Current Events #15

1. Current Events #15

2. Bad Soccer Fans Police have arrested a man over shootings that marred the Italian Cup Final and left a supporter fighting for his life on Sunday, violence that politicians and commentators said pointed to a broader malaise in the national sport. The shootings took place on the streets before Saturday night's match between Napoli and Fiorentina and set up ugly scenes inside Rome's Olympic Stadium, where supporters threw flares and smoke bombs and delayed the start of the final. Napoli won the match 3-1. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/04/us-soccer-italy-cup-violence-idUSBREA4306B20140504

3. Nature 1, Nuclear Disaster 0 Dr. Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina, has been coming to the contaminated area around Chernobyl, known as the exclusion zone, since 1999. The list of creatures he has studied is long: chiffchaffs, blackcaps, barn swallows and other birds; insects, including bumblebees, butterflies and cicadas; spiders and bats; and mice, voles and other small rodents. After the nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima, Japan, three years ago he has conducted similar research there, too. [T]heir most recent findings, published last month, showed something new. Some bird species, they reported in the journal Functional Ecology, appear to have adapted to the radioactive environment by producing higher levels of protective antioxidants, with correspondingly less genetic damage. For these birds, Dr. Mousseau said, chronic exposure to radiation appears to be a kind of “unnatural selection” driving evolutionary change. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/06/science/nature-adapts-to-chernobyl.html?ref=europe&_r=2

4. What the $#%$%@# Thinking about making a film? Better leave out the foul language if you want it to be seen in Russia. The same goes for plays. Even rock stars will need to leave their potty mouths at home. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed off on a new law Monday that bans swearing at arts, cultural and entertainment events in the country. Any new film containing obscene language won't be granted a distribution certificate, so there's no chance of seeing it at the movie theater. And copies of books, CDs or films containing swearing can only be distributed in a sealed package labeled "Contains obscene language," a Kremlin statement said. http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/06/world/europe/russia-swearing-law/

5. Irony…Fans Throwing Own Food Guinea international Kevin Constant and Netherlands midfielder Nigel de Jong picked up two bananas thrown onto the pitch, while Milan players appeared to sarcastically applaud the home support. Fans were warned the game would be suspended if there was a repeat. "Whoever threw the banana on the pitch deserves to have a coconut thrown back at them," Atalanta boss Stefano Colantuono told Gazzettadello Sport. "They've ruined what was a great afternoon." http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27363859

6. I Vote, I Vote Again Polls closed Sunday after voters streamed into polling stations in eastern Ukraine to vote in controversial referendums held by pro-Russian activists eager to declare independence from Kiev, an official said. Voters in the city of Donetsk faced this question on the ballot: "Do you support the Act of Independence of the People's Republic of Donetsk?" The options are "yes" or "no." A similar question is being put to voters in Luhansk. Many of the voters were not on the outdated registration lists but were allowed to vote after showing identification documents. There also seemed to be no system in place to prevent one person from voting at multiple polling stations. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/11/world/europe/ukraine-crisis/index.html

7. Seriously…Very Bad Priests The Vatican revealed Tuesday that over the past decade, it has defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2,572 with lesser penalties, providing the first ever breakdown of how it handled the more than 3,400 cases of abuse reported to the Holy See since 2004. The Vatican's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Archbishop SilvanoTomasi, released the figures during a second day of grilling by a U.N. committee monitoring implementation of the U.N. treaty against torture. Tomasi insisted that the Holy See was only obliged to abide by the torture treaty inside the tiny Vatican City State, which has a population of only a few hundred people. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/vatican-defrocked-priests_n_5275889.html

8. Three women have become the first female submariners in the 110-year history of the Submarine Service. Lieutenants Maxine Stiles, Alexandra Olsson and Penny Thackray earned their "Dolphins" after months of training, including operations on HMS Vigilant. Defence Secretary Philip Hammond hailed their "huge personal achievement" and said it was "an historic moment for the Royal Navy and our armed forces". A ban on women submariners based on health fears was lifted in 2011. Look Out Below http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27278588

