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Fifa appoints Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura as its first woman secretary general –
Fifa appointed its first female and non-European secretary general on Friday night after ­announcing that United ­Nations humanitarian co-ordinator Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura would replace the disgraced Jérôme Valcke. New president Gianni Infantino confirmed that the Senegalese, a 21-year veteran of UN programmes, would become the most powerful official in world football during Fifa’s annual congress in Mexico City. Infantino had previously promised to consider both a woman and an African for the role – and he delivered on both counts. [Daily Telegraph]
Fatma Samoura (R) in 2008 with George Clooney (L) and Marie-Sophie Reck (C)

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Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • An Australian security contractor is killed outside the Australian embassy in Baghdad. There are unconfirmed reports that he was shot. (ABC News Australia)
  • Three gunmen open fire on a Real Madrid supporters club meeting in a cafe in Samarra northern Iraq, killing at least 14 and wounding 25. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria claims responsibility for attack.(ABC News) (Reuters) (Irish Independent)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Hezbollah says Mustafa Badreddine, one of Hezbollah’s highest ranking officials believed responsible for military operations in Syria, has been killed by artillery fire from the Syrian rebels. (Al-Jazeera)
• Kurdish-Turkish conflict (2015–present)
  • Eight Turkish soldiers and 21 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants are killed in clashes and in a subsequent helicopter crash near Turkey’s border with Iraq. (VOA News) (Reuters) (Washington Post)

Disasters

• A massive fire breaks out at a tire dump in Seseña, near Madrid in Spain. The illegal dump contains 100,000 tons of used vehicle tires. The smoke from the fire is visible for at least 30km. (ABC News)
• At least one person is dead as a shopping mall being built in the Nigerian city of Abeokuta collapses. Unconfirmed reports indicate that ten people may have died. (BBC)

International relations

• Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to “neutralize” a new ballistic missile defense system which the United States has activated in Europe. (Reuters) (US News) (BBC)

Law and crime

• Former President of Argentina Cristina Fernández is indicted on fraud charges in relation to alleged irregularities in the sale of United States dollars by the Central Bank during her term in office. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• The United States Education and Justice Departments advise U.S. public school districts across the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity, rather than their gender at birth. The new guidance comes as Justice and North Carolina battle in federal court over the state’s new so-called bathroom bill. (AP) (Reuters)
• Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff
  • Vice President of Brazil, Michel Temer, assumes the presidential powers and duties as Acting President of Brazil. (Huffington Post) (NBC News)
• 2016 state of emergency in Venezuela
  • Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro declares a sixty-day state of emergency. (BBC), (Guardian), (Reuters)

Sport

• Association football
  • Fatma Samoura, a Senegalese United Nations official, is appointed as the Secretary General of FIFA. She is the first woman and first person from outside Europe to be appointed to the position. (AP viDaily Mail)
  • Kosovo and Gibraltar are elected as new members of FIFA. (BBC)

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