Top News Stories –
Cheese burglars who are driving French farmers rind the bend –
Farmers in France are being driven crackers after thieves launched a string of raids – to steal wheels of cheese. With consumer demand high in the run-up to Christmas, criminal gangs have spotted a lucrative opportunity. More than four tons of Comté cheese, worth at least €40,000 (£28,550), were stolen last week from a renowned producer in eastern France near the Swiss border. The burglars cut through a barbed wire fence at night to enter the Napiot dairy in Goux-les-Usiers and loaded a lorry with 100 90lb “wheels” of the cheese which the family has been making since 1860. A police source said: “The newspapers are calling it a record theft, but there have been at least two other thefts of similar quantities of cheese in recent times. The cheesemakers decided not to make their misfortune public.” [Daily Telegraph]
Adele says management banned her from tweeting after she ‘drunk tweeted’ –
Adele says she’s not allowed to send her own tweets any more after “drunk tweeting” a few years ago. The singer says her posts now go through two sets of people and are signed off before being posted but she says she still writes them. The 27-year-old was answering a question from the audience in her pre-recorded BBC interview and performance. Adele said the rule was brought in after she nearly landed herself in trouble “quite a few times”. The star now has almost 24 million Twitter followers. [BBC Newsbeat] In October 2015 Adele went to the top of the Official Singles Chart with her comeback single Hello.
Adele
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Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- The Assyrian Human Rights Network (AHRN) reports Islamic State militants released 37 Syrian Christians, mostly women, who were among more than 200 people from the Assyrian minority group abducted in February. (AP)
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the death toll from an airstrike on an IS-controlled eastern city near the border with Iraq rose from 25 to 71. (AP)
- Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
- Art and culture
- The University of Sydney‘s Australian Archaeological Mission, excavating at a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, discover Cyprus’s oldest theatre. Located in the ancient city of Nea Paphos (capital of Cyprus at the time), it is a Hellenistic–Roman structure believed to have been in use for about six and a half centuries, from c. 300 B.C. until its final destruction in the earthquakes of A.D. 365. The Roman columns are made of granite from quarries in Troad,Turkey. (AFP, via MSN)
- The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities says infrared thermography indicates a hidden chamber in the tomb of King Tutankhamen, findings consistent with early theories his tomb included two concealed doorways and with the theory presented in archaeologist Nicholas Reeves‘ paper this summer. (UPI)
- Business and economics
- Takata Defective airbag recalls (2013-present)
- Nissan Motor Co. says it will not use airbag inflators made by Japanese auto parts supplier Takata Corp. in its cars, joining Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. (Reuters)
- Disasters and accidents
- Metrojet Flight 9268
- A sudden noise immediately before the “black box” flight data recorder went dark indicates the plane was brought down by a bomb, according to unnamed sources. Officially, Ayman el-Muqadem says the Egyptian investigative team is “considering all possible scenarios for the cause of the accident” and has not yet reached any conclusions. (BBC) (USA Today) (The Mirror)
- European migrant crisis
- The Greek coast guard and the European Union border agency Frontex, in six separate operations, rescue a total of 383 migrants attempting to sail from Turkey to the eastern Greek islands. (AP)
- Minas Gerais dam disaster
- As rescue teams labor to reach isolated communities, state officials are taking precautions to contain the environmental fallout from the burst dams. A state public prosecutor based in Mariana says he will seek 500,000 Brazilian reais (US$130,000) in personal damages for each of about 200 families most affected by the dam burst. (Reuters)
- Health and medicine
- In Iraq, a cholera outbreak prompts United Nations agencies UNICEF and the World Health Organization to launch a prevention and treatment campaign. So far, around 2,200 cases have been confirmed, and some infections have occurred in neighboring countries. (Al Jazeera English)
- The WHO declares Sierra Leone free from Ebola transmissions. (France 24), (BBC), (New York Times)
- International relations
- Cross-Strait relations, 2015 Ma–Xi Meeting
- Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou meet in Singapore, the first meeting between a Chinese and Taiwanese leader since the Chinese Communist Revolution. (CNN)
- Law and crime
- A manhunt is underway for a gunman who shot and seriously wounded presiding Travis County, Texas State District Judge Julie Kocurek at the driveway of her home in West Austin, Texas. It was unclear whether she and/or her family members were targeted (they were arriving home) or if it was a botched robbery. She was listed in serious condition at University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin but is expected to recover. (USA Today, via MSN)
- In Louisiana, United States, two law enforcement officers are arrested and charged with homicide of a six-year-old and attempted homicide of his father. (Al Jazeera English) (BBC)
- Politics and elections
- Portuguese legislative election, 2015
- Three leftist parties announce their ability to form a government, making it likely that Pedro Passos Coelho will no longer be Prime Minister. (BBC)
- Myanmar general election, 2015
- Myanmar president Thein Sein says his government and the military, which gave up power only five years ago, will respect the results of Sunday’s historic elections that are expected to be won by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party. (AP)
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