Top News Stories –

Miss Universe: Miss Colombia mistakenly crowned as winner –
The host of the Miss Universe has apologised after mistakenly naming the wrong woman as winner, leaving Miss Colombia empty-handed. After the error, Ariadna Gutierrez was instead declared runner-up and surrendered her crown to Miss Philippines, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach. #MissUniverse2015 became Twitter’s biggest trend of the night as social media users expressed their disbelief. The host Steve Harvey responded, saying it was “his mistake” and he would take responsibility for not reading the winning card correctly. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach

Star Wars smashes box office records on opening weekend –
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” shattered box office records with an estimated $517 million (£350 million) in worldwide ticket sales on its opening weekend, a staggering debut that re-established the celebrated space saga as a global phenomenon. The first “Star Wars” film in a decade recorded the biggest domestic opening in Hollywood’s history, collecting $238 million over the weekend in the United States and Canada. Global sales for “Force Awakens” finished second only to the dinosaur film “Jurassic World,” which in its June opening garnered $525 million worldwide, including China, where the “Star Wars” film will not open for weeks. “Jurassic World” took $208.8 million at domestic cinemas in its first weekend. “Force Awakens” is the seventh installment in the epic science-fiction franchise created by George Lucas in 1977. [Daily Telegraph] See List of the Day

Video of the Day –

THE 64TH ANNUAL MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT | Can’t ‘Miss’ Moment: The Reveal

List of the Day –

Star Wars films in order of box office performance –

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Air France Flight 463 en-route to Paris from Mauritius makes an emergency landing in Mombasa, Kenya, after a package, suspected to be a bomb is found in the toilet. Later, Air France CEO Frédéric Gagey says it was a false alarm; the package contained a mixture of cardboard, sheets of paper, and a timer. (AP via News24) (CNN) (Reuters)
• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea, China–Vietnam relations
  • Vietnam is reported to be preparing for a possible military conflict with China over territorial claims in the South China Sea. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Israeli involvement in the Syrian Civil War
    • A missile-strike attributed to the Israeli Air Force in Jaramana in southern Syria kills high-ranking Lebanese Hezbollah commander and murderer, Samir Kuntar, and eight National Defence Force (NDF) personnel. Kuntar was the longest serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel until his release in 2008. On April 22, 1979 Kuntar and his team broke into an apartment building and kidnapped a father, 31-year-old Danny Haran, and his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, taking them to a nearby beach and killing them. (Reuters)
  • Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War
    • Airstrikes, apparently from Russian jets, kill scores of people in the center of rebel-held Idlib in northwest Syria. The missiles hit a busy market place, several government buildings, and residential areas. At least 73 bodies, 30 unidentified, have been recovered. (Reuters)
• A female driver runs over pedestrians at the Las Vegas Strip between Planet Hollywood and Paris Las Vegas, killing one person and injuring at least 26 more. (ABC)

Arts and culture

• Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, is crowned Miss Universe 2015 in Las Vegas, moments after host Steve Harvey incorrectly announced 1st runner-up Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutiérrez, as the winner. (Reuters)

Business and economics

• Thousands, including families, children, and miners from around the country, march from Knottingley to North Yorkshire to mark the end of deep coal mining in the United Kingdom. The last facility, Kellingley Colliery in Beal, North Yorkshire, closed for good, Friday, 18 December 2015. The march was organized by two miners’ wives to pay tribute to this industry. (The Independent) (BBC)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Shenzhen landslide
  • Thirty-three buildings collapse after a landslide hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, China, leaving at least 91 people missing. (CNN)
• An avalanche in Svalbard, a Norwegian Arctic archipelago, kills one and injures nine others as the snow smashes into 10 houses in Longyearbyen. The deluge from Sukkertoppen mountain follows Friday’s 60 mph storm that ripped off a school roof and temporarily closed the airport. Dozens of homes at the foot of the mountain were evacuated and all of the area’s residents have been located, according to Tone Hertzberg, a spokeswoman for Svalbard’s governor. Experts from Norges Geotekniske Instituttare examining nearby slopes. (AP via CBS News) (newsinenglish.no)
• A ferry ran into trouble in rough seas off the coast of Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi, with at least three killed, including two children, 39 rescued, and 77 missing. The New Marina, a fiberglass boat, was reported to be carrying 109 passengers with a crew of 10. The National Search and Rescue Agency says the boat sank 22.5 km (24 miles) off the coast of the Wajo Regency in South Sulawesi. Rescue teams expect to resume their search for the missing, Monday. (BenarNews) (Muscat Daily)
• Two pilots are killed after a South Korean-made KAI T-50 Golden Eagle crashes and bursts into flames at an air show in Yogyakarta on Indonesia‘s Java island. (The Telegraph)

Politics and elections

• Spanish general election, 2015
  • Today’s parliamentary election is forecast to end Spain’s two-party system as the traditional powers, the center-right People’s Party (PP) and the center-left Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), are facing real challenges from the anti-austerity Podemos Partyand the liberal Ciudadanos party (C’s). Analysts expect a high turnout. (Reuters via Huffington Post) (Newsweek)
• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaign fires national data director Josh Uretsky, and suspends two staffers following Friday’s announcement the campaign had improperly accessed and downloaded voter data belonging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. NBC News reports at least four individuals affiliated with the campaign were involved in the breach, which occurred Wednesday. (NBC News) (Bloomberg)
• Elections in Iran
  • Iranian legislative election, 2016
    • Iran starts registering candidates for the 290-seat parliamentary elections scheduled for 26 February 2016. Potential candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council. The elections will, effectively, be a vote on President Hassan Rouhani’smoderate policies that received a boost from the July 14 landmark nuclear deal. (AP via The Washington Post)
  • Iranian Assembly of Experts election, 2016
    • Elections for the 88-seat Experts Assembly, a clerical body empowered to choose or dismiss Iran’s supreme leader and supervise his activities, are scheduled for Thursday 25 February 2016. Those elected may decide who replaces Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 76. (Deutsche Welle)

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