Top Story –
Avatar becomes the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£625.6m) in ticket sales around the world according to 20th Century Fox and it’s done it in just 17 days. Apparently it is the most expensive film ever made. The film Lord of the Rings – The Return of The King was the highest grossing film in the last decade only making $1.12bn in total. Avatar Poster (copyright 20th Century Fox)
Luis Figo enters FIFA presidential race –
Luís Figo the former Portuguese football who famously played for both Real Madrid and Barcelona has entered himself to stand for the FIFA presidential election and claims to have the required five nominations from among FIFA’s 209 members. He joins Prince Ali of Jordan, the Dutch FA president Michael van Praag, Jérôme Champagne and David Ginola facing up to current president Sepp Blatter.Luis Figo
Apple now have enough money to own the largest navy in the world –
Apple the tech company reports the biggest quarterly profit of any company in the world ever with revenues of $74.6bn and a net profit of $18bn. It’s cash holdings are now $178bn which according to The Guardian newspaper “is enough to commission 40 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, giving Apple more force capability than every other navy in the world – combined”.USS Nimitz (planes not included in price)
Cat survives car crash and burial –
A cat in Florida that was buried in a shallow grave after being apparently killed by a car has managed not only to survive but to dig its way out of the grave. Bart the zombie cat as he is now known was found by a neighbour and is now recovering after surgery on a broken jaw and damaged eye.
China blasts: Shipment explodes in Tianjin port –
Massive explosions have hit China’s northern port city of Tianjin, reportedly injuring many people. According to Chinese state media, the blasts occurred when a shipment of explosives blew up at about 23:30 (16:30 GMT). Pictures and video shared on social media showed flames lighting up the sky and damage to nearby buildings. Latest reports in state media suggest that hundreds of people have been taken to hospital. The first explosion was followed by another 30 seconds later. [BBC] See Video of the Day
Twitter takes the chains off Direct Messages by removing 140-character limit –
Twitter is fairly conspicuous by its absence among the big messaging players. The service has allowed its users to send private messages back and forth for years, but for a long time, the feature seemed like an afterthought, with bugs such as unreliable notifications. This is slowly changing. On Wednesday, Twitter finally removed a 140-character limit on Direct Messages (DMs), meaning users can send up to 10,000 characters (which roughly allows space for 2,000 words). Sachin Agarwal, Twitter’s DM product manager, said this had been one of Twitter users’ most commonly-requested features. [Daily Telegraph]
RIP to LOL – the history of laughing out loud –
A Facebook study suggests that people are choosing to use “haha” and emojis over “LOL” to express laughter. The research claims more than half (51.4%) opt for “haha”, while just 1.9% are LOLers, although it didn’t look at direct messages. LOL was added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in 2011, but the origin of the phrase can be traced back to the 1980s. The Facebook study suggests a third of people use emojis for laughter. [BBC Newsbeat]
Video of the Day –
直击天津滨海新区爆炸瞬间 现场响声震天
Massive explosions have hit China’s northern port city of Tianjin
A massive explosion in the Chinese city of Tianjin results in at least 17 deaths, 11 people seriously injured and hundreds of people being hospitalised. (BBC)(NBC News)(CCTV)
A CNN reporter is interrupted from reporting by upset friends and relatives of victims outside a Tianjin hospital. (CNN)
In a two years period, 280 to 300 children have been sexually abused and filmed doing forced sex acts in Pakistan by a gang consisting of 20 to 25 culprits. (CNN)(Anadolu Agency)(BBC)