9. Sounds Like a Batman Villain The 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite is being guarded by a squad of elite terrorists who are ready to kill anyone who goes near her, it was reported today. The British-born Muslim convert is on the run after she was suspected of helping coordinate the September attack on a Nairobi shopping mall in which 67 people were killed. Reports suggest she is now being protected by a band of loyal al-Qaeda fighters, who move her between locations on camel or donkey to avoid detection. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2621199/White-Widow-Samantha-Lewthwaite-protected-squad-elite-al-Qaeda-fighters.html

10. No Smoking—Even if You Have ‘Em March 29 marked the 10-year anniversary of a workplace smoking ban in Ireland, extending to pubs and restaurants. Ireland was the first country worldwide to enact such a sweeping ban. The initiative made smoking in enclosed workplaces illegal, punishable by a fine of up to 3,000 euros, or about $4,200. The ban has spawned copycat laws across the globe. Norway and New Zealand followed that same year, as did Uganda. Now, dozens of countries from Brazil to Bhutan have joined Ireland in creating a nationwide workplace smoking ban -- the United States not among them. Russia will join the list in June. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/07/health/ireland-smoking/

11. Bend It Like Wambach? Helena Costa, whose father did not like soccer and who often had to go to neighbors’ homes to watch games, will become the first woman to coach a men’s professional soccer team in France. Clermont Foot 63, a second-division club in Clermont-Ferrand, announced on Wednesday that Costa will take over as manager at the end of the season, which comes later this month. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/sports/soccer/hired-by-clermont-foot-helena-costa-sets-major-soccer-milestone.html?_r=0

12. Nigeria's embattled leader vowed Boko Haram's abduction of hundreds of schoolgirls would be the terror group's undoing, even as authorities admitted Thursday the girls likely have been separated and taken out of the country. President Goodluck Jonathan's statements come amid mounting international outrage over the mass abduction and the government's largely ineffective effort to subdue BokoHaram. "By God's grace, we will conquer the terrorists. I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria," Jonathan said at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja. Kidnapping? http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/08/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/index.html?hpt=ieu_c2

13. How Long Can You Tread Water? Five glaciers that feed continental ice from Antarctica into the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean – glaciers long seen as the soft underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – are undergoing irreversible decline, two new studies indicate. The glaciers flowing into these waters, Antarctica's Amundsen Sea, carry enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.2 meters (3.9 feet), with effects that cascade to other sections of the ice sheet. "We have passed the point of no return," says Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at the University of California at Irvine and the lead author of the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2014/0512/West-Antarctic-glacier-loss-We-have-passed-the-point-of-no-return-video

14. But We Have Better Cookies Internet companies can be made to remove irrelevant or excessive personal information from search engine results, Europe's top court ruled on Tuesday in a case pitting privacy campaigners against Google. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) upheld the complaint of a Spanish man who objected to the fact that Google searches on his name threw up links to a 1998 newspaper article about the repossession of his home. The case highlighted the struggle in cyberspace between free speech advocates and supporters of privacy rights who say people should have the "right to be forgotten" - meaning that they should be able to remove their digital traces from the Internet. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/13/us-eu-google-dataprotection-idUSBREA4C07120140513

15. Ay Dios Mio! Is a sunken shipwreck off Haiti the long-lost remains of the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus' flagship from his first voyage to the Americas? The underwater explorer Barry Clifford, who led a team that found and investigated the wreck, says he's confident it is. "This is the ship that changed the course of human history," he told CNN. If the claim is confirmed, it would go down as one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries ever. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/13/world/americas/christopher-columbus-santa-maria/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

16. Isn’t That Interesting Why did Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling take so long to say he's sorry for the racist remarks that got him banned from the NBA? He repeatedly apologized and denied accusations that he's racist, claiming he'd been "baited" into making what he called "terrible" remarks. But while he defended himself for much of the interview, he went on the offensive when Johnson's name came up. "What kind of a guy goes to every city, has sex with every girl, then he catches HIV? Is that someone we want to respect and tell our kids about?" Sterling asked. "I think he should be ashamed of himself. I think he should go into the background. But what does he do for the black people? He doesn't do anything." http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/12/us/donald-sterling-interview/index.html?hpt=hp_t3