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Fifa: Sepp Blatter faces criminal investigation –
Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Sepp Blatter, the head of football’s world governing body Fifa. The attorney general’s office said he was suspected of criminal mismanagement or misappropriation over a TV rights deal and of a “disloyal payment” to European football chief Michel Platini. Mr Blatter was being questioned, and his office was searched, it added. Fifa said it was co-operating with the investigation. Mr Blatter, 79, has run Fifa since 1998 and has always denied any wrongdoing. [BBC] In July FIFA turned down a request for Blatter to Attend U.S. Senate Panel hearing
Sepp Blatter

London Zoo love triangle: Meerkat keeper glassed rival over llama handler –
A meerkat keeper has been found guilty of assaulting a monkey keeper in a vicious brawl at London Zoo’s Christmas party which saw the two love rivals fight over the llama keeper. Caroline Westlake, who will be sentenced next month, hit her colleague Kate Sanders in the face with a glass leaving a wound that required stitches, a court heard on Friday. Miss Westlake claimed that it was an accident, and that Miss Sanders had already punched her, held her backwards over a 30 ft balcony and then spat at her. [Daily Telegraph]

Netflix adds gender reassignment to staff benefits list –
Netflix has added gender reassignment surgery to its list of staff benefits. The streaming entertainment service is not the only one – other technology companies including Facebook and Tesla also offer the option, along with hormone therapy, in a bid to be as diverse as possible. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11886148/Netflix-adds-gender-reassignment-to-staff-benefits-list.html [Daily Telegraph]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2015 Burkinabé coup d’état
  • Burkina Faso’s cabinet dissolves the elite presidential guard behind last week’s coup d’état, creates a commission to investigate these events, and dismisses the minister in charge of security. (Reuters)
• Syrian Civil War
  • New Syrian Forces trade American supplied equipment to the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in return for safe passage. (Reuters via Daily Mail)

Business and economy

• The People’s Republic of China will launch a cap and trade policy creating a carbon market in 2017. (The Guardian)
• Ukraine selectively bans certain Russian airlines such as Aeroflot and Transaero from flying to and through Ukraine. (Ukraine Today)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Hajj stampede
  • King Salman of Saudi Arabia orders an investigation into the stampede near Mecca which has claimed over 700 lives and caused 800 injuries. (AFP/BBC via ABC News Australia)
• 2015 Southeast Asian haze
  • Singapore closes its primary and secondary schools as smoke from the Indonesian fires raises air pollution to hazardous levels. (CNN)
• Thirty-nine people are injured after an earthquake in the waters off the coast of the Indonesian province of West Papua. (New York Daily News)

Health

• The BBC reports that Nigeria will be removed from the list of countries where polio is endemic. (BBC)

Law and crime

• 2015 FIFA corruption case
  • The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland opens criminal proceedings against the President of FIFA Sepp Blatter. (CNN)

International relations

• European migrant crisis
  • Croatia reopens its border with Serbia. (Reuters)

Politics and elections

• Hakubun Shimomura resigns as Japan‘s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology due to the design for the stadium for the 2020 Summer Olympics being abandoned. (Reuters via Yahoo! News)
• John Boehner schedules his resignation from the position of Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and from Congress for the end of October. (The New York Times), (Washington Post)

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