Top News Stories –

Cats are terrified of cucumbers and no one knows exactly why –
People on the internet have been playing a charming joke on/causing uncalled-for distress to their cats by placing cucumbers behind them while they eat. It has to be specifically a cucumber. Pet owners have been trying it out for themselves and filming the responses. In order for the trick to work, you apparently have to place a cucumber quietly behind a cat while it is eating. When the cat turns around and notices the cucumber, you get quite an interesting response. They don’t see it first, but when they do, look out. The trend has reached reddit, and there is a dedicated thread called ‘cucumbers scaring cats’. [Daily Telegraph] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

Cat gets scared by a sneaky cucumber

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Boko Haram
  • Two suicide bombings kill at least 55 people and injure over 100 in the northeast Nigerian cities of Yola and Maiduguri. (Premium Times) (Reuters) (Media24) (AFP via Yahoo)
• War in North-West Pakistan
  • A bomb detonates in a Muharram procession in Jacobabad killing twenty-four people, including 10 children & 6 women and several others injured. (Dawn)(Samaa News)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Islamic State fighters take control of a section of road running between the towns of Khanaser and Ithriya, southeast of Aleppo, according to a monitoring group. This threatens the Syrian army’s only supply route into the city. (Reuters)
• Libyan Civil War (2014–present)
  • At least nine people are killed and dozens injured in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi after several mortar shells hit a protest against a UN proposal for a unity government to end the four-year long crisis in the country. (Reuters)

Arts and culture

• Adele returns from a three-year hiatus with the new single “Hello” from the album 25. (Forbes) (BBC)

Business and economics

• Lockheed Martin embarks on corporate overhead cost cutting reviews, another initiative following business selloffs and personnel layoffs. In the face of U.S. budget constraints, Lockheed’s actions are in step with those of other major U.S. defense contractors. (Zacks)
• Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc. announces it will begin selling $1 doses of the antimalarial drug used for HIV patients, pyrimethamine (generic drug name for Daraprim), whose price was recently raised to $750 per pill by Turing Pharmaceuticals followingMartin Shkreli’s purchase of its marketing rights this year. Imprimis also plans to start making inexpensive versions of other generic drugs whose prices have skyrocketed. (Chicago Tribune) (Toronto Star)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Pacific hurricane season
  • Hurricane Patricia makes landfall at Playa Perula in Mexico‘s western Jalisco state . The storm strengthens into a powerful Category 5 hurricane with winds of 200 mph and gusts up to 245 mph. The NHC has called the storm “potentially catastrophic” for Mexico. Patricia is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 6 to 12 inches, with isolated maximum amounts of 20 inches, through Saturday. These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides. (National Hurricane Center)(Reuters), (AFP via ABC News Australia)
  • Hurricane Patricia becomes the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere with winds of 200 mph (320 km/h). (NBC)
• 2015 Puisseguin road crash
  • At least 43 people die after a bus collides with a truck near the French town of Puisseguin. (The Guardian)

International Relations

• Kuwait and France sealed a deal whereby the Gulf nation will upgrade its defense capabilities with $2.8 billion worth of military equipment. Defense experts cite the ongoing conflict in Iraqi Civil War, the June 2015 terror attack claimed by ISIS in Kuwait City, and a reluctance by the U.S. to supply Kuwait as reasons for the deal. (Vice News)
• The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is awarded the Confucius Peace Prize, sometimes characterized as a Chinese alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize. (The Guardian)

Law and crime

• Trollhättan school attack
  • Swedish police claim that the deceased attacker was driven by “racist motives”. (Reuters via Daily Mail)
• European migrant crisis
  • Police in Bamberg, Germany arrested three people said to be involved in a far-right extremist terror plot to attack refugee shelters, shelter staff and public officials supportive of refugees. (The Telegraph)
• School shootings in the United States
  • Nineteen-year old Cameron Selmon died during last night’s shooting on the Tennessee State University campus when a fight erupted during a dice game, in which a player pulled out a gun and started firing. One of the three injured 18-year-old female students remains hospitalized. The suspect fled the scene on foot and is still at large. The school is closed today but will re-open with Monday classes. (The Tennessean) (Fox News)

Politics and elections

• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Democratic Party presidential candidates, 2016,
    • Former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee announces his decision to end his campaign for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination in Washington, D.C. (NBC News) (Christian Science Monitor)
  • Republican Party presidential candidates, 2016
    • Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, no longer a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, reduces the size of his Miami, Florida, presidential campaign operations, cuts staff salaries across the board, and refocuses efforts on the early voting states. The shake-up comes two days before Bush gathers with top political donors in Houston, Texas, and 100 days before the party’s first nominating contest in Iowa. (Bloomberg) (Miami Herald) (Washington Post)
• The U.S. Department of Energy cancels a shipment of 100 pounds of spent nuclear fuel (estimated value $200 million per year) to Idaho after failing to agree on terms that required a waiver to their 1995 agreement. (AP)

Sports

• 2015 Major League Baseball postseason
  • The Kansas City Royals win the 2015 American League Championship Series, defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2. (Los Angeles Times)
• The first World Indigenous Games begins in the Brazilian city of Palmas, Tocantins with the opening ceremony disrupted by a protest by native Brazilians. (AFP via Daily Mail)

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