoo News), (RT)
Russia–Ukraine relations
- Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk says his country is imposing a moratorium on repayment of a $3 billion debt to Russia following Moscow’s refusal to accept repayment terms already offered to other international creditors. This means Ukraineis likely to default on the debt, which is due Sunday. (AP via ABC news) (BBC)
The European Union warns Thailand that the country needs to quickly address the human rights and slavery issues in its seafood industry if it wants to avoid an EU import ban. (AP) (AP investigation via New Europe)
Syrian Civil War
- Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War
  - NATO allies agree to send aircraft and ships to strengthen Turkey’s Syrian border air defenses and avoid incidents similar to November’s downing of a Russian jet. (Reuters)
- Following Russia and the United States agreement on the text, the U.N. security council unanimously approves an international roadmap for a peace process in Syria. The resolution does not touch on the question of Bashar al-Assad’s fate. (The Guardian) (The Washington Post)

Law and crime

In the United States, a group of hospitals, 32 in 15 states, agree to pay a total of $28 million to settle charges they submitted false claims to Medicare for a type of spinal fracture treatment. This is the latest settlement stemming from a decade-oldwhistleblower lawsuit about alleged inappropriate billing for kyphoplasty. More than 130 hospitals have paid about $105 million to settle billing claims from this spinal procedure. (Reuters) (The Arizona Republic)

Politics and elections

United States presidential election, 2016
- The Democratic National Committee suspends Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders‘ presidential campaign’s access to its national voter database after a member of his campaign staff took advantage of a software error to review Hillary Clinton’s private campaign data. In response, the campaign files a lawsuit. (The Washington Post)
- Jeff Weaver, presidential campaign manager for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, says the DNC’s suspending access to the Democratic voter file is part of a “pattern” of actions that suggest the DNC is not impartial. The campaign, which had notified the DNC of software problems, threatens to take the DNC to federal court if the party organization doesn’t restore the campaign’s access. (UPI) (CNN)
- Michael Briggs of the Sanders campaign says the voter data access issue has been “resolved.” (ABC News)

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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
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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 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

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

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

Video of the Day –

BALANCE from Tim Sessler on Vimeo.

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10	#GetItDoneDLSU	Stone Mountain

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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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May 5, 2016

Top News Stories –

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

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

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

Video of the Day –

Fire ‘rains’ down in Fort McMurray neighbourhood during escape

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and atttacks

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

Business and economy

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

Disasters and accidents

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

International relations

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

Law and crime

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

Politics and elections

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

Sport

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

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June 18, 2016

Top News Stories –

UK astronaut Tim Peake returns to Earth –
UK astronaut Tim Peake is back on Earth after a historic six-month stay on the International Space Station. A Soyuz capsule carrying Major Peake and two other crew members touched down in Kazakhstan at 10:15 BST. He called the journey back “the best ride I’ve been on ever”, adding: “The smells of Earth are just so strong.” Maj Peake is the first person to fly to space under the UK banner since Helen Sharman in 1991 and made the first spacewalk by a UK astronaut. During the 186-day mission, Maj Peake also remotely steered a robot on Earth and ran the London Marathon. Just before 15:00 BST, Maj Peake landed by helicopter on the runway at Karagandy airport. [BBC]
Timothy Peake

Video of the Day –

WALT from justinclifton on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

Ten longest human space flights [Wikipedia]

#	Time in space	Crew	Country	Launch date (Launch craft)	Landing date (Landing craft)	Space Station or mission type
1	437.7 days	Valeri Polyakov	Russia	1994-01-09 (Soyuz TM-18)	1995-03-22 (Soyuz TM-20)	Mir
2	379.6 days	Sergei Avdeyev	Russia	1998-08-13 (Soyuz TM-28)	1999-08-28 (Soyuz TM-29)	Mir
3	365.0 days	Vladimir Titov Musa Manarov	Soviet Union	1987-12-21 (Soyuz TM-4)	1988-12-21 (Soyuz TM-6)	Mir
4	340.4 days	Mikhail Korniyenko Scott Kelly	Russia United States	2015-03-27 (Soyuz TMA-16M)	2016-03-01 (Soyuz TMA-18M)	International Space Station
5	326.5 days^[	Yuri Romanenko	Soviet Union	1987-02-05 (Soyuz TM-2)	1987-12-29 (Soyuz TM-3)	Mir
6	311.8 days	Sergei Krikalev	Soviet Union/ Russia	1991-05-18 (Soyuz TM-12)	1992-03-25 (Soyuz TM-13)	Mir
7	240.9 days	Valeri Polyakov	Soviet Union	1988-08-29 (Soyuz TM-6)	1989-04-7 (Soyuz TM-7)	Mir
8	237.0 days	Leonid Kizim Vladimir Solovyov Oleg Atkov	Soviet Union	1984-02-08 (Soyuz T-10)	1984-10-02 (Soyuz T-11)	Salyut 7
9	215.4 days	Mikhail Tyurin Michael López-Alegría^]	Russia United States	2006-09-18 (Soyuz TMA-9)	2007-04-21 (Soyuz TMA-9)	International Space Station
10	211.4 days	Anatoli Berezovoy Valentin Lebedev	Soviet Union	1982-05-13 (Soyuz T-5)^[19]	1982-12-10 (Soyuz T-7)^[19]	Salyut 7

