Top News Stories –

Yahoo stops some users accessing emails in ad-blockers row –
Yahoo has confirmed that it is preventing some people from accessing their email if they are using ad-blocking software in their browser. Some users in the US reported that Yahoo Mail was displaying a message asking them to disable their ad-blocker before they could access their inbox. Yahoo said it was testing a “new product experience” in the US. Members of one ad-blocking forum said they had already managed to circumvent the restriction. [BBC]

Moroccan solar plant to bring energy to a million people –
A giant plant using energy from the Sun to power a Moroccan city at night will open next month. The solar thermal plant at Ouarzazate will harness the Sun’s warmth to melt salt, which will hold its heat to power a steam turbine in the evening. The first phase will generate for three hours after dark; the last stage aims to supply power 20 hours a day. It is part of Morocco’s pledge to get 42% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. The UN has praised Morocco for the level of its ambition. The UK, a much richer country, is aiming for 30% by the same date. The Saudi-built Ouarzazate solar thermal plant will be one of the world’s biggest when it is complete. The mirrors will cover the same area as the country’s capital, Rabat. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• 2015 Nepal fuel crisis
  • Nepalese police open fire on groups, who were protesting the new constitution proposals by blockading a highway. Two protesters were killed and at least 28 were hurt, including 15 police officers. A third protester was killed in Rajbiraj, the headquarters of the Saptari District. (AP via WTOP) (Singapore Today Online)
• Insurgency in the North Caucasus
  • Russian special forces kill 10 ISIS-linked militants in a counter-terrorist operation in a mountainous region near the city of Nalchik in Russia’s North Caucasus. (RT)
• 2015 Brussels lockdown
  • Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel announces Brussels remains on the highest state of alert; concern a new, Paris-style mass attack may be imminent. (EuroNews)
  • Belgian authorities announce 16 more arrests in anti-terror raids. Neither weapons nor explosives were discovered during the raids. Tomorrow, a judge will decide whether these people will continue to be detained. (Fox News) (Reuters via Yahoo News)
  • The Canadian government announces its embassy in Brussels will be closed “until further notice” and will only be providing emergency consular services. (CBC)
• Iraqi Civil War (2014–present)
  • Salahuddin campaign
    • Daesh (Islamic State) militants counter-attack in Iraq’s Saladin province and seize locations west, north and south of Baiji, home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery. In addition, the militants attack oilfields west of Tikrit, capture parts of the town of Seiniyah, portions of Mak’houl Mountain, and an abandoned fertilizer plant. (UPI)

Business and economy

• United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union
  • The UK may not face a credit rating downgrade if it votes to leave the EU in a referendum due by the end of 2017, according to the lead UK analyst at Moody’s. (Irish Examiner)

Disasters and accidents

• Hpakant jade mine disaster
  • The death toll in a landslide near a jade mine in northern Myanmar rises to about 100 people, with up to 200 others missing. Most of the victims were villagers digging for jade in a mountain of displaced earth. (Reuters) (AP via Boston Globe)
• A Turkish Airlines plane flying from New York City (U.S.) to Istanbul, Turkey, is diverted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, after authorities received information of a bomb threat. All 256 passengers and crew are safe. The flight (Turkish Airlines TYH2/TK2) leftJFK International Airport at 9 p.m. Saturday and landed just before 1 a.m. Sunday at Halifax Stanfield International Airport. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating. (NBC News) (International Business Times)
  • No explosives were found. The plane is cleared to continue its journey. (Reuters)
• Sixteen (16) people are wounded in a gunfight between two groups that erupted in a New Orleans park’s Bunny Friend playground where hundreds of people gathered for a block party and filming of a music video. No fatalities were reported. The fighters ran from the park immediately after the shooting. (Reuters) (NOLA.com)

International relations

• The ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agree to set up an economic community to commence on January 1, 2016. (AP)
• Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
  • Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin says the United States was making political provocations with its patrols in the disputed South China Sea. He also says China is building military facilities on islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of its national defense policy. Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama said, for the sake of regional stability, countries should stop building artificial islands and militarizing their claims in this sea. (The Nation Multimedia) (Reuters) (Oracle Herald)

Law and crime

• Bangladesh executes two former members of parliament, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, who were convicted in 2013 of war crimes committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence. (BBC) (Washington Post)
• Iranian Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei says an Iranian court sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian to a prison term, length unspecified, for espionage. Mohseni Eje said, “I cannot give details.” Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl said this might move the case closer to a final resolution in the judiciary, so it can then go to Iranian leaders who can make things right. (Reuters) (Washington Post)

Politics and elections

• Argentine general election, 2015
  • Voters in Argentina go to the polls for a presidential runoff between Daniel Scioli of the ruling Justicialist Party and Mauricio Macri of the opposition PRO. Mauricio Macri, the mayor of Buenos Aires, was elected with 53% of the vote. (AP via theWashington Post) (BBC). (BBC)
• Former President Kim Young-sam, who formally ended decades of military rule in South Korea, dies in a Seoul hospital from a severe blood infection. He was 87. (AP via NBC News)
• Egyptian parliamentary election, 2015
  • Voters in many parts of Egypt including Cairo go to the polls for a parliamentary election. (AP)

Science and technology

• Nola, a 41-year-old female northern white rhino, dies at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. She was euthanized after her health took a turn for the worse. Nola was rescued from violent poaching in the southern savanna woodlands of Sudan and came to the park in 1989. Only three animals of this endangered species are known left in the world. (ABC News) (San Diego Union Tribune) (F&F Photography-2014)

Sports

• In motorsport, Kyle Busch wins the 2015 Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway to become the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. He missed the first 11 races of the season with a broken leg and foot, becoming the first champion not to start the complete season since 1971. 4-time champion Jeff Gordon, who has scored the third-most NASCAR Cup wins of all-time, finishes in 6th position in his final race before retirement. (USA TODAY)

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