Top News Stories –

‘Stolen’ diamond surgically removed in Bangkok –
A Chinese woman suspected of stealing a $300,000 (£195,000) diamond in the Thai capital, Bangkok, has had the jewel surgically removed from her intestines. She is thought to have swallowed it in order to smuggle it out of the country. The woman is believed to have stolen the six-carat diamond from a jewellery fair on Thursday by swapping it for a fake gemstone. However, she was caught on security cameras at the fair and later arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. A man travelling with her was also arrested. Police said the woman initially denied involvement, but an X-ray revealed the diamond lodged inside her.
She was initially given laxatives, but when nature failed to take its course, a colonoscope was used to extract the gem. [BBC]

Elton John offers to meet Vladimir Putin to discuss gay rights –
Sir Elton John has said he wants to hold talks with Vladimir Putin over what he called the Russian president’s “ridiculous” stance on gay rights. The Rocket Man singer extended the offer of talks after speaking at a conference in neighbouring Ukraine, where he met with the country’s president Petro Poroshenko to lobby him about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. Sir Elton accused Mr Putin of saying “stupid things” in reference to his warning to gay people travelling to the Winter Olympics to “leave the children in peace”. [Daily Telegraph] In March 2015 Sir Elton called for a boycott of fashion label Dolce & Gabbana after the legendary designers criticised same-sex families
Sir Elton John

Mens Tennis: Novak Djokovic clinches second US Open crown –
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic won his second US Open championship and his 10th career Grand Slam title with an electric four-set victory over 17-time major winner Roger Federer on Sunday evening. In a contest of the game’s premier heavyweights, it was the Serb who played the biggest points the best as he captured his first crown in the Big Apple since 2011 with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 triumph inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in a match that was delayed by approximately three hours because of rain. [US Open] Djokovic also beat Federer in four sets to win the Wimbledon title in July 2015. See List of the Day
Novak_Đoković

Womens Golf: Lydia Ko becomes youngest major winner –
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko has become the youngest winner of a major with a six-stroke victory at the Evian Championship in France on Sunday. The world number two is 18 years, four months and 20 days old. The previous record was held by American Morgan Pressel, who was 18 years, 10 months and nine days old when she won the Kraft Nabisco in 2007. In February, aged 17, Ko became the youngest player to reach the top of the rankings and she also holds the record as the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour after her Canadian Open victory as a 15-year-old amateur in 2012. [BBC]
Lydia Ko

Video of the Day –

Kelvin Jones: Call You Home

Kelvin Jones : Call You Home from Joe Connor on Vimeo.

Yup, that really is a TV in space, for real. I created this video by sending a vintage Sony TV into orbit on a weather balloon provided by Sent Into Space, surrounded by cameras so as to capture this spectacular footage hovering above the Big Blue Marble itself.More precisely, it took two launches – both from Snowdonia in Wales, with two identical TVs, with each launch providing the opportunity to rig the GoPros in different positions. I’m pleased to say that all TVs in this music video were harmed as they crash-landed back to earth. We sent the TV off from Snowdonia and it landed in Bury, Manchester – taking in my hometown of Warrington on the way which can be seen in the promo. I’m proud to say that the TV got 99.997% above the atmosphere, just 0.003% below the Armstrong line – surely the highest TV in history.

List of the Day –

Novak Djokovic Grand Slam Record [from Wikipedia]

Top Twitter Trends –

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks

• Turkey–PKK conflict
  • A PKK car bombing on a checkpoint kills two Turkish police officers and injures five others in south-eastern Turkey. Also, Turkish security forces impose a curfew in the region’s largest city, Diyarbakır. (Reuters)
• Egyptian security forces open fire on a Mexican tourist convoy in the Western Desert while pursuing militants with at least twelve people killed and 10 injured. (AFP/Reuters via ABC News Australia)

Disasters and accidents

• 2015 Pacific typhoon season
  • The death toll from flooding in Japan caused by Tropical Storm Etau rises to seven. (Straits Times), (Asia One)
  • Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency (消防庁) advises 2.8 million people to evacuate due to heavy flooding in the eastern region of the country. (CNN)
• An explosion in the Pakistan city of Multan kills at least eleven people and injures 79. (AFP via ABC News Australia), (Pakistan Tribune)
• An Islamic school in the Nigerian town of Bukuru collapses with at least four students killed and 40 injured. (Reuters)
• Thirty-four refugees, including four babies and 11 children, drown in the Aegean Sea when their wooden boat sinks off the Greek island of Farmakonissi, close to Turkey’s coast. (Xinhua News Agency), (Sydney Morning Herald)
• The Valley wildfire claims at least one life in Lake County, California with thousands of people forced to evacuate. (ABC News Bay Area)

International relations

• Yemeni Crisis (2011–present)
  • The government in exile says that it will no longer attend United Nations brokered talks with the rebel Houthis. (Trust)
• Arab-Israeli conflict
  • Israeli police clash with Palestinian protesters outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Fireworks and small explosive devices were used to attack the police. (AP via Washington Post)
  • The Jordanian government condemns Israel for assaults on Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Jerusalem Post)
• European migrant crisis
  • Germany reintroduces emergency controls on its border with Austria. (Washington Post)

Science and technology

• Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka’s return from the ISS on Saturday sets a new record for time in space, breaking the one fellow countryman Sergei Krikalev set in 2005. Padalka totaled 879 days in space (2.41 years) over five flights. (NPR)

Health and medicine

• Doctors at Salamanca University Hospital in Salamanca, Spain implant a 3-D printing-produced artificial titanium sternum (breastbone), and a portion of the ribs (as opposed to the current standard, a non-customized, flat piece of titanium, which can loosen over time) in a patient who had numerous cancerous tumors in that area, the first use of 3D printing technology to take the place of these specific body parts. (Quartz, via MSN)

Sport

• 2015 US Open (tennis)
  • In tennis, Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeats Roger Federer of Switzerland 3 sets to 1 in the final of the men’s singles. (International Business Times), (The Guardian)
• In golf, Lydia Ko wins the final LPGA major of the year, The Evian Championship, by six shots after a final-round 63. The New Zealander becomes the youngest person of either sex to win a professional major championship, at age 18 years, 142 days. (BBC Sport)

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