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Terrorism in the European Union
- Twelve people are arrested and three men are subsequently charged with terrorism offences in Belgium after dozens of raids were carried out mainly in the Brussels region. (BBC)
Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports at least eight people, including four children, are shot and killed, and another eight wounded by Turkish border guards. The group was trying to cross from northwestern Syria into Turkey’s Hatay Province. (The Times of Israel) (AP)

Disasters and accidents

A week of heavy rains and flooding in south China results in at least 25 deaths, six people missing and 33,000 people displaced. (ABC News)
Six people are killed and 10 injured when a van crashes in the U.S. state of Virginia. (Reuters)

Law and crime

Death of Jo Cox
- Thomas Mair from the town of Birstall, West Yorkshire, is charged with the murder of British MP Jo Cox. (West Yorkshire Police), (BBC)
A 73-year-old gunman shoots dead a police officer, and seriously wounds another before shooting himself dead in Vihti, Finland. Finnish broadcaster Yle reports it is the first time a police officer in Finland has been killed in the line of duty since 2007. (AP via Daily Mail)
Mohamed Morsi, former President of Egypt, is sentenced to life imprisonment and another 15 years for his role in allegedly leaking government secrets to Qatar. Six people, including two Al-Jazeeraemployees, are sentenced to death. (Daily News Egypt), (Al-Jazeera)
At least six people have been shot dead and 12 injured as a result of 18 shootings in the American city of Chicago, Illinois. (ABC7 Chicago)

Politics and elections

Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile
- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir declares a four-month ceasefire in the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan in order to give rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North a chance to join the peace process and to lay down arms in order to end the conflict which has been ongoing since 2011. (Al Jazeera)
United States presidential election, 2016, 2016 Republican National Convention
- Apple Inc. notifies the GOP that this year it will not fund or provide other support for the party’s 2016 presidential convention, citing Donald Trump’s controversial comments about women, immigrants and minorities. (Politico)

Science and technology

Three astronauts return from a mission to the International Space Station, Briton Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, Timothy Kopra of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. (BBC)

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July 1, 2016

Top News Stories –

Lindsay Lohan set to turn on Christmas Lights in Kettering… after her furious tweet about Northamptonshire town went viral during EU referendum vote –
She took the internet by storm when her impassioned tweets about the EU referendum went viral. And Lindsay Lohan – who was staunchly in the Remain camp – appears to have made amends with the people of Kettering after angering MP Philip Hollobone with her comments during the results night when the town voted Leave by a margin of 61 to 39 per cent. But despite disagreeing with the Brexit result, the 29-year-old actress has now pledged her support to the Northamptonshire town by accepting to turning on their Christmas lights. A furious backbench Tory slammed the US star for criticising his home town of Kettering in a series of tweets Miss Lohan sent on the night of the referendum. Philip Hollobone demanded that the actress should visit the Midlands town – while a Cabinet Minister suggested that a trip to Kettering could boost the career of the troubled A-lister. [Daily Mail]
Lindsay Lohan

Battle of the Somme: Royals at Somme centenary commemoration –
Thousands of people, including members of the Royal Family, have attended a ceremony in France to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were at the Thiepval Memorial for the event. Earlier, a UK-wide two-minute silence at 07:28 BST marked the start of the World War One battle on 1 July 1916.
More than a million men were killed or wounded on all sides at the Somme. The Battle of the Somme, one of WW1’s bloodiest, was fought in northern France and lasted five months, with the British suffering almost 60,000 casualties on the first day alone. The British and French armies fought the Germans in a brutal battle of attrition on a 15-mile front. [BBC]

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

2016 Gulshan attack
- Gunmen storm a restaurant, exchange fire with security, and take at least twenty hostages in the Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two policemen are killed. The Islamic State claims responsibility. (ABC News) (CNN) (USA Today)
War in Somalia
- At least six people are shot and killed and several people wounded by suspected Al-Shabaab militants who ambushed two buses in Mandera, Kenya, near the Somalian border. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- A Palestinian woman, in what was construed to be an attempt to stab Israeli Border Police officers at the entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, is shot and later dies. (PNN)(The Times of Israel)
- In response to violence in the Hebron area, including the killing yesterday of a 13-year-old Jewish girl asleep in her home in the Kiryat Arba settlement by a Palestinian assailant, the Israel Defense Forcesplaces a closure on Hebron, brings additional troops to the area and announces a cut to tax funds it collects for the Palestinian Authority, saying it would deduct the amount the Palestinian leadership pays to the families of militants. (Al Jazeera) (The Times of Israel)
- A 63 year old Palestinian man dies during a clash at the Qalandiya checkpoint; Palestinian sources claim his death was due to tear gas inhalation while Israeli sources say the man suffered a fatal heart attack. (Ma’an) (The Times of Israel)
- Rabbi Michael Mark is murdered and his two children badly injured when terrorists shoot at his car on the highway south of Hebron.(The Jerusalem Post) (The Times of Israel)
- Palestinian militants fire two rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip; one explodes outside a preschool in the town of Sderot, causing damage to property but no injuries, and the second rocket exploded in an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. (The Times of Israel)

Arts and culture

British–American Academy Award–winning film actress Olivia de Havilland, one of the last leading movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, celebrates her 100th birthday. (CNN)
Thousands of people attend a ceremony at the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy, France, to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

Four Hungarian Defence Force soldiers are killed and one is injured following an explosion at a military firing range in eastern Hungary. (Reuters)

International relations

Taiwan‘s navy mistakenly launches a supersonic Hsiung Feng III missile towards China, killing one person and injuring three in a Taiwanese fishing boat. (BBC) (The Guardian)
Russia–European Union relations, Ukrainian crisis
- The European Union extends economic sanctions on Russia until 31 January 2017 over Moscow’s continued support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. (Reuters)
Canada announces that it will deploy 1,000 soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces to Latvia to bolster one of the four NATO battalions stationed there. (The Guardian)
Israel-Palestine relations
- The report of the diplomatic Quartet to the Security Council — the United Nations, Russia, the United States, and the European Union — calls on Israel to end settlement construction and expansion policy, and calls on Palestinians to act decisively to stop incitement to violence and to clearly condemn terrorist acts. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov tells the UNSC, “The main objective of this report is not about assigning blame … (rather) it focuses on the major threats to achieving a negotiated peace.” (AP) (UN News Centre) (The Times of Israel)
Yanghee Lee, the United Nations special human rights envoy to overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar, says more than 100,000 of the Muslim Rohingya minority remain in squalid camps they were forced to four years ago by violence. The government does not recognize most of these people as citizens, and has treated even long-term residents as illegal immigrants. Lee is encouraged by last March’s peaceful transition to a democratically elected and civilian-led government. (AP)
Finland–Russia relations
- Following his meeting at Finnish President Sauli Niinistö’s residence, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Russia would respect Finland’s choice whether to join NATO, though as part of NATO’s military infrastructure, Finnish Defence Forces would overnight be at the borders of the Russian Federation. Putin and Niinistö call for improved security in Baltic airspace where Russian and Westernaircraft have had close encounters in recent months. (Oneindia) (Reuters)

Law and crime

Crime in the Philippines; Philippine Drug War
- Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte urges Filipino citizens to murder people suspected of using illegal drugs. (The Guardian)
U Gambira, a former Burmese monk and one of the most visible leaders during Myanmar’s 2007 Saffron Revolution, is released from prison after having the charges against him dropped. (BBC)

Politics and elections

Austrian presidential election, 2016
- Austria’s highest court orders a repeat of the presidential elections narrowly lost in May by right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria candidate Norbert Hofer. The margin of votes was less than 1%.(The Telegraph)
Causeway Bay Books disappearances
- Thousands of people take to the streets of Hong Kong, demanding answers over China’s alleged abduction of five booksellers in late 2015 and that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying resign from office.(The Guardian)
The new Belarusian ruble replaces the old Belarusian ruble during redenomination. (Belarus segodnya) (in Russian) (Construction.RU)
Paris, France, implements a pollution-reduction program that bans residents from driving cars built before 1997, and motorcycles built before 2000, on weekdays inside the city limits between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.(NPR)

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January 7, 2017

Top News Stories –

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

Video of the Day –

Everybody wants to kill Bruce 2 from Pierre-Alexandre Chauvat on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

Syrian Civil War
- A fuel truck explodes in the Syrian town of Azaz, near the border with Turkey, killing at least 43 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. (The Guardian)
2017 Ivory Coast mutiny
- Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara reaches a deal with soldiers who seized the town of Bouake in a pay protest. The soldiers are seeking bonuses, pay rises and faster promotion. (AFP via News24)

Disasters and accidents

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

International relations

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

Law and crime

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

Politics and elections

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

Science and technology

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

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The 2010s

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Tag Archives: Israel

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Ten longest human space flights [Wikipedia]

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