Top News Stories –

Google’s Project Loon internet balloons to circle Earth –
Google believes it is on course to have enough internet-beaming balloons in the stratosphere to form a ring over part of the world next year. It told the BBC the move would let it trial a continuous data service to people living below the balloons’ path. The declaration coincides with the announcement that three of Indonesia’s mobile networks intend to start testing Project Loon’s transmissions next year. One expert said the plan had benefits over other solutions. Sri Lanka previously signed a separate agreement signalling its wish to be another participant in the giant helium balloon-based scheme. [BBC]

Biscuit that survived the Titanic sells for $23,000 –
A cracker that survived the Titanic and lives on, unmunched, today has been sold for $23,000 (£15,034). The biscuit was saved by James Fenwick, a passenger on the Carpathia vessel that saved Titanic passengers at sea, and was kept intact in a Kodak film envelope by Fenwick along with the following notation: “Pilot biscuit from Titanic lifeboat April 1912.” The 103-year-old biscuit was used as part of a survival kit on one of the Titanic lifeboats. [Daily Telegraph]

Apple reports biggest annual profit in history with net income of $53.4bn –
Apple has recorded the biggest annual profit in corporate history, with record sales of the iPhone helping it to make $53.4bn (£35bn) in the last 12 months. The world’s biggest company surpassed the $45.2bn made by ExxonMobil in 2008, after the release of its latest smartphones increased profits by 31pc in its fourth quarter. However, Apple warned that growth is likely to slow down significantly in the crucial Christmas period, and sales of the iPad fell by a fifth to their lowest level since 2011. The company predicted that sales in the current quarter would be between $75.5bn and $77.5bn – as little as 1pc up on the same period last year – partially due to a strong dollar. [Daily Telegraph]

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HOW I CRASHED THE SPECTRE PREMIERE AND AFTER PARTY JAMES BOND STYLE

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • Taliban insurgents seize the Darqad District in the northeast Takhar Province near the border with Tajikistan. At least six Afghan troops are killed in the fighting. (Reuters) (AP via The Daily Mail)
  • Michael Fallon, Secretary of State for Defence for the United Kingdom, announces that over 400 troops will remain in Afghanistan through 2016. The military personnel will train Afghan toops and support NATO operations in Kabul. (Military Times)
• Boko Haram insurgency
  • Suspected Boko Haram militants kill 14 civilians in the southeast Diffa Region of Niger near the Nigerian border. The Nigerien government recently approved a law prolonging a 15-day state of emergency for the Diffa region by three months in a bid to boost security. (Reuters)
• 2015 Ankara bombings
  • Ankara’s Chief Prosecutor’s office says it has “strong evidence” that an Islamic State group — based in Gaziantep, near the Syrian border — is behind the bombings at this month’s Ankara peace rally that killed 102 people, as well as four previous attacks in Turkey since May that have mainly targeted supporters of a pro-Kurdish party. (AP) (AFP via NDTV)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake
  • Aid workers warn that survivors of the earthquake are at risk of dying of exposure as temperatures in Pakistan and Afghanistan fall to near freezing levels. (Time)
  • The death toll from Monday’s quake rises to 385. (AP via the Southern Illinoisan)
• A military JLENS blimp from the United States Army broke loose from its moorings at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, and drifted over 16,000 ft above Pennsylvania. F-16 Fighter jets were scrambled to track the blimp that has since deflated, causing widespread power outages from a long cable it dragged along the ground. (NBC) (Washington Post)
• European migrant crisis
  • The Greek coastguard says they rescued 242 migrants whose wooden boat sank north of the island of Lesbos, but at least three drowned, including two small boys. (Reuters) (AP via CBS News)

International relations

• European migrant crisis
  • Slovenia‘s prime minister, Miro Cerar says Slovenia is ready to build a fence on its border with Croatia if an EU plan to stem the flow of migrants across the Balkans fails. (AP via ABC News)
  • Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, when discussing management of the flow of migrants with the press, talks about “technical security” measures but insists there will be “no fence” at the Slovenian border. This, in contrast to Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner who earlier spoke of plans for a “fence” on the border to Slovenia. Austria has been one of the more vocal countries criticizing Hungary’s decision to build a fence along its border with Serbia. (AP) (BBC)
• Japan’s central government in Tokyo invalidated the governor of Okinawa, Takeshi Onaga’s, decision to halt the expansion of a U.S. military base on the island, a decision Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga termed “illegal.” (Bloomberg Business)

Health and medicine

• The World Health Organization reports tuberculosis has surpassed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as the leading cause of global death, despite the death rate from tuberculosis having been cut in half over the last 25 years. Most deaths from tuberculosis could be prevented, researchers said, but detection and treatment aren’t happening fast enough. (UPI)

Law and crime

• Censorship in Turkey
  • Turkish police storm and shut down both Kanaltürk TV and Bugün, TV stations that have been critical of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of a general election on November 1. Baris Yarkadas, a lawmaker with the main-oppositionRepublican People’s Party (CHP), said “We are witnessing the police entering news organizations, delivering declarations and taking over journalists’ seats—just like junta periods, this is called a police state”. (The Wall Street Journal) (Today’s Zaman)
• In Aberdeen, Scotland, one student has died of injuries, and another has been arrested, after a stabbing at Cults Academy (Independent)
• Dennis Hastert, former United States Speaker of the House of Representatives (1999–2007), pleaded guilty to a federal financial crime in a hush money case stemming from sexual misconduct allegations. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 29, 2016. The crime carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and $250,000 fine. Prosecutors recommend zero to six months imprisonment. (Reuters) (AP via ABC News)

Politics and elections

• Ivorian presidential election, 2015
  • Official results from the presidential election held on Sunday show that President of the Ivory Coast Alassane Ouattara has been reelected. (AFP via Daily Mail)
• In the Netherlands, the Undersecretary for Infrastructure and Environment Wilma Mansveld resigns following the publication of a damning report about the problems with the international high-speed rail service Fyra. (DutchNews)
• Members of the Republican party in the United States House of Representatives nominate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to replace John Boehner of Ohio as Speaker of the House. There will be a formal vote Thursday on the House floor. (New York Times)
• Tanzanian general election, 2015
  • Tanzania’s opposition Chadema party presidential candidate Edward Lowassa calls for a recount of Sunday’s election for the presidency before official results are announced tomorrow. Meanwhile, the election commission chief of semi-autonomousZanzibar nullifies their results, which opposition presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad of the Civic United Front announced he won on Monday. The United States said it’s “gravely alarmed” and called for reversal of the annulment. (AP via ABC News) (Reuters) (Mail & Guardian Africa)
• Myanmar general election, 2015
  • A United Nations rights investigator raises concern whether Myanmar’s election, scheduled for November 8, 2015, could be considered free and fair because dozens of candidates have been disqualified and hundreds of thousands of people denied theright to vote. (Reuters) (Council on Foreign Relations)
• Elections in Nepal
  • The Nepalese Parliament elects the country’s first female president, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) vice-chairperson Bidhya Devi Bhandari, by a vote of 327 to 214. (The Guardian)

Science

• The Cassini probe makes a close flyby of Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, Enceladus, coming within approximately 49 km (30 mi) of the surface and passing through the icy plume above the south pole. The transit of the plume was the deepest to date. Photographs and other data from the mission are expected within 48 hours. (BBC Online) (JPL Press Release)
• An article published in Nature reports high levels of molecular oxygen found by the Rosetta space probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This discovery could have implications for theories of the origin of the solar system. (Radio New Zealand Online) (BBC Online) (Nature Press Release) (Nature Article Synopsis)

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