Top News Stories –

Tunisian mobile gamers win a cow –
A couple in Tunisia have walked away with an unusual prize – a cow – after they recorded the top score in a locally developed mobile phone game, it’s reported.
Pamela the cow spent two weeks at the game developer’s headquarters in Tunis before being awarded to the unnamed couple at the beginning of May, the Tuniscope news website says.
The pair triumphed in a strategy game called Bagra – literally “cow” – which consists of keeping a herd of cows and preventing other players from stealing them, while trying to pinch as many as possible from other herds. [BBC]

Canadian wildfire edges south, leaves thousands stranded –
The 88,000 residents who fled a wildfire that has ravaged the Canadian oil town of Fort McMurray in Alberta will not be able to return home anytime soon, officials warned on Thursday, even as the inferno edged slowly south. The out-of-control blaze has consumed entire neighborhoods of Fort McMurray in Canada’s energy heartland and officials warn its spread now threatens two oil sands sites south of the city. The wildfire has already forced precautionary production cuts or shutdowns at about a dozen major facilities, eating into a global crude surplus and supporting oil prices this week. [Reuters] See Video of the Day

Facebook Live tab is now on the Android app –
It’s taken a month, but the Live tab on Facebook has now started appearing for Android app users. Back in April, the social network announced that video was going to be even more of priority for the company, with users being offered a dedicated page to find live streams. Android users are starting to see the Live tab in the centre of the screen, pushing out Messenger from its spot. Clicking on the Live option brings up a scrolling stream of video.Anyone watching the feed can then react and comment in real time. [BBC Newsbeat]

Video of the Day –

Fire ‘rains’ down in Fort McMurray neighbourhood during escape

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and atttacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • At least 12 people are killed and many are wounded in twin blasts in central Syria. (USA Today)
  • Airstrikes on a camp for war refugees in Syria near the Syria–Turkey border kills 28 people, including women and children. (Reuters) (BBC)
• Terrorism in Saudi Arabia
  • Saudi security forces shoot dead two alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants while two others blew themselves up near Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (Reuters)
• Gaza–Israel conflict
  • A Palestinian woman is killed and another person is injured in the Gaza Strip by tank fire from Israel. Israel said it responded to mortar rounds and the discovery of another tunnel by Hamas. (BBC) (The Times of Israel)

Business and economy

• Philippine presidential election, 2016
  • The Philippine peso fell 0.3% continuing its drop three weeks in a row. (Bloomberg)
  • The stock exchange in Manila slid 1.2%, set for its lowest close in two months, before Monday’s presidential elections. (Bloomberg) (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire
  • The western Canadian province of Alberta declares a state of emergency as devastating wildfires, fed by unseasonably hot temperatures and dry conditions, grow to five times their initial size. The mandatory evacuation order expands to include the communities of Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates, and Fort McMurray First Nation, forcing thousands who had just resettled to move again. (CTV) (USA Today) (Reuters)
  • Since the fire has intermittently blocked the only route south toward Alberta’s major cities, evacuees have had to go north toward oil camps and a few small settlements. The province has airlifted 4,000 people to Edmonton and Calgary as of late Thursday. Roughly 20 percent of Canada’s crude oil production, around 680,000 barrels per day, is offline and is expected to increase. There are no known casualties from the fire, which today has grown to 210,000 acres (85,000 hectares), but fatalities are reported in at least one vehicle crash along the evacuation route. (Daily Mail)
  • Reuters reports that Alberta Province, which projects a C$10 billion deficit this fiscal year as the prolonged slump in oil prices has reduced tax revenue, last month cut funding for wildfire prevention, including millions for programs created in response to the province’s Slave Lake wildfire in 2011, which destroyed more than 300 homes. (Reuters via Voice of America)
• At least 12 people are killed and 30 others injured after a bus plunges into a ravine in Bolivia‘s eastern Santa Cruz province. (Agencia EFE)

International relations

• Spain–United Kingdom relations, Disputed status of Gibraltar
  • The Royal Navy‘s HMS Sabre fires warning shots at a Spanish Guardia Civil vessel after it twice attempted to cut across the path of United States Navy submarine USS Florida during an incursion intoGibraltar‘s territorial waters. Gibraltar officials say Spanish vessels regularly stray deep into its territorial waters and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has attacked the incursions as provocative. (The Telegraph)

Law and crime

• Operation Car Wash, Impeachment process against Dilma Rousseff
  • Acting on a request from Brazil’s top prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki suspends President of the Deputies Chamber Eduardo Cunha for obstructing the Petrobras corruption investigation. The full court confirms this action, Cunha is eliminated from the line of succession to President Dilma Rousseff, who may be suspended from office next week. (Reuters) (Globo)
• Colorado Springs, Colorado, agrees to pay people who were sent to jail because they couldn’t afford to pay fines for minor offenses like panhandling and jaywalking. The city will pay $125 for each day the person spent behind bars, an estimated total of $103,000 for the 66 people identified. In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people cannot be jailed if they do not have the money to pay. (AP via The Washington Post) (The Colorado Independent)
• California court finds “Grim Sleeper” serial killer guilty. (The Los Angeles Times)
• Hackers attack millions of users of Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail, forcing users to make password changes. (Forbes)

Politics and elections

• Justice and Development Party leadership election, 2016
  • Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announces his resignation effective 22 May amid conflict with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Davutoğlu said he would step down following an extraordinary meeting of AKP party leaders scheduled for May 22. (The New York Times) (The Guardian)
• Philippine general election, 2016
  • Philippine candidate Grace Poe denies she will give way in favor of administration bet Mar Roxas (Rappler)
  • Philippine senator and former coup plotter Antonio Trillanes warns that a coup d’etat may occur if Rodrigo Duterte wins the presidential elections. (ABC Online), (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
  • The sect Iglesia ni Cristo conducts a “silent war” against the senatorial candidacy of justice secretary Leila de Lima. (Rappler)
  • Philippine presidential candidate Grace Poe releases her full statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth. (GMA News)
• United Kingdom local elections, 2016
  • Members of the British public head to local polling stations to cast their vote for various governmental positions, including the Mayor of London. (The Daily Telegraph)
• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Former Governor of Texas and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry endorses Donald Trump for president and says he is open to being Trump’s vice-presidential running mate. (CNN)

Sport

• Zika virus outbreak
  • Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says the decision whether the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates two-game series scheduled for later this month will be moved from Puerto Ricobecause of concerns about the Zika virus, will be announced Monday “at the latest.” (AP)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource