Top News Stories –

Modern men lack Y chromosome genes from Neanderthals, researchers say –
Although it’s widely known that modern humans carry traces of Neanderthal DNA, a new international study led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that Neanderthal Y-chromosome genes disappeared from the human genome long ago. The Y chromosome is one of two human sex chromosomes. Unlike the X chromosome, the Y chromosome is passed exclusively from father to son. This is the first study to examine a Neanderthal Y chromosome, Fernando Mendez, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford said. Previous studies sequenced DNA from the fossils of Neanderthal women or from mitochondrial DNA, which is passed to children of either sex from their mother. “We’ve never observed the Neanderthal Y chromosome DNA in any human sample ever tested,” Bustamante said. “That doesn’t prove it’s totally extinct, but it likely is.” [phys.org]

NASA ‘cuts space station video’ immediately after bizarre UFO hovers above Earth –
A space enthusiast has come across what could be an astonishing visit from aliens. An unnamed alien hunter recorded the UFO while watching the live feed from the International Space Station earlier this week. However, the mysterious video of the giant UFO took a strange turn after the ISS video feed suddenly went dead for nearly an hour just as the bizarre flying object came into view. The “clearly defined UFO” appeared emerging above the horizon of Earth before it “disappeared completely from sight”. The enthusiast said the speed of the object “had to be in the tens of thousands of miles per hour.” He described the bizarre sighting on Tuesday as “unquestionably real and present” and raised suspicisions after “NASA cut the live feed for nearly an hour” just as the UFO vanished. [Daily Express] See Video of the Day

Video of the Day –

‘Millennium Falcon-type UFO’ spotted in NASA’s live International Space Station feed

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • According to Syrian state television, ISIL militants kidnapped over 300 staff members from a cement factory outside of the city of Al-Dumayr earlier this week and no contact with them has been made since. (Al Jazeera)
• Military intervention against ISIL
  • Turkish Armed Forces shell ISIL positions hours after projectiles hit Turkey‘s Kilis Province. (Hurriyet)

Arts and culture

• American Idol (season 15)
  • Trent Harmon is declared as the last winner of the American singing competition series, American Idol, which concluded after 15 seasons. (E! Online)

Business and economy

• Australian mining and materials company Arrium goes into voluntary administration with 7,000 jobs under threat in Australia, including 1,000 at the Whyalla Steelworks in South Australia. (ABC News)
• Bloomberg News reports Verizon Communications plans a bid for Yahoo Inc.’s Web business, including Yahoo Japan Corp., next week. Google, Time Inc., and private equity funds Bain and TPG are considering bidding for Yahoo’s core business. AT&T Inc., Comcast, and Microsoft Corp. reportedly aren’t interested. (Reuters) (Bloomberg News)

Disasters and accidents

• Another earthquake measuring at 6.7 strikes off the northwest of Vanuatu, the third earthquake in the same region this week. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says the earthquake poses no tsunami threat. (Radio New Zealand)

Law and crime

• Attacks on secularists in Bangladesh
  • Attackers in Bangladesh wielding machetes kill Nazimuddin Samad, a liberal blogger. (Reuters)
  • Students from Jagannath University in Dhaka, where Nazimuddin Samad studied, protest the killing and tell reporters that police inaction over previous killings contributed to the death of Samad. (BBC)
• Panama Papers
  • The government of Panama announces that it is creating an “international panel” to help improve transparency in its offshore financial industry. The move follows the leak of millions of documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca, showing it helped some clients evade tax and avoid sanctions. (BBC)
• Colombia‘s Constitutional Court votes in favor of same-sex marriage, in a 6-3 decision. (ABC News) (The Advocate)
• Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union sue Indiana stating the U.S. state’s new abortion law is unconstitutional because it bans the procedure if sought because of genetic abnormalities. (CBS News with AP) (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• The National Assembly of Vietnam approves Nguyễn Xuân Phúc as the country’s new prime minister, succeeding Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. (Reuters) (Shanghai Daily)
• Hashim Thaçi is sworn in as the new President of Kosovo. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• South Sudanese Civil War
  • Former Vice President and opposition leader Riek Machar says he will return to the capital Juba on April 18 to form a transitional government with President Salva Kiir Mayardit in the hopes of bringing peace to South Sudan after their acrimonious split ignited more than two years of war. (Al Jazeera)
• Aung San Suu Kyi, now the State Counsellor of Myanmar, says she will press for the release of political prisoners and student activists in the country, hinting that a mass amnesty may be imminent, a week after her government took power. (The Guardian)
• United States presidential election, 2016, Donald Trump endorsements
  • Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani endorses Donald Trump for U.S. President, predicting Trump will get more than 50% of the statewide vote. (CBS News)
• Panama Papers
  • United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron admits he benefited from a Panama-based offshore trust, Blairmore Holdings Inc., set up by his late father. Cameron says he divested himself of his shares, for £31,500 (US$44,300), before becoming prime minister in 2010. (The Guardian) (AP via The Washington Post)
  • Jürgen Mossack, co-founder of the Mossack Fonseca law firm, resigns from an honorary, unpaid post on the National Council of Foreign Relations, which advises Panama’s government on foreign policy. (The New York Times)

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