May 29, 2015

Top News Stories –

Silk Road drug website founder Ross Ulbricht jailed –
The founder of online illegal drug marketplace the Silk Road has been sentenced to life in prison in the US. Federal prosecutors said Ross Ulbricht’s website, hosted on the hidden “dark web”, sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously. The 31-year-old was found guilty in New York of charges including conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. The site was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht. In February he was convicted of operating the site for nearly three years from 2011. [BBC]

Sepp Blatter wins FIFA President election –
Under-fire Sepp Blatter has been voted in for four more years as Fifa president – but only after his rival inflicted a ”bloody nose” on him.
More than a third of FIFA’s 209 associations voted for Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan as significant numbers turned against Mr Blatter following the crisis that has struck the world governing body this week. The Swiss bureaucrat, 79, won the first round by 133 votes to 73, but he failed to gain a two-thirds majority, and Prince Ali, the 39-year-old Sandhurst graduate, then withdrew from the contest rather than force a second round of voting.
2014_FIFA_Announcement_(Joseph_Blatter)_Sepp Blatter at the 2014 FIFA Tournament Announcement in 2007

Sepp Blatter will be ousted from Fifa, declares FA Chairman Greg Dyke –
Greg Dyke declared the fight to oust Sepp Blatter as Fifa president had only just begun after watching him defy the worst crisis in the world governing body’s history to sweep to a fifth term in office on Friday. Dyke, the FA chairman, said: “This is not over by any means. To quote the Attorney General, this is the beginning of the process not the end. I’d be very surprised if Mr Blatter was still in this job in two years’ time.”
Confirming the FA would consider joining any Uefa-led World Cup walkout, he added: “There would be no point pulling England out if everyone else stays in. But if you could pull Uefa out, that might have an impact.”
Greg-DykeGreg Dyke

Video of the Day –

MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump

List of the day –

Presidents of FIFA

Presidency President Date of Birth Date of Death Took office Left office Years Active Nationality
1 Robert Guérin 1906 year.jpg Robert Guérin June 28, 1876 March 19, 1952 1904 1906 2  France
2 Daniel Burley Woolfall 1908 year.jpg Daniel Burley Woolfall June 15, 1852 October 24, 1918 1906 1918 12  England
3 Jules Rimet in 1920.jpg Jules Rimet October 14, 1873 October 16, 1956 1921 1954 33  France
4 Rodolphe Seeldrayers.jpg Rodolphe Seeldrayers December 16, 1876 October 7, 1955 1954 1955 1  Belgium
5 Arthur Drewry.jpg Arthur Drewry March 3, 1891 March 25, 1961 1955 1961 6  England
6 Stanley Ford Rous As the judge of a match between commands of Hungary and Italy. October, 1933.jpg Stanley Rous April 25, 1895 July 18, 1986 1961 1974 13  England
7 João Havelange.jpg João Havelange May 8, 1916 Living 1974 1998 24  Brazil
8 Sepp Blatter (2009).jpg Sepp Blatter March 10, 1936 Living 8 June 1998 Incumbent Present   Switzerlan

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  • Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is given a life sentence after being convicted for narcotics trafficking. (The Verge)
  • American television actor Dustin Diamond is convicted of two misdemeanor charges stemming from a stabbing at a Wisconsin bar last year but acquitted on felony charges. (AP)
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  • Sepp Blatter is elected to a fifth term as president of FIFA after Prince Ali bin Hussein withdraws his candidacy before a second round of voting could take place. The first round of voting had ended with Blatter falling seven votes short of the 2/3 majority needed to win. (ESPN), (CNN)

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November 12, 2015

Top News Stories –

Tycoon buys $48m blue diamond at auction for daughter –
A 12.03-carat blue diamond has been auctioned in Geneva for a record $48.4m (£31.7m) to a Hong Kong tycoon. Joseph Lau confirmed he bought the ring-mounted, cushion-shaped stone for his seven-year-old daughter, renaming it “Blue Moon of Josephine” after her. Auction house Sotheby’s said the sale had set “a new world auction record for any diamond of any colour”. It is not the first time Lau, a property billionaire, has bought precious stones for his daughter. The businessman – who was convicted of bribery and money laundering in 2014 – is also confirmed as the buyer of a 16.08-carat pink diamond, which Christie’s sold for $28.5m on Tuesday. It has been renamed “Sweet Josephine”, a spokeswoman for Mr Lau told BBC News. [BBC]

FBI accused of paying US university for dark net attack –
Anonymity network Tor, notorious for illegal activity, has claimed that researchers at US Carnegie Mellon university were paid by the FBI to launch an attack on them. Tor claimed that the FBI was “outsourcing police work” and paid the university “at least $1m (£675,000)”. Tor is a so-called dark net – a hidden part of the internet that cannot be reached via traditional search engines. It gained notoriety in late 2014 when a big operation carried out by the FBI took down dozens of Tor sites, including the Silk Road 2, which was one of the world’s largest online drug-selling sites. It was this attack that the Tor Project is claiming was undertaken by researchers at Carnegie Mellon, which is based in Pittsburgh. [BBC]

British Museum opens to whole world after 262 years as it invites Street View indoors –
It was founded in 1753 on the founding principles of the Enlightenment: showing off its extensive collections, free, to the whole world. It has taken a not-inconsiderable 262 years, but the British Museum has finally realised that aim after becoming the first major UK institution to open up its entire galleries and collection to Google Street View. From today, fans of the British Museum will be able to avoid the crowds to snoop through more than 4,500 objects online, peering inside glass cabinets to inspect their finest artefacts. It will be the largest indoor Street View project in the world, allowing virtual entrance into the entire London institution as well as specially-curated digital collections. [Daily Telegraph]

Video of the Day –

HyperZooming through Hallstatt from geoff tompkinson on Vimeo.

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